They are on the UO Discord, but for those who dont use it:
Five on Friday - August 8th, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Five on Friday, where the Ultima Online development team answers select player-submitted questions from the community. Topics this week include: • Dispelling Food Buff Myths • Focused Mage Viability • New Legacy Seasons • Server Line Removal • Party Loot Myths
Food Buff Myth
Question Does eating food do anything? There is a persistent rumor that eating ordinary food affects various commonplace skill based checks in game. Can you confirm whether or not that's true, and if so, what sorts of activities does it affect?
Answer Parallax: This has been a long-standing UO urban legend! Eating food will restore stamina based on how full the food makes you, but other than that the only other thing food affects is your character's ability to eat more food! We've often talked about making your food level more relevant to character stats. Never know what might happen.
PvP Focused Mage Viability
Question Focused mages need to be look at reverting. Any chance this could be on the table for the PvP love? Focused mages are too squishy in PvP and the Spell Damage Increase cap doesn't offer enough incentive to drop parry. Back in the day (pre-2015), you could play a pure mage with a 30% SDI cap (40% with GM Inscription) and hit hard, but after Publish 71, they slashed it to 25% (35% total). Then, Publish 97 made Parry break focus status if it’s over 30.0. So, you’re stuck choosing between a 5% extra SDI (25% vs. 20%) or Parry’s 35% block chance. Without Parry, you’re a sitting duck in group fights, it’s the reason everyone’s running Parry mages or hybrid dexer-mage builds to survive.
Answer Kyronix: A PvP publish is on our radar for 2026—this is the type of feedback we love to hear when scoping out what to address in that publish. We look forward to continued discussion on PvP topics and a more focused conversation as we move into the later part of this year.
New Legacy Season Timing
Question New Legacy will be ending soon with the Shattering. When will it end and when will the new season start?
Answer: Parallax: Our next publish to New Legacy is slated for later this month. That will begin the event that will ultimately lead to the shattering. The process of transferring off will begin this fall, and the new season is slated for next year.
Server Line Removal
Question Are we going to delete server lines? They shouldn't exist in the game anymore.
Answer Bleak: This is baked into the fundamental architecture of the production shards and can't be changed.
Party Loot Myths
Question To party or not? Many people feel being in a party lowers their drop odds. As a bard who counts on buffing and healing this is bad. Can you dispel this myth?
Answer Parallax: Generally speaking, being in a party won't impact your drop rates on encounters that use the top-contributor drop mechanic, where damage taken, damage dealt, and damage healed are factored into the drop chance.
Five on Friday - August 8th, 2025
Welcome to this week’s Five on Friday, where the Ultima Online development team answers select player-submitted questions from the community. Topics this week include: • Dispelling Food Buff Myths • Focused Mage Viability • New Legacy Seasons • Server Line Removal • Party Loot Myths
Food Buff Myth
Question Does eating food do anything? There is a persistent rumor that eating ordinary food affects various commonplace skill based checks in game. Can you confirm whether or not that's true, and if so, what sorts of activities does it affect?
Answer Parallax: This has been a long-standing UO urban legend! Eating food will restore stamina based on how full the food makes you, but other than that the only other thing food affects is your character's ability to eat more food! We've often talked about making your food level more relevant to character stats. Never know what might happen.
PvP Focused Mage Viability
Question Focused mages need to be look at reverting. Any chance this could be on the table for the PvP love? Focused mages are too squishy in PvP and the Spell Damage Increase cap doesn't offer enough incentive to drop parry. Back in the day (pre-2015), you could play a pure mage with a 30% SDI cap (40% with GM Inscription) and hit hard, but after Publish 71, they slashed it to 25% (35% total). Then, Publish 97 made Parry break focus status if it’s over 30.0. So, you’re stuck choosing between a 5% extra SDI (25% vs. 20%) or Parry’s 35% block chance. Without Parry, you’re a sitting duck in group fights, it’s the reason everyone’s running Parry mages or hybrid dexer-mage builds to survive.
Answer Kyronix: A PvP publish is on our radar for 2026—this is the type of feedback we love to hear when scoping out what to address in that publish. We look forward to continued discussion on PvP topics and a more focused conversation as we move into the later part of this year.
New Legacy Season Timing
Question New Legacy will be ending soon with the Shattering. When will it end and when will the new season start?
Answer: Parallax: Our next publish to New Legacy is slated for later this month. That will begin the event that will ultimately lead to the shattering. The process of transferring off will begin this fall, and the new season is slated for next year.
Server Line Removal
Question Are we going to delete server lines? They shouldn't exist in the game anymore.
Answer Bleak: This is baked into the fundamental architecture of the production shards and can't be changed.
Party Loot Myths
Question To party or not? Many people feel being in a party lowers their drop odds. As a bard who counts on buffing and healing this is bad. Can you dispel this myth?
Answer Parallax: Generally speaking, being in a party won't impact your drop rates on encounters that use the top-contributor drop mechanic, where damage taken, damage dealt, and damage healed are factored into the drop chance.