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NEWS UO Newsletter

Larisa

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Amazing things in this one..keep up the great work guys! Looking forward to it all!!!

Especially this one...

Finally, we've received some great submissions of new castle designs! There is so much interest in this promotion that we are going to be putting together a tool that allows players to mock-up larger house designs on TC1. Keep an eye on future newsletters as we release this feature in a future publish.

ITS ABOUT TIME!!! :)
 

Kayhynn

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Amazing things in this one..keep up the great work guys! Looking forward to it all!!!

Especially this one...

Finally, we've received some great submissions of new castle designs! There is so much interest in this promotion that we are going to be putting together a tool that allows players to mock-up larger house designs on TC1. Keep an eye on future newsletters as we release this feature in a future publish.

ITS ABOUT TIME!!! :)
I agree. I've not had time to do something to create it because I didn't have time to figure it out. A tool on TC1 would be awesome.
 

ShriNayne

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They do listen, a new tool on test for the castle design contest is fantastic news! Thank you Devs! I can't wait to try this out, now all I need is to hear they will do the same for Keeps.... :thumbsup:
 

Archnight

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Let's hope I win one of these :D

"For those that cannot attend the party, I do not want to leave you out of everything, so we are going to put a raffle stone on TC1 that lets you sign up for a chance to win a Castle! Yes that is correct! For the anniversary I will be giving out 6 castles! Three in game via the TC1 raffle stone and three at the Party! You will be notified via email so you can tell me what shard you would like the castle placed"

:danceb::banana::danceb:
 

Minerva Foxglove

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But but,we who doesnt have a castle spot already on TC..I doubt there are any such spots left.. I lost mine after tha last time we worked on castles at TC,,and could never find another spot.:(
 

AtlanticRealtor

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They are not giving the castles AT TC
The stone will b there so we can all sign in...I assume it is like the vote stone (1 per account) and most like the winners will later on pick a shard where they want their castles.....
 

Minerva Foxglove

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ah i thought we should use it for making designs on Tc..im not interested in winning anything , just experiment with designs. I bet more ppl that me wont turn in a design as we are not good with the tec stuff or have the time to try without such tool.
 

Merus

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You two are talking about 2 different things:

1. There will be a stone on TC to sign up for the castle give away.
2. There will be a new tool added on TC to build castle plots for submission to the design contest. Concern is valid if you have to find a plot space large enough for the new tool to work.
 

Merlin

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Quick thoughts:

1 - What's that new map in the background? Hopefully something we will be getting?
2 - Nice brief update on the status of 20th Anniversary party. I will be looking forward to some brisket and pulled pork!
3 - Publish 98 seems to be an important one, so it makes more sense now why they are pushing Pub 97 live a little quicker than some of us may have hoped. Looking forward to their ideas and new Treasures of Halloween event.
4 - Regarding the story arc - I sincerely hope they take a lot of thought and history from Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar. That particular piece of Ultima history was, in my humble opinion, the most thoughtful and unique of all the Ultima historical storylines and is also the biggest commercial success outside of UO.
5 - Regarding VvV... the system does need fixing, but I can see this easily being another source of drama and non-sense. I guess we will have to see what they propose changing. I hope it mainly surrounds the VvV system itself and not too many further combat changes.
6 - Thumbs up to the Crystal Portal idea mentioned in Q&A #1. Illshenar needs some type of portal system pretty badly.

Overall - interesting letter.
 

grimiz

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The new "castle design toolset" is really a secret test to see if customizable 32x32 houses will work. You heard it here first, 32x32 is coming! :p
 

DJAd

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1 - What's that new map in the background? Hopefully something we will be getting?
Thats the current map I think. The desert area looks like around shrine of compassion and wind.
 

Larisa

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Thats the current map I think. The desert area looks like around shrine of compassion and wind.
Yep you are correct..the red dot in the middle is Despise.
 

Uriah Heep

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I do really really really hope that for the event arc and invasion scenarios, that they turn off guard zone so that mages and everyone can summon and cast area.

@Kyronix @Mesanna

Edited in: In fact, to be honest, why, in Trammel, do we even have the guard zones active? In Trammel we can't attack other players, can't steal from other players, our area spells don't hit other players...why not just turn it off in Trammel for good...will make it better on the EM events too that way they can be partially intown without crippling the magic casters
 

Kylie Kinslayer

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I do really really really hope that for the event arc and invasion scenarios, that they turn off guard zone so that mages and everyone can summon and cast area.

Yeah.. I hope they turn that off as well. One of the last all out town invasions I was around for (the green general one a while back) I was helping out Fel side... was x-healing a red who was fighting the invaders.. guard whacked myself by telling my drag to "all guard me" as a General jumped on me... :confused:
 

Larisa

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skett

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I do really really really hope that for the event arc and invasion scenarios, that they turn off guard zone so that mages and everyone can summon and cast area.

@Kyronix @Mesanna

Edited in: In fact, to be honest, why, in Trammel, do we even have the guard zones active? In Trammel we can't attack other players, can't steal from other players, our area spells don't hit other players...why not just turn it off in Trammel for good...will make it better on the EM events too that way they can be partially intown without crippling the magic casters

Ya then maybe I can do some more stealing with out getting guard whacked
 

Drakelord

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I can understand the concerns of guard zones during events, but let's not forget weaker players as well, crafters that are shopping etc.. The Guard zones are there to protect them as well. Of course, during an invasion of a city, they could turn on redirecting anyone recalling into an area under attack to avoid being made a meatball. At the same time turn the guard zone off during that attack on THAT city only. Once the invasion is over with turn it back on.
 
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Uriah Heep

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Last one I was involved with the guards wouldnt attack the invaders. Calling guards did nothing. So they arent keeping the crafters safe anyway.
 

Pawain

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I can understand the concerns of guard zones during events, but let's not forget weaker players as well, crafters that are shopping etc.. The Guard zones are there to protect them as well. Of course, during an invasion of a city, they could turn on redirecting anyone recalling into an area under attack to avoid being made a meatball. At the same time turn the guard zone off during that attack on THAT city only. Once the invasion is over with turn it back on.
I took a break and returned when Britain was being invaded. My guy popped up at the bank and was killed and never got back to the body. I'm sure the stuff I lost was crap. I don't think guard zones will help that kind of thing though.
 

transcendent

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Amazing things in this one..keep up the great work guys! Looking forward to it all!!!

Especially this one...

Finally, we've received some great submissions of new castle designs! There is so much interest in this promotion that we are going to be putting together a tool that allows players to mock-up larger house designs on TC1. Keep an eye on future newsletters as we release this feature in a future publish.

ITS ABOUT TIME!!! :)
Will these new castle designs be added to the UO store?
 

Drakelord

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I took a break and returned when Britain was being invaded. My guy popped up at the bank and was killed and never got back to the body. I'm sure the stuff I lost was crap. I don't think guard zones will help that kind of thing though.
You got turn into a meatball ya that has happen to me more then once across several shards over the years. poor crafter recalls in during an invasion never knew what hit them, had they set up the redirect to another safer location during that invasion. oh well.
 

Larisa

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Will these new castle designs be added to the UO store?
They will be available on the house placement tool, you will have the option of placing a new one or re-doing your current one if you already own one.
 

Yadd of Legends

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This lottery for a new castle - what if you win a castle and want it on Atlantic and there is no available space for a castle? Will she create a new lot for it?
 

Kylie Kinslayer

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This lottery for a new castle - what if you win a castle and want it on Atlantic and there is no available space for a castle? Will she create a new lot for it?
Sheer speculation and hope on my end.. but I think/hope they would be Malas Castles like the other ones were..
 

sablestorm

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This lottery for a new castle - what if you win a castle and want it on Atlantic and there is no available space for a castle? Will she create a new lot for it?
There are two castle spots near Vesper, east across the bridge from the bank. Are those two filled on Atlantic? I know on many shards they are empty and can only be placed by the Devs.
 

Lord Nabin

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Thanks for the newsletter. Looks great.
 

Riyana

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The tool is great news, but it should have been RELEASED with the initial announcement. The initial announcement, lacking details and any reasonable way build a castle, coupled with the lack of response to multiple inquiries only to give way to "draw it on paper if you like" before nearly two months later finally announcing that there WILL be a tool, was incredibly frustrating. A little bit of forethought goes a long way.
 

arkiu

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I'll go ahead and be the Debbie downer. Few things that come to mind from the newsletter:

Definitely looking forward to the global event arc - the last one was a lot of fun, but it would be nice if these occurred more often. Last one was 1-2 years ago? Not suggesting a monthly thing but maybe one mini arc every 6 months or something? I dunno. Again I enjoyed the last one and wish they occurred more frequently.

Other than that, I really wish there was less thought put into deco/housing/cosmetics and more thought put into game play and mechanics, and revisiting outdated systems/content. While VvV certainly falls into this category, that is about the only thing that was mentioned they are going to look into - and frankly that is looong overdue. Peerless, champions, skills, quests, dungeons, loot tables, artifacts etc. could all use some revitalization, so you will have to forgive me if I lack the enthusiasm for castle customization. I feel like there is a lot of content in this game that with some minor tweaking could be made far more enjoyable, and I feel there is more emphasis put on playing play house than there is toward the actual game. Don't mean to offend anyone by saying that but that's just my opinion, and wished the newsletter would have addressed things with a bit more substance. Doom was a start but there is a lot more content that can be redone/tweaked.
 

Lord Nabin

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Playing house and deco is a game style that plenty of people put time into.

It Is playing the game.

I don't really think your offending anyone. Just acknowledge their play style as well
 

PlayerSkillFTW

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Wonder where Mesanna will place the Castles. I know that there's an island in Tokuno where you can't place, and 8-9 years ago the devs said there was going to be a contest for one person on each shard to win a 18x18 on that island. The contest never happened though. That Island was used for the "Dragon Egg" event on Napa. Not sure if it still spawns a crapload of Dragons/Drakes/Ancient Wyrms there still. Will have to check an old rune there later.
 

Mene (DF)

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What would prevent her suddenly place a new landmass? The old Ultima History of the single player games spoke of more the only one lost lands. I could imagine that one of these - Pagan for example - could be reborn.....
 

Mene (DF)

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Playing house and deco is a game style that plenty of people put time into.

It Is playing the game.

I don't really think your offending anyone. Just acknowledge their play style as well

For some of us like me (for example ;) ) it's even the only reason to hold this game over years!
You 're pleased to click the link below in my Sig to see what is possible if you play with the costumized tool. And much more - many fantastic housing ideas excist i would never thought about! Some of us are really artist and masters.
Deko is neccessary - i personally won't live into naked dark walls. And where else to get special decoration? Only by hunting the bosses, by waiting for high veteran rewards, buy them on the store n(e)owadays and giving PK's a little gift i allow to kill me at the champs :rolleyes::p:D....
 
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Slayvite

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I hope they put the Castles in random places around Sosaria and not just all in one new place, making it look like a new Castle council estate.

Though I have to agree with others on this "new tool", it sounds very much like we will be stress testing the housing warehouse on Test to see if 32x32 customisable will be reasonable on live shards. ;)
 

MalagAste

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Don't care about the Castles or anything though I would love one... what I'm thinking about is this event arc....

PLEASE @Kyronix pretty please don't make it one big massive grindy event where you work, work, work for little to no payout... So sick and tired of investing hours on end of time to get NOTHING in return time and time again... it's made it so I just loathe doing so many things in the game anymore...

Please consider that many of us do not have hours and hours to grind away for no return on the time investment.

 

Dot_Warner

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What would prevent her suddenly place a new landmass? The old Ultima History of the single player games spoke of more the only one lost lands. I could imagine that one of these - Pagan for example - could be reborn.....
UO already has the "missing" pre-Shattering Sosarian continents as various facets. We're only missing the rest of Ambrosia (T2A). Pagan is a completely separate planet (Zeala), though it could be connected to Sosaria like Eodon (which is on Earth) was. They could also pull in some or all of the eight Underworld II planets...and Mars.

But, honestly, UO doesn't need more land. It needs to make better use of the massive tracts of real estate it currently squanders.
 

Keith of Sonoma

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Please consider that many of us do not have hours and hours to grind away for no return on the time investment.
While I see your point, is it not also fair to want it so that people who DO spend hours and hours get better rewards? After all, nothing in life is free. Time and effort should have to be spent. Otherwise why not just give everybody EVERYTHING.
 

Uriah Heep

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While I see your point, is it not also fair to want it so that people who DO spend hours and hours get better rewards? After all, nothing in life is free. Time and effort should have to be spent. Otherwise why not just give everybody EVERYTHING.
More time spent should = more rewards earned.
Not necessarily better rewards tho...
 
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