Nice that's what we want. A change at good loot. A NOOB mage could use that for the resists until the suit is better.
My mages use the kelp woven legs with SDI so that would not be a keeper for me.
-
Hail Guest! We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
-
Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
-
Hail Guest!, Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
-
Hail Guest! Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!
Publish 105 Forgotten Treasures Release 2 on Test Center
My mages use the kelp woven legs with SDI so that would not be a keeper for me.
Another legendary artifact. This was from a gold Assassin's Cache chest dug up in Trammel with 2100 luck on the suit. Used LP and 50 RT, but could have used unlock and untrap spells with GM magery. No puzzle. 32k gold, about 20 each gem, a horde map, and 5 other randomly generated items. (Note: Cache maps are former Cleverly and Deviously drawn maps.)
Another legendary artifact. This was from a gold Mage Cache chest dug up in Trammel with 3600 luck on the suit. Used lockpicking and 50 remove trap to access the chest, but could have used unlock and untrap spells at 100 magery. No puzzle. Other loot was 54k gold, approximately 20 of each gem, an hourglass deco item, and 6 other randomly generated pieces of equipment. For use on a character with magery like a tamer or treasure-hunter or bad, I wish this piece didn't have Reflect Physical Damage.
Last edited:
@Tina Small - Thanks again for doing so much testing!
Does anyone know the real value/purpose of the Carto glasses? I know they are similar to mining gloves but for a GM miner it's obvious it should give a very small bump to help successfully smelt ore (side note that +5 mining when smelting verite/valorite didn't do much) but what what does +1 to +5 do for a GM Carto? Does it help you decode a map with less attempts? Does it help you find the treasure easier (since it acts as mining)? Does it impact the chest type (I thought before it was said higher carto + carto talismans gave better chance at a gold chest; gold chest gave better loot)?
I tried to do some searching but nothing came up on the exact functions or expected use of the Carto glasses (unless I missed it). I think it's important because the overall mods on those glasses are terrible so replacing my luck hat (with luck/LRC/LMC/some resist) with them would be a severe downgrade on an already downgraded luck hat. If the glasses just help decode maps faster then the wearer could swap out gear before heading on the hunt but if they are meant to be used in the field then you will be impacting a suit just for a (likely small) bump to something (still asking for confirmation on what their purpose would be).
So it is good to see there was finally a legendary drop in a chest!! The bad news is that the piece there is still junk to me and seems like a scaled back legendary (or a semi beefed up major artifact). I wouldn't expect to see 15 mods on the piece but I'd hope that given the new potential grind it's going to be for tmaps that most of the mods on the piece you showed us would be maxed out.
Good feedback, Keven. There's a thread on the official forum for TC that MissE started where I posted screenshots of those three legendary artifacts. Would be a great place for your feedback about them!
New Tmap proposals
That's pretty insulting that you think your treasure hunting experience is more valid than other "not real thunters". Kyronix asked for feedback and people replied. And tell me, do people who have bastardized specs, that stone off cartography and mining, actually qualify as being a real treasure hunter? Feedback is feedback because it's their game as much as yours. People have different capabilities. Some can solo only 3-4 maps, some 7s. Some can can do puzzles, some cannot. All their opinions are valid, but which people are actually offering constructive feedback? "Real "treasure hunters are probably more rigid and less likely to want anything that changes their routine, change is hard for some. But looks like the devs are trying to be more inclusive and get more people involved back in treasure hunting and that is a good thing.
Well, considering when they posted their original treasure hunting post for feedback, i did not reply (nor anyone else i know)..... That's quite an astonishing conclusion for you to come to. Conjecture like that which is found all throughout these threads with very little actual fact to back it up.
You see, instead of come to the boards and whining about and spreading misinformation and getting people to jump on the hate bandwagon (mob mentality anyone?), I'd rather go out and test content for more than 5 minutes and try to offer constructive feedback about it, the good bad and ugly. And there actually is issues with this treasure hunting patch in my eyes, but I want to actually conduct more tests before I post comments, so what I post is factual. I've had a t-hunter for a long time, I just don't enjoy playing him because right now because to be the current system is just not enjoyable and i dont need more of the same loot. I do enjoy many of the new changes though.
It seems to me many "real" treasure hunters are stuck in their box and cannot think outside of it. They have actually made some really nice improvements to treasure hunting with this patch. Taking out mining, using Cartography instead. Putting the gems and gold into their own bag. Making lower level maps more viable and using the same loot tables as the high end map, just less of it, therefore making treasure hunting more accessible to everyone.
If they can fix the actual issues with it, I will look forward to t-hunting again and will not just use it to mass tame frost dragons and cold drakes.
Players are not complaining about this. He listened to feedback from myself and others and upped the loot.
But, every time the player gets more, the devs think we should give back more with annoying features.
The loot has needed an increase in quality for years. So, they added a required skill and a puzzle. That is what a lot of players who used T hunting as a relaxing 20 minute adventure are not liking.
The skill came from a random returner on the forums in General Discussions who asked for unused skills to become relevant again, I do not know where the puzzles came from.
Sorry but the developers have a poor method of implementing changes sometimes. They scored an A++ on the Beacons and so far very low on T Hunting.
If players wanted puzzles they could have put puzzle boxes in Dungeons and gave deco, which was very popular in Khaldun. Those puzzles could have been a new method to train RT. Players would have used them and those that like them could continue there.
They increased the Loot value, made new bags, stuck a bunch of gold into the chests, added resources and even Power Scrolls. This could have been a very happy time in UO. A lot of players do not want the puzzles added.
Exactly. Now instead of a hobby, T-hunting will be like having a second job, as much of UO is nowdays...
"A LOT" needs to be capitalized, and it should actually read "100% of the players do not want the puzzles added" (minus 3-4 UO dev groupies/cheerleaders, and 2 random crazy people).
Reread that thread on the forums, there were several suggestions for puzzles. People have repeatedly asked for something to be done with irrelevant skills. Of course "Real" treasure hunters don't want anything added to Treasure Hunting, it slows them down from doing 20 maps in a couple of hours a night.
Thunting did not just need a loot upgrade, it did need a revamp, especially if people were circumventing intended design to do them. They addressed several issues with thunting and made several quality of life improvements. That is a plus for everyone.
5s on test center (7 on live) can be completed in under 5 minutes (from dig to loot). If people want this upped loot on 4/5 (6/7 on live) there has to be something, a lot more mobs spawned, a puzzle, some sort of speed bump. We cannot have roof quality loot on content that takes 5 minutes to complete. Sure, 7 maps are not exactly easy to mass get, 6's are not. I've been able to farmed over 100 level 6 maps from Miasma in just an afternoon.
Drakelord said something on UO.com that was very honest and telling and something I could sympathize with, he said when he could not complete a slider puzzle, it made him feel stupid. I'm sure he's not alone to that feeling and perhaps that can explain why we are seeing the vitriol from some regarding the puzzles. So yes, I think maybe the dev's could look into an alternative solution. Everyone's brain works in different ways and no one should feel bad for how theirs works and it doesn't meant they are stupid.
However its hard to discern the "this actually makes me feel bad due to the way my brain works"from the "this is change, and i hate change(because it inconveniences me/my routine)" crowd because of the constant outrage about just about everything the dev's do.
Last edited:
If the higher level maps are supposed to be a group activity, I'd expect a) "a lot more mobs spawned" = something for the group to do other than stand around while the thunter spends who knows how long trying to solve a puzzle. That's been our main point.
There are other places he could have put those Puzzles that were asked for. I saw no posts asking for puzzles to be added before they were added. I would need a link to those. Ill trust that there was a group that asked for them. They could have implemented them in many other ways that did not affect old Content.
I like the puzzle from the Tiger cages. I do not have the spacial relations skills to do the slider puzzle. I could probably use a guide and do it but that does not make me understand. The cylinder was on Khaldun chests. I could not do those well because I did not understand the concept. Now I have found that 2 colors look the same to me.
He wanted group play to do the 2 higher maps. Adding Puzzles does not accomplish this. Kyronix said that one party member could do the puzzles, but testers say that only the T Hunter can do anything associated with digging and opening the chest and solving the puzzle.
Please explain how adding puzzles accomplishes the goal of the 2 higher chests types being a group activity.
The 2 higher chests need a spawn upgrade. If it is a higher HP guardian that takes time or a couple more spawn mobs. That would increase the time. I am not able to solve the time issue.
I am not seeing Roof Quality loot in Chests. It looks more like Navrey quality. Kill a few Navreys and you will get Legendaries that you toss in the trash.
I take a lot longer than most to do T hunts. I decode the maps at home. Take it to a Locker, Write down the coords. Go to an old T chest rune library and find the nearest spot. Go there and find the spot. Drop an item. Go a screen away and mark a rune and put it in a book. Go back to the spot and start digging. On CC the map and the coords do not match, so I dig a lot. (I do not use soulstones for temporary things)
No matter what speed bumps they add, some players have better skills for playing UO. Those players will always do things fast.
Some way for each party member to get his own part of the loot in the chest would help encourage group play.
The goal started as group play for the 2 highest level chests. Do puzzles accomplish this?
I like the puzzle from the Tiger cages. I do not have the spacial relations skills to do the slider puzzle. I could probably use a guide and do it but that does not make me understand. The cylinder was on Khaldun chests. I could not do those well because I did not understand the concept. Now I have found that 2 colors look the same to me.
He wanted group play to do the 2 higher maps. Adding Puzzles does not accomplish this. Kyronix said that one party member could do the puzzles, but testers say that only the T Hunter can do anything associated with digging and opening the chest and solving the puzzle.
Please explain how adding puzzles accomplishes the goal of the 2 higher chests types being a group activity.
The 2 higher chests need a spawn upgrade. If it is a higher HP guardian that takes time or a couple more spawn mobs. That would increase the time. I am not able to solve the time issue.
I am not seeing Roof Quality loot in Chests. It looks more like Navrey quality. Kill a few Navreys and you will get Legendaries that you toss in the trash.
I take a lot longer than most to do T hunts. I decode the maps at home. Take it to a Locker, Write down the coords. Go to an old T chest rune library and find the nearest spot. Go there and find the spot. Drop an item. Go a screen away and mark a rune and put it in a book. Go back to the spot and start digging. On CC the map and the coords do not match, so I dig a lot. (I do not use soulstones for temporary things)
No matter what speed bumps they add, some players have better skills for playing UO. Those players will always do things fast.
Some way for each party member to get his own part of the loot in the chest would help encourage group play.
The goal started as group play for the 2 highest level chests. Do puzzles accomplish this?
Not true - we are happy to spend more time on chests if there's a chance of getting something good out of it - that's the point, now there's not even a chance
Edit: That's also what I meant by real thunters, those who regularly do many, many L6s and L7s and are thus in a position to comment on what kind of loot they yield. Not meant to denigrate those who only do lower-level chests, but how could they know what spawns in higher level chests?
I've got a new spreadsheet with images of the properties on randomly generated items collected from Cache-level chests on TC since the update a few days ago. I'm going in order by theme and have gone through Artisan, Assassin, and Mage themes using varying levels of luck (600, 1100, 2100, and 3600). Still need to get a few more items from Mage chests and then it's on to Ranger and Warrior Cache chests and hopefully some horde and trove chests.
Here are the images of randomly generated item properties from Cache chests: Publish 105 (Round 2) - Treasure Chest Randomly Generated Equipment Images
This is the spreadsheet with information on other stuff collected from all levels of chests: Publish 105 - Treasure Chest Loot
This is what my plot on TC looks like these days. The boxes have all the stuff from the 1st round of testing and the locked-down bags are for this round of testing.
Here are the images of randomly generated item properties from Cache chests: Publish 105 (Round 2) - Treasure Chest Randomly Generated Equipment Images
This is the spreadsheet with information on other stuff collected from all levels of chests: Publish 105 - Treasure Chest Loot
This is what my plot on TC looks like these days. The boxes have all the stuff from the 1st round of testing and the locked-down bags are for this round of testing.
Last edited:
Thanks. No keeper items but there is a chance to get something good.
Loot part works for me.
If they wanted a "speedbump", how do you explain the new lvl 3s? You don't even need to be/have treasure hunting skills to do them. 100 carto, 100 mage. No puzzles, no big bad spawn, no fun! Dev K wanted to bring back "true treasure hunting", I sure don't see it. Once you have a decent rune library or find your shards library you could kill many new lvl 3s in an hour! And, that brings up this point...you can currently farm miasma for lvl6s. Where can ya farm these new lvl3s? Will there be enough maps now to dig? Sure everyone has a huge stockpile now, but if I trash all my 6 and 7s that I cant do before the change and points go down, I am left with few because I don't do them. No nasty spawn...no fun!
Really.... perhaps you should do some treasure hunting. I only say this because they changed the locations to random spawning on treasure maps a very long time ago. Sort of taints your summery.
Thanks for actually testing this stuff and giving measured reasonable constructive feedback. The wave of histrionic hand wringing on here is not helpful, but this is. Keep it up!
You are not the arbiter of the right way to enjoy the game. Get over yourself.
If you don't like the changes, give them your feedback without being a whining child about it.
Fridgster,
If you think the spots are truly random, you need to get out more. I have rune books and/or access to any of your so called random spots within a screen or two! Davies locker and my collection can put me on the spot very quickly. I'm sure I have done more maps then your post count, but you did just add one.
If you think the spots are truly random, you need to get out more. I have rune books and/or access to any of your so called random spots within a screen or two! Davies locker and my collection can put me on the spot very quickly. I'm sure I have done more maps then your post count, but you did just add one.
Be sure to check out Arroth's and Tanager's spreadsheets mentioned in this thread: Spreadsheets for T-Hunting .Thanks for actually testing this stuff and giving measured reasonable constructive feedback. The wave of histrionic hand wringing on here is not helpful, but this is. Keep it up!
@Tina Small
May I ask you how (what pieces) you managed to get 3,600 Luck "on the Suit", that is, NOT counting the 1,000 bonus from either the Luck Statue or Felucca ?
And that is for what type of Template ?
Thanks !
@Keven2002
If I remember correctly, Kyronix mentioned that this Cartography bonus item will provide a bonus to the Quality of Loot in the Chest, along with also the Luck worn, of course....
Not sure though, how they will interact with one another.... that is, whether the Glasses will have the same, less or higher weight as compared to Luck worn...
It would be interesting to know, for example, whether the Glasses and Luck bonuses stuck with one another or not.
If it is "either" one, then, perhaps wearing the Glasses this means that one could use a "no-Luck" suit that was better in other modifiers because the Loot quality bonus would be taken care of by the Glasses rather then Luck ?
Those who instead will not have the glasses, would still be able to compensate with the Luck worn by the Template....
This as not been clarified, though, at least to my understanding....
But it would be a much usefull information to get, I think....
@Keven2002
If I remember correctly, Kyronix mentioned that this Cartography bonus item will provide a bonus to the Quality of Loot in the Chest, along with also the Luck worn, of course....
Not sure though, how they will interact with one another.... that is, whether the Glasses will have the same, less or higher weight as compared to Luck worn...
It would be interesting to know, for example, whether the Glasses and Luck bonuses stuck with one another or not.
If it is "either" one, then, perhaps wearing the Glasses this means that one could use a "no-Luck" suit that was better in other modifiers because the Loot quality bonus would be taken care of by the Glasses rather then Luck ?
Those who instead will not have the glasses, would still be able to compensate with the Luck worn by the Template....
This as not been clarified, though, at least to my understanding....
But it would be a much usefull information to get, I think....
I am very much in favour of the Puzzles only, I would have implemented them in a "different" way....
Not as a requirement for the entire treasure Chest opening BUT, to have access to an "additional" content SECRET COMPARTMENT from within inside the Chest.
This would have REQUIRED Detect Hidden (to actually find of the existance of the secret compartment within the Treasure Chest in the first place...) AND Remove Trap (to deactivate the trap which, if going off, would destroy the contents of that Secret Compartment...) AND the Solving of the Puzzles (in order to deactivate the Trap) to pry open and enjoy the High End Quality items(or very large stacks of ML/Imbuable resources in Artisans Chests) from inside...
This way, players would have add no reasons to complain....
They wanted to play Treasure Hunting as before ? They could.
They wanted to enjoy the NEW, added new content from the Secret Compartment in their Treasure Chest ?
They would have had to necessarily comply with the associated requirements of having Detect Hidden, Remove Trap AND solving of Puzzles...
That is how I would have approached it....
WHY "group" activity should be looked at ALWAYS in terms of "fighting" ?
The Puzzles CAN add group activity content "not necessarily" diminishing it to more guardians or more powerfull guardians to have to fight BUT, instead, consider a "mind games" part, the solving of the Puzzle from the Treasure Hunter while the rest of the Group fights the Guardians with the fighting of the Guardians being the other part of the group content, remaining as it was before, but to be done by the group WITHOUT the participation of the Treasure Hunter who will be busy solving the Puzzle.
Frankly, I do not understand WHY it always "group" content is equated to "toughness" of the Monsters involved....
Cannot it be, instead, a "mid games" playing rather then having to resort to straight fighting that was to define a "Group" content playing ??
The need to Solve Puzzles, to my viewing, COULD very well promote this Group playing WITHOUT necessarily having to increase quantity of powerfullness of the Guardians spawned....
- Awards
- 5
I'm in total agreement with @Pawain here, how exactly is one person doing a puzzle a 'group' activity? Kyronix has really contradicted himself by saying that it's a group activity and then saying there can only be ONE t-hunter in the group.
Just for the record I have 3 runic Atlases of general 'spots' which I have made and add to sometimes over the last 3 years, I rarely get a map in Trammel or Malas now that I don't have a nearby rune for.
@Tina Small
Great work you did !
I have a question about Artisans' Maps...
From your findings, am I correct to assume that ONLY and exclusively Artisans' SUPPLY Treasure maps carry Imbuing resources (only Essences or also other imbuing resources ?) if done in Ter Mur and Mondain's Legacy Resources if done in Malas ?
No other Level Artisan Treasure Map carry these crafters' needed resources ?
Well, different players enjoy different ways of playing... I need to imagine...
While to some fun might be associated with the toughness of the Monsters' to fight, to other players it instead may hardly involve any fighting at all but, for example, having to solve mind games like Puzzles...
In a comprehensive game like Ultima Online, I think, there should be content fitting also different players' playing preferences....
@Jelinidas
Out of curiosity, if one wanted to have runes to cover all of the "areas", that is, not exact spots where Treasure Chests can spawn but at least a good radiu "proximity" to those "random" areas, how many runes would that mean to have to have/mark ?
Does it differ much whether it is Trammel/Felucca or any of the other facets considering how the other facets are smaller in size as compared to Trammel/Felucca ?
Thanks !
@ShriNayne
I read it as a Grup activity in the sense that "while" the Treasure Hunter is busy with the Chest, solving the Puzzle, the rest of the Group would fight the spawned Guardians...
A "Team" work where each member of the Team (Group) would do his/her part to accomplish the entire job....
A Group activity, that is, seen as the Group being a Team with individual members of that Team tackling different tasks all important to get to the end goal, that of looting the Treasure Chest...
Out of curiosity, what labelling code for the Runes did you find most usefull in order to then find the rune to a given Area for a Treasure Map in the fastest way ?
That is, once a Treasure Map is decoded, how do you find in the fastest way possible the related location Rune in your books ?
- Awards
- 5
@popps I don't use numbers as my husband did when he was a T-hunter, I'm a woman with no direction sense. I have two monitors and a big map of whichever area I want is on the other monitor that UO isn't running on. I name my spots for where they are or by geographical features, this system works best for me. I have found that the spots are still in clusters in an area, such as East of Yew, South of Destard or Fire Island North of Temple. I rarely have much of a run to get to a spot, I never have to use a Davies Locker, I only use that for MIBs, I am using the EC so the spots are relatively easy to find just comparing the maps. I do have 90 mining.
Oh level 3's are very farmable. Spent an hour last night farming them. Ended up with 40-50 of them from dark guardians.
As may people said, no one asked for this. Then again most of the changes they have made we havent asked for. I understand that they need to change the game in order to progress and bring people in but you dont do that by driving the veterans away. That is another ratio id like to see, veterans leaving to new scrips ratio.
Im also curious as to what formula they would be using for group hunts. I wouldnt want to do a Level 5 Horde and only get 12 items for 6 people to begin with before trying to unlock it. Depening on the puzzle all items WOULD be gone.
Im also curious as to what formula they would be using for group hunts. I wouldnt want to do a Level 5 Horde and only get 12 items for 6 people to begin with before trying to unlock it. Depening on the puzzle all items WOULD be gone.
Yea this is what I was questioning... I'd assume the Carto would give better chance at loot (as previously mentioned) but then the question arises "would it be better than using a max luck (190) head piece?". Assuming + Carto WILL impact loot quality it will make the person choose either the glasses or their luck head gear at which point I'd have to think the glasses would absolutely need to be imbuable to at least add the 100ish luck from imbuing but is that net result going to be the same as simply having 190 luck? Additionally that makes me wonder about which talisman to use; do we go with the lucky charm (luck suit staple) or do we use a +Carto Bonus talisman... sadly there is no way to imbue these so there won't be a compromise on the talisman; it's either 150 luck or Carto bonus. I'd be happy to test this theory but with the RNG it makes finding the true results seem like a wild goose chase; I think the Devs would need to provide clarity on how luck impacts loot versus +carto/carto bonus.
Ur - what are the Christmas statues?? Do you or Dev have any on display? Cya in game!Totally agree. Even with the Christmas chests. The reward from them would have been great, if not shard bound. But you work them and work them, and only get one of the damned statues, you can't buy the others to make a set cause you can't get them home. Way to go Team!!!
I can;'t tell you how many times we opened a lvl 6 and got trash that would have been ashamed to be in a Deviously map. No one asked for all this crap, and no one with the exception of the cheerleaders is saying it's okay. Evidently no one on the team plays enough as a normal player to know what loot is and isn't good, or they would have been able to figure out what a "lloot bump" is.
Ovethought, Overwrought, Overcomplicated. It's the way everything now is going. I suspect it's Mesanna's fault, since she is the Producer probably her idea to do all this. I dunno.
If we wanted to play a different game, we would. Quit f#%&() up UO and it's basics-improvement does NOT mean overhaul.
Now, I'm off to do my maps while they can be done by a t-hunter instead of a puzzlemaker.
Popps, I have many rune books and also use the old rune libraries sometimes. I think you play Catskills, there is a great one in luna. I really only do fel, tram, and malas maps and trash the others. Once you have the general spots marked, they are pretty easy to find. Random to cords, not at all to general locations.
I mispoke...they are statues from the last anniversary, in the Khaldun trapped chests. All the chests you had to do puzzles on to get them, all the chests that were done, all we got was one statue...its on the west tower top of the castle at vesper/brit crossroads
Are these maps located in all the different facets?
Nope just malas.
Yes - the ones that would perfectly match the Titan banners & tiles from previous year! Sadly I didn't get a single "relic" from the chests either...
This player writes a Lot better than I do: They represent a lot of players views. From the UO Forums, Test Center area:
2. The puzzles on remove trapping. Puh, that's not fun. I consider myself a lurker. I read a lot in the forums but never posted. I just created an account here for posting my opinion on this topic. It's not that I cannot do them. I can do the puzzles. I love the sliders. Also the minesweeper. I'm an application developer and due to my work area I'm forced to deliver very high Quality code without much failure tolerance. I need to deal with hard puzzles all day long and keep my head busy all the time. But off work I like to relax and do stuff that does not need my brain to work at 100%. T-Hunting was a thing I loved for that. But the puzzles disturb the natural flow. Especially because you are under time pressure or under the pressure of taking a wrong decision that might kill you in an instant. I know that you folks on broadsword doing a great Job (in the past and with this revamp)! The code base of UO is >20 years old. I propably would start to chew my fingernails when I needed to work in some parts of the code. :-D The puzzles, though. They do not feel fluent. It feels like you are playing the game and then suddenly receive an old-school window that takes you out of the whole immersion. Your brain needs to refocus totally. It's like quick time events that got a lot of hate back in the day in other games. It's like the lockpicking in skyrim or fallout that you did propably 20.000 times. It's not fun. It eats time. The current puzzles (e. g. cylinder) take much longer. And they kill you. I personally do not want them in the game. But I tend to never come with a problem without a compromise because it's not all about me. If there is a slight chance we still can change the current implementation I want to share my thoughts.
They then gave an idea that if your skill is GM you get a puzzle 1 of 10 times and scaled for skill.
2. The puzzles on remove trapping. Puh, that's not fun. I consider myself a lurker. I read a lot in the forums but never posted. I just created an account here for posting my opinion on this topic. It's not that I cannot do them. I can do the puzzles. I love the sliders. Also the minesweeper. I'm an application developer and due to my work area I'm forced to deliver very high Quality code without much failure tolerance. I need to deal with hard puzzles all day long and keep my head busy all the time. But off work I like to relax and do stuff that does not need my brain to work at 100%. T-Hunting was a thing I loved for that. But the puzzles disturb the natural flow. Especially because you are under time pressure or under the pressure of taking a wrong decision that might kill you in an instant. I know that you folks on broadsword doing a great Job (in the past and with this revamp)! The code base of UO is >20 years old. I propably would start to chew my fingernails when I needed to work in some parts of the code. :-D The puzzles, though. They do not feel fluent. It feels like you are playing the game and then suddenly receive an old-school window that takes you out of the whole immersion. Your brain needs to refocus totally. It's like quick time events that got a lot of hate back in the day in other games. It's like the lockpicking in skyrim or fallout that you did propably 20.000 times. It's not fun. It eats time. The current puzzles (e. g. cylinder) take much longer. And they kill you. I personally do not want them in the game. But I tend to never come with a problem without a compromise because it's not all about me. If there is a slight chance we still can change the current implementation I want to share my thoughts.
They then gave an idea that if your skill is GM you get a puzzle 1 of 10 times and scaled for skill.
You kill all the guardians before you can unlock the chest and start the puzzle. I never heard that more guardians continue to spawn while you are solving the puzzle. Is that actually the case?
I have no probs to solve the puzzles as they are on TC where you can stand in Brit and nothing happens if I fail. But in a T-hunt situation with people standing around and traps blowing off its completely different. I dont want that stress please! But what if the chest contained a puzzle box I could pick up and bring home and solve later on my own containing something nice and looking like the neat puzzle boxes on TC.. And we could keep such box for training...
Popps, the t-hunter I'm using on TC is the one I have on Balhae. Her suit has 600 luck on it: 100 luck imbued on each piece of her armor and nothing on the jewelry or footwear, no talisman, etc.
If I remember correctly, I got blasted pretty well here and on the official forum for posting pictures of loot I'd dug up on TC because it wasn't up to par, I guess, because of the low amount of luck on my TC t-hunter's suit.
Well, last week one night late while I was picking up all the bags from the first round of testing on TC, Kyronix popped in the house. He wanted to see the maps that had chests that would never completely come out of the ground and the maps for chests that came up completely empty. We reset some of those maps and he went with me to try them again. Then he asked me if I had any questions. I asked him about when luck counts. It counts when the chest is made and it is only based on the t-hunter's luck. Then I mentioned that I was going to transfer some stuff over to TC from other t-hunters and tamers I had to try to make up a better suit, e.g., add a lucky talisman and soles of providence and the luck jewelry set from cleanup. Then he asked me what kind of footwear I liked. I answered thigh boots and the next thing I know, he had made a whole set of thigh boots with luck on them, ranging from 500 up to 3500. He said it was in appreciation for all the testing I'd done. Well, that blew me away and I was very excited that I could now do some better testing to see the impact of luck.
I gave Arroth the 3500 luck boots, because his suit only had about 200 luck on it and because he had also been there on TC every day testing and testing. I may hunt up Tanager and hand over another pair of the lucky boots.
So there you have it. I wasn't planning to say anything because I figured someone would squak about it. I am very appreciative of what Kyronix did. No one is paying me to do the testing. I've been doing it because t-hunting is something I enjoy doing, even though I only started doing it a few years ago and am still not very good at it and obviously haven't put the amount of effort into it that many others have, as evidenced by the crummy suits my t-hunters wear.
If you want to make a fuss over the boots, fuss at Kyronix for being kind. I can't take them from TC. They'll disappear the next time the shard is wiped. I'm a UO nobody. I am not an EM on the side or a counselor or anything like that. I don't butter up EMs after events (I go to very few). I usually don't make it to meet and greets and when I do, my questions are straightforward and not full of effusive and overblown greetings. I've never had contact with Mesanna other than to have her fix a tamer that got completely borked on Origin one time when testing out a new publish there. I've paged GMs a total of maybe 10 times in the 14.5 years I've been playing UO and I don't try to chat them up. I don't collect rares. I don't run a third party shop. I'm a nobody as far as Broadsword is concerned. Except for last week when Kyronix noticed all the testing efforts and gave me something on TC to help with the testing. It will have no impact whatsoever on my game play for production shards or once TC is wiped.
You understand correctly now.
You are a very important part of the UO community right now. Thanks for the testing and I am glad he gave you the boots.
I have an old set of rune books for overland hunting in Trammel, Felucca, Malas, and Tokuno. It's basically different physical "points of interest" I also have a set of books with spots marked for doing the Hag's quest. And books for Trammel and Fel with dungeon entrances. I've added a few runes for spots that are way out in the boonies with nothing nearby that could be called a "point of interest."
If you go to my house on Test Center, you'll see what i'm using for runes, other than another book in my t-hunter's backpack for Malas and one for Ter Mur. There are all the portals there (thank you Petra for the moonstone one). Coordinates are 9 North 38 East. It's NE of Britain. A big public plot with no walls and a lot of stuff on the floor.