•Vet Rewards Update

Cal updated the Vet Rewards info and was nice enough to post pictures.
Take notice of the lack of bless deeds and the addition of yet another dye tub.
Click me for the K3wl lIsT oF L33t TuBz.

•New Essay Up

Gator's Scribe essay is up for your reading pleasure. Unfortunately the Lumberjacking is on hold as it needs to be edited and brought up to date.

Hasta.

•And it begins...

I am currently sitting in Trammel Side Great Lakes watching alot of fighting going on...you know, Chaos/Order style. Yep...it's ON!

Hasta.

•Adam Ant Goes LIVE!

Check it. Good ol' Adam Ant playing the Guardian role LIVE!

Someone remind me to make a link to it to the left.

Hasta.

•OH MY FUCKING GAWD!

What the fuck is this shit?

Thank you Watts for showing it to me.

The folks at the Chosen broke the news first so they get first billing.

I can't even think right now how this is going to change the game. Comments? Someone start a thread in the forum! I am off to kick and punch.

Hasta.

•Counselor Anonymous Speaks

Finally, I get an interview :) Check it!

Nieves: How long have you been counseling?

CAnon:2 years and a few months

Nieves: Tell me your reasons for becoming one?

CAnon: At the time, I wanted to give back to UO. Many had helped me, i had learned the system quite well, and I wanted to do something to show my appreciation. This is before counseling gave ANY freebies.

Nieves: How do you feel about the removal of the freebies?

CAnon: It bothered me at first. I always thought that a free $10 account per month was my "just due" reward for doing what I did. After calming down, I thought about it and it dawned on me that the freebie was not why I was doing this, so why should it bother me. I've since not cared about it.

Nieves: Your opinion of those that filed a lawsuit?

CAnon: I doubt that what I think about them would be appropriate for young eyes. Let's just say that it bothers me to see that some people are willing to stoop so low as to ask payment and back wages for something that they went in knowing FULL WELL what their compensation was. I feel pity for them, really. If they sunk so low to doing something this absurd, then I pity them. I really do.

Nieves: General consensus from the current Counselor teams on the lawsuit?

CAnon:I can't speak for anyone else, and it was not deemed an appropriate subject to talk about in channel. I would think they fell that it is wrong, but I could be mistaken. One of the original plaintiffs claimed he was still an active counselor. We have a lot of good people, but some, well, you just don't know what they think.

Nieves: Ok, I can accept that answer :)

Nieves: What caused the people at OSI to consolidate their Counselor teams and have them handle calls game wide as opposed to having shard
specific counselors as before?

CAnon: Well, it's not game wide. It is by region. East, West, etc. The current plan is to have a global queue that will basically allow a counselor on the West Region, for example, to take calls on Baja, Pacific, Napa etc and give a wider coverage. So if one shard is quiet, then those with more calls will get better coverage. Call it load balancing if you will. No word yet on when it will be fully implemented.

Nieves: Interesting :)

Nieves: What do you feel is the general feeling of players (IYO) towards counselors? What has been their attitude when they call (usually)?

CAnon: It's varied. It ranges from a good attitude to a downright hostile attitude. Most players think we are paid by OSI and that I can somehow replace all the stuff they lost to lag death. Shit happens. Happens to me as a player. But when they ask for me to uncondemn their house or to tell them how many hours they have left to being blue and I explain that I cannot tell them (cause I don't have the info) and that a GM won't either ell, they start yelling at me, calling me useless, that I don't know anything, etc. Some players think we are gullible. So don't ask me to take you to Haven when you have 255 stat points and 700 real skill.....I know you do. I have that info. ;) But it's getting that one player who is happy with the info and that tells me I helped him out that makes me continue. It makes it worth while.
Nieves: Awesome.

Nieves: What is the general feeling at OSI about people that call in a harrassment request? Many have talked about the horror of they themselves getting warned or worse, banned, for making the call. Is it usually the case of the caller being the perpetrator/equally guilty or some other reason?

CAnon:I hate harrasment calls. I really do. It's a pissing contest between two people and I am asked to arbitrate without the benefit of having all the facts. I don't have access to logs, I don't know what heppends, and I don't have a crystal ball telling me what to do. It's a horror situation for all parties involved. Harassement is always a case by case by GMs, and no one ever gets the same answer twice, hence the nightmare. My advice would be if you can't play with the other kiddies in the sandbox, then ya should not be allowed in it. As for who is right/wrong, ask a magic 8 ball. :)

Nieves: I see :) Interesting insight.

Nieves: As far as it being a necessity, anyway we can alleviate some player's concerns about using the system? Also, some information for proper use of the harrassment system?

CAnon: Proper use comes from using common sense. First, look up the definition of harrassment
in the dictionary. You have your first operational guideline there. Note that the definition does not include "He stole my kill", "He called me a bad name" or "He looted my poison elemental".
Proper use is if someone keeps following you around, res blocks on purpose (greif tactic, and it's a form of harrassment) or does something along those lines. You do not want to be calling for
harrassment if you goad someone into it or if you want to be an asshole. That WILL get you in trouble. If your claim is legitimate, you have not to fear reprisal. Only those who seek to exploit the harrassment options are the ones who need fear it. A word to all you players: Yes, 99% of the time you are justified. It's like a plane crash. When one does, it's BIG news due to the impact of the news, but more people die in car wrecks daily that in plane crashes
yearly. Same with these horror stories. You hear one and think that they are all like that. That simply is not so.

Nieves: Would you mind taking a couple of questions from a couple of the updaters?
CAnon: Yup! Go right ahead!

Nieves: COOL! :)

Nieves: These next 3 are from Gator:
Nieves: First one is-Any word on possible skill changes? ie. Cartography, Fishing?

When Necromancy get's published. Next!

Nieves: ACK! Shit...ok.

Nieves: Also any word yet on possible improvements to the spawn changes on Ice and Fire Isle?

CAnon: Check the UO boards. I think Designer Hanse has addressed that. It should be on test center soon (if not there already).

Here is the link: Click me.

Nieves: Cool, I will look at it later :)

Nieves: Is MindBlast Damage based on real stats or spell/items/potion enhanced stats?

CAnon: I'm not 100% sure, as it was never really told, but my experience on Test Center and talking to GM's has been it's based on REAL stats.

Nieves: Ok, from me. Do Counselors/GMs ever hang out in hunting areas? Hidden of course :)

CAnon: GM's, I don't know since they are invisible to me. Counselors? Depends on the counselor. :)
I'll leave you to ponder that one.....

Nieves: Aighty then...hehe. :)

Nieves: Can a Counselor/GM step in if they see something illegal happen (ie-harrassment) without a player calling them?

CAnon: Yes

Nieves: Have you ever done it? What was the situation (generally speaking of course)?

CAnon: Yes, I have. Usually involves blocking monsters for stat gain. :)

Nieves: LMAO! Hmm...maybe you guys should visit deceit more often :)

Nieves: Why did you decide to help us here at UOPG?

CAnon: I read UOPG regularly and have found the info contained to be well structured and very informative, as well as up-to-date. I also saw it as a way to make sure that questions that most people cannot find the answer to could be answered. I also feel that it's time for counselors to step out of game and take a more
active role in the community.

Nieves: OSI's 'official' policy on that?

CAnon: I chose Counselor Anonymous for a reason.......:)

Nieves: heheh :) To copy a phrase from a fellow UOPG team member: WoOT!

Nieves: Any plans for beefing up Felucca loot, losing statloss in Felucca (cause I see no need for it with Felucca now), or 1/2ing Trammel loot to make Felucca more appealing?

CAnon: Nope. Nope. Nope.?

Nieves: Bleh. Lame. Anyway...

Nieves: Why is it allowed to kill nobles in Trammel without repercussion (kind of a stupid question but I am curious)?

Cause if they removed that "right", a bunch of twinks who are too lame to fight a real monster for some pHaT l33t LeWT and 700 gp would go cry to OSI and whine that it's not fair. My opinion? You kill a noble, you go grey, I can smack your ass. Call it a PvP switch. You don't NEED to go grey, but if you do, you consent to getting you ass handed to you. I'd also make it so that nobles cannot walk outside of guard zones or enter a gate that leads to a non-guard zone. That way, they'd get their ass guard whacked......hmmmm, come to think of it, it's poetic justice. They kill nobles in one shot, guards kill THEM in one shot. No, wait, that's reverse harvesting........:)

Nieves: hehe, funny :p

Nieves: Ok, last question, kind of offbeat- If OSI really really allowed it, could they, return a player's items to them?

CAnon: I am sure there are logs. So my answer is yes, most items they could return.

Nieves: OK, thanks alot man :) I really appreciate your time. Can we count on you for more information in the future!?

Always!

Kickin'!

OMFG! I have to link this again. That dumbshit Watts got the link wrong for the Valor Knights website skipping the original intro to it. I don't care if you hate Roleplayers, when you see this website, you will be fucking amazed. And the music?! My gawd. I feel like I am watching Gladiator again. (The site is loading as I finish this update!)

GO LOOK AT THE SITE NOW!!!!

Hasta.

•New site to look at.

These guys at Wiredness.com created a pretty decent website. I liked their rants and the fact their site doesn't look like ours (like everyone else that made a web site montsh ago did). Check em out. They were kind enough to give us top billing in their links section. They get 3.5 PvMers out of 5 :) They don't look like Game Addicts. Know what? Neither do we. I guess that makes UOPG 3.0 PvMers out of 5, eh?

Hasta.

•I had an update but Ian beat me to it, but that's fine :)

Item 'Smashing' and Monster Movement
Monsters may no longer be 'trapped' by barricading them behind various objects in the game world. They will now attempt to maneuver around the objects and in some cases may smash the objects barring their movement.

Items that are locked down, secure, or strongboxes may not be smashed. Containers, if smashed, will spill their contents onto the ground.
No more blocking in Lich Lord room for you :op
Scroll down for the factions info from IAN.
Maybe we will get factions before Gore realizes he lost? Maybe...

Oh and with using ProQuo's essay, I updated the mage page.

Hasta.

•Cause I absolutely SUCK

Ok Counselor Anonymous, I was asleep because, like, you know my migraines won't go away unless I sleep through them (yes, Lord Storm Shadow, I still get my migraines; fuck). Icq me asap cause I am stupid and I deleted your email you sent with your ICQ number :(

Hasta.

•Dammit..

In light of an issue with the faction system publish, we have decided to delay the release of the faction system on the Chesapeake shard. The stablemaster and monster changes listed in Testing for Next Update will be published to the shard and will be active following the Chesapeake shard’s Tuesday, November 28th maintenance period. The factions system, however, will remain inactive on Chesapeake until further notice.

Additionally, we will be publishing the monster and stablemaster changes listed in Testing for Next Update to all shards to be active following their Wednesday, November 29th maintenance period (local server time). As the Siege Perilous and Sonoma shards will be updated with the monster changes to be active following their next maintenance period.

We will release a revised schedule for the activation of the Faction System on Chesapeake as soon as one is determined.

I'm used to this by now.. whatever.

•Chesa Get's Factions

I remember this bastard of a motherless worm during my first 6 months of playing. I had oh probobaly the worst connection in the history of playing UO. Of course I didn't let that stop me from playing. What's a little 700 ping and 25% packet loss anyway? Ahem, I was trying to mindlessly build up my fame (yes at one time for a couple hours it was important to me) and get money killing white wyrms and all this guy did was lure snow ele's and everything else he could find on me and others at Ice Caves. Because I, having the afforementioned inferior connection could not move normally let alone with 4 snow ele's on my screen, I was usually the one to fall victim to this guy's luring. Needless to say, it upset me. After about 1 month of dealing with this shit I finally call a gm. His first response was a question. He asked me, "What is this person doing specifically in the game that is exploitive?" I told him for the second time about the luring and how it made my game play impossible. His response and I quote because I will never forget it. "This player is not abusing or exploiting, he is just a very efficient killer." How you like them apples Nieves? And OSI wonders why I and players like myself killed everything non blue in our sight when we got a connection worth a damn. Speaking of killing everything non blue. Guess what's coming my fellow Chesapeakians.

Chesapeake Faction System Publish
We will be activating the Faction System publish and stablemaster changes, as listed in Testing for Next Update , on the Chesapeake shard on Tuesday, November 28th. The publish will be active on the Chesapeake shard following its regularly scheduled maintenance period that morning.

We will monitor the Chesapeake shard for any issues that may arise, and will continue to publish to all remaining shards as soon as possible. The changes will be added to Latest Game Updates
once the publish is active on all shards.

•New stuff

I added a new section to our site called Essays. This will be the repository for all the essays we here at UOPG have written.

The first essay is ProQuo's essay on Mages. Read about it. Next comes Gator's essay on making a lumberho.

Hasta.

•Yes it is, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not...

2 GMs and a Counselor emailed me. Res blocking is illegal on the Trammel side of any facet. First time you are caught is usually a mark on account with 72 hour ban. 2nd time you are out of here.

Well, I guess I will be waiting for my mark and little ban. Don't want it, but I takes my punishment with the best of them. It's ok, I won't be doing it again anyway.

Oh...I ran into the guy this morning that looted my invul armor in Deceit on Saturday. He said he would give it back (since he can't sell it at all) for a trade in a silver weapon. I had a silver broad of force I "found". He got a sellable item, I got my invul set back. Thanks R. You aren't that bad after all...well, to a point anyway. Oh, and he's been banned once, another time won't matter to him. Erhm...well, he was training like mad this morning. Luckily, I am better than some Liche AI...AND I didn't run. I stood and fought it out.

Off to kick and punch!

Hasta.

•What goes around comes around....

And when it comes around, it bites you in the fucking ass....

So, many of you know how Loren got punked by luring idiots in the Deceit Lich Lord area and lost her invul suit and kat of force (both she has had for over 6 months).

Today she was given a gift by a very nice person. Thanks Solemn. I took that silver katana of power to the lich room tonight to get some loot and test the sword for myself. After explaining to a "newcomer" to the Chaos/Order wars what those wars are about (QUIT CHAOS NOW TRIXY BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!<---bear in mind, she didn't realize how intense they were) to some folks two ghosts show up. We res them and they tell us about someone luring silver serpents, hiding, letting them die, then killing said serpent and looting their bodies. I tell my new "bud" let's go kill the silver serpent (cross healing is ur friend) and help them get their items.

Little Tamer girl and her mare are there with 2 dead silvers and a few bodies she's waiting on looting. We tell her she sucks and I tell her I hope she dies. She says: "I won't".

I run into the hallway to check on the other guy we resed (found more ghosts along the way) Tamer Girl comes back and opens the door letting the lich, lich lord, and silver serpent come in and she runs away and tries to cast invisible and fails miserably (sp?). All the while the silver serpent is biting her in the ass. She gets off a cure (spasms is not a form of dancing folks), then a heal, gets bit again, and...DEATHMOAN! Then the mare decides to go after the silver serpent while the lich and lich lord wait for the mare on the other side of the wall (maybe I should open that door eh?). This guy comes and is attempting to res her. I tell him NO (along with other folks) that she is a looter and lurer. He says no she's not. I stand on her ghost and he starts screaming that I am a bug exploiter and I will get banned. Um...not according to GM Uncle AL today. I asked him that very question tonight while working on a treasure hunting problem I had. It's not illegal in Felucca, so not illegal in whole game (but that could change after tonight of course). I figure I would ask him if it was illegal the shit the folks did last night to Loren. Ghost blocking, as of this moment, isn't illegal. Luring monsters and hiding is...anyway....

Dude is screaming he will call a GM. I tell him go for it and ask him if he wants his friend's account banned as well since she was luring...and I have 3 witnesses (which they rightly spoke up and said "YEP"). Val Res Por and they are gone. They leave, I wait near her body hidden with my new "friend".

Tamer girl returns and I come out and tell her "now you know how that feels". Her response? "Think I won't do that shit again bitch ass whore"? I know you will...and you have a sad life. Too bad her mare didn't die. That would've been classic.

Two lessons here, don't punk because, sooner or later, you will get punked. And 2nd, don't do anything that could possibly get you banned. We will see if I get a letter in my email from OSI about tonight. Frankly, I don't see the problem as I was told it wasn't bannable. I just wish they would monitor these hot spots and catch these guys. It's sad people would stoop to shit like that to get their jollies :( GO PK FOLKS IF YOU WANT LOOT FROM PLAYERS! I at least have 2 reds (yes 2) willing to do it that way.

It's ok if I get looted. Not ok if I get "trained" (EQ term), get killed, then these guys loot my body. Dieing is part of the game. Getting punked isn't.

Anyway...I see two keyboards right now...

Hasta.

•Mage Done, Warrior Next

With your comments/suggestions I upgraded the Mages section. Check it out and tell me what you think.

The warrior and hybrid sections are going to get an upgrade next. I noticed that they needed it as well. Especially the Med-Warrior. Archery? bleh. Well, I think fencing would be a better fit. Cyas.

Hasta.

•Since there is no other way to get folks attention..

KH please email me at your earliest convenience.

Also, if ProQuo is around, please email if you could. I know you don't have ICQ at the moment, but maybe we can talk a bit through email. Nothing negative to either of you, just a chat.

I need to have better communications with folks.

To the people running Silver Serpent/Poison Elemental trains and blocking ressurection attempts by stealthing over ghosts, one day you will get caught and surely banned. That shit is WAY against the ToS. I hope the guys with Loren's Invulnerable Suit and Katana of Force chokes on the shit. Keep doing that in Deceit GL Trammel side...you will get caught one day.

Hasta.

•And Yet, More UO:3D Screenshots...

Well, thanks to MarkeeDragon for putting out some great screenshots of UO:3D. Now once again these are all Pre-Alpha shots, so they may change some before we see the final product. But I must say they look mighty good. Oh did I mention there are 100 of them?

And well its kinda late, but I hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving. I know I sure as hell did. Until next time....

Later

•Updater Positions

Thank you for all the emails regarding the opening(s) we have here at UOPG. Currently, I have not considered bringing on other updaters as I am concentrating on updating old information as well as working on the redesign of the site.

I have not read any of those emails yet. They are still marked as unread so I can go back to them later. Fear not, for I will let everyone know when interviewing for the positions will begin.

Hasta.

•Mage Section Revision Take 2.

I have a NEW Revision of the Mage Section up. I added the Mystic (healing/anatomy) and Archer Mage to them.

Check it out and email/icq (if you have my icq) what you think.

Hasta.

•Screw The Wall

Thats right I said screw the "Wall". For all the younger readers out there, the "Wall" used to be the place to be for GMing melee skills. And I know this has been touched on before in the past. But I want to make a clear shot on it right now. I am making a new fencer for factions. This morning, in my power hour, I gained 4.8 Fencing to GM. In fact I started 3 days ago in The Jhelom Dueling Pit with a skill of about 31. Once you get into the 80's just grab a warrior with a broadsword, and Have At Thee. Be carefull, that Broad hurts, but its worth it as you can see.

So you want a new meleer? Follow my Powergaming for Dummies Guide:

Starting Out
This guide is for folks who have the cash already built up. First of all make your character with 50 Healing/49 Resist/1 Melee skill of your choice. Now get a friend to hook you up with some gold. Preferably about 5k. Also see if you can find someone with extra character slots to get a few more "newebie" weapons that you will need. This is really simple. Say your buddy Roy in BF Egypt doesnt play on GL with you. But you still BS all the time. Have him make 5 chars on GL, all with the weapon you need. Then just have him meet you at the bank to give you all them weps. You will need them. While he is there grab that 5k from the new characters he made.

Equipment
You should have 7k in gold. The 1k you get from the start, then the 5k that your buddy Roy can give you from the characters he made to hook you up. Now just get your character an extra 1k, and BAM, 7k. I could go all into how a new character can make money to do this, but right now I do not feel like it. If you need that info, email me or say something about it in the boards, and I will work something out, and post it down the road. Just ICQ your buddy Ronny the Roleplayer and have him loan you 1k to make it 7k even. Take your 7k, and heres what you buy:

10 Bolts of Cloth
Suit of Studded Leather (Store Bought is Fine)
1 Musical Instrument

Stat Building
After buying those items you should still have a cool 5k left over. Take this and buy up your skills, then spend the rest of your day doing the stat gain trick. Use Arms Lore for STR and the Music Instrument for DEX. Get all the way up to 100 STR and 100 DEX. Then you will be ready for the next days Power Hour.

Power Hour
Now for your first power hour. Head to the Dueling Pit in Jhelom. Once here you will see a load of warriors standing around waiting to be beat on. Now since your healing and melee skills are low pick out one with just a shield. Now for the very hard part, go into war mode and take it to him. But, make sure you are not standing here. Notice it says you are under the protection of the Guards. This means certain Guard Whack OoOoOoOOOoO Time for you. Stay away from the actual wall of the pit and you will be ok. Make sure you are healing yourself. Thats what all that cloth is for. Bring it all. And just cut bandaids as you fight. If you get low on health step away and heal up. But remember, your prey will come after you. Also ONLY use all the newbie weapons you got. If you follow that simple rule, your sparring buddy will never die, and you will never have to heal him. I dont know how many morons I see in the Pit killing warriors left and right. They carry no loot for the most part. Defiantely no Gold. Every now and then you may get a crappy weapon or piece of Armor. So let them live.

Once your melee skills get into the high 70's/low 80's, it will be time to choose a different warrior. This time, pick this guy. But remember, that sword packs a punch, so you may be a little more watchful over your health. These guys will take you all the way to GM at a pretty good pace.

Conclusion
So there you have it. GM Warrior in 4-5 days without going to the wall and dealing with the damn twinks. My next update is going to be an indepth story on the Council of Mages faction. So be looking for it.

Later

•And UOPG just plain sucks now....

Someone questioned our templates in our Character Creation section. Saying they suck. And know what? That person was right. I spent an hour tonight trying to fix up JUST the Mages section. It's WAY fucked up and the other character sections are probably just as screwed.

I don't remember those templates being the way they were a few months ago but that's just making excuses and doesn't change the fact that they are messed up.

Thanks to Epyon/Vegeta for spending the time helping me to clean it up. More changes, erhm...improvements on the horizon for the site I guess.

So, everyone can go ahead and email me and tell me how much UOPowergamers sucks ass and is behind the times. Eck, even stratics (no offense) is better than us these days. Bleh.

Hasta.

•Forum

Ramirez and his crew are going to be making changes to the Blackthorn Forums. It will go down at 10PM CST (I assume, other wise it's 9PM CST). I apologize for any inconvenience.

Will the gentleman that has created the nice UOPG revised front page PLEASE icq me or email me. I am having trouble with his code.

Hasta.

•For those interested.

A chat was hosted on UO House of Commons about UO3D. I found it pretty interesting. Go check it out.

Hasta.

•Since noone else posted about this...

Know all those little Order/Chaos guys running around in Trammel thinking they are cool cause they have free, "blessed" shields and have a different title than everyone else? Well, um...guess what?

...as it was our original plan to re-enable the Order/Chaos system on the Trammel facet of all shards, we will be leaving the system in place on the Sonoma shard.

It was activated with Factions implementation. Currently, this is active only on Sonoma. It's coming soon to a shard near you.

So...if you get ganked by people from the "other side". Deal with it. It's what Order/Chaos was supposed to be about in the first place.

And, it looks like some people will lose those bets about about Factions being implemented after Christmas.

We are currently targeting the release of the Faction System to all remaining shards following the Thanksgiving holiday (after November 23rd). The Order/Chaos system will be enabled on the Trammel facet on all shards as they are updated with the Faction System publish.

It's not like it's over 6 months over due or anything...

Hasta.

•The most amazing website I have ever seen.

And to think, I thought our new site design was going to rock. Check these Valor Knights out. Let the introduction for each page come in and check the member listings. Every website should be this good.

Hasta.

•Gator Prophecy Rings True

BAM!! I predicteded this one a few months back. And well its up now. It has the same kinda look and feel as the Council of Mages site. And its ran by GreyPawn. Who happens to be the same person that made the Council of Mages site. So there you have it my little faction addicts. Now a site for both True Brits and the Mage Council. I do not see a www.shadowlords.com or www.minax.com anytime in the near future since those sites are already being used. The Shadowlords site IS a PvP site, but it is for Shadowbane. One of the newer, highly anticipated, online PvP games that will be hitting the scene shortly. But hey, enough on that, its not UO damn't!! And if you care to get some Hawaiian Jewelry feel free to hit that Minax site. Afterall, your significant other will love you for it.

Later

•The Boy Who Cried Wolf....

This time I swear its true. Really I do. ::crosses fingers:: Well everyone, better start saying your prayers.

We will be activating the Faction System publish, as listed in Testing for Next Update, on the Sonoma and Siege Perilous shards on Wednesday, November 15th.

You can go and read all about it. Or in a nutshell it says that they will activate it on SP and Sonoma, then monitor it, and then eventually hopefully before one of these guys gets elected it will go live on the rest of the shards. So the way I see it, we should have Factions in on all shards sometime around the 2004 Presidential Election.

But on a serious note. As I had posted in my last update, I have been doing alot of factions lately. And if you have yet to give it a shot, log on to your local Test Factions Shard(Catskills) and give it a try. Its a good time. I know that I have been having a total blast with it. Well that and wiping out Immature Ganking Reds that live near Watts on Pac is fun too. Hehe, but thats a story for another time. But just to inform everyone, that when a Crack Commando DS unit comes to your neighborhood. Lock the door and dont bother. Blue or Red, if your a ganker, your toast. Nuff Said.

Moral of the story...

Pray for factions, go test factions, and don't piss off neighbors that have friends in high places. Or low places, depends on what end of the spectrum you are on. And never, ever, ever, ever, cry wolf to many times. Because eventually nobody will come to help you. And the wolf will eat you.

Later

•Never ever piss off the boss.

There is an opening for the Updater position. Actually, with Red's departure, that would make 2. I might be opening it up for those that are interested, I might not. We will see.

Until then, we are short 2 folks. Red, I will miss ya. Be good, and don't let Watts corrupt you too much.

As for Paladin...well, let's just say it was interesting while it lasted.

Hasta.

•Worthless Update

A few quick things.. Concerning the last part of Gators post. I heard this in a movie or on the radio one time and it sort of stuck with me. Here in America, you need a license for everything.. think about. To drive a car-license, To shoot a gun-license. Hell here in Texas just to be able to fish, you need a license! What is the one thing in this country you DO NOT need a license for? You guessed it. Having kids. Think about that one for the next few years.

Secondly concerning Rum leaving the site again. He stated that his off topic posts are out of place here. I would like to point out that I have not had one post concerning powergaming (outside of my lessons on how to be the baddest motherfuc!!er in this game) in well...ever. Although he did say Watts was gay. Watts is a friend and I have it on good authority that he is heterosexual, but if Rum thinks differently it completely clarifies why he would in fact want to go there.

Lastly, Dragonballz is the last fucking thing I know anything about but if any of you out there know of it, like it, like to make fun of it, whatever, check this site out. If you don't give a fuck about DBZ go there just because Carlos is a friend and an employee of mine and if you need further motivation do it because I said so. Thanks.

•Note To Self

Normally when playing factions, you do alot of waiting. In fact most of your time will be spent hanging out by the bank waiting for two things. The first being for a group to get a raid going on another city. Someone will then pop a Gate open, and off to battle you go. The second thing will be sitting at the bank waiting for another faction to raid your city. This is how it works for the most part. Well the proplem is with the first choice. Actually not a problem but just a touch of advice. If somebody pops open a Gate and starts screaming RAID!!! Dont go until you get all the information togther. Just a few minutes ago, myself and Nieves ran into one of these Raid portals. Found ourselves standing atop the Brit Bank, with nothing but a sea of Orange surrounding us as far as the eye could see. Needless to say I Recalled ASAP. Nieves wasnt as lucky. So the lessoned learned here is that, well its obvious. PLAYERS ARE DUMB. Well not all players, but what idiot opens a gate for the Bank Roof in Brit?!?! And the thing that really got me, was that he came through it too!! And needless to say was one of the first to croak. I saw him a few minutes afterward. His comment, "It was fun." WTF?!? How in the hell is getting your ass waxed by 30 Brits fun???

It just goes to show....Some Peoples Kids.... I think pregancy should be granted by the government via an IQ test on all the parents. "I am sorry Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, but you are simply too stupid to be allowed to reproduce."

Well enough ranting, just be mindfull of the damn gates. They dont always lead to Success and Fame.

Later

•The future of UO, and this *3rd Dawn* issue.

*You are entering Brittainia*

Little did I know in the summer of '97 that my life would change from a simple four letter sentence.

Fresh out of high school and about to enjoy my last summer before college started I had been following a game that was suppose to change the way online games were played.

It was called Ultima Online

Oh how I loved the nights of taking over towns before everyone's favorite instant kill guards ever brought in.

The nights of logging in the Great Lord Arronial to battle the forces of evil on atlantic...

...only to log in the Dread Lord Milamber later in the evening to battle the forces of good.

Most of the people I ran with had both good and evil chars. The majority of my friends were in fact Dreads. Not the lame kind that prayed only on miners, but the real ones that would hit the dungeons hard. If they didn't have GL they had blue chars that could buy and sell stuff in towns for their reds.

The battles outside of Wrong, outside of Covetous, and the brit graveyard were quite memorable. I found myself getting on the computer after work or after getting home from going out with friends and sometimes staying on til server down. Which was 11am server time long ago.

I remember the joy of placing my first tent, then my first house. I remember killing people who had keys on them..and then searching for hours in the nearby areas for the house. Sometimes I found nothing and I would trash the key. Other times I would hit the jackpot, sometimes making up to 10,000 gold! Which was enough to buy a small house and a tent when housing first came out.

Not all my memories of the first year of UO was good however. Dupes ruined the game even back then. It set the stage for later dupes and saturated the market with hoards of Vanq/Invul items which were once upon a time a sort of status symbol. I remember my first hard lessons learning not to trust people, since they dont have to look at you and deal with the backlash of their actions.

Round about July of '98 UO changed forever. And it was for the worst.

They introduced something called Fame and Karma instead of the current notorioty system.

I still remember how the system came into play. All reds were made blue with 4 murder counts. Murder counts took 8 hours, not 40 as they do now. If you were at stat cap you got +1 fame level and if you were at skill cap you got another +1 fame. You also got +1 if you were a lord/lady

Milamber came out to be "Wicked". I remember thinking how cool that was. Being alive and in town was amazing for me...I thought..hey maybe I can live to learn to relax on killing people all the time.

I couldn't.


It wasn't long before I was red..and stat loss hit me VERY hard.

I almost deleted him..and then it happened.

I got hacked.

To this day, I dont know how it happened..I didn't take any files or any of that shit..but I lost milamber..and I took a break from UO.

I came back and decided I needed a new start..this shard called Drachenfels just opened so I jumped to london and logged in. Starting my char, River Blackstar and decided not to do fulltime PvP any longer. Well again, that didn't last. But I made alot of good friends on DF and got involved with the community. Donating time and supplies to the Drachenfels Mage Tower(The Mage Tower project is a game wide collection of mages that discuss and try to advance the art, not all that different than UBB and UTB for their respective fields.) T2A came out in this time and I liked it...for about a day. To this day I only go to the second age if I must.

I found that I was happy in not always fighting people..but the dogs of war kept biting at my heels and I looked to the rising sun.

And I logged into the land of the rising sun, Japan. Hokuto came up and I grabbed some old Atlantic friends and made a warrior named Beryl. I got sick of being a warrior as I generally do and thus Vegeta was born. I grew into being feared and hated by the Japanese. We didn't murder them, we executed them. Guild after guild fell to my force, and then as Im sure you have picked up by now, I went red.

The guild continued on doing quite well for awhile..but with me out of the town fighting and my leadership not being fully used..S*S fell apart slowly. Lag got bad on hokuto and I returned to Drachenfels.

This puts to the end of '99 and my return to Drachenfels. This time was more or less uneventful. Its when I started to perfect my chars and get really into the mechanics of skill gaining as opposed to actually playing the game.

Gm skill after Gm skill came under my control. All skills have been reduced to a science to me now. But still I enjoyed it.

Enter UO:R


I hate trammel, and thats all I will say on this worn out topic.


I started making chars on other shards, Pac, Sonoma, Napa, and more recently LS and GL.

Now we stand at the edge of this apperent 3rd dawn.

The graphics to me are questionable. They need alot of reworking before even beta comes into place. They look awkward and unnatural (well not that deamons and dragons are normal but they could have done better.)

What do I like the most about it?

Easily the paperdolls. They look slick.

What do I dislike the most?

The HORSES
What the hell is wrong with them, feed them for christ sake! They look like they may have been fed railroad spikes or roofing nails but damn it these are horses not some sort of freakish dinosaur!


The system requirments were placed up today, 266mhz and 64 mb of ram caught my eye. Its funny how UO can run on 28.8 con..that must be laggy as all hell.

Ive been around the proveribal block a few times, I know the ins and outs of this game, but I think that once again instead of working on projects that were already offered (FACTIONS) we got some eye candy to enjoy.

Necro has been offically shitcanned so we can't bitch about that anymore, its sad...I was looking forward to that.

But I can and I have adapted before.

I will continue to do so.

As always my mailbox is open for praise, accolades or any questions. Any flames direct at ProQuo, he likes the attention. Also I hear Paladin is now available for tutoring if any of you JoHnnY RoXXoRs wish to prepare yourself for higher learning.

•This is off topic...but so what?

Well, it's not off topic. It's news.

More pictures were posted on stratics about UO3rdDawn. I would have to say they are amazing. The guy on the paperdoll moves around and he goes in and out of combat mode. The armor on the guy just looks tight. And the magery graphics are Diablo Like. My personal favorite was the lizardman chasing the mage ;).

Enjoy the pictures.

Hasta.

•This would be the 29th time that I left the site.

Not that I can help it though. When I have no job/life, I'm useful and play UO/update like crazy. When I have a job/life, I'm useless and never update or play UO and end up quitting. The latter happens to currently be the case. However, this time it's real and for good. Honest. The only difference is I'm not going to quit updating as a whole this time around, 'cause I always end up coming back if I do. I'm just moving over to UO Terror, instead. I may not have time for running an informational site, but I will always have time for making fun of Watts and ranting about pointless shit. It's better to do that on a rant site than here. It'll be kind of like the WTF, Man? deal. The only difference is Watts isn't cool, blows at making web pages and doesn't have his own domain. Not to mention he's gay. Ok, so it's nothing like WTF, Man?

I won't go through the whole speech thing, because I did that 28 (thousand) times already. I'll just say thanks to the viewers and updaters. They really made the site what it is.

Have fun.

•If only every ISP was like mine.

I got my old ISP back. Apparently, they do have local access in this shitty town. They own so much that they set it up over e-mail within minutes without me having to sign any bullshit contracts, using a credit card or having some goon come here and set it up. Plus they are the fastest ISP ever. Now that's what I'm talking about. Anyway, my e-mail address is back to redrum@powerweb.net. I look forward to not receiving any e-mail.

•More 3D Info...

I don't know which news service is flying faster. Ours with UO3D or CNN's with the Voting Nightmare. But hey regardless I like our info better, and I have yet to get a headache over it. You want to know more about UO3D? Well heres your place to be. In fact heres the official URL, http://www.uo.com/thirddawn/.

Enjoy!!

Later

•I don't care who has the news...

Damn. DOUBLE DAMN! Ok, all that stuff I said about UO3D's graphics sucking has to be taken back. :p You got to go see these images.

YEAH BABY! BRING IT!

Hasta.

•More on 3D At 11...And Today Is Hug Your Local Marine Day, That Or Buy Him A Beer....

Well more info rolling in as the faire begins to get underway. Only source I got on this is straight from Stractics, so take it as you will. I feel like total ass robbing all these goodies from other great sites. But hey I have a job and can't run off to the faire so I gotta do what I gotta do. Here is the latest:

Third Dawn Announced - UO Goes 3D!
Here at the UO Faire, as the guests were just starting to arrive, a few computers off to the side of the room were on. And what we saw on them could very well be the future of Ultima Online.

What did it look like? UO in 3D. The characters were living and breathing, like actual people running across the screen. The trees and buildings literally came alive, poking out of the monitor. We only caught a glimpse, and we are not yet sure what this is, but you can be assured that we will break this news right here the very instant it is announced. Stay tuned!

10:03am CST Update: OSI has just announced that the beta for Third Dawn is set for January 2001. Third Dawn is currently in an alpha state(which makes the screenshots look even better). They have no official release date set as yet. They did mention that the upgrade will not be free, AND will have new adventure lands (much like T2A).

I try to avoid cuttin and pasting but in this instance I said screw it. There ya have it. We can only pray that the graphics will be much better than what we have seen so far. Thanks Stratics, we will keep an eye on you over the weekend.

And on another quick note, today is the 225th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps. So go out and buy a Marine a Beer today, afterall he will thank ya for it, and its the least you can do. :)

Later

•Working Music and Provocation

My GF has been walking her bard from Trinsic to Yew hitting a last object macro all the while. It has taken her up to 87 Music so far this week. Granted it's not as good 8x8 (probably) BUT, it's not as boring either. Along the way you could run into the occassional spawn to practice Provocation on.

The Cove Orc Fort and Moonglow Northern Bay are great places to work Provocation (if you don't know this already). Moonglow has lots of Mongbats you can get to fight each other. At the Cove Orc Fort you will have to have a boat to set it up near the fort. Just pick a spot and Provoke all those monsters against each other.

A bit of advice when going to the Orc Fort. Don't leave your boat unlocked. Keep it locked. My GF's bard got killed by the mad spawn there when this guy kept closing the planks while she was trying to loot (asshoe). This leads to my 2nd point. Don't to there for loot. You are going there for training. I have done plenty of rescues at the Orc Fort for my friends that were trying to gather that 3l33t Orc and Ettin Loot. It's not worth it if you are seeing grey. Fighting off the spawn, and dealing with that server line is bad enough.

Get a boat, park it, keep it locked, stay on the boat, and work your skills. Be ready to heal yourself as Orc Mages have this nasty habit of dropping lots of flamestrikes on you :).

If you have anymore questions, send me a note in the forum.

Hasta.

•UO 3D

The hype these days is all about Ultima Online 3rd Dawn. I read the article this morning and got a chance to look at the images they had posted. Want my opinion? Sure, I knew you did.

Personally, I think most of the graphics suck. The dragon looks shitty with that frilled shield behind it's neck and the Ettin and Cyclops look stupid and wimpy. From what I can tell, the character represented in the dragon shot looked cool enough, but I couldn't see it well enough to give too much of an opinion on it.

Before you all go apekaka on me saying, "there you go, complaining like the rest of the powergamers" let me say this: I will upgrade. Why? Cause I always want the latest upgrades. I always want the latest patches. I don't like playing demos or partial games. I always buy or get the full version. My point? Even though I am probably going to hate the graphics (if it's not "spruced up" or changed later on), I will keep playing Ultima Online. It's not the graphics that make the game great. It's everything you can do in the game that makes it fun for me. That, and all the folks I run into.

My thing is I like clean graphics. Not blocky looking stuff (a la the Demon/Balron represented). Baldur's Gate had the best graphics I had seen so far in any overhead game. And Blizzard's games always had great graphics. Anyway, I am getting wordy.

So far, I give the upgrade 2 PvMer Stars. Only because of OSI's commitment to keeping UO around.

Hasta.

•This has nothing to do with UO, but it's quite funny.

In spite of this unique and very close election, someone created this page.

Check it out, it kept me busy for about 15 minutes. I know, it doesn't take much to amuse me.


Cya Later.

•Third Dawn Cometh, Better Make Another Pot of Coffee....

Thats right, you heard about it. And it seems like it is getting more official day after day. On a story I originally found on Lum's, it now seems as if this fabled myth will be coming true.

Origin Systems is readying the most significant overhaul of its Ultima Online massively multiplayer online role-playing world with Ultima Online: Third Dawn. It features a cosmetic makeover that takes the existing top-down 2D game's sprite characters and monsters and replaces them with motion-captured animated 3D ones. The gameworld itself-the terrain and buildings-will remain in their existing 2D form, and the view of the game will remain nearly top-down.

And unlike other sites, folks we have a link to back it up.
You can read all about it here, and check out all the nifty screen shots while you are at it.

Heres another interesting tidbit, for those of you whom were just to plain lazy to go READ the article.

In addition to offering the 3D upgrade, Third Dawn also comes with new worlds to explore (according to Hall, it's 50 percent bigger than what was delivered with The Second Age), and as with previous new editions of the game, these areas will not be accessible to players that elect not to upgrade. Hall says the new land will use the Trammel rule set, it will be adventure-only (with. no housing) and your character's reputation (good or evil) will make more of a difference there (Hill gives an example of evil characters being more likely to be attacked by "good" monsters).

And there you have it. Read all about it, discuss it. And most of all enjoy it.

I would like to thank the boys over at Markee Dragon for breaking this story first. They get all the props on this one. Yes folks times are a changing. Hopefully for the better.

Later

•He lives.

I finally got the net again. Too bad this ISP blows, thus I'm probably going to cancel it very soon. I'll probably bore you with real life shit later, but for now I'll just give you my new e-mail address. It's redrum@netwurx.net.

Also, like I said before I moved, don't send any e-mails to my old address. If you did at any time after my last post, I didn't receive it. Send it to my new one if you still have it.

I would like to also mention that my brother and roomate (same one) are both fags.

•Time to take a trip to Austin.......

Yes folks the results are in the results are in!! Now I want to know who is making a trip to Austin this weekend? Hmmm? And no I am not talking about discussing with George W. about the ongoing political nightmare that is wreaking havoc on our beloved citizens. Even though if I was making a trip to the UO Faire this weekend, I wouldn't mind stopping by Mr. Presi...errr, Mr. Bush's house to tell him, "Hey big guy, great campaign!" But enough on that topic.

So who is going to the fair?? I want to know. And no not right now. But if we have some readers out there that are making that faithful journey. I want to know about it!! While your there, take notes, snap off some jpegs, and send em to me. Even throw a little story with it or two, and I will post them over the next week. And if your REALLY good little boys and girls I might hop down your chimney this Christmas with a brand new 3D client!! Ok not really, but it sounded good.

But to continue on with my post.... I want to know how it goes down there. And since I couldnt convince my fellow updaters to hook me up with some cash to go down to the promised land. I can only do the next best thing. Ask our readers to bring back some info. So send it in!!!

On a final note. I am pretty disgruntled right now. Now that I think back, during house placement, I was robbed. When I went to place my castle, and I got the message, "Are you sure you want to place this building here?". Well I got confused due to the way it was setup with the yes or no. And I clicked no and lost my kickass spot. So does that mean we can do that whole housing placement thing over again??? Didnt think so. Maybe I will have better luck next time and ACTUALLY READ what I am about to do.

Later

•Doh.

Um...just read:

EA has agreed to a deal with the appointed LoD Legal team. The team represented 8 players that were perma banned on or around 9-6-00. EA offered a deal to give 5 of those players their accounts back, which totalled 9 accounts between. The LoD reinstated are Rampagh, Gorechild, Murdock, Silent and EE.

Why didnt we push for the rest of the accounts? Well simply, they would probably go straight to Ebay. It's not smart to pay for lawyers only to get accounts back to sell them.

Well shit fuck and damn (see, I can't even go a day without the wonderful F word; my mom's going to wash my mouth out with soap one day), they got lawyers and got reinstated. Wow. You can read it directly from them here or read Lum's take on it at his site. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

In other less important news, UOProstitute found this on the internet and posted it to their website.
The internet-only fantasy world of Britannia takes on a new dimension in Ultima Online: Third Dawn. Now UO is more immersive then ever with fully animated, motion-captured 3d characters, each with enhanced gesturing and animations. Third Dawn has more then 700 motion-captured animations on nearly 200 different character models. A 3D terrian system, new land to explore, new particle system for spell and magic effects, and upgraded sound effects make Ultima Online look and sound better then before. Yep, this was less important than the LoD stuff.

Not.

Thank you Lum for both pieces of goodie news stuff.

Hasta.

•Are we there yet?

"Not yet."

It's like taking a long trip with your parents and you are bored out of your freaking mind. Luckily I had a nack for falling asleep in whatever environment I was in and