Good evening UOF! - Major changes needed!

[ricky10604]

Hey guys, So i've played UO since before i can remember, I read the description of your server (on a server list) and was really looking forward to playing!

Young player status:

I logged on, I was a "young player"... So it was basically saying i was safe from anything until a certain time/skill level... The game is supposed to be about risk and reward. Not farm until you're almost max and then pvp. This ruins alot of PK'ing and quickens progression.

New players should be scared to wander into dungeons. Fearing for the few items that they have, The mere sight of a Murder should make them run for there lives.

However, I was safe. I could heal people who where fighting reds (and have no repercussion, The reds started shouting they was going to call an admin..)

Next. The PvP:

The amount of reds i ran into pretty much the majority where dexers with explosion pots.
A constant 20-30'ish damage every few seconds while swinging makes mages pretty much nerfed into extinction)
Yet we cant use a heal pot in return of the explosions? Why can you drink one potion faster than another? Surely they should counter each other.

With young players running freely around PKs and cross healing blues who they attack, How are you supposed to PK?

Next. Trading / Stealing:

So, Since playing UO thieves were always in my pockets. At some corner or some dungeon these pesky buggers constantly tried to take my items.
Killing them and handling spawn while they hid in the shadows was always such a pain but the challenges they set were pretty fun.

Safe spots:
So, a player killer or trader should never be safe. From either PvP or from Thieves. Yet if you are stood just 1 tile from me inside the bank you are as safe as can be.
Cant cast spells at you. Cant dex you. Cant steal from you.

Why play a thief when you can't steal peoples rares and rewards? Why make safe areas? You described the server as Felluca. You should have to own a house and hide from people if you dont want to die and trade away from other players, or behind boxes to make things more difficult for thieves.

Dono coins:

So. Within a day of playing. I discovered the following:
Safe spots:
Glitches in PvP:
Useless Classes:
Overpowered Classes:
Trammel hues (literally everybody at the bank was dressed like some type of shiny pokemon) (hues dont bother me if the PvP and PvM is good, but that was severely lacking)
Sellable game currency for RL currency.


The server saves are pretty huge and there's so many random items (relics, statues and other random decorations)

Constructive Criticism:
As UO has always been full loot, make it back that way.... Make people hug the guard lines and train up before they go adventuring. I was 3x GM (eval, med, anatomy) around 60 mage, 40 other stats. and i was still classified as a young player.
This is WAY WAY too long.
Either remove Young Player status (and remove the healing blues without any hassle removed)
Or limit it to 250 skillpoints (even that is pretty huge. make people work for there skills. dont give them hundreds of free gains while being safe)

PvP needs some changes, Mages are pretty crappy. I honestly can't see why they would be good unless roaming in groups.
With a few potions you can complete negate 1/5 of there mana (1/4'ish if they poison) Killing somebody with 70 mana is nearly impossible.

Nerf explosion pots(double the timer or make it vary (will remove the easy macros to make it a little more skillful) (IE 5-7 seconds). A bunch of dexers hitting a macro to throw a potion and just following you around completely removed the skill based PvP in UO. While dexers are always supposed to be easy to play, Making them much stronger while playing is a serious put off.

Safe spots. NO. just NO.... Remove them, It will bring more thieves to the banks. people will have to watch what they carry. Instead of putting a bunch of stuff in the bank and standing on a roof. because thats "safe".

Rares. I get people love to collect rares, its always been great finding a shroud or some fancy cloth. Make people work for it. Decrease the drop rates, Make less rares. (having 50 statues that are just different colours is not a good drop. Make something people would want)

Donation Coins:
So, All i could see around Britain was "SELLING DONO COINS, SELLING DONO COINS" This completely negates the point of farming.
Why sit and farm gold all day to train skills, when you can just buy some coins, sell them and train your skills?
Make them non transferrable and the items Non Transferable.
I get servers require donations to keep afloat. (it can be pretty expensive hosting a decent server) But if your players truely want to support the shard. They will. and they'll get nice shinies for it. Which will make other people want to donate for them.

All in all, the server looks decent, It has alot of nice things to it (MOTM, Events, Crafting, Skill Scrolls)
Though CTF lacked the players. Having 3 on a team is just not enough. You need 2 flaggers, 2 defence, 1 waller at the bare minimum to make the game at all interesting) - Increase the rewards and set lower amounts a week for more players to turn up.

Also. For any new players having problem with higher ping Pingzapper was great. I downloaded it, gave it tons of virus checks and its completely clean. Ran it and i went from 220-250 to 120-140. Really helped out.

I'll keep an eye out on the forums. Hopefully the admins will hear my pleas and make the server a little more felluca and less trammel (you advertised felluca!)

Best of luck,
Rick

 

[Slick Brick]

Not sure which CTF you played, but I've never seen 12 people in a CTF. Lowest I've seen is probably around 20 so I'm not sure how that happened.

I do agree with thieves being pretty much useless on here aside from trying to get lucky and steal a power scroll or relic before someone recalls from a champ spawn/ arch daemon. However, at this point I can also see that it would be unfair to take away the blessed properties of the trammy clothing since people did pay for it and it is implemented. I'm not sure about the donation coins being locked to an account either. While I do think it would probably create more donations, it is nice for a person who works 60 hours a week to have the option to grab a mil gold here and there since they can't farm like the neckbeards can.

The thing I agree most on is that explosion potions on this server are absolutely fucking ridiculous. Way too much damage, way too often. I've seen people carry over 40 explosion pots and chase for literally 10 minutes non-stop spamming explo pots. I'd like to see explosion potions explode onto the person carrying them if not used within 5 minutes and cut the damage from these damn things in half. 30 damage from an explosion potion? Really? I mean they do more damage than a half-ass flamestrike sometimes. This is how they want their PvP though I guess.. cheesy as fuck.

Young players being at risk is nice, but they were getting res-killed over and over by LOLZ and others, and a couple GMs absolutely lost their shit and changed it.

 

[Cack]

Yea I didnt read a fucking thing....so Ivoted trammel...more trammel on the forums right. Some of these people scare me.

 

[Jimmy]

Trammel coz need tears for lube

 

[Weland]

+1 thieves yes need to be more useful
-1 on no safe zones and the only reason I say this. Scripting. Set a script on loop and run around the bank and auto steal valuable shit......the safe zones are more of a counter script protection.
-1 young player status. New people need it with such a strong pk presence here and if you are such an uber player (not directed at you personally) it tells you how to drop your young status day one. Yes this can be exploited but they have a means to report young status being exploited.

Haven't experience x-pots yet so I have no feelings on the matter.

- 1 anti dono. This is not a server backed by some big name it's run by an average joe, so it needs a source of income to keep it running. Also between my job and hanging out with my kids I don't always have hours on end to farm gold and some times I don't log on for a week or more. Having a way to get fast cash is a nice convenience.

Pvp changes are coming it seems like and they are prob going to shake the foundation of UOF so no point in commenting on that one. They also have a MOD that has been making periodic tweaks so if something shows as over powered usually they scale it down and then something else becomes the power house. Just happens and sometimes it's more extreme than others.

Rares don't collect them so no comment.

 

[ricky10604]

Hey guys, Cheers for your input.
With Regards to the young player status and donation coins.
Young players are still players, They shouldnt receive a benefit just because they joined later than somebody else and having to be able to farm up to almost GM. There was so many (Young) on the server i just didnt see the point of becoming a PK. You're supposed to pick on the weak. There's a difference between PvP and PK'ing.

Donation coins. See this is where i disagree, Though its unfortunate most people do have jobs, Should somebody who plays 2 hours have more than somebody who can play 20 hours?
Both of you basically put that you would buy dono coins to sell for money. I Understand the server needs it funding, But ruining the economy (Non tamers, Non Bards can have the most money buy just clicking BUY) Where its bad for you guys to not have as much time to farm as the other players, the other players will farm for ALOT longer than you will when you're just buying 10 mil (enough to build a giant ass house and regs + stock + all weapons you could need)

Explosion pots;
Glad other people will agree with me with these, For most servers they're complete PvP killers, Somebody just presses one key with a repeat macro to throw them every 2 seconds at there target, and press stop if they lose sight. while holding right click and chasing them with a spear/mace. (usually maces to keep them stood still)

Also, With safe zones. I get thieves would run macros. But if you have nothing to lose you have nothing to worry about.
Being able to recall onto a roof (2 tiles from the floro where you're unsafe) has no logic.
Why are you safer inside the bank / on the roof than you are from 2 steps back. (insert slide to the left theme tune)
And if they ran macros. all it takes is one guy to smack him to death and then he has to wait 130 seconds, res, and rinse and repeat.

 

[Weland]

Well back on dono I have donated a decent amount of money to this server in a short period of time and I'm by far not rich or better than any dedicated player. To get where you are talking about you would have to throw a lot of money at them. Again having a job and family I can't afford to throw funds for me to be better off than some who plays more than me. @AssHat can testify to this as he and I have been gaming on this server together since I joined.

I'm by no means better off than a dedicated player. I'm at work so I can't pull up the donation page to give hard numbers from but from memory it's like 10k dono for either 75 or 100 bucks.....10k dono = roughly 1.8 mil currently. All the major end game items that hardcore players can get for free by participating in a lot of champs would cost me roughly if we went with the lowest estimated $600.

QS Relic for 14 mil / 1.8 mil = 7.7 so it would take 8 donations of $75 just to afford a QS relic that a player is selling, that more than likely the player got for a champ. So it's not like you click buy for $10 and you're rich in game.

What can dono buy you. Pixels and who wants pixels? The players that are already wealthy as all get out and can easily throw some gold at a person that is need of it for their shiny dono coins. What does that do? It acts as a player driven gold sink because now this Millionaire player is giving his gold to a dono seller who is in turn going to buy a house or regs or gear and the gold goes into the magic bit bucket. Then they take their 1 to 2 hours and go run around a dungeon having a great time and get run over by EQMS or POWER or whoever and the PKs get the gear that was bought by the dono guy from the millionaire....and botta bing a healthy player driven economy.

 

[Brakrak]

How would you sell a relic or 120 taming without a safe zone?
I use to think explosion pots were a problem as well.....but I learn how to move around and avoid them...they actually blast the thrower and send them running....What difference does it make how people get there gps? Dono's pay are way to play for free....

 

[Weland]

It all comes down to the macroing i think on the safe zones. If they didn't exists then everyone would have a thief on their account stealthed around the major banks and have the loop running. I don't think and I could be wrong but you can't trade straight out of your bank. So you go on the forums and sell some relic or pixel and then you go to the bank and the second it hits your bag it insta disappears because of a script. Thieves can hit the dungeons and go to the areas that drop the rares and snatch them there. I think if we could trade from the bank box straight to another players bank box that would eliminate the need for safe zones. This would in turn simulate a bank to bank transfer like a banker would do you for you.

This is actually what the safe zones are simulating a safe bank transfer vs developing a GUI and a lot of code.

 

[Weland]

I think the young status is just up to personal taste I agree to disagree. I know it gets abused but if a new person comes to the server and gets beat down constantly who isn't a hardcore UO veteran they are going to get frustrated and leave before they really get going. A little buffer to get established i think is good. I can agree with perhaps dropping the skill cap to lose the young status. That would be a fair comprise you can't become a GM on young status. That could also reduce the abuse. So that middle ground I can agree on.

 

[ricky10604]

"How would to sell a relic or 120 taming without a safe zone?" This is exactly what i mean. You shouldnt be able to safe trade your rares. If its something incredibly rare, make it 11 stones. but powerscrolls should be a risk, and trading them should give you that risk.
A thief can make nothing to everything with some luck and some skill, Tamers shouldnt be able to farm / get lucky at an event and then have free rain of the economy, Losing it and distributing it is all part of the game.

And again, even with the bank to bank transfers, Thats still not part of UO and completely negates the thief class.
At the moment the only way to steal something good is by attending an event, opening everybodys backpack and hoping you can get it before they hit a recall button.

Thieves should be in towns, Using disguise kits to worm there way into pockets as it has always been.

Dono coins, I get what you're saying. But whatever way you look at it, Its Pay to Win, As an avid PvPr I dont really play bards/tamers I always prefered to kill the tamers or bards that where farming and take there plunder for my own, (with young status, you can't hunt the weak, if they're too weak to survive, they shouldnt be farming mobs that drop decent gold)

So put it this way. As a new player. If you log on, spend $75 you can buy 1,800,000 gold coins. This will allow you to buy a huge ass house, enough regs and supplies to GM all your characters. There is no grind, Why make a tamer or a bard when there's a pay to win option?
Gathering resources should not be optional. it should be compulsory, If you dont make a bard / tamer you shouldnt be able to have the same things as them.

I myself (only 23) Make a great wage (around 360,000 USD a year), And have no problems with donations, But i don't like pay to win. Every game ive played that has this option has a short life span, (people come in, buy everything get everything handed to them and after a few years population dies and then game ends up closing/boring)
If i enjoy a game, Im happy to pay a subscription or make donations on what i feel like paying, And if i wanted a shiny character thats the way i would go. However I think the fact people buy the coins, just to sell and buy houses/items is wrong.
It takes out the farming element (some can argue that gold is worthless unless people farm for items to sell) but the facts are people who dont make much money will be farming for there items and selling the things they don't want.

Its like Entering a cheat code on GTA for money. It completely ruins the game having everything handed to you by just putting in a few codes (or bank digits).

I also understand people don't have many hours to play. But just because they don't have as many hours, doesnt mean they should be able to drop some money and have the same as people that do. After all the game is about progression and community, Being instantly progressed completely ruins it. (all i saw since playing was people spamming selling DONO coins or shiny blue hats, Not having weapons as rares (IE, High end vanqs selling for 100-200k a pop, instead they where sold cheap as if they're worthless, when in fact, they should be the most expensive items in the game, Increasing power of your character and accuracy is a HUGE bonus, unlike pokemon clothes that make you look fancy).

I guess people always appeal to shiny/rare colours and thats why they want them, But I think if you made dono coins non transferable, you would still have people buying (just as much, maybe more) for the items that they want.
Having one rich guy spam a few hours wage into the game and becoming instantly rich is completely in the wrong direction that UO needs,


Young player status is okay, I don't completely disagree with it, I get logging on and spending 2 minutes at the graveyard to be power ganked by a team and rage quit isn't fun. But i was over 550 skill points and i was still Young, Aswell as healing a blue against pks (had a red saying he was calling admin and i had no idea what he was on about until after the blue explained to me) without any threat of losing my gear, I'd lower it to around 250-300 (enough to get atleast 5-10k at graveyard to begin playing the game properly).

Alll in all, I think time should be rewarded, Not money invested, The risk factor needs to be re implemented, Nobody should be safe while handing there goods to somebody else) and Young players should not be attackable until certain skillpoints (should still be stolen from, having to watch your backpack should be there all the time)

I hope UOForever takes note of some of my advice, changes some things, So me and my group of friends can come play UO how we all did in the day (was around 8-9 of us looking for a new server, Hoping UOF would be it)
I get trying to update things, But UO is the best game of its time, If we want fancy graphics (and shiny clothes) or safe spots. We'll go play World Of Warcraft. Its full of that gay crap.
Bring back the risk.

Rick.

PS: FIGHT THE POWER

 

[Weland]

I get a strong since you are playing a thief and trying to sell a get rich quick scheme for yourself .

In all seriousness you have some valid points but personally I don't think they are stronger than what is currently in place. Was fun debating with you and seem like a solid person so I hope you stick around.

 

[Slick Brick]

$360,000 a year at 23 years old and mad about people being able to donate money to the FREE server in exchange for in-game coins which can be traded to other players who don't want to spend money?

Okay, and I'm Bill Gates son and my step-mom is Oprah.

 

[Darkarna]

I fully agree with most of the stuff here, UOForever is slowly becoming something I wished when I first joined, would not happen. Donations coins are tricky, the habit is already in full flow and would require some leverage for a change of attitude. Apart from that, you have the right idea but expect less to happen ..

 

[Darkarna]

$360,000 a year at 23 years old and mad about people being able to donate money to the FREE server in exchange for in-game coins which can be traded to other players who don't want to spend money?

Okay, and I'm Bill Gates son and my step-mom is Oprah.

So you agree fully with what is implemented so far as being the right direction? Why is it, only a few players on here can actually see the direction this server will eventually end up? Are people so incredibly blind in this world... Jesus............

 

[Baby Blue]

Maybe you should learn how to throw explosion potions and survive against them? It's fun and throwing takes some skill. You talk about one button macros but more than 90 % of the players aren't using any kind of potion throwing macros.

 

[Slick Brick]

Maybe you should learn how to throw explosion potions and survive against them? It's fun and throwing takes some skill. You talk about one button macros but more than 90 % of the players aren't using any kind of potion throwing macros.

I do but playing only heal mages gets boring-- there's really only two maybe 3 viable PvP builds on this server and I originally logged onto this server because it was supposed to be like the old glory days of Ultima Online. Back then no one used explosion potions because they could actually PvP without them, and they only did 8 - 10 damage. Now any clown who throws explo pots can run a DP sword using char (any wep skill aside from archery with alchemy really) and will definitely have a chance at dropping anyone in the game 1v1. On the flipside, the heal mage just runs around in circles healing with bandages until he lands 2 or 3 explo pots and a stun. If it doesn't land, he runs around in circles 5 more minutes refilling from explo keg and repeating til the perfect combo.

How is that fun? BOOOOORING.

 

[K A Z]

I do but playing only heal mages gets boring-- there's really only two maybe 3 viable PvP builds on this server and I originally logged onto this server because it was supposed to be like the old glory days of Ultima Online. Back then no one used explosion potions because they could actually PvP without them, and they only did 8 - 10 damage. Now any clown who throws explo pots can run a DP sword using char (any wep skill aside from archery with alchemy really) and will definitely have a chance at dropping anyone in the game 1v1. On the flipside, the heal mage just runs around in circles healing with bandages until he lands 2 or 3 explo pots and a stun. If it doesn't land, he runs around in circles 5 more minutes refilling from explo keg and repeating til the perfect combo.

How is that fun? BOOOOORING.

so youre saying that people only die to explosion potions, and you call that boring - yet youre also saying that they are "overpowered" and should be removed from the game.. so how exactly would you kill anyone without explosion potions then? I mean all these "EXPLOPOTS SO OP QQ" threads are really cute, but I'd LOVE to hear how you guys would imagine a perfect pvp system that has NO explosion potions then.

 

[Slick Brick]

so youre saying that people only die to explosion potions, and you call that boring - yet youre also saying that they are "overpowered" and should be removed from the game.. so how exactly would you kill anyone without explosion potions then? I mean all these "EXPLOPOTS SO OP QQ" threads are really cute, but I'd LOVE to hear how you guys would imagine a perfect pvp system that has NO explosion potions then.

Well now that Sallos and explo pots are the absolute lifelines of all these players, I suppose the players would actually have to learn the game like it was meant to be played instead of endless scripts for targeting someone 15 screens away, pre-queueing heals of someone they cant even see etc. etc. Since dexxers are so dependant on them now, maybe buff the dexxers damage or chance to hit slightly.. mages would have viability opened up of using a weapon skill with magery again. Stun and scribe mages will always be good in groups and when not having to constantly deal with 30 damage explo pots every 4 seconds would be able to deal with whoever they are fighting solo. People die every Mage tournament when pots aren't allowed.

The only downside I can potentially think of is you won't be able to 3 explo pot kill a non-healing char whos running non-stop. No one is saying in seriousness that they should/would be removed, BUT they do not need to do more damage than level 6+ spells while having no downfall/limitation of using them. How can anyone take this seriously when someone throws 40 explosion potions in one prolonged fight and still has more in his/her bag?

 

[K A Z]

Well now that Sallos and explo pots are the absolute lifelines of all these players, I suppose the players would actually have to learn the game like it was meant to be played instead of endless scripts for targeting someone 15 screens away, pre-queueing heals of someone they cant even see etc. etc. Since dexxers are so dependant on them now, maybe buff the dexxers damage or chance to hit slightly.. mages would have viability opened up of using a weapon skill with magery again. Stun and scribe mages will always be good in groups and when not having to constantly deal with 30 damage explo pots every 4 seconds would be able to deal with whoever they are fighting solo. People die every Mage tournament when pots aren't allowed.

The only downside I can potentially think of is you won't be able to 3 explo pot kill a non-healing char whos running non-stop. No one is saying in seriousness that they should/would be removed, BUT they do not need to do more damage than level 6+ spells while having no downfall/limitation of using them. How can anyone take this seriously when someone throws 40 explosion potions in one prolonged fight and still has more in his/her bag?

thanks, just wanted to make sure that you really have no clue about PVP.