Perspective from a new player

[Kylo Ren]

I am entering my 2nd month on official shards. I currently play on Atlantic and so far have enjoyed my time. I played free shards for years and have a decent understanding of the game mechanics. My characters are doing well gear wise as well. I am not sure, however, if I will resubscribe beyond this. I will explain why.

I want to start off by saying the community is great. Players are helpful and friendly. Even in pvp scenarios most players are decent; while I don't do it, I consider trash talk part of the fun as long as it doesn't become personal.

My first point is that skill training is ridiculously long, tedious, and pointless. I don't want to pay a monthly fee to "click last" literally 25,000+ times to get to legendary blacksmith. I understand there is value in playing and not macroing. But with skills at 50-70, there isn't much you can do to "play" I am currently training my crafter and it's very disheartening to use 2k ingots for .1 skill gain at 117. It's also extremely costly. In 2015, who really thinks this is a good idea?

Players have amassed huge amounts of wealth. Looking at some prices on legendary items, How will I afford anything in the billions? Again, I realize I am new, but it seems like a lot of gear is simply a pipe dream for the time being. My overarching point is the economy is pretty inflated and it makes it tough for a new player.
I know a lot of players are well over a decade here. But the barrier for entry is really high economically.

Pvp is fun. I think UO has the best system for player vs player combat. But what is the point of vice and virtue? No one shows up at towns. Am I missing the incentive? Sign up in trammel, get your Crimson, Mace and Shield, etc with the 2k silver, and never go to Fel. Again, am I missing a component in this?

Disappointed to read the chivalry changes thread. I'm indifferent to the game mechanic aspect. What I was disappointed in was a developer saying "the changes are working as intended. More information to follow"
No information has followed. This developer realizes we are paying customers? That was on of the first threads I read after subbing and the silence left a bad taste in my mouth.

I want to stay. But overall it has been a horrible new player experience. One more example. I get no archery gains at 50 from earth elementals in the new player caves at new haven but get them rapidly at humility vs low level spawn. And at 116 Archery I get no gains off the dragon turtle? How does this make any sense that certain mobs are "too tough" to make gains against. Same thing with troglodyte caves. Zero/slim gains at low levels and decent gains at higher. It should be the opposite! Like playing against good competition in sports raises your level of play, it doesn't stall it.

So my point in all of this is I want to play here. I'm just not sure I have the time and desire to pay for what will amount to skill training for a long time. It's why I discarded siege immediately, even though the rules appeal to me. Btw; if siege is for "vets" why the ROT stuff? It won't take a vet 3-6 months to learn how to use swords.

Lastly, I think this game can grow again. We just need some fine tuning and a lot of adjustments. And new graphics

TLDR; I'm a new player who thinks skill gain is too slow, economy is out whack, pvp needs incentive, devs need to follow through on promises.

 

[FrejaSP]

About Archery at 116, try demons, the dragon turtle may be to high level.

About Siege, you will love the RoT, as you will get your gain when time and it won't cost your blacksmith alot of clicking vs normal shards.
It won't take you 2-3 months to get to 120 on Siege in sword unless you only play short time a day.

You could start with a Mythic Character Token from the EA shop, that will let you start with 5x90 skills and 225 stats and it do work on Siege

The economy on Siege is much more healthy and the community very friendly and helpful, even when some may kill you.

And on Siege it's all fel, so if VvV, you can be attacked everywhere, however we do not have the VvV artifacts.

 

[Uvtha]

Disappointed to read the chivalry changes thread. I'm indifferent to the game mechanic aspect. What I was disappointed in was a developer saying "the changes are working as intended. More information to follow"
No information has followed. This developer realizes we are paying customers? That was on of the first threads I read after subbing and the silence left a bad taste in my mouth.

Yup. Really don't get this. They make an intentional change everyone dislikes, then bother to say they will explain later, and the later explanation is "it's working as intended". Why say anything? You HAVE to know it's just gonna piss people off even more.

 

[Uvtha]

About Archery at 116, try demons, the dragon turtle may be to high level.

I think he gets how the skills gain system works, I think he's just saying it's dumb that you can't gain when you fight things that are "too strong" for you. It's a fair point, you should be able to gain off of anything better than you, one would imagine.

 

[Tanivar]

*shrugs* It takes time to train skills to maximum here, just as it takes time in games that go by levels to reach maximum.

Training crafting skills on Siege is far less costly than training on Atlantic is, from 70 on to 120 a few training attempts every 5 to 15 minutes gets you your skill gain with little cost in materials.

The game can be played at 50-70 skill. While your working your way to maximum skill gather supplies and resources so that once you top out skill wise you have plenty of supplies stored up.

 

[cazador]

Skill gain has never been easier. There isn't one skill you can't max out in 1-2 days with a decent amount of time invested. With pink and blue scrolls it makes skill gain almost too easy.


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[Kei]

Dont be discouraged by the inflated economy because it works both ways.

1) Keep hunting and eventually you will have that one awesome loot which you can sell for millions.

2) Do champ spawns with a guild which does it regularly. 120 power scrolls can still be profitable.

3) Loot everything and dump all the junks in trash cans for donation points which you can use to buy dyes which again, sells for millions. This is a slow way but hey, it is making use of items which would otherwise be trashed anyway.

4) I cant stress this enough, find a good guild. It makes all the difference. If you are a good member, I am sure there are people who can make you a decent suit for a very low price.
I know UWF is very active and have daily hunts going, great guild to hang out with.

Now with regards to VvV and dev's priority, thats going to be a long long discussion which I do not wish to get into

 

[Capt. Lucky]

If everyone was 6X Legendary in a week it wouldn't be much fun would it? Although most skills have skill gain tricks if you search around. I did legendary imbuing, stealing, and magery in the last month and none took more than a few days. Sooooo I really don't see a big problem with that. Especially with jewels, pinks and all. The harder it is to get it together the more pride you have in the accomplishment. In general UO isn't easy. If it was I probably would have gotten bored long ago. Crazy prices on things tends to be an Atlantic thing. That isn't happening on the other shards.

 

[OREOGL]

Working skills is the single most worst thing in game.

We are stuck thinking this is how things should be, spend days or weeks working a character from the ground And if you're lucky someone will help you out with basic gear and some tips and tricks to speed up the process.

And only then do you get to enjoy the rest of the game.

I'm not certain any other game does this, and usually you see an uptick in gear As you progress in the game.


Not UO, as you progress not only do you have to figure out the infinite (sarcasm) game mechanics but the items that drop from the low mobs are worthless.

How do they really expect a new player to grasp building a Mage with a couple spells and 20 of each rev.

If that isn't defeating I don't know what is. Not likely a new player is going to figure out how to spam for an lrc suit and repeatedly mash macros to raise skill

It's not like back when UO had no competition and game mechanics were much more simple.

To be even slightly competitive they need to increase the skill gain rate and start new players off with more than we had 18 years ago.

 

[Ossy]

I must be the only one that likes the crafting skill gaining in UO compared to other games. I've been back a couple weeks, transferred a near GMed warrior to Great Lakes and started making a new crafter. I like that it takes awhile.

I don't think it should be easy to GM crafting skills, or any skills, but they could stand to adjust the gains getting through combat.

It's no where near as bad as it was back when I first played like 10 years ago and it's better then most free shards where a couple hours on a training dummy and you're GMed.

 

[Ossy]

Also, if you haven't already, get a Salvage Bag, that will help with the resources.

 

[Ossy]

The wealth thing is the biggest hurdle for new players, but I don't know what can be done about it. You've had people playing for 18+ years, of course they're going to amass a ton of wealth.

Other games, like WoW, it's not as noticeable because all the gear is level dependent and the zones are level dependent. So you are basically playing with people of the same level/relatively same gear each step of the way.

UO is more open, which is it's greatest thing as well as the worst, so the gap between a new player and a vet is more noticeable.

But I've found that UO vets are more willing to help out the new unlike other games.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Thinking about this more... I moved to Legends about a year ago and left my characters on Great Lakes, on Great Lakes. I've made all my characters again on Legends. On Legends I have all the crafting skills maxed out (wait maybe not cooking, not big on cooking lol). My mage is maxed. My dexxer is maxed. My thief is pretty much there with 120 stealing, stealth over 100 (items max him out, but he's rather a recent effort). But you get the idea. The main skills are all Legendary. Stuff like magery I've probably done 10 times on various shards. I honestly don't see skill gain as a problem. Just do it....

 

[Capt. Lucky]

The wealth thing is the biggest hurdle for new players, but I don't know what can be done about it. You've had people playing for 18+ years, of course they're going to amass a ton of wealth.

Other games, like WoW, it's not as noticeable because all the gear is level dependent and the zones are level dependent. So you are basically playing with people of the same level/relatively same gear each step of the way.

UO is more open, which is it's greatest thing as well as the worst, so the gap between a new player and a vet is more noticeable.

But I've found that UO vets are more willing to help out the new unlike other games.

Wealth is a big deal to some extent. In rares buying it's major. But a new player expecting to jump into high end rares is unrealistic lol. The difference between an awesome suit and an excellent suit can be very little really with a dramatic reduction in price. But starting over on Legends I noticed that if you do the boring stuff like make gate scrolls, mine ore, chop wood, the people with gold will pay crazy prices cause they don't want to do that stuff. You can amass money pretty quick, but expecting a hand out isn't realistic. I don't think I ever asked for more than a gate to Trinsic. But I agree that I see people being very generous in game. The OP is talking to a crowd that all had to earn their way, not sure making things easy is going to go over real big lol Just a general reply to the thread and my thoughts on wealth. I think most will agree this game is so much easier now than it was in the beginning it's unbelievable.

 

[Merlin]

@Kylo Ren

Welcome to Atlantic. Assuming your toon name is also your Stratics name here, I think I've seen you around here and there.

Mythic tokens are your friend. If you have one or two new toons you'd like to make but don't want to invest the time skill training... get a mythic token. They're $25 bucks in the official store and probably even cheaper on Vendor Search. After training up my first three toons from scratch, I admittedly have built most of my others by starting with a Mythic Token to get 5 skills up to 90. Otherwise, your option is the find the best ways to grind the skills up. It's more painful than it needs to be, but it shouldn't be a cake walk either.

Join a good guild that does frequent hunts, spawns and other activities. You will learn some tricks of the trade, find people who are willing to help and probably start to get decent enough loot that you can sell to make some gold.

Depending on what your suit is looking like now, I would be more than willing to help you out with some free gear. I have plenty of legendary and major artifacts that I'm more than willing to give away to help a new player out.

Shoot me an ICQ or PM if you have any other questions. Best of luck.

 

[archiv]

I've seen threads like this pop up from time to time, my personal opinion is that which many still echo. The draw of the game for me is often the same as the biggest complaints of others, the endless clicky clicky for gains, grinding for ingredients, items, etc. is all part of the game itself. I've given up on ever being a bazillionaire, while I've only been here 11ish years my combined gold for all my characters is probably just under 25 mil. That's my choice in play-style and it's how I enjoy the game. Others may not. I would hate if any of that were changed.
As far as the customer service level, cant argue with that. There was a time a few years back when people were duping robes of Umbra I believe, made them glacial blue. I had no idea what it was as I didnt frequent the boards back then, I simply saw a cool robe and had saved up 2 mil to buy it. I literally emptied my banks to buy this robe because I thought it was cool looking. Next day I log in and it's replaced with an ugly monk robe, no explanations, nothing. After digging and searching I found the reason they were changed was because they were duped. In other words, punish everyone for the actions of a few. I was now broke (again) and stuck with this stupid monk robe which I still have. I considered quitting but shrugged it off, it's only a game after all. Fake money is easy to replace. But the lack of customer service and explanations has been a long time problem, imo.
After reading through this thread I thought of something that many may like, a new shard. A cross between TC and Siege. No transferring to or from. Keep Tram ruleset. No houses, bank box only. And instant training any skill. Today I want to be a crafter, tomorrow I want to be a tamer, next day maybe a mager/tamer/crafter. Same stat restrictions, stable restrictions, etc. Just a thought that will never go into play but every time I read threads like this it makes me think of TC.
To rewrite a quote from the Simpsons:

"Kodos (as Bob Dole): Shards for all!
Crowd: BOOO!!! BOOO!!
Dole: Very well, no Shards for anyone!
Crowd: BOOO!!! BOO!!!!
Dole: Hmmmmmm…..shards for some….miniature trading UO trading cards for others!
Crowd: YEAY!!!!"

 

[MalagAste]

I must say first welcome home both you and Ossy...

Secondly UO/DEVs have ALWAYS Been notorious for the lack of communication and discussion. Which IMO is sad. So I'm told they don't like to hear negative talk... which either they have a thin skin or well they can't take criticism... at all... or whatever... at any rate to most folk it has ALWAYS felt as if they either don't care, aren't interested or have their own agenda and have zero desire to "get to know" the player base, understand the player base, or associate with... the player base.

Not sure which it is but I'm willing to wager it's a combination of many things. Maybe it's lawyers... maybe it comes from EA.... not sure. But they have NEVER really tried to communicate. UO has the WORST history and track record for communication.

The meet and greets are nice... I thought we were going to get more video's or something..... One would think that with things like Twitch and such that communication of that level was WAY easier and more readily available than it was 15-18 years ago... And I have played a number of games where there is quite a lot of communication.. not that they listen to everything and give the players everything.... but they certainly do listen.

Always thought that if there were more communication folk would be more supportive and less "irritable" and such when discussing changes. As it is I think most players get so tired of never hearing they just get downright nasty because they are more frustrated that their concerns and questions and such are falling on deaf ears and not being heard so they "raise" their voices and such to match their moods.

As for skill gains... crafting has always been slow for most things. I've found Imbuing to be the difference. Anyone will tell you that Poisoning and such are extremely slow to gain.... painfully so. The amount of material is always high as well...

Try to match your skill gaining with the fighting skills like tamers do with taming skills or bards do with barding skills.... too high of a challenge and the gains are slow because the rate of success is low... There is a sweet spot range... Also... Gaining is use based.... so the faster you swing, the more you swing the faster and more you gain. So find a spawn that is quick enough to keep up with your rate of killing but slow enough that you aren't overwhelmed.

There is a certain fellow in Ter Mur that will give you a quest that will reward you with a Crystal Ball of Knowledge. I believe his name is Ortlem the Mystic.... He asks for Dragons blood and Demon bones. Both of which are reagents for Mysticism... so not hard to find. He usually hangs out outside the Mage and Reagent shops in Ter Mur. This crystal ball will tell you if what you are doing to gain skill is Easy, Challenging, or Optimal for gaining skills.

 

[drcossack]

As for skill gains... crafting has always been slow for most things. I've found Imbuing to be the difference. Anyone will tell you that Poisoning and such are extremely slow to gain.... painfully so. The amount of material is always high as well...

Really? I can do poisoning and alchemy fairly quickly...but then, I'm not a new player. Inscription was a pain though. If I ever decide to put that on other chars, I'm just going to get a Mythic Token, then find two 5.0 pinks. The materials were expensive though, I'll give you that.

@Kylo Ren Atlantic is definitely more populated, but later on, if you decide pvp is your thing, Lake Superior is fairly active and (IMO) has the better players. I have chars on both shards (with LS being my home shard), and I'd be more than happy to help you on either one.

 

[cazador]

Really? I can do poisoning and alchemy fairly quickly...but then, I'm not a new player. Inscription was a pain though. If I ever decide to put that on other chars, I'm just going to get a Mythic Token, then find two 5.0 pinks. The materials were expensive though, I'll give you that.
.

Alchemy is super fast. 0-100 in like 3-4 hours.

Poisoning can be tedious. Last I did it with a weapon and poisoned a mount non stop to gain. Not sure how it is today.

Inscription is also very simple. 50-65 make recalls then GM-100 make books. No mana you use more scrolls but scrolls are cheap now. And again you don't have to med.

Now that poisoning needs to go to 100 for masteries to be effective I can see that being a pain, but 50-80 only took like an hour. Not sure if I used an alacrity but I can't remember



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[Uvtha]

If everyone was 6X Legendary in a week it wouldn't be much fun would it?

It would probably be more fun if anything. Maxing the skills you choose is basically the starting point of the game. You really can't do anything much without gm+ skills. That said compared to back in the day when maxing skills was the endgame, getting to 120 is an eyelash blink. Still I think it could be improved in terms of gaining while out doing random stuff at lower skill levels.

 

[TimberWolf]

If everyone was 6X Legendary in a week it wouldn't be much fun would it? Although most skills have skill gain tricks if you search around. I did legendary imbuing, stealing, and magery in the last month and none took more than a few days. Sooooo I really don't see a big problem with that. Especially with jewels, pinks and all. The harder it is to get it together the more pride you have in the accomplishment. In general UO isn't easy. If it was I probably would have gotten bored long ago. Crazy prices on things tends to be an Atlantic thing. That isn't happening on the other shards.

Definitely there are ways around the slow grind...I did 0-120 imbuing in less then 1 minute. I seldom train any skill for more then 1-2 days and always to cap. Frankly if it takes more then that I refuse to be bothered. There are many work arounds for gains....join a decent guild and you can get helped along. Last time I did Blacksmithing I went from 0-120 in a couple days and cost about 80k iron ingots. Expensive...yes but not too costly, especially when you have guildies helping you out

 

[OREOGL]

This is going to be a biased thread full of "well I can train that skill in 3.7 seconds".

Why should we discourage returning or new players by making them pay another $25 bucks to only go to 90 for five skills? (Aside from returning players with finished skills).

Next argument I'm sure will be "its not that much." Ead, there's no excuse for it. This was their "solution" to ignoring the mechanics to begin with.

"Hey guys, instead of fixing skill gain I have this GREAT idea. Let's charge them instead!"


I would almost guess the majority probably train afk (ie golem or wolf spider) macro or script skills.


Even years ago I recall putting something on the space bar for the last spell macro just so I could train magery.


How do we not see this as anything but bad mechanics?

 

[cazador]

This is going to be a biased thread full of "well I can train that skill in 3.7 seconds".

Why should we discourage returning or new players by making them pay another $25 bucks to only go to 90 for five skills? (Aside from returning players with finished skills).

Next argument I'm sure will be "its not that much." Ead, there's no excuse for it. This was their "solution" to ignoring the mechanics to begin with.

"Hey guys, instead of fixing skill gain I have this GREAT idea. Let's charge them instead!"


I would almost guess the majority probably train afk (ie golem or wolf spider) macro or script skills.


Even years ago I recall putting something on the space bar for the last spell macro just so I could train magery.


How do we not see this as anything but bad mechanics?

It is bad mechanics...

But look at every other game out there. Mindless level grinds. Let me know next time you get a capped level capped gear alt toon in 2-3 days in ANY other game. I prefer more time spent killing then grinding any day. Probably the reason I still bother logging on, that and making annoying trolly hybrid temps. Without that I probably quit altogether.


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[OREOGL]

It is bad mechanics...

But look at every other game out there. Mindless level grinds. Let me know next time you get a capped level capped gear alt toon in 2-3 days in ANY other game. I prefer more time spent killing then grinding any day. Probably the reason I still bother logging on, that and making annoying trolly hybrid temps. Without that I probably quit altogether.


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Gaining skills is a grind, a bad one.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Bring back power hour and 8x8 training was the only way to do some of the skills and oh yea please return Dispise and Shame to its former glory because that was the best place to train a warrior ever and still have fun doing it. Even when it was just Fel only it was known as the noob training spot and any PK would meet a hardcore PvPer to show him the error of his/her ways.

 

[cazador]

Bring back power hour and 8x8 training was the only way to do some of the skills and oh yea please return Dispise and Shame to its former glory because that was the best place to train a warrior ever and still have fun doing it. Even when it was just Fel only it was known as the noob training spot and any PK would meet a hardcore PvPer to show him the error of his/her ways.

No no no Mr Baggins!!! That would be moving backwards! Things are great now!


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[OREOGL]

Bring back power hour and 8x8 training was the only way to do some of the skills and oh yea please return Dispise and Shame to its former glory because that was the best place to train a warrior ever and still have fun doing it. Even when it was just Fel only it was known as the noob training spot and any PK would meet a hardcore PvPer to show him the error of his/her ways.

I recall training on earth elementals to gm swords which i think was the first skill I ever gmed.

After I gmed it I started pvping by poisoning a katana and waited for it to go off.

 

[Lord Frodo]

No no no Mr Baggins!!! That would be moving backwards! Things are great now!


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To bad they do not have a sarcasm font.

 

[cazador]

To bad they do not have a sarcasm font.

@Ron Bron

Can we get on this please?


I'd like it to be like this

[SARCASM="Lord Frodo, post: 2625824, member: 182"]To bad they do not have a sarcasm font.[/SARCASM]

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[MalagAste]

@Ron Bron

Can we get on this please?


I'd like it to be like this

[SARCASM="Lord Frodo, post: 2625824, member: 182"]To bad they do not have a sarcasm font.[/SARCASM]

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Ooooo Oooo OooO! I want a sarcasm font!

 

[Ron Bron]

Ooooo Oooo OooO! I want a sarcasm font!

Should sarcasm have its own font style?

Nice article about the sarcasm font

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[Lord Frodo]

No no no Mr Baggins!!! That would be moving backwards! Things are great now!


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I was more thinking in the line of [SARCASM="Things are great now![/SARCASM]

 

[Kylo Ren]

1251 leather from 110.6 to 110.7 training tailoring.

That's around 400 attempts with scissors

Like everyone, my time is limited and I think a better system could easily be proposed.

I don't want nor need easy mode. But logical mode would be nice on occasion too. No one can make the argument that crafting countless plate mail or leather gorgets makes you improve your game or teaches you anything valuable.

If I hadn't had previous UO experience I would be overwhelmed. That is the bigger issue. It's an extremely high glass ceiling for new players.

 

[cazador]

1251 leather from 110.6 to 110.7 training tailoring.

That's around 400 attempts with scissors

Like everyone, my time is limited and I think a better system could easily be proposed.

I don't want nor need easy mode. But logical mode would be nice on occasion too. No one can make the argument that crafting countless plate mail or leather gorgets makes you improve your game or teaches you anything valuable.

If I hadn't had previous UO experience I would be overwhelmed. That is the bigger issue. It's an extremely high glass ceiling for new players.

Put the leather and kits in a salvage bag. Click make max/ recycle..rinse repeat.


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[MalagAste]

Why are you crafting Leathers? Use cloth and make gargish cloth armor. Just saying.

 

[cazador]

Why are you crafting Leathers? Use cloth and make gargish cloth armor. Just saying.

Agreed are there good guides anywhere for the updated crafting tables?


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[Tanivar]

gods... does anyone but me roll up a new character with the 100 skill points or less and play the game from the start? You know, getting your ass handed to you by mongbats, then various other tough suckers like headless and harpies? There's a lot of game fun you 'only fun if I'm maxed in the game' folks are missing out on.

We going to start seeing games made where you start out at level 99 of 100 max levels so the game is 'fun' for players instead of just a badly thought out miserable grind from level **1**? Would be popular with the bunch posting here.

 

[drcossack]

gods... does anyone but me roll up a new character with the 100 skill points or less and play the game from the start? You know, getting your ass handed to you by mongbats, then various other tough suckers like headless and harpies? There's a lot of game fun you 'only fun if I'm maxed in the game' folks are missing out on.

We going to start seeing games made where you start out at level 99 of 100 max levels so the game is 'fun' for players instead of just a badly thought out miserable grind from level **1**? Would be popular with the bunch posting here.

Nope. I did open a second account earlier this year (a free 30 days one); I made a sampire to do some Blackthorn farming + a few Harrowers. I had the char complete in 2-3 days.

 

[HoneythornGump]

Lastly, I think this game can grow again. We just need some fine tuning and a lot of adjustments. AND NEW GRAPHICS

I'll keep saying it until they plug. Until they get some new graphics this game will continue to go down the tubes...

 

[Yadd of Legends]

gods... does anyone but me roll up a new character with the 100 skill points or less and play the game from the start? You know, getting your ass handed to you by mongbats, then various other tough suckers like headless and harpies? There's a lot of game fun you 'only fun if I'm maxed in the game' folks are missing out on.

We going to start seeing games made where you start out at level 99 of 100 max levels so the game is 'fun' for players instead of just a badly thought out miserable grind from level **1**? Would be popular with the bunch posting here.

Yes, I like starting new characters from scratch and building them up - I think that's the most fun part of the game
I always start from scratch when starting on a new shard. But then I start wanting support characters, and then a house to make crafting and imbuing and storing ingredients easier, and that means another account, and I don't want to pay for more accounts, so that kills my incentive for starting and building new characters.
PS - I just started Skyrim again with a new character for that very reason, the experience of building up from nothing (no Witcher 3 without a video card upgrade)

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

I am entering my 2nd month on official shards. I currently play on Atlantic and so far have enjoyed my time. I played free shards for years and have a decent understanding of the game mechanics. My characters are doing well gear wise as well. I am not sure, however, if I will resubscribe beyond this. I will explain why.

I want to start off by saying the community is great. Players are helpful and friendly. Even in pvp scenarios most players are decent; while I don't do it, I consider trash talk part of the fun as long as it doesn't become personal.

My first point is that skill training is ridiculously long, tedious, and pointless. I don't want to pay a monthly fee to "click last" literally 25,000+ times to get to legendary blacksmith. I understand there is value in playing and not macroing. But with skills at 50-70, there isn't much you can do to "play" I am currently training my crafter and it's very disheartening to use 2k ingots for .1 skill gain at 117. It's also extremely costly. In 2015, who really thinks this is a good idea?

Players have amassed huge amounts of wealth. Looking at some prices on legendary items, How will I afford anything in the billions? Again, I realize I am new, but it seems like a lot of gear is simply a pipe dream for the time being. My overarching point is the economy is pretty inflated and it makes it tough for a new player.
I know a lot of players are well over a decade here. But the barrier for entry is really high economically.

Pvp is fun. I think UO has the best system for player vs player combat. But what is the point of vice and virtue? No one shows up at towns. Am I missing the incentive? Sign up in trammel, get your Crimson, Mace and Shield, etc with the 2k silver, and never go to Fel. Again, am I missing a component in this?

Disappointed to read the chivalry changes thread. I'm indifferent to the game mechanic aspect. What I was disappointed in was a developer saying "the changes are working as intended. More information to follow"
No information has followed. This developer realizes we are paying customers? That was on of the first threads I read after subbing and the silence left a bad taste in my mouth.

I want to stay. But overall it has been a horrible new player experience. One more example. I get no archery gains at 50 from earth elementals in the new player caves at new haven but get them rapidly at humility vs low level spawn. And at 116 Archery I get no gains off the dragon turtle? How does this make any sense that certain mobs are "too tough" to make gains against. Same thing with troglodyte caves. Zero/slim gains at low levels and decent gains at higher. It should be the opposite! Like playing against good competition in sports raises your level of play, it doesn't stall it.

So my point in all of this is I want to play here. I'm just not sure I have the time and desire to pay for what will amount to skill training for a long time. It's why I discarded siege immediately, even though the rules appeal to me. Btw; if siege is for "vets" why the ROT stuff? It won't take a vet 3-6 months to learn how to use swords.

Lastly, I think this game can grow again. We just need some fine tuning and a lot of adjustments. And new graphics

TLDR; I'm a new player who thinks skill gain is too slow, economy is out whack, pvp needs incentive, devs need to follow through on promises.

1. You're not really a new player.
2. Skill training is faster and easier than it's ever been, has an obvious point, and there is plenty you can do that is of value before even GM'ing your skills. I made a new character on a shard where I have nothing but a bad ping (so similar to you just had knowledge of game mechanics at my disposal) and within 2-3 days (1-2 hours per day) had a character getting rights and drops at spawns that made him mils, plus the free gold that spawns on the ground, this is beyond what most new players would be doing in the first place.
3. "I don't want to pay a monthly fee." As you've played free shards that usually have funky rules ofc you don't want to pay a fee to do the same thing, however, that has no bearing on the new player experience only yours, and as #1 you're not really a new player.
4. You don't need a Legendary Blacksmith (or anything else) to play UO and there's nothing you can do at 120 you can't do at the level you're currently at... so you don't actually need to work it at all and could just get the occasional gain from when you actually need to make something... which as far fetched as it may sound is how we're actually supposed to gain.
5. You don't need anything worth billions to play or compete, and other people's wealth have zero bearing on your characters level or ability to generate wealth, the economy being inflated actually makes it EASIER for new players. Why? Because it's inflated with items that come from drops, which come from hunting, which is mostly done by new players and hasn't got any harder, the value of the items has gone through the roof. Medusa (one of the easiest Peerless in game) has a drop worth on Atlantic over 150m, pretty much every event item goes for 25-100m+
6. VvV is just another stupid idea for putting people in stat. The BEST PvP system in UO imo and so underused I doubt anyone knows it exists is Guild Wars, used well you can have PvP on any facet, custom homes into adjacent forts etc. I honestly don't get why more don't use it. There was once a TC that only had Fel ruleset this was back when there were Factions and weapon specials were automatic depending on class. It was one of the most fun experiences people fighting out of houses all over the place and all over towns. I once put a character in his own guild and attempted to war all the big PvP guilds on the shard not one accepted (not because my character was amazing, but because they don't want PvP when banksitting, disappointing.)
7. All attempts to revitalize the game with new graphics have divided the community and near killed it.

 

[Fridgster]

Bring back power hour and 8x8 training was the only way to do some of the skills and oh yea please return Dispise and Shame to its former glory because that was the best place to train a warrior ever and still have fun doing it. Even when it was just Fel only it was known as the noob training spot and any PK would meet a hardcore PvPer to show him the error of his/her ways.

Omg i forgot all about power hour!!! That was awesome times.

 

[FrejaSP]

Omg i forgot all about power hour!!! That was awesome times.

Nothing awesome about powerhour. Every time a guildmember came online and you wanted to do something with him/her, the reply was, "Sorry, I'm in my powerhour"

 

[Fridgster]

That's unfortunate. I remeber that being the time we got together and would try to take down a difficult foe such as an ancient or balrons. It was fun and we knew we would gain skills. This of course was before i became a hermit
Ive always tried to avoid grinding even if it meant not getting to a skill faster than most.

 

[MalagAste]

That's unfortunate. I remeber that being the time we got together and would try to take down a difficult foe such as an ancient or balrons. It was fun and we knew we would gain skills. This of course was before i became a hermit
Ive always tried to avoid grinding even if it meant not getting to a skill faster than most.

Yes but if you tried to do most anything today you'd spend a vast majority of your time standing about with your thumb up your backside waiting..... since it only takes one person to kill most everything.

 

[The Craftsman]

gods... does anyone but me roll up a new character with the 100 skill points or less and play the game from the start? You know, getting your ass handed to you by mongbats, then various other tough suckers like headless and harpies? There's a lot of game fun you 'only fun if I'm maxed in the game' folks are missing out on.

We going to start seeing games made where you start out at level 99 of 100 max levels so the game is 'fun' for players instead of just a badly thought out miserable grind from level **1**? Would be popular with the bunch posting here.

Yep. Ive never had any problem with just playing the game and advancing through general gameplay and a bit of focussed training. Building a character should be part of the fun but todays generation want everything on a plate. Only a matter of time before at the character creation screen you select which 7 skills you want to start the game at GM with.

 

[Macrophage]

I am entering my 2nd month on official shards. I currently play on Atlantic and so far have enjoyed my time. I played free shards for years and have a decent understanding of the game mechanics. My characters are doing well gear wise as well. I am not sure, however, if I will resubscribe beyond this. I will explain why.

I want to start off by saying the community is great. Players are helpful and friendly. Even in pvp scenarios most players are decent; while I don't do it, I consider trash talk part of the fun as long as it doesn't become personal.

My first point is that skill training is ridiculously long, tedious, and pointless. I don't want to pay a monthly fee to "click last" literally 25,000+ times to get to legendary blacksmith. I understand there is value in playing and not macroing. But with skills at 50-70, there isn't much you can do to "play" I am currently training my crafter and it's very disheartening to use 2k ingots for .1 skill gain at 117. It's also extremely costly. In 2015, who really thinks this is a good idea?

Players have amassed huge amounts of wealth. Looking at some prices on legendary items, How will I afford anything in the billions? Again, I realize I am new, but it seems like a lot of gear is simply a pipe dream for the time being. My overarching point is the economy is pretty inflated and it makes it tough for a new player.
I know a lot of players are well over a decade here. But the barrier for entry is really high economically.

Pvp is fun. I think UO has the best system for player vs player combat. But what is the point of vice and virtue? No one shows up at towns. Am I missing the incentive? Sign up in trammel, get your Crimson, Mace and Shield, etc with the 2k silver, and never go to Fel. Again, am I missing a component in this?

Disappointed to read the chivalry changes thread. I'm indifferent to the game mechanic aspect. What I was disappointed in was a developer saying "the changes are working as intended. More information to follow"
No information has followed. This developer realizes we are paying customers? That was on of the first threads I read after subbing and the silence left a bad taste in my mouth.

I want to stay. But overall it has been a horrible new player experience. One more example. I get no archery gains at 50 from earth elementals in the new player caves at new haven but get them rapidly at humility vs low level spawn. And at 116 Archery I get no gains off the dragon turtle? How does this make any sense that certain mobs are "too tough" to make gains against. Same thing with troglodyte caves. Zero/slim gains at low levels and decent gains at higher. It should be the opposite! Like playing against good competition in sports raises your level of play, it doesn't stall it.

So my point in all of this is I want to play here. I'm just not sure I have the time and desire to pay for what will amount to skill training for a long time. It's why I discarded siege immediately, even though the rules appeal to me. Btw; if siege is for "vets" why the ROT stuff? It won't take a vet 3-6 months to learn how to use swords.

Lastly, I think this game can grow again. We just need some fine tuning and a lot of adjustments. And new graphics

TLDR; I'm a new player who thinks skill gain is too slow, economy is out whack, pvp needs incentive, devs need to follow through on promises.

I never bought anything for more than 35 millions. I billion gold armor parts are not mandatory to play UO.
About your craft skills, why do you need to train them to 120? Just play the game and they will eventually get there...