Why UO would benefit from an expansion this/next yr

Hello all,

I am relatively new to this game. I was an old school EQ gamer in '99 and never touched Ultima until literally 3 days ago.

I am in love with the depth, combat, adventuring and core systems that UO uses.

Something I wanted to mention is.. you guys haven't seen a UO expansion in over 3 years now. Is this because it has exchanged hands a few times? Are sub numbers low? (doesnt seem it)

Reason I ask.. if any Dev is reading this at all.. Do you notice a shift in the MMO industry happening? Theme-park MMO's are becoming a thing of the past as people get tired and bored of korean hack/slash or theme-park MMORPG's. People are looking for something more elaborate now.. more difficult and something that has much more depth and meaning. People are wanting that "more meaningful" mmo and a few have popped up like Pantheon, LoA and a few others. All of these are being backed by millions of dollars from people interested in changing the genre back to what it was once before.

UO has had this feeling people are looking for... under a hood of 1997 graphics... which people just ignore right away.

So I ask, Mr/Ms Dev.. why not take advantage of this timing? Release new content.. new things to fight.. new adventures.. New abilities.. new spells.. Don't have the funding? I'd gladly give a chunk of money towards your development (even though people DESPISE crowdfunding these days.. i think it has its good uses.. SOTA gave it the bad name.. not you guys )

As a community, do you guys think an expansion could come? How do you feel about it?

I haven't voted, simply because I don't think any of your options apply. I don't think we need a new expansion, these are my reasons:
We already have more land than we can occupy
Something new is added with almost every publish, take publish 97 as an example, a complete change to taming that has had tamers busy ever since. Even the last publish, a bug fix publish, added small things like higher level maps to the hag's quest, reviving interest in that quest. 
New abilities? We already have so many it's hard to choose which ones to squeeze into a template
Yes the last expansion was Time of Legends, but new things are still being added to that land pretty regularly.  
If you think we need an expansion, perhaps you haven't yet explored fully what we already have?

I think the Dev Team would be better off revisiting some old content and improving it rather than make more content that is hardly touched. I mean actually improving it not just changing it like Despise in Trammel or what they did to Doom.

Another expansion would always be welcomed, new encounters and lands could be added without them completely replacing the current end content.  Getting another stygian abyss size dungeon is a pipe dream most likely for the size of the current game budget probably.  For those saying the lands are already so huge, they really aren't especially for a game this old.  I have seen much larger total landmass in a few other younger games, and those games had no recall.

Having seasonal content year round would probably go a long way.  Alot of people play only around the time of the holiday dungeon lately, and then fade away again shortly after it ends.  The taming content was a big draw, I'm sure they actually saw a subscriber increase since the pet system in this game is probably the most unique aspect other than housing.  I only came back after casually reading on a website about those changes, and I was gone 12 years.

Either way at the end of the day the old timers that will never let their houses and collections disappear are probably the main thing even keeping the game going.  Im constantly amazed at how many people I meet with 6 or more paid accounts, just something you dont see anywhere else.  Even the amount of people that keep accounts going just from inheriting a account from a real life death.

Anyhow heres to the upcoming holiday dungeon, hope to be able to flick through multiple pages of guildies online again.

In the future we might could take another expansion.  I vote no for now, just because I don't ahve faith that the current team can do it without focusing on toil and struggle and making us have a clickfest to play it.  Everything now is tedious and such.  So no...

And for Teapot, this is one reason you see so many people hop on for seasonal stuff.  And I'll shout it from the rooftops, it's because THEY CAN JUST LOG ON AND PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  they don't have to key it, they don't have to do rooms, or a repetitive bunch of mini quests, etc, they can just log on and do it.  

Christmas, just log on and turn in bods.
Anniversary, just log on, progress the spawn in the towns, and killl the elemental.
Halloween, just log on, trick or treat, or kill pumpkins and Butchers.

Yes it's more fun than new content, because I can just log on and do it, without spending my couple of hours "keying" up.

maybe they can just make some monsters in the underused dungeons stronger and give them a loot bump

Yes as Petra Fyde said I vote none of the above. If you are doing a pole please include a none of the above or don't care option.

I think the need is to bug fix and clean up old code. As an example there are three systems for building a house that I can think of. This makes for a steep learning curve to get the affect you want. (my present pet peeve) 

But back to topic EA owns the game and Broad Sword runs it so sorry but I don't think crowd sourcing would make it past the lawyers. And not being a lawyer I don't know, would any out side investor would be welcome? 

That being said I still plan on when I win that lottery of giving Mesanna a call. 

"What Petra said. "

Thanks for the replies guys.. just wanted to get peoples thoughts on the matter. I've fallen in love with the game and was just curious..

ty again.

Petra_Fyde said:

I haven't voted, simply because I don't think any of your options apply. I don't think we need a new expansion, these are my reasons:
We already have more land than we can occupy

We have more "useless" land than we can occupy. There is no reason to even venture into 3/4 of the game anymore. The best loot is found in only a few places. There's really nothing to gather off corpses and gold in old places is nowhere near the amount in some of the newer places.

I understand wanting people to play the new stuff but if half the game is made useless why even bother keeping it? Things that used to be fun for me and give the occasional useful item are practically useless anymore. You can barely get decent items from major bosses anymore.

The past few months I've found myself logging in to just stand around a minute and log back out. It's a shame that a game with this much history and land mass can become so boring because it really isn't useful compared to the standards set in the top tier places.

For me playing uo isn't about finding the best loot, it's about doing things I enjoy, therefore I don't find 3/4 of the game's land mass useless. I regularly visit all facets for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with "best loot". 
Yesterday I dug a map in Felucca, hunted raptor teeth in Ter Mur, getting chiv gains on my crimson drake, caught a swamp dragon in hoppers bog and 2 giant beetles in the ant nest for my pet stall. I've also recently done hag's quest for maps and solen queen quest for bags of sending plus a few bods for powder because I made my archer a new bow.  I don't play to amass tons of gold, I play to have fun and relax.

Despite what some peoples opinions are on this the game needs constant content updates that are permanent.  Only way to keep people interested in a game is to constantly refresh what you can do while playing.  I mean if they want to keep the small population they have stay the course, but If they really want more new players or old players to return in droves it takes new content/updating old content to bring them in.  They have to get more money for the game in order to pay more people to run it, that's just a fact.  There should be updates and fresh content with every single patch otherwise the population will just keep dwindling til UO disappears completely.  I also don't think it needs to paid for by the players, it should be done cause the devs should actively seek to make more money with ambition.   

Hey!

I have also been playing this game for 3 days and have no idea of any of its 20 year history and legacy.  Listen to my dumb ideas, too!

Pinkerton said:

Hey!

I have also been playing this game for 3 days and have no idea of any of its 20 year history and legacy.  Listen to my dumb ideas, too!

Perfect response if you had the correct Avatar. 

I also feel like saying this here often.  

They did the bug fix and concentrated on making the game less fun instead of fixing the hundreds of bugs we sent them.  Carpenter and Tinker BODs will never be made to work as intended.  Basic items still do not stack after many requests.

So, we move on.  There is supposed to be a High Seas Upgrade.  Is that going to happen?

They need something new to keep us busy until Sept/Oct.  

I agree with The Great HIGGS.

Petra_Fyde said:

For me playing uo isn't about finding the best loot, it's about doing things I enjoy, therefore I don't find 3/4 of the game's land mass useless. I regularly visit all facets for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with "best loot". 
Yesterday I dug a map in Felucca, hunted raptor teeth in Ter Mur, getting chiv gains on my crimson drake, caught a swamp dragon in hoppers bog and 2 giant beetles in the ant nest for my pet stall. I've also recently done hag's quest for maps and solen queen quest for bags of sending plus a few bods for powder because I made my archer a new bow.  I don't play to amass tons of gold, I play to have fun and relax.

You're also a minority or they wouldn't keep creating new and op items. I don't expect the best loot otherwise I'd be in shadowguard and not on here complaining about being bored. What I do expect is to do previous expansion bosses and walk away with a little something usable.

I see no reason to go to shame now except to train a pet. The hardest things in wrong are only good for gold and a pat on the back for a job well done.

I would like to see the current areas finished being built out and maybe revamped for the times. World story arc's have been rather successful. They would be a bonus as well instead of a new land. 

Saiah said:

and never touched Ultima until literally 3 days ago.

I am in love with the depth, combat, adventuring and core systems that UO uses.

As a community, do you guys think an expansion could come? How do you feel about it?

crowdfunding (SOTA gave it the bad name.. not you guys )