Two new adventures!
Posted July 30, 2000 - 3:40 PM PDT by Adam Ant
Well, I’ve finally posted a couple of new adventures, numbers #68 and #69. I could be wrong, but it seems as though a few people have come back to felucca. We’ll just have to see if this trend holds. I sure hope it does.
I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like everyone is reengineering their characters these days. Maces are in, maces are out. Archery is in, archery sucks. Sheesh, does anyone play the game anymore?
I’d personally love to see OSI stop making incremental ‘improvements’ to the weapons and skills and do some up-front design for a change. For me at least, character reengineering is a huge pain in the butt and a waste of time, especially after you've been playing the game for two years and should be past all that. *sigh*
UO Toons, I love’em!
Hans and Franz have a new toon, I got a good laugh off it. I guess the sad part is that there is all too much truth to it.
I’ve been thinking of making a couple of new toons of my own. I have a couple ideas, and some of you have sent me some really good ideas too. One of the ideas I had requires a few newbies to die. I’m taking applications :)
Oh well, I guess that’s it for a few days, I’m off for a weeks vacation on the beach :)
Take care, and see you in Wind,
Adam Ant
Want to star in an Adam Ant toon?
A Word to the Wise
Posted July 21, 2000 - 2:22 PM PDT by Adam Ant
Trust me, I only mean this in the nicest way; "Don’t be an idiot!"
Look, OSI is as serious as a heart attack when it comes to duping. If you're duping, expect to get caught and banned from the game.
The thing that many don’t realize however is that accepting duped gold is also bannable. Duh.
Don't expect OSI to believe that you found it in a decaying house or that a friend gave it to you because they were leaving the game. This is totally lame and nobodies going to fall for it.
Let's say I’m GM_Adam Ant and I find you with 2 million in gold that you didn't have last week. As an intelligent human being, it's not going to be hard for me to figure out that you didn't earn that that kind of scratch killing trolls.
Lets say I'm going to give you a chance to explain and you tell me you found it in a decaying house. What do you think I'm going to say? I'm going to say "Take me there." Yup, they can easily (?) load a backup of that location and determine if a house recently decayed there and if it had 2 million in it.
Ok, lets say you're cleaver and you say "a friend gave it to me that is leaving the game." Doh! GM_Adam is simply going to ask you for his name...
Look, I need adventurers to come to Wind so I can write some new stories, but there won't be any left if you're all getting banned or moving to Trammel.
Oh, and by the way, the "I bought the gold on eBay" ploy won’t work either. Face it, you're going to have to make a living like the rest of us; killing and looting :)
--Adam Ant
Have you an "I got banned" story to share?
My ID renumbering theory
Posted July 17, 2000 - 9:12 PM PDT by Adam Ant
On the weekend of July 8’th, or thereabouts, many of us logged into our characters to find that many of our macros no longer worked. A few of us unlucky souls died because of it.
I have a theory and thought I would share it with you.
I believe OSI renumbered all objects in an attempt to locate and destroy duplicated objects. I believe that object IDs do not span shards and therefore OSI could carryout this task on a shard by shard basis (What happened two weeks ago may have only effected Napa.)
This is only a theory and pure speculation on my part.
I do however know *something* happened, and this is the best theory I could come with.
If I’m right I say; Hooray! Get the exploiters and cheats out of the game!
(But next time find a way to do it with out getting us all killed.)
--Adam Ant
Have you a theory?
OMG, none of my macros work!
Posted July 11, 2000 - 9:03 PM PDT by Adam Ant
Well there I was, logging back into UO. I had logged out the previous day via camping in cove and was anxious to return to my duties.
When I login, I see a lich and a specter. No problem, I’m hidden! I wait for a moment and decide to recall out.
I hit my recall-safety1 macro and nothing happens. I then hear the lich ‘ha ha ha’. I’m thinking that’s weird.
The lich smacks me with his staff (hey, it’s dark, he didn’t know who I was :))
Ow! I run across the room and try my recall-safety2 macro, nothing. Shit! Specter and lich now on me.
Damn, I try to heal but get interrupted, I run again and lich casts flamestrike. Ahhhh, I try to heal and lich is on me again! Okay dammit, I decide I need to kill this wild lich. I start a heal – nothing, I try to arm my katana – nothing.
I run out of the lich room and run into two skeletons and a rat.
You Are Dead.
Well thank you OSI for changing all the items IDs without warning us :(
Today when I started UOA I saw a message about the ID change. I found this on Tug’s site.
It seems that OSI changed the ID's for many items in UO with the update they made on Saturday. This means you'll need to recount resources (NumLock is default) and reset all bags (disarm, undress, hot sell, recycle, vendor...) in UOAssist as well as any items set for the Use Once agent. You should reset your arm settings and dress settings.
--Adam Ant
Did the ID change adversely effect you too?
Healing Changes
Posted July 9, 2000 - 7:59 AM PDT by Adam Ant
You can read about the "Various Changes and Fixes"
planned for the next patch, but here's my take:
The first changes that really caught my eye were the Healing changes:
Finger slips from being hit while healing will have less effect. The damage healed will now be based on you dexterity and healing skill. Previously, this value was based only on dexterity.
The success rate for healing will be increased.
I think this is great. I recently put healing on my mage character and found that healing was darn near useless unless you had tons of it. I mistakenly thought 60 Anatomy and 60 Healing (on my mage with 25 DEX) would be of some value. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't think that 60/60 was going to heal a hundred points or anything, but I wanted a reliable alternate way to heal. Well, as it turns out, 60/60 Healing bites. Man I couldn't heal a shaving nick. I decided to keep pushing it up in hopes it would finally pay off. Well at 75/75 I could finally get some reasonable healing effect.
With these changes my 75/75 Healing should really start to pay off, as my low DEX should be less of an inhibitor! Yay! (This is of course until OSI realizes that mages are picking up healing and try to find a way to make it useless for us.) Oh well, enjoy it while you can.
--Adam Ant
Have your say.
CoJ Bannings
Posted July 6, 2000 - 7:52 PM PDT by Kamikaze
There has been a lot of flak flying around various UO websites - namely Lum the Mad, UO Power Gamers, and LoD's website - surrounding the bannings of a number of CoJ members by one GM Onyx. Before I discuss the issue let's get the facts (or as close to them as I could get) surrounding this encounter. CoJ members offered players gates to desired destinations. Once these players entered the gates, they emerged in a house where they found themselves trapped by tables and facing a barrage of Cor Pors. This house was located on an island with no healer spawn. This is where the issue gets muddled, CoJ and LoD contend that escape gates were offered to the victims, which makes sense to me considering the ghosts could have escaped when gates for new victims were created. Lum suggested this was not the case. Either way, a GM was called. GM onyx then banned and/or suspend a number of CoJ members and killed a rideable lama (brought to the new lands via an exploit). The question I pose is were the GM's actions justified?
I (and I know i may take flak for this) would suggest the answer is no. As long as the ghosts had a means of escape I would not consider this a banable/suspendable offense. These are my reasons; First of all, this took place in Felucia. Any person who CHOOSES to visit a PvP + zone must be prepared to die. Secondly, although deceit and coercion were used, the players themselves ultimately had the choice to enter the gate. I've heard of numerous incidents like this. You wouldn't trust a stranger in real life, I contend the players knew the risks when they entered an unknown gate and therefore should accept the consequences of their actions. Thirdly, no real adverse effects were felt by the players, i.e. the consequences they felt were no better or worse than if they had been PK'd in the woods. Obviously I think CoJ's actions were despicable, but I still contend that they weren't and should not have been bannable. When I PK, I like to know that my actions - though they may infuriate another player - are part of the game mechanics. It is unacceptable to get banned for something the game itself legally allows you to do. As for the lama, the GM's actions here were justified, if you use an exploit you should accept the consequences.
K Hit Me!
"A Modest Proposal"
Posted July 3, 2000 - 6:12 PM PDT by Kamikaze
It is a sad and melancholy thing, to walk through the great lands of Britania and observe the decomposing remains of adventurer and novice alike. I believe that everyone can agree that the experience of dying in game is a discouraging one; That the gray screen of death is a harbinger of only one thing – frustration. It is easy for the masses – in their justified anger – to blame specific causes i.e. PK’s, new monster AI, etc. I on the other hand, have taken a more holistic approach, an approach that will and invariably must address every facet of the issue. My suggestion is to create a switch, which – when activated – will shield the activator from the pains and repercussions death poses.
99%* of Ultima Online players (when poled) cited that character death is a demoralizing experience. 75%* of former Ultima Online players cited character death as a contributing cause to their untimely exodus. My death switch would irrevocably halt unwanted player deaths. The individual need but toggle the switch into the (non-death) position to be rendered invulnerable from the adverse effects death poses. Yet you – as informed readers – must question, “What of the few perturbed individuals that actually enjoy the very real risk death poses?” This is the beauty of the switch format. The players themselves are empowered to make their own choice insomuch as whether or not to face the stark and demoralizing reality in game death posses. Those of the before mentioned opinion would need but leave the switch in the (death) position to be utterly placated. I ask you, what can be gained by imposing such an important and personal choice – as one involving a person’s – own mortality, on another?
I would again assure you, competent reader, that I have nothing to gain from the instigation of my proposal, insomuch as I reside in the PvP free lands of Trammel where residents live happily unmolested by the fear of death.
*A sample size of approx. 4 people.
Questions comments?