Changes I would like to see for authenticity's sake.

[Mens Rea]

- Pre:UOR/T2A UO did not have a restriction which meant that if you are banned from a vendor house you cannot access the vendors.

- You most certainly could equip a weapon to disrupt a spell.

- Paralyse did not do 1 damage and interupt casting, it would paralyse you but allow your casting to continue.

[Derrick]

Thanks for bringing these items to our attention

- Pre:UOR/T2A UO did not have a restriction which meant that if you are banned from a vendor house you cannot access the vendors.

Agreed, this will be fixed.

- You most certainly could equip a weapon to disrupt a spell.

The only documented description of pre-casting mechanics fro the UO website is at http://update.uo.com/design_346.html
Pre-casting was taken out in late T2A, and put back in Aug 20 2001. We believe that it was put back in as it was and although there has been a lot of debate on this, most veterans agree that you could not equip an item during the cast sequence in era. We are always looking for more solid documentation on this.

Pre-Casting
"Pre-casting" has been re-enabled as follows:
You cannot equip anything while you are casting.
After you cast a spell, it will "time out" after 30 seconds and can no longer target anything. During those 30 seconds, you can now equip a weapon, attack with it without ruining your stored spell. When you release the spell, you will automatically unwield your weapon.

- Paralyse did not do 1 damage and interrupt casting, it would paralyse you but allow your casting to continue.

Agreed, we were in error in implementing this, this was a UO:R change.

[Gilgamesh]

Wow I didn't know they put back in precasting! Shit maybe pvp was good then? I quit shortly after UO:R when they took out insta-hit and put in all of those two handed bonuses and other stupid stuff. Oh ya and Trammel.

Anyway, I really can't remember the weapon equipping as a way to interrupt yourself while casting. It seems to me that's one of the many incorrect things that IPY popularized in t2a free shards. But then again it could just be because people didn't know about it.

Could you guys check this demo for that? Start casting a spell and try to equip a weapon and see what happens?

[Derrick]

Wow I didn't know they put back in precasting! Shit maybe pvp was good then? I quit shortly after UO:R when they took out insta-hit and put in all of those two handed bonuses and other stupid stuff. Oh ya and Trammel.

Anyway, I really can't remember the weapon equipping as a way to interrupt yourself while casting. It seems to me that's one of the many incorrect things that IPY popularized in t2a free shards. But then again it could just be because people didn't know about it.

Could you guys check this demo for that? Start casting a spell and try to equip a weapon and see what happens?

Excelent suggestion. We'll check this out, even though we don't take the demo as gospel as it is essentially a very simplistic version of the UO server. It would be very interesting to check out in any case.

Thanks

[Gilgamesh]

Another thing to consider is that Razor wasn't legal for use then. I used the regular UO macros for hot keys for a while and then started using UOassist which is still less comprehensive than Razor. I'm not sure how fast you could switch back and forth with weapons with those utilities, it might not have been feasible to do or at least not as easy as it is with Razor.

[Mens Rea]

Pre casting was removed when UO:R was implemented. This meant that if you picked up ANY item while you had a spell pre-casted then the spell would be cancelled. This also vitiated the effect of people casting recall while they looted corpses (this was a T2A authentic trick also).

When EA re-implimented pre-casting it was entirely different- the swing timer was essentially reversed so you had to be standing next to your target for the entire swing-time to pass before you swung, meaning that insta-hit was removed and only people with high dex could use weapons in such a way. Terrible.

Upon this re-implimentation of pre-casting, sans insta-hit, when you clicked on your target it would automatically unequip the weapon/s you are holding.

Before pre UO:R equipping did various things.

-Equipping while casting would cancel the spell you are casting.
-Trying to target while you were holding a weapon would make your spell fizzle! (with smoke and sounds)

HOWEVER- at the time, most of the l33t pvpers were using UO Extreme (awesome programme) which would actually unequip for you, as did UO Assist by the end of it, and also I think Razor can do it too.

I think that with the distinction between insta-hit, pre-casting and self-equip interupting, that a compromise can be made:

1) Make it so equipping cancels the spell you are casting, this is especially pertinant when you are casting spells such as summon demon.
2) Retain the status quo with regard to auto unequip, simply because it removes little from the experience that the l33t pvpers were having anyway.


<3 SUI JURIS

[Derrick]

Could you guys check this demo for that? Start casting a spell and try to equip a weapon and see what happens?

The demo allows you to equip during the casting process, it does not interrupt. When you then target with the weapon still in hand, it fizzles.

This is extremely plausibly accurate behavior to me.

[ironfistmax]

Could you guys check this demo for that? Start casting a spell and try to equip a weapon and see what happens?

The demo allows you to equip during the casting process, it does not interrupt. When you then target with the weapon still in hand, it fizzles.

This is extremely plausibly accurate behavior to me.

Unless you ban razor, this won't make a difference since razor has a "un-equip hands before casting" macro. You would just be making more coding work for yourself that would have the same outcome as the current state.

[Derrick]

Unless you ban razor, this won't make a difference since razor has a "un-equip hands before casting" macro. You would just be making more coding work for yourself that would have the same outcome as the current state.

Sorry I probably didn't explain this very well above.
The discussion was on whether you could equip a weapon to interrupt a spell during the casting process.
Currently we deny the ability to equip a spell while the spell is actually casting. The proposition made was that if you did this while casting that you'd be allowed to equip, but that the spell would be interrupted.

I found in the demo that if you began casting and then equiped a weapon, the equip would be allowed, but it would not interrupt the spell.

Much to my surprise and delight, and I've been playing with the demo all morning, it is incredibly accurate in every aspect that I've tested.

[ironfistmax]

Unless you ban razor, this won't make a difference since razor has a "un-equip hands before casting" macro. You would just be making more coding work for yourself that would have the same outcome as the current state.

Sorry I probably didn't explain this very well above.
The discussion was on whether you could equip a weapon to interrupt a spell during the casting process.
Currently we deny the ability to equip a spell while the spell is actually casting. The proposition made was that if you did this while casting that you'd be allowed to equip, but that the spell would be interrupted.

I found in the demo that if you began casting and then equiped a weapon, the equip would be allowed, but it would not interrupt the spell.

Much to my surprise and delight, and I've been playing with the demo all morning, it is incredibly accurate in every aspect that I've tested.

I think I remember you being able to equip but it wouldn’t actually swing until the spell was done casting. This may have been before T2A though.

[Derrick]

I think I remember you being able to equip but it wouldn’t actually swing until the spell was done casting. This may have been before T2A though.

I don't believe there were any changes to arming while casting between beta and late T2A. This would support the theory, which I am at this point very convinced of, that you could arm yourself while casting, but it would not interrupt your spell.

[alatar]

Awesome..

[~|~Damaja]

yikes guys, you are all scaring me. You definetely, positively couldnt equip while the casting animation was happening or if you did then you fizzle. Now as for it cancelling your spell and letting you start a new one right away unfortunetely I can't say I am 100% sure on. You either had your regular recovery time delay before you could cast again or what I really think you had to do was wait the duration of the spell to end before you could start casting agian.

I'll say this again as well. Autounequip hands never existed during t2a except for a brief time in the illegal program UOE. You had to use equiping macros to do the work and this was a big part of pvp as well. Having a weapon equiped and trying to release your precasted spell would make you fizzle as well unless you used your unequip macro first. This was a big part of timing and skill that was tied into the all around part of pvp during this era. T2A pvp was all about timing and catching your opponent casting the wrong spells at the wrong time because the recov time was deadly and had nothing to do with casting mini spells to disrupt.

Also with the para spell. casting para on someone that was in mid casting nulled the effect of the para spell and made you lose the regs and mana it took to cast it. The person you casted on had nothing happen to them whatsoever. I am 100% positive about this.

[alatar]

Also with the para spell. casting para on someone that was in mid casting nulled the effect of the para spell and made you lose the regs and mana it took to cast it. The person you casted on had nothing happen to them whatsoever. I am 100% positive about this.

this is true, it should say "that target is frozen" and consume regs/mana.. i thought this was already working..

[Derrick]

Also with the para spell. casting para on someone that was in mid casting nulled the effect of the para spell and made you lose the regs and mana it took to cast it. The person you casted on had nothing happen to them whatsoever. I am 100% positive about this.

this is true, it should say "that target is frozen" and consume regs/mana.. i thought this was already working..

Aye. This is currently active. You cannot para if target is frozen.