Tentative patch notes - november 11th, 2012

[ScubaSean]

I have 5 times that number of people on my aim list alone that farm their own armor/weapons and enjoy doing so, including myself, I also not only see tons of people out pvming and pvping in dungeons but I see entire groups of people meeting up at banks to set off to hunt together, stuff I haven't seen for over 3 years here.

Dexter has it right. I've played on and off this shard for more than four years. When I left last time, I had four houses, I was rolling in cash, fully stocked, and had a couple of perfect mares and dragons 7x.

My tamer was the standard music/peace when I came back. These changes to Peacemaking make it very difficult to use Peace to farm dragons and mares, so I've had to adapt. I now go taming or farming in groups, I've ditched Peace for Medi and Music for Eval, and I no longer run when I see reds, I can actually fight. It makes farming wands, or gold, or items a lot more interesting, as I don't just sit there with my OHMAHGAWDRED RECALL macro half pushed, we have plans for anyone who comes in, Red or Blue.

The changes make you adapt. If everything was the same with every patch, the game would be boring. I now look forward to my friends being online, and PVP is no longer limited to Factions, IDOCs, Del Pond, and roving groups of reds.

I for one would like to thank Ryan and his team for these changes, you've stirred the pot. We'll see who comes out on top in a couple of weeks

 

[a bong elemental]

These changes to Peacemaking make it very difficult to use Peace to farm dragons and mares, so I've had to adapt. I now go taming or farming in groups, I've ditched Peace for Medi and Music for Eval, and I no longer run when I see reds, I can actually fight.

This is EXACTLY what I was hoping people would start doing.

 

[Paracelsus]

The changes make you adapt. If everything was the same with every patch, the game would be boring. I now look forward to my friends being online, and PVP is no longer limited to Factions, IDOCs, Del Pond, and roving groups of reds.

This is EXACTLY what I was hoping people would start doing.

No use for people start doing it if the reds dare not to come. *stirring the pot*

 

[Rated]

I appreciate that the staff are working on improving the server, but throw us players a bone...

There are a lot of us vets that love this server, but are bored out of our minds, please add some more end game things to do. Or at least some loot on monsters that the rich players (everybody) would actually want...

I dont get why there are all these small tweaks, that are unnecessary, when you could be working on implementing things that would attract new and old players to the server.

I'll continue to check the forums once a week in hopes of seeing something that will get me excited about playing again.

Until then...

Edit: I'm going to elaborate, since I sound like an unappreciative ***hole in my OP.

Ultima Online is an amazing game, and the fact that Mark and Ryan made a server for those of us that loved UO how it used to be, and well, I can't thank them enough for that.

The problems with the server have nothing to do with the mechanics of the game. People aren't quitting because of meteor swarm hitting blues, being bolad, and so forth.

The problem is with baseline UO itself. There are a lot of things to do, and a lot of things to work for when you first start playing. After a few years however, everyone has done everything, and reached all of their goals. That is the root problem IMO, there is nothing that a player really has to work for a long time to acheive.

For example, in PVE, the best loot on monsters is vanq weapons, there is no goal beyond that. With the server being alive for so many years there are thousands of vanqs stockpiled in people's houses. So vanqs aren't worth any money, and there is no point in killing monsters for them. Which makes farming monsters pointless with the highly inflated economy we have here. Monsters need to drop some kind of loot that players can sell for 25k-100k. Some kind of rare loot tables that start at vanq drop rate, and increase in rarity for more valuable items. I always recommend rare clothing drops on monsters, because obviously the players on this shard love rare clothing.

PVP is bland on the server nowadays, and IMO it all ties into the PVE being pointless. If the dungeons were alive with players hunting monsters, reds would have someone to murder, which would get the PVE'r to dabble into PVP, and gets them to practice PVP to be able to defend themselves against reds, and a new PVP'r is born.

Factions need a long term goal as well. How about a vendor that allows you to buy rare items with silver once you get to certain ranks? The silver rewards have the same flaw as the monster loot table.

No doubt. I see the problem as PVP not having enough diversity due to a few adjusted skills. I won't go to mention them because it might derail the thread into Trammel, but I wanted to share my opinion on your post. I played UO through T2A->LBR->AOS for the most part. Certain aspects of expansions really made the game great in different areas. PVP is PVP, and I always just liked mage duels personally, not field zerging. The one thing I remember most from LBR and AOS was the PVE content available. Although there were artifacts and so forth, and that wouldn't fit with Hybrids setup, I think considering adding things like the Gauntlet/Dark Father and putting a serious adjustment on Champ Spawns would tune PVE on Hybrid. You wouldn't really need arties or powerscrolls, but something else in place of those. BTW, Champ Spawns on Hybrid are ridiculous. Back in the day, in LBR, two people could get to the final stage of a champ spawn. Now it takes like a huge ass army and stuff just spawns so fast. Seems like the candles are way off proper timing.

But yeah, your example of how farming monsters is almost pointless is true. With the economy being so ridiculous, it's hard for crafting/monster hunting to be effective. While I totally respect people who have played here for years, there should be a reason they want to PVE for items/other stuff.

 

[Muds420]

First off I want to say I love Hybrid. I have been playing Ultima here since the server was started. I'm not here to complain about this recent patch I just want my opinion to be heard. I think the changes made to peacemaking made the skill completely useless, I can peace a balron but 5 seconds later it is back to attacking my pet, then if I peace it again, it simply doesn't work. I don't think this helps make the game any better in any way. I understand giving discordance a normal timer, that makes sense. I hope you guys reconsider setting peacemaking back to how it was. Thanks for reading. LONG LIVE HYBRID!

 

[eltaco]

The bard skill changes were bug fixes. The skills were not working as intended.

Also, I love new players but new players are New.
They shouldn't be able to do everything, or have everything, from the word go.

would that mean that provocation works the way it should? % chance based on music/provo skills and not by monster difficulty?

OSI changed it to monster difficulty when they introduced the power scrolls, but without power scrolls, the best things you can provoke is barely drakes, cyclops and you're lucky forget about dragons and my favorite, the double shadow wyrm spawn

i don't see tamers going to destard lv 2 do the 2x shadow wyrms, but with a lute and GM provo/music, and good running skills, you could farm the hell out of there

 

[FacePump]

would that mean that provocation works the way it should? % chance based on music/provo skills and not by monster difficulty?

OSI changed it to monster difficulty when they introduced the power scrolls, but without power scrolls, the best things you can provoke is barely drakes, cyclops and you're lucky forget about dragons and my favorite, the double shadow wyrm spawn

i don't see tamers going to destard lv 2 do the 2x shadow wyrms, but with a lute and GM provo/music, and good running skills, you could farm the hell out of there

your right on the power scroll part im totally in agreement with you on the bard nerfing and us not having the power scrolls to compensate for the bigger/better/more skilled mobs..

but as for shadow wyrms.. I can kill shadow wyrms, ancient wyrms, skeleton dragons, serpentine dragons, basically any dragon but the hybrid/stygen dragon I can solo with my discord tamer and her usually 6x mare,dragon. there is things other than having highly skilled pets that will help you kill bigger monsters.(aka- not using stools or any other cheese). Like some simple hunting tactics you can use to ur advantage to kill bigger mobs, that you will learn over time or if someone shows you the ways of the force ^^


I can kill the hybrid / stygen dragon solo using cheese tactics via foot stools its very disappointing ..

 

[eltaco]

your right on the power scroll part im totally in agreement with you on the bard nerfing and us not having the power scrolls to compensate for the bigger/better/more skilled mobs..

but as for shadow wyrms.. I can kill shadow wyrms, ancient wyrms, skeleton dragons, serpentine dragons, basically any dragon but the hybrid/stygen dragon I can solo with my discord tamer and her usually 6x mare,dragon. there is things other than having highly skilled pets that will help you kill bigger monsters.(aka- not using stools or any other cheese). Like some simple hunting tactics you can use to ur advantage to kill bigger mobs, that you will learn over time or if someone shows you the ways of the force ^^


I can kill the hybrid / stygen dragon solo using cheese tactics via foot stools its very disappointing ..

one good kick is to hit khaldun with a fencer 5x with magery and hiding and tackle ancient liches melee...
you've got what it takes...

but the biggest trip i've had in UO thus far is having 2 shadow wyrms kill eachother, with the prospect of, if you lose control over them, to have to run to destard 3 entrance, and land right next to the ancient wyrm

since i joined UO:G, i begged for the barding thing to be fixed. imo, alot of people would enjoy having a 7-10 dragons patch killing eachother and managing the almost dead ones with the fresh ones to make them spawn as fast as possible. i remember sometimes having the whole destard 1 to myself on felucca on atlantic, that was sick. other crazy spots include the ophidian keep in T2A, the terathan keep, you can have 10-12 provocation fights at once. it's a nice big mess.

fix it someday soon please

 

[FacePump]

one good kick is to hit khaldun with a fencer 5x with magery and hiding and tackle ancient liches melee...
you've got what it takes...

good trick because your in kahldun and no one is hardly down their at the ancient liches you get into melee and drop a firefeild on them and with a very good silver spear you can rape them really fast.. then on the blood elementals precast blade spirt, get into melee with them so they are on you then drop the bladespirt and it will sit and constantly cure while u slaughter it. same with a lot of the cool mobs down there

 

[eltaco]

good trick because your in kahldun and no one is hardly down their at the ancient liches you get into melee and drop a firefeild on them and with a very good silver spear you can rape them really fast.. then on the blood elementals precast blade spirt, get into melee with them so they are on you then drop the bladespirt and it will sit and constantly cure while u slaughter it. same with a lot of the cool mobs down there

or with a kryss and potions, and bring a pouch that you place in a corner with transparency circle on so people don't see it, and come back later to collect... oh gawsh! i gave up my trick!

 

[pete liv]

good trick

dont forget reactive armor