What makes you play a shard?

[hcker2000]

What makes you play a shard?

I want to know why most people play ultima online and what they look for in a server when they want to play.

For me I look for custom items, ores, and woods, new weapons, colored mounts, custom dye tubs, new colors, events, amount of players, new monsters, some story line.

I ask this because it seems most people are only interested in one thing and that is pvp. pvp is fine but I don't always want to be out killing other players. Quest and events can be very fun.

Well have at it and let me know what you as players like.

 

[Jarrod]

the client.....

Im looking for real effort put into a shard, as well as having staff with an open mind and experience that take players requests into consideration and have open debates about the pros and cons.

I look for nice colors, no blinding or brain-damaged colors though, advanced crafting, a balanced economy, balanced PvP, balanced PvM and so on.


.... oh wait... thats my job

I guess Im looking for my shard then

 

[Kheldar]

personally when i go to a shard i look at the customs, whether the staff takes an interest in players, and originality i mean ive been to some shard where its the exact same as another each shard should have sumthin unique to them even if its just a collection of customs. Also i look at the players i left some shards because vet players seemed like they didnt want any newbs. This is just my opinion though im wierd so lol.

 

[Johabius]

The quality over quantity of the core playerbase is what I look at when I look for a new shard to play on. I'd rather play with a small but nice playerbase than a large group of a**holes. I usually lurk around for a couple hours on a new shard just seeing how the current players treat each other, and treat new players. Then if it feels like a place that I fit in, I stick around and join the fun.

 

[Irian]

First of all I just search for "100% Roleplay"-Shards... New features are nice, I like altered magical systems (instead of shards which just redistribute the OSI spells). As long as there are no "Drows" and "Vampires", it's ok
Then I also have a good look at the players, in the game, the forums and the IRC channel.

PvP is ok, but not important, as long as it's not RPK. New ores, etc. are absolutely not important for me and as long as there are no neon colors or people running around in true black, it's ok to have new features.

When I'm longer at a shard, the staff becomes more and more important, but you normaly can't evaluate a staff in a short time.

 

[turtle]

Hmm, personally i like plain jane osi'ish shards,with nice,not over friendly "wanna be your buddy " staff.Thats All

 

[Jarrod]

First of all I just search for "100% Roleplay"-Shards...

When i joined my first freeshard, I looked for that as well. It was the first, and last one I will ever play.

I got banned for hiding in the woods.

*you hide*
then I ran around through the trees a bit and hid again
a dev popped up
dev: "what are you doing?"
me: "hiding"
dev: "why?"
me: "to improve my skill in hiding";
dev: "you arent allowed to use skill unless you need it";
me: "I DO need it. I need to practice using it so that when a monster attacks me, I dont fail at hiding."
dev: "you still arent allowed to use it when a monster isnt attacking you, its illegal"
me: "so you are saying that i have to wait until a monster attacks me, then with my 0 hiding attempt to hide?? isnt that a bit suicidal?"
*you have been disconnected*
*your account seems to have been blocked. please contact blah blah blah*

 

[Rabban]

The three top things I look for are balance (players aren't overly powerful which makes killing monsters boring, and it's not too easy to get large quantities of gold, or skill quickly), quests/events (at least one a week), and I can't seem to remember my third thing...

 

[Irian]

Finding the shard which has the same "Style" as you like, is the most important thing. Some shards don't like pg-ing skills, etc. others don't mind. Every player can find THE perfect shard for himself. There is more than one style of "roleplaying" out there...

 

[godhand]

when I look for a shard I look for a story line (with UO based characters as the focal point, but alas I have never found any, not even OSI which is why I quit) the other reason I look for a shard is the communtiy if the people are jerks why would I wanna play there. I will play uber shards as long as the monsters are made harder as well and there must be plenty to do.

 

[Kamron]

Nothing makes me want to play... I have joined hundreds of shards in my days and ALL of them are crap. I will explain a few things which makes them horrible.

Lack of Uptime (CRASHES OR DISCONNECTIONS!!)
Lack/Overload of versatility/complexity in features
Lack of working components (BUGS!)
Lack/Overload of spontaneous events (raids, tournies)
Lack of staffing
Lack/Overload of decorations
Lack of feature completion
Staff corruption (this is a big one)
Imbalancing of components added
Lack of theme with components added (WTF is an ATM machine doing in medieval times and wouldn't this imbalance your shard?)
Lack of knowledge of the administrators
Lack of scripters
Requirement to pay for key game features (You must pay $5 to place a house, and $3 for a boat. WTF? NO!)

and about 99% of all shards suffer from one or more of these problems.

 

[Serp]

I will play any shard XxSP1DERxX plays.

 

[siran]

I will play any shard XxSP1DERxX plays.

He nailed it didn't he?

I pretty much agree and it's why I shut my shard down a few months ago....I was disgusted myself with not having it the way I wanted it. So now though it's still months away I'm working to get it right before I reopen.

 

[Quinox]

• Character Development difficulty - I can not take any pride in my character when he's a 7x GM in only a month. There is no difficulty in so many of these servers. Really, the purpose should be to play the game to build your character, not build your character to play the game.
• Economy - These days everyone has hundreds of thousands to millions of gold. You can buy virtually anything. If you can have anything, then nothing has value.
• Balance - A good server is a fair server, and fairness centers on balance. The economy should be balanced. The skills should be balanced. Everything has a balance.
• Story - A good server is a server that has really incorporated a virtual world. And any good virtual world has a good story behind it. The richer the story, the more I will want to get involved.
• Quests and Events - A story can not be left to the players to support. The server's staff must take a role in developing and progressing stories through quests and events.
• Player interaction - Community is a strong piece of a successful server, and there simply is no community if its members don't interact with eachother. Find ways to bring people together.
• Gameplay style - Everyone has their own style, and finding the one that is right for you may be the most important aspect. I personally prefer Role Playing.
• Originality - This is a key factor. A server's originality is what will set it apart from all the rest. It can be new items or new spells, or just a new way of doing something. I've already played UO. I've played UO for about 10 years. I want to see something a little different. I want to see someone put there imagination to work. Just because you use the UO client, it doesn't mean it has to be the same game. Creativity can bring you server to a whole new level.

 

[hcker2000]

The idea I'v been toying with for over 3 years and am trying to decide if I should proceed with it.

The first major thing that is different is that 99% of the time staff will not be needed.

I will give an example of some thing most servers have staff for.

Say player A dose some thing illegal (as outlined by the rules). Now usualy some one tells a gm and they just go ahead and jail player A.

Ok first of thats boring 2nd off I'm not sure any culture has ever had a system like that.

The way it would be handled if I were to do it would be.

Player A dose some thing illegal. Some player see's and lets a gm know (by page). That gm then gose to player A and informs him that he has been accused of doing some thing illegal. The gm and player A set up a cort date. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. In the end players will listen to the case and vote.

To me this seems like some thing that could be cool for a shard to do together.

The other thing I hate is when shards make it so easy to travel the world. If you want to travel with ease use recall runes.

I'v already got most things I want to do implemented (even one thing people said couldent be done). The court system I just thought of not long ago so I'v not atempted it just yet.

 

[Kiwi]

1. No Trammel
2. No neon hues of any kind.
3. Encourages roleplaying but does not enforce it.
4. MATURE STAFF. I have absolutely no problem with players cursing or saying crude things (even I say such things), but for some reason it really bugs me when staff members do it in public such as over IRC or a broadcast message. Completely unprofessional IMO, even for a free shard.
5. Actually cares about being a game in the Ultima series and understands the purpose of UO in the first place. (<--- big one)

 

[Kimag]

I look for servers that hark back to pre 1999 OSI shards, at the LEAST pre Trammel.

 

[Arcanus]

Realism. Roleplay. Realism.


As real as is permited in fantacy anyways

 

[Greystar]

What I enjoy varies really, but I enjoy roleplay even though im not very good, atleast in an MMO setting.

I love crafting so a well balanced and improved Craft system.

New (or old) areas (with a twist) to explore.

Quests (gotta have em since im not a PVPr)

Unique and well balanced Items (non of the Ubber crap)

Friendly Staff, who also have set rules (no freebies, no help beyond what would normally be required), AND follow them.

Friendly atmosphere, no greifing, etc...

No Neon's is important to me as well, unless there is only one, which would fit the Ultima story anyway (the crystal sword)

 

[shrundowr]

The idea I'v been toying with for over 3 years and am trying to decide if I should proceed with it.

The first major thing that is different is that 99% of the time staff will not be needed.

I will give an example of some thing most servers have staff for.

Say player A dose some thing illegal (as outlined by the rules). Now usualy some one tells a gm and they just go ahead and jail player A.

Ok first of thats boring 2nd off I'm not sure any culture has ever had a system like that.

The way it would be handled if I were to do it would be.

Player A dose some thing illegal. Some player see's and lets a gm know (by page). That gm then gose to player A and informs him that he has been accused of doing some thing illegal. The gm and player A set up a cort date. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. In the end players will listen to the case and vote.
To me this seems like some thing that could be cool for a shard to do together.
The court system I just thought of not long ago so I'v not atempted it just yet.

i personally would love this. nujelm has a courthouse with a guillotine nearby would be perfect for this....is there an animation for the guillotine? if so that could also be realistic to medieval times...ppl used to watch and cheer as people got beheaded...although that may be too morbid for younger players..
also if the person loses in "court" you can put a flag next to their name like {scam} if he scammed somebody so people will know not to trust him or whatever in the future and also add a tag to the account if you catch him macroing unattended, so that gms can check on him her from time to time and make sure hes not UMing.
of course you can do this all manually ingame but if it were automated it would be so much easier. and also if there arent any staff on (i know this was someone elses pet peeve when picking a shard eeep) are if they were busy...should give them a form to fill out to help weed out stupi players saying stuff like "he killed me too fast, he must be hacking!" or a newbie: "that guy told me yew gate had a nude beach!" etc.

also my rant on shards: all those damn colors! weird strange modifications references to real life (once played a shard that had a store called "wal-mart" Really!) and shards who have totally gone overboard with custom stuffs
oh yeah and banksitting; if your gonna use uo to chat do it in a place that ppl dont goto often...first off people around you who dont know you dont want to hear who your married to, who your fucking on the side, and how old your kids are. second off, on a shard with every facet using fel ruleset (like mine will) if theres 30 people in front of the bank you are not gonna cut thru them easily unless you have Infinite stamina. not to mention most of them are either afk or selling stuff noone wants
wow....my anger just flowed for a minute there