The greatest thing about UO has always been (IMHO) the freedom to do what you want and play how you want. Customizable houses, freedom to mix and match skills, and though I may get stoned for saying this... the opportunity to PvM and PvP on the same character and the same shard are the best things to ever happen to the MMO industry. Is everything balanced? Nope, never will be. But that's the price of playing a game with so much freedom and opportunity to mix and match as you see fit... And its a price I am more then happy to pay. Overall UO has done a pretty good job of keeping things fair and balanced while still allowing us the freedom to do what we want. Its that freedom to play that makes me stay with UO. If I "PAID" for my account, then I should have the opportunity to "Play As I Desire". (Please know that while I like to PvP, this thread is focusing ONLY on the PvM aspect of UO, and I DO understand and support balance and limits in PvP)
There have been a lot of posts here about templates being overpowered and how some monsters should not be "soloable". "This is an MMO, if you dont want to play with a group then got get a console. That's fine. I'm a member of some of the biggest guilds on my shard and I love playing with and getting to know other people... most of the time. But there are days when either my schedule or my mood make it more beneficial to play by myself. There is also the feeling of accomplishment that comes from killing a peerless by yourself that usually takes a small guild. So far I have not soloed a single peerless... but I'm working on it, and its the knowledge that it can be done that keeps me logging on. I want to play in a sandbox style game where my experience is what I make of it. So far everything worth doing in this game has been designed with a group in mind. That's to be expected in an MMO. But UO has always been a place, and should continue to be a place where new heights are both available and reachable. Sure some people can now do alone what was originally intended to take a guild. There is NOTHING wrong with that!!! After 10 years of building skills, hunting for top quality items, putting together the perfect suit, and experimenting with hundreds of templates I sure as hell had better be able to do a good deal more then I used to. But don't whine and cry because someone who put in more time, work, and gold then you did can now do something you cannot. There needs to be that growth and achievement or else there is no reason to continue playing. If you like playing in a guild, then do it. Just because this is an MMO does not mean that I should be forced to play with other people. If I want to put in the work and time, and if I have the skill, it should be POSSIBLE for me to take on just about anything in the game. This is a game that was based off of the concept that your time, effort, and ingenuity should pay off and allow you to accomplish great things. However I sometimes feel like a little kid in a sandbox who finally builds the perfect sandcastle just to have his parent come stomping in and kick it to pieces, then take away some of his sandcastle building toys and scold him saying "When we said you can achieve anything you put your mind to, we didn't have that level of quality and achievement in mind!" That being said, here is what I would like to see....
- Leave the Peerless that we have now as they are. Stop nerfing templates that are able to accomplish extraordinary things. That's the whole point of being able to mix and match skills.
- Give us a few new peerless that have a limit as to how many people can enter. Give us 2 or 3 new peerless that only 1 person to enter, and make it instanced so that as many people as want to can do them. Make them about as hard as the current peerless are so that its still a challenge, and it takes a while, but so that we can still get a shot at getting a crimson and some ingredients. Then make a couple of new drops that can only be attained through these new Peerless. Even if its a stupid shirt that says "I killed So&So and all I got was this lousy shirt". Give the people that want to solo things something to solo.
- Give us a few new peerless that only allow 2-3 people to enter. Basically same as above but for just me and my friend to do for when nobody else is online, or the guild is doing something I don't want to, or Im just sick of all the guild drama at the moment and just want to play with one or 2 friends.
-Finally, give us a few new Peerless that require at least 4 people to enter. Not only that, but maybe even require separate templates. A necro, a tamer, a warrior, and a freecard. Make it so that there is a reason to get a group together, and a reason for people to build some different templates. Don't just nerf the one that works.
Please, SAVE OUR SANDBOX!!! Allow us something to work for, and give us options as to how we can play instead of taking options away. Instead of punishing us by taking things away when we achieve new heights, support our work and ingenuity by giving us more to do, and new heights to achieve. If your training your friend to be a mountain climber, you don't go up to him after he crests his first hill and cut off a leg and say "There, lets see you do that again now". No, you take him to a bigger harder mountain.
There have been a lot of posts here about templates being overpowered and how some monsters should not be "soloable". "This is an MMO, if you dont want to play with a group then got get a console. That's fine. I'm a member of some of the biggest guilds on my shard and I love playing with and getting to know other people... most of the time. But there are days when either my schedule or my mood make it more beneficial to play by myself. There is also the feeling of accomplishment that comes from killing a peerless by yourself that usually takes a small guild. So far I have not soloed a single peerless... but I'm working on it, and its the knowledge that it can be done that keeps me logging on. I want to play in a sandbox style game where my experience is what I make of it. So far everything worth doing in this game has been designed with a group in mind. That's to be expected in an MMO. But UO has always been a place, and should continue to be a place where new heights are both available and reachable. Sure some people can now do alone what was originally intended to take a guild. There is NOTHING wrong with that!!! After 10 years of building skills, hunting for top quality items, putting together the perfect suit, and experimenting with hundreds of templates I sure as hell had better be able to do a good deal more then I used to. But don't whine and cry because someone who put in more time, work, and gold then you did can now do something you cannot. There needs to be that growth and achievement or else there is no reason to continue playing. If you like playing in a guild, then do it. Just because this is an MMO does not mean that I should be forced to play with other people. If I want to put in the work and time, and if I have the skill, it should be POSSIBLE for me to take on just about anything in the game. This is a game that was based off of the concept that your time, effort, and ingenuity should pay off and allow you to accomplish great things. However I sometimes feel like a little kid in a sandbox who finally builds the perfect sandcastle just to have his parent come stomping in and kick it to pieces, then take away some of his sandcastle building toys and scold him saying "When we said you can achieve anything you put your mind to, we didn't have that level of quality and achievement in mind!" That being said, here is what I would like to see....
- Leave the Peerless that we have now as they are. Stop nerfing templates that are able to accomplish extraordinary things. That's the whole point of being able to mix and match skills.
- Give us a few new peerless that have a limit as to how many people can enter. Give us 2 or 3 new peerless that only 1 person to enter, and make it instanced so that as many people as want to can do them. Make them about as hard as the current peerless are so that its still a challenge, and it takes a while, but so that we can still get a shot at getting a crimson and some ingredients. Then make a couple of new drops that can only be attained through these new Peerless. Even if its a stupid shirt that says "I killed So&So and all I got was this lousy shirt". Give the people that want to solo things something to solo.
- Give us a few new peerless that only allow 2-3 people to enter. Basically same as above but for just me and my friend to do for when nobody else is online, or the guild is doing something I don't want to, or Im just sick of all the guild drama at the moment and just want to play with one or 2 friends.
-Finally, give us a few new Peerless that require at least 4 people to enter. Not only that, but maybe even require separate templates. A necro, a tamer, a warrior, and a freecard. Make it so that there is a reason to get a group together, and a reason for people to build some different templates. Don't just nerf the one that works.
Please, SAVE OUR SANDBOX!!! Allow us something to work for, and give us options as to how we can play instead of taking options away. Instead of punishing us by taking things away when we achieve new heights, support our work and ingenuity by giving us more to do, and new heights to achieve. If your training your friend to be a mountain climber, you don't go up to him after he crests his first hill and cut off a leg and say "There, lets see you do that again now". No, you take him to a bigger harder mountain.
