September 2012

The Awakening Act VIII - Part 2 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 28, 2012 at 5:10 PM CDT Originally posted 28 Sep 2012 17:43:08 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Written by the EM Team Looking out over the water from his balcony, Lord Blackthorn steepled his fingers in front of his face. It had been a long time since he’d seen these waters and had the chance to enjoy the gentle movements caused by the current, and he savored it. Heckles had certainly done a good job of having the place repaired, and even had it furnished the way that he himself likely would have. Looking to the left, he glanced at the travel chess set he’d carried with him all this time, and once again his thoughts started to drift back towards simpler days…though this thought brought a bit of a wry grin to his face. They only seemed like simpler days in retrospect, of course…at the time they were every bit as complex and difficult as these days were. Rising, he began to stroll through the castle, taking stock of the place and its vast array of rooms. There was no doubt that he’d need to hire on some of the townspeople to staff the place; he chuckled to himself and hoped that Heckles hadn’t completely emptied his treasury for the castle. It felt good to once again be in the city of Britain…and it felt even better that finally, things seemed to be on the road to redemption. The Honor moongate had been fixed, the rioters almost all quelled, the nobles sated, and Exodus routed…despite the progress though, there had always been one person that Lord Blackthorn had hoped against hope he’d have had a chance to see again. To read the full story on the forums, click HERE.

The Celebration Draws Near! Submitted by UO_Herald on September 28, 2012 at 4:01 PM CDT Originally posted 28 Sep 2012 16:25:30 EST by Tim Chappell on the UO Herald: The time for celebration is close and preparations are under way. We are excited to see all of you and have many surprises in store! If you are unable to make it, don't worry we haven't forgot about you either! We are going to stream the event with our special surprise guest as well as the Q&A with developers. The stream will take place from 1:30pm - 4:00pm EDT on our Ustream channel at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bioherald. So be sure and tune in to watch the story unfold! That’s not all though: UO Stratics is going to be hosting an all day event at Castle Blackthorn on Test Center 1! We are collaborating with them so attending players can participate in the Q&A and even win some fantastic prizes! Check out all the details below: So no matter where you are, be sure and join us to celebrate the record setting MMORPG! For those of you traveling; be safe and we'll see you all soon! [Discuss This Article]

Memorable Moments from Anthony Castoro Submitted by UO_Herald on September 28, 2012 at 1:37 PM CDT Originally posted 28 Sep 2012 13:21:38 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Another Memorable Moment comes from Anthony Castoro, Producer for Ultima Online from 2002 to 2005. "So, I thought a lot about different stories I could tell about UO, the people, the players, the game itself. I've decided to stick with this one story. The first time I worked on UO, I became co-lead designer with Todd "MadToad" Bailey. We encountered a problem on several of the servers where the forests had become completely barren. For some reason, not enough creatures and monsters were spawning, but we couldn't figure out an obvious cause. We tweaked the spawner settings on the live server, trying to see if there was a tuning problem. We eventually did an index of every creature type and discovered something really odd. There were a lot of birds. I mean A LOT of birds. More birds than any other creature in the game, by a significant factor. But where the heck were all these birds? Well, as it turns out, because some of the "dynamic ecology" code was never fully removed, we had this strange problem where birds would fly into an area of the map where they couldn't get out and there were no predators to kill them. So every time some creature died in the game, there was a chance that the game would spawn a bird. And every once in a while, that bird would get stuck. This went on for YEARS until some servers (maybe Lake Superior?) had no deer, no wolves and no rabbits. Just a TON of birds that no one could see or hear. Unfortunately, soon after this was discovered, if you played UO that day, you may have heard a great many birds cry out all at once. A little while later, you may have noticed the forest got a lot more interesting. That's the kind of thing that makes UO so interesting and so challenging all at the same time. - Anthony Castoro Thank you, Anthony. Have you read the previous stories from Bonnie Armstrong and Richard Garriot? So many memories... [Discuss This Article]

Happy Birthday UO Forums Submitted by UO_Herald on September 27, 2012 at 7:34 PM CDT Originally posted 27 Sep 2012 17:09:48 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: With all the anniversary preparations going on we had almost forgotten to send our best wishes to UOForums which turned 10 on September 24th. To celebrate their birthday UOForums is hosting a series of events and a contest (among other things). "10 Year Anniversary Grand Event! UOForums staffers will be touring Ultima Online shards all through this event. We will be visiting American, European and Japanese shards. Announcement of schedule will be made the 26th September. At these events we will be passing out gift pouches filled with very valuable loot and perhaps even unique things. Though the exact content will be a surprise. ;) So make sure you join us at these events where you will also have a chance to meet the dedicated team of UOForums. All tours will take place in the Skara Brae Counselor Hall. 10 Year Anniversary Grand Contest! From September 24th to October 30th UOForums 10 Year Anniversary Grand Contest will be running and at the end we will be drawing prizes to active community members. If you're an active community member, then we'll add your activity since July 1st 2012. From the 24th September to 30th October posting on UOForums and subscribing to our youtube channel will increase your chances of winning. This contest will include physical prizes as well as Ultima Online prizes, including a prize of 12 months of game time for Ultima Online and a grand prize of a 512 Gb Solid State Disk. Complete list of prizes will be announced on October 5th." Read the complete announcement. Happy birthday, all the best, and thank you for your continued support! [Discuss This Article]

Anniversary Items in the BioWare Store Submitted by UO_Herald on September 27, 2012 at 2:22 PM CDT Originally posted 27 Sep 2012 13:39:48 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: It's time to release the final three pieces for our Anniversary puzzle. This should allow you to finish the artwork and get a nice impression of the complete piece. To read the full commercial on the forums, click HERE.

Memorable Moments from Richard Garriot Submitted by UO_Herald on September 27, 2012 at 2:11 PM CDT Originally posted 27 Sep 2012 11:07:40 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: In line with the writing contest and the Memorable Moments Bonnie gave us at the beginning of this week, we asked Richard Garriot to shared some of his memories with us. He was kind enough to come up with two stories: The Thief One day, early in the life of UO, I was participating as a GM and going to the aid of people who requested it. A note flashed across my screen from a woman, who said something like “Today is my first day trying to play UO, and every time I try to leave town a thief steals all my stuff, so I have to restart, and he does the same. If this continues I will quit and never come back to this game.” So I arrived in her presence as Lord British, not that she cared, she did not know or care who I was, and only wanted her problem fixed. I felt I was up to the seemingly simple task. I told her to come with me, and I would escort her out of town. As we left town, suddenly *ZIP* a thief flew across the screen at speeds I could hardly understand, and stole her gear and disappeared! I told her to wait here, as I teleported to try and get in advance of the speedy ruffian. When I finally froze him with a GM command, I revealed myself as Lord British, and told him to leave this poor woman alone, that this would drive away potential new players which we could not allow. Stop or else I would ban him from the game! He begged for forgiveness, and pledged to never do it to her again. Satisfied, I returned the stolen items to the woman and told her, she should be safe now for at least a while, when *ZIP* the same thief came by again and stole all her items and disappeared. So, I chased him down a second time, and told him, hey, you had been warned, now I am going to ban you. He pleaded and pleaded and exclaimed how exuberance had overtaken him, and that he swore this time he would never do it again! Reluctantly, I believed him, and took the belongings back to the woman, again. But then, for a third time, the same thief *ZIPPED* by… I froze him to the ground and told him, I was about to ban him! Then for the first time… he broke character, and refered to me out of character as well… “Look Richard Garriott”, he said, “You guys made the rules to this game, the rules include the role of thief, I am playing just as the role would be intended to be played. If the King tells a thief not to steal, of course he will beg for mercy and swear he won’t again. But what do you expect of me… I am a thief!” After some thought… I agreed with him. So instead of banning him, I teleported him to the far side of the world. Then I gave the items back to the woman who could finally go about her business. After that, I began to think more carefully about the rules we ourselves put in the game, and the inevitable play styles that would come of it. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

The Anniversary Party is Closing In Submitted by UO_Herald on September 27, 2012 at 2:07 PM CDT Originally posted 26 Sep 2012 17:05:06 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Everyone here is very excited to get the party started. Official beginning on Saturday is 10:30am EDT. When you arrive at 4035 Ridge Top Road please come to the 2nd floor (just follow the smell of fresh brewed coffee, we will also have tea for those that do not drink coffee) Ultima Online’s 15th Anniversary Party Itinerary 10:00 am - 11:00 am - Greet players and have coffee and donuts 11:00 am - 12:00 pm – Welcome Speeches 12:00pm - 1:30 pm - Lunch and cake 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm – Special guest – question and answer period 2:20 pm - 4:00 pm – Dev Q&A –Open discussion about what direction the team is going and where the players would like us to go. 4:00pm - 5:30 pm – Give always and opening EA store (credit cards only please) 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm – Happy hour at Marlin and Rays For those that cannot be with us: We will stream the afternoon on UStream in the BioHerald channel, starting at 1:30pm EDT. Please join us if you have a few moments. On a different note, we are putting out a publish and patch today to fix the loyalty decay. Below is a breakdown of exactly how it was addressed: The buffer will be increased to 40 hours from 36, and will use a different method to track the daily rollover for decay. Before doing point decay for loyalty and virtues, the system will check to see if the player has logged in or logged out in the last 40 hours of real time. If the "moons align" to prevent decay, the decay timers will be correctly updated. This will prevent a "catch-up" of missed decay. For City Loyalty, the decay prevention will now only work for the city's Love. Notoriety and Hatred values from cities will always decay. The decay prevention will instead only prevent cities' Love for you from decaying. We are also publishing out the Halloween surprises it will run from October 1st to November 12th, so make sure you visit the pumpkin patches and the graveyards for a ghoulish experience. For those driving please have a safe drive and we all look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday!! [Discuss This Article]

Anniversary Puzzle Submitted by UO_Herald on September 25, 2012 at 4:24 PM CDT Originally posted 25 Sep 2012 16:34:19 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Are you waiting for more pieces? Here are the next four: [Discuss This Article]

Press Around the Anniversary Submitted by UO_Herald on September 25, 2012 at 12:10 PM CDT Originally posted 25 Sep 2012 12:32:40 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: UO's 15th anniversary triggered several articles and reviews. Here is the EA Press release: EA CELEBRATES 15 YEARS OF ULTIMA ONLINE Mythic to Crown a New King To Mark The 15-Year Anniversary Of The Longest Running MMO Of All-Time Electronic Arts and Mythic are proud to announce the 15th anniversary of the massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ultima™ Online. Originally released on September 24, 1997, Ultima Online is a fantasy MMORPG set in the legendary Ultima™ universe and was the first game of its kind to gain a dedicated widespread audience. To celebrate this occasion, the development team at Mythic has crafted a long running seven month story arc that will usher in a new king in an upcoming in-game event. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Happy Birthday Ultima Online!! Submitted by UO_Herald on September 24, 2012 at 3:43 PM CDT Originally posted 24 Sep 2012 14:58:52 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Happy Birthday Ultima Online!! I wanted to drop you guys a note on this extremely memorable day. Can you believe its 15 years already? I have been reading all your stories, which are great I have to say. Some have made me grin, some I have shared with people not on our team and some I just shook my head thinking yep I know what they are talking about. *grins* So with that said I want to share a few of my memorable moments that stand out to me, I hope some of you can relate. Back in September 1997 when I first logged into UO, I was in Skara near the bees at the bank, and these bees started talking to me … I swear I logged out of the game after that thinking ‘ok, talking bees are just too weird for me.’ Of course this was back in the day when you could stay hidden and talk to people. My friend talked me into logging back in after that, so I continued on with my quest of building my first character, man I thought it was a badass cause I could kill a troll…*chokes laughing*. Then I ran into my first PK ... not only did he kill me but he killed my husband. I was sooo upset, I had gathered a lot of liquor and backpacks to make money and he got them all!!! To this day I will never forget my first PK’s name MIM. That name stayed written on a monitor for years and years. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Ask & Answer No. 3 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 24, 2012 at 3:27 PM CDT Originally posted 24 Sep 2012 12:36:20 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: The Rustic and Gothic theme packs can not be bought together, as they could from uogamecodes.com, are there any plans to make that possible? (Snyder330) When the change was made to Origin Store that was left out, we will add it back in next time we go to put something up on the store. Some Origin stores outside of the US don't all have the full range of items - when the High Seas booster will be available in EMEA region? (Sir Z), - Stygian Abyss is still not available in Brazil store (Bealank). Will the missing items become available? We have reported this to my contact, also inquiring when the items from the Korean store will be back, when we hear something definite we will let you guys know. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Preparing the 15th Anniversary Party Submitted by UO_Herald on September 21, 2012 at 8:31 PM CDT Originally posted 21 Sep 2012 18:10:10 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: While our final preparations for the Anniversary Party here in Fairfax are on their way, we would like to take a moment and encourage all of you who will join us next Saturday to show up in costumes. We'll hold a costume contest and the best male and female costumes will win to games from the EA Store. If you can't make it to the party, here is something else to keep you busy: [Discuss This Article]

THE YEW TIMES - A Newspaper for Sosaria Submitted by UO_Herald on September 21, 2012 at 8:24 PM CDT Originally posted 21 Sep 2012 13:34:38 EST by the YEW TIMES Editoral Office on the UO Herald: Written by members of the community Issue 8 WORLD NEWS ELDERLY EXHIBIT BAFFLING BEHAVIOR Britannia's recently appointed sleuth and oracle, Misk has been looking into the recent bizarre behavior of New Haven citizens offering quests to new adventurers in town. Industrious do-gooders looking to make a quick sack of gold have been oft times led on lengthy goose-chases for very little compensation for the effort. Misk claims that an attempt to create more diversity in the town community with a varied age range, may have affected those individuals' personalities particularly towards the upper limits. In other words, old people are acting like old people. Most complaints include: Being asked for an escort to an elderly woman's home, followed by a request to come inside and massage bunions, clean the oven, rub liniment on aching legs, lowering shelves, and cleaning rain gutters. Questors instead of receiving their usual 500 gold have been compensated with "something better than gold" such as dishes of stewed prunes, coupons, crocheted doilies, and bingo markers. Young adventurers will likely move onto greener pastures until the issue is resolved. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Extended Maintenance for Japanese and Korean Shards - 09/19 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 19, 2012 at 4:08 PM CDT Originally posted 19 Sep 2012 15:18:54 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Today's standard server maintenance for the Japanese and Korean shards will be extended by approximately one hour. The Japanese shards will go offline at 6pm EDT (8am JST). We expect them to be back online at 8pm EDT (10am JST). The Korean shards will go offline at 7pm EDT (9am KST). We expect them to be back online at 9pm EDT (11am KST). Thank you for your support. [Discuss This Article]

The Awakening - Act VIII Submitted by UO_Herald on September 18, 2012 at 4:19 PM CDT Originally posted 18 Sep 2012 12:32:32 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Written by the EM Team The power was inimitable and without equal or peer; he could feel it flowing through him as he channeled the energies of the shrine itself into the spell that he'd pieced together from his own research and what Gilforn had taught him. Was this how Nystul had felt when he had created Trammel? The rush of power that coursed through Gilforn's hands as he fashioned the gates initially? Or could this perhaps be something else entirely...the power of his friends Virtues at work? He let his wandering thoughts go as he focused on the spell, and felt the power suddenly rush out in an instant. Flames and fury rushed forth along the course of tiles that formed the Honor chalice, as magical energies cascaded along the path before them. It was exhilarating and incredible, and a line of purple flame stood blazing as a testament to the power that was used. He approached the gate slowly and took a breath, looking back at those gathered, and stepped through...and came out the other side into Britain in Trammel. Exactly where he'd wanted to. He stepped back into the gate to speak briefly to those still gathered at Honor, Ilshenar. To read the full story on the forums, click HERE.

Ask & Answer No. 2 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 17, 2012 at 5:20 PM CDT Originally posted 17 Sep 2012 12:13:34 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: The Ultima Online team has received another set of questions last week. Here are the answers. Concerns People using high Seas boats, moored along side each other, to 'house hide' in PvP. Mesanna: We have written this up as a bug and hope to have it fixed soon. Questions Are there any plans to make gargoyle horn dye and/or restyle available on hairdressers? Daslo, Neverplay UO, Cerwin Vega Mesanna: After speaking with the team we think Horn Dressers is a good idea…Thanks for the suggestion Are there any plans to revamp Doom? By this I mean changing or evolving the bosses, changing the loot, artifact pool or drop mechanics. There are several problems, for one an increase in players causes more bosses to spawn, however there is no obligation to complete a full round (which would be my definition of running a gauntlet), so people do the 5 rooms then leave before the Dark Fathers, usually leaving one skilled soloer to spend 30 mins plus killing each of them. Now we have gargoyles some gargoyle drops should probably also be included. (CKTC, ask the devs) Mesanna: CKTC, Doom is on our list, it needs updated as much as champ spawns, dungeons and peerless do. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Contest 'Memorable Moments' Ends Tomorrow Submitted by UO_Herald on September 15, 2012 at 5:51 PM CDT Originally posted 14 Sep 2012 17:13:56 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: The writing contest 'Memorable Moments' to celebrate the 15th birthday of Ultima Online will end tomorrow on September 15th. If you want participate and win one of the robes, make sure to finish your story and submit it to Mesanna before we end of tomorrow. Make sure to read the complete rules in the original news. We are looking forward to getting your stories. [Discuss This Article]

Ultima Online Review on 1Up Submitted by UO_Herald on September 12, 2012 at 5:42 PM CDT Originally posted 12 Sep 2012 18:18:09 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Have you visited1Up.com's website today? They posted an interesting article about Ultima Online. "It's actually this near-total anarchy that most sets UO apart from what came after. Nobody had done anything quite like this before, and it shows. While today MMOs have become mostly formulaic and carefully manage player progression, interaction, class balancing, and just generally make sure that the entire experience is a known quantity, Ultima Online faced no such constraints. There was no "common sense" when it came to this sort of thing, and while the kitchen-sink approach of providing everything one would expect from a single-player RPG and then letting a few thousand people play with it at once had occasionally disastrous consequences, it also led to the kind of freedom and surprise that one doesn't often encounter in a modern MMO." Check out the complete article. [Discuss This Article]

Extended Maintenance for Asian Shard - 09/12 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 12, 2012 at 2:05 PM CDT Originally posted 12 Sep 2012 14:25:06 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: We will perform an extended maintenance on all Asian shards tonight, starting at 6pm EDT (10pm GMT). At this time we expect the additional downtime to last no longer than one hour. Thank you for your support. [Discuss This Article]

Ask & Answer No. 1 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 10, 2012 at 9:23 PM CDT Originally posted 10 Sep 2012 10:35:40 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: You ask and we answer. In the last days our team took the time to address some of the questions that keep coming in. If you have something you want to know about Ultima Online and the team, post your questions on your fansite. All interesting questions will be collected and send to our team, so we can continue to answer them. Here are the first seven: 1. Would it be possible to convert the older quests to the new Quest system? The older system only allows one quest to be active at a time. (Drachenfels, General Chat) Mesanna: Are you speaking about the context questions vs the paperdoll quests? I know this is not the answer you want to hear but without looking deeper into the code we can not give a definite answer for this question. To read the full article on the forums, click HERE.

Publish 78.1 Despise Fixes Submitted by UO_Herald on September 6, 2012 at 7:09 PM CDT Originally posted 6 Sep 2012 15:59:11 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: We have made the following fixes and changes that will be seen after maintenance tomorrow. We have made the following changes to the game mechanics of Dungeon Despise (Trammel) When a player damages any orb-controlled creature, that player will receive retaliatory damage Players now do less damage to orb-controlled creatures Orb-controlled creatures now receive a damage bonus against players Fixed issue resulting in Despise artifact distribution not rewarding players involved in killing the Despise boss. Fixed issue resulting in looting rights not being given to players involved in killing the Despise boss. [Discuss This Article]

Issues with Return to Britannia Submitted by UO_Herald on September 6, 2012 at 7:08 PM CDT Originally posted 5 Sep 2012 18:14:34 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: We have discovered an issue that is causing some accounts not able to log in with the Return to Britannia. We are working to resolve this issue and should have a fix by tomorrow. We will update you as soon as we have additional information. [Discuss This Article]

Sneak Peek III Submitted by UO_Herald on September 4, 2012 at 5:41 PM CDT Originally posted 4 Sep 2012 17:58:05 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Here is another Sneak Peek, as promised in the Producer's letter: If all goes well we will have UO.com up and running by the end of September. 'Return to Britannia' starts tomorrow at 9am EDT, sorry for the confusion on this date. It will run from September 5th to October 5th. After tomorrow morning's maintenance: Despise healing mobs healing Andros or Adrian will be fixed. You and your pet should no longer be teleported to a location that you cannot get out of. Gargoyle Faction armor will no longer immediately disappear when fighting a monster in Trammel. And we have two more pieces for you to enjoy. [Discuss This Article]

Account Center Maintenance - 09/04 Submitted by UO_Herald on September 3, 2012 at 11:49 PM CDT Originally posted 3 Sep 2012 21:48:48 EST by Kai Schober on the UO Herald: Update 11:50am EDT: The Acount Center is back online. We will bring down the Account Center for maintenance tomorrow, Tuesday September 4th, at 10am EDT (16:00 CEST). During the maintenance you will not be able to change subscription or redeem game codes. At the moment we anticipate the Account Center to be back online at 12pm EDT (18:400 CEST). Thank you for your understanding. [Discuss This Article]