Holy hell, I feel like they brought back power hour.

[Aran]

I logged in on my treasure hunter in training tonight intending on getting him his GGS gain in Lockpicking, my dreaded foe, then log off and go to bed.

I opened the bag of twelve boxes in my bank, and started my usual routine. I locked them all, and started picking; on the second box I got my GGS gain. On the fourth box I got my second. The sixth my third.

Forty-five minutes later and I've gained 3.5 points, from 81.1 to 84.5.


I must say, I like this better than grinding for hours for a .1 or two.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

This is not unusual. I noticed, that skills do not rise linearly. There are phases where it takes you hours to gain 0.1, and then there are phases where you gain 0.5 in 10 minutes, although the skill is at a higher level.

I noticed this at all skills I've been training so far. Over all, skill raising is harder the higher the level, but there are points where you don't seem to gain at all, and points where you suddenly gain very fast.

 

[Basara]

It can be attributed to 2 things:

1. The Random number generator is prone to streaks
2. most skills gain more quickly if the action you are attempting is between 60% & 80% base chance of success. (this is actually told to players in some of the New Haen Quests, such as the blacksmithing quest).

I've had streaks with my bowcrafter, who is 100 Bowcraft/Fletching, that is now training Arms Lore. Sometimes I'll go 3000-4000 boards without an Arms Lore gain (other than the one for guaranteed gain); sometimes I'll gain 1.0 or more points in the same amount of wood. As I take 2030 boards (29 bow quests) of wood with me each trip, it's odd to go down to Heartwood, get my GGS gain, blow through two trips with no gains, log out, make a 5 minute run to the kitchen for a snack, then come back, and get 10 or more gains from the last 4060 boards. This is what happened just last week, with my skill starting at 89.6 when I went in with the first load. By the time I finished the last load, I'd hit 91 skill, maybe a tenth or two more.

 

[Black Sun]

I notice the same thing with begging. I have had days where I go out expecting to only get .5 or so after an hour or more of training, and I'll finish off with 1.5 in gains for the day. It's really just up to the RNG.

So now, just to be on the safe side, before I train anything, I kill a chicken in the middle of a pentagram, say a quick prayer, and offer up a gift of gold, fruits, and salted meats in hopes that I will please the RNG gods and they will in turn bless me with great gains.

 

[ZippyTwitch]

Also the fact that lockpicking is easy as hell to gm. Here's a hint/tip. Don't use gm made boxes to pick. Use spawning chests to gain. There are alot of high lvl spawning chests out there to gain off of.

 

[Black Sun]

I just found a tinker of about 65 skill, had him make me a box, and I kept picking it over and over again. It's so much easier since you don't need multiple targets anymore.

 

[Kyrie_Elaison]

I've had streaks with my bowcrafter, who is 100 Bowcraft/Fletching, that is now training Arms Lore. Sometimes I'll go 3000-4000 boards without an Arms Lore gain (other than the one for guaranteed gain); sometimes I'll gain 1.0 or more points in the same amount of wood.

Thanks for posting about working arms lore. I was gone for publish 44 and would have never known to use it again.

*runs off to train arms lore*

 

[Doomsday Dragon]

There really is something different about skill gains right now. I noticed it a couple days ago when I decided to work some skills on one of my characters.

In a very short time frame I worked the following:

resisting spells from 105 to 120
tactics from 107 to 120
fencing from 103 to 120
healing from 103 to 107
anatomy from 102 to 120

Very steady fast gains the whole time. It was noticeably fast except for healing which was still faster than normal but not like the others.

 

[Black Sun]

There really is something different about skill gains right now. I noticed it a couple days ago when I decided to work some skills on one of my characters.

In a very short time frame I worked the following:

resisting spells from 105 to 120
tactics from 107 to 120
fencing from 103 to 120
healing from 103 to 107
anatomy from 102 to 120

Very steady fast gains the whole time. It was noticeably fast except for healing which was still faster than normal but not like the others.

Your training methods may have something to do with this.
Care to share with us?

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

Lockpicking you want to work strait through 95 then start working your GGS. Also if you have UOA you can record yourself locking off of the boxes and then picking all of the boxes. goes super fast and you only have to hit 1 key every 2 minutes or so

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

It can be attributed to 2 things:

1. The Random number generator is prone to streaks
2. most skills gain more quickly if the action you are attempting is between 60% & 80% base chance of success. (this is actually told to players in some of the New Haen Quests, such as the blacksmithing quest).

I've had streaks with my bowcrafter, who is 100 Bowcraft/Fletching, that is now training Arms Lore. Sometimes I'll go 3000-4000 boards without an Arms Lore gain (other than the one for guaranteed gain); sometimes I'll gain 1.0 or more points in the same amount of wood. As I take 2030 boards (29 bow quests) of wood with me each trip, it's odd to go down to Heartwood, get my GGS gain, blow through two trips with no gains, log out, make a 5 minute run to the kitchen for a snack, then come back, and get 10 or more gains from the last 4060 boards. This is what happened just last week, with my skill starting at 89.6 when I went in with the first load. By the time I finished the last load, I'd hit 91 skill, maybe a tenth or two more.

Basra why are you making anything to train armslore. Unless your doing quests at the same time all you have to do is use the skill itself on the same piece of equipment over and over again.

 

[Black Sun]

Basra why are you making anything to train armslore. Unless your doing quests at the same time all you have to do is use the skill itself on the same piece of equipment over and over again.

I got the impression he was doing quests. He mentioned something about the number of boards he takes is enough for 29 bow quests.

 

[Basara]

Basra why are you making anything to train armslore. Unless your doing quests at the same time all you have to do is use the skill itself on the same piece of equipment over and over again.

BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME. I am lucky to gain 0.1 (over and above a GGS gain) in 2 hours, loring something over and over. Believe me, I tried - on multiple characters on multiple accounts. Apparently, it just doesn't work for some people, and all 3 of my accounts fit into that category.

Besides, when you are using the "lore an item" method - you are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE IN GAME. You're just standing there. And, since I don't cheat (i.e. I don't loop, wedge a macro key down, etc.), that is literally wasting my playing time.

I prefer to get my skill gains doing productive things. Hell, I've GM'd arms lore on 4 characters from just using them to fill iron smith BODs & the various tailor hat BODs for turning in for more BODs - and got all 4 characters to 100-116 smith (on the way to 120 for max effect on BOD runs). If I'm gonna spend my time filling BODs or doing heartwood bow quests, why waste time (and reduce my play time further) staring at one item, when I get better results from the making of things, anyway.

 

[Doomsday Dragon]

Your training methods may have something to do with this.
Care to share with us?

Wish I had something to tell you other than I was just beating on stone harpies in covetous fel for a few hours doing fencing tact and anat. Resisting spells was done using paralyze fields in my tower on the roof. I had my girl cast them with 0 eval on her char and I just ran around in em for 15 minutes to hit 120.

Skill gains felt really really fast though very steady the entire time I could tell the gains were consistent because I could tell right about when I would be gaining again then boom I would get a gain every time.

P.S. to gain in armslore you can only gain 0.3 in skill from any given object before it will no longer allow you to gain skill from it again. Logging in and out will not reset the object either and server maintenance should not either. You have to make a bunch of basic items like daggers and then lore the same one over and over till you gain 3 times on it then smelt it and move on to the next.

 

[Jaimes]

Looping a macro isn't cheating... Using 3rdPPs or doing it unattended is.

Just jam a key down and read a book or something... much better.

 

[MalagAste]

P.S. to gain in armslore you can only gain 0.3 in skill from any given object before it will no longer allow you to gain skill from it again. Logging in and out will not reset the object either and server maintenance should not either. You have to make a bunch of basic items like daggers and then lore the same one over and over till you gain 3 times on it then smelt it and move on to the next.

That's not true..... I have UO Assist set up to look at the same 6 items over and over and over again..... I do that all the time... and I have gained just fine..... I've used this same method to GM Arms Lore at least 3 times ..... and I'm doing it again and I'm at 96 now.... sure to GM it again soon enough.

 

[Basara]

Looping a macro isn't cheating... Using 3rdPPs or doing it unattended is.

Just jam a key down and read a book or something... much better.

I think you better check again... It's been stated repeatedly that ANY looping of a macro, even attended, is illegal.

Don't say you weren't warned, when your account gets actioned.

 

[Edgar]

That's not true..... I have UO Assist set up to look at the same 6 items over and over and over again..... I do that all the time... and I have gained just fine..... I've used this same method to GM Arms Lore at least 3 times ..... and I'm doing it again and I'm at 96 now.... sure to GM it again soon enough.

I also used the same items to go from 0 to 100, I used a bag of 24 old vanq katana's I had been saving for some unknown reason. Once I GMed, I tossed them all out.

Ed

 

[Basara]

Oh, and by the way, if you use a salvage bag, and have 101.1 or better mining (near-GM to GM mining + studded or ringmail mining gloves), you can do the following to gain arms lore MUCH faster than loring an item over and over, because you are not dealing with the skill use timer (which is 2 or 3 seconds for Arms lore).

1. Put 300 ingots into the salvage bag
2. Make Daggers until the ingots run out (say, a UO Assist macro 100 "menu selection" items long). Each item being made is an Arms lore chance gain, and you'll get 100 done in the time it would take to do 25-30 "arms Lore an item" attempts. if the craftign tool runs out, click on another in your bag and it will pick right up where the macro is. Alternatively, use "make Max" option in KR.
3. Salvage ingots - with the salvage bag, it takes one second. The 101.1 or higher mining + the bonus ingot from the bag means you get ALL 300 ingots back.
4. Move the ingots back into the bag, go back to step 1, grabbing any extra hammers/tongs you need for the next run.

 

[Evilminion]

Okay, Basara, you are my crafter's new best friend. Thanks so much for that suggestion!

As for sudden "bursts" in skill gain, I've seen them in veterinary and animal lore, but sadly, never in taming. Also in swords, but not parry. I'm not sure if it's down to the RNG or if I need to try Black_Sun's chicken/pentagram trick... I have to say it might be worth a few chickens to finally GM taming...

 

[Aran]

What the hell.

I got up to about 93 the other night (Early night, nowhere near server down), logged in just now... and I'm back down to 91.6