Why is it like pulling teeth to get patches and fixes?
I know the staff is small, but it seems to take FOREVER to get anything we ask for. I'd gladly pay more just to get this thing shifted into a higher gear. Not speaking for everyone else obviously.
Comments
I frequently disagree on what their priorities are, and I am not sure my subscription will survive another bug fixing publish, but the reason things take too long is that there is only so much they can do in given amount of time. They have to sort all the issues by importance (to them and tho the player base) and by how much they will take to fix. And if whatever is bothering you is considered low enough priority, and is likely to take a long time to fix (as some bugs are), chances are - it will never get fixed.
I can try to provide some insight on them if you provide a concise list.
I don't have a whole list, but I was wondering if the auto open corpse feature that was added to the CC could be added to the EC as well? Any answer would be highly appreciated.
Thank you.
On UO.com the most recent is January 2019 and I can't find it in there. Still not sure why they refusing so hard to answer it here in public, but at least there is an answer now. TYVM!
https://uo.com/newsletter-archive/
Touchy discussions are vetted out from all angles and compromised solutions are entered, and sometimes changed multiple times over a few weeks.
And not like total game breaking stuff, the same types of fixes that take years of pushing and prodding here, that we still sometimes never see a fix for. It's kind of odd. We talked about this in voice one night a while ago and it legit makes you wonder if they work on other games or projects besides uo, like maybe uo only gets a small sliver of their time. I don't have any other real explanation.
I can understand while major changes or expansion like items take time, but I don't understand why small patches for small fixes or alterations for balancing can't be implemented somewhat swiftly. It's like by the time they are addressed there's already a new problem, or people have quit out of frustration.
I think they do a good job when they do it, and this isn't a flame tho it comes off that way, just without seeing behind the curtain we don't know what they see, do, hear, touch, etc.
Like I dunno, 2+ years ago there was major discussion of a vvv revamp, set for a publish around 101, and it never occurred, and no information was ever given why it wasn't. It's been many years since PvP saw any refreshing content of any sort, and I only notice when friends are like "you know I came back to up like 2-3 years ago and I don't think there's been anything new to fight for/over since I've been back. Nothing holds the magic powerscrolls did and making them shard bound when the pet revamp happened would of been the big ticket ya know? Big pvm revamp with a big PvP piece hidden inside. But no... Can't recapture that magic just go farm scrolls on some empty shard and transfer them back for big profits.
I know there are many considerations, many playstyles, and many opinions on every piece of the moving puzzle but it's all connected, actions in one area have actions in another area and sure, Dev time goes into vetting that out and seeing where the greater good is versus what some people's opinions of it are. Taking into consideration difficulty, economy, morale, etc. But its just a little unnerving when months of no information go by, no roadmaps, no notes or 'we are going to do this, no we aren't going to do that' and then some publish notes come out for stuff like revamping cannons and something in the water to kill and 6 bug fixes. ????????? Several Months later?
1. Get an artist like Andrea to update the quality of the original artwork (Classic Client Cu Sidhe anyone?) plus Pixel Polishing would be a game changer for a game this old, and fix the bad pixie art / paperdolls in EC. The enchanced environment such as water and land mass are better looking in EC, also special effects and such look cool in EC vs Classic... theres much left to be desired from both clients. Although I prefer the classic 'vibe'
2. Fix crafting and mule skill sets to become more of the economy again. I know you've heard the "make useless skills worth using agian" yelled at you till the horse was beat dead. Taste ID, Item ID, Begging, Camping, and a litany of others have few practical uses in today's game play.
3. Make creating a thief / fishing character worth it again. Pvm and Pvp. Theres no reason to be a dungeon theif vs say creating a treasure hunter (especially when t-hunters are getting a boost next patch), unless u want some cool deco. (same applies to being a Legendary fisherman... cool for deco, not much else.) Make a PvP thief? unless you wanna hang out and steal exclusively from champ spawns, forget about it cause theres nothing else worth / or available to even steal from people. Nobody participates in VvV mechanics, so stealing there is not important anymore.
4. Work on the loot table (obv keeping power creep in mind). Especially the rare dungeon drops being less useful than other magic 'no name' loot that drops regularly on the roof etc. Doom / Peerless artifacts should be sought after more than just random legendaries at the roof. Right now 99% of dungeon artifacts are cool looking / lore-wise but junk in their usefulness. Make all the older boss and dungeon encounters up to date in terms of loot table. Right now I only see ppl take champs and the roof seriously. Noone wants to do peerless, Eodon encounters, or Doom (it is all empty just like High Seas has been for so long)
6. Balance some PvP / weapon skills & system mechanics out - right now swords dominates Pvm (sampire) and PvP (Bokuto Mages) Nobody thats serious in Pvp is beating parry mages with a macer, fencer or archer template unless its a big gank field fight. I'd like to see more reasons to branch out and use these. PvP is dominated by Bokuto mages and Parry Mages... everything else is a distant second or third in terms of power and ability. The playing field could use some balancing perhaps. I am definitely not an expert in the mechanics of it all, so if im wrong I can accept that.
Is VvV working as intended? because I don't see anything special happening other than everyone attacking eachother without a purpose. It would be nice if a system in VvV actually kept people engaged, do you have any ideas on how to move forward?
7. Hire a pro to do your FB / IG marketing - I don't know your metrics, but we could use all the returning players we can get at this point. The game needs more people constantly coming in either returning or somewhat new to keep the social interactions fresh and fun. I've seen some of the ads on IG.... let's just say, they could use some work. Make more content to keep people interested. Theres a video made by UO staff on FB page that got thousands of views... and then they just stopped making content. Stuff like this would go a long way in keeping people interested. If you don't have a well seasoned Facebook pixel, and ads that have millions of impressions, something is wrong. You put all that time and effort into endless journey, and i dont think i've ever seen a facebook ad. Even if you ran campaigns, did you get a pro? That article in wired magazine recently about bringing back lore type gamimg is a good start to the good PR for UO still being the best game, take advantage of it.
8. Theres a reason almost NOONE plays a gargoyle character. It's because they aren't fun to play. Maybe theres something that can be done about this.
9. Hire another person if at all possible. I understand EA probably has its head up its ass on this one, but more than anything, it would help keep the updates coming more often. Thats what a UO junkie like me craves. Updates. In theory, this would create buzz. and more revenue from players. Revenue is what EA wants right? It feels like UO is struggling, and player run free shards are slowly killing OSI. I could name a certain free shard that has 8 full time staff members, who are professional devs and support... they aren't just some rookies; OSI deserves more support.
10. Felucca is a ghost facet. I barely see people at the Yew gate, let along anywhere else besides champ spawns. Can we come up with some reason to not let it just stay dead besides champ spawns? Buccs Den used to be a thriving outlaw community. Yes, I realize the adrenaline junkies are the minority. Don't @ me.
11. What is there to do in Eodon, Illeshnar and Tokuno these days? I literally go to Tokuno on ATL for Goodman's Rune Library and thats it. My wish list includes making it fun to go to every facet of UO because new stuff is happening that every PvM'er wants to participate in. I realize this isn't specific enough of a request, but I just want to know your thoughts, we have so much open space that isn't being used by majority of players, and I've grown to love PvM a lot recently)
12. For the love of god, find a way to eliminate the gold sellers / rare sellers for real life money who advertise in game chat. Avatar is just laughing at you.
13. Shard Shields - I get that the cat is out the bag - but maybe make it so the economy isn't being full scale assaulted by shard farmers? I cringe as I heard people talk about plundering other shards and bringing it back to ATL... so much for a balanced economy and artifact market. The problem is only getting more serious.
14. Why is scripting still dominating the game? PvP doesn't even happen without Steam or Enhanced Razor these days... you can't stop it? Speed hacking? Yup. they all do it. It's an open secret. I know that once u patch a fix, they will work around it, but now u have people with enhanced razor using python coding? Seriously? It's going too far.
15. Fix the out of control inflation - This may tie into several other issues. But why do I need several billion gold to buy what used to cost 1 million? Because the economy is bloated like Venezuela due to dupers / scripters. Is there a solution to this?
16. Keep us in the loop - We want more information about what the staff is working on, and why. What is being considered, and why. UO is my main pasttime. I want more information. There will be months on end without much except some forum post responses here and there. Although I did think the most recent High Seas Rising Tide post from @Kyronix was a great example of getting people informed and involved. We never hear anything from the staff except Kyronix, and the other devs do meet and greets once in a while.
Now I will go back to reading the book 'Braving Britania' by Wes Locher - highly reccommended.
I'm not trying to pick on you. I just want to point out none have easy fixes. In fact I see fixing some would even make others worse.
None the less, alot of the things listed above are much more important, but they are inherent problems developed over many many years and not simple over night fixes. I think VvV could be updated with some simple yet large changes that have been suggested in the past for instance. I don't think ur fixing the economy in a week tho lol
I also think linking scripting to PvP is wrong. There are very few scripts in PvP, that get used in any real capacity. Yes there are assistant clients but I'd argue they are just doing a way better more modernized version of what uoassist should be. I mean it took 20+ years for uo to have a dress macro.... Those assistant clients are damn near crucial to accomplish menial tasks. Scripting on the other hand, is heavily used in every aspect of farming, monsters/pvm, resources gathering, events, you name it . Don't give PvP the bad connotations, it's just that in a tram ruleset you don't have a direct reason to complain about it.
And @crunchnasty , I disagree with pretty much all your 16 points with the exception of number 13. Shard shields. Can't comment on the things about hiring staff. You seem like a returning player, maybe try playing the game for a bit longer before you ask what there is to do in Eodan, and say that nobody plays gargoyle, and say that nobody plays a macer in pvp. Your shard must be different to mine.
"" Taste ID, Item ID, Begging, Camping, and a litany of others have few practical uses in today's game play. "" Begging is useful at halloween, the others listed, along with maybe one or two more, should just be dropped from the list, period. Especially from the SoT possibilities and SOA possibilites in chests and spawns.
One way of improving begging is to add a chance at getting a legendary or a power scroll. For example you would have a 0.01% chance at getting a 120 power scroll.
At the same meeting though, the issue with the shame moongates was fixed, as someone, maybe even Kyronix took me there so I could show them the blockage around the gates, but the entrance to Hythloth is still a nightmare which I know has been talked about since day one of UO.
This is why we feel no one on the Dev team plays because That Dungeon entrance alone would be top priority.
Don't think we don't have
Feed back via email should have to be submitted from a verified EA account.
Mages only get annoyed when even pressing all the right buttons at all the right times still results in death vs an afk warrior.
2 warriors fighting each other, the best suit will win. With magery, a good suit won’t help.
A dexxer with a Hpr suit with 800 skill vs a lame suit with 720 skill and no stats? Yeah right...
Sorry friend this game is item based.
If the devs cared the would change the code to force the cheaters to update with every patch... But they haven't in almost a year? Why do you think that is? All these patches and yet no patch change?