by Azaroth | August 13th, 2010
(images courtesy of www.sosariantales.com)
I’m somewhat sure we’ve discussed this on this blog before, but I don’t think any ideas that really stood out to me were presented.
A lot of games introduce some sort of organized warfare as a main PvP game. UO eventually had Factions, World of Warcraft has battlegrounds (and arenas), DAoC had RvR, and so on.
Think about these systems, and think about Ultima Online’s Order/Chaos wars. What can be done with them?
More than that, what should be? What SHOULD these systems be? Where do they fail, and how can they be improved. What’s the biggest problem with them? What would be the BEST thing anyone could do with Order and Chaos? Moving forward with MMOs, what would you like to see out of systems like RvR, Factions, Battlegrounds?
I’ve got my own ideas scratched out. What are yours?
Let’s see some good stuff. You might have a hand in crafting the Order and Chaos wars on IPY.
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Vonzer is clearly someone worth listening to.
wow shut up. k thanks.
So, how’s life on the IPY progress front?
I’ve got a few months off here and there’s not much to do in Ottawa when you’re not working and summer is winding down.
judging by comments on here (or lack there of) – I’m *assuming* that you will be waiting 8-12 months before you can actually log into the shard and play.
Assume as you please, sir!
I know myself and 3 others (that aren’t registed to the site) that are returning. If you build it, we be there. It doesn’t matter how much longer it will take. Not like a few more months will matter. I’ll be crossing my fingers it will be here this fall. I’m setting up my pc for DLing UO at the moment. Please post links for DLing UO and the accessories for playing.
RegisterMap( 0, 0, 0, 7168, 4096, 2, “Felucca”, MapRules.FeluccaRules );
Football is here! Let’s go Buckeyes!!! Woohoo
PS – Don’t feel bad Az, it means hockey isn’t far off.
Hockey’s already here as far as i’m concerned. MY first game is in about two weeks.
Though, up here in MN, hockey season never really ends. I think I had like a month off.
Ah, Minnesota. The Hockey State.
If I had to live in one of the states that sucked, it would definitely be you. Definitely right behind Pennsylvania.
How did you guys lose that team, anyway? Was it a lack of corporate sponsors, like Winnipeg?
i would rather live in MN than toronto any day… toronto is full of assholes.
- a canadian
Don’t really know what was behind it.. I was like 10-11 when it happened.. I’m assuming the investors simply weren’t happy with the amount of money they were making… why the fuck they thought the market would be better in Dallas is totally beyond me, but whatevs.
The beauty of our new team is that no one demands competitiveness. Investors and corporate sponsors couldn’t be happier. They make ass tons of money in ticket sales alone and don’t have to pay out big bucks to get a team thats gonna do something… The fans keep coming even when we suck, so why spend money to get better?
It’s silly really. and also, I love minnesota. only other state I’d wanna live in is Colorado. Drastic weather changes is alot better than having the ame boring shit happen every day every year imo.
Remember Mike Modano?
Yo ur an idiot dude. Cuz only idiots would want to live in a place that cold for such a large part of the year. Best part about Midwest is the people. Worst part by far is the shitty weather. Ur insane dude I’m sorry.
Football sucks, and so does deer hunting, pets, MTV, farmville, myspace, Obamacare, beer partys, hybrids, Mcdonalds, fat people, and newbie shards.
Can’t wait for IPY to come back :)
Or people that love playing hockey outside. It only really sucks for like 2 weeks.
Also if U r can’t take the mn weather then u r admit u r bad at UO.
So how things coming along with the scripting and such Az? Gotten most of the major kinks out of the way?
Aha, well.
UO – OST is almost complete. Really feeling good about this project.
Nothing is ever finished til it’s finished, but here is the confirmed track inclusion (and NOT in any particular order) -
Cave
Cove
Create
Dungeon
Jhelom
Mountain
Nujel’m
Occlo
Samlethe
Swamp
Trinsic
Vesper
Stones
Moonglow
Blackthorn Castle
Plains
Skara Brae
Linelle
Ambient 1
Ambient 2
Playtime is 30 mins, 20 tracks recreated (except those last 2… They are created from in game sounds). Names may change and order will reflect a flow of styles rather than anything thematic or operatic.
Stay tuned!!!
I miss that old intro with the chest opening up at the beginning. Reminds me of the days when all was grand.
Cool, Yaht. Let me know when it’s all done and I’ll make a blog post for you. I’ll also provide an alternate patch for the client so people can listen while they play. ;)
Cool man thanks you didn’t have to do that, but thanks! Anything you wanna do with it is cool as long as people enjoy it. If not they can burn in hell!!!!!!!
Oh and I shouldve had Old instead of Plains in the list (Plains IS Linelle). Should be ready to put it out sometime in October, just finishing up a few things.
Yaht, your remixing strongly competes with classic O.C. Remixes of Megaman.
PS do you remember the IPY tourney when you chose first round to stand on my opponent’s tile. I rather liked that way of mixing up the 1v1.
Yeah Mega Man and Metroid were the first games that had really really cool music. I’ve goofed off before with video game tracks, but nothing like the UO project I’m working on right now. That O.C. Remix site is pretty neat, but cmon, nothin beats a real performance! My fav live game music bands are the Minibosses (they even perform a Metroid song WITH the infamous jagged glitchy slowdown that crippled some NES games when a lot of things were occurring on screen simultaneously… I’ve never heard anything like it in my life), and the Advantage. Here’s a short clip – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Gt4tOUd-g
Honestly I don’t remember many specific events, but if it involved me being a tool and annoying others, I wouldn’t be surprised. Ii used to want to troll but that shits soooooo IPY 1.0
No where near first man, if you had a commodore 64 it was awesome game tunez since 1982!
FFS save me from the secondage shard. It’s giving me a headache. Im ready to move to IPY already, and i got a group of peeps who are tired of this lousy server. were ready to get started on ipy already.
When’s IPY forums going to be up and ready? I’m itch’n for the scratch.
OK I quit second age officially. Talk about a waste of breath. Game Mechanics are so jacked up. Heres a list of noted things messed up about the shard SecondAge “Second Age is the most accurate emulation of the UO: T2A era online today.” -http://www.uosecondage.com/
1. Saying “I honor thee” gives away Karma and zero fame.
2. I can gain fighting skills 30-50 just as easy as i can 80-100.
3. Hired NPCs are grey, and attackable in town, however, attack them as much as you want, BUT if you kill one in town, you get guard whacked with no type of warning in place. (this was my last straw to quitting the gheyness)
4. Fishing is completely FUBAR as well as MIB system.
5. After seeing a “bag of sending” locked down on someones tower porch, I knew there was a lot of GM ass kissing.
6. Mounts.. nuff said there.
7. Regular magery poisoning = Greater Poison
8. You can cure Greater poison with a lesser cure.
9. Orc Lords hit hard as fuck, but drop shitty loot, vs some easy to kill things which drop a lot of loot.
10. Cove has no bank.
11. Archery blows beyond understanding, and dex makes almost no difference in the game mechanics.
12. Spawns are way out of place, as if the GM never even played OSI, and went on someones word on how it was.
13. You lose so much Karma from snooping everyone runs around with a scoundel title for their first week in and it’s unbelieveable.
There are quests….. yes you heard me right (I suppose OSI just forgot to release this, therefore it’s more accurate with them)
So that’s what we are looking at for the most ACCURATE shard to date, which happens to be a cluster-fuck of inaccuracies and horrible game mechanics and even a care bear shard wouldn’t have. Keep in mind, this is a fraction of the problems, and after checking out all the other availabe (old school) type shards I wanted to throw my laptop into a pit of lava and never play again.
Enuff said, we need IPY 2.0 like ASAP.
i couldn’t wait any longer and made a char on secondage a few days ago, figuring ipy won’t release for another few months.
I honestly dunno how anyone can play those servers. I was on one for a couple hours, recording some in game audio for a couple tracks and actually RAN INTO BAGEL KING. He was like “lulz?” and I’m all “lulz!”.
I think the point here is that bagels suck.
You left out the worst mechanic that shard has.
If you press attack last combatant, your target, aka, you’ last combatant automatically re-enters combat just as they would if they attacked you again.
This means you can’t tab out and time weapon swings because all your opponent has to do is stand next to you and hold down two keys. razor’s ‘healself’ feature and ‘attack last combatant’.
As soon as I saw that, I never played there again.
Two cents to add about that horrible shard which you mention, is cutting bandages 1 at a time. Pretty much forces anyone to use razor macros unless they are jobless and have 100 hours a week to dedicate to normal play.
So with that being said, I wont bash the shard anymore than it deserves. Its just another server that chose that route, and it’s got enough company to keep itself happy.
On a side note, I was doing some research and saw that Divinity is probably wiping their servers clean soon. If so, you’ll see a lot of players flock there. Right now theres ZERO pre-T2A servers in operation and most likely thats what the highest demand is for atm.
Azaroth:
I don’t know how to reply to tweets, but in response to your last one: Is it living up to your expectations? Are most of the features we discussed on here functioning?
The features we discussed… on here.
Hm.
Last message shoulda said “funtioning to your liking”.
Why are you being so mysterious… am I missing something?
Obviously you’re missing the whole “mysterious and intangible intrigue designed to heighten and intensify desire to play my wonderkind of a game that the rest of you are not of experiencing in this lifetime”.
Az is like a chick who witholds sex from you because shes trying to build an intimate relationship based on emotion and love instead of all-out, hard-core, raw-dog sex.
Just give the people a lil somethin somethin. A lil strip tease. A lil handjob in the parkin lot. A quick game of “just the tip”.
Ok im gettin too excited thinkin bout Az’ sweet azz. Brb afk
Ok im back.
/lights cig
Was it good for u too babe?
/snoring, doesnt hear reply
Az heeds caution towards the age old saying, “Give em’ an inch and they’ll take a mile”
Because last time, I do believe we defiled both the large and small intestines.
Ah, there’s a difference between intentionally teasing and unintentionally teasing because you’re a UO rapist, Yaht.
Look, in all honesty – lots of people read this blog. I keep quiet because I:
A) Want things to be a really cool surprise.
B) Don’t want TOO much to get ripped off and end up on other shards before I put it out.
That’s the jist of the situation, truthfully. I’m not slyly hyping anything. I haven’t posted in over a month. That’s a BAD hype machine.
I very seriously considered discussing NOTHING with the community and simply launching a UO shard out of nowhere.
I felt you guys would like to get involved, at least to some degree, in the planning process. I think you all have, again, to some degree. At least my hardcore, blog-posting crowd. I’ve also developed some ideas I LOVE through the discussions on this blog. Skills Scrolls was a vague concept that got hashed out in the comments section. I love Skill Scrolls. Paladins was a pie in the sky concept that was met with more applause on here than I would have ever imagined.
So it’s been good. Those of you who feel teased, however, will have satisfaction soon. Promise. <3
(Now THAT’S teasing.)
Not that i’d expect it, but if you want a second opinion from someone who came from Baja 98-2000 and with pre and post IPY play time, id be more than happy to give you an honest opinion. Is there going to be an open Beta? I’m sure it sounds like a desperate noob thing to ask, but it could never hurt to have free slave labor to do some bug hunting.
soon could be another month or two, that’s too long for a uo fix..
it would be nice if there was a spot with all the compiled info on what the server will have. like i can’t remember if razor and programs like that will be allowed.
Heres a sneak peak of beta for all you good people out there, waiting for your dream to come true -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzs267imWE
haha that fucking video. Crops up everywhere.
Ok.. That’s just an awesome video.
Looking forward to you talking about/launching IPY Az!
I don’t think its a bad thing that its taking a while, much better to tease and get it right then release early and half the new players end up leaving because of bugs/imbalances. It’s a fine balance because at the same time with UO, (lets face it) its on borrowed time in this day and age and the player base who want to play is dwindling over the years.
What’s special about now though is that I think theres a spike of interest in UO and classic MMO’s currently which has created a void in the MMO market…one that could soon be filled when a decent dev (likely an indie dev) gets their finger out. That void is where Ultima Online and even other western classic MMO’s like DAOC and EQ used to occupy. The old timers are realising that newer is not better and that modern MMO’s themeparks just don’t cut it like the classics. So yeah, if IPY got released now I think it would be a really good time to attract those who are looking for that traditional sandbox gameplay. If Mortal online or Darkfall had worked then we would all likely be playing them but still we wait for a real mmo”RPG” that isn’t Eve online.
Hopefully IPY can tap into that.
Well said! There’s already a huge anticipation, and no preT2A shards out there, I for one know the players are blood thirsty for it, and the population wont be a problem. I’d rather wait and play on a shard with less changes later, than a play now as you go fix and nix server.
Yup, no need to force anything imo.
Good things come to those who wait!
Well, if you really want chaos in an orderly fashion… Azaroth,… cast out a total of 9 rings to the leaders of the following factions
1 to the leader of IPY’s Newbie Program (Ex. Galv, Yahtzee…)
2 to the merchants & trades masters (Ex. Big-Cheese It, Talwin…)
3 to the game justice providers of the old, and paladins of the new (Furb/Roman Polanski, HMU/Raugh, Bad Magic/Deathstrike…)
2 to the murder chiefs and mischief makers of the land (Power Armor, Avernus…)
1 to the lord of the orcish horde (Ex. GlubGlub…)
Start with allowing these players game accounts, and work your way out of beta testing into the real thing.
Let players purchase additional accounts for guildies/friends with gold.
Let the price of an additional account be scalable over time; this would allow you to really play around with controlling the gold market.
Grow the shard until a time when all players are welcome to create new accounts
With a foundation such as this, things might not crumble so quickly.
Yes Pud, your ideas are great but your missing one key factor.
Those type of things are out there. Theres probably 200 custom shards out there with a very unique experience. IPY is the only one that everyone can count on being a certain scope of OSI’s timeline.
Had the game overly customed it’self out beyond the mildly in game tweaks and nixing, then really it wouldn’t be the same game, it would be another game using UO guis and game engine. We still need to keep this game recognizeable to it’s true orgins. Just think to yourself, What would Richard do?
Actually, there are some shards that stick pretty close to the official rulesets too. I suppose UOSA comes to mind.
This incarnation of IPY will be about moving forward. I won’t go about calling it ‘custom’, because I’m not going to CHANGE things. I’m going to add things I think will capture the interest of people who have played and found out where UO was weak without changing the things they think are already great. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to take away the things UO players love and are nostalgic for, but I think UO has a lot of weak spots that can be addressed.
This game we’re discussing, is IPYUO, not UO.
IPYUO is forged and run by its community
With the community’s rapid playing pace, the game, as a whole, changes each day
UO is a game designed to pull in subscribers, and its world is ultimately unsustainable
IPYUO seemingly wants sustainability
My suggestion was silly but my point is anarchy is fun until there’s no one left to kill
I have been thinking about the original topic today as well as just sucking up a lot of game theory, and I would like to put a Raph Koster spin on this.
Perhaps we should try many systems, but with scalability and practicality in perspective. Only as many as would be used.
Koster would say that Order / Chaos is the perfect example of digital feedback to the player. They are one or the other. Order or Chaos. Pretty simple basic direct mechanic.
On the other hand is analog feedback. Stuff like field combat that varies with a lot of diff things involved in the process that arent always black or white.
In between is stuff like Factions, Battlegrounds, Sieges, GvG, formal / informal duels, and so on.
As long as people are engaging in a system and enjoy it, it should be included if possible and practical and balanced. Makes the game deeper more dynamic and attracts a wider community.
OR you can do exactly the opposite of what EA is doing. That would pretty much guarantee success
http://www.uoherald.com/stygianabyss/launch/
Thats my honest opinion after reading that kind of crap.
Actually, EA’s latest expansion shows a little promise. Pirates? Yar!
It’s something the community has been asking about for a long time. It takes a weakness in UO and it improves the game. It’s something people will enjoy, it expands the breadth of the game instead of tacking on another landmass with some cheesy monsters and new skill.
Boy, if I was smart, *I’d* have been working on something like that.
It’s not to late to start, is it? :)
Personally, I’d say get the Virtue system done, make it good for RP, PvE, and PvP. I know IPY has always had a focus on PvP, but if you want to draw more than just PvP’ers, and one-up EA, that seems like a sure bet.
Actually Pirates never needed any work. It’s all already in the game. It’s the gargoyles that make me dizzy.
Well. Pirates isn’t really Pirates when everyone plays in Trammel, but…
How about some Order/Chaos in real life.
Check out this link http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/baby-sitter-11-charged-with-murdering-2-year-old-girl/19644139
Now, lets examine this typical modern day bullshit.
Kid 11 years old is being charged with murdering child 2 years old.
-Court is determining if they can charge the 11 year old as an adult?!?!
-The mother of the baby says that she hopes the kid gets life
-The case hasn’t even been through the court system yet, and the kid’s life will be forever fucked mentally.
-Kid is in middle school….. being charge with murder….. nuff said.
Question:Since when in America does being 11 years old make you an adult?
Answer: When the government says so. YUP, no drinking, smoking joining the military at 11 years old, but don’t fuck up cause then you’re too mature for your age BITCH!
Let’s twist this around. Just say this 11 year old girl was dating a 18 year old teenager named Bob, and Bob ended up raping her the previous night to the 2 year olds death. And now Bobs charge with rape, of a Minor or Adult?
Would he be charged with raping an adult if the court decided that she was an 11 year old capable of making adult decisions? Or would he probably do life in prison with no chance of parole?
The only child the case has in the court’s eyes seems to be the 2 year old baby.
Such a steep penalty for things that the government throws around so loosely. Maybe that’s why we need more government in our lives? To tell us when to eat, drink and shit right?
This case is a poster child for things people need to stand up for. Stop being pussys and letting the government decide the countries fate.
Today, it may be this, but eventually it will morph it’self into some other type of bullshit.
Another example of why the American blood thirsty lawmakers, judges, and mind twisted citizens should be ashamed of themselves. This countries foundation has been cracked, and it seems anyone can pick and choose at it. Rules being bent, should be an act of treason, and the judges and district attorneys involved need the get their payback for hijacking this countries legal system.
Dude I mean no disrespect – seriously – but this is probably the last place people want to talk / hear politics. In today’s society, politics are practically everywhere else but video games, and that’s probably for the best.
Let’s try and stay focused (somewhat) on the subject matter…
I think it’s clear that azaroth needs to post something new and interesting to stop further derailment into politics and religion.
Yes, or it would be nice to have a forum. :D
Wait…. so you mean to tell me you think sports has a spot here, but politics doesn’t? Is this a playground with no responsibility or reaction to reality? In all honesty, who ever wins the stanley cup has more of an impact to your lives than politics I’m sure.
I see your point, and no disrespect taken.
Sensation was not 13 years old when he started murdering.
Should Azaroth have let him rez after 5 minutes rather than the traditional 10?
LOL!!! too good.
“Is this a playground with no responsibility or reaction to reality?”
Actually yes… That’s exactly what this is. UO / gaming / related game blogs and forums have nothign to do with reality.
lol Puds.
I’m always open for debate. Case won.
Ok cheese faces. Time to get some serious shitz happening. Revelation has announced a release date of 10/10/10. If people get well established there before IPY releases, and there’s still a large enough player base there, we’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone to switch.
Yay split populations…. again.. Am I just a giant dong for thinking the efforts should be combined rather than continuing to compete with UOG?
That’s right, Ryan is wiping the Divinity server and opening up a new shard. Right now you have probably the biggest number of idle players sitting on the sidelines waiting to make their next move. It definatly will be something of interest. I like Ryan’s ideas, but let’s face it, nothing can ever top the IPY experience.
It’s not a competition. That’s one reason I’ve been particularly quiet. I don’t want to invoke a huge, childish pissing contest in any way. Let everyone else do their thing, we’ll keep our heads down and work on IPY. “No comment”, basically.
I hope Revelations does well, I hope Angel Island and UOSA do well, I hope the new EA booster pack does well — and I hope IPY does well (okay, maybe a little better).
The way I see it, you’ll play where you’re happiest to play. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a good thing. That’s UO being healthy. Choice isn’t bad.
Now, there’s something to be said for cramming everyone into one box against their will and enjoying the various outcomes of that situation. But that’s not a long term solution, because eventually bitterness and resourcefulness will combine and choice will spring up again. You can’t stamp it out.
Ultimately IPY will live and die on the quality of the offering. Let’s work on that before we worry about what other people are doing.
My opinion is that it’s a good thing if some other people play a different server. It helps keep UO alive, even if “populations” are split. I think it would be best for those of us interested in IPY to continue supporting the project and to just keep hoping for an exciting release.
Sure it might suck that some people don’t see IPY as the brightest star in a dimming UO twilight, but they are their own prsons who make their own choices. At least there are or will be choices.
NO CHOICES!
I’d be lyng if I said I wasn’t going to play revelation until IPY comes though. :(
I hope you enjoy yourself. ;)
It’s a good time for UO.
I believe you may have misunderstood the purpose of my post.. Or, it’s probably more likely that I didn’t make my point clear enough. Yes, competition was probably the worst word I could have used there.. With that said, here’s what I meant.
I did not intend to imply that there’s going to be a childish pissing contest. My point, as I’ve said a huge amount of times before, is that spreading out the dwindeling population of players who are still willing to play free run shards is a bad idea. Regarding choice, sure, choice is a good thing. But it’s not really a choice for everyone if everyone isn’t even aware that there is a choice. You assume every player who plays free shards is aware of every one that they are able to choose from; further, that each player is also aware of the mechanics and gameplay within each server. This is necessary information in determining where each individual player will be the most happy playing.. This is an assumption that I’m not so sure you can make.
Now I’ll talk again about the map size. Amongst UOSA, Angel Island, Revelation / divinity, Hybrid, and the peolple who I foresee playing here, you’ve barely got enough people to adequately fill the world map and use it how it’s intended to be used.
I wouldn’t consider it so much ‘cramming everyone into one box’ as much as I’d consider it the first real *complete*UO shard that wasn’t ran by OSI. If UOSA does well, AI does well, Revelation does well, AND hybrid does well, then what you’ve settled upon as far as what “doing well” is, will always fall short of what a UO shard can be. All of the shards that are “doing well” will fizzle out and die because every single one of them will have a sparcely disbursed population taht is far beyond what was ever intended.
The importance of the number of players and available space cannot be over stated – Across shards or otherwise.
I guess this is sort of Hume-ishly flawed.. “If you choose lesser shards besides IPY for obtaining plesure, then you don’t understand IPY.”
Ignore post. Just read this… People can only choose if they are aware of all the choices they have.
Sult, you don’t need to understand each option to be able tp make a choice. A choice is a choice even if it is random, or made without full knowledge of options, or even if it’s forced or pushed upon you. Just sayin you can’t really argue that people can’t make a decision without knowing each and every available server out there. Knowing the top two or three servers for pop/PvP competition/PvE progression is usually standard for most MMOs these days. The other servers are just for niche people (RP servers, low pop lovers, etc).
Anyways the reason some of us think it’s fine or good for people to be playing a different server by their choosing, is that it’s another person still playing the game. Period. All the downstream of that, such as influencing pop by bringing friends, or keeping server pop 1 player higher, to interacting in the game and engaging in forms that affect the meta game (econ, etc) to the community engagement like forums, etc… All that downstream is never a lock to happen and sometimes has a negatove net effect in time. Anyways point is, heads playing UO might be a bad thing for IPY but that’s not what this is about. It’s about UO. And how IPY fits into UO in 2010 remains to be seen, but at the very least it will provide some potential UO players an opportunity to manifest destiny in a yet unconquered, virgin territory that is 2.0
Anyone that doesn’t play IPY but plays UO somewhere else… Good for them! They’re still a total noob tho. FEELMEH
Testified!
Ok well, you don’t need to fully understand each option.. point taken. But you still need to understand that there *are* options.
“Knowing the top two or three servers for pop/PvP competition/PvE progression is usually standard for most MMOs these days.”
I’m not so sure that’s true. There’s a handful of people (well, a big handful) that know about the popular UO shards. tenfold more who do not.
I am most likely gonna wait for IPY for a few reasons
mainly, this game is a big time investment and i know even if im set the fuck up on some other shard, when ipy rolls around im there.
So I don’t really want to waste all that time. Also i think Ryan is a dickbag.
I can’t even be sure that if when it does roll around, I’ll be able to get back into the groove and stick around
But the people here are awesome
we clearly understand what makes a shard fuckawesome and azzy is a babe and a half and the raddest dude around
i still cant believe i am still EAGERLY AWAITING this
Both my brother and myself had talked about this last night. He admittingly trashed Shards, and Azeroth and Ryan for some minor reasons and I had no reason to trash neither of the two, but when it came down to it, we were out on UOSA looking at how much GM placed junk, rewards, (shit with odd color hues) was lingering inside peoples Towers and Keeps, which brought to a final agreement: Azeroth doesn’t cheat his players.
If a GM is corrupt, everyone knows that he wont put up with it. His Loyalty remains with the server, and that’s something that no other Admin has been able to accomplish. Seeing Bored GMs tossing their best friends items, cheating or favoring was never tollerated in IPY, and that’s been a much different case for Hybrid, Divinity, UOSA, and Rebirth.
Az wiped the server even though it caused the greatest player loss to IPY, but it was still the best thing to do. He weighted them in, and always did the actions based on what was right for IPY, even when everyone hated him for doing it. That takes some balls, and earns a lot of respect IMO. Ryan on the other hand would cave into the popularity, and I witnessed that many times on the Divinity forums. I have respect for the Ryan’s accomplishments, but he sometimes lacks the balls to tell the players off when it’s for the best.
I really don’t see that the impact of stuff like this directly effects my game play, but it sure does get under my skin when I see a house full of Items that I know a bored GM summoned for their asshole licking friends, or some dickwad with a black dye tub making millions off selling the dyed cloth to newbies. It all adds up in the end. The Honesty that I had on IPY 1.0 was definatly enough to impact my decision this many years afterwards.
Well, here’s one example of what I’m talking about. Guy picks IPY because he is aware of the choices and details behind them. He understands his other options and knows that this is the best decision. But, since I know you can’t take one individual situation and just say, “oh lookey there, one individual example, must be true for everything!”… I feel I must ask you something Yaht..
I’m still intrigued by the statement that knowing the most popular shards / servers is standard in MMOs… Couple questions about that… First, whos standards? And more importantly…. I distinctely recall you saying, “I can’t see how anyone could take a UO shard seriously since IPY” (or something to that effect). Then something that said the last time you logged into “UOSA, the conversation you had with an actual in game player was something to this extent…. “lulz”.. “lolz”… then you logged out.
My necessary conclusion based on the afore mentioned is that most if not all of the propensities you hold about what is standard or commonplace within the UO community is based solely on your experiences with forum trolls like myself.
This is not an accurate reflection of what the actual real game playing communities knows or understands.
I can tell you though, that when I heard IPY was releasing again, I ran around on hybrid, divinity, and UOSA letting the ACTIVE playing people know about it. And seriously 9 times out of 10, the response was, “what’s IPY?”
Point being, the forum trolls might know the options.. but the majority of people who are actually playing…. not so much. They can’t pick IPY over other shards if they don’t know about IPY.
Rough read… But I’d like to chime in.
My belief is there’s 2 kinds of UOX players left: those who roam around like nomads worrying about population, and those who severed their addiction & got back to real life after 2k4.
The problem with the Roamads: There’s currently not many All-Star UOers…
After the vets return, though, I suspect IPY’s pop to double following the first Fight Night.
First question is simple. Who’s standards? Standard’s standards. The status quo. UO is sort of an exception to the rule, because it was started before the practice of standardized servers. Look at any mainstream MMO. Look at the server list, then at the community forums corresponding. There will be 2-5 servers that are seen as the “top” servers, usually based on which has the most intense PvE progression by guilds/factions, then theres always one or two servers where “the best PvP is” and so on.
My comment about UOSA was just a joke about BK. No need to read into it.
My finger may not be on the pulse of UO, but my hearts in the right place like yours is. I simply think that having options, even if they are limited or coercive in nature, is a good thing for someone wanting to play UO in 2010. It will suck if some people want to worry about ‘sides’ or play politics about the servers, but people will do that shit about anything, regardless. I just think time and energy is best spent elsewhere, like 2.0 for example. If some noob wants to play XYZ server instead, then thats their prerogative. But don’t get me wrong man, it’d be healthy for 2.0 if we could at least reach out to those people who join XYZ without knowing about 2.0
If UOSA can’t pull out of Revelation/Divinity’s gold rush, then I suspect it will be a ghost town in 12 months.
UOSA is a completely different breed of server. They already are dipping down in population but I don’t think Rev/IPY would kill it off.
I would have to disagree that it would kill it off. There still are and always will be those who just prefer era accurate servers such as the ones you mentioned, regardless of the population they may support.
Although I believe Rev/IPY will put a dent in it, it certainly will not kill it off, as much as I would like to see that happen. :)
What a funny conversation.
Anyway, I see UOSA, Revelation, IPY and Angel Island (<- I ALWAYS include Angel Island, I think they rock and have done really cool stuff) as all being very different shards – if not all having intentionally different concepts.
They’ve all got their own bright spots and flaws. I’d say UOSA and Revelation are the two extremes, moving closest and furthest away from the actual Pre-UO:R ruleset/game.
What server has the biggest population has everything to do with player choice. It’s a small community and if people aren’t aware of their options, it doesn’t take many hardcore zealots to change that.
Nobody knew what the hell UOSA was, but it gained traction based on delivery of its concept. Derrick is a smart cat and has a good angle. UOSA has a strong, simple, one-sentence concept that people can get behind. Attempted complete replication is not exactly original and I can’t imagine the man has a throbbing love of game design or he’d be going BONKERS by now, but it’s very good. Kudos to them. Sure, we hear about GM handouts and bad PvP and misinterpretation of patch notes and so on here on this blog, but nobody’s perfect. ;)
(This is, by the way, one reason why I think EA would have a HELL of a time doing a classic server if they really don’t have the code anymore…)
Been a long time since everyone knew the IPY acronym, but if Sean & I deliver well on a strong concept, we’ll all be fine. If we don’t, well, you’ll all disappear and this conversation is a waste of time. ;)
A waste of time? Surely you jest… What, with the whole teaching yourself game theory amd design while we watch you toil in blog form over concepts both too small and large to fully grasp…
Even if you fail miserably, at least you’re having fun and gaining knowledge way beyond the average gamer/nerd’s typical scope.
Also I’m fucking tired of this site not formatting correctly on my iPhone. I can’t see what I type!!! Omg finish your ipyuo.com already. Oh and btw whats up with ipyshard.com?
Hey, I like it when people make it sound like I’m smart. Yaht gets the gold star.
Revelation is nixing the whole UO map, and replaced the world with their own unique set up. http://www.uodivinity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26230
I have mixed feelings on this, but I guess that all depends on how well of a job Ryan’s done. Right now only time will tell.
My plans are to spend my time playing Rev until the IPY 2.0 begins, or maybe getting into EVE or something interesting and time consuming.
This is actually a good idea. Not that I’m gonna take credit for it, but I’ve been telling the admins at Divinity forever that if they decided to make a new shard, a revamped map would be critical. And I like the idea.
I’ve said literally millions of times (well, ok, not millions), that starting with a giant map and then trying to fill it with players is backwards. You start with a smaller map, and as the map gets too full, you examd it to compensate.
Why exactly that’s so difficult to understand is beyond me.. Further, I can’t believe this is the first time it’s been tried on a major / well known shard.
It’s going to work.
ugh.. edit button… examd = expand.
Looks like they finally heard you.
I’m liking the idea more and more as well. As long all the same game rules are set in place, It would seem interesting.
Why do you directory surfers all use IPYUO.com? Oh well, it’s all the same for now.
I meant that you’re likely just as clueless as the rest of your blogbase is in regards to true gamr design – it’s much too much for one person to get right, much less fully understand…
Oh. And I am no directory surfer. I just googled IPY UO like a month ago while on the toilet and was just now revisiting some of the links that I bookmarked back then. I’m just sorta trying to get an idea of who and what are talkin bout 2.0 I guess. There’s some surprising sites and people gettin ready for the big show…
Gold star?! omg GM hand out.
Yaht, play mega man on the toilet.. Noob.
Could we get a pic of a bank on here for the handful of us standing around chatting?
Dude there’s more people at the Wrong Ogre Lord spawn because of those stupid pally hammers. Go get a pic of that.
http://azaroth.org/images/betalogo.gif
amidoinitrite?
Not quite. It’s a puzzle. if you mindlessly click in the white area below IPY Logo on IPYUO.com, just where the FORUM part is in the picture, you may or may not randomly be selected for beta and access to the forums !