Ultima Online Five on Friday Q&A

EA’s Jeremy Dalberg has posted another one of his “Five on Friday” Q&A features on the official Ultima Online website.

“I have x as my profession title and I really want y – how do I change it?”

This is one of those that old-schoolers probably know and non-old-schoolers had no chance to ever learn. Here’s a brief explanation of profession titles and how to change them:

The profession title displayed on your paperdoll is your highest skill in “real” or unmodified skill. This part can’t be changed – if you’re a GM Blacksmith, and you have 50 Tinkering, you can’t get Tinkering to display on your paperdoll.

In the event of a tie, however, you have more control. The displayed title will be the first skill in alphabetical order that is marked “up” in the skill window. If they’re all locked or set to “down,” the displayed title will simply be the first one in alphabetical order. For example, if you have 100 Blacksmithing and 100 Tinkering and you want your title to be “Grandmaster Tinker,” lock Blacksmithing and leave Tinkering set to rise.

(Yes, it’s a rather arcane system – as I recall, it was implemented when skill locks were. Back in the day, skills rose or fell based on use or lack thereof, and you had no actual control over them – being a GM was usually temporary, because if you used any other skill it’d go up and knock your GM skill down. Trying to maintain a template was… well, uphill, in the snow, both ways. :P)