Sorry Stoned Viking. I'm not going to agree with any of your conclusions here. The UO that we know and love was popular long before Trammel. there may have been some WoW like version of UO that has risen from the ashes of UO after it was scorched by Trammel, but it isn't what we like here. If you don't enjoy this level of risk, you are by no means forced to play here.
This. Every crying post I ever read no matter the server about "we need trammel" sounds more like a "i wanna play by myself" type rather than a "i want to play a mmo". So go play by yourself. There are more than an abundance of servers that are completely dead. You can have a castle and all the loot you can stand. Otherwise make some friends, use your head when you go out of the town, and have some fun. Plot some revenge. Stop crying. Find people who feel like you do and form an Anti-Pk guild. Bring peace to your fellow PvM'ers. Be the hero. That's what this game is all about, choices of playstyle and the risk vs reward that comes with it. Not all the reward and none of the risk that people just want stuff handed to them. And Trammel was the beginning of the end for UO. Don't you remember the griefers who stole your kills and loot and there was nothing you could do about it? The monster luring? The invising? Those players who would be total asses just because they could and you couldn't do anything about it? Not to mention that the UO economy spun wildly out of control after Trammel was created. Those player types that you don't like aren't just around because a few people like to play them. They are around because they make the game what it is. A truly diverse MMO, not a single player point and click.
Felucca isn't for everyone. #CaptainObvious (yes, I just hashtagged and I've never even used Twitter)
You could play on test, the only time anyone messes with you there is if the server is down. It's like trammy land with insta toons.
I cringe when I think of the value of gold if trammel comes here... which I seriously doubt would happen.
I used to love going to random dungeons and ALWAYS finding people to play with. But everyone avoids most of the dungeons to hide from PKs. And it's not like you can goto a bank to find people to play with because everyone is AFK. I want to stay on this server but it's no fun losing everything because your new or can't find anyone to play with. And where is everyone in this game?, like there is apparently a bunch of people on but everywhere is empty, I have checked out most dungeons and such but only see one or two people ever. Also UOs economy went out of wack from bugs and glitches people would exploit. I think at one point they deleted like billions of illegal gold.
You can't compare any free shard to "the UO you remember" from a decade ago. The UO playerbase has dwindled over the last 10+ years as it naturally should. Look how few people play Diablo 1 compared to when it was at it's prime. As for where everyone is .. this shard bribes players to stay logged in. That is why you see a 400+ online population yet struggle to find people. You should enjoy getting PKed, because at least you got to interact with a non-AFK player.
Getting killed is frustrating. However, it's part of the UO I love, and I wouldn't change it. I've got my escape macro ready at all times, and anytime I'm farming a hot spot I beware. There's a lot of hate on for a lot of servers out there, and I've found the PK situation on OU:R is totally fine. The one time I was super mad I went on IRC and 2 minutes later a blue squad showed up to the dungeon I was in to clean it out. Don't go to Ice when it's primetime Sometimes I'll get up early in the morning and farm a spot, and another dude will have the same thought. Met a lot of nice people that way. Bottom line is this is UO. There are 6,487 other mmo's people can play. Please leave us people that like the PK system alone. It's almost like people get mad and then want to go change things rather just playing somewhere else if that's the case.
Stoned I understand your posts to a point, there is alot of frustration when it comes to getting Pk'd. On the flip side of that I can say that your expectations when it comes to finding people to play with is a bit naive. No one is going to walk up to you and hold your hand on this server or any other freeshard I'm aware of. There is a great deal of e-rage when it comes to PK's, I do feel that getting ganked and dry looted is not something anyone wants to endure. This is especially high on the e-rage scale if you're a casual player who has spent their limited time in-game to acquire the right slayer instruments/weapons to actually start farming some worthwhile spawn. The amount of risk you subject yourself to when it comes to high end items as compared to that of the gank squad that rolls through is extremely lopsided and I believe this is something that could be addressed somehow (see the Use of Justice Virtue post http://uorforum.com/threads/use-of-justice-virtue-proposal.5854/) PKing has always been a part of UO, some enjoy the risk while others would prefer to farm in peace. I feel there can be a compromise between the two. All it would take is a revised bounty system that offers "unique" incentives for turning in PK heads for bounties. It would encourage player interaction, more PvP and PvMers would feel better if they knew that placing bounties on PK's actually had some bite to it.
Stoned some of your arguments make sense, however this is a game that caters to griefing others (proof in point: The Assassination of Lord British is widely listed as one of the top moments in MMO history). While I have my theories on the types of people who get their jollies off by ambushing unsuspecting players, I won't get too deep into that subject. I think it's safe to say that the crowd playing the 2014 version of Ultima Online is not the same that we had back in the 90's, while we had PK's in both eras, today's freeshard community attracts a fairly large degenerate bunch - this isn't directed at UOR though we indeed have our fair share. There's that misguided macho mentality that "real men play Felucca" however a lot of the anti-Trammel sentiment comes from people who really don't understand gaming beyond UO. Even though I don't like WoW, apparently millions still do as they provided players ways to enjoy PVM content griefer-free. You'll hear things about how Trammel killed UO - which again is a case of someone not really understanding the era. A variety of factors, including competition at the time (EQ and AC) and PKs - yes PKs. PKs/griefers directly led to things like item insurance and Trammel. So if you want to blame Trammel, you have to blame the reason why Trammel existed. It would be awesome to see UOR offer up a Trammel experience - basically a portal in-game that allows you to travel between the two facets however you cannot take any of your belongings from one side to the other, and on each side you have a distinct bank. Basically, a "What happens in Trammel stays in Trammel" rule set. (And yeah, Trammel has its own share of problems as there is no recourse for people who are being trouble makers - but if people want to play there, why not see how many people bite?) Make Trammel monsters 3x as difficult and the penalty for death results in your things being unrecoverable. (Everquest focused heavily on PVM and had a heavy penalty for death that made you fear dying.) My wife is about as casual as gamers get, and a single bad PK experience usually results in her being done for about a month. I'd love a UO Renaissance server where she and I could play at least somewhat unhindered, hell I'd pay dearly for that. In the meantime, when we want to game together we usually just hop on Project 1999 (Classic Everquest server) which is time consuming and frustratingly hard, but griefing there = banhammer. Love it. Hang in there Stoned. This is the best UO server available and Demise has nothing on this place.
For the people who get pked alot, I recommend joining a larger active guild. Or maybe its time to form your own anti-pk guild? The fact that there are pkers here encourages the pvmers to have to work together.
Xevec that never works, didn't work back in 1990's-2000's won't work now. There simply is no incentive to hunt PK's other than a measly gold based bounty system. The people getting PK'd would have to make PvP characters and are probably not interested in investing the large amount of resources, time and effort to get enough people together to hunt PK's. Alot of them aren't PvPers to begin with and probably don't have an interest in PvPing. Let alone if they did, who's going to train them on how to survive a synch dump from three reds, possibly another disgruntled new player who would like to fight the PK horde but can't acquire enough resources in their limited casual gameplay to even begin making a 7X PK hunter? Simply stated when it comes to freeshards nowadays when players have been PK'd enough they simply quit and move on to another MMO as stated by Aris.
I don't really understand this discussion although I understand how frustrating it could be to be PKd. When we joined this shard, we all knew it was a Fel only shard. If i'd wanted to play on Trammel, i would have chosen a non-pk shard. Unfortunately most of these shards tend to become a race to better equipment,... I quit OSI for this reason with the introduction of imbuing, sampires, bless deeds, ... I would not like to join a free shard with the same features as OSI currently.
I'm not advocating anything like Trammel. I want to see a system that allows the community to police itself. PK's naturally should have anti-PK's, however, there has never been a true incentive to hunt PK's down so it simply gets accepted as part of the game, which is simply BS and the more people offer that as an excuse for bad behavior the more it simply doesn't make any sense. What's wrong with offering an incentive for people to actually want to hunt PK's down? I have never mentioned Trammel, insurance or anything else that even remotely resembles Trammel. A simple revamp of the bounty system would serve the interests of this server and allow people to actually be rewarded for hunting down PK's, that's it, simple, no Trammel no neon goodies just a system that offers "unique" incentives to track down and eliminate murderers.
As Brymstone said, the idea of 'rallying' a guild doesn't necessarily work. I would add that it's not just because there's little incentive, but people we have to stop assuming that 'Blue' = Good and "Hey you're blue, and I'm blue, so we should be friends. It's like assuming that because somebody is black all other black people must like them. People don't get together just because their skin color is the same. They get together because they have similar interests. PK's already have this: Killing other players is quite thrilling and rewarding so they naturally unite together in this endeavor. I bet there are a lot of PK's out there that don't necessarily 'like' each other, but because they are both united in a common interest, they are able to get groups together more easily. And it's not boring. Rolling with a group of PK's, 100% of the population are potential targets. Alternatively, if you form a posse of .APK's (Anti-Pks; or apps designed to kill PK ), you might be united with the same goal, but your pool of 'targets' is diminished SIGNIFICANTLY and interest will fizzle out fast. For as 'brave' as PK's would like to say they are, they are VERY elusive when you are actually out hunting them in the same fashion that they hunt blues and I would argue they run ten times as fast in most cases. This is why I agree with Brymstone, that something should be done to reward groups who want to unite in anti-pk, but it would need to be tailored to ensure that these groups don't just become PK's in Blue clothing.
I have to disagree with this statement. I remember OSI days. Man, you couldn't even move out of Brit without getting smoked. Try to go to the cemetery? Good luck, the reads had a row of houses right outside the guard zones, you couldn't do anything! There would be 4 to a house and they come out and back in like locusts. And this was a paid server. You'd get killed, res killed, chopped to pieces and mounted on the steps of their house. It was 10x worse than anything I've seen on UO:R. I've been killed maybe 6 times in the month or two I've been here. Half the time they only took my money, maybe once the dude took my stuff. Most of the time people even leave my horse alone. Hell, that's downright gentlemanly. I've seen/done things on OSI that would make Stalin blush, none of that goes on here as far as I can tell. The community is smaller, and I think people have a sense of how to behave. I agree it would be neat to have somekind of a better bounty system, but seriously, this is UO. You go out in your shiny gear, make sure you've got your crew with you. If you're going solo, leave the expensive stuff at home.
If you're genuinely interested in an Anti-PK/PvM guild send me a msg, I'll introduce you to one of my buddies who has been toying with the idea of starting up that very type of guild. I'll be too busy gearing up for war to worry about protecting farmers.
I've already been down that road, that's why I have been saying the things I have in this thread. I have tried numerous times since 1997 to either join or create a successful anti-Pk guild, even when I was a PK (Paul Atreides) on Lake Superior many moons ago. It simply does not work without ample incentive to do so. Just as you say, "you're too busy gearing up for war to guard farmers" I rest my case
That's because that is what I do. I pvp. I only farm because I have to and if I don't have to then I don't. That doesn't mean that some people don't enjoy PvM or Anti-PK. My buddy use to run an Anti-PK guild successfully and he had ways to keep it fun and interesting. I started off in his guild and then moved on to more of a Order/Chaos/War type guild that I ran. Trust me, when I'm not working my chars or pvping in UO I'm on my PS4 playing BF4 racking up dogtags. To each his own.