[sm0ke]

As far as I know only admins have access to donations. I doubt it was ever shared around the staff team. By the way, nobody was forced to pay, thats why it's called donation. It wasn't necessary pay-to-play either. Why *****ing if you didn't have to throw your money in first place? It's a shame that Taran didn't sacrifice himself in the sake of the server... The guy should definitely input all of his freetime into IN... No, all of his time in general! Thats what you do when you get a hobby...
If seriously though, thanks to his hobby - I and a lot of other people had plenty of fun time spent here, and it didn't cost me anything. If it wasn't him, there wouldn't be a server at all...

Hey man, why don't you script, open up and run a server which will be better than this one in any single aspect?...

why didn't you post on your real account? sure took a long time to create this "IN" it was up for 4 years before it was IN known as formly IN-X which taran worked on with maka. Then maka did the smartest thing he could and decided to stop working on it and wasting his time because the population will never grow and staff will always cheat/get lazy/and be inactive. The shard is almost identical aside from quests and PvP with some more minor tweaks so yeah there was sooooooooooo much time involved in making it rofl

and @ darken rahl is completely right diablo 3 and summer time are not a valid exuse for the inactivity and lies that staff have been feeding players for who knows how long anyways i don't really care seeing as I don't even log on anymore but i enjoy diablo 3 but then again i love games which are nearly are almost impossible to beat.

[kyleus3]

smoke.. if you dont play here, why are you arguing? I feel as you argue for a job... oh wait....

[Habibi Jones]

smoke.. if you dont play here, why are you arguing? I feel as you argue for a job... oh wait....

smoke? job? LUL!

[Nasir]

but then again i love games which are nearly are almost impossible to beat.

UO is easy mode lololololololol. I beat it release day.

[Hal]

Here is my theory what has happened here

The decline in player base started when all the complaining in the forums began. People like sm0ke and ScareCrow posting over and over and complaining. When new players come to the server they look at the forums to see how player morale is. I remember at one point the whole front page of the forum was full of this type of complaining. At the time the player base was still well over 100. Well slowly people began to leave and because of the complaining on the forums we weren't adding new players.

So the server goes from 200 to 150 to 100 and then its a clear trend of people leaving and we aren't adding players. And then it's 80 to 60 to 40 and its really in a free fall. There is a perception that the staff is demoralized and has checked out. This seems to be somewhat true. One thing that stands out for me and kind of captures the "meh" feel now is Britain bank and that yellow sign that is just plopped down in the middle of the road. The sign informs new players not to forget about starting skills. It's not the contents of the sign that is revealing. It's the way it was just plopped down in the middle of the road by whomever and it just sits there. To me its just a reminder that staff is burned out and just "meh" about the server.

[Mister Pickles]

So the server goes from 200 to 150 to 100 and then its a clear trend of people leaving and we aren't adding players. And then it's 80 to 60 to 40 and its really in a free fall. There is a perception that the staff is demoralized and has checked out. This seems to be somewhat true. One thing that stands out for me and kind of captures the "meh" feel now is Britain bank and that yellow sign that is just plopped down in the middle of the road. The sign informs new players not to forget about starting skills. It's not the contents of the sign that is revealing. It's the way it was just plopped down in the middle of the road by whomever and it just sits there. To me its just a reminder that staff is burned out and just "meh" about the server.

The decline in numbers is due to sm0ke. When he decided to leave he took 100+ players with him.

As for the sign:

http://in-uo.net/forums/showthread.php?9...ehind-this

[Eru]

The decline in numbers is due to sm0ke. When he decided to leave he took 100+ players with him.

[Artur]

The decline in numbers is due to sm0ke. When he decided to leave he took 100+ players with him.

mentally retarded guy

[Mister Pickles]

mentally retarded guy

Yeah... not sure if you're trying to insult me or sm0ke. Either way you're a tool.

The bit about 100 players is in reference to the following:



That's a screenshot of a post in a thread made by sm0ke. The thread was eventually removed. It was quite comical.

[Eru]

I stand corrected. One person posting on someone else's account after being banned said that he brought 100 players. It must be true. Why would anyone make that up?

[kyleus3]

he did help I think, as of everyone else, but the post in the forums about the complaining i think does turn the guys away. and the activity of staff.

[Irrelevant]

why didn't you post on your real account? sure took a long time to create this "IN" it was up for 4 years before it was IN known as formly IN-X which taran worked on with maka. Then maka did the smartest thing he could and decided to stop working on it and wasting his time because the population will never grow and staff will always cheat/get lazy/and be inactive. The shard is almost identical aside from quests and PvP with some more minor tweaks so yeah there was sooooooooooo much time involved in making it rofl

and @ darken rahl is completely right diablo 3 and summer time are not a valid exuse for the inactivity and lies that staff have been feeding players for who knows how long anyways i don't really care seeing as I don't even log on anymore but i enjoy diablo 3 but then again i love games which are nearly are almost impossible to beat.

I'm well aware that Maka was the one that scripted the most. But the point is you wouldn't be able to use his work if you wanted. Because he wouldn't give it to you and because his code was for RunUO 1.0(I think) and would not work here. Taran was the one who was working along with him since day one, and if theres a person who can use these files - it's Taran. So, yes, it was a lot of work.

Now about Maka. Please don't make up the reasons he left. He left when server had over 100 people online and staff was working non stop. Yes, nobody else in staff those days could do the work that he was doing due to his skills in programming and RunUO knowledge, but staff was working. If anything, lets see what he wrote about that:

Clearing up some things about me

This is really a long post, and you'll get nothing from it, if you are not interested in why I disappeared and what plans I got for INX in the future.


For what ever reason it still seams like people are asking for me and wondering when I'll come back. I haven't really said anything more about it, besides my statement [in Weapon Selection] that I wouldn't be logging on, so I figured I will let everyone know and "calm" people down.

My last post on these [public] forums were made in the "Weapon Selection" thread, so essentially, that was my drop.

I've worked for this server a long time, longer than anyone else, and I've put more time into it than anyone. Most of the time I actually worked with it, it was not a hobby and it was far from fun. I myself love programming, I do it in one form or another on an every day basis, but with the amount and "type" of work going into INX, it was far from fun. Essentially what drove me to finish the shard, and to work as much as I did, was to create a Sphere replica people [and I] would enjoy.

So the server opened and we had a really patient community. You understood that we were working as fast as we could, and that we tried to do our best to make your time well spent on INX. Cause really, being staff is about fun for 5 minuets, then after that, you are doing it for the community or the server. It also seemed that you were somewhat happy with our beta and you understood that we cared about it. This lasted for about 10 seconds.

Soon everyone started to be impatient. All crafts from IN were not implemented, we had not yet added any special events, loots were bad, skill gain was to slow, staff in some time zones were missing etc. Now, that by itself is not a problem, we (me and taran) did what we could to fix stuff as fast as we could. These are some of the problems that come with a server and we would be gullible fools to expect anything else.

People started to get hostile on the forums. The suggestions given were no longer suggestions, they became repetitive and angry whining. The players were trying to bully the staff team to the progress they wanted, even though we were working as fast as we could. Battles between IN and XUO were peaking, and most of the times, they were unnecessary and stupid. Peoples unwillingness to discuss things in a normal manner and give us useful input put a strain on the staff team and pretty much put us in a dead lock. Personally I did not want to work for a server that hated the PvP I loved so much and wanted to preserve. Why I'm not willing to accept any major PvP changes(I'm not talking bout EB, Arrow and Explo having armor scalars here)?

I started this project (Syn pitched me to KM). I, with the help from a few people, made it happen. I pretty much made sure everything was set up and I probably made 95% of the code. I made sure so that we agreed on things and discussed things through on the project forum before we started this. I made sure the server had an [damn good] admin when I knew I was not going to be present due to my move to a different country. I think I played a pretty big role and I felt so majorly screwed over, cause of the PvP issue. Nothing of this would have happen if we didn't agree on that specific issue, and I could not even get people to try to understand the PvP. The general opposition sounded something like "Why does it have to be set in stone, you guys never listen to our feedback", so I pretty much felt like I could do nothing to make people happy, and that was the goal of the server. But I still kept working, but now without actually reading the forums cause it pretty much killed me.

When my computer died I semi stopped working. I was working on some algos, helped taran when he asked me about script issues and drew up some ideas for fun things. After a while, I quit that too. I started feeling better and better with myself, didn't have this huge load of negativity hovering over me all the time, and I could focus on what I needed to do. I didn't send my computer off until last Thursday (31st?), due to my money situation, so I will probably get it back within 2 weeks or so. But...

I doubt that I will return to INX in the state it is now. The reason I left was essentially the community, not the work load. When you get negativity all the time you tend to get sick of it and find other things to do. It might be something to think about. Even though that the staff team is in charge, the players are the real "employer[s]". We do in fact work for you guys, so what do you think that the volunteer workers will do, when the boss is acting up?

As closure I would like to say that it makes me very disappointed to hear that I've "abandoned" the project. I've been "retired" (and it has been on the web page) since March last year, yet, from that point to the breakdown of my computer, I was one of the people that was doing most the work. I haven't abandoned anyone, I've quit with a 6+ months notice. You've abandoned me.

Anyways, that pretty much sums it up. There is a lot more to it, but nothing of real interest. Everyone are not all bad, a lot of people have helped the server out with their suggestions, ideas and attitude, and I thank you. Problem is just that the voice of the mob is not cheering and applauding, but yelling how unfairly they have been treated.

Back to hidenation.