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Ultima Server Is Declining


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This post may be seen as an attempt for drama, but I honestly need to get my thoughts out in the open. I have Ultima's best intentions in mind and honestly it's heartbreaking to see Ultima in the state that it is. I enjoy most of the people here and have fun playing here. This isn't to stir up drama, I only just hope this serves as a wake up call to Larva.

Ultima's lead admin, Larva, is effectively killing his own server. Countless suggestions have been ignored/shot down even though 90% of the server base has backed them. I realize it's his server and he can do whatever he want, but whatever he's doing now is obvious not working. Ultima barely peaks over 50-60 during the week, and that's even with Happy Hour. I've seen others servers, as of lately, peak at almost 150 people, probably more.

Things I see that contribute to its decline:

     Lead admin is hardly around, except during events. Events are often started late/ended late because of this.

     EVP buff is a blatant cash-grab for donations looking into from the outside. It may have no been the intentions of the server, but it drives away people from playing because it just looks like you almost have to donate just to hit anything when starting out.

     Repeat abusers of the forums go unpunished/unbanned. There are users with several warnings who go unbanned or unpunished, therefore leaving them to continue trolling. Perhaps a 3-strike rules within a certain time-frame could be something that could be implemented in the future to prevent frequent abusers.

     End-game gear is event only. PGF is only available during Christmas, a time where many people are busy visiting family over the holidays. Even if you have more time, the rate is usually obscene to where you're lucky if you get one. If you don't have time or aren't lucky enough, you're either forced to trade for one, or just try again next year. It has been suggested countless times to add this to the drop-tables year round, even at a difficult rate, but it's been ignored countless times. This is especially inexcusable when Olga Flow drops nothing 3/4 of the year except when they add event drops to his drop table.

     Lead admin is very impatient. Lately, valid criticisms have been seen as $/%tposting or attempts to cause drama in his eyes. Honest criticism and suggestions have been responded with malice and labeled as $/%tposting even though the original poster had no intentions as such.

 

In conclusion. It's been exhausting as well as almost heart-breaking to see Ultima's status as of the last few months. There has been an increased amount of drama(that I realize I'm guilty of contributing to it), events have been starting/ending late. 5x exp has lasted months at a time. It's all just declining. When I started back in 2015, we had active GMs(Soly, Cyane, and kind of Kajex and Mio), events started on time. Drama was a bit more rare, although it still was pretty prevalent. But now we only really have Mio and R-78(I appreciate them both for putting in the hard work that they do), and drama is almost every other day.

I would LOVE to see this server be the best that it could be, but honestly I'm not sure if it'll even get there at this rate. I reiterate that this isn't a drama post or an attempt to stir up something, it's an honestly post listing grave concerns of a server I've come to know and care about over the almost 4 years I've been here. I don't doubt this'll be deleted/locked soon after posting, but I please encourage Larva to read this with an open heart.

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I posted a suggestion a while back about having a lead admin position, and whilst it got a lot of support, it ultimately didn't go anywhere.

A lot of the current GMs I haven't seen for a long time - if at all. It'd be good to get some new blood in. I'd apply myself, but there doesn't seem to be any way to apply.

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well, all this is true, the last 2 years has always been going down, maybe because of Soly, who probably (dam you lol) got a full time job, and then the huge lack of at least active GM, r -78 cannot be server lifesavers, as Soly was when it came in, it seems that more and more GMs have too much responsibility instead of distributing it to less powerful but active GMs, so at least there is more interaction with the players.
Another turning point is that increasingly the ultima server is just paying to play, increasingly evident, which leads to many moving to other servers.
A major flaw is the placement of new items on the server, which for me should be done in 2 ways:
- a pool to know what the server really needs through the players themselves, but not to spoil the game balance, always leaving the door open for a general improvement of gameplay;
- the placement decided by the owner / gm / developers without any consultation with the players (immediately prevents the drama) where the players decided to use or not;
even though I don't play any other pso server anymore, I see that the server is going back to broombob time or whatever it's called, and most of all the forum is infested with full time idiots who spend all day saying crap , which leads me to spend very little time on the forum because my 10 year old daughter can see what they write.
both the server and the forum are clearly falling

Edited by Ricardo Gomes
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I honestly think we all want the same thing here, I personally know how much work goes with maintaining private servers and yes it is impossible to please everyone I run hundreds of servers and have ran my own private servers in the past where I did it all myself. Everyone wants a voice and all good ideas should be heard. Not all ideas can be executed for many reasons, but if as a community we come to a consensus I think all efforts should be made in order to facilitate such requests. 

We are a passionate bunch, we play here because we choose to, @Larva created the playground in which many of us can fall back in love with the game we remember and cherish, but its easy to see the burn out. We have all been there what starts off as a passion project becomes something much bigger, people with different backgrounds and beliefs, ideas and opinions get involved and before you know you hardly recognize your original vision or even why you put up with it all especially when it spills over into your life.

A shout out is required here, @Larva, @serverus, @R-78, @Soly, @Fyrewolf5 and all the other staff and veteran players that make this possible we as a community appreciate everything you do but we KNOW we can help you make this an even better place to play the game we all know and love. So please lets all stop the fighting, lets try and forget the past or at least learn from it and the way things were and focus on how things can improve and we can improve as a community, this can be a wonderful place again. Cheers.

Edited by C01D1
typo
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I think for a GM to work or any type of admin would need to be someone neutral to the community. As you guys can tell soly is very neutral. He’s not buddy buddy with people. Which is a quality any GM or admin should have. 

 

Just my hunble LGBTQAP opinion. 

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9 minutes ago, C01D1 said:

I honestly think we all want the same thing here, I personally know how much work goes with maintaining private servers and yes it is impossible to please everyone I run hundreds of servers and have ran my own private servers in the past where I did it all myself. Everyone wants a voice and all good ideas should be heard. Not all ideas can be executed for many reasons, but if as a community we come to a consensus I think all efforts should be made in order to facilitate such requests. 

We are a passionate bunch, we play here because we choose to, @Larva created the playground in which many of us can fall back in love with the game we remember and cherish, but its easy to see the burn out. We have all been there what starts off as a passion project becomes something much bigger, people with different backgrounds and beliefs, ideas and opinions get involved and before you know you hardly recognize your original vision or even why you put up with it all especially when it spills over into your life.

A shout out is required here, @Larva, @serverus, @R-78, @Soly, @Fyrewolf5 and all the other staff and veteran players that make this possible we as a community appreciate everything you do but we KNOW we can help you make this an even better place to play the game we all know and love. So please lets all stop the fighting, lets try and forget the past or at least learn from it and the way things were and focus on how things can improve and we can improve as a community, this can be a wonderful place again. Cheers.

Yes, most of us are here because we choose to be. I personally really enjoy the custom quests and gear, as well as the community. The staff has done a lot of work to try and keep the game fresh with the new quests and items. We only ask to be heard and treated fairly. This whole fiasco with Serene Swan has really left some of us feeling completely ripped off. When an item gets added to the game at the start of an event and then changed 3/4 of the way through, especially after being told it would not be changed, it is going to ruffle some feathers. I have personally wasted the first 3 weeks of this event on hunting this item. Would anyone have a problem with allowing us to exchange any Serene Swans drops we've gotten for another event item of similar rarity/value such as Centurion/Battle, Psycho Black Crystal or Soul Booster? Just getting my opinion on the matter out there. Thanks for reading.

**We do appreciate all of the work the staff does, even if we criticize decisions or make a lot of suggestions. Typically we do this to try and help the server grow because we want to stay here and keep having fun!!

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2 hours ago, mudkipzjm said:

This post may be seen as an attempt for drama, but I honestly need to get my thoughts out in the open. I have Ultima's best intentions in mind and honestly it's heartbreaking to see Ultima in the state that it is. I enjoy most of the people here and have fun playing here. This isn't to stir up drama, I only just hope this serves as a wake up call to Larva.

Ultima's lead admin, Larva, is effectively killing his own server. Countless suggestions have been ignored/shot down even though 90% of the server base has backed them. I realize it's his server and he can do whatever he want, but whatever he's doing now is obvious not working. Ultima barely peaks over 50-60 during the week, and that's even with Happy Hour. I've seen others servers, as of lately, peak at almost 150 people, probably more.

Things I see that contribute to its decline:

     Lead admin is hardly around, except during events. Events are often started late/ended late because of this.

     EVP buff is a blatant cash-grab for donations looking into from the outside. It may have no been the intentions of the server, but it drives away people from playing because it just looks like you almost have to donate just to hit anything when starting out.

     Repeat abusers of the forums go unpunished/unbanned. There are users with several warnings who go unbanned or unpunished, therefore leaving them to continue trolling. Perhaps a 3-strike rules within a certain time-frame could be something that could be implemented in the future to prevent frequent abusers.

     End-game gear is event only. PGF is only available during Christmas, a time where many people are busy visiting family over the holidays. Even if you have more time, the rate is usually obscene to where you're lucky if you get one. If you don't have time or aren't lucky enough, you're either forced to trade for one, or just try again next year. It has been suggested countless times to add this to the drop-tables year round, even at a difficult rate, but it's been ignored countless times. This is especially inexcusable when Olga Flow drops nothing 3/4 of the year except when they add event drops to his drop table.

     Lead admin is very impatient. Lately, valid criticisms have been seen as $/%tposting or attempts to cause drama in his eyes. Honest criticism and suggestions have been responded with malice and labeled as $/%tposting even though the original poster had no intentions as such.

 

In conclusion. It's been exhausting as well as almost heart-breaking to see Ultima's status as of the last few months. There has been an increased amount of drama(that I realize I'm guilty of contributing to it), events have been starting/ending late. 5x exp has lasted months at a time. It's all just declining. When I started back in 2015, we had active GMs(Soly, Cyane, and kind of Kajex and Mio), events started on time. Drama was a bit more rare, although it still was pretty prevalent. But now we only really have Mio and R-78(I appreciate them both for putting in the hard work that they do), and drama is almost every other day.

I would LOVE to see this server be the best that it could be, but honestly I'm not sure if it'll even get there at this rate. I reiterate that this isn't a drama post or an attempt to stir up something, it's an honestly post listing grave concerns of a server I've come to know and care about over the almost 4 years I've been here. I don't doubt this'll be deleted/locked soon after posting, but I please encourage Larva to read this with an open heart.

 

Thank you for censoring out all the naughty language.

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I just requested Larva to make it usable by Forces (so back to All classes).

As for the range nerf, here is a picture of the thing

3qCfmQH.png

Is it that big of a nerf? Worth quiting the server? I don't think so, but you tell me...

Peace & love everyone please...

Edited by R-78
And just as a reminder, Serene Swan was NEVER supposed to be both 4x bullets AND rifle range at same time, everyone can make mistakes
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2 minutes ago, R-78 said:

I just requested Larva to make it usable by Forces (so back to All classes).

As for the range nerf, here is a picture of the thing

3qCfmQH.png

Is it that big of a nerf? Worth quiting the server? I don't think so, but you tell me...

Peace & love everyone please...

That is why we love you R-78

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Honestly, I don't mind the idea of exchanging something to increase hit on a weapon, it takes out some of the bullshit RNG of the original game that I've grown tired of over the years.  The way it's handled, however, is as the OP said, very cash grabby.

Ultima's custom items and boosted EXP rate make the game more enjoyable to the jaded player, who enjoyed the game in the heyday during childhood where time was much less of an issue, but is now an adult with full time jobs, and can't play the game like they used to. As with all things, unless something new is thrown into the mix, the appeal of an almost 20 year old game that people played day one on DC in the state of it's last offical form is boring. Nostalgia goggles can only do so much.

Which gets to the point that it makes me sad that Ultima is dying due to a lack of care on the lead admin's neglance. It reminds me of what happened on Schtserv before it went boom, albeit with less of Lee's pompus "I'm better than everyone so shut up and don't complain" attitude. I don't want to go back to relatively pure vanilla server like Ephinea (note I said relativly), or an acutal pure vanilla server because the person running it can't care for it properly.

 

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If I may be frank, I have to agree that there is a moderate decline in the player base since I have started. I understand many changes are made periodically, however there are a few things that I do not agree with, or cannot argue in the defense of Ultima. I am the only remaining person from the group of people I started this server with and at one point deleted my team because everyone else left for various reasons and grievances to other servers. I understand the staff are hard at work for the things that we do enjoy and I am very appreciative, but to be honest I rarely play as there just isn't much to keep us going outside of varying hunts with occasional new items.  When I started there was on average 80+ players always on. Now there is barely over 40. Please know this is not an attack. Just simply my observations and personal experiences. Here is a list of things I do not agree with or have personally been opposed to in discussions:

1. The refusal to make certain changes based on the lack of source code. Honestly, while I understand the legality behind it, there are servers who have acquired it through other means and make otherwise impossible changes to level designs, weapon skins, create entirely new weapons. The selling points of some of these servers is that they will go out of their way to do the very things that the staff of this server outright refuse to do and silence people on it. If SEGA  honestly cared what happened, then all of these servers would not exist without paying SEGA some sort of royalties. Clearly they let this game die in their eyes with the Dreamcast and they ignore the clear abuse of the copyright for this game. 

2. Change to veteran status. The definition of veteran on Ultima is clearly different than what the definition actually is now. Not that this status means much on here anyways, for one reason or another, but Logging in one day to realize that the amount of time and money I have dedicated to this server means that I get what little bit I have taken away is a little irritating.

3. Ideas go ignored. I understand that not all ideas are good, fair, or possible based on the rules and guidelines set forth by the server and lack of source code. However, many good ideas just get lost and ignored all the time. This is not a cry for PGF to drop year round. I have made a post on that already, but it must be acknowledged that if not all, most other servers do make it a year round drop at a much more reasonable rate compared even to our Christmas drop rate during HH.

4. PGF and other 1 time a year drop items. These items should not be at a  drop rate during 3-5 weeks of a year that it cost $250+ USD dollars. If it is going to be exclusive to Christmas, then compensate the drop rates accordingly to where they become more accessible and drop the actual cost of these items. At one point I know you could donate for things like STA or PGF, but now I do not think you can anymore. This is a clear cash grab and is not needed. You could ask for donations by other means. You already do to add hit or percents to weapons. You also took away the hit events that used to exist with older GMs.

5. Punishment is not consistent. I won't name anyone in particular, but certain people are still allowed to post and be toxic, but others have been banned for less. I may speak for myself, but punish equally and fairly. If you are going to ban someone for something, but let someone else stay because they do other things equally as toxic or unacceptable, but was not the exact same thing, then why punish players to begin with. 

6. Criticism = Malice. Again I have to agree here. Constructive criticism and or a calling out for lack of consistency in punishment or timeliness for events just get people told to stop talking about it and posts get locked by admin. If you are going to be in charge of things, then take the constructive criticism. This is not in any way approval for being attacked, but there is a clear difference in a toxic player being a downright jerk for no reason, and players with legitimate concerns or issues. If you cannot handle it, then honestly find someone else who can. It isn't fair to silence the people voicing legitimate complaints just because the staff doesn't like what is being said or do not care. 

7. Toxic player base and staff that back down. This point is more at the player base that all they do is live to complain rather than staff. Honestly just leave if you cannot handle a simple discussion. It completely dumbfounds that we can't get new items and ideas without someone crying. The overwhelming majority of players on here are grown adults. Let us please act as such. For the staff, if you say an item won't change then don't change it. You have the complete ability to reserve items to GMs only and have them test the items extensively before release. If you test them and think they are fine, then leave it at that. It really looks bad with r-78 locked posts saying Serene Swan won't change, then Larva says the same thing, and then not even a day or two later Larva changes his mind. That doesn't make it look any better on the GM who just had the top dog defend them just to turn around and pull the rug out from underneath them.

Again this is not a personal attack towards anyone or any group. Please do not read it as such. If you made it through all of this and still feel offended after I specified twice that this is merely an opinion based on observation and personal experience in the now 6 or 7 years I have been on this server and apart of the community, then honestly I don't care and you probably needed it. This isn't being toxic, this is just being honest. Thank you all who took the time to read this and did not take offense. I will not try to argue these points nor debate them. If you disagree, then I will simply agree to disagree with you and move on from there.

 

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