Newsgroup: it.comp.giochi.rpg.ultimaonline
Titolo: FAQ ammeriganeeee (17/05/00) se non vi piacciono non lo faccio più, che sono diversi K

This FAQ is posted weekly (Wednesday mornings), or can be accessed any
time at: 
http://php.indiana.edu/~rstultz/rgcuo/FAQ.txt
rec.games.computer.ultima.online FAQ
Last updated 17 May 2000
What's New this Week:
* Added newsgroup charter and origination information.  (Sections 1 and 4.1)
* Added Official UO Message Boards info.  (Section 3.12.2)
1. Introduction
2. Acronyms and Glossery
3. Frequently Asked Questions
3.1  Getting in the game...
3.2  I'm new to UO. Help me.
3.3  What's this [young] thing?
3.4  What's the fuss with player-killing?
3.5  Okay, so now tell me how murder counts work...
3.6  A man's home is his castle.  A man's castle is his.. castle.
3.7  Who are those guys in the funky robes?
3.8  What are these ticket thingies and how can I redeem them for
valuable prizes?
3.9  So you want to take a screen shot...
3.10  What sort of third party utilites are there to enhance my UO
playing experience?
3.11  Is Ultima Online at all related to the other Ultimas?
3.12  This newsgroup just isn't satisfying my UO-junkie needs... where
else can I go?
3.13  Tell me about Siege Perilous
3.14  What's UO2?
4.  Newsgroup History
4.1  How did this newsgroup come about?
4.2  What's this I hear about a lawsuit?
4.3  That's it?  That's all there is to newsgroup history?
5.  Tone and Netiquette
1. Introduction
This FAQ is designed for newcomers to the group
rec.games.computer.ultima.online to help you adjust to what is at times a
rather verbose and noisy newgroup... even by Usenet standards.
It will hopefully answer many of your questions and keep you from
appearing to be a "troll" to the regulars.  (This FAQ was originally
written by Bob Roland, resurrected by Lars Friedrich and briefly
maintained by Ryan Stultz.)
The charter of the group is as follows: "rec.games.computer.ultima.online
is an unmoderated forum for discussion of all aspects of the online
multi-player game Ultima Online, as well as its sequels and other
multi-player versions of Ultima. Topics specific to the online version of
the game are welcome here, including but not limited to features, events
within the game world, guilds within the game, and real-world issues with
the game (e.g. pricing, latency, etc.)."
2. Acronyms and Glossary
Here are some helpful common acronyms and glossary of terms you will find
used on the newsgroup.
2.1 Acronyms
AC: Asheron's Call, another online fantasy role-playing game
AFK: Away from Keyboard
AFAIK: As Far As I Know
BTW: By The Way
DD: Designer Dragon, former Lead Designer, real name Raphael Koster
EA: Electronic Arts, owner of Origin Systems Inc.
EQ: Ever Quest, another online fantasy role-playing game
FUBAR: Fucked up Beyond All Recognition
GM: Grandmaster or Game Master or Guildmaster/mistress.
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion
IRL: In Real Life
LB: Lord British
LOL: Laughing Out Loud
MMORPG: Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game
NG: News Group
NGI:  News Group Irregulars
NPK: Notoriety Player Killer (perhaps even Notorious Player Killer..)
PLONK : Please Leave Our Newsgroup - Killfiled; A hint that this person
will automatically ignore your posts from now on
PK: Player-Killer or to Player-Kill.
PvP: Player vs. Player combat
PvM: Player vs. Monster combat
OSI: Origin Software Incorporated, creator of Ultima Online
RL: Real Life
RPG: Role Playing Game
ROTFL: Rolling On The Floor Laughing
SP: Siege Perilous
T2A: The Second Age (aka the Lost Lands)
WTF: What The Fuck
UO: Ultima Online
UO:R : Ultima Online: Renaissance
2.2 Glossary
Antis: Players who specialize in killing players who kill other players.
Sometimes seen as a "militia", other times seen as a group of mindless
vigilantes. Ethics debated.
Burst Hour: From 
uo.com
: "The chance to learn a skill will be increased
during the first hour of play each day for each character. Note this only
affects the chance to increase a skill, not the chance to succeed in
using it."  This first hour of play is the first hour after midnight
server-time.
Dex Monkey: A warrior character who prizes dexterity and is known for
being able to swing a weapon really really fast.  Usually with high
strength and little magic, though this will vary.  Don't tend to be too
bright.
Felucca: One of two moons.  Also, post UO:R, the old original lands.
Flagged: The game has a "notoriety" system where a persons name will
change color if they a) do something wrong and thus turn "grey" or b)
have killed enough people to become "red"
Kewl Doods: Also known as "Ke3Wlios" or a variation thereof. A reference
to many of the players on Ultima Online known for their childish
behavior, poor grammar and spelling, use of alternating capital letters
in both their speech and their names. Also known for fondness of bone
armor and death robes.
Killfile: File on your own newsreader that lists people (recorded via
their email addresses) whose posts that you wish the newsreader to delete
before you them.  An excellent tool if judiciously used.  Good for the
occasional troll.
Mule: A secondary character created for the purpose of raising money or
items for a primary character. As the combat system calls for more and
more specialization of skills, this is
rapidly becoming more of a trend. A person might have a "tailoring mule"
or a "blacksmith mule" for example.
Lurker: A person who reads the NG without participating in the
discussion. Truly a shy and timid creature.
Mana-dump: The practice of unleashing a bunch of offensive spells
quickly, one right after the other, on a target.
Notos : Notoriety Killers: a lot of different meanings, for example:
a) a PK, who avoids the consequences of being a known murderer by
exploiting game mechanics
b) a PK, who only kills when he can avoid the consequences of 'murder'
(without exploiting game mechanics)
c) a PK, who kills any person he is allowed to kill
d) a PK, who kills other murderers and criminals
etc.
Ping: There's some technological definition for this word that I don't
know.  It's a reference to the speed of your connection.  The lower your
ping, the faster your connection.
Skill Cap: It is only possible to obtain a certain amount of skills.
After you have reached this cap you may not gain in one skill without
losing points in another skill.  The Skill Cap is 700 "real" points.
Stat Cap: Like Skill Cap but for the statistics: Strength, Dexterity and
Intelligence.  The stat cap is 225 points.
Tankmage: A mage character that also has high combat skills, such as
swords or archery (tankarchermage) and wears heavy plate mail armour. To
some this is an offence against the
"traditional mage role" seen in fiction or traditional RPGS. Since the
addition of the "meditation" skill, the heavily armored Tankmage has
become a seldom seen character.
Trammel: One of two moons.  Also, the new lands added with UO:R.
Troll: A poster who posts a deliberately inflammatory statement in the
hope of provoking the outrage or anger of the NG.  This person may be a
lurker, or it may merely be drive-by troller.
Warp Mage: A magic-wielding character on horseback with a god-like ping,
who can mana-dump, "warp" off screen, meditate and recharge while you're
molasses-stepping your way over, then jump back on screen and mana-dump
on you again.  Rinse, repeat until you die or manage to get away.
3. Frequently Asked Questions
3.1  Getting in the game...
3.1.1  Will this game ever be ported to Mac or Linux?
a. Mac - probably not.
b. Linux - The Linux client is no longer supported.  This will remain the
case until one of the programmers finds himself with too much time again.
3.1.2  Can I play this game on Windows NT or 2000?
a. NT - Yes. Numerous people play with no problems reported except,
perhaps, for some sound related issues.
b. 2000 - Yes.
3.1.3  I'm trying to install the game but I can't connect to the patch
server.
a.  Well, first make sure it's not your internet connection.  Not trying
to insult your techie know-how, just mine, since that was my problem the
first time I tried to install the game. :)
b.  If all looks well there, there are few other possibilities.  Check
http://support.uo.com/tech_6.html
 for the official word.
c.  Or, the patch server might just be down.  Visit
http://ultima.lightning.net/status.html
 and check patch server status.
3.1.4  I'm trying to set up my account but my registration code's already
been used!
Call UO account support at 
(888) 842-6388
.  They'll set you right up.
3.2  I'm new to UO. Help me.
You got it.  Ultima Online is a continual learning experience. As such,
whatever you received in your manual is at best incomplete. The best
place to go to learn about this game is Stratics (
http://uo.stratics.com
)
which contains information about every monster, every profession, and the
best ways to get started. Read everything on there, and you'll have a
fighting chance.  The wonderful thing about this game is the amount of
work that people put into web pages. If you can't find anything there,
please ask us. We're pretty damn nice, once you get to know us, and we'll
be more than glad to show you the ropes.
3.3  What's this [young] thing?
A player is young if:
* the entire account is less than 40 hours old (in terms of actual play-time)
* no character has more than 350 skill points
* no character has more than 150 stat points
* no character has more than 80 in any single stat
* has not revoked young status ("I renounce my young player status")
* had not had young status revoked by a GM
3.4  What's the fuss with player-killing?
A distinction should be drawn between player-killing (PKing) and PvPing.
PKing generally implies non-consensual player-killing while PvPing
implies player-killing with some level of consent between the
participants.  PvPing then is generally accepted as having a vital place
in the game.  There is more debate over the role of non-consensual PKing
in the game.  Not everyone agrees. They never will. But with the newest
patch (UO:R), this may have become a problem of the past (for the killed)
and a nostalgic memory (for the killers). We'll see how this actually
works out.
3.5  Okay, so now tell me how murder counts work...
a. Whenever you get reported for murder, two counters are increased, one
called Short Term Murder Count (SMC) , one Long Term Murder Count (LMC).
The first counter determines, if
you will lose skills and stats when you resurrect after you died. The
second counter determines, if you will appear "red" to other people.
b. One SMC decays after 8 hours, one LMC decays after 40 hours.
c. If you turn red in the Trammel lands, you will be evicted to the
Felucca lands.
3.6  A man's home is his castle.  A man's castle is his.. castle.
3.6.1  Tell about ________ housing type.
Stratics has a really good section on all the different buildings, as
well as placing tips and all the dirt on secures and lockdowns at:
http://uo.stratics.com/homes/
3.6.2  Great.  Now I wanna organize my worldy belongings.  But how do I
get those chests to stack?
Not easily. You're in for a world of hurt. Basically the trick is to drag
the chest you want to place to the bottom of the pre-existing stack. (I
know it doesn't make sense. Did *I* design the client?). Use the "finger"
of your pointer rather than the chest itself. Drag it to the lower left
and let go. It will take some practice.
3.6.3  Oh, but I want to place a house where another one is decaying.  If
it says it's greatly in danger of collapse, how long do I have?
It depends. Although it should be at least 8 hours before it collapses,
reports have been given that suggest it could be soon as 4 hours. It can
also take up to 48 hours, so if you're waiting, make sure to free up your
schedule.
3.7  Who are those guys in the funky robes?
If we're talking robes with hoods, no death shrouds, grey names and the
occasional nifty power, then we're not talking no ordinary player.
Those in red hooded robes are Game Masters (GMs).  They're paid employees
of OSI.
Those in blue hooded robes are Counselors.  They're volunteers.
Those in green hooded robes are Seers, though they sometimes run specific
special characters.  They help run in-game events that forward the
general fiction of UO.  They too are volunteers.
3.8  What are these ticket thingies and how can I redeem them for
valuable prizes?
There are a variety of ticket types.  You can redeem them all the same
way.  Find another person with a matching type of ticket, put one of your
tickets in a trade window (don't click the jewel to complete the trade -
it's not necessary and may be hazardous to your continued ownership of
your ticket), and have the other double-click his own ticket and target
the trade window ticket.  Both of you should get pop-up prize menus.
Tickets are non-transferrable, so conning someone out of theirs isn't
really useful.  Tickets are also usually blessed, meaning that they can't
be stolen (using the steal skill) or looted.
a. Newbie tickets
You get this as a [young] character when you first begin the game.  Find
another [young] character who still has his ticket, do the clicky thing
outlined above, and you should get your prize menu.  The most popular
prize usually taken with newbie tickets is a piece of green ranger
armor.  Green ranger armor is much more valuable than regular leather
armor.  Beware of those who would take advantage of your newness and make
offers that severely undervalue its worth.
b. Holiday tickets
Holiday tickets used to be numbered, and you used to have to find a
matching number to redeem them.  Thankfully, as of the 1999 holiday
ticket-fest, this is no longer the case.  With holiday tickets, everybody
gets a ticket and so everybody gets a nifty prize.  Among the available
nifty 1999 prizes are potted plants (in the form of a deed), piles of
snow, clothing bless deeds, the ubiquitous fireworks wand, a wristwatch
and a holiday tree deed.  If you choose potted plants, be careful when
you double click the deed to get the actual plant, as it will appear at
your feet and can be swiped by the unscrupulous.  They are also not
blessed in plant form, unlike the other gifts.
3.9  So you want to take a screen shot...
You have two options...
a.  One way is to press the Print Screen key on your keyboard, then
switch to a program such as Photoshop or Paint and paste the image in.
In windowed mode, you have to press alt-print scr.
b.  Another way is to use a screen capture utility.  One such utility
specifically designed for UO is the UO Screenshot Utility (duh),
available here: 
http://www.hh.iij4u.or.jp/~kmatuoka/uosu/indexe.html
3.10  What sort of third party utilites are there to enhance my UO
playing experience?
UOTrace - A program to test your connection to each of the various
shards.  Available for free at the official UO download site:
http://www.uo.com/downloads.html
UOAssist - A UOPro utility (meaning OSI's given it their thumbs up and
won't beat you down for using it), it does cost money though, $15, though
there is a trial period.  More information and the program itself are
available here:  
http://www.tugsoft.com/UOAssist/default.asp
UOAutoMap - Another UOPro utility, UOAutoMap could be considered a kind
of supplement to the radar map.  More information and the program itself
(which is free) is available here: 
http://uo.stratics.com/uoam/index.html
3.12  This newsgroup just isn't satisfying my UO-junkie needs... where
else can I go?
3.12.1  First things first, I want to be heard.  Do employees of OSI even
read this group?
Unfortunately they don't appear to currently read this group.  Former
Lead Programmer Designer Dragon (aka Raph Koster) used to read this group
on a very regular basis, and still does post on occasion.
3.12.2  So where can I go where I can definitely be heard by an OSI employee?
The new and official place to go now is the official UO message boards.
Access them through "My UO" at 
http://www.uo.com
The CoB Dev board used to be your best bet.  Those posters with red names
are OSI employees, and a variety of them do post there, though the focus
has likely shifted to the official boards.  The address is:
http://cob.xrgaming.net/
There are also UOHoC (UO House of Commons) IRC chats where you can
propose questions directly to OSI employees.  Well, actually, you write
your question to a moderator and maybe they'll slap your question against
the wall and see if it sticks (a la spaghetti).  For more information, go
to 
http://uohoc.stratics.com
3.12.3  Where can I go for news?
For in-game and out-of-game news, Stratics (
http://uo.stratics.com
) and
UOVault (
http://www.uovault.com
) are pretty good choices.  Both even have
shard-specific sections.
3.12.4  "You're all pansees!  Where can I go for some unpansee news and
to talk some unpansee talk?"  or  "This forum is all very well and good,
but I occasionally feel that my own PvP-oriented perspective is at times
under-represented.  Is there a site I may visit which will provide the
opportunity for thoughtful discourse with like-minded people who enjoy
PvP combat?"
I'm going to guess that you want BattleVortex
(
http://www.battlevortex.net
) which is generally mature PvP-oriented news
site and collection of forums.  It's also definitely the place to go if
you want to know what's what on Siege Perilous.
3.12.5  What about Lum?
Okay, I didn't know where to put his site.  It's a news site, but with a
more vivid editorial bent.  Definitely worth reading though:
http://lum.xrgaming.net/
3.14  Tell me about Siege Perilous
a.  SP is a shard meant for veteran players, or if you believe the
conspiracy theorists, a shard used to test wacky dev. team ideas on an
unwitting populace. SP gives OSI the opportunity to explore certain
questions like "What happens if we were to get rid of recall?" while at
the same time giving veteran players a shard that represents a higher
level of difficulty for the player base.
b.  As a shard intended for veterans, young players cannot access it
until they are no longer [young].
3.15  What's UO2?
Ultima Online II, an entirely separate unreleased game, not to be
confused with UO: The Second Age or UO: Renaissance.  Visit
http://www.uo2.com
 for the latest information.
4.  Newsgroup history
4.1  How did this newsgroup come about?
It was created out of the rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons newsgroup.
Their FAQ and other information can be found here:
http://www.nd.edu/~aburke2/udic/udicinfo.htm
4.2  What's this I hear about a lawsuit?
A while back a UO player named Bunboy and some fellow players started a
lawsuit against OSI claiming that the game did not live up to it's
advertising on the box. (Amongst their
claims was that the game box did not explicitly state that the player
needed an ISP.) One of the most vocal advocates of the suit was a poster
named "Jag" who has been notoriously quiet since the suit was settled. It
ended up with OSI agreeing to donate 15,000 dollars to a computer museum.
Who won? You figure it out.
4.3  That's it?  That's all there is to newsgroup history?
Well there is more.  Including death, betrayal, intrigue, politics and
funny funny stuff.  Just more than can be included in this update yet.
Volunteers are especially welcome to write bits for this section.
5. Tone and Netiquette
5.1 Tone
Although we love to argue here, we ask that you avoid a tone that could
be considered rude. Use proper spelling and grammar as much as possible.
Don't be pushy. Some of us can get nasty, but please don't add to it! We
all try to get along.  And remember, well thought-out intelligent
responses are big pluses.  Strings of insults that do nothing to further
your argument are big minuses.
5.2 Netiquette
A. General rule: Don't be a jerk. If you use expletives every other word,
or insult people, people are likely to ignore you (at least) or flame you
(probably).
B. Don't post in all caps. It infers YELLING.
C. Do not post files!! I can't stress this enough. All Binary files and
attachments are looked down upon, and will probably get you reported to
your ISP.  Usenet is meant to be universal, so always assume your reader
has a no frills text only newsreader.
D. RTFF-Read the Fucking FAQ. The FAQ is a list of questions that are
commonly posted. Any further discussion would be redundant. The FAQ
ideally will keep you from introducing yourself with an annoying
question. Get off on the right foot! (Actually you can get off on
whatever foot you want. It's your foot fetish, not mine.)
E. Questions should be posted only when the FAQ, game manuals, or related
web sites do not contain the information you need. First look for answers
at 
http://www.uo.com
 then at
http://uo.stratics.com
 then post your query to the newsgroup.
F. KISS-Keep It SHORT, Stupid! Really. Some of us have to load these
messages, so the shorter you post, the easier our lives.
G. When replying, eliminate all unnecessary material from the quoted
message (e.g. if you're commenting on this section of the FAQ, you
wouldn't need to include the links section, so
delete it), especially the signatures. On this NG, we often have long sig
files containing our "real" name, character name, character rank, guild
affiliation and other goodies.
H. Don't quote an entire message to make a short reply (i.e. don't quote
75 lines to make a 2 line response).
I. Your signature should be no more than 5 lines long. It CANNOT be
significantly longer (e.g. 15 lines)
J. Do NOT change the subject header when you reply.  This is not a web
board.  Some might argue that dammit, this is the 21st century and people
have newsreaders that can thread-by-reference now.  But stick to not
unnecessarily changing the header and I guarantee that no one will yell
at you.  If you want to start a new thread, it's probably safest to
simply start a new thread, rather than doing it by changing the header.
K. Do not post NT (no-text) messages.  This is not a web board.
L. Don't respond to trolls. This one is very difficult. Use restraint.
Trolls eventually go away on their own. This is why god created
killfiles, after all.
M. Keep on topic! This newsgroup is about Ultima Online. Please don't
post about the Clinton scandal, your Aunt Harriet, or why we should
convert to your particular religion. My news
server shows over 35,000 different newsgroups. I'm sure one of those can
help you better than we can.
N. No sock puppets. This is occasionally impossible to prove, but many of
the idiots on Usenet will create another account just so they can agree
with what they had previously posted. This is annoying. If you are not
proud enough to stand up for what you believe for than Usenet is the
wrong medium for you.
O. NO HTML. Look, I know you think it's the way of the future and all us
old Usenet geezers should change, but look at it this way. HTML takes up
a great deal more bandwidth than plain
text. Perhaps your single post won't bring Usenet down, but if everyone
did it, where would we be? Besides, does it really make a difference?
It's unlikely that the content of your post will benefit from your use of
HTML anyway, since you're not supposed to post pictures or any of that.
If you have a question about how to turn HTML off in your newsreader,
send me e-mail, I'll be happy to help.
P. No racist slurs. Despite what your limited understanding of the
constitution might imply to you, freedom of speech does NOT apply on
Usenet. Any racial, derogatory slur will be
reported to your ISP, and most likely get you killfiled in the process.
Q. No sales. This is not a commercial forum. Although sales regarding UO
accounts/items are within the boundaries of the group, selling your dirt
bike or Nintendo games is not. Let's not even get into the realm of
pyramid schemes. Once again, these violations will be reported to your ISP.
The rec.games.computer.ultima.online newsgroup FAQ
Maintained at the moment by:
Carol Ou (
o...@sas.upenn.edu
)

rec.games.computer.ultima.online FAQ
Alla faccia delle FAQ !!!
Ciao gente !
--
Aristide OMT
EUROPA F & T


non fatevi venire strane idee in testa >;(
io cosi' non le faccio...
non copio.
umf!
--
Marat -____-
***************
Regola Aurea
"Fai agli altri cio' che vorresti fosse fatto a te."
*******************

 non copio.
Lungi da me proporti una cosa del genere, però magari uno può prendere spunto, (com'e' quel termine
che i musicisti usano per dire che hanno copiato senza dire che hanno copiato...) ispirarsi e poi
scrivere una sua versione.
E poi ste FAQ saranno anche lunghe, ma non hanno verve, ne prese in giro, ne punti interrogativi,
insomma... non c'e' confronto :)))
--
C'ya,
-----------------------------------------------------------
Notturno, Supermule in crescita, WMJ Skara Brae (Europa-Felucca)
Skin, Guerriero mazzulato, QV? Britain (Europa-Felucca)
ICQ 14842802
-----------------------------------------------------------