Genocide Pete
Adept
UOF's keg system adds a significant amount of tedium and frustration to the game and should be overhauled for better player retention and ease of use. The current system has the following negative aspects:
"But making kegs less useful will hurt crafters!"
Players should not have to deal with a clunky, archaic resource system in order to give crafters an item to sell; this would be akin to eschewing motor vehicles for the sake of people who make a living giving horse-and-buggy rides. However, if keg selling is truly so important to the economy, we can instead force players to buy crafted empty bottles from other players. This would give crafters their sellable trinket while allowing for the transition to a better system.
"Doing this would make the donation butler useless!"
I understand the need and desire to make money, but using a bad resource system in order to encourage players to donate and sidestep that bad system is a manipulative way to go about it and doesn't reflect well on the server. After this change is made, players who own a butler should have the option to have their donation coins refunded if they don't wish to keep their butler (though butlers would still be the fastest way to restock and still essentially act as a house extension by storing items).
"This would allow PVPers to reequip and get back into the field too quickly!"
Any argument in this vein equally applies to the butler. After all, if quickly restocking after death is an issue, then what sense does it make to offer the butler which enables exactly that? Either way, this argument is moot when players are allowed three accounts with which to bring in fully-stocked alts after death.
"PVP isn't our top priority!"
That may be true, but this affects all players to some degree, and it makes little sense to alienate a certain type of player over a poor design choice that should be fixed regardless. The more appealing the server becomes, the better off we all are.
- Storing loot and restocking takes much longer than it should. Most PVPers carry over 100 potions, which means they'll be clicking away on kegs for at least a full minute to restock.
- Kegs (especially the small 100-limit kegs on UOF) add clutter to houses and needlessly increase the server item count, potentially increasing the duration of server saves.
- The restocking and storage macros needed to navigate this system are more complicated than they would otherwise need to be and may be out of reach for those with little coding experience.
- It gives the impression that UOF administration is intentionally employing a bad system in order to impel players to donate for a butler.
"But making kegs less useful will hurt crafters!"
Players should not have to deal with a clunky, archaic resource system in order to give crafters an item to sell; this would be akin to eschewing motor vehicles for the sake of people who make a living giving horse-and-buggy rides. However, if keg selling is truly so important to the economy, we can instead force players to buy crafted empty bottles from other players. This would give crafters their sellable trinket while allowing for the transition to a better system.
"Doing this would make the donation butler useless!"
I understand the need and desire to make money, but using a bad resource system in order to encourage players to donate and sidestep that bad system is a manipulative way to go about it and doesn't reflect well on the server. After this change is made, players who own a butler should have the option to have their donation coins refunded if they don't wish to keep their butler (though butlers would still be the fastest way to restock and still essentially act as a house extension by storing items).
"This would allow PVPers to reequip and get back into the field too quickly!"
Any argument in this vein equally applies to the butler. After all, if quickly restocking after death is an issue, then what sense does it make to offer the butler which enables exactly that? Either way, this argument is moot when players are allowed three accounts with which to bring in fully-stocked alts after death.
"PVP isn't our top priority!"
That may be true, but this affects all players to some degree, and it makes little sense to alienate a certain type of player over a poor design choice that should be fixed regardless. The more appealing the server becomes, the better off we all are.
!!!