Hi Folks, as a newbie to this shard I'm having a hard time with the un-blessed runebooks. It was a real convenience being able to carry around a fully charged runebook at all times without risk. Looking forward to this once I have collected enough platinum coins But I also understand very well that blessed runebooks are pretty trammie and soften the game quite a lot. My suggestion is to introduce a rune bless deed or some kind of newbie rune. Maybe even the ability to have your character act as a rune - to make sure this doesn't get abused and remains limited to one per char. This way you can choose one "home location" that you can always recall to and don't have to worry so much about losing the rune ... Having a character act as a runes would be really cool. You can mark a spot with some magic words like "This is where I feel at home" That's another idea I had to make this shard a little more friendly for new chars. Each recall to my house costs me 2 recalls (one to a generic bank rune, one to the safe house rune in my bank box) and costs for recall scrolls is much more of a factor when you're still new and poor. Runes are so easy to be stolen, every time I lose my bank rune I got to get a new one. Sine none of my chars have sufficient magery yet I have to get a mark scroll and mark a new rune. Mark Scrolls can't be cast by most of my chars so I have to log in with one of my 50 magery chars just to create some new bank runes. Very annoying - i tend to not even carry a bank rune any more. That means lot's of walking which is very boring. Since Stamina is quickly depleted, some chars even have to take a break on the walk to my house from the next moongate ...
I think a blessed rune would be a bit ott but if you look me up in game or any S3X gulides we will mark a few spares till you get your magery up
That's very kind ! But that's only a very specific solution to my problem. The way I'm seeing it, you can get a blessed runebook once you spend enough time in the game. But loosing a rune is much more of a pain for a new player on this shard - they actually need a blessed runebook more than a GM Mage with 2 mil on the bank. Instead of throwing out blessed runebooks to everybody I am looking for a much more limited solution tailored for the problems of a new player. Offer a blessed / newbied rune as a monthly veteran reward or something ... but make it accessible early in the game. All this running around tends to get pretty tedious - a problem you won't have later in the game when you buy recalls by the thousands or cast recall at 100% success rate.
I don't see this as necessary at all. Running around early in your UO adventures is just a part of the game. Once you do start recalling, keep your rune books in the bank and keep a bank rune in your backpack. Recall to the bank, open your rune book and go. There doesn't really need to be a step removed from that process, it's pretty simple. This shards contains elements of risk in carrying things around, and it is something you will have to get used to, especially as a new player.
It's not very much fun to waste an additional recall for every trip to your house. And there's enough situations where you are reminded how dangerous this shard is. Just last night there was a blue camping between the yew vendor houses attempting to kill players with their shoppings. I don't think the game play would suffer much if PKs couldn't loot their 291th bank rune when killing a new player ... It's worth nothing to the PK, but such a drag to replace for the player. Having just a blessed rune doesn't mean you have blessed charges or anything. Any I'm not saying bless house keys and make them a recall target ... that would actually affect game play and I could understand people arguing against that.
Runes are dirt cheap and it is easy to re-mark the bank/home to have a stockpile of them. Runebooks only need to be blessed for those guys that can't stay alive when picking cotton. At least that is about the only time I carry a "full" runebook haha!!
I don't know why so many people think that having something be a pain in the ass adds skill, depth or risk to the game. I'm not sure how not having blessed rune books adds value to the game. I'm not advocating they be implemented on this shard because I know the mindset present here and it is overwhelmingly opposed to it. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I'd rather not play a game where every single thing panders to simplicity. Complexity and minor inconveniences lend to the beauty of this fantasy world. I suppose we should just click a button for an ore pile and another to craft the piece with a chance of failure either? The base level is being able to move around the world. Recalling via runes is a level of convenience gained by character skill and resources available. Then again, you won't find me agreeing with too many things that remove the 'work' from this game. I like the inconvenience because working through them is part of the game, not just collecting the spoils. As a high level/long term reward, it is a goal for some to strive for. I personally like them on my characters because I generally don't even use runebooks on characters that don't have a blessed one. Some will get books but they get lost so frequently I just carry a couple and remark when I have to restock. I have two blessed runebooks now and I see them as a great value because I am capable of doing what I want to do with fewer delays. For example, recalling into a secure courtyard or getting to a dungeon hotspot to rescue someone quickly.
I agree that blessed runebooks are too much of a convenience - it's okay for them to be very very valuable and limited in availability. But on the other hand it's a long way until you can get your first blessed runebook - and it is a very complete and powerful solution including charges and multiple runes at once. Why not bring in the blessed runes somewhere in between ? As a medium sized reward opposed to the high end blessed runebook. A blessed rune impacts the game much less than a blessed runebook. It doesn't carry charges so you still have to get your regs/scroll together to use it.
So many people can mark/sell mark scrolls these days it is hardly a pain in the ass. If marking a rune is a pain in the ass then that is just plain old PATHETIC. Can't believe that something that is SO EASY to replace causes such a pain, can't believe more haven't quit after losing something more valuable than a rune.
I like this idea, having a home location is pretty handy, something you can reliably return to if you are in trouble. But for new players it already exists. Any (young) player can type [profile and then use the menus to return to their "home" Ocllo. I think that magery is meant as an expensive skill so using it you have to accept the costs. I'd suggest taking a horse for 550 gold. Housing is a luxury that costs much much more.
I'd carry a CY rune on all my chars. That's the only real reason to get a blessed runebook, to be able to carry a CY rune anywhere. I think it is EZ-Mode UO. I don't think replacing runes is particularly troublesome when you compare that to loosing a house deed because you placed it on the floor of your house and forgot to lock it down, or a 5x GM dragon when a PK gank squad ran you over at blood elementals. You're talking about 13 gold for the rune and 11 gold for the mark regs...30 or 50 gold for a scroll (or free if you keep the scrolls you loot off monsters). So we're talking about loosing 63 gold tops...the equivalent to the loot of an orc.
Look kid, every single one of us has started here from scratch and managed just fine without being catered to. If you have a problem with losing a rune over and over then you have a bigger problem on your hand. I'm honestly stunned this is a conversation right now. Blaise pretty much hit the nail on the head. Having runes and the ability to recall around is a convenience that comes with the skill and resources that you work for; apart from that your ability to maneuver about the world is all up to you. Keep one master copy in your bank and then carry another copy in your pack. It really is not that hard.
Someone's got an attitude problem. I will disregard the tone of your post and still respond respectful. There are runebook bless deeds available as some kind of veteran reward, but when I propose rune bless deeds you are stunned ? I'm not saying drop 20 blessed runes in my bank box but suggesting to have blessed runes as a reward somewhere between nothing and 250 platinum coins. If I get maximum platinum for my three accounts for a month - that should be enough for a rune bless deed as a proposal. People might not like the idea at all or might price it differently .. but it's not too far away from the runebook bless deed which you all seem to accept very well.
Runebook bless deeds cost a fortune (1.25m in the cheapest you will find). This is end-game fodder. A single rune is newbie stuff that anyone and everyone has the ability to replace with ease. It takes under one minute to create a replacement whereas a replacement for some books can take an hour or more. Don't mind Mandevu's attitude he just tends to not care much at all for Trammlites. Personally, I didn't even want/need Runebooks to be blessed here, but since they added them, hell yeah I'm going to have some. I'm in favor of Rune Bless Deeds, that cost 50 platinum....
Yea, I agree that a rune bless deed would be fine. Blessed runebooks already set a precedent. It's merely the price that is the question. If I had to take a stab at it, I'd personally put it around ~120 plat (basically 4 months of welfare platinum). Even just one blessed rune gets you a ton of convenience and a nice slice of Trammel, so the price needs to be quite high. I wouldn't put it as high as a runebook bless deed, though, as it can't store charges, so still no easy death recovery, and you only get 1/16 of the locations.
I'm very glad to see this discussion did get much more constructive. And I also understand that rune bless deeds should be priced higher than one full month of wellfare coins. Something around 50-60 coins should make sense. That's two full months of wellfare coins. 3000 hours of ingame time with multiple chars does mean you've been taking the game serious and suffered long enough to get a piece of trammel to put into your backpack.
I don't know about everyone else, but the reason I was drawn to play here from another server is basically the first thing you read on the website: 'Renaissance without the influences of Trammel'. I quite honestly dropped what I was doing and immediately jumped onboard. This suggestion is contradictory to the shard's introductory statement. Allowing something like this only opens the door for more people requesting more easy mode mechanics. A rune and some regs to mark it will cost you about two mongbats, there's really no call for it. Also, the platinum reward runebook blessing, an elite reward with a hefty price tag (as it should have), that is already available meets the needs requested in this thread. Hail UOR, save Felucca! -ReZon
