ClowN wrote:i hope purple pots, and the melee swing timers get fixed soon. i havnt even attempted to play in a few months. the only reason i play here is to PK. i do not find any other element of this game fun. pvp as a whole is broke due to these issues .... [fixing pots & timers] will help PVP so much, and probably bring back some of the old pvpers that have since moved on from this server...
... PVP was a major part of the t2a era. probably one of the biggest parts even. and while this server may be BY FAR the most accurate emulation of t2a ever, it is completely inaccurate in regards to pvp, and that is seriously hurting this shard.
I'm still relatively-new to UOSA, but I was an avid player of UO during its 1st 3 years, and I feel compelled to offer my opinion on these remarks:
(pre)T2A-era UO is not a PvP game, period: it is not a PvP game, because era-accurate-PvP is lazy, exploitative and cheap; meditation was introduced, and the effects of skills like evaluate intelligence, anatomy, and resist spells were modified, precisely to reduce (it did not eliminate) this "cheapness" inherent in the combat system; guard zones were created, the mechanics of "insta-hit" were introduced, and the behaviour of explosion potions modified, for precisely the same reasons; blatant exploits were patched-out; the reputation system was modified to reduce exploitation of these "cheap" PvP mechanics when used to slaughter the hapless, unsuspecting and unprepared PvM section of the playerbase, ensuring that there would be at least some (albeit small) persistent repercussions ...
I've heard people remark in-game (here at UOSA) along the lines of other games, or other UO-emulation servers, as being "carebear" ... um, why; because you can't win a fair fight? I don't want anyone to answer, because I already know the answers will be nothing more than complete and utter baloney justifying the inability to win a fair fight: that is the only reason why anyone would come to any vintage-era-UO server,
specifically for the purpose of "PvP" ...
Here's a reality check: a 7xGM "Pearl Harbour"-1-hit-KOing a newb is not PvP "pwnage", merely a demonstration of one's complete inability to fight worth beans simply because, if one could PvP worth any beans whatsoever, one would not be playing vintage-UO, but rather any one of many other games that actually possess an intense, but alas!
balanced and fair, PvP system.
PKers might think I'm dissing them, but not really: at least the murderers are honest about using every "cheap", exploitative tactic available to achieve their gains, or NOT using them, and they are content to adapt to the repercussions (Tinker "shut-ins", for example ...); blue (particularly high-karma) PKers are simply hypocritical douchebags exploiting game-mechanics (only in UO, does the definition murderer require more than one murder, and only in UO can murders simply be "forgotten" over time) ...
PKers who (either here at UOSA, or years ago in T2A-proper) lure greedy dipsticks into well-planned and well-laid-out traps earn from me a nod of the cap: again, it's more honest and inventive than exploitatively dropping trapped boxes around Brit bank to see how many newbs Razor will kill ...
Matron deWinter remarked in another thread regarding a number of (what I term as, "cheap") tactics, how newbs can survive them, and (as I interpreted it) exhorting all the "primadonna-no-talent-self-styled-PvPers" (my words, not Matron's) to "step up to the plate": prepare properly, and carry decent equips -- so that, when someone who actually
is good at PvP, like I imagine Matron is

, chops up your corpse afterwards, it's actually been worthwhile ...
I agree with this sentiment: certain people certainly shouldn't brag about their awesome-PvP-extreme-total-pwnage ability; I am sure there are many people like Matron who will demonstrate that you simply don't possess any such thing; for similar reasons, no one can describe UOSA's PvP-system as being broken, any more than anyone can call a four-wheeled tricycle broken ...
I recall late-era-T2A duels and guildwars to actually provide challenge to participants, even those of mixed builds (often not even 7xGM): no longer did any one skill-template dominate PvP contests, and hitherto-PvM-only builds became workable PvP builds; bandages, healing potions, and lesser-heal-spams from a poisoning Parry-Dexxer could be extraordinarily tough, almost impossible, to overcome. Particularly because of GGS combined with no-talent and no-imagination, the Tank-Mage-Successor builds remained the most-popular (and it continued as the only viable PK build, because it's the only build that could reliably achieve a <10sec kill), but one would have to have some talent to avoid getting ripped to shreds by any Parry Dexxer who was at least competent.
All I'm really saying is: anyone who doesn't want UOSA PvP to actually be unexploitable and fair to all participants has my permission to leave.
SS