Excelsior

Hi there! I am just going to throw this out there to get some feedback. I played UO for many years and have been considering coming back to it for about a year, but haven't found a server that's a perfect fit for me. This server seems like the closest thing to it though and I keep coming back to it's Wiki. I have not made a character on Excelsior, but over the last year I have visited the site a lot of times and thought about it. All of it looks great to me except the stat loss from a pet dying and that's why I always end up not starting to play again. In my old age I've taken on a slower paced taming lifestyle. My normal gameplay is to train up pets and do champ spawns, balrons, lich lords, etc. I am an adult with two children and sometimes you just have to step away from the game knowing full well it means certain death for you and your pets...lol. On the servers I have played since leaving OSI, none of them had a consequence for pets dying. My pets generally die. Sometimes a lot. I'd hate to grind up a tamer (for the 100th+ time since 1997) and then build up great pets and then ruin them with stat loss and ultimately stop playing because of it, only to be faced with grinding up taming again to play somewhere else. It says on the Wiki there are ointments to counteract the stat loss, but that it's a waste to use them. I am guessing that means the ointments are sort of rare. I am sort of "on the fence" here so I am looking for feedback on ways to counteract that one negative aspect. The last server I played was Evolution a couple years ago, but left when they did a huge nerf to breedable pets in order to boost sales of their $75 a piece werewolves. So yeah... just throwing this out there in case there's an easy fix for the pet stat loss that I am not aware of. Everything else really does look inviting. Thanks.

Hey there,

Yes pet stat loss is a real thing here, however, it's not as bad as it seems.
First, your pets only have a chance at stat loss.
Second, your freshly tamed pets will perform far worse than bred out pets.
Third, while taming is a thing, you can buy imprisioned pets (imps) that will not incur a stat loss on death. No taming needed!
Fourth, while some pets require taming, like mules and nobles, (what most people use) people can, and do, breed all kinds of pets! you can have a set of killer flamingos that can tear a balron to pieces!
Fifth, once you get the hang of the game again, your pets won't die that often unless you go someplace you are probably unequipped to go to! When I was fairly new I crawled around in doom for hours and hours, and was able to keep my pets alive with them dying a single time. (once I got used to having to heal them :>) And the champs, some are harder than others for keeping your pets alive (looking a you rickktor and tokuno) but there are others where paying decent attention your pets will survive just fine!

Also, taming is not really the long slow crawl here. You can craft your taming up! Or alternatively, you can start with 50 taming and just gain 10 points, and you can use your +60 skill ball (every new char starts with one) and save up for a +120 taming and poof, you are finished! (though, personally, I think there are better things to use the skill ball on)

Also, through your game play you will eventually max out all the important skills. Most people don't event use pets at champs after a while (sure it takes time to get there, but it will happen!) Since there is no stat cap you can just work on whatever you feel like! its pretty awesome!

Also I know gold is scarce when you first start, due to buying things etc, but after a while gold becomes pretty trivial, and quite easy to obtain, even with a slow play style.

And ointments aren't really rare, its just that it does take some time to farm them up and then you have to farm the regs to make the specific oints. And its generally more cost and time effective to just buy new pets. By the time your pets die enough to *really* take notice of the loss you will have farmed enough gold to easily replace them.

You could, theoretically, buy a ton of ointments and regs (it is expensive) to max out a few pets, and then you can breed them and you have a pretty much endless supply of maxed out pets!

So don't get too hung up on the stateless to pets, its a thing, but not something that will really hamper your playing all that much. Its really kind of around, i think, to partially drive the economy, I mean a mule with 1000 str, does almost identical damage to a mule with 950 str, people just crave that tiny damage booster.

Also, I should mention, we are a pretty great group here, and with the wiki and the helpful people that can point you in the right direction its a nice place to hang out! As person with limited playtime, its really nice to be able to put down your taming to go mine and train blacksmithy, and then once the get a little boring you equip your bow and go hunting in doom etc. Like I said, it does take a little time to acquire gold. Especially in the beginning, when you are spending every gold you earn on gear and powerscnolls, etc. But once you get past that portion, the gold just becomes a status symbol.

I hope my ramblings were helpful to you
I'd definitely suggest giving it a download and just trying it out!
I wish you the best of luck, and maybe I'll see you in game!

*edit*
Figured I should mention some anecdotal evidence, I have had mules that have died 10+ times before they have hit on the chance to lose stats. Of course there have been times when on the second pet death I got unlucky too , But I was still more than able to bounce right back! Especially once you get a set of real maxed pets, as they might incur a loss of ability points (excess that you can spend) instead, and if your pet does lose stats, then you can just spend the ability points to re-max them in an effort to extend their shelf life.

But also, since you mentioned that sometimes but to real life circumstance you simply have to step away from game knowing you are going to die *cringe* its worth investing in some low quality imps to start, then you don't even have to worry (as long as they are bonded and you are insured to the hilt) This might well suit your gameplay style better than buying stateless pets, sure they are a little more expensive, but they will not incur the loss, and you can always work towards pointing them up a little at a time and before you know it, they are ultimate killing machines! Even the low str undesirable imps are total killing machines due to pack instinct, people just want higher ones for the booster!

-Valorian

Thanks for the reply and information, Valorian. I will think about it. My playing goal would be just to max out breedable pets in different species. Basically to collect them and enjoy dungeon runs with them. For some reason I still find that addictive...lol. Others have different goals of course. As for mules and nobles, I've never heard of those. The best pets I've had were evo dragons and higher generation dragons. I know you said that most people don't use pets at champs and such endgame, but that's just the only way I have fun doing it personally. Sure I have played servers in the past where you could just macro champs, even afk, standing on the altar casting wither and ss, sanctuary, etc, or use a super AoE axe but really the only way I enjoy doing them is with pets. Just kind of an old school tamer that way. All in all though I know my pets would die a lot, due to adulting while playing, and the stat loss would take the fun out of it, so it's probably a deal breaker for me in the end. Still, I really appreciate your response and I will give it a few days to consider. Thank you.

Howdy,

If you breed pets, losing stats on resurrection is no big deal. Just breed another with max stats... rarely more than 15k gold each though of course there's considerable cost and effort getting maxed breedables in the first place.

If you have to buy them it can get expensive but still far from a disaster... 150k or so is about the most that maxed out non-breedable pets sell for. That's 2-3 hours of effort if your character is where most folks are after 2 months playing. In some cases the stat loss will be little enough that it's cheaper to "oint" them back to max. Or you may just keep playing with them until they've died enough times to lose enough stats that it's worth replacing them. Full maxes are distinctly more expensive than near-maxes but not distinctly more powerful, so perfect can be the enemy of good.

As Versales said, pets don't lose stats every death, just once in a while. And if you manage them well, they rarely die.

There are also "imprisoned" pets. Expensive up front (millions for the ointments and reagents) but they don't lose stats on death. And bio-engineered pets which are helpful in some of the late-game activities when you have 220 dex and relayers and are after opponents which would decimate any ordinary pet.

Mules and Noble Steeds are custom pets on UOEX. They're the go-tos for most folks. 1 control slot (versus 3 for dragons) means you can have 5 of them out at once with your character's default stats. Both are ridable. Mules have a backpack (like pack horses) and are immune to enemy poison attacks. Five Nobles do more damage than five dragons if you have them attacking the same opponent.

Taming and Pets are key to early and mid game play on this shard. They're much more powerful than your character. If you enjoy taming, this shard has lots of customizations which enhance the fun.

So come join! If for no other reason, join to see the Ridable Pack Llama every new player starts with. He schleps you -and- your loot.

Regards,
Wil

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I am an adult with two children and sometimes you just have to step away from the game knowing full well it means certain death for you and your pets...lol.

Hunting while AFK is not allowed on this shard.

http://www.uoex.net/codex/penalties#afk

I hope you decide to give our shard a try, but be sure to read all the rules first.

Aldero wrote:Hunting while AFK is not allowed on this shard.

That can be mostly solved with a recall macro. Bonded pets recall with you IIRC. Just have to avoid hunting in the areas where recall is disabled during the times when parenting emergencies are possible. Everywhere else you're a keystroke away from an AFK-safe area.

Regards,
Wil

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