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Ultima Online Journal One

Finding the Britian Mines wasn't hard. I had rightly guessed the approximate location was the same area the player-created beta town of 'Mist' had been stationed. It should be said at this point what a great achievement it was for players and developers alike to have a player created town. Many things like housing in UO did not at the time get the complete respect that it deserved. People marveled at things like housing and player created towns, but you still take for granted that someone is going to come along and do it better. However, nearly 5 years later, no one has done it all, much less better. To put it in perspective, it would be like when Ford came out with the Model-T, it was a great invention and people were in awe of it, but imagine today if the only car still available was the Model-T, you would really have to tip your hat to Ford for creating something that 80 years later is still the only car in town.

The mining camp consisted of two small houses about a player's width apart and approximately 10 steps from the mines. The houses if I recall correctly belonged to a grandmaster mage named "The Old Man". He was nice enough to let other players use his forges, and indeed the doors of those homes were never locked as long as they stood. The forge placement was ideal for smiths and miners. There was already quite a bustle of activity around the forges already. Plenty of aspiring craftsmen had found their way to the mines. I fit in easily among the other tradesmen, who ranged from tinkers to carpenters and more. My str had increased substantially during my time mining in Vesper. I was up around 70 str at that point, which was actually a sizable sum, stats did not go up fast yet plus strength was also a stat that was slower than most. Even though I could hold a large number of ore, like most people I used the ore hopping technique, I would get about 50 big ore and hop it back to the mining camp. There was a camaradrie between the workers, no one tried to steal your ore or harass you. Most people ore hopped it in a bag or chest so you didn't have to fiddle with the item counter everytime you picked it up to make a step. The mining though was excellent. Even with a number of people harvesting resources out of the mines and mountains there was still plenty to gather and then some. It wasn't long in fact that my smithing was outdistancing my mining skill.

The Undiscovered Frontier

My character was primarily a blacksmith, but I raised tinkering and some carpentry to make things that I needed. Like shovels or smith hammer. Skill caps weren't a major concern at this point. It wouldn't be until I tried to GM in blacksmithy that I'd have problems with losing points in some areas that I didn't want to lose points in. My character was very self reliant, which was great about UO, I didn't need to bash monsters. If I needed shovels I could make some out of ignots, then I could mine more ignots to make armor to make money. I was also making alot of money, not that I want to sound like I am bragging, but for a non guilded player I had a very large sum of money and was always outfitted in chain or plate, something most players couldn't do.

The mining camp continued to gain popularity through October. It was a rowdy place, but not a dangerous one. Sparring to raise combat skills was a popular pasttime in UO during these days. Many craftsmen and warriors alike would take time out to spar, no one tried to kill each other, they always ended before someone died. We also stood around in energy fields to raise magic resistance. I actually got up to adept swordsmen while playing around, a skill that would help protect me from thieves. The biggest trouble we had in fact were from thieves, they would try to steal shovels or ignots or money. They didn't have any combat skills for the most part though, and were easy to kill if caught. I helped hunt down many a thief. Some would try to hide behind the houses, because at the time there wasn't a circle of transparency. However all you had to do was run into the house and the roof would then disappear then you could attack the person hiding outside. Once you got back out behind the house, auto-attack would engage. I gained a good reputation as a blacksmith and a protector of the camp.

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