•Factions.

Go read about it. All I can say is: "It's coming...and I like it".

•All I can say is "wow".

Well lookie here:
Due to changes in the industry regarding volunteers, effective September 30, 2000, OSI will no longer provide free player accounts or other added value to members of all UO Volunteer Programs.

We will be mailing all ****** a revised Terms of Service for those that wish to remain in the ******* program. In order to continue to participate as a volunteer, you will need to sign and return this TOS along with a photocopy of your driver's license or other ID that can verify your age.

Signed:

Matt Gutierrez
TRasa
Ultima Online
External Support Coordinator
Origin Systems, Inc.

I think this had something to do with it. I think it's going to make things "interesting" for the counselors (to say the least).

According to the definition of being "gainfully employed" these so-called "Volunteers" might be owed alot of back pay. It's going to be interesting how this pans out.

If AOL loses their law suit fight, look for the same thing to happen to Ultima Online. If it does, THAT will spell the end of Ultima Online I think. Not all the other bullshit everyone complains about (ie-"PvP being dead", "the game getting boring", "it's not the same", etc.).

I don't think they should yank the "volunteers" like that. They do good work. ::sighs::

Will the bullshit ever end?

I am starting to hope for Never Winter Nights really really soon. D&D gamers don't get into that petty bullshit (yeah, right).

(PS-Thanks to Lum for breaking the news).

Hasta

•Link

Got this link from the nice folks at House of Elements. Seems the UOBOT is back and better than ever. Go check them out. Anyone that highlights UOPG has got to be cool.

For those that want to know, they get 5 PvM stars from me.

For the record, we at UOPG do not advocate nor approve of unattended macroing. You will be in violation of the Ultima Online Terms of Service and subject to any penalties they inflict on you. Ok, now that we are covered...::starts coding his macros::

Hasta.

•Revisionist History

I'm not a big fan of revisions, or rehashing old soup, but there are a few responses to my post yesterday that I feel the need to address here. I'm not going to directly quote anyone because I don't believe in grandstanding, and that's what that would appear to be. If you really want to know who said what, click on that little forum link on the left there.

1.) Someone said I was "just like" the players I was "complaining" about. Either that person inferred something completely off target, or my mastery of language has deteriorated to an unacceptable level. All I was really doing was saying goodbye. I certainly wasn't complaining about the changes to the game, most of which I have been largely indifferent to. I have instead, been disgusted with the reactions to those changes, which are usually, "I liked it the way it was, change it back."

That is a fundamentally indefensible position because all of the changes have been based on user feedback. If you were outvoted, that's life, or as someone put it, "Hit the bricks if you don't like it." It is also, to me, an argument against majority rule. Many of the changes have not been good for gameplay, but were possibly improvements in game balance. Since I have no way of viewing the entire UO virtual universe, I simply can not make that judgement, and, more importantly, neither can you. Time will tell.

2.) It's not the PK's fault that statloss was put into the game.
Um, this is even more indefensible because simple logic tells you that it is wrong. If there were no PK's, there would have been no thought of statloss, period. Run of the mill pk's were not the cause of statloss, and I thought I made that clear. It was people who decided to do things like res killing or launching energy vortexes into groups of people for spite. Those are called anti-social tendancies, and I can only hope that those folks managed to wash those tendancies out in the game. I'd hate for one of them to be my postman otherwise.

3.) Finally, my statement regarding folks absenting themselves, I must admit to not explaining this fully. Some people believe that UO, and everything else for that matter, is a zero sum game. That is, if you have something, I can't have it. Where I come from we call those "Democrats," but it could be something else where you are. My point is that some people went beyond the functions in the game and chose to find and exploit errors in the code to begin killing people for their own entertainment. People that tried to absent themselves from that were disadvantaged and beaten down with various one hit kills.

Is the presence of the bugs the fault of the players? No, of course not. But it is the fault of those players that chose to exploit those bugs to gain an unfair advantage over their peers.

I think I've cleared everything up, but I'm sure someone will find SOMETHING to say on the forums.

•A lil' lesson I learned today.

Well friends...

Today something fucked up happened between me and an old UO friend. Another friend, Grimhawke, and I hooked old friend up with a brick house for free. We thought he was gonna sell it and split funds with us. He isn't. He isn't even selling it. Well fuck that I say. I am pissed out of my mind. We got into a pissing contest...not just about UO but about real life shit. ICQ flaming all over the place. Man, he was even saying how I didn't know how to chill.

Come on now...Its Galahad...I know how to chill AND chyll for that matter :)

But then I realized what the fuck were we doing? We were arguing about a video game. Yes..I am sorry to say it but UO is still not reality. I mean if he fucked my girlfriend we could get into it...but a video game? Honestly.

We became cool again and that was better than any loot I could have asked for.

Sadly to say folks...the "cocaine" that we call Ultima Online is slowly leaving my system. I can't say I am quitting just yet (I've said that bout 4 times now) but I can feel its grasp on me faining. Slowly but surely. I am going to school in a couple of days and I plan to play less and less till the day when I call OSI and say...

"Thanks for keeping me on hold for an hour...I'd like to cancel my account not because the game sucks anymore; not because I don't enjoy it anymore; not because I have lost interest in it...but because I have realized how much time during the last however so months I have lost to gathering digital riches and create virtual personalities."

I am not bashing UO, or telling anyone to quit. This game is amazing if you think about it. We connect with one another in a totally different reality that knows no bounds. One day I can be selling my wares in laggy Britain, the next I could PK everyone at the Bone Knight wall and the next I could provoke titans to attack each other at Titan Valley. OSI does indeed create worlds...mind you they alter the entire composition / workings of the game say every 10 minutes...but hey...who gives a fuck...because no matter what they do...98 percent of us will complain about it but learn to live with it. The other 2 come to the realization that they don't have to put up with this bullshit anymore and go onto other games ie EQ, AC..typical suck ass games or they can simply start to live life again without the cocaine.

But the general populace will always stay until nothing more can be done. That may not be till T9A The Ninth Age or maybe it will be in the next 3 monthts. They will stay till this game gets boring. I don't remeber once when I thought this game was boring...it just seemed like there was less to do and then OSI introduces something new and the cycle continues.

In summation...instead of reading this article you should reading texts that will enlighten you about life. Read 7 Habits of Highly effective people by Stephen Covey. That book has changed my life. Or read some zen philosophy or books on meditation. Expand your knowledge of the real not the virtual.

I have realized that life is so short it is scary. Fucking scary people. Can you look back onto today or yesterday and say "My god! I did everything I could possibly do today." or will you say "Well I made 5k in the lich room then spent 2k on a silver q stave so I made out with 3k profit." Couldn't you have used that hour in the lich room to build a better relationship with your son / daughter/ brother / sister /neighbor /teacher /friend ?

I have figured that I have averaged over 20 hrs of UO time a week this summer. Is that sad to anyone? I have seen how my relationship with my girlfriend, family and friends have twindled bc of UO. My golf game sucks as well. Fucking golf. I have lost all work ethic I once had and have been scrambling to get it back over the last 2 weeks just so I can get by the first few weeks of classes. What if I allocated 15 of those 20 hrs to real life shit. I would be in a much better situation than I am now. Honestly, it is sad how a person as bright as myself (hell no I am not modest) can be sucked into this game.

So where does that leave me and UOPG? I want to stay as long as possible. I know I don't update as much as I should...see UO the game took over the time I needed to complain and rant about the game here. But as long as I am playing UO Ill try to do my best to provide some type of input to our readers. And the new updaters are doing one helluva a job.

Off to school I go. Go UVA! The cocaine is slowly leaving my system. Hopefully this all was a dream.

One final note: Sorry Kals. Now give me my ice stave.

One other note: Grimhawke is the coolest cat on Atlantic. Your my boy.

Peace.

•Fare Thee Well....

It's been close on to 3 years folks. That's how long I have been playing the game we all know and love as Ultima Online. I got hooked up to the net specifically to play this game, because I had enjoyed Ultimas 1 through 7. (Thankfully, I had been spared playing Ultima 8 at that time, unfortunately I subsequently played, and hated it. didn't even bother to finish it, but i digress...)

It was incredible. For the first time I was playing in a game where the conversations weren't scripted, and the reactions were real, human, reactions. I got killed so many times I couldn't count them all. I hated it, I hated the guys doing it, adn I hunted them down when I was able. It was Order versus Chaos, in the literal sense; justice was meted daily in the fields and dungeons. Then it changed.

No longer were players named John, William, Arganine, or what have you. Now they were DoOd or BiGcOcK, or DuMbAsS(the most honest of them). The players were no longer gamers, as I saw them, but petulant adolescents that wanted everything their way. The archetypical grief player, if you will.

Now they complain about the changes to the game to limit their depradations. They say that Pking is part of the game, and that the restrictions limit PvP. Well Pking is part of the game, "I owned you dood", is as annoying as anything else in the world might be. It's sophomoric, stupid, and boorish. You ruined PvP for yourselves when you couldn't leave people alone that wanted to be left alone. If you hadn't attacked miners and merchants and new players for the sheer enjoyment of ruining someone else's day, the changes would not have been necessary.

Look long and hard at the game today. You who complain about it, look at your actions of the past. You are laying in a bed of your own making, and forcing everyone else to lay in it with you. And yet you complain. Statloss is stupid, but you caused it. Split worlds are dumb, but you caused it. Murder counts are annoying, but you caused them.

I've been red, I've been blue, hell, I remember when you could be gray and I was that too. The fact is, I had some good times, and a lot of fun with a lot of folks. I had some enemies, that I hated like they had shot my dog, and I have made some good friends. I respected my enemies, and they respected me, and that is as it should be. No grandstanding, no running off at the mouth. Say what you have to say on the field of battle and be done with it.

I may still occasionally post, but more likely on D2 than UO. But for now, goodbye friends, and enemies. It's time to close the book on this particular part of my life. My old, tired, fat butt is going back to college to finish a degree that I should have already had. I must have spent too much time online playing this damnable game. Good luck people, and godspeed.

•Since noone else will...

Round 3 of the Updater Contest for UOPG should start soon. Red told me so. I know who I like, but don't email me for votes. It's not up to me. It's up to Daddy Red.

Melantus made an interesting "State of Ultima Online" address. I won't cut and paste since you can find it here and there is no sense cluttering up our front page.

::snip/cut/paste to Nieves Page::

•Damn that hurts...

I got together with a GM miner I know to try and dig up some elementals using the Gargoyle pickaxe I found. He got plenty of Valorite, but we got no Elementals. And the axe broke :(. That kind of sucked.

The next morning I got my friends together with another Miner I know and dug up some ore with his pickaxe. While dealing with the annoying rantings of one of the "party members" (you can read about it in the Nieves Page later), we managed to pull two Agapite elementals. Those fuckers hit hard. Loren was at 30 life from just two hits. And they are relentless. We lost the miner on the 2nd AgaElley but the med-warrior dealt with it pretty quick using spells. In all, the miner pulled 50 Agapite Ore from the 2 elementals along with all the other ore.

What did I figure out? Ore is fucking heavier than I thought. These Ore Elementals are no joke. The guys at House of Elements did a group hunt using a Dragon and still had a problem with some of the Elementals. It's a group activity. I am sure you can do it solo but it's not easy.

I did manage to get over 400 iron ore so that's cool. :)

I spent some time hunting down the new Glacial Staff in the Ice Areas on T2A and, after pissing some folks off playing super looter, didn't find a damn one. There were literally dozens of people there probably hunting for the same thing.

Question: Wtf happened to the spawn in the Ice Dungeon? Why is it so damn lame now? I remember after UO:R came out being chased out by the mad spawn in there. Bah. Bring it on I say. Ice is supposed to be tough. Let it stay that way. Anyone see the Orc Fort inside the Ice Dungeon? I haven't so it was pretty cool to find. Thanks to Matt the Mage for hanging with me.

I did find an area South of the Ice Lands in T2A where you could hold some serious PvP 1v1/2v2 fights. It's quiet. Spawn is minimal (an occassional Imp) and it's big enough to do some running around if need be.

About the Death Squad: Is it dead? Maybe? Do we give up? I don't know. Galahad came up with a great idea. Factions. I think I am going to hook up with him on Pacific to do some Enemy Killing. Thing is, we need the new GM to ally us to one of the Factions when it gets implemented. I say Shadow Lords but whatever. Or hell, even Lord British. We should get LOTS of action then. Who cares about what faction it is as long as we have a good time ganking (or getting ganked). Anyway, enough of this...go to the DS Forums and start talking about it.

Hasta.

•Small change of plans.

The Diablo II page no longer exists... Instead it's my section. However, the links on the other pages will still say Diablo II and it will still be under the /d2 directory. Mainly because I'm lazy and don't feel like changing it. Be sure to check it out every 15 weeks for a small and pointless update.

•Gargoyle Pickaxes

Well, after fighting off Titans, Imps (little bastards), Scorpions and the occassional Cyclops Warrior, I got me a Gargoyle Pickaxe off a Stone Gargoyle at lunchtime today.

I found a couple of "sweet" spots to find them in the T2A desert. Due west of the Light House you will come to a "point". A Stone Gargoyle spawns there regularly. Beware of "major" orc spawns, imps, and scorpions. I had problems getting the gargoyles solo as those spawns drove me off.

Another one is in the Titan Desert Northwest of the Gorge Bridge. This is NOT the beach area, this is the actual T2A Desert Area. Oh, and why the fuck do Titans have to be so damn smart? One chased me for 20 minutes as I tried, in vain, to trap the motherfucker. Bastard. Anyway...

It took roughly 7-8 kills before I found a pickaxe. This weekend my guild and I will go ore digging and see what these new elementals are like. I don't need mining to use it correct? That's what I thought, thanks.

BTW: Stone Gargoyles are a good source of iron ore. I either didn't pay attention before or it's changed, but last night, after killing 4-5, I had 72 Iron Ore ready for smelting. I think I found my iron ore source now.

Use a bow if you are not very good at healing versus the Gargoyles. They do hit hard but that's about it. Casting poison doesn't work to well on them, but Poison Fields will get them throwing up sand in no time.

Wish me luck.

Hasta.

•No Precasting BIYOTCH!

If you don't already know, there is a discussion thread Melantus started about PvP.

I don't see precasting coming back from what Mel said. BUT, some of the ideas posted by some of the players are pretty good. I.e.-Making special 2 handed weapons moves macro based (have to activate it to use it) with a loss of stamina (a-la Disarm) was a pretty good one. That would REALLY make the PvP arena more skill based because you have a "sense" of control over your tactics. Now it's "gawd I hope I get the crushing blow in" or, "gawd I hope that spear doesn't paralyze me". You get the picture.

Yes, I have PvPed more lately on Test Factions. It's alot of fun, but the reskilling, c'mon?! Institute the idea of newly resed being blue chars for 2 minutes (hence, you attack me, get guard whacked), and having a 2 minute stat loss timer initiated. This serves two purposes. You got two minutes to get requipped, and you can't just jump back into the fight.

Anyway, just some ideas from the Masta Monsta Killa.

Hasta.

•Character Focus defined...

Earlier, I said each character should have a "focus". A way of achieving that character's goal. (Oh, and each of your characters has a goal for you right? If not, find one, then this could better help you.)

I will give you an example so you can better see what I was talking about.

I want a fisherman. Why? Because I would like more maps to fuel my Treasure Hunter's Habits. I hear magic items are nice to have. Also, I won't have to worry about food (for character's anyway) and getting some Messages in Bottles for my fisherman to hunt down would probably be fun.

We know the first skill is Fishing. So that's a given.

I also need a way for my fisherman to defend himself. At first I thought about Magery and it's supporting skills. It's so flexible. But it's costly. And with a treasure/hunter mage and an alchemist/mage/scribe on my plate, it would cost me even more to build this char. Not too mention the time involved. Yes, I could do it and getting gold is not hard in the game now. My problem is the time I have to play and I don't want to wait a year to have a viable character (an exaggeration, but you know what I mean). I was also dreading having to train his magery as fishing takes long enough as it is.

Then it hit me. Loren kills all hard monsters with archery. Stand back and shoot. On a boat, monsters (usually) can't get at a fisherman. Even the magical monsters will have to rely on their magic to kill my fisherman as melee is not an option if I am far enough away on the boat (gawd I hope Krakens can't reach across the boat). So, that scratched Magery and added Archery to his template. Additionally, that got rid of the supporting magery skills and adds tactics and anatomy to his mix for the bonus in damage. Also, since Magery is not as viable an option for healing himself without the other supporting magery skills, he will need to add the Healing skill to heal himself (and others if need be).

We now have: Fishing, Archery, Tactics, Anatomy, and Healing.

Now, how do we round out this character? 500 Skill points are used up and we need to find the next few skills that will help him achieve his goal. Spell resist is a must. With the magic casting abilities of Kraken's he needs this to keep from dieing from an onslaught of spells. Also, he will need a way to get around. That will entail SOME measure of magery to recall. Not to mention being able to successfully cure poison and cast a high enough level greater heal. I again remembered Loren's template and saw she is successful with 70 magery. Also, there will be times for "potty breaks" while playing or when something needs my immediate attention. Hiding works as a great "pause" button in the game. 30 Hiding is usually enough.

Now my character becomes this:
GM Fishing, Archery, Tactics, Anatomy, Healing, Spell Resist
70 Magery, 30 Hiding.

He is complete. Everything in his skill set "focuses" him to achieve his goal in a pretty efficient manner.

I hope this helps you guys see that having a Focus for your character's goal is important not only in your daily fun with that character, but to help avoid frustration in wondering why your Fighter can't kill a Balron effectively. Maybe he's not designed to do it...or maybe, and more importantly, that's not his focus :).

Before I forget, to get maximum effect out of this character template, he will require statistics of 100 strength (to say alive), 100 dexterity (to shoot his bow as fast as possible) and 25 int (max it out for 1-2 heals + a cure if need be).

Good luck.

Hasta.

•What do I want my character to be...?

I have been to the Bone Knight room alot lately. There are days the wall runs fine, there are others where I get frustrated and leave. Outside of that nonsense, I have been paying attention to what the other characters talk about when it comes to their character development.

All the newer characters want to create the "ultimate" character. A character that can do it all. A mage AND a warrior. Maybe before last March that was possible, but we are not playing 2nd age anymore. This is UO:R now.

These players will complain about how slow they swing compared to my 100dex characters. Well duh. I am a pure axe-warrior. And I have 100dex. Of course I am going to swing faster than you. Of course I am going to do more melee damage than you. I will rape you with my katana or axe or kill that creature faster than you can. My character has a focus.

Personally, I think each character should have a focus. Each character should have a way of achieving their goal. Loren's goal is to take out whatever monster comes her way. Whether it's via Archery or Sword, she will take it down. It may take longer on the higher monsters (ie-Dragons), but it's going down. Clyde's goal is to dig up a chest and clean up any spawn in his way. He uses Magery to do that. My jacker's goal is to gather resources (hides/wood) and uses his lumberjacking to full efect. The parrying and swords he has is in case of a gang of monsters coming in force at him and he has to fight his way out. "Hammer's" goal is to jump in via surprise and use a warhammer to beat down his opponent. Be relentless and don't allow the "target" an opportunity to heal or escape.

What is my point? Find that character's niche and go with it. You have 5 slots and you can experiment on Test Center to see if your idea(s) will work. And with the advent of UO:R, changing a character to another "class" is not entirely hard. It will just take time and effort.

Don't try to make your character into something that can do it "all". Focus him/her into achieving the goal and find the skills that will best fulfill the requirements of that goal.

Good luck...and happy hunting.

Hasta

•Capitalism at it's best...

We all know we are the kings of Capitlism right? The Russians and Chinese hate us for it. Forget what the Japanese tell you. They learned it from us. And we are still the masters of it. Heck we are so good at it that people will pay thousands for virtual pieces of property and real estate. It gets even better...

I found this on E-Bay. Ain't that some shit?

Personally, I think this is VERY illegal. Look for an Amendment or Federal Statute VERY soon barring beaurocratic red tape (Political bullshit to the layman).

Ah, gotta love America. Where everything can be sold for a buck.

Hasta.

UPDATE: I told you it was illegal. Read about it here.

•Something dumb to do when you're bored.

Go to an angelfire homepage that doesn't exist (I used http://www.angelfire.com/wv/darkalliance/archives.html) and keep hitting refresh to read the sayings.

Update: Don't do it... We are not amused by the new one.

Ehrmmm... anyway, thanks to everyone for the input about the armor. Apparently, it does have a meditation penalty, so I'm not going to put it on the armor section.

•Something ain't fucking right...

I have been messing around with my healing lately. I have been using UOAsist to time how long it takes to have my characters heal themselves.

I started doing this after boredom set in trying to GM parry on my jacker with bone knights.

My Jacker is in full plate (-20 dex to bring his dex down to 80). I watch the timer hit 12 before I get a heal off. Fuck. That ain't right. I do it over and over. Yep, 12 seconds. Ok, maybe it's right for 80 dex. What about near 100dex?

Loren wears some invul/fortified leather/studded/ring mail/plate helm armor pieces for a full 34 AR and -2 dex. 12 seconds to heal. What the...? I know something isn't right now...

I get my jacker out again and put his Studded Dex suit on (30+ ar with the right shield) and see what 100 full dex does. 6 seconds to cure, 12 seconds to heal...what the...?

I get loren again, and try it at 100 dex. 6 seconds to cure, 12 seconds to heal. Ok, something ain't right. Someone PLEASE tell me there is a bug or something because 12 seconds is ALOT of time to have mindblasts/ebolts thrown around. Wasn't 100dex supposed to help? And if I remember correctly, it was ALOT faster a couple of months ago.

I tried healing others and the average time was 4-6 seconds to heal and cure. Ok, that's fine, but 12 seconds on my characters? This is freaking crazy.

I hope this isn't what they intended with the Healing tied to Dex AND skill patch that went in a few weeks ago. If yes, then healing sucks. I know you need potions as a supplement, but 12 seconds is a LIFETIME when fighting certain monsters and certainly when PvPing. I don't expect to be a super healer, but damn it's got to be better than that at 78 (jacker) - 85 (loren) healing and 100 dex in both cases!?

Someone please tell me if this is normal or no...

Hasta.

•Armor.

I got this tip for armor (thanks Pexter) and am wondering if anyone can confirm it, so we can make our next annual site update.

Studded Leather Tunic
Studded Leather Sleeves
Studded Leather Gorget
Studded Leather Legs
Leather Gloves
Close Helm

This will give a 19ar (npc bought pieces) and no dex loss or med penalty.

•Just something I have to say...

Read White Crow's post in the Temp Updater's page.

And if you don't want to read it...I'll abbreviate it for you.

White Crow rocks.

And so do the other updaters. Can we say badass powergamers?

I think so.

•PvP

Kamikaze at Adam Ant post another tutorial (I dont' remember if I posted that part or not yet). It's on the Nieves page. Go read it and send Kamikaze hate mail for it.

Go read White Crow's latest post in the Temporary Updater's Page. The guy rocks. ::bows:: "not worthy not worthy"

In other news, there isn't any. UO is boring, and I don't want to be verbose ::keeps jabbing to the eye:: hehe

Hasta.

UPDATE: READ ALL THE NEW UPDATERS POSTS! Gawd, if Red is only looking for one guy, it's going to be hard to choose from those 3. Sheesh! Can we have them all Red? PLEASE!!! We got to see what other stuff they have so we can really do an assessment on their abilities. Yeah, that's the ticket...

•Still Breathing

Yes, ladies, I am still alive and breathing. You may have noticed my absence. Then again, considering how astute some of us are, you may not have. You can send your letters of thanks to 3dfx, since the newest drivers for my video card prevent me from playing UO at all. Thanks OSI and 3dfx.

If I may make a humble suggestion to those who are joining the UOPG update team, please make your entries concise and to the point. Rambling and talking about yourself don't do much to contribute to the knowledge of the game. Look at KH's posts over the last week about the fishing changes for a good example. People come here for information leavened by levity. Be informative, be funny, but don't be stupid. And above all, don't be verbose.

•Hrmmmm.....

I guess I wasn't thinking when I allowed everyone to the update the main page. From now on, all temporary updaters will be posting here. There's also a link on the other section on the menu.

•One Step Bug: CYA!

Alot of folks have posted to our Forum and sent emails into me that the One Step Bug is gone on other shards! Well, I can confirm that it's not on GL anymore either. HALELLUYAH!

That damn BK almost bit my ass when I tried to step away and heal up after the onslaught I was taking from the other one. Luckily I got a 50 point heal off.

Now, if monsters would just block and make you lose stamina in Trammel, it would REALLY be interesting then. I can just see the number of dead players all over the place for the first few weeks and the New Players Board at UOStratics light up with complaints. Believe it or not, that's one thing I am for :).

And bring on the super new monsters over in Felucca. Things like NPC Necromancers in Wind that bring with them 2-3 skeletons and one Skel Knight, Borers in the deserts (Monsters that attack from under the sand like the ones in Tremors), Unicorns that are tamable (the opposite of Nightmares and that will attack Mares on sight irregardless of tamed or wild), Vampires that lurk in the halls of Lower Deceit (Poison Elley and Lich Lord rooms) that are about as strong as Lich Lords but bring with them a random set of monsters (3-4 dire wolves, 10 rats, a lesser vampire with the power of a lich) and these vamps have the ability to teleport (like turning into mist) at will and are able to suck the life from you at a distance (something like the legends of Eastern Vampires). And these monsters have to bring COOL loot. New weapons (Vampire's Bane), instead of gold, Platinum (new currency more rare than gold and worth twice that of gold but only bringing 200max platinum on any creature), new spells for the "Bad Circle", etc.

Gawd, I must be bored brainstorming like this.

Have a good and safe weekend. Don't drink and ride that mare, and don't let your friends drink and ride either.

HASTA!

•Rares. A new pastime.

I have found a new reason to play this god forsaken game.

Rare hunting.

Now don't flame me plz. I am a little guy. But honestly. I have never done this before and I am like a kid in a candystore. There is so much to learn and so much to work with that I feel like I did the first weekend of UO -- yearning for knowledge and help from the veterans. I mean waking up at 5:30 AM in the morning isn't all too fun but I have to get up for work and school soon so it ain't too bad.

And the money. My god the money. Its pretty sick actually. If any of you can find a legit way to make 50k in 3 or 4 seconds (a rock for instance sells easily at 50k on Atlantic and they are in high demand) plz email me and clue me inn. I've made 130k in 4 days rare selling. No fear of dying , getting pked, getting looted etc etc. Fast money. Mine kind of money.

In other news I can't gain resist of PE's or Bloods anymore because of the one step bug getting fixed. Back to the Bone Magi room for me.

The Peacemaker / Mage template I have been playing on TC is basically owning all dexers I face. They can never touch me, and when they do they are dead before they can do it again. Does anyone play a med warrior anymore? I saw some people using them and they are pretty good in combat vs all classes.

In 5 days of training I got my new PK on GL up and running with GM tactics, GM macing, 60 hiding and 80 wrestling. Its gonna be fun going into stat loss again :) Thanks Nieves for hooking me up in the beginning and soon to come. You'll get your repay :) Oh ya. Anyone on GL that sees Galahad just yell "UOPG" and I wont kill you :) But otherwise I am going for 100 kills and gonna turn my head into Loren for a significant bounty I hope. Anyone who wants to tag along and help / heal me email me and we can chat.

Anyone GM Smithing Post UO:R? I need some help big time. Plz email me and tell me what to make at certain levels. I don't know if I am getting the right gains or not.

Any powergaming rare hunters --- email me. Hook me up with items / info on Atlantic :)

Peace.

•The first batch has been sent out.

Just a heads up that I sent e-mails to a few (4) of the people who were interested in being PvP updaters. Obviously, the best way to pick is "first come, first serve", so if I didn't reply to your e-mail yet, it's because someone else e-mailed me first. I will send a new batch and delete the old updaters' accounts every few days. Then in 8 years, after everyone gets a chance to update, I will make one or two of you permanent updaters.

Also, please don't send anymore requests. Since I got a handful of e-mails, you won't be updating for a long time, so it's pretty pointless.

•More on Fishing Nets

From all the mail I've recieved over the last couple days, I can now tell you with some certainty that yes, you can get nets with as low as 30 skill in Fishing, and that you CAN get them from rivers or inland ponds. I've even heard one rumour that they can be found as loot occasionally on lizardmen. I've also got some information that the t-maps you get from the net critters are not the usual level 1's, but level 2's and 3's. My thanks to ElectrikWarrior, rcooper, Slvrsrpnt, Offmcgruff, Erelast Orcrist, and Jafar McFinnan for this info...

•Treasure Part IV...I think

Well, I can't do tactics yet as I don't have access to the wonderful server that hosts the images from my home. I am so organized.

Today I will tell where some of the good lockpicking spots are.

By now all you folks should be around the 70's in cartography and lockpicking. Hopefully you have been working magery as well as that is important. For those that don't know, with low dex and zero detect hidden, your lockpicking will need to be 2-3 points higher than you would normally need to pick those chests. At level 2 I was above 72.0 and at level 3, I couldn't open them until I was at 83.1. It's supposed to be 71.0 and 81.0 respectively, but I don't think it's right. I still failed lockpicking chests at 84.0 but don't sweat it. Just keep trying. You will break some picks but no biggie. The payoff is worth it.

There is a Gazor Room in Covetous level 1 (around the corner from the Harpies) where I was picking for gains. That room forced me to use my magery in killing off the Gazors, the Gazors gave me magic resist, and I learned some hit and run tactics trying to stay alive. Take a invisible item if you can as you might run out of mana and a Gazor and, even worse, a Giant Serpent will spawn in and totally ruin your day.

There are crypts east of Yew with some EXTREMELY difficult chests (I assume you need 90+ picking for those as I can't open them even at 85.0 picking). If you can get inside them, pick the chests and your set of 10-20 you are carrying (you carry them all the time right?). Don't forget the plate gloves.

It's tedious but the payoff is worth it. Eventually, when you can open those chests in Covetous you will get 200+ gold and start making money for your regs and maps.

Be aware that at higher levels of proficiency you WILL hit many walls with Cartography and Lockpicking. At least with lockpicking you are running around fighting in Covetous and not killing your fingers clicking the mouse for the maps. Not too mention the strain on your eyes. ::ARGH!::

When you get above 73+ Cartography, start doing 1 World Map, then a Sea Chart, then World, then Regional, then World Map, then Detail Map, then World Map. When you get above 80, do 4 World Maps, then one of the others. This is the method that worked for me. Not too sure if it will work for everyone.

I am warning you again, it is TEDIOUS work and the most boring skill to raise (next to Fishing) in the game. Nothing made me more sick than trying to gain skill in cartography. Ever since I got to level 3, I had been just doing the 60+ maps I had stored.

A tip, when you got to above the minimum level for that next level, have some maps ready to decode. As soon as you hit it, start decoding them. For example, when I hit 81.0, I went to my bank and started decoding the level 3s I had put away. I gained off the first 10 maps in a row. It was amazing. I stopped decoding as soon as I didn't gain anymore and saved them for the next day. I call this the "initial entry burst period" or "FUCK YEAH" for short. ::grins::

Some have asked me if Cartography is part of the Anti-Macro code. I don't know. I usually made a set of maps, sold them, bought new ones, and then either go to the other map shop in the other city or walk across to the other side of the shop.

Anyway, I am tired and I hope my blabbering didn't make you guys think me stupid.

Although it may seem like you are not gaining, just work the skills. You will gain eventually. There are MANY walls in these two skill gain engines.

Oh, two more things. When opening your treasure chests, take off the plate gloves. No need making that harder. And try to do something that helps you gain a point in some skill when doing lockpicking and cartography (this one I think; lockpicking I am sure of). It resets the lockpicking timer thereby helping you gain faster.

Good luck.

Hasta.

•Ok...

I was expecting maybe, say, no people to e-mail me about the PvP position (like always), but I was wrong. I got about 20 different e-mails from people that are interested in being an updater. So, we're all going to take turns. A few people will update for a period of time, then a different group, and so on and so fourth. This may be fucking gay, but I don't really want 50 people updating at the same time.

I'll reply to everyone in a few days - when I have off.

In other news, this is nice.

•Dead Fisherman's Club

First of all, about fishing success rates: I'm pretty much convinced now that OSI has changed Fishing from the old spawn spot dependent system (you have to be in a certain location to get loot) to a new totally random success-driven system (meaning you can park your boat anywhere in the sea and still have the same chance to pull up a SOS). On the plus side, no more trolling endless spawn locations for hours on end. On the minus side, you'll probably be competing against everyone else on a given subserver for the loot. This would explain why over the past couple days that I've been playing again I can go for 2 hours without even pulling up an empty serpent, then pull up 3 SOS, 1 net and 1 map in the space of 30 minutes (it's happened this way twice now), and even why they deleted boats from the dungeon servers. Be careful what you wish for, right?

On to the nets: I loaded myself up with Cures, GHeals, Total Refreshes, some stat boosting items, and headed out to try my luck. First net - two sea serpents and one deep sea serpent... not really much of a challenge. The deep sea serpents you haul up from nets ARE a more difficult type (casting FS, tons of mana, aggressive, think lich), so expect this. Treasure - 1 t-map. Second net - two water elementals and a kraken. My take on the kraken is that it is EXACTLY like a dragon in terms of damage... I wouldn't recommend melee against these at all, but they are quite doable with Archery. This was a good combination, as the eles didn't auto-attack and I was able to kill the kraken at my own leisure. Treasure - 1 t-map, some gold. Third net - one sea serpent. Actually, I saw a sea serpent AND a kraken spawn, but the kraken immediately disappeared... possibly a bug in the spawn system? Treasure - 1 t-map. Fourth net - one kraken and two deep sea serpents. What can I say? Between the nasty fireballs coming from all three, taking two simultaneous FS, missing a bandaid heal and only getting 6hp out of a GHeal potion (argh), I bit the bag. And of course the one character I bother to maintain with high karma/fame is the one getting torched by the nifty new critters. Btw, you can poison serpents... not sure sure about the krakens yet. But since they all cast, generally expect they to cure themselves.

Lesson #1 - When you switch around your keyboard macro layout, it's a good idea to spend a day or so getting used to the new configuration before you do anything stupid.

Lesson #2 - Maybe I SHOULD drop GM Fencing for GM Healing... hmmmmm...

By the way, I've got confirmation from someone I trust that you can fish up nets at as low as 80 Fishing... I'm still trying to find out if there's any truth to the rumours that you can get them without serpents (appear in your pack), or that you can get them from rivers. The krakens really aren't that bad, as long as you don't take any chances with healing. Never let the health bar go below 3/4 and keep your stamina up. I'm looking forward to a rematch with another deep sea/deep sea/kraken spawn...

Evidently, I'm back playing UO... and although I've got limited time right now, I'll try have some more alchemy/poisoning info for you by the weekend. Now, if you could only poison arrows...

•Well damn...

Vegeta, it was great knowing you man. I wish you the best of luck at college. Best advice I can give you? Study. Have fun. And get plenty of sleep when you can. I hope you stay in game and come visit with UOPG and hang with us in the summer.

Everyone is having to update their mule fisherman now that big monsters (Krakens, Deep Sea Serpents) are kicking their asses. Cool, more big fun. Now that means fisherman can wind up as Glorious Lords (or close). Sorry you guys have to change your characters to accomodate. At least in UO you can. You can't change a character in EQ once you choose your class/race.

My original Fisherman template was going to be:
GM Magery, Fishing, Eval, Med, Wrestling, Resist, 50 Hiding, 50 Cooking (cause I hate failing making cooked steaks).

He was designed to kick the shit out of Sea Serpents and Water Elementals along with being able to gate loot to DA HOUSE! Well, magery is freaking expensive as hell and I don't have the patience for it. My Fisherman is changing to:
GM Archery, Tactics, Anatomy, Healing, Fishing, Resist, 70 Magery, 30 Hiding.

It's a fast enough template to complete and ALOT cheaper than magery. This will give this character the ability (with potion assistance) to kill Krakens. Xbows of Vanq help in this. Trust me, they do :).

Loren has killed dragons using just her archery and a properly placed Poison Field. Poison fields are amazing for creatures that are in spots where they are trying furiousely to get at you (I am GLAD they don't fly over to get at her). You just target them and they dance all over trying to avoid the field and get at you. They have to cure the poison so they are not casting at you (see the similarity with PvP here?). It allows you to just finish them off while they dance. I use that all the time when out with my treasure hunter (yes part 3 is coming today; quit stressing me). Too bad you can't cast Poison Field in the ocean, but I will get over it. Anyone know if you can poison Krakens/Serpents? Please let me know as I haven't tried yet.

Once I am up to the level of GM in the main fighting skills and get a hold of a net (donations anyone?), I will let you know how my old man from the sea does.

Looks like the basic equipment of any fisherman should include a net now. Get one at Wall-Mart's outdoor department near you. :)

A PvP tip I got from someone, Paralyze+Poison+Paralyze over and over. Think about it. They use up all their GCures and Pouches trying to get cured of poison and break the paralysis. Keep them paralyzed and then when the poison is eating them up and they are low on life, finish as you please. Explosion+MindBlast+Ebolt usually does it. I am told it works. It may sound like a cheesy tactic and you do alot of running around keeping yourself healed and away from your opponent. And if it's 2 guys doing this (one poisoning the other paralyzing), and you are on the other end of this, pray you remembered to leave the vanqs in the bank. I hope that helps some folks trying to figure out what to do with their mages in the current PvP environment.

Hasta.

•A couple things.

First, as you may know, Vegeta will not be updating anymore. I would like to thank him/her (I personally always thought it was a she because of the name) for sticking around for so long and updating for us. Good luck in college. Send my 5-dollars-an-hour-working-at-Pick-N'-Save-having ass some money when you get a good job.

Also, we're in need of a PvP updater. Since we have 800 updaters, this spot is for a person with a great deal of knowledge for all kinds of PvP characters. Someone who plays only a tank mage will probably not become an updater.

The requirements are: basic HTML skills (fonts, links, etc); proper english; and, as said above, lots of PvP knowledge. Making fun of Ian is a plus. Anyone who e-mails me will probably become an updater right away, but only one or two will become permanent updaters. Don't you feel used if you don't make it.

For those of you that already e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago for this spot (it was on the old forum), I still have your messages and will reply to you today, so e-mailing me again isn't necessary. If I don't get back to you, then e-mail me again. Be sure to tell me to go fuck a cow for deleting your message.

•Treasure Hunting Update

A couple of things I neglected to put in the Treasure Hunting Essay.

Plate gloves (they don't have to be exceptional) will help you gain lockpicking skill as the difficulty rating goes up. Don't know if it's because your dex goes down or some other FM variable.

If you are having trouble selling your maps (and making more blank maps spawn) in either Skara Brae or Moonglow, try to get a rune to the other town's Map Maker vendor and see if you can sell them there. Also, there is a Map Maker in Trinsic. That vendor NPC is located in the Provisioner's just North of the Trinsic West Bank. Well, on Great Lakes there is a Map Maker.

To the asshoe that is leaving maps all over West Trinsic and near my Tower, take the fucking time and put them all in a pouch or a Trash Bin. You lazy SOMBitch.

To the asshoe that stole my runebook, I hope you spill your softdrink on your keyboard, thereby frying your computer and house fuse box and that the resulting explosion is big enough that it blows off your penis. Yes, I am still mad.

Hasta.

•Updates From The Valley Of The Jolly Green Giant...

Fun With Lies in UO - Those of you who have just recently joined UO probably fail to understand is how much fun it can be to lie to a new player. I'm not talking money scams (although I know some people love these), just simply "lying to the newbies". Like having a new player ask you where you get one of those special pink Bob robes that alway appear back in your pack when you res ("Why that's easy! Just go up to that guard over there, hit your tab key, then double left click on the guard and say 'I wish to have a robe' and he'll give you one." *Bang-Crash-Deathmoan* "O ooOo oo OOoo O oooO... Ooo?").

One piece of bad information that gives me no end of chuckles is the myth about the reagents on the ground in the Moonglow Cemetery. There are a healthy number of people out there who got started on liches in Moonglow, and in the process heard the story that if you picked up the spider silk on the ground, either the whole undead spawn (or just the liches, depending on which version) wouldn't come. Start picking the silk up, and it wouldn't take more than a few seconds before some moron wearing too much true-black would have an aneurysm about it. This is, of course, utter bullshit. The spawn gets blocked by all the players, bodies, and bag litter on the ground that accumulates when 10-15 players are in the fence. Remember, 4 critters spawn along with each lich, and if one of those 5 tiles is blocked by anything, the lich & his buddies won't spawn. Eventually, the spawn falls off, people leave, then more spots open up, and the spawn picks up again. And since there are fewer players in the fence, the silk builds up again, but this is effect rather than cause. A handy lie for some, though. I knew someone pre-Trammel who'd go down to the cemetery with one character, spread the story around, leave, then log in another character who go back to Moonglow and immediately start picking up the silk. He said it usually only took him a couple of minutes of returning the verbal abuse to get attacked. Boom... newbie loot.

Fishing Becoming Worthwhile Again? - Two big (and unannounced) changes to fishing this week. First, it looks as though OSI has changed the game mechanics of fishing. Previously fishing was a lot like mining or lumberjacking; to fish up a SOS or t-map you needed to be at a specific location in the ocean (spawn spots). Now however, it looks like OSI has moved to a completely random system, meaning you can park your boat anywhere in the ocean and have the same chance at pulling up goodies. Now this isn't completely confirmed, but I logged in for a while last night, parked my boat at several random spots, and managed to pull up 4 SOS, 1 t-map, and a "special fishing net" (more on this in a moment) in a couple of hours. If there has been a change to a random, success driven system, it should be more fair to new fishers as you would no longer have to figure out where the spawn spots are. The down side to this kind of system is that you are probably in competition with all other fishers on a subserver for the SOSs (just like competing against everyone else on a given subserver for skill gain). Basically, this would mean the more people fishing, the less chance you have of getting anything (and btw, if Lum gets to take the blame for the removal of pre-casting, I claim some responsibility for this... ;) ).

Second, there is a new item you can fish up, the green "special fishing net". I haven't tried mine out yet, but here's what I've been able to find out: You double click the net, target deep water, and you'll see a variety of splashes as though a bunch of people just tried to fish the same piece of water. Then you have a chance of brining up water elementals, deep sea serpents, and/or 1-2 of a new critter called a kraken. It's not the unused monster you can see by using InsideUO, but rather a blue corpser. From what I've heard it shoots 25-45 hp fireballs and aggressively casts high level magic. The most common comparisons are to a Ophidian Matriarch, or a dragon. Loot is supposedly about 300 gp and normally a SOS or t-map. As I said, I haven't had a chance to try out mine, but I'll keep you updated on what I find.

Long Term Project (Alchemy/Poisoning) - Sorry if I haven't kept up with posting about this, here's what I've got so far... Alchemy is proving to be one of the easiest skills I've tried under UO:R, as long as you don't mind blowing money and regs. The alchemist I'm planning to GM is currently at about 93 skill, and it wasn't bad getting there, just expensive. The what-to-make-and-when list in the skills section is pretty accurate, although what I've been doing during burst is to do 10 of the listed potion, then 10 of the next highest up. You lose a lot of regs on failed potions, but the gain is absolutely amazing. I had just started Poisoning about a week ago, and I'm still playing around with methods. 0-65ish has taken me 2 kegs of lesser poison and, so far, 2 1/2 kegs of regular poison. Using 25 daggers and a very long UOA macro, I haven't had any problems maintaining consistent gain. More on this when I can spend some more quality time with UO...

Lets Do The Time Warp Again - Remember before the ticket event? Remember time warps extending more than an hour, hour and a half before the server down message? Well, you don't have to reminisce anymore... huge warps are back to stay. For example, the Baja timewarp is now 45 mins - 1 hour longer than it was just a month ago. Truthfully, I don't know why I'm mentioning this since there really aren't that many of us up at 4:30 AM MST to get annoyed (Aussies being the exception). I'd just really hate to see how long it's become on a packed server.

More from me in a little while.

•Sorry

No Treasure Hunter Part 3 for now. I have some excellent screen shots I did last night JUST for this portion of the article. Unfortunately, I left all the damn images at home and can't format them for viewing from here. You can blame my dumbass self for not emailing them to work.

Someone sent me a link to a website that has a listing of most (if not all) of the new weapons in the game with what they do. Go check it out here. Thanks to KruncH for sending it to me :). I appreciate it. Now, I want a HVY Xbow of Blood Drinking/Elemental Bane (Blood elleys), HVY XBow Bow of Arachnid Doom, Broadsword of Demon Dismissal, Broadsword of Flame Dousing, Katana of the Terathan (name?), and a HVY XBOW of Titan Bashing (Broad or katana will do).

Any people donating to me, please send to Macy's of Trinsic in care of Loren of da wood :).

Anyone want to guess what these weapons will do? Some notes on them: They key in on the user (I think I said this) and they seem to do better against the creature type than Vanq's did. Can we say "hose the vanq market". And to think, the Roleplaying Possibilities! Loren of da wood and Her HVY XBOW "Titan's Bane"! WoOT!

Someone please tell me wtf a Fishing Net is going to do?

Additonally, the great writers at the House of Elements got a great article on the use of these weapons after some testing they did. Go Read about it!

I posted the nest installment of the PvP tutorial by Kamikazi from Adam Ant on the Nieves page so I don't clutter up the front page. Go read it.

Remember the Terathan Trap Spot I used to use? Well I will be damned if you can't teleport into them anymore. A mage even told me you can't recal into the area anymore. Idiot pendejo jerkoff IGM (or whoever did that shit)! A matriarch and avenger almost had ME for fucking lunch over my lunch hour. I guess I will be going back to find the best spots again. The work I do for you. You bastards. :p hehe.

Hasta.

•Simple Economics.

Today I Icq'ed a person who was selling a villa (Trammel) on Atlantic. I kindly asked what was the highest bid.

He responds with 1.9 million gold.

I passed out. When I woke up I went off how messed up this economy is. I know posts have already visited this subject but not it is my turn to rant.

You muther fucking cheaters.

About March I had a black dye tub. I sold said dye tub for 70k which was a fair price at the time. I went to try to buy one last week. They were selling for 300k. That was the price of a furn dye tub until Mr. and Mrs. Duper came into my life.

Wasn't there a post on the UO site about how all the dupers were getting banned and that 50 percent of all the gold on the shard would be removed therefore normalizing the economy. Does anyone know if this is happened yet? I seriously doubt it.

Duping doesn't just hurt because it destroys the economy and the value of gold. It hurts because it makes PvM pointless. Why make 20k in Liches today when some 14 yr old bitch has 100 million gold in is bank account and that is after he gave 5 million to all his guildmates. I realized this today when I went out with my tamer. What the hell is the point? Honestly. Possibly for fame but as a tamer I can't keep it that long. I die all the time.

So where does that lead me? I guess I am stuck complaining until OSI fixes this. Whoever said cheaters doesn't prosper must not of heard of UO.

In other new...faction test rocks. I have tried three of the factions so far and I've had the most fun with the Shadowlords as a mage / peacemaker. That template owns Dexers. The Brits have too many and cause too much lag and Minax has no organization. Shadowlords are a good group of guys. I am gonna be on with them tonight as Gillian.

Fix lag la? ^^

•Factions Experience

I read a neat little article on House of Elements about DeaDonE's experience on Test Center with Factions. Here is a snippet:

Luckily the town was in our control at the time I needed to res, the guy on the horse was in my faction (Minax) and he was in charge of taking out any one who was orange. The horses at the door were placed for blocking anyone trying to get away. My over all score is not really important, the fact is I got in my cheap shots when I could and did my part in the total destruction of the Britian faction that was trying to take control. Places like the hedge maze were perfect for hit-and-run tactics, using the teleporters to move around quickly and draw a few of the enemy into our waiting forces on the other side.

You can read the rest of the article here. They even got a screen shot of some of the carnage.

Go talk about your experiences in our BRAND NEW forums.

I have a request: I need to know what kinds of weapons have been found and what they do. IE-Does a Ogre Smashing weapons rock Ogre Lords? That kind of thing. Since I am responsible for PvM here on UOPG, I want to compile my experiences with yours in a PvM weapons section or supplement the PvM pages. Depends on what Red wants (or allows) me to do. Please email me your testing results.

Hasta.

•For the Smith in you!

In testing folks...


Blacksmithing will receive a new interface menu, similar to the tinkering menu. The menu will contain the following options:
Make Last - will attempt to make the last item selected
Cool. Now I don't have to go through 4-5 menus to make something. Can you update the Tailor's menus too?

Smelt Item - will prompt to smelt an item into ingots
Repair Item - will prompt with a target to attempt a repair
Prompt for Maker's Mark - there will be a toggle for the Maker's Mark. The three settings for the toggle are 1) Always do mark, 2) prompt for mark, 3) never do mark. (You will still need the required skill in order to place a maker’s mark on an item)
This one I like. I ALWAYS want my name on what I sell. Name recognition baby :)

In addition, the following general change are being tested:
Vendor pricing issues with containers will be resolved
Ban option on houses will function properly
About fucking time. I hate 400 lizards that keep coming into my house over and over and over after I banned them.
House add-on items will no longer leave residue when being deleted
Talk about an annoying BUG! Having to wait 2 hours so I can replace something was a pain.

And as always...FIX LAG BIYOTCHES! BRING ON FACTIONS!!!

Hmm...

I am starting to wonder...nah, I will leave that for the Nieves' Page.

Hasta!!

•OOOH! Before I forget...

I talked to a GM last night. You know, the Red Smurfy guys? Well, guess what?

He told me that killing Nobles and Seekers of Adventure Will not get you banned. I have the name of that GM written down and the time and date it happened (too much was going on and my journal overwrote what he was saying). Plus, I was too dumbfounded to remember to take a screenshot really quick. I am the dumbass remember? (Hmm...I might call a GM just to have him tell me again to get the screen shot ::grins:: ). No, I won't post his/her name out of respect for privacy. I also have a witness to it :). He said that killing NPCs that give you a count, and you don't get a count is an exploit. Killing Seekers of Adventure, Brides, and Nobles was not a bannable offense.

What happened was we were in Skara Brae and I saw someone killing them. I asked him if he wanted to see this guy doing that? He said no, not to worry about it. I asked him if it was bannable. That's when I got the information above.

First thing I said to him after he said it's not bannable?? ::starts thinking about silver sandles:: What did he say? "Brides right?" I replied: "yeah". So, I killed a bride after the GM left and my partner got a new pair of silver sandles.

Bear in mind, if you get banned for this by a GM, don't go apeshit on me. I am just reporting this and we have known OSI and their GMs to change their mind about stuff on an hourly basis.

Good luck...and happy hunting.

UPDATE! Almost forgot this tidbit.

Last night I went to use a very popular rune library on Great Lakes in Brittania: Felucca Facet. This "Treasure Hut" has all their runes in secure chests. I could open the chests and bags in the chest and use what runes I needed. Well, when trying to open the secure chest that had the rune I wanted, I got a message that basically said: "You are not friended to this house, only friends can use this chest". Well, that means we have to put out rune books. That may or may not be a good thing. (And you do realize you can put recal scrolls in locked down rune books right? Right.)

If I remember correctly, secures chests take up 125 lockdowns. Well, it will take roughly 12.5 (13) rune books to store 200 runes. That's 2 less secures (250 less lockdowns) if all you have in those chests are recall runes. Or you could add 13 more lock downs and use the Secures for something else.

Anyway...

Just some info. Good luck.

Hasta.

PS- For those that are interested, the GMs keep telling me not to worry about the Tower going Improper after a GM visited it. That the signs aren't right at this time. Um...aight. I still don't like it.

•Treasure Hunter Part 2

Treasure Hunter 102
A. Building Cartography and Lockpicking.
Ok, by now you should have 100str/100int and some dex points. You might've gained some Cartography in the process. That's good. In your off time you should've gathered some wool and sold them at the tailor for gold. As well as picking up any regs you find. Get that gold and buy as many maps as you can at the Map Maker's shop in northern Moonglow or southern Skara Brae (both near the docks). Do this during your power hour as it's frustrating enough doing this painstaking chore. Your goal is to get to 71 Cartography...for now.

Buy all the maps you can, make Detail and World Maps. Plug in a Sea Chart and Regional Map every 3rd or 4th World Map you make. You should gain pretty quick and start to slow down around 60-65ish. You should be selling the maps back to the Map Maker so they can spawn some more (don't forget the empty back pack; remember lag issues). And don't hesitate to give some of the extra gold to the NPC so she can buy some of your maps making her spawn some more. After awhile you will get that NPC's pattern of spawning and keep ahead of the gold expenditure versus profit. Yes, you can make a bit of gold doing this. I went with 1000Gp once and left with 1300. 6-9GP for a blank and you sell a World for 28. You do the math.

Once you get to 71ish Cartography, you can move on to Lockpicking. Why stop Cartography here? It's boring as hell and doing something else will break the monotony.

Find a Thief Guildmaster/Bard in Moonglow/Skara Brae (I know I saw one in Moonglow) and buy up to 30 lockpicking (if you don't already have it). Get some lockpicks from the Provisioner with the gold you earned off the maps you sold (I would just use the profit to keep it all even).

Try to get 10 GM (or 90+ skill) lockpicked Orange Chests, with keys, in a Pack. If you don't want to break too many lockpicks, start off with the small crates. You want AT LEAST 10 of them in your pack.

Head out out of Moonglow and start wrestling sheep and llamas while locking all 10 of the chests and then picking them. You should see decent gains up around 50. Once you get there, you will need the Orange chests. They seem to work better. Plus they fit nicer in a pack. You will probably be using some magery to cast a couple of quick heals as, intitally, llamas might just kick ur ass. You might see a few gains. If the sheep start to run away, hit him with a lightning bolt to kill them off. NOTE: SHEER THE SHEEP FIRST! That's 37 gold=10 of each reg plus change if you buy them at 3gp each.

B. Building your other skills.
Now you should be around 71ish Cartography, 50ish Lockpicking, and 30-40 Wrestling with a few points in Meditation (let your mana go up naturally; using the skill is no good for skill gains) and Evaluate Intelligence.

Try to get to Delucia. Begging for a gate or to hit a rune (good for your magery gains) has no shame in it.

Once you get to Delucia, find some dinky armor someone throws out near the bank. Someone always does. Delucians are pigs. I know, I lived there. Go find a bull, wrestle the beast. You should be able to get into the 90s very fast with Bulls. Take some regs, the chests, and lockpicks. Delucia also has a decent sheep population so you will keep the money flowing. Oh, not too mention, people are also throwing out wands/staves and other misc junk. You can sell those. I recommend using the money from those sales to get regs from the mage shops there. This will help build your reg reserves. Try to stay in the 3-6hp/reg range so you don't wind up spending too much. Do the lockpicking t