Black Gate Feedback

On another note, the controllers began to spawn where they can't be hit in the southwest room of Exodus Dungeon. It's been over an hour since I paged a GM about this and I have yet to receive a response, have the controllers moved to where they can be killed, or even get a "you're x in line" message that I vaguely remember receiving in the past.

Say again ?

Talk me through it, should I be farming this stuff in advance?

Yeah, Compassion Sage has always been a really rare drop.

You will need one for every time you do quest. I started on my home shard too. I remember it taking forever to get one to drop. (I won't say how lucky I was when I went tonight and got one on the second controller I killed.)

Some off topic posts were removed. Please do not hijack this thread.

Ok in response to this, I don't think the farming of Compassion Sage is too bad.

I went to Exodus, I pulled the spawn away from a room, 2 controllers spawn almost constantly, and the drop rate is about 1 every 15 minutes. My mage is in SDI gear, and 1 shot kills each Controller, they are easy to kill, with protection on.

I've got 6 so far.

I actually think that is fairly balanced for this type of thing.

If memory serves the controllers in and around Mistas also drop compassion sage.

.any controller in ilshenar drops them

I had more drops with a melee character than with pets or mage if it can help with drops 

the drop rate seems fine to me but i have been fishing for three months... take your bard they are still kings in Exodus !

has anyone finished quest what is the reward?

Cookie said:

Ok in response to this, I don't think the farming of Compassion Sage is too bad.

I went to Exodus, I pulled the spawn away from a room, 2 controllers spawn almost constantly, and the drop rate is about 1 every 15 minutes. My mage is in SDI gear, and 1 shot kills each Controller, they are easy to kill, with protection on.

I've got 6 so far.

I actually think that is fairly balanced for this type of thing.

My mage also one shots them. My guild mate used his fire beetle in another area. Between the two of us we got 0 after 4+ man hours. 

What is this used for, Is it going to be used for the new quest in Minoc?  

I went to Exodus and killed approx 12 controllers and got one. 

CFCMAGIC said:

What is this used for, Is it going to be used for the new quest in Minoc?  

It is used for one of the 'mini' quest from Julia.

McDougle said:

has anyone finished quest what is the reward?

Marge said:

CFCMAGIC said:

What is this used for, Is it going to be used for the new quest in Minoc?  

It is used for one of the 'mini' quest from Julia.

McDougle said:

has anyone finished quest what is the reward?

The reward is the virtue stone tile.

*Edited to add the picture I found on another post.

You receive a random virtue tile - not necessarily the one you will see in your reward gump. They are shard bound.

ohooohoh just the type of pixel crack i live for these days !!

@Kyronix My only complaint is that you get a random Virtue Stone.  I would rather pick mine from a list.  I did it last night on my t-hunter/tamer and it wasn't too bad.  I ended up with 4 Compassion Sage by going to a room in the NW corner  of Exodus Dungeon in about 30 minutes so even that's not terrible.  I really wanted a Valor Stone but got Sacrifice.

Big thanks to @Cinderella for her help getting me started on the quest and gating a few of us to the different Quest Givers.  I only have 2 chars on Origin that could do the quest since it definitely requires someone with fighting ability. 

ZekeTerra said:

@ Kyronix My only complaint is that you get a random Virtue Stone.  I would rather pick mine from a list.  I did it last night on my t-hunter/tamer and it wasn't too bad.  I ended up with 4 Compassion Sage by going to a room in the NW corner  of Exodus Dungeon in about 30 minutes so even that's not terrible.  I really wanted a Valor Stone but got Sacrifice.

Big thanks to @ Cinderella for her help getting me started on the quest and gating a few of us to the different Quest Givers.  I only have 2 chars on Origin that could do the quest since it definitely requires someone with fighting ability. 

What was your luck? I tried with 0 and 1100 and still haven’t got sage. 

0 luck

So two people have gotten absurd results for a 2% drop rate. Based on my guild's experience, plus the complaints in gen chat, they are extreme outliers.

2 to 3 hours, that was all I could stand. Got 6. 0 luck.  But I was constantly invising and e bolt.  Lots of them in exodus dungeon. Killed many. I'm sure Popps will write a comprehensive treatise on the subject when he finds out he needs to do this.  Repetitive killing of same thing, skilling, puzzles, all things I hate.

I found 0 vanilla seeds.

Maximus_Neximus said:

So two people have gotten absurd results for a 2% drop rate. Based on my guild's experience, plus the complaints in gen chat, they are extreme outliers.

I'm not sure my results were absurd, I think they were maybe slightly better than average, nothing more.

Like Zeke, I had 0 Luck and I went to NW corner of Exodus, I pulled all the other spawn away, leaving me with 2 constantly spawning controllers = 1 every 30 seconds. That's an expected rate of 1 Compassion Sage every 25 minutes.

I did stay for a 7th Compassion Sage, my average went down (I actually think I got tired, and slowed down killing), maybe it was 1 every 20 minutes.

There are so many controllers in Exodus, and they respawn instantly almost. in exactly the same areas, just pick an area, and own it.

Or just run around and kill them all.  Too bad you have to be in war mode to auto open corpses. Invis takes you out. Spend more time trying to get the corpse open than killing.

I went this morning for about 4 hours and got 31 with two tamers.  I was the only one there and just lured spawn out of two rooms which left 2 controllers in each room.   The drop rate was much better than reading this thread led me to expect, hence why I went.  If you had to compete for mobs it would be a pita tho.

Maximus_Neximus said:

I didn't see an official post for this, so I figured I'd make one.

Compassion Sage. According to UOGuide it has a 1 in 50 (2% for those who don't like math) drop rate. I have farmed controllers for nearly two hours now and have yet to get one. This really needs bumped up in some way. It's incredibly discouraging and not fun whatsoever killing controllers ad nauseam. I planned on doing this quest 8 times, or however many as I can, to trade for what I don't get. But as is, I barely want to do it once.

Can the drop rate be raised to at least 20% or add an additional means of obtaining this.

Just to be sure, did you look in the corpses? Because its not a drop in your bag, but you have to loot it.

Marge said:

CFCMAGIC said:

What is this used for, Is it going to be used for the new quest in Minoc?  

It is used for one of the 'mini' quest from Julia.

McDougle said:

has anyone finished quest what is the reward?

The reward is the virtue stone tile.

*Edited to add the picture I found on another post.

You receive a random virtue tile - not necessarily the one you will see in your reward gump. They are shard bound.

any function for this or just decor??

Drowy said:

Maximus_Neximus said:

I didn't see an official post for this, so I figured I'd make one.

Compassion Sage. According to UOGuide it has a 1 in 50 (2% for those who don't like math) drop rate. I have farmed controllers for nearly two hours now and have yet to get one. This really needs bumped up in some way. It's incredibly discouraging and not fun whatsoever killing controllers ad nauseam. I planned on doing this quest 8 times, or however many as I can, to trade for what I don't get. But as is, I barely want to do it once.

Can the drop rate be raised to at least 20% or add an additional means of obtaining this.

Just to be sure, did you look in the corpses? Because its not a drop in your bag, but you have to loot it.

Maximus_Neximus said:

Drowy said:

Maximus_Neximus said:

I didn't see an official post for this, so I figured I'd make one.

Compassion Sage. According to UOGuide it has a 1 in 50 (2% for those who don't like math) drop rate. I have farmed controllers for nearly two hours now and have yet to get one. This really needs bumped up in some way. It's incredibly discouraging and not fun whatsoever killing controllers ad nauseam. I planned on doing this quest 8 times, or however many as I can, to trade for what I don't get. But as is, I barely want to do it once.

Can the drop rate be raised to at least 20% or add an additional means of obtaining this.

Just to be sure, did you look in the corpses? Because its not a drop in your bag, but you have to loot it.

Yes. Three hours and I have yet to get one. My guildmate finally got one. Not sure on his time, but I know it was around two hours.

I one hit kill them. I lured the spawn away and was killing two in a room. I have the quest. I checked every body and moved every item to be sure.

A suggestion to people not getting drops on this is, Try another character and and add some luck to your suit. I farmed for 4 hours on one character and got 0 drops, changed to another fighter and added luck to suit/hit the luck statue and started getting one about every 15 or so controllers. We all know what a streaky little punk our RNG is so you need to mess with it's head now and again.

The reward is the virtue stone tile.

any function for this or just decor??

Marge said:

The reward is the virtue stone tile.

any function for this or just decor??

Just Deco

thx

It would be nice if the Developers could add the option to get the Compassion Sage from Exodus Controllers also from stealing from them, rather then only killing them....

Would it be possible please, to help support thieves @Bleak and @Kyronix ?

Thanks !!

General feedback in Exodus dungeon:
If more than one player is there I can see a lot of unhappiness as Miss E said.  I took my melee toon for a couple of hours. I just ran around everywhere and only killed controllers. I could almost kill every one of them in the dungeon. The spawn including paragons is slow. So,  because of the turns and how I went in a large circle, I had most of the spawn by the entry.  If there are 4 players there, they would have to use an area and wait for respawn to kill the most over time. If not, everyone will just run around killing controllers as they see them.  Which will lead spawn to others and cause bad feelings since you can almost kill them all before respawn.

My melee guy started a lot worse luck 2 hours only 4. Then I stayed 30 more minutes and got 3 more.

Glad I am able to prep for the quest.

popps said:

It would be nice if the Developers could add the option to get the Compassion Sage from Exodus Controllers also from stealing from them, rather then only killing them....

Would it be possible please, to help support thieves @ Bleak and @ Kyronix ?

Thanks !!

Have you tried?  It is in their backpack.

For Luna:
Main reward: Get a random tile.

Pawain said:

popps said:

It would be nice if the Developers could add the option to get the Compassion Sage from Exodus Controllers also from stealing from them, rather then only killing them....

Would it be possible please, to help support thieves @ Bleak and @ Kyronix ?

Thanks !!

Have you tried?  It is in their backpack.

Yes, I tried for quite a long time, and did not get any.

It looks to me that the code might spawn the Compassion Sage only in their corpse, upon their death....

Marge said:

There are two other areas in Ilsh I know for controllers. The gargoyle mining camp (use Honor gate) and the city of Mistas and the surrounding jungle (Honesty gate). Not nearly as many as the exodus dungeon but some alternatives if Exodus is getting too camped.

We've been getting the word out to the shard to get the sage now before the event starts. Quite a few have been; I've gotten my five. The trog cave will be the camped and crowded problem I'm afraid.

that's easy though, cast RC,EV or Whirlwind with an Area hit weapon, you'll eventually get enough

I had planned on using Essence of Wind or earthquake. It's just the idea of 50 people crammed into that cave.

Marge said:

I had planned on using Essence of Wind or earthquake. It's just the idea of 50 people crammed into that cave.

Just hope nobody has eaten beans recently . . .

LOL Monday it opens for my shard - Red Beans and Rice Day! May God have Mercy on the people of Chessy!

Aragorn said:

any function for this or just decor??

its just deco... but you can double click it to read more about it

One thing I don't like...

Every time I kill a drake in Destard, it tells me I have killed all the creatures required for the quest. But the guest log for "In the Face of Dragons" shows 0. 

I finally figured out, that is because I still have Heckles Hero quest.
I won't cancel that quest, because I'm almost finished...
 just having a hard time finding giant rats, so i can finish that one.

Giant Rats:

https://www.uoguide.com/Giant_Rat

Pawain said:

Giant Rats:

https://www.uoguide.com/Giant_Rat

they don't quickly respawn and each of those locations only have one or two there.
I don't have the valor to pop Despise or any of the other champ locations.
I was able to kill 21 of them (killed a few while killing the hell hounds), but with it being the last ones I need to kill... spent 3 hours running around each of these locations and still need 29 more.

the point is... i have two quests that require to kill Drake's and one isn't giving me credit for killing them, but I am getting credit for killing Dragons and Greater Dragons.

You may luck out and catch a rat spawn at Humility or Valor.

I can pop it tomorrow.  Since you don't answer in chat now.

I've gotten 6 sages in two 30 minute attempts. After the 3rd sage they appear to stop showing up for me. The first attempt was with 0 luck and the second attempt was with 1100 luck.

This is on Pacific.

I did some early farming on ATL and bought 3 at 250K each (by mid afternoon VS had them at 4mill apiece) and then did Exodus on two diff chars for 3 hours and got 3 more so I have enough to run chars through. I cringe thinking of Painted Caves and Destard when it goes live. I used a stealth necro-mage on Origin - took forever, but was able to solo most all the quests except for UEV and GD's in Destard - helpful tamers came to me rescue 🙂

I was a little disappointed to see that the items are shard bound/random/1 quest per char. 

There are 8 virtue stones but you have a max of 7 chars on an account (with all paid slots etc) so even if you get lucky and got every virtue stone you needed on every single character you had (let's just say you took your crafter and made him a fighter), you would still be 1 stone short of the entire set. Also take into account that I cannot do the quest on other shards where I have chars to possibly transfer over means that there will be 100% chance I would need to buy at least 1 virtue stone using a single account.

@Kyronix - Do you think we should need to buy the stones from others (this will lead to price gouging)? Can you consider at least removing the once per character thing so those that are willing to put the time in can do so to collect all the stones?

keven2002 said:

I was a little disappointed to see that the items are shard bound/random/1 quest per char. 

There are 8 virtue stones but you have a max of 7 chars on an account (with all paid slots etc) so even if you get lucky and got every virtue stone you needed on every single character you had (let's just say you took your crafter and made him a fighter), you would still be 1 stone short of the entire set. Also take into account that I cannot do the quest on other shards where I have chars to possibly transfer over means that there will be 100% chance I would need to buy at least 1 virtue stone using a single account.

@ Kyronix - Do you think we should need to buy the stones from others (this will lead to price gouging)? Can you consider at least removing the once per character thing so those that are willing to put the time in can do so to collect all the stones?

I agree, it would be nice to be able to collect a full set without buying them.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

keven2002 said:

I was a little disappointed to see that the items are shard bound/random/1 quest per char. 

There are 8 virtue stones but you have a max of 7 chars on an account (with all paid slots etc) so even if you get lucky and got every virtue stone you needed on every single character you had (let's just say you took your crafter and made him a fighter), you would still be 1 stone short of the entire set. Also take into account that I cannot do the quest on other shards where I have chars to possibly transfer over means that there will be 100% chance I would need to buy at least 1 virtue stone using a single account.

@ Kyronix - Do you think we should need to buy the stones from others (this will lead to price gouging)? Can you consider at least removing the once per character thing so those that are willing to put the time in can do so to collect all the stones?

I agree, it would be nice to be able to collect a full set without buying them.

@Kyronix
Considering it is quite literally impossible for a player who has a single account to get a full set on their own, I believe this should be re-thought.

Hippo said:

 I cringe thinking of Painted Caves and Destard when it goes live.

they do quickly respawn.
Before I got my cu, I was getting credit by casting blade spirits.

One way to get around the limit is to use a disposable character. Stone off their skills, delete the character, recreate the character, stone on their skills, do the quest, wait a week, then repeat.  The down side is you loose the stats for the character and any power scrolls they've consumed.

Seems like when they made the new quest/event system, that all new items are shard bound... Treasures of is shardbound. Black gate is shard bound. You might as well just make em event item drops shard bound too. You kinda have to if you want to be consistent. 

Thanks for the feedback!

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/gameplay/quests/the-black-gate/

@Kyronix - I believe I've found a bug. 

I started doing the quest for Mariah (raw ginseng / compassion sage). The first thing I did was get the raw ginseng because that was easy. Then I tried to gather the compassion sage (I'm using a pretty basic mage) which I only had 30-45min to play at that point so I decided to move to another quick & easy quest since I had limited time. I logged back on the next day and started trying to get the compassion sage and got it relatively quick (10-15min) but my ginseng expired in that time period that I was logged. So now when I go back to get more raw ginseng it says "Sorry. You cannot receive another item at this time". 

I didn't complete this quest yet and now it seems like I will not be able to finish it (and therefore not complete the Black Gate quest on this char). Please fix this as this is a major issue. Either remove the timer from the ginseng or allow another one to be picked if the player still has the quest.

**Update - @Mariah gave me a raw ginseng so I could complete this part of the quest (Thank you). This should still be addressed though in the event someone can't complete the quest in 24 hours after picking the root.

I love the quest. Had to run through it at least once so I could write up my walkthrough for Stratics. I also had the WORST time getting sage....tried on both my tamer and my archer...1 hour...0 sage on both characters. I have the WORST luck in UO history lol...thankfully a guildmate of mine gave me some.

I can see some issues though on more populated shards in Destard and Painted Caves. I know you can go elsewhere to kill Dragons and Drakes but Trogs are in one location.

I liked the story...though a few people pointed out the inconsistency in the storyline regarding Julia and the Troll. (I don't know much Ultima History) and the whole bit about "The troll still torments the bridge..." why that was even mentioned I have no idea because it was not needed for this quest....hopefully it will tie in somehow to other quests? Because I know other people had a chance to run through the quest before I got to it and one of Origin's lovely citizens already had a runebook with MOST of the locations on it, I attempted to do it without and the whole troll on a bridge near vesper and minoc had me running in circles for a bit trying to find it.

Other then that it was pretty awesome, I love the reward, though I, like others, wish that we could get the whole set. With the stones being shard bound though, it does promote trading with the people of your own shard which I like, it builds a sense of community and people aren't just running off to ATL with their prizes so yay for that!

Great job team, thanks for all your hard work. Can't WAIT for the big announcement...T minus 4 days....:)

@Kyronix - I saw the release notes today for the new shards and saw there were a few teaks to the Black Gate event (step in the right direction) but it still only looks like 1 quest per character.

That said, with the event having 8 rewards (and they are all random) and a fully expanded account only having 7 max slots why wouldn't you allow the quest to be done multiple times by characters that want / can do it? What's the logic behind making it impossible for a single account to obtain a set for themselves? 

@keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

That's a bit disappointing to hear but I do appreciate the honest feedback! Thanks for responding!

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

I agree 
 Also selling items make it worth doing for those not interested in "just deco" items.

Ya I ran a bunch of toons on Origin and Chesapeake, Could only sell two of the quest items.
Not much market on small population shards.  

@kyronix.  Is there a reason for the Anhk necklace to look the same in quest and reward form.

Pawain said:

I can pop it tomorrow.  Since you don't answer in chat now.

sorry, for some reason, I didn't see this comment.
I was finally able to complete that quest, so I could finish the other quest.

@Pawain - the quest reward text ties it together.

Kyronix said:

@ Pawain - the quest reward text ties it together.

I was putting all the items on 1 toon so I cant tell which were from the Ranger and which were from Shamino. Maybe change colors in the future if they are same name and graphic.

MissE said:

selling items:   SHARD BOUND.

great if your on a shard where there 'may' be spares if not you are out of luck.  Worst idea ever making 'deco' items shard bound, yet the items that are used and needed by players or items that are super rare such as EM items are not.  Someone I guess is making money somewhere.  It is like the ararat stealables are shard bound so you cant sell em on shard with no new population. People don't even bother stealing them as what are you gonna do with them?  Stick em in a chest and then toss em for clean up points.  Brilliant.  What is the reason for that other than some stupid idea someone had at one time?

Making items harder to get doesn't get away from the fact they are 'just deco'.  Most disappointing bunch of rewards for supposedly 'new content' that has taken all year to produce.  As I said in another thread , unless the reward assists my characters in some way, either new pets, new wearables, new craftables then it is not enough to keep me interested more than 10 seconds.

I need to disagree.

I appreciate the Shard Bound items for 2 reasons :

# 1) - The items, rather then inevitably ending up, for the most part, to Atlantic, STAY on that Shard for the Locals to finally be able to buy Event items from Events to which they could not participate in, for one reason or another, and not most always end up to have to go to Atlantic or ask to someone who can commute from their Shard and Atlantic to buy them for them....

# 2) - This prevents that Shard Bound items are "farmed" on a lowly Populated Shard to then be transferred somewhere else to be sold.

Personally, I think that Shard Bound items should be a LOT MORE then what they are and I welcome very much the fact that this new Event Model generates Shard Bound Rewards.

Well done @Mesanna , @Bleak , @Kyronix , @Misk and all of the Developers !!

popps said:

MissE said:

selling items:   SHARD BOUND.

great if your on a shard where there 'may' be spares if not you are out of luck.  Worst idea ever making 'deco' items shard bound, yet the items that are used and needed by players or items that are super rare such as EM items are not.  Someone I guess is making money somewhere.  It is like the ararat stealables are shard bound so you cant sell em on shard with no new population. People don't even bother stealing them as what are you gonna do with them?  Stick em in a chest and then toss em for clean up points.  Brilliant.  What is the reason for that other than some stupid idea someone had at one time?

Making items harder to get doesn't get away from the fact they are 'just deco'.  Most disappointing bunch of rewards for supposedly 'new content' that has taken all year to produce.  As I said in another thread , unless the reward assists my characters in some way, either new pets, new wearables, new craftables then it is not enough to keep me interested more than 10 seconds.

I need to disagree.

I appreciate the Shard Bound items for 2 reasons :

# 1) - The items, rather then inevitably ending up, for the most part, to Atlantic, STAY on that Shard for the Locals to finally be able to buy Event items from Events to which they could not participate in, for one reason or another, and not most always end up to have to go to Atlantic or ask to someone who can commute from their Shard and Atlantic to buy them for them....

# 2) - This prevents that Shard Bound items are "farmed" on a lowly Populated Shard to then be transferred somewhere else to be sold.

Personally, I think that Shard Bound items should be a LOT MORE then what they are and I welcome very much the fact that this new Event Model generates Shard Bound Rewards.

Well done @ Mesanna , @ Bleak , @ Kyronix , @ Misk and all of the Developers !!

Very good point @MissE. I will only be doing this quest on my "home" shard that I live on because there is no need for decoration (shard bound) on the other shards I play when I'm looking to get away from the high population shards.

One could also argue that the people on low pop shards like Origin know that they will never get a full set of the stones (for their home) so they will transfer to ATL to do the quest and sell the stones. Further perpetuating the issue where people say ATL is where everything ends up.

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Your second stated reason... well this completely escapes me... isn’t the point of paying our subscription to PLAY THE GAME?  I can understand limiting clicky type gifts to characters or even accounts, but limiting playable content seems very counter productive to a sandbox type game.  Concerns about abuse should be handled in content design, not simply slapping a limit on participation.

It is decisions like these that are driving players away, not bringing them back.

I look at it from this perspective.  Currently, Atlantic serves as the primary economic hub because it has the highest population and thusly the highest demand.  What this ends up doing, with non-limited content is creating a situation where players farm low-population shards then return to Atlantic to sell those items while not actively being a part of that shard population.  As a result we often here feedback that we aren't doing anything to help boost population on low population shards. 

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

On a final note, as I've read, and is often said - you are making these items shard bound, why isn't item XYZ shard bound too!?  This system is new hence we have a lot more leeway to change the implementation.  Altering existing implementations is often challenging with established norms (i.e. those items are not currently shard bound). 

Thanks for the feedback!

Kyronix said:

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Your second stated reason... well this completely escapes me... isn’t the point of paying our subscription to PLAY THE GAME?  I can understand limiting clicky type gifts to characters or even accounts, but limiting playable content seems very counter productive to a sandbox type game.  Concerns about abuse should be handled in content design, not simply slapping a limit on participation.

It is decisions like these that are driving players away, not bringing them back.

I look at it from this perspective.  Currently, Atlantic serves as the primary economic hub because it has the highest population and thusly the highest demand.  What this ends up doing, with non-limited content is creating a situation where players farm low-population shards then return to Atlantic to sell those items while not actively being a part of that shard population.  As a result we often here feedback that we aren't doing anything to help boost population on low population shards. 

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

On a final note, as I've read, and is often said - you are making these items shard bound, why isn't item XYZ shard bound too!?  This system is new hence we have a lot more leeway to change the implementation.  Altering existing implementations is often challenging with established norms (i.e. those items are not currently shard bound). 

Thanks for the feedback!

I appreciate your comments.  

I was dreading the quest chain but so far I've been able to complete one quest on Origin (I xsharded a stealth necro-mage over) and three on home shard Legends. The compassion sage drop rate is the only limiting problem so far, the UEW and GD's are rough on underdeveloped characters but a shout in Gen Chat usual gets a helper that will party you 🙂 I have a HONESTY rune stone on Origin that I will trade to someone for one on Legends or Atlantic.

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

@Victim_Of_Siege - you will have plenty of time - that's the can-do spirit I've come to expect from seasoned Britannians! Good luck!

Victim_Of_Siege said:

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @ Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

I have a bunch of the quest items that require no fighting on Origin. Nobody wanted to buy them.

@Kyronix my only real concern is the random reward.  I've done the quest on Legends now with 4 characters and have gotten 3 Honesty Stones and 1 Justice.  If we could pick what we wanted I would have 4 of the set not 2 and 2 extra Honesty ones.  My Trinsic Governor really wanted Honor (symbol of Trinsic)...  One other comment is on the Ginseng.  A lot of people I play with usually will keep a set of the Quest Turn In items to keep on display with the rewards and with the Ginseng having a timer that is is not possible.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @ Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

Other people might have slots on Origin available to help you complete the quest, for a price.

Easiest new toon is probably Mysticism 50, +30 Mystic Ring/Bracelet, cast RC off Scrolls. You can probably get a new toon kill credit pretty easily if you're running as primary damager with your main.

Just trying to speculate on how to do this with the least amount of effort. 🙂 

Arroth_Thaiel said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @ Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

Other people might have slots on Origin available to help you complete the quest, for a price.

Easiest new toon is probably Mysticism 50, +30 Mystic Ring/Bracelet, cast RC off Scrolls. You can probably get a new toon kill credit pretty easily if you're running as primary damager with your main.

Just trying to speculate on how to do this with the least amount of effort. 🙂 

using skills i already have on stones will be easiest for me.  I can use a mage with 90 skill to summon daemons and complete the quests, I have already done it once 🙂

ZekeTerra said:

@ Kyronix my only real concern is the random reward.  I've done the quest on Legends now with 4 characters and have gotten 3 Honesty Stones and 1 Justice.  If we could pick what we wanted I would have 4 of the set not 2 and 2 extra Honesty ones.  My Trinsic Governor really wanted Honor (symbol of Trinsic)...  One other comment is on the Ginseng.  A lot of people I play with usually will keep a set of the Quest Turn In items to keep on display with the rewards and with the Ginseng having a timer that is is not possible.

Offer your extras for exchange on the shard forum, or trade forum.

So I tried one of my EJ accounts and i was able to complete the Shamino quest on it. If this is intended for EJ, then problem solved, i'll just make mages and use my tamer to support their efforts in killing the UBEV, Trogs, And Dragons. Should be no issue, unless of course EJ shouldn't be able to do the quests @Kyronix

*i'm thinking EJ isn't as i can take the quest from Jaana but i cannot get the scroll to pop in my pack to complete it.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

So I tried one of my EJ accounts and i was able to complete the Shamino quest on it. If this is intended for EJ, then problem solved, i'll just make mages and use my tamer to support their efforts in killing the UBEV, Trogs, And Dragons. Should be no issue, unless of course EJ shouldn't be able to do the quests @ Kyronix

*i'm thinking EJ isn't as i can take the quest from Jaana but i cannot get the scroll to pop in my pack to complete it.

  EJ characters can start the quest but not complete it. If you take the quest, then go to Julia's pool of blood, you'll get the message that you collect a vial of blood, but none will appear in your backpack. A closer inspection of the system message will reveal the "EJ accounts cannot access this item" notice when clicking on the blood pool. (I tried this first, that's why I was trying to come up with the next easiest way to do it!)

Pawain said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @ Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

I have a bunch of the quest items that require no fighting on Origin. Nobody wanted to buy them.

Because those are the easiest ones to get! Do the Dragon one or the Compassion Sage one and I will buy them

My crafter can kill 50 trogs.....but not 5 greater dragons....so help a lady out!

And I can't get compassion sage to save myself....worst...luck...EVER!

I will buy any items you have though because I do want a set of the quest items as well as the stone tiles.

I'm happy that they are shard bound....hopefully it will make each shard dependent on themselves and not Atlantic

Arroth_Thaiel said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

So I tried one of my EJ accounts and i was able to complete the Shamino quest on it. If this is intended for EJ, then problem solved, i'll just make mages and use my tamer to support their efforts in killing the UBEV, Trogs, And Dragons. Should be no issue, unless of course EJ shouldn't be able to do the quests @ Kyronix

*i'm thinking EJ isn't as i can take the quest from Jaana but i cannot get the scroll to pop in my pack to complete it.

  EJ characters can start the quest but not complete it. If you take the quest, then go to Julia's pool of blood, you'll get the message that you collect a vial of blood, but none will appear in your backpack. A closer inspection of the system message will reveal the "EJ accounts cannot access this item" notice when clicking on the blood pool. (I tried this first, that's why I was trying to come up with the next easiest way to do it!)

You can complete the Iolo quest though since you have to buy the items required. Get the cool pillow. I know I said Shamino in that post, but I meant Iolo 

Victim_Of_Siege said:

You can complete the Iolo quest though since you have to buy the items required. Get the cool pillow. I know I said Shamino in that post, but I meant Iolo.

I predict a plethora of pillows........

Arroth_Thaiel said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

You can complete the Iolo quest though since you have to buy the items required. Get the cool pillow. I know I said Shamino in that post, but I meant Iolo.

I predict a plethora of pillows........

they would look good on beds

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Your second stated reason... well this completely escapes me... isn’t the point of paying our subscription to PLAY THE GAME?  I can understand limiting clicky type gifts to characters or even accounts, but limiting playable content seems very counter productive to a sandbox type game.  Concerns about abuse should be handled in content design, not simply slapping a limit on participation.

It is decisions like these that are driving players away, not bringing them back.

I look at it from this perspective.  Currently, Atlantic serves as the primary economic hub because it has the highest population and thusly the highest demand.  What this ends up doing, with non-limited content is creating a situation where players farm low-population shards then return to Atlantic to sell those items while not actively being a part of that shard population.  As a result we often here feedback that we aren't doing anything to help boost population on low population shards. 

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

On a final note, as I've read, and is often said - you are making these items shard bound, why isn't item XYZ shard bound too!?  This system is new hence we have a lot more leeway to change the implementation.  Altering existing implementations is often challenging with established norms (i.e. those items are not currently shard bound). 

Thanks for the feedback!

I appreciate your comments.  

I would challenge the basic premise you relied on in your position.  Your position presumes that there is a substantial enough population on low population shards to entice players to transfer there to complete content in order to effect commerce.  Unfortunately, as someone who regularly plays a low population shard, this assumption is false.

Players farm low population shards as a means to more efficiently gather resources in a competitive environment.  Those resources are then sold/moved to the location where the demand for those resources exist.

If demand for those resources exist on low population shards, players will sell them there... even if those resources aren’t shard bound provided the price on the low shard is competitive with the price on other shards.  This provides the incentive to play lower population shards.

By making the items shards bound it has the opposite effect.  There is so little demand that most players will not find it worthwhile to invest in playing there... thus further reducing the population of those shards.

IMO, you need to pick one or the other... either make them shard bound and let players collect as many as they want on their shard, as well as buy/trading to complete sets within their community OR limit it to 1 per character... definitely not both.  Personally I feel like given the fact that, as a developer, one of the paramount goals is people engaging in content, I find the first option more in line with a positive game experience.

• Shard bound deco.. ... I mean seriously?  
• One per toon.... again... seriously?

@Merus - I appreciate the response!  Engaging in feedback in good faith helps us make better decisions for the future, so thank you for that.  It's easy to just dismiss everything with one or two sentences of dissatisfaction (or often times a wall of text!) which doesn't result in any meaningful feedback.  Unfortunately I think this is the trap most forums and exchanges have fallen into, so kudos to you for elevating the conversation!

In your previous post you state, 

"I would challenge the basic premise you relied on in your position.  Your position presumes that there is a substantial enough population on low population shards to entice players to transfer there to complete content in order to effect commerce.  Unfortunately, as someone who regularly plays a low population shard, this assumption is false."

What I'm relying on is the principle that the only way to reverse the downward trend of population is to apply selective pressures to reverse that trend.  Let's say, for example, in this situation we hadn't put the restrictions in place on this content.  This results in a couple of predictable outcomes,

• Players will intermittently congregate on lower population shards to avoid competition for completion resources while not contributing to the overall health of the community of that shard in service of obtaining a reward.
• Those rewards are bulk transferred to Atlantic, devaluing the need to complete the content by those who play on Atlantic because there is an abundance of gold that can be traded in exchange of doing the content.  It's natural to always take the path of least resistance (gold vs time).

Neither of these is desired outcomes.  It reduces the number of interactions between players on that shard (as they only need to farm the content, then transfer off).  It also continues to keep dead shards dead - they only serve as farming hubs for Atlantic, again not doing anything to better the health of the overall community.

"If demand for those resources exist on low population shards, players will sell them there... even if those resources aren’t shard bound provided the price on the low shard is competitive with the price on other shards.  This provides the incentive to play lower population shards."

I disagree this would be incentive enough to play on a lower pop shard.  You are relying on the assumption that an item can have greater value on a low population shard than on Atlantic.  I don't think this can ever be the case UNLESS the communities of those lower population shards reach a threshold of economic viability - a threshold we will never meet without selective pressures I talked about earlier OR the item has such rarity it has value everywhere.

"By making the items shards bound it has the opposite effect.  There is so little demand that most players will not find it worthwhile to invest in playing there... thus further reducing the population of those shards."

Again - this goes back to providing those pressures to increase demand.  Collectors are going to want to collect.  In this situation the only way to acquire a full set of the runes is for multiple characters to complete the content.  This has a couple positive outcomes, 

• It encourages aspirational gameplay as a means to achieve a higher goal (I need multiple "good enough" characters to complete the quest objectives....what gameplay do I have to engage in as a means to achieve that goal?)
• It encourages indirect cross shard trading, further building community through increased interactions.  (I have a Justice Rune on Lake Superior that I will trade you a Valor Rune on Chesapeake OR I will help you get Runes on Sonoma if you help me get Runes on Pacific).

To conclude, I don't think anything is gained by once again isolating players further onto island of self-sufficiency.  Over the years pressures to promote character-character interactions have slowly been eroded in favor of one goal or another.  This quest is an experiment in seeing what happens when we dial those back.  I'm excited to see where the metrics validate.

Again, big thanks for the response!

As a player on a low population shard I agree with everything @Kyronix  said.

I also feel decorative is much better then "useful" additions. If it is just a decorative item it may or may not be something you want but it doesn't change the game. If it is something that players will use every day it will just be more power creep or change the game in some major way. I rarely use a moon gate to get to Ilshenar since I got a jawbone. That may be a good thing but changes that large should be considered VERRY carefully. 

LOL seriously you prefer decorative over useful?   well that's fine, as for the past two years ALL WE HAVE HAD IS DECORATIVE.  And most of that you have to buy in the UO store. 

Kyronix said:

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Your second stated reason... well this completely escapes me... isn’t the point of paying our subscription to PLAY THE GAME?  I can understand limiting clicky type gifts to characters or even accounts, but limiting playable content seems very counter productive to a sandbox type game.  Concerns about abuse should be handled in content design, not simply slapping a limit on participation.

It is decisions like these that are driving players away, not bringing them back.

I look at it from this perspective.  Currently, Atlantic serves as the primary economic hub because it has the highest population and thusly the highest demand.  What this ends up doing, with non-limited content is creating a situation where players farm low-population shards then return to Atlantic to sell those items while not actively being a part of that shard population.  As a result we often here feedback that we aren't doing anything to help boost population on low population shards. 

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

On a final note, as I've read, and is often said - you are making these items shard bound, why isn't item XYZ shard bound too!?  This system is new hence we have a lot more leeway to change the implementation.  Altering existing implementations is often challenging with established norms (i.e. those items are not currently shard bound). 

Thanks for the feedback!

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

The bolded part is mine to highlight how I so much agree with the Developers on that !!

That is precisely the main scope and role of Shard Bound items !!

That to promote players to actually PLAY on low population Shards to enhance and better the economies of those Shards through Shard Bound items and not only further boost Atlantic which does not need it.

I am all in for Shard Bound items !!

Kudos to the Developers and thanks !!

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

Merus said:

Kyronix said:

@ keven2002 - I brought the feedback up with the rest of the team and we decided it was best to keep it one per character.  This is to address two concerns.  Firstly, buying/selling/trading to obtain items is part of the game world.  It fosters interactions between individuals, promotes trade which drives the economy, and creates a market for items that are often scoffed at as "just deco".  Secondly, allowing one character to chain complete the quest over and over again often leads to complaints of abuse.  So to address those concerns the quest is only available once per character.

Thanks for the feedback!

So your first stated reason is to promote trade... but you make the items shard bound, thereby restricting the market significantly.  

Your second stated reason... well this completely escapes me... isn’t the point of paying our subscription to PLAY THE GAME?  I can understand limiting clicky type gifts to characters or even accounts, but limiting playable content seems very counter productive to a sandbox type game.  Concerns about abuse should be handled in content design, not simply slapping a limit on participation.

It is decisions like these that are driving players away, not bringing them back.

I look at it from this perspective.  Currently, Atlantic serves as the primary economic hub because it has the highest population and thusly the highest demand.  What this ends up doing, with non-limited content is creating a situation where players farm low-population shards then return to Atlantic to sell those items while not actively being a part of that shard population.  As a result we often here feedback that we aren't doing anything to help boost population on low population shards. 

Now I'd offer this - with the current implementation we have a situation where there is opportunity for players who normally wouldn't play on lower-population shards to visit that shard, play through the quest, collect the runes, sell/trade with the players of that shard to generate complete sets.  This fosters interactions between individuals on those shards and helps to build the community of that shard (player + interaction = community).  The results of those transactions can still be transferred (gold, gear, loot whatever) so we still have the benefit of game-wide trade being available.

On a final note, as I've read, and is often said - you are making these items shard bound, why isn't item XYZ shard bound too!?  This system is new hence we have a lot more leeway to change the implementation.  Altering existing implementations is often challenging with established norms (i.e. those items are not currently shard bound). 

Thanks for the feedback!

I appreciate your comments.  

I would challenge the basic premise you relied on in your position.  Your position presumes that there is a substantial enough population on low population shards to entice players to transfer there to complete content in order to effect commerce.  Unfortunately, as someone who regularly plays a low population shard, this assumption is false.

Players farm low population shards as a means to more efficiently gather resources in a competitive environment.  Those resources are then sold/moved to the location where the demand for those resources exist.

If demand for those resources exist on low population shards, players will sell them there... even if those resources aren’t shard bound provided the price on the low shard is competitive with the price on other shards.  This provides the incentive to play lower population shards.

By making the items shards bound it has the opposite effect.  There is so little demand that most players will not find it worthwhile to invest in playing there... thus further reducing the population of those shards.

IMO, you need to pick one or the other... either make them shard bound and let players collect as many as they want on their shard, as well as buy/trading to complete sets within their community OR limit it to 1 per character... definitely not both.  Personally I feel like given the fact that, as a developer, one of the paramount goals is people engaging in content, I find the first option more in line with a positive game experience.

Players farm low population shards as a means to more efficiently gather resources in a competitive environment.  Those resources are then sold/moved to the location where the demand for those resources exist.

My opinion is, that players, for the most part, end up farming low population Shards for items to then take them to Atlantic not because they cannot sell them on those low population Shards, but more, because on Atlantic they can sell them for more gold as compared to what they could be selling them on that lower population Shard....

So, is my viewing, it is not a matter of not being able to sell those items on a low population Shard but, rather, a matter of wanting to sell for more gold as they could sell them for on that lower population Shard....

Infact, there is a lot of "resellers" who do not even farm for those items on lower population Shards BUT, rather, they "scout" the Vendors on lower population Shard to buy those items much cheaper on those lower population Shards, and take them to Atlantic to resell them there at a considerably higher price....

If items where shard bound, these resellers could not do this.

Kyronix said:

@ Victim_Of_Siege - you will have plenty of time - that's the can-do spirit I've come to expect from seasoned Britannians! Good luck!

@Kyronix ;

On the topic, can Endless Journey characters participate in the Quests AND get the stones Rewards just fine ?

Arroth_Thaiel said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

So I tried one of my EJ accounts and i was able to complete the Shamino quest on it. If this is intended for EJ, then problem solved, i'll just make mages and use my tamer to support their efforts in killing the UBEV, Trogs, And Dragons. Should be no issue, unless of course EJ shouldn't be able to do the quests @ Kyronix

*i'm thinking EJ isn't as i can take the quest from Jaana but i cannot get the scroll to pop in my pack to complete it.

  EJ characters can start the quest but not complete it. If you take the quest, then go to Julia's pool of blood, you'll get the message that you collect a vial of blood, but none will appear in your backpack. A closer inspection of the system message will reveal the "EJ accounts cannot access this item" notice when clicking on the blood pool. (I tried this first, that's why I was trying to come up with the next easiest way to do it!)

That's odd.....

I mean, EJ accounts are a means to get new players get hooked up to Ultima Online and, I would imagine, being able to participare to these new Quests might work as a way to get them appreciate playing Ultima Online and eventually want to subscribe to it....

In theory, EJ accounts doing these new Quests might be seen to work against promoting players to trade double stones with one another and, thus, help the interaction between players which is always a good thing BUT, is my opinion, this is only an "apparent" concern because, in the end, even if a player was to use 10 EJ accounts to get lots of these stones, if this players ended up (being them random) with, say 5 or 6 of the same type, why wouldn't they then want to trade them with other players missing those stones ?

Furthermore, being Shard Bound, it is not like permitting EJ accounts to get these stones would end up with such an over production of them ending up on Atlantic.....

So, is my conclusion, I honestly do not see how permitting EJ accounts to do these Quests would be detrimental in any way.

Players would still trade their doubles.

The only thing which might suffer could be the "sales" of these stones as more accounts being able to get them would mean more stones existing on any given Shard and, thus, their value going down....

But I would not see this as a big concern at all.... there is plenty way to make golds in UO that we do not need these stones to be yet another way to further accumulate gold....

At least, that is how I see it.

Larisa said:

Pawain said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

I will get a full set on Origin if it kills me. I will keep deleting a character and stoning skills until i do, if that is what it takes. Hopefully @ Kyronix, it will last long enough for that to happen

I have a bunch of the quest items that require no fighting on Origin. Nobody wanted to buy them.

Because those are the easiest ones to get! Do the Dragon one or the Compassion Sage one and I will buy them

My crafter can kill 50 trogs.....but not 5 greater dragons....so help a lady out!

And I can't get compassion sage to save myself....worst...luck...EVER!

I will buy any items you have though because I do want a set of the quest items as well as the stone tiles.

I'm happy that they are shard bound....hopefully it will make each shard dependent on themselves and not Atlantic

I'm happy that they are shard bound....hopefully it will make each shard dependent on themselves and not Atlantic

I think likewise and appreciate the Developers' decision to make them Shard Bound.

Remember this is the first quest to use the new quest engine. The Black Gate is basically a big test of the new engine.  They are tweaking and fixing things as we find them. Deployment has had a few glitches.  Having deco pieces as the first reward limits the damage if someone finds an exploit.

Kyronix said:

@ Merus - I appreciate the response!  Engaging in feedback in good faith helps us make better decisions for the future, so thank you for that.  It's easy to just dismiss everything with one or two sentences of dissatisfaction (or often times a wall of text!) which doesn't result in any meaningful feedback.  Unfortunately I think this is the trap most forums and exchanges have fallen into, so kudos to you for elevating the conversation!

In your previous post you state, 

"I would challenge the basic premise you relied on in your position.  Your position presumes that there is a substantial enough population on low population shards to entice players to transfer there to complete content in order to effect commerce.  Unfortunately, as someone who regularly plays a low population shard, this assumption is false."

What I'm relying on is the principle that the only way to reverse the downward trend of population is to apply selective pressures to reverse that trend.  Let's say, for example, in this situation we hadn't put the restrictions in place on this content.  This results in a couple of predictable outcomes,

• Players will intermittently congregate on lower population shards to avoid competition for completion resources while not contributing to the overall health of the community of that shard in service of obtaining a reward.
• Those rewards are bulk transferred to Atlantic, devaluing the need to complete the content by those who play on Atlantic because there is an abundance of gold that can be traded in exchange of doing the content.  It's natural to always take the path of least resistance (gold vs time).

Neither of these is desired outcomes.  It reduces the number of interactions between players on that shard (as they only need to farm the content, then transfer off).  It also continues to keep dead shards dead - they only serve as farming hubs for Atlantic, again not doing anything to better the health of the overall community.

"If demand for those resources exist on low population shards, players will sell them there... even if those resources aren’t shard bound provided the price on the low shard is competitive with the price on other shards.  This provides the incentive to play lower population shards."

I disagree this would be incentive enough to play on a lower pop shard.  You are relying on the assumption that an item can have greater value on a low population shard than on Atlantic.  I don't think this can ever be the case UNLESS the communities of those lower population shards reach a threshold of economic viability - a threshold we will never meet without selective pressures I talked about earlier OR the item has such rarity it has value everywhere.

"By making the items shards bound it has the opposite effect.  There is so little demand that most players will not find it worthwhile to invest in playing there... thus further reducing the population of those shards."

Again - this goes back to providing those pressures to increase demand.  Collectors are going to want to collect.  In this situation the only way to acquire a full set of the runes is for multiple characters to complete the content.  This has a couple positive outcomes, 

• It encourages aspirational gameplay as a means to achieve a higher goal (I need multiple "good enough" characters to complete the quest objectives....what gameplay do I have to engage in as a means to achieve that goal?)
• It encourages indirect cross shard trading, further building community through increased interactions.  (I have a Justice Rune on Lake Superior that I will trade you a Valor Rune on Chesapeake OR I will help you get Runes on Sonoma if you help me get Runes on Pacific).

To conclude, I don't think anything is gained by once again isolating players further onto island of self-sufficiency.  Over the years pressures to promote character-character interactions have slowly been eroded in favor of one goal or another.  This quest is an experiment in seeing what happens when we dial those back.  I'm excited to see where the metrics validate.

Again, big thanks for the response!

"If demand for those resources exist on low population shards, players will sell them there... even if those resources aren’t shard bound provided the price on the low shard is competitive with the price on other shards.  This provides the incentive to play lower population shards."

I disagree this would be incentive enough to play on a lower pop shard.  You are relying on the assumption that an item can have greater value on a low population shard than on Atlantic.  I don't think this can ever be the case UNLESS the communities of those lower population shards reach a threshold of economic viability - a threshold we will never meet without selective pressures I talked about earlier OR the item has such rarity it has value everywhere.

I totally agree with @Kyronix there, to my opinion, players, on average, take items to Atlantic not because they cannot sell those items on the low population Shards, but because on Atlantic they often can sell them for higher prices as they would sell those items on those lower population Shards...

And promoting this habit, is detrimental to those lower population Shards as they never get to be repopulated to the point to have a healthy and lively economy, because items keep being ferried to Atlantic....

*rolleyes*

I hope now that my translator for English is doing a good job here. What I’m saying now would sound pretty harsh in German!

--------------

As a long player and also nearby 22 years old veteran and player on a Low-Populated Shard (Drachenfels) to these game I can only say this:

Might be hard and painful to someone what I say now – but everyone who have a similar long playtime to the game as I would say the same:

We have these problems since the possibility to use Shard Transfer Shields – up to this moment the crazyness started to take everything to ATLANTIC for better and higher sells – and this crazyness went on up to nowadays!!!

An economy is always determined by supply and demand. And a shard can’t build an economy if you almost take away everything valuable!

The economy of all shards suddenly went down the Mississippi, when on the so-called lower populated shards everything was farmed, which was also useful for the players on these shards. That started with artifacts, went over from power scrolls to other useful things, also you got some through global events, veteran rewards or through Anniversary or Holiday-Gifts. We can make this list as long as we want.

Quite harshly said: If you really want the economy to get back on track on these shards, these shields and the associated char transfer shall be forbidden! That and only that, in my humble opinion, has basically destroyed the Lower Populated Shards and their Economy! And this to my humle and maybe to simple way of thinking would stop these odd behaviour of circle rounding between the shards. Shardbound surely is a kind of solution – but honestly – we first allow shard transferring and than make items again shard bound? What inconsequense ist that?

How stupid that is for these players, who then have to wait to find friends or trusted fellow players, who already have the age for the shields, to then turn for totally exaggerated and completely irrational pricing, which now only consists of 6 digit numbers and higher, to get the necessary things back to your own shard, where he might even originally ATLANTIK.

If you then run a shop on a Lower Populated Shard, you are almost forced to adopt this extremely fatal pricing policy – a) in order to prevent the stuff from being dragged back to ATLANTIK and b) if it has to, then it's also closer to the ATLANTIK price.

However, this also has the consequence that the potential new players or returnees are deterred from continuing to play the game because they simply can't or don't want to afford it - both in terms of price and time, because even in UO the gold has to be earned first. A Newbie does not start with Peerless Mini bosses and fights around with PvP-Rezzkillern at the Champs - a Newbie starts with a Mongbat and is happy if he has survived it. And the returnees fall out of all the pink clouds when they realize that so much has changed during their absence - and not always for the benefit of the players and the game.

If a Lower Populated Shard hasn't been overly damaged yet and it still has a good number of players, hopefully the economy will recover and also make new players stay because there are shops again where they can find what they need for their gameplay. Thanks to the new Commissions vendors, this is possible again.

Of course, I also need a home where I can leave all my stuff at some point, which accumulates in the game so. Decoration is nice and sometimes also useful - see Worker Stations. But mainly I as a player of this skill and item-based game also need gold, good armor parts and stats and powerscrolls as well as a few good and ambitious shop operators, who also offer me this at reasonable and quickly available prices.

Just my two longer cents

Greetings Mene

(Finally I could take this post - 1 hour fight with these forum here;)

TimSt said:

Remember this is the first quest to use the new quest engine. The Black Gate is basically a big test of the new engine.  They are tweaking and fixing things as we find them. Deployment has had a few glitches.  Having deco pieces as the first reward limits the damage if someone finds an exploit.

Spot on.

Need to be realistic.

Low population really means lower demand for goods. You cannot even find daily necessity, so forget about deco. 

All these theories are very idealistic.

What is really needed is to amplify cross shard trading instead of limiting it. Allow us to trade cross shard via a Courier system, instead of having to send a character over. 

The idea of forcing us to play in a low pop shard and selling to the already low pop there.... is a waste of time.

You need to think about how to increase population instead of forcing whoever is left to fly all over the world to get a decor and sell only on that shard. Does that not sound weird? 

I can say for sure I won't fly to any other shard.

I cannot place a house to put a vendor.

I don't want to spend time find someone to negotiate a vendor spot, esp. if low pop...

Even if I can sell, the local pop probably cannot afford much gold. So its not worth a trip there to move there just to make a small amount of gold out.

Luckily, its only decor. So I will just do on one char for the experience or fun on my main shard. If the decor is like Tabard then fine, but pillow, or useless home decor maybe no. 

i farmed the compassion sage today, from a vendor it took 2 seconds.  100 percent drop rate.

Smoot said:

i farmed the compassion sage today, from a vendor it took 2 seconds.  100 percent drop rate.

2m apiece on Atlantic vendors, and plenty of them, I'll be over there to help their supply soon 🙂

On Europa, not been any on VS for a long time, but it's also really easy to farm them, or we all have them anyway.

MissE said:

The fact they cant farm your shard to take them back to atlantic means they wont bother at all. 

Seriously do you actually play this game popps or just spend your days on the forum? No one is gonna come to a low pop shard and do these quests just to have items to sell to the people on that shard.  Firstly they dont have vendors there, secondly if they are that intent to get  these items adn want to sell em for more money they are more likely gonna just stone skills on their account delete the char and chain the the thing on their home shard and given most play atlantic then that is where it will happen.  People are already saying they are deleting chars to do just that.

I mean I can't believe all that stuff you just wrote.

AS for the 'reward' and I use that term loosely.... does ANYONE ever put in any thought to items that are churned out for our supposed entertainment?   So I spent close to 6 hours doing the quest on origin today  as it isn't even LIVE on my shard yet, granted my char was only gm in skills but she could complete it but it took that long.

After all that rigmarole I get a lump of rock with a humilty staff engraved on it.

Whoopee. 

Just IMAGINE what could of been.  Instead of this utterly useless item, imagine if by clicking on that 'rune' you could get 3 blue gem dots of the relevant virtue in your virtue gump, so ie three dots of sacrifice virtue or humility virtue etc.  Not on every char but the stone allows one char per day to collect 3 dots towards getting their Knight status in the relevant virtue depicted on the rune.  THEN IT WOULD OF BEEN USEFUL.  But no, we have another useless item to lockdown.  Another opportunity lost.

I do like your posts 🙂

I'm on the side of the fence that thinks Shard Bound for these items is a good thing. I'll do the quests on Europa, get as many as I can, maybe collect the set. I may then pop to Atlantic, and farm Compassion Sage, or do 1 just to sell. So I think I'm in disagreement with you on this point. I think it's a good thing, for a shard to have to get it's own stuff, and stand or fall on their own work-rate.

I do completely understand your 2nd point, I'm not a Deco person myself, and I have skipped much of the last couple of years content due to the fact the rewards just have no practical use to me. Having said that, I've taken part in some, because the event questline is interesting enough. I do like the latest artwork on a lot of their recent rewards, but I also agree your suggestion would take it to another level.

Cookie said:

MissE said:

The fact they cant farm your shard to take them back to atlantic means they wont bother at all. 

Seriously do you actually play this game popps or just spend your days on the forum? No one is gonna come to a low pop shard and do these quests just to have items to sell to the people on that shard.  Firstly they dont have vendors there, secondly if they are that intent to get  these items adn want to sell em for more money they are more likely gonna just stone skills on their account delete the char and chain the the thing on their home shard and given most play atlantic then that is where it will happen.  People are already saying they are deleting chars to do just that.

I mean I can't believe all that stuff you just wrote.

AS for the 'reward' and I use that term loosely.... does ANYONE ever put in any thought to items that are churned out for our supposed entertainment?   So I spent close to 6 hours doing the quest on origin today  as it isn't even LIVE on my shard yet, granted my char was only gm in skills but she could complete it but it took that long.

After all that rigmarole I get a lump of rock with a humilty staff engraved on it.

Whoopee. 

Just IMAGINE what could of been.  Instead of this utterly useless item, imagine if by clicking on that 'rune' you could get 3 blue gem dots of the relevant virtue in your virtue gump, so ie three dots of sacrifice virtue or humility virtue etc.  Not on every char but the stone allows one char per day to collect 3 dots towards getting their Knight status in the relevant virtue depicted on the rune.  THEN IT WOULD OF BEEN USEFUL.  But no, we have another useless item to lockdown.  Another opportunity lost.

I do like your posts 🙂

I'm on the side of the fence that thinks Shard Bound for these items is a good thing. I'll do the quests on Europa, get as many as I can, maybe collect the set. I may then pop to Atlantic, and farm Compassion Sage, or do 1 just to sell. So I think I'm in disagreement with you on this point. I think it's a good thing, for a shard to have to get it's own stuff, and stand or fall on their own work-rate.

I do completely understand your 2nd point, I'm not a Deco person myself, and I have skipped much of the last couple of years content due to the fact the rewards just have no practical use to me. Having said that, I've taken part in some, because the event questline is interesting enough. I do like the latest artwork on a lot of their recent rewards, but I also agree your suggestion would take it to another level.

@Kyronix - While I see your theory, I do not agree with it for two reason that I will list below.

You previously said:

I disagree this would be incentive enough to play on a lower pop shard.  You are relying on the assumption that an item can have greater value on a low population shard than on Atlantic.  I don't think this can ever be the case UNLESS the communities of those lower population shards reach a threshold of economic viability - a threshold we will never meet without selective pressures I talked about earlier OR the item has such rarity it has value everywhere.

• This statement (bolded) is just outright false as I have been to several different shards to play events etc and sometimes I will just do a random search to see if I'm able to get something I need cheaper. The results are that most of what I'm looking for is either not available or higher priced (examples: Legendary Fishing Scroll (many legendary powerscrolls in general)/Imbuing Ingredients/ Compassion Sage). This honestly isn't surprising given that there is no price competition on low population shards so this actually leads to price gouging and it's actually better off to buy on ATL. I know this for a fact when I had a set of archmage cuffs on my vendor at the lowest price at the time only to log in the next day to see them still on the vendor and 3 other sets marked below mine (on ATL shard).
• People who are established on a high population shard like ATL are very unlikley to set up shop on a low pop shard to make sales because as another poster outlined; I can't have a house there to place a vendor which means I need to find someone that does have one just to sell something I have; that's more trouble than it's worth just to do content on a different shard. An example of this: I have jumped around to various shards to do the treasures of events over the past couple months and I've looked to buy some pieces I am looking for. On Origin right now if you look of "of orcish kin" you will get zero results. I have a few extra random pieces but I don't have a vendor to sell anything nor the demand from what it looks. 

I personally will only be doing this on my home shard where I can actually lock down the decoration (or sell it) because I have no use for it on some low population shard where it either just sits in my bank box forever or have to spam in gen chat forever to get someone to buy it. So if anything applying all of the restrictions, at least in my case, had the exact opposite effect that you might have been hoping for. 

That said, I do think that applying all 3 things (Shard Bound / 1x char / random) was a little extreme and 1 should be removed which would still promote trading / market place. I'd say the easiest for everyone to get a "win" would be to allow people to choose their reward so that at least if I'm looking for a particular stone and say "paying/trading for X" we could at least have a few people respond.

I would hope that having these quest/event items shard bound would encourage people to populate other shards and not just flock to Atlantic. Being on a less populated shard, I can say, at least for Origin, there are people there always willing to help. I think it's up to each shard to promote their shard, use forums, social media...get people excited and make them want to join your shard. Build a new player center...think of ways to make people want to be there and STAY there. I know that has always been my goal for Origin and I don't do enough but we are working on it.

I have toons on many shards. I have houses on few. I will not ever do this event on a low pop shard that I have no housing. One per toon is only hurting the casual player that runs one account. Shard bound is bad. Once per toon is bad. Random rewards is bad. Do the devs actually play the game they work on?

Just IMAGINE what could of been.  Instead of this utterly useless item, imagine if by clicking on that 'rune' you could get 3 blue gem dots of the relevant virtue in your virtue gump, so ie three dots of sacrifice virtue or humility virtue etc.  Not on every char but the stone allows one char per day to collect 3 dots towards getting their Knight status in the relevant virtue depicted on the rune.  THEN IT WOULD OF BEEN USEFUL.  But no, we have another useless item to lockdown.  Another opportunity lost. 

My point exactly. That sounds nice and I would probably use them if available. But how much of the game would be made totally redundant and never done again by anyone.

Useful items must be thought out very carefully and should only be introduced if a real need for it is seen. Do we really need another peace of armor that makes all the stuff we have now obsolete?

Not to pound on anyone but the basic disagreement on this is do you do the content because you enjoy it or for the reward. I'll do the content because it looks interesting and fun. The reason I play a game.  The prize at the end is just to keep score.

Larisa said:

I would hope that having these quest/event items shard bound would encourage people to populate other shards and not just flock to Atlantic. Being on a less populated shard, I can say, at least for Origin, there are people there always willing to help. I think it's up to each shard to promote their shard, use forums, social media...get people excited and make them want to join your shard. Build a new player center...think of ways to make people want to be there and STAY there. I know that has always been my goal for Origin and I don't do enough but we are working on it.

@popps you said:
My opinion is, that players, for the most part, end up farming low population Shards for items to then take them to Atlantic not because they cannot sell them on those low population Shards,

That completly contradicts your argument . We can't sell these items on our home shard. And if I am short a piece, the price on my shard is higher than Atlantic prices. There are green armor pieces on vendors for 50M. Your statement proves that we need a larger supply market like Atlantic to support the need of smaller shards.

Y'all don't understand that low population shards have few things to sell because players get items and put them in a chest and the items never see the market .

I bring more items from Atlantic to LS than all others the other way many weeks.

Take for example rubble. All the pieces from LS are in someone's house. If we didn't have the ability to get Rubble from Atlantic nobody on LS would be able to add new Rubble to their houses. Same goes for any item it has a finite quantity.

Not being able to transfer finite items from a Shard is only going to hurt the small shards because there's not enough people finding the quantity needed future use. They find enough for themselves and stop.  Players who miss the event are out of luck since they can't get the item anymore and none are for sale at a reasonable price.

There is a reason that the Walmarts in RL have made the local stores go out of business. Walmart does not have to rely on regional items. Because small regions do not make enough goods to supply themselves at a low cost.

keven2002 said:

@ Kyronix - While I see your theory, I do not agree with it for two reason that I will list below.

You previously said:

I disagree this would be incentive enough to play on a lower pop shard.  You are relying on the assumption that an item can have greater value on a low population shard than on Atlantic.  I don't think this can ever be the case UNLESS the communities of those lower population shards reach a threshold of economic viability - a threshold we will never meet without selective pressures I talked about earlier OR the item has such rarity it has value everywhere.

• This statement (bolded) is just outright false as I have been to several different shards to play events etc and sometimes I will just do a random search to see if I'm able to get something I need cheaper. The results are that most of what I'm looking for is either not available or higher priced (examples: Legendary Fishing Scroll (many legendary powerscrolls in general)/Imbuing Ingredients/ Compassion Sage). This honestly isn't surprising given that there is no price competition on low population shards so this actually leads to price gouging and it's actually better off to buy on ATL. I know this for a fact when I had a set of archmage cuffs on my vendor at the lowest price at the time only to log in the next day to see them still on the vendor and 3 other sets marked below mine (on ATL shard).
• People who are established on a high population shard like ATL are very unlikley to set up shop on a low pop shard to make sales because as another poster outlined; I can't have a house there to place a vendor which means I need to find someone that does have one just to sell something I have; that's more trouble than it's worth just to do content on a different shard. An example of this: I have jumped around to various shards to do the treasures of events over the past couple months and I've looked to buy some pieces I am looking for. On Origin right now if you look of "of orcish kin" you will get zero results. I have a few extra random pieces but I don't have a vendor to sell anything nor the demand from what it looks. 

I personally will only be doing this on my home shard where I can actually lock down the decoration (or sell it) because I have no use for it on some low population shard where it either just sits in my bank box forever or have to spam in gen chat forever to get someone to buy it. So if anything applying all of the restrictions, at least in my case, had the exact opposite effect that you might have been hoping for. 

That said, I do think that applying all 3 things (Shard Bound / 1x char / random) was a little extreme and 1 should be removed which would still promote trading / market place. I'd say the easiest for everyone to get a "win" would be to allow people to choose their reward so that at least if I'm looking for a particular stone and say "paying/trading for X" we could at least have a few people respond.

Oddily enough, my experience is rather different....

I often find on Low population Shard that items, if they are listed on Vendors because they indeed are more scarce and hard to be found as compared to Atlantic, are cheaper, not more expensive....

And, I guess, for good reasons.... 

On a low population Shard, as compared to Atlantic, it is harder to sell items, it takes more time since there is less buyers as there are on Atlantic and, furthermore, usually players, on average, on lower populated Shards, are less wealthy as compared to average players on Atlantic...

Hence, on a low population Shard, in order to sell a given item it is necessary to price them cheaper as compared to Atlantic.

And, infact, it is not unusual that players hop to low population Shards, brownse the Vendors, and buy items cheaper to then resell them higher on Atlantic....

So, I am afraid that I need to disagree with your point of view keven2002 , and I need to say that I agree with @Kyronix ....

@popps

Give us an example of a low population shard you play and a couple of items you found less expensive. I find quite the opposite.

For those of us without shard shields anything that keeps wealth and items on our shards is very welcome.

Pawain said:

Y'all don't understand that low population shards have few things to sell because players get items and put them in a chest and the items never see the market .

Not to harp on the random rewards, but I've done the quest on 6 chars so far and have gotten 3 Honesty & 3 Humility :

@Kyronix would it be possible to consider making the sub-quest rewards blessed? Since they are only once per char, the quest cannot be completed if the item is lost for any reason. Most quest items are blessed.

OMG got another Humility stone.  This game hates me lol

I think the point is...NOT for the players that are already here to play multiple shards to create an influx of items for sale...it's to promote and bring in NEW players to populate other shards (NOT Atlantic ) 

I HOPE that this amazing announcement tomorrow will help with that 🙂

Seth said:

Cookie said:

I do like your posts 🙂

I'm on the side of the fence that thinks Shard Bound for these items is a good thing. I'll do the quests on Europa, get as many as I can, maybe collect the set. I may then pop to Atlantic, and farm Compassion Sage, or do 1 just to sell. So I think I'm in disagreement with you on this point. I think it's a good thing, for a shard to have to get it's own stuff, and stand or fall on their own work-rate.

I do completely understand your 2nd point, I'm not a Deco person myself, and I have skipped much of the last couple of years content due to the fact the rewards just have no practical use to me. Having said that, I've taken part in some, because the event questline is interesting enough. I do like the latest artwork on a lot of their recent rewards, but I also agree your suggestion would take it to another level.

It is good to have a noble feeling how you think a shard "should have".

Do you really enjoy doing what you just said you would do, or is it just to support the hypothesis of the Dev?

Do you intend to open a new account and place a public house to display these rewards in these low pop shards?

I think everyone enjoy the game in their own way. We have to agree to disagree at some point.

I help run a very active guild.

I'm on the side of the fence that believes players make things happen and we should earn stuff.

Put me on any shard, and things will happen, if I have any interest in this quest, it will happen - it looks pretty easy and fun to me.

I have no interest in going to another low population shard, I play on Europa, I will help my shard. I actually think there should be more cross shard competitions, that could be fun also.

I've played on Siege, which some people consider a low population shard, and trust me, with their morale and team ethic on that shard, if they want this done, they'll get it done also. I believe they hold the Void Pool record for example.

I am happy to support the hypothesis of the Devs on this one, I don't see much wrong with it. I know there is a bunch of players who consider themselves very elite, and look down their noses at the Devs all the time and think they know best. That's not me tbh. I consider they are doing a decent job in general. If I wanted any change, I would say so, there are certain things I have been after for years that the Devs are ignoring me on, for example, delete Trammel, delete Sampires, delete EC etc. 🙂

ZekeTerra said:

Not to harp on the random rewards, but I've done the quest on 6 chars so far and have gotten 3 Honesty & 3 Humility :

There is a whole trading aspect to this game, where you don't actually solo the entire game, and are meant to interact with others to achieve things.

Strange concept I know.

I get your point, but really, get out there, start trading, it's part of the original intentional beauty of this game.

Feedback so far:

jelinidas said:

@ popps

Give us an example of a low population shard you play and a couple of items you found less expensive. I find quite the opposite.

I shop a lot! I check many shards.  Prices on LS are stupid high sometimes. As a result I bring pet scrolls back from Atlantic and charge less than the ones found by players on LS. I have a spreadsheet of current scroll prices and sell them at for a 15% profit in bulk and beat the current price on VS on LS by 500k to 1M on singles.  My commission vendor that holds the stuff has made 300M in the last few months from scrolls.  I'm not into selling, I just do it to give the residents a better option. 

Example that happens a lot. Chivalry scrolls hover around 5M on Atlantic.  Buy 5 bring back to LS and sell  at 7M.  The next lowest is 8M.  I just have to pay attention and put scrolls on my vendor.

Cookie said:

I do like your posts 🙂

I'm on the side of the fence that thinks Shard Bound for these items is a good thing. I'll do the quests on Europa, get as many as I can, maybe collect the set. I may then pop to Atlantic, and farm Compassion Sage, or do 1 just to sell. So I think I'm in disagreement with you on this point. I think it's a good thing, for a shard to have to get it's own stuff, and stand or fall on their own work-rate.

I do completely understand your 2nd point, I'm not a Deco person myself, and I have skipped much of the last couple of years content due to the fact the rewards just have no practical use to me. Having said that, I've taken part in some, because the event questline is interesting enough. I do like the latest artwork on a lot of their recent rewards, but I also agree your suggestion would take it to another level.

MissE - I think the point is to deliberately limit how many of these that can be obtained, which is what actually creates trading demand for a deco item (good artwork/scarcity). If they are like dishwater - for example most Thief stealable deco items, they become worthless.

You are correct in that per your suggestion to allow me to farm more, it would not harm my game at all, I could just collect unlimited - but that devalues the Deco item, then no-one is interested.

If I were to have any complaint at all - it would be the way the Thief Titan Statue Stealable Items from the Khaldun event were treated. These are completely super rare items, that almost no-one was able to get, that are also shard bound. The artwork on these was amazing, and I really wanted to be able to get the set of 4 myself. I have 1 of the best thiefs in the game, and I completely burned myself out trying to get them, and failed to get one...

At least with these items, there is the possibility to get far more, and to trade them.

Your point about consistency, I would agree with of course, but this is an old game, and inconsistency goes right through it, there are always areas we are asking for more consistency. Here they are trying it slightly differently again, to see if it makes a difference.

Cookie said:

MissE - I think the point is to deliberately limit how many of these that can be obtained, which is what actually creates trading demand for a deco item (good artwork/scarcity). If they are like dishwater - for example most Thief stealable deco items, they become worthless.

You are correct in that per your suggestion to allow me to farm more, it would not harm my game at all, I could just collect unlimited - but that devalues the Deco item, then no-one is interested.

If I were to have any complaint at all - it would be the way the Thief Titan Statue Stealable Items from the Khaldun event were treated. These are completely super rare items, that almost no-one was able to get, that are also shard bound. The artwork on these was amazing, and I really wanted to be able to get the set of 4 myself. I have 1 of the best thiefs in the game, and I completely burned myself out trying to get them, and failed to get one...

At least with these items, there is the possibility to get far more, and to trade them.

I get what you are saying, I just think I see from a different perspective on this one.

Re the Titan Stealables - I actually do not regret the Shard Bound aspect of them, even though that means there are almost zero on my shard, I regret they were too impossible to get hold of in the first place - at least with this quest type event, there is a certain certainty for say 6 items.

Re Masteries - these are like Dishwater on every shard, because they are available at all Trammel spawns etc, as well as Felucca, anyone who spawns, or does Peerless, or Illshenar spawns, has stacks of these, like I do. I don't put them on Vendors, I don't trade them, they just are not worth my time or effort, Europa shard is stacked with them, I think the issue actually becomes indifference, we see them as ultra common, the same as thief stealables. I could not give half of them away if I wanted to, I have stacks of lvl 3 in all masteries.

Your Mastery point, is actually a debate point in my favour, they are an example of something that became so common, that no-one will even reply to you in general chat, because they are just not worth the effort. Their production needed to be limited a lot more, to maintain any interest in trading them.

It's a bit like the Blue Alacrities, they are common, yet so cheap in tradeable value, no-one will go to the effort of trading them.

Unlike SoTs which are holding a higher value, therefore have better trade turnover. Same as powerscrolls.

Cookie said:

I get what you are saying, I just think I see from a different perspective on this one.

Re the Titan Stealables - I actually do not regret the Shard Bound aspect of them, even though that means there are almost zero on my shard, I regret they were too impossible to get hold of in the first place - at least with this quest type event, there is a certain certainty for say 6 items.

Re Masteries - these are like Dishwater on every shard, because they are available at all Trammel spawns etc, as well as Felucca, anyone who spawns, or does Peerless, or Illshenar spawns, has stacks of these, like I do. I don't put them on Vendors, I don't trade them, they just are not worth my time or effort, Europa shard is stacked with them, I think the issue actually becomes indifference, we see them as ultra common, the same as thief stealables. I could not give half of them away if I wanted to, I have stacks of lvl 3 in all masteries.

Your Mastery point, is actually a debate point in my favour, they are an example of something that became so common, that no-one will even reply to you in general chat, because they are just not worth the effort. Their production needed to be limited a lot more, to maintain any interest in trading them.

It's a bit like the Blue Alacrities, they are common, yet so cheap in tradeable value, no-one will go to the effort of trading them.

Unlike SoTs which are holding a higher value, therefore have better trade turnover. Same as powerscrolls.

"The reason they aren't there on the small shards is the market is so small most players don't bother stocking them or selling them as they would hold them forever for no sale."

Commission Vendors. These are ideal for small shards in this scenario. I use them, to just hold stuff that I see as helping Europa, they can be used to help new players, with low value but important items for new players. It is either the market is so small, or completely saturated, slightly different nuance and perspective we each hold.

"As I said all or nothing, make everything shard bound or nothing shard bound. I don't care either way.  Just pick one and stick to it."

I did add a late response to your all or nothing comment. 🙂

My late response - Your point about consistency, I would agree with of course, but this is an old game, and inconsistency goes right through it, there are always areas we are asking for more consistency. Here they are trying it slightly differently again, to see if it makes a difference.

I sort of agreed - there are a lot of ingame areas, I would like to see more consistency, but I can see this being quite a huge task.

How does this make small shards larger?  A shards population gets larger by:
Someone returns
Someone begins fresh
Someone transfers to a new shard

The first two are not affected by this directly.
Now with shard bound items. Why is anyone going to move from Atlantic to a smaller shard?
In a few years they will have scores of shard bound items that are on Atlantic. Why would they leave items on Atlantic and move away? They cant get those items on small shards.
But someone on a small shard could move to Atlantic and leave things behind, but they will be easily replaced on Atlantic.  Because Atlantic has a large enough population that will get an excess of all items that come out. 

Cookie said: I have been after for years that the Devs are ignoring me on, for example, delete Trammel, delete Sampires, delete EC etc. 🙂

In this case, its fortunate that they did ignore you or else I won't be playing after those 3 are deleted.  😂

Tanager said:

@ Kyronix would it be possible to consider making the sub-quest rewards blessed? Since they are only once per char, the quest cannot be completed if the item is lost for any reason. Most quest items are blessed.

Seems to be a good point @Kyronix , doesn't it ?

Cookie said:

Seth said:

Cookie said:

I do like your posts 🙂

I'm on the side of the fence that thinks Shard Bound for these items is a good thing. I'll do the quests on Europa, get as many as I can, maybe collect the set. I may then pop to Atlantic, and farm Compassion Sage, or do 1 just to sell. So I think I'm in disagreement with you on this point. I think it's a good thing, for a shard to have to get it's own stuff, and stand or fall on their own work-rate.

I do completely understand your 2nd point, I'm not a Deco person myself, and I have skipped much of the last couple of years content due to the fact the rewards just have no practical use to me. Having said that, I've taken part in some, because the event questline is interesting enough. I do like the latest artwork on a lot of their recent rewards, but I also agree your suggestion would take it to another level.

It is good to have a noble feeling how you think a shard "should have".

Do you really enjoy doing what you just said you would do, or is it just to support the hypothesis of the Dev?

Do you intend to open a new account and place a public house to display these rewards in these low pop shards?

I think everyone enjoy the game in their own way. We have to agree to disagree at some point.

I help run a very active guild.

I'm on the side of the fence that believes players make things happen and we should earn stuff.

Put me on any shard, and things will happen, if I have any interest in this quest, it will happen - it looks pretty easy and fun to me.

I have no interest in going to another low population shard, I play on Europa, I will help my shard. I actually think there should be more cross shard competitions, that could be fun also.

I've played on Siege, which some people consider a low population shard, and trust me, with their morale and team ethic on that shard, if they want this done, they'll get it done also. I believe they hold the Void Pool record for example.

I am happy to support the hypothesis of the Devs on this one, I don't see much wrong with it. I know there is a bunch of players who consider themselves very elite, and look down their noses at the Devs all the time and think they know best. That's not me tbh. I consider they are doing a decent job in general. If I wanted any change, I would say so, there are certain things I have been after for years that the Devs are ignoring me on, for example, delete Trammel, delete Sampires, delete EC etc. 🙂

I've played on Siege, which some people consider a low population shard, and trust me, with their morale and team ethic on that shard, if they want this done, 

I do not play Siege nor have any interest in that particular Shard playstyle BUT, to address your point, @Cookie , it looks to me, that the way that this particular content is Designed, I frankly do not see "how", even with "morale" and "team ethic" the fellow players on Siege could ever "get this done"....

In getting this done, I mean putting together a full set of 8 stones per player....

I mean, let's look how it has been Designed....

# 1) - Limit of 1 Quest per character. On Siege, that I know of, it is ONLY 1 charater per Account so, this Limit translates for Siege to only 1 Quest limit per account......

#2) - Endless Journey Accounts seem not to be able to complete the Quest and get the Stone Reward.

#3) - That I know of, Siege has no Transfers in or out of characters permitted so, no stones can be brought in or out of Siege, period.

So, on Siege players will ONLY be able to get 1 stone, period, per subscribed account. No doubles to trade, sorry....

Sure, these Stones can be sold and bought but if 1 player on Siege will sell theirs, they will be "stoneless", so to speak....

So, I fail to see how on Siege motivated players with morale and team ethic can ever get this done...

No doubt that some wealthy players there will be able to earn their 1 stone and buy the remaining 7, but that is a different thing....

Perhaps this new content was pretty much thought out having in mind Production shards and not really the Siege Shard and how it works ?

@Kyronix , @Bleak , any comments on this ?

Perhaps, "just" perhaps permitting EJ characters to do the Quest might be a way to address this and have new players "also" be able to enjoy the new content ?

MissE said:

Cookie said:

I get what you are saying, I just think I see from a different perspective on this one.

Re the Titan Stealables - I actually do not regret the Shard Bound aspect of them, even though that means there are almost zero on my shard, I regret they were too impossible to get hold of in the first place - at least with this quest type event, there is a certain certainty for say 6 items.

Re Masteries - these are like Dishwater on every shard, because they are available at all Trammel spawns etc, as well as Felucca, anyone who spawns, or does Peerless, or Illshenar spawns, has stacks of these, like I do. I don't put them on Vendors, I don't trade them, they just are not worth my time or effort, Europa shard is stacked with them, I think the issue actually becomes indifference, we see them as ultra common, the same as thief stealables. I could not give half of them away if I wanted to, I have stacks of lvl 3 in all masteries.

Your Mastery point, is actually a debate point in my favour, they are an example of something that became so common, that no-one will even reply to you in general chat, because they are just not worth the effort. Their production needed to be limited a lot more, to maintain any interest in trading them.

It's a bit like the Blue Alacrities, they are common, yet so cheap in tradeable value, no-one will go to the effort of trading them.

Unlike SoTs which are holding a higher value, therefore have better trade turnover. Same as powerscrolls.

You can buy a mastery of every type on Oceania as I sell them.   Level 1, 2 and whatever spare 3's I get.  They are common hence why they should be available,  I have one on the vendor and 5 in backstock of every type. I also stocked them on Siege when I played there and they SOLD.    Fact that other shards toss em and don't see value doesn't mean that is correct, I supply them for new players it isn't a matter of making a huge profit.

I disagree with your take on masteries.  The reason they aren't there on the small shards is the market is so small most players don't bother stocking them or selling them as they would hold them forever for no sale. i am happy to wait on Oceania as I offer them as a service as I am a Merchant as my first form of gameplay. Them being shard bound has made NO player stay on that shard to play and what is moronic is that the powersrolls can still be transferred off which goes back to my initial point of what should and shouldn't be shard bound and that in my opinion it should be all or nothing not based on some brain fart by some dev who got his/her panties in a wad over a single item. 

As for alacrities, again you are actually incorrect, I take at least 100 to Atlantic every time I transfer and pretty much sell them all.  And not all for cheap, some still fetch over a mil a piece like taming etc.  The average is about 4-500k per depending on type. 

I wouldn't be so vocal if I didn't have experience in this stuff.  I run atm 30 odd vendors over a number of shards, I have run vendors, auctions etc for years, it is my main focus.  Everything  I do is based on that.  I dont need gold and I don't need deco,  I trade.  That is my purpose to do things. 

I wouldn't even bother playing without my shops so the more they do this shard bound stuff the less likely it is I will play.  I loot everything and sell whatever has a market. The population on my shard now wouldn't keep me busy for more than a day a week.   Anyways good discussion but no one yet has responded to the all or nothing comment I made, still waiting on that lol.

As for alacrities, again you are actually incorrect, I take at least 100 to Atlantic every time I transfer and pretty much sell them all.  And not all for cheap, some still fetch over a mil a piece like taming etc.  The average is about 4-500k per depending on type. 

I beg your pardon BUT, doesn't this show how, on average, player Transfer items to the Atlantic Shard so as to make MORE profit as they would do on their home shard ?

And, in doing so, they subtract those items from being on sale on their Local Shard to add them to the quantity of items on sale on Atlantic ?

It is stuff like this that makes me say GO with Shard Bound items to the Developers !!

Only Shard Bound items can STAY on a local Shard and, thus, help the economy there.

If Mastery primers were not Shard Bound, I could bet that it would be night to impossible to find any Mastery Primer III on Low population shards.... pretty much most of them, if not all of them, would end up one way or the other to Atlantic to sell for high gold....

Sorry but no, I disagree with those being against Shard Bound items, I see instead Shard Bound items to be a BLESSING for Low Population Shards and I hope that, with the new content tools, we will see WAY MORE Shard Bound items...

Thanks @Kyronix , @Bleak , @Mesanna for promoting Shard Bound Rewards as they are the one way to help Low Population Shards to till have items to buy and sell there, and not see them all end up going to Atlantic....

Cookie said:

"The reason they aren't there on the small shards is the market is so small most players don't bother stocking them or selling them as they would hold them forever for no sale."

Commission Vendors. These are ideal for small shards in this scenario. I use them, to just hold stuff that I see as helping Europa, they can be used to help new players, with low value but important items for new players. It is either the market is so small, or completely saturated, slightly different nuance and perspective we each hold.

"As I said all or nothing, make everything shard bound or nothing shard bound. I don't care either way.  Just pick one and stick to it."

I did add a late response to your all or nothing comment. 🙂

My late response - Your point about consistency, I would agree with of course, but this is an old game, and inconsistency goes right through it, there are always areas we are asking for more consistency. Here they are trying it slightly differently again, to see if it makes a difference.

I sort of agreed - there are a lot of ingame areas, I would like to see more consistency, but I can see this being quite a huge task.

"The reason they aren't there on the small shards is the market is so small most players don't bother stocking them or selling them as they would hold them forever for no sale."

Commission Vendors. These are ideal for small shards in this scenario. I use them, to just hold stuff that I see as helping Europa, they can be used to help new players, with low value but important items for new players. It is either the market is so small, or completely saturated, slightly different nuance and perspective we each hold.

Absolutely, right on spot.

Commission Vendors is THE way to go on Vendors for Low Population Shards.

Just put the item on the Vendor at the price considered right for it and forget it there.

Eventually, sometime, someone will buy it even on that Lowly Populated Shard.

And this will make that player who was looking for that item HAPPY, because, even on a Low Population Shard, they were able to find that item which they needed....

If the items are ferried to Atlantic to be sold at higher price, instead, that would make it damn harder for them items to show up on Vendors on a Low Population Shard, wouldn't it ?

Has anyone thought an easier solution to all economic problems would simply be to not allow goods or gold to be transferred when shard transferring? So you can only transfer naked?

just going to throw that crazy idea out there..

@popps - Given your extreme lack of UO game play knowledge and just overall understanding of things I take pretty much anything you say with a grain of salt. Also to set the record straight, my post is not my point of view, but actual fact as I actually have seen prices be higher on certain things I noted with my own eyes. 

Thank you for not writing a novel this time but please stop commenting on posts which you have no idea about. How about you answer the questions people are asking you and provide details to support your point of view? Thanks.

Mervyn said:

Has anyone thought an easier solution to all economic problems would simply be to not allow goods or gold to be transferred when shard transferring? So you can only transfer naked?

just going to throw that crazy idea out there..

popps said:

I beg your pardon BUT, doesn't this show how, on average, player Transfer items to the Atlantic Shard so as to make MORE profit as they would do on their home shard ?

And, in doing so, they subtract those items from being on sale on their Local Shard to add them to the quantity of items on sale on Atlantic ?

It is stuff like this that makes me say GO with Shard Bound items to the Developers !!

Only Shard Bound items can STAY on a local Shard and, thus, help the economy there.

If Mastery primers were not Shard Bound, I could bet that it would be night to impossible to find any Mastery Primer III on Low population shards.... pretty much most of them, if not all of them, would end up one way or the other to Atlantic to sell for high gold....

Sorry but no, I disagree with those being against Shard Bound items, I see instead Shard Bound items to be a BLESSING for Low Population Shards and I hope that, with the new content tools, we will see WAY MORE Shard Bound items...

Thanks @ Kyronix , @ Bleak , @ Mesanna for promoting Shard Bound Rewards as they are the one way to help Low Population Shards to till have items to buy and sell there, and not see them all end up going to Atlantic....

@MissE What I like about your posts, is you feel the game, like I do, it shows  🙂

We may be right, we may be wrong, but we are playing it, know our stuff, and can feel far more than what statistics can tell us.

Take care, I've got nothing more to add, don't quit, there are so many parts of the game to get into. 🙂

I am going to interject here....I know that it's hard to find needed items on smaller shards but that's why the shard population has to work together to make it happen. 

I currently have  an empty vendor...I loaded it up with imbuing ingredients, fish, just random stuff..stone furniture...nothing sold...nothing sold....I had to shut my accts down for a few months....but about a month went by before that and my vendor was full. When I got back it was empty so things DO sell..maybe not right away, you won't get instant gratification like on ATL but you will get it

As far as the things you mentioned..I have put those things on my vendor....in fact I will be stocking more soon....but one person cannot do it alone. HELP your shard...HELP make it inviting to other players, new and old alike.

I spent a few hours yesterday making gate and recall scrolls...am working on stocking necessity vendors but again I am only ONE person. Talk to the people on your shard, get them to put a vendor up, even if it's just one....arrows, bolts, aids.....spellbooks.....I get .1 transcendence scrolls out of my painting and put those on my vendor for 500g...seriously....working on scroll binders

Larisa said:

I am going to interject here....I know that it's hard to find needed items on smaller shards but that's why the shard population has to work together to make it happen. 

I currently have  an empty vendor...I loaded it up with imbuing ingredients, fish, just random stuff..stone furniture...nothing sold...nothing sold....I had to shut my accts down for a few months....but about a month went by before that and my vendor was full. When I got back it was empty so things DO sell..maybe not right away, you won't get instant gratification like on ATL but you will get it

As far as the things you mentioned..I have put those things on my vendor....in fact I will be stocking more soon....but one person cannot do it alone. HELP your shard...HELP make it inviting to other players, new and old alike.

I spent a few hours yesterday making gate and recall scrolls...am working on stocking necessity vendors but again I am only ONE person. Talk to the people on your shard, get them to put a vendor up, even if it's just one....arrows, bolts, aids.....spellbooks.....I get .1 transcendence scrolls out of my painting and put those on my vendor for 500g...seriously....working on scroll binders

Hi Larisa, long time no see!
I fully agree with you on this. I wish we could reactivate origin.
I just had to accept losing an ancient guild membership, for having to go to Chessy just to eat a lvl3 primer... bit sad. 

I've been meaning to set up a vendor on Origin, at Origin prices. or maybe 2, one in my castle for VS and, if there ara still rental spots, maybe one in Luna  just for cheap deco stuff that people might see while just browsing around. 
(Never had a vendor myself...  decades ago my younger brother had a PoF vendor and I would give him things to place on it .. so never really done it myself) .
I would appreciate it if you could share any tips, or maybe plan a strategy and ger mor shard members involved  <span>🙂</span>

@larisa and @archangel I completely agree with both of you, this is what we have to do on lower population shards.

I've played on Europa Felucca for most of my game, and we had one of the most vibrant PvP communities going. Felucca lost a ton of players to Trammel, and Europa lost a ton of PvPers and Merchants to Atlantic.

We've been in this situation for a long time, so you have to do positive stuff to keep morale up, and maintain interest in your facet/shard. I've always said action creates action, so we create a lot of action, and players see this and want to join in, which helps rebuild our shard.

Commission Vendors were a real help. I often put things up really cheaply, I don't need gold, but it's just a message that a. we can provide stuff, and b. it's cheaper than Atlantic.

You will find there are like-minded players on a shard, who will do stuff, just to help rebuild a shard. If there isn't, that's when you have a problem. There is nothing to stop the rot.

Larisa said:

I am going to interject here....I know that it's hard to find needed items on smaller shards but that's why the shard population has to work together to make it happen. 

I currently have  an empty vendor...I loaded it up with imbuing ingredients, fish, just random stuff..stone furniture...nothing sold...nothing sold....I had to shut my accts down for a few months....but about a month went by before that and my vendor was full. When I got back it was empty so things DO sell..maybe not right away, you won't get instant gratification like on ATL but you will get it

As far as the things you mentioned..I have put those things on my vendor....in fact I will be stocking more soon....but one person cannot do it alone. HELP your shard...HELP make it inviting to other players, new and old alike.

I spent a few hours yesterday making gate and recall scrolls...am working on stocking necessity vendors but again I am only ONE person. Talk to the people on your shard, get them to put a vendor up, even if it's just one....arrows, bolts, aids.....spellbooks.....I get .1 transcendence scrolls out of my painting and put those on my vendor for 500g...seriously....working on scroll binders

And the good thing now is, that with Commission Vendors one can just place items up for sale on them on a Low Population Shard and forget about it without worrying about daily fees....

YET, those items sitting on those Vendors will eventually sell making the buyer who was looking for them and who needed them happy....

As you well said "...but about a month went by before that and my vendor was full. When I got back it was empty so things DO sell..maybe not right away, you won't get instant gratification like on ATL but you will get it "

It might not be an efficient and fast way to make gold as on Atlantic but, it sure can help one's own Low Population Shard to get repopulated....

And, IF Commission vendors could "also" be rental vendors, that is, not only Vendors in one's own home but also in other players' Homes who "rent" them out to other players (often for free....), I am confident that this could greatly help out repopulate those Low Population Shards and rejuvenite their economy...

Infact, one of the reason why people are reluctant to play Lowly Populated Shards unless their Home Shard where they have a Home on, is that they have a hard time to find items up for sale which they might need.

BUT, if "Rental Vendors" could be permitted to be also Commission Vendors, I am confident that this would greatly help out the economies of those Low Population Shards.

Yes, Commission Vendors take up Lock Downs....

How about having then "Rental Commission Vendors" have it possible to have the House Owner and the other player to whom the Vendor is rented to "negotiate" the amount of Lockdowns that such a Rental Vendor can have ?

This way, it will not be possible for the player managing the Rental Commission Vendor to exceed the amount of Lockdowns allowed by the contract and the House Owner will not be worried that the player could place too many items on that Vendor thus using up more Lockdowns that they are willing to give away for that.

I think it would be a good enhancement towards helping out Low Population Shards.

@Kyronix , @Bleak , does that sound a good way that could contribute to help out the economy and thus the re-population of Low Population Shards ?

@Larisa you know you can buy recall scrolls from a mage in haven right?

recalls can be gotten in the mage shop in moonglow  take the hedge tp to the top shop

I know you can buy recall scrolls from an NPC but I give them for free, easy to make and if a new player needs a runebook with full charges I am happy to give them out 🙂

popps said:

BUT, if "Rental Vendors" could be permitted to be also Commission Vendors, I am confident that this would greatly help out the economies of those Low Population Shards.

Yes, Commission Vendors take up Lock Downs....

How about having then "Rental Commission Vendors" have it possible to have the House Owner and the other player to whom the Vendor is rented to "negotiate" the amount of Lockdowns that such a Rental Vendor can have ?

@ Kyronix , @ Bleak , does that sound a good way that could contribute to help out the economy and thus the re-population of Low Population Shards ?

WOW  Even though IMPO @popps does not play UO sometimes he does stumble on an idea that could help UO.

After several trades completed the collection.

@Larisa ; I agree that small shards need their populations to help, however I am ONE person and I do this.  Granted I have been running malls for years so am experienced and I am a pretty high end player when it comes to this type of gaming, yet even this year I have been slack and have not played much for months at a time, yet I still log in and stock even if I don't do anything else.

I actually get pretty sick of people on small shards trying to blame the 'system' for failures to supply items. As you see above, any player can supply pretty much everything a shard needs.  I DO. As for those yelling for shard bound stuff well that will do NOTHING to assist the problem only make it worse.  As demonstrated this week on Origin, you cannot find a mastery you cannot get one from a shard that has it if it is shard bound so you are completely out of luck.

Anyways you can see quite clearly that if you are on Oceania as a new player if you shop at my shop you will get whatever you need, whenever you need it, not only that if you ask for me I will even toss you a mil to help you get the basics.

Lastly do NOT use the excuse that players don't play small shards as they can't get gear or items, that is a failing of the players on that shard who can't be bothered to supply.    Oceania is one of the smallest shards and you can get anything you need yet we still have NO players.   If I don't have something I can get   it on Atlantic and bring it back for you.  SHARD BOUND will certainly kill that.

As for running something like this means I don't get to play other content, then that is crap too.  The last rehashed invasion I managed to get over 300 spellbooks including about 9 50% sdi ones as I worked that event the whole time it was on, and NO I didn't just kill mages and bugger off I cleaned as many towns as hours allowed.  This 'new' event I am not gonna even bother with due to the shard bound and one per toon limitation.  If they continue down this road then I will be calling it quits.

I have NEVER purchased gold, NEVER bought a single item off an RMT site, never used an illegal program, and I have more gold than I need.   I have just played the game as intended.  I am so over all the 'excuses' for small shards.  I posted this long thread to show that ONE person can actually make a huge difference if they want to.  SHARD BOUND is not the answer for failing shards.  Making stuff SHARD BOUND will actually go further to killing it. If anyone wants to come look at 'my empire' just ask, or hop on Oceania and see for yourself.  The red sparkly teleport pad at the shop in SW luna will take you to the warehouse too. In case you are interested in how I organise.

Cheers
MissE

So we put in shard bound items to increase populations of small shards.

Then we put in a new server that will make many players from small shards go to the new server for a year!

Please, that is enough reason to get rid of shard bound items like these..

Pawain said:

So we put in shard bound items to increase populations of small shards.

Then we put in a new server that will make many players from small shards go to the new server for a year!

Please, that is enough reason to get rid of shard bound items like these..

Pawain said:

So we put in shard bound items to increase populations of small shards.

Then we put in a new server that will make many players from small shards go to the new server for a year!

Please, that is enough reason to get rid of shard bound items like these..

lol, good point.

Yea I kind of thought the same thing. Shard bound items are designed to keep people on that shard... they literally just made a quest item shard bound when they planned on creating a new shard which will inevitably pull people off some live shards. Bit of a head scratcher. All the while Kyronix was saying the logic was to do it this way to promote people to stay on the low pop shards...

Estel_Randir said:

After competing this quest once on one of my main characters, I will not be bothering with the quest again.

1) The quest line flow is terrible: Most of it is very easy. Then you hit the "middle" part with Destard. Very unbalanced and burdensome. Way too many mobs to kill for one part. Also, if you do not have help, greater dragons are a huge pain. The whole Destard part should have been broken into smaller "kill this" parts over different dungeons.

2) Compassion sage: Exodus dungeon is one of my least favorite. It is way too crowded with mobs, the drop rate sucks, and the difficulty there is challenging for even veteran players.

3) Random reward & can only be completed once per character: Are you kidding me? Why is it that the Broadsword development team keeps talking about how much they love the game, have all these warm fuzzy memories, that they listen to the player base, but yet you STILL do not understand the player base? We want to collect all the runes. And most people are willing to suck it up and do the quest 8 times to get a complete set - that is if you actually allowed them to. First of all, random reward for something like this just sucks & is unfair especially due to once per character. Second, limiting it to once per character involves words that I am not allowed to use on this board. These are not the old days when most people were actually cooperative with each other traded their extras freely to anyone willing. Veterans sit on and hoard extras to sell, not trade. And they want way too much for everything they try to sell. Less than 24 hrs into the quest being live on my server, someone was auctioning compassion sages for a tidy sum =p.

4) The runes are not up to par with what a virtue rune (one of the most important & fundamental items in Ultima history) should look like. Quite frankly, they are ugly.This is my personal & biased opinion on this. But it is true =p.

1) The quest line flow is terrible: Most of it is very easy. Then you hit the "middle" part with Destard. Very unbalanced and burdensome. Way too many mobs to kill for one part. Also, if you do not have help, greater dragons are a huge pain. The whole Destard part should have been broken into smaller "kill this" parts over different dungeons.

Talking about that, anyone has found an efficient and quick way to get the kill done of the Unbound Energy Vortex ? Those things are quite a pain to kill and take forever....

Ask for help in gen chat. On my shard, many tamers and samps offered to help people kill it.

Marge said:

Ask for help in gen chat. On my shard, many tamers and samps offered to help people kill it.

I was rather more interested in finding out if anyone might have found a way to kill Unbound Energy Vortexes "solo", fast and swiftly....

popps said:

Marge said:

Ask for help in gen chat. On my shard, many tamers and samps offered to help people kill it.

I was rather more interested in finding out if anyone might have found a way to kill Unbound Energy Vortexes "solo", fast and swiftly....

Melee or archer. They take only 1/3 damage from pets.

Pawain said:

popps said:

Marge said:

Ask for help in gen chat. On my shard, many tamers and samps offered to help people kill it.

I was rather more interested in finding out if anyone might have found a way to kill Unbound Energy Vortexes "solo", fast and swiftly....

Melee or archer. They take only 1/3 damage from pets.

Thanks.

They take only 1/3 damage from only pets or also summons alike ?

Also, considering how they teleport so much, I'd rather use a melee template to tackle them rather then a ranged character who would have to always move back when teleported...

A melee character can just sit there and bash at them without bothering about being teleported.

Any suggestion on what Melee Template would be most effective to take them down in the least time?

Anything that is not a pet. Just stand where they pull you to. They don't change targets.

We call out in chat. 1 player puts a Cu on it so the pet just hold the aggro and others do what they can do. I just sat on it for 10 mins and let some guys crafter shoot fireballs at it.

My basic paladin can kill it pretty quick by himself.  Just don't use an energy weapon. it has 100% energy resist.

Do yall help each other on your shard?

A not very good tamer took my 100 skill swordsman on the quest line. We finished it in a little over 2 hours.

A tamer can take a really lame toon thru all the quests. Let the lame guy do half damage, pets eats the rest. move to next. A crap sword like dragons end works great.

Now that I have a complete set thanks to trading with my friends (I ended up getting 6 Honesty & 5 Humility ones lol).  They need to add the anti-virtue tiles so that room is not lopsided....

ZekeTerra said:

Now that I have a complete set thanks to trading with my friends (I ended up getting 6 Honesty & 5 Humility ones lol).  They need to add the anti-virtue tiles so that room is not lopsided....

Congratulations !

That is a fine Collection that you have !

@ZekeTerra Congrats... and your home is awesome.
Thanks for the tour.

I'm glad I could help.

Looking for Compassion and Honesty Tiles on Origin, have extra Sacrifice, Honor, Justice and Valor to Trade. Let me know if you are able to help

.

I am so sorry for the players on Siege or Mugen.... with only 1 character per Account and thus 1 Black Gate stone per account and no trasfers in (and out) as possible I can imagine the difficulties for a player there to put a set of all 8 Virtue stones together....

Sure, they can buy them from other players there who do not care collecting them, but it won't be easy nonetheless, likely also quite expensive....

Oh well, sorry for you guys....

Oh... you mean you feel sorry for us because we have a stable economy and a community that can work together (when we want to)?

I feel sorry for prodo shards that are glutted with an excess of everything to the point that very little has any real value.

Let's keep the thread on topic please.

@ZekeTerra - nice job!  That is a lovely home!

Thanks for that very candid feedback @Okami.  Sorry you didn't like the quest, perhaps you'll enjoy the upcoming Champ Spawn and Treasures of Deceit events more.  Despite your assertion, we're feeling pretty good about how the dynamic quest roll out has gone so far.  A quest that would otherwise have taken much longer to implement can now be done in a much shorter period of time.  This first one wasn't as complex or as deep as we could have made it, hopefully you'll find more fulfillment in future events. 

I really like this quest! The reward could be better, more useful.

I think, unfortunately, that every 'useful' thing added to UO after 23 years either reduces the reason to leave ones house (items that give resources, shortcuts of any kind for any thing) or unbalances the game in some way. Event and holiday rewards, in particular, need to be unique for most people to enjoy the novelty, but can create inequality for players who come along after the event/holiday.

So, ideally, new content is best when it isn't temporary. Something new that is added to the game that is challenging to obtain to make it fun to do, but that people who are not up to the task at the time, or who join Sosaria after, can do later. I get it, people want to farm limited-time content to amass a stockpile they can sit on and sell off later. In the grand scheme of things, tho, this is not what is best for an elderly MMO.

So... if there simply must be limited time only content, then it just can't be very useful rewards at this point. It CAN be variations of a useful thing that already exists, however. A new item with new art that functions as a 10th anniversary luck statue. A new mount in crystal dropped from a boss. That sort of thing. I'd like to see content like that in UO.

I think they make the guild and player-city memorial at my library look really nice. 

I enjoy the new deco. Not just the tiles, but the sub-quest items as well. I think the questline is a little too easy in some places, a little too tedious in others, but overall equal in difficulty to the reward(s) gained. Limited to one per character is also fine, imo. There are plenty of people who trade items. I won't comment on shard bound since I live on a shard where that applies to every last pixel generated there.

Getting close, going to do a trade to get Compassion.

In the future, if we have a quest like this...
when there are 8 rewards and we have just 7 chars...

can you make it to where only one char (per account) can do the quest?
And at the end, we choose the item we want.
and then make it repeatable, but every time you choose the item it greys out.

This has been done...
Hawkwind at the Valley of Eodon does it with the quest to get your primer.

Jepeth said:

I think they make the guild and player-city memorial at my library look really nice. 

I like what you have done here.

Bug Report. Defeating the Drake in Dupre's quest does not count while you are taking the Heckless quest. The bug seems to be due to duplicate quests. Please investigate.

Luffy said:

Bug Report. Defeating the Drake in Dupre's quest does not count while you are taking the Heckless quest. The bug seems to be due to duplicate quests. Please investigate.

You have to finish heckles first. You cant get credit for 2 quests on same mob....

At this rate !'ll have triples of everything but Compassion. 

 😂  I don't have humility.   Have 4 spare others.  My first 7 were 3 valor 4 others.

Pawain said:

 😂  I don't have humility.   Have 4 spare others.  My first 7 were 3 valor 4 others.

How on earth do you people manage 14 characters that can defeat the unbound e vortex !?   

Archangel said:

Pawain said:

 😂  I don't have humility.   Have 4 spare others.  My first 7 were 3 valor 4 others.

How on earth do you people manage 14 characters that can defeat the unbound e vortex !?   

We help each other on our shard. Someone sticks a pet on it while a toon with low skills whacks it,shoots fireballs, uses earth eles,RCs, Blade spirits, whatever they can do. One player used a Tinker with an Automatron and did the quests.

Thought I would have some fun on Origin doing the Black Gate champ spawn. Been here about 2 hours by my self having a good time wacking orcs with my pure mage. 

Now that I finally died I realized there are not any healers walking around to rez you lol. What was the plan here on this. lol 

I took an orc, gargoyle, Ogre, Fire ele, elemental spell books with me.  I would need a mage if those work and I tried solo.
We did the invasions twice for a reason! 🙂

Lord_Nabin said:

Thought I would have some fun on Origin doing the Black Gate champ spawn. Been here about 2 hours by my self having a good time wacking orcs with my pure mage. 

Now that I finally died I realized there are not any healers walking around to rez you lol. What was the plan here on this. lol 

Results may vary but I also did it on Orgin (well tried) and there is actually a wandering healer I ran across north of the alter. I guess you could lure it down to the beach and have it there in case you died.

This was also the case on ATL and GL... not sure if it always spawns there or not though so like I said results may vary.

There were none on Atlantic this morning when I got a talisman.

Ours comes and goes.

Still can't see that Shamino statue in Skara Brae
It's like I'm playing a different game.
Got everything else.
Any clues?

Pawain said:

I took an orc, gargoyle, Ogre, Fire ele, elemental spell books with me.  I would need a mage if those work and I tried solo.
We did the invasions twice for a reason! 🙂

My mage slayer spell book works on the mages

Plenty of Controllers to kill, 1/3 way back from the dungeon

lexluthor said:

Still can't see that Shamino statue in Skara Brae
It's like I'm playing a different game.
Got everything else.
Any clues?

Its by the Ranger house across bridge.

Lord_Nabin said:

Thought I would have some fun on Origin doing the Black Gate champ spawn. Been here about 2 hours by my self having a good time wacking orcs with my pure mage. 

Now that I finally died I realized there are not any healers walking around to rez you lol. What was the plan here on this. lol 

Maybe we should ask @Kyronix to add a couple of Invulnerable healers on the beach near the altar, Like someone did on Balhae?

.

Yeah, The healers get wiped out by the spawn. 

The healer on Legends yesterday was north of the Alter with tons of mobs around him lol

Maximus_Neximus said:

I officially give up. I've done the quest to get the tiles 12 times. I have five valor tiles and am still missing two; honesty and justice. I just don't care anymore. I have tried trading through forum posts, PMs, and gen chat. No one has spares of what I need on my shard.

Please don't do this type of drop ever again. Either make it once per character but you get to choose or make it random and repeatable. The current setup of once per character and random reward is asinine.

Well if they were not shardbound.....  What do they do on Siege?  Donate their one to a Museum?

 😂 I think the RNG really hates me