Any update on UO coming to Steam?

[DJAd]

I had totally forgotten about UO coming to Steam!! Has there been any progress? I was talking to a friend last night who was talking about Steam and then I suddenly remembered UO had been green lit.

When I got home I had a search and its still showing the same old message:

"The community has shown their interest in this game. Valve has reached out to this developer to start moving things toward release on Steam."

From looking at the comments people have been waiting for this:

"THIS DELAY IS THE BIGGEST BULL**** OF ALL STEAM GREENLIGHT"

 

[Riyana]

The last thing I heard about it was in the video back in February:

Mesanna: Steam-- I know that's on everybody's mind. Um, we are--we have to do certain things in the game to prep for Steam, that's just have to--like a new player experience. Um, several other things that, if we just went to Steam, it wouldn't work. Uh, so we have to prep for it, and we're not gonna be doing that until the later part of this year. Whenever we have all the details, we'll let you know of course.

It's the very first thing they talk about in the video, about 10 seconds in.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I had totally forgotten about UO coming to Steam!! Has there been any progress? I was talking to a friend last night who was talking about Steam and then I suddenly remembered UO had been green lit.

When I got home I had a search and its still showing the same old message:

"The community has shown their interest in this game. Valve has reached out to this developer to start moving things toward release on Steam."

From looking at the comments people have been waiting for this:

"THIS DELAY IS THE BIGGEST BULL**** OF ALL STEAM GREENLIGHT"

SOON

 

[Klapauc]

Did watch several mmorpg starts last year. Each and every one had the same problem, that a bunch of professional bug users came in and did cause major problems. Not only resource related stuff, also every flaw in game design got abused to the point that it did cause problems.
Unfortunatly, uo is full of that stuff. Be happy that it does stay under radar for a while longer.
Something like eso start would kill uo.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Mesanna: Steam--like a new player experience.

LOL this is beyond soon. How many years has this been talked about bu the Devs and more than 0ne Producer. And we will have to fix UO.COM SOON, LOL.

 

[Flagg]

Did watch several mmorpg starts last year. Each and every one had the same problem, that a bunch of professional bug users came in and did cause major problems. Not only resource related stuff, also every flaw in game design got abused to the point that it did cause problems.
Unfortunatly, uo is full of that stuff. Be happy that it does stay under radar for a while longer.
Something like eso start would kill uo.

Heh, I wouldn't worry too much. At best, adding UO to steam in it's current state would cause a trickle, not flood. Anyone who has genuine interest in abusing UO is by now busy doing just that as it is.

After thinking about it a while, I feel there is only one UO - related release that could be seen as genuinely interesting addition to Steam: - A very well conceived attempt at monetizing the Free Shard scene. If Broadsword sold some 50 Euro costing, remotely sophisticated host-your-own-UO toolkit, it'd bring some measure of genuine interest amiong the MMO crowd.

Releasing same old UO, with same old monthly sub...just..no. Zero appeal to new players, old MMO veterans alike.

 

[Ender]

Heh, I wouldn't worry too much. At best, adding UO to steam in it's current state would cause a trickle, not flood. Anyone who has genuine interest in abusing UO is by now busy doing just that as it is.

After thinking about it a while, I feel there is only one UO - related release that could be seen as genuinely interesting addition to Steam: - A very well conceived attempt at monetizing the Free Shard scene. If Broadsword sold some 50 Euro costing, remotely sophisticated host-your-own-UO toolkit, it'd bring some measure of genuine interest amiong the MMO crowd.

Releasing same old UO, with same old monthly sub...just..no. Zero appeal to new players, old MMO veterans alike.

Yeah, a one-time fee to make your own shard would be pretty neat.

I don't see them getting any more players with the Steam release unless they go free to play or at least buy to play.

 

[Uvtha]

After thinking about it a while, I feel there is only one UO - related release that could be seen as genuinely interesting addition to Steam: - A very well conceived attempt at monetizing the Free Shard scene. If Broadsword sold some 50 Euro costing, remotely sophisticated host-your-own-UO toolkit, it'd bring some measure of genuine interest amiong the MMO crowd.

I would pay 100 bucks for that, just for my own personal use. A shard with custom housing like building interface... item makers, spawn makers, etc. I would be all over that. Like UO minecraft. I always hoped that when they shut down UO that they would give out copies of the server state the day it closes so you can still play your shard with friends or alone if you wanted to. It would be months of fun just rummaging through other people's homes heh.
I know you can already do it for free, but I'm just too lazy to do it manually.

As for steam, I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it comes out when the expansion hits, which I assume is within a month or two.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Steam is at least a year away. UO HAS to have a robust NPE before it goes on Steam.

 

[DJAd]

Steam is at least a year away. UO HAS to have a robust NPE before it goes on Steam.

Yep. I would of done this and tried to got the game on Steam BEFORE working on a new expansion.

 

[Nexus]

Yep. I would of done this and tried to got the game on Steam BEFORE working on a new expansion.

Who says a new, New Player Experience can't be part of the expansion?

 

[Lord Frodo]

Who says a new, New Player Experience can't be part of the expansion?

Hasn't this been talked about since the creation of New Haven and why would it be part of an expansion that we are expected to pay for.

 

[Flagg]

Hasn't this been talked about since the creation of New Haven and why would it be part of an expansion that we are expected to pay for.

I wouldn't mind old New Player experience meself. New Haven looks horrible. Hastily designed, ugly wooden pile of dung. Like first thing new player sees is ridiculous annoying yellow text SPAM SPAM SPAM by some irrelevant quest giver. Old Haven was much better first impression of what UO is about. They should keep the skillboost and the like, just throw it all to the old map.

 

[Flagg]

I would pay 100 bucks for that, just for my own personal use. A shard with custom housing like building interface... item makers, spawn makers, etc. I would be all over that. Like UO minecraft.

Yeah. This way, they could sell the " Steam UO" to people who already play as well. As it stands, not many of us would find a single reason to buy UO via Steam. It'd be so much fun to fool around with some good world builder.

 

[MalagAste]

Think they thought hiring those "councilors" would fix the NPE but that's just BS. They honestly need some sort of new player intro. And to work out some sort of intro to UO for choosing your first character.

Like I said when I first started playing UO at least I got a nice fat book. New players now don't have ANYTHING. If you start in the EC you have some crap geared to teaching you the basics of combat for dexers. Doesn't really teach you about magery or spell casting or anything. And I still laugh my head off that it doesn't even tell you about your bank box. I've met new players in game who didn't even know they had a bank box and they had been trying to play for over 2 weeks.

One thing that would be EXTREMELY helpful is if "we" as a community could write up some sort of new player "guide" that could be stickied somewhere or put on the Main Page somewhere EASILY found. So that we would at least have somewhere to direct new players. If the DEV's won't do it at least we could. This is once again where I wish I was good at things like Twitch and stuff ..... if I was I'd do a step by step guide to using the EC and installing Pinco's... and even run players through the highlights of Pinco's UI and the Default UI. If someone could teach me to use Twitch or something similar I'd do the rest and we could put that up.

Another thing that holds us back as a community is the lack of the ability to really connect and communicate in-game. There is no way to leave someone a message properly. Many of us still use the antiquated ICQ to communicate. But most "new" gamers haven't a clue about ICQ. I often recommend Trillian as I think it's much easier to use and more reliable... but even that is well... old school. Some use Skype which I honestly don't really like to use. Some guilds use other things like Ventrilo, Teamspeak, and Raidcall... there are dozens of voice chat programs about that folk use. Personally I prefer using Ventrilo. But there honestly isn't any way in-game to let a friend know when you're going to be about but to try to track them down if you aren't in the same guild or alliance it's nearly impossible to chat with folk. And the problem with those chats is that they have to be on a character in the guild or alliance and be online at the same time as you. If you know where their house is you can drop something in their mail or use their bulletin board if they have one but how many folk actually go to their home every day and check those things? I can't tell you the last time I looked at some of the bulletin boards I have. I think the only one I look at with any regularity is the City Board for Yew because I'm the Governor.

What would be wonderful is a game wide tell system that allowed us to tell someone things whether they are in game or not and a mail system allowing us to send items and mail to other players. Problem I think with that is that UO doesn't have a "unique" naming system. I can name every character I have Malag'aste if I wanted to. I can say there is a Malag on every shard save Mugen. But without a unique naming system I am not sure how they would keep track of this except to have you be able to "click" players and add them to a friends list. So that you can send things to folk on your friends list. Which would mean you can only mail things and send things to people on YOUR shard. Which would certainly be the smartest way to go. But something like that would go a LONG way toward building community.

 

[Dot_Warner]

I agree that the spammy guy in New Haven needs to be drowned in the bay. He's incredibly annoying. Move all his junk into a NPE-specific gump that goes with the newbie wherever they do.

Increase the fast skill gain area to cover the entire island.

Keep New Haven as it is, Old Haven, which is just a mirror of Ocllo, was BORING looking. New Haven is at least decorated and somewhat lived-in looking (ALL the Tram/Fel cities could use a redecoration pass via a publish, they're empty and ugly.) Just DON'T retcon New Haven into Ocllo... Trammel never had an Ocllo.

Add in a trainer and a quest for every skill, including Spellweaving.

Put in "quests" that explain the UI, bank, stables, weapons, armor, housing, ships, etc. Give a small reward (including gold) for completion of each task...or simply up the starting gold to 50-100K.

Include way to acquire a decent all 50's resist leather suit via the NPE.

Explain crafting in bite-sized chunks that won't make a newbie's head explode. (easier said than done)

 

[Lord Frodo]

One thing that would be EXTREMELY helpful is if "we" as a community could write up some sort of new player "guide" that could be stickied somewhere or put on the Main Page somewhere EASILY found.

I liked a lot of what you said and now here is the BIG BUT. I am getting tired of the "we as a community" doing what should be UOs job. This is one of the biggest problems with UO today is the Devs know we love UO to damn much and will do as little as possible. The EC is a great example, if it were not for the modders the EC would be a piece of crap. We have bugs that are over a decade old still in the game. We have little to no communication with UO and people keep making excuses for them. YES, I still love UO as much as the next person but I refuse to let the DEVs have a free ride because of it. One of these days UO/BS/whoever will get a CEO or whatever his/her title is that takes pride in the company they run and make people that work for him/her do there job the right way or show them the highway. DAoC sure seams to be getting a whole lot of love with their game and web site and here comes the ******* step-child AGAIN named UO. I better stop before my blood pressure gets to high.

 

[Nexus]

I liked a lot of what you said and now here is the BIG BUT. I am getting tired of the "we as a community" doing what should be UOs job. This is one of the biggest problems with UO today is the Devs know we love UO to damn much and will do as little as possible. The EC is a great example, if it were not for the modders the EC would be a piece of crap. We have bugs that are over a decade old still in the game. We have little to no communication with UO and people keep making excuses for them. YES, I still love UO as much as the next person but I refuse to let the DEVs have a free ride because of it. One of these days UO/BS/whoever will get a CEO or whatever his/her title is that takes pride in the company they run and make people that work for him/her do there job the right way or show them the highway. DAoC sure seams to be getting a whole lot of love with their game and web site and here comes the ******* step-child AGAIN named UO. I better stop before my blood pressure gets to high.

Honestly these days there are few MMO's that give any documentation on anything, it all comes from the community this is not a UO only thing. Now a good in game tutorial need to be done regardless of if the community does any documentation or not. Even with the EC so much of the "How" of UO is extremely dated, an entire generation of Gamers have been born and are now grown since the games released playing other titles with similar form and function.

 

[Arcus]

They need to fix the account system first.

 

[Arcus]

I wouldn't mind old New Player experience meself. New Haven looks horrible. Hastily designed, ugly wooden pile of dung. Like first thing new player sees is ridiculous annoying yellow text SPAM SPAM SPAM by some irrelevant quest giver. Old Haven was much better first impression of what UO is about. They should keep the skillboost and the like, just throw it all to the old map.

Amen. A part of UO died when Haven ( the ONLY haven) died.

 

[MalagAste]

I liked a lot of what you said and now here is the BIG BUT. I am getting tired of the "we as a community" doing what should be UOs job. This is one of the biggest problems with UO today is the Devs know we love UO to damn much and will do as little as possible. The EC is a great example, if it were not for the modders the EC would be a piece of crap. We have bugs that are over a decade old still in the game. We have little to no communication with UO and people keep making excuses for them. YES, I still love UO as much as the next person but I refuse to let the DEVs have a free ride because of it. One of these days UO/BS/whoever will get a CEO or whatever his/her title is that takes pride in the company they run and make people that work for him/her do there job the right way or show them the highway. DAoC sure seams to be getting a whole lot of love with their game and web site and here comes the ******* step-child AGAIN named UO. I better stop before my blood pressure gets to high.

While I agree that it SHOULD be something the DEV's do... And they SHOULD be FAR more willing to do something for new players lets face the fact that they aren't willing to do it. Besides the DEV's don't play UO obviously like actual players do. So what do they know really about getting started, gaining up skills, what skills do what and how they work together? Nothing. Facts and figures. They don't build characters to actually fight, PvP, PvM and survive and thrive in the game. Most of them never understood Sampire, Wammy Thrower, etc... and how well then would they be at preparing a new player to the game? Lets face it we the players know how to do things. That's why the Prima guides I used to buy were soooo good. Because they really looked at the game from the players perspective.

But the fact remains that if WE as a community want our game to thrive then WE need to put forth some effort to make sure it does. I'm not going to make excuses for the DEV's Lord knows I haven't seen eye to eye with many of them in a long while. I honestly could go for hours on things that need fixing and improving. I could build a website around just the area's along the sea that are borked... when I see them it drives me crazy. Still unfixed since the EC was put out. I'm sure the one who was responsible for it has long since been fired which is good.... because it looks like crap and makes the game IMO look like crap and looks unprofessional and cheap. I would NEVER release my work half done like that. EVER. But as a Lab Tech I'm very picky about perfection and precision. I don't know who goes around there and decides this slop is "good". Most likely other folk who have long since been FIRED there. Again here in lies the problem at UO... they have sooo few DEV's. What do they prioritize. What we want? NO. What they want... to a point I suppose... but more overly I think it's what they can do in their limited capacity. What exactly should they prioritize. I mean you could ask 100 players and get 100 different answers. PvPers and Felies will tell you that they need to focus on Fel, VvV and drawing lambs to the slaughter.... PvM crowd will tell you they need to focus on Loot, AI and new places to explore... RPers will say COMMUNITY... and adding things that build community and tools for Role-play... heck some of us would love to make our own dungeons etc... But I think everyone wants more people. Friends to return... etc... and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE wants the Origin store situation fixed... and everyone wants a secure and easy to use account management site. It's likely everyone would also want UO away from EA more than it is.