[imported_Shade]

I would be fine with only certain items personally. Dye tubs could easily unbalance the economy but instead maybe a newbied robe with a hue of your choice, named "IN:X Donor" or something. Deco items couldn't do much harm either really, as long as they are linked to the buyer so they could not be sold.

This has been something we have discussed in the past and it really comes down to two things; do we really want to be another one of those shards and do players know we are grateful for any and all contributions.

Donations to get ahead will forever be out of the question I believe. After all the balancing we all have done, it would be such a waste to just sell out ourselves like that. There are other options though that could be less detrimental to the shard and its economy. The example I stated above would certainly be an option IF this is something we wish to step into.

As for us being thankful, I assure you every cent helps and we are most appreciative for any and all contributions. I certainly would not object to some sort of thank you for donations, though ultimately it is not up to me. Though in all honesty tons of things must be taken into account when we add new sources of items, no matter how insignificant they may be.

I am glad we have two sides on this topic weighing out the pros and cons without all hell breaking loose. Just keep in mind that this was not the original purpose of this topic, though it is closely related. Try not to get too far off track while caught up in your debates :p

[Eighty Swords]

Hey Shade maybe you can point Taran to my question;

how much are we talking to buy a new computer out right? I'm talking new CPU's, mobo, case, fans, video cards, ram, hds, etc. What would it cost us to buy a 100% brand new system for all of time and then we never pay 1 cent again, like now?

[imported_Papa Smurf]

If you were to go all out your looking at like 4k but its only UO not like it requires all that much. I think the issue would still remain as far as needing atleast a 10-20mb upload connection.

[imported_Shade]

Well if we were to leave our current host we would need a new one. That would mean monthly costs. I'd say the typical going rate for our needs would be roughly 100 USD a month.

This is completely hypothetical at the moment though. Many things have to be taken into consideration.

[Eighty Swords]

I'm not talking about leaving XS4ALL, they're awesome. I'm suggesting we buy a new pc to put INX on and stay with XS4ALL for the connection. I can't see this costing 4k Shade, I mean the biggest and baddest video cards out there asides from some of the latest Quadros and the NVIDIA CUDA for H264 acceleration are around 500$. And like you said we don't have to go all out since this is just UO.

[imported_Papa Smurf]

I'm not talking about leaving XS4ALL, they're awesome. I'm suggesting we buy a new pc to put INX on and stay with XS4ALL for the connection. I can't see this costing 4k Shade, I mean the biggest and baddest video cards out there asides from some of the latest Quadros and the NVIDIA CUDA for H264 acceleration are around 500$. And like you said we don't have to go all out since this is just UO.

Shade didnt say it would be 4k, I did lol. Yes a nice machince fully built would be like 4k, however the issue isnt the computer as much as it is the connection even tho both play a part.

[imported_Shade]

we cant just send them a desktop computer and say "hey um integrate this with your servers" it doesnt quite work like that. The reason Taran posted those IPs to ping was to get a decent idea as how players would connect to other hosts. This was more or less just to get a feel for possible locations and weigh out our options I believe.

[imported_MadMan]

*Votes for something USA players can have good ping!*

[Eighty Swords]

Shade didnt say it would be 4k, I did lol. Yes a nice machince fully built would be like 4k, however the issue isnt the computer as much as it is the connection even tho both play a part.

Oops my bad saying shade!

Yes we could go for a DELL XPS machine which has always been ridiculously expensive or the top of the line components out there but I don't think we need a 3.2GHz i7 at 1500 dollars or two to three 10k RPM hard drives, or 16GB of RAM.

I just bought a 1TB 7200RPM Western Digital hard drive for 150$ tax included. One of those and we are set for a long long time storage wise.

By the way, I'm talking in Canadian dollars and I could build myself a damn good machine for not even 2k. And then I'd be playing games like Crisis and not UO.

And Shade, what do you think XS4ALL does when they need a new machine? Someone makes it and sets it up

[imported_Odium]

harddrives have dropped so heavily in pricess the last years its insane.

[imported_Sindern]

harddrives have dropped so heavily in pricess the last years its insane.

Ram also. I just upgraded to 8 GB of DDR2 800 RAM for like $80. And I got a 300GB 10,000 RPM hard drive for like $200 (which may seem expensive for the size, but remember it's 10K RPM and makes my apps load like greased lightning.) I have 1.5 TB of external storage that I got for ~150.

[Eighty Swords]

harddrives have dropped so heavily in pricess the last years its insane.

Ram also. I just upgraded to 8 GB of DDR2 800 RAM for like $80. And I got a 300GB 10,000 RPM hard drive for like $200 (which may seem expensive for the size, but remember it's 10K RPM and makes my apps load like greased lightning.) I have 1.5 TB of external storage that I got for ~150.

That's great because I'm going to rebuild my PC soon, probably when Windows 7 is out of beta and for sale, or when i7 mobos come down by at least 100-150$. 400$ for a mobo is just too much!