NEWS Ultima Online Newsletter #30

[UO News]

A new edition of the Ultima Online Newsletter has been released you can read the newsletter via the Continue Reading link below.

Continue reading...

 

[Pawain]

Costumes from the Khal Ankur encounter have also been very popular and we would love to hear from you on which costumes you would like to see added in future publishes! To keep costumes from taking up a weapon slot we are adding a new item to the Ultima Store that allows you to wear a costume the same way the goblin statue works for goblins. Keep an eye on UO.com for more details!

 

[railshot]

Illegal house design is grounds for account suspension or ban? Seems a little steep.

 

[ShriNayne]

Maybe it was a Borg cube...

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Illegal house design is grounds for account suspension or ban? Seems a little steep.

I was thinking the same thing - seems they could just undo it - but there could be more to the situation :shrug:

 

[Captn Norrington]

Illegal house design is grounds for account suspension or ban? Seems a little steep.

I'm guessing it was someone who was told to stop doing something against the rules like blocking a moongate with decorations from their house, but kept putting it back repeatedly after GM's warned them not to. So it would be more for disobeying the GM's than the offence itself.

 

[Maximus Neximus]

I'm guessing it was someone who was told to stop doing something against the rules like blocking a moongate with decorations from their house, but kept putting it back repeatedly after GM's warned them not to. So it would be more for disobeying the GM's than the offence itself.

That's what I was thinking. Could have added too many extra floors and blocked the house behind them as well. I vaguely remember something about not doing that.

 

[ShriNayne]

Oh maybe it was the one someone said was placed in the cemetery? Not sure where I read that but it was blocking part of the Gumshoe Quest on one shard.

 

[Tina Small]

Oh maybe it was the one someone said was placed in the cemetery? Not sure where I read that but it was blocking part of the Gumshoe Quest on one shard.

It was Moonglow cemetery on Atlantic. The player's house is still there, making it very difficult to find and use the trap door. I don't understand how this player's house has been allowed to stay there, but I can't say I'm surprised about it either.

 

[Uriah Heep]

That's no secret @Tina Small . The house owners name is Grave Digger...its there ingame for anyone to see, shouldnt be an issue with saying it here.

And yeah, it';s piss poor decision making that allows it to still be there, with no action taken.

It's also improperly placed, obviously, according to the house rules, cemetery or not

 

[Danpal]

How long has it been there.? I remember seeing homes placed in spots like this years ago.

There is a home blocking my front yard of my castle that should not be there. Half of it or more is in a no houseing zone. But they place a small 7x7 in the area where a house goes then resize it to the bigger size bypassing the no houseing rule.

And i know that is what they did I tried on a 2nd account before and it worked.

 

[Cetric]

Riveting.

 

[leet]

That house has been there forever, maybe move the trap door not the players house thats been there? Simple fix zzzzzzzz

 

[Spartan]

That house has been there forever, maybe move the trap door not the players house thats been there? Simple fix zzzzzzzz

Ummmm ... may I remind you that we are talking of the Dev team here? K.I.S.S. is not in their dictionary.

 

[Danpal]

Just move the door. If thw house has been there for years let it be.

How would you like it if you loged in and found your house gone becasue something changed and provented a quest. Or your house is gone becasue houseing system changed.

 

[ShriNayne]

So what house were they talking about then? Oooh the plot thickens! It seems that there are plenty of other houses that could have had action taken but probably the one that did get action taken was the least annoying....

 

[Danpal]

I know what one but dont want a warning or to be banned

 

[Captn Norrington]

I kno2 what one but dont want a warning or to ve banned

It’s not against the rules to say which house and why it happened, just don’t call out the owner by name please since that would basically be accusing them of stuff.

 

[Spartan]

It’s not against the rules to say which house and why it happened, just don’t call out the owner by name please since that would basically be accusing them of stuff.

Ya know ... every so often you folks harsh my buzz. I want details! Details I tell ya!

 

[Fridgster]

Still blows my mind how many get caught duping. Though it probably shouldn't.

 

[Dot_Warner]

It’s not against the rules to say which house and why it happened, just don’t call out the owner by name please since that would basically be accusing them of stuff.

If BS has already punished the house owner then its not really an "accusation" at that point. They've already been found guilty.

 

[Danpal]

Was giveing the ok to say it. I wont say the name on the house. But when I scouting fel one day saw a house that looked alot like a male body part. I reported it. And now the house is gone. So i would assume it was that house.

 

[Stranger]

"6. Take Pinks and Blues for skills like taste ID, Item ID, Camping, etc etc from the list of possible drops at champ spawns and t-chests.

We totally agree with you on this. Those skills are useless by today's standards and just never taken out of the list. We will look at removing these in a future publish."

Dur...so update them?

Camping:
#1. Gives a buff of "Well Rested" when camped at a campsite for 5 minutes. Must actually have the camping skill on your character to take effect. Increases all stats (and skills?).

#2. Campsites able to resurrect dead players (indicated by a magical blue flame) with wait times depending on how much Camping skill they have. For example: 0 camping takes 5 minutes to get ressed and you come back with 1hp. 50 skill takes 2 and 1/2 minutes and you come back with 1/2 health and mana and free bandages and healing potions with a small buff. And GM skill is an instant resurrection at max health and mana with super bandages and major healing potions with a huge buff.

#3. If you log out of the game via camping, upon your return (after 8 or more hours of being logged off) you get a buff that increases skill rate gain. Or, alternatively, you gain a free 0.1-0.3 increase to the last skill you imp'd with a message "After sleeping on what you just learned you've gained more knowledge." Or possibly "You had a nightmare during your sleep that disturbed your rest and gained 0.0) so it's not always guaranteed.

#4. Allow you to transport from campsite to campsite. Create campsites inside of dungeons or secret areas that you can't recall into and can only access via camping.

Item ID:
#1. Randomly discovers hidden powers of your weapon/shield/etc. For example you item ID your sword and it gains +1-5% Crit hit for 30 minutes. ID your shield for a DCI bonus, ID your clothes for buffs clothes normally don't have.

#2. Chance to unlock hidden "Silver" or "Slayers" as well that last for a limited time and change every time you use it on the same weapon. So maybe have a stockpile of weapons you like to use and than item ID them until you get the slayer you want then go fight stuff. For negative karma characters..."You glace at your weapon and suddenly get the urge to kill, your eyes turn red and all you can see is blood...+5% damage against other players." being the rarest buff. Max it so you can only ID so many items per hour. "You are too tired to ID another hidden property at this time." Optional: The buff ONLY WORKS for the character who buffed it and ONLY if they have the Item ID skill on. If they soulstone it off they lose the special property. (To avoid exploiting)

Taste ID:
Allows you to lick other players to determine if they taste good. If so, unlocks the cannibalism skill. Then allow players to trade in the useless pink and blue scrolls to a shady character in buccaneer's den for pink and blue cannibalism scrolls. Err...nevermind. This skill is completely useless (I'm kidding, you could "taste" the tasty pet treats and make it buff the treat so your pet gets an even bigger buff, or make it add buffs to regular food items...ID an apple and get a +poison resistance or ID a cookie and get swing speed increase or ID a hard to craft cooking recipe that requires insane ingredients to craft that gives teh best buffz eva!)

But seriously, how will we get the scrolls if you remove them? Are you gonna create cooking contests we can judge to earn them?

 

[railshot]

Still blows my mind how many get caught duping. Though it probably shouldn't.

Yep, it would be nice if a newsletter addressed this topic. One rather important question I'd like answered is:
"Is anything being done to patch the exploit itself?"
I am sure that banning a throw away account someone used for duping is as effective as their fight against RMT spam in chat. And there is another implication. Dupers hurt regular players because their activities devalue gold (inflation) and items. In effect, it is insidious theft. And then on top we periodically get misguided proposals to fight inflation through increased gold sinks. While duping is possible, the gold sinks are about as effective as trying to drain an ocean with a bucket. But on top of that, gold sinks work through removing more "stuff" from players already victimized by dupers. Not only that 100M gold that you spend a year saving is only worth 80M a year later when adjusted for inflation, but then let's remove another 20M from it to fight inflation. That seems a bit perverse to me.
Effective gold sinks should exist in the game. But when duping is possible, they do as much harm as good.

 

[Captn Norrington]

If BS has already punished the house owner then its not really an "accusation" at that point. They've already been found guilty.

I agree with you personally, but part of the accusations rule says:

"While you may discuss in-game problems in general terms, these should not be written in a way that makes concern(s) identifiable to any individual(s)."

Naming the owner makes it identifiable to an individual, even though they've already been punished. Every time I send a warning for this type of thing I need to write "regardless of whether or not the accusation is true...." even though I know the accusation is true most of the time based on my own knowledge. The rule is mostly to keep the drama off Stratics, and even if someone's already been punished if they see themselves getting attacked for it here they'd probably come and fight back, causing unnecessary drama on the site.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Still blows my mind how many get caught duping. Though it probably shouldn't.

The more insidious part of that is if that many got caught duping... how many didn't get caught? It's definitely a whole lot more than the number of banned ones listed. The amount of scripting bans is only 22 but I've seen hundreds of people do it, so duping is probably the same way.

 

[Dot_Warner]

...keep the drama off Stratics... unnecessary drama...

But think of the jobs the llamas and popcorn vendors will lose! You're only punishing them!

 

[skett]

The home owners name is Richard Ballard

He built the house as a tribute to his name I believe

 

[Spartan]

"6. Take Pinks and Blues for skills like taste ID, Item ID, Camping, etc etc from the list of possible drops at champ spawns and t-chests.

We totally agree with you on this. Those skills are useless by today's standards and just never taken out of the list. We will look at removing these in a future publish."

Dur...so update them?

Camping:
#1. Gives a buff of "Well Rested" when camped at a campsite for 5 minutes. Must actually have the camping skill on your character to take effect. Increases all stats (and skills?).

#2. Campsites able to resurrect dead players (indicated by a magical blue flame) with wait times depending on how much Camping skill they have. For example: 0 camping takes 5 minutes to get ressed and you come back with 1hp. 50 skill takes 2 and 1/2 minutes and you come back with 1/2 health and mana and free bandages and healing potions with a small buff. And GM skill is an instant resurrection at max health and mana with super bandages and major healing potions with a huge buff.

#3. If you log out of the game via camping, upon your return (after 8 or more hours of being logged off) you get a buff that increases skill rate gain. Or, alternatively, you gain a free 0.1-0.3 increase to the last skill you imp'd with a message "After sleeping on what you just learned you've gained more knowledge." Or possibly "You had a nightmare during your sleep that disturbed your rest and gained 0.0) so it's not always guaranteed.

#4. Allow you to transport from campsite to campsite. Create campsites inside of dungeons or secret areas that you can't recall into and can only access via camping.

Item ID:
#1. Randomly discovers hidden powers of your weapon/shield/etc. For example you item ID your sword and it gains +1-5% Crit hit for 30 minutes. ID your shield for a DCI bonus, ID your clothes for buffs clothes normally don't have.

#2. Chance to unlock hidden "Silver" or "Slayers" as well that last for a limited time and change every time you use it on the same weapon. So maybe have a stockpile of weapons you like to use and than item ID them until you get the slayer you want then go fight stuff. For negative karma characters..."You glace at your weapon and suddenly get the urge to kill, your eyes turn red and all you can see is blood...+5% damage against other players." being the rarest buff. Max it so you can only ID so many items per hour. "You are too tired to ID another hidden property at this time." Optional: The buff ONLY WORKS for the character who buffed it and ONLY if they have the Item ID skill on. If they soulstone it off they lose the special property. (To avoid exploiting)

... <snip> ...

I like both of these ideas. When I first started and was learning the land, I used camping (bedroll and fire!!) to log out a lot. I'm sure it has some RP uses, too.

Item ID (my version):
Drop the display of all mods except slayer, SSI, resists and perhaps a couple others. Use Item ID to learn the rest. Zero ID will detect some properties, and the magic item levels are "uncovered" as the Item ID skill gains. Item ID gain should be something reasonably fast like Focus but not that darned fast - thus pinks and blues not needed.

 

[Coldren]

From the newsletter:

• The Miner Satchel & Lumberjack Satchel - reduced carrying weight for your harvesting haul!
• The Harvester's Axe - magically transforms logs into boards automatically!

.. Are these going to be available outside the challenge?

Edit:

Answered my own question about reduction.. Would like to see it at 75% to make it more practical, but 50 is a good start.