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Should they change the Blackthorn dungeon so hidden tamers can't get drops?

Ender

Crazed Zealot
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UNLEASHED
It was an error to realize the invasion setup 1:1 as dungeon in the first place. I worked the invasion spawns week by week and got my share of items. It was HARD work. Only to see, that everybody can get the same items now by cheating.

As I said a year ago: They should have added the items as [REPLICA] to the Blackthorn dungeon with a lower durability. And - OF COURSE - far lower turn in rate (by half, for exapmle). Consequence: Everybody can get his favoured item by a reasonable amount of work and the initial event-items as well as the old ones (garbs, for example) would have kept their value.

Now: Its a mess!
Personally I think they didn't add enough limited time event items to the Blackthorn dungeon list. The 5 SSI cloak? That should definitely be in the list, the Conjurer's Trinket, uh... I'm blanking on any others right now but I'm sure there are some.
 

WootSauce

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I ignore all inquiries about refinements
6 - Refinements - for the love of Mike please get rid of the armor types. Make the refinements work for any armor. That would reduce the sheer number by a factor of 8-10. Its so impossible to collect any decent number to combine this system is hardly even being used. I know it was someones wet dream to make people buy more housing but instead it is more code you wrote/support that NO ONE is using. Make this tweak and it becomes moderately worth pursing.
 

Tomarke

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Blackthorns is modeled after ToT with some obvious changes. For one thing, with imbuing and reforging, creating minor artifacts is no longer feasible. As a result we used random artifact generation based on new loot props. We also wanted to provide a permanent home for that content in the game, since conversion artifacts are very desirable...as a result the values for turn in were higher than ToT since that was limited release. Both systems use a guaranteed drop mechanic just like Doom, which is a mechanic you'll see in future content as well.
Excuse my ignorance here but I have a question, your second paragraph made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Please elaborate on this para as I am not quite versed in game development as many others here. Does this mean that content added in the future will be similar to Blackthorn's? Is this the only kind of permanent PVM content which will be added? Perpetual grinds competing with AFKrs? GM staff who don't respond to reports of, well....anything? Is this truly our future? Please say it isn't so.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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UNLEASHED
6 - Refinements - for the love of Mike please get rid of the armor types. Make the refinements work for any armor. That would reduce the sheer number by a factor of 8-10. Its so impossible to collect any decent number to combine this system is hardly even being used. I know it was someones wet dream to make people buy more housing but instead it is more code you wrote/support that NO ONE is using. Make this tweak and it becomes moderately worth pursing.
Why did you misquote me? I'm more than happy to engage in discussions about a variety of topics, including refinements...we talk about it frequently internally. It is comments like this, however, that do not add any substance to the discussion.
 

Smoot

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just out of curiosity, did you also find Treasures of Tokuno to be grindy? Trying to minimize the grindy-feel is always a goal, certainly a challenge when trying to maximize replay ability.
Yes it was a grind. But it wasnt around long, so it was an enjoyable grind because it was new.

Blackthorns dungeon on the other hand, its perma content so yes its become a grueling terrible afk grind.

The problem its so easy to AFK grind to get the arties that the people that are there on multiple accounts AFK 24/7 have flooded the market to the point where actually do the challenging fun part of it (the captains) just isnt worth the trouble.

Why would i spend 8 hours plus fighting something when i can make 10times the gold value in that same amount of time doing other things?

Yes, the AFK grind has ruined Blackthorns dungeon. It was really fun, but just isnt worth it because the minax arties are so common they arent worth the time it takes to get them. Of course if your AFK, time isnt a concern. Its still all pure easy profit. Especially if your bagballed in with 0 risk of death.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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Excuse my ignorance here but I have a question, your second paragraph made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Please elaborate on this para as I am not quite versed in game development as many others here. Does this mean that content added in the future will be similar to Blackthorn's? Is this the only kind of permanent PVM content which will be added? Perpetual grinds competing with AFKrs? GM staff who don't respond to reports of, well....anything? Is this truly our future? Please say it isn't so.
What I meant is that a guaranteed reward system, like the ones found in ToT and Blackthorn's are popular, and you can expect to see it applied elsewhere.
 

Smoot

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
My answer: Yes...and no.


Personally, I don't enjoy the mini city areas. The drop rate is way to inconsistent and unless you go there with a coordinated group its pointless. I want the rewards, but the content simply doesn't capture *my* interest. However, I know others who do like it, so to each their own. (Just a note: more hit points =/= fun)
Its very consistent : ) 2 drops per captain, which is double what it was during the actual invasion. I'll admit, you need a specific template and suit to be able to clear a town solo and i realize thats not for everyone. Especially when AFKers have flooded the market with minax arties its not really worth the time. because its still very time consuming and very hard. I really enjoyed the challenge tho when it first came out.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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Yes it was a grind. But it wasnt around long, so it was an enjoyable grind because it was new.

Blackthorns dungeon on the other hand, its perma content so yes its become a grueling terrible afk grind.

The problem its so easy to AFK grind to get the arties that the people that are there on multiple accounts AFK 24/7 have flooded the market to the point where actually do the challenging fun part of it (the captains) just isnt worth the trouble.

Why would i spend 8 hours plus fighting something when i can make 10times the gold value in that same amount of time doing other things?

Yes, the AFK grind has ruined Blackthorns dungeon. It was really fun, but just isnt worth it because the minax arties are so common they arent worth the time it takes to get them. Of course if your AFK, time isnt a concern. Its still all pure easy profit. Especially if your bagballed in with 0 risk of death.
The AFK issue aside, are you saying that you'd rather see a timed event like ToT where reward items are released in limited availability over something that has a permanent home in he the game with those rewards available to anyone who wishes to play for them? I can see it going both ways, just curious what your thoughts were.
 

Ender

Crazed Zealot
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UNLEASHED
Why did you misquote me? I'm more than happy to engage in discussions about a variety of topics, including refinements...we talk about it frequently internally. It is comments like this, however, that do not add any substance to the discussion.
Have you considered cutting down the frankly absurd number of refinements that can possibly drop? I'm okay with the functions staying as separate types, and with the amalgamator the levels as well. But a type for every armor type? Surely just crafting skill would be enough.
 

WootSauce

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Why did you misquote me? I'm more than happy to engage in discussions about a variety of topics, including refinements...we talk about it frequently internally. It is comments like this, however, that do not add any substance to the discussion.
Please then, give us your current take on the refinement system. Do you think it works well? Was it worth the dev time? Are the resources necessary to utilize it accessible and functional? Does the majority of the playerbase benefit from this addition?
 

Smoot

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The AFK issue aside, are you saying that you'd rather see a timed event like ToT where reward items are released in limited availability over something that has a permanent home in he the game with those rewards available to anyone who wishes to play for them? I can see it going both ways, just curious what your thoughts were.
I personally prefer a limited time event. Even if its reoccurring, say once every 6months or year. However i also realize people complain that the rewards should be available to everyone, not just those who played during the time they were available.

I also like rares tho, i wouldnt be upset if every item in the game were only in limited quantities.

You said AFK issue aside however this is something that cant really be ignored when considering limited time content or permanent ToT style content. If its able to be afked, people are going to do it.

Any new content thats able to be AFKed, its going to be fun and rewarding for about a month. After that the rewards will be worth so little that its not worth ever doing again.

Blackthorns is still really fun for me, but knowing that im not gaining anything substantial from it prevents me from going there. I realize its just not worth the time anymore.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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Please then, give us your current take on the refinement system. Do you think it works well? Was it worth the dev time? Are the resources necessary to utilize it accessible and functional? Does the majority of the playerbase benefit from this addition?
I think that for those that wish to add some customization to their suits, it works well. For those that aren't into completely min/maxing their suits it probably doesn't factor in, but that level of casual play is either relying on someone who is suit building guru, of just going with the flow when it comes to what to wear...maybe you have a decent piece here or there, but for the most part you pick what looks good and what gives you decent stats and you head off into the fight. I think that the system overall suffered in a bad initial taste and we are still recovering from it, however, assertions that, "no one uses it at all ever anywhere" are a bit inflated (it's a big Britannia out there). The system was included in the larger scope of armor and weapon changes, so it wasn't that much of an extra burden. Would we like to see more people utilizing it? Of course, and there are some changes we could make that would foster that which we are still having an ongoing discussion about. Cutting down specificity and thinning out the variety in components is a delicate balance in that if we get it wrong it's a fast way to add to our ever growing power creep problem. I'm much more of a proponent of making the process of building a collection of refinement components easier, so people are more encouraged to collect, buy, and trade them to complete full sets that can be used to create some truly unique sets of armor. I don't think you can apply your final metric of success to UO content, there's just far too much variability in what players like to do while logged on to form a consensus of what any given person considers benefitting them. I'm personally ok with that, people should play UO how they want to play it (within reason of course). I think that's one of the games greatest strengths.
 

Ender

Crazed Zealot
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Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
The problem right now is nobody buys or sells them, on Great Lakes at least. They all just throw them in the trash for turn-in points without even looking at them because there's so many kinds it's not worth the effort for most people. I've tried buying them and been told that. I tried collecting some myself and didn't get any of the type and armor I wanted.
 

Smoot

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
one thing that would help refinements is a way to remove it / clean an item back to its original state. I use refinements, and would like to use them more, but no way would i ruin higher end armor by refining it. Its just not worth the small bonus to never be able to sell it again or put it into a different suit.
 

Elden of Baja

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Glad to see so much participation from Kyronix. The Blackthorn addition was definitely a great concept. Guaranteed Drops + Random Drops are nice, you can still grab a legendary/greater/major, which can make it much more interesting than ToT. Also the Addition of Multiple Level Monsters was Awesome although I think the Layout could of used some love since you have to run past the greater dragons to get to the rats/bats. You could literally train any character in the dungeon from Noob to Legendary, which is awesome.

I'd Be interested to know what you are doing smoot to earn 8x the value of Blackthorn artifacts in game right now. Even the mages with a luck suit you can hit 2-3 an hour, Market value of 350k per, so close to a million gold an hour. Even Not Afk, that's hard to beat.

Refinements, Pretty much exactly what everyone else has said. Do away with the Armor Types. When you combine it with the Right Materials bought from the crafters, then it can be specific for an armor type, but the original refinements should just be the varying grades. Refinements are awesome though in my opinion. On a 120 Parry/Bushido toon, going 75/75/75/75/70 (75 for elf), you get a 16% Decrease in Damage for an 18% Chance to be hit more often from melee, but a much higher Parry Chance. Combine that with an armored swampy and a damage eater piece, and you are a counter striking badass.

Don't worry too much about the Afkers in blackthorn. I do have a picture of the balron room filled with more than 1 Balron to deal with someone. The gm's do show up and do something, but when you happen to Illegally Block the player you are paging on, chances are the gm won't do anything since both the pager and the person you are paging on are violating tos. Just my two cents. Those who live in glass houses and whatnot
 

James Moriarty

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Well I have been working Blackthorns dungeon for atifacts and I have a bigger problem with people luring the greater dragon on to me daily. 4-5 times a day. The said person knows im not AFK but still they insist on griefing me with the GD. All done in stealth in animal form and with the use of hearding

When I try and escape the GD the griefer then goes on to hearding the spawn away from the area so I have to run around the dungeon to find it.

They need to fix it so the GD can not be lured with hearding down there
 

Swt Lippy Hippy

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
The AFK issue aside, are you saying that you'd rather see a timed event like ToT where reward items are released in limited availability over something that has a permanent home in he the game with those rewards available to anyone who wishes to play for them? I can see it going both ways, just curious what your thoughts were.

Smoot complains too much!!! Its great just the way it is and It does suck when afk , cheating people try to lure on you to hog the spot. But I work my play time around it and life is too darn short to stress over mentally unstable scripters that think they cant be successful on their own. lol I complained about scripters on my shard and a few banned me at their vendor houses, so I learn to shut up and just do my own thing and hope some day their house goes on fire lol.. Kryonix I adore you so please dont let some rude mannered person keep you from responding to the rest of us. Most of us appreciate the fact you are reading and listening to our comments. I don't know how you can have a good day at work when some of these babbling loons are so negative alll the time!!! lol I am a 15 year vet and greatful for the chances to get goodies when you work hard for them. Thanks again and omg Smoot i so wanna make a char on seige ... I did hear you were seen at atl at some rares event.... Is that true? you had rares at atl for sale? I thought you only played Seige lol.... anyways peace and thanks for lettin me post my opinion. I must warn you.. I get lippy but I never mean to cause harm to anyone. If you dont like what I say just toss it out the window. peace out :)
 

Aurelius

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Cutting down specificity and thinning out the variety in components is a delicate balance in that if we get it wrong it's a fast way to add to our ever growing power creep problem.
This doesn't make much sense to me.

What do you mean by 'power creep'? At present, people can make equipment to a higher standard by collecting, over quite a long time, specific enhancements and applying them, and improving armour to the levels the devs allow. Whether people can do that slowly like now, or faster as some suggest, the end result is bound to be a gradual trend towards that new, higher level. Is the 'power creep problem' that people can reach those levels? If so the issue is the level, not how fast people can get there.

If the final 'power level' is right, just having a slower and more grind-like way of people getting to the level you determine appropriate is just another grind simply so people spend more time doing it.... we have too many of those already.
 

Petra Fyde

Peerless Chatterbox
Alumni
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Stratics Legend
Just out of curiosity, did you also find Treasures of Tokuno to be grindy? Trying to minimize the grindy-feel is always a goal, certainly a challenge when trying to maximize replay ability.
Anything is grindy if you do it exclusively for hours at a time.
I hunt in Blackthorns for an hour when I'm in the mood, the rest of the time I do something else. Therefore, for me, it's not grindy.
I don't have a lot of problems with AFKers - they don't use the same Blackthorns as I do. :D
 
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Naxatilor Feluka

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The AFK issue aside, are you saying that you'd rather see a timed event like ToT where reward items are released in limited availability over something that has a permanent home in he the game with those rewards available to anyone who wishes to play for them? I can see it going both ways, just curious what your thoughts were.
Permanent content is always better imo - there is nothing more frustrating that logging back into ultima and finding out you missed an event that dropped epic items , only to find out that to acquire one you need to pay 100s of mils because the event ended while you were away

As for "the grind" -
Items that have value and anykind of linear path to get said items will be scripted. #overit.

How many people script blackthorn's? 100? -doth not require brain to complete

How many script lady mel? 2? Usually requires tactic to solo

So.. its very early for me and I was about to crescendo into an awesone finale of points but ok forgot what this thread was about lol
 

BeaIank

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Supporter
Regarding the refinements, I agree that dropping the specific types altogether would be a tad too much, but I'd rather see them grouped together differently.
It would be better if instead of plate/chain/ring/samurai/studded/studded samurai/stone/hide we had something akin to metal/studded|hide/stone.

That way you would decrease greatly the amount of refinements while still differentiating them.
I do love using them (save for the deflection ones, those are not very useful since they make you weaker against casting mobs), but collecting enough refinements to make a good armour set can be a daunting task as it is now.
In fact, I love them so much I'd want to see medable armour benefit from them. Refinement is pretty much an integral part of my suit making routine now.
 

Smoot

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Smoot complains too much!!! Its great just the way it is and It does suck when afk , cheating people try to lure on you to hog the spot. But I work my play time around it and life is too darn short to stress over mentally unstable scripters that think they cant be successful on their own. lol I complained about scripters on my shard and a few banned me at their vendor houses, so I learn to shut up and just do my own thing and hope some day their house goes on fire lol.. Kryonix I adore you so please dont let some rude mannered person keep you from responding to the rest of us. Most of us appreciate the fact you are reading and listening to our comments. I don't know how you can have a good day at work when some of these babbling loons are so negative alll the time!!! lol I am a 15 year vet and greatful for the chances to get goodies when you work hard for them. Thanks again and omg Smoot i so wanna make a char on seige ... I did hear you were seen at atl at some rares event.... Is that true? you had rares at atl for sale? I thought you only played Seige lol.... anyways peace and thanks for lettin me post my opinion. I must warn you.. I get lippy but I never mean to cause harm to anyone. If you dont like what I say just toss it out the window. peace out :)
i dont really play siege... dont know why you thought that, its ok tho.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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UNLEASHED
This doesn't make much sense to me.

What do you mean by 'power creep'? At present, people can make equipment to a higher standard by collecting, over quite a long time, specific enhancements and applying them, and improving armour to the levels the devs allow. Whether people can do that slowly like now, or faster as some suggest, the end result is bound to be a gradual trend towards that new, higher level. Is the 'power creep problem' that people can reach those levels? If so the issue is the level, not how fast people can get there.

If the final 'power level' is right, just having a slower and more grind-like way of people getting to the level you determine appropriate is just another grind simply so people spend more time doing it.... we have too many of those already.
It's not that people can reach that level, because we are explicitly allowing that. What we must do, however, is limit the availability of the highest level of gain by both rarity and time to achievement. If we offer the top prize immediately or with little investment in play, or offer that prize in too high an availability you run into a situation where the bar is being achieved too quickly. We have a number of ways to combat this, the primary being item decay and making sure the most powerful items don't stay around forever.
 

greenwolf

Journeyman
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Stratics Legend
The AFK issue aside, are you saying that you'd rather see a timed event like ToT where reward items are released in limited availability over something that has a permanent home in he the game with those rewards available to anyone who wishes to play for them? I can see it going both ways, just curious what your thoughts were.
IMHO, I say NO on another ToT like system because frankly, its ridiculous. Simply because of the on/off "switch" concept. Why should my game play revolve around the dev's turning on a switch. When we all know that switch has only been turned on what maybe 4-5 times sense its release. Please don't give me the "items are over powered and going to flood the market" crap, when that's already been said and done with the Blackthorns Dungeon artifacts. If anything ToT should be turned on and left on give us more things to do. Its beyond me that they are still the only artifacts that can not be obtained on an everyday basis, when we have more over powered gear already in the game and more easily obtainable.
 

Smoot

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It's not that people can reach that level, because we are explicitly allowing that. What we must do, however, is limit the availability of the highest level of gain by both rarity and time to achievement. If we offer the top prize immediately or with little investment in play, or offer that prize in too high an availability you run into a situation where the bar is being achieved too quickly. We have a number of ways to combat this, the primary being item decay and making sure the most powerful items don't stay around forever.
I totally understand about "powercreep" however i dont understand how it applies to refinements. The "rarest" and hardest to get ones (invulnerability) are not the most desireable. the most desireable ones are the ones that change 1 to 3 resist alterations.

Im assuming your referring to "cannot be repaired / brittle / ephemeral / antique" because all other items stay around forever. Imbued stuff lasts forever. even 150 replica stuff lasts basically forever (in video game terms). You can play daily and a 150 durability item still lasts for 2-5 years.
 

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
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UNLEASHED
It's not that people can reach that level, because we are explicitly allowing that. What we must do, however, is limit the availability of the highest level of gain by both rarity and time to achievement. If we offer the top prize immediately or with little investment in play, or offer that prize in too high an availability you run into a situation where the bar is being achieved too quickly. We have a number of ways to combat this, the primary being item decay and making sure the most powerful items don't stay around forever.
I'm actually in favor of things breaking more often IF and this is a big IF - you can more easily replace them. As it is many of the pieces of my suit are very specifically crafted using reforging, random additions from heartwood and a forged metal tool so they become expensive items I have a hard time replacing.

If it were like the old vanquishing days one vanq weapon was the same as the last so if you lost one - your backup was the same thing.

Too many things in crafting and in the game are so tailored that when you do lose something - its often expensive (lots of runics and luck) to replace it. Reforging has made it easier but its still a bit crazy. Like I need my arms to be HCI 5, Stam 8, Mana 8, LMC 8, 10/22/14/18/10. Thats the exact replacement. To get that - i need to craft said raw piece with right damage spread. I need to imbue up 5 properties then enhance with heartwood and hope to get the HCI mod on it (random chance). It might cost me millions to replace that one armor piece not to mention the cost of the Forged Metal tool.

If it were something like a AC 50, Magic Resist 22 piece and I just needed another one like that - I could stockpile and then if it randomly 'broke' in combat I could gear back up and get on with it.

Speaking of balance - most people don't want to spend the majority of their gameplay 'gearing' up for battle. The battle is the more fun part. This game has turned into more of a build suits game than it is adventure. And honestly trying to find an armor piece from a drop that I would even consider using is useless so the gameplay of 'hunting' is somewhat lost. Remember camping bloods for hours trying to get high end pieces? Those days are gone. People only fight high end monsters now for rare drops like cincures, tangles, blackthorn etc.

The only armor drops from Shame that I use are high end brittle/cursed items that make good mage training suits. I've NEVER put a single piece on my character as armor as your needs are too specific for them to work exactly. I have hung on to some jewels from shame but armor is always either training or smelted. Its a product of the armor game being way too specialized to hit your 70/70/70/70/75 limits.

I really would like to toss all armor or change it to a system whereby its only 2 resist mods - physical and magical. So you go for 70/75 suits. Then it would be SO much easier to roll in items because you would only have 2 resist numbers to max out. Then your focus could be on the other mods. With 5 resist mods everyone is trying to max all 5 which makes armor pieces nearly impossible to fit puzzle pieces. It has made it VERY hard to sell generic armor to anyone as the resists have to be *just right* to fit a suit. Hop on any shard besides Atlantic - take 1m gold and try to build a suit from armor vendors in Luna. I think you will find it very very difficult. It shouldn't be that difficult to 'gear up'.
 

Kyronix

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I'm actually in favor of things breaking more often IF and this is a big IF - you can more easily replace them. As it is many of the pieces of my suit are very specifically crafted using reforging, random additions from heartwood and a forged metal tool so they become expensive items I have a hard time replacing.

If it were like the old vanquishing days one vanq weapon was the same as the last so if you lost one - your backup was the same thing.

Too many things in crafting and in the game are so tailored that when you do lose something - its often expensive (lots of runics and luck) to replace it. Reforging has made it easier but its still a bit crazy. Like I need my arms to be HCI 5, Stam 8, Mana 8, LMC 8, 10/22/14/18/10. Thats the exact replacement. To get that - i need to craft said raw piece with right damage spread. I need to imbue up 5 properties then enhance with heartwood and hope to get the HCI mod on it (random chance). It might cost me millions to replace that one armor piece not to mention the cost of the Forged Metal tool.

If it were something like a AC 50, Magic Resist 22 piece and I just needed another one like that - I could stockpile and then if it randomly 'broke' in combat I could gear back up and get on with it.

Speaking of balance - most people don't want to spend the majority of their gameplay 'gearing' up for battle. The battle is the more fun part. This game has turned into more of a build suits game than it is adventure. And honestly trying to find an armor piece from a drop that I would even consider using is useless. The only armor drops from Shame that I use are high end brittle/cursed items that make good mage training suits. I've NEVER put a single piece on my character as armor as your needs are too specific for them to work. I have hung on to some jewels but armor is always either training or smelted. Its a product of the armor game being way too specialized to hit your 70/70/70/70/75 limits.

I really would like to toss all armor or change it to a system whereby its only 2 resist mods - physical and magical. So you go for 70/75 suits. Then it would be SO much easier to roll in items because you would only have 2 resist numbers to max out. Then your focus could be on the other mods. With 5 mods everyone is trying to max all 5 which makes armor pieces nearly impossible to fit puzzle pieces. It has made it VERY hard to sell generic armor to anyone as the resists have to be *just right* to fit a suit. Hop on any shard besides Atlantic - take 1m gold and try to build a suit from armor vendors in Luna. I think you will find it very very difficult. It shouldn't be that difficult to 'gear up'.
Personally, I like a much more simplified itemization system as I'm not a min-maxer. A radical change such as that, however, is not something everyone is going to be on board and as a result we have to work with what we have on production. From that perspective, I wouldn't be too keen on my perfectly crafted suit that I've invested a great deal of time and resources into being taken away in any way, shape, or form.
 

Theo_GL

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Personally, I like a much more simplified itemization system as I'm not a min-maxer. A radical change such as that, however, is not something everyone is going to be on board and as a result we have to work with what we have on production. From that perspective, I wouldn't be too keen on my perfectly crafted suit that I've invested a great deal of time and resources into being taken away in any way, shape, or form.
It depends how you handle it. What you could do is make the 'weighting' of the resist portions higher value in the imbuing calculator and then *convert* existing armor.

Lets take a piece that is 10/15/20/10/15 in current resist. You keep the 10 and average the others (15/20/10/15 = 60/4 = 15). So the piece becomes 10/15 for its resist. Existing suits would still 'work' if they were maxed out in the first place because the added up averages would max the magical resist. However, going forward there would be less to worry about in *matching* a suit and it would be easier to trade things in/out. Then decay rates could be faster and items could randomly *break*. If the suits didn't cost millions to complete - then replacing is less of an issue. The problem now is someone has such a specialized piece of armor it is invaluable to them yet almost worthless to others.
 

Smoot

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The only armor drops from Shame that I use are high end brittle/cursed items that make good mage training suits. I've NEVER put a single piece on my character as armor as your needs are too specific for them to work exactly. I have hung on to some jewels from shame but armor is always either training or smelted. Its a product of the armor game being way too specialized to hit your 70/70/70/70/75 limits.
I understand why you wish armor wasnt as complicated. I enjoy what we have now, a "simple" suit can be made very easily with imbuing and is very effective, while an enthusiast can maximize a suit using all available mods.

I dont understand why you havent been able to incorporate shame loot however. You spoke of farming blood elementals, its the same thing now but just more powerful gear.

I find that shame loot armor is extremely easy to incorporate when the right piece is found. a peice with 2-4 high resists plus 3-4 correctly aligned mods takes the place of 2 reforged resist pieces, making the overall suit much much easier to make and more powerful as well.

What shard do you play? On atlantic high end shame pieces are readily available on vendors. Yes you have to keep an eye out for them, but very workable pieces can be found for around 50-100 mil now. very cheap and readily available compared to when shame loot was first introduced. Pieces that went for around 1bil initially are going for a fraction of that now, only around 100mil.

I incorporate a shame piece into just about every suit i make. It just makes it so much easier. Ive made suits with a nice cornerstone piece found for around 5mil that allows for an overall addition of 2 mods, up to artifact 10 stam pieces that allow for addition of damage eater, additional hpr, and overcapped resists while still keeping more than enough stats on 211 stam suits.

Just saying the right shame piece isnt exactly hard to obtain now, and overall makes a suit work out much easier.
 

Theo_GL

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Well, I guess it depends on how specific you want to make your suit. Most of my suits are for Sampire characters and as such I need the following : Stamina, Mana, HP and LMC. A few pieces need HCI to get to 40/40 HCI and DCI. My tamers go with 190 luck items that require reforge and then enhance.

Suit building is nothing short of a spreadsheet exercise. Here is my spreadsheet for my sampire character. Artifacts used include mace and shield, Crimson, Rangers Cloak, Cong Garb. The rest is crafted. I have used Tinker legs on some sampires but it requires more aggressive resist building.

This one is not perfect. I really need to redo the chest piece as it has DI which isn't that useful since I"m capped on AI's anyways and my suit is actually 3 short in Cold Resist. It works pretty well tho.

70/95(70 in vamp form)/67/70/75
HLD 30
HCI/DCI : 40/40
Mana 39/ Stamina 40/HP 26
STR/DEX/INT : 20/18/2
LMC 28

I pretty much armor ignore nonstop with high mana leech weapons. Not sure how/where I'd put in a shame piece as I rarely find Mana/Stam/HP/LMC items from shame. Also I don't actually use the Pots much and could have replaced that mod with some more LMC or INT boost.

To make any one of these pieces assume you are crafting the legs from normal wood (free?), then you powder up to 255 (250k or so in powder), then you imbue with ingredients (cost/value about 200k). From there you use a forged metal artifact tool in hopes for enhancing with Heartwood for HCI 5% (about 1/4 chance at best). A 10 charge tool can be 30 mil so 3m/charge. If it takes me 4 to get it - Thats maybe 12m in value. Heartwood - 5k in heartwood cost. So all told a single HCI piece in this suit might cost me 12.5m or so to create. The non HCI 500k. That means 30M for the crafted pieces, 12m for mace and shields, 30m for the crimson, and this is the luck garb but the luck is not needed - regular garb 30m and cloak 20m. Roayl Detective books 2-3m. Maybe 125M in items for this suit all told.

Back to our grind discussion - make the conj garb available again, crimson easier to obtain, rangers cloak available again, and maybe it brings the cost of these items down a bit for a newer player to realistically obtain (50m?). As it is - if you were a new player and were not going to buy gold - it would really take alot of work to get up to a suit like tihs in your first year without some level of free help from others. You could shave 20m off the cost if you give up on the HCI pieces and forged metal artifact but with similar artifacts its still a 100m suit.

http://oi59.***********/a41pjk.jpg
 

Smoot

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Well, I guess it depends on how specific you want to make your suit. Most of my suits are for Sampire characters and as such I need the following : Stamina, Mana, HP and LMC. A few pieces need HCI to get to 40/40 HCI and DCI. My tamers go with 190 luck items that require reforge and then enhance.

Suit building is nothing short of a spreadsheet exercise. Here is my spreadsheet for my sampire character. Artifacts used include mace and shield, Crimson, Rangers Cloak, Cong Garb. The rest is crafted. I have used Tinker legs on some sampires but it requires more aggressive resist building.

This one is not perfect. I really need to redo the chest piece as it has DI which isn't that useful since I"m capped on AI's anyways and my suit is actually 3 short in Cold Resist. It works pretty well tho.

70/95(70 in vamp form)/67/70/75
HLD 30
HCI/DCI : 40/40
Mana 39/ Stamina 40/HP 26
STR/DEX/INT : 20/18/2
LMC 28

I pretty much armor ignore nonstop with high mana leech weapons. Not sure how/where I'd put in a shame piece as I rarely find Mana/Stam/HP/LMC items from shame. Also I don't actually use the Pots much and could have replaced that mod with some more LMC or INT boost.

To make any one of these pieces assume you are crafting the legs from normal wood (free?), then you powder up to 255 (250k or so in powder), then you imbue with ingredients (cost/value about 200k). From there you use a forged metal artifact tool in hopes for enhancing with Heartwood for HCI 5% (about 1/4 chance at best). A 10 charge tool can be 30 mil so 3m/charge. If it takes me 4 to get it - Thats maybe 12m in value. Heartwood - 5k in heartwood cost. So all told a single HCI piece in this suit might cost me 12.5m or so to create. The non HCI 500k. That means 30M for the crafted pieces, 12m for mace and shields, 30m for the crimson, and this is the luck garb but the luck is not needed - regular garb 30m and cloak 20m. Roayl Detective books 2-3m. Maybe 125M in items for this suit all told.

Back to our grind discussion - make the conj garb available again, crimson easier to obtain, rangers cloak available again, and maybe it brings the cost of these items down a bit for a newer player to realistically obtain (50m?). As it is - if you were a new player and were not going to buy gold - it would really take alot of work to get up to a suit like tihs in your first year without some level of free help from others. You could shave 20m off the cost if you give up on the HCI pieces and forged metal artifact but with similar artifacts its still a 100m suit.

http://oi59.***********/a41pjk.jpg
Yeah i dont use a spreadsheet, i scribble on a paper and use a calculator sometimes tho. It can get complicated.

Agreed for the sampire. If you think about it, those mods (lmc, stam, mana, hpi) are virtually impossible to get from shame loot because its 3 reforge menues not just 2)

Ive sold or incorporated several "sampire" pieces that have stam / mana / lmc / resists, or hpi / mana or stam / lmc / resists.

Shame loot really works best when using a slither, that way the hpi isnt as much of a problem.

For sampires, i used to use wood because of what you just said, my latest suits are a combination of plate / wood. Also, since 2handed weapon weight was increased to 550, the damage increase mod on armor isnt as much of a benefit. It does however free up a jewl, or make 100 damage increase on suit possible more easily. Since the armor changes its really a matter of taste, wood, plate, or studded all have their benefits. tons of variations of sampire available now.

I do actually use a shame loot piece on my current sampire but your right those mod combos are almost non-existent.
 
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Promathia

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Well thats easy enough

@Kyronix Can we get the Ranger's Cloak added to the Blackthorn Artifacts? Should probably be the same point range as a Conj Garb

Also

Idea: Add new art variation for back slot - Scabbard
 

Aiden O'Connor

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@Kyronix I also would like the Spell Focusing sash in the same options as the Lt Sash from Blackthorns. The Bracers of Alchemical Devastation would be nice to get in other armor types as well...tired of wearing all leather and having bone arms!
 

Smoot

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Well thats easy enough

@Kyronix Can we get the Ranger's Cloak added to the Blackthorn Artifacts? Should probably be the same point range as a Conj Garb
Or better yet, how about have ranger cloaks and conjurers trinkets just available during halloween content every year :) (yes i know they were from 2 different global events initially)

Theres so many options now for where to get mods that these items arent really as important anymore, they can be substituted very easliy with items that currently are available in game, so i see it as a fun way to enjoy seasonal or limited time content.
 

Ender

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Although it would still be a grind to get any in the 100 point range... Maybe tweaking the point cost for some/all of the Blackthorn rewards? Some of them are pretty high compared to what it takes to get the original item.
 

Smoot

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Since we're machine gunning Kyronix with what we would each like to see added to the list, id like to see prismatic lenses be available in plate helm (or bone helm but that would just be too OPed)
 

Promathia

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Although it would still be a grind to get any in the 100 point range... Maybe tweaking the point cost for some/all of the Blackthorn rewards? Some of them are pretty high compared to what it takes to get the original item.
The points are fine. The items have gone down in value overall, but are still hovering around where they should realistically be.

Its only a grind if you make it one.
 

DarkLotus[FL]

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that is not the best solution i see sampires bot hounds i see archers/throwers bot hounds i really don't think a tamer hiding is an issue, when we have greater issues like bots,if you are complaining because you are trying to use blackthorns as a source of income maybe you should find another way to make money? or perhaps try a different location in blackthorns i have a very strong feeling that the people complaining about it are people who cant do the same due to not having a tamer, or perhaps they want someone out of a virtual spot that they think should be for only them... so if we remove hidden tamers which you can still usually hit and also get looting rights/chance of drop before dragon kills target.... you will see a ton of ranged botting players using a simple script and the right skills/items they will most of the time one shot a mage/hound. so which one would you rather i see i suppose
 

Merlin

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You guys worry all too much about what "the other guy" is doing, should be doing, or be allowed to do.

Just go play the game and enjoy it without worrying about how other players enjoy the game.

As virutalhabitat pointed out this is the equivalent of asking for auto-defend to be turned off.

Taming which is arguably the hardest skill in UO to raise should have some rewards and this includes their pets being able to auto-defend.

Bunch of cry babies need to go play the game and no worry about how other players enjoy playing UO.

Pathetic.
Agreed. Just another thread with a bunch of people whining that players of a certain template have found an effective way to loot a dungeon without as much effort as someone on a different template. I don't run any Tamer templates yet, but training a dragon and then sitting back and letting your pet do all the killing is exactly what the template seemed to be designed for. Ban their advantage in Blackthorn? Then what? Have someone else complain about the advantage of another template in another scenario and complain about that too?

We don't need anymore of the butthurt police trying to heal everyone's feelings. Blackthorn's not working for you with respect to getting artifacts? Then go run Doom. Run a dungeon or a peerless boss. Come back an hour or two later when hopefully the crowd at BT's has changed. I'm usually just happy seeing some other people in Blackthorn's to play with if I am rolling solo in there.
 

Petra Fyde

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Thread merged.

Why pick on the tamer template when Sampires are also farming the dungeon AFK?

I don't have any problem at all when I want to hunt for Minaz artifacts. I do it in Fel.
 
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MalagAste

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To me the idea of making a suit just makes me cringe. My job requires me to really use my brain the whole time I'm there... I play to relax and honestly want to just play and have fun. Fun for me isn't calculating on a spreadsheet exactly what pieces I need to imbue with what to get all 70's/75 with 100% LRC, 40LMC etc... and trying to factor in as much SDI and DCI and everything else I can to try to compete or stay alive long enough at an EM event or Champ Spawn to make it worth my while.

Makes my brain hurt trying to come up with the exact combination of skills, stats, etc that I need to put on my character so they can do the maximum damage possible and stay alive. Add that with building the suit and all that stuff makes me hate the idea of working on it... But if you don't do it then you really can't participate in things and have a hope you might get a drop worth more than a kick in the teeth.

The refinements are too complicated.... there are way too many to collect to make it worthwhile... I like many others collect them and toss them in the trash. I have no use and no storage for that. Just to have 1 of each one takes pretty much a chest full... to gather enough to combine them for use takes 3 or 4 chests full of the things... clogging up precious space in your home... if you are a crafter your house is already packed with the leathers, ingots, wood, feathers, 50+ imbuing ingredients, 20 things from peerless, several things from threes, 9 gem types, arcane gems, power crystals, etc.... and god forbid you should want to do bods as that's another 1k plus in storage consumed... at least... Not everyone can own a castle and have all the expansions for all that stuff.

Then you factor in all the deeds, tokens, gifts, etc and your talking about another 2k or more in stuff... forget doing plants! Grow only what you need hope you have enough years in to get a seed box.... don't keep any extra plants on hand ... Forget trying to crossbreed your own plants for seeds... not enough space for that stuff. What if you want to make the dyes? There goes another 30 lockdowns...

Honestly if you wanted to make Refinement work just up the number you need to go up a level. Drop all the specific types and just require more of each level to go up and don't ever drop top tiers. Not really that hard to figure out how to make it "rarer" to get the top tier refinement stuff.

I'd like to see someone actually put use back into Dragon Scale. Hardest stuff to make and craft... Yet the worst of any armor you could make. It needs something to make it special and good. It begs to be used again.

And as always don't forget that things added to game need to STACK!!!!!!
 

Ender

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Huh, why was this bumped?

The "advantage" I was saying was unfair was that it is literally impossible for hidden tamers to die in Tram Blackthorn yet can stay in one room killing things 23 hours a day unattended with no risk, which I don't think was intended.

Of course the same can be done with a warrior but they do run a (small) risk of dying, weapons and armor can break, ammo is finite...

I mean bots and/or unattended farming is a problem in general that the GMs and devs will do nothing about so its a moot point anyway.
 

drcossack

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Thread merged.

Why pick on the tamer template when Sampires are also farming the dungeon AFK?

I don't have any problem at all when I want to hunt for Minaz artifacts. I do it in Fel.
Because Sampires can't really fit the hiding skill on their template. Tamers have a much easier time doing that. Granted, Sampires can just kill the mages in 1-2 hits, sooooooo...

As far as hunting in Fel Blackthorn, I'd like to know what shard this is on. For about a week and a half - two weeks on LS, even going there has been a gigantic pain in the ass, which @CovenantX can back me up on. People will lure spawn on stealthers (the Greater, Balron if they can find it, etc) whether or not the person is afk...just because they don't want to get murder counts. While some fighting goes on down there (me and a guildmate fought 4v2 last night [including the tamer's dread mare], and the only survivor was the tamer, who ran away) it's mostly just spineless "PvPers" annoying the two players on LS who do go down there.
 

azmodanb

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i can leave my tamer .. ninja archer or samp there with zero imput for hours on end.

i do quite often while i watch tv or when im at work.. im there.. not doing anything but an occasional run to the house for supplys or to box my loot.

everyone is welcome to do the same.

im not seeing the problem.

i also expect to be lured upon. which i don't find as harassment.. never page... just kill it and continue.

if your going to make a change like having to all kill every time then expect to have to click each target on every temp.
 
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