Greetings, Second Age.

[Borric]

I started playing here a month or two back. Maybe you've seen me around. Or killed me (you scoundrel).

I used to play back in the day, but I first started after Trammel came along so the whole PvE thing was somewhat easier then. Now I'm here, and I've had a lot of fun already, pottering around making a little cash and grinding my skills. I enjoy PvE, and I've gotten better at avoiding the reds while hunting. But they are still the biggest problem, and it's becoming clear that my preferred character and playstyle is never going to be able to stand up to them alone.

I like co-operating with my fellow man and helping people out when they need it. I'd love to take part in treasure hunts, they look like loads of fun. But I've never done one. Aww. I don't like playing a spellcaster so much, but I do like having one on my side.

Despite my general preference for PvE and melee weapons, I would like to be able to stand up to gangs of reds when they show up to spoil the fun, rather than knowing that it's escape-or-die time.

Now I might be able to stand toe-to-toe with an Elder Gazer and not worry very much, but I've never been successful in PvP combat. Most PvP encounters leave me dead with a "I'm never going to win at this, ever" feeling. This doesn't make me rage or quit, but it usually puts me off for a few days if I've lost progress or a lot of stuff.

I'm at the point now where, if a single red showed up where I was and fought me, I'd stand and fight. Win or Lose - for the heart-pounding experience. Not so long ago I would have hightailed it outta there at the mere whiff of a red player name on the edge of the screen. But now I'll "have a go" with a single guy. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work out this way very much. But nevertheless it seems to be a milestone - it's as brave as I'm ever going to get on my own.

The brutality of this shard can be difficult to stomach at times, but I do believe it contributes towards making this server what it is - the only one worth playing. I've tried out numerous other freeshards (since I discovered how to) and none of them offered any real sense of achievement for what you were doing. They were all far too easy to advance in. And the T2A ruleset is definately the best one.

So I guess what I'm interested in now, is probably finding a guild here, or even just a group of like-minded people, who want to mainly do PvE with more security and maybe organise a treasure hunt (or other wholesome activity) or two.

I'm just a plain old fighter who's handy with a bandage. I know that's far from the ideal way to play when it comes to PvP, but that's how I want to play this game. That's who I am when I play this game.

When alone, this makes me a fairly useless entity for anything past hunting lone monsters in quiet corners. I think I've done okay so far, all things considered. But now, to get much further in this world, I cannot stay by myself.

So, are there any honorable and trustworthy souls out there who fancy a drink?

[MatronDeWinter]

If you catch me on IRC later today I'll take you treasure hunting.

[chumbucket]

I suggest you drop the idea of treasure hunting and instead focus on griefing Matron.

[nightshark]

Wow, I was a bit late to the party on this thread. For anyone under the impression that T-hunting is difficult, take something from my experience.

I'd never done a t-hunt until last night (I was involved in 1 in '99 but had no idea how it happened). I bought a level 1 map yesterday to see what t-hunts are like. I figured it was going to be difficult and time consuming, but it ended up being rather the opposite.

Basically a t-hunt goes like this:
-Decode map (you can decode lv1 with 0 cart and you can pick up vanqs - I did maybe 10 lv1 maps last night and picked up 4 vanqs, including a silver vanq.)
-Open up stratics t-hunting guide, locate the position of the map you decoded. This was the part I thought would be difficult, and it wasn't. Also to note that there are maybe 10-20 different possible AREAS for a t-map, so I imagine you learn very fast and this would speed the process up even more.
-Get the t-map # from the stratics guide, recall to the # from a t-hunting runehouse.
-Dig. Every rune I have used so far has either been on the exact tile of the treasure location, or 1 tile off. You don't even need mining, you can do level 1 t-maps on any character type, even if you have no t-hunting related skills. All you need is magic unlock.

All t-hunting specifics are here: http://wiki.uosecondage.com/?title=Treasure_maps

All up, as someone who's never t-hunted before, a lv1 t-map takes me less than 5 minutes unless I have to deal with silver/giant serpents, in which case it takes like 10.

[Pirul]

I did maybe 10 lv1 maps last night and picked up 4 vanqs, including a silver vanq

This is highly variable, and I must say, you Sir, are a walking four leaf clover with that luck.

All you need is magic unlock.

...and 50+ magery.

All up, as someone who's never t-hunted before, a lv1 t-map takes me less than 5 minutes unless I have to deal with silver/giant serpents, in which case it takes like 10.

Snakes, I hate snakes.

[nightshark]

I did maybe 10 lv1 maps last night and picked up 4 vanqs, including a silver vanq

This is highly variable, and I must say, you Sir, are a walking four leaf clover with that luck.

I suppose it makes up for the last 6 weeks or so, where I've killed probably over 500 LL's/AW's/Deamons/Blood Eles/Balrons/WWs/Ice Fiends/Drags/EGs... and didn't pick up a SINGLE vanq. I did get a power hally with no tact mod

[Mark Stoneholme]

[OOC: Hey Borric, if you're looking for PvE action with a group of warriors, with a little PvP here and there (hopefully more in future); consider a career in The Militia; a role-playing guild on the shard playing ordinary folk who've grabbed what equipment they can to help defend the innocent citizen's of Britannia. If that's not for you; then all the best in UOSA and maybe we'll meet one day.]

[Kordavox]

UO as we knew it is dead. Now, I'm not complaining; I love Second Age. To return to the UO we knew, it would demand a one account, Siege Perilous ruleset. Not because this era was exactly like SP, but because the SP restrictions counteract inflation and make combat difficult to escape, and the Reds we know and love/hate would be more cautious in their terrorizing due to only having 1 character to play.

I'm ranting. Point is, I'm sorry, but to enjoy what we got you'd have to adapt your playstyle. Tbh, I'd love to run a dexxer through a dungeon, no magery required, but that just don't fly now.