"Stop making me wear woodland armor”
UO has always been a sandbox game. You can use limitless combinations of skills/stats/equipment to create whatever type of play style you like, and most often still be a viable character. But through the years, as more items have constantly been added to give more options, UO is beginning to trend away from its intended game style.
Deciding which armor to use in the early days of UO meant balancing protection vs speed. If you wanted to wear plate, you would pay for it in dex. However, there was no tougher character than one in full plate mail. Since the dex penalty of armor has been removed, now there is no reason (except the benefits of meddable armor) to go with anything less than the armor with the most protection.
Armor should now be looked at as two groups, med and non-med. There should not be an absolute best type for each group. Here is a list of non-med armor for easy comparison:
Armor Type.........Base Resists....Exceptional Bonus..Special Material Bonus...Total
Studded leather:........16....................20.......................12.....................48
Hide:........................15....................20.......................12....................47
Bone:.......................16....................20.......................12.....................48
Dragon scale:............15.....................20.......................7......................42
Metal:......................15.....................20......................13.....................48
Woodland:.................15....................20.......................18.....................53
From this chart is it obvious that there is a benefit to using woodland armor. You should note, however, that the extra resistance is not even the big seller to using woodland. Woodland can be given mods through enhancing that are not available on other armor types. If you first craft a piece, imbue all mods wanted, and then enhance with heartwood, another mod can be placed on the item. The mods available through this method are Luck 40, Durability 50%, Lower Requirements 20%, Damage Increase 10%, Lower Weight 50%, Hit Chance Increase 5%, Mage Armor.
I would like to see the choice of what to wear put back into the players hands. Any player today wishing to get the most out of his/her equipment only has 1 choice in which armor type to use.
I call for a change to material bonuses for each crafting skill. There should be a type of leather, dragon scale, and ingot that can provide 18 additional resistances to a piece of armor. There should also be a type of each that grants slightly fewer resistances, with the chance to also give an extra mod. I would suggest that the most balanced way is to give the exact mod list as woodland.
Example of new material bonuses:
Ingots...........................Resists.....................................Bonus
Golden......................3/2/1/2/2 (10).....................+40 luck, lower req 30%
Agapite.....................5/5/2/3/3 (18).................................none
Verite .......................5/2/2/5/2 (16)......Chance for same mod list as heartwood(HCI,etc)
Valorite.....................5/2/5/2/4 (18)...........................+50 durability
To account for med vs. non med armor, all meddable should have a base of 10 less resistances than non-med. The choice will be either have the ability to use med, or have more resistances. In imbuing intensity, 10 resistance is only 66 weight, while mage armor is 1.4. That shows that 10 resistances extra per piece, while a nice boost, will not cause a unfair advantage to non-med.
I do not want all armor of a group to be identical. Base resistances should still be dispersed differently (IE dragon scale armor should provide large fire resist, while metal provides physical). Also the top material bonus for woodland should not be the same distribution as the one for hide. I simply want to not be forced to wear woodland armor anymore to maintain my competitive edge in the game. Give me more options, and in doing so restore some of the game's original appeal.
Please leave your feedback, criticism, and/or support for this proposal.
UO has always been a sandbox game. You can use limitless combinations of skills/stats/equipment to create whatever type of play style you like, and most often still be a viable character. But through the years, as more items have constantly been added to give more options, UO is beginning to trend away from its intended game style.
Deciding which armor to use in the early days of UO meant balancing protection vs speed. If you wanted to wear plate, you would pay for it in dex. However, there was no tougher character than one in full plate mail. Since the dex penalty of armor has been removed, now there is no reason (except the benefits of meddable armor) to go with anything less than the armor with the most protection.
Armor should now be looked at as two groups, med and non-med. There should not be an absolute best type for each group. Here is a list of non-med armor for easy comparison:
Armor Type.........Base Resists....Exceptional Bonus..Special Material Bonus...Total
Studded leather:........16....................20.......................12.....................48
Hide:........................15....................20.......................12....................47
Bone:.......................16....................20.......................12.....................48
Dragon scale:............15.....................20.......................7......................42
Metal:......................15.....................20......................13.....................48
Woodland:.................15....................20.......................18.....................53
From this chart is it obvious that there is a benefit to using woodland armor. You should note, however, that the extra resistance is not even the big seller to using woodland. Woodland can be given mods through enhancing that are not available on other armor types. If you first craft a piece, imbue all mods wanted, and then enhance with heartwood, another mod can be placed on the item. The mods available through this method are Luck 40, Durability 50%, Lower Requirements 20%, Damage Increase 10%, Lower Weight 50%, Hit Chance Increase 5%, Mage Armor.
I would like to see the choice of what to wear put back into the players hands. Any player today wishing to get the most out of his/her equipment only has 1 choice in which armor type to use.
I call for a change to material bonuses for each crafting skill. There should be a type of leather, dragon scale, and ingot that can provide 18 additional resistances to a piece of armor. There should also be a type of each that grants slightly fewer resistances, with the chance to also give an extra mod. I would suggest that the most balanced way is to give the exact mod list as woodland.
Example of new material bonuses:
Ingots...........................Resists.....................................Bonus
Golden......................3/2/1/2/2 (10).....................+40 luck, lower req 30%
Agapite.....................5/5/2/3/3 (18).................................none
Verite .......................5/2/2/5/2 (16)......Chance for same mod list as heartwood(HCI,etc)
Valorite.....................5/2/5/2/4 (18)...........................+50 durability
To account for med vs. non med armor, all meddable should have a base of 10 less resistances than non-med. The choice will be either have the ability to use med, or have more resistances. In imbuing intensity, 10 resistance is only 66 weight, while mage armor is 1.4. That shows that 10 resistances extra per piece, while a nice boost, will not cause a unfair advantage to non-med.
I do not want all armor of a group to be identical. Base resistances should still be dispersed differently (IE dragon scale armor should provide large fire resist, while metal provides physical). Also the top material bonus for woodland should not be the same distribution as the one for hide. I simply want to not be forced to wear woodland armor anymore to maintain my competitive edge in the game. Give me more options, and in doing so restore some of the game's original appeal.
Please leave your feedback, criticism, and/or support for this proposal.