The Chicago Town Hall Meeting is tomorrow! Come out and see the awesome new features we've added to KR this month - the macro system, the new chat system, the World Map, a new pet management tool, and tons of other goodies.! RSVP now!

Posted to UO Herald by Jeremy Dalberg 17 May 2007 20:43:37


Test Center 1 has been published with the following:

The stat gain system has changed on all non-Siege Perilous ruleset shards:

- Only when a player character advances in a skill or is at the skill cap for that skill, he/she may gain a stat point.

- All skills now have a primary and secondary stat. The primary stat will rise 75% of the time. The secondary stat will rise 25% of the time. If the primary stat is not set to “gain”, the secondary stat will be chosen. If the primary and secondary stats are both locked or set to “decrease”, neither stat will rise.

Note: If a stat is at the maximum individual stat cap of 125 and is not locked, it can be chosen, but it will not rise.

- The chance that a stat will increase on any given skill gain is 1 in 20.

- Purchasing skill training from an NPC will not raise stats.

- There is no longer a cap on how many stat points you can gain in any given time period

The Poisoning skill will now have a chance to rise whenever a player successfully poisons a victim while using the special maneuvers: Infecting Strike and Serpent Arrow. Higher skill levels will require the use of higher level poisons in order to have a chance to gain.

Khaldun puzzle boxes no longer float to the ceiling

Using a Scroll of Alacrity now gives you a confirmation option before taking effect

Potions of the same type and intensity now stack

Fixed an issue with blackrock mining

Fixed a bug with the Chivalry/Fast Cast cap

Undead in Old Haven have gained an immunity to blackrock infection

Fixed a bug that was preventing players from getting through the Hedge Maze properly

The Escutcheon de Ariadne now has a lower minimum strength and increased durability.

Fixed issues with accelerated skill gain where the acceleration was not properly taking effect in certain circumstances

Fixed an issue where hirelings were taking up control slots before they were actually paid gold.

Fixed a bug preventing the use of bless deeds

Fixed issue with Jacob’s Pickaxe where it was not regenerating charges correctly

The following was posted to UOHerald News

Publish 44 Launching on Monday
Jeremy Dalberg
28 Apr 2007 16:15:59 EST

On Monday, April 30, we will be publishing to all servers and publishing a mandatory client patch. This patch will require substantial downtime - the plan is as follows:

- At 9:00 AM PDT (4:00 PM GMT) all servers will be taken down and the servers will be published

- When the publish is complete and the patch is ready to go, we will bring up TC1. We will be testing on KR and encourage players to join us.

- Once we're confident, we will be bringing up the other servers slowly, beginning with Origin.

The publish process is estimated to take approximately 8 hours. We'll be updating regularly on the Herald if the schedule changes at all. The patch is fairly large (about 57 megs) so plan for it to take a bit of time to download.

Due to the nature of some of the changes, we expect players to find some minor art bugs - if you find a bug, please report it to uobugs@uo.com!

Notes after the jump:

* Updated the shards to allow the Kingdom Reborn beta client to be able to connect to them
* Discontinued the 3D client
* “Add Party Member", "Remove Party Member", "Leave the Party", "Disband the Party", and "Party can loot me" and "Party cannot loot me" are now context menu options
* New players
*
o All new players, regardless of what they select, will now start in New Haven
o Previous directed experience template quests (Paladin, Ninja, Samurai, etc) are no longer offered to new players
o New players no longer get the Tour
o Young players no longer get the Mongbat Quest
o New players will be able to take a number of different quests aimed at helping them raise appropriate skills in New Haven
o All starting profession templates will have 4 skills that start at 30 skill points.
o

Players in Old Haven will be teleported to the center of New Haven.
1.

The teleport will NOT happen under the following conditions:
1. The player is on a Siege ruleset shard
2. The player's first login is not in Haven
3. The player has already been redirected
2.

Pets will also teleport with the player UNLESS:
1. The pet is a summoned creature
2. The pet is a necro animate
*

Multiple World Changes
o Haven has become ruined
o New Haven has begun to emerge
o Some areas, especially dungeons, have a different look and feel
o Roads have been widened
*

Arms Lore has been changed:
o Arms Lore will increase when weapons and armor are crafted
o When a weapon is exceptionally crafted, the damage increase modifier will increase by 1% per 20 points of Arms Lore.
o When a piece of armor (not including shields) is exceptionally crafted, each resist normally available on that armor piece will increase by 1% per 20 points of Arms Lore

From UO Herald News

April 27, 2007


"With this KR-related patch date changing so much, does this mean the actual KR release date has changed?"
Yes, somewhat. Our current target rather pushes the definition of "spring" - but not by much. And that’s only our official release date - beta will definitely be in "large-scale" mode well before that, so many, many people will get to try it out on their regular servers. This change is not a bad thing by any means - we’ll be using the time to polish and perfect KR, so we give you the best possible product.

--
"How do you mine up blackrock?"
While blackrock has been found in small amounts anywhere that ore can be mined, it requires utmost skill to extract it in usable amounts. Only a Grandmaster Miner would have the skill to retrieve blackrock from ordinary ore veins. Also, beware - mining blackrock is a dangerous profession, as Blackrock Elementals are often attracted to the area...

--
"What's with Dread Spiders?"
This one is totally my fault - it got left out of the patch notes, I totally planned to post about it, and it slipped my mind... like six times. Anyway, least said soonest mended: here's the patch note regarding Dread Spiders that should have gone in this change list:

- Balancing changes were made to the Dread Spider that make it more appropriately dreadful

--
"What exactly are the specifices on the dread flute?"
Leurocian, Traveling Bard, looked it up, and the Dread Flute is a regular instrument that is self-recharging - it can hold up to 700 charges.

--
"Is there a way to recharge the old school items (armour and weapons) that have charges on them?"
Specifically, items like bear masks with invisibility on them, etc - the answer is no. Items that have properties that don't spawn anymore (and how many staves of Item ID do I have hanging around in my bank?) are rare items and, once used up, can't be recharged.

--
KR Beta Picture of the Week
Missed this feature last week - apologies, all! This week we show off one of the brand-new capabilities of the Kingdom Reborn client. I present to you... One Particle Effect to Rule Them All.

BANG!
--
3D Client Update:
Well, clearly we didn't make our target of "this week." We've readjusted our aim for Monday the 30th, and we should be able to post official announcements tomorrow if we're going to go forward with Monday. The patch will involve substantial downtime, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements.

--
Chicago Town Hall
No rest for the wicked - the Chicago Town Hall Meeting approaches. This one makes me more nervous than usual, because not only will I be getting up on stage in front of y'all, but my parents will be watching as well :) RSVP now to join that august company!

--
Only a few more days to participate in the Feedback Beta Contest! This month is a fair bit slower than last month, so your chances of winning are *much* better. Send in your feedback here for a chance at a KR beta slot!

Forms submitted must be received before midnight, April 30 (CDT) in order to be eligible. Spam will be deleted, and while "I want a beta slot" is feedback, of a sort, it's not what we're looking for. Pick a topic and tell me how you feel about it - balance, crafting, PvP, whatever. Make a suggestion, a complaint, a rant - whatever is on your mind.

--
Fansite News:
If you missed the Philly Town Hall for whatever reason UO Radio graciously provided us with a recording of their live feed - get it here!

--
Busy week as usual! Have a great weekend, and remember - if you ever have questions that you'd like to see answered in the Five on Friday, submit them through the Feedback tool.

- Jeremy

Seems the 2007 Town Hall schedule has been fleshed out. You can view the whole schedule here.

The next Town Hall is:

Please RSVP by visiting here

Dave & Buster's
1030 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60610

Saturday, May 19, 2007
(3:00PM - 6:00PM)

From UOHerald

April 20, 2007

"If I use a character name change token, will my name change on my Candle of Love or will it stay the same?"

Wilki says, "It stays the same."
--
"Does casting Protection reduce your FC cap to 2?"

Yes and no - the Protection FC reduction is applied AFTER the cap takes effect. If your total FC is at the cap of 4 (for Ninjitsu, Bushido, Spellweaving, and, under certain circumstances, Chivalry,) then yes, it'll reduce it to 2. If you're at a cap of 2 (for Magery, Necromancy, and under other circumstances, Chivalry) casting Protection will reduce your FC to 0. (The above, of course, assumes that you have the gear to be at the cap in the first place - if not, Protection just reduces your current FC by 2.)
--
"Please let us trade in the Ophidian stuff too!"

This was on Stratics, but I'd hate for anyone to miss Draconi's reply:

"Okay, but not right this second, and not in the same manner. "
--
"Will Aegis of Grace still have two forms artistically in KR? "

From Grimm:

"The answer is: They should look the same in KR!"
--
"Will my rares still be rare in KR?"

The short answer is yes - any items that are rare now (for reasons of name or color) should still be rare in KR. Changing the client you view it with won't change its fundamental properties, any more than changing between the current 2D and 3D clients would. Now, all the items will look somewhat different because the art is different, but it shouldn't affect rarity or uniqueness.
--
"Does equipping a +success chance talisman change your rate of skill gain?"

For difficulty-based skills, including the crafting skills, it does - it can actually affect it either way. Your skill gain in these skills is dependent on your success chance for each action - you have a better chance of gaining if the action is neither too easy nor too hard. So anything that changes that chance of success, including talismans and +skill jewelry, will change the rate at which you gain skill.
--
3D Client Update:
The patch that discontinues the 3D client is holding steady for Wednesday the 25th. We'll post on the Herald and update the patcher if/when this changes, but at this moment, it looks like we're going to make that date.
--
Philadephia Town Hall Reminder!
The Philly Town Hall Meeting is tomorrow! We should have all the usual goodies - food, gossip, news, beta invites. UO Radio is planning to be there broadcasting live, for the folks too far away to make it. There's no reason not to RSVP now!
--
The Feedback Contest went so well that we're running it again this month! Send in your feedback here for a chance at a KR beta slot!

Forms submitted must be received before midnight, April 30 (CDT) in order to be eligible. Spam will be deleted, and while "I want a beta slot" is feedback, of a sort, it's not what we're looking for. Pick a topic and tell me how you feel about it - balance, crafting, PvP, whatever. Make a suggestion, a complaint, a rant - whatever is on your mind.
--
Fansite News:
Remember to tune in tomorrow from 3PM to 6PM EDT to UO Radio to get live coverage of the Town Hall meeting!
--
Will you abide by Sir Geoffrey's warnings or rush to unload your blackrock on the mysterious traders that have appeared in Haven? Decisions, decisions...

- Jeremy

The first month of 2007 has been a quite busy over at UOGuide. One major happening includes the collaboration with Inuwiki current events section on UOGuide. This will help both sites grow together and let users find information all in one place. There have also been several major pages/sections added to the site.

Cooperative Collections - At 95% completion, details all donations and rewards are available for the Britain Library, Moonglow Zoo, and Vesper Museum collections.

Animals - Statistics on Britannia's wildlife

Book of Truth - A complete guide to this new event item, including quests and how to aquire them

Covetous - Maps, screenshots, and details on one of UO's first dungeons.


Kingdom Reborn -
Details about UO's next client, with plenty of screenshots and links to video
Stygian Abyss - Not much is known about the next full fledged expansion, but what is can be found here

As always, UOGuide can use your support either through telling people about the site or contributing content. Adding your own knowledge to UOGuide is quick and easy, for more information you can check out
We hope you will. -- JC the Builder

The following was posted over at UO Stratics by Wilki (Dev, EA-Mystic), on the UO UhHall:

No one was banned for buying duped artifacts, unless they did so in mass quantities. We're ultimately responsible for the bug that allowed the dupe to occur in the first place, so it'd be pretty unfair to ban players who unwittingly bought a few artis or other high end items for personal use, etc.

However, item sellers who bought a LOT of duped items (as in you go to their house/backpack and see a bag with a 3 dozen covetous statues, 20 hats of the magi, 15 ornies, and some "unique" event items thrown into the mix) were given no quarter. While the dupers may have exploited this bug, it was the item sellers who truly did the damage to the game. Any one of them that tries to tell you, "But I only bought items from a supplier, I didn't realize where they came from," needs to be smacked upside the head, and then tarred and feathered.

UO is a GAME, not a freakin' business, and while we don't ban players for selling things for cash, we're not going to look very kindly on those who harm the game in doing so. And honestly, are any of these "trustworthy" brokers and item sellers with "years of UO experience" really going to tell us with a straight face that they didn't know those bags of 125 character transfer tokens and the bags full of extremely rare event items (i.e. bags with more of them than should even exist in all of UO) were duped?

Equine Puckey!

If those people bother to email me, they might as well call just call 976-WHAH, because that's pretty much going to be my reaction when I read their "so sad" emails.

To this date, I've unbanned ONE player, who had ONE account banned (out of 3), where a genuine mistake was made. I've been going through the players who have emailed me so far, one by one, to see if we made a mistake somewhere else. Tonight, I got an email from a "lady" who claimed she had never exploited, and was just a nice mother of 2 who loved UO. Pfft. How about that bag of 30 each valorite hammers, barbed kits and heartwood dovetail saws we found in her house? Or the fact that the account she was trying to keep hidden from us had a bag with 124 hat of the magis in it, along with lots of other artifacts?

To those people: DON'T BOTHER EMAILING ME! I wasn't born yesterday, I don't fall for the lame emo emails, and we're simply not going to release your account with 100's of duped items on it because you spun a really unconvincing story about how you just bought your account from your little brother/roommate/ex-girlfriend and didn't know your house was already being used to store those 500 artifacts. And yes, we DO know about your other "hidden" accounts. And no, changing your IP, using an internet cafe or using different payment methods won't help you either. We WILL find you, so you might as well just stop wasting your time and go find another game to exploit. Or, I have a better idea - how about if you go find something productive to do with your lives? That's the best idea of them all.

And honorable players - please, STOP BUYING from the item sellers who were "out of stock" last week. These parasites wouldn't be perpetuating this fraud if no one bought their stuff in the first place.

If any of this sounds harsh, well, I suppose it is. I love this game, and I really don't like people who try to do it harm.

As posted over at UO.com's FYI page


On Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at approximately 5:30PM PST (November 16 - 1:30AM GMT), we will be deploying a publish to the Origin shard.

The update will contain the following changes:

* Turned off the Sewer Rat invasion and the Halloween event content (Note: The Shard of the Dead will remain up until further notice)
* The 8th Age quiver is no longer blessed on Siege or Mugen
* The Heritage Collection Boiling Cauldron is now a container (may require re-deeding)
* Peaches picked from the Heritage Peach Tree will now stack with other peaches
* Personal attendants will no longer lose their clothing after passing through a moongate
* Removed the ability to raise and lower an object with a house decoration tool if the item is placed at the same exact location as another item. This had been causing certain multi-tiled items to break
* Fixed an issue that was causing arcane clothing charges to be used when the player had the required reagents
* Water barrels and field spells will no longer block house placement
* Fixed an exploit with aquariums
* Fixed an exploit with Character Statues
* Fixed an exploit with certain skills that could bypass the skill re-use timer
* Various fixes for issues with character transfer

We expect the Origin shard to remain offline for approximately one hour.

Name and Gender Change Tokens On-Sale Now

Want to see how the other half lives? Did you create your character in a rush and accidentally choose the wrong name? Maybe you just want a fresh start
for an existing character? Well now you can experience life as a whole someone new with UO Name and Gender Change tokens.

Click here to buy Name and Gender Change tokens now.

New Year, New Team, New Producer, New Ideas

Have you ever wanted a job so bad that you’d literally beg for it, down on your knees, hands clasped in front of you, pleading in your eyes? Have you learned
the true meaning of the phrase: "Be careful what you wish for?" I can honestly answer both questions with a hardy "yes-in-freakin’-deed."
- Darkscribe,
UO Producer

Click here to read more about Darkscribe and the UO Team.

Exciting Night of Adventure on the Origin Shard!

Strange gates, a new dungeon, an onslaught of monsters, explosions of gold and a really bad dragon named Baleriom. Just what in the heck was happening on the
Origin shard anyhow? On Wednesday evening, we held our first Community ran event which turned out to be a great success. For several hours in the afternoon/evening,
players of all professions tested their mettle against many challenging monsters in a new mini-dungeon. To see some of the action,
click here. (Image is 850k in size, and shows the entire dungeon in full scale!)

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Tomorrow January 20, 2006 we will be publishing the remainder of the shards with the out of cycle publish that was deployed to Origin this morning (1/19/06).


This publish includes:

• Pub38 damage cap now works correctly
  
• Christmas Tree deeds will no longer decay if left locked down in a house for over 7 days
  
• Fixed an issue where Christmas Tree deeds could not be picked up in certain cases
  
• Improved the Aminia werewolf spawner
  
• Addressed server stability issues
  

Please note that since this is a phased rollout, character transfers will not be possible between shards that are running different versions.


The publish will take place during the normal maintenance period for each shard. Click HERE a complete list of maintenance times.

Rolf the Wandering Healer Hi there, my friend! I'm a simple healer, devoted to roaming the land helping those in need. But, my story is long and not why I came to you. Though they are oft neglected in this day and age, even the least of the lowly knows that there are eight virtues in this world. I'm going to tell you eight stories, but it's up to you to find meaning in them…. There's no war going on, why is this old codger working us like this? Kane the Master of Arms No, no, NO! How many times do I have to tell you? You do it like this! Do you think this is a game? Do you think if you cry yield in battle that you'll get a hand up like you do here? You will die if you don't knuckle down and learn to fight less like slobbering puppies and more like men! You! You think this is funny, do you? We'll see who's laughing after your first battle, you bunch of worthless, craven maggots! *sigh* How ever can they expect me to hold Trinsic with this lot? Please, Jack… all I have to give you is this, despite what you think. What do you say? Derek the Merchant I am the last of the de Boors, and soon I too will pass on, leaving no heir, but more importantly, with my family's legacy tarnished. Yes, it is entirely my fault, but I must find someone to help me, or else we will be remembered only by my last pitiful deed… Please Fabrizio, let me die as your wife… let this be your last memory of me, as I am. Not as I will become. Fabrizio the Master Weaponsmith Aminia, my love… this cannot be! I refuse to believe there is nothing that can be done. Perhaps… Yes, yes! The Lycaeum! It is said an answer to every question can be found if one looks hard enough, so there must be a way to cure you. I will find it, I promise you this. Speak no more of death, not a single word more of it. Natalie, it is no longer safe for you here. You must flee before he learns who you are! Natalie the Lady I would know that face anywhere, I am sure it is he who slew my mother and father. What to do? I've dreamt about the day that I took from him what he took from my parents… from me. Though, I am not foolhardy enough to throw my life away for naught; I know that I am not up to the task myself. Yet no one seems to care to make him pay for his crime. By sword or spell it matters not, he must not be allowed to slip away. Oh Catelyn dear, have you seen my favorite ring? Drats, I have no idea where it is! Evan the Begger Beg pardon, sir? Give your mercy to this most pitiful of beggars? Or, just ignore me… no bread for the ignored beggar, again.*sigh* Hmm, what's this? *picks up something shiny* Wow, it must be worth a fortune! I wonder who it belongs to… Yes, we can be a family again, please just be patient and I will find a way. Aurelia the Architect's Daughter *Praying* I'm Aurelia from Jhelom and my mother did something truly terrible. A nasty old necromancer promised to bring my father back from the graveyard for a little coin; little did she know, he literally meant “from the graveyard.” My father won't be happy like that, and my mother and I cannot live with a walking corpse! Please, please show me the way to end this tragedy! Dread Spider silk you say? I know just where to get some, I shall return soon. Ben the Apprentice Necromancer My master thinks this an easy task. Well, if it was so easy, why doesn't he go do it himself then? The very thought of that place fills me with dread… I can barely look at the entrance much less catch a single ghost! Oh, I wish I could stay here in Minoc, where the wine is mulled and the people don't pass through walls unhindered. No, no more ghosts in Covetous for me! Yes, he and I could make a very good match, indeed. My wedding day is almost upon me, yet I am haunted by this feeling… Emilio the Tortured Artist Oh, she's to be married to him, is she? I… I am happy for her. It is good that I'm not the groom, as she deserves far better than I. Suddenly, I have no interest in finishing this painting today… or ever, really. Although I have some money from selling my work, it is not nearly enough make her happy. Nor should a man of my station truly be thinking like this of a Lady, it simply is not done.

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

Tonight, November 9, 2005 we will be deploying the Publish 37 Hotfix worldwide as follows:

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

Please note that the Europa and Drachenfels shards will skip their normal maintenance today, and instead will be brought down according to the schedule above.

We are expecting each publish window downtime to last approximately one hour, however due to the nature of this Hotfix, these times are approximate and are subject to last minute change.

The Publish 37 Hotfix includes:

• Cu Sidhe tamed before pub 37 will once again heal their owners.
  
• Advanced Character tokens will no longer work on Siege Perilous and Mugen shards.
  
• An issue that could potentially cause shards to crash has been fixed.
  
• The Ninjitsu Deathstrike ability will once again do the intended amount of damage.
  
• Multiple Deathstrikes will now stack appropriately on an opponent that has not moved.
  
• Changed the cut-off date for claiming Blue Soulstone tokens to December 13th. After this date 8th Age codes will no longer produce a Blue Soulstone token, however any tokens already claimed in-game will be redeemable indefinitely.
  
• Fixed two exploits.
  

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

Details for the patch are as follows:

• Improved the way object handles display names
  
• Tracking arrow now lines up better with target in 2D client
  
• The chat window now minimizes instead of closes when a player dies in 2D client
  
• The sounds slider bar in the options menu now works correctly
  
• Ambient jungle sounds no longer persist when you leave the jungle
  
• Players and creatures will no longer disappear when a frame of animation cannot be found. This change addresses several issues such as:
  
  
  
  • Players horse disappears when they are fishing while mounted
    
  • Parrot disappears when it squawks
    
  • Player disappears while lumberjacking in Horrific Beast form (2D client)
    
  
  
• Fixed a few spots in Ilshenar that were too dark
  
• Fixed a trailing issue for players riding beetles while wearing a wizard’s hat
  
• Revenants will now display correctly display the equipment they are wearing
  
• Fixed an issue where the party looting rights toggle did not always display the correct information
  
• The Abattoir house add-on no longer disappears when the OmitBlood option is enabled.
  
• The skills list now closes correctly when you hit the back button during character creation
  
• Bumped the client version letter
  
• Fixed missing water and lava tiles, as well as made various other map fixes
  
• Fixed art on the Elven Wash Basin (south)
  
• Tall Elven Beds no longer clip second floor tiles
  
• Flowered hairstyle now has a flower in 3D client
  
• Carpets now show up correctly on the 2nd floor of the Britain Library
  
• Characters who equip a repeating crossbow no longer have a black dot show up on their forehead in their paperdoll
  
• Fixed a clipping issue with Leaf Tonlets in 3D client
  
• Gold no longer falls through certain floor tiles
  
• Spiked hair no longer clips through certain helmets
  
• Mounted player no longer sits to the side of a Cu Sidhe
  
• String of Shells is no longer visible through upper floors when placed on a lower floor
  

Some of these changes will not be visible until Publish 37 is active on all shards.

If patched correctly, your current version will display 5.0.1d for both clients. If you have any difficulty receiving this patch, please check the following:

Check the "Patch" directory within your Ultima Online directory (the default location is C:\Program Files\Ultima Online\Patch). This directory should be empty. Any files in this directory should be deleted.

Run a virus scan on your computer. Undetected viruses may cause conflicts with patching Ultima Online. For information on up-to-date virus detection software, please visit http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/vso/default.asp.

If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please visit this web page.

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

The Eighth Age In Stores Now!

Ultima Online: The Eighth Age is upon us! Celebrate Ultima Online’s eighth anniversary with a special collector’s edition packed with more than $70 worth of goodies. On sale today (Oct. 19), Ultima Online: The Eighth Age includes the first six expansion packs up to Ultima Online: Samurai Empire, an advanced character code, a character transfer code, a sixth character slot, an account creation code with a 45-day free trial, and a complete Atlas of Sosaria. Buy early and you’ll also receive a free Blue Soulstone! The Blue Soulstone will only be available until November 18th, so buy your copy now to avoid missing out.

Note: If there are difficulties with distribution in Europe or Australia, the Blue Soulstone deadline will be extended to make sure all early buyers get their Blue Soulstone.

For more info on where to buy UO: The Eighth Age, click here.

Ultima Online: Mondain's Legacy now available on Direct2Drive.com

Ultima Online: Mondain's Legacy is now available for purchase and download on Direct2Drive.com. The world of Sosaria has been changed forever by one of the most feature-rich expansion packs in Ultima Online history. With the convenience of downloading UO directly to your hard drive, getting started in UO has never been easier. Experience the most feature-rich expansion pack in Ultima Online history and so head over to www.direct2drive.com and you’ll be exploring Heartwood or fighting through a new dungeon within mere minutes.

The Direct2Drive UOML offer includes one account upgrade code and one account creation code for $29.99. It DOES NOT include a Game Time code.

Download Ultima Online: Mondain's Legacy now!

The following was posted to 8th Age on the Ultima Online Website:

The Eighth Age Descends upon the Europe!

Players in the UK and across Europe will be able to buy Ultima Online: The Eighth Age from these online retailers: Amazon.co.uk, Play.com and Gameplay.com. You’ll see buy-now pages for The Eighth Age go up on those sites within the next few days. Some restrictions might apply as to what countries those stores ship to. The version you can buy from those stores is the exact same version you’ll find in the U.S., complete with the Blue Soul stone (if you buy early). For Germany, we are working on shipping a product with the German rating certification printed on the discs. Same goes for Australia, and we expect to be able to announce distribution there as well.

For more info on The Eighth Age, click here

Eighth Age FAQ Update and Atlas of Sosaria Free Sample

You’ve asked, we’ve answered! Find out everything you want to know about Ultima Online: The Eighth Age. We’ve got more information on the Blue Soulstone, how to obtain your free Eighth Age gifts, and a free sample PDF of the first three pages of Atlas of Sosaria.

Click here to visit the Eighth Age FAQ and view the first three pages of the Atlas of Sosaria now.

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

Later today, October 13th, 2005, we will be deploying a Hotfix to all shards following the schedule below:

• October 13 - 2:00PM PDT (9:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
  
• October 13 - 3:00PM PDT (10:0PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
  
• October 13 - 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Mizuho, Asuka, Mugen, Sakura, Oceania
  
• October 13 - 5:00PM PDT (October 14 Midnight GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
  
• October 13 - 9:00PM PDT (October 14 4:00AM GMT) - Europa, Drachenfels
  

Hotfix Publish details:

• Fixed the 10 minute timer Peerless Boss Premature Ejection Issue
  
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused players to get booted from the Citadel and Prism of Light boss rooms prematurely
  
• Various server stability fixes
  

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


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

The following was posted to UO.com on the
Ultima Online Website:

Guess who's blowing into the Windy City! Several members of the Ultima Online team are packing their bags and heading east to the City of Big Shoulders, that tottlin’ town, Chicago.

Join members of the Ultima Online team for an Ultima Online Q&A session, a Halloween costume contest, some glow in the dark mini-golf and a chance to meet your fellow UO players in person.

Chicago Town Hall Meeting Details

When: Thursday October 27th, 2005 7:00PM - 10:00PM

Where: Monster Golf - Gurnee, IL

Who: Programmer Tim "MrTact" Keating, Designer Mike "Czarzane" Flinchum, UO Community Manager Chris "Binky" Launius and most importantly YOU!

We made sure to reserve plenty of space, so tell all your friends to come hang out with us. We'd love to meet you!

Address

Monster Golf

5328 Grand Ave

Gurnee Illinois

60031

Tel: (847)360-8190
Click here for directions
to Monster Golf

How to sign up

Please RSVP by October 25th, 2005 at 5:00PM PDT to let us know if you will be attending. To RSVP, please send an email to
wilki@uo.com with the following information:

• First Name:
  
• Last Name:
  
• Email Address:
  
• Account Name (Not Password):
  
• Shard:
  
• Main Character Name:
  

Why Show Up?

Got a question you've been dying to ask? Have a great idea you've been itching to share? Well, here's your chance! We will have a 3 hour Q&A session where you can ask the questions that are on your mind and give us your feedback and input on the future of UO. So, come to the Chicago Town Hall Meeting to take advantage of this chance to tell the dev team what you want and how you want it.

Also, we can’t have a Town Hall Meeting only four days before Halloween without a costume contest, now can we? Of course not! Come to the Town Hall Meeting dressed up as a fierce warrior, an evil mage or show us your best elf impression… heck, dress up as anything you want; let your imagination run wild! Prizes will be given away to the top three costumes as judged by whatever criteria Binky sees fit at the time – after all, how could a man with a UO tattoo possibly have bad taste?
The attendees with the top three costumes will receive:

• First Place – A Free One Year Subscription to UO
  
• Second Place – A Free Six Month Subscription to UO
  
• Third Place - 90 Day Gametime Code
  

We'll also be bringing along some really cool Ultima Online: The 8th Age posters and a few other random prizes to give away.

Sign up today for what is sure to be a fun-filled and exciting Chicago Town Hall Meeting and don’t forget to tell your friends as well! This is an event you won't want to miss!

The following was posted to Evil Home Décor Items fade away on Oct. 14
on the Ultima Online Website

Get ’em while they’re evil! The Evil Home Décor collection will be removed from the
UO online store on Oct. 14. After that, you’ll soon find them as part of the Buddy Referral Program and other future promotions.
With Halloween coming up, now would be a good time to deck your halls with ghoulish goodies.

They are on sale, until Oct. 14, at www.uogamecodes.com

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

We are currently experiencing connectivity issues that are affecting the log-in servers, which could mean an inability to log in, increased lag or lost connections for some players until this is resolved. We are working to solve this issue, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

June 21st, 2005 2:30 PM PDT; Version: 4.0.11a

CURRENT NEWS

Announcing the Evil Home Décor Collection!
Express your dark side by decorating your house with the Evil Home Décor Collection, six ghoulish furnishings that will be available for just a limited time and part of a few key promotions. Every active player will get one of the items (one item or grouped set per account). (Your account must be active on June 24 to be eligible.)

The date of the giveaway will be announced soon!

After the giveaway, we will be adding the items to Buddy Program Rewards, using them as rewards with other upcoming promotions, and putting them on sale for a limited time via an online store.

We are planning on adding more new collector’s item every 3-4 months, for use in a variety of promotions.

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

Publish 33 World Wide Schedule Jun 21 2005 4:58PM GMT (PST +08:00)
Now that Publish 33 has been running successfully on the Origin Shard the World Wide publish schedule for Publish 33 is scheduled as follows:

* June 21 - 10:00AM PDT (5:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
* June 21 - 11:00AM PDT (6:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
* June 21 - 4:00PM PDT (10:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura, Oceania
* June 21 - 5:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
* June 21 - 9:00PM PDT (June 22 4:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

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

For a list of the Publish 33 changes, please click here.

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

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

Publish 33 Additions, Changes, and Fixes Jun 16 2005 1:49PM CST
This list is subject to change before it is published to production shards.

Changes

* Addressed an issue with followers being lost at logout.
o When a player logs out, followers (pets, hired NPCs) will be auto-stabled, returning to the player upon login.
o Pets that do not automatically return to the player can be claimed at the stable master.
* Arrows that miss their target will now be recovered automatically, rather than dropping to the ground behind a mob.
* Shortly after dropping out of war mode, any recoverable arrows will be placed in the player's backpack.
* Treasures of Tokuno event has ended
o Players no longer accumulate points towards Treasures of Tokuno rewards when defeating enemies.
o Ihara Soka will still be around to reward players for turning in artifacts.
* The help screen has been updated.
o Links to the UO homepage have been updated.
o Only new players will have the option of teleporting to Haven.
o New players are given the option to page a counselor. (Japan Only)
o Everyone will see the other -> other petition options
* The login error screen has been updated to include more information about why the error occurred
* Purchasing an advanced character is now handled through an automated process.
o Promotion codes will be purchased via webpage. Activating these codes in game will give a token which can be activated or traded. Activating the token will begin the advanced character process.
o Doing a mouse-over of the house deed being traded will now provide more specific information on the house being traded
* Added petition functionality, you can now target up to three people when reporting a verbal harassment issue. Targeting players can be done in 3 methods:
o Selecting the player with a target cursor
o Searching through a list of players in the areab by typing in the name.
* Spell damage increase is now capped at 15% for the Wither spell in PvP.
* The advanced character blacksmith template has been updated to the following stats:
o 85 Blacksmithing

o 85 Mining
o 85 Tinkering
o 70 Tailoring
o 70 Magery
o 125 STR
o 25 DEX
o 65 INT

Fixes

* Added fix for the swing speed cap, it is now back to 1.25 seconds for every swing.
* Vendor contracts display a collect rent button even when they have no gold. This has been fixed so the option won't appear unless they have a value greater than 0.
* Added fix for an issue where attempting to enhance or repair a metal item causes it to be smelted instead.
* Added fix for the True Britannians faction border. It is now properly aligned with

The following was posted over at UO Stratics by Mr. Tact (Designer/Engineer, UO Live
, OSI), on the Siege Shard Forum:

I know folks have been anxious to learn what our plans are for the Siege PBD situation. Wilki has been hounding . . . err, enthusiastically encouraging me to post an update, so here it is.

We will be making it so every character on Siege can have one blessed item. The mechanics of this are still being worked out. The requirements for this feature are:


* Everyone gets the ability to bless one, and only one, item.

* The blessing ability should not be easy to lose. If the blessed item is lost somehow, you should be able to bless something else

The solution could be as simple as disabling existing PBDs, giving everyone a new one the first time they login, and making PBDs *much* harder to lose. We're also open to the possibility that making it an innate ability is a better way to go.

The exception to these rules is, 7th anniversary items will remain blessed. This is actually not what I expected us to do and is directly in response to the survey feedback.

Finally, clothing deeds will no longer have the ability to bless clothes with item properties. Feedback was split on this one, so this is, frankly, our decision as to what we believe is more fair. As I have said in the past, CBDs were never meant to be this powerful, and we're going to adjust them accordingly. If you have an item that has properties and is currently blessed with a CBD, you will get your CBD back. You will still be able to use your single blessing on a clothing-based artifact. Oh, and I'm planning to make this particular item effective on all shards, as well.

As for when this will hit . . . we are still in the design phase, so it's very, very unlikely this will be in Pub 33. But it is actively in development, so we're no longer talking about "some year" anymore.

Member of the UO Dev Team and GM Staff were on hand at Gameworks in Seattle as part of their international town hall meeting tour.
UO was represented by Lady Lu (producer of Samurai Empire), Fertbert the Ferret Guy, Silvani (GM team lead), Wilki and the irrepressable Binky. Originally, the meeting was scheduled to have a Q & A session starting at 7 followed by a few hours of gaming at Gameworks. But the attendance was unexpectedly large, so two Q & A sessions were set up, about 2 hours each.
I sneaked into the first one, and "officially" attended the second one.
There was a huge range of questions ranging from bug reports to expansion queries. I took a lot of notes but for the most part quoting everything would be redundant. The team took a lot of notes too, and promised to look into specific problems reported by the players...such as bank box bugs, various stat bugs, Guaranteed Gain System...(broken?)....

Several suggestions made by the players seemed interesting and got the attention of the Dev Team...Some of these were:
**Map Books for T-map storage
**Making buildings in towns like libraries more interactive and useful to the playerbase,
**Making each town unique and having its own distinct "flavor" (this is something that used to be more than is now, but would be nice to return to)
**Having a "Chest of Receiving" at your house to take the contents of your "Bag of Sending" (might be a 6-year reward?)
**Dragon barding made from dragon scales
**Some stamina drop, even in Trammel, when running through things
**Insurance costing more for more valuable items
**The ability to label containers in your house
**Events will continue and try to be broken up so more players can be involved without the huge crowds that tend to diminish the enjoyment...standing around at the bank might not always be so safe...
**A dueling feature was suggested, where two players could battle among themselves and not be attackable by anyone else during that time.
**Having insurable quivers of arrows and bolts so that you will have something to shoot when you get your insured bows back
**Randomizing the times of Artifact drops so that people couldn't just log in at a certain time, pick them up and leave, which is pretty unfair and probably not in the intended spirit of the game
**Could there be another way to get Power Scrolls to stop the monopoly of who gets them?
**It was mentioned that crafting is becoming worthless...can something be done to make it worthwhile and the resulting wares be more unique and valuable?
**How about poison arrows?
**Single player quests would be fun...
**Pets having unique personality traits would be fun...

Various fixes and improvements for things were suggested and for the most part apparently being worked on. Some of these include:
**Provocation is due for some changes...no specifics on what those might be!
**The "ignore" feature needs to be changed so Allnames still works
**Word filter will be changed so that things like Assassination can be used in a Guild name
No time frame was given for when these things would take effect.
**The "useless skills" questions came up several times. Apparently they are being pondered, but what their fate is to be seems to be undecided.
**There were several pet problems brought up...disobedient mares, white wyrms blocking text at events, not enough places where pets could not go...the usual pet/tamer stuff.

Other little bits of information that I found informative:
**New publishes are made live on Origin first. The Dev team then hopes that players will file bug reports or bring any problems to their attention. If all seems ok, then the publish goes live on the other shards. If bugs are present it is because no one discovered them or bothered to report them on Origin. Of course they can't wait a long time for the bugs to be found since they need to get the new publish out, so maybe the more subtle bugs will remain undiscovered until it is being played by a larger population.
**There was quite a bit of talk about the GMs...the timeliness and quality of their service, their willingness to help out, how effective they are, if there are enough of them, etc. Most players hate being sent to a website when they want information, they want personal attention. I used to be a Counselor, I know that, and I also know how much work we took off the backs of the GMs so they could do their "real" jobs, like dealing with harrassment, scamming and other serious issues in the game.
Several players at the meeting mentioned how much they wish there were still Counselors. Silvani said the GMs missed them too and they would like to get them back...but of course there are legal issues to deal with. Apparently "legal" is working on the fine details of this, so there is a chance we may see Counselors in the game again, which would be a benefit to everyone.
(sign me up!)
**When a GM is called on someone who is harrassing or macroing, and nothing appears to happen, it isn't because no GM showed up. GMs are often invisible when they do their work so not all that apparent. In harrassment situations a log is automatically sent when a Harrassment call is made. The logs are reviewed, but maybe not at that time. So whatever action is taken might not be that day but something will be done if the call was justified. And of course, actions taken against players depend a lot on the player's record and previous offenses.
**Many warrior types complained bitterly about being fried by mages. They said they didn't have a chance and why were warriors so weak compared to mages? The Devs insinuated that it was because they had not learned to use the tools that had been given to them in the publishes. That once they became proficient at using the skills, special moves and weapons at their disposal they could do quite well against any mage. It is expected that it will take the players several months to realize the power they have when using unfamilar techniques or things that are not so obvious and need to be discovered over time.
**If contest castles and houses fall, they cannot be replaced. Nor can you get a GM to place a bigger house than the one you have won.

Finally, there was an announcement of the next Expansion: "Mondain: The Legend Revealed". There were a few hints, no specifics, of course. It was said that there would be a return of the redeemers, of a lost tribe and of a missing element. Corruption would cause quite an upheaval in the lands. I guess we will just have to wait til this Fall to find out what that is all about!
Thank you to the UO folk for coming out our way and spending so much time with us. It was a lot of fun.

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

UO Town Hall Meeting: Seattle!

“Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.” - Annie Reed

Destiny must be real because we are headed to Seattle! That’s correct folks, several members of the Ultima Online team are packing their bags and heading
north to hang out with you. Join us at the wonderfully fun GameWorks in downtown Seattle for 5 hours of Q&A, Food, Games, and FUN!

We will have a 2 hour Q&A session where you can ask the questions that are on your mind and give us your feedback and input on the future of UO where we will
also be serving food to keep you energized and strong. Then we will be heading into the heart of GameWorks and each attendee will get 3 hours of unlimited gaming!

And who knows…we may just...oh wait...you have to come to find out.

When: Thursday April 28th 7:00PM – 12:00PM

Where:
GameWorks
Seattle (1511 7th Ave, Seattle WA 98101)

Who: You and members of the Ultima Online team.

To register for the event:

• Copy and paste all of the fields below in an
  EMAIL
  
• Complete all the fields. If you leave out any info
  you will not be registered.
  
• Send the email WITH ALL THE INFO to
  wilki@uo.com
  

First name:

Last Name:

Account Name:

Email Address:

Home Shard:

Main Character Name:

NOTE: You MUST RSVP by April 27th 5:00PM PST in order
to be registered for the Seattle Town Hall meeting. Please note that seating
is limited to 75 attendees. Please do not register if you do not
plan on attending. Registration will be required for admittance and your account
will be noted for possible future in-game goodies*. If you register and find
out later than you cannot attend, please email wilki@uo.com to give us a heads
up.


Map to GameWorks

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

Due to some minor issues introduced with Publish 31 we will be stopping the publish for the remainder of the shards until we can implement a fix for the issues listed below. North American shards have been published and are the only shards that will be affected by these issues.

The issues in question are as follows:

* Certain minor artifacts will lose their self repair and ninjitsu bonuses
* Certain items that have had the pigments applied to them will lose their special hue
* Players are not being rewarded Tokuno points for the Fan Dancer Dojo and Yomotsu Mines

We are currently working on a fix to address these issues and will inform you when it will be deployed. In the meantime, please do not page a GM about the lost pigment hue as addressing the issue before the fix goes in will result in the hue disappearing again. Once the fix is in you will be able to page a GM to have the item rehued. We expect to have a fix to automatically fix the minor artifacts that have lost their self repair and/or ninjitsu bonuses.

Publish 31 will also continue to be deployed once it has been updated with the code to address these issues. We will post a new publish schedule as soon as we have tested the fix thoroughly.

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

Now that Publish 31 has been running successfully on the Origin Shard the World Wide publish schedule for Publish 31 is scheduled as follows:

* March 16 - 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
* March 16 - 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
* March 16 - 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania
* March 16 - 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
* March 16 - 4:00PM PST (March 17 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
* March 16 - 9:00PM PST (March 17 5:00AM GMT) – Europa, Drachenfels

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

For a list of the Publish 31 changes, please click here.

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

MacGuffin recalled to Redwood City to attend the UO Players & Developers Monthly Meetup on Monday, March 7.

It was a great night despite insulting Mr Tact by wondering whether he read books. In attendance were Mr Tact, Fertbert, Leurocian, Oaks, Speedman, GM Spada, GM , Binky and Wilki and several others I did not have the opportunity to properly meet.

The current Live Team includes Mr Tact and Fertbert. They are working on the next several releases. These are roughly planned as:

* P31 - Treasures of Tokuna, Phase 2. On a test shard near you...

* P32 - Infrastructure & Ghost Cam - mostly underlying software improvements and it will most likely include the Ghost Cam changes that have been discussed.

* P33 - Possible PvP Balance Tweaks - some minor tweaks to fix problems where its possible to do things not originally intended. This patch is still in the planning phase and the content has not been decided.

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

In attendance were Mr Tact, Fertbert, Leurocian, Oaks, Speedman, GM Spada, Binky and Wilki and several others I did not have the opportunity to properly meet.

Mr Tact is also seeking input on possible crafting enhancements to make crafters more integral to Sosaria. These might or might not include ability to imbue more properties, ability to selectively enhance a property on an existing item, ability to specialize your crafter (shields, weapons or armor), etc. This is strictly in the idea kick around phase and might not see the light of day.

To post your ideas for crafting, go here.

The complete transcript of the February 22 UO House of Commons Open House has been posted on the UO HoC Website:

Topic: Publish 30

Brekkee - *CalixAOK* Are there any plans to fix some of the notable bugs that have appeared recently, especially some PvP related ones. For instance the problem affecting perfection which allows players to kill others with 1 hit from a weopon?
Mr Tact - We have just begun planning another PvP tuning pass (like the one Hanse did a few months back).
Mr Tact - Hopefully we will be able to do this within the next few publishes.
Mr Tact - So, to everyone who is hammering us with PvP related questions (and thanks, by the way!) -- there's your answer right there.

Brekkee - *Flutter_UO* How is the new artifact-giving code doing?
Fertbert - It appears to be doing well. For those not int he know, as you kill creatures your odds of getting an artifact improve until you get one, then your odds are reset to a base level. We're pleased enough with how it's working that we are *starting* to consider other uses in item distribution and skill gain.

To read the rest, head over here.

Messenger Virus Alert (Win32.Bropia.F)

-Win32.Bropia.F is a worm that spreads via MSN Messenger. It may also be able to spread using Windows Messenger. It drops a variant of the Rbot worm family, Win32/Rbot.BNL. Looks like the new one sends you a URL link, once you click on the link, your system is infected. Some people have said they start to see ASCCII chars start to go down the screen, others say their system just locked up. I know I posted this last week, but it looks like round 2 is here. Becareful with IM. One thing with this virus, if someone sends you an IM, they are infected, if someone recieves an IM from you with this link, then you are infected.

-When run, Bropia.F creates two files in the root directory of the current drive (usually c:\). The first file is a copy of the worm itself, using one of the following file names:

me_2005.pif
LOL.scr
Webcam.pif
hahahaha.pif
naked_drunk.pif
sister.pif
Or any variant of this file name.

-Bropia.F also attempts to stop the user from running several programs, such as Windows Task Manager. It disables the right mouse button, and the 'ctrl-alt-delete' key combination. It also opens the files %System%\cmd.exe and %System%\taskmgr.exe and locks them, so they can not be executed.
Even tho they say they have tools to clean this virus/worm. It will still be on your system.

The UO Meetup, held at EARS on Tuesday 8-Feb. produced some familiar faces; Delilah Jones and Racer X of Siege were there as were Swamp Thing, Kayla Failehen, Misty Pendragon, and Crazy Blue Jay of Napa. Ice Cream was served! Unfortunately, we all signed an NDA and that's about all the news that can be shared! Oh except, we saw the biggest dang raccoon in the world wandering around the EA campus!

Will try again next month...

Posted to the FYI:

With the introduction of Publish 30 we’ve discovered a small issue concerning locked down rune books and their associated access levels. As such, we strongly suggest that rune book owners restrict access to these items until the issue can be fully addressed.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience as we finalize the publish world wide.

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

On Wednesday, February 2nd at approximately 1:45PM PST (9:45PM GMT) we deployed the Publish 30 server update to the Origin Shard.

Publish 30 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 30 details as we are ready to publish to the production shards.

General Fixes/Tweaks/Enhancements
*Treasures of Tokuno Phase 1:
- Fight the creatures that inhabit the Tokuno Islands to recover unique Samurai Empire treasures
- Almost any creature on the islands or in the dungeons of Tokuno has a chance of rewarding you 1 of 20 different minor artifacts
- Your chances of finding an item are scaled based on the fame of the creature you defeat
- Recovered Tokuno items are placed in your bag (or bank if your can’t carry anymore)
- This is a limited duration event
*Archery has been reverted back to its pre-Pub 29 “fire and forget” state until a more comprehensive solution can be implemented
*Houses can no longer be demolished if the house’s moving crate still has items in it.
* Vendors will no longer have “the vendor” appended to their names.
* Fixed a bug that didn’t remove the weight of gold that was in 2 piles when it got tithed

Item Fixes/Changes
*Book of Bushido and Book of Ninjitsu now only take up the correct amount of storage when locked down in a house
*Big Fish Trophy will no longer disappear if not locked down (it is different from other deedables in that it can be locked down.)
*Can no longer use Savage Kin Paint while in Animal Form
*Fixed an issue that reduced a player’s strength by 5 from logging out while under the effects of a Rose of Trinsic pedal under specific circumstances
*Potion kegs now weigh the correct amount. Full kegs now weigh 100 stones, while empty kegs weigh 20 stones.

Spell Casting/Spell Crafting Improvements
*Players can now craft Necromancy scrolls
*Players can now craft Spellbooks with magic properties (Note: These items will NOT be blessed on Siege or Mugen).
*Can now sell Necromancy scrolls to NPC mages

Creature and Spawning Fixes/Adjustments
*Fixed the issue causing tame Fire Beetles to not do the correct amount of damage
*Ranged poison cloud attack given to Yamandon and Serado the Awakened. This ranged attack does 20-25 points of direct damage plus level 5 poison to its target

Vendor Changes
*Addressed an issue where vendors were not charging the correct daily storage fee. Players should ensure that each vendor they own is paid the proper amount of gold so that no items are lost.

Messenger Virus Alert (Win32.Bropia.C)

-Win32.Bropia.C is a worm that spreads via MSN Messenger. It may also be able to spread using Windows Messenger. It drops a variant of the Rbot worm family, Win32/Rbot.BNL.

-When run, Bropia.C creates two files in the root directory of the current drive (usually c:\). The first file is a copy of the worm itself, using one of the following file names:

me_2005.pif
LOL.scr
Webcam.pif
hahahaha.pif
naked_drunk.pif
sister.pif
Or any variant of this file name.

-Bropia.C also attempts to stop the user from running several programs, such as Windows Task Manager. It disables the right mouse button, and the 'ctrl-alt-delete' key combination. It also opens the files %System%\cmd.exe and %System%\taskmgr.exe and locks them, so they can not be executed.

-If anyone sends you an IM with an attachment and you hit the accept button, your system will be infected. At that point, backup your data, and wipe and reload your system.
Even tho they say they have tools to clean this virus/worm. It will still be on your system.

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

February 2nd, 2005 at approximately 11:30AM PST (7:30PM GMT) we will publish the 4.0.8a Client patch. The 4.0.8a Client contains the following change:

Both Clients:
Support for Publish 30

If patched correctly, your current version will display 4.0.8a for both clients.

For the complete text, go here.

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

Changes not announced until all shards were published
*House Placement: Locked down items will no longer vanish from house when boat is backed under corner of house
*Can no longer ban a pet while riding it
*Hiryu dismount special move can no longer be used to separate a Chaos Dragoon Elite from his mount
*When attempting to make yourself a friend while in the middle of transferring your pet to another player, you will receive the following message: You cannot friend a pet with a trade pending
*Necromancer familiars and animates can no longer be stabled
*Murderers can no longer use Virtues via a macro
*Fixed an issue with pet slots after logging out while on a Hiryu
*Fukiya Darts and Shurikens no longer give gains in Ninjitsu for non-entitled Samurai Empire accounts
*Fixed an issued allowing Lightning strike to allow a player to ignore disarm timer
*Fixed an issue that allowed special moves to automatically hit when a spell landed
*Can no longer use a Soulstone if character is located on a different sub-server
*Locked-down rune books can no longer be dyed by other players
*Player characters are now able to equip a sword and torch at the same time

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

It has come to our attention that some players are demolishing their house with items still in the moving crate. This action permanently deletes the moving crate and any items contained inside of it.

We have scheduled a change for publish 30 that will no longer allow players to demolish a house that contains a moving crate. In the meantime, we recommend that players check to make sure they do not have items inside of a moving crate before demolishing a house. Keep in mind that lost items can not be replaced by Game Masters.

For more information on our lost item policy, click here

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

The shards Atlantic, Baja and Sonoma have been published with the updated Publish 29 server code. For a list of the Publish 29 changes, please click here.

In order to address a last minute issue, we will be republishing all other North American shards on Thursday, January 20th as follows:

*20 January 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
*20 January 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Napa Valley, Origin

All remaining shards will be published as follows:
*20 January 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania
*20 January 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
*20 January 4:00PM PST (21 January 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
*20 January 9:00PM PST (21 January 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.

The following was posted over at UO.com:

Win a CASTLE in Malas!

Now is your chance to win a castle in Malas! You read that right, a 32x32 footprint CASTLE! On March 25th we will be giving away 5 Castles on each shard. All you have to do to be eligible to win one of the 5 Castles is have an Ultima Online: Samurai Empire access level account that was created or upgraded between November 2nd 2004 and March 18th 2005.

We will randomly select 5 winners on each shard from all eligible accounts and the winners will be notified via the email address associated with your account, so make sure your account information is correct. You can update your account info HERE.

Make sure you are eligible to win a piece of history today and upgrade or create a new Samurai Empire level account!

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

The shards "TC2 Pub29 Test" and "Origin" have been published with the Publish 29 server code. For a list of the Publish 29 changes, please click here.

In order to address a few minor issues we will be delaying the release of Publish 29 until Wednesday, January 19th, we will be publishing all remaining shards as follows:

*19 January 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT) - Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Siege Perilous, Legends, Great Lakes, Lake Superior
*19 January 11:00AM PST (7:00PM GMT) - Pacific, Lake Austin, Baja, Napa Valley, Sonoma
*19 January 2:00PM PST (10:00PM GMT) - Oceania
*19 January 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT) - Yamato, Izumo, Wakoku, Hokuto, Asuka, Mizuho, Mugen, Sakura
*19 January 4:00PM PST (20 January 12:00AM GMT) - Arirang, Balhae, Formosa
*19 January 9:00PM PST (20 January 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.

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

The shards "TC2 Pub29 Test" and "Origin" have been published with the Publish 29 server code. For a list of the Publish 29 changes, please click here.

If everything goes according to plan, we will be publishing all remaining shards as follows:

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

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

Get ready for fun, adventure and fabulous loot! Soon, the islands of Tokuno will play host to many an adventurer seeking the Treasures of Tokuno. Those who are brave and skilled enough to challenge and defeat the denizens of Tokuno will be rewarded with fantastic new artifacts, such as Hanzo's Bow and the Tome of Enlightenment.

The Treasures of Tokuno event will commence during the month of February. Look for more information starting next week.

As told by Kirthag

The Red Eye Tavern and Bardic Hall is once again open on a weekly basis, and many came to enjoy the companionship and stories that were shared.



As the evening wore on, even more came to enjoy the hearty drinks and company that had gathered. Talk ensued about the land before facets were discovered, and many old names were brought up in discussion. Terrance Drith told a couple of poems, while Hope relayed a story about a warrior of the Trinsic Battle.


Soon enough though, last call was announced. Kirth started to clean up just when the doors to the tavern where thrown open, and several earthquakes shook the building! Indeed, murderous intent was in the minds of the newcommers, and everyone poured outside to engage in a battle royale!

Several more showed up and started to join the confusion of the melee combat, but all in all it was an evening of excitement and fun for all!



So once again, the Red Eye enjoys visitations and activity that had once made it one of the most talked about taverns in the land! Come on by and visit the Red Eye on Sunday evenings, 9-11pm (pac time). Have an ale, tell a story, and battle those who would try to spill your grog!!

Mair saor!