Dear Devs, Grumble Grumble increase the drop rate or play uo.

[Lizzard of Baja]

Dear Devs,

Recently the baja shard completed an exodus together. That was fun and neat how people worked together.
The cons: times spent collecting keys with little reward.
I spent over 10 hours getting keys (albeit I gave some of the keys away)
A lot of other people spent several hours in the exodus dungeon also getting keys... Riff, Matthais, Shadow Shot, Mr. Pickles, Special Ed the Demoralizer... To name a few. Each spending several hours themselves.
Due to hard work of several people we were able to fight exodus.
At least 18 people participated in the main boss event (13 in my party and at least 5 in another party)
Guess what a majority of the participants got as a special item for all our hard work? Diddly squat and yes there were several disappointed people.
Now the caveat is that there was some exceptional team work that gave us a little shard bonding.

Dear devs, if you were playing a game, how many hours of work is acceptable to you in which you do not get a reward? This is a game we are paying to play. The camaraderie is a major reason I still play but I am quite frankly fed up with low drop rates especially when I spend several frustrating hours working to get something.

The minax Items were an awesome addition, but for the average player who doesn't script and spend their entire life in game are ridiculously difficult to get.

All these old peerless bosses that are abandoned are abandoned because it is not worth the effort for little reward. Unfortunately there are people like me who cling on to the possibility that I might get an item. (I also play the lottery and have not won yet) Does this make me a complete idiot? Yes possibly I am a complete idiot. But I am the complete idiot who is still paying to play UO. If you take any pride in your work on for the customer base of UO please try to be understanding.

In conclusion to my grumbly ramblings, play this game, or stop making it so frustrating for the average player (who wants to additionally have a life other than UO). You will have a fuller understanding for what torture you are putting us through if you were to actually play the game with any seriousness at all.


PS (It is not fun to die in game) Making creatures so tough that we have little option but to die ... not fun, no not fun at all. Trust me when Minax items first came out people were very upset with you. Now people are indifferent and gave up hope. grrrr rawr. ~ May a Greater dragon chase your poor leather gathering player across destard.

Additionally, if you think you do not wish to increase the drop rate due to the fact that this game is subscription base and the more time we waste the more money you make.... That is not true, you will make more money due to more people playing... more people playing because they are happy and tell their friends about their adventures... the newer players who are able to have fun, the more people who play the more likely more people will play and yes you will get more subscriptions. UO is a land/game of limitless possibilities.

 

[Goodmann]

Maybe with the new upcoming loot changes they will look into this HUGE problem. I did approx 106 Medusas at one point and never got a slither or any loot off the boss that was useable. Thats 424 eggs for keys, time to collect keys.kill boss.... Needless top say I have never been back there

 

[Promathia]

The problem isn't the drop rate on Exodus (It really isn't, the drops from that are WAY too frequent). The problem with the encounter is the drop rate on the keys. Those keys have to be the biggest PITA.

As for Medusa, considering how easily those keys are farmed, and considering a boss intended for a group can usually just be soloed, its GOOD the drop rate on Slither is low. The higher the drop rate -> More slithers flood the market -> Prices on Slithers drop -> Desirability of such item drops -> reason to actually do the boss drops. Slither is the only damned thing keep Medusa relevant.

Some of you really need to play some other MMO's to really open your eyes on why the drop system are the way they are. In WoW, what keeps people going back to do old content raids? Transmog gear (Which the gear for YOU sometimes wont drop for MONTHS), Mounts (with a 1% drop rate), and Pets. These are raids you can only do ONCE a week, yet people keep doing them, and sure some people complain about the drop rates.....But they KEEP doing them.

If those things dropped more frequently, the content becomes obsolete, people stop doing it, and it goes to waste. In an MMO, your content going deserted and wasted is a BAD thing.

 

[Lythos-]

If those things dropped more frequently, the content becomes obsolete, people stop doing it, and it goes to waste. In an MMO, your content going deserted and wasted is a BAD thing.

Wrong.

Peerless is damn near DEAD and those items are still big sellers after all these years. The blaze/glacial hair dye sells as fast as it hits a vendor. I've done literally hundreds of these without getting a single drop. I've done hundreds of Medusa without getting anything but a headache. Drop rates blow so bad I don't even attempt these things anymore.

 

[Uvtha]

I think it must be hard to design around lack of gear loss. Seems like the game would be much more fun if people lost items, but drop rates were high.

So you could have fun playing the actual game running around getting cool loots, and fighting what seems fun, rather than the metagame of how long can I make myself grind till the drop happen so I can make my suit that odd 1% better for no good reason.

 

[Orgional Farimir]

I think it must be hard to design around lack of gear loss. Seems like the game would be much more fun if people lost items, but drop rates were high.

So you could have fun playing the actual game running around getting cool loots, and fighting what seems fun, rather than the metagame of how long can I make myself grind till the drop happen so I can make my suit that odd 1% better for no good reason.

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[THP]

The drop rates in UO are lousy

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

I have done at most 30 Melisande and have gotten a cincture and glacial hair dye. What's the point about drop rates again?
Besides obvious and rampant ADD issues that no drop rate in the world can cure.

 

[GarthGrey]

I think it must be hard to design around lack of gear loss. Seems like the game would be much more fun if people lost items, but drop rates were high.

So you could have fun playing the actual game running around getting cool loots, and fighting what seems fun, rather than the metagame of how long can I make myself grind till the drop happen so I can make my suit that odd 1% better for no good reason.

People lose items all the time on Siege, and most of these so called drops don't exist for us at all. If they're so hard on Prodo, they're more than likely to never exist on Siege. I had a point, but i just lost it.

 

[Kyronix]

I think it must be hard to design around lack of gear loss. Seems like the game would be much more fun if people lost items, but drop rates were high.

So you could have fun playing the actual game running around getting cool loots, and fighting what seems fun, rather than the metagame of how long can I make myself grind till the drop happen so I can make my suit that odd 1% better for no good reason.

It's incredibly challenging to say the least.

In my own personal opinion...being able acquire 100% LRC and have gear that essentially never goes away hurt the overall economy more than anything, and imbuing did a lot of damage to loot drops since you can pretty much make whatever you want. I would of much preferred to see an imbuing system where properties can be transferred from one item to another, but the impetus to find that property is still on random loot generation rather than being able to cherry pick stats, again a personal opinion. As a player, however, I tend to like these features as it means that I don't have to carry reagents around on my mage, which is a huge convienence and the gear my pally runs around with will last forever and I get exactly what I want.

I do remember a time when running around in GM crafted armor with a GM katana was a perfectly normal thing to do, and I'm not even talking pre-AoS. There was something appealing about that, the way the gear cycle fed right into stimulating the economy. Now it seems anything anyone is interested in is HML with AI and a maxed out suit. I tend to believe, though, there are those that still just grab a set of gear and go with it - adding bits and pieces where they can find/afford new ones.

Just some random thoughts while I sip my morning Arnold Palmer

 

[Winter]

I tend to believe, though, there are those that still just grab a set of gear and go with it - adding bits and pieces where they can find/afford new ones.

That is exactly what I do now - start with a basic suit, add CBR and cursed items to improve it, and then replace those items as I find new. I refuse to spend 200 million to make a uber suit, and don't have that much gold anyway.

 

[BeaIank]

I actually enjoy the freedom imbuing gives me to make a suit that fits my needs, but no suit of mine is actually maxed.
Many of them don't even have all 70s, most of those on my dexxers. Unfortunately, HML and HLL are absolutely needed to make a dexxer capable of surviving the nasty uglies out Sosaria.
LRC is a blessing, because carrying reagents add way too much micro management to the game. Personally, I'd prefer to see a "bag of reagents" with charges that you replenished by dropping actual reagents on it instead of LRC, but the way it is now kinda works.
LRC also benefits young players greatly.

Regarding the drop rate, for the most part they're fine. I have been playing for three years, and I am yet to see what a Crimson Cincture is like, despite having done almost a hundred Mel runs. But eh, it happens. Got enough tangles to make up for that.

 

[The Zog historian]

Kyronix, remember also that you've made monsters harder, and someone holding a slayer will need to switch around (particularly someone like me who makes 100% elemental weapons just in the same slayer class) for optimal damage. Though the availability of weapons and armor makes low-end monsters easier than they ever were, I think it balances out with the hardest monsters. Balrons and ancient wyrms were the pinnacle of UO, but Hythloth 3 and the old teleporter room would have eventually gotten stale. I always thought imbuing was the best addition to the game in years, because players could finally make suits, not the very best but still extremely good, without having to spend hundreds of millions or real money for artifacts. How many others remember 2/4 duels for the first while after AoS, because not everyone had FC1/FCR3 jewelry? It still took a while before 2/6 became the norm.

Yes, any decent imbuer can make a 100% LRC, all 70s suit for a new player, but I'd say that ease only serves to keep a new player interested, rather than the grind of killing orcs and lizardmen in the hopes of enough gold for a few more tenths of journeyman magery. When I first made GM magery, it took 50 successful 8th circle casts for each of those last few tenths, and at a 50% success rate, figure I had to buy double the regs in the first place. And for characters with higher skill, LRC is also a necessity for all the casting we do now. We have so much mana regen now, even compared to when meditation was introduced.

 

[solembow]

It's incredibly challenging to say the least.

In my own personal opinion...being able acquire 100% LRC and have gear that essentially never goes away hurt the overall economy more than anything, and imbuing did a lot of damage to loot drops since you can pretty much make whatever you want. I would of much preferred to see an imbuing system where properties can be transferred from one item to another, but the impetus to find that property is still on random loot generation rather than being able to cherry pick stats, again a personal opinion. As a player, however, I tend to like these features as it means that I don't have to carry reagents around on my mage, which is a huge convienence and the gear my pally runs around with will last forever and I get exactly what I want.

I do remember a time when running around in GM crafted armor with a GM katana was a perfectly normal thing to do, and I'm not even talking pre-AoS. There was something appealing about that, the way the gear cycle fed right into stimulating the economy. Now it seems anything anyone is interested in is HML with AI and a maxed out suit. I tend to believe, though, there are those that still just grab a set of gear and go with it - adding bits and pieces where they can find/afford new ones.

Just some random thoughts while I sip my morning Arnold Palmer

I'm sorry but this is complete and utter crap. GM armor and weapons went away when you changed the game with Age of Shadows. When all of the armor was given these bonuses that couldn't be crafted by a simple smith the game changed forever, from skill to item based play. Waxing nostalgic is usually something I welcome and have participated in, in the past...however you as a designer/programmer for this game have absolutely no right to do so. The game is what you have made it and you and your team are the only ones who can put things right and are solely responsible for what is currently wrong. Your designs have made the peerless artifacts and super imbued gear a necessity with your dungeon revamps and insane monster difficulties.

The original poster is 100% right. We're sick of beating our heads against the wall for gear that never drops...or having to pay hundreds of millions of gold for them from scripters/dupers vendor houses. You, Mesanna and the rest of the team all know what's wrong, and have for a loooooong time now. We as the paying players of your game have been more than patient waiting for things to be fixed/changed. Fix what needs to be fixed and the fans who have been loyal to this game for so long will last forever. Please don't embarrass yourselves by introducing a broken game to Project greenlight and blow your chances at bringing in subscribers from a whole new audience on Steam. Trust me when I say that they will certainly not be as forgiving as we are. You have us hooked, and most aren't going anywhere, but looking at this game as a new player, there's no way I would pay to play a game this broken and so skewed against the little guy. In this game theres those that have and those who never will....as a new player with nothing but the 1k he gets from creation, and the laughable New Haven new player experience the odds of retaining that new player are slim to none.

Fix what is broken before you leap into relaunching the game. Those of us who already are paying for it deserve that much don't we?

 

[Uvtha]

It's incredibly challenging to say the least.

In my own personal opinion...being able acquire 100% LRC and have gear that essentially never goes away hurt the overall economy more than anything, and imbuing did a lot of damage to loot drops since you can pretty much make whatever you want. I would of much preferred to see an imbuing system where properties can be transferred from one item to another, but the impetus to find that property is still on random loot generation rather than being able to cherry pick stats, again a personal opinion. As a player, however, I tend to like these features as it means that I don't have to carry reagents around on my mage, which is a huge convienence and the gear my pally runs around with will last forever and I get exactly what I want.

I do remember a time when running around in GM crafted armor with a GM katana was a perfectly normal thing to do, and I'm not even talking pre-AoS. There was something appealing about that, the way the gear cycle fed right into stimulating the economy. Now it seems anything anyone is interested in is HML with AI and a maxed out suit. I tend to believe, though, there are those that still just grab a set of gear and go with it - adding bits and pieces where they can find/afford new ones.

Just some random thoughts while I sip my morning Arnold Palmer

Big agree on Imbuing. When it was announced I was hoping it would at least not exceed minimal gear, you know, a new "gm" armor type deal for the aos style item system, like one or two properties per item or something. It really killed much of the impetus to hunt monsters for loot for quite some time, which of course forced the shame style loot bump of items with 20 lines on info on them, and more super rare drops, and still in vast areas of the game there is very little reason to even look at the loot on stuff you kill, because you know it wont be of any use or interest to you.

I'm not a classic server kind of person, because I honestly think the fun was in the kind of game UO was in the kind of computer game world that then existed, but it WAS more experience oriented. The item grind that as I mentioned honestly is pointless fairly early on because you can practically solo anything in game with imbued gear, just doesn't do it for me. Or it does... but not in a way that makes me feel good, so I stop doing it.
I do remember when I would play UO and when recounting the days events to a friend it would be "Man this crazy thing happened!" not "Man I got this crazy item!" I feel like it may just be the way the gaming world went at the behest of players even, but I feel like we lost something.

 

[Uvtha]

I'm sorry but this is complete and utter crap. GM armor and weapons went away when you changed the game with Age of Shadows. When all of the armor was given these bonuses that couldn't be crafted by a simple smith the game changed forever, from skill to item based play. Waxing nostalgic is usually something I welcome and have participated in, in the past...however you as a designer/programmer for this game have absolutely no right to do so. The game is what you have made it and you and your team are the only ones who can put things right and are solely responsible for what is currently wrong. Your designs have made the peerless artifacts and super imbued gear a necessity with your dungeon revamps and insane monster difficulties.

The original poster is 100% right. We're sick of beating our heads against the wall for gear that never drops...or having to pay hundreds of millions of gold for them from scripters/dupers vendor houses. You, Mesanna and the rest of the team all know what's wrong, and have for a loooooong time now. We as the paying players of your game have been more than patient waiting for things to be fixed/changed. Fix what needs to be fixed and the fans who have been loyal to this game for so long will last forever. Please don't embarrass yourselves by introducing a broken game to Project greenlight and blow your chances at bringing in subscribers from a whole new audience on Steam. Trust me when I say that they will certainly not be as forgiving as we are. You have us hooked, and most aren't going anywhere, but looking at this game as a new player, there's no way I would pay to play a game this broken and so skewed against the little guy. In this game theres those that have and those who never will....as a new player with nothing but the 1k he gets from creation, and the laughable New Haven new player experience the odds of retaining that new player are slim to none.

Fix what is broken before you leap into relaunching the game. Those of us who already are paying for it deserve that much don't we?

I think the point is that you can't easily "fix" the game the way you want it fixed without "relaunching the game". That's just how it is. You don't need to be forgiving you just need to accept that its hard to work with this kind of set up, which the current dev team probably had little or nothing to do with fundamentally systems wise and which they cannot change lightly for fear of mass revolt.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Lack of item loss mean things have to be rare, or the game is ruined. You can mitigate that annoyance on SOME level... but you generally cannot avoid it.

 

[The Slug]

*stirs the pot* Don't normally post here but I gotta agree with Liz on this one. There are those of us w/ real lives and don't want to grind 12+ hours a day every day. It seems when new content is 1st released the drop rate is decent. (I got 2 slithers the 1st 6 months SA was out and 3 human haephestus shields the 1st month of the covetous revamp) That might seem a little high, but I have yet to get a single drop on either since then.

Oh and don't get me started on the EM event drops ... grrrrrr lol

reason for edit: lack of coffee is severely hampering cognitive ability. The shield comes from covetous not despise

 

[Uvtha]

People lose items all the time on Siege, and most of these so called drops don't exist for us at all. If they're so hard on Prodo, they're more than likely to never exist on Siege. I had a point, but i just lost it.

When I cared, I was always saying that siege should have higher drop rates, because it makes sense for the shard. But honestly even without its fine, since crappier stuff has much higher value with item loss, and most people aren't obsessing over making a perfectly flawless suit.

Sadly siege will always be tainted by hand me down code from a different rule set, and thus unable to really flourish. I understand why, but it's still unfortunate.

 

[Uvtha]

*stirs the pot* Don't normally post here but I gotta agree with Liz on this one. There are those of us w/ real lives and don't want to grind 12+ hours a day every day. It seems when new content is 1st released the drop rate is decent. (I got 2 slithers the 1st 6 months SA was out and 3 human haephestus shields the 1st month of the despise revamp) That might seem a little high, but I have yet to get a single drop on either since then.

Oh and don't get me started on the EM event drops ... grrrrrr lol

No one likes it, our brains just like the endorphin rush of finally getting that food pellet after hitting the button 1000000 times.
Are you willing to be able to lose your stuff? That's the only substantial trade off that can be made in this scenario. Rare items have to be rare in a multi-player game where item grind basically IS the game.

Safty comes at a hefty price.

 

[Petra Fyde]

. Waxing nostalgic is usually something I welcome and have participated in, in the past...however you as a designer/programmer for this game have absolutely no right to do so.

Why the hell not? Kyronix wasn't a developer when AoS launched. He was a player, just like the rest of us. You've never followed someone into a job and said 'If I'd been doing it then I'd have done it differently'?

We're sick of beating our heads against the wall for gear that never drops...or having to pay hundreds of millions of gold for them from scripters/dupers vendor houses.

So don't do it. You don't NEED that gear, it's perfectly possible to play without it. Many of us do.

 

[The Slug]

I have no problem losing my stuff. Heck I run around fel using almost half cursed items. Those tend to go bye bye quickly. Especially when my pvp skills comprise almost totally of saying well crap I'm dead

 

[Uriah Heep]

Even the simplest drops should be picked up a little bit. Anytime two people can run an ilsh spawn from start to finish, without a boss drop, NOR a SoT, something just cant be right. I've been told that that's impossible, and until I experienced it (twice) I would have believed. But no more...

And don't even get me started on the t-map loots.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Easy solution if you want bosses to drop loot each time: Make the loot no drop and no trade, basically soulbound like in WoW. There, easy solution, the item has no monetary value except to the user and so bosses can drop loot each and every time. And they can keep the low drop rate for tradeable items to still occasionally drop.

 

[Smoot]

I see posts like this, "something is too hard" "something takes too long" ---- Remember that there have been Major additions to armor / stats in the last few years. Refinements. Swing Speed. Reforging. Eaters.
We are EXPECTED to be utilizing these new additions when doing new content. The exodus encounter isnt easy, but you sure as hell dont need 18 people. If i remember theres only 1 drop (drop rate on exodus is really high btw compared to other stuff)

For Keys - only kill stuff with high fame (the hardest stuff) Honor your target (as no slayer) watch out for blood oath. Thats it. I would say average is 4 or 5 keys per 30mins.

Boss can be done with 2 people, easier to do with a group of 3 to 5 people.

This kind of content (excluding EM events) is supposed to be the hardest content in UO. And comparatively it is very very easy compared to other games.


SUGGESTION: Make loot useful. out of the drops from all the new content, only about 30percent of artifacts of of any use whatsoever. Theres several ways to make more items useful and sought after

Make all drops imbuable / enhanceable
Give all armor drop 500 imbue weight
NO more wierd hybird weapons with both pvp and pvm stats on them, but not enough or one or the other for the weapon to be of actual use.

 

[Smoot]

Even the simplest drops should be picked up a little bit. Anytime two people can run an ilsh spawn from start to finish, without a boss drop, NOR a SoT, something just cant be right. I've been told that that's impossible, and until I experienced it (twice) I would have believed. But no more...

And don't even get me started on the t-map loots.

remember drop rates are double in fel.

 

[Smoot]

Easy solution if you want bosses to drop loot each time: Make the loot no drop and no trade, basically soulbound like in WoW. There, easy solution, the item has no monetary value except to the user and so bosses can drop loot each and every time. And they can keep the low drop rate for tradeable items to still occasionally drop.

that would work. it would change alot of peoples playtime tho. (people who like to farm peerless) the problem with it is gear has a long life in UO. once you got the item, no reason to go back until its outdated. Wow solves this by forcing an item grind with new content every 3 months, new expansion every year or so. The gear goes obsolete so fast in wow (which is the reason i quit btw) that players have a reason to keep playing.

UO has relatively low new content (we have been told to expect one small booster pack a year) Armor lasts on average 4 years id say (till the best becomes obsolete) So the only "reason" for people to do peerless is to sell the items.

 

[Kyronix]

Kyronix, remember also that you've made monsters harder, and someone holding a slayer will need to switch around (particularly someone like me who makes 100% elemental weapons just in the same slayer class) for optimal damage. Though the availability of weapons and armor makes low-end monsters easier than they ever were, I think it balances out with the hardest monsters. Balrons and ancient wyrms were the pinnacle of UO, but Hythloth 3 and the old teleporter room would have eventually gotten stale. I always thought imbuing was the best addition to the game in years, because players could finally make suits, not the very best but still extremely good, without having to spend hundreds of millions or real money for artifacts. How many others remember 2/4 duels for the first while after AoS, because not everyone had FC1/FCR3 jewelry? It still took a while before 2/6 became the norm.

Yes, any decent imbuer can make a 100% LRC, all 70s suit for a new player, but I'd say that ease only serves to keep a new player interested, rather than the grind of killing orcs and lizardmen in the hopes of enough gold for a few more tenths of journeyman magery. When I first made GM magery, it took 50 successful 8th circle casts for each of those last few tenths, and at a 50% success rate, figure I had to buy double the regs in the first place. And for characters with higher skill, LRC is also a necessity for all the casting we do now. We have so much mana regen now, even compared to when meditation was introduced.

For the most part, monsters have remained the same strength as when they were initially introduced. As new monsters were introduced, however, their difficulty was scaled to the current "power level" of the game. There is no silver bullet to reversing power creep (much in the way there is no silver bullet to "fix" the economy). This is to say that an earth elemental has been as strong as an earth elemental for a good while now. What hasn't changed, however, is the quality of loot that is obtainable at this low end. We hope to ameliorate that by rolling out "shame-style" loot globally as well as reworking how we display and educate item properties to try and lessen the learning curve so both the casual gear collector and the min-maxers will be happy.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

that would work. it would change alot of peoples playtime tho. (people who like to farm peerless) the problem with it is gear has a long life in UO. once you got the item, no reason to go back until its outdated. Wow solves this by forcing an item grind with new content every 3 months, new expansion every year or so. The gear goes obsolete so fast in wow (which is the reason i quit btw) that players have a reason to keep playing.

UO has relatively low new content (we have been told to expect one small booster pack a year) Armor lasts on average 4 years id say (till the best becomes obsolete) So the only "reason" for people to do peerless is to sell the items.

The best selling peerless items are mainly the stuff that is consumable though. Lady Mel is popular for the hair dyes for example. And they also drop cool house deco. Sadly you can't solo the grizzle and that one drops some of the coolest house deco...That acid just tears you up. with the exception of crimson cinctures, most ML peerless drops suck, one exception being the very sexy crystalline ring.

Right now the best loot in UO doesn't even drop off bosses. Reforged gear from valorite/Barbed kits is very insane, and bribing has made it easy to get barbed kits at a cost of about 3 million per kit. And the even better gear is a lottery drop off normal mobs in Shame, if you can play the lottery and win a clean major or legendary artifact quality item.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

For the most part, monsters have remained the same strength as when they were initially introduced. As new monsters were introduced, however, their difficulty was scaled to the current "power level" of the game. There is no silver bullet to reversing power creep (much in the way there is no silver bullet to "fix" the economy). This is to say that an earth elemental has been as strong as an earth elemental for a good while now. What hasn't changed, however, is the quality of loot that is obtainable at this low end. We hope to ameliorate that by rolling out "shame-style" loot globally as well as reworking how we display and educate item properties to try and lessen the learning curve so both the casual gear collector and the min-maxers will be happy.

That is why you make new content and expansions. When AOS came out the devs forgot to re-scale the monsters and everything pre-AOS was not designed for the new gear and became too easy. Then came Samurai Empire, ML and Abyss and each of those expansions had monsters that were actually designed with AOS in mind and were actually fairly challenging for the gear levels at the time. Content in UO is developed way too slowly these days to keep up with some of the recent changes, such as reforging and shame loot which have made players gods by being able to hit caps easily and even have artifact only stats on normal gear.

 

[Hoffs]

I would say the drop rates on the Exodus encounter is fine at about one for every two people. If anything, the scrolls are too common. Plus you have the highest intensity corpse loot in the game. Getting the keys is what takes the time, with a drop rate of about one every six minutes on the best template and one of the drops (the altar) being fairly useless.

Lady Mel drops a hair dye about one in every three encounters, and with twenty-six different colours, getting a specific one will take time.

I would agree that the drop rate for special items on the SA bosses (Medusa, Slasher, Stygian Dragon) is too low.

But as has been said, if you play on normal shards, stuff pretty much never goes away unless a player quits the game. And you really don't need uber suits to have fun. On Siege, I have about three different levels of suit for spawns, mostly just imbued stuff, and which one I use depends on how safe I think we are from PKs. But really, with a group of us, I don't notice a massive amount of difference between the best suit and the worst.

 

[Smoot]

Just add deco drops to existing mobs. and colors. people love colors. (i rather have everything jet black, but i think im a minority nowadays)

we dont have a large enough team for full expansions, but there are simple fixes that could revitalize old content very easily.

 

[The Zog historian]

For the most part, monsters have remained the same strength as when they were initially introduced. As new monsters were introduced, however, their difficulty was scaled to the current "power level" of the game. There is no silver bullet to reversing power creep (much in the way there is no silver bullet to "fix" the economy). This is to say that an earth elemental has been as strong as an earth elemental for a good while now. What hasn't changed, however, is the quality of loot that is obtainable at this low end. We hope to ameliorate that by rolling out "shame-style" loot globally as well as reworking how we display and educate item properties to try and lessen the learning curve so both the casual gear collector and the min-maxers will be happy.

Individual monsters for the most part, yes, but I was referring to the broad spectrum. Also, with AoS' introduction of different resists, some things like earth elementals and liches became noticeably harder if you wanted to use a plain iron weapon. I myself don't mind that stronger and stronger monsters were introduced, or that really tough monsters can be fought solo. On some shards, it's difficult to get a group like what was required to do Hyth 3, or bloods in Shame.

Shame-style loot elsewhere...

 

[Lizzard of Baja]

Individual monsters for the most part, yes, but I was referring to the broad spectrum. Also, with AoS' introduction of different resists, some things like earth elementals and liches became noticeably harder if you wanted to use a plain iron weapon. I myself don't mind that stronger and stronger monsters were introduced, or that really tough monsters can be fought solo. On some shards, it's difficult to get a group like what was required to do Hyth 3, or bloods in Shame.

Shame-style loot elsewhere...

I would say the drop rates on the Exodus encounter is fine at about one for every two people. If anything, the scrolls are too common. Plus you have the highest intensity corpse loot in the game. Getting the keys is what takes the time, with a drop rate of about one every six minutes on the best template and one of the drops (the altar) being fairly useless.

Lady Mel drops a hair dye about one in every three encounters, and with twenty-six different colours, getting a specific one will take time.

I would agree that the drop rate for special items on the SA bosses (Medusa, Slasher, Stygian Dragon) is too low.

But as has been said, if you play on normal shards, stuff pretty much never goes away unless a player quits the game. And you really don't need uber suits to have fun. On Siege, I have about three different levels of suit for spawns, mostly just imbued stuff, and which one I use depends on how safe I think we are from PKs. But really, with a group of us, I don't notice a massive amount of difference between the best suit and the worst.

(]I would say the drop rates on the Exodus encounter is fine at about one for every two people. If anything, the scrolls are too common.) What the heck are you talking about?! We had 18 people and one person got the valiant scroll.... What UO Land do you live in that every other person gets a scroll. Don't perpetuate untruths... One has to wonder if you are being paid by the (insert evil corporation) to support their agenda..

 

[Lizzard of Baja]

For the most part, monsters have remained the same strength as when they were initially introduced. As new monsters were introduced, however, their difficulty was scaled to the current "power level" of the game. There is no silver bullet to reversing power creep (much in the way there is no silver bullet to "fix" the economy). This is to say that an earth elemental has been as strong as an earth elemental for a good while now. What hasn't changed, however, is the quality of loot that is obtainable at this low end. We hope to ameliorate that by rolling out "shame-style" loot globally as well as reworking how we display and educate item properties to try and lessen the learning curve so both the casual gear collector and the min-maxers will be happy.

Actually that is a major improvement over the current system.(because of inflation you can't pay workers at a 60 era minimum wage) However I still want more drop rates for Exodus, Mel, Minax items... I don't play WoW so I don't care how they do things. I don't play other MMO's because I play UO. I enjoy UO but I don't enjoy wasting my time for several frustrating hours weeks days months years. Some of those shame item drops can be more tailored to templates as well... blah blah, but it is really good to know you are working to improve the game. Please increase drop rates though, or else you must play uo with me. You wont be able to have a job with the amount of time it will take us to get that slither(So I hope you have major savings). (And by the way Thank you for your time)

 

[heqqr]

Decreasing drop rates encourage environments for scripters as the average game player does not script and is not willing to put forth the amount of time needed to get items. Increasing the drop rates discourages scripters as the average player now is able to get the item without having to pay for it.

 

[SuperKen]

Think there's a bit of a disconnect here.

Seeing folks post that things are fine because YOU can just do without, and YOU should have fun and learn to do without that item is a bit condescending.

For some, it is the pursuit of making their suits 1% better that keeps them interested. Increasing drop rates on items will not affect your own overall enjoyment of the game. You can play however you like. You can choose to go without said item yourself, but begrudging others to not have it either isn't very generous.

Increasing drop rate goes against UO's inherent pay structure. Investing time is what pays for UO and other similar MMOs. After all, we all pay a monthly fee here.

And last I checked, UO isn't the most popular MMO out there, not by a long shot.

There are probably many reasons for this, but making some aspects of the game less accessible to both new and old players alike isn't going to help its case out one bit.

What exactly are the cons to having increased drop rates on items, or at least their keys? The items drop in price and rarity?

God forbid.

That genie was already let out of the bottle with AoS and then further damned with the introduction of Imbuing. If there's a revamp of how the system works, I'm open to hearing about it. Until then?

Should we be encouraged to pay a monthly fee for a game where we are then told that we should simply do without a particular item; to have fun without it? That item is too rare, it's too expensive! Learn to play without it! Buy it for millions of gold! Spend hours and days and all your free weekends!

I wasn't aware that Ultima Online players were so masochistic.

...scratch that. I guess I always knew that, deep down.

 

[Airhaun]

I'm loving the attention this post is getting! The Original Poster is a GENIUS! Brilliant! Thank you Lizzard for articulating so well the concerns and frustrations we feel! I just hope Kronyx, Mesanna and the devs are listening.

I would think as a developer the most rewarding outcome of implementing a new aspect to a game was the feedback of people enjoying the activity. I would also assume one of the most disheartening things a dev could feel would be putting all this time and effort into an updated encounter (Exodus, Covetous Dungeon, Cora, Tram Despise, etc.) and watching as people become uninterested or frustrated with it and it becomes yet again another abandoned neglected part of the UO world.

Respectfully Kronyx, running around in GM made armor and a simplistic 100% LRC suit no longer cuts it. Anybody who is committed to this game and wants to tackle the tougher PVM encounters and be able to compete in PVP needs a strong suit. These suits MUST consist of reforged pieces, maybe a few imbued pieces and Artifacts which drop from peerless, encounters & champ spawns. Do you realize this? Please believe me I'm not saying a Crimson Cincture should drop every time Lady Mel is killed or a Gladiator's Collar should drop every 5 Champ Spawns completed, or The Scroll of Valliant Accommodation should drop from Exodus every other death. But I'm talking about 200+ Medusas and no Slither, 60 Lady Mels and no Crimson Cincture, 60 Navrey Night-Eyes and no Tangle, Tram Despise encounter and of the 5 people that have done it 2 times, nobody gets any drops.

The thing is, the drop rates used to be perfect. But in the past 3 or more months it's like they've mostly dried up. Artifacts still are distributed but as Lizzard said in the OP the drops have become so few and far between most people have lost interest so now you have all these aspects of the game your team has developed and implemented collecting dust.

I love this game, I pay for 3 accounts, but this needs to be looked into.

 

[solembow]

For the most part, monsters have remained the same strength as when they were initially introduced. As new monsters were introduced, however, their difficulty was scaled to the current "power level" of the game. There is no silver bullet to reversing power creep (much in the way there is no silver bullet to "fix" the economy). This is to say that an earth elemental has been as strong as an earth elemental for a good while now. What hasn't changed, however, is the quality of loot that is obtainable at this low end. We hope to ameliorate that by rolling out "shame-style" loot globally as well as reworking how we display and educate item properties to try and lessen the learning curve so both the casual gear collector and the min-maxers will be happy.

Another thing you're forgetting is that while some monsters may be soloable, with such low populations the respawn rate of those monsters can make for a difficult time for anyone. You barely have a chance to loot a kill before being mobbed by new spawn. While this was all well and good in the days of populated shards and having to actually fight for a spot in a dungeon, now it becomes overwhelming for anyone who doesn't know how to control the spawn.

Not to mention the lag/ bad performance of this game. I am playing on a machine that plays all modern games to date on ultra settings...and yet this game plays like I'm on an E-machine from Wal-Mart. I am forced to use the Enhanced Client, even though it's slower than the 2d, because the looting and bag set ups in 2d are simply unplayable! I honestly don't know how I ever played in 2d with those bags for sooooooo long. I am hoping that this "Ui update" we heard about offers the same things EC does when it comes to looting and bags, because it simply runs better than EC and personally I still prefer the art in the original game.

You talk about "Shame Loot", but I don't see this as an improvement. You give decent pieces and then add the caveat of everything being cursed, brittle or just plain not useful. Not to mention the fact that the two dungeons you guys "Revamped" used to be the place for new players to train your melee skills and start to sock away the ole' gold. Now a new player walks in and gets whalloped by your "Revamped" Earth eles and Mud pies in shame, and you've gotten rid of the spawn in despise all together. So in the end, all Shame is good for at least so far as I can tell, is hours of grinding for items to unravel so that you can make a useful suit.Oh....but that's only if you buy a tool from your store for that...you know because even with 120 smithing,tailoring, and a talisman you're still going to break over %90 of your enhance attempts....that's after you use all of your most costly ingredients and have powdered the item as well...so you know...buy the tool. Because the hours of mindless grinding and hundreds of millions of gold worth of resources to gain the 120 scrolls, skill and tallys isn't enough....you gotta pay real life money for that tool.

I mean come on...how can you all honestly defend this crap?We just came back two months ago and I couldn't believe this! Our household pays for 5 accounts and I think we're entitled to some answers/results from those who make this game.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Another thing you're forgetting is that while some monsters may be soloable, with such low populations the respawn rate of those monsters can make for a difficult time for anyone. You barely have a chance to loot a kill before being mobbed by new spawn. While this was all well and good in the days of populated shards and having to actually fight for a spot in a dungeon, now it becomes overwhelming for anyone who doesn't know how to control the spawn.

Not to mention the lag/ bad performance of this game. I am playing on a machine that plays all modern games to date on ultra settings...and yet this game plays like I'm on an E-machine from Wal-Mart. I am forced to use the Enhanced Client, even though it's slower than the 2d, because the looting and bag set ups in 2d are simply unplayable! I honestly don't know how I ever played in 2d with those bags for sooooooo long. I am hoping that this "Ui update" we heard about offers the same things EC does when it comes to looting and bags, because it simply runs better than EC and personally I still prefer the art in the original game.

You talk about "Shame Loot", but I don't see this as an improvement. You give decent pieces and then add the caveat of everything being cursed, brittle or just plain not useful. Not to mention the fact that the two dungeons you guys "Revamped" used to be the place for new players to train your melee skills and start to sock away the ole' gold. Now a new player walks in and gets whalloped by your "Revamped" Earth eles and Mud pies in shame, and you've gotten rid of the spawn in despise all together. So in the end, all Shame is good for at least so far as I can tell, is hours of grinding for items to unravel so that you can make a useful suit.Oh....but that's only if you buy a tool from your store for that...you know because even with 120 smithing,tailoring, and a talisman you're still going to break over %90 of your enhance attempts....that's after you use all of your most costly ingredients and have powdered the item as well...so you know...buy the tool. Because the hours of mindless grinding and hundreds of millions of gold worth of resources to gain the 120 scrolls, skill and tallys isn't enough....you gotta pay real life money for that tool.

I mean come on...how can you all honestly defend this crap?We just came back two months ago and I couldn't believe this! Our household pays for 5 accounts and I think we're entitled to some answers/results from those who make this game.

While I like the shame loot, I don't think it should be standard throughout the entire game and the old system should remain in place somewhere. So I am a bit dismayed they plan to shift the shame system through out the entire game in a coming patch... =[
They did make the haven mine for monsters displaced from Despise, but the spawn there is so horrible that it is pointless to train in there. Instead of making it logical by putting the weakest monsters in the front, they put earth eles in the front, ettins in the middle and lizardmen ALL the way in the back and goodluck training on the lizardmen because an ogre LORD, spawns in that same room... No thought was given to the design of that supposed newbie dungeon.

Despise in Felucca still has the old spawn though, just stay away from the lower levels with the champ spawn and you likely won't be noticed by any PK's.