The Midnight Watch

Well, part of why we only have pack animals available through out of town merchants, is to act as a gold sink. The travelling merchants sell things to players and then we delete the gold from the game, as a measure against inflation. Since there are no npc's to buy things from on the shard, gold just trades hands between players. And since players are getting more gold from orcs and brigands, the town pile just keeps... piling? So we wanted to offer players things to exchange their gold for, in order to take it out of play. Pack horses and silver weapons are close to the only things being requested that players can't just craft on their own; and we don't want there to be too many silver weapons floating about.

As for pack horses still being better than the "craftable" pack animal, the player-made pack animal would have to be pretty darn awful that players would still spring for pack horses when they could just have 5 of the lesser pack animals following them around. Having pack animals available on any level in player-made form would lower demand, and we're having a hard enough time coming up with gold-sinks as is.

For the design I had in mind, I had pictured an open window/ledge thing in the right side of the back wall, with an archery target facing it outside; this way players could test a potential buy without leaving the building.

I had the same spot in mind for the basement door, but was going to put the purchase desk in front of it so it was more out of the way of the shop.

Would you be against these changes? I can keep the design you've already done, if you prefer.

As for other building materials, I did charge Alth 75 iron ingots for one of those same lampposts in front of his inn. You could have a wall-torch outside the building instead, if you don't want to mess with getting the ingots. Beyond that, I think you're good.

I think silver weapons currently have a 70% damage bonus against undead characters, instead of the full double-damage they do against NPC undead. That being said, perhaps it could be scaled down to 50% or 40%.

Most people already know this, but I figure I may as well add it for those who don't; silver weapons also cannot be repaired as players do not have access to the metal type needed to fix it. Undead characters can also gain favor from Kraven by obtaining a silver weapon and giving it to him, so the first time a player holding a silver weapon is killed by undead players; that silver weapon is likely to vanish from the game.

Has anyone ever played a barber in UO? We could give one a box of hair restyling coupons that are given to clients to act out having their hair cut.

I think they also doubled as doctors back in the day, strangely enough.... Those twirling poll things? The reason they're red and white was originally to symbolize bloody bandages.

Isaac also plans to open a small library/school if elected, and it could use a teacher.

Let's see, what else....

Well, some of my character have done a little drug dealing and organized gambling, but I haven't pursued it much in-game and it would be cool to see a character more focused on it. On the subject of crime, you could also make a loan shark?