All in, or all out

Priam said:

So I have been back in UO for about a month now. I am not sure what I was expecting to find. Maybe a small community that would get together to enjoy this old game.

Given that I don't want to play on a server other than Sonoma, and that unofficial servers are not of interest to me, I am trying to decide if working on UO is a smart call.

I have asked many questions over the last month, and I have two basic questions left.

First, is crafting and imbuing weapons and armor still viable? I am being told that crafting is dead, and that I would be better off making a grinding alt to get better gear in the form of drops.

Second. I see houses everywhere, but no people. Is the majority of the player base holding houses with their monthly fees, but not actually playing? It's hard to gauge if UO is sparely populated, or if the game is over.

I would like to build something in the game, but I have to be realistic as to where UO is now in 2024.

UO is and always will be what we make it...

Priam said:

So I have been back in UO for about a month now. I am not sure what I was expecting to find. Maybe a small community that would get together to enjoy this old game.

Given that I don't want to play on a server other than Sonoma, and that unofficial servers are not of interest to me, I am trying to decide if working on UO is a smart call.

I have asked many questions over the last month, and I have two basic questions left.

First, is crafting and imbuing weapons and armor still viable? I am being told that crafting is dead, and that I would be better off making a grinding alt to get better gear in the form of drops.

Second. I see houses everywhere, but no people. Is the majority of the player base holding houses with their monthly fees, but not actually playing? It's hard to gauge if UO is sparely populated, or if the game is over.

I would like to build something in the game, but I have to be realistic as to where UO is now in 2024.

You were told crafting is dead by someone who does not craft.  If their weapon is not a spell book then it was probably crafted.

You can make many types of suits with 2 high resist pieces and the rest crafted, if you know how.

High luck suits have to have crafted pieces.

All my melee and distance weapons are crafted.

The game is in a poor state due to resources being allocated to NL for the last several years. How well NL is received after it’s released will spell the game’s future.

As you’re aware, the game is supported by two types of people: those who spend money on the store and those who don’t play actively but maintain subscriptions to keep their houses. There may be pockets of players on certain shards, but the only one with consistent population is Atlantic.

I’m of mixed opinion that crafting and imbuing are dead. On the one hand, the regular events have introduced such overpowered gear that nothing you make will surpass them. On the other hand, imbuing is still valuable to offset the randomness of drops. It may be even more valuable on “dead” shards where there are fewer crafters. Someone who’s more into crafting could explain better.

If you haven’t already done so, you need to join a guild. If you’re not happy with the quieter pace of Sonoma after joining a guild, you should reconsider moving to a more populated shard like Atlantic. You might also reconsider your stance on unofficial shards if you love the core of the game but aren’t thrilled with the current state of things.

Wondered about the houses for years.  Way more houses than active players.  Think many represent older players that no longer play much, but want to keep the house and contents they worked so hard for.  As long as their credit card that automatically renews their subscription remains active, their house stands. Check the vendors.  If you find multiple vendors that all have nothing for sale, chances are that person no longer is playing.  Used to see that quite often when I started five years ago.  Sometimes a whole roof full.  Also, many active players have more than one account.

You might consider the New Legacy shard when it becomes active.  Thinking it will attract a fair number of players and given you only get two characters crafting may be more viable there.   I like Great Lakes, although I don’t see as many players as I used too.  But it still has enough to be viable

Problem with crafting is getting the harder to get ingredients.  Don’t see them for sale that much anymore, and can’t get some of them on my own.  Other than that crating and imbuing is viable. Being able to craft weapons that give you an advantage is huge.

On my shard I usually see most players were the main bankers are located in Malas and Britain.  Wish you luck in the game.

The good news is there hasn't really been much new 'content' in terms of monsters/difficulty after imbuing was released with Stygian Abyss (the most recent actual expansion) so imbued gear is still very viable, especially if reforged/enhanced. Next step up, and fairly cheap/easy, would be mixing in some artifacts and Legendary gear, so long as you don't want insane old 'no-names' or pvp jewelry. And final step would be as mentioned by others would be mixing in some of the incredibly-too-overpowered ToT gear they've introduced over the years. The stuff is irreplaceable, it would seem as if the devs really didn't think most of it through. Luckily most of that gear is botted to death and on most shards things such as the Balron Bone Armor is so dirt cheap and insane stats.

However, if you are dead set on only playing Sonoma well.... that might pose some problems. It's definitely a smaller shard. Realistically in your situation I think a different game may suit you better.

I'm back since june.. I stop playing UO before SA in 2009.. kept paying till ~2012 for 2 account house to let them decay when tESO was announce (was supposed to be a UO next gen)

My main was Legends.. I moved from Lake Superior and had one character on GL and ATL for PvP reasons and one on Europa for the market..

Today i play only on Legends BUT the goal is to move on ATL in time if u enjoy UO on an ACTIVE server, the long term goal should be ATL.. but first we need to rebuild our economy account on a dead server.

Realistically, all u need is 2 friends to enjoy UO on your dead server if your main goal ain't the PvP on an active server.. (personally i'm alone)

As for the crafting stuff.. i'm still new to the "new" UO BUT when someone say crafting is dead they not totally wrong in a sense.. before u NEEDED those barbed runic or val hammer crafter for the top tier end suit.. only the jewelries and stuff like butcher knife/ cleaver were better from the mobs.. today i find some awesome gears from mobs but yeah nothing compare to what I see from reforge/imbued items i would qualify as perfect consumable gears..

As for those totally OP shard bound items.. i'm still sad for thing like the feudal cloak of element.. If i was on ATL i could have been playing my sappire since day 1 (they have a +15 physical resist + dmg eater cloak and a tons more variation on the vendors)
on my dead Legends shard.. i can't even find the most recent shard bound items on vendors like the bone armor..

Those event items are a good way to make sure dead server gonna stay DEAD.. it's a bribe for actual subscriber.. very BAD in my opinion.. but hey.. not the first WTF move from broadsword..!

Meanwhile.. i've been crafting/gathering for the most part of my time since im back.. 5k+ potions/enchanted apple/smoke bombs.. been doing tons of heartwood to redo all my crafter talismans and here is an example of what OLD weapon pre-imbue (val hammer)  look like (only 4 mods/shitty) 

Edit: for the housing.. I found 3 KEEP plot on felluca.. I took 2 of them.. since then i spotted a decaying castle next the HUNTMASTER challenge on trammel and a vet player offered me a Brit Fel castle (but can'T redesign cuz of a tree)

Today I got a township (castle) next to old skara brae Tram and a villa (keep) next to shame dungeon felluca.. keep running on the map and asking on general.. some people still got 7-8+ account and pretty sure they can give u a keep/castle spot if ur active.

I want to follow up with some “encouragement” since my post and others’ are quite negative: UO is still a magical game that scratches an itch like no other MMO.

Several things over the decades may contribute to the feelings of “deadness” on shards with lower populations — vendor search, global chat, convenience items which permit recalling to specific areas, shard shields (people go off shard to do their commerce on Atlantic), etc.

There are benefits to playing on a low population shard: Items may be cheaper. You might not get jumped while doing a champ spawn. Chat will be less spammy and toxic. You can place a bigger house. The community might be tighter. While you might have greater quantity of interactions on Atlantic, the quality of those interactions might be lesser than those with the tighter community that your shard fosters.

You can offset the negatives by seeking out others and joining a guild. You can also make use of transfer tokens to Atlantic for when you need more interaction.

UO is in an awkward spot right now. A seasonal event ended not too long ago, and the next won’t be until October or so. Additionally, NL is on the horizon, which is the culmination of years of work. Both should cause an uptick of activity.

Competition with free shards has also arguably never been greater, with the most popular one boasting thousands of players and several others having a few hundred here and there and Broadsword cracking down on third party utilities that free shard players enjoy.

Any Atlantic player will tell you that every other shard is 'dead'. It's not entirely true, but populations have dwindled somewhat and there's an awful lot of land to spread out over now, Fel, Trammel, Ilsh, Malas, Tokuno, Ter Mur, Eodon. Every shard has a population, you just need to find them, call out in general chat at peak times, you'll find someone, and through them, someone else. 
When you do see people, open their paper doll and check out their gear. You'll find that most warriors are carrying crafted weapons, many chars of any type are likely to be wearing a mix of looted and crafted armor. 
Populations are never likely to return to UO's hey day, after all, at that time, it was pretty much the only game in town. Far from the situation now.
People posting here, who list their primary shard as Sonoma, are @Drakelord @Queen_Mum @Cinderella Speak up for your shard guys!

loop said:

There are benefits to playing on a low population shard

When you start back on semi naked character and lost almost everything.. nothing like chopping woods around fel Yew, mining onto the best Felluca mines.. claiming 75% from Fel AND tram Huntmaster challenge monthly reward (I don't have access to time of legends)

Dead server sure have their benefits.. the best one would be champion spawn.. dual account u can peacefully get 9 PS per hour one 120 every ~4hours.. the only time i've seen someone on Felluca was during a VvV event at minoc.. seen ~8 dude recalling at once with the synchro run totally ignoring me (clearly mutli-box)

To somewhat echo what some others have said already, I just returned recently after being out a few years. I'm on Great Lakes and it is the perfect balance for my style of play. At first you would think it was empty like everyone claims, but I found that there are plenty of people actively playing. It's nice because there is actually housing space available, players to play with if you want, but you don't end up waiting to do certain activities because of overcrowding like in Atlantic. About the only possible negative I can see depending on your play style is that there isn't as much available on Vendor Search and you may not quickly sell goods if that is your thing. But it hasn't been an issue to me personally yet. 

If you like overcrowding, limited housing, and noise, Atlantic is the place to be. Personally I think Great Lakes is perfect for myself. I can't speak to other shards but I suspect there are groups around as well that just aren't as publicly vocal as Atlantic, but you can probably find them if you want. 

Good luck and I hope you have a successful return!

You would be surprised at some of the stuff that you can sell on vendors on Sonoma. I usually stock my vendors with full spellbooks but haven't had time lately. They usually don't stay on for very long either. You would have to speak to someone else about what to look for on weapons but I do know that they would sell. Off sharders do come to Sonoma for EM events and for anyone who don't craft their own weapons would need them. 

Some people will watch General chat and only speak if it applies to them. And then there are people who don't pay attention to it when they are doing certain tasks. I don't pay attention to chat when I'm doing tmaps. 

It also depends on what time of day that you are playing. It is a west coast shard but there are players who are from the midwest and the east coast. Most east coast players go to bed before the west coast players get off work.

Sonoma is my main shard but I do play other shards too, so I might not always be around. There is a Sonoma discord page where you can introduce yourself and let everyone know what kind of services that you offer. 

KroDuk is right about players.  Three or so working together can handle just about everything in the game.  Players in your play time usually work together at events to kill the big stuff.  Next event will bring out the players on your shard.  Graveyards will be popular.

KroDuK said:

I'm back since june.. I stop playing UO before SA in 2009.. kept paying till ~2012 for 2 account house to let them decay when tESO was announce (was supposed to be a UO next gen)

My main was Legends.. I moved from Lake Superior and had one character on GL and ATL for PvP reasons and one on Europa for the market..

Today i play only on Legends BUT the goal is to move on ATL in time if u enjoy UO on an ACTIVE server, the long term goal should be ATL.. but first we need to rebuild our economy account on a dead server.

Realistically, all u need is 2 friends to enjoy UO on your dead server if your main goal ain't the PvP on an active server.. (personally i'm alone)

As for the crafting stuff.. i'm still new to the "new" UO BUT when someone say crafting is dead they not totally wrong in a sense.. before u NEEDED those barbed runic or val hammer crafter for the top tier end suit.. only the jewelries and stuff like butcher knife/ cleaver were better from the mobs.. today i find some awesome gears from mobs but yeah nothing compare to what I see from reforge/imbued items i would qualify as perfect consumable gears..

As for those totally OP shard bound items.. i'm still sad for thing like the feudal cloak of element.. If i was on ATL i could have been playing my sappire since day 1 (they have a +15 physical resist + dmg eater cloak and a tons more variation on the vendors)
on my dead Legends shard.. i can't even find the most recent shard bound items on vendors like the bone armor..

Those event items are a good way to make sure dead server gonna stay DEAD.. it's a bribe for actual subscriber.. very BAD in my opinion.. but hey.. not the first WTF move from broadsword..!

Meanwhile.. i've been crafting/gathering for the most part of my time since im back.. 5k+ potions/enchanted apple/smoke bombs.. been doing tons of heartwood to redo all my crafter talismans and here is an example of what OLD weapon pre-imbue (val hammer)  look like (only 4 mods/shitty) 

Edit: for the housing.. I found 3 KEEP plot on felluca.. I took 2 of them.. since then i spotted a decaying castle next the HUNTMASTER challenge on trammel and a vet player offered me a Brit Fel castle (but can'T redesign cuz of a tree)

Today I got a township (castle) next to old skara brae Tram and a villa (keep) next to shame dungeon felluca.. keep running on the map and asking on general.. some people still got 7-8+ account and pretty sure they can give u a keep/castle spot if ur active.

Not to derail the thread, but your organizational skills put mine to shame.

My place looks like someone backed up a garbage truck and offloaded everything.

I got a dumping shed also, I just showed the best 

Crafting isn't dead. You can get better gear farming but if you're looking to use what you make then crafting is awesome. Weps reforged and imbued are the way to go. The hard part is gathering what you need. That's why people recommend a more populated server. Then you buy what you need and go about your play time.

As far as houses, we've gotten older with careers, families and more important things to do. Most of us don't have the kind of time to sit on the game like we used to. I'm down to maybe 2 hours a week spread over my days off.