Regular MiBs Need Buff

I was debating starting this thread but after a day of fishing MiB's I couldn't keep myself from starting a thread on the loot from MiB chests (normal).

I really believe that the loot needs to be looked at. I don't think it's equivalent to the time/work that's required to fish one up.

Normally I wait weeks until I have a solid batch to go out and fish them all up on a casual day off. This takes A LOT of time, planning, and work.

I find that most MiBs are in the average of 2k in raw gold. I realize that there is very little risk in fishing these up but if you factor in the time it takes to sail/recall/sail all over the world for a lousy 2k it's almost not worth it.

Currently it takes a considerable amount of time to fish up a serpent with a CHANCE to have a MiB. Then it takes another considerable amount of time to go retrieve the MiB. I would argue that from the time it takes to fish up the serpent up to and including fishing up the actual treasure I could have farmed out 10x (conservatively!) the amount of gold in a dungeon.

I never really looked at risk as the driving factor on whether or not you farm a certain aspect of this game. BODs for instance have 0 risk and are one of the most profitable aspects of the game. I'm not asking that MiB's get equalized with BODs but I believe it requires a tweak.

Today/yesterday I fished up approximately 80 MiBs. Out of those MiBs I looted around 220k gold (including gems and scrolls sold). I kept 90 total items (mostly, and I mean like 50 or so, wands). The magical items are really "meh". I don't understand why but it seems that in the rare instance that you find a vanq it'll only be +5 to accuracy. My best weapon found was a +25 power broadsword... 80 MiBs, 2 days, and my prize was a +25 power broadsword. You can farm 80 elder gazers in 2 hours and come out with better results.

At this point I'm beating a dead horse. I'd like to hear constructive feedback on this topic. Understand that I'm not a big fisher, I do it normally during the tournaments, I wouldn't ever rely on fishing to provide me with the gold I need to continue playing. I just don't think the reward is sufficient after all that annoyance.

I don't want to get long winded, just like to say that I have some fishers and I decided pretty quickly that regular mibs were not worth the time it takes to sail to them and dig them up. Time seemed like the big factor here.

I created and ran two fishers at once and came to the same conclusion. Not exactly my cup-o-tea. I promptly re-skilled those characters to other builds.

Its late and ive been drinking but no shit fishing yield less gold than farming EG or other mid to high level mobs. If it was more profitable then dungeons would be empty and all the pks would be wearing red sashes and yelling YAAR.

Fishing is a low stress low reward activity that players can do and still make money. Of course as with most uo there is always a level of danger but unless youre passing out at the keyboard youre likely going to survive that krakan battle.

I have only been fishing for a couple days and have yet to try an AMIB but it seems like that is the 'end game' element to fishing. perhaps after a few runs at those with the ore colored metal chests and some cool rares youll be singing a different tune.

If youre still unhappy with the fishing experience then go back to the EG room and farm those gold pixels until your heart's content.

Not sure about that. I'd guess one vanq every 1.5 hours is probably what I've averaged killing Elder Gazers, and as you mention that vanq is more than likely to be a +5 or +10 (which is worse than a +25 power weapon).

My thought was similar to Wise though, that a low-risk activity like this should be nowhere near as profitable as sticking your neck on the line in a high traffic area.

I thought AMIBs here were the real profit center for fishing, is that incorrect?

AMiBs are endgame for fishing as much as the Harrower is for PvM. I'm not complaining about AMiBs, matter of fact I think they need to be tuned up a bit considering the pay off there and are easily soloable. This is a debate for another thread though.

I did address that I realize that MiBs are very low stress and low risk. My point is that the time you have to sink into MiBs is not worth the payout. Perhaps bringing EG's up was a bad example, it is "high traffic", we all know there are areas in this large game that can be farmed without ever seeing a PK, even at primetime. I don't think I need to elaborate here. By the way, I've been PK'd by Google and crew out on the high waters numerous times. I have also been killed by a blue passing by, not even thinking he would be trouble. Nonetheless, it's still low risk but very low yield. Farming orc forts are very low risk and low yield too, but not as much of a time sink.

Oh, and I've seen multiple Vanqs drop off the same EG in that room. A +25 and a +15 on the same EG. Plus you get the chance at a boss mob with guaranteed platinum. You also have the chance for slayers, tmaps, etc. I digress here.. I have never and will never farm the EG room, it is very high traffic and silly.

I'm not saying that the MiB's need to drop vanq after vanq after vanq. I just think the raw gold should be upped a bit. Perhaps raise the chance at a higher end force weapon in there. And please at least add chance for slayer weapons, I don't care if it's just silver. MiBs are littered with ruin and guarding items, I've amassed 2125 junk items from MiB's during this run. This is not an exaggeration, come stop by my fort and click the chests locked down on the CY steps, that's all junk.

I understand what you're saying but by that same logic you can say that the time farming skeletons at Jhelom graveyard is not worth the payout because you can make more money elsewhere. Lets up the gold on skeletons and zombies.

Not all things in the game have to have the same gold per hour yield. On SA I used to get 150-200 mibs put them all in UOAM and go nuts for a day, sure you don't get as much money as grinding EG but you make more than Jhelom GY.

Fishing isnt meant as a way to riches if youre in it for gold then do something else.

I think what offsets this some is the chance at a metal chest or special colored fishing net. As I do MIBs, I fish from one to another, pulling up serps. Also to kill time, I sometimes toss a few nets in. So I disagree that any buff on MIBs are needed.

All methods of "farming" aren't and shouldn't be equal imo. I do MIBs for the enjoyment and as a distraction, not so much to farm. Also as you pointed out, there is the risk/reward factor. There is literally no risk.

I think fishing is meant to help newer players get some wealth, kind of like a stepping stone from completely new to dungeon farmer.

Buying a boat is getting easier as more people have crafters and then its just a matter of getting your guys to GM.

I was here from beta so I took a different route but if I was coming in fresh around this time I think fishing would be a realistic way to get myself started and save up for a modest home and/or supplies for training.

For someone who does a lot of playing from work fishing is great because all i have to do is remember to turn the macro off when i tab out, so far so good :mrgreen:

I'm going to buck the trend of replies here and AGREE with Cynic; although perhaps not in gold. I think to capture the entire profit from fishing, a fisher needs to also sell all the items including the deco items (not just the NPC sellables).

So while I agree that the gold reward is actually already there for MiB's, I think every aspect of the game could be enriched by it's own type of reward.

BoD's have your super EPIC chance of an UBER unique Runic Hammer. (I haven't reviewed BoD's at ALL because they're overwhelming, but my understanding is that the only way to get a runic hammer is through the BoD system). Hunting EG's give you the chance of social encounters and provide much more stimulation than 'run razor macro, drop item, repeat, watch, watch, watch". MiB's just don't have that 'oomf' to fit the class.

Why not give MiB hunting a little more 'oomf' to fit it's class? Yes, the MIB hunting does already have 'sunken' items, but it's always a crap shot at how many you fish up. You could get 1 pillow and then the chest or you could get 6 items and then the chest. Why not add a 'named' ring or something like that to enrich MiB's?

I wouldn't mind spending a day coming up with 100 or so random item names that could be added to a database to give to random rings or jewlery. Imagine having the chance fish up "Lady Amalthea's Locket" or "Emblem of Ivan the Great". The item would have 0 use (since there are no magic jewlrey items. BOO by the way), but the fact that you have the chance to fish up such items would enrich the MiB system (because you ARE fishing up somebody else's lost treasure) and could make vending the items from MiB's a little nicer.

Thanks all

- Jupiter Greystone

Just make fish steaks the new currency :idea:

Solve world hunger and whiney UO pixel needs at the same time! Haha

Super rare things should not be a part of this discussion, in regards to farming monsters or MIBs. Much as you've seen this, I suspect someone somewhere has received the same from a MIB. We should be talking about averages here, not freak occurrences.

Also not sure the AMIB:Harrower comparison is apt, since the former takes 1 or 2 people and an hour, and has happened hundreds of times, while the latter takes dozens of people, many hours, and has happened like 5 times.

Time shouldn't be a concern, either. I mean, one MIB doesn't take forever. It's a big time sink because you do a ton of them at once. Focus, IMO, should be on rate of return, as that implicitly includes accounting for time.

Isn't this the AMIB system? What am I missing here?

I confess that I enjoy fishing Mibs. Always have. When doing them in bulk I like to use a 4 boat system, one on each set of coordinates. Recall to the South & West boat, etc, fish all those and move on. Fish up dozens of them in an afternoon. Between the cash, gems, scrolls and trash magics the take is much higher than 2k per. Score a metal chest and add 8-10k more to the haul. In fact the chest is worth more than 99% of whatever vanq or power you might find inside on a shard like this so flooded with them that most are near valueless anyhow.

I like Jupiters idea of adding some variety to the pre-chest loot on MIB's. Semi-rares, on par with the metal chests that you pull up. Something kinda unique, but not by any means game affecting or even really valuable.

Frankly, I agree with Cynic in principle, however in practice my execution would be different.

I have done a ton of MIB's in my past life, and only about 150 here. The reason being: the preloot. I have never experienced having to fish a spot dry to get the chest to pull up until I came here. Spending 10 minutes fishing up a single chest before moving on to the next is really what makes it feel unrewarding. Its not that the quality of the loot isn't great; lets be real here, it never was -- its equivalent to a L1 thru L3 treasure chest, and the returns will be about the same. Its that to do 15 MIB's in a shot, takes you 3 hours, best case scenario. I have always been able to knock out closer to 30-40 in that amount of time.

My recommendation as such would be to instead reduce the variance of how many items are pulled up before the chest. The max should be something like 5-6 items per before the chest is pulled; this would have the added benefit of not adding more stuff into peoples piles of hoarding (which I am just as guilty of as most) at such a high rate.

I like the idea of reducing pre loot too. Fewer items around would also serve to make them more desirable. I can still remember a time long ago when thing like paintings actually had some value.

I think Jupiter's idea is genius too. A chance at some pretty pixels or cool deco item beyond 9000 bone and seashells and misc broken shit.

Also my use of comparing this to BoD's is that the unique items would be as considerably rare as the runic hammer if not more.

Just knowing that you MIGHT be able to recover a lost locket, trinket, could provide that added 'excitement' with each cast.

AMIB's are more of the high end reward for fishing in general, but when you're out fishing up regular MIB's your focus isn't on getting ANOTHER chore to do. Lets face it when you're out fishing specifically to collect MIBS, the idea of getting an AMIB is more like "good job! now you get to go do MORE work!"

So the locket thing would yeah be like 1/1000? i dunno something extreme, but just knowing it is there would give that excitement with each cast

- Jupiter

Could have rare sets for collecting like Rumpelstiltskin's cap, cloak and boots all of a similar hue. Or for more variety, different hues :O

Better Pre-Loot would be the bomb !

I sometimes pull up ridiculous amounts of pre loot and just get annoyed by the weight of it