Letter to a UO Dev.

[GarthGrey]

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms developer,

I'm Garth Grey and I'm a UO customer of yours. I was having a conversation in general chat and I found myself using a phrase I have used quite a lot lately. I said "that will never happen because our devs don't actually play uo". What did I mean by that ? I meant, something like that will only happen when the people who work on our great game actually play it too. I'm sorry but I simply don't feel like that's what happens. I honestly feel like you guys/gals do this or that for UO, and then go and play WoW or something else in your off time.

Why do I feel that way, you ask ? I"m currently working the Compassion virtue, as i've mentioned in another thread. It's such a pain to endure and anyone that actually worked it in game would know this, and would fix it. But it goes untouched. Another thread is talking about the VvV gump being too large and annoying. This was noticed the day it was launched, and it was complained about, and it went untouched. A dev that actually plays would have had a cow the first time that huge gump popped up and blocked almost the entire screen. I used to love fishing, and loved doing the fishing quests. New docks were finally built in the cities that didn't have them, and you didn't make those towns part of the quests. If you actually played this game with the rest of us, there's no way you would have missed not adding those towns to the group.

I could fill this page with examples of this, but I won't. Anyone that wants to add to it can. I don't mean for this to be a bash the dev-fest. My point is, when I play this game, I should know always, that the people working on it are actually playing it too. But I don't feel that way. I don't expect any type of developer response, but if you do decide to , tell me, tell me that yes, you DO play this game, and here's why some things don't get fixed right away, or here's why we didn't do that, I'll even buy the "damn man we're human, give us a break" response, but I really don't think that's it.

Is it ridiculous for me to think this way ? Someone tell me honestly that I"m asking too much and I'll sulk for a little while, then I"ll shut up about it.


Sincerely,

 

[Captn Norrington]

Garth, think about it. The devs work on UO at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure all of them have at some point played UO in their careers, but after working on the game 8 hours a day for so many years can we really blame them for not wanting to play it when they get home from work?

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

If you were a doctor, would you spend all your free time learning about rare diseases?

If you were a game developer, would you spend all your free time playing the game you work on?

 

[Merlin]

Submitting input and some in-game related gripes is one thing, but the minor insults toward the developers and attitude need adjustment.

 

[Merus]

Garth, think about it. The devs work on UO at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure all of them have at some point played UO in their careers, but after working on the game 8 hours a day for so many years can we really blame them for not wanting to play it when they get home from work?

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

If you were a doctor, would you spend all your free time learning about rare diseases?

If you were a game developer, would you spend all your free time playing the game you work on?

Counter point... if you aren't going to play it, wouldn't it make sense to listen to the ones that actually do when they bring up an issue... particularly when things are on test.

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Garth, think about it. The devs work on UO at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure all of them have at some point played UO in their careers, but after working on the game 8 hours a day for so many years can we really blame them for not wanting to play it when they get home from work?

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

If you were a doctor, would you spend all your free time learning about rare diseases?

If you were a game developer, would you spend all your free time playing the game you work on?

I respectfully disagree Capt. If you love what you do and it is your passion there is no reason you wouldn't want to be a part of it as much as possible.

Take my mother's cardiologist. Cardiology isn't just his job, it is his passion. Besides treating patients, he also teaches cardiology at the University of Oklahoma school of Medicine, he is involved with cardiac research, he is head of Oklahoma Heart Institute and attends seminars on new developments in the cardiac field. He was integral in the design and is integral in the day to day operations of the Oklahoma Heart Institute Hospital. His work is his passion.

I think for most people work is just a job; a means to a pay check. For the fortunate few their work is their passion.

I would think if you were a game designer that you would be a passionate gamer, and would want to make the game you work on the VERY best it can be.

Mesanna and her husband used to play UO back in day, they started out in Quality Assurance Testing. I can't help but wonder where did their passion go?

Did we the players kill their passion with our complaining, whining, and fighting? Did EA kill it; I have read much about what a negative working environment EA is for game designers.

I wish there was a way we could help the Devs or inspire them. I feel like perhaps they have lost their passion, their fire for UO.

I would love to help them get that back.

 

[old gypsy]

If you love what you do, then I would say you are truly blessed. If your work is your passion, that can be good... maybe... as long as that passion doesn't take precedence over the needs of your family, over your spouse and children, etc.

I assume the Devs have families. I'm glad if they love UO, but I rather hope they love their families even more.

 

[Emil Ispep]

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms developer,

I'm Garth Grey and I'm a UO customer of yours. I was having a conversation in general chat and I found myself using a phrase I have used quite a lot lately. I said "that will never happen because our devs don't actually play uo". What did I mean by that ? I meant, something like that will only happen when the people who work on our great game actually play it too. I'm sorry but I simply don't feel like that's what happens. I honestly feel like you guys/gals do this or that for UO, and then go and play WoW or something else in your off time.

Why do I feel that way, you ask ? I"m currently working the Compassion virtue, as i've mentioned in another thread. It's such a pain to endure and anyone that actually worked it in game would know this, and would fix it. But it goes untouched. Another thread is talking about the VvV gump being too large and annoying. This was noticed the day it was launched, and it was complained about, and it went untouched. A dev that actually plays would have had a cow the first time that huge gump popped up and blocked almost the entire screen. I used to love fishing, and loved doing the fishing quests. New docks were finally built in the cities that didn't have them, and you didn't make those towns part of the quests. If you actually played this game with the rest of us, there's no way you would have missed not adding those towns to the group.

I could fill this page with examples of this, but I won't. Anyone that wants to add to it can. I don't mean for this to be a bash the dev-fest. My point is, when I play this game, I should know always, that the people working on it are actually playing it too. But I don't feel that way. I don't expect any type of developer response, but if you do decide to , tell me, tell me that yes, you DO play this game, and here's why some things don't get fixed right away, or here's why we didn't do that, I'll even buy the "damn man we're human, give us a break" response, but I really don't think that's it.

Is it ridiculous for me to think this way ? Someone tell me honestly that I"m asking too much and I'll sulk for a little while, then I"ll shut up about it.


Sincerely,

Well, to help with the compassion, controllers in ils have a chance at dropping something called "compassion sage" drink 5 or 6 of these, and your at max level compassion.. maybe take an hour or so to get em all?

*edit*

If the devs didnt care, would they have added it?

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

If you love what you do, then I would say you are truly blessed. If your work is your passion, that can be good... maybe... as long as that passion doesn't take precedence over the needs of your family, over your spouse and children, etc.

I assume the Devs have families. I'm glad if they love UO, but I rather hope they love their families even more.

Here,here!!!

 

[klapios]

If you dont have staff playing the game or playing it yourself you are doing it wrong--a film maker shouldn't release a film before actually watching it(and having other people watch it too). I wouldn't expect the devs to play the game as much as some of us do, but playing the game wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation.

 

[Alexander of ATL.]

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

I would but that is because I love law/politics and have no life.

 

[Alexander of ATL.]

If you dont have staff playing the game or playing it yourself you are doing it wrong--a film maker shouldn't release a film before actually watching it(and having other people watch it too). I wouldn't expect the devs to play the game as much as some of us do, but playing the game wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation.

+1 for truth!
I've endured a lot of bad films while being in film school and other students fail to learn that they need to go over the final production before releasing the film to the public.

 

[Laura_Gold]

The nerfs to Consecrate Weapon, Evasion, Confidence, Enemy of One must have been done by someone who never used those.

 

[Promathia]

Compassion? That's one of the easiest virtues to gain! If you are going to use an example of an overly annoying virtue, it should have been Honesty. I really cant believe I am reading that Compassion, out of all the virtues, is so hard for someone that they have to rant on Stratics.

As for the VvV gump, sure it should be resizable, but really....its only a problem if you have a small monitor.

A dev that actually plays would have had a cow the first time that huge gump popped up and blocked almost the entire screen.

How small is your monitor if it takes up almost your whole screen?!

 

[Laura_Gold]

Promathia: 640x480, fullscreen, the vvv gump takes up more than a quarter of the screen. How we know the devs don't use that resolution ever: the vendor search is bigger than 640x480, i.e. it's bigger than the whole screen.

 

[Laura_Gold]

The Exodus encounter keys still have a one week timer on them. When this was posted before, someone suggested being open to making it two weeks. Nothing was done.

The Original Poster there wanted the timers taken off the exodus keys altogether. This is still a good idea. It's pretty close to impossible to get enough competent people together to kill a clockwork exodus on some of the sparsely populated shards, with the one-week timer keys.

 

[Petra Fyde]

The secret of not getting bored doing compassion is to keep it topped up. Once you reach knight one escort per week will keep it topped up.
If you want a more fun way to gain, kill controllers for compassion sage - do it in Blackthorns and get credit towards a minax arti at the same time. One compassion sage = a full day's worth of compassion gain.

 

[Slayvite]

Reading this it sounds like you all actually think we have more than 1 dev??!?

 

[Laura_Gold]

1. Start mage merchants with more than 20 of each reagent. How about 100, which is a day's adventuring for ONE person?
2. Double right click to remove spell icons from the playing area. As it is now, it is too easy to "lose" an icon when you want to run, especially when playing 640x480 full screen/full screen.
3. The mage vendors in Luna "blink" very often. This makes buying from them very difficult -- in the middle of a sale, they "blink" and the buying menu disappears. Just lock them down.
4. Make small blackrock pieces stackable. Do the same for fire ant goo, slug slime, fish food, tasty treats.
5. The "mini-boss" of an Abyss mini-spawn should always have at least one of the Essence for his area.
6. Get rid of monsters looting player corpses. That's not fun at all -- especially in a spawn area, where a monster's body decays so quickly a player is unlikely to recover his items. Or perhaps they could be limited to looting only food and gold.
7. Useful items need to be made available. It sucks to be a new player, finding out that useful things like the Conjurer's Trinket can't be had at any price.
8. Enemy Of One does not appear to add a damage bonus to someone wielding a slayer weapon. Please fix.
9. Allow characters to instantly log out in their homes or at an inn. You're half a world away from that combat you just escaped from.
10. When you buy something, put it in the same spot in the backpack all the time. This will save time afterwards looking for it, especially for things that are the same color as the bottom of the backpack. Do the same for trades.
11. Allow grandmaster or above smiths, tailors, and tinkers to "repair without weakening" (it used to be this way).

13. Allow Fey Slayer property to be imbued.
14. Consistently use Elizabethan English ("thees" and "thous") and fix all existing text
15. Have gargoyles use infinitive verbs and fix all existing text
16. On the classic client, save the state of the menu being closed
17. Boots of rapid quicksand walking
18. Arcane talons for gargoyles
19. Ability to alter aprons back and forth between gargoyle and human (sheesh, reality would be just tying the strings a little tighter for humans; who can't do that?)
20. Ability to alter elf clothing for human.
21. Ability to use interior decorator to "turn" weapons that have two different facing graphics
22. The "Guilty" quest. Fix text and grammar of "You are not allowed to damage this NPC unless your on the Guilty Quest"
This is a fiction breaker. How about "Gregorio is protected by special magic! Ask the Lady of Skara Brae about him."
23. Have Incognito toggle
24. When you kill an NPC under Trammel you get a "You cannot loot that corpse" message. Just let me loot it.
25. Use the same (Necromancy) wraith form graphic for both sexes. As it is now, males have a tremendous advantage in PvP -- hard to see, hard to target.
26. Mouseover of a vendor backpack should show the number of items. As it is now, there's no quick way to tell how many items a vendor has.
27. Shared storage that can be accessed by all characters on an account regardless of which shard
28. Quest for human/elf->gargoyle and gargoyle->human/elf
29. Get rid of "That creature's spirit lacks cohesion" delay for the vet resurrecting pets
30. Gloves that will allow humans and elves to use throwing weapons (make them good gloves equivalent to Stormgrip)
31. Allow Honoring an opponent without doing the path find. The path find is defective. You never find a path to something that is flying, even if it's right next to you and you can hit it with a melee weapon.
32. Upon login, write the date, time, and character name into the journal, e.g. Woke up: David 10-March-2012 5:54 a.m.
33. Make it easier to change the journal file used
34. We'd like a gazer slayer weapon property
35. Give a message only when Perfection changes. Seeing "you have achieved perfection" messages each time you swing a weapon isn't useful. Better yet, make an icon for the "buff box" that graphically shows your amount of perfection.
36. A set of talon armor for gargoyles that has the same damage absorbing properties as swamp dragon armor for humans and elves
37. Wider flying areas for gargoyles. Why can birds fly over water and gargoyles can't?
38. When you recall across a server boundary, the contents of the backpack get z-ordered the opposite way. Stop doing that. It's annoying.
39. On the classic client, have the Options save to hard drive when you click OKAY on the dialog box. The way it is now, it doesn't get saved if there's a client crash later, or if you lose connection.
40. Double the amount of arrows a quiver can carry, to 1000.
41. Make an alternate path for Justice that does not require PvP. How about killing ANY red-named creature?
42. An equivalent of +1, +3, +5 mining gloves for gargoyles
43. Allow recalling out of Heartwood

45. Have additional acid popper quests that can be done more than once.
46. Reduce skree to two control slots, or beef up their melee attack damage, or allow them to learn higher level mysticism spells. As it is now, a nightmare is a better pet.
47. Have Animal Lore display a pet's mysticism skill where relevant
48. Reduce bonding time for pets. Perhaps using tasty treats or deliciously tasty treats would reduce the time.
49. Some monsters when carved produce "Cut of Raw Ribs" that does not stack. Fix that to be the stackable kind, then ask yourself, "why are there objects that look and are tagged identically, yet some stack and some don't?"
50. Allow adding charges to arcane clothing without first using them up completely

51. Allow a vendor to hold more items
52. Allow taming of cu sidhes by non-elves, or introduce self-healing pets for gargoyles and humans
53. Have damage done by pet appear in a different color than damage done to pet.
54. Bring back the original Ultima Online music (mp3-ize the old MIDI files, with the good sound)
55. Provide a way of changing the description and price of an item that's on a vendor without removing it (context menu)
56. Take the limits off seed boxes.
57. Allow honoring of a monster that has cast bless on itself (they get the "too damaged" thing)

59. Reset ALL "about a day" timers at server up
60. For escort quests, remove the "must wait five minutes." Instead, have doing more than five in the 24 hour period get less gold. Hey, they know transportation is plentiful.

62. Change a spellweaver's focus only for the better. Some chucklehead is always doing the spell after someone's stepped off the arcane circle.
63. Have a bulk order book count as one item regardless of how many deeds are in it
64. Have the classic client "remember" your password (fill in the field) every time except when you first start a session. You shouldn't have to retype it just to change characters.
65. Change some macros like bandage self or select nearest hostile not to need the new targeting system on
66. Make Farmer Nash's Pitchfork a quest item from the get-go
67. Allow weeding of Farmer Nash's garden without permission (but if you do that, you never find the pitchfork). This is better than the awful text you get when you try it now.
68. Let a prospector's tool be used on a vein without first having to hit the vein with a pickaxe or shovel
69. When mining, don't deplete adjacent veins.
70. When mining a vein of rare ore, give mostly the rare ore and not mostly iron.
71. Let a grandmaster miner with 125 str have a 100% chance of smelting all ores.
72. When backpack is full, have newly mined ore fall to the ground instead of being "lost"

73. Morph earrings don't work for gargoyles, and should
74. There should be quests for gargish virtues
75. There should be Gargish and human equivalents to the Darkwood Suit
76. Make all NPCs speak as they once did, and each be able to respond to "name" "job" "health."
77. Get rid of server boundaries. Are they really on different servers any more? Try walking up to Minoc. It's awful, because you change servers back and forth following the road.
78. Have ALL items that are available in game be craftable, e.g. forged metal tool, full soulstones.
79. Allow pets to train up to gain stats, including resistances, to the maximum of their species.
80. Have "whetstone" able to remove ANY property, not just damage increase.

81. Fix imbuing to include imbuing of all the new properties.
82. Make all named armor suit pieces (e.g. Myrmidon armor) to have the same likelihood. As it is, we all now have sets that are missing the SAME two pieces. We can't trade, we all need the SAME things.

 

[Slayvite]

How about an "i win" button with those requests.......

 

[Deraj]

Promathia: 640x480, fullscreen, the vvv gump takes up more than a quarter of the screen. How we know the devs don't use that resolution ever: the vendor search is bigger than 640x480, i.e. it's bigger than the whole screen.

I have to ask, why are you playing with a 640x480 resolution?

 

[Gameboy]

Dear UO Dev team, ya.

That's all.
Marc

 

[whiterabbit]

When backpack is full, have newly mined ore fall to the ground instead of being "lost"
was put in for script miners

 

[Kayne.]

Most game developers work 60+ hours a week and there is a high turnover rate / burnout rate in the industry. Give them a break. It's one of the most stressful careers in the nerd world. I am friends with a few who have worked 14 hour days for a month straight on their games just to meet deadlines.

I can't imagine UO is in the higher priorities of the owners, so I doubt these devs are making nearly what they would for working on other projects. You expect them to work then go home and play UO? Maybe they have families, kids, other **** going on (the real reason I quit years ago).

lol.

 

[Merlin]

The Exodus encounter keys still have a one week timer on them. When this was posted before, someone suggested being open to making it two weeks. Nothing was done.

The Original Poster there wanted the timers taken off the exodus keys altogether. This is still a good idea. It's pretty close to impossible to get enough competent people together to kill a clockwork exodus on some of the sparsely populated shards, with the one-week timer keys.

1. Start mage merchants with more than 20 of each reagent. How about 100, which is a day's adventuring for ONE person?
2. Double right click to remove spell icons from the playing area. As it is now, it is too easy to "lose" an icon when you want to run, especially when playing 640x480 full screen/full screen.
3. The mage vendors in Luna "blink" very often. This makes buying from them very difficult -- in the middle of a sale, they "blink" and the buying menu disappears. Just lock them down.
4. Make small blackrock pieces stackable. Do the same for fire ant goo, slug slime, fish food, tasty treats.
5. The "mini-boss" of an Abyss mini-spawn should always have at least one of the Essence for his area.
6. Get rid of monsters looting player corpses. That's not fun at all -- especially in a spawn area, where a monster's body decays so quickly a player is unlikely to recover his items. Or perhaps they could be limited to looting only food and gold.
7. Useful items need to be made available. It sucks to be a new player, finding out that useful things like the Conjurer's Trinket can't be had at any price.
8. Enemy Of One does not appear to add a damage bonus to someone wielding a slayer weapon. Please fix.
9. Allow characters to instantly log out in their homes or at an inn. You're half a world away from that combat you just escaped from.
10. When you buy something, put it in the same spot in the backpack all the time. This will save time afterwards looking for it, especially for things that are the same color as the bottom of the backpack. Do the same for trades.
11. Allow grandmaster or above smiths, tailors, and tinkers to "repair without weakening" (it used to be this way).

13. Allow Fey Slayer property to be imbued.
14. Consistently use Elizabethan English ("thees" and "thous") and fix all existing text
15. Have gargoyles use infinitive verbs and fix all existing text
16. On the classic client, save the state of the menu being closed
17. Boots of rapid quicksand walking
18. Arcane talons for gargoyles
19. Ability to alter aprons back and forth between gargoyle and human (sheesh, reality would be just tying the strings a little tighter for humans; who can't do that?)
20. Ability to alter elf clothing for human.
21. Ability to use interior decorator to "turn" weapons that have two different facing graphics
22. The "Guilty" quest. Fix text and grammar of "You are not allowed to damage this NPC unless your on the Guilty Quest"
This is a fiction breaker. How about "Gregorio is protected by special magic! Ask the Lady of Skara Brae about him."
23. Have Incognito toggle
24. When you kill an NPC under Trammel you get a "You cannot loot that corpse" message. Just let me loot it.
25. Use the same (Necromancy) wraith form graphic for both sexes. As it is now, males have a tremendous advantage in PvP -- hard to see, hard to target.
26. Mouseover of a vendor backpack should show the number of items. As it is now, there's no quick way to tell how many items a vendor has.
27. Shared storage that can be accessed by all characters on an account regardless of which shard
28. Quest for human/elf->gargoyle and gargoyle->human/elf
29. Get rid of "That creature's spirit lacks cohesion" delay for the vet resurrecting pets
30. Gloves that will allow humans and elves to use throwing weapons (make them good gloves equivalent to Stormgrip)
31. Allow Honoring an opponent without doing the path find. The path find is defective. You never find a path to something that is flying, even if it's right next to you and you can hit it with a melee weapon.
32. Upon login, write the date, time, and character name into the journal, e.g. Woke up: David 10-March-2012 5:54 a.m.
33. Make it easier to change the journal file used
34. We'd like a gazer slayer weapon property
35. Give a message only when Perfection changes. Seeing "you have achieved perfection" messages each time you swing a weapon isn't useful. Better yet, make an icon for the "buff box" that graphically shows your amount of perfection.
36. A set of talon armor for gargoyles that has the same damage absorbing properties as swamp dragon armor for humans and elves
37. Wider flying areas for gargoyles. Why can birds fly over water and gargoyles can't?
38. When you recall across a server boundary, the contents of the backpack get z-ordered the opposite way. Stop doing that. It's annoying.
39. On the classic client, have the Options save to hard drive when you click OKAY on the dialog box. The way it is now, it doesn't get saved if there's a client crash later, or if you lose connection.
40. Double the amount of arrows a quiver can carry, to 1000.
41. Make an alternate path for Justice that does not require PvP. How about killing ANY red-named creature?
42. An equivalent of +1, +3, +5 mining gloves for gargoyles
43. Allow recalling out of Heartwood

45. Have additional acid popper quests that can be done more than once.
46. Reduce skree to two control slots, or beef up their melee attack damage, or allow them to learn higher level mysticism spells. As it is now, a nightmare is a better pet.
47. Have Animal Lore display a pet's mysticism skill where relevant
48. Reduce bonding time for pets. Perhaps using tasty treats or deliciously tasty treats would reduce the time.
49. Some monsters when carved produce "Cut of Raw Ribs" that does not stack. Fix that to be the stackable kind, then ask yourself, "why are there objects that look and are tagged identically, yet some stack and some don't?"
50. Allow adding charges to arcane clothing without first using them up completely

51. Allow a vendor to hold more items
52. Allow taming of cu sidhes by non-elves, or introduce self-healing pets for gargoyles and humans
53. Have damage done by pet appear in a different color than damage done to pet.
54. Bring back the original Ultima Online music (mp3-ize the old MIDI files, with the good sound)
55. Provide a way of changing the description and price of an item that's on a vendor without removing it (context menu)
56. Take the limits off seed boxes.
57. Allow honoring of a monster that has cast bless on itself (they get the "too damaged" thing)

59. Reset ALL "about a day" timers at server up
60. For escort quests, remove the "must wait five minutes." Instead, have doing more than five in the 24 hour period get less gold. Hey, they know transportation is plentiful.

62. Change a spellweaver's focus only for the better. Some chucklehead is always doing the spell after someone's stepped off the arcane circle.
63. Have a bulk order book count as one item regardless of how many deeds are in it
64. Have the classic client "remember" your password (fill in the field) every time except when you first start a session. You shouldn't have to retype it just to change characters.
65. Change some macros like bandage self or select nearest hostile not to need the new targeting system on
66. Make Farmer Nash's Pitchfork a quest item from the get-go
67. Allow weeding of Farmer Nash's garden without permission (but if you do that, you never find the pitchfork). This is better than the awful text you get when you try it now.
68. Let a prospector's tool be used on a vein without first having to hit the vein with a pickaxe or shovel
69. When mining, don't deplete adjacent veins.
70. When mining a vein of rare ore, give mostly the rare ore and not mostly iron.
71. Let a grandmaster miner with 125 str have a 100% chance of smelting all ores.
72. When backpack is full, have newly mined ore fall to the ground instead of being "lost"

73. Morph earrings don't work for gargoyles, and should
74. There should be quests for gargish virtues
75. There should be Gargish and human equivalents to the Darkwood Suit
76. Make all NPCs speak as they once did, and each be able to respond to "name" "job" "health."
77. Get rid of server boundaries. Are they really on different servers any more? Try walking up to Minoc. It's awful, because you change servers back and forth following the road.
78. Have ALL items that are available in game be craftable, e.g. forged metal tool, full soulstones.
79. Allow pets to train up to gain stats, including resistances, to the maximum of their species.
80. Have "whetstone" able to remove ANY property, not just damage increase.

81. Fix imbuing to include imbuing of all the new properties.
82. Make all named armor suit pieces (e.g. Myrmidon armor) to have the same likelihood. As it is, we all now have sets that are missing the SAME two pieces. We can't trade, we all need the SAME things.

Just because someone posts an idea doesn't mean it should happen. I wouldn't mind if peerless keys lasted two weeks either, but that doesn't mean they should automatically act on it.

Your post that listed 80+ suggestions, some of them are good ideas but just because someone wants something doesn't mean it should be done. In example, armor SHOULD weaken when you repair it. There is no need to change anything with Arcane Circle - it's not broke, don't fix it. So on and so forth.

I think a lot of people discount that the developer team has limited resources and they are dealing with a game who's coding is 18 years old and they no longer have anyone on staff who was here when it was written. Hate to say it, but everyone needs to lower their expectations.

 

[Tina Small]

Hate to say it, but everyone needs to lower their expectations.

Perhaps it is also time, then, for EA to lower the cost for UO subscriptions and UO-related items in the Origin store? Or do something like give us access to two games (e.g,, Dark Age of Camelot and UO) for the price of one?

 

[Peekay]

It's hard to be happy doing anything when the people you do it for will never actually be happy with anything you do. Regardless of whether you're being paid or not.

You give it a try sometime, then post here letting us know how that works out.

 

[Cymidei]

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms developer,

Is it ridiculous for me to think this way ? Someone tell me honestly that I"m asking too much and I'll sulk for a little while, then I"ll shut up about it.

Sincerely,

Not ridiculous! Just understand that everything costs time and money and Broadsword is a small studio. I know Messana played UO every day and was more committed to UO and harder working than anyone I have ever known back when I knew her. Just keep in mind that Devs can't please everyone.

Anything they change could have huge consequences for the game and cost downtime, players, and money. UO is an 18 year old dinosaur that has gone through so many developers and patches is a miracle it still runs If they are slow to implement changes that is a good thing and it protects the servers.

Just try some easy server programming on for size, try setting up and running a Minecraft server, see how FUBARed things can get if you configure a bukkit plugin wrong or forget a curly bracket somewhere ...now imagine you have an 18 year old game that has gone through thousands of changes, has all kinds of complex systems and dependencies and is written in C++, etc. etc. etc.

You tug a string here....and the whole tapestry could unravel. If you don't believe me...believe me! I remember the time they misspelled "bandanas" as "bananas" and we were all sitting at the West Britain bank crafting purple bananas out of cloth. Remember the time Hanse put "mooglow" instead of Moonglow in the database and the whole region started making cow noises! True story...any change could result in bugs and hilarity. Those were cute little bugs that didn't crash the server...anyone remember how laggy and buggy AOS was the day they released it...or the day they opened Trammel to housing? Sheer horror.

Slow changes mean higher quality.The changes you proposed could take months to develop, test, and implement...meanwhile not everyone who plays would even agree that they would like those changes. Believe me owning a game, or running a server is pure hell and you can never make everyone happy...

Cymidei Fier,
Former UO Baja Stratics News Manager of 10 years

 

[Fridgster]

1. Start mage merchants with more than 20 of each reagent. How about 100, which is a day's adventuring for ONE person?
2. Double right click to remove spell icons from the playing area. As it is now, it is too easy to "lose" an icon when you want to run, especially when playing 640x480 full screen/full screen.
3. The mage vendors in Luna "blink" very often. This makes buying from them very difficult -- in the middle of a sale, they "blink" and the buying menu disappears. Just lock them down.
4. Make small blackrock pieces stackable. Do the same for fire ant goo, slug slime, fish food, tasty treats.
5. The "mini-boss" of an Abyss mini-spawn should always have at least one of the Essence for his area.
6. Get rid of monsters looting player corpses. That's not fun at all -- especially in a spawn area, where a monster's body decays so quickly a player is unlikely to recover his items. Or perhaps they could be limited to looting only food and gold.
7. Useful items need to be made available. It sucks to be a new player, finding out that useful things like the Conjurer's Trinket can't be had at any price.
8. Enemy Of One does not appear to add a damage bonus to someone wielding a slayer weapon. Please fix.
9. Allow characters to instantly log out in their homes or at an inn. You're half a world away from that combat you just escaped from.
10. When you buy something, put it in the same spot in the backpack all the time. This will save time afterwards looking for it, especially for things that are the same color as the bottom of the backpack. Do the same for trades.
11. Allow grandmaster or above smiths, tailors, and tinkers to "repair without weakening" (it used to be this way).

13. Allow Fey Slayer property to be imbued.
14. Consistently use Elizabethan English ("thees" and "thous") and fix all existing text
15. Have gargoyles use infinitive verbs and fix all existing text
16. On the classic client, save the state of the menu being closed
17. Boots of rapid quicksand walking
18. Arcane talons for gargoyles
19. Ability to alter aprons back and forth between gargoyle and human (sheesh, reality would be just tying the strings a little tighter for humans; who can't do that?)
20. Ability to alter elf clothing for human.
21. Ability to use interior decorator to "turn" weapons that have two different facing graphics
22. The "Guilty" quest. Fix text and grammar of "You are not allowed to damage this NPC unless your on the Guilty Quest"
This is a fiction breaker. How about "Gregorio is protected by special magic! Ask the Lady of Skara Brae about him."
23. Have Incognito toggle
24. When you kill an NPC under Trammel you get a "You cannot loot that corpse" message. Just let me loot it.
25. Use the same (Necromancy) wraith form graphic for both sexes. As it is now, males have a tremendous advantage in PvP -- hard to see, hard to target.
26. Mouseover of a vendor backpack should show the number of items. As it is now, there's no quick way to tell how many items a vendor has.
27. Shared storage that can be accessed by all characters on an account regardless of which shard
28. Quest for human/elf->gargoyle and gargoyle->human/elf
29. Get rid of "That creature's spirit lacks cohesion" delay for the vet resurrecting pets
30. Gloves that will allow humans and elves to use throwing weapons (make them good gloves equivalent to Stormgrip)
31. Allow Honoring an opponent without doing the path find. The path find is defective. You never find a path to something that is flying, even if it's right next to you and you can hit it with a melee weapon.
32. Upon login, write the date, time, and character name into the journal, e.g. Woke up: David 10-March-2012 5:54 a.m.
33. Make it easier to change the journal file used
34. We'd like a gazer slayer weapon property
35. Give a message only when Perfection changes. Seeing "you have achieved perfection" messages each time you swing a weapon isn't useful. Better yet, make an icon for the "buff box" that graphically shows your amount of perfection.
36. A set of talon armor for gargoyles that has the same damage absorbing properties as swamp dragon armor for humans and elves
37. Wider flying areas for gargoyles. Why can birds fly over water and gargoyles can't?
38. When you recall across a server boundary, the contents of the backpack get z-ordered the opposite way. Stop doing that. It's annoying.
39. On the classic client, have the Options save to hard drive when you click OKAY on the dialog box. The way it is now, it doesn't get saved if there's a client crash later, or if you lose connection.
40. Double the amount of arrows a quiver can carry, to 1000.
41. Make an alternate path for Justice that does not require PvP. How about killing ANY red-named creature?
42. An equivalent of +1, +3, +5 mining gloves for gargoyles
43. Allow recalling out of Heartwood

45. Have additional acid popper quests that can be done more than once.
46. Reduce skree to two control slots, or beef up their melee attack damage, or allow them to learn higher level mysticism spells. As it is now, a nightmare is a better pet.
47. Have Animal Lore display a pet's mysticism skill where relevant
48. Reduce bonding time for pets. Perhaps using tasty treats or deliciously tasty treats would reduce the time.
49. Some monsters when carved produce "Cut of Raw Ribs" that does not stack. Fix that to be the stackable kind, then ask yourself, "why are there objects that look and are tagged identically, yet some stack and some don't?"
50. Allow adding charges to arcane clothing without first using them up completely

51. Allow a vendor to hold more items
52. Allow taming of cu sidhes by non-elves, or introduce self-healing pets for gargoyles and humans
53. Have damage done by pet appear in a different color than damage done to pet.
54. Bring back the original Ultima Online music (mp3-ize the old MIDI files, with the good sound)
55. Provide a way of changing the description and price of an item that's on a vendor without removing it (context menu)
56. Take the limits off seed boxes.
57. Allow honoring of a monster that has cast bless on itself (they get the "too damaged" thing)

59. Reset ALL "about a day" timers at server up
60. For escort quests, remove the "must wait five minutes." Instead, have doing more than five in the 24 hour period get less gold. Hey, they know transportation is plentiful.

62. Change a spellweaver's focus only for the better. Some chucklehead is always doing the spell after someone's stepped off the arcane circle.
63. Have a bulk order book count as one item regardless of how many deeds are in it
64. Have the classic client "remember" your password (fill in the field) every time except when you first start a session. You shouldn't have to retype it just to change characters.
65. Change some macros like bandage self or select nearest hostile not to need the new targeting system on
66. Make Farmer Nash's Pitchfork a quest item from the get-go
67. Allow weeding of Farmer Nash's garden without permission (but if you do that, you never find the pitchfork). This is better than the awful text you get when you try it now.
68. Let a prospector's tool be used on a vein without first having to hit the vein with a pickaxe or shovel
69. When mining, don't deplete adjacent veins.
70. When mining a vein of rare ore, give mostly the rare ore and not mostly iron.
71. Let a grandmaster miner with 125 str have a 100% chance of smelting all ores.
72. When backpack is full, have newly mined ore fall to the ground instead of being "lost"

73. Morph earrings don't work for gargoyles, and should
74. There should be quests for gargish virtues
75. There should be Gargish and human equivalents to the Darkwood Suit
76. Make all NPCs speak as they once did, and each be able to respond to "name" "job" "health."
77. Get rid of server boundaries. Are they really on different servers any more? Try walking up to Minoc. It's awful, because you change servers back and forth following the road.
78. Have ALL items that are available in game be craftable, e.g. forged metal tool, full soulstones.
79. Allow pets to train up to gain stats, including resistances, to the maximum of their species.
80. Have "whetstone" able to remove ANY property, not just damage increase.

81. Fix imbuing to include imbuing of all the new properties.
82. Make all named armor suit pieces (e.g. Myrmidon armor) to have the same likelihood. As it is, we all now have sets that are missing the SAME two pieces. We can't trade, we all need the SAME things.

There are a few in that list I would agree with. Many I do not. I was going to reply to each, however a more obvious question that came to mind is... well if you feel all these things are wrong... why do you play?

 

[MalagAste]

I think a lot of people discount that the developer team has limited resources and they are dealing with a game who's coding is 18 years old and they no longer have anyone on staff who was here when it was written. Hate to say it, but everyone needs to lower their expectations.

Not only was it written 18+ years ago... by staff who are no longer working on the game... but as they have admitted many a time in the past NONE of it was documented... so you have massive strings of code that are god knows where... trying to find some of it would be like searching all of New York City for a person with only a picture and no computer. Just going door to door looking for the person. Probably why that age old bug of having trammel turn to fel all the sudden is still in the game after all these years. (which by the way if you go back and forth from Tokuno or Malas it also toggles between those as well but it's not nearly as noticeable as the Fel/Tram thing.)

As for them not playing the game that's been obvious for a long time. My guess is that somehow they are not allowed to play "with" other players so they play alone on some shard or something where they honestly have no clue how players actually play the game because they play the game as they believe it ought to be played or how they intended for us to play it... yet we don't because we play it all the time and they obviously rarely do.

And I think they would probably like to do more.... but they keep having to come up with other things all the time that distract them from actually fixing many issues... Such as soon after the start of the year we will all be expecting something "new" for Valentines... After that it's Easter... Then they might actually get some stuff done for awhile but they have to keep in the back of their minds that the new Anniversary is around the corner and October is coming around the corner so they not only have to come up with some sort of an idea about what to spawn in the Cemeteries (as this is expected) but they also have to think about Trick or Treating, being sure not to make things too easy or too much of a grind, or even too difficult... balancing things for populated and unpopulated shards etc.... but then it's Thanksgiving shortly after and then everyone will expect something for Christmas again... so there is always 100's of "expected" things they have to do all the time or well players get angry.

Remember the year we all got "regifted" for Christmas?

And remember the team is WAY smaller than it once was.... so one artist means all this stuff we expect has to come from him. New stuff for Valentines, Easter, The Anniversary, Halloween, and Christmas most especially. BIG deals. Anyway just saying.

I know I get on them quite often about a lot of things... but really they do quite a lot of things. Yes there are many things we'd all like to see fixed, changed and revised... and we all have certain expectations of how things "should" be... but that's not always how it ought to be.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

there's a big difference between programming a game and playing a game. i work as a telecommunications developer (programming telephone systems) but that doesn't mean i avoid talking on the phone when i'm not working. the same principal applies to game programming.

there does seem to be some disconnect between what gets implemented in the game and how it affects gameplay. is it a QA issue? testing always seems to get the short end of the stick. are they offshoring work? b/c that in itself can introduce issues. are they catering to the squeaky wheel?

my guess is that they count on us to give feedback based on TC. problem is, if you don't know what changes are being made then how do you know to test that action thoroughly. the recent chivalry changes come to mind. too bad they can't have ongoing focus groups with the players. that would be a huge step in the right direction.

 

[sibble]

Garth, think about it. The devs work on UO at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure all of them have at some point played UO in their careers, but after working on the game 8 hours a day for so many years can we really blame them for not wanting to play it when they get home from work?

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

If you were a doctor, would you spend all your free time learning about rare diseases?

If you were a game developer, would you spend all your free time playing the game you work on?

If I was a game developer, I'd like to think that part of my job would be to actually play the game that I'm working on. I don't think it should be done in their free time at all.

If I lead a team that worked on a game, somewhere in that team would be a person who tests the content. A person dedicated to testing the balances in character templates for PVP combat would be essential to fair game play.

 

[cazador]

If I was a game developer, I'd like to think that part of my job would be to actually play the game that I'm working on. I don't think it should be done in their free time at all.

If I lead a team that worked on a game, somewhere in that team would be a person who tests the content.

Why? The 7 people on test and origin do duh!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

If I was a game developer, I'd like to think that part of my job would be to actually play the game that I'm working on. I don't think it should be done in their free time at all.

If I lead a team that worked on a game, somewhere in that team would be a person who tests the content. A person dedicated to testing the balances in character templates for PVP combat would be essential to fair game play.

that describes how it should be. developer does programming. developer tests their code. developer turns it over to a QA person for testing. after QA is finished, the change is given to a end user for testing. once all those levels of testing are done, the change is moved to production.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

Why? The 7 people on test and origin do duh!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

there's a lot of truth in that statement.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Remember the year we all got "regifted" for Christmas?

And remember the team is WAY smaller than it once was.... so one artist means all this stuff we expect has to come from him. New stuff for Valentines, Easter, The Anniversary, Halloween, and Christmas most especially. BIG deals. Anyway just saying.

.

I wish they would do some of the things suggested, and just regift at the next couple of Christmas and anniversaries. Heritage tokens, transfer tokens, soul stone frag tokens, take both the Scouts armor and the Sorceror's suit, rename em and rehue em and make them a random item in the gift box (with one or two pieces harder to get...) heck, even holiday bells with char names on them or something. Regifting isn't bad, as long as it isn't cheap...nice gifts are always welcome, and this would relieve some of the load perhaps.

 

[MalagAste]

I wish they would do some of the things suggested, and just regift at the next couple of Christmas and anniversaries. Heritage tokens, transfer tokens, soul stone frag tokens, take both the Scouts armor and the Sorceror's suit, rename em and rehue em and make them a random item in the gift box (with one or two pieces harder to get...) heck, even holiday bells with char names on them or something. Regifting isn't bad, as long as it isn't cheap...nice gifts are always welcome, and this would relieve some of the load perhaps.

Oh I agree though if I get any more Heritage tokens I think I'll need my head examined. But Soul Stone Frags, Holiday Bells with our names... and DEV names are always welcome... I wish that the names you get were based on the shard you logged in to though... I mean on GLs do I really give a rats about getting EM someone else? I want Malachi and Elizabella.... and I'm sure people on Atl want EM Bennu..... they don't give a rats about my EM... Anyway... that's me.

I LOVE collecting as do many others so getting things that are "rare" makes it so much fun... Some things many of us treasure are just things like old roses from friends who are gone now... so having things spawn with our names on them.. make great keepsakes for later when we can give them away. Somewhat like the Valentines cards we got that we could give to other people that had our name and theirs on it.

The biggest problem with giving us things that are "useful" is that the powerscroll books, Alacrity Books and such is that new and returning players then miss out.... and that's honestly not really fair. So when we got recipes to me that's WAY better. Now those things like the Atlas will be available to new and returning players forever because we can craft them... Same with the Vases.

As for Halloween folk have asked to redo the one with the crystals... but people would also like to get the Undead Grimoire and the Undead Talisman again too... Maybe giving new varieties of candies..... new colors, new bottles of wine... maybe some other cute renamed rehued items for Treats would be neat.

 

[cazador]

I think there should be randomly generated gift days like December 27th you log in and receive a random gift..it ensures people log in daily to check haha


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[Captn Norrington]

I think there should be randomly generated gift days like December 27th you log in and receive a random gift..it ensures people log in daily to check haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would be really cool if one random day per month every character who logs in gets a free item. It doesn't have to be a new item, they could just make it something simple like maybe a random type of scroll. So a person could get a 115 Magery scroll in January, a 1.0 swordsmanship transcendence scroll in February, and a 15 minute Bushido alacrity scroll in March, etc.

 

[cazador]

That would be really cool if one random day per month every character who logs in gets a free item. It doesn't have to be a new item, they could just make it something simple like maybe a random type of scroll. So a person could get a 115 Magery scroll in January, a 1.0 swordsmanship transcendence scroll in February, and a 15 minute Bushido alacrity scroll in March, etc.

Yea like they could have January "Annual Crafter Appreciation Month" and you can get a .5-3.0 (tailor/smith/scribe/carp/fletch pinkies) or any reward from the BODs..so many ideas so little drive


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[MalagAste]

Yea like they could have January "Annual Crafter Appreciation Month" and you can get a .5-3.0 (tailor/smith/scribe/carp/fletch pinkies) or any reward from the BODs..so many ideas so little drive


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like that pick a month for Crafter Appreciation..... Tamer Appreciation... etc... that's pretty neat.

 

[arkiu]

I respect the devs and everything they do to keep this game going. But frankly, their work is sub par and it boggles my mind that some people think otherwise. I too question whether or not the devs actually play this game. I understand the studios resources are limited and the game needs to survive somehow... But what I believe makes the difference is that this game has a monthly sub fee. Over the course of a year, each of pay $120 to play UO. In return we get artwork that looks lousy, unpolished content, things that dont work, things that work but are just flat out not enjoyable, and often times a cold shoulder from the devs (except Kyro). I know people are going to hate me for saying this, and I know this isn't a fair thing to say, but here is my perspective: I purchased Elder Scrolls Online (no sub fees) over the summer for $13, on a flash sale. Less than the cost of 1 month of UO. Different game, different company. I get it. But an outsider considering playing UO probably wouldn't get it. I'll leave it at that.

I guess I still play because I guess I'm having trouble letting something that was once great go. But to be honest, I think the only reason I'm still playing is I have this hope (delusion?) the devs will revise/fix some of their older work, and add some really good content. Polish some things up a bit. I launch the game and see the weird looking dinosaurs on the load screen and feel duped and ask: what happened?

This reply is not meant to antagonize anyone, specifically the devs. I give them credit for allowing UO to have survived this long and for the free expansion (among other things). Just my opinion and I don't expect anyone to agree. It's been a while since I've played UO on a daily basis so that alone might speak for the validity of what I've said. I've complained a lot about the state of UO lately, and I'm kind of tired of complaining. Probably just gonna make one more post coming up soon about pushing for an increase for screen resolution and I'll retire from these forums.

Shoot away. Call me stupid.

 

[nextwindow]

Garth, think about it. The devs work on UO at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure all of them have at some point played UO in their careers, but after working on the game 8 hours a day for so many years can we really blame them for not wanting to play it when they get home from work?

If you were a lawyer, would you spend all your free time researching court cases?

If you were a doctor, would you spend all your free time learning about rare diseases?

If you were a game developer, would you spend all your free time playing the game you work on?

maybe use some of the "time at work" to play the game

 

[Yadd of Legends]

@Laura_Gold Of course the list should be prioritized in view of limited resources, and some suggestions would have unintended consequences. Some you wonder why they've not been done before (I've cringed myself at some of the mangling of thee and thou - that should be a no-brainer fix). But anyone who would take the time to list 82 suggestions should be commended. It shows a lot of thought and commitment to the game.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Wow. Reading this over it seems like people don't expect much anymore. Have we just given up? We expect them to recycle holidays. Recycle gifts. Substandard art. We can't even expect them to touch the code, it's old after all. Really sad state of affairs. I would prefer small changes done properly than large scale projects with tons of bugs. Seems like unless it's a deal breaker bugs and problems just go on the back burner and get forgotten.

 

[Giggles]

Well.. I for one think they do play the game to a point. I see them in the game, on test center, and I see Kyronix browsing stratics all throughout the day, and sometimes at 2:00am when I think no one else is on! I am pretty sure they pay attention more then anyone gives them credit for. And that's the thing, nobody really gives them credit. Even I am guilty of that when I think of anything in the PvP world, all the way down to VvV.

What makes you all log in? And tell me honestly, would you log in for that if you were a God of UO? Most of us log in for the community and friends we have. I doubt very much the dev's want to hang out with the community who bash them rather frequently. And even if they do play, they would never be able to reveal their identity, or be in ventrillo with a guild without pretending their mic doesn't work. The list to their gaming restrictions as "normal" players is massive. I don't think I would want to casually play under the same circumstances.

 

[nextwindow]

Well.. I for one think they do play the game to a point. I see them in the game, on test center, and I see Kyronix browsing stratics all throughout the day, and sometimes at 2:00am when I think no one else is on! I am pretty sure they pay attention more then anyone gives them credit for. And that's the thing, nobody really gives them credit. Even I am guilty of that when I think of anything in the PvP world, all the way down to VvV.

What makes you all log in? And tell me honestly, would you log in for that if you were a God of UO? Most of us log in for the community and friends we have. I doubt very much the dev's want to hang out with the community who bash them rather frequently. And even if they do play, they would never be able to reveal their identity, or be in ventrillo with a guild without pretending their mic doesn't work. The list to their gaming restrictions as "normal" players is massive. I don't think I would want to casually play under the same circumstances.

its hard to "give them credit" when there is very very little communication from the devs

 

[Longtooths]

When backpack is full, have newly mined ore fall to the ground instead of being "lost"
was put in for script miners

Why would a scripter care? Just monitor weight and when you get to within a percentage of full, recall out, dump and resume.

 

[Governor Ma Nerva]

Devs do play lots, they are not allowed to disclose they are employees unless on a official uo un attackable char. So that is why You never hear of them on. As players I am sure they have friends that do not even know, nor would guess whom they actually are. And if they were asked they would have to blow it off and say no they are not.
As far as work ethics, from what I have seen they are very dedicated to uo. since any new thing or change they may make or want to make could have adverse effects if known before its launch, They actually cant say every time what exactly they are working on to early. So, for myself I am not too discouraged by not knowing everything that is being looked at.
I will say I love the uo the community, and the people. and if i was a uo god, i would log on still for friends and conversation, and the occasional dungeon crawl. I would like to see a ethy dye tool or animal dye tool as a vet reward if I could choose one thing to have added, it would be that. happy holidays to all!!

 

[MalagAste]

Devs do play lots, they are not allowed to disclose they are employees unless on a official uo un attackable char. So that is why You never hear of them on. As players I am sure they have friends that do not even know, nor would guess whom they actually are. And if they were asked they would have to blow it off and say no they are not.
As far as work ethics, from what I have seen they are very dedicated to uo. since any new thing or change they may make or want to make could have adverse effects if known before its launch, They actually cant say every time what exactly they are working on to early. So, for myself I am not too discouraged by not knowing everything that is being looked at.
I will say I love the uo the community, and the people. and if i was a uo god, i would log on still for friends and conversation, and the occasional dungeon crawl. I would like to see a ethy dye tool or animal dye tool as a vet reward if I could choose one thing to have added, it would be that. happy holidays to all!!

So long as the colors were a) not Garish... and b) Done so the pet in question isn't just dipped in paint so to speak. If they could do that then I'm all for it. I think we would like a dark grey black maybe even a Reflective Shadow or Shadow Black or something... A Rum red perhaps.... phoenix red... A good emerald green... a nice navy blue... or midnight blue... Just as long as it isn't rainbow bright.... or something.

And I agree they have been fairly busy.... and they have done an awful lot since Mesanna took the helm. Which I'm glad to see. I just wish that the communication were VASTLY improved and I'm hoping this "bug" fix isn't disappointing. I also wish they would go back and fix a bunch of art issues. Things like chests and tables not sitting properly in the tiles... and stuff like that. Most the tables with the Kings Collection aren't usable because they don't sit properly in the tile. My clothes moving slightly ahead of me and things like that.

 

[BrianFreud]

I wish they would do some of the things suggested, and just regift at the next couple of Christmas and anniversaries. Heritage tokens, transfer tokens, soul stone frag tokens, take both the Scouts armor and the Sorceror's suit, rename em and rehue em and make them a random item in the gift box (with one or two pieces harder to get...) heck, even holiday bells with char names on them or something. Regifting isn't bad, as long as it isn't cheap...nice gifts are always welcome, and this would relieve some of the load perhaps.

I'd love a "catchup" year. Between dungeons that got missed for snowglobes, dungeons/cities/facets that didn't even exist at the time, devs who weren't around at the time, etc, there's plenty of room for bells, snowglobes, and other similar old gifts with new names. It's not even unprecidented - they've already had (though long ago, admittedly) 3 different years with snowglobes. Sure, do boxes and plants with terribly low odds for rare ones if you must, but keep us happy at the same time by making it seem like you're honoring the past by helping bring those sets up to date. Same for the hourglasses; 2014 and 2015 (and 2016, and 2017, 2018, etc...)