Savages and Savage Kin Paint Implementation Idea

Savages Information


I have decided to spend some time researching and proposing ideas that would make improvements to gameplay without being detrimental to other areas of gameplay. One idea that I have been brainstorming is the introduction of savages and savage kin paint.

First, a little bit of history. Savages were first introduced in the summer of 2001 during an in-game event that last from May to July 2001 across all production shards. Other savage forts/villages were seen during the expansion of Lord Blackthorne's Revenge. Therefore, an argument of this content being to far "out of era" would be invalid when compared to some other content implemented on this server from the same timeframe. Here is a UOguide entry for reference to this event:




The different types of savages included two melee types (male and female), a savage shaman and a savage rider. The savage riders rode horrible looking ridgeback mounts, which I am also going to say up front I personally despise and I'm sure most other people do as well, so we can eliminate those from the idea. Here are some screenshots of the savages:

Savage Rider:


Savage Shaman:


Savage:



With the implementation of savages, a certain loot table was also introduced, including hued tribal masks, tribal berries, bola balls and tribal spears. From past conversations I've seen regarding bolas, it is safe to say we can go ahead and forget about them from this point forward. Here are some screenshots of the loot from savages:
Hued Tribal Masks:


Tribal Berries:



Bola Ball:


Tribal Spear

My Idea

Basically, I would like to see the savages implemented mainly for the purpose of introducing the tribal berries, which are used to make savage kin paint. Savage kin paint is created by using the cooking skill. It's primary use is to counter being turned into a rat by Baracoon, which is a champ spawn boss. Here are a few references pulled from stratics and UOguide:






I think the addition of savage kin paint will be greatly beneficial to the cooking skill, which currently has no real value (IMO) and to people who do champ spawns regularly. This will also add PVM content to the game. The addition of the masks and tribal spears would be up for discussion to include or exclude from this content. Also, this content would also serve as means to introduce bolas, if they were to ever happen. Please leave the bola discussion for another time! I am in no way saying I want to introduce bolas with this content!

One thing I would like to see changed from the way it was on production servers, is to make GM cooking a requirement to make the paint. Also, there are a few areas that I think would be good locations for a savage fort/village, such as swamps, but an interesting idea would be to make this content exclusive to t2a. Im curious to hear other peoples ideas about where this content could be introduced.

I honestly can't think of any cons to this content other than it may be "to trammel" for some folks but I am looking forward to hearing feedback from the community and see if we can't get some additional content implemented into the game! Please keep the discussion civil!

I'm curious what you really want out of this. It seems like there are a bunch of things this would bring:

- new monster encampments in the world
- something to draw more people to the lost lands
- new enemy types in the world
- a use for the Cooking skill
- an item that changes player skin tone
- an item that prevents you from turning into a rat by Barracoon
- a tribal rivalry for orcs
- a foot in the door for bolas
- new hues for tribal masks

Just curious which is most important to you, or anyone else.

For me, it's mostly about giving some use to the cooking skill and adding the ability to avoid being turned into a rat at the Baracoon spawn. This is definitely not about the mask hues or implementation of bolas.

- new monster encampments in the world
- something to draw more people to the lost lands
- new hues for tribal masks
- a use for the Cooking skill

This are the important ones for me.
I like the idea of any new area where people can farm, as we have been farming the same places for a long time and it feels rather stagnant, especially T2a. As long as you make a few of the of the more desirable mask colors a very very rare drop, people are going to farm there to get that drop. This is good for pvm and pvp.

What I like about this is that tribal masks are already the least popular mask to wear and I don't think that these mask hues will interfere with the current mask market because people will still prefer other mask types and hues. This gives newer players a stepping stone into the mask game. I also have tremendous faith that the hues selected by the staff to be implemented would be tasteful.

I like the steps this server has made in adding utility to once nearly useless skills and I think this would make a lot of people add cooking to one of their alts.

#1. No to the Baracoon counter. Champion spawns are already being gamed enough as it is. They're supposed to be tough. It is already super common to see people (mostly people in TnT or TEX) doing ridiculous things at champion spawns like multi-account tamer macros to farm champion spawns for hours with their blessed dragon army (and not even pick up the gold that these monsters drop).

#2. Cooking needs something more than tribal berries to make it useful.

#3. T2A needs more than savages to draw more people there. If it's just savages people will farm a surplus of berries and then rarely go there again.

#4. Leave bolas out of a discussion over savages? lolwut? They were the primary reason why people farmed savages. And they should certainly be up for discussion, at least in a nerfed form. They made dexers on foot a completely viable way to play the game in an era of cable Internet connections.

#5. Orcs used ridgebacks. You may not like it, but there are roleplayers who do. They work for orcs precisely because they're ugly.

#1. Sounds like you have an issue with tamers.

#2. I agree cooking needs more, but this would be a start. Feel free to throw out an idea with your complaint.

#3. This wouldn't be meant to be the sole reason people go to t2a. We already have champ spawns and evil mage tower spawns. I am saying this would add to the list of reasons to get out into t2a. As far as farm status, don't make the drop rate for the berries ridiculous and this shouldn't be a problem.

#4. If you go back and check some of the previous discussions that's been had over the past 2.5 years regarding bolas, you'll understand why I said to forget them. Seems that the majority of people dislike them when it comes to pvp. If this turns into a bola discussion, this thread will be pooped on in no time.

#5. It has been confirmed that Telamon himself absolutely hates ridgebacks, therefore I doubt we will see them due to their ugliness. But yea, orcs are ugly too!

Lets be honest, the champ spawn feature of the paint is completely moot because being polymorphed has absolutely no impact on the spawn as it is. I don't even notice that I've been poly'd until after Coon dies and the only effect it seems to have is delay my gating pets into town as I am grey. The way coon is ran generally involves enough tamers that I fail to see how any anti-poly paint is going to make any difference one way or the other.

Markos you are correct that bolas are so far off the table that it isn't even worth discussing. There will never be bolas, end of story. We know where that road leads us.

This is it precisely. This isn't the cure all for T2a, but a step in the right direction in terms of adding reasons for people to go there. And it is pretty straightforward to change spawn rates to make these items unrealistic to farm in bulk.

I would like to also suggest that in addition to making these items extremely rare drops, make the masks unable to be repaired using powder of fortification.

#1. I'm against anything that makes champion spawns easier. They're supposed to be tough. If anything, champion spawns need to be made harder. So I'm against having the paint counter Baracoon.

#3. The drop rate won't change the fact that people will stockpile them and avoid T2A whenever they can. They will just stockpile berries at a slower rate, or only use the paint *just* before Baracoon spawns.

#4. It doesn't matter. You can't have a discussion about savages without talking about bolas. The topic of savages or tribal spears or roach mages is a Pandora's box that opens up the bola discussion. If you've gone through those previous discussions as well then history has proven that to be a fact.

#5. That's disappointing, because orcs are the one thing that they fit perfectly with.

I'm not a fan of making the Barracoon champ spawn easier either. And I think giving a reason for people to GM the Cooking skill is kind of gimmicky. It's not like you're going to see player Cooks filling the cities, people will just macro it to GM and use it once a month to make the paint. I also think the white skin hue of the tribal paint is dumb.

What was the whole thing with Tribal Spears?

They acted like strong spears of force / weak spears of power. They were also super easy to acquire.

+1 for the rest of your post

If memory serves the only reason we don't have savages in the world right now is they were spawning with bugged out masks/gear long, long ago.

I think the Savage Camps and the spears would be cool. Was it the paint or the masks that made them not attack you? If it was the masks, I think that would be a neat addition, and very in line with the orc masks. I just really really hate the white skin tone of the savage paint, but that of course is merely an opinion.

I'd even probably buff the spears a bit. I think everyone used them on OSI because vanqs and even power weapons weren't nearly as plentiful as on a shard like this (at least in my circles).

Fuck bolas.

I have no problem with bolas in specific areas for RP only. That said, it'll likely never happen. I'd much rather just see some areas where "mounts dare not tread" and somehow the magic of Ethereals is broken.

Yes on Savage Kin paint and maybe tribal spears. They're just some shitty spears that look nifty and wouldn't be better than the dime-a-dozen vanqs on the shard already. Savage Kin Paint that allows you to roam freely within the ranks of Savage spawns, much like orc masks, is just fine. As long as the hues aren't ghastly and it wears off when you die, that would be cool and not negatively impacting anything. No buffs to hunting Champ Spawns.


Definitely no way on the masks. Base hue mask drops only, if anything at all.

FTFY <3

Honestly as shitty as the economy is for magic weapons and armor, I would prefer not to have tribal spears or any of the other crap that's associated with savages. The masks I don't really care for one way or the other (they could spawn on any creature and I don't think anyone would lose any sleep over it) but bolas in certain areas would be cool to have. Either that or have anyone who enters such a restricted area on a mount get hit with the [kill command before having their ghost teleported to one tile island.

So what you're saying is you're too cool to have a mature conversation about it?

Tribal spears are crap and would only suit RP. There's literally no negative to them, providing they are not blessed or have any other bonus attributes.

I'm down for the [kill command on anyone riding horses into certain areas, as long as the same happens to all of your characters whenever they enter guard zone.

The problem isn't that the spears are crap, it's that they shouldn't be crap. Anything that's not vanquishing at the moment isn't selling on a player vendor because nobody wants them. Because of all the better stuff that's out there. The way to fix that is to have fewer magic weapons in the economy at large (and not more) because that makes force and power weapons more valuable for someone to have. So I would have to say no to adding tribal spears.

You've got a deal.

Drop rates were already modified but it will take years for the magic weapon glut to change without a Clean Up Britannia implementation.

I'm ok with making Tribal Spears vanquishing level as well, if they are a rare drop from the savages.


Weapons almost never go away because of Powder of Fortification and the majority of farming happens with Tamers and blessed...errr bonded tames.

Sorry, I'm not interested in seeing the shard turn into a tamer gankfest. If they were restricted to only a small area (desert of compassion for instance) I would be fine with it.