Steel DarKnight

*Little behind so here we go* FYI Publish 19 on Test Center Jul 3 2003 4:59PM CST (GMT -06:00) Publish 19 is now available on a Test Center shard. Here’s a short list of some of the changes you’ll see on Test Center 5: Bulk Order Books Quick Self-looting Blocking Items on the Terrain Publish 19 Bugfixes If you’ve never been on one of these shards, you’re in for a treat. Test Center shards are used for us to examine new features, systems, and fixes before they go live on all normal production shards. They aren’t always available and they’re sometimes wiped clean, but when these shards become available you’ll often get a bit of a sneak preview into what may be coming up for UO. Characters created on Test Centers are also temporary, but you can instantly change their stats & skills with simple commands and their bank boxes are full of valuable resources. Again, everything on that shard is still in testing, so the modifications there may change before going live, partly based on feedback we get from players such as yourself. If you find any bugs while adventuring on TC5, please e-mail us a note about what you’ve found. Test Center bug reports should be sent to tcbugs@uo.com. Try to include as many details as you can, especially the following points: Client Version Number. This is located at the bottom of the main UO login screen. Server Name Detailed Bug Description (step-by-step, tell us what you did and what happened) Date/Time of Occurrence Location (Sextant coordinates, facet, and city location) On-site references (If you spoke with any official OSI representative, what was his/her name and what were you told?)

Game developers conference study

The old saying goes.. "All things in moderation." Prom, I consider you one of my true friends and as we always do, Im sure we shall keep up our contact via our normal methods. And as far as the "virtual realms" Im sure our paths our destined to cross once more... And remember Prom, "Oppurtunite may only knock once. Better open the door." Your doing the right thing. *wink*

I am sorry to hear of your fathers ill health. Im afraid all that can be done in such is to hope and pray for the best. And, I will do so myself. Remeber that we are also here for you if you should feel the need to talk, or even seperate yourself for reality in this realm for a bit. Strength and Honor.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a sort of mini-quest on Great Lakes. Apparently Dawn was doing a speech and then was attacked by Blackthorn. You can find out more about the event including some picture in a post made on UOTrades.net. TradespotLBpostpics Sunsword (or it was Mr Tact I forget) also posted to keep an eye out on other shards during the week for more events like this. Also he said town criers do annouce them.

From Vex. We decided to push the vendor changes out of Pub 19 and into (theoretically) Pub 20 for a couple different reasons. One was internal -- some unrelated backend server development work caused problems getting the vendor changes into QA testing. Without confidence we could have it all thoroughly tested, we'd either have to delay Pub 19 or move the Vendor Revamp to another publish. Once putting Vendors in Pub 19 became doubtful, we decided to have another look at the feature. We found that while there was a lot there, most of what was there was features that we needed to improve the quality of the game as a whole. For example, the rental contracts are there to allow players to work out vendor agreements without GM intervention. If we put in a set of server-enforced rules regarding vendor contracts, then Game Masters can't take calls asking for vendors to be removed from people's houses. A lot of possible scams and opportunities for generating ill will between house owners and merchants vanish. GMs are able to focus more of their time on other types of calls. It's a net win for everybody. But, if you really think about it, this kind of compromise win-win thing doesn't really make everyone ecstatic about the feature change going in the game. (Part of compromise is that both parties have to give up something they want.) It will undoubtedly be a good thing in the long run, but for the short term a lot of people are a bit peeved about things. So, by pushing Vendor Revamp to another publish, we have an opportunity to do further refinement and development work on the feature. Now, we are going to reconsider many of the "optional" items that we initially cut from the list. For example, we're looking hard at finding a way to allow player vendors to buy stackable items from players, and a bunch of nice interface improvements -- like allowing a player-run vendor to use the same Sell Menu that NPC shopkeepers do. Designer Helios is going to be the point man on this, so I'll leave it to him to talk about the details as these further changes to the vendor design become more solid over the next couple weeks.

If you're a house owner, or you're looking to become one, this is an update not to be missed! As part of our one-house-per-account changes that came with Publish 16 (which you can read about here), we are planning to reinstate house decay in the near future. For those not familiar with the phased rollout of this system, here's a refresher course: Phase 1, which took place last year, was the time when the game checked all houses and determined whether they belonged to inactive accounts and should be condemned, or whether they belonged to an active account, in which case they were all marked as "grandfathered." Phase 2, which also took place last year, was the phase when players were able to claim a single house as primary if they chose, meaning that house would never decay as long as their account was active. This phase also gave co-owners a chance to claim ownerless houses. Phase 3, which is still currently in testing, will be the point where we turn off auto-refresh, and any houses not set as primary will begin to decay unless they are refreshed approximately every 11 days. Once Phase 3 has been activated, the housing system will also begin checking for inactive accounts, and any houses found to be owned by an inactive account will be condemned and will fall within 5 days after a 10-day grace period. (For the sake of clarity, the term "inactive" refers only to whether your subscription is paid and in good standing; it has nothing to do with how often or for how long you play.) For more information on Housing States, you can read about it in the UO Playguide here. We'll keep you updated and give lots of warning before Phase 3 is put into place, so stay tuned to FYI for the announcement!

Sound advice Lukkan. As Lukkan said one must concentrate the entire firepower of your forces on one threat if possible. By doing so you have a chance to reduce their numbers and gain the advantage. Also, many of you have seen some of the tactics allowing for non-murderers to PK. The Noto PK and allied "Blues" doing assists. It shoudnt matter what color you face, blue, red, grey. If PGoH is attacked, they should expect to be bulldozed by PURPLE people. Even if they attacked a grey PGoH member. Counts go away eventually. And you should not fear taking one for defending your own.

I will be away next week on a business trip to North Dakota. I currently expect to be absent from Monday with a late night return on Thursday. -Strength and Honor

Test

Fing, Prometheus speaks very fondly of your guys time in DAoC. Sorry we've never really had the oppurtunity to meet.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Triston, I feel for you. This obviously is and would be a very disturbing event. All I can say is "Whats mine is yours." Feel free to give me a yell if i can do anything. Ive built up some stockpiles of inventory over my time and would be more than happy to help you rebuild.

*puts his lucky t-hunter boots on* Oh hell, ok..ok...there the same boots i wear anyways. Looking forward to starting Thunt night back up again Earwen!

Yes Lora, you are correct...Kodoz has provided a means for us to sale our wares in a "guild" way. Many thanks Kodoz.

Gave it a look Thiork. Biggest draw back I see is that it has no means to tell you when you are not looking that someone has posted. Of course Im comparing it to our current standard "ICQ".

Evocare posted the following information on balancing changes which are currently set for publish 19: Here is the current list of balance changes for pub 19. Although we can only do so many of these in a single publish, I've tried to hit several of the really key issues that many of you voiced in the balance threads, while also leaving room for continued improvement in subsequent publishes. Please discuss! 1. Crafting changes a. the exceptional bonus for non-runic crafted armor has been raised to 14 resistance points (instead of 6), bonuses for runic armor remain the same. This change was made so that crafted armor can give very significant resistance values, with the tradeoff obviously being that these armor pieces don't have other magical properties. b. the exceptional bonus for non-runic crafted weapons has been raised to 40% damage increase (instead of 20%), bonuses for runic weapons remains the same. The tradeoff here is the same as above, these weapons aren't able to get any of the other magical properties. 2. Pet improvements a. Pet skill loss has been reduced to .1 skill point per death. There is no longer a larger penalty when a non-owner ressurects the pet. b. The time required to heal a pet with bandages has been reduced by 2 seconds, to a minimum of 2 total seconds. 3. Magery spell damage improvements a. The base damage for most mid to high circle direct damage spells has been increased by 1 to 3 points. b. Intelligence now gives players (and only players) a percent damage bonus to their spells equal to Int/10 (versus any target, player or non-player). These changes give a player with 120 eval and 120 intelligence (with no inscription or damage bonus items) the ability to average 26 damage with an ebolt vs a 60 energy resist target. Under the current rules (pre pub19), this player would deal an average of about 22 damage under the same circumstances. As an additional example, a pub 19 player with 120 eval, 100 inscribe, and 120 int would deal an average of 28 damage per energy bolt versus a 60 energy resist target. 4. Pain spike damage reduction. The pain spike spell will now deal 12 less damage then it previously dealt when cast against other players (it will remain the same versus non-players). The formula versus players is now... damage = (caster spiritspeak skill - target resisting spells skill)/100 + 18 Versus non-players the formula continues to be... damage = (caster spiritspeak skill - target resisting spells skill)/100 + 30 5. Double-strike changes. a. The bug that causes the second swing to always hit has been fixed. Using this ability will always cause two swings, but the second swing can now miss as was originally intended (this ability was not meant to be conceptually equivalent to "double damage"). b. Attempting a double-strike will give the attacker a -10% damage modifier for the duration of those swings. 6. Special move mana cost changes. a. The whirlwind mana cost has been lowered to 15. b. The moving shot mana cost has been lowered to 15. c. The infecting blow mana cost has been lowered to 15. d. The shadowstrike mana cost has been lowered to 20. e. The crushing blow mana cost has been lowered to 25. f. The concussion blow mana cost has been lowered to 25. 7. A bug causing the "hit chance increase" and "defense chance increase" properties to be overpowering has been fixed. These properties now modify the percent chance to hit or miss by a percentage, rather then modifying the percentage by a flat amount. For example, if your base chance be hit by an opponent is 50% due to equal weapon skill values, and you have a total "defense chance increase" value of 40%, their chance to hit you will be 30% (40 percent *of* 50), rather then 10% (50 - 40). Note that this property's usefulness is now directly proportional to the user's skill with the weapon. 8. Stealth improvements a. The number of steps a player can take from one successful use of the stealth skill has been doubled (ie. 20 steps at 100.0 stealth instead of 10). b. Only the detect hidden skill is used to determine a chance to passively reveal an approaching stealther, intelligence is no longer used for this equation. 9. The quality of magic items found in level 4 and 5 treasure chests has been improved. - Evocare - Lead Designer: Ultima Online I would like to point out (since evocare failed to) that these changes are not definte. According to the OSI 6 week publish timeline we still have a few weeks left and some of the items listed might change. With that out of the way I would like to say these changes look good.

Yes, unfortunetly the happenings in the real realm, and the new virtual realms have caused many to depart. It is a time for us to regroup and reorginize....then push forward once more. Chris, You face now what is unfortunetly the sacrifices one must make in ones youth to succeed down the road. I myself, not so far ago, was going to school, working, and raising my son alone. *laughs* I can remeber seeing the adds for UO (in its inception) back then and wishing to join in what, at the time, seemed to be the culmination of things I truly enjoyed. Games, Internet, and Fantasy RPG's. Alas, the cost and time restrictions I had kept me from it. But, now 5 years down the road, I am firmly entrenced in a decent position with oppurtunities. I have a loving and caring family with 3 children. And I can now spend my leasure time doing some things I enjoy. Thus my final arrival a few years ago. Stay the path Chris. I will look forward to seeing you down the road in the years to come, in this realm or the next. Strength and Honor

First, I would like to thank each member whom attended our first annual resource drive yesterday. The event had a little of everything for everyone. >Mining. >Guard Duty. > Reds. > Reds House Hiding. Fortunetly, the empire stood strong in the face of adversity and our assailants, whom probably only expected to face a helpless miner, were soon opposed by the whole of our guard units (and a few miners whom quickly switched characters) and were forced to attack from the defensive position of their homes. Without further pause please find below our results. Iron = 8007 ingots Dull Copper = 720 ingots Shadow = 267 ingots Copper = 267 ingots Bronze = 213 ingots Gold = 90 ingots Agapite = 89 ingots Verite = 813 ingots Valorite = 105 ingots Strength and HONOR.

Yes was great fun........Just remind me to bring more regs! *Goes looking for a 100% reg suit*

*wonders what he will do with his Trades i.e "Bod" home* Oh well, Ill figure something out *smirk*

Hanse stated in tonights UOHoC held by stratics that BOD books would be in publish 19. Also other things mentioned: All artifacts will become repairable in publish 19 Swamp dragon armor is being looked into (developers say it works while QA says it dosn't) Guild titles may show up on all names again (no ETA) Dungeon Chests will spawn magic items in publish 19 (this is the hinted change to treasure chests developers hinted about in last UOHoC) UO Live team budget was increased this year (as a result of increased monthly fee), Vex said we will see a direct result of this increased budget Developers are hoping to make improvements to the game interface during each publish (this means this like the menu bar may see upgrades)

We will place ore spots for you on the front steps. One place for each ore type. Should allow you to drop quickly. The smelters will come and clean up the piles once we have finished our mining for the night. STRENGTH and HONOR

Our first annual resource-gathering event is scheduled tentivley for this Sunday immediately following our Weekly meeting. Our target for this first resource mission will be to bolster the supplies of raw ore grades in our treasury. Obviously, with the “Gods” rules on procurement, Fel will be the most suitable location. In order to proceed in the most efficient manner there are some pre-missions to be completed. Lukkan, as Dread Centurion I request that you scout potential target areas before hand and mark runes to these locations. The most suitable target spots are quiet with little to no traffic and obviously near a mountain. Lukkan, please feel free to request the assistance of fellow Guardians in completing your mission. Emperor Logan, although Bishop has volunteered for guard detail I would humbly request your services in a different manner. As ore is gathered we will require someone to transfer the raw material to our Treasury and to place it securely until the smith’s can return from mining to smelt. Obviously others could fill that role but we require someone whom has access to the treasury. As of right now we have Silver, and Triston as miners. All individuals willing to participate as either a miner or a guard please post below with your preference. STRENGTH and HONOR.

Elathiel, It is with sorrow that I bid you farewell. It is my hope that we meet once more in this realm or the next. Your words of wisdom and advice have always followed us and I’m sure your input will be missed. Also, it is a true mark of a generous soul when, as you did, one gives of his own assets back to the order. The items you transferred to us such as your home could have easily been sold on Ebay for profit. This act alone shows your spirit. Strength and Honor friend, whatever road you now or will walk.