Note: This turned out longer than I expected. I’m dictating so it’s easy to just talk and have it transcribed. It’s just feedback, I expect no reply. Admins can read it any time they choose to, so it doesn't matter how long it is. Doesn’t hurt to give extra feedback.
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This is for the admins, sort of an exit interview, if they wish to read it… or not. I likely will not come back to read or debate – I just wanted to leave some impressions for a team that obviously cares, and puts a lot of time into making this right.
As a new player, and a returning player, I keep getting pushed away from this shard. I keep seeing posts about bringing new players in; I saw on discord a post about sniping people’s streams and how that affects new players wanting to play here etc… so I know that the admins want to bring in new players – they seem to care about that. But damn, they make it difficult for new players to get started. Hands down, this is the most amazing, most advanced UO shard I’ve ever played, and also hands down the most anti-social server I’ve played. Here is what I mean.
I’m not a kid any more. I’m 48 years old. I was a kid when UO came out and I played it out of my college dorm room. I closed beta tested UO, and then became a counselor. I played, and PvPed, quite a bit on Pacific, while I counseled on Oceania first, later on Atlantic and Great Lakes, until our queue went completely cross shard. I ended up an SLC before I quit and deployed overseas for a few years, and could not dial in from overseas.
I’m saying this to show I’m not a complete newb to UO, I have extensive experience not only with the players we had, but also with the way things work in the background, how decisions are made and so on.
I have never seen a more anti-social setup than as it is here, where bad behavior is rewarded the way it is here. I understand I can go kill in a Sanctuary dungeon until I get set up and can make enough to replace what I lose. But with crafting, I am finding it nearly impossible to get started. I go out mining, I get killed by reds, I go out lumberjacking, I get ganked. I move my lumberjacking spot, ganked again. I get followed around and have my boards stolen while lumberjacking, and then reds show up as backup. So it's coordinated. People are killing new players on this server for a few hundred boards. At one time I had a couple thousand boards, but that’s still only a quarter of my pack weight. I can’t even keep that. A quarter of my pack.
Every time I go back to zero. I’ve lost hours of my time harvesting as a newb, and my carpentry and blacksmithing are still at 50 because it’s so much easier and more profitable to kill new players than to do the work yourself. Those people that stole my thousands, or tens of thousands in gold in harvesting materials, may only pay 2,000 gold IF they step out of their house as a red and get killed. It is easier for a red to just wait and listen to the chopping noises, then log into their house, just appear out of nowhere, and take the few hundred boards, than to actually come out and log.
And I know about tracking, I know about paying attention nonstop, being vigilant… trust me I know. But I have a family. I have a disabled dog that may need me to jump out of the chair and help him. If my kids or my wife need me, I may need to look away from the screen for 15 to 20 seconds to see what they need. And in those 15 to 20 seconds, I am finding there is such an overwhelming overabundance of antisocial people on this server, I’m just too old to keep starting from scratch every few hours because of them.
This server would be so amazing if you could put in real penalties for murder and crappy, antisocial behavior. I know we had it right on OSI, because we had reds, and it was fun, but it was not as widespread as this. Newbs could get started and level their crafts. You could harvest or mine for hours without seeing a red. With no tracking mechanics even needed. At least get started with some entry level materials, like plain non-colored boards. As it is right now, you have the greatest UO server that I’ve ever seen, that is just not very friendly to new players wanting to start up, because it lets bad people do anything they want, with nearly zero punishment. In fact, I’m surprised that I don’t see absolutely everyone ganking everyone, since it’s set up that way. That tells me that there are some good people here, but the bad element was allowed to proliferate to the point where I’m just not nearly having the experience I long for, or the fun I remember.
I’m repeating myself as I’m dictating all of this and it’s easy to talk. I truly think this is the greatest UO shard I’ve played since OSI all those decades ago. There is so much amazing work here. But, at least for me, it all falls apart due to the simple fact that it’s also the most anti-social server I’ve been on. Asking to join a guild has resulted in zero communication on this from anyone over the last two weeks. I haven’t randomly run into any community events, player organized taverns or hunts, nothing… seen no Seers or Counselors. I’ve just been able to play by myself, and I was killed for no reason a few times. They don’t even benefit from killing me, I don’t think, I’m not carrying that much – it’s just the culture of the shard. People don’t help each other out here; they just kill each other.
Kill, kill, kill – because there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing that. 2000 gold? I can pay that and I have nearly nothing. Most of my crafting skills are at 50, and I can’t get enough mats to train them up, but I can pay 2000 to kill someone.
Anyone can.
I have never seen antisocial behavior in this game to the degree it is on this shard. Sure, there were reds on OSI servers. I’ve spent countless hours chatting with them, taking their calls, just interacting. But the sheer number of such people here, and the seemingly complete lack of real control around such behavior makes this very unpleasant. If I log out night after night with nothing to show for my time, because someone really wanted my 1000 boards -- or my ore, or to kill my pack animals… just not worth my time.
But it is worth their time, because they are established, and it costs them 2000 gold to kill me for my 1000 boards. And because the inflation is so bad and the prices are not realistic and are hyperinflated, those 1000 boards may cost 20,000 gold. Newb materials that newbs need to get started cost way more than the newbs can afford to replace, getting killed over and over for them.
They get 10 times more income from killing a newb who spent a couple of hours lumberjacking than they could ever pay as a penalty.
I don’t know how you fix that. Too much money on the server with no real punishment. I am not here to make suggestions about a server I know little about. I do know you have the most technically, and cosmetically, advanced shard I’ve ever seen, that concurrently has the worst underlying social systems I’ve seen. I’m pushed away again. This is my second attempt on the server, years apart.
When it’s hard to find people to play with, hard to find a guild, and everyone is incentivized to just go after each other all the time… it’s just too hard to get started. Like I said, I’m almost 50 now and I have a family, I can’t lose a couple hours every day and start fresh the next day, simply because everyone and their dog has a red, because that’s the spirit of the shard. That’s just a waste of my time I could be spending with my family, or at least, playing a game that is more friendly and has a stronger community, and is more helpful to the new arrivals.
Taking a break again, hope to come back and see a more friendly environment when I do. It would be so nice to be able to get a few hours in and go to bed feeling I’ve made some progress, and can continue tomorrow. If I’m not safe, even as a newb just starting up characters, and I can’t even lumber right outside a town like Terran, close to the town gates, because the reds don’t let you, where the heck can I go? Stay on shelter and lumber there? Sorry, that’s no fun.
Hope you appreciate the feedback, as I’ve appreciated the chance to explore the shard. I was just about to start building my own rune library, make my own Witcher set on another toon (book by book as I can manage), and explore all you’ve built; I was really looking forward to it and was in the beginning stages of that. There is so much to see here. I just don’t feel safe my time won’t be wasted over and over and over by people who just want to do it cause it’s fun for them, or they make their money on killing new players. It seems that's a coordinated effort here. And time is really the most important thing to me. I’m not mad at getting killed, this is UO! I’m disappointed it’s set up so it happens over and over because it’s just better that way. I can’t recover all the time lost, and it’s just not getting any better with each day.
Thanks and best of luck!
_______________
This is for the admins, sort of an exit interview, if they wish to read it… or not. I likely will not come back to read or debate – I just wanted to leave some impressions for a team that obviously cares, and puts a lot of time into making this right.
As a new player, and a returning player, I keep getting pushed away from this shard. I keep seeing posts about bringing new players in; I saw on discord a post about sniping people’s streams and how that affects new players wanting to play here etc… so I know that the admins want to bring in new players – they seem to care about that. But damn, they make it difficult for new players to get started. Hands down, this is the most amazing, most advanced UO shard I’ve ever played, and also hands down the most anti-social server I’ve played. Here is what I mean.
I’m not a kid any more. I’m 48 years old. I was a kid when UO came out and I played it out of my college dorm room. I closed beta tested UO, and then became a counselor. I played, and PvPed, quite a bit on Pacific, while I counseled on Oceania first, later on Atlantic and Great Lakes, until our queue went completely cross shard. I ended up an SLC before I quit and deployed overseas for a few years, and could not dial in from overseas.
I’m saying this to show I’m not a complete newb to UO, I have extensive experience not only with the players we had, but also with the way things work in the background, how decisions are made and so on.
I have never seen a more anti-social setup than as it is here, where bad behavior is rewarded the way it is here. I understand I can go kill in a Sanctuary dungeon until I get set up and can make enough to replace what I lose. But with crafting, I am finding it nearly impossible to get started. I go out mining, I get killed by reds, I go out lumberjacking, I get ganked. I move my lumberjacking spot, ganked again. I get followed around and have my boards stolen while lumberjacking, and then reds show up as backup. So it's coordinated. People are killing new players on this server for a few hundred boards. At one time I had a couple thousand boards, but that’s still only a quarter of my pack weight. I can’t even keep that. A quarter of my pack.
Every time I go back to zero. I’ve lost hours of my time harvesting as a newb, and my carpentry and blacksmithing are still at 50 because it’s so much easier and more profitable to kill new players than to do the work yourself. Those people that stole my thousands, or tens of thousands in gold in harvesting materials, may only pay 2,000 gold IF they step out of their house as a red and get killed. It is easier for a red to just wait and listen to the chopping noises, then log into their house, just appear out of nowhere, and take the few hundred boards, than to actually come out and log.
And I know about tracking, I know about paying attention nonstop, being vigilant… trust me I know. But I have a family. I have a disabled dog that may need me to jump out of the chair and help him. If my kids or my wife need me, I may need to look away from the screen for 15 to 20 seconds to see what they need. And in those 15 to 20 seconds, I am finding there is such an overwhelming overabundance of antisocial people on this server, I’m just too old to keep starting from scratch every few hours because of them.
This server would be so amazing if you could put in real penalties for murder and crappy, antisocial behavior. I know we had it right on OSI, because we had reds, and it was fun, but it was not as widespread as this. Newbs could get started and level their crafts. You could harvest or mine for hours without seeing a red. With no tracking mechanics even needed. At least get started with some entry level materials, like plain non-colored boards. As it is right now, you have the greatest UO server that I’ve ever seen, that is just not very friendly to new players wanting to start up, because it lets bad people do anything they want, with nearly zero punishment. In fact, I’m surprised that I don’t see absolutely everyone ganking everyone, since it’s set up that way. That tells me that there are some good people here, but the bad element was allowed to proliferate to the point where I’m just not nearly having the experience I long for, or the fun I remember.
I’m repeating myself as I’m dictating all of this and it’s easy to talk. I truly think this is the greatest UO shard I’ve played since OSI all those decades ago. There is so much amazing work here. But, at least for me, it all falls apart due to the simple fact that it’s also the most anti-social server I’ve been on. Asking to join a guild has resulted in zero communication on this from anyone over the last two weeks. I haven’t randomly run into any community events, player organized taverns or hunts, nothing… seen no Seers or Counselors. I’ve just been able to play by myself, and I was killed for no reason a few times. They don’t even benefit from killing me, I don’t think, I’m not carrying that much – it’s just the culture of the shard. People don’t help each other out here; they just kill each other.
Kill, kill, kill – because there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing that. 2000 gold? I can pay that and I have nearly nothing. Most of my crafting skills are at 50, and I can’t get enough mats to train them up, but I can pay 2000 to kill someone.
Anyone can.
I have never seen antisocial behavior in this game to the degree it is on this shard. Sure, there were reds on OSI servers. I’ve spent countless hours chatting with them, taking their calls, just interacting. But the sheer number of such people here, and the seemingly complete lack of real control around such behavior makes this very unpleasant. If I log out night after night with nothing to show for my time, because someone really wanted my 1000 boards -- or my ore, or to kill my pack animals… just not worth my time.
But it is worth their time, because they are established, and it costs them 2000 gold to kill me for my 1000 boards. And because the inflation is so bad and the prices are not realistic and are hyperinflated, those 1000 boards may cost 20,000 gold. Newb materials that newbs need to get started cost way more than the newbs can afford to replace, getting killed over and over for them.
They get 10 times more income from killing a newb who spent a couple of hours lumberjacking than they could ever pay as a penalty.
I don’t know how you fix that. Too much money on the server with no real punishment. I am not here to make suggestions about a server I know little about. I do know you have the most technically, and cosmetically, advanced shard I’ve ever seen, that concurrently has the worst underlying social systems I’ve seen. I’m pushed away again. This is my second attempt on the server, years apart.
When it’s hard to find people to play with, hard to find a guild, and everyone is incentivized to just go after each other all the time… it’s just too hard to get started. Like I said, I’m almost 50 now and I have a family, I can’t lose a couple hours every day and start fresh the next day, simply because everyone and their dog has a red, because that’s the spirit of the shard. That’s just a waste of my time I could be spending with my family, or at least, playing a game that is more friendly and has a stronger community, and is more helpful to the new arrivals.
Taking a break again, hope to come back and see a more friendly environment when I do. It would be so nice to be able to get a few hours in and go to bed feeling I’ve made some progress, and can continue tomorrow. If I’m not safe, even as a newb just starting up characters, and I can’t even lumber right outside a town like Terran, close to the town gates, because the reds don’t let you, where the heck can I go? Stay on shelter and lumber there? Sorry, that’s no fun.
Hope you appreciate the feedback, as I’ve appreciated the chance to explore the shard. I was just about to start building my own rune library, make my own Witcher set on another toon (book by book as I can manage), and explore all you’ve built; I was really looking forward to it and was in the beginning stages of that. There is so much to see here. I just don’t feel safe my time won’t be wasted over and over and over by people who just want to do it cause it’s fun for them, or they make their money on killing new players. It seems that's a coordinated effort here. And time is really the most important thing to me. I’m not mad at getting killed, this is UO! I’m disappointed it’s set up so it happens over and over because it’s just better that way. I can’t recover all the time lost, and it’s just not getting any better with each day.
Thanks and best of luck!
