New Player Feedback before I forget :)

Will do.

Hmmm. Dark grey it is. (Man, did Portalarium ever know what they were doing when they decided to make black dye uncraftable and expensive.)

 

I think the term Rustpunk is more fitting.

 

Thanks everyone for their helpful and thoughtful comments. I don't have a lot of time to respond to everything right now but I will come back; especially I have ideas on how to make it feel more Ultima, in both or either single player or UO type ways. I think there are easyish ways to get around who really own the Ultima copyrights ans still make it feel more "Ultima." Hopefully my week will die down and I can not only articulate my thoughts better but also fire up the next release.

One point is it does make me feel better that the "steampunk" elements were always planned. I hate steampunk, but if that was RG vision from the start than so be it.

 

I don't hate it, but I'm so so so tired of it.

 

A restaurant near me became steampunk themed and that put me over the edge!

I probably shouldn't say I hate it, though. I apologize to the people who like it! I know it can be done well, but it isn't my thing.

 

Read the whole thread, your ship has sailed i believe.
Sad that your feelings and opinion of the game turned the other way, but i expect that for 50-80 % of the people who will ever try it.

The worst thing they did is to call it UO successor.
People have to strong feelings about UO, nothing will ever beat it.
They compare their experience from 20 or 15 years ago, when they were younger, have no experience with games like that and when they were overwhelmed.
You can do UO 2.0 in better anf they will allways say that UO was the game and UO 2.0 is just a bad copy or modern translation.
UO is too strong.

 

I'm more disappointed it's not a single player successor than a UO successor.

I agree that nothing will ever beat UO. You can't capture what it was 20 years ago because it was so new and different. It was the wild west. It also evolved and is still evolving. I still have 2 active accounts and it can be fun.


Here are some things that I like/d about UO Shroud doesn't do: (and probably never will, I get it.)

The thrill of being able to be PKd anywhere. Yes, I did like that aspect of the game though I NEVER killed a single player
Easy, fast and cheap customization of your character; NPCs sell tons of clothes
Almost everything can be interacted with, harvested, mined, fished in, the whole map is basically nodes
You can re-skin your house any time. You can make it bigger or smaller. You could build a different house every day if you want on the same lot.
The fishing is ridiculously robust and fun. That wasn't always so but it is a fun system even now.
Lots of ways to legit make money with crafting, fishing, growing plants, not just killing stuff

Single player Ultima things:

More Ultima references. Come on!
I get they can't be like "Here is Shamino and also we are in Vesper with the Hoe of Destruction because Minax" BUT
creatively, this thing should be dripping with Ultima references. It isn't hard. EA wouldn't sue over Smith the Cow. What about a cat wearing a little Shamino outfit? That would be funny. Lord British had "secret" scandal kids with the help, why not have a ton of NPCs running around saying they are from royal bloodlines? Talk of poisoned bread, red muppets, some bard singing about being trapped on an island covered in snakes. Stick a Warren the specter somewhere. @Lum the Mad I would be happy to just write a list of sort of but not really references. Hell, I'll even go back and play any of the Ultimas to mine for some.

Also:
Finding random weird loot like the aforementioned Hoe, dirty diapers, just more items in general
The companions. If we can get any that feel like real people any ep that would be great. They don't even have to join you, just know who you are, remember you, have deep backstories, etc. (See D:OS2)
NPCs react to things that have happened in game and know each other
I like how there isn't hand holding, but there was an urgency to the other games to move towards an X goal from the beginning. It keeps you moving and makes the fun asides feel more fun and asidey if that makes sense?

I don't know. Bottom line for me is that the MMO has to come out of a solid story, not get the MMO down and then the story. Every time a new vanity item appears in the store, the soul of Ultima shrinks.

LOL, now I know where I'm looking when I see an Avatar with wings.