The T2A Strategy Guide is useless...

[Mikel123]

...or at least, not useful at all for gaining insight into how things worked.

I opened it up and scrolled to the First Circle page, and it talks about how lowering Intelligence will impact the effectiveness of a spell, and how lowering the dexterity of a fighter will reduce his chance of hitting you?!?! I don't think either of these were EVER in the game mechanics.

[Derrick]

Aye. It's a nice book to have, but the inaccuracies are staggering.
Check out the Magic Arrow damge.

[Mikel123]

Yeah, that was funny (likewise, a resisted E-bolt does 0 damage. Really?!)

A few other interesting nuggets/questions:

Gates last 30 seconds... they seem faster than that here

Tame has a 10 second delay - it's MUCH slower than that here

Nightmares have 1000 HP?! I know in UOR, it was like 500. What is it here?

There's a monster called Ice Dragon in the strategy guide.

Also, there's this really bizarre section about NPC and creature desires, such that they seek out food and shelter, or something, which confused the hell out of me.

[Ronk]

Also, there's this really bizarre section about NPC and creature desires, such that they seek out food and shelter, or something, which confused the hell out of me.

This was actually a cool feature which, I believe, was in the game for a while.

The idea was a wolf would want meat. Therefore he would seek out meat...thus you'd find a wolf near a sheep spawn because it would kill the sheep to get the meat.

Originally, creatures had AI on what they wanted to seek out. But ultimately this was scrapped because the AI was hardly ever noticed and it was just not worth the CPU cycles to constantly calculate desires on animals when no one really noticed/cared.

[Derrick]

Also, there's this really bizarre section about NPC and creature desires, such that they seek out food and shelter, or something, which confused the hell out of me.

This was actually a cool feature which, I believe, was in the game for a while.

The idea was a wolf would want meat. Therefore he would seek out meat...thus you'd find a wolf near a sheep spawn because it would kill the sheep to get the meat.

Originally, creatures had AI on what they wanted to seek out. But ultimately this was scrapped because the AI was hardly ever noticed and it was just not worth the CPU cycles to constantly calculate desires on animals when no one really noticed/cared.

The designer has a great article about this system on his website:
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/06/03/uo ... ce-system/

We do intend to implement this.

[Krats]

Also, there's this really bizarre section about NPC and creature desires, such that they seek out food and shelter, or something, which confused the hell out of me.

This was actually a cool feature which, I believe, was in the game for a while.

The idea was a wolf would want meat. Therefore he would seek out meat...thus you'd find a wolf near a sheep spawn because it would kill the sheep to get the meat.

Originally, creatures had AI on what they wanted to seek out. But ultimately this was scrapped because the AI was hardly ever noticed and it was just not worth the CPU cycles to constantly calculate desires on animals when no one really noticed/cared.

I was just reading about this myself, This is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online

Artificial Life Engine

Starr Long, the game's associate producer, explained in 1996:
"Nearly everything in the world, from grass to goblins, has a purpose, and not just as cannon fodder either. The 'virtual ecology' affects nearly every aspect of the game world, from the very small to the very large. If the rabbit population suddenly drops (because some gung-ho adventurer was trying out his new mace) then wolves may have to find different food sources - say, deer. When the deer population drops as a result, the local dragon, unable to find the food he’s accustomed to, may head into a local village and attack. Since all of this happens automatically, it generates numerous adventure possibilities."

However, this feature never went into production. Because of several hurdles and concerns (like performance issues), the whole artificial life idea was considered a boondoggle.

[Duke Jones]

I'm the type of player that enjoys alot of in-game things that your average player doesn't really appreciate or notice.

That being said, I'd LOVE to see this implemented, and would enjoy the hell out of it (unless the ecosystem and desires system would lead to a game-breaking chain of events).

[Mikel123]

It seems neat, but it doesn't look like it was ever implemented on a production shard.

[Silverfoot]

The designer has a great article about this system on his website:
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/06/03/uo ... ce-system/

That ecology simulation is really interesting. Too bad it never made it past the alpha stage.

[Faust]

Yeah, that was funny (likewise, a resisted E-bolt does 0 damage. Really?!)

This statement actually can be very true. The resisting spells skill was changed when Eval changes was introduced in early '99 as you can see in this patch note below.

Your magic resistance will now affect how much damage you take from spells. You can have up to half the damage removed by effectively resisting a spell.

Resist was a very powerful skill during the pre-t2a and early t2a ers before the changes with eval took affect. When you would resist a spell it would literally resist the entire spell instead of the later change that simply cut the damage in half when you resisted the spell.

[Biohazard]

Yeah, that was funny (likewise, a resisted E-bolt does 0 damage. Really?!)

This statement actually can be very true. The resisting spells skill was changed when Eval changes was introduced in early '99 as you can see in this patch note below.

Your magic resistance will now affect how much damage you take from spells. You can have up to half the damage removed by effectively resisting a spell.

Resist was a very powerful skill during the pre-t2a and early t2a ers before the changes with eval took affect. When you would resist a spell it would literally resist the entire spell instead of the later change that simply cut the damage in half when you resisted the spell.

It brings a tear to my eye when I think of the old-style resist.. I worked so hard collecting mages in wind to get my resist to 100.. when I finally reached my goal, I was able to enjoy it for about a month and then POOF. No more sweet resist. Granted it was still great to have but when you bit e-bolts it was almost like metaphorical laughter in your attackers face.

[archaicsubrosa77]

This is why this game is awesome...the makers wanted it to breathe with life. It's art, it really is.

[GuardianKnight]

SO you plan on implementing the Resist thing? Or just the animal stuff?

ALso i have no idea how many hp mares have now....i know it doesn't take much to kill em, as i have lost 6 so far.

[Derrick]

I was referring to the Animal AI. Our resist calculations are accurate to era.

Although much of what was proposed wasn't implemented, like dragons attacking towns for food, I belive some of it was in, like some animals seeing out caves, swamps, etc. And predatory animals attacking others for food; these are the things I'd like to implement.

[GuardianKnight]

Would that not mean tweaking the guards so they don't just kill the hungry dragons?