What makes you play a shard?

[Ravatar]

Original Doom, Wolfenstein, duke, orignal WarCraft, all kinds of stuff we'd use the NullModem Cable for

Don't forget quake 1!

 

[Greystar]

Don't forget quake 1!

Hexen..... (think that was the name (but the Fantasy Version of Quake 1)

 

[jingz2k2]

Friendly and Fun Community. Something like 80% Normal Blues, 10% Criminals and 10% PlayerKillers.

Quests, Balanced PVP and PVM. Crafters makes the most $$. Warriors gets the most items.

Race and Class.

Fun fun fun.

 

[ayumbre]

at least me.. just want a server with less lag,, more friendly players.. balanced ( osi style.. 700 skill 225 stat... the only way ).. NO CORRUPTION ! neutral staff no PK staff... quests... events...(pvp/pvm )..

 

[Atomic]

I'm with XuriDabur on the virtual world thing, I really hate the limitations they place in the game to make it more fun for some types of players (PVPers, PVMers, you name the group, there is a shard "only for them"), a good shard must accomodate a realistic world, where diversity of playstyle is accepted.

 

[Nayfin]

Eye catching things .. ( eye candy ) lol....

umm a good level system is definatlly a +++ i think akara essex had the best level system i ever played on... however the owner deleted my account because i got to 100 to fast... but its cuz im smart..

custom Ores/Leather/Wood is a great thing i really like daats system although i think he could have added ore .. JUST an opinion daat dont take it personal.

active staffing... i hate playing shards where the staff is never on because i like events and quests .. plus theres always problems to be adressed.

custom maps / locations ... ive played OSI for 8 years i know every area like the back of my hand... give me something differnt to adventure to.

a new look on things... dont be like everyone else be original do the impossible stretch the limits... i think the best shard ive ever played was iron maiden.. that owner ( eddie ) mad respect ) was creating things and making things no one even knew could be existed! =]... the shards now i think 2-3 years old its been deactivated for over a year yet the players are still posting on the fourms about how they want to go back.

a challenge dont give me a skill gate to walk through and say "there you go" make me work a little but again ive played OSI for 8 years i dont want to wait 3 months for a half decent player...


THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS ... please dont take any of this as a flame to your shard if you dont have it lol... its just the what i see a "perfect shard" i hope i find another like IM.

 

[Vladamir]

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*

I played on a shard exactly like that, except i was banned for killing the administrators tweaked player. it was interesting.

 

[daat99]

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*

Hmm, ask them if you're allowed to use gate scroll when a monster doesn't attack you...
Also ask them if you're allowed to walk\run if monsters aren't attacking you...
If that's how they decide what's allowed and what isn't than you either start the game being ganked by mobs so you will be allowed to run or every single player in the shard "break the rules"...

It sounds to me like a realy lame place to be in, 100% rp or not.

P.S.
Vladamir don't advertise!!!

 

[hcker2000]

So much data to go threw and so little time. This realy helps when figuring out what should be added and left out.

I personaly have never liked osi because of the lack of in depth creative story line.

 

[FingersMcSteal]

I totally loved this...

Originally Posted by Jarrod
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*

But anyway, me...hmm. Let me see, out of some of the free shards i've been to i've been ganked in the start rooms, stabbed shoot at, poked & prodded in all directions and the most amusing was raped. Yup... i was raped & pillaged right there where i stood and turned into a BRIGHT BLUE NEON splodge.

For me i prefer the normal shards, although if it's done right when the paperdoll art has any changes i like that too, but all too often i tend to end up in some sort of colour disaster (here speaks the man who asked about an ac/dc sound track in there a few days ago lol, was research...honest!!!).

Custom stuff is ok if its kept in proportion to the rest of the game, just not over board like loads of gumps popping up all the time for different things.

 

[shrundowr]

Let me see, out of some of the free shards i've been to i've been ganked in the start rooms, stabbed shoot at, poked & prodded in all directions and the most amusing was raped.

I've had many things happen to me on UO, but i can honestly say ive never been Raped...


What i look for in a shard is Normalcy....all these damn sexified shards with uber tweaked shit and colorful stuff dont impress me, I like customs, but at least stay within reason...

A good shard is like a good woman:...Sure there's some hot ones out there, but they're fake and bitchy, and the plain ones are usually better in bed.


Another thing I dont like is half-assed attempts at making the shard into another game...like Zelda or Final Fantasy themed shards. if your gonna make a whole nother game using RunUO go ahead, but dont mix the 2 together. It becomes an insult to both games. Hybrid shards always lose my vote. [/rant]

 

[PappaSmurf]

What i look for in a shard is Normalcy....all these damn sexified shards with uber tweaked shit and colorful stuff dont impress me, I like customs, but at least stay within reason...

I personally play on several shards.....

I like some of the "Sexified Shards" with the "Uber tweaked shit and colorful stuff" if they have a good theme or a goal in mind I can think of one shard I play on they have created somewhere around 100+ artifacts lot of which hurt the eyes to look at but....they have properly adjusted the spawns and in some cases the monsters to off set the Uberness (is that even a word?) while leaving some areas left alone for character development and such. Heck I think the set of armor I have on there has around a total of 300 Hit Regen on it.

I also like some of the OSI clones but in all honestly I really haven't found one that I can stick with due to them having many of the same problems as OSI servers....namely a non-interactive player base, once again I blame this on AOS.

[rant begins= I hate AOS] My biggest problem is I'm on a 56k and I've never, even while on Cable or DSL been a PvP junkie... I don't personally like doing it...not to say I haven't been in Guilds on OSI servers where we about got ganked and I did do my part to help but in all honesty I'm a PvM player or a In game Merchant at heart (and not the Uber Rares/artifact collector merchant either) I like playing Smiths and Tailors and such and having an honest to god interactive community and economy in game which I can't seem to find anywhere.

The problem with Pre-AOS servers are they are 99% of the time PvP geared and the rest just are far enough from being right that it's not worth trying to keep playing. That's why after 2.0 comes out and I get a few things done I'm thinking of working on a Pre-AOS server and paying to have it hosted and patching back in the old maps to around 3rd Dawn area and researching all the older systems and revamping or should that be devamping the systems in RunUO to get it as close as possible. If that means spawning the world by hand by memory....well then I'll just have to do it...I mean I travel across Tram and Fel by memory of how the trees are laid out on the map so remembering where the major spawns for certian monsters is shouldn't be a problem...

My Biggest challenge will be keeping a player involved economy and I'm thinking of experimenting with some of the things that Richard Garriott planed for UO in the begining. Like after time start removing NPC Vendors once a player base is established to drive it to a totally player driven community. I can see the problem in this and I've also thought about removing the Sell feature from most NPCs and allowing them to Buy so that newer player can build up characters banks while training crafting skills.[/rant]

 

[shrundowr]

I like some of the "Sexified Shards" with the "Uber tweaked shit and colorful stuff" if they have a good theme or a goal in mind I can think of one shard I play on they have created somewhere around 100+ artifacts lot of which hurt the eyes to look at but....they have properly adjusted the spawns and in some cases the monsters to off set the Uberness (is that even a word?) while leaving some areas left alone for character development and such. Heck I think the set of armor I have on there has around a total of 300 Hit Regen on it.

Oh i agree there are definately some exceptions.. i myself have played on one (went down ) and yes uberness is definately a word.

I'm thinking of experimenting with some of the things that Richard Garriott planed for UO in the begining.

If you accomplish this, I will consider you a God and form a religion around your shard. Just kidding, but you will definately gain a player.

 

[Dry_Kill_Logic1]

Over power items droping randomly on monsters token system and spellcraft

 

[Arcanus]

So what exactly did Lord British imagine for UO in the beginning? Just curious.

Never really new much in the golden days when UO first came out other than being in utter amaizement, wandering around exploring a world I've never been or imagined being in. I still remember that first day, making my way up to Yew (had no idea it was full of reds.. Hell I didnt even know what a Yew was!) and seeing a dazzling lady in blue female plate armor named Electra. This was when I had no idea of the ore types other than it looked DAMN cool and it was expensive as hell! Funny that she was such an impression on me all those many many years ago that her name just stuck with me since. Could have been the relation to the name with blue armor (Blue dragons spouting electricty kinda thing)

 

[chaale]

1- Server Stability & Uptime
The the following have no order:
-Other Players General Attitude
-Bugfree
-Customization level: shouldn't be too high, just right I mean... we're playing UO, not any other games.
-Custom item rarety: if when I first log on a shard and see tons of ugly multicolored items or item names 2 pages long with 10 prefix and 20 suffix, I logoff right away.
-Of course PvP and PvM balance, most shard overboost players or monsters. It cause one shot kill pvp or never ending pvp.
-Economy: Money must worth something.

etc...

 

[PappaSmurf]

So what exactly did Lord British imagine for UO in the beginning? Just curious.

Never really new much in the golden days when UO first came out other than being in utter amaizement, wandering around exploring a world I've never been or imagined being in. I still remember that first day, making my way up to Yew (had no idea it was full of reds.. Hell I didnt even know what a Yew was!) and seeing a dazzling lady in blue female plate armor named Electra. This was when I had no idea of the ore types other than it looked DAMN cool and it was expensive as hell! Funny that she was such an impression on me all those many many years ago that her name just stuck with me since. Could have been the relation to the name with blue armor (Blue dragons spouting electricty kinda thing)

Well a few of the things that he had orginally invisioned for UO included total enviroment interactivity..If you saw a sword display in a building you could take the sword and equip it for example....he also wanted to eventually remove all NPC vendors in towns or at least there sell and buy lists that way the total economy was player driven and revolved around buying selling and bartering among players.....

What I'm thinking of doing is namely focused granted with a slight mod on the latter part of that the NPC Vendors having them buy from players though and their Sell lists ONLY include items that were sold to them by Players....the only exception I can see to this being necessary would be NPCs that sell Regents.....as I'm planning a Pre-AOS server and there won't be LRC.

My reasoning is this it would allow players a way to make some cash through selling craftables and "junk" loot items while at lower skill levels but the sell price for the items would remove about 2-3 times the gold from the economy...... It would also give a purpose to selling to NPC's as it would create a market driven economy if I set the Sell price up on a variable depending on aviable supply (less in stock higher price)

I'm also thinking about removing commodity deeds and forcing it back to the days of unsecure trades...so there is the risk element when dealing with other players.

 

[PappaSmurf]

Oh i agree there are definately some exceptions.. i myself have played on one (went down ) and yes uberness is definately a word.


If you accomplish this, I will consider you a God and form a religion around your shard. Just kidding, but you will definately gain a player.

Check this out looks like Industrial Light and Magic exploded in me house on this shard

 

[Marlberg]

What I like in a shard...

Originality. Originality. Originality. If you are going to build a world. Build it Big. Build it Grand, Let me see your imagination at work. BE CREATIVE. Give me Places to go and monsters to fight that I havent yet fought!

PvP? PvM? fighting amongst players and amongst monsters is a part of UO. Dont make me choos WHICH one I HAVE to be in order to survive on your shard. Let me decide which playstyle is right for me! NO PKing Period. If you have PKing on your shard you can make damn sure I wont be there! PvP should be about HONORABLE Combat between CONSENTING players. Duels between Players or Guilds are Honorable Combat between consenting players. Hiding just outside the TerKeep Champ with your guild recall book and 14 members waiting on you to give the signal to Gank 5 others doing a CHAMP is Not Honorable and Does NOT offer consent. Custom stuff? Bring it on. Uber Weapons as long as everyone has a chance at getting the same Uber weapons great! Super Difficult Demons in Blood Dungeon You are on the right Track. Custom Quests and Events Like Paintball or Monster Bash or King of the Hill? or even PvP Tourneys? Yeah Great Love em. Got a plot line for a shard? Want your shard to mirror a real life or fictional set of events and circumstances? HooRay! Want to introduce diplomatic services (CIA types) to your shard Great! Fantastic.

Dont Bore me. Don't give me more of the sam ole same ole. keep me interested and Ill keep comming back.

Staff must be friendly Helpful and PART of the world they built or help run! Administrators not immune from playing on their own shard!

Admins that can learn to DELEGATE responsibilities for their shard to their staff. Staff that actuall listens to and OBEYS the rules of the Admins.

Staff (including Admins) that act as if their players were their customers. That they were spending real life dollars (some actually do do this its called donations) on their shard. Take Player Suggestions to Heart deal with the stupid ones by tossing them deal with the intelligent ones by implementing them and having the wisdom to know the difference between them.

If you can do 20% of the things Ive listed you will have a shard every one wants to play on!

 

[LNM_TNB]

1) the words "family oriented shard"- I hate servers like this...these servers do nothing but cater to children who treat everyone like garbage.
2) [chat programs- best for low populated servers
3) loot commands for insane amounts of spawn that spawn so fast you can't loot everything
4) Razor? - arm/dress after res is great
5) Too much custom building- causes a lot of lag and is unecessary in most cases
6) Does each staff member have their own house?- This is lame, why does any staff member NEED their own house?
7) Staff member guild?- wtf? You're kidding, right?
8) Grammar- You can script but you can't spell?? (only explanation I can think of is you don't actually script and someone else abc's everything for you, step by step...yeah, that's impressive)
9) Staff knowledge of uo in general- if it's less than what a newb learns on his/her first day in the game....hahaha
10) "1337" server name with equally lame character names
11) too easy? too hard?- too easy makes it boring, too hard makes it frustrating
12) favoritism- donators that are allowed to do whatever they want so much that they basically own the server more than the admin.
13) zero players- servers that claim they're the best yet have no players
14) Staff members never available- they busy playing someone else's server?
15) Lag with only 1 player on- get a better pc to run it on, geez
16) Plenty to do?- tons of stuff to see and do is fun, especially things that have never been done or are very creative
17) Rules that are never enforced or are only inforced on certain players
18) too many rules/too much staff interaction- when are we actually allowed to play without feeling like we're part of a first-time parenting experiment? lol