We need change, for the sake of the server.

[Kye Smogg]

For some servers, yes. The core goal is to survive via donations and to achieve the highest player count possible. UOSA has a fundamentally different goal from the ground up, so that is not the main goal of the server.

LOL. Servers don't set out for high player counts - high player counts are a byproduct of a server providing something that people enjoy and want. A large thriving community makes for a better experience, what good is all this era accuracy when there's only about 25 active players?

Ultima Online as a whole is an aging body with a heart transplant, you guys have basically said "I'm sticking to this heart until death, I don't need any follow-up care! Screw what everyone else may be doing to stay alive!" Meanwhile, other places recognize that players are getting older, other games are being released, and are keeping things fresh to keep the game alive.

This obsession with "era accuracy" is silly, it would be like me opening up a music store and proclaiming "okay, everything after 1989 SUCKS, therefore I will only sell music before then, and I will never, ever, ever change my mind no matter how bad things get for my store and will watch my store burn to the ground before I dare sell any of that crappy 90's music!".

“Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: You find the present tense and the past perfect”

[a swallow]

Agreed!! I have played here for a little over 5 years and now it seems like everything I have done was for nothing. If I would have known that this was a museum, I wouldn't have sold every true rare I owned for cash. I would have been setting up like Vega. Why is it soooo important to have a shard era accurate? If you have people that play the game and are now leaving because it is boring to them, why not change it to make it the way you want + have the players having a blast? Only thing were are missing is the blast. When i first started this shard was awesome.

Could we get 1 GM to do events?? Just 1?? If all the GMs are busy all the time then can we hire another??

Black dye tub hunt? (Make a new color that no one has)
More pvm events
Kill monster (deed on corpse)
Kill monster (single silver spread throughout)

Anything!

[WarmApplepie]

Im down for everything swallow listed. Lets make it happen.

[Onslaught-]

For some servers, yes. The core goal is to survive via donations and to achieve the highest player count possible. UOSA has a fundamentally different goal from the ground up, so that is not the main goal of the server.

Kaivan, try playing this server, as a normal player would, for a week. If your idea of era accuracy is a single-player mode of Ultima Online, then you guys clearly didn't play on OSI during the same era that I did.

The people who play this server love the community, and they love the player interaction, and they love the game. Without a community - you have no interaction, and without interaction, you have no game. If your goal is to look at an empty server and remember the "good times," then you are on your way. You could accomplish the same thing by just looking through old screenshots.

Change needs to happen and if you guys are too stubborn to do something about it, then I'm genuinely sorry to say that you will be here, by yourselves, defending your era accuracy from nobody.

[JessieKJepsen]

So.. Can we get this topic on track, get the staff and players on the same page?
I agree something needs to happen and its frustrating to see the large amount of resistance, denial. and finger pointing. Lets just move on and get working together for the better of the server and the players who love this server and call it our uo home.

I still hold out hope we can do this!

~Jess <3

[Capitalist]

Agreed!! I have played here for a little over 5 years and now it seems like everything I have done was for nothing. If I would have known that this was a museum, I wouldn't have sold every true rare I owned for cash. I would have been setting up like Vega.

What? Post the coordinates to all of your future IDOCs.

[TI_Smithy]

My problem with GM ran events is that they follow the same formula.
1. Big ass spawn
2. Boss spawns
3. Player that loots the quickest wins

One thing EA did right was to have the power-scrolls spawn not only on the corpse but also in player's backpacks that actually put in the work. Perhaps we can take something away from this method in future events?

So.. Can we get this topic on track, get the staff and players on the same page?

Jessie for UOSA Spokesperson 2015!

[Jay]

Kaivan

I appreciate your hard work and all of your patches but with all do respect I noticed your title is "Historian" and your responses are fitting for your title. We need the foresight and action of a "President"

As the OP puts it... "We need change, for the sake of the server."

Change is the key word here, the ships going down.. whatever you've been doing isn't working. (other gms included)

Address that fact (that what's being done just isn't good enough) and adapt and overcome.

This isn't a personal attack, this doesn't mean you haven't worked hard or that your efforts aren't appreciated, only that your (and the other gms) methods need to change.

Again, we need an open dialogue of what we CAN DO to help. Can you list the problems your facing in bringing back automated events so that we may attempt to brainstorm something? If not that, maybe some new ideas besides more patches and encrusted lich type events.

If you cannot think of a way to help, maybe we can get a new GM to help with some fresh ideas?

[Kaivan]

For some servers, yes. The core goal is to survive via donations and to achieve the highest player count possible. UOSA has a fundamentally different goal from the ground up, so that is not the main goal of the server.

LOL. Servers don't set out for high player counts - high player counts are a byproduct of a server providing something that people enjoy and want. A large thriving community makes for a better experience, what good is all this era accuracy when there's only about 25 active players?

Actually, they do, since higher player counts directly correlate to far higher donation amounts, and ultimately more profit for the shard owners. This is a very well known fact of UO free servers, and something that we stand apart from virtually all other servers on.

Ultima Online as a whole is an aging body with a heart transplant, you guys have basically said "I'm sticking to this heart until death, I don't need any follow-up care! Screw what everyone else may be doing to stay alive!" Meanwhile, other places recognize that players are getting older, other games are being released, and are keeping things fresh to keep the game alive.

Can you define what you consider keeping things fresh with respect to other servers?

This obsession with "era accuracy" is silly, it would be like me opening up a music store and proclaiming "okay, everything after 1989 SUCKS, therefore I will only sell music before then, and I will never, ever, ever change my mind no matter how bad things get for my store and will watch my store burn to the ground before I dare sell any of that crappy 90's music!".

If you feel that the goal of mechanical accuracy is not what you think should be done, then fine. But players shouldn't expect that goal to change just because they don't find it enjoyable. You don't walk on to a UOR style server, play for a while, and then complain that you're bored because you can't use Ninjitsu, do you?

Kaivan, try playing this server, as a normal player would, for a week. If your idea of era accuracy is a single-player mode of Ultima Online, then you guys clearly didn't play on OSI during the same era that I did.

The issue is that you're conflating our goal of mechanical accuracy with some nebulous goal of replicating the experience of T2A. That isn't the goal for UOSA, as it isn't even achievable. It is more accurate to point out that our server had a fundamental formula for handling itself, and for a while it was clear that players found our formula to be interesting. However, as time has gone on, players have grown disinterested in the formula for the server for a variety of reasons, and moved on to things that held their interest, and that those who remain around want us to change our fundamental formula.

The issue with this type of request is that it asks us to move into a set of roles that we have no intention of taking on (developing new "changes" to the server) while simultaneously undermining the very property of our current formula that has garnered so much support: the impartiality of our changes. This isn't an acceptable avenue for us, but it seems that the demands are for exactly that. So, I am left with the same analogy as before regarding a UOR style server where players demand mechanics from later expansions - the demand for changes is generally to demand things that didn't exist in era.

Could we get 1 GM to do events?? Just 1?? If all the GMs are busy all the time then can we hire another??

Black dye tub hunt? (Make a new color that no one has)
More pvm events
Kill monster (deed on corpse)
Kill monster (single silver spread throughout)

Anything!

This was already partially answered by Boomland earlier as part of a list of events that have occurred on UOSA in the last year, but I will extend on this somewhat further: Since the current quantity of events seems to be unacceptable, what would you consider an acceptable number and type of events to be run on, say, a monthly basis?

[Capitalist]

The issue is that you're conflating our goal of mechanical accuracy with some nebulous goal of replicating the experience of T2A. That isn't the goal for UOSA, as it isn't even achievable. It is more accurate to point out that our server had a fundamental formula for handling itself, and for a while it was clear that players found our formula to be interesting

Honestly... did the population go up after automated events were taken out?

[a swallow]

On a monthly basis, I would say 2 a week min. The more the better....We aren't asking for events everyday, just something to look forward to.

These below you can switch (no magery/magery, no pots/pots, no bandages/only bandages, bare knuckle/ fencing weap only/ swordsmanship only/ bows only/ macefighting only, no ar, chainmail only

Capture the flag
FFA
1v1
2v2
3v3
4v4
_______________________________________________________________________________________

tub hunt
monster hunt (different prizes inside)
pick a box (either find a prize or die)
A Dead Race

There is a month of events switched around ez ^

[Boomland Jenkins]

I can definitely go back to doing various content-events. Player input would definitely be required, probably best NOT in this post as it will get lost with the sea of replies that are bound to occur (because honestly, this is just the "bring them back" thread in a new form) - get in touch with me through a forum PM or IRC PMs. If there is enough player interest, perhaps we can setup a formal system for generating ideas and taking meaningful criticism and feedback on how to make future events better.

Remember, we're not talking about automated/re-occurring events, special "fighting areas" or anything like that. Everything has to exist within the World of Britannia+Lost Lands and everything has to be operational "as is" with the current systems in place. The Staff assistance is purely there for helping organize and adding a little flavor (decor, chance of trophies/silver, etc)

Here are some events I've run since coming to Staff in August 2013:

The Gem Encrusted
Whereas this is not a popular event, it does serve it's purpose. It provided a place for players to go. Gem encrusted monsters are harder than their regular form, but drop gems (2 to 8 gems), allowing new players to obtain gold a tad quicker (with an increased challenge to fight harder monsters and with the timesink of having to sell gems), and at the same time, provided a place for established players to fight all new boss monsters (powerful creatures - gem encrusted balrons, ancient liches, gem encrusted wyrms, etc). On top of PVM, it provided PKs a reliable dungeon to find players in. I monitored much of the activities during the Deceit encrusted attack and the activity was much higher than normal. PVM events bring natural PVP because of PKs and PVPers looking for PKs/anyone to fight.

This is currently going on in Covetous, there are even rare-monsters spawning if you slay enough of the same monster type.

Player-organized, Staff supported weekly dungeon crawls
All this involves is a player who is willing to gather players at Britain Bank on a weekly basis. At the determined time, a one-way gate will appear at Britain bank (staff created) to a random dungeon or region. The area is spawned to a "theme" - we had orcish hordes occupying Hythloth once with specialty orcs not found anywhere else. Another time Ratmen (ratmen, ratmen mages, ratmen archers, and other event-ratmen) invading Covetous. Another time we had the undead heavily spawning in the Yew Crypt. Last year we did Wednesdays at 8pm EST because that's when the player running it could make it. Single silver coins have been known to appear on random monsters within the effected region during these events but they were very rare and based on the total number of attendees.

Ice Dungeon Crawl: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=57627

Ultima Lure-driven Monster Bashing
This includes stories involving The Guardian, a well known evil within the Ultima storyline. He's attacked 3 times so far - once at the Abandoned Fireworks Factory, once at the Fire Temple, and a third time at Trinsic's Barrier island (the defense is still maintained there, should he come back). I have a 4th piece to this story developed and a 5th underway but Summer left me with little time to sit inside at a computer. It is typical to receive trophies valuing 1 or 10pts from these events on random monster kills (despite what the general consensus that people claimed that only the "boss monsters" dropped them and that it was somehow unfair and bias with any justifications from players.) During the 3 major attacks, trophies were given out "The Guardian Attacks <date>" were the labels.
The Guardian Attacks, Isle of Avatar - viewtopic.php?f=11&t=58551

Regular Monster Bash/Town Invasions
Most recently, "A Pirate's Life For Me" was a multi-day event over the span of a week or 2 where pirates reinforced Buc's Den, and then attacked Magancia until players were able to push the pirates back to the docks and eventually back to Buc's where our players continued to fight off the pirates for an additional few days. Trophies were able to be obtained during all of these.

The Orcish Attack at Vesper. Sometime this year, orcs invaded Vesper for a solid 6 hours before players were able to amass an army strong enough to keep the horde down and then the players themselves went to the Cove Orc Fort to continue the fight against the orcs until the Butcher spawned and was eventually slain.

Delucia Invasion: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=57737

------------
In my opinion, the biggest thing we don't do on UOSA with our events is doing on-going promotion. When an event occurs, the town crier (and in IRC you can do !news) will talk about it. Typically a Facebook/Twitter update is made. We'll do this each day that the event is going on for in some cases, but it's up to players to keep their eyes open and actually play the game, instead of sitting in IRC waiting. We reward those who are actually out there playing, not people waiting on a sidebar watching a calendar and counting the minutes until the next event happens.

Maybe this part of the procedure can be changed. In the past it worked fine, because we had players who actually wanted to do this for us. If players put in half as much effort into being positive instead of leaving negative comments (note: criticism is great, but only if it's constructive) or being cynical, I think we'd see a much brighter future.

UOSA has always claimed to chase accuracy. It's been said for years, long before I was staff here. The reason I stayed as long as I did as a player was knowing the shard has an actual blueprint and you don't have to worry about logging in one day to find crazy hues, new mounts, new uses for items or skills, unthought/unbalanced additions, or being jailed for simply playing UO.

[JessieKJepsen]

I can definitely go back to doing various content-events. Player input would definitely be required, probably best NOT in this post as it will get lost with the sea of replies that are bound to occur (because honestly, this is just the "bring them back" thread in a new form) - get in touch with me through a forum PM or IRC PMs. If there is enough player interest, perhaps we can setup a formal system for generating ideas and taking meaningful criticism and feedback on how to make future events better.

Yay, I hoped for a response from a staff member with the acceptance of an open dialog of ideas and constructive thoughts. *claps* *whistles*

PM in IRC sent to open up some talks!

Keep in mind most of my ideas will be coming from a Player vs. NPC style player / crafter style player.

But, I do go to most events not geared to pvp.

This is our chance, he opened the door if you have constructive ideas get on it before the door closes hehehe

<3 <3 <3

~Jessica

[Coholic]

Just curious, but wouldn't it be era accurate to announce what an upcoming patch will contain, and when it will be released?

I'm not trolling, I just did not know we did stealth patches here, and if we do, then why? I recall reading patch notes for upcoming patches on OSI regularly, and knowing when to expect them. I believe it was usually on a Tuesday.

Thanks in advance

[riant]

I don't understand how automated events are tied to betraying the spirit of T2A accuracy. Events are simply a necessary boost to keep populations levels up. It's proven to work, and it's (at worst) debatable that it goes against the concept of era-accuracy. The fact that Derrick has clearly abandoned the server makes the fundamentalist attitude of the remaining GMs baffling. Most of us scroll the replies of these "bring back the events" posts and look for red-font names, and without exception the responses
are religiously against events, as if they FACTUALLY go against the server. Why hasn't there been a GM that says "hmm, maybe they are ok". What is the thinking behind the scenes?? Is the now absent Derrick refusing to give admin rights until they agree with this fundamentalist point of view against events? If so, why would Derrick do that if he's not participating any more. This keeps getting brought up for a reason. This community is full of older, intelligent people and something just doesn't add up.