Insurance is a convience. It doesn't matter how powerful the item is, insurance keeps us from running out and having to replace it. Nothing in the real world is balanced and UO mirrors that effect in game.

Much as some of us would gladly throw out insurance along with all the safer aspects of UO like Trammel ruleset, thing is folk are used to them now. I'd gladly dive back into UO if stuff like that was taken out, but I know many would scream then quit, so it won't happen The mindset of taking time to decide what you were safe to carry is mostly gone, as with the realisation that you can actually survive without a gazillion weapons, 3 kegs of potion and a suit of artifacts. I'm surprised some folk can move with all the kit they carry!

I do think items should be less permanant and that insurance needs to be curtailed drastically. One or two items insurable or make it based on the value of your item. Say you decide said item was worth x amount, you'd pay a % of that in insurance, then the item could still be lost to looters or thieves, or on the corpse, but you'd get back the value you said the item had to insure it. A very rough and top of the head idea, but there it is.

These days, we have a situation where items which should have been rare don't decay or get lost, and become common. And one where people would sooner throw gold at items than take the risks us older folk took to retrieve belongings.

Oh and maybe just maybe a little indirect thief love I know folk get very precious about their backpacks, but while there's a skill called stealing in game it would be nice if it had a purpose

Wenchy

You're missing the point. How powerful an item is means a world of difference in this game. What is easier to acquire, a pair of Gauntlets of Nobility or a pair of exceptionally crafted valorite ringmail gloves? On one hand, if I lost the Gauntlets of Nobility due to lack of insurance, it would be a most devastating loss, yet if I lost my GM ringmail gloves, I could just find a smith and get a new pair. Insurance isn't a convenience; it's a necessity, because if you want to fight the toughest monsters or keep up with the competition in PvP, you have to have the best gear.

(On a side note, for some reason I recall an event monster that quite literally "ate" corpses. For some reason my favorite sword became uninsured and well... I lost it.)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say the real world isn't balanced, but Ultima Online is a game and therefore should be balanced.

There will always be an unbalance regardless how hard someone tries to balance the game. The game allows you freedom to "Choose" skills, equipment, and who to play the game with. If you want to try and balance the game, then the Dev's could preassign skills to a templete, limit the equipment to specific character classes or templetes. Then you can have only certain shards open to certain templetes that are lacking on that shard. This so called "Balancing" would give the game a Communism feel to it. Communism didn't work for Russia, and would not work in Sosaria.

I think this is why we should have a pre-whatever shard. Make a shard with whatever rules folks can agree on and leave the current shards alone. That way we all get what we want. I love the rules as they are and wouldn't go back to the old ways if it were free. (and there are free places to play it and I don't)

I really should try out this insurance thing. Two years of playing UO and not once have I used it yet

HAHAHA Yua! Yes itis a fairly nice thing! ^_^

-RMS Carpathia-

I lost ya. I have no idea why you think I want the game to have set classes and class gear, but that is waaaaay off from what I'm talking about. That's WoW balance, not UO balance.

Much of the freedom that you so yearn for in Ultima has been stripped away by these items and insurance. I'm talking about a game where there's a demand for crafters, not arty-harvesters, where any magical item can be well-used, as opposed to the literal ocean of magical junk you find on mobs every day. Overpowered items have constricted your gear and templates, not diversified them.

I keep hearing about risk vs. reward but instead I find insurance, and overpowered items that have allowed me to conquer nearly any beast in Britannia.

What's worse, I hear about proficiencies which are supposed to bring a sort of balance... well I'm sure it's obvious what I say to that.

In a game where there are different skills, gear, and playstyles to choose from, finding a balance will indeed be difficult, but not impossible. Not impossible, but there will always be new content which will inevitably need to be tweaked.

Personally I would love it if I didn't need insurance, but what I would love more than that is if I didn't need overpowered items to be on the same field as everyone else.

Everyone has the same opportunities to get better equipment. No one is a slave to their so called "Over Powered" properties on their weapons and items. Properties give options and freedoms. You want better equipment, go out and find it or buy it.

Whenever you have choice, you will have an inbalance. Take away choices or freedom, then all you have left is someone to tell you that your having fun.

Ok.. When I started playing (pre AOS) if you died and lost your stuff, unless you were carrying home your bank account or a rare you had found, you just made or bought a new GM suit and made the best of it. My first armors weren't even the 'new leathers'. But then the new items, and new monsters came in and suddenly, it was a disaster to die and have your stuff disappear. HECK it was hard on me even to regain my normal GM items.

Now with all the really super monsters, the high powered weapons and armor are necessary. Maybe I am in the minority, I usually am, but it would seriously mess up my life to lose my armor and weapons. I don't do Doom or other serious monster spawn.. I don't do Champs... But I like having nice things. I am sure there are others like me out there. I insure all my items, if I could, I would insure my bags! I don't like paying the 600gp per item, and if I die a time or two, it can seriously deplete my cash, but I would much rather pay the 600 than have to buy a new set.. not only because of the cost in gold.. but you have to search out the items. You don't just go to the friendly Smith or Tailor.. (I have both) because their items aren't up to the standards of the Arties. Either make it possible for GM, Elder and Legendary Crafters to make comparable items or leave the insurance alone please. I am torn, since I am a crafter and wish to make such items and also want to keep my fancy pretties. But if you are going to dicker with it, at least make it so we don't just lose out in the end.

Also agree, the people who dislike insurance and Bless items need to just play where those things aren't. Let the rest of us have our modicum of security.

Someone mentioned making death not take away our items, no death penalty sort of thing that is in many games. If not that, at least give more time to recover the body! I lost my body, all my goods AND my mount when I had to run all the way to Vesper one night and then run back, only to be attacked again before I reached the body, and managed to live through the second attack but it was too late to recover my goods. I know that is a story many others share.... but a few minutes more would not have been such a big thing for the game to allow us....

I think that in the rush to 'fix' the over supply of gold in the game, it may have been overlooked that the vast majority of players do NOT have much gold. You might call us the lower middle class... the silent majority.. we don't yell a lot like the PvPers or Scam people with illegal programs.. we just trudge along enjoying our quiet time and living our little lives. So, does that count for anything? Or do we need to start yelling like some of the other people out there do. "The squeeky hinge gets the oil"????? We are paying our fees and following the rules, let us have our little comforts.