I've often thought that and wondered exactly why people would bother burying this crap...... then it dawned on me..... They were burying their TRASH.... Not preserving the good stuff... Obviously these chests I dig up are the trash left over from something else... that was good.
Its the simple case of an outdated system. That's the big thing that makes me cringe when changes are made in UO, for every one thing added 5 get neglected that should also be tweaked and brought up to date with the aforementioned change. Test center should not be the end all it is, as soon as changes hit live shards its like the work is done for those changes. Don't publish it and forget it, publish it and readdress it after its actually live, post test center. Use the test center for bugs and major issues and then apply it to the actual servers, reevaluate in a week or two and tweak again. Don't address multiple changes until one idea is implemented and succesful. There are too many sticks in the fire.
Granted, you cannot please all but you can work to pleasing the majority. This is everything from loot, pvp, pvm etc. I can only imagine the nightmare with keeping a game fresh and balanced with a very limited staff however there is a way to take some strain off of the minds behind current UO without spending a penny.
A little research, a voting system etc should be utilized to bring unbiased heavy posting players with above average understanding of the game mechanics and complications when restructuring a game and those carefully selected players should be given access to a specific private forum where talks, comments, suggestions and feedback can be given on a small scale by people intelligent enough to handle the responsibility as an imaginative person and a selective voice of the general population. I can guarantee there would be droves of people willing to do this for free, the hardest part would be to decide who would be ideal candidates. You would need a representative from different playstyles to make this adequate as no one person's playstyle should affect everyone's playstyle. After all, and no insult to the hardworking dev team that battled college and life's obstacles to become an applied game designer, but sometimes educations put restrictions and boundaries on things and stifle creativity. Get feedback and advice from qualified players that know whats up yet lack the knowledge, training and true application and mix them with your trained skills. Let the dreamer's dream, and the creators create. Combine them and revive this game.
I got carried away, after all this far exceeds just treasure maps. Perhaps I should copy and paste this in a thread all its own, in fact I believe I will. Anyway, I hope my ideas are as sound as I believe them to be, and can spark something in the minds of others, or at least find like minded individuals.
