After Baja has been down for over 10 hours, some information aside from vague statements "unexpected delays" and "problems" was finally posted to the Dev Board :

Date: October 30, 1999 at 9:02 pm (CST)
Subject: Hail Britannia. Baja status.

Baja will be back up within a couple hours and will be reverted back to early morning Wednesday. Additionally, I am turning the ticket system back on when Baja comes up, though, of course, the ticket system is finished for all other shards.

Runesabre
Lead Programmer
Ultima Online

After the fun crash last night that reverted us back two days and the other hardware failure today, the theory that Baja is the bastard shard seems to be holding up...

• No, the last run hasn't started yet.
• Yes, I'm still going to do it.
• Yes, I'm still quitting.
• No, I don't know when it'll happen - that's up to my gf.
• Yes, I'm going to be looting people.
• Yes, if I know you I'll probably accidentally (try to) kill you because I'll be attacking blues without looking at names. Just icq me and I'll res and get yer shit back to you.
• Yes, you can hunt with me if you want to. No, I still don't know when.
• Yes, I still think the game is fun to a certain extent. Aside from pking, I have little want/reason to play the game.
• No, I'm not a sellout. However, since I'm quitting anyhow, I'm sure going to sell my real estate and gold for rl cash since the opportunity is there.
• Yes, I have a lot more going in my life than UO and I'm surprised I've ever had to explain that.

The long and short of it is this. My last run is me doing something in game that I've always wanted to do, but never did because it's a career ending thing to do. It took me a long time to build that character just the way I wanted him and I would never risk him with stat loss unless I was planning on quitting. Unless some miracle happens and I get my stuff back, I'm quitting, and I might as well do it right.

To expand on the sellout idea, let me offer this. If I was a sellout, why would I rape my characters with stat loss instead of selling the account for hundreds of dollars? The answer, obviously, is because my last run in game is worth more than money to me. If someone offered me $500 for my characters, I would still turn it down to have my last run. Why anyone would call me a sellout is beyond me.

Anyhow, whining mode is obviously off and was thankfully only on briefly. I'm just anxious to get started on my last run. Hopefully, it'll be a good long run that ends with me being killed by a person. With my three pks since the rep patch (mid 1998), I think I've had a total of 18 pk deaths, but only two were from other players. If my last run ends in a lag death to a skel knight, that will just be sad.

Since I'm happily red and wasting time until my dsl/gf's surprise, I figured I'd have a little fun at the server downtime war. I was killed twice - once by 5 people and once by 5 people and a demon. The last time I died, a moron named Squiggy or something stupid like that said, "That guy can't pvp for shit." Holy shit... I suck but it took 5+ of you to take me down? Does that give you the impression that you're good?? Funny how it took yall over a minute to do it, huh.... I guess I just suck.

SO, since I suck and there are so many people out there who've never dueled me, here's your chance to back your talk. I'm having an open call for anyone who I haven't dueled before. Duel me on Baja, 1 on 1, and beat me - I'll pay you 25k gold. A lot of you gangbanging sorry ass fucks think you have what it takes, I have 25k that says you're full of it and aren't good for anything other than talk.

At this point I'm 138-10, and of those 10 only three of them surprised me (and only 2 I've not beaten since). BTW, anyone who asks for a "no looting" fight, should look elsewhere. If I'm willing to put up 25k, you're putting up whatever equip you brought with you to beat me. If you beat me, give me my chest back (since I was looted, I'm too low on equip) and you're 25k richer. If you have the balls, bring it. If not, shut the fuck up.

I know, no big news. However, I did see one thing that did surprise posted by one of the development group. As I hope most of you know from experience, if you go red and die (even without stat loss) you lose everything you have on you except your spellbook. Murderers do not keep newbie items/clothing when they die. With that in mind, Calandryll posted this to the Dev Board :

Well, even with the looting, I still had enough stuff for 89k tickets. My gf and 5 other rl/uo friends said they are planning something before I start my pk run (thus, why it's been delayed), so I may try for the newbie ticket just so no one can get the vanq hally when I eventually die. Does anyone know if a "blessed" item is given to someone else, is it newbiefied to them too if they don't have a blessed item already?

I've gotten about 200 emails since I announced that I was looted by a bug and that I was quitting. I think 10 of them have been like the one below. Telling me that I deserve it because I was "evil", "a villain", "a pk" or that I was "whining". Let me collectively answer those folx, because having to deal with such stupidity on an individual basis is very tiring. For those of you not part of the 0.5% group I just described, this isn't directed at you.

First, anyone who is happy that someone else was looted is a prick. If that person was looted because of a bug and not because he died with a key/rune on him or left his door open, then I would expect that much more lienency. I don't care how much of an adversary someone is to me in the game, if I hear their house is being looted, I'm the first guy to step up and offer to help.

I had someone tell me "if you live by the sword, then you die by the sword". That would make sense if the houses I've looted I did so by using bugs and exploits. If I used on hitters or some other exploit to do my pking. I didn't so the way the my house was looted has nothing to do with how I've played the game.

Anyone who thinks I'm whining isn't paying attention. Hell, I'm almost to the point that I'm happy that it happened, because I finally get to do what I've wanted with taking my main red and having a last run. The only whining I did was to express my disappointment at how much I'd lost and how. I know, that's completely unusual for anyone who gets looted, right idiots?

This is a game. Having villains, allies, enemies... all that makes the game worthwhile. But there is a line you don't cross. Just because you're "good" and I'm "evil" doesn't mean that I wish you were fucked over so bad that you're out of the game. I have a hard time believing that "good" people could wish such a horrible thing on anyone.

In conclusion, I do not want to build back up, I don't want to spend my time playing a game to collect items that I already had. I did that already - several times. How hard of a concept is this? I want to take my main killing since I don't feel like rebuilding, so THAT'S WHAT I'M GOING TO DO. It's just me wanting to leave the game the fucking way I want to. It's not whining, it's me leaving. I'm sorry that some people think that quitting = whining. Quitting = moving on, so get a grip.

I love getting emails from stupid people :

From: "Eric Hansen"
Subject: Looting
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 06:24:14 -0700

Poor baby got looted. Just call it a payback for all those people you pk. You deserved it.

LOL! You think that killing another player is the ultimate crime? Exploiting a bug to destroy what 3 people (my roommates included) worked for for 2 years? Lemme guess, you're one of these idiots that think that stat loss isn't harsh enough. Losing everything that I've ever done is not only acceptable, but I deserved it?

Well, I got bad bad bad news for you.

1> I did a LOT for this community. Weekly I would pick a random person at the Brit bank (city of newbies) and give them 10-30k. I helped more people learn how to play the game (you see my tutorials on my site?), walk them through things, help them get back on their feet, etc. I helped with tournaments both by donating items/gold, but also by participating. I ran a website and guild that was known on every shard in the game.

I'm much more to this game than a simple pk, but since your so short sighted and ignorant, that's all you see.You are part of the problem with the game. You see in only black and white, good or bad. Without evil in the game, you have a one player game with a chat feature - ooooooooooh, monsters! Real challenging!

22> If you think I killed a lot with my gimp pk that only had three skills over 60 (and none over 95), wait until you see what happens since I lost my stuff to an EXPLOIT and I take my main 7x out on the hunt. Such a person as yourself can't comprehend the amount of anger this shard is about to have released on it.

3> I love the way that since I've played the bad guy (how can there be good guys without bad guys?), I deserve to have a career ending BUG used on me. The way that your logic works amazes me.

Grow up. Get an education. Stop having sex with your relatives. Rent a clue (since I'd wager you can't afford to buy one).

I appreciate all of you writing me to let me know of the bug posted on Dr. Twisters site. Let me assure you that I found the bug when I was searching for the answer to the "how the fuck did I get looted" question. Since I know where to look, I found the answer within 2 minutes of searching.

Anyhow, my plan is simple. I'm going to take my main character red and I'm going to kill everyone on the shard who I don't know. Since I'll probably just attack anyone who's blue unless I instantly recognize their name. So, if I know you and kill you, just report me and icq me and you'll get ressed and your shit back. If you don't have my icq, then I don't know you, so just report me and then email OSI because they're the reason you're dead.

If you will want to go with me on my last run, let me say this - I hate huge groups of pks because you end up getting skipped all over the place. Plus since it's so hard to keep an eye on everyone's health, no one watches anyone's health so people die. That's no good. However, I do plan on trying to put my raging off until my dsl gets here (if Flashcom ever gets off their ass and gets it done), so that my likelihood of lasting a while and hunting with as many of those interested as possible.

Plus, I'd like to be the first guy to get 2k kills without dying. I figure that since I'm used to being chased around red by 10 people in Bucs/Deceit, I should be able to last quite a while as long as I'm stat-loss-cautious (instead of staying until the death no matter what like now). Anyhow, if you want to hunt with me, I'll be trying to keep the groups relatively small, but I'll be pking 100% soon.

I do plan on playing on the Cygnus UO Shard when I'm not pking on Baja and after my pk run is done. So, if you want to hook up "in game", that is going to be everyones best opportunity to link up with me, Ron and some other good players that are tired of the OSI bullshit. They have advancement gates to get ya started right (not 7x gm, but still a good start) - I'd highly suggest signing up for an acct and having some fun there.

Well, just when I have the best night in UO in recent history, I'm run out of the game. My tower was 100% looted last night. There is NO way this was done without a break-in bug. I had all of my interior doors locked, but still the items inside all of them are gone. There was 3 sulphurous ash left in front of each of the interior locked doors. I don't know if that's a sign or part of how they got past the locked doors. The only thing that's left in my tower is what was in secure containers. Thanks to OSI putting off their ticket system, that wasn't very much.

What my roommates and me lost is absolutely unbelievable. My rl gf had just spent 2 solid days doing 200 message in bottles, sorting stuff, etc - and that's just two days worth. I feel worse for her because she actually sorted this stuff and collected a great deal of the rares that are gone.

I've certainly looted my share of people, but it was because I took advantage of someone else's mistake. I've never used a bug to break into a house. That's one line I NEVER crossed. I know the mistakes and I did NOT make them, yet I still pay the price. I was the most overcautious person in the game because I knew that there were people out there to fuck ya, but it didn't stop anything. I have nothing left except what vanq weapons I had in secure chests, some gold, and two empty buildings (one because I kept it empty for the guild aside from decorations).

It's been a great two years - last night was just about as fun of a night as I've had since hanging out with Ron and the other old schoolers. I'm sure as hell sorry it had to end like this. Since I'm not a big computer gamer aside from this hellhole of a game, I probably won't be seen in anything online, so please don't ask. Unless they revert before these mass lootings, I'm gone for good - count on it.

The last time I quit, I took the time to say goodbye to some folx. Well, those of you that I spent time with (even a small amount), it meant something to me. Every one of you that took the time to find me or say "nice site" - I appreciated it more than I can truly express. You people are the reason I enjoyed the game and why I continued playing as long as I did. Thanks.

I was in Deciet last night and I came up a something that amazed me. It was a new gm visible and apparently helping someone!

So, I invited him and the others around to go hunting in honor of one of my favorite pks on Baja - Balinor of LoD.

He said he was a big fan and would make me great vanq newbie items without having to go through the ticket system. So, he's a good guy, don't give him any hell. =P

Here's what I think given the most recent updates to the In Testing and In Development pages. They've updated/changed a lot since my last post about this, so it's definitely worth another look.

Phase 1 - Great idea. Tickets and prizes encourage people to get rid of their hoarded shit while still getting something in return besides gold (which is easy to come by). It reduces item count, backup times and most hopefully - lag.

Phase 2 - This is basically preparation for Phase 3.

• Removing weight limit on secure containers
• Increasing the number of secure chests (how many? To be announced)
• Ability to make people co-owners so they can do everything except re-deed
• Ability to lock down stacked items

I'm all for it.

Phase 3 - Here's the controversy - items decaying in houses. If you put an item in a secure chest, it won't decay. With the removal of weight limits on secure containers and the increase in the number of secure items, I don't see anyone (except alchemists) having problems storing everything they could ever need. I can put 50k of each reg, 10 full suits of armor, and 40 of my favorite weapons in ONE secure box with no weight limit. Even then, I'd still have space for 17 more items - IN ONE BOX.

What people are still arguing is whether or not items in locked down (but not secure) containers should decay. The answer is - hell yes. I can lock down 300+ items in my tower, so 300+ full containers worth of items doesn't sound like item reduction to me.

Honestly, with the recently announced changes, I think OSI is on the right track. They looked like they were going to fuck up big time in Phase 3, but apparently they're not if they stick to the posted plan. If they make potions stackable and still retain their random characteristics, they may even keep potion hoarders (alchemists and hardcore pvpers) happy. Beyond potion storage, I don't think anyone really has room to complain.

If you have never seen the commercials for Outpost.com, you're missing some great sick humor (just what I like). Gerbils being launched from a cannon at a wall and a high school marching band being attacked by a pack of wolves. How can this not be funny?

Below are two zip files which contain the gerbil commercial and the wolf commercial both in Mpeg format. They are well worth the downloads. If the WTFMen were to make commercials to promote our site, I'm sure we'd make something along these lines.

We'll tell you WTF. I'm going to basically mirror here what I say on the main www.wtfman.com page. Why? Because Ron made it look fucking bad ass, that's why. Plus, all three of us updating the same page was the original plan.

All of the links, stories, etc will be still where they are, but to get the lowdown from Ron, Grey and myself - go to the main domain page and catch all of the updates.