Sinow Dark

Might be a rather stupid (and greedy-sounding) question, so apologies if it comes across as such. Haven't been here for years; don't know what's changed. Regarding DT's and adding % to weapons: can this only be done to weapons purchased using DT's during the purchase process? Example: I buy -- I dunno -- a Chain Sawd for 15 DT's, then I tack another 15 DT's on there and request 20% Hit; that item then gets sent to me with the requested stats. However, if I bought the CS for its base worth of 15 and had that delivered to me as is, could I buy another 15 DT's and ask for that extra hit added on afterward and my CS gets modified by a GM or something? Or I trade for the new one? TL;DR Could I pay DT's for extra % on weapons I already own or do I have to buy a new weapon and request the extra % be added on before it's delivered to me?

If you're hunting for a particular drop, it might be more beneficial to hunt alone for two reasons: 1. If you're hunting with randoms, there's no telling if they can be trusted. Item ninjas lurk in all the darkest corners of Ultima and will not hesitate to snatch up a red box the moment they see it, regardless of if they even really want whatever it is. S'just how it goes, unfortunately. Hunting alone means, while it might be a bit harder, you'll be almost guaranteed that, if it drops, you'll be the one to get it. And 2. There's a feature on Ultima that allows you to have instanced drops; that the drops you see on your screen are yours and yours alone and no one can collect them but you. Useful to deal with ninjas, but it does come with a drawback: overall drop rates are lower with larger teams to prevent quad-log item scumming. So, if you want your drops rates to stay normal, you should hunt alone, unless you set it to shared drops again; see point 1. ...A-Anyway, pardon the egregious explanation; I'm sure this is common knowledge. I was just trying to make a point; it can be appropriate to hunt alone sometimes. At which point (to get back to your reasons for being a Force), being a tech nuker can make things a lot easier for you, what with the wanton slaughtering of droves of monsters like it weren't no thang.

I mean, really, you can answer your own question with another question: "How anal am I about min-maxing?"

Good thing for me then that I'm a Cast - who needs mind?

I mean, as much as it might be useful to get a few freebie mags, I used to be a mag breeder in my early days on this server (and on my old GameCube copy). While it would be faster, I can always pull up my old spreadsheets and breed any kind of mag I like; it'll just take longer is all. Besides, I've been out-of-practice too long; I need to remember how to play before I can even do anything.

I'll probably give the mag event a pass as I'm woefully out-of-practice and I'd only slow other players down, but thanks for the heads-up.

Reintroductions yet again. What is this? The third time I've left only to come back? Somethin' like that at least. Long story short: My PC died a few years back and, being woefully poor, I couldn't afford a new one until literally yesterday. I've been itching to get back in the game, especially now that my new PC is oh-so-shiny and capable compared to the old clunker I had before. I've never seen a prettier PSO. That being said, I've been away for quite a spell and I'm pretty sure no one I knew from before still plays. If they do, I've most likely completely forgotten your name. Sorry in advance if that ends up being the case for anyone that may or may not recall me. Anywho, no clue what's been going down on Ultima in the years past, so I do apologize if I come across as an old, out-of-touch fuddy-duddy at first. I don't plan on taking a leave of absence again in the near future (but of course plans go awry all the time, don't they?), but I do plan on brushing up on the who's, what's, where's, why's and goings-on in Ultima in the near future. In the mean time, to any knowledgeable users feeling particularly helpful, a quick rundown of any currently pertinent events would be oh~so~lovely~! Either way, glad to be back. Hope to catch everyone in the lobby sooooon~!

It's happening? And here I was hearing rumours you guys had forgotten. I've not partaken of this event before though, so I've got no idea what to do to get a hold of these new items. Would anyone be gracious enough to give me a run-down or perhaps provide relevant links? Pretty please?

So here's my question, in the simplest way I can ask it: What do you do when you play this game and why? A little story to go along with this question, if you're at all interested: I came to ask myself this question a short while ago, when I was asked for help from another player in a run of "Toward the Future" on hard mode, so they could get to very hard as quickly as they could. I did, yet even though I had generously given them my assistance, they continued to berate me to go as quickly as possible, rushing through as fast as I could. Of course, they died many, many times over in their carelessness, constantly moaned about their weak gear and grew frustrated at me when I tried to save them from the claws of some horrid beast because I didn't give them a chance to tag it so they could get the experience points (even though their accuracy was so low, they couldn't reliably hit a Lilly in the caves). I told them "you should slow down a little and play a bit more carefully" of course only as a word of advice so they might not have to keep relying on me and my steadily dwindling supply of Moon Atomizers. They ignored me entirely, instead constantly spamming messages like "go go go" or symbol chats specifically designed to tell me to "go go go". When we (or, rather I) beat Falz, I was completely out of Moons (since they also told me not to go back for more before the fight because it would "take too long" and that they would "promise not to die") and they were lying on the floor, dead. Again. And, of course, got no experience from the fight as a result. They then became extremely aggressive toward me for not reviving them and denying them their share of the experience. They then left, without so much as a "thanks for the help" or anything of the sort. This happens with surprising frequency, as I've come to notice. I do very often find myself being asked by lower level players (both new to the the server and old players simply starting new characters) to help them grind up their levels. Or being asked to give them better gear. Or being asked to help them farm for rare/powerful drops. In essence, just to help them shoot to the top as fast as they could. And then I wonder (only wonder, never ask—I'm not a callous bigot) "why don't you just do it yourself?" Now, I'm not saying that I wouldn't want to give a helping hand to those that need it. Even in my ponderings, I still often offer help where I can and I don't mind, really. I was there before; I know what it's like to be on the bottom and want to get to the top—good gear, decent level, higher difficulty modes. But the thing is, when I did it, I didn't try to beeline for the top. I didn't "grind", I played; I didn't "farm", I played; I didn't make a beeline for all the best gear and a level cap, I PLAYED. I'm not looking to "win" by finishing this game as fast as possible; I'm trying to have fun. What I'm wondering is, what's the point in shooting for the top as fast as you can? Why bother? What do you think you're going have to show for it at the end? You're going to get there quickly and then realize "welp, I've done everything I can. I'm the best (around! No one's ever gonna bring me down~!) and now I've got nothing to do." And then what happens? Well, you could start a new character and do it all again, grinding and speed-running your way to the top once more. Or you might just call it quits and forget about PSO because you've been there and done that so why bother doing it again, right? You might also do a bit of bragging beforehand about how great you are now and how pathetic all the little nooblets are (even though you were once there yourself and probably only got to your lofty status with excessive help from players far better than you—show some humility, damn it!). I'm not going to tell anyone how to play this game. But I do wonder why anyone would bother playing at all if they don't really want to play as much as just wanting to get to a point where they can say they "won"—max level & great items, usually by getting help from much stronger players to do so as quickly as they can. Whatever happened to the adage "it's about the journey, not the destination"? When did playing a game like this stop being about killlin' monsters, savin' the world, feelin' your power grow with every level-up, revelling in every new piece of gear you got a hold of and having fun playing with other players in a community for the sake of it—for fun—and start being about getting to the top as fast as humanly possible, using other players as stepping stones to get there while treating them like they're not other human beings trying to play a game with you? Bragging rights? Instant-gratification? Or are you just so lazy that you can't even be bothered to play a video game—which is something you usually do for fun—on your own and have to let others do it for you while you hide behind them (and then, of course, take all the credit)? I'm not mad. I'm just... confused. Is this what is considered "fun" nowadays? Would someone care to explain? ...Anyone?

Ah, Sonic. Er, I mean Travis. Er, I mean Steven. Here's hoping next time we'll actually make it to the end.

Well met then, Jay and many thanks for the status update. Glad to know Ultima isn't completely falling apart at the seams. At least, not yet. With any luck, hopefully we'll bump into one-another some time, so long as my character isn't dead. I look forward to it.

...Why I've returned? Hell if I know. It's been a while—a few years at least. And yet I’m no better at introductions than I was so many moons ago. Go figure. I see Ultima's still the homey glitch-fest it was when I left and still so few people, including the mods, have proper english skills. And what’s this I’ve been hearing about hackers and staff-impersonators? What am I going to do with all of you? In all seriousness though, I'm an old Ultima player returning almost exclusively out of curiosity to see how things have been getting on since my impromptu absence. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a touch depressing to see that not much has changed for the better in the time I’ve been away, but every rose has it’s thorns and in the end I’d like to hope Ultima still comes through smelling sweet enough. Not sure if anyone remembers me, though I’ll admit that I don’t really remember anyone from my past on here, save a scant few players (of whom I don’t even know if they play anymore) and Ultima’s owner and proprietor Larva, ever in perpetual retirement limbo; wouldn’t have it any other way. So I apologize in advance to anyone that my memory just can’t be bothered to regurgitate. I’ve yet to actually pop into the game itself and I’m curious to see just how well my old character has been preserved. I know there’s also been a lot of tweaking and fiddling server-side to include all sorts of new bells and whistles to the game, so that’ll be fun. Hopefully I can shake off these old cobwebs and get myself reacquainted with PSO again with a minimum of hassle after so long. But then what would Ultima be without its assorted hiccups and failing points? Answer: probably still just as ghetto as I remember it. Here's hoping it won't be too painful a reintegration at least. What kind of a homecoming would that be? I’ll be slowly folding myself back into the game and forums (and I do mean slowly) and being fairly casual about it all for the foreseeable future. If I can be bothered to remember how the hell you play this game again, that is. It’s been a while. So, yeah. How’ve you been, Ultima?