• 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!

Creature Feature #31: The Nightmare

E

Elyssar

Guest
It's long overdue for these fabulous black steeds to step into the spotlight. Ever since their introduction to the game with t2a, these hellish equines have turned into a taming icon.

Nightmares come in 1 shade in 3D and 4 shades in 2D, although 2 of the shades are barely imperceptible from one another. The shades are simply rehues of the 4 various horse types, though the shortmane grey and the shortmane roan horse end up looking pretty much the same when black is added to them.

Nightmares spawn in many, many places, due in part to the Publish 16 changes. In felucca they can be found in the swamp in Terathan Keep, in Covetous Level 2, and in Wind Park. In Trammel they can only be found in Terathan Keep far back in the dangerous ophidian area. In Ilshenar they can be found in the ki-rin passage. For further information on the spawning areas, check out the dungeon map guide.

Slain nightmares will yield reagents, potions, arrows, gems, scrolls, approx. 300 gold, 5 carved raw ribs, and 10 barbed hides (20 if in Felucca.)

Post Publish 16 Nightmares range in strength from 496-525, 86-105 dex (when wild, not tamed and trained), and 86-125 int. Nightmares have 60 armor. Your average freshly tamed nightmare will have 30's to low 40's in magery, but they can train up quickly to much higher skills.

I remember the first time I saw a nightmare. It was at Magincia bank back in the time when there was only one facet. I saw this person riding this majestic black creature which was a far cry from my own mud-brown horse. Too shy to ask what it was, I blithely assumed that this person must have used one of those rare and so-special black dye tubs on their horse! After one short experiment with a dye tub and my own steed, I realized that the black horse I had seen was somehow different. Thus began my pursuit of nightmares and my road to becoming a tamer. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/biggrin.gif
 
S

Suby Indraha

Guest
They used to be much tougher than what they are now :p.
 
C

Casima

Guest
Nightmares are nice little guys /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif except when they try to bite poor Anna's leg when she tames them!

Unless I have forgotten soemthing they are the toughest 2 control slot pet, and very good compainions when going to beat on Dragons and White Wyrms before taming them /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

I accidently released one of my mares on trinsic barrier island fel when I was taming harts there, my guild and I had alot of troubles trying to get it tame again, a trained mare chews through a char pretty fast, all of us were wearing death robes by the time we had it tame again hehe the target switching can be quite deadly :p and the angering the beast messages are too plentiful :/
 
W

WolfZbane

Guest
Nightmares are very good pets, they're loyal and strong, THOUGH THEY DON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST SAVAGES *hint*.
They're without a doubt the most popular mount, which is why there are currently quite a lot of groups that have tourneys with them.

I personally ain't too fond of them, because... well... no reason really, I just don't like them!
 
G

Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Your average freshly tamed nightmare will have 30's to low 40's in magery, but they can train up quickly to much higher skills

<hr></blockquote>

Kicks Brutus hard and mumbles something that sounds like "stubborn stupid mule, moronic demonic creature" (though the last part is in ghost speak)

The thing that has allways troubles me most about mares is looking like a stereotypical tamer.. all tamers apparantly owned at least one mare when i began my road to taming. Two things have made them more rare (though they remain anything but rare as mounts) the increased requirement to own them and the appearance of fire steeds. Somehow it would seem that tamers dont feel like true tamers before they own their first mare.

It is strange how in UO the clothes dont make the man (or tamer in this case) but the mount certainly does. Peoples reactions tend to become.. less often nice. This is true even when encountering other mare riding tamers strangely enough. (this is not the same as everyone reacting in a hostile manner, more often its the small differences.. like people see your mare while they are out camping some spawn and decide to leave (thats a bother since you have to chase them down and tell them you dont want to take over)) Its a pitty though since a tamed mare does not change the tamer (if anything the tamer changes the mare /php-bin/shared/images/icons/tongue.gif )
 
I

imported_TamTam

Guest
I started UO 3 years ago in 99. I decided totame when I found that you could actually tame wild horses and didn't have to buy one....

I bought my first mare Shiva a long maned blue. I bought her because there was no way I could ever tame one as the spawn was blocked by a handful of ppl on each shard. Frenzies were also blocked. This was in the times when mares and frenzies only spawned in T2A (new lands). They used to spawn I believe by Vesper cemetary entrance in T2A and sometimes elsewhere but always above ground.

Sometimes a tamer would post on these forums that by some miracle they had found favour with a mare controller.

OSI at last listened and found a way to unblock the spawn and the posts on this forum told of heroic taming stories in terrathian keep and alas also griefing techniques for thwarting taming. Limiting the stable slots helped too and many mares and frenzieds were given away or sadly killed by those keeping 10s in their stables.

Thus with a spawn every few minutes nightmares became common and the steed of choice for both tamer and non-tamer. Mares could be transfered to anyone at one time - no taming required, though they had to be fed often!

My one massive regret is that mares no longer roll over to breathe fire - my heart stopped the first time Shiva did that - I though she had died!
 
S

seas

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

It is strange how in UO the clothes dont make the man

<hr></blockquote>

it's the sandals! SANDALS! BLOODY COLOURED SANDALS!!! (or the black ones before tailor bods) i mean really, which item is the most blessed of all in the game?
 
G

Guest

Guest
I started a tamer so I could ride a nightmare. After 2 years of UO, the nightmare is still my favorite pet at my favorite combat weapon in UO.
 
P

Patron

Guest
Still have my two first tamed nightmares. The first I tamed in Ilshenar after a lot of time, while the second joined me after a few tries in Fel Terathan Keep.
What is there to say about them? Black is beautiful, baby..
 
G

Guest

Guest
nightmares are one of my favorite pets. they are very good to use if your dragon/ww taming, even mare taming, as they can get the job done without too much difficult, and then once you need to stop the mare, you can just hope onto it and start taming. that is very wierd also, i did not know there were 4 different mares, hehe never noticed there were too different colored short manes.
 
J

Jamster

Guest
I to once started a tamer just so i could have a mare.. well that tamer only got to 90taming gm lore.. but he had his mare thanks to a friend who tamed it and gave it to him. But alias i no longer hold that account active.. was a couple years ago.

But now i have an inspiring tamer on Lake Austin /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif. One day i too shall have a nightmare again. Im in no great hurry.. do enjoy my pack of frenzies though /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif.. but i do long for the day i get to have my first mare again /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
M

Maeniel

Guest
My first experience with the nightmare was early on in UO. There was one facet then. I had my first char ever out killing all sorts of weak stuff, I kept getting pked in the cemetary so I thought woods might be better place, lol. So I hit the woods northwest corner of glow for some rat slaying. I thought WOW, look at that, a black horse! OoOoO, lol.
 
G

Guest

Guest
hehe Maeniel, your story reminds me of something i did when i was had not been playing much more than a month. ooo i remember, i had a warrior, and i liked shame, and i was wandering around and saw what looked to be an earth elly, so i attacked it, big mistake, it turns and a pillar of steam hits me, i start running, then again, and it killed me. lol i did not realize till i went back that it was a valorite elemental not an earth elly hehe
 
G

Guest

Guest
Me and a friend started our playing days as a bard and a tamer. I was the bard. At first, i loved it - provoking everything in sight, dragons, you name it, i managed to kill it all. Then my friend got his first mare. . and i got jealous! He did quite well with that mare so i decided to take up taming. Got tame/lore high enough to get me a mare. Well, being a bard/tamer really is overkill and i got bored. So i dropped the taming. . . . and then eventually left for siege. Well, every now and then i go back to cats and even though i have 0 tame and 0 lore, i have 2 mares in my stable. . . i never play on cats anymore, but it's kinda novel.
 
G

Guest

Guest
hehe thats kinda funny, you have 0 taming and lore but you have two mares, you should claim them and walk around lol
 
G

Guest

Guest
Every now and then when i'm bored i'll log onto cats and check out the bank. I'm loathe to do anything with them - i can't bond with them and while i have GM peace, i'm not keen on going hunting with them either - cause if they die, there is no getting them back! Heh, as i said, it's just a novelty is all. . .
 
K

Kaopectate

Guest
The only bad thing about this is, Since publish 16 you have to have 95.1 tame to have 70% control of a mare. So therefore you couldn't hunt with them without control. I wonder if you can transfer them without having control?
 
G

Guest

Guest
Actually, i can hunt with them. Riding them is not a problem, so i can get them to any hunting spot i want. Once there, i can always do the ever popular dismount and invis trick to get them to kill stuff. I am a GM mage/bard so unless i lag badly or exercise bad judgement and try to take on something to hard, i should be fine. And that's with 0 control. However, i don't play that shard anymore so it's all moot.

No idea about the trasferring thing.

Too bad i didn't keep the taming til after pub 16 - i wonder if i get a pet to bond with you and then lower your tame/lore to 0 . . . . i bet you it stays bonded. Hrmmm, that has possibilities. . .
 
B

Blackmarlin

Guest
I miss the graphics when they lie down when they perform their majestic fire breath stunts!!!! Wonders if Aos will bring it back
 
D

Draeconis

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

My one massive regret is that mares no longer roll over to breathe fire - my heart stopped the first time Shiva did that - I though she had died!

<hr></blockquote>

Same thing with me. One minute it was fighting, then all of a sudden it lays down. I almost fell out of my seat, I thought it died. LOL

At least they don't twist when they cast anymore. That was really annoying.

And, Jams, your dream has come true. Hope you enjoy that mare and keep it a long time. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
J

Jamster

Guest
Yes Rets now owns a nice longmaned 525str mare thanks to Lord Vhaerun and Lady Eilistraee (draeconis and kisla). I hit my 85.2 taming with my 110 lore other night and they surprise me with Midnight. Then surprise me with Fire my 823str dragon /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif. They are safely tucked away in the stables for now getting pretty fat in there i imagine. Soon ill be able to take them out and play. (just hit 87.1 taming this morning.. ok so it will be another month LOL).
 
L

Lord Jackson

Guest
could someone give me an idea of the strength of the first breed of mares? ie; when t2a first came out?
 
B

BobMcForge

Guest
I had a tamer that I had worked to about 86 taming and GM lore. At the time that was enough control that I could hunt with a mare so stopped working my taming and hunted with the mare as I felt like it.

Well, publish 16 came along and suddenly I couldn't control my pet. It was really heartbreaking to have my long time pet locked in the stable, unusable to me. I made up my mind that I was going to work taming again and not take my mare out until I could bond with it.

The publish 16 control rules is what got me going again on taming. Now I have 110 Lore and 100 taming and feel like an honest tamer rather than someone with the minimum requirements playing at being a real tamer.

Nightmares are also the best pets for learning how to work with pets. You can ride them through spawn areas and only dismount when you are ready to fight. Getting your pet back out of an area (such as Illshenar or a Fel dungeon where recall/gate isn't an option) is also much easier with a mare. Once you learn to work with a mare it's much easier to learn how to manage Dragons and Wyrms.

Having a well trained mare has forced me to change my macro keys, however. I have a wheel mouse and wheel forward is target last while wheel back is target self. Let me tell you, the first time you wheel the wrong way after giving the "Kill" command will be a real eye opener.

Bob McZoo
Sonoma Tamer
 
A

ArtanisofATL

Guest
Oh geez. I used to run around a lot in T2A when it came out, and shortly after the mare spawn was turned on. I actually happened to bump into one just walking around randomly in the jungle. The funny thing is that I had no idea what it was because I didn't even know they were going to turn on the nightmare spawn, much less in some arbitrary forested area. I looked at it and was like "hey look, a grey horse making a dragon sound." Bad mistake... after it's initial fireball that did 60!!! damage to me and one kick I was dead. It was so fast I didn't know what was going on. Mind you I had 100 life at the time, and to see more than half of it dissappear after a funny sound the pretty horsey made was confusing for me :p. My friend that was with me hid, and then he tried to run away which was bad, so he died too lol. I think that's why he later decided to be a mage. :p

Anyway, for those of you who haven't played as long mares were surprisingly overpowered the first few days of spawn. I mean grossly. Newly spawned mares back then could take on a dragon 1v1 with no problem. My first mare (even though I had no taming at all then) was a jet black tamed the first day they spawned. Actually it happened to be the one that killed me as odd as that is. His name was "Thunderstorm," and I had a companion silver steed (yes those really while pale horses that GMs delete on sight) named "Thunderbolt." I also had another short mane mare named "Shadow." Not many people had so many rare animals then because of the spawn blocking... my friends were pretty jealous /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif Anyway, I sold off Thunderstorm before I quit and my friend got Thunderbolt guard whacked (he still owes me for him!! D: ). Then I came back to UO, made a tamer, and bought a jet mare. Then I quit again, came back a few months ago, and within two weeks tamed my own mare /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif My current mare is named Thunderstorm (in honor of my first mare). He's a 525 jet so I'm happy, not to mention he's my first self tamed mare on my new tamer! /php-bin/shared/images/icons/laugh.gif Big thanks go to Ezekiel for helping me out too.

-Art
 
M

Mordanna

Guest
<font color=green>i didn't read through all the previous posts minutely, so i might be repeating a few things other folks have said already. i'd like to add some "nightmare lore" from the old days for those of you who are curious.

nightmares used to spawn in 5 overland spawn areas in T2A. when first introduced, they had about 1000 hitpoints, a 60 hp fire breath attack (i am not kidding, their breath weapon used to be superior to dragons) and the ability to fly - which was widely abused to loot houses and lead to the first "nerf".

i am not quite certain how often nightmares have been nerfed in stats and damage potential since they were first introduced in 1998, but i'd say at least three times. thankfully the ability to fully train them has made up for that a bit.

i fondly remember the days when they were proud and free creatures, roaming the lost lands instead of being confined to dank and smelly dungeons. it was one thing that made travelling the lost lands so thrilling - the possibility of running into one of them.

the first mare i ever owned and also the first one i ever tamed myself were both the lighter, shortmaned variety. i tamed my first mare at oasis and also managed to tame near tortoise lagoon and at vesper cemetery passge, but was never lucky in titan valley or the southeastern area of T2A.
 
P

Puppy

Guest
I remember right after I came back to UO, I was exploring the Lost Lands with my cousin (who also plays UO--well, he just quit again, but at least he gave me his original 60-month account!) and every time a horse would whinny in the distance we'd be terrified, thinking it was a nightmare. We didn't know that the overland spawn had already been stopped.

My main tamer has a longmane named Archangel, which he bought two summers ago back when it was looking like all the varieties of mare wouldn't be spawning again (just the shortmane). I've always loved the longmane mares the best, myself. I wish I knew where Archangel was tamed and how old she really is. She's currently 6xGM, with her magery in the low 80s, and I'm always continually astounded by how powerful she is. It's like riding a little black dragon!
 
V

Vasago

Guest
Nightmares...what a glorious creature!

It was one of my main motivations to training hard, back when I started my first tamer. I've had quite a few mares, but also lost quite a lot, as many PKs seemed to enjoy killing pets if they had the luck of killing a tamer, also lag and con-loss have been costly. At least bonding seems to have changed PK behaviour...haven't seen a PK waste time on a pet since!

I have an old bonded TB mare, but this weekend I decided, that I wanted to tame me a fresh 525 str mare to train. Took me around 5 hours of waiting and circling mare spawns before I finally got a TB 525 str mare at Covetous mare spawn in felucca. Now I'm just waiting for Poseidon to bond, so I can start some serious training /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
S

Socko

Guest
yeah, I remember when T2A first came out, my fellow tamer, and friend John told me of a black horse that was easily tamed. After Dying over and over, it took me about 1000 attempts i think, i finnaly tamed my first Nightmare had him ever since, too bad he don't have 1000 hp anymore :/. Though he used to do around 65 70 damage in Firebreath.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Nightmares are such majestic creatures. I'm always amazed by their sheer power and beauty. I have a story about my first mare I would like to share. * is feeling nostalgic *

I tried to purchase Midnight Mermaid back when the mare spawns were blocked by a few elite tamers. I immediately fell in love with the nightmares and knew I had to get one. This was at a time mares could fly and I was truly amazed by their power. Although I cant remember how much I agreed to pay for a mare, it was considered a small fortune at that time. Back then there was no secure trading windows. You knew you were setting yourself up for being scammed so you had to place blind trust in people and pray they wouldn't screw you over. We agreed that the guy selling would friend me to his mare, I would pass him half of the money, he would transfer the mare to me and then I would trade him the rest of the payment. He friended his beautiful mare to me and I held my breath, giving him half of the small fortune. I wasn't surprised, more disappointed, when he laughed at me, jumped on his mare's back and recalled away. I filed the scammer's name in the back of my head and hoped to seek retribution.

Later that same day, I went to the stables to get my horse and said claim to the stablemaster. Who should pop out from the stables, but that guy's pretty little nightmare! After I recovered from my initial shock, I laughed when I realized what had happened. After scamming me the jerk had stabled his mare, forgetting that (back then) any friends to your pet could also claim them from the stables. I jumped on the mare and rode to the bank. The guy was at the bank chatting to one of his friends. I rode up to him and asked him how it was going. It took him a moment to catch on, and suddenly he remembered me from earlier and started getting nervous, asking me to get off my mare so he could check something. Of course I knew if I got off the mare he would hop on it, so I laughed, thanked him for the mare and waved to him as I rode away. He ran to the stables in a panic, repeating "oh sh#t, oh sh#t!" over and over. I'm sure he found the stables nice and empty /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif

I loved my new mare. I had to be careful never to stable her so that the scammer couldn't get his hands on her again. But what a sweet revenge. Little Midnight Mermaid was my constant and faithful companion for many months after that. One day I lost her to pks and I was so crushed. Midnight Mermaid had the courage and bravery of a dragon and I will never forget our wonderful memories together.
 
G

Guest

Guest
My one massive regret is that mares no longer roll over to breathe fire - my heart stopped the first time Shiva did that - I though she had died!

HAHA i alwyas loved that part, i would sit there and laugh cuz my mare would fall over n breath fire. I wish that still was part of the game *sigh*
 
K

Kyli Dragonbane

Guest
Oh my...do i ever remember my first nightmare sighting. I was a complete newbie standing around hoping to see someone get guard whacked at the west bank on Pacific so that I could collect some much needed goodies since back then we started with 100 gold and I couldn't afford much on my own. Anyway, much to my shock I saw this glorious black horse come up to the bank being ridden by some ultra cool player I knew only as...A Tamer!!... which were quite rare at the time.

I got up the courage to ask this woman who was seated on that fine looking horse where did she get that!! I wanted one. Now, of course she was really nice for the day and age she didn't laugh or pretend she didn't hear me. Instead my answer was...it was a gift and she vanished before my eyes. This was before I really knew anything about magery and recalling.

Well, figuring I had played this game long enough to be clever. I figured that a black horse must have been possible by the clever use of dyes. Now, I didn't think to use those rare and secret black dye tubs that no one shared, but I figured that some hair dye would take care of my plain old boring white looking horse and turn it into that super black one I had seen.

Needless to say, my horse stayed the same and I had black hair. It wasn't until some time later that more and more of the details of this wonderous "black horse" were revealed in conversations about the bank. So, of course I had to decide if I wanted to be a tamer. My first wild sighting in the woods on T2A scared the pants off my poor warrior. I'm wandering along killing harpies and taking out lizard and ratman spawns and emptying the chests which were not locked back then. When suddenly this grey horse starts shooting at me. Of course I ran for my life...and luckily managed to live to tell the tale at the Papua bank to anyone who would listen.

Now, of course, I have moved on to the Great Lakes shard and am a devoted tamer of long standing. My favorite pet is and always will be my nightmare...DareDevil, who is a jet from the days before they stopped spawning, so me and my legacy pal enjoy roaming the lands slaughtering all we see.
 
I

imported_Jimmy Pop

Guest
My very first char was a swordsman/tailor (selling fancy shirts to make enough gold for my first small house), I had about 55 taming and would tame horses in T2A for friends and to sell for 500gp each.

I was pretty far from Dulcia in the SE corner of the new lands, and I saw this beautiful DARK horse. I figured it would be good for at least 1000 gold, so I stepped up and hit my taming key. A lot of firsts followed.... first time I'd heard/seen dragon breath, first time I saw a horsey lay down, first time I'd died in less then 2 seconds.

I started the long run back to Dulcia, and spotted two guys hunting. I was lucky that one of them was a skilled mage and rez'd me. I told em what had done it and they both shouted "WHERE!" I said I'd show em - for a price (I *was* a struggling tailor after all). They gave me 5k, yet another first. So I took em to the mean dark horsey.

They immediately started in, one hitting it with spells, the other trying to tame it, and both healing. They seemed to be at a standstill so I went to collect my things. After I had gathered my items, I went back to see how those fellows were doing. I really wasn't surprised to see one of them dead, the other running/healing with that evil horsey on his tail.

That was the last time I saw those two, though I looked a little bit. See I had that poor dead fellows items, and wanted to return them. I eventually used/sold his stuff (lots of regs and nice magic thingy's), I mean after all, I was a struggling tailor.

*PS... I've since started a tamer and have a 525 Pure Black Shorthair in the stables. Just waiting for the day I can bond /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
G

Greywind

Guest
Nightmare was a reason for my PvP Tamer.
Remember time when horses use dex on run and you have to stop for rest 2-3 times on your way from delucia to papua? How many time during combat you die due your horse would not run anymore?
Taming was sort of riding skill. On nightmare I easy overrun gank brigades and barbaque dex monkey. After they lost mobility.
Curse this unlimited stamina bug.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Nightmares are by far (for me) one of the finest creatures to both have and tame. First thing I could do when I hit the very minimum to tame a nightmare was race off to get one. Took me well over three hours to actually tame it but I did....

I never was lucky enough to get a jet black one until one night, after racing in to the area where they spawned … over and over again … for pretty much 5 hours straight, always to find other players there taming or killing. But on my very last trip to the spawn ... I raced in and no one was around ... I had passed them on the way in. There sat a jet black mare, such a deep dark black that light seemed to shimmer off his coat.

I ran up and was so excited that I almost died from it's first attack ... didn't even see my health drop I was so fixated on the mare and praying no another player come along and whisked him away from me. After finally calming down I made the first attempt to tame him thinking I was going to be there all night but low and behold, he tamed on the first try!

Since thin, he's the only thing I ride and though I have another, this mare is my characters best companion. He not only rides him, “Shimmer” has saved Anev from countless deaths just because he's there. I know I can quickly dismount, give the signal and in most cases Shimmer can fend off something long enough for me to recover and gain the advantage!

I love my Wryms and my dragons but nightmares are still my #1 tame!

—Anev
 
G

Guest

Guest
Anyone know the minimum skill requirements in Taming and Lore to ride a pre-pub 16 mare? For that matter, are there information or guildelines somewhere on the skills required to ride or control any animal?
 
H

Hornace

Guest
The Nightmare was and the only reason I started training taming on one of my chars. He will be a legendary archer riding a mare... next year, probably...
 
J

John_Locke

Guest
Pre pub16 and Post Pub16 Mares have the same requirements.

I Lore'd my 524 Str Mare to find he had dropped to 310. What have other people found the str range to be ?
 
Top