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Give a list of suggestions of minor changes you feel would improve UO

Tanivar

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Lets each give EA a list of suggestions for what would be hopefully SIMPLE CHANGES to the game to improve the play experience. Particulary as it would affect a new player. I'm not talking things like "Drop Tram" or "Make everything worth a lot easily stealable provided it doesn't belong to your thief type. I'm talking game features that detract from the gameplay experience from your viewpoint.

The list of minor annoyances in UO is a long one and does wear on players. We seem to know the game experience better than the changing list of devs do. The typical player experience needs to improve if UO is to attract more players. Those that are into pixel candy probably won't stay, but those who want more from a game than combat probably would if little annoyances went away and missing things like '?' were added. Lets each supply a list of what we see as minor faults and missing good points concerning the gameplay experience.

Write the suggestions starting with a brief description and then say more about it if needed. The brief descriptions will help EA's people sort through them more easily. If some points commonly turn up in the lists we give, maybe they will get changed.
Do your list in Notepad or some other basic text writer and give it some thought before posting it. If we can get changes made to the minor annoyances posing as game features, perhaps more new players will hang around. :)

----------------------

1) A good source of game info for new players -

What EA needs to do is make the new player experience a more positive thing by writing a more useful payers guide and supply a link to UO.STRATICS.COM so that new players are not left clueless about the game they are trying to figure out how to play. A printer-friendly version would be really nice.

2) A printable manual for using the Enhanced Client. -

I did a recent re-install of my computers operating system and re-installed the Classic Client & Enhanced Client to find the EC video problems I was having are gone. Once I find a convienent User's Guide for the EC it may get used more. Can one be supplied? Particularly a printer-friendly one.

3) An EC mod -

Can the EC window be changed so it sits between the top of the screen and the top of the taskbar? having the silly thing appear extending under the taskbar & hiding the game command bar is an annoying thing.

4) Make more than 20 regeants available from NPC vendors. -

Make playing a mage as a spellcaster instead of a melee character possible by making regeants more available then the 20 at a time currently available on NPCs. 20 regeants don't last long when most of your spells fizzle due to low skill and do little damage when they do work due to low skill.

5) Reduce the swarm tendency monsters have in the Haven area. -

Going out to learn how to fight in Haven will often have a half dozen monsters charging you. Let new players in Haven go out and attack a monster without being swarmed by 4 or 5 more while fighting the first one. Even having been in the game nearly a decade and knowing what hunting is like my newbie characters on other shards will get swarmed and driven back into Haven while the Guards wipe out the monsters instead of my character doing it. For someone new to UO combat it must be not fun in many cases. Wanting to play the great warrior Chestnuts-of-steel or the grand spellcaster Fireblaze is hard to enjoy when you have to turn tail and run as a normal thing. "Will it alaways be like this" a new player may wonder as they are running for it AGAIN.

6) Having monsters not lock on to characters inside a house and stand outside making an annoying racket would be nice. -

I play crafters and having to go outside every 10 minutes to silence the racket is annoying. I want to craft while playing the game, not run in & out to silence the crowd of monsters outside. I moved into a player town and moved out a few months later. I'd have the noises of a troll, an ettin, a snake, a harpy, a giant spider, a sewer rat, and more back again a short while after going out and silencing the last symphony of monsters. I wound up moving to Malas where all I have to put up with is an occasional vampire bat's sound effect.

7) The racket from people training in Luna. -

Can we be provided a way to block out the sound effect of that hammering on wood, or the casting of a spell over & over & over & over?

8) Having NPC characters 'converse' a bit with players would be a nice feature. -

Some kind of basic AI that responds to keywords a player says by the NPC. A bit of atmosphere to make the game world seem more alive. Not a simple change but something to toss in the hat for the next expansion, Imbueing is going to be a hard thing to top. (Thank you Devs! :)

8) Make Recall & Sacred Journey work more often with just NPC training. - Trying to travel by spell is very annoying when you have to hear that spell fizzle sound effect a dozen times when your trying to go somewhere to hunt. By the time you've gone through the mousing steps 7 or 8 times as a typical number of attempts required, your sense of fun has turned more to irritation.

9) Add an automatic Meditation step to the Inscription window's macroes? -
It's nice being able to avoid the ache in my wrists and hands thanks to the neat changes to the crafting system, but the Inscription one isn't of any real use due to mana quickly running out & the process stopping. Having the Inscription window detect the lack of mana and attempting to start active meditation and not halting, but waiting until there is sufficent mana for the next scroll would be nice.

10) In-game Guides & Advisors?

Having the game GM's who can't really do much to help with game problems and the EMs dedicate their worktime to being in-game Guides & Advisors for newbies would be a Good Thing(tm).

11) A command to list who is logged on a shard -

Could we get a way to get a list of which characters are logged onto the shard we are logged on?

12) A way to be directed back to our characters bodies after we find a Wandering Healer and get rezzed? -

Something like the code used in UOA that will tell you which direction a regeant on the ground is in. At least for newbies. Losing all the gear left on the body is likely to be a major discouraging loss for a new player.

13) Add a name highlight/sound effect to the chat system.

Can we get a way to set names & certain words to highlight when they scroll onto the screen via the chat system? Or if simplier, scroll onto the screen at all? It's way to easy to miss things as the scroll of words goes by while your attention is on playing the game instead of reading words that for the most part don't relate to you.

14) Include info with UO advertisments about how extensive a range of play UO has other than combat. -

I've never been that turned on by killing monsters. I played a text-based game called Gemstone from 1988 to 2007 playing the Healer class who helped other players more than hunted. UO drew me in due to a bored phase back in the fall of 2000 that had me browsing games at a store. The Crafting in UO is why I'm still here. Many of those people who play games like the Sims might try UO if they knew there was much more to UO than killing monsters all the time like in most other games.

------------------------------

I imagine I'll come up with more as I play but this is a start for me.

Anyone else want to post such a list?

Please just post lists here. Any flames or Trollspeak would be better PMed to me instead of cluttering up this thread so much the Devs decide not to wade through it.

Let's keep it positive here. :)
 
F

Fink

Guest
Hmm.. simplest improvement I can think of offhand would be to wipe all the shards of items, houses, characters, etc.. have everything and everyone start over.

Perhaps while the slate is clean delete Trammel as it really doesn't bring much to the game. There are already other facets with that ruleset, and there is already Felucca with that land mass. Having two of everything in the old lands seems a tad redundant as there aren't that many people to go around.

Also, as the economy has been reset, take it as an opportunity to rework loot downward so inflation is caught early. Gold pieces should be rare in the hands of peasantry which is what most people are. Lordship, both title and land, should be hard to come by and should be restricted to a privileged few.

I have other ideas but they're not quite so minor.
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
Hmm.. simplest improvement I can think of offhand would be to wipe all the shards of items, houses, characters, etc.. have everything and everyone start over.

Perhaps while the slate is clean delete Trammel as it really doesn't bring much to the game. There are already other facets with that ruleset, and there is already Felucca with that land mass. Having two of everything in the old lands seems a tad redundant as there aren't that many people to go around.

Also, as the economy has been reset, take it as an opportunity to rework loot downward so inflation is caught early. Gold pieces should be rare in the hands of peasantry which is what most characters are. Lordship, both title and land, should be hard to come by and should be restricted to a privileged few.

I have other ideas but they're not quite so minor.
Wow this just leaves me speechless. Your ideas are the easiest way to free up server space and income for EA. Then UO can finaly fade into history. But of course he asked for Ideas.
In the spirit of things I say remove the routers from Ea and let only the inhouse admins play :)
 

Tanivar

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Hmm.. simplest improvement I can think of offhand would be to wipe all the shards of items, houses, characters, etc.. have everything and everyone start over.
It wouldn't do much for removing annoyances and adding good points but it would likely turn thousands of formerly rational in-game giga-rich UO Players into foaming at the mouth maniacs charging for California to commit mayhem on you for having given UO such an idea. Your brave young lady, <bows to you> :)


Also, as the economy has been reset, take it as an opportunity to rework loot downward so inflation is caught early.
That would be a good idea.


Gold pieces should be rare in the hands of peasantry which is what most people are. Lordship, both title and land, should be hard to come by and should be restricted to a privileged few.
This idea might not go over well unless the game allowed revolutions along the lines of what went on during medieval times in Europe. Would make for a lot more player interaction and events.

The wealthy hire player guards to protect them from the player rabble. The player rabble strives to bring down the self appointed player King or whatever and perhaps one day succeeds. Of course he would have to put up with the peons who want his bloody rump in that condition, because he needs them to grow his crops and do the menial labor of supporting his privileged rightful needs. Of course the more harshly he treats his peons to keep them under control, the more they hate him and work against him.
Could make for one long seriously fun in-game senario. :)

I'm picturing a guillotine in the center of Luna. <g>

I have other ideas but they're not quite so minor.
Post a few. If these were minor ideas I suspect EA needs to hire you for the EM group. Make sure you get Chessie if they do. :)
 

LordDrago

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wow, this thread is plummeting faster than an Elliot Spitzer Governorship.


My suggestion would be to take a couple of Devs, and have them work on all the small little bugs and quirks that are constantly being brought up in UHall, and provide feedback to the players.

Also, set up a team of Devs (doesn't have to be a lot of them) to concentrate on playstyles. These could be rotating teams, say for example, for 2-3 months, the tram will concentrate on PvP, then loot tables, then crafting, then gathering, etc. Oh, and provide feedback to the playerbase
 

Warsong of LS

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
1) A good source of game info for new players -

That is what the UOHerald is for though EAMythic refuses to use it.

2) A printable manual for using the Enhanced Client. -

Good luck with that. Maybe a better in game starter walkthrough of the basics. But a manual your dreaming even the original box set had only a four or six page (i forget where its at) heavy page fold out with the basic keys.

3) An EC mod -

I have no idea on this, good luck.

4) Make more than 20 regeants available from NPC vendors. -

They already have more than 20, you just have to buy them out, until they restock and increase the number available with each purchase, it takes time or go use a fighter that does not use regs, earn some gold, buy from player stocked reg vendors, most shards have them, you just need to look around on your shard.

5) Reduce the swarm tendency monsters have in the Haven area. -

do not run into the middle of the town where you fight, snipe around the edges of town and pull a monster or 2 out at a time, you just need to learn to fight smarter.

6) Having monsters not lock on to characters inside a house and stand outside making an annoying racket would be nice. -

turn your speakers off or go into options and turn the sound off, if you are just crafting why do you need sound?

7) The racket from people training in Luna. -

Can we be provided a way to block out the sound effect of that hammering on wood, or the casting of a spell over & over & over & over?

Again turn off your speakers or sound, if you are just shopping in luna, you do not need sound, you are relatively safe in luna, you just need a guard macro in case some fool decides to release a beast or harbinger in town.

8) Having NPC characters 'converse' a bit with players would be a nice feature. -

This was eliminated when they did localization. it is going to be hard to bring back, doubt we will every see it again.

8) Make Recall & Sacred Journey work more often with just NPC training. - Trying to travel by spell is very annoying when you have to hear that spell fizzle sound effect a dozen times when your trying to go somewhere to hunt. By the time you've gone through the mousing steps 7 or 8 times as a typical number of attempts required, your sense of fun has turned more to irritation.

Ah, you need to train your characters more or just use recall scrolls in your runebooks.

9) Add an automatic Meditation step to the Inscription window's macroes? -
It's nice being able to avoid the ache in my wrists and hands thanks to the neat changes to the crafting system, but the Inscription one isn't of any real use due to mana quickly running out & the process stopping. Having the Inscription window detect the lack of mana and attempting to start active meditation and not halting, but waiting until there is sufficent mana for the next scroll would be nice.

You can write a macro to do exactly this in UOAssist but that is for classic client only, I am guessing you want this for the enhanced client?

10) In-game Guides & Advisors?

Having the game GM's who can't really do much to help with game problems and the EMs dedicate their worktime to being in-game Guides & Advisors for newbies would be a Good Thing(tm).

We used to have these; they were called companions, they are gone and will not be returning.

11) A command to list who is logged on a shard -

Could we get a way to get a list of which characters are logged onto the shard we are logged on?

Why? if you looking to join a group use the chat system, looking for guild mates? use your guild roster it tell you who is on.

12) A way to be directed back to our characters bodies after we find a Wandering Healer and get rezzed? -

buy the new rez stick that EAMythic is selling, 100 times it will bring you body back to you as long as you are within a certain distance.

13) Add a name highlight/sound effect to the chat system.

Can we get a way to set names & certain words to highlight when they scroll onto the screen via the chat system? Or if simplier, scroll onto the screen at all? It's way to easy to miss things as the scroll of words goes by while your attention is on playing the game instead of reading words that for the most part don't relate to you.

Ask the players you want to chat with to join you in a new chat room.

14) Include info with UO advertisments about how extensive a range of play UO has other than combat. -

Good luck with that. We been asking for years for EAMythic to advertise UO, last time I saw an ad in a magazine was for Mondains' Legacy.

Many of the thing you ask for can already be done with alittle work on your part. But a nice list to generate some discussion anyways, good luck and safe travels. :drool:
 

jack flash uk

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
block that well known UO script website we are not allowed to mention here, Easy really ;)
 
S

Smokin

Guest
#1 Advertise
#2 Lower price to 9.99
#3 Make limited access free accounts which consist of
- 1 account per email
- 1 char per account
- no house placement
- bank storage of 50 items
- no vendors
- access only to Tram/Fel
- can not go in champ spawn areas
- can not do peerless
- can not trade with players

Probably some more things, but that would be encourage new players and what not and really that is all this game needs. More players.
 
T

Tukaram

Guest
Those are some good ideas Smokin.

I don't know if it is simple but they really need to work on their new player experience. I just signed up for a 2 week free trial and made a Paladin. Going thru the tutorial I learned virtually nothing. The old Paladin trainer in real Haven was so much better!

Glad I had my old account to reactivate.
 

Freelsy

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Ban all the UHall regulars.
Best post I've read in quite some time. Short, sweet and to the point! Now lets see...who should we start banning first?. I can think of two right off hand!

1) Popps and his mindless questions

2) Restroom Cowboy and his infinite knowledge on pvp mechanics (or lack there of.)



:next:
 

AzSel

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Be able to paralyze (either by spell or special move) or sleep someone thats already casting a spell.

Enchanted apples needs a longer cooldown then 20 seconds.
 
S

Stupid Miner

Guest
Be able to paralyze (either by spell or special move) or sleep someone thats already casting a spell.

Enchanted apples needs a longer cooldown then 20 seconds.
Isnt it currently 12? and maybe add a chance to fail, or to only remove one curse at a time.
 
H

hizack

Guest
After looting my own corpse, stuff in backpack will be arranged the same way as before my death.
 
S

siyeng0

Guest
Hmm.. simplest improvement I can think of offhand would be to wipe all the shards of items, houses, characters, etc.. have everything and everyone start over.
You know, I was going to make a sarcastic comment about simplicity - but actually, yes, that is a very simple step. It's a shame that it can't be implemented. It would be like one of those forums where people randomly get banned, just to keep the playerbase fresh, and it'd remove the problems with entrenched high-end wealth.

Unfortunately, it also wouldn't be fair on people who had genuinely worked for twelve years to accumulate those fortunes (as opposed to those that, you know, didn't). I'm not saying I wouldn't like it, mind you. I'd love it, especially if...

...take it as an opportunity to rework loot downward so inflation is caught early.
Hot damn! If only. I can't debate this point. UO returning to a trade-and-barter economy would be hilarious; shelling out one hundred million for a shield today, trading a bowl of potatoes for a fishcake tomorrow. Of course, they'd have to get rid of artefacts and the crazy mathematical component, but I'd shed no tears over that and I daresay you wouldn't either.

Lordship, both title and land, should be hard to come by and should be restricted to a privileged few.
I had the predictable gleeful reaction to this, then sobered up as I read the "revolution" post below and wondered just how long it would take my character to end up under a guillotine. (I predict two hours. If he got a trial. And the trial broke for morning tea, and somebody at some point released a small animal into the courtroom that had to be removed.)

I wish that your changes could be put into action, I really do. But they're things that would only work on a certain type of playerbase, and that playerbase is not modern UO's.

I have other ideas but they're not quite so minor.
And would quite probably lead to your taking over the world.*




*Can I be your jester?
 
S

siyeng0

Guest
The ability to lie down.

...minor is a phrase that is open to interpretation.
 

Paps

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Make everything ingame that isn't stackable,,,,stackable.
I've tonnes of other ideas however they are not "minor" so i won't bother listing any of them here.
 

Tanivar

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
After looting my own corpse, stuff in backpack will be arranged the same way as before my death.
This one definitely would be a good change. :)

I hunt with crafters carrying tools & materials on top of the usual stuff. The backpack is a serious mess after a dirtnap.
 

Aran

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wait... you mean you guys have your stuff go all wonko when you die? My pack always stays the same after I res....
 

Ezekiel Zane

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yeah I was wondering the same thing cuz mine stays the same too. Everything except blessed items I was wearing goes right back exactly where it was before I died.
 
M

mustafa

Guest
get rid off annotyin people alwas moanin about thing in game like gold ect just cause they dont have
 
C

Coragin

Guest
READ THIS!

Two things for home owners.

1. Craftable teleporters you lock down in your house. This is the same as teleporters that you can place via custom menu, but for non-custom homes. i.e. Keep, Castle, Tower ect.

2. The ability to move or delete some walls in your castle/keep/tower. Like the ones right in the entranceway on east and west in a castle.

3. Allow us to recall into our castle courtyard. Mark a rune in our own house that will recall us to that location in our house.

4. Allow Keeps and castles to be turned into customizable houses with the same size, i.e. 32x32 for castle. This would allow to make a small city or town or shopping village,
 

Miss Smoocher

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
i think not having to log all the way out of your account just to change toons would be nice.
 

Freelsy

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
i think not having to log all the way out of your account just to change toons would be nice.
I know, having to actually type in your password again and select your shard is an insanely difficult task!!

AGHHH!! you people make me go krazzy!!! rawr :wall::wall::wall::wall:
 

Orkster

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
100 of each reg/gem per level of T Map/MIB. If I do a level 6 T Map I get 600 of each. Would stop the mind numbing shopping and get me to actually play the game more. And make scrolls to have a recycle option would be nice so they actually have a use.

Double for Fel of course!
 

jack flash uk

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
READ THIS!

Two things for home owners.

1. Craftable teleporters you lock down in your house. This is the same as teleporters that you can place via custom menu, but for non-custom homes. i.e. Keep, Castle, Tower ect.

2. The ability to move or delete some walls in your castle/keep/tower. Like the ones right in the entranceway on east and west in a castle.

3. Allow us to recall into our castle courtyard. Mark a rune in our own house that will recall us to that location in our house.

4. Allow Keeps and castles to be turned into customizable houses with the same size, i.e. 32x32 for castle. This would allow to make a small city or town or shopping village,
all these PLUS BASEMENTS
 
B

Bruin

Guest
1. Have a vision of what you want this game to be. Stop trying to appeal to everyone and thus making nobody happy.

2. Do a 1,000:1 gold wipe.

3. Make monsters stop dropping gold, only items. Gold can only be acquired via questing.

4. Make simple Guild/alliance communication tools outside of live chat. The ability to post a message saying in game - we're going on a hunt today at 8pm! Not everyone checks guild forums.
 

Martyna Zmuir

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
10 ways to improve UO:

1) Communicate with your customers regularly.

2) Communicate with your customers regularly.

3) Communicate with your customers regularly.

4) Communicate with your customers regularly.

5) Communicate with your customers regularly.

6) Communicate with your customers regularly.

7) Communicate with your customers regularly.

8) Communicate with your customers regularly.

9) Communicate with your customers regularly.

10) Communicate with your customers regularly.


Did I mention: Communicate with your customers regularly?
 
M

Merriweather

Guest
The ability to lie down.

...minor is a phrase that is open to interpretation.
Yes, I want to lie down. I also want, in 2d, to be able to drag loot onto the nameplate instead of having to target myself in the middle of a melee. And, I think it would be fun if you could see all the characters on your account, even if only the one you were signed on with was active. I'd feel like my great big house was being occupied if there were at least bodies around the dining room table or sitting in the crafter's shops. Or lying in the beds.
 
S

siyeng0

Guest
I'd feel like my great big house was being occupied if there were at least bodies around the dining room table or sitting in the crafter's shops. Or lying in the beds.
You make it sound a little like a wax museum.

Awesome!

I want a wax museum too.
 
P

Phineas le Monge

Guest
Eliminate repair deeds. Get those blacksmiths back in the forge in Brit. Make players actually have to interact again.

Eliminate gold coins. Use a credit system for kills similar to the loyalty system. Buy items using your credits.

Re-establish the Bounty system - not just for players, but hunt dangerous NPCs as well. This will bring back usefulness to forensic and tracking.

Make spamming certain phrases such as website addresses turn the player red and make him attackable (even youngs).

Give youngs 10k credits instead of 1k, and better starting gear. Plus everyone gets a "book" when they start - why not make it a book detailing a profession they selecting when they set up their character....
 
G

georgemarvin2001

Guest
1. Make gaining skills a LOT more fun and a LOT less tedious and boring.
2. Make a whole new online game guide, listing details about every creature, skill, quest, etc.; some of the old info is so old that it's pre-AOS. Some of it is just wrong, or so outdated that it's totally irrelevant.
3. Get rid of the named Ancient Wyrm that can't be harmed in Covetous Level 4, that is left over from a quest that was over with years ago, and bring back the regular Ancient Wyrm and 2 dragons/drakes.
4. Make the EC playable.
5. Make the ML creatures' loot more in line with the ease of killing them. A Miasma takes like five to ten seconds to kill and pays 2.5k gold and max intensity loot? Trogs drop almost instantly, and pay 500 gold? If a player can just stand in the trog cave and make a million gold an hour without so much as using a bandage, something is wrong with the loot system.
6. Once they get rid of the gold farms, so the gold they remove from the game isn't instantly replaced, they could make some real gold sinks. I would make a new Exotic Goods vendor with the following:
90 day game time codes 100 million gold each
item bless deeds for 50 million gold each
New status symbol items which are NOT overpowered, but useful for 25 million gold each
heritage tokens and shard transfer tokens for 15 million gold each
120 power scrolls, Name change and gender change tokens for 10 million gold each
Artifact replicas (150 durability, can't use PoF on them) for 5 million gold each
7. Move everybody who's hawking goods for sale out of Luna bank; make some good incentives for them to move back to West Brit. Luna's just too small for the 20 or so people there 24/7 selling stuff. Better yet, do something to get people to scatter out to some of the other banks, as well. Everything is really convenient to the Luna bank; make stables, tailors and blacksmiths more accessible at the other banks. Maybe put an open-air bazaar at West Brit, with some exotic vendors that occasionally stock a really rare, maybe even unique, item.
 

Gem

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
Replace the shipwreck pre-chest loot with new stuff:)
 
B

BlackMagus

Guest
Maybe put an open-air bazaar at West Brit, with some exotic vendors that occasionally stock a really rare, maybe even unique, item.
:thumbsup:
 

Aran

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Ban anyone who holds still for too long.

Ban anyone who moves around too much.

Ban anyone who doesn't log in at least once a week.

Ban anyone who logs in every day.
 
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