Contemplating a return to UO

[divinevisitor]

Hello Everyone,

I started playing UO in back 2000 with the UO:R expac and stopped in 2006ish (during 8th anny expac?);not even WoW could completely tear me away. After almost 6 years, I've been wanting to check the game out again. Now, I'm one of those that ditched the 2d version for the 3d (blackthorn) iso version, but left before the whole revamp of the engine took place. Have shards been taken down or consolidated?

What I'm trying to ask here is how much has the game changed since, gameplay-wise and if the game has gotten better and more interesting. Are there any vets left from pre UO:R (or pre UO:AOS) that could share their experience with me.

I look forward to the replies, and hopefully decide to resurrect my archer/tamer, Jinza.

 

[Charin]

Alot has changed.. alot for the better.. some for the worse. I think you will enjoy yourself... alot of the griefers and jerks are gone... so playing is alot more fun..

 

[anna anomalous]

as a pre:aos vet, that also played through AOS, i decided to make my return, from scratch, about a year ago. i hadn't played since 2005, so there was a large break for me as well.

after going through so many changes in my past game time, i felt all i had to really do is sit down and read through the recent patches, to get a feel of what direction the game as taken. not TOO much has changed from 2005, but a lot as been added.

the game is still much of what it used to be, except a diminished player base. i've always played on atlantic, so i returned to atlantic. the population is high enough to always have someone to fight against or with. i don't believe many shards have been taken down, but there are many "dead shards" out there.

one drastic change i made when returning was switching to the enhanced client. i found that it simply offers far more than what the classic client does. most players have a hard time adjusting to a new interface and layout, but i felt that since i had dabbled in games such as WoW that the transition wouldn't be too rough. the enhanced client completely nullifies the nostalgic qualities that the classic client offers, but if you are returning after a hiatus, i feel it might be best to learn on the enhanced client before familiarizing yourself with the classic.

good luck, and if you decide to return, i hope you enjoy it.

 

[pgib]

I'm a returned tamer too. If you had not the chance to play with a greater dragon (introduced in 2008 if i'm not wrong) then it might be worth taking your beast-master out and see a "what could have been if" creature at work.

If you had the pleasure than honestly i have to say that nothing has changed in the active-taming area: there are no new usable friends, they introduced some quests for pet items that makes you feel so angry for the outcome you could instantly shutdown your account. The well know feeling "do they really hate taming soo much?" is still there.

But you might enjoy the imbuing skill if you are in the crafting area, using your warrior to produce ingredients.

The player base is not huge but it is not hard to gather few players to do a peerless or doom or anything else, with the new chat-system.

All in all, there are a few things that are worth to look at. Just do not expect to be impressed.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

Welcome back (noted as : pending)

Download a trial account and see for yourself.

As it was then, it is still now and only more so
STEEP learning curve ahead
Mountains of data to process/ignore.

It >can be< as immersive as before
bear in mind: You >think< you "know more" (given the passage of time)
which all goes towards weighing your "expectations" against what you "find".

"Learn and adapt" still holds a core position
"Trust but verify", same as above (don't take anything to fel that you aren't ready to LOSE ... etc. )

Shard count is the same (merging is a confirmed impossibility), though there maybe "one more"
Origin

How you accept/react to two things definitely different:
Population and "cost / pricing" ... well ... STEEP learning curve ahead

Population wise ... well, you just admitted to helping >cause that<
which is only a blameless observation of fact. Put your fur down ... it is what it is ...
Question IS: whatcha gonna do about/within it?

Economy wise ... *shrugs* Self reliance(as always) is usually best.


Good luck to thee, and all the best *Big Grin*

Unless of course ... you are one of "those"
In that case:
Die screaming and crying and Rage Quit ... again ...

Burma Shave

 

[popps]

Hello Everyone,

I started playing UO in back 2000 with the UO:R expac and stopped in 2006ish (during 8th anny expac?);not even WoW could completely tear me away. After almost 6 years, I've been wanting to check the game out again. Now, I'm one of those that ditched the 2d version for the 3d (blackthorn) iso version, but left before the whole revamp of the engine took place. Have shards been taken down or consolidated?

What I'm trying to ask here is how much has the game changed since, gameplay-wise and if the game has gotten better and more interesting. Are there any vets left from pre UO:R (or pre UO:AOS) that could share their experience with me.

I look forward to the replies, and hopefully decide to resurrect my archer/tamer, Jinza.

The game has a lot of new stuff, new skills, new monsters. You will find a lot of new land to explore and things to do.

The new client, the Enhanced Client has a lot of nice features, especially macros and a lot of players using it toghether with Pinco's UI love it.

By the way, even though the Trial version is free for about 2 weeks it has lots of limitations (necessary to combat cheating...) so, renewing the registration and getting Abyss/High Seas (I think the price has been reduced) to enjoy those new lands as well as Imbuing and all of the changes to fishing and Pirating might be more helpfull to see what the new UO is nowadays........

Also, if you like a populated shard pick Atlantic or Pacific, semi-populated you have several choices on both coasts.

Welcome back !!

 

[Tina Small]

Visitor, if you return to a "production" shard and decide after a while that the game is too easy, chat is sometimes terribly obnoxious, and/or you're feeling a bit out of place because everyone around you seems to be years ahead of you in terms of skill and gear, please give some consideration to playing on the Siege Perilous shard.

The community on Siege is very welcoming to newcomers and almost everyone there well remembers and can relate to being unskilled and "poor." Yes, there are some Siege players who have untold amounts of gold in the bank. But there are also many other players who are not wealthy or particularly interested in becoming obviously wealthy. The economy is in much better shape than on other shards (i.e., prices on player-run vendors are almost always very reasonable) and crafters and PvM characters who enjoy hunting/farming are always busy and in demand.

Siege has players from around the globe, so there's almost always someone around, even if you don't necessarily see them and Luna is pretty much a ghost town. (Magincia and Zento are the places where you're most likely to actually "see" other characters. The majority of player-run shops are in Magincia and clustered around Zento and several of the Felucca moongates.) Siege has several active faction guilds and quite a few allied guilds, like Gilfane, that support a wide variety of playstyles and players. Also, if you're the blood-thirsty type and find Fel on production shards is just a little bit too deserted, don't forget that on Siege, red characters can roam the entire shard. The PKers are, for the most part, the type who will clobber, rez, chat, and leave most or all of your stuff and/or offer to sell it back to you.

With the removal of the daily cap on skill gains once you hit 70 in training a skill (i.e., the point at which gains in a skill become subject to the Rate Over Time skill gain system, aka "RoT"), it is possible to very quickly finish training skills. (You still have timers on gains above 70 that vary based on how high your real skill is, though.) There are quite a few treasure hunters and spawners, so buying scrolls of transcendence and scrolls of alacrity to speed up skill training is also relatively easy. And training the crafting skills is much, much cheaper than elsewhere because of the RoT skill gain system.

Anyway, I could ramble on at length about what you might find appealing about Siege; hopefully this is enough to make you at least a little bit curious and willing to consider it as an option if you actually do decide to return!

 

[Percivalgoh]

No change in shards. Well you left for a reason. Uo is a very rich and complex game. If you get bored it is likely because you don't have much imagination. If you need to be spoon fed a list of things to do then it's probably still not the game for you. Perhaps there are things you prefer not to do in game, I have numerous such things but still find enough to keep me happy. Inflation has happened but then it's far easier to get gold too so whatever. There is no rule saying you have to have the absolute best equipment. There are open spaces for housing now which probably we did not have back when you left. Imbuing skill has allowed you to make or have made very specific items with very specific properties that you want. You can choose to be a gargoyle now if you wish.

 

[Lord_Puffy]

DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!

 

[Lady Storm]

Come back to play UO kiddo....

We invite you back.. whether its to Siege as Tina said so well... or to any shard play has changed 90% for the better.
If you like small close knit groupings many shards fit this bill, if you like big crouds and tons of action there is always the bigger shards.. (atl, chessy, etc..)

MY suggestion is to read up on stratics of the most recient game packs, Id say start with where you left off and read forward to get the idea of the changes.

 

[Frarc]

Return home , we are here to help you!

 

[divinevisitor]

Thank you for the replies and the warm welcomes.

I'm trying to figure out which "box" to buy that will have me up to date with all the stuff I've missed since the mondain content publish (the one where you could quest to become an elf).

 

[Miri of Sonoma]

Thank you for the replies and the warm welcomes.

I'm trying to figure out which "box" to buy that will have me up to date with all the stuff I've missed since the mondain content publish (the one where you could quest to become an elf).

You can upgrade your account to Mondain's Legacy for free now. So the expansion you want to buy is Stygian Abyss. In addition IF you want to you can get the booster High Seas and the 2 theme packs (gothic and rustic). Get all of that and you are up-to-date! *smiles*

 

[Tazar]

You can upgrade your account to Mondain's Legacy for free now.

The upgrade to Mondain's Legacy is free - and automatic. All accounts have it so there is nothing that you have to do to get it.

 

[Miri of Sonoma]

Oh thanks Tazar! *smiles* I stand corrected..actually, rereading his post, I think he had ML anyway.

 

[divinevisitor]

Oh thanks Tazar! *smiles* I stand corrected..actually, rereading his post, I think he had ML anyway.

Yup, that's the last update I remember getting. The last thing I remember taming was one of those kyuubis.