Would like to share my thoughts and hear yours...

[arkanos]

Hello,
this post is not a complaint, simply an observation...
I am - and I guess most of you are - spending some of my playing time in shame and much more time in my house or at the queens soulforge, trying to decide what is worth keeping or not.
I am having fun but today something happened that really made me think.

I met two people the other day who have recently returned to the game (one of them being a vet really who was only gone for maybe 2 years, the other one can be called a new player). I helped them to get started and today I ran across them in shame.
They were in a funny mood and the "newbie" was talking about quitting again.
I asked him if he was not enjoying it and he basically said that he was - prior to shame. The more experienced player agreed.
I asked them what they did not like about shame and the new loot and the newbie simply hands me the following weapon and says:

"What the hell does all this mean?"

The weapon looks like this:
(I tried to post a pic but I simply cant make it big enough to be readable)

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Weight: 1 Stone
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%
Damage Increase 40%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 9 - 11
Weapon Speed 2.25s
Strength Requirement 10
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordmanship
Durability 75 / 75
* Requires The "Stygian Abyss" Expansion *
Legendary Artifact

When I was about to start to explain I suddenly realized.... I was dumbstruck.
This is 25 lines of text. And most of it is NOT easy to understand or self-explanatory.
AND we are talking about a throw-away item for 99% of the sosarian population, some hardly usable kitchen knife.

I tried to tell the guy that the rest of Sosaria still has the old loot system and that he should go out and get a feel for the properties on items that are a little easier to analyze (5 liners anyone?) and pointed him to the guides and forums.
His answer was that he had heard that they are planing to change the whole loot system to resemble shame loot. And that he thinks he has a better chance to learn chinese in a years time than to understand UO loot in the same time frame.
Well, I know this is probably not true but tbh I fully understand how new and/or returning players can and will be put off by this new system.

The newbie is off to try another game, the returner said he will stick around and see if he can adapt.
I know UO was never an "easy" game and always had a steep learning curve.
But his new system is only here to keep existing players busy and happy and it will make it - MUCH - harder for any interested new players.

What do you think?

Thank you for reading,

Hephaistos of Europa

 

[Kellgory]

There will always be those that come back to the game expecting the same UO as they left only to find out that so much has changed and they either adapt or leave again. For those of us that play all the time, we don't realize how much the game has changed in such a short period of time until someone returns and starts asking questions about what does this mean and how do you do that. It is unfortunate that many of these new and returning players leave before they really get the chance of learning all the new stuff which makes me wonder if they are playing solo or in a guild where they can ask questions. The first guild I was in was a pretty small but active guild, but several people quit after ML came out because they didn't want to learn and adapt to all the new stuff.

 

[Nyses]

If the "newbie" got that weapon, he must have been doing ok for himself. There are great pages on Stratics and UO Guide that explain all about the properties on items. Did you refer then to those pages to do a little learning?

 

[Flutter]

I kinda agree.
I mean I like not having to think about UO. I just like to play.

 

[Zosimus]

UO has become a chemistry 2 test lol

Oh well..... if you have time to read up on pages on pages of stuff just to play UO and actually learn it all while dumping important information out of your brain I say go for it

 

[Raptor85]

When i came back a few years ago it was a massive shock to me as well, and it's only gotten worse over the years. Personally I'm with the newbie, while i admit i played post AOS and had some fun in that time, it wasn't too terrible yet, but post SA it's just felt like so much work determining how good loot is, how to build a suit, etc. And it seems to get a little worse on every single patch. The shame changes are basicly the writing on the wall that it's not going to get better, but only even more complicated, which is one of the many....many reasons I sold off the majority of my stuff, gave away tons of gold and such to the few players I could actually find on siege, and started clearing out and closing out my accounts. (Gave my houses to guildmates and made sure to return anything I had borrowed)

A sad part is also (and i've said this before to a lesser extent) remember new players coming in dont have years of experience in the game backing them up, and these days there's essentially NO gameplay to be had for new players (everything now is based off "endgame" boss grinds). How do you convince someone to stay when they learn the majority of their 30 day initial trial will be spent standing in one spot whacking a golem? Or worse yet if they ignore what other players will invariably tell them (being helpful telling new players to grind their skills to GM before playing) and play through the game normally.... the fact that they can loot every creature from the moment they set foot on sorsaria until they hit 100 skill and still not have the gold to buy a replacement suit of armor 6 months later when they're actually high enough skill that other players will even be around in the areas they're hunting.

I enjoy pvp with risk, I've always been nearly a pure pvp person, but the nonsense of the hundreds of stats really turns me off from the game....I hate to say it but UO feels more trying to have fun in Excel now that even Eve does. I suppose the pixel-crack with essentially no gameplay or role playing elements left appeals to some people and I wish you the best of luck in the future with that, but for those of us who just want to sit down and play a game UO is just a terribly boring grind these days.

 

[Hunters' Moon]

I agree it can be difficult to figure out if you want to keep an item while avoiding getting hit at the same time. I started to just look at the bottom line to see if what I have is an "artifact". If it is,I just toss it into my pack until I can look at it closely.

 

[Raptor85]

I know UO was never an "easy" game and always had a steep learning curve.

Really depends on when you started, pre-aos this was the item system Ultima Online Stratics . That was it, weapons had 2 mods, durability and strength, and both were on a simple 1-5 scale shown by name, armor had AR bonus and durability (also denoted by name). Items occasionally also had a enchantment, also denoted by the item name. Wasn't a whole lot to remember, the names were pretty well descriptive of exactly how good an item was. (that and the item system itself had the obvious RPG things, like plate armor > chain > ring (AR was a single number)). Mages with the reagent system, yes, like most games mages were the hardest to learn, but warriors there wasn't much to learn to start playing, just equip sword and go out and start bashing things, as you get better bash tougher things.

 

[Petra Fyde]

3 for weapons, they had 2 prefixes. Arguably the best weapon was an indestructable, supremely accurate katana of vanquishing.

I must admit I have a hankering for a less complicated item system. Mostly I go with best guess and hope.

 

[Mirt]

Part of UOs charm is that it is an open sandbox. The downside to this means that players are not lead by the nose and have to come to places like Stratics and UO guide. That’s how it is. If they don't want to do that they can hook up with people that should be able to tell them what things mean and what things do OR... they can test out the equipment and learn what it does. This is one of the things that makes UO unique. Its hard to figure out just what things do or what the best way of doing things is because there are multiple options for how to do things. If those were gotten rid of UO could take new players by the nose and lead them around, but I think that would drive away most of the players and kill the game. That being said UO once had a companion program maybe its time to reinstitute that and maybe even tie it in with something like humility. Apprenticeship is really the best way to learn UO and the system did work at one point.

 

[Aurelius]

Did you refer then to those pages to do a little learning?

He already said he did ...

I tried to tell the guy that the rest of Sosaria still has the old loot system and that he should go out and get a feel for the properties on items that are a little easier to analyze (5 liners anyone?) and pointed him to the guides and forums.

But the real point is perfectly valid - being 'immersed' in a game is made much more difficult when you get a wedge of text 15 or more lines long attached to every weapon, armour piece, ring or bracelet...

At least let those who want a simpler 'summary' of what stuff is have a switch in the client to toggle between displaying huge reams of data and a simple generalised summary of what a thing is, like the broader categories we had at the start. If we want to worry about min/maxing and optimising, we can read the full analysis - or we can have a simpler game, which for the rpers and the more 'casual' player is probably a nicer interaction than the current 'have a ton of data to wade through', by turning the full list off.

 

[Mirt]

Actually removing the exact description without removing properties would make it just about impossible to know what you have without the name becoming huge. It would necessitate looking somewhere else for the information as there is little to no chance to be able to figure it out simply by in game testing.

 

[Ludes]

IMO it's gotten way too complicated.. Not saying I'll quit or anything but it was more fun when I could play without a calculator.

 

[Petra Fyde]

out of that lot all I really need is 'mystic' - good for mages/mana, 'slaughter' - does good damage, unlucky, fragile. I don't want to do maths

 

[ahardy]

I'm from brazil, English isn't my mother tongue, and i can easly understand what a Mana increase, Hit point increase, hit chance, battle lust was... and if not sure is just type the name on google then the word uo in front of and its done.

Is just read.....


The problem is actually the internet is acessible to all, so 15y old that don't know what a "mana" is, was floating the world, so the problem isn't the hard way to learn uo, the problem is the ignorance.

I speak and write english very bad and understand all, how the hell, an american native don't understand?

 

[vexyvixen]

I came back to UO 3 years ago after taking a 5 year break. I had to relearn the game plus learn all the new things that had been added. When I left, vanquishing was the thing to have, but when I came back weapons had properties. I didn't understand the properties, but after placing a house I stored weapons and armor until I understood what it all meant. As with anything, if you stick with it then it will get easier to understand as time goes by. Plus, the help from people in New Haven, Luna, guild mates, UOGuide, and stratics made it all easier to understand.

 

[arkanos]

Thanks for all your answers and thoughts...

I would like to point to a recent thread about the DI calculation here on UOHall (about the 300% cap and how it is reached).
If you are interested please start to read from post 24 onwards...
There are basically two posters debating the Di calculations.

http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/255706-shame-guardian-special-drops.html

Now I want to ask all you veterans something and please be honest here with me (and yes, I am a 13 year vet):


Do you really fully comprehend how this is calculated?

I have an idea I would say, but if you would ask me to explain this to a new player I would cetainly fail. (and it is rather important to know "basic" facts like this one for suitbuilding, weapon choice and template choice)

Wizal the Fox seems to fully understand what he is saying there (I beleive him, and the way he is presenting his data seems to make sense).
But he is also saying that even the official posts regarding this particular thing are misleading (if not plain wrong).

Don´t get me wrong, I am happy with the game. Yes, I would not mind if things would be a little easier to understand sometimes but I am not complaining, I can adapt, BUT:

please take a moment and try to "put on the shoes" of a new player in this game.
Even if he has managed to get into a guild with veteran players, I hardly doubt that many people could explain things like the DI calculation (and there is so much more!) to a new player.

Wizal the Fox says in his first post in this thread:

"It is incredible to me that after all this time most people still do not understand that DI is not part of the final multiplier"

And he says many more things on the topic there btw...

Well, I am ready to take any bet that less than 5% of the current player base (yes, mostly veteran players) could not post the explanations about the DI system that he has posted in the linked thread. Me included of course.
And I am not so sure many developers could....

I don´t want to offend anyone. This is simply meant as an example that some very important facts are very hard to learn, especially for new players. Be it through asking ingame or reading guides/posts or official documentations.

Thank you,

Hephaistos of Europa

 

[kelmo]

Wow! I fail UO.

 

[old gypsy]

I'm afraid I'd fail a math test. *sigh*

 

[Mirt]

I know the math for most of the things but because of the RNG it’s sometimes more important to get the feel for it. I don't have all the formulas memorized but there is a good working knowledge. Of course by the same token how many people here know the processing language of their computer or how their cars engines work? Most people don't know anything about how things work and yet it’s still important to have this available. Try and describe it like that and then ask one of us that actually knows how things work for the most part. Or better yet fake it and copy other people until you figure out what works and then go off on your own. It was widely accepted that the learning curve was 2 years. I would venture to guess that if you really want to learn its probably less due to what we have here on Stratics (thanks Petra) and UOguide.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Hello,
this post is not a complaint, simply an observation...
I am - and I guess most of you are - spending some of my playing time in shame and much more time in my house or at the queens soulforge, trying to decide what is worth keeping or not.
I am having fun but today something happened that really made me think.

I met two people the other day who have recently returned to the game (one of them being a vet really who was only gone for maybe 2 years, the other one can be called a new player). I helped them to get started and today I ran across them in shame.
They were in a funny mood and the "newbie" was talking about quitting again.
I asked him if he was not enjoying it and he basically said that he was - prior to shame. The more experienced player agreed.
I asked them what they did not like about shame and the new loot and the newbie simply hands me the following weapon and says:

"What the hell does all this mean?"

The weapon looks like this:
(I tried to post a pic but I simply cant make it big enough to be readable)

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Weight: 1 Stone
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%
Damage Increase 40%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 9 - 11
Weapon Speed 2.25s
Strength Requirement 10
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordmanship
Durability 75 / 75
* Requires The "Stygian Abyss" Expansion *
Legendary Artifact

When I was about to start to explain I suddenly realized.... I was dumbstruck.
This is 25 lines of text. And most of it is NOT easy to understand or self-explanatory.
AND we are talking about a throw-away item for 99% of the sosarian population, some hardly usable kitchen knife.

I tried to tell the guy that the rest of Sosaria still has the old loot system and that he should go out and get a feel for the properties on items that are a little easier to analyze (5 liners anyone?) and pointed him to the guides and forums.
His answer was that he had heard that they are planing to change the whole loot system to resemble shame loot. And that he thinks he has a better chance to learn chinese in a years time than to understand UO loot in the same time frame.
Well, I know this is probably not true but tbh I fully understand how new and/or returning players can and will be put off by this new system.

The newbie is off to try another game, the returner said he will stick around and see if he can adapt.
I know UO was never an "easy" game and always had a steep learning curve.
But his new system is only here to keep existing players busy and happy and it will make it - MUCH - harder for any interested new players.

What do you think?

Thank you for reading,

Hephaistos of Europa

Its the tale of two parts. Ingnor this part.

Damage Increase 40%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 9 - 11
Weapon Speed 2.25s
Strength Requirement 10
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordmanship
Durability 75 / 75
* Requires The "Stygian Abyss" Expansion *
Legendary Artifact


Look at this part

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Weight: 1 Stone
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%

It makes it easier to undersand. Not easy but easier. It is a bit much.

 

[silent]

Do you really fully comprehend how this is calculated?

No but if I'm one under or one over the cap I could care less. These posts and calculations are for the perfectionists. I equip up and cast my offensive spells if I see minimal or no difference between them I stop casting them, no need to go check the formula if you don't want.

 

[Theo_GL]

IMO it's gotten way too complicated.. Not saying I'll quit or anything but it was more fun when I could play without a calculator.

I posted the same thing in another thread. The shame stuff is certainly interesting and something new to 'chase' but the complexity has gotten crazy.

Honestly I'd prefer new dungeons and challenges and less complexity to armor/weapons. It is a mountain of information to consume to understand all the nuances of the game including caps, limits, and effects of all the skills and mods. Now Shame has added a whole new set of mods with diff caps (20 skill on jewelry, things like battle lust, kinetic eater etc).

While it provides something new for vets to test and play with - it is more than daunting to the new player.

I suggested that armor should go to something like 2 mods - physical and magical resist (no phs/fire/cold/etc) to make it easier to value/match armor. In addition the number of mods should be reduced and simplified.

In addition a better paperdoll that lists all the caps and stats would be very helpful. Why can we see str/dex/int but not a total of LRC/DI/LMC/HCI/DCI? It seems like such an EASY fix to make it easier to manage that has not made it to the 2d or 3d client.

I think UO really need to make an attempt to make the game EASIER to consume for new players. We need more new players and making it so complex that people give up is not good for the game.

No wonder we have a game of 99% vets.

 

[clarkifer]

My 2 cents..... I like the upgraded monsters/loot.... I don't even look at what I'm looting, really don't care. I used the dungeon to train a swordsman to 113, and imbuing from 40 to 64, I'm happy with that. As for things being " too complicated", it's really not. I took a 4-5 year break, came back and took about a day to understand all the changes... Most people are looking for a generic play style that requires little to no thought. Console games are good for that. The reason UO has been around so long is because its not your garden variety cookie cutter game.

 

[Cogniac]

I was under the impression that most other MMORPGss are also like this. I don't actually play any of them, though, so maybe I'm wrong?

Item property - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

Legendary Items Guide - LOTRO Lorebook

EVE Online Ship Guide (Check out the ship acceleration formula down at the bottom.)

EverQuest II Item Database - Boots of Rigorous Striking - LootDB.com

 

[aoLOLita]

For those without Crafters, merely drop your loot bag into the nearest "turn-in" chest for points or give to your local friendly Imbuer to unravel for you. An honest Imbuer would give you back a mixed bag of MR, EE and the costly Relic Frags. The latter you can sell or use when you need an item imbued...

 

[Mirt]

Most RPG's are. It’s because the mechanics are always going to be there in some form or another and it’s a good way to keep people involved. You don't need to know what’s best, you just need to find a crafter that does. Just like for your car or computer. That being said if you want to learn them, its actually easier then ever. Stratics in particular is great on this.

 

[enderz]

Getting into any MMO at the beginning can be overwhelming.

I remember it took me years of playing UO to feel like I had a grasp finally on the game entirety.

First character was pre-tram, battlemage using regs to work mage skills. I would hunt ogres trolls an orcs for a long time. My 2nd character, blacksmith/miner, would die a bunch to people who like messing with miners.

Skills took a lot longer to gain.

I was oblivious to the tamer aspect of the game.

Dragons and Balrons, let alone lich lords were hugely fun/challenging to hunt.

Took over 2 years to finally get a home.

Long story short, enjoy the ride, learning a new world is half the fun.

Things are actually easier these days with all the guides, forums posts info, insurance (menu now) and a tram facet so you don't die a lot along the way.

As for my opinion on current loot wall of texts... it's complex but imbuers and min/maxers love it.

Like said earlier above, I miss the vanquishing, silver, power system with tougher mobs.
I believe over the years the variable mods increasing has gotten to the point where, like the painter that didnt stop when he should have, now has a painting that is more brown then beautiful because he couldn't stop adding more to the painting.

 

[SpiritWeaverLS]

Learning a new game is always a daunting task. Especially with games that have had well over a decade to develop. Yet, it's the change (which usually adds a measure of complexity) that holds the more experienced players engaged. The expanded itemization in Shame is randomized so much... that to get the items for our goals, we'll be playing in Shame for some time to come.

UO will still appeal to new players that are entranced by it's many strengths... yes there is a lot to learn, but there will be those that are eager to learn and explore a new world.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching... I really want to commend the development work by the UO team done with Shame. It's an impressive PVM experience... and challenging for many of us.

Most of us have felt like new players several times in UO... and updates like Shame have me excited about their newness as well. Hurray for the challenges, and interesting variety

 

[BajaElladan]

Hail Sosarians,

I have walked Sosarian soil for over 14 years. I am aging and the complexity I once embraced and mastered ... now is hopelessly beyond my understanding ... or remembering. So my take on Shame loot is as follows:

If it isn't Cursed, Brittle, or both I keep it for possible use.

If it IS Cursed, Brittle, or Both my Legendary Artificer [Imbuer] unravells it.

Lastly, my Exceptions to those 2 Rules are for Items with Massive Lower Mana Cost or Mana Regen which I let my Scribe use.

My personal speculation is that our current Dev Team "expects" the vast majority of Shame loot to be unravelled, mainly for Relic Frags.

In the beginning I fell in Love with the virtual world, and the opportunity to "become" a virtual person first, and over time my own virtual Choir of personalities. To interact with many, many, others from all locations of my planet Earth.

Fourteen years later I find fewer and fewer Folks to adventure with and I find New Dev's and EM's who demonstrate almost nothing but disdain for the Legacy and History that has unfolded upon every Shard. I so want to stay, but find more and more reasons to depart.

Over the last several months I have begun closing accounts. Wanting to stay cannot justify paying for accounts that I find myself playing less and less. I hope to still be around for next year's 15th Anniversary and expect by then to know if I will be Gifting away my most beloved "stuff" to those determined to remain.

I continue to Hope that the Dev Team will take Sosaria in a better direction than the direction it has been headed for quite some time now. However, as I type this I have yet to see any evidence of such a course change.

It is also my Hope enough Folks remain to keep UO going. That may buy enough time for needed changes to be made. Perhaps if I do depart, one future day maybe I'd return.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Be Well.

 

[Aurelius]

Actually removing the exact description without removing properties would make it just about impossible to know what you have without the name becoming huge. It would necessitate looking somewhere else for the information as there is little to no chance to be able to figure it out simply by in game testing.

Not if it's a switch you can choose in the client on your PC to toggle between the 'full' description and the 'summary'. All that data is still there for those who want to look at it.

 

[MalagAste]

Personally I find most the stuff I get out of shame to be good for one thing only... Relic Frags.

I'm not going to build a suit around crap that I'm going to have to refarm every 3 weeks.

I don't want to waste energy and time trying to build a suit around any item that is brittle, cursed or unable to be repaired.

If it's something that is going to boost my ability to train a skill fine maybe I'll use it to train skills... like casting skills... I don't need to fix it or worry about it being cursed if I'm not actually "fighting" anything.

But outside that 99.9% of the crap I've picked up in Shame is just that. Crap. Worth nothing but a relic frag.

 

[MalagAste]

Hail Sosarians,

I have walked Sosarian soil for over 14 years. I am aging and the complexity I once embraced and mastered ... now is hopelessly beyond my understanding ... or remembering. So my take on Shame loot is as follows:

If it isn't Cursed, Brittle, or both I keep it for possible use.

If it IS Cursed, Brittle, or Both my Legendary Artificer [Imbuer] unravells it.

Lastly, my Exceptions to those 2 Rules are for Items with Massive Lower Mana Cost or Mana Regen which I let my Scribe use.

My personal speculation is that our current Dev Team "expects" the vast majority of Shame loot to be unravelled, mainly for Relic Frags.

In the beginning I fell in Love with the virtual world, and the opportunity to "become" a virtual person first, and over time my own virtual Choir of personalities. To interact with many, many, others from all locations of my planet Earth.

Fourteen years later I find fewer and fewer Folks to adventure with and I find New Dev's and EM's who demonstrate almost nothing but disdain for the Legacy and History that has unfolded upon every Shard. I so want to stay, but find more and more reasons to depart.

Over the last several months I have begun closing accounts. Wanting to stay cannot justify paying for accounts that I find myself playing less and less. I hope to still be around for next year's 15th Anniversary and expect by then to know if I will be Gifting away my most beloved "stuff" to those determined to remain.

I continue to Hope that the Dev Team will take Sosaria in a better direction than the direction it has been headed for quite some time now. However, as I type this I have yet to see any evidence of such a course change.

It is also my Hope enough Folks remain to keep UO going. That may buy enough time for needed changes to be made. Perhaps if I do depart, one future day maybe I'd return.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Be Well.

This about sums it up. Each day I have fewer and fewer friends to enjoy my time here with as more and more of them depart.

I often find myself playing solo. If I wanted that I'd be playing Neverwinter nights... solo.

I keep hoping that some miracle will occur and the number of players especially RPers would increase... but it hasn't happened.

I haven't closed a bunch of accounts yet but that's simply because there just isn't anything else out there yet that I care to spend my money on... but they are constantly putting out new things and I'm forever hoping that something will pull me off this dying corpse. I feel like an animal trapped at a shrinking wateringhole... waiting to either be picked off by some vulture or praying for the rains to come back...

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

People are spending too much time getting lost in all of the text. Let me break it down for you in how I deal with it.

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Weight: 1 Stone
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%
Damage Increase 40%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 9 - 11
Weapon Speed 2.25s
Strength Requirement 10
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordmanship
Durability 75 / 75
* Requires The "Stygian Abyss" Expansion *
Legendary Artifact

Everything in italics gets ignored as pointless information, the rest, thanks to custom UIs in the EC gets color coded which gives us:

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%
Damage Increase 40%

At this point, the Red shows the negatives, Yellow/Gold shows the high end positives and no color change are mods that do not add to the equation which brings us to:

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Mana Regeneration 6
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Damage Increase 40%

Which wouldn't be bad by itself, however the red curses eliminate this potential, so it would not be a keeper. Next would be "Can I put it in a BOD or resmelt... answer: No. Next: Can it be unraveled to a Relic Frag... answer: Possibly, Pinco's UI would give me the intensity score to answer this, however for the purpose of unraveling, I tend to look for Durability +50% or higher as a mod, so probably not unless the intensity score is high enough. Finally, can it be junked for clean up points... probably not. Clean Up points do best when the Lower Requirements XX% is present, the higher the better.

So I would end up leaving the Butcher Knife after a quick glance. Let's just say it took a LOT Longer to form this post than it does to make the decision.

 

[Doubleplay]

To me the best drops in shame are the lowest quality items. Those that do not have a cursed, brittle, can't be repaired. I look for items that are over 100% intensity that I need. I can imbue these to fit my existing outfit.

If you get a limited use item with amazing mods, in order to use it effectively, you have to build a suit around it. This is very time consuming and sometimes expensive for a limited use outfit.

Sad that I find myself looking for the least good items and unraveling the rest.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I only look at 2 things, high numbers and then the property of the high number.

With Pico's, I only need to look for 1 thing, really and that's if it has a relic or not.

I think most of them are self explanatory, like mana increase means you get a mana increase. Mana regain means your mana regains. They could add a mouse over to each property, so as you go down the list it tells you. For example: You mouse over damage increase, the property and a tool tip says, in a small box, Increases the damage of this weapon by the percent shown.

It just seems redundant though. There might be some things that could use more detail, like splinter. For new players they could put a book, a hunting guide on weapons and armour.

For me, the more there is the better. The more chances, the more possibilities. It's really up to the player how much they put into it. They could just pick up the weapon and start using it. You don't really need to know anything at all, except for how to hold the weapon.

I think the future of this type of thing will grow and this puts UO in the cutting edge format. UO's problem isn't that it's complicated, it's that people don't know about it. I have people ask me all the time if I play WoW and I tell them No, I play UO and they tell me they never heard of it. It has nothing to do with complicated properties. I think you'll find that any game, you need some kind of base knowledge to build on.

 

[Uvtha]

Honestly I don't find it to be complicated in the least. The vast majority of item mods are completely self explanatory. Anyone whos played any modern mmos or any action rpgs like diablo really shouldn't have any issue understanding the item system.

There does need to be an in game resource that tells you what all of the mods do though, for those less straight forward mods like battle lust.

On the other hand the presentation of item mods COULD use an upgrade/alteration. The long white text list isn't very appealing.

 

[Reth]

Being a new player, I find the many stats and such an item can contain exciting. It's a mix of the Diablo loot system with it's randomization, and EVE Online's min/maxing.

The more complex, the more rewarding to completing that perfect suit.

On the other hand the presentation of item mods COULD use an upgrade/alteration. The long white text list isn't very appealing.

I do agree with this though.

 

[Ludes]

Being a new player, I find the many stats and such an item can contain exciting. It's a mix of the Diablo loot system with it's randomization, and EVE Online's min/maxing.

The more complex, the more rewarding to completing that perfect suit.



I do agree with this though.

I mean I guess I can see this.. it did add something as far as making the "perfect suit" for an area..

But I'm getting tired of trying to remember what suit to put on and what weapons to grab..
Mannequins helped a lot but still..

It was better when I could just run out of my house and stand up to anything cause I was a Grandmaster Swordsman.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

On the other hand the presentation of item mods COULD use an upgrade/alteration. The long white text list isn't very appealing.

That's what sparked the creation of the Item Properties Highlight UI mod first part of the "Enhanced" UI packages on the Exchange, then later in Pinco's UI (although Pinco's seems to work diffferently than the original version).

The Original version went as follows:

Mods below a certain threshold (I believe 50%) were simply white. Starting at the threshold, they were a dull light blue scaling to a darker, more intense blue, then at 100% intensity, the mod appeared in a gold color. For Resists, the same held true except it was based on the color of the resist (grey for phys, red for fire, green for poison, blue for cold, purple for energy).

It makes it much easier to scan the list of mods very quickly.

 

[Mirt]

Not if it's a switch you can choose in the client on your PC to toggle between the 'full' description and the 'summary'. All that data is still there for those who want to look at it.

That is there now its called the title. It may not help much but there it is.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Not if it's a switch you can choose in the client on your PC to toggle between the 'full' description and the 'summary'. All that data is still there for those who want to look at it.

I'd bet if asked nicely such a thing may be able to be added to Pinco's UI... or at the very least have the color of the extra information that's in the lower half be a darker grey so it's not as prominent.

That is there now its called the title. It may not help much but there it is.

Not every new magic item has a title and not every new item without a title is worthless.

Big thing is to key in on key terminology and scan for that info.

 

[olduofan]

I kinda agree.
I mean I like not having to think about UO. I just like to play.

UO has become a chemistry 2 test lol

Oh well..... if you have time to read up on pages on pages of stuff just to play UO and actually learn it all while dumping important information out of your brain I say go for it

3 for weapons, they had 2 prefixes. Arguably the best weapon was an indestructable, supremely accurate katana of vanquishing.

I must admit I have a hankering for a less complicated item system. Mostly I go with best guess and hope.

IMO it's gotten way too complicated.. Not saying I'll quit or anything but it was more fun when I could play without a calculator.

I wounder when and if we will ever get some people in-charge that understand what fun is. they need to dumb this game down (pre-aos we had more players and it was fun) so we can just play it not spend hours and hours trying to figure out how to build a suit and what skills to mix. easy to see why WoW is a huge success its not complicated people want to enjoy their time playing games not be confused all the time and give up....

 

[Lady CaT]

Mystic Butcher Knife of Slaughter
Cursed
Weight: 1 Stone
Cannot Be Repaired
Brittle
Splintering Weapon 5%
Hit Lightning 60%
Hit Mana Leech 45%
Battle Lust
Intelligence Bonus 3
Mana Increase 1
Mana Regeneration 6
Luck -100
Hit Chance Increase 15%
Lower Mana Cost 4%
Damage Increase 40%
Physical Damage 100%
Weapon Damage 9 - 11
Weapon Speed 2.25s
Strength Requirement 10
One-Handed Weapon
Skill Required: Swordmanship
Durability 75 / 75
* Requires The "Stygian Abyss" Expansion *
Legendary Artifact

*laughs* In the old days this item would have read 'Magic Butcher Knife' and you would have needed an item identification wand or armslore to see its properties. If I didn't have a wand or armslore, I use to have a very sophisticated method of determining its properties! I would equip the weapon and attack things and decide "Better or worse?" And then either keep using the weapon or drop it on the ground for the new one. *laughs* Sophisticated method I know! Maybe the new players should try that method it always worked for me!

 

[Mirt]

...



I'd bet if asked nicely such a thing may be able to be added to Pinco's UI... or at the very least have the color of the extra information that's in the lower half be a darker grey so it's not as prominent.



Not every new magic item has a title and not every new item without a title is worthless.

Big thing is to key in on key terminology and scan for that info.

Your right but all the information is key if your really trying to figure it out. It is better having the properties out in the open then having to randomly try and keep guessing. And for folks that just want a brief description its there, we call it the name.

 

[Percivalgoh]

My thoughts are that's a nice knife. It may have some usefulness and if not should get a few relic fragments. Yeah it is difficult to understand and I don't really know what some of those mods really mean. There is probably a description of them somewhere. I don't think UO is for everyone. If you need to have goals set for you and a playstyle set for you maybe you should play something else. Whatever it means can be learned but you can still play and enjoy it without learning. I can see it may be difficult for newbies, I had help back when I was a newbie and it was way less complex.

 

[Aurelius]

That is there now its called the title. It may not help much but there it is.

I think I'd prefer not to get the page of data that comes with it filling a chunk of the screen though....