Hail and well met.

I recently got a new computer, a machine that is in all respects fairly decent and can run some higher end games. Here's a very basic run down:
-Pentium 4, 3.2 Ghz.
-2GB of RAM.
-GeForce 8800 video card.
It is definitely better than the laptop I played on, let's just say that. I was avoiding messing with UO or downloading KR but after thinking about it for awhile, I felt compelled to try it and give it a fair shot based on what it can do normally and not what it can't do on my old laptop. So without further ado, my unbiased review of KR.

The Introduction

Let's get one thing out of the way before I proceed. The graphics of KR are absolutely no where near finished, let's be honest. However I believe, given the continuation of the project, that EA will, over time, improve the graphics and make them better. In fact, before I go on I'll say that I think KR can be a good client when it is more developed, so there, I said it. *shudders*

And there are plenty of graphical problems, things that will eventually be fixed like pictured below.



And, I hope, they'll clean things up and make them more recognizable.


What the heck are these items? A shell and a bracelet, apparently.

Getting into the UI

One thing that absolutely annoys me about the UI is the very blatant deviation towards all that "UI standardization" nonsense. For example, many of the default key bindings are standards in other generic MMOs, like "C" for "Character sheet". F1, F2, and so forth for targeting yourself and party members. I also noticed that there is an option for Legacy bindings. Legacy? Pfft. More like, original bindings. And why are the original bindings not the default? I thought this was a gift to us old vets? Whatever.

I also have an issue with the chat. Now, aside from the whole modal chat vs. non-modal chat debate, this chat annoys me primarily because there is no journal. In 2D, before they removed the journal button on the paperdoll, there were many, many times when I popped over to my paperdoll and hit the journal button. After they removed it, I became accustomed and very acquainted with Alt + J. Now, there's no journal. Instead I have these two annoying chat boxes. System messages do not appear anywhere else except for the system box, so I have to have that one open. Then, if I want to see what was just said because I was too busy playing Minesweeper, I have to deal with this annoying chat box that automatically scrolls back to the bottom every time someone says something, making it completely useless.

There's also a huge problem with the text above our heads.



In 2D I can make out what anyone says at a spam-filled bank. The words are so clear that I can simply mouse over words if they are being covered by somebody else's words. In fact, when you mouse over text, it actually highlights, and you can open paperdolls by double clicking on somebody's text. The point is, this is how easy it is in 2D to see chat and the reason why it's a far superior chat than all of these silly MMOs that use chat boxes.

And just for the record, yes, I do know that I can make the system box display both system messages and chat messages. The only reason that this is still insufficient is because the system messages appear *only* in the chat box. Maybe someone can enlighten me otherwise?

I also have a problem with the skill list. In 2D, the skill list was about 90% changeable. The only thing I couldn't change about my skill list was removing the "Miscellaneous" category. Other than that, I could create categories, remove categories, move skills into any category I want; that's customization right there. In KR, I'm greeted with EA's classification, but as opposed to 2D, I'm stuck with it as well. Yes, I can move my main skills to the "Custom" tab, but what if I want to do something more complex? What if I want my throwaway skills separated from my main skills, but also separated from my inactive skills? For the years I have been playing, I've always had three categories: Miscellaneous for my main skills, Unimportant for my inactive skills, and GetRidOfThese for my throwaway skills. This was simple and it made me happy because it was my organization.

Now for containers. The most glaring problem with containers of course is that by default, they're grid-style. Well, since grid-style sucks (I'll explain why later), I have to keep switching it to free style. The problem with free style is the same problem that people keep pointing out. It just doesn't look the same.

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Oops, I forgot about explaining the stupidity of grid-style when I originally wrote this so I'm going to awkwardly insert it here.

The reason why grid-style in UO is dumb is because UO wasn't designed to use grid-style. Today's MMOs are all about using millions of these annoying little icons for everything. Moves, buffs, items, everything is a little square item that fits snuggly into its respective square container, be it inventory, or spell window. The only icons UO uses though, aside from the fairly new buff icons, are spell icons (and also for special moves). Items don't use icons, they're just... items! So now what ends up happening is I have a ton of these tiny, smudgy collections of pixels that aren't organized in a clean and clear icon sitting in the black squares of my backpack. How annoying and mostly invisible.
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Remember when I spoke of "my organization"? Let's just say I'm an organizational freak.




I have my own system for organizing my backpacks across all characters, my banks across all characters, my houses, and every single container I ever deal with, and KR is stepping on my system, which, let's face it, is simply unforgivable.

The other problem with containers, and this one just blows me away: items that are moused over do not highlight. Wait... what? Remember how in 2D, when you mouse over an item, it turns yellow? Such a basic and minor feature, right? I mean who really notices and appreciates such a tiny thing? It was the first thing I noticed when I started UO, primarily because I was used to things not highlighting in Ultima 7. Now, things aren't highlighting in KR. Sometimes my mouse will be directly over an item I am trying to drag, and I click... drag... it doesn't follow my mouse. So what ends up happening is that I have to keep clicking and then move items out of the way.. so much for reducing the number of clicks required to do stuff.

And speaking of reducing clicks, what's that about? I thought the devs were hard at work making the client more efficient. See, this is the precise reason I hate this whole "UI standardization" nonsense. They're not actually making real innovations to improve the way we do things. KR is just a switch to this common and very annoying UI.

In 2D, when I wanted to recall, all I had to do was open the runebook, then click the little blue button next to the location to use a charge. That's one click. In KR, I have to select the rune then click "Recall (Charge)". That's two clicks. It still takes two clicks to do normal Recall, Sacred Journey, or Gate Travel as it would in 2D. This is a pretty minor issue, but my point is, this is, however slight, less efficient. This is the precise reason I don't believe any real thought was put into this.

The final thing that pisses me off about containers/reduction of clicks is dragging stacks. In 2D when you drag a stack, a little gump pops up asking how much you want to drag. Say you had 100 gold and wanted only to drag 20 of it. You drag, immediately type 20 and then click Okay, now you're dragging 20 gold. In KR, you have to hold down shift (I mean, seriously) and then drag the pile. When you get the gump, you can't just immediately type in the desired value; no, you have to delete the current value which is set to the max. This is inherently stupid because, if I went through the trouble of holding down shift in order to drag only a portion of a stack, why would I want to drag the whole dang stack? If anything, the default value should be set to null or nothing, i.e. there is nothing in the field, in which case I could begin to type the desired value instead of deleting the max value.

But why is this an issue? It's an issue because in 2D, if I wanted to drag the whole stack and not separate it at all, I just drag, click okay and bam! The stack is in my hand. The gump pops up no matter what, so it makes sense to set the default value to max, but in KR it is just plain silly when you have to press shift of all things in order to initiate the "separation phase", and not only that, but in 2D, you don't have to delete the default value; you just start typing the value you want. Sometimes I just can't believe my own genius.

Enough about the UI, though.

When I first got into KR I immediately noticed how much better it ran on my new machine, and as a result I felt more compelled to play it. However, it just doesn't run the same as 2D. To be honest, it feels kind of like 3D, which is the reason I didn't like 3D (not bashing 3D, it just didn't run as well as 2D did for me). I have heard some accounts of people not being able to run as fast in KR as they could in 2D, and now I understand what they mean. But really, this goes a lot deeper than that:

One thing that turns me off to many games is when the UI isn't responsive enough. I've always liked 2D because it is so responsive. I double click my backpack and bam, it opens. I right click a certain direction and my character immediately moves. I can't stand games where when I click on something, and there's a slight delay. This might seem impatient of me, but seriously, these small delays add up. It really helps a game when its UI is responsive and runs smoothly. Think of it like moving into a new house in real life, but it's in the middle of a swamp. Suddenly, you have to get used to trying to trudge through all that crap. In the end, it's not a matter of patience, it's just a matter of not being able to master the UI, which is something I was able to do in 2D. So here's hoping that they'll work on that in the coming weeks/months.

Okay, I have one final bash for KR, and this is probably the biggest one. Now like I said before, I understand that the graphics are subject to improvement and will most likely be improved as time passes. However, that does not excuse this:



I'm sorry, but this is completely absurd. Why is the headless carrying a head, that I presume is its own head? Why then, is it called "headless"? Headless, that is, less a head, i.e. no head. Now I'm no Ultima Guru, but classically, headless have always appeared without heads. This is what makes them truly freaky monsters: no heads, no faces and thus no expressions.


Some headless in Ultima 7.


Some headless chilling out in the Stygian Abyss.

The reason this irks me so much is because it feels like Ultima is being redrawn by people that have no idea what Ultima is. Somebody told the headless artist, "Okay, now draw this monster, it's called a headless. It doesn't have a head," so the artist sat down and said, "Oh man! Monsters = gruesome and nasty, and you know what would be real gruesome and nasty? If the thing was CARRYING ITS OWN HEAD!!" Okay, but that's not Ultima. This is such a severe deviation it boggles my mind. It's these little things that really add up over time.

I remember reading a post by someone complaining that the swamp dragons didn't have 6 legs like they do in 2D, which to him was pretty profound because he had written a story describing the beasts. Interestingly enough, this stands out to me because I have written my own story about headless. It is these inconsistencies that I've been complaining about for so long.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I caught a glimpse of a bog thing and that sucked. In 2D the bog thing looks like this big horrible monster that lives in a swamp; in KR it looks like a pokemon. Why would I want to fight such a goofy looking thing? Bog things look so cool they used the graphic for one of the most horrifying creatures in the game: the true harrower. Now it just looks silly. Why the deviations? What happened to maintaining that "Ultima feel"? Why do reapers look like those dumb walking trees despite the fact that they're just immobile trees that shoot fire and lightning at passing travelers?


Bog thing! I choose you!

The Good Things

It's time I discuss the obligatory good things about KR since my review is, after all, completely and totally unbiased. So let's get this over with.. like removing a bandage... sigh..

-I like the rain. It actually looks like rain and therefore good.
-The cloud shadows are great, if they were just a little darker I would be pleased. It reminds me of Ultima 7.
-Some of the spells look sufficiently better. Exactly what I would expect from a client that is supposed to be a graphical improvement.
-The world in general really doesn't look half bad. I enjoy worlds that I can get lost in.
-Dungeons and mountain areas look cool.
-Believe it or not, I actually believe this client has potential to be fairly decent.

The Conclusion

The thing I would like to see most is a moddable interface. I know that it's supposed to be "skinnable", but I'm not sure if that's the same. If KR is moddable, that means players can truly make the UI whatever they want, and not only that, but make new ways to improve the UI. I mean really, make the client moddable and that's about half the devs' work done, because I have no doubt that many players would be contributing all sorts of great mods. This saves the developers from making all of these improvements themselves.

All in all, I can summarize my recommendations for KR into three simple points:
-Optimize the client so that it runs the same as 2D, whether I'm running around or opening/closing windows, menus, containers, etc.
-Rethink some of the graphics. Enough of this, "Hey, let's do something new and cool!" I keep hearing about putting more Ultima into UO. When is that going to happen? Let's just keep things the same, please?
-Make the client moddable. Otherwise KR is simply a waste of time.

And yes, I realize that the devs are working on these things right now. I just wanted to rant abou- I mean, review it.

Thank you for reading and may the Virtues guide thy path.

Edit: Fixed spelling and added a bog thing picture.

A terrific review! I enjoyed reading it.

The pics you included in the review helped a lot. I agree, some of the graphics need fixing! I absolutely cannot stand sloppy graphics such as the leg sticking out of the cape. I'd be obsessing over it every time I saw a player like that! I wouldn't wear a cape if the graphics stayed like that.

Great review. Wish it was more positive, but I do not believe that was a result of any bias on your part

That the graphics will improve is more a matter of inevitability. EA is, after all, improving the paperdolls, among other things I'm sure. My main issue with the graphics is that they should be nearly exactly the same as their 2D counterparts. More detail is nice, but nothing should be added or taken away from anything, be they items, monsters, land, or whatever. That's a little something I like to call consistency.

I'm sorry you found it too negative; try to think of it as inherently positive though. If I wanted KR to fail then I'd be discussing why it would never work, but instead I'm trying to present some in-depth perspectives of "UI philosophy" in a manner so eloquent that perhaps some passing dev will happen upon this thread and take note of my genius, ultimately improving the good of the game.

I liked the review, good job Deraj.
It was nicely written

Deraj,
I did NOT find it scathing, negative, or react negatively to the post. My comment, poorly explained as it was, was more a *sigh* as to the current state of the client. No reflection on you. I could not agree more with everything you posted.

The negativity was inherent in the SUBJECT, not in the WRITER (hope that clarifies it).

Ahh, I see what you mean, I misunderstood you. Well, I wish my review was more positive as well.

Just wondering [after a very well written review] how your finding things now?

What improvements ,if any, you have noticed.?

Would be interesting to read your take on thgings now, a few weeks down the road

Great Review And Like The Fact That You Were Not Closed Mnded About Kr

I want to add something:
For example I like a lot new models of npc, characters, headlesses and other! If they were old ones it wouldn't be interesting.
There is one thing bad about graphics in KR: if you zoom a char, it will look very terrible like when you zoom a bmp image. I wish they were more accurate. Also, I don't like how look thinks when they're lying, for ex/ that screen:

spellbook looks very bad, that's like very bad made bmp image!!!


I also like KR, and I think if developers will finish it, it will be a very nice game!

Well, aside from the slightly-less-responsive-than-2D nature of the client, I've gotten somewhat more accustomed to it. I've also noticed some less obvious changes in the way the UI functions that is similar to the "standardized UI" of other games, particularly in magic.

To be more specific, there seems to be a bigger emphasis on targeting. For example, let's say I wanted to cast a fireball on a mongbat. In 2D this is accomplished by first activating the spell (either by double clicking a spell icon or using a macro) and then you must actually tell it to send the spell to a target, and this is accomplished by clicking on the mongbat, its healthbar, or if it is "the target", using a LastTarget macro (the exception, of course, is if you have LastTarget as a part of the spell cast macro, but this isn't the best way to set up spell macros, in my opinion). This as oppose to KR, where you select a target and then simply activate the spell; it fires off automatically at the current target.

Now I'm not stating this as a good thing or a bad thing, because it could go either way. Actually, this could very well be considered an improvement, but only if there's good target management in the UI (at the moment, I'm still not sure about target management; still playing with it....well let me clarify, there are obviously minor problems but I'm not going to pretend like I'm an expert and yak about major problems).

And on that note, my new favorite spell is Meteor Swarm because it looks awesome. *Casts Meteor Swarm on a mongbat*

I thank thee. KR has a chance but only if the devs agree 100% with everything I say at any given time.

My main problem with the models is that they're not consistent. The task of immersing oneself in the virtual world becomes absurdly difficult when the surroundings and nature of the world change drastically in short amounts of time.

For example, let us say that I, a roleplayer, wrote a riveting tale about a headless (which is in all ways true), and I wrote about the headless based on the fact that said headless was without a head at all. In other words, the headless wasn't carrying a head or anything. Now, the headless carries a head. Wow, looks cool, right? But now my literature is blown to pieces because it is no longer consistent with "modern" UO. That is, if I were to stand in front of a crowd and tell the story, it wouldn't make much sense because it would inherently discount the fact that headlesses now have heads.

Many seem to think that because UO is "just a game", such changes don't really matter, and in the long run that's true. However I believe that if one wants to separate themselves from what I've dubbed "free-sharder mentality" (i.e. adding something because one can, not because it makes sense), then one needs to sit down and examine what exactly the "core values" of the game are; or in other words, the "spirit" of the game that separates glorified chat rooms from parallel worlds that are rich in culture and lore.

*Looks down and realizes he's standing on a soapbox*

Oops.....

*Casts Meteor Swarm on the soapbox*

He he ,thanks for taking the time to reply