Written by members of the community

Issue 10

WORLD NEWS

GRAVESITE PLUNDERED

The town guard is looking for information regarding the recent disinternment of a local man’s body from the Yew cemetary. Jethro Mctavish had been buried three days prior, and there is no indication that the corpse had been defiled in any way. However, locals are convinced that the responsible party was looking for McTavish’s coveted fried turkey recipe which he swore that he’d take to the grave with him. No additional leads have been pursued so far in the case.

BOWYER CRAFTS LEDENDARY CROSSBOW

Fervent bowyer, Yohan Yorguson embarked upon the task of reconstructing the fabled triple crossbow; following the original design of the celebrated Iolo Fitzowen. Yorguson was very tight-lipped about how he had acquired the long-lost plans, but stated that he had paid a pretty penny for them. With a small crowd assembled, Yorguson offered a demonstration of the weapon which would allow the marksman to strike three targets simultaneously. Future development of the weapon has been put on hold until further testing can be done. There is no further news on the medical condition of two innocent bystanders who were injured during the test.

YOU WILL BE MISSED

Their time with us was brief, but now they are somewhat gone. Shall we ever see their like again? Majestic and proud, the mammoth mutant turkeys shared our lives for that short but exciting time, where it was not unheard of to wake up in the morning and look out the window, to spy a large curious eye gazing back at oneself. Alas, it was not to last. Surely, there were differences between our two species, and who can blame these poor creatures whenever they tried to eat us. After all, we look like tasty corn to them. Perhaps it was for the best for both species that the Mystical Herders led them off to the Hidden Valley of the Mammoth Turkeys, where they can roam free and call out to each other in the swirling mists of that magical place. Maybe, they will return, some day…

DAY OF GLUTTONY EAGERLY ANTICIPATED

This year it appears that no kitchen tables will go empty following an initiative by Britannia’s armsmen and warriors to provide foodstuffs to fill the land’s larders. Logicians feel confident that the cornicopias will will be sufficient to supply insane amounts of never-ending food to meet the needs of the people this thanksgiving season with plenty left over for turkey sadwiches, casseroles and soup leading up to Christmas. Already, Britannia’s brave warriors are shlepping through the bogs fighting off hoards of plague beasts and lizardmen to secure the needed cranberries to accompany the Thanksgiving repast. Belt buckles are already being loosened and tailors are rubbing their hands together greedily in anticipation of the upcoming gorge-fest. Meanwhile, the captain of the guard is familiarizing his men with the new lightning staffs that will be replacing their usual halberds. The new devices will be employed on Black Friday to control the unruly shopping mob the following day, where store owners will bait competitive shoppers with an artificial scarcity of limited trinkets and gee-gaws that will be fought over with tooth and nail. The town guard will then be called in to subdue the feral crowd. The guards’ eyes twinkle, looking upon the new toys with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. And by sugarplums, we mean shoppers; and by dancing, we mean limbs flailing from electric shocks. Everyone looks forward to a memorable Thanksgiving holiday.

TRAVELOGUE

TURKEY DAY TIPS

If you waited to the last minute to buy a turkey and are tempted to obtain one through a back alley deal, be certain that the person you are dealing with is a certified poultry handler. Certain little things like tattoos can tip you off that the individual you are dealing with is not entirely on the level. Sure, poultry dealers wear gloves, aprons, and have blood all over them, but so do other unsavory types as well. Any legitimate poultry dealer should be well versed in a number of poultry related songs. Ask him to share one of his favorite poultry ditties. If he can’t think of one, get out of there quickly. Just remember these tips, and play it safe this Turkey Day.

ARTS AND LIVING

Bacons of Fate

by Anora Knowles
A bacon did rest in it’s glory upon yon shelf..
Thusly a person emerged from the room down the hall and approached the glorious bacon, upon yon shelf, and did yawn heartily as they didst reach for the bacon. At this time, it is unknown what the glorious bacon upon yon shelf didst think about as it faced utter oblivion in the bowels of a random person from a room down the hall; but we can safely assume it was considering it’s totality in the universe. Things had come full circle. Perhaps this is the fate all things face.
Perhaps it is the fate of all glorious bacons in the realm. Perhaps this is all a dream we cannot wake from until we have tasted the glorious bacon for ourselves. But perhaps we look deep inside and blame fate for the way things have become.
The End

HOROSCOPES

The Mongbat-February
You will find yourself on the pursuit of a very powerful artifact and your journey will take you to an old crone of very few words who will bargain for information in exchange for a wrinkle cream made from the extract of a unique orchid that grows in the shade in the bogs in the Fens of the Dead. Hopefully, this useful tip will save you a lot of time.

The Phoenix-March
They are counting on you to be the one who will bring the turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner this year, and it will be dry and overcooked. You will apologize and everyone will comfort you and tell you not to concern yourself over it. But, inside they will never forgive you for ruining Thanksgiving.

The Sea Dragon-April
Keep Uncle Jim away from the liquor this year. You know you can’t even give him one little glass, because he gets all crazy and something is going to get broken again.

The Hermit-May
A wonderful economic opportunity awaits you just beyond the Felucca Yew moongate. Just be certain to bring something or several things of great value with you to demonstrate your inherent worth.

The Llama-June
You should be more discerning in showing kindness to particular individuals. If you give a tasty apple to a hag, she’ll probably put poison in it, and pass it onto someone else.

The Ancient Wyrm-July
It is virtuous to resist temptation whenever it presents itself. But, really…who puts a turkey on their porch to cool off? They’re just begging for someone to take it, and better you than some stranger. Right?

The Anvil-August
Lord British awaits you in the underworld. Remember to bring with you the sandalwood box, obtained by opening the secret panel revealed by playing the first 18 notes of Stones on the harpsichord.

The Weaver-September
The “kind” mentor that has taken you in since your parent’s unfortunate deaths and is training you to unlock your latent power so that you may open a secret chamber so that he may obtain a powerful artifact that will make him immortal and unlimited in power is using you. Hopefully, this warning will save you about 20 years of rigorous training ending in a burned-out shell of a world. If not, oh well…

The Wisp-October
You are a carefree spirit, and live on the wind. You have great hair and you smell like fresh baked cookies.

The Unicorn-November
Sometimes helping people has unforeseen consequences and you have to show judgment when ministering assistance to others. You can teach a hungry, blind man to fish, but if you give him a boat, you’ll probably never see him again.

The Wanderer-December
You cannot eat your cake and keep it at the same time, unless you’re the time lord, in which case you can go back in time before you ate the cake then take it for safe keeping. But, wouldn’t that prevent your past self from being able to eat the cake in this first place? Maybe, going back in time and carrying out such an act would disrupt the time stream resulting in an alternate time line where you would be enjoying delicious cake in a world inhabited by 15 foot tall bat people. Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?

(If you would like to help write stories for the yew times. Email them to yewtimes@hotmail.com)

The following fixes were applied with yesterday’s scheduled maintenance:

• Wall mount add-ons can now be redeeded.
• You no longer need blackrock to make grapeshot.

The UO Team would like to wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  The team will be out of the office from November 21st thru November 25th but will be keeping an eye open for any issues that may come up.

In addition to the normal set of Ask and Answer questions this week, there is also an interview! UO Forums did a very informative interview with the Ultima Online producer, Bonnie (Mesanna) Armstrong. There are questions that range from a typical day in the studio to future plans for Ultima Online, so be sure to check it out.

UO Auctions

Question: The new 15yr Robes are a fantastic addition and reward for players being creative. i’d like to see this bcome more than just a 15yr event. have you ever considered holding art based competitions as well as writing? it’d be nice to see this sort of reward for submitting UO fan art too. (Treasure Seeker)

Mesanna:  After speaking with our Artist Onifrk he stated jpg, png or 3d files would be acceptable  to do something like this.  I really like the idea of this but there will NEVER be another contest like decorating banks.

Ultima Online Bibliothek

When will I get my ridable Great Hart? Tameable, plase, and chance to find a white one, please. (Pcuvush)

Mesanna:  Ridable Hart, probably not but a special spawned hued one is a possibility in the future.

Once there was the idea to add pixies as a playable race – there was a poll, if I remember correctly, dwarves and orcs as other options. Has this been shelved, or is there still a chance to add them? (Pcuvush)

Mesanna:  Right now a new playable race is not on the plans.  I am not saying we will never do one again but have a lot of other things in front of it right now.

UO Stratics

I roleplay as an orc on Europa (Xug’Klerg) and he wants to know if he will ever fully become an orc? We would both like this…(Velvathos)

Kyronix: Adding additional playable races is an extraordinary task that requires a lot of development time due to the far reaching impact of such an addition.  Consider how different gargoyles are than humans/elves and how they have their own equipment, skills, etc.  So to do it right would take a great effort that may not benefit the entire player base as effectively as focusing elsewhere.  There are currently a number of ways that players can roleplay other races (Which I’m sure you are already utilizing) so enhancing that ability would be more feasible than a full blown additional playable race. 

UOForums

Since the addition of the Raised Garden Beds into the game, the need for fertile dirt has increased. However as best I can tell, the spawn rate has not. I love my raised beds, especially when I can plant them all with the fertile dirt, I just don’t like buying it in Ter Mur. Is there anyway we can get some more dirt? OR reduce the number of dirt piles it takes to grow each plant? (Kahlan)

Kyronix:  This is a reasonable request and will consider it when adding it future loot drops to various areas.

Can you tell me how iron beetles are supposed to work? I thought they mined ore but when I bring mine out, it does not mine or do anything really. I’ve stood alongside mountains, inside caves (Where you can mine the floor), and still, it does nothing. The owner is a GM Miner. (Thumper)

Misk: The Iron Beetles likes to dig up and eat ore so it tries to mine when it is in an appropriate area.  They will attempt to mine in the immediate area at random intervals (maximum of 5 minutes).  Sometimes they don’t like the taste of the ore that they dig up and simply leave it on the ground instead of consuming it.  When the beetle eats ore, its body hue changes to the ore color that it has eaten.  The Iron Beetle can only mine near valid mining tiles and the mining skill of the owner does not affect the types of ore that the beetle will dig up.

We have staged Publish 79 to be released on Sunday evening, 11/18 during Maintenance for the European servers and Monday morning, 11/19  during Maintenance for the US servers.  Please note we are turning housing decay back on when this publish goes live.

For your reading pleasure, here are the completed notes:
 

Publish 79.0.0

New Veteran Rewards

• 15th Year: Garden Shed House Add-On
  • Contains two secure containers that do not count towards house storage limits
  • Each container holds 125 items with no weight limit
  • The shed has standard house security settings controlling container access
  • To access the containers, stand near the door of the shed and double-click it
• 13th Year: Exodus Statuette
• 11th Year: Navrey Night-Eyes Statuette
• 9th Year: Virtuebane Statuette
• 8th Year: Davies’ Locker
  • This is based on a real-life glass top table containing a three-dimensional map of Britannia, created by Alan Davies. The table resides in the front lobby of Mythic Studios.
  • The in-game item is a house add-on that looks like the real thing.
  • Davies’ Locker can store up to 500 treasure maps and/or SOS bottles!
• 5th Year: Metallic Leather Dye Tub
• Moved ethereal horses to  one year, all existing horses will also be one year to ride

Holiday Gifts

• Players will receive a gift bag on login during the month of December. This only applies to paying subscriber accounts and characters that are 30 days old or older.

• The bag contains:
  • 3 Snow Tiles usable for house decoration
  • 3 Grass Tiles usable for house decoration
  • A Metallic Cloth Dye Tub
  • A random small decorative holiday tree: either a “winter tree”, a “festive tree”
    • And rarely, an “infested tree”. What is it infested with???
  • A card from a member of the development team

Thanksgiving Horn of Plenty

• A new Horn of Plenty will become available through unknown means during the month of November
• Has a maximum of 10 charges. Regains 1 charge per day during November.
• Double-click to obtain food from it.
• New food items:
  • Sweet Potato Pie – contains six slices of pie
  • Mashed Sweet Potatoes
  • Turducken Platter – contains eight servings of various food items, including Roast Turkey, Roast Duck, Roast Chicken, Turkey Legs, Giblet Gravy, and plates of food.
  • Basket of Rolls contains a baker’s dozen dinner rolls
• Chance of something special happening when used outside of your house

Castle Courtyard Ownership

• Castle owners are now able to lock down and secure objects in their castles’ courtyards

New Fortune’s Fire Casino Game – Dice Rider

• Place three bets. The dealer rolls dice to make a five-die “poker” hand. During the course of the game, you may pull back up to two of the bets.
• See the casino dealer for payout information and complete rules of the game.

The Exodus Encounter

Those loyal still to Minax and Mondain’s creation work fervently to rebuild the mechanical demon, in hopes of once again summoning Exodus into Britannia.

• Visit the NPC Exodus Arch Zealot outside of what used to be Ver Lor Reg in Ilshenar to learn about how to gain the Keys to the encounter and how to perform the Summoning ritual.
• Keys may be collected via three paths, the Warrior, the Rogue, and the Craftsman.
• In order to perform the Ritual you must party up with those you wish to play the encounter with.  You do not need to party to acquire the keys.
• Everyone in the party must have their own set of Keys to perform the ritual.
• You may perform the ritual at any shrine in Trammel or Felucca, except the Chaos shrine.
  • Due to the restricted architecture of the Spirituality Shrine, a “satellite” shrine has been constructed in front of the original, use that Shrine to perform the ritual.
• Exodus may be summoned so long as Exodus has not been killed in the last ten minutes.
• If at any time during the Encounter Exodus’ HP drops below 60%, additional groups will not be able to join the encounter, if Exodus’ HP regen to 75%, additional groups will be able to join the encounter.
• Players will be teleported to a random Ilshenar shrine if they opt to not leave the area within 10 minutes of Exodus’ death.  There is a two minute warning message before this happens.
• Defeating Exodus will give a chance to receive powerful rewards:
  • Scroll of Valiant Commendation [Replica]
    • Gives the character who eats it a +5 permanent gain to maximum stats
    • Cannot be stacked with a previous Scroll of Valiant Commendation
    • If the scroll has been used it will have a “Claimed By” item property
  • Bracers of Alchemical Devastation [Replica]
    • Hit Fireball 35%
    • Mana Regeneration 4
    • Faster Cast Recover 3
    • Physical Resist 10%
    • Fire Resist 8%
    • Cold Resist 8%
    • Poison Resist 8%
    • Energy Resist 8%
    • Mage Armor
  • Hygieia’s Amulet [Replica]
    • Alchemy Bonus 10%
  • Asclepius [Replica]
    • 15% Bandage Healing Bonus
  • Clockwork Leggings (Platemail Leggings) – Imbueable
    • Dexterity Bonus 5
    • Stamina Regen 5
    • Defense Chance Increase 25%
    • Physical Resist 5%
    • Fire Resist 3%
    • Cold Resist 2%
    • Poison Resist 3%
    • Energy Resist 2%
  • Clockwork Leggings (Gargish Platemail Leggings) – Imbueable
    • Dexterity Bonus 5
    • Stamina Regen 5
    • Defense Chance Increase 25%
    • Physical Resist 8%
    • Fire Resist 6%
    • Cold Resist 5%
    • Poison Resist 6%
    • Energy Resist 5%
  • Dupre’s Sword (Viking Sword/Stone War Sword)
    • Hit Mana Drain 50%
    • Strength Bonus 10
    • Hit Chance Increase 25%
    • Swing Speed Increase 35%
    • Damage Increase 100%

• Tinkering  Bonus  Talisman will no show the correct success rate.
• Rioters and Protesters have left all the cities
• Players will no longer be trapped inside the card table at the Casino
• Raised garden beds and plants inside the bed will be deleted when a IDOC house falls after the next server maintenance.
• Halloween masks that had one strength requirement will now display the correct requirement
• Players can dye display cases after it has been returned to deed form and replaced.
• Players can now dye metal chests with the metal dye tub
• Gargoyles can now complete the Hag’s Quest
• Artifacts obtained from the Exodus Encounter cannot have powder of fortification applied
• The New Haven Mine has opened on the Southern Edge of the island
• The trade window will no longer be empty when trading a tamed turkey
• Exodus AI tweaks
• Adjusted Combat Path key drop rate

Once again, Ultima Online has made it to the top! Time recently posted a list of the 100 greatest video games of ALL-TIME and Ultima Online made the list. We are honored to be listed with so many great games and are truly proud of Ultima Online being “The Best of the Best”.

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that after further review of the reward items for the House decorating contest, I have changed the reward from a Snowman to a hued Reindeer with the text, “Winner of the 2012 Holiday House Decorating Contest”. The reason for the change was due to the fact the snowman was not fitting for such a contest as only the hat and scarf could be hued.

 

Complex Gaming recently published a list of the best PC games.  We are very proud to see that Ultima Online was ranked number 8 of the 50 Best PC Games of All Time!

It is time for another Ask and Answer. This week we received a lot of questions regarding adding features and items to the game. Here are the answers to your questions:

UO Auctions

From Purple Pixie, Atlantic
I totally think the bag with 3 snow and 3 grass tiles will be a miracle to those of us who love to decorate for the seasons and don’t want to go into construction mode and destroy our establishments. I just have one small request of wish for an addition… or even divide it 2x, 2x, and 2x… with sand tiles. We don’t have sand tiles in our house construction AND these could be used for “festive reasons”… not to mention in gardens to show off fancy cacti. Could you please consider adding them? Thanks (Lady Frany Flame)

Mesanna:  Currently there are not any sand tiles in the same tile format as the grass and snow but I hope to get some good ones in the future *makes note*

Question: Have the Dev team ever considered adding Fossils to the game? it seems an angle that could be added to luck based mining that the art is already in place to add. something that would also expand saltpeter mining as its also luck based. could create some nice decoration just outta shell and skull n bone art already in the game. with the possibility of a very rare fossil finds and getting your name attached to the find? (Treasure Seeker)

Mesanna:  Hrm interesting idea but no we have not thought about adding fossils to mining.  We have been talking about how to make resource gathering more exciting though.

UO Mania

It would be nice to be able to receive a “secure shard transfer crate” from a character on some other player’s account, that only the characters of that account on the destination shard can open. In this way we could securely organize shard transfer shipments for third parties (clorenz )

Mesanna:  This would be a very difficult thing to put in the game, the risk is way to high for us to address this type of transfer.

UO Japan

Certain pet seems to have skills which can’t be shown by Animal Lore skill. Could you tell us what those “hidden” skills are? Is it possible for pets once being resurrected to reach skill cap again? (Nickname: kann)

Mesanna:  There are the basic set of 8 skills that show up in the pet’s Animal Lore skills gump.  We will put it on our list to review this and update the list in a future publish.  As far as the pet reaching skill cap after resurrecting there is no reason why they should not do that, if you are having issues please let us know.

The color of antique wedding dress is very nice. Is it possible to add dyes of the same color or similar white color as a Clean Up Britannia reward?（Nickname: Tru）
SIDE NOTE: The hue# is 2953.

Mesanna:  We are always looking to add new dyes, at this time I will only say its possible.

UOForums

When going from the Abyss to one of the Abyss Champ (who are on the Feluca facet), one gets a PvP Warning that can be switched off through the context menu. Could you include into this system the PvP Warnings when going through house teleporters? I own two houses, one of them in Felucca and the constant warnings get old fast. Any possibility to switch them off would be appreciated. (Merion)

Phoenix:  We would like to research this before making any commitments but it’s a reasonable request.

High Seas was a big hit when it came out. Even tho still played to a degree, alot of folk wanted to play “Land & Sea” fights, where a ship can fire its cannons on shore in an attack mode. ( of course this would mean the cannons on the fortress would take damage or even some of the structure). Maybe have it like damage to a ship where you have to repair and attack the structure when defense is lowered like a ship…. Question is: Will the opportunity ever arise for the chance to have “Land Cannons” that fire in order to build Fortress’s and have the chance for land and sea conflicts? That way someone can attack a fortress and the Fortress can fire back in defense. (Eyes of Sosaria)

When we were doing High Seas we talked about Land Cannons and came up with a lot of ways to exploit them,  We figured it was best to not put them in the game.

Ultima Online Bibliothek

Hello again, recently I remembered the thing about the gypsy camps and the moonstone jewelry. Is it possible to get the camps back to get a chance for it to drop again? Or maybe you could add the jewelry to another monster or another mini-boss? (Medea,)

Mesanna:  The gypsy camps were causing some side issues in the game so Phoenix added the chance for the moon jewelry to drop on the Cook in Wrong.

Now I’m really curious – is it really true that no one on the production shard has managed to fetch a Void Lobster yet? After 3 years it should be possible to get one of those bloody critters, right? Can you give us a hint (even a small one will do) how to catch one of those? Thanks! (Medea, )

Mesanna:  Funny you should ask this question now, Bleak just fixed this bug for Pub 80.  And yes no one to my knowledge has fished up a Void Lobster.

The Epiphany armor that dropped from Blackrock Golems states to grant a ‘mana burst’ effect. To my knowledge that ability is not active at the moment. Since the armor is marked ‘exceptional’ and has 255 durability I assume it is meant for imbuing und wearing this
armor. Is the effect simply undiscovered as of now or not yet implemented? (Pcuvush, )

Misk:  Both the epiphany set (mana burst) and  the regeneration set (health burst) effects are active and do function in game.  The virtuous pieces are aligned to positive karma players and the villainous pieces are aligned to negative karma players.  Both sets can be imbued, however they cannot be enhanced.  The burst occurrence rate scales based on the number of pieces you are wearing (up to a maximum value of 5) and the power of the burst  scales based on your karma level.  The burst effects are triggered by being attacked.  Currently the regeneration set spawns on Charybdis and the epiphany spawns on Niporailem.

Today is my last day as Community Manager at Mythic. I’ll face a new and very exciting challenge from Monday on.

It has been great to work on Ultima Online and all other Mythic products for the last 2 years. I met amazing people here in the teams as well as out there among you players. My only regret is that I had to spread my attention over 5 different titles and never had the time to be really dedicated to one of them. But I take a lot of great memories with me.

I thank you for being the awesome, annoying, loyal, critic, understanding, demanding community that you are. The support you continue to give UO is really appreciated, and I know I leave the game in very good hands.

Until we meet again – thanks for all the fish, and no, you can’t haz my stuff.