🚀 go-pugleaf

Lemme start off by saying that I hate it when people post in the wrong
news group. But I feel that a few things need to be addressed in this
post. I'm not an Origin employee, just someone who hates whiners. The UO
Beta was plagued by people like this who didn't understand the term
"BETA". So here goes...


The Bishop of Battle wrote:
> 
>       WARNING!
> 
>       ORIGIN AND EA ARE ABOUT TO SHIP THE FINAL VERSION OF
> ULTIMA ONLINE.
> 
>       ULTIMA ONLINE IS CURRENTLY NOT A _PLAYABLE_ GAME.
> 
> IT HAS CONSTANT SERVER CRASHING

The servers rarely crash, they were being taken down by OSI to do some
code updates. The disclamer that you were supposed to read before you
accepted the terms and conditions to get your account stated that the
servers would be taken down WITHOUT WARNING for updates. 

>CONSTANT CHARACTER WIPING

OSI will not be performing player wipes in the final, the wipes where to
test new code in a freshly reset world.


> AND EXCESSIVE UNPLAYABLE LAG.

You have to realize that the lag was due to the backbone connections
that beta servers had, and the fact that everyone had to sign onto one
server. For the final, there will be 5 sepparate servers that you can
sign onto. Each of these servers are located in various geographical
locations throughout the states. Each will also be using a different
backbone provider, so you will have to do some testing of the different
servers to find which one has the lowest latency.

 
> IF YOU PURCHASE IT, YOU WILL BE PURCHASING AN EARLY ALPHA
> PRODUCT THAT WILL NOT FUNCTION AS ADVERTISED ON THE BOX.

And where did you find this enlightening info? As far as "Early Alpha",
I assume you are refering to the Pre-Alpha that occured almost 18 months
ago. No wonder you think it is unfinished. 

> IT WILL NOT BE PLAYABLE.  THE LAG IS SO EXCESSIVE THAT MANY
> NIGHTS YOU CANNOT EVEN MOVE.

When the lag is at the state that you are refering to, it is because the
developers were running de-bugging code on there servers at the time.
This means that with every instruction of the game code that the servers
would process, it would run a subroutine. This will cause major server
side lag. They have the server code completed now, this will not be an
issue in the final unless you're ISP is hosed.
 
> IT WILL CRASH CONSTANTLY.

Last time I saw a crash was when there were over 3500 people online at
once, the servers are disigned to run smoothly with up to 2500 people
online. Now that there will be multiple servers available, you will not
see that many people online on one server in the final.

> CURRENTLY THE SERVER CRASHES ON
> AN AVERAGE ONCE EVERY FOUR HOURS.  AND WHEN IT CRASHES, YOU
> LOSE AN HOUR OF GAMEPLAY BECAUSE THE SAME GAME FEATURES ARE
> NOT YET FUNCTIONAL.

What part of BETA do you not understand. Beta does not mean that you get
free play of a final product. Beta testing serves the purpose of working
out the bugs in a product. Come on, OSI is a 17 year old game company.
Every one of their games has been top quality (well, maybe not Ultima
1). They aren't gonna run their track record and 2 years of development
by releasing an incomplete product.

> 
> DO NOT PURCHASE THIS EARLY ALPHA PRODUCT.

Final, not Alpha

> THE LONGEST THE SERVER HAS BEEN ONLINE WITHOUT A CRASH IS ONLY
> 16 HOURS.

Downed servers, not crash. A crash is caused by errors in code or
hardware. Downed servers are taken down on purpose. This will not be
happening in the final

 
> YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT.  IT IS AN EARLY
> ALPHA.

It's a Final


> IT WILL NOT FUNCTION AS ADVERTISED.

Yes, it will. It function as advertised even in the Beta.
 
> DON'T FALL VICTIM TO THE HYPE.

Don't fall victim to victims of missinterprated terms like "Beta"