What do you miss from UO (pre-AOS)?

[Trevelyan]

Copy-pasted from Morgana LeFay's thread on what makes you play UO, I thought i'd make a thread on systems/features that are redundant/no longer exist or have been changed a lot that you miss. While this post is a bit of my own personal nostalgia, hopefully others shared the same experiences and can add their own!

• Armour Rating and Magic Resistance - a simple system meaning armour was armour and attacks that werent physical were reduced by magic resist.
• GM Armor - buying a set of regularly made GM armour was sufficient for most things. In addition, you could mix and match regular armour parts and still look good, whilst maintaining a good dexterity/armour rating
• Forge repairs - Totally destroying strong communities, repair deeds totally removed the need to rely on other players and reputations.
• No insurance - made going to new places risky and made having friends valueable. Also meant that people didnt always wear their best stuff and did rely on buying a 2k set of GM heavy archer/full plate.
• Lootable bones and non-instanced corpses - related to community trust and insurance; having that possibility to lose everything really made having a good friend worthwhile. You could prove your trust-worthiness by saving a players stuff when it went to bones, even if it meant waiting around for them.
• Fishsteaks - the staple of anyone going out to a dungeon. Fishing was fun anyway with MIBS and stuff, but at least all the fishsteaks (and bread for chefs) were useful.
• Item ID and Arms Lore - Skills that were useful and let you see the state and properties of items. Item ID or ID wands had to be used so you could see what something was, so you always grabbed magic items off bodies. One of the funnest parts was, after looting stuff, coming back and IDing it all in case you found a..
• Supremely accurate Katana of Vanquishing - Items just seemed better this way. No numbers, percentages or fractions, a sword was a sword and it was magic or not. If it was magic, it had a very subjectively sounding name like "Accurate" or "Vanquishing" that didnt make much sense for some perhaps, but that meant you had to find out. If you werent sure, you could of course just try it out.
• Non-custom housing - Custom houses can be nice but most look crap (sorry to anyone who might think im digging at them, but your house is probably a nice one). I hate seeing dirt plots everywhere or ugly out of style blocks. Removed something from the game I cant explain.
• MIDI MUSIC - Just a personal one, but I think it really changes the feel of the game. The old midi music was really nice to listen to if it was on and really just reminds me of when I first played.

A few other additions ive thought about, that I miss and arent really a part of the overall UO experience

1. West Brit Bank - Go to Brit Bank and youd see people selling horses, trading stuff, banksitting, showing off, scamming or looking for a res.
2. Banksitters - Ranger armour, blue sandals, glacial staff for lesser collectors, daemon bone with helmet and black blessed sandals for better collectors and then finally PHOENIX ARMOUR for the really really cool collectors. On a nightmare.
3. Dying - It just isnt the same now. Sometimes ive died and logged out now because I know I have lots of stuff insured. I can just sit around and not even care if I die. I miss having to care for my character.
4. Money was harder to get
5. How the heck did money become so easy to get? I can make millions just from looting kills! I remmeber spending hours at the elder gazers in shame as my tamer just trying to loot their small amount of gold.
6. Haven as Occlo in Trammel - when being young meant that you got the whole island to yourself. In fact, after I think maybe aos was it that you still had most of old haven, except with the south part changed. Then it got blown up and its been meh ever since.
7. Taming was profitable - you used to be able to sell pets and make money, even if it was just selling horses and ostards at 100gp at brit bank. White wyrms and dragons were desireable for their look and also were profitable.
8. Vendors for the poor - vendors didnt always sell artifacts and high end items. I remember when a friend started to put items on his vendors and didnt take them off to evade fees. Back then, selling high end items was done at banks. Shops could sell all sorts of crap, and people would buy it!
9. Innovative house decoration - craftables and various other items introduced have removed, in my eyes, a lot of innovation from players who used what the game had to offer to make their own decorations (pianos, fishtanks etc). I also think that custom houses have ruined this somewhat, too, as I think that the decoration is no longer as prominent as the house design itself anymore
10. Combat was hard - No need to elaborate really. UO just felt more challenging I think.
11. Felucca was full of baddies! - Fel wasn't empty and you would have to be careful. Now, I dont even care if someone PKs me, but its rare that I will ever see someone else.
12. UO in its first 3 years - Something I never experienced and always wanted to. I dont PvP but the idea of non-consensual PvP sounded interesting. Though house breakings perhaps not. Still, its what the manual said and its what I signed up to (even if the manual was outdated by the time I got the game)
13. Vendor Buy and Vendor Sell. I used to use vendors and I would buy vendor armour to use. Id also sell all my junk and be happy if I made over 100gp for an item.

Oh yeah and the nice box releases with a manual telling you all about the game, with pictures.

 

[Longest Journey]

Oh, lets see, I miss:

Having functional characters

Actually seeing people in town

Being GM actually meaning something

Crafting having a purpose and not have it rendered useless by artifacts

The functional PvP

The functional PvM

The complete and utter lack of gold farmers

My pure warrior

My mage

My fisherman

My treasure hunter

Monsters like Lich lords and ancient wyrms actually being a challenge again

Having to organize guild raids to take down Ancient Wyrms or attack the terrathian keep

Basically the game functioning properly

When people used to play

Many of my old guildmates

Overall, I miss T2A when UO was worth playing....


........unlike today......

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

Nice thread

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Oh good gravy, here I go ...

1. decent amount of spawn - overland and in dungeons. If I went to Shame via the mountain pass (before I could Recall), I knew I'd have a battle to get there from dire wolves, elementals, gargoyles and more. It's a cakewalk now ... even for my low-level characters - nothing is there to attack/challenge them!

2. macing would destroy the best plate armor in just minutes (at most). even NPC mace weapon wielders could do serious damage to your armor. It made player Blacksmiths very valuable to have.

3. DEX penalties based on the type of armor you wore. One or two helmets (Close Helmet was one) did not penalize DEX but that was about it. You needed to **work** to keep your stats up!

4. Protection differences in armor types, mixed suits that actually had names - light archer, heavy archer, etc. Gave different protection levels and had different stat penalties.

5. as the OP stated, Resist had a purpose in all styles of play. It really meant something when you were GM Resist.

6. NPCs actually could talk and direct you in conversations. I think it was localization that borked that all up. I get better NPC chatter in the old UO solo games!

I need some coffee ... but I think that's good for now.

 

[Trevelyan]

• Remember when you could pay an NPC for "info" and theyd tell you roughly where something was, eg "northwest" in the forest.
  
• Yeah macers were heavy - even against NPCs with armour. You could just rip an NPCs armour up with a warfork or warhammer.
  
• I remember blade spirits being useful, even if they did take all year to cast. This is before 120 magery existed and was great for when you wanted to actually play the game as a mage, yet couldnt do level 8 stuff.
  
• What about SPAWN BARRELS? Related to thieves being fun to play, stealing from both crates and barrels in towns for semi rares to sell and looking in dungeons for uncommon items amongst various crap. Level 8 scrolls were not so common.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Yup and I got a couple more:

1. GMs actually a) read your page, b) gave you an answer that made sense or c) paid a visit and helped you directly.

2. GMs **sometimes** participated in player events such as weddings or contests of skill. I attended a wedding on Pac and 2 GMs plus a Counselor (the presiding Clergy) forced us all to have chicken fights and races ... yeah, "forced" us ... that's what they did.

3. GMs would periodically show up at WBB and just chat with players. They actually did play the game and understood most of the mechanics of stuff.

4. Seers would also show up at the bank or whatever ... just to see how things were going.

NOTE: Much of this was prior to the rate increase - part of which was to pay for better Customer Service, improved hardware and other stuff. Compared to all this, present day CS is somewhat lacking.

Keep it nice folks ... this is truth but also we should honor the OP request. K?

 

[Trebr Drab]

I miss almost all of what's been mentioned already. The game was simpler, yet more complex in deeper ways. Particularly social complexity. Not that it was all that complex, but today's MMORPGs have nothing more than chat rooms, and that's not game play. I miss how it payed to know other players. I miss how guilds served an important function of protection and knowledge through word of mouth in relation to this (i.e. not just game mechanics, but who you could trust and who you couldn't, what time of day evil guilds were where, who did repairs where, where player vendors were always stocked and with what, all those things that made UO feel more like a world).

I miss the lore, and whatever the mysterious plot was behind it in UO. Speaking per capita, Juo'Nar was as famous as any games "Boss". But he was never called a "Boss MOB". He was a person who turned into a liche of immense power due to his evil and the machinations of the plot line. He had a history that was played through, much like UO based on the Ultima games. This is different than some book story or movie, in a very subtle but very important way. "Boss MOB" indeed!

I miss danger from NPCs. AoS brought with it a wider spread of power, and that meant that a lot of MOBs simply are no challenge at all. It limits where you can find a challenge much more than it used to be. Visa versa, it also means that an undeveloped character is also limited where he can hunt, where many more places are too dangerous. Breaking apart players in zones is not a good thing, even though it's a natural side effect in any of these games. It's just that the extent has been broadened.

I really miss the overland hunting spots. Anyone remember the liches in the Cove Orc Fort? That was wild.

I miss a lot of things that they took out because of customer's complaining. Like being able to teleport onto ledges. It was perceived as unfair because mages could cast spells while taking no damage. But simply put, it was fun. They could have added throwing rocks, they could have added AI that told the MOBs to flee out of range, but instead they simply removed a fun little thing to do.
Same with setting up crates at dungeon entrances. It was simply fun. They could have enhanced this game play, instead of just removing it.

 

[lucitus]

The players!

 

[BeefSupreme]

Monsters like Lich lords and ancient wyrms actually being a challenge again

When I returned to the game, I was hunting and a LL spawned, I ran like hell,
because my thinking was still way back... So I got brave again and ran back to see if
I could kill it. LL dead in 3 hits.

No what I remembered lol.

 

[Spellbound]

GM's and Developers both visible and talking to you in game, nightmares casting (can't remember if it was fireballs or flamestrikes) while rolling onto their sides, long ago npc's were blabbering clowns before globalization, not having to be 120 in a skill to be functional, not having to save millions of gp to be able to buy something you needed, not having to worry whether an item you were buying from another player was duped, a cloth map of Britannia and T2A but none for Ilshenar/Malas/Stygian Abyss, the 20+ npc's escort trains, not having to be a mathematician to able to put together your gear, and economic havoc and loss of rares from your shard due to x-sharding traders and dupers (still think cross sharding of characters only without items would have been better).

 

[Spree]

This is UO today

[YOUTUBE]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rcCXnXDiKoQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rcCXnXDiKoQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

long ago npc's were blabbering clowns before globalization

I used to love that! And the NPCs that were begging!

I miss:

- The chest animation and 'Stones'
- Friends that have left the game or died in real life
- Walking/riding to places instead of always recalling/gating
- Hunting overland spawns and enjoying it
- PvPing...with my bard!
- Being part of a guild that protected people...actually served a purpose
- My old Fel tower (lost to hacker many years ago)
- Being able to put together a PVP suit that was competitive for less than a billion gold.
- Looking forward to what was coming in the future for the game

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

This is UO today

[YOUTUBE]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rcCXnXDiKoQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rcCXnXDiKoQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

Priceless!

 

[Cardell]

I miss the order vs chaos fighting and I miss the guild fights at guild houses.

 

[Picus at the office]

Everyone that use to play. I miss the people and the adventure, the fear and heart racing.

 

[the 4th man]

I joined UO, a few months or so before AoS. I came to Uo as an otion over the Sims.....My game got canned, MotorCity Online. (Loved it!!)

From what I am reading, yeah, there was the heyday, but the heyday sounds really boring. True, you had smith repairs....times change, that's a fact of life and the posts as of late show players reflecting back to what was once, and now is gone. Well, so are sweet full sized cars, now all you have is tootsie toy tin cans.

UO just evolved, and as said in another post, it may have died otherwise.
Fel. is an existing testament to failure. Even the graphics, not just 2D, but fel. looks like crap.

What do I miss, not a thing. cept my MCO.

 

[Guido_LS]

From the actual game itself, not much - probably just the feeling of pride of being a recognized, respected craftsman.

From the actual time? The people, of course.

 

[Jesara]

Second what Guido LS said.

All of the above posts are missed, but especially when GM meant something and what armor you wore mattered, and vanq weapons were the best and .....
It's still a good game though!

 

[Heimi]

My friends :'(

 

[Stupid Miner]

• Armour Rating and Magic Resistance - a simple system meaning armour was armour and attacks that werent physical were reduced by magic resist.
  - Eh, I actually enjoy the complexity, allows for precise planning/manipulation of the battlefield
• GM Armor - buying a set of regularly made GM armour was sufficient for most things. In addition, you could mix and match regular armour parts and still look good, whilst maintaining a good dexterity/armour rating
  - Simplicity is nice for some, but, again, I really enjoy the complexity and finding out how to mesh various ends of a template. Perhaps if they'd make semi-easy to obtain sets that would cover the basics, the same effect could be achieved.
• Forge repairs - Totally destroying strong communities, repair deeds totally removed the need to rely on other players and reputations.
  - Also removed a griefing system, could have found another way to fix it, could give player repairs a significant bonus, as long as they can first fix the stealing aspect.
• No insurance - made going to new places risky and made having friends valueable. Also meant that people didnt always wear their best stuff and did rely on buying a 2k set of GM heavy archer/full plate.
  - Also made it that no one *ever* wore the best stuff. Too valuable to lose, so nothing was gained from having it other than to hoard it.
• Lootable bones and non-instanced corpses - related to community trust and insurance; having that possibility to lose everything really made having a good friend worthwhile. You could prove your trust-worthiness by saving a players stuff when it went to bones, even if it meant waiting around for them.
  - True, but I think people can only honestly say they liked the loss in retrospect. Really no one's going to be happy to lose their stuff in the present tense, and they'll complain about it. The removal of that is kind of inevitable.
  
• Supremely accurate Katana of Vanquishing - Items just seemed better this way. No numbers, percentages or fractions, a sword was a sword and it was magic or not. If it was magic, it had a very subjectively sounding name like "Accurate" or "Vanquishing" that didnt make much sense for some perhaps, but that meant you had to find out. If you werent sure, you could of course just try it out.
  - It adds to the atmosphere of the world
• Non-custom housing - Custom houses can be nice but most look crap (sorry to anyone who might think im digging at them, but your house is probably a nice one). I hate seeing dirt plots everywhere or ugly out of style blocks. Removed something from the game I cant explain.
  - Eh, custom housing was one of the best additions to the game. You can't really impose an "ugly house" restriction that converts ugly places into classic houses. Can't have the good without the bad in this case.
• MIDI MUSIC - Just a personal one, but I think it really changes the feel of the game. The old midi music was really nice to listen to if it was on and really just reminds me of when I first played.
  - I still listen to it in converted mp3s... there's a Stratics page with the music files, and i can send a copy of my music config file to anyone who'd want it

A few other additions ive thought about, that I miss and arent really a part of the overall UO experience

1. West Brit Bank - Go to Brit Bank and youd see people selling horses, trading stuff, banksitting, showing off, scamming or looking for a res.
   - I remember all too well the people who hated WBB passionately and wanted to see it burn.
2. Banksitters - Ranger armour, blue sandals, glacial staff for lesser collectors, daemon bone with helmet and black blessed sandals for better collectors and then finally PHOENIX ARMOUR for the really really cool collectors. On a nightmare.
   - *shrugs* different items, different colors, same thing
3. Dying - It just isnt the same now. Sometimes ive died and logged out now because I know I have lots of stuff insured. I can just sit around and not even care if I die. I miss having to care for my character.
   - Heh, this doesn't apply to me. Am a diehard packrat, though i don't mind sometimes, just to clean the darn thing out.
4. Money was harder to get
   - Yep, but it was less necessary too.
   
5. Taming was profitable - you used to be able to sell pets and make money, even if it was just selling horses and ostards at 100gp at brit bank. White wyrms and dragons were desireable for their look and also were profitable.
   - Back when anyone could control any pet, or after? And people still can, colored Cu Sidhes come to mind
6. Vendors for the poor - vendors didnt always sell artifacts and high end items. I remember when a friend started to put items on his vendors and didnt take them off to evade fees. Back then, selling high end items was done at banks. Shops could sell all sorts of crap, and people would buy it!
   - Eh, doesn't really apply to me, the best prices are still found by scouring the lands for out-of-the-way vendors.
7. Innovative house decoration - craftables and various other items introduced have removed, in my eyes, a lot of innovation from players who used what the game had to offer to make their own decorations (pianos, fishtanks etc). I also think that custom houses have ruined this somewhat, too, as I think that the decoration is no longer as prominent as the house design itself anymore
   - The Homes and Gardens board would like to have a word with you
8. Combat was hard - No need to elaborate really. UO just felt more challenging I think.
9. Felucca was full of baddies! - Fel wasn't empty and you would have to be careful. Now, I dont even care if someone PKs me, but its rare that I will ever see someone else.
   - Having just finished a TB defense a couple hours ago... can't commiserate
   The boondocks of Felucca are empty, sure, there's no reason to be there.

Oh yeah and the nice box releases with a manual telling you all about the game, with pictures.
- Agreed

 

[georgemarvin2001]

I know it's trivial, but I miss the old, pre-AOS statusbar.

I'm not sure exactly when they changed it, but the new one looks like a 3rd grader did it.

The only pic I could find to show how much it has changed was a post-AOS one from before they changed the style. It does show the difference in the style from today's POS statusbar, or the even worse, practically unreadable hotbars to put stats in for the EC, but it's not exactly the same as the original one. Every time they change it, they make it worse. Does anybody have a screenshot of a real, pre-AOS one?

 

[Stupid Miner]

- Being able to put together a PVP suit that was competitive for less than a billion gold.

Actually have a friend I fight with who's suit is an amazing example of sticking to the basics:
Aegis of Grace, Heart of Lion, Imbued plate armor, doesnt use a Cincture or any high-end artifacts.
70 DCI 70 HCI 70s resist, some stam inc, and mana inc, Ornate axe, Heavy Crossbow. Pretty solid set-up, pretty easy to use, especially for beginners, really couldn't have cost much.

 

[Terrorknight]

I miss having to go to spawns that are so easy now, but back then they would kick your butt in a heart beat.

 

[Fortyniner]

Magic Reflection actually reflecting magic.

 

[Trevelyan]

I have an old pic of the health bar from 2000, let me find it

 

[Kallie Pigeon]

Magic Reflection actually reflecting magic.

I always loved that too

 

[georgemarvin2001]

This.

 

[Lord Chaos]

I miss not drowning in items, quests and systems to do.

Things were so much simpler.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

When a Dragon was something to be feared/respected.

 

[georgemarvin2001]

I miss not having to get out a calculator to figure out whether a piece of armor was worth looting, or whether it would work with my suit.

 

[Orgional Farimir]

a lot of things that were already mentioned plus bounty hunting, running around with 3 WW's named A B and C, running from Del to CoD on the road praying reds didn't find you, IDOCS before Tram came out... There would be 20+ people when a small house would fall, selling iron ingots for 6 gp per ingot and making a killing thinking you were ripping people off.

Mainly I miss the lead up to the Trinsic invasion.. All the lizardmen running wild in brit I made a killing off of selling the leather.

And lastly I remember the best way to make money pre tram was to start a tailor with 50 tailoring buy balls of yarn convert them into bolts of cloth and then make shirts and re sell them to the tailor.

 

[BadManiac]

I don't particularly miss the pre-Tram days, I'm not a PvP'er, and having to buy new gear every time you left town got old real fast. I do miss actually seeing other players once in a while, even if they were always red, and always followed by a message saying "X is attacking you"

I do miss the community, Brit Smithy for repairs, always hanging out chatting to Iron Chew and the others.

Miss the simplicity. GM made Heavy Archer Suit and you're good to go against anything.

I miss the level playing field, virtually no one could solo a Balron and win every time. Suits mattered less, player and character skill mattered more.


What I miss the most is when it was worth hunting almost anything. The loot was more evenly spread. You could hunt Daemons or Ophidian/Terathan Avengers and get the coveted Silver Weapon of Vanquishing, after using your item ID wand, if you were lucky.
I wish they could scrap the loot tables we have now and simply redo them from the ground up, giving new life to old and new hunting areas. Who went to T2A and hunted Ophidians or Terathans recently?


And MIDI Stones and the chest opening animation... *dreams*

 

[Stupid Miner]

And MIDI Stones and the chest opening animation... *dreams*

Hm, the opening song I remember wasn't Stones, but I didn't start in '97 either.

Powerful sounds.

ok, perhaps it wasn't the opening song, but it was one of the songs in there dangit!
childhood memories get... fuzzy and mish-mashed a bit.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I don't remember that ever being the opening song in 2d (then again, I shut the music off shortly after they changed it). Stones was always the opening song up until 3rd Dawn I think. It might have been LBR when it changed. I know they went away from the chest animation to the sun rising over the castle (blech) when the change occurred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zSMheo0b-w

 

[Trevelyan]

I miss the old font and how clicking items had its name appear above it rather than just open a context thing.

 

[Magdalene]

I miss not drowning in items, quests and systems to do.

Things were so much simpler.

OMG, I agree with LC... somebody shoot me.

 

[kelmo]

As you wish... :gun:

 

[Blondie_LS]

What I miss most, being able to Dress in Style. EG not having neon crap. Being able to look the part you are Rping, while still being competitive in PVM/PVP.

Vendor Armor, basic Smith/Tailor armor, actually being all you needed.

Mystic, Vanquishing, Silver, etc weapons.

 

[Tiberius]

I think NO Trammel (yes I know trammel existed pre-aos)
NO pet bonding
NO dismounting of any sort
NO stat loss for reds
7x templates
No invisible force fields around houses
No running a serious pvp template w/o magic resist.
No need for a math minor to figure out the best gear to wear for your template

I could go on and on

 

[Spree]

Lighting camp fire and make everyone gain Camping or to use the camping skill to log out.

 

[Trevelyan]

You are in Power Hour!

 

[Andsteel]

The players!

Exactly! Friends and community first then all the other things mentioned. The danger element was also a real 'rush' - walk outside Trinsic main gate and your life was short lived more often than not.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

walk outside Trinsic main gate and your life was short lived more often than not.

Trinsic was the worst for that! I guess because it is a walled city, they knew you would have to come out in one of two places...:gun:

 

[Trevelyan]

• Glacial staves - http://uo.stratics.com/content/arms-armor/special.shtml
  
  

  

  
  
  Glacial Staffs are found as loot on Giant Ice Serpents. Every staffused to give the owner access to two out of three effects. The type of effects one had access to were determined at random when the Ice Serpent and staff spawed. The following effects are known:
  Ice Ball - Des Corp Del. Does about 10-15 damage to the target.
  Ice Strike - In Corp Del. Drains all your mana in one go and does damage depending on the mana consumed.
  Paralyze - An Ex Del. Will temporary freeze your opponent.
  Currently the Glacial Staves have the following properties: Hit Harm, Mage Weapon, Physical Damage, Cold Damage. All the properties seem to have random values.

  This became broken sometime after AoS
  
• Newbie quests in haven at various times, the tutorials and things you could do.
• Obtaining black sandals
• Old artwork - hued creatures. Theres some that has changed over the years but I feel that a hued red skeleton was nicer than a strange LBR sprite for a "bone magi". LBR introduced some very ugly artwork but this was not used widely immediately. I feel after the artwork changed, Ilshenar became more "alien looking" to me. Nothing has seemed to best the original artwork, and by that I mean the T2A expansion too!
• (Small) houses being worth something. Ever remember how frustrating it was not being able to place a house because they were everywhere? At least you valued every tile in your home when you did manage to save up to buy one! Since AoS, a huge new landmass has been available for housing. Housing prices went down and fell even more after SE. By this time, however, the need for a new housing land was debateable - all you have to do is look around Trammel for a few minutes and you will find a space, however small.
• "Pre patch" font - items, monsters, system messages and other players text/names used to have a different font, which was thicker and darker. It had an "old" feel to it - though that may be me. For a while after a certain publish (or patch, probably patch) some items had a newer font (the same as player speech now) and some had the older font. See the above pic for what the font looked like.
  

 

[ProZac]

I could probably go on for hours and hours if I really thought about every feature and experience I miss from pre-AoS days. Pvp was always my thing and these are probably the things I miss most about it...

* I miss the old days of dueling. Back when Brit Mines, Jhelom Farms, Wrong Roof, and other main dueling spots (depending on your shard) were basically a sanctuary for dueling. You only fought if both parties accepted. Everyone dismounted and watched quietly if people were dueling. People gladly took a loss in return for a good fight and most duelers were respectful and courteous. The great players didn't pick on the newbs, they took them under their wing and showed them the ropes if they proved to be good learners. There was no constant s***-talk and slander. If you behaved the way that 99% of pvpers do these days you would be killed on sight by the players that used to run the pvp show.

* I miss the day when traveling was dangerous. A simple mission of traveling from Britain to the northern mines was suicide if you came too close to the reds lurking the graveyard, or passed by the wrong houses where PKers gathered. You may be lucky and get out of sight before they care enough to chase you down, but be unlucky enough to come across a gazer in the forest and be in for a battle. You never knew what you'd run into on the next screen. The risk alone was enough to keep the game exciting and interesting.

* I miss the days of real player interaction. Nowadays you can run near the entire map in the forest, visit 90% of the towns in the process, and quite easily never see another real person. If you hang close to mines you'll see a mining bot or two, but nothing like the old days. I remember simply traveling any trail I could find and nearly always coming across multiple players. Back then players were usually friendly and helpful as well. They'd randomly come up and and apply a bandage if your health wasn't full, or give you a better piece of armor or a weapon if they had better laying around. Many times strangers would invite me to their houses for idle chatter for a few minutes with no agenda. These were the days when players were courteous, friendly and helpful without expecting anything from it. I can't even count how many random strangers took me in when I was new and showed me the ropes or gave my first character a new piece of armor or some gold.

* I miss the old feel and perfect simplicity of UO. AoS obviously introduced a much more in depth itemization system with a lot more options. While the original system was somewhat bland and in some ways flawed, it was perfect in its own way. It's hard to really explain, because on paper it just looks like we upgraded to a better system. I guess "upgrade" doesn't always mean better. There used to be so much less to do in the game, but somehow the game was never boring. I get overwhelmed when I consider how many places I can go hunting, how many bosses or spawns I can kill, how many titles I can achieve, how many items and item sets I can perfect. I just miss slapping on my blessed black sandals, some clothing and maybe a set of GM leather and going at it.

* I miss the players. After playing every MMO under the sun and 12 years on and off again of UO I have really come to the realization that the players and community are what mold the game. While obviously that isn't true in some scenarios - a LOT of what happens is and has been out of the community's control for a while, the thought still stands strong. I feel the overall player quality in UO has gone from an A+ to a D-. While I do find UO stratics an extremely refreshing and tame community, it sadly doesn't reflect the entire population. I think that the worst players 10 years ago are probably on par with the average player now. It's kind of the evolution of MMOs in general though it seems. It's a new generation of players and sadly it hasn't done much good.

Like I said I could probably go on and on, but these are just a few things I'll mention now that are highlights for me.

I truly wish that we could return everything to its' former glory, but I really now think that it was just a one time thing and I am happy I was apart of it.

 

[dum3886]

Ohh i love this thread.. although i cbb reading 90% of it i read the first two so sorry if i repear haha..

1. Order/Chaos
2. Carrying around regs lol (yeah i actually miss carrying around 50 of each reg )
3. Going to a blacksmith player to repair my items and being worried that he might steal my power katana
4. Stocking a vendor with stuff and people actually buying it even though my house was in the middle of no where.
5. Fighting monsters with other people
6. Macing in pvp
7. I miss how i could name my ridable llama "Ridable ******"... try it, it won't let you.
8. Guild battles within WBB
9. WBB being populated.
10. A guy names Dr Doolittle on Oceania who was your local neighbourhood tamer and would get me all the dragons/nightmares/ostards/etc... u needed.
11. Pvpers actually sieging castles on that ice island... yes fellucia was actually populated in those days :O even when trammel was around.
12. Being scared of buccs den
13. Having to carry Black potions around as a warrior bcz my warrior didn't have magic
14. Para spears, concussion with that big hammer etc.. etc...
15. Seeing normal colours people.. not no fancy ugly blue or elf green or watever armour.
16. Actually seeing a GM come and help me.
17. PoWeR HoURRRRRR!!!
18. GM ARMOUR AND WEAPONS!!!
19. Watching whether i have 3 or 4 murder counts ..
20. Taming my own ridable llamas (yes i love them very much)
21. Not seeing ugly arse vet rewards r(idable kirins/that dragon thingo u can put armour on/ etc...)
22. Fighting on almost equal grounds... or at least if not there is a risk/reward issue.... if they wanna carry a vanquishing weapon at least i can LOOT IT when/if i kill them.. unlike today where they bring a 100 mill sword and wow u get 600 gold when u kill them.

 

[dum3886]

On a seperate note.

What I miss most, being able to Dress in Style. EG not having neon crap. Being able to look the part you are Rping, while still being competitive in PVM/PVP.

Vendor Armor, basic Smith/Tailor armor, actually being all you needed.

Mystic, Vanquishing, Silver, etc weapons.

There were mystic weapons back then.... how come i never saw one... i thought everyone just wanted a vanquishing silver katana lol

 

[Trebr Drab]

I didn't see this mentioned, but I liked it. Hit locations. If you were not wearing a helmet and got hit in the head, you took full damage. And if you were wearing Ringmail you took more damage than if you wore Plate. The Dex penalties for heavier armor came into play here, as you could attack faster with lighter armors at the cost of the defense.

 

[Andsteel]

I didn't see this mentioned, but I liked it. Hit locations. If you were not wearing a helmet and got hit in the head, you took full damage. And if you were wearing Ringmail you took more damage than if you wore Plate. The Dex penalties for heavier armor came into play here, as you could attack faster with lighter armors at the cost of the defense.

... and by wearing platemail you risked a lot more damage from spells like lightning Ouch!

 

[Trevelyan]

Mystic weapons never existed - added as part of an invasion later.

Used to be:

a katana
[accuracy/durability/damage]

or
a platemail tunic
[durability/defense]

where accuracy, durability, damage and defense were on a scale of 1-5, named

durable
[forgot]
[forgot]
[forgot]
indestructible

ruin
might
force
power
vanquishing

massive (is this first?)
defense
hardening
fortification
invulnerability

accurate
[another here]
surpassingly accurate
eminently accurate
supremely accurate

- anyone know the missing ones?