UO Second Age

In t2a and going back to even present day UO , merchants best kept secret VDP is the price that is assigned to weapons by vendors based on quality ( damage, accuracy and durability) and shows that not all "exceptional gm" weapons are equal because they are assigned different prices and in fact have different stats upon item creation. This is currently not accurate on UOSecondAge and I'd like to see it changed to the way it was.

It gave an edge to those pvpers who invested and gave more thought into the preparation of battle, for while most players simply bought a gm made weapon, the smart player would search for the best of the best in a pool of gm made weapons.

Here are some links backing this up

http://uo.stratics.com/content/professi ... .shtml#vdp

clearly showing that archers knew about this from 98'


http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.ph ... ostcount=6

read the rest of the thread that post is found within
that post is from june 30 2000, referencing the fact VDP was in effect before the GM makers mark came out which in fact was november of 1999

Maker's Mark Nov 23 1999 2:40PM CST

Maker’s Marks

Some of the trade skills will be enhanced to allow for more flexibility and personalization of their wares. These enhancements will affect Tailors, Carpenters, Blacksmiths, and Tinkers.

* In addition to Blacksmiths and Tailors – Bowcrafters, Carpenters and Tinkers will now be able to craft "exceptional" items.
* Exceptional marking works as follows: As an example, an exceptional katana made by a non-Grandmaster smith or made by a Grandmaster smith who chooses not to put his makers mark, will now say, "a katana of exceptional quality". An exceptional katana made by a Grandmaster smith who chooses to place his maker's mark on it will say, "a katana crafted with exceptional quality by..." This will be true for all exceptional items.
* When a Grandmaster creates an exceptional item, a window will appear asking if they wish to place their mark on the item. Selecting "okay" will place the creator’s name on the item when examined (single clicked). Selecting "cancel" will not put the maker's mark on the item.

http://www.sonomaquests.com/Arsenal.html

http://www.towerofroses.de/pric-vdp.htm

incase more anecdotal evidence is needed from the past

http://www.uo.com/cgi-bin/newstools.pl?Article=6132
a QnA from May of 2002 from UO's OFFICIAL WEBSITE, note they don't reference this as being any kind of new feature

Here are some references in our very own t2a wiki patch notes representing OFFICIAL patch notes

http://wiki.uosecondage.com/index.php?t ... atch_Notes
12/16/97
Combat
The price calculations for weapons and armor now better accounts for speed, damage, and AR. The value now takes into account the coverage the item provides, which should give a better indication by price of the actual utility of the item. This means that the range of weapon and armor costs was extended at the upper end, with plate now costing more than chain.



^^^^right there it says UTILITY of the item BASED on SPEED DAMAGE has a different price, which could be detected by VDP

http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.ph ... stcount=36

also here is a link to guy talking about it november 2000, and saying he has been doing it for 2 years
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.ph ... stcount=41

This is correct. I'd love to see this implemented.

hehe funny actually ive exsplained this so many times to people but ive never seen it documented.

VERY interesting indeed, this could bring in a new (or old, depending how u look at it) twist to the current market of GM crafters.

Currently the Item ID skill uses the NPC vendor scale for value determination.
I'm going to begin implementing a new scale for player vengors and the itemid skill.
Nice find!

This is something that Derrick and I have discussed in the past regarding vendor pricing. It was generally considered very important that a player could find out whether their weapon actually had a higher 'quality' associated with it or not (aka highest durability) in order to provide the highest quality weapons. With respect to determining how much a particular item was worth, item ID, or default pricing for player vendors were the accepted methods of finding that price out, and the prices that were derived from those numbers were double the price that an in-town NPC would pay for the item (most likely rounded down). The real question that we need to answer is what formula might have been used to create this price variation, and if we can find an accurate in-era source of the maximum price for a given set of weapons, we may be able to determine that formula.

I was under the impression for the longest time that the higher quality GM weapons were more accurate, did more damage, and were more durable than the lower quality GM weapons. An observation made through a lot of gameplay.

Can anyone confirm?

this ver confused why no just make all wepon do all same so no on has unfair leniancy

i now a greart idear why did not any think of it before LOL

make it less complicit not more

i mean a sword should do same no matte how it many times it swings or who

S STALLON

I have been absent for a period, has anyone been talking at all about VDP recently? Perhaps the idea needs a bump, I'll try to find out through irc as well if anyone has more info on it. It would be good to have references from perhaps non-OSI sites from the era who had done detailed tests concerning the subject as well. Once I get consolidate any new material, I'll make a repost about the whole matter.

We somewhat have this. Vendors will pay price+x+y+z (x:durability,y:accuracy,z:damage) for identified magical items, instead of issueing a base price for all "krysses" (for example). I believe that the only variability in gm made weapons was the durability, and I am not sure if there is any variability here anyway. Given that, damage is scalar down from a weapons hit points over max hitpoints, it really would not make much of a difference outside of a weapon lasting for a few more hits before breaking. Realistically, we can repair things very easy, and it's probably more likely that player A loses his weapon before it is ever really in any duress.

It is era accurate though as far as I can tell. I guess a good way to tell whether or not this feature has been implimented or not would be to make a bunch of weapons, and take them to the market and see what prices are offered up.

Nice bump.

Yes we do have a basic VDP in please for town vendors, and we have looked into finding an accurate formula for this, but while we have the basis of it, it's relatively complex. This is still a hot item on the list of stuff to do, it's just pending finding some new information.

FYI this also worked for armor. It wasn't at all uncommon to make armor sets out of studded leather (vdp) with a plate chest and close helm for max protection. Provided around the level of 'Hardness' or higher I believe. I realize I dont have a source however I remember distinctly making plate chests for this specific purpose (and god was it a pain in the ass too)

Eulogy wrote:I was under the impression for the longest time that the higher quality GM weapons were more accurate, did more damage, and were more durable than the lower quality GM weapons. An observation made through a lot of gameplay.

Can anyone confirm?

I had a buddy on GL that did this.Irritated me to no end getting ready to go because he had to check every piece of gear,but when we fought he always hit more and hit harder than any of us that didnt take the time to do it.

Funny,I was just telling someone on secondage about this a couple days ago....

I just posted a thread about this and didn't realize this was already a subject of discussion. My findings are based on: http://web.archive.org/web/200102050158 ... lity.shtml though it doesn't help with any formula, sorry. Just an article also talking about using NPC vendors to check durability.

More info:

http://web.archive.org/web/200104140320 ... eapons.htm -a list from 2001 of the highest price paid for vendors, I think?

http://web.archive.org/web/200010110608 ... weapon.htm This gives a very good representation of different vendor prices for GM Smithy weapons, might lead to making a new formula? From October 2000

"axe - 68
bardiche - 88
battle axe - 56
bow - 60
broadsword - 60
crossbow - 53
cutlass - 40
dagger - 30
double axe - 59
executioner's axe - 69
halberd - 75
hammer pick - 60
heavy crossbow - 84
katana - 51
kryss - 49
large battle axe - 50
longsword - 72
mace - 38
maul - 44
quarter staff - 27
scimitar - 56
short spear - 39
spear - 56
two-handed axe - 59
viking sword - 66
war axe - 66
war fork - 59
war hammer - 65
war mace - 65
"
another user lists max VDP for all prices in this thread http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-craftsma ... ditem.html LATE 2001

I'm going to continue posting links in here via edits.

http://www.towerofroses.de/pric-vdp.htm which might support other information on max VDP - from 2005, way off