Things you miss from old UO

[Onomatopoetikon]

As has been so eloquently put by Galens trailerpark analogy, one thing is nostalgia and one thing is daily reality. On that premise, and noting that this thread is purely about nostalgia..

The social element.. training skills with a whole bunch of friends, face-to-face trading, busy dungeons, populated towns..

The excitement of not being omnipotent.. when everybody thought you were nuts for meleeing a Terathan Avenger, when dragons were übermonsters and the Balrons in Terathan keep.. ah, the Balrons..

The sense of accomplishment.. GM'ing a skill, defeating that Balron, setting your GM mark on an item, looting a vanq weapon, banking that vanq weapon while dodging the thieves, making it back to your corpse before your items decayed, earning 10k from a full night of hunting..

The simple elegance of 225/700 with a cap of 100. More than anything else, powerscrolls ruined UO in my opinion. With them came the massive unbalancing sideeffects and inflation of items and templates. The same could be said for the new item properties, but I honestly think it would be less of an issue if it wasn't scaled by superinflated skills. While the old items were indeed also simple and elegant, I must confess having spend more than a single occasion wishing for a more Diablo-like item system, back then.

Natural colors.. though I coveted colored leather armor back then, I cannot make the required leap of faith to accept a medival world with neon colored stuff all over the place. The same goes for cyborgs, sunglasses and other such inane additions the game has seen over the years.

The *exceptionally rare* encounter with the urban legend honorary PK. I've had it happen twice and those events stand out as shining beacons in a vast sea of ganks, blue healers, notos, blockers and so on. I especially remember the guy in Shame, that fought me for the longest time back in '99, you were awesome! (Good lord, has it really been ten years..)

There's a bunch of things that defined UO's "feel" for me, like NPC's talking, wearing my Lord title proudly, (knowing full well it was the equivalent of blood in the water of a piranha tank, hehe), saying "recsu/recdu", having to shop reagents, (which I absolutely loathed, and later missed), the "staying alert" state of mind, having to ID items.. a whole slew of individually unimportant things, but that was UO, how it felt when it was "real" to me.

I'll resist the temptation to de-bunk my own nostalgia with all the "but hey!.." objections that even my own predisposition can't shake off. In a purely nostalgic light, that was the UO I was addicted to once upon a time, and somewhere around 2003-ish that addiction just faded away. Though I surely didn't think so back then, I now tend to think that it wasn't really that the game changed, it was I who changed. Back in the '90s both the genre, and the game was a brand new, exciting thing, and those of us that were born into the genre back then will always look back on it as "the real thing". Most of us simply grew out of it, I know I did.

If they actually put up a pre-ren shard, I would probably play it, just for the nostalgia, and then I would probably stop playing it again shortly after, when the nostalgia faded. I would wager quite a lot that such a shard would come to life with a roar, and die away with a whimper a few months later.

Look forward for change, not backwards.

 

[Stupid Miner]

Things I really miss from old UO:

- Having to ID weapons and armor. The AoS item properties approach ruined this part of the game. Why would anyone just know, without training, what a magic sword (for example) could do?? This was a bad change in my opinion. We should have had to at least ID the freakin' things.

Because all magic items when poked emit holographic gumps displaying their effects in mathematical percentages.

Seriously, isnt that what they did in The Hobbit?

Actually more likely than not, I think it was the Mage's Union that standardized the production of magic equipment for the consumer's ease of use. *munches on his magic axe* "Tasty! and... Ooo! +5 HPR, nutritious too!"

 

[Arrgh]

Can't forget running around like someone with their head on fire yelling, "Destination", "I will take thee!!" and having 30 escort NPCs trailing after ya, robbing them then dropping them off at their destination for even more cash.

I always liked the tent deeds, made good protective barriers for home entrances and also good ambush spots.

Hearing the words Vas Corp Por and finding out what it meant about 2 seconds and one dead body later...

Learning what each spell did, sometimes at one of my best friend's expense or my own. Using summoned Deamons to "fetch" things beyond reach.

Like Morgana said having battles with other guilds at Cove orc fort or around Moor HQ or AoD HQ.



There were side effects though...for instance going to the car resulted in looking for PKs on the way can we say extreme hypervigilance or saying Aye instead of Yes. Telling my ex, notice the prefix ex, "Wench grab me a bottle of port and make it snappy!!" Wench hurling a bottle of Bud at me like a major league pitcher.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I can't say I miss this...but does anyone else remember when the spell Earthquake would kill EVERYONE on the screen?

Man, I was killed by that one a BUNCH of times before it was nerfed.

 

[Xanthea]

I recall when earthquakes could wipe a whole screen, I had some really insane battles going on back on atlantic in 97-99 or someting. I still have some pictures from this and i laugh everytime i see them amazing fun.

As you can see on one of the pic's the old famous clothdye bug

 

[Arrgh]

I can't say I miss this...but does anyone else remember when the spell Earthquake would kill EVERYONE on the screen?

Man, I was killed by that one a BUNCH of times before it was nerfed.

Man I barely remember that, all I can remember is Xor asking me not to cast it around the tower...I remember being at the Moor tower and having fun initiation stuff like making newbs stand in front of a dragon and have them tell it to "Speak"...or bring out a red character and see if an initiate would stand and fight, freeze or run.

I really miss my old vanquish stuff and armor of fortification. I have one acct that the banks are full of tht kind of stuff but can't remember the email I used with it to reactivate.

I wish I still had my screenies. Anyone remember the Misadventures of Imanewbie?

Oh crap the Pluggers! I had almost forgot about that guild, talk about fun group of people. Awesome screenies, I see a lot of familiar names and the old AoD tag.

 

[Lord_Puffy]

Now of course, a lot of these things are things that at one point or another, I CURSED about old UO too. But now that they're gone I find that I miss them.


Things that *I* miss about old UO:

Magincia. Yes, hardly anyone ever went there. That was part of the charm. You could get in there and get all kinds of items that were normally sold out in the more-used towns.

Old Tailoring. I can't tell you how many friends I made because three or four of us were milling around in the Trinsic tailor shop, waiting for the NPC's to respawn spools of thread. Back when that was a time and cost-effective way to create all your cloth and sell the products back at a profit while you worked up your skill. Raw materials costing more than finished products will sell for is a pet peeve of mine that seems to have wormed its way into every major MMO.

Travelling overland by foot, before runebooks and before everyone had some built-in ability to use one of the insta-teleport abilities.

Every single town except Luna. Since I never see anyone in any of them anymore unless turning in a donation or finishing a quest.

Player-crafted gear being the best available.... and abundant, and affordable.

Swarms of non-maxed players all over the world... from the swamps killing lizardmen, to the woods killing gargoyles, to the dungeons killing liches, to the oceans fishing and fighting off pugnacious dolphins.

Black dye and fireworks wands being considered sought-after rare things.

Not sure if anyone said it yet, but Id have to say the server wars in that hour span when the shard was going down.

Sometimes it didnt quite turn out how you had planned adn you were red dead and lost alot of nice gear.

All in all that was the best pvp all time in my opinion. thats when people were using halbys and ebolts. Ah the good ole days before all these items and insurance were added to the game...

Vanq/fort ect ect. and yes ive checked out the otehr alternatives they never live up to OSI UO for me.

 

[Dragonchilde]

Oh Oh!

GMing parry with a tower and a blade spirit casting mage.

Aaah, yes, those were the days!

 

[Duskofdead]

Oh Oh!

GMing parry with a tower and a blade spirit casting mage.

Aaah, yes, those were the days!

Remember pre-instakill guards, how you could kill NPC guards just by casting blade spirit over and over? People would gather in a crowd to watch if a mage was doing it.

 

[Harlequin]

I can't say I miss this...but does anyone else remember when the spell Earthquake would kill EVERYONE on the screen?

Man, I was killed by that one a BUNCH of times before it was nerfed.

I remember it was a targetted spell, meaning a targetting cursor would come up and you would select the focal point of the area of effect (like meteor or chain lightning). That way you can cast it as far away as possible to avoid hurting your guildies (and at the same time allow you to damage other people offscreen). Unlike now, where it automatically uses the mage as the focal point. I miss being able to target my earth quake.

Regarding item ID - bet alot of you don't remember, each item kept an internal list of players that have ID'd the darn thing. And once that list was full, the rest of the people will not be able to ID it, or at other times ID it once, then reverts back to "a magic" axe/sword/platemail tunic the next time you see it/log in etc. That was pretty annoying.

Also, going deceit lvl 4 to hunt lich lords when I was running low on ID wands. I actually prefer the current system (imagine having to ID the loot on a peerless piece by piece, *shudders*).

Speaking of the lich lord room, some time after lich lords were added to the lich lord room, you could lure lich lords to the bottom of the ledge and then cast EVs at the edge of the top ledge. The evs will attack the lich lords from the top but the lich lords can't dispel them. I miss being able to hunt lich lords with my ev-casting crafter.

I also remember bringing my crafter there to gain fame. This was after the skill system was revised to decay the least used skills first. I would bring some planks, ingots and cloth, cycle through my list of crafting skills to make small stuff every hour. I do this to make sure my GM'd crafting skills would not decay (the code wasn't perfect and you had to do this everytime you logged in, recalled to another server etc to keep the list of recently used skills refreshed). Thank goodness for skill locks. I'll admit, it's pretty funny to hear tailoring/carpentry snipping/hammering away in the lich lord room, but I sure prefer the skill locks.

Doubly thankful for skill locks and doing away with "learning skills by watcing someone else do it" for this - Lots of people love to start campfires at the bank, and they tend to stand next to you. I'd curse and swear coz the game engine would raise your camping by reducing your GM blacksmithing. The damned thing also decays skills by alphabetical order, blacksmithing starts with "B" and tends to decay first (well, unless you had "A"lchemy). Same problem with thieves coming up to you and snooping into your backpack. All of a sudden, you gained a couple of points in snooping at the expense of your GM blacksmithing...

As for being able to wear my best stuff out nowaays, I like that too. In the old days, I'd leave my best vanq stuff in the bank and bring only the "force" weapons out to hunt.

Would also hang around Brit cemetary to hunt skels for bone amor coz I didn't want to pay for platemail. Full set of brand new bone armour gave 32 ar (can't remember it that included shields or gorget) though. As good as platemail

 

[Shadefox]

Things I miss!

1. Thieves (I hardly played one, but man, I was done over by many)
Allthough how annoying it was to save up for that elusive vanquishing silver katana, finally affording one, and got it stolen out of pack the split second the trade was over at east brittain bank, those little things defined UO for me and made it stand out of the crowd (small crowd back then, but still...)

2. MWS (mining while scared ;D )

3. Some skills being endlessly time consuming to train, but rewarding when you got it (some time back a GM parry would give you about god status)

4.House fighting (consensual or not) running from pk's, dodging corners, jumping into the safety of your house, and try outsmart/outlast the mighty hail of meteors crushing through your walls.... another game defining moment for me.

5 and this is a big one!!!!
Gear and needed interaction with verious trades
. Players would make gear that you could use, and you even needed players to get repaired.
I personal had to work with smiths, tailors, thunters, tamers you name it!
They all had their hotspots and you WALKED there to meet them and conduct whatever busniess you needed. This ensured traffic between towns, in towns, and all parts of towns.

6.
not everyone could recall/teleport/sacred journey/whatever back and forth so easily.

7.
Shopkeepers actually being needed.

8. I had multiple gms/councelors toying with me when I sat bored in my house. Moving my chesspieces,, checkers, etc while invisable. they stopped doing that!

9.Running around the vast plains of green acres.. they seem so small nowadays

10! I MISS SERVER WARS AT WBGRAVEYARD!!! everyone came out for a short time of careless fun, with the best equip you never thought of using 90% of the time!

 

[Turdnugget]

Invulnerability > Fortification.

Pirating boats ftw.

Wars above Minoc where the now T2A/Khaldun entrance is.

Killing guards as an assasin with a DP'd dagger.

Actually seeing people in more than just one town.

Bucs Den FtW x50.

 

[Prince Erik]

1. PLoS (Pre Line of Sight).... provoking monsters on the other side of walls (even though you turned grey), fishing hidden through the wall of my little house outside skara, etc.

2. Precasting.

3. Tank mages (before Med and Eval came out)

4. All my old friends who left in droves for EQ to get away from all the PK's and thieves.

5. My old UBB friends from the brit forge. Who needed banksitters, we had forgesitters!

6. All the cute messages that were scrapped for "localization".

There are a lot of things I DON'T miss, like not having skill/stat locks, having to have one "strength" skill to keep strength from dropping to 10, having to stock my vendor at 6:30 am since my shop was a screen from the yew abby (though, pk's made my smith rich back then!), house keys, tamers with armys of dragons cleaning out dungeons, going to get an escort only to have someone run by and add it to their escort train of 30, and of course suicidal town thiefs.

-P.E.