Hello all guys of the community, are about 2 months i'm playing here i like this shard so much, there arent so many ultima online shards active and with such a large number of players.

In all the time i played here i've talked with lot of guys and made new friends, so i decided to open a topic to report what we like and what we dont like, i'll write this in first person c0z i decided to use my own account without involving anyone. This is not only my personal idea but an idea of a good number of players i talked with.

Before you guys start to flame or lick saying like "u're idiot gms are the best" i'm going to say in advance that this is not a raging topic, instead i'd like if this will help gms to develop new updates and improve our game systematics .

What i like of uoevolution is.....

-GM's always present and available- Yes i played on lot of shards, i've like 10yrs of uo experience so i think i can be called "veteran", and i want to say that this is the 1st shard were i can see gm's so present and helpful with players, 90% of pages are resolved faster, so thumbs up for our gms

-Custom pet,monsters....- I like so much those customs things, great new pet/skins, monsters, this is one of the reasons of why i choose to remain here, so again thumbs up for custom things and we want more!

-Quests- I dont like doing quests so much but i must have to say that i really appreciate so much the daily work of scripters to code new quests giving us always something fun to do

-Community- Like i sayd before, playing here i've encountered lot of ppl sometimes good and sometimes bad, but mostly of them were very good ppl to play with, or just to talk with so thank you to all of them ^^

What i dont like of uoevolution is....

-Sloooooooooow- Yeah i noticed faster that all things i can do are very slow.... slow spawn.... slow quests (like equip quests)... i'm having big difficulties to gear up/complete quests c0z community is big, and joining of new players make this much bigger, instead spawns are small... very small... and slow... to much slow (1 mob every 24hr really?) so i think its very unbalanced (i can add that quest item drop its like 20% so this make things impossible)

We do try to make a balanced drop rate based on how many players we have online daily.  I will look at making adjustments since we did double our population again this year

-Powerscrolls- 120ps Drop rate its too low (like 5-10%) i have like 10 skulls of any champ and got only 10-15 120 but... but powerscroll prices are more bad.... 1-2m for one 120 really? and the only ones have good market are taming-sword-parry ones (except the trade skills ones). I know that this is c0z most of players are veteran and fully 120s, but wouldnt be great improve a powerscroll exchange system different from the trinsic one to revive the market?

Powerscrolls are easily obtained once you learn to beat a champ spawn, as a young player you can easily buy from the veterans.  This is part of a balanced economy

-Random artifacts- Random artifacts are too much useless s**t, only ones can have an use are mirror,antiquity or p.hats, i've tons of them and dont know what to do with, they're like dust... you know there is but the only thing you can do is clear that. Again in this case wouldnt be great develop an artifact exchange system by obtaining points by trashing them, or just code new useful artifacts?  Young players do find the lesser artifacts useful in the beginning.  We do have a few quests and the new contract system that will use a lot of the old artifacts as ingredients and as items to collect for a better reward

-Wiki- 1 more reason i'm having difficulties with gameplay is that i have to ask veteran players about any mechanic cause wiki its old and not updated. Would be better if there were detailed guides about quests, rewards, monsters, maybe some maps images like uo guide or stratics....  arent wiki's made to help? actually isnt helpful  You are welcome to help update and write the correct info on the wiki.  We do update it daily and was written to help players.  FYI no other shard has such a large custom wiki.  Remember this shard is run by a few people and we do work hard daily to create new content each week, we do try our best, but it is a ton of work!

-$$$$$$$$- Money money money.... who wants them?? Well as all of you told me, game became too much money based... i'm 2 months old so i didnt know how situation was before, but all of players sayd that was more playable different from now.

This shard is not pay to play!  We are the ONLY free shard that allows you to find evolution dollars in game as a reward!  You can also obtain every item in the game with hard work over time!  FYI it is very expensive and time consumong to run a shard this large, 24 hours a day for 6 years!
Well i know that funds$ are fundamentals for private servers like this, and i know that who pays must have advantages, and i know that lowering spawn frequency, or drop rates, or quest item drop rate, increase chance that players will pay to gear up faster.... Soo... i really cant say much about this, cause server is not mine and costs are not mine... only thing i can suggest is maybe to better balance the situation, maybe giving donors the opportunity to have 1 more socket slot on they armor or things like this and removing some of the unique buyable pro items only.

Well at the end i'm sorry if my english was bad, i'm learning to improve it... i hope u dont get bored by reading me, and i say thanks to whom have understand this topic ^^

FYI all items are obtainable in game through game play, auctions, trading, monster drops and quests.  Donations are just a way to get faster and helps pay for the shard expenses:)

Thank you for taking the time to give us your opinion, i hope the responses cleared up all your questions

I can only say wow. I was thinking of opening a very similar thread. i have just 75 days over here, and i can see 2 principals problems:
 
 1.- afk campers
 2.- slooooooows spawn timers from some principals mobs, that made me stuck on my progress, after the astro daemon, and only can farm and farm again to gain some gold an buy this items that i can not get myself
 


adding 3 examples:
first one antipaladin for the vecna quest, more than 2 weeks looking for it, today i finnally could kill him and he dont drop nothing!!


royal fayri, at the same time that the antipaladin, but today i can see one that other player was killing


the mirror shield only see at vendors.


and well i dont wanna talk about the travesty mark i was killing this mob over 20 times and no mark dropped
 
 
 i can say too that this is the best server that i have play in more than 12 years of uo, but this problems are really really importants, and m  ake the server worse than it really is
 
 
 P.d: sorry my bad english

the response from staff in your post is the perfect way to see that they don't understand how we feel about wiki.
We do understand and do try to update it daily, BUT it is an overwhelming task!  Most shards don't even have a WIKI.  This wiki has thousands of hours into it, so if you would like to contribute, send me the corrected info and I will add it asap!

-Sloooooooooow- Yeah i noticed faster that all things i can do are very slow.... slow spawn.... slow quests (like equip quests)... i'm having big difficulties to gear up/complete quests c0z community is big, and joining of new players make this much bigger, instead spawns are small... very small... and slow... to much slow (1 mob every 24hr really?) so i think its very unbalanced (i can add that quest item drop its like 20% so this make things impossible)

We do try to make a balanced drop rate based on how many players we have online daily.  I will look at making adjustments since we did double our population again this year

Let me say this to get this clear: I did NOT encourage this post, period.

Again Sage, I have addressed all of your points privately and tried to resolve all of your issues. Jumping on the bandwagon, in public, does not make your points any more valid or correct

I have been begging & pleading for you to hear me, but you thought I was being self-absorbed, which is ridiculous, when was the last time I was "out to get me the phatness of thunder"?

No Idea what this means?

I listen to the populous, I play with different builds to "keep in touch" & I LISTEN to them.


You are listening to a few of the players that "yell" the loudest.  It's hard to listen to complaints, without giving a reasonable solution.  We do listen!  Many of those players also want staff to make the shard easy, or they want items to be readily available, so there is no "rare" items.  That is not how I want this shard to operate

Many players are unaware at all the staff decisions that are made on a daily basis to keep the shard fair and balanced for every level of player, from new to vets.  I assure you we will listen to any requests from the playerbase, BUT we may not implement them into the game if it is not in the best interest of the shard!

I do have a confession Evo: The reason the 300 luck deeds are no longer on the $75 tier is because of me.  A year ago, a player was selling ALOT for 200 ED(instead of 400 ED), which made me concerned of a dupe/exploit, so I reported it to Dante. I meant to have it investigated. There was no dupe or exploit! Instead, he pulled it from the $75 Tier & it has gone thru the roof in value. I have tried to get it returned to the $75 tier & to kill this false manipulation of the economy, but my words fell on deaf ears.  Sage, we did NOT pull these or change the value because of you.  The auction dictated the value and players were willing to bid 800-1000 ED for one special 300 luck deed.  The value did not fit the $75 reward tier anymore and was moved up to the $100 tier, simple as that, no conspiracy

How does an item which was being sold for 200 ED by a player, you just said had them legitimately, end up being 800-1k ED? Heres how: You removed the deeds from its place in the tier system, then over 6 months later(more like 8 months, possibly a year),you started selling it at auction to see what it was, then you got a new valuation which IS NOT 800-1k ED(it was 750 @ Evo Auction  Aug/21/2016). Its because you manipulated the market. I have never point blank said anything I say to your privately, publicly, out of respect, but your actions do 'seem greedy', which was my wording in my pms with you too.

I do resent your term ‘conspiracy’, that implies I am a crackpot, which is how other staff have treated me, when I come to you to tell you what is going around you with the player base. Its insulting. But Ill ignore the childishness of the term & continue to go the high road.


My post will probably be deleted, I have been censored in the past. I do care, so I am trying, maybe one of you will read this before its gone, maybe, finally, someone will hear this plea & actually help. I thank those of you who have trusted me with your words, you are not alone.

A plea for what?  Sage, I will not censor you but I will correct your post, when the content is false. 
You keep asking me to give you special treatment for donations, which I have said no!  Then you called me "greedy", yet I would not take your donation money, correct?  Doesn't that demonstrate that I have the best interest of the shard? You get mad at staff every week for denying your requests for items not on the donation list.  You keep writing this negative narrative about staff and the shard, when in reality we are trying to keep the shard economy balanced and fair for all...


I will refrain from getting into a slogfest with you concerning staff issues, tho you did temp me pretty hard there.  If anyone doubts the respectful nature I have towards the staff publically, look at who praised the staff individually & in concert in the “Compliments to Staff and Shard”.  Only 1 time, did I totally loose it publically (& that was in [c, btw), but that was after overlooking it for months & then privately pleading for it to stop.
My concerns are very real, because I listen to the players.  Many have complained that the spawn timers have been slowed, I even went & have been checking, important quest mobs/item drops do seem much slower when the staff isn’t online actively. Also, premium items needed for important quests, turnins, etc have been reduced drastically in spawn time/drop rates.

I point to the Captured Essences as an example. They use to drop off more than one zone’s peerless. I was always pleased to get it off of dreadhorn, the other dreadhorne, the witch in blighted, Bruce lee, Jackalope, etc, but it was either removed from all but one zone, or the droprate was been reduced to almost nonexistant. I did attempt 2 times, one for 3 hours, one for almost ½ a day, from the Prism, but trying to get all the needed components was imposible.  Reason I bother: To make Brit Dragon Cloaks, they are an awesome alternative option for the cloak, but at this rate of flow onto the server, your forced to settle, or donate & get a fully complete one, how does this help player market?

Now the main purpose of this post: The population is increasing, but the drop rates, spawn timers are being made even more difficlut? If 2 years ago, life was easier, & now its much harder, where is the sense in this line of thinking? How is that balance?

There is a huge disconnect between new players & vets in gear & playability. NEW is a wonderful service for the newcomers, but have you noticed, where are all the people after NEW? Yes, I know UO is a game of longevity, & I have chuckled too when a 1 week old thinks he should be able to kill Spirilx, but they should be able to do even these Xmas Quests without farming for 8+hours a day to play. Donations are nice, but I have always said players shouldn’t feel pressured into donating, but that doesn’t mean, make it so hard they leave because they cant play.

My tone is polite, informational & professional in my head, I do hope it came out as I wished it to be.




I do Love you Evolites, I want you happy.

Sage

Jackseghets and pkrion, both of you did very well in explaining your thoughts in English, your effort is welcomed and well worded, keep up the great work of learning (I wish I had your command of 2nd languages!)!

Jackseghets, I agree with your insight, the spawn rate IS slow, especially with the larger community we now have, additionally spawn seems to be unbalanced between Fel and Tram.  In many cases the spawn rate of "trash mobs" in Tram is MUCH higher than those in Fel.  I hunt Fel, I live in Fel, and I feel Fel has been neglected.  As for quest mobs, a greater variation of the spawn timer would be nice, but we see time and time again these mobs (Magi Dragon, Sprillix, Fairy Sword ect.) being farmed by one player, who was lucky enough to find the mob up once, and able to know when it will spawn again.  Drop rate of quest items also is quite low, I understand the principal behind this, but when developed and spawned, our community was a fraction of the size.

Powerscrolls:  Dante had stated that power scrolls are easy to obtain, this is true, but the point Jacks was making is that 120 Powerscrolls are not as easily obtainable.  My account to date is approx 900 days old, I have well over 300 Powerscrolls in my key currently, and have obtained THOUSANDS.  I STILL do not have all the 120's I would like.  On top of that, the gold obtained from Champ Spawns has deteriorated to the point be being a chore and a bore to complete.  I only do spawns now to collect T-Maps, because the odds of me getting a 120 Stealing, Alchemy or Stealth are incredibly low (actively buying these 120's btw).

Wiki:  The wiki is a long running joke.  I would be happy to assist in updating the wiki if I were able to make edits.  Yes, the wiki is extensive, but it is also full of outdated information.  The sheer content of the wiki makes it difficult to navigate, removing outdated information is just as start.  Example: "How do I spend my pvp points, or see my accumulated credits?"  "you can't"  "Oh, I read the commands on the wiki."  "LoL".

ED:  I have no problems with the current ED situation.  The economy is fairly stable now, thank the gods, and we NEED donations, to keep the shard free, exciting, fresh, and as amazing as it is.  That said, balance was thrown out the window.  I am referring specifically to the "Parry Damage Deed", this is the definition of "Pay to Win", this one item, that is impossible to obtain in game, has turned PvP (I know pvp is not a priority, but it is the END GAME of UO) into a mess.

Here is a point that I would like to add to the "complaints" department. 

Housing:  Players who have left the shard YEARS ago still maintain housing, I understand...you want to keep as many players happy as possible.  But what about the NEW players coming in?  Why NOT institute an automatic IDOC system?  You've not logged in for 6 months, bye bye house.  Don't purge the account, just purge the house.


Now that the negative is out of the way, I would like to agree with the positive points that both new players have expressed, and add to them (from the mouth's of babes, these guys see the shard with a fresh perspective, and their input should be commended).

The community is incredible, and I don't mean just the players.  Staff has been fantastic, and on a whole, the shard is much stronger and enjoyable now than it was when I began prior to the Great Revert.  Changes are always being made, some I do not agree with, and some that are incredible, some that leave me scratching my head wondering..."WTH were they thinking", and some that have me addicted to new quests.

There is always new content, this is both a blessing and a curse, but it IS new.  I would really rather see old projects completed (ring of Iuz anyone?) than new projects taken on, but the fact remains, new content is always coming, sometimes at overwhelming breakneck speeds.

The guild NEW needs more recognition, NEW IS our server, without the support NEW provides, many players would turn their back on the shard, as the custom content is so extensive.  I've seen vets come and go, but I have met many more great players who can bring a lot to the shard come from NEW.  Keep up the great work NEW, maybe when advertising, we can mention NEW to help players get their start on our Evo Home.

Staff Events! (and staff in general)  Thank you so much staff, for your hard work in preparing new events, that offer fun and unique rewards!  Domino, your quests are incredible, and trivia is always a blast.  Jagger, Hunger Games is by far my favorite event, and thank you for hosting again, not to mention having an understanding of what many young and old players look for in a pvp event, and thank you Kane for introducing the concept and the development!  Expo, keep pushing the boundaries!  This goes for you too Jagger, Expo events are always something to look forward to, I can expect to die, laugh, and be excited for any event with the "Expo" tag.  Kane, keep doing what you are doing, most of us have no idea the immense amount of work that you put into this shard, but we appreciate it, the way the shard runs now, compared to several years ago is night and day.  Thank you.  Dante and Zoe, I think you guys know how I feel about you, I make it a point to thank you both for giving us this shard every time I see you, and this time is no exception.  Thank you.


Sturger has mentioned in the past that a "Player Council" would be a great way to keep staff up to date on bugs, player thoughts, exploits, community and economy.  I couldn't agree more.  Keeping in touch with the players, both new and old, is something we could ALL benefit from, and is an excellent suggestion.  It would prevent me from posting a bi-annual rant like this. 

If you've made it this far, thank you for listening.

TL;DR-  Listen to the new players, they have a fresh perspective.

Jackseghets, I agree with your insight, the spawn rate IS slow, especially with the larger community we now have, additionally spawn seems to be unbalanced between Fel and Tram.  In many cases the spawn rate of "trash mobs" in Tram is MUCH higher than those in Fel.  I hunt Fel, I live in Fel, and I feel Fel has been neglected.  As for quest mobs, a greater variation of the spawn timer would be nice, but we see time and time again these mobs (Magi Dragon, Sprillix, Fairy Sword ect.) being farmed by one player, who was lucky enough to find the mob up once, and able to know when it will spawn again.  Drop rate of quest items also is quite low, I understand the principal behind this, but when developed and spawned, our community was a fraction of the size.

Powerscrolls:  Dante had stated that power scrolls are easy to obtain, this is true, but the point Jacks was making is that 120 Powerscrolls are not as easily obtainable.  My account to date is approx 900 days old, I have well over 300 Powerscrolls in my key currently, and have obtained THOUSANDS.  I STILL do not have all the 120's I would like.  On top of that, the gold obtained from Champ Spawns has deteriorated to the point be being a chore and a bore to complete.  I only do spawns now to collect T-Maps, because the odds of me getting a 120 Stealing, Alchemy or Stealth are incredibly low (actively buying these 120's btw).

Wiki:  The wiki is a long running joke.  I would be happy to assist in updating the wiki if I were able to make edits.  Yes, the wiki is extensive, but it is also full of outdated information.  The sheer content of the wiki makes it difficult to navigate, removing outdated information is just as start.  Example: "How do I spend my pvp points, or see my accumulated credits?"  "you can't"  "Oh, I read the commands on the wiki."  "LoL".

First let me say this regarding spawn times.. When we first put something in play we have an idea of what we have mind for results and we never get it right.  This is why we tend to watch something a few days before making our first change.. then a few more days sometimes a week until what we had in mind is achieved.  I make no secret some things are easy and some things are difficult or take time to complete.  Now as the shard grows we do need to look at different things from time to time as they are brought to my attention.  Lets take the mirror shield and fairy sword for examples since you brought them up.  There is 1 mob for each of these quest items on the shard, then there are 2 more of the mobs that roam Fel (1 in lost lands and 1 in the normal facet) that have a chance of dropping the sword, the shield or nothing.  I check it about once a week to see how long each has been up, how many times killed that week and such.  This of course isn't perfect nor works for all spawners, a lot of times players simply get a hold of me in TS and say "Hey Kane, can you look at this spawner and see if getting more is possible?"  I have no problem looking into something that may need to be adjusted because our player base has grown. 

Emperor_Norton:  I agree there are tons of things I want to get back to and as time permits or we get to certain updates where I know I will be doing that kind of work it will happen.  In my eyes I am finally getting to the point where I can start to expand and support the ideas I have already started.  I am glad I do not rush things though because I have entire sheets of paper with designs for things I want to code and how I want to finish off certain things I have started.  I only have 24 hours in a day though, my wife just had a grand baby and this is the Holiday Season.. All my extra stuff is on hold until all of this settles.  On a good note, we are working on getting another developer to help with scripting because there is just only so much 1 person can do.. Period.

I do not speak for Dante but.. I am all for a Player Council.  One of the things I am enjoying about talking to Sturger recently is helping me get a better perspective on what is going on, what players feel is important and the direction we need to start looking into. 

Now lets talk about the 300 Luck Deeds.  They have never been on a stone..Not when I played and Not when I have been staff.  I know this because I have said no and if I start to see them hit to frequently be it on the Auction or Donation.. I state "They need to come off".  What no one on this thread has brought up is the "Player Economy".  I treat this very seriously, this may be a game for most but I spent 10 hours a day making sure that the next day is good.  Most of our staff puts in hours every day that also have this same focus.  Let this Economy go to crap and this shard will be done, let me assure you if you have ever been on a shard where the Economy collapses you will understand why I am the way I am and make the decisions I do.. Back to the topic.. it started when I overheard in TS someone purchased a group of 100 luck deeds and put a order in for another group of 100 luck deeds.  So started asking and found this had happened a few times, the color of these deeds were of a specific hue so we were able to narrow down both time and source.  We did have the help of a certain player to help figure out exactly how this was being done and the code was patched.  As with all cheaters, they are gone.

Having said all that... If you players want to set up a Player Council .. I will show up to any meeting that is during my normal time of being around.  Lets face it, I am old and need my sleep.  I do think if you do that right we can start to get a list of things that could help make Evolution even better.  I am all for that.

If you really have something to talk about or think needs fixed, I am on TS everyday coding.

Thanks for the feedback Kane, congrats on the new addition to the family, and keep up the good work!  Anything that would take some of the weight off your back is probably a blessing, let US know how WE can help!

Thanks Kane, have heard all i was looking for.

On a good note, we are working on getting another developer to help with scripting because there is just only so much 1 person can do.. Period.

I do not speak for Dante but.. I am all for a Player Council.  One of the things I am enjoying about talking to Sturger recently is helping me get a better perspective on what is going on, what players feel is important and the direction we need to start looking into. [...]
Having said all that... If you players want to set up a Player Council .. I will show up to any meeting that is during my normal time of being around.  Lets face it, I am old and need my sleep.  I do think if you do that right we can start to get a list of things that could help make Evolution even better.  I am all for that.

I didn't re-read all this but figured I would add this since it was brought up...

I did look at the fairy spawner this morning and yeah it was screwed up, probably been this way since day 1 by the looks of it.  Anyways, it has been fixed and should now work as I want it to.  This is why I can't stress enough bringing things to staff attention, we know the world isn't perfect and with an ever changing player base it needs to change but if you don't say something sometimes we don't know.  We are one of the only shards that has a rule against Staff Players.  It isn't a perfect rule because we do miss things and depend on player feedback but we also do not have the cheating and corruption either. 

Hello all this is my first post on the forums and I don't want to come out of the gate with negative. I played a different private shard for years until it mostly died. So I went looking and found this shard and its GREAT. Active friendly staff, big nice community, plenty to do, plenty to enjoy.

My only negative was already brought up by Emporer_Norton.

"Housing:  Players who have left the shard YEARS ago still maintain housing, I understand...you want to keep as many players happy as possible.  But what about the NEW players coming in?  Why NOT institute an automatic IDOC system?  You've not logged in for 6 months, bye bye house.  Don't purge the account, just purge the house."

I agree. I cant find ANYWHERE to make a house really. I am sure there are some random obscure spots way out in the boonies that are available but there are so many abandoned plots laying around that could be deleted for the newer and active players.

Again I hate coming out with my first post with negatives in it but as it could cause problems with new player retention I wanted to throw in my 2 cent on it.


Yes we do a House Drop event every 6 months to clear new space!  The next one is coming up in January for the 6 year anniversary

No worries Spoony.

  The forums are for player opinions. You did nothing wrong, by expressing yourself. It is pretty much what the forums are for, you know, the sharing of opinions.


  Hope to see you post more on the forums.


  --Sturger--

Exactly. The forums are a place for ideas to be put to text and then we can all have come together and discuss the pros and cons. I want more of this. Keep it up =)

I didn't re-read all this but figured I would add this since it was brought up...

I did look at the fairy spawner this morning and yeah it was screwed up, probably been this way since day 1 by the looks of it.  Anyways, it has been fixed and should now work as I want it to.  This is why I can't stress enough bringing things to staff attention, we know the world isn't perfect and with an ever changing player base it needs to change but if you don't say something sometimes we don't know.  We are one of the only shards that has a rule against Staff Players.  It isn't a perfect rule because we do miss things and depend on player feedback but we also do not have the cheating and corruption either.

@Corben22  In the past, when house drops have been done, Staff hand selects houses, and demolishes them.  They do this by Facet, and there is no outside indication as to what house will come down, no "IDOC".  Typically they are announced ahead of time, and normally following a large event.