Five on Friday - December 21, 2007
Continuing the "year-end wrapup" theme, I spent the week updating pages in the Play Guide based on information dug up in the past year's Five on Fridays. A couple of caveats:
- I did not comprehensively fact-check and/or update every page below; I just added/corrected the info we had previously verified in FoFs.
- I didn't update most pages based on patch notes, although that's pretty high on my list. Some pages did get updated (for example, the Item Properties page has cap information based on the latest game changes, which were made after the Property Cap-related FoF questions) but it's the exception rather than the rule.
- Pages that don't exist didn't get updated. That sounds obvious, but it's actually an important distinction - for example, there's no page that discusses looting rules, so the updated FoF info about looting rules has no home at the moment. Given that I had way more to update than I had time to finish, I've shelved all new-page creation until after the holidays.
- Likewise, pages haven't been updated with KR or Mondain's Legacy info if they did not already have it - that will require more research time than I had this week.
- Note the "Updated" stamp on the bottom of the below pages: if that stamp isn't on a guide page, I make no assertions as to its accuracy. As near as I can tell, the cooking page hadn't been touched since '99 at the earliest, and gave instructions for how to cook food that brought back fond, if ancient, memories :)
In short, this is far from a comprehensive effort, but I hope that it's at least a start, and will lead to better documentation in the future.
Skills Pages
- The general Skill page, with details about gaining skills
- Alchemy - added the info about its effect on the Enhance Potions property
- Arms Lore - completely rewritten with its new effects
- Begging - added info about its effect on Karma
- Cooking - brought into the modern age, added a note on food, hunger, and its effects on gameplay
- Detect Hidden - added a clarification on how to gain skill
- Magery - added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Taming - added swing speed info and clarified Pack Instinct effect
- Veterinary - added info on speed
- Lumberjacking - updated list of weapons subject to the LJ damage bonus
- Remove Traps, - added a clarification on how to gain skill
- Necromancy - Fixed Cursed Weapon formula and added info about Spell Resist and Blood Oath damage, added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Chivalry - added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Bushido - added Perfection info, added details for Lightning Strike, added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Ninjitsu - added changes to Animal Form and Death Strike, added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Spellweaving - clarified Thunderstorm effects, added the Fast Cast property cap info
- Power Scrolls - added more info on how they drop
Item Properties
- Item properties chart - updated with info on caps, changes, etc for quite a few properties
- Base properties - added a link to the Arms Lore page in the Exceptional Item section
- Enhancing - added info about high skill affecting success chance
- Luck - added a few Qs and As
Champion Spawns
- Champ Spawn types - clarified type/reward link (or lack thereof)
- Altar and Skulls - clarified need to kill lesser critters
- Rewards - link to Scrolls of Power page was bad, fixed it
Magery Spells
- Second Circle - clarified Protection and its effect on Fast Cast
- Seventh Circle - added Chain Lightning/Meteor Swarm damage formulas
Combat and Equipment
- Equipment - added durability info to Repair section
- Weapons - added Swing Speed formula to the footnotes. (I know the chart itself is out of date - on my list! But you can get the necessary info from the in-game tooltips to use that formula.)
- Dying - Added info about being looted by a monster
- Stamina and Health - Removed outdated info about food
- Special Moves - Added info about Tactics requirements, added cap info to Crushing Blow
Miscellaneous
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Keep an eye out for Snowball Wars to begin on the Winterland shard - Draconi is putting the finishing touches on them. Next week is a company-wide holiday (with the exception of the poor Customer Service folks, who we chain to their desks) so there won't be a FoF next Friday. Have a great holiday week, be safe, and play lots of UO!
- Jeremy