Breath Of Fresh Air? please leave your thoughts!

Hello everyone willing to read this, I'm new and I have to say I am really liking this game and all of its systems. There are two things in particular though that make this game slightly frustrating and that is the vendor system and the economy itself.
Allow me to elaborate, the vendor system is a good idea but it seems more like a pain when you are just trying to find something quickly to progress your skills and continue having a good time. I'm not a coder but couldn't you implement an auction house and link the inventories from the players vendors to it so everyone still gets paid? 
As for the economy and the whole gold inflation thing. Couldn't you have a few vendors who are not player vendors but like npc vendors and have them sell things like crafting mats or something linked to the auction house as well so when players buy from them the gold is being taken out of the server?
Also a actual pricing list for items would be nice. I know there's a sticky about pricing but its kinda obvious that's not what people are asking for.
Saying this the game is great! I know its old and I'm not saying reinvent the wheel or anything but if we are all paying for the game wouldn't a few new quality of life changes be nice?
Wouldn't everyone here like to see some newer generation of gamers coming to this game and actually staying around?
Maybe its because I'm new and i haven't been around long enough to understand but i cannot be the only person who feels this way.

Hey and welcome. 🙂

New players often see things for what they are, when the rest of us have got used to it.

Have you used the actual Vendor Search system? Left click on your character once, to pull up a menu, and you will see Vendor Search if you are in a safe place, use this to look quickly for stuff, it's a great tool.

Yes, the Vendor System could use work, I've often pushed for a complete centralised system myself.

Re materials, some basic materials are sold in good quantities from the NPC's, and if you keep buying you can push them up to get more. Leather, Ingots, Scrolls, Cloth for example. Materials themselves are fairly easy to farm for, or buy quite cheaply, or many people may just give them to you. They are also fairly cheap on VS.

HollowHeathen said:

Couldn't you have a few vendors who are not player vendors but like npc vendors and have them sell things like crafting mats or something linked to the auction house as well so when players buy from them the gold is being taken out of the server?

Did you check the New Magincia Bazaar ?
https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/gameplay/npc-commercial-transactions/the-new-magincia-bazaar/

Vendors there are specifically "tailored" for Selling and Buying Materials, all kinds, and Pets....

Unfortunately, there is no link to the Global Vendor search so, it is necessary to check those Vendors one by one...

NPCs do sell materials and, actually, by buying them, you can raise the quantity sold up to 999...

The respawn takes some time, though... so it is necessary to be patient for the respawn to make those materials again available in the NPC inventory list in a higher quantity...

Keep in mind that, if the increased quantity materials are not bought within a given time (not sure what the timer is), they will "decrease" the offered quantity again.

Welcome to Ultima Online !!

Hmm... we already have auction boxes that can be searched, why need an auction house. Maybe I misread the post...

Seth said:

Hmm... we already have auction boxes that can be searched, why need an auction house. Maybe I misread the post...

I wonder if he has fully seen what there is.

Cookie said:

Seth said:

Hmm... we already have auction boxes that can be searched, why need an auction house. Maybe I misread the post...

I wonder if he has fully seen what there is.

Then my understanding is correct  🙂

HollowHeathen said:

Regardless the game is great and I hope the Devs drop some new content just in general for this game.

If you are on a low population shard you may have only one vendor (or, perhaps no vendor at all) selling what you need and without competition that vendor sets the price.  When I started playing about 2 1/2 years ago things where pretty competitive on my shard but about a year ago things started changing.  Now, in some key areas a single vendor sets the price and for those items prices have gone up dramatically.  Not wide spread yet just a few areas.  I cannot travel to other shards like most other players so I don’t know if the current prices here are competitive.  I just know how they have have changed on my shard.  Shard bound was in part developed to stabilize prices and make certain items more available to players that can’t travel to other shards.  Not sure how it is working out.

To answer your question about newer players sticking around, almost all of this game’s marketing efforts are directed at those players that have been playing for years and that already have most of what the game has to offer  (after all they pay the bills). And, that little bit of marketing effort that goes elsewhere uses EJ accounts to attract players that have quit back into the game.  I don’t see any effort being made to attract or retain new players.

Owners are apparently planing a livestream or newsletter soon about the games future direction.

My advice is to check vendor search several times a day if you can.  Good deals for what you need do come up from time to time.  Other players have asked before to have a more universal vendor search or capability that allows them more access to vendors on other shards but i get the impression from the developers’ responses or lack of a response that can’t be done.

New players need to get on Gen Chat and let the shard know that they are there and ask any questions they may have.  Most likely the first thing the shard will ask is if they need anything like spell book, rune book, basic LRC suit or a suit just to get them started.