Tried to recruit old players

[Sir Stain]

I have been trying to get some of the old players to come back to UO. Each one (old veterans) told me that the characters are too difficult to develope. I started on Great Lakes when the game only had Fellucia. I left GL and am now playing on Origin. I needed some of my old allies for help since Origin offers me none. They all told me that if the game did not take so long to develope chars, they would happily return. I have been working my chars skills for 3 years now and only one is fully developed. This is rediculous.

 

[Kaleb]

3 years and only 1!!! Your doing something wrong what do you do play an hour a week? Characters can be built real fast.

Warrior skills/weaps,tactics,anatomy = goelm

magery/eval = cast spells onto a spell/runebook to Flamestrike then FS till 110 then EQ to 120

Bushido-LS your pet unguilded

Ninjitsu- animal form till you can Deathstrike your pet unguilded

Trades -UOA+ the proper resources craft your skill level

Resist/eval - just weaken yourself


necro/SpiritSpeek - cast spells per lvl till lich form and just lich

parry- sheep farms,jhelom,forest critters

Useing for these skills it shouldnt take a casual player more than a week or two to max out a skill. With soulstones its easy to set up a dummy char just for building skills for some reason when your total skill points are very low you gain faster I dunno how but it seem it gains a lot faster.

I dont get your Poll but I have been making characters for over 10 years. First 3 (that I have left from day one) i did the ole way by killing critters. the rest have been the current easy route(s) at their times.

 

[Loqucious]

It's not useless skills, it's not dupes, it's not cost, it's not Trammel, it's the simple fact that the game has become ridiculously complicated and item dependant.

A ton of PVPer's would come back if there was a pre-AOS shard or earlier.

Flame away, but I know I'm right. And I don't PVP.

 

[Harb]

I didn't know how to vote, the wording is confusing to me sorry. To answer your question, how someone would perceive difficulty today depends on when they played before, and which skills you/ they wish to develop in today's game. For a blunt comparison, skills are much, much easier today than when you first played (pre-T2A). But systems are a bit different, and if you're having trouble, that may be why. You'll also find today, that most gain "bugs" and consequent techniques once used no longer work (e.g. you can't parry a blade from a tower). For someone who came in shortly after the UOR publish, things might be a little harder today than before, "power hour" yielded to the "guaranteed gain system" (GGS), which really doesn't mean all that much except for a .1 every day or two (skill dependent) in some of the more powerful skills at higher levels. I think it was also during that timeframe that you could melee a guildmate to GM in a few hours, that's gone as well. There's also whats called an advanced character token that is sold by EA, that can set key skills for ertain classes automatically into the 85ish range I think. None of these skills take more than a couple hours to hit like levels however for seasoned players, so it's really a personal call as to whether or not these may be desired. Having babbled too long already, just bear in mind that some skills were intentionally slowed, but only to about the levels when you first played, for taming, bards, and thieves/ supplemental rogue skills. Another thing to bear in mind is that getting to GM is no longer a requirement, jewelry and certain items increase skills and stats, and many of the newer skills don't need a "GM" at all to function well - big changes from the pre-T2A days. By the same token, depending on what a character will do and their class, given skills may need to go above GM, but that's a lenghty discussion also. No resaon to tie up the boards really, if you want to drop a PM with the skills you want to add on each character, I'll be happy to provide my 2 cents.

 

[Maplestone]

re: Kaleb. Those methods of gaining aren't really fun though. I wouldn't expect a casual player to want to use those tactics.

I do think that there is room for more minigames that give fun paths through various skills. For example: even though they are monotonous, the heartwood fletchery quests do provide some gameplay while training fletchery all the way to GM.

One of the nice things about power inflation in the game is that it puts more and more content over time within range of casual players. I just try to have fun and let the gains come naturally (or at 0.1 a day). I can sympathize though that there really isn't a concept of low/middle-end play for PvPers to content themselves with.

 

[Maplestone]

A ton of PVPer's would come back if there was a pre-AOS shard or earlier.

What about simply a lost-lands-sized region with a Fel ruleset, but where you couldn't take in any equipment/pets in (have to cross the moongate naked on the way in) and armor/weapons/tools spawned with no properties and there were no ML ingredients. Wouldn't that be almost pre-AOS?

edit: hmm ... rebalancing skills to work both in that environment and the full-equipment environment at the same time would likely be a nightmare, probably not a good idea

 

[Harb]

What about simply a lost-lands-sized region with a Fel ruleset, but where you couldn't take in any equipment/pets in (have to cross the moongate naked on the way in) and armor/weapons/tools spawned with no properties and there were no ML ingredients.

Pretty incredible thought/ proposal actually. I don't remember ever seeing anything along this line. Then many of the complaints would be rendered invalid, and so few of us would be left here on the board There are a lot of opportunities here.

edit: hmm ... rebalancing skills to work both in that environment and the full-equipment environment at the same time would likely be a nightmare, probably not a good idea

Very true, but to address the vocal demand this might work, with no tweaks to any system required. Further, 1) characters aren't all that hard to adjust and 2) most who'd jump right in would probably do so with preparations already complete.

Very nice.

 

[Violence]

Now I could really go deep into this, lots of skills being useless that is.
Well not an alarming amount of useless ones but.. There's Forensics and Item ID, there's Begging, Herding, Camping, Taste ID, Focus, Disarming.

Don't get me wrong. I acknowledge that each of those gives a little something but they are simply "deco" skills.. Just for show.

So.. 8 skills.. Which could have been [Some Dual Wield skill], [Critical Hit Chance skill], [2Handed Weapon Bonus Abilities skill], [Extra Shield Special Moves skill], [Some Sort of Berserker skill], [Some Rune/Ritual/Shaman Magic skill], [Some Unarmed Combat skill], [Some Poisons Boost skill], [Some Throwing Weapons skill]...

You name it. Whatever UO lacks could replace those 8 and personally I wouldn't even look back if you know what I mean.

 

[Maplestone]

um ... focus is actually my top skill (average across all my characters is 77!). It's very useful for underdeveloped characters - it gains quickly and gives a nice little bump to regens until your skills near the cap. Also, my scribe has it at 120 for maxed out mana regen (well, the max I can afford at least)

I also have some of them for deco on various characters, partially in the hopes that they will someday have minigames for them. I'm not wild about deleting skills for the game - especially if they're just going to be replaced with combat skills. I like to lobby for the non-combat portion of the game grow richer and more interesting.

 

[Fink]

Now I could really go deep into this, lots of skills being useless that is. Well not an alarming amount of useless ones but.. There's Forensics and Item ID, there's Begging, Herding, Camping, Taste ID, Focus, Disarming.

Don't get me wrong. I acknowledge that each of those gives a little something but they are simply "deco" skills.. Just for show.

Clearly you just haven't thought outside the box with some of those skills. What a dull game it would be if they allowed only the profession templates on the character creation screen.

Also, why do old skills need to be deleted for new ones to appear?

To the OP: what do "useless skills" have to do with taking too long to develop a character? Did you start out with Taste ID thinking you could lick dragons to death?

 

[Chad Sexington]

I have been trying to get some of the old players to come back to UO. Each one (old veterans) told me that the characters are too difficult to develope. I started on Great Lakes when the game only had Fellucia. I left GL and am now playing on Origin. I needed some of my old allies for help since Origin offers me none. They all told me that if the game did not take so long to develope chars, they would happily return. I have been working my chars skills for 3 years now and only one is fully developed. This is rediculous.

If they want instant skills go to test. If not, UO is the wrong game.

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

Good grief! In 4 years I have a very nicely developed (but not **quite** done) PvM Paladin, GM Scribe/Mage, GM Miner/Smith/Tinker with archery, GM Carpenter/near-GM LJ with Magery with an Elf Pally Archer and a human Pally Archer both at 60-80 range in all skills.

That's just loafing at MAYBE 2 hours a night tops ... 6 on weekends. And it's only on one shard - I also play Europa and Origin in addition to LA.

 

[Krystal]

play SP, its closest to aos u'll get

*i said closest*

 

[Kaleb]

play SP, its closest to aos u'll get

*i said closest*

Every server is under aos, And siege has become just as bad as production shards when it comes to items or gear in fact its become harder for people mostly newer players to get equiped.

 

[Landicine]

I've played for >10 years, and while I don't have as many developed characters as I should (I recently bought a few legendary skill scrolls), it really isn't that hard to build a decent character in a few days, maybe maxed out in a couple of weeks (except on a certain shard). It isn't even necessary to use attended macros or golem training, though these are viable means. While I have used the guaranteed gains on a few skills (poisoning), most can be raised without much work or gold.

There are a few difficult skills to gain and a few useless skills, but for the most part, skills aren't the stumbling block for players, items and gold are. I helped a new player recently who trained a few characters pretty quickly, but the rare and powerful items were the problematic thing. I also think that except for pvp, there are some nice discount options for items in game.

 

[Connor_Graham]

I have been trying to get some of the old players to come back to UO. Each one (old veterans) told me that the characters are too difficult to develope. I started on Great Lakes when the game only had Fellucia. I left GL and am now playing on Origin. I needed some of my old allies for help since Origin offers me none. They all told me that if the game did not take so long to develope chars, they would happily return. I have been working my chars skills for 3 years now and only one is fully developed. This is rediculous.

Transfer your 1 char to Pacific and I'll help you out with getting your chars up to speed, and not with any (or many anyway) shortcuts, but with playing the game.

 

[Eslake]

Now I could really go deep into this, lots of skills being useless that is.
Well not an alarming amount of useless ones but.. There's Forensics and Item ID, there's Begging, Herding, Camping, Taste ID, Focus, Disarming.

...
So.. 8 skills.. Which could have been [Some Dual Wield skill], [Critical Hit Chance skill], [2Handed Weapon Bonus Abilities skill], [Extra Shield Special Moves skill], [Some Sort of Berserker skill], [Some Rune/Ritual/Shaman Magic skill], [Some Unarmed Combat skill], [Some Poisons Boost skill], [Some Throwing Weapons skill]...

Since 90% of everthing we do in the game now is already somehow combat, or combat oriented, or relying on combat to be done...
I really don't think converting more skills to Combat skills is any kind of help.

Better if they simply improved the usefulness of some of those already existing, and modify those that cannot actually be made useful (Item ID for example, since everything is already Identified) to a skill of at least similar nature.

 

[gandolfofaol]

It's not useless skills, it's not dupes, it's not cost, it's not Trammel, it's the simple fact that the game has become ridiculously complicated and item dependant.

A ton of PVPer's would come back if there was a pre-AOS shard or earlier.

Flame away, but I know I'm right. And I don't PVP.

Then you should have worded your poll that way. As it is stated it makes it seem as though it is the training of skills that is too slow when what you seem to mean is it is the uber items that takes so long to aquire. I am so tired of people asking for a classic shard. Get over it. The closest you will get is either of the 2 fel only ruleset shards.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

Did not vote as the poll seems bias, but if you train you will get your char's builded quickly, but if you like me and rather play then train then yes its going to take time to get fully develope.

I have an archer I been working on him for months now, something to miss with in Felucca events, he is not fully trained and I still use him for events we have such as gold caravan, or king of the hill.

Chivalry 99.9 72.9 +( 14.0)
Anatomy 92.2 92.2
Archery 91.7 91.7
Tactics 90.0 90.0
Hiding 77.1 77.1
Healing 76.1 76.1

Str 110 110
Dex 74 68 (+6)
Int 78 78

Then there is my HandyMan, he is my GM cook, GM potion maker, and low level tinker/carpenter.

Alchemy 100.0 100.0
Cooking 100.0 100.0
Begging 96.4 96.4
Poisoning 84.8 84.8
Magery 83.4 73.4
Herding 68.7 68.7
Meditation 52.0 52.0
Wrestling 51.8 51.8
Carpentry 33.0 33.0
Tinkering 32.1 32.1

Str 84 84
Dex 11 11
Int 83 73 (+10)

Been training herding on him a little, plus getting a GGS on begging, but you can see from his stats that he needs int and str, but again I am to lazy to train and just use his skills to make what I need and log him out.

Now I been playing since 99 and this is how I developed all my main charactors, thru playing the game not training in game.

 

[Jactiggy]

I voted "How long have you been working character skills?"
Even though it makes absolutely no sense to me, im positive that my vote could somehow make the difference!

 

[Violence]

The only ones thinking outside the box (of building a successfull game) is EA and they achieved this not only by keeping useless skills but also by keeping away from anything that defines an MMO lately.

Anti-cheating, balanced PvP, good loot and some fun factor on PvM meaningfull quests and expansions, giving in to players whining, fighting yourself by publishing multiple games of the same core content. List is a tad bit longer but really you ain't gonna take anything I say seriously, so..

Hey sorry if you really love Focus okay? My items on my PvMer pwn Focus and those 100.0 are spent on much usefull stuff. The least they could do is bind StamRegen to Focus, like ManaRegen is tied to Medi.

But I guess they see it your way too. :loser:

And yeah, absolutely right. No game ever caters to melee chars by giving Berserk skills of some sort, Dual Wield AT THE VERY LEAST and some special 2Handed weps skill, or generally catering to melee as much as the other classes.

 

[Krystal]

Every server is under aos, And siege has become just as bad as production shards when it comes to items or gear in fact its become harder for people mostly newer players to get equiped.

opps, worded that wrong, but u all know what i meant
anyway, i wear gm AR all the time with a nice set of jewels. Bod's are not that hard to do. it's easy to get a runic kit. cool thing here is when people die, u get their nice AR and can use it or resell it