•The worlds largest violin

Ok it's about time I post something worthwhile. That hassle we all call real life seems to be getting in the way of more important things like figuring out just how in the world to play my little pixles of woop ass now that UO:R is out. It all boils down to I am not as good one on one or in group pvp situations.PERIOD. With no insta hit haly I have to rely on my magery and only magery. I will most likely follow the herd and go archery so I can be effective when factions come out, as well as play my townie a little more. As I stated in an earlier post, most people I know are quitting. They blame OSI, they blame whiny rpger's, or anyone they can. In my opinion, (and I know you've waited a while for this) the overall enjoyability and integrity of the game has been improved. Here is the raw fact of the matter. We, as UO players have been spoiled. Spoiled by easily exploitable bugs, monsters that a 2 week old newbie could kill solo, and a pvp set up that is so easy to manipulate and exploit to ones advantage, that frankly, I was sick of dominating in it's prior format.

The entire concept of this game should be about group pvm, group pvp, and or group exploration, which is not to say that everyone should be a role player in the traditional sense. I'm not. But I do realize that everyone in UO plays a role. Wether that role is pretending to be an orc at a player run city, or pretending to be a disgruntled rapper from NY that has somehow found his way to Brittania. Social interaction has become more prevalent, and that my friends, is a good thing. This is afterall, a multiplayer game. I know this will come as a shock to some of you spoiled 7x mage/swords players ego's, but this game was NOT designed soley for us to dominate lesser players. You sit and cry that OSI has screwed you for the last time. All OSI has done from day one is make it easy for those of us who knew how to macro up our pvp characters to go out and if you had any type of hand eye coordination at all, lay the ass-smack down on any other player in the game. Now that you might actually have to play another character or (god forbid) interact with your guild and be more of a team player, you're quitting. Ya know what? GOOD. Get your whiny ass out of the game. Not everyone will be happy or agree with this. I have ALOT of friends who are quitting for the reasons I mentioned. I guess not everyone feels that change was needed. Not everyone feels as if there was anything wrong in the first place. I disagree. Change was needed. And any change that makes interaction and team play in any format, be it in pvp or rpg more neccessary, I will be all for it.

•Permanent death, you say?

*You notice management cancelling the game.*

There's two interviews for Dark Zion - that new MMORPG, set to come out on the exact date that all of the others come out. But it's really just a coincidence. Stuff like that is never planned.

Anyway, the first one can be found here, and the second one can be found here.

Some interesting stuff about this game...

There will be no NPC shopkeepers. The only way to get items is to get them from different players. Nothing wrong with that.

There will be no money. You heard me - no money. I like that in a sense, because it makes it so you have to get off your ass and find other players for their stuff.

Permanent character death. Hrmmmmmmmmm... I don't like permanent death, but they're doing it a bit differently. Most of the time, you'll just get knocked unconcious. Death is always one of the most important topics, so that's all they said. I'm sure that they will figure something out.

There will be ships, houses and other cool stuff. Only the difference in this game is you make them by yourself, since there are no NPC merchants. They can also be destroyed by other players.

And the most important aspect: you will be able to sit in chairs (yes, this was asked).

It sounds cool to me. What I like the most is that there's no money or NPC shopkeepers. UO's player-interaction design is decent, but you don't need other players at all. 99% of the time I played UO, I played alone. I went out, killed monsters, bought stuff from vendors (both NPC and player) and I was set. Not once did I need to be with another player (I didn't need to have a player right there - I could use his NPC vendor). This will be different. You have to be face-to-face with other players to get items. Players will make a huge impact on the you. I also like the fact that you make your own houses, ships, etc, and they can also be destroyed.

•One less bug.

Poisoning NPC's now gives you a murder count. No more black sandals for yoooooou.

Thanks to Jacob for the heads up.

•A couple more submissions.

First, the armor. Try these combinations instead:

Female: female plate chest, plate gloves, studded gorget, plate helm, studded arms, ring legs.

Male: plate chest, studded gorget, studded arms, ring legs, ring gloves, close helm.

The only thing that was changed was a plate gorget and ring arms for a studded gorget and studded arms. Apparently, they give the same AR, but do not take away any dex. So for females, you would have 37ar with 9 dex loss. For males, you would have 36ar with 10 dex loss. Every little bit helps.

For money, try killing Orcish Lords. They give 600-700 gold. Remember, only the one's named "Orcish Lord". The rest give the same.

Lastly, on the update center, it says that you can raise healing all the way up to GM by just healing yourself or others. Can anyone confirm this?

•Felucca Stones aka *There is no place like home!*

Got a email from someone who offered to shed some light on the subject.

Best place to find them is the swamps. Lizards have then, every other one
in fact. In half an hour I got over 10 stones.
Just beware of giant serpents, if you cant cure, you better have cure
potions.

- Scyther

Do some testing and let me know.

•Something for Pacman to eat.

Well..after testing out UO:R Ive come up with one conclusion.

Its going to take some getting use to.

There are good points and bad..ill go over my pvp experiences as of yet.

Logged in with my archer/fencer, and I pretty much beat everyone I fought. I did all testing with GM weapons so everyone could get the same results as I got, skill willing.

I found with 100 dex(been running around naked with a boat load of potions..will do this until I get the hang of the new armor.) I have a heavy crossbow ready and I attack a guy in full plate(can anyone say idiot?) Boom..thats like 25-30 points of damage..I run up and get lucky and stick him with my short spear and para him..do a quick UOA hand switch and I stick him three times with a kryss..and im looting him shortly after. I did this several more times..it became a routine..something I could definatly get use to.

My shieldsfighter was a different story..now granted logging in to 49 ar with a archer suit and heater sure was nice..but my dex kind of bothered me but I kept the archer suit on. I did some pvp'ing and in my point of view, im not very impressed. Parry will be good in duels and little else, at least from a PvP point of view. You get into group battles and you will want the distance and punch of archery.

My Lumberjack mule, im sorry thats all he will ever be, I don't care how many 3l33t people I beat. All I have to say is this is plain sick..the damage is crazy. I only fought one guy, and he was sent running..and my lumberjack MULE is pretty weak. But with GM lumberjacking/swords/tacts and 76 anatomy..the damage is nuts..I was out there with a GM large battle axe, and then I saw a Ettin. In the old days I would have taken off like a dog with his tail between his legs..but I thought for shits and giggles Id attack him. I can't beat a ettin as fast as I did with any other warrior ive ever had. Hopefully they will nerf lumberjacking..or at least tone it down. I was kind of hopeing for the same thing with mining and pick axes. I have 99.3 mining and its driving me crazy.

Regardless to say, My favorite warrior, is now stuck in Candyland without any Felucca stones..Ive got them on Hokuto and Atlantic on headless often, but on Drachenfels..nothing. If anyone from any 3 of these shards know a good place to get the damn things send me a email.

On closing I want to say to all the people saying that Nieves is this and that..blah whatever. I personally PvP often and I love his posts. They are well written and full of little gems of humor. Keep it up Nieves.

•A Note on Armor

Remember that your AR is factored based on the protection given and required as an average over your whole body. Wearing ringmail means that when you get hit in the legs all the protection you have is ringmail, total AR is NOT factored into any damage calculation. New AR values are inflated and, since the armor doesn't have any more HP than it used to, AR drops rather quickly. Know your local GM smith because you'll need to repair more often.

•I love this game already.

Part III of Gamespot's Warcraft III preview has been posted. They talk about the undead (the race I'm going to be, since they cast magic and are cooler than the rest).

It's pretty interesting how this game works. Each race has heroes (the main guys). The heroes level up, get the skills/atributes, make buildings, get powers, etc. They do this by doing quests. Each race has it's own set of heroes (6 per race). The heroes will be the most important asset in the game. You can learn more about them on the Part I of the preview. Also, make sure you read Part II. Both are very interesting reads.

Each race has it's own set of resources, instead of just gold. Good. I'm sick of gold in every game. There's also different ways to get your resources (IE: humans use peons to mine gold). The first undead hero that you get is the necromancer (nice). The necromancers resource is mana. You get mana from dead bodies. The more people or creatures you kill, the more mana you get. That mana is used to summon buildings.

The units are more complex than just "double click building, target what you want to make". In fact, you can't make units from buildings at all. You have to get off of your happy ass, kill stuff, then bring them back to life and they turn into whatever unit you select (if you have the proper buildings, of course). You can also summon your own units when they die in a battle.

However, it's not as glamorous and easy as it sounds. In fact, the undead will probably be the hardest race to be. You start out with practically nothing (obviously). You need to kill people and creatures with your one, weak hero - just to get mana to create buildings. Then you have to go out with your one, weak hero again and kill stuff to make units. Repeat until you've died and ressurected 5000 times - then finally you're prepared. While this is going on, the humans are mining for gold and building an empire as ease.

In the long-run, though, I'm pretty sure that the undead will be the best. As mentioned before, each race has 6 heroes. The undead heroes sound very powerful. They all raise the dead (important if you're losing a war and don't have the time to build units and get them to the location where the war is held) and cast numerous spells that will probably kick some ass. Not much about the undead abilities was mentioned, so there's not much more to say. I'm pretty sure they will be balanced to suck at first, then totally dominate after you're prepared though. Blizzard seems to be good at balancing classes/races in their games.

That's quite a bit of information, so maybe it is actually around the corner (late, late this year = around the corner). It's always good to know some information, unlike other games. I now want this game more than any other.

•Interesting armor information...

Female: female plate chest, plate gloves, plate gorget, plate helm, ring arms, ring legs. It gives 37ar and takes away 11 dex (chug a gagility and trefresh potion, and you will get +9 dex).

Male: plate chest, plate gorget, ring arms, ring legs, ring gloves, close helm. It gives 36ar and takes away 12 dex (gagility and trefresh potions would give you +8 dex).

Thanks to KH for the information.

Of course, this means that the armor modifications were slightly useless. Everyone will go from the archer set of old to these (mages will use leather though).

•Skill updates and more submissions.

The archery, bowcraft/fletching, evaluate intelligence, fencing, fishing, inscription, lockpicking, lumberjacking, mace fighting, meditation, parrying, swordsmanship, tailoring and wrestling pages have been updated. I don't feel like linking them all, so just go to the Stats & Skills section.

Submissions:

Refresh pets' stamina bug no longer works. However, the pets stamina has been increased by a lot. According to the submission, you can run from Skara Brae to Britain without your pet running out of stamina. Also, every second of rest is three seconds of running (IE: everytime you stop for a second, your pet is building up the stamina to run for 3 more seconds until fatigued again).

While testing again, Air Elemental's do in fact cast only level 1 spells. This has to be a bug.

Liches, Poisons, Orc Mages, Avengers, and Matriarchs cast every attack spell; up to lvl 7.

Balrons cast level 8 - yes, they summon

Thanks again to the TheProQuo for the information.

•Changes

Well I'm back, fresh off a week long work trip. I turn my computer on to about a thousand uh oh's, 90% of which are people icqing saying that they hate the changes OSI made and are now quitting. Not being one to rush to judgement I log on to see for myself what all the fuss is about. All I will say for now is I will reserve my judgement until factions are out. Being a 7x gm pvp sword/mage, I fall into the screwed category. But ya know what? I can still heal my guild.. I can still make fun of the goofy band of miscelaneous guilds going off to the new lands to share some lich lord fame (oh boy). So UO life is still not all that bad. Keep in mind my fellow UOers and more specifically pvpers, change is usually good, even though it may not look like it on the upstart. Give this some time as I am doing. If it proves to be as bad as everyone seems to think it will be, there are many other options out there.

•Well, it's true.

Just checked out Blizzard's site, and the rumors about open beta starting soon was true. The press release is here and the sign-up's are going to be here - on May 1st until May 7th. 100,000 people will be accepted. I better get in or everyone will die.

Is it just me, or is it kind of weird and coincidential that three major RPG updates (EQ expansion, UO expansion, Diablo II) arrive at almost the same time? Oh well. Diablo II will sell more and I'm going to laugh at the others.

•Interesting submissions today...

First, let me say that I was joking when I said nobody talks. I was in a pissy mood yesterday (reason unknown).

Anyway, here's the stuff that was sent my way about UO:R:

Stacking and white hair bugs do not work.

No more spellbook scams for you (It displays the number of spells in the book when you single click it in the trade window. 64 is how many spells there are. If you're buying a full spellbook from someone make sure there's 64 spells).

Cotton spawns again.

Archery still misses if you run.

Air Elementals give 200-300 gold and only cast level 1 and 2 spells (can anyone confirm this?).

Terrathen warriors no longer give magic weapons. None of the Terrathen's are worth killing anymore, because there's better ways to get loot and fame (Air Elementals)

Poison Elementals give 1000 gold.

Liches are still easy to kill if you have a decent silver weapon (one healer preffered).

Lich Lords are also easy to kill because there's 50000 people there.

Orc Forts are death traps. Orc Mages and Lords spawn in mass-numbers. They're also tougher than Air Elementals and give less loot and fame/karma.

Red NPC's give 50-400 gold (more if there's no extra items; less if there's more items: wands, plate gloves, shields, etc).

The -PK dungeons are over-crowded, while the +PK dungeons are empty.

Big thanks to TheProQuo for all of this information.

It says on the update center that refreshing pets' stamina no longer works as well. Feel free to test it and tell me if it's true, so I can take it off the bugs section.

•Some Dum "Lum"berjacking (no pun intended)

Well, I went and got my weapons master in training and bought a +15 tactics Double Axe of Force for 3k. I wanted something decent to fight with. I found some Orcs and decided I would wipe the grass with them. Not. I got my clock handed to me. My weapons master has 82 fencing, 70 parrying, 70 anatomy and 75 swords (I am too lazy to GM those skills out on him) and this Orc kicks my ass (must be that 18 dex I have) while using the Axe. Not too mention 25 healing is NOT enough anymore. Hey, again, I am lazy. Macroing isn't for me. I want to PLAY!!!! Hmmm...I wonder if the Wall in Trammel Deceit is being used the "Bob" way? That's a thought...

When the Axe hit, it was DEVASTATING. 1/3 of life there, 1/2 over here. It was a great sight.

I continued on and started choppping wood and watched the Lumberjacking skills go up. I found another Orc spawn and went to see if I can take them on with 30+ Lumberjacking. Nope. That didn't work. Doesn't help that Orcs "call" each other and just swarm you.
Time to go back and build that dexterity and Lumberjacking skill up.

I also gained Lumberjacking while fighting the Orcs with the Axe. That is just stupid :/. WTF? The Lumberjacking engine "thinks" I am using the monster's legs as tree trunks or something? Yes? Really? Ok, how come I am not getting any wood from that? (bad jokes sorry) Someone must've been on some crack when they designed this for the game. I did manage to get roughly 200 shafts which my archer will appreciate.

This character was to be: GM Tactics, Swords, Fencing, Parrying, Healing, Anatomy, Spell Resist. Hence, a weapons master. Well, Fencing is nice, but I hate missing so damn much. And since I already have so many sword weapons, including axes (treasure chests are just the bomb!), I will just drop Fencing for Lumberjacking.

Axe fighting has REAL potential. I think I am going to like it alot. Anyone else try it out, please email me and let me know how it goes. Also, I want to hear about your PvM stories, how the monsters have changed and what you did to defeat the monsters Post UO:R.

Hasta...

•FINALLY!

HA! I got there! After days of trying I finally got to the Terathan fort...but first let's talk about lumberjacking. Nah, let's not. You really want to hear about Terathans anyway (lumberjacking will be next post).

Aight, I got with 3 friends and we gated up there. Well, I had some trouble at first. Like the dumbass that I am, I walked back through the gate and wound up back in Papua. I had to get another gate up there from someone else (ok, you can laugh now). I go there, but I couldn't find my friends :/.

As soon as I got there ol' Miss BusyBody (Matriarch) latched on to me and started chasing me. Anyone remember that nice spot where all the archers and mages would hang out and shoot Avengers from? (I would link you to it, but Red killed the link :p; it's on the west side of the entrance). Forget it. The line of trees/brush that used to be there is gone. I used to laugh when I saw people running from Matriarch and Avengers. Well, I wasn't the one laughing this time. That damn Matriarch chased me all up and down that hill. It got even funnier when an Avenger showed up to help give chase. Finally I got to the hill across the walkway in front of the Fort Entrance. Matriarch is there hovering around just doing her version of the "AI Happy Dance". An Avenger "recalls" (spawns) in and starts to join in the Matriarch for a waltz. Dammit. I am sitting here pecking away with the vanq bow I brought PRAYING they don't teleport on me. The Matriarch wanders away off screen and I have the chance at killing the avenger (which is what I wanted to do up there anyway). I start pecking at the Avenger and keeping myself healed/cured (curing poison is getting easier but I still have trouble healing over 60 skill :/ ). I kill the Avenger and start to run off the hill going east (trying to save regs). Guess who is coming up the hill from the BACK side (the other Archer spot just Southeast of the Entrance)????? Yup, you guessed it. Girlfriend pathfound all the way AROUND the hill after me. Persistant Bitch. I teleported away, ran, looted the Avenger (hey, I gotta have my loot ::head twitches a couple of times::), and trapped MaStA MaTtY (I got tricks and you don't!!! :nah: :P), shot her down with the bow and finished her with a couple of Halley strikes. What did I get out of that exchange? A load of karma and fame and 1.2k total from both of them :). Pretty good huh?

I could go on about my 2 hours but let me just summarize it for you:
Avengers and Matriarchs can teleport and heal themselves. I didn't see that last night. Everyone I talk to tells me about it (thank goodness it didn't happen last night). They pathfind better than ANYTHING I have seen in the game (yet). There are 2 decent trap spots left up there. That's all I found! Avengers were on the "beam" everyone likes to hang on above the entrance. All the other hills they pathfind up. And they do it well. Almost like they were coded with the ways around their area (makes sense since they live there). Ensure you get a head start to the spots you are going to run up because if they are too close, they will pathfind there way up to you and kill you. Ask my 3 friends. I found their ghosts later.

On my march through the Ophidians (still took me an hour to get through them) I got the chance to fight an Ophidian Matriarch. Man, is she a mean bitch. Thank goodness I got to my spot. Pecked her to death (takes ALOT more arrows for her) and finished her with the halley.

Clarification: I did run all the way through to Papua, my friends needed reagents, so we gated back, got supplies and returned (read above).

Those Ophidians will follow you all the way to the Fort. So be fast and don't get trapped. Teleport works good for that. An Ophidian Shaman was tearing up some drones. It was hilarious seeing a Terathan Avenger scream "DRONE KILLERS" and proceed to kick the shit out of that Ophidian Shaman. I don't think the Shaman did much damage to the Avenger.

Of all the Ophidians and Terathans I ran into, the only time I was really scared (heart pounding) was when I recalled in earlier in the evening (before I found my gate buddies) and a Silver Serpent was just off screen. I ran so freaking fast I fatigued my horse. That thing is faster than before. I did manage to get on my "precious" hill and kill it. Gained a ton of karma and fame for it too. Did get a screenshot this time as well thinking about you guys, but being the dumbass I am, I left it at home :/

Ok, for those that are curious, here are my Archer's Stats:
GM Tactics, Archery, Swords
97 Anatomy
63 Healing
60 Hiding (hated thieves at banks; dropping for healing eventually)
50 Tracking (pointed down; loved using it to find stuff in the desert and thieves :grins thinking about the stealthers this char has killed:)
70.1 Magery (30 point heals are nice)
100str/100dex/25int.

And I got these stats the hard way. I played the game. How many can say that? And I dont' want to hear about "she should have this or that". I only lose to monsters when lag/lost con gets me.

Supplies: 15 GHeals, 10 GCures, 50 Bandages, Halley of Vanq, 2 GM katanas (in case one broke--still don't use em much), Bow of Vanq, 350 arrows and 40 of each reg. Oh, key note. Make sure you trap your pouches BEFORE you leave for the fort. Kind of sucks when you go to hit a pouch after being paralyzed and it doesn't explode. No problem right? They usually fire off a magic arrow to knock off the paralysis anyway. Well, it doesn't work anymore (I read that on a site somewhere...what I get for paying attention). Magic arrows or harms no longer kill paralysis :/. Thank goodness MaStA MaTtY fireballed instead of flamestriking when she got to me. :;shakes head;: Told you I was a dumbass.

Loot: 4k, 3 Felucca stones (Mattys and Avengers had em; never did fight a Warrior), no magic weapons. :/

Next: Lumberjacking and Lockpicking.

•I'm updating too much.

I was just sent word that stacking no longer works with UO:R. Can anyone confirm this? Not that I don't trust the source, but it may be a shard-specific thing (it happens sometimes).

•Well ain't this a first. Two UO II news items in one day.

Crossroads of "New" Britannia (emphasis on new, because it's a stupid name to pick and I will not stop making fun of them for it) posted the IRC chat they had with, um, everybody on the team. You can find it here. I just noticed something: the more, the worse - not vice versa.

One important thing mentioned is that the PC Gamer will have screenshots (knew this already, but maybe some didn't) and a trailor clip (didn't know this). And apparently, warriors won't be as lame and boring as they are in every other game. Meh. Give them kung foo moves for all I care. I'd still be a mage and dominate all. The rest of the chat is showing everyone how much of asses the team can make out of themselves.

•Only 10 minutes late this time. I'm getting better at this.

There's a new UO II screenshot. You can check it out here. Looks pretty cool, but it doesn't look like that's how the gameplay view is. Maybe it is. In any event, it's about damn time. I didn't have a doubt that UO II was being created, but by the looks of it, it seemed that they had none of it complete (releasing no information or screenshots kind of makes you think that way). At least this is some insurance that they have some of it done.

Thanks to Blues' News for the update.

In other news, don't listen to Paladin. This is not a competetion - it's for fun. Fun is good. Competetion is bad and makes you work harder. Work is also bad. Besides, we haven't been around since beta like he says. I started playing UO in the summer of '98 and made the site in August of last year.

Feel free to send him hatemail on my behalf.

•Feedback

Ok all. If you are going to use the tweaks I suggested below, drop me a line and tell me what they did for you. Something? Nothing? Slowed you down? Let me know, and if you have any other suggestions, tell me so I can incorporate them. I'll give you credit in the update. E-mail me here people, and tell everyone you know to come to this site. We're better than Stratics anyway. Who cares what bananas weigh? Also we have been updated since beta, and all of our updates aren't direct quotes from the UO official website. Sorry, got carried away there. Remember, like Redrum said, send us feedback darn it!

•Maybe these guys don't know what "cellpadding" and "cellspacing" actually means.

The one day I go Quake Online; RPG Mode's Official Site, there's an interview. It's pretty interesting. Anarchy Online is probably going to be the only decent MMORPG that's coming out this year (all of the other companies lie - none of the other good MMORPG's are coming out this year). The beta sign-up's are already up actually.

Onto the comment: if you notice, everything on the interview site is scrunched in. Cellpadding or cellspacing (I forgot which one) makes it so the tables aren't so close together. The other makes it so the content isn't right on the border of the table.

There's your HTML tip of the day - brought to you by the person who, of all places, learned HTML from Geocities (note: do not learn it from there - they're brain-dead and explain shit worse than me).

•I need a vacation.

Thankfully, I happen to be one of them guys that doesn't stop until the job is done. The Character Creation section is done. 20 cigarettes were smoked during the making. I kind of rushed it at the end, because it was getting boring. I might've missed something. Make sure you tell me if I did.

I'm not sure if the PvP section is going to be done as fast as I anticipated. They added a lot of characters into the PvP scene and I'm not sure I want to spend 50 straight hours making it.

Meh. Someone's really crabby today (I think the sarcastic update two posts below pointed that out). Feel free to send money to cure me.

•UO:R is here.

Some links have been temporarily disabled, because they're out-dated. The character creation section I should have done later tonight or sometime tomorrow. The PvP section is going to be done by me and a friend shortly after. Hopefully, Nieves, the PvM expert, will take care of the PvM section in the meantime. Feel free to spam his e-mail box just incase. The money section - all I have to do is ask some friends. That shouldn't take long at all, since they all have no lives.

It shouldn't really take that long to get it finished. I'm aiming for a week - give or take a few days.

•What does it take for you people to talk?

Approximately, .007 (went up .001 since last month, woot!) of the people that come here actually say something - whether it be on e-mail or on the forum. Maybe someone around here refreshes this page 1000+ times a day, while a select few come periodically. That doesn't make much sense though. Not that I'm complaining, but it's good to hear what people have to say. Input = good. Comments = good. Suggestions = good. Opinions = good. Arguements = good. As long as they're well thought out and make sense, of course.

The funny thing, though, is that the only time I get mass-submissions is when there's a new exploit or I'm asking about one. Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... I hope that doesn't mean people come here only for exploits. It could mean that you're brain-dead and can't think for yourselves. If that is the case, then it's understandable and you have my humble apologies.

Anyway, apparently, all of the templates are good except for the thief. The thief I have listed is more of a pure thief and the rogue is the rare collecting type, so let's try a tank thief. How does this look:

100 str, 100 dex, 25 int
Anatomy, Archery, Healing, Resist, Snooping, Stealing, Tactics

I'll be eagerly waiting for two of you to reply.

•NT 56K Update

For NT users, all of the steps I outlined previously will help you except for the part about the latest DUN. NT has it's updates released as service packs, so you should make sure you have service pack version 6 for NT 4.0. Thanks to King Hell for the heads up. BTW, man you need a new nickname =)

•Well, I'm banned.

I tried to log into my account before I went to work tonight, and discovered it was blocked. I still haven't recieved an e-mail telling me why exactly, but it's probably related to a harrasment complaint I filed this morning. I reported a guy for repeatedly calling me a "c*cksucking n*gger f*ggot" while I snooped his pack at the bank. He used the actual words, and I'm sure you've all heard them before, but I doubt Redrum wants them plastered on his page. Anyway, a big round of applause to OSI for keeping their priorities straight.

•56k Optimization

Here is the simple method of optimizing a 56k connection that I have used since UO started and I was on a lowly Lucent modem.

The first thing you need to do is go to Microsoft’s site and download the most recent update of DUN for your operating system. For the purposes of this article I will assume that you are using Win98 or Win95.Install the most recent DUN and it should overlay itself and restart your machine.

Next, you want to right click network neighborhood and look for the line in the box that comes up that says properties. Go ahead and select that and a new box will come up. Look for the one that says “TCP/IP > Dial Up Adapter.” Make sure that everything in there is properly set for your ISP. They should have the information for you, probably on their website. If any of it is wrong, your con might not work, or it might work badly. If there is any other protocol bound to the Dial Up Networking adapter in the same manner, I.e. XXXXXX > Dial up adapter, you can probably delete it, which you should do, just check with your ISP to see if they require it. If they do, get another ISP.

Now, you get to check the configuration on your modem. Go to Control Panel/Modems and select the modem that you are using, then click the properties button. Maximum speed on the first page should be set to 57600 because that’s as fast as you can get and trying to force it to go faster than is possible will actually slow the thing down. COM port you really don’t need to change, because if the modem is working at all then that part is fine. Next go to the connection tab and go to port settings. Unless you have trouble connecting to your ISP move BOTH sliders all the way to the right, then go back and click the advanced button. In advanced make sure that use error correction and compress data are selected, and make sure that you are using hardware and not software flow control. Click OK, and then, if you made any changes your PC should restart.

A note about modems, here. If you have a piece of crap modem, you will have a piece of crap connection. That’s a fact. Invest in a good modem, my personal preference is USR, but others prefer other brands. The simple fact is that if you bought a bundled PC for a bargain price, the modem is probably a piece of crap so get a new one.

Now you want to use some software to tweak your connection fully. The one I use is TweakDUN which you can get here. All you really need to do with this software is to select the recommended values for your dial up networking adapter and it will make the changes to the registry for you. Make sure that MTU is set to 576, RWIN is set to 4x, and TTL is 128. Now click OK and you will probably have to restart one last time.

Now when you connect, the actual listed speed may not be different, but you should notice a definite improvement in throughput. This will help when playing UO and when you are downloading files. If you have any more questions, you know how to contact me, so feel free.

•UOQuest

I rushed home from work this morning to work on stealing with my trusty packhorse. Imagine my delight when I stole ten different dye tubs 3 time each, with no failures and no skill gain. I wasn't aware that they were going to change stealing from packhorses, but I guess they did. If you have any other decent ways to raise stealing, put 'em in the forum!

•In other news...

UO Terror moved. I love his new poll.

In Diablo II news, it appears that the closed beta is about to end and the "stress test" (was open beta) is about to start. There's a few things that hint at this: apparently, someone from Blizzard announced it on battle.net; Gone-Gold updated about it; GFraizer, the Calandryll of Diablo II, didn't say yes but he didn't say no either; they updated about it here and here.

While they're rumors, most rumors are true (no matter how suspicious), especially when multiple people say the same thing. Plus, the more details (official board and FAQ), the closer it is - that's a given.

This isn't just good news because open beta is going to start. It's good news because open beta's last a really, really short time, then it ships out to stores.

I'm going to play hardcore mode, since normal levels are for pussies who like god-mode. Unfortunately, you have to beat it on normal, nightmare and hell difficulties before you can play hardcore. Bleh. I want to play hardcore from the get-go, because I'm a hero from the west with no fear. Hoorah!

•Note to self: quit AFTER a major update.

That would've been wise. Oh well. It's a 50/50 thing now. My 50 is using my brilliance (note: no sarcasm this time) and the other 50 is putting that brilliance to work. I came up with some character templates for UO:R, but I need some input.

Archer Warrior
100 str, 100 dex, 25 int
Anatomy, Archery, Healing, Fencing, Magery, Resist, Tactics


Lumberjack Warrior
100 str, 100 dex, 25 int
Anatomy, Healing, Lumberjacking, Magery, Resist, Swords, Tactics


Parry Warrior
100 str, 100 dex, 25 int
Anatomy, Fencing, Healing, Magery, Parrying, Resist, Tactics


Pure Mage
100 str, 100 int, 25 dex
Anatomy, Evaluate Intelligence, Inscription, Magery, Meditation, Resist, Wrestling

Tactic
Attempt to stun punch and fire off spells at will.


Tank Mage
Archery, Evaluate Intelligence, Magery, Meditation, Resist, Tactics, Wrestling


Assassin
100 str, 80 dex, 45 int
Fencing, Meditation, Magery, Poisoning, Resist, Tactics, Wrestling

Tactic
Much like the old assassin - only use a short spear for the paralyze blow, then switch to a deadly poisoned kryss.


Rogue
100 str, 100 int, 25 dex
Hiding, Lockpicking, Magery, Snooping, Stealing, Stealth, Wrestling


Thief
100 str, 100 int, 25 dex
Anatomy, Arms Lore, Magery, Resist, Snooping, Stealing, Wrestling

Tactic
Attempt to disarm weapon and immediately steal/last target to steal their main weapon. Then keep attempting to stun punch to freeze them and steal everything you can.


The only thing that needs explaining is the reasons behind the pure mage and thief templates - the rest are pretty self explanitory.

For the pure mage, people suggested hiding. Fuck that. Nobody needs hiding. So I figured, since you can't have any combat skills (no tactics), why not try a wrestling maneuver - afterall, it does freeze them, thus not allowing them to do anything at all (except bandage and drink potions). It beats hiding...

For the thief, your basic priority is to steal, steal and steal some more. Disarm is great, because warriors usually never unequip their weapon. Stun punch is also great, because most people try running after you steal their reagents/weapon. You also have to factor in the fact that you can't attempt to steal if you have anything in your hands. Casting spells automatically equips your spellbook and a melee-thief would use a weapon. Screw all that. You're there to steal. Period. Plus, if you had PvP thief, a 7xGM only-for-PvP-character would eat you for dinner.

Any comments or suggestions? E-mail me.

•The Mini-Update

Hello all. When you read the second mini update note the part that pushes archery a little back from the far end of godlike. Now melee weapons will swing when you approach someone w/o standing still because the swing time will tick away while you move and you will hold your swing until you are next to someone. That's only been 2 years plus in coming, thanks OSI for removing that. Also, the BS parry increase is a bug according to GM shade on Atlantic, so use at your own peril.

•Bleh, small update.

If you attempt to steal from a packhorse, you must tell it to guard you; otherwise you will turn grey and guard-whacked if in town.

•#UOPG

Alright I set up a room for everyone to get together and talk..bs or whatever you want in real-time fashion. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to get there.

1) Go to the IRC homepage.
2) Click download mIRC
3) Click on the link thats closest to you to download the 32 bit version.
4) Once its downloaded start it up.
5) A option box will open up.
6) Click on the add button towards the top.
7) Desciption: Stratics Server. Irc Server: irc.stratics.com Port: 6667. You can leave group and password empty.
8) Fill in the name, email address and your nick(s).
9) Press connect to irc server.
10) Another box will come up..asking what channel you wish to join.
11) Type uopg.
12) Tada..welcome aboard.

Ill be in there most of the night..might not always be at the computer..but irc doesn't take hardly any system resources so its ok to leave it open while you play uo.

In other news..after 4 months of macroing everynight on hokuto..Vegeta is still red.

•What didn't happen.

Remember the last update about the Liches? Forget it. It never happened. As a matter of fact. It didn't happen twice.

I logged in on GL last night with my archer to give something else a go around and found myself in Papua. Um...that's where I logged out when I was done "testing" the Ophidians. Ok, fine. I got myself to Delucia and decided to "test" the Lich room in T2A again. This time I took a guildmate (Ok, Elyssa, I mentioned you! Sheesh :p) and wound up just trying to stay alive. That's all we did. It was nuts. Granted I pulled over 4k in gold and some loot which is cool, but goodness, it was actually challenging. And people were dieing everywhere. I guess I should say that's a good thing. It's what we wanted right? Now, I logged off with my archer thinking, I am going to go mine and get some blacksmithing going.

Not.

I got a brand new packhorse, had mined up a whole bunch of ore, and BLAM, "lost connection". WTF????? I went to OSI's UO website and no mention of the outage. WTF???? An hour later I read about the mini-update on the site. Nothing about "it's going down". Just that it went down because of a "fix" they have to do. Ok, that's fine, but where was the "The server is going down" message?

I don't know about you, but this sucks.

If there is anything that really pisses me off about a company or merchant it's bad customer service. If OSI didn't have such a good game (relatively speaking of course), I would say screw you and go play Baldur's Gate (never got to finish it). Thanks to the OSI gods, I lost 2 packhorses (this is what the homeless do to store items) over the last 3 days. One was my weapons packhorse (my +20 tactics halley of power was on it), and the other was my Treasure Hunter's packhorse which had over 50 trammel moonstones and at least 20 Y2k valentines flowers and bottles. You may laugh at me, but dammit, it was the only real "true" rare I had and I was going to decorate my new 2 story house with the shit. ::ARGH::

Oh, and I did the GM/Counselor thing to report the problem. "OSI can't replace..." "yeah yeah, I know that. I am just reporting it. I don't need to hear that shit from you".

Asshoes. Get your shit together and bring me a product I am paying 19.98+50.00 (2 accounts plus ADSL monthly charge) for.

Sorry, I am a bit upset. These timewarps are annoying. To say the least.

I am going to take a break from playing tonight. Go teach Tae Kwon Do tonight and kick some black belts around the floor. Yeah, that's what I will do. In the morning noone can say "that didn't happen".

•56k Deluge

Ok, it seems that there is a lot of interest in an article on what you can do to optimize your 56k connection for playing UO. I'll get it done tomorrow and either posted here, or I'll E-mail it to everyone that has E-mailed me.

•Redrum's old connection killed mine and took it's place.

This isn't really information for anyone but those playing on the freshly moved East Coast servers. This is what I get every half hour or so of gameplay. If you're getting something similar, let OSI know so things get fixed.

***Update***
It turns out this is a result of a fresh round of DOS attacks. So if you're getting crap connections to your server, it's probably that.

•Who hasn't heard of IRC?

I was wondering if there would be any interest in setting up a UOPG irc room. A place where we can gather and discuss whats going on, talk about this or that etc. It would give you the readers more of a say on what you want and what you wish to know about. Well post your thoughts on the forum or email me and we can see if there is enough interest to get this going.

The bitchest(Is that a word) updater this side of Lum.
-Vegeta

•A quickie

To offset the rather verbose updates that have been posted in the last few days, I thought I'd drop a few quick observations from the TC shard, since I can't play Atlantic today, and we don't have UO:R anyway.

1.) Archery is simply great, but in 1 on 1 it's hard to finish, expecially if you are a warrior with archery. Still, if there are 2 archers on you, you'd better pray.

2.) Spellcasting is pretty seamless with the instant equip of the spellbook, BUT if you are on a slow connection, the amount of time between de-equipping the book and equipping a weapon can be a killer.

3.) Archer-mage vs melee mage. Try neither and see how that works. drop tactics and sword/mace/fencing/archery and take healing and anatomy. Surprisingly effective, since you can pop them with the stun punch allowing you to keep them from casting or chasing you. Someone told me about this and I tried it and it's pretty fun. Carry Refresh potions though, the special move costs stamina to attempt.

4.) If anyone out there is on 56k and has problems with their connection, and the optimizing of it, let me know. I've been dealing with it for 2 years now and pretty much have mine as optimized as possbile. If enough people need it, I might persuade Redrum into letting me post an article on the site about optimizing dial up connections.

5.) The best (legal) parry training method I have found is to get some friends together during your power hour and have em all beat on you with wrestling and have some of them healing you. They gain wrestling, you gain parrying, and you can work it out where you are working a weapon skill too. With healing changes in UO:R it will probably allow you to gain in healing this way also.

•It's always a plus to beat "The Vault".

There's 5 new Black & White screenshots at Brotherhood of Eden. Since he threatens to sue anyone who uploads them, I'll just link them. You can find them here, here, here, here and here. I just want to play it already, damnit.

In other news, 10 SIX blows. Basically, all that you do is make wells to get resources. In a good strategy game, you place something where the resources are and have your men get them. In this game, you can place wells anywhere and the resources come from no where - and trust me, the resources come in packs. You could let the game run all night and you'll wake up with an assload of resources.

From there, you make buildings and get weapons/armor/vehicles. There's about 8 buildings and 4 vehicles per corporation. That's it. You'd think that a massively-multiplayer game would have more stuff than single/multiplayer games, but that isn't the case. There are no air stuff, spies, soldiers or anything - just vehicles. Anyway, since other corporations can't have the same stuff you have, you basically just trade and sell. There's a major imbalance already. There's jitters (everything in the game, as mentioned yesterday) in each corporation that sells for 100-150k each to other corporations. You can buy jitters in packs from "the market" (it just automatically does it) for 25k, and that's usually a ton of new, good stuff. Everyone basically has unlimited gold if they sell the same thing to other corporations.

The view also sucks. It's 1st person - you can go into 3rd person, but that sucks more and you can't toggle or anything.

So what is the point? Build wells, go to bed, wake up with a ton of resources; build buildings; sell stuff that other corporations can't get until you have unlimited gold to get new jitters; get the best weapons/armor; build rovers; attack. That's it. Nothing complex about it and anyone can win easily.

I give it a 1. The one is for the good graphics.

•Holy shit, that's good stuff.

I went to UO Parody Songs before, and while the songs were very nicely done, it's the type of music that didn't interest me all that much. I checked out Lum's latest update, and decided to give it another try. The new song he made, We Will RoxxU, kicks ass. In fact, I like it better than the original version and listened to it about 50 times in a row.

I love that guy. He is my new hero. The site is definately worth checking out.

•No, it's me.

The magery, stealing and stealth pages have been updated.

Woohoo! Information for a change.

•It's me.

Hello. I am the new person (90s term) on the Redrum's Block of Writers.

First: I started playing UO last year May. I am not a person that has played since Beta or own 10 houses or can RoX Jus NOoObie!. I PLAY the game. I actually like going out and hunting down monsters. I enjoy the social aspect of hanging out with folks. That make me a nerd or some stupid N3wbi3? Nope. I am hispanic. And as we all know, there is no such thing as a hispanic nerd (yeah right). I enjoy gaming. I could probably be a kickass Pvper/Pker. I can type 80+ words a minute (fast fingers/reflexes is almost a must in that type of gaming) and I have an ADSL line with a 500MHZ machine. Pretty much what other gamers of that type would enjoy. But I choose not too.

What am I trying to say? I am the other guy. I powergame the other way. I don't use exploits/cheats/macroing, but I know how to do it. I read everything I can about UO on all the sites. Even so far as to visit the "other" guys' sites.

I PvM alot! That's my kick. Call me a wussy or whatever. I don't care. That's the way I WANT to play the game. I think you should play the game the way you want, and that's kewl. Go PvP/PK all you want. Hell, you can even do it to one of my characters. Just leave me a recall rune and a scroll and let me go on my merry way...but don't be surprised if I come back and whip the snot out of you. I can handle myself just fine. I just don't (I said that didn't I?)

I will do my best to bring you the game's insights, tactics, news, information, rants to the best of my ability. I will bring you news on other games as well as I get information on them. I plan on picking up Diablo II and Neverwinter Nights. I will only talk on the topics I know about first hand. And I promise not to talk about fingering myself or anything like that. Something about that doesn't please me.

Be well fellow "powergamers". Enjoy the ride. I know I will.

•Thanks for the input.

It seems that the majority of the people come for information, not to hear us complain (must by why it's called powergamers), so we're going to even it out some. If the updaters know or find any tricks or strategy tactics, they will post it. If that's not available, then they'll just complain (much like I did when I was the only updater).

Don't be mad at the updaters for not posting information - it's my fault. I specifically told them to only update news and comment/rant about it. I never told them to post information... until now.

Hopefully, it will be like it was before I stopped playing - updating with as much information as possible.

•No big surprise here...

Well those intelligent people at OSI finally got off their ass and fixed this Med bug and this obscure post was made on Stratics.


All Ultima Online shards, excluding Japanese shards, will be taken down and restarted upon completion of their next backup (as of 4:55PM CT) to address a recently discovered issue. Japanese shards will go down for their normally scheduled maintenance period today. All shards scheduled for Tuesday maintenance will then skip their next maintenance period excluding East Coast US shards, which will be moving to their new ISP. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yea yea yea..good job..whatever. Maybe if they would have fixed the dupe bugs, the house break-in bugs like this they would still have more older players.

Got any Horror stories about UO's great support?
Email me with your thoughts.

•Ok, that's enough of that....

It seems that all of Exwhyze's updates have references to homosexuality, masturbating and basically offending/disgusting everyone, while not making any sense, spelling anything right or having anything useful to say.

While that doesn't bother me personally and I sometimes laugh about it, it just doesn't seem right on this site. It fits in the category for here, here or here instead.

You will not see him updating anymore and all of his posts have been deleted.

•Meditation Bug

Yes there is a bug, but I for one won't be posting about it. Fact is go to any bank on any damn shard and you will see people exploiting it. This pisses me off..that means all the money I made killing Lich's today is going to be gone when they revert to a old save. So please..no more emails about it.

•It's pop quiz time.

Seeing how this site took a different path recently, I want to know what everyone thinks about what's going on. There's a few questions I want to know:

What do you come to this site for (information, news, rants, etc)?

What would you like to see more of (read above)?

What do you think about the updaters (all of them or just a few)?

How much money are you going to send me for updating (this is a joke)?

Sure, I have my own thoughts, but I just run the site - you visit it for whatever reason you have. If you want to tell me what you think, then e-mail me. If you don't care, then no response is needed.

•Since everyone with a life left for easter, this technically isn't old news.

CONB, ran by guys that have horrible taste in colors and can't think of anything better than "New Britannia", are having the first IRC chat with the UO II developers. Here's the copy and paste version:

Crossroads of New Britannia, the web’s first and premier site for all things Ultima Online 2, and Origin Systems, Inc. are proud to present an IRC chat for Ultima Online 2, their upcoming persistent world RPG. This chat will provide you, the fans, with an opportunity to meet the team behind the game’s development.

The chat is scheduled for Thursday, April 27 at 7PM CST and will take place at #ultima-online2 on the Sorcery.net IRC network, the official IRC network of the Crossroads Network.

You can log onto Sorcery.net using the following server:

Irc.sorcery.net, port 6667

For more information on Sorcery.net and IRC in general please read the available FAQ.

We will be compiling questions you would like to ask the dev team beforehand, you can post your questions