What would you like to see in 2025?

Lokea · March 14

deadguard said:

Maybe increasing house prices and quests gives gold worth smth like 200 quests= a house. or a different currency for a getting house and you can get the currency from questing onlyi Which will also help to know the world more like escorting quests and all they are there but no one doing it.

If we not focusing on new players then how about existing house renewal token system.

House renewal token ( can only be achieved by doing crafting,slaying,escorting quests with untradable gathering materials and loot )

....

Ofcourse u loose ur house if u cancel your subscription house renewal freeze system only works for the token in game. This is the most time consuming feature but i know you guys can do it.

We have a house renewal system that works just fine and has worked fine for well over 20 years, since July of 2002 with Publish 16 - it's our subscription that we pay every month.

The housing system is not holding new players back, and if you have problems finding a house on Atlantic, you can easily place an 18x18 on any other regular shard. You are a new player to UO and if you choose to live on Atlantic, you do so knowing that large housing spots are limited. Come to Lake Superior and I will provide you with runebooks full of 18x18 spots (Trammel no less). There are even 18x18 spots right next to Zento and other desirable locations (or within a screen). I started assembling runebooks for Great Lakes, Catskills, and Lake Austin as well, but chose to return to my original shard of LS, but I know there are many open spots on those shards.

If they made it a chore to keep our houses, well as somebody who just came back last month after being away for over a decade, I would quickly cancel my renewed account, and I would not renew the accounts I just activated for my kids. We are not here to play house simulator, we are here to have fun and escape from things like house renewal fees in real life (mortgages, property taxes, etc.).

I know plenty of players who rarely login to UO, but they keep their subs going for years because of their houses. I did it for multiple accounts for about 2-3 years after I actively stopped playing. Make it difficult or a time sink to keep a house for casual players, and a whole lot of accounts will get packed up into bank boxes and canceled.

Many a new player has become a long-time subscriber because the housing system is so accessible and the idea of their characters having a home that was persistent as long as they paid really hooked them. If you make housing difficult to get and difficult to keep, you will kill the official game, and then there will only be 3rd-party shards. Putting houses out of reach for new or casual players is something that other games such as Final Fantasy XIV do, but UO set the standard for accessible player housing.

Your proposal may make sense for a single private-run shard, but does nothing for new players.

Lokea · March 14

Personally, I would like to see 2025 focused on bringing back returning vets as well as bringing in new players. While there is a tendency to only focus on people already paying, an influx of fresh meat new players would make many very happy.

I think the changes that have been done to the UO.com website (the Wiki, etc.) help with new and returning players, so kudos to the community manager (I can remember when UO.com was a hot mess and players relied on third-party websites), and I think things like the EM events can do a lot as well.

I think it would be good to continue with email campaigns to former players, highlighting the Endless Journey system (only make sure that ex-players know it's free with limits so they at least try it because Endless Journey by itself doesn't tell you much). Maybe highlight New Legacy and the ClassicUO web client as well. The email newsletters I received from UO over the years certainly helped keep UO in my mind and were a part of what brought me back when my kids showed an interest. No Endless Journey and I might not have been willing to try it.

I would like to see an easier way to move between shards, but I don't know how you do that without losing that revenue. I wanted an auction house when I came back, but I think Vendor Search is good enough, if it had some slight improvements.

Jepeth · March 14

Lokea said:
I think the changes that have been done to the UO.com website (the Wiki, etc.) help with new and returning players, so kudos to the community manager (I can remember when UO.com was a hot mess and players relied on third-party websites), and I think things like the EM events can do a lot as well.

Just a quick point of fact, the Wiki is maintained through great labor by our own @Mariah.

Lokea · March 15

Jepeth said:

Lokea said:
I think the changes that have been done to the UO.com website (the Wiki, etc.) help with new and returning players, so kudos to the community manager (I can remember when UO.com was a hot mess and players relied on third-party websites), and I think things like the EM events can do a lot as well.

Just a quick point of fact, the Wiki is maintained through great labor by our own @ Mariah.

And @Mariah deserves all the credit. It was frustrating for new (and even returning) players in the 2000s to be told to go find a fan site if they want basic info, while other MMOs understood how official sites should work.

Reading through this thread, and watching my kids learn to play UO, and thinking about the dozens of MMOs I've tried since the 1990s, and what it would be like for new players starting UO in 2025, and looking at things as a web designer, I feel like there's some things that could be improved to help new (and returning players who have been away for a long time) on UO.com

I feel like What is UO? – Ultima Online is too short.

I think the AOS artwork doesn't work in this instance (the man and woman on the left), especially when we get a glimpse of the map of Britannia at the top, and the HIldebrandt painting on the right, plus dropping from a light background to dark. You need consistency. If we are going to do art, go with sections from Hildebrandt, just like UO.com did in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Show us a nice full map of Britannia.
You don't have to use game art or anything, but I think you could highlight the various things you can do in UO, such as the various events, a small section on housing, crafting, dungeons, and link to the wonderful pages that @Mariah has put together.
Talk about the fact that UO has been around since 1997, the fact that it's built upon a rich history of in-game lore stretching back 40+ years.
Just break these out into their own little sections as you scroll down the page, alternating with artwork on either left or right.
Highlight Time of Legends or High Seas or something that would grab a new player.

Lokea · March 15

I think Getting Started – Ultima Online needs a massive amount of work.

I think some of the sections below should be broken out into their own pages, but maybe not, depends on how the page is constructed.
I think there needs to be a highly-polished video in there somewhere. The graphics won't scare people off as long as it's not recorded in 640x480. Minecraft is the #1 game in the world apparently, and nobody talks about the graphics. Maybe link to a gameplay page with a video. Don't hide what UO is.
Endless Journey and/or trial accounts need to be emphasized from the get-go. EJ works on getting people in or getting returning players back. People need to know that there are free options at the start (they'll run into the limitations on free/EJ accounts and by then they'll have decided if it's worth subscribing). Also, work in that if they want things like housing and extended banking, they'll need to sub. Better they know up front than get hit with it in the future.
"Choose your client" needs to mention the two main clients are Windows-based and then toss in ClassicUO as an alternative for Mac and Linux users.
Choose your shard - this is one of the most important parts, and it's kind of dismissed. If people go to social media (reddit, etc.) or fansites and ask which shard, 9 times out of 10 they are told Atlantic, but the problem with that is people will get invested time-wise in Atlantic and may pay higher prices (economic issues) and not be able to fully participate in housing (they won't be easily getting larger houses). Plus, it's easy for new players to get lost in the shuffle. Yes, it's been many years since we all picked shards based on our time zones or based on the speed of our connection to the servers, but you can play upon things like some shards have roleplaying aspects, some are geography-based (discuss that), etc.
If you're going to emphasize shard selection based on history, write up a brief history of the shards or some of the more unique aspects (long-time guilds, when they first launched, major events, etc.).
If you're going to emphasize shard selection based on EM events, link to the shard forums, because this page https://uo.com/em-news/ that the shard selection section links to has a lot of bad links (UOEM.net is down or something) which is a really bad look for new and returning players
Character Creation is not bad at all but maybe needs to be broken out into its own section.
I think the skills section needs a massive re-do - it's one of the best and most unique things about UO, and the wide selection of skills should somehow be highlighted to new players, to show that they don't have to be the stereotypical MMORPG character.
Starting Location needs to explain the differences between the areas. Trammel or Ter Mur means nothing to new players.

On the Getting Started page, maybe point to how players can easily get into an EJ account and then have regularly scheduled events for new players to gather and meet existing players and EMs. Doesn't have to be much - have each shard host one event a week or every two weeks and based on their time zone (or maybe make it monthly). The logistics of that might seem difficult, but most shards have some events going on throughout the week. If need be, and if EMs aren't available, advertise something on the website and in-game for existing established guilds to help with. We used to do this unofficially on LS 20 years ago - have new player hunts, or have crafters setup to help new players out, etc.

Lokea · March 15

In the client section of the Getting Started page, I think there needs to be a brief discussion about the clients, because the Classic could turn off a lot of people, who are more used to what the EC presents (not just in terms of mapping and macros and layout).. At the least, if they want Classic and are new, have them try ClassicUO.

Lokea · March 15

I am just thinking in terms of new/returning players, and things that can easily be accomplished (easy = not requiring a revamp of game mechanics or in-game artwork), so a few more suggestions:

Note: I bolded two that could be done in an hour or two, and that are critical - the UOEM.net stuff should be fixed on Monday - it's a matter of changing links to either the shard forums here on UO.com, or setting up pages on UO.com for EMs. UOEM.net is broken. And there should not be a single broken fansite listed - it looks like whoever runs UO.com doesn't care.

Clean up the launch/patcher interface - bring it more inline with the styling of UO.com, because it has not changed since the last time I actively subbed, and all of that dark-style imagery was from the UO 9th Anniversary styling (2006) Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning branding, when UO was lumped in with WAR and DAOC. I know the interface most likely pulls at least some HTML stuff, because it's clearly pulling from the UO.com website update. It's not a good look, it's disjointed when you think in terms of somebody being on UO.com and then loading the patcher and then one of the clients. A patcher that looks more in line with UO.com or ClassicUO's web interface would look cleaner and blend in with the UO style. We've had 18+ years to have better branding than the box art for UO 9th Anniversary, and the current UO.com styling is great.
Clean up the EAMythic.com account page. This is probably controlled by EA though, so probably a no-go. It drives the web designer/developer in me crazy because it's an old interface and can suck on modern displays. I know we are stuck with the Mythic thing though.
During the "Getting Started" portion of UO.com, there needs to be a better explanation of account management (I know it's handled off-site, but people need to be prepared before going off-site with easily-accessed screenshots or videos).
I would say promote ClassicUO or Pinco's UI more, but I've had a few problems with them (in Pinco's instance, the infamous "Loading" splash screen overlaid on my client window and ClassicUO, I had some issues buying stuff) and for now a new or returning user needs to find their way to the Classic or EC first, both of which have been stable for myself and my kids. Still, I feel like both of these could have a lot of appeal to new and returning players.
Maybe do something on UO.com about guilds, a guild-finder of sorts.
In the "What is UO" there really needs to be an emphasis on the fact that this game has been going since 1997. Toss in events like Lord British being PKed, and a highlight or two of each expansion.
Bring the old (hopefully archived) content from UOEM.net to UO.com/EM or something, and give the EMs their own pages on UO.com, becuase new players would wonder what the heck is going on with all of the EM pages being down.
Clean up the Fansite portion of UO.com, because 7 out of 14 listed sites are down and 2-3 haven't had posts in many years. Add in UltimaCodex.com because they've been around for years and are the biggest Ultima fansite there is. And https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Main_Page should be mentioned in its own entry for those who want to discover the lore that was originally behind UO.

If I had to sum up everything I've mentioned in the preceding posts, and apologies for boring current players who don't care about any of this, it would be this:

Think in terms of a new or returning player finding their way (or coming back) to UO. I have a feeling many new players make their decisions about staying/subbing very early, and every bit of help that they can get before they ever step foot inside of UO would help.

Do a sweep through the whole process of what a new player would see on UO.com through client install and setting up an account through the patcher and finally the EC or Classic launchers.
Think about what questions they have that could be answered during the process of learning about playing UO, before they ever install a client. This includes info about costs and Endless Journey and shards and what client does what (with screenshots) and the skill and housing systems (and maybe guilds).
Update UO.com for new users, at least the "What is UO" and "Getting Started" sections. There's too many places where they would have to hop out and hit up Google, or search through UO.com. The goal should be to keep them on track from finding UO.com up through getting a client installed and an account setup. This includes info on shard and client selection. You could insert shortcuts on the pages to relevant areas (account management and client downloads) for those who are impatient to get started, but there should be a true "guided tour" that can be done in under 10 minutes, but gives them a clear picture of what UO is, how they install it, how they setup an account, and how they get started playing.
The graphics/branding needs to be consistent from the "What is UO" and "Getting Started" pages on UO.com to the patcher/launcher to the client launchers themselves.

I would be happy to contribute a quick mockup of what I mean about the UO.com pages.

Community Manager · March 16

Lokea said:

I am just thinking in terms of new/returning players, and things that can easily be accomplished (easy = not requiring a revamp of game mechanics or in-game artwork), so a few more suggestions:

Note: I bolded two that could be done in an hour or two, and that are critical - the UOEM.net stuff should be fixed on Monday - it's a matter of changing links to either the shard forums here on UO.com, or setting up pages on UO.com for EMs. UOEM.net is broken. And there should not be a single broken fansite listed - it looks like whoever runs UO.com doesn't care.
Clean up the launch/patcher interface - bring it more inline with the styling of UO.com, because it has not changed since the last time I actively subbed, and all of that dark-style imagery was from the UO 9th Anniversary styling (2006) Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning branding, when UO was lumped in with WAR and DAOC. I know the interface most likely pulls at least some HTML stuff, because it's clearly pulling from the UO.com website update. It's not a good look, it's disjointed when you think in terms of somebody being on UO.com and then loading the patcher and then one of the clients. A patcher that looks more in line with UO.com or ClassicUO's web interface would look cleaner and blend in with the UO style. We've had 18+ years to have better branding than the box art for UO 9th Anniversary, and the current UO.com styling is great.
Clean up the EAMythic.com account page. This is probably controlled by EA though, so probably a no-go. It drives the web designer/developer in me crazy because it's an old interface and can suck on modern displays. I know we are stuck with the Mythic thing though.
During the "Getting Started" portion of UO.com, there needs to be a better explanation of account management (I know it's handled off-site, but people need to be prepared before going off-site with easily-accessed screenshots or videos).
I would say promote ClassicUO or Pinco's UI more, but I've had a few problems with them (in Pinco's instance, the infamous "Loading" splash screen overlaid on my client window and ClassicUO, I had some issues buying stuff) and for now a new or returning user needs to find their way to the Classic or EC first, both of which have been stable for myself and my kids. Still, I feel like both of these could have a lot of appeal to new and returning players.
Maybe do something on UO.com about guilds, a guild-finder of sorts.
In the "What is UO" there really needs to be an emphasis on the fact that this game has been going since 1997. Toss in events like Lord British being PKed, and a highlight or two of each expansion.
Bring the old (hopefully archived) content from UOEM.net to UO.com/EM or something, and give the EMs their own pages on UO.com, becuase new players would wonder what the heck is going on with all of the EM pages being down.
Clean up the Fansite portion of UO.com, because 7 out of 14 listed sites are down and 2-3 haven't had posts in many years. Add in UltimaCodex.com because they've been around for years and are the biggest Ultima fansite there is. And https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Main_Page should be mentioned in its own entry for those who want to discover the lore that was originally behind UO.
If I had to sum up everything I've mentioned in the preceding posts, and apologies for boring current players who don't care about any of this, it would be this:

Think in terms of a new or returning player finding their way (or coming back) to UO. I have a feeling many new players make their decisions about staying/subbing very early, and every bit of help that they can get before they ever step foot inside of UO would help.
Do a sweep through the whole process of what a new player would see on UO.com through client install and setting up an account through the patcher and finally the EC or Classic launchers.
Think about what questions they have that could be answered during the process of learning about playing UO, before they ever install a client. This includes info about costs and Endless Journey and shards and what client does what (with screenshots) and the skill and housing systems (and maybe guilds).
Update UO.com for new users, at least the "What is UO" and "Getting Started" sections. There's too many places where they would have to hop out and hit up Google, or search through UO.com. The goal should be to keep them on track from finding UO.com up through getting a client installed and an account setup. This includes info on shard and client selection. You could insert shortcuts on the pages to relevant areas (account management and client downloads) for those who are impatient to get started, but there should be a true "guided tour" that can be done in under 10 minutes, but gives them a clear picture of what UO is, how they install it, how they setup an account, and how they get started playing.
The graphics/branding needs to be consistent from the "What is UO" and "Getting Started" pages on UO.com to the patcher/launcher to the client launchers themselves.
I would be happy to contribute a quick mockup of what I mean about the UO.com pages.

There is a page dedicated to how to videos on our official YouTube with these topics on the wiki.

PlayerSkillFTW · March 18

I still think these changes i suggested should be implemented. https://forum.uo.com/discussion/9606/suggestion-summon-form-revamp

There's a lot of old mechanics like that which should be revamped and brought up to par. Cooking needs a revamp as well, with the buff foods lasting longer.

I'd like to see NL's pet/mob AI be introduced to Prodo shards. The pet's on NL are a LOT more responsive to commands, will actually stick to their "Kill" target, and the mobs are more responsive as well. Attack a Drake near a Dragon, and the Dragon will instantly aggro as well. Makes the PvM more challenging. Not to mention the spellcasting AI of pets/mobs on NL is a lot better than on Prodo shards.

SoulTrain · March 20

SoulTrain said:

Hello together,

here is my personel list for 2025:

Enlarging Windows size in the Classic Client as Standard Feature

Stable slot Maximum 102 (of course expandable with sovereigns) and the Claim list should show the Pet Type

The Max Storage for Houses (starting with 18 x 18) should be 15000 and sold like an Expansion at the EA Shop

An empty 30 x 30 Houseplot (sold with sovereigns) so i can recustomize my Castle without loosing the Age of my house

At least Accountbound Gametime Token for Gold sold by Broadsword at uniqe Shard Auction Safes

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Btw... i learned it takes more than 2 Months to get a Historical House Sign and its still pending... how long will it take to get one of my Wishes

Still waiting (25.10.24 Mail to Mrs Bonnie )for my Historical House Sign, it seems that only a few Players get support.... 2 Months AGO i wrote a Mail to the Support Team... there is nothing more to say

Howdy, Stranger!

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What would you like to see in 2025?

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