UO Blog - New Craftables Discovered? - Aug 14th, 2008

Easy-to-Implement Changes

Just a few minutes ago, while digging in the sandy beach in front of my house for glassblowing ressources, I accidentally dug up an old tattered scroll. Things you find on the beaches these days! The scroll was very encrusted and indecipherable.

I remembered from a past event (the massacre of the Royal Council) that some speckled poison and zoogi fungus might help me. My alchemist actually managed to create a potion out of these ingredients (it took him a while and he burned a lot of poisons and fungi, although he is grandmaster). It was a yellowish liquid and was named Solvent. Using three of these potions on the scroll suddenly revealed an inscription.

It was a recipe! It contained a list of 10 ingredients, which are partly commonly available, partly found only as loot on special monsters. It took me some investigation and about 2 hours to gather 5 of each ingredients. Using the scroll while having 5 empty bottles and a mortar and pestle in my backpack, my alchemist was able to create 5 potions. Then I noticed that the document was charged, and now lost 5 out of 10 charges. After creating another 5 potions, the recipe scroll crumbled and vanished. I was not able to create any more of these potions.

I took a closer look at those 10 potions. The liquid was dark black. As I identified the taste of these potions, they said "Darkness Potion". I tested them in the Painted Caves and was amazed by the effect: When using this potion, an area of about 10 tiles around you became dark for approximately 10 seconds. During this time, my health, mana and stamina regeneration doubled, while the swing speed of the agressors around me was lowered a bit. However, I had to wait 5 minutes before being able to use another of these potions.

After some more digging, I found out that dozens, if not hundreds of different kinds of recipes could be found (only on rare occasions), each one of them yielding different kinds of potions. Some of them raised a certain skill for 5 points for a limited amount of time. Some of them caused monsters to go after their own kin for a short time. Some could be applied to my weapon and gave it 5 Mind Blast charges. Some would Incognito me for 10 minutes after drinking. Some would surround me by swarms of bees for my own protection for a minute. The list is endless...

I received word from other players who discovered more scrolls, yielding potions with very interesting effects:

• Earthquake Potion: When using this potion, an earthquake shakes the earth 10 tiles around you, and a few rocks are falling down on random tiles within this range. When hit by a rock, you (or other monsters/enemies in the area) are damaged by 20 points each. This potion can only be used once every 10 minutes.
• Lockdown Potion: Used on an item which is not blocking movement, it can lock down this item for 2 hours ANYWHERE in the wilderness. During that time, the item cannot be picked up by anyone. After the 2 hours are over, the item just vanishes. This finally will make player-run scavenger hunt events much more easy!
• Etching Potion: This potion allows you to etch a short inscription (20 letters) on any metal crafted armor or weapon. Very rare!
• Hover Potion: This potion will make you invisible and keep you invisible for 5 seconds, even if you are moving. Kindof like a short-duration stealth potion. Can only be used once every 10 minutes.
• Carnivore Plant Fertilizer: Using this potion on a pot full of earth, you actually have the chance (estimated 20%) to grow a carnivore plant. The required carnivore seeds can be acquired by cross-pollinating several other plants. When locked down in your house, the carnivore will bite anyone/anything getting close to it and do 10 points of damage. you better be careful before entering a room full of carnivores!
• Destabilizing Potion: Applying this potion to a weapon will destabilize it. Upon the next hit, the weapon will explode and do 50 points of Explosion Damage to your opponent. This only works on exceptional bronze weapons though. After using this effect, you cannot equip another destabilized weapon or cannot apply that potion again for 10 minutes.
• Underwater Breathing Potion: This is one of the most rare and exciting potions! A scroll will only yield one potion, plus the coordinates of a secret underwater cave. Upon drinking the potion, you can jump into the water at these coordinates (any member of your team can join, when they drank a potion, too). You will vanish in the water and suddenly find yourself surfacing in an underground lake. When walking ashore, you will have to face a series of new underwater monsters. Some of them carrying rare ingredients and interesting loot (no details yet about that). However, beware: Before you jump into the water, you have to make sure that your character including his inventory does not weigh more than 20 stones! If you weigh more, you will drown and your corpse (and ghost) will be washed ashore at the nearest coast.

I also heard rumors that some of the more rare scrolls can be found while mining in the lowest levels of some dungeons. Seems like the stealth miner would be a new common template...

Unfortunately, we found out that the Carnivore Plants do not yield any seeds! Although many players are complaining about that, it actually will help keeping this plant rare and not flooding the market. If the plant would yield seeds, it would make the quest for the right potion unnecessary.

We also found out, that the ingredients for the recipe scrolls appear to be random. Two players each found a scroll for a Carnivore Plant Fertilizer (5 charges), and each scroll listed different ingredients. It seems wise to only search for the ingredients when you decyphered a recipe, and not keep them stashed in your house.

Wow! Another discovery! After finding another scroll and cleaning it with a solvent potion, The scroll seemed to be personalized! It said "A bloodbath recipe scroll discovered by Hawkeye Pike (25 charges). Remaining time: 30,000 seconds".
It seems that certain recipes are personalized and can only be used by the character who decrypted it. This means, the associated potion can only be created by me, and the recipe cannot be given to another player. This will make me a fortunate merchant! The bloodbath recipe actually is quite rare. There are not more than 5 of these scrolls available at the same time on a shard. After gathering all the required ingredients, I produced 25 potions:

Bloodbath Potion: When used, all enemies within a 5 tile range of yourself will begin to bleed. The bleeding cannot be healed with bandages, and it will last 30 seconds. It will do 5 points of damage every 2 seconds against a player, and 20 points of damage every 2 seconds against a monster.

However, the scroll has a limited life span. After 30,000 seconds it crumbles and vanishes. Just enough time to create the potions, but this scroll is not meant for hoarding. That's good, as the amount of bloodbath scrolls is capped per shard.

I heard that other personalized scroll types are out there. Rumor has it, that more than 200 different types of personalized scrolls are available. Each one limited to 5 per shard and with limited life span.

A different type of the Underwater Breathing Potion has been discovered: It allows you to breath underwater for 15 minutes. After the effect wears off, you have to surface quickly or you'll die and your corpse and ghost will be washed ashore.

The scroll also leads you to a certain location in the middle of the ocean. You and your team mates (who have to have used that potion, too) will then jump into the water at the given coordinates. You will find yourself in an actual underwater area, similar to a dungeon, but underwater. Instead of monsters, sharks, kraken, poisonous crabs and other dangerous fish can attack you. A shipwreck was found, and the group fortunately had a lockpicker with them. He managed to open an old rusty chest, but unfortunately died to the poison trap of the chest. The rest of the team looted the chest and found some very rare ingredients in it, along with gold and an artifact.

If you have to fight underwater, mind that only light one-handed weapons will work (dagger, skinning knife, darts [for archers]). Also, many spells will not work underwater. Especially fire- and energy-based spells will fail. You cannot summon underwater. And stealthing won't work either.

Remember, that weighing more than 20 stones will drown you. Should the loot exceed the weight limit, you immediately have to surface or you will die.

(All this is purely fictional.)

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