Beefing up the Item Identification Skill

Here's the problem that I have with the skill - it's 100% replicated by staves and wands of ID. There is no advantage to using the skill, aside from not having to worry about running out of items with ID charges; however, there's little chance of running out - a 1/2 hour trip to deceit can get you a big bag of wands and staves and you'd probably walk out of there with a couple hundred charges of ID. Wands and staves, on the other hand, actually have an advantage over the item ID skill - there's no skill delay in using them and there's no chance of failure.

I have no objection to the items remaining in the game, but I'd like to see some changes to the skill to make it better than the items. Here are some suggestions:

(1) Items ID'd with wands and staves aren't permanently ID'd (i.e. your name doesn't get added to the item's memory list of who has ID'd it).

(2) The item's memory list gets changed from LIFO (last in first out) to FIFO (first in first out), so that you don't have to continually ID your own stuff if the list is full.

(3) Magic items ID'd by a GM get an "Identifier's Mark" - the item is no longer a mystery to anyone (e.g. of a label on an item ID'd by a GM: "Surpassingly Accurate Longsword of Might identified by Zamboni Driver").

(4) When used on a person, the skill gives an estimate of that person's bank balance and real estate holdings (can either be a gp value or a descriptive estimate - e.g. "Den Dragon should be begging you for money" or "Xena Dragon is so rich that she has gold dripping out of her pores"). This info is only given to people with item ID skill over 70 (just like anatomy and evaluate intelligence), with better accuracy for higher skill levels.

(5) Masters have a chance of ID'g an item just by clicking on it - say 1% at master up to 20% at GM. Identifying an item in this way is like using a wand or staff - you don't get added to the item's memory list.

Fixing Problems with the Arms Lore Skill

Arms lore isn't bad as it is - the proposed changes for smiths make it even better. However, the skill has been flawed for a long time and needs to be fixed.

Problem 1 - damage ranges given for weapons

(a) Ranges don't go high enough. Especially since the big melee patch, there are just way too many weapons in the top category (exceptionally deadly). Just about every bardiche, halberd, bow, xbow and heavy xbow - from exceptional to vanq - falls into this range. We need at least 3 or 4 new ranges so that the skill isn't useless for determining how much damage these weapons actually do.

(b) Accuracy bonuses. I'm pretty sure that accuracy bonuses aren't factored in to the damage range given for weapons. It shouldn't be that complicated to do - every +5 to tactics is +5% damage, so the game engine should be able to calculate the extra damage. If I'm wrong, and the accuracy bonuses are factored in, then something is screwy, because supremely accurate weapons of ruin often lore lower than plain weapons of might, which shouldn't be the case (unless all the tactics info is wrong and it's not a straight % bonus to damage).

(c) True state of repair of items. This problem is the biggest one that faces purchasers of weapons and armour. Since the big smithing patch of last year, items have two different hit point totals - permanent hps ("PHP") and temporary hps ("THP"). Here's a brief explanation of each:

THP - the current hit points of an item, taking into account wear and tear from usage. THP go down as an item is used.

PHP - the maximum THP of an item. PHP go down as items get repaired. Each time an item is successfully repaired, it loses 1 PHP. If a smith fails to repair an item, it loses 1-5 PHP depending on the smith's skill.

Here's the problem - arms lore gives state of repair info based only on THP as a % of PHP - not of PHP as a % of original item HPs.

For example, let's look at 2 different items:

(1) a brand-spanking new plate helm of defence. For argument's sake, let's say that plate helms of defence have a maximum of 100 PHP. This helm has never been used, so it has both PHP and THP of 100. Arms lore gives information based on THP/PHP. Here, we have 100/100, or 1.00, which is brand new on the arms lore scale.

(2) a plate helm of defence that's been around for 6 months. This item has been repaired 89 times (no failures), so it has 11 PHP. Bubba the GM Smith just repaired it, so it also has 11 THP. Arms lore sees that the item is at 11/11, or 1.00, so it tells the inquisitive lore user that this item is brand new.

As you can see, item (2) is far from brand new - it only has 11% of its PHP left! However, under the current arms lore regime, the lorer is deceived into thinking that the item is in perfect shape.

Arms lore needs to generate 2 pieces of information with respect to state of repair - 1 for PHP and 1 for THP. Perhaps the way to deal with this is to add additional info for lorers with 70+ skill (just like anatomy, eval int and my item ID proposal) - they also get a true picture of the item's PHP status.

Treasure Hunting

As I spend 40 minutes trying to dig up a treasure chest, the following analysis and ideas enter my mind:

The current state of treasure hunting

(a) finding maps - 1% chance of finding one on a map-bearing monster - always exciting to find one, I think that 1% is about right, don't want them to be too common;

(b) decoding maps - quick but fun, always exciting to see where it is, praying that it isn't in a heavily housed area or in the jungle;

(c) travelling to the location - can be interesting, lots of chests buried on islands, middle of nowhere - nothing wrong with this stage of treasure hunting;

(d) digging up the chest - mind-numbingly boring - the maps generated by the game match the cloth maps from yesteryear and DO NOT MATCH the current landscape of UO (with respect to clearings, roads, etc). Jungle is nearly impossible to dig up because the vines, trees and bushes make you think you're digging in one spot when you're actually digging at the bottom of a tree 5 spaces away. It shouldn't take 40 minutes to dig up a chest in the forest.

Suggestions:

(i) redo the map system to match the real UO landscape;

(ii) higher cartography skill gives you better detail on the maps - perhaps smaller maps as well;

(iii) higher detect hidden skill gives you clues as you approach the correct site - even "you're getting warm" type of clues would improve the current system by 500% by cutting down the time that it takes to find the map; and

(iv) change digging so that you always target the ground where you dig, not any features blocking the ground (not sure if this is possible without low-level changes);

(e) lockpicking, detecting trap, disarming trap - lockpicking is fine. I'm not sure that detect hidden does anything anymore, unless it's part of the lockpicking process. I'm still a little miffed that they added a 5th skill to the treasure hunting process after many of us built characters based on the 4 skills required. In any case, my treasure hunter almost always dies when digging up/opening chests level 3 and up, so it doesn't really matter if it's the monsters or the trap that kills him, I guess; and

(f) looting the chest - probably the most fun part. Try to grab what you can while fending off the nasty critters that spawn while you're at work. My party has developed some pretty good team techniques and manages to limit our deaths to the initial opening stage (when Magellan, my treasure hunter, almost always buys the farm. The only time that Magellan avoided death on a level 3+ so far was by equipping a bracelet of invisibility immediately after digging up the chest. Unfortunately, the chest was on a small island and my team wasn't far enough away - one of them got targeted by 2 ogre lords, a fire elem and a lich and Magellan failed provoke 4 times in a row, so my team-mate died a quick death).

So, everything is great except for the digging up stage, which needs to be revamped. The long time it sometimes takes turns what should be lots of fun into drudgery and boredom (it's even more boring for the rest of the team, who usually end up sparring and ridding the land of evil bunnies).

I'd also like high-level cartographers to be able to identify the level of a map without decoding it. 70 seems to be the magic skill number these days, so let cartographers with 70+ skill have a chance of detecting the level of a map by clicking on it - this would facilitate the trading of treasure maps as a commodity.

The only other suggestion that I have is for fame - under the current system, a treasure hunter (i.e. the cartographer/miner/lockpicker) is destined to have 0 fame, because of the almost certain death that awaits her (and the fact that most are non-combat characters with very low strength). Fame should be awarded to these brave explorers for each step of the journey (decoding, digging up, lockpicking, disarming), with fame scaled to chest level.

Another interesting way for treasure hunters to gain fame would be through the creation of a Royal Britannian Geographic Society. Treasure hunters could turn in completed maps (which now bear the name of the treasure hunter who decoded it and dug it up) for standing points in the RBGS, which would award special titles according to member standing. Of course, some rarely used building in a major city would have to be converted into the RBGS headquarters, which could be nicely decorated with trophies and rarities.