What are the main three things in UO that you consider not fun and that need to be changed?

[Nexus]

I'll bite, here's what I think needs fixed, but don't see how it's possible for some of them.

1.) The game has gone stagnate. Everything has gotten too routine, global events are either collect X item and turn into Y NPC or Uber-Monsters are attacking something. On top of it there are months of drawn out story fed into each global event that ends in pretty much following one of the two above formats. Unfortunately this is something I don't seeing being "fixable", there simply aren't enough devs left to really cause some random chaos. The EM's could fill this role but they don't or they aren't allowed. Randomly popping into a town and spreading some chaos from time to time would liven things up a bit, but then we'd have to hear from the cadre of bank sitters that have been coddled by years of being "safe" in side guard zones. Even having a system that invades a random town or towns inside a random time frame would liven things up, but who knows if that will happen.

EM events can be fun, but honestly they never should have started handing out rewards. Now they are a point of dissonance among an already increasingly fragmented player base. Just look at the replies here and in other threads, there are accusations of favoritism, and grief from the community. Not only that but the events they run typically follow set patterns, either they are RP events or they result in players facing a 1 hit kill monster, which is no better than the global events.

2) Divided Community. This is something I don't think will ever be fixed though it could be. But as the game slowly hemorrhages more subs over the years we're winnowing away towards set groups of players. We have the Hard Core PvP community which itself is being divided between the Faction and Non-Faction players, the RP community, and pretty much everyone who's left. One of the sad facts of UO is it being one of the first, it had no one to look towards for what works and doesn't. Other games divide those communities between servers from the start. UO doesn't and now it's another item to cause discord among the player base, I play other MMO's and I typically play on PvE servers, know what I don't see? The trash talking in the general chat among the PvP junkies. Do I see trash talk? Yes but it's more often than not humorous jabs that get carried a bit too far. To best preserve UO I'd re-designate certain servers as PvP or PvE servers then give everyone (X) amount of time to do a free X-fer to the one they prefer, then enforce the designation. Play on a PvE server fine, it's PvE only everywhere, PvP server, then Trammel, Malas, Tokuno, and everywhere else is opened to Reds, and you are free game outside of town and Factions is active everywhere. Oh and no X-fer between PvP and PvE servers.

3) The game is dated. There aren't the resources available for a large scale update to either client, so this won't change that I can see. I've had people tell me I'm crazy but honestly UO can't be marketed on "Community and History". They've tried doing that via plugs on game sites during interviews, and through word of mouth for years and it's not working. EA needs to swallow it's pride and say it's time to try something different. I'd do a hybrid F2P system where F2P accounts would have to buy Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls, Alacrity and Trans scrolls, House deeds for a specific sized house, Age restriction lifted Vet rewards, Arties with a No Wear modifier, as well as adding crafting packs, such as materials and Runic Tools, as well as other goodies like Soul Stones, and past per-order gifts to a UO Game Store. They could even add a purchase for an additional house slot for accounts so you could have one per shard. Having a "Free to Play" system would bring back many of those that are playing of Free Shards, and the store would be a consistent source of income in addition to what they gain from subbies. If nothing else it would give a bit more cash flow from UO and hopefully extend the games life a bit.

 

[Adol]

I agree with most of the comments here so far about what is unfortunate in Ultima Online right now; grind for the quests (High Seas really started the downward trend, but at least the Britannian Boat could be outright purchased in the store; the fishing grind remains a nightmare however... how many people have ever even seen Charbydis though due to the ultra-rarity of the rewards required?) lack of ability to communicate between players (One channel tends to leave newbies in Help, where they assume the game is dead because virtually no one else is there) ... but I wanted to address two issues in a wider sense.

Firstly; Greater Dragons and their taking up of screen space. I'm entirely sympathetic to this, despite my main becoming a tamer over the years. I'd suggest a simple Level 1 spell, 0 magery required to cast; Show Soul Aura. It converts all player pets into a just an outline. Colour coded for health (Alive, Green > Yellow > Red > Grey for dead) Having it as a spell makes it effectively a toggle for it so those who like to see pets can continue to do so, but also gives an in game reason for why they are now glowing outlines.

Secondly, with regards to EM events and items... Again, I'm sympathetic. However, it's easy for me to say that. I recently got my Trammel Castle (although I'd prefer it to be in Yew, Treveylan refuses to let his fingers fall off and thus be forced to sell his stuff, damn him!); I have all I needed money for now. Removing EM items would however be pulling up the financial drawbridge behind me, as it's the main way to get access to the huge sums required to afford the high end gear. And if newbies don't feel like they've got any reasonable way to progress, they'll quickly lose faith with the game. As it stands, EM items do provide that valuable service; the richest and longer lasting players tend to have tonnes of cash or other wealth, but EM items are always new, rare and collectable. Some of them come with very moving personal history, such as the sword that our last EM wielded before he was eaten by a daemon, and then we kidnapped one of Catskills' EMs instead... later on when the newbies hit their own target they've always got personal history of their own to go back and collect too.

However yes, the way EM events are run for now is still unfortunately prone to negative side effects from public greed and selfishness... as well as that Greater Dragon problem too. Steps are being made to address this (Royal Investigator arcs on Europa so you are rewarded for personal effort) but it's a tricky thing to address sadly.

 

[kaio]

1) Cheats
2) Hacks
3)Dupes

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I hope they do make some changes tho after reading this. I think alot of the ideals seem to point at the same place but far far not the same ideals. All are true.. I guess I will read them all again and I hope to see more on EM events.

What if they made a real item or used real items at events. Then made copies of those items like replicas so you could have a rare item made for the event and then place the replicas into the game on some other spawn or use the same spawns depending where the event was held. Like say they hold an event in the swamp and make a real mean guy spawn everyone kills it and the mean guy drops a golden book with 2k pages. After that night is over the spawns in the swamp gets a chance to drop that replica golden book with 2k pages. Even if means killing 200,000 bogthings to get one. That way you never miss out on the item it self and in the years to follow they will drop as reminders to what had happen there so long ago. I think that would be enough to stop ppl who have to miss events to know that they can still get something like it and at the same time you have rare items.

Plus you are adding to the game as you go rather then it slowly fading away forever. Same with the added of spawns. If they can stay in some new place even if the spawn rate is slow like one a year it would add to the game and when it happens to come up it would make its own event. Some would have to be removed because of way things are done now but if you make the story and then the spawn it can all be fitting. Like telling a story of ghost that appears ever so often and tries to take the heads of any one she sees. Maybe she spawns because something happen on that date at that time many years ago.. So the events that are made are now part of the games future and not only held in its past. So now even the spawns can stay. I would even go as far as building new places for the spawn to live or a stage of some kind.

 

[Flutter]

Oh yeah...
And
I want to be able to put stuff down on a carpeted floor!

 

[Gidge]

What are the three main things in UO that I consider not fun and need to be changed.

1. Interaction with the town folks. I would like to see the stores/shops alive and the town folks interacting. Cooking, painting, doesn't have to be ultra in depth. Maybe have an NPC fishing be in need of selling the shoes they have pulled up and going to the tailor who complains of his stench and telling him to go to the bath houses. Make Compassion be tied into taking the fisher to the bath house then taking him(or her) back later to the tailor or fishing spot. yeah kinda a chain quest, but interactive. We use to be able to ask the time, where a bank was, where an actual player was. So much has been moved out of the towns that they are now dead when they use to be full of excitement. Make NPC's steal gold from us. (if we have it) bandages, let's have some fun!​

2. The Vendors you guys have set up in "one town" New Magencia, should be spread out all over the map. You guys should have thought that out a bit more. It again is no fun to go to one spot on the map to do what is needed. It should be and can be spread out. Some in Brit, Some in Yew, Some yes in Luna, Break it up and I suppose continuing with #1, make the towns alive. Make the town vendors randomly sell some groovy stuff. Doesn't have to be major, maybe diff color hides now and then, amp'ed up tools, food that does something, once their inventory has 3 new neat items it can't spawn more. make them random. Make them so reselling isn't the draw though. Have random vendors going through the woods or NPC's needing help of some fashion. TRULY random. New things don't have to be spectacular. If you guys are worried about lag, take out the changing ground which I am sure uses lots of memory resources.

3. Us seeing what in the next hall over and it seeing us and targeting us. Seriously? The monster should not be able to target me because I can not target it. Make it so that I can not see anything unless it is in my line of SIGHT. AND FIX LINE OF SIGHT! This is SO not fun because I will be fighting something and won't auto hit back (which in some solo-fighting ever hit counts) because I am targeted by some other creature that is the next room/hall/cave path over. I should be either blinded to what is there by some kind of shadow, to the monsters and the path, and once I have walked that hall I can know that path is there but still not know what monster is there. (I so hope that made sense)

 

[Herman]

The basar vendors in magincia is ugly couple tents banners and tables would have made it looks os much better like a real market place

 

[Herman]

1 Lag
2 u have to wait to use another skill
3 agro timer in tram

 

[Uvtha]

1) Items in general. Both basic and magic. Certain weapons and armors are just flat out inferior at the base level, and often by wide margins. Magic items with addition on top of addition making a giant mess of things. 15 line single color magic item descriptions, convoluted mechanics like reforging, imbued/reforged items vastly outclassing artifacts... on and on. The whole system needs a serious overhaul.

2) Monsters in general. Hard monsters are either boring with a billion hps, or can red line you within seconds, zero point in hunting any monster outside of the abyss or one of the upgraded dungeons as there is 0 chance there will drop something useful. Zero reason to hunt mid and lower level monsters in general (too few lower monsters yield things like resources or ingredients).

3) Repetitive nature of recent additions/decay of value of rewards for doing those repetitive tasks. New additions that are fun at first, but then you find you have to do them tonnnnns of times, like the nexus punch cards, or the sand sifting, or the garbage/fire clean up. Then with towns your loyalty decreases over time unless you log in every day. It's lame. It's like a job.

 

[Eärendil]

1) Waiting time after log-out when you have been tracked by a mongbat
2) Farming for Peerless-Keys
3) Monsters that dispel my summons instantly (over and over again)...

 

[Pippin Luppin]

1. Care bears
2. Care bears
3. ... CARE BEARS!!

:gun:

 

[Selurnoraa]

1) Items in general. Both basic and magic. Certain weapons and armors are just flat out inferior at the base level, and often by wide margins. Magic items with addition on top of addition making a giant mess of things. 15 line single color magic item descriptions, convoluted mechanics like reforging, imbued/reforged items vastly outclassing artifacts... on and on. The whole system needs a serious overhaul.

It annoys me that all the expansions have a few 'gems' in their Artifact/Drop list that actually see play. I don't think other then the Sorceror's suit have I seen a 'item set' see gameplay, I am sure there are a few more sets that are decent but for the most part (even the sorceror suit) suck.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

1. Care bears
2. Care bears
3. ... CARE BEARS!!

:gun:

LOL

 

[Uriah Heep]

1) Waiting time after log-out when you have been tracked by a mongbat
2) Farming for Peerless-Keys
3) Monsters that dispel my summons instantly (over and over again)...

Amen!

 

[Pippin Luppin]

LOL

= Mannan? & co lol

 

[Coldren]

1) Metal Armor being completely pointless. A personal pet peeve, but if I'm going to wear heavy armor that has a penalty to Med and strength requirements, it better offer more protection than leather.

2) Weapon attacks costing Mana instead of Stamina. Dealing a crushing blow isn't magical, it takes a lot of stamina to swing harder, but instead they are forcing melee characters to invest in Int. Another pet peeve.

3) Decay.. Of almost any kind. I'm not young, and free time is a premium. If I find the time to grind up a virtue, I don't want it to go away when I go on vacation or I'm out for work. I understand and don't mind the grinds per say, but I deplore the fact that in the end it can actually be for less than nothing.

4) PvP with meaning. I know PvP is it's own reward in some ways, but unlike DAoC, it's missing that unifying cause that brings people together. Whether that cause is a dungeon only open to the victors, items that benefit everyone who wins, pride in taking down someones long held position or keep, it just seems like there isn't any point other than to kill others.

 

[Zosimus]

1) Factions. Chaos vs Order needs to be returned. Better system and much easier to use in all facets.

2) Armor needs to be fixed. Plate should give more protection that leather. Doesn't matter if it's magically enhanced if you look at it logically. Metal is harder than leather.

3) Cities still need to have a purpose. Allow players to elect their own rulling goverment for each city for a time period. Let them set their own buffs for players that are loyal to that city. Have donations as in resources to help fority the city from other city attacks. This could work with number one where Chaos and Order can have a hand in.

 

[FrejaSP]

1. The economy
Now where we got this new Stall vendors in New Magincia, we don't need npc vendors to buy items there can be sold to stall vendors. Place them in every town and some too in the player towns.
Then remove the items from NPC's buying list and make raise the price when selling.
If vendors won't buy, players will sell to the stall vendors and less gold will be added to the game
Special on Siege this stall vendors are good for new Siege players as our vendors don't buy. It's ok you need the rustice or the gotich pack to run them but not all should be able to trade with them.

2. The special Siege rules
It's about time some of them get removed to open the shard for more players, however some have to stay to protect our economy.
Recall: Allow it but add 20 sec delay if not in a house you are friended too or in town zone.
Char slots: Allow the standard 5 char slot, players enjoy playing different chars and playstyles.
Young accounts: Allow them to see Siege on the char menu, allow them to make a char on Siege without loosing their young status on other shards however the young status should not work on Siege.

3. Wood, bone, scala and metal armor
Very few use it now as leather can give same resist with imbuing. I believe devs need to try to make leather for mages/casters and the others for warriors.
Put a cap on how much resist there can be/imbues on a piece of leather, studded leather, ring, chain, scala, plate and only allow mage mods on items with low resist.

 

[Selurnoraa]

3) The game is dated. There aren't the resources available for a large scale update to either client, so this won't change that I can see. I've had people tell me I'm crazy but honestly UO can't be marketed on "Community and History". They've tried doing that via plugs on game sites during interviews, and through word of mouth for years and it's not working. EA needs to swallow it's pride and say it's time to try something different. I'd do a hybrid F2P system where F2P accounts would have to buy Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls, Alacrity and Trans scrolls, House deeds for a specific sized house, Age restriction lifted Vet rewards, Arties with a No Wear modifier, as well as adding crafting packs, such as materials and Runic Tools, as well as other goodies like Soul Stones, and past per-order gifts to a UO Game Store. They could even add a purchase for an additional house slot for accounts so you could have one per shard. Having a "Free to Play" system would bring back many of those that are playing of Free Shards, and the store would be a consistent source of income in addition to what they gain from subbies. If nothing else it would give a bit more cash flow from UO and hopefully extend the games life a bit.

What happens if you go from a subscription plan - the F2P model?

I definatly agree F2P should be an option because I believe for this game to 'grow' we need to hit all aspects that are stealing away players.
There is a demand for free shards and classic shards. I now believe that a pre: trammel F2P classic server would draw in many returning players.

just things like if people love trammel and they want to play it instead of a Felucca 'gankfest' then they would have to subscribe.
or want your house on the f2p server to auto refresh requires an active subscription, accounts don't age unless paid gametime.


We need to assault all former players regardless of where they are at currently. The F2P'ers / Classic Sharders / Recently Quit due to variety of reasons. A plan of action should be made to make this game more appealing to these players, so hopefully we can get some back and restabilize the population and move forward with the game.

 

[Uriah Heep]

We need to assault all former players regardless of where they are at currently. The F2P'ers / Classic Sharders / Recently Quit due to variety of reasons. A plan of action should be made to make this game more appealing to these players, so hopefully we can get some back and restabilize the population and move forward with the game

Sounds good. How ya gonna make it happen tho?
Forget the classic shard option, that's been done to death. Our current team of what, 4 devs, do not have the time or resources for it. We been told that many many times. Over and over and over.

Recently quit for a variety of reasons. That's a tough one. It's one that I kinda fall into. Closed all but one account, the houses are gone, they're done. Uriah is the only active account I ahve at the moment, and tbh, I don't see me re-opening any of the other accounts for anything short of a message from God telling me to. Don't know what would entice anyone to, at this point.
The spiral we are in will be tought to break. I mean, I am sick of mobs that one hit kill, and can do it from almost off screen...where's the challenge, the fun? Unless you intend to practice rezzing...
So to fix that, we went from one hit killers, to mobs that dont one hit kill, but have such a ridiculous amount of hit points, even with a group you have to just plink away at it (like killing a grizzly with a BB gun) for 30 mins...
And thrown in the mix are some that are both ways LOL. But back on point, they made players stronger, so then they needed stronger mobs to make it challenging. Then they made players stronger to offset that, then they made mobs stronger to make it challenging again. And there seems to be no end to the cycle.
Case in point, they boosted t-chest loot some, made maps worth doing again. The they did shame, and totally laid their work on t-chests to waste. Other than a few essences and the chance for a higher level map, they're just not worth doing anymore.

So I don't know how you will lure anyone back, but someone need to think of something =(

 

[Pippin Luppin]

Pffft UOSA ftw! nuff said

 

[Lady Storm]

ok I can see the thread hasgotten off the listing and now has headed to discussing the points...
1. monster hp .... to solo is impossible, when you are the only one on the shard to play! Its nice to party up when you got alot of players to do so... many of us dont have that luxury.
2. Events - when you feel you have been cannon fodder for the EM's an the usual gift getters (yes it seems the same people get the rewards ever stinking time)
3. Aquirement of ingredients for quests , skills etc... As was pointed out many times above its hell to do any thing if you cant aquire the ingreedients! ML, and the new stuff you need an army to get things and the party is full of others who want it too.. when only 1 or a few spawn and you need 10...... need I say more?

 

[THP]

1. Monsters with so ugly much HP that i need alone a half day to scratch them. I wonder why Monsters gets stronger and stronger, and Players + their Pets stays weak in this Game. I can remember times when Tamers had not only 1 Pet they could use against Monsters. Now we have only ugly Greater Dragons left.

2. Grinding Quests. All new Quests are really poor made. To get alone 1 Jukan or Meer Item, you have to sift Sand for Hours and that should be not so. After 8 hours Sand sifting i got already 2 Items ... and i don't want to know how many Hours i need to get all Items.

3. EM Made Events are right now a NOGO. I can talk just over Atlantic / Europa and how it is there and it is not funny. An EM comes online ... 90% of all Players don't even notice that an Event starts. Then that EM makes some poor conversation .... let some ugly Monsters spawn and in the end Players gets Event Items .... that they sell for 100 Million Gold ... Events should not be made to get a Handful Players ultra rich. We don't need unique Event Items. And we need EM's that tells Peoples when an Event starts. For what we have the General Chat? Yes i know there is the Event Pages here in Stratics but not everyone reads here and the Town Criers tell me 95% all the time about Events that was weeks ago.

1. number 3 ...
2. number 3 ...
3. number 3 ...

 

[Pinco]

1) Outdated graphics: too static and able to compete only with a command line client.

2) Grinding: if you farm something nothing changes not even after 1 million hours. There should be a random factor to make those activities (90% of the game) fun.

3) Static environment: the world is exactly like a painting, you can watch it for hours and nothing will ever change. Would be nice if for example, the trees grow and die randomly instead of staying there statically even when you chop it down...
A very good looking feature would be a better weather system that makes puddles when rains, snow falling and staying on the items around you (all client side visible just while you are in the screen).

But probably UO is just like a slot machine, you pay to see some static figures moving around

 

[Gilmour]

1. Enhanced client bug fixes
2. Enhanced client bug fixes
3. Enhanced client bug fixes

 

[Uriah Heep]

) Static environment: the world is exactly like a painting, you can watch it for hours and nothing will ever change. Would be nice if for example, the trees grow and die randomly instead of staying there statically even when you chop it down...

In the CC the flowers do grow in stages, then disappear, and grow again. I know what ya meant, but we do have it to an extent

 

[Pinco]

In the CC the flowers do grow in stages, then disappear, and grow again. I know what ya meant, but we do have it to an extent

if you consider few dots in the ground flowers....

 

[Uriah Heep]

if you consider few dots in the ground flowers....

Wasn't pushing CC over EC, or vice versa...just stating a fact.

 

[Pinco]

Wasn't pushing CC over EC, or vice versa...just stating a fact.

me neither, on EC the flowers are the same

 

[Aerodice]

1) Lack of balance in terms of items. Here's a small list of what I mean:
- Lack of significant advantages for each armor type. Give us a reason to favor a certain type of armor (Necromancer bonuses in bone armor, warriors in plate?).
- 1 handed VS 2 handed weapons. There is no significant reason to go with a 2 handed weapon.
- Materials and their bonuses. Shadow iron has more use than valorite and is a lot more common.

2) Party System needs a serious revamp
- Ability to control loot rights (Even split, free for all, leader splits)
- Friendly fire support
- Fully customizable quick access options for crosshealing/beneficial actions (For both clients)
- More user controlled options

3) One off, dropped and forgotten systems.
- Meraktus is a champion spawn but does not provide the same benefits. No altar, no gold drop, no title and likely no loyalty for cities. Why not just make it an official champion spawn like all the rest?
- Recipe system ignored. Peerless reagents virtually useless.
- Nothing new added to community collections (minus the brit boat but that's not exactly ground breaking)
- A lot of UOSA items still don't have an intended use, possibly from dropped systems.

 

[Joey Porter]

1) Lack of balance in terms of items. Here's a small list of what I mean:
- Lack of significant advantages for each armor type. Give us a reason to favor a certain type of armor (Necromancer bonuses in bone armor, warriors in plate?).
- 1 handed VS 2 handed weapons. There is no significant reason to go with a 2 handed weapon.
- Materials and their bonuses. Shadow iron has more use than valorite and is a lot more common.

2) Party System needs a serious revamp
- Ability to control loot rights (Even split, free for all, leader splits)
- Friendly fire support
- Fully customizable quick access options for crosshealing/beneficial actions (For both clients)
- More user controlled options

3) One off, dropped and forgotten systems.
- Meraktus is a champion spawn but does not provide the same benefits. No altar, no gold drop, no title and likely no loyalty for cities. Why not just make it an official champion spawn like all the rest?
- Recipe system ignored. Peerless reagents virtually useless.
- Nothing new added to community collections (minus the brit boat but that's not exactly ground breaking)
- A lot of UOSA items still don't have an intended use, possibly from dropped systems.

Love your idea on armor. Would make crafters more useful. I have a sick looking set of red dragon scale armor but it is useless. Makes no sense that some leather armor would be better.

 

[SunWolf]

i enjoy the game, it is an online game so the grinds are expected and gives me plenty to do when I log in.

i still, along with many other people I talk to or hear mentioned (expect seems the group here that posts on stratics) dislike how fast everything respawns in the game since the Age of Shadows. Spawns and respawns should be adjusted to the areas that they are in.


the questing system should be updated sometime. Go through revamp or redo all the quests including Heartwood's. Put them on all the quest system ( i think there is 3 systems out there) and put some achievment system in the game maybe.

Hackers, cripters, and every want-to-be pvpers which use every illegal program they can find to feel good about themselves. Amazing after a patch, how you only see the a small group of people around fighting and all the others that are there nightly are gone for a few days.

 

[puni666]

Another thing. Ranged weapons. If Player A is using a ranged weapon aimed at player C, but Player B is standing in any of the tiles that follow the path of the ranged weapon Player B should have to make a defense check. If Player B parrys there are no more checks. If Player B evades Player C makes a defense check. If Player B fails their defense check there are no more checks. Would give a nice added boost to parry players playing tactically and planting themselves in the front of a fight that they might not normally stand in front of.

 

[puni666]

1)
2) Weapon attacks costing Mana instead of Stamina. Dealing a crushing blow isn't magical, it takes a lot of stamina to swing harder, but instead they are forcing melee characters to invest in Int. Another pet peeve.

I've been lecturing at them about this for a while. Logrus said they toss around the idea here and there, but can never finalize it. A lot of other balancing has to come if they were ever to do this.

 

[Nexus]

1. Care bears
2. Care bears
3. ... CARE BEARS!!

:gun:

Triberius' Gaming Journal: So I was chatting in Skype and a "Carebear" snuck in.... <--- These guys?

 

[Davin Darkblade]

The three things I'll mention probably can't be changed as developers have mentioned. So I'll mention them as things that SHOULD be changed.

1) Trammel - it was a good short term solution, but it destroyed the whole virtual world concept
2) Age of Shadows Item Changes - I'm all for item complexity and properties, but this didn't build upon the previous and simple system. It completely altered the game.
3) Elves/Samurai/etc - Richard Garriott has conducted many interviews that prove every intent to retcon these out of the game. YES they were in the first 3 games but his idea changed and so did their justification. Meer and Juka would have been brilliant ideas for extra races. Especially at the time the Lord Blackthorn's Revenge expansion was at its prime. The current gargoyles are great too. However their look is quite different to their appearance in Ultima 6/7. Sure you can use the whole "multiple shards and different universes" theory. That's fair, but all that does is justify having content that isn't quite Ultima.

In terms of 3 things that could be changed:

1) Reliance on crafting. The new dungeons present challenges yes, but the random item drops? A bit odd. The old system of crafting, treasure hunting and fighting particular monster was the best way to attain items. Bring it back.
2) Enhanced Client updates: It should have been done properly with Kingdom Reborn. That was the whole point right? Then again it should have been done properly with Third Dawn so we wouldn't need Kingdom Reborn.
3) Marketing. Treat this game with respect. Get it out there and do something with it. Stop spending time on these social games that simply steal an IP rather than enhance it...