New Legacy

Tim

No evidence to back it up but I my read on the wipe once a year was.

NL is intended as a test bed for core changes to both programming and game play.
By wiping every year or more often if things go bad there is no complaints about losing 20 years of game play. For example of what I mean, if they try some change to crafting and it has unintended effects then next year they can go back to the old way or try something new. Can you imagine them doing that on a production shard?

By the way I don't play Fel because I really don't want to deal with someone who thinks they are brave for playing there. That's one step from "I'm a combat vet because I play Call of Duty all the time".

PvP or PvM is just a personal choice of how you spend your play time. It has no more meaning on you personality then do you prefer to play golf or football. Note some of the best golf courses I've ever seen are on US military basses.

keven2002

Tim said:

No evidence to back it up but I my read on the wipe once a year was.

NL is intended as a test bed for core changes to both programming and game play.
By wiping every year or more often if things go bad there is no complaints about losing 20 years of game play. For example of what I mean, if they try some change to crafting and it has unintended effects then next year they can go back to the old way or try something new. Can you imagine them doing that on a production shard?

The Dev team said at one point that they could move some of the NL things into production but I don't think it would be an overhaul thing like a rebuild of crafting because they would have to layer it in with all the existing code. My guess is that these things will be one-off easily implemented type things like "a fur cloak". The potential issue I see with moving the "popular" things from NL to change how things work with production shard would be the size of the player base.

Let's use the "PvP consent toggle" as an example. If only 75-100 people play NL and 90% of them like the change, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good change to Prod because then maybe 90 people max are speaking for hundreds (maybe 1000?) of players. That 90% on NL turns to 10% on Prod shards.

Tim said:
By the way I don't play Fel because I really don't want to deal with someone who thinks they are brave for playing there. That's one step from "I'm a combat vet because I play Call of Duty all the time".

PvP or PvM is just a personal choice of how you spend your play time. It has no more meaning on you personality then do you prefer to play golf or football. Note some of the best golf courses I've ever seen are on US military basses.

Umm what? lol. I think that's being extremely dramatic. I don't think anyone really thinks they are "brave" for playing in Fel, but even if they do that's not even close to stealing valor. You likely haven't served or know people that served if you think these are the same. Also big differences in a golfer's mindset compared to a football player... mentally one knows they play in snow/sleet/rain/freezing temps while taking a beating (and choose to do so) and the other one finishes the day early when it rains...(see the Masters 2 weeks ago).

Tyrath

 So they are basically making a glorified Test Center.

dvvid

No its not a glorified test center.  Some things done in NL might make it to the other shards but that's not the point of the server.

Each season is to be like its own Ultima game that has a beginning and an end that uses the UO engine and assets.  Other Ultima titles (that are not online) have a beginning and an end.  This is taking the spirit of those games but places it in UO.  Sort of like playing Ultima VII but it is online and other people are there to interact with and can help/harm you.

People who dislike the yearly wipe are looking at it from the angle that UO is a perpetual game and so they wonder why is NL not going to be perpetual.  This is a reasonable reaction because NL goes against one of the main aspects of UO (perpetuity).  Simply put, they are trying something different and a little unusual, which I personally appreciate.  You can collect all of the items you want on all of the other shards.  NL is about the experience instead of the item collecting.  You can of course not play it if that is not the kind of game you like to play.

Now, when will we see it?  Who knows...

gay

One of the biggest limiting factors of their proposed NL features is going to become character slots. They've stated that at the end of the season players can choose to migrate their NL character to production servers, so that they would be able to display the NL unique progress they made with that character. So lets say this is a hit, we're 10 seasons in, players are put into a position where they have to decide what characters of theirs to delete in order to migrate their current season's NL character once the season ends if they wanted to migrate it to their home shard.

Lord_Frodo

gay said:

One of the biggest limiting factors of their proposed NL features is going to become character slots. They've stated that at the end of the season players can choose to migrate their NL character to production servers, so that they would be able to display the NL unique progress they made with that character. So lets say this is a hit, we're 10 seasons in, players are put into a position where they have to decide what characters of theirs to delete in order to migrate their current season's NL character once the season ends if they wanted to migrate it to their home shard.

Right now I have 7 char slots per account and the only shard I uses all 7 is Baja all other shards have a few and most only have 1 for seasonal gifts like most players.  I doubt very much that there is a single that uses ever slot on every shard.  If I want that char on Baja for awhile then I will use shard shields to rotate them around.  I tried playing multiable shards and it was hard to keep up with what was going on on each shard.  I also doubt that people that FARM dead use all their slots so after 10 seasons I will have plenty of room for 10 Chars per account.  They will be just another thing for people to collect.

Pawain

Ya I also use the slots on my main shard, but this would be a way to get a GM toon on other shards, as long as I can transfer the banners or whatever to my home shard from another.

Grimbeard

When was the last monthly news letter put out?

CovenantX

January or February. been at least a couple months.   they probably couldn't make up believable 'Actioned Account" numbers so they just passed on the newsletter for a while =P

keven2002

CovenantX said:

January or February. been at least a couple months.   they probably couldn't make up believable 'Actioned Account" numbers so they just passed on the newsletter for a while =P

More than likely there is just nothing for them to put out and/or Mesanna doesn't like to be kept to an expected date. A road map creates expectation and that in turn creates accountability. She's able to get away zero communication without reprimand so she's just going to continue to keep everyone in the dark and release small pieces sporadically and expect everyone to be grateful.

NL is a great example. We should at the very least know how it's coming along and if it's on target, but my guess is that it's behind and she doesn't want to look bad saying it's being delayed (again).