It's annoying about needing carpentry to cut up the logs, but I have seperate crafter and resource gatherer and I'm not changing their templates again. I just use a beetle and make frequent trips back to the house- although I have to anyway since I haven't got around to making a runebook yet and all my runes are locked down in the middle of the floor

I think it makes sense to have crafting skills all on the same character- what skills you have on a character affects your whole play style when you're using them, so I prefer to keep skills of one type on one character.

Exactly the reason why I have all crafting on those two characters,,, and the fighters have only fighting skills.

It's an interesting argument to say the least and I'm of mixed opinion on it. I enjoy crafting a great deal and I can see where the issue of self suficiency comes into play as my main char is a Miner/Smith andith a smattering of other skills thrown in as well. The main reason I did that is that it means that I don't have to go and pay a vendor an outrageous amount of gold for items that I can go get myself.

I think that the crafting system is in need of a serious overhaul as there is a plethora of major artifacts that offer excellent protectionand everyone and their brother seems to have them.

When I first started playing UO, the best thing you could have is a full set of GM Valorite armor and now, I see people just tossing the stuff on the ground like it's garbage and I offered to make a young player a full set of armor atno charge, weapons, shield ..all of it and the player refused as in his words, it wasn't as good as the stuff he could get from Doom or buy off a vendor.

Sorry for going on a rant and going off topic, this is a particular subject that annoys me and I hope is being looked at by the powers that be.

I remember when I first started playing, the first skill I GMed was mining. My buddy GMed smithing at the same time, so we could both help eachother. I was walking down the road and saw a vendor selling GM armor, it was sooo expensive, I remember telling her, that it was some nice armor, she pulled a whole suit off of her vendor and hooked me up. I couldnt believe it. The asking price for the whole suit was something like 500k, and I didnt have more than 50k in the bank. That is how it should be nowadays! Although, I know that if there is just 1 arty out there, you have to have it to be on some sort of equal playing field.

I agree, the sense of community that I knew when I first started playing is gone...what a sad thing it is.

Sorry for the interruption, but I am having trouble finding frostwood (am on dialup and that doesnt help) so does anyone know where I might find a few frostwood spots on Sonoma? Sextant co-ords and facet maybe?

On the Frostwood, I think 'few' is the critical word. I am on Lake Superior and in the whole time I have hunted for woods, I have only found two Frostwood trees 4 Bloodwood and 1 Heartwood .. of course the other kinds are more plentiful.. but Frostwood... I am sure there must be more than two on all of LS, and therefore on Sonoma as well, but I doubt you will find very many and those will be 'camped'. Good luck to you.

One thing I did notice, if you ever find a HUGE stack of normal logs just lying around.. Check the nearby trees periodically.. I would BET one of them is a RARE wood. That's how I found one of my Bloodwoods.

I have found 5 Heartwood
(Trammel 21o 54'N, 63o 46'W...81o 8'N, 27o 59'E..70o 9'N, 1o 49'E..39o 55'N, 92o 23'E Felluca 82o 6'N, 42o 2'E)
and 7 Bloodwood (Trammel 59o 4'N, 7o 27'W... 53o 32'N, 91o 15'E...Felucca 89o 24'N, 47o 6'E...83o 41'N, 50o 29'E...77o 32'N 51o 53'E...81o 50'N 56o 40'E...41o 14'N 21o 14'W)
and only one Frostwood (Trammel 29o 22'N, 22o 4'W) Please let me know if you have different spots on Sonoma thx

You only need GM Carpenter if you want to cut new logs into boards....or make furniture from them lol
You do not require GM Carpenter skill so your Fletcher can collect her own wood....so long as you can carry in log form...yes it takes longer to gather but a beetle or pack horse will help

Just a little observation from my own, after having started a carpenter.
Plain Wood: Zero (0) skill on a human, no failure
Oak Wood: 70 Carpentry
Ash Wood: 80 Carpentry

Just reached 90 Carpentry and unable to cut anything higher. So must be 100 skill.

At each full point, I tried the next higher level of wood, to make sure of exact skill required. Presently at 90.2 Carpentry and cannot work Yew and higher.