I (like most people here) am a long time vet of UO. I started in 1999 with UO:T2A
I have come and gone like most over the years, always returning to the game I love.
This post is mainly a reply to JC's post "UO Is a Sunk Ship". He made some great points and it was well written. Lots of great replies as well and it's clear a lot of players share the same ideas and feelings.
I would now like to offer my own perspective on some of the issues I currently see in the game and offer up some ideas on things we can do to improve the quality of the gaming experience for everyone, new player to veteran.
One of the things that made UO Great was it's community. I'm talking Pre-Third Dawn. Before Trammel. When the land was Felluca only. Players formed their own mini towns. On Atlantic, just West of Britain, you can find "The Hungry Halfing", which was once a hot spot for travellers of the land where there were always players to PvP with, share stories and adventure with. Running through the woods, I would often encounter many players at random. Every veteran will remember the dangerous roads heading East out of Britain along the path to Minoc or Vesper. It seemed that at every turn, you ran into other players and it felt like family.
I believe one of the main issues today (and this has been for a long time) is the lack of players within the game world vs the size of the land. I run through the woods and dungeons of Felluca and never see anyone anymore.... The Orc Fort in Cove is empty. The graveyards and brigand camps are never visited. Banks and cities are barren and devoid of players. Vesper used to be one of the hotspots with busy vendors just outside the guard protected limits. Britain bank was filled with players chatting and adventurers just passing through. The Smith shop at the North end of Brit was a hot spot of activity where many smiths were making armour and selling their gear.
anywhere. Even Luna has lost much of it's "community hot spot" feel.There is soo much land mass that places like this don't even exist anymore.
Why are we creating more landmass and more dungeons when the landmass and dungeons we already have are empty? I applaud the dev team for the work with Shame! This is something that should have been done years ago and I would love to see this done with all the other dungeons.
A few words about issues for New Players.... I personally returned to UO last week and met with another returning player today (who has been gone for 6 years). We were both looking for a forge and could not find a single vendor anywhere that is selling them! A problem I see for new players is the lack of accessibility to many of the items/armour in the game we now take for granted (GM Exceptional Armour or Mid Range Weapons/Gear).
If a new player were to try and find suitable armour/weapons, I would have no idea where to send them?! Certainly not any player run vendors! Take a look through Luna and all you see are high end artifacts and million dollar armour pieces. How is a new player supposed to even gear up these days? There are no vendors to fill the gap between the new and the super rich. I can't even find a forge...
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Some idea's and suggestions that I feel could benefit the game and our community.
1. Re-doing Shame is great! Stop creating new landmass/dungeons and instead, utilize what is already there and not being used.... There is soo much unused land in this game... Add content to the spots we already have. The graveyards, The Orc Forts, the brigand camps, the islands, the empty dungeons.... Personally, I would vote for a reduction in the landmass if it means I might actually run into some players again! I started playing this game because of the community feel and the fact that the land and cities were alive with players!
Add content to the cities we already have. Give us a reason to visit them again. I applaud the Dev's with their work on New Magincia! This is a great idea and exactly what this game could use. I am very thankful that this kind of work is happening and hope it continues. Perhaps people can add some of their own ideas here on what we could do for other cities. I'm sure most of us remember visiting many cities and banks and always seeing players.
If there is sooo much unused and empty landmass, cities and places in the game world, I suggest adding content to those areas (Especially in Felluca).
Can we please add leaves back onto the trees in Felluca? It's soooo ugly running around there... Honestly, everyone should know what facet they are on and don't need ugly trees to tell us we're in Felluca.... Please put the leaves back on the trees! It's so ugly!
I love what is being done with the PvP Arena/dueling system. I've been asking for something like this for YEARS and I'm glad a system is finally going in. Great work! I hope this continues and we can make some progress into making PvP great as this is the ONLY reason I play UO. Dev's! I ONLY play UO for the PvP! Many other players are in the same boat! I could not give two hoots what color my hair/items are! We have enough of that. Lets focus on gameplay and community again.
New players need access to mid-level gear/equipment or items for their houses. For this, I suggest the community come together and maybe some players can get together and build a "New Player" vendor mall or something like that. This is something that we can do ourselves to help bring more people into the game and get them involved and interacting with the veterans. I challenge some vets to take some new players under their wings, hook them up with items and bring them along to show them some places they would not otherwise visit.
My main point. There is way too much land mass in this game. The population is sooo spread out that I barely run into any players 'out there' anymore. If I visit T2A and the Lost Lands, there's no way I'll run into anyone anymore.... We're all spread too thin and I think that hurts the sense of community that we all loved about this game when we started playing.
I would love to hear other players thoughts and ideas on some of the things I've talked about here and what they think. I was very inspired by JC's post and saw a lot of constructive posts there.
See you in the game everyone.... if I can find you...
I have come and gone like most over the years, always returning to the game I love.
This post is mainly a reply to JC's post "UO Is a Sunk Ship". He made some great points and it was well written. Lots of great replies as well and it's clear a lot of players share the same ideas and feelings.
I would now like to offer my own perspective on some of the issues I currently see in the game and offer up some ideas on things we can do to improve the quality of the gaming experience for everyone, new player to veteran.
One of the things that made UO Great was it's community. I'm talking Pre-Third Dawn. Before Trammel. When the land was Felluca only. Players formed their own mini towns. On Atlantic, just West of Britain, you can find "The Hungry Halfing", which was once a hot spot for travellers of the land where there were always players to PvP with, share stories and adventure with. Running through the woods, I would often encounter many players at random. Every veteran will remember the dangerous roads heading East out of Britain along the path to Minoc or Vesper. It seemed that at every turn, you ran into other players and it felt like family.
I believe one of the main issues today (and this has been for a long time) is the lack of players within the game world vs the size of the land. I run through the woods and dungeons of Felluca and never see anyone anymore.... The Orc Fort in Cove is empty. The graveyards and brigand camps are never visited. Banks and cities are barren and devoid of players. Vesper used to be one of the hotspots with busy vendors just outside the guard protected limits. Britain bank was filled with players chatting and adventurers just passing through. The Smith shop at the North end of Brit was a hot spot of activity where many smiths were making armour and selling their gear.
anywhere. Even Luna has lost much of it's "community hot spot" feel.There is soo much land mass that places like this don't even exist anymore.
Why are we creating more landmass and more dungeons when the landmass and dungeons we already have are empty? I applaud the dev team for the work with Shame! This is something that should have been done years ago and I would love to see this done with all the other dungeons.
A few words about issues for New Players.... I personally returned to UO last week and met with another returning player today (who has been gone for 6 years). We were both looking for a forge and could not find a single vendor anywhere that is selling them! A problem I see for new players is the lack of accessibility to many of the items/armour in the game we now take for granted (GM Exceptional Armour or Mid Range Weapons/Gear).
If a new player were to try and find suitable armour/weapons, I would have no idea where to send them?! Certainly not any player run vendors! Take a look through Luna and all you see are high end artifacts and million dollar armour pieces. How is a new player supposed to even gear up these days? There are no vendors to fill the gap between the new and the super rich. I can't even find a forge...
------
Some idea's and suggestions that I feel could benefit the game and our community.
1. Re-doing Shame is great! Stop creating new landmass/dungeons and instead, utilize what is already there and not being used.... There is soo much unused land in this game... Add content to the spots we already have. The graveyards, The Orc Forts, the brigand camps, the islands, the empty dungeons.... Personally, I would vote for a reduction in the landmass if it means I might actually run into some players again! I started playing this game because of the community feel and the fact that the land and cities were alive with players!
Add content to the cities we already have. Give us a reason to visit them again. I applaud the Dev's with their work on New Magincia! This is a great idea and exactly what this game could use. I am very thankful that this kind of work is happening and hope it continues. Perhaps people can add some of their own ideas here on what we could do for other cities. I'm sure most of us remember visiting many cities and banks and always seeing players.
If there is sooo much unused and empty landmass, cities and places in the game world, I suggest adding content to those areas (Especially in Felluca).
Can we please add leaves back onto the trees in Felluca? It's soooo ugly running around there... Honestly, everyone should know what facet they are on and don't need ugly trees to tell us we're in Felluca.... Please put the leaves back on the trees! It's so ugly!
I love what is being done with the PvP Arena/dueling system. I've been asking for something like this for YEARS and I'm glad a system is finally going in. Great work! I hope this continues and we can make some progress into making PvP great as this is the ONLY reason I play UO. Dev's! I ONLY play UO for the PvP! Many other players are in the same boat! I could not give two hoots what color my hair/items are! We have enough of that. Lets focus on gameplay and community again.
New players need access to mid-level gear/equipment or items for their houses. For this, I suggest the community come together and maybe some players can get together and build a "New Player" vendor mall or something like that. This is something that we can do ourselves to help bring more people into the game and get them involved and interacting with the veterans. I challenge some vets to take some new players under their wings, hook them up with items and bring them along to show them some places they would not otherwise visit.
My main point. There is way too much land mass in this game. The population is sooo spread out that I barely run into any players 'out there' anymore. If I visit T2A and the Lost Lands, there's no way I'll run into anyone anymore.... We're all spread too thin and I think that hurts the sense of community that we all loved about this game when we started playing.
I would love to hear other players thoughts and ideas on some of the things I've talked about here and what they think. I was very inspired by JC's post and saw a lot of constructive posts there.
See you in the game everyone.... if I can find you...
Good ideas!!!
