Body Guards

[Manticore]

Not sure if people have thought about this but after been playing for a while I am running out of things to do so I spend more time on "what if" etc...

What if just like tamers, we can purchase NPCs BUT...

1. They cost money to maintain say 1000 gold pieces per day.
2. They can be bonded over time.
3. You can train their skills up just like faction hired NPCs or regular NPCs with classes but you yourself train them via battle. So you could have potentially 6 x 120 hired NPC. You would also have to buy PS to up their limit etc..
4. They follow same commands as current pets do.
5. Instead of stables they are stored in barracks (you take them out only when you want to)
6. You can also change their clothing, i.e. dress them up in the armor you like and dye their hair etc..
7. They take up slot points just like pets so any player can't own more than 5 etc..
8. And they compete with tamer slots so that a Tamer can ride and bring say 1-2 extra body guard
9. When they die, they can be resurrected just like a pet.
10. Their items, if insured, will fall into your backpack when they die so you can dress them up again after resurrection or their bodies when resurrected each has a backpack just like a packy and their items would be in it and you can dress them up that way.


It shouldn't be hard to create this because all of these functions currently exists in one form or another, i.e. manaquins, NPC vendors, hired NPCs, pets, etc... just a matter of juggling which scripts to use when creating these NPCs.

I can say for sure I would love to walk around with my own entourage all dressed the way I like and go out and hunt with me. These days its already hard to find players or friends to do champ spawns but with my own groupie I could have a lot of fun. This would also make UO look its 5 times the more people lol.

Can you imagine the wars you will have in Fel now with this function? Currently faction NPCs just sits around and guard their sigils, now you have your posse ride with you. You want numbers, there ya go!!

Can you imagine the attendance at EM events? LOL it would be the crowd size back in 2001. Massive warfare, massive death, surly some twisted EMs would love that lol)

This could be a great potential gold sink idea. Just think dressing up to 5 of your own hires would cost how much in PS, armors, weapons, etc... If it's a mage then they can have 100% lrc suits on so they are programmed just like faction NPCs and learn how to heal themselves etc..

This would stimulate so many type of players because it would involve so many types of skill sets for more crafting, mining etc...to revitalize the community.

Thoughts?

 

[Nails Warstein]

Definitely, its like hiring your own army, or entourage. The possibilities are endless. Imagine if you could hire any NPC type such as a scribe, tailor, blacksmith, tinker, or even a banker.

1. The initial cost should be expensive, the upkeep should be like a daily vendor cost.
2. Instead of bonding like a pet, perhaps you earn their fealty somehow.
3. They can be brought to an academy for specialization in player skills
a. The more skills they possess, the more slots they take up, the more they cost.
b. They can specialize in anything save taming, defeats the purpose.
4. They follow same commands in addition to limited specialization abilities.
5 - 10 I basically agree exactly

Bonus

Perhaps a necromancer's bodyguards are undead minions.

 

[Flutter]

Thing is, taming takes a skill. Are suggesting it use the taming skill to be able to do this?
If not I'd have to vote no.

 

[Cyanide_Mage]

1. There is so much gold in the economy today I would make it more of a skill = cost type thing. IE legendary skill would = 1 million gold per day
2. I'd be ok with bonding.
3. I think the skills should function like old pet skills, a death = a % lose in skill that can be worked back up.
4. I think you might have simplified to much how this system would work. All kill = what excatly? Set spell combo? Set melle combo? All heal?
5. I like this idea, would add something to the game that could be expanded on even more.
6. I like this as well.
7. I wouldn't let it be 1 npc = 1 slot, should be based on skill, 700+ skill = 3 slots, sub 700 = 1 slot that way you dont have pvpers or pvmers running around with 5x 120 chars steam rolling everything in game.
9. As before they should be resable BUT should function as a % lose per res which needs to be retrained.
10. I think this is where it should be some added risk. Items on your follower should NOT be insurable. This means if you want to roll around in pvp with the follower you risk losing the gear on that char if it dies, same for pvm.

Overall I like the idea, in UO we need to come up with new and exciting ideas to keep the game going.

 

[Manticore]

Thing is, taming takes a skill. Are suggesting it use the taming skill to be able to do this?
If not I'd have to vote no.

True taming takes up a slot which is why they get to roll around with a greater dragon. Let's face it a single mage or dexer or even archer is no match against a player with a greater dragon. There may be just a couple on each shard who are the top pvpers who even have a chance. This way in fel its more fair, and in tram it also gives them a little better odds against tamers.

 

[Flutter]

Sorry. I have to vote no. It's bad enough we got those annoying mechanical dragons that anyone can use. Melee talismans that allow people to have Orc brutes. Please... no more skill-less followers.

 

[LordDrago]

I can see this causing some serious balancing issues.

Right now, I do not think I could go for this idea, even though I do like the dynamics it could bring

 

[LordDrago]

True taming takes up a slot which is why they get to roll around with a greater dragon. Let's face it a single mage or dexer or even archer is no match against a player with a greater dragon. There may be just a couple on each shard who are the top pvpers who even have a chance. This way in fel its more fair, and in tram it also gives them a little better odds against tamers.

Actually, 2 slots (taming/animal lore), so if you made the equivalent for this system, could you fit that into an effective template, or should you just make a tamer.

 

[LordDrago]

Quick question as I do not PvP much, and I definitely do not do a lot of number crunching for UO:

How hard can 1 hit be in PvP for say an archer? Now...double that (or more depending on how the slots work)...will that make PvP more fun, or will there be a lot of essentally one hit battles going on...Also, imagine a Mystic with 2 Mystic followers, and then their three RCs...just not sure if the unintended consequences will ruin the game more than make the game more dynamic.

 

[Manticore]

Quick question as I do not PvP much, and I definitely do not do a lot of number crunching for UO:

How hard can 1 hit be in PvP for say an archer? Now...double that (or more depending on how the slots work)...will that make PvP more fun, or will there be a lot of essentally one hit battles going on...Also, imagine a Mystic with 2 Mystic followers, and then their three RCs...just not sure if the unintended consequences will ruin the game more than make the game more dynamic.

These are all interesting points, so perhaps we start by limiting the classes and slowly ease other classes in. Right now the faction NPCs are just dexer and mages and with the limited amount of intel placed on them they proven to be a nice challenge. Now with this system they can be a much more effective partner.

I don't agree Flutter in that they are not just orc brutes or ogres, these are much more than that because you will need to spend a significant more time building up that char, just like amount of time you would take to build up your pet. Now as for skill slots, that has to be though over because you could purchase NPC fighters now that doesn't take up any slots and still have pets along.

 

[LordDrago]

Now as for skill slots, that has to be though over because you could purchase NPC fighters now that doesn't take up any slots and still have pets along.

LOL...been a long time since I used an NPC, but once you go up against anything stronger than a mongbat, isn't a rock a more effective fighting partner?

 

[Flutter]

These are all interesting points, so perhaps we start by limiting the classes and slowly ease other classes in. Right now the faction NPCs are just dexer and mages and with the limited amount of intel placed on them they proven to be a nice challenge. Now with this system they can be a much more effective partner.

I don't agree Flutter in that they are not just orc brutes or ogres, these are much more than that because you will need to spend a significant more time building up that char, just like amount of time you would take to build up your pet. Now as for skill slots, that has to be though over because you could purchase NPC fighters now that doesn't take up any slots and still have pets along.

NPC fighters do take up slots. The "you have to train them" reasoning isn't going to justify negating a whole skill (taming) by allowing people without any skill to have these "pets" (that's effectively what they are, just in a different form). Your basically suggesting allowing people to remove taming and lore from their templates to add two more skills and letting them still have their pets. It's just overpowered. You can train up a horse to be GM in all skills and stats, but that horse isn't going to have swords, macing, archery or other fighting skills. There's a reason for that.

 

[Manticore]

NPC fighters do take up slots. The "you have to train them" reasoning isn't going to justify negating a whole skill (taming) by allowing people without any skill to have these "pets" (that's effectively what they are, just in a different form). Your basically suggesting allowing people to remove taming and lore from their templates to add two more skills and letting them still have their pets. It's just overpowered. You can train up a horse to be GM in all skills and stats, but that horse isn't going to have swords, macing, archery or other fighting skills. There's a reason for that.

How can it be overpowered if they also take up slots? if I am not a tamer and take up 5 NPCs and I go against a tamer with a greater dragon I think its a fair fight. If I put that dragon against the 5 trained NPCs alone the dragon would eat them up. Same arguments could be made now that as is Tamers are overpowering during hunting and PvPing so in a way this actually would balance it.

 

[cazador]

I do like this idea for say a new skill plus a rename on another...Change begging to Persuasion...same purpose it has now and add in the ability to "persuade" an NPC hire to join your Clan..and Mind Control to be able to control your guard..give it commands "x" heal "x" kill...you don't have to physically train your NPC but you can pay a ridiculous amount of gold to train him at the barracks..1m per .03 or you could go out to hunts and train yourself..no bonding but maybe a loyalty system..where when your guard dies his body and soul is transported to the barracks and may be revived from battle in X amount of time pending his loyalty to you and based on your skill of persuasion and mind comtrol..the stronger he/she gets the more slots it takes from 1-5
Specific Classes- (more of support character rather than über leet companion)

Demonologist- summons undead creatures and heals with spiritspeak
Priest - minor to major party heals and cures
Mage - minimal offensive arsenal no x-heal ability can only heal and cure himself
Thief - hides,stealths, steals gold or anything uninsured in packs in 45 second delay
Warrior- can absorb melee damage heal with bandages and uses lesser potions as needed

..could be an extremely cool system but fear it would be extremely unbalanced and would need at least 6 months to a year on a test shard before moved to production shards to make sure it is stable..

Also ideal for a new shard altogether no rules barred no locked houses no tram no secures other then banks and can be posted in homes for a weekly charge to protects your valuables...become stronger in homes and houses are unable to be entered till all guards are killed...based on house size and reputation is how many guards you may have a guilds castle could have upwards of 100 guards..sorry for running off on a fantasy tangent just sounded cool in my warped semi drunk mind ATM! Lol





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[Manticore]

I do like this idea for say a new skill plus a rename on another...Change begging to Persuasion...same purpose it has now and add in the ability to "persuade" an NPC hire to join your Clan..and Mind Control to be able to control your guard..give it commands "x" heal "x" kill...you don't have to physically train your NPC but you can pay a ridiculous amount of gold to train him at the barracks..1m per .03 or you could go out to hunts and train yourself..no bonding but maybe a loyalty system..where when your guard dies his body and soul is transported to the barracks and may be revived from battle in X amount of time pending his loyalty to you and based on your skill of persuasion and mind comtrol..the stronger he/she gets the more slots it takes from 1-5
Specific Classes- (more of support character rather than über leet companion)

Demonologist- summons undead creatures and heals with spiritspeak
Priest - minor to major party heals and cures
Mage - minimal offensive arsenal no x-heal ability can only heal and cure himself
Thief - hides,stealths, steals gold or anything uninsured in packs in 45 second delay
Warrior- can absorb melee damage heal with bandages and uses lesser potions as needed

..could be an extremely cool system but fear it would be extremely unbalanced and would need at least 6 months to a year on a test shard before moved to production shards to make sure it is stable..

Also ideal for a new shard altogether no rules barred no locked houses no tram no secures other then banks and can be posted in homes for a weekly charge to protects your valuables...become stronger in homes and houses are unable to be entered till all guards are killed...based on house size and reputation is how many guards you may have a guilds castle could have upwards of 100 guards..sorry for running off on a fantasy tangent just sounded cool in my warped semi drunk mind ATM! Lol





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Those ideas are all worth exploring but just a reminder that Mesanna has limited number of engineers and their time is precious so the best way to convince them to even ponder this idea is to offer the easiest solution to implement this which is to offer scripts already exist in this game in one form or another and to just pull them and put them into this system.

If any new skill is involved with this system a fitting title should be "Subjugation or Subjugate". 1 skill slot and skill level is tied in with the number of NPCs you are able to recruit. Better yet, let them generate throughout the land with different skill-sets just like wild pets with different skill-sets and the skill of "Subjugate" allows you to persuade them sort of like Taming, and may be "Human Evaluation" allows you to see their stats.

And even a better idea where as pets you feed them to keep them happy, NPCs you drop gold on them to keep them happy lol. When they are in barracks they automatically take up gold from your bank.

Can you imagine the fun you will have just to name your own NPCs. I can see during trading words with another in fel and all of the sudden you yell out "Beeves and Butt-head kill!"

The new dynamics added to this would be so cool, you can have commands such as "heal" whereby the NPC is commanded to heal you and etc... It would bring another level game play altogether. If this was in fel now you'll have to decide if you need to take out the healer first or go straight for the player.

 

[Flutter]

How can it be overpowered if they also take up slots? if I am not a tamer and take up 5 NPCs and I go against a tamer with a greater dragon I think its a fair fight. If I put that dragon against the 5 trained NPCs alone the dragon would eat them up. Same arguments could be made now that as is Tamers are overpowering during hunting and PvPing so in a way this actually would balance it.

It's overpowered because it's a highly skilled pet that doesn't take any skill to use.

 

[Manticore]

It's overpowered because it's a highly skilled pet that doesn't take any skill to use.

Not entirely true, a trained NPC under this scenario won't be able to go one on one against a dread horse and those don't require Taming skill to command it.

 

[Felonious Monk]

Body guard=guild

 

[Flutter]

Not entirely true, a trained NPC under this scenario won't be able to go one on one against a dread horse and those don't require Taming skill to command it.

Yes they do. (edit: actually you need taming AND lore. Two skills. Reward: powerful control slots)

 

[Manticore]

Body guard=guild

Nay, very different. You own these, you don't own guildmembers.

 

[SoulWeaver]

I would say yes, does it need balancing yes, I think it might need to take up 3 slots though. So people aren't able to use dreads + a powerful npc guard when trained. But after a proess of how strong the new unit would be, what specials/casting abilities they would have I think it could work. Maybe even allow them to wear talismans for those pesky greater dragons and orc brutes! Not a bad idea all easy enough to do.

 

[LordDrago]

Not entirely true, a trained NPC under this scenario won't be able to go one on one against a dread horse and those don't require Taming skill to command it.

So how powerful are you looking for these bodyguards to be? It seems you are trying to almost have a tamer without being a tamer. Why not get an orc brute tali, a golem, or a mechanical vollem?

If it is too powerful, then some of the balancing, at least to me, would be that the character would need to have at least two skills along the line of taming and animal lore. Otherwise, I would say the power of the bodyguards would have to be so low, that they would be pretty much useless. Or maybe one skill (say leadership), but then the power of the bodyguard would be mid range.

I am still falling on the side of no for this idea. I would rather have development time spent on content and fixes.

 

[weins201]

Uh Geniuses - you already have pets that dont require skill to have - Volumns, and for short times orc brutes, Spell Weavers and their Orgers.

Glad you are dreaming in the what if catagory but.

Hell to the NO

 

[Cetric]

i'd like to see pvp with them, lol

 

[Orgional Farimir]

i'd like to see pvp with them, lol

We already do..... Just look at how Minax PvPs/places faction guards when they own brit.

 

[Uvtha]

Sorry. I have to vote no. It's bad enough we got those annoying mechanical dragons that anyone can use. Melee talismans that allow people to have Orc brutes. Please... no more skill-less followers.

Well considering I can tame a ruddy boura as a human with 0 taming skill, and they are better than drakes...hell, better than most tamables... I don't think it would be a big deal so long as they aren't that strong and or cost a significant amount of money.

You could just need to pay a mercenary regularly, so that in effect they get a "cut" of any gold you make when hunting. Perhaps the longer you "own" them the slower their loyalty drops. That would differentiate them enough from pets, I think.

 

[MalagAste]

I think it's a neat idea. It could be interesting. Could be added to the City Loyalty system somehow as well.

 

[G.v.P]

What if just like tamers, we can purchase NPCs

It's not a bad idea, something people have wanted ever since Diablo II came out, really. But it's not practical, either, especially for a MMO like UO. It's an idea which encourages less group play due to the ability of individual control. Instead, the NPCs should be limited to a radius, with their own AI. I believe advanced AI guards would make faction base fights a lot more fun, especially on low populated shards. I've campaigned for advanced AI faction guards for awhile now.

The reason individual control wouldn't work is individual control promotes individual game play. Sure, you could team up with a bunch of tamers or NPC-tamers, but is that what we want UO to look like? Every event would lag more, because everyone would be toting around their customized guard. The DPS of a well armed archer would be worth more than anything else in the game, most likely, due to the ability to arm slayer items. On the PvP side, the same factors would take precedence. Who would want to use a greater dragon if everyone else could arm a dragon slayer guard? Flutter argued my thoughts best, probably, but I agree the no skill, usurper set up would only hurt this game.

It shouldn't be hard to create this because all of these functions currently exists in one form or another, i.e. manaquins, NPC vendors, hired NPCs, pets, etc... just a matter of juggling which scripts to use when creating these NPCs.

I wouldn't list mannequins as reputable code. They're fairly buggy when dealing with personal bless deeds, or anything that binds. I'd like the team to fix the existing bugs before writing more code on top. Then perhaps the team could focus on high-end pet balancing (the Skree and many other creatures are worthless to own), and after that, maybe consider temporary NPC alternatives (like in Diablo II) which are better than the current crop.

There needs to be a progression. Imagine if we went from vanquishing weapons to Shame loot in one patch. The ramifications of a fully equippable, bonded follower need to be assessed properly. The idea sounds fun, and could be fun, but the team should focus on ideas to make group play or goal play more rewarding. By goal play I mean systems, like quest systems and factions. Once they finish fix quests and factions, then I'd say go for the next best thing. Until then, we don't even have a Kill 10 Mud Elemental quest. They have a lot of work to do before they tackle an idea as broad as customizable NPC pets.

 

[Gospel]

I can only hope this is a troll attempt, as no sane person could actually think this is a good idea. This game has WAY bigger priorities than making another useless addition to the game. There are plenty of options out there for pets. If you want to play a single person game with imaginary friends, maybe give a traditional RPG a try.

 

[CovenantX]

I always wanted a hire-able npc that would bond and could be ressed and equipped with armor/weapons.

it may be complicated with item insurance though. share insurance costs with the the owner, or just not allow insured items to remain insured while being worn by a hired npc

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Yeah, i had an idea about this a long ass time ago. Always did wish we could equip and train our hirelings, especially back when we could hire Paladins. Also wished that i could hire that "a mystic llama herder" that used to spawn near the Delucia Sheep Fields. I thought about allowing us to "board" (stable) hirelings with the Inn.

It'd be pretty awesome being able to equip a Paladin NPC (That actually uses Chiv spells) in a full Plate Suit that has all 70's Resist, 90% Reflect Physical Damage, +48 Health/Stam and heal him up with bandies while he tanks and i bash away with my Macer.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

I think the idea is great, it would be like having your own little gang. I think the upkeep price would be enough to make it fair... if you set the price at 1k a day per guy and you have to pay it if you use them or not. You could even have guys on foot that walk semi slow take up one slot and guys on horse back take up two slots.

 

[Flutter]

I think the idea is great, it would be like having your own little gang

Isn't that the point of playing an MMO? To play with people. Have your own gang? (Also known as a guild)
Guildmates don't even take up follower slots so you can have other things like summons or a killer pack of bunnies...

 

[Manticore]

Isn't that the point of playing an MMO? To play with people. Have your own gang? (Also known as a guild)
Guildmates don't even take up follower slots so you can have other things like summons or a killer pack of bunnies...

I guess I don't understand why such negativity about the idea. This already exists on some level. Right now, if you want to hire a NPC you can hire a Paladin and if you want to fight one one of the champ monsters already does that by casting a clone of yourself that fights you with your abilities and suit make up. All I am proposing is that in addition to what's already in existence also offer that to the players so they can control 1-2 as well. If you don't like the idea, you never have to hire one but to argue that this should never be explored I think its shortsighted.

We all know what MMO is and we all can summon bunnies until the cows come home but I am offering something else. If we take on the philosophy of never change, how can anything get better?

 

[Flutter]

I guess I don't understand why such negativity about the idea. This already exists on some level. Right now, if you want to hire a NPC you can hire a Paladin and if you want to fight one one of the champ monsters already does that by casting a clone of yourself that fights you with your abilities and suit make up. All I am proposing is that in addition to what's already in existence also offer that to the players so they can control 1-2 as well. If you don't like the idea, you never have to hire one but to argue that this should never be explored I think its shortsighted.

We all know what MMO is and we all can summon bunnies until the cows come home but I am offering something else. If we take on the philosophy of never change, how can anything get better?

I've explained to the best of my ability why I do not like this idea. What I don't understand is your lack of willingness to acknowledge it. In order to have powerful pets you need taming and lore. In order to have summons you need spellweaving or magery. If you don't have these skills, you have to settle for one of the other creatures they've given you, and the fact that things like, volems, golems, leather wolves, and pets that can be trained up to max levels should be good enough. Having a pet (which is what you are suggesting) with skills like swords, macing, archery etc, is just too overpowered when there is no actual skill involved to have or control them.

 

[Gospel]

I guess I don't understand why such negativity about the idea. This already exists on some level. Right now, if you want to hire a NPC you can hire a Paladin and if you want to fight one one of the champ monsters already does that by casting a clone of yourself that fights you with your abilities and suit make up. All I am proposing is that in addition to what's already in existence also offer that to the players so they can control 1-2 as well. If you don't like the idea, you never have to hire one but to argue that this should never be explored I think its shortsighted.

We all know what MMO is and we all can summon bunnies until the cows come home but I am offering something else. If we take on the philosophy of never change, how can anything get better?

My question is WHY? So Luna bank sitters can put more of their neon rares on their NPCs and clutter up the bank? So we can take the lag and crashes experienced at EM events and triple it? Why would we want to take tamer's and/or mage's strongest and most defining abilities and give them to any template in the game,free of skill point investment? You have not raised a single point strong enough to outweigh any of these concerns. There's just no reason to have it in the game, and the issues it would cause are not going to be outweighed by the "it would be cool" argument no matter how many times you repost it.

 

[kleos]

I am 100% in support of this, and any other mechanism that allows more solo play. The more we isolate players, the less people will want to play, the quicker UO dies and I can be rid of this sickness.

 

[Manticore]

My question is WHY? So Luna bank sitters can put more of their neon rares on their NPCs and clutter up the bank? So we can take the lag and crashes experienced at EM events and triple it? Why would we want to take tamer's and/or mage's strongest and most defining abilities and give them to any template in the game,free of skill point investment? You have not raised a single point strong enough to outweigh any of these concerns. There's just no reason to have it in the game, and the issues it would cause are not going to be outweighed by the "it would be cool" argument no matter how many times you repost it.

I beg the differ. There have been plenty of points raised by the majority to outweigh your so called concerns. This game doesn't have the luxury of 9 million players and this would help add that flavor back to the game and allow 1-2 people with these type of guards to hunt tougher champs. As for your "EM crashing lagging" crashing comment, that's simple "GET A NEW COMPUTER" get off of your dial-up connections and see a whole new world. When we have subscriptions over 200k there were no lag, now nearly 15 years later same type of gaming engine with so much faster connections out there and better faster computers you still complain about lagging? Please, give me a break.

 

[Aibal]

I beg the differ. There have been plenty of points raised by the majority to outweigh your so called concerns. This game doesn't have the luxury of 9 million players and this would help add that flavor back to the game and allow 1-2 people with these type of guards to hunt tougher champs. As for your "EM crashing lagging" crashing comment, that's simple "GET A NEW COMPUTER" get off of your dial-up connections and see a whole new world. When we have subscriptions over 200k there were no lag, now nearly 15 years later same type of gaming engine with so much faster connections out there and better faster computers you still complain about lagging? Please, give me a break.

I have yet to see these so called "points raised" in the responses. Most well equipped players can take 1-2 people and hunt a champ WITHOUT this. My computer is a quad core i5 processor. It is stability tested overclocked at 4 ghz. I have 8 gigs of ram, twin ATI 5850 vid cards (doesn't matter in UO, only one card works there) in Crossfire, and a 250gb SSD hard drive. My connection is a 30 Mbps cable modem and I still get lag in this game. Sorry, but I don't need a new computer to get max performance in every other game I play, which is mostly FPS type games. Maybe if you're parked on top of one of EA's servers like a monkey humping a football you won't, but most other people DO get lag, especially at EM events, Luna, etc. Sorry, weak argument.

As others have said, I'd be strongly opposed to this as it would be one step closer to eliminating the MMO portion of the RPG. It also would be a slap at every other template (tamers, mages, mystics, etc) that have 240+ skill points devoted to controlling summons and pets. It would simply give you a 6X120 "pet" with no skills required (or sacrificed) to control. It would be overpowered and unbalanced. Your failure to see this is comical.

 

[cazador]

I beg the differ. There have been plenty of points raised by the majority to outweigh your so called concerns. This game doesn't have the luxury of 9 million players and this would help add that flavor back to the game and allow 1-2 people with these type of guards to hunt tougher champs. As for your "EM crashing lagging" crashing comment, that's simple "GET A NEW COMPUTER" get off of your dial-up connections and see a whole new world. When we have subscriptions over 200k there were no lag, now nearly 15 years later same type of gaming engine with so much faster connections out there and better faster computers you still complain about lagging? Please, give me a break.

not to be a ****..but my computer is badass all top end..an uh yea I experience lag spikes all the time in this game and ftr..lag has ALWAYS been in issue in this game..ever since day 1

 

[LordDrago]

I beg the differ. There have been plenty of points raised by the majority to outweigh your so called concerns.

I beg to differ. There have been plenty of so called points raised by a so called majority which do absolutely nothing to outweigh the concerns raised.

At this point, I doubt you have the ability to see anyones argument that does not support this idea.

 

[puni666]

They already have this. It's called a guild. You give them a leader and they follow what the leader says.

 

[Manticore]

I beg to differ. There have been plenty of so called points raised by a so called majority which do absolutely nothing to outweigh the concerns raised.

At this point, I doubt you have the ability to see anyones argument that does not support this idea.

Actually, I do see their points and have thought about them but to me, they are not good enough reasons to scratch this idea altogether. Every point they've made I've imagined seeing that in game and I just can't draw the conclusion of how it would make it that much worse for play. I further suggested these points should be taken into consideration and may be a compromise can be considered which is different than not being considered period. Those who say this will take away the MMO etc... haven't you been seeing that's already happening on its own already? I know I am not the only one who asks the question of what's new so I can convince myself to keep allowing my CC being charged each month after nearly 15 years. And seriously, if this system goes in, the nay-sayers would really stop playing, really? I highly doubt it.

When you see a crowded Luna won't you just go to Brit or some other bank instead?

You really think there aren't enough dungeons in all the facets so that you would feel crowded if you ran into this player with a body guard or two?

You really think that during PVP the extra body guards won't make the battlefield more exciting?

We've come a long way since Beta and at any junction of change there were always growing pains and learning curves but those who stuck around are still sticking around. Obviously there are posters here who liked the idea so why not allow Mesanna to explore it further instead of axing it before a chance is even given?

You see a country loosing its people so instead of trying different ideas that some embraces you choose to not even start it and keep the status quo? Wisdom my friends, wisdom.

 

[Manticore]

They already have this. It's called a guild. You give them a leader and they follow what the leader says.

Really? Have you seen the state of the guilds these days? Or perhaps if you are a new player you don't know any better.

I don't just pull these ideas out of my $%! for no reason, well sometimes i do. But I've been playing on many shards for a while now and have heard from different players all over from big shards to little ones. And before I even made this post I've asked a few people on my list. Some said no but some said yes. Now if all said "no" then I wouldn't have bothered to post but as long as some said "yes" then it's worth further exploring. Flutter had it right originally that it could be explored if stipulations were in place, i.e. taking up skill slots, limiting on the number of NPCs etc... But the those who just flat out said "no" and with reasons to say that it would destroy the game I think its just ludicrous and not forward-thinking.

 

[SpyderBite]

Make friends. Play UO. Have fun.

No $1000/Gang Member/Day necessary.

This feature is already available in game and has been since 1997. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel in order to justify anti-social behavior in a social game.

 

[LordDrago]

Actually, I do see their points and have thought about them but to me, they are not good enough reasons to scratch this idea altogether. Every point they've made I've imagined seeing that in game and I just can't draw the conclusion of how it would make it that much worse for play. I further suggested these points should be taken into consideration and may be a compromise can be considered which is different than not being considered period. Those who say this will take away the MMO etc... haven't you been seeing that's already happening on its own already? I know I am not the only one who asks the question of what's new so I can convince myself to keep allowing my CC being charged each month after nearly 15 years. And seriously, if this system goes in, the nay-sayers would really stop playing, really? I highly doubt it.

When you see a crowded Luna won't you just go to Brit or some other bank instead?

You really think there aren't enough dungeons in all the facets so that you would feel crowded if you ran into this player with a body guard or two?

You really think that during PVP the extra body guards won't make the battlefield more exciting?

We've come a long way since Beta and at any junction of change there were always growing pains and learning curves but those who stuck around are still sticking around. Obviously there are posters here who liked the idea so why not allow Mesanna to explore it further instead of axing it before a chance is even given?

You see a country loosing its people so instead of trying different ideas that some embraces you choose to not even start it and keep the status quo? Wisdom my friends, wisdom.

If you want a companion you control...make a tamer...it already exists in the game.

If you want a trainable humanoid, make a "Leader" template that requires skills (say leadership and charisma). You would need to train up these skills to specific levels in order to lead your follower(s).

This I could see.

However, having fcollowers without any sort of template investment on par with taming, I believe, is a bad idea.

 

[LordDrago]

Actually, I do see their points and have thought about them but to me, they are not good enough reasons to scratch this idea altogether. Every point they've made I've imagined seeing that in game and I just can't draw the conclusion of how it would make it that much worse for play. I further suggested these points should be taken into consideration and may be a compromise can be considered which is different than not being considered period. Those who say this will take away the MMO etc... haven't you been seeing that's already happening on its own already? I know I am not the only one who asks the question of what's new so I can convince myself to keep allowing my CC being charged each month after nearly 15 years. And seriously, if this system goes in, the nay-sayers would really stop playing, really? I highly doubt it.

You see a country loosing its people so instead of trying different ideas that some embraces you choose to not even start it and keep the status quo? Wisdom my friends, wisdom.

To follow this logic, why not allow 960 skill points so my Sampire Tamer can solo kick-ass everywhere?

 

[Manticore]

Make friends. Play UO. Have fun.

No $1000/Gang Member/Day necessary.

This feature is already available in game and has been since 1997. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel in order to justify anti-social behavior in a social game.

Again, another ignoramus comment. Why does having one thing means that person is defined by it? If this was in place and I use it that means I am an "Anti-social player" really?

If this feature is already available then why are posters here totally against it?

 

[Manticore]

If you want a companion you control...make a tamer...it already exists in the game.

If you want a trainable humanoid, make a "Leader" template that requires skills (say leadership and charisma). You would need to train up these skills to specific levels in order to lead your follower(s).

This I could see.

However, having fcollowers without any sort of template investment on par with taming, I believe, is a bad idea.

It is because this system already somewhat exists for tamers that I proposed it for NPC humans.

I made in the previous post that this template could be made with skills on par with taming, I even given a name to the skill.

 

[LordDrago]

It is because this system already somewhat exists for tamers that I proposed it for NPC humans.

I made in the previous post that this template could be made with skills on par with taming, I even given a name to the skill.

OK, I missed that post, but remember, that taming takes 2 skills (3 if you want to heal your pet with bandages). Not sure this would be that good of an idea if people had to invest 240-360 points off their template to have a humanoid follower.

I think that most people who want a companion already have a tamer, and those that don't, will not want to give up their template in order to lead their follower(s).

For example, a Sampire is already tight on points, take just 240 points away to lead a follower, and you no longer have a Sampire.

You will essentally have a tamer, except with humanoid followers instead of creatures.