Randomization

[KnitePrince1]

I mentioned this a few years ago, and know you (Coli) tested it and verified it.. but I see nothing was ever done.. probably because i am the only one whos ever said anything???
Anyhow.. the request would be, to randomize reward drops from smithing Bods...
I did six 20 Val, and five ten blaze small bods.. On the Val bods I got six +3 gorgets.. on the blaze bods I got five +3 legs.. on doing normal iron bods trying to upgrade them, i received a total of six pairs of plus 1 gloves...
I already had several +3 gorgets, and several +3 legs form about two weeks ago doing bods.. I also had MULTIPLE pairs of +1 gloves.. all of which sit in the vendor because everyone already has those things..
For me.. Part of doing the bods, is trying to make complete sets.. which, appears not to be possible... perhaps.. as painful as it may be..
a Smithing/Mining gear bag like a power scroll bag??..
I can drop three gorgets in and receive an actual random reward type that is not the type of which I dropped? I understand there would be a chance of getting the legs, of which I already have many.. but, it would bring back the desire to pursue BODs once again?
Probably does not seem important to many.. but it is why I play.. to mine, to smith....
Thx for listening!! err. reading...
KP

[Pierre]

My understanding is that every time the world is reset, that these rewards re-randomize. So if you have plenty of +1 gloves, save your 20 Exc Iron small bods until after the next shard crash, then try again. When I first started, I got nothing but +1 Legs, now it is gloves. Also, there should be 2-3 different bod point ranges that all have a chance for a +1/3/5 gear, and each of these point ranges will drop a different piece of gear, and will be reset upon the next world reset (which is only done when there is a crash). For example, 50 points (20 normal iron small bod), 200 points (10/15/20 Exc iron small bod) and 400 points (10/15 Exc Dull Copper small bod) all have a chance for +1 blacksmith/mining armor, and each will be a different piece, and will reset to a new random piece each after the next world reset. So get a handful done, then save the rest for after the next crash, if full sets is the goal, at least as the system currently stands.

I hope I am not mis-stating the current randomization situation. In my experience, this holds true. I got different crafting gears using this method just last week.

[KnitePrince1]

So.. I need to hope for a crash every two or three days to get different stuff? unfortunately.. we did have a crash.. the stuff i got before the crash is exactly the same as it was after.. The entire point is... I like to mine and smith. i dont want to have to wait.. a month, six months etc in order to do bods.
I have Daat99's home page bookmarked as well as printed and hanging on the wall, so I can look up the rewards, and know which bods to do for what reward.. barring of course any changes Coli may have made to the system.

I'm not trying to be un gratuitous for the reply.. but were apparently animals of a different color if you can wait that long to do bods. I find it hard accepting that my chosen profession is dependent on a shard crash.. Which of course Coli is always working hard to fix/prevent..
I am quite certain the crash we just had didnt change anything for me, as i had the same gear already in my vendor and vendor storage container waiting to go on the vendor... so that point is moot.. As well... praying for a shard crash every few days so i can do bods would seem a rather traitorous thing to do..

[Legendaries]

I also think one of the reasons behind many pieces happening more often than others is so everyone doesn't have a full set. I knew someone who literally did bods every day and it took her two years to get a full +5 fletching set. Maybe this isn't the case but I agree that I seem to get the same pieces quite frequently.

[KnitePrince1]

Well, another crash.. Six more +3 Gorgets, two more +3 pants, multiple +1 gloves Same stuff as always, so can definitely say ...
The crash didnt seem to make a difference... Trashed most of the rewards. probably wont even try to do more until i see some type of confirmation that they will drop randomly.. another reason that ingots are worthless.. at least with a CHANCE to get random rewards, there will be people struggling to get them, and using, mining, buying ingots needed to fill those bods.. as it stands.. Ingots are pretty worthless.. i have talked to three people asking where to sell their ingots, and told all three to learn to kill stuff because ingots are worthless. iron.. to learn the smithing skill. Platinum to make armor and weps from.... In between.. gold, to fill bods for deco rewards. Dull copper to get powder of fortification.. none of which is needed in large quantities..
IF.. the reward drop could be randomized.. it would add some Value to valorite and blaze..

I still have my book from when I started, before exex even..
iron I sold for 12,
Dull 14
Shadow 16
Copper 20
" "
Val 40
Blaze 60
Ice 70
Toxic 80
Electrum 90
Plat 100
I could NEVER keep any in stock.. mining ten hours a day it was all gone before I ever mined it. Granite sold for twice the price of the ores, and i spent many weeks/months mining plat granite for 200 ea..
Coli ruled out rotating ores long ago, and i am not asking for that..
Although.. a simple change once a month to 6x6, 7x7, 9x9 would change the locations enough to make lazy people who have mining books BUY ingots again.. but thats not the point here... sorry
Simply fixing the randomization of the rewards will be enough to create a reason for filling bods again, and a small market for the ores/ingots used to fill them.. and a viable means of creating a bit more income to miners/smiths..
I'll not post here again, if something can be done.. GREAT, if not.. oh well, i tried just wanted to verify that the crashes had no effect. i still got the same rewards today as i did weeks ago.
later! KP

[Snydly]

Hi there;

I do many Fletching and Carpentry Bods and you are right to a certain degree that the Bods consistently give the same armor rewards for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. Then ... poof ... the type of armor changes to another set and for 3 to 4 weeks you get a different set of items.

Lately I have tried Blacksmith Bods to get a full set of +3 BS/mining armor. I have been getting Legs and Gorget as well ... I expect in 3 weeks this may change ... I will let you know.

Snydly, Master Crafter

[KnitePrince1]

OK... I said I wasnt going to post here again... but.. frustration prompts me to continue..
Its been a month (close)
Decided to try today, to see if anything had changed.. I can verify, that nothing has changed.. two more +3 Legs, two more +3 gorgets, and multiple +1 gloves from doing Iron bods...
OK... so...
Mules are not selling.. so I NEED some way to stay alive, some way to AT LEAST maintain and keep playing... so I decided to do Deco items.. turning in Bods to get Deco items... I singled out some GOLD SBods, 6 of them, and filled them...
Low and behold.. I get 1 Runic hammer, and 5 Deco items... good right? nope, EVERY deco item was the wall shield with the sword over it...
Is this something that changed too??? this just has to be a case of BAD luck from the guy who attempted to make 26 mobile forges and failed on all of them right??
So I dig out 5 more Gold SBods, and fill them... two runic hammers, and three more wall deco shields.... no other deco items at all... once upon a time, I KNOW, that these items randomized, because I often had different deco items n my vendor... so... lets try Some Agapite SBods... two agapite, just to test it.... two more shields...
So.. basically, I am LIVING on selling an occasional BASE mule, not the good ones, my bees, and and selling Mobile forges cheaper than anyone else because I am desperate.... I know its not fair to others... but, by the same token, they can buy them and resell to make a profit without the work....

Yes, I tried to hunt familiar places to make some gold and tokens;
Dreadhorn... havent been there in a long time... It is immediately apparent that everything here is WAY harder than it used to be... but.. OK, I can handle it with my one good hand, I have my mules... Killing Gnaw went splendidly.. got a couple fangs.. sweet... move into the other area, kill the junk spawn, move in on Lady Sabrix.. NICE work, didnt pull the maelific so handling Sabrix nicely.. Taking a lot more than it used to, and a lot more healing!! But handleable... kill sabrix.. no eye Kill the Maelific... again, hard, but not impossible...
Sabrix is back already!!! go attack her... player runs in.. watches me for a minute.. i wave at them.. they get out a couple of Imps, and go past me toward IRK... No worries... I see Maelific respawn.. usually fast respawn when they havent been killed for a while... then all hell breaks loose.....
Imp NOOB guy goes running past me with about three hit points left to his name, dragging Irk, and Lissith behind him... so guess what happens... within moments, I have Lissith, Irk, Maelific AND Sabrix on my mules.. NO WAY to keep them alive.. I salvaged two of my mules from the mess.. lured out the ghosts of the three that died.. while i am trying to res, and get them ready again.. i see one has lost stats, one has lost resists, and the other only lost left over points.. so this has been expencive so far... as I am rezzing and healing... two more players go into the area... I get all set, and go see if they are hunting together or not... one of them (I know who it is) comes over to me,

and tells me I shouldnt be there, I need to learn how to keep my pets alive before I come to an advanced hunting place like this........ Understand.. saying nothing to an IDIOT like this is not my nature.. but I managed it to save on the drama... I returned to killing Gnaw for a bit, trying to NOT say anything.... Struggling with my frustration.. Unfortunately....(Fortunately?) a certain someone came running past.. yelling OooOOOoOOOoO so I HAD to go tell him, that he REALLY needed to learn how to stay alive before he came to an advanced area like this.. then I recalled back to my house with a big silly grin...

I sort of felt bad later, but didn't let it override my sense of Vengeance so its all good...
The fact of the matter is... I would be perfectly happy, NOT to hunt at all, JUST so I can avoid those situations... HE didnt make any friends, and I know I certainly didnt, but the fact is, the way people are. means it is going to happen.. So... I Mine, I craft, I breed, I tend bees, and.. I SHOULD be content.. In fact, i would be, if there was any randomization
RANDOMIZATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE!!!????????

[Nightstarwolf]

As long the main goal is to hunt as much money as possible,
becourse prices for specific items are far too high
(or are held manually high), its hard to manage dayly needs.
More as crafting usually don`t pay itself already by NPC.
So crafters without a well running vendor or known customers
get lost fast.
Breeders start to find themselves in the same situation,
as prices for maxed pets besides imps have dropped massivly
within the last weeks.
The known problem for rush-in-spots was discussed in other posts already.

IMHO, nearly evrything is caused by a behave, which is called
WoW-generation.
Player want to rush to top levels, trying to easy-up a game
customally (like macroing), buying their levels or items by shops
for RL-money, etc.
So, egoism and fast casual gaming rules more for them than
a long build-up game, UO was in old days.

Games have changed a lot since those days, so the players and their playstyle has.
So the old behaves sadly disappear more and more.
Even though, modern ways seem to be effective on reaching goals,
the true gamefeeling is lost. Todays most way is to buy things instead of working them out. Thats why those players get bored fast, in the moment, they reached a specific level.

The only way of avoiding frustration and anger is to blind-up on such players
and trying to stay away from those places.
Thankfully the game is more complex, so it offers far more options than just
hunting balrons or custom mobs.
Some like to just work out a nice home, a museum....breed unusual pets like rabbits or frogs...or even doing some roleplaying.
The new patch is told to offer lots of new things, so it will affect the market
and old hunting spots for sure too.
Maybe life gets a bit more nicely again then.

[Neron]

I come from a really old UO (except for my previos Excelsior experience in 2008/9), and I gotta say...
What changed the most in my experience is that the items now got priority over the character - like most MMORPGs in which the chance to loose items is zero or close to zero.
So, the focus is to gather more and more and more. Like Diablo 3, Ragnarok, WoW and many others.
In the old days of UO, you would actually come to the top of the food chain easier - leveling skills always comes to an end someday, and the worst items weren't nearly so different from the best as it is.
Besides, once at the top, there was a whole lotta people in the same situation - not only that, any special item you had could be lost at any time.
So things broke down to other objectives than hunting this and that drop, getting this and that item.
BUT it was a world with PKs and stuff, and danger lurked around in many more and worst ways than just mobs.
But now, you get to be a Demigod - and once you are one, nothing will take it from you (except maybe for a moment of stupidity; but even that can be undone).

But that's got very little to do with the problem that this posts is about - again, in my opinion.
Game dynamics change with every change. Players don't change so easily, though. I don't think it's gotta anything to do with players nowadays being worst than before. I played pretty much with jerks from all kinds. Sadistic murderers, cheaters and robbers, who would loot you for stuff they didn't want or cared about just for the thrill of it.

So all of what is written seems to me a bit of a romantic view. I mean no offense by it, but it does.
And economy rules itself. The day mules become so cheap they ain't worth breeding, no one will take the time to do it. And, soon enough, someone will do it again for a worthwhile price. The day PSs are too cheap, people won't bother selling them, and some will start offering more. And on it goes - bios, arties, whatever.
Truth is, times are changing a bit each day, and some people miss the old days in which they could get more for less.
I ain't never seen no one complaining about how he had to work harder for his GPs - just about how the stuff he's selling won't sell as expensively as it did. So it might be time to learn to in the present.
So hey, could things be better? Aye, they could - for everyone.
Have they changed? Aye, and they'll keep doing so.
Will it be for the best? Not in an absolute way that eveyone agrees about. Someone somewhere will always profit, and some other one will loose.
And everyone will find themselves in one of these extremes, or in between them.

Noobies don't have an easy time. The ladder has never been so long nor so time demanding as it is. Playing a couple of hours a day, I'll take many years to get 800hp. And it's likely that before it comes down to it, I have to leave this game for some reason or another. Some of you will leave too - most, actually. Others will stay. And no one's worth will be determined by it. Having the will to play the same game for years, or the drive to look for new stuff is not a defining character trait in itself.
So live and let live, or die. Just step back on telling how what's best in a personnal point of view should be applied to everyone else.

P.S.: I've had no ingame experience with Nightstarwolf that I'm aware of. I know nothing of him, and my oppinion in no way reflect anything about him personally. Those that i've seen complaining abot having to adapt to a different economy are others, and I've only posted about it here because it seemed to me to be a related topic. But I, in no way, hold anything against him, and I truly meant no disrespect or discourtesy to him. harsh as I might have sounded, I for no moment thought of him personally writing all of this.
the same applies to Dramoor, who tells no one what to make of their gold or items. There's a reference of him in the text (800hp), but only as a existing accomplished player (the one I do know about).