I was asked to provide a summary of changes in recent weeks/months to a friend, so decided to note down some of the changes, and why I think Uthgard is still great and will thrive again.

<Strong and Stable>

I may sound like Thersea May on her election campaign (no pun intended), but one of Uthgard's strongest (and weakest) assets is the GM team. They do not knee jerk to change, but rather ensure the decisions are thorough and thought out. This definetly slows down the progress on new changes, but I am personally in favor of quality over quantity. Their lack of willingness to change in the past and listen to the community has also been their biggest weakness. I believe now they are in favour of creating a good balanced server rather than a strict 1.65 version. All changes come with pros/cons to a particular player, so they have to be calculated and to the best interest of the server.

One thing I wanted to mention was that this is still an MMO game. I often get the impression from people that the server should have less time sinks and be more 'modern'. I believe time sinks are naturally a part of an MMO design, which why it is a delicate matter in changing things such as instant port to RvR zones.

<RvR missions>

Coming soon! I feel these will be a great action starter and positive thing to do when action is low. I am also confident they will be deep with a nice variety of quests, and I know many of the player base are looking forward to them.

<Str/Con & Dex/Qui charge items>

Uthgard now provides the opportunity for all realms to aquire the 75 str con and 75 dex qui charge items. The additional bonus info here is that they are farmable as either solo or duo with the right classes / tactics. The downsider is it appears Albion got the short straw in regards to drop rate % compared to Hibs, but with a little persistence it will drop! The respawns are fairly decent (around 10mins-1hour) on Alb. I was suprised to see that Dur'ek also drops a dex qui cloak (10x charges) which is apparently live like! Look out for the Dur'ek's Guidance Cloak.

<9x Pot charges>

Alchemists can now make 9x buff/pot charges. Combined with a couple of charge items in your inventory, you can easily take 50x of each buff type which is a huge QOL increase (compared in the old days where I could carry 5 of each) on the infiltrator.

<XP & XP items>

I was recently leveling on Hib, and even though i was solo 90% of the time, I was able to hit level 41 within a few days of casual playing. XP rates with the respective frontier bonuses combined with XP items really have improved the experience. 40+ still appears to be a grind, but my advice here is to just go along with it and enjoy the ride to 50. Any 40+ still makes a contribution in RVR, and Alb and Hib definetly invite players LFG (can't say for Mid as i haven't played there on this server). The groups that keep take are often made up of non 50s, and the guard XP can be fairly decent.

<New porter locations>

There are several new port options from CS which cuts down travel time through out the realm. For example, CS to Avalon Marsh. (I'd still love that Camelot to CS porter though).

<RvR BG>

There is a new RvR BG for 48-50s. This was an attempt to get people concentrated in a particular area. I feel the current population is not interested in this type of battle and is more focused around the game play (keep taking etc). Personally I would like to see this removed once the RvR missions come into play.

<Instant RvR zone porters>

You can now instant port into an RvR zone by paying a fee. While I personally think this price is too high at the moment, I can understand why someone would pay (for example if they missed the port and their group was waiting on them to go defend!). Note: The porter is 3 minutes each cycle, which I believe is necessary as part of the game design. I also think the current rate should port you deep into enemy lands.

<Alternative RP bonus zones>

There are varying bonuses in certain RvR zones (Emain, Odins, Hadrians). Currently this doesn't really work due to a lack of dedicated players who want a direct fight. Upon this initial change, there was lots of decent action, especially around AMG Emain. I would expect this to happen once some dedicated players returned.

fremster wrote:<Str/Con & Dex/Qui charge items>

Uthgard now provides the opportunity for all realms to aquire the 75 str con and 75 dex qui charge items. The additional bonus info here is that they are farmable as either solo or duo with the right classes / tactics. .

new Str/con charge item is great, drop rate is rather high, but hardly duoable (except 2 anis) on hib, and that's on the Carribou not the main mob

Some great points... I would also add that autotrain has been removed as a lot of people dont realise this, even though its not a recent change.

I would like to challenge you on one thing though...

I was able to hit level 41 within a few days of casual playing.

I am level 35 on my minstrel and whilst not the best class to exp solo on, its not the worst. I take a red-purple pet and chain Yellow / OJ mobs solo with very little down time. This has been primarily done in the frontiers/BGs where i am benefiting from an exp bonus of somewhere in the region of 30-50% depending on the location.

Whilst there is some dead time obviously (deaths, travel, epic quests, etc) I am on 4 days /played so far. The XP items, whilst ok, rarely seem worth and should only be sought when the item happens to drop from mobs that are worth exping on as well (near an owned keep in the frontiers and of the right con).

I logged on after the XP items change and farmed fariei frogs in snow (blue to 35) for the better part of an hour... think i must have killed almost 60-100 frogs, i wasn't counting. I only got 1 from eye item to turn in during this time and very little mob exp at which point my bags were full so i went to sell up and moved back to OJ mobs with a high level pet so i could see my exp bar move.

I'm not sure that a few days casually playing is sufficient to get to 41 on any class. Depends what you consider 'casual' I guess. I would suggest 2-4 hours a day is pretty casual. Perhaps you mileage is better on an animist/theurgist/cabalist/necro/BD but I would still suggest its likely to be more than 'a few days casual play'.

Obviously... a population and grouping would make this much easier. So fingers crossed that goes up at some point. I have very rarely had a group and certainly no full/ideal groups.

Keeps can be good your right. I spent an hour and a half in the alb BG 2 days ago and we took 3(?) keeps i got a total of 2 bubs and 750 RPs (or something similar) for the guards/keeps and a few actual enemy players who were defending.

If anybody needs a minstrel for a group, please send me a tell here. Ill jump online when i can if needed! anything for a group. Its a bit painfully slow soloing at the moment.

Regarding charges that is a very interesting way for you to word it.

The drop rate is not only significantly higher than live, you will perceive it as lower because you have more items to be dropped (which you noted include both d/q and s/c)

Abydos wrote:Regarding charges that is a very interesting way for you to word it.

The drop rate is not only significantly higher than live, you will perceive it as lower because you have more items to be dropped (which you noted include both d/q and s/c)

I am actually a little curious to how you calculated the drop rate. Based on our private discussion you indicated the amount of times it took to receive the cloak, and based on that number, it would have required thousands of kills to average out as that drop rate %. For all we know, it could have a 50% drop rate on live, and you were "unlucky"

P.s. I feel the drop rate is actually fine considering the mob is killable as small man. If it required a group it would only ever be killed 1x per week on Romu's DR which would make it rather pointless

fremster wrote: For all we know, it could have a 50% drop rate on live, and you were "unlucky"

The actual drop rate is something like that -- however there are other items that can be dropped.

I agree with fremster...I think the difficulty & drop rate are fine for Alb. Overall very fun encounter! I feel like I'm 15 years old and trying to get Mephisto to drop a Shako

Also...are all lvl 51 RoGs not created equally? I've seen some amazing ROGs drop from Dura'ek...just way bigger numbers than other level 51+ FZ mobs...

For the OT...don't forget the static 50% bonus xp to 8 ppl group...

Grahmdal wrote:Also...are all lvl 51 RoGs not created equally? I've seen some amazing ROGs drop from Dura'ek...just way bigger numbers than other level 51+ FZ mobs...

Afaik 51+ ROGs vary greatly. Ever farmed Summoner's Hall or the named in Dodens, Marfach...? They are definitely better than any 51+ ROGs I have ever seen drop in the FZ.

fremster wrote:<RvR BG>

There is a new RvR BG for 48-50s. This was an attempt to get people concentrated in a particular area. I feel the current population is not interested in this type of battle and is more focused around the game play (keep taking etc). Personally I would like to see this removed once the RvR missions come into play.

Most of what they have been doing is great! This however confused me and seemed like such a waste of time, maybe they were thinking this could bring action to DF as well since 2 realms can now have access?

Grahmdal wrote: I feel like I'm 15 years old and trying to get Mephisto to drop a Shako

I lol'd...

About a game seeming "dusty" after a while: Even playing games like SWTOR, Warhammer or others of that genre becomes at some point boring. A nice part of DAoC is its unique RvR system and its very unique atmosphere in the three realms. But after 3-4 chars you have spoken to Taskmasker Traint for already 10923823823 times, you did the same OF/NF xping or glass farming in ToA for the 2093i820938203982323 time.

That being said, even the nicest game will become boring at some point and one needs a "rest from it", at least that's the case for me. So despite the fact that staff might have done some things in a different manner I consider it as a matter of fact that games can't stay fascinating forever, new games come out, cause a hype which will eventually disappear again, and then it happens again, and so on..

Uthgard is not 100% in control of every influence that might come into play here.

How is the economy?

The new str/con item, does it cost much? I would like to buy two.

Prices should come down as more folks farm the mob. Currently looking at 20p for a d/q...haven't seen any s/c yet on hz.

I see in your sig you've got a cabby...it might be quicker to just get down to Dartmoor and join in on the farming. Just bring end pots & make sure the Stone crush like you

Great changes, isn't it ironic that Uthgard now has the settings everyone who favored the other freeshard wished for, and the other freeshard is more live-like and alienating and loosing players with every new massiv change.
Not that we didn't see that coming from the very beginning

@Fremster thanks for the summit, some (older) core changes you should add is det for hybrids and XP grp bonus

Oh and one of the biggest changes that have the most impact for me personally is that all the morons left the server and the forum.

Nerthos wrote:Great changes, isn't it ironic that Uthgard now has the settings everyone who favored the other freeshard wished for, and the other freeshard is more live-like and alienating and loosing players with every new massiv change.
Not that we didn't see that coming from the very beginning

@Fremster thanks for the summit, some (older) core changes you should add is det for hybrids and XP grp bonus

Oh and one of the biggest changes that have the most impact for me personally is that all the morons left the server and the forum.

The other server was always going to fail, it was just a matter of time.
The problem now is that players don't want to return to an empty server. We need to core player base back before the casuals will log on.

fremster wrote:

Nerthos wrote:Great changes, isn't it ironic that Uthgard now has the settings everyone who favored the other freeshard wished for, and the other freeshard is more live-like and alienating and loosing players with every new massiv change.
Not that we didn't see that coming from the very beginning

@Fremster thanks for the summit, some (older) core changes you should add is det for hybrids and XP grp bonus

Oh and one of the biggest changes that have the most impact for me personally is that all the morons left the server and the forum.

The other server was always going to fail, it was just a matter of time.
The problem now is that players don't want to return to an empty server. We need to core player base back before the casuals will log on.

Uthgard2 core player base was rotten from the start, to be honest. Most of them couldn't wait to jump to the next hype train. I've said it before, it was a mix of complete noobs and people who don't want to learn and blame the world for everything + people know how to play the game but love arranged fights and were happy to jump on the other server. I'm not overly optimistic, to be honest. Yes, most people here have a form of addiction to daoc but when everyone gets equipped, when and if population spikes up a bit(probably winter), we'll see the same old whining again. High realm ranks, overpowered classes etc. Naturally, none of those whiners ever invested time or effort to get better or to find people to play with. It doesn't help that we live in an age where people don't understand you can't be the best at everything and it's fine if you lose, so we're lowering the bar on everything and trying to force an equal outcome, which is pretty much impossible.

I hear what you're saying though, there were some decent people and if enough of them return we might have some healthy action going on. Again, I'm not optimistic because whiners and people who want a no inc keep take simulator are the loudest. I don't think this patch level and especially old RAs can keep anyone here for too long.