Post: #10

Now to continue my review. This is the second day and I decided to go hunting. I used melee as my main method of hunting to begin with so I was expecting to have some trouble with the higher mobs...

As a beginner, rather than starting in a dungeon, i went to a graveyard, where i might find some easy opponents. I traveled to Vesper Graveyard as it was one of the biggest, only to my surprise it was unusually under-whelming...

I encountered 5 mobs and 1 re-spawned on me, all had level 1 above their heads. It was pretty easy. I noticed all the level 1's were carrying worn or warped equipment, so i compared it to my own. I could hardly tell the difference. As i left the graveyard and followed the road, i saw a mass collection of healers... I don't know why, was just seriously confused XD. I then ran to the desert near the green fields and encountered my first level 2 mob, the mud golem. I thought "heh, easy" so i went in, only to receive 38 HP damage on the first hit. Well that was a suprise, i just had to kill it, something tough enough to fend me off that much has to have at least a good gold pool. So i attempted to use every bandage I had... over and over because my healing wasn't trained very high and said "screw it" and chugged pots. After backing off another time, i finally killed it, and looked in his body, and found... the same as the level 1 loot... darn...

I assumed there was a rarity drop on them, so I fell back to find a lvl 2 Scorpion. The fight was much easier, but it did leave me poisoned... Deathly sick... luckily i had a cure potion so I was ok . I encountered a strange set of earrings, known as "earrings of perfection" and when i clicked it, it said "rare item, DEX+5". I concluded that this was a random tier 2 drop I just found. but also it made me question "why would i fight that mud golem if i can find much weaker level 2 creatures?". I did just that by finding undead level 2 monsters in deceit, and collected a good number of rare drops.

I pushed my luck and attempted higher level mobs with the equipment i had, and found i struggled most at level 4 +. My only known problem is, i could wager if i was an archer, i could fight the majority of the higher level mobs.

My Experience: The dungeons I visited (covetous and Deceit) were nicely presented and well-spawned, but the overworld was a little messy. The level system is not an accurate guide to a mobs strength unless you begin to aim higher in the level bracket. Archers dominate the PVM system as melee does not work against middle-ground monsters.

I believe that melee was made to work if the user had a heavy set of armor, which could only be obtained through blacksmithy or hunting. This means it's a redundant skill until you have already made progress, which again is the case for the majority of UO servers.

Overall: I can see much potential here, the choice to have a specialized class for each combat method is good. It could be improved by making a unique skill or attribute for a race (e.g. mage race can sacrifice a burst for health for mana with a cooldown, warrior race can resist all damage for 3 seconds with a cooldown, archer race gains triple dex for 3 seconds with cooldown ect.). This would open a lot of options for the player without making it too complicated.

The overworld needs a little tidying up, i'm not sure why there are healers scattered across the road from minoc, and I even encountered a scavenger hunt event chest from an old event.

I believe the training tower should be flat-out ditched and replaced with a newbie dungeon. the experience of the game comes from adventure, not afk training. I had far more fun hunting mobs than standing still hitting a sparring partner.

I still want to test 2 more features of the server before I conclude my research:

1. PVP Locations and environment.
2. Hunting down the champions (high tier mobs)