Problems from a new Player

Hi Guys
Relatively new player here, but i have played both OSI and on several renaissance shards over the 15 or so years i've been playing UO, these are my opinions and suggestions based on what i have seen on this server, i would love your feedback.

I want to start by saying i love the shard, even from Australia, it runs great, the implementation and functionality of features is really the best i have ever seen on a free server, it rocks, kudos.

The issues for me is the imbalance when it comes to PVP, and just the raw power mages have with relatively no cost of investment in terms of equipment that comes with that power.
Mages are hard to train and should be strong, however legal afk macroing makes training a character just a matter of money and time, not necessarily effort. A mage shouldn't be able to run around in nothing but robes and rain down the kind of pain that they are, i have some suggestions of how to possibly tweak and fix this, without influencing the overall PVP power or playstyle mages currently enjoy.

What i suggest is a magic clothing system, able to by crafted by tailors which buff a certain school of magic (fire, lightning, buffs/heals), it can be tiered just like weapon tiers, with the top tier being difficult to craft, and expensive to buy, but the first tier being relatively accessible.

The result of this system would be making Magery less powerful at a base level but buffing it via this equipment, keeping magery powerful but also allowing for differentiation in power and play style between mages, and adds a cost of investment to mage equipment.

Honestly i haven't ever experienced PKing like i have on this server I have tried farming various spots, various times of day, both on and off the beaten track, i still get repeatedly killed and looted, feeling there is nothing i can do to avoid this, really feels frustrating as a player and to be honest has made me stop logging in. It probably has a lot to do with the large player base and lack of trammel, It wouldn't bother me if the people PKing me had to have some kind of investment to be this powerful, but more than likely the gear they are wearing is worth less than my bone armour and self found crappy magic weapon.

The solutions i have been given after asking veteran players is essentially, if you want to compete in any fashion, make a mage, to me that viewpoint is broken, why not work on balance to make more play styles viable, balanced and fun for PVP, and reducing these no cost of investment pk mage teams running around 1 shotting people.

At this point, the way this is, the constant mage ganking has effected my play experience to the point that have no desire to venture out into any sort of PVM, and PVP just being a mage show doesn't particularly interest me as i see a lack of variety and longevity to it.

I would love to hear your thoughts on PKing, PVP and the mage cloth system.
Peacan.

Edit: i also think that being able to mark runes in dungeons is a mistake, but that's a whole other post worth of typing.

Hello and welcome to UOR Peacan!

I will let the other players tackle the other issues you brought up, because you have a few items on the agenda that you mentioned, the two biggest ones being your description of PvP verses your thoughts on getting PKed; those are not the same thing.

My advice for you, in terms of your frustration with trying to farm, is dont do it alone. It sound like you are out there all alone, and thats the biggest set back. This is Fel, as you already know, and this server has been up for a while, so ya, lots of people have runes marked to the best and most well traveled places. If you are not ready and quick with your escape macro, then yes, you will be ganked.

Join up with a guild, or group of fellow adventurers, and your days of getting PKed will slow down, but not stop completely! This is a team game, a multi player game, and highly unforgiving game, as I am sure you remember from your 15 years of play.

Also, there are no instances here that are able to have runes marked in them......? The only instances here are AMiBs and the Taming Quest and the occasional holiday event...... Everything else, in terms of dungeons and world hunting, is open. So maybe you are confusing your terms?

Hope you give it more time and you find people to hang out with. Lots of good guild here. I suggest jumping on IRC and taking with us. Join #PS and ask questions or find hunting partners there! We are here to help.

Hope that others are able to comment on some of the other things your brought up.

Take care!

~Krake

In my humble opinion there is a MUCH simpler solution to you getting pk'd all the time. Make a recall macro, keep reflect up, pay attention.

I have a pk and from my experience there are 2 types of players. Vigilant/prepared players, and non-vigilant not prepared. The vigilant player with a recall macro and magic reflect is gunna get away pretty much every single time. They will usually have time to type a LOL before they recall.
The non-vigilant players are just gunna get pkd, sorry.

There are guides on the forum to getting away. ALSO the spot you farm is vitally important. Spots I recommend: Wind, Fire temple, lich lords in fire, lich lords in deciet, EG's shame. All small tight spaces that are hard for pks to get to without alerting you to their presence first.

Yew liches is not exactly "off the beaten path" and I assure you, my backpack contents were well beyond the value of your items + gold you dropped.

Welcome to UOR.

Based on my PKing and experience on UOR, I'd say most mages carry the following:

- Reagents
- Potions
- Pouches
- Runes
- Barbed leather armor
- Greater heal wand
- Lightning wand
- Mana drain wand

Without a majority of the items above, it's hard to "rain down" upon whomever their fighting. Mage inventory on UOR isn't exactly much different than typical dexer inventory. A dexer might carry a couple of power or vanq weapons. Power and Vanqs sell for practically nothing on this shard too. On top of that, dexers can carry blessed runic weapons.

Mages also a lot harder to master than a warrior. You can't just macro out a Mage and start pking people if you don't know what you're doing.

El Horno is exactly right. My suggestions are as folows:

[*] Get your resists worked if you are frequently encountering mage pks.
[*] Always keep magic reflect up because the mages will almost always lead with paralyze.
[*] Carry around magically trapped pouches that you can use to get out of a paralyze quickly (opening the pouch does 1 point of damage to you and breaks the paralyze).
[*] Make a recall macro in razor and set the hotkey to something that is not intrusive to your gameplay but is readily accessible when you need it (practice using it too).
[*] Carry potions to use while you try to get away.
[*] Make sure that you have your settings set to show the names of incoming people - can be done either through UO client or Razor
[*] Always ride a horse, llama, or ostard - you need to be able to run as quickly as the pks.
[*] And, most importantly, always remain alert. Assume that anywhere you go you will have a death squad waiting for you.

In the beginning of your career as an adventurer, I would recommend running from most fights. There's no shame in running from a pk and you can be damn sure they will run from you when the situation is reversed. As you get more skilled and learn the mechanics more you can decide to stay and fight for a bit or run away. Solo mage pks, whom I have a lot of respect for, have to run in and rely on a good mana dump to kill you. Once their mana is low they are far less deadly, but by no means a pushover. If you do engage them and survive the initial mana dump, then hound them. Don't let them have a free second to med or cast a spell. Stay on their heels and you just might win. The one caveat to that is that if you have a weapon you consider to be of high value, then don't screw around with at all. Recall immediately.

Death squads rely on overwhelming numbers and will almost always win against an lone adventurer foolish enough to stick around, so run when you see them.

Peacan, it's a hard knock life here on UOR if you're using a dexxer. You're gonna have to balance your stats which everyone and their brother will defend and tell you it's a "good" thing because as a dexxer you need that INT anyways to cast Greater Heals, I call BS but whatever as long as they feel they've rationalized their position which in most instances will be weighted towards the mage perspective.

Balanced stats look something like this 85 str, 90 dex, 50 int; 90 str, 90 dex, 45 int or if you want to get a little daring 84 str, 100 dex 41 int

ALWAYS have magic reflect up, re-cast when it gets depleted

Set a macro for recall and bind it to a key that is worn permanently into your muscle memory

Get hiding (if you're a bard), I know many people say it isn't necessary but it does help a little bit when idling waiting for things to die

Be alert (something I don't always do as I'm always listening or looking at something else while I'm playing UO, BAD HABIT)

As soon as you see a red name hit your recall macro, don't hesitate, PUNCH OUT!! Resist that urge to run, you'll only die tired, hit your macro (hit your macro whenever you have to go back to town to bank, it soon becomes second nature)

If you have to go afk, recall back to the bank and bank your gold and goodies, don't hide in a dungeon or anywhere outside of town, trackers will find you.

This is just basic stuff but it can help, most of all I think it's being alert, reds run up fast so you always have to be on your guard.

Good luck, stick with it

Hi guys,
Just to clear a few things up, i am aware what it takes to be a mage i have played mages previously on OSI and private shards, The suggestion i gave for the magic clothes was from one of the better, more balanced shards i played, which had a mix of warrior and mage PVP using the UOR level of expansion. Since UOR was released, the tools we have to automate spell cast targeting, potion drinking and wand usage are far greater which we had during a similar time on OSI, its easier to be a mage now then ever, and on this server they are unarguably stronger than any other class combination, i really don't understand why people think this is something that should be encouraged.

I am fully aware that PVP and getting PKd are entirely different beasts, i really cant comment too much on the PVP side of things, apart from what i've observed in game, and from IRC chat, Mages are the PVP spec, and if you do anything else you better make sure you have magery or you're screwed.

The access that rune marking in dungeons gives to PKs to quickly and efficiently check multiple farming spots really makes a fel only server very PK friendly, regardless of balance changes, i think encouraging people to have to venture through dungeons to get to farming spots, and making pks run through the dungeon to spots is a good, light handed solution to the rampant pk farming of farming locations. Regardless i think requiring to take magery on every single character to avoid getting pkd, on a 7gm server i think is short sighted and needlessly constricting, surely there has to be a better answer.

To address other comments have also tried carrying pots and wands in the past, i'm not sure if it is the slight ping i get from Australia (around250), but my instant recall macro often isn't enough due to the nature of mages being able to use razor targeting for spells allowing for near instant offensive casting, against a 3-5 man squad i found that pots and wands did about as much as pissing on a house fire. All it did in the end was add value to the corpse i was leaving.

Also thankyou for the suggestions for how i can have a greater chance of survival, unfortunately i feel this game is just become a PK evasion simulator and i am not sure i'm enjoying that side of uo.

Hate to be a buzzkill on this, but your suggestions, however, well intentioned are never going to happen

Mages are what they are, I used to love playing my tank mage back in the day and 5X was kinda lame but it really improved my PvP skills.

UOR is that strange transition era in which we saw the special hits and the UBER lumberjacking bonus until it got nerfed along with the ever loved and hated mindblast fiasco which was embraced by the mage community but once the developers finally realized what it was doing to the balance of play they nerfed it as well.

Surviving in this era takes preparation, a good sense of humor and above all persistence.

You're going to get ganked, it's the way of the PK here, sometimes you'll see a solo PK but most of the time it's two or three or even four mages set for a synch dump just to make sure you get smoked before you have a chance to say "oh fuck I forgot to bank my shit".

As far as magery, it's a must have skill, survival depends on it for recall and magic reflect if nothing else.

Mages in UO have always been the preferred means to accomplish the most damage output per skills invested. When you're a mage and you've practiced to the point that you can run with the big dogs it really is the most versatile and optimum class to play.

If you want to play a dexxer you're going to be frustrated but if you have the right gear and know how mages fight then you can actually survive and sometimes win. I don't know if Torin Gorefiend still plays here but according to many he was a tough SOB to fight on a mage. HateCrime is another player who can wreck mages with his archer mage (I realize it's a mage template but his methodology could be extrapolated towards a hybrid or even a plain dexxer)

There's light at the end of the tunnel if you can find the right areas to farm and develop the right combination of gear and skills to eek out a living in this PK friendly wild wild west we call UOR.

Thankyou for your response, I think that perhaps, given the nature of this servers balance, and your advice that this server is not open to balance or change, this shard is probably not the shard for my friends and I. I hope other new players have a more positive experience than we have, the community, staff and support are fantastic, but a server setup to benefit one play style so heavily isn't fun for the people not wanting to conform to the very specific character setup required to thrive survive here.

I feel it says a lot when PKs feel they have to be polite and friendly to not further drive people away, it struck me as odd at first, but i realised the ease that PKs thrive on this server almost mandates a friendly attitude, i mean, why drive your victims away?
Goodluck and godspeed

And your solution does nothing to solve your described problem. So what if it was implemented as you suggest. Your still getting ganked/pkd by groups of pks while your trying to farm. They just have a slightly higher loadout, which they can afford all day cause most pks are rich right?

You realize how hard farming would be for blues if they had to run themselves into dungeons? I think this would be great because it would make it very difficult for tamers to get their pets in and out of dungeons.

You do not need magery to avoid getting PKed. Running, hiding, and using a mix of healing skill and potions to heal on the run will keep you alive long enough to make it to town.

Tons of players here thrive on every template imaginable. There are non conformist's everywhere thriving.

I think that the nature of this server is felluca. I think you and your friends would enjoy knowing they earned what they make of themselves here in a dangerous competitve enviornment.

I really hate you've had such a bad experience so far. I did get pked a lot on my warrior when I first started out. I got tired of buying weapons and armor so as soon as I made enough gold I made a Provo/Mage and started hunting in my newbied clothes and 25 of each reg to limit what I could possibly lose. I had great success doing this and then made another Mage on a second account to gate me out if I got pked. I hardly ever get pked now and when I do they Rez me most of the time and only take my gold/plat.

This is contrary advice to what i have received even on this very thread, its all been about getting a specific set of skills/items and macros simply to survive in the world that is beneficial to PKs. I also believe that the rune changes, rather than the magic cloth changes would have a greater effect on the rate of PK, the cloth changes just raise the point of entry for mages, my intention was not to make them useless, but to make being a powerful mage more of a gear investment, some mages may currently wear gear as pork fried rice said, but most don't, especially the gank squads.

This certainly isn't my or my friends first uo experience, but it is the first time we have tried playing in 5 or so years, i have already felt the joy of thriving in a hostile world, and honestly, i really like everything this server has going for it, apart from feeling like i cant engage with the game how i want to. The issue is with getting constantly ganked by large squads of reds in a world of restricted size, where checking the majority of popular spots takes a matter of minutes, i know most of the people in this thread adamantly against my ideas "pork friend rice" have a huge bias in this situation in that they are the mage PKs benefiting from such a PK friendly shard.

That being said, i understand each shard is different, i enjoy playing UO for reasons other than the frustration of constant ganks and what we see (possibly because of slight latency) are unavoidable deaths. Not everyone is me, i fully understand that this shard caters to a certain type of player, unfortunately my friends and I are not those players.

You're avatar is most appropriate. Good luck with whatever shard you end up on.

Bummer to see you all go. I'd recommend hanging in there. I've farmed balrons on a provoker mage for roughly 30 hours and seen pk's twice. Each time it was 1 pk solo.

There is such an abundance of things to do on this shard and ways to make a living, you could do so without ever leaving the town guards if you wanted.

I previously farmed a LOT in the area you're farming in the first couple weeks of me playing this shard. Got enough for a tower off that area and one in Wind (mostly the area you are farming though). I've seen a few PKs in that area, and with it being so open they can be running full speed at you by the time their name pops up in your journal. While that area is great for farming early on, due to the openness of it you need to be extra vigilant. Always keep your journal up and not hidden by bags so you can see the red name(s) both on your screen and in the journal.. Carry several trapped pouches, always keep magic reflect up, etc etc.

You mentioned your recall macro often isn't fast enough. What's your recall macro look like? Are you hitting it as soon as you see a red name? Keep your journal up too just so you see the red name(s) in both the journal and on your screen. Makes it hard to miss.

Here's what my recall macro looks like:

Cast Spell: Recall (or use the scroll by type)
Wait for target
Absolute Target (Your rune, set this target every time you go out for a day of farming just in case you changed runes in your pack and forgot)

Poof - you're safe at home.

For gate as a tamer with unbonded pets it'd be something like this:

say "all guard me"
say "all guard me"
Double Click (The scroll)
Wait for Target
say "all follow me"
say "all follow me"
Absolute Target (Your rune, set it every time you go out for a day of farming)
Pause .25 sec (or less, test it out to see what works best for you here)
Double Click (blue moongate (0F6C)) - Use by type in this part of the macro.


Don't have any delays between the say. Every time I go out farming I set 1 Gate scroll in my pack and my safe rune. I reset things up to use that 1 particular gate scroll and make sure the target is for that rune. For either macro if something interrupts it (like a paralyze) pop a pouch then hit that macro again. After you've set your escape macro up test it out a couple times just to make sure everything works right and isn't too slow.

Also as another poster said, farm in groups. Join a guild. Join the #PS IRC channel, join their guild if it looks like a good fit for you. I'm not a member of that guild (or any guild) but everything I've heard about that guild has been great!

Even doing everything perfect though you will likely get PK'd still occasionally. Being well prepared, very alert and with a quick macro set to an easy to remember hotkey (I use F2 as my escape hotkey on all my chars) will greatly limit your losses and frustrations. After you get used to taking all the precautions and hitting that key as soon as red pops up it'll become like habit on all of your chars to be well prepared. Good luck and hope you decide to stick around!

Also...don't do what I did initially and make your "say" in red on a tamer. Too many times I've said "all follow me" saw red in my journal then out of habit hit my escape macro.

Escape macro + reflect is essential. A number of people have suggested it but you haven't made any reply to it so I wonder if you're willing to give it a go?

I don't farm a ton but I'm out there every once in a while. If you're paying attention it's really not too difficult to avoid getting PKed. If you make a habit of banking the gold every couple thousand then even if you do get killed, it won't be that big of a deal. I wonder, too, if you're just experiencing some bad luck because the picture you've painted of this shard does not reflect my own experience. Granted, I also spend a lot of time outside of the farming spots.

As far as PvP goes, I'm not qualified to say much about it but it sounds like people have been giving good advice about it.

Regardless, it's always a shame to lose people but I wish you luck.

I thought tamers are the OP template here?

Sorry for your rough experiences so far. Are you using the young program? That is a great way to get established while enjoying trammel protections.