•Someone isn't very smart

It's been awhile since I have been on the Tradespot General Discussion board. When I got there the first post I saw was interesting. Here is the text:

Hello all,
I am Lord Tranix of the LS shard.
Today on tradespot I noticed a person selling UO Bugs for UO Gold. UO Gold
Duping for 200k UO Item Duping for 250k. I dont beleive in that crap so I went on a small mission. I paid for his "services" and he showed me. I did not dupe any items. Later on the server went down and the money I paid him was returned to my account but the knowledge I retained obviously. Later on my quest to bust him went in full force. I saw him talking to a person named Trinity and I knew what he was trying to do. I then invited her to join my party and we talked.
He was sitting there spilling his guts on how to do it in the Brit bank vault (none too smart). I asked Trinity to stall him until a gm could come and Trin kept him there for about 30 mins. A GM came to the spot where i was hiding out at (GM Aegis).
I told him the story and he changed his clothes and name "The
Illustrious Simplex". Then he went incognito into the bank where this person was selling his scams. The scammer was obviously short in the brain department as Miss Simplex gave him 275k for the "trick", all 3 of us in the bank talked for awile just waiting for the GM to appear in red robes and crap on the guy but it didnt happen....yet. He made sure it was verifiable and that he said all the incriminating words needed, and then he said "Magma...", Magama said "Yes?" BAM RED ROBED and GM Aegis simply said "Youre Busted". We all laughed except got the GM. The GM said to him that you have used an exploit and related an exploit to others. Then at last he said "Youre goin downtown". What happened down in the jails I do not know but I bet Magma felt quite the fool. When we asked if his account was banned the GM Replied "Sorry, were not allowed to discuss account related information", but made it clear in a subtle way that this player would have to buy another copy of Uo to play again. GM Aegis played his role perfectly using every word a fellow scammer would use..dude...freakin...well u all know the slang :) He later came back and thanked us for the help in this matter. This goes to show that GM's _ARE_ concerned about this sorts crap and will take action, sometimes the player community is needed however. I'd like to thank Trinity first of all for keeping the offender occupied during the
queue and to GM Aegis for the swift, accurate and detailed way he handled the situation. For more info including screenshots of the bust anyone can ICQ me at #17426852
I guarantee a good laugh indeed!!
Trinity can be reached at #27000452 (She is looking to buy a placed tower, if anyone is selling she is paying very well.)
We did not gain anything (items, cash etc) for this bust assist, I wouldnt want it like that. The GM's thanks was thanks enough. This made my day. Going through this I did learn of the bug and how to do it, I havent tried it nor will i. Please do not contact either of us if you want to know how to dupe. Youll just be tossed on ignore.
Just thought id post this to all boards, Im sure ppl are glad to know that at least SOME action is being done to stop these fools who are ruining the game and inflating prices.
Yours,
Lord Tranix

Stone Cold Busted. What a dork. I guess what I said before is true, all Cheaters should be banned (dupers, etc).

Hasta.

•Ostards, Nightmares, and Dragons....oh my!

Found a new link (well new to me). I looked through most of the site. And with the exception of one dead link, the site is right on! The United Tamers of Brittania web site has a TON of information for Tamers and those curious about Tamers. It even has spawn maps, what to tame and where, and Tamer Ethics (TAMER TWINKS READ!!!). It's awesome. I give it 4.9999 out of 5.0 PvMer stars (one dead link-Dragons vs. Wyrms :( ).

Go read about it. The site is important for all Tamers.

Hasta.

•Part II of the PvP tutorial

Well guys, here is another part for you guys to dissect. Remember,Christopher Kozub a.k.a. Kamikaze wrote it originally on Adam Ant's message board. I got permission and reposted it for you guys. Enjoy-
Well I believe I've covered all the basic rules of PvP. Now I will enter into some actual in battle tactics.
In Battle Tactics:
The key to winning is knowledge. You must know your opponent, what their strategy will most likely be and how to counter it. Much of how a battle develops depends on two things. The type of char you play (mage/warrior) and the type of char you opponent plays (mage/warrior)

a)Recognizing char type:
Simplest way to recognize the type of char your opponent plays is to look at the armor they wear. Mages need to recover mana at an optimum rate. Therefor they wear armor that does not interfere with their mana regeneration. If you opponent is wearing only leather armor or clothes you can almost be assured they rely mainly on magic to deal damage. Vice Versa if your opponent is wearing any combination of chain or plate armor you can depend that they will rely mainly on a combat skill to do dmg. If the char is wearing studded leather you can reasonably expect they are a warrior type especially if the studded leather is magical. In this case expect a fast weapon and high dex and most likely DP.

Initiating Battle:

Warrior/Mage: A warrior facing a mage must be expecting two things. Firstly damage en mass and poison. The best way for a warrior to survive a mages attack is to keep the mage from casting harmful or beneficial spells. To ensure this a warrior should have the fastest weapon (of their type, preferably lesser or deadly poisoned) at their disposal. In the best case scenario the warrior should have magic reflect precast on themselves. Next they should disarm a shield if they have any. Most, if not all damage you sustain will be spell based. A shield will just hamper your ability to effectively drink potions. Next drink a greater agility potion. The greater agility potion will do two things. Firstly your stats will become more balanced and therefore you will take less damage from a mages best and most mana efficient spell, mindblast. Secondly and most importantly It will raise your dex and therefore increase your swing speed. You will do more dmg and disrupt more spells. Next drink a greater strength. This allows you to increase both your maximum life and damage potential. Also it allows you to start applying a bandage even before you take spell damage. After you begin applying the bandage take stock of your situation. If you are low on life 30 hp from your new max drink a Greater heal potion. Drinking it now will rest your timer and let you drink one sooner later in combat. If you
are paralyzed or see the words An Ex Por get ready to open a trapped box.(I have a UOA macro for this) If your life is still low, back off and cast Greater heal. Or teleport and hide, then wait for the bandage to take effect. If you are poisoned DON'T wait for the bandage to cure the poison. Drink a greater cure ASAP. At this point you are in good shape the mage is lower on mana and you have the advantage. Step forward and do what you do best. MELEE. (more tactics in will be found in intermediate battle section)

Warrior/Warrior:
For the most part follow the instructions mentioned above, with a few minor changes. Juxtapose magic reflect for Reactive armor. If you have a shield you may keep it equipped, just be ready to disarm if need be. A warrior has a higher armor class and as such higher damage weapons are more effective. I would suggest lesser or deadly poisoned broad swords, war forks, or a war axe. War hammers, Halberds, and long spears are effective but you must disarm the weapon to use a potion. Because of low wrestling you will take more dmg while doing this and you will not be dealing damage while changing weapons. Depending on your int, you may want to start combat by casting poison on your opponent. Poison negates your opponents best advantage, their healing skill. Make sure you leave enough mana for GH. I would rather use lesser poisoned items on my opponent. This will seriously interfere with his strategy and prevent him from healing.

Next session I will be exploring mage openings and begin the exploration of intermediate battle tactics.


There you have it. Go ahead and talk about it in the forum.

Hasta

•Now THIS is good stuff!!!!

Aw yeah, new goodies from OSI. I will break em down for you.


General Testing Updated
The following was just added to General Testing on the UO.com website:

The following updates and changes are currently in General Testing:

When looting a corpse that is stacked on top of one or more corpses, the loot from any “buried” corpses that belong to you will be included.
About damn time. Got tired of liches getting stacked and not finding my kill. Only thing is, I feel bugs coming with this. Don't quote me.


On Trammel, only the person who digs up a treasure chest, or members of his/her party, will be able to open the chest and remove treasure. Treasure chests recovered from treasure maps on Felucca will continue to be available to all players.
Oh me oh my! Yes baby yes! To all you Trammel Twinks: Nah nah nah nah boo boo, you can't loot it! I loves it. And I agree with the allowing looting in Felucca. Makes for an interesting adventure. I once was on a chest run PRE-UO:R and some idiot comes up and takes something. Fine, we looted as fast as we could and he had a dread spider and 2 Ogrelords chasing him. Was hilarious.


An issue causing players to become ‘stuck’ when picking up hay in Haven has been fixed.
Crossbows will no longer incorrectly use arrows on archery buttes, but will use bolts.
Um, I never had any problems with those 2, but ok.

The protection spell will now provide greater protection at higher magery/evaluate intelligence/inscription skill levels.
There you have it you bad ass 7XGm mages. Now your Protection spell will really allow you to take hits from Warhammers (um...yeah, ok).

Finger slips from being hit while healing will have less effect. The damage healed will now be based on you dexterity and healing skill. Previously, this value was based only on dexterity.
About freaking time. I got tired of slipping while trying to heal. 75 healing and 100 dex, and I "barely" heal myself? Please.

Veterinary skill gain rate will be corrected.
An error that lowered the tracking skill level required to effectively track other players and NPC humans will be corrected.
Doesn't effect me, but ok.


The mining interface will be updated to help increase server performance.
To mine, double-click your mining tool and target the area you wish to mine.
To dig for treasure, double-click your mining tool and target a treasure map. You may then target the area in which you wish to dig for treasure.
Single-clicking a treasure map will now tell you the facet to which the map pertains.
Cool cool. Anything to lower lag. Why you have to click 1 extra time to find a chest is beyond me. Whatever. I will take it. Hmmm...[Felucca:Tattered Treasure Map]. ok, that's cool. But I can still dig em up in Trammel. You going to fix that? I don't mind that you can, but I know it's not supposed to work that way. I bet you they sneak that in. And why can't the map say: Felucca:Tattered Treasure Map from monster-name?

Weapons with the “ghouls touch” ability will now function correctly.
Um, what was wrong with them? Hammer will be pissed if they don't paralyze like they are supposed to.


The frequency of wheat spawn on the Trammel facet will be lowered.
Um...ok.
Summoned Elementals and Daemons will now be more in line with normal elementals and daemons.
Ruh roh...look out for Mages with Kick ass Daemons now. I agree with it, but now it's something you have to look out for when fighting Mages. I think mages got their "stick" back.

New locations at which Nightmares spawn have been added to fix some of the “spawn blocking” issues.
To all you spawn blocking tamers: NEH!

It will now be possible to gain skill by stealing from grey, red, and monster targets.
Stealing has been fixed so that stealing specific items is now more difficult than “random” stealing.
I thought stealing from monsters gave you gains anyway? Whatever. That works for me. Roxanne will be happy :). And stealing is getting it's difficulty code fixed. Awesome.

Wow, I love thi...er...no wait! What am I saying? ::stomps foot:: Sometimes I hate this freaking game! Whew! You ain't getting away that easily OSI!!! Nuh uh no way!!

::reads the list again and his eyes start to go glossy and lost in a far away land called Brittania::

Hasta.

•"It bees that way sometimes..."

Here is something I read at another site:
Hey all, I know its been a while since any of use has updated. Well my excuse is ive been furiously masurbat--- i mean ive been busy. Today I was given a wake up call by my parents. Incase you didn't know, Im 18, just graduated High School. Now if your like me, your fucking stressed about what your gonna do next. If your some 4.0 straight A honor roll fucking free ride scholarship to Harvard, then get the fuck out of here. Fuck me what the hell am i going to do this fall? Community College? Fuck that shit who wants to see your fucking high school reunion this early. Fuck shit liek Devry or ITT Tech, either end up a lucky bastard making 80 grand or end up in a dead end job never going anywhere in life. Fuck Military, thats all there is to it. FUCK THE MILITARY. Fuck authority and fuck anyone who thinks they need me to call them sir and kiss there fucking ass day in and day out so i can maybe just maybe not get fired. Why is it that parents can let you slide and let u live all easy through out your entire high school career and then day after you graduate they switch to Asshole mode and tell you its time to get the fuck out. I mean jesus a little preperation would be nice. Im sorry if they fucked up and let me become a slacker, whose fucking fault is that.. not mine thats for fucking damn sure. Ive had it easy for 18 fucking years and now they cant understand why im not motivated to go out and find a job or get into a college. If you can sense a little anger in this post then well your smarter than the average fuck that visits this site. And to the shit eating mother fucker who keeps posting on message boards saying I still play UO, burn in hell u cock gobbling inbred little prick. Right now im gonna go out and finds me a job and maybe find something in life and become a success. Cuz sitting around playing Counter-Strike and getting drunk is going no where fast. Seeya All...

Pudrick

Sounds like someone is having an early life crises. You know, when I was in my senior year, I was worried to hell wtf I was going to do with my life. I was 17 (yeah, I ALMOST graduated early) and living in Texas without any family (mom had moved back to Cleveland a few months earlier), my gf was pregnant, and I didn't know wtf I was going to do. I knew 2 things back then. I was NOT going into the military and I AM going to college. Guess what happened?

Age 18: I had to go to summer school to graduate because I was struggling with 2 jobs, and a girlfriend that didn't allow me the time for myself. What time? I just wanted to go to Karate. That's it. I never went to the club (which I found out she was doing while I was at work) or hung out with anyone. My fault for allowing her to get pregnant (I could've wore condoms). BUT! I got into college and managed 2B'S and 2C'S. All this after we had broken up over that summer school stint and I was all but homeless. Age 19: My gf and I had already broken up for a final time (we tried to get back together) and I am back in Cleveland. I am still in College but I wasn't studying as hard as I should've. Age 20: I am married (different girl) with another child on the way. I got a decent job and still going to college. Age 24: I am doing pushups in the middle of July, it's hot as fuck in Fort Jackson South Carolina, and this idiot in an ugly ass hat is yelling in my ear to push harder and faster.

The point to all this? I did exactly what I DIDN'T want to do. Does that mean Pudrick is going to do the same? No, not exactly. But if he doesn't do something about it, it's going to catch up to him and he will be doing things he DOESN'T want to do.

I look back and am grateful I got to be in the military. It was a good experience for me. Even at 24, I was young in the head and I grew up in some ways with the experience. [Although, now that I am in the UO community, I digressed 10 years. Price you pay I guess.] Thing is, I HAD to go into the military to try to make something better because I was struggling in the real world managing a full time job, full time college, and full time husband and parent. It was rough for all of us.

For my kids, I want them to have an education. I want them to go to college when the time comes. I tell them I don't want them to suffer my hardships. And I want them to have stability in their lives. Something I never had.

I am sorry Pudrick that you are suffereing the indignation of "your 18 now, do something with yourself". If you were my son, it would be like this: You are 16, start thinking about College son. I want you to succeed. I don't give a shit if you get a degree as a Sanitation Engineer. But you WILL GO TO SCHOOL! Now, you are 18. If you are in school, I won't bug you much. Just realize I can't afford to pay for most of the stuff you're used to with your college expenses (::prays he gets a scholarship::). You can stay in this house as long as you are paying your "expenses" (going out, etc.) and going to school. I will keep a roof over your head and keep you fed. The rest is your responsibility. Oh, and have fun doing it. Nothing like the College experience. I never had it."

Is that wrong? I don't think so. I think I would be fair with that philosophy. And notice, I would not push him out of the house. That is just unfair for our children. [I look at American parents throwing their kids out of the house and realize how fucked up that parent and family really is.] I am not saying they should get a fair ride, and I will be damned if I have a deadbeat living in my house. Oh, and don't forget, it's still my house. Some rules still apply (don't you hate that shit?). But I am not going to just THROW you out.

When you graduate from High School you deserve that summer to get out and ENJOY yourself. You earned it. You did 12 years of "hard time" and spent alot of time struggling to do shit you hated and couldn't understand why you had to. But come fall...welcome to the real world. It's a harsh one. If you were mine, Pudrick, I would do my best to help you make the transition. Just work with me and I will work with you to make it good.

I still don't have a Bachelor's Degree, a stable career (writing for a UO website is NOT a career), just recently had to take out a 3,500 dollar loan to try and get that career for myself (Web Designer in training) and save some money for my kid's college and my retirement. And to think, I will be 30 next month. I look back and say: "Fuck, if I only made this or that decision". Oh, and all this managing single parent home with 2 kids, Karate classes for the 3 of us, and other kid's stuff they want/need to do.

Sorry you are having it tough Purdrick. It only gets worse from here...if you let too much time go by. And make the decision NOW! 30 comes quickly.

Hasta

•I am having a slow update day and eveyone else updates. Awesome :)

Wow. Those Diablo II screenshots are amazing. You got to go see them. I wonder how they will look on my 17". Too bad I don't have this 21" HP monitor at home. I remember playing UO back when I was working Tues-Sat. in another building. All I did was monitor the systems and played UO all day. If I knew then what I know now about Powergaming, I would have 5 7XGM characters on my main account. Oh well.

Galahad wrote a PvP story in the stories section. Check it out. It's pretty cool.

Loren and I took a visit to shame. The numbers for the Elementals PvM section are starting to shape up. Once I have it all (I need to kill more Air Elementals and Poisons to get a decent average loot number). Chasing Poisons around Shame is too much fun (well, them chasing me). They are challenging. Run run, shoot, run, shoot again, try to keep from dieing. Get to the trap spot and hope to goodness you don't get teleported on. Or worse, lose con.

Check out what we did together at lunchtime in shame today in the stories section.

Hasta.

•I got Diablo II yesterday, and I beat it within 4 hours.

Here's some proof of Diablo himself:



... Just kidding... I didn't even get it yet. It should be here on Saturday. I took the screenshot from here. There's a lot more Act IV (last act) and Diablo screenshots there as well. That guy has 435 armor. Jesus. The most I got was about 60. I wouldn't mind that amount of gold, either. Must suck to be him if he dies, because he'll lose it all.

I know I haven't updated much, but I've been working (like I said a couple weeks ago when my gay roomate moved in). The good news is I get paid tomorrow night, so we'll finally get rid of ShitPowerup and get a better board. And I'm off on Saturday, so I get to play Diablo II all day long. No work, a paycheck and the first taste of Diablo II on the same day... You can't get any better than that.

•Pacific Protest

Got this in email:

There is gonna be a protest on Pacific tonight, at 7pm EST. We PvPers want our own shard where there arent special combat systems, we want precasting back!

No special attacks is cool. I can live without crushing blows, disarms, and paralyzation effects. Then melee isn't crap shoots anymore. I like them in a way as well. Gives that extra "Mystery" to what's going to happen. Once Warhammers are on par with Lumberjackers, it's going to be interesting to see what template rules PvP. Having your own shard would be cool. But I thought you had Seige for that? ::shrugs:: Maybe I am confused about what Seige is like.

Don't ask me to support precasting though. I am glad it's gone. It was never meant to work that way and I think magic should have it's limitations (to a point).

Protest if you believe it, even if I wasn't going to be at Karate tonight, I wouldn't go. Precasting being the main reason I wouldn't go. Sorry, but it's my opinion.

Good luck and I hope the protest brings out something good for everyone.

Hasta.

(Damn, that's 5 posts today! And I am busy as hell at work, did some DS squad stuff, and I got a 1 hour lunch in. My management skills must be getting better. That's a good thing.)

•NEWS FLASH!!

Well looky here, looky here! Hey RED! Check this out!!!

Although Blizzard's Diablo II has yet to make it on to retail shelves (look for it to begin hitting retail June 30), the company has already released a patch for the game. The patch fixes several serious bugs that slipped through the Quality Assurance (QA) department at Blizzard and made it into the final retail product. These bugs include serious crash bugs, bugs that affect multiplayer games, a install crash related to DirectDraw and attempting to skip the cinematic, a crash bug that occurs when fleeing from a Gargantuan Beast and picking up gold in act I, several bugs involving killing Lord De Seis (Act IV) that sometimes crashed the game, and a fistful of other crash and gameplay bug fixes. Grab the patch here. This patch may very well be a prerequisite to playing the game, as it deals with a lot of bugs that make the game unplayable.

On a related note, Blizzard's three new Diablo II action figures are widely available at retail and at the Blizzard online store. At the the store all three action figures are retailing for around $10 plus shipping and handling. For more information checkout www.blizzard.com.

Damn that OSI-itis is nasty ain't it?

Anyone else wonder why I wait 6 months-year before buying newly released software?

Hasta!

•Well Damn...

Well, the PvP essay is already shot down. ProQuo already posted his thoughts about the essay in the forum. Not dissing him at all. I mean he's MUCH more experienced than I am.

Well, boys and girls. It's LETTERS TIME! I know you love this part. So go ahead and get your goodies, sit back, and enjoy the read.

I'm not going to bug you all the time or anything, but I wanted to let you know that you're dead wrong when it comes to cheaters. Cheaters in UO prosper FAR more than regular players. Especially with this duping stuff. I remember when all you had to do is recall, recall and close your client and you had double what was in your pack. There were HUNDREDS of people that duped millions, and what like 3 people got caught? I know (and I'm sure you heard stories and know too) entire guilds built on duped gold. Now with checks cheaters can get away with even MORE money easily, and now they can never get caught because they just cash the checks.

UO is money, and OSI is just too dumb to check for the same ID number on items so they will never know. I mean jesus, how hard is it to see who has the most gold in their bank? I think if you have over 50 mil in your bank, it's safe to say you cheated.

Since the beginning of UO, cheaters always win. We just can't tell if that 7x GM just started that character a couple weeks before or not unless we kill them.

Cyas..... =-p

You know me, I had to reply to that. Here is what I sent.


Cheaters always lose. They didn't earn anything by cheating. So, they are losers. If you can't figure that out, then I am sorry. NOt trying to be a smart ass, but you said I am wrong. I think the winners of the game (if there is such a thing as winning in UO) are those people that work for what they had in UO.

Hasta.
Then he wrote back...
Aw come on man. You're bein' all moral. I guess god will be their judge or something like that. My point is, I just think its sad we have to wait until the end of creation to watch them get theirs when OSI could catch them easily now and make our playing experience that much better! =-p


And finally I said:
Yeap. "All Moral" That's me. Cheaters need to be taken out and shot.
Sorry if you dont' agree. But it's wrong. If you have to cheat to get ahead, then you suck. My opinion of it all.

I do agree that it's sad we have to wait. I think they want to do it right and fry the right people in the right way.

Cheaters suck. 'Nuff said. NEXT!

I feel your pain on the house placing issue. I logged in at 5 PM on GL and went to check my spots I had marked in Fellucia, they were all camped already, so I logged out my warrior and logged in my mage to mark a few more spots. Get them marked, try to log my warrior back in, "Entering Britania" for an hour. Finally get in, don;t get any of my spots I had for my Large Marble in Fellucia. Pissed off I drop my Moonstone and hit Trammel, prepared for Phase II. I find a sweet spot for my Marble with no campers, Yes I will have my Large Marble. AlasPhase II starts, I DClick my deed and Freeze. I wait 10 Minutes, still no outline and no deed. So I logout and waste the next hour and a half trying to relog. When I finally get back, someone had placed a Large Marble right where I was, shit. So I then spend the next 2 hours, moving 2 steps every 10 minutes trying to place. Not happening, Girlfriend is annoyed cause I'm still up at 4am so I give up and go to bed. Wake up at 8am and figure I'll be able to place, after 3 hours of no luck for my Marble I had to settle for a Sandstone Patio. This sucked because I originally had 3 smalls in Fellucia and sold 2 of them prior to UO:R. So I ended up losing Storage space, and my Sandstone is in the Boonies.


Dammit...I am starting to feel that pain in my chest again :(....This weekend sucked for alot of folks :[.

Let me move on before my heart breaks (Sometimes I hate this fucking game). NEXT!


Well Nieves..you have done it again..your post on the main page was
brilliant! I am a lot like you and am glad you have a voice in this gaming community.
I totally feel the same as you when it comes to people selling there
accounts. Fine let them! there will always be people like that in this
world. I have my guys on 5 different shards for 2yrs and when I quite for 3 months once..some people I knew asked me to give them my account..so they could sell it..hehe..Bull shit! My characters have all a little bit of me inside them and I have a little of them in me! I feel they are close...yes it's just a game..but the best damn game I have ever played! My characters have all different personalities...some role play..some just have fun...it's so cool!

Your partner that is GM tailor..what shard is that? I would buy leather from
her vender. :)

TIMEOUT! I don't advertise on here, sorry...but if you ever seen me in Trin...um, never mind :) TIMEIN!

I liked your good deed of handing down your magic sword to a wanna be paladin..that was cool..and reminds me of things I have done for others. and will keep doing.

well..take care and keep up the good writing!

your admirer,

Clay Bittermug, Snow Dwarf.

Wow! Admirers! Gotta luv it!!! Just don't stalk the tower. I will sick my partner and her Broadsword of vanq on you!!! NEXT!!!


Ok I understand you lost all you shit. Sorry about that. You say uo shit isnt worth anything, and ebay sucks etc. Well my question to you is why cry and have "dreams" about a game?

It is worth money, and it is more then just a game.
Review what your saying, and dont cry if its nothing more then a game.

NO JUUS NO....here is what I wrote back:

Go to the archives and read about it again. When I said "it ain't worth shit" I meant money. It's not worth anything if all you have to do is flick a switch and it's gone. My dreams were about the ingame goals I had. And what made me "cry" about it was all the time I put into it. I think you will find that written there as well.

The only thing that makes the game "worth" something to me is the in game relationships and the time I put into creating the characters and acquiring what I have acquired. Putting a money value on someone else's product (OSI owns those megabytes); read the TOS) and then selling it is kind of wrong and OSI could push to have it stopped. They are just too busy with everything else up to even try (IMHO). And to begin with, it's a game.

Anything else?

Hasta.

I think that covers it. NEXT!

I read your story today about your house placing woes, and since I have enjoyed your posting for a few months, I thought that I would offer you a 2-story deed on Pacific. I don't have a lot of cash, but I have at least one method to regain gold that works very well.

You don't have to accept, and I won't be pissed if you decline.

Natas - Guardians of Honor, Pacific
My money making method? I resell regs on tradespot when I need cash.

::silence, then quiet sobs in the background:: Sorry, I got to get a tissue. Be right back. ::sniffles...BRAAP throws the tissue away::

Thanks man. I loves you guys!!! :)

Well, that's the last one for the day. Keep them letters coming in! And don't think I am just going to FLAME you for giving me your opinion. I am a pretty decent guy if I keep the "Juus" personality in check. ::reaches for the Rydilin (sp?)::

HASTA!

•And here we go again...

From good ol' Stratics.net


06/27/00 04:53 PM CDT ·· ^top

Felucca Changes: Guards, Monsters, and Magic
Just saw the following update in the FYI section of the UO website:


Felucca Changes: Guards, Monsters, and Magic
The guards in the guard areas (towns) of the Felucca facet on all shards will be returning to their normal working orders in the next 24 hours. Felucca guards will once again ignore monsters in towns, and will disregard the casting of 'offensive' magic spells cast in their areas. It is important to note that guards, when called, will continue to defend any innocent travelers who are attacked by other players.

Please note: the guards will not return to 'Felucca style' guarding at the same time on all shards, but will be changing on a shard-by-shard basis throughout the evening. Thus, we recommend caution when choosing your actions in the towns of Felucca for the next 24 hours

I guess that means mages are able to kick butt again in town. Cool. Our mages on DS won't be relegated to heal and gate duties. Now they can fight like the rest of us. And watch out for those Ophidian Avengers while you bank. I hear they got a nasty bite :).

The other night my partner and I decided to do some sparring (she pissed me off more like it). Well, she's got this kick ass sword (broadsword of vanq) and a kick ass shield (Fortification) with a bitching AR (45) and decent Parry (80). To put a long story short, Loren got her ass kicked. She's on a 56K, a machine that's 200MHZ slower than mine, and was spanking me all over the Tower walls. :| I was embarrassed. I am 4xGM she's 2 (Tactics and Tailoring) and was able to wipe the floor with me. But more important than that, I have ALOT more experience playing this game. I shouldn't have been spanked like that. Well, my whiffing all those times with my new katana of force (thanks glacier) didn't help me ONE bit. Wtf is up with that? I turned around and told her: If I brought my Hammer, you would be dead. She didn't disagree, then she turned around and laughed. Fuck. Talk about embarrassing. This week just gets better and better in UO for me. No house, death and loss of the deed and my favorite sword ::stifles a sob:: and I get spanked like that.

Loren has been visiting Shame ALOT. I have been writing down all the loot I get from each elemental so I can do a proper update on the PvM monster sections. Hunting Poison Elementals is ALOT of fun. You got to be fast, and I have a new trap spot (no picture yet) and able to just RoXXoR them. Hey, I am the PvM king! I can trap anything dammit. Only thing is...I hope they never teleport on me. I am dead AND stuck if that happens.

I refreshed my PK's house on Felucca. He's pissed. Hammer keeps telling him he wants to meet folks. Problem is, I don't want him going red. All he said was: "Red? Wtf is 'Red'?". Oh well, I guess he goes hunting soon.

I will be "assisting" on an install of a new NT system today. If my boss doesn't shrug me off, I won't be updating much today. I will eat my lunch here and skip my lunch time fix and try to get letters of the week posted though. There are a bunch.

I kind of jumped the gun on the Markee Dragon/Vegeta thing. I removed the post I made. That's all I am going to say about it.

Hasta.

•As it all tones down....

I was starting to feel ok. I am still disappointed that I didn't get my 2 story, but I was not as upset this morning. The DS guild is coming along fine. People are training, we have 2 small houses and a small tower as guild "homes" for our guys (any ladies are welcome to join us on our Pacific tour). My partner's tower in GL is getting decorated with dyed furniture and we now have 2 vendors and a 3rd vendor run by a neighbor. After finding out you can do mule skills in our house, I am starting to work my Super Mule hard so I won't ever have to buy anything from anyone again. Self-sufficiency. There is nothing like it.

I was doing my normal round of web site surfing this morning when I came across Watt's last post about OSI/Tyrant's current solution to housing for the remaining shards. Then I started to get upset again.

Here is the original post as copied from Watt's:

Staged House Placement Update Jun 26 2000 3:07PM CST (GMT -06:00)
We are placing all further house placement stages on hold at this time, and are developing several mechanisms to address the situations that arose over the weekend. We are targeting Thursday, June 29th to open a test shard updated with these mechanisms. This test will be deployed on a current backup of the Catskills shard on Test Center.


A test shard huh? You are late. Oh wait, you had a test shard. But did you push that server hard? Didn't think so. No reason every person in OSI couldn't log on to test "load" now is there?


As a part of this process, we encourage players to set up in advance of house placement by having their deed at the top level of their primary backpack, moving to their proposed house location and logging out from that location, and removing themselves from co-owner status on any other homes. This will give you the best possible chance to quickly place your home in Britannia.


Thanks for the advice. Again, you are late.


The following mechanisms are being developed for the upcoming house placement test:
Limited Spawn: We will be limiting the shard to only essential NPC spawns (such as stablemasters) and will delete all others prior to opening house placement


Is it me, or is OSI all about "reacting" to problems instead of being proactive? This is a reoccuring theme for them it seems. They should've KILLED the spawn on ALL shards to lesson the load. Any idiot computer user knows the more you have going on in the background, the slower the machine. :/


Relocation: If a subserver becomes too crowded, we will ask players to relocate based on certain criteria. In the event that we are required to move players, we will be automatically relocating them to cities on Felucca and we will look at the following factors to determine which players may be moved:

If the player has no house deed
If the player has a house deed, but it is not appropriate to the current phase (for example, a small house deed during Phase 1 Castle placement)
If the player currently co-owns a house
If the player currently owns a house
If all of the above players have been removed from Trammel subservers and the situation continues to remain critical, we will begin randomly selecting players for relocation to Felucca.

In the event that we are forced to move players, the relocated players will be unable to recall or gate for a specified period of time. At this time, we have targeting 10 minutes, but that time period may change dependent on our test results.

Logout: Once a player has successfully placed a house, they will have 10 minutes to conclude house business before they will be automatically moved to a safe location in Felucca and logged out of the shard for a period of two hours.
Any player transferred to the Felucca shard will receive a moonstone allowing them to travel back to Trammel once they are able to return to the shard.

You know, at first I thought this was stupid, then I started laughing. All those [young] characters are going to be in for a rude awakening when they wind up on Felucca side and RoxXor J()hNnY and his buddies are all around the same spot you were camping on Trammel side. I am sure they would LOVE to show you their spot. Pretty freaking amazing if you ask me. And, you know, I honestly don't think most of these people wanted a house in Felucca. If they did, they would be trying to place there. Right? I guess. I quote Watts: e-mail them to tell them how fucking unbelieveably stupid and unfair that is.

There you have it folks. The greatest game ever created in the history of Online Gaming (look at the overall effect and impact of the game as well as what you can do compared to other games when you think on it) and it's run by a bunch of morons. How the fuck do they stay in business??

Sometimes, I hate this freaking game.

I need some Pepto.

Hasta.

•Xena Dragon..such a nice person

After examing your posts on our Forums and the Powergamer website we get
the impression that you are not the type of moderator we are looking for.

The amount of [censored] phrases in your posts on our Forums and your post
in the Powergamer website : "I found some interesting stuff at
Stratics..besides why go to that page anyhow? With all that out of date
info..bah. Here at UOPG we treat you right." made us believe your
interests lie with the Powergamers, and not with Stratics.

Regards,


Xena Dragon
Webmaster UO Stratics
http://uo.stratics.com/


Ah well..sure I have more interest in UOPG than UOSS..but I thought it would be fun to moderate at UOSS.. Sadly she cannot see that I know the difference between having fun and responsibilty..oh well..her loss.

•Now that I have ranted...

You guys thought I was kidding didn't you? This site is NOT for selling your accounts or items. It's not for you to say "hey I want to buy this, anyone help me"? This site is for POWERGAMING! If you know of a way to make gold, post it. If you know of a way to create a super character, post it. If you know of a way to help gain skill or have some cool, new PvP/PvM tactic, POST IT! If you are trying to buy or sell shit, go here or here. That's what THEY are designed for. Any posts are deleted asap. Think I am kidding? Try it.

I started getting ICQs from folks after the housing fiasco about houses being sold. :| WTF? Did you people just get extra accounts to sell them for ungodly amounts of gold? Hell, I am sure some of you got new accounts with 5-4XGM characters on them and this brand new tower just to sell them on EBAY didn't you? You greedy bastards. Talk about taking a hobby and turning it into a money making venture. American Democracy at it's finest. ::shakes head:: All you did was screw everyone with that shit. WhoTF wants to pay 940k for a Sandstone on an island? Well, someone bid that much. I kid you not. My reply when the guy asked me if I wanted to bid and told me about the latest being 940k? "Are you fucking nuts?"

My partner and I spent over 30k getting furniture and addons. It's starting to look great. She's even got a vendor there. I can't convince her that people want GM leather items (she's GM Tailoring) and really aren't interested in regular leather/studded (non-GM) items. ::shakes head:: Frustrating sometimes getting people to listen to me. Noone seems to. Anyway...

I started thinking and know what? I am not going to sell my main account. Ever. Just on principle. I can't see anyone playing Loren. It would feel like me going over to my ex-wife of 15 years house the day after we got divorced and this guy answers the door of the house you used to pay for and he's wearing one of your old bath robes. Yeck. Fuck that. And I would be a hypocrit. I bought this game to PLAY, not make money.

I hope you people that are done fucking everyone for a kilobyte of gold feel great doing it. ::shakes head::

I did do some lunch time stuff with Loren. Hunted Poison elementals in shame again (shush Glacier). Well, these mothers are FAST! You thought Air and Snow elementals were fast? These things outrun me on foot using an ADSL line. I think OSI added some stuff to the game without saying much. That's fine. I like surprises, but don't make things so fast that people on 56ks can't handle it. That ain't right. Thank goodness I got a horse again (not a White, but it will do). Careful with Poisons now. I will update the PvM page on elementals for you guys. Loot is wrong (yeah, I know, you already told me that; shush) and I got to update the Poisons now. Fucking a they are fast.

I remembered something that happened WAY before housing while I was waiting for my partner to log onto GL Friday afternoon. This guy walks by and says "hi". My first reaction was "great, a camper". I said "hi" back. I saw he was low on life and healed him. He told me a horde of lizards gave him some trouble. He also told me he was lost and trying to find Trinsic. He said he wanted to pledge to the Paladins and wanted to know how to become one. :\ Don't laugh...listen.

I thought for a second how I would reply. Loren had over her head "Ranger of Delucia" and he wanted to know how he can get "Paladin" above his. I explained to him that being a Paladin is an ideal. Not a title. That he just had to be true to himself and to everyone else and nothing can keep him from being the best of Paladins. He listened, and I knew he was confused by the questions he was asking. I explained to him that in UO there is no way to get those special titles via "pledging". I explained to him how you get those "special titles" (guilds) and gave him advice on how to do it. I started to smile. This guy had only been playing for 2-3 weeks and came from an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons background. So he was expecting to "pledge" to be a Paladin as in the paper and pen RPG. I thought that was great. I looked in my pack (I didn't want to leave my spot) and saw my +20 tactics broadsword of force. My oldest weapon. I had that weapon for almost a year. One of Loren's first magic swords. I walked over and gave it to him. I told him to use it well and NEVER lose it. It would take care of him if he took care of it. Off he went to Trinsic to start his journey as a Paladin. Damn I was smiling at the screen. And I am smiling now thinking about it. It just keeps me drawn in.

The night started well enough...you know the rest. Sometimes I hate this fucking game.

Hasta

•Still crying like a baby....

Man, this weekend sucked.

Everyone knows what a nightmare housing was this past weekend. Let me tell you about mine. And no, I am not writing this to the stories section. I don't feel like it.

I got on with Clyde at 5PM on Friday to double check my Tower and 2 story spots. Well, some shrubbery that wasn't there before just happen to be there that day. Fucking great. I looked at my cloth map and notice the Trinsic swamp area. Cool.

I get to Trinsic, walk around and mark 4 different areas for us (My partner and I; she's got the Tower deed) to place. I trade my house runes to Loren and started screwing around hunting with her. My partner gets home and she logs in. We get everything together and get ready to place. We recall into our spots then she logs off and I wait till she times out. I hide and log off.

The kids are fed and shooed off to watch Cartoon Network (quit fussing, better than having them bored to tears while I did this).

We try to get back in..."Entering Brittania". WTF???? After 1/2 hour Tina Hilfiger is on the screen. Great. Well, I am still looking at "Entering Brittania" on my screen. Great. After 40 minutes, I finally get in. 9PM...9:30...10PM. WTF? Then housing starts, Castles appear, and our first spots are partially covered up or campers appear. Tina doesn't like fighting with folks for things. We try to get to the other spots. I can't move. Not an inch. Well this is fucking great. After struggling and taking 5 minutes to recall around (that is EACH time I tried to recall) I find another Tower spot for Tina in an area that you have to place perfectly or no Tower will fit. She waits. I am still looking. That place is camped, I move on. Then I found it. My dream spot. Behind a castle and in it's shadow. I love it. We wait and start munching on food. People are screaming at me via ICQ that they can't get in and everything is screwed. I check the UO fyi board. Something about Internet connectivity problems. ::ducks the nose stretching his way:: Yeah, right. 1/2 the people I know on GL cannot log on, the other 1/2 are struggling with lag. People on other shards are screaming they can't get on either. WTF?

I read the FYI board again and get a solid time for stage 2. 2 minutes till Phase II starts and we start clicking our deeds. Then the lag hits. Worse than before. Fuck. Great. After what seems like forever, Tina gets her Tower graphic, she places. Great. I finally get my graphic, and I miss (fucking lag). The deed disappears. Great. 60 seconds to get it back. Fuck you, too. Then this guy walks in off screen. I see him, but I can't move. Then, I see a marble appear and covers a corner of where my 2 story is supposed to go. You son of a bitch. I was there for 2 FUCKING hour, and he comes in, and places? To this day, everytime I walk by that house, I get pissed.

Fine, fuck you.

Tina is all happy in her Tower. I am happy for her. I move on trying to find a spot. Any spot. Then I lock up in between 2 castles. 5 minutes, 10, 15, 20 go by. I STILL can't move. Fuck it. I log off, restart my computer and couldn't get back (I wasn't thinking straight so leave me alone). I wait, and wait and wait. 2 hours later, I get back on...and I am a fucking ghost. A GHOST!???? I go back to where I was and no body and nothing. I have already decayed. My guess is a group of lizards came in and kicked my ass. Oh, and they killed my white horse.

What makes it worse? I had my best sword. 2nd level durablity, +10 Tactics, Katana of Power. I loved that fucking sword. I get resed, no deed. No FUCKING DEED???? I guess it showed up in an inner pack or something when it "returned" when I logged off, huh? I am crying inside. All my work, my "dreams". Everything, gone in a cornucopia of OSI "we didn't anticipate the response" bullshit. Kiss my Puerto Rican dick you sons of bitches. I lost over 300k worth of items and that deed when Loren died. Not too mention, her dream is shattered. Ok, mine is. I got that deed BEFORE UO:R. Does anyone realize anymore how hard it was back then to make that kind of money? And NO, I didn't have any real mules. Loren hunted for that money. She went out in the wilderness and REALLY earned that money. I put off alot of in game friendships attempting to get the money for that deed. Not too mention the way I worked alot of Treasure Hunters to death getting treasure maps done (I got most of my money that way). (Thanks for the good work back then guys. I appreciated it.) Getting gold back then was not like this newbiezed (YES I SAID IT!) bullshit of harvesting gold we now have. Pre UO:R, you earned it.

Ok, let me back up. It's not the in game cost of the items that bothered me. UO gold and items aren't worth SHIT in real life. Yes, people buy UO items and accounts off EBay all the time, but if you can turn it off with a flick of a button, what is it really worth? All you people that bought your accounts are in for a rude awakening when UO dies. It's the time I put in. Alot of my life went into this game and it's gone in a "unanticipated" series of events (liers). And if you say that's why you are justified in selling those things for that much money, you are full of shit. Go build a car from scratch, THAT is worth your time and money you get for selling it. You are playing a game. We forget that shit in this MMORPG world. Where was I...?

I should be happy my partner has a tower and she gave me a floor to live in. I am and I am not. Why not? Because I wanted my own place on MY account. That's why. I have no house on my main account. My friends want to help. "Sure, got a 2story deed I can place?" I can't ask that of my friends and I won't. It's not fair. It's my loss and my problem (thanks for the weapons though Glacier; it was appreciated; I still miss my katana though :( ). A friend told me to call a GM. Why? So I can be number 20000, wait for 2 hours, and they just come in and tell me they "can't replace items lost?" Not mad at that friend, just that it was not worth the trouble.

People are still calling me via icq about how fucked up it all is. I feel with you guys. All of you. Alot of people quit this weekend. And I don't fucking blame them. OSI fucked up. Lag was horrid after the housing stages. I went to shame and almost bought it to a Orc Lord, Gazor and Ettin outside the entrance on Saturday. Loren doesn't get killed by much anymore (except the Poison, Air, and 2 Fire elleys that caught her in Shame Sunday Afternoon). But to get lag fucked, and lose all of that?

I almost quit. I really really did. I got a small on my second account ("Hammers" Pad) and a small house on my main account on Pacific. But it's not the same. I had dreams folks...and those dreams got fucked.

And I cried like a baby about it.

Hasta.

•Alls quiet on the western front.

I thought id take advantage of this little break in action to give you a few views on how things are in the UO community.

1) Housing

You know, ive run out of things to say about this..Three shards have housing, and the rest of us are left out in the cold. Literally. Now I personally am fine, but I feel for the others that are living in their bank box. In closing for this..ill quote someone "BRING BACK HOUSING BIOYTCH"

2) Mace Weapons

Mace is a joke, even at 50 percent 60 is to much damage for one swing, I think 40 per swing should be tops, at least that requires more than 2 hits to kill someone..still it is a step in the right direction. I doubt very highly OSI will tweak it any farther than that however.

3) Lumberjack/Swords

As you know this is the overall template for the majority of the Death Squad people. Its very good in both PvP and PvM. The one thing that stops it cold is shields. After Galahad reported on this I went with a friend to TC and tried it. I was surprised just how much ...it sucked.

4) Mages

LOL what mages

5) Factions

Sadly..this is getting wrote off like dear Necro and Alchemy, at least thats what I think...we will see it in UO2, I should say you will see it, I won't be in UO2.

6) OSI

I mean open your eyes people..Morale is low for the players..they see you only want the cash flow..I respect Tyrant for posting that letter, but it seems like to little to late. Will I be quitting? No..not yet..I have things to do in UO between now and then..will others? Damn right..and alot of them too.

•Let the madness begin (Updated!)

Since it's too late to go for beer and I can't log back in to UO to hear all the castle bitching going on in Trammel right now, I'm going to do something I haven't done in over a week - update on UOPG.

For anyone who missed the the restart of house placement on the Eastern US servers, it was... interesting. I got killed twice just running around looking for a spot, and lost a 3-way race for a small tower just outside Trinsic on Felucca. If you play on one of the shards that haven't started placement yet, I'd like to offer some advice - log in well in advance of the start of castle placement, and carry runes to back-up locations. As soon as things move on to the second stage of placement (towers), you will have a VERY hard time even logging in to the OSI main server, much less the individual shard servers. And bring lots for friends who don't mind getting a little red if you're camping a spot.

Now I guess we'll see just how much lag all the new houses will end up creating. It's a brave new world, people.

LATER THAT EVENING...

Well, looks like OSI has boned this one up real good. The message boards are full of complaints about deeds disappearing - not just for a minute, but GONE -, and it seems as though a large number of people (me included) are completely unable to log in. Chesapeake has gone down in the middle of Stage Two. The only thing louder than the calls to revert the servers and try again are the calls from people who managed to place & are pissed at the prospect of having to do it all over again (me included).

Is it just me, or did it seem a LITTLE unwise to do all the North American shards at the same time, and on a weekend night (traditionally a heavy time for Internet traffic... you know - porn 'n such)?

•Let the madness begins!

Since it's too late to go for beer and I can't log back in to UO to hear all the castle bitching going on in Trammel right now, I'm going to do something I haven't done in over a week - update on UOPG.

For anyone who missed the the restart of house placement on the Eastern US servers, it was... interesting. I got killed twice just running around looking for a spot, and lost a 3-way race for a small tower just outside Trinsic on Felucca. If you play on one of the shards that haven't started placement yet, I'd like to offer some advice - log in well in advance of the start of castle placement, and carry runes to back-up locations. As soon as things move on to the second stage of placement (towers), you will have a VERY hard time even logging in to the OSI main server, much less the individual shard servers. And bring lots for friends who don't mind getting a little red if you're camping a spot.

Now I guess we'll see just how much lag all the new houses will end up creating. It's a brave new world, people.

LATER THAT EVENING...

Well, looks like OSI has boned this one up real good. The message boards are full of complaints about deeds disappearing - not just for a minute, but GONE -, and it seems as though a large number of people (me included) are completely unable to log in. Chesapeake has gone down in the middle of Stage Two. The only thing louder than the calls to revert the servers and try again are the calls from people who managed to place & are pissed at the prospect of having to do it all over again (me included).

Is it just me, or did it seem a LITTLE unwise to do all the North American shards at the same time, and on a weekend night (traditionally a heavy time for Internet traffic... you know - porn 'n such)?

•AW DAMMIT!! I MISSED IT???

I got this email earlier in the week:
Dear Battle.net Stress Testers,

As we promised, we wanted to alert you that the Diablo II Battle.net stress test will be coming to a close this Monday, June 26th at 8:00 a.m. PT in order for us to prepare for next week's launch of Diablo II. We want to extend a sincere thanks to all the beta testers who have logged many hours helping us optimize servers during the last few weeks.

But, before we bring the test to a close, we want to push the servers to the maximum by getting as many players online in one day as possible. To that end, we are asking that all beta testers log on and play this Friday, June 23. We hope we can count on each of you to log on and take your stress test character for one more adventure through Act I.

Thank you again for all your time and effort in making our stress test successful. We hope to see you on Battle.net after the game launches.

Blizzard Entertainment


Um...I never got an email saying I was a stress tester. Does that mean I missed out on it??? I emailed them asking about it, but I haven't had a reply yet. Are they ignoring me? Are they saying "oops, we fucked up?". I could've played DiabloII early!??

::starts yelling cursing...you hear somethign falling on the floor...like the sound of a printer being pushed off a desk then a scream that sounds like a like a deathmoan in UO:: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Tell me I didn't miss out on this shit!!!????

::starts crying like a baby::

Maybe housing tonight will chear me up.

THEY BROUGHT BACK HOUSING BIYOTCHES!!

Hasta.

•The Hunt Continues...

I am sorry about not posting yesterday. My boss has been hounding me for some script he wants written. His famous words: "Fix it" still resonate in my head over and over. Fucker. Great, my boss's boss just came in asking about it. Whatever. If it was so important, he would've trained me along time ago on how to code it right? Anyway...

Death Squad is ready to make it's run. Go check it out.

I posted a story about Hammer's adventures in the stories section. I had edited it and added a screenshot. I hope you guys are entertained by it.

Hasta.

•A whole slew of new info.

While on my morning jaunt around the web I found some interesting stuff at Stratics..besides why go to that page anyhow? With all that out of date info..bah. Here at UOPG we treat you right.


Publish Update

We will be publishing the features listed in Testing for Next Update to all shards starting on Thursday, June 22nd (CST). The publish will be active on the North American and European shards following their return from maintenance on Thursday, June 22rd (local server time). The publish will be active on the Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Australasian shards following their scheduled maintenance on Friday, June 23rd (local server time). The features listed in Testing for Next Update are currently available on the AOL Legends and Siege Perilous shards.

Staged house placement has been moved from Testing for Next Update to General Testing pending the release of the current publish. It will be returned to Testing for Next Update following this publish release


Now is it just me, of is this OSI's sneaky way of pushing housing back even more? Man..this is bullshit..just plain bullshit.

Felucca Town Changes: North American Shards
Updates made during today's maintenance period have resulted in some changes to the guard areas (towns) on the Felucca facet of the North American shards. Currently, guards will respond to monsters in towns on Felucca, and you will not be able to cast any 'offensive' magic spells within the guard areas. We are working to return these facets to their normal state and will update again you once we have a timeline for the resolution.

LOL Mages get the old *pick up my soap* treatment again. Its bad enough for Mages to survive in town combat now that they really can't use weapons..but take the ability of magic doing damage away? And what you have is alot of free regs on the ground. The no more monster part is just great though, I hate going to get a key or a rune from the bank and getting mobbed by 10 ratman or 5 trolls. Its about damn time they clean up the mess from the Minax quest. You have to wonder if these that run quests like this actually have any desire for quests to work. Or are they just keeping the hounds at bay by throwing a chunk of rotten meat..think about it.



Ok, here is your chance to list the top 5 "bugs" currently within UO. I do not mean a client problem such as client crashing, rather an actual in-game problem. What I refer to specifically are ones that you see commonly, that you and your friends know about. Reproducible ones are great candidates, as well as ones that cause the most annoyances. Please send me these to my email address below. You can even title the email with the subject "top 5 bugs". Please do not reply here with ones that can cause harm to others, or allow for monetary, stats, or item gain in an unnatural manner. I will be taking the lists to the Dev Team.
*** Details and specific descriptions or examples are welcomed ***

Melantus
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online
Melantus@uo.com

Top Five Bugs:

1) Necromancy
2) Alchemy
3) Housing
4) Good Vs Evil System
5) Factions

I mean..a bug is something that is broke..or suppose to be there and isn't right??

•Weekly Interviews

Im going to be interviewing one person a week from both Hokuto and Drachenfels.

What im looking for is a standout..someone who believes they have made a difference in UO. Now im not only looking for a 3l33t pvp'er/pk If you started a tavern that is popular, thats great. Now I know this isn't UORP but we have a wide viewer base. If you see me around in game just come up and say hi.

On Hokuto find me as Vegeta, or Dr Blackstar

On Drachenfels I really only play River Blackstar anymore.

Ill likely do my first one this weekend so you have til then to let me know.

•The Soap Opera known as Ultima Online

I have always found guild politics to be interesting. I consider myself a born politician, but recently on Hokuto its just gotten plain silly. I recently pledged to join Guild *A* Now guild *A* and my old guild were rivals...but as I said..I play Hokuto for a release from Drachenfels. I pvp on Hokuto..I should pvp on a good shard but I dont feel like starting over. Anyhow Guild *A*'s Guildmaster and I were arch rivals..we came to a understanding and moved on. Now there is a guild called Guild *Z*...they are a bunch of..hmm guys with a warped sense of humor. In fact one of their members thinks he is going to replace Lord British..overall they are funny guys though..well they gave me shit for joining guild *A*. Then there is guild *B* who guild *A* is trying to war, but guild *B* isn't really a war guild like it use to be. To top it off there is guild *C* who guild *B* hates, and guild *A* are friends with. However, guild *C* fucked over Guild *A* Assitant GM. So therefore the second in command of guild *A* is mad at guild *C*

Now, I know this sounds like a college algebra equation, but I am trying to point out something.

Guild Rivals make this game fun. More often than not PvP is all about skills, and reflexes, and the like. But the one thing that escapes nearly everyone when they say whats the most important thing about PvP....

Your Intelligence. Keep that in mind when you ask whats the best PvP char..what to do about a slower con. Your mind is your most powerful tool.

*This has been a service announcement by Vegeta, have a nice day.*

•No juust no do dat to me???

Tina Hilfiger and I planned on going to the City of the Dead to work her swords (she's sub85 right now) on Bone Knights there. Was going to be chief healer to bring my healing up and play back up with my silver swords (katana for liches, long sword for extra BKs). That way I could work healing. Wouldn't you know it? The shards STILL aren't up yet? Fine, you think you're slick OSI? ::starts up Europa:: Uhn!!! How you like that shit OSI??? Think you are going to keep me from playing UO!?!?! NOT! I assume they are stress testing the servers for House Placement day. Yah, sure they are.

Anyway...

I have a character on there named Bubbles. My partners have Buttercup and Blossom. Give you 3 guesses who these are named after. Just something we thought up to do in our spare time when GL was acting flaky. It's a pretty neat idea. Anyway, you guys ponder that for a minute. I was in Europa's T:Moonglow beating on wolves and other small animals when people decided they could jump in on our training session. "UM...there is a wolf over there, a Hart over there, and a Llama over there". It's one thing to use wands, knives and daggers, but these guys were using freaking GM shit. I only had my newbie mace (yeah, Bubbles with a big Warhammer; that's freaking hilarious). Well, the guys were like "sorry" and moved on. Later we were beating on a hart taking turns healing each other when this guy runs up, says: "I newbee too" and starts wacking on it. "Um..sure, go ahead and jump in without asking". "Don't get all pissy about it". Point is, you didn't ask buddy. "NEWBIE!" ::takes deep breath...must control anger...:: I am going to find that guy someday with my Powerpuff Girl in Felucca (ok, I gave it away) and beat him senseless. First words out of my mouth after I cut his ass up is: "Who's the newbie now bitch?"

Isn't it amazing that the "NEWBIE" curse word is universal all over the planet? Fucking UO gamers. You guys suck!! :p

Gawd I hate that shit.

Anyway, pretty much a boring UO day. I have posted the pics of our DS event on the DS page. Go look at that if you are interested.

Hasta.

•Finally! A story...or 2.

I got the story of "Hammer" and Loren posted. FINALLY! Go read about it in the stories section. I have been so busy with personal, work, and Death Squad issues. Also, my work here has been taking away from my reading boards and getting information to you. I did get some goodies about Dragons and their loot. As soon as it's confirmed I will let you know about it.

I did get this email from someone about something Calandryll posted in relation to monster speed on SP:
This is a problem for people with dial up connections. Will the speed of monsters on SP be implemented on all shards when housing is scheduled? Will it be adjusted?

Calandryll:For now, that's the speed we will be publishing to the other shards. We are however, continually looking at the speed and could tweak it.
--Calandryll

I don't know what it's like on SP, but I know on Test Center, monsters were fast as hell. I don't think that is going to be fair to players on Dialups. Not one bit. I think OSI needs to REALLY rethink it. The game does not REQUIRE (per the box) that you play with an high speed connection. Someone is smoking crack at OSI again. Or is it Crystal now?

Personally, I think the AI should be smarter. Not faster. A Bone Knight can track you down if you have a slow con. And as anyone knows, you lag versus one of these, you could be seeing grey when your computer catches up with the server. ::shakes head:: Don't make them faster, make them smarter. Granted, I believe that someone on foot should NOT be able to outrun a Dragon. They fly. No way a human on foot would be able to out run that shit (but there should be options for getting away; ie-htf does a Dragon get through a small corridor after me?). But a person on a horse should have a chance to get away. Just my opinion. Any flames are welcome.

OMG! You have got to read the latest article over at Lum's penned by Arcadian Del Sol (I still want to know why we can't get stories like this; dammit). This guy lost his freaking Tower due to a bug and it won't be replaced. I KNOW GMs can replace shit. I KNOW it for a fact. If something is lost due to an identified bug, then the player should be reimbursed in FULL! There IS a way to look in the database and see what items a player owned. The problem is the people in charge are scared of "scams" (you can get around this by verifying player databases--even I know this) and that GMs will abuse this. Well, you make people accountable. You make the GMs fill out a form (whether electronic or on paper) detailing the whole scenario and get a supervisor to review it. He looks it over, check into it him/herself if need be. Once it's confirmed it's a bug, then you replace the players lost items. Folks, THAT is customer service. If my microwave blew up, I could take it back to Wall-Mart and get a replacement. Even if I bought the fucker (ok, I only went one day without the F word; sorry) a year ago. Yeah, this isn't Wall-Mart or Burger King (get it your way), but damn, what the fuck happened to customer service?

I hate this fucking game sometimes.

Hasta.

•My Findings on TC.

Well all you lumberjackers, I got some bad news for you. I was on TC today and could not beat a parrying warrior once as a GM lumberjacker with no parry. They would own me with any of the weapon classes, but whatever weapon they chose, I still couldn't win. DeathSquad members : Test this out for yourself. All these guys did was parry my hits and when they were low on hps would unarm the shield, and drink a G heal potion. I tried everything I could and could not beat my friends that were helping me with this. Maybe I just suck. Someone test this out for me and email me their results.

•Dupers Paradise

Well, lum posted an article by Markee Dragon here. Pretty interesting. OSI knows it exists (duh). And OSI knows it's screwing the whole UO economy (about time).

Quote From Markee:I have a verified auction on Pacific where a newbie deed sold for 50 million gold. How about Towers that are selling for 15 to 20 million gold. Heck it was only about 4 months ago that I verified a sale of a castle on Baja for 5 million gold. Now 5 million gold for a castle sounds about right but where the heck did the economy go wrong and we end up with 15 million gold towers? Not to mention a Newbie Deed that sold for an incredible 50 million gold.

Well hot damn. That's a seriousely broken economy.

Oh, and a great thing that most duping seems to occur on Pacific and the DS squad is on that shard and trying to get a large for our use there. :/ Speaking of which, Watts posted to the DS forum. :) Yeah, Watts of UOTerror. Pacific is his home shard and he's hanging with us. And you thought we were going to be big bad boys and girls on that shard? Now we got Mr. Terror himself. PacPlayers BEWARE! MUHUHAHA!

If you are duping. You suck. I hope you get banned. Cheaters never prosper I was taught while growing up. And in UO, if you are caught cheating by the men in Blue Coats, you get spanked, hard.

You can read my feelings about duping over at the DS page and how it relates to the DS Guild.

I am behind like 3 stories and 1 major DS Event post. I have said sorry enough times. I need to catch up. Real life is really starting to piss me off. It's getting in the way of UOlife :/ Priorities. Go figure.

Why can't we get information like Lum's group can? Dangit.

BTW: This post didn't have the F word in it. Wow. Maybe it's a new trend.

Hasta.

•Stealing.

Got this:

This method works only during power hour & is based on the gain from failure method. Pile a dozen or more dye tubs into a pack horse (the more items seems to gain more). Now instead of targeting individual tubs in the horses pack just target the horse & do a random steal. It also seems to gain more by taking a few steps after each gain. Last nite i gained 10.0 in power hour at 60 skill so gains are fairly often but it does work better if there is a few players in close proximity.

•Just when I thought it was bad...

It gets better :) Amazing what a good lunch, a couple of decent conversations and some kindness can bring to you isn't it?

I was on the phone for over an hour with a friend of mine that I served in the army with. And want to know what? He's been playing UO for over 2 years. The fuck. You never told me about UO??? BITCH! If anyone sees Furious or Vasilius on Chessy, tell him Nieves says: YOU SUCK! Hehe. We used to play AD&D religiousely while we served in the USArmy. It was awesome. We had a campaign we played for almost 2 years real time :). His template for Vasilius was one he used in my campaign. Supposedly Furious has over 100 kills. I am going to try and get him over to Pacific to join DS. We will see if he's REALLY that good.

I had a great time at lunch with Loren. Go to the stories section in about an hour to read about it. This is where the kindness kicked in for me.

Thanks to Cloud (both of them; Yes Cloud of BDA, I know 2 of you ::grins::) for helping. And a shout out to Shalan of Delucia.

Quick Reminder: Don't CALL ME NIEVES IN GAME! Call me by my character name. It's my personal preference thank you.

Oh, if you haven't been paying attention, the RAGING WALL debate is still going on in the Spiels/Rants section. It's taking EVERYTHING I got not to reply. And you guys know how I like to rant, rave, and write.

::must resist::

Hasta.

•Hey, while you are down, let me kick you a couple of times...

I am really having a great fucking day. Check this thread out.

Man, I believed in those folks. They were people I looked up to. Back when I was first starting to come into my own as a UO player and roleplayer (which is what I wanted to do in UO in the first place). It's all shattered with an attitude of "us" and "them".

Want to take a wild guess who 'lorendawood' is?

Please don't blast their board. They don't need that type of harrassment. Thank you.

Gawd, sometimes I hate this fucking game.

Hasta.