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UO game ideas for better quality of life + fun (round #1)

I haven't been in the game long enough, so while I think some of these ideas are cool, obviously I omitted a bunch of necessary details that would be required for balancing. They're mostly focused on quality of life, making existing activities more fun, incentives to hunt more everywhere in the world, work together, etc.

Housing

These ideas are to strengthen community, make transactions w.r.t. housing easier.
  1. Add houses for sale on vendor search. Allow people to buy a house just by clicking the sign and selecting buy from the menu. This can use existing teleport-to-house mechanisms.
  2. An option to save house designs to a deed and/or register them in the system. If anyone uses your design from the system, you get 70% of the money from that.
  3. Add a special tile that can be placed in houses to link them through group association. Basically, you choose guild or simply new group that you name and then you can produce teleporter tiles associated with it. It opens a paged menu so you can click on where you're going like with gates or the other teleporters. Networks of houses can be made with this.
Shopping

Make it more pleasant to shop through vendor search.
  1. An option to save vendor searches up to 10. So you can repeat your favorite vendor searches
  2. An option to reveal/buy item on the vendor search map. Some vendors will have a million items in a single bag, it would be very helpful to just trigger the purchase.
  3. A "show all labels" option for vendor items in open bags.
  4. Any sort of feature that would allow us to search all vendors in a house as buyers.
Hunting

Incentivize hunting in "old" areas, all areas basically, make it more fun, etc.
  1. Show the actual Felucca luck bonus in the luck stat (or show it as a buff +1000 luck)
  2. Add an option to add outlines to items based on rarity (CC). So a legendary artifact would have a specific color outline. And the option to perhaps hide certain ones. Macros to always loot specific classes would be nice also.
  3. A new item: healing platform. This needs to be charged by using healing on it or any healing spell. It can hold different amounts of hp. Running over it heals you fully and cures you of poison, but it takes your stamina and mana to 0. But you can only run over it every X seconds, once it's drained, it has a 24H deploy cooldown. It can be crafted and can have up to 10K HP. It can be set to anyone, party, guild or friends.You simply place it in a dungeon so you can run over it. After usage, you can't use it again for 5 mins. The person who places it is tethered to it, if they go too far, the decay timer starts like for any normal item. If the person remains tethered, it can stay indefinitely. If the owner dies, it disappears. Cant be used with any sort of melding. Can't be used by pets.
  4. When you slay X amount of enemies in a dungeon, the dungeon goes into revenge mode, where the enemies are paragon versions or some sort of super buffed version/marked, and the loot is much better. Basically when you kill 10 enemies within 10 minutes or something, a counter shows for everyone in the dungeon, and then at another 100 within X minutes, Revenge mode starts. Revenge mode lasts so long a certain amount of enemies are slayed per interval. Of course these could get really weird/not work in some dungeons, so perhaps this should be restricted to dungeons areas that are "revenge enabled", like the Lich Lord room in Deceit, etc.

Melee

To help it make more exciting and realistic for melee/groups of warriors to be able to kick butt without any mages or spells.

  1. A type of buff called "last resort" that anyone can use. It means that at 20% health your damage will be doubled, but each move costs you some of your health and it can also kill you.
  2. Warrior-meld. Warriors in a party can turn on this buff and this adds bonuses to all their properties and allows hp share. This basically allows a fortified group-tank. This could easily get too advantageous, so there have to be some penalties: everyone also takes a bit more damage, when anyone linked dies, the buff disappears and has a 5 min cooldown.
  3. Use for weak gear/weapons - perhaps it would be cool if crafters could make an item that anyone can apply to any item which gives the item a super boost, but makes it super brittle and unrepairable. The item has to be a certain weak class of items (lesser magic) and obviously balancing would be tricky so rich players don't just have an infinite supply of these finite "temporary" items. It would be a question of making it a bit pricy to make, and making sure the decay is aggressive enough.
  4. Allow dual wielding of all one-handed weapons across all melee skills. So you can have a mace and fencing weapon in your left and right hand respectively.

Taming

Make action with pets much more interesting.

  1. More control over a pet's ability usage. One option or version would be, set order/chances/combos your pet using from the skills/spells/abilities it has. So if you want your pet to dump Kal Vas Flam until 0 mana, you can. Another option would be, allow the creation of actual macros for your pet so you can fire abilities at will. This requires legendary taming and animal lore.
  2. Pet-meld: you can "become" your pet. You are invisible (literally, your char disappears), no one can see or hit you. You directly control your pet. Your pet gets your hp, mana, and gets a skill boost according to some formula. Like if you have mysticism 120 and your pet also has 120, it gets some sort of bonus. I think this would be quite cool and make for interesting new builds. However, there will be some caveats: if you die as a pet, you both die. There is a cooldown, so you can't switch back and forth to heal your pet and go back. However, vet skill translates to some health regeneration thing. Various details would need to be thought through, but this would be quite cool. This requires legendary taming and animal lore. Penalties can be added to make this much weaker in pvp (like way more damage from players, or something), if
  3. Magical pet Container: types of pokeball you can store your pet in. You can now take an extra pet with you. The pet container sits in your backpack. If you have a pet out and you use it while its full, they swap. Has a cooldown for 90 secs after combat/switch. So you can never switch more often than within 90 secs and you can't do it within combat.
Gold

New uses for gold would be great. Like crafting.

  1. 10k can be invested in any item that can be currently created, and this gives the item the chance of a 1-10% boost to its properties. It gets the [sparkling] tag.
  2. Overloader. A 100K item can be used to randomly +1 any existing property of an item. Like faster casting, swing speed increase, etc. You don't know beforehand which and you can only do it once per item.
  3. Any player can change an amount of gold to a special items called sacrificial gold statue. 100 to 10K, which gives XX chance for special properties on items, or unique items to exist in monster loot where you've placed the gold statue. Once placed it cannot be picked up.
  4. Have very expensive vanity stuff (1M-10M, 100M) that can be bought in-game.
Arenas

Fun PVP stuff that is more controlled.

  1. Each major city will have arena outside of it. An arena can be a 1 on 1, 2 on 2 or 3-4 for all, or pet fight.
  2. Fights are to the death.
  3. Items are consumed, but armor and such doesn't wear from this.
  4. You can bet on fights.
  5. When pets are fighting, the owner can control them as usual, but owners can't are invulnerable.
  6. Arenas also have fight options against most monsters from the world. Anyone can pay to set the monster and it can be fought under arena rules.
  7. Warrior/pet meld can be used in arenas
Skills & abilities

Make useless skills more useful and
  1. What if item identification would allow for pre-identifying loot drops and even specific ones. So you use it on a monster and it will show you what it can drop and the chances.
  2. What if spirit speak can be used to pacify undead?
  3. Spirit speak mastery gives the chance of a "spirit book" drop which a book with a spirit story of that mob.
  4. Necromancy should allow for a skill that when used on a corpse raises a skeleton (red, attacks anything). Takes up followers.
  5. 6 spellweavers can spawn an arcane circle and within a certain range their spellweaving skills are boosted even more. This requires all of them to have legendary spellweaving and an max arcane focus in their backpack.
  6. Allow spells that have an area to effect to kind of stack. 3 mages that cast a wall of fire, results in a super wall of fire that does extra damage.
  7. It would also be cool if a group of necromancers could also make something bigger happen.
  8. Summons can be combined (all of them). The way it works is that one mage spawns an energy vortex, and another mage also, they send a link request and the other mage approves it. This can be done up to X times and multiplies the abilities of that summon. Everyone's mana is drained at some right while the link is active. When the summon dies, mana all owners have their mana bumped to 0.

Various

  1. An item or deed that when consumed makes an ethereal mount count for 0 followers. (specifically this, not increase follower count. Although that could be interesting)

Round #2 in a few days! :cool:
 

Not Ringo Jingo

Visitor
UNLEASHED
Retail isn't really a place looking for new players or a better experience. Just new deco and occasional activities. If you're looking for improvements or changes to gameplay then you need to look for a free shard. Since I know you prefer higher player count that pretty much means Outlands.

I'm not trying to recruit just pointing out a fact. Some people probably won't like this answer but that doesn't change it from being true.
 
Retail isn't really a place looking for new players or a better experience. Just new deco and occasional activities. If you're looking for improvements or changes to gameplay then you need to look for a free shard. Since I know you prefer higher player count that pretty much means Outlands.

I'm not trying to recruit just pointing out a fact. Some people probably won't like this answer but that doesn't change it from being true.
Some of the things I wanted since 2016 did get implemented and adjusted. Even some stuff was adjusted for the classic client, which back then everyone was quick to tell me would never happen.
 

Keven2002

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Okay, does everyone hate all of these? :D
It's more likely that a lot of the vet type players who have been playing more frequently over the last 5 or so years know that the Dev team isn't interested in taking any sort of game changing feedback to implement since they've been working on NL. The last 4ish years have been very similar ToT style events (or champ spawns) without any new mechanics.

Not to be a negative Nancy but it feels like a waste of time to talk pipe dream stuff this team won't implement (or likely not capable to implement).
 
It's more likely that a lot of the vet type players who have been playing more frequently over the last 5 or so years know that the Dev team isn't interested in taking any sort of game changing feedback to implement since they've been working on NL. The last 4ish years have been very similar ToT style events (or champ spawns) without any new mechanics.

Not to be a negative Nancy but it feels like a waste of time to talk pipe dream stuff this team won't implement (or likely not capable to implement).
Okay, too bad. I'll keep trying for now though.

What's the point of New Legacy?
 

Stinky Pete

Babbling Loonie
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
At first, it seemed pretty cool. Was like a classic shard that would reset every year.

Then they said PvP was going to be opt-in only...

Then I think I heard that only some things reset every year...

Next thing you know they'll be allowing transfers.

Seems like it's just shaping up to be another shard like any other, destined to be dead in 2 months.
 

Lore

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I don't hate any of those recommendations, but I get the general idea around here I'm more adaptable to change than many others.
 

railshot

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Retail isn't really a place looking for new players or a better experience. Just new deco and occasional activities. If you're looking for improvements or changes to gameplay then you need to look for a free shard. Since I know you prefer higher player count that pretty much means Outlands.

I'm not trying to recruit just pointing out a fact. Some people probably won't like this answer but that doesn't change it from being true.
Yep, I finally tried a free shard that looked good to me (not Outlands) after years of frustration with OSI. Holy cow! They actually make summons fun! And they did not suck all the fun out of being a tamer through high-end mobs concentrating on the tamer more than the pet! Makes me sad for the official servers.
 
I just don't care for non-official shards, because I have so much history on the official ones. I have chars I created in 1999 and such. But yes, so much more could have been done with UO. It seems like they are majorly resource-constrained though. Whether it was smart to undertake NL with such a tiny team, remains to be seen.
 

Not Ringo Jingo

Visitor
UNLEASHED
I want to add, I like the enthusiasm I used to have it for retail and I had several high passion conversations with retail players who have no desire to see changes like this. I got the impression I was imposing myself on their way of life. So I lost a lot of my passion over the few years after I came back to retail.

I'm not trying to discourage you, maybe you'll be the one to make a difference but I just want to give you a heads up, you're going against people who think any change will cause the remaining players to quit and they are terrified of that.

Also I want to point out that there are places where that enthusiasm is rewarded so if you do feel like you are losing that passion, well there are other options out there.

Tldr; I am legitimately rooting for you!
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
The above post is factual.

@Phantasmagorian you have a lot of excitement but I'll go through each section.

After you play a few years you find a lot of the things you ask for are not needed because Noone but a new player would use that because the end result can already be done a different way.
Some of the things they have said multiple times they will not do.

These are my opinion of what they will probably do or not do.

Housing. 1 and 2 those will not happen. 3 we have 2 ways to get tele tiles. Give one to your friends and use the other.

Shopping. 1. Could be done, but is it really needed and how will it affect VS issues we already have. Rest. Not needed.

Use vendor search and find what you want and buy it. You can browse Vendors. But most of us know every item in the game.

Hunting.

They already revamped many dungeons. Most players have never been to many even tho there are reasons to go get what they offer.
All. I don't see any of those changes. The void pool is the kind of mechanics they could adjust. And that was a surprise.

Melee
They made masteries.
1 - 4. Not gonna happen. I have been asking for a potion to add Bane to a weapon for years. Yours are OP.

Taming
They already did a Taming revamp. We got what we got and it works. Pets will be a little different in NL. So we can see if that's good.

Gold

Pay to win. Not gonna happen.

Arenas
We have PvP in UO?
Why make more arenas when the one we have is not used.

Skills
thats where i would be not wanting the changes.
I see no lack of skills or need to use the junk ones. They do use some stupid random skill for events. I hate those.
Yours ideas would be OP. Don't let the streams cross. None of those will happen.

If they wanted an ethy to be 0 slots they would do it . That would be another slap in the face to gargs.

So good luck. If they do any of those things you can give me a big Ralph HaHa.

When NL comes out. They may be more willing to do some of those things.
 
Last edited:
The above post is factual.

@Phantasmagorian you have a lot of excitement but I'll go through each section.

After you play a few years you find a lot of the things you ask for are not needed because Noone but a new player would use that because the end result can already be done a different way.
Some of the things they have said multiple times they will not do.

These are my opinion of what they will probably do or not do.

Housing. 1 and 2 those will not happen. 3 we have 2 ways to get tele tiles. Give one to your friends and use the other.

Shopping. 1. Could be done, but is it really needed and how will it affect VS issues we already have. Rest. Not needed.

Use vendor search and find what you want and buy it. You can browse Vendors. But most of us know every item in the game.

Hunting.

They already revamped many dungeons. Most players have never been to many even tho there are reasons to go get what they offer.
All. I don't see any of those changes. The void pool is the kind of mechanics they could adjust. And that was a surprise.

Melee
They made masteries.
1 - 4. Not gonna happen. I have been asking for a potion to add Bane to a weapon for years. Yours are OP.

Taming
They already did a Taming revamp. We got what we got and it works. Pets will be a little different in NL. So we can see if that's good.

Gold

Pay to win. Not gonna happen.

Arenas
We have PvP in UO?
Why make more arenas when the one we have is not used.

Skills
thats where i would be not wanting the changes.
I see no lack of skills or need to use the junk ones. They do use some stupid random skill for events. I hate those.
Yours ideas would be OP. Don't let the streams cross. None of those will happen.

If they wanted an ethy to be 0 slots they would do it . That would be another slap in the face to gargs.

So good luck. If they do any of those things you can give me a big Ralph HaHa.

When NL comes out. They may be more willing to do some of those things.
Thanks for the reply. I did say more game balancing stuff would need to be added for some of these to work, so not necessarily OP.

And just because certain revamps happened with little impact, doesn't mean other revamps can't have a bigger impact.

Putting some love toward skills would certainly be fun and good. Non-class based char building is at the heart of UO and enriching that core is a good thing.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Thanks for the reply. I did say more game balancing stuff would need to be added for some of these to work, so not necessarily OP.

And just because certain revamps happened with little impact, doesn't mean other revamps can't have a bigger impact.

Putting some love toward skills would certainly be fun and good. Non-class based char building is at the heart of UO and enriching that core is a good thing.
NL is supposed to be at least in Beta that we all play in or the actual game in September. The whole team of 4 is working on NL and attempting to release it with as few bugs as possible.

They do not have resources or an actual need to revamp something on Live shards at this time. The event lasts till mid July. Go outside in the summer. NL in September. There are at least 500 things in UO that you have not done. A good tamer can reduce that number.
 

railshot

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I just don't care for non-official shards, because I have so much history on the official ones. I have chars I created in 1999 and such. But yes, so much more could have been done with UO. It seems like they are majorly resource-constrained though. Whether it was smart to undertake NL with such a tiny team, remains to be seen.
I disagree about resources. I think the problem is the incompetence of whoever is making the design decisions. I do not recall when was the last time I was excited about a feature. And time and time again I see them working on things that nobody wants and nobody ends up using.

When was the last time a significant gameplay development was introduced, taming revamp in 2016? It has been 8 years. When was the last time a new class has been introduced, 2009? Free shards with tiny teams seem to be doing things like that yearly.
 
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