[imported_Okan]

well since i've finished playing up here, i would like to just give some thought to staff on making this place a more enjoyable for everyone and creating a community that was like what we had on IN1 also with XUO style pvp.

PVP
from an iner's point of view, the fact is that pvp and spam will never change and is going to the stay the way it is. i guess thats fine and i've come to conclude that pvp here is only annoying because we're not used to the new style of pvp and change is sometimes hard to accept, while we're all used to the old style of sphere pvp on in1. this makes dieing very unpleasant and what makes it more frustrating is when you dont know what to fix or how to improve your pvp. from what i've experienced i can say coming from an INers point of view that pvp here is very enjoyable if you begin to learn it and get used to it. maybe ask an an xuo player who you see in duel stones for some advice or tips on how to get better and find a way to get better rather than just complain about it because this doesn't improve the shard or allow you to enjoy the game in any way. i really encourage the older xuo players to maybe show their method of pvp or strategy to INers so we can also learn how to pvp properly. i know i sucked alot but i was luckily shown by splinter the correct way to pvp.

Community
from my observations of playing on in1, we really established an enjoyable environment to play in, and this is one of the strong characteristics which brings back old memories for everyone. it wasn't because of who was better than who in pvp or no.1, but the friends they met ingame and the relationships that were built during those good few years when in1 was alive and kicking. I break this down to a few components, its true to say we did have our emature players who made life a living hell for everyone, but really encouraging roleplay was a factor that made in1 such a success, even earlier on in1 initiated that scheme where you had to write a story to be able to play. i mean, if you want a mature playerbase, you have to set out guidelines that will exclude all the players you dont want to enter into our world.i believe this is what set the foundation for all the first players on in1 that joined and created that atmosphere for latter players to experience. not saying we should implement this, but i think if we tried this, and changed the banner on all those voting sites to INX being an exclusive RP shard, we would get many more older players who still enjoy UO and are looking to join a mature server which would be more enjoyable for them. lets face it, we're not getting any new players anyway atm so why not try changing what INX is about and turning it into a RP shard so we attract more players in that market which would be beneficial for the shard. our goal should be to attract mature players to our shard to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone. no one wants guys running around spamming hahahaha, or noob in their face.

also having said that...

Pits
Do we really need to have pits? think about it.. i know it was something on xuo, but what do you lose anything if we take pits away? really? you'll just lose a place for reds and players to afk...and we can instead just have gates in towns to vendor mall and duel stones... i dont know what xuo will feel about this but if we took pits away, it would be beneficial. what this will do is encourage reds and pvpers to go around the world and kill blues or fight on brit bridge, or minoc bridge, and also allow more blues to congregate around brit bank and integrate with the newer players joining the shard. and trust me if your red you will get more action standing on brit bridge and provoking all the blues to come out than just waiting in pits for ppl to walk through to occlo... because whats happening is we're getting only the PVPERS who are going to pits and occlo and sh for action every single day. this seperates the rest of the shard from this particular group. that is why the crafters/miners/merchants dont get to interact with anyone ingame because everyones in pits or ganking in occlo and serps, and hence the shard is getting boring for everyone. and now days no one goes house looting or camps outside ppls houses hiding... that aspect is missing in the game cuz everyone i sjust in pits 24/7 standing around waiting for opportunity to kill rather than finding other ways to explore and kill blues. removing pits would encourage this.
also if you just joined this server dont you want to get involved in the community and meet new people? in removing pits new players would be able to meet the older players since they'll be alot of ppl all at brit bank and ask for help, making it more enjoyable for them to stay on our server. what we see now is majority of the shard just really into pvp and everyone logs on each day to enter ctf, tour, and gank then when they wipe out the opponent they log off.. thats in essence what INX is atm. there is no interest in crafters or merchants or just ppl who want to get on and enjoy other aspects of uo rather than pvp/hunting. removing pits would at least allow us to utilise the world more and overall increase player interaction between old and new players maximising the uo experience and making it more enjoyable for everyone. its about getting EVERYONE INVOLVED.

Want a bigger playerbase?
Its all about the way you market the product... if i look at succcessful servers like defianceuo, (successful i mean with a huge playerbase over a long time) i look at the way they advertise their server on the website. its captivating, it catches your attention with all the screenshots they have on the homepage, why dont we do that too? why dont we have a screenshot of a tour or event or something that incorporates our unique custom armors, weapons, events, players, special colors, reward system. not just under "images" we should have it right smack bang in the middle of the hompage....somethign visual would entice any player to join if they saw it on our homepage. instead the homepage just has updates on whats been fixed... if you were a new player and saw that, you would think so what? and probably cant be bothered reading it and wouldn't be interested in joining, we should have some pictures right on the front page so ppl can look and say wow damn!!!!!!! i really want to play here! it looks cool... this would definately attract new players coming to our server.

Staff having player characters
sure i'll get flamed by staff by this one, but this is something that i think is common sense and i've spoken to some staff who have agreed with me on this one. i really think if your staffing you shouldn't be allowed to (play on your normal character during the period in which your hired to staff)...its just a matter of conflict of interest, we are all human in the end and im not saying staff do this, but wouldnt it be gay to know that someone you kill as a player is invis and looking at what you do 24/7? sure he could be doing his job as a gm but just imagine a gm who had a player knowing where you lived, where you banked, what you were doing, what you had in your bank? or even it got to a point where you had a dilemna with a player who is also a gm and he had connections to other staff... wouldn't you feel like your helpless if they could persuade their staff friend to get their way? its just like politics in the real world... thats just my opinion, if you wanted to staff your objective should be to make sure everyone is in check, no offensive behaviour and minor issues ingame to help other players, and i strongly feel if you want to staff you shouldn't be allowed to access your player until you stop staffing for good. why is it that everyone complains about this gm and that gm when no one complains about taran? maybe he doesnt have a player and his best interests are kept on improving INX as a server?

all and all i think (IF) all these points were incorporated INX would be heading into the right direction, so much hard work has gone into the shard, and its just little things that might make a big difference to growing the shard overall. we have a brilliant webpage, it cost alot to put up, why dont we utiliise it, we have great admins who have come up with great ideas on the technical side of things, all that is missing is new players to experience it

well i did alot of bad things while playing but i still want to give some ideas since i loved IN1 so much and im sure everyone will agree that we want to grow this server and make it a better place.

peace

okan

[imported_Ryuuku]

Community
from my observations of playing on in1, we really established an enjoyable environment to play in, and this is one of the strong characteristics which brings back old memories for everyone. it wasn't because of who was better than who in pvp or no.1, but the friends they met ingame and the relationships that were built during those good few years when in1 was alive and kicking. I break this down to a few components, its true to say we did have our emature players who made life a living hell for everyone, but really encouraging roleplay was a factor that made in1 such a success, even earlier on in1 initiated that scheme where you had to write a story to be able to play. i mean, if you want a mature playerbase, you have to set out guidelines that will exclude all the players you dont want to enter into our world.i believe this is what set the foundation for all the first players on in1 that joined and created that atmosphere for latter players to experience. not saying we should implement this, but i think if we tried this, and changed the banner on all those voting sites to INX being an exclusive RP shard, we would get many more older players who still enjoy UO and are looking to join a mature server which would be more enjoyable for them. lets face it, we're not getting any new players anyway atm so why not try changing what INX is about and turning it into a RP shard so we attract more players in that market which would be beneficial for the shard. our goal should be to attract mature players to our shard to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone. no one wants guys running around spamming hahahaha, or noob in their face.

also having said that...

Pits
Do we really need to have pits? think about it.. i know it was something on xuo, but what do you lose anything if we take pits away? really? you'll just lose a place for reds and players to afk...and we can instead just have gates in towns to vendor mall and duel stones... i dont know what xuo will feel about this but if we took pits away, it would be beneficial. what this will do is encourage reds and pvpers to go around the world and kill blues or fight on brit bridge, or minoc bridge, and also allow more blues to congregate around brit bank and integrate with the newer players joining the shard. and trust me if your red you will get more action standing on brit bridge and provoking all the blues to come out than just waiting in pits for ppl to walk through to occlo... because whats happening is we're getting only the PVPERS who are going to pits and occlo and sh for action every single day. this seperates the rest of the shard from this particular group. that is why the crafters/miners/merchants dont get to interact with anyone ingame because everyones in pits or ganking in occlo and serps, and hence the shard is getting boring for everyone. and now days no one goes house looting or camps outside ppls houses hiding... that aspect is missing in the game cuz everyone i sjust in pits 24/7 standing around waiting for opportunity to kill rather than finding other ways to explore and kill blues. removing pits would encourage this.
also if you just joined this server dont you want to get involved in the community and meet new people? in removing pits new players would be able to meet the older players since they'll be alot of ppl all at brit bank and ask for help, making it more enjoyable for them to stay on our server. what we see now is majority of the shard just really into pvp and everyone logs on each day to enter ctf, tour, and gank then when they wipe out the opponent they log off.. thats in essence what INX is atm. there is no interest in crafters or merchants or just ppl who want to get on and enjoy other aspects of uo rather than pvp/hunting. removing pits would at least allow us to utilise the world more and overall increase player interaction between old and new players maximising the uo experience and making it more enjoyable for everyone. its about getting EVERYONE INVOLVED.

I agree with everything, mainly in these parts above mentioned.

[imported_Vulcan]

Thanks for a very constructive post Okan.

PVP - It is what it is, INR was a failure in balance and fighting, not just pvp but pvm as well. With this in mind INX's pvp was handed over to maka who had a balanced and working system. There are some aspects IN players don't like (mostly the spam) but it is what it is. It works because of all the mechanics that it utilizes. I hope down the road some solution can be found to make everyone happy, but in the end there will always be those who like it and those that dislike it.

Community - There is a lot of good ideas here but I can't see the shard being advertised as an RP shard when the majority of the current playerbase doesn't value that aspect of the game and goes as far as to harass those who do play for that reason. What IN was, was due to its players and those players aren't around anymore. As much as we wish to relive those memories it will never happen. The IN community was formed to a large degree before RP stories were required for accounts. That restriction was added later because the wrong type of players were joining. A majority of the IN vets however joined before that restriction. The community became what it was because the expectations for each other the players set. Similar expectation simply don't exist here and even those who could be pushed in either direction opt to follow the tone set by those already here.

Pits - While I do see your point and I'm sure this would help the RP and the world feel, the pits are something that are important to the PVPers here. Change in this way won't happen without the players wanting it and rarely do people choose change that will make them work a little harder. The pits are a convenience that players will not give up.

Bigger Playerbase - These are also good ideas and I hope to see some changes like this in the future.

Staff as Players - I understand what you are trying to say, staff is only human for sure. I think your solution is the wrong one though. Staff should be allowed to play, they put all this effort into helping the world and making it a better place for those who play here. The issue arises when staff are lax about sharing their identity as a player to other players. I like to think that I've kept my identity under wraps for the most part and I don't think people talk badly about either of my characters. Granted I'm not naive and know there are those who dislike me out there. Either way, what if Taran did have a player character (I'm not saying he does, I don't even know either way) but nobody knew about it, it would be the same as if he didn't. When staff identifies themselves with a player character they put themselves on the same level as the player and lose some authority and respect. I'm kind of getting off track.

Your main issue is that staff having players tempts them to cheat. I understand your concern and perhaps again I'm being naive, but I honestly feel that we have a great staff team here and there is nil cheating taking place. The logs are monitored and Taran and Maka's expectations in this regard are very clear and taken seriously.

Anyway, you did do a lot of bad things here and it's a pity because clearly you are mature and intelligent. How do you expect the community to improve when those with the capacity to act maturely don't do so themselves? In the end you get out whatever you put in.

[imported_Lederoil]

I have never been positive for the pits, and I would really want these to be gone... Okan made great points why it would be better without them.

[maka]

I've just managed to read the first part since I'm at work, but it seems like a constructive post.

We are currently working on a dualistic spam system, so that if people want to use wop, they can just like now, but if both agree not to, the rules change a bit. This is to improve the way the server works for the people that are not crazy about the .wop system.

This system will hopefully be done soon, we just need to sit down and think it through. Don't be overly excited though, chances are that this system cannot be fully balanced, but we want to make it as balanced as possible, so that you have an option in the way you want to fight.

[imported_Okan]

I thank all that have contributed to my post, i didn't expect to get the positive feedback that was given by staff and players in general.

Let me just point out that my aim was to give new ideas into "how to grow the shard, and attract new members to join INX" not to criticise anything thats already been implemented on the shard

These are my views on the following points i talked about:

PVP: I love xuo style pvp, at first i felt exactly the same as any other INER and hated it...I hated when i saw people spam because i didnt know whether they were casting something on me or not... BUT after splinter taught me the mechanics of the method to xuo pvp, i understood it and enjoyed it. I dont think anything should be changed with spam or pvp. I could go on to explain what i know about this pvp if people like...but all and all INERS need to be taught this pvp style and only way for them to enjoy it is if they get used to it and apply it.

Community/roleplay: My aim was to give an insight into how roleplay respresents a mature playerbase, it eliminates all the slang and swearing that goes on and enables individuals to speak in a mature manner like civilised people. Perhaps the way INX is marketed could be changed to attract more mature players to the server.

Pits: Sure ill get flamed for this... but let me ask you this... if pits were taken away what do you as a player lose? my aim was to explain to everyone what opportunities there were for the shard to "GROW" in playerbase if pits were removed. again im sure reds and pvpers will be disgruntled because its such a convenience for them... but ask yourself.. right now... are you enjoying INX? are you bored of logging in and afking in pits and waiting for people to kill? or would you like to have more players join so that theres more action? the end goal of removing pits leads to more player interaction between all 60-70 clients that are on when INX is at its peak... instead of 15 who are in pits afking, 5 behind brit bank speaking to samild about how much money he has, and the rest scattered around the world afking. Increasing player interaction leads to meeting new people, making friends with palyers ingame, and therefore making the shard more enjoyable for everyone. sure if you dont want friends and like to kill, then sure goto brit bridge, minoc bridge and you'll have 20-30 players from inside town come out and try kill you. you'll get more action if pits were removed.

Marketing INX: thats all explained in my post above and self explanatory, and i feel would contribute alot to "growing INX playerbase" and getting more new players to join

Staff having Player accounts: i thought i'd get this response from staff... and im pleased vulcan knows what im talking about, let me clarify by saying: im NOT saying staff shouldn't be allowed to have a player account. all im saying is if they were hired as staff... that should be their job, and while they're staffing they (shouldn't be allowed to access their account) no matter how mcuh its monitered. if you want to be staff, shouldn't your objective be to ensure that the shard is a happy environment for everyone to play in???, well currently thats not happening, you get people like abbo runnig around harassing everyone... and nothing seems to be done about this matter.

anyways just my 2 cents.

Btw there is a new GAME (NOT SERVER) called Mortal Online coming out in 2009, its supposedly the next best MMORPG ever made after UO. Heads up for that...

[imported_Okan]

I think everyone misses the point here including staff...

Really the solution here is to do anything and everything possible to INCREASE PLAYERBASE on this shard. Attracting new players.

No matter how many updates you have and how many new scripts you make your only satisfying the current players who are wanting small fixes.

What current INX players want are more players to be on!, they dont want fixes in the game, they want more people to kill, or more people in the mines, or more people standing around at bank so they can show off their gear to, or more people hunting, having a good time.

That shuold be the goal for staff: how can we bring more people to our shard???... not how can we satisfy the current players we have.

"Do not wish for quick results, nor look for small advantages.
If you seek quick results, you will not reach the ultimate
goal. If you are led astray by small advantages, you will
never accomplish great things"

[imported_Lanfear]

Well about pits, i guess we could live without it but for me and and probably alot more its been around since No-vus opiate ie since i started to play and its really handy in a way for example when there is an event staff only have to put a portal in pits and everyone knows where to go. Its also good for trading between Blue and Reds and also a good place to afk when u need to have some food or take a dump

[imported_Apollo]

Its also good for trading between Blue and Reds

You cant trade in the pits.

[imported_Lederoil]

And it was supposed we should try a couple of weeks first with pits, then without. What happened to that?

[imported_Gang-Bang]

Dunno, i think everyone from xuo want pits to stay) However, even if pits would be removed, what about duel arena then? And only pits makes people gank in red citys... Gank at bridge without any chance to loot blue people sucks...
IMHO pits should stay

[imported_Lederoil]

Dunno, i think everyone from xuo want pits to stay) However, even if pits would be removed, what about duel arena then?

Hmm... If you place out runes/gates to the duel arena then I guess it will become the new pits.