Skill Cap Raise...

[sapphirediablo11]

Well the FoF mentioned it so i bring it up here, and wanted to know what do you guys think should be done???
I think that there should be a raise in cap, based off the age of your account although, this will be a let down and up to those who are 10 year vets that didn't get anything for all that time, and those 1 year people who get X bonus points for just 1 year of play :\

I really though do not care my characters are already built nicely and if i need to modify a template i just have soul stones :O what are your guys/gals opinions???

 

[Dragkiris]

I think its balanced as it is. If they let you fit another skill in it would be crazy overpowered. Necro mages with resist and wrestling, Tamers with full mage ability and provoke and discord while wearnig perfect luck suit... you get teh idea.

 

[Ender]

Everbdoy will get the skill raise, so it's not like the people with it will get a huge advantage.

I don't care. Do it, don't do it, whatever.

 

[Inspector]

The thing is it wouldn't be overpowered, if everybody got the said raise in skill cap everybody would be on the same skill point level, and even if you do or do not have the items to make it a really great character... thats not up to ea, thats on you. It would add diversity to the game and really bring UO into what it should be, I mean yeah there might be some crazy ass builds out there... But there is already crazy stuff now. Since the original skills that came with the game there is now what like 6 or is it 8 new skills and with the addition of SA there will be a few more. It only makes sense to raise the skill cap too for the addition of so many new skills.
I say raise it.

 

[Basara]

My advice would be to extend the real skill cap bonus to 5/year for all accounts.

Then, put in a cap for equipment where equipment can't raise skills over a total of 800.

 

[gunneroforgin]

Well the FoF mentioned it so i bring it up here, and wanted to know what do you guys think should be done???
I think that there should be a raise in cap, based off the age of your account although, this will be a let down and up to those who are 10 year vets that didn't get anything for all that time, and those 1 year people who get X bonus points for just 1 year of play :\

I really though do not care my characters are already built nicely and if i need to modify a template i just have soul stones :O what are your guys/gals opinions???

Well I am for the skill increase. I could rearrange and add skill to my characters.

 

[canary]

My advice would be to extend the real skill cap bonus to 5/year for all accounts.

Then, put in a cap for equipment where equipment can't raise skills over a total of 800.

I have always thought this. The 720 skill cap was weird, and the extra 5 points a year is a good way to show in the game that someone is more seasoned.

 

[Lady Arwen]

I think there should be a skill cap increase too, as long as everyone got it. With all the new skills coming out it would be nice.

 

[UOKaiser]

Definetly raise. Who here still has 7xgm characters and they work the same as they used to?

 

[Dragkiris]

If its not broke dont fix it. 700 is fine 720 is perfect.

 

[Inspector]

I still have a 7x thug thief from way back in the pre-uor days, just for nostalgia pretty much since the character is pretty much useless against any pvp'er or any pvm'er for that matter.
A friend of mine recently came back to UO and tried to play on his old 6x(7x template) and couldn't really do anything even after I gave him nice items to try and work around his lack of powerscrolls and such.

 

[Ender]

5 per year is just stupid. 10 year vets would have a 50 point advantage over new players, and God knows we don't need MORE reasons for new players to quit.

 

[Inspector]

5 per year is just stupid. 10 year vets would have a 50 point advantage over new players, and God knows we don't need MORE reasons for new players to quit.

This is true, if it gets done it should be across the board. Some players with ten year accounts haven't even played nearly that long. If I remember right there was a bug with EA accounts that created alot of older accounts. And I really don't see any reason at all why older players should get alot more skill points than a guy that just starts... Thats just not very fair Nobody wants to wait 10 years to get an extra 50 skill... Thats a really long time.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

It would encourage new players to stay... When you think about it a person who just started the game shouldn't be a god anyways, they need to build up slowly, there shouldn't be a 3 week person running around with over 500 long term murders that should take time, but people don't want to spend time, and want to elitearay asap. Then if the cap was raised everyone who has their good character, (my example is my mage) I have a pure mage, that wins about 3/4 times in PvP, but when a cap is added then my build will become worthless because there will be 100 some odd points (or whatever they raise it to probly 840 to be 7X120 but who knows) that are missing and not being used simply because they wanted others who can't figure something out that works to get it to work :\ but oh well..

I do not really care i will play the game anyways but i just hope they don't make a mistake :|

 

[Ender]

No, it would discourage new players, how would it encourage them? They'd STILL be behind vets if they keep playing, they won't ever be equal with the 5 per year system if there was no cap. New players are already for the most part at a severe disadvantage because it's so ****ing hard to get 120 scrolls unless you can get either a lot of money, which is hard for a new player, or join the lead zerg guild on your shard, which is also hard for a new player because they won't be able to PvP worth a **** with 110 skills and cheap armor.

 

[Salty Pete]

Sure, lets just make it so every character has every skill to 120 and 1000 in each stat.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

Sure, lets just make it so every character has every skill to 120 and 1000 in each stat.

i remeber those days... well it was 100 in the skills, but yea... i remeber those days and that didn't work out so they made this strange thing... what was it called... hrmm not sure but i balanced out the game alot and prevented people from running around like gods... what was it called tho... ohoh!! nope.. hrmm i remeber something about it having to do with the skills that players had and toping them off at something... hrmm Oh yea! the skill cap... the thing that stopped people from being over powered and being in god mode... now i remeber hehe silly me how could i have forgotten :|

But they need to start off with those skills or else they will be behind someone who's been playing and paying for 10 years and can get their faster :|

 

[Mark Knotts]

Catering to Vets was a stupid move to begin with. All players should currently have 720 skill point max. The rewards vetereans get are fine but there shouldn't be an offbalance between a vet and new player skillwise. It's extremely discouraging and no, they don't see it as a mean to play year after year so they can hit 720. I've seen the advice given on here to new players to "buy a vet account" which is just pathetic. You want a new player to pay for gametime, buy UOAsisst and buy a vet account? No wonder you hardly seen any new players. The cost to be on the same level as everyone else in ths game is rediculous. I do believe vets should be rewarded for staying with the game so long (even though some of you say you have but you just bought an account with all those months) but it shouldn't be anything that makes a veteran more powerful versus a new player.

This is coming from a 10 year vet so take it how you will. Just my opinion.

 

[Harb]

The biggest problem with tossing out "wishes" is that we don't know the overall context dev may be looking at. As things exist today, 700 is fine, as is the 5 extra points a year. Arbitrarily ending the vet bonus at year four never really made any "sense," so if it's a theme dev embraces, let the vet gain continue beyond year 4, which at this point would mean some accounts would have characters at 755. If they want to add 50 accross the boards to offset all the added skills, and the modifications made to skills through the years (e.g. magery requiring 120 opposed to 100 for 100% level 8 spell success) then sobeit. That would put new accounts at 750 and 11 year accounts at 805. I'm OK with where we are, and OK with all the above.

The thing hardest for all of us is keeping an eye on the proverbial bigger picture. If dev bumps skill caps up, we would all benefit, but EA/ Mythic/ dev may not. With more capability per character, we can do more with them, and consequently may require fewer of them, potentially leading to deactivation of redundant accounts in some instances. While the $10 a month in savings may seem nice, if it is widespread, ramifications may be significant, and to no one's favor.

What I'm really hoping for is that an increase in skill cap is part of a larger change. I'd like to see the cap go to 750, with each skill increased from 120/100 to 150. That would allow us to adjust characters to 5x150, making them very good at whatever they do. Something along these lines would likely lead to more accounts, not fewer, and with consequent increased revenue to feed the beast. I'd also point out that on one of my accounts, all characters went to a 6x120 template. What I found afterwards was that many of my 7 skill characters on other accounts were more playable overall than my 6 skill characters, so I made further adjustments that required purchasing soul stones, again generating revenue for EA. I'd vote to allow all skills to go to 150, though some would entail no more than the asscoiated title beyond 100 if properly implemented. By "proper," I mean it would be a rather large error to rescale skill effects again, nothing is worse than irritating one's customer base. So if individual skill caps go up, don't "nerf" current effects. Enhancing is always a good thing for player enjoyment, imagine poisoning at 150! It's also a rather large error to make gains above 100 dependent on power scrolls. In one of the dumbest moves ever, dev introduced a system that inserted other players into one's ability to develop their own characters to their liking. It was a big mistake before, one totally void of any logic or universal acceptance, maintaining such a theme to 150 would be even worse. Upcoming introductions into champ spawns more than suffice for removing power scrolls completely. And while long ago I loved the added 5 points a year, to be fair, dump the vet association, it really serves no purpose.

My two gps.

 

[Hoffs]

I certainly hope that they don't raise the skillcap. And adding five per year ad infinitum is ridiculous. A new player would never catch up to a vet, and the vet already has the advantage with equipment and experience.

I would prefer to see it a 720 cap for all characaters personally. We need to encourage new players, not put them off. Leave the age advantage to the veteran rewards.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

And adding five per year ad infinitum is ridiculous.

they didn't add 5 per year "ad infinitum" they stopped at +20

 

[HD2300]

Catering to Vets was a stupid move to begin with. All players should currently have 720 skill point max. The rewards vetereans get are fine but there shouldn't be an offbalance between a vet and new player skillwise. It's extremely discouraging and no, they don't see it as a mean to play year after year so they can hit 720. I've seen the advice given on here to new players to "buy a vet account" which is just pathetic. You want a new player to pay for gametime, buy UOAsisst and buy a vet account? No wonder you hardly seen any new players. The cost to be on the same level as everyone else in ths game is rediculous. I do believe vets should be rewarded for staying with the game so long (even though some of you say you have but you just bought an account with all those months) but it shouldn't be anything that makes a veteran more powerful versus a new player.

This is coming from a 10 year vet so take it how you will. Just my opinion.

This is just an example of game mechanics driving off new potential players. Why play UO when you have to wait 4 years until you are the same level as vets, when you can play WOW and not be disadvantaged?

 

[FishinFool]

Oh yea! the skill cap... the thing that stopped people from being over powered and being in god mode... now i remeber hehe silly me how could i have forgotten :|

But they need to start off with those skills or else they will be behind someone who's been playing and paying for 10 years and can get their faster :|

There was always a skill cap, it wasn't until some time after the game launched that they finally allowed us to know what it was or to see our real skill - even more time later before we could actually set our skill values up or down. And, that was mostly provoked by the fury of the first GM blacksmith after losing it to a swing of a mace.


Increasing the skill cap is a horrible idea. It is fine the way it is.

 

[Inspector]

Increasing the skill cap is a horrible idea. It is fine the way it is.

Why is it a horrible idea? There doesn't sound like there is much thought or reason behind that statement.

 

[UOKaiser]

Raising the cap will finally unnerf the nerf we got years ago when they made gm skills useless for things it used to be great for. Finally Balancing up. People in these forums have gotten so used to being nerfed of everything. I hope this is another step to getting the players used to being balanced upwards like it should of always being.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

Why is it a horrible idea? There doesn't sound like there is much thought or reason behind that statement.

he made decent points, you just didn't quote them.

 

[controlfive]

Raising the cap will finally unnerf the nerf we got years ago when they made gm skills useless for things it used to be great for. Finally Balancing up. People in these forums have gotten so used to being nerfed of everything. I hope this is another step to getting the players used to being balanced upwards like it should of always being.

that's how i view it as well. back in the day we could have 7 maxed skills. now we can only have 6. they've rebalanced monsters accordingly and the only difference now is that we have less room to differentiate our templates.

 

[Inspector]

he made decent points, you just didn't quote them.

No he didn't he gave us a history lesson on the way the skill system worked 10 years ago. Which has nothing to do with the skill system of today.

 

[FishinFool]

The system is working as intended.

You have a choice, you can choose any mix-manner-selection of up to 700 skill points, 720 if you've a 4yr active account.

Just because you feel you need to r0x with 120 powerscrolls is beside the point. Frankly, outside of wanting a ledendary title they are pretty worthless with the RNG.

The point is, you need to make choices with a limited budget. You are not supposed to be a 7x120 or an 8x120.

The way skill + items has already ruined this game is bad enough, we don't need MORE real skill.

This is all a result of people using the FOTM pvp gank template getting tick'd off because the Devs peed in your cornflakes. Deal with it, seriously.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

There was always a skill cap

The cap came out after the game was released, if you look back some old time "in game heros" like the Original and real ImaNewbie has 12x GM maybe even more, i had an account with 16X but it got hacked and everything taken even the castle :| So you may not have been playing when the cap wasn't around but i assure you there was not one for a short period,


As far as items go you should see what they can do >>>Responce 25 :| http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=113453

 

[FishinFool]

No, there was always a skill cap.

 

[AesSedai]

There was always a skill cap (maybe not in some alpha/beta, I dunno).
And skills could lose points pretty easily.

As far as a raise: If it is going to be tackled, I hope it is done along with a balancing pass to skills, their effects, stats, and followed by a balancing pass of monster stats/skills. Otherwise PvP/PvM balance will be way [more] out of whack for [way more] years to come.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

No, there was always a skill cap.

Next people are going to say it was imposible to kill lord british... :|

 

[drinkbeerallday]

No he didn't he gave us a history lesson on the way the skill system worked 10 years ago. Which has nothing to do with the skill system of today.

on the contrary, it has everything to do with the skill system today.

 

[Vyrquenox]

My advice would be to extend the real skill cap bonus to 5/year for all accounts.

Then, put in a cap for equipment where equipment can't raise skills over a total of 800.

I have always thought this. The 720 skill cap was weird, and the extra 5 points a year is a good way to show in the game that someone is more seasoned.

No, once again it is a good way to show that someone sold an account.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

on the contrary, it has everything to do with the skill system today.

Indeed since you needith remeber when UO was great...er than what it was today :O

 

[drinkbeerallday]

No, once again it is a good way to show that someone sold an account.

why is it taboo to some people that there would be a person wanting to sell an account, and another person who had money who would pay for that account?

never made sense to me. what is wrong with selling an account? EA even has an official account transfer program.

if someone puts their time and money into something that others find valuable, they have a right to sell it.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

why is it taboo to some people that there would be a person wanting to sell an account, and another person who had money who would pay for that account?

never made sense to me. what is wrong with selling an account? EA even has an official account transfer program.

if someone puts their time and money into something that others find valuable, they have a right to sell it.

One mans junk is another mans treasure??

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

"what do you guys think should be done??? "

I think it should be left alone.

Considering all the unbalanced things they fixed/nerfed by making extra skill requirements (evade? ds? taming?) depending on how much they intend to increase it by would more than likely un nerf some of those ridiculous temps.

Theres no real need for an increase.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

"what do you guys think should be done??? "

I think it should be left alone.

Considering all the unbalanced things they fixed/nerfed by making extra skill requirements (evade? ds? taming?) depending on how much they intend to increase it by would more than likely un nerf some of those ridiculous temps.

Theres no real need for an increase.

SHOCK!!! someone awnsered straight forwards without adding wood to the fire!! thanks for your opinion

 

[NBG]

It does drive me mad when I try to fit different skills into a template but I think that is the fun part about this game. Skill caps increase would create more problems balance wise. Its a give and take situation and the problem can not be solved by adding more skill points.

Giving existing skills a face lift and balancing existing skills should be the solution.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

It does drive me mad when I try to fit different skills into a template but I think that is the fun part about this game. Skill caps increase would create more problems balance wise. Its a give and take situation and the problem can not be solved by adding more skill points.

Giving existing skills a face lift and balancing existing skills should be the solution.

I agree with that

 

[drinkbeerallday]

One mans junk is another mans treasure??

nah, that applies to something thrown away. if someone has lost interest they aren't just going to start throwing Orny's in the trash bin.

 

[Dragon Slave.]

There was always a skill cap, it wasn't until some time after the game launched that they finally allowed us to know what it was or to see our real skill - even more time later before we could actually set our skill values up or down. And, that was mostly provoked by the fury of the first GM blacksmith after losing it to a swing of a mace.


Increasing the skill cap is a horrible idea. It is fine the way it is.

The locking the skills didn't take place til about 3 years after the game launched. Do you really mean to tell me it took 3 years before a GM blacksmith lost his skills? I have a hard time believing this comment, or believing that this blacksmith was the very first to GM the skill. Alot of people had complaints about losing skills to other skill gains, and Rot.

 

[pavel.vesely]

Yeah you could lose grandmastery in blacksmithy to swing of your hammer. It happened this was: you gained 0.1 to 0.1 in maces and because there was no locks, game choosen one random skill to decrease, and there your blacksmithing goes down 0.1 to 99.9, grrr.

 

[Dragon Slave.]

Yeah you could lose grandmastery in blacksmithy to swing of your hammer. It happened this was: you gained 0.1 to 0.1 in maces and because there was no locks, game choosen one random skill to decrease, and there your blacksmithing goes down 0.1 to 99.9, grrr.

Yes I know you could, I was stating that the skill locks didn't go into the game for several years. And that his so called story about the first gm blacksmith sounds made up. Everyone had complaints and problems, I just find it hard to believe that it was 3 years into the game before a blacksmith, correction the first GM blacksmith lost his skill, before something was done. I'm sure plenty of smiths had there share of problems in the years leading up to the skill locks, as did everyone.

 

[Lore Master]

In my opinion i think it is a really good idea to raise the skill caps. i think if this happens we should get a minimum of 120.0 more skill points meaning we can add at least one legendary skill if we want too. if it was up to me the skill cap would be 1000.0 maybe even 1080.0 skill points per character 1f its 1080.0 we could fit 9 legendary skills per character. it might sound like i am asking for too much but if they can do it in a way that is balanced players will eventually accept it and be glad about it. i hate using soul stones this would avoid a lot of that but not all.

 

[SixUnder]

5 per year is just stupid. 10 year vets would have a 50 point advantage over new players, and God knows we don't need MORE reasons for new players to quit.

i am a solo owner of my beta account. it is 136 months old my friend, and in coming on 12 yrs in 8 months i have been given squat to support my plethera of reds.. so back off.

osi and ea have always catered to the trammie let us vets, pks have something we have paid way to much money not to.

 

[SixUnder]

It does drive me mad when I try to fit different skills into a template but I think that is the fun part about this game. Skill caps increase would create more problems balance wise. Its a give and take situation and the problem can not be solved by adding more skill points.

Giving existing skills a face lift and balancing existing skills should be the solution.

MARK MY WORDS, CAUSE IF ANYOne KNOWS I DO FROM MY LONG TENURE.

SINCE PUB 16 WAS RELEASED. THIS GAME WILL NEVER BE BALANCED. EVER. THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHNIG YOU CAN CHANGE TO GET A EDGE. JUST How IT IS WHEN THEY ADDED STUPID ITEMS IN THE GAME SO DEAL with it OR QUIT.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Skill Cap Raise would be one of the worst ideas since the introduction of insurance.

The way it is now makes it difficult to build a character. You have to compromise, have to think about what skills you really need and which you can dispense with. The current skill cap leads to most individualistic and diverse character templates. You have to make up your mind, and you have to compromise.

Increasing the skill cap would be one further step to the non-challenging omni-potential game style. UO has already become a place where anything below a dragon is considered boring, where legacy dungeons are empty and unused. This is due to overpowered items, overpowered characters, overpowered skills and insurance. Raising the skill cap would lead to "perfect" character templates, to uniformed templates, and it would destroy the little challenge that is left completely.

Raising the skill cap would be one more nail to UO's coffin.