Combat Timer Trial and other proposed changes now on Test

[Faust]

So what's the verdict on equip casting as it stands right now?

Cast spell->equip->whack->disarm->target spell?

I read through an old thread on the subject but it kinda fizzled out in flames, lol.

I need to download the demo and start playing around with it.

Here is a fairly easy timeline to follow involving 'equip casting' that resolves this issue in my opinion unless someone else produces some substantial evidence about it...

- Timeline -

1998
Pre-T2A, we know equip casting existed without any doubt in mind.

January 2000
Pre Casting was fixed in January '00 and the result of this patch simply wiped a spell target when you dragged, equipped, or used an item. However, this would not have effected equip casting at all.

April 2000
UOR publish went live in April '00 that forced a spellbook into your hands upon casting. Removing the book during the casting sequence would cancel the spell and the removal of precasting would nullify the spell target if you tried after the spell target was displayed. This would have prevented a weapon from being equipped under any circumstance but not a shield during the casting animation.

April 2000 - June 2001
The early UOR spellbook era for mages from '00 to mid '01 was well known for the well documented "Roach Mage" aka "Parry Mage" that allowed you to equip a shield during the casting animation to intervene any damage during interruption and remove it before the spell target was ready if the spell would end up being successful. This was a popular bulid when including inscription combined with protection(makes an opponent miss more) to make the character template fully defensive.

July 2001
July '01, the spellbook constraint was lifted and a modification to precasting was made that no longer removed a spell target when dragging or equipping a weapon or shield. However, briefly when the first testing process was under way a player was able to equip cast. This was documented over at UOPowergamers with an email exchange between the EA developers. However, the letter describes that they were going to add a constraint that interrupted the casting process if either of the two(weapon or shield) was equipped during the sequence. Old precasting was officially back for a short period of time and was officially dead after that fix.

I'm pretty confident that 'equip casting' did in fact exist. However, this does not rule out a possible bug that was introduced during a specific situation when attempting it. This very well could have been the reason people didn't use the tactic.

[Derrick]

on test center is there anyway that we can get some kind of memo when we log in that says what patch we are gonna be playing with on there.

Yeash, this is probably a good idea. For now everything has been taken off test center and it's back to the same patch as Live. I will update if that changes.

[nightshark]

I'm pretty confident that 'equip casting' did in fact exist. However, this does not rule out a possible bug that was introduced during a specific situation when attempting it. This very well could have been the reason people didn't use the tactic.

Maybe, but I don't get why noone remembers it that way. The only person I've seen saying they remember equip casting in '99 was Hemperor, and he was 4 at the time. I joined in on the "roach mage" sensation on OSI and remember thinking it was a really weird thing that the shield didn't disrupt the casting and how it didn't apply to weapons before the UO:R patch

It practically nullifies the wrestling skill on a tank mage, yet the standard 7x mage was easily the most popular, with a few super-fast-connection players using anatomy

[Derrick]

I'm pretty confident that 'equip casting' did in fact exist. However, this does not rule out a possible bug that was introduced during a specific situation when attempting it. This very well could have been the reason people didn't use the tactic.

Maybe, but I don't get why noone remembers it that way. The only person I've seen saying they remember equip casting in '99 was Hemperor, and he was 4 at the time. I joined in on the "roach mage" sensation on OSI and remember thinking it was a really weird thing that the shield didn't disrupt the casting and how it didn't apply to weapons before the UO:R patch

It practically nullifies the wrestling skill on a tank mage, yet the standard 7x mage was easily the most popular, with a few super-fast-connection players using anatomy

If you could cast-equip it should be pretty easy to find a screenshot of this in that massive screenshot gallery at http://download.uosecondage.com/ChesieSSs/

Would be looking at a player holding a weapon in the casting animation.

[Faust]

If you could cast-equip it should be pretty easy to find a screenshot of this in that massive screenshot gallery at http://download.uosecondage.com/ChesieSSs/

Would be looking at a player holding a weapon in the casting animation.

People that didn't have UOA/UOE wouldn't have been doing it and most certainly no one would be if there was a 'bug' that prevented you from casting until half a minute or logging out.

There is possibly a slight chance that it did in fact cancel your casting upon equipping but honestly it doesn't seem very logical when you could do it during the UOR era.

I can't really see them adding in a rogue tweak to remove such a constraint during a time period that was trying to force the removal of equipping, unequipping, using items when it came to spell casting.

The UOR era only involved the forceful arming of a spellbook and added a constraint that ruined the spell sequence if you were to remove the book during the process.

Screenshots may possibly help if it was possible though. The only problem this may pose is that only the person taking the screenshot could be considered since you would have no idea if the other person's spell was in fact ruined by the process. Btw, there any way you would throw those screenshots in a zip for better access Derrick? I have them at home of course but not here at work. Would make the process a whole lot easier in my opinion.

[Psilo]

I am for sure that at some point during casting you could equip your hally. I am unsure when during the casting? For example, could you equip it in the middle of casting or towards the end of the whole "casting time".

I specifically remember being in Delucia around 1999 dueling with my tank mage. I was practicing doing combos for no damage in town on a friend. I remember thinking "I wonder what the significance of being able to equip so early when I can't move anyway since I'm waiting for the spell to finish. It was interesting and I even remember thinking it looked cool equipping the hally and finishing the "casting motion" of the spell with a hally in hand.

I don't know about this bug you guys speak of where it makes you need to relog though. I remember casting-equiping tho or sure.

[Hemperor]

Nightshark, I never said I remembered that, however I did say the only available evidence points to that.

Rather than posting baseless opinions and knocking those who go to the trouble of trying to help get this right, do your own research. Thanks!

[nightshark]

Nightshark, I never said I remembered that, however I did say the only available evidence points to that.

Rather than posting baseless opinions and knocking those who go to the trouble of trying to help get this right, do your own research. Thanks!

If you look a few pages back you'll find my "research" contribution, I contribute plenty of research and knowledge to these forums, so stfu.

[Iced Earth]

if you let people equip their hally while casting it's gonna be retarded.

I'm sorry, but someone had to say it.

There were people that took anatomy back then over wrestling, but they played around it by keeping their weapon armed most of the time, not by having the ability to equip it during spellcasting.

Anatomy tank mages were totally niche, and tho they could find some success sometimes, the fact they COULD NOT arm their weapon while casting spells made them vulnerable and it took a lot of savvy to play one.

[Snowman]

bro nightshark ur telling me something i already know.
im asking if this is really how slow it is suppose to be or not.

It does seem very slow to me too...

and Psilo is right from what I remember (yes I know not the same as finding some type of documentation...) you were able to equip a weapon while casting, but I thought you needed to take the weapon off before the spell animation ended in order to avoid the spell being disrupted (obviously after the animation was done you would be able to equip the wep again to hold precast). By someone being able to do this though, this would mean that the 1 second delay wasn't there or it was faster... maybe UOA sped this process up? I am not sure but right now it just seems like everything is slow. Anyways I clearly remember having a friend equip a wep (during casting) and take it off while someone would charge him so he would not lose his potential insta hit. Essentially if it was timed right you would put wep on and then take off before spell casting animation was done. I know this was not during UO:R because I quit when they changed everything.

Also I think making a mage without wrestling (even with this change) would make it impossible to play a non wrestling mage due to everything being so slow (from timer)... especially with the horse stam. A dexxer would destroy a mage even if they could put a wep on (well as long as they needed to take wep off before animation was done).

[Psilo]

if you let people equip their hally while casting it's gonna be retarded.

I'm sorry, but someone had to say it.
.

Just because you never had a chance to play a tank mage in 1998-1999 doesn't make it retarded.

It existed...so why not put it in? Like I said can we REALLY DISAGREE with accurate mechanics?

WE have now found 4-5 huge mechanic changes for pvp that will be implemented soon. Era Accuracy is the what has kept this shard so diverse and have the best community, economy than any other player-run shard to date.

I think people who constantly need to bring up the fact "we have had inaccurate mechanics for a while such as having to stay still to cycle" need to realize that we're trying to get it right and along the way of doing that we may encounter things you don't agree with. But if you trust era accuracy, I think pretty soon the pvp is going to be so much closer to accurate that it's going to be really fun and nothing like it is now

The admins work for free and everything is free. There's no giveaways, what other shard can you honestly say didn't give shit to their players for IRL money, or cause of admin corruption.

Anatomy tank mages were totally niche, and tho they could find some success sometimes, the fact they COULD NOT arm their weapon while casting spells made them vulnerable and it took a lot of savvy to play one.

Even with equip-casting a 0 wrestling mage would either get eaten alive or have FAR LESS "abilities".

There's the object delay too, so if you HAD to have your weapon on at all times then you won't be nearly as fast at dealing damage depending on the circumstance if you can't cast explo e bolt hally. Which requires not arming at all till the end.

[Iced Earth]

Just like the whole not being able to swing on the run for the past 2 years hasn't been retarded? How long was I right about that? How long were you?
Thanks.



I would say if you aren't certain about this, and have no documented proof, then you should err to the side of Common Sense. I don't think Common Sense rules that you are able to equip your weapon while you are casting a spell.

Just like Common Sense dictated that you should be able to recharge your weapon swing on the run for the past 2 years.

[Psilo]

Just like the whole not being able to swing on the run for the past 2 years hasn't been retarded? How long was I right about that? How long were you?

I already addressed this "issue".

I said we're doing our best to get it accurate. We found a mistake and now we're fixing it!

"We" meaning Derrick, Faust, and everyone else who searches through old 1999 archives looking for patch notes, clues, chat text, screenshots that aid us in getting things more accurate.

The pvp right now on UOSA IMO is better than ANY shard that has ever existed except actualy OSI 1998-1999 of course. Yes hally spam sucks, yes "standing still to recharge hally" sucks too. But this shard still owns every other shard and besides these things are being changed soon.

Divinity's pvp was worse because it was all harm, hally, harm, hally, lightning katana. ect. Just small spam spells. Lightning and katanas were the least used weapons in 1999 for a MAGE and yet on Divinity they were the most useful. I won many fights with katana, harm, lightning alone once my opponent got to 50'ish health. I spammed those 3 and it's so easy and instant.

UOSA's pvp is far more like UO combat than DIV and IPY put together, runners will always be annoying that's just part of the game. You guys all played through UO:R and runners were even worse there until stun punch and parablows were put on.

UO isn't just a pvp game, I guess that's why the people with no patience quit without giving something a try. They are too afraid of learning newer(and more accurate) pvp mechanics.

[Sandro]

people spam small spells b/c disrupts aren't 100% on any scale here..

unloading 6th circle spells back to back is a waste when you can gheal for 40-50 for 11 mana and in less time..

[MatronDeWinter]

You know, I REALLY don't remember people ever using the mini-heal unless the damage they wanted to heal was less than (or equal to) the max healable by the spell. Nobody spammed it during pvp like they do here, not even close.

This is going to be a real problem when the swing timer stuff is finally figured out and tank-mages cannot use the hally as frequent to offsent the super-power-healing ability of others.