I just started playing UO again after a long time - I heard of a patch that randomized trees dropping oak/yew/ash...and beyond. Well, here's my dilemma...if it's still correct, I should have started getting Oak at 65 LJ skill. I'm almost at 80 now and haven't seen a SINGLE piece of oak ANYWHERE. This is getting ridiculous and was wondering if maybe I was doing something wrong.

If it makes a difference, I'm LJ in Trammel, for fear of PKs in Feluccia. I know it's half the logs per hit, but I didn't think it affected rare woods.

Places I've tried:
Outside every major city
All around Luna (crystal elem areas)
Various not-too-dangerous wooded areas farther away from cities

I can kill things like ogres and trolls...even gargs and gazers...but I can't take on the super huge stuff, so I stay away from places with most elementals, demons, etc.

Just wondering if even oak is supposed to be this rare (0 in about 15,000 logs?!) or if I'm doing something wrong. Please help!

It doesn't matter where you chop trees. It is purely random and I guess you just lacked luck here.
For better chances to spawn a new type of wood, chop trees in areas where many people chop them.

From one of the FoF :

no you are not doing anything wrong.

you have a few things working against you,

you are only near 80 skill

you are running into just some bad random number generator spawn rate as far as finding colored wood.

15,000 logs is not very much really. A small sample size.

I know on my lumberjack I have harvested 300, 000 normal logs (because I have put them on commodity deeds of 60, 000 each) since the changes without a single log of the higher colors (Heartwood, Bloodwood, Frostwood) during that time I have gotten some oak, ash and yew. So it is out there, either just keep trying or find another player vendor with boards for sale?

I am also guessing that your character is human?

Personally I think they went overboard with these changes, it almost forces you to become a scripter. Not that I am advocating that you become a cheater. But these changes have discourage many players.

Here's a silly question: do you have an account that is eligible for Mondain's Legacy content? If not, you will never see a single piece of colored wood...ever.

And I concur with Warsong.

~M

Good catch on that Magister - they might not be ungraded yet!

Actually I just got the downloadable Ultima Online: Gold package...not sure if that has ML as part of it, but my miner gets colored ore just fine - I thought ML was part of it but now I'm not sure...anyone help with this?

I know I can't get to Tokuno Isle yet...tried with a recall rune LOL...it's been SO long since i played last I've forgotten what's what lol

UO gold does not come with ML or Tokuno content.

You can't enter or use elven content or samurai content or content that may not be themed but was rolled at the time of those launches i.e. colored woods.

You won't be able to use this content until you upgrade your account. Find a box for sale at a store (sometimes discounted sometimes not) or buy a code from the UO.com site.

In a way, it's a relief that scripters can't use a throw-away free account to farm colored wood.

Although, most of the scripters probably finance game-time through the gold of their ill-gotten gains...*grumbles*

~M

no, they just farm colored ore.

Hah!

Interestingly, though, it HAS been a long time since I've run across a vendor selling colored ore or since I've seen a bot digging on my shard.

I sort of miss the bots, because it was a good test of my reflexes. Last night, I was trying to learn how best to employ DP shurikens and I couldn't find a single scripter anywhere.

NOTE: Shurikens must be put inside a ninja belt before you can use them! There were a number of very confused sheep last night:

~Me: I attack you with my DP shuriken of doom!
Sheep: Baa?
~Me: Wait - no, NOW I attack you with my DP shuriken of...what the heck?
Sheep: Baahaaahaaa


~M

gee, I guess you missed the point. colored ore yields colored ingots. with the prices tripling or quadrupling depending on color. a bot has an even easier time paying for gametime with gold.

Since the uogold download gives you access to colored ores, its bot miners for the win.

I hardly think I missed your point. My point was that I haven't seen any scripters mining on my shard although I've been actively looking to kill them and there are were colored ingots for sale in Luna. Not one. Zero. (update: there are now, but there weren't earlier and there are not many available)

Indeed, a quick search of FindUO reveals that there are far fewer ingots for sale across all shards than you'd expect in a scripter-rich environment. Most deeds for sale contain low numbers of ingots and are all concentrated on one or two vendors. I've done a quick breakdown:

I omitted plain iron.

Atlantic: 14 deeds for sale, most from one vendor
Baja: 4 for sale, all bronze
Catskills: Scads for sale for low prices from 2 main vendors, suggestive of heavy scripting
Chessy: See Catskills
Drach: None
Europa: Significant quantities of Copper, all from one vendor. Other than that, nothing
GL: Deeds with very low numbers of ingots. Very limited amounts of high-end ore. All ingots concentrated on one main vendor
LA: None
LS: Three vendors, all with high numbers available. At least one of these is selling primarily for cash.
Legends: Only two vendors. One claims to be a consortium of "non-scripted" laborers. Many ingots available at high prices.
Napa Valley: A total of 18K ingots for sale, all different colors, all the same vendor. Marginal, but not overly suspicious.
Oceania: 3K ingots for sale, 2 vendors
Origin: None
Pacific: Three vendors, one of which is may be benefiting from scripting with over 240K high-color ingots for sale.
Sonoma: 16K ingots for sale at very high prices, all from the same vendor, restocked in the last couple hours since I didn't find any for sale last night.

Overall, I have insufficient data here to support or refute my conclusion. However, I think that Chessy, Cats, LS, Legends and Pac probably have scripters selling in Luna. The other shards - the majority - do not.

Obviously, there may be people selling through other venues. A quick look at Tradespot didn't show anything suspicious, but I've only looked at 3 shards.

Very few shadow ingots available for sale. Imagine that.

~M