Semi-comprehensive proposal for character customization in UO

Point by point, no frills. I feel that this proposal hits on many important areas that players have asked for several times over the years.

1. Give us the ability to convert wearable artifact items from one item type to another, in the same equipment slot. Example: Mace and Shield Glasses to plate helm. Another example: Rune Beeetle Carapace (currently the most-used breastplate in the game as far as I can tell) to Chainmail Tunic or Platemail Tunic. Another example: Crimson Cincture to Ninja belt.
2. This could be done using the Imbuing skill, or with a gold sink of some kind, or through any number of in-game means. A similar mechanic already exists for vet rewards through the Clothing Adjustment Box located in the Lycaeum.
3. Have various restrictions, such as denying us the ability to turn something non-meddable into something meddable. (Example: No Helm of Vengeance into a feathered hat, and your Chainmail Rune Beetle Carapace would not retain the Mage Armor property.) Or denying us the ability to use conversion to get a Crimson Cincture that can also throw ninja stars through conversion into a ninja belt.
4. Convert all items in the sash slot that currently do not have an artifact with properties into the robe slot. For example, a sash would remain in the sash slot (as artifact sashes with properties exist) but the Tunic could safely be made into a robe slot item, as I do not believe there are any propertied Tunics. This part of the proposal, though, would require careful research due to the several propertied items that came out of very early EM events.
5. Part 4 combined with Part 1 gives us a limited ability to overcome the complaint that everyone has to wear a robe.

-Galen's player

I just want to be able to modify the artifact robes into dresses like you can with the reward robes by using that special box in the Lycaeum.

Maybe the ability to transfer the properties of an artifact to a crafted item which is using the same slot. The name of the artifact can be removed too.

I like that, a 'salvage' of sorts. Makes new use of old items, turns eternal items to ones w/ durability - guessing any SR tag is removed also?

Or the weight of mage armor could be fixed, because it's kinda funky.

A solution to this would/could be reforging. While you can't pick up the HLD of mace and shields, you can still hit 10str and 10 dex (etc) and make a head piece that mimics the resists that will fit into a suit very well. This should be tweaked some, as to this point casters do not lose as much as dexxers (and it is significant, fcr3 or sdi which can be put on a jewel compared to 15hci/30 HLD that cannot be mimicked on an already tight fit on a competitive dexxer suit) when you go with a crafted head piece using reforging, and it would be nice to restore some individuality to the paperdoll (everyone wear leather if you wanna be competitive, get your mystic ready!) There are many properties you are able to reforge a second time, a non imbued player crafted piece of mage armor should be allowed to be reforged once again. This would bring an easy fix to metal/leather armor balance while not destroying the system, as plenty of time (and patience) will still need to be invested by a knowledgeable crafter who will be burning runics and base resist pieces for said desirable base pieces.

Only my crafter does not wear a robe. Would be nice to have an outfit.

Perhaps a "Hide Robe/Hide Cloak" option would be more efficient than retoggling item slots.

Oh I've mentioned this dozens of times.

Let me do a new skill..... alteration.... I'll freaking work it to 120 if I have to but I'd love to be able to alter items.

I don't think it should be part of a new skill. I think they should be tied into existing ones. So smiths modify smith items, tailors tailor items, and so on. Anything to give crafters a role again. Also a metal item couldn't become a cloth one and vice versa.

And they do it with a kit made by a tinker (which has limited uses - maybe 10, and is made using some ingots and perhaps a monster-looted item that is not hard to get but does need hunting). Also the name of the item should change appropriately, ie: Robe of the Eclipse becomes Dress of the Eclipse. Otherwise it looks silly.

I believe the implementation of reforging is a fix to the above issues. These items have qualities that make them the named artifact that they are. If you could pawn its buffs on to another piece, that would defeat the purpose of these items being special, or a named aritifact.

The devs have given you the tools to attain new gear that is comparable to existing pieces, with the exception of few things (see my post above). Do some homework and put some time into the subject, or pay a crafter that has. You've been provided with the resources to do so, do not ask for it to be handed to you outright as well. The name of the game is Ultima, not Unicef.

The robe is there to cover the mismatched items that it takes to get the suit you want. Example: My paladin wears ancient samurai Do, Leggings of ember, leather sleaves, leather gloves, Samurai helm, Metal gorget.
I cover up the mismatch with a robe. I would rather be able to match my armor pieces and look like a samurai or a leather clad warrior, or a knight in armor.

The robe slot could be converted to an armband so you can keep the stats. You cant wear an armband and a robe. I dont like the OPs #4 idea. I like to wear a sash and a shirt.

I thought that too, then someone was telling me how reforging actually worked and what you could get from it and there were still enough items that one cannot get through reforging that the idea seemed worthwhile to propose. Others have also continued to propose it, despite reforging.

Nope. The artifact would by definition still have to be obtained.

This response has nothing to do with my post and is a tad pathetic, to use the good work Unicef has done over the years to somehow reflect badly on a proposal for a change to an online game.

The artifact would still by definition have to be obtained by normal means to be used in my proposal. Nothing about this is about making things easy.

Honestly this part of your reply is rather silly.

-Galen's player

I'm sorry but reforging does NOTHING for things like the Mempo of Fortune.... and robes with properties.... Quivers, sashes, and I for one and absolutely sick of seeing EVERYONE wearing a stupid half apron.

Has been suggested several times, by myself even once or twice a few years back.. but seems the devs not biting

My suggesting was almost exactly like you, same slot, same stats, no turning non-medi into medi and similar. i defined that slightly differently. But in essense having the same exact penalties and drawbacks, and only have the cosmetic changed as you brushed it out so nicely.

I even suggested to make it an item on UO store with limited charges, which would surely make it worth their while, but still no biting of the devs.

The first idea is to convert an artifact to another equipment that uses the same equipment slot. As an example, Leurocian's Mempo of Fortune can be altered into a gorget (leather, platemail, woodland, hide, etc.) but not to a leggings or a necklace.

The second idea is to convert an artifact to another equipment that uses the same resources to craft. So, a robe can be altered into a cloak, kilt, hat, sash, etc. but not into an armor part. The same way, Armor of Fortune can be altered into a leather or studded leather armor piece but not to a platemail or a ringmail piece.

The third idea is to convert an artifact to another equipment that is the same type: armor, jewelry, weapon, shield or clothing. So, Armor of Fortune can be altered into any other armor piece.

There are some further considerations: let us say we altered an Armor of Fortune into a platemail leggings. Should the name stay as it is, change appropriately like the Platemail Leggings of Fortune or just Platemail Leggings? Also, should the new item have the Mage Armor property if it is altered from a medable piece into a non-medable piece? Should the crafter fail if she/he doesn't have the required skill level?

I'm just throwing out ideas.

Anything beyond the first option would twist options around to an unfair advantage to those with a big wallet, imagine a garb as sash? good bye lt sash, apron? tangle into garb? meh, those options would make many items absolete and not an option to do this.

only the first option is realistic.

You are quite right about this: imagine a garb and a garb converted to a sash, so basically two garbs. But we also need the fifth item to solve the robe issue:

So basically, we end up with the original (and well thought and written) proposal. I keep writing the same things, so I guess I have nothing to add to the proposal and fully support it.

Hum.. Okay, this is getting overly complex with people trying to put silly restrictions on to a system that doesn't even exist... Especially when there is no rational need for said restrictions.

What has been asked for, literally for years, is a way to cosmetically alter wearables so we don't all look like leather armored, robe wearing clones.

The easiest way to do this, so the Devs don't have to code complex new crafting systems (Sorry, Malag, but NO NEW SKILLS!), is to allow ANY item to be cosmetically altered to use the art of ANY other item that is applicable to the slot it takes. No changing properties, no suddenly becoming non-meddable, no stupid asinine restrictions - they aren't needed.

This way, the Mempo of Fortune can visually become ANYTHING that takes the neck slot: leather gorget, plate gorget, necklace, ankh pendant, etc. The Kasa of the Rajin can visually become ANYTHING that takes the head slot: glasses, plate helm, floppy hat, bandana, circlet, etc.

This would make players look visually diverse again. Add in a robe/cloak toggle (like many MMOs have) and we open it up even further. Since we're talking about just altering the graphic to something applicable to the slot an item is already assigned to, there are NO balance concerns. Nothing would be changed except how we look.


However, this brings up an issue that the Devs have only paid lip service to thus far... The reasons why 90% of UO players wear leather... The resists are the highest. Simple fix: make ALL armor have the same resist ranges as leather. Please, no cries of "that's not realistic, blah, blah, blah..." Sorry to break it to you, but UO isn't real. No need to bring annoying D&D concepts into UO armor - that was tried in the late 90's and bombed big time. If chain, plate, ring, dragon etc all have the same resists then we'd see a lot more diversity based on how people want to look, and really, at this point, thats all that matters.

I knew it wasn't original with me; just figured I'd shoot something out there. If we keep asking maybe sooner or later they'll do it. There has been one positive response to something similar, on Twitter by Jeff.

-Galen's player

What I don't get is why it hasn't been done yet...

*sighs*

Sure. You can't reforge splintering or blood drinker. Did I miss any other mods? Don't think so.. That's a huge loss, and an amazing point to deny the whole 'reforging lets you make what you want, how you want it to look'.

It's already understood that when you put a suit together, the head slot is spoken for. This is because it is the most difficult thing to mimic, as most head slots offer unique benefits that cannot be imbued/reforged. This is the problem (along with the inflexibility of mage armor). I was nice enough to already point out what you can't mimic (HLD, SDI, FCR, 15HCI on a piece) but for the most part, that's it. If your crafter was more knowledgeable, they would have simply told you "with enough runics you can make anything"

This is true. However, when it comes to a luck suit and the new reforging, you can opt out of making a suit including the chest/neck (armor of fortune/L's Memph of Fortune) luck arties and make a suit with better resists, increases, and stats with a loss of 120 luck. I would trade it, simply based on how little of a difference that luck makes in the equation when your suit as a whole is carrying such a high number (2k+). It is more effecient, and to add, luck's effect on desired farming areas trending at the moment seems to be questionable as an overall as well.

I support the sash/cloak/robe spots being unmatched statement. There should be alternatives to these slots that are as beneficial as others. There is a problem when everyone wears the same robe because of the DCI, the same cloaks (Cloak of Rejuv, Rangers Cloak, Quiv of Infinity) and an LT sash/Corgul/Spell Focusing. They're all so high priced/hard to come by. Except for the Corgul/Spell focusing sash. There is a HUGE difference between the high end and low ends of these slots, with little in between.

To my knowledge you cannot duplicate a Mace and Shield Glasses, the stats of the Rune Beetle Carapace, stats of a Folded Steel Glasses, and, as others have pointed out, it doesn't touch robe or sashes in any case.

I could find scant documentation on Reforging, but here's some stuff to get you started:

Runic Re-Forging - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia


UO Stratics *New* | Runic Re-Forging

You actually can add Blood Drinker, it seems. I could find no evidence of adding Splintering. But...Since what I was talking about would impact armor only, your points, if you can call them that, aren't particularly relevant.

I could find no evidence LMC could be added beyond 10; no evidence that Hit Lower Defense (found on the Mace and Shield glasses) could be added to armor at all; no evidence that DCI could be added beyond 5 (to armor). In fact per the UO Guide you can't even add mana increase beyond +10. The Helm of Insight, not considered a particularly powerful artifact, has +15 mana increase. So as far as I can tell you can't even duplicate the Helm of Insight using reforging.

Runic Re-Forging is a powerful tool, to be sure, but really nothing like what I'm asking for.

What's more telling than anything is that you haven't responded to the others who have contradicted you. Only me. That suggests, rather strongly, that this is to you about me, not about the issue.

-Galen's player

Oh Galen. You're beyond my help and set in your ways. I do get quite the chuckle out of your suits on Great Lakes. I now understand.

I told you what you couldn't mimic and you post it as the cornerpiece of your rebuttle. I'm aware you cant mimic the mace and shield, or the night eyes, or the 15hci/ >5DCI. I told you that already, so it's good to know you're at least listening. You can hit 10HCI/10DCI on a piece that is wood through enhancing with heartwood, but it's a huge lottery and quite costly. LMC cap is 10 per piece, but 40 is your overall hardcap. How many other slots is that? You do not wear one piece of armor. You wear a suit.

Your suit is built around 2 things 1) Your Template 2) The Base pieces decided upon (head slot, possibly legs, a jewel, conj trinket, whatever you wanna tell yourself for an example)
Resists are important (pvm all 70's or pvp 70/75/70/70/70), as are increases. You can now achieve a suit that will have the SAME overall stats/LMC/LRC/resists as a suit previously matched with these arties through reforging. You want to know why? Caps. Yes, they're nice individual pieces. They are used as base pieces because those are head slot artifacts you are pointing out. I already did this for you (See previous post). But there are going to be many other item slots to fill, and you should do this with strategery! (yes, I'm aware it's not a real word)

"But...Since what I was talking about would impact armor only, your points, if you can call them that, aren't particularly relevant." - Galen

.... So you missed my mage armor speech? It was in my initial post. It had nothing to do with you, but rather suggested a fix to allowing people to wear what they wanted instead of leather and in no way attacked or discredited what you had to say. I was suggesting a solution. Quit pretending I care enough to be petty on threads with you. You give me a headache, probably from the rapid loss of braincells when I read your posts, and you only can debate using the things I have already told you.

Sincerely, You've Been Here How Long Again?

Wow, I must have really gotten you worked up to post such a long non-sequitur in reply.

Your post, which is largely (if I can interpret your rather emotional scrawl properly) about suit design in general has scant relevance for the proposal, which is about, for want of a better term, artifact conversion. Which would be another tool to use.

There are many tools already in operation, yes. Whenever someone argues that plate is useless I point out to them that there are tools in existence which can be used to make a very good plate-exclusively or plate-dominant suit. Nothing in my post denies this. It simply says "hey, here's yet another tool many have asked for, and would like to have."

Now, again, as your post has little of substance to offer and consists largely of personal attacks, I have to conclude that you care less about this issue and more about insulting me. Bolstering this case is that you talked about looking at my suits on Great Lakes; I, for one, doubt I've looked at yours as I have no reason to care.

As creepy as this all is to me, I really can't stop you, I suppose.

-Galen's player

I'll end this the simple way. Enjoy playing how you play, and I'll do the same for myself. I'll continue reading mechanics and striving to apply new concepts to the game. This is so I can share them and my ideas with those who may interpret them differently than myself and find it beneficial to exchange what we walk away with from time invested researching. This is in effort to better each others playing experience. That's what the forums are for.

We will just agree we are mutually unbeneficial to each other. I do not like you, you do not like me. I will kill you everytime I see you in Felucca. This is understood. I learn nothing from you, and you do not accept others ideas well enough to learn from me. Do not address my posts with your rebuttles that do nothing but repeat themselves (and my posts) and make claims of your inability to deciper my terribly conveyed ideas. Rather, leave them for other players to simply read and I will reciprocate the favor.

Some people want competitive play with changes that appeal to and benefit everyone, not just ones that would require a great amount of time and effort simply to achieve trammies being able to look pretty while they sit around. My suggestion of tweaking the mage armor property kills 2 birds with one stone, whether you choose to believe it or not. Jeff has already stated he is looking for ways to restore metal armor, and with this proposal you could do so while also allowing players to wear what they want. If you simply copied stats to a piece from the artifacts you like, you would be creating the same dilemma because then everyone's stats would be the same. This takes away from the uniqueness of each piece, regardless of how it looks (switching one aspect of things being the same for another. We are asking for some individuality here, RIGHT?)

The suggestion of a paperdoll that controls how your character looks should also be considered, as mentioned above. Even many popular sandbox 16 bit games such a Terraria offer this now as well.

As for my posts being full of personal attacks, I see none, nor does anyone else who can read.

Consider this me breaking up with you.

With medable pieces being so valued, and mage armor with it's current imbuing weight wouldn't it make more sense if types of armors had difference max resists to make them more appealing? Ex- You can go with a fully medable leather set but the resists cap at 60, whereas you would have to put mage armor onto metal pieces but they would have an overall resist cap of 75 (makes sense seeing as leather realistically would not offer as much protection as say, platemail) so on and so fourth.. Just an idea being thrown out there

Roleplay squabbling is the best squabbling, it is just the best.

There is no "roleplay squabbling" in this thread.

-Galen's player

Are you Redstone?

Judging by your posts in this thread, the forums are, for you, about fighting and about furthering an obsession with me that I wasn't even aware of until I started noticing your posts.

I have no idea who you are.

Your posts in this thread have been only tangentially related to the topic at best, hence nothing to learn from them not by virtue of your ideas being valid or invalid, but by virtue of their having only tangential relationship to the topic, which is conversion of armor artifacts into something else in the same equipment slot.

Umm....What?

The key here is "competitive play." Whomever you are, you are clearly implying you play that way in the game and have clearly brought it to the boards.

I neither play, nor post, that way. The things I have proposed have been proposed by others, and have been responded to more or less positively by Jeff Skalski on Twitter.

Most "trammies" do not "sit around," we actively play, merely in a way that doesn't please you and those of your seeming ilk. There is also nothing that would obviously require a great amount of time and effort" in my proposal, nor the others who have proposed similar things, and indeed a similar system exists in-game already. Look at this article:

Veteran Rewards - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia

And note this excerpt:

It is not individuality for pieces I am concerned with, but for the characters in the game. Nothing will take away from, say, the Rune Beetle Carapace, in any case, because it would by definition still have to be obtained in order to be converted.

Earlier:

I could go on but I'll stop there.

We are not now, nor have we ever been, in a relationship. You looking at my armor anonymously in game, which you have already confessed to doing, and you insulting me on a message board for no obvious reason and with no obvious gain for yourself, does not constitute a relationship. It, perhaps, constitutes a one-sided obsession on your part, but not a relationship.

Hence, nothing to break up.

-Galen's player

the idea of having a item slots for aesthetics only is a good one! the quarrel going on in this thread confuses me tho. i read the post about tinkering with mage armor as a suggestion and thought it was good. then i read galens post and saw the "This response has nothing to do with my post and is a tad pathetic, to use the good work Unicef has done over the years to somehow reflect badly on a proposal for a change to an online game.Honestly this part of your reply is rather silly.-Galen's player" i dont kno how to do the quote thing yet. the unicef reference made me laugh!then galen trying to make the conversation sound like he has just thwarted a giant galen bashing thread plot? lol im confused . never got the vibe from any of the previous posts gorilla put up that it was going that way.
been playing for 2 months and just realised this site had forums. is it always like this? should i cancel my cable because of entertainment value i will get? the desperation and one sided drama rivals a maury paternity test. unless they do the im not the dad dance. instead itis just one guy throwin out options and the other pokin him with a stick to slip up!

can someone also direct me to where i can meet other new players to team up with on baja?

Baja board is pretty active.

-Galen's player

being a newbie doesnt make me impervious to the smell of sarcasm. i hardly ever see a soul and the other two new players i met in the past 2 months have already quit. where do i go to meet people to play with?

I'm guessing you know how to use general chat? (Just in case you don't - I was a really isolated newbie back in the day, it took me a long time to learn some surprisingly basic things - you go to "Chat" in the menu in the top of the screen, and join "General". Then you type by putting a comma before what you want to say. ,like this.) Just go onto Gen chat sometime, mention that you're new, and say that you'd like to join a guild. Somebody will take you on. I'd offer to help, but I'm not in a guild.

Also, turn up to the weekly EM event on Thursdays, fifteen or twenty minutes early, and talk to people there! That's probably the biggest concentration of people you'll find on the shard at any given time, and they're always up for a chat while they're waiting for the event to start.

i dont kno how to use genchat and i use the enhanced client with the pincos ui, it seems to work best for me. where can i find out more information on the events that will tell me where they happen and stuff like that?

i am not new to video games just this one i pick up fast. this one is so hard to get your bearings on, i never know what to do next so i spend most of my time aimlessly wandering

I was not in any way, shape, manner, form, or implication, being sarcastic. The Baja board is, indeed, active. I have no perspective on how many people you'll see walking around on the shard.

-Galen's player

No, sorry. Not looking to increase the need for a spreadsheet when making armor, its bad enough already. Furthermore, why are you hijacking this thread with armor creation crap when the propsed system is for COSMETIC purposes?

Exactly.... though I could argue that a smith could in some way shape or form add some metal to them and somehow add them into a helmet... or something... stretch them keeping their properties and magic intact and form them into a circlet. Just saying.

Hey Flak,

Sorry I didn't respond, I had to go to bed. (Yay Australia). Petra already linked you to the Baja board, so I won't. All the information you need for events is there (make sure they're tagged "EM Event," not "Player Event"; although you're welcome to come to mine, starting in 1.5 hours!) For example, we have one today starting at 6pm PST. That'd be a good place to show up and talk about guilds. Come at 5:45 and there'll already be a full house just sitting around with nothing to do.

My character's name is Alouenikah if you ever see me around in-game and need help. Don't be put off by the weird-ass speech patterns, I'm a roleplayer. I don't have much by way of equipment, but I could give you money if you needed some.

Adding in item slots for visual appeal would be the easiest fix to this programming-wise. It's already been suggested. UO likes easy, that is what it is. Why continue developing overthought ideas like implementing a system to switch properties between artifacts and another icon? It's too much work, way more complicated, and with UO's track record will be exploited (drag and drop or targetable mod switches on my cursor? sure!)

I talk about reforging because it is the closest you can come WITH PRESENT GIVEN FUNCTIONING IN-GAME MECHANICS AND TOOLS to achieve what players are asking for. It's a temp fix. It is doable. This is why i mention it.

A PvMer's idea is more likely to be taken advantage of by a PvPer, than a PvPer's idea being preyed upon by a PvMer. It's just the nature of the beast. Just consider it protection from "THIS GUY JUST MADE 21 MACE AND SHIELD BONNETS IN ONE BAG" posts

That's a pretty neat idea Petra, Personally am not bothered about the method tho, If it was available I'd find a way

Thank you.

-Galen's player

There is no particular evidence that such a proposal would be complicated. Indeed, it has already been explained in this very thread that such systems exist in the game already: One to transform human/elf items into gargoyle items and another for veteran rewards. Links, at least on the latter, are also provided elsewhere in this very thread.

-Galen's player

Yes, this ^^^^