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2005 NEWS & UPDATE THREAD (Latest Post - 19 May 2005)

  • Thread starter CitizenKane2
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C

CitizenKane2

Guest
New client patch - Client 4.0.7a patch - see HERE in the FYI section of uo.com for details.

More interestingly, as to watch the patch contains (apart from what is stated in the FYI), see HERE for the Cliloc entries - lots of very interesting hints. Leurocian posted on that thread :

<blockquote>Publish 29 test center is live and public if you wish to check it out. We should have a list of changes/fixes/features for it soon.

Off in the distance, there is quite a battle Northwest of the city of Britain as I type/php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some more hints.

On this thread HERE, Leurocian made the following comments :

<blockquote>No, we delibrating didn't want to nerf smiths. Those weapons will not get any kind of double bonus for damage increase. Power weapons will have 30% DI, Vanquishing will have 35% DI, and Mystic will have 40% DI. That's it...for now.</blockquote>
NOTE : Apparently some of the weapons will have the name "Vanquishing" etc.

AND

<blockquote>I certainly don't take any of the posts here as a majority. I know better than to do that. But I do read them and try to carefully assess any feedback that we get. I have to admit that you all are tough to please, and that's a good thing. I wouldn't want it to come easy.

We purposefully wanted to bring back some of the old names such as power and vanquishing for roleplaying purposes. I have ideas for crafters to be able to enhance these items even further than they are now. There are no promises for this, but we've had this idea for quite some time and would like to see it enter the game.

I also want to point out that these weapons are not meant to be the point of what we have planned for publish 29. The point is to defeat whatever evil is threatening. But some of you want the loot and like new items. That's ok too, and hopefully these will suit you.</blockquote>

AND

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stun/Disarm bug
Bola Animal form balance
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both of these plus several other PvP issues have been addressed for publish 29.</blockquote>

AND

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hope there is something in it to clean up the mass amounts of pet ghosts accumulating.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep, I believe there is a fix for that slated also. The publish 29 list should be posted soon. </blockquote>

Reports of what has been invading on Test can be found HERE

Apparently, all daemon slayer turned to demon slayer with the recent patch - see this thread HERE
 
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CitizenKane2

Guest
News today. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Details of the upcoming publish (Publish 29) has been posted - see HERE. I have taken the liberty of highlighting what I think are some of the more interesting changes :

<blockquote>The Shard "TC2 Pub29 Test" has been published with the "Publish 29" Server code. Publish 29 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:

NOTE: This is not a final list and may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 29 details as we are ready to publish to the production shards.


General Fixes/Tweaks/Enhancements
****************************

Moved Britain starting location from The Sweet Dream’s Inn to the Wayfarer’s Inn in east Britain

Damage numbers are now shown for everything in your range, regardless of who is taking damage

Fixed an issue when a member of a faction guild quit made most guild members removed from the faction

Holiday gifts will no longer be distributed

Passive detect hidden no longer reveals group mates and allied faction members in Felucca / Siege

Pet ghosts no longer stay around for days. Pet ghosts will now only exist between 2-4 hours, after which they will vanish, even if their owner is online

Pets with high Magery were casting invisible on themselves too often. Pets will now cast heal or greater heal instead of invisibility.

Added the ability to unfriend pets via the context menu

Pet hit points will no longer refill when crossing server lines

Fixed an issue with crossing a server-line having a value of 0 in a stat would refill that stat

Can no longer create a blank alliance name

Weight will no longer remain if gold is in 2 piles when tithed

New characters will now default to having show guild invites turned off

Fixed the misspelled sign at the Bank of Trinsic

Also fixed Britannia Provisions misspelled sign

Setting a blank InvokeVirtue macro will no longer cause the client to crash

Fixed a crash bug in 3D client involving the name macro field

Fixed a crash bug in 3D client related to trying to delete 2 skill groups at once

Fixed a crash bug related to renaming a book’s title

A warning message was added to the guild invite gump informing players that they are attackable if they accept

Attempts to recall into west Britain will be redirected to a safe location

Attempts to open gates into west Britain from outside the area will be redirected to a safe location, Gates opened from inside west Britain can be used normally


Item Fixes/Changes
****************

Reuse delay for wands is now the equivalent of casting a like spell. Fast-casting will apply to wands.

Clothing Bless Deeds now work on SE clothes

Fukiya Darts and Shurikens can no longer be thrown at yellow NPCs

Dread Pirate Hat has been improved

Spirit Speak is now a possible skill bonus on magic jewelry

Gold Bricks can no longer be fed to pet White Wyrms

Soulstone: Skill absorption animation will no longer play when skill points are flushed

Hearth of the Homefire no longer turns after exiting house custimization mode

Bolts now have a chance to spawn in dungeon chests

Corrected typo when trying to re-deed mistletoe with a non-house owner

Add-on type items will no longer disappear when a house is demolished

Players can now uninsure items that were blessed after already being insured

Big Fish should provide more fish steaks when cut up (now its weight / 5 will determine number of fish steaks (minimum of 4))

Fixed two issues with Event JP Finnigan Prize Giveout

Stackable loot is now distributed proportionally between instanced corpses involving two or more party members in the top attackers list


Combat Fixes/Tweaks
*****************

Fixed an issue that could allow archers to fire while on the move

Players can no longer throw bolas while in Animal Form

Bola throwing now correctly prevents re-mounting of Hiryu and Lesser Hiryu

Fixed an issue causing the No-Dachi Riding Swipe, when used to dismount a murderer or criminal, to make the player become a criminal.

Provoked and controlled creatures should no longer heal aggressors

Fixed an issue that allowed a player to activate Moving Shot, then before the arrow hit, activate Armor Ignore

Fixed an issue that allowed special moves to automatically hit when a spell landed

Fixed an issued allowing Lightning strike to allow a player to ignore disarm timer


Spell Casting Adjustments
********************

Summoned daemons will now take 4 control slots instead of 5.

Improved AI and damage for Air and Water Elementals

Ninja Mirror Images are now affected by multi-target spells

Fixed an issue causing criminal’s Mirror Images to appear blue

Fixed an issue with Mana Drain not restoring the target’s mana after 4 seconds in rare cases

Mage field spells cast on ships no longer cause the ship to stop moving


Creature and Spawning Fixes/Adjustments
********************************

Male Ronin will now give as much loot as female Ronin

Reduced amount of loot dropped by Fan Dancers

Lesser Hiryu no longer give quite as good loot

Doom Guardians will now spawn treasure map of random level (1-3) instead of spawning level 3-4 maps

Can no longer use Animate Dead to turn Dark Father corpse into bones


Slayer Changes
*************

Blood Elemental Slayer weapons / instruments will now spawn as common slayer weapons / instruments

Snow Elemental Slayer effect has been improved to now include Ice Elementals

Added Sand Vortex and Efreet to Elemental super slayer group

Repond, Wolf, Reptile, and Daemon Slayer groups have been updated

Yomotsu and Fan Dancers have been removed from the Repond group

Fan Dancer has been added to the Demon Slayer group

All Daemon Slayers will become demon slayers

Daemon Slayers will no longer spawn</blockquote>

There is a new "Developers' Forum" - read the FAQ HERE before posting. There are significant differences betweent the rules applying to the Developers' Forum and other forums.

Some comments on Publish 29.

Over HERE, Leurocian posted :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Found one bug for you though - you see damage done by anyone's area effect damages and energy vortex's. I suspect you also see damage done by other's pets, but have not seen that yet, so I can't say for sure.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is not a bug. The client patch we just released for pub29 mentions this change.</blockquote>

Over HERE, Leurocian posted :

<blockquote>Power weapons have a maximum of 2 properties of a certain intensity.

Vanquishing weapons have a maximum of 3 properties of a certain intensity.

Mystic weapons have a maximum of 4 properties of a certain intensity.

None of these rival or surpass a valorite runic. Mystic weapons have a minimum intensity of 40% and a maximum of 80%, and are much rarer than the power and vanquishing weapons</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>In the example of Mystic weapons, they always have 40% damage increase and 3 additional properites of random 40-80% intensity</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
The purpose of this thread is to provide news and information which may be of interest to UO players. See the last post of this thread for the latest news.

Welcome to a new year - and a new NEWS thread.

(1) Tower of Roses Tailoring Large BOD reward chart has been updated - see HERE.

Some background - the new update on TOR is with effect from 2 Jan 2005. The post on the Tailoring forum which led to the change can be found HERE. Specifically, there is an official point system for tailoring BOD on uo.com, which can be found HERE

(2) Please note that there is a similar official point score system for Blacksmithing LargeBODs which can be found HERE. I'm not sure whether TOR's Blacksmithing LBOD reward chart reflect the point system.

(3) On a seperate note - if any player asks you in Trammel to recall off a boat key to "help", be wary. It could be a scam to recall to a boat in kill spot in FEL. See this thread HERE.
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
More on the advanced spawner in testing in Publish 29 test centre.

Over HERE, Leurocian posted :

<blockquote>Hello everyone,

Hope you all are enjoying the humanoid invasion that is happening on the publish 29 test center.

Currently, we are in the process of internally testing several new updates dealing with the invasion.

1. Showing the title of paragons and generals (when using all names)
2. Tweaked the # of kills required to defeat the invasion
3. Slightly increased chance to receive a vanquishing or mystic weapon
4. Improved General AI
5. Power weapons will now have 3 total properties, vanquishing 4, and mystic 5.

Once these changes (and possibly any others) have been deployed to the public test center, we'll let you know.

Thanks!</blockquote>

Over HERE, Leurocian posted these comments :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do have questions about the west brit spawn...
Is that the new advanced spawner system?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are debuting our new spawner with the humanoid invasion.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will it be used to replace the Ilshenar champ spawn system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possibly. There are no current plans to do so.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
or be used for the EM events..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possibly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will it used all over the lands or in specific areas
or is it a new system altogether like the paragons of ilshenar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We will eventually be converting spawn areas to use the new spawner. There is more to the new spawner than champ spawn like spawns. The invasion was just a way for us to debut the spawner.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this is a system to be used in Ilshenar, does that mean theres a chance of a Paragon General?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are no current plans for Paragon Generals.</blockquote>

NOTE : I personally find this new "spawner" very interesting. It could mean that there would be future "ad hoc" town invasions completely computer generated - and that such invasions could be beaten back.
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Welcome back, Stratics Boards !

Some bits and pieces.

Wish (an upcoming MMORPG) got cancelled.

On the damage that would be shown with Publish 29, it appears that there may be a few tweaks. Speedman posted HERE :

<blockquote>Due to popular demand, I've changed the way Damage Numbers work:
* You will see damage that you caused
* You will see damage that your pets, summons and provokes caused
* You will see damage that was inflicted on you
* You will see damage that was inflicted on your pets, summons and provokes

You can currently check it out on the Origin shard or the Test Center.

See, we do listen/php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif</blockquote>

Publish 29's coming - the schedule can be found HERE :

<blockquote>The shards "TC2 Pub29 Test" and "Origin" have been published with the Publish 29 server code. For a list of the Publish 29 changes, please click here.
If everything goes according to plan, we will be publishing all remaining shards as follows:

18 January 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior

18 January 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma

18 January 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania

18 January 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura

18 January 4:00PM PST (12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa


18 January 9:00PM PST (5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
We will keep you updated if any of this information changes. </blockquote>

Those playing on Origin shard may be happy to know that char transfers have been put off on that shard until June 2005 - see HERE :

<blockquote>The UO team would like to thank you for your feedback regarding Character Transfers and Advanced Characters on the Origin shard. We are happy to announce that due to popular demand, we're going to extend the moratorium on both services for the Origin shard by approximately five months. They will now be activated on Tuesday, June 14th 2005. </blockquote>

Bug alert - I usually don't like to post about bugs, but I also don't like to see players being taken advantage of.

Apparently there is a bug which allows other players to give murder counts to mages casting summons (such as EVs) in Fel. So, if you're a mage using summons in Fel (esp at Champ spawns) and you get unexplained murder counts - watch out. I'm not sure if there is any counter measures available, save to say don't use EVs and such.

Be careful when buying any runics through a trade window. There may be a bug. Buying from player vendors may be safer.
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some bits and pieces.

Publish 29 Schedule has been changed - see HERE :

<blockquote>The shards "TC2 Pub29 Test" and "Origin" have been published with the Publish 29 server code. For a list of the Publish 29 changes, please click here.
In order to address a few minor issues we will be delaying the release of Publish 29 until Wednesday, January 19th, we will be publishing all remaining shards as follows:

19 January 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior

19 January 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma

19 January 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania

19 January 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura

19 January 4:00PM PST (20 January 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa


19 January 9:00PM PST (20 January 5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
We will keep you updated if any of this information changes.

We will keep you posted if anything changes.</blockquote>

The "Win A Castle in Malas" contest is found at uo.com :

<blockquote>Now is your chance to win a castle in Malas! You read that right, a 32x32 footprint CASTLE! On March 25th we will be giving away 5 Castles on each shard. All you have to do to be eligible to win one of the 5 Castles is have an Ultima Online: Samurai Empire access level account that was created or upgraded between November 2nd 2004 and March 18th 2005.

We will randomly select 5 winners on each shard from all eligible accounts and the winners will be notified via the email address associated with your account, so make sure your account information is correct. You can update your account info HERE.

Make sure you are eligible to win a piece of history today and upgrade or create a new Samurai Empire level account!</blockquote>

The thread in UHall about this contest can be found HERE. Wilki EA clarified on that thread :

<blockquote>A few queries :

(1) Is this contest limited only to US shards ? Are Japan, Taiwan and/or Korean shards included in the contest ?

(2) Do the "winners" get to choose which shard they want their castle in ? Eg, if a player plays only on Napa Valley, he may not want to "win" a castle on Legends.

Thanks in advance for any replies.


1 - All shards except for Japan.

2 - The castles will be awarded on the shard that the winning character is chosen from. Since there are 5 spots per shard, we can't given everyone a choice, as undoubtedly there would be a shard were more than 5 people would chose to have a castle on.

I'm working on a FAQ for this contest, and should have it up sometime over the next couple of days. There will be a link at the bottom of the current announcement
</blockquote>
 
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CitizenKane2

Guest
Again, in case anyone missed it, the FAQ for the Castle Lottery can be found HERE :

<blockquote><font color=red>Win a CASTLE in Malas!</font color=red>

Now is your chance to win a castle in Malas! You read that right, a 32x32 footprint CASTLE! On March 25th we will be giving away 5 Castles on each shard. All you have to do to be eligible to win one of the 5 Castles is have an Ultima Online: Samurai Empire access level account that was created or upgraded between November 2nd 2004 and March 18th 2005.

We will randomly select 5 winners on each shard from all eligible accounts and the winners will be notified via the email address associated with your account, so make sure your account information is correct. You can update your account info HERE.

Make sure you are eligible to win a piece of history today and upgrade or create a new Samurai Empire level account!

<font color=blue>F.A.Q.</font color=blue>

Q: Do I need to be Opted-In to receive emails from EA in order to win?
A: Yes, you will need to have a current email address and be Opted-In to receive emails from Electronic Arts in order for us to send you a “winners†notice should you be selected as a winner.

To update your email address and Opt-In status please visit: ultima-registration.com and follow these steps:

* Click on EDIT ACCT
* Enter your UO Account Name and Password and click OK
* Click on the Edit Member Info link at the bottom of the MY ACCOUNT page
* Enter your current email address and click in the box that says “Contact me about EA products, news and events.â€
* Click OK

Q: Can I choose the shard where I’m awarded the castle?
A: No, we will randomly select 5 characters from each eligible shard as winners. The castle will be awarded on the shard that character was on when it was selected.

Q: If I have seldom-used characters on other shards, do they have a chance of being picked?
A: Yes!

Q: Which shards are eligible for this contest?
A: All shards except for Japanese shards are eligible.

Q: Can we know where exactly the castles are located on each shard? Do we have a choice of which castle to select from the 5?
A: Winners will be given one of five randomly chosen locations on the shard the character resides on. Winners will be notified of their new castle location upon winning.

Q: Does the account have to be active? What if I upgraded an account to UOSE, then canceled it a few months later?
A: Yes, the account has to be active, in good standing, and have Samurai Empire access level at the time of the drawing.

Q: What if I already own a house on the account that is chosen as a winner?
A: You can only own one house per shard, so you must either condemn your current house or you may choose to trade or give away your new castle. We will be happy to help you transfer ownership within the first 15 days. If you have not chosen to accept the new castle and you have not traded it after 15 days of winning, you will forfeit the castle.

Q: When will the winners be selected?
A: Winners will be randomly chosen between March 19th - March 23rd 2005.

Q: When will winners be notified?
A: Winners will be notified on March 23rd 2005. A complete list of winners will be posted HERE on March 25th 2005.</blockquote>
 
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CitizenKane2

Guest
Bits and Pieces.

The <font color=red>"TC2 Publish 30 - Treasures of Tokuno feedback"</font color=red> thread can be found HERE :

<blockquote>This thread is for discussing the Treasures of Tokuno event on the TC2 Publish 30 shard.

Chaos has engulfed the newly-discovered Tokuno Islands, and the treasures of Tokuno have been stolen by powerful creatures and evil ninjas.

The Ruler of the Tokuno Islands has asked adventurers from abroad to recover these valuable artifacts for her. Bring back any ten of these items and you will be granted a unique reward of your choosing.

Normally, we'd post a full list of what the players can expect during the event, but in this case, we've decided to give everyone a few days of adventuring to discover the system on their own. We'll be posting more details late this week, or early next week.

This event will only be active for a limited time (Pub30 and 31), and has two phases. The first phase starts with Pub30 and features 20 different minor artifacts / rewards that can be found on the denizens of the Tokuno Islands. Pub31 will activate the second phase where you will be able to acquire even more powerful rewards. Details on that phase will be released at a later date.

There are some other changes incorporated into Pub30, but I don't have a full change list ready yet. As soon as I get that, I'll make another thread for non-ToT Pub30 issues. Please use this thread only for ToT feedback.

Thanks!</blockquote>

Wilki also stated in that thread :

<blockquote>They show up in your backpack.

And you can receive them by battling almost any monster/creature/NPC in Tokuno.

The tougher your opponent, the higher your chance of getting one. </blockquote>

Players who own/are part of a player establishment (such as LGH on Formosa) may be interested to know about this thread in UHall - <font color=blue>"Do you frequent an establishment? Do you own one?" </font color=blue> by Wilki EA :

<blockquote>Player-run establishments such as towns, taverns, theater troupes, schools, and training centers are a unique and important part of the Ultima Online community. These establishments are often the result of hundreds of hours of effort by their creators, including the tasks of securing a house or houses, decorating, staffing, rehearsing, and planning events. The end result can be a great reward to both owners and visitors alike.

There are a great many establishments that enrich the land of Britannia, and we're honored to showcase these unique and interesting locations.

Click here for details on how you can submit your favorite establishment</blockquote>

Posted on the FYI section of UO.COM HERE

First, Demolishing a House with a Moving Crate :

<blockquote>It has come to our attention that some players are demolishing their house with items still in the moving crate. This action permanently deletes the moving crate and any items contained inside of it.

We have scheduled a change for publish 30 that will no longer allow players to demolish a house that contains a moving crate. In the meantime, we recommend that players check to make sure they do not have items inside of a moving crate before demolishing a house. Keep in mind that lost items can not be replaced by Game Masters.

For more information on our lost item policy, click here.</blockquote>

Secondly, Focus Attack Issue ERT Publish Schedule :

<blockquote>If everything goes according to plan, we will be publishing all shards as follows:

26 January 11:30AM PST (7:30PM GMT) - Origin
26 January 1:00PM PST (9:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
26 January 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma, Oceania
26 January 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
26 January 4:00PM PST (27 January 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa

26 January 9:00PM PST (27 January 5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
We will keep you updated if any of this information changes</blockquote>

On weapons which were affected by the Focus attack issue, Wilki EA posted HERE :

<blockquote>There is no promise that we can, however, the Live team is looking into possibly restoring items that have a specific template, such as artifacts. Items generated randomly by the loot system can not be restored, as there is no way of verifying their original properties.

I can say for sure that it won't be a part of Pub30.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Just to clarify the issue, it was the class of properties known as "hit chance properties" that was affected, not Hit Chance Increase.

Those are properties such as leech, hit area, fireball, etc.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some news for today.

1. A reminder was posted on UO.COM that the 7th anniversary items will stop being sold on January 30th. If you wish to buy them, go to http://www.uogamecodes.com/. Over HERE, Wilki EA stated :

<blockquote>They'll still be valid after we stop selling them</blockquote>

2. The fiction for the "Treasures of Tokuno" has been posted - see HERE. Quite a good story. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

3. More on the Treasures of Tokuno thread HERE by Leurocian :

<blockquote>Comment : i suspect the book starts with Zero spells in it?
Leurocian : Yep. 0 spells.

Comment : are these items blessable or already blessed?
For example the spellbook, will it act like any other spell book and stay on your corpse after you die...

Leurocian : The Tome of Enlightment is not blessed, but can be insured or blessed (like with a PBD) later.

Here is what Im thinking about the pigment.

Neutralizing pigment = first phase artifact
Multicolored Tub = Reward of your choice

So that there will be a tub or a colored dye device of some sort as a reward in the 2nd phase .. I Hope..

Leurocian : *coughs yes...coughs* </blockquote>

4. On Origami Fish, Speedman posted HERE :

<blockquote>Here's your official word: Yes, it's possible to get the Origami Fish.
</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Care to answer part 2 of the question? (what the chance was to get one?)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The only thing I'll say is this: When origami paper is dropped by the fan dancer, it has no idea what it's going to turn out to be.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hehe that's one of the funny things bout devs =) when it comes to future martys and stuff like that they'd give you the details but for some reason no details bout the chance to get a fish from a paper
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's the funny thing about easter eggs... They tend to remain hidden until someone finds them.</blockquote>

ADDED :

From a poster, Merle Corey over HERE on Samurai's Perfection bonus and Luck :

<blockquote>This just in:

Samurai who honor their opponents and receive Perfection points for striking them with precision will receive a Luck bonus equal to Perfection*Perfection/10, where Perfection ranges from 0 ("lost all Perfection") to 100 ("Achieved Perfection").

In other words, a Samurai who kills his or her opponent while at the maximum Perfection level will have a bonus of 1000 luck. This bonus is taken into account when calculating monster loot as well as artifact chance drop.

(courtesy of our very own Leurocian)</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted on uo.com (and Stratics General News)

1. Publish 30 available on the TC2 Publish 30 shard

<blockquote>Publish 30 is now live on the TC2 Publish 30 test shard. Keep in mind that the new features found on this shard may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 30 details, as well as a publish schedule, when we are ready to publish to the production shards.

For a list of Publish 30 changes, click here.</blockquote>

2. Publish 30 changes :

<blockquote>Publish 30 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:

NOTE: This is not a final list and may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 30 details as we are ready to publish to the production shards.


<font color=red>General Fixes/Tweaks/Enhancements</font color=red>

(1) Treasures of Tokuno Phase 1

Fight the creatures that inhabit the Tokuno Islands to recover unique Samurai Empire treasures.

Almost any creature on the islands or in the dungeons of Tokuno has a chance of rewarding you 1 of 20 different minor artifacts.

Your chances of finding an item are scaled based on the fame of the creature you defeat.

Recovered Tokuno items are placed in your bag (or bank if your can’t carry anymore)

This is a limited duration event.

(2)Archery has been reverted back to its pre-Pub 29 “fire and forget†state until a more comprehensive solution can be implemented.

(3)Houses can no longer be demolished if the house’s moving crate still has items in it.

(4)Vendors will no longer have “the vendor†appended to their names.

(5)Failed unstuck teleports no longer count against a player’s total uses per day count.

(6)Fixed a bug that didn’t remove the weight of gold that was in 2 piles when it got tithed

<font color=red>Item Fixes/Changes </font color=red>

*Book of Bushido and Book of Ninjitsu now only take up the correct amount of storage when locked down in a house.
*Big Fish Trophy will no longer disappear if not locked down
*Can no longer use Savage Kin Paint while in Animal Form
*Fixed an issue that reduced a player’s strength by 5 from logging out while under the effects of a Rose of Trinsic pedal under specific circumstances
*Potion kegs now weigh the correct amount. Full kegs now weigh 100 stones, while empty kegs weigh 20 stones.

<font color=red>Spell Casting/Spell Crafting Improvements </font color=red>

*Players can now craft Necromancy scrolls
*Players can now craft Spellbooks with magic properties
*Can now sell Necromancy scrolls to NPC mages

<font color=red>Creature and Spawning Fixes/Adjustments </font color=red>

*Fixed the issue causing tame Fire Beetles to not do the correct amount of damage
*Ranged poison cloud attack given to Yamandon and Serrado. This ranged attack does 20-25 points of direct damage plus level 5 poison to its target</blockquote>

3. <font color=blue>Treasures of Tokuno Information</font color=blue>

The rumors of strange happenings have spread far and wide throughout Britannia. From strife among the ruling family to tales of a daring heist being carried out in the middle of night, the reports from Zento are that something disconcerting has happened. But most intriguing of all, the citizens of Tokuno have begun whispering that the remains of a great fleet lost at sea have begun washing up along the shores of the Tokuno Islands. It is being said that among the battered fragments of the fleet, strange relics have been uncovered.

<font color=red>F.A.Q.</font color=red>

Q: How can I participate in the Treasures of Tokuno event?
A: All you have to do is defeat the denizens of Tokuno in battle. Every creature has a small chance of carrying one of the treasure items.

Q: Do I have to have an Ultima Online: Samurai Empire account to participate?
A: You will have to travel to the Tokuno Islands in order to acquire the items yourself. However, items from the first phase will be usable by everyone. Items obtained during the second phase will only be usable by UOSE accounts.

Q: When exactly is Phase 1 and Phase 2?
A: Phase 1 is a part of Publish 30, which is tentatively scheduled for February. Phase 2 is a part of Publish 31, and is scheduled tentatively for March.

Q: How long will Treasures of Tokuno last?
A: Until Publish 32, or approximately 2 months from the start of the event.

Q: What monsters give the best chance to drop a Treasures of Tokuno item?
A: Rumor has it that the tougher inhabitants of Tokuno seem to be better at hoarding treasure.

Q: What is this I hear about a shipwreck in the Tokuno Islands?
A: We're not exactly sure, but we've heard some whispering in the back alleys of Zento ourselves. Perhaps you can ask the more experienced Tokuno adventurers if they've seen anything odd...

Q: Is there a list of the unique items that will be available in Phase 1?
A: Yes, here is the list:

<font color=blue>Weapons</font color=blue>

Peasant's Bokuto (Bokuto)
Self Repair 3
Snake Slayer
Swing Speed Increase 10%
Damage Increase 35%
Hit Lower Defense 30%

Exiler (Tetsubo)
Demon Slayer
Hit Dispel 33%
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 40%
100% Energy Weapon

Dragon Nunchaku (Nunchaku)
Self Repair 3
Hit Fireball 50%
Damage Increase 40%
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Fire Resist 5%

The Destroyer (No-Dachi)
Strength 6
Hit Chance Increase 10%
Damage Increase 50%
Hit Stamina Leech 40%

Pilfered Dancer Fans (Tessen)
Spell Channeling (no Penalty)
Faster Cast Recovery 2
Swing Speed Increase 20%
Damage Increase 20%
Defense Chance Increase 5%

Demon Forks (Sai)
Defense Chance Increase 10%
Reflect Physicial Damage 10%
Damage Increase 35%
Fire Resist 10%
Poison Resist 10%

Hanzo's Bow (Yumi)
Self Repair 3
Ninjitsu +10
Damage Increase 50%
Hit Life Leech 40%

<font color=blue>rmor</font color=blue>

Black Lotus Hood (Cloth Ninja Hood)
Self Repair 5
Hit Chance Increase 6%
Lower Mana Cost 6
Cold Resist +6%
Fire Resist +6%
Energy Resist +6%
Poison Resist +6%

Daimyo’s Helm (Platemail Battle Kabuto)
Self Repair 3
10% Swing Speed Increase
Mage Armor
+8 Cold Resist
Lower Requirements

Arms of Tactical Excellence (Leather Hiro Sode)
Tactics +12
Dexterity 5
Cold Resist +10%
Fire Resist +5%
Poison Resist +5%

Ancient Farmer’s Kasa (Kasa)
+5 Animal Lore
+5 Strength
+5 Stamina
Stamina Regeneration 5
Cold Resist +10%

Gloves of the Sun (Ninja Leather Mitts)
Night Sight
Hit Point Regeneration 2
Lower Mana Cost 5
Fire Resist +20%
Lower Reagent Cost 18%

Legs of Stability (Platemail Suneate)
Self Repair 3
Physical Resist +15%
Poison Resist +15%
Stamina Increase 5
Mage Armor
Lower Requirements

Ancient Samurai Do (Platemail Do)
Physicial Resist +10%
Fire Resist +9%
Cold Resist +8%
Poison Resist +8%
Energy Resist 6%
Parry +10
Mage Armor
Lower Requirements

<font color=blue>Misc. Items</font color=blue>


Pigments of Tokuno (5 uses)
Removes Hue

Flute of Renewal
Random Super Slayer Instrument
Replenishes charges (300 charges, 1 charge per game hour – 5 minutes)

Ancient Urn (ashes of a random Tokuno character)

Honorable Swords of (random Tokuno Character)

Chest of Heirlooms

Tome of Enlightenment
Not Blessed
Spell Damage Increase 10%
Faster Casting 1
Intelligence Bonus 5
0 Spells</blockquote>

(4) Changes not announced until all shards were published with Publish 29 - see Here :

<blockquote>House Placement: Locked down items will no longer vanish from house when boat is backed under corner of house.

Can no longer ban a pet while riding it.

Hiryu dismount special move can no longer be used to separate a Chaos Dragoon Elite from his mount.

When attempting to make yourself a friend while in the middle of transferring your pet to another player, you will receive the following message: You cannot friend a pet with a trade pending.

Necromancer familiars and animates can no longer be stabled.

Murderers can no longer use Virtues via a macro.

Fixed an issue with pet slots after logging out while on a Hiryu.

Fukiya Darts and Shurikens no longer give gains in Ninjitsu for non-entitled Samurai Empire accounts.

Fixed an issued allowing Lightning strike to allow a player to ignore disarm timer.

Fixed an issue that allowed special moves to automatically hit when a spell landed.

Can no longer use a Soulstone if character is located on a different sub-server.

Locked-down rune books can no longer be dyed by other players.

Player characters are now able to equip a sword and torch at the same time.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
For those that missed it, Publish 30 (which includes the Takuno Treasures) will be published on the shards as follows (see HERE) :

<blockquote>Now that Publish 30 has been running successfully on the Origin Shard the World Wide publish schedule for Publish 30 is as follows:


9 February 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior

9 February 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma

9 February 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania

9 February 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura

9 February 4:00PM PST (10 February 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa


9 February 9:00PM PST (10 February 5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
For a list of the Publish 30 changes, please click here.

We will keep you updated if any of this information changes</blockquote>

In terms of local shard times, Thunder of VCB (a poster) added HERE :

<blockquote>10 February 8:00AM Taiwan/Singapore - Formosa</blockquote>

So, Formosa gets Publish 30 on 10 February 2005, the 2nd day of Chinese New Year.

To everyone reading this post and who celebrates the holidays, have a prosperous and healthy Year of the Rooster ! /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
A short note. Mr Tact confirmed HERE, how to get the Origami Gold Fish :

<blockquote>OK I guess we have tortured you guys enough.

It's just the being drunk. All the being polymorphed to another gender standing next to a bartender named Fred hopping on one foot under two full moons is just urban myth :)

Two bottles of wine or two sips from a pitcher of wine are enough to do it . . . presumably any alcoholic drink will do but I don't recall the conversion ratio.

There is no delay afterward. That rumor I can probably attribute to one of two things. One, if you were just drunk enough to get one, it may have worn off enough to no longer make you eligible (you can be a *little* drunk and not be eligible). The other is, even if you are drunk enough, it only adds the fish to the list of possible shapes, so you have a one in six chance of getting one.

Now I wonder when y'all are going to find the NEXT Samurai Empire easter egg, heh heh . . . .

= MrTact =</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some quick news (for the 2nd Day of Chinese New Year /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif)

On the upcoming publish (Publish 31), Wilki EA posted over hereHERE :

<blockquote>You will be able to trade any 10 in for 1 major artifact; they don't have to match.

As for how, you'll have to wait until pub31 ;-) </blockquote>

There are some issues with Rune Books locked downed. Over HERE, posted :

<blockquote>With the introduction of Publish 30 we’ve discovered a small issue concerning locked down rune books and their associated access levels. As such, we strongly suggest that rune book owners restrict access to these items until the issue can be fully addressed.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience as we finalize the publish world wide.</blockquote>

Wilki EA had posted HERE on creatures which drop minor arties in Takuno :

<blockquote>Straight from Leurocian: Anything in the Tokuno region, other than cranes, can drop Tokuno items.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Happy Valentine's Day ! /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Few quick bits and pieces.

<font color=red>1.</font color=red> MyUO (at UO.COM) Returns to Service. All the guild pages and character pages have been updated :

<blockquote>Announcing the triumphant return of MyUO! Visit MyUO and rediscover all that MyUO has to offer. Now up to date with all the character content available in Ultima Online and packed full of guild tracking goodness, MyUO is a great supplement to the game. So head over today to MyUO and check it out!

We are always looking for feedback about Ultima Online, and that includes MyUO, so if you see something that is incorrect or you have an idea you’d like to see, please visit www.uo.com/mailBug.html for details on submitting a bug report or send your enhancement ideas to [email protected].</blockquote>

<font color=red>2.</font color=red> On Runebook access - posted at the FYI section of uo.com HERE

<blockquote>With the introduction of Publish 30 we’ve discovered a small issue concerning locked down runebooks and their associated access levels. As such, we strongly suggest that runebook owners restrict access to these items until the issue can be fully addressed.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience as we finalize the publish world wide.</blockquote>

Over HERE, Fertbert elaborated on the rune book access issue :

<blockquote>To elaborate a bit on the issues:
- People who relied on strength jewelry to wear some of their equipment were losing items when tithing gold, and when buying from player vendors.
- Runebooks could be renamed by anyone with access to use them allowing people rename all the books in a public rune library, for example.


To elaborate even more on runebooks...

They should now work as intended with the house security system, here's the deal:
- If a rune book is locked down it can not be renamed, or have runes added or removed.
- The access level can be used to specify who can use the runebook. This means that you can, for example, now restrict access to a runebook to your guildmates only without having to bury it in a secure container.

I understand that this requires extra work on the part of large public rune libraries to reset their security level to "anyone", but this flexibility was always intended, and has often been requested by the playerbase.

Cheers,
Fertbert</blockquote>

<font color=red>3.</font color=red> On the Tokuno treasures, a reminder from Wilki EA HERE :

<blockquote>If you want to trade a chest or the pigments in for a major, you must not fiddle with the chest or use the pigments.</blockquote>

<font color=red>4.</font color=red> Related to the Tokuno treasures, note that ANYONE can have an base-colored artifact with the use of the pigments of Tokuno. So anyone trying to sell you a "different coloured" artifact/equipment, may have simply used the pigments on the artifact/equipment.

See this post HERE - [/b]"INFO - Beware of these types of Artifact 'Scammers'"[/b]
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Over HERE, Wilki EA posted some important information on how Tokuno minor artifacts are distributed :

<blockquote>Tomarties are distributed using a completely new system that keeps track of what you kill, and increases the chances of you receiving a reward each time. It is fame based, with a luck modifier.

As you accumulate kills, your chances to get a reward with each kill increases. So, let's say you kill 10 Hiryus which takes your chance to 1 in 100 on the 10th Hiryu. Now for every creature you kill, regardless of what it is (even dogs, cats, birds), you chance will still be at least 1 in 100. That's why people report getting tomarties from low fame creatures, i.e. they've already increased their chances on higher famed creatures, or they're just extremely lucky. ;-)

However, killing things with high fame increases your odds much faster. For example, killing 20 lizardmen from the start might only give you a 1 in 1000 chance to get a reward on the 20th lizardman, while killing 10 Hiryus might give you a 1 in 100 chance on the 10th Hiryu. (I made those numbers up, but they're roughly accurate.)

Luck acts a modifier that causes your chances to increase at a faster rate. </blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Luck plays a moderate role. You don't need luck at all, but it does increase how fast you get tomarties. I was examining the system on a test shard, and 1200 luck increased my chances over 0 luck on the 10th Hiryu by about 1/3 or so. However, since I only did two tests, and with only one type of monster, much of that could have been due to random chance. The point is that it does make a noticable difference.

As with most things involving luck, if you can wear a high luck suit, it certainly doesn't hurt. On the other hand, it's far from being a requirement.

Finally, it is based on the fame of the creature you kill. Of course, being in a party divides up that fame, which slows the rate that your chance increases.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, once you get an arty - does your chance get reset to 0 essentially so you have to start "accumulating" chance again or does it stay where it was?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It resets.

However, your "monster points" (for lack of a better word) stick around even if you log off, and through server down.</blockquote>


For the players on Pacific, EA is holding a silent auction to sell (for UO Gold) a Castle on Pacific - see HERE. Wilki EA made some clarifications on a thread in UHall HERE.
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
From the latest 22nd Stratics UOHOC Chat Log (I have highlighted the parts which I personally find more interesting).

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Ultima Online! Tonight’s topic is Publish 30 and Publish 31, only questions related to the topic will be answered.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; Please send your questions to [QT]Ishu OR [QT]Elm - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://uohoc.stratics.com shortly after the chat.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Hello, I'm MrTact and I'm a designer/engineer on UO Live
&lt;wilki_EA&gt; Hello, I'm Wilki, UO Community Rep.
&lt;Leurocian&gt; Howdy, I'm Leurocian, Designer for Ultima Online
&lt;EvilMantis&gt; I'm EvilMantis, engineer on UO
&lt;Fertbert&gt; Howdy, I'm Fertbert the Live Team Lead


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Draconi* "The fiction from Pub30 implies that Tokuno is really still like the Lands of the Feudal Lords (from U1) and still has a variety of rulers and kingdoms. Therefore, is Tokuno a sovereign entity seperate from Britannia's rule?"
&lt;wilki_EA&gt; While we don't know all that much about the political system of the Tokuno Islands, it is quite seperate from Britannia at this time.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Grimmov* What has happened to the tournament of champions? has it been discontinued?
&lt;wilki_EA&gt; It was put on hold due to the changes associated with the move of the UO team from Austin to Redwood City. We're going to review the program and see what we can do about finishing it as it was intended.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *CalixAOK* Are there any plans to fix some of the notable bugs that have appeared recently, especially some PvP related ones. For instance the problem affecting perfection which allows players to kill others with 1 hit from a weopon?
&lt;MrTact&gt; We have just begun planning another PvP tuning pass (like the one Hanse did a few months back).
&lt;MrTact&gt; Hopefully we will be able to do this within the next few publishes.
&lt;MrTact&gt; So, to everyone who is hammering us with PvP related questions (and thanks, by the way!) -- there's your answer right there.



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Flutter_UO* How is the new artifact-giving code doing?
&lt;Fertbert&gt; It appears to be doing well. For those not int he know, as you kill creatures your odds of getting an artifact improve until you get one, then your odds are reset to a base level. We're pleased enough with how it's working that we are *starting* to consider other uses in item distribution and skill gain.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Aeris* Will the formula for turning in the tomarties involve specific combinations, or will it be any 10?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Any 10. There are some limitations, such as you can't turn in the chest of heirlooms if you have cracked the lock.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Robdadct* My question is everybody is wondering exactly how the trade ins will work. Like are we going to be able to pick the artifact we want or will it be totally random. And will there be a limit on how many artifacts we can trade in?
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; You will give a specific NPC the items, and he will tell you how close you are getting.
&lt;MrTact&gt; When you give him item number 10, you get a gump to pick the one you want.
&lt;MrTact&gt; It's just that simple.
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Draconi* "Is there any advantage to hosting both the Britain Invasion and the Treasure of Tokuno campaign at the same time?"
&lt;Fertbert&gt; It's time for the Invasion to draw to a close. I wonder what the Security Consultant will do with all that gold?
&lt;Leurocian&gt; I coded it to give me all the gold ;P



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Pittminion* "First off, thank you for not blessing the new scribe books on siege, however, are there plans to address the non magical ones being not newbied, and not being able to use a pbd on them?
&lt;MrTact&gt; If what you're asking is, will we find a way to unbless non-magical spellbooks and prevent a pbd from being used on them, the answer is "we're not planning on it."
&lt;MrTact&gt; However, we are actively investigating a general solution to the pbd situation, and that *might* encompass generally blessed items as well.



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Taryn* will a pre uor or straight uor shard ever be put in for the vets that stuck with your game 5+ years?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Not in the plans at this moment.
&lt;MrTact&gt; However, we are starting to get some traction on possibly doing bigger modifications to Siege, so it may be getting a little tougher in the near future.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Stasis* will the tonuka major artifacts be comparable with the doom artifacts available now in power and intensity?
<font color=red>&lt;Leurocian&gt; I would have to say Yes.
&lt;wilki_EA&gt; We should have more information on uo.com about them soon.
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *jbear0000* Will we see a fix for the shadow jump bug in Publish 31?
&lt;Fertbert&gt; That's unlikely, right now we're focused on some higher priority bug fixes.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Lone`Shadow* I want to know if the armor (metal) dye tub will be unlimited charges like a leather tub to help people remove neons and clown suis that don't matchup well? I know myself and many others would like this.
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; The pigments of tokuno *do* have charges.
&lt;MrTact&gt; I know this isn't going to make everyone happy. However, we can always look into making them unlimited, or adding ways to recharge them, down the road. It's pretty hard to go in the other direction.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Also, as any crafter will tell you, adding stuff to the game that works forever devalues the item.
&lt;MrTact&gt; I *did*, however, double the charges on them, so they have 20 uses now.
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Hamm* The Live Team seems to be more active now than ever in recent memory, any hints on whats coming up on the horizon for the Live Team and future publishes?
&lt;MrTact&gt; I can tell you there are many hot issues we would *like* to address.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Ghost cams.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Crafting.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Archery.
&lt;MrTact&gt; We always take these things into consideration as we plan our publishes. As to what will actually make it when, I could not predict.



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *JCtheBuilder* Are there plans to further reduce lag when there are a lot of players in one area fighting? At harrowers especially, the server will sometimes grind to a hault.
&lt;Fertbert&gt; We're currently in the middle of a shard hardware upgrade. Faster hardware may help the situation if the problem is that the server iteself is getting too busy. If it's a matter of too much data being sent for your internet connection to handle or for your client to render, there are no current plans to do additional optimization there in the next couple publishes.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *jbear0000* Any hints on what the artifacts we can get in pub 31 ares?
<font color=red>&lt;wilki_EA&gt; Ok, a teaser... Tome of Knowledge, which is not blessed: Spell Damage Increase 15%, Magery +15, Lower Mana Cost 15%, Intelligence Bonus 8.
&lt;wilki_EA&gt; We'll have the rest of the list posted on uo.com soon.
&lt;Leurocian&gt; Sword of the Stampede (no-dachi) cold damage 100%, hit harm 100%, hit chance increase 10%, damage increase 60%
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Anon5907* I've enjoyed the Tokuno Treasures thus far. I'm a big fan of the new formula for getting the artifacts. IS there any chance of continuing a system such as the Treasures of Tokuno while at the same time decreasing the chances of getting a special item? The special item doesn't necessarily have to be a weapon or piece of armor. I just enjoy getting a special item every now and then.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Continue them in a limited form afterward . . . hmm, interesting idea . . .


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Aeris* Will there be any sort of limitation on how many Tokuno arties you can receive by trading minors, such as a certain number per char/account?
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; Nope. If you collect 10K minors you can get 1K majors.</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *LBeff* Any chance for changes to cooking in the upcoming crafting overhaul, and perhaps new uses for foods (such as short term buffs, bonus effects to things like SSI etc)?
&lt;MrTact&gt; It's possible -- cooking is one of those things many people are interested in seeing revisited.
&lt;MrTact&gt; A popular request from our players in Japan is that we turn hunger back on again, or at least give players the option to do so.
&lt;MrTact&gt; So, that's a firm "maybe" :)



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Robdadct* Looking at Ghost Cams. I heard that you were looking into making a necro with spirit speak able to see the dead even while they are not in war mode. Also i heard that you were looking into making a possible exorcism spell that would send all spawned dead players to a graveyard is this true and if so will it be posibly comming out in publish 31?
&lt;MrTact&gt; That is indeed in the works.
&lt;MrTact&gt; However, I will not be able to get it done in time for pub 31, so probably 32.



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Xevei_GL* Any ETA on pub31 TC?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Next week, hopefully.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Gamlin* I have a question concerning the crafting of Necromancy scrolls. Is the ability to make those scrolls supposed to go up 10% instead of 0.2% with each point of inscription over minimum for the scroll?
&lt;EvilMantis&gt; Necromancy scroll difficulty is different than the difficulty associated with magery scrolls due to a couple of reasons\
&lt;EvilMantis&gt; And we needed to address such differences as magery has spell circles and necromancy does not



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *iCE|over-there* About the armor dye tub that was hinted at, Will the armor only be dyable the colors of metals, or the same color as on a normal dye tub?
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; We have a bunch of new hues that are based on existing minor artifacts and whatnot.
&lt;MrTact&gt; E.g. Shadow Dancer Black, Rum Red and so on.
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *wedew* will there be any rewards for invasion kill counts?
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; Not for kill counts per se . . .</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Monk-Hibernating* any plans to make the crafters life in UO more meaningful? IE more goodies in the future or ways to customize your armor etc...
&lt;MrTact&gt; A crafting revamp would be all about making crafting more meaningful. I don't have specific details at the moment, though.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *ALEX_S* "About the choice, given for the trade : will player be able to choose from artifacts with randomly generated properties, or from pre-designed arts?"
&lt;MrTact&gt; Pre-designed, per the examples given earlier.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Assia* Will there be any non-pvp related artifacts? Such as Decorations, Dying tubs etc?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Yes, the Pigments of Tokuno (major artifacts) are non-combat related. Unless you count combating your sense of good taste . . .


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Aerilyn* With pub 31, will there be any Tomarties that cater to the needs and/or playstyle of Ninjas or Assassins?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Yes.
&lt;Leurocian&gt; Mmmm....Stormgrip. Very handy leather ninja mitts ;P



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Zip^^* By the time I came back to UO it was to late for me to get a soul stone. Are there any plans to implement another way of getting this item?
<font color=red>&lt;wilki_EA&gt; While you will not see Soulstones in their current form available again, we do have plans to introduce the same basic functionality in a way that doesn't de-value current Soulstones. Keep an eye out for more information on uo.com in the near future. </font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Robdadct* Can you explain to everyone an example on exactly how the new artifact system works so all the confusion about some items being more rare than others will stop.
&lt;Fertbert&gt; Well, it sounds like you're just seeking reassurance that the drop odds for the new Tokuno minor artifacts are the same. Those odds are the same, no particular drop is more likely than any other.


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Cera* Is there a chance for slayer properties to be added to spellbooks, and affect spell damage against certain monster types?
&lt;EvilMantis&gt; Slayer spellbooks sound pretty cool...maybe MrTact can hook us up with that one day
&lt;Leurocian&gt; It would also hypothetically be cool to see other future mechanisms in game to augment spellcasting ability. Unfortunately at this time, I cannot elaborate on my statement. But it's certainly fun to speculate, isn't it



&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Flutter_UO* Anything new for any crafter types in publish 31?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Frankly, no.
&lt;MrTact&gt; (Unless, of course I'm forgetting something . . . )
<font color=red>&lt;MrTact&gt; However, there may well be a little something for alchemists in pub 32.
</font color=red>


&lt;Brekkee&gt; *SirBart* Why cant people or guilds aid the invasion and destruction of Brit and can we get the guards turned of in Fel for the invasion?
&lt;MrTact&gt; We have talked about doing stuff like that for future systems of this type.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Also stuff like having a threshold where the invasion shuts itself off after a certain threshold and so on.
&lt;MrTact&gt; Basically, we want to build on what's already been done and make it more fun and more engaging.



&lt;Brekkee&gt; That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the folks from Ultima Online for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://uohoc.stratics.com
&lt;Brekkee&gt; Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Ultima-Online to chat more about the game.


&lt;wilki_EA&gt; Thank you to everyone for joining the chat! See ya next time... and remember to keep an eye out on uo.com for more info on Pub31 soon. </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
UO.COM has been updated with information on Phase 2 of the Tokuno Treasures. See HERE :

<blockquote>Treasures of Tokuno Phase 2 Information

Q: Will the minor artifacts from Phase 1 still be found on Tokuno creatures?
A: Yes, as all of the treasure has yet to be recovered.

Q: How can I return the treasures I've found to their rightful owner, the Empress of Tokuno?
A: To return the treasures you've found, visit the Imperial Minister of Trade located on the second floor of the Rockvon Cultural Center in Zento. As you approach him, he will examine any minor artifacts you might be carrying and allow you to choose the ones you wish to return.

Q: How many minor artifacts do I have to return in order to be rewarded?
A: The Empress has instructed the Imperial Minister of Trade to give 1 reward for every 10 minor artifacts returned.

Q: Do I have to bring the Imperial Minister of Trade all 10 minor artifacts at once, or can I return them one by one?
A: The Imperial Minister of Trade will remember how many you've returned, so you can return them as you find them or in groups of up to 10 at a time.

Q: If I've used any of the minor artifacts, can I still return them?
A: Yes, with the exception of the Chest of Heirlooms. Don't attempt to unlock it if you wish to return it to the Empress.

Q: Do I have to have a Samurai Empire entitled account to use the major artifacts from Phase 2?
A: Yes. Only Samurai Empire entitled accounts can use the Phase 2 items.

Q: Is there a limit on how many minor artifacts I can return to the Empress?
A: No, she will be pleased if you return as many as you can find

Q: Is there a list of the unique items that will be available in Phase 2?
A: Yes, here is the list:


<font color=red>Weapons</font color=red>

Sword of Prosperity (daisho)
Luck 200
Mage Weapon -0
Spell Channeling
Faster Casting 1
100% Fire Damage

Sword of the Stampede (no-dachi)
Cold Damage 100%
Hit Harm 100%
Hit Chance 10%
Damage Increase 60%

Wind's Edge (tessen)
100% Energy Damage
50% Swing Speed Increase
50% Damage Increase
+10% Defence Chance Increase

Darkened Sky (kama)
50% Cold Damage
50% Energy Damage
Swing Speed Increase 25%
Damage Increase 50%
Hit Lightning 60%

The Horselord (yumi)
Hit Stamina Leech 50%
Hit Lower Defense 50%
Spell Channeling (No Penalty)
Damage Increase 50%
Dexterity Bonus 5

<font color=red>Armor</font color=red>

Rune Beetle Carapace (platemail do)
Lower Mana Cost 15%
Mana Increase 10
Mana Regeneration 3
Cold Resist +12%
Energy Resist +12%
Mage Armor
Lower Requirements

Kasa of the Raj-in (Kasa)
Fire Resist +12%
Cold Resist +12%
Energy Resist +12%
Poison Resist +12%
Spell Damage Increase 12%

Stormgrip (leather ninja mitts)
Cold Resist +15%
Energy Resist +15%
Intelligence Bonus 8
Lower Reagent Cost 25%

<font color=red>Misc. Items</font color=red>

Tome of Lost Knowledge (spellbook)
Not Blessed
Spell Damage Increase 15%
Magery +15
Lower Mana Cost 15%
Intelligence Bonus 8

Pigments of Tokuno (10 rare hues, 20 uses)
Paragon Gold
Violet Courage Purple
Shield of Invulnerability Blue
Luna Lance White
Dryad Bow Green
Shadow Dancer Leggings Black
Berserker’s Maul Red
Nox Ranger’s Crossbow Green
Admiral’s Hearty Rum Red
Tunic of Fire Orange</blockquote>

Other news.

Details of Publish 31 - see HERE :

<blockquote>"TC2 Pub31 Test" is currently running with the Publish 31 Server code. Publish 31 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:

NOTE: This is not a final list and may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 31 details as we are ready to publish to the production shards.

Features

Treasures of Tokuno phase 2

Locate Ihara Soko, the Imperial Minister of Trade, in Rokuon Cultural Center in Zento.

Turn in 10 minor Treasures of Tokuno artifacts to receive a choice of any new major Tokuno artifact.

(1) As you approach Ihara Soko with the minor artifacts, he will present you with a selection window.

(2) Ihara Soko will keep you updated on how many more artifacts you need to turn in before you receive your reward.

(3) Chest of Heirlooms that have been tampered with will not be accepted as a valid turn-in.

(4) Major Treasures of Tokuno artifacts can only be used by SE entitled accounts

Note: There is no limitation to how many artifacts you are allowed to turn in. However, this is a limited duration event.

Promotional Tokens

Promotional Tokens will now be given out after entering in valid Promotional Codes.

Tokens can be more easily traded to other players than codes.

Double-click the token to redeem what’s in them.

Applies to promotion codes for Soulstone, Soulstone Fragments, and Character Transfer.

Soulstone Fragments

Soulstone Fragments are limited use soulstones for players who purchased Samurai Empire.

Works like a soulstone, except each fragments contains only 5 charges and does not animate when filled.

Flushing a skill does not use up a charge.

Fixes

Plague Beasts will no longer destroy a player’s corpse if they die while in Necro Form or Animal Form.

Players will now unhide when they die to prevent ghosts from trying to auto-stealth.

Fixed an issue that caused soulstones to become inaccessible if a player had the soulstone gump open going into house customization mode.

Changed one of the ancestor names listed on some of the Treasures of Tokuno Ancient Urns and Honorable Swords because it was deemed inappropriate by some players.

Modified the vet rewards system to more accurately determine a UO account’s age.

Fixed various omissions in the game credits for UO:SE.

Players will find some additional items for testing: In their bank a bag of Tokuno minor artifacts and a pair of FC/FCR items, and a token for a soulstone fragment in their inventory.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some quick updates.

On what the "Enhance Potion" property does, Hanse posted HERE :

<blockquote>Cure poison potion:
Increases the chance to cure poison by the percentage total.

Healing Potion:
Increases the amount healed by percentage total.

NOTE: Healing potions were changed at the same time to have different delays between uses. Lesser healing potions are 3 seconds, normal potions are 8 seconds, and greater are 10 seconds.

Purple Potion:
Increases the amount of damage dealt by percentage total.

Refresh Potion:
Increases the amount of stamina healed by percentage total.

Strength:
Increases the amount of strength increased by percentage total.

Agility:
Increases the amount of dexterity increased by percentage total.

Night Sight, Poison Potions:
No effect.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Comment : Not true - increases the amount they actually add. At 80% EP A strength potion gave +36.

Yikes! I'm surprised I missed that in the potion code.</blockquote>

Publish 31 (currently under General Testing) has had several changes. See HERE :

<blockquote>Here is some updated information on Pub31, which has been published to the test shard.

*Improved the item properties of The Horselord
*Improved the item properties of Storm Grip
*Added Mana leech hit proc to the Wind's Edge
*Removed the ability to clothing bless the Major Artifact Kasa of Raj-In
*Pigments of Tokuno do not work on sandals
*Promo tokens are now blessed


The item properties shown in the reward selection interface are out of date, there will be another update to the reward window.

Here are the updated major artifacts:

The Horselord:
Elemental Slayer
Reptile Slayer
Dex 5
Mana regen 1
Luck 125
Damage increase 50%

Stormgrip:
Int 8
Luck 125
Damage Increase 25%
Physical 10%
Fire 4%
Cold 18%
Poison 3%
Energy 18%

Wind’s Edge:
Hit Mana Leech 40%
Defense Chance increase 10%
Swing Speed Increase 50%
Damage Increase 50&amp;
Damage Conversion 100% energy</blockquote>

Related to the Publish 31 changes, Mr Tact posted HERE :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately neither beetles or kappa are suceptible to Reptile slayers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, beetles aren't reptiles! As for kappas, uh . . . I better get back to you :)


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*edit again* Ok, something is really weird here. Some have sc, and some don't!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ones that have SC are the ones that people got prior to today's publish. What you are seeing is the combination of the code we did to fix the victims of the focus attack bug and the change of the generation code for the artis. This won't happen in production, because the first version will never have existed.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I say that each artifact has 2-3 versions, and when you pick one you randomly recieve one of those versions .. this would of course encorage trading AND make sure that the type that each group wants gets 'spawned' :)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's a very interesting idea, and while I agree it could have the results you're citing, it would be A LOT more work. Just getting 10 items that seem to make most people happy was a challenge, imagine trying to have to create 20-30 . . .</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
A few things posted on FYI on uo.com.

<font color=red>(1) Publish 31 Coming to Origin</font color=red>

<blockquote>We will be deploying Publish 31 to the Origin Shard today at approximately 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT).

For a complete list of updates and changes in Publish 31, visit the Update Center</blockquote>

The updated list of Publish 31 changes :

<blockquote> Publish 31 Updates and Bug Fixes Mar 14 2005 5:47PM CST
Publish 31 will be deployed into production starting with the Origin Shard on Monday, March 14, 2005 at 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT). Publish 31 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:

Features

<font color=blue>Treasures of Tokuno phase 2 </font color=blue>

* Locate Ihara Soko, the Imperial Minister of Trade, in Rokuon Cultural Center in Zento
* Turn in 10 minor Treasures of Tokuno artifacts to receive a choice of any new major Tokuno artifact
* As you approach Ihara Soko with the minor artifacts, he will present you with a selection window
* Ihara Soko will keep you updated on how many more artifacts you need to turn in before you receive your reward
* Chest of Heirlooms that have been tampered with will not be accepted as a valid turn-in
* Major Treasures of Tokuno artifacts can only be used by SE entitled accounts

Note: There is no limitation to how many artifacts you are allowed to turn in. However, this is a limited duration event

<font color=blue>Promotional Tokens </font color=blue>

* Promotional Tokens will now be given out after entering in valid Promotional Codes
* Tokens can be more easily traded to other players than codes
* Double-click the token to redeem what’s in them
* Applies to promotion codes for Soulstone, Soulstone Fragments, and Character Transfer
* Promotional Tokens are blessed

<font color=blue>Soulstone Fragments </font color=blue>

*Soulstone Fragments are limited use soulstones for players who purchased Samurai Empire
*Works like a soulstone, except each fragments contains only 5 charges and does not animate when filled
* Flushing a skill does not use up a charge


Mage Rebalance Changes

* Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits will now be limited to a total of six (6) per five by five (5x5) square of tiles centered around each Energy Vortex or Blade Spirits. Should the total number of Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits in an area exceed this limit Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits in the area will be selected at random and dispelled until the limit is no longer exceeded. No mana or reagents will be returned to the mage whose Energy Vortex of Blade Spirit was dispelled

* Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits will now take two control slots
* Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits now have double the hit points
* Energy Vortices get a massive boost to their dispel resist to bring them into parity with blade spirits and most of the controlled summons in this regard
* All magery summons, uncontrolled and controlled get a boost to their dispel resistance
* When Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits are idle they will now actively scan for nearby creatures to attack. This means they will now notice and attack creatures that spawn beside them instead of continuing to sit idle
* Blade Spirits now take 3/5 the time to cast as they used to
* Heal (a.k.a. lesser heal) now heals 50% more damage when used on a target other than the caster. This should benefit those who crossheal other players, and people who heal their controlled summons or pets
* Player crafted spellbooks now have a chance to have slayer properties. All slayer groups are included. You must have the spellbook equipped to receive the double damage bonus against the slayer group from most direct damage spells (except mind blast and harm).

* Crafting a one (1) property spellbook now only requires 80 magery. Crafting a two (2) property spellbook now only requires 90 magery. Crafting the three (3) property spellbook now only requires 100 magery. 110, and 120 magery each improve your odds of getting additional properties, but the number of properties is capped at 3. Maximum property intensities are obtainable with just 100 magery

* Lower Reagent Cost, Lower Mana Cost, and Mana Replenish can now be found on crafted spellbooks

* Creatures with auto-dispel (not to be confused with spellcaster AI) such as Dragons, Orc Brutes, and Tentacles of the Harrower now only have a 10% change to dispel when hit by a summon, instead of a 100% chance. Barracoon is excepted from this and maintains his 100% dispel chance

* Creatures with spellcaster AI but low magery will no longer waste all their mana trying to dispel summons that are too difficult. They should now put that mana to better use
* Control slot count should be cleaned up a bit better at login

Fixes

* Retroactively fixed artifact weapons that had their properties changed due to the focus attack bug that occurred from a previous publish. Note: Artifacts affected by this issue that are currently equipped to a character will need to be unequipped for a period of time in order for the fix to affect them
* Plague Beasts will no longer destroy a player’s corpse if they die while in Necro Form or Animal Form.
* Players will now unhide when they die to prevent ghosts from trying to auto-stealth
* Fixed an issue that caused soulstones to become inaccessible if a player had the soulstone gump open going into house customization mode
* Changed one of the ancestor names listed on some of the Treasures of Tokuno Ancient Urns and Honorable Swords because it was deemed inappropriate by some players
* Modified the vet rewards system to more accurately determine a UO account’s age
* Fixed various omissions in the game credits for UO:SE
* Fixed an issue that allowed players to easily land Ninjitsu Deathstrikes for the maximum possible damage by changing the way that the stalking bonus is calculated. </blockquote>

<font color=red>(2) New Client Patch </font color=red>

<blockquote>March 14th, 2005 at approximately 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) we will publish the 4.0.9b Client patch</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted on the FYI section of UO.COM - Publish 31 Deployment Schedule :

<blockquote>Now that Publish 31 has been running successfully on the Origin Shard the World Wide publish schedule for Publish 31 is scheduled as follows:

March 16 - 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
March 16 - 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
March 16 - 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania
<font color=blue>March 16 - 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
March 16 - 4:00PM PST (March 17 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa</font color=blue>
March 16 - 9:00PM PST (March 17 5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
For a list of the Publish 31 changes, please click here.

We will keep you updated if any of this information changes.</blockquote>

This means that the Japanese and Asian shards get Publish 31 tomorrow (17 March 2005).

It appears that the Harm and Mind Blast spells are currently not affected by the slayer properties (found on crafted Mage books). Fertbert posted HERE :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"At this point the biggest magery tweak we're considering for Publish 32 is making harm and mind blast effected by the slayer properties."

Please, do consider it! :) Why were they left out to begin with?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were left out because their damage calculations don't use the common code. For Pub32 I'd like to port them over to using the normal code for figuring damage bonuses which would mean slayer and sdi support.

Cheers,
Fertbert</blockquote>

A report on the Los Angeles "UO Town Hall Meeting" (with pics /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif) can be found at UO.COM HERE. Too bad EA Singapore shows an amazing lack of support for their own product, UO. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
It appears that there is a slight delay in P31 for some shards. Posted on FYI of uo.com - Publish 31 delayed world wide - fix in development

<blockquote>Due to some minor issues introduced with Publish 31 we will be stopping the publish for the remainder of the shards until we can implement a fix for the issues listed below. North American shards have been published and are the only shards that will be affected by these issues.

<font color=blue>The issues in question are as follows:

* Certain minor artifacts will lose their self repair and ninjitsu bonuses
* Certain items that have had the pigments applied to them will lose their special hue
* Players are not being rewarded Tokuno points for the Fan Dancer Dojo and Yomotsu Mines</font color=blue>

We are currently working on a fix to address these issues and will inform you when it will be deployed. In the meantime, please do not page a GM about the lost pigment hue as addressing the issue before the fix goes in will result in the hue disappearing again. Once the fix is in you will be able to page a GM to have the item rehued. We expect to have a fix to automatically fix the minor artifacts that have lost their self repair and/or ninjitsu bonuses.

Publish 31 will also continue to be deployed once it has been updated with the code to address these issues. We will post a new publish schedule as soon as we have tested the fix thoroughly. </blockquote>

Posted by Wilki EA on a thread HERE :

<blockquote>Promo tokens will not be activated immediately after the publish. We will make an announcement in the near future announcing the activation date.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some interesting news.

The latest UOHOC chat log (an "advance copy" version) is posted on UHall and can be found HERE.

Some interesting bits (to me, anyway) :

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Lord* can you give us a little more info on the bod timer changes?
&lt;MrTact&gt; There really isn't much to say.
&lt;MrTact&gt; When you turn in a BOD your timer will be reset, so no more 6-hour waits.</blockquote>

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; *andyp* Quick question about Brit invasion: when will it end?
&lt;Fertbert&gt; It will end with this next publish. When the invasion ends "Ye Olde Security Consultant" will reveal what he's spent his money on. I think you'll find him revealing some interesting statistics about the battles your shards have waged, and how much you've enriched his life.</blockquote>

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; *SmokeSerpent* How likely is it that some of the concepts from the Treasures of Tokuno publishes will be backported to the Gauntlet or Ilshenar's Paragon system?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Highly.</blockquote>

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; *lego* Currently there is a method dexxers use to get a second special out of a hit. Is this going to tbe fixed anytime soon?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Yes, I have that in my bug list. I don't think it's fixed for pub32, which means it should be slated for pub 33. I'll double-check</blockquote>

<blockquote>&lt;Brekkee&gt; *Vaen* It was mentioned that the dyes for armor may be put into a champ spawn system on Tokuno so that the basic idea never leaves and we don't have to deal with mismatched armor again. Any more information on this?
&lt;MrTact&gt; Yes.
&lt;MrTact&gt; (How much to reveal, how much to reveal . . . )
&lt;Leurocian&gt; Go ahead spill the beans!
&lt;MrTact&gt; OK well the current thinking is we would make minor artis, as well as the pigments, drop as part of the Serrado champ spawn.</blockquote>

Other bits (already posted on the Dev's Comments of UO Stratics) - include bits on "Event Moderators returning soon" and more comments (by Mr Tact) on BOD timer changes.

MrTact's unofficial thoughts on "Item Repair" in UO can be found HERE :

<blockquote>What I'd like to do with crafting, part 1: Item decay

I've resisted the temptation to start a blog for a long time, both because I feel like I'm jumping on the bandwagon fairly late in the game (I'm not one to do something just because the cool kids are doing it, as a rule) and because I fear that I won't keep it up.

However.

I now find I want to talk about the things I'd like to do with crafting in UO, but I don't have an appropriate venue in which to do so. These ideas are just that, ideas. There's no guarantee that these "features" or anything resembling them, will ever hit production. Hopefully the fact that this is my blog and not an official source of UO information will curb the tendency of anyone who happens to read this to have the traditional "you promised this and it never materialized" reaction.

That being said, if I were to start work on a crafting revamp today, here are some things I might like to do concerning item decay:

* Items will have a "repair charges" attribute, representing the number of times they can be repaired before breaking.

* Artifacts will receive "bonus" repair charges, as will legacy items.

* Dropping to 0 durability will have no lasting adverse effects on items. At 0 durability, they are less functional than normal -- weapons do less damage, armor resists are lowered and so on.

* Each time an item is repaired, it will use one repair charge. However, at GM craft skill and above, there will be a small chance of the repair being "free".
Powder of Temperament will cease to have any impact on item durability whatsoever. Instead, crafters will use it to increase the chance of a free repair.

* You will, of course, be able to do repairs via the trade window.

* And naturally, repair deeds are right out.

* Self repair items will automatically repair themselves when they hit 0 durability. The property intensity will be re-mapped to represent the chance of the repair being free.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some further news.

(1) Not illegal to get on Roofs of Keeps

In response to a query "My friend just bought a Keep and was wondering if it was illegal to get on the roof. One of his other friends says it is, but I say it isn't. Any info would be great, thanks.", Wilki replied HERE :

<blockquote>No, it is not illegal</blockquote>


(2) There are further updates to Mr Tact's "unofficial" thoughts on crafting HERE, which comes in 3 parts.

First Part - Re: part 1 comments

<blockquote>Lots of good feedback in the comments. Thanks everybody! Even those of you who think I'm an ass :)

I actually like devil_woman's suggestion of keeping repair deeds with no chance of avoiding burning a repair charge better than the notion of getting rid of them -- convenience at a tangible price is a reasonable trade-off.

notorious, I was thinking that items would have 10 repair charges, and that we would tweak durability loss so it would take around 20 hours of use to reduce an item to 0 durability. 20 hours is the average amount of time UO players spend in-game in a week, so that would make items last 10 weeks (aka 2 1/2 months). More casual players might see their items last MUCH longer, and of course the hard-core players would be replacing equipment more regularly -- but then, they will be the ones making phat bank, so this should not be so much an issue with them.

I figured artis would get an extra 10 repairs, legacy items another 10 (so legacy artis would have a lifespan of about 8 months of normal usage). For "free repair" chance, I was considering a 2% chance at GM, +2% each at 105, 110, 115 and 120. Using PoT would double that chance, so if you regularly got a legendary crafter to repair your stuff with PoT, it would last an extra 20% (or almost a year, for legacy artifacts).

The next part of this discussion will be about the flip side of this equation -- new abilities for crafters. I should have that posted later in the week.</blockquote>

Second Part - What I'd like to do with crafting, part 2: Stuff

<blockquote>(Caveat: same rules of commitment apply as with the first part of this article: this is my blog, these are not plans but ideas, and so on.)

As many people pointed out, it's not too cool to have your double slayer HCI SSI Sword of Everything that took you a year of Doom-trawling to get bust . . . unless it gets a lot easier to replace.

Well, what if it was?

Some people have suggested that we should port the Tokuno arti system (where your chances of getting one increase for each eligible creature you kill) to Doom and the paragon system. We will probably get to the paragon system in time, but I am actively planning to update Doom to work like this soon. This is going to put more artifact caliber loot into players' hands. There are some additional changes that are not yet on the menu, but I would like to do to loot in general:

* Remove generics on all but the lowest-end creatures. (Does the dark father really need to drop regs?).
* Drop fewer items, but ensure that those that do get dropped are of better quality.
* Make high-end creatures drop rare crafting materials. Speedman calls these "fragments" and for want of a better term, that's what I'll call them as well.

So what would these fragments do? Each different fragment type would be associated with a specific property. We would modify crafting so you could integrate fragments into the process and control the specific properties on an item. The more properties you try to add, the harder the crafting job would become (with artifact-caliber items, even Legendary crafters would have a good chance of failing, consuming a bunch of those rare loot dropped crafting materials and making crafted artifacts expensive).</blockquote>

Third Part - Lots of great comments, everybody!

<blockquote>This is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping for when I started down this path.

The one comment I feel I need to respond to immediately was this:

danger powers: Rather than a cap on the number of repairs I would like to see something like a "drastic repair error" introduced.

Honestly, I think this is a very bad idea. If there's one thing people would hate worse than their stuff breaking, it's their stuff breaking randomly. That's why, of all the proposed ways to implement item decay I've seen, this is the one I liked best. It's predictable. (On the heels of that, I should mention -- in response to everyone who pointed out how quickly durability goes away in the game today -- that it was my intent with this design that we would regulate that so durability loss is quite a bit slower.) </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Further News (not April Fool's joke).

Posted on UO.COM -

(1) Ultima Online Promotional Tokens

<blockquote>Introducing the Ultima Online Promotional Token System. Now when you redeem your promotional codes for Soulstones, Soulstone Fragments, and Character Transfers (more coming soon) you will receive an Ultima Online Promotional Token instead of getting the item or service on the spot. This will help give you a better sense of security when trading promo items.

Click here for complete details.</blockquote>

(2) Soulstone Fragments Are Here!

<blockquote>Did you miss out on the Ultima Online: Samurai Empire pre-order Soulstone? Did you get your Soulstone, but wish you had another one? No need to fear, Soulstone Fragments are here!

Soulstone Fragments are pieces of a shattered Soulstone that have retained a small amount of the Soulstones power allowing you to transfer skill points between skills and characters up to 5 times.

Click here for complete details. </blockquote>

(3) A poll about "item decay" can be found in UHall HERE. Mr Tact commented in that thread :

<blockquote>Maybe this isn't obvious, but one of the side effects of making uber items easier to come by would be to level the playing field somewhat, making the game more skill-based than it has been recently. </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Possible Guild Chat System coming soon ?

Over HERE, Speedman posted the following :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guild chat
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I actually implemented a Guild/Alliance chat that should be out for Publish 32, provided QA verifies everything and no other blocking issues arise.

It should be a nice complement to the changes with Samurai Empire where you can now see who in your Guild is online.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i hope you also have a way for turning that off :)
i can imagine some people might not like that feature. : e.g. 300 people in a guild.. could be spammy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, there are options to set the color for Guild and Alliance chat and options to ignore them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speedman, THANK YOU. I have always wanted a chat, any chat. It really sucks having a guild and have no real way of talking to the other people online. This will rekindle my wants for a guild. What's the point of having a guild if you don't know when people are online?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You're welcome! My thoughts exactly. </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted on the FYI section of uo.com - "Publish 32 Test Shard Delayed - Change List Published".

<blockquote>The opening of the Publish 32 test shard has been delayed due to a minor issue that has been fixed, and is now being tested by our QA team. Barring any unforeseen issues, we are now expecting the test shard to be opened sometime tomorrow, Friday, April 14th, 2005 PDT.

There will be a small client patch a few hours before the opening of the test shard.

For a list of the changes in Publish 32, click here.</blockquote>

The list of Publish 32 changes :

<blockquote>TC2 Pub32 Test" will be running the Publish 32 Server code.

Players will find BODs have been added to bank boxes on test center to help with testing the BOD changes.

Publish 32 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:

Note: This is not a final list and may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 32 details when we are ready to publish to the production shards.

<font color=red>New Features</font color=red>

* Three new Necromancer alchemy potions with two intensities each (regular and greater)

(a)<font color=blue>Conflagration</font color=blue> – Creates a field of flame with damage based on the strength of the potion.
(b) <font color=blue>Mask of Death</font color=blue> – Causes monsters to ignore a player for a duration based on the strength of the potion. Has no effect on monsters that are currently attacking you.
(c) <font color=blue>Confusion Blast</font color=blue> – Confuses all monsters in an area. The size of the area is based on the strength of the potion.

* Necromancer Exorcism spell

(a) Exorcism is a Necromancer spell that also requires GM Spirit Speak to cast
(b) Exorcism will relocate any player ghosts around the caster to a shrine on that facet
(c) Exorcism will only work in a champion spawn region
(d) Exorcism will not affect players who have a corpse on the same subserver
Exorcism will not affect fellow faction, guild, alliance, or party members
(e) Players with GM Spirit Speak can now see the ghosts of other players at all times
(f) Exorcism scrolls will be craftable by scribes, drop off of some high ranking creatures, and can be sold to shopkeepers

* Added guild and alliance chat

(a) Use “\” for guild chat
(b) Use “|” (shift + “\”) for alliance chat
(c) Guild and alliance chat color and ignore toggles added to options gump

* Improved looking radar map for both 2D and 3D clients

(a) Shading based upon slope of tiles (except water and lava)
(b) Shading based upon height of objects (will help terrain like the hedge maze)
(c) Careful Z sorting (to make roofs of buildings look better)
(d) Tree canopies (won’t display in Felucca unless tree canopies option is on)
(e) Corrected hue processing

* Added a monument south-west of the Britain bank on both facets

(a) Monument has statistics about the invasion
(b) The color of the statue and the wording on it will vary depending on how successful players were at fighting off the invasion

* Mini-house “Church at Night” as a 1st Year Veteran Reward

* Paragons are now hued bright yellow in 3D client

* Players can now press the Enter key to select the last used shard in the 2D and 3D clients, and to choose the last used character in the 2D client


<font color=red>Changes</font color=red>

The Despise Humanoid Invasion has ended [/b]

Turning in a BOD removes the BOD timer based on BOD type (blacksmith/tailor) BOD quest offers now display time remaining in minutes instead of hours[/b]

Adjusted the rate at which cloth prices fluctuate in the commodity system [/b]

Vendors can no longer be dismissed until all of the gold they are holding as been collected[/b]

The turn-in NPC for Treasures of Tokuno, Ihara Soko, can now find more than 10 artifacts in your inventory [/b]

Replaced Polymorph gump with a better looking iconic choice gump [/b]

Confirmation gump now appears when disabling auto-insurance[/b]

All spellbooks, including Paladin, Necromancer, Ninjitsu, and Bushido, will now decay [/b]


<font color=red>Fixes</font color=red>

Players can no longer fire a bow while moving unless you are using the Moving Shot special attack. Archery with low swing speed no longer waits too long to attack after moving [/b]

You can no longer pay reduced rent by pricing items such that the total value of the vended items exceeds the system limits [/b]

Power scrolls given to dead players will now be placed in the player’s corpse [/b]

Decorative plants now display the plant type in their name [/b]

Fixed a few creatures that were still auto-dispelling summoned pets too often [/b]

Fixed the spellbook descriptions of Demons, Energy Vortexes and Blade Spirits to reflect the recent change to the number of control slots they require [/b]

Faction tags can now be seen everywhere on Siege ruleset shards, instead of just in Felucca [/b]

Improved script language performance and fixed issues with various scripts on the server [/b]

Other miscellaneous fixes that will not be announced before the publish is live, as they are considered exploits [/b]</blockquote>

On this thread HERE, Mr Tact made the following comments about the P32 changes :

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can see the thinking behind this but I dont see the sense. Sure, it'll stop guild killing the scroll receivers but it'll totally screw the opportunistic ninja's etc who plonk a few arrows at a champ and get a scroll, only to die before the champ dies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was primarily to stop people who protect others and then let themselves die so they can get free scrolls with no risk. The logic is, if you died while carrying the scroll it would drop, so why should it appear on your ghost if you're already dead?


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While this is better then before, now you are going to have to go through all the corpses. Sometimes there can be dozens!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You do know that double-clicking the top corpse in a stack will try to find your corpse below it and insta-loot, right?


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i like how he answered the dumb spellbook question but not my much more important question about how the powerscrolls would be distributed if one of the people who qualified for a scroll on the champ had his corpse decay completely
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK Mr. Grumpy-Pants, here is your answer: if your corpse has decayed, the scroll goes *poof*. Yes, that's -1 scroll for the champ spawn.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My guess is that they will be made with necro reagents by any alchemist.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Correct. </blockquote>

and

<blockquote>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bravo Mr. Tact on exorcism. Did he say whether or not it will be addable to the necro book? 16 spells is just too few as it is
------------------------------------------------------------------------------I can't take credit for it -- I'm positive this was a player idea. I was going to just autopunt them.

As for the books, yes, we added an extra page to the index. And make note of how it doesn't say "available from NPC vendors" . . .


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope this doesn't included spellbooks locked down in a house?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whoops! And I signed off on this list! It should probably have said something more like " . . . will follow the normal rules of decay," meaning the scads of spellbooks currently littering the landscape in the wake of the slayer spellbook changes will decay -- NOT the ones you have in your pack, in your bank, or locked down in your house.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some news on Publish 32.

On this thread HERE, the following were posted by Wilki EA

<blockquote>730pm Tuesday, April 19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pub32 test shard was republished this evening with these changes:

- Confusion Blast now skips over players and controlled creatures.
- Mask of Death (and also honor) no longer work on controlled creatures.
- New necro potions no longer have the same coloring as existing potions (i.e. they have new l33t colors)
- adding bows to the test center bankbox
- debug text is no longer displayed when a monster loots a corpse

More info needed:
- QA was not able to reproduce an issue reported by one or more players where guild and alliance chat takes you out of hiding. Please post exact steps needed to reproduce this.

Still being worked on:
- Archery
------------------------------------------------------------------------------</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Regarding the new potions:

We planned on implementing timers for the potions, but didn't have them ready in time for the test shard publish last week. Instead of delaying the test shard over the weekend, we pushed it out as is, without the timers. The timers we currently are thinking about are:

Conflagration - 30 seconds
Mask of Death - 60 minutes
Confusion Blast - 1 minute (possibly 10 minutes)

This means that once you have used one of whatever type of potion, you will need to wait for the timer to expire before using another one.

Also, we are aware of the PvP implications of the Mask of Death and Confusion Blast potions on Siege and the Felucca ruleset on production shards, and are considering making some changes to address this. The proposed timers above may alleviate some of the concern that players have on this issue, but we may decide to go a step further if our testing and further player feedback indicates it is needed.

We are also aware of the Archery shot delay issue, and are going to address that as well.

Thank you to everyone who tried the changes and posted their feedback in this thread; you've been a great help.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>130pm Wednesday, April 20
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've updated the Pub32 test shard with a change:

- Archery has been retweaked to improve firing delay. There are a couple more issues that are in testing now, but not on the test shard yet.

Things we're aware of:
- Necro potions and kegs. This will not be fixed in this publish, but we are aware of it and will address it in a future publish.
- The issue with fishing and becoming encumbered. We're looking into it, and should have more information soon.
- Deathstrike. This will be addressed in a future publish.

Not an Issue:
- Guild/Alliance chat reveals players that use it. This only occurs on production shards, as guild alliance chat is not implemented there yet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
More on the upcoming Publish 32. Over HERE, Wilki EA posted :


<blockquote>715pm Thursday, April 21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've made some changes to the Publish 32 Test Shard. The changes are now live, and are as follows:


Potion kegs now work for the new necromancy potions; Note there will be a text string error until the next client release, which will come before the publish goes live on production shards.

Rebalanced Deathstrike:

Damage dealt is now physical damage

Damage cap is 70 if the target moves more then five steps

Damage cap is 50 if the five second timer goes off before the target moves 5 steps


Combat loop; improved behavior when user casts a spell or switches special moves

Archery; improved target switching for ranged combat

How archery should be working:
When you initiate an attack the first arrow fires instantly

When you’re moving for more than your attack time you should fire at exactly half a second after stopping

If you switch special moves your attack rate should not be affected

If you cast a spell your combat loop is paused, not reset to the beginning

If you cast a beneficial spell on yourself while in combat it should not switch target off of your opponent

If you use the “moving shot” special move you should be able to make that shot without stopping

If you change weapons, or are disarmed and re-equip the weapon the combat round is restarted</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some news.



1. Posted on FYI section of uo.com - Publish 32 Coming to Origin.

<blockquote>We will be deploying Publish 32 to the Origin Shard today at approximately 10:30AM PDT (5:30PM GMT).

For a complete list of updates and changes in Publish 32, visit the Update Center.</blockquote>



2. A little note on Publish 32 here :

<blockquote>&lt;&lt;Several of the roof tiles default to black in the UO Radar. &gt;&gt;

This is fixed in pub 32 client, new radar map upgrade included it.</blockquote>



3. On the Vanq. Power and Mystic weapons in the Despise Invasion, Leurocian said HERE :

<blockquote>Just to pass on some information in regards to power, vanquishing, and mystic weapons, I did inform MrTact that I would like to see these enhanceable in some sort of way (e.g., perhaps allowing them via crafting to get an additional item property or to be able to enhance one existing item property, etc.). My usual disclaimer applies...no promises for this. I am no longer on the Live Team, but MrTact did note my suggestion.</blockquote>



4. News about UO from Seattle Gathering.

There has been quite a lot of useful information about UO given by the Devs at the Seattle Gathering. This includes the following :

(A) Kurgan's thread HERE, which includes this :

<blockquote>New expansion, dealing with Mondain. &lt;-- Secret Project Maybe...
Maybe big changes for house's
Lady Lu hinted a little bit about storage changes. We will find out more after the next meeting. Look for this info on uo.com around June.</blockquote>

(B) Stickied Thread on UHall - "Tidbits From Seattle", which includes the following bit :

<blockquote>Things to note:

- "There are no plans for a 3D update at this time"
- T-Map Books seem likely
- There were some good ideas thrown around about insurance price based on item value
- It seems like crafting will be revamped soon
- *Possibility* of the Counselor program returning
- Maybe a dungeon revamp
- It seems that Tamers make millions of gold quite regularly :)
- The girls that work at UO ARE cute
- They know how crowded EM events can get and they are trying to come up with ways to alleviate the problem
- There is a new expansion comming in the fall that will "change the history of Sosaria... FOREVER" (Binky read his lines so well)
- They gave no information on the expansion. Literally it was like "We are making an expansion and we aren't telling you anything... YAY!!!" But more info will come at the next event in Washington DC (June)
- The intro video to UO may certainly have something to do with the expansion.

They showed it to us... (and it was laggy :p ) Remember... Mondain, Shards of Sosaria? I know it's been awhile...</blockquote>

(C) Report from Poppy (Sonoma Shard) HERE :

<blockquote>One of our Sonoma Shard Reporters, Poppy, graciously wrote this report on the recent Town Hall Meeting in Seattle...

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Seattle UO Town Meeting April 28th.

I tried to get into the 7:00 p.m. session, but by the time I got to the front of the line, it was full! It worked out fine, though – just as I was being denied entry, three UO friends walked up. We went and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory – which meant we had yummy desserts to smuggle into the second session!

Lady Liu, GM Silvani, Fertbert, Binki and Wilki had all made the trip from California to meet with us in Seattle. The meeting was very casual and consisted mostly of questions from players and the team’s answers.

I tried to take notes on what questions were asked, but I know I missed a few – things moved pretty fast! Here are some highlights:

(i) There was some discussion of content geared towards the solo player. I hope we’ll be seeing more of this!

(ii) A player brought up the apparent imbalance between mages and non-magic-using fighters. Fertbert said that “it usually takes a year for players to figure out new skills”. So get to work, folks!

(iii) There was some discussion of balancing PvP, and the team indicated that they are looking at re-evaluating/rebalancing PvP.

(iv) Applause greeted a player’s suggestion that we should be able to log out to the character/shard selection screen, instead of having to go to the main login screen each time. Fertbert said there are technical reasons that it is done that way, but that it will be re-evaluated.

(v) The team reiterated that regular shards and Test Center do NOT share housing. So if you have a house already on a regular shard and you want to build one on TC, it should not condemn your regular house. If it does, page a GM right away.

(vi) OSI owned houses may be cleared or deleted. Since many of them are from banned accounts, they will not be allowed to just decay and drop their items, nor will the houses with the items in them be given away.

(vii) There was some discussion of stamina problems with ethereal mounts.

(viii) Hmm… I see a note here about invisible walls? I don’t remember exactly where those invisible walls are, but Fertbert knows and is having it investigated.

(ix) Fertbert informed us that the infrastructure has been added so that the team can add persistant party bars in the future. Yay!

(x) Fertbert said that they are looking at not getting skill gain if you do zero damage – this will affect people who train with golems, apparently. (I don’t go near golems, they scare me. So I’m not sure on the details, there.)

(xi) Cheers for the suggestion of insurable quivers, so that when an archer dies, he still has arrows in his pack, along with his insured bow.

(xii) Blocking with candelabras was declared legal by Silvani, as long as there is a path through the candelabra forest, and as long as the presence of the candelabras does not cause lag.

(xiii) Lady Liu stated that there are no plans to provide upgrade codes for SE.

(xiv) A player asked if there were plans to change the fact that the older Taskmasters do an extra five points of damage. Fertbert’s response was “It’s a rare! Keep it and show it off!” I took that as a no.

(xv) Someone asked if Mana Leech would be changed to leech mana from player characters. Fertbert responded that it is already designed to do that, and encouraged players to put in a bug report if they are experiencing problems with this.

(xvi) When a player commented that he couldn’t have the word “assassination” in a guild title, the team informed us that they are working on a word filter that would allow exceptions to the anti-profanity rules. Much cheering!

(xvii) A player asked why enhancement fails so frequently. Fertbert’s response: “We wanted you to break items.” I didn’t get the impression that they were planning to change that.

After the question and answer session was over, several fun prizes were raffled off: a UOSE t-shirt, a 7th Anniversary hoodie, a first edition UO pewter dragon, and a year of free game time. Alas, I did not win anything, but congratulations to the folks who did!

As the end of the session, it was announced that we will be receiving a new expansion that will “change the history of Sosaria”. The opening movie of Mondain shattering the Gem was shown, so the expansion must relate to that in some way, but details were frustratingly sketchy! The only information we were given was:

* A return of the redeemers, a lost tribe or a missing element

* Corruption will threaten the land, twisting all that is good

* Mondain’s legacy will be full revealed, soon…

Keep an ear out for more information!

Many thanks to Lady Liu, GM Silvani, Fertbert, Binki and Wilki for a fun evening!
Thank you Poppy for writing this, sounds like you had a wonderful time!</blockquote>



5. If anyone's interested to read Hanse's comments about UO (Hanse was a dev for UO until recently), you may want to see this thread HERE, which includes this bit :

<blockquote>OMG! I love UO. I played WoW and I'm back. I've played every single freaking MMO out.

Okay, I'm biased. I love UO due to more reasons than: "Hey, I made some stuff in the game."

My expectancy on the game? Simple.

It's up to whoever is working on the game. They have the power of extending it or killing it.

I have no say on that area. I was a small part of a great game. I still want to play it. PvP me sometime on Lake Superior. :) </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted on the FYI section of uo.com - Publish 32 World Wide Release Schedule :

<blockquote>Publish 32 has been running successfully on the Origin Shard for the past few days and is now ready to be deployed across all shards. The World Wide publish schedule for Publish 32 is scheduled as follows:


May 2 - 1:00PM PDT (8:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
May 2 - 2:00PM PDT (9:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma, Oceania
May 2 - 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
May 2 - 5:00PM PDT (May 3 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa

May 2 - 9:00PM PDT (May 3 4:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.
For a list of the Publish 32 changes, please click here.

We will keep you updated if any of this information changes</blockquote>

Also, Publish 32 Issues: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Legends :

<blockquote>We are experienceing some issues deploying the publish to the Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese shards. At this point we are expecting between 1 and three hours of downtime for each of the shards in order to fully publish.

In addition, the Legends shard encountered an issue that required a revert to Publish 31. Once we are able to locate and correct the issue we will republish Legends with Publish 32. At this time there is no ETA for the Legends recieving Publish 32.

We will keep you updated as things progress</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Some bits and pieces.

There appears to be a smelting bug with Publish 32 ? See HRE :

<blockquote>So long and short of it! If I have a bar of iron ore in my pack when I smelt all the items smelted become Iron.. If I dont have any iron bars in my pack they smelt to thier proper ore types.</blockquote>

Also, a possible alchemy bug with Publish 32 - I seem to recall reading about potion kegs "eating up" bottles, when potion bottles automatically filed potion kegs ? Can someone verify this ?

On a rumour about "infectious strike" being nerfed in the future, Wilki EA stated HERE :

<blockquote>Not sure what that GM was talking about, but there are no plans to make an specific changes to Infectious Strike.

There is an issue with special moves in general that we're going to fix, but it's not specific to any one of them.</blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Binky's report on the Meetup in Seattle has been posted on uo.com - HERE. I don't see much of any concrete information, except maybe for these bits :

<blockquote> few of the key questions asked during the first group focused on guidelines the Game Masters adhere to, issues with PvP balance, and how you should be able to place a house on both the Test Center and a regular production shard.

With about 5 minutes until the next group was slated to come in I hijacked the meeting again thanking everyone for coming out and spending the evening with us. As people were getting up to leave I sprung the surprise announcement that we are working on a new expansion! That’s right, a new expansion that will “Change the face of Sosaria forever!". A new expansion that will introduce a return of the redeemers and a new expansion that will unleash a corruption that will twist all that is good. A new expansion that I really count say anything more about until the June 2nd Town Hall meeting. Some people were very excited to hear this wee bit of information while other just wanted more information and details. Soon…soon.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, two of the most well received suggestions presented by the players were an insurable quiver and the ability to go to the character select screen rather than all the way to the log in screen when you log out.</blockquote>

Already posted on the General News section of UO Stratics - Siege PBD resolution HERE :

<blockquote>I know folks have been anxious to learn what our plans are for the Siege PBD situation. Wilki has been hounding . . . err, enthusiastically encouraging me to post an update, so here it is.

We will be making it so every character on Siege can have one blessed item. The mechanics of this are still being worked out. The requirements for this feature are:


Everyone gets the ability to bless one, and only one, item.

The blessing ability should not be easy to lose. If the blessed item is lost somehow, you should be able to bless something else

The solution could be as simple as disabling existing PBDs, giving everyone a new one the first time they login, and making PBDs *much* harder to lose. We're also open to the possibility that making it an innate ability is a better way to go.

The exception to these rules is, 7th anniversary items will remain blessed. This is actually not what I expected us to do and is directly in response to the survey feedback.

Finally, clothing deeds will no longer have the ability to bless clothes with item properties. Feedback was split on this one, so this is, frankly, our decision as to what we believe is more fair. As I have said in the past, CBDs were never meant to be this powerful, and we're going to adjust them accordingly. If you have an item that has properties and is currently blessed with a CBD, you will get your CBD back. You will still be able to use your single blessing on a clothing-based artifact. Oh, and I'm planning to make this particular item effective on all shards, as well.

As for when this will hit . . . we are still in the design phase, so it's very, very unlikely this will be in Pub 33. But it is actively in development, so we're no longer talking about "some year" anymore.</blockquote>

I have highlighted the part in bold which affects regular production shards.

And this little bit here from Fertbert about the statues erected just south of Brit Bank :

<blockquote>The statue should be one of these colors:
copper
bronze
gold
agapite
verite
valorite

depending upon how much gold the sculptor had available for materials costs.</blockquote>

I think Formosa's statue was copper or bronze ?
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted on the FYI section of uo.com - Publish 32.1 now on the TC2 Publish 32 Test shard :

<blockquote>Publish 32.1, a mini-publish, is now running on the TC2 Publish 32 Test shard.

For a full list of Publish 32.1 changes, please click here.</blockquote>

The changes are :

<blockquote>Publish 32.1 is a mini-publish that is now running on the TC2 Publish 32 shard, and contains the following changes, fixes and additions:

This list is subject to change before it is published to production shards.

<ul> [*]Melee and Archery swing rates have both been lowered by 0.5 seconds.

[*]Archery move delay reduced to 0.25 seconds.

[*]Player status bars will no longer appear orange while a player is cursed.

[*]Smelting items made from colored ore will now return the correct type of ingot, regardless of the presence of iron ingots in the player’s backpack.

[*]Players can once again access multiple plant gumps simultaneously.

[*]Characters will no longer become permanently frozen if they cast a spell either while logging in or logging out.

[*]The Lost Apprentice corpse will now spawn correctly, allowing players to finish the Hag quest.

[*]The Naturalist quest will now progress when players explore Solen egg chambers.

[*]Fixed an exploit that we’re not going to provide details on, however players can rest assured that it is now fixed.

[*]Fixed an issue that could cause server backups not to occur when they were supposed to. Server has been properly chastised and will now produce backups as expected. [/list] </blockquote>
 
C

CitizenKane2

Guest
Posted here on uo.com - http://update.uo.com/fyi.html :

<blockquote>Publish 32.1 is now ready to be deployed across all shards. The World Wide publish schedule for Publish 32.1 is scheduled as follows:

<ul>[*] May 18 - 2:00PM PDT (9:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior

[*]May 18 - 3:00PM PDT (10:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma, Origin

[*]May 18 - 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura, Oceania

[*]May 18 - 5:00PM PDT (May 19 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa

[*]May 18 - 9:00PM PDT (May 19 4:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels [/list]

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour. For a list of the Publish 32.1 changes, please click here.

We will keep you updated if any of this information changes</blockquote>

There has been an addition to the list of changes for P32.1 HERE :

<blockquote>(Note: The minimum swing/shoot speed was not changed in Publish 32.1. It is currently set so that you cannot swing/shoot faster than once per 1.5 seconds. We plan to reduce this to the previous cap of once per 1.25 seconds in Publish 33.)</blockquote>

Overhere, Wilki EA made the following clarifications (among others) :

<blockquote>Update:

While all swing speed times have dropped by 1/2 a second across the board, the cap on swing speed was not changed in Pub 32.1. It is currently set at one swing every 1.5 seconds. The old cap (yes, Fertbert and I verified this with a Pub31 server) was one swing every 1.25 seconds.

So while we've fixed the swing speed issue for most of you, unfortunately those at the cap have lost a quarter second. This will be fixed in Publish 33, which is not too far away.

I mistakenly assumed that the old cap was one swing per second, and for that I apologize.</blockquote>

and

<blockquote>Actually, archery swing speed never changed. It was 0.5 seconds slower than comparable melee weapons, and had been for quite some time. We decided there was no reason for that to be the case, so we lowered it along with melee weapons.

Archery and melee weapons now have equal swing speed rates</blockquote>
 
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