By request, I’ve added Wolf Spiders to the Pet Power Calculator.

I’m using the Stratics Hunter’s Guide data, which sometimes is based on a small sample size, so if you run into pets that have stats or skills outside of the ranges in the calculator, let me know and I will update the calculator to reflect your findings.
Thanks, and happy taming!

http://www.uocraft.com/taming/pet-power-calculator/

I’m continuing on in Week 4 of my Couch to 5K training as I learn to RUN! My next stop will be the Brookfield Zoo Run Wild! 5K on May 15th. Wish me luck!

And, if you’ve followed the patterns around these parts over the last 8 years or so, you know that summer is coming, and with that, my most abundant time to play UO. w00t!

In 3 weeks, I will be walking in the Walk MS 2010 event for Team Kathy. We’re walking for my cousin’s wife’s mom, who has battled multiple sclerosis for years, and it greatly affects her everyday life. MS interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and eventually stops people from moving.

Every hour another person is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For 20,000 people in Illinois and some 400,000 nationwide, that hour has already arrived.

It’s not easy to pinpoint the cause of multiple sclerosis and so far, the cure rests on continued research. This is why I am writing to you: I need your help, generosity and support! Donate to our team, or come walk with us!

As a participant in the Chicago South Suburbs Walk MS taking place on Sunday, May 2, 2010, I am raising money so the Greater Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society can continue to provide programs and services for Illinois families impacted by multiple sclerosis while funding vital research into the cause and cure of multiple sclerosis.

The Greater Illinois Chapter utilizes approximately 88% of every dollar raised to fund programs that actively help people with multiple sclerosis and their families, public and professional education and research. A portion of your donation will help fund more than 350 multiple sclerosis research projects.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation on my behalf to help me reach my fundraising goal. No amount is too small!! Online donations can be made simply by clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. You can also send a donation made payable to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to me, or print a donation form and mail it to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Every dollar makes a difference in leading the movement against multiple sclerosis.

Check out my personal page to learn why I’m walking in this great event on Sunday, May 2. You can even check on my fundraising progress, and if you’ve made a donation, look for your name scrolling in the fundraising honor roll. Your support is so important to me and to Kathy and to all those living with multiple sclerosis.

I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress!

Thank you!

Donate online via my Walk MS 2010 page!

By request, I’ve added the High Plains Boura to the Pet Power Calculator. Since the Stratics Hunter’s Guide only has 1 reading on the stats and resists of these creatures, my data was pulled as a combination of data from this thread (particularly Tina Small’s compilation – Thanks, Tina!) and 12 of my own readings (for a total of around 60 readings).

If you find any high plains bouras that fall outside of the calculator’s ranges (it will tell you, via a message if your numbers exceed our recorded maximum’s, or via odd percentages if they fall below the recorded minimum’s), please let me know! My contact info is at the bottom of the calculator. Thanks!

Test out your high plains boura now!

Thanks to Lord Roland over on UOForums (and many others over the past few months!) for the heads-up on a divide-by-zero error that the Pet Power Calculator was throwing. It only threw the error when a Trained pet was input with the Untrained option checked, but still… errors are bad. So, I finally put in some error catching to output a notification when the wrong training option is chosen, or if you have a miracle pet that exceeds the maximum values recorded by Stratics (and thus by my calculator).

So – if you input a trained pet with the Untrained option checked and your pet’s stats or skills exceed the maximum possible for freshly tamed, untrained pets – or if you input a pet that has higher stat or skill values than the maximum possible overall, you’ll receive a message that looks something like this, in your results:

Training Note: Your pet appears to have been trained, or exceeds the max possible Anatomy skill recorded for this type of pet. Anatomy skill has been voided from this calculation. Please double check your input and retry using the Trained option. If you did use the Trained option and continue to see this message, please contact Kitiara with your pet’s information.

I hope that helps alleviate some of the calculation confusion! If nothing else, it’s prettier than PHP divide-by-zero warnings. My contact information, FYI, is at the bottom of the Pet Power Calculator page.

As always, if you notice anything acting strangely on the calculator, please let me know. Thanks!!

I’ve been working on adding a long-requested feature to the Pet Power Calculator: a resist calculation that gives higher priority to the pet’s strongest resists while negating some of the value of the pet’s weakest resists.

In theory, a pet that has extraordinary max values in one or two resists would be used to fight monsters that deal damage in those high resist areas. Let’s say a pet has awful cold resist. You wouldn’t likely take that pet out to fight against monsters that deal primarily cold damage. Therefore, the fact that the pet has low cold resist isn’t very important. If the pet has a very high max possible physical resist, though, you would want the pet to have a very high physical resist. A mediocre physical resist value on a pet with a very high possible physical resist is worth less, relatively speaking.

So – the highest resists should be worth more and the lowest worth less.

In the “current” version of the calculator, all resists are given the same weight. (That is, they’re averaged straight-up, with each resist value worth the same amount towards the overall power score).

I’m testing out the addition of a weighted average to the pet’s resist score (which then becomes 65% of the overall Power Rating).

The only pet that is using this “beta” feature currently is the Greater Dragon.

The g-dragon’s highest resist categories are Physical and Fire, with max possible ratings of 85 and 90, respectively. Those are quite nice max’s, and a g-dragon with 85 phys resist and 90 fire resist would be fairly significantly prized, regardless of what its other resists were. Therefore, I’ve weighted the greater dragon’s resists at 35% each for phys and fire, 5% for cold (the lowest resist for the g-dragon), 10% for poison, and 15% for energy.

To illustrate, a dragon with the max possible phys and fire resists and average numbers in the rest rated a 4.8 on the “new” calculator versus 4.2 on the “old” calculator.

A dragon with the max possible phys and fire resists and the lowest possible cold, poison, and energy resists rates a 4.5 on the “new” calculator.

In contrast, the same dragon with the minimum possible phys and fire but max possible cold, poison, and energy rates only a 2.8 – because its phys and fire resists are low, and those are the two most important resists for this creature.

(Note: Creatures with power ratings of 4+ are exceptional pets; 3.8+ are very good; 3+ are average, and <3 are below average).

I'm interested to hear your feedback on the implementation of this feature. It is currently only active for greater dragons. You can post feedback to this thread at UOForums:
http://www.uoforums.com/f1153/experimental-new-feature-in-the-pet-power-calc-55824/

If it is successful, I will add the feature to other creatures, and will also implement the same sort of weighting for pets with important skill variations. (For example, a high poisoning skill on a rune beetle is of higher importance than skills generally are on other creatures).

You can try out this new feature at:
http://www.uocraft.com/taming/pet-power-calculator/

Be sure you’re inputting data for a greater dragon. Otherwise, you’ll see the “old” results.

Thanks!

Here is the compiled list of stealable books. I will add books from other sources as soon as I can find them in-game and confirm them.

List of Stealable Books

If there are any other lists of collectibles you’d like to see here, let me know – and if you have any lists to share, I’d be glad to post those as well! You can reach me via email at: uocraft [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

In an effort to become compliant with EA’s terms regarding UO fan sites and advertising such sites in-game, I am removing several advertising links from my “Friends of UOCraft” section on the left sidebar. To be “allowed” to mention the UOCraft.com URL in-game, this site cannot display advertising for anything cash-related (be it for the sale of UO items or for the sale of Corvettes), or link to sites deemed illegal by EA.

Note, though, that with regards to buying and selling UO items for real cash, this is NOT ILLEGAL according to EA. (This fact was reiterated yet again at the Chicago Town Hall Meeting by the Dev Team this past October). However, because EA wishes to remain completely uninvolved in endorsement of any item or gold sales sites, they do not allow sites mentioned in-game to endorse them.

Removing the ads and cash-related affiliate links from my site is nothing personal. I’ve also removed the PayPal donation button, as this too is not allowed by EA if I wish to be able to discuss or advertise UOCraft in-game. The end result for me is that all costs of hosting and maintaining the site fall back onto my shoulders (since the revenues from the affiliate links and advertisements did help to offset the costs of running the site). However, I do not want to run a site that could get people banned in-game just for discussing it.

If you had a reciprocal link to UOCraft, I will not be offended if you remove your link to UOCraft if I have removed my link to your site. I will personally continue to support sites like Markee Dragon’s, who has been very kind to me and UOCraft over the years in helping this site in its infancy.

To read more on the specifics of EA’s requirements of a web site that make it “OK” to discuss or link to the site in-game, see this thread on Stratics: New URL Policy Revealed

Thanks for your continued support, and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email at uocraft (at) gmail {dot} com.

You may resume your regularly scheduled calculation of stuff!

Sorry for the inconvenience! If you find anything else to be misbehaving, PM me at UOForums.com (I’m Kitiara there) or email me at uocraft [at] gmail [ dot ] com. Thanks!