Ok Dor, Here you go! What I wrote originally. Don't say I didn't warn you:
Yes, after 65 months (according to paper doll, I think it might be a few months off) I am finally closing my accounts. Well, ok, I'm closing one, and letting a friend have one (since I have an almost fully developed Siege char with log cabin), but he is to close it when he is tired of the game.
***WARNING: WHAT IS TO FOLLOW IS A VERY LONG NOSTALGIC PATH DOWN MY HISTORY IN UO, IT HAS BEEN SUMMED UP BUT IT IS STILL LONG AND WILL BE VERY BORING TO MOST OF YOU, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK OR SKIP TO THE END***
(PS: I'm typing this because I FEEL like typing this and seems to be a good way to close UO for myself permanently. True, I've arranged it so I can come back, but I highly doubt that this game will ever revert back to the way it was. Let's face it, the majority of the people that play do not like interacting with people, go figure, why would they pay $12 a month to be alone and not be bothered? You can do that for free. )
When I started this game those many months ago it was because my brother had bought it and he was having a blast playing it. He ended up dragging both myself, and my mom (eventually a few years later my dad also) into playing as well. We started on his account but soon found that we would rather be able to play together and soon bought a 2nd account.
I remember my very first character. Her name was Xiraxa and she was on the Pacific shard. She was a tamer, lumberjack, bow crafter, tailor. The first time I left town (Britain) with her I had tamed two timber wolves while I chopped wood and shot birds. Not too far outside of the northern exit and to the north east I ran into a woman clad in bone armor (something much treasured by a newbie back in the day). I said a hello to her, which she ignored, and to my surprise she attacked one of my wolves! I asked her to please stop, as the wolves were my pets. She continued to ignore me. The only thing I could think to do was "Spot kill¨, "Fido kill¨ and (I had tamed another wolf by this time "Butch kill¨. With all the wolves and myself attacking her she soon succumbed to her wounds and died at my feet. I remember her corpse was FILLED to the brim with leather bustiers. I quickly looted the bone armor and then worked on the bustiers. It took me 5 trips to get all that loot and I remember it put my first 1000 gold pieces in the bank box. My very first taste of PvP and victory.
Unfortunately, Pacific became HORRIBLY laggy, and we could no longer play the shard. Also, since we had just purchased a new account it seemed easier to just start new on a different shard and new character.
So, off to Napa Valley we all went, where I started my mage/lumberjack, Marianna. I had played her for a couple months when my brother (from reading websites) thought it would be a hoot to make pirates. Thinking back to it now, I realize the only reason he wanted me to make a pirate was so I could do all the boring work while he did all the killing and fun stuff, however this plan of piracy never came to life because he soon grew bored with it. Nevertheless, Jhani De L'eau was born anyways (some people have asked me why he is Jhani of the water, well, now you know).
The first day I created Jhani, I was running thru the forests of Yew, there was a house that had a nice training dummy that was just a little outside of town that I was heading to. Upon my way there I stumbled upon my first collapsed house. The house was full of too much treasure for my still newbie mind to comprehend but I still managed to get a good amount of valuable (tons of invulnerable plate mail with reflect charges on it). I did not get it all though as people became suspicious of my constant running too and from the bank.
Even though the pirate plan was crushed, I trained Jhani anyways. I decided to try lock picking, and that lead to hiding and stealth to get to the chests in the dangerous dungeons. I managed to find other amusements with stealth as well (stealthing into peoples houses just before the door closes, looting ground runes, treasure, etc). After a new patch came in making a lockpicker desire detect hidden and remove traps I was forced to train it, and discovered what was to be the most fun I would have in UO.
One day at the WBB, I went about my task of gaining detect. My logic said to me, people hide ALL THE TIME at the bank so thieves cannot steal from them, I hide when I bank, so thus, one can gain skill there. After sitting there for a time I realized that many people do not actually hide while banking, in fact, almost no one did. I did happen to find one person that hid, and I started to try to detect them with a fury, but alas, they kept moving and I was forced to follow them. I ended up following them all over the bank, never saying a word just trying to detect them. They ran down by the docks to get away from me and wound up by that cluster of small empty buildings. They then turned to me and frothed, yelled, screamed, and cussed at me to leave them alone. They then called a counselor to come "deal" with me. The counselor came after a short while and the man explained that he had a mute following him everywhere. I was asked why I was tormenting this man to whom I responded that I was merely trying to gain skill. The man was shocked that "he speaks!?!¡" From that point on, I decided that following people was a lot more fun that training boring ol' detect. Jhani began following people on a daily basis, but after a week or so I felt something was missing in the RP of this deranged personality. I stumbled upon it one day when I was following a pair of twins. They had opened a gate to escape Jhani and I could not decide whether to step through or not. I took the chance and fortunately wound up in the town of Ocllo. This was not a good thing, this gating, this needed to be taken care of. Hence, from that day forth gates became evil foul things that lead to no good and needed destroying.
I had more fun than I ever imagined I would on Jhani. I played probably 3 or more hours a day. And I usually had an audience to boot (a RL audience). People have a hard time believing me when I say I had much more fun playing Jhani than any other character, including Bacci. But you have to understand that at this point in the game, I could play Jhani at ANY hour of the day, and would get the same predictable, hilarious, responses, with little effort, little preparation (just dispel reagents that I had picked up from the ground or looted), and some dumb luck. Dumb luck was what I seemed to have the most of, that, and I seemed to be a magnet for idiots and high-strung people.
There are a few moments of extreme dumb luck in Jhani's career that I still laugh about to this day thinking back to them.
DL1:
One day Jhani was following one of his favorite bank sitters "Mind Game", she did not care much for his attentions and neither did her friends, but by this point they knew getting rid of him was practically impossible (they had called many a GM and counselor on him from previous following events). Jhani followed them from Moonglow to Papua (thru the magic shop) they went out the north bank side exit of Papua leaving Jhani behind in town (one thing about Jhani was he NEVER will follow you out of town). Well, it was a Saturday and I had many a thing to do, so I logged a few minutes after they had departed (I had for some odd reason decided to log at the bank hidden). Six hours later, I get back on Jhani and login in time to see a gate pop up. No people are around that could have cast this gate so it was obviously a return gate. Jhani quickly dispels the evil thing and watches as out pops Mind Game and her crew, having JUST THEN finished their hunt. Jhani promptly goes back to following Mind Game when one of her friends screams "OMFG!!! HE¡¦S STILL HERE!!" Which resulted in a whole slew of curses and exasperated yellings from them about how much of a loser, psychotic, and no life Jhani was (this coming from the "losers" who had just spent 6 hours hunting in the lost lands).
DL2:
Jhani was out doing his usual thing when he happened upon a very interesting person named "Diamond Wing". Diamond Wing did not care for Jhani's attentions at all. He swore, he yelled, he squealed, and he finally after about 30 minutes decided to walk slowly from the WBB towards the moongate. When they got to just the edge of the town limits, Diamond Wing then turned to Jhani and yelled "bye ass" and recalled. Well, Jhani, being the prepared fellow that he was, had just that morning marked 5 new runes for areas around the WBB. The man was most surely going back to the bank, so, randomly picking a rune Jhani recalled as well, only to recall in RIGHT NEXT TO Diamond Wing. At this point Diamond Wing blew a gasket. He accused Jhani of being a GM, of abusing his powers, and how he was going to write OSI and get Jhani canned, but first was going to page another GM and report Jhani, etc etc. After about 20 more minutes of following Diamond Wing, he teleported to the bank roof and spoke to a GM for some length. I never did get to hear that conversation, but surely would have loved too.
And now some random Jhani stories:
JS1:
Jhani was following a group of people trying to gate some other people to an unknown location. Of course our hero could not let this atrocity happen so he promptly dispelled their efforts. They got so exasperated that they started casting gates 2 at a time, alas for them, Jhani was too swift. So after about 20 minutes of this, with them complaining, a person wanders over to one of the mages and says "can you gate me to *insert name*?". The mage turns to him and says "That's the most ****ing hilarious things I've heard in a long time!".
JS2:
Just recently, as I was packing up one of my accounts, I happened to be on Jhani in MG Tram. Well, this guy walks up to me and says "are you Jhani? The REAL Jhani?" I tell him yes and he tells me about one of the times Jhani bugged the heck out of him (this was after I told him I was quitting).
He said that there was this one time where he had managed to scam two newbies and was proceeding to try to gate them to a place to finish the scam and get their goods. Jhani, however would NOT let him gate them and they soon grew so pissed that they broke the deal and left never knowing that Jhani had saved them from an actual EVIL gate!
JS3:
Jhani was busy using the Yew bank (hidden of course) when a man walks in that he recognizes. Now, this man had been extremely rude to Jhani once upon a time and Jhani felt the need for a little revenge. The man and his friend both did their banking and then the man drops a rune to his house for the friend to recall off of. Well, unfortunately for them, they happened to drop the rune right next to Jhani! Jhani snatched it up in no delay while the two men argued about its fate, even going so far as to blame each other. After determining that it must be a fluke, or that the decay rate must be buggy, the man states that it's lucky he has another rune and they decide to walk into the back room right next to the banking area. Jhani expertly stealths in after them just an instant before the door shuts. The man proceeds to once again drop the rune and it also becomes Jhani's.
I will always remember what a GM told me one night (I spoke with them frequently). He said that they were receiving "100s of calls a night" on Jhani (his words, he said 100s) and that it bugged them to no end because I was playing within guidelines and people were just not bothering to try to think of how to deal with Jhani.
The introduction of Trammel was what ruined Jhani. Soon the Britain bank and all the other banks became barren, and in Trammel, they made it so one could not dispel gates.
I almost quit then and there, but a friend (at the time) talked me into coming to Sonoma.
I let that friend name my new character and he chose the name Galadriel. Galadriel started a new chapter in UO for me. I had never really pvp'd up until that point and decided to start with a mage and try it out. Before that though Galadriel needed training and gold and so I turned her into a looter (probably didn¡¦t help hanging out with LuT, hehe). After I felt settled and trained up to where I thought I was ready to learn PvP I was lucky enough to run into a man named "Dramboue'". He was a good, if not harsh, teacher. He did not fight "fair" or "duel". It was dirty, nasty, use any trick you can to win (within game mechanics) PvP. Just my sort of thing. I eventually joined an Order guild, where my pvp skills were even more increased. I do remember a funny story from back when Galadriel was in that order guild. The order guild that I had put her in was called Wo4. Not many other guilds liked us, and a lot were scared of us. I had a few of our more friendly adversaries on ICQ at the time and I mentioned to the GM of one of Wo4's enemies that I was headed to the WBB. He said "there are at least 15 people here at this time that will be orange to you! I would not advise coming." His next response just a few seconds later was "are there a lot of you coming??" I told him no, that it was just me and that I had a surprise in store. At this point he was really fretting about what I could possibly be planning. I went near to the WBB, carrying 3 of each potion, 15 bandages, and 15 of each reagent. I stabled my horse and polymorphed myself into a chicken. I then ran into town and let at them with a fury. I almost managed to kill two of them (I could not keep up due to lack of horse) before the 15 of them managed to kill me. Was quite funny as they could not target the tiny chicken.
Mage PvP and Order started to eventually get boring. I needed something more. I had always been a fan of thieves and had in every other game I'd ever played been a thief that I figured it was time to make one. I was also at the time a big fan of Xavori and another fencer thief (Bloodbane? Blackblood? Something like that). So I created Bacci. I remember at the time I started playing Bacci more and more that Galadriel was no longer in an Order guild (I'm a lil fuzzy on the exact order of things) but I do remember that Galadriel was in a guild called KiH for a short time (btw, I had the hardest time of staying in guilds). Galadriel had went on a guild hunt and when everyone got back to the guild tower said good night and left. I had really just gone to log on Bacci so I could continue training and I made my way up to the KiH guildhouse (it was only a few screens away and located in Trammel). When I got there they were dividing up the gold (which I forgot to stick around for on Riel) and the GM asked if anyone had been left out. I said I had been and she laughed and told me that I was not a guildmember (I had told her the day previously who my thief in training was as we had been discussing thieves and she had been making one as well). Well, I figured they must RP more than I thought and brushed it off as that. One member then asks me if I would like to come along on a guild hunt with them all. I say sure, I needed the training anyways. They gate to Hythloth and not too far into the dungeon people start dying en masse. Well, seeing as how I'm a thief and "don't know" these people I start looting (heh, never let an unknown thief into your party and leave looting on
). Well, turns out the gm believed in the one char all char rule and I was told to either return the loot or be kicked out and put on the list. I chose the latter.
So once again I rejoined LuT (the only guild to never kick me out). I really enjoyed RP though and LuT was not an RP guild. So Bacci left to join =G=, the supposedly EVIL RP guild. I thought this would be a great thing. How wrong I was.
Bacci only lasted a day or so in =G=. She went down to the guild house for a guild meeting with a possible hunt at the end of it. The meeting turned out to be a charity drive for Lich to give away crappy might and ruin weapons, no RPing was done and most of the people there seemed to speak dude speak. Eventually after the wind down of the free crap (no, Bacci did not take any, it was after all, crap), some guild mates wanted to go out and hunt. Bacci thought this would be great fun, to go hunt and terrorize the public. The group, unfortunately, meant monsters and gated to a dungeon (I forget which one, it had hellhounds and gargoyles in it though). The only plus side was that it was a Felucca dungeon. Bacci decided to show these so called "evil role-players" what role-playing evil truly was about. One of the group had a nice vanquishing quarter staff that she had noted earlier in the evening. The only thing to do now was sit back and wait for the fools to kill themselves (and provide a little help if needed). Most of them died just a few minutes into the dungeon and Bacci went to work relieving them of their valuables. They rezzed up and soon noted their missing belongings, asking Bacci if she had seen them. She replied that she did indeed have them and thanked them kindly for the new loot. A couple of them decided to attack and retrieve their guild mates' items resulting in their deaths.
Shortly after this incident I received an ICQ about how what I did was just wrong. I replied that I was just RPing my evil character and how the guild was lacking in that particular aspect. So, essentially I feel I was kicked from =G= for being too evil.
I never understood how people could think just by saying they were doing something that they were actually doing it. Just to prance around and say you are an evil role-player and never actually do anything evil or role-play other than on a message board.
It was at this point that I realized if I truly wanted to do role-playing that I was going to have to once again do it by myself. That's until Harmony convinced me to start up a guild of my own. I had never truly ran a real guild before. Sure I had had a stone or two before so I could play around with the name above my head, but it never really had rules, guidelines, a "business plan" if you will.
The Dungeon Owner Protection Agency, how long I puzzled and pondered over a proper name. I really did love the guild tags of DP. Double meaning and all. The guild started with just a few members. And basically the rules were, ask for payment first (if possible, hard to if they attack you outright), if the person refused or ignored you then do what it took to drive them from the lands (murder, steal, kill pets, lure monsters, loot monsters, etc. all were viable tactics). In the beginning very few people paid. So, it did mean we made a LOT of loot.
Eventually though, word began to spread of the "griefers" that haunted the dungeons. I find it so funny that anything that makes a person have some challenge is considered griefing. People actually started paying and a guild forum and website was needed to keep track of things and direct people to for our rules of conduct. Thanks to Steve we have a great one that still exists.
I have some good memories of Bacci's times collectig.
BT1:
I had logged into UO and awoke in Khaldun as a ghost. I had forgotten that I had died the night before. I ran to the nearest entrance and ran into Electra (a person I had fought with on many a previous occasion). I showed myself to her and said a ghostly hello. She replied with a "drat! I was coming to fight you!". She rezzed me and I told her to wait here while I restocked and that it would just take a couple of minutes. I came back with 5 of each potion, 50 bandages, a kryss (dp'd), a spear, 10 of each reagent, and some armor that had been laying about. The resulting battle lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes and spanned much of the dungeon. In the end Bacci did win (with having stolen all of Electra's bandages and potions). Was one of the best fights I had in UO. After that fight we became friends and allies.
BS2:
Bacci did have her bouts of mischief though. One time while out collecting she ran into this mage killing spectral armors. The mage yelled a hello and asked if Bacci had any spare bloodmoss. Bacci ran over and saw that the mage only had 7 left in his pack and replied that she had 7 that he could have. He yelled his thanks and Bacci promptly stole his 7 bloodmoss and gave it back to him. He did not notice her new shade of gray and was happy with the new 7. Bacci then yelled that she had 7 more he could have if he wanted. He was much pleased and yelled his thanks once again. So, Bacci stole the 7 once more and offered it back to him. This happened a total of 5 times before he noticed.
BS3:
We also had some great guild outings. Unlike other guild outings, when we went out, we went out to collect. And with a large group of thieves and murderers, people were more likely to pay. One time the group went to Hythloth. We knew from an inside source that PAS was hoping to poach inside the dungeon. There were about 3 or 4 of us with a couple on the way. We went inside and politely asked for payment to which we were told by King David (anyone remember him?) "Bacci, go away, I don¡'t feel like role-playing right now." Of course that did not happen and a big battle ensued.
There are just way too many tales to relate so I'll stop there. They were fun times. Publish 16 made it impossible for many of us to continue collecting. People became grossly belligerent with OSI's new protections and other than becoming a PK we were getting no where. I never much cared for being red and did not take that route. So I started playing Napa more once again. Converting Marianna into a thief much like Bacci. Marianna was a lot worse than Bacci, she had no rules of conduct to follow.
When I read some of the new changes coming with AOS, I thought it might be fun. I knew when they said spells would become fixed on weapons and armor that Bless would be one such spell. So I ran around and bought up all the blessing items that I could. I ended up with almost a complete suit. I believe I was 2 pieces off. So, for a few months I had Super Bacci (220 some dex with a GA pot.. hehe ). But even with having fun on Super Bacci I saw the way the game was going. Everything was insured, and even with those super stats I still could not kill paladins or roach mages.
Eventually I played less and less. And a game that had been nightly fun, went to weekly, and then to monthly, to non existent.
