i have played UWO since first day of closed beta. i took a break and gave away my account when NM invoked a 1 char limit. as a crafter with a sb alt , i needed a second char to make parts. when i returned the player who had my original account was no longer playing , so i started afresh . since then i have invested in astro's and have numerous ships and items not available in game. the last thing i want is A 1 account limit , because the dishonest players will circumvent the rules anyway with VPN, B a wipe that will remove all my items i have gathered over the years . if they wipe i wont play, many others will not play . what kind of person would invest in a game knowing it has been wiped and players lost everything ( some spending thousands of USD ) and that it could well happen again
I agree with CPC: 2 servers, one for a fresh start, though Papaya might not want to do that.
To all you people who state "85%/75%/many) pertaining to other players who will quit if there is a wipe...just speak for yourself please. Anything else is just fart noises.
Why are the only methods of controlling prices being discussed here to limit the seller? Prices are set by how much the *buyer* is willing to spend, not the asking prices. If the buyers said "no" occasionally, the prices would drop. No matter how you handicap sellers, the impatient or careless buyer will still overpay, and never learn to do better.
a2b2c2, To some extent you are correct, but when it comes to items that cost real money, there has to be and will be a floor. Nobody is going to spend 10 dollars for an item that sells for 300k ducats. But, yes, buyers are also responsible. The eagerness to buy a ship that performs way beyond its realistic capabilities is what is driving inflation. My best ship is a g3 BTC that cost about 800mil. It has maximum possible hold and high TR and WR. The sails are also in the 460v 575h range. Not the best ship in the game, but it feels to me as if it is a realistic ship. I would never buy one of those tubby Astro ships that do 13 knots when they should be doing 4 knots; not at any price.
The normal buyers have to compete with resellers who will snatch things up if they dip below the current normal going rate and just sit on them if need be until they can sell them at a profit. How much patience is expected in that situation when the consumer gets frustrated shouting for weeks and wants to get on with their game? It's not like real life where there are tons of manufacturers and thousands or millions of the product in millions of distribution centers competing for sales and prices can normalize properly.
All the NC stuff that drives price inflation is a legitimate rarity in finite supply with a limited handful of sellers at any given time. The sellers realize this and patience comes much easier from their position. Even if the original seller gets impatient and dips below the current going rate, resellers will be on it like shine on paint, and it's back to the going rate again.
And on the buyer's side, all it takes is a few impatient buyers who don't care about the "let's hold out and get the price down" movement to buy at the current prices and perpetuate the price inflation. So price fixing is easy to do and hard to disrupt.
Apparently systems like the capitalist free market economy function much differently on the micro scale. Especially when you figure into the equation that the most desirable products enter the market through a secondary artificial means in extremely limited supply. And that artificial means of product entering the market runs on a currency and economy completely alien to the economy in game.
Also, my suggestion of lowering level requirements on FS ships (say by 10 or more) to allow broader options for players at lower levels does not limit the sellers. There would be more choices of ships you could use at any level so it would add more viable ship options to the market and should have some effect on NC ship prices by lessening demand just a bit. And also take some strain off the level gap which effects new player retention. It should take the some pressure off "needing" and NC ship to be competitive which would take some strain off of the economic gap which effects new player retention. It would bolster shipbuilding and crafting. And all without peoples current NC ships would being disturbed. Nobody would loose anything. It may seem like it would hurt astro sales by disrupting the demand for NC ships, but people would still be buying NC ships. Also possibly more demand for NC ship parts. And if it actually worked to retain more new players, that's more people getting hooked on the game and becoming paying customers. It's not a magic bullet that will fix everything but I can't see what it would hurt and can think of quite a few things it would help. Win win.
Latest news I got 3rd part is that there will be no wipe. This is supported by the fact that they are launching with Age of Reason. A wipe would preclude accessibility to most of its content for months.
We don't need 2 servers. All of ya'll new peeps just have no idea, how active the server was during plunder. This is my suggestion, Remove the nerfs on pirates, leave pillage orders out of play ( too OP) Let those quit who say they will (don't need peeps like that anyway who quit when dont get their way) let them go play minecraft. Cause once piracy is fixed lots of old pvpers will return, lots of new pvpers will return, and we won't miss those few traders/adv only peeps, cause we'll get more adv/traders and pvpers also do adv/trade. As a 7yr pirate, at no point in history of game, has piracy funded my account. i've always ran dungeons or done nanban for weekly boosters just same as everyone else.
A fresh start gvo progression server would be a lot of fun if they tweaked what was available in the cash shop and rolled back the GAMA nerfs that made early game terrible, like getting POs and random goodies more frequently when trading, un-nerfed quest rewards. QMPs to spam for quests etc.
It would be fun to rebuild the world and bash it up again in galleys and galleons in Africa, the Carrib, and India. Server would probably get old timers from every region racing and battling for control. The spice must flow!
I don't want to take anyone's toys away though and it seems it'll be easier for these guys to just migrate, the logistics of a restart / progression server seem more difficult.
I empathize with a new players sense of playing from behind in an un-level playing field.
Besides this.. you are wrong on nearly all accounts:
There is always a large gulf between new and veteran players.
The veterans do not rule UWO, as it is a game of fun and cooperation.
A little new guy can surpass the ability of a long time veteran eventually.
Losing long-time "paying" veterans will be a net financial loss, even if replaced by 2 new random players, which is unlikely to happen anyway.
Losing long-time "non-paying" veterans will be a loss to the games activity, knowledge base, and trading... which help to attract additional players, some paying.
If the server is reset, the players that remain, will all believe that the server might be reset again any time. They will be afraid and discouraged from spending time or money on it.
Lastly, let me leave you with this thought: Imagine if you were an adventure first player... who spent 5 years grinding your capabilities and trying to knock the last 100 or so quests of your list and maybe a few land charts. You have spent thousands of dollars on convenience to play.. and have leveraged no advantage over players... no port investments and no epic sea feud participation. You do not resell. The serer gets reset. Are you gonna replay the last 5 years of your life? The same quests, the same story... to get to where you are now?
Ya know, i think Papaya will just continue the game as is, for now. If not, they will really lose reputation badly. For players in a game thats allowed to have multi accounts to store their stuff... if they just make that stuff go away, without pre-warning players... that level of player disrespect will hurt them forever, not just short term.
I've been playing for a very long time... Most of you know me has DoubleEdge and as you all are aware, ppl have spend alot of time and money on what they have. Skills grinding for maritime/adventure is a pain in the a$$ and to achieve Top Tier Ships it requires alot of investment in time and money. If a Server wipe is to happen... im pretty sure that about 80 - 90% of the current comunity will give up. The noobs will get a clean start... but they will probably play on a 50 - 100 ppl server... GL on that... Im pretty damn sure if a wipe happens... u wont see me again in UWO. Its an old game, outdated graphics and not worth much more time if i have to start over again.
The game needs a fresh start. There's too many problems to navigate in the mess that the game is in currently to leave it as is and try to fix it. It's akin to trying to say the Titanic is in a fixable state when its deck broke as it was sinking.
I support a server wipe (and this is as a player that has spent a significant amount of money on the game). I've played off and on since the beta test, and nothing in the game in recent years was quite as remarkable as the launch.
To properly fix the problems, we need to start new, and avoid the issues in the first place. Start fresh, make smart decisions, and things will go well.
"Trust no one, wear shoes with reversed footprints, and never sit away from an entrance. Windows count as entrances."
@darknightowl"To all you people who state "85%/75%/many) pertaining to other players who will quit if there is a wipe...just speak for yourself please. Anything else is just fart noises."
interesting choice of words, let me try too.
To all you people who insist that a server wipe will bring back all the old players who left in the last 10 years.... just speak for yourself, in the unlikely case you were even away before hand, you have no proof you will get a single player back not from NM not from GPotato not from OGP.
Retired veterans are unlikely to return to their glory days for a wipe or any other reason and that is because hey have most moved on, life is like that.
The launch will bring new players for sure since all new servers do that, and its up to papaya and their offer to retain those players, and i really hope they have success, but besides the permanently banned scammers and gold sellers which will come back for sure to try and make quick money from those new players, "Anything else is just fart noises."
Desire spawns madness, madness collapses into disaster. mankind never learns...
Splitting into two servers may just end up population being halved, with neither servers look populated enough, aka, ghost town. Then people start leaving because there are not enough population to sustain their activities.
I do not know too much about adventure. But I know maritime very well.
Here is the scenario for what might impact ESF:
Garuda members went to new server because it will allow them capitalising their grinding skills there while not requiring purchasing premium lotteries for the best ships.
LJP stayed behind in the old server due to their vested interests.
When ESF occurred, Garuda won one side in the new server while LJP did the same in the old server. Soon both parties would find it boring and therefore stopped participating ESF.
What about new blood?
Some may argue, what about new players? Surely there would be someone to fill the gap.
Well, after Naver and his clan has left, nobody filled their gap for more than one year until the server shutdown.
Do not put hopes on new players. It will take them at least two years to grow before they can fill in any gap. With the departure of the bored veteran players due to population dilution effect from the server split, new players will soon find no guidance and therefore also leave for good.
When is the appropriate time for server split?
When you find it a problem to compete for NPCs, or to secure a company membership because every company is full, or simply could not enter a sea region because there are two many players there, that is when we need a server split.
I suggest they add an automated new player support program. Any new player will receive double XP/FAME/SKILL for 1 year automatically. This will only apply to new characters created on new accounts.
On top of everything Katanauwo just said, which I feel is exactly on point... the added expense on the publisher of running two servers for a game that can barely maintain a healthy population to fill one server. A game 3 publishers have sold down the river already. That would be a death sentence.
Just let them get us back online and make sure everything is working again and we have multiboxing policies within reason like we had before. Then try to address the problems we have by actually fixing them in an intelligent balanced way. Not just wiping the server or splitting the server.
Get off these paths of extremes on either side that will lead us to destruction. Take the middle path of moderation and balance that leads to insight and liberation.
Splitting into two servers may just end up population being halved, with neither servers look populated enough, aka, ghost town. Then people start leaving because there are not enough population to sustain their activities.
I do not know too much about adventure. But I know maritime very well.
It did work for all Asia servers even though I wonder what kind of rules do they have for 3 servers ?. Even if Papaya decides to go with 2 servers then I am pretty sure most players will go safe route to pick server that's why both or even 3 servers will need to have different purposes. Like I mean if they decide to have full piracy for server while other one with OGP's current rules then I am pretty sure majority of players will go with OGP's rules.
Just a thought; fir those calling for 2 separate servers. You do realize the client population for the legacy server would be fixed. You would have the same group of people playing. Wouldn't gain any new players, only people leaving for a break or permanently.
Comments
To all you people who state "85%/75%/many) pertaining to other players who will quit if there is a wipe...just speak for yourself please. Anything else is just fart noises.
No matter how you handicap sellers, the impatient or careless buyer will still overpay, and never learn to do better.
To some extent you are correct, but when it comes to items that cost real money, there has to be and will be a floor. Nobody is going to spend 10 dollars for an item that sells for 300k ducats. But, yes, buyers are also responsible. The eagerness to buy a ship that performs way beyond its realistic capabilities is what is driving inflation.
My best ship is a g3 BTC that cost about 800mil. It has maximum possible hold and high TR and WR. The sails are also in the 460v 575h range. Not the best ship in the game, but it feels to me as if it is a realistic ship. I would never buy one of those tubby Astro ships that do 13 knots when they should be doing 4 knots; not at any price.
The normal buyers have to compete with resellers who
will snatch things up if they dip below the current normal going rate and just
sit on them if need be until they can sell them at a profit. How much patience is expected in that situation when the consumer gets frustrated shouting for weeks and wants to get on with their game? It's not like real life where there are tons of manufacturers and thousands or millions of the product in millions of distribution centers competing for sales and prices can normalize properly.
All the NC stuff that drives price inflation is a legitimate rarity in finite supply with a limited handful of sellers at any given time. The sellers realize this and patience comes much easier from their position. Even if the original seller gets impatient and dips below the current going rate, resellers will be on it like shine on paint, and it's back to the going rate again.
And on the buyer's side, all it takes is a few impatient buyers who don't care about the "let's hold out and get the price down" movement to buy at the current prices and perpetuate the price inflation. So price fixing is easy to do and hard to disrupt.
Apparently systems like the capitalist free market economy function much differently on the micro scale. Especially when you figure into the equation that the most desirable products enter the market through a secondary artificial means in extremely limited supply. And that artificial means of product entering the market runs on a currency and economy completely alien to the economy in game.
Also, my suggestion of lowering level requirements on FS ships (say by 10 or more) to allow broader options for players at lower levels does not limit the sellers. There would be more choices of ships you could use at any level so it would add more viable ship options to the market and should have some effect on NC ship prices by lessening demand just a bit. And also take some strain off the level gap which effects new player retention. It should take the some pressure off "needing" and NC ship to be competitive which would take some strain off of the economic gap which effects new player retention. It would bolster shipbuilding and crafting. And all without peoples current NC ships would being disturbed. Nobody would loose anything. It may seem like it would hurt astro sales by disrupting the demand for NC ships, but people would still be buying NC ships. Also possibly more demand for NC ship parts. And if it actually worked to retain more new players, that's more people getting hooked on the game and becoming paying customers. It's not a magic bullet that will fix everything but I can't see what it would hurt and can think of quite a few things it would help. Win win.
It would be fun to rebuild the world and bash it up again in galleys and galleons in Africa, the Carrib, and India. Server would probably get old timers from every region racing and battling for control. The spice must flow!
I don't want to take anyone's toys away though and it seems it'll be easier for these guys to just migrate, the logistics of a restart / progression server seem more difficult.
I support a server wipe (and this is as a player that has spent a significant amount of money on the game). I've played off and on since the beta test, and nothing in the game in recent years was quite as remarkable as the launch.
To properly fix the problems, we need to start new, and avoid the issues in the first place. Start fresh, make smart decisions, and things will go well.
mankind never learns...
Just let them get us back online and make sure everything is working again and we have multiboxing policies within reason like we had before. Then try to address the problems we have by actually fixing them in an intelligent balanced way. Not just wiping the server or splitting the server.
Get off these paths of extremes on either side that will lead us to destruction. Take the middle path of moderation and balance that leads to insight and liberation.
http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/311818/uncharted-waters-online-a-modest-review