Ultima X: Odyssey: Shopkeepers

Zohar

   The developers of Ultima X: Odyssey have just released information about their merchant system. It's an interesting system which promotes adventuring for loot and also creates a situation where if you cannot find the best weapon by adventuring, you can still buy one in a shop.

   How exactly will UX:O accomplish this? UX:O will feature an interesting idea in which item decay only exists for items purchased at a shop. Although the items will be of the same quality of monster dropped items, they will decay over time and eventually break (with no chance of repair). If  you find the same item off of a monster, it will never decay from wear or tear. This system promotes adventuring to find loot, but will not make your character weak because they can't find the perfect weapon off of a monster for their character level.

You can read more about this system off of the official UX:O website: http://www.uxo.ea.com/feature_shopkeepers2.html

-=MMORPG.COM Staff=-
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hellmutt

Minus the decay on shop items, it sounds like the AC merchant system. Which I loved.

 

kudo's

Don't wish your life away

Taram

Personally I think they should stick to full item decay like is in the original UO. UO had the best player driven economy of any MMO I've played (and I've played tons) thus far. I think letting dropped items never decay is a mistake as, eventually, folks aren't going to need crafters. I think the benefit to players of dropped items should be as such:

All items decay
A crafter can repair any item
Dropped items never drop in quality, thus if repaired they go back to full strength.
Crafted items quality drops gradually, thus eventually it will degrade so fast that you're better off buying a new item rather than having the current item repaired.

This accomplishes three things:
Gives dropped items a significant, but not total, advantage over crafted items.
Gives crafters a purpose in the "end game".
Prevents players from feeling cheated by losing valuable items they spent days getting.

The original UO came close to this ideal and did extremely well because of it. Why fix what isn't broken?

Matt_UK

Bad idea UXO. Sometimes i wonder if these developers ever learn anything from other games. If mob dropped stuff is invulnerable that will promote camping and UXO will rapidly turn into EQ. Fine if shop bought stuff degrades and can't be repaired, but how expensive will it be and who wants to fork out for a mega weapon only to have it fall apart over a few weeks. This system will only benefit hard core gamers and casual players who have to buy from shops will be disadvantaged. As in all fantasy RPGs the best stuff should be exculsively made and repaired by players, but since there is no crafting system yet, this aint gonna happen. I am really looking forward to UXO, but some things are worrying me.

Matt

Taram

My list of problems with UXO and why I won't bother with it:
1) No crafting
2) No housing
3) No mounts
4) No item decay on dropped items
5) Lack of text over the head (I know it looks dorky but it really DOES encourage roleplay and actually enhances realism in some strange way.)

Basically what they're making is another EQ Clone... personally I think there are plenty of those out there. They should have done a new version of UO... it really is the best online game out there and would have MORE subscribers than EQ if it got a major graphics overhaul.

TalionNelson

 Hmmm, I initially liked the idea until I read this thread. I'm glad to see the thoughtful contribution here....I'm further from an answer now but feel better informed and neutral regarding the subject.

For me it's not a question of liking or disliking a single feature as much as it is of understanding the whole game, though. While I am disappointed with not having mounts, crafting and housing, I'll still play it to understand whether or not I like their mix and balance of ideas. Just a stream of consciousness there....sorry....

Yordo

The best way to test out a game is to try out the beta.....which will start soon

::Revan::Yordo::
EQ2 Guild Search
UXO, Lineage 2, KO, Guild Wars, Dragon Empires, City of Heroes

mobettah

I agree, Yordo.  THe beta will test all.  ANd with the new ability specs out in the dev diary, I will look forward to the skill tiers.  In most MMORPgames I feel like I get locked into skills and abilities that I do not want, but need to have to achieve a more needed ability. UX:O gives you freedom from skill pigeonholes.  This is what the Hanna says about the tier skill system:

UXO's tier structure organizes the abilities into six rows (tiers), each having nine abilities (three per discipline). When you first start your character, you'll have access to any ability in the first tier. Once you've earned a certain amount of ability points, the second tier becomes available and you'll immediately have access to all nine abilities within that tier. So, if you happen to really like the first tier of abilities in the mage discipline, but aren't interested in the second tier mage abilities, you can simply choose to learn the abilities in the second tier of the tinker or sorcerer disciplines instead, or you can take one ability from each of the disciplines or any combination thereof. This tier structure allows you to create a character that focuses on one discipline (class), or a character that is more of a hybrid. It's up to you.

 

So there is a choice of learning hybrid character abilities...not bad.  like the screenie?