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[UO News]

Saturday 10th July 2017

10 pm BST / 5 pm EST


Commander Bhaltair frowned at the Royal Detective’s report. This was not good news at all. Still, what was that old saying about “better the daemon you know”?

He had fought the ghastly offspring of Mondain and Minax before, or at least, tried to. His leg still hurt when the weather turned ill. Memories of being unceremoniously flung across the chamber, so hard that the brickwork shattered where his armored body hit it, still burned in his mind, as did the memories of the ceremony afterwards, in which many fallen knights were honored, and enshrined.

But, the report was correct. The being behind these ghastly soulless things that plagued the land was possessed of immense power and resources. Exodus had been greatly weakened at least once, and had returned. Dupre had reported him slain, but then, what did death actually mean to a creature such as that? Exodus, at peak strength, certainly fitted the description of “immense power and resources”. And, if these creatures were not Exodus’s doing, then was there an even greater power lurking out there somewhere?

He would need to investigate. Were the new recruits up to so great a challenge? Or would he be attending another memorial ceremony fairly soon?



What you need to know:

• This is a Black Watch Event. Details of the Black Watch can be found here.
• Moongates to the event location will be available from the usual places. Details can be found here.
• Town Criers will announce the event.
• Reminders will be made via General Chat approximately one hour before the event starts.
• The event will mostly take place outside of a guard zone.
• We will be going to The Exodus Encounter. We will make multiple attempts on Exodus.
• This event requires a party. Party size is limited. Depending on how many people turn up, that could mean that some players may need to wait until a later attempt.
• IMPORTANT: There will be a finite number of keys. If you are able to help, please collect as many keys as possible before the event. That way, if the party is full, we can run multiple parties. Thank you for your help!
• There will be no drops, but Exodus does provide good loot.
• Details of the Exodus Encounter can be found here.

Continue reading...

 

[Drakelord]

Saturday 10th July 2017

Pretty sure this is for the month of June.

 

[Marisa Kirisame]

And here I thought I'd acquire the necessary skills (stealing) for getting a plenty of keys before July.

 

[EM Kincaid]

You are quite right. Unfortunately some of those minions got into the calendar. The stupid things were apparently never taught to understand dates. June it is!

 

[Tanager]

IMPORTANT: There will be a finite number of keys. If you are able to help, please collect as many keys as possible before the event.

I have never run the Exodus Encounter before, but the website says each party member needs to have 3 of the keys equiped in order to gain access. If I understand this correctly, it seems like it would be best if the players who are able could equip themselves so that more players who do not have the means or time can have access to whatever the EM is providing.

I have gathered enough materials to craft one set for myself as well as one other. The timer on the keys are good for 7 days, so starting tomorrow (Sunday) if a hunting party would like to venture into the dungeon in search of keys to store ahead of time, I wanna volunteer. Or if you'd rather go solo or with your own party, then perhaps folks can start dropping off keys in the EM Mailbox. Or hunt/gather the items needed to craft them. Miners can donate the gems and blackrock (it becomes stackable once you pop it on a NM stall then remove it), tailors can make some abyssal cloth, etc. There is a category (sort of?) for Black Watch crafters, after all.

I think an event like this is a great way for many Siege players to experience a tough boss who would never otherwise make the attempt!

 

[Tanager]

Question for @EM Kincaid tho... Since this is a Black Watch event, are we meant to attend in uniform?

 

[EM Kincaid]

The dress code is completely up to you.
There IS an advantage to arriving in uniform, and there is ALSO an advantage to not arriving in uniform. Let me explain:
If you arrive in uniform, early enough in the event for me to have a spare second to take notes, you will gain an extra point within the Black Watch ranking system.
You get a point for turning up anyway. Uniform gives you a bonus point. The full points system is described here and here.

If you do NOT arrive in uniform, you won't get that extra point. However, you might be able to wear a better suit. It depends on your choice of gear, on whether or not you want to enhance it with shadow ore, or if you have dyes, and if those dyes are cheap enough for you to risk your suit. So you might consider having a really good event suit to outweigh the value of any extra BW points.

For an event that will see heavy combat - Exodus is a great example - you might do better to bring a really good PvM suit. You could also lose that suit if a PvP/PK fight breaks out.

I hope that makes things a bit clearer - what you wear is completely up to you. I just want everyone to understand the implications.

And, yes, it's in June. *extremely deep sigh*

On the plus side, I have managed to sticky June's event calendar. I'll replace that with July's calendar when it's time.

 

[Drakelord]

Regarding the dress code, in all the years I played on Siege the only time I ever lost a suit or a part of a suit was when the (NEW) Bandits would loot it, I gave up on trying to have a good suit due to that and go with a very basic LRC suit that if looted I could easily replace, I do not carry a BOS, and until recently I did not carry a shield, I'm may, someday make up a costume to wear the governor's meeting or reward ceremony where there is less of a chance of being looted but don't look for me to come marching in at the beginning of ever event wearing said costume.

My Battle suit

 

[Marisa Kirisame]

Can you release info on uniforms for unaffiliated crafters?

 

[Drakelord]

Can you release info on uniforms for unaffiliated crafters?

Black Watch Ceremony 5-27-17

 

[Silent Singer]

@EM Kincaid , I modeled my mage hooded robe / staff / red obi / red footwear as the BW uniform for mages at least partly in jest last time, but you seemed to agree then that it was acceptable. Will this count towards the extra point for uniform? My sash would be under the robe.

 

[EM Kincaid]

Sashes do not need to be visible. The sash is more for your benefit than for mine. However, when ranks become more important, as they will as time goes by, it would be helpful if your fellow watchmen could see your rank - especially if you want to start giving orders to lower ranks!

The uniform design is fairly basic, in order to cover as many races / templates as possible. It is effectively a base of black, with red accessories.
As a really basic example, black leggings, tunic and sleeves, with red gloves and boots.
On rare occasions - ceremonies, mostly - a very strict dress code will be looked at, but you will know well in advance what is expected for those, and you will have ample opportunity to change out of dress uniform and into something a bit more battle-ready, when cases like that pop up.

 

[Tanager]

I gave up on trying to have a good suit due to that and go with a very basic LRC suit that if looted I could easily replace,

There is no reason I can think of that a very basic LRC suit cannot be crafted in the style of the uniform. Leather dye tub gets dark enough for people to see it's Black Watch. Tho, for this event, I would consider perhaps a bit more than basic but still easy enough to replace. A barbed suit with LRC, LMC, MR, and some luck are all easy enough to craft without going into maximum intensities. Getting max resists is more effort than I am ever willing to put into a suit, personally, but for many people it is no hardship either. I would be happy to donate some resources if any Black Watch crafters (or neutral crafters) would like to make a few suits for the mission. Suit crafting is a chore I really dislike, but I might force myself to do one or two.

 

[Drakelord]

ahh but I am not about to dye the bless robe I am wearing, I like the color

 

[EM Kincaid]

Just a reminder that we could do with as many keys as possible for tonight's event.
I would have had more, but being cut off from UO for most of the week put a serious crimp in my ability to gather keys.
Just to clarify, these are some of the things that I have no ability to create - well, no more than any of you do. So I'm hoping that some of you have been busy!
I have been asked by several of you if I could just teleport you in to Exodus's chambers. The answer, I'm afraid, is no, just as I could not pull you into Lady Mel, Dreadhorn, or any of the others. You have to put the effort in yourselves. So, run around the dungeon killing champions, detect hidden crates, gather crafting materials, and let's make this a team effort!

For my part, I currently have enough altars for 4 visits, or 4 parties, to Exodus. I doubt we need many more of those.
I have 8 sacrificial daggers, 6 summoning rites, and 10 robes. Hopefully that number will have gone up a bit by the time we start.
But, if you have the time and the ability, I encourage you to gather what you can before tonight. If anyone turns up, and we don't have enough, I'm afraid there will be disappointments.

I will do what I can to gather what I can before then. So if you're down there, and a champion suddenly goes "urgh" and falls down dead, it's probably me.

If there's enough demand, maybe next time I'll have Friday as a "gather keys" night, and Saturday can be spent kicking the clockwork out of Exodus!

 

[Becca]

I put a dozen daggers in the new EM hall mailbox

 

[EM Kincaid]

Thank you very much! And thank you to the other community-minded folks who supplied some items as well!

I now have 19 full sets of robe, dagger and rite.
I have 8 spare rites, and 12 daggers, if anyone else has a robe.
I very much doubt that we'll need more than one, but I also have 8 summoning altars. Let's see how it goes!

Worst case scenario, we'll do one round, and then hit the dungeon again until we have enough keys for a second go.

 

[Sargatanza]

Mr. Kincaid it was super again! Thank you very, very much! I was happy to see Exodus for the first time (fuf, what a rush).

P.S. Ser, i'm sorry for not supporting you with a keys (was read you post before and left it for later time, cos keys have lifespan, but when this day begin dang, one thing there, one there, then auction, and bam time for a hunt). It wount happen again, sorry.

 

[EM Kincaid]

No, no - all is good. We gave Exodus a severe spanking, we had fun, people got gold, and I heard some people say they got stat scrolls out of it. So all is good, and I'd call that a win.

We'll do Exodus again one of these months - but this time, we'll probably split it over two days. One day to gather as many keys as possible, and the next day to beat up Exodus as many times as possible!

Yeah - here are some pictures. Because, pictures are also good. We really need an official photographer - I barely remembered to take any this time around!

Before the meeting - doesn't Sara's design look great?

During the meeting. On a completely unrelated note, I got rid of the pink bubblegum that someone left outside. We now have a nice array of flaming gates outside - go and have a look!
They lead to the Rewards Hall, The Black Watch Barracks and The Bull Ring, and the Serpents Hold War Room. Now go and brag to your prodo shard Trammie friends that Siege has the coolest gates around!

At Exodus. Wow, that's a mess and a half.

Somewhere in the middle of that is dead Exodus. Nice work, people!

So, I hope you all did have fun! I know I did!

 

[Sparviero]

It was a very fun event... First time for me there and i have to say it's a very nice challenge ... Thank you Em Kincaid and all people !

 

[Tanager]

My first time there also, and it was a blast. Thanks for the pics, EM Kincaid. It's always interesting to see things from other player's screens.

Fortunately there were enough keys to go around. I second the motion of a hunting party the day before for keys. Thank you to everyone who donated extra keys and who came to take down Exodus! It was fun