And the answer is: 50k

[Cbeeman1]

Question; How many boards have I gone through in the carpentry quest in order to try and get get a runic saw?

That is doing the arch support quest over 550 times. Out of those times the only keepable items I got were a dragon slaying clever with 40 di 20 ssi and one rare recipe (acid proof rope).

Is this normal, or do I just have bad luck? Do I have to resign myself to the fact that only scriptors will be able to get the good rewards. Because if it normally takes more than 50k of boards I guess I'm just going to give up. Took me a week and a half to go through those boards playing casually, and I would rather be doing other things in game.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Pretty much... the Heartwood quests really only reward people who automate the process.

Last time I did them was a 2 or 3 hour stretch during one of the Town Hall meetings during Spring Cleaning (when you could turn in the recipes and talismen for points). Same quest, God only knows how many boards and NO runic to be seen. Only thing that kept me sane doing it was listening and note-taking during the TH broadcast while KR was churning out the footstools and auto-markings them as quest items.

Edit: I DID get a Heartwood Saw a LONG time ago, but I'm pretty certain that it was a complete fluke that it dropped at all. I burned all but one of the charges, the last one saves it as a trophy piece unless something weird happens and I get another one.

 

[AesSedai]

- Aye, I grew tired of doing it a few weeks after it first came out (I had tons of lumber in backstock). I did manage to get a few lesser runic saws & most of the recipes; but after seeing/hearing so many people rolling through it whilst unattended (yes, I used a few methods to ensure that was the case), I just decided to give up on the system just as I have many other abused UO systems. If only we had an adequate supply of proactive GMs to deal with the blatantly obvious...

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Personally, while I know that the BOD system is pretty well slanted against the legit player as well (smithing more so than tailoring just due to size), I enjoy doing the smithing BOD system because I can tailor several different UO activities to support it (mining, PvM for metal scrap, etc), it's not just doing the same mindless thing hoping for the random reward.

Something needs to happen to really help that system out for non-scripting players... but I'm not sure I can think of a way that would NOT need some kind of external delay once you get a runic saw (i.e. a Treasure of Tokuno "buildup" of a chance for a runic drop could work, but it would also have to have a certain "delay" between the drop and when the system becomes "active" again).

 

[AesSedai]

- Funny, I agree with ya'. I still do the BoD systems too.
I think it is primarily due to the ease of casual participation.
Yet, just last week I recieved my second valorite runic small BoD... wahoo, after so many years, my 2nd! It was the first time I was offered one and I did not mysteriously (very mysteriously ...so mad) crash when I clicked 'accept'. But guess what, I was like 'meh', because of the illegal saturation of the valorite runics... Yet, still I drop by the smithy & tailor shoppes when I think about it, if only to pick up my little lottery ticket, heh. Cheaters are the black plague of mmog's: imo, that is a fact.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Heh, I know the feeling, although the BOD system hit "perfect" in my opinion when they made it where you could get a new deed when you turned in a filled one. Thanks to that I pulled at least 3 Valorite smalls that I caught tonight (2 of which were Plate). Of course this was while turning in about 150 junk deeds for shovels to mine with, so make of that what you will.

I'm annoyed at the duped hammers too, but on the other side of that coin, when I see a Luna house with a vendor with 3 or more hammers on a vendor, I KNOW to stay away from that house and ALL of its vendors regardless what I may be looking for. (I'd love to stay OUT of Luna, but it's getting harder and harder to find esoteric stuff on vendors outside Luna unfortunately)

I'd love to get another Heartwood Saw just to churn out a batch of Nunchaku and see if I could get one to come out with even better stats than the Dragon Nunchaku I've been using since ToT2 (good speed, good damage and a nice *smack* sound when you hit a creature that is simply unbeatable)... but unless they make the system more intuitive, even KR's ability to automate most of the quest isn't worth the hassle of collecting the wood, carting it over, crafting, turning in, pulling the next batch of wood, etc etc etc. all for a low percentage random drop.

At least the BODs feel like you're working toward a goal.

 

[AesSedai]

...

- Complete agreement.
Perhaps I'll, or we all will, brainstorm on an improvement to the 'heartwood runic quest' & relay it to the Team if we can come up with something good & non-too-coding intensive

(btw, I look forward to being a full-time SA'er, although I do hope they avoid releasing it until they have enough bells-n-whistles to appease significantly more than they were 'pushed' too entice with the admittedly premature KR release unfortunately, KR's premature release really 'killed my UO buzz', heh; but I did/do see sooo much promise in it, all the same)

 

[Bomb Bloke]

One possible solution. There are multiple quests each NPC gives out, and while these are kinda bearable until you've collected the "basic" recipies and "chance to craft" talismans, they're mind numbing from that point on.

Add a new one and make it considerably more likely to give out a runic. Now make it that this specific quest can only be done once per week/month/whatever.

It then becomes practical for the "average guy" to try to get runics, though they'd still remain somewhat rare. Perhaps the quest in concern could have the difficulty bumped up somewhat to make it harder for non-real-crafters to do it (requesting items that require a recipe, for example - or even something downright nasty like ancient wild staves (which require perfect emeralds)).

 

[Harlequin]

To the OP: Title - The answer is and has always been 42.

Seriously though, I would love a couple of enhancements are needed for the BoD and heartwood quests:

1) Add the KR crafting system to the 2D client
2) Add a point system like the one for doom arties/TOT for the higher rewards. Each time you don't get a higher level BoD or a runic saw/fletching kit, you will progressively get better chances until you finaly get one. Then the points reset back to zero.
3) Points per day that you get will be capped at what a player can realistically get from 1 hour (subject to feedback) of turning in BoDs or doing the heartwood quests. This will increase the odds for legit players against the scripters that does the quests nonstop.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I have done enough carpentry quests on 2 shards to fit out 3 crafters with every furniture recipe there is and didn't get any runic saws at all along the way.

 

[hen]

Took me 6k for my first.

 

[Cbeeman1]

Took me 6k for my first.

I hate you :gun: jk

I guess UO world luck is not mine and all yours.

I see alot of others seem to be in the same boat as I. Strike that I used all the wood from the boat on stools for the darn stool quest too. I don't want to sound like I am whining, but waaaaaa.

Well I guess I'll just go buy one from a scripter then. If there are any still doing this quest. I saw none in luna on chessie.

 

[hen]

Your luck will turn around. I'm using wood for to try and get fletching kits now and in the last 50k the only runic I got was an oak one I found lying next to the trash barrel.

 

[Jhym]

I've only done enough of the quests to get most of the recipies I need. But I'm still missing about ten or twelve even now.

The first month or two I managed to get some very nice weapons from the drops, but after they nerfed that too I pretty much just try for an hour or so every once in a while, with no expectation of getting anything useful.

What they need to make them into:

Have their "quest" be a specialized BoD. It would have a random set of items and quantities, up to 6.

For each turnin, it has two 'luck' values. The first, the likelihood you will get something fairly nice; the second, the likelihood you will get a runic or other rare item.

The first would work like regular luck, and be based on the quality of the BoD. So, a 6 item bod requiring (say) 100 items each might have a very high 'luck' factor, as opposed to a single item 10 bod. This luck factor is used just like standard luck, to determine what sort of things you might get anyway. Just as now, you always have a chance to get the best things -- but the better quality the bod the more chance you get.

Now, the second one would be your 'bonus' luck. This is an additive quantity, that keeps adding up over time. It continually adds a "bonus" to your luck check as you fill and get rewards. Once you get a "rare/excellent" reward, the bonus is reset to 0 and you start gaining in it again.

An example:

You turn in a 2 item, 10 each bod. This gives you, say, 20 luck check. You also get .2% bonus from your continual luck timer.
You turn in ten more bods, each with 2 items but 20 each. Each of those gives you 40 luck check; at the end of those, however, your bonus luck pool is at 4.2% additional chance.

You have a run of bad luck, like usual. But ok, you get a really good bod, a 6 item 100 each. You turn it in, for a 600 luck check. Nothing exceptional this time either, but now your luck bonus is at 10.2%.

As you can see, the more you turn in, the more likely it is you will get that luck bump to give you something good. This would make the quests more interesting to do -- and if the bods are randomly put together with random quantities, you won't be able to as easily script them. And they would be a bit more interesting to do.

Oh well, doesn't matter. Most likely they'll just kill all the elves (yay) and put something else in place.

 

[BadManiac]

My last runic fletching kit took me just over 200K boards. No it's not just you. I also don't think the system is broken, I think it was added, much like the BOD and community collection systems, to give scripting players something new to do. That's the only reason I can think of to add such obviously flawed systems to a game anyway. Maybe I'm just too jaded.

 

[Cbeeman1]

Does anyone know if luck has anything to do with getting better items from the quest or a bump in the runic chance?

Well, I guess I'll put together about a 1000 luck and burn through another 50k of boards.

 

[hen]

Luck didn't make any difference for me.

 

[Nystul]

Luck don't help. It's just hard coded percentages in which nothing will help/improve it except a lucky day. It's IMO the crappiest quests/systems that can exist in a game.

 

[Maplestone]

*decides to do foot stools during the oscars* will post if I get a runic

 

[Harlequin]

I confirm luck has no effect. My crafter is decked out in a pretty decent luck suit, including gold enhanced mining gloves, AOF and whatever 130+ luck, +lrc pieces with crappy resists left over from equiping my tamer.

Have not gotten any runics after 120k planks.

 

[Maggie]

The system is flawed. I like idea of having a much higher chance for an hour or say first 100 bods/quests turned in that day.

Why are the heartwood quests to make such easy stuff? Why isnt it something harder? I dont know cause I dont script but if they set script to make 10 items and fail one wouldnt that mess then up? I guess they would script around failure.

Off topic but relating to hammers. I hate it when I make a weapon and it has 14 phys resist and 13 fire resist. That is a waste of two properties!! I dont know anyone who builds a suit around a weapon. Most people switch weapons fairly often depending what they are killing.

Two years of doing bods and I m two small bods away from my first verite hammer!!

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

Come back and complain when you hit 1,000,000 boards. Thanks.

 

[Cbeeman1]

Come back and complain when you hit 1,000,000 boards. Thanks.

1 mill:bowdown:

How in the heck did you go through that many? How did you even jack that many? I go crazy after chopping 10k of boards.

 

[Maplestone]

*decides to do foot stools during the oscars* will post if I get a runic

update: did the foot stool quest 220 times tonight (if the elves haven't figured out how to make them by now, I fear its hopeless ).

loot: no runics or rare recipes, but I did keep 12 talismans of interest (slayers, bandage summoners or quirky stats I might someday build a collection around), 3 furniture deeds (since they are uncommon, I can't stand to throw them away), 2 jewels that were close to 400% total mods). I also tossed 55 weapons in the blue box for recycling.

This was almost 20k boards (half my rainy-day stash), but that's a sort of meaningless stat. It was just one evening. (politely ignoring the time spent accumulating the wood) How many hours should it take to get a runic? How many hours does it take to gather a equivalent-to-runic monster loot? Should there be a preference for one over the other?

Anyway, just another data point of grist for the mill.

 

[Harlequin]

The system is flawed. I like idea of having a much higher chance for an hour or say first 100 bods/quests turned in that day.

Why are the heartwood quests to make such easy stuff? Why isnt it something harder? I dont know cause I dont script but if they set script to make 10 items and fail one wouldnt that mess then up? I guess they would script around failure.

Off topic but relating to hammers. I hate it when I make a weapon and it has 14 phys resist and 13 fire resist. That is a waste of two properties!! I dont know anyone who builds a suit around a weapon. Most people switch weapons fairly often depending what they are killing.

Two years of doing bods and I m two small bods away from my first verite hammer!!

I have been doing bods with my 3 legendary crafters since the BoD system began, and I have gotten 1 of the 6 small bods required for my val hammer lbod...I don't get bods as religiously as before, but there was a time that I logged at least twice a day to get bods...

Regarding the random properties, I'll have the same problem as maggie, 100 luck on a aggy ingot/horned leather piece. Damn...I so wanted that on spined leather and gold ingot pieces...

And when I use spined leather/gold ingot pieces, the same never happened, lots of 90s but never a 100...damned rng...curses...

Of course, this means that I am really looking forward to imbuing though

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

1 mill:bowdown:

How in the heck did you go through that many? How did you even jack that many? I go crazy after chopping 10k of boards.

buying out luna of all its oak and reg wood helps alot.

I quit trying when I hit 1 mil...thats TOO much point and click.

 

[T'Challa]

I'd love to get another Heartwood Saw just to churn out a batch of Nunchaku and see if I could get one to come out with even better stats than the Dragon Nunchaku I've been using since ToT2 (good speed, good damage and a nice *smack* sound when you hit a creature that is simply unbeatable)...

Nunchaku are a tinkered item, hence unenhanceable and uncraftable via runic

 

[Zodiac19]

I've burnt 3-400K boards on thoes damn quests and have never gotten a runic anything. I've completly given up.

 

[AesSedai]

~300K wood spent on it.
I did get a 2 or 3 lesser runics (this was in the beginning of the ML release).
I bought the wood, along with other resources, because it was cheep and I intended to stockpile it for resale once the NPC price rose (predicting the UO 'stock' market, heh)... I spent most of my lumber supply on the runic hunt instead. As a casual, non-cheating participant: I would've made more if I just sold my supply back to the NPCs before they were forced to put a bandaid, not a legit fix, on the truly virtual economy that Dev Vex had initiated.

 

[rwek]

I have to disagree that cheaters are the problems with all runics.


It's very true they are probably the only ones (with a life) that can get runics.


The problem though, lies within the system and not the cheaters.


No one wants bronze hammer made items anymore. We moved past that. Now folks want verite and valorite made hammer, and if you show me one person who can get a single 15 use hammer (which probably will make all junk) without cheating I still wont believe you.

The system is bogus. Its repetitive and very long. If you're a casual player who got a single valorite hammer, but i bet it took you 3+ years to get one.



Now, go to test center, make items you want with the valorite. You will get some nice stuff, but to get the weapon or armor you actually want? You better be ready to burn off 400 to 1000 tries.


Been there, tested that.


Lets all hope imbu can fix the problems, because I really dont think they are going to change the system. The huge revamp last year did very very little for helping people. And most the crafters have posted scores of reports on how the proposed numbers are not working for tailoring. For months now and it does not get fixed. So you have even less of a chance for a barbed then whtat the developers tell you.



No thx, ill buy my items from the dupers.

 

[Yalp]

I have to agree with the whole premise of the post. I've been trying for 3 years to get the bods I need to get a valorite hammer....zippo.

I can't even begin to count the hundreds of thousands of resources I've burned to get the smithing crafting recipies, the fletching runics, the carp runincs.. zippo.

I'm working toward my 110th champ spawn with no drops.

But I do seem to have decent rate of drops in doom.. go figure.

 

[Lord Kotan]

The heartwood quest are designed to be anti-scripter.. but ended up being like scripter friendly. I did like 15-25k boards with the help of UOA making like a handful of stools at a time. I gave us.. there is a ridiculus amount of clicking involved to get the quest, and to get it all turned in.

 

[Freelsy]

over 1mil boards now

and my reward is....2 yew saws...

best weapon crafted from those


Bokuto - 25ssi, 35di, UBWS 35hld