I've only been playing UO for a couple of months. My husband has played it on and off for 10 years. So when I saw this new version coming out I thought... "Oh that looks more me-friendly I'll give it a go".

I started out by testing on the new KR version, got a little bit put off to be honest at constantly crashing, so I played a bit on the original UO.

I've been going backwards and forwards between versions, and have consequently become completed hooked on the game... not because of KR though, but because of the old school 2D game.

I surprised myself. I thought that the new version would appeal to me more, due to it having a more 'user-friendly' toolbar layout and interface I'm used to (ie a bit like WoW... runs away and hides).

I've so far only been able to play the KR version for about 20 minutes in total (crashes are too frequent for me to play more). And have barely managed to submit bugs. But what I have seen so far has made me become very protective of the 2D game. I've only played it 2 months and yet I find myself hoping that it will be here forever and will not be replaced completely by KR.

I do like some of the things in KR, but not enough to make me want to switch.

So, even as a newcomer, I'm starting to feel very biased towards 2D UO and can understand fully why this game is still very much active after so long... my thoughts are "If it works, why change it?"

Welcome to the forums, Serdan! Glad you're enjoying UO so far.

Remember - the KR client is beta software. It's supposed to crash and have bugs. By playing it, you are volunteering to play an important role in the software development process by identifying and reporting those bugs and crashes. If the crashing frustrates you, my suggestion would be to stick with the 2D client until the official KR release comes out.

While the old 2D client "works," it is definitely not attractive to newcomers who are used to modern MMORPG user interfaces. While I was completely content with the 2D client (as were many other current players, I'm sure!), one cannot deny the fact that without a continual influx of new players, the game will not survive.

As a side note - yesterday's patch seems to have done wonders, at least for my crashing issues in KR. I was previously crashing about once every half hour. I played over 3 hours straight yesterday with no crashes in KR, and 2 hours this morning with no crashes. If you haven't played KR with the new patch, maybe you should try it again

Welcome to UO Forums and to UO Serdan.

Sounds like you are well on your way to being a UO addict

Vepl

Welcome Serdan! Glad to have you with us.

As stated already, KR is going to be like that, and if it's the crashing alone that is giving you a bad taste, that's a good thing for KR since that is not going to be the norm.

Gonna ask you some questions if you don't mind, seeing as you are the first "New" player that I've heard of stating that you enjoyed 2D more than KR.

What other things, if any, did you not like so much about KR that conversely you enjoyed with 2D?

What is it about UO that has "caught" you?

Compared to other game(s) you have played, *cough*WoW*cough* how would you compare the initial urge to continue playing? Were there more interests/curiosities with UO than other game(s)?

Yeah, I gotta agree, what is more appealing about the 2D client to a new player? I love it, but I showed both to my buddy, and his exact words were, "Why don't you play on that one(KR)? It looks a thousand times better." At that point I had to explain that it was still beta and had some issues/bugs/couldn't use UOAM, etc.

And then, if the friend had actually tried it out.... would he have reacted the way Serdan did? There are bound to be some who end up liking KR. After all, some like/d 3D too.... I never did, so I am not surprised that I don't like KR.

Welcome Serdan.

Hi, thanks for the welcome replies

Actually it wasn't just the crashes in KR that put me off - that just meant I could only play for a few minutes at a time. It was the crashes in KR that pushed me into playing on 2D more.

I prefer the 2D client because of a number of things:

a) The ability to right click to close things, and the left click to bring up menu on NPCs (very fast opening and closing of popups). With KR I'm left, right double, nothing - oh yeah target first then right click the target icon... so many clicks.

b) The bag and bank - I love the way you can place things and stack things whereever you like, the 3D 'old style' bag layout isn't the same, and I don't like the grid as it moves things around.

c) I think the world and people in it look less fuzzy and blurred. I'm often squinting at the screen in 3D trying to work out what something is.

d) The old targetting system in 2D I prefer.

As I said, there are a few things in 3D that I prefer, such as the way the skills are laid out, and the hotbar macros - but sadly thats about all.

I know that KR is in Beta, thats one of the reasons I started to play it, so I could beta test it. I've been involved in a couple of MMO betas and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have found though that KR is more in what I would call Alpha stage. Its so unstable its hard to actually test it. However, I have just finished getting the latest patch so I shall give it another shot

Welcome to UOForums Serdan and to the game. Its good to have you with us,and thankyou for your feedback so far as a noob .

I am guessing after your husband playing UO for 10 yrs ,you have perhaps sat and watched him many a time,and become more familiar with the game than you probably realised ?

It IS addictive in 2d for a lot of people,and this is what gives it the capability to still be a fairly serious contender for a reasonably large proportion of the general player base.

As a news reporter here for the forums,I feel I have to be very neutral in my opinions and therefore try not to post my thoughts/feelings on KR for or against it.

My boyfriend was in beta from the start, and he says the changes have been amazing to how it first was.They have made many improvements,and they dev's are certainly,from what I read, taking on board a lot of what is said in the feedback, and trying to implement it into the new 'look' .

As of yesterdays patch,we now have legacy chat, which I for one am thrilled about,and I know there will be other legacy interfaces we will be able to choose in the future,one being the backpack [ and possibly bank boxes/chests ?].

So dont give up on KR yet *smiles*

EA arent stupid at all, and I dont beleive they have the slightest intention of releasing the client yet,with the way it is presently.

Lets hope each patch, brings in some more legacy stuff to choose that will make those that like 2d so much a lot happier.

Whilst I am a hard core 2d player I do love some of the changes the new client will bring, ie. I like the way the sun rolls over the 'world' ,a lot of the artwork is a vast improvement too.

Keep your thoughts and experiences coming,we love to read them,and always feel free to ask for any help we can give,anytime.

There is a great deal of info here on these forums,which may not be easy to find at firsat .

Just be sure to ask .....

Oh don't even bring 3D into this
I loved the old 3D and I can't stand the look or interface of KR! If I continue to play I'm afraid it may have to be in 2D.

Some tips that might help -

As of the 6/22 patch, you can now right click to close things. The only catch is that you need to right-click on the title bar of the box/container/corpse/etc you want to close.

Shift-right click on NPC's to bring up their context menus. (Same with pets and other creatures with context menus).

I agree with you here. I don't like the KR version of the legacy backpack, and the grid annoys me in that it moves everything around and auto-sorts. My only hope is that they make it so that the grid remembers where you put things. They did say that was a possibility at the Chicago Town Hall meeting. Still waiting to see it implemented (and hoping wildly!)

Have you seen KR since the 6/22 patch with the improved brightness? That has helped with clarity quite a bit.

The other thing with KR is that it is very sensitive to your screen resolution settings. First off, if you have an LCD (flat panel) monitor, make sure you are running at the native resolution for your monitor. Some LCD's, particularly widescreens, have strange native resolutions (mine is 1600x1050). Consult the documentation for your monitor to find out its native resolution. The reason this is so important is because if the resolution you choose doesn't match the aspect ratio (usually 4:3 or 16:9 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)) of your monitor's native resolution, pixels will be stretched in ways they weren't intended, making things look fuzzy or blurry. The other part to this is to make sure that your resolution setting in KR either matches your monitor's resolution or is at least using the same aspect ratio. That too will cause blurring if the two are not in sync.

A modern video card also helps out with clarity of lighting effects and motion. Even upgrading from the GeForce 6600 to the GeForce 7950GT made a noticeable difference for me - however, the difference may just have been the fact that my 6600 did NOT support the native resolution of my LCD monitor. So with the new video card, I was able to set the proper native resolution. (That probably explains why even text and web browsing appear more crisp to me now).

This will definitely be a personal preference item. Now that I can play KR without crashing every half hour, though, I'm getting used to the new targeting system and don't put it on my list of complaints anymore, at least! (I'm not ready to go so far as to say I like it!)

There was speculation as to why they put KR out to open beta SO early in the process. Most conclusions led to something along the lines of, they wanted to gather bugs as quickly as possible. With the frequency of the patches we've been seeing, I would say that's probably true.

I hope you have as good of luck re: crashing as I did with the 6/22 patch. Now if I could just figure out how to use the stinkin chat system. It had me pulling my hair out last night!!!!