I'm posting this mostly so that I can bookmark a link to point folks to the next time someone accuses me of doing so well under Age of Shadows that I'm defending it on that basis alone. The reality is that I've done about as well with one as the other.
This, btw, brings me to an interesting aside. We've had UO since September 1997, and have had AoS since February 2003. 6 full years AoS. And 5 full years and 5 months without it. (And that's counting September as a full month even though UO was released late that month.)
In other words, if I'm counting right Age of Shadows has now been around for 7 months longer than the pre-AoS "classic" UO. The plain proof that it doesn't completely suck is that fact that we're still playing and being entertained by the game, and that UO is still "wildly profitable" (actual quote from a Mythic exec, the link to which I've posted ad_nauseam).
Also let me point out that this post is pointless, for many reasons, the most important of which is that the AoS system isn't going anywhere, and attempting to change it wholesale will be a bigger error than was instituting it with all of its excesses intact to begin with.
And then there's the fact that this post won't change anyone's mind about me.
Anyway....This is how AoS should have been done.
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Insurance, but only on artifacts and runic weapons. And a maximum of, say, 2 or 3 items.
Malas and the Dungeon Doom, but with the following changes.
No properties other than Armor Rating on crafted armor.
No properties other than the standard "vanquishing," "accurate," etc. on crafted weapons.
Artifacts have one, or at most two, unique properties. Something like the old Seer items. (So, for example, the Axe of the Heavens would have basically been a Double Axe of Vanquishing, with the Hit Lightning effect. Ever see the Seer katana "Spark" from LS? Something like that. The Blade of Insanity would have been a vanquishing katana with the ability to drain stamina.)
These properties cannot be duplicated on crafter-made stuff. (So, yes, everyone would want an artifact because they were insurable and they have unique properties....But isn't that the point? The term "artifact" in a fantasy context implies great power.)
No elemental/physical resist splitting like now.
Instead, have armor give additional protections against certain spells. So, for example, Barbed armor would absorb some of the damage from e-bolts and lightning.
Other than that, keep the pre-AoS armor system (where with rare exceptions the only property armor had was an Armor Rating that "translated" into Physical Resistance in AoS).
Weapons doing non-physical damage should never have been done for obvious reasons.
Characters who wear no armor whatsoever (naked, or only normal clothes) get a nice natural mana regeneration rate, enough to make it worth their taking the risk.
Implement Necromancy and Chivalry pretty much as is.
Special moves should have been taken off of a combination of mana and stamina. And the mana/stamina cost reduction for having multiple warrior skills should have been much better than was the mana reduction that was actually introduced.
Most of the properties we now know today...LMC, MR, LRC, etc....Would neither be wanted nor needed.
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Lots of other things I could add but I'll just stop there.
This is all academic. AoS isn't going anywhere. To try to revert it or alter it entirely would be catastrophic at this point. To try and do something like keep it intact but remove insurance as it is would also be catastrophic, because AoS as it was implemented made the game more item-based and to take away insurance means to permanently lower a character's effectiveness and would favor....But you've heard all of this before.
Those of you who think that my saying so is solely related to the fact that I have hundreds of millions of gold and uber equipment....Well, I am no longer poor, but I neither have hundreds of millions nor the best equipment. In fact, my equipment is pretty regularly ridiculed.
AoS in the early days of it was downright horrible to me. I regularly had no money in the bank and would routinely lose equipment. I did my first post-AoS harrower spawn in nothing but a death robe for most of the time, fighting off reds with bandages and weapons looted from nearby mummies (this was in Deceit).
The reality may or may not matter to many of you, but the fact that you don't care doesn't change it.
*shrugs*
I now realize there was one other reason to post this: I've had this in mind for about 4 to 5 of the 6 years AoS has been in effect.
Far too late to implement this, or any other major changes to the game's essential systems, now. Would do far more harm than good. But I've said that already.
-Galen's player
This, btw, brings me to an interesting aside. We've had UO since September 1997, and have had AoS since February 2003. 6 full years AoS. And 5 full years and 5 months without it. (And that's counting September as a full month even though UO was released late that month.)
In other words, if I'm counting right Age of Shadows has now been around for 7 months longer than the pre-AoS "classic" UO. The plain proof that it doesn't completely suck is that fact that we're still playing and being entertained by the game, and that UO is still "wildly profitable" (actual quote from a Mythic exec, the link to which I've posted ad_nauseam).
Also let me point out that this post is pointless, for many reasons, the most important of which is that the AoS system isn't going anywhere, and attempting to change it wholesale will be a bigger error than was instituting it with all of its excesses intact to begin with.
And then there's the fact that this post won't change anyone's mind about me.
Anyway....This is how AoS should have been done.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Insurance, but only on artifacts and runic weapons. And a maximum of, say, 2 or 3 items.
Malas and the Dungeon Doom, but with the following changes.
- No recall, no gate in Malas, along the lines of old Ilshenar.
- A Factions-esque system, with Necromancy and Chivalry as the Factions, and good incentives for joining (blessed, but time-limited runics, for example, like pre-AoS Factions).
No properties other than Armor Rating on crafted armor.
No properties other than the standard "vanquishing," "accurate," etc. on crafted weapons.
Artifacts have one, or at most two, unique properties. Something like the old Seer items. (So, for example, the Axe of the Heavens would have basically been a Double Axe of Vanquishing, with the Hit Lightning effect. Ever see the Seer katana "Spark" from LS? Something like that. The Blade of Insanity would have been a vanquishing katana with the ability to drain stamina.)
These properties cannot be duplicated on crafter-made stuff. (So, yes, everyone would want an artifact because they were insurable and they have unique properties....But isn't that the point? The term "artifact" in a fantasy context implies great power.)
No elemental/physical resist splitting like now.
Instead, have armor give additional protections against certain spells. So, for example, Barbed armor would absorb some of the damage from e-bolts and lightning.
Other than that, keep the pre-AoS armor system (where with rare exceptions the only property armor had was an Armor Rating that "translated" into Physical Resistance in AoS).
Weapons doing non-physical damage should never have been done for obvious reasons.
Characters who wear no armor whatsoever (naked, or only normal clothes) get a nice natural mana regeneration rate, enough to make it worth their taking the risk.
Implement Necromancy and Chivalry pretty much as is.
Special moves should have been taken off of a combination of mana and stamina. And the mana/stamina cost reduction for having multiple warrior skills should have been much better than was the mana reduction that was actually introduced.
Most of the properties we now know today...LMC, MR, LRC, etc....Would neither be wanted nor needed.
-------------------------------------
Lots of other things I could add but I'll just stop there.
This is all academic. AoS isn't going anywhere. To try to revert it or alter it entirely would be catastrophic at this point. To try and do something like keep it intact but remove insurance as it is would also be catastrophic, because AoS as it was implemented made the game more item-based and to take away insurance means to permanently lower a character's effectiveness and would favor....But you've heard all of this before.
Those of you who think that my saying so is solely related to the fact that I have hundreds of millions of gold and uber equipment....Well, I am no longer poor, but I neither have hundreds of millions nor the best equipment. In fact, my equipment is pretty regularly ridiculed.
AoS in the early days of it was downright horrible to me. I regularly had no money in the bank and would routinely lose equipment. I did my first post-AoS harrower spawn in nothing but a death robe for most of the time, fighting off reds with bandages and weapons looted from nearby mummies (this was in Deceit).
The reality may or may not matter to many of you, but the fact that you don't care doesn't change it.
*shrugs*
I now realize there was one other reason to post this: I've had this in mind for about 4 to 5 of the 6 years AoS has been in effect.
Far too late to implement this, or any other major changes to the game's essential systems, now. Would do far more harm than good. But I've said that already.
-Galen's player
