Please then, give us your current take on the refinement system. Do you think it works well? Was it worth the dev time? Are the resources necessary to utilize it accessible and functional? Does the majority of the playerbase benefit from this addition?
I think that for those that wish to add some customization to their suits, it works well. For those that aren't into completely min/maxing their suits it probably doesn't factor in, but that level of casual play is either relying on someone who is suit building guru, of just going with the flow when it comes to what to wear...maybe you have a decent piece here or there, but for the most part you pick what looks good and what gives you decent stats and you head off into the fight. I think that the system overall suffered in a bad initial taste and we are still recovering from it, however, assertions that, "no one uses it at all ever anywhere" are a bit inflated (it's a big Britannia out there). The system was included in the larger scope of armor and weapon changes, so it wasn't that much of an extra burden. Would we like to see more people utilizing it? Of course, and there are some changes we could make that would foster that which we are still having an ongoing discussion about. Cutting down specificity and thinning out the variety in components is a delicate balance in that if we get it wrong it's a fast way to add to our ever growing power creep problem. I'm much more of a proponent of making the process of building a collection of refinement components easier, so people are more encouraged to collect, buy, and trade them to complete full sets that can be used to create some truly unique sets of armor. I don't think you can apply your final metric of success to UO content, there's just far too much variability in what players like to do while logged on to form a consensus of what any given person considers benefitting them. I'm personally ok with that, people should play UO how they want to play it (within reason of course). I think that's one of the games greatest strengths.
