New Legacy Pub 2: Forsaken Bloodline Dungeon Feedback

Parallax · April 16

Congratulations on unlocking the new dungeon! Please provide any feedback you have on the encounters here. Thanks!

Garret · April 17

Opening:

For me unfortunately the essence chase was more fun than the dungeon itself. People had a reason to participate in pvp spawns, internal politics began to emerge, some interactions began, people began to negotiate or - no, it created a healthier environment, now it died and in just a week.

I think the dungeon shouldn't be open all the time, the chase for essences should be ongoing, it should be in the spirit of Peerless boss or Quderact where only a group that has used essence can be there at the same time. This will continue the race for essences, force players to agree on their exchange, unite in guilds or groups to go through the content together, and not just stand in afk in front of the boss they need.The development of politics will continue due to the fact that part of the essences is behind PvP and people will either seek protection or learn to fight, or negotiate exchanges.

Dungeon:

The fact that the dungeon is divided into wings is good - interesting, but the fact that they are open all the time is a mistake, this has already led to people just coming, killing Kael and just going AFK until the next respawn, good luck getting the desired loot.... let someone else clear the dungeon but not me - right?

Only one wing should be open and the bosses should be better separated from each other so that it is either very difficult or impossible to get to the other bosses, unfortunately linearity in an initially linear dungeon is necessary or it creates an imbalance.

Balance:

The bosses of the first three wings are very easy and do not correspond to the idea of increasing the complexity of the content as the server progresses, in fact, the most difficult boss of the initial wings is the blizzard cyclone simply because due to the huge number of people it is not clear how the mechanics work, whether we need to move to warm up or just kill trash.The worm that buries every hit is more annoying than something interesting.

Exarchs are something closer to what Blackthorn could and should be. I understand the idea of making filler bosses at the beginning and then you get to the hard ones, but the rewards for easy bosses are so strong and more varied that there is no point in going to Exarchs?

Exarchs have more interesting mechanics and are similar to real bosses, at least those that I saw, I liked Automaton the most because in my opinion this is how all mechanics in the game should look like, not something mindless hit and heal, but watch your debuff, run away in time, stop at a certain moment, keep your distance, this is a very complex and good mechanic, of which there should be at least two per boss, the rest of the bosses, without looking at the attempt to create something similar, are killed by simply throwing "slippers" and you watch as the boss dies.

I understand that over time the number of people will decrease and it will not be such an annoying factor, but it has always irritated me and maybe it is time to do something about it?When there are 20 people with big dragons in a small room, I don't see anything, not interesting animations that you came up with for the fight, neither the boss himself, nor his corpse, nothing. The second annoying thing and I understand that this problem has been around for many years, you come up with interesting colors and skins for monsters, but I can't see them because the target I chose turns red and it's very difficult to see anything.

Maybe it's time to improve the new target system so that it's more obvious what target you've chosen, maybe additinal portraits? or just a checkbox in the settings to disable color changes for the selected target?
Another great addition would be the ability to turn off visualization of other people's pets or even players, so I can see the boss in a crowded room with dragons, even one dragon can be enough to block the entire view.

Rewards:

Regulating loot is already your design decision, I understand, but in general, a huge amount of HP on things does not lead to anything, we have been in the HP overcap (25) since the first day, it seems to me, and now there is even more.

I'm already working on opening the blacktorn on the Japanese server for testing and I understand that there is a chance of getting access to it before even the first phase of loot progression in the world, if I get things from this dungeon what good would it do for me to pick up jewelry items from the world at all?

The drop chance will most likely be regulated, which is another problem. Now people will abuse Kael and get the lure, and then you will reduce the drop chance to 0. Great. Everyone who abused the fact that you can just go to the boss and have a high chance will get rich - that's bad.

Considering that basically everyone will only transfer pets and think only about this, this is another not very good idea. Please read the review about the transfer of things and reconsider this idea and move towards tokens so that everyone can get equal rewards, and not who managed to abuse something. ( https://forum.uo.com/discussion/15951/devs-should-reconsider-what-transfers-some-most-equipment-should#latest ; - my post here)

Redistributing stats I don't see that it will do anything, I don't see how I can use these extra stamina to reach new speed breakpoints or something. I see the idea of designing things a little differently, go with the idea of slots, the belt should be a utility slot, first aid belt, reagent belt, scroll belt, tools belt. The talisman should be an active item, apply debuffs/buffs when used. AKA trinket, so it will be possible to balance things, add effects for pvp and pve and balance it. Let's say a buff for a mage so that his spell mg is stronger at the right moment or a slowdown for a melee fighter so that he can at least sometime catch up with his target or some temporary buffs for pve like 60 ssi for 10 seconds so that you can use slow weapons. Just as thoughts.

Bugs:

Haven't found any major bugs yet, but the quartermaster spams the sound effect with every hit, it was so annoying that I had to turn off the sound in the game.

P.S. Just facts, no insults, accusations of poor work or personal dissatisfaction with anything.

Hippo · April 17

Good analysis! All those dragons in BT rooms reminded me of EM events. Only Boss I could see was that whirlwind Boss.

Hippo · April 17

Who or what is "Kael"? Is Kael the Uber Boss in BT dungeon, if so where is he located?

TETSUJIN · April 19

Hello,

Is there any way for a character who has chosen the Divergent-Path to obtain earrings?

(Divergent-path character can't start any narrative quest line)

I know this is very rare case, but if two characters on an account both chose the Divergent path, would the earrings not be available?

Right now I have multiple earrings (obtainable daily) obtained by characters on the same account's Narrative-path.

The earrings have an owner propaty but it is common between accounts so it is not a problem.

The ones obtained by another character on another account could not be equipped.

Will the earrings be available in the future in some way other than story quests?

Like a trader's reward or something?

I would like to see re-creating a character be the final solution.
I apologize if a solution already exists and I have missed it.

If we open a gate out from inside the barrier before entering the Blackthorn dungeon, we can enter the dungeon even if the character does not have the earrings equipped. ...... (I don't think this is the right way to do it.)

RAVER · April 20

Thank you very much for adding such a wonderful dungeon.

Although I haven’t run each dungeon enough times to provide detailed feedback on specific encounters just yet, I’d like to share my overall impressions.

First of all, the variety of abilities used by each boss made every fight feel fresh and exciting. Some bosses offered a balanced challenge, while others were truly formidable. Each battle felt like a new adventure, and I found myself genuinely thrilled every time. It’s no exaggeration to say that this content is exhilarating—I had an amazing time.

What impressed me even more was the natural cooperation among players. Watching strangers support each other and face challenges together reminded me of the kindness and strength of the UO community. I believe that this kind of positive and cooperative experience will resonate well not only with current UO players but also with returning veterans and newcomers alike.

Lastly, if I may share a small concern:
In the past, attempts by a minority of PvP-focused players to impose their version of “order” or “politics” often led to monopolization by select groups. This, in turn, drove many players away. To avoid repeating that history, I believe it’s crucial to keep PvP elements to a minimum, especially in content that should feel welcoming to new and returning players. Fostering an environment centered on cooperation rather than competition will go a long way toward expanding and sustaining the player base.

Once again, thank you to the entire development team for your passion and dedication!

Kel · April 21

Essence Gathering

The essence gathering process really got players involved and it truly became a server-wide event that involved almost if not all active guilds. It even created new alliances amongst some of the servers largest guilds and created new friendships amongst them. This was a one-time event that will remain memorable for many, I'm sure.

West Wing

Quartermaster Dorinakka

periodically spawns human adds
periodically whirlwinds all nearby mobiles

Simple, fun boss that's fairly easy to solo if needed. Just keep control of the adds.

Overseer Sanguis

periodically spawns human adds
strong melee attacks

Same adds as Dorinakka, but this guy hits like a truck. Can be hard to solo if he gets off too many hits in a row as a melee. I think I prefer this fight to Dorinakka.

Shadow General Kael

necromancer warrior
periodically disarms nearby mobiles
falls off his nightmare, Shadowmane, upon death allowing it to be tamed if you have the Shadow Reaver Bridle

Fairly straightforward fight that's fun and pretty easy to solo. The added disarm mechanic is nice, keeps a melee a bit more engaged. I almost wish he was harder given the significance of trying to obtain Shadowmane. The meta is to run to him first to ensure a chance at the Shadow Reaver Bridle lure.

Gristlemaw Devourer / Sous Chef

periodically throws stinking cauldrons on the ground that spawn gooey maggots
Sous Chef will periodically inflict AOE damage if left unchecked

Fun fight with varied mechanics and adds. The Sous Chef is a good addition, but I wish he had a bit more health allowing him to be a larger part of the fight.

Kraggor the Red-Footed Reaver

periodically throws exploding bagballs around him, pick these up and throw them back at Kraggor

I like the theme and the bagball mechanic. I can't say I see any obvious effect from throwing the bagballs such as additional damage, etc. Some others feel the same and have just stopped throwing the bagballs back because they don't see the point.

South Wing

Malzhor the Unchained

periodically lights nearby mobiles on fire, reducing their resistance to fire

Easy boss to solo, good starter boss for those who are stepping into the dungeon for the first time.

Harvester

periodically casts wither and reanimate

Fun boss with some necro mechanics. Pretty straight forward but he can put out some damage for sure.

Blizzard

casts icy wind on nearby mobiles that starts to freeze you from within, keep moving otherwise you'll be frozen and take 3x damage from the freezing ticks
periodically spawns snow elemental adds

This is the most difficult dreadguard of the bunch. The adds are quite troublesome and the freezing mechanic can be tough to work around when casting, healing, etc. Fun, involved fight but always expect casualties. Pets can be tough to manage at this boss. Keep an eye out for that frost steed, though!

Arkanis the Technomancer

periodically spawns clockwork adds

Arkanis feels like a warmup for Clockwork Juggernaut. Straightforward and easy, just don't let the adds build up too much.

Clockwork Juggernaut

after enough damage he'll initiate Extermination Protocol and do a large amount of AOE damage to all nearby mobiles (this AOE can stack)
can throw nearby mobiles into the jail cells
periodically disarms nearby mobiles

This can be a pretty tough fight but fun mechanic fight. When those Extermination Protocols hit they do a good amount of damage and stun you. If they stack you might be stuck soaking three full rounds. Probably won't survive three in a row. Just run away when he begins the Extermination Protocol and you're good to go!

Slithering Maw

after enough damage he digs down and begins stalking the highest damage since last resurface
once he resurfaces, he deals a large amount of damage the targeted player and AOE damage to nearby mobiles

With a lot of people this can be an annoying fight. Three second or less bursts to be able to do damage before he digs again. That chain of digging and popping up to deal damage can be guaranteed death for someone if they get stalked three times in a row. With a smaller group this fight is much more manageable and fun. It just doesn't scale well with a lot of people.

North Wing

Miedys the Goldsmith

periodically turns a nearby mobile into gold
periodically spawns golden elemental adds

Easy fun fight, just keep control of the adds. They build up quick. His theme and turning things gold is a fun mechanic!

Aurum the Gilded

strong melee attacks
periodically disarms nearby mobiles

This guy strikes me as someone with a bad gold addiction. Dude has issues. Fun thematic fight, though, following the Goldsmith. Not too hard with a group, probably reasonably easy to solo.

Wine Elemental

makes all nearby players drunk on wine
periodically casts a damaging AOE to nearby mobiles

I love the idea of walking into the wine cellar only to find that the wine has morphed into a killer wine elemental. Probably the most fun, amusing mechanics as you spend the next 10 mins or so running around the dungeon drunk, singing, and taking off your clothes. Pretty straightforward fight, just be mindful of the AOE!

Oryh'k the Unseen Hunger

periodically casts various spellweaving spells

Fairly simple boss, but deals a good bit of damage with those spellweaving spells. You can find yourself almost dead pretty quick.

Exarch Wing

Riftborn Monstrosity

periodically spawns mawling adds

This boss almost seems tuned to the level of a dreadguard, not an exarch. By far and away the easiest exarch. Just manage adds.

Gnarled Veilkeeper

periodically creates highly damaging brambles at the feet of nearby mobiles
periodically creates a clone of a nearby mobile, if not killed in time it will turn into a stronger evil twin
after enough (fire?) damage he will begin to combust repeatedly, dealing significant AOE damage to himself and nearby mobiles

This is a mechanically challenging boss, especially with a lot of players and pets. The more mobiles the more brambles, and those brambles, especially when stacked, are incredibly dangerous. It makes it nearly impossible at times for a melee or a pet to be able to get in there and fight without immediately dying. The combustion phase is fun and pretty easy to deal with, just stay out of range. A lot of the damage to the boss in this fight actually comes from that combustion phase, pretty cool mechanic. Lastly, don't ignore your clones! They get much harder to kill once they become your evil twins. As "annoying" as this boss can be, I do like the mechanics. The way they scale can be rough though.

Vor'lthar the Void Maw

phase 1 he's in a hibernation state and he'll eat nearby mobiles, doing damage in the process
phase 2 he awakens and gains mage abilities, applies a gaze debuff to nearby players and will periodically shoot energy bombs in the direction of nearby players in his LOS

Meatball! This is a really fun thematic boss. Super creepy looking, eats everyone around him in the first phase and finally wakes up/evolves into meatball with eyes. The second phase is pretty easy if you pay attention, but lots of fun. Just avoid the bombs heading your way and make sure you reequip your armor if it falls off due to the debuffs.

Riftbreaker Construct

periodically sets a timed energy bomb on some nearby mobiles. once the timer expires the bomb will explode and send an energy shockwave in a circle around you
periodically sets a timed energy bomb on all nearby mobiles
he explodes upon death killing anyone in range

The hardest boss in the new Forsaken Bloodline dungeon from a group mechanic perspective. This is because not only can you kill yourself with the main bomb mechanic, but you can easily kill others as well. With a bunch of people fighting the boss at once it can quickly get out of hand with bombs exploding everywhere and covering nearly the whole battlefield. The secret to this boss is stacking! Super fun boss, awesome mechanics.

Secret Boss

The secret boss is a ton of fun and the first time I saw his name and his abilities I couldn't help but laugh. Well done on this one, even though the fight can be pretty long and hard depending on how many people are participating.

Additional Thoughts

The boss encounters are a lot of fun and it feels like a lot of passion was put into them. It's a fun dungeon with a lot of variety that has a good amount of replayability. The only bad thing amongst all this good is the rampant botting/multiboxing that seems to take a lot of wind out of peoples' sails. It definitely doesn't feel good and I'd hate for a bot train to be one of the first things a new UO player sees.

Parallax · April 23

@Garret @RAVER @Kel Thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated!

@TETSUJIN Divergent path players can participate in the Forsaken Bloodline objectives, but they must be considered an "Advanced Divergent", which requires them to have acquired at least 600 skill points total, and defeated Garthok the Champion.

Garret · April 23

It's very strange that so few people left their feedback.

Despite my very critical review, I want to express my gratitude and surprise at how all the innovations and content did not cause errors, at least nothing critical that was noticed publicly. Good patch, good work!

But I wouldn't be Garret if I didn't say but, I understand that most of the content revolves around tamers and pets, apparently because it is more attractive from the commercial side, but I hope that content patches will alternate with balance patches that will bring a little variety to the game mechanics and gameplay of other classes.

I have already expressed some thoughts on balance, I can share my ideas if this interests you. I am also very interested in why, in my opinion, the patch was without large-scale breakdowns, do you have a hidden group of testers? Can I get an invite?))

@Parallax

P.S. It's very nice when you see a response, even if it's formal, to your feedback, thank you very much!

Hippo · April 24

Garret said:

It's very strange that so few people left their feedback.

Despite my very critical review, I want to express my gratitude and surprise at how all the innovations and content did not cause errors, at least nothing critical that was noticed publicly. Good patch, good work!

But I wouldn't be Garret if I didn't say but, I understand that most of the content revolves around tamers and pets, apparently because it is more attractive from the commercial side, but I hope that content patches will alternate with balance patches that will bring a little variety to the game mechanics and gameplay of other classes.

I have already expressed some thoughts on balance, I can share my ideas if this interests you. I am also very interested in why, in my opinion, the patch was without large-scale breakdowns, do you have a hidden group of testers? Can I get an invite?))

@ Parallax

P.S. It's very nice when you see a response, even if it's formal, to your feedback, thank you very much!

I agree. I have one GM Mage w/additional skills of Focus (need that MR!) and Resist Spells. I also have a second Mage that will soon be GM, as well as 3 other Mages at 80ish level. I don't intend to make them hybrid tamers or bards either. I look forward to sending five 7X GM mages back home with some interesting artifacts and heirlooms to decorate.

TETSUJIN · April 25

Parallax said:

@ Garret @ RAVER @ Kel Thank you for the feedback, it is much appreciated!

@ TETSUJIN Divergent path players can participate in the Forsaken Bloodline objectives, but they must be considered an "Advanced Divergent", which requires them to have acquired at least 600 skill points total, and defeated Garthok the Champion.

Hi

Thanks for the reply

I was able to enter the castle from the back of the castle with a character that had defeated the Orc Champion and met the requirements to have a skill total of 600+, but was unable to pass through the magical barrier at the dungeon entrance.

Is there anything else I need to do to be certified as "Advanced Divergent"?

Mariah · April 25

you need to return to the Brit house and get the earrings. In the back room there is a gold box inside one of the drawers, double click it and a pair of earrings will drop in your pack. Wear those to get through the barrier.

TETSUJIN · April 25

Mariah said:

you need to return to the Brit house and get the earrings. In the back room there is a gold box inside one of the drawers, double click it and a pair of earrings will drop in your pack. Wear those to get through the barrier.

Hi,

Unfortunately, when I W-clicked on the golden box where the earrings were supposed to drop, there was no response.

The scroll in the bookshelf in front of the box did not respond to W-click as well.

Is this character of mine broken?

Mariah · April 25

I don't know

I can only say that I didn't realise at first that I had gotten the drop, there was only a system message in my journal, which I hadn't seen. Double check your back pack?

Hippo · April 25

Earrings drop into pack.

Parallax · April 25

TETSUJIN said:

Mariah said:

you need to return to the Brit house and get the earrings. In the back room there is a gold box inside one of the drawers, double click it and a pair of earrings will drop in your pack. Wear those to get through the barrier.

Hi,
Unfortunately, when I W-clicked on the golden box where the earrings were supposed to drop, there was no response.
The scroll in the bookshelf in front of the box did not respond to W-click as well.
Is this character of mine broken?

Did you follow the quest line from the start? There are several Arcane Enforcer NPCs around that start the quest chain (https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/new-legacy-an-overview/nl-forsaken-bloodline-event/).

The scroll will only work if you are on the correct quest objective step, and the earrings will only be given to you after you complete that objective.

TETSUJIN · April 26

Parallax said:

TETSUJIN said:

Mariah said:

you need to return to the Brit house and get the earrings. In the back room there is a gold box inside one of the drawers, double click it and a pair of earrings will drop in your pack. Wear those to get through the barrier.

Hi,
Unfortunately, when I W-clicked on the golden box where the earrings were supposed to drop, there was no response.
The scroll in the bookshelf in front of the box did not respond to W-click as well.
Is this character of mine broken?

Did you follow the quest line from the start? There are several Arcane Enforcer NPCs around that start the quest chain (https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/new-legacy-an-overview/nl-forsaken-bloodline-event/).

The scroll will only work if you are on the correct quest objective step, and the earrings will only be given to you after you complete that objective.

Quest received.

I got the earrings.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice.

TETSUJIN · May 1

Hello.

I know this is not dungeon related, but could you please add the Museum Archival Book added in the

Pub 2 hot fix as a giveaway to the JPN New Legacy Rewards Trader as well?

Please do so before the archive form fills the museum floor.

Thank you.

Parallax · May 1

TETSUJIN said:

Hello.
I know this is not dungeon related, but could you please add the Museum Archival Book added in the
Pub 2 hot fix as a giveaway to the JPN New Legacy Rewards Trader as well?
Please do so before the archive form fills the museum floor.
Thank you.

It should be on the reward vendor now.

TETSUJIN · May 1

Parallax said:

TETSUJIN said:

Hello.
I know this is not dungeon related, but could you please add the Museum Archival Book added in the
Pub 2 hot fix as a giveaway to the JPN New Legacy Rewards Trader as well?
Please do so before the archive form fills the museum floor.
Thank you.

It should be on the reward vendor now.

Thank you very much for adding the book.

I am very happy.

By the way, do you have any plans to make this book a blessed one?

If not, I will keep it in a safe place so that I don't lose it...

Jepeth · May 3

This is, for me, the best content Ultima Online has received since I returned to the game almost 6 years ago.

As other folks have already discussed the Publish and dungeon pre-Hotfix, I'll mostly comment on the current state of everything this past week.

The unlocking was an interesting approach mechanically. Other folks have talked about their disappointment here in it not being more PVP-centric or that they felt other groups were able to take advantage of their hard work, but I don't agree with that approach. I actually think making it a one-time unlock where the desire to fully unlock the experience motivated folks to not 100% fall into predictable patterns of greed was wise. I did not get to participate in the hunt for the essences, though, as it really happened pretty dern fast. Maybe in the future some essences could be found full (like the ones from the champion spawns) and some others could be found as partial-essences on the PVM legendary foes, so more folks can take part. Ultimately, though, there was no title or specific reward for finding and placing an essence (which I think is good), and so really it was just a precursor to the main course of the publish.

When they removed Blackthorn's Dungeon for revamping off production I was disappointed, and further disappointed that in however many years since its flooding by The Fellowship it hasn't returned. But this is -way- better than what the dungeon previously was. It's very obvious that our new designer plays other MMOs and brought some of that philosophy into the mix while trying to still create a UO 'raid' experience. They spoke about it during their recent media blitz, and the effort here is apparent. I don't know that this can 100% be imported over to Production as it is so bespoke to New Legacy. But if this is the design logic they're going to use moving forward: wonderful.

Let me share some of my experience playing NL since the publish has hit:

-I login and usually say hello and ask what's everyone up to and where Blackthorn's currently is.
-I have thus far always been answered. It was like this before as we did the boss circuit, but even more so now that Blackthorn's is open.
-Once told where it is I can make a few decisions. Should I jump in to where ever Blackthorn's is for a short play session or can I do a full cycle of it? Are my armor and weapons okay or do I need to find repairs first? If it's currently in reset people are usually kind enough to say how long, and this lets me calibrate my play session. I find that most people offer this information and it's already become good manners to offer it back if you know.
-Let's say Blackthorn's has just reset. I get over there, get into position, and wait for the doors to unlock. There are several Dreadguards to take out before the Exarchs (the final bosses) unlock.

Blackthorn's is complex enough that there are real differing philosophies about the order in which to take on the Dreadguards. Partly because you can scale difficulty, partly because some paths force you to run by the NPCs in which to take their kill quests, partly because some offer a chance for a specific dropped reward and you want to tackle those first.

I generally follow the largest crowd so we have the best chance of success. Nothing is really soloable with one character. Everything benefits from having others along with you. Some are shorter fights, some are longer. Some require more strategy (the Blizzard) and some less (Bagball guy).

This is the real highlight of this publish. You can jump into a quick fight with others or you can stay for the long haul of it. It's a fun, community-focused play experience. The rewards are not a grind (indeed I've already got 1400 points since the publish started and I'm -not- an multi-hour, multi-day player) and you can earn what you want both by playing the bosses and by getting lucky enough to get one of the trader rewards dropped into your pack. Some folks have been fantastically lucky in this regard (and y'all know who you are). I was thrilled to get my frozen horse as a lucky pack drop, and probably won't get that lucky again.

The bosses also offer the Vesper Museum Antiquity items and Heirloom rewards (we'll get to these later).

Once we defeat the Dreadguards the second phase opens and we go take on the Exarchs. These fights are -so- much fun to me. Again, when is the last time as UO players we have had to really strategize how to fight certain monsters beyond 'brute force it' ? EM events are well-known for their overpowered boss monsters but there is no real strategy beyond pile on damage and hope you get credit. In these Exarch fights there is a real place for every template approach. As a warrior (swords with my advanced skillset as archery) I can tank most of them, keeping myself healed, and am super useful keeping others healed and ressed. Not every fight benefits from the tamer/mage approach but the fights with heavy add-ons (like Tree guy) absolutely go better if there is Emberwing there to take out the doppleganger adds before they turn into Evil Twins and become -very- hard to deal with. Archery and magery is by far the best approach to Riftbreaker who is just brutal to players who aren't giving it their full attention. Finally, the spider guy is absolute chaos now post-Hotfix and again requires all templates present so players don't get overwhelmed.

This is a far more active and involved PVM experience than UO has served us up in years. I have to really commend the designer's efforts here for making a challenging version of UO.

BUT, having said all that, if you don't want to do Riftbreaker you don't have to. Or Treeguy. Or Bouldemort. These choices are yours. You can get everything you want in due course with just the Dreadguards.

Some of my initial critiques here have been addressed in the hotfix. I was going to gripe about Spiderguy being too easy and mob corpses being too hard to find. Both addressed in this Hotfix. Some gump art and hues didn't seem to work correctly and that has been addressed. All though the WebCUO still has persistent gump issues that have been reported and I know will get addressed at some point.

The dungeon is such a win. Well done @Kyronix and @Parallax .

Now having said all that, I want to end here with my favorite part of Publish 2: the Vesper Museum Antiquities and Heirloom system.

The Vesper Museum antiquity system is so, so much fun. If there is one mechanic that I think should come over to Production ASAP, it is this. Certainly some revisions will need to be done to scale it up to the population of other shards, but that may be a great opportunity to give some love to playstyles outside of the regular monster-bash system.

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/ph/ugrzgkn8lrjj.png

I love how items found say my name and house name, and the variety of different types and hues. The above photo are the specific items I've decided to keep. I know some people are keeping none, some are keeping all and donating duplicates, and some like me are only keeping the best named and hued ones of a certain art type.

I love that if you don't keep the item you can keep and add the form to a book which lists out every single item you've found and when and where:

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/ia/gj5u1dhb3bvi.png

I love that I can get these items from treasure hunting, boss fights, and from Blackthorn's dungeon. One of the joys of New Legacy is that it makes looking through corpse loot important.

I also love that there is public recognition for your personal and guild efforts towards donating to the museum:

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/dj/1gfj4nkugl53.png

Finally, the rare 1 of 1 items with your name in 26 variations Heirloom system is great and makes me feel super eager to play as much as I can.. These are the items I know that are going to be the most special to me when its time to leave, and I don't want to miss any of them. So far I've only gotten one! And so I hope that by playing Blackthorn's and more t-mapping the others will start showing up. A reward item that's like "10% more Heirloom luck" would be super welcome in the last few months of the season..

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/pw/ecprs0r31eoz.png

Kel · May 6

I completely echo @Jepeth on his sentiments. Especially "...the best content Ultima Online has received since I returned to the game..." as that truly resonates with me.

I left UO a while back as nothing but a hardcore PVPer with very little interest in PVM. I tried to return several times to prodo to enjoy either, and I just couldn't find a way to get back in. PVP had morphed into such severe automation insanity and PVM was just too dull for me. I couldn't stay engaged.

For whatever reason NL is different and made aspects of the game that previously felt dull at times interesting and exciting. NL is just a really engaging experience from the new boss fights to the new systems. I feel like the only thing NL is missing at this point is that depth and maturity of systems and content that comes with time. Everything that has been introduced and fleshed out thus far has been great (minus the housing system, sorry guys).

The ode to the days of old and bringing back the RP core of UO has made things a lot of fun as well. Maybe that adds some of the character to NL that makes it feel special. I just recently rewatched the NL trailer from a handful of years ago and there are some aspects from it that seem like they'd be a great addition to NL solely from a vibe and thematic standpoint.

Been a lot of fun so far! I've met tons of awesome people on NL, it really is a great community. Looking forward to the surprises and discoveries in The Shattering and then in Season 2 with everyone!

Howdy, Stranger!

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