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October 2001 News:
|
^ top-An Old Favorite
[Nieves] October 31 - 10:45 PM EST | Valor Knights.
Didn't think it was still up. And it's still as kick ass as the first time I saw it.
Watch the whole intro...then check out his site design.
Hasta. |
^ top-Lord Blackthorn's Revenge
[Nieves] October 31 - 1:30 PM EST | "You will have your vengeance on Britannia,” Exodus said. "Soon all humans will know you as Lord Blackthorn, ruler of Sosaria."
As Blackthorn turned and moved out of the chamber, he could not help but smile.
And check this out: AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2001--Origin Systems, an Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - news) development studio, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Grammy and Emmy-winning producer/director Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, McFarlane Toys and Spawn.com, to create characters exclusively for Ultima Online(TM): Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, the latest version in the award-winning Ultima Online (UO) series. The company is also partnering with McFarlane and McFarlane Toys to develop both a line of six action figures based on the new UO creatures and two comic books based on Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge. [...]
Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge will bring players into a dark world under siege where they will discover more than 30 new and exotic characters created by McFarlane. Players will face evil forces that have aligned their powers in an attempt to destroy the virtuous and take control of Britannia. Integrated into the fiction as the evil tyrant who controls most of the new, fantastical monsters is Blackthorn, a character present throughout UO's history but who has now undergone a transformation which has left him half human and all evil. Blackthorn's forces, comprised of many of McFarlane's creatures, lend a dark, edgy twist to the game. Players will encounter and can elect to interact with other McFarlane characters as they wind their way through Britannia. [...]
McFarlane's creatures will be challenging to beat. Their AI will be oriented toward strategic combat tactics as opposed to simple skill gain. For example, players will have to discover which combat or magic tactical combination works on a given species of monster. As players immerse themselves in the game, they will discover a new strain of fiction unfolding, where their actions will determine the outcome of in-game events. For instance, if a group of monsters is trying to overpower a town, the players can band together and push the monsters back. However, without a strong player response, the town can be lost to the monster. A new Virtue System will be woven into UO, adding depth to the dynamic storyline. The system allows players to be rewarded or denied virtues based on their choices and behavior during the game.
HOLD UP! I was excited untill I read this: New UO players will quickly become engrossed in the latest version of the game with the assistance of an intuitive help feature and stronger starting character templates, which allow new players greater opportunity to strengthen their skills and abilities early in the game. Players will discover more than 30 new items to craft, collect and trade in the world of Ilshenar -- the backdrop for Lord Blackthorn's Revenge and location of Blackthorn's castle.
LET THEM PUT IT JUST IN ILSHENAR WITHOUT FIXING THE 3D CLIENT!!!
Watch me leave.
Ok....read the rest of the release here.
UPDATE:Actually, it's not in the press release, but the new package allows 2d access to Ilshenar. :)
Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it
JOY OF JOYS!
Oh, some Golem News (thanks Silk):
Here's some info on the recently added craftable golems:
Anyone can control it.
Can be transferred to anyone.
Repair (Heal) with tinker tools and 11 ingots. 1/4 health repaired per attempt with a delay in between.
Can be stabled.
GM Tinkered Golem is as powerfule as a wild Golem.
They still do their special stun move.
You lose 20 mana when your golem is hit.
You lose between 2 and 15 hit points when your golem is hit.
You lose karma if the golem dies.
Items needed to make:
1 Clockwork Assembly
1 Power Crystal
5 Gears
50 Iron Ingots
50 Bronze Ingots
If you have all the parts in your pack, simply double click the Clockwork Assembly, and the Golem is made.
Calandryll: "There's some interactions with golems that people may not have realized yet. They are by no means a simple task of just owning them like a pet."
Hasta. |
^ top-Some Interesting News
[Nieves] October 31 - 10:23 AM EST | With my patented Commentary of course:
In regards to the NPC price changes proposed by Vex:
…If you simply couldn't get an ingot for less than 30gp anywhere, all that means is smiths will have to adjust their prices upwards to match. If anyone tries to undercut the competition too much, you could make a profit buying their stuff and smelting it down and selling back the ingots. And, all those worthless metal weapons and armor pieces that are usually left on monster corpses would suddenly be more valuable than the gold found on the corpse.
First off, if you aren't already smelting weapons and armor you find, you are wasting valuable ingots (not too mention an ignorant fool). I can, on an average day (when I play a hardcore day) pull 500-1,000 ingots after smelting junk. That may not be as much as actually mining (which I hate with a passion) but when you add it up over a week's time (some of you play hardcore daily), you can pull in 7,000 ingots easy. On top of that, you are getting gold, and various types of loot along with the ingots. Didn't I already cover this? Yeah, I thought so. Anyway...
Vex goes on to propose a new system of "balancing" the economy. An excerpt:
So, here's the solution. For those commodities that can be gathered/created by players in bulk, NPCs will now adjust their prices based on actual activity and have unlimited quantities in stock. For now, these items are: boards, ingots, leather, arrows, and crossbow bolts. All other items (like reagents, etc.) will continue to be traded by NPCs exactly as they do now. But, for these five items, NPCs will trade them differently.
Who does this effect really? I play in a circle of friends that "harvest" all their resources (besides reagents) and don't worry about going to vendors to buy their products.
Vex also talks about inflation and how the UO economy has been affected by it.
Welp....I don't know alot about economics (I got a D; bleh screw macro/microeconomics), but I know that won't solve the problems with the UO Economy.
As I was saying....
The UO Economy was ruined by a number of things:
1) Duping. Need I say more?
2) Trammel. Risk vs. Reward. 60/60 Tamers and their "all follow me" macro spam. Note: No, Trammel didn't ruin UO, it just made it too easy to "farm" gold. As I said way back when, make a new land, dungeons are no man's land, and wilderness areas "no PvP". But hindsight is 20 / 20 right?
3) Not enough Gold Dumps. Taxes? Not going to happen. Maybe a Shard Wipe? (put the flame thrower away). Gold Wipe? (I said put it away). I can only buy so many Taxi-Heads before I have all I want. I can only buy so many Neon deeds before I have the colors I want on all my characters. Where are the new flooring tiles?
Hmm..maybe make food mean something? If you don't eat, your character dies. That way Chefs become meaningfull and they can charge 10,000 for a full course meal.
And how about termites? You got to hire a termite exterminator? New Skill Anyone? "Roy, Grandmaster Exterminator". Yeah. Cool huh?
Not. Sucks ass.
Cap the amount of Gold you can have like Diablo II? Sure. Right.
What's going to fix the UO Economy? I have no clue. There is too much gold out there. And too many ways to make gold pieces risk free.
Applying real world economics isn't going to fix UO's Economy. Giving them something to spend it on, might.
New Flooring Tiles, large statues (costing in the millions), real fountains, "house decorating kits", casinos (new town anyone?), SOMETHING.
Anyway, that's my take.
It's good something is being done...but is it enough?
I don't think so.
Hasta. |
^ top-Stupid Says As Stupid Does
[Nieves] October 30 - 11:30 PM EST | A transaction in Britain.
Stupid: "How do I buy the deed"
Me: "Vendor buy works"
Stupid walks over to the vendor and say: "vendor buy works"
Me: ::sighs::
Stupid: "Ok, I tried, brb"
And to think, that person might actually reproduce someday.
Hasta.
|
^ top-Trick or treat?
[Eric] October 30 - 10:20 PM EST | Well, OSI has thrown a shitload at us once again. Maybe not all at once, but since we haven’t posted most of the recent changes yet on UOPG, I’m going to fill you in on the latest from OSI. (You know, in case UOPG is the only site you read).
Shall we begin with golems? It’s a personal favorate of mine considering my mind has been brainwashed by Diablo II lately. When I think of “golem,” I think of the creature that my necromancer summons. Oh well, it’s all the same.
A few days ago, Nieves posted that Catlyn, from our forums, has created a guide to making golems. Calandryll gives us some more “hints”:
There's some interactions with golems that people may not have realized yet. They are by no means a simple task of just owning them like a pet.
Controllers have a much better understanding of golems than players do. ;)
So controllers are going to somehow “control” golems? Makes sense. Also, regarding golems…
Not going to confirm anything with regards to future updates, but they're not deaf, I clarified this before. They don't hear the same way that creatures do. They're not alive, nor were they ever alive. So they can respond to specific commands, but other sounds have no meaning to them.
If at anytime you find further information on golems, please do send it my way. I’m sure upon the release of this part of the scenario, we’ll have a lot more information (how the golem relates to the scenario, I suppose). When, you ask, are these golems going to be implemented to the scenario? (Just so you're not mistaken like I was, golems ARE in the game on all shards right now.)
Week 13 is the craftable golem and a new monster. Don't let week 13 confuse you with publish 13/14. Week 13 just means we are in the 13th week of the scenarios, going back to the first orc update.
UPDATE:
Blood Moon, from our forum, has posted the following info. about golems:
I can tell you a few things.
The power thingys needed to make them spawn on golems...They seem to spawn like t-maps.
I killed 30 golems and got one before I ran outta BP and my WW and mare both died.
They are nice to have but are NOT worth the time. The Clockwork kit seems to be loot on one outta three golems though.
Nearest I can tell they are as strong as the "wild" golems....I havn't had time to test but if you want I can post a screenshot.
Oh yes rumor is you need repair kits to heal them.
-Blood
There has also been a lot of information added to the Testing for Next Update, so I’m not going to post it all. This isn’t UO Stratics. If you really want to read it all, you know where to find it. Anyway, here are some tidbits I found interesting.:
Five specific resources will be affected in how they are purchased from, and sold to, by NPC shopkeepers. These five commodities are: leather, ingots (iron), wood (boards), crossbow bolts, and arrows.
These NPC shopkeepers will track the sales and purchases of these commodities, and adjust their prices based on how much of these items they buy from or sell to players:
-NPC shopkeepers will always have 500 of their respective commodity for sale.
-Each NPC will track prices individually for each of the five commodities.
-If the NPC sells more of these commodities to players than she has bought from players, her price for that commodity will increase.
-If the NPC doesn’t buy or sell any of a particular commodity, her price for that commodity won’t change.
-If the NPC buys and sells similar amounts of a particular commodity, his or her price for that commodity won't change.
-If the NPC buys more of a commodity from a player than he or she sells to players, his or her price for that commodity will decrease.
The update goes on explaining some more of that information, but then I found something I like:
All NPC shopkeepers will now have unlimited funds for transactions.
Does this mean I’ll be able to FINALLY sell back all of my maps so that Nieves doesn’t get mad at me for dropping them all over the Great Lakes shard? I hope so. Also, Vex continues to talk more about UO’s Economy here.
There’s a another new & interesting element to the game that UO has added to the Testing section. They’re called Context Sensitive Menus. Basically, they make different functions easier to operate within the game. There are various different options, including the following:
Bankers now have the following menu options:
Open Bankbox
- Player must be within 8 tiles of banker.
- Player must not be a criminal.
Shopkeepers now have the following menu options:
Buy
- Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
- Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
- Player must not be a murderer.
Sell
- Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
- Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
- Player must not be a murderer.
Escorts now have the following menu options available:
Accept Escort
- Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
- Escort must be available.
- Player must not have an escort already.
- Player’s last escort acceptance must have been over 5 minutes ago.
Ask Destination
- Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
- Escort must be available or escorted by you.
Abandon Escort
- Escort must be escorted by you.
Pets and Hirelings now have the following menu options:
(For all pet/hireling commands, player must be within 12 tiles of the pet/hireling, and be the owner of the pet/hireling.)
- Command: Kill
- Command: Stop
- Command: Follow
- Command: Stay
- Command: Guard
- Add Friend
- Transfer
Pets have the following additional menu option:
- Release
Hirelings have the follow additional menu options:
- Hire (NPC must not be employed; i.e. no master.)
- Dismiss
All animals that can be tamed will have the following menu option:
Tame
- Player must be within 8 tiles of creature.
- Animal must not already be tame.
- Player must have the required taming skill.
Stablemasters now have the following menu options:
Claim All
- Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.
- Player must have 1 or more pets stabled.
Stable Pet
- Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.
All NPCs who can train, including shopkeepers, will have the following menu options:
Train
- NPC must not be unemployed; i.e. no master.
- NPC must at least 60.0 in the skill to be trained.
- Player must have any prereqs for skill.
- Player must have less than 1/3 of the trainer's skill.
All human NPCs and players have the following menu option:
- Open Paperdoll
Your own avatar has the following menu option:
- Open Backpack
If you are young and going through the directed experience:
- View Quest Log
House Lockdown and Item Placement, House Banning, and Ship Commands are extremely complex systems, and the menus needed to access all the necessary functions would be huge and unwieldy. New systems for these may be addressed in a later publish.
Good system, in theory, but I’m not sure how many people would prefer this system over the current way all of these actions are performed. Once again, if you want the full text of what’s "In Testing," go here.
That’s it for now. I need to run out to a Walgreens and buy some candy. Some poor kids will be pretty disappointed if I don’t have a bowl of candy when they knock on my door tomorrow.
Happy Halloween…and don’t eat any candy that has a white powdery substance on it. Yes, pixie sticks are okay.
UPDATE: Just in from OSI:
We are targeting to publish the items listed in Testing for Next Update to one shard this week, provided that no unforeseen issues arise during the testing phase. The changes are currently on Test Center 6, and we encourage all players to participate in testing these items and to report any bugs you may find to tcbugs@uo.com. When submitting a bug report to our QA department, please remember to include the following information:
- Your UO account name (do not include your password)
- The time, date, shard, and facet of the occurrence
- What steps you took that led up to the bug
- Whether or not you tried to repeat the bug, and if you succeeded
We will post another update once we have more information on a possible release date.
|
^ top-You know you want virtues...(it's a spoiler).
[Eric] October 29 - 10:45 PM EST | Thanks to UO Stratics for this Virtue Gump Information.
Unless you hate spoilers, I would check this one out. It's actually pretty cool.
Cya later. |
^ top-Update From Noc
[Nieves] October 29 - 5:16 PM EST | posted on 10/29/01 at 02:16 PM
Okay, let me clarify this. The Siege changes are in...just not working.
1) Reds will be guardwhacked if called on, but NPCs won't call on them. Thus, if you're stealthy and red, you can use the bank.
2) ROT DOES NOT WORK YET. It supposedly is in, but you can still gain normally in skills above 70. I thought not to mention this because most of us won't have skills above 70 to worry about.
So, if you can get a GM skill really quickly (eval *cough*), do it now.
Hasta. |
^ top-Siege by Noc
[Nieves] October 29 - 11:06 AM EST | Another great essay by Nocturnal.
In an attempt to get fellow powergamers to try Siege out, I'll give a brief summation of what Siege is like. The first point that will apply to most of you is the rate-over-time system.
-----------------
Rate over Time
-----------------
Rate over time is a system where skill gain is limited to certain intervals. Unlike before, rate over time applies to *ALL SKILLS*. The interval is based on the level of your skill:
Under 70 - skills gain as normal. Powerhour applies.
From 70-79.9 - skills gain up to 3.6 total per day. You can only gain in a skill every 20 minutes.
From 80-89.9 - skill gain up to 2.0 total per day. You can only gain in a skill every 40 minutes.
From 90-100 - skill gain up to 2.0 total per day. You can only gain in a skill every 60 minutes.
While you may look at this and think it will take forever, this is not true. While each individual skill may take longer, there are many benefits as well. One, you KNOW when you are going to gain. Think of it as a 3.6 point run, stretched out over the entire day. Interspersed with that are gains in skills between 80 and 90, and skills between 90 and 100.
It would take you approximately 3 days to get each individual skill from 70 to 80, 5 days to get each individual skill from 80 to 90, and 5 days to get each individual skill from 90 to 100.
Thus, it takes a total of 13 days per skill, but those aren't layed end to end. Remember that while you are working on a skill in the 90s, you can still work on a skill in the 80s and one in the 70s, in addition to any skills below 70. If you are able to get every gain when you are eligible, here is a general timeline:
Day 3: First skill at 80.
Day 8: First skill at 90.
Day 13: First GM skill! You also have another skill at 90 and another at 80.
Day 18: Second GM skill.
Day 23: Third GM skill.
Day 28: Fourth GM skill. You have no skills below 70.
Day 33: Fifth GM skill.
Day 38: Sixth GM skill.
Day 43: Last GM skill! You are now 7x GM in a little over a month.
So after merely 3 weeks, you could have a character with GM tactics, fencing, and parrying! Or, magery, meditation, and eval. Better yet, GM taming, lore, and magery. Or blacksmithing, mining, cartography! Yes, ROT applies to ANYTHING. The skills that would take 43 days on the regular shards, like resist, taming, cartography, poisoning, etc, only take a mere 13 days to GM! It gets better.
How big of a bitch is resist? Taming? Poisoning? Skills that require a HUGE time investment (taming, anyone?) or a LOT of resources (resist, poisoning) are daunting tasks on the regular shards. Not so with Siege Perilous.
For example, to go from 70 to 100 magery on a regular shard, it may take anywhere between 1500 and 3000 of each FS or EQ reg. On siege, it takes 300. Yes, only 300 of each reg to go from 70 to 100 magery. Why? When you are eligible for a gain, log on, cast a spell, get your 0.1 and log off. (Or stop whatever else you are doing and cast a spell.) No need to sail slow forward, wasting a ton of regs, hoping for that gain in the 90s.
Or taming. Most tamers would consider it a great day if they gained 2.0 taming in a powerhour in the 90s. You are GUARANTEED 2.0 taming per day on Siege.
So, while ROT seems like an imposing system, working under it for a while can really liken a person to it. True, you can't get a 4xGM warrior in a week, but the difference between 4xGM and 7xGM on siege is much less than it is elsewhere.
You'll never be bitching on the boards about how your gains suck.
-----------
PVP
-----------
Some of the best PVPers in Ultima Online play on Siege. Guilds such as UDL, GC, -F-, Xie, and many others represent the best their shard has to offer in the pvp department. Why is this?
No stat loss for murderers.
For those of us who played back in the dread lord days, you know what this entails. It basically means the entire shard is at war with itself, in the form of pk vs. anti battles. You have guilds like Xie, BiH, WE and others who are constantly battling the murderers from across the shard.
No more feeling frustrated at that idiot who you really, really wish you could kill, but:
a) you can't afford a murder
b) it's in trammel, and you can't attack him anyway
Kill who you want! It's wonderful!
If you are looking for top-quality, "old-days" PVP, there's no where else but Siege Perilous to find it. If you really want to make a name for yourself, get your guild on Siege and whoop some ass. It's tough to earn the respect of the top-notch pvpers that call SP their home, but if you do, there's no greater victory.
-------------------
Roleplaying
-------------------
Some of the best roleplaying guilds call Siege their home. UDL and UND, for example, both roleplay the Undead. UDL has been a premier guild in SP since its inception, and if you can't beat em, join em.
There are also the Shadowclan Orcs, a very well established roleplaying guild. They may seem diminutive in stature, but believe me, they really can clomp da humies. Again, you can partake in the raids on their fort (and, even not using horses, they've been known to dirtnap even the best, horsed or bedragoned, pvpers), or join up with them. www.shadowclan.cx
There are many other roleplaying guilds out there (with our without pvp), look into them or start your own!
So, while SP may look like a daunting or impossible shard, once you get started, you may find it really to your liking. With the ability to make a 7x in just over a month, and a tightly knit top-knotch pvp and roleplay community, how can you go wrong?
Janos and I are looking into getting a guild or a group of people together who can mutually benefit each other, by sparring, newbie raids on dungeons (pks beware! now that's a feeling you haven't felt in a while to be sure), and the like, if you're interested contact me at:
dave@22xband.com
ICQ: 1573698
Hope you'll give Siege a try!
-Nocturnal
Hope you enjoyed it. The above was posted in the UOPG Forum. You can read the thread here.
Hasta. |
^ top-Not that I post much at all.
[Vasilias] October 28 - 7:39 PM EST | However, this was sent to me by Ices of the Catskills shard. One of it's players on this shard has suffered massive injuries from a motorcycle accident and is in a coma. Being that this kind of shit gets to me and this is, being a community in it's own respects, basically it's own family I decided it prudent to share so that you all may pray for this person in hopes he makes a full and quick recovery. Hands down to Ifrit of Catskills. Our wishes to you and your family. You are in our prays.
And you fucks thought I was all mean and shit.
Latahs,
Vas |
^ top-More Reasons NOT To play EQ.
[Nieves] October 28 - 1:25 AM EDT | I can't name my character Beowulf, Drizzt, or even Elizabeth (, because you know, those are names of famous people, and we can't have that.
I mean really. Queen Elizabeth might get pissed and sue EverFucked or something.
Thanks JC
Hasta. |
^ top-Solo resist gain alternative, by Faust.
[Eric] October 27 - 9:45 PM EDT | If you don't want to use reapers for solo resist gains, you might find this info. posted by Faust (in the UOPG Forum) pretty useful:
For those of you who don't/can't use resist groups to train, or prefer to just do it yourself, I figured I'd post the results of one of my char's solo training. Each line is one powerhour's worth of work. I rarely play this character, so no gains were realized during normal game play. This was done solely using Bone Magi in Deceit. Both facets were used depending on the crowd on any given night.
Staring skill / Ending skill / Increase
76.8 / 78.2 / 1.4
78.2 / 79.6 / 1.4
79.6 / 81.1 / 1.5
81.1 / 82.6 / 1.5
82.6 / 83.2 / 0.6
83.2 / 84.3 / 1.1
84.3 / 85.5 / 1.2
85.5 / 86.2 / 0.7
86.2 / 87.0 / 0.8
87.0 / 87.6 / 0.6
87.6 / 89.0 / 1.4
89.0 / 90.1 / 1.1
90.1 / 91.3 / 1.2
91.3 / 92.1 / 0.8
92.1 / 92.8 / 0.7
92.8 / 93.7 / 0.9
93.7 / 94.4 / 0.7
94.4 / 95.0 / 0.6
95.0 / 95.5 / 0.5
95.5 / 96.1 / 0.6
96.1 / 96.8 / 0.7
96.8 / 97.5 / 0.7
97.5 / 98.1 / 0.6
98.1 / 98.4 / 0.3
98.4 / 98.9 / 0.5
98.9 / 99.5 / 0.6
99.5 / 100.0 / 0.5
In the process, I made approximately 82,600gp. I didn't loot every single kill, but the majority I did get to. I tried to keep 3 mages casting on me at all times.
That's it. So, it can be done there, but it is noticably longer than summoning daemons.
Thanks, Faust. :) Reapers have shown to give better gains, but if you don't like to get blasted by them, you can use bone magi in Deceit, and make some gold as well.
Cya later. |
^ top-Daylight savings reminder.
[Eric] October 27 - 8:07 PM EDT | Remember to set your clocks an hour back tonight before you go to sleep.
Enjoy the extra hour of sleep.
Cya later. |
^ top-Reaper Valley and Resist
[Sinister_Saint] October 26 - 5:02 AM EDT | After letting resist raise passively for almost 20 months, I finally reached 6x GM on my fencer and decided that I might as well finish up resist. I used skelly and bone magi to get from 50 to about 74 and just recently I started visit a place known to many as "reaper valley." While this may not be news to some, hopefully this will help others. I have gone to reaper valley each day for my powerhour and I am happy to say that they have taken me from 74 up to 89. I am still gaining about 1 point per hour and I gained 1.1 points last powerhour to reach my current level of 89. People often talk about resist groups, but if you are not able to get one together or other circumstances stop you, reapers are a great alternative. They cast plenty of explosions, ebolts, flamestrikes and I even gain on fireballs. The best part about them though is that they spawn rapidly, often in close proximity to one another and they can't chase you. I have had as many as 5 reapers all within one screen and all casting on me. I walked away with .7 gains and managed to stay alive through a combined use of bandies, potions and magery... and maybe a good dose of luck. I am going to continue with reapers just to see how far they will take me.
Screenshot of reaper valley
There you go Nievesy-poo!
|
^ top-Phear My Cut & Paste Skillzz
[Nieves] October 25 - 7:09 PM EDT | Welp, I mosied on down to SlowNewsDay.Net to see what was cooking today. Then I found this little gem. Neat. Nice reading.
This evening, my buddy ol' pal ol' buddy asked if I read his update today.
Seeing as how he usually updates only when the seasons change, I was pleased to know he had updated twice in a week's time. Joy of Joys! I only hoped it was better than his review of some movie about a Gym and some Kung Fu Katas. Then I read what he said.
NOTE: Watts didn't tell me what he wrote. He simply asked if I had read it yet.
Um...a bit of advice to anyone wanting to post some news: Be correct.
If you don't, Watts will come for you. And you don't know Terror, until Watts shows up on your doorsteap.
Hasta. |
^ top-Chat with the UO scenario dev. team TONIGHT.
[Eric] October 25 - 5:24 PM EDT | I received this in my box today from IanStorm.com...
Ianstorm will be holding a moderated Q&A chat event, Tonight at 8PM EST (1AM GMT), with the Ultima Online Scenario Team.
To enter into this chat you can go to http://irc.ianstorm.com and join
#stormevent or use an IRC client (such as MIRC or pirch) and connect to
irc.ianstorm.com port 6667. And /join #stormevent.
This will be a moderated chat event. Open discussion can be found in the
#stormcenter channel. The topic of discussion will be on the ongoing
scenarios in Ultima Online.
IanStorm Events Team
If anyone attends the chat and finds something interesting said, send it my way.
Cya later. |
^ top-You Are Out Of Your Freaking Mind...
[Nieves] October 25 - 3:58 PM EDT | | If you think I am going to pay 35,000GP for a Level 5 Treasure Map! |
^ top-Two hot things. The shirt and myself.
[Epyon] October 24 - 6:43 PM EDT | There ya go.
Contact Nieves if you want one. Or ten.
 |
^ top-Rebuttal
[Nieves] October 24 - 12:41 PM EDT | Yesterday I posted a link to this article.
Shadow wrote a "rebuttal" of said article.
Nieves
First of all, I’d like to say that I’ve been a faithful follower of
uopowergamers since 1842, er well maybe not that long, but I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. Keep up the good work.
Anyway, I generally don’t respond to articles on news sites, but your
article “Damn” hit a little close to home, so in the interest of helping me to resolve my own September 11th issues I thought I would send off a letter.
As way of background, I’m a licensed attorney in Illinois. I’m not
currently practicing; instead I’m working as a computer consultant/network engineer for medium sized law firms here in Chicago. As if the above wasn’t enough, I also work as a freelance photographer.
Recently, I got a commission to do a photographic fluff piece on the
Sears Tower for a South American travel magazine. The job paid $800 dollars so I loaded up my camera, headed over to the Sears Tower and started photographing. After photographing around the building, I went into the lobby and asked the security guard if I could take a couple photos the lobby for a magazine. He told me that I could not, so I walked out to the sidewalk shot the façade and got ready to leave.
As I was leaving, I was grabbed by a couple security guards and told
that they were going to confiscate my camera and film. Seeming how my
camera costs over 5 grand and the film in the camera was worth another $800, I told them that they had better call the police. Two officers arrived and told me that I would have to give my film up, including the 6 rolls in my camera bag that I had shot for other commissions. They said they wanted to be on the “safe side.” Given the jumpiness of everyone lately, I tried to remain calm throughout the encounter; policemen have a hard enough job already with out me acting like a prick. I asked them to call a Sgt. and if that Sgt. said that I needed to give up my film I would. While we were waiting, the security guard told me that I was “not allowed” to photograph the Sears Tower: not from the sidewalk; not from across the street; not
even from across the Loop. Anyway, the Sgt. arrived and immediately took me aside. He told me that they could not take my film and that I was free to go.
I was let go, so what’s the point?
The guess the point of this whole letter is that the Constitution and
Bill of Rights provides American Citizens with certain fundamental rights. These fundamental rights can NEVER be diminished or abridged. For the 45 minutes I was being detained I lost a whole slue of right: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom from illegal search and seizure, and to a certain degree the right to privacy. All of this was done without a second thought and with what a team of security guards and a couple police officers thought was total justification. I guess in their mind they thoughtI was taking pictures for some nefarious reason. Forget the fact that there are thousands of photos of the building already and that countless tourists take photos of the Sears Tower every day.
I guess at this point I should also point out that I’m NOT an Arab
American, I’m ¼ German, ¼ Irish, ¼ Filipino, and ¼ Japanese. I had
relatives that were interned in California during the 1940 so this issue of internment strikes a little close to home. O’ yeah, those same people who were interned lost their business, their home, and more importantly three of their sons in Northern Italy. So I realize that I may be a little hostile to the suggestion of internment. I know that you were not suggesting segregation or interment, but that trailing “but…” speaks mouthfuls. But I guess during World War 2 we “Needed to be Wary of Young Japanese Men.”
I read the article and a couple things struck me. First of all, if
I was an Arab American, especially a young male, I’d be pretty tired of people staring at me. I recently flew how to California and was seated next to an individual from Egypt. He was headed to California on business. Everyone on that plane watched this poor guy. He started to get nervous, probably because everyone was staring at him, so he started to sweat, and sweat he did. At on point, some idiot walked by and whispered to the guy that he was keeping an eye on him.
So imagine that you’ve been getting this sort of treatment. If you
don’t know what I am talking about go somewhere where you aren’t welcome, it's not a nice feeling. Back to the article, so you see this blond soccer mom staring at you, what do you do: stare back.
This lady’s whole article is based on what other people told her and
what her son heard in a chat room, because we all know people speak the truth in chat rooms and on message boards. This lady also, in her expert opinion, claims that there are a lot of sleeper cells and that she has formed the perfect profile of who wants to hurt us. Give me a break, she is not a security expert nor does she have credentials on international relationships.
Yet she wishes she had confronted these young men, called them
terrorists, and “if I had to, tackling them and screaming for help”
Seriously, what would you do if some yokel comes up to you and did the same thing. Also, its not just extremists in the mid east that want to hurt us, there are radicals in almost every country that have it out for Americans. However, none of this justifies individuals taking action in situations such as this. Don’t get me wrong, if someone makes a run for a cockpit door, I say you do whatever you need to to take them down, likewise if someone pulls a gun you take them down. However, as to “busting” people on the street based on the mere fact that they are Arab American, I’d say show a little common sense. If you are really suspicious call the police, let them deal with it. But for god’s sake don’t go questioning people and accusing them of being terrorists. It’s a good way to end up either in a fight or in jail. No matter how good your intentions if you are stupid enough “to, tackl[e] them and screaming for help” you are most likely going to spend a night in jail or end up with some sort of civil suit.
I know a lot of people will disagree with what I am saying. The typical response is we need to not worry about civil liberties in this time of war. What I worry about is that people are giving up their fundamental rights without so much as a second look. Once we give up these rights, we won’t just be able to get them back. We will have to fight for them, tooth and nail. One only needs to look at the legislation being rammed through Congress, without thoughtful debate, right now to see laws that previously would have been considered unconstitutional or even absurd. I understand that people are afraid, but we need to make sure that we temper that fear with reason.
******
“A society that will trade a little order for a little freedom will lose both, and deserve neither.
--Thomas Jefferson
piece of freedom is no longer enough for human beings…unlike bread, a slice of liberty does not finish hunger. Freedom is like life. It cannot be had in installments. Freedom is indivisible - we have it all, or we are not free.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort that it values more, it will lose that too.
--W. Somerset Maugham
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. --Abraham Lincoln
Hmmm...I should've listened to my Poli Sci teacher back in my first year of college and gone into politics. Maybe I would be a rich and powerful man by now. Can you see it?
Nieves for President!!!
Kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it?
OH! Before I forget, some publish went in today but 3 shards couldn't get it because of database issues.
Thanks to Kerowyn for that update.
Hasta. |
^ top-w00t...The t-shirt has arrived.
[Eric] October 23 - 10:19 PM EDT | As you probably have seen/heard, most (or all) of the t-shirts that have been ordered and shipped arrived today. If Nieves shipped yours and you didn't get it yet, don't worry, it's on its way. Anyways, the t-shirts rock as expected. I took a pic of it with my digital camera to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. Now, PLEASE REALIZE that my camera is a piece of shit and takes low quality photos, so the lighting/color of this pic is slightly distorted.
It's a nice t-shirt, and if you want one, please get in touch with Nieves. Supplies are limited.
Oddly enough, I received ANOTHER t-shirt today, from Fallen Age (well, the company who used to develop Fallen Age). It was a gift from them to all of the beta testers for their help in testing the game that went under. The shirt sucks, so I'll probably be using it as a rag to wash my car or something. Anyways, if you ordered a UOPG t-shirt, enjoy it. If you haven't and still want to, e-mail Nieves ASAP.
Cya later.
UPDATE: Thanks Catlyn, for hosting the pic. I appriciate it. |
^ top-Take a survey.
[Eric] October 23 - 4:33 PM EDT | I received this e-mail from someone over at Codemasters:
Hello. My name is Ted Carron and I head one of Codemasters development studios.
My studio is developing a new MMORPG called Dragon Empires. We are considering using a recognized author to help us flesh out the history of the Dragon Empires world. Before we choose an author we would like to know more about our customer's interests. In short, your opinions matter to us.
We have put together a quick survey to gather your opinions on a few authors. If you would like to participate, our survey is located at: http://www.realmserver.com/authorsurvey
Thanks in advance for your help.
Codemasters is the company that currently develops the MMORPG The Realm. Before playing UO, I played the Realm for about 2 and a half years, and in its time, it was an amazing game. With today's gaming technology and many of the advancements in the gaming industry, the Realm doesn't compare to most of today's games. The game right now has a very small subscriber base and I think they only charge $5.00 a month. (Back when I played, they were run by Sierra and had a fairly large subscriber base, and they charged $12.00 a month). I wouldn't recommend playing it, especially if you're into newer games.
Help them out though, and take their survey. Cya later.
UPDATE: Well, someone e-mailed me and pointed out to me that the survey is by invitation only. Oh well, I guess you all can't take the survey. Do check out
the Codemasters website, and you can find more info. there on this new game that they are developing. |
^ top-Calandryll Does Virtues....
[Nieves] October 23 - 4:08 PM EDT | Or rather changes them.
:The virtue systems listed in In Development have been changed in the following way:
Master System:
- Third Path title changed to "Knight" instead of Guardian.
Um. Ok.
Sacrifice:
- Removed karma requirements.
Hmmmm...
Humility:
- Changed gains (HPs, Stamina, Mana) to +5 at path one, +10 at path two, +20 at path three.
Very nice. Much much better. Thank you Cal.
- Once a veteran character helps a [young] character, they will not be able to invite another character from that same [young] account to become their squire for one week. For example:
- You invite a character to be your squire and s/he accepts.
- You can help that character as often as you want, but for one week you cannot invite another character from that account to become your new squire.
- You can invite [young] characters from different accounts to become your squires.
- After one week, you can invite a different [young] character from an account you have already helped.
Ok. That's cool. You can't cheat so neh!
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm also working on a change to try to cut down on the spam young players might get bombarded with and make it easier for them to accept/reject offers.
Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it
I can see it now. The Bank Posers running around asking all the youngs "BE MY SqUiRe BIYOTCH!". Or Youngs with Guild Title's Like: "RaIdEn'S SQUIRE BOIEE". Yeah. Fun fun.
I got better things to do than squire a new character.
Personally, I would rather just show a newer player what to do to get skill points and then point them to this really cool website I know, and then leave them to their own devices.
But that's me.
Hasta. |
^ top-We Told You The Sims Sucks...
[Nieves] October 23 - 2:16 PM EDT | Electronic Arts Inc. (NasdaqNM:ERTS - news), the largest U.S. video
game publisher, said on Tuesday it would lay off 200 to 250 people from its online unit toward a goal of reaching profitability for the
unit in fiscal 2003.
Well, I guess I can give up dreams of working in Austin for the company that maintains my favorite game.
Hasta. |
^ top-Stop Thief!
[Nieves] October 23 - 12:33 PM EDT | Read about it.
They mention a thief named Poison Ivy on Great Lakes. I had a few encounters with her.
One thing I hate are gate hoppers, and she is one. But know what? I respect her. She at least makes it interesting with her Roleplaying.
Unfortunately for her on one of those occassions she caught me in a bad mood with my Mage. Explosion+Flamestrike+Ebolt = Dead Thief.
She wasn't happy about it.
Just so you know, she used to frequent the Skara Brae Moongate. I have seen her at the Jhelom Moongate as well.
I can't wait for the aggressor=No Moongate For You Change. :D Thieves will have to do like the guy on Pacific. Earn it!
Hasta. |
^ top-Funnies...
[Nieves] October 23 - 12:51 AM EDT | Some things are just lame...
And some things just disappoint me...
NOTE: The guy that was unattended macroing was already dead.
Hasta. |
^ top-Krum Asks For Monster AI Ideas...
[Nieves] October 22 - 5:15 PM EDT | I give you Nieves' Ideas:
When the dungeon spawn was improved and monsters (ie-Liches) were made tougher, Liches had the ability to stealth up to you and hit you. I don't know if that was a bug or not but I don't see it happening anymore.
I think that would be way cool. Gives us a new sense of danger.
Also, Liches are undead necromancers, what about having them "spawn" other undead?
A Vampire? Please? They suck "life" taking Str away with each hit (5% per hit maybe?) which gives the Vamp life back. Abilities could include: Lightning Spell, Wind Spell (repulse people away; like one of the monter hits do <--I forget who), "Call Dire Wolves" (spawn 4 at a time), Paralyze Spell ("charm"), Can't be poisoned, morph into a mist when hurt, but can be killed still. They have the same amount of HP in the middle of a Lich and a Lich Lord. Spawn them in Covetous, Deceit, and Skeletal Ruins (see below).
Later on, when the virtues are working properly, you could make it so a certain virtue has a bonus to kill certain monsters. IE-Compassionate (read: Love) folks get a bonus to kill undead.
If a monster can't open a locked door, and can cast high enough Magery, it should be able to cast magic unlock, open it, and get going after the big bad adventurer (secret doors I wouldn't worry about).
Make an Uber Monster spawn randomly in dungeons. For instance, if in Destard, the Ancient Wyrm comes up to see what his brethren are doing. Same with the Ancient Lich (once a day; random time determined at server start up :) ).
Allow monsters to go through "levels". If I am running from the Ancient Wyrm, let it follow me through the "level door". In other words, if I am running from a Silver Serpent in Deceit and I go up to level 2, it can follow me from level 3.
Have monsters work together. If two Liches are chasing someone, one paralyzes while the other flamestrikes.
Spell combos on monsters. I remember when monsters would be able to cast mini-combos. They don't anymore :( Paralyze+Explosion+Poison would surprise the heck out of me.
No monster casts Mindblast. BIG surprise in Trammel. But it should be there IMHO.
A new NPC: "An Assassin". He stalks through dungeons stealthing and hunting down adventurers. He uses Regular Poison, a Dagger or Kryss and hits for twice normal on the first hit. After that he can't stealth. You can also add "A Veteran Assassin" that uses Greater Poison and uses a "force" Kryss to attack. Despise wouldn't be a bad dungeon for this.
Monster luring: if a monster is away from it's "home" spawn area for more than 5 minutes, it "teleports" home.
Add some loot that gives "clues" to something bigger. IE- The books in Khaldun books are great to read, but have them give clues to finding something in the dungeon. And then put that something there to be found or solved. :)
Make a different quest system "spawn" in the dungeons randomly everyday.
In other words, a set of quests are set up for each dungeon. [Or for all. You choose.] Add, say about 20 per dungeon (yeah alot of work, sorry), then they randomly "spawn" and can be completed. A character cannot complete a single dungeon quest more than once a day. He can go to a different dungeon and complete that quest.
Last I checked, spiders can climb walls....
For example, if I am on a cliff where a Terathan couldn't get to me because it's effectively "blocked", it just "climbs up" and gets to me. Make it so it gets close to the side of the cliff, then appears 1 tile next to me. Ditto on all spider kin.
And certain monsters, IE-the Harpy, can fly. they could fly over to me where ever I am :)
Let the monsters that spawn with a certain magic item be able to use that item. IE-if a Demon has a Sword of Repond, let it be able to use it against people. That would hurt players, but it's a Demon. It's supposed to be hard as hell.
Allow monsters to use special hits. IE-if a savage is whacking me with a spear, paral hits baby!
Add a new snake: "A Python". It's special hit is a paralyze hit ("SQUEEZE") that causes .5 more damage and keeps you rooted until you successfully hit (doesn't matter for how much damage, as long as you hit it) the creature to break free).
Blood Elementals are made of blood? Don't they feed on Blood then? So, if they do that, shouldn't they "suck the life" out of what they are fighting? (think Str).
Some Snakes Spit Poison. Nuff said.
Camouflaged Snow Monsters. Nuff said.
Spiders spin webs. Nuff said.
Last I checked in mythical monster lore, Ice Wyrms had an ice weapon... Nuff said.
Also, Blue Dragons (mountains mainly; electricity breath weapon) and Black Dragons (swamps only; acid breath weapon) would be cool.
New Giants!!! Maybe make "Ettin Valley" (east of Delucia) more Giant Infested and add new ones there too :0
The Skeletal Ruins just west of Terathan Valley could use some looking at.
Magical monsters should have a better ability of healing and curing themselves. Not something outrageous but even so. For example, Liches and Dragons are "intelligent" creatures. They wouldn't just run away...they would lick their wounds, use high level heal spells, and come back for some payback.
The Rats got mages, why can't the Lizard Men get something more as well? They could use a stronghold in the Papua Swamps (see Skeletal Ruins above). Maybe some spear throwing Lizardmen (mechanic similar to bolas but it causes damage)?
Also, there are ALOT of "empty" ruins in the lands (Northern Fire Island has one).
Also, how about adding a Dungeon at the Ophidian Lair? I think it's time we found out just what the big bad Ophidians have as a lair. Everyone picks on the Terathans' House, why not the Ophidians, too?
Terathans live very near the city of Papua...it stands to reason that city would see random attacks on it's populace (continue to allow guard whacking monsters). Ditto on Delucia.
Hammer Throwing Cyclopian Warriors :)
Scorpians have claws. They should be able to use them.
What about a new "race" ? "Can you say Scorpian-men"? Make their "home" on that Desert Island in T2A.
Have higher level Demons (Ice Fiends and Balrons) spawn gargoyles and elementals (I heard a rumor Balrons do, but I haven't seen that happen yet).
A new set of Elementals: "Lava" in Fire Dungeon Hythloth/Fire Temple. "Sand" in T2A.
Make it so monsters resist certain types of melee weapons but take .5 more damage from others. IE-Blades do nothing to an Earth Elemental, but blunt weapons hurt them bad. So if they die faster from certain weapons, it won't matter. Just something to spice it up. Additionally, how would I damage an Air Elemental with any type of Melee weapon? Just something to think about with that.
A new monster that feeds off magic. An Energy Vortex "living" monster maybe? Wind would be a great place for it.
An underwater world :) Not a "water" environment per se. Think a new continent under oceans with Water Type Creatures.
Hasta. |
^ top-What the...?
[Nieves] October 22 - 2:07 PM EDT | Watts has to tell us about some movie he didn't like, but would've liked had their been some homosexuality in it. I think he's been hanging with Redrum again. You don't know they are lovers? Hmmm...well, I won't give their secret desire to make a sandwich with that sheep that was cloned a few years ago.
Of course, Jinx has to punk Watts out and tell us how wrong Watts is about what qualifies as the worst movie ever made.
I am not the best writer in the world. In fact, people tell me that everyday. When Jinx and Watts talk about something, I am in the audience with a tape recorder and a boom mike. Today, I had to shut off the mike, take the tape out and throw the corrupted piece of media (read: shit) away. It would never record anything again anyway after getting inundated with the radioactive fallout it got hit with.
Everytime I get a chance too, I tell Watts, "Update your fucking site".
I asked for it, didn't I?
I wuv you Watts. I hope you love the shirt.
Oh, tell Jinx to email me and shit. I need an address for him.
Hasta. |
^ top-UOPG TShirt Update
[Nieves] October 20 - 6:07 PM EDT | I got the first batch mailed out today.
For those I sent tracking numbers too, throw them out. Express is 16 Bucks. Priority is 5 bucks (which is what it costs me to send to those in the Continental US). All of you got charged 5 bucks for shipping. Do the math.
Some of you haven't replied to my request for address. Please do. I got stuff to send you :)
DAoC: School money came so I got a copy. And, it won't run on my computer. Oh Happy Day. I got my money back and got school books. Joy.
Hasta. |
^ top-Best DAoC site so far...
[Nieves] October 19 - 11:24 PM EDT | We had our differences in the past, but I think Omni has a VERY nice Dark Age of Camelot website.
Give him a holler, tell him I sent you with love and kisses.
Hasta. |
^ top-GOD LOVES ME!
[Nieves] October 19 - 6:34 PM EDT | The T-Shirts are here.
The T-Shirts are here.
And they fucking ROCK HARDCORE!
Oh shit... ::sighs::
Ok, time to go wrap some packages.
Hasta. |
^ top-How Many Does That Take?
[KH] October 19 - 6:02 PM EDT | [from the Forum...]
We get asked this kind of question a lot: How many items to GM Arms Lore? How many ingots to GM Smithing? How many days to GM Taming? Gain rate can be pretty random, so the best way to answer these kinds of question is to ask people who have recently finished a skill & kept track of how long & how much...
If you've just finished something and kept some track of how many resources you went through, or how long something took, by all means - post what you found to the thread below. If you find some wildly successful way to reduce resource use or shave time off GMing a particular skill, it might also be helpful to post what methods you were using.
For example - I just finished a GM Smith last week on Pac, starting from 50 skill. Pretty much following the skill progression in the UOPG skill section, it took me roughly 33k (slightly less) iron ingots. Didn't keep track of the # of hours. All my items were smelted at 100 Mining.
The same character also GM'd Mining from 65 while digging up the initial 20k ingots, without any smelting individual ore pieces. Don't ask me the hours on that one either, as I did it over the period of a couple months, off and on.
Some things I'd certainly like to know: How many targets and how much poison to GM Poisoning? How long to work Detect Hidden, now that you have to target each trap individually? How long to GM Stealing? How many fish steaks to GM Cooking (well, maybe not so much).
You tell us.
|
^ top-Nieves Gets Answers
[Nieves] October 19 - 2:24 PM EDT | UO Powergamers Interview
Adrick
1) What is your Philosophy for PvP Combat in Ultima Online?
Adrick: I think that pvp needs more emphasis upon the choices and skills of the person behind the character. I'd like to see the randomness decreased and the decisions for the player increased. I'd also like to see pvp made more accessible to more players; I think we can do more to encourage players to participate, especially in factions.
2) Please tell me the rumors for Faction only PvP aren't true(?).
Adrick: They aren't true; however, consensual pvp systems will typically get more attention because far more players in UO have expressed interest in this element of pvp. We have specific shards such as Siege Perilous where the restrictions are not as severe; this sort of follows up question 1 in that we could do more to encourage participation.
3) Why give up on the Allied Guild System? If you can do something like Factions or UO3D, why not something like that?
Adrick: In a perfect world, allied guilds would form their own faction. As it stands, guild alliances directly compete with the faction system as a vehicle for players to participate in large scale pvp combat. Guild wars are an important part of pvp and I'd like to see alliances as part of a faction enhancement.
4) When could we see macroable special moves? Is it being worked on?
Adrick: We'd like to put macro moves in the game for warriors, but I can't give any definite answers on that right now.
5) New weapons? New moves?
Adrick: Nothing definite here. Although, through the event scenarios, new weapons may be introduced. What they might be, only Cal knows :).
Calandryll
1) Are we going to see world changing and world affecting events like the Trinsic Invasion? I applaud the Ongoing Content team's efforts and the things they have done, but I, like many UO players, would like to see more content and less candy (rares/special items).
Calandryll: You'll see larger world altering events than what you saw in Trinsic. Trinsic was fairly limited and didn't really alter anything. We simply added new objects to the city to make it look like it had been taken over. With the scenarios, we can actually add brand new areas, like the orc dungeon or some of the stuff you will see in the upcoming scenario, as part of a story. In truth, the items make up a very small percentage of the actual content when you compare the number of items to the number of new monsters. The story will be much richer in the coming scenarios as well.
2) Can we have the Ancient Wyrm or the Ancient Lich spawn randomly in dungeons once a day (not a set time)? This might sound like a stupid request, but I wouldn't mind seeing something like this.
Calandryll: We can change the spawn to work like that, but I'm not really sure we would want to. Spawn changes are very possible though, if they are part of the story.
Vex
1) The masonry and glassblowing ideas: are they skills or "abilities" tied into other skills? Which ones?
Vex: All will become clear as the scenario progresses. :)
2) Any new changes coming for Treasure Hunting?
Vex: None are planned at this time.
3) Why the Guaranteed Gain System? What's the point? Most of your players have been around since UO:R and are way past the "new player" stage. If you are going to do it, fine, but I don't see why it's necessary at this point.
Vex: New players are starting UO accounts every day, and veteran players create new characters quite often. Guaranteed Gain helps veteran and new players alike. We feel strongly that, while Burst Hour was enormously successful, Guaranteed Gain provides more benefits with less exploitability.
4) Are current skills that are never used going to be removed? Replaced with new ones? Changed so they become useful (like cooking was recently)?
Vex: Given time, anything is possible. Nothing has been decided about that right now, though.
With the exception of my Wyrm question, I think I asked some good ones. Someone start a thread and talk about it.
Enjoy.
Hasta. |
^ top-Who cares about being humble when you can just sacrifice yourself...
[Nieves] October 19 - 10:17 AM EDT | Humility sucks. It's dependent on Young Players. Even if it gives you 30 Stat points at Step 3 (10 at EACH STEP), who really wants to use up time trying to find Young Players all the time? Hard Core Veterans won't care for this. They did put in some good fail safes (I don't think you can use a Young Player/Squire to gain Humility Points more than once and you can only have 1 squire a week), but...well, it's tedious and powergamers don't like doing too many things that depend on others. Especially newer (you call them: "newbies") players. Hmm...maybe the Ex-Counselors, Seers and Companions will benefit from this more than others.
Hmmm...now if I could only come up with a better way of implementing it. Anyone?
Sacrifice rocks. Watch this:
Gaining steps in Sacrifice will grant a character the ability to resurrect himself a number of times each week, equal to the steps achieved in Sacrifice. Players will be able to access this ability by clicking the Sacrifice symbol on their own Virtue gump.
First step: Self-resurrect one time per week
Second step: Self-resurrect two times per week
Third step: Self-resurrect three times per week
And...
Characters which self-resurrect will instantly recover all the items they had on their corpse, except for any items which have been looted or decayed.
Self-resurrecting characters will not be able to recover items in this way if they move across a server boundary into another server region.
Characters will not be able to self-resurrect:
…within a “multi-object” (a house, boat, etc.).
…within a faction stronghold
…while flagged as a criminal or aggressor
Hit Macro, target Demon, poof, gain sacrifice. Nuff said.
Thank you Calandryll. We really really wuv you on that one.
Read the rest on Stratics.
I just realized something. That means all of Adam Ant's precious Red Magi will go Poof now. Damn Adam. Sowy.
Hasta. |
^ top-And here comes another PvP based game...
[Nieves] October 18 - 9:36 PM EDT | Good afternoon everyone,
We have some great news for you today! The Online Beta Database has been completed and tested and is now available at the Shadowbane website. You can find the login here:
http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/beta/
At this moment, we are sending everyone on the beta list a verification email. This email will contain a personalized link to their beta account information so it can be updated. Once there, beta users will have to create an account name (which will also be their account name for the new Shadowbane forums and beta forums), change their password, and finally to update their personal and system information.
Obviously these email addresses are over a year old, and some of our testers won't receive this email. For users who absolutely know that they are Shadowbane Beta Account holders can contact Ashen Temper later this week at:
ashen@shadowbane.com
Please include in your email to Ashen: your full name, former email address, and your current forum account name. As a warning, do not attempt to use this process to try and obtain a Shadowbane Beta account if you do not have one. We are extremely happy and excited to have this service finally available for Shadowbane fans, and hopefully future customers!
If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to email me anytime at: chrism@ubisoft.com
Thanks!
Vosx
====================
Chris "Vosx" Mancil
Community Manager
Ubi Soft
Thanks Silk :)
Hasta. |
^ top-New Scribe numbers, and other ramblings by yours truly....
[Gator] October 18 - 9:07 PM EDT | ::Snaps out of his non-posting phase::
Whew, been awhile eh? But never fear, I am still around. Unfortunately due to the current world events that surround us now and a new position at work I have'nt been able to post as much as I would like too. But now that things have settled down, I am gonna try to post more often. Of course, figure in the fact that right now my connection is totally screwed and I have alot more time, I cant play for crap. But, anyways, I can ramble on that topic for a good hour. Ask Vas, he knows I bitch about it enough.
I recently GMd Scribe on yet another character. Let's check out these numbers shall we?
#PH START FINISH REGS/BLANKS TYPE MADE GAIN
1 31.0 44.0 156 Recall 59 13.0
1 44.0 51.8 137 Blades 44 7.8
1 51.8 65.1 363 Mark 94 13.3
2 65.1 66.1 65 Mark 20 1.0
2 66.1 74.8 451 FlmStk 103 8.7
3 74.8 80.1 326 FlmStk 127 5.3
3 80.1 80.7 58 SummDea 6 .6
4 80.7 87.1 610 SummDea 119 6.4
5 87.1 90.7 388 SummDea 112 3.6
6* 90.7 91.8 210 SummDea 82 1.1
7** 91.8 92.9 500 SummDea 170 1.1
8@ 92.9 94.7 290 SummDea 117 1.8
9@ 94.7 96.2 263 SummDea 121 1.5
10@ 96.2 97.2 281 SummDea 113 1.0
11@ 97.2 97.9 225 SummDea 115 .7
12@ 97.9 98.9 228 SummDea 101 1.0
13@ 98.9 99.6 225 SummDea 120 .7
14@ 99.6 100.0 87 SummDea 52 .4
* 35 Minutes Total
**2 Hours Total OUT of PH
@ Had Serious Lag Each of These Nights With Packet Loss, gains Could Have Been Better
Total Resources Used:
NS: 137 Cost: 411
BP: 721 Cost: 3605
BM: 3721 Cost: 18605
MR: 3858 Cost: 11574
SA: 3914 Cost: 11742
SS: 3914 Cost: 11742
Scrolls: 4323 Cost: 21615
Total Cost: 79294
I used all the methods prescribed by Phazer here.
I figure if it wasnt for my screwy conn I could have GMd this in 10-12 PHs, though thats pushing it.
Very soon I will have a nice Poisoning guide ready as well. Currently I am in the 90's so it should not take much longer. I hope at least, my alchemist is very close to going on strike.
Later |
^ top-T Shirt News
[Nieves] October 18 - 6:40 PM EDT | They were sent to me 2 day UPS yesterday. I should have them by Saturday at the latest.
For those that have ordered, I will be emailing you tonight or Friday for your complete addresses (don't email me, I will email you). I will send out the Shirts on Saturday if I have the addresses.
For those that have donated money, I am going to send that money back to you. I feel like a lame bitch taking your money just so I can play a game. If you want to donate to UOPG, buy a shirt. That is donation enough, and you are getting your money's worth, IMHO.
Send me an email with your name, size, city, state, zip and country if you want a T shirt.
Hasta. |
^ top-New Virus
[Nieves] October 18 - 2:41 PM EDT | There is a new virus with the subject Antrax Info and an attachment Antrax.vbs.
Delete it on site.
Hasta. |
^ top-I now own DAoC
[Epyon] October 18 - 2:38 PM EDT | Or does it own me?
Ill let you know tonight in about 10 hours.
WWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
For those that care,
My name is Casval Daikun, Avalon Mage, most likely going Theurgist.
Lancelot server |
^ top-DAoC
[Nieves] October 18 - 12:03 PM EDT | If you haven't already, you can read a decent write up on Dark Age of Camelot by Ian at The Chosen or Black Dagger.
Hasta. |
^ top-Sometimes You Just Got To Do It.
[Nieves] October 17 - 8:39 PM EDT | Ian is no longer an updater with UOPowergamers.
It's a decision I have contemplated for a long time. One I didn't want to make.
When someone goes out of their way to add to the stress level of your life by insulting you whenever the chance presents itself, it's time to make a change.
As a friend once told me: "Is he making your life better? Or is he causing you stress? If it's stress, fuck him".
On a different note, Silk interviews Vex.
Hasta. |
^ top-And I Thought My Favorite Pk Was Dead...
[Nieves] October 17 - 4:17 PM EDT | Provoke this.
And to the person crying about dieing to him. Wah.
Hasta. |
^ top-Got Lag?
[Kaara] October 17 - 1:30 PM EDT | Don't know how many of you have noticed the last few days that lag has increased but Tajima has posted this on the Connectivity and Tech board at UO.com regarding recent issues:
Folks, we've isolated a server-side issue related to the recent events publish that has been causing some lag. We're investigating it at this time, and I'll post an update in 2-3 hours.
-Tajima
That was posted at 11am est this morning.. hope things change soon!
******************
Update.. doh! heh Just noticed this on the FYI page:
Publish Revert Oct 17 2001 10:25AM CST (GMT -06:00)
An issue involving a merge with the latest server publish is causing an unacceptable amount of lag on all shards where the publish was activated. We will be reverting the affected shards to the previous server publish. This revert may cause a small "time warp" on the affected shards.
Note this will cause any clockwork assemblies players may have found to no longer give messages when used. Once we republish the servers with the fixed code, they clockwork assemblies will function as before.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
|
^ top-Things to do while DAoC is on backorder.
[Epyon] October 17 - 12:37 PM EDT | 1) Read about how cool the game is and how people say its the best thing since sliced bread. You do this of course while telling them to fuck themselves inside your circle of protection called the internet.
2) Look at screenshots and say "Holy shit that looks nice"
3) Try sorting out your love life and choosing between 4 beautiful young women
a)Current girlfriend with the realationship on the rocks
b)Best female friend who is going out with another friend of yours
c)ex-girlfriend that visted me during my marina job offering oral stimulation. Of course im talking about a rousing discussion...
d)Hot girl at the gym that works out with you and flirts nonstop
They all want me, its true. But hell I can see why, I know I'd do me if I was a girl.
4) Homework. (lol)
Yes indeed, ever since my girlfriend and I haven't been going out much I find that I have to much time on my hands since all my friends are lame asses and can't get away from their females for more than 20 minutes before they get yelled at. I want DAoC damn it!
Or a fivesome..that would be good.
On closing, I noticed that EBGames.com, where I ordered DAoC from, finally changed the limit from 4 copies a person to 1. Well jeez, thats just amazing! No wonder I can't get my fucking copy when you have some asshole ordering 4 at a time.
Bleh, im going to play Master of Orion 2, much love to you Kevin! |
^ top-Getting Into A Game Is One Thing...
[Nieves] October 17 - 9:17 AM EDT | But this is a bit much don't you think?
A reader sent that in to me when looking for WW2 Toys.
The only thing I see myself doing with that doll is sticking it in my daughter's easy bake oven. It just feels like Justice for me to do that.
Hasta. |
^ top-That's illegal!
[Eric] October 17 - 8:53 AM EDT | Or is it? Sannio of OSI clears some of this up for us...
In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gaining resist by poison fielding stairs is legal..
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gaining resist by this tactic is not legal, because while you may gain skill from this, you aren't suffering the damage effect. (If anyone is found using this tactic they may have action taken against their account.)
In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summoning Daemons to gain resist on shore while you are on a boat is legal..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, this is a legal tactic, because the Demon still has the ability to defend itself, by casting spells back at the attacker.
In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Using EQ scrolls to GM Eval is however.. illegal..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, this is illegal, as you do not use up the required resources. When a spell is stated to require the use of resources, those resources (reagents, scrolls, or the new Arcane Item charges) must always be used up, or that spellcasting method is illegal.
In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But at 50 magery.. locked.. using gate scrolls is not illegal.. :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As long as the scroll is used up, you're good. :]
In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Music does not require any resources so there for you are not circumventing game mechanics to save yourself some gold.. You have merely found a means to an end.. A legal means to an end..
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is correct.
The bottom line is, if you're raising a skill via a method that is supposed to do you damage or via a method that is supposed to use a given amount of resources, and DOESN'T, then it's most likely illegal. I'm sure we've been over this issue before, but it's nice to have a reminder. It's surely better than seeing "Your account has been blocked," and then you saying "What the fuck did I do wrong?"
Cya later. |
^ top-It's coming...
[Nieves] October 16 - 8:50 PM EDT | After getting all those wonderful Flag Shirts out of the door, they can get mine done finally.
Gotta love it.
Hasta. |
^ top-Thanks for all the emails
[Epyon] October 16 - 5:02 PM EDT | But ive found what I was looking for.
The overwhelming response brought tears to me eyes, and it made me feel all warm and nice.
Honestly though, mucho thanks to all. |
^ top-Thank you Kerowyn
[Nieves] October 16 - 4:41 PM EDT | OSI is updating their Play Guide for Ultima Online. I point this out mainly because of what I found in their combat section:
Practicing
Some of the larger cities have established combat training areas, where you can hone your combat skills.
There are practice dummies for hand-to-hand practice, and archery buttes (targets) for bow and crossbow practice.
Note: Practicing in thi |
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