Plat Imbalance

Comparing losing a kit that cost 800gp-2000gp (regs and leather) to losing a single BOD worth hundreds of thousands potentially is laughable? I'm sorry but no. For gods sake restock and find a new champ....

How often do you pull a bod worth Millions?

Losing a champ, is ~20plat and the skull per player. How often do you lose 100k Collecting bods?

Another point you made for me is you have the chance of collection millions of gold just by Typing ORDER STATUS to a NPC. Lots of skill needed there.

Everyone should have easier access to Val Bods!!!!! NERF THEM!


Sucks when somone attacks how you like to play the game doesnt it?

I don't BOD or champ. So it doesn't suck. Don't get butt hurt that people overwhelming seem to agree, based on the poll, that your opinion on the matter is wrong. Is recalling as soon as plat hits you backpack to hard?

Im not butthurt, and my opinion isnt right or wrong, its my OPINION just like everyone elses here. Is it hard to recall the second you claim a Bod?

So you dont Champ or Bod, but you have a large opinion on both? It doesnt affect you, since you have to buy the plat anyways.


I dont understand why the fact that because i have a strong opinion on this means im all butthurt. From where i stand here, the poll is being dominated by people that Dont champ but bitch about plat.

Ok, heres a scenario.

I earn plat. But i want BOD rewards. I hate Bodding. So i sell/Trade my plat for BoD rewards!


I dont come in here bitching about how hard they are to come by. I do what i like, to earn what i want. I let the Bodders do their thing.

How hard is that?

I've been here since 2014 don't have to buy plat it comes to me for free... I have never bought plat. Saying petulant things like, "Everyone should have easier access to Val Bods!!!!! NERF THEM!", heavily implies your butthurtness. Ah yes, I don't do such and such so my opinion should be less? How does the current market price of something I have to sell not affecting me?

Everything you just said, can be said of me, in the inverse. I earn my plat, i buy everything else. I don't like to BoD, i craft what i need for myself.

My only point here is Similarities can be drawn to any wealth gathering mechanism in the game. It was merely an example.

Just because one group seems to be doing well in the area they Enjoy, why is it bad?

IDOCing for example. Takes Time/Organization, but is merely collecting loot that already exists, want to talk about unchecked wealth gathering, how much gold do you think has been earned by more or less uncontested IDOC gathering for the last 18 Months? Do you see me here crying about the IDOC crew and how that's unfair?

Nope...

But yet, everyone wants to come after the champ crew, and how they play.

Are there Mechanics that could be improved on? absolutely, but there is soo much salt between just a few people that the discussion is nearly impossible to have and if i where Chris, id let the place burn too.

Why is everyone going after the champ crew? This thread was asking if there is a plat imbalance. It seems the general opinion so far, is that there is a plat imbalance. So if the general opinion is there is a problem with plat, it is safe to assume, that people will scrutinize the largest source of plat. Which happens to be champers. Cause and effect is all. People are not going after the rat men farmers that earn 3 plat an hour. They are going after the people who in one hour, make what most people get in a month. Yes this can be changed by playstyle, time tables, effort, etc. This was not the question of the poll.

"Newbies don't need blessed runebooks" -- then neither do vets. And if you disagree, you're either not being honest with yourself, or you're being elitist (which is something a low population shard cannot afford).

"I got mine quickly" -- well then you put in a lot of hours getting it, and based on your lack of complaint those hours were either cheap to you (you have lots of time) or were happily spent (because you like that sort of thing). It's nice to be in a position of privilege like that, but it doesn't make you more persuasive.

Suggesting a lower price is a compromise. My real (and strong) feeling is that they should either be free, or they shouldn't exist. OSI had the balance on this before their introduction in Pub1 and forever thereafter as far as I know. Both before and after, everyone was on the same playing field: vets/newbies, reds/blues, l337s/RPers, pvpers/pvmers... nobody had an edge on mobility. The fact that on UOR mobility, a fundamental aspect of all gameplay, is locked up behind a particular type of gameplay is just a mistake.

Folks come here to play the Renaissance era, it's the main selling point. If they didn't care about that, they'd be on OSI or Outlands. And we don't have the online numbers to jeopardize the chief appeal we have.

Triple-box play with 8 control slots: it's not era-accurate, but by itself it doesn't remove anyone's ability to play the Renaissance they remember. Platinum: not an era concept, but again by itself it doesn't remove anyone's ability to enjoy the thing they came here to enjoy, whatever that is.

But if I said "hey let's perfect history by making pet bonding an ability you can only unlock by logging 800 hours in dueling pits against other players", you'd say I was an idiot, and you'd be right. If I said "oh but you can actually pay someone to log those dueling hours for you, you'll just have to log 800 hours of lumberjacking so you can pay them in boards... it's called an economy, and it's a feature not a bug!", you'd again say I was an idiot and you'd again be right.

It's a mistake to remove something from the game that was literally there in the pub5-pub15 era this shard's charter targets, and then say "well to get that back you can either play this way, or pay someone else to play that way for you", like some kind of fucking cover charge to get in the door and actually play Renaissance.

Your completely Right, i played basically my entire first year without an Ethy or a blessed runebook. I wasnt handed anything when i started here. Like i said earlier, Runebooks are not a "need" there are ways around it.

just like Forts are not a "need", or anni clothing, or colored mounts, or house addons, or Runic weapons, or Slayers, or, or, or.....

There are a million ways you could look at this..


You say they should be free, how are you going to compensate those that have put in the time, and effort to collect what they have worked twards in their game, and basically completely negating all of their effort?

Your examples are all things that were not free in pub5-pub15, have similar (or lower) costs here, and in the case of cosmetics are not impactful to the way the game is played anyway.

Pet bonding is a strong parallel-- it's like bless deeds for pets. And it is technically a "convenience" for constantly taming new pets, because you can in fact train and do every other thing with them without bonding. But we know that's only superficial-- bonding is an immensely powerful mechanic, and it was free in Renaissance. If I were to say "well I had to work to unlock pet bonding, what about my investment?", you'd probably take my complaint seriously, but not at the cost of doing the right thing.

Consider any other game mechanic that was free or extremely cheap in pub5-pub15. If you agree that people are drawn to this shard because they want Renaissance mechanics, I think you'll find any proposition to make such a mechanic expensive absurd. Having a bank box, smelting items into ingots, guards protection, travel between T2A and Brittania, refreshing houses, so on... All of these could be made expensive, and you could live without them, but it would change how the game is played into something not-Renaissance-like until you coughed up the expense.

I get that you worked for something-- the complaint of cancelling the value you earned is valid and needs to be addressed. But passing on traumas to the next generation "because I had to go through it" is not a good argument.

And I agree that instant gratification isn't good for player retention. But this is a ground-level expectation for people coming to UOR... it's not a free house, it's on a level with having a bank box.

As for what to actually DO about your value.... I'd prefer some kind of refund or replacement.

A refund is preferable but could distort the plat market horribly. It could perhaps be tied to your account and non-transferrable, to ensure that the plat market isn't suddenly flooded with a billion (maybe literally) plat... folks who need plat would still have to buy it out of the existing hordes, although granted folks' willingness to part with their hordes would probably go up. Ideally this would be paired with some really cool new store items worth more than a single runebook, so everyone wouldn't immediately have bunches of them (and might even drive some demand for plat).

Offhand: how about hued ethereals? Still translucent, but tinted like stained glass. And worth 1000 plat/ea.

A replacement would be dicier, as maybe not everyone would actually like the replacement(s), but could potentially be enacted without significant action by Telamon.

I guess my point is this, therea alot of people that have opinions on Plat, that dont farm it.

I HATE Mining. absolutely hate it. But you dont see me in here Upset about needing it to do things.

The way i look at it is this mechanic has been built into this server, and is a huge part of it.

Yes its not Era Specific. If you want to get into it, weapon bless deeds were available from CUB in 1999. For 500k tickets, Extreemly expensive.

This server is inspired by the era, not hard clad to it.

I see alot of people complaining that individuals have too much of it and it should be more available to the masses. Its ALWAYS BEEN AVAILABLE. its Cheaper now than it ever has been.

I dont think theres an "imbalance"

Those that choose to farm it have it, those that dont have to do what they want to get it.

Thats the same market for ANYthing in this game.

The debate if Runebooks should be blessed or not is completely seperate from the Discussion that was originally posted here.

https://uorforum.com/threads/platinum-system-discussion.32240/


TONS of good suggestions on this topic in these forums. this has been discussed in great length for a very long time with never any changes actually ahppening.

Nah, they're strongly related. If not for that mechanic being locked up behind plat, obtaining plat would be just as optional as doubloons. I return again to: imagine we put pet bonding behind a lumberjacking grind-wall-- is that likely to be good for the shard as a whole?

Spoken from a position of privilege. You have triple-boxing, 8 control slots, and direct access to the highest ROI plat source by a long country mile. You are an entrenched minority, of course you think it's good how it is. I'm saying it's bad for the shard as a whole despite being fine and well for you, i.e. there's an imbalance.

"Well that's how we've always done it here..." is not a good counter-argument to "when people join this server they feel surprised and annoyed at this, and get a bad taste in their mouth that <although we can't prove it> may contribute to them not staying with us".

And your talking from a point of less experience, ive earned my ability to do what i want in game, by using the systems that are implemented. Just because you dont have it, you want it to be available to everyone for nothing.

This has very good Paralells to real life.

Everyone in this game has the same access to the content that provides this resource. every single person on this server has the same ability to do the content. Just because you dont like it, does not mean its not available.

I know of people, a father and Daughter specifically, that Champ ALL THE TIME together. they are part of their own thing. they are not part of my group.

You wanna talk about privledge, The vets that have been here long enough to gather what they want, have put in the time. You cant expect to show up on this server, and get everything you want in a month. You would have 0 player retention. What keeps people playing here?

I still have goals in this game, 2.5 years into my time here. The second i feel i have nothing to do on this server, i will probably stop playing.

Are there things that can be inproved? absolutely, Completely gutting a resource that half the server has made their priority to gather, would be a bad move.

the whole "Privledge" bullshit, give me a break.

It's like you're only reading some parts of what I'm writing...

Blessed rune books == bank boxes == guard protection -> important, basic mechanics that were free on OSI

Do I expect basic mechanics that were free on OSI to be free? Yes, as does everyone else who walks in the door here.
Do I expect things that weren't free on OSI to be free? No.
Do I expect everything to be easy so I can get it all and quit a month later? Of course not.
Could we compromise by making runebooks cheaper? Yes.
Could we compensate older players for what they "lose"? Yes.
Would doing this make control over the plat supply less of a concern? Yes.
Would it be nice to stop fighting about plat, similar to how we don't fight about doubloons? God, yes.

But I hear you, I hear you... retaining the minority (see: this poll) of people who think everything's great as-is is clearly what's best for the health of the shard.

I think the biggest problem with plat right now is that earning any meaningful amount of it is locked behind a very specific playstyle that really doesn't represent "history perfected". Having to build three tamers, then triple box drag them around rolling scripts is a very strange and specific gameplay loop that doesn't appeal to many people here. Sure, some will argue that you can try and do a champ with your dexer, but anyone who knows this server knows that really isn't at all practical. Ultima in the renaissance era was never a game of dragging around characters who are rolling scripts to mow down enemies automatically with bonded dragons.

I think a new player should be able to easily begin farming plat if that is their focus. To me this means increasing the drop rates on all mobs, and giving a few other directed sources for plat. I'd be happy to see plat spawning in level 4 dungeon chests at a rate that keeps it worthwhile. I also think turning in bods could have a very small chance at a direct to pack plat coin.

Another one that might be neat is to have a small chance at a plat coin through the begging skill. This would need some more complex systems implimented to ensure it isn't abused, but could be done I think, and would give some use to a currently useless skill. Maybe something like each npc has a small chance to give plat, but if you fail the attempt they don't allow another attempt for 24 hours or something. Like anything else, this would of course need deeper thought and testing.

There are probably many more smart ways plat could be introduced to a bunch of different playstyles.

Thanks for starting this thread, I think it's an important thing to address, and the numbers on the poll seem to be reflecting that as well.

I dont think your understanding my PoV at all.

i have never been great at conveying thought through text.

Im not disagreeing that there are changes that could be made.

Im arguing the point that Plat is hard to come by. It is 100% not hard to come by. It is cheaper now than it ever has been in the life of this shard.

You want to make things that people work hard twards Easier to get. Never in the life of anything, has been making endgame goals easier, been good for the game.

Right now thats what it is. What do you want to replace them with? Whats the goals to work twards? Colored ethys?

Im all for Introducing more ways to earn plat, but at this point, there needs to be more variety in whats available to make people want to earn it more.

As was stated before(which i dont completely agree with) is that Noobs are the ones needing to buy plat. I know vets that still want plat. If there was more need it would all be spent. The fact that the plat store is a stagnant thing, is hurting the market of this shard more than anything. The sdame can be said for the HC store. Supposedly Telamon recoded the HC store to be ableto change every year for the next 5 or more years, He SAID THIS.

but he is completely absent to change anything.

If the Endgame targets are made easier to get, something needs to replace it. And then we delv into the whole discussion that" those should be easy to get too!!! NEWBS NEED THEM TOO" where does it end?

I understand that im looked at like this opinion is the minority. doesnt discount my opinion.

I think the issue with this is that plat isn't really an end game target. Blessed runebooks and etherials are things many players want or even need early on. If you're the stealthy type for instance, you basically need an ethy. This isn't something that should need tamers to achieve. There are many things to spend gold on in this game, and the beauty of it is that end game goals can be different to every player. Blessed runebooks and etherials are more start game goals Imo. Anyway I don't want to turn this thread into an ongoing argument. I think you have said your point a few times now, and now I have as well. Let's keep the suggestions rolling.

I think it's as simple as the amib and hcoin come from a specific thing that LOTS OF BUILDS CAN PLAY IN.

We saw many many many builds Ironman amibs. And you don't even need to Ironman them for dubs. Same is true for Xmas scroll farming and then running scrolls. People get coins Ironman and via triple box or group runs. The only barrier is getting the ticket to enter the instance.

And as far as amibs people have talked about wanting that changed too (melee pirates should drop amibs, not just fishing etc).

Further hcoin and dubloons do not give core game mechanics items. Items that are rooted in the mechanics of the UO wr all love and remember.

So the issue at play is that as a means to get CORE GAME MECHANICS, plat farming via a single actively via a single build type is detrimental.

As I stated, champing needs it's own coin and reward store or CORE UO ITEMS need to move to a gold or cub copper store (increase copper value, keep brut clean, anyone can do it from ANY ACTIVITY and separate from dono copper so it isn't pay to win).

Thinking about it, cub copper for RBs and Ethies is the way to go. Tmappers get copper. Dungeoneers get copper. Event runners, bodders, general merchants making bone armor, you name it we all earn it.

And I agree with @Unternoober that the champ/plat store would then need love to compensate and make it worthwhile.

This may be even easier then adding plat to every activity honestly.