Uthgard

Dear players.

It's hot out (nearly 37°C it seems) and that can be dangerous! Take a load off and relax in your cooled, air conditioned room and enjoy our Summer Heat XP / RvR event on Uthgard while we implement changes to the server. Changes that will allow Uthgard to grow, progress and hopefully build a better relationship between us the staff and you our players.


SUMMER HEAT EVENT

From NOW to 8. August 2018 10:00 CEST you can enjoy the following bonuses:

+50% Experience and Money in all areas (Stacks with other bonuses)
+50% Realm Points
+100% Realm Points for anyone who is solo or in a small group of max. 3 players in EMAIN!

(RP bonus applies to player kills only)

Please also take the time to read our statement about the current state of Uthgard and the future outlook for the server.


DIRECTION OF UTHGARD

The idea behind Uthgard 1 shutting down and starting from scratch was to try something that had been a vision of the Uthgard Staff since 2009 - a "classic" experience. Uthgard had at one point followed live patches until things seemingly went off the rails, and we ended up somewhere around 1.80. With that in mind, working backwards towards 1.69 (the then-target), it became clear that a wipe was needed to even out the playing field after 9 years of continuous operation.

When we shut down in January 2014, we hoped to start fresh with the intention: Try and start with the full 1.65 vision, and customize later where needed. It seems quite clear we've reached the "where needed" point - and that the community by and large agrees.

With this news announcement, we want to inform you that we are changing our strict 1.65 policy to get the game more playable and enjoyable while trying to keep a classic feel to it. Also note, as some players already asked, there is no wipe planned for the server. All characters and achievements are safe. We had one wipe after 9 years and thats it.


CURRENT PLANS

In the upcoming days and weeks we will begin to implement various features and changes that should improve the game. An example of features that will be implemented are as follows:

• Find ways to increase the XP rate, while maintaining a sense of accomplishment
• Reduce travel times and downtimes
• Multiple charges on potions
• Offer quicker ways to get to action, especially in cases where a speed class is not available
• Enable the map dot
• The return of 'Tinderboxes', campfires that increase health, endurance, and power regeneration
• Crafting improvement
• Wood for BP
• DF hidden access
• Decrease time required to transfer between realms
• Features that you request and which can be made fit into the game
• Many more changes not listed here


We plan to keep a minimum of a once-per-month news post where we keep you updated and consider and answer feedback we have seen. We would also like to reactivate the player council. If you are interested in a player council position please write a PM. The player council will have more weight in the decision process and will have access to a special forum area where we can discuss issues and develop solutions. This also includes discussing game imbalances which require a patch.


FIRST CHANGES

While the specifics of some changes above are still being outlined, we welcome your feedback. The following changes already found their way into the game:


• Dot on map for you and your group members
• Horse routes in RvR zones
• Bind in battlegrounds
• No realm point penalty while dead for grouped players
• Starter guilds joined an alliance, so players in there can communicate with other starter guilds realm wide
• Realm transfer was shortened from 7 days to 48h
• Realm transfer will be nearly immediate (5 min) if you was not logged in the last 5 days



This is a first step that the server is taking. We want your playing experience to improve whilst keeping the balance of the server and thus the spirit of the game alive.

We will followup with more changes in upcoming news and look forward to see your feedback and input regarding these changes and the future of the server.


We look forward to see you back on the battlefield!

Your Uthgard Staff

Map dot, how I have waited for thee!

Is map important?

Blue - this has to be in German : ich bin stolz auf euch

Nothing else to say.

Great changes!!!!

LLU2.0.

Alpha

Most of these changes will be welcomed by most, but once again you show your true colors. You literally need to be pressured by another potential server opening in order to do the basic things we need. I have told you this in 2013. and I'm telling you again, stuff like faster travel/multiple charges on pots are welcome and everyone will benefit from this. However, be very careful about catering to whiners on forum. Same people have been whining since forever and they've had 2 fresh starts(genesis + uthg2) and they're still whining. Xp bonuses and SI will do NOTHING for long term population.

Also, I would be very, very careful about entertaining anything coming from "Damn, I would really love to RvR but I just can't get one char to lvl 50 because it's too hard" people, because they're just looking for excuses. Literally the best players from uthgard1 who were RvR fanatics, hated PvE and are still in some of the best groups on live never ever whined about slow XP or anything like that. The point is, if you want to RvR you will start slow and do it and eventually get better. If you constantly whine about XP, high rr groups once you reach 50, low action etc., then perhaps DAOC is not a game for you, it's really not everyone's cup of tea. Just because some people can't handle the game and whine/quit after they get wiped twice in emain, it doesn't matter you should do anything to make their life easier.

Further more, one might think that games like DAOC generally attract people who want to earn their character and enjoy it, not just level 20 lvl 50 characters. It's bad enough as it is, xp is 3x faster than on uthgard1 and half of these morons don't know how to buff and when you try to nicely tell them something, the usual response is: GTFO, I HAD A RR9 CHARACTER ON LIVE, I KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME. Making XP too fast will make them even worse when they reach lvl 50 and they'll quit soon. Like I said, someone who really wants to play DAOC will play it and will not whine about XP or SI or anything else. If you had focused on the more loyal part of the population before the wipe, you'd have at 150 - 200 active non-whining rvr players more, ok some of them didn't play all year long but they were here to stay. Most of those people are literally gone forever and now we have Uthgardistan, the home of noobs from Genesis mixed with their cousins by retardation, people who didn't play in 15 years and think they invented the game and will under no circumstances accept any constructive or other criticism.

If you really want to do something for the server, focus on a different patch level. The heals we have here(slow as hell) mixed with idiotic old RAs will make any casual group quit very soon unless they're just zerging everything, but that gets old and boring very fast.

Sorry for the snark. I think this move by the staff shows a genuine effort to work with the players and compromise.

Why this?

"No realm point penalty while dead for grouped players" Solo players benefit a great deal from this. Two solo players are fighting and they are both almost dead. A group runs by and kills one and then the other. Which player played better or deserved those rps more? The one who got lucky and didn't die first, or the one who didn't get lucky and was targeted and died first?

Leave the rps for all dead in and it should be simpler, no check for group, and also beneficial to solo players.

Hi Blue,
I want to thank you, and express joy for the change of heart, and deciding to listen to the community. But I can't--not yet. Such serious questions remain about the integrity of the team, now, which previously stated goals completely antithetical to the above changes.

For years, your team has said they want strict 1.65. Now, in the face of competition, they don't want 1.65. Your team said they did not care about population, only being strict to 1.65. But these changes admit to aiming for more population. Players have suggested the above ideas for years without response, and sometimes being rebuffed by the development team. Now, they are being told that's what the team wants.

What exactly changed in the development team, and how can players know their interests will be served in the future, considering they've been neglected for years?

relvinian wrote:Why this?

"No realm point penalty while dead for grouped players" Solo players benefit a great deal from this. Two solo players are fighting and they are both almost dead. A group runs by and kills one and then the other.

We had problems with solo players actively "donating" RP to their enemy by killing themself. If we solve that we can change that for solos too e.g. for death caused by players not involved in the solo fight.

Isavyr wrote:For years, your team has said they want strict 1.65. Now, in the face of competition, they don't want 1.65. Your team said they did not care about population, only being strict to 1.65. But these changes admit to aiming for more population. Players have suggested the above ideas for years without response, and sometimes being rebuffed by the development team. Now, they are being told that's what the team wants.

What exactly changed in the development team, and how can players know their interests will be served in the future, considering they've been neglected for years?

I think that was explained in the news. Its not that we "don't want 1.65" but we will be more relaxed about it as it restricts ourself in what we can do compared to what we were able to do on Uthgard 1. Time has shown that it unfortunately does not work long term to stay on a fixed patch level of DAoC since every patch has its own problems. Additionally you have the time component of todays gamers which makes it more difficult to run a vanilla classic setup. What we tried did not work out in the long term unfortunately. We can now start to make the best out of it by iterating with changes in the direction of a more optimal solution.

starter guild alliances was main problem for my friends and I. As non uth 1 players in NA we were with more obstacles. Add to that if one started on Alb you had all the Uth1 players running Necros. Faster transfer.

Number two was BG bind stones! No groups, np if there is action in the BGs. I had 20+ toons from the 20s to 35.

Account vault.

Tasking up until 40s!! Overcomes non EU time zone problems!! or any population problems

Faster power regen.


It isn't about uth 1 players. They did fine. It is about noobs and casuals getting to 50!

What you have already added certainly challenged the thought of leveling up in a another beta before a wipe.

I also put a lot of "blame" on uth 1 players and guilds. Many did well and were anti change early on. Just looking at the wishes of many here shows a split. Anything involving RvR is pointless if casuals and noobs do not get there imo. Any new server will end up with the usual 300 hardcore players. A healthy server is a challenge for more than the Devs.

I think there needs to be a wipe. That beta will be wiped. At this rate there will be TWO empty servers within a few months. Players will have to choose. That gives you months to add your own QOL salad bar to a known stable server and make that a false assumption on my part..

Valfar wrote:Xp bonuses and SI will do NOTHING for long term population.

What are you on about?

If you had to pick between two servers of equal quality and stability, you would pick the server with less content? Also, don't think for a second that some casual players didn't leave simply because of lack of spawns, granted they wouldn't have stayed regardless, but it was a factor.

I personally believe most of these changes are for the better. And while I may be visiting uthgards redheaded stepchild for the time being, one of the things that would bring me back is indeed SI. Raiding even just the husks of mobs in TG (no scripts yet) is exciting!

I'm sure Uthgard will live on, it certainly deserves to.

looking promising.

/salute to the very near future

I am fine with most changes, but why reducing the realm switch timer? I liked the 7 day timer. If you really want to change your realm long term, 7 day was ok and you could keep your chars if you decide to come back sometime.
Already with the 7 day timer, there were many people logging after relic situation. With a shorter timer this will get even worse. And it will be used for spying purpose.

I dont like the RvR-Horses, because it will have an huge impact on raiding support keeps. Deffers will be there much faster in future. If you wiped the enemy now you had a time window big enough to get that support keep, even with upgraded doors. Now they will be back very fast, and i guess it will be a farming point for High RR groups. But i understand that solo people like to get fast to where the action is.

Changes are good, but please keep an eye on the consequences of every change. Dont go too far, i dont want Uthgard to become that 'Hello Kitty'-Server like the other where you get everything for free.

Thank you.

Any progress is just that, progress. I look forward to the monthly updates, adjustments to come and hopefully SI before too long.

Valfar wrote:Most of these changes will be welcomed by most, but once again you show your true colors. You literally need to be pressured by another potential server opening in order to do the basic things we need. I have told you this in 2013. and I'm telling you again, stuff like faster travel/multiple charges on pots are welcome and everyone will benefit from this. However, be very careful about catering to whiners on forum. Same people have been whining since forever and they've had 2 fresh starts(genesis + uthg2) and they're still whining. Xp bonuses and SI will do NOTHING for long term population.

Also, I would be very, very careful about entertaining anything coming from "Damn, I would really love to RvR but I just can't get one char to lvl 50 because it's too hard" people, because they're just looking for excuses. Literally the best players from uthgard1 who were RvR fanatics, hated PvE and are still in some of the best groups on live never ever whined about slow XP or anything like that. The point is, if you want to RvR you will start slow and do it and eventually get better. If you constantly whine about XP, high rr groups once you reach 50, low action etc., then perhaps DAOC is not a game for you, it's really not everyone's cup of tea. Just because some people can't handle the game and whine/quit after they get wiped twice in emain, it doesn't matter you should do anything to make their life easier.

Further more, one might think that games like DAOC generally attract people who want to earn their character and enjoy it, not just level 20 lvl 50 characters. It's bad enough as it is, xp is 3x faster than on uthgard1 and half of these morons don't know how to buff and when you try to nicely tell them something, the usual response is: GTFO, I HAD A RR9 CHARACTER ON LIVE, I KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME. Making XP too fast will make them even worse when they reach lvl 50 and they'll quit soon. Like I said, someone who really wants to play DAOC will play it and will not whine about XP or SI or anything else. If you had focused on the more loyal part of the population before the wipe, you'd have at 150 - 200 active non-whining rvr players more, ok some of them didn't play all year long but they were here to stay. Most of those people are literally gone forever and now we have Uthgardistan, the home of noobs from Genesis mixed with their cousins by retardation, people who didn't play in 15 years and think they invented the game and will under no circumstances accept any constructive or other criticism.

If you really want to do something for the server, focus on a different patch level. The heals we have here(slow as hell) mixed with idiotic old RAs will make any casual group quit very soon unless they're just zerging everything, but that gets old and boring very fast.

It's actually people like you that make me wanna leave any server/game. Elitist arrogant people calling everyone else retards and having angry attitudes. Your opinion is just that, yours. Stating your opinions as fact doesn't make it so. Your entire rant sounds like a tantrum thrown by an angry child. Maybe learn to discuss things like an adult without being so hostile.