October 2001

The retail box will include a registration code that you can use to upgrade an existing account, so you will not need to start new characters.

You will need an upgrade registration code for each account you wish to access Ilshenar with the 2D client. This means you will need to buy a seperate retail box for each account. AFAIK there are no plans to give out freebie upgrade registration codes.

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Black Dagger Interview with Vex of OSI, Part 2 Posted

Blackdagger.com has posted the last part of their interview with Vex from OSI regarding the UO economy and other interesting items of current UO interest. You can find this part at www.blackdagger.com.

Here's a snippet form the interview:

Blackdagger: "Can you give us a hint about what the new "sub-skills" are all about (like masonry and glassblowing)?"

Vex: "...These new skill specializations are not whole skills in and of themselves. There will be a process and some limitations involved with characters learning the skill specializations, but they won't take skill points. You won't have to drop other skills in order to learn Glassblowing, for instance."

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Actually, the code for destroyers healing enforcers is new code, very different than the orc mage stuff. They are much more intelligent about it. Enforcers actually "look" for a destoyer and if one is nearby, they get healed. The other stuff (like orcs) is much more random.

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Generations ago the noble house of Pongrin wrongfully slew an innocent man. Through magic most foul the spirit of Hollo was brought back to bring a curse upon those who had wronged him and his family. Year after year the spirit of Hollo brought pain and mourning to the house of Pongrin and the the folk of Skara Brae who loved those of the Pongrin name. With the passage of time the Pongrin family dwindled away till none were left to feel the wrath of Hollo's anger. Over the passing years something more sinister occured, the spirit of Hollo had become possessed and corrupted by a demon who sought to sow a plague upon the land. Using the anger of Hollo the demon turned the curse upon the children of Skara Brae.

So each year we prepare Skara Brae for the coming of Hollo's spirit. Each year we hide away the children and place pumpkin lanterns upon the doorways to keep the ghost at bay. The citizen's stand ready in the streets to yell the phrase that turns Hollo from its course. "Hollo Ween! Hollo Ween!" For only with the power of these words can Hollo be kept from the children. Our failure to drive Hollo away will result in the death of one of our precious children.

I ask all whom receive this message to ride to Skara Brae upon the day of Hollo's rising and help defend our children from the plague tainted claws of Hollo's ghost.

Hollo will rise from its grave upon the coming of night (between 8 and 10 pm PST) on the 3rd day of November. The unloading of the shipment of pumpkins will start at 8 pm with the telling of the story of Hollo occuring at 8:30 pm at Ailynne's Grove (next to the stables). If time allows before the fall of darkness, a scavenger hunt will be held to while away the time. But, upon the fall of darkness all frivolity gives ways to stern determination to protect the innocent. A breakfast meal will be served with the rise of the sun and with fate's blessing may all our children be safe.

…In addition to the monsters made for UO2, McFarlane also concepted about 20 brand new monsters specifically for UO.

and when asked if the new characters were “recycled” UO2 characters, Calandryll responded:

We (the UO designers) concepted some ideas for new monsters about 4 to 5 months ago, sent those ideas to McFarlane who then made the art. They are not recycled and they were never concepted for UO2.

I think people have been expecting us to recycle stuff from UO2 and hence come into this with some preconceived notions. I don't blame them actually since we have already used some stuff originally slated for UO2 and will continue to. We will be using some stuff originally made for UO2, I've been saying that for months. But, we also made stuff specific for UO.

The virtue system isn't even remotely based on UO2's avatar quest (I've
never even seen a design doc for it), nor is any of the AI we are working on.

and….

...it's certainly a lot better than just letting it sit there...plus we can use it to further the fiction which is always nice. It's kind of funny, but before this even became an idea, we had the fiction for Exodus'entrance into UO already written. When the idea came up to use some of the McFarlane stuff originally made for UO2, the fit was so perfect (this will make sense as the fiction unfolds) it was almost unreal. And then when we got him to create 20 brand new monsters (that we got to concept) that we will use in future scenarios that was icing on the cake. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. :)

Trying to take UO2's engine and slap it onto UO would be a monumental task, certainly not something that could be done by the time new box ships. Remember, UO2 wasn't designed to be a replacement for UO. UO2's interface, client, wearable technology, server code, etc. are all pretty different.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna

Designer, Ongoing Content

a wizard did it

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Character data takes up a great deal of space on the servers. Many players have multiple characters that they do not play (characters made for one-time events, made during their regular shard downtime, etc.). Purging characters that are not being used will result in shorter backups, decreasing shard down time and increasing overall performance.

Design
Characters are deleted after not having been used for 6 months unless:

· The character has over 750 total skill points.
· Characters at or below 750 total skill points will need to be "refreshed".
· Refreshing is defined as logging a character in and then logging out. Logging in a character will reset the six month timer.

Characters will be deleted after not having been refreshed (logged in) for a year, regardless of skill points.

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Actually, it's not in the press release, but the new package allows 2d access to Ilshenar. :)

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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I have finally put the finishing touches on my new website "UO Herbal" (http://www.myrex.co.uk/uoherbal) and would like to announce it on the community news section.

It is a "roleplayed" website, in that it provides information about the many flowers, herbs and trees scattered around Sosaria. It provides absolutely no useful ingame information, but should be of interest to those who may wish to roleplay an alchemist or healer to best effect. Failing that, it provides the knowledgeable mind with a few more useless facts to blurt out! Some of the information is fact and some is fiction, there is a warning however, that if anyone should wish to try the real herbal remedies mentioned on the site, that they should consult a qualified herbalist/doctor first!

Deane Saunders/Myrex of The Earthsea Adventurers [Éa], Europa

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And don't forget to tune in tomorrow, for the monthly UO HoC development team chat in channel #uohoc on Stratics IRC.

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Motives

The cloaked figure moved silently through dark hallways, only the sound of flickering torches echoing as he passed. At his approach, the doors at the end of the passage slowly pushed open with the heavy grinding sound of metal on stone. As he passed through the doorway, his hand made a small gesture and the doors slammed shut behind him with a deafening thunder.

"Exodus," he spoke in his deep voice, "it seems your lack of understanding of the humans could very well cost us this entire campaign!" His arm shot out and knocked a small statue across the room like an arrow. The small lights on the far wall began to sparkle like firelight through gems.

"Calm yourself. The humans have yet to even discover our security measures." The voice droned on like a constant buzzing of insect wings. "Ver Lor Reg remains under my complete control. The workers have started construction on even more of my overseers. The control device is protected."

"One of my spies managed to bring me a report this morning from Britain. It seems the King's old lackey Nystul has one of the power crystals and is examining it as we speak." The figure began to pace slowly, his cloak drifting behind him slightly.

Exodus paused and the lights flickered for a moment. "The mage could not learn the secrets of the devices we have scattered over Britannia."

"No, but he may learn enough! You underestimate the humans at every turn, Exodus!" He turned and faced the wall of lights, drifting closer as he spoke. "I warned you this man might cause us trouble. You chose not to concern yourself. I warned you that the humans might discover our lair. Again, you did not show concern. Now, not only does this blasted wizard have a power crystal in his laboratory but his search party, although now dead, did discover us and now your very name is being whispered by every human!"

"You believe we will fail?"

"I believe I understand humans better than you." The figure resumed pacing. "Was it not my understanding and knowledge of this world that made you approach me?"

"Yes it was. And the fact that you were human. A human whose diligence for ruling this world would compare to my own. And a human with ideas greater than those of the king who stood in power above him." The lights glinted for a moment. "That is why I gave you power. I have been away from Britannia for too long."

"I would suggest you begin to acclimate yourself by not underestimating the world we are trying to conquer. Had I not suggested you orchestrate the confusion with the savages and orcs, the humans might have found you before a single golem had been built!" The figure pointed angrily towards the source of Exodus' voice. "We risk the loss of the gargoyle slaves and our golems! What then? Since I have joined you I have yet to hear you speak of how we shall conquer Britannia without an army!"

"I assume you have thoughts on the matter?" Exodus replied calmly.

The figure lowered his arm and regained his composure. "I have been studying the records you gave me. I believe we may have other options should we lose the gargoyle city." The dark figure turned away from the lights and slowly drifted towards the doorway. "I have business to attend to. We shall discuss it when I return."

"As you wish."

The cloaked figure moved his hand and the heavy doors swung open slowly. He turned back to Exodus' voice. "As I said before, I will not be satisfied until victory is absolute."

"You will have your vengeance on Britannia,” Exodus said. "Soon all humans will know you as Lord Blackthorn, ruler of Sosaria."

As Blackthorn turned and moved out of the chamber, he could not help but smile.

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MCFARLANE CREATURES

VIRTUE SYSTEM

And best of all ----

ILSHENAR FOR ALL

Well, the first two have come to pass, so looks like we will finally all get to explore the land of Ilshenar as well. Very good to hear! And for those that still don't understand the importance of this hint, Calandryll posted the following on the UO.com forums:

Actually, it's not in the press release, but the new package allows 2d access to Ilshenar. :)

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content

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Todd McFarlane to Collaborate On New Version of Ultima Online

Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge to Feature More Than 30 New Monsters

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2001--Origin Systems, an Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - news) development studio, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Grammy and Emmy-winning producer/director Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, McFarlane Toys and Spawn.com, to create characters exclusively for Ultima Online(TM): Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, the latest version in the award-winning Ultima Online (UO) series. The company is also partnering with McFarlane and McFarlane Toys to develop both a line of six action figures based on the new UO creatures and two comic books based on Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.

``Ultima Online redefined the massively multiplayer online game genre in 1997 and it continues to raise the bar in terms of innovation to this day,'' said Ben Noel, vice president and chief operating officer of Origin Systems. ``Collaborating on the creation of new characters with Todd McFarlane and bringing them to life in the world of Britannia is going to be extremely exciting for the thousands of UO players who are always seeking new content and challenging adventures to discover in the game.''

``I am looking forward to working with the Ultima Online team on the new character and creature art which can come to life in 3D animated form in the next version of the game,'' said McFarlane. ``The UO community has come to expect great things from this evolving online world and there is no doubt that these new characters will significantly enhance the game while delivering a whole new level of excitement.''

Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge will bring players into a dark world under siege where they will discover more than 30 new and exotic characters created by McFarlane. Players will face evil forces that have aligned their powers in an attempt to destroy the virtuous and take control of Britannia. Integrated into the fiction as the evil tyrant who controls most of the new, fantastical monsters is Blackthorn, a character present throughout UO's history but who has now undergone a transformation which has left him half human and all evil. Blackthorn's forces, comprised of many of McFarlane's creatures, lend a dark, edgy twist to the game. Players will encounter and can elect to interact with other McFarlane characters as they wind their way through Britannia.

McFarlane's creatures will be challenging to beat. Their AI will be oriented toward strategic combat tactics as opposed to simple skill gain. For example, players will have to discover which combat or magic tactical combination works on a given species of monster. As players immerse themselves in the game, they will discover a new strain of fiction unfolding, where their actions will determine the outcome of in-game events. For instance, if a group of monsters is trying to overpower a town, the players can band together and push the monsters back. However, without a strong player response, the town can be lost to the monster. A new Virtue System will be woven into UO, adding depth to the dynamic storyline. The system allows players to be rewarded or denied virtues based on their choices and behavior during the game.

New UO players will quickly become engrossed in the latest version of the game with the assistance of an intuitive help feature and stronger starting character templates, which allow new players greater opportunity to strengthen their skills and abilities early in the game. Players will discover more than 30 new items to craft, collect and trade in the world of Ilshenar -- the backdrop for Lord Blackthorn's Revenge and location of Blackthorn's castle.

Origin(TM) is also extending the UO world via two upcoming limited edition comic books based on the UO game's prequel fiction and an action figure line, all being created by McFarlane. The first comic book is an eight-page mini book that will have a limited release prior to the game's launch in February. It includes a cliffhanger ending that players can solve only by playing the game. The second, a full 24-page comic book, will be exclusively available inside the game package, shipping in February. The six action figures will be based on the characters McFarlane designs for Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.

McFarlane, renown for creating Amazing Spider Man for Marvel Comics, began drawing comic book heroes in high school. In 1984, upon graduation from college, he landed at Marvel/Epic Comics. His credits include Scorpio Rose, The Incredible Hulk, the Batman book, two issues of Batman: Year Two, and Detective. He started McFarlane Entertainment in 1992, which produced Spawn, the best-selling independent comic book of all time.

Ultima Online has 225,000 subscribers and is played in more than 50 countries located in every time zone.

About Electronic Arts

Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of more than $1.3 billion for fiscal 2001. The company develops, publishes and distributes software worldwide for the Internet, personal computers and video game systems. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA GAMES(TM), EA SPORTS BIG(TM) and EA.COM(SM). More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.info.ea.com.

Note to Editors: Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, Origin, Ultima, Ultima Online, EA SPORTS, EA GAMES and EA SPORTS BIG are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EA.COM is a service mark of EA.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Time will tell

Squinting into the clouds of dust raised by the horses racing around her, she watches the wily old warrior.

He stands yelling out orders to the eager pupils around him. "Buddy heal...stay together...", he screams above the din. "Ach, you'll die that way", he taunts one of the warriors.

Seeing how the warriors and mages try hard to please him, White Lotus smiles. "They will learn", she mumbles to herself.

The old warrior strides to the center of the circle of horses and yells to the group. "Let's try that again", he yells, "This time try to stay together. If you get too far apart, they will pick you off one by one."

Wiping the sweat off his face, one of the warriors shouts "Die you filthy Drow". Grinning he glances at the old warrior. "When death looks you in the face, I doubt you will have time to shout insults", the old warrior snaps back.

Satisfied that the CDB will be properly trained to engage in the battles with EOA, White Lotus walks back to the house and stares across the vast expanse of water. "I know you are out there EOA, but be warned, we are going to be ready for you", she silently says to the wind.

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Impy's Weekly Events

Auctions and Costume Contests: Wednesday and Thursday, 9pm EST.
In the spirit of the holiday, Impy's will be holding a costume contest in conjunction with the weekly auctions. All who attend will be glanced at and judged. Just before the last item is auctioned on either night, the winner will be announced.

This week has certainly been full of surprises at Impy's. The rares chests are over flowing a bit more than normal. Flour sifter, a Pure Mare, and Pure Garlic top the list. Followed closely by bags and bags of Holiday Items (bells, fruitcakes, easter eggs, egg nog, ect). Coal Ingots, Rope and Treasure Hunting Packages can also be found up for auction. We have tons of Armor and Weapons. Stop out this week for what will surely be a great couple of auctions.

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: StarLite (Vesper, Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (Felucca), the Sandlewood Box Inn (Dead Heaven, Felucca), Kazola’s TreeTop Keg and Winery (Felucca), Cove Merchant’s Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (Cove, Felucca), the Mystic Portal (Trammel), the Garden City Mall (Cove, Trammel), or at Kishan's Vendor Expo (Trammel).

~Impy’s Staff

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As soon as you begin selling back to an NPC, that NPC begins dropping its price. Yes, you can make limited short-term profits buying low and selling high -- but ultimately all that does is help stabilize prices between shopkeepers across a shard.

and…

The NPC price of ingots will be able to reach a fair market value, buyers will always have a ready supply, and sellers will always have a ready buyer. It's all good. :) .

and Vex responded to concern that rich players would pay very high NPC prices for ingots:

That would be good for miners, then, because they would be able to make nice profits if prices ever got up that high. I seriously doubt the price will get that high, though. But it will be very interesting to watch. .

and….

…If you simply couldn't get an ingot for less than 30gp anywhere, all that means is smiths will have to adjust their prices upwards to match. If anyone tries to undercut the competition too much, you could make a profit buying their stuff and smelting it down and selling back the ingots. And, all those worthless metal weapons and armor pieces that are usually left on monster corpses would suddenly be more valuable than the gold found on the corpse.

But that's assuming ingot prices ever got that high. I'm betting the price will stabilize somewhere between 10 and 15 per ingot. As the price climbs, ingots will fall out of the woodwork and be sold back to the NPCs, quickly bringing the price back down. .

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It also allows us to change Trammel and Felucca independantly of each other. :)

-FierY iCe
Programmer: Ultima Online

and…

1). Yes. Terrain and statics...
2). It is for differences between existing terrain and statics.
3). No plans to nuke green acres, at the moment.
4). The system is not shard specific, once turned on.

-Hanse
UO Live Designer
Happy birthday to UO!

and….

The whole map is just data. This system allows us to modify that data. Any data in the map that is considered terrain and static artwork can be modified.

-Hanse
UO Live Designer
Happy birthday to UO!

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If eyes were indeed the window to the soul, the eyes of the man standing over her would have been stained glass. They told as much as they revealed, and the facets of the man were as much a myriad as the colors that dappled his satin grey eyes from time to time. Now, as they looked down at the cards, the glow behind them was a deep vermilion, and his anger was only thinly veiled.

She did not fear him, despite the fury that even the casual observer could discern in his movements and in his voice…and in his eyes. Here was a man to be envied, to be wary of, to be entranced by. Few women could resist him, few men could deny him. Those who had done so in the past often found that his fury was doused with their blood.

“The cards lie!” The words were followed by a gypsy curse as old as the first blood spilled.

Rilla looked up at him, a slow smile guardedly growing upon her lips. Her head moved from side to side as if too much movement might break it. “You are Rom, you know tachiben when you hear it from the cards.”

“Truth?” he railed. “What is tachiben but what I say it is? I am Shora here. I say what is tatcho.”

The Romanichal words rang strong in Rilla’s ears, yet for all his words he could not shape the truth. “Dordi! You cannot make what is not into being, and you cannot change the cards that you asked for when they fall upon the table.”

Raif put his hands upon the table, scattering the cards about him, the gold backings flashing in the candlelight, and the swirls seeming to come to life as they fell upon the ground. “Read them again, kamava.” He leaned over and kissed her, deliberately and forcefully. She did not object, but rather seemed to enjoy it. Snaking her hands into his hair, she pulled him closer to her, channeling his anger into a different emotion.

She pulled him back and laughed. “Ah, that passion could make truth!” she said, eyes dancing to a rhythm they both knew well. His stern look dissolved into laughter, and they kissed again, this time with less force and more affection. It was still enough to make ice melt and any sane man jealous. But no eyes watched them, alone in their wagon, in the depths of the forests of Yew.

He picked the cards up, and handed them to her. “Read again, kamava. Perhaps the cards will shift and we may know more.” His voice was thick with many emotions. His very presence was enough to disarm most women. She was not most women, and she was most definitely not disarmed. Were she so, she would have been no more than a few hours’ toy to Raif.

“The end will be the same,” Rilla said as she shuffled the cards. “The path will be the same. What must be done cannot be changed. To have what you seek, you must seek with what you have.”

One by one, she turned the cards over on the table.

..........The Chariot.....................The Star

The Hanged Man.....The Wheel of Fortune.....Justice

..........The Moon........................The Lovers

“This is no normal reading, Raif. If it were, your future would not be bleak at all. Many will cross our paths. We must go out as we are, and find the rest of the Tome of Dark Waters. In it lie the pieces to the past. In it are the hidden mysteries of the past from whence the curse arose, and only by following the path of the cards may we find what we seek. First the book, then the truth, then the curse… and last the lifting of it.” She touched The Lovers. It was the only card that was reversed.

“When the path is followed,” Rilla continued, “you will find the book once again, and with it the truth of the past. In each place must you seek the card. It will not be the card itself perhaps, for the card may be but a symbol. It may be a person, or it may be something more. Only when we seek, shall we find what it is. More I do not know. Only by seeking will we find the book. Only by the book will we find the truth and set right what is wrong. Only then will the spirits of the lost tribe rest. Only then will you not become a Muladi as your ancestors did.”

He took the cards, and with a movement only a man of great power and passion can muster, he stood at the door and scattered them to the winds.

“Let the search begin then,” he said. He turned and surveyed the small wagon. “Not enough room,” he said, a smile widening the light in his eyes. With a look somewhere between that of a small mischievous boy and the visage of some distant God, he took her in his arms and carried her from the wagon to the shores of the river.

“If you call me by another man’s name this time, I swear I will slit your throat,” Raif said sternly. Rilla laughed until he finally laughed with her. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?” Rilla answered, and after a moment’s wary glance, they began laughing again.

“If no tomorrow comes, I shall be happy with what was today,” Rilla whispered to him.

“Tomorrow will come,” Raif answered. “And you will be in it. But enough words, woman!”

No more words, but neither was there silence. Only the night heard their sighs and only the lady moon watched what no man should ever share.

And she, oh, she was jealous… indeed.

http://www.up-link.net/~mdsmith/dark/index.htm
http://uoc.chessienet.com/uoc/forumindex.asp?BD=6

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We are targeting to publish the items listed in Testing for Next Update to one shard this week, provided that no unforeseen issues arise during the testing phase. The changes are currently on Test Center 6, and we encourage all players to participate in testing these items and to report any bugs you may find to [email protected]. When submitting a bug report to our QA department, please remember to include the following information:

- Your UO account name (do not include your password)
- The time, date, shard, and facet of the occurrence
- What steps you took that led up to the bug
- Whether or not you tried to repeat the bug, and if you succeeded

We will post another update once we have more information on a possible release date.

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Speech triggers in Ultima Online can be difficult to use in certain situations, such as buying or selling from a vendor standing behind a counter in a crowded shop. With the variety of speech triggers in use, it can also be quite a task just to learn them all!

Context-sensitive menus are new menus players can use to access the various functionalities available on creatures and NPCs, such as accessing the shopkeeper interface, being trained by an NPC, ordering a pet to attack, or opening your bank box from a banker.

The default method of accessing these menus will be a single left-click on the creature or NPC, although players can change it to use shift-left-click instead if they prefer. For the first few days after this system’s activation, a gump will pop up the first time a player logs in, allowing them to choose how they wish to access these menus (left-click vs. shift-left-click). Players will always be able to go back and change this option later.

If you click on an NPC or creature you can interact with, you can select from several relevant options, such as:

Bankers now have the following menu options:

- Open Bankbox
. Player must be within 8 tiles of banker.
. Player must not be a criminal.

Shopkeepers now have the following menu options:

- Buy
. Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
. Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
. Player must not be a murderer.
- Sell
. Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
. Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
. Player must not be a murderer.
Escorts now have the following menu options available:

- Accept Escort
. Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
. Escort must be available.
. Player must not have an escort already.
. Player’s last escort acceptance must have been over 5 minutes ago.

- Ask Destination
. Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
. Escort must be available or escorted by you.
- Abandon Escort
. Escort must be escorted by you.

Pets and Hirelings now have the following menu options:

(For all pet/hireling commands, player must be within 12 tiles of the pet/hireling, and be the owner of the pet/hireling.)
- Command: Kill
- Command: Stop
- Command: Follow
- Command: Stay
- Command: Guard
- Add Friend
- Transfer

Pets have the following additional menu option:

- Release

Hirelings have the follow additional menu options:

- Hire (NPC must not be employed; i.e. no master.)
- Dismiss

All animals that can be tamed will have the following menu option:

- Tame

. Player must be within 8 tiles of creature.
. Animal must not already be tame.
. Player must have the required taming skill.

Stablemasters now have the following menu options:

- Claim All

. Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.
. Player must have 1 or more pets stabled.

- Stable Pet

. Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.

All NPCs who can train, including shopkeepers, will have the following menu options:

- Train

. NPC must not be unemployed; i.e. no master.
. NPC must at least 60.0 in the skill to be trained.
. Player must have any prereqs for skill.
. Player must have less than 1/3 of the trainer's skill.

All human NPCs and players have the following menu option:

- Open Paperdoll

Your own avatar has the following menu option:

- Open Backpack

If you are young and going through the directed experience:

- View Quest Log

House Lockdown and Item Placement, House Banning, and Ship Commands are extremely complex systems, and the menus needed to access all the necessary functions would be huge and unwieldy. New systems for these may be addressed in a later publish.

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We will be releasing a client patch on Tuesday, October 30th at approximately 2:40pm CST. This patch contains the following changes:

2D Client

- Radar in 2D will now resize when double-clicked

- Bulletin boards will no longer display garbled text when displaying messages without a subject

3D Client

- Stack gumps close themselves if the item they are being used for gets deleted

- Fixed a bug resulting in inaccurate color selection

Both Clients

- Pop-Up help has been disabled

- Fix for a bug that resulted in the orkish kin mask being drawn on a player’s paperdoll and avatar when it no longer actually existed

- Various fixes in regards to putting pins on course gumps

- Fix for a bug that caused a party member’s paperdoll to become unclothed when the party member ran off screen

- Various localization fixes

The current versions should now be 3.0.5d (2D client) and 3.0.5e Build 81 (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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Howdy! This is the second installment in a series of comments from me on the state of, and our future plans for, the virtual in-game economy of Ultima Online.

Recently, we made some changes to UO that were intended to increase the availability and stabilize the prices of reagents. Those changes worked as intended, but there was an unfortunate side effect. The availability of many other commonly used supplies increased enormously as well. Leather, boards, ingots, arrows, and crossbow bolts suddenly became widely available at cheap prices. In-game resource gatherers were heavily impacted by this.

Now, we just need to do some fine-tuning.

One thing that the original UO designers and the current design team share is a desire to see a well-functioning economy in the game. As I've stated before, I believe we are halfway there. However, certain economical factors (namely, NPC prices) cause choke points that adversely affect pricing and availability of commodities in Britannia's marketplace. Here are the biggest issues:

1> Inflation

Currently, the way UO is set up, the amount of gold in circulation steadily increases over time. Basically, the amount of gold that can be created through monster loot in any given day is a considerable amount. Gold cannot leave the system at a comparable rate. Over time, with gold in greater and greater supply, two things happen. First, for the big-ticket items like rares and houses that are traded strictly between players, prices will tend to rise. Second, since prices for many items are fixed by the system and can't rise to meet inflation, they inevitably lose some of their value.

How do you address inflation? Basically, we need to find ways to take gold out of the system. An issue we face is that we can't simply take the gold away. We have to return value for the gold lost. This means things like taxes may not be all that effective. Instead, we feel a combination of two approaches will help the situation. First, we need more big-ticket "gold sinks" that sufficiently motivate players to spend the money. And second, we need to find ways to attach reasonable and small recurring costs to new game features that don't hurt players but steadily siphon off gold a little bit at a time.

Ideally, it should be possible for gold to exit the system about as fast as it comes in. This can be accomplished by having gold drains that are proportional to the amount of gold in the system. If there is a limit to the amount of gold created per unit time, and a percentage of that gold is drained out of the system per unit time, then there is an equilibrium point where gold enters and exits the system at more or less the same rate. This point would vary depending on many factors, like how much people hunt and loot, and how much people utilize the gold-draining features of the game.

2> Hard-coded prices

This is related to #1 above. When prices are fixed and can't adjust to inflation, the value of different items becomes skewed. The prices that NPCs charge for their limited supply of things are vastly different from the prices that players charge each other for larger quantities of the same things. For example, the way it used to be, players would tend to pay more per ingot based on the size of the transaction. Players were exchanging gold for time -- it was worth paying an extra few gold per ingot to get a huge number of ingots all at once. The player-to-player ingot price reflected fair marked value based on real supply and demand and inflation. NPCs didn't figure into the picture because they didn't stock many ingots. Now, all that has changed. Huge quantities of ingots can be bought at a fixed price from NPCs, and the player-to-player ingot trade has been affected by this.

To address hard-coded prices, some fair means must be found to take NPCs out of the equation. This basically means a system that allows NPCs to adjust their prices based on the actual market, using a non-exploitable algorithm. We think we have found a workable solution, which will be discussed in a moment.

Given the need to combat inflation and the undesirability of hard-coded prices, there are other factors to consider as well. Number one is availability. The game's virtual economics shouldn't adversely affect anyone's playstyle. This is why, for example, we couldn't just remove NPC merchants from the game completely. If nobody is on selling what you need, then your time is being wasted. You'll either resort to playing differently than you want to (like, making a sword instead of just buying one to kill monsters), or you'll log out and go elsewhere.

So, here's the solution. For those commodities that can be gathered/created by players in bulk, NPCs will now adjust their prices based on actual activity and have unlimited quantities in stock. For now, these items are: boards, ingots, leather, arrows, and crossbow bolts. All other items (like reagents, etc.) will continue to be traded by NPCs exactly as they do now. But, for these five items, NPCs will trade them differently.

1> Players may buy or sell up to 500 of these items to/from an NPC at one time.

2> For every 1000 units sold to a player, the NPC raises its price by 1 gold per unit.

3> For every 1000 units bought from a player, the NPC drops its price by 1 gold per unit.

4> The NPC always pays players 1 gold per unit less than the price at which it sells the item.

5> NPC prices for these items are stored in the backup, meaning they won't reset in the morning.

6> There are other features in place to prevent problems cropping up from shopkeepers being killed or deleted.

This means that players who need these items will find them always available. It also means that the prices for these items will adjust to meet a fair market price. The idea is that as consumers buy these items, their prices steadily increase. As prices increase, players will be motivated to sell back stockpiles (or go create some more and sell them). Now, since NPCs pay one gold less than they charge, their activity begins to act as a gold drain that is only a small amount per transaction, but over time will remove huge amounts of gold from the system.

The new NPC behavior lessens the possibility of exploits. It may also make available a new in-game merchant profession, where players will buy from one NPC at a low price and sell back to another at a higher price. Players will be able to profit by this short-term, but since that activity will stabilize prices, the profit potential is limited. There may be big gains to be made early on, but down the line prices will have to be watched carefully and price differences used quickly. It's even expected that this change will somewhat increase inter-facet travel, as enterprising merchants expand their horizons in search of a better deal.

If successful, we would eventually like to expand this system to cover everything traded by NPCs in the game. However, in order to do something like that, it would require a lot of changes to be made. Foremost, players would have to be able to gather or create any commodity (like reagents, blank scrolls, etc.) in amounts large enough for supply to meet demand.

For those who have questions or concerns, visit the Discussions forum. I'll try to answer as many questions about this as I can.

Michael "Vex" Moore
Designer, UO Live

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The rules are the following, further rules to be explained later:

-No potions in mage vs. mage duels
-No hiding or fleeing the arena
-No pets/summoned creatures
-No poison more powerful than Greater Poison
-No magic items of any kind
-No tribal spears or Virtue Shields

Please note that while it is preferred that you already have a partner, there will be a few soloists that will be without a partner that we can hook you up with. It would be appreciated, however, if everyone comes with a partner.

Please bring enough reagents, potions, and bandages to last you for several rounds of fighting. Griefers (theieves, faction fighting, O/C fighting) will be banned from the tower and their entry fees will not be returned. Any violation of the rules will also result in forfeiture of the entry fee and the expulsion of the offenders.

Gates will be provided for all players who do not know where the tower is located. Gates will be provided at the Moonglow and Skara Brae banks at 10pm EST, as well as at the Chaos Shrine for red/faction players. Any questions will be answered on the thread in the LS Stratics forum. Until then, my friends, fight and die well!

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Five specific resources will be affected in how they are purchased from, and sold to, by NPC shopkeepers. These five commodities are: leather, ingots (iron), wood (boards), crossbow bolts, and arrows. These changes are designed to help accommodate consumers, allowing them to purchase these five commodities in bulk, while not excluding the efforts of related resource gathering professionals.

The details of this update are listed below.

Five specific resources will be affected by this change, referred to in this document as the “five commodities.” They are:

• leather
• ingots (iron)
• wood (boards)
• crossbow bolts
• arrows

These NPC shopkeepers will track the sales and purchases of these commodities, and adjust their prices based on how much of these items they buy from or sell to players.

• NPC shopkeepers will always have 500 of their respective commodity for sale.
• Each NPC will track prices individually for each of the five commodities.
• If the NPC sells more of these commodities to players than she has bought from players, her price for that commodity will increase.
• If the NPC doesn’t buy or sell any of a particular commodity, her price for that commodity won’t change.
• If the NPC buys and sells similar amounts of a particular commodity, his or her price for that commodity won't change.
• If the NPC buys more of a commodity from a player than he or she sells to players, his or her price for that commodity will decrease.

Players will be able to buy or sell up to 500 of each of these five commodities from an NPC shopkeeper at one time.

Players will be able to sell these five commodities to related NPC shopkeepers for 1 gold piece less per item than that shopkeeper’s current selling price, regardless of the original price paid for those items.

All NPC shopkeepers will now have unlimited funds for transactions. On occasions where NPC shopkeepers must be deleted & re-spawned, they will immediately have 500 of their respective commodity available, instead of restocking at slower-than-normal rates in the days that follow their re-spawning.

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Here we have a protracted duel between hybrid legend Iced Earth against hybrid Kaale. Iced Earth was ultimately the winner, Shify McSwift had already been slain in a previous duel.

Here we see Raszagal take a rather... unique approach to dueling. The ice staff, long since used by bank posers, finally has its day in PvP. It was about as effective as a redlined mongbat provoked on an ancient wyrm in actual combat, but it managed to get a few laughs from the spectators.

The last order of the night was a few 2v2 team duels, which are always fun. Iced Earth and Kaale wait for the wall to drop so they can begin their assault on duelist Sion Verdox and his partner Raszagal. Sion Verdox and Raszagal were the ultimate winners of this duel, which lasted for over ten minutes.

Overall, it was a successful night. Look for Sunday Night fights every Sunday at the Wrong Roof in Felucca at approximately 10pm Eastern Standard Time. Make sure to bring enough reagents, potions, and fresh weapons/armor for several duels. Don't be afraid to mix it up with the legends, you may be surprised how well you do! Until next week, combatants of Lake Superior, fight and die well!

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Trick or Treating in the Dungeon of Hythloth
Friday, November 2nd
7:30pm CST
East Brit Bank, Trammel

Eric the Dagger of Suckers will be hosting this event.

All players of Hokuto are welcome to join in. Bring your pillow cases ready to fill with all kinds of goodies we may find from the residents of Hythloth.

We will be meeting at eh East Brit bank in Trammel at 7:30pm CST and be leaving for the Dungeon no later than 8:00pm. This event will last until 11:00pm CST. I hope to see all of you there. Any questions may be sent to me at [email protected]

sincerly; Eric the Dagger
Suckers Guild of Hokuto

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Ravenshires First Annual Halloween Bash Results

Thank you everyone who participated and helped out witht his years Halloween party! It was a huge success!

To begin with, amidst the roaming deamons and howling ghosts, was the costume contest. I must say...I never saw so many great costumes! There was everything from convicts to savages and deamons!
First place group costume went to The Wizard of Oz group. Lady Cassandra played Dorothy with Toto, Starr played Glenda, Handel and Anabel Lee played The Wicked Witches. Each was awarded a check for 25k.
Second place group costume went to Aragorn and Sephiroth, who were a pair of savages. Each was awarded a check for 10k.
First place single costume went to an Ewok, played by Missing Note. He was awarded 10k.
Second place single costume went to NiNja, who of course played a Ninja :) He was awarded 5k.
Honorable mention goes to Cinnimon Flame who played Little Red Riding Hood and Julie who was the Grim reaper.

Next we moved on to the Trick or Treat raffle held by our local witch Willow. Each person purchased a random rune for 1k, and at the appointed time everyone recalled to thier rune. Only one of these was the correct rune. Cinnimon Flame , from the Sisters of Britattania, won. She received a chest full of magical items, paintings and checks for various amounts.

We were visited by Ghosts then. It seemed they flowed through the streets! People raced to bring them back to life, and those that did were awarded a prize.

Then off to the City of the Undead we rode, and cleansed the hordes. There were very few casualties, and we laid those unrested souls to a final sleep.

We in Ravenshire hope to see you all again come Thanksgiving!

Humbly,
Lady Bronwyn, The White Raven of Ravenshire

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Hail Fellow Britannians!

The Gathered Spirits Tavern has now hired several new bartenders and staff, and would like to remind everyone that we are open every Friday 7pm to 10pm pacific time. Our tavern is a neutral zone, so every one of all faction and colour is welcome! Our Tavern is located in Felucca just southeast of Yew along the main path leading to Minoc/Vesper and Britain/Skara. Our coordinates are 47°N, 17°W. A map can be found here.

As always, all food and drink is free!

Sincerely,
Cursed Wind, Community Coordinator

http://www.gatheredspirits.com/

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As the afternoon sun begins to set in the darkening sky, and the cool breeze whisks around his back during his evening walk in the Britannia forest, Nacrom hears a man's voice calling to him in the distance.

Slowly, Nacrom turns and starts to search for the one who is calling his name, and he sees a man on a black stallion riding up to him at a quick pace. The man on the horse slows to a stop at Nacrom's side and speaks in a deep tone..

Talon: Are you the one they call Seer Nacrom Sable?
Nacrom: Aye M'Lord, that I am. How may I help thee this evening?
Talon: My name is Talon Mondain, and I have heard rumors of your group running quests within this land. Is this information correct?
Nacrom: Aye M'Lord, that is correct. We are the UO Seers and are here to bring the spice of life back within this land, through the task of holding Special Events and Quests for all to be in and enjoy.
Talon: And you do not use what the people of this land donate to your cause for your own gain?
Nacrom: Nay, Sire. All gold and items donated are used strictly for events and quests, never for myself.
Talon: In that case, I wish to help out your cause, because I believe that this land needs people like you and your friends to bring that which was lost sometime ago.

...Talon hands the Seer a check for 1 million gold coins. Nacrom takes the check and bows to Talon...

Nacrom: Talon, thank you very much for your donation. This will help us greatly in our near future events and quests.
Talon: I am trusting you that this will be used for the greater good of all Britannia.
Nacrom: Talon, you have my word of honor that it shall be so.

...Talon suddenly turns and begins to ride off into the night as a faint sounds is heard...

Talon: Good Day, Seer Nacrom and if you need anything else, please feel free to call upon me.

OOC Note: I wish to thank Talon for his donation. Without people like him, the Seer's program would not be. Thank you Talon Mondain from all the Seers.

Nacrom Genesari Sable,
Lead Seer,
Chesapeake Shard,
[email protected]
www.uo-seers.org

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Over the weekend, there was a problem with one of our e-mail servers, and this problem has since been fixed.

This problem affected two aspects of our message boards:

- If you forgot your message board password and were using the "I forgot my password" retrieval system, you never received that e-mail while this e-mail server was down (although you will now).

- If you set messages to automatically send you an e-mail if someone replied to your post, you also never got those messages (but should be getting them now).

The related message board e-mail server is now fixed, and both aformentioned aspects of the message boards should now be working properly (in fact, some of you may now be receiving backlogged e-mails due to it's return to service).

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

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In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When will ROT be added? It was my understanding that it would be added with this publish yet it is not functional. As well as reds are getting guardwhackd when PC's call guards on them, my understanding is that they were fre to come into town as long as they were not aggressor or commit a criminal act.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

RoT is actually in on Siege Perilous. However, some have already noticed that powerhour seems to be superceding the RoT skill gain caps, and this is ont as designed. We're looking into how to correct this.

There's also an issue that we're looking into where reds are being attacked when any PC or NPC calls the guards on that red while that red is in town, and this should not be happening. We're looking into fixing this as well.

There's actually a lot being done about this. The short of it is that whenever we find someone with the "Osama Bin Laden" name, or a derivative of that name, we delete the character and take action against that account. Something to keep in mind thwn you do searches, such as through the MyUO character search, is that the character information may not have cycled out of that database yet. It can take a couple of weeks to drop out of that search display.

(edited by CitizenKane2)Guild titles would be in the same category as character names. Anything that is inappropriate for a character name is also inappropriate for the guild title, and anyone found with such a name would have action taken against their account.

If you want to check out this week's update before it is on your shard, it is on TC6 as part of a merge test between this content update and publish 14. It's public now since the content update is on Napa anyway.

So far, I have heard no reports regarding the golems or any of the other content. If all goes well, we'll be publishing the rest of the shards tomorrow morning (US - active Tuesday morning) and tomorrow night (nonUS - active on their Wednesday morning).

I'l confirm this with you later tonight. Thanks all!

*spoiler*
Week 13 is the craftable golem and a new monster. Don't let week 13 confuse you with publish 13/14. Week 13 just means we are in the 13th week of the scenarios, going back to the first orc update.

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Today, I bring a relatively old idea to a new light for the shard of Chesapeake. The idea of role-playing in an NPC town has been thought of before, but not effectively employed in our shard. So what my guild and I have decided to do is to attempt to spark interest in role-playing in the NPC town of Serpent's Hold.

There are many good aspects to role-playing and holding RP wars in a town. Things such as food, shops, and healers are all handy and right there when you need their services. Also buildings and structures are free for the public to use, and up to this point have not been utilized to their full potential.

So right now what we are looking for is RPing guilds, guilds that want to get into RP, and individuals who would be interested in joining us in starting this great town off. I have seen this done on other shards effectively and to great lengths, and I am optimistic that this will work. So if you are in any way interested, please contact me at [email protected] or icq me at 59646938. I also have AOL Instant Messenger at Lotharthebrave.

I will be holding a meeting for all those interested, after we find out how much feedback I get, but please contact me in any way you can!

Thank you and good luck.

-Lothar and Mary Rane.

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The Chesapeake UO Events Team would like to invite all Chesapeake Players to join them at the Mythndale tavern, on October 31st, 6pm EST-8pm EST. There will be lots of games and prizes including a Trick or Treat Vendor (50gpcs per box), Build-a-Witch competition and also a Fancy Dress competition.

The Village of Mythndale is located just south of Britain across the small Bay! Walk across the west bridge and go south, take the 2nd path turning eastwards and follow the coast round.

Companion Black-Ram,
Lead Events Co-Ordinator.

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Hello,

I have decided that I am going to hold a drawing for prizes that I have accumulated in my gameplay on Chesapeake. I am doing this to give something back to this shard which has been extremely entertaining to play on. I have been playing UO for approximately 2 1/2 years and have had tons of fun.

Basically the rules for the drawing are as follows:

1. Only one entry per account please.
2. Must email your entries to me at [email protected].
3. Entries must include your email address, character name, and type of character i.e. Tamer/Mage, Bard, etc.
4. Entry into the drawing is free, so old and new players are welcome to enter.

Prizes for this drawing are as follows:

First place: 1 Million UO gold.
Second Place: Your choice of a One or Two year Vet reward - for possible choices look on either the Stratics site or UO site.
Third Place: 4k of each Reagent.

Drawing will take place on Nov. 9, 2001 at approximately 4:00pm Eastern time. I will email the winners to let them know they have won and to set up a time to deliver the prize.

Thank you,
Khellendros of Chesapeake.

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This week over at the Ideas Den, the topic of the week is the Virtue system:

What do you think of the current implimentations for Humility and Sacrifice?
What should be the 'gaining' methods for the other virtues?
What should be the rewards for achieving the various stages of them?
Are rewards needed?
Could the system be expanded further?

As normal, at the end of the week, any ideas posted relating to the week's topic will be compiled and sent to Calandryll to assist him in the development of the system.

So, if you've got any ideas to do with the virtue system, pop over to the Ideas Den and post them! Don't forget, you can also vote on other people's ideas!

More general ideas of improvement to UO are still welcome, of course.

Got ideas about Massively Multiplayer games in general? Try the A href="http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/stratics/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=ge ndesign" target="_blank">Stratics Central Game System Design And Development forum!

--------
Thodin, UOSS, SC and WoW moderator and UO-Europan player
[email protected]
ICQ# 46499380

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There's some interactions with golems that people may not have realized yet. They are by no means a simple task of just owning them like a pet.

and…

Controllers have a much better understanding of golems than players do. ;)

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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The UOCC is a forum wherein we bring to you celebrity guests from the UO community, ranging from OSI personnel to people from your very own shard. Tonight our guest is Fear from Battlevortex.com, he'll be around to answer your questions about their website, interviews, and more.

Never been on Stratics IRC before? It's easy. Download an IRC client such as mIRC or use our Java Client located on the Stratics IRC homepage.

Then, connect to one of the following servers:

- irc.stratics.dhp.com - USA – Pennsylvania
- stratics.frws.com - USA – Colorado
- riot.tac.net - CAN – Toronto
- stratics.truefear.net - USA – Texas

Hope to see you there!

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

Gilthas,
Channel Administrator, #Ultima-Online
Stratics IRC - http://chat.stratics.com
News Updater and Content Writer,
World of WarCraft Stratics - http://wow.stratics.com

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...This is the virtue gump, filled in for each virtue at its highest path. Note, this is not a mock up, but an actual in-game shot, based on code that looks at the variables on my character for each virtue, of what it will look like.

Lowest path (path 0) is light gray for all virtues. Then they shade towards the actual virtue color for paths 1 and 2.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Need a forum for your guild?
Need a place for discussions?
Need to send out announcement to all your members instead of doing mass icq msg or mass emails?

If you answer yes to all the questions, read on.

If you are in a highly involved guild, this is something you may want to definitely check out.

We at UOBoards.com used to only host UO Guilds forums/message board for the Oceania Shard, now we extend the invitation to guilds from all shards.

Please email me at [email protected] for further details.

Thanks & Regards

Saint
UOBoards.com

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GUL Pit Fight Results

We had a another great turnout for this week's 2v2 tourney. After many outstanding fights, three teams walked away with cash prizes:

• 1st Place (250k) - Arcanus and Tusk
• 2nd Place (100k) - White Wolf and Sauron
• 3rd Place (50k) - Flip and Don King

Thanks to everyone who participated and to the Oc'Nivelle staff for keeping the troublemakers at bay ;)

See you all next week!
-Jade

Your humble servant
Raeven Aurora

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November 2nd, 2001

Ultima Online Fansite, www.theblackstaff.com will have an Exclusive interview with Tajima, Producer of Ultima Online. With questions covering a range of topics from the latest game additions through scenario progression to the Dev team itself. This is one chat you won't want to miss!

- Nathaniel, The Black Staff Owner.

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Greetings citizens of Britannia,

This weekend, Saturday the 3rd of November at 8 PM eastern time, the Knights of the Crimson Order will be opening to the public it's Virtue Weapon Collection.

The collection is far from complete, but we think you might enjoy viewing the results of our labours thus far.

If you'd like to take a peek beforehand, our guild headquarters is
located a short ride south of Trinsic (Trammel) at x2034 y 3115 {131, 2 S / 49, 59 E for you UOAM users.}

At the grand opening, there will be food and drink for all that attend, plus some contests we think you might enjoy. An all time favourite, the scavenger hunt, boat races, and a post-Halloween costume contest. Prizes will include, over 200k gold in checks, various semi-rares, magic weapons and armor, and even a few virtue weapons!

At 7:30 PM, a member of our guild will be waiting at the entrance to Trinsic to gate any who wish to attend. You can identify him/her by the guild abbreviation (KcO).

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

Yours in Honor and Loyalty,

Sir Syndic Thrawn
Sir Panishim Creel Windraven
Guildmasters, Knights of the Crimson order

Hear ye! Hear ye!
We are proud to announce the forming of a new school. We shall soon begin taking on students to teach them about the the world around us. We are looking for volunteers to become teachers in this new school, known as New Beginnings. We need you to help us bring more people into the roleplaying community. We shall teach the basics of roleplaying, and show youngs how to live in the lands of Brittania. If ye would be interested in teaching any classes, please send us a pigeon. Our doors will be opening soon, so we need teachers now. Whether ye be a Follower of Virtues, or a Follower of Darkness matters not. We want to help teach those around us about all they are missing. Help us put more of the Ultima back into Ultima Online! If ye art a young, or just new to the lands of Brittania, then send us a pigeon to get enrolled now.

Signed,

Dayn Elderan
Headmaster
Pigeon 129503370

Skylar,
Headmistress
Pigeon 91151101

In the first fight, Mae West faced Davey Havok in a fifteen minute spell-fest. Mae put up a valiant effort, but in the end, Havok was the one left standing. Then KMSEMPERFI went up against Papa Poop in another long Mage versus Mage festival. Both were millimeters from death more than once, but neither could land the decisive blow. At last the No Heal rule went into effect, and Papa Poop triumphed. Davey Havok then lost the draw and went back to the ring to face RAIDER. RAIDER, the only warrior in a sea of mages, led with a vicious right hook. He was strong and fast, but alas, he could not withstand Havok's ferocious Mana Dumps.

Havok needed to restock, so one fetching member of the Fight Night Staff, Amber, entertained the waiting crowd with a half-time show. Amber performed the "Red Cowboy Boots and Apron Dance," a dance so naughty it is illegal in Trammel and several parts of Ilshenar.

When Havok returned, he and Papa Poop decided to battle naked in Amber's honor. Never let it be said that Oasis is a sexist town. They are equal opportunity objectifiers! Both buff boys stripped to their skivvies and faced off. For the final battle, the No Heal rule was waived. The fight would continue until one of the two powerful mages was kissing sand, or until three hours had passed. After three hours, said smitten w love, the fight night staff would be forced to gank both competitors and use the prize money to pay for the therapy and drinking binges they would need after watching a three hour fight.

The crowd held its breath as Judge Drizzt cast Wall of Stone. When the wall came down, both mages released a vicious onslaught. Spells flew back and forth so quickly it was almost impossible to follow who was casting what. Twice Havok had Papa Poop on the ropes, but each time Papa rallied and returned fire, until at last Havok dropped to his knees and then toppled forward to lie completely still.

Havok did not leave empty handed. He was resurrected and given a set of GM Golden Plate made by Oasis Tavern in honor of his achievements. Papa Poop was given the Val plate and a one million GP check donated by smitten w love. He also received a one million GP check donated by OTE.

smitten w love wished to extend a heart-felt thanks to the staff who put in long hours to make this season a success. Also, several large guilds like KP, OTE, =G=, and B^G donated their time, money and resources to support Fight Night. And of course the competitors and spectators who showed up every week to battle their guts out or cheer on their favorite. A new season of fights is expected to begin in January, and anyone wishing to help out should contact smitten w love at ICQ #60003378 or PM Tarapazu through the Stratics Message Boards.

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The spot pictured is actually the Cyclops' Fort in Ilshenar. The co-ordinates are 124o 21'N 40o 46' W. To get there, hop into a moongate and travel to the shrine of Valor. From Valor, head east, following the line of mountains until you reach the fort. Warning: This is not a good hunting spot for the weak or faint of heart! There are titans, trolls and a few wandering gazers as well as a football team worth of Cyclops.

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Greetings All!

We, the New UO Seers, have two welcome additions to our web site at http://www.uo-seers.org/; our Calendar of Events and our Mailing List. We invite you to take a look.

As many of you know, we are players just like you; however, we have decided to volunteer our time to improving the fictional plotlines within the UO community. As volunteers, we are very dedicated individuals who enjoy participating in and running events and quests.

We are in no way associated with the creators of Ultima Online; however, we do provide several services to the UO community:

1) The creation of new quests and events 2) Assisting others in the creation of their own events 3) Provide written resources for the creation of events

Our volunteers ingame provide the first two services, while our third service is available on our website. We feel that this approach is the best way to create a proactive, interactive community that will be able to provide continuous entertainment and enjoyment to all players.

As a volunteer organization we must rely upon donations from the UO community to support the services that we look forward to offering you. On the Pacific Shard, we are looking for a dwelling donation for our quests and events and a meeting place to plan these functions.

We also have need of material goods such as leather, chain and plate armor, weapons, reagents, city and dungeon rune books, blank rune books with Mark scrolls, Recall Scrolls, gold to train skills, clothing/disguises, a guildstone, filled spell books, fishsteaks, a boat, and a pack horse or lama, and rares and other items of value to use as prizes in quests and events.

Please contact Lead Seer Radnor at [email protected], who is responsible for the Pacific Shard if you are able to assist us. Your donations are greatly appreciated. Without your assistance the UO Seers cannot come back to life!!

We also have a public forum on Stratics which you can find here. You will find more information there.

If you think you would be interested in becoming a Seer or Troubadour yourself, please, fill out an application that can be found at our website. We would be glad to have you!

We have added several new members to the Pacific Shard and they are anxious to get things started. We will be announcing our first event on your Shard in the next week or two. Please watch the Pacific News here on Stratics for upcoming events and join us for fun AND profit.

Thank you for your interest in our new program.

Lead Seer Radnor
Western Shards
[email protected]
ICQ 128071387
http://www.uo-seers.org

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New comic out at OOC! This one's called Got Gate? and deals with something thats been something of a pet peeve of mine for awhile... you'll see.

Enjoy!

www.outofcharacter.com

-Arak

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A new episode has been uploaded to the Hall.

Be sure to check it out!

May the corpses of fallen players line thy path!

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We had 16 noble and valiant souls show up for the event. Numerous tales were told including at least one made up on the spot! We also had the first part of a two part Halloween tale from Wolf of Evermore. The Minds Eye saga will continue on 11-7-01 since it seems that he plans on telling part of the tale every week.

Winners
Do to the large number of outstanding tales the rules changed for tonight.

In fourth place came Sydnee, with a poem of a woman so old and gray. Sydnee was rewarded with a prize of 10K.

In third place came Ka-el, with a poem of life, love and beauty. Ka-el was rewarded with a prize of 20K.

In second place (for the fifth week in a row), came Dragyn, with a tale of a long ago Hallows eve and death. Dragyn was rewarded with a prize of 25K.

And in first place came Celban OBanyan with a tale to chill your bones called "It Drank Them In awwwwwwwwww". (Sorry last part was my comment). Celban OBanyan walked away with a Champagne Flute as the first place prize.

Stories
Due to Halloween being near I am taking a week or two off in the minds eye saga to tell you a different type of tale.

As Carol of White pulled the covers up and made sure her little ones were all nice and cozy, they looked up with those faces that melt stone " Mommy could you tell it again? Please Pleaseeeeeeeee Mommmmmyyyy."

How could she refuse such a request as she smiled inwardly knowing they had their father’s charms.

She began to tell the tale.

The sun was setting on that special of day. It was all Hallows Eve. The time would be near when the evil creatures would have one chance to carry off the folks of this world. They would not get another try for 12 more months. Thus this was the night that the young of the tribe, if they were ready to move into the adult world, would be sent out to see if they could last the night. For in the Clann of the Wolf this was the way. You had to pass this test of faith and cunning to stay in the Clann. It was a brutal test in that you lived or died. There was no in between as it has always been in the path of the Wolf.

Tonight seemed different then most. Legends told of nights when the great leaders of the past had walked this test. That on those nights the Great Lich walked and only those who were of the purest metal could pass this flame. These where the nights when most if not all failed the test. So as the tribe gathered in the spirit house to await the call 10 young ones gathered in a corner talking about death.

As they attempted to come to terms with their deaths these 13-year-old cubs turned as the door opened and White walked in. He was their peer but he had a light in his eyes that shown in the face of darkness. They all knew he would survive this night and that seemed to make the rest a little bit happier. For death would not win. One of their ranks would see the sun again and taste the sweet berries of spring.

White walked over to them and saw the look on their faces. It was death that was now living behind those young eyes. White would not tolerate this and said, " I will not let you be taken. I will strike a deal with the Great Lich and we will all live".

This was unheard of. No on had ever made such a statement. They nodded and hoped he was right. The time had come and the door opened that lead to the hunting grounds of the ancestors. They all walked out and came face to face with the Great Lich. A demon of the undead and the most powerful welder of magic the world had ever know.

A deep laugh rolled out of its twisted mouth. The cubs looked to White to honor his promise. White walked up to this beast and said, " I order you to leave." To the surprise of almost all the Great Lich turned and left. The rest of the night was quiet and at dawn the door opened. They entered the Spirit house and all had lived. This had never happened before that they all live on a normal night, but on a Great Lich night it was shocking.

The Shaman of the tribe took one look at White and saw that he had commanded the Great Lich. At that moment the earth shook and the worlds of the living and the dead started to become aligned. "You fool in your arrogance will doom us all" the Shaman yelled as the beams of the Spirit house began to move.

"Stop", White yelled and all was quiet. "Come to me and explain" and as he finished the Great Lich appeared.

"What is it master?"

"How dare you attack this tribe. No be gone and trouble us no more." White smiled for he knew he had ordered the undead to leave his village alone but he also knew he would soon conquer the rest of the world.

Come back next week for end of at least part of this tale.

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The seasons are shifting towards darkness once more... and 'tis the time when the barriers between the living and the dead are thinning...

In other words, Samhain is nearing...and that means time for a festival. Actually, it would be one last festival, for soon I shall be crossing that last barrier into the worlds on the other side. So...for those who would feel so inclined...join me, Krista, at my Ranger Station for one last frolic in the Druid's Glade, 'mongst the trees of Yew. We will be holding a feast of epic proportions beginning at 8 o' the clock on October 31st (as the Central skies reckon it), and of course there shall be cookbooks available. Though my sister has already gone missing, I will try to say a few poor words in the spirit of the season.

To find our little gathering, head southeast from the Yew Abbey in Felucca, past the farmhouse at the end of the road...the Ranger Station is the two story building in the next clearing you see. You may also find runes at many of the better known Felucca establishments, such as the CMG, Kazola's, the Sandlewood Box...maybe even RD's Storefront! My pigeon is sheltered in cage 24124261, if there is need to contact me further!

Blessed be!

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Greetings to all Britannians,

This past week's Auction was a great success, and this week's Auction should be even better.

As I have stated before, our Auction Tower is a Neutral Zone for all Players, but if you cross the line then you will either be Removed or Banned from the Tower. If you are removed The Guard will explain why you were removed and then let you back in. If you are Banned the Guard will explain why and to inform you that you cannot return to the Auction. If you are Banned then all of your Chars on that Acct. is banned. The Auction Guards and the Auction Staff can remove and ban. There will be no lifting of a player that has been banned by anyone.

Submission of items are needed for the continuation of our Auction. We need high end weapons, ie; Power, Vanq, Silver. Oddity's, specialty items, M.I.B.'s, Treasure Maps,Rares, semi Rares, etc. If you bring the item on Monday night with a bag and a book, we will do our best to get it sold for you. Our Auction does not charge a percentage to the submitter. Our Auction Tower is located at 34o43N/44o51E, or a brisk 5 minute walk from east Brit following the road. We are south of the desert and the swamp.

We take submissions on Monday night at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. As I stated before bring a bag with a book, in the book type in your name and your icq, what the item is and your min bid for that item. Hand the bag over to any one auction staff member that is inside the stage area on the Roof of the tower.
Our Auction starts promptly at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. Come early to get a good seat.

As I have stated before in a previous Posting The Guard has a Snooper, his job is Only to Snoop not to steal. This is done for your safety while you are at our Auction. When you come to our Auction it would be wise not to bring in your pack "trapped Packs" as the Snooper has to go thru all of them.

So come on by our Auction and enjoy a nice evening, with many good items up for Auction and buy that one item you have been looking for.

Rattler GLV

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Hail and well met, friends of Verity. It has come time again for us to draw close in unification and brotherhood across the many shards. We are United in our love and passion for the City of Moonglow, and of its peoples and culture. Our city is a strong one, striving in perseverance and dilligence towards a common goal; that of the advancement of man and womankind in Sosaria through Virtue and efficient application of talents.

This is an cordial invitation to all mages, scribes, scholars, knights, palandins and others of good intent and purpose to commune with us on the future and progression of our city. All established organizations and administrations from Moonglow from all the shards are specially invited to gather at a Summit to share in fellowship and discourse with each other on common issues of state and purpose.

When?

This Sunday, October 28th, at 5:00 p.m. EST (10:00 p.m. GMT)

What?

A discussion and fellowship of the governments and citizenry of Moonglow from the many shards. If you have interest in Moonglow, be there! If you live in Moonglow, be there! If you enjoy eating pastries made on Verity Isle, be there!

Where?

The Summit will take place on the Atlantic Shard on the Trammel facet at the Moonglow Town Council Headquarters in Moonglow. For directions, please reference this page.

Who?

The following organizations are especially invited to come and take part as representatives of Moonglow from their shard.

Moonglow Town Council [Atlantic]
Moonglow Council of Honesty [Europa]
Adventurers n Craftsmen of Moonglow[Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Baja]
Moonglow Defense Force[Lake Superior]
Council of Honesty [Lake Superior]
Administration of Moonglow [Catskills]
Moonglow Council of Mages [Sonoma]
Fighters of Moonglow [Drachenfels]
Protectors of Moonglow [Drachenfels]
Kingdom of Moonglow [Legends]
...and any other governmental or Moonglow based associations or individuals are welcome to attend!

For visiting officials, Honesty the Tailor will be courting to your wardrobe needs a half an hour before the summit is set to begin at the Councilchambers.
Hope to see you all there!

Regards,
GreyPawn,
Mayor of Moonglow [Atlantic]
Moonglow Town Council

Ours is the future.

This is an cordial invitation to all mages, scribes, scholars, knights, palandins and others of good intent and purpose to commune with us on the future and progression of our city. All established organizations and administrations from Moonglow from all the shards are specially invited to gather at a Summit to share in fellowship and discourse with each other on common issues of state and purpose.

||When?

This Sunday, October 28th, at 5:00 p.m. EST (10:00 p.m. GMT)

||What?

A discussion and fellowship of the governments and citizenry of Moonglow from the many shards. If you have interest in Moonglow, be there! If you live in Moonglow, be there! If you enjoy eating pastries made on Verity Isle, be there!

||Where?

The Summit will take place on the Atlantic Shard on the Trammel facet at the Moonglow Town Council Headquarters in Moonglow. For directions, please reference this page.

||Who?

The following organizations are especially invited to come and take part as representatives of Moonglow from their shard.

Moonglow Town Council [Atlantic]
Moonglow Council of Honesty [Europa]
Adventurers n Craftsmen of Moonglow[Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Baja]
Moonglow Defense Force[Lake Superior]
Council of Honesty [Lake Superior]
Administration of Moonglow [Catskills]
Moonglow Council of Mages [Sonoma]
Fighters of Moonglow [Drachenfels]
Protectors of Moonglow [Drachenfels]
Kingdom of Moonglow [Legends]
...and any other governmental or Moonglow based associations or individuals are welcome to attend!

For visiting officials, Honesty the Tailor will be courting to your wardrobe needs a half an hour before the summit is set to begin at the Councilchambers.
Hope to see you all there!

Regards,
GreyPawn,
Mayor of Moonglow [Atlantic]
Moonglow Town Council

Ours is the future.

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After Oasis Fight Night, this Sunday at 6 PM PST (9 PM EST) Bott and Rowan Antero will get married.
The wedding will take place in Felucca in the Mystic Black Rose Castle located in the town of Sanctuary near Oasis.
Coordonates: Felucca 63°32'N 55°7'E
Gate will be opened upon request at the main city banks or moongates.

The ceremony will be followed by a small party in the Castle Tavern. Food and drinks will be provided.

Everyone is welcomed to attend the wedding and the party. No pets please.

If you want to recall safely inside the castle courtyard, PM me, I ll be glad to provide you a rune.

This evening's Halloween party was quite a success, despite ending a bit early - apologies to the few of you who showed up after things had broken up.
Celestial Spirits was decked out in Halloween colors and looked fabulous. Everyone who showed up had a FANTASTIC costume *claps for everyone* I was very impressed. To see all of the costumes look here
Costume Contest Results:

• First Place: Rakhir, A Golem
• Second Place: Empress Cymidei Fier, A Newbie Beggar
• Third Place: Conrad, Chester the Quester Jester

For the pumpkin hunt, we hid 50 pumpkins all around the town, in buildings, by the dungeon, in caves and in buildings. The participants had 20 minutes to find and return as many as they could.
Results, Pumpkin Hunt:

• First Place: Ceasar, 13 pumpkins
• Second Place: Gabrielle, 11 pumpkins
• Third Place, Tie: Conrad and VoiVoD, 5 pumpkins

First Place
Lady Bronwyn of Ravenshire for the Fall Festival on the roof of their Tower
Second Place - A Tie! The Shadow Imperium - Castle Fier & Morivoshi for "An Ancient Shrine"
To see the winning homes and runners up click here!

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Sponsor: Beholder of The Flaming Blade
Facet: Trammel
Location: Nujelm Chess ground
Start Date: Oct 28 2001 12:00AM CST
End Date: Oct 28 2001 2:00AM CST
Recurrance: Weekly

Are you a true hero? You need to prove it here. It is the first Formosa Hero Tournament starting this weekend. If you are tired of horse racing and chaotic faction war, you must take this challenge.

Rules:
1. one on one.
2. equipment no requirement, unlimited item usage.(potions, reg, bandage, etc.)
3. no pets and riding pets.
4. no looting.
5. no hiding.
6. 3 mins only for each run.

Details about this tournament will be posted in TFB web site.(It is in Chinese.)
http://tfb.uline.net

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irc.stratics.dhp.com
stratics.frws.com
grampa.vlan.net
arden.ic-stories.com
riot.tac.net
stratics.truefear.net

The topic for this month will be General Discussion, so make sure to come with a couple of questions to ask the Dev Team. You can also find out more about how this all works at our UOHoC Website. Hope to see you on Thursday! Don´t miss it!

Stonegate
Stratics Lead Event Coordinator
mailto: [email protected]

Regards

Daniel - Stonegate – Fischer
Stratics Lead Event Coordinator

Stratics, the massive multiplayer IRC network
http://www.stratics.com/
irc.stratics.com port 6667

Email: [email protected]

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Circle of Justice (C^J) and Honored Knights of the Stone (H*K) are hosting a fall fair.
The date: November 10
The time: 6pm central time
The place: Skara Brae fairgrounds Trammel Facet.

Festivities to include a scavenger hunt, horse races and many other events. Lots of prizes, lots of fun! Come join us!

Hope to see you there:
Celes (C^J) and Shanarra (H*K)

Hope everyone turns out and make this a grand affair.

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Siege Perilous has been a shard with a unique nature, with numerous custom designs and special modifications, and in many ways all this are Siege's strength and prime attraction.

However, some of the issues that come up with Siege Perilous are due to it's unique nature. When we test & implement things on the so-called "normal" shards, we can be reasonably confident that when something works on one shard, it should work on another in the same way. Once in a while an update with work differently or incorrectly on a "normal shard," and once in a while an update with work differently or incorrectly on Siege. The difference between the two is that we anticipate that such possible changes are more likely to affect Siege's game balance, and so we must proceed more carefully. And sometimes this means not implementing a feature at the same time as the other shards, such as the recent implementation of Ilshenar on Siege.

It is our familiarity with the bulk of the shards that allow us to develop new systems for them with a certain amount of perceived "ease" and "lack of delay," but we are no less familiar with Siege Perilous. Siege is a different breed of shard, and needs a different mindset to develop it as well as play it, and, if anything, we simply try to be more careful in our evaluations and selections of what changes occur to Siege.

Siege's custom designs have made it difficult to support some aspects in the past, but we see a better future in store for Siege Perilous. The Mugen shard is mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and Mugen is a second "Siege Perilous" type of shard. With more shards of this type we can expect to put better support into the "Siege Perilous shards."

Some improvements and changes may be made to the Siege Perilous shards in order to appeal appeal to a broader audience, but even as we institute these improvements we hope to not remove what makes it uniquely appealing and continuing to allow Siege Perilous to remain true to it's roots.

In reply to:
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Is there a "speed cap" in UO?
Everyone I chase runs same speed as me if they are fast and I cannot catch up to them usually. And They cant catch up to me unless there is an obstacle of some sort. Im almost positive there is a speed cap of some sort. Is there?!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The answer to your questions comes in two parts: in-character factors and performance factors.

There are several in-character game mechanics factors which affect the speed of your characters. There's a certain walking pace and running speed built into the system to control the movement rates of characters. There's not just one walking or running rate, however, and some characters will move a little faster or slower than others, depending on the players' systems.

Your computer's performance and the speed of your Internet connection could affect how fast your character moves. You might see someone running faster than you because they have a better connection & system, but even with that in mind, they shouldn't be running past the "natural limits" as allowed by the in-character game mechanics mentioned above.

Every once in a while you might hear about some program or method that seems to allow people to break these "natural limits," but we can tracked such things, and when this type of activity has appeared and we've established that there's exploiting going on, we've banned the exploiters.

Something to also keep in mind is that, if you see someone move at "super speed" for 2 or 3 steps, it might actually be because of a short bit of packet loss, and your computer just caught up & is showing where the other character actually is, not where the client thought the other character should have been.

No going to confirm anything with regards to future updates, but they're not deaf, I clarified this before. The don't hear the same way that creatures do. They're not alive, nor were they ever alive. So they can respond to specific commands, but other sounds have no meaning to them

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The next week of the current scenario is scheduled to be published to the Napa Valley shard on Monday morning, October 29th CDT, to be active following its normal scheduled maintenance period. Barring any unforeseen issues, these changes should become active on the North American shards following their Tuesday morning maintenance periods (local server time). All remaining shards should see these changes active following their Wednesday morning maintenance periods (local server time).

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Seattle Gamers' Luncheon Information Center

Here are the specifics:

DATE: Saturday, December 8th, 2001
TIME: 1:00pm to 4:00pm
WHERE: GameWorks Seattle (in the heart of Downtown Seattle)
FOOD: Buffet Lunch (Pasta Salad, Cole Slaw, BBQ Baked Beans, Chips, freshly baked rolls, BBQ Chicken, Build your own Burger Bar, Cookies, and Brownies)
GAMING: 1 hour of gameplay at GameWorks included

COST: $41 per person. Prepayment is required with your registration before November 20th. Once we receive both registration and prepayment, you will receive further details on how to proceed.

OTHER: If there is enough interest, we may try putting together a group outing to a nearby movie theatre after the Luncheon to see several great movies that will be out that weekend.

ACCOMODATIONS: For those visiting from out of town we have set up a special arrangement with the Paramount Hotel, a premier hotel in the Seattle area. For more details go here.

We'll see you there,
The Seattle Gamers' Luncheon Staff

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Quotes from the article:

Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS), the largest U.S. game publisher, on Thursday reported a narrower second-quarter loss as sales grew for its offerings on all of the major game platforms.

and….

The company updated its expectations for its online division, EA.com, for the fiscal year, which ends in March, after announcing earlier this week that it would lay off 200 to 250 staff from the unit.

The cuts, about one-third of the division's staff, were made to keep the unit on track to its goal of reaching profitability in fiscal 2003, the company said. .

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Hi there!

I've been a little quieter on the boards lately, but I've still been busy behind the scenes, trying to come up with ways to make information more clear and readily available to the players. We've just recently updated the entire Playguide on the site (that’s over 300 pages of updated game material, thanks to Kerowyn!), and the downloadable manual will be upgraded as well. The community and web groups are also working on some major long-term projects that will improve the UO site in dramatic ways - more on that once we're farther along!

For now, I wanted to tackle a couple short-term things that could help players get the most out of the information we’re providing. The first area is the patch message, which has typically only been updated when there was major information to post, and which has also not typically included additions and bug fixes contained in the publishes. The main reason this was the case is the fact that it’s a fairly small window, and we were concerned with not requiring the users to scroll down to get all the information. However, it’s my thought that having the information available to those who wish to scroll down is certainly better than not having the information there at all! Options are always good. :) So now you’ll begin seeing more information on the site’s patch message, including the contents of patches and publishes, and it will be updated much more regularly than it has been in the past.

The second area is the discussion boards. Since our boards don’t mark threads that have had a "red" response, it’s often difficult for our players to know when something’s been answered by a development team member. And of course, when questions are asked more than once, not every iteration of the question will be answered, meaning that some folks will feel ignored. More than once, I’ve seen people post angrily that a certain question has been ignored, when in fact it was answered in another thread earlier that day. The logical option might be to add new functionality to the boards that marks red posts, but unfortunately, just like the development team, our web group has a very tight schedule, and we don’t have time right now to create new board functionality. It’s on my list, though! Something I *can* do, however, is add a board FAQ area. The new read-only forum section on the boards is just that – an area for us to post those questions and answers that we’re seeing often on the boards, as a way to help players find the things that we think are important. So what’s the difference between us posting questions and answers there as opposed to putting them in the game wizard or in FAQs on the website? Well, the questions we can put in the read-only forums can be a bit more current – as in, posting questions about reverts or bugs or impending changes (the kind of thing we wouldn’t typically post permanently on the site, since it would be obsolete within a week or two). Some of the information will probably be repeats of information that’s in our Game Wizard, but if it’s something that we’re seeing asked often on the boards, then we’ll try to put it in the Frequently Asked Questions forum as well.

There are only a couple threads in there so far, but we’ll be adding more as we see things that are more prevalent on the boards. And just as a reassurance, the regular forums are not becoming read-only or fully moderated; the new read only section is in addition to, not instead of, the regular discussion forums. Let us know what you think, and feel free to suggest new questions for us to post there!

So that’s it for now… please feel free to continue posting your ideas to make our methods of communication better!

Amy "Cynthe" Sage
Manager of Community Services
ORIGIN Systems

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I recently received a PM asking about the Customer Satisfaction scores that our GMs have received. The numbers have been very good, and have been trending upwards since we began using the customer satisfaction gump. Below are the results for the last few months. I'm really proud of our team, and we all expect these numbers to continue to rise.

Week Ending 7/22
GM Average 71.15
Week Ending 7/29
GM Average 71.05
Week Ending 8/5
GM Average 71.90
Week Ending 8/12
GM Average 72.56
Week Ending 8/19
GM Average 72.75
Week Ending 8/26
GM Average 74.31
Week Ending 9/2
GM Average 75.72
Week Ending 9/9
GM Average 77.90
Week Ending 9/16
GM Average 77.09
Week Ending 9/23
GM Average 77.99
Week Ending 9/30
GM Average 78.15
Week Ending 10/7
GM Average 77.91
Week Ending 10/14
GM Average 79.38
Week Ending 10/21
GM Average 78.80

1). There is a random chance that players get the gump. Not every call gets the gump. Last week, 4,059 players rated GMs through the gump. Once players have rated the GM, they won't be able to rate for another week. That is to prevent people from abusing the queue by paging multiple times in order to distort the numbers.

2). As stated above, there is a random chance to get the gump. The rating is based on a sampling of customers, and not every single one.

and….

That's an average percentage score. If everyone sampled gave the top ratings, we'd be at 100%. The five scores available are Excellent (5), Good (4), Average (3) Poor (2), and Bad (1).

Our team is averaging "Good", which would be 80%, and we are working to drive that average even higher.

and by Greywolfe, OnLine Community Moderator:

The gump comes up once per account every 10 days, I believe.

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Hanse Swildish: From what I've read on The New Sonoma RP Ring website it seems that you are going to be giving the players of Sonoma a chance to be a part of an epic struggle between good and evil. Is this role playing ring only for those who enjoy PvP?

Desaad: No its not just for Pvpers. Ive created a neutral section for those who run vendor malls or shops, or those who even RP as smiths,and tinkers ect. Even those who enjoy sitting at the bank showing off their rares can be a part of this.

Hanse Swildish: Will there be organised events for both good and evil role players or will you just be organising events for evil aligned role players?

Desaad: With the addition of new guilds and players to the ring, im hoping that they will take their part and hold events and such as well. I myself along with Lich Amaruak will probably just be handling the evil side of things.

Hanse Swildish: Will there be any Trammel based role play or will you stay mostly in Felucca?

Desaad: Both facets will be involved. As Amaruak would say " no one is safe anywhere from a true evil".

Hanse Swildish: *laughs*

Hanse Swildish: Your website mentions The Dark Alliance, a brotherhood of dark and evil guilds. Is this going to be the centerpiece for the New Sonoma RP Ring?

Desaad: It will probably be the main group of the evil side, im hoping to get The Sonoma Alliance involved in this as well. To sort of balance things out a bit.

Hanse Swildish: For people who haven't already joined up but are interested, what is the best way for them to find you and join either the good or evil forces?

Desaad: First thing, I dont run the web site. There's an email link under the member section that will send any emails to Lich Amaruak. Second upon joining that person/guild will then need to get in contact with those guilds on their prospective side. Amaruak is in touch with the ones on the site right now.

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Kiara - *Klesk* As more prime characters are re-introduced through the new fiction will there be any additions to the game-world itself to help reinforce their presence. For example Nystul's Lab, Krett's workshop, or even Shamino's abode...

Gromm - We actually just talked about this today a bit. If we ever have the chance to enhance the world with some points of interest we'd love to so that the BNN and in game events can melt together a bit smoother. If we have the time in the future I'd love to make some of the places in the stories real in the shards. Just a matter of finding the time. :)

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Nocsaal passed a clawed hand over the reflectant surface of the pool. A slight ripple formed, spreading to the edges of the murky green water, bringing a new appearance to the mysterious liquid. The pool’s surface no longer reflected the bare cavern walls, but showed a mighty labyrinth, its darkened corridors stretching as far as the eye could see before fading in the swirling mists.

Europa is fast becoming famed for it’s large number of player towns and institutions. There seems to be no small sietch of land that does not become a village or hamlet when a few householders get together and organise themselves. However, as yet we’ve seen little activity in and around the mining city of Minoc, that is until now…

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Greetings! And Well Met!

The Knights of Arcane Steel wish to invite one and all, to their All Hallows Eve' Festival and PvP Tournament. More then One Million Gold will be given away as prizes on Saturday, October 27th. Main Events include a Scavenger Hunt, Costume Contest, and PvP Tournament. All players and guilds are welcome to attend, though space is limited in some events. Come and roleplay, or enjoy yourself out of character, Everyone is welcome, there will be no guild war activity during the Festival!

For complete information on all Events, Visit www.netlabs.net/~medtek/kas/festival or contact Corin Aesir, by ICQ at #3901201.

PvP Tournament

Time: 3pm Est to 6pm Est

Place: The Battlegorunds, gates will be provided

Registration: yes! Limited to 24 Participants!

Entry Fee: None!

Prizes! 1st 300k Gold, 2nd 200k Gold, 3rd 100k Gold!!

All character classes are welcome. Please see the rules on the offical festival page. Entering this tournament require you to be placed on a temporary festival guildstone, or have your existing guild war the stone. Contact the KaS for more information, and review the rules and requirements on the festial web page, listed above.

Costume Contest

Time: 6pm Est

Place: KaS Castle

Registration: None

Entry Fee: None

Prizes: 1st: 75k Gold and a pair of Black Sandals, 2nd: 50k Gold, 3rd: 25k Gold!

Think you have what it takes to make the best costume? GM Tailors and Smiths, gets those tools ready! Wether it be Scary, Dapper, or 70's Nightclub, your outfit might get you some some spending cash and pair of much coveted black sandals (not blessed). So use your imagination, and strut down that runway like you mean it. Entries will be judged by appearance, style, the ability to roleplay your costume. All Entries must arrive at the castle Before 6PM Est.

Prizes will be given out directly following the Costume Contests final judging. All Players of Catskills are welcome to enter! All who enter will receive a participation prize!

Scavenger Hunt

Time: 7:30Pm Est

Place: Kas Hall

Registration: None

Entry fee: None

Prizes: 1st: 150k Gold, 2nd 100k Gold, 3rd 50k Gold!!

The Rules will be discussed from 7Pm Est till 7:30Pm Est

The Race is On! Will you be the first to return to the KaS Guildhall with the 20 listed items? Do you know where to find Common, but sometimes overlooked things? Then this is the contest for you. Players will be given a book with 20 items listed, that are easily obtainable (or so you think), in lands of UO, and must race to be the first one back! You have only ONE hour to complete this simple task.. Are you up for it? Is your recall book up for it?

At 7:30PM the Whistle sounds, and you grab the list and go! Latecomers are welcome, but you only have untill 8:30PM!! All participants who return before 8PM will receive a prize. Good Luck!

Directions can be found on the Festival Web Page.

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No not at once. Just that if you help one character from account "A" you can help another character from account "B". But, you can't help another character from account "A" for a week after you started helping the first one.

Only one squire at a time though.

Just so everyone is clear. That demon in uo3d that is called Exodus...is not Exodus, nor do we plan on using it.

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All Japanese shards, with the exception of Mugen, will undergo extended maintenance during their scheduled maintenance periods on Friday, October 26th (local server time). The shards are expected to remain down for one hour beyond their normal maintenance periods. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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The first person to e-mail the correct co-ordinates for the spot pictured to [email protected] wins 25K and the adoration of the masses. Please do not send attachments or pictures. My advice to you? When going to get these co-ords, walk softly and carry a big stick. Or take big, mean friends.

I also want to thank all the guilds who signed up to sponsor Where's Here through the end of 2001. All slots have now been taken, so if your guild wanted to sponsor one, you'll have to wait until a new sign up call goes out after the holidays.

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It is the opinion of this august body that the liches and so-called "evil mages," which at this time plague Britannia, may be redeemed and turned away from their current non-Virtuous paths. At this time, our finest sages and scholars are striving to develop a method by which these entities may be spared the horrific lifestyles in which they are currently bound, and will continue to inform the citizens of the land on these methods as new information becomes available.

and.…

Liches were swayed into a life which supported a viscious circle of unending evil, that they could not escape, even in death. They have become masters of Unlife, and by researching means of redemption we hope to grant them awareness of their wrongs and peace with their place in the universe. At that time their already-dead bodies shall crumble to dust, and their spirits will successfully pass on to the Great Beyond, a reward currently denied them.

Many of the the so-called "Evil Mages" are headed for the same afterlife "prison of the spirit" that already holds most liches. If we can open the spiritual eyes of these mages, then they will never become so cursed, and as we help them we anticipate that many will magically teleport to their families and loved ones and begin a process of seeking forgiveness, and endeavoring to right the wrongs that they have committed in the name of Evil.

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

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To all who came, thank you for what turned out to be my favorite and most memorable moments of UO to date! I was crying with laughter as we toured towns, dungeons, and even formed conga lines...all as ghosts! If you had a good time and would like to see more events in the future, post to the Great Lakes Forum and let us hear your ideas!

If you follow the "comments" link below, I'll be updating the thread in the GL Forum with a link as soon as I get some of the wonderful pictures from the event processed and uploaded.

Congratulations to the many winners of the night, the prize winners are as follows:

Halloween Homes Decorating Contest:

• 1st Place - The FCB Tower
• 2nd Place - Lothrorian Crossing

King and Queen of the Dead Man's Ball

• Blackheath & Ariyana Sune

Dead Run (Yew Crypts to Yew Cemetary)

• 1st - Nemonis
• 2nd - Leshyani
• 3rd - Blackheath

Please contact me via PM in the GL Forum or via email [email protected] to arrange a time to collect your fabulous prizes. The loot is tremendous, so get in touch any time after Friday (I'll be working hard on pictures of the event till then).

My sincere apologies for cancellation of the Storytelling competition... the party of Undead was having so much fun, it seemed best to let the (pardon the pun) Spirit of the event continue =) If you prepared a story, and would still like a chance at prize winnings, I'll be extending that part of the Halloween festivities to the GL Forum. You can post to the "comments" link below any submission you'd like to enter, through the "dead" line of Oct 31. I'll reserve some nice gifts for the participants in the written storytelling competition. (Broadly, the entries should have a Halloween theme, and should be poetry or prose, but pictures can be included as well.)

Thanks again everyone, and Happy Halloween from your UOS-GL Stratics Team! =)

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Q: Yeh why ARE women listed under monsters in the polymorph menu! thats been bugging me for a long time now! (im not female though it was just strange)

A: Men are listed under "animals" and women listed under "monsters." Neither are quite correct, but as the "animals" and "monsters" sections each had an open slot, placing the men and women polymorph options in their current positions was a simple choice of convenience.

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

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An issue with this morning's publish unfortunately resulted in incorrectly priced house deeds being sold on shopkeepers on the Siege Perilous shard. Because of the exploitable nature of this issue, we have deemed it necessary to revert this shard to a previous backup made at approximately 2:00 PM Wednesday October 24th, CDT.

Additionally, now active as of today on the Siege Perilous ruleset shards are the new ruleset changes that have been listed in the Update Center, which can now be found in Latest Game Updates. These changes will still remain active after the revert.

It is always a difficult decision to revert a shard; however, we feel the potential damage this issue could cause to Siege Perilous's balance and economy dictates that we must take this course of action. We sincerely apologize for the necessity of this interruption and any inconvenience it may cause.

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Now that the update is on all of the shards, please let me know if there are any problems with the bug fixes:

• Unreachable generator panels - this will fix all existing panels as well.
• Young players using control panels - since young players don't get damaged they will no longer be able to use the control panels
• Controller fame - lowered to be in keeping with their difficulty
• Arcane gem recharge - anyone, regardless of tailoring skill will be able to rechrage arcane items. GM tailors will be able to recharge them to 100% capacity, nonGMs will only be able to recharge them to 80% of their maximum.
• Arcane Controller clothing - Clothing worn by controllers will autotmatically delete when the controller dies.
• Cant use arcane gems on blessed items - this will keep people from losing their blessed items
• Null string errors - server localization text (such as barkeepers and arcane clothing) will no longer give null string errors

Thanks all!

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content

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Written in Blood
A banging at his door made Krett spring up from his work and knock his head against something thick and heavy. A low-toned, gong-like sound rang throughout his small cottage. Holding his hands tightly against the back of his head, he looked up with one cocked eye to see a golem head, swinging on its neck support. He backed away from the body of the machine, wincing at the small throb in his skull, and wiped his hands on an oily rag. He tossed it down as the banging continued on the door. “I’m coming!” he half mumbled.

He worked his away across the floor around piles of his projects. Bits of golem lay in semi-completed forms in a pattern than could have passed for an obstacle course with random papers lying everywhere as if they had fallen from the canopy of a giant tree above. Clocks lined the walls, although half had been covered by hastily sketched plans that had been pinned up. As he made his way through the maze, piles of documents spilled behind him and small tools tinkled to the floor. The banging on the door resumed just as he came near and pulled it open.

“Krett! You are home!” said a man in leather armor with a bow on his back.

“Shamino? Ah… you’re early! Come in, ah… come in!”

Krett stood aside to allow the famous ranger to enter the cottage, although the room was limited. Shamino looked around at the piles of half-formed mechanical beings and found the image a little disturbing.

“Am I early? I should be right on time.” The ranger curiously prodded a strange assembly of gears on the floor with his foot.

Krett maneuvered his way back towards the nearly finished golem on the other side of the room. “I must, ah… have lost track of time working on this fellow over here. What time is….”

His voice was cut off by the sound of dozens of clocks ringing all at once. After squinting for a few moments at the shrill sound of the tinker’s time pieces, Shamino looked at his friend with a smirk.

“Oh, six o’ clock, you are right on time,” Krett said, moving the head of a golem up onto a table.

“Krett, I sent you word of my coming because I would like your help. I think your expertise could come in most useful.” Shamino sat casually on an upturned golem leg.

“Me?” Krett asked. “What, ah… what exactly is it you need me for?”

“Your knowledge of these mechanical men.”

“Golems,” Krett said absentmindedly.

“Pardon?” Shamino asked.

“They’re called golems, Shamino, or ‘Por-Xel-Agra-Lem’. Can’t really compare them to men. They, ah… they may look like a man, but they have no free will. No more than your bow or my tools.”

“Por-Xel… what?” Shamino looked puzzled. “What exactly did you just say?”

“Ah… as far as I can tell, it means ‘golem’ in the language of the gargoyles. I’ve had a chance to study a lot of their language from, ah… bits and pieces that explorers have returned with. Very fascinating.”

“Well…” Shamino looked around the small workshop, “I suspect no one has more knowledge of their work than you, friend. You are currently Britannia’s golem expert and because of that, I’d like you to come with me. Your knowledge could come in handy. You may even help us learn something about these Gargoyles.” He stood up and walked over to Krett to watch as the man deftly used his tools on the large golem sitting on the floor in front of him. “Nystul sent a party into Ilshenar to find out more about where these are coming from. They haven’t returned yet, and he’s asked me to go in and look for them.”

“Why do you need me to come along? I, uh… I can surely examine anything you, um… bring back to me here.”

“Yes, but out there you may see something the rest of us would miss. I have two guards with me from Britain, you’ll be safe,” Shamino promised.

Krett looked up from his work briefly, as if focusing on the conversation for the first time. “I’m… not much of an adventurer, Shamino. I’m much more comfortable here with my work. I am a tinker. I… well uh, I tinker.”

Shamino walked slowly around the man and his project. “You know… from what I’ve heard, the golems have been changing slightly since they first appeared.”

“That is true!” Krett’s voice echoed from inside the chest cavity of the golem he was working on. “Whoever makes them has changed the design more than once. The internal parts look different in the, ah… newer ones. It wouldn’t surprise me if they changed it again.”

“And do you want someone else to be the first person to see the new ones? Come now, Krett, this is a chance to see one of your metal men actually working. Maybe even get a chance to see the Gargoyle city itself.” He leaned in closer with a smirk. “Think of all there is to learn.”

Krett sighed and pulled his head out from his work, being careful to push the golem’s head aside this time. He stared at the floor in deep thought for a long moment.

“I’ll, ah… I’ll get my pack.”

* * *

Krett dismounted his horse, glad that he did not often have to ride one of the beasts. He felt as if one of his golems had come to life and shaken him for about an hour. He looked through his pack to make sure all of his tools and books were in order. Shamino and the two imposing guards also dismounted and began searching the area.

“Welcome to Ilshenar. Are you well, Krett?” Shamino asked, a slight expression of amusement on his face.

Krett looked up at his friend as he stood. “I just spent an hour, ah… having my brain bounced around the inside of my skull. If you wanted me to, uh… learn anything I think the hopes of that are over.”

Shamino grinned at his friend. “You’ll be fine; you’re just not used to horse…” He paused and looked around as if focusing deeply. “There’s a golem nearby… that way.” He looked to the guards who nodded and started running in the direction the ranger had pointed.

Krett looked puzzled. “You… you heard a golem?”

“You didn’t?” Shamino winked.

The two started in the direction the guards had run. After a few minutes of walking, they finally found the two guards lounging over the remains of a golem as if it was nothing but a stump in the wilderness. They hadn’t even broken a sweat destroying the creature. The mouth of a cave stood behind them. Shamino smirked as he watched Krett approach the golem excitedly and pull his tinker tools from his pack, along with a thick book he had been making notes in.

“Thomas, stay here with Krett while he investigates his new toy.” Krett grinned up at Shamino as he lifted a metal plate off of the chest of the golem. “William, come with me. We’ll scout ahead in the cave a bit. According to my map, this leads to the Gargoyle lands.”

Shamino and the guard walked into the opening of the cave until darkness enveloped them. Krett continued to remove parts from the inside of the golem as Thomas stood by and watched curiously. Occasionally, the steely guard would prod at a piece of the golem with his halberd.

“What is this!” Krett exclaimed as he pulled a component out of the cavity of the mechanical being. “This component is, ah… yes, ah, different than it was in older golems! Fewer parts…” He could see a slight glow coming from inside the metal box. He continued to work furiously with his tool kit. “I think we have something… here.”

“We do?” inquired Thomas in a deep voice Krett never wanted to hear in a dark alley at night.

“Er, um… yes. You see, in the older golems that I’ve, uh… had a chance to tinker with, they had an extra component in this bit. As far as I could tell, it was some sort of switch that went off when the golem shut down. It always had, uh… small pieces of some sort of crystal inside. This one, however…” he opened another panel, “That’s it. The crystal in this one is still intact! The older golems had a device that would destroy the crystal when they stopped moving!”

The guard wrinkled his brow.

“Do you know what I can do with this crystal?!” Krett was practically hopping up and down with excitement.

“KRETT!” Shamino’s voice echoed from the mouth of the cave. “Come here quickly!”

Krett looked to the guard and the two of them ran into the cave. As he lit a torch, Krett could already see blood and bodies around the newly carved cavern. He did his best not to become ill. He was no warrior and had never seen a dead man before.

“I’m sorry, friend. I know this is not a pleasant sight, but there may be clues.” Shamino led Krett deeper into the cave. “This is what is left of the party Nystul sent a few days ago. I’m not sure what killed them, but whatever it was did a thorough job.” Krett tried to focus on the walls of the cave and not on the corpses. “I know this doesn’t sit well with you, Krett, but the guards will protect you. We need your knowledge.”

Krett walked around slowly with his torch. He jumped slightly at the feeling of a human hand underneath his boot and swallowed, trying to contain his nervousness. He held his torch lower to reveal the rest of a corpse. The man had died here, but not before writing on the cave wall with his own blood. “Shamino, ah… uh… I think I may have found something! One of them tried… he, uh… tried to leave us a… um… a message. It’s only one word, but um… I… I don’t know what it says.”

“Something in the Gargoyle tongue?” the ranger’s voice echoed back.

“I’m checking, um… I’m checking that now.” Krett paged through the thick stack of notes he had made of the Gargoyle language. He knew his knowledge of the language was limited, but he was still disappointed that he could not find out what the word on the wall meant. He wasn’t even sure that the word was in fact Gargish.

“I’m sorry, Shamino. I, um… can’t tell what this word, ah… what this word means. It could be a name, a place, a city… I’m not sure. It’s not, ah… in my texts, but I think we should learn what it means. This man died trying to give you this message.”

“What is the word, Krett?” Shamino asked, walking closer in the torchlight.

Krett looked at his friend and then back at the wall. “It says… ‘Exodus’.”

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Hear Ye!
Hear Ye!

The town of Wilmeth throws it's doors wide open and welcomes everyone to join us in a grand celebration of the season.

The All Hallow's Eve Festival is a party for the entire realm of Atlantic and all who come in peace are welcome to join in this celebration of our shared community. The festivities will take place in and around the town of Wilmeth, which is located just outside the entrance of Despise in the Chaos valley, lands of Trammel. Come one, come all and share with us in the many events and tests of luck we have planned this year. Meet old friends, make new ones or simply drink yourself silly on the best ale in the land. This celebration promises something for everyone, so don't miss out!

Here is a program of this year's festivities.

6:00 pm - Kick off party
We'll be gathering at the Wilmeth Tavern for refreshments and socializing to kick off the evening festivities. There will be bobbing for apples to test your luck and skill at this favorite pastime. Grab an apple....grab a prize! Shortly after there will be a pumpkin race through the forest. Think you have the coordination and skill to run while lugging a pumpkin? Come test yourself and walk away with a prize if you're the winner! Then to bring a nice bloody ending to the kick off party will be the Black Cat Fights. Place your bets on the cat you think has the best form and cheer them on as they bite and claw their way to victory in true Hallow's Eve fashion. No ordinary cats here, these cats are mean and fiesty, raised for fighting and winning!

7:30 pm - Grand Lottery!
Do you feel lucky?
Well.... Do Ya?

One and all, bring a rune marked with your name and a number between 4 and 144. Please have this rune at the kick off party. Everyone will get one free number. If you wish to have more than one number, a fee of 5k per extra will be needed. You can have as many numbers as you wish. The beginning purse will be 100,000 gold pieces. Ant fees will be added. At 7:30 the drawing will take place.

8:00 pm - Announcement of the house decoration contest winners.

8:15 pm - Trick-or-treating
Everyone will spread across the valley which will be well lit and patrolled by our guards. Each Wilmeth house will be handing out treats, so empty that backpack before you start!

9:00 pm - Costume Ball at the Wilmeth Theatre
Come see if you can guess who is who in a star studded night of masquerade sponsored by the Regency. Join in the special costume contest and strut your stuff for a chance at 75k in prizes. Three top awards will be given for the scariest costume, the funniest costume and the most creative costume.


In and around these main events we shall have drinking contests, joke telling contests, songs, story telling and an open ended opportunity to renew old friendships, make new ones and share in the celebration of the community we all belong to.

So why not come along and join us?

To find the lovely town of Wilmeth, simply start at the entrance of Despise and head South through the mountain pass. Once you reach the clearing, follow the northern mountain line to the second villa, which is the Wilmeth Tavern.

That's Friday, October 26th starting at 6:00 pm EST.

All Welcome!!

See you there!!

Wilmeth Council and Citizens

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The AOL Legends, Siege Perilous, and Great Lakes shards will undergo a late maintenance tomorrow, October 25th, in order to activate the latest week of the current Scenario. The delayed maintenance will occur at 8am CDT, and we expect the downtime will be no longer than one hour. The remaining shards that are due to receive the publish on Thursday will undergo normal maintenance.

In reply to:
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At one time OSI stated on improperly placed homes that was grandfathered in, that we would lose some functionability, then, if I have lost some, I don't know what, as I own no properly placed homes on my primary account, and if that is the case, please let me know what functionability is indeed lost.
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Although this possible "loss of functionality" was indeed discussed early on in the implementation of this system-notation, no loss of functionality has actually gone into play.

You don't have to refresh your pets if you claim them within a 24x7 (168 hours) of playtime. This means if you play 2 hours per day, you will have to claim your pet at least once before you have played 84 days. :)

It's pretty worthless to even have pet refreshing, with such a long timer. We're looking at removing the refresh requirement.

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“One House per account, per shard, remember? The Gandfather rule won't protect their houses if they are offered (and accept)ownership of their co-owned houses.”

This rule would remain true with the proposed system; Anyone who decides currently, and with the proposed system, to collect a new house (such as being offered the house due to being a co-owner in the proposed system) will only be able to own that one new house, and all other houses on that house will become Condemned.

However, it may be import to note that, in the proposed system, co-owners of "ownerless houses" would not be obligated to pick up that ownerless house. In the case of grandfathered accounts that own multiple houses, if they do not accept "prime ownership" of any "ownerless house," then the houses they already own would remain refreshable, and not become Condemned.

“Grandpa Vet owns 4 houses with one character on Atlantic. Also, each of his other 4 characters on Atlantic is a co-owner of a house from each of 4 non-existent accounts. If so much as one of his co-owning characters accepts ownership of so much as one of those houses, all the owned houses are now subject to the current rules. “

Yes, under the proposed system, this would be a correct statement. (Except that one character can currently own only one house, even considering grandfathered rules.) .

”As far as I know a house owner CANNOT be a co-owner of another house. “

Correct, you cannot add a character who is an owner of a house to another house's co-owner list. .

“I don't know if you can transfer a house if you are a coowner of a house from a dead account but .... “

Only the "prime owner" of a house can transfer that house; the co-owners of a house cannot transfer that house.

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

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The three fonts of UO:Ren will be available, sadly no others will be for the time being. The white outlines are going away. I think they were a good idea, but they were oft used when they shouldn't have been. All in game text will have a black outline. Also - this change will most likely not result in any modifications to books; books are finicky things and changing the font in 'em could take more time than we can spare at the moment.

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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 (11 pm central, midnight eastern). Players wishing to register must do so by 8:50. No late entries will be accepted.

This Week's Pit Fight Saturday, October 27th will be 2v2 single elimination.

Prizes

• 1st place - 250,000 gold pieces
• 2nd place - 100,000 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 their 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 interference will result in the spectator being banned and the fight starting over.
• No one is permitted inside the fighting arena except the fighters for that match and the ref.
• Fighters may not hide or cast invisible during their 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 Icq Jade @ 51610361
Complete fight details can be found HERE

Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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It had been some time since the so-named “Evil Anna”--not to be confused
with the good Anna--had snatched the “Raising the Dead” book from the Mayor
of Yew, Thorin. She had tried for many nights to explain the powers hidden
within it, but the words were in a rather strange writing, which was not
only confusing but also poorly written! This was undoubtedly suggestion to
the fact that in the days of yore, most necromancers who wrote the words on
these ancient books almost always took various strange potions to ease their
spasmodic fits of insanity. Evil Anna indeed noted (with a glint of sadist
glee) that the practicing of the dark arts in the early days was a perilous
venture, and doing so would not only physically deform you, but it would
mentally deform as well.

“Oh, never mind!” exclaimed Evil Anna. “I just had the book turned upside
down, was all!”

Once turned on its correct side, she began thumbing through the book’s
pages.

“Well, I’m sure I can resurrect plenty of undead goodies with this,” Evil
Anna said, envisioning an undead army marching just for her.

She eventually decided, after much deliberation, she would start off with a
small spell. She would resurrect a simple, dumb creature of ill repute that
the afterlife would not miss.

Evil Anna laid the spell book down for a bit and motioned to blow out her
candle, for she could best conduct her seance in the dead of night. With
the lights out and an anxious glower in her devilish eyes, she picked the
“Raising the Dead” book back up and began her spell.

Her voice lowered, and a shadow passed over the sun, blocking it out. Her
entire body contorted, and her hands waved about as she chanted.

Within mere seconds, the spell was done. Evil Anna closed the enchanted
book shut and roughly stuffed it into her satchel. Suddenly, heavy
footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Evil Anna almost jumped!

“Ha ha!” she laughed in a bated whisper, as if the walls were eavesdropping
on her. She began to dance about the room in a celebratory waltz. In the
midst of her happiness, she could naught but shout aloud in sheer joy of her
achievement and total victory.

“The book works!” she shouted. “The spell works! It’s alive! It lives!”

A knock came at the door, but what she heard follow it made the hairs rise
on her neck.

“This is the landlord, and you haven’t paid a damn gold piece since last
month, you wench! Guards!”

With a bound Evil Anna smashed down the door to her room and shoved past the
landlord. With a shriek she fled down the stairs and out of the Sweet
Dreams Inn. Jumping on her horse bareback, she rode off down the trodden
road, her baggy nightgown flying up in the wind. The landlord cursed a blue
streak that would make a llama leap further than a bullfrog.

Finally, his blood pressure going down, the landlord began to confiscate the
belongings the wench had left behind. With one convulsive motion, he
angrily ripped the quilted blanket off the room’s bed.

“Who are you!” spat the landlord, his mouth aghast from shock. In the bed,
curled up in a fetal position, laid a naked man! He was plainly awake, and
he sat up after some time of rubbing his eyes and yawning.

The only sound the odd fellow made as he sat up in bed was the jingle of his
jester hat...

“Wait a minute!” spluttered the landlord, his face turning red as he pointed
a shaky, accusing finger at the occupant of the bed. “I know you! I know
you! You’re the one who gave the orcs my farm!”

“Well,” replied William Smit IV, jester bells pugnaciously jingling, “it
seems I am back!”

The landlord heeded not those words, nor did he reply to them. Instead, he
went downstairs to get his pitchfork and call the guards.

Well UO Trivia tonight went well. Had 11 winners out of 63 players for a total of 55,000 gold paid out in prizes. I will be doing this every Tuesday now, so watch for me.

Thank you all for playing and hope to see you next time. You could be a winner of 5k for just knowing your UO history.

I am also accepting donations to help support these events and Quests that the UO Seers are bringing to the all the Shards of UO. This is my assigned shard, so any donations that come from Chesapeake will be used for rewards for Quests and prizes for events.

Again,
Thank you from the UO Seers!

Email me at [email protected] if you wish to donate anything.

And read about us at UO Seers for any further questions you might have.

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The Chesapeake Chapter of the Society of Archers is holding its first public archers' hunt. We will meet Friday, the 26th, at Empath Abbey in Trammel. It will take place at 11:50pm EST and will probably last an hour. A few of you have expressed a desire for earlier hunts and at different times. Well, if you decide to join the S|A Chesapeake, you will be able to go on two hunts a week or more. You do not have to leave your current guild to join. After the hunt I will entertain any questions regarding membership and will take you to our Trammel base house. If anyone would like to join but does not belong to a guild, we can put you on the S|A stone if you wish.
See you Friday!

Fairfax
Head of S|A Chesapeake
Ranger of ATD
icq=79505659

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Hello, I'm Thodin, and I moderate the UO Ideas Den here at UO-Stratics. In order to help OSI's development team more, I'm starting a 'topic of the week' scheme for the ideas den.
Posting of ideas unrelated to this topic are still encouraged, but at the end of the week, all ideas relating to the topic will be collected together, and e-mailed to the relivant member of the dev' team.

On Monday, Krum said he is looking for "ways to make monsters smarter (eg harder to kill without buffing)", so what better topic to start with?
So, if you've got any ideas to do with the improvement of monster AI in UO, pop over to the Ideas Den and post them! You can also vote on other people's ideas, and feel free to join the discussion going on about this subject.

And don't forget - more general ideas of improvement to UO are welcome too!
Got ideas about Massively Multiplayer games in general? Try the Stratics Central Game System Design And Development forum!

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Ianstorm Chat With UO Events Team Thursday 8PM EST

Ianstorm will be holding a moderated Q&A chat event, on Thursday 25th October 2001 at 8PM EST (1AM GMT), with the Ultima Online Scenario Team.

To enter into this chat you can go to http://irc.ianstorm.com and join #stormevent or use an IRC client (such as MIRC or pirch) and connect to irc.ianstorm.com port 6667. And /join #stormevent.

This will be a moderated chat event. Open discussion can be found in the #stormcenter channel. The topic of discussion will be on the ongoing scenarios in Ultima Online.

Ianstorm staff will be on hand to take questions for our guests.

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We've changed the squire system to work like this now:

Squire System: Veteran players will be able to invite [young] players to
become their squires.

• Each time a [young] player logs into Ultima Online, they will be given a gump that asks them if they wish to be available to be a squire.
  • This gump will explain what being a squire entails
  • The player can select "Yes," to be available, or "No," to not be available.
  • The [young] character's name will hue as light blue if he is notavailable.
• A veteran player can ask a [young] player to be his/her squire by:
  • Opening up the Virtue gump
  • Double-clicking the Humility symbol (the shepherd's crook)
  • Targeting the [young] player
• If the [young] character is not available to be a squire:
  • The veteran player receives a message telling him that the young player is not available.
  • The young player does not get any message or additional gumps.
• If the [young] character is available to be a squire:
  • The [young] player receives a gump telling them that a veteran has asked
    them to be a squire. This gump has three buttons:
    • "Yes" - creates the partnership between the two characters.
      • Message is sent to the veteran confirming the acceptance.
      • The [young] character's name will hue as light blue, letting other players
        know he is no longer available since the [young] character already has a sponsor
    • "No" - declines the invitation.
      • The veteran character is sent a message letting him know the invitation was declined.
      • The veteran character cannot ask that new player again for 30 minutes.
      • If the veteran character tries to ask the young player again before the 30 mintutes are up, the veteran will receive a message that the young player is not available. The young player does not get a gump or message.
    • "No - make me unavailable to be a squire" - makes the young character unavailable as above.
• Once the [young] player has accepted, the veteran character becomes the [young] player's sponsor.
  
• If another veteran tries to invite that young to be a squire the veteran will be told that the young player is not available and the young player will not receive any gumps or messages.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

The GM team was impacted by this. While our numbers are reduced, our committment to service remains strong. Our satisfaction numbers have steadily increased, and our wait times have lowered. We still have a great team in place, and every member of the team is working hard to give great customer service.

The impact on our customers should not be very noticeable, if at all. We've reallocated people to where they can have the strongest impact, and we're working on better ways to provide support.

Canyon

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Hail, this is Dracos Moira of the Pacific shard & creator of the Magic Weapon & Armor Price Guides!

Just dropping a scroll to let everyone know that the guides have been updated. I think most people will find the guides more balanced as I have eliminated the hugh price fluctuation from low-end durability & accuracy to the high-end durability & accuracy.

These new guides can be found at:

www.dracos-moira.com

or

http://www.fortunecity.com/millennium/choose/915/

Cheers and best wishes to all the aspiring Magic Weapon & Armor dealers!

- Dracos

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The latest Scenario update that was made active on the Pacific shard yesterday, October 23rd, became active on the remaining North American shards today after their scheduled morning maintenance periods. However, database issues prevented the update from being published on the AOL Legends, Siege Perilous, and Great Lakes shards. We expect the publish to be active on all remaining shards tomorrow, October 25th, local server time.

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Impy's Events:
Wednesday, October 24, AUCTION
Thursday, October 25, AUCTION
Both auctions will be held at 9pm by the Eastern Sky.
All week we will be running a new edition of "you might be a ?". Stop by the website for the full rules and instructions! (www.impys.net)

This week's auctions are shaping right up! With the rare's chest nearly over flowing. We have added:

a Black Bottle (looks like old hair dye)
a Valorite Robe
Piles of Holiday and OSI granted items
a Green Tent Deed
a Ceramic Mug
several Clothing Bless deeds
and a Basin
As always, we have a pile of Vanquish weapons and Virtue weapons and all kinds of armor!
Stop by our web site for a full listing of all the items up for auction this week. (www.impys.net)

Auctions this week will be held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 9pm EST out at the Artic Faire. If you don't have a rune, please stop by one of rune vendors:
StarLite (Vesper, Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (Felucca), the Sandlewood Box Inn (Dead Heaven, Felucca), Kazola’s TreeTop Keg and Winery (Felucca), Cove Merchant’s Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (Cove, Felucca), the Mystic Portal (Trammel), the Garden City Mall (Cove, Trammel), or at Krista’s Ranger Station (Felucca).

~Impy's Staff

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>>Dev team, I hope you'll let us know that you are here, well and working hard for us. We're getting to know many of you are individuals, and care about you. <<

Tajima responded:

The Dev Team wasn't affected by this.

-Tajima

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Do you like to drink?
Do you like to either make up tales or listen to them?
Do you a have a tale from the past before the worlds separated? Or per chance you are a bard and have tales to tell.

All are welcome but PLEASE STABLE YOUR PET BEFORE COMING.

The Dragon Tavern will be having its weekly story telling night on Wednesday, October 24th at 7PM PST.

The prizes are 20K for first place and10K for second.

Gates will be sent to Vesper Bank (Tram) prior to the event or icq in advance and rune will be provided. Dragon Tavern is located on ice Island at:87o53’N 164o41’W

Wolf of Evermore
ICQ: 39012719 for more information.

Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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Hail good people! The town of Heaven's Forge is happy to announce its second annual All Hallow's Eve Bash! Join us for a devilishly fun evening of drinking, dancing, tricks and treats!

When: Friday, October 26th, 6-9pm Baja time.

Where: Celestial Spirits Tavern, Heaven's Forge.
Heaven's Forge is located in the valley south
of Wrong dungeon.

What are we gonna do, anyway?

Costume Contest! Wear your best fiendish, flirty or funny outfit. Everyone wins, and special prizes for first, second and third.

Pumpkin Hunt! Who can spot the most pumpkins?

Announcement of the winner of our second All Hallow's Home contest! Contact ICQ Mirabel at 11015595 or Darius at 988442 for information on how to enter your spooky house decorations, or visit the Heaven's Forge website at http://heavensforge.tripod.com for more details. All entries must be received by Wednesday, October 24th to be considered.

First place carries a prize of 50,000 gold!

Plus drinking, dining, dancing and delights all night long! Let the staff of Celestial Spirits cater to your most frightful fancies.

Happy haunting, and we hope your spirit drifts our way on the 26th.

Mirabel, HF Events

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My name is Lugh, many of you know me from my guild the Legion of Chaos, one of the oldest warstones on Lake Superior, and many of you do not know me. Why do we need ANOTHER LS reporter? The answer is simple: my job is to cover all things PvP. I will cover tournament announcements and results, major team battles, a few "in the field" events such as sieges, and I will do a every-other-week spotlight on a particular PvPer. So if you want to be famous, pick up a sword or a spellbook and get out there and mix it up. Who knows, you may even get spotlighted on Stratics!

Now a little about myself! I am currently a student at Boston College, studying writing, literature, and poetry. I have actively been playing Ultima Online on my own personal account for two years. I used to share an account with a friend, and that account is now 48 months old, so I've seen a lot in the world of UO. I used to *gasp* roleplay, but I have long since been an exlusive PvPer, nothing beats the thrill of going up against another living, breathing person. My goal here is to serve as the voice of the PvPers on Stratics, and I hope that through working here, I can help revive some of the interest that has been lost in Felucca and PvP since the UO:R patch.

I hope to see all of you one day on the field of battle, and until that day comes, fight, live, and die well!

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Arlan quickly hurried back to the city to inform his commander of the failure, however upon reaching the marble steps of the fortress he felt a cold air enshroud him and was unable to move, as he heard the faint chanting of "Ort Por Uus Rel" in the distance, suddenly Arlan felt his feet lift from the ground, as he saw his commander staring at him from the ground.

"You have compromised our mission! You have allowed the Britannians to get our technology! And now you must pay the price" The commander raised his arm, and Arlan was flung through the air toward the volcano that stood in the distance.

Arlan attempted to flail his arms and legs in a futile attempt to free himself from the spells grasp. Than Arlan abruptly stopped directly above the volcano.

"Arlan you know the price for failure, what have you to say for yourself?" The commander spoke, as he lifted his arms once more.

"Velis please no! I beg of you! we can still retrieve the assembly all is not lost. Please!" Arlan pleaded.

Suddenly Velis motioned his arm downward, careening Arlan into the fiery abyss below him.

Velis than turned his attention the the rest of the controllers that had gathered around. "You 10 come with me there is much work to be done, as for the rest of you get your golems and find that assembly, we shall be fine as long as the Bitannians do not learn how to utilize it.

Velis slowly walked back into the city, with the other following, he lead them to a small secluded room, where 5 half starved and beaten gargoyles lay on the floor. Velis motioned to the controller closest to him "You remove that ones chains" pointing to the gargoyle that lay at his feet.

"Sir! Have you gone mad!" The controller asked.

"This is a direct order from the master! Do it at once" Velis shouted.

"Understood" the controller said in a quiet tone, as he bent down and release the chains from the gargoyle.

"Now, take him to the processing chamber, and begin the experiments, will we need them now more than ever to defend the city, while we scour Britannia.

"Yes sir" the controller said as he motioned to two other to grab it by the ends, as they carried it out of the room. Velis turned to the others and instructed them to do the same, and they quickly complied.

"Soon this will all be over" Velis thought to himself, "Just a bit more, than the Britannians will see what havoc they have brought upon themselves".

My thanks for the submission.

I have finally returned from a long journey -- perhaps too long. I left for a short vacation, a camping trip, and managed to get myself trapped in a faery realm. Five years I spent there while Auren sought for a way to bring me back.

Then one day (for they are all days in the faery world - they have no nights like we do), I saw a shimmering portal appear in the very spot where I had first awakened in that realm. I quickly gathered up my courage and a touch of hope. Then I stepped boldly into the portal.

There was a flash of purplish light and an odd feeling of being lifted. Then the feeling settled, the light passed, and a most amazing sound reached my ears - I heard a human voice speaking my name. "Gwen!" It was not just one voice -- but many! As the portal faded and my eyes adjusted to the Britannian sunlight, I began to see faces and figures.

Some of them rushed towards me and hugged me. They all seemed to be talking at once. The travel through dimensions left me a bit dazed. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that I began to recognize some of the faces. Auren was there, and Breti and Wilavid from my guild. I also recognized Annunzio, Garrett Granth and Molly. There were a few faces I couldn't place. I later learned they were Tal and Sir Robert, both new members of KOS, and Gorkry BoneGnash.

An immense feeling of joy welled up inside me. It was wonderful to see so many of my old friends again!

I am so glad to be back home. I feel such gratitude to Auren and to those who aided him in the quest to bring me back. Many thanks to you all!

Now if only I knew were my dear Halas was...

-Gwendolyn
Knight, Knights of Sosaria

Invite them all....let's show these mainlanders what we really are. A night of blood and horror should send them scampering back to their beds."

That is what he had said, and when the Vile Bishop gave you a task, you didn't refuse; unless you wished to die painfully.

Tara stared at the parchment before her. Around her feet dozens of crumpled drafts lay piled like the drifts in the snow outside. "Invite them all? Is he mad? They all despise us and Caina..."

Her mind, ill-equipped for any serious thought due to years of fighting trolls with heavy clubs, could not devise a reason behing the Vile Bishop's plan, but she was sure that he had one. "Oh well," she sighed. "Perhaps we can get some new recruits out of this."

And with that, the Del'Roh began to write:

Greetings and dark biddings from the City of Caina and the Order of the Ebon Skull, seasons have passed and changed, the days have grown longer, the shadows and the full moon have begun to take on a new meaning. The denizens of our fair city have begun to revel with the calendar quickly approaching All Hollow's Eve. Because of this, we of the darker path have gathered to together for macabre rites, rituals, and most importantly sacrifices.

When: October 27th
Time: 7pm - 12pm EST
Where: Caina, silly!

Gates will be available from Skara Brae (Felucca side) at 7:00, 7:15, 7:30 (all times pm and est). Please leave all wars on the mainland. Show up orange, but don't expect to get into a pitched battle (Except in the dueling pits). It's Hallowe'en, the traditional night of welcoming the dead, so in return, the dead are going to welcome you!

We of the darker path are gathering on the evening Saturday October 27 for an entire evening of celebrations, frights, and fights.

At 7:00pm (EST) the Asylum of Perdition will open with our usually compliment of casino games, gambling, and alcohol imbibing. At 7:30pm (EST) within the Asylum we will hold the best ghost story contest (people would have up to 10-minute block of time to tell a ghost story. The story our harrowing panel of judges think the best will win one of three prizes.)

1st place a Skeleton Statuette
2nd place 50k
3rd place 25k

Before the time of 8:30 at the end of the story telling contest we shall be holding a terrifying costume contest opened up to the consumers of the Casino who have came dressed appropriately and our previous panel of horror-inspiring judges will then decide whose costume is the best.

Best costume contest
1st place a Lich Statuette
2nd place 50k
3rd place 25k

7:30 to 8:00
The Ritual of Entropic Purification granting Seyir the powers of Entropic Knight shall take place inside the Well of Souls...

8:30 to 10:30
Tournament of Hollow's Eve

**One-on-One Tournament**
-This will be in tournament form, meaning the winner of one fight will be facing the winner of another until there is one Champion.
-No magical items or weapons.
-No pre-poisoned weapons... Characters with the poisoning skill will be allowed to poison their weapon(s) after their match begins.
-No pets allowed (ie. horses or dragons).
-No looting or stealing.
-No hiding or casting of the invisibility spell.
-No summon spells.
-The winner for this event is 75000 gold crowns.

**Tamed Polar Bear Fights**
-Polar Bears only.
-No healing/casting on pets.
-No feeding once match begins.
-Trained polar bears are allowed
-All pets must have a unique name consisting of at least 3 letters.
-Polar bears may be tamed when brought to the event, or "pre-tamed" creatures may be purchased at the time of the fight for 1000 gold crowns.
-The winner of each fight shall receive 5000 gold crowns.

**Gladiator Tournament**
-Contestants may bring nothing with them, except for a way to return home (a runebook w/recall scrolls, for instance).
-No stealing.
-Sufficient supplies for battle will be scattered randomly along the floor.
-Looting is allowed as all the items will be supplied by the Order. -Last man standing wins.
-The winner of this contest shall receive 75000 gold crowns.

**Team Duels**
-No magical items or weapons.
-No pre-poisoned weapons... Character with poisoning skill will be allowed to poison their weapon(s) after the fight begins.
-No pets allowed (ie. horses or dragons).
-No looting or stealing.
-No hiding or casting of the invisibility spell.
-No summon spells.
-Any team (of no more than 3 contestants) may enter that wishes to fight.
-All teams will fight simultaneously, last team and/or member(s) thereof
that survives, wins.
-The winning team of this event shall receive 150000 gold crowns.

*ALL CONTESTANTS MAY BE SUBJECT TO SNOOPING*
*OOC : ANY LOSS OF CONNECTION WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE LOSS OF THE MATCH*

Then the grand event at 10:30pm the Order of the Ebonskull will hold a most ghastly unto the Avatar of Death and the heroes of the past on the roof of Golgotha. All with the stomach for such a vile ritual shall be invited to attend.

Gates will be provided from Skara Brae Felucca bank at the top of each hour to the steps of Golgotha for those wishing to join in this depraved night of madness.

Signed by,
The Ebon Council
Tribunal of Entropy

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Everything looks good on Pacific. If everything continues smoothly, we are going to proceed as follows:

1) Publish the U.S shards tomorrow morning, active after their Wednesday maintenance local server time.
2) Publish the non U.S. shards tomorrow night, active after their Thursday maintenance local server time.

The latest scenario updates were published to the Pacific shard, today, October 23rd. Barring any unforeseen issues, these changes should be published to the East Coast, West Coast, and Central shards on Wednesday, October 24th, to be active following their regular scheduled maintenance periods. These scenario updates should be live on all remaining shards following their Thursday morning maintenance periods (local server time.

my appologies if this has already been stated, but after one Vet helps a [Young], will he still be [young] ?
--Depends on whether the young player gains enough skill to lose young status.

and do all 5 character slots get young status, i thought it was just the first character you created ???
--Any characters on an account that has under 40 hours of play time should start out [young].

In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
At the risk of sounding rude, it is a well known fact that a player is not suppose to own more than one house per account.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a time in Ultima Online when any character could own any number of houses. Later, the rule became each character could only own one house (thus any given account could own 5 houses per shard). When the "one house per shard, per account" rule was instituted, those accounts that owned more than one house per shard were "grandfathered in," and allowed to keep the houses they owned. It is acceptable for these "grandfathered" accounts to still own more than one house per shard, but only those houses which they owned at the time of the grandfathering. If these grandfathered house-owners choose to collect even one new house, all houses other than their newest one will become Condemned.

In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But we still stand to lose the housing in the village. Sannio can you give any input as to what is the fate of housing owned like this?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, in the proposed system, houses will require a "prime" owner. If your town has houses that are only co-owned and the prime owner remains unavailable, the one of the co-owners will need to claim the house, or it will become Condemned. If any of those co-owners do claim the house, but they already any other houses, then all other houses owned by that account on that shard will become Condemned, and only the new house will not be Condemned. While there may be a certain amount of houses lost throughout Britannia on all shards, I think that some people may be able to plan ahead and coordinate their efforts, such as in player towns, and make their "losses" minimal.

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Dear Citizens,

I pen this to you today with a heavy heart. As you may know some time ago, I was stricken with a disease that afflicted many mages. Fortunately a cure was found very quickly and given to me. But still, so many more where not as lucky as I, and did not receive the cure in time. My bones still are weak, and my mind sometimes cloudy. I feel the wickedness of the land about me, and I feel it grows yet still. This virus of the mad mages is linked to the rise of the Empire of Armageddon. I feel it has been put upon my heart to call out to you folks to gather yeaselves fast.

I see that several of you are doing what you can to stand up for your lands. But the Empire cannot be stopped by a handful of groups working separately. This must be an effort by all, working together. We must work quickly; they are amassing more each day. And they lay claim to one city already!!

I ask ye to rally your brethren, speak with them, and join together to stop the Empire of Armageddon from successfully destroying all that we hold sacred.

Please send me word by flight of your pigeon to 136182854.
We must move swiftly!

Yours in honor,

Katlyn Dubois

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.... There are plans to put font support into the Third Dawn client. These plans were hatched shortly after I finished putting in the code to support them. Sometimes things just sorta get done between the drinking and the gambling, y'know? Sannio doesn't go on these binges with me, so he wasn't in the loop! Players will have the ability to select their in-game font, and many interfaces will be enhanced to use other fonts as well. I can't give a release date for this, but it should be pretty soon. This was just one of many things we intended to get done for Third Dawn, but time got the better of us. Development for both clients is currently emphasizing the improvement of the quality of the software. Some of these improvements are less glamorous than others, but they will all contribute to the enhancement of the client. Keep your eyes peeled for future updates on other goodies we have coming along!

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A few quotes from the article.

Electronic Arts to Cut 36% of Jobs at EA.com Amid Game Delays
By Greg Chang

Redwood City, California, Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Electronic Arts Inc., the largest U.S. video-game software maker, said it will cut up to 250 jobs, or 36 percent of workers, at its EA.com online games unit, to reduce expenses amid product delays.

The cuts will bring EA.com's staff to 450 workers and Electronic Arts' to 3,400, Chief Financial Officer Stan McKee said. The Redwood City, California-based company, which in May forecast EA.com to have a profit by the second quarter of fiscal 2003, now expects profit ``sometime'' in 2003, McKee said.

……

The delays in production have not tempered the company's enthusiasm for developing online games, McKee said.

``We solidly believe in the business,'' he said. ``The challenge is simply getting the products done.''

Thanks Damarr for the news lead.

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This Thursday, October the 25th at 9:00 P.M. EST, Pax Lair will be hosting their weekly hunt. Runes will be dropped at the Skara Brae bank in Felucca, and if you look for me, Roland, in Skara Brae, I will gladly give you a gate to Pax Lair. This week, I will be leading a group to Ilshenar to explore the new area. There will also be a second group that will decide on a destination at the time of departure.

Thank you in advance for coming. If you have any questions about Pax Lair or the hunt, e-mail me at [email protected].

Roland
Bard of Pax Lair

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Sonoma Alliance of Merchants. "Fortune rules our lives...not wisdom." SAM is a merchant guild dedicated to promoting fair and honest trade among the players of the Sonoma Shard. Not just a "craftsman" guild, SAM supports trade in all forms within the game (Tamers, Real Estate Agents, Treasure Hunters). SAM members also support the SAM Vendor Mall so come on by and see what SAM has to offer.

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:The virtue systems listed in In Development have been changed in the following way:

Master System:
- Third Path title changed to "Knight" instead of Guardian.

Sacrifice:
- Removed karma requirements.

Humility:
- Changed gains (HPs, Stamina, Mana) to +5 at path one, +10 at path two, +20 at path three.
- Once a veteran character helps a [young] character, they will not be able to invite another character from that same [young] account to become their squire for one week. For example:
- You invite a character to be your squire and s/he accepts.
- You can help that character as often as you want, but for one week you cannot invite another character from that account to become your new squire.
- You can invite [young] characters from different accounts to become your squires.
- After one week, you can invite a different [young] character from an account you have already helped.


Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm also working on a change to try to cut down on the spam young players might get bombarded with and make it easier for them to accept/reject offers.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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16. In-Game Auction

Hail citizen of Britania,

after a long time of sadness we are back again: the original in-game auction of the Dragon-Clan Drachenfels. It take a longer time as we planed, but now Lady Zarzal say welcome to this event again.

After this break several things have been changed. The auction has been moved from Felucca to Trammel, but the place is the same. I be lucky and own another tower on the other facet at the same place. A map of the location can be found on www.dragon-clan.de. Its easy to find. Just go to Yew moongate and then 2 screens to the right. There is the auction tower.

The auction will start on sunday 28.october at 18:00 GMT+1 (maybe Halloween ?) This will give you time to visit the yew market at 20:00.

Now some tips and hints. Please read them carefully and the auction will be a success.

Put your item in a bag/pouch togehter with a book. In this book please write down your name, your ICQ and your starbid. I lock down this in a wooden chest to display the item to all. Be sure that your downlocked item can't be used from other people. I dont take care about this ! I will be on the tower roof from 17:00 to recive your items.

I will take 1-3 items per player. I must see how much will come and bring some. I put all in my Auctions: rares, semirare, resources, pets, craftables etc. But what I don't will be: a dealer ! This auction is a fun event and not a maximize gold place. So if you hope I can sell your item for tons of gold its better you search an auction in the web.

I take no taxes, but if your startoffer raised over 10K ill take 1% from the endbid vor my own. Please note that i take actions against 9999 gold start bid's :) Raising the bids above 10K is not possible in 1 gold steps, make an acceptable step, we like to finish sometime.

I remove any player from the house who disturb the auction. Please stop talking to your neighbour or macroing something while an item is in progress. I use comcrystalls and get a fast log output. If you spam text I cant see the bid's, thanks to you.

If you have any question please mail me to [email protected] or contact me on ICQ 9611261

See you next sunday
Zarzal Dragon
Drachenfels

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Due to a departmental meeting, in-game support will be unavailable from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm CST, October 23rd. This will include all domestic shards as well as Drachenfels and Europa. For general game play questions players can search our game wizard located at support.uo.com.

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We here in Cove Felluca side wish to hold a contest. We wish to start a player run city but in order to begin we need a name to call ourselfs, thats where we need you! Simply come up with a creative, cool sounding name and email it to [email protected]. The winner will win gold! We request that all entries be submitted by October 31st, 2001. Thank you!

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The night of Wednesday, Oct 24th, starting at 8pm Central several of the houses in tel'Ruid will be open for trick or treaters. If you come to the Silver Arrow we will have books available with the addresses of each of the houses involved.

Everyone's invited to stop by, enjoy the decorations, and chat with the owners. Treats will be provided...tricks are up to you.

TLC to hold two Tyelyen events in Tel’Ruid at the TLC Embassy near Justice Shrine.
Friday, Oct. 26th, 8pm central ­ Rune Swap. Bring a copy of your favorite places to share. Runebooks will be provided to all participants including a rune to Tel’Ruid. Prize will be awarded for the most interesting spot! TLC will provide gates and marking for those who would like to add to their rune collections.

Saturday, Oct 27th, 8pm central ­ Tombola. Pick your number from 1 to 100. Cost: 400 gp per pick, 3 picks for 1000 gp. There is a 1 in 5 chance of winning, with consolation prizes for the unlucky ones. Some very nice prizes: Statue, Large candlestick, GM Verite Armor set, a Treasure map, GM Leather Sets, Arcane clothing, and numerous high magic weapons, and a 5k check. So come try your luck at this interesting raffle.

TLC Page: http://www.mindspring.com/~lch12/TLC/

The Faeries of FAE and the elves of The Grey Company will also be hosting a ghost story, and costume contest, Sunday, Oct. 28th, 8pm central at the Faerie Tower in Tel’Ruid.

Tel’Ruid map: http://www.grey-company.org/TelRuid/tour/index.html

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Greetings to all Britannians,

This past week's Auction was a great success, and this week's Auction should be even better.

As I have stated before, our Auction Tower is a Neutral Zone for all Players, but if you cross the line then you will either be Removed or Banned from the Tower. If you are removed The Guard will explain why you were removed and then let you back in. If you are Banned the Guard will explain why and to inform you that you cannot return to the Auction. If you are Banned then all of your Chars on that Acct. is banned. The Auction Guards and the Auction Staff can remove and ban. There will be no lifting of a player that has been banned by anyone.

Submission of items are needed for the continuation of our Auction. We need high end weapons, ie; Power, Vanq, Silver. Oddity's, specialty items, M.I.B.'s, Treasure Maps,Rares, semi Rares, etc. If you bring the item on Monday night with a bag and a book, we will do our best to get it sold for you. Our Auction does not charge a percentage to the submitter. Our Auction Tower is located at 34o43N/44o51E, or a brisk 5 minute walk from east Brit following the road. We are south of the desert and the swamp.

We take submissions on Monday night at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. As I stated before bring a bag with a book, in the book type in your name and your icq, what the item is and your min bid for that item. Hand the bag over to any one auction staff member that is inside the stage area on the Roof of the tower. Our Auction starts promptly at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. Come early to get a good seat.

As I have stated before in a previous Posting The Guard has a Snooper, his job is Only to Snoop not to steal. This is done for your safety while you are at our Auction. When you come to our Auction it would be wise not to bring in your pack "trapped Packs" as the Snooper has to go thru all of them.

So come on by our Auction and enjoy a nice evening, with many good items up for Auction and buy that one item you have been looking for.

Rattler GLV

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A friend once said, "Ami, you sure spend a lot of time at the (moon)Gates!" Many citizens of Great Lakes appear to do the same--some for conversation, some for battle, some for nothing more than travel, but some go...to "inspect" wallets.

The Poppies (*P*) Guild of GL has gotten to be a household name at many places you expect to find thieves, and at some you hope not to! I met recently with the Guildmasters of *P*, Hello and Goodbye. A very pleasant chat at my home with these two prominent GL thieves followed, and thus continues my explorations of the "Dark Side of UO".

To read the complete interview, click here

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In order to defend themselves, Twinkle Town citizens decided to ally to a local tribe of savages and to train them. Now that the Furies have proven their valor, the Town Leader decided to try and ally other tribes. They found a secluded tribe on a nearby island and asked for their help. But the tribe feared to be betrayed and asked a sign of loyalty. And this is how the story begins ...

In the Taverns across the lands some adventurers heard about Twinkle Town hiring strong men to search an old relic. Many came to hear the
Town Representative.

"There will be a great reward for those who can bring us any informations about the Hammer of Gulgat! He is a hero of the ancient times and his hammer was lost long ago, now this is your task to find where the hammer lies!"

After the man was done, the adventurers headed to the Universities of the land to learn more about the forgotten hero. They visited the Ravenmoor University and found there that a book existed in the library, and was destroyed during a flood. But they learned that a scholar from the Spiritwood University had a copy of the book.

After a long walk they finally reached the town of Spiritwood. At the University they found the name of the scholar, Tarrich, but he disappeared some months ago while searching the grave of an old lord
of Sosoria. They found his journal and notes, following the scholars notes he was heading to the yew crypts, so the adventurers followed his steps in the unknown.

After searching all the hallways and the rooms of the crypts, they found an old blind man. He begged them for help, to take him back to his town. They had found Tarrich the old scholar. To reward them of taking him back to Spiritwood, he gave them the book of Gulgats
Tale.

From the book they read the Story of the old hero and learned he found his doom in a mountain near Trinsic. Gulgat went to the nest of a terrible Red Dragon to defeat him and free his people from the terror of the evil beast. The tales led the adventurers to the Volcano, south-west of Trinsic where they found in a hidden valley, a very old book and a map. Deadly wounded, Gulgat met a stranger who took him to a far away temple. Behind him Gulgat left the book and the map in case someone try to find him, but the Hammer was hidden in the Temple.

With all these informations the adventurers went back to Twinkle Town where they were greeted by Teclis the Leader of the Furies.
Walach of the Knight Templars was the one who brought the information back.

Soon after the information was received, Twinkle Town prepared an expedition. As soon as the Furies were ready they headed to the Temple and found the Hammer. But they were followed by another party which ambushed them. A terrible fight began but the Furies were victorious!

Now Gulgat's Hammer is back to its homeland and Twinkle Town has new warriors joining the Furies. But there is still a lot to do before peace will be back to the lands.

One battle is won, but not the War!

Involved Communities :
Ravenmoor
Twinkle Town
Aldameir
Scurvy Dogs
Spiritwood University

Please note that for the coming days Ravenmoor Skypage is unreachable. Keep Reading the Boards for new adventures!

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Glaring daggers lay in pools of red upon the cold, stone floor. One young mage lay cold in a puddle of blood, his dagger knocked away. Two stricken comrades of the fallen remained, grim sentinels o'er the decaying remains. One seemed to look upon the corpse in speechless terror, though the other had taking to wailing hysterics.

I spoke gently to them and calmed them as best I could.

The two survivors told me that they did not commit the crime but they also claimed no knowledge of the murder. I could neither assume these men to murderers nor could I completely believe their story; the shop was small and both men admitted to being there all day. My intuition whispered to me both of the strangers had witnessed this horrible crime, and their troubled eyes mirrored my perception.

My presense seemed only to disturb them further; I bade them farewell, but not before I hugged them both and the youngest one whipsered into my ear, "a green mask." I shuddered, sprinkled the dusts of time and places, and vanished.

What would keep them so strapped with fear as to not even leave the shop? What would make them stand by and watch a friend perish? What terror wears "a green mask?"

~ Tristin

edited by Amidala

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It is time for this old uruk to break his staff, lay down his pen, and go gently into that dark night. Yes, dear hummies, I am retiring. I would like to thank all of the players, reporters, and Stratics leaders who have made me feel so welcome, even during the orc invasions earlier this year. I feel I owe a special debt of thanks to Cyn, who worked so diligently until recently, and to my new news team who have labored on despite my fading presence.

I would especially like to thank all of you who have been reading the Legends news page for the last couple of years. Your patience with my odd quirks and irregular update schedule has been admirable. I wish you all the best of luck in and out of game!

Fare thee well, and if you see an old uruk running through the trees with a Ophidian Warrior in mad pursuit, heal the uruk, would you? He'll be needing the help.

Praise Legends!

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Right now we are targetting to publish the Pacific shard tomorrow morning. Right now, we are working on a test center that has the scenario code on it and if all goes well, the scenario update will be on Pacific after it's Tuesday maintenance.

If anything happens that causes us to delay or change this plan, I will post tomorrow morning.

(edited by CitizenKane2)Powerhour would go away when GGS comes into the game. GGS work alongside normal skill gaining. In this player players who sought faster gains by working hard at skill gains would benefit from using that skill, while those who couldn't devote as much time, or were unlucky enough to have some long skill-test-failing streaks would gain a guaranteed minimum .1 skill gain over certain periods of time.

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World of Warcraft Stratics is the place to go to learn the latest about this game! We will have it all, from listing of all game features, fan submitted fiction & art, the latest on the beta, and of course daily news updates! So make Stratics your place to go for the latest on the World of Warcraft!!

Sparrowhawk
Project Manager
World of Warcraft Stratics - http://wow.stratics.com/

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Ok, some thoughts based on the early feedback.

1) +10 is too high because of PvP
2) most do not like the idea of limiting it out of Felucca (I didn't either, but I wanted to see what you all thought
3) making it based on guild status or aggressor is way too problematic and not something I want to mess with


So, with all that in mind, thoughts on this:

a) +5 per stat per path with an additonal bonus +5 at the third path. +5/+10/+20.
b) Works the same in both facets
c) getting to the third path would be VERY difficult
-) think of it as having to help 10+ young players get from their starting 150skills to 350skills - which is when they would lose young status)
-) Humility points decay so maintaining path 3 would be difficult as well
-) using dummy accounts limited through code

Note again, I am just throwing out ideas to get feedback. As of now, the system is as it is stated on the site.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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The second in the Fun with Newbies series is now up on
the site.

www.outofcharacter.com

-Arakasi

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I wanted to get some feedback regarding Humility and the stat bonuses all in one thread. I've heard a few people say that +10 per path is too much. I understand the concern and would like to open discussions about it. At the same time, I've seen people say it should be only +1 or +2 per level. I must say, I don't agree with that. While we certainly don't want the bonuses to be so high that they create a severe imbalance, we also don't want the rewards to be so insignificant that nobody cares. Here are some thoughts to help you when responded to this:

1) should we lower the stat bonuses to +5 or +7 per path (+5 is as low as I would go, anything less than that is meaningless overall.)
2) should we place restrictions on the bonuses with regards to PvP. Perhaps the bonuses don't apply in Felucca (but the virtue gump would still display your achievements) or some other restriction. Two things I don't want to do is make the bonuses not work based on your aggresor flag or not work based on guild/faction status.

I'd like to keep this thread to only about the above issue, not anything else for now.

Thanks all!

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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I'm looking into ways to make monsters smarter (eg harder to kill without buffing). If you have any thoughts on the subject please e-mail them to me at [email protected].

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Next week at 4 PM PST, the Final Fight Off will begin.The last man (or woman) standing will win the only prize of the evening--1 million GP. The following players are eligible to compete:
DD
GuPowers
Ke'aldren
KMSEMPERFI
Monk
Papa Poop
RAIDER
Davey Havoc
Mae West

Each of these players has taken first place in at least one Fight Night, and a few (notably KMSEMPERFI) have won more than one. Almost all of the finalists made it to the finals multiple times, so the PvP ought be fast and furious. Everyone is invited to come out and cheer on their favorite or place private bets on the outcome.

smitten with love says that the fighting pits will close down after the finals and will remain closed until after the holiday season. A new season of Fight Nights are expected to open in January. smitten would like to extend a sincere thank you to the many people who donated their time to work the pits and their hard earned gold to the prize kitty. It is the generosity of these people and guilds that have allowed the fights to remain free to participants. Several people have pledged their money and time for next season already, and smitten hopes to be able to maintain the no entry fee policy. smitten herself expended over two million of her own gold this season to sweeten the pot for winners.

smitten also is considering revamping the rules before the new season opens. If you have any suggestions on how the rule-set could be improved, would like to volunteer to be on the 2002 Pit House Staff, or if you or your guild would like to contribute funds to the prize kitty, you can contact smitten with love at ICQ #60003378. You can also send a PM to the user name "Tarapazu" through the Stratics message board system.

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So here goes his report.

We assembled outside of MoT 3, a shop just near Trinsic West Gate ... the vision was quite outstanding ! Tens of people, mighty warriors cleaning their war gears, powerful mages preparing their reagents, smart bards tuning their instruments, all gathered around a small fire, talking with loud voices of the great deals that they were supposed to accomplish in that lands. They did not show it, but I suppose it was fear that was driving them to show so much courage, because they all know the deadly peril - fear sure, but no cowardice nor vileness. They were going to fight against that fear.

When it was clear that no one else would have added to the numbers, the signal was given, and a blue gate appeared. Quickly, the small army entered, to reappear in a hot, sunny desert. It was quite a shock to me, to leave the green and fresh plains of Trinsic, just to arrive in that place of despair. Hot, a strong wind blew carrying the smell of those evil creatures and of their rotten food welcomed us. We assembled and, feeling now the desire to put an end to our pain, we charged inside the valley.

But the forces we were going to meet were actually much bigger than what we thought. Showing great wisdom, our leaders prepared, in a safe zone, a place for the hurt to be healed and for the dead to resurrected. And soon that place was full. Our forces were great, both in numbers and in skills. We slew tens, one after another another, but for every ophidian dead two more spawned to have revenge. Their bodies forming now a huge pile, we could not go much further. Slowly but firmly, we were pushed back, and just the courage of our men avoided a ruinous defeat. Soon the enemy spotted our supposedly safe place, and the hospital was invaded, with the joined forces of the wyverns and undeads living near.

So it came time for us to retreat. There was no panic, as our forces were strong enough to step back without significant losses. We surely understimate our enemy, both in numbers and in strength ... or maybe, something wicked and evil was acting against us, as in my entire life I never saw such a fast, continuous, huge arrival of reinforcements of so strong evil creatures. So, gathering all the loot we could, we open a gate back to our starting point, and one after another we entered it.

The loot was good, as hundreds of those beasts fell to our attacks, and no losses were counted on our men and women. But still, we could not take under control the place for more than few minutes. Rumors were spreading about some evil deity that backed the immense reinforcements coming continously to the ophidian army. Rumors, but I'm starting to believe some are probably true ...

A great adventure, indeed !

More pictures avaiable here

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Most of you know by now that the Online Worlds Fanfest was scheduled for next weekend, Oct 26-27, but has been postponed to Jan 10-11. Despite this, several players that were coming from outside Texas were not able to change their plans and will be vacationing in the Austin area this coming weekend. I, for one, plan to show them a big Texan Welcome!

Here is what I have scheduled tentatively for the weekend: Thursday Night: Informal gathering at either a. a bar, b. a coffee house or c. my house.

Friday: Austin/Texas tour
* State Capital, admission free
* Texas State History Museum, admission $5
* University of Texas Campus, admission free
* Lunch at Sholtz's Bier Garten
* Tour of OSI (I will attempt to get us a tour of OSI, but in the case they can't do it, we can drive by and point and wave.)
* Dinner at one of our superb Texas BBQ joints (to be determined, possibly Salt Lick, but it is a bit of a drive south).
* Night on 6th Street (I will need someone local to offer to guide this portion of the tour, I have to take my son to a birthday party.)

Saturday: Day trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville (about a 3 hour drive, but well worth it. We will probably leave around 10am, arriving at 1pm then staying till dark 7 or 8pm, and return before midnight. Admission is $20 for all day). As an alternate, we could go to San Antonio to the Riverwalk and the Alamo, if TRF is too far or not interesting to some...

Sunday: Recover, recuperate and get ready to head home (maybe a nice brunch somewhere -Mexican?-)

All of this is extremely tentative and we are very flexible. If you are coming in from out of town, or you are local and would like to join all or any portion of the weekend, please RSVP to me [email protected] so that I can make any necessary reservations. If there are any venues or restaurants you think we shouldn't miss, drop me a line.

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Greetings! You are all cordially invited to attend Ravenshires First Annual Halloween Bash! Lots of events are planned, including a costume contest, with prizes up to 50k, A trick or treat Raffle Worth up to 250k, a Bonfire and much more! To end the event we will be heading to the City of the Dead, to lay those weary souls to a final rest!

So join us in the City of Ravenshire, Sunday October 28th at 6 pacific and have a "howling" good time! Watch out for ghosts and ghouls within the city! Special gifts will be given for those who can bring these Ghosts back from the netherworld.....but you have to catch them first!

Runes will be handed out at the main cities, and gates will also be opening prior to the event.

Lady Bronwyn
White Raven of Ravenshire

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In order to provide more time for those Haunted Home Hopefuls to finish their preparations, we have extended the entry deadline to Wednesday, October 24th. Please ICQ Mirabel (11015595) or Darius (988442), or email your contact information to [email protected] to set up a time to meet and turn in your rune.

All Fall/Halloween themes accepted, and you do not have to live in Heaven's Forge to participate! Both Felucca and Trammel entries accepted.

Show off your decorating prowess and get into the spooky spirit!

Mirabel, HF Events

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Calandryll

1) Are we going to see world changing and world affecting events like the Trinsic Invasion? I applaud the Ongoing Content team's efforts and the things they have done, but I, like many UO players, would like to see more content and less candy (rares/special items).

Calandryll: You'll see larger world altering events than what you saw in Trinsic. Trinsic was fairly limited and didn't really alter anything. We simply added new objects to the city to make it look like it had been taken over. With the scenarios, we can actually add brand new areas, like the orc dungeon or some of the stuff you will see in the upcoming scenario, as part of a story. In truth, the items make up a very small percentage of the actual content when you compare the number of items to the number of new monsters. The story will be much richer in the coming scenarios as well.

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1. Will Haven be opened up to all players for this?
-We're discussing it.

2. How much fame and karma will be needed for a player to sacrifice it?
--You get more Sacrifice the more fame you give. You have to be at least "admirable".

3. Will negative karma be sacrificable?
-Actually, we're thinking about removing karma from sacrifice and just using fame, that way negative karma players can still participate.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

1 ) Why is the forum of Virtue discussion here, instead of RP board?
-Because the virtue system is not soley a role-playing system. It can be used as a role-playing tool though of course.

Virtue Questions:
---
Sacrifice is Love and Courage.

2 ) I do not understand why Gargoyles can be redeemed, they are not a race of daemons nor they are lost souls so to say. They might have their pride, but that is opposite to that Humility. Shouldn't Reediming be restricted strictly to supernatural(undead, spirits and Daemonic) creatures, to make it more logical?
--In the fiction, the enslaved and enforcer gargoyles are not attacking players of their own free will. By sacrificing for them, you save them from their turmoil. The stories on BNN have more info on the gargoyles.

3 ) Certain professions can gain Fame & Karma very easily, would their sacrifice of Fame & Karma be equal sacrifice to those who worked many weeks longer for it?
--True. This is why you can only sacrifice once per day.

Humility: opposite to pride
4 ) Doesn't Humility turn into pride if one advertices his Virtue Title? (rather philosophical question, I admit)
--No. The titles are given to you as recognition, it is up to the player to decide whether to advertise his title or not. Remember, the titles only appear on the virtue gump, so unless someone opens up your virtue gump, they won't see your titles.

General Questions:
5 ) Would it not be good to have all eight Virtues done (in design) before releasing any to shards? Eight Virtues meant to form the great Principle (Truth, Love and Courage) together, and therefor their "gain" should be in balance. If not, why not?
--We have preliminary designs done for most of the virtues, but we are releasing them one or two at a time in order to make sure we concentrate on them and to make sure the system actually goes in. If we tried to release one huge system, it could be a year before you ever saw any of it.

6 ) Have you considered if shrines could play a part in the system?
-They do. You go to shrines to get your status of your jounrey in each path. Also, they will probably play a bigger part in Spirituality.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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lo•cal•ize
v. lo•cal•ized, lo•cal•iz•ing, lo•cal•iz•es
v. tr.

1. To make local:
2. To confine or restrict to a particular locality
3. To attribute to a particular locality

v. intr.
To become local, especially to become fixed in one area or part. n.

Source: The American Heritage(r) Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright (c) 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

---

lo'cal•i•za'tion n.

—The Dark Art of transforming text into the native language of the end user.

Greetings once more fellow UO gamers! I’d like to take a moment to talk about the secret doctrine of localization, the power of words, and French bread. Well, okay — I won’t be talking about French bread.

What is localization? Why localize?

Having been recently declared the keeper of words, I will explain all of this and everything else you have ever wanted to know. Well, okay — I won’t be explaining everything you ever wanted to know — but I will try to explain localization. :)

We have all seen the following line of text in the game: gold coin : 500
It used to say, “500 gold coins.” Why the change?

To answer that question, we must consider the purpose of localization. Localization is the process of allowing text to be displayed in various languages, based on the settings of the end user machine. If your game is intended to be played by only one group, all speaking the same language, then you can just display everything in that language. However, if you have people from multiple countries playing your game (like UO, for instance), the need for translation and a unified way for displaying text becomes apparent.

In a traditional line of code we could say, for instance…

print(“Hello, how are you today?”)

Which would print the phrase, “Hello, how are you today,” on the screen for our user. That’s wonderful…for English-speaking users. For someone who speaks exclusively German, for instance, that would be extremely useless. So, we know now that we have to translate the sentence. In German, the sentence would look something like this:

print(“Hallo, wie geht es Ihnen?”)

This literally translates to “Hello, how goes it you (in a formal sense)?” As you can see, the rules of grammar are noticeably different for these two languages.

These differences in grammar do not necessarily pose difficulty for us at this point, since we can simply translate the entire statement, and the meaning of the phrase will still map over quite nicely.

The problem occurs when we start printing dynamic text groups (or strings) on the screen. A typical statement to print a piece of dynamic text could look something like this:

print(“you have $amount gold coins”)

Before displaying this string to the user, the part that says “$amount” would be replaced (by the computer) with the amount of gold the user has. If they have 5000 gold, the string would show as:

“You have 5000 gold coins.”

For someone that had 700 gold coins, the string would display as:

“You have 700 gold coins.”

That works great – for English. In another language, a language that doesn’t share the same language sentence structure, this particular arrangement of words would probably not work very well. So, now we have to come up with a generic way to create dynamic strings that work for all languages.

The only structure that innately works for all languages is the following:

“Static Text” : “Dynamic Text” or, alternatively “Dynamic Text” : “Static Text”.

The dynamic portion can never be anything other than proper nouns or numbers. Consequently, we come up with constructs that look like “gold coins : 500”, or “Bandages : 24”.

This is obviously a technological limitation, which we have been able to overcome, thanks to our programmers. We now have the ability to create localized text that allows our translators to arrange the various dynamic parts of a string to conform with local rules of grammar. As a result, we are now able to display fairly dynamic strings in all languages, without having to sacrifice game ambience for interoperability.

The most recent change that you may have noticed on the Test Centers is the change to corpses. No longer will you see “remains : Vexx,” but instead, you should see “the remains of Vexx.” :) Great stuff.

The recent localization efforts have been engineered with the latest technology advancements, so that many of you have not even noticed the most recent rounds of localization. Check out the fully localized version of Animal Lore on the Test Centers to see what I mean.

Well there you have it, and well…there it is.

Have fun and take care!

Helios
Keeper of Words
Designer, Ultima Online

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Dragon Tavern Story Night Results

We had 13 noble and valiant souls show up for the event. Several tales were told including at least one made up on the spot! We also had the continuation of an episodic story from Wolf of Evermore. It seems that he plans on telling part of the tale every week. Next week will have a longer episode.

Winners

In second place (for the fourth week in a row), came Dragyn, with a tale about your friend and mine the undead. Dragyn was rewarded with a prize of 10K.

And in first place came Hunter with a heart wrenching story of a Father, his Son and Death. Hunter walked away with a 20K as the first place prize. Stories

Now here is a reprint of the fourth portion of the story "Minds Eye"

You may remember that when we left last week Khan had experienced the follow:

As eternity came into view Khan thought his mind would implode for there was just too much information flowing into his head. As he turned to Starlight she just smiled again.

What was this? Why was this? Were the questions the appeared in his mind’s eye. Then life took a new turn and all there was were screams…

We now begin tonight’s portion of the tale

The screams, there was nothing but screams. They came out of every pore in his body. It was his very essence that was screaming for he was now in a place mortal man was not supposed to go. He had been taken to the center of the vortex that is life and death. This is where everyone’s; hopes, dreams, fears and terror lived. It was in this moment that Khan would either live or die but in either case who he had been was now gone. If he lived he would be a new slate free of the markings of the past, ready to take on a new life.

He turned and saw her and she was at once beautiful and terrifying. Her body glowed in a light that bathed all in pure radiance but there was hint of bitter almonds in the air. As always everything has its price and he knew that if he lived the price would be him self. There is no higher price then the loss of ones self and still living. As this thought passed between the synapses that make up his mind, it happened. With one bright explosion of light it was all gone. They were back in the room and she was back in bed eating her food.

She saw that he looked confused and she asked" Are you ok my love?"

This question at once seemed strange but as he looked at this beautiful creature he said" I feel a bit strange. Almost dizzy and I am not sure why?"

He missed her smile as she moved the tray and patted the space next to her in bed. " Come my love lay down and rest you look tried."

Something gnawed at his soul. There was something wrong here and he was attempting to put his finger on it but not having much luck. He sat down on the bed for he was indeed weary to his soul. He stopped for a moment, why had he thought those words. There was no reason for that. Deep in his mind a voice was screaming out the clarion call of death and destruction. Why? What was he attempting to prevent? He did not know and that was a very dangerous place for him and everyone else around him to be. For moments like this unleash something that Khan does not want to admit about him self. A power so great, that it could alter the very air and kill anything.

Oh could it kill. He had lost count many years ago of the thousands he had slain in the name of righteousness. Righteousness could be such a cruel taskmaster in that, too most it was a subjective quantity and thus could easily become a doubled edged sword. As this fire of confusion, spread and burned a path clearing his mind of clutter, the white-hot rage of righteous indignation fueled this inferno within his mind. As with a lump coal and thousands of years of pressure, the diamond that is clarity burst into his conscious mind. In that instant he was back in that space and the screams where fresh.

She turned and smiled, as her face seemed to change into that of a devil. With that the room went black and the laughter of an ancient evil could be heard echoing down the corridors of time.

come back next week for the next installment

Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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Hail Fellow Britannians,

I am Nacrom Sable. Maybe some of you have seen me outside the West Bank in Brit, where I have been testing the UOTrivia Game that I am doing as one of many Events and Quest that are going to be coming to Chesapeake.

UOTrivia, you ask? This is a game in which I will give you one question, and if you get it right I will give you 5000 gold...yes, 5000 gold! This will not cost you anything but your time, to read the question and hope you know the answer.

I am limiting the questions to only one, so please respect this as I am limited to the winning till more donations come in the UO Seers program. When more donations come in, I will be giving you two questions. How? If you get the correct answer for the first question, you will have a chance to double your money by getting a choice to answer another question and WIN 10,000 gold, Woof. But if you don’t get the correct answer on the second question then you lose it all. You have an option here...you could just keep the first 5k and walk away a winner.

These question are about anything and everything from Old Ultima to Ultima Online or could be from the Newspapers or player written books, but all is about Ultima..

This Tuesday I will give you a hint on where I will be, and then the following Tuesdays from 8:00pm to 10pm EST time, it could be any of the Towns in Britannia. So do your studying on Ultima’s History and Current History or Places and things and come play if you see me.

This Tuesday 10/26/01 from 8pm to 10pm EST I will be in Britain at the West Bank.

This is brought you by the UO Seers Program. We hope you enjoy it.

See you there!
Seer Nacrom Sable

P.S. I am also accepting donations for more Events and Quest. All money, and items will be used for these.

Again, thank you!
Seer Nacrom Sable

If you have any questions about this or any other event which the UO Volunteer Seers Program will be holding, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], visit our webportal at UO Seers or visit our message board on Stratics.

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The Town of Nidaros, on Friday October 19, 2001 at 8 PM EST, is holding their Halloween Auction Event. This is an event to sell off extra supplies, magical weapons, magical armor, rares, and MUCH MORE!!! So come with your checkbooks and gold and be ready for some of the best deals you can find!! The event will be held in Nidaros in the KfN Headquarters Villa. Some of the items that will be auctioned off are a Dragon Statue, Force and Power Weapons, and much more!! So if you have time please all come on down to Nidaros and enjoy the atmosphere and the chance to pick up something at an extraordinary deal at our Halloween Auction Event!!

Thank you,
Marlene
(Knights for Nidaros)
Town of Nidaros

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Thud!

The sound of the heavy obsidian seal as it impressed its image into the red wax echoed around the otherwise silent room. A solitary torch stood as the only guardian keeping the ever present shadows away as they clawed ceaselessly at the borders of the light.

Having finished the various pieces of paperwork regarding the slavery issues that had caused so much disruption, Alucard turned his mind towards other matters. It had been one week since a messenger had been sent to the Controllers offering an alliance, of sorts. It was hardly a surprise when he failed to return, and a lone scout had reported seeing the remains of a messenger's uniform in the lands of Illshenar.

Alucard's original plan – to seize one of the Controllers and force them to talk – was unable to be adopted due to impending military commitments elsewhere. It was perhaps unsurprising when the suggestion of infiltration was mentioned. A slave had put forward the idea one evening after consuming too much ale in the Asylum of Perdition, she was subsequently executed and Alucard adopted the suggestion as his own.

He had decided later to undergo the mission himself, as it was one of the utmost secrecy. Donning the crimson robes of the Controllers he had entered into their newly located stronghold and seen for himself the massive workshops and forges. He had been impressed.

Such a massive Fortress-City could be put to such use by his own forces. The forges, workshops and mines could be put to use endlessly churning out the weapons of destruction. In the guise of a Controller he had seen the scores of Gargish slaves and workers, so perfect for his own needs.

It was on the second day of his infiltration that he came across the most important discovery of all, something the Controllers referred to as a "Clockwork Assembly". He understood little of mechanics, but from what he could garner it seemed to be instrumental in the construction and control of something vitally important to the Controllers. Alucard at once assumed that it was the much-feared Golem.

The thoughts took hold in his mind with the speed of a charging bull, and the impact was just as strong. Armies of Golems fighting for whatever purpose he deemed fit. An army of tireless reapers who would destroy any that dared oppose him. Unstoppable. Terrifying. Relentless.

As the power-fuelled greed to over, he seized the clockwork assembly and cradled it in his hands like it were a newborn. Looking around quickly he began to edge his way towards the marble doorway of the workshop, nervously eyeing the genuine Controllers who were milling about. He had almost made it to the door when a shout came from the other side of the room.

"You there! Get back here, we have work to do!" the Controller who seemed to be in charge of the group sounded tired and angry.

Without considering what he was doing, Alucard sprinted from the room, clutching the assembly. He had made it only a few feet down the marble-tiled hallway when shouts and heavy footsteps began to pursue him. The red robe flapped and grabbed at his ankles as if it were trying to slow him down, his movements became slow and he feared he would trip, or lose consciousness.

Then, as quickly as the partial exhaustion had begun, it faded. Looking once behind him, Alucard was urged onwards by the horde of Controllers and Gargoyle slaves in pursuit. He rounded the corner and was knocked to the ground by a heavy blow. Still maintaining his vice-like grip upon the assembly, he looked up into the featureless face of a Golem, just as it raised its massive fists to deliver the final blow. Within the time it takes for a grain of sand to trickle through the hourglass Alucard was on his feet and running once more.

Suddenly the finery of the marble hallways gave way to the coarseness of the desert sands. He had made it outside, but the nearest portal back into Britannia was a frighteningly long way off. Alucard decided to ignore any thoughts of hiding that he entertained, and merely decided to run for his very life. Past the mines and the ore-elementals, past the Controller guards and their constructs, past the ruined castle and the Savages that called it home. He had just passed the castle when a biting pain caused him to scream out loud, he turned to find the tip of a spear embedded in his left shoulder. He pulled it out whilst he ran.

Before he knew it, he stood before the gate of Compassion, and stepped through into the familiar and less dangerous Britannia. As he emerged from the swirling gate he uttered the words of recall, and traversed the winds of magic to arrive once more in Caina.

He had grudgingly turned the Clockwork Assembly over to the most talented of the researchers that called Caina home. He had left them but one instruction:

"Within one week, you shall create for me a Golem like those of the Controllers. Fail, and your life is forfeit."

In essence, this proposed modification to the skill gain system would eliminate the need for "power hour" by providing opportunities for guaranteed skill gain during normal play.

To learn more about the thoughts behind this proposal, please read the joint Comments from the Team on skill gain from Evocare, our Lead Designer, and Prophet, our Lead Programmer, located here (Note by CitizenKane2 - I have edited the original link. The link provided on UO Stratics leads to the Comments From the Team from Prophet and Evocate on 20 September 2001). To provide feedback on this system, we invite you to post your thoughts here(Note by CitizenKane2 - at the time of posting this, I have not been able to locate the relevant link).

In essence, this modification would eliminate the need for "power hour" by providing opportunities for guaranteed skill gain during normal play.

Guaranteed Gain System (GGS)

The core of this system is the guarantee that if you play "normally", you will gain skill. Under the GGS system, if you have not gained skill under the current use-based system after a certain time period, the system would recognize this and force a point of skill gain (point meaning a tenth of a point, as in moving from 70.1 to 70.2). The length of the time period, or timer, is based on the level of skill. The current time periods are listed below, but note that they are subject to change. In addition to the time intervals listed below, there would also be a limit on how many GGS points total per day a player can earn once their skill reaches 70.

Skill Value Ranges Time Between Gains
10.0 – 14.9 160 secs
15.0 – 19.9 200 secs
20.0 - 24.9 250 secs
25.0 - 34.9 300 secs
35.0 - 44.9 400 secs
45.0 - 49.9 500 secs
50.0 - 54.9 10 mins
55.0 - 59.9 15 mins
60.0 - 69.9 20 mins
70.0 - 79.9 40 mins
80.0 - 89.9 80 mins
90.0 - 94.9 120 mins
95.0 - 98.9 150 mins
99.0 - 100.0 240 mins

As always, you can only gain skill when you successfully perform an action. So an example of this is as follows: Let's say you cast a spell of moderate difficulty, and succeed, but you do not gain skill. If the relevant time period passes, and you have still not gained a point in that skill, then the next time you successfully use that skill again, you will gain a point. These time periods are based on the server system clock, meaning that you don't have to be logged in for your timers to refresh.

This does not mean that players would be unable to gain skill until the timer refreshes, because the GGS would not be replacing the current use-based system, but it would be implemented in addition to it. You would still be able to gain skill under the current use-based system, but the GGS would now keep track of how long it has been since you had gained a point of skill. If the time period had passed and you had not gained skill through the regular method, you would gain a point through the GGS. The use-based system, though, would not be restricted by time. Even if you had just gained a point through the GGS, the game would still check for skill gain under the use-based system, although admittedly it would still be incredibly difficult to gain skill in this way at the high end range.

To ensure that characters could not become Grandmasters overnight, there would be a limit on how many points of skill a player could earn through the GGS during each day. This limit would be high for players of low skill, but as players' skill levels grow higher, the limit on how many they points they can earn through the GGS grows smaller. This means it would still take longer to gain skill in the 90's then it did in the 10's or 50's (this is nothing new). Note, however, that this limit does not affect the current use-based system, so players who reach that limit can still gain more skill through the old skill system, by using the skills themselves.

The most noticeable difference from the current system (not including power hour) is that skill gains in the 90's while playing normally would not only be possible, they would be guaranteed (provided you are performing your skill in or around your current skill level). For example, casting Magic Arrow with a magery skill of 90 would provide no chance whatsoever to gain skill in magery, even with GGS. You would need to cast higher level spells to see guaranteed skill gain. Similarly, crafting daggers with a blacksmithy of 80 would provide no chance to gain skill in blacksmithy. Skills that are not difficulty based, however, would always have a chance to gain.

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Over a year ago the Healers of Europa held the first march of peace. A grand event to bring together communities and individuals under the universal banner of peace and compassion. The number of people attending that march was more than any of us had expected and to see NPC healers lining the road from Spiritwood to Deepwater (courtesy of IGM Talos) was overwhelming. The land of Britannia looked a lot smaller that day as the people were united in vision and purpose.

The second peace march was a lower key affair but again it was well attended. The desire for peace in our communities is something that never goes away. We once again walked from Spiritwood to Deepwater and the folk watching us on the road respected our cause. You can remove a mountain one pebble at a time.

Two months ago the guild decided to hold the third peace march on 1st November. The atrocity of September 11th prompted us to postpone any public announcement of the march as we wanted to keep real world events out of game events. This is no longer appropriate for an ex-member of the guild, known in game as Castile Elan died on September 23rd. This is a message that his wife sent to a player asking news of Castile.

Dear Friend

Thank you for your email passed on to me asking after Pòl-Michael (you may have known him as Castile Elan). I am sad to have to tell that he died suddenly on 23rd September.

As you may know, after witnessing some terrible things during his army career, he became a committed pacifist. Since the attacks of September 11th he had been working very hard to dissuade a violent response that he felt would only lead to more innocents dying. In addition, he had put great effort into helping with the humanitarian aid program for the refugees. He was planning to fly out to Pakistan at the beginning of October.

As usual, he did this all against his medical advice. He was not fully recovered from his operation for cancer in his brain and the extra stress took its course. He had a bleeding in the brain, aneurysm, which killed him immediately whilst he was organizing an anti-war meeting.

I am assured that he suffered not at all, and that the impact was instant. There was nothing to be done. He was buried later that week in his home of County Kerry in Ireland.

He had many friends, from around the world it seems. This is very comforting, to know he was loved. Last year, a great hole opened in his heart when our cat Alex died. Pòl-Michael had a very strong faith, and I am sure myself that they are now happy together once more, as it should be. I remember him telling me of a story that someone had sent him on the occasion of that loss, about a Rainbow Bridge. He was very comforted by that image, and I hope you will be too with the picture of Alex and he finding one another again.

I apologize for the standard nature of this reply. As I have said, many people are beginning to ask after Pòl-Michael, and you will appreciate I am not able to write to all a personal letter. I would be very grateful if you could announce to people you may suspect of knowing him, so that they are told, even if they have not written.

Yours faithfully,

Inga Viktorovna

I think that the tragic loss of a person so committed to the virtues of sacrifice, compassion and humility must not pass without event. Our march for peace on November 1st shall go ahead, not only calling for peace within the communities of Europa but for compassion and peace on this entire planet that we share.

In order to accommodate as many people as possible, and in recognition of the peaceful world Castile wished for, this march will start in Trammel.

November 1st

20:00 GMT depart from Skara Brae Counselors guild and make our way towards Yew

20:30 GMT (approx) Pass by Stonekeep on the way towards the Yew moongate and the old home of Castile Elan

21:00 GMT (approx) transfer to the Felucca facet and the moongate for Britain and make our way to the Chamber of Virtue

21:30 GMT (approx) assemble at the Chamber of Virtue where people can speak about peace or remember the effect that Castile Elan had upon their lives.

22:30 GMT (approx) assemble at *The Salty Dog Tavern* in Britain for a *wake* in remembrance of Castile. For people not familiar with the idea of a wake please consult this page

This schedule differs from what we had intended for a march from Spiritwood via Dreamstone and onto Deepwater. We think it is more appropriate to make this gesture towards to life and work of Castile Elan, a man who gave his life for peace.

People wishing to contact me with regards to this event may do so via my mail address of [email protected] or ICQ 49577586.

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As our Halloween festival was such a huge hit last year we are continuing the tradition. Secondly, we are celebrating the second anniversary of the founding of OTE. And finally, we are celebrating the marriage of two of our members in OTE. So, as one can see it is the perfect time for a shard wide celebration. As always, everyone is invited. No ill wishers please! We will be holding numerous events with excellent prizes. Oh, I assure you on that! Events finalized as of this date include an event hosted by our ranger order.

The festival will host some of the following events: a dragon slaying event with two big winners, the last man or woman standing and the first killed will win prizes; an event hosted by our hunter order (information to be announced later); tip the cow event hosted by Pup Barleycorn; drunken man race; best costume contest judged by celebrity judges.

We will also be co-sponsoring the Final Fight Night at Oasis on Sunday, the 28th. We will be matching their purse of 1 million making the prize total 2 million. More events are sure to come.

Time/Date: Halloween Festival is Saturday the 27th of October at 4pm EST. and...
Fight Night on Sunday the 28th in Oasis at the normal time.

Location: Tendai Town, 34º 48'N 48º 18'E. Gates will be provided from most major banks prior to the start of the festival.

Contact: Del Xavier of OTE icq: 11449866 or through the general message section on the OTE Webpage.

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Date: Saturday, October 27th, 2001
Time: Starting time of the event will be 8pm (Central Standard Time)
Parties will meet at the UO Seers Home on Great Lakes Shard which is just South of Vesper in Large Keep in Nos' Village (Trammel).

Coordinates are: 52 49'N 99 16'E

Several Seers lost their way in 4 different dugeons. Search parties are forming to find them, but the only way to locate the Seers is to solve riddles that were left behind. Solve the Riddles, find the Seers, get special ID items from them, and make it to the finish line with all 4 to recieve a reward.

- All parties must contain 5 players.
- No entry fee
- Registration will occur at the beginning of the Event

(Please have only the Team Leader sign in on the day of the event to speed things up.)

Parties will recieve the first of four riddles, which they must decode and get to the dungeon where the lost Seer or Troubador is. Once found, each team will show the Seer or Troubador their registration ID in exchange for a "Seer ID", and return to the starting point for the next riddle. Teams must complete all 4 dungeons, obtain all 4 Seer ID Items, and get to the finish line to win. The "Finish Line Rune" will be given out with the last Seer's ID item.

- The First party to the finish line recieves 50K.
- The team returning with the most dungeon loot wins 5 Tattered Treasure Maps of level 3+.
- The team with the most death robes wins a keg of GH potion, 50 rez scrolls, and 1500 bandages.
(More prizes will be awarded depending on the number of teams registered.)

For Questions or more information please contact Lead Seer Stheno of the Central Region:

http://uo-seers.org/
[email protected]

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SAM 100K Scavenger Hunt this Saturday, October 20th!

What: The Sonoma Alliance of Merchants will be sponsoring a 100K SCAVENGER HUNT and Recruitment Drive this Saturday at the SAM Vendor Mall located in Trammel at the North Minoc Mines (135o 0'N x 80o 15'E)!

When: Saturday, October 20th @ 7pm PST

Where: SAM Vendor Mall (135o 0'N x 80o 15'E) in Trammel

Prizes:

• First Place: 100,000 gp!!!
• Second Place: 50,000 gp!!!
• Third Place: 25,000 gp!!!
• Also being given away are several SPECIAL PRIZES and DOOR PRIZES just for attending!

Whether you are an individual or team doesn't matter, but the more the merrier! Transportation will be provided via gates from banks in Britain, Vesper and Moonglow! Don't miss out on free money and prizes!

See you there!

BoneStripper of SAM (Sonoma)
GM Merchant

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In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Is the increase in HP/Mana/Stamina:
1) Time Based?
2) Cost Humility Points to access?

I noticed the Humility points drain over time but at what cost, if any does using the ability cost
----------------------------------------------------------------------

In reply to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sacriface is awarded per/week. Does the Humility Special Ability work similar or by cost basis?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The bonuses gained by attaining a given step in Humility are perpetually active for as long as you remain in that step. If you increase a step, you gain instead the better step's stat bonus, and if you decrease a step, you gain the newer/lesser step's stat bonuses. There is not means to "activate" these stats bonuses, they are automatically up and running just by having achieved the related step in Humility. No Humility points are used up through the use of these stats, although points in Humility will naturally "decay" a certain amount over time.

When you achieve a given step in Humility, you will also gain the associate stat bonuses, for as long as you remain in that step. If you move a step forward, you will instead gain the higher step's stat bonuses. It's not a special ability that has to be activated, and/or will only last for a short amount of time, the stat bonuses are automatically available by having achieved a given step in Humility.

1. I didn't know it was possible to be both just AND compassionate (your past example of the poor man stealing bread to feed his family and the guard having to decide whether or not to act). By being compassionate, would your justice points be unaffected? And vice versa of course.
--Not if we design it so the conflict isn't as prevalent as it is in that example. I'm not sure I like the idea of losing virtue points in one virtue because you follow another.

2. 30 to each stat seems like a HUGE bonus! I take this to mean that becoming a Guardian of Humility will be extremely difficult?
-Yes. Getting to the third path of Humility won't be easy.

3. When do you think the other virtues may have some details ready? Or are you going to do some initial testing of these two virtues before beginning more development on the other six virtues?
--Honor will most likely be next, we have a basic design idea for it already. I want to concentrate on the master system and Humility/Sacrifice though first before getting feedback on Honor.

The decay will be over real time, but you wont decay from step 3 to step 1 in a week. It'll be significantly slower than that. Also, we might make it so you don't decay points earned up to one below step one. That way, maintaining at least step one will be very easy. Still debating that though, so I'd love to hear comments.

I won't get into exact points, but it will take more than one GL sacrifice to get to the third path. Actually, even just one GL sacrifice will not yield the first path.

Lot's of people can just use a different IPs, different cards, etc.

How about this? What if you could not help more than one character on the same account. In other words, if you help a character on a young account with one of your vet characters, you can't help any other characters on that account for a week with that same vet character. So you could help the first character and gain Humility, but not any other characters on that account. The other characters on that account can get help from other players though.

That would cut down on the exploiting somewhat. Unless someone were to buy 10 accounts, get the third step, and then close the accounts. In which case, yes, not much we can do about that. But even if they do, remember, the points decay (and there is a cap once you hit the third path) so they would not have the +30 forever

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Unfortunately, this particular problem wasn't related to the scenario code, rather it was some other code that was merged in. We did test it, but the problem can only really occur on a shard that has a lot of people on it and after a little while. Even if we had put this on a public test center (which we can't, because of the scenario) it still probably would not have been found.

Both QA and Dev are pushing hard to resolve it though, so we can get back on track next week. I will update you as I know more.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Virtue system has no connection to in game messenger. I am using that area of the paperdoll because there are no plans to finish that system. Even if we didn't put in virtues, the messenger is still not going to be worked on. So that's the best place to put the virtue gump.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Q: Mastering all 8 virtues was difficult in Ultima Prime.. so difficult that only the Avatar could do it. How do we explain a world in which everyone has done what only the avatar could have done.

A: If designed right, it will be very hard to master all eight virtues. Even mastering those two won't be easy, not counting six more!.

Q: "A character that has achieved all three steps in all eight Virtues will earn the title “The Virtues” on their paperdoll" how exactly does that work? "Bob the virtues"? "The Virtues Bob" or is that a typo where its supposed to be "the Virtuous"?

A: Title is "The Virtuous".

Q: are the increases in stats permanent or temporary?

A: Permanent as long as you maintain your path in Humility.

Q: How much of a decay of virtue are we talking here? I mean, obviously I dont expect a specific answer, bu tis it going to be something where you haev to do it every day, or will you be able to maintain your virtue through regular gameplay?

A: It will be enough so that you'll have to spend time on the Virtue from time to time, but not so much that you lose all the work you did in one day.

Q: If I turned off my little mailbag ages ago, will the inclusion of this system stick it back up there? and will it still look like a mailbag? (kinda weird to click a mailbag to get virtues...)

A: The mailbag system shouldn't do anything now even when turned on. It will not look like a mailbag, it will look similar to the center of the Virtue gump.

Q: Can a sponsor have more than one squire?

A: No.

Q: Do you lose.. err "virtue points" by dying like you do with fame and karma?

A: No.

Q: Does "the Virtuous" title display profession like Glorious. Glorious Lord and the like?

A: It probably will. But considering we'll be releasing one or two virtues with each scenario, we have plenty of time to worry about that.

Btw, thanks for the post, I really prefer these kinds of short bullet-pointed types of posts to long paragraph types. Much easier to read and respond to. :)

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Sacrifice is part of a philosophy within Ultima Online known as the Virtues, and is one of eight pursuits within the upcoming Virtue system.

The Virtue of Sacrifice has been described as:

“The courage to give of oneself in the name of love.”

Pursuit of Sacrifice will be designed to allow players to interact with “monsters” in a manner other than one of combat.

Sacrifice & Redemption: Characters that attain a level of Reputation (Fame or Karma) will be able to use “sacrifice” their Reputation in order to defeat certain monsters.

• Upon encountering a related, “redeemable” monster, players will be able to sacrifice their reputation to defeat the monster in the following manner:
  • Open up the Virtue gump.
  • Double-click the Sacrifice (teardrop) symbol
  • Target the monster
• The following is a list of monsters which may be redeemed with the sacrifice of one’s Reputation:
  • Lich
  • Enslaved Gargoyle
  • Gargoyle Enforcer
  • (Regular) Demon
  • Succubus
  • Evil Mage
• You cannot target a redeemable monster if:
  • It has already taken more than 15% of its maximum hit points in damage.
  • You cannot see it (you must have line-of-sight).
  • You are invisible.
  • You are dead.
• Attempts to sacrifice Reputation to anything other than the redeemable monsters will have no effect.
• Once a monster is redeemed, the following will occur:
  • The character’s Reputation (both Fame and Karma) is set to “zero.”
  • The monster disappears in a cloud of particles
  • The character will gain a certain amount in Sacrifice, depending on how much Reputation was lost in the redemption—the greater the Reputation loss, the more Sacrifice is gained.
• A given character can sacrifice his Reputation only once per 24 hour period.

Virtuous Title & Abilities: When a character has achieved any number of Sacrifice points, he is considered to have achieved a certain step on the path of Sacrifice.

• When a player moves his cursor over the Sacrifice symbol, a title will be displayed, indicating the step currently achieved in Sacrifice for that character.
  • First step: Seeker of Sacrifice
  • Second step: Follower of Sacrifice
  • Third step: Guardian of Sacrifice
• Players who progress any number of steps on the path of Sacrifice, but do not continue to actively pursue it, may discover that this Virtuous title reduces in steps over time.
• Gaining steps in Sacrifice will grant a character the ability to resurrect himself a number of times each week, equal to the steps achieved in Sacrifice. Players will be able to access this ability by clicking the Sacrifice symbol on their own Virtue gump.
  • First step: Self-resurrect one time per week
  • Second step: Self-resurrect two times per week
  • Third step: Self-resurrect three times per week
• There will be certain notable benefits & caveats of self-resurrecting:
  • Players will be able to instantly resurrect their characters which have achieved any number of steps on this path of Virtue.
  • Self-resurrecting characters will not suffer any stat or skill loss normally associated with “insta-resurrection.” However, effects such as Murderer-based stat-loss, Faction-based stat-loss, etc., will still apply.
  • Self-resurrected characters will only have 1 Hit Point and 1 Mana Point upon resurrection, just as if he was resurrected by a healer, friend, or shrine.
  • Characters which self-resurrect will instantly recover all the items they had on their corpse, except for any items which have been looted or decayed.
    • Self-resurrecting characters will not be able to recover items in this way if they move across a server boundary into another server region.
  • Characters will not be able to self-resurrect:
    • …within a “multi-object” (a house, boat, etc.).
    • …within a faction stronghold
    • …while flagged as a criminal or aggressor

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Trinsic Craft Fair

Trinsic Virtue Guards, TvG, will be hosting the Trinsic Craft Fair on Saturday, October 20th, from 5-7pm under the Central Skies. We'll use the facilities at the Shining Path Armory in Trinsic (90o 26'S 40o13'E) on the SW side of town.

GM crafters will be on site to make weapons, iron and leather armor, arcane clothes (with your gems), and other supplies. Most materials will be supplied or bring your own to donate. Our members can also answer adventuring questions and help newer players with their characters.

Gates and runes will be available from several city banks throughout the evening, so come on out and join the fun! Visit our website at www.trinsicguards.com to learn more about the event, and about our guild.

See you Saturday!

Trinsic Virtue Guards
"Let the Virtues Guide You..."

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Humility is part of a philosophy within Ultima Online known as the Virtues, and is one of eight pursuits within the upcoming Virtue system.

The Virtue of Humility has been described as:

“Perceiving one’s place in the world, not according to one’s own accomplishments, but according to the intrinsic value of all individuals.”

Pursuit of Humility will be designed to encourage veteran players to help new players, in that they will specifically advance in this Virtue by helping [young] players.

Squire System: Veteran players will be able to invite [young] players to become their squires.

• [Young] players can be invited to become a squire in the following manner:
  • Open up the Virtue gump.
  • Double-click the Humility (shepherd’s crook) symbol
  • Target the [young] character
• Once invited, the [young] player will receive a special invitation message. The [young] player can accept the invitation by:
  • Opening up the Virtue gump.
  • Double-click the Humility (shepherd’s crook) symbol
  • Target the veteran character
• If the [young] player accepts this invitation…
  • …and does not have a current sponsor, he will become the squire to the veteran character.
  • …and already has a current sponsor, he will receive a gump, stating: “You are a squire to another player. If you accept this new invitation you will no longer be a squire to [current sponsor’s name].”
• Whenever a [young] character gains skill points in the following skills while within a squire-sponsor relationship exists, the sponsor may gain points in Humility:
  • Alchemy
  • Animal Taming
  • Archery
  • Blacksmithy
  • Bowcraft/Fletching
  • Carpentry
  • Cartography
  • Cooking
  • Fencing
  • Fishing
  • Healing
  • Inscription
  • Lockpicking
  • Mace Fighting
  • Magery
  • Mining
  • Musicianship
  • Provocation
  • Stealing
  • Swordsmanship
  • Tailoring
  • Tinkering
  • Veterinary
• There are certain situations which will disallow the gaining of sponsor’s gaining of Humility points:
  • The sponsor must remain close to the [young] character as that [young] character gains skill.
  • Skill points gained through the use of a training dummy will not count toward possible Humility increases.
  • Skill points gained by paying for training from NPCs will not count toward possible Humility increases.
  • [Young] characters will not gain Humility points.
  • The sponsor cannot gain Humility points while dead.

Virtuous Title & Abilities: When a character has achieved any number of Humility points, he is considered to have achieved a certain step on the path of Humility.

• When a player moves his cursor over the Humility symbol, a title will be displayed, indicating the step currently achieved in Humility for that character.
  • First step: Seeker of Humility
  • Second step: Follower of Humility
  • Third step: Guardian of Humility
• Players who progress any number of steps on the path of Humility, but do not continue to actively pursue it, may discover that this Virtuous title reduces in steps over time.
• Gaining steps in Humility will grant a character some special abilities. Players will be able to access these abilities by clicking the Humility symbol on their own Virtue gump.
  • First step: +10 Hit Points, +10 Mana, +10 Stamina
  • Second step: +20 Hit Points, +20 Mana, +20 Stamina
  • Third step: +30 Hit Points, +30 Mana, +30 Stamina

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There is currently a philosophy within Ultima Online known as the Virtues. The Shrines are named after them, and players can read about the eight Virtues in certain books that are available within the game. But, beyond those small representations, the Virtues have never played a significant role in the world of Ultima Online. A system will be put into play which will reward characters who actively pursue the activities that represent each of the eight Virtues.

Listed below are the details relevant to pursuing the Virtues:

Shrine interface: Double-clicking any Shrine will display a special gump. This “Virtue gump” will include:

• One button for each of the eight Virtues. Clicking on one of the Virtue buttons will display:
  • a message describing what is needed to gain in that Virtue
  • the benefits associated with that Virtue
• A “status” button. Clicking the “status” button will describe to the player how close that character is toward achieving the next step of that Shrine’s related Virtue.
  • “You have not even started on the path of this Virtue.”
  • “You have barely begun your journey through the path of this Virtue.”
  • “You have progressed in this Virtue, but still have much to do.”
  • “Your journey through the path of this Virtue is going well.”
  • “You feel very close to achieving your next goal in this Virtue.”
  • “You have achieved a goal in this Virtue.”

Paperdoll interface: The paperdoll will be modified to allow players to display the steps achieved in each of the Virtues for their characters. Any player will be able to access the display on any character’s paperdoll by pressing a certain “Virtue button.”

• The button used to access this display will be the mailbag icon currently in place on 2D paperdoll gumps.
• A new Virtue symbol icon which will be added to the 3D paperdoll.

Double-clicking the “Virtue button” will present the player with a graphic display, indicating what steps they have attained in the Virtues. There will be eight sections, one for each Virtue, in the form of an engraved stone.

• For characters who have not yet achieved the first step of a given Virtue, the respective engraving is empty. The engraved symbols for each of the Virtues are as follows:
  • Humility: a shepherd’s crook
  • Sacrifice: a teardrop
  • Honor: a chalice
  • Compassion: a heart
  • Valor: a sword
  • Honesty: a open-palmed hand
  • Spirituality: an ankh
  • Justice: a set of scales
• When characters have achieved the first step on the path of a given Virtue, the engraved symbol for that Virtue will fill with the appropriate Virtue symbol, tinted light gray.
• When characters have achieved the second step on the path of a given Virtue, the engraved symbol for that Virtue will fill with the appropriate Virtue symbol, colored a light tint of that Virtue’s respective color.
  • Humility: a tint of black (“medium grey”)
  • Sacrifice: a tint of orange (“light orange”)
  • Honor: a tint of purple (“light purple”)
  • Compassion: a tint of yellow (“pale yellow”)
  • Valor: a tint of red (“pinkish”)
  • Honesty: a tint of blue (“light blue”)
  • Spirituality: a tint of white (“pale grey”)
  • Justice: a tint of green (“light green”)
• When characters have achieved the third step on the path of a given Virtue, the engraved symbol for that Virtue will fill with the appropriate Virtue symbol, colored in the respective color of that Virtue.
  • Humility: black (“dark grey”)
  • Sacrifice: orange
  • Honor: purple
  • Compassion: yellow
  • Valor: red
  • Honesty: blue
  • Spirituality: white
  • Justice: green
• Progressing any number of steps in a Virtue will grant a character some special abilities. Players will be able to access these abilities by clicking the related Virtue symbol on their own Virtue gump. For example, clicking on the symbol for “Sacrifice” will activate the Virtuous ability for Sacrifice.
• When a player moves his cursor over a given Virtue symbol, a title will be displayed under the respective symbol, indicating the step currently achieved for that Virtue by that character.
  • First step: Seeker of [name of that Virtue]
  • Second step: Follower of [name of that Virtue]
  • Third step: Guardian of [name of that Virtue]
• A character that has achieved all three steps in all eight Virtues will earn the title “The Virtues” on their paperdoll.

Players who progress any number of steps on the path of a given Virtue, but do not continue to actively pursue it, may discover that their Virtuous title reduces in steps over time.

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Its been a week, but there is finally a new comic at OoC! Yay! This one's called: Take A Look At My Goods.

You can find that one and many, many more at www.outofcharacter.com

Enjoy!

-Arakasi

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Curiosity Peaked...

I needed to see for myself, the plight of others who had made up their mind of the upcoming terror of the Empire of Armageddon. So I put aside my studies, to travel to Moonglow, to catch a glimpse of the *Resource Gathering* Day, and of she who calls herself White Lotus.

As I waded through the throngs of people, I looked constantly for a sign of those collecting resources. But much to my dismay, I could only see those who sat around idle, not knowing, or not caring of the upcoming terror. And with that, I wrote the world off, and rode to the bank to gather the necessary regeants to return to my studies.

And there she was, standing in front of me.

White Lotus was surrounded by members of the Sisters of Enchantment, members of the EoA. Taking their taunts, and their jeers, and throwing it in their faces. Standing up to them, the lone light, in the middle of a crowd of mindless, uncaring people. As I came closer, I barely caught a word that was said, but I could tell from the scowls, the Sisters were not happy, and made it known of what they thought of her plight. But she was strong in her resolve, and her focus, and within a few moments she vanished, to continue to lend her hand in gathering supplies for the upcoming war.

So with that, my curiosity was peaked again, and I travelled to a supply depot. Upon arriving, I ran into White Lotus again, looking weary and tired, and yet she pressed on. I interrupted her, which I'm sure she was greatful for, and she told me the story of why we all had to make a stand, and why all Britannians had to overcome their differences and join in the plight. That no where was safe, until this evil was defeated. And that this, like any other evil would be pushed back, but only if humanity would bond together to fight as one.

In the middle of her words, we were interrupted, once again by the same Sisters that had disturbed her earlier. I held my distance off to the side as long as I could, before making my presence known. The sisters turned to me, and with their attention drawn, I bid White Lotus farewell, and set her to her task at hand, and turned towards the Sisters.

The Sisters spoke, but as with every new born evil, the words came with fire, instead of wisdom, they came with a false sense of security instead of resolve, and they came with vengeance instead of compassion. Vengeance towards me, and vengeance towards any not supporting their fight.

I was attacked that night, by the fear of a newly untried Empire, and with that, I'll leave it to you, to figure out how it unfolds, but I do know this.. A side must be chosen, or you'll be caught in the struggle. This is not something that can be sat out. The EoA, has sprung up in the land, and it plans to engulf everything and everyone in it.

Avalon
High Priest of Cvn

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Because of the revert, more than likely we'll be publishing the scenario update next week that was supposed to go out this week. The story is done, but posting it now won't make any sense since the content in it won't apply to what is published next week. If all goes well and the other code that caused the problem is fixed, we'll be able to post the story next Thursday and pick up the updates from there.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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The Guardians of Britannia (G*B) are proud to announce a party to celebrate their third anniversary as a guild. All denizens of Sosaria are invited to attend, especially all G*B members past and present. There will be plenty of food and drink, plus numerous exquisite door prizes to be given away! The date of the party is SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28th at 9PM EST, and will be held at the G*B Guild/Vendor Tower, which is on the Trammel facet of the Atlantic shard. The coordinates for the G*B Tower are 35 degrees 56' North, 43 degrees 14' East. G*B Tower lies on the road leading northeast out of Britain and sits below the road in the clearing before the guard post before the Bog of Desolation. There will be gates available at the West Bank in Britain beginning at 8:45pm that evening.

I hope all players, young and old, take time out to visit our fine tower and celebrate with us!

Sincerely yours,

Voivod III
Guildmaster, G*B

1) PLEASE tell me you have dropped the stat bonuses for the "Virtuous". The system, and titles alone make it desirable for the 'achiever/powergamer' playstyle, as well as the 'socializer/roleplayer' mentality. There is absoultely no reason to give a stat bonus that literally EVERY player will want. To give such a great reward to the "Virtuous" is to literally penalize players who choose not to participate.
--They've been modified, but are still there.

2) Consider "More Humble" titles for different levels of each virtue. Pride is a Vice, not a virtue. To declare oneself a "Seeker/Follower of Humility" is a great deal less self-important than "Guardian of Humility" (anyone who played the later Ultima games can attest to the improperness of the term "Guardian" for the Avatar's system of Virtues.
In place of "Guardian", I submit the term "Acolyte"......defined by dictionary.com as:
"2. A devoted follower or attendant."
I.e. Acolyte of Humility in place of Guardian of Humility. Acolyte of Virtue as opposed to "The Virtuous"......I mean, to call oneself Virtuous is a proud act.....to declare oneself devoted to following the Virtues is humble, as it implies that Virtue is something we must constantly be seeking........constantly following......TO SEEK VIRTUE IS A JOURNEY WITHOUT END.
--Actually, the titles were taken directly from a post I read here on the boards. I'm not married to any of them, although I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of Acolyte. It just sounds a little to religious to me and the virtues are not a religion. I'd love to hear other ideas though.

3) Please consider that in one of your posts this evening, you said:
In reply to:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One, such a system would have to be able to track the intent of the evil act. Was the player killing the other player because he was role-playing an evil character or was he simply killing for the sake of the loot with no concept of role-playing?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe that the issue of intent is exactly what detractors are worried about. I am horrified to think that I will be very likely to be PKed and cursed at by a "Virtuous" character that chooses to use their title to gain an element of surprise......the "wolf in sheeps clothing" issue.
--As much as I hate to say it, you are probably going to see that. Now, players may lose "points" in some virtues for killing, stealing, etc. so it may not be that prevalent. But again, and this is very important, the virtues are not a reputation system, they are not about judging people. They are about making a personal choice to follow a path or paths.

Since this is a system which is easily "gamed" (at least from the systems discussed so far), there is no way to determine if a player is training a real new player, or merely partnering with another ADVANCED player and trading off the use of a newly purchased "young" account.
--You're right. If I can think of a way to stop that I will. So far, I have not.

And what of intent about the teaching? If my gain in Humility is based on how much skill the [young] gains........where is the reward for teaching someone the RIGHT way of doing things, instead of merely the FASTEST way of doing things? I may be able to help a newbie gain a TON of magery by getting his int up to 50 (which only takes putting a wizard hat on a 45 int BRAND NEW character)and showing him how to fizzle earthquake spells for an hour a day........why is that considered BETTER by the system than a player actually taking a [young] as an 'apprentice', and teaching him to really WORK the skill, as opposed to just exploiting the flaws of power hour?
--Good point, but is there only one right way to do things? The system has to have ways of determining help though, and when the young player gains in a skill, that is the determination. It's not considered better though. Hopefully, those people that are really into following Humility will do the things you say. Not everyone will, but that's not a reason to not put in the system.

Combine the two.......and OOOH BOY!!!! Two powergamers training a new shared account to the skill cap, and then trading places, deleting the "young" character, and starting over.
Why not think deeper about things that are more about a person actually being Humble, rather than just teaching new players? Perhaps it is better to think about each virtue in terms of what vice it opposes......humility opposes the vice of Pride. By contrast, players don't refuse to help newbies out of Pride......they refuse to help newbies because they lack another Virtue.....Compassion.
--I'd love to hear ideas on how one would create a system that could actually track that.

4) The proposed idea of Sacrifice is fairly weak, IMO. Donating fame to redeem the undead.........personally, i would think giving up Fame would be more of a Humble act.
I would think that giving up a certain percentage of stat points, such as strength or intelligence to redeem the undead would be more of a Sacrificial act(and a greater actual sacrfice for player and character alike). I would forsee this as a progression, kill a Rotting Corpse and redeem it (10% of highest stat).....Seeker.....kill a Ancient Lich and redeem it (20% of highest stat).......Follower.........kill an undead dragon and redeem it (30% of highest stat), and that would be grounds for Guardian (or as I prefer, Acolyte).
Does it involve Valor? Sure. But to give up stats (closest we have to our own lifes blood) to redeem a wickedly evil creature.......that is what sacrifice is all about. Can someone simply kill these things with Dragons or Provocation, etc? Sure........but it cannot be "gamed" as easily as your idea (aka sic your Dragons on Lich lords to Glorious Lord, go die to a Lich, give him all of your fame, rinse, repeat).
Its important to note that the sacrificed stat would not come back, but could be raised again by normal means. In other words, you are sacrificing stats, not points toward the stat cap.
This is an example (one which I can already see flaws within) but you get my overall message.......players have 4 things that they can sacrifice....wealth, power, prestige, and time. The limited "prestige" of fame is easily regained by certain templates (namely bards and tamers).......power is one area that involves the most Sacrifce IMO, as even temporarily weakening an advanced character is seen as a HUGE handicap.......observe the number of people that DETEST statloss, even the TEMPORARY statloss associated with factions. Perhaps a temporary statloss for a certain number of hours of ACTUAL PLAYING TIME could be a better solution for my Sacrifice idea.
--A lot of the virtues overlap. One could say that what we have for Humility is more akin to Compassion and I am sure whatever we come up with for Valor will make people think of Honor too. I like the idea of Sacrificing fame and karma better than stats though, but I understand that for some, it is easier to gain that fame and karma. We've considered that a bit in the design.

5) Consider utilizing the tools that exist within the gameworld. You have Ankhs in some popular wedding areas.....perhaps add a player craftable Ankh for houses for Spirituality (maybe the player could maintain a low level of Spirituality by uttering a 'prayer' to an Ankh every so often, perhaps maintaining a higher level by tithing to it).
You also have the Shrines, and the 'Chamber of Virtue' in britain. You also have 7 dungeons with the names of 7 out of the 8 vices. There are also 8 towns which have been traditionally associtaed with each virtue. Perhaps draw some correlation between a "virtue quest" and one or more of these resources (which are all of 'virtuous significance').
--Agreed. You are right, we have a lot to work with. The other 6 virtues are still in the very early stages of design though so we have room for feedback.

6) Be careful not to try and make the Virtues a no-brainer to pursue. The life of a virtuous individual should be difficult and dangerous. One option may be to make Virtuous individuals unable to give murder counts in Felucca(forcing them to seek Justice on their own). Also, perhaps require their homes to be public, and restrict them from banning individuals.
--I don't like the idea of putting too many restrictions on people for following the virtues, other than doing things that are against that virtue (such as stealing from innocents might cause you to lose honor)

You want to provide some deterrents to being Virtuous to prevent EVERYONE from doing it. Inconveniences, dangers, etc that make being Virtuous MEAN SOMETHING......STAYING AND MAINTAINING VIRTUE IS A CHOICE THAT FEW MAKE.......this is true IRL as well as in the Ultima series. So do something to make sure that these people are committed.
--From a game mechanic standpoint, I don't want to deter people from following the virtues. UO is supposed to be fun afterall.

As benefits? Well, perhaps a fully Virtuous individual would have a bonus against undead (i.e. giving the double damage bonus vs undead regardless of whether the weapon used is silver or not.......to reflect that "spiritual power" of the Virtuous), or some similar reward. Ideally, this benefit should ONLY affect PvM.......NEVER PvP.
--It's probably going to be very difficult to be "fully" virtuous.

Just a few thoughts. I would really enjoy to see yourself or other readers take them into consideration, or to respond to these points. Just please respond to the overall MEANING of each point.......please don't just nitpick my examples and analogies (I'm a realist, I know this will happen anyway, just don't nitpick EXCLUSIVELY please).
--I tried not to respond to your exact anaologies and more read into the spirit of your points. If you think I didn't cover one well enough, please tell me and I will endeavor to give a better response. Thanks!!

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it.

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Black Dagger Interview with Vex of OSI, Part 1
---

Blackdagger.com had an opportunity to interview Vex from OSI regarding the UO economy and other interesting items of current UO interest. They have currently posted Part 1 of the interview at www.blackdagger.com.

Blackdagger.com also recently opened up forums adding to the host of other resources for the Online Gaming community. Some of the forums are: UO, DAoC, Shadowbane, UO Powergamers (of UOPowergamers.com fame), and Attended Macroing.

You can reach Black Dagger's Message Boards at boards.blackdagger.com.

Come visit and check out this terrific Q&A session with Vex.


==
[email protected]
www.blackdagger.com

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It's a gump that opens up just like the profile gump. In 2d, we are going to replace the mailbag on the top of the paperdoll with a symbol similar to the one in the middle of the virtue gump. Double clicking that will open the actual virtue gump.

We're still working on where to put it on the 3d paperdoll.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna Designer, Ongoing Content a wizard did it

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This reporter had an opportunity to talk with the victor after the races.

Thalia: Why did you choose the ethereal llama to race with?

GreeD: Well the llama is the only ethereal mount I have but it is very fast.

Thalia: (ponders the first question after having seen his ethereal collection)
How much of winning is connection speed, mount choice and strategy?

GreeD: I believe it’s a large part connection, strategy, then mount.

Thalia: Can you explain?

GreeD: I’ve seen people with [a] dialup win because they ran outside the group but in this game a fast connection is vital to anything regarding speed.

Thalia: What interested you in racing?

GreeD: Well I was doing Fight Night for a long time and someone told me about it so I thought I would check it out. Gotta give props to Drizzt and the guys for doing a wonderful job with player run events.

Thalia: Who was your toughest competitor(s)?

GreeD: Ah, that would have been the last race. I raced a guy named Pug. He was very fast, very competitive.

Thalia: Any tips for would be racers?

GreeD: Practice the starting point jump. It’s more important than anything. If you start ahead, you won’t get blocked.

With season finales happening for many events, players may be feeling a bit sad to see an end to the fun. There is great news though for event lovers, Drizzt is continuing to work on new events and has two in the works. Some of the new events he and his partners are working on…a road race and wilderness race. While the details are still sketchy you can be sure that your Sonoma Stratics Reporters will be right there keeping you informed in the time to come.

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Introducing version 2.0 of the Ilshenar Spawn map. We thought now would be a good time to update information on the new area of Ilshenar introduced with the latest scenario. The spawn map has now been updated to version 2.0

The Ilshenar spawn map, version 2.0, is created by Luke "Klesk" Canvin of Chesapeake. This map will allow you to discover the wonders and terrors of the newest lands of Ultima Online in the safest way possible. Think of it as your personal guide to the wildlife of Ilshenar.

Designed to work in harmony with the current UOAM maps you will soon find this map indispensable! Many who have had the chance to view it already have used it to organize their guild hunts in Ilshenar. Enabling them to pick the difficulty of beast they wish to confront and so control the level of challenge the hunt gives them, safe in the knowledge that they wont have any fatal surprises! So if it's a guild hunt you want to organize, or if you're looking for the location at which that elusive monster spawns, or even if your trying to find one of the many Roving Gypsy camps in the area then look no further. You have just found the perfect solution!

Download the latest map today

Marcus Eikenberry aka Markee Dragon
www.markeedragon.com

I beta tested the original map for Luke. It’s very nice, friends. Luke has done a great job with it.
-Lady Malynn

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The virtues wont confer titles on the player the way fame, karma, and hero titles do. Basically each "level" of virtue has a title. For instance:

Seeker of Humility
Follower of Humility
Guardian of Humility

You'd see the title displayed when you moused over the part of the virtue gump for each virtue, which will also have a visual representation of the player's progress in each virtue with the symbols and colors.

All of this will be explained more once we announce the system.

You gain virtue points by doing virtuous acts. If you stop doing so for a while, your virtue points should slowly decay. Don't implement it like fame/karma which stays constant, make it so players will continue to interact with each other and stay on the virtue's path. I don't like the thought of racing to the top and 'I'm there now i can stop'-attitude...
-There will be some form of decay. As you said, this is not a race to the top, it's something that must be maintained.

Second, you could implement something like good/evil for waring guilds. Helping good and killing evil is a good-aligned guild, while killing good and helping evil is evil-aligned. Every guild could have a good/evil-flag for each guild it's at war with to define how the guild sees the others and so define the actions of guildmembers as good/evil. What about that?
--I'm not sure what this would achieve though. Can you explain more how does this fit with the virtues?

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I think your basic premise is that one cannot create a system that captures the virtues as they were in Ultima 4. I disagree. I believe very strongly that we can create a system that has even more meaning for the virtues than they did in U4. Why? Mostly because U4 was a single player game, where your actions, however virtuous, had no affect on other, real people. But, in UO, where your actions can affect other, real people, a virtue system will have infinitely more meaning than it ever could in a single player game.

To illustrate what I mean, allow me to use the following example of Humility:

First, let's define humility as a virtue. Taken from the single player games, humility is defined as "Perceiving one's place in the world, not according to one's own accomplishments, but according to the intrinsic value of all individuals."

This is what you had to do to be humble in U4:
Guard: "Are you the most valiant warrior in the land?"
You: "No."
Guard: "Are you the most valiant warrior in the land?"
You: "No."
Guard: "Are you the most valiant warrior in the land?"
You: "No."
Was that *really* being humble...or just macroing? ;)
Now, in UO, you will be able to show humility by helping new players in the world. Let's again look at the definition of Humility. "Perceiving one's place in the world, not according to one's own accomplishments, but according to the intrinsic value of all individuals."

By this definition, is it not humble then to help other, newer players in the world? To take the time from one's normal game play, away from getting gold, PvP, or whatever you normally enjoy, to game with someone new to the world and help them achieve whatever their goals may be? To help them acclimate to their new land. To essentially say to that player "I want you to achieve in this world." Through this system, it is the new player who is accomplishing gaining skill, while you are there helping, coaching, and teaching them. I can't think of anything that fits the definition of humility better than that...and even more so, you the player, not just the avatar on your screen, are actually helping another real person. No single player game will ever allow you to accomplish that, not even the single player Ultimas.

What it seems you are saying is that some people who are not deserving of "humility" will get it through the system and hence, we should not do the system at all, even for those that would show Humility "properly". I answer that four ways. One, the virtues are not about judging people. Two, the fact is, if they followed the path of Humility that means they *helped* people. I see nothing bad about that. Three, the virtues mean something different to each individual. This is a multi-player game and not everyone is going to share the same viewpoint of the virtues as everyone else. That's what actually makes the virtues so special in my opinion. And Four, I completely disagree with the notion that just because some people might abuse a system it should not be put in at all. It is the job of the designer to do his/her best to limit the amount of exploiting in a system, but there will almost always be some. Should we take out speech from the game since some people talk in "leet" talk, or remove the ability to name your character since some players use alternating caps and/or inappropriate names, or remove spell-casting because players have used it in the past to break into houses? I think we would all agree "no" to that. What we can do is try to fix the most blatant abuses of those systems (profanity filter, inappropriate names, fix the bugs, etc.), but removing them because some don't use them in their spirit is not the answer.

The virtues are no different.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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This is a reminder that we'll be collecting runes to player homes at the following times and places:

Tonight (Wednesday, Oct 17th), 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
Tonight(Wednesday, Oct 17th), 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Friday, October 19th, 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
Friday, October 19th, 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Monday, October 22nd, 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
Monday, October 22nd, 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Amidala (me, myself, and I) will be present to collect the runes to your festive homes, so if I'm running a little behind to my 9:30 PM time, please be patient, I'll be there shortly!

To view more developing information on the event, and some topics of interest such as prize donations click here or on "the comment on this article" link below.

If you are unable to attend the scheduled "dropoff" send an email to [email protected] or drop me a PM in the Great Lakes Forum

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The Virtues: Part Two

In my last comments from the team, I discussed what I felt the virtues should not be. This time, I'd like to start talking about what I think they should be and why. I've broken down the virtue system into three main goals and would like to expand upon each of these in this update. Note that not every virtue will achieve all three goals by itself...but the system as a whole should.

* Promote a more "Ultima" feeling in Ultima Online.
* Give veteran players new goals to achieve that have an impact and are fun.
* Reward positive behavior in the game.

Promote a more "Ultima" feeling in Ultima Online.
When Ultima Online first shipped back in September of 1997, the first thing that struck me was the fact that the virtues were conspicuously missing from the game. Sure, we had the shrines and later the "virtue guards", but in all, the virtues had very little, if any, meaning for the players. To me, this always felt like releasing a Star Trek game without any real concept of the Prime Directive. The virtues, more than anything else, formed the cornerstone of what made Ultima games so special. However, it is important to remember that Ultima Online is not a sequel or a continuation of the single player games. The virtues may not be represented exactly as they were in those games mostly due to the fact that they were single player games and we must design with the multi-player aspects of UO in mind. But, we will do our best to keep the spirit of the virtues intact when designing how each of them will work.

The virtues are meant to give a player a sense of purpose in the world of Britannia. They are not a way of judging right or wrong, or a system or morality. They are a personal choice that each player will be able to make. If designed correctly, the system will ensure that it is very difficult to follow the path of each virtue at the same time. However, players will be able to find the virtues that most fit their character and/or their play style, and use the system to further their game experience.

Give veteran players new goals.
The virtue system will be designed with veteran players in mind. Some of the virtues will involve existing systems, giving veterans a different incentive to participate in them, while other virtues will have brand new systems created. Each virtue will have its own path with different tasks, goals, and rewards. Veterans will also be able to display their virtue "status" through the use of a new interface that will show how far they have progressed through each virtue using the symbols and colors of the virtues. An example of a prototype of the gump can be found here.

Reward positive behavior in the game.
This is the one that, as a designer, I am actually the most excited about. A lot of MMORPGs (including UO) have tons of policies designed to punish grief-players for poor behavior...and rightfully so. Grief-play, harassment, exploiting, and other such disruptive behavior have no place in these games and do quite a bit of harm to the community. But, the idea of actually giving significant rewards to players for doing something good has been missing. The more a community works together, the more successful it will be. Designing systems that encourage players to work together (without forcing it) is one of the things the virtue system will hope to achieve.

Some other points.
Following my initial posts and discussions about a virtue system, I have read a great deal of written and thought provoking responses from players. I'd like to address some of them here as well.

What about an anti-virtue system?
There are no plans to create a system that rewards people for unvirtuous behavior. There are two major reasons for this. One, such a system would have to be able to track the intent of the evil act. Was the player killing the other player because he was role-playing an evil character or was he simply killing for the sake of the loot with no concept of role-playing? The same would hold true for looting and stealing. Determining the intent behind an evil action is far more important than the intent behind a good action. If someone is helpful to another player simply to gain the virtue points, that causes no harm to the game. In fact, it can help the game a great deal if the helped player benefits as well (which he should if the system is designed correctly), especially if the helper would not have otherwise done the beneficial act. But with an evil act, with the notable exception of role-playing evil in a plotline, the only person who really benefits is the evildoer. Why give incentives to them that are any greater than they already are? I'm not set-in-stone against an anti-virtue system; I just haven't heard any compelling reasons for why it should exist.

Isn't rewarding people for being virtuous wrong?
Not really. The notion that doing a virtuous act is a reward in and of itself and that rewarding the player further is a bad idea is very much a hardcore role-playing mentality. Allow me to sum up the virtue system with the following statement to demonstrate why I believe there has to be rewards for virtuous behavior..."The virtue system is a role-playing system that is not just for role-players".

I'll explain what I mean by that. The virtues, as they exist as an ideal, are mostly considered a role-playing aid. Many role-players use the virtues as a guideline for their role-playing. In fact, I am one of those players. But, when designing a system as broad and important as the virtue system, it is imperative that as many play-styles as possible are able to use the system. That's where the rewards come in. If someone helps another player solely because they know they will get a reward is that really a bad thing? Sure, we may question their motivation, but in the end, that player helped someone where before they may not have. The more players we have helping and working together with each other through the system, the better off our community will be.

I called the virtue system a "role-playing system that is not just for role-players" in my statement for a very important reason. A system that only caters to one group will never expand that group. I want to expand role-playing in UO. The best example I can use to illustrate what I mean is a debate. If you gather a group of friends who all feel the same way about an issue and go to a rally to speak to people who already feel the same way you do, you will not actually gain any new supporters. But, if you all go to a place where people have gathered who either do not agree with you or are not sure, you have a chance of turning more people to your side. That is what the virtue system is about. If we design it only for those players who would do the tasks because of their propensity to role-playing, we won't increase the number of people role-playing. But, if we design a system that has role-playing elements in it without requiring one to be a role-player to enjoy it, we create a broader use of the system and increase the chance of more people trying out role-play.

The first official designs for the virtues will be on the site soon. We plan on releasing the virtues about one or two at a time to make sure the system starts having an impact. This will still allow us to achieve efficient and adequate testing while releasing a meaningful and robust system. I look forward to hearing what you think of the systems for Humility and Sacrifice once they are on the site.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content

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At this time, the Japanese, Korean, Formosa and Drachenfels shards have already been brought down for an unscheduled maintenance.

The West Coast shards (Baja, Napa Valley, Pacific, and Sonoma) will not be affected by this downtime, but all other remaining shards will be brought down for this unscheduled maintenance. We anticipate that these downtimes will be minimal. As previously posted, players may experience a small “time warp” due to having to revert the affected shards to the previous server publish.

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I really enjoyed the special Shard O Screams shard last year too, that was the my first experience with any kind of world building. The problem with doing it this year is that it would probably take us at least two days to really set something up that was fun. That's two days not spend working and testing scenario code. Considering we have a lot on our plate (including the beginnings of the virtue system) more than likely we won't be doing anything like that this year.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Sannio, with all due respect, how can you say that running 2 UO's on one computer provided it's part of an operating system such as Windows, does not constitute unattended macroing??
Running UO in two locations is acceptable (as long as the client isn't hacked to do it), and unattended macroing is not. Although some people may use these two "techniques" in conjunction, they are exactly that: two separate considerations. One does not necessarily equal the other.

Only one window can be seen at any given time. Mel several months ago addressed this same issue about 3rd party programs, and it was deemed to be unattended macroing because of the simple fact that only one UO client could be viewed at a time.
The only methods at that time available for viewing UO more than once on one computer involved hacking the UO client, and this is what was wrong. Unattended macroing may occur even if someone only has one instance of UO running, and, while unattended macroing may be used in conjunction with this, is a separate consideration.

If Windows allows more than one client to be logged in at one time on one computer, that still only allows one client to be viewed at a time. So tell me exactly how you arrived at the logic that a 3rd party program running 2 clients is unattended macroing, while an operating system doing the exact same thing isn't?
Windows XP isn't hacking the client.

Either way, only one window is viewable at a time
In any viable OS, The UO window may be only one of several on a screen. For example, I've run UO in a small window so I could see ICQ, IRC, and a text file, all at once. I'm sure Windows XP allows something similar.

You have basically given us the green thumb to use client #1 to stand at the Jhelom Farm, loop a macro for Provocation, stand there all day macroing, while using client #2 for hunting in a dungeon. We can't see client #1's screen, but that's ok, because it's running on a Windows operating system, which EA has just given the green light to.
Actually, my understanding at this time is that Windows XP is disallowing macros from being run on the inactive window.

Whether it's part of a current operating system, or a 3rd party program, should not matter. Unless you can see both screens at the same time, it should not be permitted. If you allow it for an operating system feature, then you have to allow it for all modes.

Character transfers aside, the only reason that someone would have to want to run 2 clients at the same time is to macro one characters, while playing another, or run off PK counts.
I can tell you I would have found it handy when running some quests. Plus there were a few in-game parties, ceremonies, and weddings where I would have liked to have brought in more than one of my characters. ;]

I don't really think you thought your answer through very well Sannio. Not well at all.
*pushes her way through the crowd to get a good spot at the farm*
If unattended macroing does happen at that farm as you suggest, I'm pretty sure a GM will be in the area at some point, and taking action against those accounts.

Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

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An issue involving a merge with the latest server publish is causing an unacceptable amount of lag on all shards where the publish was activated. We will be reverting the affected shards to the previous server publish. This revert may cause a small "time warp" on the affected shards.

Note this will cause any clockwork assemblies players may have found to no longer give messages when used. Once we republish the servers with the fixed code, they clockwork assemblies will function as before.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Everyone else is invited to come and cheer on their favorites. I always find a wager makes the races more exciting, so grab a friend who is willing to put his money where is mouth is and decide among yourselves who is most likely to win, place, or show. The races are held at the farms behind Lord British's castle at co-ordinates 6o 14' S - 8o 51' W.

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This week I bring to you an interview with the man behind the Wednesday Night Hunt, Krysma Doomspeak. A simple mage/bard who, through his desire to see us all in death robes, has turned Wednesday night's hunt into one of the most succesful ongoing events on the shard.

Hanse Swildish: Krysma, you have made yourself into an icon by holding a weekly hunt (every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific time) for anyone to attend. Has this role as a leader and organizer for Sonoma events changed your personal- and character-based goals?

Krysma Doomspeak: Well, I don't think of myself as an Icon. Not really sure what an icon would be. As for changing me or my character goals? Not really. I'm working on the same five characters I had when I started the WNHs. The WNHs take up one night a week for me. So that's roughly 1/7th of my weekly game time with a little more game time for me on the weekends. I usually do my WNH planning while at work or watching my children. I have twin 6 year old boys and a 4 year old boy, they are a handful lol.

Hanse Swildish: Do you feel any pressure to make the weekly Wednesday Night Hunt special? Does that affect how you yourself have fun?

Krysma Doomspeak: Do I feel any pressure? Well sometimes a little but in reality, my event is a simple hunt. Not to hard to plan or execute. What makes it special is the players that show up and attend. There are many places and creatures that are best fought with a large group of players. And while some might argue that certain characters might solo these areas and creatures, it is not nearly as fun solo as it is with a large group of players. It's the interaction that makes the experience new and fun!

Hanse Swildish: Which dungeon do you feel offers the greatest challenge to a group of players?

Krysma Doomspeak: I feel they all are a challenge if you run them from top to bottom. In other words, start at the entrance, and then explore throught the levels one at a time trying to defeat the creatures as you go. Eventually winding up at the big bad creature for a climatic showdown. LOL If I had to pick one that is the toughtest, I'd say Terathan Keep if you include the bally room, and the hell area in your tour.

Hanse Swildish: Are the number of death robes you earn in a night a good way to judge the level of fun you have experienced during a Wednesday Night Hunt?

Krysma Doomspeak: For me it is! LOL But not everyone that attends likes deathrobe collecting as much as me. hehe Some that attend don't die much at all. I think currently it's a toss up between "Draven" and "Obsydia" for fewest deaths.

Hanse Swildish: Many people feel that through your intelligent and innovative style of dress and speech (spell macros and such) that you have created a sort of trend for bard/mages. Do you see yourself as a trend setter?

Krysma Doomspeak: OMG this "?" kind of blew my mind. I in no way think or try to be a "trend setter". LOL. As for my spell macros, they were my febble attempt to RP a spellsinger. When I created Krysma Doomspeak (my bard/mage) I thought about a bard mage and the interaction of Magic and Music. I figured a Bard is very dependant on music for his skills, so it made sense to me, that he would use music with magic as well. So I figured he would sing the incantations of his spells as short rhymes. The only way I knew to atempt this was the spell macros that I set up for him. The funny thing is I get a wide range of comments on my Spell macros. I get everything from: "Hey those are Kewl Incantations!", to "[censored] that is the [censored] thing I ever saw!"

Hanse Swildish: What advice would you give to anyone who is planning to start and maintain a weekly event here on the Sonoma shard?

Krysma Doomspeak: 3 things!

1. Keep it simple! People want to get together go do something, have fun, and go home and tell the wife about it! hehe

2. Just tell them what they're going to do. If you ask for input, you seldom get it If you do that's a bonus. Just don't expect it.

3. Get someone! You or someone else to take screenshots! And post a story about the event. People are very visual If you show them what a good time everyone had then you will generate more interest in your event! Hope that helps.

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In reply to:
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I just asked a GM on Chessie if locking Entice to gain musicianship is a no-no and was told that indeed, it is a no-no!!!

How can this be?? There are no resources I can wiggle my way out of not using....(animal lore=locked vet= still uses bandies) This is just an instrument and a target.
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Without considering any outside factors: being able to gain Musicianship skill while using Enticement, locked or otherwise, is acceptable. Perhaps there were other things involved in your dicussion with the GM? As others have pointed out, there's no resources to worry about, and if there was macroing involved, as long as you're there still controlling your character then everything should be fine and dandy

In reply to:
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Gaining resist by poison fielding stairs is legal..

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Gaining resist by this tactic is not legal, because while you may gain skill from this, you aren't suffering the damage effect. (If anyone is found using this tactic they may have action taken against their account.)


In reply to:
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Summoning Daemons to gain resist on shore while you are on a boat is legal..

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Yes, this is a legal tactic, because the Demon still has the ability to defend itself, by casting spells back at the attacker.


In reply to:
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Using EQ scrolls to GM Eval is however.. illegal..

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Yes, this is illegal, as you do not use up the required resources. When a spell is stated to require the use of resources, those resources (reagents, scrolls, or the new Arcane Item charges) must always be used up, or that spellcasting method is illegal.


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But at 50 magery.. locked.. using gate scrolls is not illegal.. :)

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As long as the scroll is used up, you're good. :]


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Music does not require any resources so there for you are not circumventing game mechanics to save yourself some gold.. You have merely found a means to an end.. A legal means to an end..

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This is correct.

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Tajima (UO Producer) answered:

There are no plans for that…

-Tajima

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There have been a few threads like this since the UOTD beta. I'd like to comment briefly on some of the underlying technical issues behind the project in an effort to clarify some misunderstandings that I see repeated frequently:

The first and probably greatest challenge for UOTD was the requirement to be fully interoperable with the 2D client. This involved converting all sprites to Direct3D surfaces, rewriting the terrain rendering system, generating all-new art, integrating an animation system, and developing an orthoganal camera system. (Since there's no sense of "distance" in UO's game display, a typical 3D camera system wouldn't work. Instead, UOTD's camera system prevents "distant" 3D objects from diminishing in size.)

There were also considerable challenges with the texture memory situation. Since UO's original sprites were often much larger than necessary or sized to non-optimal dimensions for many 3D cards, we had to spend considerable time developing a texture compression scheme. (Players of the beta should remember how badly the jungles lagged the client before this compression system was enabled.)

By being completely interoperable with the 2D client, we also inherited the isometric view. While the overwhelming majority of our players prefer this viewpoint, it prevents us from using some vital techniques common in first-person 3D programming to improve performance:

1) Mesh Level of Detail: By reducing the number of polygons based on the distance of the object from the viewer, the processing requirement is also reduced. (e.g. A monster 10 meters away uses a mesh with 500 polygons, but at 100 meters the mesh used only has 100.)

2) MIP Mapping: Multi-Image Pyramid mapping is a method used to reduce texture memory requirements. Much like the mesh level-of-detail technique, the resolution of textures changes based on the distance of the object from the viewer. (e.g. A monster at 10 meters uses a 512x512 texture, where the same monster at 100 meters uses a 64x64 texture.) By saving texture memory in this fashion, the need to cache textures to the system RAM (bad) or the hard disk (worse!) is greatly reduced.

(While we could have used both of these techniques in Third Dawn, the end effect would have been a peculiar "morphing" result as polygon and texture detail changed on the fly as objects entered and exited the screen. Not a desirable solution!)

3) Distance Fogging: By "fogging" objects and terrain in the distance, the requirement to draw them is reduced or eliminated.

4) Scene Culling: An intelligent first-person 3D engine can determine when objects can't be seen by the viewer, and avoid spending cycles drawing them. As line of sight in UO is a server function, our client is still required to display "unseen" objects.

Though the isometric viewpoint represented considerable challenges for us, the fact that the game is an immense massively-multiplayer environment is by far the greatest one.

In UO, players can be anywhere on the map within seconds. This isn't true in a typical level-based first-person environment. Since we can't predict where a player will Recall at any given moment, we can't set up a predictive texture cache. On top of that, even if we did know the geographical location a player was planning to go well ahead of time, we can't accurately predict what he'll see when he arrives. With UO's extensive range of monsters, weapons, wearables, and mounts, the texture load can range from minimal to overwhelming in seconds.

In addition to all the other performance-enhancing techniques a first-person game enjoys, many level-based games are constructed to limit what the player sees at any given moment. By aggressively controlling that viewpoint and the content within, the all-important considerations of polygon count and texture usage can be maintained within the desired range. To accomplish a similar effect in UO, we'd have to physically prevent players from entering heavily-populated regions, or limiting what items they carried. Again, not a desirable approach!

Hopefully this will clear up some of the misconceptions and inappropriate comparisons of UOTD and other games. Every game ever developed has been a series of compromises, and UOTD is no exception. That said, we're continually tweaking here and there to improve performance, stability, and appearance of the Third Dawn client. We're confident you'll like what's coming up.

-Tajima

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The Cap & Dagger Casino (Great Lakes, Trammel) now has regular hours!

Stop by every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 pm Eastern Time and win your fortune! Two fortunes every week! The fun begins this Tuesday the 16th, don't miss it!

Also, new games are just around the corner! This and all information is available from our website: http://www.zipwow.net/CapNDagger/

Rob Drakonis,
Cap & Dagger Casino Director

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EverQuest Stratics is expanding and growing. There are many exciting things planned, and we want you to be a part of it! EQSS is looking for dedicated, committed, creative people to join us and fill out positions in various departments. If you're interested in joining up with one of the top gaming networks in the industry, read on to find out how to submit your application.

NEWS

Reporters: We have several News Team positions open. If you're interested, send us an email. Specifically, the following is needed:

General News Reporter: The primary responsibility of this department is to be a "board troll." By that we mean, to poke around the net every day looking for Verant staff (Absor, Aradune, Abashi, etc) postings. Most of these will be found on the Gameplay boards, of course, but there are many other community boards where they stop by, including our own. The people in this department are responsible for digging up these replies and posting them under our General News category, as well as Patch messages, downtime notices, and anything else directly gameplay - related. Being able to post during the day is a must for this position.

Community News Reporter: This department covers the roleplaying part of EverQuest. All events (such as weddings, open raids, bazaars, etc) go to this department. These events are then posted under our Community News category so those submitting them can have their events publicized. Also, reporters in this department must learn to seek out events/happenings around the various game-related sites/servers and include them in their daily postings. Being able to post during the day is a must for this position.

CONTENT

Content Editors: Content Editors are responsible for pouring over the existing content on the site and making sure it is up-to-date and current/correct. If it is not, they correct it and submit it to the Lead Editor for submission. They are also welcome to submit their own guides/databases if they so wish.

Other Submissions: You don't have to be an active EQSS staff member to submit content. Simply send it to our Editors. This includes guides, articles, editorials, spell/item database updates, artwork, and anything else creative you might have thought up.

FORUMS

Moderators: If you see a Forum that currently has no Moderator (or that is dormant) that you think you can revitalize, contact Samira, the EQSS Interactive Coordinator. Being already active on our current forums is a plus but not required. It is not necessary to submit a writing sample or anything of that sort with your application. We are looking for interesting, dedicated people and do not want to scare anyone off with a critique. If you are unsure how to word a news post, for example, we will show you. The main qualities we are looking for are dedication and commitment, not the ability to write a novel.

Questions? Email Thundolfe.

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Hail dark friends,

He who hunteth the lich in these caves committeth a crime of the gravest order, deserving of death.

The liches and I dwell together in these caves, which we devoutly believe to be given us as our sacred home.

I gladly give my blessing to all who wish to hunt down and deliver unto death all Daemons and Dragons. These are creatures of vile and loathsome aspect, malodorous and displeasing to the senses.

If you would join in the hunt to rid my sacred home of these vile monsters, you must don a scarf of the colour of blood in token of your respect.

If you fail in this regard, and look not upon this magical garment, you will die swiftly and surely to my hand.

These are not some tales of fancy, but the true Adventures of Adam Ant

www.game-master.net

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Hello,
Here we are again preparing for a thrilling Dungeontour on DF. This time we go to the Ophidian Lair. This tour is designed to bring fun for all attendants and help those who cannot venture there alone thus seeking the safety of a larger group.
The meeting place is on Thursday 18.Oct. at 22:00 MET (21:00 GMT) in the front of MoT #3 (DF/ Trammel/Trinsic first house on the left site). We gate approx. 15 minutes later from there directly to the action and bring you also back if required. The tour is open for all and we will have player with ressurect possibilities also joining. All that's needed is to come and have fun.

Greetings,

Raknar
http://ultima.gatecentral.com

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Some players find death in game to be quite inconvenient, while others embrace the grayer side of existence in UO and take advantage of their tattered robes and gibberish speech to experience the game from a whole new perspective. In either case, traipsing around Britannia in a death shroud is an aspect of the game that most players have experienced at one time or another.

Whether you enjoyed your ghostly wanderings, or cursed the event that resulted in your ghastly predicament, we’d like to hear about your experiences as a ghost in Ultima Online. Did you spend your time haunting the Britain bank or the Yew forest? Did you ban together with fellow ghosts and perform an apparitional rendition of A Chorus Line at the local graveyard? Whatever your ghostly adventure may have been, we want to hear about it!

Send your story as an e-mail, with a single screenshot attached, to [email protected] by Tuesday, October 23rd. Please be sure your story falls between 500-1000 words, and include "A Ghostly Tale" in your subject line. The screenshot should be in bitmap format, and 640x480 resolution. Please provide a name and phone number for verification of the story. Submissions to "uo-profiles" become the property of OSI and may be used for special events, promotions, and/or advertising. All submissions must be made by the original author and are subject to verification.

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We will be updating various sections of the Playguide (http://guide.uo.com) today, October 16th. As a result, players may intermittently experience broken links and additional webpage errors when trying to access the Playguide section of the UO.com website throughout the day. We anticipate the updates will be completed by tomorrow. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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This is the fifth 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: Shiva - Captain of the Moonglow Guards.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself - a short biography so to speak *smiles*?
A: I was born 28 years ago in Minoc. My mother was part of a gypsie troupe and I lost her before I had the chance to find out who my father was. I grew up with the troupe and my two sisters in an area north of Delucia where I learned to survive in some pretty harsh circumstances. When I was sixteen, myself and my sisters fled the gypsie camp after a full scale battle took the lives of almost all of our troupe and after very few, short adventures I found myself alone in Britain. Since learning to survive in the wild could never prepare my for anything as frightening as trying to survive in Britain I approached a band of warriors who agreed to train me in the art of the sword. After many fierce battles I gradually developed an interest in magery which allowed me to adventure even deeper into lands I had once only ever dreamed of. On one of these such adventures, I happened to "bump" into Kulgan of Moonglow (actually, he had to revive me after a monster had knocked me flat) and he introduced me first to the Virtues, and then to the Moonglow council.

Q: You are the Captain of the Moonglow Guards. What is your job in this position and how is it connected to the Council?
A: My job as Guard Captain is simply to ensure that all possible precautions are taken to safeguard the city and the island it stands on. As Guard Captain I spend most of my time ordering the Guards and sending them on patrols and missions, so I myself am not paricularly active in the field. I also help to safeguard travellers and the youth of our city, to ensure that they do not fall foul of the corruption that is modern life. I report to the council as it's "Military Advisor", and after reporting the council is then able to make decisions about the safety of the island which I must then put into place with the aid of the guards.I may also be called upon to form a first line of defence in the event of an invasion.

Q: We also have Lord British's guards in town. Why is an additional "local" guard force needed?
A: The Guards in town are warriors of great strength who uphold the law with a firm hand. However, some situations may call for a medic or a long range team. While the Guards of Lord British guard the city itself, the local guards patrol the entire island and can even be called upon to assist allies in other cities. We employ not just medical proceedures, but also magery tracking and sometimes simple words to assist the people of Moonglow and to keep the city running smoothly.

Q: What are your visions for Moonglow's future?
A: As strange is it sounds, I'd like to see a more disciplined city. Right now, we have as with all cities, those who believe they can tred on people who they believe are "below them". I'd like to put an end to this with tougher laws, and more excessive penalties. I'd like to see warriors, headstrong mages and dangerous animals replaced by traders, those eager to learn new skills and more folk who are willing to put in the time required to help make Moonglow a city that will never crumble.
Oh yes, and more parties. *smiles*

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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Hail!

On our website we have just finished a new tournament section. This is quite a major update as we have included tournaments sponsored by UOT. The tournaments go from standard tournaments for veteran players, skill maximum tournaments for new players to Anarchy Tournaments for experienced PvP players. We have also opened up for donations for the UOT-Program to finance tournaments and basic equipement for new players.

Let the games begin!
http://uoteacher.cjb.net

From,

Anders of Norway
UOT-Program-Leader

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The Shadowlords retain firm control of all 8 towns, due to the leadership of ArchAngel and the fearlessness of other major figures such as Talon d' Bane, Strum, Embarko, and Pat Factor. For the time being, the sigils are unable to be recaptured. Does this mean there is no faction fighting going on? Of course it doesn't. With the sigils out of sight and temporarily out of mind, the majority of faction fighting is done at the moongates. Moongate fighting is quite a bit different from sigil guarding, and in gatehopping, there is no dominant faction. One may leave their group of ten people to scout another moongate, and find themselves face to face with a large number of an enemy faction. One might amass a great number of killpoints one night, and then lose them all the next. Moongate fighting is unpredictable, exhilirating, and extremely dangerous.

I had a chance to go moongate fighting tonight. I first went to moonglow gate, where an orange awaited me. After a brief duel, the orange fled, making me the winner in courage, but no better off overall. I then went to magencia gate, where awaited a small force of COM. This time it was I that beat a hasty exit through the moongate, narrowly escaping death. I went to several other towns, and most were quiet. There were few other minax hunting, and the majority of them were all guilded to A I. There were no big groups, no severe ganking, just people having fun and fighting mostly fair. Amongst the fighters of note were JayB of the True Britannians, Tom Green of the Shadowlords, The sCene of Minax, and SL's Breta Thasen, who singlehandedly turned this reporter's world to grey and made my speech incoherent.

The days of sigil fighting are still ahead, and while the shadowlords are firmly in control now, who is to say that won't change? The ever present COM lurks in the background, under the adept leadership of Retro and the strong arm of A~I waiting to strike. The up and coming Minax, under the leadership of Jeremy and backed by a group just learning the benefits of teamwork may soon stand a chance, and Led by Longshot,the massive ranks of the True Britanninans are a force to be reckoned with. Soon there will once again be the massive, legendary battles of old. Soon there will once again be four factions, instead of one or two. For now, we wait, and we fight, and we (most of us) die. See you at the Moongates.

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The savages don't fight for the Master. They were unwitting pawns in the Master's evil plans. That's why Guilhem was used to trick them into attacking the Britannian cities. Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna Designer, Ongoing Content a wizard did it

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It's 5% per attempt, not per success. On average, out of 20 attempts, 10 will fail outright, 9 will be non-exceptional, and 1 will be exceptional.

(edited by CitizenKane2)This is precisely why the repair option isn't going in at this time. The code is there (it's shared over the entire crafting system) and weapon/armor repair can easily be enabled for any craft skill. However, right now we simply don't have the time it takes to fully analyze the impact of enabling bow repair. Magic bows appear more often than metal weapons and armor as monster loot because, in the original game design, bow repair was not included.

If we were to just flip the switch, then high-end magic bows would last twenty or more times longer than they do now, effectively causing a huge proliferation of high end magic bows, which in turn makes archery seriously more powerful...

We do want to make all weapons and armor repairable. Enabling the option is likely to come as part of another large combat and/or monster loot system tweak. Please note that nothing like that is on the schedule for the immediate future, but it is in the back of our minds.

No they will not be allowed on vendors - including the tricks that allow it right now

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October's "Best Shot in the Realms" Archery Contest, sponsored by the Society of Archers (S|A) Baja Chapter, went with tremendous success Sunday evening. The turnout was again incredible, as Archers from across the Realms came to display their accuracy and claim the 100,000gp purse. The two-time defending Champion, Sniper Wolf, was unable to make the Event, and so the field was open for a new Archer to claim the title. A field on Sunday seemingly dominated by Lady Archers.

After three long rounds with increasing "bars", and I must say VERY unforgiving Buttes yesterday, there were three finalists left. Talon, Starr and our representative Buruma Archer of S|A. The three were unable to hit the 200pt bar set in the deciding round, and so for the second time we had a shoot-off to determine the winner. Starr had a remarkable first round in the shoot-off and never looked back. After a very strong showing in September’s event, Starr was able to come back to the Fairgrounds and claim the title for her own. This time, as all arrows were counted, she proved to be the "Best Shot in the Realms", and went home with the 100,000gp check. We had hoped to hold an Amateur Event, however the turnout was very small. Staying true to our word, we let the two who did show, Sir Peter and Willem Hardwick, shoot it out for the promised 10,000gp purse. Sir Peter won swiftly, though the two appeared to be on very different skill levels. Prizes were awarded to each, ! though Willem Hardwick needs to co me back to the S|A House. Ya left without claimin' yer prize my friend. *grin* It was quite an amazing sight to see so many Archers in one place. We were most fortunate to meet two new Archers, Archie and Craven, who will now be joining us.

We want all Archers of Britannia to know that the Society of Archers is here for all people of the Bow, guilded or not. All Archers are encouraged to attend any of our events or hunts, and we welcome all of you to our house should you desire the company of others in your trade. We strive on uniting Archers and offer an open hand to you all. It brings us great joy to see so many of our kin together and we will surely continue to hold this, quickly becoming famous, Tournament monthly. Congratulations again to Starr for her wonderful shooting yesterday. Well done m'Lady!! We hope to see all of you there for November's Contest. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the S|A Baja Chapter members, and keep an ear open for notice of upcoming S|A events and hunts. Farewell Archers, may your arrows find their mark. *bows deeply!*

Theoran
Head of Baja Chapter
Society of Archers S|A

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The Maker fashioned six others in the same likeness, and thus were born the Dwarven Fathers. The Dwarves multiplied and grew strong--from Building and Architecture to Lore and the Arts of War, the Dwarven Halls were supreme.

All manner of creature began to envy the Dwarves, from Elves and Humans, to Orcs and Trolls. This lead to terrible, bloody wars, and in the end, the Dwarves sealed the Great Doors to their Halls.

Many cultures still held malice towards the Dwarves, and they brought tales of Dwarven gold to the ears of Dragons. The Dragons lay siege upon them, and though many valiant Dwarves defended their civilization, most of them perished--the few tattered survivors scattered throughout the land. The Golden Age of Dwarves had passed.

A dwarf has been found at last who can bring redemption and restoration to Brittannia's dwarves. In Durin Goldenhelm, a direct descendant of Durin the Deathless, rests the hope of a great people, the Dwarves.

Under Durin's banner the Dwarves of Brittannia unite, and will once more become great. I urge all of Brittannia's Dwarves to come together. Contact me at [email protected]
KHAZZAD AI-MENU! (loosely translated: The Dwarves are upon you!)

~ Jonain Thunderhammer
Dwarven High-Cleric

Edited by Amidala

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Using area effect spells (chain lightning, meteor swarm, etc.) to damage or kill people in houses is perfectly legal. It always has been, and the rules have not changed.

It is possible, however, that if a GM was involved, the GM was most likely dealing with another aspect of the call, and not the actual act of using an area effect spell. (Without knowing the complete details of the situation, it's a little hard to explain what may or may not have happened.)

In reply to:
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The few places I've found as suitable stated 'Housing is not permitted in this area'. These areas are not even remotely connected to any guarded area, and do not in fact block anything at all. I would like to be informed the reason behind this and whether it will change.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of this was already stated, but I'll try to expand on some of the places that are zoned to not permit housing. And all that listed below is aside from the "basic" house placement conditions (uneven terrain, mandatory distances from other houses, etc.)

- You can't place a house in a "Justice Region" (guard zone), and some guard zones extend far beyond what we perceive as the boundaries of certain cities. Examples of this are the glens/plains to the east of Britain, and to the east of Vesper.
- You can't place a house in front of a Dungeon entrance, and some entrances have a small "no housing" area, while others have an extremely large area (like the valley just before the Dungeon Wrong).
- You can't place a house directly in front of a Lost Lands/t2a entrance.
- You can't place a house across a server line. You can only place a house in Felucca or Trammel, except you can't place a house in Haven.
- You can't place directly on top of a road or on a farm-field (although you may be able to overlap onto them a bit).

These restrictions won't be changing in the near future, although we may consider reassessing one or two at some point.

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Do you like to drink?
Do you like to either make up tales or listen to them?
Do you a have a tale from the past before the worlds separated?
Or per chance you are a bard and have tales to tell!

The Dragon Tavern will be having its weekly story telling night on Wednesday, October 17th at 7PM PST.

All are welcome but please stable pets before coming.
The prizes are 10K for first place and 5K for second place.

ICQ Wolf of Evermore at 39012719 in advance and rune will be provided. If you have any questions, feel free to ask via ICQ. The Dragon Tavern is located on Ice Island at 87o53’N 164o41’W.

Wolf of Evermore

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Dragon Tavern Story Night Results

We had 10 noble and valiant souls show up for the event.
Several tales were told including one made up on the spot!
We also had the continuation of an episodic story from Wolf of Evermore. It seems that he plans on telling part of the tale every week. Next week will have a longer episode.

Winners

In second place (for the third week in a row), came Dragyn, with a tale of death, life, kindness and a drunk God. Dragyn was rewarded with a prize of 5K.

And in first place came Ka-el came with a Ballad of a PK. Ka-el walked away with a 10K check and a set of arcane clothes, donated by ^F^.

Stories

Now here is a reprint of the third portion of the story "Minds Eye"

You may remember that when we left last week Khan had experienced the following:

Some how he knew that small bag was trouble at least for him. She placed the tray on the floor and forgot about modesty as she stood up and pulled on the string that kept the bag closed. As the bag came open the room went dark and the sound of rushing wind filled the room. Khan reached for his sword when a cold hand grabbed his sword hand. At the moment the lights came back on and he saw...

We now begin tonight’s portion of the tale:

Starlight was floating above him in a horizontal fashion. Terror ran though his mind for this was not possible. At that moment she lifted him up and the room disappeared. He found himself in a place in time that had no boundaries and seeming no limits. It was as if one had to think something to make it happen. As he attempted this, a helm appeared on his head and the flow of magic seemed to change. No longer did he feel that he could change the world just by wishing it but he knew she still could.

Starlight smiled a smile that means have no fear your are safe. As their surrounding seemed to move past them. The best way to describe it was they were floating and all was pasting them by at a tremendous rate of speed. As eternity came into view Khan thought his mind would implode for there was just too much information flowing into his head. As he turned to Starlight she just smiled again.

What was this? Why was this? Were the questions the appeared in his mind’s eye. Then life took a new turn and all there was were screams...

Come back next week for the next installment!

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Hail to thee Traveller! It is our pleasure to announce the first Market Day of Cove (Trammel). This will be your day to meet people and make good trade agreements. The Tradeport's Merchants with visiting merchants will be there as well. Also do remember we will have our Tavern open, and weekly knife throwing tournament will happen as well.

The Market will take place on Thursday the 18th beginning at  20 CET.

If your interested in coming to the Market and reserve a place (note that you can come without notice too, if you prefer, but you have to provide your own sales table), drop a note at our bulletin board at: http://cove.rper.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi.

The market will take place at the Tradeport tower and its yard, for exact map look at our tome at: http://cove.rper.org/.

Hoping to see thee there,
The Gaveston Family

Sounds good.

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The Trinsic Watch Arrive.

It was an evening of great joy for the people of Trinsic. Many decades had passed since they saw the Watch last. It was during the battle of the great Minax Horde in Trinsic that the Watch were destroyed but now they return by Order of Lord British to return the Trinsic Watch back to its former days of Glory.

Lord British gathered a small group of Watchmen, which would take the role as the Trinsic Watch. There he appointed one Watchman a higher rank then the others so that at least there was a minimum form of Command. However the future structure planned for this force was going to be a while to build Lord British knew that this force would not let him down nor would it let Trinsic down.

The people of Trinsic were all gathered in the Trinsic Market Place. Soon the sounds of drums could be heard from the barracks on the other side of the city. The drums grew louder and louder as they approached the Market place. The Older Trinsic Citizens would have great respect for what was about to happen, as it was indeed a memorial Occasion. Soon banners and troops marching into the market place could be seen lining up. One man in the group stood out. "Here stands the past, present and future of Trinsic. It was nearly 12 years ago that these brave soldiers were last seen. Although not the soldiers who many of you older Citizens will remember but they are indeed true followers of what they used to be. We follow their ways and we follow the path of virtue striving to aid our fellow King and our people. We come to rid this City of the plague that has griped it so firmly for the past 12 years. Rogues, Outlaws, Thieves and Murderers go unpunished until now. In the Gloriou! s words of our founder 'In Crime you shall find nothing more then Justice'. Well what we bring is Justice, and justice shall be served to those who deserve it."

The Soldiers drew Large Swords and Shields. Each one looking just as well equipped as the next. The leading figure stood to the side of the lined up Soldiers. "It is with great pleasure that we announce the return of the Trinsic Watch!" Soon the crowd broke out in cheers and clapping. Even the Trinsic Paladins and Guards were happy to see them back.

Cheers.

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Greetings people!

My father used to call himself an alchemist, altough he was an alcoholic. But he teached me the basics of producing alcohol and i was grown up to love whiskey, and so i do. Whiskey is the mans best friend, right?

North Pacific Whiskey Distillary is the result of years of planning and savings, and today, finnaly, i can proudly present my own whiskey sort: Northen Lakes - A whiskey from the north, with a taste of the cold sea, stormy nights and thick woods, stored in kegs for 16 years to fulfill the excellent taste, reserved only for the very greatest and noble people of Britannia.

Our distillary lies in a small house in the woods of Yew, here we carefully pick the finest grain and the coldest and cleanest groundwater, to produce the finest and most exclusive of all whiskey sorts.

Check out our website at http://home.swipnet.se/viktorshem/north.htm or http://northwhiskey.cjb.net

Kind Regards Lorens Pacific.

This looks really good, i hope you do well, well done for setting it up!

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I received word by pigeon that there was to be a mission to liberate Peter the Jester from the clutches of the Uruk Hai Ork Clan, so I arrived at Skara bank with a little time to spare in order to equip myself. A short time later, myself, Pedro de Tello, Arath Salon and Nemesis were met by the Mayor - Alisha Truesong. She explained the plan of action - Peter was being held in the Thieves Guild of Buc Den by a large number of Ork. The Guards were to create a diversion whilst the Mayor freed Peter and took him to safety.

Being briefed on our duties, we gated in to a location just East of the Orks location. The four Guards charged the building whilst the Mayor approached from the rear. Swathes of Ork poured out, and the Guards fell back, dodging, weaving and screaming in order to cause as much confusion as possible, knowing that full on confrontation was tantamount to suicide. As fatigue began to set in, and the adrenaline subsided, the Mayor gave word that she had been successful - Peter was free. Moving as like a school of fish, all four Guards made for the open gate back to Skara Brae, where the Mayor quickly dispelled the gate lest any Ork tried to follow.

It was quickly discovered that news of the Jesters ill treatment was not mere rumour and propaganda. He had bruises over his body, and looked somewhat emaciated, even after only a short time in the hands of the Uruk Hai.

I am pleased to say that there were no casualties - something of a miracle as we must have been outnumbered by close to two to one. I was unable to determine if there were any Ork casualties as my mind was primarily focused on survival. However, this will certainly be a lesson to them...

I have not seen much of Peter the Jester since the mission, and am unable to comment on his current health. The Guards give their best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery.

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The Mugen Shard it will pass very

October of 2001 the lucky day which comes, it becomes the 7th Shard in Japan, we open "the Mugen" provisionally. The demand with this Shard from many everyone is received, very is similar to the Korean Baekdu Shard and the Seige Perilous harsh play rule is adopted. Not only we and it repeated in introduction of this rule also the Origin Systems corporation concerning the necessity went back and forth argument. As a result, really playing in which extent many people as a provision installation, making measure, whether it can receive it came to the point of with adopting the expedient which it receives. In other words, you can call the destiny of this Shard it puts on everyone. Depending upon the participation rate of everyone, as for the Mugen whether you disappear that, the [something]. Assuming, it might compare, it probably is to be cut in history as the "red meteorite" where it shone temporarily in the Britannia sky....

Because the rule regarding the Shard below is published, please participate in the upper Mugen viewing of carefully!

* The event which applied the survivor of the Mugen survivor rule Mugen Shard is executed with main point below.

1. Period
Mugen Shard provisional open day (October 15th nighttime schedule, as for details announcement with FYI reference) to December 31st of 2001
2. Rule
Achieve the operating day which the origin systems corporation and the Electronic Arts corporation decide during period. Everyday in fixed time the number of people which log in have been done are measured in the Mugen. The number of people which are measured everyday are summed up, calculate the mean value at the number of measurements. At point in time December 31st, the mean value and specified value to over there are compared. The operating day which is necessary for the achievement is secret. As for the degree of average achievement after the Mugen Shard provisional open day, percentage in indication it can verify in the private page. As for degree of achievement verification page this way
3. Whereabouts call by result Mugen
When the result of measurement, mean value to December 31st exceeds specified value, it becomes the Japanese 7th Shard from January 1st of 2002, after that continues the Mugen Shard and keeps being managed formally. When mean value is less than specified value, the Mugen Shard disappears. When it is the achievement line last, it includes also this numerical result and the other elements and with the new Shard establishment commission which consists of the origin systems corporation and the Electronic Arts corporation examination is done, whether or not finally the Mugen is left, is judged.
Mugen shear dollar -
the Lu Mugen Shard the Siege Perilous, is the shear [something] where very is similar to the Beakdu Shard harsh play rule is applied unlike the usual shear [something]. Here the system which is not being adopted by the general Shard, it reaches, exists conversely in the general shear [something], but also the rule and the like which does not exist exists in the Mugen. As for details, please view the Mugen rule private play guide.

Usually furthermore, after the provision opening period to December 31st, in order to prefer rearing the regional community on the basis of the new Shard which the origin systems corporation decides, access restriction is applied same as when opening the shear [something]. Because of that, access from other than the Japanese region becomes impossible.

It is possible even with the Mugen Shard the veteran bonus program to be applied from when opening, to receive the bonus item. However, when the Mugen Shard disappears from above-mentioned survivor rule, count of the bonus item which is used with the Mugen Shard (the quantity) it is not altogether compensated. When receiving the bonus item during provisional open period, please consider this sufficiently.

Also, here's a bit of background on this new shard, as seen from the Adventurer's perspective:

Mugen - letter from Maren

If you think, if you probably will board to the Mugen, you do not stop, but to point to one advice. To board to the new world, preparation needing necessary in that appearance, reason. Not to be wrong even the world of the chaos which as for being able to say, as for the Mugen is harsh, makes bloody is thing. Rather than calling growth of the character, as your prayer certainly it means to be largely questioned nature don't you think? probably will be. First survive. Though however it is basic thing, it is with the Mugen so easy to be and with thing to say and to order thing to the liver. If and you intend to supply success with the Mugen, taking many people and communication, and it is to make many companions. With here Mugen, when you think it is possible regardless alone, it probably means to feel keenly the fact that it is the Oma difference.

The companion and communication applying why the importance? You explain even the after the this, but with the Mugen the town being economized, the avaricious merchants do not buy the item altogether from you. It is the case that most items are broken directly to that. Or the world where the musical instrument is broken how you have imagined?

Whether because of you there is a courage which that, from this it has been about probably to face to the Mugen, content of the Mugen how has become being to collect, we want reading these first well. Don't you think? so, the coming ‚á ‚ which lives long. Participating and succeeding with your Mugen are made to pray. You it does that unlimited possibility is opened up and the fantasy that it scatters and is therefore to be.

The guidance of virtue roughly is in all heroes thing!

- Adventurer Maren

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Mae West, a nox mage, kept up a steady stream of In Noxes, driving Havoc's health down to dangerously low levels. He recovered, and answered with his own poisoning spell. West failed to cure, and Havoc hit her with a powerful energy bolt that ended the fight.

KMSEMPERFI fell to Mae West's poison in the finals, and he took third place this week. Dex also made it to the finals, but fell to Davey Havoc. Dex had apparently been offered a fourth place prize from a fetching Fight Night Staff Member named Amber. After the fights, he stormed the pit house, demanding his promised prize. Amber placed his prize upon his lips and Dex left a happy man.

Davey Havoc now has a pass to the Final Fight-Off, the end of season champions only Fight Night that will pay the winner 1 Million GP. Next Sunday is the last Fight Night of the regular season, and your last chance to get your name added to the roster of winners who will compete on the 28th. Fight Night begins at 4PM PST in the Free City of Oasis. The pit house is located in Felucca's Compassion Desert, at co-ordinates 67o 14' N - 47o 31' E.

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The evening yesterday was shaped by a huge amount of players and fans. Even before the game the organizers had to crack a hard nut, since the ground had been overrun by Hooligans and a generator near the stadium continuously spat out replenishment more of them! But the "Brotherhood of Light" and some friends bravely took that challenge and quickly dispatched the danger for the approaching visitors.




So the ground could be prepared with united strengths just still in time and the game precedence was determined. The team chief of every team had to yield his team book for this purpose and in the lot procedure the parties were determined. This was a slightly chaotic stage of the evening, because some teams were quite late on the place and furthermore unannounced.

After this hot stage was however survived, three thrilling qualifing games followed with theses results:




The games pleased the spectator pack a lot, who could cheer their teams with full voice power. The red-spicy lady squad had in no doubt the loudest fans, even so due to their "athletic" nature the question of the whereabouts of the ball became quite a minor consideration. Pitiful enough, the "Orks" had no eye for some true beauty and so denied the fans another game for the girls.



The three winners came a round further and by lot procedures the "Running Mongbats" qualified directly into the final while the "Orks" and "Joker" were having to "fight" for the entry there first. In the serious will almost to annihilate the opponent on the, in the meantime a little sludgy, field - both teams gave their utmost. However at the end the Orks with 4:2 could achieve the victory and opened into the final against the "Running Mongbats".



And even there they could not be stopped and conquered the "Mongbats" in a furious race again with a 4:2. But who knows what strange magic the shaman of the "Orks", who had to be reprimanded from the play ground by the referee a couple of times, had thrown over his team. The tactics of the "Orks" was anyway famous and also the team play seemed exemplary.

"Congratulation Orks" !"

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Date : Friday, Oct 19th
Time : 9PM
Time Zone : Eastern
Shard : Lake Superior (What else?)
Facet : Trammel
Sextant Coords : Ilshenar
Submitter's name : Sabina Nikolai, OSR Guildmistress (Via Bluewolf, OSR public relations)
URL : http://www.geocities.com/bluewolf10th/OSR/Tavern.html

Our spies have located what seems to be the Main generator powering all Golems. This enormous Control tower is located in the furthest Western part of the new Gargoyle lands recently discovered. We, the Order of the Silver Rose, send a call to arms to all the inhabitants of Britannia to destroy this monstrosity and weaken our enemies into defeat!

All players wishing to participate in this raid are to meet at the Gypsy camp South of the shrine of Compassion.

For those who seek to view this monstrosity for themselves, pictures of our target have been posted on our Guildhouse's billboard.

Sabina Nikolai, OSR High Marshall

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65th Assembly of the 6th High Council

Date: Monday, October 15th, 2001
Time: 10 PM EST/9 PM CST
Location: Magincia Parliament Building, Trammel Facet.

Agenda:

• Announcement regarding the Royal Guard.
• Announcement regarding Lady Aine Blackwood by her Adjutant, Lord Grokken.
• Announcement by Prince Raymond of Nujel'm regarding the 3rd Annual Nujel'm Costume Ball.
• Announcement from Harmony regarding the Fall Festival and Chef's Faire.
• Other items to be announced at the meeting.

The High Council of Britannia

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There's one week left to enter the annual Haunted Home competition!

Submit your scariest, goriest or funniest Halloween/Fall house decorations for consideration. First, Second and Third places will be announced at All Hallow's Eve Bash 2, scheduled for October 26th.

To enter, contact Darius at ICQ 988442 or Mirabel at ICQ 11015595, or drop us an email at [email protected]. Prepare a marked rune with your name and the building name on it. Entries from both Felucca and Trammel are accepted. Your building must be ready to judge by Friday, October 19th.

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Cedric Greywolf correctly identified the spot a mere two minutes after Maelwyn, and Dame Judi sent in the co-ords just moments after that. This was a well known spot. Lots of people were able to send in correct co-ordicates, including BF, Lion of Judah, Mr.T, Erryn, Charles Colvin, Leo, and Eram'aluum of Sonoma. Next week's Where's Here will be a little bit tougher, and expect a doozy for Halloween!

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A new game has been added to Red Devils Auction this week. It's called The Free Numbers Giveaway Game. The Head Auctioneer places a number in a book and tells the Audience to call out a number from 1 to 100--whomever has the number matching the book wins the prize--multiple prizes will be distributed during the course of the Auction. The Staff did a test-run this past week, and everyone enjoyed the game. You can win Faction Silver, Exceptional, Semi-Rares, Gold, or possibly even a silly prize. Come out and enjoy our Great Auction, and maybe you could be the lucky person to win a Free Prize!

We are located in Felucca at The Red Devil Storefront and Auction Tower (coordinates: 34o43N/44o51E) or a 5 minute brisk walk from East Brit following the road--north of the swamp, and south of the desert. Runes are available at The Cove Merchant Guilds House outside the Cove Gates, the vendor's name is Kerry.

Have no fear of coming to our Auction, Our Tower is a Neutral Area for all Players, and we have the best Guards around to protect our Audience. We also have a Snooper and his job is only to check players packs {purple potions} We call him the Bomb Squad Snooper. Be kind to the snooper as that is his job, to help protect the Audience.

The (GLV) Guardians of Light and Virtue will be running the Auction, and the Burning Heart Guild will be handling The Guard Duty.

The Auction is held every Tuesday, beginning promptly at 8:30 pm CST/9:30 pm EST. We also take submissions on the Monday before the Auction at the same time. ~ Rattler (GLV)

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To win, just email the co-ordinates of the spot to [email protected] with "Where's Here" as the subject. The first person to send in the correct co-ordinates wins 25K and a blinding flash of glory.

The guild Sponsorship program for Where's Here in November and December is filling up fast. There is only one Where's Here slot left open. If no guild takes this slot, then Where's Here will take a Christmas Vacation, and a new set of slots will open up when Where's Here resumes in 2002.

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We have received news of a glorious uniting of two people in marriage. These two people are Renald and Lizabeth. If you would like to attend their wedding, read on:

Hail! The wedding of Renald and Lizabeth is taking place at Serpent's Hold (Trammel) Sunday night at 7:30PM central time. The bride and groom ask that there are no weapons, books, helms, nor hats visible during the ceremony, and they also ask that all pets be stabled or taken care of before the wedding. There will be dancing, eating, and much more at the reception after the ceremony, in which gifts to the bride and groom will be exchanged. If you need a rune, contact Renald at [email protected]. As a final note, gates will be provided near the Britain Bank before the ceremony will take place. We hope to see you all there!

I would like to take this time to wish a happy marriage to Renald and Lizabeth, and may they live and prosper together for many years. Until then, safe travels, and have a merry day!

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Getting into the Spirit (so to speak) of the Fall Season, we'll be judging Britannia's best-dressed holiday homes, looking for the most creative and energetic decorations throughout the land. We'll be accepting entries prior to judging until the evening of October 22nd. Please mark a rune, label it with your email or ICQ for contact, and attend any of the following "drop-offs" to enter:

This Wednesday, Oct 17th, 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
This Wednesday, Oct 17th, 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Friday, October 19th, 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
Friday, October 19th, 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Monday, October 22nd, 9:00pm CST, Vesper Bank, Trammel
Monday, October 22nd, 9:30pm CST, Vesper Bank, Felucca

Trammel-
- Garden City, a few steps North of Cove
- Impy's Castle, on the Isle of Ice

Felucca-
- Lincoln Public Library, the 2nd Log Cabin following the water east from Britain.

The runes will be kept in a book at the places mentioned above, so any folks who can't make the tour will be able to take a look at their leisure.

Gates will be provided to the tour 'hubs' from Britain and Moonglow Banks in Trammel and Felucca, beginning at 8:30 CST. Announcement of winners will take place at 10:30 by the central skies, at the Yew Crypts in Trammel.

This will also be the kickoff for the Dead Man's Ball: don't fret over the costume, we're holding the party …as ghosts! Under shroud of death, we'll be holding the Ball, storytelling, games and a VERY different approach to events--we can supply poison for anyone who is alive upon reaching the crypts, or the denizens of the tombs will be more than happy to accommodate (if you don't resist)! Be sure to not bring anything you don't want to lose. We will gladly resurrect everyone before departure…

We're accepting prize donations and volunteers to help staff the event. Please contact us at [email protected] for more info, or post to the Great Lakes Forum.

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In the lands of Ilshenar, a city filled with gargoyles has been found. At 5:00 PM on Saturday Central time, I will be leading an expedition into these newly discovered places. We will meet by the Skara Brae moongate in Felucca. I hope to see you there.

Dusty

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A Call for Aid
The time has come for every able bodied citizen of Britannia to come to the aid of the land. Evil lurks just around the corner. Soon the cities of Britannia, both facets, will be under attack from the cruel armies of The Empire of Armegeddon.

We have a choice to make. Either sit idly by and let them take over, or we all fight back. I realize that some of us are not fighters. But you all can help. Even the newest arrival to our fair land can help.

I am calling all of you to help aid us fight this evil in a unique way. I would ask you all to help gather resources that will be used to make supplies for the armies that will defend our cities from EOA.

How will we do this?? Monday, October 15th will be designated as *Resource Gathering* Day. Go out and gather wood for shafts, feathers for arrows, wool for cloth to make bandages, ore to be made into ingots, gather hides for leather armor, even take a walk thru the woods and gather regs for spells.

Anyone can do this....it costs you nothing but time. Monday evening beginning at 7 PM CST, there will be people at all banks in both facets who will gate you to the proper supply depot to deposit your gatherings.

This isn't much to ask of those of you who do not wish to see the cities of Britannia taken by EOA. Bring your resources to any bank in either facet and look for people who will gate you to the supply places.

The second part of this Call for Aid, is to all GM craftspeople. We need your talent to use these resources to make supplies for the army of defenders. If you would like to help, please feel free to contact me at 30624507 and get the details of when and where you can go to help.

It is time we all banded together to defeat EOA, whether it be by gathering resources or by helping our forces to defend the cities.

I need not tell you what will happen if we fail to defend the cities. I leave that choice up to each and all of you.

Time is of an essence.........They are ready to strike......Will we be prepared???

May the Gods protect us all

White Lotus

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Silvanus Fellows continued to gate from city to city to post the following information to the message boards.

The Crusader's Of Hope based in the Monastery of Rose would like to welcome all young and virtually young citizens to a giveaway. We will be passing out various styles of GM and low end magic armor to those who need every ounce of dexterity possible to survive, GM and low end magical weapons made of metal and wood, as well as shields, medical kits, and rune books. One may find a few special surprise gifts as well. This event is intended for the young only. Veteran citizens may not find much use in what is given out.

Date: Saturday October 13, 349
Time: Two shifts, 9-noon est. and again from 9-midnight est.
Shard: These gifts are available on the shard of Great Lakes and the facet of Trammel.
Sextant Coordinates: The coordinates are 42* 5'N x 37* 58' E (Travel Gates will be provided from Vesper, Moonglow and Minoc) Templars or Crusader's will be on hand in Britain to guide you by way of the Eastern bridge (approximately a 2 minute walk).

Silvanus Fellows concluded by writing his name
The Glorious Silvanus, Turcopole C*H

and left an address to find additional information about the event and the guild. http://templars.crhope.com/

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Some people have been asking about the Repair Service Contracts and the Commodity Deeds, specifically about whether nor not you could steal them. So, you may be happy to know that both the Repair Service Contracts and Commodity Deeds are "blessed," in that they cannot be stolen (if kept in the top level of one's backpack), and cannot be looted.

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

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Come one, come all to Edinburgh's Fall Founding Festival!

It has been just over a year since the founding of our fair village and the guilds that comprise Edinburgh Village invite the citizens of Britainnia to join us is our celebration. The Festival will be held on Sunday evening, Oct. 14 from 7 to 10PM in the eastern sky. Edinburgh is located by the Wrong Mountains, just outside of the protected area for the Dungeon of Wrong.

Originally founded by the crafters of the Britainnia Order of Woodcrafters, Edinburgh has since expanded to include the Guardians of Edinburgh and Village of Edinburgh guilds. Crafters from all 3 guilds will be on hand, in the town hall, to do crafting and repairs throughout the evening. GM smiths will be available for free repairs. GM tinkers, tailors and carpenters will also be there. Crafters will gladly craft one item for people who bring the raw materials needed to make the item, free of charge. Please remember that difficult to craft items often have a number of failures before the item is successfully crafted with loss of materials upon each failure, so more than the minimum requirements should be brought for difficult to craft items. Limited amounts of raw materials will be available for sale at slightly above NPC prices.

A raffle will be held with a 50K purse. Tickets will be available throughout the evening for 100gp each, with the winner announced at the end of the evening. You must be present to win.

The first event will be a Scavenger hunt that will begin promptly at 7PM and run till 8PM. This symbolizes our citizens hurriedly gathering up their belongings at the time of the great splitting of the facets. Participants will have until 8PM to gather the items listed. All returning after 8PM will be ruled ineligible. Prizes will be a statue from a rat mage for first place and a fully charged set of arcane clothing with matching GM leather armor for the runner-up.

As scavenged items are checked for accuracy, visitors are urged to visit the Mermaid's Tale Casino, located in a small tower on the Edinburgh coast to try their luck. After all luck played heavily into our being able to build our homes

At 8:20 our auction will begin to remind us of how we had to sell off possessions to prepare for our move to the new lands of Trammel. Items will range from magic weapons to decorating services. The auction will be held in the Whispering Pines Tavern and will run until 9:20PM.

The bare-back race around the Wrong Mountain begins at 9PM. Participants may ride a standard horse, llama, ostard or ridgeback clad only in their skivvies. No ethereal mounts are allowed. Riders must circumnavigate the entire Wrong Mountain range, with checkpoints along the way. Prizes will be: 1st place-Big Fish trophy deed, 2nd place-10k amethyst jewelry set, 3rd place-a savage ridgeback. Here we remember the mad race to stake our claim for a home in the new lands of Trammel. Racers will gather on the Village Green north of town.

Following the race, the raffle winner will be drawn and the 50k check presented to the lucky winner at the Whispering Pines Tavern.

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Over the last week I have completed these additional features for the Crafting System -- some had just not been gotten to yet, while others were promised in earlier posts. Here is a summary of those items:

1> Tailoring - if you only have 1 color of cloth in your pack, that cloth is automatically used. Otherwise, you are prompted to target the cloth to use.

2> Tinkering - trapping containers, faction traps, and making trap removal kits are all working now.

3> Carpentry - player-made chests can be made lockable again.

4> Miscellaneous recipe fixes - oil cloths needed cloth, sashes needed leather, misc other similar items have been taken care of.

5> Misc. text message changes (many of which need a client update with new cliloc files to bee seen)

6> Items created will no longer blink at the player's feet before appearing in the backpack. The items will instead appear smoothly in the backpack.

7> If all materials used to create an item come from the same subcontainer in the player's backpack, the resulting item is placed in that subcontainer. Otherwise, the item goes directly in the character's backpack.

8> Cartography can now be done with blank scrolls.

9> The crafting menu now automatically re-opens after the player responds to the maker's mark prompt.

10> Various weird numbers appearing over players and objects (these were actually debugging messages meaningful internally) have been removed.

11> Mining - fixed problem where some places in Ilshenar produce ore that can't be stacked and when smelted produces 0 ingots. Also fixed the problem that caused ore to be effectively smelted twice on failure when certain types of forges were used.

There's probably other stuff I've done but forgotten about here. Please use this thread to give me additional feedback. Note that the design is now definitely locked, and the code is only being changed at this point to fix bugs or serious design flaws. So -- while our QA people go over this with a fine-toothed comb, do y'all know of any issues still unresolved with the crafting system overhaul?

I also stated in another thread that :

* A memory leak that was also causing sluggishness in the crafting menus has been resolved. This won't be visible until the next client update. The memory leak is fixed, and the crafting menus will be just as fast as other menus in the game.

* Fixed problems in materials consumption that were causing excess bandwidth usage. This fix should be most visible to modem users.

Then Hanse “corrected” Vex’s post:

"This fix should be most visible to modem users."

Don't you mean invisible? *ducks and runs*

-Hanse
UO Live Designer
Happy birthday to UO!

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Vex, Designer, posted these new features for the Crafting System on the MyUO Discussion Boards. He is asking for help identifying any other unresolved issues with the system.

Recently, there was a problem with players’ houses not being refreshed properly due to an issue with the automatic house refresh system. We have kept a very close eye on the situation, and all houses were manually refreshed while we addressed the issue. The problem has since been fixed, and all houses should now be refreshing automatically on a daily basis. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

It’s important to note that house decay itself has not been frozen. Houses will decay a small amount over the course of a day; however, they will be completely refreshed the following day.

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I started playing Ultima Online about 3 and a half years ago. Computer and video games were new to me. I was never really interested in playing them. At first, I was even reluctant to play UO. I had watched friends play the game and couldn’t quite see the point of it. Finally, they talked me into creating a character and giving the game a chance. From that moment on, I realized I had found my greatest addiction ever. I played the game as often as I could, and have made some awesome friendships over the years. For me, the friendships and the fun times are what kept me coming back to the game each day.

After playing for a while I moved on to the counselor program. That was fun for me because it gave me the opportunity to play a game I loved so much on a completely different level, as well as allowed me to give something back to the community by providing assistance to the players. I was in the process of moving back to my home state of Texas when I got word they were hiring Game Masters. Woohoo!!!

I have been working as a Senior Game Master for just over a year now. I know a lot of you are probably not familiar with the role of a Senior Game Master. Your first instinct may be to request one of us if you are unhappy with the answer another Game Master has given you. However, the best place to send any concerns about in-game service is to [email protected]. The Senior Game Master is there to manage all the calls that come into the queue, as well as complete various administrative tasks. There are some calls we receive that are extremely important, such as calls about hacked accounts and calls from players who have been scammed. Help requests like these need to get attention immediately, and we do everything in our power to make sure a Game Master goes to these calls as quickly as possible. So, if you get a call from a Game Master asking you to provide more information, it is nothing more than an attempt on our part to make sure that high priority calls get attention as quickly as possible.

I know that often times players do not think that the support staff cares about them. The majority of us play the game too, and we know what it is like to have things go wrong in game while we are trying to play and have fun. It can be frustrating and sometimes upsetting, even more so when the support staff is unable to correct the situation. As I close this, let me leave you with this thought: we do care about the player base, and we strive to make everyone’s gaming experience as enjoyable as possible.

Platinum
Player Relations
Ultima Online

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The items that were listed in Testing for the Next Update and published to the Great Lakes and Oceania shards earlier this week (commodity deeds, repair contracts, and secure house trades), were published to all remaining shards. This publish became active on the East and West Coast shards following their Thursday morning maintenance period, and became active on the European and Asian shards following their scheduled Friday morning maintenance period. These changes have now been added to Latest Game Updates.

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1) All virtues are related back to their founding principles, and the game keeps track of both the character’s advancement in each virtue as well as their advancement in the three principles, which will be an internally tracked mechanism. Thus, a player who is very compassionate will have grown in the principle of love, and therefore the other virtues that are derived from love gain a small benefit from this (sacrifice and spirituality). Thus, all virtues are inseparable, intertwined together. This mechanic represents the concept that the virtues are not mutually exclusive, for it makes little sense to have a very compassionate person who is also a miser. It is also much easier for a very compassionate person to become selfless and care more for others’ gain than for their own (i.e. sacrifice).
--I like the concept of having gains in one virtue tie into another. It's something we can add to the virtues later once they are all in the game. Remember, we are doing this one or two virtues at a time. Doing it this way allows us to put them in faster. If we tried to do all 8 virtues at once, you probably wouldn't see them for a year...if ever.

2) Before a character can become virtuous, they must learn to open themselves to the three principles and the virtues they directly represent. Thus, a character must first begin by exploring the avenues of compassion, honesty, and valor. To justify this, we will examine the real world briefly. To begin on the path of spiritual enlightenment, one does not immediately begin to experiment with the further reaches of their spirituality. A newly converted Catholic will not start with exorcisms. Thus, for a character to begin their growth in more advanced virtues, they must already have furthered themselves in the three principles. (Remember, by growing in each virtue, their principles will also grow.)

To justify these previous points, we will use an example. A person donates a large amount of their possessions to a poor citizen. While this shows virtue in sacrifice, does it not also make them compassionate? Does it not also make sense that only a compassionate person would make such a donation? Also, this donation says nothing of their honesty or valor (and therefore their truth and courage).
--I think we're going to have to move past the idea of using the Principles, at least at first. While I totally agree they are an important aspect of the virtues, the fact that we are adding virtues one or two at a time and we have specific reasons for adding the two we are adding first (as I explained in my original post) that I still feel very strongly about. I don't agree that one must follow the path of valor, compassion, and honesty first. That assumes that the person wants to follow in those virtues. Remember, we are *not* creating a quest of the avatar system with this. The idea is for players to chose which virtues are important to them and then follow their paths. The possibility of "achieving" all 8 virtues will be slim...if we do this right.

3) Once a person has demonstrated growth in many of the virtues (which, by our previous definition also gives them some amount of virtue in other areas, so, to make it simpler, have good truth, love, and courage), they may begin exploring more advanced paths in virtue. If a person has shown the ability to love and be truthful and courageous, they may begin on the road to spiritual enlightenment. It is only through demonstration of these three principles that deems them worthy of the greater knowledge of one’s existence. They must have the courage to discover the real truth within themselves, a labor of love. An untrustworthy, dishonest person has neither desire nor the character strength to become spiritual. Likewise, a hateful and malicious person has little to gain from a greater knowledge of the spiritual workings of the universe. A timid, frightful, and closed-minded person does not have the resolve to discover that their view of the world may be shattered and replaced by a greater, more humbling view, which leads to the final virtue.
--My response to this is similar to #2. While I really like both 2 and 3, they have a bit too much of a single player game design in them. Or perhaps I am just reading this wrong. Either way, what I wrote for #2 applies here too.

4) Once a person has challenged their view, and put them self on the brink of the inviting vice of pride and turned away, has enlightened themselves to the absolute truth of existence, and learned to love everything equally, has a person truly become to be humble. Humility is not a doctrine followed by those who seek a means to an end. Those that would “lower” them self to help the less fortunate cannot experience humility. The truly humble know there are no positions greater or less than their own. The last step on the road to Avatar-hood is not an easy one.

(Points 3 and 4 are an in-character way of saying you can’t gain spirituality until you have a solid foundation in love, truth, and courage, and you can’t gain humility until you have a solid foundation in spirituality.)
--Again, response is the same as in #2. I think we are going to disagree that the order in which the virtues are followed is important.

5) Each virtue has a corresponding antithesis, or as some call it an anti-virtue. While I believe that creating a system that rewards evil deeds is even more conceptually flawed than creating one that rewards good deeds (rewarding, evil deeds have been one of the primary forces for change in online games), having the opposite of each virtue be a game mechanic serves a purpose.
--Agreed here. I have no desire to reward evil deeds. While I know there are some people that role-play evil characters and I have nothing but the greatest of respect for them...the potential for exploitation for rewarding evil deeds far exceeds that of good deeds.

A rich man may give a poor man a sum of money. Is this sacrifice? Yes. However, the rich man may also have unimaginable sums of money left over. Can this, then, truly be called sacrifice? It is my opinion that it cannot. Therefore, you can perform deeds that allow you to grow in virtues, and performing others (or, in some cases, NOT performing others) will have the opposite effect: you will become less virtuous. A few examples.

a) The cap, if you will, of sacrifice gain is inversely proportional to the gold a player has in the bank. A system of evaluating other assets will have to be implemented in order for there not to be a simple work around of storing wealth in non-gold form. In other words, you can’t be advanced in sacrifice if you are rich.
--Good idea, but easily exploited. All one has to do is put the excess gold they want keep on antoher character on another account. No way to accurately track the two.

b) Gaining a murder count will have drastic consequences on your compassion and justice. It is perceivable that your level of honor will also suffer.
--This I like a lot.

c) Stealing from innocents will have drastic consequences on your justice, honor, and honesty.
--Again, good thinking.

d) If you engage an enemy, and are forced to retreat without being engaged by other forces, your valor and honor will suffer as a result.
--This one sounds good, but might be very hard, if not impossible, to track. One thing to remember is that anytime you design a system that has to know the intent of the player that system is inherently flawed. It is virtually impossible for a computer system to guage intent.

e) A humble person cannot be the leader of a party, the leader of a guild, or equip certain items or control certain creatures. (Glacial staves, as an example, are hardly the mark of a humble individual.)
--Again, interesting idea, but how is this fun? I'd like this in a single player game, but in an MMOG where we are trying to encourage people to play together I don't think this would work. One thing to always remember to ask yourself when designing a system is "how is this idea fun?". If its not fun, then it could be trouble.

f) Dying has a negative effect on your valor.
--Not sure I really understand this, even after reading your explanation. Dying to an enemy is no more or less valorous than defeating them. Running away or recalling away would seem to fit better...but again, hard to track.

6) As you “grow” in each virtue, it will become progressively harder to grow further. While almost anyone can show token compassion from time to time, it is the rare individual who is always compassionate and never succumbs to hatred. Because certain actions that may allow you to grow in some virtues are the antithesis of others, it will be very difficult to be very virtuous in all virtues at one time. This relates back to the concept that all virtues are intertwined, and based upon common principles.
--Agreed. Although I am not sure if I like the idea of intwining them (again, I know they are, but I talked about why not to do this in my previous post). I totally agree that it should be hard, if not nearly impossible, to gain in all 8 at the same time.

7) A non-absolute scale will represent “growth” in virtues. There will not be definite levels, or fixed points at which things change, but will rather shown to the player as a smooth scale, represented perhaps by an indicator on a slider bar for each virtue.
-Not possible, especially if you have rewards in the system (which we are going to, for reasons I explained in my previous post). You can hide the numbers from the players (which we plan to do) but the bottom line is that the system itself will be based on numbers. The players will see their progression in the virtues through a graphical interface (a new gump) that shows all 8 symbols and hues them depending on how far you have progressed in them though. But again, those symbols will hue based on numerical values that the computer tracks. No other way to do it.

--Again, let me say that I really liked your post. While I may not agree with parts of it, I greatly respect and appreciate your thoughts. I think we both may be coming at this from different angles though. I see a lot of ideas based on judging intent in your designs and that is very difficult to do.

--I also read a lot of "this system should be a role-playing system" in your ideas. What you have written is a very cool system...cool if someone already has a very good understanding of the virtues. If they don't, I think you'd lose them from the get-go. I talked about that in my previous post, but I think it bears repeating. I agree with you, but any system that is designed for role-players will NOT encourage others to role-play who do not already. That to me is a huge loss of potential. But a system that encourages role-playing but is not made specifically for role-players CAN increase the number of people who role-play in the game.

--The virtues are a wonderful and complicated ideal. In truth, no system on the planet (not even those made in the single player games) can ever truly capture what they mean. But, they are a part of Ultima and hence, should be a part of Ultima Online as much as is possible.

--I hope I wasn't too blunt with my comments. I feel very strongly about putting the virtues in UO and I want to do it right. But by "right" I mean not only for those that feel strongly about the virtues, but also by those who barely have any idea what they are. I think we can all agree that the more people in UO that know and understand the virtues, the better the community will be.


____________________
Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
"a wizard did it"

If the virtue system is implemented without giving anything for being true to a different (more evil) path, then the nature of good and evil is imbalanced. Why would you need an avatar if everyone normally could easily defeat the villain? I think that something would have to be given to the people who ROLEPLAY Evil. I understand that giving Sir Twinky extra ANYTHING for sitting around and calling people n00b's while looting and griefing would just be totally wrong.
--How do you differnciate the two? Again, this is an intent issue, and judging intent is virtually impossible through code. How can I tell if you killed that other player because you are role-playing evil or just because you want their lewt and lord the kill over them? This is why I said that I have the greatest respect for those that actually role-play evil characters. It's damn hard to do.

The solution must deal with these certain assumptions:
1. Evil cannot (and should not) be rewarded for being evil
--Agreed.

2. The balance between 'good' and 'bad' must be mantained
--Also agreed. Which is why we (OSI) try to play the role of evil as often as possible.

3. The rewards of the virtue system cannot be too good. They must be modest, making the system worthwhile to use, but not as worthwhile to exploit.
--I think people's definitions of "too good" vs. "no good" differs...which makes this part hard. I agree with the spirit of your thought though.

4. People should have to dedicate at least some time to following the path of the virtues. (this might actually instill some morals into people but probably not. Still, we should give it a try...)
--I don't agree here. If someone doesn't want to follow the virtues, they don't have to. In fact, someone can completely role-play a good character and not follow the virtues. The virtues are an ideal, not a method of judging morality.

The solution?
1. Install a system of virtues that allows people to walk it's path.
--That's the idea.

2. Reward people who perform their virtue/ideal (love, courage, truth) through normal game play. Meaning, don't let someone spam "I will help thee" to get up a 'tier' of compassion. Make them do something different like having them WALK , physically escort an NPC to a city/house/location that they want to go to, through a dangerous area...
--Agreed here as well. The idea for all virtues will hopefully be doing things that require the player to actually think about their actions and "work" (the fun kind of work though) for it.

3. Allow those who Rp evil to be able to have some interaction with the virtue system, without necessarily having to perform 'good'. Say the evil person 'talks' the NPC out of wanting to go back to his family, and coerces him to work alongside the evil character. (I know, pretty stupid lame example but I don't know much about game mechanics and am just thinking how a virtue system could be implemented through gameplay.)
--Difficult to do, but I would love to hear more ideas.

Just a few ideas for how someone evil ::evil grin:: could get something out of this system without having to perform good deeds. I tried to Rp good, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
--Heh, I tried to RP evil and couldn't do it. That's one of the reasons I respect those that do so much.
____________________
Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
"a wizard did it"