If things ended up actually being vanilla here at Ultima then many weapons we have already would be overkill.
Things would most likely get nerfed.
Seems you had a different experience than I did. That's not to say what I said didn't happen many times.
My point was that wannabe elitists at Ephinea say that it's vanilla all the time, when PSO wasn't meant to be experienced the way I previously stated.
Actually it seems you quote me just to oppose what I say for no reason even though what I said was factual, and most likely still occurs at Ephinea.
The toxic people I was referring to was the wannabe elitists at Ephinea that swear thy know what they're talking about. Not the casual user base who just enjoys to play PSO. I was cool with the majority of them. I was friends with many vets for example Spuz. He isn't one of those toxic folks I was referring to.
Wannabe elitists at Ephinea will tell you it's vanilla, and swear it to you. It's laughable really, because as stated above PSO wasn't meant to be experienced in such a way where you get left behind to finish quests solo just because Hardcore users are afraid to lose their reputation. Spuz never did that, because he is very skilled at PSO, but many others did.
I'm fully aware that they lose their progress when they die without scape dolls. How on earth is it still excusable to abandon fellow users because of that? It isn't.
It would have made more sense if Hardcore users could only play with Hardcore users the way Sandbox mode users can only play with sandbox mode users.
That would have been somewhat more vanilla, but the fact folks still call Ephinea Vanilla is crazy. And its often the wannabe elites there that claim such nonsense.
As you mentioned, in Ultima a new difficulty would be neat. Especially considering a lot of new things could be implemented with that. Monster/area skins ect. Not a bad idea. It would probably be difficult to execute though.