Thanks to the admins for making the server, thanks for re-uniting me with some old guild mates and allowing us to enjoy this precious game again.

Sadly the community is killing itself, the 'Elite' players heavily out weigh the casuals therefore guild groups and 'elite guild pugging' only group with each other and is actually stopping the RvR community from growing, random players no longer try and make groups are 90% of the time they are running into the organised 'elite pugs'.

Having 50's and reaching RR4 (And a Half) myself if you are not in a particular guild or have a history from LIVE/Genesis/i50/Uth1 you simply wont get groups and sit in portal keeps LFG all day, or you will invite players who would prefer to wait till a guild group spot opens as they know they will just be port/buff/releasing every 15 minutes.

Statistically what i have explained is on paper, your looking at a concurrent 300 player loss a week for the month of March (which is actually accelerating):

https://unixgeek.com/uthgard.html

Final Note:
8v8 community is killing the server to the point when they will just be fighting each-other in a month or so.

Lots of love
T

Do you think there is a solution to this problem?

In can't think of one myself. IMO, back in 2002-3 most people were pretty bad at the game. 90% of people didn't use voice communications. So you could make a rag tag pug and find other rag tag pugs to fight.

It's pretty much the opposite now. Lot's of people have had a lot of time to get good. 90% of people use voice comms in RvR.

While I agree with you that DAOC elitism (and the lack of group invites to unknowns) is a very real thing, it's been a very real thing for a decade.

I'm not really sure what you can do about it except join an active guild of like-minded players and play together. And if that is the solution, then it's pretty much on you to do that. I'm not saying it's easy, but I can't see another way.

Your post is bad new for me as I just start to play on pick up group everytime...

A lot of us just want to play here by nostalgia of the starts of Daoc...

But the pop that came here just for playing in a Moba will hurt a lot for sure...

For information, what was your realm?

They can be a pain, but you either take it or leave it. I've taken to running with a few and having a good time, granted, I'm a Cleric and you can't run without heals. I've also experienced the frustration of running against them with a PuG - the minimum bar in DAoC has been raised. It also seems far worse during Euro times as in NA we have had a few zergs lately and some less than optimal groups see success.

It still pains me to run by two enemy realms fighting without stopping to kill both, but it is what it is.

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People have always ran guild/set groups and balanced set ups. The only difference here is that the server does not encourage anything else to happen. I'm not even going to begin listing everything that drives the casual players away here. We COULD have a nice server with a high RvR pop, lots of 50s and lots of various groups happening, but that isn't the goal of Uthgard obviously. Don't blame the players. Why would anyone want to go do something that is not fun? It would be ridiculous to expect players to intentionally play horribly, use subpar gear or pick up strangers instead of their friends.
But since that is not going to change, maybe try joining a guild that is lacking the class you play and run with them consistently, eventually you will also have a balanced group out.

Pwncakes wrote:People have always ran guild/set groups and balanced set ups. The only difference here is that the server does not encourage anything else to happen. I'm not even going to begin listing everything that drives the casual players away here. We COULD have a nice server with a high RvR pop, lots of 50s and lots of various groups happening, but that isn't the goal of Uthgard obviously. Don't blame the players. Why would anyone want to go do something that is not fun? It would be ridiculous to expect players to intentionally play horribly, use subpar gear or pick up strangers instead of their friends.
But since that is not going to change, maybe try joining a guild that is lacking the class you play and run with them consistently, eventually you will also have a balanced group out.

Essentially what you have just said is what is killing the game, in short, then more people quit.

Risk/Reward leveling something new to 50, typically support with low ability to solo level, take a dedicated month of casual evening play for someone who knows what they are doing to get up to being ready for RvR. Everyone is higher RR, friend group circles are more complete and still have a no outsiders policy.

Finally continue to lfg in boarder keeps having just wasted another /played 7-12 days.

Download teamspeak/discord, join a guild that RvRs, and play a class that is desired and you know you can play.

If you don't want to do those things then find a zerg guild or start forming your own zergs.

Who knows. With the spam changes, top tier groups may end up strictly running emain. Mid tier groups will run Odins & Hadrians. And low tier groups will go Uppland and Sauvage.

This could open up more possibilities for the random newbie pug to run without constantly wiping and raging at each other.

And if it's still bad in a month perhaps we can implement an instance rated mmr arena system so that groups get matched with groups in their tier

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Yea I've been feeling this as well. It really does seem like there is nothing that can be done. I'm at the point of just searching for group for 30 mins to an hour and then going and doing something else. Although that time I wait is getting cut back each and every time since there is more fun to be had else where than waiting for an hour for a group that may just fold in 15 mins.

Play a class that is often needed and sought after.

On alb, I would recommend Cleric, sorc or maybe minstrel.

Mid: Healer, zerk/svg or shaman

Hib: Bard, druid, warden, bm

I listed them in order of what i thought would be needed most to least.

Mid will be the easiest to find pugs and be successful at. Hib is next and alb is the hardest to build a pug and succeed.

Stick with it, because a reputation doesn't happen quick by any means. There is alot of bad players on Uthgard and the average or higher players seek like players to fill their groups. I don't blame them.

Uth 2.0 is far less friendly to the solo/small-man experience in general than what was offered on Uth 1.0. At times where you would expect the small man /solo to pick up it's usually too spread out and infrequent or non-existent in this current state of affairs. Then again Uth 1.0 had a large amount of content / QoL features to keep the little guy entertained. I'm sure there are tons more that I can't think of but these are a few of the features I believe had a positive impact on alternative play-styles:

Barrels/multi-charge potions----- (greatly increased your inventory space, allowing you to carry more potions resulting in more time spent RvR'ing)

Personal Mounts----- (reduced the tedium and time needed to return to or seek out action. Also encouraged otherwise non-speed classes to small-man/solo

Horse routes in frontier zones----- (A less effective means compared to a personal mount but still a better option than walking. Also became a hot-spot for enemies looking for kills/fights)

Battlegrounds that scaled to level 49 and max RR of 4L2 ----- (This did a far better job of preparing people for end game RvR and becoming proficient with their characters than a repetitive grind to 50, also provided a temporary break from the grind if you so wished)

Rps for Keep-takes ----- (people will disagree with me until they are blue in the face but having even just a small yet meaningful incentive to take a keep resulted in some consistent late night action on Uth 1.0 Pacific Standard Times which involved duo's, small-mans and 8 mans and people looking to kill them. Non-existent here on Uth 2.0)

Gold for RvR kills ----- (It's not one many think about but, the more money you made killing people the less time you had to spend PvE'ing, who enjoys going out to farm gold just to afford the potions you need to RvR effectively)

The list can go on, much was removed or altered transitioning from 1.68-ish to 1.65-ish. People will bring up Uth 1.0's years of success and somehow relate that to the current health and direction of Uth 2.0, but the fact of the matter is Uth 1.0 was a completely different server and only bares a vague resemblance to what we play now and was a stable server UNTIL it began reverting to 1.65.

Honestly, I had more fun on Uth 1.0 for years prior to the 'down-patching phase' even with 1/3 the max population of Uth 2.0... 3 months in on Uth 2.0 and if not for my administrative obligations to my guild I probably would just fade away like many already have. I don't think 8v8 is killing the server.. it's simply the result of the content available to us via 1.65 and people realizing that anything less than an 8 man setup will result in a less than enjoyable experience.

The real meat and potatoes answer is: If you want PuG's, roll and play in Midgard. It's easy to understand why it's a simpler thing for Mids to get PUG's going; as long as a Mid group has a Shaman and a Healer or two, they can roll. They (PUGS) simply don't happen in Albion and I can speak from experience on that front, (no clue how it is in Hib but I bet every group waits on a great Bard to drive/form groups).

The only time you'll be grabbed in Albion in a PUG kind of situation is if you happen to be a class the 2-4 pre-set groups are in need of at that moment, (which usually translates into Minstrel, Cleric, Sorc, Cabalist or Theurgist). I'd lump Mercenary into that list but I feel like there's just enough hardcore MDPS players in Albion that is always on so groups aren't often looking for more of those.

It's easy to blame this sort of stuff on the players, but I blame it (mostly) on the patch level and class balance... and ESPECIALLY on no Nearsight cure + lack of Determination on all melee classes ...(and to a lesser extent 4 point Purge). Talk about making Hybrids worthless in any competitive RVR situation.

What DOES legit annoy/bother me is that the Developers here have it within their power to make a few slight changes that'd make a huge difference, both to class balance AND to xp gain (to encourage re-rolling not being such a hill to climb)... but their stubborn inflexible nature on the patch they've chosen will be this servers downfall, (at least to the casuals; the hardcore players will keep the lights on I guess).

I've quit playing and logging in and I know I'm not the only one.

RazorRamon wrote:Honestly, I had more fun on Uth 1.0 for years prior to the 'down-patching phase' even with 1/3 the max population of Uth 2.0... 3 months in on Uth 2.0 and if not for my administrative obligations to my guild I probably would just fade away like many already have. I don't think 8v8 is killing the server.. it's simply the result of the content available to us via 1.65 and people realizing that anything less than an 8 man setup will result in a less than enjoyable experience.

This.

Runental wrote:

RazorRamon wrote:Honestly, I had more fun on Uth 1.0 for years prior to the 'down-patching phase' even with 1/3 the max population of Uth 2.0... 3 months in on Uth 2.0 and if not for my administrative obligations to my guild I probably would just fade away like many already have. I don't think 8v8 is killing the server.. it's simply the result of the content available to us via 1.65 and people realizing that anything less than an 8 man setup will result in a less than enjoyable experience.

This.

Yes:/ I can play with old RAs, but OF map & keep design & waiting for porter + running 15mins is horrible. I can understand why NF came.

If there was a vote i would choose:

No ToA
New Frontiers
New RAs

But would that really change anything? Would more people actually play/stay? I don't think so..

Uthgard is a place i enjoy.
I wish they reach their set goals/personal goals for the sole reason that I really want the developers to feel they succeeded.
In my eyes they already did succeed big time. Good job!

Once that goal is reached perhaps they will start looking for new challenges?
If one of them was to renew the server by starting to patch it by them self, without a patch level target, that would be awesome!
If once reaching that goal some or all of them decides that they are done with the project, so be it.
I enjoy my time and would grateful either way, and sad if I still play when they finally pull the plug..

Sorry to hear that your leaving Looney and sad to hear that you were unable to find enough players willing to play with you to make it worthwhile.