[UO Herald] In the Shadow of Virtue - Lost and Found Part 2

[UO News]

This is a continuation of Lost and Found Part 1

Captain Avery stood before Queen Dawn at attention, even though with Lord Francesco dead he wasn’t technically a member of any militia. Old habits from old identities die hard, thought Sherry.

A few moments earlier, Captain Avery had entered the chamber and found Queen Dawn and Dexter the Mage in an animated debate. He didn’t seem to notice Sherry the mouse, with whom they had also been speaking, because she was under the edge of the sofa by one of the legs. All three of them had stood as he entered the room; their shame in his presence was palpable.

“Oh, I’m sorry to interrupt, your highness. I will come back later.”

“Please come in. We are discussing something that concerns you.” said Dawn, almost apologetically.

“Yes, your highness.” And thus he had sprung to attention.

“At ease, Captain.” Dawn’s usual verve was returning and she smirked. “This isn’t an inspection.” She extended her hand to him to welcome him. Avery stepped forward, took her hand and bowed until his forehead touched the back of it. Well, at least he managed not to salute her again, Sherry thought.

The queen blushed at his gallant, if awkward, gesture. “I trust that your accommodations here at the castle have been acceptable?” she fumbled.

“Yes your highness, it is far above what I am accustomed to.” Avery said with a pleasant smile. He quickly added, “I meant to refer to when I was living in the barracks of Lord Francesco, of course.”

Wow, thought Sherry, Now I bet Dawn and Dexter wish they were hiding under the sofa…. Avery is truly a remarkable man to resist bitterness after so much hardship, Sherry thought to herself.



More...

 

[Tina Small]

Dexter:

“Well, my research suggests that the crystal Sherry describes matches one owned by Nystul… The Nystul… the one that split Trammel from Felucca and created a spell over Trammel to protect it…”

Dawn:

“He thinks he can use it to break the curse and restore Magincia!”

Why do I sense disaster looming? Seems to me that playing around with such a powerful artifact provides potential for more to happen than just set things in motion to rebuild Magincia.

 

[Storm]

ditto/

 

[Trebr Drab]

Dexter:

“Well, my research suggests that the crystal Sherry describes matches one owned by Nystul… The Nystul… the one that split Trammel from Felucca and created a spell over Trammel to protect it…”

Dawn:

“He thinks he can use it to break the curse and restore Magincia!”

Why do I sense disaster looming? Seems to me that playing around with such a powerful artifact provides potential for more to happen than just set things in motion to rebuild Magincia.

Which Nystul?

 

[MalagAste]

*sighs*...

Humans, Why do they feel the need to meddle with magic they can not possibly understand nor control?

I sense something bad coming of this...

 

[Beer_Cayse]

this should prove interesting, indeed. <thinks of various crystals around the Trammel lands>

 

[Shelleybean]

I enjoyed reading this. I can't wait to start rebuilding Magincia.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I appreciate that there's a narrative explanation for why Magincia wasn't rebuilt until now.

-Galen's player

 

[Viquire]

Maybe Avery will find compassion, and the healing power of music for the soul.

 

[Clog|Mordain]

Dexter:



Dawn:



Why do I sense disaster looming? Seems to me that playing around with such a powerful artifact provides potential for more to happen than just set things in motion to rebuild Magincia.

One can only hope they blow trammel up

 

[Stupid Miner]

Why do I sense disaster looming? Seems to me that playing around with such a powerful artifact provides potential for more to happen than just set things in motion to rebuild Magincia.

I don't actually. From a story-telling perspective it'd get tedious if Magincia blew up again, or was attacked, or whatever.
Secondly... the devs stated we'd be rebuilding Magincia soon, so... that seems pretty set in stone.

 

[Connor_Graham]

I don't actually. From a story-telling perspective it'd get tedious if Magincia blew up again, or was attacked, or whatever.
Secondly... the devs stated we'd be rebuilding Magincia soon, so... that seems pretty set in stone.

I didn't get the impression that Magincia was going to be attacked again. I did, however, get the impression that this was a massive opening for EA/Mythic to drop a classic shard on us, using the crystal's power as the explanation as to how it came to be. It would merely be a facet of the world from the past brought into being just as Trammel was...

 

[Tina Small]

Actually, I still have Cal's "wild, wild West" comment stuck firmly in my brain and can't help thinking that we're about to see some significant changes in the game.

When you look at all of the following recent changes, it's hard for me to not think that we're going to see a more Fel-like atmosphere in areas of the game outside of Fel:

• Significant decrease in insurance costs and totally new insurance gump.
• Introduction of loyalty and the apparent ability to not only gain loyalty points but also lose them. (Refer to Publish 60 notes for more details.)
• Promises of a new faction system.
• Putting fame and karma on the same page as loyalty information. If you notice, there's a lot of empty space left on that page for additional information.
• The addition of a dueling menu in the last or previous two patches. Apparently dueling will be allowed in Trammel because it appears the menu offers an option to protect your corpse in Trammel. There are also references to "revenge." Interesting concept.
• The addition of imbuing and enough items to make your head swim, but more importantly, perhaps in sufficient quantity (if the RNG cooperates) to refute potential complaints about not being able to acquire decent PvP gear outside of factions, or maybe better yet, in lieu of the current faction artifact collection.
• EMs who have been consistently coaxing/forcing non-PvPers to venture into Fel.
• The addition of crystal portals and house teleporters that let you move characters around in complete safety. The crystal portals are a 1 year vet reward and we've seen hints that the house teleporters may soon be added to the gamecodes store or perhaps provided to players via something like the Heritage tokens, maybe as part of UO's 13th anniversary later this year.
• Comments Cal made recently about Japanese players and PvP.
• The inclusion of Fel ruleset areas in the Abyss. If you'll recall, it wasn't until players made a huge stink about not realizing they'd stepped into an unsafe area that the warning gumps were added. I have always felt like the devs had never planned to include those gumps and would have preferred to force players to be more aware of their surroundings. Or perhaps they knew that eventually all of the Abyss would be a PvP area....
• The existence of so damn many threads about a classic shard and the creation of a new Fel residents forum. I don't know about all of you, but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility for some of the people who post in these threads to actually be EA staff trying to anonomously collect player feedback and reaction to changes they have under consideration.
• And now this reference to Dawn and her crew monkeying around with an artifact that was involved in the creation of Trammel.

I really have the feeling that we're being led down the path towards a much wilder, rougher UO, whether or not we want to go there.

 

[Thav12]

Actually, I still have Cal's "wild, wild West" comment stuck firmly in my brain and can't help thinking that we're about to see some significant changes in the game.

When you look at all of the following recent changes, it's hard for me to not think that we're going to see a more Fel-like atmosphere in areas of the game outside of Fel:

• Significant decrease in insurance costs and totally new insurance gump.
• Introduction of loyalty and the apparent ability to not only gain loyalty points but also lose them. (Refer to Publish 60 notes for more details.)
• Promises of a new faction system.
• Putting fame and karma on the same page as loyalty information. If you notice, there's a lot of empty space left on that page for additional information.
• The addition of a dueling menu in the last or previous two patches. Apparently dueling will be allowed in Trammel because it appears the menu offers an option to protect your corpse in Trammel. There are also references to "revenge." Interesting concept.
• The addition of imbuing and enough items to make your head swim, but more importantly, perhaps in sufficient quantity (if the RNG cooperates) to refute potential complaints about not being able to acquire decent PvP gear outside of factions, or maybe better yet, in lieu of the current faction artifact collection.
• EMs who have been consistently coaxing/forcing non-PvPers to venture into Fel.
• The addition of crystal portals and house teleporters that let you move characters around in complete safety. The crystal portals are a 1 year vet reward and we've seen hints that the house teleporters may soon be added to the gamecodes store or perhaps provided to players via something like the Heritage tokens, maybe as part of UO's 13th anniversary later this year.
• Comments Cal made recently about Japanese players and PvP.
• The inclusion of Fel ruleset areas in the Abyss. If you'll recall, it wasn't until players made a huge stink about not realizing they'd stepped into an unsafe area that the warning gumps were added. I have always felt like the devs had never planned to include those gumps and would have preferred to force players to be more aware of their surroundings. Or perhaps they knew that eventually all of the Abyss would be a PvP area....
• The existence of so damn many threads about a classic shard and the creation of a new Fel residents forum. I don't know about all of you, but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility for some of the people who post in these threads to actually be EA staff trying to anonomously collect player feedback and reaction to changes they have under consideration.
• And now this reference to Dawn and her crew monkeying around with an artifact that was involved in the creation of Trammel.

I really have the feeling that we're being led down the path towards a much wilder, rougher UO, whether or not we want to go there.

Thanks for putting this together. It may very well be. I would enjoy this next step into the future of UO. I think something like this would be a much better step forward than a classic shard in my opinion. Very keen of you to pick up on these things and combining them. I hope you are right.

 

[Aurelius]

I strongly suspect Tina's on the right track compiling that list of changes... quite where we're headed, I'm not at all sure. I remain more than a little concerned that Cal has an understanding of a 'Wild West' atmosphere that is very different from mine, but we'll have to see.

Purely within the fiction, I find it intriguing that 'something' stopped Magincia being rebuilt, and 'something' stops building in the Abyss.

 

[Tina Small]

It's also interesting that to enter the Tomb of Kings you need to use the gargish words for "Order" and "Chaos." And also, what was the reason for adding gargish order and chaos shields? Especially when you can't smelt them?! As I understand it, you used to not be able to smelt the human order and chaos shields either (you currently can smelt them). So either we're going back to that situation or the gargish versions were originally intended to be made out of stone and not ingots.

I wish I knew more of the old UO lore and had a better understanding of the roles of "order" and "chaos" in UO. I also wish I knew more about the possible link between gargoyles and wisps and why the void creatures keep trying to crawl into Ter Mur and what's going to happen to all those refugees. The list goes on and on.....

 

[Trebr Drab]

I don't actually. From a story-telling perspective it'd get tedious if Magincia blew up again, or was attacked, or whatever.
Secondly... the devs stated we'd be rebuilding Magincia soon, so... that seems pretty set in stone.

I didn't get the impression that Magincia was going to be attacked again. I did, however, get the impression that this was a massive opening for EA/Mythic to drop a classic shard on us, using the crystal's power as the explanation as to how it came to be. It would merely be a facet of the world from the past brought into being just as Trammel was...

Actually, I still have Cal's "wild, wild West" comment stuck firmly in my brain and can't help thinking that we're about to see some significant changes in the game.

When you look at all of the following recent changes, it's hard for me to not think that we're going to see a more Fel-like atmosphere in areas of the game outside of Fel:

• Significant decrease in insurance costs and totally new insurance gump.
• Introduction of loyalty and the apparent ability to not only gain loyalty points but also lose them. (Refer to Publish 60 notes for more details.)
• Promises of a new faction system.
• Putting fame and karma on the same page as loyalty information. If you notice, there's a lot of empty space left on that page for additional information.
• The addition of a dueling menu in the last or previous two patches. Apparently dueling will be allowed in Trammel because it appears the menu offers an option to protect your corpse in Trammel. There are also references to "revenge." Interesting concept.
• The addition of imbuing and enough items to make your head swim, but more importantly, perhaps in sufficient quantity (if the RNG cooperates) to refute potential complaints about not being able to acquire decent PvP gear outside of factions, or maybe better yet, in lieu of the current faction artifact collection.
• EMs who have been consistently coaxing/forcing non-PvPers to venture into Fel.
• The addition of crystal portals and house teleporters that let you move characters around in complete safety. The crystal portals are a 1 year vet reward and we've seen hints that the house teleporters may soon be added to the gamecodes store or perhaps provided to players via something like the Heritage tokens, maybe as part of UO's 13th anniversary later this year.
• Comments Cal made recently about Japanese players and PvP.
• The inclusion of Fel ruleset areas in the Abyss. If you'll recall, it wasn't until players made a huge stink about not realizing they'd stepped into an unsafe area that the warning gumps were added. I have always felt like the devs had never planned to include those gumps and would have preferred to force players to be more aware of their surroundings. Or perhaps they knew that eventually all of the Abyss would be a PvP area....
• The existence of so damn many threads about a classic shard and the creation of a new Fel residents forum. I don't know about all of you, but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility for some of the people who post in these threads to actually be EA staff trying to anonomously collect player feedback and reaction to changes they have under consideration.
• And now this reference to Dawn and her crew monkeying around with an artifact that was involved in the creation of Trammel.

I really have the feeling that we're being led down the path towards a much wilder, rougher UO, whether or not we want to go there.

Interesting stuff, both of you. Equally, maybe both Trammel and Felucca will be changed.

With all the talk on a "classic" shard, maybe instead they will make changes.

Here's a basic idea:
-Factions becomes like a world wide guild war. Free to attack enemies.
-PKing a character not in factions or in same faction gives murder counts and penalties.
-Blocking only works for those in factions (to get rid of an abuse).

Raw, but an idea.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I wish I knew more of the old UO lore and had a better understanding of the roles of "order" and "chaos" in UO.

Order simply referred to the Virtues.

Chaos referred to the belief system of Lord Blackthorn, which values personal freedom over all other values, including such things as Justice, Valor, etc.

Blackthorn and British player chess together, while their more fanatical followers slaughtered one another in the streets though a pre-Factions PvP system called Order/Chaos.

Nice, eh?

It's possible that Blackthorn's turning evil means that the logical end of total, unrestrained freedom is evil.

Very Marquis deSade. In the absence of order, total freedom means freedom for the top of the food chain, violent oppression for the rest of us.

-Galen's player

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Order does NOT equate to Good

Chaos does NOT equate to Evil


Its all in the application of those two principles as to how the outcome is perceived...

A ruthless police state values conformity (Order), and yet is oppressive and harsh (Evil).

A "hippy" commune is values free thinking and free expression (Chaos), and out of that its members are happy (Good).

 

[Trevelyan]

Re the fel stuff, there was this in the recent patch:

Duel Menu
You can challenge other player to a duel, or can check your duel record.
Challenge to a Duel
Set duration of Duel
Protect your corpse (Trammel Rule Only)
Current opponents
Check the record
Reject the challenge (Auto)
Apply for the revenge (Auto)
Receive the revenge (Auto)

 

[Cal_Mythic]

*places a single daisy on top of an exploding potion*

(Name that reference) ...

 

[omgmir]

*places a single daisy on top of an exploding potion*

(Name that reference) ...

Watchmen!

Inspired by a real life photo, something to do with the Vietnam war a student protest I think?

 

[eekamouse]

Re the fel stuff, there was this in the recent patch:

Duel Menu
You can challenge other player to a duel, or can check your duel record.
Challenge to a Duel
Set duration of Duel
Protect your corpse (Trammel Rule Only)
Current opponents
Check the record
Reject the challenge (Auto)
Apply for the revenge (Auto)
Receive the revenge (Auto)

It would be nice if... While in a duel you take no damage on your weapons and armor, and also you cannot gain skills.

That way you can duel with your good imbued stuff. Also you should be able to wager.

If you put in the ability to wager, you will attract MANY old vets. I guarantee it.

 

[Specialshoes]

Watchmen!

Inspired by a real life photo, something to do with the Vietnam war a student protest I think?

I was gonna say that. Well about the photo. Never seen Watchmen.

Dirty Hippies anyways

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Watchmen!

Inspired by a real life photo, something to do with the Vietnam war a student protest I think?

Correct ...!!

Mark may chime in at some point but the events for the story arc ... I can honestly say I'm thrilled with his plan. I don't want to give anything away ... really saying anything reveals too much.

I'll allow him to unveil the story ... but I'm a-sizzle with what's to come.

Also .. Tina interesting summation of events ... we'll try to be more devious.

 

[Storm]

Cant make people go to Fel so make Fel come to the people interesting notion!

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Cant make people go to Fel so make Fel come to the people interesting notion!

And doomed to complete and utter failure if true.

 

[Storm]

And doomed to complete and utter failure if true.

I am not going to disagree with you! But I will wait to see exactly what the details are! If its a set up where you can turn on/off the option to participate then I will continue on as I am. If not and its not consensual my days will be numbered with uo! (my son and I enjoy playing together in a non pvp format).

But as I said its to early and they have given no specifics (probably purposefully) So i will reserve judgment for a later date!

 

[Deb]

Maybe they are bringing Faction Fighting to Trammel? I can not see us
ever going back to a non consensual only UO. But, bringing Factions to
Tram I can see.
And very nice summation Tina.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

And doomed to complete and utter failure if true.

I don't address this much anymore. Tired of the abuse I get.

But Martyna's player is undeniably correct.

If people wanted Fel they would have never left it to begin with, and no lures or incentives would be necessary. I won't say anything more than that, though.

Having said that, a Trammel dueling system would surely have its uses and it's taken too long to get one.

Please offer a "don't accept duel invites" option, similar to the "don't accept guild invites" option that we currently have. Otherwise duel invites will become a griefing tool the same way gates to Fel throw in people's paths at EM events has.

-Galen's player

 

[Storm]

I swear Tina always has the best info and in site into whats going on! I think she has a insider connection and is secretly a dev ;-) (just joking)

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Maybe they are bringing Faction Fighting to Trammel? I can not see us
ever going back to a non consensual only UO. But, bringing Factions to
Tram I can see.
And very nice summation Tina.

Luckily, they have said no to this in a post on the Factions forum.

-Galen's player

 

[Storm]

Reject the challenge (Auto)

I think this is a good thing

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Reject the challenge (Auto)

I think this is a good thing

Oh, is that in there now?

-Galen's player

 

[Storm]

I don't address this much anymore. Tired of the abuse I get.

But Martyna's player is undeniably correct.

If people wanted Fel they would have never left it to begin with, and no lures or incentives would be necessary. I won't say anything more than that, though.

Having said that, a Trammel dueling system would surely have its uses and it's taken too long to get one.

Please offer a "don't accept duel invites" option, similar to the "don't accept guild invites" option that we currently have. Otherwise duel invites will become a griefing tool the same way gates to Fel throw in people's paths at EM events has.

-Galen's player

Oh, is that in there now?

-Galen's player

apparently it was in the last patch
it was in a earlier post above

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

apparently it was in the last patch
it was in a earlier post above

So they thought of that.

Neat; thank you.

-Galen's player

 

[Jandruz]

One can only hope they blow trammel up

Bingo!

 

[Tina Small]

I swear Tina always has the best info and in site into whats going on! I think she has a insider connection and is secretly a dev ;-) (just joking)

Haha! No on both counts, by the way. I just spend too much time analyzing certain things and then trying to stand back and look at the bigger picture and see where those details fit in. Not sure it always works. Sometimes it's like trying to finish a puzzle with pieces from a different puzzle. LOL

 

[DevilsOwn]

Correct ...!!

Mark may chime in at some point but the events for the story arc ... I can honestly say I'm thrilled with his plan. I don't want to give anything away ... really saying anything reveals too much.

I'll allow him to unveil the story ... but I'm a-sizzle with what's to come.

Also .. Tina interesting summation of events ... we'll try to be more devious.

did not notice this posted anywhere else, if it was please forgive the repeat... the story of In The Shadow of Virtue - Lost and Found Part 2 was given a prelude by Mark Steelman on 4/14:

This is a continuation of Lost and Found Part 1
Update - 4/14:
The development team wanted to offer some background into the creative process for making the next chapter in UO Lore, enjoy!

In February of this year we had a Saturday meeting. From this meeting we discussed all of the plans surrounding the re-building of Magincia … what we wanted to do with growing the community … but first and foremost we wanted something simple, elegant, and that would inspire roleplay.
We’ve looked at all the stories from Greek Mythology, Norse, Grimm Fairy Tales, and the Bible. There are some basic themes. There is good … there is Evil and all things in-between.

Before the thread occurred about “Good and Bad in UO” we had already devised the path for the rest of the year. There is a quote we learn at the Air Force Academy …”A man has integrity if his interest in the good of the Service is at all times greater than [himself], and when he holds himself to the same line of duty when unobserved as he would follow if his superiors were present ..” (Yes I know that by heart it was drilled into me …)

The paraphrased version is …”How good are you when no one is around?”
Even more … if you have the opportunity to be bad … how bad would you be?

It’s very easy to be a good person when good is winning … Yes, we are planning on rebuilding Magincia. But to make an omelet …

And with that Gentlewomen … and Good sirs of Britannia … We offer you:


(and the story follows)