Gunpowder...

[Spogfrawn]

I just decided to make a crafter and try making some gunpowder and...

Wait a minute, I'm supposed to WHAT???

Are you seriously telling me I have to make potash and buy saltpeter and then craft gunpowder with only a 30% chance of success? Are you crazy!?

Not gonna happen...

If you want me to sail a ship and go and kill a big beastie who can blow your ship and cost you 50k and 5 weeks of gathering and making gunpowder, you are out of your tiny mind.

If you don't make combat in ships a whole lot easier NOBODY except the tiny 2% of super rich players are even going to bother. I have played UO for 13 years, yes that's right. And I have NO intention WHATSOEVER of making gunpowder. Not now, not when the High Seas goes live, and NOT IN ANOTHER 13 YEARS!!!

Why make it so hard? Why can't we just buy gunpowder? Why the hell do we even need gunpowder at all?

All you seem to want to add to UO now is GOLD SINKS.

I was looking forward to going on my new ship into combat. But if I have to spend the next week making gunpowder just to lose it all when I get my boat sunk -- NO WAY. NO WAY!

 

[Cailleach]

Ok, I agree about the fail rate - it sucks and it needs to be addressed. However, there is no chance of your boat being sunk and you losing supplies. You'll get scuttled, sure, but that just means that you can't move until you get some emergency repairs going. After that, you limp into land and repair up.

I think once the fail rate is sorted, black powder is gonna be just fine. As for why we need it, well, your cannon won't fire without it!

 

[R Traveler]

However, there is no chance of your boat being sunk and you losing supplies.

Try to cross every server line.

 

[Spogfrawn]

However, there is no chance of your boat being sunk and you losing supplies. You'll get scuttled, sure, but that just means that you can't move until you get some emergency repairs going. After that, you limp into land and repair up.

I didn't know that, somebody said on test your boat can sink and you get teleported to town...

I just made 46 gunpowder. It took me 700 saltpeter...

 

[Cailleach]

Try to cross every server line.

That's a BUG, smartie pants

 

[Cailleach]

I didn't know that, somebody said on test your boat can sink and you get teleported to town...

I just made 46 gunpowder. It took me 700 saltpeter...

Ok, there is a known bug with boats. They don't sink, they just ... vanish. I'm hoping it's sorted before this goes live. Your ONLY chance of losing anything off your boat in a battle is if you're in Fel and get knocked down enough to get boarded, at which point they can nick your cannon and have a good plunder of your hold. Stick to Tram and you'll be just fine and dandy

I spent a goodly proportion of yesterday evening making blackpowder. I ran through 6k of saltpeter to get just over 700 blackpowder, a fail rate which sucks immensely. It's worth the thread here though, since the devs are coming in and reading. Fingers crossed they take it on board and improve it a bit

 

[The_Ox]

saltpeter is still out of price range for the casual player, not to mention way to much work for someone that has limited amount of time to play.

 

[Storm]

I think providing additional venders in diff locations will help aalso talismans will also help with success rate although it could use a bump for sure

 

[Cailleach]

I think providing additional venders in diff locations will help aalso talismans will also help with success rate although it could use a bump for sure

Last night, I was using a 27% tali. And I still ran through 6k of salpeter to get less than a k of blackpowder. Whilst I'm all in favour of not makin things too easy, that's not a fail rate I'm happy with.

 

[Gowron]

I have proposed multiple locations to sell saltpeter several times and have also requested that saltpeter gets included as a loot drop.

If we can't have any of those, I asked that saltpeter price remain constant. Paying over 500 gold per unit of a highly consumable reagent is just nuts.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Try to cross every server line.

Unless I'm much mistaken, server lines are fine, it's crossing the 'world edge' that causes a problem. I've sailed from Skara to Vesper the long way around with no problems.

 

[DeadBob]

Spogfrawn is exactly right. Whoever came up with the manual of arms for the cannon probably researched cannon, but never played UO. The result is that those cannon kill the fun of playing pirates.

 

[UOKaiser]

saltpeter is still out of price range for the casual player, not to mention way to much work for someone that has limited amount of time to play.

Then thats good. They can buy it from the non casual players and the players that only craft to enjoy there game. Gold is there for a reason make no sense not to use it.

 

[yars]

even if they do make it for sale on various vendors, the price will sky rocket due to the supply and demand function, which is fine as an alternative i suppose. crafting gunpowder in the real world dates back to ancient china(not that anyone needs a history lesson) so i thnk the art of crafting it shouldnt be so difficult,. and how bout crafting fireworks?

 

[JC the Builder]

Last night, I was using a 27% tali. And I still ran through 6k of salpeter to get less than a k of blackpowder. Whilst I'm all in favour of not makin things too easy, that's not a fail rate I'm happy with.

It takes 6 Saltpeter to make 1 Black Powder. If you got more than 1k then it would be a bug.

Hi Spog =]

 

[Cailleach]

Without a tali, at GM alchemy, my chance of making blackpowder is 30%. With the tali I have, it goes up to 57%. That's a pretty crappy success rate. I'm guessing I probably ran through more than 6k; I'm notoriously bad at anything that involves numbers and when it comes to grinding on a craft menu, I have a tendency to hit 'make max' and make jewellery while it cycles. Not terribly efficient in the case of blackpowder; I keep having to stop and reload my pack!

 

[BlissMarie]

I haven't gone on the test server, so I haven't seen any of the new items. Will one of you tell me if the craftable gunpowder looks like the gunpowder in this image, please. I'm hoping it doesn't. =)

BlissMarie

 

[Cailleach]

I haven't gone on the test server, so I haven't seen any of the new items. Will one of you tell me if the craftable gunpowder looks like the gunpowder in this image, please. I'm hoping it doesn't. =)

BlissMarie

Hehe, no, it doesn't; relax, your rare is still rare

 

[Petra Fyde]

It's not called 'gunpowder' it's called 'black powder' you can see it on this page:
Cannons

 

[BlissMarie]

Cailleach and Petra, thank you very much for the information!

BlissMarie

 

[Spogfrawn]

It's not called 'gunpowder' it's called 'black powder' you can see it on this page:
Cannons

Arr matey! What be this Black Powder nonsense? I call it Gunpowder and so did the mighty Blackbeard!

Actually, Black Powder is is a modern powder and isn't the same thing as Gunpowder (even though it is similar). I vote we change the name to Gunpowder!

If you don't believe me go and watch Mythbusters =)

And don't put chain in your cannon -- its horrible!

 

[Spogfrawn]

It takes 6 Saltpeter to make 1 Black Powder. If you got more than 1k then it would be a bug.

Hi Spog =]

*Waves*

 

[Phoenix_Mythic]

It's not called 'gunpowder' it's called 'black powder' you can see it on this page:
Cannons

We have reduced the minimum skill requirement for Black Powder to 65, giving it a 70% success rate at GM; we never intended it to be so low in the first place.

Regarding the name of it, it is true that "gunpowder" predates "black powder" by several centuries, though both refer to the same stuff. I went with "black powder" mainly because I just felt nervous about putting the word "gun" into UO. It just didn't feel right. Maybe it should have been called "cannon powder".

Using "Black Powder" instead of "Gunpowder" isn't the first anachronism in UO, at any rate.

 

[Raptor85]

wasn't it called gunpowder in Ultima V ?

Hell, the ultima series has time travel, spaceships, a living computer (exodus) and if memory serves lord british himself had a gun, so i don't see how it's too far out there

 

[Storm]

You know after all the testing I did. I just realized I never tested grapeshot ? Where was my brain :-(

 

[Cailleach]

You know after all the testing I did. I just realized I never tested grapeshot ? Where was my brain :-(

That was on the list for our next pirate run; I'd just stocked 200 heavy grapeshot, 300 cannonballs and all the fuses and powder charges to go with them when the shard got taken down. It's lucky I'm not a stampy foot kinda person!

 

[ziggy29]

wasn't it called gunpowder in Ultima V ?

Yeah, but that was also when Washington's NBA team was called the Bullets. Gun references are highly politically incorrect now.