•The Perfect Treasure Hunter

As you all know, I have a Treausure Hunter. Some of you have emailed me on how to create one. Well, I am going to begin an essay on how to create (IMHO) the "perfect" Treasure Hunter.

I will try to do this in 3 parts.

Part 1 will cover the template I am using and why, what skills you will start with, and how you will build this character.

Part 2 will cover how to bring this character's skills up.

Part 3 will cover treasure hunting techniques.

Okay boys and girls, have a seat, school is now in session.

Treasure Hunter 101.

A. Basic Template
The basic template I recommend is as follows: GM Magery, Evalulate Intelligence, Meditation, Resist Spells, Wrestling, Cartography, Lockpicking. If you wish to view other templates, go here.

The reason I chose this template over the others is simple. I can go anywhere and do anything. I can dungeon crawl and kill all other creatures. I am not so specialized that I can't do PvP if I wish either. I may not have the benefits of other PvP mages (Inscription/Poisoning) but I can still hang if I choose to PvP. I just have to be smarter. Also, as a mage, I can do Treasure Chests Solo (yes, it's possible even at higher levels).

Another benefit is, as of this post, you are not required to have remove trap nor detect hidden to open up a treasure chest. The minimum level of Lockpicking and the telekinesis spell are all that's required. If they do decide to make those other 2 skills a requirement, then it would not be hard to change your character to accomodate if you wish to continue as a Treasure Hunter or change the character into something else.

B. Starting Off.
Start with 50 Magery, 49 Cartography, 1 Lockpicking. Alot of folks scream that lockpicking is hard, but, I guarantee you, Cartography is MUCH MUCH harder to raise. Have about 10k ready to give to this character as he will need it to reach Stat Cap to gain the skills he requires. I will post another way to get to Stat Cap if you don't have 10k available. Start this Character in Moonglow if you can. There is a VERY good Map Maker in Moonglow's Provisioner (near the docks) that usually has Maps ready for sale. Also, you can buy maps at Papua's Map Maker shop (near the smith shop and Docks). Don't ask me why it's there. I have never been able to make any maps in T2A. But at least you can buy maps there. Another reason Moonglow is good is you can sail off of there to do some sailing ::wink wink:: Another good city to start in is Skara Brae for the same reasons.

C. Skill/Stat Building.
Buy all the skills you can (EXCEPT Spirit Speak and Arms Lore) trying to get to 690 skillpoints. If you don't get to 690, use some of the money left over to work on Cartography at the Provisoner in Moonglow or the Map Maker in Skara Brae (near the main area of Noble/Seekers of Adventure spawn in the south side of the island). Take extra money to give to the Map Maker so she will be able to afford to buy the maps back if she refuses to buy anymore. I recomment taking 1k for your training sessions in Cartography. Also, buy a backpack. There is nothing worse than 200 maps cluttering up a city that is as laggy as Moonglow. Buy as many maps as you can. Start with Detail maps and work in a World Map or two. Sell the maps back and buy more. Leave any maps you don't sell in that backpack in a corner.

Once you get to 690 skillpoints, lock all your skills except Spirit Speak. Have that pointed up. Point Arms Lore down. Spirit speak till you get to 10.0 real skill of Spirit Speak. Turn Spirit Speak down and Arms Lore up. Work Arms Lore to 10.0. Then turn Arms Lore down and Spirit Speak up. Rinse, repeat. In about 2-3 hours you will have 100str/100int/about 15 dex. Sometimes you will get a DEX point off Arms Lore. And sometimes you gain INT off Arms Lore. That's ok. Just work it till you have 100str/100int.

Use the rest of the money to get you a full spellbook. If you have more money, use it to get some level 1-2 treasure maps. These will help with skill gains later. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT pay more than 1k for ANY treasure map. Unless you find it yourself, or know the person to be honorable, there is NO way of knowing what level any treasure map is. I have found some lich maps to be level 1s (it's rare, but it has happened). Trust me on this. It will save you grief later (paying 5k for a level 5 and it turns out to be a 1 is a hard hit to your pocket book).

If you do not have 10k Available, head out the southern gate of Moonglow and shear as many sheep as you can. Beware of wandering Mongbats and Undead. They will kill you at your current level. Sell off this wool at the Tailor shop. They buy them for like 37GP/each (on GL anyway). Also, along the way, pick up as many regs as you can. Regs are free all over Moonglow (spawned regs that is) and with the exception of ASH (I think), you can get them all. This helps on your magery training later.

Ok, that's it for now. Now, go get your characters started! Next time I will cover how you will gain your skills.

MiniNews Update:

Testing for next update going in today on Pacific:

Trammel Guild Looting Rights Jul 19 2000 4:07PM CST
Looting rights that affect both Trammel and Felluca interaction will be changed to the following:

On Trammel:
Guildmates will be lootable to each other
Thieves' Guild members will be lootable by all
Criminal corpses will be lootable by all
Murderer corpses will be lootable by all
Those that had lawful damage done to them by the looter
Those in the same faction will not be able to loot each other. The exception to this is if they are in the same party, with looting rights turned on. As long as the deceased character does not receive any lawful damage his faction-mates in the party can loot him. For example, if a character is killed by a monster, a player outside of the faction wars, etc., his faction mates in the party will be able to loot him.
Lawful Damage is defined as consensual combat from enemy guild members, enemy virtue guild members, and enemy faction members. Lawful damage is also justified damage returned by a player against an unlawful aggressor. For example: if player A attacked player B, and neither were in any guilds parties or factions, then player A would be aggressor. Player B could then return the attack which would be called "lawful damage". If player A and Player B were in opposing guilds or factions, then player A's initial attack would be lawful damage.

Only a player with looting rights will be able to open a corpse on Trammel.

On Felluca:
Guildmates will be lootable to each other
Thieves’ Guild members will be lootable by all
Criminals will be lootable by all
Murderer corpses will be lootable by all
Those lawfully damaged by the looter. Only the players who did lawful damage will be able to loot the corpse.
Those in the same faction will be able to loot each other, however, they will criminally flagged if they do so. As in Trammel, the exception to this is if they are in the same party, with looting rights turned on. As long as the deceased character does not receive any lawful damage, his faction-mates in the party can loot him freely. For example, if a character is killed by a monster, a player outside of the faction wars, etc., his faction mates in the party will be able to loot him without getting a criminal flag. However, if a player receives any lawful damage in a faction war (i.e.: from opposing factions) then any faction mate of his will receive a criminal flag if he tries to loot.
Opening a corpse by someone without looting rights will get a warning message that to loot this corpse is a criminal act. To remove items from this corpse without looting rights will result in that looter becoming criminally flagged.


What does it all mean? I don't know, but you can talk about it in our new improved forums :).

Also, I am sure everyone has heard about the new weapons that were introduced this past week. I found a Large Battle Axe of Orc Smashing this weekend (found it on a Lich; I hear most of these weapons are found on Liches/LLords). My Lumberjacker has 91Jacking/GM Swords-Tactics. He was killing Orc Mages in 3 hits and Orc Lords in like 4-5 hits. That was faster than the Large Battle Axe of Vanquishing he carries. I think that's great!!!! One thing of note. I am not sure if this is a bug, but when I first got the weapon, it was "a magic large battleaxe". I identified it and it was "a Large Battle Axe of Orc Smashing". Then, I gave it to my lumberjacker and all it said was "a large battle axe". I don't know if it was intended to be this way but you must be careful with weapons you give or get from others. Once my jacker identified it, it said "a Large Battle Axe of Orc Smashing". Ensure you Identify them all until this is resolved.

I wonder if the Maul of Ogre Smashing I found does a number on Ogrelords. Anyone want to test it for me?

While we are talking about weapons. Please note that a Silver Cleaver of Vanquishing will kill a liche in 3 hits. Go out and buy one today. Luckily, I didn't have to buy mine! ;D

Worship me.

Hasta.

•New board.

You can find the new board here. It even matches the site. I hope this one works out.

Huge thanks to Markee Dragon for hosting it.

•My PvP Brethren. Gather Around.

Before I start this let me make it clear that I no longer actively play UO. I haven't for about a month. I once said there was absolutely nothing that could bring me back short of a miracle reversing all of the pvp updates that have been made in say oh.. the past year or so. That being said I am going to make one final stand and urge OSI to look into implementing a Veteran Shard. Azaroth, who is now updating for Pkghost, and I have been talking this over the last few days and both think that there is at least a 1% chance that we can have an influence and get this to work. Let me be frank and say that this absolutely cannot happen unless those that play UO and are unhappy with it and those that gave up on UO come together and organize a serious collaborative effort to get this shard implemented. Az and I both noticed that everyone we talk to says that they left UO because of the changes and would come back if those changes were nullified and the pre-existing UO that we knew and loved so much were to somehow make a comeback.

This would be in OSI's interest as

1) They would hold onto customers that are quitting because of the changes

2) They would bring back thousands of players that have quit.

What we need is support from you the player. Let me note that if you are not for this idea you can blow me until the sun rises but DO NOT email me telling me either this cannot work or you don't want to see this implemented because why should you care. This will be a good way for you to continue playing your pathetic little "safe, restricted game" while all the REAL UO players get their grind on in a new shard. Imagine a shard with all of the old pvp tactics starting with precasting ending with that haly blow. No lame ass mind blast or poison. No dex penalty for halys, and no spell book to un-equip. What truly excites me about this idea is the competition. I played on Chesa. I once knew about competition. It was everywhere. I reached the top of that shard. I would like to test my mettle against the top Atlantic players, the top Baja players. Can you imagine a shard with guilds that would be divided by the very best pvp talent of their former shard? I wonder if I could beat Az in a duel. I wonder if I could beat Nighthawk of WTF with all being equal. These are questions that will never be answered unless this shard is implemented. There are so many possibilities with a shard like this that I can't help but get hard thinking about it. Let me end a few of the arguments that will eventually come up right now. One is that Siege is a pvp shard. Ummm no, it's a lame excuse for a pvp shard. They have all of the changes that the other shard has other than recall and stat loss. That is NOT what we're after. Also, creating an independently run shard has been proven lame time and again and would not draw the type of attention or players that it would if it was on the actual OSI servers so don't bother throwing that bs at me. What I do want is ideas. I want proposals. I want a review of what you think the veteran shard should consist of. We need well thought out ideas. This isn't the time to bullshit or send me hate emails. I don't want to hear them and won't read them so don't waste your time. If you feel the need, send Watts of UO Terror some hate mail. I think he misses it. Ok there you have it. You know what we need and what we want to get accomplished. I am going to Let AZ do the majority of the work because it was his idea and I don't have the time it takes to dedicate myself to this as much as would be needed. So even though you can mail me your ideas, he will be in charge of putting the final proposals together. Email him your ideas.

On a happy note I was just cast in the upcoming film Pearl Harbor. Worship me.

Until my Dsl connection get's hooked up my email has changed. For now I can be contacted here.

•New comic site.

Got this link in my mailbox. I thought the jail ones were pretty damn funny.

•Rant On....

Server stability, eh? There is only one permanent solution to server stability, and that is reduce the items that the servers have to track. Clean up Britannia actually did that, until they added twice the area to track and probably quadrupled the number of towers and castles and keeps, houses with the highest lockdown counts and greatest number of secure containers. Of course, the server that couldn't handle the item load before now has to track MORE items. Brilliant move, that.

There is a solution, of course. More servers. If OSI adds servers, then server load is reduced on the individual servers, and the item count is reduced. Imagine if, instead of creating "New Britannia," as it were, OSI made Atlantic2, and Catskills2, etc. OSI would then move half the characters from the original server to the second server, and make the 2 servers -pvp, or enchanced pvp, or whatever you want to call it. Most importantly, limit the number of characters on an account to say 3 shards and SP, not including test center.

Most lag in UO is server side. People with 40 pings still get lag, because the servers can't keep up. OSI denies it, and swears its your ISP. Hey OSI, admit you screwed up and then add some US servers. I think we deserve it after playing this game for almost 3 years.

Rant off.

•No, can't be..?

Could it be? Is OSI working on fixing LAG and Server Down times???

07/25/00 06:27 PM EDT ·· ^top

Now Appearing: Test Center Two
The following was just posted to FYI on the UO.com website:
We are currently conducting server stability testing using the Test Center Two shard. This shard will appear intermittently on your shard selection screen during the upcoming days while we conduct the tests. Test Center Two is a duplicate of the current Test Center shard, and while we welcome player interaction on the shard, players who choose to play on the shard should be prepared for the possibility of frequent downtimes.

Hmm..maybe they hear my FIX LAG BIYOTCHES cry? Nah, that would be too good to be true.

Hasta.

•Our annual update.

All of the Elementals have been updated on the PvM section.

Thanks to Nieves for the updates.

•Little Update

I'm baaaaaaack. In regards to skills and "real skill," The only thing that real skill does is tell you how long you have until you GM the skill and how many skill points of your 700 you have invested in it. Note that as a skill approaches 100, the difference between real and effective skill approaches zero and reaches zero at 100 in all cases. That's to prevent the possibility of someone using effective skill to get a 8xmaster character. (yup, it's possible based on the stat/skill formulas if they were linear instead of lograithmic)

All skill checks are taken against effective skill, unless those are the same for a given skill, i.e. tactics. Real skill otherwise does not matter. As far as skill enhancing potions and spells increasing your chance to accomplish a skill based feat, well, it doesn't work like that. (sorry Nieves.) Unless you get an actual increase in your effective skill, you don't get an increased chance to accomplish something.

Some skills are independantly affected by a stat, like healing is by dex, but that is a different concept altogether. That's today's lesson in game mechanics.

•You successfully opened the lock...

Well, it seems that the cut off for opening level 3 Treasure Chests with 25 Dex is 83.2 real skill. Don't ask me why, but that's what it took to open the damn thing last night. I broke about 10 lockpicks doing it but the pay off is worth it.
Longsword of Power, Kryss of Might, Katana of Might, Kite Shield (dyable) of Invul.

Yeah, it's worth it.

In other news, the "One Step" Bug works. I never used it before because I am the 3l33t Monsta Killa and I like to go at it against the Big Ooglies. Basically, you get into Melee with a monster. Let it hit you once, take one step away and it just stands there. I tested it against Fire Elementals and got some resist for my trouble. I have seen folks using it against Poisons. I may be crazy (I hunt Poisons and Bloods for sport) but I ain't stupid. I for one hope this bug goes away quick.

Test Factions is up. Go to the forum and read Thread 3450 by ProQuo. He's got a pretty decent article on it. He should be an updater but oh well... Scroll down to read my fellow updater's feelings on UO as it stands today. More InfoBits in the Nieves Page is forthcoming.

Hasta.

•Something to Read

What I've basically gotten from the 17 people that still play UO is that they hate it. It sucks. Everything is nerfed and no one likes their character. Even the staunchest of OSI supporters has been heard driving to their closest peer and when they thought no one was listening, would scream at the top of their lungs, " BRING BACK PRE-CASTING BEEEEYOTCH!" You won't get any you told me so's out of me. I was only stating the blatantly obvious when I said this game was a shell of it's former self and would not retain any sort of it's former glory. A few of my better sources have told me that OSI's "player retention" (for those of you not familiar new player retention is a system OSI uses to see what the turnover for new players is, i.e. how many new players get this game and quit playing within a given time.) has taken a very severe hit over the past 6 months. I called this a long time ago. OSI got rid of exactly what kept new players around. Hey the good news is Factions will eventually come, for those of you that believe this, I will reward your good faith and trust by selling you some very good swamp land on the Louisiana/Florida Border very cheap. Contact me.

Anyway,On a closing note, I just can't tell you how bad the movie Patriot sucked. I want my 15.50 back,for myself and my girlfriend. I don't care if she liked it. I would give you a long diatribe of why the movie epitomizes what is wrong with the movie industry as a whole but that is something best left for the forum. But honestly leaving this movie I felt like I had just been on the recieving end of something like this. Well, online games suck. Movies suck. And if you're one of the people that complained until OSI fucked my game up, so do you.

•Tamer nerf...Along with everything else.

OSI - You suck.

Yes. I have a tamer. He is quite the badass. He is going for a hybrid template as of now. GM Taming, Lore, Resist, Alchemy, Magery, Med, Wrestling.

Now instead of having one of those skills I have to take up vet. Thank you again OSI. And to top it off, I can only have 5 pets max now? And to all you people whining about "Ahhh tamers are too strong". You know what I say to that "Fuck You" because you are the people that complain and make this game suck.

Straight up suck. If this game were today what it was a year or so ago we would all be happy. At least all the powergamers would -- Because you pussies complained about housing. What does that get me? More Lag. You complained about precasting. That gives me boring ass duels where you can hold heals and no one wins -- You complained about mage superiority. You give me a 7 times GM mage that can be beat by a 11 year old kid with one arm. You complained about taming. You make me lose some of my dragons. You complained about recalling as an agressor and having land that was PvP free. You destroy the PK class altogether. And that's just the icing on the cake. Only people I respect are those that adapt and not cry their eyes out because they can't stand the heat. If you want to change something, change it in candyland so us powergamer's can play like we used to play. Dread Lord and all.

•For those of you that remember...

You guys know who Adrick is right? He's the PvP (PK?) dude that thought we shouldn't have done away with Precasting (yeah, how many others). The difference is, he works for OSI. He's responding to the COB Dev boards as well.

Go check it out. Your input might be what we need to get Factions going and put into place right the first time.

Good luck.

Hasta.

•Housing on Trammel..and new houses..

The new houses are buggy at least in my experience. I placed a villa that lets the local Gargs walk on then over it..I placed my guildstone on the balcony on the second floor and now its decaying..since its not *in* the house.

Thanks again OSI, for another flawless Improvement.

Anyone else have housing nightmares? Let me know.

•Long Term Project

If anyone hasn't noticed yet, the latest changes to poison give even lesser & regular poison quite a nasty little kick. Looks like poisoning and the assassin template finally got that final little boost it's always needed. Always being more than happy to jump on the UO:R change bandwagon, I ran around last night and blew another 125k on regs in preparation to finish off my 60ish alchemist/poisoner mule. In tandem, I'm also going to have a look at creating a minimum skill alchemy mule (to go along with a minimum skill poisoner) for those of you who don't want to blow all that time training but still want the benefits.

I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

•Get rich quick with UO.

Just wanted to let everyone know...

Right now there is an item on EBAY (not mine). It is a newly placed castle in Trammel on Atlantic. The current bid with 20 hours left...

is 1600 U.S. dollars.

Good God.

•Cartography Gains II

LEVEL 3 BIYOTCH! Ok, now that that's out of the way.

World Maps is the way to go. Make as many of those as you can. You WILL gain.

Here is a tip: Buy or find as many TATTERED treasure maps as you can above the level you can read (if under 71.0, get level 2s). After you get to the minimum displayed level for that level (IE-71.0 displayed for Level 2), read them all. After hitting 81.0 displayed, I went and decoded the 30+ level 3s I was storing. I decoded every single one and gained .1 off each map of those Level 3s. I consider this a sort of "mini-burst" after you get above the level. It took a bunch of tries on them but I get them all read. ::grins::

If you want to know what monster spawns what maps, go to the Treasure Hunters of Brittania Website. Bear in mind that some higher level monsters will spawn a lower level map. So don't be mad. Good luck to all you aspiring hunters.

Worship me!

Hasta.

Moved to this post on Friday, 7/21/00:

I know I know. You didn't get your daily dose yesterday. Nieves was home with a bum hip. And it still hurts like a bitch.

Maybe I shouldn't have kicked that guy so hard in Karate? You think? Anyway...

I have an update to the PvP tutorial on the Nieves Page. Check it out.

Alot has happened with bannings and what not. Do I have an opinion? Hell yeah! Could I have written about it yesterday? Yeap. But I played UO. ALL FREAKING DAY! Woot!

On a gaming tip note, for some stupid, motherfucking reason, 82.2 (real skill) lockpicking was NOT enough to open Level 3 Treasure Chests. Everything I have read on the subject and have been told by experienced Treasure Hunters told me I didn't NEED detect hidden nor remove trap to open them. All I needed was 81.0 real lockpicking skill (maybe 25 dex didn't help). I got some friends that are over 90 lockpicking to come and pop the chest for me (Thank you Ialena and Blackheath, both of THB). It's back to the Lockpicking training regimen. Gawd I hate raising that skill. And there goes my perfect stats. Argh!

I am going to work picking up a full point (1.0) at a time and try to open a level 3 chest. If it works I will let you know.

Sometimes I hate this freaking game.

Hasta.

•Cartography Gains

Looks like gains in Cartography are a bit "easier" (it's a relative term; quit bitching at me about it) than before last Friday's Patch. I gained .6 on Friday, 1.1 on Saturday, .8 on Sunday, and .8 today. Here is what I did.

I bought as many maps as I could. On Friday I made World Maps and cycled through making the other map types every 2nd or 3rd World map while attempting to read a higher level treasure map than I could normally read. On Saturday I just cycled through the 4 different types of maps making a World Map more often than the others. On Sunday I just made every map I could. Today I made a World Map, made one of the other 3 map types, then, after a gain, I tried to read a higher level treasure map, then repeated the process (it was: World Mpa, Sea Chart, gain, read treas map, Regional Map, Detai Map, World Mpa, gain, read treas map, Sea chart...etc. Get it yet?). No matter how I did it, the gains were about the same (except for Saturday which seemed to be a good day for me in a lot of ways). Key note, I didn't use a full power hour today or Friday. I might've gained more had I used the full hour.

In summary, be prepared to buy alot of blank maps the night before. Get to a cartography shop the next day and just try to cycle through the maps making more World maps more often than the others. Sell what you can and buy more blank maps. Take some extra money with you because you are going to need to donate some to the NPC so she/he can afford to buy more maps from you. This will induce her to spawn more blanks. It takes ALOT of patience. I am only .7-1.7 away from reading level 3 maps now (that's 81-82 displayed I believe) and the pay off will be worth it. Good luck.

I will have a post to the Nieves' page later if any of you are interested.

Also, for anyone that is interested, Redrum posted some neat stuff about the DiabloII storyline in the DiabloII pages. Check it out.

Hasta.

•He's lying

Wow, Red made a section just for little ol' me. He suggested it (honest he did; on my grandmother's grave he did) and I guess he followed through.

I guess he just wanted my "crap", as some folks call it, off the front page. That's cool. Now I won't clutter the front page with stuff on what I did that day and knock the other updater's stuff off or down. Honestly I hated that. I would write, submit it, then see that one of the other updaters put something up and it's below my speil. :|

Anyway, yes, it's Saturday, and yes I am posting. My asshoe boss thinks it's cool to work till 7PM during the week and all day Saturday. He can kiss my ass. There is nothing so important than requires us to be here.

He did mention he needed to make some money so he can buy some stock. Whatever...

In other news, GL sucks. For those that play it, you know what I mean. Oh, and the dude that put the small marble behind my Tower, pack your shit up and move it. It's blocking my view of the Forest from my bedroom window. Assmunch. Ok ok, I am pissed cause I am here and not on UO.

Hasta.

•This wasn't my idea. Honest.

Nieves now has his own sub-section, and you can find it here. He'll still update this page, but the off-topic stuff (what he did today... sorry, couldn't resist) will go there.

In other news, I give up on the new board. Something new always comes up. This time, I have to pay 435 bucks (I don't even have that much) for a fucking dentist, to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. Rip off. I don't even have any money for myself. Oh well. SitePowerup it is, unless someone feels like giving me their board that costed them money (only way they're good) for free (thanks).

•Inscription Gains

One word: Indescribable. That's all I can come up with for gaining 4 points in 20 minutes at the 80 point level in inscription. Not using mana on failures makes raising inscription fast as crap and expensive as all get out. Forget the inscription guidelines on the inscription page for as long as this lasts. Just do purple blank book to purple blank book until about 40, flamestrikes until about 70 and ressurection scrolls from then on. You'll burn regs and scrolls like wildfire, but, my God, the gains. This only works during burst hour, but you shouldn't waste any time with a resource based skill outside burst anyway, since you can gain on failure. This is the best thing to happen to mages in a loooooong time. Also, this nice poisoning thing has given me my 7th skill, how about you?

•Everything Old Is New Again: Training Melee Skills With NPCs

Since sparing rangers is no longer such a great option, you are basically left with two alternatives for training up through the lower levels of melee skills. You can always fight critters, since there seems to be more than enough of them to go around these days. But, if you don't want anyone to see you being killed by timber wolves (much less bunny rabbits), there IS at least one very useful NPC location left. There is a consistent spawn of NPC warriors with a shield but no weapon in the Jhelom dueling pit (the fenced in, no-guard-zone pit in the middle of town). You WILL take damage from these NPCs when you fight them, but only low levels of wrestling damage. Since they carry a shield and wear armour, they take a lot less damage than the rangers did (any lumber warrior with skills around 80 will appreciate how fast you could go through a ranger with a hatchet).

They should take you up to 80 melee/tactics in about a power hour and a bit... although you can probably take skills higher by continuing to work them, I perfer hitting harpies briefly at this point, then moving to BKs. An added bonus to fighting the NPC is being able to ping-pong between Snooping their pack and, say, Music or Arms Lore for stat gain. I'd also suggest buying as much Healing as you can before you start, although it will rise fast from healing yourself.

One last thing - there is usually at least 1 NPC at the dueling pit that spawns with a shield in one hand and an Archery weapon in the other. If you attack one, you'll get the same treatment as you would from a ranger, a nice, healthy stream of arrows or bolts, followed by a magically appearing longsword.

Sparing the NPCs at the dueling pit isn't really new, although with Trammel you no longer have to pay them. Just be sure you know where the guard zone ends before you try attacking one (for example, the southernmost edge of the pit is sometimes in the guard zone on Pac, but not on Baja or Chesapeake).

•Just for you guys

In the future, I will be making updates that are a bit differently than in the past. Red and I have been talking and some changes will be in order.

Does it mean Loren's, Clyde's and Hammer's stories are going away? Nope, on the contrary. They are just going to be in the Stories section. Also, the main page will have more informational based posts than what you are used to seeing from me. Most news I will post about will not be cut and pasted as before. If I find something that is important to your gameplay or character building, I will bring it to you and comment on how I think (or know) it will affect your experience on UO. Additionally, the rants you see from me about 'stuff' will also be pushed off the main page and thrown into a subsection (probably stories). I will post if an update has been made to any subsection so you guys can find it. It's only one extra mouse click away.

It's all good as they say.

See? We listen to our readers and all those "flames" in the forum had some VERY valid points. We just had to wade through it to see what exactly the person(s) was(were) saying. No, this is not a flame or an insult. Just that we acknowledge what you were trying to tell us and realize how we could make UOPG better. Just have to realize 90% of conversation is presentation.

Anyway, enough from me!

Hasta

•Woot! stuff is going in today!!

All this is supposed to be in a Patch this morning.


The mass dispel spell will now have a chance to successfully dispel high level creatures.
The mindblast spell will now correctly assess damage based on the target’s stats, and will ignore any melee related bonuses.
The reactive armor spell will now work correctly when battling an opponent that is carrying a shield.
Poisons will now deal damage in a balanced manner for all levels of poison.
The strength of the poison spell will now be based on the caster’s poisoning and magery skills.
Spell damage dealt by wands and staffs will be increased.
All vendors will no longer spout nonsense if given gold while they are teaching a skill.
All vendors will now make change if given an incorrect amount of gold as payment for teaching.
Wandering healers will become stronger and more difficult to kill.
The inscription skill will now check for a spellbook in the hands of a player attempting to scribe, before looking in their backpack.
Failing to scribe a scroll will no longer result in mana loss.
When a keyring is locked down, any keys in the keyring will also be locked down. The individual keys will be counted in the total number of lockdowns available in a house. Additionally, once this publish is active, you will need to unlock and re-lockdown the key ring for this to take effect.
Gaining lumberjacking skill will now be easier to do while lumberjacking, rather than in combat.
Gaining mining skill at higher ranks will be easier.
The color of locked-down dye tubs will no longer be changeable. You will be required to unlock a dye tub to change the dye color.
You will no longer be able to place a boat in a dungeon. Additionally, any boats located in dungeons immediately following the publish will be deleted. It is extremely important to remove any boats from dungeons prior to this release. We will provide an additional reminder before publishing this change. (This change is currently active on the Hokuto, Izumo, Yamato, and Wakoku shards.)
Gaining skill at higher levels in Cartography will be easier.
To transfer a pet securely, you will be required to initiate the pet transfer prior to opening the secure trade window.
On the Felucca facet, only the treasure chest owner and his/her party members may remove items from a treasure chest without being flagged as a criminal.
Tamed spell-casting monsters will no longer heal opposing enemy monsters.


Now add Factions, bring on Necromancy and Alchemist additions and fix LAG BIYOTCH! :)

Hasta.

•Wow.

I actually have nothing to really talk about today. Amazing isn't it?

I mean, nothing is really going on other than Lady Counselor Pinkster telling me Loren's karma isn't broken, I just have to kill more Blood Elementals; the spawn outside of Shame is amazing (your gaming tip for the day), if you really want a challenge, hang out there for about an hour (especially at server startup); killing bloods IS fun, but it's hard as hell with an Archer; a bunch of bannings (roughly 500) have occured this week with OSI telling folks "Discussion on this matter is terminated and our relationship is likewise terminated" (or something like that) and then OSI backpedaling and saying they will investigate (I guess that size 15 Nike didn't taste so good); Lum is updating slower than we are (yeah, amazing), the certain members of the Roleplaying community on my shard can be petty and "stuffy" at times (no insult intended to anyone; but if you are insulted, I guess it means you eh?), and I am only doing this to keep the page new and updated. :p

Hasta.

•More Goodies

Well, get your Coffee and Pepsi cups together. More news from the In testing front.


* Gaining skill at higher levels in Cartography will be easier.

About freaking time. I hope it's by increasing the difficutly level on World Maps. That would make it sweet. Having to read treasure maps to gain skill is stupid. Who can find 10,000 Level 5s anyway? Much less Level 2s/3s.

* To transfer a pet securely, you will be required to initiate the pet
transfer prior to opening the secure trade window.
Huh? Was there a problem? Someone explain this one to me.

* On the Felucca facet, only the treasure chest owner and his/her party members may remove items from a treasure chest without being flagged as a criminal.
WOOT! Go ahead, loot my chest, not only do you have to deal with old Fat Ass Ogre Lord, but we are coming for you too. Oh, and alot of Treasure Hunters are Provokers...get the picture?

Oh, before I forget...FIX LAG BIYOTCH!!!

Hasta.

•GOODIES!

Ah, early morning news. Grab a cup of coffee, Pepsi, or whatever your poison and read up (commentary given for each point)


In Testing Updated
The following updates and changes are currently in testing:
The mass dispel spell will now have a chance to successfully dispel high level creatures.
WOOT! Now I can get rid of ALL those damn deamons you summoned.
The mindblast spell will now correctly assess damage based on the target’s stats, and will ignore any melee related bonuses.
Hmmm...does that mean GAgility won't work anymore?

The reactive armor spell will now work correctly when battling an opponent that is carrying a shield.
Good. Now fix Lag.
Poisons will now deal damage in a balanced manner for all levels of poison.
Um...like there was a problem before?
The strength of the poison spell will now be based on the caster’s poisoning and magery skills.
As if Poison wasn't cast enough by mages. Who says mages suck now? You got Mindblast (MUCH better for the mana cost than old combos) and you can't heal while Poisoned. So now, Poison is stronger for high level mages and poisoners...er um. I just realized something. Everyone has been debating that last skill slot for Mages using Inscription. Can you see this? GM Magery, Eval, Meditate, Wrestling, Resist, Incription, and Poisoning? Talk about a weird ass character. New class folks. Poison Mage. I can see it now: "Black Widow is attacking you!!!". (Damn, I started something). I think I know what my Alchemist/mage is going to be. WOOT! :) Or is this the first signs of Necromancy? Let me stop...Spell damage dealt by wands and staffs will be increased.
Am I the only one that realizes you can't disturb someone using a wand's magic ability? Think about it, Poison+Paralyze+Mindblast+Mindblast+Lightning Wand. Sheesh.
All vendors will no longer spout nonsense if given gold while they are teaching a skill.
I always thought they talked too much.
All vendors will now make change if given an incorrect amount of gold as payment for teaching.
Um, HEY! Give me my 5 gold back BIYOTCH!
Wandering healers will become stronger and more difficult to kill.
Oh, I got to see this happen. I would love to come across some dude getting waxed by an NPC in the wilderness yelling "HELP!" So sorry, you deal with it. Heheh.
The inscription skill will now check for a spellbook in the hands of a player attempting to scribe, before looking in their backpack.
Ok, does this mean I have to have my hands empty now?
Failing to scribe a scroll will no longer result in mana loss.
Good. It never made sense to lose mana if I failed. :P Just easier to get that GM Inscription now ;).
When a keyring is locked down, any keys in the keyring will also be locked down. The individual keys will be counted in the total number of lockdowns available in a house. Additionally, once this publish is active, you will need to unlock and re-lockdown the key ring for this to take effect.
Hmmm...
Gaining lumberjacking skill will now be easier to do while lumberjacking, rather than in combat.
Um..ok. I thought it didn't make sense before. But this is cool. All this means is I have to cut EVERY FREAKING tree in Brittania now. ::shrugs:: Oh well, come here Mr. Yew Tree! HAVE AT THEE!
Gaining mining skill at higher ranks will be easier
Cool!
Boats will no longer become stuck when sailing near Haven.
Good. Now fix Lag!
The color of locked-down dye tubs will no longer be changeable. You will be required to unlock a dye tub to change the dye color.
Cool. Tina Hilfiger has been dieing to lock down those 20 tubs of "special colors" she has for people to use.
You will no longer be able to place a boat in a dungeon. Additionally, any boats located in dungeons immediately following the publish will be deleted. It is extremely important to remove any boats from dungeons prior to this release. We will provide an additional reminder before publishing this change. (This change is currently active on the Hokuto, Izumo, Yamato, and Wakoku shards.)
Nah nah nah boo boo! No more boats in dungeons for you! Seriousely, I understand why, but it causes lag, so it should go. I wish Housing didn't go as bad for you folks. Then there would be less boats :(

Hasta.

•That sound? Oh that's the sound of your blood being sucked out.

Catchy phrase ain't it? I thought it up all by myself.

Anyway...remember my foray against Bloods? Well, it didn't happen. The damn shard reset. Twice. I lost all those magic items I got first time I was there :(. Well, was I really there if the shard reset? ::shakes head:: Whatever. Myschief over at Lum's put up a great article about it. She even used the 'F' word ::winks at Mys::. Just ignore the article about the guy having charges pressed against him by OSI.

I went back and messed around with the Blood Elementals today. Killing a BE with an archer is hard, but doable. This time there was a mage already there. His tactic was to Mana Drain it 5 times and then cast Energy Vortex. Was a pretty neat tactic. If you are a mage. I asked if he wanted to watch my tactic? He said sure. I trapped it and just plucked it to death. I gained some resist and more healing for my trouble. Not too mention 1.1k off one and 1.8k on the 2nd. If you don't have access to a rune to get you there, just run the "Gauntlet". There are alot of slimes, giant serpents, and scorpions (YUCK) along the way. You can just ignore them and get to the area. As soon as you cross the first bridge over you will come into a mini-alcove. This is where the Blood Elementals Spawn (yellow X ) so you HAVE to be careful. Get it to chase you and try NOT to target it yet. Having it mana dump on you, paralyze, then hit you means death. Monsters usually don't start casting spells until you target them. Not always, but usually. And trust me, 40 point flamestrikes and getting hit by a BE is not fun. Run to the bridge to the west of the area and precast teleport, cross the bridge, (make sure it's following) and click into the area (red X ) and kill at your leisure. Ensure you heal and cure as often as possible. You will need it. Each Blood gives you over 1k gold, gems, and a magic item every time (I found a Silver QStaff of ruin). But, IT'S DANGEROUS. I don't want hatemail if you die. You have been warned.

Oh, and remember, if you see me coming, step aside and give me props and let me kill a couple :).

I attended a Great Lakes Seer run event. Was it fun for me? Not really. Why? Lag. 100+ folks running around fighting next to 2 castles, a tower and some Seer spawned stuff is not my idea of fun if all I am going to do is lag to death. I watched and those that could fought. If it wasn't for the lag, I would've had a great time. I didn't get into any fights as I would've died to anyone with decent ping. ADSL isn't doing it's job these days for me. If I had decent ping, I am sure I would've had ALOT more fun.

Anyway, enough of that. You got your infobit from me for the day.

Hasta.

•Gains on Lockpicking...

I have got a lot of questions lately asking me what were my exact methods for lockpicking. Here they are.

I take 6 of those boxes you can buy from the provisioner's shop ( I didn't get them from there, but I don't know what they are called ), made exceptionally by a character with 75 carpentry 65 tinkering. Here is what I do.

A) Click on Lockpicks.
B) Target one of the boxes. I will fail at unlocking the box till I get to 70 or something lockpicking.
C) If the lockpick doesn't break I use last object / last target macro until it does break. Then switch to another box and repeat. This method will get you to around 55 or something. That when I stopped gaining. If you are passed that level either get harder boxes to unlock or just alternate the boxes you are trying to pick..ie. Do not try to pick the same box twice. If you do that you'll start gaining again.

•I Rule!!!!!!

I put up my guide to making the most powerful character in the history of Diablo, the Jabazon. It's in the Diablo II section oddly enough. Go read and send me some money in appreciation. I also accept pieces from the Arctic set, so give me some lovin'!

•Spell Failures Raising Magery Out Of Burst

As I understood the parameters of burst hour, raising skill through spell failures was only supposed to work inside that one hour time period. Imagine my surprise when a few nights ago I was working Magery, checked my watch and realized I had been casting for 45 minutes out of burst (1hour, 45 minutes in total), but was still managing to raise the skill through failures.

Since then I've spent a couple nights testing this, and have consistently managed to gain from failures well beyond the 1 hour time limit. As far as I can tell, it goes a little like this: Magery gains are now linked to physical location (ie - you must move around to continue to gain), and during burst the rules that determine whether or not you gain in a certain spot are somewhat "relaxed". More potential spots works out to boosted gains. Out of burst, the rules reassert themselves and gain spots become much harder to physically find, but a failure is as good as a success once you do find one.

This little tidbit of information seems most useful to people with little or no Meditation working the 70 - 90 skill zone. Below 70 you gain like mad no matter what you do, so working failures out of burst isn't that important. At around 70 things start to slow down and working that extra time can add up to a lot of extra gain. Through the 70's, I was nearly doubling my burst hour gain. It starts to slow down after 80 though, and at around 90 the spots start becoming much more difficult to find. I found the extra .2-.3/hour wasn't worth it when I was getting 1-1.5 during burst.

If anyone tries this out, I'd like to know if it's a general thing or another weird aberration like the time my boat became a floating guard zone...

•Inscription

I'm currently working on inscription on the Atlantic shard with my mage. Even though I still don't know what my 7th skill is going to be, here is how I've gained skill so far in 6 burst hours.

Hour 1 1-40 scribe blank book to blank book.
Hour 2 40-47 scribe recall scrolls.
Hour 3 47-55 scribe recall scrolls.
Hour 4 55-64 scribe poison field scrolls.
Hour 5 64-70 scribe mark scrolls.
Hour 6 70-75 scribe gate scrolls.

I'll continue to do gates through 85 or so, and do Ressurect until then. Keep in mind that you fail a lot doing it this way, but the burst gains just keep on coming. You'll also have supplies of some good selling scrolls to sell. You can scribe cheaper scrolls, if you are just out to gain, but I always try to get some cash out of stuff like this. Greedy I guess. I'll let everyone know how long it takes to get to GM.

•Some links and a taming tip.

Got these three links. As always, if you don't like the sites, I don't want to hear about it. Ian is always in the mood for hatemail, however.

Got this tip for taming:

You need GM taming and lore with this. Anyway, let them flag and attack you - not hurt, but come at you - and paralyze them so they stop 1 or 2 tiles away from you. Then macro taming with last target. It takes a max of 3 tries, and the paralyze is still in effect then. So, there's my taming words. Oh, it works even better with burst hour. Takes like 1 try.

Thanks to James for the tip.

•HoC burnt down by Vegeta, more at 11!

Well, it never ceases to amaze me on the people that attend the House of Commons(HoC) chats.

Lets begin shall we?

Glamdring - *Necromage* Will the issues of cartography skill gain be addressed like those have been of veterinary? It is now currently impossible to Gm cartography due to the lack of a difficult action to reach past 95
fieryice - You can GM cartography by decoding level 2 (or above) treasure maps.
fieryice - If you know of any issues with cartography, please email me. (fieryice@uo.com)

Well here is your answer for Carto gains, I think this is bullshit. Its bad enough that Carto is one of the hardest skills to gain but now you stop it at 95, which is VERY slow for nearly every skill, but now you make the hunters use treasure maps to raise? Bah. Another masterstroke by OSI.


Glamdring - *SaffronEntivore* Some people think the chessy house test was a failure... what is are your opinions on the matter?
Sage - Chessy house test went well from our side of the fence. There were problems with giving the players the appropriate feedback, and we will be correcting this.
Sage - Players who were being logged out immediately after logging in was a designed feature. Basically, if you don't have the right deed, the game logs you off to make room for the people that do.
Sage - Many people skipped the first gump which explained this.
Sage - The problem is that there needs to be a gump telling people that they are in their two hour time out period
Sage - We will correct that.
Sage - There may have also been some other problems player side, and we are still collecting feedback. The good news is that the load balancing of the servers
Sage - looked good, and that was the main thrust of this test. Shoring up some rough edges on the new system will be a priority, but I was pleased with what I saw.
Sage - Thanks for everyone who tried and will be trying on phase three.

I won't say anything about this..lets see how bad they drop the ball this time when housing comes in.

Glamdring - Just a reminder everyone...please do not message myself or anyone from OSI, these questions will be ignored.

There must have been GM's there >:)

Glamdring - *Linq* Are there any plans to relook magery and what it is today?
Oaks - We are always looking out for imbalances and exploits, however we aren't currently discussing any type of complete revamp of the spell system.

In other words, What Necromancy?

Glamdring - *C_Aladen_LS* what are the rules for the player rewards and how will this be figured out in game with how constant one plays or just by how long the account has been effect?
Sage - The player rewards is still being looked at as a system. The design as it currently stands will reward those players with accounts which have been active for the specified times
Sage - I don't know if we are planning any "gap" in account open status measures at this time. We will post a more fully fleshed out system when it is closer to being ready. Good Q!

This is yet another thing that OSI shows us *In Development/Testing* that we will likely never see.

Glamdring - *Necromage* It has currently been stated that treasure chests that have been dug up on trammel will not be available to anyone else but those in the hunter's party. Could it be possible to make treasure chests in Felucca turn chest thieves "grey" to the hunter's party so that proper defense of their property is an option?
Ignatz - Sounds like an idea worth investigating, thanks. *takes full credit for the idea*
Ignatz - : )

Again: Must have been GM's present.

Glamdring - *SaffronEntivore* There is always a lot of effort on reducing skills/items/systems that make someone too powerful or profitable... but why not the other way around? Why not make cooking profitable?
Sage - That is another really good question. Part of the goals of every team has been to improve skills and provide new and rewarding experiences. As any one of the new designers can tell you, my main focus will be on finding positive solutions to such problems wherever possible.
Sage - Sometimes, of course, it is necessary to take something away, but our goal is to give value to all skill sets and make every profession viable.
Sage - So I think cooking should be profitable, we just have to find a way to slay the time Demon and get all these things in.

Cooking... I swear..if they make cooking profitable before they come out with Necro, or Factions..Im going to make the Waco incident look like a fist fight in the schoolyard.

Glamdring - *Sulfuric* If someone places a house, redeeds it, places it again.. etc on Cats Test, will that enter them in the draw multiple times or only count as 1?
Sage - Nope. We are basing the drawing on account number. No repeats allowed. ;)

Damn it :)

Glamdring - *dethdelr* Has there been any consideration given to implementing a lottery system and only allowing a certain number of accounts to place houses at any given time?
Sage - Yes. There has been consideration of it. We have considered many different systems, and many have them are viable. The lottery system did not pan out, and we hope not to have to go to one. Our hope is that the test tonight is successful.

I disagree with this greatly, If I am going to take a day off to place my houses..Im damn sure im going to get the places I want.

Glamdring - *Smello* What of quests and the like? Many have said that the game is getting more boring with less to do.. when might the faction system become a priority?
Evocare - We're absolutely commited to bringing new systems into the UO world that dramatically enhance the veteran play experience. In fact, the faction system is slated to move onto test center as soon as all the housing changes are complete! =]

In other words, around 2002 we will see Factions, on TC, much like Necro was on TC, only to be pushed somewhere back to in developement.

Glamdring - *Cuchulainn* Can you give us any more detail as to thoughts on Guild Alliance system as listed on In-Concept?
Sage - I really can't go into much detail. Details change very often In Development and breed expectations. If we decide that Alliances are worthwhile given the rest of our changes, we will of course proceed with them
Sage - Sorry I can't give you more than that.

I dont really see this being that hard to do, not to mention it would positivly effect EVERYONE. Rp guilds, PvP guilds..this would be the best thing to happen to guilds since wars.

Jerrith - *ghyde* Doesn't concern the Dev Team that innocent players may be banned as a result of players who innocently buy items from people who have acquired their ill-gotten gains through duping, without even knowing that the vendor they bought the item off was owned by a duper?
Sage - Any banning of innocent players would be very bad and of course the Dev Team, and every team would be concerned. However, I feel confident, and I repeat confident, that the methods we are using are meticulous and thorough.

Sage, damn..you are more slippery than a wet snake. You said NOTHING. Though you wrote enough for a novel.

Jerrith - *Ravilicus* Is there any remote chance that those guilds still interested in having "private" wars with other guilds will be able to participate in the faction wars, perhaps WITHOUT the benefits that are gained by "normal" factions politically over towns, etc?
Evocare - the current design disallows "private" guild warfare on the part of guilds involved in the faction system, but the issue is most definitely one we're aware of. We certainly want as wide an array of guilds as possible to take part in the system.

Why need *private wars? Most people will probably join up with factions that opposing guilds are not in anyhow.

Jerrith - *Kadriya* The gates are not working now.. they tend to desolve just after casting is this part of the new bugs? and will it be fixed?
Oaks - We want to address as many of these issues as possible. That is one of our goals.

When we feel like it.


Oaks - *C_Dariuas_LS* Has there been any consideration on allowing 1 houser per account PER user? IE No Multipul account houses?
Sage - We are currently happy with the account restrictions on housing.

*kicks Counselor Dariuas in the head*

Jerrith - *dethdelr* Where do we direct problems that are encountered during the housing tests?
Calandryll - One of the best places to post information on the house test is on the uo.com boards
Calandryll - that way you can also get feedback from other players who may have experienced the same problem, as well as feedback from us.

One of the only worthwhile answers given tonight. Lets get this housing problem fixed and move on..I need a new subject to rant about :)

•Counterfeit is ok

Check this shit out:
SELLING TRAM VILLA 6MIL BUYOUT
Posted By: cigarcool
NT/TEXT: text
ICQ: 413568363
Date: 7/10/0 @ 4:27 p.m.

Message:

will accept dupeed cash

Is it me, or are people just plain stupid?

6 million??? C'mon. Your out of your freaking mind. Then he says he will accept duped gold. ::sighs:: If there are any GMs out there, bust this bitch and his "dupeed cash".

::sighs:: Fucking Cheaters.

•Hey Vegeta? You want some free stuff?

Well..I log in saturday morning, to find a icq from a good friend, Ragnarok from Hokuto. Seems his guild TPG, and the guild TFC are at war. Now let me tell you about TFC, they are a guild of people that like to talk shit, and can't back it up againest a handful of harpies much less seasoned pvp'ers.

I log in with my Alchemist to get my Vanq Warhammer off him..and lo and behold, im stuck on top the brit mage shop. I paged a gm to see what the hell is going on, I was literally stuck and unable to continue. Well after a hour of watching the queue go from 128 to 21 (This is for all shards remember) I logged out. Let me tell you something about Hokuto. Everyone says that Americans and all other English speakers on the shard are racist and a good portion might be just that, and the Asians(Which consist of Japanese, Chinese, Koren, Singoporen, Tawianese and others) are just as bad. Is that to say all Asians are bad? Not at all. But you can only be attacked by *Fat American* or *Canadian Slob* so many times before you start to get a distaste in your mouth. Anyhow, I would like to say that GM's on Hokuto are rare enough without them being RACIST. Yes, they over and over ignore english spoken queues. Hell it wouldn't even take a GM to get me down, I was a smurf on Cats for sometime and I know they can teleport people. Thats all it would take. Bah whatever

So I log in and grab a power hammer instead, I get guilded up in TPG and along with Dracula and Moridin, Ragnarok and I go to the TFC guild house and wait. Well we set up a party chat and talk about everything from Toronto's strip clubs to how lame TFC is while we are hidden. Well then we decide to go on a dungeon run ..nothing.. we come back and there is a TFC member there..we run up, between my hammer a dp broad of power a dp gm katana and spells he drops quickly. Then a few more come..they die quickly, one of them tried to resign from the guild this is what I saw. *I resng from guild* *I resign frm my guil* and about 3 other misspellings before he was speaking the mad cheerios.

We got about 2-3 more waves of multiple TFC before they all died. The Gm logged in while we banked in yew, and declared peace. Not before I got a battle axe of vanq and a silver butcher knife of power though @_@.

P Jazz, the Gm of TFC claims his account was hacked and thats why the war was on in the first place, but if we want war, he will declare when he is ready.

Well, P Jazz, here is a bit of advice for you. Make everyone make a Gm Treasure hunter, and then do nothing but digging up level 5 maps for a few weeks. Then declare war..I am running somewhat low on Vanq weapons and would appericate the donation
^^

•Come out Ghost, I can res.

What a feeling to be able to res a compatriot. It's great.

Loren hit 81.+ displayed healing in Deceit on Saturday. I called this ghost over, and, boom, I resed him. Ah. Gotta love it. In all I resurrected 6 folks throughout the weekend. I failed alot, but it doesn't matter to me anymore. I can do it now. And never did I use ghosts to macro or macroed with poison all that often (it's BORING) pre-UO:R. I did it the old fashion way. Ah, gotta love characters you build like that.

I killed my first Blood Elemental Sunday evening as well. Lots of fame and karma, but still not above Illustrious. Going to have to call a GM one night and spend some quality time with him I guess. I hate waiting for 2 hours though. ::shrugs:: Whatever...

There IS a trap spot for Blood Elementals by the way. Yes, I have a screen shot. And, as you already can guess, I don't have it here. I will get later. 2 other guys were fighting them when I got there and they had left a silver xbow of ruin from one of their kills :]. Um sure, I will take it. Thank you veddy much. Hey, you can look at me funny, but someone will buy it :). Oh, and the Fortified Short Spear of might was nice, too. Blood Elementals are some kick as magic casters. 40 from a damn ebolt, and 40 from an explosion. Can you say "In Vas Mani"? Hit 20 life twice. And 25 mana is NOT alot of mana to cast Greater Heal with. 1150 gold isn't a bad trade off though. I will hunt them more, and give you some solid info on tactics. Some people say I am nuts hunting these things with a fighter/archer...so?

As you might already know, a new patch went in this weekend. It makes treasure hunting a bit different. If you are getting the "you can't mine" message, you need to do this: double click the shovel/pickaxe, then single click the map, then click the ground. That simple. One extra mouse click. Yes, it's annoying, but I can live with it. Didn't get any goodies this time. Well, a +7 AR helmet isn't bad is it? Oh, and that Silver Serpent STILL won't let me dig up that one map. Bastard.

I read something on UOStratics the other day about a treasure hunter taking the blame for leaving Lich and Ogre Lords running free while doing a Treasure Hunt. If you are a Hunter, please clean up the mess you "create". Alot of those areas are where "younger", inexperienced characters (NOT NEWBIES) hunt. Take the time to dispatch your spawn. Besides, most of the money you get are from the spawn anyway. And sometimes you get another map (I got 3 more Level 3 maps off of a Level 3 chest spawn once). Please be responsible.

This patch also "fixed" elementals I believe. I saw a Fire Elemental cast flamestrikes on this one guy. Doh! I haven't seen that since before UO:R. I fought one and confirmed that their magic is beefed up. Also, Air Elementals seem to be back to their old selves magic wise. Gold is still less than before (400+ preUO:R), but not too bad (250-320 postOU:R). Stay on your toes in shame. It's not a cake walk anymore.

I would be interested to see if they fixed Summoned Elementals and Daemons.

While in shame I did see 5 guys fighting a Poison Elemental. Cool thing is they were doing it on the run through the tunnels. I told them they were crazy, but they seem to be doing fine (I only saw one casualty). I helped shoot it then took off after their mage finished it off. Not my kill so no right to loot.

Lich Lords still pack a kick ass punch. Saw this one guy beating on one and then he died. It always makes me laugh when I see someone running then they light up with a Flamestrike and keel over dead. Hell I am laughing now. He was one of the six I resed. Oh, and folks STILL don't know how to function using a proper wall in GL Trammel. Everyone running around ganging the first BK they find, bringing silver, using Flamestrikes and Explosions with a Corp Por thrown in, and noone "helping" (read: healing) each other. ::Shrugs:: Whatever. I guess Clyde will just have to find a GM warrior to GM his Wrestling. Sucks. And to the folks I healed that didn't heal Clyde (he died and lost over 800 regs; yes I was stupid for bringing that many; my loss and my mistake to learn from), you can kiss my ass.

Oh...um...why didn't someone tell me Ogre Lords spawn in Wrong Level 2? Tina Hilfiger and Loren were kicking ass and this "Ogre" started spanking Tina around. Then it started to hit me. Then I saw my life drop like bullet. Then I saw it was an Ogre Lord. Then I tried to run. Then I saw grey. :| Tina got away. I got resed by some friends (who says Drow are evil?) and Tina had gotten my force and vanq weapons from my body. When we got back the OL was gone :/ Wtf? I wanted revenge. It killed my horse. Bastard. Anyway, we cleaned the room out and I got all my stuff back. Needless to say, we didn't stay after that. Yes, there is a way to trap things in Wrong, too. Jump through the teleporter, run west, and use that entrance like you would in Deceit (The Wall). Just be sure it's not a OL you are going to beat on. Fuck. The things you learn the hard way.

Well, that's all for now...

Hasta.

•We have reports of a missing Dragon.

Logged in with my tamer.

Went to the stables of Papua to claim my dragon.

No dragon. None of the stablemasters had my dragon. I checked him in like 4 days ago. Why did I have to change stables...why damnit!!!

If anyone has dragons or wyrms on Atlantic for sale email me plz.

•Well..we can't be lazy anymore.

OSI has fixed the Ranger spawn, thus returning us to Bone Knights.

Went there with a new character tonight,started to get wrestling..got hit once..ok thats normal..got up..left the room...took 3 steps and I was dead...*WTF?*

I went got ressed..and attacked again..and died again.

So I snooped him..and found that he had 15 arrows(they have 20 on a freshly spawned one). Ok no problem..I hired him for 70 gold and told him to kill the few hinds around..he ran out of arrows, and I attacked him..took four steps and then I died again.

Seems as soon as he ran out of arrows..he equiped a longsword.

Well..thats that I guess, time to move on and actually be awake or at home while I Gm skills.

•Growing Lag Problems Under UO:R?

The very first piece of UO 3rd party software I ever used was UO Trace. Back about a year and a half ago I decided it was time to stop dicking around with characters scattered around on a bunch of different shards, so I downloaded a copy and started comparison shopping for the best connection with my 56k dial-up. At the time, I was getting what UOTrace informed me were "excellent" pings to the West Coast shards (150-160ms if I remember correctly), so I picked one at random (Baja). For the longest time, the connection was good. I have vivid memories of looting another player's body at the Moonglow Cem, then getting chased all the way back through Moonglow -on foot- by two notos -on horseback- and actually outrunning them, stopping, waiting for them to get caught up, then outrunning them again. In comparison, last night my lagged out fisher lost a footrace to an ophidian apprentice mage (well, technically I suppose they have no feet :P).

Prior to the whole UO:R patch, my ping to Baja was sitting around 180-190ms (maybe a 170ms at 3:00am on a weekday), and I could live with that. You die a lot in PVP, and don't even think about trying to run away without a horse, but it's workable. Post UO:R housing? I'm lucky to be getting 210-220ms ping right now. What kind of effect does that have on the game? Couple nights ago, I'm talking to a guy riding a horse & using a DSL connection. He says "BRB" and promptly disappears. I'm thinking he's hidden or something, since he just up and *poofs*, so I walk over where he was standing... nope, no message about walking through something invisible. Finally, he comes walking back onto my screen from the opposite direction and I ask him if he recalled to town or something (didn't see the spell) and he says "No, I just ran back to the bank". He left my screen so quickly it only looked like he'd instantly disappeared. Got him to do it a couple times more and each time he took off it was just *poof*. Gone daddy gone. That's life at 220ms.

Now there isn't a lot you can do to fight lag on your end other than to make sure your own Windows settings are optimized for the game (Paladin had an update a couple months back on how to do this for Win9x, and the procedure is basically the same for WinNT. Don't know about Win2000). When things start to get really bad, there's always UOTrace. I'm including an example of trace info below to give you an idea of what to expect. This chart was made by polling Baja 100 times. The results are pretty typical.

Host Name	Hop	Ping Average	% Loss	Ping Best/Worst
my service provider	2	112ms	2%	100ms/ 371ms
my service provider	3	105ms	0%	100ms / 120ms
*Unknown Host *	4	106ms	0%	100ms / 120ms
REGIONAL2.tac.net	5	107ms	1%	100ms / 120ms
*Unknown Host *	6		0%
117.ATM3-0.XR2.CHI6.ALTER.NET	7	145ms	0%	140ms / 161ms
190.ATM2-0.TR2.CHI4.ALTER.NET	8	169ms	0%	140ms / 151ms
106.ATM7-0.TR2.NYC1.ALTER.NET	9	170ms	0%	160ms / 180ms
198.ATM7-0.XR2.NYC4.ALTER.NET	10	172ms	1%	160ms / 190ms
188.ATM11-0-0.GW4.NYC4.ALTER.NET	11	168ms	0%	160ms / 181ms
abovenetnyc-gw.customer.alter.net	12	166ms	0%	160ms / 181ms
core1-core2-oc12.nyc.above.net	13	229ms	0%	160ms / 240ms
sjc-nyc-oc12.sjc2.above.net	14	205ms	0%	220ms / 241ms
sjc2-gige-main2.colo1.sjc2.above.net	15	214ms	0%	200ms / 211ms
208.185.100.71.ea.com	16	231ms	1%	200ms / 1112ms
*Unknown Host *	17	231ms	0%	221ms / 241ms
*Unknown Host *	18	232ms	0%	230ms / 261ms
*Unknown Host *	19	233ms	0%	230ms / 250ms

Now, you can see two things "wrong" with this trace. First, it's taking 19 hops to get to the Baja server from where I am. This is a BAD thing. Second, between the 12th and 13th hops, 60ms is being added to my ping, on average. There are obviously some "issues" which still need to be sorted out between OSI and it's new hosting partner.

So what the hell can you do about it if you are in this position? Not a lot, directly. Indirectly, you can start sending OSI these ping traces. They don't include very detailed instructions on how to do this, so lets go through the procedure. Download and install the UOTrace application from the UO homepage if you haven't already. Start it up and pick your server from the drop-down list on the top left. Go to the Options menu and click on "Advanced". Next, hit the graphical "Trace Route" button on the menu bar - at this point you should start to see all the various Internet addresses your data stream must travel through to get to a specific game server. Once it has finished listing addresses, hit the "Poll" button. Now your computer will start polling the game server, and you should see more information filling up the report screen. Pay attention to the "pkts r/s" column (packets returned/sent). You'll want to send between 50 and 100 packets in total. It'll take a couple minutes, so sit back. When you have enough polls, hit the "Poll" button again (should read "Stop Poll" now) to finish. Now, you've got most of the information you need, so go to the "Edit" menu option and select "Copy". Start up your email program and paste the information into an email addressed to uotrace@owo.com. You need to add the following information to what you pasted - date, time(including what time zone you are in), and I usually include geographical location (um, where you live). The connectivity guys like it when you are able to send them multiple polls, spaced maybe 6 hours apart if possible.

Two things to keep in mind before you send in a scorching email - the connectivity people have control over their own servers, they may even have some influence over the hosting partners, but they can't fix everything between your computer and the game server. They also often have no idea that there IS a problem unless you email and tell them.

Evidently, Baja and the West Coast shards are going down for extended maintenance tonight, so hopefully we'll wake up tomorrow to a faster connection. There'll be no DSL for me this summer, so God knows I could use the boost. If anyone else is having the same grief, feel free to post in the Forum. Misery love company.

•Hammer and the Patriot.

Guess who's been visiting folks with his sledge hammer? Check it in the stories section.

I saw a review about The Patriot at MSN.com. Here is a snippet:

The Walk
Gibson may be groping for a newly melancholic, reflective tone in his acting, but "The Patriot" quickly falls back on what has become the standard Gibson formula: an attack on his family becomes the premise for massive, bloody revenge. Director Roland Emmerich, a veteran mime of other filmmakers' styles ("Stargate," "Godzilla"), strains for the plangent tone of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," but continually strikes false notes; the film feels preachy, hollow, and—in its celebratory staging of violence—flatly hypocritical.

Did this person see the same movie I did? I went on July 4th and thought it was a perfect movie for the holiday. With the exception of the unnecessary gore (some guys having a cannonball bounce up and take their head off), it was a very good movie. Hell, I had to keep myself from crying a couple of times (call me a wuss and I come to your house and put a hammer to your head). If any of you ladies thought Mel was convincing when he cried in the first Lethal Weapon, then you haven't seen him cry yet. The fight scenes were great, and you REALLY hated the bad guy. It is a long movie but it's worth it. And it breaks your heart that this guy lo...um, well, go watch it. It's worth the 5 bucks (matinee baby).

One thing I do want you guys to pay attention to is the honor the English general wanted his underlings to follow. And if you remember Last of The Mohicans, the wars of the past were fought in that way. Too bad our "medievel" counterparts in game couldn't fight with the same honor kofffuckingreskillerspussybluehealerskoff. Oh well, I guess that's wishing for too much, huh?

Hasta.

•Seige is moving

Ruh roh raggy!

07/06/00 09:44 PM CDT ·· ^top

Siege Perilous Pre-Move Information
The following was just posted to FYI on the UO.com website:

Siege Perilous Pre-Move Information

We are currently planning to move the Siege Perilous shard to our East Coast server location in the next week. The East Coast location provides greater bandwith capabilities and a larger server configuration, and we believe it will offer more players access to the Siege Perilous shard.

To ease this transition and to help us address any connection issues prior to the move, Siege Perilous users may wish to use UO Trace to test connection to the Atlantic, Catskills, or Chesapeake shards.

If you see any anomalies or excessive times, you may wish to forward a copy to our Network Team. You may do this by selecting 'Copy' from the 'Edit' menu in the UO Trace program and then pasting the information into an email message. Please forward any traceroute messages to uotrace@uo.com.

The UO Trace program is available here.

We will post an exact date for the shard move at least 24 hours in advance.
I don't know about you, but these things never go right. Refresh all your homes kiddies the day before. The ride could get bumpy.

Hasta.

•New Website and some thoughts.

I have been sent the URL for a new website on Gaming. It looks pretty decent as far as content is concerned. Graphics? Eh. Background color? Doesn't anyone listen to me? Everyone wants to use dark colors or black for their sites. ::shakes head:: Go look at the top websites out there and see what backgrounds they use. Also, the colors clash. Bleh.

Other than that, they got a Forum where the folks talk about all kinds of games (even AD&D which is cool) and seem to be civil to each other. Unlike certain folks in a certain forum. And they cover all kinds of games. Not just online gaming. GO check out Jaded Gamers. For now, they get 2.5 PvMer stars becuase the colors are 'eh', the graphics are 'blah', and their content could be alot better. I hope the site owners will notify me if they upgrade the site. I will gadly review it again. And this is just an opinion.

PvP in Chaos vs. Order wars on Pacific is just plain stupid. The last 3 times I have been PvPing there have been Blue healers (Order healing Chaos, and vice versa) and ALOT of res-killing. I couldn't tell you the number of times the guys and I have been "derobed".

Is that what PvPing is about? Reskilling? I mean come on! Where the fuck is the honor in that shit? Some people say there is no honor in war. I don't agree. We should be respectful to each other. Battle it out, if you kill someone, loot him, and let him go. Bank what you looted and if he comes back at you, go at it again. There are some fun fights, until people start with that crap. It pisses me off to no end. Killing someone that is at 1 hit point is just "so tough!" Asshoes.

And the Blue Healers...you are all a bunch of pussies. If you can't come to the fight prepared to duke it out and possibly die, then you are nothing but pansy asses. We had one guy that had 4 mages healing and casting walls and we lost horribly. Bah! Wimps. At least I, the "PvM Masta", go to the fight prepared to die and lose my shirt.

I don't mind seeing grey, what I hate is the Blue Healers and Reskillers. Anyone else have feelings on this? Email me or talk it up in the forum.

Hasta.

•Deletion

If you see a post deleted, it's safe to say that I deleted it. Immaturity irritates me to no end, and this name calling and ad hominim stuff simply has to go. Here is the bottom line: Nieves isn't going anywhere, and no amount of vapid spam is going to change that. If you disagree factually with a post, that sounds like a good topic for the forum. If you simply have an idea you wish to express, go for it. If your idea is "you suck dude," or, "I don't like you," or something similarly subjective and utterly pointless, don't waste your time. If you don't get profane, your post will probably survive, but only so others can get the amusement that your ignorance provides.

I'm not trying to be the arbiter of what can and can't be posted, but, for those of you that say no one wants to read someone else's stuff, I have news for you, a lot of people don't want to read yours either. The rules are simple, you don't have to get along, but try and be civil, otherwise you come across as an eight year old throwing a temper tantrum. In short, grow up people, I know that all of you can't be the sixteen year olds you've been behaving like. (My apologies to any real sixteen year olds.

•Viking sword...you fuel me!!! KeKe

Yesterday on Pac with the Deathsquad I was using a GM Viking sword, and simply put...was owning. That s-o-b hit hard. Yes, it is slow but most of PvP is about running and healing and by then my swing timer is reset.

Who is going on Cats Test later this evening? I sure as hell am. I want one of those statues. That would be sweet for the new house.

How much does everyone think that I could sell a small tower on Felucca for (UO Gold)? I am thinking about selling it. Email me what you think or your bids ^^.

I made 25k today in the Lich Lord room in 52 minutes. That time includes 2 recalls to town to drop off 8k each time. And I didn't even die. I think I am almost Illustrious. I wonder how long that will last *smirks*

For the old 7 times GM mage, why not snooping/stealing as the last 2 skills. Have them attack you and you wipe the floor with them or run and cast invis. Not many dexers (I know Galahad can't) can reveal. Or hiding / stealth. That was my template on Test Shard. You can make him a PK or a looter. ^^. But Gming both those skills will give you like 60 points of Dex. Blah.

And I am not engaged to Britney Spears. We are just having sex. KeKe.

•Part III of the PvP Tutorial

I found the next installment of the PvP Tutorial Kamikaze posts to the Adam Ant board. I hope this spurs some talk in our forum of what PvP is like these days for you all. Enjoy.


Initiating Battle Continued:
Mage/Mage: A lot here depends on mage type i.e. Tank/Pure mage. Either char, first thing I'd do is use my eval macro to get a sense of his stats. This is important for deciding whether or not to use Mind Blast. Most mages will have stats around 100 int 100 str 25 dex. These are mind blast approved stats. Also, if you can, have Magic Reflect precast on yourself. If your opponent has more balanced stats (ie he's a hybrid) fall back on good old Cor Por. Now you may ask "what do i do now, there are so many spells?". Well this depends on your character's type. First option, what i suggest for novices, is the defensive approach.

a)You know that one of you will begin with a mana dump. Don't initiate. Be ready to heal. Drink a greater agility to balance your stats. (less MB dmg) You may have to heal a lot. Never cast the spell cure, to cure poison. Instead use a potion. This will save mana and let you heal dmg more effectively and faster! After the initial dmg burst use a heal potion, then if need be cast the greater heal. If you survive the dump your opponent is low on mana and you have the advantage, now is your turn to go on the offensive.

b)This is the offensive approach. Most mages openings are personal and they differ from person to person. These are suggested openings. The mistake you don't want to make is to spend all your mana in the first two seconds of combat. If i'm a tank mage - the most effective tank template now uses the bow - I'd open combat with a greater agility potion and then an arrow shot. (I'd not suggest this for melee mages). Hopefully it'll add some dmg to my combo. Hit or miss I'd start casting. Then I'd begin with the all popular explosion. At this point, watch if your opponent casts heal. If he does, immediately cast poison. This will nullify his tactic. Next cast Mind blast or Cor Por, in such away that the explosion dmg and the other spell's dmg resolve at the same time. If you haven't already cast poison do it now! You will disrupt the mages heal and panic them further. Now take stock of their life, you've entered into the intermediate stages of battle.

Mage/Warrior: Again follow most of the instructions above. Key to surviving a warrior is Reactive Armor. After OSI suped up warriors they gave mages this defense. Use it! Wear GM or magical leather armor, both will raise your AC without hampering your mana regen. If you have time, cast arch protection on yourself. It works in addition to other defensive spells. I'd also drink a greater strength potion, seeing as you don't have to fear Mind Blast. Then begin with the before mentioned combo. You’ve now entered into the intermediate stages of battle.

Next issue will deal with intermediate battle tactics, Thanks all!


------------------
<"KaMiKaZe">
If I'm Going Down You're Coming With Me!!!

•I'm not updating tonight.

Just thought it needed saying.

•Not to be outdone, I update too and hell freezes over.

Looks like I've missed and exciting week in UO. I've spent the last seven days creating game after game on USEast looking for enough Gem shrines to give me five perfect gems. Some of you may mock me, but a helmet with 2 perfect skulls and a spear with 2 more perfect skulls and a perfect sapphire is pretty tough to beat. Of course I'll be level 30 before I finish Act One, but that's a small price to pay for having an almost unkillable character. More on that later though.

I used Arms Lore to get 60 points of strength last night on Chesapeake, so I think that it still works for ping-ponging.

As far as all the bannings, people need to either get some common sense or stop pretending they're so damn stupid. Especially with the whole CoJ thing. Even on the LoD web page, which is heavily slanted towards the CoJ point of view, they come of as dolts. They're bitching because a GM killed a Llama that had to have been brought to the old lands using a bug? Then they're surprised when they get jailed and suspended after telling the GM they hope he gets hit by a car? My mind is swimming over the idea that people could be so clueless. Since this site is about giving you information to make your gaming lives easier, as well as what Nieves did at lunch that day *hehe*, I'm going to help you all out right now: I'm going to show you how to handle situations like this, and it works in real life too. Here we go:

GM or Police Officer: Hey, we're getting complaints that you're doing something illegal/annoying and you need to stop doing it right now.

You: Okay. Sorry, I didn't realize it was annoying others/illegal. I'll stop now. (Even though you both know full well that you knew it was fucked up and were just doing it until you get caught. Everybody has an out for the situation so he doesn't have to put you under control, and you don't have to be his bitch. 'Cause make no mistake about it, that's what's going to happen if you push a GM or a cop too far)

GM or Police Officer: Thanks, have a nice day.

Nine out of ten times that will get you out of just about anything, unless you're doing something really fucked up.

Here's an example of how not to behave. We went to the fireworks show in downtown Akron this year and on the way back to our car we saw the reverse of this concept in action. Traffic was backed up in all directions and police officers were directing traffic. One bright fellow started yelling at the police to get things moving and blowing his horn. We were passing by right at the moment a police officer came over and asked him if he had some sort of problem. What happened next was possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen, and I've shot myself in the hand to see what it felt like so you know this has to be dumb. As if in slow motion, the guy in the car told the cop "Yeah cracker-ass motherfucker I got a problem, your ass is over here sweating me instead of clearing out traffic so I can go home". Needless to say, in five minutes this guy was handcuffed and on the ground while they waited for the drunk van to pick him up. It's the same mentality. When someone with authority tells you to do something, just fucking do it. If you don't, don't get pissy when you get flattened because you where hell-bent on laying in front of a steamroller.

As for duping, who the hell wouldn't question their Guild Master handing out 50 blessed silver broadswords of vanquishing? *phegh*

•I think Redrum should update.

I updated the Diablo II page. I figure that since I never update, um, any pages, I should announce when I'm updating. Plus it makes me cool.

Unlike Galahad, I want to get banned. The 8 by 8 boat method is and has been on the bugs section for a long time.

Lastly, we're staying on ShitPowerup for a bit longer. My mom is a dumbass and gambled 200 dollars on the weekend. Then she asked if she could borrow some money. Bleh. If only everyone was as smart as me... Life would be so much more fulfilling. Maybe next week we'll get a better board.

•Pick a mage, any mage.

Everyone says mages are dead, OSI nerfed the mage, that may or may not be true, Im going to give you a few options of what to do what that old 7gm mage gathering dust.

Animal Lore/Animal Taming:
This is what I chose. I started off by going to wind and taming everything in sight. Lore went up really good to start with as did taming. Lore slowed down big time around 70 and taming starts to really slow down around 85. For lore I just ran around wind zoo during power hour and targetting a animal..run a bit..target..very boring, thats true. But its effective. For Animal taming I stayed around my house in yew and the wind zoo until I was about 75, then I went to Ice Isle to finish up. White Wolves can take you to Gm taming. Just please dont be one of the asshole that fill up the stables with 50 dragons..no one really needs more than a few.

Inscribe/Alchemy
More of a mule mage if you ask me, but if you are willing to pump the money into it, it can be very profitable. Besides there is few things cooler than Lord/Lady so and so GM Alchemist. I dont know about you but I am getting damn tired of seeing Lord GM Tamer, Lady Gm scholar bleh..we should be able to choose what is displayed. Anyhow inscribe is a fairly easy skill to raise, and since you have med and magery already you are well on your way. Alchemy is a great skill, and if you are in a dungeon somewhere, say in Lich Lords, you can pump out some greater heals and charge at about twice the going rate. You can say *Sure I am not going to pay that much for them* But when you are out..that sounds damn tempting.

Healing/Anatomy
Honestly I haven't played around with this one that much, but I can see where it has promise. Stun punch sucks though..big time. However, you can heal alot of damage fast. I only recommend this one in groups.

Cartography/Lockpicking
I did this one awhile back..and I could actually do level 5 chests on my own..but with the new AI, its next to impossible. The easiest way to do a chest on your own, at least if you are buy water..once a monster spawns, just run on your boat..and mana dump..sail away a bit..med, return, mana dump and repeat. These guys can make MASS quanities of cash if you have a steady supply of maps.

Weapon skill/Tactics
Well..this in my mind is for people that can't move on and change with the times, I have yet to see anyone who still uses a weapon skill with a mage do really well in pvp. And I know alot of people like archery with this, I however think I could run 5 miles in between shots, and a dexxer could heal up quickly in tune with your shots. Move on people :)

Hiding/Anything
Come on..you can run next to a house and hide without a problem..to me this is a waste of a 100 points.

Stealing/Armslore
Proquo gave me the heads up on this one after watching a guy on Pac. Bascially what you do, is disarm someone, and then steal their weapon..I dont care how good dexxers are now, they arn't shit without a weapon and 0 wrestling. I am definatly going to try this out.

Did I miss any? You know my email address.

•Well..here is a new subject..Abusive GM's

A old guildmate of mine, Strife[7], on Hokuto sent me some information..now the whole story can be found at the Lords of Death Website. But the basics are this.

A guild would get some people to come to a *falling house*, where they would get attacked by Murderers.

Now sure this isn't the nicest way to play UO, but I strongly support everyones right to play as they want,and if people had a stronger grasp on GREED, this wouldn't be a issue. Anyhow A Gm came and jailed the people involved. Go read about it..its worth your time.

•Sometimes, there is signs of intelligence out there.

Well..I got 2 emails that stood out above the other ones on my post about weapons. First the best email. Well written, and thought out..please excuse me when I have some fun with it :)




I do agree with some of it. But more then a war hammer is effective in PvP. War maces crush armor and stamina so fast its disgusting.

Except that you dont have a double damage hit with the war mace and they swing about the same speed, meaning very slow.

And a war axe is still friggin good versus a mage. IE an unprepared mage with no or very little total refreshes. I thought war axes stopped doing stamina loss, but yesterday proved me wrong. Unless i just got stamina loss from being so near death.

You must have got it from death, because I tried using them a week ago and no stamina loss.

anyways, ive found that much the same with axe fighters, a katana and gm parrying are very good against war hammers.

Yes they do, for about 2-3 hits when they break.

And q staffs suck for pvm unless you have no parry. You apparently have zero parry on any of your characters because in all your weapon posts you leave out any consideration for parry.

This was a weapon discussion, not a parry one :) I do have a gm parry character, I use him for PvM, I hate parry for PvP.

Fencing you're pretty much right about. Except after UO:R the skill is screwed up more then before.

Thanks ^^

Swords. You say Broadsword or hally is best for pvp? Have you gone insane? Sure they are good, and including them in the top 3 are about right. But you forgot katanas!!!!! duh duh duh duh duh duh! katanas!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, is that 5 duhs or 6? Just so I know next time when I again don't mention Katanas as I don't like them. If I wanted to use Katanas I would play Sword of the Samurai or some other like game. Give me a big ass broadsword just dripping with poison for UO though.

They are not over rated,

Yes, they are.

i hate katanas myself solely for the purpose they are so overpowered. Sure they have no special concussion blow or para blow or crushing blow, but they still work the best by far.

Im sorry I must disagree. I could say it 100 times all different ways..but I will quote good ol ProQuo " The Katana main strength is its speed. Now that at 100 dex you get insta hits with any weapon....its pointless to use it. Katana's do less damage and miss more then Broads."

And this might not matter, but one of the best pvpers i know uses strictly viking swords. He is top 10 in any tournament. I think viking swords amazingly suck too, they are too slow, sound like a knife, and hit like a broadsword or less. But go figure.

One thing I always find funny is that everyone thinks they are gods of pvp, this is not any disrespect to the person who sent me this email at all, but more of a general comment. I could say Im god, and would place top 10 in any fight, but I wouldn't..there is always...ALWAYS someone better.

And archery is amazingly good in group pvp situations. I am a member of a roleplaying orc clan, and I use to have about mid 70's archery. When we would go raid huge events i would just equip my bow and shoot people, i killed many people that way. Now i am nearly master archery, and standing in one spot in high lag situations with a bow is amazing! Just sit back and let the shield fighters and mages go first, they can die while i dish out 25pt blows one after the other on plate armor =)

Well, Im not a big fan of archery, mostly because I dont pvp in groups often, im more of a loner as I feel responsible of those I fight with because 99 percent of the time im the most experienced. I will die anytime for a friend, but I dislike dieing for stupid mistakes. Perhaps, ill give it one more look. Just because I like you ^^



Anyways, overall a good post. Perhaps you should leave room for parry next time though. As in not pick so many two handed weapons. if you think im wrong about parry, go make a character on test shard. Get gm parry and go fight an earth eles. Do one with a shield, and one without. I am willing to say you will use ALOT more bandages or gheals. Depending on armor of course, don't wear insane armor or that wrecks it all =)

Thanks, I will be discussing defensive measures soon though, and on a closing note, I hope im never in bad enough shape finaically that I must fight earth elems >:P

Thanks for the EXCELLENT email, I hope you didn't mind my remarks too much.


Well here is the other email

You Suck shit, you dont know what the fuck you are talking about newbie.

Hm...I love sheep.

•I dont wanna get banned.

I have had enough questions about the 8 by 8 method I posted about earlier. First it was on this site a while ago. So look in the archives. Or goto the mage forum at Stratics and get their operators banned. Remeber there was rumor that this was a bannable exploit therefore I could get banned for posting it.

•Macing, Fencing, Swords, or Archery oh my!

Well the subject of the ..month..seems to be what weapons I should use for this and that character. What one has which the other doesn't not. Well..lets take a look.

Mace:
Right now, Maces are, far and away the easiest way to beat someone in PvP. I say easiest and not best because I think it takes no skill whatsoever to kill someone with a mace. Do I have a mace fighter? Damn right, doesn't mean I think its to easy. All you do is run up to someone, *Thunk Thunk* and you are dead. Concussion hits happen with to great of frequency I feel, and often leave the fight over, not to mention piles of broken armor before it really even begins. As for PvM there is other combat skills better than this one(read: all of them) but the quarterstaff is still pretty decent vs monsters.

Best PvP: War Hammer
Best PvM: Qstaff

Fence:
I love fencing. Ive always been a fencer. From my days of making a new character on some random shard, going to orc fort for a day to get master fencing/tacts and then joining a order/chaos guild up til recently Fencing has always been my number one combat skill. One some problem..even at GM skill you miss about 50 percent of the time. Sure its fast with 100 dex, non stop swings, but does it really matter if half of those swings you miss? Fencing is good for PvM though be prepared to pay out of the nose for magic kryss/spears. And no not Brittney Spears, she still comes cheap.

Best PvP: Short Spear or War Fork
Best PvM: Kryss are decent, but the spears work damn good too.

Swords:
Good ol swords, like a old dog, your faithful companion for years. I think 99 percent of warriors when they first started out in UO chose swords. Why? Because like me many of you were filled with dreams of being that fully armed and armored knight ready to slay the dragon. Luckly I woke up before the majority of you :) Swords is a skill that has had its ups and downs.. the days of mages carrying hallys, to Katanas being the best thing in town to ..the days of mages carrying hallys. Swords always remained dominant, at least on my shards. I find that the broad sword works good these days for PvP, they are common in magic item terms, go to Hythloth and you get a magic broadsword off each Balron. Im usually the one that gets the accurate of ruin while my friend who takes the next one gets a silver of vanq, silver of power, and vanq within 20 mins. ..Bastard. For PvM Any weapon works good..but the viking sword still sucks..does anyone actually use this sword, has anyone actually read this far down into my post?

PvP: Broadsword, Hally
PvM: Just about anything except for Viking.

Archery:
Ahhh just thinking about Archery gives me a soft warm fuzzy feeling inside. When I think archery I dont think how the skill is now, I think of the days of the *Dread Lord so and so Gm Chef* (GM Chef from everyone using Taste id to get 100 str/int) I can see Covetous Crew running through the corpser spawn all with bows and 100 mana about to dump on your ass. I see Merc town at the height of its glory with the guards walking around with that ever present heavy xbow. Now what do I see? A skill that I thought was going to make a big comeback into PvP but that has fallen fast. Oh well..who gives a shit, costs to many arrows anyhow. I mean come on..you spend as many arrows getting from 0 to 94 then you do to 94-97. Does boost hour not effect archery or is there something Im forgetting to do when I attack a monster with a bow in my hands and arrows in my back? .3 for a boost hour, even at 97 is a joke. I thought they made boost hours to make people not macro? Well shit..I dont even want to try raising it OUT of boost hour, I still like to enjoy the outside world. And not sit in a dark room, the only light comming from my monitor and the red light on my cd player telling me that, yes I did leave it on all day once again. Hmm as I look around, scratch that thought.

Best PvP: Tossup between Heavy Xbow and regular box
Best PvM: Same as above.

Tomarrows Subject:
Mage Templates

Have a great remaining 4th of July, after watching the cities fireworks and eating way to much..im going to go have some fun with some greys on Hokuto. Sleep tight!

•What better way to celebrate America's Independence than reading my posts!!!

Happy Fourth of July.

Now that I have covered all the bullshit let me enlighten you all to some things I have found in game.

A) Strength and Dex gains comes best from seesawing fencing and macing. This only works in power hour though for some reason. I hope this helps anyone who was having the trouble I was.

B) Stealing off of Nobles / Seekers will increase your stealing skill at whatever level to a degree. What I mean is you can only gain so much stealing off one NPC. After they stop giving gains...and you will know they stopped...kill them.

C) Killing lichs and lich lords in Deceit can make you 25k in an hour if you put your mind to it. Maybe more.

D) The looting class such as the Galad's on Atlantic have to be pulling in tons of money. My GOD man. These people have got it to a system. Yesterday I recalled into the LL room and there was 2 liches, 1 lich lord, a fire elemental, and a poisen elemental all targeting. And anyone with hiding can be a part of this fiasco blocking / looting bullshit.

E) In relation to my last post, Galahad has gone from Grandmaster Noto PK to Grandmaster Looter. Now I don't attack people I get attacked and thats a hella lot more fun.

F) Archery sucks. For PvP I mean.

G) Peacemaking is the hardest skill to raise in game. Including magery. And those instruments. My God they suck.

H) Lockpicking works wonders when you are targeting more than 5 chests. For some reason 4 is breaking macroing rules. My friend got his lockpicking to like 84 using 20 wooden boxes in his pack.

I) 8 by 8 method works magery upto 99. After that it gets too hard and boring. But getting to 99 is a breeze.

J) It takes 4 power hours ( 6 hours ) to GM a fighting skill of a ranger at 100 dex. At least from what I have heard. At 25 dex it takes at least 8 power hours. Go Bone Knights.

K) A 2 story Villa on Trammel is on sale on EBAY as we speak. This is not my auction. Last time I checked the highest bid was 120 dollars.

L) Nieves is da man. I love Nieves.

M) I am engaged to Britney Spears.

Everything in this message was true except for 1 thing. If you can guess what I lied about I'll give you jack shit. KeKe.

Hasta.

•Ive had enough.

Im going to give this shit til 8am EST, any new post after that about this whole Nieves issue will be deleted, you do it again and I will ban you without a moment of hesitation. I am not, I am repeat I am not fucking around here.

This is a waste of time for everyone, and everyone who participates loses a good 10-20 years of maturity.

I could list a half dozen people that should have been banned already for violations of the one rule Red had up, no racial, sexual, or gender slurs.

Come 8am EST tomarrow, I will start banning. Count on it.

•Ok, everyone has flamed everyone..Time to MOVE ON.

I got some emails for arms lore and snooping
Here are the results so far in Worked:Didn't Work Ratio.

Atlantic
3:1

Ches
3:4

Pac
1:5

Drachenfels
2:1

LS
1:0

Wak
0:1

Ok by reading this it seems that, with the exception of perhaps pac, it works but people are doing it wrong.

I again just made a newbie character on Drachenfels, and in 63 minutes I got perfect warrior stats.

It works people, hopefully this is the last time I have to explain it.

1)Get to 690 skill point total.
2)Lock all your skills down except Snooping and Arms lore
3)Mark Snooping up (or arms lore)
4)Snoop(or target object) til you reach 700 skill point total
5)Mark the skill you just used down and the other one up
6)Use the other skill, you will realize that you maintain the 700 skill point total, and end up with 10 Arms Lore and 0 snoop(or vise-versa)
7)Repeat until you get where you want to be.


Ok, that is all there is to it. The worst thing about this is that it is very tedious, and can get very frustrating when You gain a str and lose a dex. Or even worse gain int. Have some patience, you will get there. You only have to do it once.

As for all this flaming bullshit, lets grow up ok?

YES this is a powergaming site.
YES Nieves posts his stories and non-powergaming issues
YES Redrum asked Nieves to keep it up
YES The Message board is getting saturated with alot of bullshit.

Everyone has spoken their mind. If Nieves wants to go or stay, it his HIS choice, and HIS alone. Im going to make a commitment to post alot more often, everyday as news permits. Keep the email rolling in and give me something to talk about.

Tomarrows Subject:
Maces, Fenceing, Swords or Archery? The Pros and Cons of both through my eyes.

•Str Gain

I was in Skara the last few days, fighting rangers and I noticed that I got really good stat gain *WHILE* fighting. I would fight them and then work arms lore and music to 10 back and forth. I got perfect stats in short time.

This was on Drachenfels.

I did it on Atlantic..and nothing...worse than nothing almost.

Is it shard based? Hard to say..maybe its luck..maybe coincedence? Who knows.

Anyone who has tried this let me know if it works or doesn't on your prospective shards, ill make a newbie and see if I can get it to work.

lates

•Strength Gain

Either the code for strength gain has been changed to ROT (unlikely) or arms lore has simply been nerfed in that regard (more likely). I've tried it on 3 servers at different times and it seems the only gain is in burst for me, and even then it's not that great. I'd suggest macing and or parry for strength gain now, over arms lore.

•Am I doing something wrong here?

Today I tried to seesaw my stats to get them right where I wanted them. I got my thief's skill total to 700 and began switching between arms lore, fencing, and item id because my snooping is already way too high. I could not gain a single stat!!! Can someone plz confirm this? Did OSI get rid of the 3 day old dexer or am I doing something wrong!!! AKK!!! I was gonna get in thieves guild tomorrow too with the intention of having more than 59 strength.