YOU REALLY NEED TO STOP DOING THIS.
the main purpose of t2a is no trammel. smithing was UNPLAYABLE with the old menu system. it took 6 months to gm smithing in '99. nobody has that time today. this server is fun but you are gonna make it not fun. i have worked hard to raise skills here and you will make it unplayable.
i just dont want to start over somewhere else.
it would really be useful if you got off the stick to t2a stuff. SOME CHANGES MADE LATER WERE VERY GOOD CHANGES. thats why they changed them. the smith menu and all the others were a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT in the game. it enabled you to see information on what to smith, what your chances of success were and made it easy to make last.
i see platinum here. WHY? definately not t2a.
also, the moongates. they are UNUSEABLE and NOBODY IS USING THEM. you do realize that it ruins the economy with no moongates.
moongates were the focal point for PLAYER VENDORS. people hung out at the gates. that made thievery fun. the most important thing about them were PLAYER VENDORS. people always travelled between the gates and town, so thats where all the vendors were.
i have spent ALOT of time on this shard and have many characters building up. i really enjoy this, but you are gonna make it UNPLAYABLE.
THINK, THINK, THINK!!!
KEEP THIS SHARD PLAYABLE! make it so that everyone can enjoy UO at its best.
"it would really be useful if you got off the stick to t2a stuff. SOME CHANGES MADE LATER WERE VERY GOOD CHANGES. thats why they changed them. the smith menu and all the others were a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT in the game. it enabled you to see information on what to smith, what your chances of success were and made it easy to make last.
i see platinum here. WHY? definately not t2a."
Major contradiction right there, man.
I do, however, agree with your moongate complaint. I rarely use them because of how frustrating navigating them can be.
I do believe the public moongates need a tweak, seems cycle times are off and sometimes seems to totally skip destinations. Some things implemented later in UO are ok but most sucked. Maybe start a thread about what things you liked and didn't and maybe get dialogue going. I know Jack is not opposed from previous irc discussions to adding things that don't change game machanics. One example that had been talked about was adding a 1/100th chance at a tougher mob, instead of lich lord maybe spawn an ancient lich etc.
I'm not so much against changing certain things as that it goes against the policies that were set in place when the shard was created. Changing certain things to be 'nicer' can be a slippery slope into making a lot of changes. There's a line to be drawn on what made T2A a good era to play. I don't think the crafting menus, or the moongate were either of those reasons.
But as soon as either of those things are changed, it means the door is open to future, basic mechanic changes. Part of the mission statement would have to change.It puts me in the role of having to decide what is and isn't good for the game when users are split on issues. I'm not closed to the idea.
Platinum is not a part of T2A, nor has it ever been a part of OSI from my knowledge. It's not a later era function, it's a tried and true mechanic of RunUO customization that helps with shard longevity. Which is why it was included, and it says right on our front page that we include such things.
Since we're on the subject...
Here are things I would like to see changed as it just improves upon the quality of the game.
1) Crafting menus - I agree the newer crafting menus are the way to go. There is a lot to them that helps make the game playable in this day. Let's face it, no one who plays UO is 13 years old anymore who has all day and all summer to spent the time doing those monotonous tasks that have been steamlined with the new menu.
2) Moongates - I don't see any good reason to not be able to pick your town destination with moongates. This is purely one of those ease of playing that will keep people on the server. I don't even use moongates because they are a pain in the ass.
3) Cutting bandages - I don't see what the point of cutting 1 bandage at a time is other than making me have to leave characters macroing on the server (and bogging down your resources) to cut bandages. It's a huge waste of time imo.
Jack, it's your server. You do what you want. But there are a few things I think we can agree that are not game-changing which will keep people playing here. You got to figure your player base probably works 40+ hours a week and is not looking to grind out tasks in a game for their R&R. I love the t2a age and I hope it stays mostly to true to the era, but let's make it not a miserable experience
Roma / Loxley
the slope is not that slippery if you stick to game mechanic improvements. the slippery slope is in content. new ages, new mobs, bods. stuff like that leave out.
but the changes that made the game playable, those are important. one click on a pile of cloth for bandages is a game playable improvement. i can see your point on running from pvp to the gates, but the larger issue in gates is the flow of traffic to and from town. NOBODY, NOBODY, NOBODY uses these old gates. we never used them back in the day either. selectable gates started the vendor concentrations. now gates i can live with if you are adamant, but the crafting menus and ease of use changes are very important.
give us the flavor of t2a WITHOUT the pain of t2a. that will grow a server base.
I have to definitely agree with all the issues raised so far. I will throw in my voice on that topic. Things like crafting menus, moongates, bandages are all obvious things that were changed for a reason, and should absolutely be 'modernized' on this server even if it's not exactly era accurate.
There are certainly other changes that could be discussed that while not era accurate would also be a change for the better without taking away from the feel of the era.
Quote:"But as soon as either of those things are changed, it means the door is open to future, basic mechanic changes. Part of the mission statement would have to change.It puts me in the role of having to decide what is and isn't good for the game when users are split on issues. I'm not closed to the idea."
I am totally fine with this happening. I like the age and the server for the most part, but you can be true to the age while still including quality of life changes that were added later.
As far as i've seen, you are very involved with your community, which is nice, and so I see no issue with you deciding what is and isn't good for the game if users are split on an issue. But I don't see a lot of people sticking around if the issues have no chance of being brought up or changed in the first place.
With regards to crafting, I think I will finish what has been started, if only because this is something I have been looking forward to coding for a while, and I have no doubt there will be players who start here who appreciate the old style menus for the nostalgia factor (I know as a player, I personally would). However, I will not patch it in without giving the player the option to select both types of menus, the old and the new, since the feedback has overwhelmingly been that people prefer the new UO:R menus for the information provided on them and ease of use.
If moongates are to change, they would have full combat restrictions for PvP. If you are aggressed or are an aggressor, they would not be usable until the combat flags have worn off.
Choices are good and I'll pick old style since you did all the work but please no moongate restrictions just double check on cycle times, if that was boosted up it wouldn't be so bad.
please change smith back to the new menus.
i applaud your decision to give us the choice of menus.
i also totally agree on the pvp aspect of the gates. aggressors cannot have access to gates. that works big time. with that you can make the gates selectable and with the crafting menu options you will have a NEAR PERFECT SERVER. yay!