August 2001

"It is always a great pleasure to serve the Lycaeum." I told my master as I gave him a small bow.

He nodded and let loose a small smile from his old face. I have served the Lycaeum for many years... I have seen much and learned much within these old walls... It pleases me to teach one of such great talent, such as yourself Tavlor...

Those words meant much coming from the man who had raised me like a father. My entire life he had been there and showed me the path of Honesty and what it meant to be a mage.

"Tavlor... Go to the store house and fetch some logs for burning... These are nearly done with." he asked of me.

"Of course, master. Let me be off at once." and with that I proceded to the back store house to fetch my gentle master some logs. Upon gathering the logs from the store house, I noticed a dark fog coming from the northen tip of Moonglow... I slowly watched this and I began to fear something evil was admist. I watched slowly from the store house and then say several figures enter the Lycaeum. I creeped in and was witnessed to a most hideous site!

These... These monsters... They were slaughtering the mages of the Lycaeum! They fell one after the other... Like nothing... Their deaths.... Brutal...

A tall gaunt man who was wearing a dark wizard hat was standing within the center of the Lycaeum... His mad laughter sent such terrible chills up my spine!

"Lord Artisem!" said one of the of the more undead looking beasts...

"Yes, Nas'Rath?" answered the man.

"We have yet to find the tomes that we seek... There are just too many books here..."

"Then sort through the useless ones. Burn whatever The Society cannot use!" replied the man, followed by more of his hideous laughter!

I was then horrified even more then I saw that those blasted creatures began the random and rampent burning of some of the Lycaeum's most popular books! It was such a horrible thing...

A blue haired witch then came about to where I was hiding... "She will discover and kill me I thought..." Then I noticed one of the slain men lying close to me... With quick actions, I was able to get his robe and hide under it. For now it seemed I was one of the fallen...

Then then gathered in front of the gaunt man... One of them let loose a howl and handed him a small chest... And then for a moment there was silience... And then that laughter... That horrible laughter...

The gaunt man then tossed to the ground something that appeared to be some sort of deed or ticket... He said something that I could barely make out but that was followed up by a devlish laughter coming from them all!

A few words were said among them and then they departed through the exit in the same blasted mist... I thought I could make out some form of ship setting sail from the distant but I could not see...

I ran out of hiding and saw total chaos... Death... Destruction... It was everywhere...

And then... I came across my master... His body was spread about his small study in several pieces...

I will never forget or forgive these monsters for destroying my life...

Tavlor
Monk of the Moonglow Lycaeum

Due to a dozen server/client issues with several G^C staff and hired personnel, some events for the Gardi Gras Festival have needed to be changed around. We do apologize for this, but the actions of the 'gods' are out of our control.

Manna Dump (the mage v. mage contest)
New Time: Saturday, September 1 6:00pm

RoXoR Joo (the 2 v. 2 contest)
New Time: Saturday, September 1 7:00pm

Mage's Poker
New Time: Saturday, September 1 8:00pm

Barding Contest (topic: Epic Battles)
New Time: Saturday, September 1 10:00pm

Again, we here at Garden City wish to invite all citizens of the shard out to join our festival.

GC Staff

But on a good note, they didn't move the Barding Contest scheduled for 10pm Friday Night.

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Veteran Rewards Update
Aug 31 2001 5:46PM CST (GMT -06:00)

Just as a quick update, we believe that the connectivity issue regarding the Veteran Rewards server has been resolved, and the fix is in the testing stages. We hope to be able to continue re-activating the system on the UO shards very soon, and will notify the players once the new schedule is determined.

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A Word from GM Ash

A year ago, I put in my application to work at OSI/EA. I didn’t know what to expect. I had fond memories of the cut scenes from Wing Commander and Ultima IV from my younger days and thought about how great it would be to work for the company responsible for those games. During my years studying psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, I had no idea that I would be working on a video game after I graduated. When I discovered that I had the opportunity to work on video games as a career, I accepted. I learned that the game I would be working on was the online extension of the Ultima world, and became immediately enthralled.

Currently, I am a Game Master for Ultima Online. I am better known in game as Game Master Ash. For some background, I have been playing video games since I can remember. I started in the days of the Atari 2600 and have played through the current console and PC games. Some of the games I play when not playing Ultima Online are Counter-Strike for the PC and the Madden and NHL series for the PS2. In my extensive video game career, I am still astonished at the depth of the community that I interact with when I play Ultima Online. Every day I see something new, and something is always there to impress upon me the honorable nature of the community. Whether it is a humorous event at the Britain bank or a community festival in Yew, the community is always active in Ultima Online.

Game Masters are the front line of relations between OSI/EA and the community. It is important to give a positive impression to players, as they are what make the game so unique. Without the time and dedication that players invest into the game, UO would not be what it is today. One of the functions of Game Masters is to ensure that the community is maintained. I analogize this responsibility to a public servant in a real world society. Some of the responsibilities extend to dealing with player harassment or even removing items stuck in trees. This is the side that the community sees most of the time.

Along with the public responsibilities, Game Masters work behind the scenes to talk about Ultima Online issues and policy. When I was younger, I always joked that I would never use my Student Congress skills in real life. Then I learned that as a Game Master, one function of the job is to help debate and shape UO policy. When players make suggestions to Game Masters, they listen to what is said and bring it up in policy discussions. We present the ideas, and if we can reach a consensus, the changes are implemented. The discussions are always interesting and are very similar to policy issues that people face in the real world.

I enjoy helping the citizens of Britannia as they are a creative and brilliant community, and I look forward to seeing you all in game.

Ash
Player Relations
Ultima Online

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Windows 95 users who have not upgraded their Winsock to Winsock 2 may see an error message with the updated client. This may not be the case once the patch is reverted out (a revert patch went up today), but it will be necessary again once the patch is put back in. The error message will say: "missing winsock32.dll”

Here's how to fix it:

- Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/bin/W95ws2setup.exe

- Download file to your desktop

- Double click on W95ws2setup.exe

- Click Ok

- Winsock2 will be installed, you should restart your computer after the process finishes

Let us know here if you have any more problems. :)

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Auladan says he had never attempted a drive-by barding before, but the day just seemed ripe for a tale. It was a swashbuckling adventure, charting Auladan's battle with a fierce sea monster. I don't want to give away too much, as the tale will probably be told again at the YMCA this Friday.

As I mentioned to Auladan, if you would like to hear tales of high adventure, or low humor, or great tragedy, or if you have a story of your own to tell, the YMCA has a story-telling night every Friday. No sense in standing around banks hoping a drive-by bard will come and service you! Go get your own tales!

Those wishing to tell a story (or just listen while they get a little hooty on ale and scarf up the free pizza Dor always seems to put out) should come to YMCA on Friday at 7 PM PST. The YMCA is located at 39o 48' N - 42o 7' W in Felucca, just South of the Yew Cemetary. Hope to see you there!

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My name is Grand Mystic, and I am a new reporter for the AOL Legends News Team. My goals as a reporter are to bring the news to the citizens of Legends and to give people a say about what is going on in your world. I will be working with you all to bring thenews and events to you. I hope to be able to report to you in the most accurate and unbiased way I can.

Until then, safe travels and have a merry day!

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Yet again, some 1v1 tournament fun to be had on Cats!

Here's the rules for Arena Combat:

• Absolutely no attacking, fighting, casting of any spell, potion tossing, or any other forms of combat or disruption outside of the Arena and/or by non-participants.
• No magical weapons, armor, or charged items of any kind (including event/quest items and yes, we will be checking).
• No summoned or tamed pets (spectators leave your horses, ostards, llamas, etc. at home, too).
• No hiding, stealing, or looting.
• No poisoned weapons of any kind unless poisoned by the fighter after the fight commences.
• No casting once you've entered the Arena for your match until the referee signals to begin.
• No bladespirits, invisibles, gates, recalls, or energy vortexes allowed.
• Disconnection will result in a forfeit for that fighter.
• Fights disrupted by outsiders will be restarted.
• At the discretion of the referee, if no clear winner is decided (read: noone dies) after a reasonable period of time, he/she will declare "No Potion Overtime". During which, the fighters may not drink [B]any[/B] potions. If this is not enough to finish the bout, then further actions may include: no healing/bandages, firefields from the Referee, GE potions, or other means at the discretion of the Referee. There is still to be NO interference from spectators or other fighters.
• The winner will immediately step away from the corpse of the loser; let the referees ressurect.
• Innapropriate language or behavior from any fighter or spectator will not be tolerated.
• Spectators will remain hidden and silent during all fights.

Bring your patience. We try to run a fun event, but it's hard to get the cooperation of every factor that goes into it.

Failure to follow these rules or the instructions of the Arena Combat staff will result in disqualification and/or removal from the tower. All judgements by the Arena Combat Referees are final.

Arena Combat is held at the lovely southern tower of the August Moon in Felucca(119o 47' S, 13o 0' W just south of the Lizardman Fort).

There is no entry fee.

1st place - 50,000 gold

2nd place - 25,000 gold

3rd place - 10,000 gold

Plus one nice magical item to a random fighter or spectator just for coming out! I look forward to seeing you all there.

For more or contact information, please see:

http://www.game-master.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=1or www.game-master.net

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Login Server Update

Due to the issues with the login server, the latest patch will be reverted at 4:30 PM CDT. This revert will not result in lost play time. As a result of the encryption within the last client patch, players attempting to use UO Assist while playing Ultima Online may have received an error message reading "IGR time limit has been reached". Reverting the patch may temporarily resolve this issue; however, once the patch is reapplied, UO Assist will most likely not work properly until the program has been updated by its parent company.

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This here week we is havin’ a lottery! That be where ye buys keys, there be 100 of ‘em, ‘n tries yer luck at the chests! Each key be priced at 1000 gold. Now that do sound like a lot, but the prizes be well worth it if ye feel lucky! Send ta' me, Mor Kegan, or go ta' the Silvervale site 'n leave a message if ye wish more information or wish ta' donate a chest.

One ‘o the chests contains 100,000 gold! As ta’ the others, they is ever’ thing from a house decoratin’ kit wi’ semi-rares like herb strings, to a mib ‘r two wi’ the promise ‘o a fisherman ta’ go git ‘em, to heaven on’y knows what! Residents ‘o Silvervale contributes ta’ the boxes. The number ‘o chests will vary from week ta’ week. Keys is available from the vendor at Heartkin House tower named Michelle. He be on the roof. Yes, yes, I know that be a girl’s name! Ye kin buy the keys a’tween 8:30 and 10:00 and then head ta’ the Crimson Inn ta’ have some free ale, ‘n free food, ‘n wait fer the chests ta’ be put out at the Town Hall at 10:00.

During Crimson Inn hours, ye kin also register as a citizen ‘r find out the latest news. A newspaper’ll be available at the Crimson Inn for ye ta’ read each week. Hope ta’ see ye there!

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We are currently experiencing difficulties with the login servers. This may affect the ability for players to log into the game. We are aware of the issue and are working as quickly as possible to resolve it. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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We will be releasing a client patch on Thursday, August 30th at approximately 1:30 pm CDT. This patch contains the following changes:

• 2D Gameplay window can now be resized without restarting the client.
• When in a party in 3D, the player's status bar will have heal/cure buttons.
• Improvements to the "Last Shard Used" button functionality in the 3D client.
• The character creation templates have been revamped.
• Many crashes and other bugs have been addressed in this patch.
• Book crash fixed
  
• Players are not always put in Britain when not using Advanced creation mode. They are put in a random starting city.
• No notoriety queries in Trammel
• Increase in maximum number of starting stat points

The current versions should now be 3.0.4k (2D client) and 3.0.4k Build 72 (3D client).

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.
• If you are unable to connect to the patch server at all, and are using an original (Non-T2A) version of Ultima Online, you may need to update your verinfo file. For details on updating this file, please see the information posted at http://support.uo.com/tech_6.html.
• 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 contact Technical Support at [email protected].

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Welcome to a very special GUL pit fight. Hosted at Oc'Nivelle (Yew Forest 47o 17`N. x 34o 56`W). Designed to be a place for fighters of all play styles to come together to battle it out, the GUL Pit fights will be held every Saturday. Registration will begin at 8 pm pst fighting will begin at 9 pm. Players wishing to register must do so by 8:50, no late entries will be accepted. There will be a 32 person limit, so if you get there late your outta luck.

This Week's Pit Fight (Saturday Sept 1st) will be 1v1 single elimination.
The rules for this weeks fight will be a bit different along with the prizes.

The Prizes
Winner Takes All...
Of Beldins stuff

That's right... Beldin is departing UO and as a fair well everything on his account will go to the winner of this fight. So what exactly does that include?

• One Large L shaped house in Felluca North of the Yew Moon Gate.
  
• All the Gm weapons, Armor, Potions(several full kegs) Regs (a few thousand of each)
  
• All the Gold (about 1/2 million)
  
• All the random belongings one acquires playing this game for 3 years.

As a special bonus the winner of the Tournament will also have a chance to fight Yosha (Beldin's Pit Fighter)for the keys to the kingdom... Yes you heard that right, the winner of the fight will have the option to fight Yosha for Beldin's UO name and password. If the Winner defeats Yosha he will gain possession of Beldins entire account. This is an 18 month account with the following characters. (note rewards have been chosen and given away already)

Beldin
GM Magery
GM Meditation
GM Eval Int
GM Wrestling
GM Poisoning
GM Inscription
GM Hiding

Aldor
GM Magery
GM Eval Int
GM Swords
GM Tactics
GM Lumber Jacking
GM Anatomy
GM Healing

Yosha
GM Mace
GM Tactics
GM Anatomy
GM Healing
GM Parry
95 Resist
91 Magery
10 Meditation

Seca
GM Alchemy
GM Black Smithing
GM Magery
GM Eval Int
GM Wrestling
GM Mediation
65 Inscription

Vanka Hatmando
Gm Stealing
GM Hiding
GM Wrestling
95 Arms Lore
91 Magery
89 Snooping
60 Meditation
30 Animal Taming

Now for The Rules

• Any and all magic weapons, armor and items are permitted except for blessed weapons (No blessed weapons!)
  
• Pre Poisoned weapons are not only allowed but recommended
  
• No casting of field spells, or summoning.
  
• No pets, this includes spectators. Please stable your pets before arriving at the tower.
  
• The winner of each round will be allowed to loot there fill from there defeated opponent! (So don't bring that Vanq battle axe unless you're prepared to lose it.)
  
• Calling all thieves, Stealing is permitted in this fight! Since the winner loots, all you have to do to get your stuff back from a battle thief is beat him :)
  
• Loss of connection during a fight will result in that fighter losing the match.
  
• Tournament is single elimination
  
• Any spectator inference will result in the spectator being banned and the fight starting over.
  
• No one is permitted inside the fighting area except the fighters for that match and the ref.
  
• Fighters may not hide or cast invisible during there fight
  
• To reduce lag anyone not fighting will be asked to hide during the fight. Players who consistently do not hide will be removed from the tower.
  
• No smack talking. The point is to prove what you can do... If you just "owned" someone we all will have seen it, no need to spout off about it.
  
• The ref will have final say over any match, issues or complaints with the rules of GUL's Pit Fight will not be discussed until after the tournament has ended.

As you can see this is not your run of the mill tournament. For clarification on any of the rules feel free to icq me, Beldin @ 57169966.

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Troubadour Radnor, member of the New UO Seers Program, arises as the morning scroll of local news bangs him awake as it hits his door.

Stumbling around for his sandals in the near darkness of early morning, he steps on the tail of his still sleeping pet, Fang, and hears a growl of discontent. Lighting the candle on his writing desk, he notices the whereabouts of his clothing strewn about the small dwelling, unable to remember how they got that way. Well, a shirt and trousers will keep the warmth next to his body in the cool of the morning.

He ambles to the door, opens it, glances around the road in front for any possible dangers, retrieves his morning scroll and closes the door, unwilling to look inviting to some ne'er-do-well that might be lurking about.

After preparing some hot tea, he settles down at his writing desk to peruse the morning news. Unrolling the scroll a bit past the news of yesterday's murders, robberies and the attempt to decrease the wealth at the local branch of the National Bank of Britain, he finds the list of upcoming events.

Hmm...Napa Gauntlet Tournament on Friday at 6pm in Felucca, a bit south of the Yew Moongate. It says the coordinates are 64, 20N 34, 10W. And then a bit of information he doesn't recognize. It says "For more information click here." His eye catches mention of his own name in the announcement.

They are requesting his presence as a reporter for their event. Trying to check his own scroll of appointments, he knocks over his tea and the news scroll falls to the floor. Fang quickly grabs it and heads for the door with tail wagging to be let out for his morning scavenging hunt and relief activities.

"No, Fang, you can't have that. It's not a bone, although it might look like one. Here, give it back to me. You're slobbering all over it."

Fang gives it up with a small bit of reluctance and dashes outside as Radnor opens the door for him.

Grabbing a dirty shirt off the floor, he makes an attempt to clean up the spilled tea, adds more to his cup and, resettling back at his writing desk, he checks his schedule for Friday evening. Nothing noted but for his lady arriving early for a weekend visit. Wondering if she'll accept the fact that work comes before pleasure, he jots in a note of the tournament. Hmm...he wonders if he'll remember to take along a sextant.

Unrolling the now wet, sticky news scroll he finds the next upcoming attraction is a request for ladies to join the local singles gathering at the Home of the Lonely Knights. Saturday is all it says, no time, no directions...how do these people expect anyone to find them? Oh, well...she wouldn't want me going to that anyway.

With that thought lingering in his head, he prepares for the rest of his day, wondering if he'll be able to take a nap in the early afternoon. Time will tell.....

New UO Seers Program

Seer Matrium &
Troubadour Radnor
ICQ 128 071 387

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Something New at Grimoire!!

Hiya everyone!

This week we are going to stray from the normal pvp battle, and do something much different at Grimoire. We will be having a polar bear fight night this Friday, August 31, at 9:00 PM Pacific Time.

Either you can bring your own polar bear, or you will be able to purchase one at Grimoire for 1000 gold. The polar bears will all fight at once, in a big bar fight. The owner of the winning bear will win 30K gold!

After the polar bear fights Jimbo will be holding dice gambling again!!

Jimbo's Dice Rules

The Dice Game is similar to the game Blackjack. Just double click the dice cup twice and add the two outcomes together. The object of the game is to get the number 21 or get as close to 21 as you can. You can either 'stand' or take a 'hit'. If you stand, you are done rolling the dice and you must wait to see if your opponents' scores are closer to 21. If you take a 'hit' you roll the dice again and add that outcome to your two previous rolls. If your score exceeds 21, you lose, if you are closer to 21 than your opponents, you win!

The anti is 700gps and 500gps a hit. If there is a tie, both players roll the dice one time and the higher roller wins.

Head on over to the Grimoire website if you have questions.
grimoire.battlevortex.com

Good luck to all the animals, and gamblers!!
Watch out, I hear this dice game is addictive!

LeeLu - Grimoire Staff

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The results from last night's Bachelor/Bachelorette auction were sent in by Mor Kegan, the saucy organizer of this event, a resident of the town of Silvervale.

Greetins! It be me agin, Mor Kegan!Thanks ta’ all ye kind ‘n gentle folk, the first e’er Silvervale Auction ‘o bachelors ‘n bachelorettes ‘n services were a rousin’ success! Special thanks ga’ out to Lady Morgaine, who will be decoratin’ fer Gristle the Orc ‘n arrangin’ his piles ‘o bones. Also thanks ga’ out ta’ Laike fer his fishin’ date, Preia Starle fer her fine skills at the quill ‘n her healthy biddin’, Kaylie fer her stylish ‘n dazzlin’ attire, Raval fer givin’ spice ta’ the night, Audrey Brookes fer bein’ first lady ta’ brave the storms, Molly fer steppin’ up wi’ no notice ‘n helpin’ us out greatly, Zyla fer biddin’ on every man, ‘n takin’ away Bran Mac Morn fer a date though she still don’ understand it hain’t permanent…, Davion Tamar fer bein’ brave enough ta’ offer hisself as a orc practice dummy, but who got a date wi’ me instead, ‘n ta’ Wrath fer givin’ me the chance ta’ wine ‘n dine him, ‘n lastly ta’ ole Gristle fer offerin’ himself up fer orc fer a date. Sadly na’ female orcs done showed ta’ properly appreciate ‘im. I think he be gonna scrub floors ‘r help fight in Destard. Hain’t sure which! Special thanks ta’ Whip Devilkin fer entertainin’ us all, ‘n embarrassin’ most of us (not me, o’ course!).

Now that I done got that over, I thank all ye folk who come ‘n bid! The profits goes ta’ the Silvervale buildin’ fund, ‘n ta help expand our borders. All citizens thank ye as well as me, ‘n hope ye come back ‘n visit us on our tavern nights!

We is movin’ our event night ta’ Thursdays so ye kin all go lose yer money at the Casino on Wednesdays. Well, speakin’ fer meself, I allus manage ta’ lose ever penny. Unlucky at dice, lucky at love, they says.

Look fer announcements each week about what sort ‘o goin’s on we are havin ’! We look for’ard to havin’ old friends drop by and makin’ new ones!

Ta ta!

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Numerous miners in the leads of Minoc/Felluca laid down their job today since they are paid for their job too badly. This action was explained with the facts, that the conditions of work in Felucca through roaming robbers and assassins without a corresponding danger bonus is no more reasonable.
In addition the lead operator did not reach the destination with the wage money for 3 times in the last week.
With that the lead society threatened from insolvency, a call starts onto all noble heroes and heroines:
Help the society please, however, particularly our miners. We search for a group of noble, to elaborate gold in height of 25000 in the cave of Shame and to guarantee a secure transportation into the leads of Minoc, to pay around the lead workers that still hold position there for all the ingots they brought to daylight.
All combatants that want to participate for this purpose are asked to gather tomorrow, Friday the 31.8.1601, at 21.00 o'clock at the Eastbank Britain/Drachenfels arrive.
On, on you heroes and heroines, whether magician, tamer or warrior, of whichever guild you belongs to, gather together to save the existence of the miners !!!!

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We are having our 2nd annual player meeting this year, although there have been other meetings so far this year ours is so far the only annual event. We are having our 2nd meeting, after we had a great response from those who attended last July 2000. We have planned another, this time we are celebrating the good work that members of the volunteer groups have done for us. I know a few will be turning up so why not buy a volunteer a drink. I intend to get some important guests to attend as its now going to be an official annual event, like in the USA.

So please make it a special day and come along see some old faces and meet new ones.

Regards,
Ryan
Guild master, UKP - Europa ICQ: 31101822
E-mail: [email protected]

WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS: www.ukp-europa.co.uk

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The trip back home had proved to be most interesting indeed. It was a trip that had been a long time in the coming. Tarne had grown up on Avatar Island next to the shrine of Humility and had spent many days there praying. But with the bringing in of Sabrina and Dale and the move to Yew after his father died of old age he had not been back.

As he stepped off the boat onto his home turf he had his war hammer drawn and was at the ready. As he walked around the shrine he noticed that the isle had been cleansed of monsters and appearently had been cleansed for sometime.

"Hrmph" He said aloud as he removed his helm and strapped his hammer to his back. "I cannea believe that there be no more monsters 'ere on this isle. Sure tha deamon temple will still 'ave some." He gathered his belongings, got on his horse and headed off to the temple. As he walked through the sparse jungles of he isle it became appearant that the isl! e had indeed been cleared. The longer he rode the more comfortable he became when suddenly a huge deamon appeared before him brandishing a huge sword, a sword bigger than Tarne himself.

Being caught off guard due to the lack of enemies during his ride to the temple Tarne could not gather his belongings quickly enough as the Daemon raised the huge sword above his head and lowered it down with a force that rattled his bones and shook the earth.

Tarne fell down from his mighty steed and laid upon the earth trembling, blood flowing freely from his shattered skull and ripped skin. Barely conscious and unable to move he was unable to stop the daemon from taking the mighty hammer from him and slaughtering his horse. For many days Tarne laid there on the ground only waking for brief periods to scrounge for grubs or worms that he was able to find.

Through the days he slept and and ate and slowly regained his strength all the while dreaming... dr! eaming of a staff. A staff so powerful that it could control the undead and the weilder. That it could shake the earth and bring terror to any that would oppose it. A staff. A staff of three.

When he was finally able to get up and crawl back to his boat, almost two weeks had passed. He sailed back to the port he left from and recalled back home. But one thought stood forth in his mind where all else had gone blank.

Three. Something of three... He knew that there was only one thing to do and that was to find the Oracle. Sabrina had once talked of such a being. A being so powerful that he knew the future, past and present and lived in all times and all locations. Such a being would know what needed to be done.

After Tarne's strentgh was back up to full he recalled to Wind in hopes to find the wise Lady Arkaana Kohl. Together with the fighters of UCE and the mages of Wind he knew that all odds could be defeated. He sat outside of Wind knowing that he was! far to ignorant in the ways of magic to enter. Luckily after three days and three nights Arkaana and company came forth. They spoke of what happened and agreed to accompany Tarne to the Lighthouse to find the Oracle.

Arkaana and the other accompaning mages opened a magical gate to the Lighthouse where stood an old and withered man. A man that looked wise beyond his years yet would crumple if you touched him. As Tarne stepped forward the man stood up, looked Tarne in the eyes and said...

"Greetings Tarne Winston, Emporer of the United Clans and Greetings to ye, Arkaana Kohl of the City of Wind. I bid ye welcome. I am the Oracle. I suspect ye be here to learn about the comming of three, yes?"

As Tarne's eyes widened all he managed to get out was "Aye, M'lord..."

When the Oracle stood before them he seemed larger than life and with the strength of a thousand men yet more gentle than a woodland rabbit.

"Sit ye down and I shall tell ye what I can. Remember, though, I be a being of neutrality and even though I summoned ye all here before me I cannot divulge too much. I am here to maintain the balance and because of that I cannot disturb the balance or directly interfere. This is what I can tell ye..."

"When the three become one the ground will tremble, the power is in your hands"

As the Oracle told Tarne, Arkaana and company this information ideas and questions raced through our minds but before we could question him further he gradually faded into the darkness leaving only wisps of smoke where he once stood leaving a stunned Lady Kohl and Emporer Winston in his wake...

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The cruel sun beat upon the fisher's weather-beaten features. The line plopped as he relentlessly cast it, pursuing fish and danger and treasure. The glare from the bright blue waters had caused him an incurable squint. He was almost dozing when he heard the familiar sound of a sea serpent about to attack. He reached for his crossbow….

As we went back to the steady plop, plop, plop of his life, after carefully hiding the special fishing net he found on the now-dead serpent, he began to think. Then he began to wonder. How many times does he cast the line before he gets a serpent? How many of these serpents carry special treasures such as fishing nets and treasure maps? Sometimes he receives a message in a bottle from some doomed sea-farers but whenever he goes to save them, he finds them gone, with only their worldly possessions remaining.

He began to count…

And with this counting the Fishing Council of Britannia is pleased to announce that Pinkgecko has accepted the position of Fishin' Statistician for the fleet. He knows and reports how many casts on average it takes to get a serpent, how many serpents to get a net, how many nets to get a kraken, and how many kraken to get a rope. Pink counts them all and reports to the fleet at www.thefcb.com. And you heard fishers were dull…..

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Have you ever wondered who was banging on that awful lute across the channel from your home? Ever needed a boat on hand to take out fishing or to actually sail to the mainland from Skara Brae?

If so read on….

The Fisherman’s Council of Baja is proud to announce a unique and entirely free service for the entire Shard of Baja. The Baja council, under the tutelage of fleet captains Foofisher & Lonestar, have commissioned the launch of seven ferryboats in various areas of our land.

These ferryboats can be used by any citizen of Baja and taken out on fishing expeditions, treasure hunts, or to just simply cross a small channel of water. The sides will be left unlocked and one of our Boatswains will bring the boat back to its home port if it strays too far off course.

You will be able to find the Ferryboats in the following locales across the facets:
TRAMMEL

• Magincia Docks
  
• Skara Brae Docks
  
• Britain Docks
  
• Moonglow Harbor Docks

FELUCCA

• Baja Mage Tower (near Moonglow)
  
• City of Avalon (western side)
  
• Kingdom of Dawn (small narrow peninsula)

If you would like to find out more about the FCB, please ICQ Foofisher @ 42314161 , Lonestar @ 54512593 or visit our vendor filled Guildhouse on Trammel (N of Minoc) @ 129 59’N – 83 2’E. Alternatively you can contact us through our website @ http://www.thefcb.com.
Oceanus
Lumi Captain
Boatswain, The Baja Fleet

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Dear Britannians~

Since this is my first post, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lindsay Collier, a.k.a. Jex OSI QA. Some of you may have seen me cruising around the test shards or may have even gotten a reply from me by sending in your exploits and bugs to uobugs.com or tcbugs.com. I really appreciate the bug and exploit submissions that you pass along to me through these emails since that is one of our main sources of information. Once you send in a mail, what we do is divvy the bugs up among a group of testers and head out! We test the issues on the test shards, and see if we can come up with accurate steps to repeat the problem successfully. We then enter all this information into a database where these issues are assigned to the various programmers and designers to fix. Once the issues have been fixed, we go back in and attempt to once again *crack* the code. From there, either the bug is marked as fixed or failed, and it’s either moved to be released to the public, or it goes back to the programmers/designers and we start all over again.

I played UO for nearly a year before I came to work here and still find time to play almost every day. So, yes, I am also anxiously awaiting the release of vet rewards on my shard. I feel that being an active player is a good way to gain information and find issues within the game. When I first started playing I couldn’t believe all the complexity that was woven into this game, and it quickly turned into what some might consider an addiction for me. However, since I have been unable to find UOAA (Ultima Online Addicts Anonymous), I figured working here would be the next best thing. ;) I was so happy when I found out that I would actually be able to work on a game I was so involved with, that I promptly quit my previous job to come and join the team here at Origin. I am really honored to be working with such a great bunch of people.

I came to Origin as an Alpha tester for Third Dawn. They needed testers as well as a girl’s point of view, and that's what I gave them. They have since decided to keep me on as a permanent team member, and I was more than happy to stay. We have since added many new faces to the QA team and have grown larger than this department has ever been. This is good for you, the player, as well since it means that more bugs will be caught before going out to the production shards, and new fixes and content will be released much quicker. HOORAY! =)

Since this is my first post, I'll keep it short and sweet. But I hope you all will come and join us at the Online Worlds FanFest (formerly known as the UO World Faire) this year, here in Austin, Texas! It promises to be bigger and better than last year and I can’t wait!!! ;) I'm looking forward to meeting everyone! And, as always, you can email me with any concerns, bugs, or exploits, or just drop a note to say "Hi!"

'Til then~

Lindsay "Jex" Collier
Quality Assurance
Ultima Online
[email protected]

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Hi

I was wondering if it would be possible to enlist your help...

Recently my house collapsed (before the end of the 9 day refresh period - to which OSI say they cannot help), and I lost an item that means quite a lot to me...

The item is "a whispering rose from Caitlin" - this was given to me by the character played by the woman who later became my wife in real life, so as you can imagine, it's quite important that I retrieve it...

As I say, OSI cannot help me with this, so I was wondering if you could make some enquiries whilst on your travels....

The only lead I have at the moment is that the house that replaced mine was named Great gurgly Murgly....

I've posted a similar request on the Europa forum, and am not sure what to do next....

I am offering a reward of 100k to the person(s) who find and return this rose to me...

Please let me know whether you can help or not....and if you can please send a e-mail with whatever information you have to [email protected]

Many thanks

Phil

Come on lads! Help this man in his time of need!

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The latest news from the Zog Cabal:

As I walked down the streets of Britain, a face appeared from the shadows. I knew from experience that he was a great mage- so great, in fact, that he preferred telepathic communication to the linguistics I was used to. This mage approached me with an offer.

"Lord Volo... my organization seeks the same ends as yours."

"Tis a grim end I seek. I'm sure you must be mistaken."

"We both strive towards the apocalypse, the end of all life."

"Aye, then indeed we are brothers."

I looked this sage up and down, studying his body language and his apparel. He clearly had the look of an academy professor. He appeared nervous and looked as though he was risking his neck talking to me in public. He asked if I needed help in attaining my goals and proposed an alliance. An evil grin came across my face and, in a fit of mad laughter, I teleported us to my estate.

Over cups of warm blood ale, a deal was forged. It appeared that, just as I had been unhappy at the abbey, so this nameless person had been unhappy with his place in life. He, along with many of his followers, sought to seek something better - and much, much darker. He and 15 fellow warlocks would join my army and would become a new faction within the Zog Cabal.

Now, the Zog Cabal has steel and magic to back its threat. These unholy warriors known only as the Followers of the Apocalypse shall soon feared throughout the land.

Once our ale was finished my general, Tempest, approached and asked if he could have the honor of leading our men in battle. I readily agreed and left two men to there own. They left to seal the deal with the blood of an innocent.

My my my what a wonderful web of darkness and betrayal we weave. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Praise Mondain!

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Apparently there have been some grave goings on around Wrong of late. Lord Erus Pro Curo provided the following information and time line to us:

Six Weeks Ago (2nd day of the third moon of Mantilla according to the Clan's calendar) a town crier was heard shouting:

Hear ye! Hear ye! The Clan of Wrong hath been destroyed! It and all its members have been killed or scattered throughout the land! Lord Erus Pro Curo has been ousted and the Demi-God Pravus has been vanquished!

Last Week (4th day of the fifth moon of Mantilla) a missive was intercepted on its way to Lord British advisors:

Lord Erus Pro Curo has built up followers and supporters and hath established the Black Sash Clan. Located just south of Destard, his tower will apparently house this powerful force for ill. They have taken over the Dungeon and are building up stores of weapons, gold, gems, tools, and reagents.

We can only guess as to what evil plans are being made. We fear that many of our land's most treacherous murderers and thieves will flock to this new Clan. If things proceed as Erus plans, they may very well become a driving force for all manner of evil - sort of a one-stop shop for theft and murder.

Praise Mondain!

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Veteran Rewards Schedule Update

Since we began activating the Veteran Rewards system, we have been carefully monitoring the usage and performance of the Veteran Rewards hardware. The release has gone smoothly thus far, but we have found some connectivity issues with the rewards server. As more shards get rewards and the server is accessed more, these connectivity issues will result in packet loss, creating longer wait times for the rewards gump to appear, and for the reward selection to take place. If more shards are activated and the problem is left unfixed, it could eventually result in packet loss on the servers themselves, creating lag on the shards.

To resolve this problem before this happens, we will be temporarily halting the activation of Vet Rewards, and re-evaluating the current schedule for release. As previously scheduled, the system was successfully activated on the Pacific and Lake Superior shards today, but we were unable to activate them on Siege Perilous at this time. Shards that have previously had Vet Rewards activated will not lose the ability to choose those rewards, but the system will not be activated on any new shards until this is resolved.

The connectivity fix is receiving top priority, and we anticipate that this will be resolved soon. We will post a new schedule as soon as the problem has been resolved.

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In the last few days there have been multiple reports of UO accounts being hacked. Unfortunately, this happens all the time, as hackers find more and more clever ways of getting into someone’s computer.

So why is it suddenly coming to light now? One possibility is that there are players who were unknowingly infected with sub7's or Trojans months ago, or gave a password to someone in a guild months ago, but they were not actually hacked until the hacker felt there was something worth taking on the account (like Vet Rewards, which would explain the recent outbreak). The players would have never seen any hacking activity on their account until now if their virus program did not detect a Trojan (which does happen). Even if a player changes their password, with a Trojan it would make little difference. Anything and everything stored in or done through your computer can be compromised.

Unfortunately, even if it is a player’s in-game items or characters that are affected by the hacking, it is not UO or OSI that has been hacked – it is the information on the player’s own computer that allows the hacker to log into the game as the other person. This means that any player who has been hacked has been hit with a form of computer theft/fraud, which is a crime. However, since the crime is actually committed on a machine outside of the Origin Systems network and service, the law does not allow us to press charges. Only the victim can do that, and unless that is done, the perpetrator will continue his malicious deeds.

We strongly advise that any person who has fallen victim to such activity immediately contact their local police and/or District Attorney in order to take legal action against the violator. This is explicit criminal activity, and the offender is subject to prosecution by law.

What Origin Systems can do - and does on almost a daily basis - is provide any and all information to the law enforcement entity investigating the matter. Such requests for official assistance must be made via fax at (512) 795-8014, and will be returned to the processing authority almost immediately. This gives the prosecuting police/attorney the hard data that is needed to continue the matter and serve as evidence against the alleged offender.

It is also possible for us to shut down any web sites that attempt to solicit passwords for the purpose of hacking, and we most definitely remove all offenders’ accounts from the game once caught. Again, though, if no charges are pressed, nothing has actually happened to prevent that activity from continuing.

The prosecution and conviction of individuals who choose to engage in this criminal activity is the only absolute method in bringing an end to that activity, and due to the limited nature of Internet law, it is absolutely vital that each victim report this crime to the necessary local, county, district, state, and/or federal authorities.

We simply do not have the resources or power to actually determine if every person playing our game is legally or illegally accessing those accounts (and having that power would naturally create a slew of privacy issues), but that power does lie with the law. The same falls true for the ISP and domain used in the event - while each of their services may be compromised by someone violating their Terms of Service or other similar usage agreement, they are almost invariably unable to file charges.

All players should take the time to read our document on account security at http://support.uo.com/faq_1.html . The best method one can use against hacking is to use extreme caution! This comprehensive document covers the area of account hacking, how to prevent it, and what to expect from the Internet.

More on viruses and backdoor programs:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/warn/backorifice.html\

Also, here are some additional links to federal sites pertaining to Internet fraud:

http://www.usdoj.gov/consumerfraud.htm

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/Internet.htm

The address [email protected] is available for anyone who has been hacked, and we will help you in any way we can.


__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems

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Hail citizens of Britannia!
The Council of Yew invites you heartily to the Market of Yew. The Market will take place at the walls of Empath Abbey in Yew at Sunday the 2th September at 8.00 PM (GMT+1), Trammel. Sellers are always welcome. We are looking for Miners who can offer colored ingots, especially.

Also we are looking for scroll sellers and lumberjacker, alchemists who want to sell their goods.

You will get a chair, a table and a book to write your offer in. I am permanentily looking for serious Sellers, please contact me via e-mail: [email protected] .
I hope that everyone will find what he is looking for and this market takes place every week, same time, same place.

Sincerely yours,
Gradan Kalot, Council of Yew

If you have any further questions you can write to me via ICQ: 46160299.
Thank you.
Viktor Holzberger

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Ups ... almost I would have missed everything since urgent businesses detained me in another way. However, immediately before the disassembly of the market states I made it -thanks to my rapid horse- just in time and walked exhausted, however happily between the states back and forth. Until, overwhelmed from back pains and thirst, I sat down moaning at the bar.

Anselm Penchan and Anarchoron, the two industrious landlords of the tavern "To the boozing troll" had -lucky as always- placed themselves in the Meeting Hall and could fulfill my wish for refreshment also fast. And since they noted in attentive kind and manner, that - due my sharp ride- strong pains troubled me, they gave me the valuable tip, that outside at the grocer state the small lady Angua offers "Massages of all kind".



Curiously I dragged my tired body therefore again out and went under the hands of the small lady. However, not before I a completely stimulating chaperon had been called, because from where I be supposed to know what the Trinsic people would mean by the term "all kind" *grins*. And I can tell to you hardly I had get rid of my shirt, Angua started to work on every muscle of my back. Nevertheless the success was overwhelming! After the process I felt 10 years younger and I can only recommend such a massage to everyone ! Therefore I advice everyone to attend the market next tuesday *snickers*.



Greetings,
your Slagdale [ www.uoworld.de ]
PS: Since the tavern "To the boozing troll" will move shortly to a different house, there will be an opening ceremony soon!

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Entering the secluded tavern, the assassin glanced around searching for his contact. Seating himself in the rear of the building, he casually ordered a drink and settled himself in seeking any sign that would alert him to others of his ilk. His leader, the one known only as the Voice, had summoned a number of the best that the Brotherhood had to offer to perform a task of the utmost importance. Not yet sure of the details the assassin, known only as the Zealot, was ready to perform whatever his master requested. Drawing his attention back to his surroundings, the Zealot looked up just in time to catch one of the servers as he made a discrete motion with his hand that identified him as one of the Brotherhood. Standing in front of an elderly man of seeming wealth, the servant continued to wipe the table before him while the noble responded to the signal by removing his gauntlets, revealing a large ruby ring similar in style, if not size, to the one that the Zealot himself wore. Making his way to the two, the Zealot noticed another patron had also picked up on the signal. The other, a woman known to the group only as Nox, also made her way over to the table to join the others.

“May I join you for a drink, sire?” the Zealot asked as he neared the man. Knowing that he was about to be told the details of his future mission, his heart had begun to race as was common when he was in this situation.

The noble, looking up, answered with a voice that betrayed a keen intelligence “Certainly, my friend.” Noticing the ruby ring worn by both Nox and the Zealot, the noble smiled as the two arrived at his table. “Perhaps we should move to a more…umm, secluded area.” Rising from his seat, he motioned for the server to come forward, “Be a good man and bring our drinks outside for us when they are ready. We wish to discuss family matters without bothering these other fine people.”

Nodding his agreement, the server quickly moved to the rear of the tavern to prepare their drinks and join his brothers and sister in their new location. As they exited the building, a healer who was entering at the same time approached them.

“Tis a foul day out. I have hopes that the tides will bless us with better on the morrow.” The healer stated, using one of the many phrases that the Brotherhood used to identify themselves to each other.

“Aye, indeed.” The noble responded, using the correct answering phrase, “Tis surely a sign of better days to come when the moon shows upon the shore.”

Making their way to an empty building across the path from the tavern, the group entered and waited for the arrival of their last mate, the server, as he brought drinks to cover his departure from his duties.

Once all was in order and the location was ensured to be secure, the noble began to speak in more serious tones, “The Voice has need of your services for a task of a grave nature. Richter Torval, a minor noble currently in the town of Cove, has in his possession a map that is of great importance. We have been hired to retrieve this map and bring it safely from the badlands and turn it over to our leader.”

Eyeing each in turn, the noble proceeded to give them the specifics of their task and provide them with the necessary item that would take them from the relative safety of Trammel into the war torn lands of Felucca. Once he was finished, the group made its way to Cove and began to prepare for their coming actions. As they arrived, the group separated, each given a specific task in order to ensure the success of this mission. Nox, the healer and one other were given the duty of actually taking down Torval as he made his way to the town of Minoc. The Zealot and the server from the tavern were tasked with preventing any of Torval’s guards from making it back to the city and alerting anyone of the events that would be taking place.

Ricter Torval left the town of Cove along with 5 guards and passed the hidden location of the Zealot and made his way directly to the spot of the planned ambush. Waiting patiently for Torval and his guards to pass, the Zealot slowly withdrew his poisoned dagger and crept slowly behind the party. Watching from some distance, he saw the woods around the target burst to life as Nox and the healer rushed from hiding and quickly attacked his two forward guards. Panicked, Torval could do nothing as two of his men were quickly slain and two more rushed back towards the town leaving just him and one other guard to deal with the three assassins that were upon them. The fifth member of the group suddenly leapt upon Torval and drove a spear through his spine as Nox chanted the words of power that would blast his mind with a force intended to destroy him. They were successful in their attempt and Torval fell lifeless to the ground. Quickly retrieving the box that he had been carrying, Nox turned in time to see the healer cleaning his sword as he stood upon the body of the only guard that remained in the area.

Satisfied that the forward party had accomplished their goal, the Zealot and his partner rushed through the woods in search of the two fleeing guards. Splitting up, the two went in opposite directions following the screams of each. Cutting toward town itself, the Zealot quickly hid as he heard the guard making his way toward him. Stepping behind the guard as he passed to catch his breath, the Zealot silently slid his blade into the man’s back while covering his mouth to prevent any further sound from escaping. Slowly guiding the now dead guard’s body to the ground, the assassin turned and made his way back towards his partner to aid him if needed. It proved not to be necessary. As he approached the site of the ambush, he saw that the other had already returned and confirmed that his target was taken as well.

Pleased by yet another successful mission, the group made their way back to Trammel to deliver their package to the Voice. The noble met them at the same tavern and retrieved the package, paying each their share of the contract earnings. As the assassins left, the noble breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The information contained in this box could have utterly destroyed the Brotherhood itself. The map gave the location of a book that would have exposed the entire group and this hit was the only way to secure it. The Brotherhood was safe, this time, but what about the next? Already, high-ranking members of several cities had begun to fear the Brotherhood and had set up groups whose entire duty was to bring them down. How long until they succeeded?

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Hear ye! Hear ye!

The Coronation of Prince Malicite De'Fiona is set to occur on Monday September 3rd. The time of this grand event shall be at 9:00PM Eastern time. The location of the event shall be the Nujel'm Palace. A Feast fit for the occassion shall be held following the ceremony. All are welcomed to attend.

Hear ye! Hear ye!
*continues down the road to give his message*

Come join the OPS team this week and explore the wilds of Ilshenar. See Pixies, Unicorns, Succubi and other exotic creatures. Visit the site of the Champion Spawn and the Dungeons of this realm. Meet at the OPS Keep (132o32'S 26o0'E) at 5pm AEST. From there we shall proceed to a moongate and on to Ilshenar.

Nota Bene: This is a new time from our usual Sunday events in order to accommodate more people. Also remember that in order to enter Ilshenar you require the Third Dawn client.

Tobith (OPS)

Let's start with the good, because, I think, every once in a while Lake Superians require a little good news every once in a while...

Vet Rewards are Coming!

Yes, 'tis true. Until OSI says otherwise, vet rewards are coming to LS today, Wednesday, August 29th. I'm not making this up!

Now, if it doesn't happen, and it turns out that there's a problem with the publish, please, please, please contact [email protected]. UO Stratics is not affliated with OSI, and we cannot assist you with any issues you may have with the UO service.

For a complete list of vet rewards, please visit http://update.uo.com/design_350.html.

Now that you've recovered from the above item, let's go to the "Huh?!" news.

Power Hours Off Schedule

According to a recent news item published at UO.com, power/burst hour, which is suppossed to have been reset each night at Midnight EST for Lake Superior has been a few hours off of late. If you're looking to get your power hour in, OSI has provided the proper time to do so on Lake Superior:

Central Shards: 7:00pm EST
Great Lakes, Lake Superior

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Lake Superior fun! Thank you, and enjoy your vet rewards and new power hour time!

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Greetings, Children of Darkness.

'Tis my pleasure to submit this invitation to ye, from Lord Vlad and Lady Bethany. They entreat ye to join them as they bind their unliving, undying souls in a bond of love and commitment, through the Sosarian tradition of matrimony.

Date: Thursday, August 30th
Time: 8PM PST
Location: The tower of Unholy Union
Sextant Coordinates: 124'24 S 34'39 E

The tower is located on the Felucca facet, (about six screens) due south of the Trinsic Moongate. The ceremony will be held on the rooftop.




All are welcome to join us in celebration! After their bond is forged, they would like to invite ye to a sumptuous banquet, to show their gratitude to ye, the attendees.

Please leave thy animal companions in the stables, and thy differences with each other outside the tower.
We look forward to seeing thee there!

Aeon -- ICQ 68403453

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Saturday September 1
8:00 PM EST - 4 AM EST

Location:
Pacific Shard
Trammel Facet
Sextant 33' 34 North, 23' 24 East (just 1 min walk from East Brit)

Blackrock Casino is hosting its Grand Opening!

Come one come all to the best casino on Pacific. Gates will be provided to and from Britannia bank starting at 8:00 PM EST. We have two separate gambling rooms and an open bar in our newly decorated large tower. We have a staff of over 20 full-time employees including dancers, hosts, bouncers, dealers, entertainers, and bartenders. Checks will be sold on our vendors so you do not need to bring gold. Please stable mounts outside the casino and proper dress is preferred. Try your luck at our tables where all games are clearly defined and explained, and most importantly, have fun!

Sincerely,
Armani
Blackrock Casino

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We are pleased to announce that the Online Worlds FanFest registration page is now available. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience. You can find complete information on the FanFest as well as register for the event by visiting http://www.onlineworldsfanfest.com

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Normally, the first hour that each character is played on any given day allows that character a special possibility of some bonus skill point advancements, and this time is known to many players as the “Power Hour.” The Power Hour time frame should reset each day at midnight, related to the shard’s local time. Currently, however, all North American and European shards are incorrectly resetting their respective Power Hour times based on Midnight GMT. (Please note that Power Hours are still occurring properly for all shards, albeit off-schedule.)

We are working to resolve this situation. In the meanwhile, we ask that players who enjoy managing their time around the Power Hour schedule to please refer to the chart below. This chart shows when Power Hour is currently resetting on all shards.

East Coast Shards: 7:00pm EST
AOL Legends, Atlantic, Catskills, Chesapeake

Central Shards: 7:00pm EST
Great Lakes, Lake Superior

Siege Perilous Shard: 6:00pm CST

West Coast Shards: 4:00pm PST
Baja, Napa Valley, Pacific, Sonoma

European Shards: 12:00am GMT
Europa, Drachenfels

Asian Shards: 9:00am JST/KST
Hokuto, Yamato, Asuka, Wakoku, Izumo
Arirang, Balhae
Formosa

Oceana Shard: 12:00pm EDT

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Hello,
I would like to announce our website at www.ukp-europa.co.uk.We are having our 2nd annual player meeting this year, although there have been other meetings so far this year ours is so far the only annual event. We are having our 2nd meeting, after we had a great response from those who
attended last July 2000. We have planned another, this time we are celebrating the good work that
members of the volunteer groups have done for us. I know a few will beturning up so why not buy a volunteer a drink. I intend to get some important guests to attend as its now going to be an official annual event, like in the USA.

So please make it a special day and come along see some old faces and meet new ones.

Regards
Ryan
Guild master
UKP - Europa

ICQ 31101822
email [email protected]

Thanks, have fun.

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I would like to announce a new casino, tavern & vendor store on the
Europa shard trammel. We are located at UOAM Coordinates 75o 56'S 30o 14'
W As the former founder of the new player team program i would like to
introduce Lord Belgarath and myself H.M Robert IV to our new venture
within the realms of britannia.



Our aim is to give all players a enjoyable time at our casino and tavern.
We will have many casino games awaiting for you and also we have 8 lotto
vendors ranging in price per chance as follows. 1k, 3k, 5k, 10k, as you
can see we cater for all budgets.



Our prizes for the lotto are listed in a book next to each lotto vendor on
the top floor of our large marble. The first 5 people through our doors
this Saturday at 8:00 PM GMT UK will be given a free 5k token which
entitles them to 5k of free bets on us. Food and drink is all free at our
tavern so come and visit us as we open our doors to the citizens of
britannia. We will be gating from the city of Britain west bank from 7:30
PM GMT UK



We will have a website very soon, If you would like to apply for a
position on our staff until our website is up and running then email me
direct at
[email protected]

Thanks, hope it goes well.

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This past Friday, Vecna and a small number of his minions descended upon the YMCA to give the establishment a final warning before his legions begin to march north from the Black Wastes (Golgothan Kingdom) laying waste to all who go against him. However, Vecna will need the power of his ancient spell book in order to create an undead legion to march ahead of the main troops. While walking over the "rabble" this Friday at the YMCA, an old dusty tome fell from his saddlebags onto the floor and was discovered by some of the hopeless attendants of the venue. The tome not only gives some history of Vecna's origins, but of his spell book, the Varorium.

I would ask that all of you who are wanting to thwart Vecna in some way to read the tome locked down in the first story of the YMCA. This Wednesday at 6pm pst there will be a scholar at the Lyceum in Moonglow Felucca named Firan Zal'Honan who will set you upon the tasks that will hopefully achieve the restoration of the Varorium and its banishment from our worlds. Do know that you alone will not be the only group searching for the Varorium. A sinister group called the Warlords are also in search of the book to aid in their conquest of destruction in our lands.

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Several updates and changes will occur that will eventually affect all of Ultima Online’s crafting systems. The goals of these changes include: creating a consistent interface for all crafting skills, allowing the player to understand a greater level of detail about his crafting activities, greater CPU efficiency, and adaptability & expandability as crafting systems are modified at later dates. The following skills will be affected by these changes:

- Alchemy
- Bowcraft/Fletching
- Blacksmithy
- Carpentry
- Cartography
- Inscription
- Tailoring
- Tinkering

The specifics are listed here.

All players should feel free to comment on these proposed changes within this thread.

=========
Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

PLAYER: I am assuming that the tinkered items (shown in shot as coloured) will retain their old-style (unhued) colouration if you use iron ingots as opposed to any other metal?
VEX: Correct -- using iron produces the "normal" item as it looks currently.

I specifically included the candelabra to get feedback on the appearance when hued. Since that isn't a "partially hued" piece of artwork, it means that the entire sprite is colored, including the candles and flame.

PLAYER: Will any other carpentry or other craftables be added along with these changes if they go through?
VEX: That is still up in the air at this point. The overhaul itself means a complete regression test for QA, and right now we might not have any spare bandwidth for any new items. However, this system will make expanding and adding on to the crafting system much easier to code and test in the future.

PLAYER: Will the metal working choices default to not having to click the color metal if you only have one color in your pack? Same with tailoring and the cloth in your pack?
VEX: So, to give more detail about metal selection: The way it works is, there is a button right above the "Exit" button, and next to that button is the name of the metal you have selected. When you click that button, a new menu page comes up with all metal types listed. You select the one you want and are returned to the main menu.

If you have, say, Verite selected, but only have iron in your backpack, then you'll get a failure message saying you don't have enough metal to make the item.

Now, tailoring is a bit different. Here are more details:

First, bolts of cloth will no longer be directly usable to tailor items. Instead, there will be a new menu option that will take all bolts of cloth in your backpack and turn them into yards of cut cloth.

Another menu choice will search your backpack for all cloth, and transform it into the same type. So, suppose you have stacks of cloth using different graphics, after using that option you'll have a single stack of one type.

Both options will of course differentiate color. So, if some of your bolts or stacks of cloth are blue and some are red, you'll end up with one single pile of each color.

You will have to cut bolts into cloth before using them to tailor, but you can use cloth of any type in any number of stacks as desired.

As far as color goes, when you attempt to create an item, the system will automatically use the color of cloth that you have the most of. So, if you have 200 yards of blue cloth and 150 of uncolored, the item will be made with the blue cloth. This way, you still don't have to target the material. Also, it should be easy enough to control the color of the resulting item just by juggling stacks of cloth in and out of your backpack.

PLAYER: Will All the crafting tools be craftable by tinkers?
VEX: Yes, and to address another question I saw, none of the components will be particularly expensive. The new tools will appear on appropriate NPC shopkeepers and be creatable by player tinkers.

PLAYER: And you left out Cooking, .
If Crafting is going to be overhauled, then this is the time to overhaul cooking as well.
VEX: I'm still working out the details of how to do cooking properly, but I do want to get it on the list. Sannio thinks we should introduce "a cookbook" as cooking's tool, and I wanted to use the frying pan graphic. Of course, we could do both -- all crafting skills that use tools now use multiple tools.

PLAYER: This would also be the time to make paper, books, spell books, blank maps, and blank scrolls craftable.
VEX: I'm still not sure about how many new items we can get in at this point, but these are good ideas. I am not promising anything, but I will keep this in mind.

PLAYER: Is the chance for exceptional items the TOTAL chance, or the chance to make something exceptional IF one makes the item in the first place?

In other words...
Does 50% and 5% mean
50% failures
45% success
5% exceptional

... or...

50% failures
47.5% success
2.5% exceptional
(5% chance only for success results)?
VEX: The first one. Actually we've decided to add a third line to that display:

Failure Chance: 50%
Standard: 45%
Exceptional: 5%

This should make the meaning more clear, since the percentages will add up to 100%. 50% of attempts result in failure, 45% in normal success, and 5% in an exceptional item.

PLAYER: Does the window "have" to close and re-open? Can't the window be updated dynamically? Just concerned how it will be affected with lag.
VEX: For right now, yes. For the initial release, this sytem will use what we call "generic gumps". This is how we can dynamically generate interface elements from the server without requiring a client patch. Unfortunately, generic gumps are limited in their capabilities and can't update dynamically with new content from the server. They have to close and then re-open.

Some time down the line, it is my hope that we'll be able to improve client-side support for interfaces. Ideally, it would be done exactly as you describe -- the window is persistent but updates dynamically.

PLAYER: Since all targeting is getting rid of I guess we won't be able to copy books by inscribing anymore.
VEX: Targeting is getting rid of where feasible. Book copying will continue to use the old interface, where you invoke Inscription from the Skills Window, target the book to copy, then target the destination book. You'll also have to target a container for tinker traps.

PLAYER: With regards to scrolls not stacking: I noticed that the scrolls don't stack properly when I inscribe using my faction character. When I inscribe using my mule, they stack fine.
VEX: This is a side effect of the prompt to make the scroll a faction item. It actually has to keep the scroll separate until that prompt is answered. I believe I can fix it so that if you don't imbue the item, it will be stacked with any other like items.

PLAYER: While these new changes seem long overdue, they don't include any changes that UO-Assist hasn't already done for the last year. Well, with the exception of the target metal type.
VEX: UO Assist is not an OSI product and not all players purchase it. We can't allow the existence and capabilities of UO Assist to influence how we modify the UO interface.

PLAYER: I saw the option to 'repair' for smithing but didn't notice the new repair option for bowcraft/fletching (bows, etc.) or the repair option for tailoring (clothes, leather armor). Any plans to implement one?
VEX: This is up in the air, and really depends on what the rest of the team thinks. (Thanks, Evocare, for thinking this overhaul was a good idea in the first place!!)

PLAYER: Are there any plans to incorporate secondary skills into the crafting process? Integration of Taste ID for Alchemy, Arms Lore for smithing/tailoring. Lumberjacking possibly for bowcraft/carpentry. (wood comes from somewhere)
VEX: I can't answer this right now. Calandryll has hinted at some special crafting stuff for upcoming scenarios, though. The thought is on our minds. :)

PLAYER: I see the tinkered golden goblet in the screen shot. This item is currently 'rare'. Not much of a question, but since you are destroying this rare, why not make some other rares craftable too?
VEX: Actually, that is the goblet you can tinker currently, made out of verite. It looks a bit distorted because it's at high zoom-in with the Third Dawn client.

PLAYER: The notifications window displays the success/failure instead of displaying the information in the corner. Personally, I prefer to have a viewable means to know if I crafted something or not. UO-Assist doesn't open the craft window... how am I suppossed to see this notification window?
VEX: The crafting window immediately re-opens after you make the item. So, say I hit the "make now" button next to "world map" in the Cartography menu, it makes the attempt and then immediately the window returns and notifies me whether or not I succeeded.

PLAYER: The menus take up too much of my 800x600.screen. If they can't make them smaller, making them semi transparent is probably the best way to go.
VEX: Unfortunately, we have text height limitations. We have to leave enough room for Simplified Chinese and Kanji, both of which require a certain text height. Also, for many languages, a word or phrase can be quite a bit longer than the English equivalent, meaning we have to leave extra horizontal room on the menu as well. Making the menus smaller is pretty much out -- I'm glad you like the transparency! :)

PLAYER: Thanks for starting to look at the crafting system. Been waiting a long time for these changes.
VEX: Me too. My first UO character was a tailor, and since then I've built characters around most of the other craft skills.

PLAYER: Nit: From a role playing perspective, it doesn't make sense to require materials to be in your backpack... It would presumably be sufficient to have the materials at hand in your workshop. This makes things less convenient for those adventuring crafters who have to unload everything they're carrying (and find containers that have enough lockdowns to hold it) when they want to, say, make plate chests. The "materials-must-be-in-backpack" requirement is one of the things that helps make carpentry somewhat tedious now...
VEX: I can certainly see this. The change to require everything be in the backpack was motivated more by the need to reduce the number of checks and the need for the targeting cursor. We want to make the interface easier to deal with. Requiring materials to be on your person also eliminates many special checking that needs to be done and eliminates many avenues of exploitation. By keeping the rules simple, the system is also much easier to cleanly re-code.

PLAYER: My couple of questions:
How will it work when I click to create 100 recall scrolls? Right now, I would have to wait for mana to regenerate. I am curious as to how you are handling this problem.
Hued Weapons? I dont really care either way, just curious....
VEX: To clarify, multi-make will not apply to any items you can't already make in bulk. For instance, when fletching, the system automatically makes as many arrows as possible using the available shafts and feathers in your pack. Since it already works that way, the multi-make option will continue to be available.

We have no plans to add multi-make to anything where it isn't already supported (like potion grinding or inscription). You'll still have to make them one at a time.

Incidentally, all crafting skill delays will be shortened as part of this change, probably to around 1 second. So, while the ability to use a mortar and pestle's "make last" function by targeting it instead of a reagent will go away, Alchemy will gain the Last Ten and Make Last buttons, and you won't have to wait so long for the potion to actually be ground. For making scrolls, you'll still have to wait for mana to recharge.

We did talk about having multi-make work for other things, by having the server loop through the task for you -- but that would just encourge unattended macroing. :)

PLAYER: Will Tinkering with colored ingots require the appropriate skill level for each particular color?
VEX: Yes. Your Tinkering skill will correspond to the same skill requirements used for colored metal elsewhere. So, in order to tinker Verite, you'll have to have 95.0 or more Tinkering skill, and Valorite will require 99.0 or more.

PLAYER: Vex, will the crafting tool settings be saved in the object or the character using it? Right now when a crafting tool breaks, 'make last' resets..
VEX: We're changing it so that crafting menu state is saved on the player. So, when you switch tools, your Last Ten and Make Last entries will be saved. Also, the window automatically re-opens to the same page you were on before. So, if you are in the Tinkering menu looking at the Assemblies category, when you come back to the menu one minute or one week later it will re-open to that page.

PLAYER: My only real concerns are will this new menu system aid crafters, or hinder them? I haven't crafted in a while because after I work 8 hours a day, I am not inclined to go 'work' in UO for another 1 or two hours. Most of the skills are repedative at best, and hidiously tedious at worse. That's not including what one often has to do just to get the matierials to make them with.
VEX: I think that the overall net effect will be a vast improvement. I certainly like the way it feels as I test it on my development standalone shard. Let's compare:

Before, in order to hammer out platemail, I would use my last object/wait for targeting cursor/last target macro. I'd make one item manually first to get the last target set, then sit there and hit the macro (I use F3 for that one), make the menu selection, then let the ingots be targeted and wait for the result. Now, I make the item once, then click "make last". Since I don't have to wait for the client-side last target macro to target the ingots for me, the process is slightly faster. After the attempt is made, my menu pops back up without me having to hit the macro key again, and the result of my last attempt is very visible in that window.

PLAYER: Is anything being done to ease the.. burden on crafters? I think they should be able do things fairly painlessly and enjoy a proffit. I hunt now instead of crafting, it's more fun, gets me other loot than just gold, and doesn't take as long.
VEX: Right now, there isn't much that we can do about the repetitious nature of crafting. I do want to make it more interesting, and require some actual thought. Right now, pounding out plate chests feels like playing a slot machine. There is some appeal to that (C'mon 5% chance of payout! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!), but the whole deal could definitely be much more fun and interesting.

Keep in mind, though, that part of what makes it possible to be a crafter is the barriers that keep it from being a piece of cake. As crafting gets easier, there will be more competition and therefore slimmer profit margins. For example, suppose you could grind 100 potions straight into a keg all at once? Suddenly, it takes next to no effort to produce entire kegs, kegs are being made in bulk by everyone, and the market is flooded. Those who have the patience to juggle three or four mortar and pestles at once and drag bottles onto kegs are the ones who reap the benefits of being able to run a potion vendor.

In other words, I understand that the barriers in place for crafting suck, and make the process tedious. But those barriers need to be there. The real challenge to the UO Live team is to transform those barriers in a manner that make the game more fun and makes them seem less like ugly obstacles. :)

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Crafting Sysem Overhaul

Several updates and changes will occur that will eventually affect all of Ultima Online’s crafting systems. The goals of these changes include: creating a consistent interface for all crafting skills, allowing the player to understand a greater level of detail about his crafting activities, greater CPU efficiency, and adaptability & expandability as crafting systems are modified at later dates. The following skills will be affected by these changes:

• Alchemy
• Bowcraft/Fletching
• Blacksmithy
• Carpentry
• Cartography
• Inscription
• Tailoring
• Tinkering

The specifics are listed below.

All crafting skills will be able to be invoked by double-clicking a related tool. All tools must be equipped or in the player’s backpack in order for them to be used.

• Bowcraft/Fletching will use “Fletcher’s Tools” (this tool will appear as the “arrow fletching” graphic).
• Cartography will use a “Mapmaker’s Pen” (this tool will appear as the “pen and ink” graphic).
• Inscription will use a “Scribe’s Pen” (this tool will appear as the reversed “pen and ink” graphic).

All materials must be in the player’s backpack for them to be used. No materials will need to be targeted. Instead, they are searched for in the player’s backpack whenever a crafting attempt is made.

Some item skill requirements may change slightly.

All crafting skills will use a universal menu system. This menu system will be similar in both the 2D and 3D version of the UO client.

• The “gump” window will be 50% transparent, with a dark background and bright text.
• The top bar of this window will show the skill name.
• The left bar of this window will show:
  • A “Last 10” list. This list will display the 10 most recent usages of that skill, allowing quick access to those usages.
  • Up to 10 categories of items which that skill may create.
• The main area of this window will show:
  • A selection list, one item per row.
  • Two buttons per selection:
    • “Make Now”: left-click to attempt to create the respective item immediately
    • “More Info”: left-click to bring up a “Details Window” related to the listed item.
  • The item’s name (note: the graphic for that item will not display here, but will display in the “Details Window”).
  • Up to 10 items per page, up to 10 pages per category.
• A “Notifications” area will show information that would normally appear in the “system message” area of the gameplay window.
• The “Buttons” area will display a subset of buttons appropriate to the skill/tool being used.
  • “Exit”: appears on all skill menus. Left-click to close the menu. (Note: any menu window may be still be closed by right-clicking that window)
  • “Make Last”: appears on all skill menus. Acts as if “Make Now” was clicked on the first item in the “Last 10” list.
  • “Metal Selection”: appears only for skills that use ingots as components for craftable items.
    • Players may choose which metal color to use. This will eliminate the need for players to specifically target materials, and eliminate the possibility of using the wrong metal type.
    • The system will only consider metals of the selected color in metal-using crafting attempts.
    • A “Details Window” will indicate if an item retains the color of the metal used.
  • “Mark Item”: appears for most skills; controls the automation of Maker’s Marks on crafted items that allow for such marks. Left-clicking this button will toggle through three options:
    • “Do Not Mark”: the Maker’s Mark will never be put on crafted items while this is selected.
    • “Always Mark”: the Maker’s Mark will always be affixed to exceptional-quality crafted items while this is selected.
    • “Prompt for Mark”: the player is prompted for a Maker’s Mark whenever an exceptional item is crafted while this is selected.
  • “Repair Item”: appears only on the Blacksmithy menu. Players may left-click this button, then target a weapon or piece of armor to attempt to repair that item.
  • “Unravel Item”: appears only for Blacksmithy (as “Smelt Item”) and Tailoring (as “Unravel Item”) menus only.
    • Allows blacksmiths to smelt weapons and armor down into ingots.
    • Allows tailors to disassemble leather armor back into cut hides.
  • Quantity Selection: appears only for items which may be crafted in bulk.
    • Turning logs into boards
    • Making arrows and crossbow bolts
    • Selections
      • “Make 1”: create only 1 of the selected item.
      • “Make 10”: create (up to) 10 of the selected item.
      • “Make 100”: create (up to) 100 of the selected item.
      • “Make All”: create as many of the selected item as available materials allow.
• When using a craft, the crafting window will close, the creation will be attempted, and the crafting window will reopen.
  • Upon re-opening, the crafting window will display the results of the crafting attempt.
  • The window will include the details of any success or failure messages.

Players are invited to comment on these proposed changes, here.

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She calls for the valiant warriors, mages, bards and all able bodied men and women to convene on Sunday night, September 16th at 8pm to 10pm EST, instead of September 8. All other details remain unchanged and can be found on this page.

Directions to the Shrine can be found at this location.

Idun Syn
UOS Chesapeake Reporter

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IMPY'S ARTIC FAIRE…
Weekly auction will be held Wednesday evening at 9pm by the Eastern Sky. 
With ANOTHER BONUS AUCTION planned for Thursday evening also at 9pm.

Impy's would like to thank all of our great customers over this past month. It has been our most successful thus far! This past week has even seen a landmark. The 10,000th customer ran thru the doors on Wednesday night. In honor of the event, Blacky was given a check for 100k by Impy's staff. He spent it very wisely that night!!

We would like to thank the folks at Garden City for donating a few mystery chests over the past few weeks and in return for their kind donation we would like to invite everyone to visit the Garden City Gardi Gras Festival this upcoming weekend (August 30th and 31st and September 1st). They have lots of events planned with some great prizes. Rumor has it they are even going to raffle off a new home!

This week at Impy's we have a very full plate. Plants and Plant DEEDS, Blue Prize Ticket, Lich and Daemon Statue, Wood Curls and Pure Garlic (yes, the same as last week and still just as unique). Vanquish weapons, including a Large Silver Battle Axe of Vanquishing. Piles of Virtue Weapons and Invulnerable Armor. Stop by Impy's this week for your chance to be the new owner of one of these fine items.

For directions and a complete list of the items up for auction please take a peek at www.impys.net. As always, Runes to Riches and the Mystery Chest games will also be played this week following the auction, so please stick around and take a chance with lady luck. Impy has asked that you please stable your pets before the auction as he is allergic to wet fur.

If you need a rune visit one of our rune vendors located through out the lands. Vendors can be found at: Star's Shoppe (out side Vesper in Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (in Felucca), on the porch of the Sandlewood Box Inn (in Felucca), Cove Merchant's Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (located just at the front gate of Cove in Felucca), the Mystic Rose (in the wooded glen in Trammel), the Garden City Mall (located just north of Cove in Trammel), or at Krista's Ranger Station (in Felucca).

~Impy's Staff

10,000 visitors!  Wow, that is great.  A big HIP, HIP, HUZZAH for the folks out at Impy's!!!

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I'm really not the person who would know about the technical part of rolling back anything; that's not my area of expertise. I have heard of people who have had their items tracked down when they've been hacked, but I don't know the details behind that, either. I know it's small consolation when you've lost things that meant a lot to you, but the best thing you can do is follow the guidelines listed here:


In reply to:
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If your account has been hacked, please send email to [email protected] including the account name, your real name, and a description of what happened.

Origin Systems is committed to assisting hacked account cases as much as possible. However, as neither Origin Systems nor Electronic Arts has not been technically hacked or broken into, it is not a crime which we can press charges. But we will help you as a victim in bringing those who engage in such acts to justice.

We strongly urge any individual that has been hacked to contact your local authorities and/or local District Attorney so that this person can be held responsible for their actions. Hacking is a crime, and if you have had your account legitimately hacked, you are the victim of such a crime. By filing a report, the authorities will attempt to prosecute individuals who decide to engage in this act.

When investigating the matter, the authorities will need the evidence that the hacker accessed your account. This is where we come in. When a law enforcement agency faxes the UO Account Administration department at (512) 434-6623 asking for the IP logins of the account(s), we will immediately return the proper documentation back to them, as well as any other pertinent information needed. This information can only be discussed with the proper authorities - in all other cases the information is private and will be held confidential. Please do not fax this number yourself; it is only for use by law enforcement agencies.

There are several different methods of illegally taking control over an account. However, when investigating the accounts, they consistently fall into two categories:

1) The unwilling installment of a hack utility or program.

2) The distribution of your account name and password.

It is important to know that unless your account credentials are divulged willingly, they cannot be obtained by using the Ultima Online client itself.

Hack programs come in all shapes and sizes - this is precisely why one should never accept any file from any person they do not trust 100%. Programs such as Netbus, BackOrifice, and Subseven (to name a few) allow for your machine to act as if it were a server. And all the hacker has to do is wait for you to play the game to type out your account name and password - once that is done, he now has access to your Ultima Online account (including registration information).

There are several reasons why we recommend that you do not EVER share your account or account information with anyone.

If you have an argument with a friend or family members, it can result in one person trying to "get back at" another, and thus, a "hacked" account. Even brothers, sisters, family members, and best friends have occasional drifts.

Cyber cafes often allow multiple people play the same account. This is inherently dangerous, and in actuality is only a matter of time before someone loses their property.

You are responsible for the actions of anyone playing on your account. Should you let someone on your account and they commit a Terms of Service violation, you are accountable.

Follow the same guidelines with your account that you would with your credit card information; if you wouldn't trust the person with your credit card, don't let them have your account information, either.

Please review our Security FAQ on maintaining your account security.

If your account information was gained through the use of a trojan, not only your UO files, but all of the data that resides on your computer is susceptible. Trojans also allow keystrokes to be monitored, so if you change your password before removing the program, your account could still be in jeopardy.

Once you are certain that your PC is secure, go to http://ultima-registration.com and change the password to your account. If you are unable to do so because it seems to have already been changed (usually by the hacker), try using the Forgotten Password option on the account management login page. You must enter the email address used by this account, and the current zip code on the account. If these two items do not match the existing information we have on your account, we cannot send you the password this way. It is vital for you to keep your contact information up-to-date and accurate on your account for just such an emergency.

You can call our Billing department 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at (888) 842-6388 (inside the continental U.S.) or (512) 434-4357 (outside the continental U.S.) to request an immediate block of your account if you suspect that your account has been hacked. You can also call Billing for assistance in retrieving your password. Be prepared to tell the Billing Representative the account name, the name of the person who created the account, the registration code from the UO CD, and the last 8 digits of the credit card currently in use on the account.

You may also contact our Billing department to reactivate your account, if the account was blocked at your request by a Game Master to protect your account from being accessed further by the hacker.

As a reminder, please remember that Origin staff will never ask you for your password for any reason. Do not give your account password to anyone for any reason.

Please do not page Game Masters with information about a suspected hacker, or to tell them who hacked your account. That information needs to be relayed to the appropriate authorities as applicable to your case. A GM can block your account for you if you feel it has been hacked, but GM's do not investigate the hacking of your personal computer or UO account and cannot tell you who has accessed your account. That information will only be released to a law enforcement agency at their request in conjunction with an official investigation



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I hope all works out well for you.

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Lady Abingdon remained at the table long after the councilors, officials, and their innumerable attendants had left the great hall. It had been another long, tedious, meeting she had been forced to attend at the behest of her consort, the Grand Inquisitor. She glanced about the table. A few documents remained scattered thereupon, each bearing a royal seal. Many lay where the Inquisitor had been seated. He had left earlier and quite suddenly, having been summoned to meet the king who happened to be at the castle that day. A few words on a certain document caught her eye: "suspects," "Necromari," "artifacts." As if irresistably drawn to it, she picked it up and began reading it. As she placed it down on the table in front of her, a strong breeze blew through an open window, knocking a single burning candle from a chandelier right above her onto the very parchment she was reading. It burst instantly into flame. In panic, she grabbed the document and waved it about, trying desperately to extinguish it before the fire consumed it entirely. She cursed as her efforts only succeeded in showering the table with burning scraps and sparks which set fire to other documents. It was at that very moment that the Grand Inquisitor entered the room along with a number of high officials in tow.

"M..my lord!! Help me!" she cried, eyes wide with horror. Reacting faster than he, two officials rushed in and, using their cloaks, extinguished the burning documents on the table. The Inquisitor ran to her and grabbed the parchment out of her hand, threw it to the floor, and stamped out the flames with his boot. He then picked up what remained of it and turned to face her. Unnerved and embarrassed by it all, Abingdon sat down and put her hands over her face. The Inquisitor sat down beside her. "What was that about, Abby?" he asked, in a concerned tone of voice.

She pointed to the chandelier and tried to explain while he scanned the burned document. When she finished describing the tale several of the officials, quite amused by it, laughed loudly. The Inquisitor, however, remained straight-faced. "Why were ye reading this report, Abby? Ye know I alone have rights to see it. Why did ye take upon thyself such an unwarranted and unauthorized liberty?"

"Forgive me, m'lord. It was wrong of me to do so. I will never do such a thing again!"

"Ye did not address my question! Why did ye choose to read this particular document, and not one of the others?!" His tone had become much more tense.

"I don't know, sire. I suppose I was curious is all. To be honest, I wanted to know who they were that consume so much of thy time in thought and worry. I had nothing to gain by it, m'lord, I swear."

The Inquistor stood up and paced in front of her, his hand holding the parchment hidden behind him. "This... this will not do at all!" He stopped suddenly and pivoted to face her, holding the document in her face. "There is information herein vital to the security of the realm! Ye had no business touching it, much less reading it! If the information it contains fell into the wrong hands, it could mean death to my agents! Ye must have a reason for wanting to read it!"

Abingdon was visibly shaken by the accusation. "My lord! I would ne'er do a thing to compromise the safety of the realms or any of thy agents! I am the king's loyal servant!"

The Inquisitor relaxed and took a step back. "Well, ye are someone's loyal servant! Until I am satisfied I know whom that is, I am forced to limit thy contacts and movements. I hereby order thee to be placed under house arrest, confined to thy quarters," he stated flatly.

She could not have been more surprised if he had ordered her execution. "But my lord!! Surely ye do not think..."

He interrupted her with a wave of his hand. "It matters not what anyone, or even I, think. It only matters that secrets have been compromised. Ye have given me cause to question thy loyalty to me and the work I am doing!"

One of the officials, moved with compassion, tried to intervene on her behalf. "My lord, let us not be too hasty. Mayhap she was prompted to look at it by nothing more than curiosity as she maintains. I think--"

"I did not ask what ye think sir!" the Inquisitor stormed back, glaring at him and all the other officials in turn. "Nor any of thee! I will be the judge in this matter! I have other reasons for what I do, not the least of which I need explain to anyone!" Then, turning to Abingdon, "Go to thy quarters at once! I shall meet thee there shortly. Do not vainly imagine ye can escape these walls, nor try to do so, as it would only confirm my suspicions about thee."

Thoroughly humiliated and angry, with cheeks reddened by both, Abby curtsied and left the room. Several officials began sifting through the papers in an attempt to organize them.

"Go also!" the Inquisitor ordered, "I will gather them up myself," he said as he sat down at the table. Their compliance was immediate and wordless. As they departed, he looked at the melted candle which had initiated the affair. He considered how strange was fate, and a smile crossed his face.

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Well it seems like the Shadowlords are making a comeback. This week they have been making a comeback as Fkn the elite guild led by Embarko have all returned to SL as they felt their true place was with their old guildies M&D.

Being newly reinforced by Fkn and other old M&D returning (Coolfear, Theodon, Neves, and Sinner) The Shadowlords were able to take control of 4 cities. Though this was not an easy task as TB being as crafty as ever raided often and raided hard. And also UMA was very active this week as their speed and experience seriously tested the skill of all the SLs guarding. With TB hitting hard at night and UMA hitting in the morning it seemed a pretty impossible task but with Archangel the leader of SL back they managed to secure their first towns in about 2 weeks but they lost a chance to dominate Baja for 3 days as COM hit early Monday morning and took back 4 sigs after SL had matured 4.

This week has been a revitalizing week for factions as the huge army of COM now have another huge army to face other than TB and it seems things are getting a lot more interesting. Personally this reporter can't wait to see all the new battles ahead for these great powerhouses.

On another note I would like to personally thank Longshot and KoRn for their incredible leadership skills. Factions has been truly interesting this week because of the tactics these great leaders have employed.

Pat Factor
The #1 Stunna
M&D

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There amid the constant bustle, fights and thievery, we had some great participation in the riddles. Some of the contestants were called by more pressing issues as time passed (saving one's neck often enjoys that priority), but two of them hung in there and claimed the win.

Congratulations to:
2nd place - Shadow - 10k
1st place - Agent Orange - 25k

Thanks again, I had a great time meeting you all. If you enjoyed yourself or would like to find out next time I've got an off-the-wall plan, be sure to check in on the GL Forum!

You can find the contest riddles and answers here

Agent Orange and Shadow

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I wish to thank everyone that came out to last night's second meeting of the Council of Honor.

Several topics were discussed and several matters were decided upon.

o The Renegade paladins in Trinsic are no longer a threat. Keeper of the Peace, Coby Drakeswind, informed the public that they were now either gone or in hiding. For now, people can safely walk the streets.

o Relief will be provided to the people of Minoc that are suffering from the affects of the terrible plague that threatens them. A party at the Keg and Anchor will be set to raise donations to the people of Minoc. More information will follow. We hope that the city of Minoc will allow the shipment of donations and needed supplies into their city.

o Talk was made and Trinsic has agreed to enter into a Trade alliance with Britain and other cities.

o The Town Militia is recruiting and those interested in joining are encouraged to contact someone with the Council of Honor for more information.


The Shadow Lord Protector, Trinsic

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To give you all another quick update. We're finalizing testing on the first part of the scenario. Right now, we're waiting for a patch to clear QA before we can build/patch the last scenario patch. All of the content is done for the patch (there is a LOT btw ), we just have to put it together and test it. Unlike server publishes, client patches are the one aspect of working on multiple projects that do affect each other since we can't build two patches at the same time, otherwise the second patch would revert out all of the stuff in the first one.

As soon as this patch is released, we'll build the scenario patch and then we'll have a pretty clear idea when the scenario will start.

Hip, Hip, Hoozah!
The Garden City would like to invite all the citizens of the lands to participate in the Gardi Gras Festival scheduled for August 30, 31 and September 1.
Featuring events for the young to old, mage to warrior and even a few thing for a poet and artist. Take a peek at the schedule of events; that can be found at the Garden City Message Board.
^Garden City Staff (GCS)

I also found this bulletin about a house raffle they are planning on having...

Garden City will raffle off a new home. Starting at 4pm by the Eastern Sky, Saturday, September 1, the back room of the Garden City Hall will be open to the public to purchase runes for the amount of 1000 gold per rune. This means even the youngest of the of Brit Citizens may be able to purchase one chance.
Then at 7:30pm by the Eastern Sky, Nemo will herself recall to the spot of the home to be given away. As soon as she has recalled out of the City Hall, those holding runes are invited to recall from their rune to see if they find her. If they do, they win the house! She will immediately title it over to the new home owner.
There will be no limit as to how many runes may be purchased by a single citizen. And holding the winning rune is subject to verification by handing Nemo the rune used to recall from.
^Garden City Staff (GCS)

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I would like to thank all the players that submitted items and the players that purchased items is the Auction. The Auction was a great success, as we had over 2.9 million is sales on Tuesday night. 

The next Red Devil Auction will take place on August 28th Tuesday at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. We will be taking submissions on Monday the 27th at the same time, and one hour before the Auction starts on Tuesday night. 

As Always the GLV Guild will be handling all aspects of the Auction, and the Burning Heart Guild will be handling the Guard Duty. 

If you wish to submit an item bring a bag and place the item inside the bag with a book, type in your name your icq what the item is and your min. bid you would like to start with. The Red Devil Auction Tower is located in Felucca, a 5 minute walk from the East side of Brit, and the coordinates are as follows; 34o43N/44o51E. Come on by and have a good time and see old friends and and start new friends. 
Rattler {GLV}

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Greetings friends and enemies of Grimoire!

Many thanks to all the folks who came out to support Grimoire's 3 vs. 3 sponsored and guest hosted by the guild, The Resistance, ^Rv!! Here are the results:

1st place, the only place for this event, goes to Johnny Kilroy, Damien, and Darklust! The prize pot was donated back to Grimoire, compliments of this 1st place team.

Huge thanks go out to the Grimoire staff and to the ^Rv guild for making the event run so well! Thank you LeeLu, Josh, Lost, Jimbo, Vindicator, Damien, Gravis, Zoltar, and last but not least, Warmonger for refing the event and keeping things together.

For pictures of this event and the Grimoire forum, please look here: Grim

I hope everyone had a good time, and cya next week =)
Baby-Grimoire Staff

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The newest comic, Wide Load (working title anyway), has been posted and is available for consumption.

Saturday's comic is all online and read to be laughed at.. or with.. something. As of now it is untitled, I'll work on fixing that.

Thought I'd take a few seconds to let everyone know that I've make a major upgrade to the website. The message board has been revamped (more features coming), the comic display has been vastly improved, and I've added a guestbook so go sign it!! (please :)

It is however not completely finished, I will be adding some art work on the other pages as soon as its done.

New comic coming wednesday!

http://www.outofcharacter.com

-Arakasi

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Ah, one year old. You remember that guys, don't you? A weird party with weird people you're supposed to like, and all you did was cry cause you didn't want to wear that stupid bib with the lion on it holding the big "1" on it. Or something like that.

Well, anyway, we're not doing that. What are we doing? We're holding a contest. Lucky you huh? So what's the contest? YOU, the reader, gets to write our next comic. Yes, thats right, you, the readers. So what do you need to do? Well, the full details can be found at the link below, but the most imprtant thing to remember... MAKE ME LAUGH! We're not looking for Shakespear here, but we're also not looking for Adam Sandler level stuff here either. So come on, you've read the comics, you've probably thought you could do better, so lets see you prove that!

http://thexyg.home.att.net/contestrules1.htm

Don't know what UO2Pid is? Then read up on it and THEN enter!

http://thexyg.home.att.net/uo2pid.htm

We're waiting for your entries, and you have til September 30th to enter, so take your time, come up with your best work, and hope you'll win.

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Hi! Homepage updated with a new toon and a event report. I hope they're worth checking out.

http://zeromus.uoboard.net

- Zeromus

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The Yew market that is held every sunday near the Empath Abbey is still in high popularity! As each time and in a commendable manner Schleicher as a co-organisator of this event had prepared something and organized a paperchase around Yew! The participants did not only have to able to ride fast in this chase, but they had also to be able to solve some hard puzzles.



This charming and very friendly lady was the one that used the favor of the hour and showed everyone that she had her pretty head not only for combing her hair. Full of happiness and joy she received the winning price of 5000 gold and all congratulated her cordially on that.

So if you don't have to go slaugthering monsters or ambush lonely hikers on Felucca on a sunday evening, I can only recommend this market to you. The organizers always put a lot of effort into it and the resonance of the visitors was each time quite positive.

Best Regards,
Slagdale [ http://www.uoworld.de ]

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New Council Members are Elected

On Saturday, August 25th, the Fourth Election of Town Council was held
in the Town Hall of Skara Brae, Felucca. There was a huge turnout,
and a total of 45 citizens were registered, voting for their new
leaders. After the poll was closed, the registrar, Erik Strongbow,
counted ballots in another room and announced the results to the public. The new offices are as listed below:

Steward --- Engval
Chancellor of Gentry --- Zed
Chancellor of Commons --- Chessentra Xeran
Chancellor of Judiciary --- Jackalblade
Consul-General --- Christoff

Among five positions, only the office for Judiciary had more than one
candidate, and it was reported to be a close race. Jackalblade won 22
votes and George won 17.

There will be an inaugural reception in two weeks to welcome the new
council to their positions. The details of the reception will be
announced by Lord Steward at a later date.

Bellfloret
Reporter
The Skara Brae Chimera
[email protected]

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Hi. I'm Helios. Well, my name in the real world (whenever I get a chance to go there) is Kai Steinmann. I started playing UO about three years ago and never stopped. So what's with the name? Helios was one of the Titans in Greek Mythology. I'm a pretty big guy, so I figured it fit me pretty well. Plus, I really like the Titans on Titan Island. :-) Ah yes... the Titans... (insert memories of provoking and running from Titans for hours on end here).

While I used to put in 40 hours a week of gaming, these days I focus on helping to improve upon a world that we all enjoy. I do still play UO every day, just not for eight hours like I used to. :-) Being in game is an excellent way to get feedback from players that don't visit the boards. I think player feedback is one of the best things a game development team can have as one of their tools for progressing a game in the right direction.

I started with Origin as a Game Master and eventually moved into Design, which is what I'm doing now. That gives me the unique advantage of seeing our game from many angles: as a player, a support representative, and now as a member of the Development team.

I spend a lot of time on the boards reading suggestions, complaints, and compliments players leave for the Dev team. I know that at times it seems your words fall on deaf ears, but be assured that all of us read the boards A LOT. We may not be able to answer every person that writes a note, but more than likely someone will read it. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to register on our boards (http://boards.uo.com) and speak up about what's on your mind. Tell us why you want something, and how it would improve the game for you. Keep the feedback coming. :-)

What am I working on these days? Recently, I have been working on a wide range of localization changes as well as some ideas for animal lore (which you guys liked for the most part - woohoo!). We're always trying our best to improve the localization process to be as unobtrusive to the game's ambiance as possible. There’s always room for more improvement, but at this point, some of the localization changes we’re making now are so transparent that you can't even distinguish them in game. You’ve got to love those programmer types.

So I suppose that's it for me this time around. Don't be a stranger and drop me a note sometime. It's always nice to hear from everyone. I look forward to meeting many of you at the Fan Fest this year.

'Til then.
Cheers!

- Kai "Helios" Steinmann
- Designer, Ultima Online Live
- [email protected]

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I am pleased to announce that GateCentral has joined the Shattered Crystal Network as our first international site. GateCentral offers Ultima Online news in 7 languages.

They are a young team of UO-players who run GateCentral. It is their mission to collect as much news, information and data as possible. Their greatest interest is to be present in several languages and offer their service to as many readers as possible. The most frequented languages are English, German and Swedish.

They have a strong history that goes back to late 1999 when they founded the clan of the 'Merchants on Tour' on Drachenfels. A clan needs a webpage - today it is a must *g* - and therefore they started with a smaller version of their current page. The clan developed well and they found many friends in the community; therefore they made a big step forward early 2001 by joining the GateCentral-Network. Many new possibilities appeared that they did not have in the past.

They offer an uptodate-news-section with daily news, a question&answer-database, a big rares-section, many essays tables and stories, a download-section, an update-section, a live shard status, a forum, .. etc. This page makes so much fun that they increase their sections nearly every week - They are currently working right now on a house-decoration section.

Readers are obviously very pleased with their services because the hit-rate is increasing. It is their intention to serve the UO-community and give back some of the fun they have gotten through UO. If you are interested in joining their team please contact Raknar.

- Raknar
GateCentral

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MMORPG Guild Engines is proud to announce the opening of the UO Guild Engine. An easy to use engine for creating that perfect Guild Presence.

Currently we are only doing Ultima Online pages but that may change in the future. Our fees are reasonable and payable in UO Gold. Currently they run 125,000 gold for 3 months with an initial 25,000 gold setup fee. Custom logos start at 150,000 gold.

Stop by and have a look. http://www.truefx.com/guilds

or ICQ one of the developers, Trisha Marie @ 10816412 or Roland @ 1561464

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*a parchment poster adorns the wall of the realm's banks declaring the news*

*************************
We the people of Moonglow hereby do, with full intent and purpose, publically announce the anulling of the Alliance between the peoples of Moonglow Town Council and The Sosarian Human Nation. We do so in our right, within the confines of the resolution of the treaty and its passing in both nations' governments respectively.

Under section d of the ammended treaty of affiliation between the two nations, The Sosarian Human Nation is found in violation and contempt of, with willful defiance of efforts to resolve between the two nations a lasting compromise.

Section d states:
"The competent leadership of Moonglow and Buccaneer's Den realise that each power has it's own goals and methods. As such both parties agree to never work to undermine the actions of the other."
Due to actions involving ideologies of The Sosarian Human Nation against non-human and non-human affiliated organizations, the government of the Moonglow Town Council has had its reputation as a nation in Virtuous standing jeapordized in the courts of foreign nations and collective associations of the Light. Due to this undermining of the goals and methodologies of those actions, The Moonglow Town Council finds the peoples of The Sosarian Human Nation in violation of the agreement/s.

The Court of Truth was consulted in the matter of the dissolution of the Treaty between the two nations involved. Thrawn of Yew, Sage of Justice and Court of Truth Judge in good standing ruled the alliance between the nations as null and void, dissolving the diplomatic status in favor of the peoples of Moonglow. Attached to this notice is an artists rendering of the verdict as it occured.

*************************

Mayor GreyPawn is quoted as giving the following short speech in front of the Moonglow Town Councilchambers this afternoon...

This is an outrage! That SHN would purposefully and willingly betray an alliance that promised their peoples progress unheard of in years. The violation the SHN perpetrated upon my peoples will not go unpunished. Never in the history of Moonglow have we been so gullied into a diplomatic agreement with jackanapes and scoundrels such as these. And to think, we trusted in their honor!

After monitoring the Veteran Rewards on the Napa Valley shard over the weekend, we have determined a tentative release schedule for the system on the rest of the production shards. We are targeting to activate the Veteran Rewards system on each shard at some point during the day designated below, which means that players should not expect the system to be active immediately following their scheduled morning maintenance. Please note that this schedule is subject to change, and may be extended should any unforeseen issues arise with the rewards system.

All dates listed are Central Daylight Time.

• Monday, August 27th: Chesapeake and Sonoma
• Tuesday, August 28th: Yamoto and Atlantic
• Wednesday, August 29th: Pacific, Lake Superior and Siege Perilous
• Thursday, August 30th: Baja, Catskills, Izumo and Wakoku
• Friday, August 31st: All remaining shards

For more information about the Veteran Rewards System, see these links:

Latest official Rewards announcement
Veteran Rewards FAQ
Details on the Reward choices

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Hear Ye Hear Ye !

This is a great day for the lands of Britainia !
After Eons of time, we've finally managed to get the Casino web site up and running !

The concept is simple : it works like a real Casino, but you gamble with the gold you have collected on your shard !

Come and play our games like the popular Seven Up and Down, the Dragon's Nest or buy tickets for our monthly lottery draws !

New games and events are added often...

Do not miss it !

We made "Demos" of our games availeble for you to see how this great casino works !

Have Fun, Roll the dices, and if the luck is on your side... Get Rich !

To visit the site : http://www.uo-casino.com

(For now we're opening on Europa the 1st september 2001. Other shards will follow next)

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Ahoy Ahoy Landlubber'ph!



I be Captain Yblarbo Eugene Jankph, Dread Pirate of d'e AAR guild. AAR be a guild of Pirateph, d'at are phtachioned on d'e nor'f beach of Magincia Iland. I come to you wif a warning to avoid phailin' in d'e oceanph of Atlantic. D'ere be a naphty epidemic going around, called, D'e Phea Trance, which iph bepht dephcribed in medical termph aph a Coma.

D'e Phea Trance" is highly contagiouph, but nobody knowph how yet - but d'e phymptomph are quite clear. Mageph will phtand on d'ere boat and repeatedly capht "Earfquake" over and over wif a glazed look in d'ere eyeph. Bardph will pluck d'ere inphtrumentph, even after d'ere fingerph are black and blue. People alpho get philly looking when d'ey be phtuck trying to hide over and over on d'ere boat, hiding...from nudin'! (well maybe me?) O'der fipherman, well, d'ey be frowin' d'ere fiphin' lineph in d'e water even after all fiph in d'e area be on d'ere boat. The godph take no pity on thophe people d'at be phtuck in d'e trance - it's rumored d'at their living bodies are taken to unphpeakable places, never to be pheen again! Well, d'at where me and my fellow pirateph come in!

Mageph will phtand on d'ere boat and repeatedly capht
"Earfquake" over and over wif a glazed look in d'ere eyeph.

D'e Phea Trance" be quite horrible, and many of uph in AAR underphtand a Coma be worf d'an deaf itphelf. Therefor, any pirateph in AAR d'at find citizenph of Britiania phtuck in a Trance will have d'ere phpirit releaphed to the phpiritworld, pho d'at d'ey can break free of d'iph Trance, and the godph of d'e phea won't take vengance upon d'em! We are phorry d'at d'ere be no real cure for "D'e Phea Trance", however we d'ink deaf be better than spendin' d'e remainin' of your life in a trance.

To accumulate fundph for rephearch about d'iph epidemic, all AAR memberph will keep any earfly pophephionph d'at d'ey can loot of d'e boatph or corpheph of d'e infected. Now I know what ye be d'inkin, if we be phuch nice people and tryin' to control d'iph epidemic, why would phome of uph be branded "Murdererph". We'll d'at be phimple. Even d'ough we be tryin' to protect d'e infected from the wraf of d'e phea godph, d'e godph alpho frown upon murderin' d'ephe phame people! D'e godph are quite confuphed at timeph, but we can't hold d'at againpht d'em, now can we?

To accumulate fundph for rephearch about d'iph epidemic, all AAR memberph
will keep any earfly pophephionph d'at d'ey can loot of d'e boatph or
corpheph of d'e infected.

Good luck phailin' to all of you, and be careful when you go phailing, for if we meet you and you have the phlightepht phymptonph of D'e Phea Trance, we mupht do our job and quarantine your infected landlubbin' phelf.

* Note, Yblarbo Janks had half his tongue bitten out by his childhood sweetheart, Tune Breath, and is quite difficult to understand due to this incident. Please, if you know a good Tinker that can make him a prosthetic tongue, contact someone in AAR immediately -- most members are getting fed up trying to understand him.

Pirates of Scoundrels' Cove Website, where you can get more AAR information

Pirates of Scoundrels Cove Forum

Dread Pirate Captain Yblarbo Janks' Webpage

With the recent patch a number of very cool changes have been made to Cartography and to Treasure Maps! TMap hunters roam the world with reknewed energy this week solving maps in record numbers to reach the prized goal of GM Cartography!

To help you reach that goal, check out the Syndicates Treasure Map Rune Library This is the oldest and most complete Treasure Map runes collection on Atlantic. It is located in both Trammel and Felucca and has a very easy to use website interface.

1) Decode your map
2) Visit the webpage and click on the TMap Runes Link
3) Click on the maps and locate the spot where your map is located.
4) Find the rune name/number for your map
5) Visit the Arx Draconis Felucca library or the Arx Draconis Trammel
6) Castle library and locate the book with your rune
7) Recall off that rune and you are located immediately next to your spot
8) Dig and up pops your chest!

The Tmap runes is a huge time saver and open to all!! Checkout the site and enjoy the runes!! Good luck on GMing Cartography!

DisplaceR was aware that in the final fights of the evening, the No Heal Rule does not go into effect for a full fifteen minutes. About five minutes into the fight he called out, "In ten minutes you're a dead name," mistyping the word 'man' in the heat of battle.  "What's a dead name?" said smitten with love from the sidelines.  "Him," quipped DisplaceR, grinning and dodging yet another arrow.

The two advanced and retreated, sometimes one seemed likely to win, sometimes the other. This went on for a full twelve minutes, and then DisplaceR made his first mistake. As KMSEMPERFI was meditating, DisplaceR ran lightly to the wall where KMSEMPERFI's beloved, Coni Angel, was watching the fight. He threw Coni several salutes and bows. KMSEMPERFI went into full male battle alert, and stepped up the fury of his attacks. Within a few minutes it was all over.

DisplaceR took home 30K and the respect of everyone who watched him fight. The Unbeatable KMSEMPERFI claimed 60K and his fourth first place victory. Third Place and 10K went to Monk of B^G.   "Well," said Monk, "Now I have a third place title and a second place title. Two down, one to go." Speaking as a rares collector, I know the importance of getting a full set. Best of luck to you Monk!

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Hear Ye Hear Ye !

 

This is a great day for the lands of Britainia !

After Eons of time, we've finally managed to get the Casino web site up and running !

 

The concept is simple : it works like a real Casino, but you gamble with the gold you have collected on your shard !

 

Come and play our games like the popular Seven Up and Down, the Dragon's Nest or buy tickets for our monthly lottery draws !

 

New games and events are added often...

 

Do not miss it !

 

We made "Demos" of our games availeble for you to see how this great casino works !

 

Have Fun, Roll the dices, and if the luck is on your side... Get Rich !

 

To visit the site : http://www.uo-casino.com

 

(For now we're opening on Europa the 1st september 2001. Other shards will follow next)

Ive personally checked this out and it is very good, i surgest everyone tries it. I hope it gets enough people to support it! Good Luck!

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Greetings friends,

Last night the most recent fixture in the all-new Britannia Bagball League was held, a friendly match between the Spiritwood United team and the visitors from the Moonglow Mongbats.

Set for a 9 pm kick off, the visitors from Moonglow arrived in fair
Spiritwood in plenty of time to help prepare the pitch. The goals were set up, the mid field line sketched out and the Yellow Bag filled to the brim with old logs rendering it Waaayyyy too heavy to carry. After a brief annoyance from some visiting hooligans, the teams were set and play began!

From the outset, it was clear that the Spiritwood United team was facing a superior foe. Moonglow defenders held their ground well, and the bag was carried hither and thither, players puffing with exertion, with no points scored either way. But soon the superior experience of the Spiritwood team showed and they soon had their first points on the board. But it was not long before the Mongbats of Moonglow found their form and things intensified noticeably.

First one, then two and finally three points came Moonglow*s way,
leaving them but one short of the Spiritwood total.With their form improving all the time, the Moonglow team looked set to equalise in the last moments, causing our team from Spiritwood to look a bit nervous and buckle down. With the last moments of play, Moonglow moved the bag aggressively upfield towards the Spiritwood net, but the defence held, and with but seconds to go, Spiritwood United*s training came through for them and they scored! Final score, Spiritwood United Five, Moonglow Mongbats Four.

Time was called and then, miraculously, the field was covered with free drinks for all! A gift from the Gods, proving that even the all mighty enjoy a good match!

Soon the friendly pre-season matches will come to an end and play for the championship of all Britannia will begin in earnest.

If you think you would like to form a team and join in the fun, take a look at : http://run.to/bagball

There you will find the basic rules, although there will be some
modifications before the official league begins. (The site is not fully active, but the Forum is functioning, so if you are interested, leave your name, the name of your team and an ICQ number there, and we shall contact you. We hope to move the site soon and make it fully active).

Stay tuned Sports Fans, Bagball has come to Britannia!

Shri, Proconsul Custodes Fati

Town of Spiritwood

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The air was hot and dank from the swell of people packed into the guildhall. The Princess perched on her throne, obviously uncomfortable with leading the discussion at hand. She looked at the other nobles in the room but all avoided her querying glance. Even her old friend Shakespeare looked away from her gaze.

“He just doesn’t seem to understand that this is Felucca,” Apocalypse was standing at the head of the great table addressing the membership. “He has spent the past few weeks touring the countryside seeking the old alliances. He just doesn’t listen when we tell him that those old alliances are either gone or are just warring shells of their former glory.” Apocalypse paused while the members murmured amongst themselves. “Most importantly, he refuses to take those of us who would follow him to the gentry lands of Trammel!”

“He won’t go there,” Drusus’Asky stood to reply. “You know him as well as anybody, Apoc. This is his home and he won’t leave it.”

“I won’t leave Felucca either,” Myrddraal’s lanky body seemed to unfold as he stood beside the table. “My own home is here as well.” Myrddraal turned to look behind him. “And would you lay off that lute playing? It’s noisy enough in here!”

“Sorry.” Banshee put his lute into his pack. However, the little bard could not help but make one more strum as the instrument was put away. He grinned evilly at Myrddraal.

The crowd silenced as the Princess stood. “You all know my husband is an honorable man and lives to serve his guild. We all know how times have changed and how difficult it must be for him to come to grips with the way things are. This talk is getting us nowhere. What do you propose?” She sat again and waited patiently while the members looked at each other as though expecting the others to speak.

Fletcher and Meldron both stood as if they had drilled for this. “This is a new time,” Fletcher began. “The Felucca ways are different ways. We can no longer be a part of Felucca and stick to Trammel beliefs. We have all seen the carnage from the warring guilds, the warring factions and the murderers roaming the countryside unhindered. We have all seen the increase in thieves and brigands in our once fair land.” Fletcher paused as the crowd noise increased. “Okay! Okay! We all know I married one of those thieves so there’s no use in pretending it is a secret! Many are the times I have had to resurrect her because of her pilfering ways. But I would not change her nor will I leave the guild unless asked to.”

Draken stood and the crowd hushed as if the air had been sucked from the room. “I am a wanted murderer,” Draken said. “Yet Pawper has not asked that I leave the guild yet. He has only asked that I not display the guild colors until I have served my time. If he is not making me leave, Fletcher, I sincerely doubt he will ask it of you.” Draken sank back into his chair. “Besides,” he added with a smirk, “nobody makes bows as well crafted as yours.”

“Nobody is leaving!” a voice boomed from the darkened doorway. Prince Pawper strode into the room and took his place at his golden throne. He affectionately squeezed the Princess’ proffered hands before resuming, this time more softly. “I mean that nobody is leaving unless they wish to,” he added.

“But first, please hear what I have to say. Then you may make up your own minds. I have traveled the width and breadth of Felucca. I have seen the bloodshed. I have seen the vacant towns and honest merchants scurrying around like sewer rats. I have seen places where I played as a child but now cannot safely tread for fear of swarms of monsters or cold-blooded killers – or both.

“I have met with the gentry of Felucca trying to survive in a world torn asunder. I have even visited with the happy, fattened peoples in Trammel to see if I could live a life there. I cannot!

“Our guild must grow and adapt to reflect our times and our situation. Somewhere in the place between the gentry in their towns and the thieves at the moon gates and the timid people diving for the safety of their homes is a place for a new type of guild - a guild that is decidedly Felucca but not just a haven for people who wish to slaughter one another for sport. I have decided that the United Sosarian Brotherhood will be that guild! We will befriend the gentry…and the thieves…and all of the factions…and all of the warring houses. Also, we will provide a haven for merchants and craftsmen; murderers and monster slayers; mages and assassins - even visitors from Trammel.

“We must follow the lead of our own bowyer and declare that all USB residences on Felucca will be places of sanctuary and friendship for anybody wishing to rest from their toils. All that we will ask is that no killing or stealing takes place inside our homes.

“Perhaps others will follow our lead. Perhaps not. But Felucca must live and thrive – rising above the squabbles and the battles and the bickering and the petty nuisances who roam everywhere. And Felucca must grow on its own terms, with its own rules, with its own citizens. We will even have warriors to defend these principles, if we must.

“We will make our presence known with a contest - one that could only be held here in Felucca. I am not talking about anything so simple or easy as dueling or a pony race. I envision a contest so grand that it encompasses the whole of our land. A contest that all may play but only one will win. A contest with prizes so astounding that even faction members will drop their battles to participate in it. A contest that could only be inspired by a guild such as ours.”

Pawper slumped into his throne and looked one by one at his friends – his guild mates. “I’ve had my say. Now you decide, do you stay or do you leave?”

The party lasted through the night and on into the following day. Prince Pawper shook the hand of his last bleary-eyed departing guest and watched Husq trod off towards his home. An odd voice behind him said, “Now you see it, don’t you?”

Pawper spun and stared at the man on his steps. Dressed in black and red, the man wore the insignia of the sextant and the dagger.

“I am Augustus of the Army of Thieves,” the man said. Pawper stepped back and clutched his pack. “Now we can talk. I listened to your meeting last night. You may think you can change Felucca but we thieves rule here. We will welcome your hospitality and perhaps a few items you have no more use for. But your road will be long before you can convince us to change.” Augustus paused. “However, to start you on that road, I return this - your bow - and this - your bag of reagents. Don’t expect me or any other thief to ever return anything again.”

Then as suddenly as he had arrived, Augustus was gone. Also gone was Pawper’s quiver of arrows. Pawper stifled a grin and shook his head in jest. Thieves!

Thieves!

**(Coming Soon – The Felucca Contest!)**

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Yes, the new UO Seers and Troubadours will soon be here. We are gathering on all shards, preparing quests and events for all the players to enjoy. See the link below for our new web site. And, we also have a forum on Stratics at http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/guilds/uo/all/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=genuoseer

But, since we are a "truly" volunteer group, not supported by OSI, not given special powers or the ability to do as we wish, we need some help from the citizens of our fair land. We are seeking donations of all sorts, but one of the first and most important is a dwelling in which to store our items, have our meetings and prepare our events. Some of our events will be held in this donated structure, or at least a stopping point on the road to solving quests. Therefore, the larger the structure, the better.

Please note that we, the individual seer or troubador, does not perform on his or her own home shard. We need to create characters as needed and many of us have no slots open on our home shards. Therefore, as you know, we are born with only 1000 gold pieces, hardly enough to think about buying anything other than training in some extra skills we'll need and a few fish steaks.

Please remember, the dwelling is the most important at this point, but we won't turn down any items we could use for our events and quests, such as rares, gold, silver and special weapons for prizes, a guild stone, books, clothing, scrolls, reagents, full spell books, rune books, empty containers such as chests for our dwelling, anything you can think of.

Please contact me via ICQ or email if you can help with any of the above. I will meet you at the West Brit Bank in Trammel. My ICQ number is 128071387 and my email address is [email protected].

Thank you in advance for any support you can offer.

Sincerely, Troubador Radnor Baja Shard The UO Seer Website

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We had a dialogue about this - there were arguments on both sides.

1/3 gold for reds is a penalty for being red or a reward for being blue.

Weve removed the restrictions of reds going to town, weve removed guard wacking people who heal reds in town. There have to be differences between reds and blues on siege or everyone will be red.

95% of apx 30-40 players of siege. I have several emails in my box from siege players saying they like the changes including the 1/3 loot for reds.

This is a penalty being added to compensate for some nice things we did for reds.

All things considered the monsters are dropping the exact same loot they always have for reds they are just dropping 3x as much for blues (spending power wise) which is all that really matters.

It not fair to say we dont care what you think - when factions came out the reds on siege were in an uproar threatening to boycot factions because they couldnt participate - so now they can fully participate. We then heard the response its not fair when we go to town as a red we will get ganked and no one can heal us or get guard wacked - strange considering the oppositte is true outside of town in the dungeons. I suggested making the change to allow reds to be healed in town to make it completely fair to them.

If we didnt care what the playerbase wanted there wouldnt be these boards and there wouldnt be any changes coming to siege.

"roleplayer reds and because it will cause those reds to stop PVM, and concentrate on killing blues" - why isnt this happening now? shops charge 3x for everything after the change there wont be any difference in spending power. I could see this argument if prices werent dropping.

Had we put some penalty in for reds and all reds were 95% for it it wouldnt be a penalty - the fact that there are reds disliking this change indicate to us that it is indeed a penalty and a reward for non reds.

- Adrick

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Nyustul: Hi Teich, Nurch
Nurch21: Hello Nurch, Teich
Nyustul: ;-)

TeichDragon: Hello to you both :-)
TeichDragon: OK, since you are going to remake Ultima 7 (The Black Gate AND Serpent Isle) my first question:
TeichDragon: How many people are currently working on this, and what are their jobs?
Nyustul: We currently have a bare bones crew of five.
Nurch21: yeah, we assume that our number will grow as the game nears launch
Nyustul: Dr Bim, our comedic programmer and concept artist.
Nyustul: Nurch, Level Design and PR
Nyustul: Scott, a 3D Artist
Nyustul: Me
Nyustul: and Baalzzamon, another 3D artist

TeichDragon: With all the other mods (Ultima Remakes) currently in production for Dungeon Siege I guess thats an answer for you too. Why Dungeon Siege?
Nurch21: Well, actually
Nurch21: it is not only Dungeon Siege
Nurch21: Neverwinter Nights has caught my fancy
Nurch21: That game is very revolutionary in MANY ways
Nurch21: given the fact that their armor is almost life like
Nurch21: they have some very intricate details such as reflective armor, where you can see objects in the
Nurch21: reflection of the armor and sword
Nurch21: But the only problem with Neverwinter Nights is that their tilesets do not include a winter one.
Nurch21: That is planned for a later Patch update But right now, Dungeon Siege
Nurch21: has a very beautiful engine very immersive and quite powerful
Nyustul: I think no matter how much Neverwinter nights can be better, we are going with Dungeon Siege.
Nurch21: Dungeon Siege has many aspects that Neverwinter Nights does not
Nurch21: Dungeon Siege's editor is MUCH more user friendly
Nurch21: Plus has much more options

TeichDragon: As stated on your website you are looking to redo Black Gate and Serpent Isle too. Will that be two mods
TeichDragon: or one-in-all ?
Nurch21: all in one

TeichDragon: So you would be able to actually go forth between Britannia and Serpent Isle in it?
Nurch21: that is what Nyustul can answer
Nyustul: No, but you have to travel to the Serpent Isle.
Nyustul: Thats a nice little quest that was left out :-)
Nyustul: We still haven't decided how to solve the underworld problem though.
Nyustul: The original plot will still be there.
Nyustul: But we add some, and fool with the original a bit so you cant just blow through it.
Nyustul: Ultima Underworld II takes place between U7 and SI.
Nyustul: It may be a six months later message.
Nyustul: That way, we don't need to screw around with any of that.

TeichDragon: Another question - why did you choose Ultima 7 and SI to work on?
Nyustul: Well, I had plans to do this a year ago, but, no crew or fitting engine.
Nyustul: Ultima VII is in many peoples eyes, the best of the series.
Nyustul: I've been with it for years. I know every hack and program, and practically every person.
Nyustul: And, there are some things I want to fix.

TeichDragon: One question directly linked to it. With Ron Windeyer's patch to play the original game under windows,
TeichDragon: and Exult bearing the possibility to play it in other environments, why do you feel a remake is still
TeichDragon: worth the time?
Nyustul: I got tired of Ultima VII playing it through DOS about a year ago when I started contemplating.
Nyustul: IT is definately worth the time.
Nyustul: I have no doubt in my mind the Ultima community would love to see a remake.
Nyustul: Somone has already made another 3D map for U7 and SI.
Nyustul: I think the game is called Planet Mars... I'm not certain.
Nyustul: Maybe Project Mars...

TeichDragon: How do you feel about the other DS/NWN remakes currently going on, and are you in contact with them?
Nurch21: we are in contact with the other DS Modders
Nurch21: NWN has no modders
Nurch21: I may be the only one
Nurch21: as the saying goes "There can be only one!"
Nyustul: well, I keep in contact with the others.
Nyustul: U6 and U5 don't feel to comfortable.

TeichDragon: Are you planning to incorporate the same magic spells as in the original games? They differed from BG
TeichDragon: to SI, how will you handle this?
Nyustul: well
Nyustul: The way we handle this is simple.
Nyustul: You loose your spellbook in the first part.
Nyustul: err second part (SI)
Nyustul: That way when you go to SI you get a new spellbook.
Nyustul: thas how simple it is.

TeichDragon: Black Gate and Serpent Isle had a lot of scripted events, will they show as well.. prerendered
TeichDragon: Cutscenes or will you use the DS engine here?
Nyustul: Most will be handled in the editor.
Nyustul: We will have a few special cutscenes.
Nyustul: IE Alagners death in U7, or the false Wall of Lights scene in SI.

TeichDragon: Black gate had a nice way of travelling will this be incorporated as well?
Nyustul: definately
Nyustul: hopefully we will be working with U6 to create some code for the Magic Carpet (in their case, balloon)

TeichDragon: A lot of the plot from SI took part in dungeons, how will you handle this graphically? Will the
TeichDragon: dungeons get different "themes"?
Nyustul: Well, every dungeon was different.
Nyustul: SI is challanging since we have no tile in existance like the ones on the walls.
Nyustul: Scott, one of our 3D guys is working on that.

TeichDragon: Will all magic weapons make it into the game, and will they all have a distinct look/graphic/effect?
Nurch21: yes
Nurch21: I will make sure of it
Nyustul: Thats not my area of expertise. :-)
Nurch21: Yeah, that is my part
Nurch21: I am going to stick in some cool designs in there
Nurch21: not going to hold back either

TeichDragon: So we might see some graphics in the future on the webpage?
Nyustul: thats highly probable.
Nyustul: But, we don't want to give to much away.

TeichDragon: Something about music.
TeichDragon: You already have two pieces available on you website. How much music will the game have? I guess every
TeichDragon: sound in MP3 will take a lot of space for download when the game reaches final status?
Nyustul: yes
Nyustul: Well, every piece in the original will be there.
Nyustul: ***I'm looking for a good composer.*** COUGH COUGH HINT HINT :-)
Nyustul: We are going to encode the MP3's at a low bitrate.
Nyustul: I'm hoping below 30mb
Nyustul: in comparison right now on my site I use 192kbit encoding, we might use 96 or 112.
Nurch21: Just want to note that, I have been in contact with Jeremy Soule. The content of Dungeon Siege's
Nurch21: music is all classical

TeichDragon: Are you using only original sound, or will you use new ones and to what amount if you do?
Nyustul: Well, the music from the original will be much better sounding.
Nyustul: If I can find a ***good composer*** I will have some good new tunes.

TeichDragon: A lot in Black Gate was not exactly virtous, there were many ways how to get better equipment by
TeichDragon: stealing. will this be the same?
Nyustul: Ultima VII... virtues? ;-) Seriously, this has yet to be decided.
Nyustul: The guards system wasn't exactly perfect.
Nyustul: It probably will be more similar to U8.

TeichDragon: You said the cut scenes will be mostly made using the DS engine. Please tell our readers
TeichDragon: more about that...
Nyustul: I think the best way to explain this is the later Final Fantasy games.
Nyustul: Many of the cutscenes were just handled in-game.
Nyustul: Some were pre-rendered cutscenes.
Nyustul: It depends how important it is.

TeichDragon: So you are already working on the pre-rendered ones?
Nyustul: Plans.
Nyustul: I need to talk with Scott more.
Nyustul: I want to start work on them soon.
Nyustul: Yet again, I need to make sure that everything looks similar in the cutscenes as ingame.

TeichDragon: Will you put in some references to older (or newer) Ultimas) that were not quite correct in the original
TeichDragon: game or even more references?
Nyustul: Yes.
Nyustul: The imbalance needs to be explained more thoroughly
Nyustul: Just, adding more content.
Nyustul: Thats the big goal around here "Ultima VII, more."

TeichDragon: Something about legal issues: U1 has permission from Richard Garriot to remake the game, Exult still..
TeichDragon: needs the original files. When I interviewed the Lazarus project, they said EA's legal department...
TeichDragon: never called back. Any fears in that direction ?
Nurch21: Yeah
Nurch21: Richard Garriot
Nurch21: Does not own his own rights anymore
Nurch21: EA bought them all out
Nurch21: U1 does not have any formal permission
Nurch21: If they did not talk to EA
Nyustul: /* leaves this to PR */
Nurch21: now even HE cannot make an Ultima Series without EA's permission
Nurch21: Now
Nurch21: I have been in contact with EA
Nurch21: for a while now
Nurch21: even called em up on their 1800 number
Nurch21: which didnt get me that far
Nyustul: :/
Nurch21: But the only response that got me
Nurch21: was that
Nurch21: they would think about it
Nurch21: in America, that means: Duh...get lost
Nurch21: Now
Nurch21: the other Modders have also been in contact with them

Nurch21: Well you see
Nurch21: what was told to me
Nurch21: on the phone was
Nurch21: It WOULD hurt sales
Nurch21: because
Nurch21: People will see a better FREE version
Nurch21: of the game
Nurch21: Now
Nurch21: even if the MOD is non-profit
Nurch21: they would still lose sales

Nurch21: Anyways
Nurch21: as for legal issues
Nurch21: I strongly advise more and more modders help us
Nurch21: in our fight to LEGALLY make the mods
Nurch21: otherwise
Nurch21: as was told to me
Nurch21: they would prosecute us to the very limits
Nurch21: This is something serious

TeichDragon: With all the activities going on for Ultima and the Ultima remakes, how do you feel right now
TeichDragon: about the Ultima Community??
TeichDragon: Do you feel the Ultima community got more active since the remakes started?
TeichDragon: and that they drew closer together?
Nurch21: OH HELL YEAH!
Nurch21: Definantly
Nurch21: because we get to see our games, with better graphics
Nurch21: with a world we can be immersed in
Nurch21: and actually feel the world
Nyustul: Now we have the true fans.
Nyustul: Not the Ultima IXers.

TeichDragon: How much interaction will you going to see in the remake? ....
TeichDragon: I guess "Ultima isn't about baking bread!" is not right for you?
Nurch21: Ultima isnt about baking bread
Nurch21: that is very true
Nurch21: It is about Saving the girl and killing the dragon
Nyustul: We want to maintain a high level of interaction.
Nyustul: But, maybe not everything.
Nyustul: IE, you might not be able to sit in a chair.
Nurch21: yes you can...DS has that emote in there
Nyustul: It was just an example :P

TeichDragon: Like baking bread, NPC schedules, weather changes???
Nyustul: Baking Bread, no
Nyustul: The other two, probably.

TeichDragon: Will the weather have a real impact? You might need that for SI...
Nyustul: well, SI is interesting.
Nyustul: Weather will be controlled in SI.
Nyustul: We'll have all the thunder all over the place.
Nyustul: Like the original.

TeichDragon: Nice, ok last question and a free comment
TeichDragon: Are people from your group actually playing Ultima Online and what are your thoughts about it?
Nyustul: My brothers a big player on Baja
Nyustul: I don't see him anymore though.
Nyustul: Go Shadowlords Baja :-)
TeichDragon: *grins* *makes a note to forward this to the Baja Manager *
Nyustul: He is probably the best thief in Baja RoofTopSniper
Nyustul: I think UO is good.]
Nyustul: It keeps the Ultima community alive.
Nyustul: But, I would have loved to se OWO.

TeichDragon: OK thanks to you both, this was very much fun!
Nurch21: Thank you Teich
Nurch21: I'll keep in contact with you
Nurch21: about further development
Nyustul: Maybe as we approch the release, we'll have a more indepth chat.

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On Friday August 31st, The people of Sonoma are invited to attend the wedding of Lord Bub and Lady Killaua of SoJ.

Follow this link for location and travel arrangements.

http://members.home.net/alienthing1/invitation.htm

We look forward to your attendance. All are welcome to come help us celebrate this special day!

Please stable horses before attending. After the ceremony, everyone is invited to the Saints of Justice guildhouse for conversation and celebration. Gates will be provided for those interested from the ceremony.

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Clan Antos, Guardians of the Shrine of Thallasha, besieged by the horde of savage warriors, lizard men and rat men, continue in their attempts to carry forth Thallasha's work.

But now, an even worse fate has befallen them. A precious tome from Thallasha's great Wisdom of The Oracle has been stolen from its place within Her Temple. Such knowledge is meant to be shared among the people of Sosaria but now... in what hands does it lie?

Deirdre Antos, Matriarch of Clan Antos, High Priestess to the Shrine of Thallasha, sends out her cry to the people of Sosaria to recover this precious tome. This precious tome that provides them with Thallasha's words... so invaluable to those seeking.

On the eve' of September 8th at 9pm EST, they will be standing watch over the Shrine. Any warriors, bards, mages, bondsmen or healers that make the dangerous trek, by sea or land, to The Shrine and Oracle of Thallasha, will be rewarded for their efforts. And to the one who finds the tome? Great rewards come to those who persevere in their journeys...

The bondsmen sworn to serve the Nemeton, will be standing by to render the materials gathered from the savages and their co-conspirators into finished goods, Healers will render aid to the fallen. The larder of The Nemeton will be shared in hospitality and The Oracle, Thallasha's Wisdom itself, will be forever standing to provide for those who seek.

The Nemeton del Mere Sanctum is found on the dangerous Peninsula south of the dungeon of Destard. It has been speculated by poets that to the birds in flight, it must appear as the 'right fin of the tail of the whale' or 'the boot of the ranger'.

To reach it by land, one must travel southward from Destard, down through the Peninsula inhabited by the lizards, giant serpents and savages, to the temple found along the southeastern coast. By sea, one must travel southward along the mainland coast near Yew which will eventually bring ye to the Peninsula. Circling around the southeastern side, ye will approach the cove of the Nemeton. The sextant coordinates of 118°33'South, 8°13' West will bring ye to the landing in front of The Nemeton's door.

May Valor assist ye in your travels to the Nemeton, the lights on the pillars guide your way and the scent of rosemary and juniper hanging o'er the door heal and refresh your spirit.

Clan Antos, [NMS]
The Nemeton del Mere Sanctum

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Enjoy!

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The sound of a single horse’s hooves ringing on the cobblestone pavement and the whispering wind made Pawper shiver involuntarily. This was Aryslan! Where were the bustling crowds of hearty craftspeople hawking their wares? Where was the laughter and camaraderie of the knights and wizards of the Sapphire Rose?

The only signs of humanity Pawper had seen since entering Aryslan were a band of brigands that he had quickly dispatched and one lone resident dashing into a small house. The resident did not answer the locked door despite Pawper’s attempts to show he was an honest visitor.

Oberon Pass was little different than Aryslan, harboring more trolls than people these days. Even the Monks were scarce to be seen - although one, the Monks’ master DogMeat, whispered of a new town of nobles seemingly thriving in Felucca. Pawper thanked the holy warrior and spurred his horse toward Vesper.

Dragon’s Watch was a little more active than the other towns he had visited. Although Pawper did not recognize any of the faces, he recognized guild colors from long ago. He bowed to two warriors from the Iron Brigade but they hurried past, deeply involved in conversation. Pawper only caught a few words of the knights’ discussion - something about thieves.

Two mages from FDA were no friendlier, seemingly ignoring his salutation as they walked from a house into the tower next door. “There are noble-born here, right enough,” Pawper grumbled in a breath, “but they sure aren’t friendly to strangers.”

Finally, Pawper saw a face from his past. It was the guild master of the Army of the Dragon, John McBain. “John!” Pawper called and strode toward the other man.

“Do I know you?” McBain peered from beneath a golden helm and stepped back with a hand atop his sword hilt.

“I am Pawper of the Brotherhood, old friend. We fought in the undergrounds of this land long ago with our brethren. I have returned.” Pawper extended his hand.

“Hmmm. I do not recall you,” McBain said, choosing to keep his own hand on his sword. “But I know of the Brotherhood. They are friends of thieves and villains! If you are with them, then you are not a friend of mine!”

“Nay, old friend,” Pawper lowered his hand. “USB is still a noble guild and will remain so!”

“I have been to your ‘sanctuary’ by the Brit Gate,” McBain held his stance. “It is a place for thieves to hide – nothing more.” McBain paused then smiled. “However, since you are noble, you are welcome in Dragon’s Watch. Please feel free to look around and make yourself at home. We welcome all nobles in this great city of ours!”

Long after the clumsy reunion, Pawper strode through the streets of Dragon’s Watch. It was almost like the old days in Dragon’s Watch. Almost. Pawper felt himself breathing easier.

“I see you met the mayor,” a man’s voice whispered from the shadows between two great houses. “Swell guy, isn’t he?”

Pawper swung and raised his crossbow. “Who are you?” he challenged. “Show yourself!”

“Not yet, friend. Not yet. But we will talk soon.”

Pawper grabbed into the shadow but caught only a black cloak. Lying on the ground were a sextant and a dagger. There were no other signs of the mysterious stranger.

Disconcerted by this conversation, Pawper retrieved his horse and rode back to Vesper. Perhaps they should relocate to Dragon’s Watch. Perhaps as a neighbor, the old guilds would soon recognize that USB is part of their noble community. Perhaps…

Yet an odd voice whispered in the shadows of his thoughts. An odd voice that suggested that perhaps this wasn’t the old days and there is no turning back. An odd voice that kept repeating “Not yet. Not yet.”

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On September the 1st Meri the 1999 Miss Moonglow in the Miss Baja contest will be wed to Majik Man. The public is invited to this joyus event to be held at 8pm pacific time at the Moonglow Lyceum on the trammel facet of the shard.

A reception will be directly following the ceremony. All are welcomed to watch the former pagent beauty say goodbye to the single life!

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This is the second part in a loose sequence with the intention to introduce the people holding positions in the Moonglow City Council.
The goal is, that you better get to know them and can thus directly address the correct person, if you want a problem solved in Moonglow.

Today: Sauron - the new vice mayor of Moonglow.

Q: Can you give us a short biography of yourself?
A: I was born in Britain 24years ago. My mother and father had said to me that I should learn how to be a swordsman. I tried the ways of swordsmanship but could not master them, and eventually got bored of this. I always had a fasination with the study of magic and since being young wanted to learn to be a mage. I gave up the ways of being a swordsman and started to learn magic. Although the road was long (and an expensive one too) I eventually grandmastered the art of magic which I was extremly proud of. I then moved to a remote area, with its closest establishment being Yew. There I practiced more magic,improving what I had learnt. Eventually growing tired of living in a remote area, I moved to just outside Moonglow city, which I currently live now.

Q: You have just recently been elected as vice mayor of Moonglow. What does a vice mayor do in the Council?
A: The vice mayor supports the mayor in what he does. If the mayor is currently not present at a meeting, then the vice mayor takes over and chairs the meeting.

Q: Many people don't exactly know what a City Council can achieve or do. Could you shortly tell us what - in general - is possible and what not?
A: A city council trys to improve and help the city it is in. It might try to do this by events and projects for the people. It is also a place where people can go to say their ideas and vote on how their city is run. Afterall, the council works for its citizens. But it is not possible to reach a vote that pleases everyone, so votes must be made by the council on a whole to see which the best option is.

Q: What are your visions for Moonglow's future?
A: My visions for Moonglows futures are a city with more events, and 'going ons'. Events for people to gather and talk to one another and to have fun. 'Going on's to attract attention to our town and to improve the working together of the people in our town.

Many thanks for this interview!

If you want further information about the Moonglow City Council please head to the skypage:
http://stop.at/moonglow

Yoldran,
-Town Crier of Moonglow.

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Well here goes

"What I do find disheartening about PvP play however is the continual placement of it above all other systems, designers such as Adrick view PvP as the core of the game, they neglect to imagine a game that is a pleasure to play because every system within it creates a more palatable playing experience for the player."

Honestly since Ive joined this team - over 15 months ago the only major system for pvp I worked on was the faction system. When I first got on the team we were given the faction system (myself and Evo) and asked to make this thing work as it was part of Ren. We looked at it and noticed that 99% of it was for hard core pvpers. We spent most of our time engineering the faction system to work better for merchants and alike. I have on occasion made changes to the game for pvpers - looting changes, bug fixes etc. Also we as a team brought back precasting along with some other minor tweaks. Bringing back precasting is no where near the magnitude of putting in a new system like townstones etc - tweaking an existing system requires little in the way of development time. I would guess that a fair estimate of my time spent on pvp has been less than 10%.

"Adrick has never disguised his feelings towards his favourite part of the game, nor for that matter have I...the difference between us however is that I am a player and he is a developer who has the power and capacity to influence and create change. One such change was the way that localization was initially implemented in systems such as fishing. You fish up an item : a big fish is a product of that method of introducing localization to the game, a method that has received not one positive response from the customer and which many who enjoy the entire game as a role-playing experience detest with insatiable loathing because of the impact that it has had in the visual representation of the IC world."

My favorite part of the game as a player and my favorite part of the game as a designer are not the same. My favorite part of the game as a designer is fixing bugs and seeing players enjoy the game as a result of what I have done. Most of the things of late have been the removal of exploits...

The localization changes to UO were to bring the product to more customers - It wasn't easy to take a game that wasn't meant to be localized and make it so - looking back I agree it could have been handled better in many areas and I do apologize for the communication break down :(

Right now my primary focus as a designer is to fix bugs - i don't pick and choose bugs I fix and I enjoy fixing them all. Why do I enjoy it? because as a player it was the single most frustrating experience for me playing a game.

This entire team is committed to improving many aspects of the game - We have an entire team led by Cal working on ongoing content. Unfortunately everything everybody wants cant get done -

That being said we do value pvp as an important part of ultima online. No single element is THE most important - in fact its a combination of everything that what I believe makes the game so great.


We don't like to make promises about what is not certain or close to completion but there are some things in the work I think you will enjoy. We do ask for feedback and we do listen - we cant listen to everyone all the time because so often people have opposing views and priorities.

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We are still working to complete the official Online Worlds FanFest 2001 website, along with the registration page, Host application page and session schedules, and anticipate that it will go live early next week. In order to ensure that people still have plenty of time for the early registration price, we will be extending the early registration schedule.

Thank you for your patience, and we'll have plenty of FanFest details available next week!

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Council Elections Saturday Evening
9 to 11 pm Pacific Time
Skara Brae Town Hall, Felucca

In the community's efforts over the years, the council elections have been a mainstay of life on the Pacific Shard. This year is no different. The Skara Brae community is based around its citizens and the guilds that support it. Voting is open to all of the lands, and requires only your commitment to support the community.

Voting will take place in the Town Hall in Skara Brae between 9 and 11 pm, with one close race for the position of Chancellor of the Judiciary, a lot rides on this election.

Hope to see you all at the balloting.

Sam, Lady Chancellor of the Gentry (retiring)

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Still room in our PvP tourney! Several have entered for the opportunity to win, but there's still room left.

A small wooden house in Fel adjacent to Vesper cemetary is the prize. 15k is the entry fee.

The rules are open, magic weaps are allowed, all types of people are allowed, even reds...however, no pets and no mounts.

The arena location will be a remote isle to which participants and spectators will be gated from the cemetary road in Vesper, Fel.

No looting will be allowed and interference will NOT be tolerated. Armed guards will be on hand to insure that participants who are red are not attacked and losing parties will not be looted. However, no guarantees can be made, so, carry valuables at your own risk.

15k will be collected at the gate point on Saturday. Spectators are encouraged to watch. Tournament starts at 8pm on Saturday and will run until all rounds are complete, tournament style. The winner walks away with a nice new home. Q me at 69082982 for any other questions or to get your name added to the list.

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The West Coast Innovations House Decorating Contest has closed, and the eight finalists have been announced. Each of the 8 finalists (2 from each of the eligible shard: Baja, Napa Valley, Pacific, and Sonoma) will take home 100K. After a panel of celebrity judges has a chance to review the finalists, a Grand Prize Winner will be announced. The Grand Prize Winner will take home a total of 500K in prizes. If you want to see the winning entries (and the other entries too!) you can go to http://people.atl.mediaone.net/pluffy/InnWinners.htm for a peek!

Thanks,
Pluffy and UO Realtor

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Creating an Event: Development

Some of us have already created, or plan to try our hand at creating, events for other players in Ultima Online. This article is a checklist of sorts, collecting some information which might be as helpful for those of you who are just starting out, as those who are seasoned event creators. In fact, this is the first of a series of four articles: “Development,” “Preparation,” “Management,” and “Aftermath.”

By the way, when I mention “event,” I mean a whole variety of in-game activities, the type which require players to create, manage, and support. An event could be a contest, a tournament, a ceremony, a quest, or many other player-sponsored activities.

The idea: What kind of event do you want to have? Sometimes the hardest part of the creation process is deciding what you want to do. It’s often good to first consider your interests, your skills, the amount of resources, and the people who can help you. Here’s a list of some common event themes:

• Adventuring & Hunts: Wilderness hunt, dungeon crawl, treasure hunt, fishing net hunt, adventuring quest
• Large Battles: Guild war, faction battle, Hero/Evil battle
• Fight nights, tournaments, and duels: Basic one-on-one duels, two-on-two fights, massive “last man standing” brawl, pets only, summoned creatures only, magery only, no-magic, anything goes
• Races: Foot race, horse/mount, boat, drunken
• Games & Contests: Board games, trivia contests, riddle contests, gambling, raffles, lotteries, auctions, scavenger hunts, skill use races (ex. chopping wood, cooking, crafting, etc.)
• Ceremonies & social gatherings: Guild ceremony, swearing-in, grand opening, birthday party, wedding, singles night, theatrical play, storytelling, poetry night, afternoon tea
• Education: New player introduction, skill training seminar, shrine pilgrimage.

If you’re still not sure what to do, there’s nothing wrong with asking others for ideas. Contact friends, guildmates, or even other players who have done previous events which you’ve admired, and ask for their input. Some good contact methods to use are e-mail, ICQ, IRC, or message boards.

As suggestions come in, don’t be opposed to revising your idea based on the comments of others. Your helpers may have some great suggestions to improve your event, or they might point out some concepts that may not work as you thought they might.

Determine your resources: As your event idea develops, keep in mind available resources. Make a list of everything you think you may need to have in-game at the time of the event, and make sure you have everything prepared far before the event is to happen. This list will probably change several times as you develop your event.

Gather wood, food supplies, ingots, weapons, reagents, communication crystals, and any props you might need. If there’s to be special prizes, like rare items, large amounts of gold, or special rewards, make sure to have them available at event time. Consider even setting a budget for your event.

Consider your audience: Not every event will be geared toward every player or character type. Will your event be invitation only, such as for your friends & guildmates, or will you have it open to everyone? Are murderer characters (“Reds”) allowed to participate? Will both combatants and non-combatants be able to participate? These details will be important to note in any announcements and rules statements.

Determine & document the details: Once you have your event’s concept set, write out everything you’d like to do. Write out all the rules for your contest or tournament, and try to state them as simply as possible. If you’re making a quest, make sure you have the entire plot planned out, especially the ending(s).

Try not to rely heavily on the event’s backstory in order to run your event. There may be a number of people who aren’t familiar with the event’s history, and may become frustrated at any amount of required knowledge.

Allow people to be either active participants or sideline bystanders. Some people may just want to watch, and others will not want to participate at all, so don’t try to force them. If you feel you won’t have enough active participants on your intended date, consider rescheduling the event for some later time.

Define the “victory conditions” for your event. A tournament might simply be “to the death.” A quest might need certain goals met in order to be completed.

Quests could, and perhaps should, be developed with both positive and negative results in mind, and the respective rewards or penalties which might ensue. If you’re prepared to deal a variety of tangents, these “event killers” could become your “event enhancers,” and can lead into improvements for your next event. Consider what would happen if it never occurred to anyone that your imprisoned guildmaster could be rescued. What if the players in your quest actually killed your leader? It might not be what you had in mind, but they are certainly viable possibilities.

A given event might be one night only, lasting one hour. Or, it might be a series of 4 events, each one 2 or 3 hours in length. Consider sometimes splitting up your events, with each part of the event series having a clear ending all of its own. A tournament could have nightly winners, with a final “grand champion” at the end of the series. Each “chapter” of a quest could have a “stand-alone” feel, played out as a short story all their own, which is great for players who can’t attend all the related events in that series.

You may need other people to read your notes, so try to make sure to keep them brief, readable and accessible. If possible, post them on a web site, or distribute them to your new helpers as a text (.txt) file.

What will the rules be? An informal ceremony might have simple rules: “No fighting, stealing, or harassing.” A quest might ask everyone to give fair warning before every fight (“I’ll let you keep your head for 100 gold,” or “Halt or die!”), helping to confirm one’s place in the event. A battle might restrict anyone who died to remain in deathrobes while they recovered their own loot, but did not allow them to return into the fight. A tournament in Felucca might have duelists “go grey” by targeting a mutually agreed upon player-target before starting any combat.

Whatever rules you choose, try to take exceptional care that everyone participating in your event knows them. Pointing people to a Web page where the rules are listed is a great start, but think about also handing out in-game books with those same rules, and perhaps even having an “event crier” announcing those same rules between bouts or periodically during a hunt or quest.

Choose your helpers: You may need to pick some other players to help you create your event, and it’s important to consider their schedule, personality, and their characters’ abilities.

• Schedule: Be flexible; adjust your schedule as necessary. Some of your helpers may not be able to assist you on certain days, and this detail may be critical later on if your event becomes a regular happening. In fact, many events find success in occurring on a regular basis - daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly. It helps your audience to know that they can count on showing up at your house, for instance, every Sunday night at 8pm Central Time and be involved in some form of entertainment.
• Personality: Your friends may be eager to help you out, and while some of them may be great “people persons,” others may have short fuses. The harsh fact is that events can be tough to develop & manage, and sometimes it might be in your best interests to suggest a certain friend might have more fun as a participant than as staff. ;)
• Characters’ Abilities: Find out how your helpers’ characters can contribute to the event. Can someone resurrect fallen duelists? Will someone be able to Gate people to your location? Do you have a great “speaker” to be an MC at a contest? Who is tough enough to be the adversary in your quest? You’ll need actors for quests, announcers for “fight nights,” ministers for weddings, dealers for gambling events, etc., and it’s important to pick the right people for the right jobs.

Choose your location: The location(s) can be very important toward the success of your event. Details to consider here are guard zones, players’ houses, old world or “lost lands” of the Second Age, and which facet (Felucca, Trammel, or Ilshenar).

Is your location easily accessible, or will people need to Recall or Gate, use a boat, or will it require Third Dawn? Keep in mind the space you’ll need for your event. An afternoon tea party with four people might do well in a small house, but 20 people trying to duel each other in that same house will grow very frustrating, very fast.

If your house is the location of the event, it’s good to also have a vendor selling runes Marked to your front steps, and even books with your Web site’s address and some brief details about your event. It also doesn’t hurt your public image to give away some of those things as you travel.

I’ll go over some tips for the “Preparation” stage of your event in my next Team Comment, and I’ll try to keep it shorter next time. :]

Keith "Sannio" Quinn
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online

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Pawper smiled as he leaned back on his golden throne, carefully waxing a bowstring worn loose after a long hunt through Deceit. It had been a long time since he had last been in the company of good friends, battling the horrific monsters of the Sosarian dungeons. In fact, it had been a long time since he had done anything in this wondrous land.

Time had wrought many changes on Sosaria during Pawper’s absence. Shakespeare had patiently explained those changes soon after Pawper’s return. “The land magically split, my liege,” Shakespeare recounted. “The nobles and gentry migrated en masse to the lands now called Trammel. Tis a peaceful if dull existence there, nary troubled by the villains, brigands and soldiers roaming this now dead land named Felucca.”

In his turn, Pawper could not explain to his lieutenant where he had been these long years. The awful truth was that Pawper did not know. It seemed he had gone to sleep in his house at Oberon Pass one night only to awaken years later at his guild’s headquarters on Dagger Isle. What had happened during those intervening years? Time had wrought changes on Pawper, as well. His full mass of steely gray hair was now shockingly white and showed signs of receding.

“Why dost thou look so glum, m’love?” The Princess seemed to glide into the room as if her delicate feet supported wings instead of a pair of shapely legs. “Art still troubled by thy disappearance?”

Prince Pawper set down his hunting bow and stood to grasp the firm hands of his beautiful wife. Either time or a missing husband had rendered her silken hair the same shade of white as his. But neither had taken away from a countenance that was as lovely to look upon as the day they’d met. “Aye, in truth, I’ve missed many strange things and marvelous adventures and know not why. But more than that, years of your kisses and embrace were stolen from me! I fear I shall never recover those years.”

“Then let us make up for lost time, m’love.” The Princess sighed softly and tiptoed to press her warm lips to his.

“Excuse me, m’lord. I wish to speak with you.” Dinsdale hovered at the door, his thin scribe’s hands stained blue with ink and green with the putrid liquid that he kept locked up in his safe box. The odd little man’s glance darted to and fro like some rodent seeking escape from a pack of dire wolves before lighting on the couple. “My apologies for disturbing you,” Dinsdale rasped in his most annoying voice.

“We will continue this later,” the Princess promised as she extricated herself and left the room.

Pawper refrained himself from berating his scribe for staring at the Princess during her departure. He could scarcely blame the man for being enthralled with her. Besides, despite his oddities, Dinsdale had remained loyal to the Prince and the Brotherhood when almost all others had left during Pawper’s absence. And the little scribe kept the books and the vault impeccably neat.

“Speak up, Dinsdale,” Pawper said as he retook his seat upon the throne. “What is so urgent that you need disturb the lady and me?”

“Tis about Fletcher, the bowyer.” Dinsdale seemed to creep as he moved subserviently toward the Prince. “Tis more about Fletcher’s wife.”

“Raffles? What of her? She seems a lovely woman and has certainly done much to improve Fletcher’s disposition. You of all people should recall what a rambunctious fellow he was before my…um…absence. Why, I remember when Fletcher and that Meldron fellow rearranged your weapon and armory lockers. As I recall, when the house was attacked the next day, all you could find was some female armor and a very nice purple fancy dress. I still think we won the day because those poor attackers could scarce keep on their mounts from the laughing at the sight of you in that attire brandishing your only available weapon - a Cleaver of Ruin!”

Dinsdale briefly glared at the Prince before averting his gaze once again. “I know that!” he whined. “It isn’t about her personality that I am here to speak, m’lord. It is more about her…character.

“You see, I had a chance to visit with Fletcher and her this morn in their tower by the Britain Moongate.” Dinsdale spoke more quickly, as if he’d lose his nerve before completing his tale. “She was a gracious hostess to myself and many of the patrons visiting their shop there. But soon after I arrived, I would have sworn I saw her lift some gold right out of this one bloke’s purse.

“Then later, I saw her conversing deeply with that villain Augustus. I know you have been away, m’lord, so you may not know that this Augustus fellow is reputed to be the leader of the vicious Army of Thieves! What are we going to do about this?!” Dinsdale almost shrieked out his question.

“Do? I know not! I will have a talk with Fletcher this evening. In the meantime, you are to discuss your thoughts with no one. Is that understood?”

“Perfectly, m’lord.” Dinsdale glanced around quickly then scurried from the room.

Thieves! Thieves were like bad weather. Best to be avoided or at least endured if avoidance was impossible. At least a murderer could be dealt with man-to-man. But thieves! Thieves would cut your purse or steal your favorite bow and then be gone before an honest man could react. Thieves!

“It is no wonder the nobles fled to Trammel where thievery is nigh impossible,” Pawper muttered. But this place of Felucca had long been home and Pawper would not flee like a frightened child. “I will talk to Fletcher this evening,” he repeated to the empty room. His brow furrowed.

Thieves.

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“The nerve of that guy!” Fletcher the bowyer flung his flagon of ale at the wall. The mug shattered, staining the wall and knocking a painting askew. “He comes into my house…all high and mighty…and he dares to accuse my wife of being a thief! Why, I should have just axed him where he stood!” Fletcher’s strong right hand tightened on his battle-axe.

“But, Fletcher honey, you’re forgetting a couple of things,” Raffles smiled as she straightened the painting and bent over to pick up pieces of the broken flagon. “First, Pawper is your chosen liege and master of the Brotherhood. Second, and most importantly, I am a thief! You know that, silly man!”

“Aye,” Fletcher sighed and relaxed into his green orc-head throne, “You’ve never kept your profession a secret from me. Although your craft was obvious right away from the way you stole my heart.”

“Keke! Mootamba loves dis place!” Raffles’ guild mate Mootamba bounced into the room, her dark face flush with excitement. “Keke! See all my friends outside?”

Through the window, Fletcher saw several soldiers from the faction wars milling around the front door of his tower. From the glares he received and the way they brandished their weapons, Fletcher doubted they were actually paying a mere social call. “I guess I should go see what they want,” Fletcher sighed. These visits from angry mobs were becoming all too common at his peaceful shop.

“Be careful out there,” a voice boomed from a dark corner. The Murderer Draken smiled, “they’re not all as friendly as I am.” Suddenly, both Draken and Mootamba seemed to vanish, as if into thin air.

Fletcher stepped outside into the din of angry voices. “Let us have the thief!” “Is this a shop or a thief hide-out?!” “Murderer! I saw a murderer in there!” “Bring them out! Bring them out!”

Fletcher grasped the sturdy handle of his axe, took a deep breath and smiled at the angry crowd. “See the sign?” he yelled over the clamorous chant of ‘Bring them out! Bring them out!’ “This is a USB Peace Sanctuary,” he continued. “Anybody and everybody is welcome here!”

“Then we’ll go in and get them ourselves,” growled one young soldier. He spurred his horse at Fletcher and the door. The bowyer stood his ground.

“Just one thing, young man,” Fletcher said. “All sanctuaries have rules. There will be no starting a fight or stealing inside these walls! Ever!”

“We’ll see about that.” The soldier urged his horse forward, knocking Fletcher aside. The door opened and the sound of steel rang out as Mootamba defended herself against the brash youth.

Fletcher drew on the tower’s magical powers and the soldier appeared beside the steps, somewhat sliced up and looking a bit relieved. Fletcher glared at the youth. “I told you – this is a Sanctuary! Anybody is welcome but nobody may steal or kill inside these walls. You got that, boy?”

“Minax! Minax!” The call came from the back of the crowd. Apparently, a warring faction soldier had appeared at the Moongate. As quickly as it had formed, the mob turned to attack the newcomer. Even the brash youngster was drawn to the appeal of a bloodbath and left the tower steps.

Fletcher shrugged and turned to reenter his tower. The door flung open and Mootamba dashed past him, following the troops. She turned and grinned widely. “Keke! I love dese guys! Dey not too bright!” She ran off into the trees toward the glow of the Moongate.

Fletcher shook his head, returning to thoughts of Pawper’s visit. The Prince was almost a relic, having been away for so long. He acted like a Trammelite! This was Felucca. The old ways were gone! This was a new time and the guild must change! Fletcher grabbed a quill and scroll and hastily scratched out a note. If Pawper wouldn’t change the guild, then the members must change it for him!

Terock the warrior glanced at the scroll tacked to the guild house door. It was unusual for the guild to hold a meeting on such short notice. But even more unusual was that the meeting had been called by one of the craftsmen - Fletcher the bowyer.

Terock wrinkled his brow, shifting his massive helm slightly. “Hmmm,” he mumbled, “I will attend this meeting. But first there are things to kill and Husq Varna and Apocalypse are waiting for me!” Thoughts crept into his head of a field of dead Ophidians trampled under the hooves of USB war-horses. Terock smiled and galloped off.

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Howdy,

Welcome to the GUL pit fights. Hosted at Oc'Nivelle (Yew Forest 47o 17`N. x 34o 56`W) Designed to be a place for fighters of all play styles to come together to battle it out, the GUL Pit fights will be held every Saturday.

Registration will begin at 8 pm pst fighting will begin at 9 pm. Players wishing to register must do so by 8:50, no late entries will be accepted.

This Weeks Pit Fight (Saturday August 25th) will be 2v2 single elimination.

Prizes

• 1st place - 250,000 gold pieces
  
• 2nd place - 150,000 gold pieces
  
• 3rd place - 50,000 gold pieces

There is no entrance fee
Sponsored by GUL

Guardians of the Undead Lords Pit Fighting rules

• No magic weapons, no magic armor, no charged magic items.
  
• Pre-poisoned weapons are not allowed. Fighters with the poisoning skill may poison there blades once the fight has started.
  
• No casting of field spells, or summoning.
  
• No pets, this includes spectators. Please stable your pets before arriving at the tower.
  
• No looting.
  
• No stealing
  
• Loss of connection during a fight will result in that fighter losing the match.
  
• Tournaments are single elimination (the exception being fighters who lose in the semi-finals will be asked to stay and fight for 3rd place)
  
• All fighters are subject to snooping by the Oc'Nivelle staff.
  
• Any spectator inference will result in the spectator being banned and the fight starting over.
  
• No one is permitted inside the fighting area except the fighters for that match and the ref.
  
• Fighters may not hide or cast invisible during there fight
  
• To reduce lag anyone not fighting will be asked to hide during the fight. Players who consistently do not hide will be removed from the tower.
  
• No smack talking. The point is to prove what you can do... If you just "owned" someone we all will have seen it, no need to spout off about it.
  
• The ref will have final say over any match, issues or complaints with the rules of GUL's Pit Fight will not be discussed until after the tournament has ended.

For questions please visit
www.game-master.net

Thanks A Bunch
Beldin icq 57169966

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I would once again like to announce the opening of a new vendor shop on the
Europa Shard-Trammel. This is a beautiful large marble with about 30 vendors
as well as one of the best rune libraries in Trammel.
The shop is called Moonglow Rune Library.

Also along with this is another very lovely small marble vendor shop called
Ventures Unlimited. They are located not to far down the road from the Skar
docks.  They have been open for a while but just recently redecorated and
added some new vendors.

To see pictures of both theses shops as well as their locations and what
they have to offer you can go here:

http://linux.telnett.no/~doomworld/

Lady Nyte Doombringer-Europa Shard

Thanks, good luck with the shop.

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Friday August 31st

4:00 pm EST
    Grecko Wrestling Contest 
    Dart Contest in the Pub
6:00 pm EST
    "Manna Dump" Contest
    Treasure Hunting Booth
    The Pub and the StarLight Café open
8:00 pm EST
    Art in a Box Contest
    Winner of Decorating Contest Announced
10:00 pm EST
    Barding/Story Contest, Topic: Love
    GM Smith Repairs and Bring Your Own Ore Smithing
    12:00 mid EST
    Floor Show by Jack in the Café
2:00 am EST
    Drunken Llama Hunt
    The Pub and the StarLight Café close

Saturday September 1st 

10:00 am EST
    Breakfast with the Mayor Nemonis
    GM Smith Repairs and Bring Your Own Ore Smithing
    The Pub and the StarLight Café open
12:00 noon EST
    "r0x0r J00" Contest
    Dart Contest in the Pub
2:00 pm EST
    Mages' Poker 
    Treasure Hunting Booth
4:00 pm EST
    Home Lottery opens
6:00 pm EST
    Barding/Story Contest, Topic: Epic Battles
8:00 pm EST
    Closing Party Starts
    Home Lottery Winner Announced

Links to Garden City are here.

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Britannia's favorite public slaughter happens again this Sunday at 4 p.m. EST (3 p.m. CST). The stinky fun-loving fishers of the Fishing Council of Britannia (FCB) will donate special fishing nets worth tens of thousands of gold for the amusement of the citizenry.

The fishers of the FCB bring their fish nets to the Trammel Maginica docks. We cast them onto the sea, 2, 3, or even 4 at time. As any proper fisher knows, but many landlubbers do not, each net spawns sea serpents, water elementals, and even the deadly kraken (who sometimes carry ropes or SOS bottles as loot). 'Tis great fun--many of the citizens die, but there is a friendly healer at the end of the dock who will quickly resurrect the victims. We will provide gates from Britain Main Bank.

The land-lubbers soon learn how tough a fisher must be---this is not a job for the weak or faint-hearted, but the rewards are great.

Gem

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I had the opportunity to interview one of the greatest, and most famous, true Assassins in UO. Please follow the link below to enjoy what turned out to be a fantastic, in-depth look at RolePlayed Evil in our world.

Here are a few spoilers:

"I have never met another true Assassin like myself. I believe I am unique, and I am sure my techniques are..."

Ah, "contracts"--a most difficult proposition..."

"With my abilities, I can kill most anyone in 4 seconds flat..."

A huge thanks to The Night, for all his time and thoughts!

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Due to widespread network issues, the Veteran Rewards server was unable to communicate with the Napa Valley shard for much of this afternoon. We have resolved this issue, and will be bringing the Napa Valley shard back up with the Rewards system active in just a few minutes.

Due to the high number of accounts simultaneously logging in and checking their account age, the server may become backed up, and the gump may take up to 5-10 minutes to appear. We anticipate this time will shorten considerably once the initial rush is past. Players are being asked to please wait patiently for the gump, rather than log in and out repeatedly.

IMPORTANT: Rewards are chosen per account, not per character, and are not transferable between shards once chosen. Do not accept a reward on the Napa Valley shard if you do not play on that shard regularly.

The Veteran Rewards System is now active on the Napa Valley shard.

Due to the high number of accounts simultaneously logging in and checking
their account age, the server may become backed up, causing the rewards
gump to take up to 5-10 minutes to appear. Players are being asked to
please wait patiently for the gump rather than log in and out repeatedly.

IMPORTANT: Rewards are allocated per account, not per character, and are not transferable between shards once chosen. Please do not accept a reward on the Napa Valley shard if you do not play on that shard regularly

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He stared out the window into the swamp, his age now showing heavy in his gray hair. So many things had changed in the world of late he thought to himself.

Just a year ago he was living in his house nestled among the trees in the old world of Felucca. His son had moved him to Trammel fearing for his health and life. The murderers and Dread Lords did not bother him. He had earned their respect in combat.

But enough was enough. He latched up his last buckle on his breast plate, grabbed his shield and steel, opened his spellbook and flipping through the pages found what he was looking for: Kal Ort Por.

With the dangers of the new breed of Orcs and the race of Savages he couldn’t contain himself anymore and recalled to Minoc. Finding himself at the bank and decided to head north to the Warriors Guild Hall.

As he traveled thoughts of past battles raced through his mind. The war against the Imperium and the invasions of Trinsic were vivid in his mind. He had enjoyed the world untamed.

The sound of someone teleporting brought him quickly out of his thoughts, before he could react he found an arrow embedded deep in his arm. He quickly brought up his shield and with a small movement of his hand he cast a poison spell. Then, grabbing his sword he struck a swift blow. This new green Orc lay at his feet.

'They don’t seem to be all that tough' he spoke aloud.

He then saw the approaching Orc Lord and turned to face his next foe. When an explosion rocked the earth in front of him he was sent flying through the air. With his armor badly damaged he saw the red orc and his cohorts drawing near. Knowing there was no time for a spell of protection he grabbed hard steel and held his shield high.

Climbing to his feet he charged into the group of orcs....



Some say the battle raged on for hours.
Rumors say for days,

But what we do know is in the end CC Rider fell to the Orc horde while defending the city of Minoc.

This is a sad day for some for we have lost but another true hero.

Sept 1997 – July 2001

Fare Thee Well My Friend And Comrade

SilverIce GM Fisherman

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3 vs. 3 Sponsored and Hosted by the guild Resistance:
Friday, August 24, 2001 @ (9 PM PST, 10 PM MST, 11 PM Central, Midnight EST)

Registration
Registration is going to be much different this week. You will need to pre-register at either Grimoire's Message Board
http://grimoire.battlevortex.com/ or
The Resistance's Message Board
http://www.reviewsnrants.com/napa/

You MUST pre-register for this event!!!!

NO ENTRY FEE,

We will only be awarding a first place prize this week.
1st = 250k gold

Smack talking/trash talking, and whining will not be tolerated . If you choose to talk trash and or whine about a match you will be removed from Grimoire. If you make a habit of it you will be banned, and you will lose the right to participate for the rest of the evening.


Rules:
· No charged magic items, clothing, or jewelry. No magic armor and weapons allowed.
· No pre-poisoned weapons. They may be poisoned during the battle.
· No use of summoning spells, offensive field spells, blade spirits, energy vortex, recall nor gate.
· No pets. You are not allowed to use any pet in any way at Grimoire.
· No Stealing.
· Looting is not allowed in any consensual battle at Grimoire.
· Fighters are not allowed to resurrect their partners, or opponents.
· The only pre-casting allowed (casting done before the match countdown) is Magic Trap, Reactive Armor, and Magic Reflection.

Disclaimers:
· All contestants are subject to snooping by Grimoire Staff to ensure everyone is participating fairly.
· The Event Coordinator's decision on all matches is final and will not be disputed during the event.
· Anyone who disrupts the flow of the event for any reason will be banned until after the event.
· In the event that a contestant loses connection during the event, the Event Coordinator will make a decision as to the possibility of a rematch. That decision stands and may not be disputed. Any disputes will be handled after the event.
· A connection loss during combat events where the roof is sealed off, will result in an automatic forfeit.
· The Event Coordinator reserves the right to adjust these rules at any time without notice.


We must have a minimum of 4 teams to start this event!

This event takes place in the Grande Grimoire Battle Arena. Once you have entered the Grande Grimoire Battle Arena, all Contestants are bound by the Rules of the Battle Arena. Failure to follow these rules may end in your death or bannishment from the village.

Contestants and Spectators must observe and obey all the Village Laws. Failure to do so can end in your death or banishment from the village.

For calendar of events, rules, maps and community message board, please visit Grimoire

Hope to see you there!
LeeLu - Grimoire Staff

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We are currently experiencing network issues, which are causing our boards to run slowly, and we are looking into the possibility that the same problem could be responsible for the difficulties we are experiencing with the vet rewards system on Napa Valley.

Essentially, before the vet rewards system can begin to function on a shard, the shard needs to receive a reply from the vet rewards machine letting it know that it's ready and connected. The shard is not receiving that reply. This is not a problem we experienced on Test Center, and we're working to fix it as soon as possible. However, if it is a result of the same issue that's causing the boards slowdown, then we have no recourse but to wait until that issue with the network is resolved.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we will keep you notified as to our progress.

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As well the standard 60K first prize, every time KMSEMPERFI wins, he lowers the number of people eligible to compete for the Million GP grand Prize at the end of the season. Only first place winners are eligible to compete in the Final Fight Off.

Jinx took home the second place prize of 30K, and the 10K third place prize went to newcomer Black Lurker.

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Me name is Mor Kegan, and I is here ta' tell ye 'bout a upcomin' event! At the city 'o Silvervale on the 29th o' August, we is gonna be holdin' a special kind 'o auction! If yer a single lad or lassie, or ye jist needs some help wi' buildin' yer house or killin' a few beasties, this be yer cup 'a tea! Folks what is gonna be involved kin volunteer a date wi' their lovely 'r handsome selves, or they kin volunteer work skills. Fer instance, ye could work fer two hours makin' gm furniture fer a house, or ye could e'en make arrows fer two hours, 'n chop wood.

Now I knows ye are excited, cause yers truly, Mor Kegan, be up on the block, 'n a date wi' me is what most men dreams of! Course... some says it be more 'o a nightmare... but that be another story. I kin also steals some nice semi-rares for ye if ye dinnae mind pickin' the stuff of me body if'n I is spotted. Been dead more'n alive some nights... y'know?

If'n ye wishes ta' volunteer ta' be put up on ta block, just let me know... by leavin' a message at silvervale.chessienet.com on the Messageboard! If'n ye jist wish ta join us fer the auction, I shall see ye there! Bring yer horde 'o gold, cause these lads 'n lassies will nae go cheap! All profits will be split atween the Silvervale Buildin' Fund 'n the partipi... the parstipa... the volunteers!

The auction starts at nine eastern sun time, but ye kin meet us afore 'at from 8 to 9 at the roof garden at Heartkin if'n ye wants ta check out the WARES. Notice I done pronounced that careful like. Ye cannae ask any lad 'r lassie ta' do what they dinnae want ta, so's once ye ha' the date, yer own yer own.

We has a great lineup and after the auction, ye is all invited by Lady Morgaine, herself gonna be auctionin' off her decoratin' skills, 'n Panzram, who we hain't sure what he be doin' bein' as he be engaged ta' Lady Morgaine 'n a King in Waitin' though I hain't exactly sure what he be waitin' fer wi' that fine lady. Oh...invited to Casino Night at Shadowcove! Fergot that. Hope ta' see ye all there now!

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The West Coast Innovations House Decorating Contest has closed, and the eight finalists have been announced. Each of the 8 finalists (2 from each of the eligible shard: Baja, Napa Valley, Pacific, and Sonoma) will take home 100K.

After a panel of celebrity judges has a chance to review the finalists, a Grand Prize Winner will be announced. The Grand Prize Winner will take home a total of 500K in prizes. If you want to see the winning entries (and the other entries too!) you can go to http://people.atl.mediaone.net/pluffy/InnWinners.htm for a peek!

Thanks,
Pluffy and UO Realtor

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Please contact me and include any previous design work you’ve done and experience you have. Not everyone will be selected, so please ensure you list as much information as possible. Thanks!

Jhariden,
Stratics Community Coordinator

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The West Coast Innovations House Decorating Contest has closed, and the eight finalists have been announced. Each of the 8 finalists (2 from each of the eligible shards: Baja, Napa Valley, Pacific, and Sonoma) will take home 100K. After a panel of celebrity judges has a chance to review the finalists, a Grand Prize Winner will be announced.

The Grand Prize Winner will take home a total of 500K in prizes. If you want to see the winning entries (and the other entries too!) you can go to http://people.atl.mediaone.net/pluffy/InnWinners.htm for a peek!

Thanks,
Pluffy and UO Realtor

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The Frost Merchant Shoppe and Tavern Lottery

Win Cash Prizes!

20k entry fee

1 in 40 chance to win

100k top prize!

All proceeds go to future lotteries with even larger pay outs!

Head to Trammel Compassion Shrine Desert at 69 N 39 E. Inside, you will find a vendor named Orson. He holds all the entry bags. Each holds one key and one box, all locked of course. You pay 20k for the entry. You open the chest. If you win, you get 100k, that simple. Lottery ends when we have a winner.

Once it ends, all money paid into the vendor will be collected and a new lottery will start up again. If all does good, we could have them with 1 million gold prizes. Just think, enough times, you could win money enough to BUY that tower you wanted :)

Sponsored by the Frost Merchant

Disclaimer: Not everyone wins. odds of winning are 40:1 of correctly picking the right chest. All proceeds go into the Frost Shoppe Fund to pay for future lotteries. If you do not win, do not be discouraged, try again, or wish for luck the next time.

We are doomed! Wait a minute, nope, false alarm, I found the coffee!

Due to a faction stone issue that happened late yesterday, the Atlantic shard experienced a revert early this morning (August 22nd). To ensure that players do not lose their homes due to having refreshed them before the revert, we have refreshed all houses on the Atlantic shard one time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused

Someone hired me to do a level three map. He handed it to me and I double clicked it. It woudln't let me see it. It had been decoded by someone else. I have 99.5 cartography, I should have been able to dig that previously decoded level three map under the new rules but it would not allow me to see the map.

There is a bug with this right now - basically, the map is checking back to the person who originally decoded it instead of the person who is holding it. This means that as long as the person who decoded it is still in the area, it will work fine, but if the person is not online or in a different area server, then the map may not work.

It's a known issue, and we'll be putting a fix for it in with one of the publishes coming soon.

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Why only Napa Valley?
We wanted to start with one shard to make sure that the hardware withstands the initial response, and Napa was a good choice due to its population size and distribution of players. We will monitor it for several days, and once we’re certain that it’s operating as it should, we’ll announce a schedule for activating the system on the other shards.

When will the other shards get rewards?
We will monitor the system closely on the Napa Valley shard the rest of this week, and once we’re certain that it’s operating as it should, we’ll announce a schedule for activating the system on the other shards.

How many rewards will I get?
Originally, each player received two reward choices once they reached their one year status, and one reward choice for every year after that. As a way to say thank you to our veteran players for their patience as we completed the system, we will be giving out an extra reward choice to all players. This means that when the system is activated, one year veterans - who would previously have been allotted two rewards - will now be eligible for three. Two year veterans will receive four, and three year veterans will be eligible for five. All players will receive this extra reward choice once they reach their one-year status. Essentially, a player can calculate the number of reward choices they are eligible to receive by adding two to the number of years they have been playing on their account.

Why are you giving out extra rewards?
We feel that our players have shown a good deal of patience as we complete the system, considering that we initially launched the system last year before taking it back down to resolve several major issues. We feel that an extra reward is a good way to say thank you for the patience of our veteran players.

Will I still get the extra reward if I already chose my rewards the first time?
All rewards that have been chosen so far will be counted in the totals, meaning that players who selected extra rewards previously will not be eligible to choose new rewards, and will not receive the extra reward choice (since they already received extra rewards when the system was first released). Players who have chosen fewer rewards than what they are currently eligible for will be allowed to choose new rewards until they have reached the total number they are currently eligible to receive (this being three choices for one-year veterans, four choices for two-year veterans, and five choices for three-year veterans). Players will not be able to choose new rewards until they are eligible for a greater number of rewards than they have already chosen. For example, a three-year veteran is currently eligible to choose five rewards. If a player has already chosen seven, then that player will not be eligible to choose another reward until they have reached their six-year veteran status, when they would be eligible for eight total reward choices.

Will I still get the extra reward if I reach one-year status after the initial release of the system?
Yes, all players will receive this extra reward choice once they reach their one-year status.

If I took extra rewards previously, can I get more next year?
All rewards that have been chosen so far will be counted in the totals, meaning that players will not be allowed to choose new rewards until they are eligible to receive more than they have already taken. For example, a three-year veteran is currently eligible to choose five rewards. If a player has already chosen seven, then that player will not be eligible to choose another reward until they have reached their six-year veteran status, when they would be eligible for eight total reward choices.

Can I choose rewards on different shards?
Rewards are allocated per account, but they do not have to be selected on the same shard. Rewards will not be transferable between shards once chosen, though, and will count towards your total, so be sure to select them on a shard you regularly play.

Are rewards given on a per character basis?
Rewards are allocated per account, not per character or per shard, so be sure to choose rewards on your regular playing shard, and not on a separate shard. Rewards will not be transferable between shards once chosen.

My account was hacked, or my rewards were stolen/disappeared. Can I choose new ones?
The database records how many rewards were taken by each account, and these are the numbers we must go by. The total number of rewards available is determined by how many rewards that account has accepted in the past, not how many is in their possession at the time.

I bought this account, and there were no rewards on it! Can I still choose rewards?
Buyers are responsible for verifying that what they are buying is what is advertised. The number of rewards taken on an account will not be wiped when an account is transferred, so it is the responsibility of the buyer to ensure that the rewards chosen are either still in the character’s inventory, or that the previous owner did not choose all the rewards they were eligible to receive. The total number of rewards available is determined by how many rewards that account has accepted in the past, not how many is in their possession at the time.

How do I figure out my account age?
For information on the Veteran Rewards system, determining account age, and a detailed listing of the rewards that will be available for one, two, and three-year veterans, see http://update.uo.com/design_350.html. If your account age listed is incorrect, please contact [email protected].

My account's almost 4 years old. Are there four year rewards?
There will be four-year rewards, but they are not yet complete. Any player whose account reaches four years in account age before the four-year rewards are complete must remember not to use all of their reward choices on first, second or third-year choices. We will see that this information is readily available before UO’s fourth birthday, to avoid players using their four-year reward choices before the four-year rewards are ready.

Do I have to choose all my rewards at once, or will I be given an option to choose more the next time I log in?
You do not have to choose them all at once. The gump will reappear each time you log in, on all shards, until you have chosen the number of rewards you are eligible to receive.

Will the rewards gump appear every time I log in?
Yes, the gump will reappear each time you log in, on all shards, until you have chosen the number of rewards you are eligible to receive.

Do I have to choose a first, second, and third year choice, or can I choose between the three levels however I want?
Players can choose from any level that they are eligible to receive. One-year veterans can choose only from the one-year rewards. Two-year veterans may choose from all one-year rewards, all two-year rewards, or a couple of each. Three-year veterans can choose from any level.

Are different levels of rewards worth more in reward choices?
No. For example, a two-year veteran may choose four one-year rewards or four two-year rewards. The level of reward chosen does not affect the total number of choices available.

Will rewards taken on Test Center after the system is activated count toward the total number of rewards available?
No. If rewards are chosen on a Test Shard, they will not count toward your final total of rewards chosen.

Where can I get information on the reward choices?
For more information on the Veteran Rewards system, as well as a detailed listing of the rewards that will be available for one, two, and three-year veterans, see http://update.uo.com/design_350.html.

My account age is wrong, or I can’t choose rewards. Who do I contact?
For questions regarding Veteran Rewards and determination of account age, please see the Knowledge Base at http://support.uo.com/, or mail [email protected].


__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems

Do NOT take any reward on Napa Valley if you really want rewards on Baja, not even "just to see."

If you take a reward on Napa Valley, that counts as one of your total rewards. You will not be able to transfer it between shards.

Only claim a reward while playing on the specific shard which you want to use it.

I can't caution people enough about this. :]

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Veteran Rewards Update

After resolving a multitude of code and hardware-related issues, we will be activating the Veteran Rewards system on the Napa Valley shard on Thursday, August 23rd at 12:00 PM CDT. We will monitor the system closely on the Napa Valley shard the rest of this week, and will begin activating the Rewards system on the remaining shards once we are certain the system is operating as it should. We're extremely grateful to our veteran players for the patience they have shown as we complete the Veteran Rewards system, and as a way to say thank you, we'd like to offer an extra reward choice to all players on all shards who are currently eligible for a Veteran Reward. This means that when the system is activated, one year veterans - who would previously have been allotted two rewards - will now be eligible for three. Two year veterans will receive four, and three year veterans will be eligible for five. All players will receive this extra reward choice once they reach their one-year status.

All rewards that have been chosen to date will be counted in the totals, meaning that players who have chosen more than their allotted share previously will not be eligible to choose new rewards, and will not receive the extra reward choice (since they already received extra rewards when the system was first released). Players who have chosen fewer rewards than what they are currently eligible for will be allowed to choose new rewards until they have reached the total number they are currently eligible to receive. This will apply until the player is eligible for a greater number of rewards than they have already chosen. For example, a three-year veteran is currently eligible to choose five rewards. If a player has already chosen seven, then that player will not be eligible to choose another reward until they have reached their six-year veteran status, when they would be eligible for eight total reward choices.

IMPORTANT: Rewards are allocated per account, not per character or per shard, so be sure to choose rewards on your regular playing shard, and not on a separate shard. Rewards will not be transferable between shards once chosen.

For more information on the Veteran Rewards system, as well as a detailed listing of the rewards that will be available for one, two, and three-year veterans, see http://update.uo.com/design_350.html. For questions regarding Veteran Rewards and determination of account age, please see the Knowledge Base at http://support.uo.com/, or mail [email protected].

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The Buccaneer's Den Pact

We the people of Moonglow and Buccaneer's Den have agreed in recognizing that the question of Moonglow-Buccaneer's Den relations is of most importance to the two powers and Sosaria as a whole.

We regard the agreement signed below as symbolic of the desire for our two peoples to work together for the common good. The People of Moonglow and Buccaneer's Den have agreed to the following:

a) The council of Moonglow will defend the isle of Buccaneer's Den from all signs of external threats.

b) The isles of Moonglow and Buccaneers Den will open travel and trade to each other as well as defend their waters together as partners.

c) The state of Moonglow recognizes the state of Buccaneer's Den as an equal. The Sosarian Human Nation will run it's land under a Humanis government and the people of Moonglow will follow the laws set down by the Humanis upon the soil of Buccaneer's Den.

d) The competent leadership of Moonglow and Buccaneer's Den realise that each power has it's own goals and methods. As such both parties agree to never work to undermine the actions of the other.

e) The Sosarian Human Nation is from the signing of this pact forward a member of the Moonglow Alliance and will be signed on as an original member of said alliance.

f) The Sosarian Human Nation does not recognise the lands controlled by members of the non-human population. Actions taken against such peoples will not be considered a breach of article d no matter of the relation said peoples hold with Moonglow.

Amended by Moonglow:

1. All economic transactions between the sovereign nations will occur under the perview of the Moonglow Town Council and its vassals.
2. Moonglow and Nujel'm reserve the right to establish a functional embassy within the Sosarian Human Nation at such time as the Moonglow Alliance deems appropriate.
3. Additions to the Moonglow Alliance will occur at the discretion of the Moonglow Town Council.
4. Current states of ideals, methodologies, cultures, and laws will remain mutually independant, with the single exception of: slavery as a practice,worked upon humans and non-humans alike, is strictly denied

*signed in blue ink smudged with flecks of gold*
GreyPawn,
Mayor of Moonglow
The Moonglow Town Council

*signed and stamped in brown ink*
Khay'Thall
Arch Humanis of the Sosarian Human Nation

We are aware that there is a problem causing power hour to reset at the wrong time, and we are looking into it right now.

Thanks!

__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems

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The City of Truth Vendor Mall Grande Opening is on 8/26/01 at Noon PST. Located East of the Hedge Maze in Trammel, Pacific.

We still need the following vendor slots filled:
1 Misc.
1 Rares
1 Magic Armor/Wpns
3 Supplies
2 Furnishing
4 Clothing

If you can fill these slots, contact me ASAP.

There will be a treasure chest for some lucky SOB :) So Far in it is demon bone gloves, power swords, gold, rares, globes, fishing items, tons of stuff!

We will have better security there to keep others from looting and stealing.

Last one I did had over 300 ppl show up and 3 lucky individuals made aways with nearly 2 million in prizes.

So if you wish to make tons of money this weekend, get your vendors in the shoppe ASAP.

Locate East of the Hedge Maze in Trammel. the City of Truth is sponsored by the Defendors of Truth Guild, Pacific Community Center Guild, The Frost Merchant Shoppe and Tavern (re-opening soon), and the Vampyre Nation.

ICQ the Frost Merchant at 11963580 for getting yourself a vendor spot, or to visit the shoppe. All vendors will be fully stocked Saturday before this. Especially all the mibs, t-maps, vanqs, invulns, rares, expensive items, and tons of regs after regs.

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'ere ye 'ere ye!!

*Thumps his staff against the stone floor*

By order of Queen Morgaine, 'er august Majesty of Shadowcove, a Masquerade Ball is to be 'eld at Shadowcove Castle this Friday, the 24th of August at 9 P.M. by the Eastern moon! All are welcome to attend. There will be a 100k prize for the best costume and a 50k prize for the runner up both chosen by the Queen 'erself!

Don ye yer finest millinery and come as yer favorite character from literature, 'istory or come as a known personage of the kingdom or of the outlands. There will be dancing and entertainment so come one come all!

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The first one was such a success we are going to try to have one every month -- so if you didn't find that perfect painting for your house or the just-right weapon or you couldn't sell all those trinkets and wares last time, join the fun on August 25th and barter, trade, and haggle to your heart's content.

Saturday, August 25, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. EST
Mythndale Tavern inside and on front lawn

Bargains & sales galore. Lots of merchants, craftsmen, and others selling their wares. Come to browse, shop, or just have a good time.

FREE: food & drink, furniture and leather dying, armor and weapons repair

NOTE: All Crafters, merchants are welcome to set up early, (7:30 p.m. est). Reservation is not required, but let us know ahead of time if you need special equipment (i.e. forge\anvil), or if you'd like your wares mentioned in the posts on Mythndale Town Hall before the flea market. Also feel free to give out runes to your regular vendor location and/or player-run establishments. To contact us visit our tavern and leave a message with one of the staff members or write to Crystal Rose with "Flea Market" in the subject. A packhorse is recommended if you plan to carry a lot of raw materials and/or items.

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A new group has recently been founded by Silent Bob (The man who ran the TDA Fight Nights and OTS Auctions) and Loki to run Oceania "Capture the Flag" tournaments.

This premise of the tournament is fairly simple. You win the round by killing your opponents, defending your flag and capturing theirs.

For more details on the Oceania CTF competition and how to enter, please visit their website at http://opvp.gamer.net.nz

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We recently received this tale of adventure from Steelfang:

There was a strangeness upon the sea as Steelfang ordered the mainsail furled and anchor dropped. The Viking ship glided into the small cove of the uncharted island. The men had felt it too. They needed water and food. The storm of three days past had damaged all their supplies, and it also had blown them off course. The plundering of Avernia would have to wait for now.

As they headed inland, a silence lay over the woods on the border of the small cove. Presently, they came upon a small spring and surrounded by some fruit trees. Steelfang sent some men back with the water and food - enough to get them back home.

Steelfang and the other men continued to scout the island as a possible place to harbor their ships of war.

As they broke through the forest they saw a small tower on a hill. The men were startled, for no legends mentioned such a building on any island. As they searched the tower, they found nothing worthwhile, only the strange looking statues inside the tower. Steelfang told his men to set camp and broach the wine barrel.

It was just before dawn when Steelfang awoke to the sound of something moving around the base of the tower. He heard a gurgled cry:

"The statues! The statues! They are alive!"

Steelfang and his sailors fought like men about to perish. A single sunbeam broke through the trees and, if by luck or magic, the statues froze where they were standing.

As Steelfang and the remainder of his men (seven out of sixteen) boarded the ship, they swore to never return to this forgotten isle.

Praise Mondain!

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This could be a major story. According to an anonymous source, the Zog Cabal has appeared on Legends. The following accounts, which I received on a dead pigeon hurled through my front window, provides details:

As I walked the halls of the Dungeon Blood amidst the horror all around me, I wasn't afraid. I was a Brother of the Ebon Hand. I was the "fuer grisa ost drauka," the bringer of death. But something just didn't feel right- not right at all.

"Dirth! Dirth, where are you boy?"

The young man scuttled out of a corridor and greeted me.

"Yes master Tempest is there something I can do for you."

"Where is the prelate?"

"Why, sir, he is still locked in his quarters."

"This has gone on long enough. He's been in there for days; the men grow weary of waiting. They desire war. Get out of my way boy!"

I was furious. I in no way wanted the role of leadership that Volo had placed upon my shoulders. Angrily, I marched into the Prelate's quarters. I was greeted with a blood-curdling scream.

"ROOTS...BLOODY ROOTS."

Mine heart damn near shattered at the sound.

"Prelate, are you ok?"

"ROOTS...BLOODY ROOTS"

As I approached my master, I noticed he wasn't ok. He... he... was floating in the air, blood oozing from all his visible orifices. Normally it would have made even me stagger, but then he looked at me.... his eyes were as black as a lich's heart with no whites at all. Yet, somehow I knew he was staring at me.

His lips parted with a smile that a mouse might see on the face of a cat just before it pounced. I had never been so afraid in my life. He vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared an instant later floating upside down face to face with me. I froze in pure fear.

"I've have a vision... Tempest. The gods have spoken to me and say we must return to our roots."

"And what would those be, sir?"

"You see, our brotherhood has existed for centuries, Tempest.... just not under the same name. Long ago, we were hunted like dogs and the only way to save ourselves was to hide and make all traces of ourselves disappear. When we did this we became the Brotherhood of the Ebon hand. Now the time has come to show the world our roots... To show they just what pure evil actually is!"

"If you don't mind me asking, sir just what were we and what will we become again?"

"Why, the Zog Cabal, of course. Who else?"

Praise Mondain!

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The warrior reined in his ebony steed and leapt gracefully from the saddle. In one of his gloved hands he held a large scroll, and in the other, a hammer. The west Britain bank was fairly busy as usual, but he sifted through the customers easily and strode purposefully to the bulletin board. Working quickly, he unrolled the parchment and tacked it firmly to the board. He stepped back to survey the results and read over the message to be certain it was legible:

Hail Good Britannians! Let it hereby be known that Trinsic is now recruiting additional members for its Esteemed Council of Honor! The following Council positions are currently available:

• Supreme Chancellor
• Honorable Vice-Chancellor
• Royal Communications Attache
• Lord General of the Trinsic Militia
• General of the Trinsic Royal Guards
• Royal Secretary of Trinsic.

Queen Sihiri invites anyone interested in joining the Council to send her a pigeon, or to visit the library for further details.

The warrior nodded to himself, satisfied that the post was positioned well on the board. He hurried back to his mount and jumped into the saddle, careful not to damage the other similar scrolls nestled in his saddlebag. With a brief glance toward the sun to gauge the time before nightfall, he spurred his steed in the direction of Vesper.

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BoF will be hosting a PvP tourney at the BoF Tower, Felucca. The Tournament will be held on September 8th at 8:00pm, PST. The entrance cut off will be on September 1st at 8:00pm, PST. Entry fee will be 5K per head.

This tourney will be a winner take all contest - no runner-ups. So, come and show your skills for the 100K pot. If many people enter this tourney then the pot will of course be increased. The matches will be held similar to the "old school" type of duels. No potion or trapped pouches. If during your match you make a potion or trapped pouche then you can use them but prior to matches these will not be allowed.

All weapons will be provided for you prior to your match. Also, all weapons will be GM quality. You may wear whatever armor you wish. There will be No looting at all. If you violate any rules then you will be banned from the tourney and all of your expenditures will be forfeited to the tourney. The BoF Tower will be a faction safe house. There will be no fighting anywhere near the tower. If you fight you will be banned. This tourney, if all goes well, will be a monthly event so if you miss out don't worry, there will be another one.

Directions to the BoF tower:

The tower is located NW of the Destard Dungeon. From the entrance to the Dungeon head west around the mountain to you see the tower -- you can't miss it! If coming from Skara Brae then cross to the mainland and head S by SE until you reach the mountain and you'll find the Large Tower there.

To sign-up:

Sign up by Icq'ing me at 124445505 and giving me the name of the char fighting, the type of char fighting and their ICQ number. Or, you can email me at [email protected] with the same information.

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For now, UO Loop is still considered illegal because it is not an approved program listed on our UO Pro page. Until it receives official approval, it should be considered illegal, and players should not use it. I've forwarded along the main thread on this issue to QA as well as the Live Team, so they can see your feedback.

The Live team could always choose to approve it at a later date. However, at this time it is still an illegal program.

Keep in mind that it would be almost impossible to test every single utility or program that players put out. Every main program might have several variations, and those could always be changing. If the Live team were focused on evaluating these programs, they would have less time to add new content and fix existing coding issues. It's a tradeoff, and evaluating all of these programs is not high on the priority list

1) Those hero points get devided when you are in Party?

2) Do you loose hero points when dying? ...
PS: i am not planning to do the Vermin Spawn!!, i do like a challenge:)

1) It doesn't use the party system at all. The top attackers get the points. The top attackers are considered the same top attackers as in looting rights top attackers. (The only difference is party members aren't considered.) And all "top attackers" get the same number of points per kill.

2) No. "Hero Points" only decay over time.

PS: Consider this. If the Vermin Spawn is so easy, then perhaps you should try it as it would make sense that summoning it's Champion would be easier... :) (And the Champion for the Vermin group is not easy...)

A small addition was made to the "Latest Updates" article called "Combat Damage Changes," at http://update.uo.com/design_346.html. That article now notes new reagent costs for the following four spells:

- Magic Arrow: 1 Sulfurous Ash
- Fireball: 1 Black Pearl
- Lightning: 1 Mandrake Root, 1 Sulfurous Ash
- Explosion: 1 Bloodmoss, 1 Mandrake Root

GM Carbon contacted me the other day, and wanted to offer some suggestions to our customers on how to avoid being scammed. His comments are very useful, and I suggest that everyone take them to heart. Carbon, thanks for providing this information. -Canyon

At some point in time in UO someone is going to try and scam you. I'm willing to guarantee it. Here are a few tips that might just help prevent that scammer from being successful.

One thing that applies to all types of deals, and might make the difference in them succeeding is their name. Write down their name exactly as it is spelled and capitalized. Also note guild titles, notoriety titles, clothing etc etc. Anything that identifies them as an individual. "His name was Steve something!" doesn't really give you much hope. Don't rely too much on journals as they scroll off pretty fast.

** House Transfers.
Your best friend when buying a house is the sextant. When the house deed appears in the trade window it is going to have sextant coordinates on it. These coordinates are for the very center of the house. So before you trade, stand in the center of the house and write down these coords for comparison. There is no reason why you can't get inside the house if they are the real owner. While standing in front of the house ready to trade have the house owner change the house sign to a name you pick. If you're confident of your sextant coords this isn't vital, but never hurts.

** Pet Transfers.
Ok, so JoeScammer is selling you a mare. Have the seller rename the mare to a name you pick, lets say Mary. Then standing in a clear area right before the trade have him say "Mary follow me". This should clarify that the mare you have in sight is the only pet he is transferring to you. Please feed your new pet right away. Did you write down JoeScammer's name first?

**Ground Trades.
You spent a month mining up 10k ingots and now that you're about to sell them you're going to save 60 seconds by just dropping them on the ground instead of trading them in a few smaller trades. As soon as your half the trade involves setting something on the ground you are essentially throwing your items away. It'll take you 1 extra minute to do 3 smaller trades for those ingots, but don't you think that minute is worth actually getting the gold? The secure trade window is there for this very reason, use it.

**Blacksmith repairs
This one is a matter of good judgement in picking a smith. Watch for smiths that are already repairing other players armour, or that has tagged items with their name on them, or titles. Really though there is no sure way to avoid picking a scammer to repair your items. Luckily though you wrote down their name, right?

**Paging tips
Ok, so after all your precautions you still got scammed. Page for a GM right away, not later. Do not tell the scammer you paged. Include the scammers name in the page and that it was a "such and such" scam. Use your message space wisely. Things like, "he suxxors" might be better used conveying info on the scam.

**Out of Guard Zone
If someone opens a gate to take you to a house they are giving you for free, and they actually do, you are the first I've heard of. Do not carry rare items to trade, or valuables other than checks or newbified/blessed items, out of guard protection. If you are trading rares for a house agree on a gold amount and trade the rares for a check for that amount, then carry that check to the house.

**Secure Trade Windows
Take the time in the window to make sure you're getting what you expect. Use an ID wand or the item ID skill, look at what you're getting. Most the time there is no reason why an item needs to be in a bag. Many scams can be alleviated by looking at how the item highlights under the cursor.

Detect hidden skill, not the spell, works 100% of the time in your house, or a house you are co-owned/friended to. This is regardless of skill. If you are unlocking an item, or stocking vendors or something similar use detect hidden. Make a macro for it so it is nice and easy to do. Let me restate this: Detect hidden SKILL works 100% of the time in your house or a house you are co-owned/friended to, even at 0.0 skill.

If the other trader is not willing to do simple things such as rename the pet, or let you in the house: drop the deal. There are a million houses and pets and this person is probably hoping to scam you.

ICQ logs, screenshots and similar out of game evidence will not help with your scam. These things are too easily falsified or inaccurate. Don't rely on them to be your saving evidence if the deal turns out to be a scam.

Most websites that are used for buying/selling UO items have a system in place for reporting scammers. Make use of that if you intend to be even a somewhat active trader.

I don't know. I've heard enough complaints and concerns to think something is going on. But I haven't seen anything officially stating there is a problem. We're still looking into it.

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In the later hours of the evening a small party of pirates began raiding the Sandlewoodbox Tavern! They began asking questions as to the location of the Temple of Mondain and then finally demanding to know its location or the tavern would be burnt. When the patrons of the great tavern asked why they would seek the Temple of Mondain they replied "We wants what's theys lookin fer." They also made mention that it is worth a lot of gold to them and they want this relic.
Upon the refusal to divulge the location and many attempts to Swede these raiders they attacked many of the patrons including the Cult of the Black Dragon which was an unwise move as they were forced back and slaughtered. However I can see that interest in this quest of the Temple of Mondain's has been and still is growing. What could they be after that has new groups of people so invested they would risk the lives of their people to attain it?
I can only imagine they are looking for the same relic that was mentioned by the traveling bard a few days prior and that whatever this item is it must hold great value. There is mounting stress that other groups and more raiders will continue to make attacks until this relic has surfaced.
It is however very clear that those within the Temple of Mondain are up to something as their leader Mordain and many of its members have not been seen since the publication of the traveling bard. Other members of the Temple have been seen in various spots and when asked what they are up to their reply is always the same..."Soon we shall hear the voice of Mondain."
I fear for what lay ahead.

-Faithful Patron of Sandlewoodbox

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Please join Moo and The Old Man as they exchange vows on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2001.

The wedding will be held at Nujelm Palace at 6pm PST with a reception to follow at the M^F castle.

All are welcome.
Proper attire is required.

Thank you.

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In the past, the Ultima Online servers have utilized port 5000 for connections. Because some ISPs have begun blocking that port, some players have been experiencing difficulty connecting to Ultima Online. To resolve this issue, we will be discontinuing the use of port 5000, and will continue to accept connections on ports 5001-5010.

These changes will be applied to the Test Center 4 shard this afternoon (August 21st, CDT). Barring any unexpected issues, the port changes will be added to the Siege Perilous shard on August 22nd CDT, to be active following its next scheduled maintenance period. Once we are certain the changes are working properly, they will be enabled on all remaining shards. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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But wait, there is more. A part of Famous Houses of Britannia is dedicated to the actual decorating of a house. Learn the tricks of the trade, build your own filing cabinets or even a piano. See some fine examples of some of the finest decorations.

When you are done looking, and you have an idea for a decoration yourself, or you want to show off your own decorated house, drop us a line a [email protected]

Enjoy!

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UOBuy.com is launched today, a new uo trade site coded from scratch specifically for uo.

Includes alot of new features:

Buyout bids - you can specify a buyout price on auctions that will close the auction straight away.

Reserve prices - reserve prices are hidden but icons will indicate when the reserver is set or exceeded.

Min Rating bids - prevent users with negative ratings bidding on your prized castle, you can set minimum ratings the user must have.

Wanted Listings - you can list items you are actually looking for, and a prize range you will pay.

Selling Listings - if you dont like auctions you can also post items for sale at a fixed price, you can even specify a quantity so you dont have to keep listing items when you have more than one to sell.

And alot more

Including our opening competition to win a $30 amazon.com voucher.

Check us out :)

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Finding a certain dwarf in Sosaria is not as easy as it might seem, or at least it was not for me. I had known for a long time what great miners dwarves are and that one of their particular haunts is Minoc and its mines, so I began my search there. Finding several of these short but brawny fellows at work in the mines, I inquired about one named Watts. To my surprise they all knew him, from the least to the greatest, and I had a most difficult time tearing myself away from them for the stories they told of his latest military exploits in his subterranean homeland. Difficult, I say, not simply because the stories were rather lengthy and detailed but because they were true epics of heroism. One of those I spoke to, named Galbin Glowbeard, told me that Watts could oft be found in the Minoc tavern drinking and conversing with his friends. Oddly enough, that very tavern is a favorite haunt of mine as well. So, for about a few days thereafter I remained in Minoc, visiting the tavern a bit more than usual, in hopes of catching him there. It was not long until he and I met.

Actually, we had met before, long ago. I knew him from the days when Scaramandine the Elder was working his dark designs against the citizens and defenders of Edinburgh, among other places. We had spoken briefly on occasion, in Edinburgh, and I found him to be quite friendly, courteous, and amazingly sociable among humans, at least for a dwarf. So when I entered the tavern and saw one garbed in a full suit of gold plate armor sitting alone at a table, surrounded by a loud mob of drunken humans, I knew it could only be him. I went over and offered a greeting. He recognized me instantly and saluted me characteristically, "Lali-ho Erik! Long time no see!" Smiling and pointing to the bench at his table, he invited me to join him. "Have a seat--drinks on me this time." Then he turned and spoke to a serving girl standing idly nearby, "Barmaid! Two ales here please!" I sat down across from him unable to recall if I had ever bought him a drink, and doubting that I ever had.

"So, what can I help ye with friend?" he asked as he took the bottles of ale the serving girl handed to him, tipping her generously after the transaction. He then handed me one of the bottles and I poured half of it into one of the clean cups she thoughtfully provided for us both before she left. We held up our mugs, gave a toast, and both took deep draughts from them.

"I have been told by an acquaintance, as I dare not call him friend, that ye have been deputized--made a constable by the Grand Inquisitor. Is this true?"

A slight but perceptible blush crossed the dwarf's kindly face. He nodded, quite modestly.

"Well, ye have my utmost congratulations! For once it seems the old man did something right!" I smiled, testing him to see what reaction I got from such a comment. He returned the smile and it made me far more comfortable with him than I might have been. "Might I ask thee a few questions? Ye need not answer what ye are not permitted to, of course."

He nodded again but I noted his mirthful expression vanished. Undeterred, I proceeded with my interview, preparing myself with journal, pen, and inkwell, to record our dialogue. "Constable, what is thy impression of the Grand Inquisitor? Do ye fully trust him?"

He did not hesitate to answer, but replied confidently, "Well, at first I did not--no. He seemed almost fanatical about things that have been taking place. And, though he has reason to be concerned, to me he seemed as if he ate, breathed, and slept, "Necromari." Now, though, things have changed. He seems as though he is just very worried for the land. Besides that, the man is hard at work on this case and has few people to help him that he trusts fully. He has put most of the weight on me and my friends."

I was a bit surprised by his answer. Everything I had seen, heard of, or personally experienced that the Inquisitor had done, seemed, at the very least, harsh, and at worst, ruthlessly cruel. Perhaps there was a side of him I had missed entirely. I continued with my questioning. "He made ye a constable. How did this come about? Why did he single thee out for such work?"

"The Grand Inquisitor needed trustworthy help. He knew of our dealings with the Necromari (that is, the battles against them--Erik) and such likes from what happened months ago." He paused a moment and chuckled, "Come to think of it--it's been years! Well anyways, he summoned Lord F'nor and the Mists of Avalon--Mona and Esme, a lady named Deminatza, and myself. He sent us to look over an incident in Minoc and to arrest the person behind it. In order to do that someone had to be deputized. I took on this role in order to help the investigation." He took a sip of his ale.

"I see. Whom does the Grand Inquisitor seem to be after, specifically? Any names? And what crimes have they committed that ye know of?"

Watts stroked his beard. "The Inquisitor was in charge of the investigation of the murder of Jaryd Nevarre, brother to Martel Nevarre whom I believe ye met months back. Well, that was only the beginning of it. As we found out, there were deeper meanings to this. It seems, Erik, that the Necromari are back and perhaps more dangerous than before. Of course as much as I would like to answer more on this question, I must keep some secrecy--for any and all may read the papers!" He gave a brief smile. "Just know that the Necromari are up and running again so be very careful."

My thoughts turned to the Elder. "Is Scaramandine alive, and if so, how is it possible? Where is he now and what are his goals? I have heard that he is undead--a vampyre, like he once was."

Watts took a drink and stared at his mug for a moment. "Scaramandine is very much alive. As ye know, the battle with Scaramandine the Elder ended with him being cast into the abyss. Eventually, however, he was brought back to Sosaria by unknown forces. We believe the cataclysm of the falling of the gods had something to do with it for on that very day he was cast down to us. As for thy other questions, his goals and where abouts, not even I know. It may be better that way, for he is being hunted by many. As for him being vampyre--Scar is cursed to say the least. He is regaining his former powers and yet at the same time it is effecting his mind. But that's all I will say on that matter," he concluded, taking another swig of ale.

So it was true--Scaramandine had returned from the netherworld. I couldn't repress a slight grin in thinking how foolish I had been to have derided Baron Nocturnis' vow that he would. Scaramandine was a powerful, or at least a very lucky man. I was curious about the incident in Minoc he spoke about, and wondered if the city had become a focal point for Necromari activities. I knew they had been interested in ruling Minoc generations ago, but why now? I asked about that. The answer was so very simple. "Gold of course," Watts explained. "The Necromari are hiring any and all who will do what they wish, and they are paying them very well. Gold is no object to them. And since Minoc is Britannia's main gold supply, what better way to gain gold then to steal it?" He grinned, and I knew he was jesting, for he could never do such a thing himself.

"Has anyone been identified as a leader of the Necromari in Minoc? If so, whom?"

"A former member of the Necromari has told us of a man named Kain who holds power among them. Perhaps he is the leader in Minoc. We do not have a description, but we know he is one to be feared--a madman for sure, so says our informant."

I did not press the constable further. I finished my ale, and feeling a bit light-headed, hastily jotted down the rest of his words in my journal. "Thank ye for yer time and answers. If there is anything else ye would like to comment about on this situation, please say on before I go, please," I said, rising from the table.

"Just one thing Erik. Let the people know to be wary of those whom they deal with now and whom they choose to help. The Necromari can be anyone--from lowly beggar to thy best friend! They are a dangerous group and if anyone has suspicions about anyone, they should alert the local guards, though even they too may be under their influence." Watts finished his ale, wiped his mouth, and stood also. "Be careful Erik. I hope to see ye again soon."

We shook hands and left the tavern together, parting ways once out the door.

I saw Watts again a few days later and he told me his informant, an ex-Necromari, had been slain and his head placed on the very table we sat at in the tavern, as a warning to all those, like him, who dared cross or oppose them.

Erik Valstrom

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Last night, I decided to step down as the High Justice of Yew, and pass the title, and its duties onto the judge, Isrena, so that I might return to my hometown of Trinsic. Some were confused why I have decided to leave Yew, so I have decided to take this opportunity to let the people of Yew, and all those interested know of my reasons for leaving.

I first arrived in Yew well over a year ago, to help defend it from Keeonean and Ventryn's attacks. Since then I stood on the Yew town council, been the Yew representative to the Grand Council, had the difficult task of being the High Justice, and finally last night I witnessed in Yew, that peace, no matter how delicate and brief is most certainly possible, even between humans in Orcs.

I have witnessed much, and done much in Yew, and it has been a privilege to serve the city and it's people for such a long time, but I believe, that after tonight, I have helped the City of Justice as much as possible. I hope to return to my hometown of Trinsic now, where I might be able to relax for a bit after these many months of politics and work.

So, in the end, it has been an honor to serve Yew and its people, and I hope that its people will realize how great a symbol the Festival of Lights was for the potential for peace and will embrace it. I move on now, as I have done before in the past, and wish the people of Yew the greatest of luck in the months and years ahead of them, for it is their future they will mold, and I believe it shall be inspirational.

Gorion
Former High Justice of Yew

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If you are interested in applying for a job as a European GM, please visit here. We should also have something posted on the UO Boards in the next few days.

Please don't PM me with questions on this. All available information is at the site.

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A new era has begun in the "factions wars" & throughout Felucca with the arrival of the Lords of Britannia !

Lord British has rewarded those who stayed to defend Felucca with the deeds to noble titles and lands for all of Britannia. Our new Regent Takichira the 1st now rules as head of state with the Commanding Lord of the army Steve Brown leading our military.

However rebel forces are disputing & challenging the individual lords & ladies & these titles are now being fought over in addition to the war for control of the cities.

This has meant that we are fighting new battles in new locations all over Britannia ,defending the titles & our lands in the name of the virtues.

we call on all citizens to join us !!

Mordreth Duke of Trinsic


Further info -

The LoB system is open for all players and offers players a chance to roleplay & or fight in a continous scenerio with events created and driven by the factions wars.

In order to have the right to challenge & become a noble you must be in a faction.

However non faction players are welcome to take part in the events such as the royal audiences at court,coronations,council meetings and ceremonies and will be given civil , judicial and ecclesiastical titles & positions. [these form the royal court]

You may also interact & role-play with the nobles as you encounter them by simply addressing them with their formal titles. [no need for ooc either ]

For further information on how LoB works,the current noble and the civil titles available and to apply for a position or title please see the LoB site.

http://www.sosaria.8m.com/lob.html

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I'm sure that everyone at one time or another has wanted to buy, sell or trade something in the game but you really didn't know what the item was worth. Or better yet you want to make sure that you are not being scammed.
Well now I introduce to you The UO Items Database. We have been slaving over this database for the past few months entering items and estimating their value.
With over 800 items currently listed it's a great resource for anything that can be bought, sold or traded.

Since the Database is still new there are still items to be added. We currently list everything from Animals to Food to Weapons and Armor with much more stuff to come. Please join us for the grand opening of The UO Items Database.

Markee Dragon
MarkeeDragon.com

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IMPY'S ARTIC FAIRE…
Weekly auction will be held Wednesday evening at 9pm by the Eastern Sky. 
With ANOTHER BONUS AUCTION planned for Thursday evening also at 9pm.

This past week has been fast and furious out on Ice Isle. Impy's hosted TWO auctions with attendance for both well over 200 folks through out both nights. On top of all the great rares, weapons and armor auctioned this week, we auctioned off one of the staff! Divinity was auctioned off to give a private tour and cruise. Velmont was the winning bidder and can be congratulated this week on Wednesday night, since he will be an honorary Impy Staff member for the night.

Ancient Root? No. But we do have Pure Garlic up for auction this week! And a GREEN TENT DEED. Between the two auctions this week, a full set of Ranger Armor and Daemon Bone will be auctioned off. As well as a Skeleton Statue (three year reward), a Bucket, a Plant DEED and several Potted Plants. We also have quite a few 'adventure' items: sos bottles and treasure maps. A pile of virtue and vanquish weapons, with an equal pile of armor rounds out the auction plans for the week.

For directions and a complete list of the items up for auction please take a peek at www.impys.net. As always, Runes to Riches and the Mystery Chest games will also be played this week following the auction, so please stick around and take a chance with lady luck. Impy has asked that you please stable your pets before the auction as he is allergic to wet fur.

If you need a rune visit one of our rune vendors located through out the lands. Vendors can be found at: Star's Shoppe (out side Vesper in Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (in Felucca), on the porch of the Sandlewood Box Inn (in Felucca), Cove Merchant's Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (located just at the front gate of Cove in Felucca), the Mystic Rose (in the wooded glen in Trammel), the Garden City Mall (located just north of Cove in Trammel), or at Krista's Ranger Station (in Felucca).

~Impy's Staff

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Event:  Chicken Summoning!

Date: August 23, 2001, Thursday

Time:  10pm GMT, 5pm EST

Place: ROI Guildhouse, UOAM Coordinates - (Trammel) 60-28-S, 34-22-W near skara brae & in Spiritwood Trammel Facet

Host:  Realm Of Immortality, Europa Trammel Guild

 

ROI will host a "chicken summoning" contest on August 23rd.  Entry fee will be 2000gps PER person!  You will be allowed 10 summon spells to cast as many chickens as possible!   First Place will be a FULL SET of Ranger Armor AND a Christmas bell! WELL worth the 2k entrance fee!!  Registration will begin 30 mins prior to event start.  Summon Creature scrolls will ALSO be available for non-mages wanting to give it a go!  We hope to see much participation in this event!   

Thanks

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About 6 weeks ago I was busier than I think I’d ever been in my life, trying to juggle three positions, and probably accomplishing about 30-40% of each, even working most nights from home after I left the office. But it’s a different story now, as Sannio and Kerowyn are both settling in very well here in the OCR department. Sannio’s demeanor on the boards is good-natured and friendly, and he’s still meeting with the folks here to learn all the facets of UO’s development so he can answer more questions and dig into the concerns of the players. Kerowyn is tackling the necessary UO.com updates, has been re-establishing regular contact with our fansites (as a side note, any fansite operators who would like to be on our fansite update list should contact [email protected]), and taken on a multitude of tasks related to the planning of the Online Worlds FanFest.

The department is running more smoothly every day, but one area that has still been a real challenge has been board moderation. When Sannio came into the picture, I felt he should be as positive as possible in his interactions with our community, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to have him come in and immediately take on the role of disciplinarian. (Since I’m already seen as a disciplinarian of sorts, I figured it was all right to have a few people continue to curse my name if necessary *chuckle*). Kerowyn has had way too much on her plate to have time to read all the board posts, so that’s been left up to me and our contractors. Until now, that is… and I am absolutely thrilled to introduce a new position into the OCR fold here at Origin: that of Online Community Moderator! Our contracted board moderators have done an incredible job of helping the boards to run smoothly, and I have asked one of them, Greywolfe, to work here as a full-time board community moderator, starting today.

Greywolfe has been one of our most active board moderators since the official UO boards opened, and I feel this addition will be an incredible asset to our community. Sannio will still be the main contact point for information and the person who collects the feedback, but Greywolfe will be responsible for enforcing board guidelines, and will also be helping folks find their passwords and solve other board-related problems.

This is a great time to discuss a few other changes to the boards as well… several issues seem to keep popping up on the boards, including things like the endless Trammel vs. Felucca debates, and posters including huge signature files on their posts. The board guidelines that were there before were a basic set of guidelines, but they were too ambiguous in places, not stressing things like exactly how big was too big when it came to signature files, and not discussing why endless Trammel/Felucca debates were not helpful to the board atmosphere. So the board guidelines at the top of each main forum have been expanded to be a lot more specific in what’s cool on the boards and what’s not, and should serve to make our vision for the boards much more clear. You can read them here. They’re pretty long, but I highly recommend that anyone posting on our boards take a couple minutes to read through those and be familiar with them if possible (which will certainly make Greywolfe’s new job easier!).

So welcome Greywolfe into the office and the department, and I look forward to seeing the UO boards develop into a closer and more cohesive community than ever (of course, we don’t expect all the feedback to be praise, but I’d like to see the signal-to-noise ratio improve, and I think we’re on the way to accomplishing that). :-)

Cynthe
Community Manager
Origin Systems

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Hiya everyone!

We had a nice turnout for the Grimoire Bar Brawl sponsored by sir black . Incase you couldn't make it we have a few pictures from the fights over at: the Grimoire website.

In the end Flip took home the 20K prize for the night.

After nearly all the fighters went home for the evening, Jimbo broke out the dice and gambling table!! I think they wanted to win Flips prize gold, but Flip had lady luck with him Friday night, and was able to keep some.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Grimoire to watch and participate in the fight, and thank you to all the wonderful people who help us out at Grimoire each week!! Thank you Josh, Lost, Lord Fear, Arch Bishop Horshack, Fiona Pentell, and Jimbo.

I hope everyone had fun, and that you can make it next week! See you at the fights!

LeeLu - Grimoire Staff

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Steelfang recently sent us the following tale of adventure and treachery. Enjoy!

The stench of death and decay was abundent in the abandoned tower as the armored warrior rode into the courtyard. He had a feeling he was being watched and he knew he was being followed, though his pursuers were about an hour or so behind him. He wondered what else was watching.

He ordered his horse to stay and sat down to wait for his shadow to show up. He opened his pack and took out the crumbling stygian scroll. He had paid dearly for it - though it had been almost a month, his wounds had barely healed. He had stolen the Book of the Dead from the Slayer of Souls as payment for the scroll, purchased from the evil mage, Lord Kulder, whom he suspected was following him now.

He struggled to read the scroll, since his knowledge of the stygian tongue was, at best, passable. Never-the-less, he had figured out that the doorway was just inside the tower and the full moon would reveal the lock. The key itself almost cost his life - it had been in a chest guarded by dead mages in Khaldun.

He heard a sound and said, "You may come and sit by the fire, Lord Kulder, and tell me why you have followed me."

Kulder smiled as he walked out of the shadows and sat across from the warrior, Steelfang, announcing "There is one more thing I need and it is with what you seek..."

"And what is it I seek mage?

Kulder shifted in his seat, "You seek the Sword of Justice. Me, I seek the Staff of Skellos."

As they sat and waited for the moon to rise, they spoke of thier past. Kulder told of being left on the doorstep of the mage tower in Britain. He looked at Steelfang and said, "You are not from this land. I can tell."

Steelfang looked up at the stars and said, "No. I'm not from this land."

He saw that the moon was up.

"It is time."

They entered the tower. As they paused before the ironbound oak door, a moonbeam shone through a small slit in the wall exposing a small circle. Steelfang pulled a ring from his pack and inserted it into the circle the oak door. It swung silently open.

"Ahh," said Kulder, "The ring of Radlohm the Thief. I wondered if you had it."

As they steped inside the doorway, Steelfang heard words of power. Swiftly, he pulled his Viking sword of power.

"Hold," Kulder shouted, "it is only a night sight spell."

Steelfang noded his head and muttered, "I suppose some magic has it's use," as Kulder chanted "in lor." The room brightened and they made their way to the center of the tower. The floor was strewn with strange bones.

Suddenly, Kulder felt a sharp point in his side. Steelfang smiled, "This dagger was steeped in the poison from the pools of Khaldun. If there is any treachery, you will feel the whole blade."

On a stand, there was a plain looking broadsword and staff. Kulder handed the sword to Steelfang and took the staff for himself. As they parted ways, Kulder spoke grimly, "we shall meet again soon."

Praise Mondain!

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The items that were listed in Testing for the Next Update and published to the Baja shard last week (treasure map changes, tutorial/Haven changes, and combat changes), were published to all remaining shards on Sunday, August 19th. This publish became active on the East and West Coast shards following their Monday morning maintenance period, and will become active on the European and Asian shards following their scheduled Tuesday morning maintenance period. These changes have now been added to Latest Game Updates.

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The time has come to liberate these towns. We must eradicate these savages, and drive them from the city gates. And so, I would like to set up an AOL event for the evenings of Tuesday (Vesper) and Thursday (Ocllo) this week (August 21 and 23) at 7:30PM Central Time.

Come prepared to crush these savages so that they never return. On Tuesday, all those interested in helped shall meet at the Felucca Vesper moongate, where we shall organise our attack. We will not rest until either we are wiped out, or the savages are wiped out.

On Thursday, we shall free Ocllo. We will meet at the newly liberated Vesper bank, where mages will provide gates to various areas of Ocllo into which teams will deploy. Again, we shall not rest until every savage is eradicated.

The only way to defeat them is in a concerted effort. Once this is done, they will know that they cannot just take over our towns.

Fair thee well where ever thee may fair...

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The sites just been updated with the newest comic: And
the Winner Is...

As always you can find that little morsal and many others at www.outofcharacter.com

Enjoy!

-Arakasi

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08/20/2001

*** NEW UDPATE at http://www.iamacat.t2u.com (Europe) and http://www.iamacat.net (USA) ***

*** SOON *** new mirror high speed at Iamacat.org (not operationnal yet!)

OYE! OYE!

Brand new episodes of the Adventures of Zog the Helper are available.

- EP20 - What I want for Xmas
- EP21 - I Sux in 3D (make your own opinion on that one...)
- EP2x - SPECIAL EVENT (8/19/2001) Angel and Phanta Wedding The Movie - performed by Godot -

Enjoy :)

Iamacat
Webmaster Iamacat.net

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For fans of As Britannia Turns and redlow.net, the very last ABT is up at my site. I'd like to thank the loyal readers of ABT for their support and words of encouragement. For those who have never read an ABT, they're all still there, and always will be available to read. Rest assured, there will be a replacement for the soap opera up sometime soon dealing with real life and not just Ultima Online.

As always, should you visit redlow.net, bear in mind that it is a PG-13 site. Enter at your own risk. And please remember to actually READ the intro page - and carefully - or you may find yourself face to face with a great horrendous evil.

ABT

-Redlowwinski

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We'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks to those people who donated gold to the Town of Spiritwood in order to acquire the old FCB tower next to the Spiritwood Tavern. But not only those giving gold, but also to those who helped organising this difficult endeavour. I think this showed us all how a community can work together in times of dire needs for a common goal and the great vision that is Spiritwood.
Thanks to:

Beneviste, Bladedancer, Chewboco, Dalamar, Elv'eng for Deepwater, Entity, Fuschia, Groan, Gorfindel, Gotowork, Gui, Illuma, Jen, Joel, Kyp Durron, Mara Jade, Moonglow City Council, Mort, Nevyn, Nikki, S/L, Shri, Solitaire, Tamara Stardust, Tan'ris, Therese, Toxicon, Ursus, Valura and Xarkaltos.

Special thanks to Jen for her donation as well, but especially for collecting the checks and keeping calm in this turmoil.

Kind regards and thanks

P.S.: There is much talk about what to do with the new tower in order to be of service for the community. If you got ideas, just let us know, either on these boards or at the Spiritwood boards.

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Just to answer the question I know is on everyone's mind, the next scenario will not be starting this month. Nobody is more dissapointed about that than I am, but we've hit some snags and decided to add more stuff (mostly related to the ending of the scenario) to make it better. I'd rather have a delay to make sure QA gets to thoroughly test everything and to make sure we add enough content to make the scenario enjoyable then rush it out the door just to make a deadline. Right now, we're working on the next (and last) patch (about 90% art complete), finishing up QA on the first half of the scenario (note, we don't have to test ALL of the scenario ahead of time before we launch, so don't take that as a terrible sign) and finalizing the second half of the scenario (probably about 70% code complete at this point).

I'll update everyone again once I have more information to share

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Hello.

The "Public Runes Library on Felucca (the orginal one near Dungeon Wrong :-P) has greatly improved in service.
Runes have been put in runebooks and a lot of runes have been added: t2a is now "fully marked".
There is also a book useful for people in factions. 510 runes are now on the shelves of the library: for this reason I've created an online "rune search engine" that helps people to find a particular rune or to explore easily the contents of the library.

The URL is the following and it is really easy to use: http://runelibrary.cjb.net

Moreover the library has got a massive facelift: I have added a room dedicated to the 8 virtues and to ultima series: you can find there famous books coming from other ultima games (the book of the Fellowship, a complete essay on blackrock, The Ancient Liturgy of the Truth, ... and over all a resume of every episode from Ultima 1 to Ultima 9) I hope this work brings a good service to people in Felucca.

Farewell

Lord Il Timido

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Hail and well met to all fair Britanians,

Rip Torn here, metallurgist and "supposedly retired" adventurer at your service. It is the latter that causes me to write in to this fine newsboard for on a recent excursion to the Undead City near Delucia I stumbled upon the body of a warrior laying at the feet of a bone knight and his lackey skeleton. After dispatching the unholy minions I quickly tended to the warrior who was quite obviously beyond my help. I reasoned the only thing I could do would be to guard his remains from the undead and human looting scum alike until he returned. After a short while had passed I gathered up all his stuff and kept it separate from mine own gear and waited, hoping that he would return soon since I was hopelessly over burdened and could not have travelled more than a few feet with our combined packs. I thought I was in trouble when I was spotted loitering by a Skeletal Mage and another Skeletal lackey. Having left all my silver at home I fought on regardless with a broadsword I had made a few weeks previous. It had served me well in that time and it did again. I cut down both skeletons where they stood but after the fight noticed that the fallen warrior's remains had vanished, decayed away into nothing! Wasting no more time I took a quaff of a strength potion I had stashed for emergencies and recalled away to the safety of mine home.

So who was this mysterious warrior? I would like to know because I have your equipment waiting for you. His name was Nemisis and I have managed to find this picture of him.

The incident occured late sunday night. If this is you or if you know this person tell them to send me a pigeon (ICQ 95213916) and I will gladly return it all. I will be asking questions about what was in the pack to make sure of the persons true identity so please, no imposters.

Thanks for listening, safe journeys to you ALL!

Rip.

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Lady Fromage, cub stratics reporter, related the following account to me of her encounter with Baroness Celeste Riversong, Ambassador of Willowport:

Closing her cabin door behind her, Celeste gallops off on her trusted unicorn, Mischief, into the dark horizon, stopping as she approches the giant Tower of Virtue, the massive stone sentinel that watches over Willowport as a mother does to a newborn child. She quietly dismounts her steed, opens the aged doors, covered with intricate designs and patterns, and murmers the incantation to the spell of "Night Sight", In Lor, removing the semi-darkness from the dimly lit room. A colorful and vibrant sitting room emerges into view, a room that Celeste knows very well. A table covered with fresh red roses, a basket full of exotic fruits, painstakingly carved wooden thrones with fine silk cushions... A pitiful sob escapes her mouth as she leans back against the doors, covering her face with her hands... She cries, unashamed, her whimpers echoing through the many chambers of Angel and Dreythos's former residence...

Greetings, all...

Although I am but a humble citizen of our fine land, even I can tell with great sadness that Serpent's Hold and her Duchy of Willowport are not faring well. How it pains me to think so, but I must, I must accept Truth, like our late and greatly missed Angel... I know she would want me to do so.

Something MUST be done to preserve Willowport, lest it be forgotten forever, a mere memory... Therefore, I am organizing a meeting to discuss and plan how we can deal with this crisis.

No date or time is set currently, I merely ask that all citizens of Willowport and Serpent's Hold send a pigeon to my cabin, with a date and time that is suitable for you to gather. And of course, anyone that is not a member or citizen of Willowport or Serpent's Hold, I cordially extend an invitation towards, to help renew these cities.

Praise Mondain!

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I have recieved the following notes from the Avernia Free Press regarding the recent meeting of the Yew Council and thought they may be of interest to the rest of you as well:

First, allow me to apologize for being unable to attend this meeting. Alas, I had some personal business to attend to.

I asked my slave, Buttars, to attend this meeting and represent Avernian interests in the Yew region. I just recieved his notes. Now let me assure you, dear reader, that Buttars did overstep his authority several times. Of that I feel I have sufficient evidence to justify a cut in his rations for a week...but that is an internal Avernian matter and not for discussion here.

On to the notes:

• Turnout was low but that was to be expected given the Yew Council's age. It is my belief that if Yew area guilds continue to support the council, attendance will rise.
• My slave was ordered to propose, on my behalf, the drafting and acceptance of a standardized list of rules of engagement for Yew area guilds. This proposal was not necessarily made because Avernia wants to go to war with everybody, rather we feel that a widely accepted system of non-restrictive rules will help establish trust between guilds and lead to increased interactions between them. Avernian RoE were given as an example for this proposal. This proposal will be voted on at the next Yew Council meeting. Input is welcome here provided it is constructive and it comes from Yew area guilds or others with interests in Yew.
• The appointment of permanent representatives was to have been discussed at this meeting. Given the low turnout it was accepted that these appointments could not be made at this time.
• It was proposed that the heads of each Yew guild be permitted a chance to floor Yew council meetings until such a time as a permanent appointed council could be established. My foolish slave volunteered my services to head next weeks meeting (volunteering me=cut rations & extra hours in the mines for young Buttars but that is not of concern). Fortunately I have no plans for next weekend so I should be able to attend..unless something unavoidable (RL) comes up. So yes....I will be honored to lead the next meeting of the Yew council.
• It was proposed and accepted that Yew council meetings be held weekly until such a time that weekly meetings become unnecessary. It was felt that when attendance rises and becomes more stable, permanent council members can be appointed and weekly meetings will not be needed.
• The next meeting of the Yew council will be on Sunday August 26th at 6pm Eastern (5 Central, 4 Mountain and 3 Pacific).

If you live in the Yew region, are thinking of moving to the Yew region or have material or other interests in the Yew region you are strongly encouraged to attend. Please pass this along to your neighbors, friends and even your enemies in Yew.

And would someone please wake up the people of Everwood Cove, their participation is sorely missed.

Until then, Fair thee well where ever thee may fair.

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It's legal to make, sell, own and trade. Is it still possible to make them?

You are correct. If you *defeat* the spawn, ie: get it to stop it will reset itself after some time. The group that gets chosen is completely random each time it resets...

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Submissions will be taken on Monday the 20th of Aug, at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST, at Red Devil tower in Felucca.

We also will take submissions 1 hr. before the Auction starts on Tuesday night. If you wish to submit item[s] please bring a book and a bag with the item[s] inside with your name, icq, what the item is, and your minimum bid. Please remember to only hand your item[s] to one of the people in the stage area (Mobius or Rattler).

The Coordinates to the Red Devil Auction Tower are 34o43N/44o51E - 5 minutes walk east of Britain (following the road). For your convenience, there is a rune to our Auction Tower inside The Acadian Provisioners and Rares Museum (the first clearing south of Yew, west side of the road.)

As always, the GLV Guild will be handling the Auction, and the Burning Heart Guild will be handling Guard Duty. ~ Rattler GLV

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Users of the Magic Tool version 6.0 can upgrade to 6.1 by downloading and installing a small patch that will update the amount of reagents used by some spells. When you click on the link you can either "Open this file from its current location" or "Save this file to disk" and then double-click the downloaded file to allow the patch to update some Magic Tool settings in the Windows registry.

Enjoy!

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At least I couldnt resist to the call to that. Therefore I made myself onto the way to the East Britain Bank in order not to miss the magic travel service that was made available freely from three Britannia points. Thanks to the official bang-yellow clothing even my tired eyes could make out the wizard fast and I jumped through the gate very fast.



Just arrived these searchers for luck were greeted by Zindar -organizer and host of the evening- and sent immediately to the lottery! Arriving there the run for the tickets began. The Vendor of the tickets were nearly overun. Even the price of 2200 gold coins per lottery rune could not change that, and in an astonishing short amount of time the runes were sold out.



After all runes were sold to the lottery addicts - someone had bought 34 pieces of them -, the tension almost increased to an intolerable level, because Zindar announced the five-digit lucky number after each other. The happy ones which had bought one of the winning runes had to jump with this to a verification place. There they were greated by other official who opened them a gate directly back before the eyes of Zindar. In such a way a fraud could be excluded and in spite of an easy disappointment at some, all were pleased cordially nevertheless with the happy winners !



And because it has made all so much fun, there is supposed to be a next lottery in any case. I am secure to myself, that also this will be able to move again a lot under their spell !

Greetings, Euer Slagdale [ www.uoworld.de ]

PS: People counting real fast could already determine that with over 200k of price money and around 100 lottery runes for a price of 2200 gold the organizers could not have made a lot of profit with this event. All the more a big thankyou for the very well prepared as well as carried out lottery !

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I received the following note from Seer Homnivus:

Hail!

I am seer Homnivus of the AOL Legends shard. I am new to this shard so I would like to get to know the people of it. I would like to visit all the player towns as well to get all involved with this program. please note we have no ties to OSI so we wear no fancy robes and have no special powers. We are here to creat fun quests for guilds and groups of friends and all others for that matter.

Come and volunteer or just check us out you can reach me via the mystic ICQ vapors at 120467842 or you can email me . Thanks and see you on our quests.

Fair Thee Well Were ever thee may fair...

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Hail!

I bring grave news to you this eve...It seems an Evil has swept over the lands once more. This evil is Volocamp. He has sworn to murder all healers of the land of Sosaria. He has already attacked numorous healers and mages at Empath Abby. There are also reports of a man coming out of the shadows, swooping out of the tree tops and taking the lives of these men and women. I have heard many accounts of this and have been asked to protect the healers by Morgon the mage. A mage deep in the underworld. He sought me out and pleaded for my help. And seeing on how he has come from deep within, you must see the importance of this. We must fight to protect our healers and mages. Who will cure our ailing childern, or our elderly. The Monks of Empath Abby also plead for help....as there numbers have been hit by this madman. I will be standing up to this evil, and I WILL see it vanquished. I wanted you to be the first to hear of this tragedy in the making. I feel confident you can let the fair people know of this. My prayers are with the victims and there families, as well as the prey of this foul beast. Volocamp you will be vanquised by the edge of mine sword. *lights cigar*

The Big O of AOL legends.... Omnicron GM of the Ruff Ryders

These are indeed dark tidings for think of how much smaller our world population would be without the healers of Empath Abbey.

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Lord Caleb paced the wooden floor of his private residence in the frozen lands near Deceit. Looking out his window as the snow fell, he could see Skaretaius next door returning from another successful hunt. Caleb smiled, his seclusion here had ended, and one of BDA's best warriors had moved in next door. Caleb then turned to the room in his house next door to his own. The lovely and sinister Silvaria had her own space in his home. He reflected on days long since passed when she had found him after his arrival from the Underdark, when BDA was just getting their foothold in Sosaria...

Now the time had come for conquest of this realm. Serpent's Hold had fallen, not with as much ease as expected, but fallen nonetheless. The rebels' fighting was fierce, overwhelming at times, but the victor was clear. His forces could not be defeated by the defenders of Serpent's Hold alone, other troops were brought in, and the dastardly Cult of the Black Dragon seized the opportunity to exact revenge on BDA for spoiling their plans in Trinsic. Countless battles were fought, but most were won by BDA. The conclusion was here. The battles were mere skirmishes and meaningless engagements with either rag tag rebels, or vengeance seeking cultists. None could drive out the Drow. For all purposes, it was a Drow city now.

Caleb sat at his desk and examined the proposal drafted by the now numerous guilds involved in Serpents Hold fate. He perused the rules, regulations, decrees, and even the considerations his own warlord had made in these negotiations. His leather-gloved fist struck the desk, shaking the candelabra, knocking it off its spot. "Ort Sanct Ylem", and Caleb snatched it out of mid air with total mastery of magic and replaced it where it should go.

"There will be no negotiated battle to declare a victor in Serpent's Hold. It is ours in my eyes and the eyes of Bregan D'Aerth. Diplomacy has gotten us nowhere in the past, and it will get us nowhere now. We are fools to think the humans will ever honor their own words. They preach their virtues, yet behind the scenes their hearts are as black and evil as any Drow. They are afraid to face their virtues own failure, so they cling to them as their own security blanket, kidding themselves with false piety. 

Let them come and try and stop us in Minoc, Skara Brae...anywhere we go to conquer.. We are done in Serpent's Hold, let the remaining humans slaughter each other in the streets as we seize more for ourselves and Lolth." 

Caleb finishes recording his thoughts in his journal, and glances at his crystal ball showing a snowy scene of Minoc. He unrolls the scroll of Drow within BDA, sargtlins and faerns, all loyal all standing at the ready to do as he commands at any time, any place. Its an awesome responsibility, one he has shared with Silvaria, Blackened, Cah Mi, Xylot and most recently Alana. Too much influence from this realm has infiltrated his ranks, Alana has been assigned the task of reminding the ilythri from whence they came. Cah Mi, on a personal quest of her own for an unknown amount of time. Xylot, the ancient one, guides the young and old alike with wisdom and experience of long time spent in this realm. Silvaria, former leader of BDA, stands with Caleb in power and influence. She has the respect and awe of all those who wear BDA. Her input is of great value.

Caleb pauses at Blackened's name. "Streeka", he mutters. Her willingness to do his will has never been doubted, and her efforts to reach a consensus in the Serpent's Hold endeavor were worthwhile, he is thankful her confidence is back. Her vigor for improvement renewed, she is becoming deadlier everyday it seems. And apparently more seasoned in assuming leadership in the ranks. Not without problems of course, but he nods approvingly when he considers all she has done. He considers his time as leader of this rogue band, this collection of skills, personalities, experience, temperaments, humor, and levels of intellect. Blackened has risen from a freshly discovered Drow warrior near the banks of the water in Papua by Drakath, to an esteemed leader in BDA. He knows Blackened would die in his place at any time, sacrifice any wealth or possessions, do just about anything for him.

"Blackened, it is time for us to take this ore reservoir from the rival and make it our own. Let all of Britannia suffer financially, as we ourselves line our chests with gold until they burst open. Minoc will be ours, begin the scouting missions to learn the key points of attack so our movement may be swift, decisive, and overwhelmingly convincing." He completes his telepathy, and rests for the night. The growls of polar bears as they devour walruses ring in his ears with a pleasant sound to a Drow.

The sound of pain and death, of hunger satiated, and victory obtained. Minoc will be the walrus, as BDA will be the polar bear. A fat meaty morsel, for a powerful unstoppable force.

Xal streea tlu pholor dos Minoc!

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If you joined us at the G*B Mall last Sunday the 12th, you'll probably remember we had a bit of an... interesting time together. Here's a recap:

In the beginning, everything seemed fairly routine. Everyone helping with the event arrived about an hour before the drawing. The pet show participants showed up with their prized companions and anxious keyholders were waiting to take their stab at a small fortune. However, there was one small problem. The guy with the Master Key raffle boxes, ScOrPs, was nowhere to be found! Unbeknownst to Diana and myself, he was involved in a (non-serious) automobile accident in that scary realm we all know as "real life" and had no chance of making it on time.

Without that knowledge, we both began to panic, fearing the train wreck that would soon be our event if he didn't show up. With the raffle primed to blow up in our faces, one of our pet show participants had left three dragons at the mall unattended.

Well, you know how pets are, after a while, they start missing their masters and get hungry. This is especially unpleasant when these certain unattended, hungry pets can breathe fire and send energy bolts in anyone's direction at will. This chapter had a happy ending, though, and the owner returned to claim his pets with his apologies. No dragons or humans were harmed during this time.

With that resolved, Diana and I decided to postpone the draw to 4 PM in the hope that ScOrPs would arrive by then. Unfortunately, by that time, the two of us were running out of valium and were exhausted from the previous hours. As a result, we decided to postpone the events. Don't think you're off the hook yet, because it continued to get... better.

Around 3:30, ScOrPs arrives from his earlier ordeal (unhurt) and proceeds to hold the draw after we had called it off only hours before. However, this final chapter does have a happy ending, and we found our two winners, Athens (100k cash) and Rahab (blessed mare robe and sandals). As stated before, the pet show and foot races will be rescheduled for a later date. Look for announcements regarding that and upcoming events about the G*B Mall in the near future. Hopefully, all of our events won't go like this because if they do, more stories like this will be on the way!

Thanks Again,
Bob Barker
Manager, Events and Promotions,
G*B Mall

Rummaging through an old pile of papers the other day, I found a leftover pigeon sandwich, wrapped in an unreadable copy of the Moonglow constitution. I immediatly dispatched a message to Count Tevan requesting a new copy of the story. He not only sent me a new copy of the information he originally sent me a month ago, he was kind enough to attach it to another pigeon, which I am happily munching on now as a I share this with you:

Heshima,

I still wear the clothes for mourning the father I knew, but break my period of silence to give this message.

Long was my life without confusion until a man came to my home. A kind man of full soul and spirit, knowing the forces of nature and how to speak with them by name. This man called Thorn took interest in me when he noticed the mark on my neck--the same mark, he said, as the great man we travelled to Moonglow to see. The man who was my father, and who thought me long ago removed from this existance. I knew my father not my whole life, but my heart does hurt at the loss of him. He was a good man, with a pure soul. He was called "Count", and commanded the entire island and town of Moonglow and the place of mystery and learning called Lycaeum.

Now my name is Count, and I am to be chief of the land as he was. I know well how to command, and did in my village, but this city is new and very different and I have not been chief. The one who brought me here- he is my Bokonon because his arrival to my home formed my destiny- does give helpful words, and wrote this list for me to give to you. He says my communication is not one people are used to. He wrote it so it would be easier to understand:

• From this day forward, I shall be known as Count Tevan Kivuli, the royal leader of Moonglow.
• I alone will have the ability to grant and revoke positions of authority to other citizens of Moonglow, as I see fit.
• I cannot be overthrown or usurped from power for any reason.
• I will have sole authority to create and modify the laws of Moonglow; furthermore, I will have authority to administer the justice resulting from those laws as I see fit.
• I will head all military operations for the city of Moonglow, and appoint generals as necessary to assist with the security and safety of the city.
• I will make every effort to maintain fairness and peace within this great city.

written by Count Tevan, Translated by: Lord Thorn

My respect to you,
Count Tevan Kivuli
Essence of Honesty
Keeper of Truth

Praise Mondain!

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Hello dear readers,

I would like to invite you to the reopening of UOWorld.
Our new page layout will be available online at sunday, 19. August.
Due to a lack of time not all features are included yet, however you'll be busy for some time with that what is already available anyway.

Best regards

Your UOW team
http://www.uoworld.de

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Our Claim

Guys and girls are different in ways only we realize. In fact, without asking about your clothes, grooming, or chest, our Gender Test *will* predict, with 100% accuracy, whether you're a guy or a girl.

This test's patented Geni-Tell technology has gotten smarter with every taker. Finally, witness the true power of the Internet.

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Due to a schedule conflict, the public meeting scheduled for Sunday August 19 to address the conflict between the Council of Honesty and the Moonglow Defense Force has been rescheduled. The meeting will now be held on Saturday, August 25 at 1:00 pm central at the Trammel Lycaeum.

My apologies for any inconvenience this schedule change may cause.

Be well!

Lord Buzz Aldridge High Council, 7th Seat, Moonglow

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Over 30 skilled and beautiful women have signed up for this event; Craftswomen, Warriors, Mages, you name it, they have it. Gating services will be available from several towns on both facets, please check the official auction page on www.serpentstone.com for details!




Breeze & Goldie
United Women of Sosaria (UWS)
Mail : [email protected]
Url : www.serpentstone.com

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Better as in no longer dead. The UOMON process died. I gave it a gentle resuscitating kick to get it going again.

As for the port 5000 issue, the login server isn't where the ports get set. The port that a user needs to connect on gets set by the individual shards. The login server is responsible for relaying that information to the client.

Just to make sure everyone understands what the port 5000 problem is:
- Ultima Online currently uses ports 5000-5010 for communication between the client and the shard.
- The documentation on the uo.com website incorrectly states that it uses ports 5001-5010.
- RoadRunner, and some other ISPs, recently started blocking port 5000.
- The net result is that some users, notably RoadRunner customers, are unable to reliably connect to some shards.

At this time, I do not know if Ultima Online will make a change so that it stops using port 5000.

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• 1st circle spell Magic Arrow now uses Sulphurous Ash instead of Black Pearl and Nightshade
• 3rd circle spell Fireball now uses Black Pearl instead of Black Pearl and Sulphurous Ash
• 4th circle spell Lightning now uses Mandrake Root and Sulphurous Ash instead of Black Pearl, Mandrake Root and Sulphurous Ash
• 6th circle spell Explosion now uses Blood Moss and Mandrake Root instead of Black Pearl, Mandrake Root and Sulphurous Ash

First tests show that the damage done by lower level spells, such as Magic Arrow, Fireball, and Lightning , have been increased so much that they have become very interesting spells to use in combat. Currently these changes are active on Test Center and the Baja shard only. Go check them out if you can.

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Yes, if you join one of the 4 factions on Siege, under the proposed changes, you will automatically be considered "Hero" or "Evil" as well. Conversely, if someone wanted to join in the Hero/Evil conflict, they would be required to join one of the four factions first (and so be automatically considered "Hero" or "Evil").

A Hero character has the option to earn lifeforce points by killing Evil characters, or by killing faction-associated monsters. You can attempt to gain lifeforce points only through PvM (player versus monster) combat, but know that you will have chosen a lifestyle that makes you a target for the opposing forces of Heroism or Evil, and so risk being attacked at will by factioneers.

Being in the Minax or Shadowlord factions, and therefore being Evil, does not mandate you be red first, nor will you turn red just by joining up; you will not become red by being Evil, but you will become red if you receive enough murder counts to turn you red. In this way it is the repercusions of your actions that turn you red, not your affiliation.

During previous iterations of the "Rate Over Time" (ROT) system, the ROT rules only applied to certain skills. This update will apply ROT to all skill advancements on the Siege Perilous shard.

Both running onto steps and using water barrels are considered legal. They are part of the placement competition, and GMs will not intervene.

GMs will not camp out and watch IDOCs. We don't track which houses are IDOC, and we aren't going to start attempting to find them. We have limited resources to support UO, and we cannot use up those resources to watch IDOCs. If we did that, we would sacrifice actual calls in order to resolve possible problems. That's not a trade off we intend to make.

The grade you give is really up to you. I expect GMs to put forth a reasonable attempt to answer a question that is asked of them. They should not be jumping to conclusions about questions, nor should they give you an answer that barely relates to your question. There are certainly times when a GM won't be able to answer a question, but I do expect them to at least explain why they can't answer you. Players ask some questions we can't answer, but the GM should still give a satisfactory reason as to why the question can't be answered.

If a GM is not paying attention to the question, or gives an answer that obviously does not answer the question, that needs serious improvement. I do not want that to be considered "average" for our service. That sets the bar real low, and I don't want that. I hope that players are fair both ways in the rating tool. If you receive poor service, mark it as poor. But if a player receives good service, I hope they rate it as good, regardless of a bad GM experience they had two years ago.

Finally, having hero/evil items are fine these days. Back in the old days, only heroes could have hero items, and evil characters could have evil items. Now, it's fine to buy, sell, or trade them.

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#Ultima-Online is happy to announce another Ultima Online Celebrity Chat on August 20th at 7:00PM CDT in #Ultima-Online.

Our Guest this time will be Markee Dragon, owner and web master of MarkeeDragon.com, home to an extensive database of rares and unique items, Ultima Online discussion forums, screen shot archives, and more.

If you've never been to a UOCC before, it's simple to join in. Just download an IRC client such as mIRC and connect to one of the following servers:

• irc.stratics.com
• irc.stratics.dhp.com
• stratics.frws.com
• riot.tac.net
• stratics.truefear.net

Once you're connected, type /join #Ultima-Online

As an alternative, you can use our JavaIRC client located here, and simply choose "Ultima-Online" as the channel to join.

Hope to see you there!

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You will be happy to hear that we have discontinued the use of the pop-up advertising on the pages we'd put them on last wednesday. I think it is important to emphasize something here. We added the pop-ups to only a handful of the thousands of pages that make up this network. So even though we are removing them - I hope that everyone realizes that we never intended to place them on every page throughout our network and most especially not within the forums themselves.

In any event, due to the profound negativity we have received for the use of pop-ups, we have removed them from the few pages that they were added to.

Jhariden
Stratics Community Development

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Announcing the Wedding of Cameron and Dominicus!

Who: Cameron and Dominicus
When: August 24th at 6 pm PST
Where: The Circle of the Dragon Inn (Felucca)
What: All guests are invited to attend the wedding of Cameron and Dominicus. Please stable pets before arriving.

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Since this is my first Comments from the Team, let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Daniel Buckler (FierY iCe) and I am a programmer for Ultima Online. I started at Origin as a web programmer, moved on to eventually become a designer on UO, and then finally found my calling as a programmer. I've seen UO from many different angles and have really enjoyed working on a great game that continues to evolve. It’s especially rewarding to be part of a game that I have played for so long. Back when I was playing the Beta in 1997, I never dreamed that I would have the chance to actually work on UO. It has been a long road to becoming a programmer, but it has definitely been worth it. :)

And now something I'm sure many of you are curious about...

FierY iCe, what's with the alternating caps?? Are you a L33t R0xX0r PK?
The reason I spell my name like that is because I‘ve been doing it that way since about 1994 when I originally created it. It was a name I wanted to use on a BBS. When I was designing my signature, I wanted it to look neat, so I added some fancy coloring and altered the capitalization; eventually, it looked like this:
FierY
iCe
I chose that particular arrangement because it made the capital letters symmetrical in my signature, and with the color gradients I used, it looked really cool. It hasn’t changed since then.

And on a final note, why are you called "Evil in a Can”?
Evil in a Can is the pet name that I came up with for the Hero Titles system. It's the name we use internally for this project. At the time I was working on it, I was designing a dynamic spawn area that players could control by fighting the monsters. At first, I didn’t really have a name for it, but then "Evil in a Can" popped into my head one day and it's been called that ever since.

For those of you having a hard time getting a boss monster, a.k.a Champion of Evil, to spawn from Evil in a Can, just stick with it. It’s very difficult, and there is a little randomness involved, but you can do it. Hopefully, I will be able to look into it further and possibly make it a little easier, or give you some more clues as to how close you are in game, but nothing is scheduled to change at this point in time.

Daniel "FierY iCe" Buckler
Programmer: Ultima Online

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Many of you, I am quite sure, have seen me wandering the realms of our fair Sosaria for quite some time now. I have been and done many things in my life and now I embark on a new adventure, to help bring the news to the people. I shall certainly do my best to report the news to thee in a most fair and accurate manner.

Until then, fair thee well where ever thee fair.

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The Hand has made many accusations against the Keepers of Justice and myself. I would like to set the record straight once and for all and would like for the Yew Council to atttest to the following truths:

Neither I, nor any other leader in our midst, have, at any time, requested any actions be taken against the Hand. The actions that have been decided have been decided without ANY input from the Keepers, period. The only words spoken to the Council were at the time I requested acceptance in the militia again and these words were spoken at a public Council meeting held in the Abbey. These words were as follows: "In the coming days I will present evidence as to the crimes commited by Hand members." With the exception of the questions I asked at the last council meeting regarding the warrants, these are the only words I have spoken to the Council regarding The Hand.

I requested that the Keepers once again be considered for militia duty and have just this week been given the approval by the Council but have not discussed this with the Militia Captain, Lowgun, as of the writing of this scroll. With this being the case we could not be considered as trying to take over Yew or control the Council, I think thou doest give us too much credit for having WAY too much power.

I state here and now that The Keepers of Justice wish only to serve the good citizens of Yew and to protect the Abbey from falling into the wrong hands (no pun intended). We shall, and always have, abide by the decisions of The Yew Council and the laws of Lord British.

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Welcome to the GUL pit fights. Hosted at Oc'Nivelle (Yew Forest 47o 17`N. x 34o 56`W). Designed to be a place for fighters of all play styles to come together to battle it out, the GUL Pit fights will be held every Saturday.

Registration will begin at 8 pm pst fighting will begin at 9 pm. Players wishing to register must do so by 8:50, no late entries will be accepted.

This Weeks Pit Fight (Saturday August 18th) will be 1v1 single elimination.

Prizes

• 1st place - 250,000 gold pieces
  
• 2nd place - 150,000 gold pieces
  
• 3rd place - 50,000 gold pieces

There is no entrance fee
Sponsored by GUL

Guardians of the Undead Lords Pit Fighting rules

• No magic weapons, no magic armor, no charged magic items.
  
• Pre-poisoned weapons are not allowed. Fighters with the poisoning skill may poison there blades once the fight has started.
  
• No casting of field spells, or summoning.
  
• No pets, this includes spectators. Please stable your pets before arriving at the tower.
  
• No looting.
  
• No stealing
  
• Loss of connection during a fight will result in that fighter losing the match.
  
• Tournaments are single elimination (the exception being fighters who lose in the semi-finals will be asked to stay and fight for 3rd place)
  
• All fighters are subject to snooping by the Oc'Nivelle staff.
  
• Any spectator inference will result in the spectator being banned and the fight starting over.
  
• No one is permitted inside the fighting area except the fighters for that match and the ref.
  
• Fighters may not hide or cast invisble during there fight
  
• To reduce lag anyone not fighting will be asked to hide during the fight. Players who consistently do not hide will be removed from the tower.
  
• No smack talking. The point is to prove what you can do... If you just "owned" someone we all will have seen it, no need to spout off about it.

The ref will have final say over any match, issues or complaints with the rules of GUL's Pit Fight will not be discussed until after the tournament has ended.

For questions please visit www.game-master.net

Thanks A Bunch
Beldin

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Grimoire Bar Brawl!! Friday 08/17/2001

This weeks fight is a Gladiator Fight, Sponsored by sir black

Friday, August 17, 2001 at (9 PM PST, 10 PM MST, 11 PM Central, Midnight EST)

Tournament will start at 9:10 PM PST. We don't have registration for this event, just show up naked and without anything other than a way home.

20K gold pieces goes to the last fighter standing.

Rules:
· Contestants are not allowed to bring anything to this tourney other than a way home. (recall scroll, spell book, one or two sets of reagents, or a rune book with charges)
· The Grimoire staff will scatter weapons, armor, potions, and bandages on the arena floor. Contestants will start the battle naked and will arm themselves with what they can pick up.

For a full listing of rules, maps to Grimoire, the public message board, and way more Grimoire information than you could want head over to the Grimoire site.

Grimoire

Hope to see you there!
LeeLu-Grimoire Staff

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UOWedding now has 2 active clerics on Sonoma! We do weddings for free. We have lots of scripts to choose from and are flexible as far as location goes. To book a wedding, go to http://devoted.to/uowedding. The 2 clerics for Sonoma are Karath (ICQ-74195241 [email protected]) and Samantha (ICQ-79085451 [email protected]). You can contact either of us with any concerns you may have. Thank you very much and I hope to see all of you walking down the aisle soon! :)

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Monday 13th August saw the latest weekly meeting of the Trinsic Council Of
Honour (TCH).

The council met in the Counsellors Hall in Trinsic at 8pm (GMT). The
following were in attendance: -

Attendees: Drakys TCH, Mentazm TCH, Kaine TCH, Clarice TPH, Mouse BP,
Crowley DOT, Pryrates *F*, Handsome Chris TCH, Ryppypnalle TPH, Akhual *F*,
Kapios Kapote AWL.

Apologies : Ewan Blackmane, Maria delSythia, Gladiator.

The mainpoints discussed were: -

1) ERPA relations - The council agreed to make an effort to contact some
other ERPA guild around Trinsic to get acquainted with people and their
politics.

2) It was agreed the council shall set up a bagball team (at some point in
the near future). The name of which is still to be decided (though this
particular scribe likes the sound of 'The Trinsic Titans' *grins*.)

3) Mentazm offered to keep a runebook in his house to allow the council
access to other guildhouses owned by ERPA members, as well as player
run towns.

4) It was also agreed that those attending next week's meeting would visit
Spiritwood as a group to meet it's citizens (please note this is only for
TCH, TPH and DOT members only.) This will take place on Tuesday 21st August
after the weekly meeting.

5) The quest being organised by Kaine was discussed further and it was
decided that a member of DOT and TPH would accompany the participants (as
this event is aimed at 'younger' citizens.)

6) 2 council positions were filled on Monday's meeting: Dilpomat - taken by
Tyndal and Justiciar - filled by Handsome Chris.

If you would like to attend future meetings to discuss these matters, build
some community spirit, and make some new friends then the next meeting will
be held in the Trinsic Counsellors Hall in Trammel on Tuesday 21st August at
20:00 GMT (please note the following meeting will be back on a Monday.)
Before attending, though, please see our tome (http://stop.at/trinsic) so
you can get acquainted with what the council are aiming to do and what we
have achieved so far. There you will also find some basic rules to make our
meetings constructive and orderly.

Drakys,
Scribe, TCH

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Hail All,

Queen Shieba's Alliance, a guild known for their dedication the Crafting Arts and Role playing, has decided to extend their crafter’s skills to those in need and sell their products in the town of Skara Brae. We will be doing this on Sunday, August 19th, and have committed to being there at least from 5:00-7:00(PST) server time.

This Street market faire is most certainly open to all, to either buy or sell. We have invited TAA, tDw, -S-, and RoR guilds to participate as well.

Our interests though, are to stress fun had by all and promote our Role Playing guilds as well as Skara Brae city. We would like to focus on crafted goods for selling, but would certainly allow people to sell other things as well; mounts, pets, reagents, rune and spell books, etc. as well as take orders for larger amounts of good.

People wishing more details can reach Dante at ICQ-946655 or Galilee at ICQ- 13961386.

Dante
Lord High Chancellor Ambassador of Queen Shieba

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I would like to announce the openings of 2 new vendor shops on the Europa Shard-Trammel side. They are open for business now, but the offical opening is this Saturday. August 18th.

Please use this link http://linux.telnett.no/~doomworld/ to find out the locations of the shops and what they sell. We hope to see you there.

Lady Nyte Doombringer- WOD

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The town of Destiny is excited to announce the creation of two new job openings. We're opening applications to anyone interested and qualified.

Title: Minister of Operations * Felucca
The person in this position will be expected to plan and execute day-to-day activities in Destiny. This position reports directly to the Mayor and does not hold a council seat. Basically, this position keeps the town fun and entertaining.

Title: Minister of Operations * Trammel
The person in this position will be expected to plan and execute day-to-day activities at Ix. This position reports directly to the Mayor and does not hold a council seat.

Requirements:
The person should be a good, clear communicator. This person must be able to get along well with others. The person must be motivated and able to devote ample time to the job. The person should have some knowledge of Destiny and/or Ix.

How to apply:
Please send an application using the following template to [email protected] by August 30, 2001.

Subject: Minister of Operations position (facet)
Character name/Guild:
What do you enjoy about life in Britannia?
How do you like to spend your (UO) time?
What experience do you have that could be helpful to you in this position?
How familiar with Destiny and/or Ix are you?
Why do you want this job?
Is there any additional information you wish to share?

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ok Im at trammel bk room attempting to get some wrestling, when I move to the right tile , people start getting mad and say "keep griefing" and stuff to me (If you sat at the bk room for an hour you'd get 12 people banned from harassment lol)

Anyhow , is it griefing to stand in a tile that a player dosnt tell you to in the bk room?

Because I was on a horse they were getting all angry-- I dont think this is griefing but I'd like to ask anyhow

No, it's not griefing. Nor is using silver, magic, or pets in the bone knight room. That spot is a hotbed of problems, and players too often think anyone not standing in line is a griefer.

Greets,

What you are refering to as the "randomness of gains" is actually an aspect of the basic skill gain system. I mean, yes, this system has a definite random component, but it's not specific to cartography... the same gain system is used for a large number of skills.

Even adding something like a skill gain check when digging up the treasure chest would be using the same "randomness" and generally have the same results as decoding does now.

Which means that in order to truly confront the issue as you've raised it, the skill gain system as a whole would really need to be the target. Lots of juggling and balancing will be involved. A fairly large task that would pretty much need to be its own focus.

Which is, of course, something that is possible to do, but it's very far beyond the scope of what I was able to touch for this publish. It's far from a dead issue, but it's gonna have to wait before someone can throw an "In Vas Mani" at it.

The changes mentioned for Siege Perilous are currently available on Test Center 5.

I've checked with the Live team to get a definitive answer on this. The GM team will not treat this as an exploit, so it is legal for people to hide while wearing war point. There are plans to change this in a future publish, so that players wearing war paint will be tracked. So, it is considered legal, but it will be changed in the future.

(Still waiting on an answer regarding UO Loop, though).

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The account management page is having considerable delays. We assure you that we are working diligently to correct this and we will update you once we have more information.

Several updates and changes will occur for the Siege Perilous shard. These changes include Stats changes, ROT, the Hero/Evil system, NPC training, Taming, and other items.

Several updates and changes will occur for the Siege Perilous shard. These changes include Stats changes, ROT, the Hero/Evil system, NPC training, Taming, and other items. The specifics are listed below.

Stats (Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence) will gain a maximum of 6 points per day, total. (For example, a character main gain 3 points in Strength, 1 point in Dexterity, and 1 point in Intelligence, equaling 6 total points gained).

A variation of the “Rate Over Time” (ROT) system will be returning to Siege Perilous:

(a)Skill points for skills under 70 points will gain as normal shards (including “power hour” point gain capability).

(b)Skill points for skills between 70 and 79.9 points will gain a maximum of 3.6 points total per day, with a minimum of 20 minutes between point gained.

(c)Skill points for skills between 80 and 98.9 points will gain a maximum of 2 points total per day, with a minimum of 40 minutes between point gained.

(d)Skill points for skills 99.0 points and up will gain a maximum of 2 points total per day, with a minimum of 60 minutes between point gained.

A revised Hero/Evil system will be returning to Siege Perilous:

(a)“Red” characters will be allowed in all towns. Guards will not kill them on sight, but will kill them if they perform any criminal acts. It will still be a criminal act to heal a red within town, but it will not be an act which guards could be called for. Reds will also be attackable by anyone while in town—faction enemy, “red” character, or otherwise.

(b)The True Britannians and Council of Mages factions will be considered “Hero” factions. The Shadowlords and Minax factions will be considered “Evil” factions. All four factions will still be at war with one another, in addition to being integrated with the Hero/Evil system.

(c)Killing faction characters who are in your own faction will incur a penalty. The killer in this case will lose 50% of his current kill points, lose 100% of the lifeforce accumulated, and be able to be reported as a murderer. An exception to this will be the killing of guild mates, thus allowing characters to spar with guild mates. Another exception is that if your character is attacked by another, you are allowed to defend yourself with impunity.

(d)Faction characters will gain lifeforce equal to 20% of the life force of the character killed, and that character who was killed will lose an equal amount of lifeforce points.

(e)Faction characters will gain 1 lifeforce point for each faction enemy monster which that character kills.

(f)The maximum number of lifeforce attainable is 100 points.

(g)Players will be able to spend lifeforce points toward special Hero/Evil powers:

Colored Armor (5 lifeforce points; duration is permanent; turns an article of armor or clothing white for Hero, black for Evil)

Detect Evil/Good (1 lifeforce point; duration is immediate; allows Hero character to scan the area for Evil, and Evil to scan for good)

Summon familiar (10 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; allows character to summon a familiar to fight for the character, silver wolf for Hero or dark wolf for Evil)

Bless (60 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; temporarily “blesses” one equipable item, item will note time remaining)

Silver/Dark Steed (30 lifeforce points; duration is 30 minutes; creates a silver steed for Hero character to ride, or dark steed for Evil character)

Holy/Unholy Shield (40 lifeforce points; duration is 60 minutes; character is ignored by all monsters and faction guards while this power is active)

(h)Evil characters will no longer automatically hue red (unless a particular character is a murderer), and any Evil character which kills a blue innocent may gain a murder count. The faction system hue
will be in effect to handle aggression and flagging.

(i)Some changes to verbiage from the previous Hero/Evil systems will occur based on localization needs.

An additional penalty for being red on Siege Perilous includes the amount of gold found on the corpse of a creature which they have killed will be one-third. For example, if a player would normally receive 600 gold off a monster, if that player is instead red, he will receive 200 gold.

Starting equipment for new characters on Siege Perilous will be:
Clothing, as normal (“newbie items”)
1 dagger (“newbie items”)
100 gold coins
25 ingots
1 shovel
1 bag, with 10 of each reagent
1 katana

NPCs will no longer be able to train characters.

Hiding will no longer be possible while taming; invisible characters who begin taming will be revealed.

Taming high level monsters (such as nightmares, wyrms, and dragons) will become twice as difficult.

Provocation continues to be difficulty based.

The warning gump players see upon entering the Siege Perilous Shard has been removed.

Siege Perilous will gain the Ilshenar facet. This added facet will have the “Felucca ruleset,” in addition to allowing faction fighting.

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We have published the changes and fixes listed in Testing for Next Updateto the Baja shard. These changes are now currently active.

We will monitor the Baja shard over the remainder of the week and weekend, and barring any issues, will announce a publish schedule for the remaining shards as soon as we have a target date.

A few additions were made to Testing for Next Update regarding the Combat Changes and Tutorial/Haven items previously announced. These changes are presently active on the Baja shard. As stated earlier, we will be closely monitoring Baja and will announce a release schedule for the remaining shards as it is determined.

The changes will be added to Latest Game Updates once the publish is active on all shards.

Changes to combat damage and how it is calculated.

Hit Point Calculation
The following change will be made to the manner in which hit points are calculated for players.

Hit Points = (str/2) + 50

Note: Any spells or effects that modify strength will also modify the target’s maximum hit points equally. For example, under the new formula, a player with 80 strength will have 90 hit points. However, if they drink a greater strength potion, their strength will be 80+20 (100) and their maximum hit points will be 90+20 (110).


Anatomy Damage Bonus
A bug causing the anatomy damage bonus to be doubled against players will be fixed. However, the maximum damage bonus for anatomy will be increased to 30% upon reaching 100.0 skill (the damage bonus will still be 20% for players with less then 100.0 anatomy skill.

This change will have the following consequences…

Under the current system, a player with an anatomy skill of 100.0 can receive a 20% damage bonus against monsters, and a 20% damage bonus against players. Under the new system, a player with an anatomy skill of 100.0 will receive a 30% damage bonus against both monsters and players.

Similarly, a player under the current system with a skill of 80.0 can receive a 16% damage bonus against monsters, and a 32% damage bonus against players. Under the new system, this player will receive a 16% damage bonus against both monsters and players.


Lumberjack Damage Bonus
The lumberjack skill will now add a damage bonus to axe weapons using the same formula as described for the anatomy damage bonus.

The bonus is 20% of the lumberjack skill until 99.9 skill and 30% for 100 skill.


Spellbooks
Players will no longer be required to equip their spellbooks while casting. They may continue to do so if they so choose (holding a spellbook will not prevent you from casting a spell).

Players will be able to gain wrestling and/or tactics skill while holding a spellbook if the appropriate skill is marked to go “up”.


Spell Changes
Several spells will have their power increased, particularly low-circle spells. Spells such as Magic Arrow, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt will do noticably more damage then before. The energy bolt, explosion, chain lightning, meteor swarm, and flamestrike spells will be given a small damage increase. In addition, some spells will have lower reagent costs (note: until players receive a client patch these changes will not be visible in the spellbook).

The Harm Spell
The “Harm” spell will have its damage scaled based upon the caster’s distance to the target. The closer the caster is to the target, the more damage it deals.


Special Hits
Special hits now work on monsters as well as players.

NPCs can now do special hits if they have the anatomy skill and a two-handed melee weapon equipped.

All special hits done with 2-handed weapons now base their chance to go off on the attacker's anatomy. The percentage chance to do a special hit is: Anatomy / 4. This would create the following chances:
0.0 Anatomy skill yields a 0% chance
40.0 Anatomy skill yields a 10% chance
100.0 Anatomy skill yields a 25% chance

Pre-Casting
"Pre-casting" has been re-enabled as follows:

You cannot equip anything while you are casting.

After you cast a spell, it will "time out" after 30 seconds and can no longer target anything. During those 30 seconds, you can now equip a weapon, attack with it without ruining your stored spell. When you release the spell, you will automatically unwield your weapon.

Negative Acts In City Regions
You can no longer perform negative acts on players and NPCs in Trammel city and justice regions. Because there was no viable way to "get away" with performing negative acts in Trammel where guards would instantly kill you (with the exception of exploits), we felt there was no need to present the option.

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Tonights comic is called This Old House. As always this and many many others can all be found at.

www.outofcharacter.com

New Website coming soon! Yay!

-Arakasi

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O My where have all the Minax Gone? That's right the Base of the Minaxian Power LoD has moved to the Order ChAoS arena, you will be missed. SL Depleted since E@K went CoM still maintains a decent presence lurking in the Woods of Yew.

G.I. of TB surprised everyone last night by not only Taking all 8 sigils baking in the CoM Stronghold, But managed to get together a Gate/City Sweeping Crew for several hours last night. A sight for sore eyes looking for oranges to fight.

And last but not least CoM. With an Influx of new players looking to join "The" faction, a lot of the old crew are becoming disenchanted. Anyone with brains would realize this is a cycle. A Faction Reigns for long enough everyone joins them, till they get killed but another faction on the rise, then they sign off and go back. Look for some shuffling among some of the older players leaving CoM for virgin territory this too is a cycle.

PLAYERS of Note:

JT and Nyk of CoM, props to my brothers for charging into the teeth of the TB arrow storm last night. Big Brass well u know want I mean Baron and Barons Back both SL I believe. Making the Buc's Den Gate unsafe for the rest of us J Xerion of TB, Never killed him, but his Axe blasts thru any protection spells I may have a real bear. And Dear Minax. I just don't know anymore maybe today I will see one.

Amalacon
CoM
Malagents

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It will now be possible for players to reach 99.5 in cartography through creating world maps as well as through decoding treasure maps (previously, a player could only reach a skill of 98.5 through creating world maps).

Our "In Development" section lists "Treasure Map Changes," here. The change mentioned at the bottom of the list has been updated, due to a significant amount of informed and well-stated player feedback.

Previously, the changes would have allowed players to gain 100.0 ("Grandmaster") level in Cartography through the creation of world maps. The related change now states: "It will now be possible for players to reach 99.5 in cartography through creating world maps as well as through decoding treasure maps (previously, a player could only reach a skill of 98.5 through creating world maps)."

=========
Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

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Hear Ye ! Hear Ye !

At the 21st hour of the 18th days this month's I organize in cooperation with the "Waechtern der Tiefe" [Guardians of the Depths] on Drachenfels/Trammel a rune lottery !

The following prices can be won:
1st price: Check about 100.000 gold coins
2nd price: Check about 40.000 gold coins
3rd price: Check about 25.000 gold coins
4th price: Check about 10.000 gold coins
5th price: Check about 5.000 gold coins
6th - 10. price: 3.000 gold coins in bar

A lottery rune will cost 2.200 gold coins.

About 10 minutes before the start the helpers put free gates to the Runenvendor from the West Bank Britain - recognizable by yellow robes (set up by Zorgan) they wear -, from the East Bank Britain and perhaps also from the Trinsic bank.

For the participation it is necessary that you can recall! The runes are labeled with a coding which must not be changed. To confirm that the label was not changed one must recall onto the respective rune! A helper waits at the corresponding place and checks the genuineness of the rune.

Important: Troublemakers like to keep off to this event please. In addition please follow the orders of the personnel (in the yellow robes of Zorgan)!
Player that keep on disturbing this event are excluded from participation !

Therefore come numerously !
Zindar

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Catskills Arena Combat - Weekly 1v1 Tournament

Sunday, August 19th at 9 PM Eastern time

Here's the rules for Arena Combat:

• Absolutely no attacking, fighting, casting, potion tossing, or any other forms of combat or disruption outside of the Arena and/or by non-participants.
• No magical weapons, armor, or charged items of any kind (including event items and yes, we will be checking).
• No summoned or tamed pets (spectators leave your horses, ostards, llamas, etc. at home, too).
• No hiding, stealing, or looting.
• No poisoned weapons of any kind unless poisoned by the fighter after the fight commences.
• No casting once you've entered the Arena for your match until the referee signals to begin.
• No bladespirits, invisibles, gates, recalls, or energy vortexes allowed.
• Disconnection will result in a forfeit for that fighter.
• Fights disrupted by outsiders will be restarted after the disrupter has been removed.
• At the discretion of the referee, if no clear winner is decided (read: noone dies) after a reasonable period of time, he/she will declare a winner on factors such as: damage given and received, aggressiveness, number of times close to death, and overall domination.
• The winner will immediately step away from the corpse of the loser; let the referees ressurect.
• Innapropriate language or behavior from any fighter or spectator will not be tolerated.
• Spectators will remain hidden and silent during all fights.

Bring your patience. We try to run a fun event, but it's hard to get the cooperation of every factor that goes into it.

Failure to follow these rules or the instructions of the Arena Combat staff will result in disqualification and/or removal from the tower. All judgements by the Arena Combat Referees are final.

Arena Combat is held at the lovely southern tower of the August Moon in Felucca(119o 47' S, 13o 0' W just south of the Lizardman Fort).

There is no entry fee.

Prizes:

• 1st - 50,000 gold
• 2nd - 25,000 gold
• 3rd - 10,000 gold

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There will be a Choreographed Synchronized Dance contest. Held 8pm Eastern Daylight Time Saturday August 18th. Teams of 2 or more are encouraged to come, and compete. Judging will be done on there ability to be in unison, costumes, and on creativity. Prize is for first place team only of 1,000,000 gold. The dance will take place in the Star Room on the facet of Trammel, we will be gating from the West Brit bank for the previous 15 minutes.

Micah

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I want to point out a few things, as sort of a general reply to everyone who responded to my request to Talbot. And, by the way, thank you everyone for replying, you brought up some excellent points, and they’ll be passed along to our team.

Clear Details are Crucial
When someone writes "this change sucks"--in this case the change is the localization effect on books--while that may speak volumes about your feelings and your passion against it, it says little about why you feel that way. And the Dev Team and I need the nitty gritty on "why."

Talbot, I don't categorize you as a whiner, or a blowhard. I categorize you as passionate. But I need you to keep that passion productive--clearly, the strength of your feelings had me hoping you would be able to provide me (and the Dev Team) with a clearly defined game mechanics problem, a visual flaw that perhaps we didn't see.

If you want reasons to why, as you put it, "localization sucks," well, you can never get them with that statement. Your initial statement was too arbitrary. Localization may "suck" for you in a way that someone else is comfortable with.

However, when Brenna cites: "Titles are limited to 14 characters. [O]lder books attempt to display their longer titles, but on the first page of the book, it's cut off. Titles SHOULD be longer than 14 characters,” that says a lot. Emperor_Krosis supports Brenna’s statement with an example: “I used to be able to write, "The Britannia Herald v.40" now I can only put "The Britannia Herald’.“)

Frigax wrote: “You can no longer casually interact with any NPCs, you have to use exact (dumbed-down) trigger words in exact (dumbed-down) order. 'Vendor I wish to buy' and 'Derek, m'lord, could you train me?' no longer work,” and now I know what he doesn't like about the changes.

Even when a non-English speaker says it is generally acknowledged by their fellow foreign players that they do not favor localization changes to English grammar, as it loses the immersion quality of an apparently medieval Europe flavored game, that's clear and presentable.

That Sans-serif Font
Clodia asked: “The real question is: Why must an ugly, modern, unappealing font be used? Localization has nothing to do with fonts, only grammer and syntax. Why must the visual appeal of the words be sacrificed?”

So, what is the deal with the font? As a player, I knew that OSI had created that medieval-esque default font for UO. Whenever the choice came up to use that game-based font, or some sans-serif font that happened to be on my system, I chose UO’s font.

Why does that localization-inspired sans-serif font keep popping up? UO’s font doesn’t have enough characters for foreign languages. Heck, it doesn’t even have enough English language characters! Where’s the correct quotes? The em or en dashes? :] But, enough of my personal obsession with quotes & dashes.

The fact is that, if whatever font UO begins using as it’s default doesn’t have various quotes symbols (and different countries use different quotes), or accents, or umlauts, or tildes, or non-English characters (such as Asian characters), then the game needs to start relying on whatever fonts might reside within the player’s computer, outside the game. For computers set to use English characters, that pretty much means your default font is some generic sans-serif font. I learned this frustrating limitation years ago when I started designing Web pages, and I’m surprised it took this long to get into UO (and games in general).

Brenna: “The problem arises in older books which have character/ASCII art in them. I have very popular player-written book on Catskills called "The Codex of Paladiene". The first page after the title used to display an ankh that someone had carefully drawn onto the page. That ankh is now skewed to the right and does not display completely.” I imagine that there are a lot of “character/ASCII” art in UO books out there. I’ll make sure to point this out this “break in the established functionality of books” to the Dev Team.

That pesky grammar
Emperor_Krosis: “why couldn't they get the ‘you see: 2 black pearl’ in their language and we get the ‘Those are 2 black pearls’ message.” I wondered that for a long time as well. I wish the localization grammer was more appropriate, but, too often, we see it is not. I also fondly recall the days when tillermen offered to tell you a story.

Localization, in and of itself, does not affect grammar. It doesn’t translate so much as transliterate. A lot of people aren’t familiar with the phrase “transliteration,” so I’m going to show you an example, using UO’s player orc language as our foreign language.

Foreign (Orc) phrase: “Me nub gruk wut lat blah.”
Native (English) transliteration: “I no know what you speak.”
Native (English) translation: “I do not understand you.”

See that? Although we can understand it, the grammar in the transliteration version is wrong, as far as a correct English sentence goes. Note also that 6 “foreign” words became 5 “native” words. Localization brings the foreign language to the Native transliteration stage, and that’s the best it can do currently. It’s also my understanding that, while the “keywords” in a sentence will be translated from foreign to native words, many words do not translate properly, such as conjunctions (and, but or), and a few won’t translate at all. There’s also the fact that the placement of verbs, nouns, adverbs, etc., in a sentence can change from language to language.

So then localization forces us to become minimalists, focusing on keywords and breaking down sentences into phrases, particularly for text-based commands. “Dialogue” is pretty much translated manually into each language we support, line for line, while “commands” need to be dynamic and adapt to whatever the user’s native language is. One or two word phrases flanking a colon may make for bad translations, but they make for almost universally understood transliterations. From a growth stand point, the more people that can understand the text in the game, the more people have a chance of buying and playing the game.

(I digress: I recall reading a commentary a few months ago by a creator of an online comic. He was in Japan for a time, playing some console game, and progressing very nicely. He got to a point where the game asked him a question or riddle, and he stopped short, not being able to read Japanese. So he put the game down, unable to play any more. How many games will he buy from that game company now?)

Aesthetics
Emperor_Krosis observed: “The text no longer fills up the page (i.e. the margins are huge),” and “Text Point is far too small (relates to [margins statement, above]). This looks especially ugly on the title page (compare an old and new version).” Completing his critique, he supplied his thoughts on a possible solution: “Why can't they make the old book font the unicode english book font? Then everyone would be happy.” I don’t know yet, but I’ll ask.

Suggestions & Observations
SubZero suggested: "While localization makes UO more enjoyable for people whose first language isn't English, I understand that, so put it on non-English speaking shards." I don’t know if that’s possible, specifically. Although you have made me wonder if there could be options for players to control the font being presented in books, like our speech font. I’ll have to ask on that, but I think it’s likely to be something that already came up.

ICG observed: “I know of no one who's said 'WOOHOO the game is so much better since localization!' not one person.” Those are actually some very powerful words, ICG. They’re also going to be passed along.

Thanks again, everyone, for giving a detailed critique.

=========
Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

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Several updates and changes will occur for new players, young characters, the tutorial area, and the city of Haven. The specifics are listed below.

• Young characters that die while taking the tutorial will be removed from the tutorial and sent to Haven.
• The ability to buy unlimited amounts of bread during the tutorial is being corrected.
• The armorer in Haven will now sell the proper items.
• Floor tiles underneath practice dummies within the tutorial will highlight.
• The tutorial area will now be an insta-log region.
• NPC guards in Haven will be “upgraded” to be more in line with NPC guards in veteran areas.
• An issue involving spinning wheels within the tutorial area becoming “stuck” is being corrected.
• An issue disallowing the ability to bake pies in ovens in the tutorial area is being corrected.
• Players will no longer be required to type “Hello” before advancing into the tutorial.
• The degree to which NPC shopkeepers wander in Haven will be reduced, to better allow new players to interact with them.
• Reagents, especially those used for Fireball and Magic Arrow, will now spawn in Haven.
• Wandering Healers are being placed outside the city of Haven.
• A forge will be placed inside the mine entrance to help new players produce ingots more efficiently. This is especially important due to the low level of the character’s strength, and the fact that pack horses are not a viable option.

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Hear ye! Hear ye! The Council of the University of Spiritwood has announced two openings in the Circle of Deans for that presitigious institution, in the headships of the Social Studies and Unseen Arts Schools! These are distinguished positions with serious duties, as described in the University's Hall of Records:

"... the Sixth Circle of Wisdom is highly exclusive, as there are only seven active positions available within it. Each of the seven Deans is the head of the one of the Schools of Virtue, which are dedicated to a particular strain Britannian art, be it magery, fighting, taming, or any other such. The Dean plans and executes the diploma course for their school, determining lesson content, dates, times, teachers, and all other details (with the approval of the Chancellor). Very often they will roll up their sleeves and take part in the teaching work themselves, but it is also common for them to take on Professors to help them with the task. Amongst Britannians, Deans of Spiritwood University are considered masters of their art, wielding talents that are forged with long experience of the world, and to achieve a prestigious Deanship is a great privilege that also bears great responsibility."

As such, any individuals interested in the post of either Dean of Compassion (the Social Studies School, covering the healing arts) or Dean of Honor (the Unseen Arts School, covering hiding, stealth, snooping, stealing, and suchlike) who feel they are qualified enough to stand a chance at selection by the Council, and would like to face the exciting, satisfying challenge of planning and running a diploma course, while teaching lessons and administrating their own school, should get in contact with the Chancellor via pigeon at 102125966, or by letter at [email protected]. More information on the workings of the University can be found at http://swu.ehonline.org/organisation.htm.

For the Virtues,

- Chancellor Sims Roggran
Spiritwood University

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Greetings from DXGhost of Europa!

On Friday, 17th of August at 8PM GMT, there will be a meeting in "The Blue Boar" Tavern, South East of Britain, co-ordinates 5o 37'S 12o 39'E, Trammel.

It will be a story telling night, with free drinks, and games. Tell your stories of bravery and luck to all! Everyone is welcome, newbies and veterans alike. I'm going to try to make this a weekly event, depending on how the first few weeks go, stop by and I'll buy ya a beer ;)

DXGhost

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If you participated in the Blade Quest, we want to hear from you! Sonoma Quests is taking a survey to learn more about what was right and what was wrong with the Blade Quest event. Go to the URL at the end of this message, and fill out the five minute survey completely to be entered into a random drawing for 100,000 gold. Every field must be filled out, and the survey is open to anyone who participated in at least one mission of the recent Blade Quest. THAT'S ALL THE RULES!  Check it out, and let us know what you think!  http://www.sonomaquests.homestead.com/survey.html

Additionally, I'm willing to pay 5,000 gold apiece for screenshots taken during the Blade Quest, up to 25,000 gold per player. The only restrictions are, the pictures must have been taken ON the quest, with at least 4 others who went on the quest appearing in each shot. I'd like to set up a page on the Sonoma Quests site that chronicles the events of the Blade Quest for posterity. If you have screenshots you'd like to get paid for, please submit them to me as e-mail attachments at [email protected]. The body of your e-mail should include your character name (present in the pic) and your ICQ number so I can contact you to arrange payment. Thanks for your help, folks.

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Tis the time of year again to elect the Council of Skara Brae (F). Renewing a long tradition, the Council of Skara Brae offers the citizens of the land a voice and means to participate in the Community.

The Fourth Council Elections will be held on the 25th of August at the Town Hall in Skara Brae (F) between the hours of 9 and 11 pm. Nominations for the council will close on Saturday the 18th. If you wish to 'Throw your Hat' into the ring for one of the council positions, contact one of the council members or attend the council meeting Saturday the 18th at 9 pm.

The Council positions are:

Steward
Chancellor of the Gentry
Chancellor of the Commons
Chancellor of the Judicary
Consul-General

Any free citizen, member of a guild or faction may vote or run for office if registered as a Citizen of Skara Brae.

As noted earlier, the balloting will be on the 25th, if you are unable to attend the balloting you may contact any member of the council or Eric Strongbow, of the Green Gryphon in Britain (F) to register and vote between 19th and the 25th of August.

Additional information on the elections and interviews with some of the canidates can be found at the Skara Brae Chimera.

If you would like to participate, in a very unique community, and a very unique process please come to Skara Brae and learn more of being a citizen of the Freehold.

In Service to the Community of Skara Brae,

Sam, Lady Chancelor of the Gentry of Skara Brae

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I'd like to announce the revamp of UONewbie.

Among other things, the most important are the following:

• A brand new, easier to use, compatible menu system and look.
• New & Revised guides, including Carpenter and Fisherman!
• A housing decorations section that is quickly expanding.

Additionally, I'd like to announce that UONewbie is looking for several people who would be willing to help out writing for the MAIN PAGE of the site (news, articles, rants). If you think you're a good writer and are interested in writing (without pay), then please e-mail me at [email protected] WITH an example of your writing work.

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UO Character Tracker version 2.0 has been released!

New in this version:

• Removed the "Top 7 skills" area and replaced it with a fully configurable "10 skills you're tracking for this character" area. It's a group of 10 pull-down boxes that allow you to select which skills you specifically want quick reference to. I kept the "highest skill and profession" display area though... the other top 6 skills can be shown (at your option) with this new feature.
• Character Tracker has been changed to track the character's RAW skill value, instead of the attribute-modified value!

Please go to http://24.22.141.10/uoct/ for more information and to download.

Jared Mark
-aka EagleEye

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A great many key advertisers are using pop-up forms of advertising as a normal course of business on many web sites; this is one form of advertising that Stratics, in the past, has avoided like the plague. However, there are times when certain advertising opportunities come across my desk that could prove truly profitable for the Stratics Network. This begs the question, “Is it worth it?” Normally, that answer would be "No"; we feel it is better to forgo that revenue in order to avoid frustrating you, our visitors. But in this time of great change on the internet and a decline in internet advertising opportunities, we also have to look at Stratics for what it is, one of the largest MMOG fan-sites on the internet, so there are times that we must consider alternatives, which will allow us to continue offering quality services, invest in hardware and software and add new features to our network of sites.

We hope you understand our need to use pop-up ad campaigns as an advertising option on occasion. We are the first to agree that using such ads on a regular basis can be annoying, but they are also a necessary evil that, at times, we must endure until internet advertising evolves toward less intrusive forms. When that day arrives, I'll be the first to celebrate.

Regards,

Jhariden Stratics Community Development

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GUARDS BAFFLED BY TRINSIC SLAYINGS

The recent death of three Trinsic artisans has left citizens and guards alike both puzzled by what has taken place in the City of Honor and fearful for that which has yet to come. While forensic evidence seems to point clearly to identical cause of death, local authorities have failed to make substantial headway on the case beyond rumor-laced speculations. Further assaults likely imminent, great pressure has been put on local guards to pursue the case with vigor.

a clipping from the Trinsic City Constabulary Report

Allonzo, 24 years, apprentice weaver to the tailor shop, suffered "repeated blows by a rounded blunt object to the cranial shell" nearly two weeks ago.
Body discovered by wife in the kitchen of their private residence in the southeastern part of the city. On scene evidence seems to indicate multiple assailants, clues scarce. Wife Allysand noted only that her husband had spent many evenings out in the past several weeks, and remarked as well that she'd found a hefty sum of gold stuffed away under the bed, a sum which she was at a loss to explain. She refuses to believe that he may have taken up with another woman.

Phineas, 19 years, stable hand at the western stables, found buried in he mud at Trinsic Park south of the Meeting Hall. Cause of death, likely choking, but also with a series of clubbing wounds riddling the body and skull. Found by Donald the fighter 3 days past. Only on scene evidence a scrap of torn red cloth dangling from a bramble bush. Stable master Donald, when questioned about the boy, confessed that a few days earlier, he'd spotted a deep gash on the boy's arm, likely owing to a knife. He added that the victim had been flaunting a shiny silver ring as well, nothing one would purchase on a stable hand's wages.

Bernard, 31 years, local jailor at the Trinsic Jail, found in a cell on the second story of the prison. Suffered a beating by a smooth object. Inmates refuse to comment, a lead which, if pursued, may prove helpful. Found only two nights ago.
The prisoners have yet to be questioned further.

---

Local guard captain Tomas commented that "the work seems not that of a mad serial slayer, and our men doth strive to discover the link between these fellows, that which would tie them together as victims of this horrendous crime. The attacks doth seem to take place beyond sundown and a midnight curfew hath been placed on all those within the walls, both young and old. We ask all citizens to cooperate with this for their own safety, until this rogue is brought to the King's justice." The question lying heavily upon everyone's' minds: Why these three? Here there are three seemingly unrelated victims, doubtfully even acquaintances of one another.
Except for the method and timing of their tragic ends.

From the pen of Ignatius, Vas Scholaris of the Paladin's Library

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I received the following announcement/challenge from the Head Council of the Academy de Arcana:

Hail Fellow mages!

It is with great pleasure and pride that I, Lord Remus Heavenfire, and my fellow council members, Lord Sammael, Lord Symma Dhowna, and Lady Lilith Pearl announce the Grand Opening of the Academy de Arcana this Saturday at 4:00 PM, CST. The Academy is Located on Trammel at Whitestone Castle, on the island of Whitestone, just a short trip north of Trinsic.

The Academy de Arcana is an open enrollment school and gathering place for mages, as well as a Center for the study of all things Arcane. We have teachers available for skills such as Poisoning, Provocation, Alchemy, Animal Taming, Inscription, and Magery, just to name a few. The Academy is governed by a ruling council, made up of the aforementioned teachers. Role Players and Non-Role players alike are welcome to attend the school and to use both our library, and our soon to be complete rune library.

There will be contests of Skill and of luck, with prizes to be handed out, based upon attendance. The greater the attendance, the greater the prize (i.e. 3 Deadly Poison kegs instead of 1 or 2). All contests will be posted on the Legends Forums board on Wednesday. Afterwards, guild members will be invited to attend various level 3 and/or 4 treasure map hunts. A current member of the Academy will be available at the Britain bank to gate contestants and potential guild members to the Academy one hour prior to the Opening.

And now, I extend a special "invitation" to Count Tevan of Moonglow. Glorious Count, you are hereby strongly requested to take one of the following actions:

• Join yourself to the Academy de Arcana and continue as the ruler of Moonglow.
• Duel a pre-determined member of our School for complete, undisputed rulership of Moonglow.
• Cede Rulership of the City and island of Moonglow to the Academy de Arcana and its ruling body.

Failure to respond to and/or follow the "invitation" will simply show your lack of concern for Moonglow, and will force the Academy to take actions to depose you from your position. I stress that this is the least favorable course of action, and it would be far greater if we were able to resolve this minor conflict of interests without bloodshed.

Praise Mondain!

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It will now be possible for players to reach 100.0 in cartography through creating world maps as well as through decoding treasure maps (previously, a player could only reach a skill of 98.5 through creating world maps).

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The Raffle will be conducted in the following manner:

There will be One Hundred (100) raffle tickets sold.
Each Raffle Ticket shall cost 500k.
There is no limit on the number of tickets you can buy.

The Raffle will be held for Ten (10) days. Starting on August 15, 2001 and ending on Saturday, August 25, 2001 at 11pm CST. There will be a 75 ticket reserve on the raffle. If 75 tickets are not sold, any tickets bought will be fully refunded.

The drawing will be held on August 25 or when all tickets have been sold, whichever comes first. I will post updates on Tradespot's Chesapeake Page.

To get your 1 in a 100 chance to own this fine Tower, you will need to contact me via Email at [email protected] or ICQ me at 36730971.

The Photo, available on Tradespot's site, does show the exact location at 108°16'N x 160°7'W. Feel free to take a look!

When you purchase a Ticket, you'll receive a numbered book as the raffle ticket for each chance. This book will be needed to collect the Tower if you have the winning number. The numbers in the book will not be in any kind of order (EG. 1-100). I will have a master list with the number and the buyers contact info.

I will try my best to show the Tower twice daily, once at around 1pm CST and again around 10pm CST via a Gate from the East Britain Bank in Felucca. I will show the property when my time allows.

Dont miss your chance to own a large Tower! 500k is not alot when you think of what it can win for you.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me..

Thanks and Good Luck,
Dayton

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Late last evening, the Yew town council met. At this meeting they announced arrest warrants for all members of the Hand. Each warrant details the subject's crimes against Yew and its citzens. All members are to stand trial for their crimes and must pay damages for them. If they fail to turn themselves in, they will be banned from the city. The council also announced a list of people banned from Yew. This list includes all of the city of Satamarin and the Death Corps.

The Court Reporter

I believe the Keepers are the ones who are pressing the charges. The warrant is only to obtain the Hand's presense to hear their side of the story. The Keepers will have to get with a judge to press official charges, then the judge must serve the warrant and notify them of the charges. Then a trial date will be set. However, this is all pending upon the Hand's reaction. They can either come forward and stand trial and let Justice take its course or they can continue to be fugitives. It is all in their Hand's now. No pun intended.

Mortalis Dominus
Senior Councilor of Yew

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Hail and well met !

Eriadain website is back at http://eriadain.multimania.com

Eriadain is an attempt at creating a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) Neverwinter Nights module following the canceled storyline of U9.
It was formerly known as Alter U9. The game will be as close to an Ultima as it can, and especially as close to the canceled version of Ultima IX in terms of gameplay, thanks to the informations revealed in interviews,reports, and other infos.

It will feature both a compelling storyline and non-linearity, as well as very advanced character interaction. The gameworld will be bigger than in any Ultima and the game system customized enough to make you forget the Forgotten Realms setting to bring back more Ultima memories. But since I'm bad at summing up things, head to http://eriadain.multimania.com or mail me about it.

We're also looking for people for taking care a few city/dungeon/outdoor/maps.

Thanks for your concern. Even if you're not concered.

Victim.

[..]As you can see, Eriadain is far from being dead, and work is put into it more than ever. Neverwinter Nights' release might seem quite a while away, but there are still a lot of things that can be done now to speed up the real development. That website is part of it. So let's make a tour of it.
If you don't know what is Eriadain, then head immediately for the F.A.Q.
The rest is quite evident enough, so I let you figure it out. Heck, even the FAQ bit was evident come to think about it :p
The last thing I'll mention is that the Story / Gameworld section will be updated regularly with infos on, guess what, the story and the gameworld. In the story section you'll see a letter exchange between various important characters of the storyline, allowing to see diferrent point of views about the situation. The Game World is also a story, but, hey, detailing the game world. Finally, don't miss the fiction, which details the events from Serpent Isle to the start of Eriadain. These 3 sections will be updated regularly.
News for game development are in the development section.
When Neverwinter Nights will be released, a "Module" section will open. Small adventures (some with DM, some classic single/multiplayer) will be released periodically with real ingame maps and features. You will then be able to experience the 80 years gap between U7SI and Eriadain and as well test it. Comments/Remarks will be taken in account into the game.
Enjoy the ride !

UPDATE AUGUST 8TH: The official website for Redemption is under construction and will replace this placeholder website you see now. Keep watching this space for the new website which will include new features such as; Submit Quests/Ideas, Poll of the Week, Public Forum, Who's on the team, Spotlight of the Week, a News page and everyone's favourite; Downloads. The current FAQ also had two new questions added.
Hail and well met to thee fellow adventurer, so thou dost wish to see the true story of the final conflict between the Avatar and the Guardian brought to the light? Well thou hast come to the right place indeed.
This is not the official Redemption website, this is a preliminary signup for team members and an FAQ/Forum for the public. Our official website will be up soon enough.
We are seeking positive team members who would like to take part in this non-profit volunteer project, as well as gain skills that can help them get into the gaming industry. Keep in mind that the team members are all volunteers. There is no financing for this project as it is purely a non-profit labour of love.
Redemption is simply an alternate U9 story, and will be vastly different to UA. If you wish to read more about what the game will be like feel free to view the Frequently Asked Questions below.

Q\ Are you guys going with the original "Bob White Plot" as it's referred to?
A\ Our story is totally original. We feel that by copying any major elements from the "Bob White plot" would make people compare it to UA, and we do NOT want that.
Having said that, we will use some of the better ideas that were talked about by Richard Garriott in the initial U9 concepts, such as a civil war brewing between two cities as well as the Guardian sending twisted versions of what the Avatar did to LB, during his struggles in U8. But there will be nothing from UA in our game. No Columns, no incorrectly named Gargoyle cities, no brainwashed anti-virtuous crowds of townfolk, no Raven...okay you get the picture I think :)
Also, the map will be the classic land you fell in love with and journeyed through from U4 to U7.

7 August 2001 - (Weekly update)

• We have several new screenshots, including two of ExultStudio!
• Our old FAQ has been split into two sections: Documentation and the new FAQ
• The 'fleeing party members' bug has been fixed!
• The BG intro has been improved further
• Barges (boats, carts etc..) are working much better now
• Max has done a lot of work on the MacOS (classic and X) versions
• Many other bugfixes, including the SI Test of Purity, some world-wrapping issues, 'dance' schedule, Guardian and Earth Serpent speech.

INTERVIEW WITH AEGIS by Aegis
8/15/01
PlanetDungeonSiege.com posted an interview with our very own Aegis Kleais (Lead Web Developer) Hop on over and get a sneak peek at what he has to say! READ THE INTERVIEW

PROJECT "BASILISK" by Aegis
8/13/01
Now that I've finished this site, I will be moving on to bigger and better projects for UV:L. Find out about my newest creation, which I've dubbed aptly enough, "Basilisk". Don't it just sound so nifty? 8:) CHECK IT OUT

SITE GOES DYNAMIC by Aegis
8/11/01
I'm glad to announce the redesign of our front page. You'll notice progress bars, an "image of the moment" and hopefully daily news updates once we get DS in our hands. Hope you like it! 8:)

A WORD FROM THE PROJECT LEADER by Tiberius
8/11/01
After almost a year in pre-production, everything is going very well for Team Lazarus. Maps are sketched, stats are planned, music has been composed... Still, the best is yet to come! Stay tuned for regular news updates as soon as DS is released! :)

CONCEPT MAPS FINISHED by Tiberius
8/4/01
I'm proud to announce that the concept maps for all eight major towns are now complete. :) Also, the scale for our worldmap has been finalized--this game is going to be BIG! :)

08.14.2001- Module and Game News II -bug fixes are Live. Download the newest version (now is an .exe) and run it. It will auto unzip into the appropriate directory while maintaining directory integrity. women_and_orcs is the current module that provided with the game. Ultima IV+ (enhanced clone) is being worked on.

08.13.2001 - Module and Game News -big bug fixes tonight, If you cannot get game to run, please hold on. I'm fixing it tonight!
I am porting the original U4 game with same maps (castles,towns,villages) The only difference is that this module will have a new story to tell. So far all the maps are done, and I am working on the NPC's, Monsters next. I have the storyline worked out. Keep tuned for details. I just realized some of the modules need to be fixed. I should have this by 8/14/01. MapMaker and the Main game exe also will get fixed tomorrow. I noticed on some people's computers, getting errors and I will repair this tonight

08.11.2001 - Version 3.0.7 released, website redesigned.
This latest release includes some bug fixes and fixed tiles and misc. work like moon phases. Please note in the projects sections, some modules are there for demonstration only, and may not be complete with an ending. This version has working shopkeepers and are fully "trigger" ready and sell items depending on rarity (AC value). Next version should have working teleports.

There has been a major modification to the site design and content. In the upcoming weeks, we'll be releasing new art and info material, and in regular periods the website will be updated.
There will be from now on more participation from the public in several ways, through polls, suggestions and submissions, soon to be announced.
As I update the older content with up to date information, feel free to use the message boards for input on design and questions about the game in general.
Along the web site, I'll be taking over public relations as well. Details on how to proceed for press material and staff contact have been moved to the Contact section. Keep in mind that in order to have your email replied, you must follow the rules detailed there.
I hope we can have an open line of communication and thereby make this development process an opportunity to thighten our fan community ties and make this whole wait a lot more enjoyable.
In another note, we have an open spot for a modeller in our staff. If you're insterested, see how to proceed in the Contact page.

Monday, Augest 13, 2001 - Saving/Loading added
That is right! I got a good working version of loading and saving games. You use the F1 through to F4 to save your game and F5 through to F8 to load your game. This allows you to save you progress and also when the game is completed, make the game that much less tedious. You can only save and load on the outside world, not in the Dungeon. I will think about adding saving the game in the dungeon. I don't want to, to keep some difficulty in the game.

Also the Journey Onward option works on the main menu. When it is selected you are given a choice of four saved games to load.

This makes Akalabeth one step closer to being finished, my friend Jeff has been busy with newer and better graphics. I hope to be able to add the new Dungeon graphics by this weekend and start to work on the monster code. Then I will add combat and after that sound. Hope to have some more good news tomorrow.

Sunday, Augest 12, 2001 - Version 0.06
I was going to update last night but I programmed to way to late at night and got tired. Then in the morning I started to code and got a lot done. Here is a small list of what is new

Added a chest model to the dungeon and coded it to work.

Added dying due to have 0 hit points or 0 food.

Added Lord British's castle and all functionality.

And some bug fixes.

I have been a bit busy with RL but I have got some time in to program. I will either tomorrow start on loading and saving games, or monster models. On a side not my friend Jeff is back in, so we will both work on the graphics. I hope all goes well.

I have also added a message board to the site to replace the crappy guest-book. I hope this is more pleasing to people out there. It is an ezBoard message board. I am looking forward to your comments.

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I've just opened the new UOT-program, which is based on the failed NPT-program, please read the website to get more info on the program, UOT program. Currently the website is only about the UOT program, but it will be expanded to also include guides and strategies. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to ICQ 122995278.

What is UOT? UOT is a program designed to make life in Britannia a bit easier for new players. Veteran Players (the Teachers) will help them with such things as learning how to use a skill, how to make money, how to make friends in UO. This is organized by each teacher, who gets a number of students to teach. We will use ICQ for this, this way the student can reach the teacher any time (when he/she is online).

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Container-Related Crash Fix

The container-related crash fix that was published to the Pacific shard last week has now been published to the remaining shards, and became active after this morning's maintenance period. The change has been added into Latest Game Updates.

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UO Rares Database Updated

Curious to know about the value of your Pheonix Armor? Have you ever seen Ice Fiend Blood? Do you know the origin of Spam? Could you be holding a set of rare Santa gloves and not even know it? Are any of my items illegal, and what exactly is the OSI policy on them? I have a question about a Rare, where can I ask it? Want to know where Rare and Semi-Rare items spawn? All these questions and more can be answered at http://www.UORares.com

Recently, our database has been updated once again to reflect the changes in gold value in our economy. Also, we have added the new items brought into the game via the OSI Scenarios. Learn ultima online history as you browse through our items database designed to enhance the knowledge of the UO Community. Learn about lots of new rares, and see what the new Orc Scenario brought to the world of Brittannia. Visit examples of the upcoming Carpet Vendors in testing, and even see some of the famous Museums of all shards online!

Our Virtue Weapons weapons section gives you insite to the famed attributes of the virtue weapons, and our "Tricks of the Trade" section allows you to gain the edge over others in getting the daily rares. Learn what 'rares' are not truely rare so that you don't make a costly mistake. Finally, stop by our exclusive Flash Movie section, where various Ultima online scenarios come to life in Flash.

With over 15 Million hits in just eight short months, we want to thank the UO Community for making us the number #1 viewed UO Complete Rares Picture Database. We continue to develop the Rare database with both pricing and pictures for every rare in existance and look forward to seeing you all there.

Xanthar of the Museum
http://www.UORares.com

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Last night the new All Britannia BagBall League kicked off the new season with a friendly match between the visiting Duchy of Trinsic team and the local Spiritwood United team. A small but loyal crowd of supporters had gathered along the edge of the Spiritwood arena in time for the 9 PM kick off, anxiously awaiting the big game. A regulation yellow bag full to the brim with dead wood was produced, the field was made ready and soon play was underway.

It was not long before the superior tactics of the local team shown through and all those long hours of practice began to pay off handsomely. Within moments, the mean green machine of Spiritwood United had collected the bag and a run down the line to produced the first of what were to be many goals. Determined to stand their ground, the visitors quickly reformed their line and play began once more, but again, the local side showed their form and another shot crossed the line in short order. At this point, the Trinsic team had a quick chat about tactics and when the whistle next blew, they managed to prolong the agony a bit before yet another Spiritwood goal crossed the line.

By half time, the score showed a spirited 5 points for the local team and a dismal zero points for the visitors. (It would have been more, but one goal was disallowed when it was discovered that it had been kicked in by a stray cow that had wandered onto the pitch). In their half time huddle, the visitors made some changes to their strategy and came out full of fight, despite the score line, and the second half's action was even more spectacular. By the time the end whistle had blown, the Trinsic team had managed to get a face-saving goal and the final score was Spiritwood 7, Trinsic 1. The two teams congratulated each other heartily, showing fine sportsmanship, and soon everyone was heading merrily off to Ye Old Spiritwood Tavern, where the boys and girls from Trinsic were given drinks on the house.

This event went some way towards mending the bruised reputation of the Spiritwood side, who had lost their opener against the Deepwater team four nil, and only goes to show that, with practice, a team can master the fine sport of BagBall. Better luck next time Triinsic and thanks for the match!


The next BagBall match is set for August the 22nd, so come on down and cheer the teams on!


Shri of Spiritwood

Proconsul of the Custodes Fati

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Saphireena is proud to announce the opening of her newest establishment:

Big Mamas Nightclub

Day: Saturday, Aug 18, 2001 Time: 8:00PM - 12:00PM GMT
Location: The old Big Mamas Shoppe castle in Trinsic / 76o, 33S, 38o, 40E
Map: http://www.andrea.net/uo/bmn/general/map/
Facet: Trammel
Shard: Europa - but EVERYONE from all shards are welcome!
Entrance fee: 100 gp (ticket includes surprises, read below)

We all know the famous Big Mamas Shoppe shopping mall castle of Trinsic,
but ever since business on the web proved more economic than keeping
vendors, the castle has lost purpose other than just being a pretty place
to see (and crash at). Now the castle is being reborn with the opening of
Europa's first nightclub "Big Mamas Nightclub". Complete with dance floor,
DJ, movie theatre, pool hall, pizza parlour and darts pub, to name a few.
The nightclubs main purpose is to serve all single Britanians looking for a
little romance in their game, or real life. Want to meet Mr/Miss Right?
This is the place to come! But those that just want to groove to the beat,
or talk to our sympathetic bartender, are welcome as well :)

This event will mark a place in UO History. For the first time ever,
streaming live music, will be integrated with an event. Instead of
torturing people with the music that bards play, all night, we have set up
a live "radio station" at Live365 so that everyone attending can listen to
the very same music at the very same time, while dancing at the nightclub!
And it's so easy - no plugins, no installations, no hassle. Simply go to:

http://www.live365.com/stations/277475

then press PLAY. Pretty easy eh?

Fun and games are in store as well:

Bachelor Auction:
All single men are invited to sign up for our Bachelor Auction. Please
email at [email protected] if you'd like to be auctioned
off to the pretty ladies of Britannia on the night of our opening. The
winning bidder will be entitled to do what she likes with her man, for the
rest of the night.

Mr and Miss Disco Dancer:
Dress up in your flashiest, sexiest gear, then come boogie on our dance
floor. Wiggle that butt, jog those legs and show
off your best moves. The best of the best will be crowned Mr and Miss Disco
Dancer and will win wonderful prizes, not to mention reputation, fame and
admiration!

Match Maker Tickets:
Look at the serial number on your entrance ticket and find your match!
There will be someone of the opposite sex, with a matching
serial number in their own ticket. All matched couples get a wonderful
prize! Win a luxury cruise for two!! From all the tickets sold, three
tickets will include an all expenses paid cruise on our yacht "The Big
Mama" at the time of your choice. The cruise will take you to several
places of interest in Britannia and a (level 1) treasure hunt is included.
During the cruise we will serve mouthwatering treats, made and served by
the world famous cook, Julia Child herself!

Lots of fun and romance in store, this is a happening that you simply can't
miss!



Saphireena
Big Mamas Establishments
http://www.andrea.net/uo/