2014 Expectations in Dev production for the UO player

[Lady Storm]

I have tried to get most of you to think what could the dev do for us in the comming year, but.... well kids lets just say your asking way too much of these one trick ponys in a year...
It takes 3 acts of congress to get a GM to show up to fix a bug...
So you really expect the Dev to do the EC quickly???
I dont think so...

So let's try the list again but this time I will be more to the point of what is easy to do in a 11 month span (january is almost half done so I will not say 12 months).

Starting with something simple...according to Grim not me this should be a easy thing for the "newguy" to do.

1. Tone up the inside of all the pouches, bone containers, just about all bags.
Reason: simple You cant see the black rock or any other small dark object that pops in your pack... might also want to do it to the pack animals while your at it...

2. Bod Books, 1 stone/1 lockdown 500 bod limit, useable when locked down using the same set user menu of other items.
Lets face it the pink and blue books went over so well this is the logical next step in bod book tech. Crafters have suffered with needing a way to keep all the bods to do their crafting and getting penilized for it in house lockdowns and inability to access it other then in hand. Lag has over the years been a factor when passing a home filled with vendors holding mountains of bod books. The menu needs work but that is a bit more then a small change so I would put that as a long term goal for later consideration.

3. Ore and Lumber Spots. Making them back to a set location.
While the game was a big draw for the lower end of rabble, The Dev found it fit in to place in a random spot system for said items... but it has a major problem.. it didnt stop them, and made it down right hard on the good players to get what is needed to work in game. We still have scripters, and we have lost many to fustration. Over the years while we were told the locations would change once the ore was mined to a sufficient level. Now this random change would happen to a different ore type and the process would again begin till it too was mined out. Only this is not the case once a place gets changed to iron ore. I personally have mined one spot for hours in one sitting for years and it has never reverted to another ore type. I seems that many change to iron and never change again to any other type of ore. Similar is the condition of the tree's.
Over the years I have complained that finding Frostwood has been fruitless..

4. The Gift Giving... Making things a bit more of a randomization.
Long ago the Dev's of the past gave a ticket with a random item generator link from the gift list for that seasonal time. Ie: the potted plants, ranger armor, angel boxes from the newer years and the like. You never knew if you were going to get the one you wanted so it made trading and chance part of the giving. These days like this last christmas, the Dev made us a very clever Tub and gift box set.... I loved the tub btw..but with having house for the average player these days and up to 7 characters on an account... thats alot of tubs for one house... over kill if you get my drift...same with the lobster dinner... Yes many collect the gifts in hopes they have a "Rare" but the rest of the items are storage eating debackle for the average player. I am not saying take away the boxes or stop gifting but perhaps make it so there is a tad bit of chance of getting something with less... Less is more fits this.

5. NPC Vendor's need to carry more...
To explain this is the fact that 20 of any one regent or blank scroll with the timer of over 20 minutes to get more off them has got to change. Time to play in game for many players has gotten shorter. Familys, work , and the general world has changed to limit many of us to a fraction of time. And shopping for these items have lead to relying on scripters. This is also a problem for #3 above too. 500 of any one item on a general NPC vendor would suffice. Though we are use to 999. Players would play instead stand at the local shop in distracted mode till the ofending npc restocked...

6. Bod Rewards and usefull items.
As it stands much of the bod items given are getting old... and well... to be frank some is down right junk.
I am not saying toss it all out.. but try a consensus of the things we use and sell the most and you will have a clear picture. Smithing and Tailoring have had boon times as armors and wys have evolved. The Rewards should too. Talk to the players here for ideas, also if you cant see doing a much larger use count on tools perhaps a small boost to the crafters #'s on the kits they make is the right step... like no tool use number under 50 for starters.

Ok by now most of you who have read this get my drift..i hope
Asking for wild stuff like a total fix of the EC or things we know they cant do in a short ored gets this thread no where... they work like we do at a set number of hours and are due the respect that they are people not gods.... (Sorry Bonnie *hands back her whip*)

Try your hand at some small change to add to this list or perhaps even finaggle something easer for one i already did...
Oh and DEV read and understand we are trying to help...

 

[Quickblade]

I have tried to get most of you to think what could the dev do for us in the comming year, but.... well kids lets just say your asking way too much of these one trick ponys in a year...
It takes 3 acts of congress to get a GM to show up to fix a bug...
So you really expect the Dev to do the EC quickly???
I dont think so...

So let's try the list again but this time I will be more to the point of what is easy to do in a 11 month span (january is almost half done so I will not say 12 months).

Starting with something simple...according to Grim not me this should be a easy thing for the "newguy" to do.

1. Tone up the inside of all the pouches, bone containers, just about all bags.
Reason: simple You cant see the black rock or any other small dark object that pops in your pack... might also want to do it to the pack animals while your at it...

2. Bod Books, 1 stone/1 lockdown 500 bod limit, useable when locked down using the same set user menu of other items.
Lets face it the pink and blue books went over so well this is the logical next step in bod book tech. Crafters have suffered with needing a way to keep all the bods to do their crafting and getting penilized for it in house lockdowns and inability to access it other then in hand. Lag has over the years been a factor when passing a home filled with vendors holding mountains of bod books. The menu needs work but that is a bit more then a small change so I would put that as a long term goal for later consideration.

3. Ore and Lumber Spots. Making them back to a set location.
While the game was a big draw for the lower end of rabble, The Dev found it fit in to place in a random spot system for said items... but it has a major problem.. it didnt stop them, and made it down right hard on the good players to get what is needed to work in game. We still have scripters, and we have lost many to fustration. Over the years while we were told the locations would change once the ore was mined to a sufficient level. Now this random change would happen to a different ore type and the process would again begin till it too was mined out. Only this is not the case once a place gets changed to iron ore. I personally have mined one spot for hours in one sitting for years and it has never reverted to another ore type. I seems that many change to iron and never change again to any other type of ore. Similar is the condition of the tree's.
Over the years I have complained that finding Frostwood has been fruitless..

4. The Gift Giving... Making things a bit more of a randomization.
Long ago the Dev's of the past gave a ticket with a random item generator link from the gift list for that seasonal time. Ie: the potted plants, ranger armor, angel boxes from the newer years and the like. You never knew if you were going to get the one you wanted so it made trading and chance part of the giving. These days like this last christmas, the Dev made us a very clever Tub and gift box set.... I loved the tub btw..but with having house for the average player these days and up to 7 characters on an account... thats alot of tubs for one house... over kill if you get my drift...same with the lobster dinner... Yes many collect the gifts in hopes they have a "Rare" but the rest of the items are storage eating debackle for the average player. I am not saying take away the boxes or stop gifting but perhaps make it so there is a tad bit of chance of getting something with less... Less is more fits this.

5. NPC Vendor's need to carry more...
To explain this is the fact that 20 of any one regent or blank scroll with the timer of over 20 minutes to get more off them has got to change. Time to play in game for many players has gotten shorter. Familys, work , and the general world has changed to limit many of us to a fraction of time. And shopping for these items have lead to relying on scripters. This is also a problem for #3 above too. 500 of any one item on a general NPC vendor would suffice. Though we are use to 999. Players would play instead stand at the local shop in distracted mode till the ofending npc restocked...

6. Bod Rewards and usefull items.
As it stands much of the bod items given are getting old... and well... to be frank some is down right junk.
I am not saying toss it all out.. but try a consensus of the things we use and sell the most and you will have a clear picture. Smithing and Tailoring have had boon times as armors and wys have evolved. The Rewards should too. Talk to the players here for ideas, also if you cant see doing a much larger use count on tools perhaps a small boost to the crafters #'s on the kits they make is the right step... like no tool use number under 50 for starters.

Ok by now most of you who have read this get my drift..i hope
Asking for wild stuff like a total fix of the EC or things we know they cant do in a short ored gets this thread no where... they work like we do at a set number of hours and are due the respect that they are people not gods.... (Sorry Bonnie *hands back her whip*)

Try your hand at some small change to add to this list or perhaps even finaggle something easer for one i already did...
Oh and DEV read and understand we are trying to help...

GREAT ideas
6. (Think of a one-use Forged metal of all artifacts top reward for Smithing Bods)

 

[Tina Small]

I have tried to get most of you to think what could the dev do for us in the comming year, but.... well kids lets just say your asking way too much of these one trick ponys in a year...
It takes 3 acts of congress to get a GM to show up to fix a bug...
So you really expect the Dev to do the EC quickly???
I dont think so...

It's hard to want to post in a thread that starts off this way. You are the only person I know who seems to consistently get away with making fun of the developer team and Onifrk, the art lead, like this in post after post after post. I'm not sure I'll ever understand why this is so.

 

[MalagAste]

I'd add:
7. Revisit old quests and one by one fix them so they are using the same questing system that we have now. Remove the old quest system one by one. Maybe start with the Solon Quests... Move on to the old hag quest, the Obsidian Statue quest etc...

8. Update graphics more. Much as folk think this is trivial this is most certainly a BIG issue with trying to bring in new players. Even if it is slow it NEEDS doing.

9. I'd like to see a book for holiday deeds... and Anniversary deeds.


I 100% agree about updating the BoD rewards... along that same line I think all of the old drops need updated like Doom Arties, the old Paragon Mini's... etc. Refresh and renew... etc...

Personally I would love for them to slowly add all the missing housing tiles... add in some directions on some furniture..... etc.....

 

[outcry]

10) to fix the pet bug
11) this is a personal one to fix the pet bug on my one char, going to say about 5 years ago now I lost the best dragon I ever had
to a bug * was in a house guy took house down dragon went poof* but the problem is while I changed that char and it is now red If i lose con or log in anywhere in fel the pets name Serendipity shows up on everyones screen so they know exactly where my stealth char is
12) books for powerscrolls like the one's for SOT's

 

[Viper09]

13. The only expectation I have is for them to keep this game up and running for another year

 

[Tina Small]

11) this is a personal one to fix the pet bug on my one char, going to say about 5 years ago now I lost the best dragon I ever had to a bug * was in a house guy took house down dragon went poof* but the problem is while I changed that char and it is now red If i lose con or log in anywhere in fel the pets name Serendipity shows up on everyones screen so they know exactly where my stealth char is

Is your stealth character in factions? If yes, that might be part of the problem. I never own pets on my stealther characters that are in factions because of the pet name display at log-in or log-out. It's been like that ever since I started playing in factions in 2006.

If the character is in factions, you might try quitting factions, wait until the character is completely out of factions, and then maybe transfer it to another shard and back again if that's not too cumbersome/expensive to do, and see if quitting factions and then transferring off-shard helps the game reconcile which/how many pets that character really owns at this point. If a transfer off the shard and back again isn't feasible, maybe try just quitting factions and then doing a character copy to TC after the character is out of factions.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I don't really think #5 is that big of an issue...theres an npc that sells pretty much anything in each town, and more than 10 towns, by the time you get finished buying out every npc from every town, the original npc has probably restocked and so has the one after it etc.

 

[outcry]

Is your stealth character in factions? If yes, that might be part of the problem. I never own pets on my stealther characters that are in factions because of the pet name display at log-in or log-out. It's been like that ever since I started playing in factions in 2006.

If the character is in factions, you might try quitting factions, wait until the character is completely out of factions, and then maybe transfer it to another shard and back again if that's not too cumbersome/expensive to do, and see if quitting factions and then transferring off-shard helps the game reconcile which/how many pets that character really owns at this point. If a transfer off the shard and back again isn't feasible, maybe try just quitting factions and then doing a character copy to TC after the character is out of factions.

no the char is no longer in factions , started out as the tamer , then turned into red stealther , and the char does not own any pets

 

[THP]

13. The only expectation I have is for them to keep this game up and running for another year

bingo...*fingers crossed*

 

[Giggles]

I have tried to get most of you to think what could the dev do for us in the comming year, but.... well kids lets just say your asking way too much of these one trick ponys in a year...
It takes 3 acts of congress to get a GM to show up to fix a bug...
So you really expect the Dev to do the EC quickly???
I dont think so...

If I were a Dev, I would read this part, laugh, stop reading, and not really care about the changes you are proposing.
Sometimes things are accomplished with more tact and less hostility.

*shrugs*

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

High Resolution Enhanced Client Artwork

It's been long enough, we should be seeing SOMETHING along these lines. Enough with trying to make it "one big bundle", introduce the upgrades incrementally with each Patch/Publish. Even if it means some graphics look "mismatched", it's not like that hasn't been an issue for years already. Secondarily and along with this, work on the scaling used with the zoom feature to maintain image quality. Another part of the low resolution problem is that the scaler used by the ingame Zoom feature is screwed up and low resolution CC graphics used in the EC becomes pixelated and distorted. By comparison, using the zoom/scale feature in Pinco's UI to scale up the size of a backpack renders the exact same graphic in better detail with little to no distortion.

Either show some progress or have the courage to come forward and declare the project done and UO stuck in low resolution until the end of its days, but enough of the stringing along in my book.

 

[Lady Storm]

To explain my harsh beginning is very simple...
Trolls
Many will hound for one item to be done that is beyond a short term fix. They will yell till the cows come home and lead off the thread till Petra or one of the mods has no choice then but to shut the thread down...
As I stated this is for small easy to fix, change, or make reality. That I am sure can be done.
I know you all who use the EC client have been begging for years for it to be worked on... I do understand.
But it is to do some small things that can be done in a short time like the interior of bags and other containers.

Tina, I was not in favor of what was done to Grimm... and as far as I am concerned this person has not filled the shoes to my satisfaction.
Thats me.
I am entitled to my opinion and you yours.
I do temper my nit picking and offer ways to improve the Devs relationship to the players of UO.
I understand you feel its harsh. I apologise to him if it is too hard on his talents.
I welcome Orfink to share his assessment of the ideas the players come up with... Explain if they are doable and perhaps the Lady of Death herself can consider the changes and give her thumbs up.
You say I am always picking on the Dev... I expect the people on here who think I coddle them and boost their powers are sititng back and saying the opposite of you.. and to knock putting them on pedistals. Damned if I do, Damned if I dont...

To explain it simply.. Imagine this when you give a child a big expencive gift and all the kid plays with is the box.
Sometimes its the small quick things that make more people happy then one big complacated item that takes months.

Giggles I am so glad you are not the Dev... Even those you consider worthless have good kernal ideas amid their rants..

And yes even trolls can come up with a stray good idea.

To the rest of you who look and read this... think of what tiny thing you would lie done... or fixed.

We all would love beter Res and work on clients..but you and I both know thats very long term items and I doubt they have forgotten we want it.

UO wont go anywhere as long as EA makes and needs our money... even if it is hard to give it to them...no one said they were the brightest crayon in the box.....

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

If anyone asks what my New Years wish, desire, want, etc for UO happens to be, there it is, and there it will be until either it gets put in or Shroud of the Avatar is released. I've stated that as being my stance and that it remains.

It's not like it's a new project that I'm only giving 10 months for them to complete either. This is something that started back during the 3d client, moved forward with Kingdom Reborn and went backwards with EC. It was then renewed under Grimm, but apparantly shelved for all we know in the meantime.

We saw ONE comparative screenshot but that's been months if not a year+ ago and NOTHING has been stated since. However, new artwork continues to be added into the game making the project that much more difficult. This is something I lay at the feet not of the artist(s), but of Management. That also shows in the decision to not release anything until EVERYTHING was done. At least in an incremental rollout, we'd be seeing improvement every client patch.

If it's not going to happen, then tell us the project is off so that EC players can make their decisions accordingly. It (the lack of communication and action on the EC) has already effectively caused the implosion of the modding community and it will only expand from there.

If having that concern is "trolling" then fine, but expect it from myself and others... if you ask the question, you're going to get the answer.

 

[Zosimus]

How this thread has gone ..........

I will say for the dev that you are not quite satisfied with Lady Storm, you are not qualified to judge what he/she does for the game since you are a paying customer. Now if you were one of his/her peers in the the same profession then I could understand a little criticism. A dev is a dev and they do their job and it may not be to yours or everybody else's liking how its done or when it's done. They get paid for what they do with little or no satisfaction from this community but they do it anyway.


I myself would like to see some news on the EC since there is a % of the community that uses it.

Only other suggestion I can think of is to update docks around the world by making them larger, maybe adding some crows nest here and there on the docks, and have pirates raid them from time to time.


Cities could be updated also even if the devs would implement players donating resources. Use the museum code as an example. Where roads, buildings, maybe add some towers on the outskirts for future city invasions for players to be able to use and such.

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

No 1: Better start equipment and info ingame for new players ..this is isnt something new . Even on Europa where commited ppl work hard to assist, it could be done better by the game. And we would have time to spend on making a guild for new and returning players, a transit guild. That would mean alot.

No 2: High Seas. Great concept that gave us lots to do at first but almost everyone gave up on. Just need tweaking. Crustaceans : more named ones in the traps then the rest is fine. Better loot on the bosses esp Charybdis. Better use for the baits. They make little or no difference and you get them all the time. Oracles and Charybdis baits are too rare. Why create a fantastic boss that hardly noone can get to? Make pies cheaper to make and of more use. Make the cannon stuff simpler to make and it would be used much more often. Some pirates could be carrying some better loot ..something new.

Im not often asking for much, I love UO and hope it survive for a loooong time. But HS was so promising and could have been so interesting with just theese litte changes . And still be selling good. Returning people ask if its worth buying but as it is they get a negative answer.

 

[Lady Storm]

Zosimus I understand your and everyone who is usung the EC that its in need to be worked on till its done. On this fact I am totally agreeing with you.
Granted, the Dev are paid to work for EA and not for any one player.
But the paying public such as yourself are in deservance of a working game mode.
I am not arguing with any of you over clients and the need the EC has.

But what I was saying is this was for teeny tiny itty bitty things the dev could do super easy... in a sitting or two that would add to the over all use of everyone. Nuggets of super things so small and tiny... but would go miles in the every day use by our players. The Dock idea is nice.

Someone said there are so many towns and npc vendors to go buy from there is no need to change the numbers.... I have done that over the years of my play in UO and I can tell you of the wasted time it takes to collect enough to do a keg of a potion or scrolls enough to make a few books and spells ... by the time you have enough to do it your time is up or close to it and all you have done is hop from one shop to another in hopes some other has not bought out that npc...
These days there is not much in way of being beat out unless your in luna.. but the time factor and poping wears on you.

 

[a slave girl]

Hi Lady Storm I respect you as a huge supporter of UO, from previous posts I know you own many accounts.

1. I personally am amazed at how much like real leather the inside of my UO backpack looks, and while I agree some things like blackrock don't show up well, I would ask that any changes in container interiors be made optional.

2. Yes to being able to access bod books while locked down, shouldn't even need to be said this one.

3. As an idocer I get my ingots and wood for free so don't know enough on ore/wood spots but agree scriptors always find a way to best the honest players, still, I don't want UO to be too easy.

4. As for multiple gifts, again I agree, they become more monotonous than fun, but if they come with built in turn in points, this problem is solved before it begins. Although maybe they could offer each character the same gift set but allow us to choose between different color sets?

5. NPC vendors supply and demand. I kind of like working them from 20 of each item to 999, which takes most of a day to be sure. But for some this is how they make their gold, taking all day to get enough to sell in bulk in commodity deeds on their vendors, so I have to disagree and say leave it at 20 for those players I think.

6. Bod rewards are past their prime for the most part! Agree. How about having regional bod loyalty rewards? Colors/types of rewards are hued to the region the crafter has pledged loyalty to, around here in cajun country royal colors are green purple and gold, so Britain's regional colors might be those, while Luna's might be chivalrous whites, Umbra's necrotic blacks, etc. They could also add crafting kit parts that are collected to make a single larger item and or ha, one piece at a time a regionally colored head to toe crafter's official outfit that once collected and combined while being worn grants some special crafting ability, such as mana increase/regen for scribes making high end scrolls. (I once asked for a special mat for scribes to stand on that would help speed up high end scroll making, maybe limit its use to one hour per day).

I agree with the other poster who said one more year of UO is the minimum we should all hope for, much more than that we probably don't deserve.

Vendor search is a nice surprise and I'm okay with them getting that working right this year, if that's all they can do.

I still have to deal with the pink fuzz from the neighbor's cherry tree elevated on goza's overshadowing the interior of one of my houses on Atlantic and I deleted a char and made a new one to save on name change fees and now she can't access a house the account she's on is co-owned to, though all the other chars can. I don't really have much hope but it would be nice if these pain in the butt nuisance issues would be fixed.

If I really dream though I'd like those pet dyes added as potential rewards for Stygian abyss puzzle solving. They'd fade over time and need replacing. We were promised these some years ago.

 

[THP]

13. The only expectation I have is for them to keep this game up and running for another year

bingo [+1 ]...*fingers crossed*...Let hope they concentrate on this one first...

 

[MalagAste]

No 1: Better start equipment and info ingame for new players ..this is isnt something new . Even on Europa where commited ppl work hard to assist, it could be done better by the game. And we would have time to spend on making a guild for new and returning players, a transit guild. That would mean alot.

No 2: High Seas. Great concept that gave us lots to do at first but almost everyone gave up on. Just need tweaking. Crustaceans : more named ones in the traps then the rest is fine. Better loot on the bosses esp Charybdis. Better use for the baits. They make little or no difference and you get them all the time. Oracles and Charybdis baits are too rare. Why create a fantastic boss that hardly noone can get to? Make pies cheaper to make and of more use. Make the cannon stuff simpler to make and it would be used much more often. Some pirates could be carrying some better loot ..something new.

Im not often asking for much, I love UO and hope it survive for a loooong time. But HS was so promising and could have been so interesting with just theese litte changes . And still be selling good. Returning people ask if its worth buying but as it is they get a negative answer.

This most especially fixing baits.... because I for one think they are a total JOKE...... the use of bait should up your chances SIGNIFICANTLY otherwise the torment of putting it on casting once..... putting it on, casting once...... etc.... is TORTUROUS for ZERO return........ I used 1800 bait to get a zombie fish....... you know how many Zombie fish I got from that? ONE second cast I did...... NEVER got another one. THAT is TOO low ..... people want to enjoy playing UO not get pissed and frustrated at it. Stuff like that make folk HATE things in UO and NEVER do them again. Is that the intent??? Oh and just in case you were wondering that was while wearing that stupid fishing suit as well. Total waste of turn in points by the way......

 

[Lady Storm]

I have to agree with Mal on this one... those suits are a joke and fishing needs more to do... and the loss on the traps is way over board..

 

[Tina Small]

... and the loss on the traps is way over board..

My biggest complaint with using the traps is not how many of them you lose, but rather the issue that Minerva identified: For the amount of time spent fishing with the traps, you get far too few of the named lobsters and crabs. It makes doing the fish monger quests excruciating. I'd also like to be able to shove the fish monger crates around in the hold so it's easier to see what you have in your hold! And of course, it would be nice if you could cancel a quest without degrading your reputation with the fish mongers. But somehow I doubt that will ever be changed.

 

[Tina Small]

3. Ore and Lumber Spots. Making them back to a set location.
While the game was a big draw for the lower end of rabble, The Dev found it fit in to place in a random spot system for said items... but it has a major problem.. it didnt stop them, and made it down right hard on the good players to get what is needed to work in game. We still have scripters, and we have lost many to fustration. Over the years while we were told the locations would change once the ore was mined to a sufficient level. Now this random change would happen to a different ore type and the process would again begin till it too was mined out. Only this is not the case once a place gets changed to iron ore. I personally have mined one spot for hours in one sitting for years and it has never reverted to another ore type. I seems that many change to iron and never change again to any other type of ore. Similar is the condition of the tree's.
Over the years I have complained that finding Frostwood has been fruitless..

I'm opposed to changing the ore and lumber spawn spots back to fixed locations. I do not ever want to go back to the days where one or two scriptors on every shard monopolized all the high-end ore and lumber spots so that attended players never had a chance of finding anything at those locations. I think that we have been given enough other alternatives for obtaining the high-end ore and lumber and just need to have some of those alternatives fine-tuned a bit so they are more accessible/attractive for players to use. I hate to think that EA is so desperate to up UO's population that they'd bring this back, knowing full well that all it will lead to is an increase in accounts used for scripting.

5. NPC Vendor's need to carry more...
To explain this is the fact that 20 of any one regent or blank scroll with the timer of over 20 minutes to get more off them has got to change. Time to play in game for many players has gotten shorter. Familys, work , and the general world has changed to limit many of us to a fraction of time. And shopping for these items have lead to relying on scripters. This is also a problem for #3 above too. 500 of any one item on a general NPC vendor would suffice. Though we are use to 999. Players would play instead stand at the local shop in distracted mode till the ofending npc restocked...

With our luck, this would be implemented as every vendor sells 500 of items but the cost of the item keeps going up as more purchases are made and then rarely gets reset to a reasonable level. I'd rather stick with the way things are and bounce around to different shops and raise the quantity the way we do now.

6. Bod Rewards and usefull items.
As it stands much of the bod items given are getting old... and well... to be frank some is down right junk.
I am not saying toss it all out.. but try a consensus of the things we use and sell the most and you will have a clear picture. Smithing and Tailoring have had boon times as armors and wys have evolved. The Rewards should too. Talk to the players here for ideas, also if you cant see doing a much larger use count on tools perhaps a small boost to the crafters #'s on the kits they make is the right step... like no tool use number under 50 for starters.

Can't disagree that we needsome new BOD rewards. However, I do disagree on the use count because for many years it has seemed that you have a higher chance at getting a skill gain off the last use of a tool. If you increase the use counts on the tools, then you decrease the opportunities to get that last random skill gain.

 

[Giggles]

To explain my harsh beginning is very simple...
Trolls
Many will hound for one item to be done that is beyond a short term fix. They will yell till the cows come home and lead off the thread till Petra or one of the mods has no choice then but to shut the thread down...
As I stated this is for small easy to fix, change, or make reality. That I am sure can be done.
I know you all who use the EC client have been begging for years for it to be worked on... I do understand.
But it is to do some small things that can be done in a short time like the interior of bags and other containers.

Tina, I was not in favor of what was done to Grimm... and as far as I am concerned this person has not filled the shoes to my satisfaction.
Thats me.
I am entitled to my opinion and you yours.
I do temper my nit picking and offer ways to improve the Devs relationship to the players of UO.
I understand you feel its harsh. I apologise to him if it is too hard on his talents.
I welcome Orfink to share his assessment of the ideas the players come up with... Explain if they are doable and perhaps the Lady of Death herself can consider the changes and give her thumbs up.
You say I am always picking on the Dev... I expect the people on here who think I coddle them and boost their powers are sititng back and saying the opposite of you.. and to knock putting them on pedistals. Damned if I do, Damned if I dont...

To explain it simply.. Imagine this when you give a child a big expencive gift and all the kid plays with is the box.
Sometimes its the small quick things that make more people happy then one big complacated item that takes months.

Giggles I am so glad you are not the Dev... Even those you consider worthless have good kernal ideas amid their rants..

And yes even trolls can come up with a stray good idea.

To the rest of you who look and read this... think of what tiny thing you would lie done... or fixed.

We all would love beter Res and work on clients..but you and I both know thats very long term items and I doubt they have forgotten we want it.

UO wont go anywhere as long as EA makes and needs our money... even if it is hard to give it to them...no one said they were the brightest crayon in the box.....

I am happy I am not a Dev either honestly. I would tire very quickly of being misunderstood, underestimated, and under appreciated. You did title this somewhat correct. (expectations for the UO player) singular. You. There are many of us who are quite happy with the Dev team and the content they have been giving us. What other modern game can you think of where the dev team actively interacts with the players on such intimate settings?

Personally, as a UO player, I get tired of reading the hostility, the woe sayers, the people who very vocally appear to be so miserably unhappy with the dev team, and go as far as calling them "one trick ponies". Do you think they have to give us anything? Don't you think someone somewhere has already tired pulling the plug on Ultima Online?

I don't know you, your personal history, or your reasons behind your words. I don't frequent Uhall enough, and this is one of the reasons why.

I am very happy with the fact our Dev teams listens. They do what they can. I don't care if they have a bad rep in other games. Here we have a dev staff that really seems to care. And we have no idea of what demons they might be fighting in the cooperate office. Ultima Online isn't yet on life support, but a growing community of unhappy grumbling players can quickly put it there.

My point in my short and sweet post is this. Abuse, name calling, and a poor attitude, will never resolve issues. You can't make everyone happy. But I for one can see that they do try.

 

[Lady Storm]

Giggles I have been accused of promoting and coddling the Dev by more posters here on Stratics then you can shake a stick at...
They say I give them exuses for not doing their jobs on what is at that time a vital work needed. Praising them when they are in others opinion slacking off.
You have said and Tina too infact have accused me of the very opposite and its weird.
As I said before, Damned if I do Damned if I dont...
I dont say orfink is not worth his pay... but he has not met my personal level of attentiveness to all of UO's needs. Granted he has talent, you have malined my intent for action on things that need work that I know for a fact is small bits of fluff to a good programmer. (yes I have been there done that)

Tina we will always have scripters, they cant get rid of them... as its tough to slice them out of the general public.
Yes you see them but to 86 them out of UO a GM/Dev must view it. They are slippery snakes who feed off the game...and hell to catch. Plus Bonnie and crew dont have the time and funds to ferret out every one of them.
It's a legal issue also and even if they can ban the account it takes then what.. 10 minutes to make another account and do it again....
And there is one other thing, we didnt have this issue before tram showed up.. our red population kept them in check... ( personally I like the Tram rule set for working on skills and hunting but Fel is home... )

One note though, I have seen the scripter/sellers wane in the last few years... the game has lost too many new players to make it viable, and there is the elders of UO who know too well that many of them are only after your moeny and dont deliver the goods... scamming still reigns in UO.

What I am after here is so simple ....

just list off the tiny things you wish were fixed.... stuff they can knock out in a sitting at the computer...


Note to all: I work on other shards outside of Atlantic and see much more needs then that well worked shard has use for.
Those shards have small comunitys of players and needs like ajusting the npc selling limits is needed. Remember many as I stated have short times to play and I have been told by many its hell to get enough in their play time... I learned this talking to the buyers who are doing exactly that when I pop in to buy as well.
I use to play UO too much, 12 to 18 hours was not unusual for me... per day ... these days I cant sit here for more then a few hours and I am finding my attention to UO getting less and less.... these days I find I am in game about 2 hours a day if that to work on my favorite things in game... more if i have the energy and ability to stay in this chair that long.
I am now seeing what others have told me over the years come to my door... I am getting tired of UO... to the point I have been seriously considering stopping playing all together.
(No you cant have my stuff... id distroy it....)

 

[Tina Small]

Well, here is one minor irritant that could easily be fixed: Make it impossible for NPCs to spawn on the steps leading up to the mapmaker's office in Haven. They won't budge for any NPC you're trying to escort to the mapmaker with a newbie character and the NPCs won't walk through each other. You just end up having to cancel your escort quest and hoping that the cancellation process doesn't go haywire and prevent your newbie character from doing any more escort quests.

To really eliminate the problem, escorted NPCs that have been dropped off in that vicinity probably also need to just quickly despawn so they aren't left lingering on the steps.

Or make it so you just have to walk the NPC you're escorting to the mapmaker up to the walls of the building, kinda like you can do with NPCs you're escorting to the inn. Something was changed at some point so you can just bring them up to the porch or next to it and don't have to try to walk them up the stairs and through other characters to deliver them to the inn.

 

[FrejaSP]

I really believe there is more important stuff to use dev time for, sorry

1. Tone up the inside of all the pouches, bone containers, just about all bags.
Reason: simple You cant see the black rock or any other small dark object that pops in your pack... might also want to do it to the pack animals while your at it...

That can be a good thing in PvP, you can be lucky to hide a black bag in your backpack, when you die in PvP. In the past, my regs bag was always a dark color. You really just need to make your screen a little lighter and problem is solved.

2. Bod Books, 1 stone/1 lockdown 500 bod limit, useable when locked down using the same set user menu of other items.
Lets face it the pink and blue books went over so well this is the logical next step in bod book tech. Crafters have suffered with needing a way to keep all the bods to do their crafting and getting penilized for it in house lockdowns and inability to access it other then in hand. Lag has over the years been a factor when passing a home filled with vendors holding mountains of bod books. The menu needs work but that is a bit more then a small change so I would put that as a long term goal for later consideration.

Rather changes the BoD system, so we don't need to store all this BoDs, Changes large bods, so you can add small BoDs before you fill them and then add the item after directe to the large BoD. That would make my head hurt less when trying to do BoDs. I really dislike the BoD system, as it keep players away from interacing.
I would like a change more, sell blank BoDs, where a customer can a list of item he need, that be imbued armor or maybe furnitures, like 6 tables, 24 chairs, 20 chests, 40 black gosa. Then give it to a crafter. The crafter can then fill the PC-BoD and put it on vendor for the customer. When the customer get it, he can open it and get the items just like when you get items from a community deed. I know the armor will be a problem as the PC-BoD need to remembers resist and mods.

3. Ore and Lumber Spots. Making them back to a set location.
While the game was a big draw for the lower end of rabble, The Dev found it fit in to place in a random spot system for said items... but it has a major problem.. it didnt stop them, and made it down right hard on the good players to get what is needed to work in game. We still have scripters, and we have lost many to fustration. Over the years while we were told the locations would change once the ore was mined to a sufficient level. Now this random change would happen to a different ore type and the process would again begin till it too was mined out. Only this is not the case once a place gets changed to iron ore. I personally have mined one spot for hours in one sitting for years and it has never reverted to another ore type. I seems that many change to iron and never change again to any other type of ore. Similar is the condition of the tree's.
Over the years I have complained that finding Frostwood has been fruitless..

I like the randum way it is now and would like to improve it so some spot will temperery give more gems of one kind or granit, so it become more fun to do mining, same with lumbering. Lumbering need a few more rewards, maybe something that spawn on ground, when lumbering, could be an axe like the garg pickaxe or other special crafting tools. This could work for mining too.

4. The Gift Giving... Making things a bit more of a randomization.
Long ago the Dev's of the past gave a ticket with a random item generator link from the gift list for that seasonal time. Ie: the potted plants, ranger armor, angel boxes from the newer years and the like. You never knew if you were going to get the one you wanted so it made trading and chance part of the giving. These days like this last christmas, the Dev made us a very clever Tub and gift box set.... I loved the tub btw..but with having house for the average player these days and up to 7 characters on an account... thats alot of tubs for one house... over kill if you get my drift...same with the lobster dinner... Yes many collect the gifts in hopes they have a "Rare" but the rest of the items are storage eating debackle for the average player. I am not saying take away the boxes or stop gifting but perhaps make it so there is a tad bit of chance of getting something with less... Less is more fits this.

It's gift from the Devs, let them have the freedom to choose them and enjoy seeing us get them

5. NPC Vendor's need to carry more...
To explain this is the fact that 20 of any one regent or blank scroll with the timer of over 20 minutes to get more off them has got to change. Time to play in game for many players has gotten shorter. Familys, work , and the general world has changed to limit many of us to a fraction of time. And shopping for these items have lead to relying on scripters. This is also a problem for #3 above too. 500 of any one item on a general NPC vendor would suffice. Though we are use to 999. Players would play instead stand at the local shop in distracted mode till the ofending npc restocked...

This one I can agree with, it's veryy hard to buy gems for imbuing if you can's stay several hours to work up the vendors. Let them start with 100 and 10-20 min to restock. But also better ways to get this items gathering and killing mobs will help. To help the economy on normal shards, let NPC's pay very little for items players will buy, this will move the trading to stall vendors and PC vendors and add less gold to the game. On Siege our vendors do not buy, our economy is much more healty.

6. Bod Rewards and usefull items.
As it stands much of the bod items given are getting old... and well... to be frank some is down right junk.
I am not saying toss it all out.. but try a consensus of the things we use and sell the most and you will have a clear picture. Smithing and Tailoring have had boon times as armors and wys have evolved. The Rewards should too. Talk to the players here for ideas, also if you cant see doing a much larger use count on tools perhaps a small boost to the crafters #'s on the kits they make is the right step... like no tool use number under 50 for starters.

IMO BoDs should only be useful when you train skills, legends crafters should have real customers. Doing BoDs is bad for the community as you do very little interact with other players.

It's a multi player game, not a singleplayer game, we need to remember that. Get players out of their houses, out using the overland. Get players to open their houses for customers who need their help, we need to see working crafters interact with their customers. Interact is what make the community and make us keep playing

 

[Goodmann]

1. Revamp ML BOSSES/DOOM/CHAMP SPAWNS

2. Fix Luck and remove the RNG and install something like a point system

3. High resolution has been talked about for 1yr+ lets get it into the game

5. New Factions (Vice Vs Virtue)

6. More custom housing options

7. All Dungeons should have the new loot tables

8. Finish Virtues
9. and last but not least SERVER MERGERS

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

I like Frejas post exept this: IMO BoDs should only be useful when you train skills, legends crafters should have real customers. Doing BoDs is bad for the community as you do very little interact with other players.
I need the runics and pof to make armour for customers and in my case I need plenty. Im happy with BOD system , some new reward here and there wouldnt hurt ofcourse, we have been filling bods for 12 years now if I remember right.. Reforging is awesome but eats runics! Without bribing it had been very hard.
Everything that helps us store BODs im for!

 

[MalagAste]

I'd like to see Mining for Stone actually get you MORE stone... at the rate one gets stone or finds the harder stones it's darn near impossible to deco....

 

[Tina Small]

2. Bod Books, 1 stone/1 lockdown 500 bod limit, useable when locked down using the same set user menu of other items.
Lets face it the pink and blue books went over so well this is the logical next step in bod book tech. Crafters have suffered with needing a way to keep all the bods to do their crafting and getting penilized for it in house lockdowns and inability to access it other then in hand. Lag has over the years been a factor when passing a home filled with vendors holding mountains of bod books. The menu needs work but that is a bit more then a small change so I would put that as a long term goal for later consideration.

Please, please, please do not make it so that you have to lock a BOD book down in order to use it! I'm sure I'm not the only person who has crafters aplenty on shards where I also do not have a house! I'm not much into collecting BODs. It's not something I do religiously on a daily basis. And I don't fill them very often. But I do have them jammed in bankboxes or in blue beetles for many of my homeless crafters. Would hate to see them all of a sudden become absolutely useless because there's no way I'll ever have houses on all those shards. It would be ideal if they were like the seed storage boxes where you can actually use them (i.e., add stuff or remove stuff) while they're secured, stored in a chest in your house, in your backpack, or in your bankbox.

I wouldn't mind if the BOD books took up less storage, but it's really not one of my top priorities in the game at this point. I have never stored BODs on vendors. Have always just thrown the books in chests. On the shards where I do have houses, I easily get by with allocating one or two chests for smithing BODs and another one or two chests for tailoring BODs.

The BODs I use the most are:

• Regular leather armor BODs, because they are useful for getting tailoring gains on a newbie tailor character. I take the tailor out with a butcher's war cleaver or a spell channeling skinning knife to kill cattle, deer, and sometimes goats for their leather and just fill the BODs right where my tailor's killing stuff for leather. I turn them in about 10 at a time and dye all the reward cloth to neutral and save it for later tailor gains from making gargish cloth armor. I do save some of the prettier colors of reward cloth for making hats, skirts, dresses, etc. since very few of my characters wear fancy robes with properties.
• I save hat BODs for my tailor/smith or carpenter characters to fill if their Arms Lore skill hasn't raised enough from just making the other stuff you make to getting crafting skill gains and then I dye most of the reward cloth to a neutral color to use it for more tailoring gains.
• Exceptional colored smith BODs for getting PoF.
• Normal iron weapon BODs for getting high-use shovels and pickaxes.
• Normal plain, spined, and horned leather and cloth BODs needed to get the tapestry rewards.

The rest of the BODs I get generally just collect dust because I rarely use runic tools for crafting (just don't have the crafting resources to burn to make using them worthwhile). I don't really like the colored sandals. I wish the stretched hides weren't the reward for so many of the different BODs. How many can you really use? I throw them in the cleanup system because that's all they're really good for. The bear skin rugs are okay, but it seems like when I really want one, I can't ever get the RNG to help me out. Bribing up the NPCs to get one just doesn't seem worth the cost. I've given up hoping the RNG will ever favor me for getting the BODs (even with bribing to help) to get tailoring or smithing power scrolls. I always end up buying those from player vendors. I don't use bless deeds because there seem to be too many bugs with blessed items. I rarely use the gargoyle pickaxes because my miner characters can't handle the ore elementals and I hate double-clienting just to follow my miner with another character that could handle them. The fancy stone anvils....nice idea but as with the stretched hides, how many can you really use? The ASH are a neat idea, but I just don't use them because I never really do any high-end blacksmithing.

 

[Tina Small]

Another tiny change: Let us get arms lore gains from making shields (metal, wood, stone....I don't care!).

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

Ideas 1 thru 6 are fairly ridiculous and quite evidently self serving. I am ok with all the rest though I guess...

 

[Tina Small]

Here's another change that probably wouldn't take long to implement, but could have a good, positive impact for a lot of folks: Let all skill trainer NPCs on shards other than Siege Perilous and Mugen provide skill training up to 40 and apply the accelerated skill gain buff when you train any skill in the New Haven area.

Below is a list of the skills that don't have a trainer NPC in New Haven who will let you buy training in the skill up to 40 or provide an accelerated skill gain quest to speed up training the skill to 50. If you're lucky, you might find an NPC in the game somewhere that will train you up to 33.3 in a few of these skills. However, for many of these skills, you can only buy training up to about 26 or 27. I understand there's probably no way we can get the dev team at this point to commit to creating quests for these additional skills to help with getting them trained up more quickly to 50 and provide a small reward item appropriate to the skill when you hit 50. However, I think it would help immensely if you could at least buy skill training up to 40 in these additional skills and get the accelerated skill gain boost up to 50 when training any skill in New Haven!

• Alchemy
• Animal Lore
• Animal Training
• Arms Lore
• Begging
• Bowcraft/Fletching
• Camping
• Carpentry
• Cartography
• Cooking
• Detecting Hidden
• Discordance
• Fishing
• Forensic Evaluation
• Herding
• Item ID
• Lockpicking
• Lumberjacking (Note: The quest with Hargrove the Lumberjack in New Haven that requires gathering 60 logs rewards you with a craftsman's satchel.)
• Musicianship
• Peacemaking
• Poisoning
• Provocation
• Remove Trap
• Snooping
• Stealing
• Tailoring
• Taste ID
• Veterinary

Note: You can purchase training up to 40.0 skill for imbuing, mysticism, and throwing from NPCs in Ter Mur. Also, I left spellweaving off the list because it is such a special case.

Edited to add: Also, would it be possible to increase the amount of the skills you can set when creating a new character to 150? The current 120 max total for starting skills always leaves me with setting two skills to 50 and then 20, a nearly useless amount, in a third skill. If we could do 150, then it would be possible to set 3 skills to the max of 50.

 

[MalagAste]

I'd like to see the idiocy for spellweaving requiring a quest removed.... Let us train and buy up the skill it's NOT new anymore why does it have to be so difficult???

What would be so bad with allowing folk to get it using the Mythic token.... new players starting with it?????

Let them do the dumb quests to get the pixies and the Imps still but for pity sakes take that stupid quest out for being able to use spellweaving. Just open it up for pity sakes.


Also spellweavers with GM inscription ought to be able to inscribe spellweaving scrolls. (Except of course the Fey and Fiend ones).....

 

[Penana Car]

A reduction to $7.99 in subscription cost and an AoS or prior shard build to play on.

 

[Tina Small]

Allow the banker NPCs in the Ter Mur Royal City to sell commodity deeds. Allow the tailor and blacksmith NPCs in the Ter Mur Royal City to give out BODs and accept bribes.

 

[whiterabbit]

*APATHY*
I WOOD LIKE TO SEE ANS WE POST,LIKES WHENA BUNCHES OB PEOPLES POST DEM( dEAMONIC STATUE)

JUST TIRED OB BEING IGNORED

 

[MalagAste]

So yesterday I was on a random shard not my home shard on a character I built years ago..... and I went to stable a couple of packies..... Of course I couldn't because all my "gold" was in check form. So I go to the bank and cash the check and all the sudden I get this "Congratulations! You've learned to use your bank!" I was like WTF?????????? Somewhere in the coding from years ago for Necromancers and probably Paladins we HAD a help quest..... one that obviously told you about using your BANK!!!!!!! Something we are dearly lacking today.

I don't know how many "new" players haven't a clue that they even can go to the bank and say "Bank" and get a storage spot. How pathetic is that??????

 

[Datus]

Ummmm, just fix simple stuff like music triggers not working right, fade in/out. Was shocked this is still the case with CC as well.

In EC, make books look like books, and give a friggin classic font option? I don't want to have to use Pinco's just for that.

Enhance chat interface to something not a million years old. Friends list, messaging, etc. Or at least being able to form a party without being right next to the person... and emotes.

Make fruit harvest-able from trees. Like one certain script base did 12 years ago. ahem.

Forget graphic updates. It will just introduce more lag and then all these people will complain about lag.

Did I mention fix music triggers? I will seriously do this for free.

 

[Lady Storm]

Like Tina pointed out, Id like to see the skills in New Haven all give 40.0 to a chosen skill to start when purchased...
Many are in the low 30's and I feel its not enough for new players to start with.
This might help in keeping the new people playing as its decient and looks more within goal to catch up to the more skilled players they see.
Glad to see all are catching on to what I was asking of you.... keep thinking.. Your doing great.

 

[Theo_GL]

I posted a bunch of ideas in the developer thread - got lots of 'likes'. None have been implemented. Its annoying to do the devs work for them - yet they can't even read, code, deploy and make people happy. Most of the stuff I'm asking for are not big changes - very very small ones that increase gameplay enjoyment. Probably do all of them in one publish.

 

[Tina Small]

At the Britain Public Library, consolidate all turn-ins made to the various library section NPCs into one grand total. You'd still collect specific items from specific NPCs, but it would be easier and faster to get an item if you had a large variety of items of various sorts rather than a ton of one particular item.

 

[Tina Small]

I posted a bunch of ideas in the developer thread - got lots of 'likes'. None have been implemented. Its annoying to do the devs work for them - yet they can't even read, code, deploy and make people happy. Most of the stuff I'm asking for are not big changes - very very small ones that increase gameplay enjoyment. Probably do all of them in one publish.

Been thinking along the same line myself....

 

[Kyronix]

I posted a bunch of ideas in the developer thread - got lots of 'likes'. None have been implemented. Its annoying to do the devs work for them - yet they can't even read, code, deploy and make people happy. Most of the stuff I'm asking for are not big changes - very very small ones that increase gameplay enjoyment. Probably do all of them in one publish.

As a matter of fact, we culled that thread not long ago and ranked all the tweaks and suggestions by the number of "likes" each received. In future publishes we plan to implement some of them, please remember though that while something may seem "very very small" on the surface that may not be the case on the back end. Here were the top five...

1. Serpents pillar to Tokuno
2. 100% mining success at 105, increased rare gem spawn
3. Turn books into pulp
4. A mega dye tub to dye cloth and leather all available colors
5. Increased BoD UI function

 

[FrejaSP]

2. 100% mining success at 105, increased rare gem spawn

Please increase small gems spawn too, Imbuing use a lot of them and granite too if set to mining granite, some new stuff take a lot of granite.

 

[hen]

And increase the Frostwood and Brilliant Amber rate slightly too please.

 

[Lady Michelle]

I've always wanted a caster that casts snow type spells the spells would center around snow, and ice.
just ideas here to show everyone what I'm getting at
cast the spell snowball then snowballs will be tossed towards what your attacking
cast the spell frozen what your attacking will be paralyzed will work the way magery paralyze does
cast the spell of ice chips what your attacking will get pelted by ice chips
cast the spell snow flurries what your attacking will be confused
cast the spell avalanche what your attacking will be covered in snow.( could be area spell)
the more powerful the skill is the more powerful the spells will be.
Lol only thing I haven't came up with is the name of what the skill would be called.

 

[Frarc]

As a matter of fact, we culled that thread not long ago and ranked all the tweaks and suggestions by the number of "likes" each received. In future publishes we plan to implement some of them, please remember though that while something may seem "very very small" on the surface that may not be the case on the back end. Here were the top five...

1. Serpents pillar to Tokuno
2. 100% mining success at 105, increased rare gem spawn
3. Turn books into pulp
4. A mega dye tub to dye cloth and leather all available colors
5. Increased BoD UI function

That sounds great!

 

[Lady Storm]

Thank you Kyronix for that bit of great info ... now this is what many of us would like to see more of.
I can understand that giving us a heads up is hard based on what could go wrong especialy if players antisapate it and its fails to show up...
Could you also look into making the bod books almost the same as the pink and blue? I mean i'd love to have my tailor be able ot lock her books down on the table and still be able to add bods, hold it too and get out and put in bods, and have it be only 1 stone and count on her as 1 item no matter how many bods are in the book. Having this would take so much lag out of the game its not funny.