Player Questions

[Death]

AOV Staff and Developers are proud to present the player question thread

Players can ask questions to some of the questions they have been wanting to ask. A few guidelines to follow:

1) Questions must be related to the shard. Personal questions are not suitable for a public forum.

2) Questions must be addressed in a polite, considerate manner. Unnecessary hostility, swearing, or a poor attitude will result in your question either being revised, unanswered or deleted.

3) Look to see if your question has been addressed before posting. We can elaborate on a question but if it already has an answer then it won't be answered again.

4) Questions must be specific. If you say something such as "this monster isn't working properly" we have absolutely no idea what parts you are referring to. Be specific so we know exactly what you are trying to say.

5) Do not harass other players, staff or developers on the questions they ask or the answers they give. This is a community and not everyone has the same opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you must object, do so in a considerate manner.

6) Other rules may be added once the forum topic becomes more popular.

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(April 10, 2011) Dragon barding deeds are breaking very quickly. Is this normal?

After looking at the code, it looks as though the armor hasn't been brought up to modern times. The armor is currently 1000 points for normal and 2500 points for exceptional. These values were acceptable a long time ago but have been changed to be more reasonable as of an OSI publish.

The new values are:

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 10000, exceptional quality 12000 for metal types: iron, copper, bronze, gold, agapite, verite.

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 12500, exceptional quality 14500 for metal types: dull copper, valorite.

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 15000, exceptional quality 17000 for metal type: shadow iron.

Hopefully, the changes will be made and put in for the easter event publish. No promises, as there are many projects to be done.

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(April 5, 2011) In vampiric form and resisting low level poison the system messages are telling me I am curing the poison instead of healing damage because I am already resisting it

There is a delay between resisting poison and curing it. If you are poisoned in vampiric embrace, it waits until the first poison tick to determine if you resisted it. That being said, if you apply a bandage, it should be curing the poison because you have not yet resisted it. This is in place due to the fact that lethal poison will still go through vamp form, thus you would want to cure it before your first tick tells you that the poison is too strong to resist with your current form.

(April 5, 2011) Bushido honor is only giving me a bonus of about 10 damage even at perfection.

Damage cap is 300% for melee in combination with slayers, anatomy+tactics, any damage modifying spells such as EO1, any DI on your items and honor's perfection. You are more than likely hitting the damage cap so perfection isn't going to take it any higher than the damage bonus you are getting.

(April 5, 2011) Slayer talli is only giving me a bonus 10 damage on mini-bosses.

Damage cap is 300% for melee in combination with slayers, anatomy+tactics, any damage modifying spells such as EO1, any DI on your items and honor's perfection. You are more than likely hitting the damage cap. It is easy to hit the cap, particularly if you are using 2 slayers.

(April 5, 2011) I have noticed no change in my arty chance since equipping 1666 luck and scoring 1000 luck from perfection on top (dunno if perfection is even affecting arty chance. . Nor I have I dropped an arty in my last 100 kills using that suit in gaunt).

Doom gauntlet luck is capped at 1500 for the artifact drop. Therefore anything higher doesn't affect your artifact chance. It's not a true reflection of how luck should be, considering how luck can be taken higher than it was during AOS. The gauntlet will be changed to more closely match OSI's 'point' system which is based on damage, time and luck.

(April 5, 2011) Melee damage being too harshly capped and nerfed SSI seems to be overboard.

A change was made awhile back with weapons which affected their damage and their SSI. Maces being the slowest whereas fencing was the quickest. This change did not work out very well so it'll be reverted and the damage and SSI caps will be removed.
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(April 2, 2011) Any ETA on when we will get our Christmas gifts?

They will be bundled in with Easter gifts

(UPDATE November 13, 2011) : The 2010 Easter and Christmas gifts were obtained from the Easter baskets during the egg collection event.

(April 2, 2011) Why is the shard laggy?

Our network provider has been having some issues the last week or so which explains the current lag. We have done some analyzing to see where other slowdowns could be taking place. Fixing any lag is an ongoing process as different issues arise. We will do our best to inform the players of any major issues that are causing higher lag levels.

(UPDATE November 13, 2011) : We have changed the save system to be an ongoing process. There are no longer any world "saves" that occur. Basically, the game is always saving data, it's just doing it a bit at a time.

That being said, the new process is very CPU intensive, so the current live server will be a bit laggy as it was not initially designed to handle it (we are looking to upgrade to a more powerful server in the future).

When you see the blue "abnormal buffer" message on the bottom of your screen while in game, this is an indication that the server has saved a larger amount of data at that time, so a small lag blip/spike will be experienced at that time.

(April 2, 2011) Any chance of tameable AW stats being fixed or greater dragons being introduced?

Tameable AW stats cannot be scaled accurately due to having several versions. If we scale one, the others become more powerful/less powerful which isn't really fair. We will be starting these off from scratch with greater dragons, which will be released on tc1 sometime in the near future. We are being cautious not to replicate the same issues with AWs on AOV and the same issues on OSI so a lot of testing will need to be done before they make it to the live server.

(April 2, 2011) When is the server going to update its client patch so that new players can join and so that it's easier to connect?

Getting the client patches to work was a very large task. We use a custom coded version of runuo which is not simple to integrate. New packets had to be handled as well as all the new UO Stygian Abyss tiles had to be recoded to be recognized. The client patches also broke context menus and popup tags so that took more time to fix.

The current patch on the dev server as well as TC1 (For player access) is fully functional. This is the first step towards getting the client patch to live servers. Because OSI has frequent patches and because there are a lot more systems to revise which work in accordance to the client, the client patch will remain on tc1 until we are confident that it will not cause any issues on the live server.

(UPDATE November 13, 2011) : This has been done. We are now running the game at a higher patch to better support new players. The enhanced UOSA client is not officially supported at this time.

(April 2, 2011) What is the spawn time on demitels?

They will currently respawn within 7 to 10 hours of the last kill. They are all individually timed so if you kill almincrus, it will not affect the spawn time of any other demitel boss. This spawn time is only a reflection of the current respawn time. Spawners are changed and modified around the world all the time, based on development and research. Although there is no reason to change the spawn time right now, there may be in the future, depending on where development goes.

(April 2, 2011) Why is the demitel artifact chance so low?

It is a low percent by default. Your luck attribute can take it from 1% to 16%. That's a BIG difference. If your percent is low, we suggest putting more luck on your suit OR if you have bushido over 50%, you can use the honor virtue on your target and gain perfection (Each step awards you with a luck bonus).

(April 2, 2011) Why do I keep getting crummy lootpacks?

The loot system is very old, dating back to the days of early Ultima when the AOS property system was introduced.

A bit of history: Before the Age of Shadows expansion, there were no special attributes such as hit chance increase or lower reagent cost. When this expansion was introduced, the loot system was coded for that time.

Age of Shadows was released in 2003, over 8 years ago. The current loot system has had minimal restructuring changes aside from adding different items to the pool. The actual formulas have undergone few revisions and the current system is not very expandable to deal with new player weapon and armor needs and artifact competition. It is well due for revisions, and plans are being made to completely revise it and bring it up to the current times.

(April 2, 2011) What is being done about improving the quality of loot and when can we expect a fix?

As stated in an earlier post, the loot system is very old and is in need of revisions. Before we can even start on making a new loot system, a lot of research has to be put into determining the current loot trend and what is considered "good" loot and "poor" loot. We must also determine what monsters and quests merit giving good loot and which would merit giving minor loot. There are a lot of variables involved based on time and difficulty. Our current job is to determine a formula with which to base loot.

The current loot system has gone under a revision a few months after AOV was first launched. Loot is still better than it used to be, but the system cannot be scaled any further due to the code being unpredictable and ancient. It will need to be revised in order to do anything logical with it.

Our current process on the system has been slower, but ongoing. Death is in the process of creating a formula to base loot on. This will take months of time to get the formula tweaked properly. Once it has shown some progress and if there is time to start a new project, red will be looking into a new loot system based on Death's formulas.

Loot is not one of those systems that you "code and forget it". It must constantly be revised and maintained. Loot affects everything from monster loot to craftables to enhancing and basically anything that takes a weapon/armor property (Even insurance). If you touch loot, you can affect all those systems therefore, very careful consideration must be made when playing around with it, as to not catastrophically affect all the properties in Ultima.

We will be keeping players informed about the progress of loot but due to the work involved, it will take awhile before any major changes make it to live.

(April 2, 2011) Wondering if there are any plans for fixing melee in the future and monster damage. It seems as though players who melee have it a lot rougher than archers or mages

It is true that those who melee have a disadvantage when it comes to battles. In reality, melee characters are taking double, even triple damage when they go up and attack. They take the melee damage which ranged attackers are rarely affected by. They also take the brunt of magic spells and are frequently affected by retargeting due to the proximity they fight in.

There are a lot of different variables which cause melee fighters to have a more difficult time. Each variable must be addressed before a solution can be found.

So far, we have brainstormed on a few different ideas. Some based on the skills you possess and some based on the armor you wear. It would be nice to incorporate heavier armors to give only melee characters the benefit of taking less damage at the cost of some other attribute (Lower spell damage, inability to leech, etc etc). Whatever the changes are, there remains one important factor:

It needs to buff melee characters without giving the same benefit to the classes who are not going up and bashing the monsters in.

(April 2, 2011) Why are there spells and attacks that instantly kill me, even with max resists?

Some monsters are just designed that way. Monster such as the hydra, that's really all it has going for it. It cannot cast spells and it moves pretty slow with all those heads. Therefore, its elemental breath is its main weapon of fear.

For other monsters, it's all based upon a common mentality in MMO's:
"If the monster's attacks are more powerful, then the monster is harder"

It is all too common to follow this trend, as it's an easy solution. On AOV, we realize that some monsters and bosses should be difficult but not always resort to cheap tactics. This is why we go back and revise our monsters and bosses to keep the difficulty up without all the instant kill or cheap attacks.

For example, we have made it so that many single monster attacks will not kill you, only cripple you (Exceptions exist of course). This provides a bit of relief from normal monsters and keeps you alive from being instant killed by a stray fire breath.

We also think up some unique ways of making monsters difficult without just having an insane damage attack you cannot avoid. Take humus for example:

The breath attack has a delay (listen for the sound). So if you hear it, be sure to hide behind something so he doesn't breathe on you. The fireball attack has also been reduced damage wise to give you a better chance of survival. The attack is also timed so time yourself to run away and take cover when he plans on doing it.

Humus also has the flame field attack which will only be a problem if you step into them. Dodging these flames adds a level of difficulty as you maneuver around them and plot a path to safety.

In conclusion, there will always be some kind of attack that will instantly kill you if you aren't careful. It is your job as fighters and healers to analyze the situation and determine when then monster is going to drop something big. We will leave hints and clues so that you can defend against these attacks and try to give you some time to avoid the attacks before they happen.

(April 2, 2011) Can the roulette be changed to accept more items for gambling and to increase the chances of getting something good?

Of course it can. The roulette was designed to be expandable and with new items to come into the game, they will need to be added to the roulette. There are a couple of ideas on expanding the roulette.

The first idea is to create a community collection system specific to AOV. This collection would accept all kinds of things, pretty much many of the items that the roulette accepts now. Players rack up points and can collect a few different items. Some items can be decorative or tagged and others will follow the same reward list as the current community collections.

There would be new "gambling" tokens that would have a set chance of giving prizes. You can think of these as "portable roulettes". While it might take more items to get the gambling tokens, there would be better odds, the more you donate to the collection. So if you are not happy with sacrificing a powerscroll and not getting a high end item, you can donate several powerscrolls for a gambling token and get a higher chance.

If you don't wish to gamble, then you can collect points and get something else once you've collected enough. High ticket items gathered from the collection such as powerscrolls can be saved and resold via an auctioning system.

The second idea is just to keep the current roulette and expand on it. This would be familiar and offer a chance based on the individual item. The success chances would not change much as the low percent is a gamble and risk you take for sacrificing your items.

(April 2, 2011) Can we get some changes done to the crafting quests? The rewards for getting the higher material quests are low end

The crafting quests can most certainly use revisions. There are several reward brackets that can use a fix as well as the frequency of obtaining certain types of quests.

The problem right now is there are 3 different systems we can use to expand on the crafting quests. There are UOML quests, our quest system and the bod system. Some systems have some flaws, while others have minimal flaws. It's all up to finding the right one for the job.

Because of all the other work required right now, the crafting quests can only be researched and put on the back burner. We have received some very useful data from players of AOV so that making changes to the system will be easier to do.

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(November 13, 2011) Have MIB's been added to the loot in treasure map chests?

Treasure maps are the same as they were before OSI publish 67. For the time being, we have a lot of things to code in order to catch up. Once we have caught up on the most important things, we can move on to adding the treasure map changes.

http://www.uoguide.com/Publish_67

http://www.uoguide.com/Treasure_Map

(November 13, 2011) What creatures are tamable, and are any being added in the future...AW etc....Greater Dragon? (not quite sure what he is or where he is, if anywhere)

I'll look into compiling a list of all the tameable monsters in the near future, providing time permits.

Greater Dragons are already coded but have not been released as they require more testing and modifications.

There are many coded tameable creatures, such as the ice hounds, that have not yet been released. More creatures will be released in the future but we have not yet reached a point where it is appropriate to do so.

(November 13, 2011) What is the formula used for enhancing gear? Will it be updated or is it ok as it is (for balance )

AOV uses the same enhancing formula that is basic to the main runuo package. I don't believe it was ever modified on our end so chances are it's outdated and inaccurate. The current craft system is a large collection of intertwined system, so changes need to be done very carefully.

That being said, the enhancing formula does need to be updated but anything within the craft system needs to be properly analyzed to see what else it will impact.

You can use this source as a very estimated guide to item enhancing. The accuracy of this tool VS AOV is unknown, but it will give you a basic idea of how it works:

http://uo.stratics.com/content/tools/enhancearmor.php

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[Anonymous]

Well done answering all those questions. I do tend to ask a few. I am easily frustrated. My bad.

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[Anonymous]

ummmmm Dragon armor crafted exceptionally is lasting 1 round or less in gauntlett. It should last 10 quite easily I was thinking. Its god damn expensive to make as it is from normal ingots let alone if its lasting only that long. Does it have like 20 durability or something?

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34981

[Red Squirrel]

Is the durability going down faster or is it just that it does not have a lot to begin with? It definitely should last longer, we'll have to check it out.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34982

[Anonymous]

No way to see durability. My smith is legendary. So I thought it was gunna last a lot longer.
I am guessing there is very low durability and its running out very quickly to be breaking that fast.

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[Anonymous]

low durability and wearing out fast considering its lasting like 4 rooms

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[Death]

low durability and wearing out fast considering its lasting like 4 rooms

From primary analysis, the durability levels are very outdated. Looks to be either max durability of 1000 for normal and 2500 for exceptional crafted armor. That's real low considering an OSI publish extended that to a minimum of 10000 (More depending on craft quality and resource).

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[Anonymous]

any chance of this getting hcnaged soon'ish?
so if i make it out of val is best for durability?

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[Death]

any chance of this getting hcnaged soon'ish?
so if i make it out of val is best for durability?

I'm still trying to find the publish that introduced it but it would follow something along the lines of this:

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 10000, exceptional quality 12000 for metal types: iron, copper, bronze, gold, agapite, verite.

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 12500, exceptional quality 14500 for metal types: dull copper, valorite.

Durability at new for normal quality barding is 15000, exceptional quality 17000 for metal type: shadow iron.

I am afraid that I can only offer a temporary solution to the code for several reasons.

First being a list of missing clilocs that are likely part of a more recent client patch (shows durability level and stuff).

Secondly, also need to see what else is missing.
(Just checked the damage reduction and it is working as intended).

Seeing as the Easter event needs to be pushed to the live server, I may be able to slide in a fix to at least increase to a more recent base durability. I am not promising any arrival dates as there are several other projects to complete.

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[Anonymous]

ritio then,
It is already absorbing my damage :DD:D:D:D:D:D:D just not lasting long while doing so.
Spose you will let us know when you have put a temporary fix or permanent patch in place
now excuse me. I have 100k of shaddow iron to farm.

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[Anonymous]

ur slow spawner in the orc cave is killing my farming Redman

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34994

[Anonymous]

seems like this durability thing is a little odd. I mean is it currently has 2500 durability. Then considering how long its lasting. It would be losing 1 durability for every point of damage i take which isnt close to right.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34995

[Anonymous]

Some based on the skills you possess and some based on the armor you wear. It would be nice to incorporate heavier armors to give only melee characters the benefit of taking less damage at the cost of some other attribute (Lower spell damage, inability to leech, etc etc). Whatever the changes are, there remains one important factor:

About this comment. Isnt it stupidity to say yes they are hugely dis advantaged then say yes we are going to bring them to a level playing field. Then go onto to say your going to take away from them in doing so and as a consequence not really help them at all.
To make it even you have to give them something and not take anything away or your back where you started with melee characters getting raped by one creatures or raped by restraints.

in short they are disadvantaged. You give them something and take away something they have now ur just changeing around where the disadvantage comes from. Even sugesting taking away the ability to leech is basically moronic. How about fixing it. Not shifting the disadvantage.

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[d.]

"(April 5, 2011) Melee damage being too harshly capped and nerfed SSI seems to be overboard.

A change was made awhile back with weapons which affected their damage and their SSI. Maces being the slowest whereas fencing was the quickest. This change did not work out very well so it'll be reverted and the damage and SSI caps will be removed. "

SSI and damage where fine......un-capping them is going to make meele chars and archers as silly as they were pre-nerf.

With the nerf you can still hit for 1/4-1/3 life + any hi spell procs your weapon has with a decent suit and skill setup, while swinging at a good rate.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34997

[Anonymous]

I have 120 swords tactics anat and bushido and to hit for 1/3 1/4 life leech on anything worth fighting I generally require slayer tallismans. I have 130 hitpoints so if I wanna leech 1/4 of that I need to be hitting fairly hard.

Make melee as easy to gear up as the other classes. Make their resistance a bit better or drop there damage taken. Doesnt need to give them larger damage. I mean. If i am taking 140 damage from a spell or taking 77+89+55+35+35 in half a second flat. Then hitting harder isnt really gunna fix it i guess.
High resists with tighter restraints. Maybe the char must not be partied. Must not be using a ranged weapon. Must be wearing metal armor or Plate armor or something. At the moment the difference is spastic either way.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:34998

[Death]

Some based on the skills you possess and some based on the armor you wear. It would be nice to incorporate heavier armors to give only melee characters the benefit of taking less damage at the cost of some other attribute (Lower spell damage, inability to leech, etc etc). Whatever the changes are, there remains one important factor:

About this comment. Isnt it stupidity to say yes they are hugely dis advantaged then say yes we are going to bring them to a level playing field. Then go onto to say your going to take away from them in doing so and as a consequence not really help them at all.
To make it even you have to give them something and not take anything away or your back where you started with melee characters getting raped by one creatures or raped by restraints.

in short they are disadvantaged. You give them something and take away something they have now ur just changeing around where the disadvantage comes from. Even sugesting taking away the ability to leech is basically moronic. How about fixing it. Not shifting the disadvantage.

Not all warrior classes are disadvantaged. Sampires remain the single most popular template next to archers and tamers because they leech back their damage and their damage output allows them to remain alive through almost anything. That's pretty much what they have going for them, that's the benefit of their template.

Mages and archers, should they get the same benefit from armor reduction when they are not standing toe to toe? The same thing with sampires and those who use high life leech, they already a method of staying alive. Sure, they are free to wear the armor if they like, but they will have a penalty. Take less damage at the cost of something else.

This is nothing new. The old days of Ultima had plate giving better resistances at the cost of dexterity. In order to add something of this magnitude to the templates that need it most, then there has to be a cost to the templates it's not intended for.

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[Death]

"(April 5, 2011) Melee damage being too harshly capped and nerfed SSI seems to be overboard.

A change was made awhile back with weapons which affected their damage and their SSI. Maces being the slowest whereas fencing was the quickest. This change did not work out very well so it'll be reverted and the damage and SSI caps will be removed. "

SSI and damage where fine......un-capping them is going to make meele chars and archers as silly as they were pre-nerf.

With the nerf you can still hit for 1/4-1/3 life + any hi spell procs your weapon has with a decent suit and skill setup, while swinging at a good rate.

The weapon class capping didn't really serve a logical purpose. Not all mace weapons are intended to be slow (tessen) while not all fencing weapons are intended to be fast (lance). The weapon class capping is confusing and misleading and it's just better for it to be removed. The SSI and damage will be set to whatever it's supposed to be at. We will be ensuring that is doesn't surpass any caps.

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[Anonymous]

remain alive through almost anything?
Shell I provide you with a list?

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[Death]

remain alive through almost anything?
Shell I provide you with a list?

You may. I am interested to see which mobs are killing you.

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[d.]

"(April 5, 2011) Melee damage being too harshly capped and nerfed SSI seems to be overboard.

A change was made awhile back with weapons which affected their damage and their SSI. Maces being the slowest whereas fencing was the quickest. This change did not work out very well so it'll be reverted and the damage and SSI caps will be removed. "

SSI and damage where fine......un-capping them is going to make meele chars and archers as silly as they were pre-nerf.

With the nerf you can still hit for 1/4-1/3 life + any hi spell procs your weapon has with a decent suit and skill setup, while swinging at a good rate.

The weapon class capping didn't really serve a logical purpose. Not all mace weapons are intended to be slow (tessen) while not all fencing weapons are intended to be fast (lance). The weapon class capping is confusing and misleading and it's just better for it to be removed. The SSI and damage will be set to whatever it's supposed to be at. We will be ensuring that is doesn't surpass any caps.

To help clear up some confusion, I was speaking regarding dmg and ssi in the realm of PvP. For those of you who remember, pre-nerf dexxers were rather silly, and can still hit outrageously hard.

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[Incriminate]

D. with all due respect, my dexxer has been freaking smashed with the nerf-bat over the head repeatedly until he was up to his waist in the mud

Now I know that bok-bok dexxers were never the hardest of hitters, but I can't even get a 3-shot combo to do over 50 dmg

Perhaps it's just me being a bit rusty, but that never used to be the case. However, I think I'm ditching a pure dexxer for a mage/dexxer combo, since I always used to like them.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:35011

[d.]

D. with all due respect, my dexxer has been freaking smashed with the nerf-bat over the head repeatedly until he was up to his waist in the mud

Now I know that bok-bok dexxers were never the hardest of hitters, but I can't even get a 3-shot combo to do over 50 dmg

Perhaps it's just me being a bit rusty, but that never used to be the case. However, I think I'm ditching a pure dexxer for a mage/dexxer combo, since I always used to like them.

Not trying to sound rude, but if you aren't finding a way to make a hard hitting dexxer, you are doing something wrong. Next time I am on (who knows when that will be), we can spar a bit and you can see my dexxer's damage.

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[Incriminate]

I'm using a Bukoto d. I know that ain't really helping me there, but it's specials are insane

I need a better collection of weapons to tell the truth, a Bok to stun, then switch to a heavy hitter to DS, then a hatchet to disarm or a kryss/dagger to poison with.

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[Anonymous]

why do you continue on with ur current provider when their connection is a POS ?

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:5641, old post ID:35026

[Red Squirrel]

You seem to be the only one having issues. This provider is saving us over $100/mo.

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