Crafted Spell Books obsolete ?

[popps]

As a returning player, I missed the invasion of a few months ago which, I am told, had some Generals NPCs dropping spellbooks way better than those craftable.

That is, apparently, craftable spellbooks find no longer much players' interest since those drops are considerably better.

The only think worth crafting nowadays for a Scribe is a Super Slayer Scrapper's Compendium?

Problem is, with the resources needed and the rarity of making one the cost is a huge one, almost prohibitive....

Bottom line is, I wonder, is now the Scribe's crafting career pretty much useless ?

Perhaps it needs some Developers' attention ?

just wondering.........

 

[Hildebrand]

Regular books have their uses for sure. Although those Conjurer's book are a crafter's friend for the +15 magery and stuff.

But I agree... the resources for the Scrapper's is super hard. I have yet to get enough taint for a Scrapper on my ocassional days of farming Lady Mel. Eternal corupt tree anyone?

It's ironic how a "crafter" has to turn into a high level fighter to get the taint. Yeah, sure, log onto your fighter. But still. It would've been nice if a crafter had an opportunity to get taint as a reward by turning in things.

 

[popps]

It's ironic how a "crafter" has to turn into a high level fighter to get the taint. Yeah, sure, log onto your fighter. But still. It would've been nice if a crafter had an opportunity to get taint as a reward by turning in things.

At least, the Developers could make Peerless reagents also available from Treasure and Fishing chests.

It would at least be an alternate way to get them for crafters.........

 

[Mistura]

Your off the mark popps, crafting spellbooks is very profitable. Slayer spellbooks sell and superslayer spellbooks, particularly demon and repond sell extremely well for a good amount of gold.

Even the 3 modded ones sell quite well to the right person, and LRC books can be sold to people who dont want to spend a couple of hundred K on a boomstick for their character.

Doing peerless on a regular basis allows you to craft scrappers every now and again, which is, I think, how it was intended. If your suggestion is to make peerless regs more common so that you can craft them until your little heart is content, what are you going to do when they become just as common as regular crafted spellbooks are now?

If your actually keen to be a scribe and put time and effort into cascading vendors for scrolls, crafting and arranging books correctly and stocking a vendor and promoting it well, you find that you can turn a really healthy profit from it.

 

[popps]

Doing peerless on a regular basis allows you to craft scrappers every now and again, which is, I think, how it was intended. If your suggestion is to make peerless regs more common so that you can craft them until your little heart is content, what are you going to do when they become just as common as regular crafted spellbooks are now?

Excuse me ?

With the past invasion all players have been able to hunt the Generals to their hearts' content over and over and over for very, VERY good spellbooks much better than those craftable.

So, if I may ask, why those could be gotten a go-go over and over but the ones needing peerless reagents not ?

I do not understand it.

 

[Farsight]

I still choose my scrappers over my two invasion spellbooks in every situation that doesn't require Word of Deathing or very frequent summoning.

I love Scrappers books, they have a lot of benifits.

 

[Grumm]

Problem I have with Inscription, is it is a crap shoot. At GM Scribe and 107 Magery, you would think you would get decent Mods. That's not the case. Sometimes the non exceptional books are better than the exceptional ones.

I chose a crafting platstyle to craft. Not to have to fight peerless mobs, or accept the inflated prices for the resources to craft.

They need to put crafting back into the crafters hands. Use rare resources and make some more. I don't care if they hard to gather. At least I would not have to have a decked out fighting character just so I can craft higher end items.

The invasion drops should have been much more rare. Too many dropped. This in turn slowed the player crafted sales.

The risk vs reward in crafting should be failing to craft something and losing rare gathered resources and not having to fight peerless mobs for the resources.

 

[Hildebrand]

The resources should be rare, but it would be nice if they did a Doom style drop for peerless ingredients perhaps in heartwood or some other way. My poor scribe can't fight well at all... even with magery/eval on her.
Just a little "thank you" drop while crafting (for the honest crafter). Limit of 1 per 3 month quarter is fine with me. Just reward us SOMEHOW.

 

[Hildebrand]

"Sometimes the non exceptional books are better than the exceptional ones. "

Exceptional has no bearing on quality or intensity of the book. Just as an Exceptional Ecru Citrine ring means nothing to the intensity either. Ironic.

 

[Grumm]

That's my point. An exceptionaly crafted weapon is better than a non exceptional one. Spellbooks should be no different.

Inscription needs a long look over and get the much needed love it deserves. Maybe have all exceptionaly crafted spellbooks have an SDI bonus based off your Magery skill. Weapons get a damage bonus and armor gets a total resist bonus. Fair is fair.

 

[wanderer1origin]

why should you reap benifits that dropped to active players, when you where not playing!!! suck it up go farm something and buy a book !!!!!!!!!! Has to be a reason to do events!! Selling to those that didnt participate is one and also super slayerbooks and scrappers still very desireable!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me ?

With the past invasion all players have been able to hunt the Generals to their hearts' content over and over and over for very, VERY good spellbooks much better than those craftable.

So, if I may ask, why those could be gotten a go-go over and over but the ones needing peerless reagents not ?

I do not understand it.

 

[Connor_Graham]

So, if I may ask, why those could be gotten a go-go over and over but the ones needing peerless reagents not ?

You can still make the ones needing those oh so hard to get peerless reagents (I have over 100 DH manes if you'd like to buy some. Strange I don't find them so rare) but you can't get the books any longer, just like you can't get a lot of event items any longer. That's the benefits of attending the event. You were off playing WoW, mindlessly grinding to level 80 and farming the same dungeons over and over while the rest of us were getting cool looking books. Get over it.

I do not understand it.

And you never will, because you don't want to.

And FYI, superslayer Scrapper's sell for 50 mil and more. Dragon Slayer ones sell for several mil. Spellbooks with mana regen sell for a lot, as do ones with LRC. Again, get over it. Quit complainng and go play the damn game, or quit and go back to WoW.

I'd actually prefer you quit and go back to WoW.

 

[Flutter]

So, if I may ask, why those could be gotten a go-go over and over but the ones needing peerless reagents not ?

You can still make the ones needing those oh so hard to get peerless reagents (I have over 100 DH manes if you'd like to buy some. Strange I don't find them so rare) but you can't get the books any longer, just like you can't get a lot of event items any longer. That's the benefits of attending the event. You were off playing WoW, mindlessly grinding to level 80 and farming the same dungeons over and over while the rest of us were getting cool looking books. Get over it.

I do not understand it.

And you never will, because you don't want to.

And FYI, superslayer Scrapper's sell for 50 mil and more. Dragon Slayer ones sell for several mil. Spellbooks with mana regen sell for a lot, as do ones with LRC. Again, get over it. Quit complainng and go play the damn game, or quit and go back to WoW.

I'd actually prefer you quit and go back to WoW.

I was going to comment but I changed my mind.

 

[Maplestone]

(I have over 100 DH manes if you'd like to buy some. Strange I don't find them so rare)

You were off playing WoW, mindlessly grinding to level 80 and farming the same dungeons over and over

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones


(aside: I'd love to see a rule of etiquette adopted in boardwars where, if you tell your opponent to quit UO, you automatically lose the argument)

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Heheh. Sounds a bit like Godwin's law. It's bound to be invoked sooner or later...

My assumption has thus far been that SA will introduce stuff to "balance the field".

 

[Quantum Ace]

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones


(aside: I'd love to see a rule of etiquette adopted in boardwars where, if you tell your opponent to quit UO, you automatically lose the argument)

I'd like to agree, but the problem is most board-warriors don't give a flip about etiquette.

 

[RichDC]

etiquette.

Dont Swear!

 

[HillBilly]

For Sale:

Wait..I lie. Its useful.

Crafted books are not obsolete.

 

[Mistura]

Excuse me ?

With the past invasion all players have been able to hunt the Generals to their hearts' content over and over and over for very, VERY good spellbooks much better than those craftable.

So, if I may ask, why those could be gotten a go-go over and over but the ones needing peerless reagents not ?

I do not understand it.

Those event spellbooks are different to crafted spellbooks. They have their uses, but like I said, so do the crafted ones.

The DCI ones only get used for PvP and the MR3/LRC ones are useful on some suits, but not all. I farmed quite a few of those event books but only use them on 1 of my characters. The rest that use books have scrappers and my crafter uses an lrc spellbook with magery +10 which allows him to recall 100% and helps him to his LRC cap...

No offense popps but you do seem to have this ability to turn UO into a living nightmare for yourself.

In your oppinion, is there anything the game does right?

 

[Blesh]

Problem I have with Inscription, is it is a crap shoot. At GM Scribe and 107 Magery, you would think you would get decent Mods. That's not the case. Sometimes the non exceptional books are better than the exceptional ones.

I chose a crafting platstyle to craft. Not to have to fight peerless mobs, or accept the inflated prices for the resources to craft.

They need to put crafting back into the crafters hands. Use rare resources and make some more. I don't care if they hard to gather. At least I would not have to have a decked out fighting character just so I can craft higher end items.

The invasion drops should have been much more rare. Too many dropped. This in turn slowed the player crafted sales.

The risk vs reward in crafting should be failing to craft something and losing rare gathered resources and not having to fight peerless mobs for the resources.

Why do you need to make high end items if you have no char's to use them?

Your not going to make any gold by making your product dirt cheap to produce.

As a side note. Test has people who play it full time. And you can have all thr resources you want there.

 

[Grumm]

Did you quote me and not read my reply? I said at least I would not have to have a decked out fighting character.

Even so, crafting is crafting and fighting is fighting. Why does one have to get rich to have equality in crafting or enjoy this game for that matter.

Has the game been dumbed down that much that whoever has the most gold wins?

I play to craft and gather resources. For me Test is, well... a place to test things. Why does Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Bowcrafting and Tinkering get bonuses crafting exceptional items and Inscription doesn't?

 

[RichDC]

I agree with the exceptional bonus, why not?

I dont see a problem with the way the ingredients works, a smith has the same problem if he wishes to craft the "arty" weapons(overseered sundered blade for example), it is meant to give the fighters a way to make some extra gold and/or get some items they require by supplying the traders.

Unfortunatly as many people have a crafter themselves this doesnt tend to happen

 

[popps]

why should you reap benifits that dropped to active players, when you where not playing!!! suck it up go farm something and buy a book !!!!!!!!!! Has to be a reason to do events!! Selling to those that didnt participate is one and also super slayerbooks and scrappers still very desireable!!!!!!!!!!!

That's not the point, IMHO.

The point is that "if" there is crafting in the game and there is the intention to KEEP crafting viable in the game, well, then, I would imagine that drops would not make crafting way less interesting and, therefore, obsolete.

By allowing Generals to drop spellbooks considerably better than those which Scribes can make, a good chunk of the scribing profession became less viable.

Super Slayer Scrapper's ? They are so difficult to come by that a scribe can't rely on those as a "crafting" profession.

Now, "if" spellbooks were made with a limited life then things would be different.

Crafting as a viable playing profession NEEDS wear and tear.

If players never loose their crafted items they do not need to buy more.

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

It's ironic how a "crafter" has to turn into a high level fighter to get the taint. Yeah, sure, log onto your fighter. But still. It would've been nice if a crafter had an opportunity to get taint as a reward by turning in things.

Your crafter does not need to turn into an elite fighter to get the taint. This is a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME.

This means that your crafter can BUY the taint from fighters. If prices in Luna are too high then you can build relationships with the elite fighters who do like to kill Mel 24/7 and work out a long term contract with them. Then you have a steady supply of taint and you can focus on what you like and are good at: crafting.

I have crafted over 1000 scrapper's and done Mel maybe twice in my life. How? I happily paid gold to the players who do take the time to do Mel and purchased the resources. I also got my resources for half the price of market rate because I interacted with my suppliers.

Of course, Scrapper's are completely useless now and I don't even bother crafting them anymore despite the fact that I have around 1000 taint sitting in my house somewhere.

If everyone could get everything by themselves (and without putting the time into it) then this would be a very boring game.

 

[popps]

I'd actually prefer you quit and go back to WoW.

Never played World of Warcraft.

I would appreciate if you could point to any post of mine where I mention I played this game while away from ultima Online.

Besides, what I may or not have done while not playing Ultima Online is my personal information which adds, IMHO, nothing to the discussion.

The discussion is about Scribing becoming more obsolete, the way I see it, because of the Generals during the past invasion dropping much better books than those which Scribes can make.

 

[popps]

I'd like to agree, but the problem is most board-warriors don't give a flip about etiquette.

Well, personally I try to always stick to the argument being discussed and I do my best to avoid personal confrontation with other posters since I don't think it adds to the topic being discussed.

I don't think it helps the discussion and the argument being analyzed.

But that's my opinion of course.

 

[Tuferon]

I agree with you Popps
Say what they will, one of the major things that makes UO better and different than all the WOWs out there is that crafting is crafting and you don't have to level and fight to gain or progress in your craft or gather resources. Or it used to be that way.
When UO became an item based game and the economy was destroyed, population depleted, a steady profit became less viable.
I have had people laugh at me trying to sell a super slayer. My vendors have been down for 2 years because selling the little daily stuff paid the costs of the vendor. No longer.
I miss selling my plants and books, armor, and bows. How can you compete with all that special stuff out there on a steady basis?
When the trade forums became the game, the game lost a lot.
Make those drops non-tradeable and see the life pop back in the game. I bet it would.

 

[Blesh]

Did you quote me and not read my reply? I said at least I would not have to have a decked out fighting character.

Even so, crafting is crafting and fighting is fighting. Why does one have to get rich to have equality in crafting or enjoy this game for that matter.

Has the game been dumbed down that much that whoever has the most gold wins?

I play to craft and gather resources. For me Test is, well... a place to test things. Why does Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Bowcrafting and Tinkering get bonuses crafting exceptional items and Inscription doesn't?

thats been the case for a VERY long time.

and i did read your post. you were complaining about having to have a fighter to make items on your crafter, which conveys a mindset of not wanting a fighter. wanting to have the reagents to make your items readily available would only drive down the price of your crafted items. which without a fighter of your own to deck out, seems counter productive. as the only other thing you could do with said items is sell them for profit or give them away.

 

[Connor_Graham]

(I have over 100 DH manes if you'd like to buy some. Strange I don't find them so rare)

You were off playing WoW, mindlessly grinding to level 80 and farming the same dungeons over and over

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Where did I say I farmed DH to get those DH manes?

Besides, quoting out of context doesn't mean anyone lives in a glass house.

(aside: I'd love to see a rule of etiquette adopted in boardwars where, if you tell your opponent to quit UO, you automatically lose the argument)

Ah, but if he did quit, we'd all be winners.

 

[Connor_Graham]

Never played World of Warcraft.

I would appreciate if you could point to any post of mine where I mention I played this game while away from ultima Online.

It's too bad the Stratics crash lost all of those posts, or I'd prove this lie in a minute as you consistently used to quote what WoW did that you wanted UO to do. It's sad really, that now you have to resort to out and out lies to try and make a point.

 

[Harlequin]

Popps, to your OP - I think the way you started your post (and title) makes it sound like whining to alot of people. Even though I think your later suggestion on treasure chests is pretty good.


Is inscription or non-scrapper crafted books useless?
Not at all. Scribing scrolls is a great way to earn gold aside from hunting mobs. Plus it's much easier to churn out non-scrapper super slayers until you can get the scrapper versions (which is really really hard).

Even then, remember that the ultimate spellbooks - the scrappers - require inscription to make. The skill itself and a scribe's career is far from useless.

Besides, my crafter uses the LRC, MR, +Magery non-scrapper/non-event books. LRC spellbooks are really nice, esp since they are a blessed form or LRC. But by themselves, unless you get a great combo of 3 properties, don't sell well enough. I just fill them up and sell them as full spellbooks.

Super slayer scrappers are very highly coveted. But if you have ever churned out normal spellsbooks before, you know how rare it is to get a super slayer. I have made around 20 scrappers and have yet get even 1 super slayer scrapper to replace even 1 of my 6 super slayer books. (Though my undead slayer is the Conjuror's Grimore from the graveyard event. I don't need the +15 magery on an undead slayer though, but +15 SDI is definitely a good bonus...beats normal books. An undead slayer scrapper would be wayyy nicer.)

Meaning non-scrapper superslayers sell (very well) for a couple of mil while Scrapper versions sell for many times that. *Provided* you can even find 1 for sale.


Spellbooks from the town invasion generals
I have several perfect books with 30 SDI that dropped from generals during the town invasion part of the event. However, I rarely get the chance to use them and in fact have given up on using them totally (I play with legacy more and is limited to 4 alternate weapon config from UOA). Those books have a fixed number of properties that do not include the slayer property. In general, if I am using a non-slayer, I find that even Scrappers without extra properties are more useful if I want something with awesome SDI (Scrappers have only 5% less SDI - ie 25% SDI). If I need a slayer, I use the non-scrapper versions that I have.

The conjurer's is pretty nice though, undead slayer with +15 SDI. But I don't really need the +15 magery for a character that intends to hunt undead though. A scrapper version would be even better!

That being said, I think no one would disagree that if the devs intended to run events that gives special items for a limited time, it should be a limited-time only thingy. Or at most, run a similar event later, like TOT1 and TOT2.


Scrappers
So that brings us to Scrappers. If the 2 paragraphs above doesn't show it well enough, I think Scrappers are really really awesome. The only reason why normal crafted books are still useful is because Scrappers are really hard to make. So any changes that makes them easier to make will do precisely what you say in the post title - making normal crafted books obsolete.

That being said, it's really difficult to farm enough peerless regs to make enough scrappers and get even 1 superslayer...

So rather than allowing imbuing or selecting of mods on scrappers, I like the getting-peerless-regs-from-treasure-chests idea much more. Fishing not so much, unless you are talking about fishing up SOS chests and not regular fishing. But SOS chests should have less regs, just like SOS chests are capped at lvl 3. Say number of peerless regs = (chest level -2). Level 6 chests would in this case, have 4 peerless regs.


Other thoughts
As someone pointed out, it would be nice to have "Exceptionally" crafted items be actually better. Say, maybe have a minimum number of properties. As it is right now, things like tinkered magic jewels and spellbooks/runebooks have 2 separate and unrelated checks for being exceptional and the magic properties/runebook charges.

Also, I would love to be able to dye spellbooks, or have the switch weapon macro replace the item in my backpack at the exact same co-ordinates when I switch. Right now, they are just randomly placed back into my backpack and turns my nicely arranged spellbooks into a rather messy array...

 

[Harlequin]

Those event spellbooks are different to crafted spellbooks. They have their uses, but like I said, so do the crafted ones.

The DCI ones only get used for PvP and the MR3/LRC ones are useful on some suits, but not all. I farmed quite a few of those event books but only use them on 1 of my characters. The rest that use books have scrappers and my crafter uses an lrc spellbook with magery +10 which allows him to recall 100% and helps him to his LRC cap...

What he said Should've just quoted this instead of writing a long post

No offense popps but you do seem to have this ability to turn UO into a living nightmare for yourself.

In your oppinion, is there anything the game does right?

What he said there too!

 

[Mistura]

Those event spellbooks are different to crafted spellbooks. They have their uses, but like I said, so do the crafted ones.

The DCI ones only get used for PvP and the MR3/LRC ones are useful on some suits, but not all. I farmed quite a few of those event books but only use them on 1 of my characters. The rest that use books have scrappers and my crafter uses an lrc spellbook with magery +10 which allows him to recall 100% and helps him to his LRC cap...

What he said Should've just quoted this instead of writing a long post

No offense popps but you do seem to have this ability to turn UO into a living nightmare for yourself.

In your oppinion, is there anything the game does right?

What he said there too!

Thanks Harlequin

The annoying thing about popps is, he comes to the boards with all his problems and demands for changes. Then, if someone offers a viable suggestion and argues that things are fine the way they are, he simply ignores it (as we have seen in this case)

Perhaps now that you have posted the same sentiments he will respond to what we've said, although no doubt we will both have gotten it wrong and it will be another: Yes, but IMO its not fair, crafting spell books isn't profitable, wa waaaaa wah!

Etc

Edit*

popps, please start a thread and title it "What popps LIKES about UO.." title being self explanitory... It might make all these threads more bareable if we knew that you actually enjoyed playing at least one aspect of the game and didn't log in simply to torture yourself

 

[popps]

It's too bad the Stratics crash lost all of those posts, or I'd prove this lie in a minute as you consistently used to quote what WoW did that you wanted UO to do. It's sad really, that now you have to resort to out and out lies to try and make a point.

Well, for the record, I never bought World of Warcraft and never played it.

I was never even interested in trying it out !!

 

[popps]

popps, please start a thread and title it "What popps LIKES about UO.." title being self explanitory... It might make all these threads more bareable if we knew that you actually enjoyed playing at least one aspect of the game and didn't log in simply to torture yourself

My favourite Ultima Online ?

When it was SKILL based and not so heavily item based as it is now.

The huge plethora of items bringing all their bonuses and modifiers I think just messed up the game making it much more unbalanced than it was when the game was skill based and what is worse, making it much more difficult to balance for developers.

So, to answer your question, I play Ultima Online more for nostalgia of the game I once enjoyed so much to play when it was heavily skill based rather than for what I can see the game may have to offer today, in a heavily item based environment.

Yes, I do dream of the game, perhaps, one day, going back to be much less dependant on items and more on skills.......

 

[Ni-]

I'd like to see the rare resources as rewards for BoDs or some other non PvM/P way of obtaining them. Ex, when a BoD is turned in there is a 2-10% chance to receive one of the peerless resources(taint/scourge/corruption), and 2-10% chance of that to receive a rare peerless resource(prestine dread horn?/ect...)

I'd like that, personally, but I don't expect it.

 

[Tinsil]

Didn't read the whole thread, but Inscription also has its combat uses, giving a 10% SDI bonus that doesn't apply towards the cap in PVP.

Superslayer books still sell well, and if you have some on Great Lakes for a decent price I might buy them. Scrapper's are the best spellbooks and although they've become more common as the expansion has been out a few years, they're still worth a decent amount.

SA is coming and there may be a new better spellbook there too. Inscription has its uses, and I would think that Cooking should get another buff before inscribe.

 

[Thangorodrim]

Yes, I do dream of the game, perhaps, one day, going back to be much less dependant on items and more on skills.......

Which is exactly where it is headed courtesy of imbuing which will make even the most specific high end items much more fungible.

Why don't you post a cogent argument WHY scrappers are obsolete prior to becoming publicly intoxicated on your whine?

 

[Lady_Rachel]

I believe Draconi mentioned something too about Necro books being scribable in a future publish..
Necro books with mods anyone?