I agree theres much clutter in the game, but I cannot agree with this.
too much required to even make fairly basic equipment, capable of helping a character survive..
Doesn't take to much to make leather armour. Even thats not needed. I walk the abyss, doom, fan dancers, underworld, invasion spawns, with nothing lest a pair of shortpants.
I tame hiryus, cus, dragons, greater draggys, baked kittens in short pants only.
My fencer attacked a guard wearing nothing. Resist spells for 40 on each resist, cat form, a slayer, pots, (I admit an item, a blessed polar berry hat) 38 health regen(?) with mirror kittys and tink tink tink tink tink!
Equipment / artis in this game ARE NOT NEEDED! It is an illusion! Dementia in players minds!
"Oh but how will I kill slasher without all my stuff!"
Wear GM armour, make some friends, and hunt in a group? Cross heal? CROSS HEAL! Google that, it really helps when someones tanking for you.
Why were people so suprised in the invasion spawn if they tanked and I healed them with my golem master as I sent in my leather wolf pack?
"You healed me? Wow? Thankyou.... What a bizzare concept...."
No its called keeping a tank alive, its not hard... Spam greater heals over their bandies and a ill equipped warrior can tank a guard.
I will agree there is a lot of clutter, but to say its needed,
no sir, none of it is needed.
I understand what you're saying and don't disagree in principal. For those of us seasoned enough to understand the game mechanics and
all the possibilities, fine. I think you're perhaps not aware that as a player, I was very much a "team" player, so I'm fine with all the things you mention about teamwork and cross-healing, etc...
Someone new, or returning after a considerable absence -
which is usually the more likely "new" player - looks at all the stuff you feel is needed and gets put off. Sure, in reality they don't
have to have all that stuff, but they're either
made to feel it's important by other players, or they just think the whole item system is far too complicated.
What I was observing, was nice though some of the items are, useful as they may be, the game is possibly too saturated with items, or lengthy processes (imbuing) to construct even simple seeming weapons or armour.
Consider if you will, what I mean by simplicity, bearing in mind you can indeed do and play this way, just that they're made to feel redundant or of less importance.
You want a plate metal suit. Fine, you either bought one for a smith, or completed the basic and simple tasks required to make one yourself, assuming you had a miner and smith character to do so.
· Mine ore
· Smelt ore into ingots
· Make plate item
Simple as that.
My argument is that nowadays, ignoring the age or graphical aspects of the game, the game
feels too complex for it to sustain the interest of new/returning players. Likewise, if like you pointed out, which I do agree with, there really isn't a
need for so much "stuff", I can't fathom the need or point of continually adding more, other than providing people with an pixel-crack fix.
Short of a completely different ruleset shard, that's free of the clutter and need/desire for "items", then I don't think it's fair to try and turn things backwards with existing shards.
On the other hand, this little
"side project" that's been mentioned amongst the grapevines, is a browser based Ultima of some description. The appeal and practicality of most successful browser based games, is simplicity. That's something that Ultima Online lost a long time ago.
Hopefully I've explained my thoughts a little better. Effectively, there's an item grind that detracts from the overall fun or "pick-up-and-play" nature of the game, that was seemingly more apparent before.
