Random thoughts/Braindump

[Fatalist]

Similar system to OSI on ethys and vet rewards, maybe make ethy's 3 months as a rough guide?

Crafting needs to be better/more versatile - something more than BOD farming/crafter alt types.

Bods need to remain though, make them harder/require rare materials (from hard monsters/other achievements etc) rather than MAKE 9 MILLION CLOTH SHIRTS. This should encourage more synergy between pvm and crafting beyond enchanting for +luck. I guess a bit of a rip off from the WoW crafting system, but opens up so much more and it works there. Not suggesting 'recipes' for strong items as such, just that the requirement involves more than buying cloth/ingots and starting a macro. This needs a lot more throught but could be the beginning of a really engaging system. Perhaps Runic hammers/sewing kits become non-tradeable, encouraging specialist/famous crafters once again selling charges on their items. Dunno.

Penalties for griefing genuine newbies - no idea how to implement this without safe zones, invlun or blessed items etc.

IMO remove magic wands, or at least remove spell chan from them. This whilst funny was pretty bent, as is any other mechanic which makes people ultimately invincible

Don't be too afraid to offer some level of trammel gayness. Neon shouldn't be completely ruled out, it's a good gold sink and long term objective. Just remove FIRE CLOTH:( I do like the removal of neon from Arti's idea though. Ultimately too many people like it to just remove it because it doesn't match I-C aesthetic~

No pay for items system (obviously) HOST THE SHARD FOR LOVE OF THE GAME! UOSA had this bang on, and people geniunely appreciated it. If eventually a pay system had to be setup to cover costs (which i don't imagine to be high) it should be for items/services that have zero influence on the play mechanics, like skins in LoL.

Never have instanced events

Remove all solen shit, beetles, bags of sending and pet summon balls. Also remove powder of fort.

Rewards for inviting players, like any referral system. Needs to be controlled by IP etc but could offer a small but worthwhile (and scaling) reward for inviting players who continue to play for x time/achieve x level of skills etc. Basically incentivising community to grow itself rather than relying on spamming boards etc. Could be a power hour, or +5 to chosen skill, random house deco, whatever. Just needs to be implemented so the invited players would need to achieve, rather than just register, kind of an additional incentive to make the inviter help the newbie get setup (and subsequently equally addicted) Implement this after say, 2-4 weeks after launch so people don't gimp the system by inviting each other on day 1 etc.

Maybe some rewards in place for encouraging players to help newbies, run events etc, kind of like UOSA had with town sponsorship. Not sure how this would be monitored etc.

Ultimately the focus should be on players being rewarded for doing positive things rather than punished for negative.

Random overland champs/super monsters/items/loot spawning randomly in remote locations to encourage exploring beyond common PvM and rares spots - tie in with crafting system? Maybe some items can only be crafted in certain areas of the world/at certain times. Hiring the shard's most famous blacksmith and escorting him to a harrower and defending the spawn against invaders whilst your contract smithy tries to smash some ingots into SPEAR OF DETH sounds like it could be fun - probably easy to do with hiding or whatever, but again the system could be of interest.

Try to implement that ghosts getting kicked out of dungeons on login system.

Be realistic about what players will try to do, we will never manage to 'ban' easy uo, is it even that easy to limit accounts per IP etc? I don't see the issue with default limits in principle, it's just when people start using 5 accounts to solo champs (HI JOE) as I think belg mentioned someone was doing with tamers on IPY. Ultimately the more chars people want to develop, the more demand for the limited resources (scrolls/items).

Make a use for +5 scrolls~~~~~
In fact - going to +20 should require the use of +5, +10 and +15 beforehand 100%

Thoughts on custom housing? I always hated it but again it gave players that bit extra creativity and spawned lots of cool stuff.

Lets speak to people like Petra/Terry, any other contacts still kicking about who weren't into PvP as such, get their view on what they aimed to achieve, to help us target non-pvpers.

What are some good sites where nostalgic pricks like us hang out? I'm going to sign up and start a 3 year long hype campaign.


More to come

[Calix]

Similar system to OSI on ethys and vet rewards, maybe make ethy's 3 months as a rough guide?

I was thinking something along those lines - perhaps first emount at 1 month, second available at 3. Ostards/Horses/Llamas, and if a proper shard WAS ever to be launched, perhaps allow ki-rins and unicorns as donation items. POSSIBLY. Depending if there was a gap between funding and any costs. 100% no swamp dragons or beetles etc.

Crafting needs to be better/more versatile - something more than BOD farming/crafter alt types.

Agreed. I'm not sure about where to take it really. 100% don't want BODS or any other anti-social systems in. They're completely against what made UO great in the first place.

Atm my only thoughts have been;
1. 1 char per account, and 2 accounts per IP - hence not everyone will have a crafter and the ones that do exist will be important.
2. No poweder of fort(or whatever it was called) to add HP's to items. No repair deeds. Give all items low amount of durability, and make loss of max durability points likely unless repaired by a GM+ smith/tailor/whatever. The higher the skill, the less the chance of durability loss. On a shard that would succeed this would mean that 'trusted' crafters would thrive. They would be handed over items by other players to repair, etc, and be an important part of the community.

I started a thread on stratics the other week asking what people liked about playing crafters, and the two things they said were: "I miss the days of people passing me items to repair at brit forge" and "everyone has a crafter now so what's the point"

Bods need to remain though, make them harder/require rare materials (from hard monsters/other achievements etc) rather than MAKE 9 MILLION CLOTH SHIRTS. This should encourage more synergy between pvm and crafting beyond enchanting for +luck. I guess a bit of a rip off from the WoW crafting system, but opens up so much more and it works there. Not suggesting 'recipes' for strong items as such, just that the requirement involves more than buying cloth/ingots and starting a macro. This needs a lot more throught but could be the beginning of a really engaging system. Perhaps Runic hammers/sewing kits become non-tradeable, encouraging specialist/famous crafters once again selling charges on their items. Dunno.

I'd take a lot of convincing on BODS, but agreed with other thoughts to an extent. Interlinking the various player-types into a community is essential, and is what made UO great.

[Calix]

Penalties for griefing genuine newbies - no idea how to implement this without safe zones, invlun or blessed items etc.

Massive issue. I don't like many of the options(newbie dungeons, 'young' tags, etc) but in a Felucca only world(especially AOS where items are so important) you need something. An improved bounty system would be a start. IPY is on the right track. This needs it's own thread to discuss in detail.

IMO remove magic wands, or at least remove spell chan from them. This whilst funny was pretty bent, as is any other mechanic which makes people ultimately invincible

Already done mate.

Don't be too afraid to offer some level of trammel gayness. Neon shouldn't be completely ruled out, it's a good gold sink and long term objective. Just remove FIRE CLOTH:( I do like the removal of neon from Arti's idea though. Ultimately too many people like it to just remove it because it doesn't match I-C aesthetic~

Got no issue with neon hair and other minor things, it's just stupid ICE WHITE HATS, etc.

[Calix]

No pay for items system (obviously) HOST THE SHARD FOR LOVE OF THE GAME! UOSA had this bang on, and people geniunely appreciated it. If eventually a pay system had to be setup to cover costs (which i don't imagine to be high) it should be for items/services that have zero influence on the play mechanics, like skins in LoL.

100%. I would consider certain things for donation, with emounts being the absolute peak. Some house deco, etc. Certainly no resources or anything else that would be useful for the game. Best case scenario would be like UOSA, just taking donations but offering nothing in return. Obviously though if we were losing money we'd have to consider 'donator items' With Fiber connections now I could probably host a 500 player shard from home. 100mb down/10mb up is available here now, 45 quid a month so options are a lot better than 2-3 years ago.

Never have instanced events
Remove all solen shit, beetles, bags of sending and pet summon balls. Also remove powder of fort.

100% agreed. Already turned off spawners for solen, beetles and pretty much everything post t2a bar Noxin's custom doom monsters~
Powder of fort not going in, nor anything else that allows non-crafter chars for items.

Rewards for inviting players, like any referral system. Needs to be controlled by IP etc but could offer a small but worthwhile (and scaling) reward for inviting players who continue to play for x time/achieve x level of skills etc. Basically incentivising community to grow itself rather than relying on spamming boards etc. Could be a power hour, or +5 to chosen skill, random house deco, whatever. Just needs to be implemented so the invited players would need to achieve, rather than just register, kind of an additional incentive to make the inviter help the newbie get setup (and subsequently equally addicted) Implement this after say, 2-4 weeks after launch so people don't gimp the system by inviting each other on day 1 etc.

Pretty genius.

[Calix]

Maybe some rewards in place for encouraging players to help newbies, run events etc, kind of like UOSA had with town sponsorship. Not sure how this would be monitored etc.
Ultimately the focus should be on players being rewarded for doing positive things rather than punished for negative.

IMO any good shard would have at least 2 people dedicated to running events, and doing 'lore' updates in game and on a webpage, and I don't mean events as in global spamming MONSTERS IN TRINSIC COME KILL THEM. I mean stuff like this: http://www.pusateri.org/blood/events/foa.htm that were developed into an ongoing story.
If players can actually have an impact on a growing 'story' for the shard, that's a massive pull and reason to login. It's hard to immerse people in MMO's nowadays but that's about as close as you can get.

Random overland champs/super monsters/items/loot spawning randomly in remote locations to encourage exploring beyond common PvM and rares spots - tie in with crafting system? Maybe some items can only be crafted in certain areas of the world/at certain times. Hiring the shard's most famous blacksmith and escorting him to a harrower and defending the spawn against invaders whilst your contract smithy tries to smash some ingots into SPEAR OF DETH sounds like it could be fun - probably easy to do with hiding or whatever, but again the system could be of interest.

100% agreed. I've already put in some of Noxin's spawns scattered around a few dungeons, and randomized what they drop - if players have to work this kind of stuff out for themselves it's something that keeps them involved and playing.
I'd also like to do a massive (much bigger than OSI) rares spawn. I started putting a few in last night.

Would also like to try to recreate the doom stealable artifacts - in Khaldun maybe.

Also planning on putting a load of work into dungeon chests and tmaps.

Try to implement that ghosts getting kicked out of dungeons on login system.

Yeah. Ghost camming is a fucker to deal with.

[Calix]

Be realistic about what players will try to do, we will never manage to 'ban' easy uo, is it even that easy to limit accounts per IP etc? I don't see the issue with default limits in principle, it's just when people start using 5 accounts to solo champs (HI JOE) as I think belg mentioned someone was doing with tamers on IPY. Ultimately the more chars people want to develop, the more demand for the limited resources (scrolls/items).

I honestly think 1 char per account is the way to go. It helps immersion(you can't make your own smith, have to socialise), accountability(everyone knows your char and who you are) and generally works well. It was good on Siege, to an extent. 2 accounts per IP = everyone has a chance for 2 chars. They could make a PvP char and a tamer, but still need to use their 'local' crafter, for instance.

Make a use for +5 scrolls~~~~~
In fact - going to +20 should require the use of +5, +10 and +15 beforehand 100%

I was thinking along the lines of making 120's extra rare, but this probably works even better actually.

Thoughts on custom housing? I always hated it but again it gave players that bit extra creativity and spawned lots of cool stuff.

Pretty neutral. Don't see much reason to disallow it beyond the awful creations some people made. PRIVATE housing is what I'm against.

Lets speak to people like Petra/Terry, any other contacts still kicking about who weren't into PvP as such, get their view on what they aimed to achieve, to help us target non-pvpers.

Yeah do. I've got a post on Uhall you might want to have a look at, search for my username I guess, Clx-

What are some good sites where nostalgic pricks like us hang out? I'm going to sign up and start a 3 year long hype campaign.

Leave it until we're further along with what we want to do IMO.

[Fatalist]

Out of interest why 2 accounts per IP and one char per account, rather than the other way around? This would stop (well reduce at least) the amount of multi-clienting.

Also BODS were quite a big trading item amongst crafters, albeit most of them were mules but there was still a social element to some degree - would have to check with a career crafter though I guess.

[Calix]

Mostly just because I'm not completely against people multi-clienting, as long as it's only 2. Don't have a problem with people macroing while they play another char - if you can't it just encourages people to macro and not play, then when macroing is done they've gone off the idea of playing anyway because there's been no interaction or anything to hook them. I CALL THIS THE BENN EFFECT.

I'm sure there's arguments the other way though. I'm not against EUO use or afk macroing, just against afk resource gathering.

Fuck knows about BODS, people cried about them when I asked on stratics, and I hated the system but never used it. Probably don't know enough to form a proper idea.

[Fatalist]

Yeha fair enough, I suppose 2 isn't game breaking, and at least allows you to gate yourself around etc, which can be frustrating when starting a new char.

Perhaps my perception of bods is warped, I just think that crafters as an independent discipline need something more proactive to work towards, rather than just reacting to playerbase requirements. That doesn't mean a completely fresh system couldn't be introduced.

[Calix]

I just think that crafters as an independent discipline need something more proactive to work towards, rather than just reacting to playerbase requirements. That doesn't mean a completely fresh system couldn't be introduced.

Mate this sounds spot on. I'll have to be guided by others though as I have no clue about crafting at all. This was my attempt to understand their mentality a bit:

http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/24484 ... tions.html

[Fatalist]

can you toy with the economy with custom events (GM led) like for example to explain-

'evil faction x' have blocked many supply routes to britannia, and there is no longer a supply of mandrake ROOT available from NPC vendors.

Perhaps over the course of a week/2 weeks etc you could have various PvM events to fight off this group and restore supply or whatever, but the timelines were never declared.

[Calix]

Yeah mate easy. Stuff linked into Ultima Lore/History would tick boxes for a lot of player types.

[Nixon]

Improve the useless skills, i.e. Cooking offering various bonuses - could be tied into PvE/crafting in some way rather than potentially unbalancing PvP? Forensic actually having a use, maybe linked in some way with rare collecting?

[KoKane]

Make a use for +5 scrolls~~~~~
In fact - going to +20 should require the use of +5, +10 and +15 beforehand 100%

Hey, I had that idea on Defiance and they never did it (basically because the shard had been around too long for it to work past hurting new players)

Those ideas are exactly the ones you need to get sorted before any launch day. Some things that just wont work too far down the road and need to be in on day one.

Some great ideas in this thread and a definite +1 for just 2 accounts 1 char per. Strong enforcing of it . That alone adds a little buff to crafters and even thieves. Those skills can be a BUSINESS again.
At this point you might want to consider more ideas on the Staff side of the shard, making it easier for yourselves running the place too.

Definitely think more about making it so you must eat a +5 before a +10 and a +10 before a +15 etc. Thats a massive consumption rate for scrolls and the +5's only came from minions didnt they? not the actual champ.
One thing though... Animal Lore scrolls, etc. Definitely want to address the scrap scrolls people build up. It becomes silly.

Hey how about tieing in some kind of incentives on being blue with getting hte +5's? They are just as important as a +20. Every scroll will be just as important because each one is a step toward the finish. So perhaps you can do things to each step that tie in with other skills or even virtues?
I dont know what. Literally just typing what comes into my head.

[Fatalist]

Some great ideas in this thread and a definite +1 for just 2 accounts 1 char per. Strong enforcing of it . That alone adds a little buff to crafters and even thieves. Those skills can be a BUSINESS again.

I think that's the idea, any character choice is a 'career investment' and ensures people will play those chars to their full potential, creating dedicated crafters, thieves, fishermen, thunters etc, rather than 'chars I need to make aswell'. If we can get that working then the society and economy will be much more organic.

At this point you might want to consider more ideas on the Staff side of the shard, making it easier for yourselves running the place too.

Anyone is welcome to help as mentioned. We'd be looking for people to act as event co-ordinators, support, newbie guides etc (who knows, we may be able to attract first timers if we make it an all-inclusive mmo, albeit oldstyle, rather than just a version of UO. at least that's my vision anyway, that we get people to leave crappy free mmo's and come discover the magic of UO).

Something that is definitely important to all of us is that the management of the shard is transparent, because I-C all love UO too much to not play this shard, and cries of corruption would kill both us and the experience for others. It means too much to us to fuck up. With this in mind we would absolutely welcome other players to act as GMs, we would need to have absolute 100% faith that they would behave accordingly and in the best interests of the shard, and these people are only found over time as trust is developed. I'd like to include the community (when we get one) as much as possible so everyone feels like they have input in the development and society, much like a tight knit mmo community should be.

Definitely think more about making it so you must eat a +5 before a +10 and a +10 before a +15 etc. Thats a massive consumption rate for scrolls and the +5's only came from minions didnt they? not the actual champ.
One thing though... Animal Lore scrolls, etc. Definitely want to address the scrap scrolls people build up. It becomes silly.

Yeah I think you're right that you could get +5s only from killing spawn.

Just thinking of systems that actually put the other scrolls to good use, how many +10 evals/magery's did we all have sitting in our guild houses etc

Hey how about tieing in some kind of incentives on being blue with getting hte +5's? They are just as important as a +20. Every scroll will be just as important because each one is a step toward the finish. So perhaps you can do things to each step that tie in with other skills or even virtues?
I dont know what. Literally just typing what comes into my head.

I get the idea, sure. I'd like to see the supply of 5/10's become as much of a commodity market as +15s and 20s. Perhaps not a 'blue bonus' as such, because I still think there will be more 5s than anything else. Could be a slight tweak to increase the amount of 5s dropped in general but only a small amount, again needs testing and more thought.