UO Second Age

Kraaug, both systems are "era accurate," so frankly I don't find an appeal to era accuracy as a convincing rationale for the change. Also, with these contemporaneous patch notes we find references to "young" players, a system UOSA has shied away from not because it's inaccurate, but because it stands in tension with what is perceived to be the "spirit" of t2a.

When two systems are both era accurate, I think that the prevailing system should be decided on by considerations of both game play, and this (perhaps amorphous) idea of the "spirit" of t2a, which I take to mean basically that players are on their own to sink or swim in the unforgiving lands of Sosaria. This "spirit" was destroyed with the advent of Trammel. and I think anyone who played during the transition from t2a to UOR has some idea of what I am talking about. By this admittedly questionable standard, I think that the current system is preferable.

With respect to gameplay, I also think the current system is superior. Yes, perhaps Razor enables thieves to steal deeds unfairly, but simple measures can be taken to inoculate yourself from thieves; namely, casting reveal, and putting your deed in a 14 stone+ locked chest. However, things get very goofy when there is a ton of open space and everyone has a house deed in their pack. It's simply not how things were in t2a, and I can't support the change. If there weren't vast tracts of opened land I'd shrug and say "whatever," but I think this change would simply be a mistake. From both a meta-era-accurate and gameplay perspective, I think the current system is our better choice. Please don't change it!

UOSA certainly does have Vast Tracts of Land.

I'm really on the fence on this issue, much like the Young system, accuracy can be found on both sides. While we are in a situation where there are other things far more mechanically incorrect, I'd encourage healthy discussion on this, but warn that no change may be made for some time anyway.

Derrick wrote:UOSA certainly does have Vast Tracts of Land.

I'm really on the fence on this issue, much like the Young system, accuracy can be found on both sides. While we are in a situation where there are other things far more mechanically incorrect, I'd encourage healthy discussion on this, but warn that no change may be made for some time anyway.

*after looking at the video link*
But I think all the swamp locations for swamps have been taken!



To the topic...

I hear what you are saying about not implementing everything and agree with you, a young system is certainly not needed here. That system was too buggy and attempted to address a need that doesn't really exist here.

So, with the exception of that young system, I think you run into problems with trying to pick and choose what T2A features to put in and, if left unchecked, will eventually result in unintended new bugs and expliots as well as a condition that is hard to control.

Runebooks are a good example. Now, I love them and hope they stay in the game, but there was a lot of issues expressed with the recent change and you were put in a spot where you may need to 'make up' a weight and that puts you into game design.

I say that eventually open tracks of land will dry up and, if you are fighting in a spot that can host a house, then you should know that there's a risk that if you attack a person and they have a newbied deed, they can drop it.

I think that inconvenice is light in weight compared to picking and choosing certain sub-era accurate functions and dealing with the unintended consquences.

In the long run I think if you stick to your guns on era accuracy and the target dates of late '99 you will be faced with less of a headache and a better and more accurate replica of 1999 T2A.

Nothing really wrong with the young system.

In the long run I think if you stick to your guns on era accuracy and the target dates of late '99 you will be faced with less of a headache and a better and more accurate replica of 1999 T2A.

The thing is, BOTH systems were in place in late 1999 t2a, so saying one is more accurate than the other isn't convincing to me. Is 8/31/99 really less desirable for the shard than 11/31/99? This seems to me to be a rather silly argument, especially considering the shard's explicit disavowing of setting any specific "target date" for modeling its accuracy.

I think that inconvenice is light in weight compared to picking and choosing certain sub-era accurate functions and dealing with the unintended consquences.

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but I don't see any problem with choosing earlier, but still era-accurate mechanisms that fit well with late '99 ruleset, if they improve gameplay.

If you newbify house deeds, everyone is going to have a house deed always in their pack, and the end result is going to be a highly inaccurate dynamic. I also think you're underestimating how much this will effect things. If anything, implementing this would be the source of "unintended consequences," which would be both negative and era-inaccurate.