Simplifying the game is not so complicated

[Mervyn]

I think most people will agree that uo is now far too complicated, learning to play is about as simpler as flying a helicopter gunship.

But i've noticed there are ways to simplify the game without actually affecting the basic concepts of the game too much. What complicates the game i find, is that there are so many exceptions to any general rules. I think we should get rid of these irregular verbs.

So i'll start.

Durability, All wearable items including rings and robes should have durability, jewelry too.

Imbueing, All items from a monster should have 450 intensity, shields included, all items that are exceptional should have 500. fix the planesword.

Imbueing ingredients: all should come from abyss, seeds of regeneration should just spawn more often.

imbuing intensities: ranged weapons should either only be able to have 15 hci/dci imbued OR, spawn with higher than 15 in the wild. Balanced should also be spawnable in the wild.

Enhancing: enhancing with bloodwood when a piece has 2 hp regen should give 4 hpregen OR just take the hpr property away from the bloodwood.

Any item that cannot be repaired, i.e imbued or replicas should have the 'brittle' tag on them as they are indeed brittle.

casting: all skills should have the same casting caps (i.e fc2 should give the effect of fc4 for chiv/weaving (maybe slow down the weaving)

slayer spellbooks: slayers should work for all spell schools, or none, not half.

regeneration: hit point regen/stamina regen and mana regen should have the same cap OR all have diminishing returns, not 2 have a random cap and one have diminishing returns

hit point increase: like stamina increase and mana increase should have no cap, just decrease the amount that you actually can get on a piece (so in effect it's hard to get over 20)

rpd: should probably be capped at 100, since damage increase is. rpd should also reflect physical damage (as it describes) not just melee physical damage.

weapon specials: all should require tactics skill (not just the majority)

Revealing: all area spells should reveal (damage those hidden), not just the majority.

Mounts: all ethereal type mounts should look ethereal, i.e ride-able polar bear should look ethereal.

debuffs/buffs: all negative effects, i.e deathstrike/splintering, should have a debuff and not just some

not enough mana?: one kind of message to tell you when you're low, not one kind of red writing over your head for magery, and another system message for mystic etc...

OK feel free to add more, I'm just trying to create some rules in the game to simplify it. Feel free to slam me however please remember I always strive to improve/simplify the game so we can get new players.

 

[Hi my name is]

The majority of what you posted has nothing to do with simplifying the game. You're just stating a bunch of little changes that would have 0 effect on the overall scope of the game. Want a simple game? Go play WoW. "Simplifying" the game only caters to lazy players who don't take the time to figure it out. New players are supposed to be lost that's why they're called NEWBS.

 

[Hildebrand]

I agree UO has gotten complicated. I liked at one point the complexity and depth of this game. I liked that I had to know various things about the suit in order to maximize my characters. But it's gotten so complicated to the point where I don't want to log in. I feel like I either should do small repetitive stuff (boring), or yank out the Encylopedia Britannia (not misspelled) in order to do the "deeper" stuff.

At one point I advocated adding various little systems (like click on thread, light fire, click on cannon, etc) but Holly Molly I disdain that stuff now! Yeah, I don't have to do it, but did we help create a monster?

 

[Carharrt]

UO has already been dumbed down enough. Nothing wrong with a little challenge.

I wonder how many vets would still be here if it was made easier a long time ago. I doubt nearly as many since it would lose its long term charm alot sooner.

I remember when skill gaining was actually hard and time consuming. I remember great weapons that were few and far between. Now they are everywhere and skills? Please....

Easy enough IMO and its alot easier than it used to be.

 

[Mervyn]

UO has already been dumbed down enough. Nothing wrong with a little challenge.

I wonder how many vets would still be here if it was made easier a long time ago. I doubt nearly as many since it would lose its long term charm alot sooner.

I remember when skill gaining was actually hard and time consuming. I remember great weapons that were few and far between. Now they are everywhere and skills? Please....

Easy enough IMO and its alot easier than it used to be.

The ease of gaining good items or gaining skill has nothing to do with the point i'm making. I'm just trying to get rid of myriad inconsistencies that alienate new players.

 

[Viper09]

UO has already been dumbed down enough. Nothing wrong with a little challenge.

I wonder how many vets would still be here if it was made easier a long time ago. I doubt nearly as many since it would lose its long term charm alot sooner.

I remember when skill gaining was actually hard and time consuming. I remember great weapons that were few and far between. Now they are everywhere and skills? Please....

Easy enough IMO and its alot easier than it used to be.

Honestly it is the complexity of this game that keeps me interested. However it is easy to look at everything this game has and be boggled by it all. But if you press forward you soon realize that all the stuff this game has isn't all necessary; it is only necessary for certain parts of the game or certain characters. If WoW had the complexity this game has it would be a lot more interesting and a lot less boring once you reach the top level.

New players in this game shouldn't even bother trying to tackle all the stuff all at once and I don't think very many are. All players have to do is simply tackle stuff when it is necessary.

 

[Mervyn]

Here's another, the pvm damage (for spell or damage increase) should be the same as pvp. I'm not going to say what it should be, perhaps make pvm damage caps the same as current pvm damage caps and just make monsters a little easier, I'm not going to commit to what the mathematical solution should be but...

people should not have to learn 2 sets of caps. you get the gist right?

 

[PJay]

Even if all the changes mervyn proposed were changed uo is still complex and so it should remain this way.

But there are a lot of examples where seemingly random rules apply either on purpose or by accident.

The slayer books are a prime example why do the slayers only work for half the spell schools?

Faction armour why can people who do not pvp or faction fight use and wear these items and why can cross factions heal/rez each other?

Why arnt gargoyles turned into rats by the Barracoon?

 

[PJay]

Another:-

Stone form purgeable
wraith form purgeable
vamp form purgeable

animal form not purgeable?

 

[Viper09]

Here's another, the pvm damage (for spell or damage increase) should be the same as pvp. I'm not going to say what it should be, perhaps make pvm damage caps the same as current pvm damage caps and just make monsters a little easier, I'm not going to commit to what the mathematical solution should be but...

people should not have to learn 2 sets of caps. you get the gist right?

Ok, seriously that is not necessary. I know what you're getting at but caps are fine, looking at two different tables of what the caps are is really not at all complex or troublesome. If someone finds it too complex then I don't think they would like most MMO's

 

[PJay]

Out of interest is there a table of caps available?

 

[Warpig Inc]

Durability, All wearable items including rings and robes should have durability, jewelry too.

Ones with mods or worth losing do. Event non replacable robes shouldn't

Imbueing, All items from a monster should have 450 intensity, shields included, all items that are exceptional should have 500. fix the planesword.

Shields already have a higher mod generation rate as loot. Only those that didn't keep a barrel of those swords are sad. And there would be more threads on it if it was imbalanced.

Imbueing ingredients: all should come from abyss, seeds of regeneration should just spawn more often.

What else will be in Tmap chest to make it worth while? The Abyss mini champs ingredient loot is a side to grinding for special drops. What event will plant trees for lumberjackers in the abyss?

imbuing intensities: ranged weapons should either only be able to have 15 hci/dci imbued OR, spawn with higher than 15 in the wild. Balanced should also be spawnable in the wild.

First part makes my head hurt. Taking Balance out of the loot generator was easier then trying to get it to be on bows only and not on throwing weapons.

Enhancing: enhancing with bloodwood when a piece has 2 hp regen should give 4 hpregen OR just take the hpr property away from the bloodwood.

Would of agreed before the new Shame Loot system.

Any item that cannot be repaired, i.e imbued or replicas should have the 'brittle' tag on them as they are indeed brittle.

Correction replace repaired with PoFed. Message comes up good enough.

casting: all skills should have the same casting caps (i.e fc2 should give the effect of fc4 for chiv/weaving (maybe slow down the weaving)

PVP balance issue there. Critters die no matter how fast we cast.

slayer spellbooks: slayers should work for all spell schools, or none, not half.

Mods on books I agree. They all should be scribe crafted with mod chances.

regeneration: hit point regen/stamina regen and mana regen should have the same cap OR all have diminishing returns, not 2 have a random cap and one have diminishing returns

See PVP balance.

hit point increase: like stamina increase and mana increase should have no cap, just decrease the amount that you actually can get on a piece (so in effect it's hard to get over 20)

Easier to set caps and give more suit building freedom.

rpd: should probably be capped at 100, since damage increase is. rpd should also reflect physical damage (as it describes) not just melee physical damage.

Each worn piece with RPD does a check and goes off based on the chance. RPD is not like LRC and totals up. Wear a load of RPD and watch the string of small numbers when your clawed.

weapon specials: all should require tactics skill (not just the majority)

Wrestlers are the only one that don't require tactics. Untill there are brass knuckles with 50% lightning 50%HLA 15% HCI 30% SSI 45%DI or Cowpuncher Gauntlets with Bovine Slayer 20LRC +8 STR 2 ManaRegn 40 Mana Leech 20/7/10/8/10 it is all good.

Revealing: all area spells should reveal (damage those hidden), not just the majority.

They should create dust and smoke and if ya pay attention can see it move around a stealther or show footsteps.

Mounts: all ethereal type mounts should look ethereal, i.e ride-able polar bear should look ethereal.

"Hello, it is called a Retouching Tool." The 11th year reward might be a hurdle for most.

debuffs/buffs: all negative effects, i.e deathstrike/splintering, should have a debuff and not just some

Any effect with a timer or an on/off should have a lifebar icon.

not enough mana?: one kind of message to tell you when you're low, not one kind of red writing over your head for magery, and another system message for mystic etc...

Glances up at stat bars. "DOH." Skulks of to meditate on suit improvement and skills.

OK feel free to add more, I'm just trying to create some rules in the game to simplify it. Feel free to slam me however please remember I always strive to improve/simplify the game so we can get new players.

Improve the titling and last line on items that the Shame system just brought out. Items worn will only show there added effect to stat tables if IDed by a character on the account. Items ID will only display the first mod line to everyone. DI, mage armor, resist and Durability only lines not needing to be revealed. Bring back the old system of hidden mods. Trusted crafters and vendors quality suit sets and weapons. Chat will help on who is a punk or saint, and guild tags keeping names straight. Arty/Recipe crafted have full reveal of mods to all. Every item currently ingame not arty/recipe crafted gets random regenerated at the same weight. Enhancement properties remain same.

 

[Mervyn]

Ok, seriously that is not necessary. I know what you're getting at but caps are fine, looking at two different tables of what the caps are is really not at all complex or troublesome. If someone finds it too complex then I don't think they would like most MMO's

well, on the whole of things, it would mean that pvmers would then not suck so much if thrown into a pvp situation, you wouldn't necessarily have to have 1 char for pvm and 1 char for pvp. So there could be some bonuses to this.

 

[Raptor85]

I agree that it's too complicated to the point where it harms the fun, but your proposed changes dont really remove the overcomplication at all.

For actual simplification uo should start with the easy stuff
1. phase out the redundant quest systems, rework old quests into the current system or get rid of them entirely, 3 quest systems that work independently is confusing and soooo broken.

2. remove redundant/useless properties.
a. armor elements - the idea to split the armor resists into elements was a horrible idea to begin with, it's needless overcomplication made even more ridiculous in an age where everyone wears 70 suits anyways. Bring back the "AR" system based on the armor type alone, weighting it around the damage reduction "70" resist now gives, and convert all existing armor to it by taking a simple average of the 5 resists (yeah, it would make older leather suits more powerful than new ones, but would bring back a simpler armor system that actually made sense)
b. hit spells - we dont need 500 of them, especially since 90% of them are NEVER useful, combine ones like the leech effects into one effect, and make the "area" spells a simple variation of the normal hit effects that just hits everything in radius instead.
c. SSI - instead of 4.25 s w/ 40 ssi....just change the freaking swing time on the weapon.
d. sc + mw - combine these into one, there's very little reason not to, just call it a "mage weapon", get rid of the variable negatives to it and just have it always slightly modify your speed/magery level the same way
e. LRC/LMC - get rid of the reagent requirement for casting, it's a rarity these days to see anyone bother using them, and raise the mana requirement on all spells that previously required reagents, effectively letting LMC take place of both.
f. remove RFD if it's never going to be fixed
g. get rid of stamina increase, hp increase, mana increase, and combine with the str/dex/int increase, raising the cap to 200 to compensate
h. combine the three regeneration stats into one

Remove useless spells, simplify casting
a. get rid of all the individual buffs and debuffs, they're redundant with bless and curse
b. remove magic trap and untrap, with the glitched crates everyone uses the only "real" use for these was removed (or maybe make these ACTUALLY work properly, let magic untrap actually untrap chests and not only magically trapped ones)
c. same with magic lock/unlock. or get rid of magic lock and make magic unlock actually useful by raising the level of locks it can open significantly by your int and magery.
d. arch protection needs to go, it's basicly pointless
e. incognito is amusing but broken, it should go
f. summon creature and polymorph as well, as they stand they're not really useful (though polymorph DOES have it's purposes in RP, it really should be fixed so that while in polymorphed form you actually act like that creature, like the necro/ninja forms, and have a proper name as the tag over your head)
g. instead of spell circles, directly list the required magery for each spell similar to chivalry
h. same basic thing for the other spell schools, remove redundant spells that no longer have any reason to be seperate, and spells that no longer have any use.

Remove skills that were unnecessarily made "useful" by splitting part of the functionality of another skill into it. (granted this would allow significantly more useful skill points per character, but for the most part it would only allow things like casters being able to hold one extra spell school, or warriors being able to have a extra weapon type available, which really shouldn't be unbalancing, some builds could potentially be quite a bit stronger though, but nothing stronger than some that we already have)
a. anatomy should be removed and effectively replaced by your highest weapon skill/healing skill
b. tactics should be completely removed, and current damage bonus again wrapped into your weapon skills
c. animal lore/taming should either be combined into a single skill, or made actually useful seperately (taming for actually taming a creature, but you can control with just lore)
d. eval int much like anatomy, it should simply be combined with the magery skill
e. combine hiding and stealth, since stealth isnt an active skill anymore anyways just automaticly stealth based on a hiding check after 30 skill
f. remove focus and med, and significantly increase the regen rate bonus for how high your stam/int is
g. spirit speak - same as eval mostly....honestly just make it a necro heal spell and have GM necro allow you to talk as a ghost/talk to ghosts
h. stealing and snooping - combine, it's essentially a redundant skill check, just check against the stealing skill to check success at snooping the bag.
i. taste id - dump the skill, it hasn't been useful...well....since ever really
j. music - it's redundant with the individual skills, remove and put the skill chance of playing based on your highest music skill

Crafting
a. unify the crafting menus, seriously just make a button for "crafting" similar to the current imbueing button, and have all crafting skills, imbue included, in a single menu, that will use any normal tool in your pack. (with a button to select to use runic tools, similar to how you select material now)

and of course much..much more

 

[Silverbird]

weapon specials: all should require tactics skill (not just the majority)

Wrestlers are the only one that don't require tactics. Untill there are brass knuckles with 50% lightning 50%HLA 15% HCI 30% SSI 45%DI or Cowpuncher Gauntlets with Bovine Slayer 20LRC +8 STR 2 ManaRegn 40 Mana Leech 20/7/10/8/10 it is all good.

I think, the op refers to infectious and shadow strike. Both could be used without tactics.

slayer spellbooks: slayers should work for all spell schools, or none, not half.

Mods on books I agree. They all should be scribe crafted with mod chances.

If a book for a casting school can be scribed, it can have mods on it. Only the same restriction as for magery spellbooks applies: you need the apropriate casting skill at GM or above (for better chances) for mods. For necro books with mods, you need inscrition + at best 120 necromancy. Not shure, if slayer mods on a necro book would work for necro spells.

 

[pgib]

I'm all for a re-organization of stuff that is just useless or plainly illogical but there is so much to do in these areas that it would probably be better to start from scratch. And it won't bring in new players: that needs shiny graphics and strong advertising.

 

[Viper09]

Out of interest is there a table of caps available?

Not sure. If uoguide or stratics doesn't have one it shouldn't be hard at all to slap one together as we know the caps.

 

[PJay]

regeneration: hit point regen/stamina regen and mana regen should have the same cap OR all have diminishing returns, not 2 have a random cap and one have diminishing returns

See PVP balance.

Not a pvp balance simplify (harry potter style).

Why not just have all regens deminishing returns but balanced differently.
So for a mage after 16 mr u can add more mr but its not going to benifit you as much therefore you can choose something else which would help more.

Do this for all the regens then a hard cap isnt needed.

SIMPLIFIED

 

[Hi my name is]

Not a pvp balance simplify (harry potter style).

Why not just have all regens deminishing returns but balanced differently.
So for a mage after 16 mr u can add more mr but its not going to benifit you as much therefore you can choose something else which would help more.

Do this for all the regens then a hard cap isnt needed.

SIMPLIFIED

I wouldn't mind them adding the cap for each property next to the actual property on items. It would be extremely simple to achieve and make finding caps insanely easier.

 

[Perma Fried]

Not sure. If uoguide or stratics doesn't have one it shouldn't be hard at all to slap one together as we know the caps.

Typical experienced vet player response. Great, people that have played for 5+ years know all the caps, but people who are trying to get into the game or don't want to spend 3 hours researching websites don't know them.

This game is very complicated, which isn't a bad thing, but unfortunately most of the information is not in the game so you must know various websites to find the information (If you just started playing UO would you know about Stratics or UOGuide? I really doubt it.)

I've always thought that all of the various caps and equations should be within the actual client. Meaning that as you add HCI to your character a menu will add the total on your char and also show the cap. If this is part of the EC forgive me as I've not used it.

But I certainly agree with alot of the posters points. There are so many areas of this game that need to be revised whether it be combining overlaping skills/properties, etc or simply deleting no longer used properties/skills etc.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

No one really agrees on what "simplifying" means or entails.

You'd think simplification is a simple enough concept but really it is not when you think about it.

And further, I can think of at least 2 instances where simplification has actually caused an outcry.

1. The way the Virtues work now is simplified, in that they all seem to have the same or highly comparable rates of decay and all seem to cause one to lose points in the Virtue when it's power is invoked. The result: Outcry. That means, for example, that you lose Compassion when you rez someone because that's when the power is invoked.

2. The healing/loot spawn in pack change is a simplification to some degree, because it means, as far as I can figure, all if the spawn in pack loot is going to be distributed by more or less the same set of instructions. The result: Outcry, as it will cause people to have to change tactics at champ spawns.

-Galen's player

 

[Perma Fried]

Something I was just thinking based on an event last night.

You should be able to lore your pet and have it tell you what your control % is instead of having to go to a website and input all the info.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

you Nuts man?
For example, Who doesn't just eat up stuff like:
( ( [Attacker's Combat Skill + 20] * [100% + Attacker's Hit Chance Increase]) / ([Defender's Combat Skill + 20] * [100% + Defender's Defense Chance Increase] * 2 ) ) * 100

time i get to the end, i forget why i'm doing it in the firstplace
I agree w/ the OP. more equality
Maybe have all leeches the same, instead of 2/3 (course it'd nurf HSL)

 

[Triberius]

While the game may have gotten more complicated, simplifying it might not be so simple.

The funny thing about programming, changing one thing that looks simple enough can have a huge unattended effect on half a dozen other things. Sure you can say the game needs simplifying, but how much would have to be re-written to do so? And does the development team have the man power, and time frame to do so?

What you are asking for is like building a third story house, then taking the second floor out after it's finished, it simply may not be possible without destroying more than it's worth to invest the effort into doing.

 

[Viper09]

Typical experienced vet player response. Great, people that have played for 5+ years know all the caps, but people who are trying to get into the game or don't want to spend 3 hours researching websites don't know them.

Oh my, so sorry if I offended you. A question was asked if a table was available and answered to the best of my ability, which was that I honestly don't know. When I said "we know the caps" I meant that both UOGuide and Stratics have caps listed so everyone, even the non-vets, can easily find out what the caps are. However when it comes to tables comparing all caps I just don't know if that's there. What would you have preferred me to say?

If you're curious of caps it will in no way take 3 hours to find it, both uoguide and stratics are easy to navigate and both have a search engine.

 

[Raptor85]

While the game may have gotten more complicated, simplifying it might not be so simple.

The funny thing about programming, changing one thing that looks simple enough can have a huge unattended effect on half a dozen other things. Sure you can say the game needs simplifying, but how much would have to be re-written to do so? And does the development team have the man power, and time frame to do so?

What you are asking for is like building a third story house, then taking the second floor out after it's finished, it simply may not be possible without destroying more than it's worth to invest the effort into doing.

nah, this is more like having a skyscraper built floor by floor over older structures that were never meant for so much weight, and asking for at least the unused, crumbling old balcony's that were long ago walled off to be snapped off to release some of the strain on the building so it doesnt crumble in on itself if later you attempt proper fixes and major structural work. When the building has 16 fire escapes from each room and 15 of them dead-end in the middle of the building, they're doing more harm than good.

/building analogy

Or for a car analogy (these are easier) it's like someone taking a classic car, painting it some obscene color after bondo-ing a ton of useless wings all over the car, then bolting them to the outside of the body. Yeah it's going to take some body work to restore to something worth owning but could we at least start by taking off the ****ing fart can?

 

[TheGrimmOmen]

Sorry if someone mentioned this (I haven't read all the posts) but there's a different between simplifying the game, and making it more accessible. I'm all for making more accessible. Tier the gameplay (I'm being vague here because I'm trying to speak from a high concept POV) so that all existing players get to keep all the depth of gameplay that they are used to, but people new to the game get a kind of "lite" version that might limit access to aspects of the game due to the simplified experience, but allow them to get invested in playing, and open up the deeper aspects of game play when they want. I can't really elaborate on the how since that isn't really my area of expertise, but I think accessibility would be a great and incredibly difficult aspect of UO to improve upon.

But this is just my armchair opinion.

-Grimm

 

[Perma Fried]

Oh my, so sorry if I offended you. A question was asked if a table was available and answered to the best of my ability, which was that I honestly don't know. When I said "we know the caps" I meant that both UOGuide and Stratics have caps listed so everyone, even the non-vets, can easily find out what the caps are. However when it comes to tables comparing all caps I just don't know if that's there. What would you have preferred me to say?

If you're curious of caps it will in no way take 3 hours to find it, both uoguide and stratics are easy to navigate and both have a search engine.

You took offense when none when implied. As someone who played for 10 years, then quit for 3 and just restarted I can tell you first hand that this game could use a serious overhaul when it comes to in-game information.

I'm simply saying that not everyone wants to spend hours upon hours digging through websites in order to play a game. People who work all day, come home around 6pm, deal with dinner and the kids and finally get to play for an hour or 2 at night don't want to spend an hour reading about caps.

I could give you dozens of examples of times people I know in RL, who have been playing for years, had no idea what a certain cap was and were wasting their time trying to get 6 FC for example (This actually happened to my brother-in-law who had been playing for 4 years and it wasn't until I was at his house installing a dishwasher for him that he told me he had 5 FC on his mage.)

This goes for alot of things in this game (such as my taming control % suggestion above). The game should display all the caps and what your char is currently at. Not require you to first know what websites to even begin looking for the information then spend precious free time researching basic game mechanics on those websites.

 

[Perma Fried]

you Nuts man?
For example, Who doesn't just eat up stuff like:
( ( [Attacker's Combat Skill + 20] * [100% + Attacker's Hit Chance Increase]) / ([Defender's Combat Skill + 20] * [100% + Defender's Defense Chance Increase] * 2 ) ) * 100

lol.......exactly man.

Just do the damn math for me and display the information IN THE GAME, not on some random website that not every UO player even knows about, yet alone frequents on a regular basis.

 

[CovenantX]

Simplify the game by adding to it.

1) Add more tool-tips with updated info in-game (Spells, Stats, & Skills, + general ways to use/gain)

2) Update player guide to project current game patch/pub info.

3) TC character statistics menu (when highlighting a character) (add all stats to it) This would make it easier for new players & veterans build armor siuts. This needs to be on all shards and both clients regardless, surprised it hasn't made it yet...

 

[Woodsman]

Simplify the game by adding to it.

1) Add more tool-tips with updated info in-game (Spells, Stats, & Skills, + general ways to use/gain)

This could probably be done in the EC - anybody that has used Pinco's UI knows how flexible it is. Stuff like the pet power calculator is built in, imbuing information and tips is built in, etc. Pinco's pet lore/pet power calculator stuff in the EC is pretty much perfect - shows you everything you need to see, and compares it to the species' max stats. There are some limitations to some things that Pinco can do, but he seems to find decent work arounds for a lot of it.

2) Update player guide to project current game patch/pub info.

Not going to happen in our lifetime. UO's community/website person is shared with three other games, and Skalzi said on Twitter that it's a different area outside of his group.

3) TC character statistics menu (when highlighting a character) (add all stats to it) This would make it easier for new players & veterans build armor siuts. This needs to be on all shards and both clients regardless, surprised it hasn't made it yet...

I wonder why that is still there and has not been pushed out to all shards.

 

[Pinco]

All this will not simplify the game at all...

For example:
Why a newbie would care about durability on everything if don't know what the durability is?

To simplify the game, new players should be able to have some way to quickly know about everything...
Like a search engine, you type something and return a schematic info about the item/skill/virtue/ecc...
For example, one of the first things you may notice when you log for the first time is focus raising. So with this search engine he can type "Focus" and will get:

Focus is a skill that improve your stamina regeneration and also affect the mysticism spells.
Related contents:
stamina
stamina regeneration
mysticism

Obviously this search engine must be always visible until he dont disable it.

 

[Raptor85]

All this will not simplify the game at all...

For example:
Why a newbie would care about durability on everything if don't know what the durability is?

To simplify the game, new players should be able to have some way to quickly know about everything...
Like a search engine, you type something and return a schematic info about the item/skill/virtue/ecc...
For example, one of the first things you may notice when you log for the first time is focus raising. So with this search engine he can type "Focus" and will get:

Focus is a skill that improve your stamina regeneration and also affect the mysticism spells.
Related contents:
stamina
stamina regeneration
mysticism

Obviously this search engine must be always visible until he dont disable it.

strangely enough, UO actually already has this, at least in the CC. The question mark next to help opens the "codex of wisdom" which is exactly that, a list of skills, spells, etc... with a search feature

...but...while it works great they havent updated the actual text in it in like...10 years, so it's basicly useless (it's at about the same revision EA's UO playguide site is at, that talks about purchasing guild stones to create a guild, and how to train during power hour, items with magical charges and the AR system)

 

[Pinco]

strangely enough, UO actually already has this, at least in the CC. The question mark next to help opens the "codex of wisdom" which is exactly that, a list of skills, spells, etc... with a search feature

...but...while it works great they havent updated the actual text in it in like...10 years, so it's basicly useless (it's at about the same revision EA's UO playguide site is at, that talks about purchasing guild stones to create a guild, and how to train during power hour, items with magical charges and the AR system)

there is also on EC, but is too old, and also should be expanded for item properties and more...

Another nice thing that this search tool cold have is the lore about the places on UO. For example the first time someone goes to malas has an easy question: "Why it's surrounded by stars?"
So if you type "Malas" you should get where is malas and why there are stars all around

 

[Scoobs]

Best way to simplify the game and make it more accessable would be to develop a simplified user interface for use with phones and other hand held devices. An underlying account would be required, but the game would be limited in functionality when not played on PC. Not only would this bring huge numbers of new players, it would add a wider range of amateur pvp or simple player interaction.

 

[Winker]

The game is simple enough as it is! The more you play the more you learn, that’s the magic about the game. Only the hard core vets need to tweak the game to the point that they care about diminishing returns, hit point caps, DCI over caps, slayers that work with Margery but not necros etc, etc. New players have enough on their hands learning their skills and learning how to kill monsters. Once they get past the basics then they can move on to the intermediate stuff, then finally on to the hard core tweaking. It’s a natural learning curve that keeps people involved.

Lets face it, you don't even have to worry about all these mathematical algorithms that the hard core vets study to squeeze that last hit point out of every shot fired. You can play the game without even knowing these exists. Simplicity is there for the noob and complexity is there for the hard core vets.

 

[Pinco]

Best way to simplify the game and make it more accessable would be to develop a simplified user interface for use with phones and other hand held devices. An underlying account would be required, but the game would be limited in functionality when not played on PC. Not only would this bring huge numbers of new players, it would add a wider range of amateur pvp or simple player interaction.

2 clients are not enough for you?

your suggestion just require a third client for mobile devices

 

[Woodsman]

Best way to simplify the game and make it more accessable would be to develop a simplified user interface for use with phones and other hand held devices. An underlying account would be required, but the game would be limited in functionality when not played on PC. Not only would this bring huge numbers of new players, it would add a wider range of amateur pvp or simple player interaction.

They would have to come up with a brand new engine for a mobile platform.

If it was easy to do, WOW, EVE Online, RIFT, etc. would already have mobile clients.

 

[Scoobs]

Surely UO is an excellent base on which to base a hand held platform. At least the graphics are supportable.

 

[Woodsman]

Surely UO is an excellent base on which to base a hand held platform. At least the graphics are supportable.

Are you being serious?

If it was that easy, there would be a ****load of PC ports on iPhones.

There are plenty of 3D accelerated games on iPhones, and the iPhones are now dual-core and soon to be quad-core, but Blizzard and CCP aren't rushing out to make WOW or EVE run on them, even though they have just as much, if not more financial incentive to do so.

World of Warcraft has something like 4,000 people that work on it - developers, artists, web designers, web developers, support, etc. They have even have a team that supports Warcraft's auction house and mail system on the iPhone. If it's not worth doing for a game that has 4,000 people working on it and 10 million people playing it, it's not worth doing for a game that probably has far less than 100 people working on it, and probably less than 50,000 playing.

 

[LordDrago]

I think most people will agree that uo is now far too complicated, learning to play is about as simpler as flying a helicopter gunship.

OP: Your post begins with a very poor premise. If there isx one thing that Stratics has shown me, it is tht most people in UO can't agree on anything.

 

[Mirt]

OP: Your post begins with a very poor premise. If there isx one thing that Stratics has shown me, it is tht most people in UO can't agree on anything.

Also helicopter gunships are crazy complicated

 

[Pinco]

Are you being serious?

If it was that easy, there would be a ****load of PC ports on iPhones.

There are plenty of 3D accelerated games on iPhones, and the iPhones are now dual-core and soon to be quad-core, but Blizzard and CCP aren't rushing out to make WOW or EVE run on them, even though they have just as much, if not more financial incentive to do so.

World of Warcraft has something like 4,000 people that work on it - developers, artists, web designers, web developers, support, etc. They have even have a team that supports Warcraft's auction house and mail system on the iPhone. If it's not worth doing for a game that has 4,000 people working on it and 10 million people playing it, it's not worth doing for a game that probably has far less than 100 people working on it, and probably less than 50,000 playing.

you really belive that UO has 100 people working on it?

If they are a dozen it's a big number