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So many complaints about UO after renaissance release.
Jointmasta
Member Posts: 7
I hear a lot of complaints about how UO went downhill after the release of renaissance. personally ive been playing UO on and off since then and have been excited about every release up to the current High seas and have not been dissapointed. IMO the games requires updates and changes to survive 15 years. i guess my question is if your one of those people that think EA destoyed UO what would you have done differently to keep it fresh and exciting? or was it just purely Trammel that ruined it for you?
Comments
Personally Tram killed the game for me- That said, beyond that I have only returned twice for a month each time and am really not even up to date on any changes and tweaks since (except for the awful Graphical update)
I am personally glad UO is still going after all these years- But honestly even if they made a new official pre tram server it wouldnt be enough for me to return. After 15 years (has it really been that long..Damn, I am getting old) of coarse they need to do things to "keep it fresh"but the technology has changed so much and there is so much that UO 2.0 COULD becomebut it would honestly require a new game written from scratch with the same "feel" .
The problem with THAT is essentially that they would make it a far more casual (and probably F2P with Ca$h $hop game)
UO was part of the "time" and couldnt ever work again as it did before. What made UO fun for me was the mix of playstyles converging in a "World"- The Internet was still the wild west, most of us were from the pen and Paper era (and nerds) and there wasnt enough choice out there to give casuals a game , RPers a game, PKers a game, etc... So we all played together and it was something magical.
Those "Care bears" were needed and not just for cannon fodder but for everything they brought to the table and added to the World (I was one of them and abhored PVP) but you will never attract many to a game like pre tram UO when there are 8 million titles made for THEIR playstyle- This would leave non PVP players who like FFA games for the danger to be such a minority, it would never work.
So much I would like to say but I am tired as hell and not overly coherent. =P
Before Trammel things were mysterious, difficult, and things had consequence. I remember buying my first house from someone and it was $50,000 gold. It was a scary feeling for me to hand over that much money to someone hoping they wouldnt screw me over. They did. I told a friend about it that I had met in-game and he knew who it was. He got a hold of the person and made him give it back. It was horrible to see someone rip me off, but it was cool as hell to see someone have my back to help me out. It was a scary time and trust was earned in that game from binding together.
Moonglow and Brit banks were filled with people that would steal from you and try to run off. "Guards" was yelled and sometimes a newbie like me would be able to pick up some loot. I felt like I was a King wearing that bone armor I picked up off some corpse.
The reds that would hang out outside of towns smashing face were a challenge too. Theyd lead you away from town and have all their friends come out of hiding only to smash your face. People would watch as you died and were afraid to intervene because that meant they were a free target too. It was classic. It was what I thought the old days was probably really like.
Picking cotton, going to the spindle to weave it, then turning it into cloth for aids. It was incredible.
The more you adventured the more you found to do.
Crafting: Best crafting to date for me because of the full loot PvP and item decay
Treasure Hunting: Awesome! What the heck, you get to fight some level 5 map creatures with a group of players and split the loot? Who wouldnt want to do that? You could even fish them up if you were a fisherman. Which brings up fishing?
Rare Collecting: Seriously. Did everyone know that certain rare items spawned at server up? You grab those rares and fill your house with rare collections showing off your true love for the game. I even remember using exploits to get water tiles and purple gear. It was a hoot.
Taming. OMG! Everyone knows that pets were stupid so having a dragon by your side or an awesome White Wyrm as your partner was nothing to a PvPr. They could take me out still with ease, but I felt awesome with my pet regardless. Having a mare on top of that was even better. Rare Pets? Did I mention that. Having rare pets to tame for my own was amazing. From mares, to black ostys, to a White Wyrm. It was amazing to be that person that put in the time to become a GM Tamer. It was a hard skill to level up and it was a pride thing.
PvP- was awesome. It was free for all and the Chaos/Order system was awesome. The Guilds warring one another was awesome. The Evil and Good system was semi decent too. The faction system later was semi decent, but I preferred the Chaos/Order system.
What made the game was that you had every playstyle together. You had to band together against punks, you had to gather the punks together to beat the carebears. It was a chaotic world and you were in charge of the outcome.
Trammel came and I watched things become easy mode. It took me forever to collect $50000 gold for my first house. I earned that in a day in Trammel with ease. I took my WW to Trammel and because I didnt have to worry about being PKd, I had no fear. I didnt leave my camp. I set up camp and killed crap all day long. I could earn $300000 in a day of camping the right area. It was crazy. I didnt have to bank my goods, I didnt have anyone to chase me out. it was just straight up easy mode.
It was nice at first and then it became boring. Having no fear of repercussion and no consequence in that world made it boring to me.
Here's what happened though...
1) The economy went to crap. You had to go to Trammel to earn money. You couldnt survive in the economy if you didnt earn gold in trammel because inflation happened. it was almost instant
2) If you went back to Felucca for fun, the only people left were the punks, looters, thieves, badits, and people that were asshats. All the players I enjoyed playing alongside stayed in Trammel..... It was like Felucca was the Prisoners of UO.
For a player like me who enjoys all aspects of old UO, I was left without a home. I couldnt stay in Trammel because it was boring and too restrictive. I couldnt stay in Felucca because I didnt want to serve a prison sentence. Where did I fit in? Im in the middle I love the game and all its glory, but lets face it socializing is a huge part of the game too. I like the excitement we had and faced together, but I wasnt wanting to just jump into a prison sentence either.
I have never found a game like UO.
SWG was close to being great for me, but it turned direction too.
Darkfall was the prison sentence of UO again and the community sucked.
I will never find another UO because there will NEVER be another game that can capture everything that UO captured, including the different types of playstyles under one roof. Everyone is a niche gamer and sadly you cant attract them all into one game again.
Can you tell I miss UO?
Will repopulation be anything near it?
Will anyone ever make a UO2?
Bah!
Nice post.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
Great posts!
There was a time and era component to the original UO experience which means it is not going to something that can be recreated. Just have to be happy to have been able to experience it at all...
back to siege perilous.
siege perilous is like a classic official server
Cheers
Agreed, great post and pretty much sums up the amazing UO experience I am glad I got to experience. Unfortunately we all have to grow up one day and those experiences will never be the same - kind of like having sex for the first time.
For me, Trammel saved the game but patch 16(I think that was the big one) is what was the true beginning of the end for me, albeit it took about three more years until I finally gave up the ghost and let my five accounts expire, with all their houses, rares etc.
By the time I left I could barely log in because the neon glare was blinding wherever you went and other than the rare sighting of another player limping back through the fel gate, naked and upset, there was little reason to, unless you wanted to go play ninja or visit the elves in their underground tree ....
I have not played a game like UO since I quit. There were a few mmo's that almost captured the feel for me but none has. Yes Trammel ruined the game for me.
I never pked anyone , but I had great fun fighting Pker's. It was just the excitment of being in a dungeon with friends knowing a pk could come and you could loose all your stuff that kept me playing the game. You had to rely on your friends to help you out in the game. Every other game since UO has just felt like a solo game with other players in the world with you. They never had the feel of UO. It was like making your first character trying to fight that Ettin for the first time. You just had to go attack it and see how you fared against it. There were no places for certain level characters just all open world. If you could not take out that Ettin then some friends you met came and helped you out.
In Trammel it was just so boring. No feeling of excitement. It was Easy mode. I like difficult games that are challenging. Just about every game I have played since then except Star Wars Galaxies when it first came out has been a bore fest. Go kill this many of that so you can level up. I can't go there its not my level. All the same crap. Most of the best memories I have had in any MMO's has been in UO pre Trammel. I still talk to someone I met when I played UO all those years ago. I can't really say that about any other MMO that I have played in since then.
It was great fun and I miss that magical feeling I had when playing the game. Truely there probally will not be another game like it again. I agree with what was posted before me. All the playstyles together was just very unique, and I don't think it will ever happen again.
Roleplaying (you know, that thing the RP in an MMORPG stands for) survived Renaissance quite well. In fact, it bloomed. On many shards, for example Europa, huge RP communities formed and they were having a blast.
Almost every expansion after that, however, took the game further and further away from the original vision, with the culmination on Age of Shadows that completely changed the game into a gear grind treadmill.
For me UO was at its best at Renaissance, because roleplaying was what I was after, not much else.
Oh yea. I remember getting my hiding skill up as high as I could. Go out and chop some trees, see a red, then hide. It was a scary time in the old days.
Once I got up higher, joined a guild, we had a house. Some thief lockpicked our house and cleaned us out. This was before they limited how much stuff you could have in your house.