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May 2002 News:
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^ top-ImIsCoR's State Of UO Address
[Nieves] May 31 - 9:20 PM EDT | Game-An active interest or pursuit, especially one involving competitive engagement or adherence to rules. Lets look at this carefully. What does UO need to do to be a "game". First it needs a crowd that has an active interest or pursuit in it. Second, it needs competetive engagement. Third, adherence to rules. When a huge corporation such as EA has a product as successful as UO, they must be careful with what they do to please the general public. If you make something that pleases one group you may be successful, as long as it doesnt displease the others. The problem UO is faced with is that of trying to appeal to all the different groups of players.
Publish 16 is a massive publish that has to appeal to several groups, and in some cases it does. Furthermore, one could also raise the
argument that this is an update for the Feluccian, or the unwanted child so to speak.
In the past we have seen several updates that target the majority
of players(Trammel Players), such as the noto system, the invention of Trammel, and so on. Now that Publish 16 is coming out the UO community will finally have an update for the more aggressive players.
When UO had to decide what goes in the update they made many poor decisions because they wanted to please the Trammel players(who the majority of dont like getting pked and/or fighting). These decisions include the looting rights and the 30 minute rule. These two rules are the heart of the problems with publish 16.
Think of a pker(or any pvper for that matter), as a car. What does every car need to run? Gas. Think of reagents and weapons as gas. For a mage pk or pvper the main thing they are in constant need of is reagents. For a towny pvper they need new weapons(more powerful weapons hopefully). Reagents or weapons are not on the loot list for a blue who dies. This would be like running a car that needs Supreme Unleaded gas with diesel. This simply does not work. The pvp system that is intended for the dungeons will fail miserably because the pkers will lose interest. If one has to refresh regs every ten minutes because the people they are killing do not have any to give they will soon tire of fighting. The fighting is the essence of fun
for the group that this publish is targetting. The REASON they are allowing powerscrolls and pking in this area is to catalyze the growth of the pvp scene on the shards. The reason for this is because back in the day (97-98) when there was pking and dread lords, everyone loved UO. The reason they loved Uo was because there was a risk involved with going out, and fighting is the ultimate game.
There is no thrill greater than fighting another human being. Killing monsters gets old very quickly. UO has finally realized that the thing we need as a human race is the chance to challenge one another in combat on this game. This is the true competition that is
necessary to make a game fun. More fun=more money for UO. If they plan to put in this poor decision of having no regs or weps loot then the system will fail.
Factions combat failed because all the pvpers did not like having to wait 20 minutes after each death. The Faction sizes compared to the first weeks of factions are considerably low, b/c the system failed. If UO does not change the 30 minute rule or loot rule Publish 16 will ultimately fail and we will all then wait for a publish 17 that is designed to introduce something to replace publish 16.
Regardless of what UO attempts to do they will never be able to please every audience with their updates. The only thing that we can hope for is that they realize their mistakes before we all get tired of these fiascos and quit.
-ImIsCoR
Hasta. |
^ top-Breaking It Down For Ya
[Malis] May 31 - 5:22 PM EDT | Resource and
Crafting Changes
- Several new rewards have been added to the Blacksmith’s
bulk order system.
- Prospector’s Tool.
- Powder of Temperament.
- Blacksmith Scrolls of Power
- Gargoyle’s Pickaxe.
- Blacksmith bulk order system changes include:
- The reward value for items with an exceptional
requirement has been increased.
- Large bulk orders will now be received for sets of
weapons.
- Grandmaster smiths will now have a greater chance of
getting bulk order deeds with color requirements.
- Players will now be able to collect the following new
stackable resource types.
- Spined, Horned, and Barbed leather
- Bones
- Players with an appropriate amount of tailoring skill will
now be able to craft bone armor.
- Players on shards with Siege Perilous or IGR rulesets will
now be able to receive bulk order deeds.
- Armor crafted with colored ore now yields better armor
ratings the more rare the ore type.
More rewards is always good in my opinion, the one thing I
really like about this is the Blacksmith scrolls of power
granted this may make ASH a little cheaper, but I don't see this
hurting anyone just helping with the painstaking task of making
plate armor.
Better BODS also a plus, finally those damn weapon BODS may be
worth doing. Hopefully that full set of shadow ringmail armor
will get you more than a damn pair of ringmail mining gloves now as well.
New leather armor I like that. The whole bone
armor thing, well unless they increased the AR on it who gives a
damn its crap.
Love the fact that higher range armor values will give more
armor, maybe there will be a use for dull copper ingots now.
Tailoring Bulk Order Deeds
- Tailor NPCs will now issue bulk order quests to players
- Several new items have been introduced to Britannia as
rewards for completing tailoring bulk order deeds.
- Special cloth (20 new hues).
- Brown Bear Rug.
- Polar Bear Rug.
- Flower Tapestry.
- Small Stretched Hide.
- Medium Stretched Hide.
- Specially Hued Sandals.
- Tailoring Scrolls of Power.
Yippie More pixel crack, but hey what ever makes ya happy.
I like the Tailoring Scrolls of power. The
stretched hides, I find this funny more than anything else
all you fools that bought that crap in chests that you can't
move now enjoy your junk.
Barding Changes
- New items related to the Bard profession can be found
and/or crafted
- Exceptional instruments
- “Slayer” instruments
- Fire Horn
- Many changes have been made to the various Bard skills.
These changes can be summarized as follows:
- Difficulty-based barding
- Target limitations (targets cannot be influenced by more
then one of each bard ability at a time)
- Distance checks
- Line-of-sight checks
- Provoke changes
- Creature damage scaled based upon difficulty level
(weaker creatures hit harder than normal, stronger
creatures hit more lightly than normal).
- Peacemaking changes
- Target-specific and area-effect functionality.
- Enticement changes
- Skill changes to “Discordance”
- Discordance skill reduces power of NPC targets.
My main character for about two years is/was a bard so don't
even get me started on this one, granted I hate these changes but
I do see why OSI is putting them in though. Its too little too
late, unless they put some killer gold sinks in to suck in the
gold that's already out there.
Taming Changes
- Changes have been made to the animal taming and pet
control system. These changes are summarized as follows:
- Creature control “slots”.
- Improved pet training.
- Animal Lore functionality improvements.
- Taming process changes.
- Inability to tame “trapped” creatures.
- Creature taming skill-loss penalties.
- Taming difficulty changes.
- Pet loyalty changes.
- Pet behavior changes.
- Pack instinct.
- Pet bonding.
- Pet resurrection.
- Stable slot changes.
- Summoned creature changes
- A new tame-able creature named “a fire steed” will be
found roaming the lands of Britannia.
These may actually make me wanna make a tamer and not hate
everyone that plays one. A good thing for the few
weird people out there that actually bond with their pets no
more crying when the damn thing dies, just res it and nurse it
back to health kinda reminds ya of those damn pocket pets they
had in the mid 90's
Changes to Felucca
- A large number of changes have been made with respect to
the Felucca facet. These changes include:
- Changes to the Felucca dungeon and Lost Land player
interaction rules
- Changes to the conditions of the “Murderer” status
- Changes to the conditions of the “Criminal” status
- Changes to the conditions of thievery
- Improved resources in Felucca
A thief will be a lot more fun to play
in my opinion if you steal and someone gets ballsie enough to
wanna get it back by attempting to own your ass, now you have the
right to show em not to mess with a thug.
I'm one of the few people that actually likes the pk thing,
granted the loot would be nice to get from killing your prey,
unless your poor as shit you enjoy the hunt much more than the
loot from pking. The 30 min timer
does suck though.
Housing Changes
- Houses will now auto-refresh under a more limited set of
conditions.
I like the auto refresh but come the freak on if someone has
houses on all shards let them auto refresh all of them don't
make em pick just one. At least they are allowing those people to do it the old way.
Guaranteed Gain System
The core of this system is the guarantee that if you play
"normally", you will gain skill.
- Players will continue to be able to gain skill when
successfully performing an action, with the following
additions:
- Under this system, if the player has not gained a point
after successfully performing an action within a specific
time period, the next successful attempt will result in a
skill point.
- There will be a limit on how many skill points a player
can earn through the GGS during each day.
- This will not affect the current use-based skill check
system. Players that reach this limit can continue to gain
skill through the old system.
- This system will replace the old ‘Powerhour’ method of
gaining skill.
Many see this as the death of powergaming, I don't how ever a
few skills will get racked over the coals by this, but for the
most part everything is still doable it'll just take longer.
The only people I see this hurting is the new players since they
won't be able to make characters as quickly to compete. Some see
that as good, I see that as a double edged sword, On one hand you
have your player base that will take that much more pride in
building a character so they can be leeto like everyone else,
but on the other hand you will have those that say this
sucks I'm going to play something else.
Evil-in-a-Can Changes
- Many changes have been made to the “Evil-in-a-Can” spawn
system. These changes are summarized as follows:
- Champion status shrines.
- Undead creature group.
- New, dynamic, Felucca spawn locations.
- “The Harrower” super-champion monster.
- New paperdoll titles.
- Monster spawn changes.
- Spawn timing changes.
- Champion spawn changes.
- Creature group changes.
I like the idea of bringing these to Felucca but the rewards could really use some work.
Like everything else most people take advantage of a system before osi notices its broken.
Changes to Combat
- Unarmed “to-hit” changes (chance to get hit while unarmed
is now the better of either Wrestling skill, or an average of
Anatomy & Evaluate Intelligence).
- Tactics will not influence damage when above 110.0 skill
as much as it previously did.
- Players will no longer be able to “run away” from
arrows/bolts.
- The dexterity stat will no longer affect at what point in
the swing animation a hit or miss occurs.
- Mace weapons will now do less damage to armor then before
(but still more then other weapon types).
- Staff weapons will do the extra stamina damage that “true”
maces do (they still do not get the extra armor damage that
“true” maces get).
- The damage done by the earthquake spell has been
increased.
- The 8th circle summoning spells will now have a normal
spellcasting delay.
- Purple potions deal extra damage based upon the thrower’s
alchemy skill.
- Ethereal mounts will now have a 3-second “summoning”
delay.
- Bolas will now deal damage when successfully dismounting
their target.
- Bolas will no longer require the tactics skill to use.
OMG I love these to tell ya the truth, I was actually thinking
of leaving UO but these changes right here might keep me around
the whole anatomy+eval/2=Chance to hit unarmed just makes me
feel all warm in fuzzy inside. I can see a lot of new character
designs coming out of this. I don't fight with magic
weapons so the tactics thing is no biggie. URks are just
gonna clean up on Great Lakes since you won't be able to run
away from arrows anymore be afraid be very afraid.
The dex thing kinda ticks me off that was one of the few
skill full things about playing a dexxer there is when you would
take a step back as your target swung missing his hit then
run in and hit him rinse wash repeate. I don't use
mace weapons so no comment.
EQ spell increased I can see it now three pks in t2a fel all
have protect on run up to a group of 8 blues they all cast eq at
the same time, three red lined pks 8 dead blues.
Purple Pots Alchy pk all the way.
Ethy's having a 3 second summoning delay umm okay no biggie.
The bolas aww the bolas I love it hopefully this will cut
down a lot on horse and bring back foot fights.
Changes to New-Player Quests
- A new “quest button” has been added to notify the questor
of any quest status changes.
- All quest text has been refined, shortened, and updated
with links to the Codex of Wisdom.
- Several quest steps have been improved and/or simplified.
- Quest monster AI has been improved.
- All quest gumps have been visually and functionally
improved.
Um okay
Miscellaneous Changes
- Players will now be able to gain in the
Justice virtue.
A new category of items will be found in Britannia.
- Skill Scrolls.
- Stat Scrolls.
Player “bones” will now follow the same rules as player
corpses for being looted.
Furniture dye tubs will now be usable by appropriate
players when locked down or when in that player’s backpack.
“Young” characters will no longer be able to travel to
Felucca. Young characters logging into Felucca will be sent to
Trammel.
Justice virtue is a joke in my opinion because it relates
directly to the skill scrolls which are evil no one should have
over 100 resist 120 resist I have a feeling poison will be
resisted every time.
Player bones will follow same rules as player corpses for
being looted = you want loot go grey bitch
No more youngs in Felucca good they don't belong there and
Fel house fall camping will be what it should be one big ass
fight.
Bug Fixes
- Sandstone houses will no longer have a “hole” in one of
the wall segments.
- Items should no longer “fall” through the steps of a log
cabin.
- All items that can be used for crafting will list their
number of remaining charges.
- A bug that could result in players being alive on one
subserver and dead on another has been fixed.
- Players will now receive a message when the archprotection
spell fails to take effect on a target in range.
- Stablemasters will no longer spam the names of their
inventory when the stablemaster is created.
- Bolas will now properly dismount players on Unicorns,
Ki-rins, and Ethereal Mounts.
- Players will no longer be able to use items that are
stored on stabled pack animals.
- Some misleading messages in the new-player tutorial area
have been fixed.
- A bug that allowed players to enter houses they were
banned from has been fixed.
- Players accepting a guild war invitation will now receive
the correct message.
- Gypsies in Illshenar will no longer report incorrect
inventory descriptions.
- Players will no longer be able to steal from Guards.
- A bug that could prevent locked-down forges from working
correctly has been fixed.
- Thread will now work correctly when used on a loom.
- Players will no longer be able to use items of
teleportation to gain unauthorized access to faction
strongholds.
- Forges will now play the appropriate sound under all
conditions.
- Some vague Bulk Order Deed text has been clarified.
- Players will no longer be able to use health potions
unless they are damaged.
- Items that are un-equipped while the wearer is already at
their item limit (125 items) will drop to the ground.
- Various erroneous system messages have been fixed.
- Players killed by guards will have their hit points set to
zero under all circumstances.
- Players will no longer be able to gain the snooping skill
by using the skill on barkeeps.
- Treasure chests will no longer appear below ground level
or upon invalid terrain.
- Players with over 100.0 mining skill will be able to use
mining specialization books.
- Various “rares” that were improperly renamed to seem like
normal items will regain their proper “rare” names.
About time they fixed sandstones hell I mean they only been
out for two years. Woooo Whoo bolas work on everything now
lets see you son of a bitching Nightmare riding ass holes run
past me now. Bunch of other misc. crap, and all
you rare collectors out there get to have new names to make ya
happy.
Malis Out |
^ top-Various News
[Nieves] May 31 - 4:24 PM EDT | This thread is the official UOPG thread for Publish 16. Please put all your thoughts, comments, finding to that thread. All other posts will start disappearing in a day.
Also, I am hearing that the rare the ore type, the higher the AR it gives to armor. My question is, does this affect shields? If yes, I am thinking Shadow Armor with Valorite Shields will be good for parriers. Cheap and effective. And it looks kind of cool. Kind of.
And the smithy business for armor will skyrocket. For those that buy their armor, expect the prices of the armor to go up. People are greedy like that.
Or, smart players won't buy armor (which is sad for players that play to craft). They will mine or buy the ingots they need and stockpile, then get their 7XGM Mules out and just make their own armor sets.
Someone find out for me if the higher AR for ore type affects shields?
A note: This sucks. Why? I am hearing that a full Valorite Set will have more AR than a Invulnerable armor. No, that's not why it sucks. It sucks because YOU CAN'T LOOT IT IN CERTAIN AREAS OF TRAMMEL! WHERE IS THE RISK VERSUS REWARD IN THAT!?
Also, I am hearing people mumbling about Macers being nerfed. Yes, Macing weapons won't have as much oomph which really really really bothers me. But the Qstaff sucks stamina now (even though lots of damage still = stamina drain) and that is good. If you can't run (and are out of Refresh Potions), what does it matter how high your AR is?
Anyway, I know you have been waiting for my review of what's in the FYI release for Publish 16, but I am waiting for more reports from various players on what's going on with people on Test Center 2 before giving a good, experienced, write up.
Wait for it.
Hasta. |
^ top-Initial Bard Testing
[Nissa] May 31 - 11:13 AM EDT | I logged into Test Center 2 last night to test the new bard changes. Unfortunately lag was terrible, especially in the towns where every single person (including myself) would dump all the excess stuff out of their bank boxes. There had to be over 300 moonstones all over the place. Note to OSI: Chests for dumping garbage would be a great help. While not everyone would use them, a lot of people would and this would really help out with the lag. At one point, I was taking a step every 10 seconds or so. Brought back horrible memories of playing Chesapeake in late 98/early 99 when every day was like that!!
After spending some time making armor, musical instruments, buying a horse, getting spells setup and making sure macros were all set, I was ready to go.
My template was 7x GM (magery, meditation, magic resist, provoking, enticement, peacemaking, and muscianship). My bard character on Chessie is 6x GM with 89 enticement, so I wanted to play a character that I currently play.
I really wanted to test dragons, but with the lag and my lack of time to walk to Destard, Wind, or figure out how to get to the Deamon Temple, I decided to hope into the gate over to the Valor Shrine in Ilshenar.
I first headed over to the Cyclops camp. I successfully provoked 2 cyclops. First noticable difference is that information now appears on the screen above the monsters. It indicates how many tiles away the monsters are from the bard. It displays the the combined skill of the 2 monsters.
In addition if you run off screen, there is a counter that appears on the screen indicating how long you have until the monsters stop fighting because you have broken LOS. There is a counter for each monster which appears every second counting down to 0. So if you have 5 monsters fighting and you invis or run off the screen, that counter could get quite large. When I get on again, I will test that further.
While the cyclops were fighting, I used the discordance skill (which still appears in the skill list as enticement) on one of the cyclops. If discordance is used on a monster, it will now have the graphics that appear when you cast greater heal or reactive armor. That twinkling (for lack of a better adjective) will continue on that monster until it dies. When discordance is used, a message appears that the strength of that monster has diminished. Once discordance is used, especially when provoking 2 of the same monsters, there is a difference in the time it takes for one to kill the other.
An ettin wandered onto the screen and I used peacemaking on him. It will take a little while to get used to clicking on monsters after using the skill. However, it is very cool to be able to stop one monster while the others continue fighting. Nice added feature that will make peacemaking a more useful tool for the bard.
A titan spawned while working on these monsters. I provoked a cyclops onto the titan and then used discordance on the titan. The cyclops had no problem with him.
I also provoked a drake onto a wyvern. Failed the first 2 times I tried, but was successful on the third try. I then used discordance on the drake and the wyvern then proceeded to kick his ass.
All in all, my first night out wasn't that bad. But I didn't really get into any big bad boys. I simply ran out of time and was too tired to stay up any longer.
Tonight I will do some testing with a treasure hunter using the same template that I am currently using to see how I do on each level. And if time allows, I would like to test my bard character on tougher monsters with a more intense spawn. |
^ top-Get Resist Done Now
[Nieves] May 31 - 6:30 AM EDT | Yes. Creatures summoned with Summon Creature, Blade Spirits, and Energy Vortex each take up 1 control slot. Summon Daemon takes up 5, Summon Fire Elemental takes up 4, Summon Water Elemental takes up 3, Summon Earth Elemental takes 2, and Summon Air Elemental takes up 2.
Also, the 8th circle summons (except EV) are much more powerful than before, and much more difficult to dispel. While the Earth Elemental and Air Elemental take up the same number of slots, the Earthy is more melee oriented, and the Air is a spellcaster type.
Oaks
Oh yes, Publish 16 is the serious Nerf Stick.
On the plus side: The mages among us will care to read this. Especially you, Nisse.
Here are my Summon Daemon findings for TC2.
You cannot hurt eachother in trammel, at all. (didnt try with a guild)
Their HP still sucks.
However.. on the offense... wow.
All I can say is thank you for fixing those daemons offensively.
You can only summon 1 daemon at a time. Didnt try to get an ele.
Daemons are trreated as normal reds, in that they can be guardwhacked.
They cast very fast, very smart and very furious. Their magic hits hard now. They meditate extremely fast, easily recovering an ebolt in a few seconds.
They no logner summon as "a lesser daemon". they now are randomly named a daemon name.
They have the flag [summoned] above their heads.
It has more of a realistic feel to actualyl summoning a demon.
You can quite easily PK someone who is on foot with a daemon now.
All they need is more HP, and they'd be great.. tho it is a most definate improvement.
Thanks Teich and Gloval.
UPDATE:Janos! An update on one of those Blacksmithing tools from a SP player! That prospectors tool? It is a large black smith hammer, mine was dyed dull copperish. You double click it, then click on mountains and it tell's you waht ore can be found there...oooooo...useful!
Actually, that is useful. Sometimes the spawn changes/moves. This will help those that are dedicated to mining. But, you only need one if it doesn't have charges.
A note: For those of you that like these items but would rather buy than make or earn them, do some research. You might find that you only need to do minimal work or that the amount someone is charging isn't what the item is worth (i.e.- 200,000 for a Dragon Smithy Hammer).
Hasta. |
^ top-Running A Website Isn't Free
[Nieves] May 30 - 9:45 PM EDT | Especially one as bandwidth hungry as UOPG.
UOPowergamers, as of tonight, has acquired a sponsor: UOEmporium.com.
You will notice their banner at the top, left and right of UOPG now.
As everyone knows, I don't bullshit or fuck around with bullshitters. Nieves has done business with folks from UOEmporium. Those guys are fair and stand up guys.
Give them a chance and do business with them.
They will provide you with smooth and honest business transactions and your business will help keep UOPowergamers.com on the Internet.
Hasta. |
^ top-As Great Lakes Turns
[Lealla] May 30 - 6:58 PM EDT | Humph! And they say roleplay is dead! Well folks I can prove them wrong!
From our friends over at The Daily Herald we have these little goodies!
A few days ago, Lord Rath Stonesoul and Brother Marcus went to Britain to see if they could help the Order of the Silver Serpent and the long dead Edguardo.
As many people know, a warrior named Anton whom is a member of the Order of the Silver Serpent had been acting as if he was Edguardo, running around in yellow and blue, not to mention trying to cast the spells of a powerful mage. Much mystery has swirled around the death of Edguardo. There have been ghostly sightings in Nujel'm, strange occurences in Serpent's Holds, and other things that have led some people to believe the man is still alive.
It was just a few months ago that a crowd dismissed Anton's words of Basil and Edguardo being supernaturally binded.
the story continues Here
Hmmmmm, Shall we see what else is brewing at The Daily Herald
Can the rumors really be true! The end of The Cult of the Black Dragon is at hand!
The end finally came to the Cult of the Black Dragon in the year 368. Nero, General of the Order of the Silver Serpent, finally broke the camel's back. After almost thirty years, the General's campaign to destroy the Cult came to an end.
The time had come for General Nero to strike a death blow the Cult. After the long siege of Serpent's Hold, the power of the Cult had been drained to just a fourth of what it had been. With the orcs occupied by some new clan, the time was now.
Rumors abounded that they would try something else, so the decision was made to finally destroy them. The information that Rath Stonesoul and Brother Marcus had recieved from Antony only encouraged this action. Basil had something to do with the ressurection of Edguardo, and the only way to find out would be to take his body and study it.
Troops from the Highland Guard, the Order of the Silver Serpent, and House Stonesoul amassed to attack. The army was split into two parts and moved from both Britain and Trinsic to trap the Cultists. Resistance was met at several points, but was quickly put down. It was clear that the Serpent's Hold Alliance had fared much better since the Serpent's Hold siege.
The story continues Here
It seems the folks over at the The Crusaders of Virtue and The Fallen are having some fun!
Alaric could not force the dreams from his head. They haunted him by day and by night now. It was as if a great need pulled him. The Angel Enclosed wanted to be found. The Book of Radiance screamed to be released from its coffin.
Alaric called all the Crusaders he could muster for another attempt at finding the Key of Antiquity; a few answered his call. "Razor! Thank ye for coming and Gilhoa thou art a ray of hope. Servious thou hast done well to us in all they commitments," Alaric greeted each as they walked into the Monastery of Rose. "Hail Papas!" Razor said as he took his hand and shook it hard, "I have yet to see any of the Fallen about in the woods today. Mayhaps we'll have more success than we did last time?" Gilhoa chimmed in by drawing her deadly katana, "Aye Cardinal," she nodded to Alaric as she continued, "But let them come. I haven't finished with them yet!" A smile stretched across her face. Servious stood and nodded while he tucked his hand into his reagent bag to count his magical herbs.
"Then let us be at it. Let us hasten to follow the map to the burried remains of another templar teasure," Alaric said with serious looking approval from the others, "Razor, ye have the map and ye have journeyed to scout the region. Are we ready to embark?" "Aye, Father, we art ready. The location is in a dense jungle. I saw no healers about so we shall be on our own, but we should be victorious."
Flashing gestures and sparks of power lit up the dim chamber as Razor opened a gate to the unknown. Gilhoa, Servious, Alaric and Razor entered to find themselves deep in the jungle. A quick patrol reinforced the danger. There were no healers for leagues. Razor went about his business to determine the exact location where the treasure was said to be burried. Servious, Gilhoa and Alaric scouted the area, careful of an attack by brigands, creatures of the dark or those of the Fallen.
The story continues Here
And Last but certainly not least the Ranger Enforcers of Sosaria seem to be having too much fun!!
Loren gave what seemed a difficult task. Rath Stonesoul would not be king.
While watching one of his 'political rallies', she talked to many in the crowd and listened as they murmured about Rath's associations with the Cult. Loren then watched as dark members of The Cult and The Temple lurked in the background. Then the dark ones showed their support publically for Rath.
That was enough for Loren.
A leader is needed for Brittania, but it would not be Rath. A King should not be influenced by dark or evil forces. The Balance must be maintained. And The Balance is upset if the King is but a puppet to the evil powers. The Order of The Silver Serpent is dealing with The Cult. Loren would have Rath dealt with herself.
Roxanne and her Enforcers found the Stonesoul headquarters empty. Looking up at the tower Roxanne spoke a simple phrase: "Burn it".
The doors were broken down and the Enforcers, Araxas and T'Koda entered and began speaking words of power. Walls of flame began to form and envelope the tower.
the story continues Here
Till Next Time...
Lealla |
^ top-And Down Comes The Nerf Stick
[Nieves] May 30 - 4:26 PM EDT | Read about it.
Think about it a bit.
Then wait for my breakdown of the whole system.
Hasta. |
^ top-Rebuttal To View From A Trammy
[Nieves] May 30 - 6:56 AM EDT | Actually much to my surprise this particular Trammie (Trammilite is my preferred term) has actually hit upon the truth. I'd have to agree with him on a couple of points. Most people assume that Trammel was created because of the 'pk problems in Fel' or the game was too hard etc .... but I think (yup my opinion so if ya don't think I'm right .. so what ? It's just an opinion after all) that Trammel was conceived due to this persons most hated thing about Fel. The griefers. Yes it's true that in the pre - Trammel days that a lot (probably most) large gatherings were indeed interrupted by griefers. If the event was an in-town one then thieves showed up, snooped everyone there, stole a few times, spammed etc. And god forbid the event was out of guard zone as this would most certainly welcome a gankfest if it was publicized.
I remember many of these events, including once at the Mages Tower on
Moonglow when they were holding a summoning contest. It was one of the first major events that I attended in game and it started out very cool.
Mages would pair off and summon an animal, whatever came forth had to be used against whatever the opposing mage summoned. The first two bouts were very cool and fun to watch. A chicken vs a bear .. haha .. stuff like that ... then in come the gankers and all hell breaks loose. Things don't get to me too much so I thought it was amusing as I helped take a couple out and then recalled out when I noticed that the mages had no clue how to successfully defend their tower against such an attack.
Another event that comes to mind was a wedding with the groom dressed in Valorite platemail and holding a glacial staff. (Now this was in the days when not everyone had 3-4 glacial staffs in their banks). The event was disrupted by a pk gang who killed everyone in the wedding party. When this news comes to air you just say "Well what did he expect? That's what he gets for wearing that stuff out of guard zone in Fel."
So Trammel came about, so people could role-play in peace. So people could walk into a dungeon entrance and not be greeted by firefields, poison fields and a small gang of pk's hiding inside the entrance. So the game would be 'easier' for the newer population entering the realm.
But here's the main point I wanted to make. The game's original rule-set was centered around the philosophy that people would 'police' the pk and griefer population by themselves. And this is where the logic failed. It was easy to organize a pk group, they all wanted to do it, weren't afraid to lose the karma and their stuff, and worked together well. It was almost impossible to get a party together to go hunt pk's. No one wanted to lose their fame levels, no one wanted to lose their stuff, no one wanted to play policeman as it were. So in fact Trammel was created due to the failure of Felucian's (my preferred term) because this self-policing idea completely failed.
Your ideas are decent, but they won't happen. You simply suggest a complex on/off PvP switch which has been turned down time and time again by the development team. I've heard them say over and over again that a PvP switch is the last thing they want. You want a one-week PvP switch? Then join factions and resign the same day. You'll be orange for the next week and find plenty of opportunity for PvP. Or join and Order/Chaos guild for a short time.
No, Trammel is for role-play. Trammel is for those who want to hunt in peace from pk's. And griefers? Well let me just say that Trammel created it's own arrogant monster that in my opinion is more annoying then the griefers or pk's that you'll find in Fel. In Trammel we have the snot nosed brat that comes in and trash talks, interrupts your hunting spawn, they annoy the hell out of you and you can't do anything about it. Or the guy who cry's that this is MY hunting spot because I've been here for the past five hours hogging the entire spawn. At least in Fel if you come up and talk shyt to me, or come in and mess up the spawn I'm hunting I can waste your ass, loot your shit, and send you packing to the nearest healer.
And if you're good I can look forward to you coming back with your 'main' for a really good fight.
I also agree that this patch won't bring Trammies to Felucia. That's ok by me, I don't actively pk anymore myself so I could care less. More open hunting ground for me. When the resources get increased I'll simply hit the same spots I mine now and rack up even more. I look forward to the twinks being nerfed, tamers and bards need it really, and we all know that. (And yes I have both a tamer and a bard) The only one's who are bitching about it are the one's who won't be able to adapt, the ones who will have to actually work a bit harder in the game to get ahead. Oh and let's not forget the e-bayers. God forbid they can't take their 3-5 white wyrms into a dungeon spawn and milk out resources for their ebay sales.
But that's another rant all in it's own .. ;)
Well that's my take on it. Publish 16 has good and bad in it, it's not gonna fix Felucia like they hope it will, it will create all sorts of unbalancing problems with the power scrolls in PvP (like who the hell needs 125 taming to say "all kill'?). I don't have single character that has the same template they started with 58 months ago ... change is constant ... learn to roll with it and adapt to the new ever evolving realm that we live and play in.
My two gold pieces ..
Muad 'Dib of Atlantic
Nieves not adapt? Nieves will have his skill/stat scrolls. If you don't take advantage of what publish 16 DOES bring, you will be behind the power curve. And you don't want that right?
Over 1/2 of Pub 16 does suck, but, I will take advantage of the broken aspects of it.
You know, kind of like scribing demon scrolls with 11 mana, or The Make Last Method, or shooting through a sandstone, or ... well, you get the picture.
A quick note: double resource spawn in Felucca right? So that means Cove and Delucia become mining hot spots. I bet you OSI doesn't realize this and allows people to receive double the recources in those towns. Personally, you shouldn't get that benefit inside guard protection. But, as we know, it won't get 'fixed'. It will just go in 'as intended'. If OSI does realize it, they will just say 'oh, yeah, that shouldn't be like that', then start working on the next scenario and it's set of eye candy and forget about it.
Hasta. |
^ top-View From A Trammie
[Nieves] May 29 - 11:24 AM EDT | If you knew what was going on behind the scenes you would see how my finding this submition in my email box today is a funny thing (I had put it away to post it at a later date and forgot about it).
I believe in posting things 'as is' to allow people the opportunity to make their own judgements. And, if I have a strong opinion about something, I will reply and or comment.
This submission had to do with an article I posted a month ago about my opinion over Publish 16 and how it won't lure Trammelites to Felucca. Anyway...without further ado:
Okay, I admit it. I'm a Trammy. I play in Fel sometimes, but most of my characters are set up for PvM. I've been known to do a little PKing, but by no means am I a skilled PvPer. I do recognize that the best UO players are PvPers, and I have a great deal of respect for them. All that having been said, I have a few suggestions for making Felucca a more attractive place for all players.
So what keeps Trammies away from Fel? Fellators [as we Trammies call you guys *grins*] like to think we don't go to Fel because we are afraid of being pk'd. Perhaps some are, but I'm not. Sure a ganking can occur, but a little awareness of surroundings can limit those instances. I've only ever been murdered in Fel once in my 2 1/2 years of playing, and it was my own stupid fault that let that happen. No, you guys are good and all, but not terrifyingly good.
The real reason most of us don't go to Fel is harassment. I play mostly on LS. If an event occurs in Fel, someone will be there to disrupt it. Fellators talk about honor and all, but it seems there are a lot of you whose big thrill in life is griefing someone. I don't mind the occasional murder attempt. I mind the guy who jumps into a ceremony and spams over the speaker, or interferes in a duel.
So how can this be fixed? I mean there's a whole world out there mostly empty on each shard.
Well, first you guys can start to police your own. You know who the griefers are, and most of you know when events are scheduled in Fel. Hell, you pass announcements around telling people to gather to break up an event! Maybe a few of you guys could work in cooperation with the Trammies who want to know Fel better, and you could help protect an event.
But the heart of my suggestion is a method for opting into PvP. I suggest placing a stone in a guard area that players may double-click to opt in. When the stone is 2xclicked, the player becomes available for PvP for one week of real time. I suggest the player becomes purple instead of blue while this is in effect. It might even be possible to do this at two levels; one being full vulnerability and the other following Trammel looting laws. Maybe two different shades could be used to differentiate the lootable from the non-lootable. No non-lootable person could ever initiate a fight against a lootable person, but a lootable person could attack a non-lootable person. You can fight monsters in Fel, you can walk around in relative safety, but you can't loot anything unless you've clicked the stone. This will let the Trammies see Fel, and I've found that just being able to watch PvP can go a long way toward changing attitudes about it and eliminating the irrational fear many Trammies have of being pk'd.
Now some Fellators are going to hate this idea. But I think those are the guys who just want Trammies in Fel so they can murder the weak and helpless. They want to have someone to grief, and the last thing they want is a real fight.
This idea would work for me. I'd play in Fel more if a system like this was in effect.
*Dons asbestos suit* So what do you Fellators think of this idea?
Sluggo
Hasta. |
^ top-Are UO3D's Grahpics Better Now?
[Nieves] May 28 - 6:39 PM EDT | I went on to check out the new death throes animation. And they are pretty cool. Then I noticed something. The game play was smoother. The grahpics are ALOT cleaner and, well, you decide:
They say a picture can speak a thousand words, but you got to get on and check them out. Those pictures do not begin to show you how the graphics have changed.
Hasta. |
^ top-PATCH TIME!
[Nieves] May 28 - 12:46 PM EDT | Client Patch 3.08d
We will be releasing a client patch today, Tuesday, May 28th. This patch will contain the following changes (note that this patch does not contain the upcoming wearable art for the 3D client, which is still in progress):
3D client only
Framerate Countermeasures system added. This automatically disables graphical enhancements in low frame rate situations. Players can change the point at which this happens with a slider bar in their options menu. Setting this to 0 will make this feature never activate.
Particle system performance and stability improvements.
3D's shadows are now simple geometric outlines instead of layered polygons. "Blob" shadows also added for lower end machines.
Most gestures have been tweaked to play at better animation speeds. A new system for this change supports the ability to tweak other animation speeds as well in the future.
Fancy outlines around text tweaked to enhance legibility.
A small box on containers will display how many items are in a stack under the cursor.
Generic item counter interface also added to containers. This will give you a count off all the objects of a given type in a specific container. Note that only certain types of objects are counted in this.
Death animations will now play out completely. <-- Eh?
Both clients
Several party system fixes.
Ability to disable the menubar.
Stat and skill caps are displayed in the interface so the player knows what their limits are.
Skill icons added. To create, push your left mouse button down on a skill listing in the skill interface and drag it off to the side of the gump.
Many gumps that used to close when you died no longer will.
Misc bug fixes and client performance enhancements
Everytime I get mad at them, they do something to make me smile.
Stop it already. All the drama! I CAN'T TAKE IT!
Hasta. |
^ top-The Sky Is Falling!
[Nieves] May 28 - 11:44 AM EDT | Everyone has heard about my total disdain for Publish 16. I still think it's a bad publish because of over 1/2 of the changes being put in (makes me wonder what else they will slip in).
There are two things I read about in the last few days that had me concerned.
1) The rumor of a full 3D Client for Ultima Online.
A lot of people are crying over what they think will be a bad thing. I am a bit scared as well with the way UO3D went. But, on this one, I would wait. Don't run away just yet. Anyone remember how beautiful Origins/UO2 looked? How smooth the graphics looked and the characters and monsters moved? And it was isometric! Not EQesque.
Anyone remember that some of the UO2 technology was put into our Ultima Online? Why just throw all that code away? Why not integrated that existing code base and throw it into UO?
Wait for it. It might actually turn out to be good. Might. I will reserve judgement on it until there is an official release.
Note: For those of you thinking: "well Nieves, you won't wait for Publish 16 to be released before you bashed it!?" That's because I read what's going to be in it. And I thought about it for weeks before making my judgement on Publish 16. Not too mention I can 'feel' the impact to UO. Ask anyone that knows me about my gut feelings. It's scary to say the least!
2) I read some really scary shit from EA's last Financial Report (Thanks Noleeens for providing me with the link).
Our Revenues Have Been Heavily Dependent on a Single Product and Would Be Adversely Affected if That Product's Popularity Were To Decline
In the near term, EA.com's subscription revenues to date have consisted primarily of revenues from sales of our online product Ultima Online, and we would be adversely affected if revenues from that product were to decline for any reason and not be replaced. We expect the online game market to become increasingly competitive, and it is possible that other producer's current or future games could cause our revenue from Ultima Online to decline. In addition, popularity of Ultima Online could decline over time simply because of consumer preference for new game experiences.
Doesn't sound good. From what I understand though, UO has had a very good year. We will see in the next financial report.
If anyone takes the time to review the Financial Report, you will see that EA.com's only financial source is UO. And EA.com is running at a serious loss.
EA.com Has a History of Losses and Expects To Continue To Incur Losses and May Never Achieve Profitability
EA.com has incurred substantial losses to date, including the first three quarters of fiscal year 2002. We expect EA.com to continue to incur losses as it develops its business. EA.com will be required to maintain the significant support, service and product enhancement demands of online users, and we cannot be certain that EA.com will produce sufficient revenues from its operations to support these costs. Even if profitability is achieved, EA.com may not be able to sustain it over a period of time.
You can look at the numbers for yourself.
Then you got this:
Online Games Have Risks That Are Not Associated with Our Traditional Business
Online games, particularly multiplayer games, pose risks to player enjoyment that do not generally apply to packaged game sales. Players frequently would not be acquainted with other players, which may adversely affect the playing experience. Social issues raised by a player's conduct may impact the experience for other players. We have not determined whether or how we might monitor or proctor player behavior that impairs the game experience. In addition, there are substantial technical challenges to be met both in the introduction of our games online and in maintaining an effective game playing environment over time. Also, hacking and spamming has become a serious problem for online sites, and significant hacking and spamming could seriously interfere with online game play. If these risks are not successfully controlled and technical challenges resolved, potential customers for our games may be unwilling to play in sufficient volume to allow us to attain or sustain profitability.
They recognize they need to fix the hacking problem. I got an idea for you: "IF IT'S FUCKING PROVEN I WAS HACKED BY A DICKHEAD, GIVE ME MY SHIT BACK AND HIS SHIT TOO!" That will go a long way to increase OSI/EA's karma and fame when it comes to the hacking policy.
And:
We Have Very Limited Experience with Online Games and May Not Be Able To Operate This Business Effectively
Offering games solely for online play is a substantial departure from our traditional business of selling packaged software games. We have employed various pricing models, including subscription fees, "pay to play fees" and advertising. We have very little experience with developing optimal pricing strategies for online games. For example, our product Majestic and our Sports package, each of which launched with a monthly subscription pricing model , have obtained only limited commercial success to date. Accordingly, we have discontinued our Sports package and have announced that we will discontinue Majestic on May 1, 2002. Similarly, we are inexperienced in predicting usage patterns for our games. Because of our inexperience in this area, we may not be effective in achieving success that may otherwise be attainable from offering our games online.
[...]
We May Not Be Able To Respond to Rapid Technological Change
The market for Internet products and services is characterized by rapid technological change and evolving industry standards. Both in completing the design and implementation of our network infrastructure and thereafter, we will be required to continually improve performance, features, reliability and capacity of our network infrastructure. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in responding rapidly or in a cost effective manner to such developments.
Doesn't sound like EA has much faith in Ultima Online or in their tech folks..
Scary. But I will wait till the next quarter to see if EA's attitude has changed. If it hasn't, then I will be concerned.
OSI reps feel OSI/UO is fine, but, it's always a good thing to be optimistic...until the door slams in your foot.
We shall see.
Excuse me. I am going to get a titanium umbrella now.
Hasta. |
^ top-Nieves Has A Request
[Nieves] May 28 - 10:20 AM EDT | Would someone mind getting me OSI/EA's last financial statements?
I wouldn't even know where to look.
I would appreciate the effort.
Hasta. |
^ top-The ROT Mage By Janos
[Nieves] May 27 - 6:52 PM EDT | The “ROT Mage”
A guide on how to make Mage on Siege.
I have been speaking with many on these boards on making a character on SP. And over and over again I tell people to make a Mage. The type of mage you make matters little, as a ROT Mage is going to be very different from any other mage you may have previously created.
One of the major differences is going to be that it will over all be cheaper in the long run, but will take some time, upwards of 45 to 60 days to complete. You will not appreciate a Siege created character until you have taken the time to build your character up to this status. This is the appeal of Siege, a 7xGM shows you are dedicated and love your character and have actually worked somewhat to get what you want.
Then again some people cheese out and buy accounts on Ebay! :P
The hardest skill to complete on a ROT mage is Wrestling. On normal shards, it is the easiest of all skills. However the nature of ROT and having to hit something that is equal in difficulty can be quite hard. So I would always say keep this one for last!
A ROT mage, once past 70 skills basically can sit in any inn, or house till it is done. It’s getting there that is the battle. My biggest suggestion, though cheesy to some is to transfer funds from a shard over to Siege. Unless you want to experience starting all over again and gathering reagents and doing all the work, blah, blah, blah! That is fine too. But more than likely you got at least a few hundred 100k’s on another shard and it will save you some time and trouble. Mosher of CWS is one of the best brokers for Siege; you can get a hold of him on ICQ via 97180571. Tell him Janos Simbacca sent ya! :D
Pre-ROT (under 70) you will want to get on a boat and work your Meditation, Evaluate Intelligence, Margery and any other 8x8 based skill to 70. Whatever you do, do not simply log off on your boat! When you buy your boat your going to notice the damn thing cost over 100k! Unless your lucky enough to know someone to loan you one. You can’t just gate back to your ship if you get logged off at sea, believe me I had this happen and was lucky to find some people kind enough to go with me on their own boat to my boat. (Which goes to show you how cool some people are on Siege!)
Once you are at 70 the ROT begins. I am sure you will have quite a bit of each reagent. Then just write a macro in UOA and hit it every 20 mins, 40 mins at 80 to 98.9 and every hour to GM. Here was mine when I made my Meditation Warrior;
Cast Spell: Flamestrike or Ebolt – Margery Gain
Target Self – Resist Gain
Use Item – Bandage
Target Self – Healing/Anatomy Gain
Use Skill Meditation – Gained Med (usually didn’t need to run this part).
Now if I were making a Heal/Anatomy mage I would have also gained Evaluate Intelligence. This formula can be applied to nearly any combination. Its up to you to decide what it is your going to make, and that is the first thing you need to decide when you start on Siege! Some other skills that can be macro'd like this are:
Alchemy
Anatomy
Arms Lore
Blacksmith (I would do this one from home with a anvil/forge at hands reach)
Bowcraft
Carpentry
Cartography
Healing
Hiding
Inscription
Musicianship
Poisoning
Spirit Speak (why?)
Stealth
Tailoring
Tinkering
Now when you create your character, you will want to start with 50 Str, 20 Int and 10 Dex. Basically you will be casting Energy bolt to 70 practically! And with only a 6 stats a day gain limit, it will take you some time to get there! As well, remember that buying skills on Siege is a lot more expensive than on any other shard. You will need to train your skills up to 10 times (it goes down each time you pay) and costs 10 times as much as a normal shard does! But once you get some funds to train skills to their 30’s and buy a boat or borrow one to 8x8 your skills to 70, you are pretty much set.
As well, its been said elsewhere and I will say it here again. Be classy when you pick your name “m0nK3y RoXxXoR” may seem funny and cute, but people will attack you on site for no other reason than having bad judgment for 2 minutes. And for god’s sake don’t become another Raistlin/Rand Al Thor/Drizzt/any other character from a book/movie/show (mine excluded ;) ). With one character you will be known throughout that game as that name! As well, the guild you join and title you hang over your head will also determine many people’s attitudes towards you!
With all that said, I wish you all good luck and please come to Siege. With Pub16 ruining the game for many of us veterans this is our only salvation!
PS: If you can, get an Ethereal Mount – People like to kill mounts for no other reason than to piss on your corpse when you die. And you will die! Quite often.
To learn more please go to this site for another nice essay on Siege and learn more about the community!
Good write up Janos. Thank you.
Hasta. |
^ top-Inhale the Deep Dark Blue
[Fixxxer] May 26 - 2:53 PM EDT | It is an exciting time for the game industry. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, is in full gear and is "attended by 60,000 game industry proffessionals. Here is a listing of all the exhibiters and their press kits.
It can be a bitch searching a billion sites looking for all the news on your favorite MMORPG. A real bitch. So, I got all my info together and reorganized it by game title for you. Now lets dive into what happened in the biggest week of the year in the Deep Dark Blue:
E3 Sites
IGN.com- E3 News, plus they grabbed a bunch of comments from many game Devs.
Games Domain- What's hot at E3.
Fictionless Insight- E3 Awards.
CNN- Yea, even these bastards are talking about it.
HomeLan- Hotties anyone? Oh yea, there is also actual news scattered on the site.
Gamespot- E3 goodness.
The After- Interview on Futurelooks.com
Futurelooks.com grabbed The After LD William Phelps for an interview. A cut:
A short description of The After is a post-apocalyptic world that evolves as time goes by. At the release of the game, players will be in a wasteland of world where technology has been all but destroyed and people must use the most basic of weapons and technology, swords, clubs, and magic being amongst them. As time goes on and people research different technologies, the world will begin to evolve into a more hospitable place, going from a fantasy oriented world to a more modern era, and eventually to a futuristic landscape and technological age.
Anarchy Online- New German Dimension and Expansion Article
Funcom has added a new dimension (shard/server) for its German players. Named Die neue Welt, the dimension will be staffed with German speaking GM's and Advisors.
IGN.com posted an E3 article on the new expansion pack Shadowlands.
Asheron's Call 2- E3, Movies, Trailers and an Interview.
IGN.com posted some impressions about AC2.
You can find a new movie and E3 trailers in the multimedia section of the website.
An E3 interview with Lead Program Manager Matthew Ford and Product Marketing Manager Christopher Lye has been posted over a three day span: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. Whoever came up with this idea is a jackass. Just post the entire interview on one page damnit.
A Tale in the Desert- Newsletter and Play Session.
This game has become my most favorite of all betas. It is actually fun to play and not just beta work. The newsletter came out right before E3 started:
We're heading off to E3 tomorrow, so we won't have a play session this week. When we get back, we'll "make it up" with at least a 12 hour session. I'll send email with the details.
While we're gone, the server will be up in "Dev Mode" - that means that you can play, explore, build, but nothing you do will save. A few items are disabled during Dev Mode, such as the ability to dowse or build mines. At E3 this week, we're going to have an ATITD get-together on Thursday evening at 7:00PM at the Rosen Brewery, 400 Southwestern Avenue, Los Angeles. I won't be able to check email during the show, but I will check the forums section of www.ataleinthedesert.com. If you can make it, post there so we can tell the restaurant how many to expect.
Go download this beta and have some fun.
Atriarch- E3 News and HoC Posted.
Atriarch is at E3 this weekend and is looking for a publisher. The Stratics HoC also has been posted on IGN.com. Odd that Stratics has not posted it yet.
Blackmoon Chronicles- Newsletter 18.
Blackmoon is an interesting game. It isn't depending on l33t 3D graphics. Take a look at the screenshots, the game is like a living comic book. I love it.
Instead of a predictable, static story, Black Moon Chronicles offers a world with multiple sub-stories, famous and feared players, and the opportunity to organize events that make history in the game.
Newsletter 18 has been published as well. The city of Feyhin has been overhauled.
Call of the Warlords- New Download and 14,000 Users.
On May 14th, CotW hit 14,000 registered users (yea, it's a small game). The game is also available now at Tucows.com.
City of Heroes- New Release Date, Desktops, Movie & Article.
NCSoft and Cryptic sat down and realized that they have a long way to go. They do not want to release an unfinished product, so CoH will be released in 2003, rather than this summer.
Cryptic also released a couple new desktops. There is one for Heroes and another for The Fifth Column. Those two links led to 800x600. If you go to the news section, you can also download a 1280x1204 and a 1024x768 for each faction.
Gamesdomain posted a movie from E3. IGN also has an E3 article about CoH. A cut:
Part of the explanation is that there are several problems inherent in a massively multiplayer game where everybody is endowed with superpowers. For one, superheroes are superheroes because there are only a handful of them in a city -- we know these facts from comic books and Hollywood -- so it might initially seem unnatural for players. The designers have recognized this and are countering it by providing almost limitless character customizations, with a staggering 2.44 x 1024 character possibilities. That's several billion possible combinations
Dransik- Closed Beta and Server Restore.
Dransik is no longer accepting applications for beta and is beginning its closed beta phase. Due to a massive bug, Server #1 had to be restored.
Earth and Beyond- E3, New Website and an Interview.
Lots happening at E3 for EaB. Gamespot posted some screenshots.
EaB announced its new website. Though not yet finished, you can still get a good look at it.
A nice interview with Doug Chiang can be found on the EaB website.
Without a doubt, one of the more compelling aspects of Earth and Beyond is the ability to customize your own spaceship. And regardless of which configuration, color scheme, and equipment you choose, you'll know that the basic idea for your ship came from one of the top designers in the world -- Doug Chiang.
EVE Online- Interview, E3 Video, Newsletter & Pics.
EVEGate, a fansite, posted an interview with Pallantre.
Voidus of Sabaoth Inc posted on the EVE forums. He states that he has 2 hours of video from E3 that includes interviews, backstage footage, among other things. He states it should be publicly posted within the week.
And from the newsletter:
What we've done is we've taken all the EVE goodies shown at E3 and compiled them into a nice little packet for your enjoyment. In it you'll find a short movie showing, amongst other things, the in-flight UI; a new screenshot batch, also showing the UI; some marvelous concept art of stuff you'll see in later versions of EVE; and finally a couple of tunes for your listening pleasure.
However, they did not say when they were giving that to us. *shrug*
ALLRPG has posted some E3 pics and scetches.
Hi Pann! :)
Everquest 2- E3 Article.
IGN.com has an E3 impression of the new sequel. So does Gamesdomain.
Final Fantasy XI: Online- Delayed.
Though it does not state it on the main website, ALLRPG is reporting that:
Sony revealed at its pre-E3 press conference that Final Fantasy XI will not be released in North America until 2003. This may be due to the technical difficulties in Japan that occurred soon after its release last week. This comes as a huge blow to Sony since Final Fantasy XI is playing a huge roll in its online plans.
We expect to hear more about this delay directly from Square within the next few days.
Gundham Online- Something to Report!
The website simply sucks; nothing new is ever on it so I can't ever report anything! Alas, my friends at IGN.com have something to talk about from E3:
Imagine a game where you are in complete control of your destiny. You can join the military, become a bounty hunter, or own and run a shop.
Horizons- E3 News, Articles and Movie.
The Horizons Vault is keeping track of all your Horizons needs at E3. They have two additional interviews since last week, they can be found here and here. Again, there is no new info about the game. The interviews talk about the interviewee and what is his job responsibilities are. GIVE US SOME FUCKING HORIZONS INFO ALREADY! Sheesh.
Gamers Pulse has been tracking Horizons at E3. So has Gamesdomain, who also posted a movie.
Iritor Online- Website Launched.
It's about fucking time. I was getting sick going to the "Iritor Website" only to find out it is nothing but a messageboard. That alone would make you think it was vaporware... but in addition, the company making the game is called Wootsoft. The new website states:
Iritor Online is a third-person Massive Mulitplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORG) with incorporating several innovative and ground-breaking action elements. The game is set in a futuristic sci-fi setting that centers around humanities desperate struggle to survive on the alien planet Iritor.
The player will have a great degree of freedom in choosing his playing style, look and character development, as well as a much more action orientated combat system offering many tactical possibilities. Add that to breathtaking graphics with stunning effects, a quest system that guides the players through the epic story line and an update ethos that will guarantee an ever evolving world and you have a game that you’ve never seen or played before.
Lineage II- New Movie and Screenshots.
The screenshot section has been updated with new ones. They also added a new movie to their site.
LucasArts- E3 website.
LucasArts put together a special E3 website for the event. With news on games such as Gladius, RTX Red Rock, Indiana Joned and the Emperors tomb, SWG, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic and Star Wars: The Mace Windu Adventures- Use the Force Motherfucker.
Ok, so I made the last one up.
Motor City Online- Publish 6.2 and Custom Paint Jobs!
Publish 6.2 came out last Monday. A guideline for custom paint jobs was published.
Myst Online- Mudpie Anyone?
I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions on a game called Myst Online. A long time ago, for the hell of it, I visited Cyan's website and I noticed they snuck in, in the news, a new MMORPG called Mudpie. The screenshots were amazing, but that's all there was about the game; not one shred of info. However, that website vanished and this one now exists. Mudpie seems to have been renamed Myst Online (Working Title). Can anyone come up with anything besides XXXXOnline?
Upon further investigation, I came across this Press Release. Other articles on Myst Online can be found at Reuters.com, IGN.com, Gamesdomain and Cnet.
Check out these screenies: Lake, Shrooms, Building, Vault, Shrooms 2 and uh this. Impressive.
Neocron- New Subway System and E3 Article
In the latest news:
Venture into the depths of the new Neocron subway system, with improved stations and more attractive routes - you may even catch a glimpse of some city zones while traveling to the seemingly endless metro tubes.
Looks damn cool.
IGN.com comments on the nudity in Neocron.
Neverwinter Nights- Char Models, Teaser Movie and lots of E3.
5 new models are available for download in the Model Viewer section, including Ettercap, Wight, Intellect Devourer, and 2 spell effects.
A Teaser trailer can be downloaded by clicking this link.
Bioware is at E3. And they are documenting their fun in five parts: Part 1, Part2, Part 3, Part 4 and oddly enough Part 7. Who the fuck knows what happened to 5 and 6.
Gamespot has some E3 coverage. As does Ferrago, Gamers.com, Vault, Frictionless Insight and Gamers Pulse
Planeshift- New Client.
From the PS news section:
A new version of PS is available: 0.1.004. This version is REQUIRED to connect to the game. Version 003 doesn't work anymore. You can find the new version in the download section. Next time we will probably have an update server to reduce download size.
Who cares.
PlanetSide- E3 News.
E3 news from Gamers.com which falsely states:
PlanetSide is the first attempt by anyone game developer to create a massively multiplayer first-person shooting game.
Also, IGN.com has an article about this game.
Project Entropia- Clusterfuck.
When PE went open beta, everyone and their God damn sisters hairdressers fathers cousins landscapers identical twins fucking kid tried to download it thus causing a massive traffic jam. This forced MindArk to put up many mirrors of their client download.
Once done, you gotta figure out how to run the fucking thing.
Shadowbane- E3 Story & Char Creation.
IGN.com, yes it's them again, talk about SB's story.
Sims Online- E3, S.I.M.M. and IGN Again.
Lots of E3 goodness on the main site.
State of the S.I.M.M. address has been posted for May.
IGN.com, heh, talk about "the much wanted, vaunted, and always controversial persistent state online massively multiplayer iteration of the popular and gazillion selling Sims series.
Star Wars Galaxies- Huge week for SWG.
Dev Chat #6 will occur on Tuesday May 28th. Guests Raph Koster, Kevin O'Hara, Rich Vogel and Haden Blackman will talk about E3 and answer your questions about the event!
A new Press Release states that SWG will be available on the Xbox and on PS2. Release date will be announced at a later time.
Gamespy posted an E3 story about SWG. A cut:
Galaxies will have eight to 12 planets to explore at launch, each one roughly as big as the entire EverQuest game. That's a LOT of turf! Every location is rendered in loving detail with an engine capable of dynamic lighting and bump-mapping. The sunrise/sunset cycle is breathtaking, and the backgrounds are alive with shuttles taking off and other details.
*drools*
Gamespot posted some awesome screenshots and a couple movies. Download them now!
Look into the future and you shall see 'Letters from the Team' from Steve Jakob, posted this upcoming Tuesday May 28th. heh.
IGN.com posted an interviewwith producers Haden Blackman and John Donham. Great interview with lots of good info; cloning, player death, missions, factions and some on the PvP System. This is a must-read.
Of the 700 skills in SWG at this time, about 1/3 of those are combat-oriented.
700 skills. w00t.
And finally, LucasArts already announced its first expansion to SWG. I shit you not. Read the Press Release here. The add-on, expected to be available six months after the initial product release, will enable players to own and fly starships, allowing interplanetary travel and space combat.
Wheh. That about sums it up. IGN.com is by far the winner when it comes to E3 reporting.
P.S. Im fucking sick of URL's and my ears hurt.
dabu
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^ top-New Taming Guide
[Nieves] May 25 - 6:41 PM EDT | Information: Animal Taming is a skill that is very versitile to have. Not only as an up and coming tamer do you not have to pay for your mounts but as you progress in skill you can tame a variety of aggressive and non-arggressive animals all the way from Horses to Kirin's and Nightmares.
Items Needed : Animal Spawn thats tamable
What to tame and when :
This question is a very hard one. Depending on the kind of play you like in game depends on what you tame. I will list all the animals to tame and when it is up to you as the player to figure what you want to tame when.Taming creatures with different skill difficulties within your target range usually give better gains than taming the same difficulty repeatedly.Also anything with a minimum taming requirement of 59.1 or better can allow you to gm. However the more difficult the animal is to tame, the faster youll gain.That all applies for in powerhour gains. Now, for out of powerhour gains there are different rules. They are, as a general rule, anything up to 45 points below your current skill level should yield good gains. And lastly, there isn't a special way to make taming move any faster. Only by working on the skill will it ever have the chance to move.
Skill Level What To Tame In PH What To Tame Out Of PH
Below 30 Buy from stablemaster in town
30-35.1 Boar, Giant Rat, Horse, Desert Same as in PH
and Forest Ostards
35.1-41.1 Polar and Black Bears, Llamas Same as in PH
41.1-53.1 Same as Before However add
Alligators and Scorpians @ 47.1 Same as in PH
53.1-59.1 Panthers Snow Leopards and Same as in earlier PH's
Grey Wolves
59.1-65.1 Same as Before just add Snakes, Same as in Earlier PH's
Grizzlies, Giant Spiders and Great
Harts
65.1-71.1 Same as before just add Wolves Same as in Earlier PH's
71.1-83.1 Bulls, Small Hellcats, and Mongbats
@74.7 Frost spiders @ 77.1 Giant Same as earlier also try
Toads and Frenzied Ostards and @ second taming White Wolves
80.7 Lava Lizards
83.1-85.5 Same as before just Add Imps, Dire Same as earlier
Wolves, And Ridgebacks
85.5-GM You can tame any animal from 59.1 Second Tame Bulls and
up but here you can add Hell Hounds Great Harts
@ 85.5 which is what i gmed from , @
89.1 Large HellCats, @ 93.9 Dragons
and Swamp Dragons, @ 95.1 Mares,
Unicorns if Female, Kirins If Male,
also Drakes @ 96.3 your last and final
creature being the illusive White Wyrm
**Also you will not gain if you release and retame the same target.**
TIPS:
*Out of PH tame Posionious creatures. They seem to spark good gains
*When taming high-end creatures, you can either paralyze then tame. Such as with the mare, dragon, drake, or white wyrm.Note, however, they will cast on you after becoming unparalyzed. Another way to do it is start taming it then hide when it targets you. Then come out and start to tame it again and hide again when it retargets you
*The more spawn you have in powerhour the better the gains
*Look in Ilshnear Dungeons and Old and New land Dungeons for taming Hot Spots
Look for it in the skills section soon.
Hasta. |
^ top-Why do you play anyway?
[FrozenFire] May 25 - 11:40 AM EDT | "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. . ."
John F Kennedy, 1962
So, why do you play UO, anyways? Or any other game for that matter? I think I am like everyone else in that I am easily bored when I do things I find uncomplicated, easy and straightforward. In other words, I need challenges to have fun. Not knowing whether I will succeed is a critical factor. Failing and trying again, is the key to make success feel that much better.
If at first you don't succeed (first you don't succeed),
then dust yourself off and try again
dust yourself off and try again, try again
Aaliyah, Try Again
When we first start out in UO, everything is a challenge. I remember running around by the bank, spamming everyone with my questions until someone would answer them. I considered myself rich when I had 7500 gold in my bank and I was well prepared going to Covetous when I could cast Lightning Bolt (what a killer spell, much better than fire ball, heh!).
But inevitably, as we explore and learn the game, and as we develop our characters, the challenges become more and more scarce. Over the last year, OSI has tried, in a couple of ways, to keep UO fresh and even to add some new twists. Periodic new item drops or monsters can breathe life into the game for a short while, but its just CPR for a dying patient.
And soon we will have those power scrolls, meaning that a GM is not quite GM anymore. Dev team has specifically attributed these as something that Veterans need to provide a fresh challenge. And itll work for a while, Im sure. Just as a new expansion to EQ will get all the hamsters out in force to run the wheels another 10 levels, only to hit the brick wall again. . .
Dont get me wrong, I personally like the scrolls. They will add to the game, but they arent the answer - they wont revive UO long term anymore than the BOD system will.
In my opinion, too many things are too easy to a veteran. Difficuly is the key. And I dont mean making Balrons more difficult by doubling their hp. I mean, I want tactics and player input mean more. Monster AI could be a lot better. Dungeons could be designed to give monsters an egde. Monsters with societies should work together better and not just mill around, waiting to be killed.
Another aspect of UO being too easy, is that too many things are just statistical rolls. You work skill X to level Y, which means you have Z% chance to succeed. Where is the challenge in rolling some dice? To be truly challenging, we should try and find ways to make the outcome of something a player attempts depend on player input. Say, if youre a bard, you still need that 90 provovation to |
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