Ultima has perished

[LilJack]

12 hours ago, SanicTeam said:

That never really crossed my mind the way how people spammed CCA to get to lvl 200. That was the meta ever since due to it being quick LOL. Also another thing i thought of is adding something like daily missions, idk wat the rewards would be but im sure it would be nice for new players.

Having every class on every ID at level 200 is very repetitive... I know people that have a Hucast with all selection IDs and they're all level 200... 

 

If that doesn't say the leveling and exp part of the game is outdated, I don't know what yo tell yah.

 

Daily rewards would be perfect but it couldn't be super OP. Maybe like raffle tickets and then add mini games in that one lobby...

 

Ultima could literally mimic what most free to play mobile games or online games do to keep people playing and keep people active. Even if its just a daily log-in. It's a start.

Edited November 5, 2023 by LilJack
Adding

[Larva]

Hello everyone ! how are you? having fun? or just bored ?

Ultima its what all the members together brings to the community. And we have all kind of members here, those who love to be here, to share and enjoy the server and what we have to offer, and those who like to just been around for nostalgia, and those who like to be around for... i dont know .. maybe it's just part of our life.

 

It's true that we don't have the amount of active players as we did once, I have my thought on that of why that happened but will keep them for myself since I see things from another perspective.

 

Anyway , my two cents .. I always share ultima links and advertise in the forums that im active, maybe you guys shall do the same in the places that you guys hang around. I'm not a social media person , I don' even have tiktok lol.

 

anyway thanks for been around, we are few but still present.  !!!

[C01D1]

5 hours ago, Larva said:

Hello everyone ! how are you? having fun? or just bored ?

Ultima its what all the members together brings to the community. And we have all kind of members here, those who love to be here, to share and enjoy the server and what we have to offer, and those who like to just been around for nostalgia, and those who like to be around for... i dont know .. maybe it's just part of our life.

 

It's true that we don't have the amount of active players as we did once, I have my thought on that of why that happened but will keep them for myself since I see things from another perspective.

 

Anyway , my two cents .. I always share ultima links and advertise in the forums that im active, maybe you guys shall do the same in the places that you guys hang around. I'm not a social media person , I don' even have tiktok lol.

 

anyway thanks for been around, we are few but still present.  !!!

Hey Larva, thanks for chiming in. I personally don't think Ultima is dead at all and appreciate you even still hosting it. Certainly not when people still care enough to talk about it even if its negative heh. The community is small but passionate. I do however think that bringing in some new staff with fresh ideas will increase community engagement and QOL. We also need to get some of the items fixed up like Ultima Bringers. We also need to really be open to change. This can come as weapon balance and class balance, quests, new events and FORUM contests much like Saith was doing a few years ago. I share the server out where I can, the Ultima trailer still gets views and questions. Cheers.

[777]

I wouldn't necessarily say that Ultima has perished, but rather that it's become a shadow of it's former self — a shell of what it used to be.

And that's for many reasons. Namely because of Ultima's inability to adapt and change. There needs to be a shakeup. And in more ways than one. Where are all of the Ultima staff? Shiida is often-times, the ONLY active GM on the server. If other staff members are unable or unwilling to step up, then there are a handful of select individuals who would be willing to. While we do appreciate all that she does, we can't expect Shiida to carry Ultima on her back forever.

Which leads me to my next point; I believe that it would be beneficial for Ultima at this time for @Larva to elect a staff member to have elevated administrative privileges. More specifically, with the ability to start events in a timely manner. There are players that are very hyped for an event, but if it's delayed passed the expected start date, then their enthusiasm is deflated and their attention will be placed elsewhere. Ultima needs that enthusiasm, and that can be preserved with punctual event start times. Shiida would be the perfect staff member to assume this role.

In the same vein as punctuality, the happy hour changes that were announced 9 months ago have yet to be implemented. The two biggest events of the year are coming — it would be great if the HH changes were active for them.

An Ultima social media/Twitch presence could also be a gamechanger. In the right hands, of course.

Now a few points that I believe would help to bolster player retention; I agree with @C01D1 in that the past forum events were great and were a fun way to keep the community engaged. While it's true that anyone can create such events, 'official' staff ran mini-events would be welcomed.

I've also suggested in the past for 5x exp and/or green names to be turned on during event off-time. This would give players something to do when there's no active event.

[Saber +7]

I remember when there was extra staff that understood the game, had connections with other devs, and generally cared for server quality. 
 

Too bad he was removed by a loud minority that wants a lot for Ultima but has no ability to act on it. 
 

crazy 😂

[C01D1]

Ultima is not dead, it can be improved in many ways for sure however, that is true of most things. Alot of them were noted and honestly are well known. Toxic and inflammatory comments will not change anything and only serve to hurt our small community. Have a problem? Bring forth a solution. Want more players? Share this out there, tell people Ultima exists. Get them in here, help them out and play with them. The only way the community gets bigger here is by all of us doing our parts. Be the change you want to see.

[mudkipzjm]

I can't be bothered to read the rest of the thread but I'll lay my thoughts out. Ultima's decline ultimately boils down to how the server is managed by Larva. It's not OP weapons or any custom stuff, I believe there's an audience for that but it isn't fulfilled by Ultima. It's the silly stuff like PGF being available one month out of the year. It's needing 80 hit just to hit certain enemies, therefore encouraging people to donate. It's the lack of any kind of change to better this server and has just be in the same state it was 3-4 years ago. It's events always starting almost a month late sometimes. It's toxic people, or even worse(such as pedophiles and conspiracy theorists),getting warned 10 times instead of being banned. It's the happy hour system that only encourages playing in 3 hour bursts instead of more often. It's the lack of anything to encourage people to play outside events, since most things worth using are event online. As a (ex)player, it's just obvious there's hardly any effort being put into this server anymore and it'll stay declining in population until there's an effort put forth by Larva to actually listen to his player base and admins who play this game to improve this server. As someone who's probably played close to 20,000 hours, I don't want to see this server die off. I would love to see this server alive again, but just letting it idle isn't going to fix anything.

 

We can complain all we want but ultimately there's little we can do as players. You'd think having your server dwindle down to 10-20 players online would be enough of a kick in the pants to change something but apparently not. Ultima's problem ultimately dwindles down to Larva's inaction to change anything within the server. This isn't a hate post aimed at Larva, it's just stating facts from someone who's put entirely too much time into this game.

Edited November 9, 2023 by mudkipzjm

[LilJack]

20 hours ago, mudkipzjm said:

I can't be bothered to read the rest of the thread but I'll lay my thoughts out. Ultima's decline ultimately boils down to how the server is managed by Larva. It's not OP weapons or any custom stuff, I believe there's an audience for that but it isn't fulfilled by Ultima. It's the silly stuff like PGF being available one month out of the year. It's needing 80 hit just to hit certain enemies, therefore encouraging people to donate. It's the lack of any kind of change to better this server and has just be in the same state it was 3-4 years ago. It's events always starting almost a month late sometimes. It's toxic people, or even worse(such as pedophiles and conspiracy theorists), not getting banned warned 10 times instead of being banned. It's the happy hour system that only encourages playing in 3 hour bursts instead of more often. It's the lack of anything to encourage people to play outside events, since most things worth using are event online. As a (ex)player, it's just obvious there's hardly any effort being put into this server anymore and it'll stay declining in population until there's an effort put forth by Larva to actually listen to his player base and admins who play this game to improve this server. As someone who's probably played close to 20,000 hours, I don't want to see this server die off. I would love to see this server alive again, but just letting it idle isn't going to fix anything.

 

We can complain all we want but ultimate there's little we can do as players. You'd think having your server dwindle down to 10-20 players online would be enough of a kick in the pants to change something but apparently not. Ultima's problem ultimately dwindle down to Larva's inaction to change anything within the server. This isn't a hate post aimed at Larva, it's just stating facts from someone who's put entirely too much time into this game.

 

Hate to say, but I couldn't agree more...

 

What exactly does @Larva need to make the changes? 

 

Is it funding? Is he not making enough money? Do we need to pay a coder to help with adding new content and updating the game play? Are we just not open to making new changes?

 

What do we have to do to get someone who cares? Because the server is definitely overall neglected...

 

That statement has nothing to do with adding new content or making changes to the server. Nothing to do with OP equips or changing drop rates.

 

We don't even have the staff to get events on time.

 

So when it comes to advertising, supposedly posting on forums, and Twitch Streaming... What are we really doing here? Because when people come, they'll stay for a little bit and then realize the server had the Valentine's day event banner for 8 months and was just changed a few weeks ago...

 

Hell, make it a see all tell all. If we need funding for professional advertising. Say that and start a GoFund me on the forms. That would be more proactive than what's happening now.

 

I've lived and played PSO since Dreamcast days. Played through the FSOD days of Gamecube Ep1&2 and BB official Sega servers, and before I went to college in 2012 I was on Schthack's Server.

 

It really does hurt to see something with so much potential - rot.

 

Even now, almost over 20 years later since the original release of PSOBB... THIS server has the potential to make a comeback and have hundreds of players.

 

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for new results. The state of the server won't change until we make changes... and it starts with Leadership-Larva/GMs(hiring new people) and then goes down the line to players and community...

 

That's my 2 cents...

 

Love all you guys.

 

 

[wade1212]

The truth is there are newer better versions to play on either side of the spectrum whether it be more customized or closer to vanilla.  Ultima is stuck in the middle looking old and outdated.  

[kat2388]

 we need  event more active  all time  this event are hARD TO  fram lol

 

[detonator]

I'm just test server player that doesn't have regular game account here, sometimes play here with my friend for fun. mainly playing in other server. i like ultima-exclusive items and ideas and quests, especially Hylian Shield and Virus shield vol-opt are pretty cool.

sorry if my point is worthless or something wrong at all, but from my (non ultima veteran) eyes, there are so many event exclusive items. it's true those items motivate players to play events and i like event-only items too. but if you look back, there are so many unobtainable items till next event starts.

 

In addition, it includes some of significant items such as cent/battle, STA, PGF etc. for me, battle unit is one of the start to play this game. if keeping cent/battle as event exclusive, i think lower tier battle unit should be available for new players with reasnable droprate. (around 70-80% battle speed i'd say.)

about PGF, it's one of goal for this game, ppl who doesn't have yet will want to try for this item someday, but the chance is limited here.

Edited November 8, 2023 by detonator

[LilJack]

My thing is why are they letting the server rot like this...

[ink]

 Drop another ship that can only use item on that ship as a starter player pioneer! 

 

I think most are forgetting a lot of us got older in 15 years , and life changes for a lot of players work commitments family etc.. if you think about it those that started on ultima where perhaps 20's early 30's these players are now 35 , 45 even 50 plus . 

 

But if you had a fresh ship could see a boom in players and a trade market flourish again , thus creating a engaging community. but leave the HH out of it for that ship.

[foiexx]

It’s time to pack it up bitches. Move on.

[theancientsam]

On 11/5/2023 at 1:53 AM, RocketTots said:

I'll play again if emewn is allowed back on forums

this.

 

but also. if we just had a simple way to EARN HAPPY HOURS i think we could fix things. something like 10 roct ultimates need to be complete and server automatically starts happy hour. or perhaps its triggered by a certain number of people logged in. idk what criteria there should be, but if we simply had a way to earn happy hours we could see a lot more engagement