My armour rant

Ok, this is nothing new to my guildmates, I'm always going on about it, and I do here also, but, here goes again, because basically, this part of the game is by far and away, the biggest turn-off for me.

It prevents me taking part, in an aspect of the game, I would normally really enjoy. Sometimes I'm really down about this, and on the verge of quitting, there was a long period last year/year before where I was very vocal on the forums about certain aspects of the game that annoyed me, but this one was always up there.

Right now, to be fair, I'm enjoying the game a lot, and don't really have many gripes, hence you don't see so many posts from me. I'm enjoying life in W/Wraiths on Europa, tons of my mates from times gone by are back, and we dominate Felucca - I have fun fighting Mervyn and Pro, I PvM, PvP, Craft, do BODS, etc etc, have a balanced time. I also play in 1%ers on Atlantic and am getting to like some of the guys there, do stuff with them, and again of course, dominate the shard - pretty standard stuff for me. 🙂 I guess my favourite enemy on Atlantic are EU1, possibly the best organised, most tenacious PvPers on Atlantic, bit annoying I had to go there from Europa to chase them, but never-mind, still good fighting the old DiE guys. MVP deserve a mention, the activity on Atlantic is certainly fun, but Europa my home, has been great recently also.

I genuinely believe the Devs have been listening, and responding very well over the last year or two, since I've been moaning like hell, so much so, I don't have to moan anymore, they've made a ton of good improvements. They've brought in good content in quite a few areas, not going to knock them.

Back on topic, we have a lot of new guys back in W, some new, some old guys, been away years, all gearing up, and it has just reminded me again, how much I hate the entire suit building process. And I wish I didn't.

Ok - Suits.

This is my Mage PvP suit;

str133,int149,dex15,hp146,mana191,stam15,pr92,fr104,cr97,pr97er95fc2,fcr6,lrc110,lmc54,sdi25,dci45,cf10,hpr16,mr21,sr6,ns1,sc20,de27,fe24,pe15,ep50.

This is my mage PvM suit;

str125,int161,dex10,hp117,mana205,stam10,pr73,fr89,cr82,pr70,er75,fc2,fcr6,lrc100,, lmc54,sdi131,dci45,cf13,hpr5,mr18,sr1,ns1,sc20.

I also have a Luck suit.

I also have a fully Blessed, fully Repairable suit. Zero insurance, no durability Loss = perfection.

That is my main character. I could even add a +200 RPD suit to the collection if I wanted, or my Parry suit for when I go Parry.

Then imagine, you can play up to 7 characters per shard. You can play 2-3 shards. You can play more than one account, lets say 2 for sake of argument – I’m just talking about my playstyle here, a working guy, who doesn’t have so much time, but who enjoys the whole game content. There are players who are far more extreme.

So, assuming my main character has 5 suits to get by, then assume every other character has 1 suit, on 2 shards, on 2 accounts, for simplicity. We are looking at potentially building 32 suits for what is probably considered an average player.

Next, check out the amount of properties I have tried to max out on the suits, just the sheer volume of properties there are ingame – it is almost 30 Properties per suit, for 32 suits....

There is a point where surely you have to admit that is just a tad complicated, and overdoing it. It does my head in, I cannot process those numbers simultaneously in my head, to build those suits. I cannot generate the ingame gold, I cannot find the time to farm them, I cannot craft them.

Then on top of this... they suffer durability loss... To all those players who think durability loss is a great idea to help crafters – please think again, in the light of my above figures.

All of this complication, is a huge, massive, unnecessary complicated block, to guys who just want to play the game. Armour building, and collection should be fun – it should not be a near impossibility and turn off to this degree.

Cookie said:

All of this complication, is a huge, massive, unnecessary complicated block, to guys who just want to play the game. Armour building, and collection should be fun – it should not be a near impossibility and turn off to this degree.

Pawain said:

How else can the game last more than 21 years. You have to constantly improve.

Sliss said:

Guys who just want to play the game can do it just fine with a single suit. Those that want to squeeze every last bit out of it have the option of using different suits. The complexity provides for many many hours of game play for those who pursue it. And it is as it should me. Easy to start, difficult to master is the prescription for the best game.

Both fair enough responses.

Pawain, I'm fine with having to constantly improve, but to me, this armour system hardly lends itself to improvement. You knock out 1 stat on one piece of your suit, you have to change the entire suit over. It's a massive wholesale change required. And it's not easy at all to do. Quite frankly, for me to do this properly, I'd need someone to write or create a suit building program for me - that could upload 1000 items of armour pieces, then match them in an order that maxed out the 30 odd properties I am after for that character or style of play I am after. Seriously? There is complication, and improvement, and there is insane. If I'm going to take part in this aspect of the game, I'm going to have to get a colleague at work, to write this for me...

People think nothing of talking 500 million per suit these days - that has got to be a huge game block to a new starter, or anyone trying to make marginal improvements. Also, another one of my arguments against so many built in time-sinks, the game actually has enough game content, to not be so harsh in certain areas. Some area's, just let us get on with it, and play.

And Sliss, I don't really believe anyone can do fine just using 1 suit. PvPers in PvP suits, cannot PvM, they cannot complete spawns, I see many times PvPers taking a spawn, and not being able to complete it. I see many times, PvMers doing a spawn, not being able to defend it to the best of their ability, because they are in high damage PvM, low defence PvP suits. The highest end Luck suits, do not lend themselves to either high end PvM or PvP. Then along comes a Dexxer, and you want a high RPD suit to protect yourself... It is extremely difficult to play the varied game content, in 1 suit, almost impossible I'd say. Especially to play it to a good degree.

I do believe in the concept of improvement, and making things hard, but making them this complicated just does my head in. This is just 1 tiny aspect of the game.

Ok, what gets me, is trying to create something so precise, and so complicated, from such a sheer random starting point.

I often lament how crafting has almost no uses in the face of such a pvm loot onslaught these days.

I enjoy crafting, doing bods, but these days, I do bods, and then go nowhere with it, there is no point. I often suggest a boost to crafting, to help try and give it more point, one boost I often suggest, is to give more control over this entire complicated random mess. If you are going to make something so complicated, I don't need such randomness added in on top.

Or completely overhaul the system, good luck.

Cookie said:

And Sliss, I don't really believe anyone can do fine just using 1 suit. PvPers in PvP suits, cannot PvM, they cannot complete spawns, I see many times PvPers taking a spawn, and not being able to complete it.

Sliss said:

Cookie said:

And Sliss, I don't really believe anyone can do fine just using 1 suit. PvPers in PvP suits, cannot PvM, they cannot complete spawns, I see many times PvPers taking a spawn, and not being able to complete it.

Fair enough on PvP (I was thinking of PvM only), but I don't think there is any game, which does not have a pretty rigid "this is the best equipment" meta, where you could be ever settled with a PvP suit. Unlike PvM where there is a fairly static "good enough" cut off, PvP is constantly evolving. So, I don't think it's very reasonable to expect a simple PvP equipment solution in an item oriented game.

I brought up a crafting revamp at the m&g which turned into a thread located somewhere on here. Loot pieces should be better than crafted but the margin is too wide between the two right now.

  Lynk said:

Sorry I stopped reading after you said 1% dominated the shard.  I categorically disagree with anything else said by default.

PvP more, have more impact to change my mind.

What character/s are you, what guild? I'll keep an eye out for you. 🙂

(And yes, I knew that would get that reaction from some of you   )

Smoot said:

armor is fine, and pretty balanced.  you can make on the cheap imbued suit with one or two cheap legendaries and get by fine, or max a suit if your really into gear.

im a pretty established player, but also not the most insane when it comes to characters.

i only really play 3 or 4 chacters where its a "hobby" to make those suits as good as possible, or at least what im happy playing.

my other 50ish odd characters are very capable, but have relatively in expenisve setups.

UO armor stays relevant an extremely long time compared to other games.  im still using some armor thats about 5 years old.  theres no other game out there that you could even do that. 

people get too into perfecting suits.  building some "perfect" suit for 2 years, and then something comes out, new arty or system that makes it slightly less than perfect. 

just get something decent.  in the end a couple stats here and there arent going to make or break a character.

Armor is not fine or balanced in the least. We've just been complacent to the extreme gap between crafted and loot. Armor is only fine to those farming and selling the high end loot.

Every area of this game has it's own obsessive little following determined to have the best ranging from rares, pets and even house placement. This is nothing new to UO.

Crafters are all but exterminated in this gap. The only reason to log into one now is to craft luck suits and repair deeds. Maybe an occasional weapon.

While UO does offer a lot you can do in a low end suit, I wholeheartedly disagree that it can't break a character. I would have agreed if we were speaking of luxury stats such as casting focus or eaters but common standard stats like achieving 70s resist and max swing will severely hinder any sort of competitive gameplay.