How to attract new players

[SlobberKnocker]

im starting this thread in the hopes that we can have a rationale discussion on how to beef up the player base.

Lately it seems most shards with the exception of Atlantic have seen a sharp reduction in the player base.

Is there a way to attract new players or has UO pretty much run its course?

A free to play model may be ideal in that it will allow new players to experience UO on a basic level. this game is quite complicated in regards to armor and crafting that maybe allowing a free limited experience to the game will give new players a chance to stick there toe in the water.

The loyal player base in my opinion does a great job in servicing the UO community and I think you would find quite a few guilds, be it RP guys or just solid trammel guilds looking to help a new generation of player get on its feet.

I'm not a facebook guy and I know we have a presence there so maybe that's a good way to attract people.

discuss and try to keep the thread clean of the usual debates of tram vs fel or classic vs ec.

thanks.

 

[Doubleplay]

Contract with X-box or Nintendo. You might pick up a few players that way.....

 

[Gb8719]

Free month with the purchase of Ultima Forever.

If that game takes off than it will [hopefully] contribute towards a revitalized interest in the Ultima series.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

I have guys in my guild that are playing swtor which is free to download and play. according to them it gets a fair amount of players at least initially. as to how many upgrade i'm not sure.

i'm also thinking that some of the old content that players find desireable, i.e. conjurors garbs, trinkets, dread mare's etc should be made again available in some form especially given the recent inflationary prices of some of these items. whether that be the ability to farm for them in game or via the uo store.

in the past the argument was that this was the reward for playing so long but given the current state of the player base i'm not sure I subscribe to this theory any longer.

 

[kongomongo]

For new players I think the EC is just better to get started, they get a nice tutorial, they have all these helpers etc.

It would really help for new players if they weren't presented with such poor default settings...
I mean, yes the graphics are "classic" and nothing too fancy, but still.
Just look at this:

Standard:

Correct zoom value:

Why do we have to shock people with such pixelated crap?

 

[Shakkara]

1) Make it easy to actually reactivate an old account from 10 years ago.
2) Fix the creditcards being rejected and throwing unknown errors for no reason.
3) Send quarterly emails with all the news and updates to all current and former subscribers.
4) Include link to re-subscribe with one easy click and give a once-per person discount if they do.

 

[Tina Small]

If I were in charge of trying to increase the number of active UO subscriptions, I would do the following, none of which requires any changes in the game itself (no extra work for the dev team) nor asks for players themselves to do anything extra:

1. Provide clearer information and instructions (with examples) on the uo.com website and the account management website to help returning players figure out how to reactivate UO accounts that were last active before UO accounts were moved to the current account management system.
2. Create an English version and a Japanese version of a "welcome back" letter that is e-mailed to a player whenever they reactivate an account that has been closed for more than two years. The "welcome back" letter would give a high-level summary of events and changes that have occurred in UO for the last 10 years. It would also suggest that the player visit UO fan sites for more information and provide a link to the Fan Site section of the uo.com site.
3. Add some basic navigation controls and a search feature to the Player's Guide that you find on the official website ( http://www.uo.com/Players-Guide ). In my opinion, it's almost useless at this point because very few people will want to use it for long without being able to easily page through it or quickly search for something that they knew they read there or that they hope is mentioned in the guide.
4. Make sure that the welcome letter that is sent to the owner of a newly-created account includes some basic information about the New Player Starter Kit (http://www.uoguide.com/New_Player_Starter_Kit_Token ) and also make sure the Kit has its own section in the Player's Guide on the official website.
5. Restore old publish notes and announcements to the official website or at the very least, include some kind of notice that indicates EA asked Stratics to archive the older information for them and provide a link to that archive. Also, at the present time, the official game announcements on the uo.com website really only go back to January 2012, with a few odds and ends announcements that are slightly older. If you go to the Stratics archive, you find that the most recent publish notes included in the archive are from October 13, 2010. So I would also either add the missing official publish notes and announcements to the official website or make sure they are passed on to Stratics to add to the "archives."
6. Arrange interviews with gaming websites to talk about UO.

 

[Shakkara]

Oh and...

5) 720 skillcap for everyone immediately.
6) +5 statcap after 3 months instead of 6.

 

[Theo_GL]

im starting this thread in the hopes that we can have a rationale discussion on how to beef up the player base.

Lately it seems most shards with the exception of Atlantic have seen a sharp reduction in the player base.

Is there a way to attract new players or has UO pretty much run its course?

A free to play model may be ideal in that it will allow new players to experience UO on a basic level. this game is quite complicated in regards to armor and crafting that maybe allowing a free limited experience to the game will give new players a chance to stick there toe in the water.

The loyal player base in my opinion does a great job in servicing the UO community and I think you would find quite a few guilds, be it RP guys or just solid trammel guilds looking to help a new generation of player get on its feet.

I'm not a facebook guy and I know we have a presence there so maybe that's a good way to attract people.

discuss and try to keep the thread clean of the usual debates of tram vs fel or classic vs ec.

thanks.

It is fairly simple and they have done the exact opposite.
1 - Make it easier to understand/play (instead added reforging, shame loot, etc all making it complex and expensive to gearing up a new player - you need a math degree to understand armor)
2 - Make the game friendlier to new players adding player guides, prebuilt templates and new player quest engine. (instead added quests with no purpose/path, starting gear is crap, easy dungeons replaced with harder encounters limiting new player skill building areas, global chat for new players is defeating - imagine logging in with 1k gold and players advertising items for 50-100m gold...how defeating is that??)

 

[Cetric]

UO2.

Take UOs core concepts in pve/pvp and build on them. Take into account the tried and trues and the tried and failures. Build it on a modern engine so it looks new and feels real. Rebrand it as Ultima Online: Reborn

This will draw in new blood and current/old blood. The people that loved what UO was, the people that want and beg for new graphics and engines, the people that hate the fact there are 10k different item properties in todays UO, the people that left because cheating got too rampant, and the people that left because UO wasn't properly looked after. Market it properly and heavily to compete and be better than every other MMO in todays market. This could wipe out all of the bad ideas from past developers who thought they had "the best idea ever" and give opportunity to look in the mirror and ask if i was to go back in time and change something that was done or wasn't done in UO, what would it be?

Too many are fond of what UO was and the current gang of devs, no offense to them and to no fault of their own, are just tossing in content to keep the game floating rather than equipping it with the sail it needs to maintain - at some point, the boat isn't worth repairing anymore and its time to buy a new one, or at least take what you had and refinish it. How many games have come out saying "we are going to ahve an open world like ultima online", they gain a huge amount of media because they said they were going to do that, but ultimately it isn't a huge success because it IS NOT ultima online. UO has some of the best pvp content in gaming as strange as it sounds. You take what it has, you build on it with new content like castles, wars, and siege weapons, and you have a recipe for HUGE success to the pvp users. The pvm/pvp world is immense and its core concepts can be pushed on. Its history and lore have enough backing to create another world that the players who play games for lore and questing could flourish... but the current/original game is beaten to death by crappy content, broken systems, and bad management.

It is my opinion that the true problem with adding new players is:

1. UO doesn't apss the eye test, and the game is beyond fixing with new graphics and engines. We all know UO is a good game, but a new player sits down and looks at it like they just plugged in a nintendo, or with the "enhanced client" a nintendo 64.. They have seen the WoW comemrcials, they have trialed Diablo 3, they know what a half ass and decent game "looks like" and when they see UO they don't understand. Its an unfortunate reality. In a world where games like call of duty and skyrim can look so immense and realistic, a game with UOs camera angle, horrid resolutions, blurred graphics (looking at you EC), and little things that msot of you do not realize like server line issues, all have an effect on a new player. I'd laugh to if i played a game with an immense world like skyrim, that runs on a disc on a console, yet get in UO and my stats disappear and come back everytime i cross a server line.

2. Learning Curve. There is too great a learning curve now, and that is irreversible. There are too many items, properties, advantages and disadvantages, etc etc in this game that a new player will not wrap its head around. a veteran can look at a weapon with 15 item properties and know it is junk, but see a kryss with 3 properties and know it is worth using and worth 500mil. A veteran knows how to use and abuse game emchanics, to pull the strings and work the systems. How to target a weakness and abuse it rather than have its enemies strength overpower. Many games are like this, but UOs age has taken its tole. There are even small things that many veterans don't realize are very cumbersome. When i first started playing UO, for the first few weeks the furthest i journeyed was despise, and i didn't realize there was an ability to heal outside of heal potions. then i discovered bandages, and eventually magic. Does anyone realize how much content is in this game now? It would take months to even have a semi-firm grasp on what is available to someone. and where do you go to learn it? hopefully you stumble upon stratics and uoguide to help you, because uo has nearly zero reference to most of its own content.

3. Economy. I brought an IRL friend back to UO, and as soon as he realized that anything worth owning cost 25, 50, 75, 500mil, and wasn't interested in powergaming to make up for lost time, he quickly went back and cancelled his acct.

4. Marketing/Csutomer service. That same friend could not figure out how to get his account running. Calling EA led him on a wild goose chase of customer service reps that didn't know their own company had anything to do with UO (someone said they used to play it, but didn't realize the company he worked for supported it).


Bring on the new game...

...Best game ever

 

[Cetric]

imagine logging in with 1k gold and players advertising items for 50-100m gold...how defeating is that??)

But they gave out a bunch of crap armor and 10k gold to help counter act that, remember?

 

[yars]

Let's give them a lantern,and some event item with a long gone EM 's name on it then teach them how to spam in general chat,bam they got enough gold to start

 

[cazador]

Erase tram and fel all together start over, merge shards US East,US West, US Central..create a new land mass where trammel/Felucca are "One" use moon phases to differ which you are in..combine lands and shrink some of the less useful areas..one area for housing in guard zone..makes for consensual pvp via guild wars/order/chaos whatever..on the fel moon phase you have access to a battlegrounds area that is vast has 3 champ spawns and no housing, reds are allowed on trammel moon phase except again negative acts are disabled unless combat is initiated by the innocent party..impossible for a red to attack a blue within the trammel moon phase but not vice versa..and once all that's done..you've created UO2..:cheers:

 

[The Zog historian]

Erase tram and fel all together start over, merge shards US East,US West, US Central..create a new land mass where trammel/Felucca are "One" use moon phases to differ which you are in..combine lands and shrink some of the less useful areas..one area for housing in guard zone..makes for consensual pvp via guild wars/order/chaos whatever..on the fel moon phase you have access to a battlegrounds area that is vast has 3 champ spawns and no housing, reds are allowed on trammel moon phase except again negative acts are disabled unless combat is initiated by the innocent party..impossible for a red to attack a blue within the trammel moon phase but not vice versa..and once all that's done..you've created UO2..:cheers:

This is as much of a "NO WAY," even if it were technically possible, as the proposal to combine shards.

Not going to happen.

 

[cazador]

This is as much of a "NO WAY," even if it were technically possible, as the proposal to combine shards.

Not going to happen.

Ya in all honesty I'm not looking for people to like or even comment on it..just stating my opinion dislike it or not..and it would be quite possible, but extremely improbable because we all know the way the game is, is the way it will be till it's dead

 

[The Zog historian]

It's one thing to offer an opinion, but another to offer a suggestion that isn't worth the pixels on anyone's screen. Didn't you consider that your proposal would never happen, for the mere fact of forcing players to uproot?

 

[cazador]

It's one thing to offer an opinion, but another to offer a suggestion that isn't worth the pixels on anyone's screen. Didn't you consider that your proposal would never happen, for the mere fact of forcing players to uproot?

Noted! Thank you for your unwanted feedback..now move along

 

[Swordsman]

adding more solo-able boss types so that players can play on their own any time, the need to wait for other players on line is a big issue.

 

[cazador]

adding more solo-able boss types so that players can play on their own any time, the need to wait for other players on line is a big issue.

What do you need a group to kill? Maybe just exodus and his best drop is only worth 10m or so..not even worth doing

 

[The Zog historian]

Noted! Thank you for your unwanted feedback..now move along

You offered. Don't expect that you won't be called out on the absurd.

Now let's try to stick to things that would actually work, ok? We already have a thread whose proposal for death would ensure no new players would bother past the first day.

 

[Cadderly]

Turn UO into a pyramid scheme. Pay the players to make this game active again. What better advertising is there then making the current subscribers do the sales work and pay them a commission all the while getting new subscription fees to pay for it all.

I'm assuming I don't need to explain how pyramid schemes work but hearing the phrase "Get paid to play a game" would attract players.

 

[Viper09]

I think adding this game to Steam would do a lot to bring in more people. But I know EA has their own version of steam so that's out of the window already.

Other idea is advertisement. Can't attract new players if no one knows about this game.

 

[yars]

I think adding this game to Steam would do a lot to bring in more people. But I know EA has their own version of steam so that's out of the window already.

Other idea is advertisement. Can't attract new players if no one knows about this game.

And while your at it,allow modding

 

[FrejaSP]

- Allow them to see Siege on the shard list and to make a char there without losing their young status on normal shards.
- Pop up a help message like on TC, with most needed comands, like bank, stable, house secure, taming, ship, chat comands. UO have alot commands, you have to know to play. So whan a player say help, he will get a popup telling him to say "help chat", "help NPC's", "help house", "help taming" etc, I'm sure older player would use that help too. I have seen returning players, who have no idea how to use global chat. Sometimes they har turned off the top bar in CC and can't find the chat option.
- A world map in CC client, that show the facets and where to find moongates teleporters and towns.
- Now where we got town stones, let the players have a "home" comand /icon, that will return them to the town they are loyal too after a small delay and not flaged aggressore/crim. For young players, that should ne New Haven until they choose loyallity to a different town. For Siege and older accounts, it should be the town they was born in.

I would like to hear, what people found hard, when they started. That could help the devs make the start easier and sure we need to remember returning players too.

 

[Nexus]

im starting this thread in the hopes that we can have a rationale discussion on how to beef up the player base.

Lately it seems most shards with the exception of Atlantic have seen a sharp reduction in the player base.

Is there a way to attract new players or has UO pretty much run its course?

A free to play model may be ideal in that it will allow new players to experience UO on a basic level. this game is quite complicated in regards to armor and crafting that maybe allowing a free limited experience to the game will give new players a chance to stick there toe in the water.

The loyal player base in my opinion does a great job in servicing the UO community and I think you would find quite a few guilds, be it RP guys or just solid trammel guilds looking to help a new generation of player get on its feet.

I'm not a facebook guy and I know we have a presence there so maybe that's a good way to attract people.

discuss and try to keep the thread clean of the usual debates of tram vs fel or classic vs ec.

thanks.

Keeping existing players these days is probably much less of an issue, the majority of players are those that have been playing for years already. The biggest issue I see is the game is leaking players that are not being replaced by new/returning blood at the same or faster rate, and at the moment I do not see this changing.

What I see UO needing:

1. Better Customer Support - Currently UO shares much of it's support with other titles and on top of that the Acct. Management is a nightmare.
2. A Complete Overhaul - You cannot expect the game to live on "Nostalgia" or simply due to depth. In todays market that is still an incomplete game. This game needs a modern Client that surpasses even what the EC delivers. Marketing is pointless when you have nothing visual to sell, and today in an age of easy access to various media you cannot stack UO up beside any AAA MMO and expect someone with no familiarity with the title to say it looks "Good". EQ is almost as old as UO and it even looks better than the EC for the most part.

Until both of those are fixed I've come to the point where I feel that any discussion on "Fixing" UO is pointless, those are the two major complaints I hear from the community and people I try to introduce to the game.

 

[Hannes Erich]

Steam.

 

[Gb8719]

I had 2 real life friends recently attempt to play the game after hearing me describe it on two separate situations.

The first one said he got excited, figured out what kind of character he wanted to play, logged in on a trial account and then "I uninstalled the game after I realized I had no idea what I was doing and couldn't figure it out." Apparently he was wandering around new haven trying to figure out how to pick items up and then ran out of town and tried attacking something with no idea how to engage in combat.

The second was successful in working a character up. Got magery up pretty high from casting it a lot. He then asked "What next?" I didn't have much of an answer. I told him to find a place to hunt. He asked what items he should look for and how to get high end loot. I think it was shortly after I explained that the "artifacts" that you get are at a complete randomness or far out of his reach from achieving (peerless, etc.) and when I tried explaining the new Shame/Wrong loot system that he lost interested and just stopped playing.

Here's two problems. Fix those and you might have luck once you actually get a new player to start to actually continue playing.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

We know that the vast majority of the 65,000 citizens of Britannia are having a great time. Over 50% of the registered users play every day. On average people are playing for 3-4 hours every day. These figures are far in excess of our original projections and far more than any other online game before Ultima Online. Clearly, people love this game.
what a quote. in reading the letter you definitely get the feel that this is a genuine population and playtime synopsis.

I must say i'm really happy with the responses so far. i'm not sold on a whole client upgrade. I think the retro-ness of UO could be a major selling point.

one of the poster's above made what I thought to be a huge issue and that is UO's price of entry for a new player. A guy tries the game, starts building a character and gets a load of the prices for some of the core pieces needed to compete and immediately faces an obstacle that's quite difficult to overcome.

I think this is the major point. how do you incorporate new players in the game and give them a sense that after 4-6 months they will be on even par with those that have played since inception. After all, this is a game, not a life. The long time vets can still get their rewards. outside of cool mount there's nothing in the rewards that really skews game play.

 

[Shakkara]

I think this is the major point. how do you incorporate new players in the game and give them a sense that after 4-6 months they will be on even par with those that have played since inception. After all, this is a game, not a life. The long time vets can still get their rewards. outside of cool mount there's nothing in the rewards that really skews game play.

The main problem is the typical mudflation arms run that the game has fallen into since AOS.

We got the gear/stats threadmill introduced there and ever since the whole game depends on this threadmill. The problem is, that players play and after a few weeks/months they have earned the new stuff. Then they have no goal, so the devs add new and better items for players to work for. So they play for another few weeks/months to get that stuff too, and get bored again. So the devs add another and another...

Ok so this works to a degree as it gives the vets something to do. Here comes the new player... Instead of having the content handed to him in bite-size chunks, he now faces a progression cliff that takes years to scale:

• Getting 720 skills takes 4 years
• Getting the +5 stats takes 6 months
• He must train his skills from nothing to 100. Good luck, tamers, thieves and artificers!
• He must then shelf out millions of gold to get the 120 powerscrolls for essential skills.
• Then the skills must be trained from 100 to 120.
• He must buy a +25 stat scroll
• Just for good measure, get a scroll of commendation too!
• Having all 70's and 40 LMC on your suit is mandatory now regardless of template! Too bad, you can't easily craft this and the loot of everything you can kill sucks balls.
• Having 100% LRC on your suit is also mandatory if you do anything with casting! Too bad, you can't easily craft one and the loot of everything you can kill sucks balls. Fortunately players sell them cheaply or give them to you. Unless the shard you start playing on is dead, whoopsie.
• Having 45HCI/DCI, and at least 160 stamina is mandatory if you want to do anything close-combat related! Too bad, you can't easily craft this stuff, and the loot of everything you can kill sucks balls.
• Want to craft something for your own personal use? Sorry come back when you have GM+ imbuing. Too bad it costs tens of millions in gems and resources to train it.
• Buy a charger of the fallen for real money, cause you can't ride ethy's!

Good luck getting there with 10k GP and a bad suit.

Normal MMOs would address this problem by hitting the giant reset switch every few years and simply increase their level cap. BOOM all gear and stuff is now useless, everyone has to start on the threadmill again!

 

[SlobberKnocker]

great post.

agree with everything and as such the only way a committed new player gets on par is if he falls in with an established group that essentially pays it forward. shares with him the tricks of skill raising because none of the guides on stratics provides you with the ''harmless cheats'' to skill raise. on top of that donates some scrolls and a suit to help him out.

dungeons are essentially no help for gearing up which makes them useless to goto unless your looking for a clean ssi ring or splintering weapon. the new haven dungeon revamp should have been done this way. new player enters with startup gear. fights monsters and gains skill. on the corpse are pieces that allow him to venture deeper in the dungeon and continue to compete. as he gains skill the loot helps him stay alive. this should be geared to the end game being that when he is at the final point in the dungeon he's essentially gm skills and has gm gear. from there he can venture out into the world.

 

[Theo_GL]

great post.

agree with everything and as such the only way a committed new player gets on par is if he falls in with an established group that essentially pays it forward. shares with him the tricks of skill raising because none of the guides on stratics provides you with the ''harmless cheats'' to skill raise. on top of that donates some scrolls and a suit to help him out.

dungeons are essentially no help for gearing up which makes them useless to goto unless your looking for a clean ssi ring or splintering weapon. the new haven dungeon revamp should have been done this way. new player enters with startup gear. fights monsters and gains skill. on the corpse are pieces that allow him to venture deeper in the dungeon and continue to compete. as he gains skill the loot helps him stay alive. this should be geared to the end game being that when he is at the final point in the dungeon he's essentially gm skills and has gm gear. from there he can venture out into the world.

Like I've said before - game is too complicated. It can still be challenging but streamline the busy work in the game.

In terms of shame loot - complete and utter FAIL. The problem with armor is it is so specialized that unless you get some legendary piece with NO negatives (have yet to see one) all armor combos leave something to be desired so what do you do? Unravel and use relics to imbue custom armor. I have NEVER used a piece of shame loot in my suit. I've been tempted by some jewelry but the imbuing weight is an issue.

What they SHOULD have done - continue the theme of the 'suits' that drop and drop pieces of various suits like a mage suit, tamer suit, etc that is similar to the Socerer suit from the library turn in. This would allow people to grab suits that fit new player templates and some hunting would provide a reasonable suit of armor to play with. Make it so that all pieces are brittle with 100/100 durability. So after awhile they will need to hunt to replace their suit and guess what? New peices will FIT IN!

The existing suit drops are f'ing broke (hunters garb, myramin armor etc) because they are too rare. I have yet to make a full suit of any of those and I've played for 10+ years. How dumb is that? Another broken system that needs fixed. Those pieces should have been buyable from the clean up. Hunt for free or buy your missing pieces for 100k points.

I swear, I should take a massive pay cut and go work for UO for a year and fix all this crap. The current team is clearly not capable.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

there are some excellent posts here in regards to how new players can get upto speed. the other side of the issue is how to attract them. streamlining gear on one side coupled with ftp could be a great way to get people involved. that or possibly combining this with a mobile app to gain access.

 

[Flagg]

For new players I think the EC is just better to get started, they get a nice tutorial, they have all these helpers etc.

No.

Even most rapid defender of EC is quick to explain how the goddamned thing takes a ton of tutorials, youtube video guides, modding, tuning, ini file editing and few hours/days/weeks of " getting used to " to make it good, awesome and playable. New player usually has absolutely no motivation to do any of these things. I can't even imagine how alien, confusing and unnecessarily complex it looks to someone who is new to EC AND new to UO. Classic Client has engine room in demand of few essential tweaks too..but at least for CC, most all of it can be made at your own pace, as your knowledge of game increases. In CC, you become aware of what you are missing only as your understanding of game increases. In EC, it is more of a " what am I supposed to do with all this ****" from get go. EC takes good heaptopn of moderately advanced stuff, modding etc until player stops getting thoughts of causing self harm IRL. Tiniest breeze blown through lips of them gods o fate is what makes player on free trial to dwell further or log out for 1st and last time...EC blows as a storm towards greener pastures.

Tutorial you speak of on the other hand explains literally nothing new players wouldn't be able to figure out just fine. It is the mandkind hating UI pf EC, repairing the default zoom levels etcetcetc that would require tutorial,that is what game would need. What game does not need is a ..handicapped friendly " pick up an apple gooood boy Now click the apple goooood boy - bullshït. " What in name of all the fuks is this terrible confusing UI supposed to be:O:O" is a thought that drives people away. " Aaahhh! How do I interact with objects with my mouse:O:O Since I woke up from 30 year coma only yesterday, I have never used a graphic operating system before and I'm confused" is touch rarer thought I wager.

It'd be nice if Enhanced client were named Advanced Client..more accurate and more indimitating for new players, as it well should be.

Classic Client has UI that is less..invasive. There is (some) depth and some (unnecessary) complexity in it. However, new player has time and room to figure it all out in his own time, as he is learning the game itself. In CC, there is no need to wonder WTH to do with all those empty windows, hooks bells and whistles. It doesn't ask player oddball confusing questions, it doesn't slap you in the face with 2 week old fish type of tips that make no sense. From new player's PIOV, it is less of a pervertic groping uncle.

....Curiously and/or hillariously enough, the fashion Classic UI approaces " action bars" is actually pretty close to highly sophisticated, highly modern, highly modded UI of a modern MMO. (= screw static set-to-stone bars, place buttons anywhere you like to have em in any forms and patters you wish. Do so with ease. This portion, this aspect of CC's UI is more user friendly and innovative than anything vast majority of MMOs offer. EC included. ) My (admittedly pretty limited) experience with EC's UI reminds me more of unimaginative default setting in unimaginative default MMO. (= static big clumsy bars " decorated" with big dumb eyecandy distractions. At best you get to pick if they are horizontal or vertical, that's it. )

 

[Gb8719]

I would disagree.

I find that the EC is more user-friendly to players coming from a game with absolutely no background on Ultima at all. The standard use of hotbars, zoomable map, "Actions" options, easy macro settings, grid system for inventory, etc. etc. All of these are standard in almost every other MMO on the market now. Switching to a system like CC that does not have these features is too much of a shock for players migrating from a game such as WoW, for example.

Although us old time UO users may appreciate the customization and ease that the CC might offer us, the immediate shock of that much customization is likely a big turn off for someone used to a sophisticated and cookie cutter system.

 

[Shakkara]

I disagree Flagg.

For outsiders, the EC is more intuitive/userfriendly because of:
* Hotbar with easy hotkeying
* Full screen play window
* Grid-based inventory system
* Actually able to see something at all on a 1920x1080 screen, which is today's standard
* Integrated world maps
* Some menus and gumps such as the options screen being easier to understand
* Much better performance on modern hardware (Can't run the classic client on any of my 3 newer computers due to terrible graphics lag and cursor hickups)

I've personally been playing vanilla EC for years now, without add-ons of any kind and haven't changed anything except turning always-run on and assigning hotkeys and some simple macros to the hotbar. Not the perfect client I agree, but quite playable. Biggest problem is in the targetting system I think, but that's a problem that is shared in both clients.

 

[Flagg]

Yeah, they are standards. Underneath everything, both clients of UO are flesh on top of 15 year old bones. UO's take, attempt to reach for modern " standards" is imo very much the wrong way to go. It just won't happen. It doesn't have to happen. It is not a race UO should participate. It is not where UO's power is vested. UO is old school and should be so with pride, not make weak attempts to emulate modern counterparts so far apart they aren't even competitors anymore.

For example, an inventory tied to grid gives much more restricted, static, common and boring first impression of UO and it's item managment than erm..freedom, dynamics, and responsibility you get with CC's inventory free of such chains. ( And yes yes, you can have a touch clunky version of that very same Inv for EC as well, I know well. We speak of 1st impressions here though. )


For UIs..and for purposes of the whole CC vs EC through eyes of a brand new player -type of a debate as a whole, imo it is relevant question to ask which car looks more..appealing,dignified and interesting to drive in 2013: Classic Ford T Model from 1920s or a Ford Escort from 1989. Latter offers most of the luxuries, functions and features your current car does. Most all of them in slightly obsolete and clunky fashion but hay, it's there. Former on the other hand.. would make a very interesting, vintage and authentic experience in 2013.

 

[Shakkara]

This is the size of my screen scaled down by 50%. CC's inventory and game screen on the left. EC's inventory on the right. The inventory alone has nearly as many pixels as the entire CC's game window screen! Picking up something from the ground in the CC is almost impossible, let alone finding it back in the post-stamp inventory... It may be pretty and cute, but it is totally unplayable!

 

[Flagg]

Gnhh that depressing grid. It reminds me of covers of notebooks I'd always use in highschool. I used to draw a certain vulgar image in each of the grid of my notebook for Swedish language 101. Good times. It took considerable determination and tells one much about 14 year old boys!

I don't get the complaints regarding windowsize on CC. On my desktop screen, actual game window of CC is much larger than any of the laptops (not laptop screens, actual laptops ) I've ever used. Game window on modern screen is surely some..what, 1.75 x larger than it was ever ment to be. Yet, I see absolutely no bothersome amounts of pixelation or comparable messes. All our eyes bleed to different thins I guess. I can def imagine this being a problem of sorts if one is playing from laptop etc. I personally hate just about every in-game screen if I have to look it through my stamp sized laptop.

 

[Shakkara]

Gnhh that depressing grid. It reminds me of covers of notebooks I'd always use in highschool. I used to draw a certain vulgar image in each of the grid of my notebook for Swedish language 101. Good times. It took considerable determination and tells one much about 14 year old boys!

I don't get the complaints regarding windowsize on CC. On my desktop screen, actual game window of CC is much larger than any of the laptops (not laptop screens, actual laptops ) I've ever used. Game window on modern screen is surely some..what, 1.75 x larger than it was ever ment to be. Yet, I see absolutely no bothersome amounts of pixelation or comparable messes. All our eyes bleed to different thins I guess. I can def imagine this being a problem of sorts if one is playing from laptop etc. I personally hate just about every in-game screen if I have to look it through my stamp sized laptop.

Yes well, my laptop has 1920x1080 and my gaming desktop is 2048x1536 (I actually still have a giant Philips CRT). With the laptop its actually nearly impossible to pick up stuff like rings and gems and stuff, as they're so small the mouse cursor just doesn't have the necessary precission. On resolutions up to 1280x768 Classic Client is fine, but above that, please no...

The 3D client being discontinued was the main reason I quit UO for years. I just COULDNT use 2D due to the window size and inventory and performance issues. And the KR client was atrocious because a large part of the item art was unrecognizable smudge, plus the UI was cumbersome. And also performance problems again... I came back thanks to the EC. I still think the 3D client was the best, graphicswise and UI wise. Although the avatars being messed up with ugly artwork after AOS didn't do it much good.