Notice Anything?

[Synkara]

Well since nobody else seems to want to bring it up, I might just as well do it. The MIB/SoS nerfs, the gold nerfs, the changes to mobs that make them twice as hard and more time consuming, the changes to mob drop rates, the decrease of active players (not counting afk gaters, multiclients, and afk mules) that put the population down to about 55-60 players at best, and most importantly a good number of veterans selling off all of their stuff including houses within Luna walls...it seems like Pandora is getting the short end of the stick in order to cater to the new Descendants server. I may be wrong, but I don't see how any of these changes in Publish 37 & 38 are supposed to have any sort of positive effect to bring in more players. Save the changes to Fishing (not including the MIB nerf) it really seems like the changes are swaying more towards pushing players out. It's even gotten to the point now where new players are having to depend on constant handouts from established players in order to even have a chance to get their foot in the door..and with alot of our established players jumping ship and/or quitting altogether..it's getting harder and harder for us to afford keeping the new players around long enough to enjoy the feeling of standing on their own two feet. Even normally restocked vendors in Luna are either being neglected or completely shut down altogether.

Don't get me wrong. I'm in it for the long haul with Pandora and even if the population drops down to 10-20 players, I'll still be here running with SOUL...but I really don't want to see it get that bad before somebody does something about it. Voting and word of mouth can only go so far. I just hope all of these changes aren't being made to slowly replace Pandora with Descendants, cause as a player who has been on all those other T2a/UOR based servers with custom rules...they are fun at the start but eventually get weeded out and the players always run somewhere else. Pandora is the greatest server out there today and it should most definately stay that way.

[Jiggy]

      I seconded that i have felt the same way ever sense Descendants Started. A shame The reason i play here is it is PVM friendly and no Skill Cap if i wanted to have a skill cap i would log in to OSI. Descendants is pvp based and pvper's like to jump ship more often the the pvm players. I have lots of friends that do nothing but PVP they are always finding a new shard to play ever 3-6 months. hopefully Kon will see that and give Pandora the attention it needs.

[sejindarkwolf]

I love playing and like you am in it for the longhaul, but to be honest I am a bit afraid to post any criticism that may have some negative views as they sometimes seem to get erased as opposed to being listened to. But so far none of the changes have been fun whatsoever. It was hard enough to afford anything before the changes, now it seems near impossible. The rate of return vs the time you have put in is just not worth it. Why wear any good armor that you would like to insure its not worth it. I do not think they are trying push people away to the new shard, but just may be paying closer attention to it because it is new, thus not enough attention to the finer details of this shard and instead took a way to heavy handed approach when putting the publish out. Well like I said i'm in it for the longhaul and just wish all the best for our shard, so here is to the future and better things to come.

[zaxarus]

I've waited a while for such a thread, cause i myself was thinking about opening one, since it seems impossible to discuss anything as a player base cause we have no global chat anymore...

Ok to the last postings: ALL SIGNED.

Sometimes i also got the impression that Pandora became "the ugly sister" of Descendants. One year ago Pandora advertized itself as one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) freeshards of the world, and this was true, definately. Every patch made it better, gave some balance, new features and more fun for everybody.
Atm i cannot say that the last patches made anything "better" - just harder, just nerfed and in some parts impossible. If there is a Masterplan then i am not able to see it...
I won't say that it's the purpose to get players away from Pandora to Descendants in order to shut down Pandora (imagine the people who bought expensive stuff for a lot of money...), but i have the impression that the main attention has its focus on Descendants, while the Pandorians have to live with one nerf after another. Why?
Luna is practically a Ghosttown and there are only people to advertize since we don't have a tradechannel anymore. No one uses the channels here. And why should they, cause ingame trade was perfect.
I want to make clear this is no negativity, these are just the facts. One year ago 150 to almost 250 people played here, well now do [c and make this minus afk people, bots etc etc. If i wouldn't be in a guild i would be on my own, all alone, all the time.
And this is sad, cause i still love Pandora and i think it is still the best shard for people who are looking for freedom in terms of stats/skills etc. But the way it is going right now... i don't understand it.

So maybe we can keep this thread up as a constructive discussion, nothing more but nothing less.

Ty,

Tys

[Dwarvey]

For the record I will never delete a person's post for being negative. I will lock them if they turn into attacks, but I try not to delete anyone's post.

So as long as this thread stays focused on issues and not attacks it's fine. But let's try not to mention the other server's name. That's getting a little too close to Kon's advertising rule, and I have seen him edit it out in the past.

[zaxarus]

Uhm it's his server, too. ^^

he advertizes for it in this forum

[sejindarkwolf]

Just look at the very bottom of this page and the server is advertised there via the forum owner, so it would seem a tad silly to delete the mentioning of the sever.

[Dwarvey]

It's not up for debate.

As I said I have seen him edit posts for it.

[sejindarkwolf]

Getting back on topic of the publish. I'm hearing that any surplus of the items mentioned in the publish such as void orbs, is mainly coming from people who are botting for them. If this is the case, now that gold is reduced it makes it harder for people to purchase the item, and now that the items themselves are also reduced makes it harder for legitimate players to access the item.

[zaxarus]

Getting back on topic of the publish. I'm hearing that any surplus of the items mentioned in the publish such as void orbs, is mainly coming from people who are botting for them. If this is the case, now that gold is reduced it makes it harder for people to purchase the item, and now that the items themselves are also reduced makes it harder for legitimate players to access the item.

Signed.

It is hard to understand why u would reduce gold drop rate and at the same time the chances to get these imbue mats...
Prices will raise again up to insane ammounts but especially new players won't be able to purchase them - at the same time they are not able to get them by doing mini champs or monsters who might eventually drop a skin or a void orb. And it is a BIG "eventually" now.

And now that we are talking about change:
- Please remove the useless Fire Fields in Battles (only thing they do is trap you with NO chance of escape and you cannot avoid stepping into them!), so that you have a chance to fight.
- Please rework Level 7 maps.
- Please take a look at broken/buggy recipies and to the fact that some a player alrdy read and used are gone...
- And if public chat is such a big problem, why not do a tradechannel only with certain restrictions? Trade is  d e a d  on Pandora.

[King Kong]

1. The gold nerfs, etc last for a couple days to do a balance. The gold drop is already back to normal + a bit more, please know that we do things for the best interest of the shard & we simply do not have to explain everything to you. We needed to plummet it down for a couple days.


2. Descendants is not superior than Pandora in anyway. It's just a newer shard so it needs more attention. Pandora was updated once to twice a week for the first 2 years. After so long adding things doesn't mean it's actually better for the shard, already a well established community. -- Take it as a compliment with less "additional publishes & updates" -- Means we are doing the right thing & have been. Again I don't expect anyone who is not in my position to understand this.


3. Petty? Look at the entire world, all the features, all the items, all the stuff, and people can get hung up because something that used to be easy to get isn't as easy, but really it should have been 10x harder all along. I see a repetition among people "NOTICING THINGS" - It's simply things that they are too lazy to do. They want their life easier. I mean it's the hard truth. And the easier actually is only "easy" to people who once knew it as easy, not new players. -- I am all about input & change, no one can argue with me on that, but the change is always to the advantage of the player but not the population as a whole. Very petty. But again, I do not expect anyone to understand in my position. Not your fault. Maybe it's my fault of not explaining things better

4. We do what's best for the shard. Just because you do not see publishes doesn't mean Pandora is #1 in our book. It's nice to finely see it run awesome after years of work, on it's own. That is always the goal. But it's quite offensive when there is 3 small things you don't like in an entire world & you act like it's the end of Pandora. It's silly & it shows a lack of wisdom of what we really do. Not your fault of course, but I believe you should know what you're talking about before you point. All good though.

5. We have a Bug Tracker section. I look at it everyday. Nobody posts in it. If no one posts in it, well it will remain a "bug". But remember UO is the most complex game to date. That's why we still play it. It will never be "perfect".


6. Chat channels are abused over & over. We shut them down when they get abused. They actually happen to be up now. But then they will get abused & will be back off. Just how it goes. All shard owners who have a real player base tell me I am crazy & ask how we can keep them on. Each time we have to shut them down a bit, the time between each time you can chat goes up.


7. Bottom line, you won't find a better shard than here. And you know it. Hey our MIBs in fishing might act funny, but most shards die after a couple months & you lose everything. We are 3 years of solid state, remember that.



<3 love you all.