Classic Ultima Online: IPY2 Launch date: Feb 11th

[LC]

i'm in ur server unattended macroing ur ore

[cosapi]

Not sure if Az is going to see this as I have no way to comprehend the stress tolls it's taken on him from running the server and how busy he might be. Also I realize this is completely inappropriate and probably shouldn't be posted here and probably extremely personal, and I know Az doesn't have any reason to believe a single word of this, and I know I'm going to regret it and probably not visit this forum for a while afterwards because I'm completely introverted as fuck, but that's beside the point. And I profusely apologize for how long this might be as I have no way to determine how long this is going to get as I am typing this from the beginning. But I will seriously try to make this as short as I possibly am able, and it's not necessary at all for him to reply to this post, I only hope that he gets to read it at some point when he has the time and if it isn't too much trouble. And I realize a lot of this is probably going to sound like I'm giving you guys way too much credit than you deserve and possibly (I hate using this word) "asskissing" which I am not intending to, and I'm only posting this right now because of the way I'm feeling and the way I have been feeling so I felt I would express myself with this. I also realize everything is subject to change and the server could be up for years or could be gone tomorrow or the worst of the worst case scenarios could take place, that's why I'm just trying to take the days as slow as possible and enjoy my time. Enjoy thinking about running through the woods in UO, the forests I know. Enjoying my time being there, in that world I loved so much. And I'm very thankful to have that opportunity and I feel the dev team must be some of the most amazing people (even though I don't know shit about them) to have put this amazing project all together.

Also I realize this is probably completely way too soon to put together something like this. And I know I'm just some random person and I don't know anything about Az except for the fact I think he had something to do with wtfman years ago but I could be completely wrong. Oh and before I forget, I hope I get completely and madly swept up in IPY2 to the point I become so sick of the game that I never want to look at it anymore because I would feel as if I'd had my share and made my peace and it can be remembered as something I will always remember for the rest of my life. But anyways, I just have to have my say on this. Okay I'll shut up and get to the point already.

When I first played UO it was in the year 2000 after trammel had already been introduced. I never got to see old UO or what it was like, I only heard stories about it. That's not what's important though. I enjoyed UO more than anything else I've ever felt in my entire life. I know I was young and in my teens at the time. But I was also dealing with a lot of problems of my own and UO was like a better place for me to be when I felt like everything else wasn't working out. I eventually (bad move I know) dropped out of highschool at the time so I could spend more time in UO and avoid the real problems in my life. I've never been into PKing, PVPing or griefing much. I was just having too much fun with what the world had to offer. At one point I was even the co-owner to a castle and had my own giant tower.  I left UO on a bad note with my  real life situation really having gone to shit. I spent many years struggling with depression and I realize a big part of the reason I probably enjoyed UO was the addiction I had to it. Of course over the years I've gotten things in order, I won't go into detail about how bad things got when I was at my lowest but it was pretty shitty, I'll leave it at that. However, for years nothing ever really compared to UO for me. The closest thing was maybe Arcanum. And the only other games I somewhat extremely enjoyed were team fortress classic and ragnarok online(lol I know). Anyways I grew up with console systems NES, SMS, GEN, SNES, N64, Saturn (my favorite), PS1, Dreamcast. Those were my favorites. But when I played UO, nothing compared to the amazing world UO provided. Quit UO in 2001 though.

I started to turn my life around in 2003 and it's been mostly uphill ever since, with a lot of really hard bumps on the way. But I was always miserable most of the time. I was never really happy, or maybe I wasn't certain what happiness was. Last year I had heart surgery (I'm in my 20s) to fix a near fatal birth defect (it wasn't from bad health, just bad luck) and the circumstances leading up to having my primary doctor actually finding such a critical issue so close to something serious actually happening and then having a heart surgeon actual correct it in time (I was in the critical stages, already had an aortic aneurysm)(its possible to have one without it bursting, it was just very very expanded and ready to burst) had to have been one in a hundred thousand because I only had that doctor as my primary doctor after my mom met him through an accident. A year before that I was in a suicide ward, and just a few weeks ago I was in the hospital from a very serious case of food poisoning. However, regardless of all this, I've been going to school for some time now and I've been working on getting a career in the medical field. I'm pretty sure no amount of therapy sessions or anti-depressant meds will be able to fix a lot of things with me and I know by the time I die some day I'll probably have way too many regrets or unresolved things, or things that make me upset or cry or angry. (But I sure as hell don't regret dropping out of highschool to play UO). I have a better grip on things now these days, if something needs to be done, it will be done. I don't let my addictions (I'm not sure if I can I usually get miserable) take advantage of me.

I know not many things make me happy in life and like I mentioned before, I'm usually constantly miserable and not happy. I usually don't like a lot of things in life so I know it'll be rough for me at times. But I just wanted to let you know, and possibly your dev team know, (yes I've said this before) that you've made a person happy (god damn I have a tear running down my face) this is so cheesy and corny. But thank you, like I said, I know nothing about the people who put IPY2 together, and I was not there for IPY1 because I was too busy hating myself and being miserable to care much about something like that at the time. But thank you so much, I know it probably sounds like I'm giving you guys too much credit but this is how I truly feel. And I know nothing is guaranteed and things are always subject to change, I know I might feel completely different tomorrow than I am right now but that's why I'm trying to enjoy it. I'm just trying to enjoy the happiness I'm feeling from being able to play on IPY2. I know UO has a reputation for PKers, griefers and such and I've never really met that criteria but I love being swept up in the chaotic nature of it. I love being part of that world and experiencing things like that. It's like the world I never gave up on. And I just wanted to thank you again, the devs who put this together, to me, are truly beautiful people for making me feel this way. And I'm sure I probably forgot 90% of the things I wanted to say or how I wanted to say them and I'm extremely sorry for how long this is, but I just had to have my say on this.

So thank you, thank you, you wondrous bastards for bringing tears to my eyes as I type this, and a feeling of happiness for something, a feeling that I haven't felt in years for anything. I know I'll probably get some flak from the regulars here as I don't exactly consider myself a regular of (anywhere) to be honest. And I just hope they allow a post like this to remain here regardless of the inappropriate nature of it.

And like I said, I don't know how things will go, how things will last, what will be or what will come. How life is going to be or whatever. But I'm just trying to enjoy my time, the time given to me, and that's all that's important and matters to me right now.

[WindupAtheist]

[Rasix]

 

[NiX]

tl;dr that shit. Bloody hell.

[Nyght]

I think something is broken here. I haven't seen a Red Tears post on the forums in days now, and as this is my major entertainment from this game now, if makes me sadf.   

[koro]

I think something is broken here. I haven't seen a Red Tears post on the forums in days now, and as this is my major entertainment from this game now, if makes me sadf.   

Well that's because there are almost no reds so far. Murder counts decay very quickly since most people are still macroing overnight (1100 players at 3 AM EST certainly are not out and about in dungeons), so a lot of people are just being blue PKs.

[Azaroth]

You people are animals.

Cosapi, I'm really glad you're enjoying yourself. That's what this is all about.

[Zaljerem]

I too am enjoying myself thoroughly; thanks much Az!

I'm having almost as much fun cleaning up and updating the wiki as I am playing the game, but that's just how I roll ...

[LC]

Well I have played about 3 days or so now. IPY isn't really how I envisioned a "classic" uo server. What people want is the classic ruleset, not just leaving out the cool new shit added by expansions.

Things I hate:

1. No new lands. Why not have more room for housing, and less crowding.
2. No new mobs.
3. No new mounts. (Are there any mounts in the game? I haven't seen one.)
4. Instant death when looting a blue in town. Nobody has to call the guards.
5. No rare ores or cool crafting shit.
6. Stupid "RoT remix" skill gains. Probably worse than RoT because It seems like I gain 1 point now before I'm exhausted.
7. Crafting skills are incredibly slow to raise even in the 200% gain areas. I think i made like 60 cutlass and raised from 50 to 50.2
8. NPC sell prices for most items are just too low when compared to the value of their base materials. The NPC will buy a shield that takes 8 ingots for 16g, but he won't buy my "exceptional" sword that took 10 ingots for more than 7g?
9. Secure houses? How the fuck can someone justify leaving out the stuff I already mentioned, but leaving this shit in?
10. I have seen much better mob ai and spawns on other servers.
11. Macro Police. Kind of pointless considering the crowd this kind of server attracts. Punishing people for wanting to automate tedious shit like clicking rocks is probably the worst idea ever. Either find ways to make it more fun, or leave it alone.  
12. Server shutting down randomly. Heard about the old days of az timewarping the first server to save his friends houses. Makes you wonder.

Like:

1. It's uo and there are people playing.
2. The "King" system seems interesting. Should be called "Mayor" though.

[Azaroth]

I guess only one thing REALLY needs to be said by me here:

#12 is nonsense.

The rest, I guess.. I dunno. You're certainly free to have your own opinions.

If you're enjoying yourself in general, then I'm happy.

[Jimbo]

So why have such crap for skill gains? 

[Azaroth]

So why have such crap for skill gains? 

There are people already starting to hit 90 skill, not yet two weeks in.

However, if you'd like to know why I did things, check out my blog.

[Nija]

I'd be somewhat interested if it wasn't the terrible default RunUO settings. It's depressing after playing on a fantastic (yet empty) shard like IMY.

Az, take a wander around IMY - http://www.inmaniylem.com/index.php?title=Server_Information and see what's actually possible with runUO. Maybe try getting in touch with that guy or something.

[Azaroth]

Everyone's a critic!

Besides, I actually just glanced over that. Those changes are neat, but all quite simple compared to what we've done. We just didn't detail every small change we've ever made in one big behemoth list.

I think I'll back out of here slowly now, though.

Have fun.. or don't. ;)

[LC]

I'd be somewhat interested if it wasn't the terrible default RunUO settings. It's depressing after playing on a fantastic (yet empty) shard like IMY.

Az, take a wander around IMY - http://www.inmaniylem.com/index.php?title=Server_Information and see what's actually possible with runUO. Maybe try getting in touch with that guy or something.

That's pretty damn impressive when you compare it to IPY. Prison sounds awesome.

[WindupAtheist]

There are people already starting to hit 90 skill, not yet two weeks in.

So what's the difference? You make the scripters macro for a month instead of a week, and condemn anyone else to either giving up or being the eternal bitch of the people who macroed.

[UnSub]

Everyone's a critic!

Welcome to the world of video games! "You tried to make something for me to enjoy? HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!" 

[Slayerik]

I think skill gain is fine. Stat gain was bad but it's better now.

Dungeons are full of activity, and it seems I find stuff everywhere I venture. The world seems to be alive, and that's a very good thing.

We just placed our Villa at the Buc's den gate....woo!


Anyways, I have no major complaints...but I'm not looking for stuff either.

[LC]

There are people already starting to hit 90 skill, not yet two weeks in.

So what's the difference? You make the scripters macro for a month instead of a week, and condemn anyone else to either giving up or being the eternal bitch of the people who macroed.

That's what it seems like to me. You still have to macro your ass off for those gains because they come so slowly. You can't just be Mr casual anti-macroer who only logs in for an hour each night to have fun. Even resources and gold are slow and tedious to accumulate. I don't know who az was trying to help, but it wasn't casual players.

[Sky]

How does it compare to Siege Perilous RoT? Because that was pretty awesome for casual players.

[Azaroth]

It's RoT turned around to be more psychologically palatable.

When you log in, you get a 200% boost to skill gain that tapers off gradually to a soft cap at a point we've deemed casual players probably wouldn't be getting to.

However, you can go out and grab skill scrolls from monsters that give you instant boosts and push through the soft cap. So you can catass to some degree if you really want to, but you have to actually play.

So far it's working quite well. People are generally even, macroers aren't getting ahead, and by a large margin the very best strategy to raise your character's skills is to get out into a dungeon.

[Jimbo]

Sorry Aaroth, didn't mean to come off as a total ass-hat, it is awesome that you are getting a private UO shard up and running, something I never will have the time for (well unless I hit the lottery).

Having played UO since Jan of 98, for about 4 years, it was a wild ride, I don't want to go to the shitty skill/stat gain that classic had (well depending on what week you were playing), and I really like the locks that are available, having to really only be a 6 spec gm and then have 100 you would blow in stat keeping sucked.  Okay, my view only, but would rather you have the classic set up of making something and gaining skill until you have to move on to something else.  I don't want it as easy as WoW, where you could in theory have orange materials to always gain a skill, but making it so you take a long time (like 100 tries to gain 0.1 skill uggggggh) would suck, the balance with a decent sweet spot would be nice.

Lack of time means I can't come and play on your shard.

[Nija]

So far it's working quite well. People are generally even, macroers aren't getting ahead,

That's laughably wrong. The towns are full of EUO macroers making huge bank. The guarded sheep pens all have naked people sitting in them hidden collecting wool and banking it. Wandering the woods you'll find it full of tamers on EUO macros running in straight lines taming everything in sight.

[Azaroth]

Skill gain wise. The system I described has nothing to do with resources, and neither did RoT.

Unless you want something Punkbuster or Warden-esque on your computer, we can't automatically stop EasyUO and neither can any other UO server - EA or free.

[NiX]

The amount of nostalgia skewing this thread is awesome. I don't enjoy the shard, but that's because I don't have the patience for MMOs anymore, as far as I recall the gains are just as brutal as they were back before T2A.

[Nija]

Besides, I actually just glanced over that. Those changes are neat, but all quite simple compared to what we've done. We just didn't detail every small change we've ever made in one big behemoth list.

Well, I guess you can get pretty far based on the fact that most people aren't familiar with the runuo forums. However, I'm not really impressed by the number of unmodified addons you dropped into the custom folder. When I run into any core mods I'll begin to be impressed.

[Slayerik]

It is cool to be excited to play a MMO again.

Thanks Az, been havin' a blast so far.

[Azaroth]

Besides, I actually just glanced over that. Those changes are neat, but all quite simple compared to what we've done. We just didn't detail every small change we've ever made in one big behemoth list.

Well, I guess you can get pretty far based on the fact that most people aren't familiar with the runuo forums. However, I'm not really impressed by the number of unmodified addons you dropped into the custom folder. When I run into any core mods I'll begin to be impressed.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

Either that, or you've got some sort of grudge going on and feel the need to troll.

Anyway, I get enough trolling from assholes elsewhere, I think I'll happily avoid these forums from now on. Have fun.

[Nija]

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

I'm pretty sure that I do know what I'm talking about. Your reply confirms it.

Fix your guardlines at least. You can leave the holes in the ocean for now.

[LC]

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

Either that, or you've got some sort of grudge going on and feel the need to troll.

Anyway, I get enough trolling from assholes elsewhere, I think I'll happily avoid these forums from now on. Have fun.

When you message that guy to ask what a core mod is, could you ask him to fix the moongates too?

[koro]

Right now the only two huge (and one not-quite-as-huge) problems I have with IPY after not having played UO for years and years and years is that:

a.) Aside from PvE, dexer/melee fighter characters are at a massive, massive disadvantage compared to someone who uses primarily magery (and even in PvE, it's completely trivial for a mage to waltz up to something I'm fighting, ebolt it once, and get full loot rights while I take all the damage) due to the era of the shard, its young age, and the lack of any noticeable balance changes to help the melee/mage disparity. Yeah, one of the best, deadliest PvPers on IPY1 was the dexer Method Man, but he ran around in tens of thousands of gold worth of gear (likely with more than a few replacements) that's currently unavailable to the general population with skills nobody has yet and won't for at least another month or more and the better part of a decade in experience.

b.) Crafting gains are slow. Really slow. Far slower than they should be, even in the "crafting squares" where you get 200% skill gain. The only reason my guild's carpenter is in the late 70s is because we had a team of 3-4 lumberjacks feeding him hundreds of thousands of boards (and most other crafters at that skill level or higher have had the same treatment, along with EUO gathering scripts). My alchemist went through 1000 nightshade making and applying poisons and only went up around 2.4% alchemy and poisoning at only around 50 skill. Crafting other potions isn't much quicker.

c.) Housing prices are kind of  . With citizenship, small houses are 27-28k, sandstone w/patio houses are 32k, two-story villas are around the 50k range (!), but the small stone tower (which has less secures and lockdowns than the sandstone, but has slightly more efficient use of space) is 54k gold, and the other 8 secure/1100 lockdown houses like the villa are 154-180k gold. I understand the villa pricing was used as an incentive to get people to place larger houses earlier, but right now it's just led to people placing a shitload of smalls, a shitload of sandstones, and a shitload of villas. With super-cheap villas, there's no reason to ever really buy one of the other 8/1100 houses aside from aesthetics and/or a ton of money burning a hole in your bank box, and a guild-house villa with one or two smaller houses placed in a decent spot can hold enough space for a tower to be placed just as easily as a large brick.

[LC]

I find myself wondering if anyone working on IPY2 ever played uo before trammel.

[koro]

I'm more than certain Az has at least; IIRC he played on the same server I did (Napa Valley?),

[Sheepherder]

I find myself wondering if anyone working on IPY2 ever played uo before trammel.

I'm not certain you read his posts explaining his intent vis-a-vis IPY2.