Do away with the random treasure map spots - some don't work

[Petra Fyde]

I've not tried it with mapper, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

 

[Raptor85]

I've not tried it with mapper, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

mappers maps are super low res and blurry when zoomed, you can't make out the tiles, hopefully he'll have it fixed soon.

 

[MalagAste]

Personally I use the EC and Pinco's UI... I use UOCartographer when I'm in Tram or Fel just because I have the runebooks all marked and can easily find my way to the nearest location by using the old runes. Often even though the new system is random I can find an old pin location not so far from the new random spots. I've often considered making runes and marking all of Malas, Tokuno and Ter Mur in a similar style and making runebooks for them as well... Just so I can have a quick reference to almost anywhere.

 

[Maximus of Lck]

I think the random locations make sense. It was WAY too easy before to just recall to the spot and dig up the chest. At least it involves some skill. After all it is called Treasure HUNTING.

What needs to be addressed is the contents of the chest. It needs variation. It's always the same. EXACT same. I'd like to open up a chest one time and find 20000 nightshade locked inside, and nothing else at all Perhaps it was buried by an assassin. I'd like to open up a chest one time and find a bag full of diamonds. Perhaps it belonged to a theif or a jeweler. I'd like to open up a chest one time and find nothing but dust, the chest being looted years ago and the chest left to nature. The thing is you always know exactly what you're going to find (within reason), and you know how much of everything you're going to find also.

Who was this mysterious person who roamed the land hundreds of years ago burying EXACTLY 30,000 gold, a few gems, a minor artifact, and 60 USELESS pieces of junk in these fancy chests? Why on earth are those useless items inside the chests? No one keeps them, and I don't even look a them. They go straight to the unraveling bin to be recycled. We need variation.

 

[lit2fly]

a bit off here..... where should I farm for high level treasure maps? so far I only get 1 t-map from 2 completed mini spawn in SA dungeon.... the spawn rate is very low imo

 

[Basara]

for level 6s, what I used to do was go to the Titans & Cyclops south of Mistas at Honesty, Ilshenar. That area provides all normal maps (1-6); the monsters carry level 1 (ettin), 3 (Cyclops), and 5 (Titan) maps, with paragon chests from them being 1 level higher (2,4,6)

 

[Redxpanda]

I am so over the random tmap spots now. Even though some of them are completely busted, most of them are easy to find with enough effort. They really are not worth the trouble though. I have been digging up some 5s and 6s with guildmates and its the same junk in the 1s and 2s (just more of it).

It seems that they added a few useless items along with the loot. The best thing in the chest in the chests seemed to be the imbuing ingredients. I did tons of them and did not get a single pardon. I used the mana phasing orb and runed sash that don't seem to do much. I'm not even going to mention the tasty bacon because that must be some cruel joke on us treasure hunters.

Seriously, how does that mana phasing orb work? The stats are nice but I have tried using the charges and i don't see what it does. Now the orb is severely damaged and i am just waiting for it to break already. The runed sash is a waste because it wares off in seconds. Certainly not worth the trouble of pulling up your paperdoll and clicking.

It seems like they love to break things way before they fix them when it comes to treasure hunting. The first thing they should have done is make the cartography skill what u need for digging it up. Perhaps lockpicking can assist that skill check. Mining is something that a crafter needs...Now i have to learn mining again on my mule or leave items in the chest for my thunter to smelt.

It's all just a huge mess and i don't think finding 1 forged pardon every 20 high level chests is sufficient reward.

 

[Raptor85]

the orb when used makes your next skill/spell use 0 mana, also you can repair them with a tinker

other than that, yeah, thunting is pretty much not worthwhile, 99% of the stuff you just leave in the chest as it's junk, most of the other stuff can be gotten quicker through other means. We did some l7's when they came out just to try something new but after 2-3 of them it was obvious it wasn't worth the time to find the chest, dig them up, and sort the loot....aweful lot of ancient wyrms and frost dragons guarding loot that's on the level of what you can pull off ogres, lol.

 

[Rand Althor]

I T-Hunted for Years... and Years.. this was the best part of the game for me. Treasure was not a huge part for me, before Ingenious, people complained about loot, then Ingenious came out, all was well... now were here again complaining about loot... the cycle continues. I for one, would just love to see the old Static T-Map locations come back, I really hate the random ones... and I know some people talk about it aint so bad to find the spots... but changes are made to get more people involved... and I don't see people posting how they love T-hunting now since it's more exciting with the random locations... But I do hear people (Including myself) who no longer T-hunt because of this change... the game is suposed to be fun... trying to find a spot is anoying and a waste of my time... I can get on an hour at a time, and to clear a L5-6 can take 30-60 mins depending on the spawn... if I have to be annoyed spending 15 mins trying to locate the map, I may not get to actually enjoy cleaning out the chest..

Please admit this was a poor change, and put it back.. I for one hardly play anymore, and would definetly play more doing my favorite role of digging up T-Maps.. that kept me logging in daily for years..

 

[Basara]

Mana phasing orbs are great for a melee character - especially a melee T-hunter like myself, when fighting an AW at a map and I run out of mana - I can use an orb charge to pop the AW with an armor ignore when I'm out of mana, and the attack would normally be doubled cost. This has actually been the last attack that dropped the Wyrm and saved my hide a few times (as without AI attacks, the dragon often has spurts where it heals faster than I can damage it).

 

[LordDrago]

I think that cartography on a t-hunter should have a much bigger role than just reading the map, and should give some way to "track" the treasure location. Have it work something like tracking giving an arrow to follow or something, perhaps to a general area, smaller as carto is higher, so a 100 carto/100 mining t-hunter would not have to "hunt" for the spot.

 

[Maximus of Lck]

I think that cartography on a t-hunter should have a much bigger role than just reading the map, and should give some way to "track" the treasure location. Have it work something like tracking giving an arrow to follow or something, perhaps to a general area, smaller as carto is higher, so a 100 carto/100 mining t-hunter would not have to "hunt" for the spot.

Cartography: The science of studying and making maps. Cartography is NOT the science of digging up or ability to find treasure chests. It just doesn't make sense to put an arrow to a hidden spot. If you think about it, there is already a way to "track" the treasure's location. The pin on the treasure map. Here's what you guys dont think about. A treasure map is made by the person who hides the treasure in that location. Years later, that same person can return to the location and find the treasure using the map. The map is encrypted by the creator so no one else will be able to decipher the map. What the cartography skill does is make sense of that encryption to suggest a location for the treasure. If you drew a encrypted map of where your house is located, would someone else be able to decypher it and tell you the exact address? No.

I think they randomized the treasure chest locations for two reasons:
1. So you NEED the mining skill to find the actual chest. I agree with this change as it makes you actually use a "treasure hunter" template.

2. To make it more difficult to find the treasure chest. What's the point of a hidden chest if all you need to do is find the coordinates it's located at and recall right to it? You can't have everything handed to you on a silver platter. If you want it that easy you might as well demand that double clicking the map will spawn the chest at your current location.

 

[Basara]

Cartography: The science of studying and making maps. Cartography is NOT the science of digging up or ability to find treasure chests. It just doesn't make sense to put an arrow to a hidden spot. If you think about it, there is already a way to "track" the treasure's location. The pin on the treasure map. Here's what you guys dont think about. A treasure map is made by the person who hides the treasure in that location. Years later, that same person can return to the location and find the treasure using the map. The map is encrypted by the creator so no one else will be able to decipher the map. What the cartography skill does is make sense of that encryption to suggest a location for the treasure.

WOW....

Do you have any idea just how much you contradicted yourself in your statement?????

The ability to figure out the hidden location IS "studying" maps. It takes someone who has made an in-depth studying of how maps can have information hidden in them to figure out how someone is manipulating the map data.

I'm still trying to figure out how you or anyone else thinks that mining helps find buried treasure, unless it's something like Oak Island. And, that you won't dig up with a dozen shovel swings. The problem is that "finding" treasure and "recovering" treasure are being confused. If mining helped anything, it should be avoiding spawn/traps on the dig, NOT locating the chest.

 

[LordDrago]

Yeah....What Basara said.

 

[Efreet]

I'm a new player (about 2 weeks) but I've gotta throw my $0.02. I have use CC and EC (sans Pinco's) to unearth tchests. Having compared them both, I'd suggest that the CC is harder to work with (not having EC's Atlas is a big factor) because the maps render differently on each client. The landscapes as well as the pin itself are different enough to matter. The CC pin (where it sticks into the map) is usually WestSouthWest of the actual treasure site by 3-4ish tiles. In EC, you can pretty much dig exactly where the pin sticks.
Also CC wins for swamp/forest thunting. The circle of transparency in CC > EC (by such upsetting enough margins I've explored altering the game). I use EC primarily but keep CC around because EC fails a few things so hard the only choice is to use CC.

I have 51 mining, and sometimes I feel like I don't have enough mining (eg. it takes me 5-6 minutes to locate the chest) and sometimes I feel like mining is useless (Several times I've been standing on the chest for my first attempt).

ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, I use the screenshot and process (pbrush to crop, and MSphotoeditor to rotate 45degrees) for 100% of the maps. Partly for a record (for when I turn those lovely tmaps into Wall Maps) and partly because when I'm in a hellishly bland area, it's intensely helpful. I won't even bother trying w/o a processed map if it's in a place like 30 tiles west of Minoc Moongate. Conversely, sometimes I don't have to reference the processed map because landmarks are unique enough.

The randomization is fun for me and I'm sorry it killed Thunting for some players, but the process is fun and rewarding. And while the loot is generally crap, there are still good standard rewards and the higher level chests have heavier weighted random items (imbue weight not stone). I enjoy the process of collecting a map, decoding it, locating the general area, locating the chest itself, clearing the area, unearthing the chest, clearing the area again, lockpicking and disarming/tripping the trap, and looting while keeping the area clear. I should note I've gotten a TMap off a spawned guardian. With that and the potential of more maps inside the chests, one map can and has turned into several chests and an evening of traveling, digging, fighting and looting.

I never played the original style, but current THunting is the teeth UO sunk into me and I love it.

 

[MalagAste]

Efreet, Glad to hear you like the THunting.

Personally I enjoy it to kill some time. I've not had a problem with any of the changes... just would like to see better loot. A few shame/wrong style items in there would certainly pep it up some... but I'd be more pleased to have some ML ingredients and a much WIDER variety of artifacts. Like I said I expect and find it would make more sense when I'm in Ter Mur to get Ter Mur arties..... when I'm in Tokuno I expect to get Tokuno arties...... and when I'm in Malas it might be nice to get ML arties, or they could be in Illsh.... but I'd like a drastic change to that effect... Tired of getting the same ole same ole stuff..... and the loot should be FAR more random....

I agree it seems a bit ..... bizarre that folk would bury exactly 30k in gold..... or 10k in gold... Should be a range of gold that is more random. Perhaps Luck should play some role in that... just saying.

 

[Old Man of UO]

I agree it seems a bit ..... bizarre that folk would bury exactly 30k in gold..... or 10k in gold... Should be a range of gold that is more random. Perhaps Luck should play some role in that... just saying.

I know a fellow who buried 5 containers with $600 in one-dollar gold coins in the local state forest, just before the Y2K thingy. His maps weren't as good as UOAM and so he only found four of the buried cans! Twelve years later, there is still one can with 600 dollar coins buried in the state forest next to a big tree.

 

[Mirt]

I know a fellow who buried 5 containers with $600 in one-dollar gold coins in the local state forest, just before the Y2K thingy. His maps weren't as good as UOAM and so he only found four of the buried cans! Twelve years later, there is still one can with 600 dollar coins buried in the state forest next to a big tree.

Which state and what kind of tree?

 

[Maximus of Lck]

WOW....

Do you have any idea just how much you contradicted yourself in your statement?????

The ability to figure out the hidden location IS "studying" maps. It takes someone who has made an in-depth studying of how maps can have information hidden in them to figure out how someone is manipulating the map data.

I'm still trying to figure out how you or anyone else thinks that mining helps find buried treasure, unless it's something like Oak Island. And, that you won't dig up with a dozen shovel swings. The problem is that "finding" treasure and "recovering" treasure are being confused. If mining helped anything, it should be avoiding spawn/traps on the dig, NOT locating the chest.

I didn't contradict myself at all. Maybe you should read it again. I did state that cartography is not the ability to find buried treasure chests, yes. Later I stated that you can use the cartography skill to suggest a location, not pinpoint it. I don't care if you've been a mapmaker for 12000 years, that doesn't mean you'll be able to decipher the exact world coordinates of an encrypted treasure chest map thats scribbled on a tattered piece of old parchment, especially if it's ingeniously drawn. Now, maybe you could say that a plainly drawn map is just that- a piece of paper with the world coordinates on it. Sounds pretty plain to me. But ingeniously or diabolically? Nah. They should be harder to find if you ask me.

 

[Rand Althor]

ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, I use the screenshot and process (pbrush to crop, and MSphotoeditor to rotate 45degrees) for 100% of the maps. Partly for a record (for when I turn those lovely tmaps into Wall Maps) and partly because when I'm in a hellishly bland area, it's intensely helpful. I won't even bother trying w/o a processed map if it's in a place like 30 tiles west of Minoc Moongate. Conversely, sometimes I don't have to reference the processed map because landmarks are unique enough.

That's a problem for me... you shouldn't have to use anything outside the game, or manipulate the screen, etc... to play the game.. The Random spots are annoying...

I didn't contradict myself at all. Maybe you should read it again. I did state that cartography is not the ability to find buried treasure chests, yes. Later I stated that you can use the cartography skill to suggest a location, not pinpoint it. I don't care if you've been a mapmaker for 12000 years, that doesn't mean you'll be able to decipher the exact world coordinates of an encrypted treasure chest map thats scribbled on a tattered piece of old parchment, especially if it's ingeniously drawn. Now, maybe you could say that a plainly drawn map is just that- a piece of paper with the world coordinates on it. Sounds pretty plain to me. But ingeniously or diabolically? Nah. They should be harder to find if you ask me.

As I've said... random spots are annoying... but.. I agree with others, Mining should not be part of the equasion... Cartography should be for decipering... if you want to make it more of a challange, do something with cartography for better analyzing the map... X marks the spot and people who can read maps better can find the location better... anyone with no Skill can dig up treasure once someone who can read the map accuratly locates it... my .04 cents.

 

[LordDrago]

I didn't contradict myself at all. Maybe you should read it again. I did state that cartography is not the ability to find buried treasure chests, yes. Later I stated that you can use the cartography skill to suggest a location, not pinpoint it. I don't care if you've been a mapmaker for 12000 years, that doesn't mean you'll be able to decipher the exact world coordinates of an encrypted treasure chest map thats scribbled on a tattered piece of old parchment, especially if it's ingeniously drawn. Now, maybe you could say that a plainly drawn map is just that- a piece of paper with the world coordinates on it. Sounds pretty plain to me. But ingeniously or diabolically? Nah. They should be harder to find if you ask me.

Once you break an encryption, it is broken. It doesn't matter what level the encryption is or was. That is why you need to have a certain level of cartography to "break" the encryption.

I think, if any other skill would help you find the location, tracking would be it, not mining, and tracking would lead you to the location better, not give a bigger "digging footprint"

 

[Redxpanda]

What the nutts is this area and how do i get to it? I can only assume that it is some part of SA but i see no way to get there except by sea and trying to find a way to walk there resulted in a red solen gank

Mana phasing orbs are great for a melee character - especially a melee T-hunter like myself, when fighting an AW at a map and I run out of mana - I can use an orb charge to pop the AW with an armor ignore when I'm out of mana

Does it only work when you are out of mana or does it work anytime. Also, is there something i am doing wrong that causes it to still take mana after i activate it?

 

[Aurelius]

What the nutts is this area and how do i get to it? I can only assume that it is some part of SA but i see no way to get there except by sea and trying to find a way to walk there resulted in a red solen gank

UO Stratics *New* | Transformation of Fire Island


Looks like the entrance area to the abyss, so either you sail there and walk (you'd have to land on those beaches, I don't think you can walk there from the rest of the island), recall to a rune marked for the entrance to the Underworld, or do it the REALLY hard way of going in to the Abyss from the Ter-Mur end and working all the way through... I'd favour the rune for the Underworld entrance, personally.

 

[Redxpanda]

UO Stratics *New* | Transformation of Fire Island


Looks like the entrance area to the abyss, so either you sail there and walk (you'd have to land on those beaches, I don't think you can walk there from the rest of the island), recall to a rune marked for the entrance to the Underworld, or do it the REALLY hard way of going in to the Abyss from the Ter-Mur end and working all the way through... I'd favour the rune for the Underworld entrance, personally.

Thanks. My fisherman is the one with the boat and i dont see myself buying one to sail there. I found it a lil strange that i decoded 2 maps back to back for this area. They must have just chosen this new spot for maps and want to shove it in our faces lol.

Thanks again...

 

[Petra Fyde]

Look around, most shards have multiple rune libraries, and just about every rune library will have a rune to underworld entrance.
Map locations are random, they are not individually chosen by anyone.