•Sunday Publish

This just in from UO.com FYI:

Publish Update, October 1st Sep 29 2000 4:03PM CST (GMT -06:00)
We will be publishing the changes listed in Testing for Next Update to all Ultima Online shards on Sunday, October 1st. The publish will be active on all shards following their Monday, October 2nd maintenance period, barring any unforeseen downtimes. Once this publish is active, players will see a message in their own profile stating, “Cannot determine this account’s age.” This message is a side-effect of code that is not currently active, and can be disregarded.

This publish will include the opening of Dungeon Khaldun on all shards.

The changes will be added to Latest Game Updates once the publish is active on all shards.

And here are those changes, so you know:

Various Fixed and Updates Sep 27 2000 5:39PM CST
Various changes and fixes
The repeating creature sounds occurring at the Moonglow bank will be fixed
Dungeon lighting levels will be restored to their previous levels (the level they were before the dungeon respawn changes)
Certain areas of the map which have an improperly large spawn ratio of creatures will be addressed. This is not the final step in our surface respawn changes.

Various Fixes and Updates Sep 26 2000 1:59PM CST
Dragons will be able to dispel Energy Vortex's and Blade Spirits

Dungeon Khaldun Sep 8 2000 5:19PM CST
The Dungeon Khaldun will be located in the Lost Lands (T2A) on the Felucca facet. The dungeon has two entrances which are both located to the far east of Delucia. The sextant coordinates for the entrances are:
58o 16’S, 5o 7’E
62o 8’S, 3o 47’W
Khaldun is designed to be a dungeon for veteran players and as such, it is meant to be very difficult. Rather than publishing a full document that gives away all of the dungeon's secrets (thus spoiling its many surprises), this document will give you some basic information on what to look for. A full document will be posted when the dungeon is published to the live shards.

When testing this new dungeon, keep the following things in mind:
There are new monsters in this dungeon. Many of them will act differently than existing monsters.
The dungeon has some secret passages and rooms. Finding them will not be easy.
Some spells and aspects of skills will not work in this dungeon. These include:
The Mark spell.
The Resurrection spell.
The Healing skill when attempting to resurrect (healing and curing will work however).
Killing another player will sometimes bring unexpected repercussions upon the murderer.

Enjoy!!

Later

•News Time

Bringing to you once again all the nifty info that has come into the works as of today. Figuring that right now I am bored out of my mind, while my little Avatar goes at it with a mad sheep on SP. Gotta love that ROT.

Melantus over at the UO.COM message forums, wants to know what you think of the new dungeon changes. As of yet I am still undecided, mainly since my amazing cable connection gets me 900+ pings at night on most shards. So go check out the thread and see what your fellow players are saying/whining about now.

Looks like the test running for Vet Rewards is having some issues. And of course you know what that means, the boo-birds are out.

Once again one of our very own here at UOPG has come out with yet another outstanding article on Factions. Go check out what Bob has to say, its under "I will not fight like a man. I will fight like an Evil Overlord."
All I can say is Bob rocks.

In other Factions news, I stole this from the UO.com Factions forum, wonderfully made specifically for factions. Designer_Evocare had some info to pass along. For all the lazy folks out there:

Test Factions

This is a quick note to let everyone here know that the faction system will disappear from the Test Factions shard for a few days. When it returns it will have both the functioning silver coins (the actual coins themselves rather then the intangible silver variable which was being used for now), and a slew of fixes for some current problems and bugs. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope to see you all again on the shard in a few days. Thanks!

- Evocare

So all you factions testers out there get ready to test out some new features in the near future. Well thats it for me, back to my little Avatar. I know its SP and all, but damn I have burnt up 3 pairs of scissors already today!

Later

•How I saw Red die

I logged on to find little ol' Redrum on my ICQ. We chatted a bit, hooked up in game, and after mucking around trying to find a chest that didn't want to be found, I asked him if he's interested in meeting The Executioner in Wrong. He said, "SURE!"

He had his warrior, I had mine. We met up at the Tower and went on into the bowels of Wrong. I have NEVER seen anyone laugh at his own death the way Red did. I swear, I resed him twice and he got healer resed at least once. Once Kwan, Xarot, Quincy the Executioner and their assorted minions got together, they cleaned the whole freaking place out. I saw 2-3 ghosts at any time. After a bit of getting folks resed and me doing the "I will be the guinea pig and lead them off" and almost dieing 3-4 times, people got to their bodies and cleaned up the spawn. Oh, what did I do? I ran like a bitch everytime I saw the Executioner with his Executioner's Axe of IKILLYOUNEWBIEBIYOTCH. He swings that axe so well, Gator would hang up his axe in shame after he saw him.

Wrong is freaking insane. Level 1 as you walk in could have 2-3 lizards mulling about, or 10k red wizards, brigands, and lizards. Just to the right of the teleporters is the Brigand area. Not bad for a single well experienced warrior. Just be ware that the spawn CAN get insane. Did I mention that? Ok...

Beyond that, where the Trolls used to spawn are the Brigand spawns ("camps") and blue NPC's yelling "release me from my chains, I suck and I can't just walk out". I usually ignore them and beat up on the Brigands. Used to be lots of traps here, but they got moved it seems. At least I never got hit with one there. To the East side of Wrong are cells of Brigands that you can't get to (bear in mind this is on Great Lakes shard). The doors say "a barred gate/door". Red and I tried magic unlock but that wouldn't work. We just gave the brigands the finger and walked off.

Downstairs is where the fun REALLY begins. Kwan Li, Xarot the Black Archmage, a ton of little Red Wizard of Thay Biyotches, misc. Brigands, and the MAN (or woman in some cases) him(her)self, The Executioner. In this scenario we had ol' Quincy kicking ass. Can you say: "I hit you, you die, and you can't do shit to me?".

He has to have 200 (or 2000; take your pick, it really doesn't matter) in each of the following: Lumberjacking (seems that he benefits from the Lumberjacking bonuses; thank you very much OSI), Swords, Tactics, Anatomy, and Dexterity; he also has permanent (yes, I said permanent) Magic Reflect, permanent Reactive Armor (even when using a bow; now that's fucking stupid), hits like a boar that hasn't been fed in days and you are bleeding all over it's pigpen, and hits everyone within his line of sight with Harm or Life Drain (has to be, he keeps taking my life the bastard) over and over. Only way to kill him efficiently is Blade Spirits OR Energy Vortex. Ganging him without healing support will have you seeing grey VERY fast.. OH, and don't bring majickal and/or good armor. My Invul suit lost 10 AR (FUCK SHIT AND DAMN) and Red had some shields break.

There was one mage that was casting blades, then invisible, and dropping more blades just to get kill rights. I got to show Red my 3l33t looting skills by beating up on the poor Executioner as he got raped by 3-4 Blade Spirits. Granted, I got the gold, but it sucks when you are stuck between a staircase, a wall, a spawned chest, and the Blade Spirit you cast earlier as it keeps you from casting dispel, teleport, greater heal, or recal. Luckily, it dispelled on it's own. :/

To the east and west of the "Executioner's Love Room" (Where the Ogre Lords used to spawn) is misc. spawns of brigands and red mages. Be VERY wary of traps on the ground. I think they all got moved down here from the old Troll room. They will hurt you, poison you, cause you to be disrupted while casting and all kinds of shit. Gas, spikes, saws, etc etc. That Executioner is one sick bastard.

Um...can someone tell me how a Brigand can use a shield with a xbow? Please? Tell me how that is possible. These little bitches got killed by me first EVERYTIME. They knew how to hurt you with their bows/xbows.

My final take on Mr. Man? The loot on the Rapist Bastard (my pet name for the Executioner cause he RAPES every character within sight) is decent. 500+ and some chances at a magic item. I wouldn't melee him alone cause you WILL die. Bring friends and be prepared to take a dirtnap eventually. If he don't get you, one of his mage buddies will. He retargets the nearest person and I SWEAR he keys in on archers (I saw him go after EVERY archer that shot him at least once; damn my ass still hurts from running from that axe). His "powers" are ungodly. And know what? I like it. THIS is the challenge I have been looking for. Hard enough to make it challenging, but with a couple of friends or "luck", a decent way to have fun. One thing I worry about is the Mage campers. I wish he could dispel the Spirits and Vortexs (no other spells thank you; he doesn't need them). Otherwise, they could just sit there hiding and waiting for one to appear, drop 2-3 blades, one Vortex (I saw a single Vortex drop the Rapist Bastard quick), and then disappear and just wait for him to die. Lame.

Armani, my smith, is going to be PISSED when I show him my beat up armor :(. He hates it when I screw up pretty armor.

Hasta.

•Poison Mage 201

This is part 2 in a series on how to become a poison mage. If you read part one and followed my directions, you have a decent amount of cash and have 100 Int, 100 Str, and 25 Dex. You should also have about 30k stowed in the bank, and if you’re smart you’ve been picking up reagents on the ground for the last 2 days or so that it took you to get here.

First things first, go buy a boat, the smallest one you can find. At the very least you will need a Greater Heal, a Recall, an FS scroll and a summon water elemental scroll, but a full spellbook is best. Buy some mark scrolls, or get someone to mark for you, and mark runes to 10 mage shops, especially Occlo and the 5 on Moonglow island itself, then Magincia, and the 2 in Britain. Add one more of your choice, then let’s get to work.

Using your set of runes, recall around and get about 500 of each FS reg. Now, go place that shiny new boat and sail out onto the ocean blue, and using the 8x8 method, as lovingly described in the Stratics Magery forum GM yourself magery and work on eval. Once you get magery to 70, switch to summon water to get gains. Do this until you are a 3x GM, med, eval, and magery.

At this point you’ll need to make some more money, more than likely. Gating NPC’s is fairly profitable for a GM mage and you can make reg stops while you do it. You need to buy up scrolls and make friends with a competent alchemist. Using the wonderful guides here on UOPG, work inscription, then poisoning during burst hour. As you work inscription, you’ll find that there is a decent market for recall, mark, and gate scrolls. So sell some and make some cash. Place a vendor if you can, so you can spend more time earning skills, and less time making money. Poisoning is an even bigger cash cow than inscription can be, and once you GM it, your days of worrying about money are all but over.

You’ll note that, as much as possible, I prefer to work on one skill at a time. I think it’s most efficient that way, and it ignores those pesky skill timers. Now, go buy healing and anatomy to 30, and get a boatload of bandages. Go somewhere and cast firefield and walk around inside it until you get to 50 resist. Use the bandages to heal yourself. Even failing 50% of the time, it’s still cheaper than casting GH on yourself. Now, go GM wrestling on some critters somewhere, or on a kind friend or guildmate if possible. Getting wrestling to GM ought to only take 2 days or so

Now get back out on that boat, and following the resist guide here on UOPG, finish resist. This one is going to take a while, and you will probably want to start practicing PvP during this time, but you must devote every burst hour to raising resist. At this point you’ll be dropping healing and anatomy in favor of resist. Go ahead and keep healing yourself until you get to 70 resist, then you’ll have to rely on GH, which is more expensive, but you’re rich now anyway.

That’s part 2, next time we get into some specific tactics for you to use in battle.

•State of UO

Brought to you by the UO Message Forums:

State of UO

Well it has been 3 years for UO. Quite an achievement for a game expected to last six months or so.

We (OSI) have learned a lot since those early days. UO was a first in many ways, and there was and still is room to grow. Certain things are essential for an online game to prosper for an extended period of time and be successful. Things such as: listening to the players and getting good feedback from them as decisions and changes are made, providing good feedback to the players as the game evolves, staying on top of bugs and problems, helping to keep the game fun and interesting, providing new content. Note that when I said successful, I am not talking about pure numbers. There should be more to an online game then statistics or charts. What we have been trying to do with UO is take it in a new direction, and listen to the players and make changes according to their feedback. Basically you are a part of this Dev Team through your feedback and suggestions, or even complaints. So what do we expect of UO in the future?

We will continue on the same path of adding new things to UO. So far that has meant a new dungeon, new changes to the spawn, new items. We will also continue to listen to the players and include them on how UO will progress. In fact we plan to ramp up the feedback obtained from our forums in a really good way. I think our response to taking care of problems in the game such as scamming and exploiting so forth has been good. Our main concern there is to correct the problem or "flaw" in the game.

I'm sure many wonder what sort of things we will add to UO in the future. Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the suprise. However try to remember how far we have come since housing was opened in Trammel. That shadow wyrm you want to fight, the repond weapon you found, the times you will spend in Khaldun or the newly revamped Despise/Wrong/Hythloth etc, the enormous amount of bugs that have been fixed (mostly behind the scenes) that allow for better play...all this since Trammel housing. There is still a lot in front of us even now to be done. However the QA team, Designer team, and programmer teams have all increased in size in the past few months. In fact I think some of our teams have doubled in size. We are serious about staying with UO and improving it. There is plenty to be done, and with your feedback we can do it right. This is just the first level of a new direction in UO. Certainly not perfect, and we know that. Changes and fixes take time, and our plates are certainly full. But the best way to tackle this is to press on and get things done.

Melantus
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online
Melantus@uo.com

Keep up the good work guys, your doing one hell of a job. ::applauds::

Later

•Mindblast: The Results Are In!!

Well after talking with numerous players on the subject of Mindblast, I went to test to see for myself. The problem is that, half the people think the damage is based on what your current stats are. The other half believe it is based upon your base stats, whether under outside influence or not. On test, I did this by myself, I just went out of town and casted away. I performed 16 casts per stat set. Reason being that you only get so many damn regs there, plus after a little bit the results were final. You will see what I mean. I also have Anat and Healing, this way I saved my regs for casting MB. Here were my skills and results:

STR: 100
INT:100
DEX: 25
Magery: GM
Eval Int: GM
Meditation: GM
Resist: GM
Anatomy: GM
Healing: GM

MAX DAM: 36 MIN DAM: 12 TOTAL AVERAGE: 23.1


STR: 111
INT: 111
DEX: 14
Magery: GM
Eval Int: GM
Meditation: GM
Resist: GM
Anatomy: GM
Healing: GM

MAX DAM: 40 MIN DAM: 20 TOTAL AVERAGE: 32.5

So there you have it. If you drink potions/use spells before PvPing a Mage, beware you have been warned. Now I will go back and change the LJ essay to read the way it used to read. Out of the 16 shots with enhanced stats, 10 of them were for 40 points worth of whoop ass. I will be deleting the LJ:103 Revision article, since it no longer applies. I am sorry for the problems this may have caused. For all the individuals out there that emailed me, thank you very much. You were a great help, as you always are.

Later

•I guess I'm wrong.

I just read this post from Cal about the reward program. If you can get 4 three year rewards, then it's obvious that you can get 4 of the others. So it's possible to get 4 bless deeds. Oh well. I'll stick with dying from harpies and decorating my house like a little school girl until it passes over.

In 2 week old that I just now noticed news, Black & White, the "god" game that was supposed to come out in November, has been delayed until Spring of next year. I just love the reason: EA doesn't think it will sell a lot of copies if it's shipped around Christmas shopping time. Peter, the creator, says it would be done by November-December, but EA won't ship it. I'm not joking, either.

•Honey, I am HOME!

Gawd it's great when something works right. After fighting with the cable company for almost 2 weeks, cable is working as it was intended. On top of that, I got TWO computers on the one line. Isn't that just spiffy?!

Look for some Redrum and Nieves adventuring updates as well as some really neat and dandy things from us at the UOPG Crew!

My thank yous go out to the updaters for the great job they have been doing. You guys are da bomb. Even EA knows it! ::wink wink::

Be ready...cause I am back and better than ever!!!

Muhuhahaha!

::goes back to smoking his UO pipe::

Hasta.

•Bless Deeds and My picks for the Rewards Program.

Right now everyone and their mother is debating the bless deed issue. On all the major sites, including UO formus people are complaining that PvP will be ruined if bless deeds are made available to everyone. Doubtful to say the least.

First, how many people do you know that have accounts and still play UO are 24 + months old. Yes yes blah blah Redrum blah blah but he is Redrum. He doens't count. Most of the people I knew in game that actually PvPed are long gone. Guilds like S!S, SSJ, ARR are nothing now. The newer warrior guilds are comprised of newer players. I know about 2 people on Atlantic that PvP and have had an account for 2 yrs or more.

Second, weapons decay. And when you are using a weapon non stop, like all the "newbies" will when they get their bless deeds, the weapons will decay fast. And you can only repair a weapon so many times.

Third, although they arnt's silver vanq's faction items are blessed for something like 3 weeks. So no worrying about constantly buying weapons at your local vendor.

Now onto my picks. I am a rare hunter so presumably I would want the rarest of items. Those items would be the clothing for the reward I am getting (My account is not yet 2 yrs old). But getting two pieces of clothing is worthless. I think I ll get a furn dye tub bc their market value is very high now.

The greatest item is the horse. My god a horse! You never have to buy one again and its gonna look cool as shit. I wish I had a 3+ year account. Thats status right there.

In other news, if any of you who read this site server jump in PvP...ie at Bucs Den run back and forth across the bridge to move from internal server to internal server to avoid getting targeted...you are fucking newbies that don't belong to visit this site. So remove your bookmark and never come back because Powergamers aren't pussies. They die when they know they are beaten.

•Find out how old your account is.

Since finding out how old your account is still doesn't work (no, not even on test rewards), go here. Click on edit account to log in and look at the last table on account summary (you know, the one that says member since) and it will say how old your account is. I'm exactly 2 months short of being there for 3 years. Oh well. All that I want is a black dye tub for the 50th time and I'm happy.

Thanks to Silencer for the tip.

•LJ103: LumberWarrior Tactics

Ver*sa*tile adj. 1. Capable of doing many things competently. 2. Having varied uses or serving many functions. 3. Inconstant or variable; changeable. -ver'sa*tile*ly adv. -ver'sa*til'i*ty, ver'sa*tile*ness n.

That was the answer I just gave you. "Well Gator what was the question?" The question you were going to ask me was why I like playing the LumberWarrior in PvP. And it all boils down to that one word. Versatility. In my honest opinion there is no other template out there that offers as much as the LumberWarrior does. "But Gator, what about fighting a shield fighter?" What about it? There is a way, several actually, and I am going to break it all down....shotgun style. Yes folks, LJ103: LumberWarrior Tactics and You has finally arrived.

This is how this is going to work. I am going to break it down into sections as follows:

Part I: Equipment
Part II: Weapons & Armor
Part III: Specific Opponent Tactics
Part IV: Review

If you are using UOAssist, which I hope you are, make sure you have all your macros set up for what you will need to do. Speed is what you are looking for. The quicker you are, the longer you may live. Develop macros to disarm/rearm your weps/shields, drink potions (GC, GH, TR, GA, GS), and of course heal. Before I begin let me add that these are my own opinions and techniques. Some of you may find them useful, others will not. I have no problems with that, and I encourage it. As always I accept constructive criticism.

I. Equipment

Band aids:
(10) Band aids
(25) Cloth
I personally have a macro set up in UOAssist that will heal me, then cut another band-aid. Reason being that running around with 50 cut band-aids doesn't allow for a whole lot of loot collecting. Why 10 pre-cut even though you cut your own as you hit the key? Never know when your buddy might need a heal or cure.

Potions:
(5) Greater Heal, Greater Cure, Total Refresh.
(3) Greater Agility and Greater Strength.
Do not want to make it too many, but want to have enough in case your moment in battle last longer than you like it to. Heals and Cures are self-explanatory. Use the GA/GS then throw on a band-aid before you enter combat. Do this quickly, no time to waste. Also follow up with a TR to get that Stamina to max. A Macer will eat up your stamina, so the more you have the better. Use them TR's if you get low stamina or if you need to get out of a tight spot in a hurry. Good idea to have potions pre-stored in a pouch somewhere. That way in case you run out, you have a handy reserve, which you don't have to worry about organizing. Good idea to have band-aids/cloth in there as well.

Misc:
(1) Runebook
(5) Trapped Pouches
Rune Books are officially newbified. Of course this means automatic transportation. Make sure it’s stocked to the max with recall scrolls before you go hunting. And try to have it filled with strategic rune locations and safe spots as well. Trapped Pouches are obvious. When that mage casts Paralyze, you got to get at him in a hurry. Use a pouch and commence to beatin. The sitting duck tactic never works, unless you are using Archery.

II. Weapons & Armor

Armor: I wear a full suit of GM Studded Leather myself. I sacrifice AR for speed. Unfortunately, this is not an AR essay, so I will not get into all the specifics. But if you really want to learn about how AR truly works then go here and read what Paladin and KH have to say. Also Paladin updated some good info on AR recently. And you can find some more Armor Combinations here. When it comes down to it, wear what you feel is good for you and your abilities.

Shields:
(3) Kite Shields
The best shield you can use for PvP is a store bought kite shield. That's right store bought. And here's info to back that up. Macers love breaking shields and with this many you will have a couple of backups to bring Mr. Macer down.

Weapons:
(2)Double Axe's
(2)Halberd's
(2)Poisoned Katana's
Here is where people start screaming. But just listen up and you will see what I mean later on when I break down into tactics more. I use two because you just might run into Mr. Battlefield Thief whom likes adding to his weapon/reg collection.

III. Specific Opponent Tactics

LJ vs. Mage: You are a Mages worst nightmare. If one sticks around long enough to see you, then it maybe to late. You want to be all over him quickly. Before entering the battle, do this stat enhancing option, drink GA, GS, Band-Aid, TR, in that order. Now you are 120/25/120, so lay the smack down on Mr. Mindblast. And don't worry, MB only effects your base stats after a recent patch change. So do not fear raising them, it will only help you. Have a GH ready to go, as soon as you see your health drop, drink away, and hit a band-aid. Re-Arm that axe, and do what you do best. CHOP! If you’re lucky, you can take him down in 2-3 hits. Depending on what he does. Do not let him out of your sight. If you get that swing in and nail the concussion blow, well needless to say there goes half his mana. This is what you want. Put him on the defensive as soon as possible, and his chances of recovering are next to nil. Don't forget about your GC's and GH's if needed. And whatever you do, do not stay poisoned. If he stays on the poison, well then give him some right back. Arm a poisoned katana. I recommend lesser-poisoned blades. DP is too expensive, and the thought here is not to kill him with poison, but instead to keep him "occupied" with poison. On average a lesser-poisoned blade will net you about 18 applications before you have to refresh it. Whereas DP will only get you 12 uses before having to reapply. Not to mention that once your blade tastes blood with DP it’s going to corrode a lot faster than it will with lesser.

LJ vs. Macer: When you begin, go through the potion/band aid routine(GA, GS, Band-Aid, TR, in that order.) Make it quick, in fact, the sooner the better. If he is using a shield read down a bit to LJ vs. Shieldfighter section. Macers got one thing, a big damn hammer. Unfortunately this hammer loves to eat shields and armor like a ¼ pounder w/cheese. But that’s ok; you got a little supply stocked up in your pack. You want to give it to him fast. You can go no shield, and go axe vs. hammer so to speak. Just keep them heals flying, and if you get to about 50 HP, disarm, run, drink heal. Got no stamina, use that TR. When it all boils down to it, you should have the upper hand. If he doesn’t go down quietly, throw him a move and equip that Poisoned Katana. Unless he’s got Swords/Fencing, he doesn’t have poison, you do. Use it or loose it. And as always use it quickly, no time to waste. Wait for him to make his instead.

LJ vs. Fencer: Against the fencer its all basically the same as against the macer. But remember one thing, he is most likely faster than you are. Your options include, ye olde trusty Katana with a smear of poison w/shield. Or you can opt for your trusty double. Trust me that phat ass Halberd that’s burning in your pack will be needed really soon. As with the macer, if this fencers is using a shield, scroll down to LJ vs. ShieldFighters. Watchout for the paralyze special hit with a spear. If this happens, don't bother with a trapped pouch. Gonna have to ride it out and keep healing.

LJ vs. Archer: Once again speed is the key here. Notice a *speed* trend here? Amazingly enough fight them almost like a Mage. But you want to USE the potion deal before combat (GA, GS, Band-Aid, TR, in that order). Then hop on him and don’t let him go. If you got a horse you will be better off. But if he does as well, it will not be a short day. Here a shield with that poisoned kat would be a good idea. When he notices that he will not be able to get that cure/heal done. He will disarm bow to drink potion. Now is your chance but you have to be fast. Either keep poking him with the Kat, or the moment he disarms, do the same, and grab that axe. Who knows your one shot maybe the last one he receives on the day. And you will have a few arrows to give all your friends.

LJ vs. ShieldFighter: Finally we have arrived to the LumberWarrior's worst foe. Why? Simply put if you use an axe against them you better like the color gray. You will see it a lot. This is where your Katana OR Halberd will come into play. When you fight a ShieldFighter you will see them use Maces, Fencing, or Swords. Basically follow what I have already told you above against them templates with these changes. Like I said you have two choices. The first one being to equip that kite shield and poisoned katana. Then commence to wearing them out, keep your heals going. And if you need to use a potion drop your shield real quick and drink away. I recommend only disarming your shield due to the fact that you do not want to stop hitting them. Now, why a Halberd? Well to put it simply, a Double Axe at GM Anat, Lumber, Swords, and Tac can do the same amount of max damage as a Halberd. The big difference is that the Double is faster, therefore more damage over time. But, the Double Axe is worthless against Shields. On the other hand, the Halberd will eat through a Shield fast. If you do not have Parry I recommend using the Halberd. If you have Parry, use the poisoned katana. Stay on him, stay aggressive and most importantly, stay alive.

IV. Review
Well that is everything in condensed form. I am sure that there are something’s I missed or even left out. Feel free to comment in the forums, or email them to me. If its important, I will make sure I get it included in this essay. It takes time and a certain talent to become good at PvP. And the only way you can achieve that is through practice. I highly recommend the test center for these exact purposes. Grab a friend and go there, make your templates up and have at it. This is the only way you can learn what to do in certain situations. Once you get comfortable with everything, move on over to factions. Here you will find plenty of opponents. Some folks here are good at what they do, and then there are others that totally blow. Either way, you can get a great multitude of different templates and situations. But most importantly have fun. That is what UO is all about. Hell I kick ass then there are times I get my ass kicked. Either way, I always have a smile on my face, because I am having a great time. Thanks for your time.

Later

•Bah, Bless Deeds.

I have all three opinions on this "bless deed" issue:

1. Agree : Yes, I like the idea, for myself. If it were rare and few people had them, I would want one. That has to be damn cool to have a silver vanq weapon stay with you when you die.

2. Disagree: Since most people would have one (2yr+ players), it would ruin game balance. Let's face it - Town PvP isn't the same when every other jerk is running around with their katana or kryss of vanq. And what fun is the PvP if you don't get loot when you beat them? I like to kill people (town PvP, no pking) and at least have the satisfaction of keeping their loot. Of course, if I set up or agree on an "honorable" fight, the loot stays with the corpse, I don't touch it. Another way to look at the blessed weapon is that what if you don't have one? What if you're a newer player out for some fun PvP? What fun is that if you can't beat everyone because they're using amazing blessed weapons on you? I don't like it at all, even though I personally will be eligible for the bless deed.

Here's a thought : What if OSI made it so that bless weapons could work on anything (within the limits - no stackable items)EXCEPT weapons? Would that make this a more valid reward prize without possibly ruining PvP? We'll see what they decide.

3. I don't care - I can also relate with this last opinion. Like Paladin and Gator said on the boards - "Big deal." Weapons will eventually die off, fall apart, whatever (lose durability). But a nice furnature dye tub or dragon statue will always be with you, with an ever-lasting increasing value (unless everyone has one.)

In conclusion, there are these three point of views on the bless deed issue. What do you think about it? Forgive me for pulling a "Lum," but go here to post your thoughts on our ever-famous forum.

Cya Later.

•Magery, the advanced course.

What's wrong with magery? Well, there are several things wrong with magery, but the first is that mana costs are skewed. I mean, how undercosted is greater heal? 50 points for 11 mana at GM. How good is that? The first thing I would do with magery is change mana costs to a modified logarithmic scale, similar to the way the old single player ultimas were.

First Circle = 1 mana
Second Circle = 2 mana
Third Circle = 4 mana
Fourth Circle = 8 mana
Fifth Circle = 16 mana
Sixth Circle = 24 mana
Seventh Circle = 32 mana
Eight Circle = 64 mana

You'll see that I would lower the cost of the first 4 levels, and increase the cost of all spells above 4th circle.
You'll quite possibly be seeing red now because I just said that GH was overpowered at 8 mana, so I want to LOWER it? Well, not exactly.


My second step would be to move a few spells around in the spellbooks, eliminate a few spells, and add some different spells.

First circle: would remain as it is, without any changes, except heal would become "Minor Healing"

Second circle: would also stay the same.

Third circle: would lose "Wall of Stone" and get a new spell, "Heal" that would be a second stage heal

Fourth circle: loses recall and arch protection, and gains wall of stone, and Stoneskin (like old protection spell an AR boost) Greater Heal is replaced here by poison field.

Fifth circle: Poison Field was dropped to 4th, mind blast gets dropped in favor of a simpler direct damage spell. We'll steal explosion from the sixth circle. Greater heal moves here and is more appropriately costed.

Sixth circle: Goodbye explosion, hello Recall (Mark and Recall should be the same circle). Goodbye Mass Curse(does this spell suck or what?) hello Ice Blast. A second spell for offense that allows you to do extra damage to fire critters.

Seventh circle: Goodbye polymorph, hello Major Healing, a spell that can heal up to 75 life. Goodbye Chain Lighting(It's duplicated anyway), hello antidote, a spell that protects you from poisoning for a maximum of 100 seconds, based on your (poisoning+magery/2).

Eight circle: Combine the summon elemental spells into one spell with a menu option, like what polymorph currently has. This leaves us with 3 empty slots in this circle. I'd take the first up with
Mass Healing, since we have this cool party system, let's use it., Mass healing would apply the fourth circle greater heal spell to the members of your party. Second, Eighth circle really needs a powerful direct damage spell, let's call it, Incinerate, just because I like that name. It would be a single target direct damage spell.
Lastly, let's give the Grandmaster Mage a defensive tool, let's call it damping field, and it will reduce all physical damage to zero for 30 seconds. This is the basic, get me the hell out of dodge spell. You'd still be interruptable in this time, but could not be damaged physically. This spell would be part of the RA/Prot/Reflect family and could not be stacked with them.

One note, any of the defensive spells could be superceeded at any time by higher circle one, but not by a lower circle one, so long as it has not yet been activated.

Part three would require a reassessment of the damage that can be dealt by a spell. Simply put, the maximum damage that a spell can deal is equal to it's circle multiplied by 6, up to the 4th circle, and 8 for the 5th-8th circle. The minimum damage dealt by a spell is equal to half of the mana cost of the spell. So incinerate would do 32 minimum, and Energy Bolt would do a minimum of 12 damage. Now the maximum damage that a given mage can deal with a spell is simple It's represented by the following equation:

{[(Magery/100)*0.75]*Max Damage}+{[(Eval/100)*0.25]*Max Damage}=Actual Maximum Damage

so a GM magery GM eval that casts incinerate can do 64 damage max, but someone with 80 and 80 can only do 51 damage.


Resist stays the same, for the most part. If you resist a spell, you take half the calculated damage. Damage is calculated before resist is factored in.

Chance to resist is factored like this:
(Target's resist-[(Casters Magery+casters eval)/4]

Minimum chance to resist is 1% no matter what, and maximum is 50%

Spell Circle will no longer be a factor, it will be based on the skill of the caster, which makes more sense anyway.

Lastly, a Mage should get a damage bonus based on his inscription skill level. If he has 100 inscription, he should get a +10 minimum damage bonus, and a +5 maximum damage bonus; +9, and +4 at 90, etc. This way, dedicated mages don't have to do 12 damage e-bolts. This also makes the lower level spells more useful, as a lightning bolt that you can depend on to do 18-24 damage is better than one that does 8-24. Clarification: This damage bonus can't make a spell do more than it's absolute maximum damage.

As always, feel free to respond via E-mail, or in our lovely forums. I'm way too lazy to do a link to them, but you can find one on the left there.

•What I get from the reward program.

Already questions about the reward program are arising, so I'm going to try and explain it as best as I can.

The first option is a given - you get two rewards from the first batch. On the second option, you get two rewards from the first batch and either one reward from the second batch or a third reward from the first batch. On the third option, you get two rewards from the first batch, one reward from the second batch and either one reward from the fourth batch, a third reward from the first batch or a second reward from the second batch. Now, remember that in the second batch you can choose an item from the first batch. This means that it's possible to have 4 items in the first batch for the third option.

Now, about the program. Bless deeds shouldn't be in there. Blessed items (particularly in PvP) are lame. The option to choose two for the third option is even more lame. Look at all the choices in there, if you will. There's very low armor clothing, statues, a non-fighting horse, dye tubs... and a bless deed? NO NO NO sir. It doesn't fit in with everything else there: harmless, yet cool stuff. They should be replaced with the special hair that was given out during the ticket system. It's harmless and cool. We have a perfect match, Jonny.

And don't try testing the reward program because it doesn't work. It says, "can't determine how old this account is" or something like that for everyone.

Lastly, I got this:

Just letting everyone on Chesapeake that there is a new Factions page for the Shadowlords, you can find it at: shadowlords.chessienet.com It's still a work in progress, but we'll be updating it with information from test center as well!

Thanks
-Triven

•Player Rewards Update

Find this at good ole UO Dot Com...

Ultima Online Rewards Program Sep 13 2000 4:00PM CST
The Ultima Online Rewards program is designed to reward you, our long-term players, for your loyalty to the UO community. It is our way of thanking you and showing our appreciation for your long-term support of UO, and for your contribution to making UO the most popular virtual world in existence today.

Determining Account Age
The age of an account will be determined in the following manner:
Any account created before November 30, 1999 will automatically be credited for all of the time from the date it was created until November 30, 1999. In other words, if you created your account on October 30, 1998, your account would be credited for 13 months of time, regardless of whether your account was inactive during part of that time.
Following November 30, 1999, only the months in which you had an active account will contribute to the total count of months qualifying you for rewards.
You can check your account age by logging a character into the game. To check your account age:
Double click your profile scroll.
Scroll to the bottom of the scroll window.
A horizontal bar will be at the bottom of the profile text. Your account age in years and days will be displayed under that line. The account age will display the same value for all characters on the same account.
Updates to your account (such as reactivations) are updated every Sunday, but may not be displayed for several days.
Rewards
There are three categories of player reward levels currently identified as part of the program: players who have been in the game for 12 to 23 months, players who have been in the game for 24 to 35 months, and those who have played for 36 months or more. Each of the three designated categories of long-term players will be offered a different selection of in-game rewards. All reward options are ‘no loot’ and ‘no steal’, and clothing items will never wear out.

12 - 23 Month Players may choose two of the following rewards:
Black dye tub
Bronze cloak
Bronze +2 AR robe
Copper cloak
Copper +2 AR robe
Furniture dye tub
Choice of one of 14 mini-monster statues:
Dragon
Skeleton
Troll
Orc
Deamon
Ettin
Earth Elemental
Gargoyle
Gorilla
Crocodile
Lich
Lizard Man
Ogre
Ratman
24 - 35 Month Players may choose three reward options (two for being a one year player plus one more for being a two year player) from the list of one-year rewards above and the additional two-year rewards listed below:
Agapite cloak
Agapite +2 AR robe
Golden cloak
Golden +2 AR robe
Bless Deed
Any of the 12 - 23 month reward listed above
36+ Month Players may choose four reward options (two for being a one year player another one for their two year reward, plus one more for the third year) from among the one and two-year reward choices as well as those additional rewards listed below:
Ethereal horse
Transparent hue.
Appears as a statue in your backpack.
Double clicking the statue will cause the statue to disappear and create the horse and your will automatically mount it.
Once mounted on the horse, double clicking yourself will dismount you and automatically transform the horse back into the statue which will reappear in your backpack immediately.
Never loses loyalty and can't be transferred.
The horse can never appear without being mounted, therefore it cannot attack or be attacked,
Verite cloak
Verite +2 AR robe
Valorite cloak
Valorite +2AR robe
Choice of one of three mini-monster statues
Zombie
Cow
Llama
Any of the 12 - 23 or 23 - 35 month rewards listed above.
It is important to note that characters on an account with less than the appropriate amount of time will not be able to use some of these items. For instance, if another player gave you a golden cloak, but your account is 20 months old, you would not be able to wear it until your account reached 24 months. This only applies to clothing items and the ethereal horse. Other items such as dye-tubs and monster statues will be usable by any character.

Players who fit into one or more of these categories will have the option to receive their rewards when they log into the game after attaining a reward level. Rewards are given on a "per account" basis, but may be divided among characters on an account. It is very important to make sure you have the correct character logged on before choosing a reward. Game Masters and other OSI personnel will not be able to transfer rewards from one character to another. For example, a player who has a 24 month old account may choose to accept two rewards with a character on one shard, and may choose the remaining reward with a different character. The option to collect rewards will appear each time you log in to the game until you have chosen the total awards for which you are eligible.

If you make a rewards program selection during a final backup or before a server crash, the system may not have adequate time to save your choice. When the shard returns to service, it may take a few minutes for the server to recognize that you have not gotten your reward. The system will account for this however, and after a few minutes you will be able to select a reward.

Later

•AR Revisited

Here is how the AR for your character is calculated. I will be using hypothetical numbers to illustrate the principles. If you're that interested in experimentation, you should be able to figure out the exact numbers for each actual type of armor.

We're going to assume, for the sake of this discussion, that full plate armor (defined as plate chest, arms, legs, gorget, gloves, and helm) has a total AR of 50 and that leather armor (defined as leather tunic, sleeves, gorget, cap, gloves, and legs) has a total AR of 20. Those numbers may not be even close to their actual values, but they make the math easy, so sue me.

Now, you may not understand that the AR displayed by UO is actually a fairly meaningless number, so far as actual damage taken is concerned. Two different sets of armor that give the same AR, could actually be far apart in actual protection conferred.

You must first understand that the character is divided into 6 individual areas that can be hit with a given physical attack. Let's say that 40% of the time, you will be hit in the chest, 20% the legs, 20% the arms, 10% the hands, 5% the neck, and 5% the head. The UO game engine then uses these numbers to calculate the AR it displays.

Now, if you mix armor types, the AR at each given location changes, so the overall AR is different. For example, if we have a plate chest will all other pieces being leather we get ([50*.4]+[20*.6])=32. Now, I can do the same thing with a leather chest, gloves, and gorget, combined with plate legs and arms. I can do the same thing with a plate gorget, helm, arms (or legs) and gloves, combined with leather chest and legs (or arms). This illustrates how the total AR number can easily mislead you.

The essential fact of the new armor system is this: You trade dexterity for damage absorption. The higher the dexterity penalty associated with a given piece of armor, the more protection it provides that particular body part. The rule you can apply to this is, the harder your expected opposition hits, the better off you are with heavier armor, because they will generally swing slower, thus offsetting your relatively slower swings.

•Hmmm...took them this long....

Never a day that goes by where I do not stand amazed at the people that live in our little world of UO. Take the wonderfull skill of lumberjacking for example. How long has it been now? Four months that this skill has been around in full action. And now the boo birds are out. And all of a sudden now, it seems like there is a problem.

Parry should be adjusted down a bit, and lumberjacks should go back to 25%. I don't need to see guys in studded leather armor or lighter getting dropped in two hits. Tonight my friend stepped into a doorway and got popped by a lumberjack. No problem I figure. I start casting heal. Before I can drop the heal spell on my mage friend he is dead from the second axe blow. Granted it's not the typical situation, in which the mage is expected to run for his life like he's jacked up on a crack binge.

Lets evaluate shall we. For starters, if you adjust parry down, and then knock GM Lumber down to 25%...hmm...whats the difference. I mean as of now it is extremely rare for a Lumberwarrior to kill a Parrywarrior. WITH an axe. The only time the lumberwarrior has an advantage in combat is against a mage or someone without Parry. And even then I would hardly call it an advantage. If your silly enough to stand around in a doorway while I mince you with a double. Well thats your problem. Here's a news flash for mages. Avoid doorways. Obviously a mage doesn't want to melee. Better have that RA active, slinging poison, and moving as best you can, cause needless to say my Lumber wants your regs.

And here's Gators' second news flash of the day. Axes Hurt. Has anyone been hit with an axe lately. I mean last time I checked you just might, extremely rare, but you might loose a limb in the process. I have been wrong before. As always if you think I am wrong you can bring it here and let me know.

And also this, you tried casting heal, and didnt get it done? We are not talking about a kryss here. A double axe isnt that fast. Might want to invest in something quicker than a 56k if thats the case. That or work that reaction time some. Or...wait a minute..heres a thought..practice PvP a little more. Dont try it for just one day then scream "Nerf Lumberwarriors!!!" I mean come on folks. Thats my problem with Trammel these days, nobody tries anymore. One chance if they don't like it they go screaming to Daddy OSI "NERF, NERF, NERF!!" Sheesh...I love this game.

Later

•My Absence

My apologies to the readers and updators, for my inactivity in updating. Real life has been busy, which has kept me from my UO updates on this site. Please forgive me. :) I can assure you that soon I will be back, and ready to go with some good updating.
Thanks,

Eric-GL

•This and That

1.) Outside of Wind is cool now, you can get deamons to chase you into the city and teleport onto the walls and get behind them. This is fun. Tamers can also use the wall as the maximum amount of space they are allowed to have between them and an unhappy critter.....

2.) Ordering pizza online is insanely cool. All hail Papa John's!

3.) Note to Keyshawn Johnson: Would you SHUT THE FUCK UP now?

•Anatomy Gains Working...

Go here to our forums and check out this pic by Davion. I am not sure if he used this method after I posted about it. Or did it on his own. Some people know about this technique already. But its a picture proof example of it working at its best. GMing Anatomy in a quick amount of time is possible. Thanks for posting that Davion regardless if you read my update or not. It gives everyone a greater understanding. And thats what Powergamer's is all about.

Later

•They just had to put the lever there and leave that little hole open.

Well, it seems that the original trap spot in Shame 3 no longer exists. In fact, they got rid of the whole room where it was located. However, they seem to have made a booboo, because there's another one (at least on GL... I don't know if the lever is on all shards). Here it is:

Good way to gain resist and archery - especially from the PE that spawns there. Do one at a time so you don't die though. You should probably mark a rune to that location, because it's hard to get there with the 50 monsters blocking it.

Update: The second square that's up a little ways is also a one tile trap spot that works.

•Input.

Covetous

On the bottom floor (not the dragon one, but the other one with the jail cells) there are some mummies and a rotting corpse! The rotting corpse is that nasty, Lethal Poison inflicting, super-fast zombie that was in the Trinsic invasion with a ton of hit points. I suggest taking along a white wyrm to kill it, AND have a bard handy to provoke the mummies to fight it.

Despise

Top floor sucks (with the lizardmen), but the lower levels are fantastic. Ettins and earth elementals galore! Go deeper, and you encounter ogres and trolls. Near the old NPC mage spawn there is now an Acid Elemental.. sort of like a double strength Water Elemental that gives 650+ gold. Not recommended to solo unless your resist is good; it's melee attacks aren't that bad, fortunately.

Did I mention the ogre lords on the lower level of Despise now? :)

Thanks J.C.

Okay - my tragic story begins in Moonglow. I was bored out of my mind, so I decided to use my Lich room rune, which takes me to the room east of the Fire Ele room and west of the path to the LL room (where people run from the PE in the lich room). There used to be a rare lich or two in here, and I was fully ready to kill it. I pop in, and there is a PE and 3 liches. I try to run, but 2 of the 4 paths are locked, and I have to get within melee range of the PE to get to the stairs. I sprint towards the fire ele room and teleport across the chasm, immediately killed by a lich. 3 people see this, and immediately head in my direction. 'Thank God,' I think, 'a res.' I was wrong. They all stopped at my corpse, laughed, and waited for my corpse to turn to bones. I ran to the lich room to get a res, got one, and proceeded to died 3 times attempting to get back to my original corpse, which was completely emptied by the time I got back. This is a word of warning to everyone - Not only to look out for the critters, but for grief players looting corpses in Trammel.

Thanks Krunk.

Get off the fucking computer.

Thanks family.

•Factions Test Info? Of Course We Got More

Some faction info that some people may not know about. This all came from GreyPawn over at the Council of Mages website. Its a sharp looking site for factions. In fact I believe its the only site I have found for a faction....so far. But dont worry I am sure others will follow suit. So all you young web designers out there that want to strike gold. You better gets ta steppin in a hurry. One faction down, three to go. ::Rushes to grab his copy of Dreamweaver::

Hints & Tips GreyPawn || September 8, 2000
Playing the Factions Test Center for quite a bit lately I have uncovered a few
interesting tidbits of need to know information.

-To transfer kill points say "I honor your leadership"
-Beware the moongates. People are teleporting ONTO them in hopes of blocking you
escaping should you encounter an ambush, which will be often.
-Watch out for traps. These are killers.
-Do NOT PLACE any traps other than poison traps in your stronghold. This is a
high level poison, and chances are extreme that the person triggering it WILL
die, while the others they will just take damage.
-Faction Commanders should ALWAYS assign ALL the silver presently at the faction
stone to the cities and ALWAYS appoint the Sheriff and Finance Minister for a
city captured.
-Faction Commanders should NEVER EVER EVER increase the tithe rate to 100%, as
cities themselves are denied silver in the Commander's absence.
-Sheriff's should always place as many guards as their city and silver will
allow.
-When going for a sigil, use stealing, hiding, and stealth. Take the long way to
the moongate.
-If you have a kill point or more, do NOT let yourself get rez killed. It
continues to take them away.
-Sigils are freaky. Always be on the wary that your town just captured could be
recaptured.

Just a few things I thought I'd share with you.

And yet some more info, thoughtfully cut, and pasted from the Council of Mages. Check it:

Sigil Guarding [] ·· 09.21.2000 at 5:03 PM ·· ^top

Now any of you on Test Factions have seen numerous times, sigils being guarded by debris. Vast debris...most usually hides and crates and other big clunky hard to carry type things. This is for the purpose of preventing the enemy from stealing the sigil from a town you currently control. Its a defense mechanism, only natural of the players to do so.
Well...here is an evil method of protecting your sigil that will take the enemy at least over a half an hour to get through. Go out and make crates, with a carpenter. Make the biggest kind available, the big square ones, not the little skinny ones. Now, stick around 125 of them into a big crate. Doesn't matter how. Now, place the huge crate in the spot where you want the blockage to be, whether it be on or around the town pedastal, it doesn't matter. Now use an axe to break the crate containing the 125 crates. Viola. You have a series of 125 large items stacked neatly on top of each other.
This fiendish recipe, brought to you by Larz.

We Are United

- GreyPawn

Once again, a big thanks to the people over at the Council of Mages site for sending this info our way. And check out that site, its a good one.

**UPDATE**Looks like there may be a True Britannian site comming soon. As always we will keep an eye on it, and let you know when they get it up and running. But the site name is taken, and its there. We shall see. Like I said, it will only be a matter of time.

Later

•The last 3.

Wrong sucks. There's about 5 lizardmen in the beginning, and the rest is all evil NPC mages. There's roughly 500 of them in level 1 and 2. I got an e-mail that says that some of the NPC's are just like ogre lords. The only way to tell the difference is in their paperdoll it says, "executioner" and they carry an axe. Thanks Steve.

Despise sucks more. In the beginning, it's not so bad. There's scattered lizardmen around. But when you go a bit deeper, this horse shit happens. I have a feeling that the NPC is going to be trapped for a very long time.

Hythloth is the only tame dungeon.

Level 1: hell hounds and imps scattered; 2 gargoyles in most rooms; 2 scorching gargoyles on the left room on the bottom right.

Level 2: gazers, gargoyles, hell hounds and imps scattered; cocoa daemon and named daemon in bottom right room; gargoyles and daemons (usually 2 of each) in most of the rooms; 6 gargoyles and 2 named daemons in top left room (don't go there); gargoyles scattered near end.

Level 3: imps and gargoyles in beginning; balron and gargoyles in the middle; teleporter room is empty and safe (mark your runes for here); 5 gazers below the teleporter room; 2 named daemons and a gazer in the bottom left room; scattered gargoyles near the end; a stone gargoyle, 2 named daemons and a gazer blocking the exit.

Level 4: couple scattered imps and hell hounds and pairs of gargoyles; 2 named daemons and gargoyles at the bridge; stone gargoyle and gazer in top right room; gargoyle and sweltering gargoyle on bottom left room.

Outside Hythloth needs to be fixed badly. This is what it looks like everywhere. You can't move without dying. Thank god for the help/stuck/teleport to town command (thanks K'thak).


I've been playing around some, and money really isn't that hard to get. They made lots of places a lot harder, but there's still some places to get money. As always, it's Shame. Level 1, obviously, is one. Earth Elementals give about 300 gold each, and it's the same as before. In level 4, there's some spots where fire elementals spawn alone. They also give about 300 gold. Get some runes marked for the right areas and it's still easy to make money fast. The only problem might be other people that do the same thing.

•Last one... for now.

Covetous.

Level 1: 3 harpies in main area; 1 stone harpy when you go down; scattered harpies, headless ones and gazers when you go up; corpsers near the end, like always.

Level 2: scattered headless ones in the beginning; 6 harpies by the hay to the north; 2 seperate dread spiders by the two places where the webs are (one on the left and one on the right); elder gazer in the middle by the pond; scattered gazers, corpsers and harpies near the end.

Level 3: 6 liches in beginning; 5 liches and a couple low-end undead in the main room; low-end undead on the left side; bone/skeletal knights and some low-end undead on the right side; 5 liches on the way top right room; a group of ghosts having a convention.

Level 4 (where the drake used to be): 1 dragon and 2 drakes.

There's also a couple skeletons and an ettin/troll in the path outside that you take to get to other levels.

Not too bad. The end of level 2 and level 3 are the only places that are really difficult. The rest is still newbie friendly. I'll probably do the rest later and see about getting a dungeon section up for them.

•Destard: temple of OooOoOOoOo's.

Another dungeon = another fast death = another walk to Britain.

In level 1, there's 2 wyverns that kill you right away. In the main area, there's 12 dragons, 3 wyverns and 5 drakes. By the pond in the bottom right there's 3 water elementals. Up the hill at the top right, there's 5 wyverns and about 6 drakes. At the exit, there's 3 drakes and 2 wyverns that kill you if the others didn't already.

In level 2, there's about 10 wyverns, 6 drakes, 3 named daemons, 2 shadow wyrms and a lot of player corpses.

In level 3, there's 4 fire elementals by the fire, 3 wyverns and 1 ancient wyrms.

Looks like they really want to encourage group play, because there's no way someone could live through all that shit (unless you use UOE, haha). I like it. No more easy money from monsters. Now for some more great notes!

If you're a pk, don't go to destard.

If you're not a pk, don't go to destard.

If you're in Felucca, don't go to destard.

If you're in Trammel, don't go to destard.

If you have a large group, go to destard.

Simple enough.

•A little more detail on the spawn changes.

First, the spawn changes are really cool. I like to get my ass kicked by anything and everything possible. And I'm not the only one, which is even better. There's corpses everywhere.


Deceit probably got hit the worst. In level 1, there's about 80 (I'm not joking) skeletons, wraths, zombies, spectres and whatever else is on the low-end of Deceit. Needless to say, there's no way that you can get through, and so I can't say what's on the other levels. I'll probably go in as a ghost later to see what's all in there though.

Shame 1 is the same as before: earth elementals and scorpions.

Shame 2 has 8 air elementals, kraken's, sea serpents and a LOT of dull copper elementals (a group blocking the path to level 3 as well).

Shame 3 has about 20 evil NPC mages, a poison elemental, a few elder gazers, dull copper elementals, earth elementals, a couple air elementals and fire elementals where the air/fire/poison elementals always were (west of the gate). If you go to the way top and into the path that takes you south, there's 6 air elementals and another poison elemental. At the bottom of the level, there's water elementals, dull copper elementals, earth elementals, kraken's and sea serpents.

Shame 4 is where the party is. There's 6 air elementals and 1 blood elemental where they always were. When you go up the bridge, there's another blood elemental by where all of the locked chests are. If you take a west and go across the bridge to the left, there's another blood elemental. If you go down a bit and take left into the hay area, there's a spawn of earth elementals. If you go back out and down, there's a spawn of dull copper elementals. If you go down some more, there's an acid elemental. And at the way bottom, there's a group of fire elementals. If you take a right across the bridge, there's elder gazers. There's also kraken's and sea serpents scattered around.


A couple notes:

There isn't useless shit scattered anymore, except scorpions, but at least they give some gold. I didn't see any slimes, snakes or rats at all. The majority is the good shit, and lots of it.

If you have any brain cells, unlike me, don't go to Felucca without a group or you'll get killed fast.

Don't attempt to melee kraken's, because it won't work out too good. Also, kraken's usually spawn with a water elemental and a sea serpent.

Dull copper elementals are a waste of time. They have more HP than earth elementals and give about 100 gold.

Acid elementals give about 600 gold. I have no idea what kind of properties they have because I was dead at the time. Common sense says that they probably poison though. I'll probably go back later to die again.

Don't even set foot in a dungeon if you're a pk.

Walking from Shame to Britain is as boring as it was 4 months ago.

Walking from Shame to Britain is the only thing that I remember.

Glacial staves look like the weapons from star wars.

Star wars sucks.

I edited this 80 times. Refresh is your friend. Use it.

My roomate likes country music. Beat his ass for me.


I'll get more info. up when I can find a person that has some god damn RUNES on his vendor.

•Anatomy: All You Need Is A LIttle Patience

A week or so ago, I had posted a little update on Anatomy on how some folks were getting unbelievable "magic" gains in extremely weird situations. I mean seriously, who would have thought that Roxanne the Warrior, of Lake Superior, was going to GM her Anatomy from a skill of 94.1. In a matter of 10 Minutes against a damn Giant Spider!! I mean sure this isn't unheard of for some skills....but Anatomy?? Oh, did I mention that she did that while being outside of her power hour. After a return trip from the local forest after harvesting some wood. I should know, I was there, Roxanne is one of my characters.

So first question is of course "Gator, why GM Anatomy?". Well for the folks out there in Internet land that just may not know what Anatomy is, I will answer that. Believe it or not, we have players in this game who have no clue what Anatomy is good for. Anatomy, is good for two reasons.
1)+20% More Damage done to your enemies. This is culmalative, in a sense that, the higher your skill, more damage you will do. For example, if your mighty Lumber Warrior has an Anatomy skill of 50, well then you would be doing 10% more damage with that double axe than someone with 0 Anatomy.
2)Healing, Healing, Healing. I mean it really makes since. Doctors get a lot of classes on Anatomy in college. So in our case its the same. You want to heal good? Damn skippy. Then you better GM that Anatomy. With GM Healing and Anatomy, you can heal up to 80 points of damage with one measly strip of cloth. Whereas, GM Healing and 0 Anatomy, will net you a maximum heal of just 50 points. Understand now?

And now for the goodies. I would like to call this segment, technique time. Now this may or may not work for you. But I am going to give you my own examples of what I have discovered. Then I am going to tell you the best way that I think it can be done. But, let it be known now. To GM the Anatomy skill, your going to need a lot of patience. And that is the only thing I can tell today that is set in stone, patience.

Take for example, yesterday morning, I logged in to LS to refresh one of my houses on Fire Isle(Fel). While there, two Ogres decided they wanted to help in the refresh process, needless to say, Kryss was armed, and the first one through the door got it. Wack, .1 Anatomy, Wack, .1 Anatomy, Wack, .1 Anatomy. But just my luck I had lost my scissors in a serious accident within Hyloth, therefore, no healing for me. So I had to take the ogres out, thus ending my amazing gain. But every hit I was gaining. I was standing inside the first floor room, two steps away from the door. This particular house was a small tower.

Last night I was logged onto another shard working my lumberjacking skill and such while collecting hides for a good friend of mine, who happens to live near a swamp. Well on the way back to his tower, I collected a few lizardman who in turn wanted to drop by the house for a cold one. I went straight into the back first floor room, and positioned myself so I would only have to fight two of them. There just so happened to be ten of these little fella's, so I armed my double axe, and went on a serious chopping spree. Well when two were left, I started gaining Tac and Anat like mad. Heres a little tidbit for you, my Tactics was at 98.7 skill. Anatomy was at 89.0. This whole event happened outside of power hour. Every time I swung, and hit, I gained .1 Tac and Anat. It was clockwork. I immediately manned a newbie hatchet, after all I didn't want to kill the Lizard that was helping me out so much. But, once I GM'd Tactics, that's right GM'd Tac outside power hour, inside house, on a lizardman. Once I GM'd Tac, all Anat gains stopped. So then I got to thinking, what if.... I grabbed my lute, did some skill arrow adjusting and started strumming away. Knocked my Tactics back down to 97 skill. And then adjusted them arrows again. Swung hatchet, hit no gain. What does all of that mean? Well, I was hoping that my "magic lizard" would have kept giving me gains in Anat and Tac, if I dropped my Tac down again. But, unfortunately it did not have the effect I wanted. But overall in that little spree my Anat had jumped up to 90.3. I was still pleased. Some people out there are thinking, "Gator, you had Tactics GM'd and you dropped it??". Hell yeah I did, Tactics I can GM in an hour. Whereas Anatomy is a little bit harder.

So heres my advice. Go to the swamps, "herd up" about 10 lizardman, and proceed to a house in or around the swamps. Once there position yourself in a doorway, where you will only be hit by one. I recommend doing this OUTSIDE power hour. Doing this during your power hour would be a waste, and I would not recommend it. Once positioned start swinging. Have a weak weapon on you. I.E.. Fencers/Daggers, Lumbers/Hatchets, Swords/Skinning Knives, Maces/Wands. I would not recommend using archery during this procedure, waste of resources. Once you start gaining like mad, patience is a virtue, man that smaller weapon and have at it. GM that Anatomy, then light up a cigar in celebration for your newest GM'd skill.

Also while I was out in about hunting lizardman, I ran into a small tower where the owner had banned like 12 lizardman. Of course they were packed all nice and neat under the sign. To make a long story short, I met two great players, who gave me a few heals as I fought the Lizards. Well then Mr. Serpent came, and poisoned me, lag hit, BAM, dead Gator. Just so happens that all the wandering healers in the area were on strike. So after running around for a good 10 minutes, I finally found a SCAB and made my way back to my now surely looted bones. Well I was in luck the two people I had met had surely taken all my stuff. But instead of running off with it like true Twinks they placed everything in a bag for me, and waited for my return. Once I arrived they returned everything to me. So before I sign off for this post, I would like to personally thank Magnus and Kalanie. Two great UO players, and a welcome sign in these times of twinkness we all live in.

Later

•Great Lakes Dungeons Changes

Deceit Fire Elley Room

-3 Liches + 3 Fire Elementals: Continuous Spawn

-5 Liches + Lich Lord + Silver Serpents in Lich Lord room...oh, and lots of bodies.

Shame Blood Level

-Bloods and Earth Elementals Everywhere

-Scorpions (bleh!)

-Dull Copper Elementals (wtf?)

-Air and Fire Elementals on North and East Sides

-Loren of da wood's body along with her Lady title :/

All are continuous spawn.

Hasta.

•Counselor Anonymous Speaks

Well, just so we can add some more spice to the whole Counselor Debate, Counselor Anonymous speaks to us:

What's in a word.....

I am a counselor, been one for close to 2 years now. I am also an ASRC. What you are about to read is MY opinion, and MINE alone. It does not, and nor do I claim that it should, reflect the opinions and views of current and past volunteers.


When I first started UO back in early 98, I was a newbie, and I intend that in every sense of the word. I had played all of the Ultimas (1 - 7) and so I knew all about the Ultima lore and how Ultima worked.....or so I thought until I actually created a character. To this day I am STILL waiting for the gypsy to show up to ask me my 7 ethical questions. A gate to my tower can be arranged. :)


When I first logged on, it was brutal. I didn't know anything. I ran from a Mongbat! I fell for the trapped chest in town. I got guard whacked for any and everything. Hell, I was a newbie.


As time went on, I became better, and after a month of "learning" the game, I created the character that is still my main character today. As that character gained in skills, I always wondered why things were as they were, and how I should go about doing other things. Sites like UOPG, Lum, Markee, Prostitute, HoE, etc, did not exist, and I didn't know about UOSS. Well, what was a guy to do. Yup.....I paged a counselor.


THAT is where I learned that there is merit in helping others, and I wanted in. After knowing the game as much as I could, I applied and soon a new counselor hit the shards. My compensation at the time: $ 0.00. I knew it and I EXPECTED it would stay the same. After a while, OSI decided to "give" us a free account. My compensation then for over 10 hours a week of counseling: $ 9.99. I appreciated it, but I would have kept doing it for free.


Now, friends, the shit has REALLY hit the fan. When the AOL lawsuit hit, OSI removed the "free" account. I was disappointed, sure, but I understood the reason behind it, and I knew that the people who were in it for the $ 9.99 account every month would leave. WHY anyo