Discussion : Why not to have DIVERSIFIED spawns/items to repopulate Shards ?

I often hear laments of how, other then Atlantic, Shards suffer from a Low Population....

So, trying to think what might get players to want to play a given Shard over another, I came to the thinking.... why not "offer" something "unique" to each and every one Shard that the other Shards would not have so as to give some power of attraction to the lower population Shards to players to actually want to go there and play there ?

As of now, EM Events are the one and only diversification reason for going to play on a Shard, unfortunately, it becomes a limited time thing, lots of players "jump" on that Shard for the duration of the EM Event and to get a drop, then take the item unless Shard bound, and go sell it on Atlantic....

It does not help those lower Population Shards at all....

So, I think, there needs to be some "content", diversified per Shard, which would get players to actually go and PLAY that Shard persistently, for a much longer time as an EM Event, so as to repopulate that given Shard, if they are interested in playing that given content which other Shards are missing....

Comments ? Better ideas on how to reopulate Shards other then Atlantic ?

Most people prefer to play where their 'ping' is lowest. You'll still find an active population on Europa for example.  Some people prefer the tighter community of lower populated shards. I have no interest in playing on Atlantic. I am far from alone in that. Don't you ever feel you're trying to make someone fix that which is not broken?

popps said:

Comments ? Better ideas on how to reopulate Shards other then Atlantic ?

Well, since you asked...

Better customer service, that is consistent across the board for all players, whether collectors or not, whether they have one account or 20.

An account management page that doesn't make you work to pay them.

Lower the corporate greed, the items being sold should be selling for about half that price nowdays, in a game this old and as old as the boosters/expansions, etc are.  

More bug fixes, wiithout creating twice as many bugs as are fixed.  

Some artwork still needs touched up.

I'm not sure Endless Journey is working, other than for the ones abusing it.  Most EJs I have heard of are gone soon after starting.  Bank issues is the complaint for most, if they wanted to buy a bank box they would just subscribe LOL.  Go back to RTB, full blown privileges for 30 days, in Sept. (our anniversary month) each year.  And advertise the hell out of it, everywhere!  Not just hand scrawled notes on the bathrooms walls, give it some air time so people realize it is happening WHILE it is going on!


Now, Popps, these suggestions would maybe, maybe, help bring back players and find new ones who would play.  And they would, perhaps, choose their own shard to play.  But most of Atlantics players are there because that's where they want to be.  And those that are on smaller shards are there because that's where they want to be.  I do NOT think it would be a good idea to try to force us to play shards we didn't choose in the first place.  Freedom of choice, that's the key. 

Games with open transfers don't have those problems. Good luck

Uriah_Heep said:

popps said:

Comments ? Better ideas on how to reopulate Shards other then Atlantic ?

Well, since you asked...

Better customer service, that is consistent across the board for all players, whether collectors or not, whether they have one account or 20.

An account management page that doesn't make you work to pay them.

Lower the corporate greed, the items being sold should be selling for about half that price nowdays, in a game this old and as old as the boosters/expansions, etc are.  

More bug fixes, wiithout creating twice as many bugs as are fixed.  

Some artwork still needs touched up.

I'm not sure Endless Journey is working, other than for the ones abusing it.  Most EJs I have heard of are gone soon after starting.  Bank issues is the complaint for most, if they wanted to buy a bank box they would just subscribe LOL.  Go back to RTB, full blown privileges for 30 days, in Sept. (our anniversary month) each year.  And advertise the hell out of it, everywhere!  Not just hand scrawled notes on the bathrooms walls, give it some air time so people realize it is happening WHILE it is going on!


Now, Popps, these suggestions would maybe, maybe, help bring back players and find new ones who would play.  And they would, perhaps, choose their own shard to play.  But most of Atlantics players are there because that's where they want to be.  And those that are on smaller shards are there because that's where they want to be.  I do NOT think it would be a good idea to try to force us to play shards we didn't choose in the first place.  Freedom of choice, that's the key. 

1) Yes!! I know GM staff is limited but they stopped the canned messages acknowledging your issue which is a real peeve of mine. Instead of a message saying i see your problem and i can't help it's either ignored or an email sent...while you're logged in...waiting for them to show or speak.

2) Account management isn't bad once you figure it out but it is overwhelming at first glance.

3) Also yes. Micro transactions tend to be monthly quick money grabs in the $5-$10 range. Subs should be around $5 range to increase population as well. Cutting sub price in half would mean more accounts open and more chances someone will do a micro to pimp one of their new characters. 

4) I can't imagine the size of the code to go thru but a dedicated bug fixer upper would be helpful. 

5) The art person seems to be working hard. I'm often running into things that look polished and reworked. It may not be announced but i see your work artsy person! 

EJ needs stricter guidelines to create and forced to lower pop shards but given better perks like a free vault or something.

No thanks. I like where I live.

Just start unnerfing stuff and making the game actually fun and people will return to fill the shards up. Its dumb to have to come back and yoru character sucks cause peopel cant stand other people's builds succeeding at anything

The appeal of Atlantic is that its the most populated.  If you get ppl to start leaving Atlantic for other shards, then they will all end up low population.  If you look at Reddit, new and returners are always inquiring about the most popular shard to return to, lets not give them a reason to move to a freeshard

Uriah_Heep said:

popps said:

Comments ? Better ideas on how to reopulate Shards other then Atlantic ?

Well, since you asked...

Better customer service, that is consistent across the board for all players, whether collectors or not, whether they have one account or 20.

An account management page that doesn't make you work to pay them.

Lower the corporate greed, the items being sold should be selling for about half that price nowdays, in a game this old and as old as the boosters/expansions, etc are.  

More bug fixes, wiithout creating twice as many bugs as are fixed.  

Some artwork still needs touched up.

I'm not sure Endless Journey is working, other than for the ones abusing it.  Most EJs I have heard of are gone soon after starting.  Bank issues is the complaint for most, if they wanted to buy a bank box they would just subscribe LOL.  Go back to RTB, full blown privileges for 30 days, in Sept. (our anniversary month) each year.  And advertise the hell out of it, everywhere!  Not just hand scrawled notes on the bathrooms walls, give it some air time so people realize it is happening WHILE it is going on!


Now, Popps, these suggestions would maybe, maybe, help bring back players and find new ones who would play.  And they would, perhaps, choose their own shard to play.  But most of Atlantics players are there because that's where they want to be.  And those that are on smaller shards are there because that's where they want to be.  I do NOT think it would be a good idea to try to force us to play shards we didn't choose in the first place.  Freedom of choice, that's the key. 

 But most of Atlantics players are there because that's where they want to be.  And those that are on smaller shards are there because that's where they want to be.  I do NOT think it would be a good idea to try to force us to play shards we didn't choose in the first place.  Freedom of choice, that's the key. 

I need to address that Paragraph because I do not feel that I can agree with it.

While some indeed might be playing Atlantic because that is where they want to be, I think that quite a good number of players feel "forced" to play on Atlantic to have a sufficient number of fellow players to group up, to sell and buy items from, etc. etc. all things which on a lower Population Shard they cannot have.

As in regards to those who, instead, might want to be on smaller shards, while for "some" this might be the case, perhaps because they can so attend more uncontested some spawns, Champ spawns, EM Events and so forth, others, instead, do feel the many downsides for trying to play on a Shard where it is hard to find fellow players to group up with, or to sell an item from one's own Vendor, or try to buy an item which they might need and is impossible to find up for sale on that low population shard....

Those who can go to Atlantic, go there for their "shopping" needs and then, if they feel so, head back to that Low Population Shard after they have satisfied their buying or selling needs elsewhere...

But, at lest to my opinion, this is just not right.

This is not "playing", to my viewing, on a given Shard if then it becomes extremely difficult if not impossible to find fellow players to group up with for spawns, or sufficient buyers or sellers to be able to buy the items one needs or the items one has to sell so much that they have to go to Atlantic for their selling and buying needs....

I have a hard time being able to agree that this evident discrepancy among the only one sufficiently playerd Shard, Atlantic, and the Low Populated Shards can be agreeable upon or acceptable.

What would be wrong with "diversified" Spawns across the various Shards ?

Those interested in a given Spawn would be then attracted by that particular Spawn and prefer to live more there to participate in that Spawn rather then on another Shard where such a Spawn is missing...

But, of course, it should not be like EM Events where players from outside of that Shard come, bite it quickly, get their drop and then take it away to Atlantic to sell it.... it should be Designed to attract players AND have it STAY on that Shard to play it, persistently, if they like that particular spawn....

croy6325 said:

The appeal of Atlantic is that its the most populated.  If you get ppl to start leaving Atlantic for other shards, then they will all end up low population.  If you look at Reddit, new and returners are always inquiring about the most popular shard to return to, lets not give them a reason to move to a freeshard

That is surely a risk BUT, what if that Re-Design of the Lower Population Shards and their Spawns, exclusiveness, is done gradually, and it of course includes Atlantic as well ?

Why shouldn't current players on Atlantic, having their homes there, playing there, want to "stay" on Atlantic if it also gets, as the other Shards, its "uniqueness" and exclusiveness ?

Adding a "unique" attraction to each shard (we'll exclude Siege and Mugen for this) would require the creation of 25 different bits of content. Twenty. Five. 

Do you honestly think that Kryonix and Bleak have the time for that?  

This would also essentially make each shard its own codebase, unless they made a system that knew which shard was which and activated certain things based on that. But, again, time. 

Each new content thing would also require unique rewards, which would probably have to be shard bound - lest they simply wind up on Atlantic, thus defeating the purpose. However, making them shard bound would also defeat their purpose. It's a catch-22.

Their efforts are better spent resolving bugs/gripes that have driven people from the game, improving graphics, and actually advertising somewhere. (allegedly, there are Facebook ads for UO. I've never seen one.)