I completely agree with you on the comment about low-end pieces with just one or two maxed out properties. I hope we'll still be able to find those, because I sure don't want to have to go hunting in the Abyss for imbuing ingredients with the horrid connection problems I have on every shard these days.
I used to love going to the Abyss, as well as other dungeons, but anymore I just avoid places where there are long distances to run/walk to get somewhere because I'm sick and tired of how it's no longer possible to just hold down the mouse button and see your character move. Now it's click-hold-move 3 steps if you're lucky-stop like you're stuck in cement, click-hold-move 3 steps-stop, click-hold-move 3 steps-stop, and repeat. And this happens on every single shard, even the ones that have the supposedly "best" connection and lower latency than I used to ever see.
There's also the situation where you recall into some dungeons, especially Shame, on some shards and your character and pet are dead by the time you see them again because it takes so long for the screen to finally show them. I'm not sure if that is a connection problem or something more insidious such as people running illegal programs to let their characters farm those dungeons all day long without interference from other players. If so, why is it being allowed to continue?
I truly hope that getting an additional engineer who can help Bleak fine-tune connection issues is a top priority for Mesanna and Rob Denton. And I also hope that they are able to beef up the GM staff, if that is now a Broadsword responsibility, or can convince EA to spend just a little bit more money on it. And if that isn't possible, I hope they will give Bleak and the new engineer the go-ahead to come up with some new ways to make playing intolerable for the scripters, instead of just letting them take over because they think no one cares and they have free rein to just let their greed and selfishness drive off the people who are still struggling to play and enjoy UO without cheating.
If we do end up having a Return to Britannia promotion later this year, I really fear that the connection issues and the really blatant scripting that has become more prevalent are going to keep people who might have returned from sticking around, no matter what else is new in the game.
