The population of UO has changed

[Klapauc]

Right now, the houses are not a problem, if that changes, I believe Devs will add some kind of refresh for a second house.

Actually, i had an unused plot go poof on siege and someone else placed there, and no that account was active all the time.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Imagine how many players we could have if something were done for the "bitter old vets"

It's amazing how we become "bitter" if we actually want to see the game improved. You are right. I have played plenty of free shards over the last few years and know plenty of people that would jump right back if they felt the game was being developed to provide a better interactive experience.

Right now it seems like the game is being developed into a solo environment...la

 

[FrejaSP]

The problem is, they never get started to play Siege without having a house. Maybe let them place a house and give them 3 month to decide to make it their primary house and make old shard home decay. If they not make it primary, the Siege house will decay

 

[Nexus]

Imagine how many players we could have if something were done for the "bitter old vets"

lets see 250,000 compared to maybe 1/5th of that, I'll say those vets have a reason to be a bit bitter, they helped lay a foundation that wasn't maintained after they left.

 

[cazador]

Sure UO isn't what it used to be..and I do blame it on lack of development or shoddy attempts. But the pvp s what keep a lot of people coming back. This VvV has increased multiple shards population and more people at showing up. Yes I kill the trammies trying to pvp but I also res them generally and say good fight. If there were less pricks killing Noobs and thinking they are gods more and more would try it. I'm not saying hold their hands but stop being *******s to people. Most of us aren't 10 anymore..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cetric]

Only Siege and Mugen still offer the "old" Ultima Online feeling of partnership thanking to the 1 character only limitation.

There has been several times i have logged on siege, and literally scoured the game for an hour to not see a single person.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

The biggest thing that I've heard grumblings about when it comes to PvP, is that it seems like ever since publish 16...all of the PvP development seems to have been created by people who don't PvP.

I'm not asking to get the old school ruleset back (I know that's a long dead horse here), but at least mold the systems after speaking to the customers...la

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

There has been several times i have logged on siege, and literally scoured the game for an hour to not see a single person.

I was at home sick yesterday and played nearly 8 hours, lol. I played Siege the whole time...I literally saw 2 players that entire time...la

 

[Obsidian]

I don't agree with the notion of removing the Siege bless. I play there as a secondary shard and find I use lesser gear and take more shortcuts there to avoid carrying anything I cannot easily replace. I actually think it lessens my enjoyment as I am an achievement based gamer. I want to slay the biggest beast or topple the hardest PvE challenge. I get more enjoyment doing that on the other Prodo shards where I can equip to the hilt and insure. I do like Siege for ROT and for the closer community. But that is just my perspective. I know many people love the no-insurance mindset.

 

[Klapauc]

A big problem with uo pvp even on insurance shards is the big amount of stuff you need that cannot be insured, like trap box and all of the consumables. It does eat a good amount of time to prepare for pvp, on siege its even worse.
In other games you just hop into pvp if you want to mindlessly fight a few people and dont mind dying to the specialists, in uo one simply cannot do that.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I don't agree with the notion of removing the Siege bless.

Again, many players left their production shards when insurance was introduced...just so they could get away from that crutch. All it has done on Siege is give players away of skirting the difficulty that being a Siege player poses.

Back when I moved over permanently, it was very common to see PvPers running around with Vanquishing weapons (yeah, I know, that was a long time ago). If people wanted to beat the big meanies...they had the risk of losing their items to other players...that should never have changed...imho...la

 

[Lord Lew]

As a thief, it's really tough to interact or hang out while working. I was just sharing what I have seen since my return.

With that said, if I do stick around...I may change my spots and stop thieving. Not just because there aren't many people to steal from, but it might be fun to jump to the other side and play more of a detective that hunts thieves...la

So wait, you play a solitary Theif, but are here railing against solitary players?

*scratches head*

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

A big problem with uo pvp even on insurance shards is the big amount of stuff you need that cannot be insured, like trap box and all of the consumables. It does eat a good amount of time to prepare for pvp, on siege its even worse.

So it takes time to set up...is that really so bad? I'd rather UO differentiated itself from other games than try to be like everyone else...that was always what UO had on it's side. As the years progress, it seems to be that the only things that differentiate UO is it's graphics...la

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

So wait, you play a solitary Theif, but are here railing against solitary players?

*scratches head*

THIEF!!!

I "played" a thief that didn't spend time interacting outside of stealing from other players, which took up all of my time. I didn't have time to hang out with other thieves...I was too busy playing with other players from other professions.

The last time I spent much time in-game with other thieves is when I was new to the game and training my snooping during power hour ...la

 

[Nexus]

Sure UO isn't what it used to be..and I do blame it on lack of development or shoddy attempts. But the pvp s what keep a lot of people coming back. This VvV has increased multiple shards population and more people at showing up. Yes I kill the trammies trying to pvp but I also res them generally and say good fight. If there were less pricks killing Noobs and thinking they are gods more and more would try it. I'm not saying hold their hands but stop being *******s to people. Most of us aren't 10 anymore..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was referring more towards the degradation of the Community as the foundation. While you can go to a vendor and get repair deeds, many don't they have a smith on their account to do it for them. When was the last time you saw a smith in Brit offering to do free repairs, or heck even in Luna. People at the bank selling out of their bankboxes?

Honestly to get people to gather for interaction more, you could simply get rid of Vendor Rentals, and Repair Deeds, Sure some people will still have Smiths, Tailors, and Tinkers to repair their own items, but without access to all the hot spots for selling Uber-Loot I bet you'd see the banks fill up pretty quickly.

 

[Klapauc]

So it takes time to set up...is that really so bad? I'd rather UO differentiated itself from other games than try to be like everyone else...that was always what UO had on it's side. As the years progress, it seems to be that the only things that differentiate UO is it's graphics...la

No , what uo has on its side is the basically unmatched sandbox game. But if a new player has to grind a few hours to make 50 trap boxes to actually try pvp for a few evenings, its just unnecessary grind. And try to buy a good amount of enchanted apples or pots on less populated shards could also be a problem.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Might also help if items couldn't be "re-charged" and broke. Sure it would suck to have your artifacts or uber hunting/PvP suits break, but it would also lead to more need for common crafter gear...la

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

No , what uo has on its side is the basically unmatched sandbox game. But if a new player has to grind a few hours to make 50 trap boxes to actually try pvp for a few evenings, its just unnecessary grind. And try to buy a good amount of enchanted apples or pots on less populated shards could also be a problem.

I guess it would be better if players didn't need all that gear. I never did PvP fight, so that's a topic a typically stray away from. I'm sure there are others that would be able to speak on that issue much better.

Without getting into the whole "bring back the old ways" debate, I'm sure there is something that could be developed using the existing systems to make PvP easier to be involved in...la

 

[Lord Lew]

THIEF!!!

I "played" a thief that didn't spend time interacting outside of stealing from other players, which took up all of my time. I didn't have time to hang out with other thieves...I was too busy playing with other players from other professions.

The last time I spent much time in-game with other thieves is when I was new to the game and training my snooping during power hour ...la

Did not mean to offend, it seems autocorrect likes it either way

Try hanging out near the slim the fence NPC's, sooner or later you will find a mark. Sadly uo does not have the population it once had, making your profession a declining one. Well that mixed with a total nerf of your play-style, for the most part, outside of seige.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Try hanging out near the slim the fence NPC's, sooner or later you will find a mark.

Yeah, I've been told that, guess I need to find out which one's those are, load up my GM detect hidden and get to stealing the rewards...la

 

[popps]

If you want good group play, UO isnt really the place to look for it.

I think that pretty much sums it all..... UO used to be a multiplayer game, to my tastes, it no longer is, now it is a bunch of players just playing their own, separate mini games, solo, somewhere around Sosaria..... whether this is good or bad it depends on each one's own views, of course......

 

[MalagAste]

The slippery slope started with repair deeds..... not a bad thing but it began the change away from interacting with people to interacting with vendors and doing it yourself.

I would love if they designated a shard to be one character, 1 soulstone per account limit without all the restrictions of playing on Siege.

-Lore's Player

I don't think there should be limits on things but one thing I will agree on is that this slippery slope was begun with the addition of the repair deeds. What they should have done was made a box at every smithy and tailors that allowed someone to put in an item to have it repaired/enhanced or now in this case Imbued..... and then they would get a gump asking what they wanted done, who they wanted to do the work (at which point they would target one of the crafters nearby) and then the two of them would agree on a price... the item in question would remain in the box and both the crafter and the owner could see the work being done... each step would be visible to both all the way through. If the item were to break then no money would be transacted but if the item was successfully completed then the money would automatically go from the owner of the items bank to the crafters bank... This would have kept crafters centered in towns... and would have promoted more interaction and community. The deeds are 100% impersonal.

The second thing that destroyed community was the rise of item greed. Since they moved to an item based economy where items mean more in weapons, armor and everything with the advent of "rare" gathering and such it has only served to make folk greedy... which again has turned the game into some competition over stuff rather than a community... No one wants to work together because they get more "drops" by themselves. They want all the loot for themselves they don't want to share. Also more and more the higher the items get the easier it is for folk to solo play the less folk want to interact... again going back to the greed of wanting all the drops for themselves. Because everyone wants to sell it to get rich in game and have billions of gold... so they can buy the latest rare or... even worse sell the gold for RL $... Not sure there is a way to combat this anymore. The EM events have been feeding the frenzy so to speak of "rare" collecting... and making it less and less about the content of the story or game and more and more about the "rarity" of the item for sale... To the point where doing an event becomes more about what is in it for you than what it is meant to be, which is just plain "fun"...

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Agree wholeheartedly with the EM rares. While their events would become almost empty if they stopped giving them away (since much of the roleplayer population has left), I would love that to happen.

I am glad to say that during my very brief stint as an EM, I didn't give any rares away...la

 

[MalagAste]

Agree wholeheartedly with the EM rares. While their events would become almost empty if they stopped giving them away (since much of the roleplayer population has left), I would love that to happen.

I am glad to say that during my very brief stint as an EM, I didn't give any rares away...la

They left because community is gone. Because greed drove them away. Because there is no longer a reason to be in a group and do anything..... and because there is little in the game that can keep a group occupied since most of the stuff is now a solo game. Bringing a group to do things leaves most of the group standing about picking their nethers... which is boring... There is little reason to do things as a group since you get more stuff solo.... again with the stuff...

Used to be you needed a tamer to res your pet and get you one... now you can buy whatever you want from vendors... and even get a pet rez from a bottle or an NPC..... so don't need them anymore... used to be that you needed a smith or tailor to fix your stuff..... but now you can buy that off an NPC.... and it's easy to just buy up the skill to 90 with a token and then buy cheap pinks to GM and fix your own stuff.... who needs to work skills anymore you can basically buy them up in half an hour.

The community died and has become greedy.... its all about making a buck and I'm not talking about in game gold... sadly that's what's happened to the community. There is no need to work together anymore.

 

[popps]

Honestly to get people to gather for interaction more, you could simply get rid of Vendor Rentals, and Repair Deeds, Sure some people will still have Smiths, Tailors, and Tinkers to repair their own items, but without access to all the hot spots for selling Uber-Loot I bet you'd see the banks fill up pretty quickly.

I am afraid it is too late for just a small change like getting rid of Vendor Rentals, and Repair Deeds to increase player-player interactions....

With Alacrity and Trascendency scrolls way more than "some" people have trained all of the crafting skills that they need already and are therefore self sufficient with their account on a given shard.......

The only possible way to increase player-player interactions, to my opinion, would be either a drastic change as that of forcing players to "have to declare" on any given shard whether their characters (all of them, be them 5, 6 or 7) will be specialized in fighting OR crafting skills (not in both) on a given Shard OR go for a more gradual change long term with new crafting skills and new items craftable only through these new crafting skills added, for which there would not be any possibility to Soulstone them nor Alacrity or Trascendency scrolls....

Slowly, if these new crafting skills can allow the making of new items which are wanted, eventually they will "take over" the old crafting skills with the difference that these new ones will have to be trained the old hard way, no fast lane through alacrity or trascendency scrolls, and no chance to soulstone them and swap them through characters....

Hopefully, only some players will want to bother training these new skills (especially if they will be a pain to train up to the top) and therefore, there will again be players who will need to "look out" for other players whenever they need anything done with these new crafting skills.....

 

[Merlin]

I guess it would be better if players didn't need all that gear. I never did PvP fight, so that's a topic a typically stray away from. I'm sure there are others that would be able to speak on that issue much better.

Without getting into the whole "bring back the old ways" debate, I'm sure there is something that could be developed using the existing systems to make PvP easier to be involved in...la

Yeah - its called VvV and it just came out in the last publish. Because you have to play in teams to really be effective, it also accomplishes your initial gripe about the state of UO - it forces interaction.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Yeah - its called VvV and it just came out in the last publish. Because you have to play in teams to really be effective...

That's funny, all I've heard about VvV is how much it sucks because of the sigil thieves win everytime by stealthing around...la

 

[Merlin]

That's funny, all I've heard about VvV is how much it sucks because of the sigil thieves win everytime by stealthing around...la

Could it use some improvement? Sure. Does it "suck"? No. Maybe you could try it and make that judgment from experience, rather than reading a blog where everyone waffles about everything no matter what.

But ofcourse you're not happy - because players like you are impossible to please. Here is a new game system which makes PvPing more interactive and easily to get involved with (two things you've said in this thread you want), and you somehow find a gripe with it. Better yet, it gives an advantage to thieves - the build you say you come back to play - but you use that as the reason as to why it sucks.

Enlighten us more with the vast amount of knowlegde you've developed in your "few days" back playing again. #DERP

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Enlighten us more with the vast amount of knowlegde you've developed in your "few days" back playing again. #DERP

This coming from someone that has something to hide, or is evading a previous ban. Sure...you've played UO for years but only came to Stratics back in August...sure you did...la

 

[Tjalle]

The second thing that destroyed community was the rise of item greed. Since they moved to an item based economy where items mean more in weapons, armor and everything with the advent of "rare" gathering and such it has only served to make folk greedy... which again has turned the game into some competition over stuff rather than a community... No one wants to work together because they get more "drops" by themselves. They want all the loot for themselves they don't want to share. Also more and more the higher the items get the easier it is for folk to solo play the less folk want to interact... again going back to the greed of wanting all the drops for themselves. Because everyone wants to sell it to get rich in game and have billions of gold... so they can buy the latest rare or... even worse sell the gold for RL $... Not sure there is a way to combat this anymore. The EM events have been feeding the frenzy so to speak of "rare" collecting... and making it less and less about the content of the story or game and more and more about the "rarity" of the item for sale... To the point where doing an event becomes more about what is in it for you than what it is meant to be, which is just plain "fun"...

 

[Merlin]

This coming from someone that has something to hide, or is evading a previous ban. Sure...you've played UO for years but only came to Stratics back in August...sure you did...la

Right... because the entire population of UO participates on stratics...

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Deny deny deny...la


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[Smoot]

Global chat killed interaction. Furthermore with Vendor Search. Plus 99 percent of content in the game can be soloed. If you wanted to, you could never interact face to face with another player and having everything you need to play. I dont agree with that, but its modernization and just the way UO is now.

I would also like to say that a good indicator of the state of UO decline is the variety of colors to dye items. When Glacial dye is added to the cleanup brit menu, i will expect UO to be on its deathbed

 

[cazador]

I was referring more towards the degradation of the Community as the foundation. While you can go to a vendor and get repair deeds, many don't they have a smith on their account to do it for them. When was the last time you saw a smith in Brit offering to do free repairs, or heck even in Luna. People at the bank selling out of their bankboxes?

Honestly to get people to gather for interaction more, you could simply get rid of Vendor Rentals, and Repair Deeds, Sure some people will still have Smiths, Tailors, and Tinkers to repair their own items, but without access to all the hot spots for selling Uber-Loot I bet you'd see the banks fill up pretty quickly.

It would just all be inter-guild repairing it'll become a hassle more than a good thing..I don't know about you but I'm not handing over a 500mil pair of legs to be repaired on the notion that it's helping build community honestly. At this point it's too far gone to say set up "repair shops" where you could park your tailor and repair things via trade window or something. I'd say the majority of people have their own crafters. However I can't remember the last time I've seen anyone in tram Brit for anything other than a circle, and now the few stragglers for town buffs or little RP events...the world is far too big for such a small population spread over so many shards.

Here's an example and I know this is extremely far off base for the population for many different reasons, but log into every shard and count how many people are at Luna bank. Five years ago there was that many people bank sitting on ATL alone, the game is dying we all know it..just hopefully the Devs can pump some life into it..I'm not holding my breath though.


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[Lady Storm]

Dont blame the Dev for time passing you by...
I say this in the hope you will remember that we have chnged so much in the 17 + years UO has been on the web for players.
Let's take for example your computer....
Do you remember that machine you spent so much cash for?
I do.... the amount of a decient down on a new car!
Then there is the disk drives....
Yes I said disk drive....(how many out there are scratching their heads as to what the hell is a disk drive)
5 1/4" or 3.5" didnt matter then the new stuff CD's (Ultima did come on floppys )
That nice flat screen you now have was back then a super clunky tube setup....that weighed a ton!

Where am I going with this? You might be asking...
As with the passing of time so have the minds and needs of the average gamer.
I dont know about you but my game time has changed.
I dont have hours to sit at the local bank and chit chat if I need 10k of barbed leather and not one vendor has it.
Let's face it unless your on a major shard... some things have changed like vendors selling anything bulk.
I know a vet who came in UO for the first time in 12 years....
He went to Brit bank and sat for hours and not one soul outside a focus cluch poped in.
He offered to fix armor... was told by the few he met that a smith doing armor repairs has not been needed for a ver yveyr long time.
He nearly quit right there.
He was looking forward to chatting with new players and getting to know what was happening in game.
I told him how to find players... Chat.
He now does his own thing and talks up a storm in chat every day... and is a happy clam.
He groups up when he wants, hunts with or without friends as he needs to as per time allows him.
He is happy the game has made it possible to play and talk and not feel like a bored lump on a log as he put it.

Yes the game has changed...
The Dev we have today cares about all of the players in ways most dont fathom in the fast pace world of online gaming.
Not every publish was good that the past Dev teams put in... our present team is changing as much of that as fast as old code allows.
So To you who say the game's Dev is to blame best restate that...
We have a very committed Leader and dev team.
She has not been given enough credit in the job she has done to improve the game play and health of our player numbers.

Reasons players have left UO are many... but to return you need change.

 

[Ray_Martin]

I've made suggestions and the "Bitter Vets" ruin the game. An emphasis on the "Bitter" ones since I know when you say Vet everyone immediately thinks you're talking about them. When I say "Bitter Vet" I mean the ones that aren't willing to embrace change unless they get a benefit out of it they can exploit and keep returning players lower.

I feel a new currency should be added and gold removed. No ifs ands or buts. If it's gold or if it's a check... take it out. Call a mulligan. Why? Well because the economy blows that's why.

I also feel that "Bitter Vets" should let up a bit on their extra houses on Atlantic and shards with special rule sets. I don't feel that this should be the game developer's responsibility though. Or developers can add a Malas 2 Facet and just make a direct copy for housing spaces. Turn off spawns or something. The revenue from the extra accounts would pay for it. On Atlantic you'd have a Malas 1 and 2 (Houses Only) or something.

 

[Aran]

CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE IS NOT NECESSARILY AN IMPROVEMENT.


And most of the changes suggested in this thread are hilariously out of touch with reality. Remove gold? Remove rented vendors? Limit people to either being a strong crafter OR a strong fighter account-wide? Let's just close down UO and all go play WoW because you clearly don't like the game you're playing now.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

As a thief who steals from other players, it kinda takes others to be involved in my own fun...la

I knew that's what you were up to!

 

[Donal Mor]

You had only been back short time Rico, you need a little time to get use to the changes. You may have a different view in a month.

I agree with Rico, better than prodo but not healthy.

 

[Donal Mor]

I am not a fan of the global chats either.

Granted people have found ways around it with IRC, Skype, Vent, etc... but the global chats just make it too easy and it takes a lot from the game. We used to have taverns that people would gather at to talk. Not anymore.

 

[Donal Mor]

Right now, the houses are not a problem, if that changes, I believe Devs will add some kind of refresh for a second house.

Unless you want a castle.... everyone seems to have a castle or a keep now, or two, or three, or four..... Too many castles.

 

[icm420]

i had a huge thing typed up on how to improve things, but the more i think about it the more impressed i am that this game has survived this long considering the huge laundry list of issues that plague it. So I say it's fine, because it's still around

 

[Whitewolf of *VK*]

think alot of it has to do with advertisement, i know alot of people in real life who play games like GW2 and WoW and rift, they ask so what you playin now and i respond UO, and all of thier responses are the same, what is UO? actually one guy actually said, what really that game still exsists, and that just the people i know personly. if they would start advertising, put the game back on the store shelves i think UO will explode, you walk to the computer game section at any store and all you see is a wall of blizzard games, WoW, SC, diablo, That why blizzard is doin so well.

 

[Stranger]

How could the developers modify the game to make it more interactive than what it has become?...la

First, add the ability to repair items in the trade window so you don't have to physically hand over your items and risk them being stolen.
Second, add a new skill system that works under the current skill system. For example, a "community" skill system. So you would be a 120.0 Legendary Blacksmith with 0.0 Community Blacksmithing. With the goal being to work that up to 120.0 Community Blacksmithing so your a 120/120 blacksmith. And you cannot use SoT or SoA or Soulstones to gain the community skill. The only way to get community blacksmithing is to repair someones items. But you can only repair say, 10 items per person per week before you stop getting gains from them. Thus forcing you to the forge to find as many people to repair stuff for as you can.
Third, add a new reward system for allowing others to repair your items. For every item they repair, you get a point of community or something. The goal being to get 10,000 community points. That's 10,000 items that would need to be repaired. With a limit of 10 gainable points per week. (To prevent cheating the system) So now your gonna be looking for people to repair your stuff, and they'll be looking to repair your stuff.
Yay for fake forced community systems!

Another idea would be to make items drop off monsters that are tied to the account that got them such as special gems that require a crafter to use but the crafter can't be a different character on the same account.
So if your sampire or whatever goes hunting and gets a gem you can't log onto your blacksmith to apply it. (Unless you have a 2nd account)
So the only way to use this gems power is to hand it over to a guildmate, a friend, or a stranger, to apply it for you. And it can only work for the owners account. So there would be no reason to steal the gem since it can't be used for anyone else. Maybe even pop it out of their inventory and back into yours if they decide to be a jerk and not apply it.
So for example, a new monster appears in game that cannot be damaged with any damage except when the character is holding a special item that was crafted with the gem drop.
So someone has to kill the monsters to get the gem, then the gem has to be traded to crafters, then the crafters have to give it back, then the player can go hunt the new monster, and the special item can have a timer on it so this has to be repeated everyday.
Ugh.
So so so so! (annoying)

Or they could also do a trade in system similar to Clean up Britannia or Treasures of Tokuno or Blackthorn artifacts.
But instead of taking items/gold they only want new special items from monsters.
But those items cannot be turned in from the same account that acquired them.
And they cannot be dropped on the floor.
And they cannot be stocked on player vendors.
So the only way to acquire them and turn them in is to trade with other players.
Thus you'd have to go out, hunt a dozen of them, then offer to trade a dozen of them for items.
Because a blank trade would not go through.
And a gold or check trade would not go through.
It would have to be like a dozen of said items for a tangle.
The only problem with this is multiple accounts or people just handing back the items.
So maybe after the trade the traded item is soulbound to the other players account forever and can no longer be traded or sold ever again?
Still won't get around people trading it for junk items though.
Like heres 20 items for 3 slices of bacon.
Ugh I don't know.
Maybe setup a bazaar where people can put up items they will trade you for your tokens.
So I'll put a Lt. Sash for 20 of the special monster tokens. And if you want a Lt. Sash you can trade it for the tokens. And now I can go turn in those 20 tokens for some new item from some new reward list.
But that would take away from the interaction part if its just vendors. Heh.
Its hard to overcome the security and multi account user issues.

Or how about a new dungeon that requires a 10 man team to accomplish?
(This is kinda like raids...bleh)
But for example you need a GM tinker to undo a trap and a GM blacksmith to forge a key and a GM tailor to build a rope and the game will only let 1 char do 1 thing so you can't just bring a GM crafter whos GM tinker/smith/tailor it would have to be 3 separate characters.
Then you'd need an alchemist to blow up a wall and a fisherman to unplug a lakes drain etc etc etc. Requiring everyone to group up and work together in order to progress through the whole dungeon.

#randomideasgoesbackintohiding

And yes I know my grammar and structure and explanation skills are very poor A good-for-nothing thief stole all my school books when I was a child

 

[SpyderBite]

As a thief, it's really tough to interact or hang out while working. I was just sharing what I have seen since my return.

With that said, if I do stick around...I may change my spots and stop thieving. Not just because there aren't many people to steal from, but it might be fun to jump to the other side and play more of a detective that hunts thieves...la

Awww crap. Sure, go and flip sides just like that. You're worse than Anakin Skywalker. XD

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I can't believe this thread didn't get locked. Those "How do we make UO better?" posts always seem to go right down the sewer.

 

[THP]

a second house as got to be on the cards for 2 prodo shards and siege/mugden.....and i doubt u would see a lot of difference ...over the 27 shards if this was so

 

[Uvtha]

I think a lot of it's been covered in this thread, character builds shifting from skills to items and ever increasing power ramp that you get with no item loss made people more stuff centric and more covetous of "good" stuff in general, which leads to anti-social behavior. The game has become about attaining "wealth" and grouping as is only makes that goal more difficult.

The dev team seems to be significantly influenced by the modern trend of gamer gaming design, by that I mean designing systems/events with long dull grinds peppered with randomized reward nuggets that give you a real jolt of satisfaction when you luck out and get them, which leads to obsessive addiction based gameplay, rather than experience/interaction based game play. Of course MMO's are a real breeding ground for that kind of design, as you need to keep adding content, and designing an addiction grind can really stretch out content completion time.

To me it all stems from lack of item loss which forced the game into much more complex/specific itemization and thus more complex character development. Before you could strap on a suit of GM leather, grab a GM weapon and head out, and crafters could make such items knowing they would be of use to a wide array of people.
Currently the uniqueness of each character build made crafting for yourself pretty much a requirement, and now I really don't think anyone makes general gear for sale at all, as it would be a waste of time and resources. Same goes with selling stuff you find on monsters. The property spread has to be essentially perfect or its useless.

Solutions? None of substance really. The only thing they could do would be give you boosts for grouping... luck bonuses, instanced corpses for each player, and the like.
The damage was done long ago, and the wounds have been felt for so long that they are now essential to game play, and removing or dramatically changing them would probably cause mass exodus. Can't get rid of insurance, or soul stones, or all the excess character slots, imbuing... anything like that. People would just quit.

Siege is the best place to play because it avoids the item loss mostly, but unfortunately as it has no designated designer it still has to play by the hand me down rules of the insurance shards for itemization and drop rates, and other various systems that clearly were not designed to work with the siege ruleset. So gearing up and replacing gear is a real ordeal, which makes people skittish because of being fearful of losing their stuff because replacing it could mean spending like an hour or more (or a day if you don't have the the resources ready) making a new suit, and if you don't have imbuing... good luck finding someone willing to make a suit as you need it made for your template, or finding usable gear for sale.

Ideally on siege drop rates would be higher, and itemization would be simplified. That way gear would be more general, and more replaceable.
I would also heavily alter imbuing. As it is its far far too powerful, to the point of being a must have skill on an account you own, as even after the loot changes it still trumps 99% of all monster looted items.

Things like repair deeds, vendor search, gen chat to me aren't the cause of community down turn, but rather a growing necessity due to increased population loss. They obviously are not ideal for interactive experience building, but they are needed to allow people to keep playing with such low sub rates. Especially on dead shards.

 

[popps]

First, add the ability to repair items in the trade window so you don't have to physically hand over your items and risk them being stolen.
Second, add a new skill system that works under the current skill system. For example, a "community" skill system. So you would be a 120.0 Legendary Blacksmith with 0.0 Community Blacksmithing. With the goal being to work that up to 120.0 Community Blacksmithing so your a 120/120 blacksmith. And you cannot use SoT or SoA or Soulstones to gain the community skill. The only way to get community blacksmithing is to repair someones items. But you can only repair say, 10 items per person per week before you stop getting gains from them. Thus forcing you to the forge to find as many people to repair stuff for as you can.
Third, add a new reward system for allowing others to repair your items. For every item they repair, you get a point of community or something. The goal being to get 10,000 community points. That's 10,000 items that would need to be repaired. With a limit of 10 gainable points per week. (To prevent cheating the system) So now your gonna be looking for people to repair your stuff, and they'll be looking to repair your stuff.
Yay for fake forced community systems!

Another idea would be to make items drop off monsters that are tied to the account that got them such as special gems that require a crafter to use but the crafter can't be a different character on the same account.
So if your sampire or whatever goes hunting and gets a gem you can't log onto your blacksmith to apply it. (Unless you have a 2nd account)
So the only way to use this gems power is to hand it over to a guildmate, a friend, or a stranger, to apply it for you. And it can only work for the owners account. So there would be no reason to steal the gem since it can't be used for anyone else. Maybe even pop it out of their inventory and back into yours if they decide to be a jerk and not apply it.
So for example, a new monster appears in game that cannot be damaged with any damage except when the character is holding a special item that was crafted with the gem drop.
So someone has to kill the monsters to get the gem, then the gem has to be traded to crafters, then the crafters have to give it back, then the player can go hunt the new monster, and the special item can have a timer on it so this has to be repeated everyday.
Ugh.
So so so so! (annoying)

Or they could also do a trade in system similar to Clean up Britannia or Treasures of Tokuno or Blackthorn artifacts.
But instead of taking items/gold they only want new special items from monsters.
But those items cannot be turned in from the same account that acquired them.
And they cannot be dropped on the floor.
And they cannot be stocked on player vendors.
So the only way to acquire them and turn them in is to trade with other players.
Thus you'd have to go out, hunt a dozen of them, then offer to trade a dozen of them for items.
Because a blank trade would not go through.
And a gold or check trade would not go through.
It would have to be like a dozen of said items for a tangle.
The only problem with this is multiple accounts or people just handing back the items.
So maybe after the trade the traded item is soulbound to the other players account forever and can no longer be traded or sold ever again?
Still won't get around people trading it for junk items though.
Like heres 20 items for 3 slices of bacon.
Ugh I don't know.
Maybe setup a bazaar where people can put up items they will trade you for your tokens.
So I'll put a Lt. Sash for 20 of the special monster tokens. And if you want a Lt. Sash you can trade it for the tokens. And now I can go turn in those 20 tokens for some new item from some new reward list.
But that would take away from the interaction part if its just vendors. Heh.
Its hard to overcome the security and multi account user issues.

Or how about a new dungeon that requires a 10 man team to accomplish?
(This is kinda like raids...bleh)
But for example you need a GM tinker to undo a trap and a GM blacksmith to forge a key and a GM tailor to build a rope and the game will only let 1 char do 1 thing so you can't just bring a GM crafter whos GM tinker/smith/tailor it would have to be 3 separate characters.
Then you'd need an alchemist to blow up a wall and a fisherman to unplug a lakes drain etc etc etc. Requiring everyone to group up and work together in order to progress through the whole dungeon.

#randomideasgoesbackintohiding

And yes I know my grammar and structure and explanation skills are very poor A good-for-nothing thief stole all my school books when I was a child

All good ideas ! I like them...

The point is, first we need to realize and acknowledge that Ultima Online needs more interactions from players along with the "multiplayer nature of the game". When that is decided once and for all, we can then come up with ideas like the above to bring up solutions on how to better prompt players to interact with each other in the game.....

Some players actually say that no player-player interaction is fine and that UO is a sandbox and if players want to play it solo and on their own and be self sufficient for all of their needs this is fine.....

So, what is necessary, I think, is first deciding what game Ultima Online needs to be. A game where players can solo all of it and can be self sufficient for all of their in game needs ? Or a game where at some point all players will need to interact with other players for at least some of their needs, perhaps the most important ones (like for high end gear and stuff like that) ?

Unless this is sorted out and a decision taken, it is impossible to then decide which changes to make to UO so to implement the wanted direction....

 

[Uriah Heep]

1. Kill insurance.

2. over time lower the intensities on looted items (yes arties too, especially!) to where a GM smith/tailor/imbuer can make slightly better.

3. Quit bringing in ridiculously overpowered mobs, and focus more on the hunt than the kill.

4. Eliminate the ability to create repair deeds, when what we have is gone, they're gone.

This way things will eventually wear out and leave the game. We will have to do repairs, craft, find people to make what we cant. You cant turn back time completely, but you can reset the clock back a bit. Back to the "If you cant afford to lose it, don't wear it" lifestyle.

Sure will level alll the chars out some. Everything lately has needed charts and spreadsheets to work...refining, reforging, etc. We want and need m ore fun, more interactions, not more engineering and math tests.