I been in the game bout 5 or 6 weeks now Tyrantor..and I honestly don't see what you hate about it so much...
I've just about got my 2H sword mastery above 75..and archery is almost done as well. Hitpoints getting up there finally and stamina increasing rapidly too. I have a decent array of spells for a new toon, and those will only grow now that I'm close to done with melee and can spend macro time on them.
My toon is still pretty gimped compared to others who have been around for a long time, but I feel like I'm not too far away from being PvP ready.
You talked about the terrible grind...and yea it does kind of suck to have level ever single damn thing indivudually...but I can tell you that a cpl of the vets who've been around since beta are pretty shocked that Black Jack and I have progressed so quickly. Apparently skills level much more quickly than they used to. The biggest hurdle for me will be spell gains, and for me, that's more because of the sheer expense of the regs to macro all the spells you need to be top notch. Going to take some time to farm all that gold to finance it. That's part of the fun to me though. I don't mind farming mobs. It's not like I do it every second I'm in the game...
I can tell you this...5 weeks into UO, I was still running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to figure out what the hell to do. I had no real game plan and hadn't the slightest clue about PvP. I think by week 5 I had figured out the quarter in the space bar trick to macro hiding? Can't remember. I have progressed far more quickly in this game than I did in UO. This is of course primarly thanks to LoD and those who've helped me along the way. I have had some great teachers since I came to the game. Thanks to Tyvexx and Tonk for all the crucial info they've given me and the rest as well.
As for low population and being dead...you're simply wrong man...Our main city has hostiles encroachig multiple times a day. The fights are brought to our front door. I think my second week in the game we had some HUGE force of enemies show up at our main city ready to fight. It was actually amazing to see how organized LoD is in a large battle and how the vets keep the ranks in line and call targets.
If that's not enough, hostiles come into the outlying hamlets many times a day as well. Go get them if you want them. Of all the various mobs I've farmed, only a cpl have been PK free. The rest of em I've been hit at, sometimes many times. Sometimes I escape...more often I die. Oh well...it won't always be that way. But I digress. My point was simply that for what you label a dead or nearly dead game, I sure have not had any trouble finding a fight.
I haven't been involved in a seige yet, but I'm sure the day is coming. I personally can't wait. I was on the boat when we did sea towers. My toon was WAY new then and I didn't help much, but I got to fire a cannon and rain down arrows on guys in the water. I had a blast and am excited for the day when I can contribute more in boat battles.
My complaints about the game? There's a few, but mainly:
1. I think the transportation in the game sucks. I think there's entirely too much time spent running around trying to get places. I do miss the rune libraries, rune books, and simplicity of mark/recall from UO. I personally don't see any value in making players spend 45 min in game just to get somewhere. Waste of fucking time.
2. The equipping/unequipping of gear sucks. I shouldn't have to equip/unequip each armor piece individually with each piece requiring 2-7 seconds to equip/uneqip. Again...huge waste of fucking time.
3. I think the basic crafting skills like cooking/smelting/refining timber into boards sucks. I see no value in requiring a player to sit there while each ingot is made individually on a 10 second timer. Why? Again...HUGE waste of fucking time.
Anyway..that's my take on it as an unbiased 3rd party who just came into the game. I dunno what it was like before, but as it stands now, I think it's a solid game. It keeps me coming back for more.
