Endless Journey, how about a new Fel beginning

Excuse the 1st April timing.

Free and even paid character transfers from shards have ruined the economy of pretty much every current shard. Mainly from people farming power scrolls on non competitive shards and shipping them to Atlantic. Years of script miners in trammel have made most resources fairly worthless to gather.

It’s time for a non transferable fel only shard with item insurance.

People will say, “but if people wanted fel they would play in fel”, but it doesn’t really work like that. People play in trammel because you can. 

A fel only shard would make every single resource valuable and really create a new and better economy and a different experience for players. I think it would attract a lot more people than endless journey even.

Also, creating a new shard should not affect those players that would not wish to play it. I am not saying to delete the current shards. 

Nope you are wrong. Siege and Mugen are the offer for thoose guys.

Trismegistos said:

Nope you are wrong. Siege and Mugen are the offer for thoose guys.

But they don't have insurance. 

And no recall  🙁

Trismegistos said:

Nope you are wrong. Siege and Mugen are the offer for thoose guys.

I am interested to know, even if this concept doesn't interest you, how/why would it affect you if there was a fel shard? Why wiould you, if you had the power to, vito it?

Mervyn said:

...People will say, “but if people wanted fel they would play in fel”, but it doesn’t really work like that. People play in trammel because you can... 

You seem to have provided your own answer. A new shard running a Fel ruleset with all the Trammel shards still there, won't people just play on the Trammel shards? I like the idea generally speaking, but it seems like we'd run into the same problem Shard vs. Shard as Facet vs. Facet.

Personally, I'm fine with the Dev team introducing any new shard running any rule-set they want.

As for affecting existing players, there is some aspect of draw-off where you might pull people from existing shards, further decreasing populations, but that may be negligible.

I think the bigger problem is that you say "introduce a Fel shard with insurance" and a bunch of people are going to come in here saying Fel isn't Fel with insurance and if you introduce a shard like that, you have to introduce a Fel shard without insurance. Then someone else will want something slightly different, etc. and we're down the rabbit hole.

Ok I get it.

Siege and Mugen are to hard for the average Fel player?
Those who want the risk of being PK'd out their or want to have fun PKing? 

You're looking for something more watered down that has Insurance so you don't loose your stuff and the ability to recall so you can get away without being followed. 

This is starting to sound a lot like what those Fel players call Trammie talk. 

*tips his hat and takes another sip of his Good Old Moonglow Red*

And people scream to merge the "DEAD SHARDS" that they are just waisting resources and now here we have another proposal that will only cater to a select few and creating another "DEAD SHARD" and use even more resources.  Every shard has a Fel with insurance why do we need another one.

Lord_Nabin said:

Ok I get it.

Siege and Mugen are to hard for the average Fel player?
Those who want the risk of being PK'd out their or want to have fun PKing? 

You're looking for something more watered down that has Insurance so you don't loose your stuff and the ability to recall so you can get away without being followed. 

This is starting to sound a lot like what those Fel players call Trammie talk. 

*tips his hat and takes another sip of his Good Old Moonglow Red*

Nail on head. 

AMEN

I like the idea of removing shard transfer tokens to improve the economy. I don't think another shard being added will help, people don't wanna start everything over again. 

crunchnasty said:

I like the idea of removing shard transfer tokens to improve the economy. I don't think another shard being added will help, people don't wanna start everything over again. 

The damage was done long ago and closing the barn door does nothing considering all the cows left and are on the BBQ.  Taking away Xfers and SS would only add more straws to an already strained camels back.

I actually wouldn't mind a non transferable, Fel rule set shard with item insurance (or one randomized item that could be looted) 

As many Siege players have pointed out, the lack of item insurance has forced most players on that shard to store away their best equipment out of fear it might get robbed. Not really an ideal way to experience the game, I would argue. 

The idea is not really for you existing players, but to bring in old players who left as they felt the game was getting too trammelised.

So i guess i am preaching to the wrong crowd.

Mervyn said:

The idea is not really for you existing players, but to bring in old players who left as they felt the game was getting too trammelised.

So i guess i am preaching to the wrong crowd.

What exactly would people do on that shard?  Would anyone who wants to just play a resource gatherer or a crafter have enough business over time (because of insurance) to make it worth their while to stay?  Would the shard use the RoT skill gain system as on Siege and Mugen?   Would you be able to have more than one character per account?

I guess I'm trying to ask whether your vision is for a shard like any "production" shard except that the whole thing is subject to normal Fel rules and the land mass is the same as Mugen's, or would it be like Siege (same smaller land mass) and Abyss ruleset other than for insurance?

Margrette said:

I guess I'm trying to ask whether your vision is for a shard like any "production" shard except that the whole thing is subject to normal Fel rules and the land mass is the same as Mugen's, or would it be like Siege (same smaller land mass) and Abyss ruleset other than for insurance?

My vision is for a shard with the current trammel landmass to be fel ruleset (so you could then delete all the fel duplicates), that way you’d retain all of the content. I guess you’d probably have to keep the fel lost lands with the champs and delete the trammel lost lands. 

Having only 1 char slot would not work, you’d require the full 7 char slots. Since the shard would be non transferable I don’t see why they wouldn’t allow people to have a house there as well as on a normal prodo shard. 

I imagine crafters/resource gatherers would have an easier time making profit than on prodo shards as their resources will be considerably more valuable. 

Lets think about things, a lot of resource gathering is do able in guardzones. And if not, there’s an awful lot of land out there, it’s unlikely you’ll be disturbed by reds chopping a tree in the wilderness. But if you were, you’d simply adapt your templates and perhaps add hiding/stealth to your crafters. People are very inventive when they need to be. 

I have a better idea, take the OP's idea and tweak Siege and Mugen.  I think that would be freakin awesome!  Heck Sis and I would play there!  Oh and between the two of us we have seven accounts. Siege as it is now isn't all that fun.  I have logged out in a "supposed" safe zone only to log into my char later and she's dead.  Upon rezzing she's nekkid too.  I think as a tweak the OP's idea has real merit.

It’s time for a non transferable fel only shard with item insurance.

@Kyronix ;  @Bleak

Please do this and remove Fel from the other shards and put powerscrolls in Brittania.

The 2% will finally have a place to play and we wont have to hear their complaints.

Mervyn said:

The idea is not really for you existing players, but to bring in old players who left as they felt the game was getting too trammelised.

So i guess i am preaching to the wrong crowd.

When those people left there was no insurance.

Pawain said:

It’s time for a non transferable fel only shard with item insurance.

@ Kyronix   @ Bleak

Please do this and remove Fel from the other shards and put powerscrolls in Brittania.

The 2% will finally have a place to play and we wont have to hear their complaints.

Do this but keep Fel just get rid of the Fel Rule set on all shards but Seige, Mugen and SeigeNot.  Give them one way transfers and let them have all the fun they want.

Bilbo said:

Pawain said:

It’s time for a non transferable fel only shard with item insurance.

@ Kyronix   @ Bleak

Please do this and remove Fel from the other shards and put powerscrolls in Brittania.

The 2% will finally have a place to play and we wont have to hear their complaints.

Do this but keep Fel just get rid of the Fel Rule set on all shards but Seige, Mugen and SeigeNot.  Give them one way transfers and let them have all the fun they want.

Ya there are houses and the Magencia pet vendors.  

Mervyn said:

Margrette said:

I guess I'm trying to ask whether your vision is for a shard like any "production" shard except that the whole thing is subject to normal Fel rules and the land mass is the same as Mugen's, or would it be like Siege (same smaller land mass) and Abyss ruleset other than for insurance?

My vision is for a shard with the current trammel landmass to be fel ruleset (so you could then delete all the fel duplicates), that way you’d retain all of the content. I guess you’d probably have to keep the fel lost lands with the champs and delete the trammel lost lands. 

Having only 1 char slot would not work, you’d require the full 7 char slots. Since the shard would be non transferable I don’t see why they wouldn’t allow people to have a house there as well as on a normal prodo shard. 

I imagine crafters/resource gatherers would have an easier time making profit than on prodo shards as their resources will be considerably more valuable. 

Lets think about things, a lot of resource gathering is do able in guardzones. And if not, there’s an awful lot of land out there, it’s unlikely you’ll be disturbed by reds chopping a tree in the wilderness. But if you were, you’d simply adapt your templates and perhaps add hiding/stealth to your crafters. People are very inventive when they need to be. 

You lose some content if you get rid of the "Trammel" land mass, e.g., the entrance to the Underworld.  (It's in the Demon Temple on Siege.)  And deleting that extra, large landmass would definitely cut down on resource-gathering in guard zones.   As on Siege, it also would make castles and keeps and Magincia housing more valuable.

I'm not sure crafters/resource gatherers would have an easier time making a profit as most of them (other than the lucky few who get a Magincia plot and plots close to the Zento and Luna walls and a couple of moongates), would end up with houses that are not accessible from a guard zone and therefore would be at a disadvantage if they join the shard after those spots have been taken.  Also, without RoT for skill gains, training crafting skills would become much more expensive and time-consuming.   And with players having all of their items insured, there would definitely be less demand for crafter-created items.  I assume you'd also want VvV, so that, too, would put a dent in the demand for crafter-created items.

I thought Siege had all the land masses that prodo shards do only they are all Fel ruleset.  Just copy Siege and allow insurance and do not give them anything else and lets see how many people go there.

Bilbo said:

I thought Siege had all the land masses that prodo shards do only they are all Fel ruleset.  Just copy Siege and allow insurance and do not give them anything else and lets see how many people go there.

No, Siege is missing the "Trammel" land mass.  (Mugen has it, however.)

There are other differences between Siege/Mugen and other shards.  To name just a few:

1. You can only have one character per account.
2. Nothing is insurable. You can "Siege bless" one item and use clothing bless deeds on clothing items that don't have magical properties.
3. Crafted spellbooks are not blessed.  However, there are some "event" spellbooks with mods on them that are inexplicably blessed.
4. NPCs don't do skill training.
5. Mugen has the newbie character quests and accelerated skill gain area in Haven; Siege does not.
6. Items purchased from NPCs cost 3X what they cost on other shards.
7. Many items you can purchase from NPCs in lots up to 500 on other shards and at an increasing cost (e.g., small gems) can only be purchased on Siege/Mugen in smaller quantities, starting at 20 and doubling over time as they refill up to a maximum of 1000.  
8. NPCs don't buy items from players.
9. You can't recall or use sacred journey spells.
10. You can't inviz yourself when using the taming skill.
11. Telekinesis spell won't open locked containers.
12. Failing to place a trap causes more damage than on other shards.
13. Tools like scissors, axes used for cutting lumber, bladed weapons used for cutting leather or kindling, crooks used for herding, and fishing poles have a limited number of uses before they disappear.
14. Arms lore skill gives a greater bonus to resists on exceptionally crafted armor and to damage increase on weapons than on other shards.
15. There's no passive detect hidden.
16. The Rate over Time system applies to skill gains past 70.0.  There is a cap (can't remember what it is) on stat gains per day.
17. Aggressive dark wisps inhabit forested areas.
18. The Underworld entrance is in the daemon temple and there is no volcano on the Isle of Fire.
19. I don't think there's any equivalent to the Haven mine on Siege.
20. You can't character copy a character on Siege or Mugen to Test Center.
21. You can't transfer a character from Siege or Mugen to any other shard (including NO transfers between Siege and Mugen).
22. There are no double resources for gathering resources anywhere on Siege or Mugen.
23. I'm not sure where you fish on Siege for yellowtail barracuda.
24. Push-through applies on the whole shard.
25. Non-consensual PvP applies on the whole shard.
26. If you want to train bushido skill, you'll need jewelry with bushido skill on it to even start unless you set it as one of your starting skills because there are no low-level bushido moves and you can't train it from an NPC.
27. I believe characters created with the "paladin" template on Siege start on Ocllo and there is no way for them to get off the island on their own.
28. I believe there are no artifact or equipment rewards available on Siege or Mugen if your character is in Vice vs. Virtue.
29. Exceptionally-crafted tools have more uses than on other shards.
30. NPCs don't sell cloth or bandages.

TYVM @Margrette

@Margrette you didn’t read my post correctly, I didn’t say to get rid of the trammel land mass, I said to convert the current trammel land mass to fel, then delete fel, so you don’t lose content. 

Mervyn said:

@ Margrette you didn’t read my post correctly, I didn’t say to get rid of the trammel land mass, I said to convert the current trammel land mass to fel, then delete fel, so you don’t lose content. 

Not sure why you would need to go to all that work.  Mugen has the same land mass as every other shard, except Siege.   Yes, it means more area to cover if you're looking for PvP opportunities, but it would allow for more housing, more areas for resource-gathering, more areas for treasure hunting, etc.

Mervyn said:

Trismegistos said:

Nope you are wrong. Siege and Mugen are the offer for thoose guys.

I am interested to know, even if this concept doesn't interest you, how/why would it affect you if there was a fel shard? Why wiould you, if you had the power to, vito it?

Limited Dev resources, i'd rather them focus their efforts where the majority of the players play (ie the Trammel ruleset).

Oh so you’d rather they spend time making multicoloured unicorns than get more subscribers by spending 3 and half mins to open a new shard? 
Yeah makes sense 

i dont see the allure. i wouldnt mind seeing fel ruleset copies of doom, abyss, underword, ter mur, eodon, etc on the prodo shards, but i think a pure fel shard would have a couple weeks of novelty value then flatline.

The problem with Siege is it's outdated.  
Siege was a great concept and worked well at it's inception in 1999.  Granted back then even the production shards didnt have insurance.  Since then the game has evolved many times over becoming an item based game while leaving Seige on the back burner.  Some prefer it that way and i would too if  Siege never got all the items introduced over the years.  For me it's pointless to play an item based game when you can't use the items.  Thats why I've always been an advocate of a fel ruleset shard with item insurance.

Get over it.  The people who want to play Fel already do.  That playstyle is long dead and nobody is interested. 

I'm interested in fel rulesets, so theres at least one person here.

Mervyn said:

Oh so you’d rather they spend time making multicoloured unicorns than get more subscribers by spending 3 and half mins to open a new shard? 
Yeah makes sense 

Total speculation on bring even 1 new player back with zero proof that it would even happen.  

Mervyn said:

Oh so you’d rather they spend time making multicoloured unicorns than get more subscribers by spending 3 and half mins to open a new shard? 
Yeah makes sense 

*Picard facepalm emoji*

This wouldn't take three minutes, more like three weeks, or more likely, months...and then they'd have to maintain yet another special ruleset shard.  They can barely keep up with the ones they have now!

Creating a fel only shard wouldn't be much different from any other production shard as far as economy or resource gathering, aside from the constant background possibility of getting PKed. (a possibility the majority of UO players have already expressed no interest in)

Saying that it would bring in old players is just talking out your behind. The "classic shard" horse has been beaten to atoms over the years. A lot of spurious claims are made of a renaissance of vet players, but none of that can be backed up by actual data.  Which is what EA would need to even consider allowing BS to expend additional resources on any such a venture. Your say-so won't cut it.

I'd much rather BS concentrate on making existing UO better, before they even bothered to consider pursuing an untamed ornithoid without cause.

If this new shard were to have 10 people, it would have a higher population than some of the dead shards. Then it would be a success

crunchnasty said:

I'm interested in fel rulesets, so theres at least one person here.

And, AAMOF, you already have Fel to play with/in, so, what was the question again? 😂

Trismegistos said:

Nope you are wrong. Siege and Mugen are the offer for thoose guys.

What he said. 

Shard merging would be good for some shards but how to go about doing it since houses are the main issue there.  Be battle of the who owned what in that spot first...or something lol.   Can merge it so towns/cites are fuller but that doesnt fix it once you are out of the city limits.  

Dot_Warner said:

This wouldn't take three minutes, more like three weeks, or more likely, months...and then they'd have to maintain yet another special ruleset shard.  They can barely keep up with the ones they have now!

Who said anything about creating a special ruleset? The fel ruleset is already there, and surely the shard would be easier to maintain than prodo shards as there would be only 1 ruleset instead of 2...

Mervyn said:

Dot_Warner said:

This wouldn't take three minutes, more like three weeks, or more likely, months...and then they'd have to maintain yet another special ruleset shard.  They can barely keep up with the ones they have now!

Who said anything about creating a special ruleset? The fel ruleset is already there, and surely the shard would be easier to maintain than prodo shards as there would be only 1 ruleset instead of 2...

Please make this.  Siege is not the same.

cobb said:

If this new shard were to have 10 people, it would have a higher population than some of the dead shards. Then it would be a success

 😂 

I like Felucca and many vets who want to return now that EJ is coming are also interested.

Mervyn said:

Dot_Warner said:

This wouldn't take three minutes, more like three weeks, or more likely, months...and then they'd have to maintain yet another special ruleset shard.  They can barely keep up with the ones they have now!

Who said anything about creating a special ruleset? The fel ruleset is already there, and surely the shard would be easier to maintain than prodo shards as there would be only 1 ruleset instead of 2...

A Fel-only server, which included all the content of Fel & Tram on one map, would be, by definition, a special ruleset server. This is because the devs would need to maintain, at the very least, a special map file (though they can likely be able to reuse the Siege map for such a shard).

At any rate, we have two Fel-only "hard" shards. They have virtually no population. We don't need a third. 

“Would need to maintain” IF the shard was a massive flop which the current sour grapes carebear player base want (which we all know it wouldn’t be with a new better clientel) They wouldn’t bother “maintaining” anything. 

Any new, non transferable shard would be an instant reset of gold/duped items. So players won't have billions and would be free of duped items.

With EJ and countless pirate shards running such a ruleset, I'd say there is definitely a lot of interest.

With all the dead shards I'm sure the Devs could make one(or two for east/west sides) into a fel only ruleset.  It might prove popular at first but I think it would just end up the way most shards are now.  Dead.

Dead shards should be archived at the very least anyway.

Build it and they will come

I like this idea. A fresh shard that cannot have xfers and doesn't have a destroyed economy. Plus Fel Ruleset everywhere and Item Insurance. That would be bad ass I think it would become popular.

A shard with all Fel ruleset should probably not have housing areas in guard zone (i.e., no housing plots in Magincia).

I have no idea why you would want to restrict housing to non guard zones. Please explain further. 

Please do not go live with a new non transferable shard if there is an active duping exploit. Would COMPLETELY ruin the economy.

Don't know how I even missed this thread.

Think it was because I was leading a crusade on Stratics for exactly the same thing, and saying exactly the same stuff. I think I was allowing Mervyn to run this one without interference from me, as I represent the opposite to him in gameplay.

May as well put my name to this one as well - this is an obvious must have for me.

I believe in this concept for UO.

(I also believe if they had to close/convert some shards to make this happen, that would be a fair trade).

I personally, am happy enough now, on Siege, or Europa, I can get a mix of styles, but this would be a really positive game addition, I think Margrette made the perfect post detailing ALL the differences between Siege, and a current day Felucca shard.

Edit - @Mariah ; - I think Margrette's post is so good, that list should be up on UO.com somewhere if it isn't already - as the definitive list of differences between Siege and Production shards, it's a really useful list to have, and would have been useful to me when I started Siege.

I can add a number 31 - There are no Cursed Item drops (as everything is uninsurable anyway), but to compensate, 50 Stone weight items, and Strength requirement 125 item drops are far more common negative properties.

I think you have more popularity than me cookie however it’s not about personality, its about what is best for the game. Jimmy Savile ran a lot of marathons for charity, doesn’t mean running marathons for charity a bad thing.

please link to Margrette’s post. 

Margrette said:

Bilbo said:

I thought Siege had all the land masses that prodo shards do only they are all Fel ruleset.  Just copy Siege and allow insurance and do not give them anything else and lets see how many people go there.

No, Siege is missing the "Trammel" land mass.  (Mugen has it, however.)

There are other differences between Siege/Mugen and other shards.  To name just a few:

1. You can only have one character per account.
2. Nothing is insurable. You can "Siege bless" one item and use clothing bless deeds on clothing items that don't have magical properties.
3. Crafted spellbooks are not blessed.  However, there are some "event" spellbooks with mods on them that are inexplicably blessed.
4. NPCs don't do skill training.
5. Mugen has the newbie character quests and accelerated skill gain area in Haven; Siege does not.
6. Items purchased from NPCs cost 3X what they cost on other shards.
7. Many items you can purchase from NPCs in lots up to 500 on other shards and at an increasing cost (e.g., small gems) can only be purchased on Siege/Mugen in smaller quantities, starting at 20 and doubling over time as they refill up to a maximum of 1000.  
8. NPCs don't buy items from players.
9. You can't recall or use sacred journey spells.
10. You can't inviz yourself when using the taming skill.
11. Telekinesis spell won't open locked containers.
12. Failing to place a trap causes more damage than on other shards.
13. Tools like scissors, axes used for cutting lumber, bladed weapons used for cutting leather or kindling, crooks used for herding, and fishing poles have a limited number of uses before they disappear.
14. Arms lore skill gives a greater bonus to resists on exceptionally crafted armor and to damage increase on weapons than on other shards.
15. There's no passive detect hidden.
16. The Rate over Time system applies to skill gains past 70.0.  There is a cap (can't remember what it is) on stat gains per day.
17. Aggressive dark wisps inhabit forested areas.
18. The Underworld entrance is in the daemon temple and there is no volcano on the Isle of Fire.
19. I don't think there's any equivalent to the Haven mine on Siege.
20. You can't character copy a character on Siege or Mugen to Test Center.
21. You can't transfer a character from Siege or Mugen to any other shard (including NO transfers between Siege and Mugen).
22. There are no double resources for gathering resources anywhere on Siege or Mugen.
23. I'm not sure where you fish on Siege for yellowtail barracuda.
24. Push-through applies on the whole shard.
25. Non-consensual PvP applies on the whole shard.
26. If you want to train bushido skill, you'll need jewelry with bushido skill on it to even start unless you set it as one of your starting skills because there are no low-level bushido moves and you can't train it from an NPC.
27. I believe characters created with the "paladin" template on Siege start on Ocllo and there is no way for them to get off the island on their own.
28. I believe there are no artifact or equipment rewards available on Siege or Mugen if your character is in Vice vs. Virtue.
29. Exceptionally-crafted tools have more uses than on other shards.
30. NPCs don't sell cloth or bandages.

This one. Really useful for someone going from Production to Siege, I ran into almost every single one of these.

 31 - There are no Cursed Item drops (as everything is uninsurable anyway), but to compensate, 50 Stone weight items, and Strength requirement 125 item drops are far more common negative properties.

This is the current information we have on Siege Perilous: https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/gameplay/siege-perilous/

Ahh nice one, thanks for replying Mariah. 🙂

You almost win, but I do think there are some additional points in the above list, the Bushido training one(26), or the Paladin starter skill (27), would both catch a player out completely. (I almost had to delete a character, and wait 3 days to create a new one, highly frustrating - if Tjalle had not helped me out).

One thing I'd like to mention about the uo.com wiki, and the reason I always need to ask for guidance on what is there or not - is I really struggle with the index system.

I've been with uoguide.com for the last god knows how many years, and I find things really easy to find on there. Whilst you have got many good in-depth articles on uo.com wiki - I really struggle to find, or reference them.

Is there anything you can do, to improve the Index, or the Search options?

Hard to explain my exact problem, but I really struggle to find stuff.

Another Edit - I've just had another look at your Index, and can see it is developing all the time.

Mervyn,

Ive been playing this game since 1997. Ive taken time off here and there but lastly got back into the game in 2011 and have been a continued member of the UO society since. Being that Im this old I have seen the game go through so many changes over the years and I cannot express how much I enjoy being able to login every time I play and see the same worlds and towns for so many years. Nostalgia and just shear enjoyment of it all.

Though I agree that the economy has gotten grossly out of hand and needs fixed, what you're suggesting is simply a bad idea. You're idea is more or less to take the game back to 1997 rules. That wasnt a good time and drove players away from the game. Thats why they setup Trammel to begin with. A safe zone was needed. You'd be out mining with no defensive skills but have to fight off some archer PK that wanted to be a murderer. It wasnt good and wouldnt bring anyone back to the game.

What would increase the population of the game for all shards is advertising. Thats really it. Basic, annoying, in your face advertising. Startup apps do it, UO should doo. Though I doubt EA will allow funds for it.

Thanks for the comment and suggestion. It contributes to the UO community that I love so much!

Mervyn,

Fel only shards do not work. Thats the point I was making. Any return players that come in just for that would be minimal anyway. Either way though, it would require marketing to be successful. Which was the point of my comment. UO must advertise to increase its player base. Now is a good time to do it too since younger folks and kids are becoming more interested in classic gaming. Its a great opportunity for UO to reintroduce itself to the gaming world.

Best.

Quintus said:

Mervyn,

Fel only shards do not work. Thats the point I was making. Any return players that come in just for that would be minimal anyway. 

How do you know? We haven’t tried it.

so you’re saying we would have minimal people come? Minimal is better than 0. What actually is your problem? You’re completely contradicting yourself. You’re saying my idea is like returning uo to its original state and you’re saying it won’t work cos people are becoming more interested in classic gaming??
These are rhetorical questions, I’m hoping you don’t waste your time continuing to troll. Trust me, I should know when someone is trolling, (i also find it interesting when someone posts when they’ve never posted before, almost as if they have more than one account and they wouldn’t want to say what they are saying on their main account)

but I agree uo should advertise, but it’s in a bit of a shambolic state at the moment. They’ve just had the biggest bug fix that basically introduced more bugs. 

Bro,

You're misunderstanding everything. Let it go. Thx.

Okay bro 

How about this Mervyn. Start a Felucca only guild. Make everyone red, that way you insure no one goes to trammel. Then just live life in Felucca. I understand the reset and all, but there are countless shards (I say countless as I have never counted) that this could be done on. Pick a nice quiet shard where not too many people are make a nice post in the forum that can not be mentioned or linked and keep it active (since those who aren't playing can't see here or post here). Show the Dev team the true interest in such a shard and have it get their attention. Then come to the table with some concrete plans and evidence of the desire. You could do a grass roots riot and everyone page at the same time to show solidarity. And yes I am serious.

But what will prevent people from making a char on this new shard and all the other shards as well and splitting their time like they do now? (for the record I don't)

New shard is not for existing players. 

Mervyn said:

New shard is not for existing players. 

what good is bringing in new players that current players can't play with ? 

Where do you believe "this post" belongs? 

I’m not suggesting that current players should not be allowed to join, I’m just saying the target audience is new players, sure current players can join however according to responses on this thread, no current player would be interested. 

In all those years of helping out new players, I never met one of them in Fel. Youre new shard would be as unpopulated as Siege. You would need to rework the whole PvP mechanics to make them appeasing to new players. They are way to tedious to get anyone new interested. I guess you don't play many games apart from UO..

Well the kind players would be in fel, because there would be no trammel. Although in my experience players in trammel are far more unsavoury than those in fel. With one facet the players would not be split. Just remember, There will still be guard zones. You know there are guard zones in fel right?

why not make this new shard preAOS no items properties no PS 7x GM skills and no Fel then it would be full of players....

1 not technically possible
2 I was around for pre aos, game was terrible, we wear nostalgic glasses. But the game consisted of spending 30 mins magic traping pouches, followed by everyone casting para para, magic reflect para. Game was bad, but then again at least there was no auto pet logout exploiting. And I do miss reagents.

but you are asking for something already there if you want to be able to PVP everywhere you can there VvV start a guild war i suggested this else where and was amused by the irony of the PK who calls people tram carebears bemoaning the fact that during a guild war his crafter got ganked in luna this same PK who talks in general chat about killing helpless miners. just to be sure what you want is an all fel rule set (so Seige) but with everything a propdo shard offers IE insurance and normal skill gain??

McDougle said:

but you are asking for something already there if you want to be able to PVP everywhere 

No you should read the thread, I don’t want to repeat myself, it’s not about pvp, it’s about making a good economy for crafters. 

You don’t see all the posts about how Siege is different? Not asking for Siege. Please read entire thread before posting.

i have had posts removed for repeating myself. 

oh I've read the thread and dozens and dozens like it the fact remains you ask for something already there...

Most people don't care for the fel facets what makes you think a fel only shard would be a success?

 Mervyn, seriously, give up the ghost, and bring your guild to Siege. 🙂

Yes it's much harder, yes you'll start again, but that's fun tbh, and a challenge.

I don't think you can win, or get any form of movement from the Trammie zealots who now run the game, so leave them.

Mervyn said:

  it’s about making a good economy for crafters. 

Instead of making a whole new shard, why not address the issue from a crafting angle? I have no doubt you could get a whole slew of people on board for making crafting more viable. It seems to be a broader thoughtful direction instead of starting from scratch.

Gidge said:

Mervyn said:

  it’s about making a good economy for crafters. 

Instead of making a whole new shard, why not address the issue from a crafting angle? I have no doubt you could get a whole slew of people on board for making crafting more viable. It seems to be a broader thoughtful direction instead of starting from scratch.

What do you think could be done to make it better?
What do you think is lacking now?

I've come to a point of view, the problems are too many, and there is a small group of players with agendas for keeping the status quo, to be able to get any traction for improving anything, this includes crafting. This is why my opinions, or suggestions for fixes often seem extreme, because the problems are so many, I think we are better off with a complete reset somehow.

I don't think there are a whole slew of Crafters anymore, they just let the Trammies wipe them out without so much as a word. They never stuck up for themselves, because they were a more passive, calmer group of players, who just sat and watched as their playstyle got burned to the ground.

Quite frankly, in the old days, the Crafters should have stuck with the PvPers, instead of the Sampires. But now their time is gone, as is the PvPers pretty much.

Issues with Crafting.

• None of their products have any meaning or use in comparison to Legendary PvM gear. But the Devs cannot buff their gear in any way because of the below;
• The fact Scripters or Dupers have created unlimited quantities of their resources has meant there is no meaning to collecting their resources - so the gatherers have nothing to do (this includes me), and the Devs feel they cannot give Crafters any decent content, because all the scripted/duped resources will come into play, and wipe out the new crafting content within a week. So the only way Crafting can be improved, is if an entirely new system comes into play (too much work to create), or there is a huge wipe on current resources, or we move to a shard like Siege that hasn't been so affected, or we start on a new shard. If we try and buff crafting in anyway - and if you look at my past posts, I've been vocal in trying to buff crafting - one of the few, you will see players saying there is absolutely no need. I personally think there is, I think the current game-style is wiping out so many gamestyles and the players responsible don't even see it.
• PS - The actual Crafting systems themselves are perfect, nothing wrong with the system, just the fact they hardly contribute anything to the Endgame anymore and too many of their Resources are stockpiled illegally into the system, destroying Crafting, and the Economy.

Mervyn said:

Well the kind players would be in fel, because there would be no trammel. Although in my experience players in trammel are far more unsavoury than those in fel. With one facet the players would not be split. Just remember, There will still be guard zones. You know there are guard zones in fel right?

Because there would be no Trammel, only half a dozen players would be playing that shard at all. Of course, those would be in Fel. But it's still wishful thinking that it would be an populated shard. Take off your rose-colored glasses.. 

JollyJade said:

Because there would be no Trammel, only half a dozen players would be playing that shard at all. Of course, those would be in Fel. But it's still wishful thinking that it would be an populated shard. Take off your rose-colored glasses.. 

Where does Siege rank in the populated shards?

How busy is Felucca on both Europa and Atlantic, the busiest shards?

They just let the Trammies wipe them out? I never knew Trammies could wipe out crafters. I suppose I never looked at the people of UO being in gangs.

But you said it yourself Cookie, None of their products have any meaning or use in comparison to Legendary PvM gear.

I admit that I myself don't even being to understand the broad spectrum of armour crafting. It is mathematically and numerically beyond me. I suppose I could take time, but I do understand that some of the drops I see could never be manufactured.

 Gidge said:

They just let the Trammies wipe them out? I never knew Trammies could wipe out crafters. I suppose I never looked at the people of UO being in gangs.

- Life is all about Gangs and which Tribe you belong to.

I admit that I myself don't even being to understand the broad spectrum of armour crafting. It is mathematically and numerically beyond me. I suppose I could take time, but I do understand that some of the drops I see could never be manufactured.

- Yep.

But I still don't see how starting a new shard will prevent the people on that shard from just bypassing crafting and going straight to monster loot.

- True. This is where Siege has an advantage in this regard. The no insurance ruleset, means you have to be very careful about what you wear, when you wear it, can you afford to lose it - the result being - Crafted Items retain their value and meaning in the game.

I don't think people having stockpiles of resources is the cause of less crafting. If anything should it not be the boon of?

- It's good if you want to buy items in bulk for training.

- From the Developers perspective, looking at it now, they cannot introduce any new crafting content which uses current resources, because the content will be flattened within a week, as people bring their 60k piles of resources to complete the content. This means, they have to develop an entirely new crafting system, which in a way, is not required, as the crafting system itself is not bad at all, most aspects. So it is not the boon of, because it is preventing crafting being fixed, or anything new or meaningful coming in.

You claim people have lost heart in regards to not wanting to gather it and feel gathering all for naught? People could just all decide to bypass buying resources and gather it themselves thus alleviating the store bought scriptors?

- You try farming for a particular Item, taking an hour to get 10 of them, and knowing out there are 60k stacks, it destroys your morale. Therefore the whole gathering playstyle has been decimated.

Where there is a vacuum something will fill in that void. There is always some upstart who wants to be the new powerhouse goto guy/girl to buy things from. Make a name for themselves in game.

- Have to disagree. Sometimes systems get so unbalanced, they cannot recover on their own. Look at Capitalism, where 1% of the worlds people, own 99% of the worlds wealth. A similar thing has happened in UO. That's why I call for drastic measures - this situation does not have to be.

Get enough players to actually come to Siege for PvP, then get the numbers together that have always been needed to change the shard. Right now you won't get the changes through because changes on Siege are controlled by the PvM crowd, there are PLENTY of pvp'rs who could come to Siege and get things changed for the better. We don't need a new Felucca only shard, that's ignorant and is only being requested by players that want to be able to transfer there and bring their stuff with them, but you could absolutely get the changes  you want if you bring enough voices with you, but it'll never happen.

Garth_Grey said:

Get enough players to actually come to Siege for PvP, then get the numbers together that have always been needed to change the shard. Right now you won't get the changes through because changes on Siege are controlled by the PvM crowd, there are PLENTY of pvp'rs who could come to Siege and get things changed for the better. We don't need a new Felucca only shard, that's ignorant and is only being requested by players that want to be able to transfer there and bring their stuff with them, but you could absolutely get the changes  you want if you bring enough voices with you, but it'll never happen.

This is certainly a solution, and one I would happily work towards - already am!

I can see exactly what you are saying, and why you say it.

I have tried siege and was turned off. The thrill of losing everything to pk or dying too deep in a dungeon was neat and brought me there. What i didnt realize after a day of killing birds for feathers was that no vendor would buy them... ok... all i have is a katana... immedately the fun went out the window. I stayed though, and killed mongbats and skeletons. Then I was on the forum and realized on this “tough guy” shard you could use soul stones? Seriously? Also, you can use a mythic token... nuff said. Siege is annoying at best. 

So... make the Fel only shard. Normal UO, looks like we get a couple peerless for that crimmy drop, and thats it. You can’t transfer in. Everybody starting from scratch. But I can f’n recall and sell damn materials to a vendor. I can 7x gm in a day and I can keep the suit I made with my damn crafter cause I got 5 guys! Not some siege work around 5 accounts, soul stones and mythic tokens... but we’re hard core here... 

I like the idea, call the shard Classic. God it would take forever to farm legendaries on abcess or Lady Mel, and oh snap, sharing Blackthorn’s? You can be pk’ed anywhere but town and everybody needs everything and YOU can be pk’d practically everywhere you farm. Hard to farm Mel if you cant farm keys... 

Anyhow, I get the awesome idea here

Totally worthless idea and waste of DEV time for a small group of UO players that can't handle real hardcore PvP.

@Bilbo when you say real hardcore you mean the pay to win pvp? Because for $500 I can buy 840+ skill with max stats and mods suit and literally faceroll with a Nox, bush, mage. Not an ounce of skill required. Siege is annoying to play. But you know what? F2P shards cover this... oh ya, and have populations... weird. If official servers had a T2A/Pre-AoS Legacy shard they would have a new player base. Also if siege would have never seen AoS it’d be packed. Nobody cares to lose regs and gm weapons they just have fun bashing eachother to peices and the economy thrives off pvp. 

Game is broke but I still like it better than the other endless games I’ve played so oh well. 

Mervyn said:

I thought of a 0 effort way to introduce a fel only shard.They could create a new shard with completely normal rules (except non transferable), make it so that you start in a fel city, and simply disable trammel on the moongate gump.

You wouldn't be able to do any trammel only content (so no doom artis, imbueing ingredients or slithers etc..), but if the shard was popular then they could start turning ter.mur and malas into fel etc..

Sounds great to me.  Then slowly put the fel only items in Tram on the other shards.

Win Win

Ikeelu said:

@ Bilbo when you say real hardcore you mean the pay to win pvp? Because for $500 I can buy 840+ skill with max stats and mods suit and literally faceroll with a Nox, bush, mage. Not an ounce of skill required. Siege is annoying to play. But you know what? F2P shards cover this... oh ya, and have populations... weird. If official servers had a T2A/Pre-AoS Legacy shard they would have a new player base. Also if siege would have never seen AoS it’d be packed. Nobody cares to lose regs and gm weapons they just have fun bashing eachother to peices and the economy thrives off pvp. 

Game is broke but I still like it better than the other endless games I’ve played so oh well. 

No I mean real PvP like is on SP where it aint all about the insured gear.

Bilbo said:

No I mean real PvP like is on SP where it aint all about the insured gear.

I've personally really enjoyed playing SP, but I've stopped at the moment, I cannot get used to the ROT skillgain system.

I like to just play the game, but when I play, I like to see a skillgain every now and again, if I need to train skills, or especially if I've been deliberately trying to train it.

I just don't see that under ROT, I hate the fact, you have to log in for 1 minute, to get a skillgain, then that's it. it provides no incentive to actually play or train. Feels like the whole skillgain system is dead as part of your playstyle. It's got so slow for me, I've got bored of it, I'll be honest.

For me, its a shame, I love the shard itself, and everything it stands for, hope to be back when I can mentally manage it again. The craft skills are the ones that have really killed me, it just feels so wrong as a training/skillgain system, when you train a crafting skill, you do really expect to get a gain... Not just limited to 0.1 every god knows how long set period, I cannot stand to log in, get gain, log out. I want to play it, but to play it, knowing you won't get any gain, feels so pointless, especially when that's your main target, and all you really want.

I've found myself on Atlantic, which although is a completely scummy broken game, at least has a certain pace to it in terms of character progression when you just play.

I think my point is, the winning combination for a ton of players, would be Siege rulesets, with Production skillgain system. This is why there is often talk of a middle way/Felucca only shards.

@Cookie ; No they want a Fel only rule set with everything the prodo shards have, esp INS because they can't handle SP.  I would love UO to do this and give them all one way tickets then do away with the Fel rule set on all Prodo Shards, not the land just the rule set.  I can already hear the whining now, I wanna come back because it is so dead, LOL.

Why don't they just add insurance to SP?  Add cursed items like prodo shards have.  You already can lose a lot of things even on prodo shards.  Things that can't be insured.  Why must they insist you lose everything including ALL your gear.  Add insurance or increase the Siege Blessing to more than one item.  Say, five or six items OR eight, covers a set of armor and jewls.

I'm just throwing that out there.  I scanned through most the thread.  Maybe somebody else already mentioned it and I missed it.

As far as insurance goes though, remember, everything on Siege costs more.  So if you ring up 4k-5k on prodo shards when you die.  You're gonna pay up 15k or so when you die on Siege.

Siege is annoying to play... you need multiple accounts to function properly and most of what I have witnessed people do. Its fun to run around with the risk but the skill gain is off putting, waiting to find +25 bushifo jewels is off putting. Having to take a month to gm skill is off putting. The more I think of it a PvP shard wont help anything. PvP isn’t the issue at all, PK trolling is. 

In the beginning there was no such thing as insurance on any shard.  Gear was generic and easily replaceable.  Those days are long gone.

Personally I think the extreme itemization of gear lends weight to the idea of a PvP shard that includes insurance.  I would suggest something like 3x insurance cost or increase the bless count to 20.

SP players were asked about INS and they do not want it, WOW, UO listening to its players.

For all of those people making statements like 'no one would play there'
There is absolutely no truth in this statement. 
You could say "oh I wouldn't play there".  But no,  you insist on misleading others to believe that your play style is the only one that they should allow.  It isn't!

But since we're stating opinions (and you all know what they say about opinions),  I'll give mine.
Since the dawn of Trammel,  UO has seen a huge decline in population.  Many of those departed players were avid PvPers,  Both red and blue alike. 
I would even be so bold as to say that the amount of PvPers that left UO would dwarf todays UO population.   Yes,  more pvpers have left the game than all of us put together. 
That's a huge player base that we no longer have and I haven't seen anything done by the dev team to regain that market that has actually worked.  VvV was a good effort but wasn't substantial enough to be truly effective.

I feel that what the OP has suggested would be effective at regaining these lost players and the added revenue would  justify the time and effort required by the developers.
Now aside from borrowing some of the Dev's valuable time,  adding a fel ruleset shard with insurance would not impact production shard players one bit.  For those that don't want to see the devs waste there time on it.  All i have to say is this...  You are a greedy greedy self centered bunch!

Before this thread gets shut down I just want to say again.

If you want a new shard you have to show how it would at least pay for it self let alone make a profit for Broadsword and EA. (Capitalism SUCKS) I don't see any change in UO that would or could compete with the modern "free" PVP games out there. Why play UO PVP and put up with a buggy interface relatively poor graphics and all the rest if you are not already invested in the game? So don't even bother with "Build it and they will come" unless you have some evidence to back it up. If I was looking for a PVP game it wouldn't be UO.

As for only costing some of the Dev's time are you forgetting about servers and bandwidth costs because the accountants at EA and Broadsword haven't ?

As I see it UO is a niche game that will no longer attract a large following without some massive changes. The first being a complete rewrite of the core program to kill all the bugs and bring the interface up to modern standers. In other words don't hold your breath.

That is not to say I think it is doomed. UO could live for many more years in the niche as long as they don't do anything stupid. Such as wast a lot of money just trying to be what they are not. UO was only full on PVP for a very small portion of their existence. Note I did not say it was the best of times or the worst of time just that it was short and a long time ago.

That being said if you want some suggestions on how to pay for it about I'll be happy to help. But be prepared most of my ideas end with put up $ or shut up.

Call me ignorant but how do free shards operate? I have heard multiple people thst play free say they miss the stability of OSI. I realize the pre-aos days are dead but people left in mass due to aos and the item changes. I cant prove anybody would come back but if there was a legacy shard you’d have to choose between freeshards or OSI and I think people may pop in. Keep the same housing rules, no extra houses on legacy like siege. Get right back to pre-aos. Its just pvp (not pay to win) and the economy that theives off said pvp. PvM types supply power and vanq weps, smiths provide gm armor and weps, alchemists provide potions, you buy it cause you lose it. Sure it sucks losing a vanq, supremely accurate, indestructable katana, but risk and reward... Anybody can farm ogre lords for drops.. ANYBODY! 7xgm builds allow diversity and equality. Anybody, ANYBODY can 7xgm. No artifacts, no special drops, no powder of fortification. Items break and items drop. People play free shards to have this. Then they buy things with micro transactions I guess... The game is not what it was in 97, 03, or even 09. It is completely broken. I personally think removing pking would help prodo. I think pre-aos would bring back players. 

Ikeelu said:

I think pre-aos would bring back players. 

Pre-AOS was GARBAGE, I said it. People remember the game with rose tinted glasses because there were tons more players. But the game was terrible, the pvp was awful, para para explode fs para. 

UO lost most of its players to World of Warcraft, not because of AOS. 

I cant remember when siege was released but had it stayed in a vacuum i think it would be packed. Even if it takes a month to gm a skill, you cant recall, and boats cost a ton. 

For me, I think I noticed the biggest decline in players after ML and the stealth archer dominance.  I didn't quit UO but that's definitely when I gave up PvP.  Especially after healing speed was nerfed.

Mervyn said:

Ikeelu said:

I think pre-aos would bring back players. 

Pre-AOS was GARBAGE, I said it. People remember the game with rose tinted glasses because there were tons more players. But the game was terrible, the pvp was awful, para para explode fs para. 

UO lost most of its players to World of Warcraft, not because of AOS. 

Then why are the longstanding free shards all T2A and Renaissance? 

Pre Age of Shit was NOT Garbage.  PvP was all about skill and for anybody to say PvP was worse couldn't PvP their way out of a wet paper bag.  Real PvP is only found on Sp and what people say is PvP in todays UO is nothing but EvE

Bilbo said:

Pre Age of Shit was NOT Garbage.  PvP was all about skill and for anybody to say PvP was worse couldn't PvP their way out of a wet paper bag.  Real PvP is only found on Sp and what people say is PvP in todays UO is nothing but EvE

Gosh, I finally agree with Bilbo’s opinion 

I would say the biggest attraction to this shard would not be the fel only rule, but the non transfer rule. 

Ikeelu said:

Siege is annoying to play... you need multiple accounts to function properly and most of what I have witnessed people do. Its fun to run around with the risk but the skill gain is off putting, waiting to find +25 bushifo jewels is off putting. Having to take a month to gm skill is off putting. The more I think of it a PvP shard wont help anything. PvP isn’t the issue at all, PK trolling is. 

I don't think you ever logged on to Siege at all, because you clearly have no clue at all what you're talking about.

@Garth_Grey If you don’t have a soul stone or a second account please keep talking. Otherwise please enlighten me? I have a house, I’ve collected a LRC suit. I play when im completely fed up on prodo but still havent GM’ed a skill. I see no PvP, I read the chat but nothing too interesting. Maybe I just buy a mythic token on the “hard shard” to get a head start. 

You won't be the first person to ever buy a mythic token on Siege. I've bought several myself, and once you learn how to do it, you can  GM and 120 any skill in the game in faster time than you think.

What we need, and I know it's been said is a pre AOS shard and I know they said they don't have a copy... Like I believe that... They could simply make a ring that has all the stats on it... Make it blessed, everyone has it and you can play naked on foot like the days of old. That would end the game of needing the best of the best gear to play and make the game playable again. 

Why not just relaunch the Second age version with the original patch's de bugged, and see who comes out to play,  Everything be pre Trammel rule sets and stats. 

Bilbo said:

Pre Age of Shit was NOT Garbage.  PvP was all about skill and for anybody to say PvP was worse couldn't PvP their way out of a wet paper bag.  Real PvP is only found on Sp and what people say is PvP in todays UO is nothing but EvE

WOW Bilbo has my vote on this one

This vision is now being realised. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7thyJjHhE6U

Mervyn said:

This vision is now being realised. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7thyJjHhE6U

Except they are shying away from the Felucca, PvP aspect due to a minority of very loud pvm Trammel players.

How this misinformation happened in the first place, and has been allowed to enbed like it has, is beyond me. Other games are all about the pvp, and the integration of a balanced game, and they are working fine, it's just a vocal minority in UO that have pulled off completely diluting this game.

All the people watching and dying to come back are asking;

"What about the pvp?"

And no-one is answering that question.

Lieutenant_Dan said:

For all of those people making statements like 'no one would play there'
There is absolutely no truth in this statement. 
You could say "oh I wouldn't play there".  But no,  you insist on misleading others to believe that your play style is the only one that they should allow.  It isn't!

But since we're stating opinions (and you all know what they say about opinions),  I'll give mine.
Since the dawn of Trammel,  UO has seen a huge decline in population.  Many of those departed players were avid PvPers,  Both red and blue alike. 
I would even be so bold as to say that the amount of PvPers that left UO would dwarf todays UO population.   Yes,  more pvpers have left the game than all of us put together. 
That's a huge player base that we no longer have and I haven't seen anything done by the dev team to regain that market that has actually worked.  VvV was a good effort but wasn't substantial enough to be truly effective.

I feel that what the OP has suggested would be effective at regaining these lost players and the added revenue would  justify the time and effort required by the developers.
Now aside from borrowing some of the Dev's valuable time,  adding a fel ruleset shard with insurance would not impact production shard players one bit.  For those that don't want to see the devs waste there time on it.  All i have to say is this...  You are a greedy greedy self centered bunch!

To me, this is one of the best quotes and posts in this topic.

Cookie said:

Mervyn said:

This vision is now being realised. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7thyJjHhE6U

Except they are shying away from the Felucca, PvP aspect due to a minority of very loud pvm Trammel players.

How this misinformation happened in the first place, and has been allowed to enbed like it has, is beyond me. Other games are all about the pvp, and the integration of a balanced game, and they are working fine, it's just a vocal minority in UO that have pulled off completely diluting this game.

All the people watching and dying to come back are asking;

"What about the pvp?"

And no-one is answering that question.

The dfference is, that other games have been quite succesfully in dealing with PvP cheating.... 

Some use the VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat ), some others use other ways to detect and then ban cheaters.

Some game Companies have banned even millions of players for cheating in their games....

https://www.thegamer.com/pubg-mobile-bans-2-2-million-accounts-hacking/

Or many tens of thousands... https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/blizzard-closes-76000-wow-accounts-3549451.html

In Ultima Online, because it is old code possibly, it has always been hard to succeed in stopping players from cheating. Over the Years a lot of Developers Teams have been trying hard to get rid of cheating in Ultima Online but, unfortunately, it keeps going on and being quite rampant as one can tell from many Forum posts or by seeing it in the game.

Unfortunately, many players believe that playing competitive PvP in games where cheating is possible, is not worth their time.

Why bother with trying to play a competitive PvP if there is a good chance that an opponent might be using Cheats, hacks or scripts to get an edge when they do not want to play with any cheating involved ?

So, these players simply do not bother.

At least, that is how I see it.

In South Korea, they fill stadiums of fans to watch people play certain games, do you think they’ll fill stadiums watching Sampires spam AI on every single monster, throwing in an occasional whirlwind when more mobs appear?

On a guess most casual and new player (yes there are still a few) are not PvPs nor do they read or post here. If you don't agree with that look at how many different names are posting. 

Never forget this is a small echo camber and does not necessarily reflect the average player's views. 

If the team is not going to prioritize PvP they probably have numbers that show it's not what the "average" player wants. Actually watching them reminisce on the stream I think some of the priority they do put on PvP is the "good old days" effect.