NEWS [UO.Com] Happy Valentine’s Day! A Special Gift For You!

[UO News]

2/14/2022 Greetings, Who loves you? The UO Team! We invite all players to visit the kitchen at Trammel Castle Blackthorn (Felucca on Siege Perilous) for a special Valentine’s Day reward item! Enjoy! Love, The UO Team

Continue reading...

 

[Keven2002]

Initially it sounds like the flower the Royal Taste Tester produces (aka friendship rose) comes in 1 rare color but it looks like the statue itself is the one with the different hues.

It's 1per char and they are not shard bound.

 

[Larisa]

 

[Luc of Legends]

I received the following color. 2499

 

[Cinderella]

if you look at the hue list here on stratics


this is why I think this is the rare one

 

[Larisa]

That's what I thought too....but that's the one I have the most of..so not very rare lol.

 

[Tina Small]

Not sure which color is the rare one. These were the colors on the 22 that I picked up on Sonoma:

Hue 33 - 6
Hue 1068 - 3
Hue 1152 - 3
Hue 1168 - 3
Hue 1174 - 4
Hue 2499 - 3

 

[HRH Liz]

Not sure which color is the rare one. These were the colors on the 22 that I picked up on Sonoma:

Hue 33 - 6
Hue 1068 - 3
Hue 1152 - 3
Hue 1168 - 3
Hue 1174 - 4
Hue 2499 - 3

Hues - Stratics Community Wiki

 

[Larisa]

They are all rare hues except for 33.

So 5 Rare and 1 common I think it should have said lol :/

Whatever..it's a gift..it's a weird gift but it's a gift so yay!

 

[Pawain]

OK seems backwards.

 

[Pawain]

I got these from 2 shards. I think Im done.



White was popular for me on Atl.

 

[Prime.]

I got these from 2 shards. I think Im done.

View attachment 127112

White was popular for me on Atl.

Could I trade you a blue for a white on Atl? White is the only color I don't have and I have more than one blue.

 

[Pawain]

Could I trade you a blue for a white on Atl? White is the only color I don't have and I have more than one blue.

Yes Allen Zookeeper up stairs Luna

 

[Merlin]

How long will the clicky be up for?

 

[Pawain]

Up until March 2nd.

 

[Pawain]

Some idiot on Atlantic trying to convince people to buy his rare blaze one for 800M.

 

[MalagAste]

33x16, 1068x15, 1152x20, 1168x22, 1174x6, 2499x19 was my haul on GLs... IMO since the roses are not named per shard they don't give anything but a plain rose... nor are the statues uniquely named... I'm guessing that will be all I will care to do.

Guess I could add then if you aren't on GLs and you want a bunch of them on your shard... whatever that may be... make it worth my while and I'll get a bunch for you... just PM me.

Though I will say as for Siege I'll likely go get my own and may or may not sell extras if I decide to go get them... though if it's going to be pain with thieves and such I probably won't bother.

 

[Prime.]

Yes Allen Zookeeper up stairs Luna

Appreciate the trade! Sorry it took a hot minute to meet up with ya!

 

[Theo_GL]

They are all rare hues except for 33.

So 5 Rare and 1 common I think it should have said lol :/

Whatever..it's a gift..it's a weird gift but it's a gift so yay!

That totally sounds like our dev team to intend to do one rare and 5 common and mess it up. You had one job! lol

Nevermind it doesn't work when locked down or secured and its like half the size it should be (put it next to a suit of armor). Its so poorly done.

 

[MalagAste]

That totally sounds like our dev team to intend to do one rare and 5 common and mess it up. You had one job! lol

Nevermind it doesn't work when locked down or secured and its like half the size it should be (put it next to a suit of armor). Its so poorly done.

And what do you expect anymore?
Me... I expect very little... and quite a bit of disappointment anymore... it's become the "norm"...

 

[Keven2002]

That totally sounds like our dev team to intend to do one rare and 5 common and mess it up. You had one job! lol

Nevermind it doesn't work when locked down or secured and its like half the size it should be (put it next to a suit of armor). Its so poorly done.

Would you prefer just not to get a gift? I'd personally be fine with it but that didn't seem to go so well 2 years ago for the holiday gifts.

 

[Archangel0]

I guess the yellow is the rare, I still haven't got one and I got almost this same ratio on GL (the pic is from Origin)

 

[Larisa]

If they meant one rare HUE out of the 6 and not RARE as in Hard to get...then it would be 1068, the 2-tone one.

But there is no RARE as in HARD TO GET one.

This is what I got on ATL:


Origin:


If there was a RARE is in HARD TO GET one, I wouldn't have it lol.

 

[Naitch]

The first character I used plucked the gold flower one.

#Winning!

 

[Theo_GL]

Would you prefer just not to get a gift? I'd personally be fine with it but that didn't seem to go so well 2 years ago for the holiday gifts.

That is a pretty poor attitude and I guess another reflection on the state of the game. You are happy to get anything even if its untested junk.

I've been in software for 25+ years. I would never release such poorly tested code/features into production even when I was a first year out of college coder.

As a user of the item it took me literally 2 minutes to test it and realize :
1 - It doesn't work locked down (examples of other items - Wheelbarrow, Rose of Trinsic, Vet reward shields, ship painting, etc etc)
2 - Its size and scale are off (compare to Armor deco items like the golden suit of armor and a number of others including the size and scale of a mannequin)

It took 15 minutes more after pulling them on different toons to realize the 5 common and 1 rare color was messed up too.

Look, I get the dev team is stretched but that doesn't excuse basic testing. Literally basic testing.

If you can't manage that then reuse rewards of the past. Give out more Valentines bears and just put a year on them 2022, 2023 etc. Quick path. Already created code. Still something for people to collect.

I'm pretty frustrated with the continued disjointed state of the game. There are design standards and common coding standards that should be in place and followed in any development project. Every time you create an item that doesn't fit the pattern then it NEVER gets cleaned up and the code and the application becomes harder to maintain with literally every system created from scratch. Look at storage items - Bod Books, Alacrity books, Trans books, jewelry boxes. They all work differently and shouldn't. They should all have the same storage and common features - no need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to create a storage medium. They will NEVER go back and fix them now. This is 25+ years of coding experience. If you don't go in with a framework and standards you will never have the budget to go back and bring it up to standards - but its cheap to build it right the first time.

I really get lit up when someone says 'would you rather get nothing?' If I get a burger from a fast food place and its dropped on the ground and smashed with their foot then handed to me - I don't go 'thanks - i'm so happy to have anything. Anything is better than nothing'. Sometimes nothing is better if its going to be complete junk. There is a minimum standard that isn't too hard to achieve. I pay for this game every month. I think I deserve at least BASIC testing regardless of the feature.

The fact that people have this attitude is a commentary on exactly how low the bar is for this game. Have we really been conditioned to accept literally anything?

 

[GarthGrey]

I love these threads where those of you with nothing but time on your hands log in 50 accounts and collect on 20 shards to then discuss the "rarity" of things.... to each his own.

 

[Naitch]

Addiction to pixels

 

[MalagAste]

That is a pretty poor attitude and I guess another reflection on the state of the game. You are happy to get anything even if its untested junk.

I've been in software for 25+ years. I would never release such poorly tested code/features into production even when I was a first year out of college coder.

As a user of the item it took me literally 2 minutes to test it and realize :
1 - It doesn't work locked down (examples of other items - Wheelbarrow, Rose of Trinsic, Vet reward shields, ship painting, etc etc)
2 - Its size and scale are off (compare to Armor deco items like the golden suit of armor and a number of others including the size and scale of a mannequin)

It took 15 minutes more after pulling them on different toons to realize the 5 common and 1 rare color was messed up too.

Look, I get the dev team is stretched but that doesn't excuse basic testing. Literally basic testing.

If you can't manage that then reuse rewards of the past. Give out more Valentines bears and just put a year on them 2022, 2023 etc. Quick path. Already created code. Still something for people to collect.

I'm pretty frustrated with the continued disjointed state of the game. There are design standards and common coding standards that should be in place and followed in any development project. Every time you create an item that doesn't fit the pattern then it NEVER gets cleaned up and the code and the application becomes harder to maintain with literally every system created from scratch. Look at storage items - Bod Books, Alacrity books, Trans books, jewelry boxes. They all work differently and shouldn't. They should all have the same storage and common features - no need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to create a storage medium. They will NEVER go back and fix them now. This is 25+ years of coding experience. If you don't go in with a framework and standards you will never have the budget to go back and bring it up to standards - but its cheap to build it right the first time.

I really get lit up when someone says 'would you rather get nothing?' If I get a burger from a fast food place and its dropped on the ground and smashed with their foot then handed to me - I don't go 'thanks - i'm so happy to have anything. Anything is better than nothing'. Sometimes nothing is better if its going to be complete junk. There is a minimum standard that isn't too hard to achieve. I pay for this game every month. I think I deserve at least BASIC testing regardless of the feature.

The fact that people have this attitude is a commentary on exactly how low the bar is for this game. Have we really been conditioned to accept literally anything?

Couldn't agree more... been harping about it for years... but it falls on deaf ears and every year it just keeps going further and further downhill... like a tiny snowball that gathers more snow on the way down... it's now of epic proportions of a rolling ball of ****e... but they keep lapping it up like it's chocolate... I keep pointing it out. All the missed opportunities... and peeling back the veil for those who wish to see the wizard for what it is... but they continue to praise and excuse it all. I can only shake my head and wonder how much further it can grow before it eventually destroys the game completely in one massive ****e storm... time will tell I guess.

 

[Anon McDougle]

Couldn't agree more... been harping about it for years... but it falls on deaf ears and every year it just keeps going further and further downhill... like a tiny snowball that gathers more snow on the way down... it's now of epic proportions of a rolling ball of ****e... but they keep lapping it up like it's chocolate... I keep pointing it out. All the missed opportunities... and peeling back the veil for those who wish to see the wizard for what it is... but they continue to praise and excuse it all. I can only shake my head and wonder how much further it can grow before it eventually destroys the game completely in one massive ****e storm... time will tell I guess.

It's funny I'm labeled a troublemaker malcontent troll on the official forum because I am vocal and have expectations that the game i have loved for decades should be better..

 

[Keven2002]

That is a pretty poor attitude and I guess another reflection on the state of the game. You are happy to get anything even if its untested junk.

I've been in software for 25+ years. I would never release such poorly tested code/features into production even when I was a first year out of college coder.

As a user of the item it took me literally 2 minutes to test it and realize :
1 - It doesn't work locked down (examples of other items - Wheelbarrow, Rose of Trinsic, Vet reward shields, ship painting, etc etc)
2 - Its size and scale are off (compare to Armor deco items like the golden suit of armor and a number of others including the size and scale of a mannequin)

It took 15 minutes more after pulling them on different toons to realize the 5 common and 1 rare color was messed up too.

Look, I get the dev team is stretched but that doesn't excuse basic testing. Literally basic testing.

If you can't manage that then reuse rewards of the past. Give out more Valentines bears and just put a year on them 2022, 2023 etc. Quick path. Already created code. Still something for people to collect.

I'm pretty frustrated with the continued disjointed state of the game. There are design standards and common coding standards that should be in place and followed in any development project. Every time you create an item that doesn't fit the pattern then it NEVER gets cleaned up and the code and the application becomes harder to maintain with literally every system created from scratch. Look at storage items - Bod Books, Alacrity books, Trans books, jewelry boxes. They all work differently and shouldn't. They should all have the same storage and common features - no need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to create a storage medium. They will NEVER go back and fix them now. This is 25+ years of coding experience. If you don't go in with a framework and standards you will never have the budget to go back and bring it up to standards - but its cheap to build it right the first time.

I really get lit up when someone says 'would you rather get nothing?' If I get a burger from a fast food place and its dropped on the ground and smashed with their foot then handed to me - I don't go 'thanks - i'm so happy to have anything. Anything is better than nothing'. Sometimes nothing is better if its going to be complete junk. There is a minimum standard that isn't too hard to achieve. I pay for this game every month. I think I deserve at least BASIC testing regardless of the feature.

The fact that people have this attitude is a commentary on exactly how low the bar is for this game. Have we really been conditioned to accept literally anything?

I actually agree with you on just about all of that and I think for the most part we are on the same page.

I too think that the testing is horrible (if you can call it that) and many times things are released just to say they did it. I think maybe what was missing from my initial comment was that so many people on here threw a ****fit a year or so ago when the Devs didn't give out a holiday gift (I remember people literally raging over it and saying "they could have just reskinned XYZ") that something is better than nothing for those folks.

As I said, I don't care if they gave any gift at all and would be perfectly content if the Devs said "we are a small team so we are going to focus on new Treasures of rewards instead of the VDay clicky", but do you think that would fly? So what that leaves us with is some gift that the Devs probably don't care about and are literally just checking a box so that the cranky Karen's don't start acting like someone else took the last twinkie from the vending machine.

I really get lit up when someone says 'would you rather get nothing?' If I get a burger from a fast food place and its dropped on the ground and smashed with their foot then handed to me - I don't go 'thanks - i'm so happy to have anything. Anything is better than nothing'. Sometimes nothing is better if its going to be complete junk. There is a minimum standard that isn't too hard to achieve. I pay for this game every month. I think I deserve at least BASIC testing regardless of the feature.

The fact that people have this attitude is a commentary on exactly how low the bar is for this game. Have we really been conditioned to accept literally anything?

I'm not sure what fast food place throws your food on the ground and stomps it so that is kind of unrealistic... but how about this. You go to buy a 1997 Toyota Corolla with 375,000 miles on it. The AC is broken, the dashboard looks like an Xmas tree, and it burns oil like a bandit.... but it gets 32mpg and takes you from point A to B. Are you seriously going to complain that the mechanic isn't sure why the car is burning oil? You kind of know what you are getting for a 25 year old product.

The game is 25 years old with a skeleton crew. I'm not saying the amount of bugs released each pub is acceptable by any means but there are just some things people need to accept. I personally don't care if the little tin man doesn't give me a flower when he's locked down because they will all likely end up being sold or thrown away so this is easily accepted by me but maybe it's not for you. That said, if you don't think what they are putting out is acceptable then there are plenty of other games out there.

 

[Spartan]

Couldn't agree more... been harping about it for years... but it falls on deaf ears and every year it just keeps going further and further downhill... like a tiny snowball that gathers more snow on the way down... it's now of epic proportions of a rolling ball of ****e... but they keep lapping it up like it's chocolate... I keep pointing it out. All the missed opportunities... and peeling back the veil for those who wish to see the wizard for what it is... but they continue to praise and excuse it all. I can only shake my head and wonder how much further it can grow before it eventually destroys the game completely in one massive ****e storm... time will tell I guess.

I used to look forward to these special things - just for the uniqueness if nothing else. But, as you've noted it's gone/going downhill. I gave it up a year ago Halloween ... just not worth the time.

 

[MalagAste]

It's funny I'm labeled a troublemaker malcontent troll on the official forum because I am vocal and have expectations that the game i have loved for decades should be better..

My passion for the game led me to just pointing out the obvious and slamming them for all the bull they have been dropping... and yet there are so many that praise them over and over for every little thing they do like it's some gift from a benevolent god or something. Hate to break it to them but it's been as obvious as the nose on the Dev's faces that they are doing the absolute barest minimum to keep their jobs. That's how I see it. If they were really putting their hearts into the game then it would show... just saying. Pretty sure someone's heart has shriveled up to the size of a pea... and then become stone-cold as well and there is no room in it any longer for the love of the game.

I get ripped on this forum for anything I say against them and whatever I don't care anymore. Rip me all you like ... to me that just proves I'm right. If it angers the pompom wavers it's because they know I'm telling the truth. I suppose as I'm getting older I have less and less tolerance for being fed a plate of bull crap...

The game has been on a steady decline for about the last 8 to 9 years... I often wonder just what keeps it going... my guess is cheaters and those too nieve to see thru the veil... to the real "wizard" ...

I used to look forward to gifts... Christmas, Valentines, and Anniversary... but anymore they are no longer "gifts" ... it's a grind... I used to enjoy the search for the rare colored box, the special named items... etc... Used to enjoy getting things with certain names of my characters on them... but that it would seem is a thing of the past... everything is generic these days. Each year things are stripped down more and more... fewer items, fewer colors, fewer names, etc... again proving that they are doing the barest minimum to keep afloat... don't give me that small team excuse... I've seen games with fewer devs do 100x more... in far less time... they honestly have a full year to plan any of this crap... they KNOW it comes around every year... and they know that the players expect something. Doing nothing at all or the barest minimum just proves my point.

Events I seriously enjoyed were things like BlackRock infecting things... which was insanely fun... Really enjoyed many of the crazy whisperings in my ear as well... was a well-thought-out event, to say the least... Enjoyed fighting the shadowlords... Enjoyed many of the old city invasions... I miss those things.

Anymore though everything is a seriously boring grind with very little "reward"... or just a death fest with little reward except for those who script the heck out of it or have 16 to 20 hours to devote daily to it... otherwise for the average player, it's not worth the effort. Anymore most of the "events" and even the EM Event stuff is little reward for all the effort and mostly frustrating... with client crashes, freezing up, death after death, insane lag, and often it's nearly impossible to follow what's going on... Just gave up... besides the issue with looting rights... and the public corpse being total crap in the EC... takes all the "fun" out of attending much of that. Can't move, can't follow the story, can't stay logged in, can't loot, can't see what's happening, and find it is more frustrating than fun. So I quit bothering with it.

Most of the events are just a grief fest of people running about like a bunch of insane twits dragging everything to everyone and invising leaving a trail of death in their wake... not helping others and just being jerks... also NOT worth doing. More frustrating than fun. Just hitting the smalls and running on from anything that takes more than 1 or 2 hits to kill... leaving everyone else to deal with the crap in their wake... it's irksome... but just shows it pays to be a jackhole in this game anymore. Another thing that seriously disgusts me of late.

 

[ShriNayne]

@MalagAste you play other games though, some of the people who will accept anything here haven't and never will play any other game, so anything new is better than nothing new for them, since they don't have something else to play if things are a bit slow here, content-wise. As for your opinion on the state of the game, you are not wrong, it's been 25 years and instead of spending some time fixing as much as they can they have moved their eggs into the NL basket. I just don't think it's going to bring in 'new' players the way they seem to think it will, mostly it will just be curious 'old' players. I was excited when I first heard about NL but they have given so little information, if it was so great why have they not been advertising it more. Taking into account their past mistakes with production shards it makes me wonder if it will just be more of the same, another wasted opportunity.

 

[Naitch]

They have shown us the changing of the seasons and fur lined armor will keep your stats from going down if you wear it in the winter. You and I may not be impressed but...

Maybe they are going after the meteorologist demographic?

 

[Anon McDougle]

They have shown us the changing of the seasons and fur lined armor will keep your stats from going down if you wear it in the winter. You and I may not be impressed but...

Maybe they are going after the meteorologist demographic?

See i wouldn't mind if weather had an actual impact on game play but think about this development teams ability to roll out even the simplest of features. Am i I to believe that they will be able to take something entirely new they have totally coded (if this itself doesn't terrify you) and blend it into production spaghetti please..

 

[Keven2002]

See i wouldn't mind if weather had an actual impact on game play but think about this development teams ability to roll out even the simplest of features. Am i I to believe that they will be able to take something entirely new they have totally coded (if this itself doesn't terrify you) and blend it into production spaghetti please..

Is it 100% confirmed that Dev work isn't outsourced? I wouldn't be surprised if they had some temp style coders they outsourced to. This would explain why some things that are developed aren't always consistent and it's not always an easy fix for a bug. If that's the case I can see some of the NL stuff being pretty cool because they might have really started from scratch BUT to your point, I don't know how that would then be able to be integrated into the existing platform if they were to take some NL "stuff" (like weather) and use it on a Prod shard.

 

[Naitch]

Answer is no they cannot lol


Do you remember when they used to turn on the snow for Christmas? It broke certain things in the game , like our towns banner . Literally dropped all the little deco pieces to the ground. Complained and messana fixed it. She was very nice and understanding too.

When time came to change back to normal, switching the snow off , the same thing happened again. SOB!!

 

[ShriNayne]

Seems crazy that so many people complained about that snow, so they stopped turning it on, but now it's an exciting feature of NL. Seasons and weather are not gameplay or content, I've yet to see anything that tells me what the actual gameplay will be like. It's starting to feel like the big reveal of Kingdom Reborn, that didn't go so well.

 

[MalagAste]

@MalagAste you play other games though, some of the people who will accept anything here haven't and never will play any other game, so anything new is better than nothing new for them, since they don't have something else to play if things are a bit slow here, content-wise. As for your opinion on the state of the game, you are not wrong, it's been 25 years and instead of spending some time fixing as much as they can they have moved their eggs into the NL basket. I just don't think it's going to bring in 'new' players the way they seem to think it will, mostly it will just be curious 'old' players. I was excited when I first heard about NL but they have given so little information, if it was so great why have they not been advertising it more. Taking into account their past mistakes with production shards it makes me wonder if it will just be more of the same, another wasted opportunity.

I only started playing a lot of other games because of the state of UO... In giving up here I began looking for something to "replace" that time I used to spend playing UO... Now I play a whole range of other games... from Skyrim (loving the new anniversary edition)... to No Man's Sky (Mostly just enjoy exploring all the various varieties of planets and systems)... and even Dragon Quest Builders 2... kinda a fun game... tried Landmark but that sadly got closed... due to poor decisions by DEVs and Daybreak Games... mismanagement of it... but they didn't care. Would have been a beautiful game if they had done it right... Probably would have been better than UO for me. And played Black Desert for a while... a beautiful game... however very grindy.

 

[Poo]

all right, FINE, ill be the one who comes out and says it!

these 'taste testers' look like they are wearing Gimp Suits!
like in the movie Pulp Fiction.
just saying.

 

[Amber Witch]

all right, FINE, ill be the one who comes out and says it!

these 'taste testers' look like they are wearing Gimp Suits!
like in the movie Pulp Fiction.
just saying.

I think you're on to something here..... This IS the Taste Tester for King Blackthorn's after all and some seem to have a sense that the King's private life is rather umm... interesting.

Thanks Poo. I liked the statue and appreciated receiving a gift but now... oh.. but now! It's much more of a fun idea.

*places a rose-less bouquet of thorny stems in a vase*

 

[Theo_GL]

See i wouldn't mind if weather had an actual impact on game play but think about this development teams ability to roll out even the simplest of features. Am i I to believe that they will be able to take something entirely new they have totally coded (if this itself doesn't terrify you) and blend it into production spaghetti please..

And back to my point about the spaghetti they are maintaining and continue to make worse - STANDARDIZE and reuse systems and code.

Rose of Trinsic can show you how many petals you have when you hover over it before you pick them. The Ship painting can tell you how many powder charges. The Transcendence painting can show you how many of 10. Shard sheilds? Not so much - gotta collect one and THEN it tells you how many. LIke WTF on that one? Standards, standards, standards. That's the previous software engineer and current software executive in me. The more you don't follow standards the harder and harder the game becomes to maintain. Stop making the problem worse.

This V-day gift is a step in the wrong direction. It is non-standard.