A thought on Era Accuracy...

[Stonewolf]

While there's something to say about Era Accuracy, since a few horrible things came about with the Renaissance (which was basically Trammel and nerfs), some very good things came about with it too. Like very necessary fixes and tweaks that would have occurred whether the 2nd Age ended or not.

I played the game for 6 years from the start and recall a lot of things that were strongly suggested and being looked into at that time and simply because it was implemented sometime after the 2nd Age does not mean it does not mean that it doesn't belong in UOSA. Some tweaks were very necessary and in the minds of a lot of players back then and a relief when they came about.

Staying accurate to the era is admirable just as long as you don't shoot yourself in the foot especially if you do have to stop and wait to do it.

Some changes occurred after the period but were very necessary FOR the period.

[Rhis]

Totally agree.

Unfortunately the shard won't live up to it's full potential until the fixed cutoff date is thrown out in favor of a "spirit of t2a" attitude, and trammelite tourneys, etc, are thrown out.

[Ronk]

I agree. Though to play devils advocate...the 'spirit of T2A' can be very very dangerous. A slipper road if you will. Could someone argue that ethereal mounts are the 'spirit of T2A'? Or maybe arguing that custom houses are the spirit of T2A. While I don't think either are...thats the danger...its open to opinion and interpretation.

[Stonewolf]

I agree. Though to play devils advocate...the 'spirit of T2A' can be very very dangerous. A slipper road if you will. Could someone argue that ethereal mounts are the 'spirit of T2A'? Or maybe arguing that custom houses are the spirit of T2A. While I don't think either are...thats the danger...its open to opinion and interpretation.

Good point. I think the best way to look at it would be, T2A was supposed to be something. It did damn good but needed tweaks and adjustments here and there. Tune the engine, touch up the paint, put better rims on it and it's still the same muscle car... see? Don't change the ride, just make it smoother.

[Rhis]

For me, a lot of things seem pretty clear cut when aiming for the spirit of t2a.

I mean which feels more like t2a did to you?

Ethereal mounts, or having to replace your mount every time you get ganked by a pk?
New style houses or old style houses?
Viable dexxers, or nothing but tank-mages?
Trammel tourney areas or world pvp?
Neon boots and colored masks, or normal hued items?

I would expect 9/10 t2a era players to choose the obvious answers on all those, but here we are, on a supposedly era accurate shard, with the last 3 of these items currently wrong.

There is no reason to favor a fixed cut off date over this method, especially when we have shit here that is clearly --- without question --- completely era inaccurate.

[Stonewolf]

For me, a lot of things seem pretty clear cut when aiming for the spirit of t2a.

I mean which feels more like t2a did to you?

Ethereal mounts, or having to replace your mount every time you get ganked by a pk?
New style houses or old style houses?
Viable dexxers, or nothing but tank-mages?
Trammel tourney areas or world pvp?
Neon boots and colored masks, or normal hued items?

I would expect 9/10 t2a era players to choose the obvious answers on all those, but here we are, on a supposedly era accurate shard, with the last 3 of these items currently wrong.

There is no reason to favor a fixed cut off date over this method, especially when we have shit here that is clearly --- without question --- completely era inaccurate.

I hate when my horse dies. Really do. But them's the breaks in Fel. I don't want an Ethy.

My whole drive to this is that 2nd Age had things that were broken when it was live. Those things got fixed (to varying degrees) but with those fixes came horrors that killed what was UO in the process.

Here the Devs have the opportunity to truly own the 2nd Age and make those fixes as needed without making all the mistakes that came with them the first time around.

Gimped Dexxers was an embarrassment back then, it is still. Archers could very rarely close a PvP battle unless it was one-sided to begin with.

One thing that was VERY era accurate was that there were broken things in UO and there were things being done behind the scenes to fix them... just because they were finalized after the cut-off date should not exclude them as things that should be in the process of being fixed now.