Training skills in UO is utterly awful and completely detached from anything I consider fun in video games.
The sandoxy feels and "gaining skill while venturing with your friends and exploring the world!" and all that pretty picture back-of-the-box Disney stuff is mostly gone; world is old and empty. Most people online are mostly done with training by now. This results in the guy who still needs to grind always feeling like he is the odd one out. He feels like the only one in the world with unfinished character. Regardless of where you train or build your char, those " hey, me too!" conversations and meetups and temporarily alliances with other players in similar situation are not happening anymore. You are the only kid in the classroom. Somehow, someway the entire world has moved past the curves the skill grinder still has to deal with. As a result, building skills is incredibly frustrating lonely walk through the desert. < - - I realize much in this isn't absolute truth or such..But I'd claim most in this is the most likely impression among people besides just me.
Me, I'm getting there. Well, one of my characters is. Magery and Focus are done, I have 119 SW, 115 Eval and 110 Mysticism now. Just yesterday, we did something like 45 minutes of hunting with two of my friends. Result? Not a single gain in any of the skills listed.
Towards the higher 110s', Satyr ******** and GGS feel like the only viable way to grind skills. Neither of these feels like a particularly healthy way to play. However, no other method to gain skills past 110 or so feels viable. As a result, I of course get to spend plenty of hot summer nights with a Satyr. It is the best way to grins skills. It is also an awful and destructive way to play; it always makes you wonder why bother. It is simply so far removed from anything and everything video games should be.
SoAs and SoTs are great and present a solution to this. It's just that they are distributed very..sparingly. So much so that they get hoarded; availability is at least as big an issue as the price tag. Speaking of price tag, it is questionable if the guy training is willing or able to spend tens of millions for these short cuts. Cost and availability of these scrolls become less of an issue when one is done grinding. ONLY THEN one typically starts having a decent supply of em. Heh.
None in the above presents a difficult issue to either solve or alleviate. Stuff similar to Fire paintings would do wonders. At it's current rate (0.1 skill in random skill every 2 weeks or something?) the feature is somewhere between a gimmick and an insult. Making mechanic like Fire paintings available for everybody and literally 100 times more powerful(=10 skillpoints every 2 weeks) would be more like it. Even more drastic measures would be just as welcome; Broadsword could flatly increase the rate of skill gains of every single skill a great deal. Or give players ye olde powerhour back. Maybe through some clicky one can activate once per day.
Finally,this particular rant was brought by my frustrations when training few casting- based skills and Eval. - These things are relatively close to the easy end of the spectrum. Don't even get me started on taming..or fishing..or..
My most severe gripes in this are not even tied to the time consumed or effort and gold and gimmicks required. It's more how - all - of the " smart" or " efficient" ways to gain skills at higher levels are toxic to the experience of playing the game.
- -
To end on a very high note!!
Just as I was done writing this, a Guildie hooked me up with over 10 skillpoints worth of mysticism! It speaks much of the community, thank you so very much
It also speaks much of SoTs! Those three clicks saved dozens of hours of 'quality time' with Satyr..or months/years of normal gameplay. I wish these were made bit more readily available.
The sandoxy feels and "gaining skill while venturing with your friends and exploring the world!" and all that pretty picture back-of-the-box Disney stuff is mostly gone; world is old and empty. Most people online are mostly done with training by now. This results in the guy who still needs to grind always feeling like he is the odd one out. He feels like the only one in the world with unfinished character. Regardless of where you train or build your char, those " hey, me too!" conversations and meetups and temporarily alliances with other players in similar situation are not happening anymore. You are the only kid in the classroom. Somehow, someway the entire world has moved past the curves the skill grinder still has to deal with. As a result, building skills is incredibly frustrating lonely walk through the desert. < - - I realize much in this isn't absolute truth or such..But I'd claim most in this is the most likely impression among people besides just me.
Me, I'm getting there. Well, one of my characters is. Magery and Focus are done, I have 119 SW, 115 Eval and 110 Mysticism now. Just yesterday, we did something like 45 minutes of hunting with two of my friends. Result? Not a single gain in any of the skills listed.
Towards the higher 110s', Satyr ******** and GGS feel like the only viable way to grind skills. Neither of these feels like a particularly healthy way to play. However, no other method to gain skills past 110 or so feels viable. As a result, I of course get to spend plenty of hot summer nights with a Satyr. It is the best way to grins skills. It is also an awful and destructive way to play; it always makes you wonder why bother. It is simply so far removed from anything and everything video games should be.
SoAs and SoTs are great and present a solution to this. It's just that they are distributed very..sparingly. So much so that they get hoarded; availability is at least as big an issue as the price tag. Speaking of price tag, it is questionable if the guy training is willing or able to spend tens of millions for these short cuts. Cost and availability of these scrolls become less of an issue when one is done grinding. ONLY THEN one typically starts having a decent supply of em. Heh.
None in the above presents a difficult issue to either solve or alleviate. Stuff similar to Fire paintings would do wonders. At it's current rate (0.1 skill in random skill every 2 weeks or something?) the feature is somewhere between a gimmick and an insult. Making mechanic like Fire paintings available for everybody and literally 100 times more powerful(=10 skillpoints every 2 weeks) would be more like it. Even more drastic measures would be just as welcome; Broadsword could flatly increase the rate of skill gains of every single skill a great deal. Or give players ye olde powerhour back. Maybe through some clicky one can activate once per day.
Finally,this particular rant was brought by my frustrations when training few casting- based skills and Eval. - These things are relatively close to the easy end of the spectrum. Don't even get me started on taming..or fishing..or..
My most severe gripes in this are not even tied to the time consumed or effort and gold and gimmicks required. It's more how - all - of the " smart" or " efficient" ways to gain skills at higher levels are toxic to the experience of playing the game.
- -
To end on a very high note!!
Just as I was done writing this, a Guildie hooked me up with over 10 skillpoints worth of mysticism! It speaks much of the community, thank you so very much
It also speaks much of SoTs! Those three clicks saved dozens of hours of 'quality time' with Satyr..or months/years of normal gameplay. I wish these were made bit more readily available.
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