Ability to craft any variety of suit at whim vs finding/creating/obtaining pieces to fit that desire is the difference. Playing any game should be more about the journey than the destination.
Meaning you like wasting a lot time trying to assemble something before you can go out and enjoy the game. We already knew that. But going out and fighting monsters, or picking my own brain to design a new combination of gear,
is the journey for the vast majority of UO players. I don't need to spend a week traveling that leaves me only a day at a vacation spot. That seems to be your cup of tea, though.
I always end up feeling like I am arguing with a PvPer that just wants to 'Set Armor=' to change up their gear.
Do you mind lightening up with the strawmen? I will not be responsible for the degeneration of this thread.
It used to be you would find or make an LRC 20 LMC 7 Mana 4 piece of armor and FIND a way to fit its resists into your suit by switching out other pieces or craftineg a new set of gloves etc. Now you can craft a LRC 20 LMC 8 Mana 8 piece at will for about 200k in ingredients at any point in time. Basically all monster loot will NEVER be used for a suit (unless its Shame/Wrong loot with uncraftable mods) save for rings/braces.
Of course anyone can make that piece. It's an extremely basic trio of properties. Now talk about an entire suit, not just 7.5% of the imbuing.
It is easy mode for crafting and I was never a big fan. I was in favor of other ways of solving the problem of runic kits being 100% random. So instead they went to 100% predictable. Reforging was closer to what I had thought was a better way to solve the issue of full random generation but imbuing came first. Now its - reforge with low level runics for that one property you need - then imbue up the rest so really - again - imbuing has made armor too predictable and too easy to copy suits so everyone has the same armor if desired.
Easy mode? You hadn't played UO for long before AoS, clearly. Since you didn't know, UO
had its cookie-cutter days. Pre-AoS, the only slayers were silver. Go back even further, to the beginning, and people used the same old viking swords and heater shields, or halberds, provided you were lucky enough to build strength to where you could hold them. Strength was bugged for a long time and difficult to gain, and individual characters' stats maxed at anywhere from 210s to 238 (the highest I ever heard of). The same gear was used against orcs, ettins, drakes or balrons. Everyone, even mages, tended to wear the same full plate with a robe. I had a couple of RP guildmates who wanted to be knights but instead played priests, because we did PvP, and robes were a practical way of hiding the strength of your armor against PKs. Armor became the same unvaried sets of leather suits, archer suits and occasional full plate suits once dex penalties were introduced -- far more "cookie cutter" than you think it is today.
It was a waste of housing space and time to keep and sort hundreds of semi-valuable pieces, trying to combine them into something usable. What's so great about your concept of a "journey" that means most of game time is spent gearing up instead of playing?
Someone posted a sampire suit and I was able to EXACTLY copy the suit. In a game like Diablo you could post your suit and I'd spend a year trying to replicate it exactly and likely never do so allowing some variability and EFFORT required to duplicate a suit. I might get 95% but I'd never have exactly the same suit.
You were able to duplicate the suit because there's only one basic sampire template. Now, I've never made a sampire suit for myself because I don't have a true sampire. My hybrid therefore uses something different that I've yet to see elsewhere. You might be able to come close, but not to squeeze in everything I did for very specific purposes, nor would you be able to come up with it by yourself. Where's your mac and cheese analogy now? In the culinary arts, it would be like tasting a dish to identify every last ingredient used, in perfect proportions, with the precise methods of preparation. It takes a very good chef in real life, and I'm not the only one in UO who makes combinations previously not conceived.
You again extol Diablo's system. Why don't you go play that, then, instead of making the rest of us conform to the game you want UO to be?
If you really don't enjoy the effort to crafting and making things and just want the end result - then imbuing is for you. If you appreciate the art and time it takes to develop/build/craft/find a really good suit - then crafting is for you. For me it is about the journey and the effort to build something special.
If you don't like imbuing, then clearly UO isn't the game for you. Do you need us to give you the link to Blizzard's site? DLTDHYOTWO.
You keep talking about Imbuing and crafting as if they're two separate things. Imbuing is very much a subset of crafting. What else would it be? Its introduction is the very thing that made many of us dust off our smiths and tailors. It made PoF not merely desirable, but sought after like never before.
Post imbuing/reforging there isn't a single suit in UO I"m impressed with. You can copy them all pretty much at will. Back before imbuing (even with runics) there were some pretty impressive suits. I mean, finding a 3/1 ring with 15 lrc was a feat! Today you craft one while you munch cheetoes and go on with life.
So there we have the reason: you found a nice 1/3 ring early in AoS, maybe had an all 70s suit with 100% LRC, and now your advantage is gone. That's incredibly selfish, you know.
Even your definition of "pretty much" does not mean "always." You really insult a lot of us who spend time customizing very specific suits, painstakingly rearranging properties before we actually make the items, for the very point I keep making that you ignore. You really should start reading what other people write, instead of making up what you wish they said.
Hand carved statue or one poured from a mold. That is the difference.
Well, thank you for that example. Because I have never tried to duplicate anyone else's suit, ever.
I used to marvel at finding or crafting a a 'good' superslayer weapon that had maybe 1-2 useful mods. Now I craft a full set of superslayers with whatever mods I want up to the cap - anytime I want.
So? I had a fantastic poison elemental slayer with 100% fire, long since unraveled because it was outclassed. That happens with every game, and it's happened a few times in UO with each overhaul of item properties. It opened the door to new challenges of harder spawns and boss monsters. Have you never considered that? Or do you want to revert back nearly 15 years, when you'd cast poison and hide behind a rock it couldn't get around?
I can make you the exact same set - no effort. There is no sense in accomplishment in that for me. Cookie cutter weapons. Everyone uses the same. Why not give us all store bought daggers then?
Actually, my friends and I are quite varied in what we use. With my unorthodox style, I design my gear to complement what everyone else has. I'd tell you more, but as I said before, if you'd only been nicer about this...
Years ago, I had a popular vendor near a PvP hotspot. I couldn't keep up with crafting the same old exceptional leather suits, which didn't require mixing and matching, as pre-AoS only had a single armor rating. Before armor differences were introduced, everyone went to Hythloth 3 as a mage in full plate. Cast EVs, escape back into the teleporter room, then using the telepads to jump in and e-bolt the balron when it was weak. For all your complaints about "cookie cutter" imbuing, it was actually the case
before. Now there's variety because imbuing allows me to make just the combination of weapon and armor I want.
You've now been fisked again. Try again next time when you can rebut what I've posted, instead of quoting one thing I posted and babbling at length. Good heavens, man, stop complaining about what the vast majority of players like. Since you have no sense of accomplishment in UO, it's time for you to move on to something you like.
Please show suit I too would like to see what is so great that cannot be replicated.
