Equipping while casting

[platy]

We aren't really arguing the use of the demo- your annoyance with people thinking it's not a great source for our shard is blinding you..
We just don't look at it as you do- I think it's too underdeveloped and vastly different from t2a (which it is)- and as already mentioned a year away from the target date.. You take something from a year BEFORE our target date it is going to be different- just as if you were to take something a year AFTER our target date!
I get it is a decent build to get info from and compare patch notes to, but do we know the changes made between the demo and months t2a went live?
I'm not really arguing about using it idc really if it's used.. But you keep hearing people disliking the reliance on the demo for accuracy information because the demo isn't t2a or what we are aiming for!

[ClowN]

to all of you people that remember weapons auto-unequipping when you target someone with a pre-casted spell in t2a:

this was not the case at all. however it did happen with the use of certain 3rd party programs that were common during t2a. UOExtreme had a feature built in that would auto unequip your hands before dropping a spell and im willing to bet MOST of the people here that remember precating performing this way, were UOE users at the time.


if you want to get around this mechanic of having to manually dequip your weapon here on UOSA, make a razor macro that looks like this

UNEQUIP BOTH HANDS
LAST TARGET


use this instead of the "last target" hotkey in razor. problem solved. if your hands are already empty when your try to drop a spell, razor just bypasses that unequip line and last targets as normal. iv been using this for months and it works like a charm.

[Valdric Flagg]

Here is a compiled list of information that retains to this topic.

_____________________________________________

UOPowergamers Discussing Reimplementation of Pre-Casting - - The next update to TX6 will have some changes to *precasting*

1] You will no longer be able to arm a weapon durring the delay period of the spell.
2] You will be able to arm a weapon after the delay period (when you have the spell target cursor).
3] Targeting the spell will auto unequip your weapon (if you have one in your hand)

Like I said Im not sure when but on the next publish to tx6 these changes will be active. Enjoy and feedback is always welcome


Adrick - Designer - Ultima Online
Origin Systems Inc.
EA.COM


Like you thought they were going to leave it the way it was? Ya think?

Personally, I think this type of precasting adds a little bit of flava.


_____________________________________________


This is the only information that I have found so far on this topic and more will be added later when it has been discovered. I think the evidence is pretty overwhelming in support for such a change. The old version of pre-casting seems more logical in my opinion.

The bolded colored area is what I remember when I sarted UO. I will see if I can find out documentation for this time period. Thanks Faust for finding this.

Someone mentioned UOextreme as the only way to accomplish. I disagree, I never used UOextreme, only UOassist.

[Faust]

If auto unequipping hands existed in the t2a era it was more than likely during the removal of pre-casting since PVP became way beyond horrible after its removal. There is no other patch to really support any other time period besides this one in my opinion. I know that I had to use an unequip/last target macro with my UOE all the way up until fast walk was wiped out around the same timeframe. It only seems logical besides the UOR publish for something like this of course.

[Valdric Flagg]

What is the date for the UOR publish?

In my opinion pvp started to go down hill when the wouldnt allow you to poison two handed weapons. That was the begining of the end. So many changes came right after that. Or at least that seems to be the time that I remember.

The part I liked is someone could walk on your screen and you wouldnt know if they were going to attack you or not. They could have a weapon armed and a spell ready. There was no dropping of a weapon to warn you a spell was about to dropped on your head. Just pure instant death for those who stood there and blocked shots with their foreheads.

[Faust]

April 28th, 2000.

UOR Publish

[Faust]

For those of you that still think you would auto disarm upon targeting a spell with a weapon equipped.

It's a pvp tactic that helps balance out the difference between high and
low ping fighters. In a fight you disarm your weapon, cast an attack
spell, rearm and hit until your opponent's health drops, then disarm and
click the target on opponent to throw the spell. (Some people use it to
heal themselves instead of to attack an opponent) It will be interesting to see what happens when/if it's gone because
everyone will have to relearn pvp - the heal precasters and the regular
fighters as well. (personally I predict an increase in gang banging)

I highly doubt they would specifically say "disarm a weapon" followed up with a specific "click the target" if you automatically unequipped upon targeting...

No, you can not cast spells without your hands being empty, with one
exception, an order or chaos shield.

What a nice statement for a "demo" that works the same way that apparently doesn't utilize the same code OSI used at that time.

This is the same way it functions in the demo as a few of us has already mentioned in this thread. There is still no doubt in my mind that this was introduced when pre-casting was reimplemented in '01 and that most people mistake the UOR version for the original. This is just another piece to add to the mounting evidence for that specific game mechanic.

We should continue discussing the ability to re-arm a weapon during the casting process without interrupting the spell since it's the main topic in this post.

[Valdric Flagg]

> If it's a target spell you get a target cursor. Now you can walk,run
> or ride near some one and target him with the cursor. The victim will
> not be warned by your spell casting.

That's an accurate definition of one form of precasting, but it's not
what they're removing. They're taking out the ability to cast a spell
and then use an item (like loot a corpse; you can drag with the target
cursor), or equip an item (like a halberd). You'll have to cast/toss
before you do anything else after this fix goes in, but you should still
be able to move around with the targeting cursor up.

This is the next reply to that comment. It almost sounds like they were talking about removing the ability to arm any weapon with a spell cursor prepped.

Which comment is accurate? Both are from players and not staff.

[Faust]

The guy is talking about the removal of pre-casting that came 4 days after his post.

http://update.uo.com/design_146.html

[chris kennon]

If auto unequipping hands existed in the t2a era it was more than likely during the removal of pre-casting since PVP became way beyond horrible after its removal. There is no other patch to really support any other time period besides this one in my opinion. I know that I had to use an unequip/last target macro with my UOE all the way up until fast walk was wiped out around the same timeframe. It only seems logical besides the UOR publish for something like this of course.

One of multiple reasons for using UOE was for the auto unequip it's one of the checkbox for UOE 6.07e which can still be downloaded from the wtfman.com website if you look for it in the archive area of ron's website0. If you really want to make the server OSI accurate get rid of razor and replace it with UOE that would be 10 times more authentic period. UOE vs Razor and UOE wins hands down where it counts in the gonads!

[Faust]

I have numerous versions of UOE and UOP downloaded onto my PC. This feature you are talking about in UOE auto unequips your hands before casting making sure the items is removed in order to begin the casting sequence. However, it does not auto unequip a weapon when using a target to cast the spell which is what is being discussed above. The same auto unequip before casting feature in UOE exists with Razor too. There is on going discussion in several places on these forums about Derrick's pet project being created over at JoinUO that will hopefully replace the need for Razor using era accurate features.

[Kraarug]

You are certainly NOT remembering correctly.

And, if equipping inthe demo doens't interrupt your spell it's just even more proof that the demo is a poor source.

This is more of a discussion and what exists in the demo.

Equipping in the demo does not interrupt your spell. You can cast a spell, equip and start loading a swing/fight. This is what actually makes Pre-T2A combat work, because there is a large equip delay in Pre-T2A.

If I remember correctly, the implementation of equip-disrupt was based off of majority opinion, there was no evidence either way. Correct me if I'm wrong, curious as to what is really behind our mechanic on it.


As another small note, earthquake damage (from quick glance) appears to do half the damage of a victim's maximum HP (if they aren't a NPC), which would tend to be 50 rather than the 60 we see here.

EDIT:
Discussion during the re-implementation of precasting (UOR)

you do need hands free to cast
> the spell. Re-equipping during the casting will interrupt the spell.
> After the spell is over, you can re-equip the weapon."

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... +interrupt#
http://update.uo.com/design_346.html

[Faust]

The demo is hardly a poor source and is definitely accurate to the time frame in July '98. This has been proven time after time and it even holds the server code that OSI used wehre Batlin has loaded into a server in order for players to log into.

Batlin said it best in this thread...

You are missing something, the demo was prepared may/june 1998. The CD which contained the demo was released 3 months later in september 1998. That's already 3 months of progress. 3 months of patch notes, 3 months of changes. The live servers evolved, kept evolving and still evole, the demo never did and is still a replica of mid 1998 OSI server. Combine the demo code and patch notes and I believe you will have the most era-accurate server ever.

I'm not sure what you are trying to make out of your post involving the ability to continue casting after equipping a weapon Kraarug, but the implementation of pre-casting in '01 allowed you to do this just like in the demo but was later patched out in the UOR form. I have already provided the source that discusses this specific change.

There is no evidence to suggest that the old pe-casting didn't exist up to January '00 when pre casting was finally wiped from the game making it impossible to cast a spell after equipping a weapon.

[Sandro]

Faust can you sum up what the OP is trying to have changed?

I wasn't bothered to read the entire thing as these types of arguments come up almost daily on these forums..

[Faust]

When you cast a spell and equip a weapon during the casting process it interrupts your spell on UO Second Age currently. The change would allow you to continue the casting sequence with a weapon equipped just like you are able to do in the demo. The rest of the responses in this thread are either off topic or provide information that supports this change with historical sources and references.