Happy Holidays!

Iantown's favorite production company, Wham Z Productions presents a Holiday tour of Iantown!

You can download it here. The file is fairly big, about 8 megs.
Click Here

This was posted by our own Kurgan

Kurgan
UO World Staff
Chairbourne Ranger

Warning and FYI.... -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People are trying to sell Ninja & Bushido Books on vendors for allot fo money.
There is a bug where if you sell the item on a vendor, and someone comes by and dbl clks on the book it will open like a bone container.
People are trying to sell these as rares. Dont be scammed on this one folks.
This is a known bug, and should be fixed soon.
This is just an FYI..



As always be careful out there!

Thanks to Peaches for the heads up!



The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Origin Lives! Welcome to the new UO shard: Origin Dec 10 2004 12:04AM


On Thursday, December 16, between 5:00 – 8:00 PM PST, a new shard will be born -- Origin. This shard will be a place where you can get a fresh start, claim that prime piece of real estate you’ve always had your eye on, or just rediscover the lands of Britannia.
Because we have many demo and free trial programs available, this shard will only be available to Ultima Online: Samurai Empire account holders for the first month. By limiting access in this way, we can ensure that our loyal customers have the first opportunity to claim the real estate and goods provided by the launch of the Origin shard. This restriction will be lifted in mid-January.

A few things you should know about the Origin Shard:

Origin will be located on the West Coast of North America
This Shard will be the first to receive most publishes and updates
Character Transfer will be disabled to and from Origin for the first 30-days
Advanced Characters will not be available for the first 30-days
We’re looking forward to seeing you on Origin!

The complete transcript of the December 2 UO House of Commons Open House has been posted on the UO HoC Website:

Topic: The Samarai Empire

Brekkee - *Lyrian* Will the Siege Perilous problem with training in Ninjitsu/Bushido from 0 skill be addressed in the next publish?
Leurocian - This is on my ToDo as well. So hopefully we can address this in publish 29 (no promises).

Brekkee - *Kuja[OES]* There are still some issues with the new war system introduced with Samurai Empire, such as crosshealing problems among warred guilds in Felucca. Are these being addressed?
EvilMantis - I have this very issue on my todo list.
EvilMantis - Depending on circumstances, this could either make Pub29 or Pub30

To read the rest, head over here.

The following was posted over at UO.com on the FYI Page:

The test center shard "TC2 Pub28 OCU1" is now running with the following updates:

* NPC mana vampire usage frequency has been reduced
* Players can now meditate again after casting Energy Vortex or Blade Spirits
* Looting problems related to pack animals, necromancy animates, and victims of provoked creatures have been resolved
* Female vendors can now wear female clothes again

If everything goes according to plan, we will be publishing to the production shards tomorrow as follows:

* 2 December 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
* 2 December 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
* 2 December 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania
* 2 December 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
* 2 December 4:00PM PST (12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
* 2 December 9:00PM PST (5:00AM GMT) - Europa, Drachenfels

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour.

We will keep you updated if any of this information changes.

A visit from Christmas Past

---

This is a little holiday parody that someone put together around 1998.

In the spirit of UO I thought I would circulate it to those who would enjoy it

~ Spree

---

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the shard

Not a creature was stirring, 'cept a macroing bard

The backpacks were hung by the chimney with care

In hopes generous GMs soon would be there



The bank theifs were nestled all snug in their robes

While visions of easy marks danced in their lobes

All of us regulars here at the Y

Had just settled down, to pass the night by


When out on the lawn there arose such a scream

Everyone looked 'round, to scope out the scene

Away to the front door, we flew like a flash

'Twas just in time for a halberd's last crash



The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow

Shone red from the blood of the newbie below

Then, what should our wondering eyes thus impart?

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny great harts!


With white-bearded driver, all dressed in red

The same as the name floating o'er his head

He bent over the corpse, started carving away

We knew in a moment, IT WAS SANTA PK!!!



Our numbers were many, our characters brave

We all jumped on Santa PK in a wave!

More rapid than eagles, his great harts they came

Santa PK cursed soundly, then called them by name



Now Corp Por, now Vas Flam, now on Vas Ort Grav!

Now Ort Sanct, now Wis Quas, and others I have!

To the top of the hedge, to the top of the wall

Rel por away, por away, por away all!



And then, in a twinkling, we heard on the roof

The thumping and whumping of each little hoof

We all headed inside, and as we turned round

Down the chimney came Santa PK with a bound


Dressed in red magic plate, from his head to his foot

He chopped down our tree, and then stole the rule-book

He snooped all the patrons, and summoned EVs

Then stole all 15 of my insta-log keys!



His dimples, how merry! His twinkling eye!

He looked 'round, then said, "UR all gonna die!"

Then with no more words he went straight to his work;

To make us all take unplanned naps in the dirt.



I whipped out my halberd, as all followed suit

We were hungry for Santa PK's blood and loot

He had sullied the Y, brought us nothing but grief!

He was worse than a Noto-PK or a theif!



My halberd, it whooshed, my halberd, it whiffed!

I couldn't hit Santa PK, I was miffed!

The Y's other patrons hurled arrows and spells

But they all missed Santa PK just as well



His casting was swift, his footwork sublime

Three bolts he could put in the air at one time!

He guzzed Gheals with 1 second's delay

And I wondered, "Now why can't *I* do it that way?"



The light bulb went on, I let out a scream

"This scumbag must utilize UO Extreme!"

Santa PK turned his head 'round my way

"Corp Por" *thwack* "Corp Por", all I then saw was gray



As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly

Flew the bodies of patrons, those doomed to die

And then, when he was the last one left standing

Santa PK ran forthwith to the landing



He gathered our heads, and he gathered our loot

He jumped in his sleigh in his red armor suit

As he drove out of sight, I heard him exclaim

"Man, U guys suk! U guys R all LaM3!"

---

Many thanks to Spree for digging thru his archive to come up with this one!!

For a joyous and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving, a time of reunion and family, a time for civility and hospitality.


Thanks to all those that participate here at Ianstorm and here's to another year of change and growth for us all.

The following was posted over at UO Stratics by Carbon-EA (Lead, Player Relations,EA), on the UO UHall:

Hello everyone, I figure I haven't posted in a while regarding the player written strategy guide program, so it's time. We're up to 33 published guides now and adding more all the time. Some fine tuning of the program coming up:


* The in-game spellbooks will be dyable from now on. It turns out that Trevelyan of Europa is far smarter than I am, and thought of this improvement. Thank you Trevelyan! They can be dyed with a normal dye tub from now on. If you have one of the old guides and would like it dyable, just email me (carbon@uo.com) and I'll take care of that for you.


* Character Transfer codes are now one of the options along with Advancements and Name Changes. Just request it when you submit your guide.


* The Pacific Shard History guide was not published due to lack of viable entries. I'm not certain whether to list it again and/or whether to continue with Shard History guides.


I would also like some feedback on the following two ideas. Please let me know if you loathe or love these...


1. Each guide winner gets one spin on Carbon's Dubious Wheel of Treasures. Yea, I thought up the name myself as you can tell I'll populate a list of 20 assorted prize items and if your guide is published you get one random item off the wheel. Some better than others in order to keep the spin interesting. I'll even have the Trustworthy Platinum witness the spins for validity.


2. Would it be appealing to have authors of X number of guides or more featured in our Famous Britannians section of the Knowledge Base? The author would write up a little piece on themselves and what not.


Lame ideas? Cool ideas? Talk to me Keep in mind that Chesapeake Shard History and Advanced Blacksmithy are due up on Dec 1st!




Carbon

Lead, Player Relations

Electronic Arts

The following was posted over at UO Stratics by Wilki (Community Rep, EA), on the UO UHall:

Continuing forward with the launch of Ultima Online:
Samurai Empire we will be activating house placement on the 6 remaining shards as follows:

Europa and Drachenfels during the evening of Friday, November 19th local time in Europe.

Arirang and Balhae during the morning of Saturday, Novemeber 20th local time in Seoul, Korea.

Siege Perilous during the afternoon PST.

Oceania during the day of Saturday, November 20th local time in Sydney, Australia.

Currently, there is some concern about the availability of UO:SE in Australia. We are looking into the issue and will delay housing on Oceania if it is necessary.

============== and =============

Only a small percentage of NA players had their pre-orders delayed (it seemed like more because everyone who did was posting about it). We were (and are) extremely unhappy about the situation, but the decision was made to not delay housing because of the percentage of players involved wasn't very high.

In Europe and especially Australia, the percentage of delayed pre-orders was much higher, thus the delay there.

I can tell you without a doubt we've learned from this and we're brainstorming ideas on how we can better roll out housing in the future. I can't comment on the specifics right now, but I can say that it's being taken very seriously and there are some good ideas floating around.


============== and =============


If that's the case, then we'll delay it again.

Yes, it's getting a bit comical, but hey, that's life sometimes ;-)

We just want to make sure that the EB Games pre-orders are delivered before we activate housing on Oceania.


============== and =============


Question: Will there be a reset when we can place houses? Or will it just happen, without any notice?
Wilki: It just happens without notice (other than the general time frame provided on uo.com).

One second it will tell you that you can't place, the next second you'll be able to.

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

"TC2 Pub28 Test" is currently running with the Publish 28 Server code. Publish 28 contains the following changes, fixes, and additions:


NOTE: This is not a final list and may change before this publish goes live. We will post a final list of Publish 28 details as we are ready to publish to the production shards.

Samurai Empire Fixes

• Music should no longer get corrupted when it loops.


• Fixed afterimage while sailing.


• Fixed stuck location while crossing server boundary on the path to Mt. Sho.


• Fixed text cut off in Mongbat Quest for new Samurai.


• Creatures can no longer follow ghosts in some situations.


• New Gaman Animation.


• Added bamboo flutes to loot tables so slayer flutes can drop.


• Fixed Dexterity numbers on Elite Ninjas and Ronin – Variabilty was too high, causing a small potential for a spawn that could not move.


• Landmass: Fixed lava tile under sculpture outside of Fan Dancer Dojo.


• Increased damage for backstab.


• Death Strike will now inflict Direct damage instead of Physical damage.


• Fixed Stalking Bonus weighing too heavily in Backstab ability, and not enough in Surprise Attack.


• Craftables: Fixed many of the items in the Misc. section requiring leather instead of cloth.


• Craftables: Player characters can once again create kegs.


• Craftables: Tetsubo can now be crafted of exceptional quality.


• Art: Fixed the roof of the Zento provisioner so it will use the right type of roof tile.


• Ghosts detect hidden will no longer reveal a stealthed player.


• Detect Hidden will no longer reveal allies and other players in Trammel.


• Factions: A faction player will no longer see a non-factioned player's pet as orange.


• Factions: Faction players will now be allowed to ride their faction horse in south Tokuno.


• Bestiary: A player’s pet will no longer have its Hit Points cut in half after the server is brought down for a publish.


• Bestiary: Corrected an issue with the Lesser Hiryu. They can now be transferred to UO:SE enabled accounts and Master Bushido characters will be able to ride them.


• Server boundary: Fixed location where a player character couldn’t loot his/her corpse when he/she died in Tokuno.


• House Placement: Fixed issue with teleporting a player when placing a Classic house design while standing under it.


• Purchasing Gargoyle stone mining and crafting books will no longer add 266 stones of weight each on player.


• Fixed issue where plant's couldn’t be watered or tended to after patch.


• Directed Experience: Young Ninjas will now equip a variety of weapons.


• Directed Experience: Made quest dialogue clearer for Ninja quest.


• A player can no longer stack special combat moves and Ninja spells.


• Guilds: Fixed error message received when creating a guild with no abbreviation.


• Guilds: Players are no longer able to create a guild with no name.


• Guilds: Fixed typo in guild war announcement message.


• Guilds: Can now do a search on guild's abbreviation.


• Guilds: Alliance members can now perform beneficial acts on each other in Felucca.


• Guilds: Fixed access issue with Guild house security settings.


• Fixed an issue where Champion Spawns would possibly pick an invalid random creature spawn - hence no spawn would show up for spawns that didn't have static creature spawn.


• Fixed the issue where Rikktor instead of Barracoon was spawning at certain champ spawn locations.


• Fixed issue where Champions of Evil were spawning as paragons.


• Fixed issue where Cyclopians and Titans were not spawning in one region of T2A.


• Fixed giant Serpents, slimes, etc. spawning in doom.


• Fixed an issue that was preventing Dread Spiders from spawning


• Recall spell will now once again work for young players.


• The Oaks champ spawn will no longer spawn grey creatures that attack positive karma players.


• Professions: New players who pick Bushido or Ninjitsu skill will now start with the appropriate skill book.


• Fixed 3D unused tile issue with Fukiya weapon.


• No-Dachi is now listed in combat book under Crushing Blow.

Live Enhancements/Fixes

Instance Corpses

• Damaging a mob and making the top attackers list allows you access to its loot in an fairly distributed fashion


• The looting rights formula has remained unchanged


• Players or parties who make the top attackers list will receive an “instanced” loot container


• This corpse container will only be accessible by the player and not viewable by others for 3 minutes


• Gold will be split evenly among all players on the top attackers list


• Generic stackable items (bolts/arrows, jewels, reagents, etc.) will also be divided among the top attackers


• Each player has a chance to receive up to 1/N (rounded up) of the creature’s total items (where N = # top attackers)


• Resources (meat, skins, etc.) will go to the player on the top attackers list who first cuts up the corpse


• Items the creature has looted from a player will only be available to the player they came from for 3 minutes


• Each player’s own Luck will play a role in determining the loot that is received


• In the case of a party, the member with the highest luck will be used


• Loot and resources left in the instance corpses will become available to everyone after 3 minutes are up


• PVP looting will not be affected by this change


• Example:


• The Dark Father (loot table: 2011 gold, 12 items)


• Player A 670 gold 4 items (Notice player has a chance of receiving up to 1/N of the total items)


• Player B 670 gold 3 items (Notice however players will not always receive the full amount of the 1/N items )


• Player C 670 gold 4 items (Notice gold will always be split evenly)

Holiday Gifts 2004

Each player character during the holiday season will receive a random colored gift box. Note: characters must be 30 days or older to be eligible for holiday gifts.

Combat Fixes/Tweaks

• Changed War Mode Toggle delay to one second.


• Fixed curse bug (spells that take away strength were redundantly taking away hit points as well; therefore, reducing hit points too much).


• Fixed strength buffing bug (spells that increased strength were redundantly increasing hit points as well; therefore, increasing hit points too much).


• Added delay on remounting after using dismount special maneuver (same delay as bolas).


• Added delay on remounting after using dismount special maneuver or bolas for faction horses.


• Removed damage penalty for distance with hit area effects.


• Fixed "Target cannot be seen. Try again." bug for the Energy Vortex spell.


• Fixed line of sight targeting bug with the Blade Spirits spell.


• Fixed using the last charge of a poisoned weapon always hitting with level one poison.

General Fixes/Tweaks/Enhancements

Increased allowed # tiles away from pet when bandage healing completes to 2.

Mouse over now works only for your backpack. Item properties will not be shown on other people's backpacks.

Fixed The Taskmaster Artifact from no longer appearing as a mace weapon.

Hearth of the Home Fire will now have animating fire.

Changed runebook weight from 3 stones to 1 stone.

Fixed GGS skill gain by removing chance to learn check if appropriate time has passed for a GGS gain.

Documentation on GGS can be found here: http://guide.uo.com/skill_52.html

Fixed misspelling of Castle British for recall runes.

Verite and valorite elementals will no longer destroy insured items that are equipped.

Added ettins to slayer repond group

Creature Loot/Fame Adjustments

• Increased fame for rotting corpses and ethereal warriors.


• Slightly improved loot for ethereal warriors.


• Slightly reduced weaker version of solen infiltrator loot.


• Meer Eternals will now have a chance to spawn level 5 treasure maps (use to be level 4).


• Modified lose loyalty ability that certain creatures possessed and replaced it with a different ability.


• 20% chance to inflict triple damage vs. pet


• Fixed spawn chance for swordmanship, magery, musicianship, fencing, and mace fighting magic jewelry.


• Added chance to spawn treasure maps for several creatures:


• Ettins (Level 1)


• Evil Mage (Level 1)


• Acid Elemental (Level 2)


• Evil Mage Lord (Level 2)


• Efreet (Level 4)


• Elder Gazer (Level 4)


• Ethereal Warrior (Level 5)


• Removed nonmagical jewelry spawn from Phoenix.

Fishing Tweaks/Enhancements

• Removed SOS bottles from Wanderers of the Void in Doom. These Doom Guardians will now spawn with level 3 treasure maps instead (with the rare chance of a level 4 treasure map).


• Added variable weight and fisherman's mark on big fish, big fish trophy deed, and big fish trophy. Any big fish caught that is below 20 stones will not display weight or fisherman's mark.


• Further tweaks to fishing loot.


• Hued level 4 fishing chests white.


• Changed Ancient SoS spawn chance from 1 in 40 to 1 in 25.


• Give the fabled net thrower (if a GM Fisherman) a 1 in 4 chance of getting a minor artifact (not modified by luck or damage).


• If the fabled net thrower doesn't get a minor artifact, but is a top attacker, then perform the normal chance to get a minor artifact modified by luck. i.e., the fabled net thrower won't get two minor artifacts from one leviathan, but will have two chances to get one.

Barding Fixes/Tweaks

• Capped barding difficulty at 160.0.


• Added Barding Difficulty to Animal Lore gump.


• Barding Difficulty will show up as --- if the creature is completely non-bardable.


• Removed all non-bardable flags from Champions of Evil and Doom Bosses, but added no-provoke and no-areapeacemaking flags on them if they use to be noBard or noPeacemaking. However, they can be provoked onto by lesser creatures.


• Halved Discordance debuff vs. any creature with a barding difficulty of 160.0.


• Example: a bard with 120 discord normally debuffs a creature by 28%. However, against a creature that has a barding difficulty of 160.0, the bard will debuff the creature by 14%.


• Related to Barding, fixed issue where creatures were still highlighting as an aggressor even when area calmed.


• Fixed bug where bard in Felucca couldn't provoke his/her own pets or summons onto another hostile creature.


• Fixed bug where Discordance was not lowering SE skills.


• Paragon Fixes/Tweaks


• Slightly reduced Paragon creature maximum speed (was 150, now 125).


• Paragons will no longer flee when near death.


• Paragon orcs and savages will no longer attack player characters wearing orcish kin masks simply by walking near them.


• Paragons will no longer attack stealthing player characters simply by stealthing near them.


• Paragon creatures with a barding difficulty = 160.0 after the cap will also have the no-provoke flag. If 160.0 barding difficulty paragons are discorded, their barding difficulties will be lower while discorded. Therefore, they can be directly provoked while they are discorded.


• Fixed issue where paragon shadow wisps would attack good or neutral players.

Minor Artifacts

• Made some minor artifacts leviathan only, treasure hunter only, and paragon only.


• Added new minor artifacts to testcenter bank boxes (see below).


• Ghost Ship Anchor (Leviathan only)


• Anchor

Heart of the Lion (Paragon and Treasure Hunter only)

• Platemail Tunic


• Luck 95


• Defense Chance Increase 15%


• Physical Resist 15%


• Fire Resist 10%


• Cold Resist 10%


• Poison Resist 10%


• Energy Resist 10%


• Mage Armor


• Lower Requirements 100%

Cold Blood (Treasure Hunter only)

• Cleaver


• Swing Speed Increase 40%


• Cold Damage 100%


• Mana Increase 6


• Hit Point Increase 6


• Stamina Increase 6

Seahorse Statuette (Leviathan only)

• Emits dolphin sounds when locked down in house


• Five different hues

Wrath of the Dryad (Paragon only)

• Gnarled Staff


• Hit Mana Leech 50%


• Hit Lightning 33%


• Hit Chance Increase 15%


• Damage Increase 40%


• Poison Damage 100%

Pixie Swatter (Paragon only)

• Scepter


• Fey Slayer (see below)


• Fire Damage 100%


• Fire Resist 12%


• Energy Resist 12%


• Swing Speed Increase 30%


• Hit Poison Area 75%


• Use Best Weapon Skill

Notes about Fey Slayer item property

Opposition to Fey are Demons
The Fey slayer item property affects all wisps, centaurs, pixies, unicorns, ethereal warriors, kirins, treefellows, Oaks and Silvani.

The following was posted over at UO Stratics by Leurocian (DEV, OSI), on the UO UHall:

[News]
Leurocian (Designer, Ultima Online) revealed the new artifacts coming in Publish 28.


Wrath of the Dryad (Paragon only)


Cold Blood (Treasure Hunter only)


Heart of the Lion (Paragon and Treasure Hunter only)


Pixie Swatter (Paragon only)


The Fey slayer item property affects all wisps, centaurs, pixies, unicorns, ethereal warriors, kirins, treefellows, Oaks and Silvani


Opposition to Fey is Demon



Seahorse Statuettes and Ghost Anchor (Leviathan only)


The ghost ship anchor is decorative and the sea horses are statuettes that emit dolphins sounds when locked down in a house.


Go to that thread to see pictures and descriptions

The fifth and final installment of The Samurai Empire Documentary has been posted on the UO Samurai Empire Website:

The Fifth Episode of the UO:SE Documentary, End of the Line, has been posted on the Samarai Empire webpage. The adventure continues here!

In other news, Queen Silvani has asked Aerosmith to perform "Love In An Elevator" at Lord Oaks memorial service...

The following was posted over at UO.com on the FYI Page:

Due to an unforeseen distribution delay, the planned opening of housing on the Europa, Drachenfels, Oceania and Siege Perilous shards is being moved to Friday, November 19th PST.

The following was posted over at UO.com on the FYI page:

Due to an unforeseen shipping delay involving Australian customs, the planned opening of housing on the Oceania shard is being moved to Monday, November 15th PST (Tuesday, November 16th in Australia).

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Actual this is on the autopatch screen.

------------------------



Return to Britannia for Free!


Visit old friends,

Slay new enemies,

Discover Ultima Online™ all over again!


From November 16th (Noon PST) to November 29th (11:59PM PST), all former players in good standing will be able to log-in and play Ultima Online using their closed accounts.


Here’s how to return to Britannia:


Re-install Ultima Online™, using your game disc, a friend’s disc or downloading it from HERE**.
Start the game and log-in with your name and password at any time between November 16th (Noon PST) and November 29th(11:59PM PST).

In most cases you’ll find your characters and property waiting for you. (We can’t guarantee all your in-game possessions will still be available, but in most cases they will be.)

Rules:

If you return during the Return to Britannia period, Nov. 16 to Nov. 29, you are still subject to the Terms of Service and Code of Conduct. You can find those HERE.

When you return, you will be entitled to play the last version of Ultima Online your account was enabled to play.

When you return, you will not be able to play content from the Samurai Empire expansion pack, unless you have purchased a copy, installed it and upgraded your account with the enclosed upgrade code.

If your account was banned due to misconduct, you will not be able to take part in the Return to Britannia Program.

F.A.Q.

Q: I would like to re-activate my account. How can I do that?


Go to www.ea.com and click on the Login link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This will take you to the EA.com login page where you can enter your account name and password.

Note: If you're already logged in to EA.com or Pogo, you can skip this step.

Once you're logged in, you'll return to the EA Homepage and you'll see Welcome at the top of the screen. If you don't see this Welcome message, you will need to attempt to log in again.

Click on the My Account link in the upper right hand corner of the screen and you'll be prompted to log in to the My Account page with the same username and password you've just used.

Click on the Subscription Info tab and then click the Re-activate your Subscription link next to the game you'd like to reactivate.

Follow the prompts and select the method of billing you'd like to apply to your account.


Q: I forgot my account name. How do I get that?

If you've lost or forgotten your account name for Ultima Online, Click HERE


Q: I forgot my password. How do I get that?

If you've lost or forgotten your password for Ultima Online, Click HERE


**Electronic Arts is not responsible for content on third party sites, and our Privacy Policy does not apply to their information collection practices.

The chat log for Ianstorm's 14 UO Stormchat has been posted!

Head on over to our Uo Stormchat section to check it out!

Thanks for everyone that participated last night!!!

The fourth installment of The Samurai Empire Documentary has been posted on the UO Samurai Empire Website:

The Fourth Episode of the UO:SE Documentary, Final Straws, has been posted on the Samarai Empire webpage. The adventure continues here!

In other news, Pittminion collected $116 for correctly predicting the next UO team member to be killed by the Ninja.

IanStorm is pleased to announce their 14th UOSC (UO StormChat) with EA:Origin. It will take place at 8pm CST (6pm PST, 9pm EST, 1pm AEST, 1am GMT) TONIGHT, November 4th in #UOSC.

To access the network, you will need an IRC Client (like mIRC or Pirch) and use one of the following servers:

# irc.ianstorm.com

Don't have an IRC client? Never fear, you can access our network via our Java IRC client, here.
If you require help with IRC commands, please see our FAQ.

The topic for this month is General Discussion, so if you have a question to ask, come prepared!
We will also be taking question pertaining to the new expansion, Samurai Empires

You can access logs of our former chats here.

The following was posted over at UO.com on the FYI page:

We have changed the house activation plan for the following shards:

Siege Perilous housing will be activated on November 12th (PST) with the European shards.
The Korean shards (Arirang, Balhae) housing will be activated on November 19th (PST).

We will keep you updated as things progress.

You can read the rest of the post here.

IanStorm is pleased to announce their 14th UOSC (UO StormChat) with EA:Origin. It will take place at 8pm CST (6pm PST, 9pm EST, 1pm AEST, 1am GMT) TOMORROW, November 4th in #UOSC.

To access the network, you will need an IRC Client (like mIRC or Pirch) and use one of the following servers:

# irc.ianstorm.com

Don't have an IRC client? Never fear, you can access our network via our Java IRC client, here.
If you require help with IRC commands, please see our FAQ.

The topic for this month is General Discussion, so if you have a question to ask, come prepared!
We will also be taking question pertaining to the new expansion, Samurai Empires

You can access logs of our former chats here.

MacGuffin managed to recall to Redwood City to attend the UO Players & Developers Monthly Meetup. This month’s Meetup was special as it was time to celebrate the imminent release of Samurai Empire.

Lady Lu (Samarai Empire Team Lead) introduced the Samurai Empire Development team: Oaks, Niobe, Mr Tact, and Speedman. The devs played stump the players posing UO trivia questions (prepared hours in advance no doubt…) and rewarding correct answers with autographed UO:SE boxes and apparel.

Binky (Online Community Manager, All Things Ultima) served the cake, complete with Samurai Empire artwork frosting, and we retired to view the entire 5 episodes of the UO:SE mockumentary. I won’t spoil the fun by sharing, but will say those that picked Oaks as next to die will not win the pool!

The event was well attended by both players and developers. One player drove 5 hours to attend! IanStorm regulars Delilah Jones and Racer X were present as were SunSword, Platinum, Hanse, Leurocian, Fertbert, EvilMantis, GM Spada, GM Sylvani and many others I did not have the opportunity to properly meet. Hanse had with him the original UO specifications, all 3 inches worth in a 3 ring binder, to share with the players!

SunSword (Producer, Ultima Online) shared that there are now 44 people on the UO team between the UO:SE team, the UO Live team and the group working on “future stuff.” I must say, the members of the team I have met are enthusiastic, well grounded, and committed to making UO the best it can be. I am optimistic that the coming year will be a great one for UO.

Kudos go out to Swamp Thing, UO Meetup Coordinator, and Wilki (UO Online Community Representative) for a great event!

To discuss this item, go here.

The following was posted by Mr. Tact (EA), on the Stratics UO Uhall:

Regular lag spikes on all shards

Just a heads up that we do regard this as a serious issue and are actively investigating it as we speak.
More as we know more.
= MrTact =


And again later,

MrTact
(Engineering Lead, UO:Samurai Empire)
11/01/04 06:27 PM
Re: Regular lag spikes on all shards [re: The-Noni-Trader]
No ideas as yet but I am experiencing the one on LS right now and it SUCKS. Sorry we didn't get to this sooner!
I got some good debugging info from LS and am about to start digging into it. Here's hoping something will turn up.

= MrTact =


And again....


MrTact
(Engineering Lead, UO:Samurai Empire)
11/01/04 07:59 PM
Re: Regular lag spikes on all shards [re: Elyssar]

We believe we have identified the problem. We are currently pulling a prodo backup to a test shard to try and reproduce it using a build that has additional debug logging added.

If our suspicions are correct we are most likely looking at an emergency publish later this evening to fix this problem.

= MrTact =

To read other players comments or to respond to this discussion yourself, go here.

Note: You'll need to be registered on the boards in order to respond to the discussion.
Don’t have an account, yet? Go here to register!.

The following was posted over at UO.com on the FYI page:

Once again, it is time for the monthly UO Meetup! This month’s meetup falls on Monday, November 1st at 8pm, and will be held at the Electronic Arts campus at 209 Redwood Shores Dr. in Redwood City, California.

Help us celebrate the launch of Ultima Online: Samurai Empire with refreshments, prizes, and the chance to meet and mingle with the dev team and your friends, both in-game and real life.

We will post any interesting tidbits we get from the meetup here, unless it involves Bush vs. Kerry. :P To sign up and get all the details about this and future Ultima Meetups, go to http://ultima.meetup.com.

No, not the silly George Lucas film! The third installment of The Samurai Empire Documentary has been posted on the UO Samurai Empire Website:

The Third Episode of the UO:SE Documentary, Working, has been posted on the Samarai Empire webpage. The adventure continues here!

In other news, a pool has been started on IanStorm to see which dev team members are the "red shirts" of the documentary.

Due to circumstances, the Ianstorm StormChat with the dev team from Ultima Online will be postponed.

Our chat is scheduled to be held, now, on November 4th, at 8pm CST (6pm PST, 9pm EST, 1pm AEST, 1am GMT)

Sorry for any inconvience this may of caused, and we hope to see you at the chat on the 4th!!

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Today, October 27th, 2004 we will be publishing all shards with the Ultima Online: Samurai Empire launch preparation code. This publish will take approximately 3 hours and take place during the scheduled maintenance window and for each shard as follows:

* 27 October 10:00 AM PDT - publish Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes
* 27 October 11:00 AM PDT- publish Lake Austin, Baja, Sonoma, Pacific
* 27 October 2:00 PM PDT - publish Oceania
* 27 October 4:00 PM PDT - publish Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
* 27 October 5:00 PM PDT - publish Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
* 27 October 9:00 PM PDT - publish Europa, Drachenfels

This publish includes the following feature additions and changes:

* Honor Virtue System was added
* The new Guild System has been introduced:
o A "Guild" button has been added to the paperdoll
o Can also access the new guild system by typing the word "guilds"
o A new guild interface has been introduced to enhance guilds and provide greater accessibility
o Legacy guild stones are now deedable items
o Guilds can now form alliances with other guilds
o The Guild interface now displays when members were last on
o Guilds now cost 25,000 to gold to be created
o Vendors no longer sell guild deeds but will still buy them back
o Legacy guilds have been converted into the new guild system at no additional cost
o Chaos and Order system have been removed
o Added a guild alliance system
o Guilds can now set different ranks, each with their own levels of permission, to guild members
o A new guild election system has been introduced
o Guild wars can now be declared using length of time or number of kills as their victory conditions
o Guild security settings have been added to the housing system
* Faction System has had some minor modifications made to it:
o Insurance costs have been lowered from their current cost when a player dies to a faction enemy
o Sigil corruption time is now 10 hours. The grace period is now 30 minutes
o The sigil carrier hueing system was improved
o Any player can now resurrect their own war horse
o Skilled animal tamers will now resurrect pets with more starting health
o Various minor bugfixes
* The Stealth Skill has been changed:
o Entering and training Stealth will now only require 50.0 skill in Hiding instead of the previous 80.0
o Hidden players with enough skill in Stealth will now attempt to auto-stealth once they begin to walk
o Players can now run in stealth, but doing so increases the chances that players will come out of stealth
o Monsters will retain knowledge of hidden players and attempt to find players that hide while in view of the monster
o Poison damage will no longer reveal hidden players.

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

On Monday, October 25th, 2004 at 11:30AM PDT (6:30PM GMT) we will be publishing the Napa Valley and Lake Superior shards with updated UOSE launch preparation code. We will also be updating the Asuka shard with the current launch preparation code during it’s normal maintenance window (5:00PM PDT\12:00AM GMT). Please note the visible changes below:

Bug Fixes:

* Fixed an issue with items that gave a HP Regeneration bonus to cause players’ strength to drop to 10 after crossing server lines
* Fixed an issue with boats related to optimization changes made to the server
* Fixed a weight issue involving purchasing Gargoyle Stone Mining and Stone Crafting Books
* Fix for the Japanese text guild search client crash
* Fix for the stuck gump window
* Fixed Night Sight
* Can now recall out of Ilshenar
* Pets no longer highlight orange
* Fixed Luna guard zones
* Fixed guild war status

Feature additions and changes:

* Honor Virtue System was added
* The new Guild System has been introduced:
o A "Guild" button has been added to the paperdoll
o Can also access the new guild system by typing the word "guilds"
o A new guild interface has been introduced to enhance guilds and provide greater accessibility
o Legacy guild stones are now deedable items
o Guilds can now form alliances with other guilds
o The Guild interface now displays when members were last on
o Guilds now cost 25,000 to gold to be created
o Vendors no longer sell guild deeds but will still buy them back
o Legacy guilds have been converted into the new guild system at no additional cost
o Chaos and Order system have been removed
o Added a guild alliance system
o Guilds can now set different ranks, each with their own levels of permission, to guild members
o A new guild election system has been introduced
o Guild wars can now be declared using length of time or number of kills as their victory conditions
o Guild security settings have been added to the housing system
* Faction System has had some minor modifications made to it:
o Insurance costs have been lowered from their current cost when a player dies to a faction enemy
o Sigil corruption time is now 10 hours. The grace period is now 30 minutes
o The sigil carrier hueing system was improved
o Any player can now resurrect their own war horse
o Skilled animal tamers will now resurrect pets with more starting health
o Various minor bugfixes
* The Stealth Skill has been changed:
o Entering and training Stealth will now only require 50.0 skill in Hiding instead of the previous 80.0
o Hidden players with enough skill in Stealth will now attempt to auto-stealth once they begin to walk
o Players can now run in stealth, but doing so increases the chances that players will come out of stealth
o Monsters will retain knowledge of hidden players and attempt to find players that hide while in view of the monster
o Poison damage will no longer reveal hidden players

Character Transfer:

Please note that during publish cycles the Character Transfer service will only be available between shards that have the same server code version. This service will return to normal once all shards have been published.

IanStorm is pleased to announce the 14th UOSC (UO StormChat) with EA:Origin. It will take place at 8pm CST (6pm PST, 9pm EST, 1pm AEST, 1am GMT) on, THIS THURSDAY, October 28th in #UOSC.

To access the network, you will need an IRC Client (like mIRC or Pirch) and use one of the following servers:

# irc.ianstorm.com

Don't have an IRC client? Never fear, you can access our network via our Java IRC client, here.
If you require help with IRC commands, please see our FAQ.

The topic for this month is General Discussion, so if you have a question to ask, come prepared!
We will also be taking question pertaining to the new expansion, Samurai Empires

You can access logs of our former chats here.

The second installment of The Samurai Empire Documentary has been posted on the UO Samarai Empire Website:

The Second Installment of the UO:SE Documentary, Rivalry, has been posted on the Samurai Empire webpage. The adventure continues here!

In other news, a fund is being started at IanStorm to help defray Dev Team medical expenses. As soon as we have more information, we will pass it along...

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Lake Superior Shard Publish and MyUO Info Oct 20 2004 6:02PM
On Wednesday, October 20th, 2004 at 11:00AM PDT (6:00PM GMT) we will be publishing the Lake Superior shard with the UOSE launch preparation code. Please note the visible changes below:
Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue with items that gave a HP Regeneration bonus to cause players’ strength to drop to 10 after crossing server lines
Fixed an issue with boats related to optimization changes made to the server
Fixed a weight issue involving purchasing Gargoyle Stone Mining and Stone Crafting Books
Feature additions and changes:


The new Guild System has been introduced:
A “Guild” button has been added to the paperdoll
Can also access the new guild system by typing the word “guilds”
Legacy guild stones are now deedable items
Guilds can now form alliances with other guilds
Faction System has had some minor modifications made to it
Honor Virtue System was added
MyUO Issues:

Please note that during the initial launch phase of Ultima Online: Samurai Empire the MyUO web services will experience the following issues as we update the service.

The New Guild System: The Guild pages will no longer update due to the new guild system introduced with UOSE. We are redoing the MyUO guild pages to fully encompass all of the changes introduced to the new guild system.
New UOSE Wearables: If you have any of the new UOSE wearables equipped they will not show up on your paperdoll on your MyUO page.
New Skills: The Bushido and Ninjitsu skills will not show up on your skill list in MyUO.
These MyUO features should be implemented and functioning by mid November. We will keep you updated as we progress.

This is an update to an article we posted last
week, We're giving away a brand new Samurai Empire box shipped directly to your
door, we've had VERY few people enter this contest so far so the chances of
winning are still very good, get those submissions in folks!!

Contest info:

Create your own 5 to 10 frame cartoon strip, or a
funny uo paragraph or two, or a funny UO related joke, to be shown at
OnlineGameTrader.net!!

Its simple... take images from in game, add
text, and viola! your own cartoon. The UO Community will pick the funniest and
the winner will receive their own copy of Samurai Empire shipped directly to
their home from OnlineGameTrader.net.

How to add/edit images: The easiest way is to
be in game, with the "funny" you want to take a picture of, push "PRINT
SCREEN" and then open a program like MS Paint and paste it in there, you can
open 2 of these at once and copy and paste portions of the images between the
two clients.

 

Email your submissions to

admins@onlinegametrader.net by the 18th of October for judging.

Please visit:

http://www.onlinegametrader.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=44

to see current entries and cast your vote for
the Samurai Empire Giveaway!

The winner is chosen via polls on the website
regarding each submission. So the community picks the winner!

Judging will take place from the now to the
20th, and the winner will be announced on the 21st. Please check back for
updates and new posts as we will be posting them when we receive them!

Do you haiku?! The UO Compendium
invites you to enter to win a pre-ordered copy of UO: Samurai
Empires! It's simple to win, write as many
UO themed haiku as you can and send them on in, the authors of the best two
haiku win UO:SE! For the complete rules and where to send your haiku
please visit the official 'Haiku Like I Do' UO:SE Contest
page.

Hi everyone, I have added pictures of the new monsters to my stat/skill list for them.

To view these pictures click Here (warning: pic heavy post, may take a bit to load).


In addition to this, I have also posted pics of all of the new Artifacts that will be available in UO: SE (many thanks to Feenicks for the pics).

To see what's in store, click Here (also a pic heavy post).

Enjoy!

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

The official Samurai Empire website has gone live! Check out all the details on Ultima Online: Samurai Empire and get an insider look at what it’s like to work with a real ninja! Click HERE to visit the site.

Today EA released support for their UO playerbase in the United Kingdom for the UO:SE product including the soulstone bonus for preorders by officially distributing this product to the UK through GameDemand, an online retailer.

All orders placed through GameDemand for Ultima Online:Samurai Empires during the preorder period will receive the coveted soulstone bonus. This bonus cannot be obtained in the UK through any other online retail source.

EA is expected to make a news story soon, but you can find the official link to the approved outlet at http://www.uo.com/soulstone.html.

Currently GameDemand is offering UK shipments as well as support for Canada, Australia and the USA. You can find the pre-order product at
GameDemand




Also be sure to visit the new UO:SE website

UO:SE

Hi everyone, Malkes here again.

In my desire to bring you the creamy nougat goodness at the center of UO: Samurai Empire, I have compiled a list of the new creatures complete with Stats, Skills, Damage, and resistances for each.

If you wish to take a peek at what is in store for the monster slayer inside of us all (our own nougat center, if you will) then take a look over Here.

Thanks and enjoy.

Hello everyone, Malkes Talren here.

I have made a complete list of each of the new craftable items to be introduced with UO: SE. This list also includes the Skill requirements and item requirements for each item. It is a very long list, but I have tried to make it as simple to understand as possible.

If you wish to see what the expansion will hold for crafters, then take a look in the General Discussion Forum for my stickied post on the topic.
Thanks.

This was sent in to use by Lady Alex from Markeedragon.com:

How much is that artifact worth on my shard? Where did this covered
chair come from and what does it look like ? Those are questions old
and new players are asking now and have been asking since the
existents of Sosoria in the world of Ultima Online.

Markee Dragon is proud to announce Version 3 of the Ultima Online
Rares and Items Database !
We have completely rebuilt the old database adding a new and much
easier menu system with image support ,search option and much more!

You can find the UO Items Database here:
http://www.markeedragon.com/items/

The UO Items/Rare database is player supported. All of the items in
the database have been submitted and updated by players. We look
forward to having you check it out. We have several thousand rare and
common items listed and there are more yet to be discovered .

Join us in our effort to catalogue all the items in UO. Even the ones
that EA never intended players to own !

The complete transcript of the October 7 UO House of Commons Open House has been posted on the UO HoC Website:

Topic: The Samarai Empire Expansion

Brekkee - *Raven_Lodare* What of new champion spawns, will there be new rewards as well?
Ogel - There's a new Samurai-themed champion spawn with a powerful boss and Samurai-themed rewards
Ogel - and ninja-themed too, of course ;)

Brekkee - *BluGnome* Is it possible that we could see poisoned ranged weapons in UO:SE?
EvilMantis - The projectile weapons that we added for SE can in fact be poisoned
EvilMantis - Have fun with that, but watch your fingers!
Oaks - That's the throwing stars and blowgun by the way... the new bow is not poisonable.

To read the rest, head over here.

New fiction was posted to the Britannia News Network on the Ultima Online Website:

A Battle Won, A City Threatened
by Damien, Apprentice Town Crier

As usual, Esther was ignoring my efforts to woo her; she loves to give me the silent treatment. However, totally out of character for my beloved, she suddenly burst out that the Commander was requesting that the Royal Guard and any volunteers make their way to Castle Britannia – post haste!

I wrinkled my nose in distaste. All announcements pertaining to the Royal Britannian Guard were supposed to go through me! Not that I begrudge my beloved the chance to deliver a message once in a while, but it’s the principle of the thing! Why contract me to the Guard, if they won’t allow me to do my job? But, ever loyal, I headed for the Castle…

To read the rest, head over here.

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Samurai Empire Beta Contest – Win a free copy of UO:SE and a Soulstone! Oct 7 2004 6:56PM CST (GMT -06:00)
Do you want a chance to win a free copy of Samurai Empire, including a free Soulstone, and help us improve Ultima Online all at the same time?
All you have to do is log-in to the UOSE Beta test shard and play on Friday, October 8th, between 4:00 – 8:00PM PDT (11:00 – 3:00AM GMT), when we will be conducting a server load test. Sometime during this special test, we will randomly select 5 players who are actively playing (killing monsters, PvP’ing, crafting, etc) in and around the town of Zento in the southern part of the Tokuno Islands to receive :


A free copy of Ultima Online Samurai Empire.
A Soulstone code.
The 5 lucky winners will have their prizes delivered after Samurai Empire has launched and is on store shelves November 2. If you win, you will be contacted via email and given instructions on how to claim your prizes. Make sure the email address associated with your Beta account is up to date and accurate!
Tell everyone you know in the Beta to log-in during the play test window on Friday between 4:00 – 8:00 PDT to help with the load test and get a chance to win a free copy of Samurai Empire, including a free Soulstone!

Remember, in order to have a chance to win you must be logged in at the time that we select the winners and be actively playing in or around the town of ZENTO in southern part of the Tokuno Islands. We will pick the winners any time between 4:00 – 8:00PM PDT. Be sure to engage in normal gameplay for as long as you can during this time to increase your chance of winning!

See you in the Tokuno Islands!

The following was posted over at UO.com on the UO News Page:

The next UO House of Commons Open House chat between the players and developers of UO is scheduled for tomorrow night, October 7th, at 5 PM PDT (7 PM CDT, 8 PM EDT).

The chat will be available at #uohoc on Stratics IRC, on the following networked servers:

irc.stratics.com 6667
stratics.frws.com 6667
irc.glowfish.de 6667
irc.epaxsys.net 6667
stratics.afraidyet.net 6667

This month's topic is Samurai Empire. Remember that this is a development chat, and as such only questions relating to the monthly topic will be answered.

If you are new to these chats, please visit the UO House of Commons webpage for information on how it all works.

MacGuffin managed to recall to Redwood City to attend the UO Players & Developers Monthly Meet-up. As always it was wonderful to meet with other UO players to discuss "the game."

Lady Lu (Samarai Empire Team Lead) introduced a short, "The Making of UO:SE, Part 1," that will premiere on the Samarai Empires webpage that goes live Thursday, 7-Oct. Future installments will be added regularly. Very funny, but I must say - Sunsword, don't give up the day job...

Leurocian (Designer, Ultima Online), as always was activley engaged getting ideas from the players. He shared that the overwhelming response to the addition of paragons is positive. From discussing the game with him, you can sense he is really having fun fixing things and adding stuff to the game. While things may appear to slowdown a bit as US:SE is released and Publish 28 is held back to deal with any UO:SE critical fixes, he has no shortage of ideas for future enhancements. I think the game is in good hands and I will not spoil his fun by mentioning anything we discussed. Suffice to say: w00t w00t!

Also got to meet JP (Art Design, Samarai Empire), AKA Grim Omen, who worked on the artwork for the Ninja and Samarai clothing and armor. A very bright guy who joined EA a few months ago. Updating 2D arwork is a painful process (there are over 1,000 files just for two peices of Samarai armor. The folks created some tools to automate some of the steps in the process allowing the team to get more done!

After watching the movie, I was tempted to do a MacGuffin's Top 10 Reasons For SunSword to Keep His Day Job but I will save that for another day :P

Two new UO Player Guides have gone live on the UO.com website.

One of the guides contains information about the history of the Atlantic shard and can be found Here.

The other guide gives information on the Carpentry profession and can be found Here.

The following was posted to the Ultima Online Website:

Ultima Online: Samurai Empire -- NINJA
Trained in Art of Ninjitsu: Ninjitsu is the art of stealthy combat, espionage and assassination. Ninjitsu is a new skill and will be listed in the skill list. It has a regular cap of 100, and is raisable to a cap of 120 with Power Scrolls.

Ninja Special Abilities

Special Ability: Focus Attack
Summoning all of her skill and strength for a single attack, the Ninja strikes the enemy with great precision. Besides giving a damage bonus, Focus Attack also increases the effectiveness of any hit chance properties on the weapon the Ninja uses for the attack. The strength of these bonuses is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.

Special Ability: Death Strike
Striking the enemy with a special technique, the Ninja can cause damage long after the actual blow. After receiving a Death Strike (which deals half of the damage of a normal blow) if the Ninja’s opponent moves more than five steps, or five seconds elapse, the opponent will suffer damage determined by the skill level of the Ninja.

The delayed damage dealt is greater if the Ninja’s opponent chooses to run away rather than stand and fight. Only highly skilled Ninja can execute a Death Strike.

Special Ability: Animal Form
Using an ancient secret only known to a few, the Ninja mysteriously takes the shape of a beast, granting himself animal-like abilities. Animal form gives the Ninja the ability to transform into an animal, gaining special bonuses unique to each type of creature. There are 12 animal forms available to a skilled Ninja, including stealthy animals such as Rats, ferocious beasts like the Bake Kitsune, and fast runners like Ostards and Unicorns.

Special Ability: Ki Attack
Focusing his Ki, the Ninja uses momentum to strike the enemy with tremendous force. The Ki Attack is a special attack that requires the superb timing and quick movement of a well trained Ninja. In order to execute this attack, the Ninja will have to initiate the Ki Attack and then quickly close the distance between himself and his opponent to deliver an effective blow.

The farther the Ninja travels to deliver the blow, the more powerful the Ki Attack.

Special Ability: Surprise Attack
Attacking from the shadows, the Ninja catches her opponent off-guard and unable to fully defend himself. An attack that can only be initiated by a Ninja in stealth mode, Surprise Attack inflicts a defense penalty on the Ninja’s opponent for a short duration. Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds. The defense penalty applied to the Ninja’s opponent is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.

Special Ability: Backstab
Sneaking up behind the enemy undetected, the Ninja plunges his sword deep into his enemy’s back, inflicting great damage. Similar to Surprise Attack, Backstab requires the Ninja to be in stealth mode in order to initiate this special attack, but instead of lowering the defense of the Ninja’s opponent, Backstab applies a significant damage bonus to the attack.

Using this ability automatically reveals the Ninja, who then cannot stealth again for another 5 seconds.

The strength of the damage bonus is dependent upon the Ninja’s skill in Ninjitsu.

Special Ability: Shadowjump
With great skill and precision, the Ninja stealthily jumps high into the air and lands a considerable distance away. Upon landing, the Ninja’s stealth ability determines if they remain hidden from view.

Special Ability: Mirror Image
Delving into the mystical aspect of Ninjitsu, the Ninja summons a perfect replica of her likeness in order to confuse her enemies. Those skilled in Ninjitsu can create a Mirror Image of their self, which can absorb a single attack from an enemy before disappearing. Ninja can create up to 4 Mirror Images at a time, making it quite difficult to determine which Ninja is real.

Mirror Images will appear as if they are fighting, but they do not actually do damage to the enemy.

Click here to go back to the Ultima Online: Samurai Empire Features Page


Note: Samurai Empire is still being play tested and balanced. Some of the special abilities might change before launch day.

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

By now you are probably aware that we've been rolling out live publishes about once a month. However, because the Live Team is preparing for the launch of Ultima Online Samurai Empire, there will be a longer span of time between Publish 27 and Publish 28. We will provide more information about the launch date of Publish 28 after Samurai Empire is released.

Currently most of the Live Team resources are allocated towards optimizing shard resource usage to help reduce lag at launch. We should see the benefits of this work beyond launch as well, as it should further smooth out normal gameplay, and help things run better during EM events as well.

As for what Publish 28 may include:


any high priority changes related to UO:SE launch week
additional minor artifacts
paragon tweaks
fishing tweaks
barding adjustments
misc bugfixes
Further, there are rumors that an immense army of creatures are gathering for an attack upon the heart of Britannia. We have a few other surprises in store as well.
Cheers,
Ferbert

For those of you who are curious as to what the boxart will look like for the expansion back, then here you go! We also have received the art for the map that'll be included with the expansion as well. Enjoy!

I finally got around to doing a little writeup about the events that took place over the weekend.

If you wish to read and respond, or ask any questions feel free too! You can find the post located here.

So check it out!

The following was posted to the on the Ultima Online Website:

The following was posted to the UO Patch screen:
Avoid the Big Patch

Upgrade your current version of Ultima Online by installing Age of Shadows or 7th Anniversary Edition in order to avoid patches of up to 150MB. These necessary patches will be deployed mid October in preparation for the launch of Ultima Online Samurai Empire on November 2nd.

The older your version of Ultima Online is, the bigger the patch will be, so if you are using a dial-up connection and running Ultima Online Third Dawn, expect to spend upwards of 8 hours downloading the support patch unless you act preemptively and upgrade your installation now.

This patch will be roughly 30MB for those of you running the latest version of Ultima Online and will be released in mid-October.

3D Art Changes for Older Clients
Along with this upcoming patch, we will be migrating all 3D Client users to the most current version of the 3D Client. This client will display the art in a different manner than the older clients and some of you may notice a difference. The purpose for this migration is to streamline the development process and minimize the impact of supporting multiple versions of the 3D client.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

The following was posted to Soulstone on the Ultima Online Website:

Soulstones give you the power to change your character without losing your work!


When you pre-order Ultima Online Samurai Empire from a participating retailer, you’ll get a Soulstone, an amazing in-game device that gives you the power to store skill points or to move skill points from one character to another.

A Soulstone gives you a great deal of flexibility in managing your characters’ abilities without losing the skill points you worked so hard to get!




Pre-order Samurai Empire from these fine online stores:

Electronics Boutique


Gamestop


Also, look for Amazon and Outpost.com to join the list of participating retailers soon.


Note to European players: The Soulstone will be available to you. We are making arrangements with retailers now and will announce them soon.

Thanks for your patience!



FAQ


How do I get my Soulstones?

When you go to the store to pick up the box you pre-ordered, you will be given a coupon with a 20-digit code on it.
(Make sure the store is participating in the promotion before pre-ordering the game.)


Or, if you ordered from an online retailer, you will receive the coupon in the same shipment as your Samurai Empire game. (Make sure the promotion is mentioned on the Samurai Empire order page before ordering.)

Once you have the coupon, enter the 20-digit code into the in-game promotion system and the Soulstone will appear in your in-game bank box.



Can I have more than one Soulstone?

Yes. You get one for each box you pre-order.



How can I use a Soulstone?

If you have a character that you want to be a pure warrior, but he has a bunch of Magery skill points, you can move those Magery skill points to another character you own.


Or, if you have a character you’d like be a blacksmith one day and a warrior the next, store your blacksmith skill points in one Soulstone and your swordsmanship skill points in another Soulstone. Change your character back and forth when you wish. (Except during battle. Soulstones cannot be used during battle.)



Can I give a Soulstone to a friend?

No. Soulstones are account specific. You can pass your Soulstones from one character you own to another, but you cannot give one to a friend.



Can Soulstones be used during battle?

No. You will not be able to use them in the middle of a fight.




Can I use a Soulstone to move skill points from one skill to another?

No. The skill points you store in a Soulstone cannot be transferred to another skill. For instance, you can’t turn Blacksmith skill points into Swordsmanship.


Can I accumulate more skill points in one character by combining the skill points with another character?


No. If you have 50 Swordsmanship on Character A and 40 Swordsmanship on character B, you CANNOT combine those points to get 90 in Swordsmanship on one character. If you move the points from Character A to Character B, he will end up with 50 Swordsmanship skill points, erasing the 40 skill points that were there before.



I have more questions about Ultima Online: Samurai Empire. Where should I go?

Go to UO:SE and you’ll find lots more information and game assets.

Just as the title suggests, the NDA for the beta has been lifted for ONLY the select folks that attended this weekends Community day events.

If anyone is caught discussing beta related information, besides the select folks, the posts will be promptly deleted, and you will be breaking YOUR NDA contract.

This was taken from an E-Mail Binky (Online Community Manager) sent us earlier:

And for those of you in the UOSE Beta, consider YOUR NDAs lifted. This only applies to the people that attended the event, not news reporters at this time. The general NDA will be lifted for everyone else in the near future

So keep your eyes open for some new info coming to ya!

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

Happy 7th Anniversary!

If you are an active player and opted-in to receive email, then you should have already received your 7th Anniversary Gift code. For a description of the gifts, go to www.uo.com/gifts.

However, if you have multiple accounts registered with the same email address and are opted-in for email, then you probably only received one code. We apologize for the delay. The rest of the gifts codes due to you will be mailed by 9-28-04.

Also, if you are an active player and did not receive a gift code, it's probably because you did not opt-in for email. Email is the only way we can send you the gift code. If you opt-in for email before 10-24, we will do another gift code mailing after that date. That mailing will ONLY be for players who opt in for email between 9-24 and 10-24. We're sorry for any inconvenience. To opt-in for email:

1. Go to https://www.ultima-registration.com/
2. Then click on 'edit account'.
3. Then log in with your account name and password.
4. Then click 'edit member info.'
5. Then click the box that says 'Contact me about EA products, news and events.'
6. Then click 'Okay'
7. That's it! You'll now receive email from Ultima Online.

Thank you for your patience.

The following was posted to FYI on the Ultima Online Website:

At 1:00PM PDT (8:00PM GMT) we will be bringing down the North American servers to finish the maintenance on the Housing and Character Transfer Services. We will make these changes on the remainder of the shards during their regularly scheduled maintenance windows. Housing and Character Transfer should return by 12:00AM PDT (7:00AM GMT).
Thank you for your patience.

Detailed Schedule:

1:00 PM PDT - publish to Great Lakes, Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Lake Superior, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma, Pacific, and Test Sosaria
2:00 PM PDT - publish Oceania
4:00 PM PDT - publish Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
5:00 PM PDT - publish Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
9:00 PM PDT - publish Europa, Drachenfels

The following was posted by Leurocian (Designer, Ultima Online), on the Stratics UO Fishers:

Leurocian (Designer, Ultima Online) dropped by the UO Fisher forum to give an update on what type of new minor artifacts will be added in publish 28. Two might be fishing based only!

We will be tentatively introducing 4 new minor artifacts for publish 28. I'm considering that 2 of these will be fishermen only. 1 of these will be T hunter only, and the final one will be Paragon only.
I've also did another pass on improving the loot tables to the base fishing treasure as well.

Just thought I'd chime in and give an update.

and...


I have to admit the new fishing artifacts look pretty nifty. But I don't wanna spoil the surprise I hope you all like them when we introduce them.

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