Ideas - From an Original UO Player
Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 8:50 pm
Greetings everyone. I am Wilderness.
As you may have guessed, I am relatively new to the server.
Years ago (probably 12-15 years) I played Ultima Online on the official servers, specifically Lake Superior.
I am what could be considered "old school" - By that, I mean I played from the original release, up to Age of Shadows, and quit soon after it was released, for a total of about six years in-game.
With that in mind, I've noticed quite a few things that were present in the original Ultima, but are not here. I feel that some of them could be introduced here, and add more depth to the server. Please note however, that the ideas and suggestions I put forth here are meant to be helpful, and are coming to you from the experiences and adventures of a long time Ultima Online fan, who felt that Ultima Online was their home for a long, long time.
With all of that said, here are my suggestions, thoughts and observations during my playtime. I will add to them as I continue to play.
1.)Vendors are somewhat unwieldy and not easily worked with. Note that I'm talking about NPC vendors, AND player vendors.
Original UO had a couple features that could potentially be implemented to help with this:
First, walking up to a vendor (within one to three paces) and saying "vendor buy" or "vendor sell" would open the appropriate menu. Of course, this seems to be already present, but it seems to be spotty. By that, I mean they respond to their name, but not "vendor"
Second, the merchant would scan your inventory and choose the items it would be interested in, based upon the merchant type.
Example: Mages would buy regular and magic scrolls and basic reagents. Alchemists would purchase all reagents, alchemical suplies, and various other materials.
Second, I'm noticing that player merchants have half of the interface that basic merchants do, but they don't have the option to buy. Would it be possible to scan the list of items the merchant would buy, and apply that filter to your packs?
TL;DR version: Make town merchants buy only specific things in line with their profession, and then set them to scan your entire backpack (including other bags) for those items. Second, make player merchants scan your pack for items they are authorized to buy. Third, have them respond to the words "vendor buy" or "vendor sell" - Targeting/typing out their name exactly is sometimes a pain.
2.) City guards.
I'm curious on this one. Why is there no guard service within the cities to keep the hostiles out of the city?
In original UO, if someone was a criminal, went criminal (via theft, or something) or attacked someone, the player (or any nearby NPC who saw it) could say "Guards" and a pair of guards would immediately show up, kill the offender, and then wait around for about thirty seconds to a minute, before vanishing. If the suspect was a creature, no corpse is left, but a player corpse would be left behind, and freely lootable.
As it currently stands, I've been in Asgard, Ashbenford and many other cities, and have watched orcs and other creatures roaming through the city attacking me. I've seen a couple of actual "guards" roaming the cities, but they are few and far between, and don't do anything if they're not near the point of conflict. Now for an experienced character, this may not be a problem. For a new character, well...
TL;DR version: Make NPC guards spawn by a player or npc saying "guards", and kill/teleport anything that attacks a player, or goes criminal within any major city. Only player corpses would be left. As it stands. hostiles wander cities freely, and can kill new players.
3.) Blue animals.
This may just be me seeing it oddly, but I've noticed that some pets (mainly horses) are roaming around with a blue bar/name. To me, this indicates that they've been tamed, and cannot be re-tamed. This doesn't hold true all the time however. Can this be changed so that only creatures tamed are blue, and every other is gray and/or red?
As you may have guessed, I am relatively new to the server.
Years ago (probably 12-15 years) I played Ultima Online on the official servers, specifically Lake Superior.
I am what could be considered "old school" - By that, I mean I played from the original release, up to Age of Shadows, and quit soon after it was released, for a total of about six years in-game.
With that in mind, I've noticed quite a few things that were present in the original Ultima, but are not here. I feel that some of them could be introduced here, and add more depth to the server. Please note however, that the ideas and suggestions I put forth here are meant to be helpful, and are coming to you from the experiences and adventures of a long time Ultima Online fan, who felt that Ultima Online was their home for a long, long time.
With all of that said, here are my suggestions, thoughts and observations during my playtime. I will add to them as I continue to play.
1.)Vendors are somewhat unwieldy and not easily worked with. Note that I'm talking about NPC vendors, AND player vendors.
Original UO had a couple features that could potentially be implemented to help with this:
First, walking up to a vendor (within one to three paces) and saying "vendor buy" or "vendor sell" would open the appropriate menu. Of course, this seems to be already present, but it seems to be spotty. By that, I mean they respond to their name, but not "vendor"
Second, the merchant would scan your inventory and choose the items it would be interested in, based upon the merchant type.
Example: Mages would buy regular and magic scrolls and basic reagents. Alchemists would purchase all reagents, alchemical suplies, and various other materials.
Second, I'm noticing that player merchants have half of the interface that basic merchants do, but they don't have the option to buy. Would it be possible to scan the list of items the merchant would buy, and apply that filter to your packs?
TL;DR version: Make town merchants buy only specific things in line with their profession, and then set them to scan your entire backpack (including other bags) for those items. Second, make player merchants scan your pack for items they are authorized to buy. Third, have them respond to the words "vendor buy" or "vendor sell" - Targeting/typing out their name exactly is sometimes a pain.
2.) City guards.
I'm curious on this one. Why is there no guard service within the cities to keep the hostiles out of the city?
In original UO, if someone was a criminal, went criminal (via theft, or something) or attacked someone, the player (or any nearby NPC who saw it) could say "Guards" and a pair of guards would immediately show up, kill the offender, and then wait around for about thirty seconds to a minute, before vanishing. If the suspect was a creature, no corpse is left, but a player corpse would be left behind, and freely lootable.
As it currently stands, I've been in Asgard, Ashbenford and many other cities, and have watched orcs and other creatures roaming through the city attacking me. I've seen a couple of actual "guards" roaming the cities, but they are few and far between, and don't do anything if they're not near the point of conflict. Now for an experienced character, this may not be a problem. For a new character, well...
TL;DR version: Make NPC guards spawn by a player or npc saying "guards", and kill/teleport anything that attacks a player, or goes criminal within any major city. Only player corpses would be left. As it stands. hostiles wander cities freely, and can kill new players.
3.) Blue animals.
This may just be me seeing it oddly, but I've noticed that some pets (mainly horses) are roaming around with a blue bar/name. To me, this indicates that they've been tamed, and cannot be re-tamed. This doesn't hold true all the time however. Can this be changed so that only creatures tamed are blue, and every other is gray and/or red?