Obligatory WUA UO post! Game free through the 12th!

[Soulflame]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

[Reg]

I thought the whole idea of the "classic" shard was basically getting rid of all the changes since 1998 or so.  No more glow in the dark colours. No more crazy itemization. None of that nonsense. A regular old Felucca where people wore iron and leather armour - exceptional if they were lucky and generally kept their vanq swords locked up safely in the bank.

[jcthebuilder]

I thought the whole idea of the "classic" shard was basically getting rid of all the changes since 1998 or so.  No more glow in the dark colours. No more crazy itemization. None of that nonsense. A regular old Felucca where people wore iron and leather armour - exceptional if they were lucky and generally kept their vanq swords locked up safely in the bank.

This shard is not meant to be "the" classic shard. It is a test to see how much interest there is. They are making a few quick changes (no item insurance, no blessed items, only Felucca) to make it feel classic. But it is also meant to be a special event shard for Halloween.

Also, leather armor? Mages didn't wear that until after Renaissance.

[Reg]

Also, leather armor? Mages didn't wear that until after Renaissance.

Of course. That's why mages had to have 100 strength so they could wear plate and wield a hally. 

[Nebu]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

This is my favorite quote of the day.  You have to let me steal this one. 

[palmer_eldritch]

Also, leather armor? Mages didn't wear that until after Renaissance.

Of course. That's why mages had to have 100 strength so they could wear plate and wield a hally. 

My mage did indeed wear plate and wield a hally.

[Arthur_Parker]

This shard is not meant to be "the" classic shard. It is a test to see how much interest there is.

Somebody should have mentioned a pre trammel server before, if only they had known there was some interest in it. 

The whole "test" spin is bollocks anyway, either the new retarded ruleset is popular long term, in which case, doh, keep it, or it's not, which means the only reason to refer back to it is to say there wasn't enough interest in a "real" classic server.

[Slyfeind]

Also, leather armor? Mages didn't wear that until after Renaissance.

Of course. That's why mages had to have 100 strength so they could wear plate and wield a hally. 

My mage did indeed wear plate and wield a hally.

Yep. Mine too.

[Slayerik]

Ahhh, miss the ole tank mage!

[Sir T]

Ve hurl lightning vit strenght!

[jcthebuilder]

The shard is now online.

I logged in to see people casting poison on each other and getting guard wacked.

[Arthur_Parker]

Make yourself useful and setup a live feed from brit bank.

[Reg]

Now I'm getting nostalgic memories of hanging out behind Empath Abbey working on my magery.

[Soulflame]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

This is my favorite quote of the day.  You have to let me steal this one. 

Feel free!

[sinij]

This almost tempts me to re-subscribe...

Does this PvP shard gets rid of all new resist/reforge/ninja crap? I doubt it.

[sinij]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

Obviously not, who would want to play chess match when you can just punch other guy in the face and topple his king?

Idiot.

[WindupAtheist]

They've done "Shard of the Dead" before. It's a combination of Halloween event shard and testing ground for whatever odd ideas they have kicking around. They've had events in the past where you could be turned into a zombie and all sorts of weird shit that never made it into the actual game. I wouldn't put too much stock in the idea of a permanent classic shard actually looking anything like this one in particular.

The conversation was probably less like "How do we gauge interest in a classic shard? I know, this!" and more like "Hey it's Halloween and we've been kicking around the idea of a classic shard. Let's give this year's Shard of the Dead a PVP bent and see who shows up." I know they certainly wouldn't go to the trouble of redacting 10 years worth of game changes until they were 100% sure that a permanent classic shard was a go. If even then.

[sinij]

What they fail to understand is that interest in "classic" shard is mostly from ex-player base, not current one. Trying to measure interest by offering it to current player base is... misguided.

Put classic shard - 100% classic, no crystal meth swords or any kind of other idiocy that went in since 98, and offer it for free for 2 months. This is the only way to measure interest. It doesn't even have to be classic client - you can use whatever 3D clinet they are using right now as long as RULESET is close enough.

[WindupAtheist]

I went there to see what was up. I ran around naked saying I was the backpack inspector and snooping people. Some guy ran halfway across town to get away from me. Then he attacked me and was killed by the guards, so I took all his shit and was naked but with his hat on.

[Soulflame]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

Obviously not, who would want to play chess match when you can just punch other guy in the face and topple his king?

Idiot.

And yet, quite a bit of PvP is one overgeared min/maxed jackass roflstomping everyone else around him.

So yes.  Toppling someone else's king is apparently quite fun for some "PvPers".

[Triforcer]

I'm downloading this right now to get my thief on.  I don't think that pre-Ren (when I played for about a year) I ever swung a sword or cast an offensive spell.  Just give me Brit Bank and I'll be happy. 

[sinij]

Soul, sorry to bring it to you, PvP is not retard-friendly pastime like foozle bashing. You actually have to be better than the other guy at something to win. Sometimes it is just gearing and building your character, but more often than not you have to also play better, have better connections/friends and know your turf. Don't place yourself in the situation where "overgeared min/maxed" player would attack you until you are on somewhat equal footing. If you were starting boxing, would you step into the ring with heavyweight champion and then complain when you got K.O. after the first jab?

There are different games that have PvP. Some segregate/instance you away until you decide you are ready to PvP. Stay safe as long as you can, it is logical thing to do, even if it takes slower to advance. Sure thing is often much better than pie-in-the-sky, especially if you can't go back to sure thing once you left.

Other games throw you in a pool with sharks - in that case accept that winning for you is getting away, or minimizing loss when you get killed, for very long time. Get better at watching over your shoulder, find others who willing to protect you or at least watch your back. Find safety in numbers, remember you don't have to outrun the bear, just slowest guy. Failing that, understand what attackers want from you. Are they the same people time after time? Try offering a deal where you pay them to leave you alone. Are they different people all the time? Perhaps you need to find more secluded area, with less traffic.  Learn not to look like easy target. Don't go back to the situation that got you killed, don't do exactly same thing and expect it to turn out different.

I started playing UO near the end of dread lord days. I would occasionally get PKed, but using rules above I quickly found my place and was never "victimized". Remember, it takes 2 to corpse camp. I discovered Xroads firsthand, and quickly understood that was a very bad place to be. I traveled a lot as new player - I think I visited every city in UO in first month I played, and I didn't even have a horse to make running easier. Eventually I settled in Moonglow and spent most of my newbie time hanging around Moonglow Graveyard that spawned mostly skeletons but with occasional Lich and Wrath. It also had a zoo with a guard zone nearby and run to the bank was relatively short. It wasn't the best place to farm/train but community was tight, plenty of bone armor to go around and there was only one non-statloss PK that frequented our GY. More often than not PK would res us after taking our gold and nobody would loot bone armor since you couldn't smelt it. Once in a blue moon we would chase PK or some noto-thief around as a mob of enraged newbies armed with deadly poisoned katanas. Eventually I maxed my stats and trained skills to 90s. By then T2A hit, so I moved to Spider Keep and got my block high enough to solo Avengers. Then I joined Chaos/Order guild and spent lot of time PvPing. Initially I joined to get my hand on free shield, but liked PvP aspect and stayed for thrills. Macroed my resist to 90s and started dueling.

[ghost]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

Thank you for this work of genius.  

As for the PvP is skill versus gear argument-  it is probably a bit of both, depending on the game, but in the end it basically becomes a gank fest.  Of course that could be viewed as a "skill", but whatever. 

[Triforcer]

Fuck these stupid games and their corrupted files for free trials squarely in the anus.  BOTH this trial and the LOTRO trial download corruptly, no matter what I do.  Don't these companies want my money? 

[WindupAtheist]

God nobody remembers how anything works. Roleplaying the town Backpack Inspector to a bunch of newbs running away screaming "GUARDS!" is hilariously fun.

[jcthebuilder]

Fuck these stupid games and their corrupted files for free trials squarely in the anus.  BOTH this trial and the LOTRO trial download corruptly, no matter what I do.  Don't these companies want my money? 

If you are downloading corrupted installs it is likely your computer. I downloaded the client 2 days ago  and it installed fine.

[dusematic]

Sigh.

All they had to do was open a real classic server and I probably would have played. Glass swords.... Ugh.

I would have resubbed.

[dusematic]

I went there to see what was up. I ran around naked saying I was the backpack inspector and snooping people. Some guy ran halfway across town to get away from me. Then he attacked me and was killed by the guards, so I took all his shit and was naked but with his hat on.

lol, that's classic UO comedy.

[WindupAtheist]

Strangely enough, the guy never came back and I haven't seen him again. I was under the impression that when exposed to the fun and adventure of untamed UO, all other games would seem pale and lifeless in comparison. This guy seemed to find himself dead and stripped of his newbie junk shortly after logging in due to some shit he didn't understand, and appears to have gone "Fuck this crap!" and never come back.

That's not how it's supposed to work, is it? 

[Reg]

To truly realize the dream of a "classic" UO shard it's crucial that all other less "classic" games be shut down.

[sinij]

Strangely enough, the guy never came back and I haven't seen him again.

Because obvious things are not obvious enough:

What they fail to understand is that interest in "classic" shard is mostly from ex-player base, not current one.

I would be highly surprised if significant % of current player base were able to tolerate classic UO due to self-selection process of all changes and player base that went in since Trammel.

[Arthur_Parker]

That's not how it's supposed to work, is it? 

10 years ago people said there wouldn't be enough players to support one classic shard.  Nobody knows for sure because they didn't try it.

10 years later the thing that generates most interest among ex-players is exactly the same thing.  Maybe in another 10 years we can say for sure, there's definitely not enough interest to do this.

[Nebu]

It's not real pvp if the other guy has a chance to fight back.

Obviously not, who would want to play chess match when you can just punch other guy in the face and topple his king?

Idiot.

As many pvp games as you've played, I'd have thought that you'd agree with Soulflame.  PvP MMO's aren't about winning fair and challenging fights for most people.  They're about wtfpwning someone (due to level, gear, class imbalances) and shouting azzrape over their corpse. 

[sinij]

As long as some of you been around, I'd have though you'd realize that griefers and PvPers are not the same thing, nor do you have to have PvP in the game to get griefed.

Soulflame is airing his sandy vagina over getting PKed "in that game" over decade ago. He obviously can't blame himself for being too dumb to avoid getting repeatedly PKed, he doesn't understand why he got PKed so he blindly charges red drape without understanding what happened and why, he just knows his e-peen got slighted.

[shiznitz]

And yours remains droopy and indistinct without a game in which to highlight it.