I am looking for several active players that are creative and would like to see your ideas come to life.  I have several openings that I am looking to fill at this time,  If you are interested in joining a great group of people please fill out the application below and return it to barmstrong@ea.com.

This is a contacted postion, that requires you to put in a max. of 24 hours a month.  If you have already applied please reapply to let me know you are still interested in joining.  You must be 18 years of age, and have an active account in UO.  The applications will be judged on the merits of the submitted event in the application.

1.  Name

2.  Age

3. Shard/shards you play on?

4.  What language (s) do you speak?

5.  Account names (no passwords please)

6.  How long have you played UO?

7.  Have you ever been a volunteer or worked with EA before?

8.  What type of character do you like to play?

9.  If you could change anything about UO what would it be?

10.  Have any of your accounts ever been suspended, if so what was the reason?

11.  Please write up an event you would would like to run on a shard, include a (if any) reward you would like to give, 

Thank you everyone and please have a safe Memorial Day!!

Mesanna

1 UO Stratics
Regarding the loot table for Charybdis, at present the few we’ve been able to do seem to only ever give a Regeneration Piece drop to the summoning fisher. As that’s usually me, I don’t know what happens for the others, but they’ve reported seeing a message that I get the drop. Does this mean there’s nothing special on Charybdis for those who help kill him, or are there mysteries still to be found deep within the wobbly bits of this most rare of encounters? (Adol )

 Misk- Aside from the standard loot found on the corpse of Charybdis there is currently one piece of the Regeneration (Virtuous/Villainous) armor given out per Charybdis encounter.  The system first attempts to provide the armor to the summoner if that player is within range.  If that first attempt fails it then tries to provide the reward to a player on the top attacker list.  If that second attempt fails then the armor is simply placed onto the corpse of Charybdis.  There have actually been recent discussion on the team about adding some new and improved loot to the encounter.

2. UO Stratics
Do talisman slayers have any affect on caster summons? For example, if I am a mystic and have a bird slayer talisman equipped, will my Rising Colossus have slayer damage ability if I am fighting swoop? Are there any cases where talisman slayers benefit casters (mages, mystics, necros)? What about tamers or bards? The only use I can find for slayer talismans is for warrior classes and I want to verify that my info is correct. Thank you. (Obsidian)

Kyronix: Slayers only benefit the object they are equipped on, which would be the player. 

3. UO Stratics
Durability loss
How is durability loss calculated on weapons and armor through wear? Does swamp dragon armor damage reduction cause armor to wear more slowly? Do resist increase refinements cause armor to wear more quickly? Does parrying cause wear to shields or weapons? (Gheed)

Bleak – There are several ways to lose durability on equipped items. When defenders take damage there are two chances to lose durability. Attacking with a weapon will always have a chance to lose durability on the weapon .  Armor chance to lose durability is 15% and weapon chance to lose scales from 15% – 65% based on weapon speed.  Swamp dragon armor damage reduction does not negate durability loss. Refinements currently do not cause armor to wear more quickly.  Parrying will also result in shields as well as  attacker and defender weapons having a chance to lose durability.

4. UO StraticsIs modding the 2d client still against the TOS?
With the introduction of UI modding with the EC client does this mean we can modify the 2d client within the same TOS constraints as the EC client? (Cycloknight)

Mesanna:  The Classic Client is not built for modding where as the Enchanced Client was coded for it.  So the answer is no you can not alter the Classic client.

5. UO StraticsCan the Enhanced Client download New Players get have Pinco’s included?Since New Players are most likely going to download the Enhanced Client option, can Pinco’s mods be automatically included in the game client they wind up with? The current EC client UI that New Players run into after the client download is finished is pretty basic. (Tanivar)

Mesanna:  We do not own Pinco’s client therefore are unable to have it available when you download the client.

6.UO StraticsWhy do golems have blood?
How come when I smack a Golem in the EC I get a nice spatter of blood? Shouldn’t they be squirting hydraulic fluid or something? (nexus)

Mesanna:  We will look into the option to keep it from bleeding.

Character tranfer will be turned on today 5/2/2012.  If you are having issues with a transfer, please contact us at barmstrong@ea.com.

1. UO Stratics
From Pub 81 :
– The looting rights threshold has been lowered for all mobs.
Can you give us some more details on this change? How it works in compare now then before pub 81.
With some % would be nice to make us better to understand. (Kelly O’Brian of Drachenfels.)

Bleak: As mentioned before loot rights are broken up into three separate totals (damage dealt, healing done, and damage received ) which are combined to equal the players looting right score. The looting right threshold is based on the highest looting right score which is use as the measuring stick for all other attackers. Pre publish 81 the required threshold was 12% of highest looting right score and since publish 81 it is 6%.

2 UO Stratics

Moonstone Jewelery

Can a dev please make another statement on this drop? Specifically where does it actually come from now? Is it Fezzik the Chef or a cannibal mage or a chest in Fezzik’s area? all ove the previous? Has the drop % been altered because of the increase in difficulty of the target now? Thank you. (Mentiras)

Misk: Currently the only mob in game that can drop the moonstone jewelry is Fezzik the Ogre Cook.  The chances for the jewelry to spawn is 1 in a 1000 and if you are lucky enough to get a drop they will spawn on the mobs corpse.

3. UO Stratics
I was wondering if yaw had any plans for this year or next-year for another get-together as last year was simply amazing and i loved it, and was hoping yaw would do another another one this year if anyway possible.(Bazer)

Mesanna:  Currently there are no plans for another Meeting planned with the players but we do look forward to organizing one in the future.

4. UO Stratics
Does using rocks at Navery lower the chance for a drop?(Gantry)

Kyronix: The drop rate is locked in no matter what. However, using the rocks is not seen as damage done by your character.  So while damaging Navrey with the rocks will cause her to receive a greater amount of damage, in order to qualify for the list of those randomly chosen to have a shot at rolling for rewards, you need to damage her directly.

5. UO Stratics
Line of Sight Question.
If I ‘cannot see that’ and my ‘pet cannot see that?’ Why can [that] see, and attack, me and/or my pet through the wall, through a door or around a corner? (weins201 (paraphrased))

Mesanna:  Unlike players and pets mobs are able to agro thru walls, mountains etc.  We have seen this for as long as UO has been around, Your pet stays engaged due to the fact the mob is trying to fight it.  This is not an easy fix and I can’t promise you it will be fixed in the future.  The work around is to get your pet to obey you.  If you are having spells casted at you or your pet thru walls then that is a problem.  Please report that to us with the type of mob, the dungeon etc so we can confirm this issue and get it into our system.

We are putting out a fix for the following issues, European shards will see this tonight everyone else will get it during their normal maintenance times tomorrow, 4/27/2013.

            Corrected issue which resulted in players receiving extra DCI.

We will be turning on Character Transfer tomorrow (5/2/2012) morning.

We are still working on fixing the issues with Character Transfers but hope to have everyone finished to be able to turn it back on Tuesday May 7th.  I will let you know if anything comes up to change this date.

Thank you for your patience.

We are publishing a new client tonight, after maintenance you will get the following on your shards.  European shards will see this tonight after your regular maintenance.

City Elections:

• City Stones have been placed on Siege, this will allow City Elections to occur on the first of June.

Bug Fixes
• Runes marked near certain crafter shops will no longer have incorrect default description
• Restored primary special move on Club to Shadow Strike.
• Corrected issue with certain veteran reward house add-ons placed by co-owners.
• Hit chance formula update: maximum hit chance is capped at 95% and minimum hit chance is capped 5%.

Due to some issues that have come up with Character Transfers we are taking the system down today to fix these problems.  While its down if you find your character has transferred but does not have any of the items please try to do a character copy and cancel it or initiate a character transfer and cancel it.  This should unlock all your items and return them to you.  We will keep you updated on the progress of fixing these issues.

We have received some reports lately regarding lost pets and pets that unbond themselves.  We need your help to gather more information to be able to investigate this issue.  Please send the following information to barmstrong@ea.com:

• Location
• Type of pet
• Taming skill real and modified
• Were you giving out commands when the pet unbonded or went wild
• What activities you were engaged in

Thank you for your patience.

I wanted to take a few moments to fill everyone in on a few things we are doing.  I have heard rumbling from the community that the  sky is falling.  I promise that is not true.  We still have a team that is dedicated to UO and is excited about what is to come.    The Event moderator program is here and still going strong.

As for the future of UO, I would like to share with you some of the ideas we have and want to see happen this year.

• New Theme Pack “The Kings Collection”
• Vendor Search
• New Story Arc
• Revamping Vet Reward – You have to be x age to get it but we are making vet rewards so anyone can use it.
• Revamping Fishing and Pirate Loot
• Adding a Gargoyle Horn Stylist
• Adding Fey Slayers to dungeon loot
• Reopening shard of the dead for Halloween
• Coming up with our Christmas and new Vet Rewards and Anniversary Rewards
• Adding new begging items for Trick or Treating
• Adding additional items to the clean up Britiannia turn ins
• 2nd House option on Siege
• Still working on High Res Art that has not been dropped, the housing wall tiles are numerous and takes a while to redo.  I highly doubt we will be able to get this in game this year, we are shooting for the beginning of next year.
• Fix Bugs

I would also like to address the issue of King Blackthorns Counsel on Siege.  Originally we did not put it on Siege due to the fact that the towns are Faction towns and we know griefing will happen.  If Siege accepts that fact we will be more than happen to add the voting system to Siege.

Next week we will once again put Shadow Strike on Clubs for all the Stealth Macers out there.

We are putting out a publish for a few bug fixes that you will get tomorrow during maintenance:
• Players that are co-owned to a house can once again use house teleporters properly
• Orc Helms now provide the expected 3% LMC.

See everyone in game !!

Due to an issue discovered this evening on  Atlantic,  we are forced to revert the shard back to 8:00pm EDT, April 15th to correct the problem.