Having loved UO and MMORPGs (thanks to UO) for over 25 years now, I am really thankful UO still exists. The power of UO is that it really is a second life type of game, still a true sandbox MMORPG like almost no other game.Here are some cool ideas that I think could help engage veterans even more, and be fun for new players too. Some ideas are random. But here they are. I'm sure the community would know better than me on how to make these work in cooler ways than my basic sketches. Now that @Kyronix is taking over... maybe he can make this happen.
- Hardened Journey Characters
Have something where you can start a character or reset skills on a character to train them in "hardened journey" mode. This is where skill gain is 2x as slow as normal. But, trained all the way to 100 or 120, each skill gets a slight bonus that can't be gotten any other way and otherwise stacks with any effects. Minor enough where those who don't do this don't feel mega-disadvantaged, but enough to make it worthwhile. This could come with some prefix or suffix for titles for skills we choose so you can show off you went through the hardened journey.
- Literally any creature can drop "Essence of [Creature name]"...Not sure what it could be used for, it could be consumed for a bit more damage towards those creatures, used in crafting like cooking. Combining certain essences could create a super essence. And combining literally every essence of every currently spawning creature or monster in the world, would create some sort of super boost. One reason this is cool, is that it makes it worthwhile again to kill various monsters/creatures no one looks at anymore. I would just use a wisp type of graphic with a modified sprite of each animal above it... so very little work would be required. You could just batch iterate over all the current sprites to create this.
- Special potential creatures for tamers
So, it seems only a few top tier animals are used mostly by tamers. What if we could sort of easily make this more interesting? What if each tamable animal could spawn in a sort of super version of itself where it can be at least competitive with several others. They would have a prefix like "extraordinary", and that means they have special potential. This could also maybe be done with a special item that's rare. But anyway, this means theoretically could have a cat that's can rival sidhe. I think a mechanism should be thought of to make sure this doesn't kind of make certain creatures irrelevant, and that said it would be certainly be cool if many more creatures could be used. It'd be hilarious to walk around with a super powerful hellcat.
- Total Drain
A special move granted to anyone who reaches 120 skill in any magic or fighting skill, that when activated will make the next spell have 2x its effect, but will drain all the resource it normally uses, and 50% of health. It can only be used once every interval, like 60 mins, or maybe even once a day.
- Strong monsters have specific super drops
On that subject, it would be cool if each monsters over X power have a chance to drop something more interesting or significant than they today. Like, to make it worth it go hunt Sphinxes or Dragons again beyond what there is now.
- Mentor program
It'd be cool if each new player can have an assigned mentor. Mentors and apprentices get a notification when one or the other logs on or off, the apprentice gets a skill gain boost until 80 when in party with the mentor, which increases if they're near, and stuff like that.
- New player message
A new player (fresh account) that logs in gets a type of message in the middle of their screen that allows them to say yes to wanting a mentor, but also show a top 10 list of guilds that can apply to be listed. If they are and the new player selects any of them, the guild gets an automated message "New player that goes by [Name] would like to join. I think this would help new players even more get into the game. Guilds could list main activities/goals here.
- New Player tips
Quite simple to do, just have a bunch of strings that show in a banner top of the screen, that are like the tips you see on loading screens. UO is a very deep game and you can sort fo play it without realizing you can go treasure hunt, or do anything with virtues, or that you can click on a message board on a house. Or that there is a creature market in Magincia. This is a basic thing but could go a long way in helping new players get familiar with the game.
- Graveyard spawn & ritual
I think it'd be cool if there was a ritual that could be performed at any graveyard that spawns an oversized super lich and a bunch waves of undead through a special gate. This would require 3 necromancers and a special item which drops from monsters at graveyards or undead. A really tough boss. Each boss would be named "Grand Lich of [Graveyard town/area name]" and drop a special item that bears this name. The necromancers would have to keep the gate stable while the fight goes on, meaning you need others to keep up the fight.
- Spirit quests
Spirit speak could be used to see what undead at graveyards are saying, and when you do this, they are pacified for a while, and suddenly they can have a name and history, where you can talk to them. They give you a quest which is their last wish, which if you complete, you get a special ethereal gem called "fulfilled wish".. these could also be used in crafting, combined,...I'm sure others could have cool ideas. Also, spirit speak could be used to see what any undead says which tells you its weakness.. for this I would give undead slight weakness, like to specific spells, weapons, on top of current stuff.. Anyway, just some ideas to make spirit speak a bit cooler. It would also be extra cool if someone with 100-120 spirit speak when dead, can see something special in the undead world. Like, basically give players a reason to roam as ghosts sometimes.
- Explorer Experience
Not sure if the engine allows for this easily, but if it does, then it'd be cool to get experience for exploring places which triggers simply when you visit these places. Explorer experience gives a bonus to all navigation-related skills maybe. Exploring every nook and cranny of the game, means you have max explorer XP, which can be traded in for the explorer's globe, which could allow teleports of all other teleport items (jaw, crystal, etc) in one with pagination.
- Hirelings
You can go to guilds like the mages guild or fighters guild (etc) and rent a hireling. These respond to commands like tamed creatures and can do lots of stuff like even chop wood, mine, or help fight monsters. They could skill up and be dressed like vendors, named, etc... and this all saves so long they are on contract. This might cause balance issues, but it's perhaps a neat idea. They wouldn't be stronger than great tamable creatures and they'd occupy slots obviously, so it'd be a trade-off.
An idea I posted previously and I'm sure others had:
- Ability to save custom homes to a template. Basically go into temporary house placing mode.. build like you normally do, and then save to blueprint. Blueprints can be sold and named. "Garden Castle by [Player name]. The architect can see how many of their blueprints are placed in the world.
- Hardened Journey Characters
Have something where you can start a character or reset skills on a character to train them in "hardened journey" mode. This is where skill gain is 2x as slow as normal. But, trained all the way to 100 or 120, each skill gets a slight bonus that can't be gotten any other way and otherwise stacks with any effects. Minor enough where those who don't do this don't feel mega-disadvantaged, but enough to make it worthwhile. This could come with some prefix or suffix for titles for skills we choose so you can show off you went through the hardened journey.
- Literally any creature can drop "Essence of [Creature name]"...Not sure what it could be used for, it could be consumed for a bit more damage towards those creatures, used in crafting like cooking. Combining certain essences could create a super essence. And combining literally every essence of every currently spawning creature or monster in the world, would create some sort of super boost. One reason this is cool, is that it makes it worthwhile again to kill various monsters/creatures no one looks at anymore. I would just use a wisp type of graphic with a modified sprite of each animal above it... so very little work would be required. You could just batch iterate over all the current sprites to create this.
- Special potential creatures for tamers
So, it seems only a few top tier animals are used mostly by tamers. What if we could sort of easily make this more interesting? What if each tamable animal could spawn in a sort of super version of itself where it can be at least competitive with several others. They would have a prefix like "extraordinary", and that means they have special potential. This could also maybe be done with a special item that's rare. But anyway, this means theoretically could have a cat that's can rival sidhe. I think a mechanism should be thought of to make sure this doesn't kind of make certain creatures irrelevant, and that said it would be certainly be cool if many more creatures could be used. It'd be hilarious to walk around with a super powerful hellcat.
- Total Drain
A special move granted to anyone who reaches 120 skill in any magic or fighting skill, that when activated will make the next spell have 2x its effect, but will drain all the resource it normally uses, and 50% of health. It can only be used once every interval, like 60 mins, or maybe even once a day.
- Strong monsters have specific super drops
On that subject, it would be cool if each monsters over X power have a chance to drop something more interesting or significant than they today. Like, to make it worth it go hunt Sphinxes or Dragons again beyond what there is now.
- Mentor program
It'd be cool if each new player can have an assigned mentor. Mentors and apprentices get a notification when one or the other logs on or off, the apprentice gets a skill gain boost until 80 when in party with the mentor, which increases if they're near, and stuff like that.
- New player message
A new player (fresh account) that logs in gets a type of message in the middle of their screen that allows them to say yes to wanting a mentor, but also show a top 10 list of guilds that can apply to be listed. If they are and the new player selects any of them, the guild gets an automated message "New player that goes by [Name] would like to join. I think this would help new players even more get into the game. Guilds could list main activities/goals here.
- New Player tips
Quite simple to do, just have a bunch of strings that show in a banner top of the screen, that are like the tips you see on loading screens. UO is a very deep game and you can sort fo play it without realizing you can go treasure hunt, or do anything with virtues, or that you can click on a message board on a house. Or that there is a creature market in Magincia. This is a basic thing but could go a long way in helping new players get familiar with the game.
- Graveyard spawn & ritual
I think it'd be cool if there was a ritual that could be performed at any graveyard that spawns an oversized super lich and a bunch waves of undead through a special gate. This would require 3 necromancers and a special item which drops from monsters at graveyards or undead. A really tough boss. Each boss would be named "Grand Lich of [Graveyard town/area name]" and drop a special item that bears this name. The necromancers would have to keep the gate stable while the fight goes on, meaning you need others to keep up the fight.
- Spirit quests
Spirit speak could be used to see what undead at graveyards are saying, and when you do this, they are pacified for a while, and suddenly they can have a name and history, where you can talk to them. They give you a quest which is their last wish, which if you complete, you get a special ethereal gem called "fulfilled wish".. these could also be used in crafting, combined,...I'm sure others could have cool ideas. Also, spirit speak could be used to see what any undead says which tells you its weakness.. for this I would give undead slight weakness, like to specific spells, weapons, on top of current stuff.. Anyway, just some ideas to make spirit speak a bit cooler. It would also be extra cool if someone with 100-120 spirit speak when dead, can see something special in the undead world. Like, basically give players a reason to roam as ghosts sometimes.
- Explorer Experience
Not sure if the engine allows for this easily, but if it does, then it'd be cool to get experience for exploring places which triggers simply when you visit these places. Explorer experience gives a bonus to all navigation-related skills maybe. Exploring every nook and cranny of the game, means you have max explorer XP, which can be traded in for the explorer's globe, which could allow teleports of all other teleport items (jaw, crystal, etc) in one with pagination.
- Hirelings
You can go to guilds like the mages guild or fighters guild (etc) and rent a hireling. These respond to commands like tamed creatures and can do lots of stuff like even chop wood, mine, or help fight monsters. They could skill up and be dressed like vendors, named, etc... and this all saves so long they are on contract. This might cause balance issues, but it's perhaps a neat idea. They wouldn't be stronger than great tamable creatures and they'd occupy slots obviously, so it'd be a trade-off.
An idea I posted previously and I'm sure others had:
- Ability to save custom homes to a template. Basically go into temporary house placing mode.. build like you normally do, and then save to blueprint. Blueprints can be sold and named. "Garden Castle by [Player name]. The architect can see how many of their blueprints are placed in the world.
