AoS Changes Noted, UPDATE Options

[Borg]

Miscellaneous AoS Changes Feb 10 2003 6:05PM CST
In many ways, the Age of Shadows expansion promises a “whole new UO.” With such a large number of spotlighted changes coming all at once, we wanted to take a moment to call attention to some of the less obvious happenings and improvements that will also be occurring.

Adventuring Skills & Activities

Virtually all combat formulae have changed—some slightly and others quite a bit—to accommodate the new changes and systems.
The Skill Scrolls of Power will now include scrolls for Chivalry, Focus, Necromancy, Stealing, and Stealth.
As of AoS, there will no longer be a “stun paralyze” effect. The “Paralyze” special move (both weapon and Wrestling versions) has been converted to impose a “normal” paralyze effect which has a duration of 4 seconds.
Arms Lore will continue to be used for the Wrestling “Disarm” move, but will no longer give substantial information about items. Players will now be able to see all of an item’s properties in a new menu.
Gaining in the Parry skill will no longer be limited to using a shield, since you can now parry using weapons (unless your Parry skill is locked, of course).
Discordance no longer affects a creature’s primary and derived stats. Instead, it applies negative modifiers to some of the new Stat types and Resistances, for the duration of the effect.
Item Identification is no longer required to reveal item properties, and the future of this skill is being discussed.
Magic-related Abilities & Activities

First circle spells are now interruptible. However, spellcasters who have items with the new “faster casting” item property may time their spells to cast even before another spellslinger has the opportunity to interrupt it.
All spell damage values have changed.
The Inscription skill will give a slight spell damage bonus. It also still gives benefits to the Reactive Armor, Magic Reflection, and Protection spells.
It is especially important to note that the Evaluate Intelligence skill now affects spell damage independently of the target’s Resisting Spells skill.
Resisting Spells skill gain should now be more reliable.
The Resisting Spells skill may only defend against non-damaging offensive spells (Blood Oath, Clumsy, Corpse Skin, Curse, Feeblemind, Mana Drain, Mana Vampire, Mind Rot, Pain Spike, Paralyze, Poison, Poison Field, and Weaken).
Protection now has a casting speed penalty, in addition to Physical Resistance and Resisting Spells penalties. However, the “faster casting” item property may be used to offset this penalty.
Poison Field now deals a poison level based on the poison skill of caster.
The Mindblast damage calculation formula has changed. Note: Mindblast damage is based on Intelligence and Magery skill, but Evaluate Intelligence skill is not a factor.
Trapped pouch damage has changed. Note: Users of UO Assist should be cautious, as counting items with UOA may trigger trapped pouches.
Changes have been made to the Earthquake spell’s line-of-sight check; Earthquake can no longer be cast through walls.
Blade Spirit and Energy Vortex creatures now have fewer hit points.
Meditation’s Mana regeneration is no longer less gradually ineffective as you wear “better” armor. It either works fully (while wearing up to leather and “mage armor” items) or doesn’t work at all.
Armor & Weapon Conversions

Virtually all weapon & armor stats have changed. This includes their strength requirements (which have increased), damage values, and swing speeds.
Weapons:
“Exceptional” weapons gain a 20% bonus to their damage rating (except for Runic weapons, which will only get a 10% bonus).
Weapon Damage Enchantments:
“Ruin” becomes 15% damage bonus
“Might” becomes 20% damage bonus
“Force” becomes 25% damage bonus
“Power” becomes 30% damage bonus
“Vanquishing” becomes 35% damage bonus
Weapon Accuracy Enchantments:
“Accurate” becomes 2% hit chance increase
“Surpassingly” becomes 4% hit chance increase
“Eminently” becomes 6% hit chance increase
“Exceedingly” becomes 8% hit chance increase
“Supremely” becomes 10% hit chance increase
Weapon Durability Enchantments:
“Durable” becomes 20% durability bonus
“Substantial” becomes 50% durability bonus
“Massive” becomes 70% durability bonus
“Fortified” becomes 100% durability bonus
“Indestructible” becomes 120% durability bonus
Armor:
Armor Rating (AR) will no longer exist. Instead, there will be five possible intrinsic resistances: Physical, Fire, Cold, Energy, and Poison.
Armor Durability Enchantments:
“Durable” becomes 20% durability bonus
“Substantial” becomes 50% durability bonus
“Massive” becomes 70% durability bonus
“Fortified” becomes 100% durability bonus
“Indestructible” becomes 120% durability bonus
Armor Defense Enchantments:
“Defense” becomes self repair 1
“Guarding” becomes self repair 1 and +1 to all five resistances
“Hardening” becomes self repair 1 and +2 to all five resistances
“Fortification” becomes self repair 1 and +3 to all five resistances
“Invulnerability” becomes self repair 1 and +4 to all five resistances
Items & Crafting

Some magic items (ex. glacial staff, vet reward robe & cloak) will have their special properties converted into proper AoS-equivalent properties. Some converted items will seem very similar to the previous versions, others will see significant changes.
Certain magic items that are not used in the new magic item system will no longer spawn. These include items that incorporate silver and the Clumsy, Feeblemind, Harm, Lightning, Magic Arrow, Mana Drain, Paralyze, and Weaken spells.
Order & Chaos shields will now be craftable. All players may use them, although Order characters may not use Chaos shields and Chaos characters may not use Order shields.
Newly-improved Large Bulk Order Deeds will be worth more points.
Bolas are now stackable and re-usable—they’ll drop at the target’s feet after each use.
“Newbie” (a.k.a. “valueless”) items will no longer exist in the game. Spellbooks will instead become “blessed” (“no loot/no steal”). Players that wish to ensure any other items stay with them post-death/resurrection should use the Item Insurance option.
Creatures & NPCs

Only the prospective owner needs to make a successful loyalty check when transferring a pet. So, if you have a pet you can't control in your stables, you may still trade it to someone who can.
Pets will no longer drop obey the “drop” command unless they are bonded to their owner.
To accommodate the new combat system changes, many stats have changed for all pre-and post-AoS creatures—including animals, monsters, and tamed pets. Skill values have changed, elemental resistances & damages have been added, loot has been changed, and hit points were reduced approximately 40%. (Note: Before AoS, damage done against creatures was 2x normal before. Now creatures and humans use the same damage scale.)
All remaining UO:LBR monsters can now be found spawning in the Yew swamps of Trammel and the entrance to Exodus’ lair in Ilshenar.
Many NPC shopkeeper prices have changed (for both buying and selling).
The range limit for buying from and selling to NPCs has been extended.
Locations & Travel

All newly-created Necromancer template characters will start in Malas’ city of Umbra. All other newly-created characters (using either the basic profession or advanced character templates) will start in either Trammel’s city of Haven or Malas’ city of Umbra.
The ability to use Recall and Gate Travel for inter-facet travel between Felucca, Trammel, and Malas is now possible. A player-created Moongate that leads from a non-PvP ruleset to a PvP ruleset will be red-hued and provide an alert to any player attempting to use it.
Britannian scholars suggest that the ability to use Recall or Gate Travel to exit Ilshenar will be possible in the near future.

[Wolf]

Thanks Borg,
That's a great summary. One question if anyone knows. It references spellbooks as beeing blessed but doesn't mention runebooks. Does that mean we have to insure our runebooks to protect them?

[Borg]

Rune books and Spell Books are blessed and should always be in your main pack...NEVER in sub packs

[Leah]

All VERY usefull information..now if my copy of AoS would JUST GET HERE!!!