Publish 79 will be on Origin and Izumo after tomorrow’s maintenance.  In an effort to get more feedback from all our players, we will be sending publishes to both Origin and Izumo shards.

In addition to the Publish 79 notes the following changes have been made:

• 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

In this week’s Ask and Answer we have a interesting mix of questions that the developers answered. Here they are for your reading pleasure:

UO.stratics

Has there been any thought as to letting us use any of the boats in the huge lake in Malas near Umbra, or sail in any of the waters in Ilshenar? (Bazer – Apr 2011)
Could rowboats only be allowed in Dungeons, Ilshenar, Ter Mur and Malas? (Basara – October 2012)
Will you allow us to use rowboats in dungeons please? There is so much wasted water in like ice dungeon and I need to catch Winter Dragonfish and Blue lobsters so….thats all (Lord Gareth – June 2011)
Maybe it would be nice to allow rowboat placement in dungeons? There some dungeons where a rowboat can be handy to fish. Otherwise rowboats don’t realy have a good use cause they are slow and have no hold.(Frarc -Mar 2011)I wouldn´t mind rowboats in Ilshenar, Gravewater Lake etc either …. (Ertai Vodalion – Mar 2011)

Kyronix: Using Rowboats in dungeons and Malas/Ilshenar is something that isn’t as simple as flipping the “rowboats on” switch.  As far as dungeons go, all the areas where you’d presumably place a rowboat would need to be checked given the new level of accessibility, basically the dungeons weren’t built to be sailed, the same, albeit to a lesser degree, goes for Ilshenar.  Malas however, that’s a pretty straightforward body of water and we’ll discuss the matter further.  As far as fishing goes we’ve made some passes at various aspects of fishing that will be visible in the Pub 80 bug squashing extravaganza.

Essentially back when they increased the chances for lower end creatures to give relic frag generating loot they broke the loot generators ability to drop single mod items like 20DCI/HCI, 4MR, Stats, 150 luck, 35 EP, etc. Can they somehow undo what they did or give the loot generator better chances of dropping single mod items with max intensity? (DEVs can you please take a look into the loot generator?) (silent)

Phoenix:  Such items are currently produced by low-end runic tools. We do not have plans for the near future to revisit monster loot generation.

(I rewrote the question into a more concise form – MMoore)
Will you take a look at the contents of the holds of pirate ships, the loot of pirates, and the rewards for capturing pirates? The time investment, cost, and risk are not commensurate with the reward.

Phoenix: Yes, we will have a good look at these in a near future publish.

In the SA Dungeon, to the right of where the Slasher of Veils spawns at the Destroyed Monument/Statue in center of other buildings. When fighting the Slasher Of Veils in this area and a hell hound is on the statue area, provoking the hell hound on the Slasher can cause the Slasher to teleport on top of monument base then teleport players up also, killing them, leaving them with no way down and unable to retrieve items from their corpses. Will this be looked into in the near future? (From Trokip – submitted via PM) Also (asamdan, Ask the Devs Jul 2010)

Kyronix: I will submit an unconfirmed bug into the system, and if it checks out (which it sounds like it will) will look to altering the world building in that area so this no longer occurs.

Will we ever be able to use soulstones that we find from other people for something besides deco? Like maybe using them in the creation of fragments or being able to wipe the stone empty to use them again, maybe with limited charges? (PowerFullPete, Jan, 2010)
We all have a few odd unowned Soulstone’s gotten from housefalls or found in luna. These unowned stones are good for deco but Id like to see perhaps a trade in. Red ,Blue an green ones litter uo, tons of dye tubs,statues stc.. so to clean them up Id like to see something like the Holloween mask lady set up perhaps in luna to except the rewards trade in. Old for new choice. Would go along way to clean up unwanted rewards and get something we can use. (Lady Storm, Jun, 2010)
Will we ever be able to re-link full soulstones or soulstone fragments to different accounts similarly to what is possible with teleport tiles? (Forte~, Sep, 2010)
Can there be a way to use old soulstones? Especially when the players who originally owned them (and paid for them, real money here) have quit the game? They are already paid for? Why can’t we re-use them? I understand they are account bound. But why can’t the skills be re-moved and the stone be re-newed? It seems pointless to have hundreds of soulstones in game, that we ALREADY PAID FOR, be completely and utterly unusable. It’s real money floating around in a game, and being worthless. EA (as a last resort) could even sell us a tool that would un-bind them and wipe the skills from them for a couple of bucks. So that at least it could be used again. It costed someone money to purchase in the first place. Why can’t they be re-used if the player who bought it has quit the game entirely? (Templar Asarhi, Jun, 2011 )

Phoenix: We are currently evaluating ideas for what to do with these, including implementing an exchange program that will allow multiple soulstones to be turned in and exchanged for new soulstones.

Siege Shard General Chat

Is it possible to get a better explanation of ‘drift speed’ and ‘turn delay’ on large ships? In other words, which ship type is fastest, and which is slowest? Also could we get these figures, plus ‘durability’ and ‘cannon damage’ figures for the Britannia Boat?

Phoenix: All ships move at the same speed, except rowboats.

The Tokuno and Orc ships have 100,000 hit points. The Gargish ship has 140,000 hit points. The Britannian ship has 200,000 hit points.

 

UO Auctions

Question: Has the Dev team ever considered adding further higher levels of ingot and stone that could be extremely rare but give material bonuses similar to that of heartwood? this may open up slightly more deversity on how you can kit up a human/gargoyle melee fighter, as the material bonuses of wooden armor often outshine metal/stone?
(Treasure Seeker)

Phoenix: We do not have plans to add new types of special materials at this time.

Question: Have the Dev team thought about ways to bring back dragon scales as a recourse now that the armor is obsolete? i think perhaps an item crafted by tinkers that adds +1 resist or +5luck to a crafted armor piece would be a good way of bringing back the scales and also making balancing crafted sets a bit easier .
(Treasure Seeker)

Bleak: We are currently working to bring back value to all types of armor including Dragon Armor

UO Mania

could you let us use the Retouching tool on an ethereal mount statuette in the trade window, so that other players don’t need to give us their ethereal mounts to make them transparent? (clorenz)

Phoenix: We will take this idea into consideration.
 

If you have something you want to know about Ultima Online and the team, post your questions on your fansite. All interesting questions will be collected and send to our team, so we can continue to answer them.

Update 11:30 am EST: Europa and Drachenfels are back online.

Greetings!

We will be bringing the shards Europa and Drachenfels offline tomorrow, Tuesday November 6th, at 7:00 am EST (12:00 GMT) for essential maintenance.
At this time we anticipate that both shards will be back online no later than 12:00 pm EST (17:00 GMT).

Please be sure to check this post for updates regarding the downtime.

We would like to announce the top scoring players on the Shard of the Dead this year. Congratulations to all of you!

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

Due to a lot of our players being without power due to Hurricane Sandy we are going to turn off City Loyalty decay and Housing decay for two weeks starting tonight.
We hope everyone is safe and our thoughts are with all of you.

If you are fortunate enough to play, please keep in mind that the Shard of the Dead will end tomorrow. If you are looking for some in-game Halloween action, visit TC1 tonight!

This week’s Ask & Answer had to fight its way through wind and rain. Here are latest answers to your questions:

UOMania

Can you add the timer for the spawn of the next token to the item property display of the veteran reward Shard Transfer Shields? Right now I need to write down the date to remember when the next token will come out. (clorenz)
uo.stratics
Also the number currently held on the shield (Tazar)
Kyronix: This is something we can easily do and will add to the backlog, thanks!

Currently we can only get Bulk Order Book Covers buying the full 11th anniversary collection pack from the origin store. Can we get them in some other way, for example with a separate purchase? (Zangar)
Mesanna: This is something we can add in the future.

Can we get the ability to remove and recover powerscrolls and recipes from a character, to apply them on another character? (clorenz)
Mesanna: We as a team all feel this would not be a good system to put into UO due to the fact it cuts out the need to do champ spawns.

Can you make all items stackable? There’s still a lot of stuff that requires infinite storage space and is unstackable. (clorenz)
uo.stratics
We already have clockwork assemblies and arcane gems that are stackable. Can we get the power crystals to stack as well? (sablestorm)
I can remember when clockwork assemblies weren’t stackable and they were fixed at some point in time. It would be great to be able to stack power crystals too. (Trixrnt4kids)
Tasty treats – We are getting a lot of these now from the new Treasure Chests, and just wondering why they don’t stack? Thank you (Old Man of UO)
Acid slug, Tasty treats and “scared fire ant goo” All 3 doens’t stack. Please, fix it because there are too many items (Ivory Norwind)
Monster Stealables are barely used in game (from my experience talking to people) because they take so many lockdowns in a house to store due to the fact that they are unstackable. Please consider making them stack. Thanks (Nero Blackraven)
Kyronix: There is a number of bugs related to stackable items in the system that we will be squashing during the Publish 80 bug sprint. 

I’d like an item to open my bankbox from home. Similar to the chest of sending, but when you double-click it it opens the bankbox. (clorenz)
Kyronix: This is certainly something we can discuss, maybe it’s time for a Britannian heat wave?

Can we get the ability to transfer money from a character on one shard to a character on another shard? Maybe with a “gold transfer token”. (clorenz)
Mesanna: I guess I am not understanding the question, are you asking to be able to just transfer money?  I guess my confusion is why not just do it via character transfer?

Red & Purple Pixies

Has the staff thought about making the seasonal change that removes the green from the trees and sets the ground in snow, something we can turn off by option? Frankly… I’m sick to death of it in real life and would rather not see that landscape in the game. Thus the option, so people can make a choice.  (Lady Frany Flame)
Bleak: This is a good suggestion and one we will keep in mind for both clients going forward.

UO Auctions

I find that the game can occasionally seem a little linear as far as dress codes go for the player hoping to achieve best kit. For example everyone ends up wearing sunglasses from library donations. Have the Devs ever considered adding any artifacts to the game that are actually random in which art they drop as. Ie a helm that could compete with the goggles, but can appear as a norsehelm/closed helm/samurai helm/dragon helm and a caster hat that could appear as any of the cloth hat art. etc i feel applying this sort of idea to some new drops might aide diversity in the way players end up dressed and make use of great in game art that ends up somewhat redundant. (Treasure Seeker)
Bleak: We have considered doing this but there are several factors that need to taken into consideration for example the actual name of the artifact that may need to be changed based on the selected art or some are may need to be eliminated as a possibility due to meditation restrictions. This is something that we will keep in mind as we go forward in creating new artifacts.

UO.stratics

I know it was stated a long time ago that we would be able to un-alter items. Is this still in the works? Also, could we get the option to alter any similar item to any race? For example, rings and bracelets could be altered, but necklaces and earrings could not (unless there’s a similar artifact for the opposite race) (yadiman)
Mesanna: After further research into this matter we are unable to put in the ability to un-alter items.  There just isn’t a way to keep track of the original item.

If you have something you want to know about Ultima Online and the team, post your questions on your fansite. All interesting questions will be collected and send to our team, so we can continue to answer them.

Update 10:45 am EDT: The maintenance is over. All functions of the account center are available again.

Greetings,

We will bring down the Account Center for a short maintenance tomorrow, Thursday November 1st, at 10am EDT (15:00 CET). During the maintenance you will not be able to change subscription or redeem game codes.

At the moment we anticipate the Account Center to be back online at 1:00pm EDT (18:00 CET).

Thank you for your understanding.

Over the past weeks we have had the immense pleasure of reading through your most memorable moments. Every entry was very entertaining, heartfelt and reminds all of us how amazing Ultima Online truly is. We have reached end our Most Memorable UO Moment contest, but are happy to share with you the final winners. We received 12 entries from the Sonoma shard and had another tie!

Here are the 7 winning UO memories from Sonoma:

A Fish Tale

My most memorable UO moment happened a couple years ago at the Capt’n EM Rumbelly’s Deep Sea Fishing Adventure on Sonoma. A call went out stating that fishing crews were wanted. All brave sailors, fishers and healers were needed as a rumor was spreading the towns that someone had spotted a huge fish in the waters off the coast and Capt’n EM Rumbelly wanted to see the proof since he believed it is was just a long fish tale.

The tale also spoke of grave peril, that ghost ships long sunk had given up their dead and they were wandering the seas. Although I was not a fisher, and far from being a sailor, I figured the least I could do is offer my healing assistance and perhaps I could get in a shot or two to help defend others.

We headed off from New Haven docks and before we got to far the captain of the boat I was riding on managed to get us a tad lost. We had to circle around and try to find the other ships. It was ok though since the brave sailors remembered to bring a large stash of rum on board to share. We were a bit intoxicated by the time we caught up with the other ships but we sure had fun telling wayfaring jokes and reminiscing about former barmaids.

We did our best to defend the fisher of our boat but the deep sea monsters attacked us fearlessly and a few of the sailors gave up their ghost. The other ships did come to our aid and our fisher did manage to catch a pretty darn good sized flapper. However, even though we came in last place for the weight of our fin friend we had a blast trying and I forged a bond with the other players.

Because of that fun and memorable event I developed an interest in seafaring. I took up the skill of fishing and I was certainly ready for the deep sea adventures we have now with pirates. Maybe one day Capt’n EM Rumbelly will return to take us on another deep sea adventure. If he does I will be sure to bring an extra keg or two of fresh distilled brews to help us brave the waves and sea monsters.

It was supposed to be like every other night then I logged into UO. Log in, find Ghengis and Libby and see what mischief we could accomplish for a few hours of playtime. That’s how the night was supposed to go.

Instead, I logged in &  found Ghengis standing around Moonglow Bank and learned Libby was not online yet. Ghengis and I  talked for a short while and something felt very “off” to me about him. What a surprise for me to learn that Ghengis this night was actually a real life older brother that also played that account and I would learn to know him better as “Lestat”.

Over the next few hours of  this night, Lestat showed me a side of UO I had never experienced. We killed Blood elements with our pet dragons in Ilshenar. We provo’ed  Shadow Wyrms with our bards in the bottom of Destard.  We visited all the towns in Trammel. He explained to me what a “mule” character was. To say the least I was sad when he said he had to log out because he worked the next morning, but promised he would log in the following evening to play beside me. I knew then a friendship was born.

Over the course of the next few months Lestat and I were inseparable. We did everything together from working our Blacksmith skills at the same forge, working our provocation skills up at Shadow Wyrms. I’ll always adore those long nights we spent playing the game and voice chatting at the same time.

To end this story of one night logging into to Ultima Online and discovering a friend, Lestat and I live together in real life now, engaged, and we both still log into UO almost every evening from different rooms of our house and yell back and forth from room to room such things as: “Hun, can you heal me??!!” or “Baby can you kill that dragon before it eats me?!?” Not only did I meet a friend from that one night, but I met my Best Friend for life.

Server Down

When the server down message pops up, everyone, including myself equip our best weapons and armor and head on over to the Brit Graveyard. There you see all sorts of characters. Everyone has their best of the best equipment on and ready for battles that would have no consequences.  There is no fear of losing your Supremely Accurate Weapon of Vanquishing. There is no fear of losing your Indestructible Armor of Invulnerability. I was one of those that bared it all for the great fights night after night at the Brit Graveyard.
My weapons of choice have always been a Halberd and a Katana. So with that being said, I equipped my Supremely Accurate Halberd and Katana of Vanquishing. I loaded myself with Reagents, Potions, and my Teleporting/Invisibility items for the nightly battle. Once there, you can see the masses gathering. Blues would congregate on one side. The reds would gather on another side. Without warning, some blues will flag grey and it would be an all-out war between blues on greys, blues on reds, blues on blues, reds on reds, and greys on greys. As a PK, I did not care what color you showed. I killed whoever was close to me.
I precast my Explosion, and find my target. Once the Explosion is upon him/her, I would run in with a swift whack of my Supremely Accurate Halberd of Vanquishing, and then back up a few steps and cast an Energy Bolt at my victim. If they are lucky and survive the initial assault, and would then either blast them with an Explosion/Energy Bolt combo, or just simply equip my Katana and slice them until they are dead and seeing grey.
I have to admit, there are times where I would have to flee with the numbers not in my favor. That is when my Teleporting/Invisibility items come in handy. Drink a Greater Heal Potion and teleport away and turn the corner and *poof*, hidden. I would then gather my thoughts and run back into the masses and pick them off one by one.
Out of all the battles, duels, and fights I have been in, the server down wars was the best in my mind. It has always stuck in my memories. This was the time where the reds can be red; this was the time where blues can also be reds.
This was the most carefree fights I have ever been a part of. This was a very memorable moment in my life on Ultima Online.

‘DragonSnack in the Dungeon of Blood’
(queue scary music)

Once upon a time, I decided to change professions.
More than that, I changed me.
New name. New house. New skills.
As I was redeveloping myself I stumbled upon my new profession quite by accident.
I decided to become a raconteur.
One of the things that I needed to assist me in my new job was a horse.
After a few test drives I settled on a creature known as DragonSnack.
He is known as DragonSnack since the dragons did not think he alone equaled a full meal.

In those days I traveled Sonoma alone.
I enjoyed exploring new places and telling people about what I saw.
DragonSnack was my company. His refusal to comply with the standard rules of RNG fascinates me.

I had never stepped in Blood Dungeon.
So, I grabbed my Sword of Dullness and my Shield of Metal Attraction, and DragonSnack and I headed to Blood Dungeon.
I decided this dungeon would be easy.
After all, it was only one level.
At first I had no problems in the dungeon alone.
It was just Imps and Hellcats.
Moving deeper I encountered more powerful denizens, but we squelched those.
I was doing pretty good attacking things and backing off to heal when necessary.
I was feeling pretty good and advanced further into the dungeon and spotted a Balron (Paragon).
He spotted me too!
He was SOOOO happy to see me!
He ran right over and hugged me to death.
I had tried to run but he was fast.
As my vision turned gray, I saw DragonSnack head toward the Balron.
“Great. Now I have to find a res for him too!” I thought as I ran from the dungeon.
I had to run about 1189 miles to the nearest Moongate for a res.

Once getting back to the dungeon, it took me a few attempts (and one more death robe) before I reached me body and could recover my precious junk.
Now, all I needed to do was get DrgaonSnack’s ghost.
Now the kicker to this was that ol’ Balron (Paragon).
It saw me coming and chased me back out of the dungeon.
I tried several times but that balron was persistent.
I had to figure out a way to outsmart that Balron.
I decided to take a nap.
If you take a nap and your pet isn’t with you when you fall asleep it will be there when you awake.
So, I took a quick nap, but there was no DragonSnack when I woke up.
I tried a few more times, still no DragonSnack.
I talked to some friends and no one had any ideas.
I was certain that DragonSnack was gone to some RNG glitch.
My sons joined me and mourned my loss with me.
We decided to try one more trip to Blood to look for DragonSnack.
We slowly fought our way into the dungeon.
As we reached the dungeon, there stood DragonSnack. Alive.
We killed the Blood Elemental standing beside DragonSnack.
I mounted him and we raced out of the dungeon.
Just as I was almost out of the dungeon I was finished off by an imp.
The imp killed DragonSnack too.

This time, I was able to recover my body and DragonSnack’s ghost.
DragonSnack has escaped a balron (Paragon), walked past several Blood Elementals and camped in the dungeon, unscathed (until I returned).
How does that happen?

The King’s Visit.
I scurried from my room at the Empathy Abby in Yew over to the bank.  How silly of me to log off last night with some gold in my backpack, I’m shocked that the gold is even still with me and not lining the purse of some thief.  But its ok now, I’ve got it safely stashed away in the bank.  My house funds are growing nicely and soon I will have enough money to get that small stone and plaster house!
But now is not the time for playing around in the bank, I have to get my knife and get down into the orc valley below the Yew Graveyard and start killing the orcs and get more gold and stuff to sell before anyone else gets there and takes over the spawn!  I can remember with a pang of fear when the pack of reds attacked last night seemingly out of nowhere with their Uzi Bows, all with the same name… SpAwN.
*supresses a shiver of fear and excitement*
Ok, need a plan of attack here.  First off ill hit the yew sheep pen and get some wool then over to the YMCA (The Yew Merry Center for All, a landmark on the Sonoma shard of a Large Tower directly across from the Yew Graveyard) and make some Band-Aids and then it’s off to the yew graveyard to get some bone armor.  Then it’s straight down to the Orc Valley to make some gold!
I leave the Abby in my short pants and shirt, knife in hand.  I stop for a moment to put my grey robe on as I supress a giggle.  “They will see this death robe and think I’m freshly resurrected and leave me alone”.   I’m so much smarter than those reds I swear!
I expertly sheer the wool of some sheep and roll into the YMCA, as the door swings shut behind me I see some names I recognise and some I don’t, I take a second look at the names I don’t know, for while the YMCA is a safe haven for those in the wilds not everyone plays by the rules of the house and more than one person has dropped dead from a well-placed flame strike when unbanned reds rushed the famous player run Inn.  I deftly spin my wool into cloth and then into Band-Aids and I’m ready to leave when a flurry of activity descends upon the YMCA.
Men on horseback have arrived at the Inn and from the fine cut of their clothes and the well-used weapons they carry these are men of means and knowledge.   And then a name stands out amongst their group…. Lord British!
“Oh my god” I whisper.
I prostrate myself down in front of the Creator of all we know as he ambles into the Inn and starts to chat freely with all of us that are in here.  He inquires as to how my night is going.  I say something cheesy like “I’ve rid the world of those pesky sheep across the way” to which he laughs and moves on to the roof of the inn with his entourage. 
We, being dutiful followers of the Crown follow our liege lord up to the roof to hear what he has to say.  I put the call out to everyone I know that the King is at the YMCA.  And from what I can tell everyone else has done the same, for people are arriving in droves and pouring in from all directions.  The atmosphere is festive as there are so many people here easily more people then play on this entire shard!  Soon my joy turns to fear as riots of new characters are running down from the Abby, obviously newly made people coming from other shards to see the King on one of rare public appearances.  And then the beast rears its ugly head…. The Lag Monster has arrived! 
And who can blame the Lag Beast for coming, everyone else in the game is here, why not the Lag Beast!
In amongst the cut purses and rouges that are here we listen to our Lord British talk about how happy he is to see all of us and how happy he is that we are all enjoying ourselves.
Beer and Spirits are passed around and we all hoist a glass and a cheer!
And later that night when the lag beast has left and I’m down in the Orc Valley below Yew plying my trade and making some gold towards my first house I can’t help but smile, for I have met my King.
Big Bad Wolf of WGW (Warriors and Guardians of the Woods)
(Later to be the Bard Poo)
July 11, 1999

A Memorable First – Addax’s First
Trip to a Dungeon

Addax had long been a lumberjack making
his way by crafting bows and furniture for profit.  After a while, he began to feel lonely in the forest and decided to join a guild for comradeship.  Addax joined the Guardians of Truth (GoT) in early 1999.

One day early in his membership, Addax
was sitting alone in the guild house admiring his new uniform and plate armor.  Suddenly, his fellow guild member Rodimus burst in the room asking for help. Vile leprechauns had been popping up all over Britannia and attacking people.  Rodimus spotted large numbers of them in Shame dungeon, and he needed assistance to slay them.

Addax had never been in any dungeons
before.  They had always sounded too dangerous for a humble woodsman like him, but he was an armored soldier in a strong guild now.
Surely he could brave the danger.  He picked up his ax and followed Rodimus through a gate to the depths of Shame Dungeon.

After adjusting to the darkness, Addax
found himself in front of a tower surrounded by water.  The front door opened and out came a man dressed in a fancy white shirt, short green pants, a green cloak and a feathered hat. It was a leprechaun!
Addax immediately charged, waving his ax wildly. Battle ensued and Addax quickly emerged victorious.  Just as Addax sighed in relief and began to heal his wounds, two more leprechauns advanced out the door. The tower was full of them!

The battle was tough, but Addax and
Rodimus quickly worked their way through the tower picking up mugs of green ale from fallen leprechauns.  They also took what clothing they could find without bloodstains intending to play at being leprechauns themselves.

Once they tired of killing, Rodimus
went home to rest and Addax returned to the guild house to report to the guild leader.  Several members of the guild gathered to listen to his tale.  Once he was done, they ventured forth to Shame Dungeon to kill some leprechauns themselves.  Addax, however, had seen enough blood for one day.  He returned home to enjoy drinking some green ale.

There are several memorable UO moments that come to mind; weddings, festivals, battles, EM events, but for me there is one that says it all about UO. It is when our UO world came together in 2004/2005 to support the people that were struck by the natural disasters of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

UO players from around the world wanted to help those in need by offering to donate their time, gold, items, thoughts and prayers. A vet player named Crazy Joe organized a way for players to show their support with a new concept to the virtual world. With the approval of the UO administration, he developed Gamers Charity. This virtual charitable organization would auction off donated UO items for real dollars that would then be donated to the Red Cross.

More than half of the UO shards participated. The UO Players helped raise thousands of dollars with billions worth of virtual goods. When the fundraiser was done, the amount in real life dollars donated to the Red Cross/Salvation Army was more then $10,000.00. This united action lifted the spirit of human kindness to a level that had not been seen in the virtual world. The charitable movement hit national recognition and Crazy Joe was interviewed on MSNBC about Ultima Online and Gamers Charity.

As a ‘UO Wedding Cleric’ I was honored when asked to hold memorial services on the different shards. I was also given the chance to help Sosaria Live Radio (now Whispering Rose Radio) run a 3 day music-thon to raise as much gold as possible. Players donated so much gold it was unbelievable. A bit of fun developed during this sad time which helped us to stay focused on the main goal. There was some shard to shard competition but the best was when a challenge came forth that if we reached a certain amount in donations Crazy Joe would shave his head bald! He actually looked pretty good with no hair … players began calling him Crazy Joe Kojak.

The reason why this UO memory is most memorable to me is not just because I have forged many great friendships from sharing a united goal but also because since that time I realize that behind every paper doll there is a real person. Behind every pixel on screen there is a real person whose talent and creativeness is being shared. Behind each publish there are real people just like the players who make up our UO World. For me, UO is not just a game, it’s really a way of life ~ Real and Virtual life entwined.

Over the past 15 years UO has helped touch and shape all of our lives. Join us in wishing everybody another wonderful 15 years rich with more memories and great friends.

We received 12 creative entries from the Origin shard. Of those entries there were 5 memories that received the most votes from our judges.

Here are the 5 winning UO memories from Origin:

My most memorable moment in UO is when I achieved the title Grandmaster Fisherman.  It may not seem all that special anymore, but back when I was working 65+ hours a week, I could only dedicate 5 – 15 hours a week to Ultima Online.  The magic of fishing up items from a shipwreck or the highly desirable message in a bottle seemed like a fairy tale to me for so long.  I never thought it would happen.

Fortunately there was a system known as power hour that helped me get fishing gains around midnight to 1:00AM.  I would also use a technique called 8×8 where you move your boat 8 tiles, and fish.  If you got a gain, you would stay on that spot, and keep fishing until the fish stopped biting.  If you didn’t get a gain, you just moved another 8 tiles.

It was an adventure, because you would travel the seas over all of Sosaria.  I got very familiar with the coast lines, the islands, and soon I always knew where I was.  Just as in real life, when fishing your mind would wander, you could imagine all the things about the game you loved, or wish you could change.  It was very relaxing.

Soon after I became grandmaster, I hunted for these MiBs, and when I found my first one, I pulled out the water-stained scroll to read about some poor soul that got trapped in a squall only to drown going down with ship because they couldn’t abandon their treasure.  How nice of them to take the time to leave me this note with the coordinates to find their loot.

It was exciting the first time I used my sextant to find the site of the shipwreck.  I pulled up body parts, clocks, boots, and pillows, but I really wanted the large painting.  I was addicted.  I couldn’t believe it when I the line on pole pulled something heavy out of the sea into my backpack.  An unlocked treasure chest, what a relief, because I had no lockpicking.

Later I would pull up more messages in a bottle, and fishing nets to.  Today fishing is even more exciting as it was back then.  Its an element of this game I hope continues to evolve, as I will never stop playing.

My story about Origin began more than twenty years ago, before the time of the MMORPG, even before the magic we call the internet…

I first journeyed to the land of Sosaria as a lone hero when my cousin brought the first Ultima game to my home in 1986.  I ten years old, yet I became a hero when I came home from school, so long as my chores were done.  The game was on a single floppy disc for the Apple IIe.  The monitor was green monochrome, yet I fell instantly in love with the wench in the tavern, though I think she robbed me blind more than once.  I finally traveled back in time to destroy the evil wizard, Mondain.
I set out immediately to find the rest of the series, but, I could only find Ultima IV.  When I became an Avatar by reaching the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, I heard some amazing news:  Ultima V was coming out soon.  I saved my allowance for several months, and after several weeks of anticipation, the box finally arrived!  The artwork on the cover was incredible, with the Avatar facing three evil-looking foes.  On the cover was the Origin symbol. 
Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my quest.  I had arrived at the final dungeon, when my computer stopped working.  We couldn’t afford a new one, and it would be many years before I would journey to Sosaria again…
Years later, I discovered that the Ultima series had been collected for the PC.  I immediately bought the collection, and more than ten years after I had started the quest, I finally rescued Lord British from the clutches of the upstart Lord Blackthorn!
When I began to play UO, I was scrolling through the different shards, when I suddenly saw a familiar name:  Origin!  I struggled against Mongbats, and finally used the advanced character token to become a powerful mage.  I scraped together my first LRC suit.  As I wasn’t doing more than just killing random monsters, I began to branch out and ask the bustling community for a little help.  Arafel brought me to her house in Tokuno to help me train my mage skill.  She told me to wait at her house, then she ran out and brought back a Hiryu.  I didn’t know what I was doing, so I leapt off her porch and was instantly killed.  Arafel laughed a little, “lol,” and told me, quite sternly, to stay on the porch and cast two energy vortexes next to the Hiryu.  When the vortexes were killed, she told me to cast again.  I didn’t have any mana, so she told me to meditate.  I knew what meditating was, so I began to slowly take off my metal armor, piece by piece.  She burst out laughing, “LOL, Wow, you really do need help!”  And she proceeded to contact her friends to make me a proper, medable, LRC suit.  That was when Origin became my home.

The Hammer

Lord Blood Ghoul opened the front door of Hanse’s Hostel and took the seat closest to the fire.  The chill of autumn’s breeze slowly leaving his bones as the warmth from the flames washed over him.  This was his favorite drinking spot, even though he was the only patron he’d ever seen at the establishment. Looking around he notices a rudimentary calendar on the wall and his eyes lock on one day in particular, Halloween.
Opening his pack he removes a piece of parchment, takes out his quill, and begins to write.

Let It Be Known

It was the first year of our world and I resided on a shard called “Eastern.” The shard was plagued with criminals, murderers, and small areas labeled “unused” which no matter how hard you tried you could not walk upon. Life was hard those days and I hold nothing against anyone for what they did to survive.
Blood Ghoul cringed at the thought of how many Nobles he had promised to escort to their desired location, only to lead them beyond the range of city guards to murder and loot their belongings.  He looks back down to the parchment and continues to write.
I had been walking around the land outside of Britain when I came across a large group of others gathered around a peculiar looking individual. This person was instructing the group that it was Halloween and the undead in the cemetery were amassing a formidable force. The entire group began running to the north until we reached the cemetery where I stopped in my tracks at the sight. Ghouls, Zombies, Skeletons, and numerous worse undead were wandering the area.
The fighting was brutal and long.  All of my training in the wilds came into use and when the last of the undead fell I surveyed the carnage.  Bodies of both the living and undead littered as far as the eye could see.  In those days when someone fell in battle you could take all the belongings from their corpse.  I believe the overwhelming number of “heroes” who came to stop the undead spent their time participating in that repulsive act.
The strange individual we had followed to the undead stood in front of the crowd and congratulated us on a well earned victory. He then stated one warrior was to be recognized for bravery and called my name. He asked me to approach and I was handed a named magical war hammer called “Heavy War Hammer of the Dead.”
The world was difficult and I ended up losing my prize. I heard it passed through many hands over the years and ended up on the shard called Drachenfels but it has since slipped into history. I have searched many shards but to no avail. I fear my hammer is lost forever.
Lord Blood Ghoul gets up from his chair and approaches the bulletin board. Posting his most memorable moment he then heads back out into the autumn’s chill.

It was one early morning 1998 when I woke up for class. I thought to myself let’s see what the world of Ultima Online has to offer before I head out the door. I logged onto my 56k AOL connection “eeeeawwwwewwwwwaaaaa, chssssss, chssss” and there I was sitting in the brittania mint. My character was named Strider and he was almost a 70 something Swordsman/Smith. I have the Ultima Online classic music just cranked up in my apartment running around the brittania bank and then  I run across a character and his name was Oslo. We talked for a good hour about everything under the sun and near the end of the conversation he said “Hey let me see your house” . I was very proud to show my 7×7 home off to someone that did not have a house, so we ran to my house. It was right before we entered my home that I noticed my key was missing! Oslo says “The Thief King strikes again” and then runs…… I pursue him trying to type and run at the same time “Wait, Wait!” but before long he has vanished. I return to the scene of the crime and behold Oslo shows up. I immediately attack him but am no match for this thief and he quickly kills me. At this point I have missed a college class (later finds out that I missed a pop quiz and coincidently fail the class). I return to the brittania mint and find no other than Oslo looking for his next victim. I beg him for the return of my key to my house and he replied “Whats in it for me?” I literally gave him the clothes/armor on my back in order to retrieve my key. In the end Oslo and I became good friends and played Ultima Online together for 10 years before he had to leave the game. In the end it turns out missing that class, failing a quiz/class and getting man handled by a thief led me to 10 exciting years of Ultima Online and a great friendship

From Farmer to Lord – My Story
I guess you can say I was born on the islands of Jhelom, well at least that’s where I first obtain my consciousness.  With nothing but the shirt, pants and shoes I had on I wandered the streets for days not knowing what I was supposed to do other than knowing my name was Orion.  I particularly remembered a day approximately 2 weeks into my conscious existence that I came across a large farm.  There was a small house that looked like a shop of some sorts but behind it was a massive forest.   I stopped by the shop for a glass of water since that was all I could afford and had the urge of wanting to take a stroll into the forest.   I found a path leading into the forest and began walking.  It was about 20 minutes into the walk did I hear loud claps of thunder.  It didn’t make sense to me at first because it was a clear blue sky so naturally I was even more drawn to the source of that sound.  I walked another 200 yards or so before I saw this old man dressed in a robe summoning what it appeared to be lightning bolts and fireballs out of thin air and directing them towards these 2 large silver serpents.  What he didn’t see was a giant spider slowly creeping up behind him and was in a position to pounce on him.  Needless to say I was scarred but also excited at the same time and out of my mouth I yelled to the old man “there is a huge spider getting ready to eat your ass – look behind you”.  He turned with incredible speed for his age and muttered some words and next thing I knew he was next to me.  He then muttered some more words and a bluish looking pool appeared in front of me.  He grabbed me by the shirt and tossed me into the pool and everything went black.
I woke up in a bed in this giant room decorated with what looked like expensive things and at the foot of the bed stood the same old man I met on the island.  He looked at me with a smile and said “welcome Orion, how are you feeling?”   I didn’t know what to say at first other than “huh?”  He smiled some more and said “well I guess you must be wondering what is going on, so let me do the talking and fill you in”.  He began telling me his story about how he was a high wizard in Lord British’s court who worked all of his life and was never married.  On that particular day, he was trying out some new combination magic spells and was careless not paying any attention around him and would have probably died until he heard me yelling.  He thought that was a sign from above and decided to adopt me as his child.  While I was unconscious from the moongate traveling (my first time of course), he found out from the locals that I was an orphan and just appeared out of nowhere one day and had been wondering around the streets for days.  He then said he will teach me everything he knows and that his fortune was not made through magic or service to the throne but through antiques trading- for he as the foremost expert on antiquities. 
Over the years he has taught me many lessons.  I’ve been on countless quests under the services of all the Britannia rulers from Lord British to Lady Dawn and established long time friends.  And when my adopted father passed the title of Lord was bestowed upon me as the sole heir of his estates.  To honor him, I changed my name to that of his family crest which was a creature of a lion with dragon wings – Manticore.  So when you asked what this world means to me, the answer is simple, “everything