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Why I (a returning player) will not be renewing my subscription

OldUO

Adventurer
Disclaimer: This is from my perspective and my play style when returning to Ultima Online after a 10 year break. Please do not take offense and consider this constructive criticism.

I reactivated an old account late last year, added 3 months of game time and upgraded to SA. I entered the new world of Ultima Online with a very open mind and this is why I will not be renewing my subscription.

Note: I have tried to make some suggestions below my concerns in read as requested below;

1. This game for new and returning players is almost unplayable out of the gates due to lack of support and lack of actual players on most shards. Help channels are generally empty. The advisor program seems to operate on EST time making it a hit or miss for most players elsewhere in the world. Ultimately this makes it a daunting task to most to try and complete or build a functional character in the game from scratch not knowing any of the game mechanics (what skills go with what etc etc) Most returning and new players do not know about Stratics or UOGuide (great resources) they should have these sites listed in game somewhere as the help functions in game are useless.

1a. Options for new players/returning players. Players when entering Britannia should be immediately welcomed into the game by a gump that would provide them with CURRENT information, especially on the currency system, and on where to go what to do and whom to talk to. I understand that resources are limited so there can't be someone there to hold everyone's hand, but there should be a gate or pad tat the player can take to a guild hall or player area that would help new people? The guild recruit tables were a bust and should be removed.

1b. Dead shards. Why can we not have an accurate number of active players per shard? Other than low/med/high. I would have never chosen the shard I did if I had more information on what shards were active. this would also help with new players finding shards that actually have players there willing to help.



2. The current economy in UO is out of control. If you do not receive help from other players or find a guild to join you more or less are forced to search for options to obtain gold (killing ettins or orges for 600 gold a time doesn't cut it.. so purchase with $? I don't think so) so you can either buy materials to craft armor pieces (only if you figured out how to raise crafting skills with the limited resources you may be able to obtain being a new player)

2a. I know that the economy is probably one of the hardest things to try and fix at this stage. An option would be for elder players to be able to donate gear at say a "Donation Box" which access would be given to NEW PLAYERS only on demand and at random. I understand that this takes away from the fundamentals of of the start of playing the game but it also would encourage players to venture beyond new haven. The starting amount of gold should be changed from 1000 to 100k per player.

3. The events program and EMs. |From the outside looking in it would appear the current DEV team likes to keep the masses entertained with shiny objects and story lines that are so "un" Ultima its not even funny. The games filed with hues that were never meant to be, but i guess that's evolution. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items) of course you can partake in the RP but heck why not have a stab at a 150-500m item? SO that brings me back to the points above. As a returning player I lack the needed resources to acquire armors and weapons to compete.

3a. EM program and EM items.. I do not know what to recommend here as I do not have a vast knowledge with the program, but it is daunting to new players to understand why and what is the point of them if the stories are a one shot deal.. EMs should have continuing lore and be able to place the stories in an areas o people can join in at any point by reading what has gone on prior to the events.


4. Housing and IDOC systems. I was then lead on to being a IDOC hunter, an easy way maybe to score some goods! Well what the hell were they thinking with this system? House goes into decay mode.. ok I get that.. but 15 hours possibly for it to fall? WTF Broadsword who in their right minds has that much time to waste waiting for a house to fall? What happened to the good old days, couple hours at most? So you could go on with your day. Very frustrating and most of the times the IDOC cycles are in the middle of the night. I also have noticed that many people only have multiple accounts for one reason, an extra house. Why not make it possible for people to have ONE account but pay a little more monthly to have 2 or more houses? The accounts management system is a joke, might make it easier for some to reconcile this by allowing players the choice to pay more for two houses but have a single account.

4a. As much as people do not want to hear it.. some shards need to be removed. (Sonoma.. Napa.. are two that come to mind, they are nothing but baron wastelands) there should be housing options for players to have more than two per shard per account.

4b. IDOCs need to be changed back to how the systems were in the good ol' days. I understand that PLACEMENT was changed due to scripting, so that's fine but the actual fall of the house needs to be revamped. Unfortunately many people do have lives lol and can not be on the game at all times.



5. And a final point, this game, in its' current configuration, is catering to the older player base, people who have been the die-hards and have kept their accounts active for 18 years. I am not saying that this is wrong or a bad thing but if you want new players and increasing subscriptions, the team is doing it all wrong. Instead of new content and more lands and more crap they need to start improving the current systems, fixing bugs, fixing outdated lore in the game that leads on new players to no where.. so many quests that just die.. so many systems that do not work. It is very apparent that cheating, scripting and 3rd party exploits are rampant and readily available with a quick search. I would think with a "paid sub" game that they would take cheating a little more serious. They need to streamline the platform focus on doing ONE THING at a time. The games old, they don't need updated graphics but to just focus on what they have making things more fluid, making the world blend. Having the two clients really puts a damper on new players as I tried the EC but found it just horrid, I came back for nostalgia and the classic client does that.

5a. I know that expansions are a way for you to get more money and keep the lights on, but you really need to focus on the MAJOR BUGS and horrible content flaws in the game. Hire some folk to run around for a month and do every quest and see how many are dead ends come up and the major content issues that plaque the new questers of the game. Walk around the lands and see all the unnecessary crap laying around. The EMs make messes and forget to clean up.



Maybe the DEV team is just a bandage, just trying to keep that hamster on life support spinning the wheel. It may be a great idea for the team to have a quick look at some of the "freeshards" and how some of the successful ones operate. The one that I will be playing has a large active player base, true to time period lore and focuses on Ultima and the actual timelines.. not fancy EM items with ridiculous names and story lines that are a one time deal that make no sense and have to do with aliens and pieces of the professors delorean.

/rant over. Thanks to everyone who I met along the way and for the support in game.

I hope that the OSI version lives forever... and that maybe someone jumps on board and takes the helm and steers it into the right direction.
 
Last edited:

OREOGL

Crazed Zealot
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Disclaimer: This is from my perspective and my play style when returning to Ultima Online after a 10 year break. Please do not take offense and consider this constructive criticism.

I reactivated an old account late last year, added 3 months of game time and upgraded to SA. I entered the new world of Ultima Online with a very open mind and this is why I will not be renewing my subscription.

1. This game for new and returning players is almost unplayable out of the gates due to lack of support and lack of actual players on most shards. Help channels are generally empty. The advisor program seems to operate on EST time making it a hit or miss for most players elsewhere in the world. Ultimately this makes it a daunting task to most to try and complete or build a functional character in the game from scratch not knowing any of the game mechanics (what skills go with what etc etc) Most returning and new players do not know about Stratics or UOGuide (great resources) they should have these sites listed in game somewhere as the help functions in game are useless.

2. The current economy in UO is out of control. If you do not receive help from other players or find a guild to join you more or less are forced to search for options to obtain gold (killing ettins or orges for 600 gold a time doesn't cut it.. so purchase with $? I don't think so) so you can either buy materials to craft armor pieces (only if you figured out how to raise crafting skills with the limited resources you may be able to obtain being a new player)

3. The events program and EMs. |From the outside looking in it would appear the current DEV team likes to keep the masses entertained with shiny objects and story lines that are so "un" Ultima its not even funny. The games filed with hues that were never meant to be, but i guess that's evolution. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items) of course you can partake in the RP but heck why not have a stab at a 150-500m item? SO that brings me back to the points above. As a returning player I lack the needed resources to acquire armors and weapons to compete.

4. Housing and IDOC systems. I was then lead on to being a IDOC hunter, an easy way maybe to score some goods! Well what the hell were they thinking with this system? House goes into decay mode.. ok I get that.. but 15 hours possibly for it to fall? WTF Broadsword who in their right minds has that much time to waste waiting for a house to fall? What happened to the good old days, couple hours at most? So you could go on with your day. Very frustrating and most of the times the IDOC cycles are in the middle of the night. I also have noticed that many people only have multiple accounts for one reason, an extra house. Why not make it possible for people to have ONE account but pay a little more monthly to have 2 or more houses? The accounts management system is a joke, might make it easier for some to reconcile this by allowing players the choice to pay more for two houses but have a single account.

5. And a final point, this game, in its' current configuration, is catering to the older player base, people who have been the die-hards and have kept their accounts active for 18 years. I am not saying that this is wrong or a bad thing but if you want new players and increasing subscriptions, the team is doing it all wrong. Instead of new content and more lands and more crap they need to start improving the current systems, fixing bugs, fixing outdated lore in the game that leads on new players to no where.. so many quests that just die.. so many systems that do not work. It is very apparent that cheating, scripting and 3rd party exploits are rampant and readily available with a quick search. I would think with a "paid sub" game that they would take cheating a little more serious. They need to streamline the platform focus on doing ONE THING at a time. The games old, they don't need updated graphics but to just focus on what they have making things more fluid, making the world blend. Having the two clients really puts a damper on new players as I tried the EC but found it just horrid, I came back for nostalgia and the classic client does that.

Maybe the DEV team is just a bandage, just trying to keep that hamster on life support spinning the wheel. It may be a great idea for the team to have a quick look at some of the "freeshards" and how some of the successful ones operate. The one that I will be playing has a large active player base, true to time period lore and focuses on Ultima and the actual timelines.. not fancy EM items with ridiculous names and story lines that are a one time deal that make no sense and have to do with aliens and pieces of the professors delorean.

/rant over. Thanks to everyone who I met along the way and for the support in game.

I hope that the OSI version lives forever... and that maybe someone jumps on board and takes the helm and steers it into the right direction.
Nailed it.
 

Scribbles

Long Live The Players
Professional
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Disclaimer: This is from my perspective and my play style when returning to Ultima Online after a 10 year break. Please do not take offense and consider this constructive criticism.

I reactivated an old account late last year, added 3 months of game time and upgraded to SA. I entered the new world of Ultima Online with a very open mind and this is why I will not be renewing my subscription.

1. This game for new and returning players is almost unplayable out of the gates due to lack of support and lack of actual players on most shards. Help channels are generally empty. The advisor program seems to operate on EST time making it a hit or miss for most players elsewhere in the world. Ultimately this makes it a daunting task to most to try and complete or build a functional character in the game from scratch not knowing any of the game mechanics (what skills go with what etc etc) Most returning and new players do not know about Stratics or UOGuide (great resources) they should have these sites listed in game somewhere as the help functions in game are useless.

2. The current economy in UO is out of control. If you do not receive help from other players or find a guild to join you more or less are forced to search for options to obtain gold (killing ettins or orges for 600 gold a time doesn't cut it.. so purchase with $? I don't think so) so you can either buy materials to craft armor pieces (only if you figured out how to raise crafting skills with the limited resources you may be able to obtain being a new player)

3. The events program and EMs. |From the outside looking in it would appear the current DEV team likes to keep the masses entertained with shiny objects and story lines that are so "un" Ultima its not even funny. The games filed with hues that were never meant to be, but i guess that's evolution. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items) of course you can partake in the RP but heck why not have a stab at a 150-500m item? SO that brings me back to the points above. As a returning player I lack the needed resources to acquire armors and weapons to compete.

4. Housing and IDOC systems. I was then lead on to being a IDOC hunter, an easy way maybe to score some goods! Well what the hell were they thinking with this system? House goes into decay mode.. ok I get that.. but 15 hours possibly for it to fall? WTF Broadsword who in their right minds has that much time to waste waiting for a house to fall? What happened to the good old days, couple hours at most? So you could go on with your day. Very frustrating and most of the times the IDOC cycles are in the middle of the night. I also have noticed that many people only have multiple accounts for one reason, an extra house. Why not make it possible for people to have ONE account but pay a little more monthly to have 2 or more houses? The accounts management system is a joke, might make it easier for some to reconcile this by allowing players the choice to pay more for two houses but have a single account.

5. And a final point, this game, in its' current configuration, is catering to the older player base, people who have been the die-hards and have kept their accounts active for 18 years. I am not saying that this is wrong or a bad thing but if you want new players and increasing subscriptions, the team is doing it all wrong. Instead of new content and more lands and more crap they need to start improving the current systems, fixing bugs, fixing outdated lore in the game that leads on new players to no where.. so many quests that just die.. so many systems that do not work. It is very apparent that cheating, scripting and 3rd party exploits are rampant and readily available with a quick search. I would think with a "paid sub" game that they would take cheating a little more serious. They need to streamline the platform focus on doing ONE THING at a time. The games old, they don't need updated graphics but to just focus on what they have making things more fluid, making the world blend. Having the two clients really puts a damper on new players as I tried the EC but found it just horrid, I came back for nostalgia and the classic client does that.

Maybe the DEV team is just a bandage, just trying to keep that hamster on life support spinning the wheel. It may be a great idea for the team to have a quick look at some of the "freeshards" and how some of the successful ones operate. The one that I will be playing has a large active player base, true to time period lore and focuses on Ultima and the actual timelines.. not fancy EM items with ridiculous names and story lines that are a one time deal that make no sense and have to do with aliens and pieces of the professors delorean.

/rant over. Thanks to everyone who I met along the way and for the support in game.

I hope that the OSI version lives forever... and that maybe someone jumps on board and takes the helm and steers it into the right direction.

Thanks for your post, I couldnt agree more!
 

OREOGL

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Fair for the most part.

What I would like to see is a solution for each one of these bullet points.

Input is what creates the change
Well man, I agree but these aren't new talking points.
 

Scribbles

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For @Lord Nabin

1. for new players they need to be guided immediately. Instead of advisors i would have mentors. People that got assigned new accounts that popped in when a new/returning player gets logged in.

2. The economy is a hard one. But I would start with changing how new toons are created at the start up page. Teaching players how to make money in todays current economy is a must and would be the responsibility of the mentor. Idoc, thunting, arty farming etc...

3. Been saying this for years. The EM system is corrupt and has nothing to do with UO lore for the most part. There are certain EMs that try really hard to stick to a good story line. I would recommend that the story lines be built out for a season. I would also recommend they be universal through out shards. I would also recomend that story line being published on the website so we can follow along with out having to try and read an ems post in game surrounded by hundreds of people and dragons.

4. IDOCS... lol this one is personal. The current system that mesanna and her team have deployed is asinine. 15 hours? who in the their right mind thinks that is good.... Solvency? turn it back to the way it worked for 10 years plus with no problems...

5. Been saying this for years as well. Stop giving us new stuff and fix the old stuff/revamp it. We dont need any new worlds. We dont need new content... we need our current content to be updated and maintained.
 

hen

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Stratics Legend
What exactly is the producer's plan for the game? No account management fix, no new player experience fix, no store fix, no steam or gog release, WHAT does Mesanna actually do other than boss four guys around?
I wish I could make it to one of those "meet the devs" things. My one question would be " Mesanna ; what are YOU doing to increase subscriptions?"
Half arsed dinosaur expansions aren't the answer.
 

OldUO

Adventurer
I think the current dev team is focused on their own agendas, the meet and greets are great to show the populous that they might actually take some of the suggestions and implement them.. BUT we don't need fuzzy animals and ****ty paintings.. content fixed, bugs squashed and get Ultima back on track and away from the mesanna filled circus show.... but just because some players want neat fuzzy purple cats and tamable tiger cubs does not mean the MAJORITY of the players want it. Waste of resources.
 

BrianFreud

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Here's an easy step go HIRE these guys who are making art and maps for the freeshards. The new art from the past few years has been, for the most part, simply terrible. Compare it with things like these:

UORoleplay_2.jpg
Black_Market.jpg Mage_Academy_4.jpg Narrowhaven02.jpg
Hobbit_Hole_1.jpg


Map3.jpg
 

Goodmann

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kelmo

Old and in the way
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Dread Lord
*chuckles*

It is a good read. Provocative and well written. I wish we would not loose players and Stratics folk that have thoughtful opinions.
 

Scribbles

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Eärendil

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Listen, I felt quite similar in some respects, esp. when it comes to EM events and items, the rares-addiction of many gamers, the weird economy and the idoc-timer. Other things you mentioned don't bother me because I always get in contact easily and find company that shows me the way.

Please take my offer as honest and serious: Come to Siege Perilous. Almost everything you critizise does not exist there or isn't as bad as elsewhere. You can actually buy alot of stuff with 500-2500 pieces of gold, there are guilds taking care of newcomers, player townships with life and interaction, great personalities and lovely, decent people dwelling around. You can play the game as it was meant to be, as a thief, a hunter, a fisher, you can fight in epic battles with 30 and more players, you find people that don't look for collecting garbage but actually playing the game. I bet you will like it. Just try it for 4 or 5 weeks. Call in GC and you will find cool people really loving to give you a new start and a new home. You can still leave, but you shouldn't without having tried Siege! I learned that lesson 3 month ago - before that I played prodoshards for 10 years. Siege rocks!
 

Angel of Sonoma

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Goodmann

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Economy- Example a slither cost you roughly 175m. You can go Slay dragons and it will only take you 145,833 dragon kills to get that gold to buy a slither. I guess you can kill Medusa and try and get one but the drop rate is low low low (I figured roughly 1 in 150 by my calculations). I could only imagine being a new player or returning player and try to piece a suit for any type of character to be competitive.
Get rid of the RNG have a reward system for Boss's. Make GOLD sinks I have no clue why we don't have any major gold sinks (vanity items only,decorations ect).
 

Uriah Heep

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.
 

Uriah Heep

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New players need a better startup kit. Better armor, more gps. And as for the quests, use them to fix these issues. There are so many small, simple quests out there that are easy to do. Put a great piece of armor, good jewels, weapons, etc etc, as the reward from them. Skill gain should be faster as well, without having to stand in one place banging on a golem for days. If I was just starting, I would be gone after the first month, seeing what I had to start with, and where I had to be to be equal.
 

Angel of Sonoma

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everything stated in the OP has been mentioned over and over. there is no quick or easy fix. for a long time i've been harping about how difficult the game is for new players (and sometimes old players) and how out of whack the economy is.

dummy the game down for new players and the vets will get bored. new players starting with 1000gp is laughable. if BS doesn't want to increase the amount of gold a new player starts with (due to potential abuse) then they should sell gold in the EA store.

sorry you are leaving.
 

Lord Nabin

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.
I get that UO made it. Then it exists and uo could perform design work with it just like the free shards do.

Kind of a silly statement from her on this one
 

BrianFreud

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.

That logic doesn't make any sense. Plus, it's pretty easy to disprove with any glance at the support forums for the server emulators. That transparent ocean? Those guys not only got transparent water to work, with multiple layers of shading for depth (it's not just a transparent static floating on the floor), but they then went and redrew the ENTIRE ocean to fix all the holes and to add all the decoration (you can see some hiding there under the water).

Or how about the guy who's made a project of going through and fixing all the missing/broken pixels in all the original art, or the guy who's been converting all the art to HD at 200%, or the guys who've been working on adding back NPC children, the guys who have a addin that sells bank box and house storage upgrade deeds as agold sink, or the addin which runs a shard-wide auction, or ran vendor search long before BS added it? All of that is obviously stolen from UO. Riiiiiiiight.

I don't play freeshard because it's just too easy for any freeshard to disappear overnight. But the amount of development going on out there puts BS to shame.
 

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Disclaimer: This is from my perspective and my play style when returning to Ultima Online after a 10 year break. Please do not take offense and consider this constructive criticism.

I reactivated an old account late last year, added 3 months of game time and upgraded to SA. I entered the new world of Ultima Online with a very open mind and this is why I will not be renewing my subscription.

Note: I have tried to make some suggestions below my concerns in read as requested below;

1. This game for new and returning players is almost unplayable out of the gates due to lack of support and lack of actual players on most shards. Help channels are generally empty. The advisor program seems to operate on EST time making it a hit or miss for most players elsewhere in the world. Ultimately this makes it a daunting task to most to try and complete or build a functional character in the game from scratch not knowing any of the game mechanics (what skills go with what etc etc) Most returning and new players do not know about Stratics or UOGuide (great resources) they should have these sites listed in game somewhere as the help functions in game are useless.

1a. Options for new players/returning players. Players when entering Britannia should be immediately welcomed into the game by a gump that would provide them with CURRENT information, especially on the currency system, and on where to go what to do and whom to talk to. I understand that resources are limited so there can't be someone there to hold everyone's hand, but there should be a gate or pad tat the player can take to a guild hall or player area that would help new people? The guild recruit tables were a bust and should be removed.

1b. Dead shards. Why can we not have an accurate number of active players per shard? Other than low/med/high. I would have never chosen the shard I did if I had more information on what shards were active. this would also help with new players finding shards that actually have players there willing to help.



2. The current economy in UO is out of control. If you do not receive help from other players or find a guild to join you more or less are forced to search for options to obtain gold (killing ettins or orges for 600 gold a time doesn't cut it.. so purchase with $? I don't think so) so you can either buy materials to craft armor pieces (only if you figured out how to raise crafting skills with the limited resources you may be able to obtain being a new player)

2a. I know that the economy is probably one of the hardest things to try and fix at this stage. An option would be for elder players to be able to donate gear at say a "Donation Box" which access would be given to NEW PLAYERS only on demand and at random. I understand that this takes away from the fundamentals of of the start of playing the game but it also would encourage players to venture beyond new haven. The starting amount of gold should be changed from 1000 to 100k per player.

3. The events program and EMs. |From the outside looking in it would appear the current DEV team likes to keep the masses entertained with shiny objects and story lines that are so "un" Ultima its not even funny. The games filed with hues that were never meant to be, but i guess that's evolution. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items) of course you can partake in the RP but heck why not have a stab at a 150-500m item? SO that brings me back to the points above. As a returning player I lack the needed resources to acquire armors and weapons to compete.

3a. EM program and EM items.. I do not know what to recommend here as I do not have a vast knowledge with the program, but it is daunting to new players to understand why and what is the point of them if the stories are a one shot deal.. EMs should have continuing lore and be able to place the stories in an areas o people can join in at any point by reading what has gone on prior to the events.


4. Housing and IDOC systems. I was then lead on to being a IDOC hunter, an easy way maybe to score some goods! Well what the hell were they thinking with this system? House goes into decay mode.. ok I get that.. but 15 hours possibly for it to fall? WTF Broadsword who in their right minds has that much time to waste waiting for a house to fall? What happened to the good old days, couple hours at most? So you could go on with your day. Very frustrating and most of the times the IDOC cycles are in the middle of the night. I also have noticed that many people only have multiple accounts for one reason, an extra house. Why not make it possible for people to have ONE account but pay a little more monthly to have 2 or more houses? The accounts management system is a joke, might make it easier for some to reconcile this by allowing players the choice to pay more for two houses but have a single account.

4a. As much as people do not want to hear it.. some shards need to be removed. (Sonoma.. Napa.. are two that come to mind, they are nothing but baron wastelands) there should be housing options for players to have more than two per shard per account.

4b. IDOCs need to be changed back to how the systems were in the good ol' days. I understand that PLACEMENT was changed due to scripting, so that's fine but the actual fall of the house needs to be revamped. Unfortunately many people do have lives lol and can not be on the game at all times.



5. And a final point, this game, in its' current configuration, is catering to the older player base, people who have been the die-hards and have kept their accounts active for 18 years. I am not saying that this is wrong or a bad thing but if you want new players and increasing subscriptions, the team is doing it all wrong. Instead of new content and more lands and more crap they need to start improving the current systems, fixing bugs, fixing outdated lore in the game that leads on new players to no where.. so many quests that just die.. so many systems that do not work. It is very apparent that cheating, scripting and 3rd party exploits are rampant and readily available with a quick search. I would think with a "paid sub" game that they would take cheating a little more serious. They need to streamline the platform focus on doing ONE THING at a time. The games old, they don't need updated graphics but to just focus on what they have making things more fluid, making the world blend. Having the two clients really puts a damper on new players as I tried the EC but found it just horrid, I came back for nostalgia and the classic client does that.

5a. I know that expansions are a way for you to get more money and keep the lights on, but you really need to focus on the MAJOR BUGS and horrible content flaws in the game. Hire some folk to run around for a month and do every quest and see how many are dead ends come up and the major content issues that plaque the new questers of the game. Walk around the lands and see all the unnecessary crap laying around. The EMs make messes and forget to clean up.



Maybe the DEV team is just a bandage, just trying to keep that hamster on life support spinning the wheel. It may be a great idea for the team to have a quick look at some of the "freeshards" and how some of the successful ones operate. The one that I will be playing has a large active player base, true to time period lore and focuses on Ultima and the actual timelines.. not fancy EM items with ridiculous names and story lines that are a one time deal that make no sense and have to do with aliens and pieces of the professors delorean.

/rant over. Thanks to everyone who I met along the way and for the support in game.

I hope that the OSI version lives forever... and that maybe someone jumps on board and takes the helm and steers it into the right direction.
all valid points yes
 

MalagAste

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.
It's not that the Free Shards have better stuff or stole stuff from UO..... It's that they are better at deco and design with the stuff than the DEVs are. Plain and simple. It's not the stuff it's how you use it.

However in the defense of the DEVs a wee bit... Free Shards don't worry about how much lag stuff produces... so they can use and do use 10x the "stuff" that our DEVs do because they don't have 10k people playing their shard. They are lucky to have 100 or 200. BIG difference.
 

OldUO

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It's not that the Free Shards have better stuff or stole stuff from UO..... It's that they are better at deco and design with the stuff than the DEVs are. Plain and simple. It's not the stuff it's how you use it.
What Brian posted above is only a very small selection of some of the amazing things people on free shards have done and accomplished. Like I stated above, it would be a great value to the dev team to just have a peek and maybe take a few tips at what can be accomplished. I do agree it is how you implement it, but design is a major factor. I would love to see a transparent ocean on osi shards. BUT that is not what they should be focusing on, they should be diverting resources to cleaning the current game up.
 

MalagAste

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5a. I know that expansions are a way for you to get more money and keep the lights on, but you really need to focus on the MAJOR BUGS and horrible content flaws in the game. Hire some folk to run around for a month and do every quest and see how many are dead ends come up and the major content issues that plaque the new questers of the game. Walk around the lands and see all the unnecessary crap laying around. The EMs make messes and forget to clean up.
Believe it or not I work nights and I've offered my services to the team on numerous occasions to go around the lands of Britannia at night just me and remove all the crap that is littering the lands.... I even offered to put it all in some special container so they could "check" to make sure I'm not doing anything.

I've offered and offered to go to every shard and clear up all the paintings, stew, pieces of ships, statues and other things littering the world. I've offered to clean up and put EM things in some EM hall where EM's can sort it out and be rid of it ..... however some EM stuff should stay where it is. IMO. Making all the lands identical isn't IMO something that should happen. Each Shard is Unique. And since the split they have all had different lives touch them. That is something that should remain forever. There are folk like myself who know everything about their shard. They enjoy knowing where all the special places and special items are... and they like to visit them. It has become a part of the shard. Taking that away will only serve to upset and alienate those folk who have a strong sense of nostalgia and loyalty to their shard and it's history.

And while you may have encountered EMs who don't do very good stories I can tell you that on GLs the stories they do are VERY much steeped in UO lore. And they do follow a course.... and if you attend regularly you can find that... and some shards like GLs have places to go to read about this history... where they can answer questions about events and such.

I do understand that there is a problem with communication. It's a major beef of mine. Someone suggested some time back that it would be good if there was some sort of global announcement when someone new entered the shard. Like a new young player was created and all the players who "opt in" for it would get a news flash on their screen rather like when the server is going down that ["so-and-so the young player" has arrived in Haven! Please welcome them to the Shard!] Something like that would be really nice.
 

GarthGrey

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Those pics from the freeshards are pretty nice, and not surprising at all.
 

Promathia

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3. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items)
You have really good points, but this is really wrong. Im so lazy on some shards I use a fresh character with a Sorcerer's Suit and only having used an Advanced Character Token. The drops themselves are given randomly to everyone who attacks the boss.
 

BrianFreud

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However in the defense of the DEVs a wee bit... Free Shards don't worry about how much lag stuff produces... so they can use and do use 10x the "stuff" that our DEVs do because they don't have 10k people playing their shard. They are lucky to have 100 or 200. BIG difference.
2 words: Eodon temple.
 

Scribbles

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.
They stole the original copy then showed why the "market place of ideas" works better than a closed off secluded company. Honestly If Mesanna would just be humbled a bit and learn from these old players we could have stuff like this on real shards. Lets remember that at one point the free shard players and people that run them were once UO players. They left for something that fitted them better. I severely doubt it was a money issue for most of the players.

They may have taken a copy of UO... but what they have done with it is far superior, at least in this example. Funny that people working for free on their on dime can produce something much more exquisite than the people that get paid to do this.



im reminded of an old add campaign. :)


"We don't make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better" - BASF
 

Scribbles

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That logic doesn't make any sense. Plus, it's pretty easy to disprove with any glance at the support forums for the server emulators. That transparent ocean? Those guys not only got transparent water to work, with multiple layers of shading for depth (it's not just a transparent static floating on the floor), but they then went and redrew the ENTIRE ocean to fix all the holes and to add all the decoration (you can see some hiding there under the water).

Or how about the guy who's made a project of going through and fixing all the missing/broken pixels in all the original art, or the guy who's been converting all the art to HD at 200%, or the guys who've been working on adding back NPC children, the guys who have a addin that sells bank box and house storage upgrade deeds as agold sink, or the addin which runs a shard-wide auction, or ran vendor search long before BS added it? All of that is obviously stolen from UO. Riiiiiiiight.

I don't play freeshard because it's just too easy for any freeshard to disappear overnight. But the amount of development going on out there puts BS to shame.
YEP!
 

Longtooths

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3. The events program and EMs. |From the outside looking in it would appear the current DEV team likes to keep the masses entertained with shiny objects and story lines that are so "un" Ultima its not even funny. The games filed with hues that were never meant to be, but i guess that's evolution. In order to even try and participate you need a fully built character (to try for the items) of course you can partake in the RP but heck why not have a stab at a 150-500m item? SO that brings me back to the points above. As a returning player I lack the needed resources to acquire armors and weapons to compete.

3a. EM program and EM items.. I do not know what to recommend here as I do not have a vast knowledge with the program, but it is daunting to new players to understand why and what is the point of them if the stories are a one shot deal.. EMs should have continuing lore and be able to place the stories in an areas o people can join in at any point by reading what has gone on prior to the events.
This is patently false. I know several people who have used half hour old characters and simply run in and die repeatidly and get a drop at these events. They have done this on multiple shards, multiple EM's, numerous times.
 
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Ender

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It's not that the Free Shards have better stuff or stole stuff from UO..... It's that they are better at deco and design with the stuff than the DEVs are. Plain and simple. It's not the stuff it's how you use it.

However in the defense of the DEVs a wee bit... Free Shards don't worry about how much lag stuff produces... so they can use and do use 10x the "stuff" that our DEVs do because they don't have 10k people playing their shard. They are lucky to have 100 or 200. BIG difference.
To be fair, our shards don't have 10k people playing either, lol
 

Taylor

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I wish every departing player would take time to memorialize their reasons in a forum post. Thank you, @OldUO.
 

Smoot

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Economy- Example a slither cost you roughly 175m. You can go Slay dragons and it will only take you 145,833 dragon kills to get that gold to buy a slither. I guess you can kill Medusa and try and get one but the drop rate is low low low (I figured roughly 1 in 150 by my calculations). I could only imagine being a new player or returning player and try to piece a suit for any type of character to be competitive.
Get rid of the RNG have a reward system for Boss's. Make GOLD sinks I have no clue why we don't have any major gold sinks (vanity items only,decorations ect).
ive actually made surprisingly good suits, 45dci 100lrc 40lmc 30sdi 16mr 12hpr, and damage eater with loot ive found on the ground or stuff left on corpes, with maybe 100k splurged to get a mana phasing orb and kelp legs.

yes, you can spend alot of gold for a "perfect" suit. but i think its also the easiest time in UOs history to be able to make a really good suit with basically no gold at all.
 

Uvtha

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Mesanna was asked one time about that, why freeshards could do stuff better than then codekeepers. She said it was because they didnt have to make anything, they just stole it from UO...I wish we could find where all these goodies ARE in UO.
Ignoring the fact that I have seen tons of original art added (including in those sceen shots) they took a lot of exsisting art and combined it in cool ways, like the loaded shelves you can see in one of the sceen shots. For things like that, freeshard devs and official devs are on the exact same footing. Messanas team inherited those great graphics, and instead of using them to thier fullest advantage, they add new out of place art.

Aside from all that it's an issue of design sense. They have so many players that would be amazing world builders, who know uos art assets and how to use them beautifully. I really think they should really look into hiring a few not only when they make new land masses but just to snazz up some of the existing maps, and add points of interest.

That see through water thouh...makes me cry. Looks so dope.
 

Uvtha

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ive actually made surprisingly good suits, 45dci 100lrc 40lmc 30sdi 16mr 12hpr, and damage eater with loot ive found on the ground or stuff left on corpes, with maybe 100k splurged to get a mana phasing orb and kelp legs.

yes, you can spend alot of gold for a "perfect" suit. but i think its also the easiest time in UOs history to be able to make a really good suit with basically no gold at all.
Not to mention the fallacy that the only source of gold, or even the most functional is by farming monsters for it.
 
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