This is more about RPGs in general... but they could all be directly applied to UO and many of the current major discussions that have been occuring lately.


Anyway... here's a few lists of ways I think things can be changed that are easy to balance and/or have such a small effect on balance that nobody would ever really complain about them:

Crafting
Durability - how long something will last. Large bonuses to durability could be an issue, but anything up to a 100% durability increase should be easily acceptable
Weight & Size - limiting factors on how much you can carry. Again, any small adjustments should be acceptable.
Stat/Skill Requirements - This can be partly balanced by making it less effective at the lower levels than at the normal minimum requirement levels.


Combat Adjustments
Damage & Speed - Increase one, decrease the other, but maintain the same DoT. As long as healing ability is balanced (which it isn't in UO) so that neither doing high damage per hit or hitting really fast will be a clearly better choice, it should be fine.
Chance to Hit/Be Hit - Increase one, decrease the other.
Healing Speed v Ability to take damage - Increase one, decrease the other, but maintain average DoT.
Taking damage of type X v damage of type y - Increase the base of one kind of resistance, decrease the base of the other kind. Naturally, this should never allow anybody to become invincible or nearly invincible to any type of damage - but as long as the best resistance is still reasonable (personally... I think 70% is too much), it should be fine.


Thats everything. Pretty much everything is sucky when it comes to ease of balance

I think that the biggest balance there is for the UO devs is making the PvPers happy while not killing PvM.

I have thrown my *not-all-that-minor* inteligence at the issue more times than any could shake a stick at and always come up with the same thing...there should really be two different rule sets.

I hear that WoW has it set up like different shards, which to me is the only way to really make it easy and enjoyable for all.

I realize that the ease of PvM of late was unintentional, and indeed wrong, but to tweak one and keep the other on par is something that I truly believe will never happen.

A shame, but something that a great many people have left UO over...

I never said what changes were important or smart... I just said which ones were easy

True.

I would look at it this way if it was up to me to balance the game. I would just apply realism to the game or the world as a whole. I know the game is fantasy but there is a certain aspect of realism within the game that does, or at least did, keep it in balance. Not just in PvM or PvP cases, but also just in general gameplay. A few issues:

1.) Insurance. When you die and your stuff is till on you? Come on...Never should of been introduced. I believe this needs to go ASAP.
2.) Damage/Caps. Never should be needed. Indirectly related to insurance, people can insure their big weapons and cause massive damage without risk of losing the weapon.
3.) Weapons. Hallies, Warhammers and the like are pretty much useless. This needs to be looked at.
4.) Houses that don't allow tresspassers. Lock your doors.

Off the top of my head those are kind of the major ones IMO. I really enjoy the new content the devs bring into the game but some of it needs to be looked at if balance is to be achieved.

I may be over my head here because I didn't really understand the first post and I just saw balance and my mind went reeling.

The entire system is based around insurance now. Its here to stay.
See above
Diff weaps gain and lose popularity as the times change. I loved my hally mage pre pub 15.
They tried to fix house fighting, but screwed the game up even further. Oh well....at least its not a game breaking screw up like Bushido / archery / WoD currently are.