Old Blue Soulstone Frag?

[Lord X]

I was looking through old bags of stuff that I've looked through MANY times before in the past SEVERAL years and found this Soulstone frag. I picked it up and was going to toss it for points since you can now and realized I dont own a blue one myself. Anyone have any idea where this came from?

 

[Kat]

It more than likely came from the promotional code that came inside the CD sleeve of the Samurai Empire expansion. That produced at least one of the two blue ones I have.

http://www.uoguide.com/Soulstone_Fragment

 

[Aurelius]

I don't think that page is quite correct. The promotional code gave full soulstones - the fragments came from the tokens handed out in-game, and were a random colour and shape when you activated the token.

http://uo2.stratics.com/miscellaneous/soulstones

 

[Kat]

The promotional code for a full soulstone was part of the pre-order. The code in the case was for a fragment, if remember correctly. Fragments were also issued as part of Christmas and Anniversary gift assortments.

 

[Aurelius]

The code in the case was for a fragment, if remember correctly.

Could be - it's so long ago my memory may be failing me I was (and am) fairly sure all the codes in the boxes were for full soulstones though... I couldn't pre-order in the UK, got all my Samurai Empire upgrades through local shops, and all those had codes for full stones inside.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

the samurai ones where definitely full sized blue ones.
the ones from christmas where frag sized green and red ones ones.

i just went and logged into my main shard and had a look at all the frags i have and have had over the years.
i have never chucked any out.
114 frags between 3 accounts and only 2 of them are blue.
the rest are all green and red ones.
that is some pretty low odds of getting a blue one!

 

[Ender]

Samurai Empire preorder codes were for the original full green soulstones.

Full blues came from The Eighth Age pre-order/early purchase.

Fragments come in all three colors from tokens.

 

[Smoot]

i got a blue frag somewhere. i didnt preorder but did get the box from the store. forget where it came from

 

[Aurelius]

Full blues came from The Eighth Age pre-order/early purchase.

I'd forgotten (8 years is a long time, apparently!), but yes - I ordered those boxes from the US, through EBay, since there was no sign of 8th Age making it to the local shops, so that's maybe where my full blue stones came from....

 

[startle]

Yea, I remember when they quit marketing the product on shelves.... Sad that nobody involved in that decision had sufficient vision to see what could be...

 

[Petra Fyde]

No boxes on shelves was not solely EA's decision. I know for certain that the last UO product stocked in my area was SE, and they only had 3 copies of that. That's all the shop was prepared to take. It's the shops that won't stock it.

Originally fragments came from a second use of the SE code. We got the full soulstones when we purchased, then later we were able to re-use the codes in game to get fragments. There was a mega row with a certain trade site that had sold SE upgrade codes for gold over who had the rights to the fragments.
Christmas fragments came later ( http://uo2.stratics.com/items/holiday-special-items/holiday-items-2004-2006 ).

edit - https://help.ea.com/uk/article/what-is-a-soulstone-fragment

Soulstone Fragments are limited-use Soulstones for players who purchased or plan to purchase the Ultima Online: Samurai Empire expansion. These stones can be obtained by using the UO:SE Account Upgrade Code that came with every UO:SE expansion, and they may ONLY be used by Samurai Empire entitled accounts. When you claim your Soulstone Fragment in-game, you will be issued a Promotional Token that you may use whenever you wish.

The Fragment works much like a Soulstone, except that each fragment contains only 5 charges and does not animate when filled. Players may flush a skill as many times as they wish, as this does not use up a use/charge. Consuming a use or charge only occurs if a skill is absorbed by a character from the stone on your account.

 

[Pawain]

The promotional code for a full soulstone was part of the pre-order. The code in the case was for a fragment, if remember correctly. Fragments were also issued as part of Christmas and Anniversary gift assortments.

I pre-ordered SE. I have a soulstone in token form. I guess its from that.

That was around the time when the game stores were changing from PC games to console games.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

but its strange that there are so few BLUE soulstone FRAGS.

 

[Aurelius]

but its strange that there are so few BLUE soulstone FRAGS.

Skimming through the ones I have, there are 9 each red and green, and only one blue....

 

[Harlequin]

This has been bugging me too...
I have no blue fragments. I do have a full soulstone that's blue though.
I suspect it's got something to do with the timelines. I'll post what I remember. Maybe that'll trigger someone else's memory.


1st phase:
Green soulstones.
Original full green soulstones were from the pre-order of SE. You received a coupon with the code. Nov 2004.
Shortly after that, due to overwhelming requests, they created green soulstone fragments that can be claimed using the SE account upgrade code.
Tokens for soulstone fragments at this time gave green fragments.


2nd phase:
Blue soulstones.
Full stones were from pre-order of Eigth Age. Sept 2005.

Some time after this, there was this promotion where all account holders who have enabled EA to email them product news/updates. Each account received a code that gave you different items depending on account age. Younger ones received soulstone fragments iirc. Older ones received character transfer tokens and character advancement tokens etc. I can't seem to find more info on this, but I remember Siege players complaining about receiving transfer tokens, which was useless to them.

I think this is where blue soulstones fragments first appeared. Those with blue fragments, do you have any relatively younger accounts in 2005/2006 which might have received your fragments this way?


3rd Phase
Red soulstones.
Full stones from 1st yer vet reward. Sept 2006.
I suspect tokens for soulstone fragments received after this are for red fragments.



As noted by others, tokens for Soulstone fragment were also given out for holidays in 2005 and 2006.
And there's the craftable fragments after SA. What color are these?

Is the determining factor
1) based on the year the tokens were received?
2) or when a player uses the token?
3) random?

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

crafted frags are white