Reapers do not cast spells

Arroth_Thaiel

I read the Stratics M&G transcript from TC from last night. Someone brought up that Reapers no longer cast spells (sometimes even if they are attacked). Bonnie said that was the first the team had heard of it. It's been known to players for a number of years (like 7 or whenever ToL launched), so here is an official bug report!

Thread from 2020 discussing the Reapers not casting.
Corpsers - Why So Weak? - Ultima Online Forums (uo.com)

Cinderella said:

Estel_Randir said:

TimSt said:

They got nerfed just like reapers. Reapers used to be magic casters that you wanted to avoid.  Now you can practically stand right next to one without worry.

I think that maybe a bug. I will not place a house in an area that has a constant spawn of them. My mules & storage characters kept getting owned by reapers and gargoyles.

the reapers changed when Time of Legends came out.
Spellweavers mastery, Summon Reaper being implemented then.

if its a bug that they stopped casting, nobody official has said it is.

Arnold7

Been playing about three years now.  Reapers just wave there arms around.  If you are using ranged weapons they can be used to increase your skill level at no risk to yourself. See no other real reason to harvest them.  Thought at first maybe players were suppose to harvest their hearts but have not discovered any way to do that.  Have forgotten what loot you get from reapers and corpsers, logs I think.

TimSt

For reapers the special loot is dead wood and for corpsers it is wood planks.  Killing reapers is also part of a quest chain to earn a spell weaving spell. 

Cinderella

i believe when TOL came out
they added Summon Reaper to the masteries.
And those reapers were damaging players

when it was fixed that the summoned reapers don't attack players
then the reapers at reaper forest stopped attacking players too

I actually don't mind that they don't cast.
the ones that spawn at reaper forest would target you through your walls

Pawain

I have reapers that spawn next to my vendor house. I am glad they do not shoot at will. 

Before the change I would hear players in chat complaining about dying to them on their shopping toons.

When I shop on Atlantic, most of my toons shop with no armor and no skills. They have strength jewelry so I can carry rubble. If you buy a few pieces of rubble, it goes in your pack without weight consideration. You can be overweight when you buy and can't move.

You can run other mobs away. Reapers don't move. They could sit at a shop for a long time.

Please leave as is or change them to shoot after they are attacked.

The reapers at the blood tree spawn worked fine.

McDougle

I think the issue most customers have is not that it hasn't worked in xx years but that the developers didn't know... 

dvvid

I was surprised too but it looks like spellweaving was added in 2005 and Broadsword took over in 2014.  It could be possible the change happened before Broadsword took over.  idk

quickblade

And it was at this time , just a theory, that they broke the Harrower second form 'reaper looking form' where it doesnt cast it's necro and magery spells anymore, making it a sponge target for the whole second form.

Wish they would fix it make it a bit more challenging, and also revamp it's rewards!
Include a 'special harrower' by adding 2 new skulls from Primevil lich spawn and Abyssal Infernal,make it drops new masteries for the current skills without masteries.

Radst

For a long time (15+ years), reapers were always casting very aggressively: as soon as they notice you they start casting on you back to back without delays whatsoever. It was annoying as hell.

THEN, here's the funny part: it was some 4 or 5 years ago in a Meet/Greet in fact that some player mentioned this issue. And the dev team actually took the time to fix/adjust it. Thus reapers are now muted.

I'm surprised the devs dont recall this. Feel free to search for keywords from old Meet logs...

But I'm fine with reapers being 100% muted unless dev can find a way to really balance its crazy casting, coz you can recall home and boom! nearby reaper decides to mess with your logout timer.

dvvid

Yeah they were annoying and pretty nasty back then.  I definitely felt bad for those who had houses where they spawn especially with vendors, as any potential customers would be paralyzed and flamestriked or whatever.   When I returned to the game, I was kind of relieved that they stopped casting spells but part of me thinks maybe they could cast some less powerful spells "for old times sake". 

Ultimately, I'm fine with how they are now though.