I haven't participated in the quest. I did one trade run and was like... yeah, nope. I have all the skills and I could make the time, but I wouldn't enjoy the grind required. Honestly, stuff like this for such an important milestone really left a bad taste in my mouth. I actually am considering working towards shutting down my final account. I chose to not make a decision immediately, but play something else with a friend and mull it over. All I do in UO is stock vendors these days and I am not sure I really have a reason to keep doing that. I no longer rp as I just didn't find the depth and community that could sustain my interest. Nor do I really collect items anymore outside of a few very particular things. In my opinion, this game will never grow with new players and retain them without some changes to the grindy nature. Grind is fine for eye-candy, but not for content, especially temporary content. As a new player, this event would have honestly caused me to probably find another mmo.
- Allow a few different tasks to complete different stages. Not everyone has x skill.
- This should never should have never been based on RNG. Everytime there is an ambush, or a mib fished or whatever is the trigger for a drop... it should have increased the base drop rate.
- When an event has multiple items required to complete a step, consider the token or turn-in based system and allow people to choose ones they are missing rather than get 10 of one without ever seeing the one they really want.