Okami
Visitor
As a returning player applying refreshed eyes to the game, I wanted to share some feedback after having played for a few weeks. For reference, I played fairly heavily from T2A until Age of Shadows, eventually departing for City of Heroes.
Having returned has been a bit of a shock as the new Power Scroll system and retuned dungeons rendered my character fairly ineffectual in PvM, and even had the misfortune of mistakenly tried a simple graveyard run to try out my character. During the halloween event. It didn't end well.
One thing I will not suggest, is any kind of "Rollbacks" to current systems. It's counterproductive, it won't happen, and after adjusting, I don't think it's necessary. I'm sure everyone's heard or read similar suggestions countless times.
However, due to the changes over the age of the game, a fundamental flaw has developed, as the game has been retooled to cater to the new 120 skill standard. There is a massive gap in available gameplay from skill levels 50-120, and the game's aging mechanics don't make that range of skill entertaining for any longer than a few hours at most, yet the time to skill gain through that gap can take much, much, longer. The two aspects combined can cause quick burnout during the first crucial weeks of a returning player's time.
The anti-virtue dungeons badly need a balance pass and a tune down to a 70-100 skill appropriate range. They're currently far too empty for solo play, and their rewards aren't desirable enough to bring in larger groups, so making them a touch less challenging can encourage any new players or returning players to try them out before moving on to more difficult content.
Another major continuing flaw is that there are skills that lack any practical use, as the game has evolved past them. These skills could also be used to help address the gameplay gap if upgraded properly.
For example, Pairing Taste ID with Cooking to create special buff foods that help accelerate skill gain or grant other temporary effects to help equal odds against higher skill creatures. Have Cooking make the food and it give a short term buff (even possibly a 0 second one), and then having a higher Taste ID extend the length of time for that buff, so that having a GM Taste ID would grant a fairly useful mid-term buff.
Camping could be upgraded to help pad Strength/Dexterity/Int after a stay, with a higher camping skill granting a slightly larger buff or lengthier buff after staying long enough to trigger, with it still being capped to the normal character level caps.
Begging could be given an alternate function akin to the "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for life", with begging being able to be used to target specific NPC types for temporary skill gains.
Forensic Identification could be upgraded to an "Analysis" type skill, where a player could target a monster and have a similar gump to the Animal Lore one, where a player could assess the creature's skill levels, and this, paired with Anatomy and Eval Intelligence, could be used to mimic other game's threat assessment, as a more active use.
Tracking could be used to generate a similar, smaller buff, to Enemy of One, adding an extra layer of effectiveness to the skill.
In general the intent for all of the above suggestions is to possibly encourage developing characters to actually go out and be more active, and with buffs that focus towards newer/lower skilled characters, along with a balance retune for unused content, could help address what's currently a near fatal flaw to the game.
Just some thoughts, feel free to add in any opinions or judgements, especially if I'm overlooking some skill change that may have occurred and didn't get picked up on UO guide.
Having returned has been a bit of a shock as the new Power Scroll system and retuned dungeons rendered my character fairly ineffectual in PvM, and even had the misfortune of mistakenly tried a simple graveyard run to try out my character. During the halloween event. It didn't end well.
One thing I will not suggest, is any kind of "Rollbacks" to current systems. It's counterproductive, it won't happen, and after adjusting, I don't think it's necessary. I'm sure everyone's heard or read similar suggestions countless times.
However, due to the changes over the age of the game, a fundamental flaw has developed, as the game has been retooled to cater to the new 120 skill standard. There is a massive gap in available gameplay from skill levels 50-120, and the game's aging mechanics don't make that range of skill entertaining for any longer than a few hours at most, yet the time to skill gain through that gap can take much, much, longer. The two aspects combined can cause quick burnout during the first crucial weeks of a returning player's time.
The anti-virtue dungeons badly need a balance pass and a tune down to a 70-100 skill appropriate range. They're currently far too empty for solo play, and their rewards aren't desirable enough to bring in larger groups, so making them a touch less challenging can encourage any new players or returning players to try them out before moving on to more difficult content.
Another major continuing flaw is that there are skills that lack any practical use, as the game has evolved past them. These skills could also be used to help address the gameplay gap if upgraded properly.
For example, Pairing Taste ID with Cooking to create special buff foods that help accelerate skill gain or grant other temporary effects to help equal odds against higher skill creatures. Have Cooking make the food and it give a short term buff (even possibly a 0 second one), and then having a higher Taste ID extend the length of time for that buff, so that having a GM Taste ID would grant a fairly useful mid-term buff.
Camping could be upgraded to help pad Strength/Dexterity/Int after a stay, with a higher camping skill granting a slightly larger buff or lengthier buff after staying long enough to trigger, with it still being capped to the normal character level caps.
Begging could be given an alternate function akin to the "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for life", with begging being able to be used to target specific NPC types for temporary skill gains.
Forensic Identification could be upgraded to an "Analysis" type skill, where a player could target a monster and have a similar gump to the Animal Lore one, where a player could assess the creature's skill levels, and this, paired with Anatomy and Eval Intelligence, could be used to mimic other game's threat assessment, as a more active use.
Tracking could be used to generate a similar, smaller buff, to Enemy of One, adding an extra layer of effectiveness to the skill.
In general the intent for all of the above suggestions is to possibly encourage developing characters to actually go out and be more active, and with buffs that focus towards newer/lower skilled characters, along with a balance retune for unused content, could help address what's currently a near fatal flaw to the game.
Just some thoughts, feel free to add in any opinions or judgements, especially if I'm overlooking some skill change that may have occurred and didn't get picked up on UO guide.