Incentives/Enticements to play the new UO Legacy Shard
What specific incentives/enticement would you need to motivate you to play the new UO Legacy Shard?
When they released Age of Shadows, the game introduced Malas, Paladins and Necromancers. When they released Mondains Legacy the game introduced Heartwood, Sanctuary and Spellweavers. When they released Samurai Empire the game introduced Tokuno, Samurai and Ninjas. When they released Stygian Abyss, the game introduced Gargoyles, the Underworld and the Abyss. High Seas, Eodon, so on and so forth.
With the release of this new Legacy shard, they have expressed returning to our role playing roots. Developing our Avatar's story. Every year this shard will be refreshed, and we will be able to transfer our characters back to production shard. What incentives and enticements would make playing this new shard worth our time?
For me, it would need to be just as dramatic as what has been implemented in the past. My new character has to be special, and easily distinguishable from the shards I already play on. I would highly recommend they introduce either a new race, new profession, or both along with the accoutrements designed only for that race or that profession. In lieu of being unable to execute that idea, I would at least like a new mount that can only be acquired on the Legacy Shard. Just adding more items, armor and weapons that look like everything else would not be enough for me. I need new art and new abilities to tell my new story in UO.
I imagine if they refresh this annually, that introducing at least two major incentives like these would keep players coming back again and again. The game wouldn't need new expansions as long as they keep adding quality content through this new shard that will add diversity to the game. Otherwise why do it at all?
Race ideas Juka/Meer, Dwarf/Orc, Half-Orc/Half-Elf, Sub-Races of what we have.
When they released Age of Shadows, the game introduced Malas, Paladins and Necromancers. When they released Mondains Legacy the game introduced Heartwood, Sanctuary and Spellweavers. When they released Samurai Empire the game introduced Tokuno, Samurai and Ninjas. When they released Stygian Abyss, the game introduced Gargoyles, the Underworld and the Abyss. High Seas, Eodon, so on and so forth.
With the release of this new Legacy shard, they have expressed returning to our role playing roots. Developing our Avatar's story. Every year this shard will be refreshed, and we will be able to transfer our characters back to production shard. What incentives and enticements would make playing this new shard worth our time?
For me, it would need to be just as dramatic as what has been implemented in the past. My new character has to be special, and easily distinguishable from the shards I already play on. I would highly recommend they introduce either a new race, new profession, or both along with the accoutrements designed only for that race or that profession. In lieu of being unable to execute that idea, I would at least like a new mount that can only be acquired on the Legacy Shard. Just adding more items, armor and weapons that look like everything else would not be enough for me. I need new art and new abilities to tell my new story in UO.
I imagine if they refresh this annually, that introducing at least two major incentives like these would keep players coming back again and again. The game wouldn't need new expansions as long as they keep adding quality content through this new shard that will add diversity to the game. Otherwise why do it at all?
Race ideas Juka/Meer, Dwarf/Orc, Half-Orc/Half-Elf, Sub-Races of what we have.
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They want new players to get the feel we got that first year in UO. To have the freedom of growing up in UO lore and pain. I say pain because that first year was a pain in the arse to live through.
So what would I like to see?
Well for one is for players not being so picked on by the seasoned player who knows the tricks of UO character building who thinks this is a fun killing zone to drive out the new guys. Don't tell me that is not on the mind of some of our depraved players who live to make others miserable.
See I remember when Tram first came out and the Thieves had a field day stealing keys and runes to homes. Telling players to hand over tons of gold to get them back or they would trash barrel them to oblivion. Yes this was before rune books. The down side is one thing the Dev need to keep a check on.
Interesting perspective.
So you also think we're dregs from the bottom of the barrel like he just said we were? Interesting perspective.
Don’t agree with the dregs remark. If it were not for the established players that I never really got to know but helped me along the way, I would not still be plying this game.
Millennials ? Post millennials ?
And what are these "new" players after in their games, if I may ask ?
What type of gameplay and expectations do they have when they go play a game ?
Will the New Legacy UO Shard, with its Design, mechanics and intended gameplay, be able to then be of an appeal to these "new" players if I may ask ?
I think it would be fun to play a shard where everyone is basically equal. No vet rewards, little to no store items, no artifacts that came from past events which no one can get now.
We spent alot of time to train in production shards. So if the Legacy shard is only one year at a time, I hope the training can be simplified and shortened.
The good thing is that there are items that can be move out to our current shard before Legacy is wiped. Those will be the real carrots for us to play on Legacy Shard.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
Interesting idea - similar to the Seasons other MMOs offer up. And the ability to keep certain items to xfer to a prodo shard is very much like the seasons of other games.
What strikes me the most is the skilling up - like Seth, this is -not- an easy thing to do. Fighting classes can skill up pretty fast if it really is legacy (my original Kirthag skilled to 6xGM as a pure fighter in about 6 months of gameplay before Tram - and that was playing every weekend and some nights with serious role-playing thrown in so it could have been shorter really), but crafting is a different story. My miner/smith took 3 years to GM mining & smithing... I threw a party when I finally got her to GM. As a dedicated character, it may not take 3 years, but it isn't lickety-split I can tell you that.
kirthag.blogspot.com
Second variable is the programs allowed or not (I mean if not allowed people would still use it, so the question here is will they work or not.) with these + lrc suit you can make a 5x gm mage char in less than 24hours, yes its ridicolus.
On a PvP Shard where some players use cheats, hacks and scripts to gain a hell of an edge in their PvPing, players who do not want to use cheats in their gaming are NOT on an equal footing.. no way.
And today's cheats for UO are quite advanced.... I am not going to go into details, obviously, but looking at what they can allow a player to do is quite impressive or, I should better say, depressive....
They just log in, fire up their training script and let it run 24/7....
Anyone feels to compete with them on the New Legacy Shard IF they do not want to use cheating in their gameplay ?
For that matter - Dev should announce the rewards for the new Legacy shard every year after each reset. Then we decide whether its worth the time to train a new character that year or give it a pass.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
That I know of, 3rd Party are being used on the current Shards by some players for script farming, various script PvP benefits, speed hacking, PvP target sharing, skills training, etc. etc. etc.
So, I do not see why they should not work with the New Legacy Shard which will use the same one Clients...
New Legacy sounds like it is basically a Diablo III Hardcore Season, but with a Hardcore=Lite UO twist.
So what you take to production is probably something like:
-All the gold, gear, and skills you built during the season.
-Any artifacts they built for the season (normally these become available on production at the end of the season).
-Title for your toon.
-Character portrait frame.
-Instanced statue in the "Hall of Avatars" that you can click on to see your character and accomplishments you completed during the season.
-A personal journal with a record of your seasonal accomplishments.
-If you're lucky maybe a true vanity pet (no functionality) that will follow you around and not take up follower slots.
Honestly, the Season concept has been around a while, it's pretty fleshed out now on how to run them.
I personally was surprised to see UO go this way, but it's going to be interesting to watch.
New Legacy doesn't seem to be directed towards existing players. We'll see what happens when it get's put in front of the "largest audience ever", eh?
But my guess is every character gets the equivalent of a free mythic character token.
They stressed this shard is to develop your toon the way you want. Backstory, accomplishments, etc. A Mythic token would skip a lot of that skill development process and the psychological rewards the player would experience seeing those skills gain. Those psychological rewards can be powerful in hooking new players, or re-hooking existing players trying a new skill combo in an easier setting (increased skill gain during season).
Instead of a token, I'd bet that the entire New Legacy landmass will be under an Alacrity buff. (Triple skill gain weekends ahead! Come play UO!, etc.)
Easy to code, no "what's this token for?" worries as the buff is built in, players still get to watch skills tic up, and it'd be UO's version of the XP leveling buffs players are familiar with from seasons in class based games.
Edit: Never played a tamer? Always wanted to? Pet's too hard to train? Play UO this weekend and enjoy the Quadruple Skill Gain Buff! Works for pets too! Stacks with the buff potion from the UO store for 5 TIMES the SKILL! Last's for the entire Memorial Day weekend..... Disclaimer: XP buff potion is $9.99, lasts for 72 hrs. Single use only. Each character or pet must use a potion for the additional buff. No refunds. Copyright EA Games 2021.
You can see what's coming.