Ahhh hunting rares first thing in the Morning in trammel... Crisp air
All is quiet....
All is.... What the!?
*STAMPEDE!*
DOH!
For anyone who had gone after any of the daily server up rares the above lines will make all the sense in the world.
Ok. There are two... No 3 things to remember (there really shouldn't be the Third thing, but some of my closest friends need some VERY PRACTICLE advice at times) :)
In reverse order:
Item number 3 (the one I should not have to mention) Log out at the daily rare location you want to try and go after the next morning.
To be more specific, say your going after the fruit basket in yew, if you have tried in the past you will probably notice that ITS GONE after the server has been active for about 10 seconds, and if you hang out there for a few minutes you will also notice that several other people will be logging into that farmhouse in Yew hoping for a shot at the fruit basket.
Now if you log, in an Inn, your house, a dungeon, or the west wing of LBs castle the day/night before, and think your going to Log right in and recall over to the Fruit basket then scoop it up before the next 55 bazillion people get it...... Wrong! :)
RULE # 3 Log out in the exact location of the rare your going to go after at server up. Don't log "close" or "a step away" log within ARMS REACH.
Item #2 (this is actually the most important advice)
I have a friend that has over 20 fruit baskets, 12 candles, and several "a small rocks" and "rocks" now if one can get over the fact that he is a Rares HOG and aught to be PKed for it *grins* you can take a look at how he logs in so fast and beats so many dedicated rares hunters first thing in the morning to his target rare that day. (Side note, several people did try and PK him but it was a slightly different situation than one might think hehe).
A lot of people have asked or expressed to me their frustration with having a slow dial up connection to their local shard and that it prevents them from being in the moment the server comes up, and that other people with Uber Connections beat them. In a word.....No. There are people with 33.6 Modems they picked up the Antique Road show that get in faster than some Uber Connection fiends.
My friend lives in Canada, and Plays on Europa, his internet service is Dial Up, I think perhaps the only person in the world that might have a worse connection to Europa that he does is me, as I'm about 900 miles further than he is to the Europa Server.
But with his a-trocious *reaches for dictionary* connection he logs in at Warp speed. Ok, this is how he does it. (and how every person that gets the rares a split second before everyone else logging in does it). He figures out about what time the server is going to come back from its daily maintenance, (More on that later) then 15 minutes before hand (I start this about the same, but 5 minutes ahead of time rather than 15 but I'm a little more laid back than my bro) he types in his name/password and Logs into UO. Normally his Shard won't be on the list yet because its still down for maintenance, so he logs out and tries to re-log in. He keeps doing that so he will be in the queue within seconds of the shard being available.
That is how the people who get the server up rares get them, by logging in over and over again until the shard comes up.
There is another way of doing this with a tad less typing. It's not as efficient at doing your pass over and over again until you're in, however if you are a slow typist or make a lot of errors it might be a better alternative. Once you're in the log in menu you can hit the connection button and it will send you back a fresh list of all the shards (including your shard if it just came online). But you can only hit the connection button 3 times before it pushes you back to the Log in Screen and you have to re-enter your password. A few people swear up and down that it will get you in faster, I would probably have to disagree but in all fairness were talking about a stretch of time no longer that few seconds to get in the QUE, and a few milliseconds to get logged into the server. In any event its the next best thing if your not particularly fast with entering in your name and pass over and over and over lol.
Now there is a 3rd group of people who don't follow either school of thought (the Connection button vs. the repeat the password over and over crowd) and we will refer to this group as... "NEW" to rare hunting, you can meet them at any daily rares spawn location from a minute or so after the server comes up until about.... NOON local server time. I spent a long and frustrating portion of my rares hunting career in this group until I learned otherwise! :)
They try things like use this website: http://ultima.lightning.net/status.html to try and figure out when their shard is up then they log in real fast, or they set their alarm clock for the approximate time they shard is going to come up, and try to be logged in within the first 5 Minutes of the shard being up. After a few frustrating attempts most people give up, or start asking questions (the really really bright, intelligent, good looking ones Buy a Nifty rares guide from ebay...)
Once you see your shard on the available list and hit enter, get ready to wait. The very first log in always has a significantly longer than normal wait to get online, I would guess it has more to do with all the systems being activated than the actual amount of people logging in (probably less than 90 people log in the moment a shard comes back from its maintenance schedule, and that is almost Nothing for the log in server to process. lol there is more than a little paranoia that happens during that wait about how many people are logging in at that moment. Don't sweat it, when your in that wait know that everyone else is in that exact same wait too, and that you will all get in the game in the order you got in the Log in queue for your specific shard. If you use the connection button to stay in the log in menu until your shard comes up or typed your pass again and again and again until the shard came up, the odds are good you will be the among the VERY first to get logged in.
In review.
#3 Log out within arms reach of the target rare the night before.
#2 start trying to Log in a few minutes (or longer) before your shard normally comes back from its daily maintenance.
Last section, but you NEED to do it, people can log in a moment or two after you and still beat you if you didn't and they did.
#1 Fine tune speed
Don't ignore this, I cant say how many people will get down Items 2 and 3 but Blow it on this one.
Disable or remove every single item/program/setting that increases lag, it doesn't matter if you have a cable connection and a Nasa computer, there are usually a few people who get "spit out" a few milliseconds apart at server up, but one of them will be "Under control" significantly faster than the others and this is the list of things they have Off in order to do it, feel free to add to this list.
1-Wear Nothing that changes your stats, like armor (it changes your dex) or the magical wizards hat (it changes your dex and strength) when you log in, your basic character statistics are ready to roll, but most people have their settings adjusted to inform them of changes in their stats or skills, in that moment that you cant yet issue keyboard and mouse commands (like dragging a rare over your paper doll) because your stats are updating the changes from the items your wearing, other people are going to get the rare your going after.
Preferably when you log in you would be wearing nothing, well almost nothing.... errr ummmm. Normal cloths, and Normal (leather armor) are fine as they wont change your Dex. (See illustration below)
2-Close all windows in the game the night before when you logged out. (Log out by hitting ALT-X rather than the "log out" option on your paper doll), close all backpacks, floating windows, health bars etc, because any windows you have left up you are going to have to wait while your computer and the server reopen them, then remember where to put them. 3-Dont be on a horse, it takes a few extra moments for the server to recognize the animal and remount you.
4-Have UO assist and any other 3rd party programs (UO rudder, UO Automap, UO curse tool etc) off.
I play with UO assist a lot, but for server up rares I leave it off because it eats up a tiny bit of bandwidth and CPU resources when on, for all other things its not serious, but when literally 1/4 of 1 second counts, it needs to be OFF. So only load UO with nothing else, after you get logged in and snag your rare (then recall to the bank and safely deposit it) you can log out then re-log in with UOA or your normal utilities functioning.
