UO is too complicated for new players.

I have spent this weekend trying to understand Imbuing,  Reinforcing, Statistics, Resistances and many new stats that have been added to items in the last decade that I have been gone. 

An item can have https://www.uoguide.com/Item_Properties not including "eating"? properties and more. I used to be a 120 Blacksmith that could forge nice items if I was lucky enough to gather the right BoD's with my alt accounts. Now, I am expected to make a certain race crafter to make imbuments. One of which requires me to do a quest from XYZ to get a bottle to make an uncraftable potion to add + something to an item. UO was my first MMO and I have never seen a system this convoluted.

I have been asking questions here all week to try and grasp everything that has changed. It's too much. It makes me sad. I guess that's all I have to say.

Comments

  • JepethJepeth Posts: 537
    edited July 22
    Okay, so let’s take a step back a bit.

    Let’s think of it this way: there are three levels of crafting.

    Level one: simple crafting. Your tailor, blacksmith, fletcher uses wood, ingots, whatever to make a single item. Goes no further than that. This is the BoD system. Make enough of one item and get points on a vendor for special stuff.

    Level two: mixed crafting. This is when you use multiple crafting skills combined to make a simple item. For example, your smith makes double axe blanks and then imbues them to gave desirable mods. RNG had not yet entered the equation as what you produce is predictable every time. It may take you a few tries to get the mods you want to stick, and you’ll eat resources up, but you will get the item you intend. If you haven’t used it yet, try https://www.knuckleheads.dk/ as an online tool to plan mods on whatever you want to craft at this level.

    Level three: RNG crafting. This is where crafting gets unpredictable. You are still combining multiple crafting skills, but are now mixing in random number generator elements into the craft. So, for example, you want a double axe, but intend the final weapon to be 100% fire damage. So you craft thirty simple double axes and then use runic hammers to try for 100% fire elemental damage. You burn a ton of charges on those runic hammers (which come from crafting level one blacksmithing BoDs) until you get one good 100% fire damage double axe. You then take that axe and combine it with imbuing the mods on it you want, and hey presto your final weapon.

    The double axe is a simple example. Level three crafting can become so complex that you are using a paid store item on the piece you are crafting that prevents you from failing and losing the piece entirely. Or mixing color ore to juice up something’s luck or elemental damage, or adding armor refinements to tailored items to go beyond 70 resists.

    But what to understand here is… you don’t need to do this. You can play the game just as well as the majority of everyone else with the first two levels. You can make money just fine doing BoDs for the first level of crafting. You mentioned something about being a gargoyle as necessary for imbuing. It’s not necessary, it just provides a 10% or so bonus to the chance of imbuing success for level two crafting. But that bonus is often not that important unless you are min/maxxing. You don’t have to go that far; it is your choice.

    But what I do think is necessary to stress is that you can’t learn all this stuff in a single weekend. The only way to learn is to play the game for a good long while. I’ve been back for over five years and I still learn something new about UO every week. The very hardest thing I have learned, though, since being back is to stop trying to play the game like it was still 2000. It’s not an SNES game where the save file is still there waiting. I hope this framing helps clear some things up for you a bit. I also responded to you on discord, so feel free to dm me there if I can help explain anything else. 
  • PriamPriam Posts: 44
    edited July 22
    That was very helpful. I think that I am trying to doing everything at the top level, instead of finding mastery in a specific area. It was a blow to see my shard how it is, and moreso when the characters that I spent months and years perfecting now do not fit well in to UO 2024. I do appreciate you taking the time to explain. It did help.
  • Victim_Of_SiegeVictim_Of_Siege Posts: 2,118
    Priam said:
    That was very helpful. I think that I am trying to doing everything at the top level, instead of finding mastery in a specific area. It was a blow to see my shard how it is, and moreso when the characters that I spent months and years perfecting now do not fit well in to UO 2024. I do appreciate you taking the time to explain. It did help.
    Do this, start new characters on a new shard from scratch to learn the new stuff. and I would say probably do it on Atlantic so you can find a helpful guild. Trying to figure the new systems out with old mostly made characters(i say that because of the changes) will be confusing and detrimental. Starting with new characters you can learn them slowly. once you get back in the swing, you'll know what to do with your characters on Sonoma and then tweak them. you have to remember, those of us that know our way around these new systems didn't learn them in a few days/weeks it took us months and years to master. take it slow and ask a lot of questions (why i'd go to Atlantic and join a large guild) As jepeth said, this will take time, but it will be well worth it.
    A Goblin, a Gargoyle, and a Drow walk into a bar . . .

    Never be afraid to challenge the status quo

  • Petra_FydePetra_Fyde Posts: 1,459
    While it's true that gargoyles get a slight bonus to imbuing success chance, after turning my crafter into a gargoyle for a while, I decided the bonus wasn't worth it to not be able to ride the giant beetle that most crafters find almost essential, so I changed back. I still manage to imbue everything I want to, it just takes a bit longer and costs a bit more in the lower end resources.
  • UrgeUrge Posts: 1,284
    It seems complicated at first but once you get it, you get it. 

    The advice I give people is to take it slow and master one thing at a time until it all makes sense. 

    By all means do not feel bad or frustrated for not knowing everything. There's not a player in this game that knows everything. Maybe Petra but that's it. 
  • Petra_FydePetra_Fyde Posts: 1,459
    hehe, no, I don't know everything, just slightly more than the average, but I'm always willing to share what knowledge I have. 
  • PawainPawain Posts: 10,117
    edited July 22
    Yes. UO is very complicated.  Many player professions, many ways to play.  There are players who never kill anything, players who kill everything, players who support groups.  

    Players who support group play should be cherished.

    Ask questions here, plenty of posters will help you.

    UO has to be complex it has kept many players attention for over 20 years.

    UO never ends.
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • LilyGraceLilyGrace Posts: 974
    The wiki on this site and https://www.uoguide.com/Main_Page

    offer a lot of info. If you Google just about anything UO you’ll find links to go to. What I mean is, for example, if you Google “Ultima Online veteran rewards” or a zillion other things you might want info on, you’ll find lots of links that’ll lead you to information. 

    Also, if you're on a shard that isn’t always active in chat and you can’t get anyone to answer a question, you can pop into the Atlantic shard and usually find someone who’ll answer a question for you. 
  • TheoTheo Posts: 202
    Well the good news is crafted items are generally junk since the overpowered loot changes so you don't really have to worry much.  Items drop with 12 properties when you can only imbue 5.  The only thing you need crafting for is weapons because the loot drops are trash here since weapons have 20+ properties and like 45 different weapons when dexers only use one of 4-5 weapons and only want 4-5 diff mods (HSL, HML, Area, Slayer, Hit spell, SSI and maybe SC).  

    So end of the day - get out to dungeons and collect gear and ditch crafting. Its a lost skill.  This is from a 20+ year crafter.  

    And I agree its way to complex compared to what it used to be.  Kept adding without thinking about what they were adding.  

    And you are right - the new player is going to go pfft, and play something they can be better at in a day or two instead of spending weeks trying to read up on a poorly documented and convoluted system.  
  • PriamPriam Posts: 44
    Theo said:
    Well the good news is crafted items are generally junk since the overpowered loot changes so you don't really have to worry much.  Items drop with 12 properties when you can only imbue 5.  The only thing you need crafting for is weapons because the loot drops are trash here since weapons have 20+ properties and like 45 different weapons when dexers only use one of 4-5 weapons and only want 4-5 diff mods (HSL, HML, Area, Slayer, Hit spell, SSI and maybe SC).  

    So end of the day - get out to dungeons and collect gear and ditch crafting. Its a lost skill.  This is from a 20+ year crafter.  

    And I agree its way to complex compared to what it used to be.  Kept adding without thinking about what they were adding.  

    And you are right - the new player is going to go pfft, and play something they can be better at in a day or two instead of spending weeks trying to read up on a poorly documented and convoluted system.  

    You paint a bleak picture of the game. I was going to go 100% crafting with three characters to do the job. Be curious to hear from others.
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