How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

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RawToxic
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How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

Post by RawToxic »

Have you been playing on UOSecondAge.com and noticed something that you think works differently here than you remember when you played UO 8-10 years ago? Would you like to know if you are sure before getting called out on it? It can be quite embarassing but can happen to any of us.

Many users report issues that they feel are ERA inaccurate that may actually not be. Many users also may debate a reported ERA inaccuracy and they may not be correct either. I have recently found that many of us are guilty of this. It is not anyone's fault.

There is only one way to know 'for sure' and this guide will help show you how to get there. You helping perform this research will help you personally understand the goals of this server, drastically help our community achive it's T2A ERA recreation goals, and maybe even help you become a UOSA Historian some day.

Disclaimer

First off, let me state that UOSecondAge.com is trying to emulate the best MMORPG playing experience that ever existed, The UO Second Age (T2A) ERA. It is impossible for UOSecondAge.com to obtain the orginal hardware, operating system, and software environment that was used to run the game at that time. UOSecondAge.com is operated in an open source emulated server environment. UOSecondAge.com is now able to operate the system on much better hardware and newer operating system and software technologies than what was used during that time. However, it might never be 'exactly' the same. Also, please note that for certain reasons, some differences may exist because of these differences. Lastly, All changes to game mechanics and playability of UOSecondAge.com is at the discretion of the owner. Some differences may exist to correct game mechanics bugs that existed at that time. If a change is not made, know that there must be a very good reason why and some of these reasons explained here may be the cause.

What exactly is UOSA (T2A) ERA Accurate Anyways???

When you hear someone talk about something being UOSA or T2A ERA accurate, they are talking about how something worked within the ultima online game mechanics during a certain period of time now almost 8 years ago. This ERA or time window existed between the releases of Ultima Online: The Second Age, which was released on October 1st, 1998 and Ultima Online: Renaissance which was released on April 3rd, 2000.

Many game mechanics changes were made to Ultima Online on or after the April 3rd, 2000 release date of Ultima Online: Renaissance which many players at the time did not agree with. (Trammel, Meele Enhancements, Skill Nerfing, etc) Ultima Online never decided to go back to the way things were so now players still even today strive to recreate this 'highly coveted experience'. Just the mere size of the UO emulation T2A community proves it. UO has changed alot since the time we all loved. It takes alot of hard work and effort as a staff anda community to help change everything back to the way it was. This process does take time and some things may be missed during the process. This is exactly where UOSecondAge.com is coming from, folks.

I think I found an issue... umm... What should I do?

Before reporting that how something works is not UOSA (T2A) Accurate, please do a little research first and make sure you are correct and be able to provide evidence to support your claim. The research is very easy to do and can be done by practically anyone if you know how. Keep reading. :)

How to Research Possible UOSA (T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

For now, I will show you one easy way to start researching T2A inaccuracies. There are websites that have existed since almost the creation of the web that crawl websites and archive them for later viewing purposes. The largest and most widely used one is http://www.archive.org. Within this website, there is a search engine called the Way Back Machine that will allow you to see what some websites looked like previously like snapshots from previous points in time. Most of the web sites archived existed on the major search engines at the time and were allowed to be crawled by the spider engines. Many websites are available. Some websites blocked these crawling techniques an even still block them today. Although you may be able to view a site from a previous point in time, some media, pages, or content may not be available to view because it was not archived by the spider crawling engine or was blocked.

Keep in mind that you are only really looking for web site snapshots that took place between Oct 1st, 1998 and Apr 3rd, 2000. Any later snapshots will most definately includer newer game mechanic information that does not apply to the research you are doing unless you are trying to confirm a new functionality that did not exist until after the T2A ERA period.

To start here are a few interesting URL's to throw into the http://www.archive.org Way Back Machine:

http://www.ultimaonline.com
http://www.owo.com
^--- Ultima Online's Official Websites prior to the launch of UO: Renaissance.

http://uo.stratics.com
^-- Unofficial Ultima Online gaming archive and information site.

For the stratics site, the middle of the main index page will not be available because it's content was not able to be captured by the spider crawler engine but most of the links on the left panel and within the documents do still work and were captured during the spider crawling session that took place on that day.

Unfortunately, when Origin obtained the http://www.uo.com domain prior to the release of UO:Renaissance, most of the site is blocked from spider engines except for the first entry page. You really have to dig links to try to find unblocked pages.

For the most part, most of the links work on sites that are available and alot of information is out there. Now, get to work and post those URL's when you report what you have found and know that no one will doubt you. :)

What if different information is found on different sites??

In all cases, the UOSecondAge.com staff and/or owner reserves the right to make the final decision on what changes are made, if any. Keep in mind that the UOSecondage.com staff will do everything within their power to help recreate the best playing experience available. However, some things just may not be able to be changed for many reasons.

I hope you enjoyed the guide. Do some research and report your issues with confidence and evidence to back you up. No one wants to feel like a fool and now we don't have to. :)
Last edited by RawToxic on Thu Dec 04, 2008 2:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RawToxic
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Re: How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

Post by RawToxic »

At times there can be differences between anyone when things are reported here as T2A ERA inaccuracies and some people may not know how to research this on their own. I hope this guide helps aid many in that quest and also explains from a real perspective of why some things are just 'different'.
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Re: How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

Post by Faust »

For those that don't know, uo.com was once owo.com during the pre-t2a days.

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RawToxic
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Re: How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

Post by RawToxic »

Ha.. I was just coming back to add that to the guide when I found patch updates through the end of 99.

UPDATED

Please post any additional sites that you feel may be beneficial for ERA research and they will be added to the guide.

Thanks!
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Re: How 2 Research UOSA(T2A) ERA Inaccuracies

Post by Maahes »

Very nice guide, Thanks RawToxic.

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