UO Second Age

Last night I googled "Ultima Online t2a" and it brought me to this website.

Oh cool! I thought. Another t2a server, and this one claims they wont try to balance things and add new stuff like the last 25 we all played on. Well, not me, its been a while since I played a RunUO t2a server. Divinity was my last, and I didn't play there long because it was the same thing as the other ones. Except worse, it had the guys from Hybrid sticking their nose in it everyday. Anyways.. not really the point.

The point of this post is to just give my personal idea behind what made t2a so great, and why even though this server seems ok compared to the last failures of the past. It still doesn't capture the spirit of t2a on OSI servers.

I logged in, kind of excited it had been a while since I bothered with UO, I tried Darkfall Online and quit that because its a terrible game with many of the same problems RunUO servers have. Hah, go figure right?

So I did what we all do when we log in, look at the player count, run to brit bank.. There were people there and normally this would have been a positive sign, but something wasn't quite right.. Hmmm.. These players were all AFK. Their characters set to automatically cast spells, use skills, heal each other, playing the game for them while they are away doing something more entertaining.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but when I played t2a OSI.. I wasn't running macros and then going to watch Harry Potter. I was excited to train my skills, explore the world, interact with players and experience the game the way it was meant to be played. (this is the same problem in darkfall everyone unattended macroes and everyone is a fire mage polearm user.. sounds familiar eh?)

So why is everyone macroing? Well that didn't take long for me to figure out.. It's this same small niche of people who don't actually like t2a OSI, they like what i'll call "hallywhack pvp"

Don't get me wrong, its fun pvp very twitch/skill based but this isn't what everybody was doing in t2a OSI. We were having fun, experiencing the immersion and excitement of a sandbox game world that seem to come to life under all these right circumstances.

I know, this is where the flames will really start.. some people have already stopped reading and hit their reply button to tell me " I was a 7x gm hally tank on OSI t2a and i macroed it we all played UO before we have jobs no one wants to kill skeletons all day ".

If that's what you like that's fine, it's your thing. But there is this very common misconception in the RunUO community that this is the formula for a t2a server when it's not. It's missing all the primary features that made t2a, every RunUO server is because theres an unattended macro program built into the client. It's ruined from the start.

Another thing I noticed is the mistake of skill point locks and arrows. This also takes away from the experience big time, people aim for cookie cutter and the moment they've got it the stats and skills are locked and never change. This just further propels the stagnate gameplay created from this method by making the ultimate character to reach the "end game" which is hallywhack pvp.

PvP is fun, im a bloodthirsty pvper but whats the point of playing twitch pvp in a roleplaying game where everyone is cookie cutter at max skills? FPS offer much more twitch, excitement, and better graphics and you don't even have to set up your 5 client razor sparring macroes (or however many you guys allow here i know its more than 1).

Now im not here saying change your game, your server whatever.. Obviously this can't be changed because it's built into the client now. So for sake of discussion, what's your take on it?

Especially interested in the devs POV.

anyways take care

I understand what you mean about it not being truly like it was back in the day. That said if you venture beyond brit bank and into other towns and dungeons/spawns then you will find many players actively playing the game.

people dont have as much time they had during osi t2a to gain thier skills the same way. also, people dont like playing on characters that cant really do anything. afk macroing to get a few basic skills is neccesary imo. when anyone first starts, eventually they will have to go out and get money the "hard way" if they werent given it by friends etc. so although the banks have afk macroers, the shard is very active. pvpers/pkers running around, but i think that pvm takes the cake with the most amount of active chars outside the guardlines.

edit: odin beat me to it

Completely agree. I think the whole "we have less time it's 2009" thing is somewhat of a joke. People are just accustomed to not having to develop their characters and rather roam around on their 7x. Majority of the fun and adventure in UO OSI was building your character in the first place. AFK macroing would have been bannable, especially at WBB.

Personally I think AFK macroing anywhere outside of your house should be disallowed, would liven up the server quite a bit and give people something to achieve rather than just macroing up their GM provocationer for free to start like 95% of the shard has done.

Hemperor, what's the difference between macroing from the start, and macroing once you have a house? (Besides the fact that you already have a house).

It always amazes me how people take advantage of loopholes, and then once they're finished doing so, THEN they pipe up about closing them.

Mikel123 wrote:Hemperor, what's the difference between macroing from the start, and macroing once you have a house? (Besides the fact that you already have a house).

It always amazes me how people take advantage of loopholes, and then once they're finished doing so, THEN they pipe up about closing them.

It isn't a loop hole whatsoever. Every single player does it, it's encouraged if you read the forums here.

On majority of other shards AFK macroing is either disallowed completely or only allowed in houses. Walking by WBB and there are 20 people totally unresponsive and half of them are hiding over and over can be quite the turn off for true T2Aers

im 23 now, work, and goto school. when i played OSI i was 12-14. had school until 2 PM, then the rest of the day/night to play uo or whatever i want. i have WAY less time to play uo and gain skills today compared to 1999.

kill drizitz wrote:im 23 now, work, and goto school. when i played OSI i was 12-14. had school until 2 PM, then the rest of the day/night to play uo or whatever i want. i have WAY less time to play uo and gain skills today compared to 1999.

Sounds personal. My stepdad was in his 30s when he started in 97, he only got an hour at most to play a night and it reflected. You play with what you earn, it balanced out the game and added a lot of varience.

I'm 18 now, I know there are many others my age or younger that currently play here who do have the pleasure of being able to play more than most others. That was the case back in the era and will always be the case for all video games.

I wasn't aware that convenience was part of this shard's goal.

sounds like ur getting off topic. convenience has nothing to do with it.

kill drizitz wrote:sounds like ur getting off topic. convenience has nothing to do with it.

That is your point though really, you are saying if they followed true to OSI policies and how the game was performed it would be inconvenient for you because you have less time to play these days than you did back in the era.

Hemperor wrote:

kill drizitz wrote:sounds like ur getting off topic. convenience has nothing to do with it.

That is your point though really, you are saying if they followed true to OSI policies and how the game was performed it would be inconvenient for you because you have less time to play these days than you did back in the era.

Agreed, if it was really so inconvienent to "play" the game, theres plenty of test-centers out there to pick from.

"I don't have time!" isn't really an excuse, are we in a race here to see who can have the most fun more quickly? The idea of the thread is that noone is actually playing the UO experience anymore; we're just playing the exp/eb/hally no trammel experience.

Though, the difference between having trammel or not is minimal, when noone is even playing the game properly. The '99 experience is unfortunately gone - this (and other) servers replicating it are only replicating the mechanics of the game in that era. There is a big difference between the two. Who would've thought that OSI actually had some common sense in banning macroing? Heh.

Hemperor wrote:It isn't a loop hole whatsoever. Every single player does it, it's encouraged if you read the forums here.

On majority of other shards AFK macroing is either disallowed completely or only allowed in houses. Walking by WBB and there are 20 people totally unresponsive and half of them are hiding over and over can be quite the turn off for true T2Aers

My point is this... you have developed characters, and a house. Other people... don't. So if you're going to advocate for some random rule that requires a house to macro, I'd expect you to be willing to give up your house(s) and your character(s) and start from scratch in the exact same way you're proposing new players would.

Mikel123 wrote:

Hemperor wrote:It isn't a loop hole whatsoever. Every single player does it, it's encouraged if you read the forums here.

On majority of other shards AFK macroing is either disallowed completely or only allowed in houses. Walking by WBB and there are 20 people totally unresponsive and half of them are hiding over and over can be quite the turn off for true T2Aers

My point is this... you have developed characters, and a house. Other people... don't. So if you're going to advocate for some random rule that requires a house to macro, I'd expect you to be willing to give up your house(s) and your character(s) and start from scratch in the exact same way you're proposing new players would.

Excellent point.

Proposals for accuracy should no longer be considered because other players had the pleasures of enjoying the inaccurate gameplays beforehand.

Any players who gmd resist in town without healing before that patch, please drop your resist to 0 and re do.

I could list a couple dozen more changes in this same sense.

I've always advocated against macroing, and only do it in rare occasion where I need to "catch up" to play with the rest of the players. I remember on OSI I didn't have a single GMed skill, I had about 10 from 30-70 and I LOVED it, just going out and interacting.