Dear Uthgard Players!

We as Uthgard Staff would like to make this news post to clarify some ongoing issues that will create changes in your life here on Uthgard. First and foremost, we'd like to state that we understand that change, good or bad, can always be difficult. While it would be easy to keep with the status quo, that is not our intention and we will move forward from where we are today. What does that road look like? First, some history.

First announced in 2010, Uthgard Staff announced that we would implement Old Realm Abilities to match a newly established 1.69 patch limit for features. This patch limit was decided after fierce consideration as it is the last patch before New Frontiers. As part of this patch limit includes ToA content, it should be stated that ToA content will not come.

After the announcement, it became clear that we lacked many significant information to be able to successfully recreate a number of abilities that would lead to a system based mostly on guesses from website descriptions and forum posts (and worse: memory). Time and time again, our research into the mechanics of DAoC has shown that memory often leaves out key details and that what "sounds logical" often doesn't pan out with regard to how these things interact with complex systems in DAOC. As a result, we moved Old RA to the low end of the priority scale as it was almost impossible to implement. But as some of you noticed NF RA's don't fit nicely to a server which lacks ToA content. That created a difficult situation for Uthgard.

However, recent breakthroughs in our research have provided more in-depth knowledge and historically accurate representations of a number of abilities that we did not previously have. Therefore, we are announcing that we are going to re-focus our efforts on implementing Old RA's along with our 1.69 patch target.

In addition to Old realm abilities, there are a number of "difficult to swallow" class enhancements that came after 1.69 until 1.80 (or even later) that we have on Uthgard. Many of these changes are listed in our "Downpatch" section of the bug report forum. Most of these changes represent a small change for an overall class but often impact balance in some meaningful way. The change of these abilities will mean you may need to adapt your playstyle or learn to live without a specific comfort that was introduced beyond 1.69.

Some may ask, "But what about customization X, Y, or Z?" For these changes, you should review our "Custom stuff on Uthgard" thread. Generally speaking, if something isn't on this list, it is either an omission or can (and should) be set to be within our patch limit of 1.69. We will further attempt to keep this list minimized. Uthgard will still host own events and offer some custom created content but we will make sure it doesn't interfere with original DAoC as much as e.g. Tajendi items did.

So in short, Uthgard will move to classic DAoC at 1.69 and will leave the rest of New Frontiers stuff behind. It can be a rocky road so be prepared.

Thank you for your continued support. We will see you on the battlefield!

Warm regards,

Your Uthgard Staff.

Haven't even read it and I like what I'm seeing.

Edit: nerdgasm

I owe someone some money. He said as Origins got closer you would announce Old RAs and he was right on the money. Holy crap.

Glad a lot of my chars will be made worthless with Old RAs!

Austerim wrote:Glad a lot of my chars will be made worthless with Old RAs!

I can't wait to see how someone like Zachnafien/Zachnamid likes Ranger/Hunter with See Hidden and no MOS hahahaha

yes ranger can delete imo ^^ and svpstar remember no more viper for infis ^^

To the Staff,

Thank you for this message and update. THIS kind of communication is what most of your player base is looking for... It was very considerate of you to inform us of what to expect and what to look forward to.

Keep up this kind of communication?

dealinjah wrote:yes ranger can delete imo ^^ and svpstar remember no more viper for infis ^^

Fine by me I couldn't care less. When I rolled my inf I had no idea viper even existed since I only had experience with Old RAs.

Why didn't you guys just make a new server if you were going to change everything that uthgard was?
Would have saved you a lot of heart ache and there would be a nice player base for both.

Now it apears the only real way to fix things completely is wipe the server new. Uthgard is almost nothing like it used to be and alot of people that have been here for years have a huge advantage that new payers can never achieve.

It seems to me new players on uth as it is now have it so bad they dont even have a decent chance.

my question to you is, if you were new to uthgard could you handle it the way things are? Im not sure i could.

Thanks Abydos and staff for your continued hard work, dedication and overall awesomeness!

KFC wrote:Why didn't you guys just make a new server if you were going to change everything that uthgard was?
Would have saved you a lot of heart ache and there would be a nice player base for both.

Now it apears the only real way to fix things completely is wipe the server new. Uthgard is almost nothing like it used to be and alot of people that have been here for years have a huge advantage that new payers can never achieve.

It seems to me new players on uth as it is now have it so bad they dont even have a decent chance.

my question to you is, if you were new to uthgard could you handle it the way things are? Im not sure i could.

Are you complaining about the fact, that patchgoal has been stated for long time, players enjoyed that its not done yet, and qq that the server strictly walks towards its aimed patchlevel? lol?

As already asked somewhere else (viewtopic.php?f=15&t=32387): What will happen to the other non-1.69 drops, that are still dropping from mobs in the game? Will you also remove them from the droplist or will they stay as customization? I hope this decision is made soon and not another year later, so players don't have to adapt templates once again.

Dingiva wrote:

KFC wrote:Why didn't you guys just make a new server if you were going to change everything that uthgard was?
Would have saved you a lot of heart ache and there would be a nice player base for both.

Now it apears the only real way to fix things completely is wipe the server new. Uthgard is almost nothing like it used to be and alot of people that have been here for years have a huge advantage that new payers can never achieve.

It seems to me new players on uth as it is now have it so bad they dont even have a decent chance.

my question to you is, if you were new to uthgard could you handle it the way things are? Im not sure i could.

Are you complaining about the fact, that patchgoal has been stated for long time, players enjoyed that its not done yet, and qq that the server strictly walks towards its aimed patchlevel? lol?

No, I'm pointing out new players starting here are at a huge disadvantage isnt this obvious? If the staff wants to make such big changes then they would have to consider wiping the server clean so all are on even playing field. It's already overwhelmingly difficult for new people and now more than ever due to recent changes.

What the staff should have done is implement SI and other goodies THEN take things like taj away, now with no taj how can we expect new people to compete with others who all ready have max all taj ubar gears + realm ranks...

In case you haven't noticed very few players participate in end game pvp its not a welcoming place for newbs. Unless you're already established you're screwed.

What I would do if i were staff is i would make end game pvp more accessible and desirable for newbs instead they are doing the exact opposite, its getting harder and harder with every change to find inc.

Uthgard staff needs to understand that the playerbase is annoyed by the constant nerfs. Removing barrels, removing legendary ingredients, removing recharges, nerfing charged items (and having to farm them again), nerfing horses, removing tajendi, removing flying mounts to the far regions of the realm, removing xpoff (that didnt do anything because its full of graveyards everywhere), removing crafting/cleansing stones, removing trifekta npc, nerfing ra's etc. Constant nerfs makes you feel that you have no progress and you just waste your time. People have worked for their items / their mounts / their templates. You dont even wanna give a free respec when you do important changes - not that i need any cause i can afford, but the lowbies might need (see serenity).

Players feel like they are playing a beta here, all this reminds me why i quit playing 3 years ago.

Where is the problem if people have plat and templates and they are ready to rvr? There is no need for constant farming and constant re-templating chars.

Old RA's wont change anything. SI wont change anything.
Youll never be able to reach that 1035 player record from 2010.

Runis wrote:Youll never be able to reach that 1035 player record from 2010.

That isn't even up to date. They broke 1100 quite a few times this year.