User talk:Urbanemonkey
So, you're a herder, huh...?
I've been meaning to do a few of tests there, but perhaps you could save me the effort and add the relevant bits of info to the page. :)
1) How many creatures can you have following you at any given time, and how long will they follow you for? Will they go through gates? 2) How's it go with hostile (or potentially hostile) creatures? 3) Is your chance of success dependent on skill alone, or the type of creature you're working with? That is to say, will Jack of all Trades allow the persistent to herd Greater Dragons, and does a GM herder have a chance to fail? 4) Is skill gain influenced by the type of creature you're herding?
- Bomb Bloke 06:46, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
The term "budding herder" (32 skill! WOOO!) is more accurate.
WRT your questions: 1) How many creatures can you have following you at any given time, and how long will they follow you for? Will they go through gates?
Herding isn't a "creature follow me" skill, as much as it's a "creature go over there" skill. They don't follow you (and don't take up your pet slots). Instead, you gently encourage creatures to just ... go over there (click).
. 2) How's it go with hostile (or potentially hostile) creatures?
So far, mongbats stop attacking and go where I tell them to.
3) Is your chance of success dependent on skill alone, or the type of creature you're working with? That is to say, will Jack of all Trades allow the persistent to herd Greater Dragons, and does a GM herder have a chance to fail?
I suspect that my chance of succeeding is based on both the "herding" difficulty rating of the creature I'm working with, and on my skill as a herder. I'm sure there's a skill check (like for Taming) that determines if you even have the skill possible to succeed.
4) Is skill gain influenced by the type of creature you're herding?
Unknown. I'm working with basic barnyard creatures at this point.
- Urbanemonkey 04:51, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
1) To have a herded animal follow you: on the prompt "where do you want the animal to go?" click on yourself. The animal will follow like any tamed critter. There is no limit (aside from your video card) to the amount of animals that can follow you. You can grab every animal in Moonglow and drag them into town. They will follow indef. If you recall and return, animals that were following you will resume, as if you hadn't left. They will not go through gates. To move large groups: tame, gate, release, rinse, repeat.
2) You can only herd animals that you can be tamed.
3) It is skill dependend. However, there is no delay between uses. If you fail you can try again right away. At 60 you can grab most anything with a couple of clicks.
4) Skill gain is influenced by type of animal. Seems to run like taming. (But its been a long time since I've trained it)
Meridus 08:09, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
So you're saying that my human rogue can, for example, stealth around Destard, get every dragon in the place following him without the benefit of any real skill points (eventually), then lure them over to an unwitting victim?
Heheheh... That sort of thing could be used to great effect during spawns. Much more effectively with real skill, I'd assume, but assuming 20 skill equals a 20% success rate... That's pretty good when there's no skill delay.
I forgot to ask, will critters follow you across server lines, or through dungeon entrances/exits?
- Bomb Bloke 11:01, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
Yes, you can stealth around Destard and drag every dragon to your place of chosing. However, it does take me a few attempts at 60 skill to get them to respond. I don't think it would be worthwile at 20 skill (or even possible). Although I am not sure.
I have no problem crossing server lines. I haven't tried getting onto a ship. There seems to be a debate about dragging outside of dungeon entrances. Some swear they can do it. I have not been able to do so, but I haven't spent much time trying.
One note: A few years back the AI of evil monsters was changed. Once tamed and released, they would not return to the original AI. They would just sit there and do nothing. A few publishes ago, it was changed again. Evil monsters when tamed and released will now attack if they are attacked, but will not seek out prey on their own. They just sit there. So you could post up a dragon next to your house, and see who was dumb enough to poke it, but its not like the old days where I would tame 20 Rune Beetles, release, and then stealth herd them. They would auto attack everyone and clear a gate. Neutral and positive karma creatures as always return to their original untamed state. None of the AI,Evil or Good, is altered simply by herding.
Meridus 03:00, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
GMed herding!
Easier than I expected. This is clearly one of the skills that's been neglected in recent times. It took around 20 hours total to go from 26 to GM!
Herding Skill Log (#s in () are taming rating)
2 Dec 2008 - 26-43.5
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Success with: Goats (11.1), sheep (11.1), cows, Hinds (23.1), Llamas (35.1), Horses (29.1), mongbats (-0.9), forest ostard (29.1), Brown bear (41.1), skittering hopper (-0.9), Boar (29.1), Black Bear (35.1).
No success with Grizzlies (59.1), Bulls (79.1), Great Harts (59.1), Frenzied Ostard (77.1)
Animals obey the herding guidance for 1-2 seconds, then move on their own. If an animal has a long way to go to the selected spot, it may change its mind on its way to the spot.
Herding can be used to make attacking mongbats non-aggressive and go "over there" (click). (Same with sewer rats.)
Herding can be used while hiding. There is no time delay between herding attempts (other than "you must wait a moment to perform another action" delay).
There does not appear to be a limit to how far away a creature can be for herding to be successful. Creature must be in view (i.e. not on another level of a building) and on the screen, but there are no "must be within 8 tiles" type restrictions. In a forest with a brown bear and a llama, I gained ~5 points in about 15 minutes (38.5-43.5).
3 Dec 2008 - 43.6-47.1
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Success with: everything tried, except bulls
Discovered (thanks to UO Guide sysop) that you can make a herded animal FOLLOW YOU if you click on yourself when it asks "Where do you want the animal to go?". Sweet cuppin' cakes!
4 Dec 2008 - 47.2-65.9
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Success with: everything tried, except bulls. Made most of the gains on a single great hart that I instructed to follow me, go over there, come back over here, go over there again, etc.
Switched tactics. In Ilshenar forest (near spirituality gate), got a grizzly bear to follow me. I found a spot where I could get a bunch of gains in a row, then I herded the grizzly to follow me repeatedly. (Hot key "last object - last target" macro comes in handy.) When it looked like I wasn't gaining any more, I walked 8 paces north and tried again. Success! Looks like herding may be 8x8-able.
At 65.5, switched from grizzly in Ilsh to bull in Delucia. Repeated same thing. (Total time invested, about 75 minutes.)
5 Dec 2008 - 65.9-86.0
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Back in Delucia with a bull again.
Repeated technique from yesterday: herd bull, target self, repeat. (+1.0 in about 12 minutes, then took a break; +8.0 in another 45 min with bulls.)
Stopped gaining with bulls around 74.9. Switched to dire wolf (83.1 taming) in Ilshenar. Helps to have stealth & hiding at this point, because it looks like all training will be on monsters from here out. (45 min w/ dire wolves for 74.9 to 83.1)
83.2 thru 86.0 with dragons & drakes in Destard. (About 30 very timid minutes.) After 86.0, realized that I could herd unicorns: all the skill gain, none of the death.
6 Dec 2008 - 86.1-95.9
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Picked up again with a Unicorn (95.1 taming) in Ilshenar. (+1.0 15 mins) (+1.3 20 min) (100 min +4.9) Got as far as 94.9 with unicorns, but gains dropped off to near zero. Picked up lesser hiryus (94.9-95.2, then got bored and herded all the gamans i could find all the way up to the snow ... where i left them), then cu sidhes (from 95.3).
7 Dec 2008 - 96.0-98.7
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Cu sidhes in the Twisted Weald again. I don't know the "satyr" trick, or I'd try it. (Of more than 1000 successful herding attempts, only gained 2.0 points.) (Next pass: Of more than 700 successful herding attempts, only gained 0.3 points.) At 98.3, tried switching to firesteed (106 taming), but after like 50 failed herding attempts in a row, I gave up. Returned to cu sidhes, for a loooooong time ... small gains, far between. People keep bringing their pets in to kill the cu sidhes, too. And they don't know I'm busy with 'em because I'm invisible. (Timid!)
9 Dec 2008 - 98.7-100.0
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More of same w/ cu sidhes. Not sure if 8x8 worked. Seemed to get as much gain from random walking (yay figure eights!) as from trying to find a good 8x8 string. Yay! GM Shepherd! Yaaay!