What would improve a new player's experience here on UO Evolution?


We have a nice NEW player guild, new player guide and a great wiki already.  I am looking for suggestions to help retain new players and get them involved with the community


Any ideas?

Being fairly new myself I have found the atmosphere very accommodating, I think staff and players are going out of their way to help educate us noobs and help in any way they can.

The only negative thing I have experienced since being here was the frustration of trying to create a forum account. I tried to do it for several days with no success before finally asking in game and finding out you have to page and have a GM create one for you.

The info is posted, but buried on the wiki.  The spam is so bad, we have to make the forum accts for the players by request.

I never saw this information on any of the "new player" type pages. So my recommendation would be to post it on the how to log in portion or anywhere else new players may be checking. If the information is already placed somewhere then I think it should be made more obvious in some way because it is getting missed. I have seen new players ask the same question since being here. Not anything new to experience like you were asking for but I think it would be helpful. 


Here is the wiki info:

Sign up on the Forum this is how we announce events, rule changes and shard info. If you have trouble registering, contact a gm in game to make you an acct (if you are unable to make a forum acct, contact a gm in-game)

http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide#Getting_Started

Well, as a new player, aside from the wiki, its hard to try to figure out what to DO. First, I think maybe new players should start out at or near the training elemental room. They should also immediately be aware of the newbie dungeon.

But as it stands, there is a lot of custom stuff on this shard that is just... poorly explained.

If you cite examples on the wiki that are poorly explained, Ill fix asap

Ive been here, ehhhh, almost a month maybe, and I still have no idea what I am doing or what I am supposed to be doing to get better, and to make money.

Did the new player guide on the wiki not help?   
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide


The forums?
http://www.upevolution.com/forum

FAQ?
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ

We also have a list to follow for new players, including joining the NEW Player guild
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide#Once_You_Log_In

New Player Guild
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide#NEW_Player_Guild

They economy seems crazy out of whack so when people see stuff on vendors for 200k-millions, they balk. I'll be honest, that made me want to quit outright. I have NO idea how to make that kind of money.

The economy is inflated atm, gold has been easy to get for the last year and players were refunded a lot of ED from a revert (1ed=100k gold) so there has been an unbalance we are aware of and working on daily.  It is leveling out again now that the older players have spent their refunded EDs.  Once you get geared up, gold is much easier to obtain

Luckily there are very nice people on this shard who gave me a lot of things. Thats the only thing that has kept me going. But as I have said, I still am quite squishy, and I have no idea how to proceed. Standard dungeons give little challenge, but also very little reward. I'm not entirely sure what else to do though, and it can be difficult digging through the wiki trying to find out some of this information.

Quests are a great way to start getting the custom artys, crafting gets you a levelable weapon, pet breeding gets you power, bods give nice rewards, work on champs with the other players.

I think finding a way to get the new player hooked into the content is the BEST way. So initial suggestions, Players start out near training dummies, a stone linking to the wiki that says Welcome to the shard, here is how you get started.


Did you use the new player castle?  Did you not find it useful?


Point out things that are essential, and then point out things that are 'next step' beyond training eles and beyond basic dungeons.

Yes I can add the website stones with info and more direction, ty

One other suggestion I'd like to make is, if we ever get an RP community actually going, I think new players should be notified from the get go that there is active RP aside from the normal bump and grind of daily UO life.

Yes I have tried to get several groups to start RP, but there has been no real leadership and most quit before it gets started

     I'll attest to the economy being out of sorts. We reverted to a time period where alot of long term players had a ton of money or knew ways where it was easy to make a ton of money fast. Kane has been doing a great job on fixing all this, but as he can only move so fast, it still left people a window. During the last 2 months I have seen some heavy price fluctuation in regards to the changes being made. I'm afraid it will take time to sort out. I will say that currently some items are over priced and some are under priced due to demand vs availability. The monthly quest system that Kane added has been a great source of mid tier gear. I would focus there first.

     Regardless of what people say or believe, you don't need god tier items to be relevant here. Especially on the pvm side. Alot of people with godly items stack stats that do them no good anyway. There are hard caps on stats (except for some, like sdi in pvm) but for instance, there are caps in damage increase, swing speed, regen rates, hci and dci (most people look to 75% or higher but you don't need higher than 45% in pvm since monsters don't have hit lower defense or hit lower attack). So when you see a player rocking 200% damage increase, thats not impressive, its just wasteful. I know the appearance of things seems overwhelming at times, but its truly not hard to get settled in.

Well, as a new player, aside from the wiki, its hard to try to figure out what to DO. First, I think maybe new players should start out at or near the training elemental room. They should also immediately be aware of the newbie dungeon.

But as it stands, there is a lot of custom stuff on this shard that is just... poorly explained.

If you cite examples on the wiki that are poorly explained, Ill fix asap

Ive been here, ehhhh, almost a month maybe, and I still have no idea what I am doing or what I am supposed to be doing to get better, and to make money.

Did the new player guide on the wiki not help?   
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide


The forums?
http://www.upevolution.com/forum

FAQ?
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ

We also have a list to follow for new players, including joining the NEW Player guild
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide#Once_You_Log_In

New Player Guild
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide#NEW_Player_Guild

They economy seems crazy out of whack so when people see stuff on vendors for 200k-millions, they balk. I'll be honest, that made me want to quit outright. I have NO idea how to make that kind of money.

The economy is inflated atm, gold has been easy to get for the last year and players were refunded a lot of ED from a revert (1ed=100k gold) so there has been an unbalance we are aware of and working on daily.  It is leveling out again now that the older players have spent their refunded EDs.  Once you get geared up, gold is much easier to obtain

Luckily there are very nice people on this shard who gave me a lot of things. Thats the only thing that has kept me going. But as I have said, I still am quite squishy, and I have no idea how to proceed. Standard dungeons give little challenge, but also very little reward. I'm not entirely sure what else to do though, and it can be difficult digging through the wiki trying to find out some of this information.

Quests are a great way to start getting the custom artys, crafting gets you a levelable weapon, pet breeding gets you power, bods give nice rewards, work on champs with the other players.

I think finding a way to get the new player hooked into the content is the BEST way. So initial suggestions, Players start out near training dummies, a stone linking to the wiki that says Welcome to the shard, here is how you get started.


Did you use the new player castle?  Did you not find it useful?

Point out things that are essential, and then point out things that are 'next step' beyond training eles and beyond basic dungeons.

Yes I can add the website stones with info and more direction, ty

One other suggestion I'd like to make is, if we ever get an RP community actually going, I think new players should be notified from the get go that there is active RP aside from the normal bump and grind of daily UO life.

Yes I have tried to get several groups to start RP, but there has been no real leadership and most quit before it gets started

I just wanna butt in a point about the 75% on hci dci cap issue, its not useless when you are using protection since the spell has a 20% decrease on hdi. Not sure why people go for the 75% dci tho. Im done, ty

The biggest issue that new players face is trying to acquire the gear to become powerful enough to actually face the content that is worth killing / doing (or provides a reward that is in-line with the inflated economy). This more 'difficult' content that is 'worth' doing is by far the most effective route to earning enough gold / resources to purchase the gear that is needed.


It's a catch 22.


They need the gear (champ axe's, gear to hit necessary caps, start-up ED, etc etc) to become capable to farm gold/gear/resources. But the only route to farming the gold and valuables to get this gear is difficult enough or end-game enough that it requires this gear to stand a chance at being profitable and enjoying it. Sure, every vet has their own way of farming money quick and easy that seems to work decent until you can champ and face this endgame content - but new players don't know about that and shouldn't have to rely on that. And sure, experienced players can throw together a decent suit for fairly inexpensive to actually face the low end of this harder rewarding content but that takes hours and hours of experience and UOE knowledge that new players wont and don't have - and that's discouraging and causes people to give up and search somewhere else to invest their free time.


So the problem lies in the economy: This 'harder' content is rewarding enough to be able to yield enough profits (millions of gold - champing, large snakes, etc) to eventually work for your expensive needed gear. But (the vast majority) of new players can't even come close to affording these items that cost millions because #1) they don't know about the 'harder' 'rewarding' content' and/or #2) they can't face it without getting their butt's kicked. This is why new players get frustrated with the Champ events because they aren't prepared and don't know why because they are caught in this catch 22. Then when they try to purchase this expensive gear, it seems outrageously priced because the only thing they can kill effectively is oldschool UO stuff. They farm dragons in Destard, or dungeons, or newbie dungeon, or they try to mine/craft for profits with 120 mining/crafting, or something else. All this is fine and well but it will take a ridiculous and unrealistic amount of time to actually acquire enough gold/commodities to purchase ED and gear. This endgame content yields DRASTICALLY more valuable rewards and gold than the normal UO experience: dungeon farming/newbie dungeon.


Example: New players run around farming the newbie dungeon/dragons/regular dungeons/easy to learn & do quests. They struggle to achieve 100k with a large time investment at this rate. (That is 1 ED.) It just doesn't work. Now they are upset because they invested a large amount of their night or day off to earn a couple 100k and can't even come close to affording the cheaper end of expensive and necessary gear (like magi stuff is usually a couple mil+ for the good ones.)


So the new player world and the veteran world are two separate places. The persistent new players that stick with it figure out the server more and more each day and each death and finally get enough gear, or enough help, or donate enough to actually make it to the veteran world. (And even if there was a perfect wiki - most people want to play the game. They don't want a freeserver that requires them to read the wiki for hours to finally learn a server they are brand new to.)


This could be just a by product of the complex server that UO Evolution is. In that case - it's the nature of the beast. And there is no doubt that is a significant element of the new player dilemma.


There are ways to combat this and try to equal the new player and veteran world:


Deflating the economy. (Auctions wont serve here).

Every avenue that grants a lot Gold (the primary in-game acquirable currency) for the veteran world can be reduced. This includes champs, big snakes, treasure guardians, etc etc etc. Doing this would decrease the cost of these 'expensive' 'needed' gear pieces that a new player requires, and they can more effectively farm dungeons and normal UO content to eventually get suited enough to face the harder more rewarding stuff.
This is very difficult to do and will no doubt piss off many vets.

The opposite way of going about deflating the economy would be to make what the new players are doing more profitable. So the dungeon farming etc. Maybe add a daily quest for decent gold or something of value.

Both of these routes are risky and can be exploited. (Maybe the new route to getting decent money for new players is super easy if done a certain way and whoever figures it out is filthy rich in no time at all.)


Now I am not suggesting that either of these possible methods of deflating or inflating the economy be implemented (because of the risk and angry players) they are just ideas to combat the discrepancy between New and Veteran players. There are definitely other idea's and maybe someone else can come up with something that will smooth the seemingly impossible transition that new players face when trying to become strong enough to face content that is worth the effort.

Would it be possible to get a public area where new players could target items for the loot bag [grab –t command.  You can’t target items locked down in houses.  And just sending a player to the museum or socket display room is not the best.  I would gladly contribute items to a display area that are reasonable for a new player to add to their grab command.  This would be a huge time saver for new players and allow them to start looting what they need quicker.

Make a list of items you want on display and send to me or post...players can easily make this set up in game themselves? or at the new player guild?

I dont understand why everyone is saying that making gold is hard for a new player, i check vendors everyday and everyday all i see on vendors is crap, useless junk that people overcharge for. Meanwhile no one is selling leveled bred pets. No one is selling pet ointments, yet those are easy to craft. No one is mining and selling the ore, lumber, hide etc, do i need to mention organic material? I buy for at least 10 millions worth a week. What about filling taming bods, anyone seen a pet scroll for sale lately?


Making gold on this shard isn't hard for a new player, im not saying that they wont have to work for it, but its not reserved to those who champ and farm high end items. Seems to me that Evo as become a lazy man's shard. <If i cant make gold standing still its not worth it> Who here remembers earning their first million on OSI? Boy did you ever work for it, and how long did it take you? How did you make it?


This may sound harsh, but if you want gold to fall on your lap better off playing farmville! UO is a vast immersive world made for everyone to enjoy in his own way, taming, farming, crafting and what ever makes you happy and what ever make you happy can bring in a steady income and give you the opportunity to buy what ever your heart desires. All you have to do is stop and THINK! What do people need, what is missing on vendors and so on.


So all this discussion about gold is pointless, it all can be resolved by taking the time to THINK and put the time and work in to achieve your goals.


Thank you for the encouraging post.  I just want to remind everyone that this game is not meant to be a sprint, it was designed to be an enjoyable marathon.  Slow down and enjoy the journey of Ultima Online!  There are many paths to take, try them all...

Thorgal makes a good point. Maybe the issue is getting the knowledge of how and where to farm these materials and resources effectively out to the new players is the answer.

Bah, The forums ate my response. ;-;

As I was going to say. New players dont know what are hot ticket items are. They don't know what they go for. I've tried to price check stuff many times in chat and I dont get any kind of response. I've also tried to figure our ointment crafting, but im pretty sure the wiki was incomplete and I couldn't figure it out. I've asked and not really gotten a response. I've also thought of deco drafting, because according to some people there isn't anyone who sells crafted deco. But I dunno what its worth. and i dont wanna undercut myself, so I just sit on it.

Can I just say that as a new player here the one thing that is quickly becoming the bane of my existence is the number of players(and even staff) who post here on these forums saying things like "Once you're geared up money comes easy" or "it's really not that tough" or any other remix of "this should be easy."


Yes it's hard to remember what it's like to be a newbie while playing on a 4 year old acct!  Not to annoy you by explaining what everyone means that its easy...but, there is a steep learning curve and a huge income gap from being a new player to becoming a veteran player.  The good news is there really is a point where the game plateaus and becomes very enjoyable.  It is usually after you have learned to tackle a champ spawn with friends and then SOLO a champ by yourself.

Even at this point we have tons of high end content that takes strategy, power and intelligence to creatively defeat your foe.  Don't give up there is 4 years of content and development that is meant to be discovered over time!



Ultima is a hard game even when you aren't dealing with custom content, people here would do well to remember that some of the people that are joining here haven't played for upwards of a decade, people return to UO every single day for the nostalgia, it's why free shards exist. Others, like myself, may have never played a fully patched/expanded version and are literally starting over when it comes to weapon/armor/item knowledge. Not to mention all of the custom content and the fact that "gearing up" can cost millions of gold.


Yes, there is a lot of content and info to digest on such a custom shard.  There is no hurry or "competition" to win here on UO Evolution.  Take your time and enjoy each aspect of the game at your own pace.


Thorgal is honestly the first person since starting here that has follow up his "it's not that hard" statement with anything that is even remotely useful. In a server where most new players are having to absorb an insane amount of new material as well as trying to grind out a small fortune to acquire good items(regardless of how you earn your mils, it will undoubtedly be a grind) it WILL be hard. So the next time you start to tell someone starting out how easy all of this should come to them do me a favor... either don't, or follow it up with something that is useful like what Thorgal has done.


TY to Thorgal and all the players that help new players get started.  New player retention is very important for the economy and the growth of the community.  You will find that players and staff are generally very nice and helpful here


Offering new players some insight as to what craftables are missing in the market supply is wonderful, as well as reminding people that BODs can be a great way to scratch out coin. Hearing how easy something is while you're struggling with it gets old in a hurry and comes off as incredibly insulting, whether it was intended to be or not.


I will work on a more detailed new player guide with specific courses of action, rather than such a general how-to guide

Thank you all for your input!  I immediately went to work on making the shard, forums and wiki more new player friendly.  Here are some of the updates:


Edited the new player guide
Added more info on the wiki
Added new link page on the website
Added "how to play info"
Updated the "how to connect" info on the website and wiki
Added helpful screenshots
Added blue, in-game link stones for new players to access the website info easily
Added an event Calendar
A player guide starts in each new player pack with links
Updated New Player Guild info/contact info


Read it and let me know what you think, keep sending me ideas for improvements!

I noticed the stone near domino's. Good stuff. I also noticed you broke up the front page a bit. I don't know if you are leaving it like that or breaking it up with headers, but if you are leaving it like that I'd suggest separating those sections with a colored or larger title rather than just Bold. Much better tho, much easier to read. Also the pictures added into the wiki make a BIG difference. It doesn't feel as intimidating as a block of text. Good stuff. Keep it up.


Ty for all the suggestions and ideas.  I also want to thank you publicly for doing all the graphic work for the shard!

Ty for all the suggestions and ideas.  I also want to thank you publicly for doing all the graphic work for the shard!

I had some time to think about the issue at hand and kept coming back to my first time loging on UO, we had quest lines to follow and the starting city was truly made for mew players to learn the basics and learn your way around the city and mecanics of the game.
This being a custom shard the tutorial quests are irrelevant and missing, new players start at Brit bank with no guidance. First thing they usualy do is get the feel back for movement, controls, command, talking in world chat and explore their surroundings then... Where to go, what to do?
First off, they should be ''born'' in New Haven, once they are born, the option for an automated walk through could be useful, so either they accept and find themselves teleported to the new player castle or stay in New Haven. Ok so they have accepted the walkthrough, from the moment they get to the castle, a npc would talk to them explaining the custom content and directing them to the next npc located in the castle or at another location. Could be <Find harold the bower located on the top floor> Then Harold could explain his sourroyndings like custom lumber, storage keys and hints about how a bower / lumberjack could earn him, the new player, some gold and what skills and gear he would need.
Then comes my ''Big Brother'' initiative, once the tutorial is done they are teleported back to Brit bank and a world chat message appears saying <Welcome the newest member of our shard ''player X'', Big Brother comes in play. Anyone interested could go meet them, show them around, explain the currencies, various stones, where to start and what to do next. Anything the tutorial did not explain. They could also help them get basic gear like totem sets or vampiric gear.
IMO player retention and orientation is the vets duty, not just NEW Members but anyones with expérience. Of course some coding or set up on the gm/admin part is required but its the job of everyone to get this going.
Also, either option they choose, a npc should talk to them for the basics, forum info, how to talk in [c, where to start, point them in the New players guild direction, forum registration, wiki info and so on.
I have a more detailled idea of this but seing im posting from my cell phone, i would rather go into more details some other way.

Hope this helps

Thorgal

*looks around, reads, goes to bed to sleep on the topic for ideas*

Thorgal has some great ideas.
Maybe one way to get new players and vets connected is implement new systems that are conducive to linking them up.


First thing that comes to mind is: http://uoevolution.com/forum/index.php?topic=6813.0


With the spectator option they could get in contact with other Vet Spectators and the Vet PvPers that participate in the daily event.

I agree with everyone to a degree, we can always improve. Until we can keep every single player that logs on there's room for improvement.

I'm always considering the positive side of things though so here's my take on things...

We have the BEST playerbase of any free shard out there. People aren't flamed in public chat for asking questions, I bet there's not a soul on here who hasn't helped a new player at some point.

Between the emmissaries and myself...we have recruited about 15 players this weekend...I am not kidding. So how do we get em to stay. Information...but not too much. I am discovering that if you get new players to focus on the mechanics of the game, the very basics that that are already familiar with, and move out from there they do much better. Taking a new player to see stygian in the first week, can be frustrating and disheartening for them. Encourage them to resource gather, gold panning, fishing (SOS's ARE very profitable), mining (I've known players running two miners who've made a killing selling ingots).

I do the loot bag instruction AFTER I do a newbie champ spawn works better getting new players to sit still and pay attention after they see how chaotic a champ is and how much loot bags can help them . Sometimes the ass up way works best lol

I agree the dungeons are sad...like seriously sad...spawn is slow, sparse and not even worth wasting time at. Stygian abyss seems somewhat better and I spent a lot of hours there in the beginning.

Now here's the really positive stuff:

Players should be commended for the efforts they make I have yet to see Jet Li or Jaco Pastorius without a new player trailing behind.

Thorgal Pain, Tiea, Sheena, Sagemoon...yea I could go on...people who will go out of their way to help a new player or answer a question.

Someone commented to me the other day that they will stay here JUST because of the staff we have... I have to agree. We have a phenominal staff here.

I know this post is primarily looking for suggestions on how to do better...I just wanted to point out...how well we are already doing...because it's important to acknowledge the good that's already here, that does not exist on any other shard I've seen!

I bow to you all...because over a year ago when I first logged unto evo and asked a question...it was answered and I stayed

Ty Domino for the nice post and ty to all the NEW player guild members for all the support!

First of all, i was about to start a thread like "New player feedback" and that was why I logged on forums. I am very happy that this thread is already here and what is even better, started by staff.

I am new to Evolution (10 days), but i played UO on like 10 servers (UO Forever, Paradise Found, Dark Paradise etc.) for over 6 years, so i believe i have some experience with different approach and different systems that somewhere worked, where some did not.

The most positive things I saw in these days:

1, Staff - It is not usual to see staff like Evo have, staff that actually cares. Listening to Dante (and Kane) on TS at that meeting 2 days back was really interesting. Not only because of things that he was discussing, but mostly because of his approach. I could clearly see, that he is open to discussions, suggestions and even a normal chat. He explained, he asked our opinions, he cared. That was a very positive thing to see, for me. I didn't see this approach on any other server i played... this Staff/player friendly approach.

2, Custom stuff - Simply, amazing. I can't even imagine how much work you guys had to do.. Pets, keys, quests, skills, spells and i believe much more i didn't find out yet. I really like it. Playing UO for 6 years might get boring, so experiencing something new is very refreshing and welcome.

3, Playerbase - One of the best playersbase i saw. People are friendly, helpful, generous. Didn't meet any PK yet (those always anger me =D). Players are very important part of UO server, and i think Evo has really a good ones.

Negative things I experienced in my 10 days on Evo:

I have to say, that i think it is not possible to make a server that suits 100% to everyone. People have different needs, people having fun doing different things... and that means that sometimes we all probably experience a moment or a thing, that we don't like, but we will get over it or get used to it.

There is however one thing, that im still fighting with and can't get over it or used to it - The power of donation.

Please read my donation philosophy for an explanation
http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/Donation_Philosophy

Let me explain...

I completely understand that running a server like this costs money (owners money). And not only the money, it costs hell lot of time and dedication to create a server like Evo is. BUT, now in 2015, when gaming pay2win model barely exists, i found it here :-/

FYI we are not a pay-to-win model we are a custom free-to-play ultima online shard.  You can obtain every item in game through hard work and game play.  You can earn/find Evolution dollars in game to purchase anything from the player economy

Quote from wiki:

"Evolution Dollars can be obtained by Donating, participating in staff events, random drop from voting, random drop from Felucca dungeon chests, daily ED raffle stone, auctions, buy from players, the custom treasure maps and in the loot packs of the Felucca custom Bosses"

No other shard has EVER offered players a way to obtain donation currency in-game without ever having to donate.  UO Evolution is the only shard, with a donation model, that is truly free-to-play (f2p)

You can also buy EDs from many players who do support the shard with donations.  I also offer every item in game through the auction and sell for gold, to help balance the economy(I do this to be fair, provide a gold sink and to allow non-donors to have rares available)

Most of the new games released in past 3 years are focusing on free to play model, with some boosts for money, to save time for lazy ones =) It is not that i wouldn't like to pay for a game or support developers (i think you Dante/Kane deserve money for your great work more than others), but when i decide i'd like to play a free to play shard/game.. i expect that i will be normal player and not a "weakling forced to pay or die" because of that.

I was here like 2 days when i maxed out my fighting skills, magic skills, got my starting gear from New dungeon and i started to look around about which way should i develop my character. I always liked tamers and pets, so i started to look for a good pet to get... asked players, asked in guild and what i found was very disappointing. The best pets, pet leveling deeds and pet slots that character can increase is all for donation ONLY.

They did not provide you with true information.  There are many powerful pets you can easily tame and breed.  Many players obtain greater dragons, cu sidhes, ancient firesteeds and ice hounds.  Many other players use the bioengineer to create "donation" quality pets, all with no donations

Each month i run event for the rare pets, like the "full moon" werewolf hunt and "safari" events (see the wiki for event details)

I also make donation/rare pets available as spawns in game, you can buy from players, or at auctions for gold

This totally ruined my plan about having best pet and fighting this way...

Warrior that solos champ (needs one handed scroll etc.) You don't need One-hand deed to do a champ...I soloed the same champs for years without one-hand deeds.  We added those as an enhancement to make a nicer champ weapon, but by no means a requirement

Archer have the same problem... So far as i saw, there is a possibility to obtain these items even without donation.

There is a need for great breeders/crafters for the new players that arrive, you can make a ton on gold/ed selling hard to craft items and pets

Because of ED and auction, there is a "chance" to get these... BUT, The problem is, that donors and veterans are farming 100x times faster than me, which means they farm 1m gold while I farm 10k. This leads to a fact, that if someone will be selling ED's, there will be always someone who will pay more than me.

I know you are feeling a disconnect between being a new player and a veteran player.  You have to remember you are playing on a shard that has players, playing daily for 4 years and have acquired a lot of gold and items.  You are brand new and are shooting for an end-game item your first week.  This shard is designed to be an enjoyable journey...You don't want to get all the top items too quickly and ruin the fun of the game.  Pace yourself, there are many ways to get items and wealth

Im not sure if you see where am i pointing with this - Basically i feel i have no chance to "catch up" to donators and veterans.

There is no need to feel like you have to "catch up", this is a solo experience with no time limits

There is plenty of stuff that makes player strong - Donation pets, Dragon cloaks, newly introduced Black Belt, high-end dungeon artifacts... But, i can't get these items in any short time.

You are not meant to get these items...yet

My only chance is to farm, go through low dungeons like Shame/Destard/Despise and gather the gold and maybe one days after a year of farming, i'll buy something to make me stronger and be able to progress to harder dungeons...

Yes!  you are a new player and SHOULD be going to the low level dungeons!  It won't take a year I promise!

But meanwhile a well geared player will earn 100x more than me in the same time and this makes prices to grow, because people having more money = people are willing to spend more money for something.. I see the only chance to catch up if they would stop farming for months, which they won't =)

The Auction is great (i've been on 2 auctions made by staff so far) but saw the same problem.. Good stuff, but people are throwing like 40 millions on a single item... How can i even bid against these people?

The auctions are really not meant for new players, tough to compete your first week here. I went through the same discouragement on other shards before making this one. I also disliked the feeling on "never" getting to buy anything, but as an owner I found the auctions necessary.   The auctions are ways for me to control the economy and suck all the excess gold out (called "gold sinks")

So after 10 days, im asking myself a question.. Will i ever be able to get donation items? Yes! Will i ever be able to compete against others? Yes! we had 347 players online and were ALL new players at one time!

Will i ever be able to enjoy the full game and not just a part of it? The full game is enjoyed one step at a time, not in giant leaps to the end.  There are many things the donors miss out on by trying to get stuff too fast, and skipping all the mid-level content.

I completely understand that i need to work for it, months, maybe years.. And i have no problem with it and i will enjoy playing meanwhile, but i need some kind of a "goal".. There are many goals here...craft a level 100 weapon, craft a black belt, craft a dragon cloak, make a bioengineered pet, collect ED for that werewolf you have your eye on?  All obtainable goals without any donation...and those are all end-game items!

Put this in a real-world perspective, if you want a Ferrari you have to work hard and save up for that dream.  You can't expect to get one with your first paycheck.

To continue this analogy, you cant get upset if some rich, young guy, buys that Ferrari today, and it takes you 20 years of hard work and saving to get yours...

To take it one step further, if the rich Ferrari owner (donor) made it possible for you (non-donor) to get your own Ferrari?  Would you be happy?  Without him (donor) you could NEVER have a Ferrari...there would be no dealership (uoe server)?

You should be happy, this system works completely in your favor...you play for FREE:)

For example, if there would be even a ridiculous price for donation stuff in gold (lets say 10-15 million gold - that is a lot for me, but you can move this price where ever you want).. i would have goal. You can easily buy ED from players with gold.  Players do quests make bios and collect rares which can be sold in-game for ED

I would know that i want a pet and im going forward to it by every single gold coin i collect. But now i have a feeling, that i will never get EDs to buy one. Cause with EDs i have to rely, that someone else will be selling them and that another players will not offer more than me... Which seems very unlikely with huge difference of gold players have and rate they are acquiring it. And mining 6 months to be able to overprice a single deal and get 1 item i want.. No, i don't want to mine 6 months.

Explained pros and cons, suggestion now =)
I understand that changing anything based on one or few players feedback is unlikely, but as you surprised me with your approach to players, i had a need to give you my feedback, after 10 days of playing, to at least open a discussion and hear your (and other players) thoughts.

I don't mean anything bad with it.. If i should say one single word about Evolution shard, i would say "Fantastic!" ... I really love many things here =) I do thank you for taking the time to write this post, we do listen

But i also admit, that im not sure if i should continue playing, because i can't get over the donation / veteran farming stuff i mentioned above. I don't know if i will ever get them, that is whats bothering me the most (no better future). Since this is the only thing that bothers me so much, i would suggest releasing strongest items to all people (even for very high prices) and balancing the gold amount of new players vs veterans have and mostly, balancing its farm rate.

It doesn't matter is we have 0 players online or 300 online, there is still amazing content for you to enjoy for FREE.  It's not a competition.  Some players skip the grind by donating, others earn it through the enjoyment of playing the game.

Why would it really matter if someone earned an item in game or donated for it?  Everyone is having fun and the players that do donate are making the shard FREE for those that can't afford to donate

If we did not accept donations at all, and players had to EARN all of their wealth, would you be upset that a player spent 40 million on an item at auction?  Probably not...

Also i understand that changing anything in donation system could have influence on profit, which i understand is unwanted (and i agree). I wish i knew a way, how to keep donation rate or even make it higher, while allowing stuff to all players, not only donators =)

So far, im training and willing to try and enjoy more of Evolution shard, want to give it a chance and hope, that the only thing that bothers me somehow disappears or i'll get over it, somehow =)

Anyway, if you made it through this wall of text, i congratulate you! =D
Also my apologies for any typo or bad grammar.. English is not my native language and i still have a lot to learn =) Hopefully everything was understandable.  FYI I did edit the spelling and grammar for an easier read, hope you don't mind

Have a nice day!
Sargoth =)


Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed post

Sargoth,

you shouldn't base you enjoyment based on a comparison with others.  Find something you enjoy doing in game.  The higher end items will come it simply takes time.  We all had to grunt it out for a while in the lower dungeons.

If you need help, advice or guidance dont hesitate to pm me in game. I have been playing this shard for a very long time, yes i did donate, once, but everything i got, i got by farming, and no, you dont need high end gear, insane pets or donation ''bonuses'' to make serious gold here. On a previous reply i hinted how, its pretty accurate. Any how, pm me if you want to hear more or just for help.
Enjoy your newly started marathon!

Thorgal Pain

The biggest advice that I could give to any player would be to find a profitable niche and stay there. At one point in time I was making about 250k a day and that was pretty good. I had time periods in my UO career where I made as much as 10 mil a day, but I have since digressed as 10 million a day is annoyingly hard to acheive. Point is, we all start off somewhere. Oh and if you can't afford a one handed weapon deed, try using bushido. It's a great excuse to have the skill and using a two handed weapon it offers no negative traits.

Radiant scimitar is a one handed weapon with whirlwind, but you dont need a 1handed axe to solo a champ thats for sure.