era accuracy and timeframe-new idea

[BlackLeaf]

the second age-how it should be.sounds bad,a lot of other shards fails for this reason,too much custom,that will inevitably lead to pleasing someone and upsetting someone else.
another thing that is for sure,however,is that our timeframe is full of nosense,full of on-the-way-to-trammel changes,full of actual "era accurate" bugs that completely alter the games ,far beyond what the original developers want it to be.
i know we,as the old school of ultima,still playing after many years,have in our mind the idea of the perfect mmo,the true sandbox experience,a place where limitations are removed rather than being added.on the other hand the shard cant fall in the "custom rules" trap,a land made of quicksands that ultimately leads to 0 player connected.
ok,i think you got the picture.what do?
here my proposal: "uosa,the way it was, almost entirely,with something the is how it should be,but without going against era accurcy,and with no custom".
explanation:we consider the whole t2a era,not a precise date,and we take what is best,from october 1998 to may 2000.
i know some rules are in with the 90% of the population dont like them,and it makes no sense to me.

hope this makes sense for someone.

greetings.

ps.:sorry for my bad english

[Jill Stihl]

.....we take what is best,from october 1998 to may 2000....

Who will decide what is best?

And there it fails.

[Faust]

^^

[MatronDeWinter]

Just shift the timeframe to the beginning of T2A. The small range that is used now has some of the lamest changes that happened in era.

[Blaise]

Just shift the timeframe to the beginning of T2A. The small range that is used now has some of the lamest changes that happened in era.

Or cherry pick the entire era from inception to the next major release, based solely on the whims of the creator!

Cheers to that
/big splits

[BlackLeaf]

.....we take what is best,from october 1998 to may 2000....

Who will decide what is best?

And there it fails.

we can put it on votes,for example.
btw i think there is something we all know is wrong,but we keep it just for accuracy's sake.as i said before,everything that is more trammel,or that adds limitation to game play,or that is a bug that happened to be in our timeframe,can pacefully be changed without upsetting anyone.

Just shift the timeframe to the beginning of T2A. The small range that is used now has some of the lamest changes that happened in era.

agree,but the big problem here is the lack of skill locks.i think the game play that follows this would be not for everyone,there is the serious risk to loose a lot of our population.
this is why i think using earlyer t2a while keeping skill locks would not be such a blasphemy.

[Jill Stihl]

I'm not 100%, but I don't think we should have skill/stat locks anyway?

IIRC I've seen staff comment that they're a client side feature so have been left active here despite being not era accurate.

[Faust]

Why even discuss this here?

The philosophy will not change with this shard. The discussion is a waste of time. If you want your version of the t2a than go make it.

[Blaise]

This is technically a 'suggestion' and it even pertains to 'era accuracy'.

I can't see any better location for a discussion such as this, on these forums.

[Light Shade]

I'll bite. Why not?

What do you think the definition of Mechanical Accuracy should include?

PvP Mechanics? Monster AI?

Do you think Mechanical Accuracy should extend to a complete recreation of a time in the Era?

or...

Should Mechanical Accuracy be more about the PvP, Items, Monsters, etc....and less about a complete exact replica?

I only ask that question because i've sometimes pondered how to have somewhat new things for an Era that never changes. Now, i'm not talking about changing the swing speed of a Katana, or the house placing rules, or anything like that. I'm just talking about the stuff that doesn't have any direct impact on the gameplay other than to add in a visual change or a change of location. Its just something that allows some minimal change without changing the mechanics of the era.

So, for example, T-Map locations...

Mechanically, they all function the same. Get required skill, go find location, dig it up. Currently...the definition of mechanically extends to the exact same locations that the original T2A era had for the t-maps. What if you added in T-Maps in T2A? Mechanically, they function the same...its just a new location. A small way to add in new content without actually changing the game.

Idunno, just something i've often pondered. I like the shard as a whole the way it is, though. For the sake of discussion, though, I do pose the questions. Its just talking.

[RaveGreen]

.....we take what is best,from october 1998 to may 2000....

Who will decide what is best?

And there it fails.

My disclaimer: I am new here. I am VERY happy with this shard as is. I believe things can always be improved upon. I am not specifically thinking about any one mechanic or any specific part of UOSA when I say the following -

What about users proposing changes to the Admins (maybe it's own forum). Admins then decide if it is feasible and something that fits in the time period and then, if approved, gets put to the community for vote?

Obviously voting can get manipulated, but maybe you can limit this to only allowing donators or subscribers to vote? Benefits of this, maybe the server gets more subscribers/donations?

[Faust]

The whole discussion behind this thread still comes down to one conclusion.

Not going to happen and the philosophy of this shard is not going to change.

Derrick has stated many times that he would not subject himself into the role of developing how the era "might" have ended up. The timeframe that was chosen was quite specific based on the middle ground of the era.

Discuss until your little hearts stop beating for all I care. I am just pointing out the obvious and telling you it's a waste of time. The shard's philosophy will not change and guarentee it. If you want such an idea better look else well to the million other mix matching based era shards.

Guess someone has to be realistic here.

[Azeroth]

Faust Are you the New GM?

[BlackLeaf]

.....we take what is best,from october 1998 to may 2000....

Who will decide what is best?

And there it fails.

I'm not 100%, but I don't think we should have skill/stat locks anyway?

IIRC I've seen staff comment that they're a client side feature so have been left active here despite being not era accurate.

thought the precise date was chosen because of the skill lock thing.at this point,a question arises:who decides the precise date,and why?if a lot of people think that date is ended up being lame,why not changing it?
the true is,arbitrariness will always be there,but we have the luck of being a solid community with great administators,if things can get a wave of fresh air, why not going for it?


as many have pointed before,this shard is great as it is,personally i think is the best shard around.and i know what im saying,i have played the vast mayority of pre aos shards out there,and this one is by far the most exciting.
but,as it has been stated,we are somewhat frozen in time,in something that i dont know what was intended to be,but for no reason was intended to be static.
the method i proposed,is intended to allow a (limited) ability to change things a little,to bring in that fresh air as needed.

i have also came up with a new idea:why not gradually changing the time frame during time?like we can start at the beginning of t2a,and adding hystorical patches as time goes by,ending with the end of the era,at wich point we start over.doesent it sound good?

[Faust]

i have also came up with a new idea:why not gradually changing the time frame during time?like we can start at the beginning of t2a,and adding hystorical patches as time goes by,ending with the end of the era,at wich point we start over.doesent it sound good?

I've already proposed and discussed the idea on the forums in the past here. Kaivan rebutted the idea and said it's not possible listing an X amount of reasons. I still think it's possible but he seems to think otherwise. You could probably do a search under my name to find the discussion and the reasoning Kaivan argued that it would not be possible. I don't quite remember all the reasons but remember one reason that he argued involving the patch where there were only allowed a couple player vendors at a house. Horrible reference based on memory, sorry I know but it's all that comes to mind. Finding the old discussion would be a lot better.

The idea was pretty simple.

Use a global date variable representing day one through the last day of t2a and run conditional statements for each mechanical change from day to day to represent the current mechanics.

Rinse, repeat.