PATCH Patch Notes for December 16, 2021

[WildStalin]

Sorry for the tone of my message. But that's not true. 1 pvm pet and all ranged pvp pets. But the problem is not even in this, but in the trend. when was the last time tamers received a buff? (the answer is never) only nerfs. rebalance and bestiary - just forced players to pump unnecessary pets for months to return to the previous level of strength. it's not a buff. All templates sometimes get buffs, except tamers. I am sure that soon the tamers will be nerfed again, and again. pvp pets will be turned off altogether. there is no hope for a bright future.

Nerf Command aspect
Nerf by turn off "all guard" command in pvp.
Nerf by adding max range for control pets.
Nerf smoke dragons/drakes in pvp.
Nerf Phoenix and Prowler
Nerf by merged hamstring/hinder in pvp.
Nerf abilities of other pets in pvp (clinch etc).
Nerf by adding dmg cap of pets in pvp.
Nerf dmg of all range and caster pets in pvp.

I can't see any buff. Only nerfs. it is it's demoralizing

Thank you for taking the time to clarify -- I am sorry I snapped at you. To me, tamers set the gold standard for how many things they can do on a high level. There are so many builds and directions to explore, and in almost no case are you severely underpowered or neglected or hamstrung by annoying, outdated mechanics. Its a great skillset to set the bar to. And to me, it seems pretty clear that to a very large degree that is the intention of things. All of the things you listed happened, but to me at least the word 'nerf' is more pointed than say, balanced. Because ultimately, the goal is to achieve balance, not to directly blunt things that people find enjoyable just because it brings the staff joy to diminish others, or whatever. In an awesomely unforgiving game like UO, but maybe all mmorpgs, often one builds success comes at another persons perceived detriment. If something is to good, the issue is not the goodness persay, its that it makes other people, new players and peers alike, feel like what they are doing is worth less, or that they have less choices because some alternative is just so clearly better. So ultimately, in the framework that seeks to maximize enjoyment for as many people as possible, for the shard (and the staff managing it) to be as healthy and long-lived as possible things like this are just part of the landscape. and inevitable. Believe me, as a necro that can hear the distant clamour of pitchforks, I know that it sucks to have something you enjoy lessened, so I think we all have to remind ourselves of this from time to time, or at least I do. Have a good day!

Oh yea, and I should also add that I personally do not think that taming is as overpowered as people think. I dont think that they are going to be radically blunted from here. For all the reasons that you and other tamers have pointed out. I do have some issues with command book working on summons but that is my own bone to pick. A lot of the tamer hatred and complaining is in fact overblown, from the data I have seen. But thats just the nature of the internet, and being, as someone else said, essentially the top dog.

 

[Basia]

I am sure that soon the tamers will be nerfed again, and again. pvp pets will be turned off altogether.

Guaranteed.

We can never escape the cycle because dexxers are coddled here, and every buff they get just makes them feel entitled to ask for more -- which they usually get, so then they feel more entitled, and then they demand more, etc. Until we see increasingly absurd requests like for bard buffs in pvp.

Meanwhile, tamers are so demoralized by years of constant nerfs that most don't bother to speak up or fight back at all. Because it's clearly futile.

Some choose to soldier on, playing the characters they've invested so much time and money in, using what few pets the nerfs have left viable. But their mere existence is seen as proof that tamers are still "dominant," and if they all use the same pets because most aren't worth using? That's seen as proof that those pets are "OP" and the "meta," and they're soon nerfed.

Some tamers switch to summoners or necros: the ersatz tamer builds. So then the pet classes are a house divided against itself. As one friend put it: "I think the problem we have as a mage community is that we don’t advocate for each other. Like the tamers and the summoners are both pissed that they’re getting nerfed, but they’re also pointlessly arguing with each other about who has been more abused by Outlands staff."

Many just quietly quit. But there's always new players joining, and what character do new players usually make? A dexxer. Because it's safe, easy, fast, cheap, and strong.

So the dexxer lobby grows. They seize control of all the public feedback channels, turning #test-shard and #pvm and #suggestions and all forum threads into their personal playground, being rude and condescending to anyone daring to challenge their false narratives. Until they shut down all dissent. Many are given Companion status which further increases their power. And yet, somehow, they still see themselves as the real victims here.

From a sociological perspective it's been fascinating to observe these dynamics over the past three years. I did what I could to fight it, but now even I am playing a necro. Because it's clear that Operation: Death By A Thousand Cuts won't stop until the tamer class is eradicated.

 

[Owyn]

Guaranteed.

We can never escape the cycle because dexxers are coddled here, and every buff they get just makes them feel entitled to ask for more -- which they usually get, so then they feel more entitled, and then they demand more, etc. Until we see increasingly absurd requests like for bard buffs in pvp.

Meanwhile, tamers are so demoralized by years of constant nerfs that most don't bother to speak up or fight back at all. Because it's clearly futile.

Some choose to soldier on, playing the characters they've invested so much time and money in, using what few pets the nerfs have left viable. But their mere existence is seen as proof that tamers are still "dominant," and if they all use the same pets because most aren't worth using? That's seen as proof that those pets are "OP" and the "meta," and they're soon nerfed.

Some tamers switch to summoners or necros: the ersatz tamer builds. So then the pet classes are a house divided against itself. As one friend put it: "I think the problem we have as a mage community is that we don’t advocate for each other. Like the tamers and the summoners are both pissed that they’re getting nerfed, but they’re also pointlessly arguing with each other about who has been more abused by Outlands staff."

Many just quietly quit. But there's always new players joining, and what character do new players usually make? A dexxer. Because it's safe, easy, fast, cheap, and strong.

So the dexxer lobby grows. They seize control of all the public feedback channels, turning #test-shard and #pvm and #suggestions and all forum threads into their personal playground, being rude and condescending to anyone daring to challenge their false narratives. Until they shut down all dissent. Many are given Companion status which further increases their power. And yet, somehow, they still see themselves as the real victims here.

From a sociological perspective it's been fascinating to observe these dynamics over the past three years. I did what I could to fight it, but now even I am playing a necro. Because it's clear that Operation: Death By A Thousand Cuts won't stop until the tamer class is eradicated.

 

[clx]

Guaranteed.

We can never escape the cycle because dexxers are coddled here, and every buff they get just makes them feel entitled to ask for more -- which they usually get, so then they feel more entitled, and then they demand more, etc. Until we see increasingly absurd requests like for bard buffs in pvp.

Meanwhile, tamers are so demoralized by years of constant nerfs that most don't bother to speak up or fight back at all. Because it's clearly futile.

Some choose to soldier on, playing the characters they've invested so much time and money in, using what few pets the nerfs have left viable. But their mere existence is seen as proof that tamers are still "dominant," and if they all use the same pets because most aren't worth using? That's seen as proof that those pets are "OP" and the "meta," and they're soon nerfed.

Some tamers switch to summoners or necros: the ersatz tamer builds. So then the pet classes are a house divided against itself. As one friend put it: "I think the problem we have as a mage community is that we don’t advocate for each other. Like the tamers and the summoners are both pissed that they’re getting nerfed, but they’re also pointlessly arguing with each other about who has been more abused by Outlands staff."

Many just quietly quit. But there's always new players joining, and what character do new players usually make? A dexxer. Because it's safe, easy, fast, cheap, and strong.

So the dexxer lobby grows. They seize control of all the public feedback channels, turning #test-shard and #pvm and #suggestions and all forum threads into their personal playground, being rude and condescending to anyone daring to challenge their false narratives. Until they shut down all dissent. Many are given Companion status which further increases their power. And yet, somehow, they still see themselves as the real victims here.

From a sociological perspective it's been fascinating to observe these dynamics over the past three years. I did what I could to fight it, but now even I am playing a necro. Because it's clear that Operation: Death By A Thousand Cuts won't stop until the tamer class is eradicated.

Holy shit the levels of delusion are staggering

"Some choose to play on" - yeah 2000 of them

 

[Elric]

"Some choose to play on" - yeah 2000 of them

Stop over-inflating the numbers. We all know it is probably 1,999. I mean, because Basia is gonna quit.

 

[Falcon Wanderer 2]

I looked through the poison changes a third time and I'm still uncertain but does poison end when whatever poisoned you dies or in the case of you poisoning something does it end when you or your followers die?

 

[Laughing Skull]

View attachment 6867

@Basia

Unsure if you saw Owyn's post. Just trying to keep up the communication.

 

[Basia]

Just trying to keep up

That gif actually illustrates my point:

But their mere existence is seen as proof that tamers are still "dominant," and if they all use the same pets because most aren't worth using? That's seen as proof that those pets are "OP" and the "meta," and they're soon nerfed.

I know the size of the dragons might make it difficult for you, but if you look closely maybe you'll notice all the summoners, necros and dexxers (mostly archers, because obviously people are going to bring ranged attacks to a boss like the Gronch).

Or just stick with "zomg dragons" because it fits your agenda, I guess.

 

[Levity]

Guaranteed.

We can never escape the cycle because dexxers are coddled here, and every buff they get just makes them feel entitled to ask for more -- which they usually get, so then they feel more entitled, and then they demand more, etc. Until we see increasingly absurd requests like for bard buffs in pvp.

Meanwhile, tamers are so demoralized by years of constant nerfs that most don't bother to speak up or fight back at all. Because it's clearly futile.

Some choose to soldier on, playing the characters they've invested so much time and money in, using what few pets the nerfs have left viable. But their mere existence is seen as proof that tamers are still "dominant," and if they all use the same pets because most aren't worth using? That's seen as proof that those pets are "OP" and the "meta," and they're soon nerfed.

Some tamers switch to summoners or necros: the ersatz tamer builds. So then the pet classes are a house divided against itself. As one friend put it: "I think the problem we have as a mage community is that we don’t advocate for each other. Like the tamers and the summoners are both pissed that they’re getting nerfed, but they’re also pointlessly arguing with each other about who has been more abused by Outlands staff."

Many just quietly quit. But there's always new players joining, and what character do new players usually make? A dexxer. Because it's safe, easy, fast, cheap, and strong.

So the dexxer lobby grows. They seize control of all the public feedback channels, turning #test-shard and #pvm and #suggestions and all forum threads into their personal playground, being rude and condescending to anyone daring to challenge their false narratives. Until they shut down all dissent. Many are given Companion status which further increases their power. And yet, somehow, they still see themselves as the real victims here.

From a sociological perspective it's been fascinating to observe these dynamics over the past three years. I did what I could to fight it, but now even I am playing a necro. Because it's clear that Operation: Death By A Thousand Cuts won't stop until the tamer class is eradicated.

This post is so dramatic I find it hard to believe it's real.

Who really cares?

 

[Elric]

Who really cares?

I care dammit! If Outlands doesn't do what I want, how I want it, and when I want it then prepare to feel my online wrath as this server's population will plummet to 1,998!

 

[Basia]

Who really cares?

People invest thousands of hours of grind into this game, tens of millions in gold and often real money as well, and you can't comprehend why anyone would care if that investment is negated by nerfs?

Do you even play here?

 

[WildStalin]

People invest thousands of hours of grind into this game, tens of millions in gold and often real money as well, and you can't comprehend why anyone would care if that investment is negated by nerfs?

Do you even play here?

I didnt respond to your previous post because I considered it an almost sacred work of art. It was the outlands forum equivalent to a philip k dick novel and I enjoyed the ride. I am still operating under that presumption. So I am not speaking to you directly when I say this, but in general I think the culture here -- where the developers interact so closely with the community -- would benefit from people reminding themselves and each other that the time and resources we put into this, ostensibly for our own enjoyment, do not mean we are owed anything, and in that sense at all I would hesitate to use the word 'invest'. And I say that because from my perspective it looks like a number of people feel as though because they poured resources into something, that actually entitles them to anything at all, beyond the experience itself, or justifies lashing out.
As has been said before, I think everyone gets that it isn't pleasant to be lessened in power. But if I am going to try my own hand at a Philip K Dick forum post -- yes that was my secret purpose here -- then seeing the responses to tamers, I am inclined to believe that after so many long sips of the fine brandy of penultimate UO power, they have begin to identify with it perhaps a bit too much. And it would be much more humorous if it were just, like trying to harness some purple dragons in your yard as you took the trash out on Thursday evening, but in fact basia I submit to you, the thesis that perhaps over the months and months that turned into years, the dark green cabal is not nearly as tattered as you would have us believe. Yes in this dystopian far off future, some could argue that this cohort is actually thriving, and they are only divided insofar as they have differing opinions on how to best divide the spoils of their pillage. Shall we necro, or shall we tame? Those are the questions of the day, and both are guided by the words in the little green book. Do you deny it!?
So, like dear Frodo, and maybe even little Richard Garriot hisself, this class became so accustomed to the fineries of their circumstance, the vast tracts of land where they need only the heat from their animals to keep them warm, the untold stores of gold escorted away safely with the aid of dragons they have bent to their will, that they begin to conflate this power with their identity in the other, much less pleasant, non-avadon realm. By day the humble bin-man has to work like a dexxer moving about the city, but at night, if he tames, he can not only sooth the beasts of nusero, he can, in time, perhaps sooth the beast inside himself. And so the thought of that being taken away at all is understandably beyond words.

"I can protect you from the dangers of this world". Oh, how often we have heard those stories around the yuletide candlelight. My grandfather, a great tamer in his own right, told me that often. But as he took to drink and eventually madness in his later years, constantly in fear that the words in his Green book would be somehow taken by goblins in the night or somesuch, I couldnt help but wonder sometimes: Grandpa, what if you are the danger, that we need to protect ourselves from?

 

[Biafra]

We can never escape the cycle because dexxers are coddled here, and every buff they get just makes them feel entitled to ask for more -- which they usually get, so then they feel more entitled, and then they demand more, etc. Until we see increasingly absurd requests like for bard buffs in pvp.

Meanwhile, tamers are so demoralized by years of constant nerfs that most don't bother to speak up or fight back at all. Because it's clearly futile.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaha