Elves - option to see darkness?

[Saphireena]

I was going to respond to the Jeremy thread but thought it wisest to start a new one since this may arouse debate.

Thank you for the heads up Supreem. My main concern is Joanne's history with UO. If you guys intend to take us to the UO of old I'd like to think the mediator between players and developers has some years under her belt. I guess we'll wait for word from her to find that out.

*agrees completely, I sure hope she does*

Ultima Online is a massive game made up of a million teensy weensy details - it takes years to get into and understand! If a developer has never dealt with UO before, it's like giving a new cook a recipe which has 28570 ingredients and is 500 pages long.

As an example of a very small feature which has been overlooked - when I was listening to the audio recording of the Seattle town hall, the subject of elves constant night sight came up and it was explained to the crowd that "that's the way they were designed to work". It was then asked if people would actually like to be able to turn it off. It sounded as if it had never even crossed their minds. As if night time were a mere bother, a hindrance to game play.

At that moment I was thinking huh? Of COURSE people enjoy the night time! (unless they are a power gamer or full time PvP:er)

Everyone who has ever decorated a house with love and care, placing lanterns and candlabras just so, everyone who has ever role played, everyone who has ever loved events which use lighting to give atmosphere - would all agree that the night time of UO is important. If anything, I have always felt it to way way way too short. What was it, 30 minutes and then many hours of daytime? Pah!

As for the lore on elves, I'm not that familiar with it. But if it is not carved in stone somewhere that they never see the darkness and it would be left up to the player preference, then I think it should be an option.

Just an example of how UO players are a breed of their own and it really does take one to know one.

 

[aarons6]

my elf doesnt have full nightsight.. you can have it

 

[Phaen Grey]

I have pretty much given up on Elves as a race I play because they can't see night. I wish there was some way to toggle it on and off when needed so they can enjoy the work I put into decorating and lighting a house.

_______________

 

[Saphireena]

I saw Aaron's reply and suddenly felt very dumb. I wondered if perhaps this had been already fixed somehow.

So I made a couple of new characters to test it out. First a human so I would "see" night time, then when darkness fell, made the elf - and sure enough it was clear daytime for the elf. Relogged the human to make sure it's still night and yes it was.

So Aaron what do you mean exactly?

Phaen Grey: I hear ya. The lack of night time has been one reason I've not been interested in making an elf - in addition to their ugly looks of course. Thanks for speaking up, nice to know I ain't the only one who feels atmospheric surroundings are important.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Don't much like elves myself. Less carrying capacity, and the lack of "jack of all trades"? Meh.

I mean, I've been kinda sorta considering changing my miner/lumberjack to elf (greater percentage of coloured resources harvested) but that's about it.

As for removing night sight... I propose night vision goggles. B)

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

For the last couple months my elves have had partial night-sight. Don't know if that's the proper way to say it though. When it is night time, they can still see ALMOST as much light as they can during the day time, but things get a little bit darker, and there is a faint glow around lanterns and lights. If it's a bug, I hope they don't fix it - I love playing elves, but I hate having permanent night sight. I would love an option to toggle it off and on!!!

 

[Kiminality]

I always thought there should be intensities of night sight.
Equipping an item, or being of a certain species, shoudn't completely negate the fact that there's no light in dungeons.

Make night sight a stat.
Elves have a natural 1 or 2, humans have a natural 0.
If you want to be quirky, have eating carrots granting an additional natural 1, for a breif time.
Then, you stack up NS effects. Potion/spell/item all add +1, up to say, 6 being the current night sight effect. So Elves still see the darkness, but not as much. The more night sight effects you pile on, the better you can see in darkness.

Also, hats for elves, pls.

 

[peanutbutter]

ummm....

elves see in the dark. they can't help it.

no, you shouldn't be able to "turn it off", but you should be able to "shade your sight" through some sort of reverse night sight spell or potion (or item).

 

[peanutbutter]

it's not that hard to figure out and i don't think it takes "years" of experience with UO.

sometimes the most experienced person is NOT best fit for the job. maybe just enough experience to know what can or can't be done, just enough drive to question the "can't" part of that, just enough ethics to know the difference between "can" and "should", and some sort of addiction... doesn't matter what kind.

hell, i'll do it. hire me.