Hello gentlemen and ladies ,
I am making this post because i want to share my journey so far on Excelsior since i joined the shard 31 days ago , we can call it the monthly recount , along with my opinion about the future and current condition of the game but before all of the blabber a bit about my UO history. I have been playing the game for a few years on the OSI right up to and the 7th anniversary, always had the best of memories from my first years on online gaming and UO has always had a special place in my heart. In the past i tried getting back into the OSI but it was lucking , furthermore to add to this i dont believe the subscription model is working for a game that is so old with so few updates. So the next natural step was to search for a free shard and see if their are worth the time . After searching quite a bit i joined my first free shard , which will remain anonymous for obvious reasons , after not even 1 month it got boring really fast mainly because it didnt offer anything custom and there was really poor gm support.After a disappointing experience UO was again left in the back burner after a few month i decided to try again and then i found Excelsior.
The first thing i noticed on this shard is the amazing community , everyone is friendly , polite and willing to help out other players. In all the mmorpgs i have played i havent seen that , ever! ( and i have played alot of them ) The next thing i noticed was how involved the staff is and how many custom content is available as well as the things to come. Truly astonishing and hope everyone keeps up the same amount of love and interest put into this shard, makes it one of the best shards to play UO . In my opinion this shard could very well be the official with the quality and time put into it.
Enought with the praising as i have also noticed quite a few problems which arent necessarily the creation of the shard they are however promoted further because of what the shard offers. Main problem i have found is that the only viable end game ''build'' is the 215 dex or imps or bios . Magery is nowhere to be found , crafting is nowhere to be found . This creates the problem that only a few items are worth selling and trading and it actually forces player to go down that one road if they ever want to reach the ''end-game'' . The reason that 215 dex is so dominating is because we dont have a skill cap + higher max stats then official. This causes a problem simply because the skills that are associated with melee/ranged weapon dps have alot better scaling then spell casting ones.If we also take into account that there are also relayers that just widens the gap between dexxer and any other possible combination.I can keep talking about this for ages but this post is already too long.
I have been trying to think of some ideas in order to improve the overall direction and promote better variety this in turn i believe will attract more players and improve the economy and popularity of the shard .
Magery suggestions:
-Possibility to increase the FC cap in order to make it more in par with ssi/dex effect on melee/ranged attacks.
-Ability to craft tomes with properties
-Ability to level up tomes the same way we can level up all the other weapons
-Provide Spell casting chance procs the same way that hit fireball etc work . Maybe not the same ones but other options could be available eg bleed over time , magic dmg vulnerability ,chance to slow
-Revamp of existing magery spells to be more on par with the demands of the shard.
Further suggestions in the general direction:
-Improve the crafting system which is more or less non existent since imbuing isnt implemented on this shard and so its impossible to pick the stats you want.This in turn forces players to only buy some really specific artifacts for each of their character slots.
-Improvement of the pet system in terms of variety , reworking of the slots needed for many of the pets to make them a more viable choice.
-Would be nice if the buff/debuff bar worked , this would help keep track of our buffs/debuffs/bandages. Even tho you dont need to know how long Divine Fury/Concecrate Weapon has left since after a certain gear point you can just spam it i believe it adds tactical play instead of button smashing.
-Having the option to pick from the titles that you have obtained like on the official would be a nice addition , wont have an effect on gameplay but its nice to see various titles.I know the option is available to purchase a custom title. Every little thing matters in the overall experience that is UO and that experience is diversity and variety , the ability to make your own choices.(this one is more of a personal would like to have )
I believe other people might/have probably suggested similar or the same ideas but i want to share my thoughts with everyone.Looking forward to discussing and sharing opinions with everyone.
A big thank you goes out to all the staff for the amazing experience that this shard has to offer , the amount of love and care you have put in this shard is making it work!
Delaina- OG
The Old Guard
My journey so far ....
Re: My journey so far ....
Hello,
Nearly all of these ideas have already been suggested, and most have already been announced as on mine and +V's to-do list. You might like to read the forums a bit more to find the various posts pertinent to your interests for upcoming changes.
Nearly all of these ideas have already been suggested, and most have already been announced as on mine and +V's to-do list. You might like to read the forums a bit more to find the various posts pertinent to your interests for upcoming changes.