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Change Nothing
ZodRau
Posts: 44Member Beginner
It had to be said.
Home › Uncharted Waters Online › General Discussion
ZodRau
Posts: 44Member Beginner
Comments
Your experience is basically the same as mine. I left UWO because of the griefers and came back when I heard their ability to grief had been greatly curtailed. If they wipe our toons, I am done. If they do not, but reinstate pirating as it was with NM, then I may not come back either. If pirates want to pirate, let them pirate each other and any non-pirates that want pirating as it was years ago.
As far as NC ships, what would one do about the ships already in the game? One of my aides sails the custom clipper you get in one of those package deals. If that suddenly disappears, I lose my aide ship and aide trust because they do not like being removed as captain. Some players have spent a lot of money on the game, mostly to get ships. Is that money just going to be taken? How are those players to be compensated if those ships are deleted?
Those changes will be thrust upon us immediately at relaunch and depending on what exactly they are we may want to focus our efforts on making sure those things are acceptable before we get down to our regular baggage.
That being said the game obviously has its issues. And we should definitely be discussing what should be done about those. With the obvious ones like the DB and Item plunder nerfs I think it's importand to try to find some kind of middle ground. I never really got involved in those debates but I have read most of the old threads and heard it all in chat a million times.
I can tell you keeping the debate going where one side wants DB and item plunder restored the way it was and the other side wants it to remain nerfed as is, is going nowhere ever. You all don't agree and no one will concede and absolutely nothing gets accomplished but pointless bickering. It's been back and forth for years now. Why not work towards find some compromise?
For example, restore item plunder but make a few more of the next to impossible to replace items unplunderable. And keep pillage orders for NPCs only. I'm sure that won't make either side 100% happy but it's a reasonable middle ground. I'm sure the pirates would be happier with that than with no item plunder at all. And it may be just acceptable enough to everyone else to actually get done. I think the people who do not want item plunder restored need to give a little ground here. Pirates are part of the game and they are good for the community and good for creating maritime activity. They should be able to get some valuables for all their effort. But perhaps the pirates could give a little ground as well with exactly how bad the plunder stings.
You know, you get my 100 def boots or GS reissued silver plated armour, maybe a 100 atk sword or something, I'm gonna be a little pissed but it's tolerable. And you just scored maybe 100m item with one of those. I think that should make you happy, no? You get a piece of my Vinland set or some super rare book on the other hand, then I'm feeling some kind of way. Just the stuff that's an absolute bitch to replace. Then pirates are getting actual valuables. And everyone else isn't getting stuff ganked that's so hard to replace it makes them want to go postal.
Are those Steam stats? If so, that is not a good indicator of population. I use the OGP launcher and I believe a goodly number of players use the launcher. I know some Steam players have a lot of time in the game, but Steam players tend to be come-and-go more than players that download a game from a publishers website.
About waiting... I think just till things are back up and running and stable, and we see if Vertigo drops any drastic new policy changes on us. Once everything is squared away in those regards we could start trying to get them to address some of the issues we are all familiar with that they may or may not be aware of.
And I think it would be fun to have 2 servers to play on pre and post nerf and it would be an easy way to make both parties happy. But as I said in another thread... we struggle to maintain enough of a healthy community to properly populate even one server. I know the new publisher will mean a nice influx of new players but once all that levels out where will we be? Whether it's a lot or a little that actually stick around... if it was all consolidated on one server it would mean a fuller, more active world. Another thing to consider is adding the extra time and expense of the 2nd server on the publisher for a game that has been on shaky ground for quite a while already.
So me personally, as fun as it could be, I would hate to see the community split. And really, the item plunder thing seems easy enough to find a middle ground. And I know there was an intelligent, civil discussion going on in the OGP forums about getting deck battle back in an acceptable form. I'm no expert on the pre-nerf DB mechanics so I don't have many suggestions there.
But if we could get those two things nailed down and heal the division that nerf caused think of what that would do for the game. Not only might quite a few of the old heads come back that left during what was our biggest population loss ever. But new players wouldn't come in and hear all the grumbling negativity over it in chat and in the forums. And for any new players that plan on being pirates, bounty hunters or maritimers, that grumbling has to play a significant part in new player retention. It would breathe new life back into piracy which would get more bounty hunters back out as well, and more maritime in general would be happening again.
That's why I think it's so important to resolve that whole thing. And personally it's not something I even care that much about. I'm not a pirate. I always planned to try some privateering one day but get distracted doing a million other things. And I was honestly a little relieved when item plunder went and I while I think it would be cool if deck came back as I was always more of a dungeon rat than a maritimer anyway, I didn't really stress over it's removal.
But I have seen the effect it had on the game and you can't deny the evidence. The people who don't care either way and the traders and adventurers who want things to stay completely nerfed as-is should really take another long hard look at this situation.
Before I wrap up yet another long winded post, I do have a good suggestion on the NC ship issue since that came up. Rather than trying to nerf or remove the NC ships, a similar effect could be achieved without even pissing anyone off.
Take the high tier FS ships and lower the insane level requirements. Possibly a sliding scale reducing the levels of all FS ships, a little bit for the lower ones and a good bit for the top tier ones. Not as low as the NC versions so the NC versions would still have their value and place (even though the higher stats and more mods already makes them more valuable). But lowering the level requirements on FS ships would make better ships more accessible to new players sooner. Meaning they could trade more effectively sooner, get involved and survive maritime sooner, and just get a better faster ship in general sooner without needing to spend tens of billions on an NC ship. Another boon for new player retention as well. Every new player that has come through my company has experienced a let down when they have the realization that the faster better ships are so far off level-wise or they need to spend a load of real world cash. The NC ships would all still be around for those that want to splurge on them and the ones we have wouldn't be taken away.
And it would play at least a small part in deflating the economy a bit. It would give people a little more ship options at whatever levels they were at. And curb the demand for NC ships a bit. I think the inflation problem requires a multi-pronged approach but dialing back the value of NC ships would be a big factor.
And granted, this would have way less of an effect than removing NC ships. But I think it's much more realistic. And also wouldn't cause total outrage among players who have untold billions in their beloved NC ships.
What if there were bonds of sorts, wherein you purchase these (untradeable so that they cannot just be used as a substitute for money as this would defeat the entire purpose of them existing) bonds from the bank for however much money and for a length of time (minimum of a month or so), and upon expiry they may be cashed in for a small but proportional (to the amount of money and length of time) profit. This encourages those people with hundreds of billions to invest in these bonds, reducing the amount of ducats in circulation at any given time while not taking any away from those who have spent time earning them.