Sorry, love... thats 100% NOT true.
I remember my early days in UO... and mining... and mining... filling the crafter supply box. My miner had a book for the rarer ores to do some specialty mining... but again, this was before pet bonding… so it was another whole level of fun. Mostly, I wondered around outside Wind... in that wonderful mountainous area... KNOWING something high was coming up like valorite and... low and behold, a script miner would pop in and steal it. If not? I got it! We didnt have prospecting tools yet... and it was rare to find a gargoyle pick... and that was free-rang ore collection for a pet (less shadow). BUT... again, I remember some special elementals that spawned in T2A that gave other then iron.
Sorry, but you're
DEAD WRONG. 100% AND THEN SOME. You're starting with a flawed understanding and horribly outdated info, then going off into the wilderness.
First of all, why are you DWELLING ON A PAST THAT HAS NO RELEVANCE ON TODAY? Pre-Third Dawn (if not pre-Ren) UO has little to do with the game from LBR and later - and definitely not today. You seem to be citing the PRE-BOD era. Last I checked, it's been 17+ years since November 2001. By 2003, people were tossing PT & GPA on the ground in town when they redeemed the BODs, as they already had TOO MANY at home. And, Ironically, I found myself one of the few people that actually built characters to MAXIMIZE their use, and would pick them up.
Second, you seem to be FIXATED on JUST MINING. Random vs. Fixed involves TWO different types of resources now (metals and woods), not just mining.
Third, Those T2A elementals were gone LONG AGO.
WELL BEFORE AoS. By AoS, all that were left were Dull Copper Elementals in Compassion Desert and Terort Skitas (and they only give 2 DC ore, and were not part of the Earth Elemental Slayer group, just elemental superslayer, for years), and then the Shadow elemental was reintroduced in the Yomotsu Mines in 2004, with SE. Other than garg picks, the rest have only been around once since - for a COUPLE MONTHS AS INVASION CREATURES. It's easier to farm ORC BRUTES for shadow ore than the elemental.
Lastly, Randomized Spawn didn't come in until August 2007. I got to experience 4+ years of static spot mining (As I started playing during AoS), with a year of static lumberjacking, and competing with the scripters was NOT FUN even on one of the LOWEST population shards- which is why I stopped using most of my marked spots when paragons were introduced, and took to mining in Ilshenar (where you couldn't recall in) for the fun as much as the ore. I probably would have given up on crafting had I had to compete with the Atlantic populations.
With FIXED spawn:
With Mining, there is a chance of finding a spot that a scripter hasn't got to - The lower the shard's population and number of scripters, the greater the chance. But, it's usually a low quality spot.
At the height of the issue (right before the burning houses incident), even low-population shards were undergoing massive scripting by a NON-RESIDENT, and about the only spots that were not being scripted were ones where the colored ore yield was 20% or less chance (and even some of THOSE were being hit). Furthermore, when those of us tried to sell our ingots at what HAD been the standard prices, the scripters would use one of the illegal search sites, find them, then buy them to either mark up 300-500%, or to cross-shard to Atlantic (and/or to sell online as RMT). Ingots that had been priced 40-120 each, suddenly were 500 each or more, if they could even be found on the non-Atlantic shards anymore. Randomization was a pain, but it (and the huge banning) made the colored ore more available.
The real issue with static spawns is with WOODS, which were introduced in Mondain's Legacy (2006). The problem with Woods is that the 3 most valuable woods are reserved for GM Lumberjacks, so there's no way to establish a supply of them training up, and that the resource squares are so rare for them than when one is found, it became SCRIPTED, often by MULTIPLE scripters. I LITERALLY sat at a Frostwood spot in Malas for an hour (2 screens from the houses of my guildmasters at the time), never getting a swing in, because FOUR different scripters would pop in and out trying to chop the tree - often with 1 or 2 of them showing up while another one of them was already chopping. Ironically, 2 of them were using a script that was Fel-optimized and immediately recalled back out on seeing another name - but Frostwood was so rare that EVERY facet's known trees were scripted (as was bloodwood and heartwood). Even the ILSHENAR trees with the high-end trio of woods had scripters that would run in from the nearest moongate on programmed rails, if they were located in areas that were relatively safe. Something that the ore scripters didn't do because there was more than enough ore spots where they could recall mine.
With RANDOM spots
Mining: The scripters tend to find remote spots with higher yields. Everyone else can mine elsewhere. The randomization SUCKS for trying to get specific ore, but it SUCKS FOR SCRIPTERS AND PLAYERS ALIKE. The Scripters, though, still come out better in the end, because they are automated.
Woods: Now, NO ONE can easily find colored wood - but even though randomization has been around a decade, the supply from the scripters has never really dropped (probably a mix of the lack of demand once everyone who was doing the museum getting done by the time randomization had an effect, and again the scripts not needing sleep). The regular users are the ones hurt, but with a LOT of effort can find the woods.
The truth is, NEITHER situation is optimal. And that MINING is NOT the skill with the issue.
The Scripters come out ahead with BOTH - but Randomization is more fair to miners than for lumberjacks - while Static makes the high-end colored woods even MORE difficult than with random, for the non-scripter lumberjack.
The REAL fix would be:
- Redo the minimum skills to log Yew, Heartwood, Bloodwood, and Frostwood
- Add PT & GPA type tools to Lumberjacking
If that was done Static vs. Random would be a MOOT POINT.
