Post: #7

just joined it today, i won't be too quick to judge so i'll start with first impressions:

Joining the game: Good enough for me! compatible with multiple versions of the game so life made easy. nice choice

Character created: The moment i entered the game, i saw a huge number of dialog boxes appear immediately. a tad over-whelming. I took my time and navigated through the options. There were 8 PVP classes and 3 merchant classes. As i have an interest in PVP, i naturally took one of them. I love the melee combat system in UO, so i took the Draconian class (evil).

Upon getting through all the menus, I found i was in the tower near brit. there were 3 afk players next to me with weapons attacking an NPC called "sparring partner". I assume this is purely for grinding. Was kinda disappointing to see that there's a section of the game dedicated to taking the player out so they can leave their computer on for their characters can buff up.

I then proceeded to look at the level system. I haven't worked out everything about it yet, but I've learned that you need so many ranks to gain a level, and leveling upgrades your stats. There is also an experience system which applies to weapon skills, which is quite a creative idea on slowing down skill progression.

I then went on to look in my backpack, i double clicked a green bag which then exploded with items. there was a book that granted me 3 extra 60.0 skill slots straight off the mark, which meant i had to pick some that wasn't my 2 50 skills from creation to get the most out of it. There was also a potion that granted me stats such as str, dex and int. it was kinda strange, it didn't tell me how much i would be getting, but as a fighter, i took 2 str and 1 dex. I also got a full bag of regs and to my disappointment a full spellbook.

First Impression Overall: Mixed feelings about this server. Upon entry I receive a boat-load of messages which to someone without patience could miss out on a lot (especially a new player, as i have about 8 non-uo players interested in playing on a server with me). From the word go there are players grinding for skills on static npcs which means you can't play the game to your full potential unless you left the cpu on with your character hitting an invul npc for hours. This, is not fun as the experience of the game came from leveling through adventure, not through stand-still grinding.

The class system is an interesting idea, but i feel it hasn't been utilized very well (unless i'm missing something). From first glance, it seems that each class only affects the initial stats of the character (e.g. my class is mainly str and archers are typically elves with high dex ect.). UO as a whole had the problem that melee and archery was flat-out out-classed by mages, which yet again seems to be the focus in this shard over any other skill.

But that's enough of the negatives, i'll say something positive now. The shard stats, level system and function options are beautifully organised. Although the servers not newbie-friendly, it does appeal to the experienced player. The towns are fully spawned and the NPC's display clearly what their profession is.

What's Next?: I won't stop here, I have only shown my first impression of the server, so i will be exploring the map, looking at ALL skills and experiencing PVP. The starting items are fair and quite generous and the class system has potential.