• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

Why would a GM give me skills, which would exceed the skill cap by 200?

Thrakkar

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There I was with 900 skill points (base)...
Capture_09052002_175350.jpg Capture_09052002_175458.jpg
Granted, he removed the right afterwards, but still...
Since that happened now 14 years ago, I have no clue, why.
Just damn curious... ;)
 

TimberWolf

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
so you would think he was god and all powerful....and you would kneel down and worship him.

EMs, GM's and Dev's are like the greek gods of old...they need our love...they need our worship....they need us way more then we need them....!
 

kelmo

Old and in the way
Professional
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Dread Lord
Why is this a thread?
 

Tyrath

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Nothing to do with this topic but I remember those rooms lol. Was talking with a GM once and asked how they could tell if someone was scripting... He took me to one of those rooms where a toon was bouncing off the walls trying to perform the scripted actions. Always though it would be funny if they would have made cages beside banks and put the scripters in them for a bit of public humiliation before executing the offensive ones.
 

kelmo

Old and in the way
Professional
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Dread Lord
This topic is not a topic. It is an out of context "gotcha" from a long time ago. The named GM may have moved on to other things. I have never seen a GM respond on Stratics. I suppose there is no answer for the OP, merely speculation from the peanut gallery.
 

Hannes Erich

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I think the problem with the OP is that it was phrased as a question--and I mean really, how the heck would we know the answer?--and you're asking a bit late.

I would have phrased it as just a bit of weird UO history; and personally, I'm actually glad that you posted it for that reason alone. This is the first evidence I've ever seen of something like this happening on an official shard, which is kind of intriguing. (My rather mediocre suspicion is that the GM simply clicked the wrong button on their god client.)

I definitely support skill caps in classless RPGs. This isn't EVE Online, and our characters aren't supposed to be able to download skills like characters in The Matrix. Skill caps are also a good game mechanic for sandboxes because they provide a planning challenge. The problem with UO's cap is that it was designed for a different time and a much larger playerbase than it has now. Hardly anybody in 1997 had self-reliance remotely as a goal; it was the first mainstream MMORPG and most people who joined wanted to socialize. The playerbase was spilling over the brim of each and every server. A 700-point skill cap was just liberating enough for an environment where you couldn't walk out your front door without tripping over groups of players who could fill in each others weaknesses. But times have changed.

The present is a far different place. MMO publishers have pumped out lots of interesting worlds, which attract more and more solo players. Social players have always had opinions about that, but the fact is, solo players have wallets and demands too. This has only become more apparent as crowds in older games (like UO) have dispersed, and formerly very social players (like myself) have gotten older, have less time on our hands to be social, but have found ways to enjoy becoming more self-reliant in games. A true adventurer character, a pure warrior that could also disarm and pick locks competently--something that almost any contemporary CRPG will afford you--would seem sensible. The 700-point skill cap is not a reflection of that reality. Masteries and scrolls were excellent ideas and very inventive IMO, but they don't fully compensate for a mechanic that should have shown a little bit of evolution over the past two decades.
 

kelmo

Old and in the way
Professional
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Dread Lord
Well said, Hannes. It would have taken me a day to type that though...

*edit* and a 100 edits,,,
 

kelmo

Old and in the way
Professional
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Dread Lord

Hannes Erich

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I meant to type this after my post. It is a quote by Robert Heinlein (author of Starship Troopers).

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

It's a good quote. It doesn't describe some godlike being or superhuman character, neither of which our UO characters are supposed to be. But it definitely describes a man or woman with enough life experience to be considered an interesting character. Have you ever stopped to think how much you can do, even as an ordinary person, that your individual characters in UO couldn't? How many Britannian years does two decades make? Your warrior, who has been dungeon crawling all this time, still hasn't figured out how to become a more competent dungeon crawler because only a thief could possibly learn lock picking very well? What IS the upper IQ limit of a Britannian LOL?

UO is still among my favorite retro dungeon crawlers, but it has fallen behind in my top list of CRPGs over the years for reasons like this.
 

Thrakkar

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I think the problem with the OP is that it was phrased as a question--and I mean really, how the heck would we know the answer?--and you're asking a bit late.
Actually I was looking through my collection of old screenshots because of the "The Strangest Thing You Ever Did In Game..." thread. I didn't find, what I was looking for, but I stumbled over those two and just got very curious, especially since I couldn't remember why after all those years.

I was never expecting a definitive answer. One can only speculate. And that's just the only purpose of this thread.

I'm pretty sure, I just had the extra skills in the GM dungeon and not outside of it. Got it down there, took the screenshot and lost it down there...
Maybe Snooping/Animal Taming got stuck and he tried to unstick them, absolutely no idea. Was this a common practice back then? But then why Wrestling & Animal Lore?
 

DuckSix666

Visitor
For a stand point. The tale tell sign is the omen augur from mana. All you would have to do for here is lay seige to a guild castle. Once and again a damsel much likened to a dame will produce your hithered counter agent. Most of all Dragons! Multiple dragon effect valor entries.
What to get from that is a dragon is afoot.
 

HP_Zoro_HP

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
so you would think he was god and all powerful....and you would kneel down and worship him.

EMs, GM's and Dev's are like the greek gods of old...they need our love...they need our worship....they need us way more then we need them....!

Timberwolf you arent by chance "MarkeeDragon" are you? Your profile picture kind of looks like him.
 
Top