Has anyone else noticed a difference in the quality of pets spawning recently?

[Llewen]

I'm having a very hard time finding good quality pets these past few days, and I'm trying to figure out whether I'm just on a typical string of bad UO luck, or whether something really has changed. It seems to me it started around the time of the last publish, which of course may be a coincidence, but it is nonetheless interesting. I've also talked to a couple of other tamers who say they are experiencing the same thing.

Now for a little background. Many years ago when I first started taming, I was taming cu sidhes, and I found one that I thought was really good, and I went and checked the math, and the odds against my finding a cu this good seemed astronomical, but when I went and posted about it in the taming forum, I was told that cu's of that quality were as common as dirt, and it was no big deal.

Over time I became aware that good quality pets spawned far more often than the math involved said they should. This has been especially true of greater dragons, but oddly enough, not so true for nightmares, which should be among the easiest of pets to find good quality specimens of, because of their smaller stat ranges, but oddly enough were not easy at all to find good quality specimens of. In fact, I would hazard a guess that the math involved with their quality of spawning is probably just about what it should be.

So my question is this, has anyone else noticed a change in the quality of the tameables spawning, and especially of greater dragons? And it would be really nice to get an official response on this with regard to the last patch, so I am going to submit another question to the "Ask the Devs" forum about it that is more specific.

 

[Uthar Pendragon]

I have not played recently, so take what I am telling with that in mind. I used to tame Greaters on a daily basis and would work the spawn regularly to tame them for guildmates and whoever else needed. In the Months I spent taming I Noticed after time the Quality took longer to cycle through. Basically the number of Greaters being killed on your shard has dwindled as people have found their keeper dragon. While there will always be turn over in these from others killing them and other tamers looking for their better dragon. The bottom line is they are still not being turned over like they were in the beginning. Add to this the genral streakyness of the RNG. it can account for what your seeing IMHO.

I was able to in the end have an idea of what the likelyhood of a good greater dragon spawning was within killing about 10 dragons. If the numbers seemed to hit right I would stay and work the spawn to see if i got lucky. I would regularly have stables full of 4.2 or better dragons with minnimal effort towards it. Granted the best I ever tamed was like a 4.4/5
I would also hit all the spawn points in my initial search and clear the spawn of what was there making sure I was looking at fresh numbers for the day.

Hope this helped

 

[Farsight]

My experience with dragons has been similar to Uthar's. Either they're all good, or they're all bad. It was never a balance when I tamed, thanks to the streaky RNG.

Which brings in mind the possibility that they actually fixed it?

... nah, that's hoping too much.

By the way Uthar, I still use the dragon you tamed for me waaaaay back when they first started spawning. He's a keeper, even at less stats/skills than some of the others I've tamed.

 

[Uthar Pendragon]

It took me over a year and a half of taming to find one that could beat my one I tamed the very first morning (within hours of the shard coming up) and even then I think My original Merlin could have taken him. but yeah I know what you mean sometimes there is just a little bit more going on behind the scenes that we cannot factor in yet. And sorry to hear your taking a hiatus from the game.

 

[yars]

ive notcied this with greaters no matter where i go to look, most are reallt bottom of the barrel, hp's barely break 1300, thats just pitiful, and the offset maybe to resists or skills is not there, id say hold onto what you have for awhile but dont stop looking.

 

[Barry Gibb]

Llewen, I think you are just noticing a slump due to the streaky RNG. Some days I find alot of sub-par pets and my stables stay empty. There are others when I run out of stable space (too bad it only seems to happen when taming Cus and not GDs). Your standards may have raised too, which would make this seem worse (and more noticable).

Find another thing to keep you busy for a couple days and then come back and try your luck.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Llewen]

Llewen, I think you are just noticing a slump due to the streaky RNG. Some days I find alot of sub-par pets and my stables stay empty. There are others when I run out of stable space (too bad it only seems to happen when taming Cus and not GDs). Your standards may have raised too, which would make this seem worse (and more noticable).

Find another thing to keep you busy for a couple days and then come back and try your luck.

Stayin Alive,

BG

I'm thinking you are probably right, although I'm more the type to just play through the bad streaks no matter how painful they are. It just seems odd to me that the other tamers I have discussed this with on Catskills are noticing the same thing.

 

[5% Luck]

I have to say as far as spawning for stats/resist/skills since ive been back (2-2 1/2 months) has been a ton easier than it has been in the past.

Especially rune beetles!

As far as greater dragons,where I farm them is fel rule set. 60 barbed a kill. I typicaly make a pile of 20-30k barbed hides before getting a good one, now its more like 6-8k.

The colored lesser hyrius though have been a total nightmare for me to spawn. It used to be with a single session so long as I focused and was patient, I would always be able to spawn one. Now, I did 5 session where I simply ran out my patients, (40k hides per trip) and not a single midnight! That is where I can farm up rare colored greater hyrius very easily compared to before.

The other one Id take the time to mention is the bake kitsune. Now back around a year ago, finding one with nice stats and all resist over 50 was well nearly impossible. Today, I can find one just about every session!

Now, Id like to point out that maybe just maybe, it is the difference in the equipment since my comparison is between imbuing and non imbuing time frames but I do know this, I like it!

 

[Thrandul]

I am experiencing the same thing. Greater dragons above 4.0 are very rare and hit points are most of the time under 1400.

I never tamed gds, when they were put into game, cause i just recently returned to UO.

I have also noticed, that i dont see greater dragons in the ranges, which are posted in "stat ranges for new dragons". I never saw a greater dragon with wrestling 140-145 and same for resist spells 135-140 and some other ... I have checked alot greater dragons..

 

[Llewen]

I just had a very odd thought last night. What if they've changed the way stats are generated on tameable mobs as part of a run up to a new "booster" which will introduce pet breeding?

 

[Barry Gibb]

I'm thinking you are probably right, although I'm more the type to just play through the bad streaks no matter how painful they are. It just seems odd to me that the other tamers I have discussed this with on Catskills are noticing the same thing.

I play through the bad streaks too. Sometimes a break really helps, so it does not get too discouraging and seem like a chore.

I just had a very odd thought last night. What if they've changed the way stats are generated on tameable mobs as part of a run up to a new "booster" which will introduce pet breeding?

I doubt this, as it would change how every creature in UO is generated.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Llewen]

I just had a very odd thought last night. What if they've changed the way stats are generated on tameable mobs as part of a run up to a new "booster" which will introduce pet breeding?

I doubt this, as it would change how every creature in UO is generated.

Why would it have to? There is clearly a "tameable" flag on mobs that can be tamed, why could that not also be the trigger for an alternate stat assignment function? It wouldn't have to have any effect whatsoever on how non-tameable mobs generate their stats on spawning.

 

[Barry Gibb]

Why would it have to? There is clearly a "tameable" flag on mobs that can be tamed, why could that not also be the trigger for an alternate stat assignment function? It wouldn't have to have any effect whatsoever on how non-tameable mobs generate their stats on spawning.

I'm just going to leave these "what ifs" alone. It looks like I may have pushed some of your buttons. My apologies, as that was not intended.

I doubt that they would make this type of change without:
a) letting us know,
b) put it on TC first.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Llewen]

I'm just going to leave these "what ifs" alone. It looks like I may have pushed some of your buttons. My apologies, as that was not intended.

I doubt that they would make this type of change without:
a) letting us know,
b) put it on TC first.

Stayin Alive,

BG

Oh you haven't "pushed any of my buttons". But I will point out that there have been plenty of changes of this sort made without any announcement in the history of the game. Especially changes which may be required to set up an event, or some kind of surprise, or big announcement.

But you are right about one thing without a doubt, this is all pure speculation. This may simply be a run of bad UO luck, or we may have stumbled on to some kind of bug or unintended consequence of recent code changes.

 

[Aibal]

It seems that mares haven't been as good lately. I've had no trouble grabbing 4.0 plus mares basically within an hour or so of trying in the past, but I haven't found one of that quality in several weeks. As far as gdrags, put me in the category of those that say they are either all good or all bad. I can roll into destard or deamon temple and know within a couple lores what kind of day I'm going to have. On the positive side, I've been on a very nice roll with rarer colored hiryus lately.

 

[Llewen]

On the positive side, I've been on a very nice roll with rarer colored hiryus lately.

I haven't noticed any difference in the spawn rate for coloured pets, only for the spawn rate of pets with good stats.

 

[Tina Small]

Maybe as a result of the change that was made a few publishes ago to have another animal spawn as soon as one is tamed or killed (to prevent the problem of having no spawn whatsoever if a fresh tame remained on the subserver), the developers lowered the chances for a really great tameable to spawn. Maybe they slid in a quiet adjustment after monitoring the situation for a while.

 

[Llewen]

Well the sad thing is, they just brought in the pet vendors, but now it's impractical to sell good quality pets. I can't spend days taming only to find a 4.1 pet that I can only sell for 1 mil at the most. I had hoped to be able to make my UO "living" selling good quality pets, but on my shard at least it appears that both the supply and the market have entirely dried up.