I have been using the SA client off and on now for a few months. I cannot say I'm a diehard supporter either. However, I've finally gotten to the point where I'm fairly comfortable playing UO while using this client.
I hope that all of you who are taking the time to download the new client will decide to stick with using it for at least a few days if not a few weeks and use the new forum and the in-game reporting feature to provide as much constructive feedback as possible. Mention the good as well as the bad, in other words, and give detailed feedback about what you DO and do NOT like. Just saying it stinks doesn't help anyone make it better.
Here are a few general suggestions that might make your attempts to give it a good test a little bit easier:
Print out a list of the macros you regularly use in the 2d client. Make and save screenshots of the way you normally set up a desktop in the 2d client for your various types of characters. Make a list of any macros you normally use in UO Assist.
Go read this thread on the KR forum about how to optimize your performance in KR:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=122985. There may by now be a similar thread in the new SA feedback forum on Stratics. A lot of the suggestions in there are helpful for the SA client. I play using a laptop computer and have found that things run much more smoothly on my computer and there is no crashing or overheating of the laptop if I use the Fullscreen option, don't show the Window Frame, don't Show Shadows, have Particle Detail set to Low, have Particle Filter set to All, Idle Animation is not checked, Animation is set to Low, and Enable Music and Play Footsteps are not checked. I prefer to not use Legacy Targeting, Legacy Container view or, for now, Legacy Chat Mode.
Check out the SA Client Guide that Miss Echo wrote and posted on the
http://www.spellweave.com/saclientuserguide.html This old thread in the KR forum includes screenshots of how various folks have set up their desktops in KR:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=125829. It's a lot of reading, but worth the time. I've also attached a couple of screenshots of how I normally have my desktop set up in KR. I don't leave the paperdoll open, even though it fits better now than it used to. If I open the atlas, I put it in the empty space above my open backpack and shove a lot of it off-screen and then tug on the part that's showing until it's displaying what I need to see. (I usually just go by the circular map.)
Now set aside a couple of hours when you think you're going to be reasonably uninterrupted so you can work on setting up macros and hotbars. Do it first for the type of character you see yourself using most often for testing, one that you generally enjoy playing. (I did my peace tamers first.) When you think you're ready to go, go out and do something EASY. Tweak as needed and ask questions if you're running into snags or are lost.
Once you start actually running around, be aware that distances are deceiving. If you're having trouble reaching things or picking up or setting down objects, you may be zoomed out too far.
Also, be aware that if you assign a combination of key strokes for a macro or hotbar entry or keybinding, you MUST press the assigned keys in that order to use the macro or keybinding. For example, press Control and then Shift, not Shift and then Control to bring up bars. Or if you assign Alt-G to a spell, you have to press Alt-G to use that spell, not G and then Alt.
Closing gumps can be done by clicking the little x in the top right corner OR right-clicking anywhere in the gray area at the top of the gump.
It's easy to change the way you view a particular container by clicking the small circle in the upper left corner. I have the default set to grid view and use list view if it doesn't matter what order I see stuff in. For example, if I am carrying a bag of empty runes in my backpack to mark runes, I view the bag of runes in list view.
Also, be very careful releasing pets to the wild. I haven't tested it in a while, but if you have to release a pet, rename it to something like "B" and then say "B release." This may be fixed now so you can release pets using their context menu, but using the pet's name and release command may be safer.
You can set a keybinding under User Settings / Input to make screenshots. Be aware that they are saved as .bmp files, so you'll want to occasionally clear out the folder where they are saved (on my computer they save in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\EA Games\Ultima Online Stygian Abyss).
I hope that you will consider making an investment of your time to get used to using the SA client, even if it is only for the purpose of providing useful feedback. I have no doubt that most people should be able to tweak things to make it run reasonably well on their computer, if they know what to tweak. And I think many will find at least a few features to fall in love with (the dress and undress macros are absolutely phenomenal, right-click to loot is awesome, and the atlas, in spite of its clunkiness, is pretty cool). The artwork....well, it DOES grow on you after a while and if nothing else, causes you to look at UO in a whole new way. Something easy and cheap to fall back on when things are perhaps a bit boring? A fresh look, in other words?
