New Legacy Questions & Suggestions
Unfortunately I was unable to attend Dev meet n' greet but I did watch the recording.
Questions
- Will the # of character slots be same as live shards?
- Housing - Will you need a key to lock your home like 97 ?
- Will BODs exist? If so will the functionality be the same as live ?
Suggestion
- Can we get the original music from 97?
Comments
imo it seems like a cool idea. but youve been around forever probably, and i havent so i wouldnt understand the situation UO is in currently. I just returned.
Check out the previous video they made to this one on their youtube page. I believe they answered the BOD question. I dont know what BOD is so i didnt pay much attention to what their response was. lol
Never be afraid to challenge the status quo
House keys are likely not returning since we are using the same housing security code that we have on production
Yes - BODs will exist as a fundamental driver of the crafting loop.
I think we have those MIDI files somewhere....
This post will be long by Internet standards but in not making it longer I'm already going to be glossing over some points and skipping others. There's no way around either. All I can do is that in the editing process I didn't leave any sentences hanging or anything (that happens to me sometimes).
As noted I consider this new shard to be a depressing waste of resources. I have two main reasons for my thinking such.
• One, I don't think the shard will help for either of its intended purposes.
• Two, the time and effort and resources spent on this could be spent on shards that already exist and customers you already have (and, therefore, potentially new customers upon current customer recommendation).
First, we discuss the shard's seemingly intended purposes and why it won't help.
Near as I can tell this shard is aimed at two groups: The Classic Shard crowd and potential new players who might be attracted by the vestiges of the Ultima franchise and the old, single-player experience that they offered.
I can tell that NL is aimed in part at the Classic Shard crowd because it has a superficial resemblance to UO before AoS and, perhaps, even before Publish 16 or thereabouts, and that had to be done on purpose. It's not a Classic Shard but it's clearly aimed in part at that crowd. You would not have brought back database display labels/formats like "supremely accurate" unless that audience was what you had in mind. It won't really appeal to this crowd for several reasons. They already have versions of what they want from the free shards. That crowd isn't as large as you think anyway (they're just vocal). There's little consistency in what they want so nothing will please all of them anyway. Finally, the most-vocal contingent wants the pre-Trammel experience and, to your credit, you've realized that such a thing will be a commercial disaster. That crowd won't come back for ML. And once you take away that contingent of the Classic Shard crowd, the folks who are left are either already players or are not going to budge from the free shards.
I can tell that NL is aimed in part at potential new players who might be attracted by the vestiges of the Ultima franchise and the old, single-player experience that they offered because, well, you're said so, or said something similar. I don't think it'll attract them either. They already have such an experience from other games, lacking only the Ultima name. Further, I think you misunderstand one of the fundamental features of an MMO. To me, and I think to most but not all of the rest of us, that means that most of us want to play the same group of characters over time. Not start a brand new story every year (a “legacy” that lasts a year at most?). Even most PvPers, probably the most experimentally minded power-gamers out there, seem to play the same character for a period of time then only change characters when something new comes up and/or when the mechanics change such that their character is not as overpowering as it once was. And they rarely seem to just start over completely the way an annual shard wipe will imply.
Now, we discuss the things we could have but won't because of the resources being spent on this new shard. I've been thinking a lot about this since NL was announced. Here's a partial list of things I've come up with.
-A more consistent and steadier stream of strong story-driven, persistent but temporary content (as opposed to the repeating of combinations of similar mechanics we're getting now -- which would be FINE with me if that's all you all could manage with the resources you had but, obviously, you could have done more and chose not to);
-Finish hanging plot threads (the mystery of New Haven, the appearance of Wolfgang's tomb in Doom);
-Craftable paladin swords (why don't we have this now, again?);
-Craftable armor based on the Virtue Armor (why don't we have this now, again?);
-A Paladin mount (LONG over due);
-Optional family names for associated characters (slotted to appear in NL but wouldn't it make more sense on shards that aren't wiped every year?);
-New dungeons;
-Bug fixes;
-New PvP systems (see below for a bit of brainstorming);
-A PvP way to get the Honor virtue;
-A PvM way to get the Justice virtue;
-Enhanced quest system (bounties, kill specific monsters in specific locations, etc. - ironically something like this seems up for inclusion in NL where it makes less sense than it would on the current shards);
-New skills / rearrangement of old skills (under current systems, just to cite one example, a classic fantasy archetype, the rogue, is not viable in UO);
-Template balance pass;
-New champ spawns;
-Some kind of periodic overland spawn for random reasons with a rotating set of rewards;
-Dungeon bosses (seriously, why doesn't every dungeon have a boss? you have a system in place, used in the ruins of Old Haven, that will spawn a boss simply when a certain number of creatures within the dungeon die, why use it in only one place);
-This list is endless.
By doing some of the above, and by keeping it up (a few things a year) perhaps some of us long-time players will keep playing...And will be able to tell our friends playing Elder Scrolls Online that there's this older game that also has cool things to do on a consistent basis. (Because let's face it, the steady stream of cool things, sort of a never-ending list of mods or DLCs, is why folks play a game like Elder Scrolls Online. Sure it looks cool but that's not why they play it.)
(As mentioned above, here's a bit of quick brainstorming about PvP: It occurs to me that one of the biggest issues in PvP is simple boredom. VvV was played out in weeks or months depending on the shard. Factions lasted years but even then it petered out. Order/Chaos, I forget how long that was popular. So why not rotate systems, at least superficially? Change Faction names, rewards, and associated fiction. For a month or so allow Faction battles in a certain location in a Trammel rules facet and tie it in with the latest "Treasures of" event. Sometimes all it takes is a little extra salt and pepper to make a customer happy if only temporarily. But there's really not time to do anything, like this or not, while you're working on a new shard that no one plays on yet.)
Instead of any of the above, you've chosen to focus on making a brand new shard that, in my assessment at least, cannot possibly live up to your expectations -- see above.
I recognize that this post is pointless, that it's far, far too late.
But, there it is.
I'm also very curious about push-through code. Back when the world split in two I think my biggest disappointment was being able to push through everything and everyone in Trammel, making it so you didn't have to think about stamina at all for the most part. I remember the reasoning being griefers blocking players in various grief-y type ways. How will that be handled in NL? Not that I'm even sure I can effectively play anymore without being able to push through everything! It's been a long time!
Re: Music and Dawn's Music Box in a sort of off topic way... Has there ever been any thought given to revamping the music box? Most particularly any thought given to making it so you can hit a playlist button so the box's whole repertoire plays on a loop instead of each selection playing on a loop? It would be so nice to hit play and hear your whole collection without futzing around after each song. It would be even nicer if we could drop the gears out and put them back in a desired order.
Apologies if these questions have already been answered elsewhere.
:-)
Edited to add: Disregard my comment about dropping gears out to change order. I was playing music box in my pack. I either didn't know or I forgot you can change the order if the music box is locked down. Still would be nice to hit a playlist button tho.
Play new legacy shard, existing shards, or perhaps both? Will the current live shards be dryed and empty, which is already an issue on some of them.
Let us say you get a lot of returning players, i'm not sure they would appreciate competing against those on the unofficial client who can run faster than them, - auto trapped box etc, might put returning players off, might be better to only allow official client use since you're gong for the classic feel"
Now, if the intention is to expand UO's audience, the clients really do get in the way. We have two. Both are subpar and inferior to third-party alternatives. New Legacy banks off the classic days of UO, so where does the EC fit in the equation? Do we really expect players to endure the CC without seeking our third-party programs, and how many players are willing to do that in the first place?
so stop posting misinformation.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
I explained myself adequately, you just don't disagree, which is fine. Your insults are of course not fine but I totally understand why you resort to them.
Also only GM skills at the moment.