Some Major Changes!

[Vek]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Bluudgud shrine? where?

Its in the back of the fort surrounded by rocks and in the NW corner of one of the rocks there a hidden teleporter that instantly takes you into one end of the mines.

 

[Arcanus Baja]

Re: Some Major Changes!

ya seriously i wish you orcs would make the move to the island. We really do need more people there since i only see about 1 or 2 others at a time. usually only a couple of TCD or 1 SOK or YEW.
i want to see the dwarve guild move into the mines if they could get a plot down there that would be sweet as well as i wish that the thieves guild was put under the bar i see the steps leading down back there but you cant get to it. wuold be kool.
there is so much potential its crazy. i know of some elf peeps they rp elves but i dont know if they are down with our rp. if they got a forested corner they could come too.

 

[plague_spores]

Re: Some Major Changes!

ya seriously i wish you orcs would make the move to the island. We really do need more people there since i only see about 1 or 2 others at a time. usually only a couple of TCD or 1 SOK or YEW.
i want to see the dwarve guild move into the mines if they could get a plot down there that would be sweet as well as i wish that the thieves guild was put under the bar i see the steps leading down back there but you cant get to it. wuold be kool.
there is so much potential its crazy. i know of some elf peeps they rp elves but i dont know if they are down with our rp. if they got a forested corner they could come too.

Yeah i would def like to see a dwarf guild in the mines!! that would be awesome. Also either elf or ranger guild. They are thinking of building a dense forest which is hard to see and manuvere in which a plot could be in the center.

 

[Binky :)]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Nice job Engage!

 

[Engage]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Now now guys and girls why can't we all just get along?

The teleporter to the mines can be easily removed, was just something for a bit of fun so don't stress too much about it. As for changing the entrances/exits that is unlikely a) because it has already been inserted (which would mean having to delete the lot and rebuild it to change it) and b) because we are trying to make each base/house as even as possible. Orcs and savages already have an advantage due to having a small bridge over to their island which could be used as a choke point and also having spawn that wont attack them.

I have received word that Orcs are wanting to move to the islands so everything just needs to be transferred, expect to see them there within the week. When they are added the orc NPC spawn will be reduced.

I'm really busy with RL stuff at the moment so only getting small amounts of time to do anything. Tessa is in the process of making a 3rd small island (similar to the Savage/Orc areas) that will have a swamp spawn (ratmen, lizardmen etc) and I will continue working on adding trees and random deco to the island. The thief guild will be added eventually.

 

[Arcanus Baja]

Re: Some Major Changes!

uhm.. no
its simple. by squishing the community together it allows us to roleplay together. it offers more protection from griefers. it allows us to make a slight run to interact with another guild. there are far more pros than cons.
reading the post above it seems like someone who wants to do the rp thing but is far too stuck on another server and doesnt like it here.
thing is hybrid does not have a large RP community. For a long time the rp community was out and about and guess what... it still hasnt gotten large.
now with an rp island we are all together so it seems like there is more due to constantly running into eachother.
now you were talking about the pvp being bad. i think that was one of the dumbest things ive heard. the only things that could possibly make pvp not so great would be all of the spawn around the island and the ability to hide and leave house in any spot on the island.
also you say that the orcs will never come to the island?
im pretty sure that if the rp community decides to not go to the orc fort they will have no choice unless they only want to wait around for the random group of pvpers.
imho the only reason the orcs havnt come yet is because they are so reliant on noob tactics to win a fight. they have the most noobified base in uo. the mages stand on one side of the entrance blocking you so you cant swing a weapon on them but they can still cast on you.
and whats more they are requesting the same BS on the new base on the island.
learn from TCD orcs and stop hiding while casting. you dont have to win every fight.

now what i am thinking is... is this guy serisouly just some noob that just came from divinity and is trying to get things like it is there?
this is Hybrid not divinity. who cares how they have it. divinity = noob version of Hybrid.

 

[Engage]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Everything you've said has already been addressed multiple times over. I agree with what you are saying but almost all of your suggestions are only possible with significant server-side changes.

The islands were initially created because it allowed people with only the basic GM/Seer/Admin powers to create an area that can be modified relatively easily to meet the needs of the community. The islands require no server-side coding changes. The initial problem that contributed greatly to them being an epic failure was an issue with house plots. This has been fixed and has allowed us to significantly reduce lag and crashing for players. This has led to the other changes which have already been talked about.

Bases could be added to the mainland for guilds bu,t similar things have been done in the past with limited results and it ended up in the normal player base claiming it is unfair. This whining is significantly reduced with a separate RPing area.

At the end of the day this is a project the old Seer team, Tessa and I are involved with that will hopefully generate some interest in RPing. With the changes made I have already received a lot of comments regarding significant increases in RP activity and this is with the project only semi-completed and not heavily promoted. If it the interest dies off then at least Tessa and had something semi-interesting to do for a few weeks.

 

[Vek]

Re: Some Major Changes!

uhm.. no
its simple. by squishing the community together it allows us to roleplay together. it offers more protection from griefers. it allows us to make a slight run to interact with another guild. there are far more pros than cons.
reading the post above it seems like someone who wants to do the rp thing but is far too stuck on another server and doesnt like it here.
thing is hybrid does not have a large RP community. For a long time the rp community was out and about and guess what... it still hasnt gotten large.
now with an rp island we are all together so it seems like there is more due to constantly running into eachother.
now you were talking about the pvp being bad. i think that was one of the dumbest things ive heard. the only things that could possibly make pvp not so great would be all of the spawn around the island and the ability to hide and leave house in any spot on the island.
also you say that the orcs will never come to the island?
im pretty sure that if the rp community decides to not go to the orc fort they will have no choice unless they only want to wait around for the random group of pvpers.
imho the only reason the orcs havnt come yet is because they are so reliant on noob tactics to win a fight. they have the most noobified base in uo. the mages stand on one side of the entrance blocking you so you cant swing a weapon on them but they can still cast on you.
and whats more they are requesting the same BS on the new base on the island.
learn from TCD orcs and stop hiding while casting. you dont have to win every fight.

now what i am thinking is... is this guy serisouly just some noob that just came from divinity and is trying to get things like it is there?
this is Hybrid not divinity. who cares how they have it. divinity = noob version of Hybrid.

Sorry mate but all i got out of your post is that you didn't want to hear anything other than you already know, you hate Divinity and therefore didn't want to hear what he had to say, and that you hate orcs i mean honestly almost that entire lecture was about how much and why you hate orcs. Also your dislike in Divinity doesn't require calling people from that server "noobs", ignorance is never the answer and honestly, sorry, but it pisses me off.

 

[Vek]

Re: Some Major Changes!

The following are constructive criticisms.

I'll be brutally honest. If your goal is to increase RP activity on Hybrid, this idea to create "islands" is detrimental and will work directly against it. The most successful RP community creation ever undertaken by UO Gamers staff was on Divinity. Where instead of creating "rp bases" in far off locations, bases were created in already existing locations on the main land in the Yew area. For example Yew Militia got a tower with a wall surrounding it, Orcs got a new larger fort east of Yew and I believe several other guilds got similar places. This substantially increased recruits for those guilds and also dramatically increased the interaction between RP guilds and between RP guilds and non role players.

My underlying point:

The change on Divinity was better and differed in several ways from this "island" plan:

1) Everything was done on the mainland, so RP'ers weren't removed or isolated from the population. Evil Role players, are the bulk of role players. Good role players aren't a large enough community to sustain even evil role players. 90% of pvp undertaken by evil role players is against non role players. Isolating good role players so that they can only fight evil role players may provide a sufficient amount of pvp for good role players, but the reverse is not true. Therefore anything that reduces the amount of contact between evil role players and non role players is detrimental and will result in a failed project. Whether you like it or not evil role play guild will gravitate to wherever there are the most non role players and the islands are definitely not that place.

2) Everything was done in Yew or nearby Yew. RP guilds have always predominately existed in Yew, creating things in any other location goes against the already established gathering place. By removing the RP community from the Yew area, your challenging a pattern of habit that's existed since OSI Catskills. Not only that but in some cases guilds hold a strong tradition with Yew, for example the orcs specifically tell new players to create their character in Yew and then travel to the orc fort.

3) Bases were created in the exact locations where RP guild's already had houses and or a specific gathering place.

By creating islands your thinning out Hybrid's population more. I'm being brutally honest when I say as a Bloodclan Orc, we will never visit or use this island except for special occasions that happen few and far between. Population on Hybrid is already thinned out even outside of the rp community. By creating islands for rp guilds, it's almost like your thinning out the population twice as much because the rp community is much smaller.

It seems like I saw this post late, but I'll throw in my suggestions for increasing shard RP activity anyways:

1) Give all existing RP guilds customized forts/bases on the mainland. Have the forts/bases custom designed by the correct members of that guild. This is important, because if a base doesn't serve the guild's function it will end up not being used. For example When the large fort for Bloodclan was designed on Divinity, it was much appreciated and orcs were ecstatic. The only problem was the fort's design was fundamentally bad for orcs. The fort was about 20x larger than we could ever use (would of required about 70 orcs to defend it) and the entrances and defending spots were useless.

The reason the orc fort is so popular is because by a fluke of design it turned out great for real pvp. If your going for a fort that just looks cool, and fits role play that's fine. But if you want it to become a new gathering place it needs to be practical for pvp. And in this case it would need to be better for pvp than the current fort and it's not. It's actually worst.

2) Give normal players an incentive to visit RP guilds. This can be done by putting in some sort of spawn that doesn't attack that guild or any player unless flagged, but comes with valuable loot. This will increase the amount of people who visit/fight rp guilds and will in turn increase the number or recruits who fight for rp guilds.

3) Make gates to role play bases in high traffic areas where none role players are to encourage easy travel to RP areas. For example gates from Brit bank.

4) Another thing you could do is create npc creatures around RP guild gathering places that give the basic type of loot that specific guild would need. Example, in the case of orcs give more arrows and bandages. With undead, give bone armor and bandages, with SOK give platmail and bandages ect. This in and of itself would create an incentive for casual players (which is what most role players are) to sustain themselves more while still remaining in their RP area and increasing activity in their hangout area.

It sounds like everything has been finalized, but I'm very concerned this approach of building more land will only spread this small community even thinner.

O.k. first i want to ask why Savages weren't mentioned Second for some reason on hybrid the good aligned RP guilds seem to attract more members, every time weve gone to SOK theres a good 6-10 people and the most i can get on is maybe 5, now orcs of course are an exception due to the plain fact that they've been on hybrid for 4 or 5 years they deserve the dominating player base(plus they really don't have many rules to follow). Anyways Your suggestions are good bu until something like connectUO or etc comes back up to were people can update staff cant really do things on the main map, plus theres plenty of whiny ignorant people on hybrid waiting to flame at the staff every move. The best thing i think the staff on hybrid could do for the RP community is make it easy for them to exist, and hold events for each guild every so often like back in the day, were people would come raid, orcs, savages, etc. It broadens a large range of people to RP guilds, gives RP guilds something really fun to do which will in turn increase the player base due to people joining and previous members playing more. Well those are my thoughts but for now the RP islands are a good idea, they will last a little while giving RP guilds time to interact and each guild better themselves, after that hopefully they will start doing the same things outside of the RP islands. Thats really what id like to see.

 

[Countessa]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Massive Black is a Hybrid-basher who has been previously banned on the Hybrid forum for shard bashing. He enjoys creating new usernames to point out everything 'wrong' on Hybrid. Pay no attention to him.

I'm surprised by the complaints of the orc tele to the mine. I thought if anyone complained, it would be the orcs, not others. To me it only made sense. As well as living above ground, orcs are also known for below ground and cave dwellings. Since the orcs are close to the mine, it seems natural they would tunnel an entrance to the mine where so many tasty oomies would be. From the other side, it can be used by other rpers for tactical assaults on the orcs. Regardless, as Engage said, it's easy enough to remove it.

At the end of the day this is a project the old Seer team, Tessa and I are involved with that will hopefully generate some interest in RPing. With the changes made I have already received a lot of comments regarding significant increases in RP activity and this is with the project only semi-completed and not heavily promoted. If it the interest dies off then at least Tessa and had something semi-interesting to do for a few weeks.

And it has been that, and much fun! <3

 

[Vestros]

Re: Some Major Changes!

welli jsut want to say thanks for what all yall are doing... ... and TCD FTW

 

[Cedric De'oul]

Re: Some Major Changes!

I have received word that Orcs are wanting to move to the islands so everything just needs to be transferred, expect to see them there within the week. When they are added the orc NPC spawn will be reduced.

I've heard no news about this one, who told you we were moving out there to stay? I'll point you to a BC.com boards post I started to generate interest. I think it disagrees with you...

The new RP island! - Bloodclan Orcs

Also, Maybe black is a hybrid basher and so forth. But I heavily agree with his RP island fort assessment. The fort on the island isn't viable for fighting off waves of griefers at all.

Magic won't be as much of a problem due to the house plot under the earth set up, but EQ and MS are still issues. Even more so, due to the tiny size of the fort.

The two tile wide entrance with no LOS blocking curtain is another problem. Maybe you guys don't want us to have both... fine. But one or the other, please? How do we defend a two tile entrance with no LOS block while only two pugs and a grunt are awake? Cause we do that successfully on the regular in Yew.

Not to mention the fact that the only way out of that fort is a gate back to the regular world. We can't retreat out of the fort to the little bloodgod shrine teleporter thing. We can't even have reinforcements from the Yew fort or anywhere else in the world gate into the RP island fort. That alone is a reason why I will occasionally raid there and hold events there, but will never "live" there.

 

[Nok'Tor]

Re: Some Major Changes!

I've heard no news about this one, who told you we were moving out there to stay? I'll point you to a BC.com boards post I started to generate interest. I think it disagrees with you...

The new RP island! - Bloodclan Orcs

Also, Maybe black is a hybrid basher and so forth. But I heavily agree with his RP island fort assessment. The fort on the island isn't viable for fighting off waves of griefers at all.

Magic won't be as much of a problem due to the house plot under the earth set up, but EQ and MS are still issues. Even more so, due to the tiny size of the fort.

The two tile wide entrance with no LOS blocking curtain is another problem. Maybe you guys don't want us to have both... fine. But one or the other, please? How do we defend a two tile entrance with no LOS block while only two pugs and a grunt are awake? Cause we do that successfully on the regular in Yew.

Not to mention the fact that the only way out of that fort is a gate back to the regular world. We can't retreat out of the fort to the little bloodgod shrine teleporter thing. We can't even have reinforcements from the Yew fort or anywhere else in the world gate into the RP island fort. That alone is a reason why I will occasionally raid there and hold events there, but will never "live" there.

Word.

Like he said. it would be a nice spot to raid occasionally, but i dont think a full blown move would be benificial to our clan.

 

[Countessa]

Re: Some Major Changes!

I've heard no news about this one, who told you we were moving out there to stay? I'll point you to a BC.com boards post I started to generate interest. I think it disagrees with you...

The new RP island! - Bloodclan Orcs

Also, Maybe black is a hybrid basher and so forth. But I heavily agree with his RP island fort assessment. The fort on the island isn't viable for fighting off waves of griefers at all.

Magic won't be as much of a problem due to the house plot under the earth set up, but EQ and MS are still issues. Even more so, due to the tiny size of the fort.

The two tile wide entrance with no LOS blocking curtain is another problem. Maybe you guys don't want us to have both... fine. But one or the other, please? How do we defend a two tile entrance with no LOS block while only two pugs and a grunt are awake? Cause we do that successfully on the regular in Yew.

Not to mention the fact that the only way out of that fort is a gate back to the regular world. We can't retreat out of the fort to the little bloodgod shrine teleporter thing. We can't even have reinforcements from the Yew fort or anywhere else in the world gate into the RP island fort. That alone is a reason why I will occasionally raid there and hold events there, but will never "live" there.

Where did Engage say they were moving there to stay?
Perhaps you should actually read the link posted there. The orcs have paid for the plot. There is talk of it being a secondary post for events and such. No one said Orcs! abandon Yew and go to the RP isle and remain there forevermore. wow.

 

[Arcanus Baja]

Re: Some Major Changes!

ok emo its simple.
1. i dont care if it pisses you off.
2. i dont like Divinity, i hate when divinity players come here and talk about how it is all that, and therefore I will say divinity is homo and noobified all i want.
3. i talked very little about the orcs and i love fighting against them ten times more than the VCS. i simply stated that the orc mages use noob tactics.

now on other topics.
i agree whole heartedly with guardian about hte bases.
they are rather small and therefore easy targets for MS and EQ.
however in SOK we had griefers come to our base and TCD came to help us out. then once they left TCD killed us. now it was funny with the betrayal at the end but it was kool that they came to help.
all we have to do is agree to help eachother out if griefers come. there is never a group so large that they could destroy a large group of orcs, a medium group of knights, a small group of savages, and a medium to large group of undead.
or we could all just make a new guild like the island defense or something and when griefers come we could simply log onto them and kill them easily.
but w/e those are just some ideas.
but i think the houses should be a little bigger.

 

[Cedric De'oul]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Now now guys and girls why can't we all just get along?

The teleporter to the mines can be easily removed, was just something for a bit of fun so don't stress too much about it. As for changing the entrances/exits that is unlikely a) because it has already been inserted (which would mean having to delete the lot and rebuild it to change it) and b) because we are trying to make each base/house as even as possible. Orcs and savages already have an advantage due to having a small bridge over to their island which could be used as a choke point and also having spawn that wont attack them.

I have received word that Orcs are wanting to move to the islands so everything just needs to be transferred, expect to see them there within the week. When they are added the orc NPC spawn will be reduced.

I'm really busy with RL stuff at the moment so only getting small amounts of time to do anything. Tessa is in the process of making a 3rd small island (similar to the Savage/Orc areas) that will have a swamp spawn (ratmen, lizardmen etc) and I will continue working on adding trees and random deco to the island. The thief guild will be added eventually.

I read this on page 11 as saying that a member of the council told Engage we were moving out there. I guess I misinterpreted?

In anycase, what about the rest of the things I pointed out?

EDIT: Perhaps my critisms are being misconstrued as hate towards the effort you all put into it. Not at all. I really like the thought behind it all, but there are problems with it and I am pointing out my opinion about them as a two y/o member of the BC. Thanks for what you have done thus far though! =D

EDIT2: Reread Engage's post. I guess because it would have to be entirely re-done, the fort won't be changed? Okay, well I tried.

 

[Countessa]

Re: Some Major Changes!

I read this on page 11 as saying that a member of the council told Engage we were moving out there. I guess I misinterpreted?

In anycase, what about the rest of the things I pointed out?

EDIT: Perhaps my critisms are being misconstrued as hate towards the effort you all put into it. Not at all. I really like the thought behind it all, but there are problems with it and I am pointing out my opinion about them as a two y/o member of the BC. Thanks for what you have done thus far though! =D

I spose it's all about how you read what Engage posted. All I took from it was that the orcs were going to claim the island for themselves, as opposed to it remaining an npc camp. I don't believe anyone thinks the Orcs will ever abandon Yew.

 

[Arcanus Baja]

Re: Some Major Changes!

they wont they have a good thing going there. they own almost if not all of the houses around the yew orc camp. i would like to see some at the island for from time to time though.

 

[plague_spores]

Re: Some Major Changes!

however in SOK we had griefers come to our base and TCD came to help us out. then once they left TCD killed us. now it was funny with the betrayal at the end but it was kool that they came to help.

I hop that they ressed you if not shoot me a pm and we can work something out.

 

[plague_spores]

Re: Some Major Changes!

Regarding the spawn on the islands here is my thoughts. Change the forest spawns so no magic casters spawn... Im talking about the spawn near the savage for entrance and the cotton fields. Then add the farming spawn at a spot farthest from rp guilds. Perhaps remove the fortune teller int he south west corner and add the monster spawn or a seperate mini island for farming monsters.