And they watch them, hoping to be a second ahead of the competition.
I can't boast that I've been to all of them, so far – only to three. And even in those, I didn't get to the very bottom. It's a particular feature of the archer – he can make his way forward only if he has a stock of arrows. As supplies come to an end – it's better to "take off your feet," because the monsters are respawning with enviable consistency.
In the dungeons, you go for the money, loot from the hacked chests and boxes, reagents, and to pump the character. The fact is that as you increase the skill of mastering of a particular type of weapon, you can only get a further appreciable increase if you start effectively dropping more and more powerful monsters.
To hone Archery on Earth Elementals is a nice thing to do
Dungeons are a favorite place for PKs to hunt. Only they go there not for monsters, but for players. And they go there in mixed companies – fighters supported by mages, red killers with blue escorts. They try not to fight with monsters at all and dash at full speed through the mazes looking for victims. Sometimes at the entrance to the dungeon cast a pair of "locking" walls, so that someone doesn't accidentally leave. I've walked away a couple of times:). Once – into the depths of the dungeon, the second time – with the help of recall SOS-kit.
There is a limit to perfection in UO. The sum of the main characteristics – Str, Dex and Int – cannot exceed 225 points. If the limit is reached, the value of any characteristic will drop as the value of the other one continues to grow. Similarly, the situation with the skills – they are allotted 700 points. As selected – the further development of some of the skills is carried out only at the expense of the other. You'll ask – but why pumping unnecessary skills? First, out of curiosity, to see and tell others. Second, there are skills (musicianship, fishing, etc.), which can be pumped with the macro, while you go to sleep. The musician plays music, and Dexterity grows along the way.
She stands on the stage, almost naked, and plays the harp. I sat and listened, and even decided to pay for the performance. But she didn't take the offered 50 coins, the macros couldn't foresee that
By the way, on the "emulator" servers there is mayhem in this matter too, often the mentioned restrictions simply do not exist. On the other hand – it is often impossible to "unlearn" something.
I wasn't in my first guild (1st Ultima Rangers) for long. One day, I was shooting harpies in a dungeon when my guildmate Steve, a captain in rank, showed up. A minute later I was attacked by a powerful PK. The odds were stacked against me, but I bravely fought, counting on the help of a clanmate. In vain. Steve, as if nothing had happened, continued to hit the harpies five paces away from me. Then, he told me, "Sorry". Chickened out. I remembered the words "to do good, to earn good and not to give our own in offense," and realized I couldn't follow them.
The dream of my own guild became even more elusive – no real estate, no way to create a guild.
A safe haven outside the city limits is a must. First of all, I need to train, because Spell Resistance and Magery are more convenient to pump in a place where I can stand up and cast attacking spells on myself without fear that someone will sneak up on me and strike a treacherous blow.
The BW Guild gathered for a meeting. As you can see, everyone has dismounted and is nicely seated in their chairs
To exist as a loner in a world, even in a game world that has a well-defined community of players, and to be outside of it is to deprive yourself of a whole layer of experience. I received another offer to join the guild from a very pretty female rider with red hair, after we had killed a troll together. They call themselves the Black Watch (BW), and their four-story headquarters tower is located northeast of Britain, on the edge of the swamp. When I asked about local politics, I heard the following: "We are good and anti-PK." Well, that suited me fine.
This time no one was in a hurry to put me on the list. They were looking out for me, and I was looking out for them. Life became somewhat cyclical – slaying monsters for profit, buying reagents, and practicing Spell Resistance and Magery. Soon I was invited to hunt Cyclops and Titans in Second Age territory. Interestingly, the manual for this very UO: Second Age never told me how to get there.
Cyclops are being hunted, the hunt is on! The yellow predators…
I returned from the expedition alive, having fired four hundred arrows in one go. The Honorable prefix had changed to Admirable, and my Archery skill had increased by a few points.
The next day, however, was a nightmare for me. I lost the Bow of Vanquishing and the Heavy Crossbow of Power. People who know will understand. And in the second case, I was killed while practicing on the guild rooftop. Quite the "blue" Admirable TypeR rode up to the training area on horseback to see who was casting spells there. He even healed me up. And sort of rode off. The rest was done according to the classic scheme. He hid (applied Hiding), waited until I almost killed myself with the Fire Field spell, then appeared out of nowhere and rode over the spell I cast. Naturally, my character instantly "grayed out" and became available to be killed with impunity. A couple of spells were enough to knock the remaining few life points out of me. He offered to bring me back to life, and said it was all a lesson. To which I gave him a combination of words, which he could read on his monitor as "OoOo oOo". I think he understood.
TypeR still thinks he's the smartest
I told the guild leader about it. At the next meeting I was told that TypeR had paid for his treachery. He had been killed, and I had been asked to take the items he was carrying out of storage at the earliest opportunity. When I inquired as to how it was that they had managed to kill the "blue" and retain the high reputation, I was told how it was done. It turns out that TypeR was first persuaded to join the guild (members of the same clan can fight each other, which is often done for training purposes, and if there is a murder, it is not perceived by the game as a crime). Then, he was immediately killed, stripped naked, "expelled from the lists" and "banned" from entering the tower. They did not forget to say why they did that to him. His gear, though, went somewhere, in the end. But it wasn't about the equipment, was it? The lesson was mutual.
So my Sotnik became a Guildsman. No titles yet, but it's not over yet, is it?
As it turned out, I was allowed to put my own vendor in the tower, a vendor-NPC who would trade items I would give him for that purpose. The Good Doc immediately gave me a short lecture on how to trade competently. It is the duty of the vendor owner to take care of replenishing the assortment, to keep the "store" in order. It is desirable to sell goods of high quality and at prices that are acceptable in the region. No one is against all kinds of resales, for example, magical weapons can be bought in the neighborhood Moonglow, where they sell for cheap, add to the price of 50 % and put in the "showcase". Magic reagents and scrolls with spells are also in constant demand.
This grandmaster of the [HOK] guild is very aggressive…
A simple reconnaissance revealed a hidden pair of dragons…
And the next day the Black Watch guild was declared war by the [HOK] guild.
Part III
What was supposed to happen happened. A month went by, and I became a Grandmaster Archer. It happened while I was shooting Skeleton Knights near the orc fort in Ultima: Second Age. The Tactics score froze at 100.
This event once again raised the question of how to develop Sotnik further. By the way, I confess where this nickname came from. I had an ancestor, who commanded a hundred Cossacks under the hetman Sagaidachny.