Beta test week 8 feedback.

Pawain

I haven't read the notes yet. 
I'm a vip at a really cool theme park for a while. I get to go to the front of lines.  All went well.

Have fun without me.

McDougle

Hope you're well

Pawain

McDougle said:

Hope you're well

Thanks.  I will be.  2.1cm kidney stone removed via the back. That tube is kinda annoying atm.  

Go test t hunting for me.  I'm not into that. See yall in game tomorrow.  

Necronom

A whole new meaning to being stoned.. I suppose.. Be well

ZekeTerra

Any news on when NL will go Live on Production?

ZekeTerra

I got a message when crafting boxes/crates on my Carpenter that my Tinker skill was not high enough to make them lockable (or words to that extent) and my crafter has GM Blacksmithing so she should be able to make them lockable.

I'd like to see a change to how bottles are sent to the resource pack.  My Alchemist makes the potions and my Ranger drinks them and he got the bottle added to his resource pack and since he can't make potions they just sit there.  Is it possible to change it so you can add empty bottles to the Purifier Bag with the reagents so they can be processed by my alchemist (purifier used bottles sound more sanitary then reusing dirty ones lol)

Thanks for listening to our feedback and I've been having a lot of fun testing NL in the open Beta, so much so that I reopened one of my closed accounts to be able to add more character builds to test.

PlayerSkillFTW

Fire Horns are working on NL now.
Now that Bosses can drop standard Invulnerability armor, i suggest they add Set Bonuses to the Boss Artifact Sets to make them more unique. Crimson Wyrmscale could get Fire Eater set bonus, Dragonbane Set could give Kinetic Eater, Arctic gear could get Cold Resonance, Wraithbinder could get 5% Mana Drain (same as Wraith Form Mana Drain), etc.

Garret

Hello, dear developers, as always, I hope for your patience and desire to read some of my thoughts, ideas and feedback.

Treasure Hunting:

 In addition to my bug report, I have a couple of questions and ideas. After a couple of dozen maps completed, I still haven’t found any unique loot in the chests, except for T5 (vanq/invul) items in the chests. And this is the problem that I get T4 items (pwer/fort) even with stash maps.
  In the first 4 phases of the game before the release of vanq/invul items there will be no point in doing anything else in the context of time (then t1-t2 maps).
 I assume that at least the gold reward should be significant, because at the first levels it will take a lot of people to close the T5 map and they will share 3k gold among themselves? Or will the level of maps be tied to content phases?

 I see no reason why a map decoder item requires 100 Inscription to create.
 Lockpicking and removing traps - yes, let them be tied to a high level of crafting, but the decode should be available already at 50 skill since the first tier(s) of maps can be opened using improvised methods(lockpick, unlock spell) and even if you decoded the T5 maps, you will not be able to open it until you have a master key and remove traps, so in this regard we will get a balance between decoding low maps and high ones, and in addition to all this, the reward for these maps is not so strong considering how much time is spent on searching and opening a map to require 100 skill for a T1 map.
  To balance decoder item it could be created with only 1 charge if crafted with 50skill and then + 1-2 charges for every 10% skill above up to 10.

Items and crafting:

  A little about the system of dropping random Invul/vanq items from bosses, I don’t think this is a good idea, it’s clear that someone will get the bases that another person needs and will have the opportunity to sell/buy them and this stimulates the market and players to communicate, but with such variety some bases will either be very rare or simply not available.

  Still, I think that we need to return to the option of strong artifacts from bosses in order to move away from the general meta to some base and give crafters the opportunity to make items at a level below the current phase, but make crafting random and dependent on colored material so that the item base were not so easy to produce, also return the enchance properties of colored metals to get at least a portion of 10-20-30% elemental damage for greater variety and depth of crafting.

Possible future content and old Sossaria:

 Once again, running through a large territory of old Sosaria in an attempt to find or remember old places for farming, I realized that the world is half empty, in the literal sense, half of the territories of the world are forests and fields that are now definitely empty because of the new home system (and no, I like the new house system, it’s just the fact that the world has become empty). Yes, once upon a time, simply running around on a horse across the open spaces was already content, but now it looks lifeless and not relevant to the time.

  Treasure maps brought some life back to unused areas, but that's all, maybe it's worth giving these areas more life, maybe adding ruins to spawn mummies, liches or other monsters. Maybe it’s worth making maps for extracting resources much, much more accessible and making sure that the points of their extraction are spread over these unused territories and not just like a spot, but like new small mines or unusual trees.

  And because of all these thoughts, I came to the conclusion that Malas is more suitable in size and format for seasonality and its main Doom dungeon for me is a more iconic place in the history and world of Ultima Online.
  Maybe if everything goes well and we get to season 2, we won’t start it again in Sosaria, but move to Malas for the whole season and devote the whole season to this place, just an idea.

Release and beta:

  I know that you have prepared a roadmap for us and maybe it’s too late, but we need at least one wipe on the beta server, we need to see what the start of a fresh server will look like when a lot of people rush to the first monsters on tasks, we wouldn’t want to do it again spend 2 hours trying to kill the first quest monsters, and if for me, as a crazy fan of the new server, this will be tolerable, then less loyal players will leave the game already in the first city (something has already happened).

P.S.Sorry for the many words, I tried to be as constructive and realistic as possible, thank you if you read it!

P.P.S. Also my old idea for fire horns update if you mind to read.
https://forum.uo.com/discussion/9657/fire-horn-need-some-love-rework

@Kyronix @Mesanna @Bleak @Parallax

Kalsey

A couple of thoughts.  

Starting town of Ocllo.  First character created, a mage, did fine with the quests.  However, the second time I created a mage there were less players in Ocllo.  She was actually the only player in Occlo most of the time.  Unable to finish the quest where she was to guard the tomb, never had enough mana to complete.  

This was not a problem at first because there were several other players to help with the spawn.  Once players left Ocllo it is very hard for a new character to complete alone.  

Then, would it be possible to add locations using the sexton for the job board quests?  A few places are hard to find, and I see in chat many others are having the same problem.  

Thanks

Petra_Fyde

I too started a new mage and was alone when doing that encounter. I didn't kill every attacker, but I did complete the task. I used the lowest level spell I could so that my mana didn't run out so fast. 
The newer changes to skill gain meant that I was gaining med as I trained, which helped a lot. 

That was mentioned in Dev Diaries, week 6

Skill Progression
We have made an update to skill progression as it relates to the Narrative path for Warriors, Mages, and Rangers. Previously, you were required to increase your skills by doing Town Objectives and applying those skill points with a Skill Trainer NPC. While that path hasn’t changed and is still an option for those who wish to progress in that manner, you will now have your base skills unlocked when you reach your first narrative transition point. This means you will be able to progress through that transition point by using your skills in combat to raise them, in addition (or in lieu of) doing Town Objectives

 I also got a book which gave info on locations, something else that was added more recently. I remember reading about that, but I can't find where that was!

 So some of the concerns here have already been addressed. 

Kalsey

Where did you get the book that gave location info?

Garret

Kalsey said:

Where did you get the book that gave location info?

You will have it as reward when you complete Ocllo quests or craft it via inscription.

Victim_Of_Siege

Kalsey said:

A couple of thoughts.  

Starting town of Ocllo.  First character created, a mage, did fine with the quests.  However, the second time I created a mage there were less players in Ocllo.  She was actually the only player in Occlo most of the time.  Unable to finish the quest where she was to guard the tomb, never had enough mana to complete.  

This was not a problem at first because there were several other players to help with the spawn.  Once players left Ocllo it is very hard for a new character to complete alone.  

Then, would it be possible to add locations using the sexton for the job board quests?  A few places are hard to find, and I see in chat many others are having the same problem.  

Thanks

Petra_Fyde said:

I too started a new mage and was alone when doing that encounter. I didn't kill every attacker, but I did complete the task. I used the lowest level spell I could so that my mana didn't run out so fast. 
The newer changes to skill gain meant that I was gaining med as I trained, which helped a lot. 

That was mentioned in Dev Diaries, week 6

Skill Progression
We have made an update to skill progression as it relates to the Narrative path for Warriors, Mages, and Rangers. Previously, you were required to increase your skills by doing Town Objectives and applying those skill points with a Skill Trainer NPC. While that path hasn’t changed and is still an option for those who wish to progress in that manner, you will now have your base skills unlocked when you reach your first narrative transition point. This means you will be able to progress through that transition point by using your skills in combat to raise them, in addition (or in lieu of) doing Town Objectives

 I also got a book which gave info on locations, something else that was added more recently. I remember reading about that, but I can't find where that was!

 So some of the concerns here have already been addressed. 

What i always do when alone on the Tomb guarding quest (or any guarding quest for that matter.) Is attack them all and get as many of them attacking and following me as possible and drag them in circles while killing anything still attacking what i am guarding. You can usually run out the clock with a train of Mobs and complete the quest on the first try.

Kalsey

Thank you all for the comments.  It helps greatly.

Jinglebell

PlayerSkillFTW said:

Fire Horns are working on NL now.
Now that Bosses can drop standard Invulnerability armor, i suggest they add Set Bonuses to the Boss Artifact Sets to make them more unique. Crimson Wyrmscale could get Fire Eater set bonus, Dragonbane Set could give Kinetic Eater, Arctic gear could get Cold Resonance, Wraithbinder could get 5% Mana Drain (same as Wraith Form Mana Drain), etc.

I like this idea, like the old dragon scale armor. Dragonbone could do something similar, maybe should give you some type of different property as well. Maybe all could have a tiered set bonuses.

Dragon Bone 

2 pieces=+10% Kinetic eater / 4 pieces=+10% Kinetic Eater / 6 pieces= 10%Kinetic Eater + 5% damage reduction from Dragon Type

Crimson Wyrmscale 
2 pieces=+10% Fire eater / 4 pieces=10% Fire Eater / HP increase + damage reduction, 6 pieces= 10%Fire Eater + Damage reduction from Dragon Type

Artic Gear
ice 
Ice Type

Titanweave 
Poison
Spider Type

Matriarch
Acid
Acid Type

Manticore
IDK

Set bonus total

10+10+10=30% 
max 30% Eater 

So you could possibly do 10% of each and have 10% eater for 3 different 2 piece sets but loose the damage from reduction from type for all 6 pieces. This would help with all around everyday gold farming and but when you you go fight that certain boss types you have more survivability. Mages could have souls charge for mage 6 piece set bonuses, and possibly something to charge stamina for archers.  

Numbers could be lowered. Just an Idea. 

Gyngersnap

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Kalsey said:

A couple of thoughts.  

Starting town of Ocllo.  First character created, a mage, did fine with the quests.  However, the second time I created a mage there were less players in Ocllo.  She was actually the only player in Occlo most of the time.  Unable to finish the quest where she was to guard the tomb, never had enough mana to complete.  

This was not a problem at first because there were several other players to help with the spawn.  Once players left Ocllo it is very hard for a new character to complete alone.  

Then, would it be possible to add locations using the sexton for the job board quests?  A few places are hard to find, and I see in chat many others are having the same problem.  

Thanks

Petra_Fyde said:

I too started a new mage and was alone when doing that encounter. I didn't kill every attacker, but I did complete the task. I used the lowest level spell I could so that my mana didn't run out so fast. 
The newer changes to skill gain meant that I was gaining med as I trained, which helped a lot. 

That was mentioned in Dev Diaries, week 6

Skill Progression
We have made an update to skill progression as it relates to the Narrative path for Warriors, Mages, and Rangers. Previously, you were required to increase your skills by doing Town Objectives and applying those skill points with a Skill Trainer NPC. While that path hasn’t changed and is still an option for those who wish to progress in that manner, you will now have your base skills unlocked when you reach your first narrative transition point. This means you will be able to progress through that transition point by using your skills in combat to raise them, in addition (or in lieu of) doing Town Objectives

 I also got a book which gave info on locations, something else that was added more recently. I remember reading about that, but I can't find where that was!

 So some of the concerns here have already been addressed. 

What i always do when alone on the Tomb guarding quest (or any guarding quest for that matter.) Is attack them all and get as many of them attacking and following me as possible and drag them in circles while killing anything still attacking what i am guarding. You can usually run out the clock with a train of Mobs and complete the quest on the first try.

I did this as well but new players are not going to know this and get frustrated trying to complete this quest once the initial rush has moved on. I think there needs to be a solution for those who join the server later on. They also will run into the same issue at the end when they need to fight the Orc Champ which can not be done without others. However, it will be easier for the player to recruit people to help them complete it. I don't think it is even possible for someone to get help if no other players are starting at the same time. This will not be as hard for rangers and warriors, but mages will struggle. Perhaps when they get this quest they could be advised in the quest text that killing the attackers isn't required.

Victim_Of_Siege

Gyngersnap said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Kalsey said:

A couple of thoughts.  

Starting town of Ocllo.  First character created, a mage, did fine with the quests.  However, the second time I created a mage there were less players in Ocllo.  She was actually the only player in Occlo most of the time.  Unable to finish the quest where she was to guard the tomb, never had enough mana to complete.  

This was not a problem at first because there were several other players to help with the spawn.  Once players left Ocllo it is very hard for a new character to complete alone.  

Then, would it be possible to add locations using the sexton for the job board quests?  A few places are hard to find, and I see in chat many others are having the same problem.  

Thanks

Petra_Fyde said:

I too started a new mage and was alone when doing that encounter. I didn't kill every attacker, but I did complete the task. I used the lowest level spell I could so that my mana didn't run out so fast. 
The newer changes to skill gain meant that I was gaining med as I trained, which helped a lot. 

That was mentioned in Dev Diaries, week 6

Skill Progression
We have made an update to skill progression as it relates to the Narrative path for Warriors, Mages, and Rangers. Previously, you were required to increase your skills by doing Town Objectives and applying those skill points with a Skill Trainer NPC. While that path hasn’t changed and is still an option for those who wish to progress in that manner, you will now have your base skills unlocked when you reach your first narrative transition point. This means you will be able to progress through that transition point by using your skills in combat to raise them, in addition (or in lieu of) doing Town Objectives

 I also got a book which gave info on locations, something else that was added more recently. I remember reading about that, but I can't find where that was!

 So some of the concerns here have already been addressed. 

What i always do when alone on the Tomb guarding quest (or any guarding quest for that matter.) Is attack them all and get as many of them attacking and following me as possible and drag them in circles while killing anything still attacking what i am guarding. You can usually run out the clock with a train of Mobs and complete the quest on the first try.

I did this as well but new players are not going to know this and get frustrated trying to complete this quest once the initial rush has moved on. I think there needs to be a solution for those who join the server later on. They also will run into the same issue at the end when they need to fight the Orc Champ which can not be done without others. However, it will be easier for the player to recruit people to help them complete it. I don't think it is even possible for someone to get help if no other players are starting at the same time. This will not be as hard for rangers and warriors, but mages will struggle. Perhaps when they get this quest they could be advised in the quest text that killing the attackers isn't required.

Agreed, another good solution would be to adjust the spawn based on the amount of players present. 

Petra_Fyde

I don't think it will be impossible for newer people to find someone to help with orc champ, it does do other things than complete the quest line. The lure for snarltooth for one.

Gyngersnap

Petra_Fyde said:

I don't think it will be impossible for newer people to find someone to help with orc champ, it does do other things than complete the quest line. The lure for snarltooth for one.

I am sorry I wasn't clear. That was my point by the time you get to the orc champ you can get people to help or wait until you find people doing it like I did but the Occlo quest is going to be harder for a mage. I tried it a couple of times beta week 7 before I just kited all the mobs until the timer ran out. My point is that a new player that starts after the initial launch may become frustrated thinking they have to kill everything. Not everyone will think outside the box so to speak.

Gyngersnap

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Gyngersnap said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Kalsey said:

A couple of thoughts.  

Starting town of Ocllo.  First character created, a mage, did fine with the quests.  However, the second time I created a mage there were less players in Ocllo.  She was actually the only player in Occlo most of the time.  Unable to finish the quest where she was to guard the tomb, never had enough mana to complete.  

This was not a problem at first because there were several other players to help with the spawn.  Once players left Ocllo it is very hard for a new character to complete alone.  

Then, would it be possible to add locations using the sexton for the job board quests?  A few places are hard to find, and I see in chat many others are having the same problem.  

Thanks

Petra_Fyde said:

I too started a new mage and was alone when doing that encounter. I didn't kill every attacker, but I did complete the task. I used the lowest level spell I could so that my mana didn't run out so fast. 
The newer changes to skill gain meant that I was gaining med as I trained, which helped a lot. 

That was mentioned in Dev Diaries, week 6

Skill Progression
We have made an update to skill progression as it relates to the Narrative path for Warriors, Mages, and Rangers. Previously, you were required to increase your skills by doing Town Objectives and applying those skill points with a Skill Trainer NPC. While that path hasn’t changed and is still an option for those who wish to progress in that manner, you will now have your base skills unlocked when you reach your first narrative transition point. This means you will be able to progress through that transition point by using your skills in combat to raise them, in addition (or in lieu of) doing Town Objectives

 I also got a book which gave info on locations, something else that was added more recently. I remember reading about that, but I can't find where that was!

 So some of the concerns here have already been addressed. 

What i always do when alone on the Tomb guarding quest (or any guarding quest for that matter.) Is attack them all and get as many of them attacking and following me as possible and drag them in circles while killing anything still attacking what i am guarding. You can usually run out the clock with a train of Mobs and complete the quest on the first try.

I did this as well but new players are not going to know this and get frustrated trying to complete this quest once the initial rush has moved on. I think there needs to be a solution for those who join the server later on. They also will run into the same issue at the end when they need to fight the Orc Champ which can not be done without others. However, it will be easier for the player to recruit people to help them complete it. I don't think it is even possible for someone to get help if no other players are starting at the same time. This will not be as hard for rangers and warriors, but mages will struggle. Perhaps when they get this quest they could be advised in the quest text that killing the attackers isn't required.

Agreed, another good solution would be to adjust the spawn based on the amount of players present. 

That would be the best solution to have it scale to the amount of players present but I am not sure if that is something they can do easily. Especially this close to the launch.

Kalsey

Ocllo Mage quest, guarding the tomb.

Maybe another suggestion.  I did not know or think about these work arounds, what happened to me each time I tried to give up and just leave, but there is no way out.  I ended up deleting the character and creating a crafter instead.

On one of the mage quests you are thrown out of the building when you die.  Maybe that can be added to this particular quest?  Or give the suggestion, like Victim described.  Attack and drag the spawn in circles.  

Now I am not concerned for me, I will do as Victim of Siege suggested and described, however I'm thinking more about any new player.  A player can find themselves in Ocllo alone and no way to call for assistance.

Uffda

The two things I'd like to see is a way to gain skill in Healing, many times my crafter had to enter into a fight or flight and nearing death I'd have to make a run for it and try to finish the quest at a later time.
when killing monsters ( not just a boss) instead of them droping high end armor or wepons the monsters drop something that requires you to collect several of then a crafter could use that material to make high end armor and wepons.  PS. if a crafter should repair your armor or wepon at no charge be sure to give the crafter a nice TIP....Uffda

LilyGrace

Uffda said:

The two things I'd like to see is a way to gain skill in Healing, many times my crafter had to enter into a fight or flight and nearing death I'd have to make a run for it and try to finish the quest at a later time.
when killing monsters ( not just a boss) instead of them droping high end armor or wepons the monsters drop something that requires you to collect several of then a crafter could use that material to make high end armor and wepons.  PS. if a crafter should repair your armor or wepon at no charge be sure to give the crafter a nice TIP....Uffda

Yeah, I agree, if you don't have kinda decent armor and a good weapon, which I didn’t, it’s a struggle to stay alive when you’re dump picking for salvageable items in the swamp. And when your health gets low it takes forever for hit points to crawl back up again. It wasn’t so bad once I gm’d swords and got better gear that I found lying around. And potions would have made a big dif too I’m sure. But I had so little time to play I never did find a source for potions. Just would have been easier if I’d been able to use bandages. 

ZekeTerra

I would prefer Magery on my crafter than Swords (in fact all my Production shard crafters have it).  You can heal,, cure, invis, recall, gate, res, mind blast, summon:  Blade Spirits, EV's, Demons and elementals to help you defend yourself or kill mobs to skin.

LilyGrace

ZekeTerra said:

I would prefer Magery on my crafter than Swords (in fact all my Production shard crafters have it).  You can heal,, cure, invis, recall, gate, res, mind blast, summon:  Blade Spirits, EV's, Demons and elementals to help you defend yourself or kill mobs to skin.

Well, now that you mention it, so would I. My crafters on prodo shards have magery as well. I asked around a bit as to why we had to have swords instead. I did get one reply but I’ve forgotten now what the explanation was. Probably because it made no sense to me and still doesn’t. 

Why can’t crafters have magery?

McDougle

If the divergent path was working correctly this wouldn't be an issue 

Gyngersnap

LilyGrace said:

ZekeTerra said:

I would prefer Magery on my crafter than Swords (in fact all my Production shard crafters have it).  You can heal,, cure, invis, recall, gate, res, mind blast, summon:  Blade Spirits, EV's, Demons and elementals to help you defend yourself or kill mobs to skin.

Well, now that you mention it, so would I. My crafters on prodo shards have magery as well. I asked around a bit as to why we had to have swords instead. I did get one reply but I’ve forgotten now what the explanation was. Probably because it made no sense to me and still doesn’t. 

Why can’t crafters have magery?

If I had to guess I would say that it would make crafters too independent. If given magery then they will only need the other classes as customers. It seems like they want each class to need at least one other class for something.

PlayerSkillFTW

I think they excluded Crafters from having Magery, so that they couldn't easily recall around for harvesting resources (not without blowing through Recall charges in a runebook). I normally have Magery skill on my crafters/gatherers on regular shards too.

On NL, my crafter had GM Swords/GM LJ from starting as a Carpenter, and he could actually hit pretty hard with a Supremely Accurate Large Battle Axe of Vanquishing that i had put Dragon's Breath on. Between that and his GM skill trained Giant Beetle, he could kill just about anything that attacked him while out harvesting.

PlayerSkillFTW

Oh, and the AoE options that you could put on weapons from the Congiarium, were incredibly weak. Even fire weak foes like Frost Spiders, Polar Bears, Snow Leopards, White Wolves, etc, were only taking 6 damage from the Blazing procs...

McDougle

PlayerSkillFTW said:

I think they excluded Crafters from having Magery, so that they couldn't easily recall around for harvesting resources (not without blowing through Recall charges in a runebook). I normally have Magery skill on my crafters/gatherers on regular shards too.

On NL, my crafter had GM Swords/GM LJ from starting as a Carpenter, and he could actually hit pretty hard with a Supremely Accurate Large Battle Axe of Vanquishing that i had put Dragon's Breath on. Between that and his GM skill trained Giant Beetle, he could kill just about anything that attacked him while out harvesting.

The problem is people play crafters because they don't want to kill stuff NL takes away the sandbox that makes UO great..

Kalsey

McDougle said:

The problem is people play crafters because they don't want to kill stuff NL takes away the sandbox that makes UO great..

This is true, not just for me but for several others I associate with.  Several of us use our mage simply to supply our crafter.  Also noticed posters asking for the resource pack to be account bound, I believe this is so the mage and crafter can share.

I realize the DEVs can't please everyone, NL is a different flavor than prodo.  Crafters may find that prodo is more to their liking as to crafting.  Not a bad thing.

Being Beta, the DEVs ask for our feedback.  Eventually we, the UO players will have several choices to choose our play style.  Prodo, Siege, New Legacy.

Personally I like all three.