The Herald

UO Herald - Game Updates

Publish 79 for TC1 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%

 

Bug Fixes


  • 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

 

 

Classic client 7.0.27


  • Cliloc Changes

Enhanced Client 4.0.27


  • Cliloc Changes

Exposed the following functions to LUA for Enhanced Client Custom UI:

PlaySoundByID()

Plays a game sound.

Parameters

type (int) The type of sound: ambient = 0, action =1
id  (int) The id of the sound file to play
x (int) The x coordinate of the target location.
y (int) The y coordinate of the target location.
(int) The z coordinate of the target location. 

Returns

Nil  No return value

Example:

PlaySoundByID( 1, 23, WindowData.PlayerLocation.x, WindowData.PlayerLocation.y, WindowData.PlayerLocation.z)

 

GetDistanceFromPlayer()

Returns the distance in tiles from the target to the player

Parameters

Id (int) The id of the target used to measure distance

Returns

distance (number) The numbers of tiles from the player

Example

local distanceFromPlayer = GetDistanceFromPlaye(WindowData.CurrentTarget.TargetId)

GetTerrainType

Returns the terrain type id on the given coordinates

Parameters

x (int) The x coordinate of the target location.
y (int) The y coordinate of the target location.
Z (int) The z coordinate of the target location.

Returns

type (number) The terrain type id of the tile at the given location.

Example

local terrainType = GetTerrainType(WindowData.PlayerLocation.x, WindowData.PlayerLocation.y, WindowData.PlayerLocation.z)


UO Herald - Game Updates

Decays Turned Off & Shard of the Dead

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!


UO Herald - Game Updates

Ask & Answer No. 8

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.

 


UO Herald - Game Updates

Account Center Maintenance – 11/01

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.


UO Herald - Game Updates

Memorable Moment Winners – Sonoma

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.


UO Herald - Game Updates

Memorable Moment Winners – Origin

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


 


UO Herald - Game Updates

Ask & Answer No. 7

The Ultima Online team has received another set of questions last week. Here are the answers.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Dear Devs, UO has been in our lives for 15 years, how about new merchandise to celebrate? The red Dragon with the 15years font would be a perfect and very cool object for (coloured!) T-Shirts, Hoodies, Lanyards and Stickers! (Medea, )
Mesanna: There is a new Tshirt on the bioware store for UO if you go to this link.  

Ultima Online Bibliothek Hello Devs, is it possible to get rid of the timer on the green thorns? I think there is no reason anymore to not get rid of it, because to hunt for Vines or Vorpal Bunnies is nowadays no real issue anymore… thank you! (Medea)
Mesanna:  Currently there is a 3 minute delay on the thorns that the team have honestly not thought about removing .  We will do some research and talk it over.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Hallo UO Team, what happened to the plans about New Naven, meaning replacing New Haven with the old Haven or Occlo? (Waldschrat)
Mesanna:  We have not made any plans to go forward with this change as of yet.

Ultima Online Bibliothek Dear UO Dev Team, how about a nice and somehow useful list about what action will bring how much points for Town Loyalty? Or even a formula on how the different options are calculated? I am a little confused about all the things we can do. For example: I hunted on Champion Spawns for hours for my tamer’s standing, but there was very little or not much standing earned. But my tailor has no problems maintaining and even get more standing with ease when she gives her BODs to the local workers! (And yes, I login daily to get the loyalty points refreshed). Thanks!
Thanks for listening! 

Kyronix: As I am sure you realize its combination of Love, Hatred and Neutrality.  Given the past loyalty decisions of the character it might take longer to build the relationship with the city you desire.

I’d love to know from the team if they plan on releasing these thrones in the spring cleaning or something before anyone makes a poor choice of purchase thinking it’ll be the only release. (Assia Penryn)
Mesanna:  I don’t have issue adding the throne to Spring Cleaning.

Japanese Players Question 1
Question: Are there any plans to revamp the aquarium?
Nickname: Ivy

Mesanna:  We are looking to add new items not necessarily revamp it.

Knuckleheads.dk In the recent storyline Dupre and Lord Blackthorn appeared ingame. Why didn’t you/the EMs not use their special armors/skins (can be seen here and here)?
Mesanna:  The old armor was not used because it was not visible in the EC client so we had to remake Blackthorn.

Over the last few months, the size of my guild has more than doubled. Admin, things like promoting folks or doing guild titles, was ok while we were small, but now we’re so large, and so many folks have a alts with us too, it’s becoming a true pain in the ass. For example; scroll through 6 pages to find the char that needs a status altering, as soon as you’re done, it drops you out of the guild roster page. To get to the next char to alter, you have to go back in scroll through 6 pages, etc etc. Is there any way of making this simpler? What I would like to see, ideally, is
1) If I click on a char name, I get all the chars that one person has in the guild.
2) I can work on those chars, from that list, without being dumped out of the guild admin section and having to navigate back through.
3) Maybe some way of working on the admin bits from the UO site, available to me as a guild leader, with a choice of giving access to emissaries?
Also, guild titles. What’s with me not being able to give someone the title ‘Dragon Master’ or ‘Hunt Master’ or similar? Those aren’t offensive in any way, what’s the problem? I know it fits, but it tells me it’s disallowed. And if you look at that, maybe you could fix the problem that’s causing my chest of glassblowing supplies to show up on engraving as ‘gla$$blowing supplies’!(Cailleach, ask the devs)

Mesanna:  We would like to redo the guild system as we are aware of a lot of issues we would like to change it in.  I know this is not the answer you want but it is on our list.  As far as the title Dragon Master or Hunt Master those were disallowed due to the fact that you can not name yourself after a NPC in the game or a skill in the game.    I have no problem at all for allowing glassblowing to show up as it should.


UO Herald - Game Updates

Memorable Moment Winners – Siege Perilous

We received 13 excellent entries from the Siege Perilous shard. Once again, the entries challenged our judges to make some hard decisions that resulted in another tie!

Here are the 6 winning UO memories from Siege Perilous:

     Aang was making his rounds. He wondered if these lands would ever make him feel alive again. He had walked them for nearly 10 years and had experienced all of the blood-curdling, hair-tingling action that Sosaria had to offer and he yearned for those days again. As he wandered the forest and mused about a life without adventure, a large structure loomed on the horizon.

     “Ho there, good sir!” bellowed a hulking man from inside the building. His large, brown beard appeared to be brambles falling over the expanse of his mountainous belly but, even as surely as this man was larger than life, a spark of kindness gleamed in his eyes.
     “Grog’s the name. Who might ye be?” he rumbled.
     “Aang, good sir. A-a-ang.” I stammered.
     “Ho there, A-a-ang! Join me for a drink!” he exclaimed, as he motioned me inside and to a rustic, albeit surprisingly quaint, tavern.
     That night and over the next few evenings, in Grog’s tavern, we discussed a great many things, including my impending retirement. At one point, Grog said to me, “You know Aang, if’n ye not be having fun in these lands, then maybe retirement is your best choice. I always make my own fun. Not taking yourself too seriously is the key!”
     One evening, I made my way to the man-mountain’s tavern, eager to discuss my day’s musings. However, this time when I arrived, the doors were shut, the house still. There was no tell-tale scent of meat wafting out to greet me. The house seemed…sad. I returned home to check my pigeons. I had no message from Grog but I did have one from a mutual friend. It said simply, “Grog’s gone. He passed away last night.”
I sat alone, in shock, at my dark granite table. I fumbled with the book he had given me with his wish-list of Christmas decorations he was missing for his amazing tavern. As I ran my finger down the leather bound spine of the book, his words rang in my mind: “Have fun.” I knew what I had to do. I started packing up my things and began preparing for my new life, in a new land: Siege Perilous!

     Aang is just a character of mine on Catskills, however, Grog was a real man, larger than life, who affected me in a way that I cannot begin to express. His words, “Have fun!” are tattooed on my leg, a memorial to a man whom I only knew for a few short weeks but whose philosophy I still try to live by today. Life is so short. If you are doing something that you don’t enjoy, stop. Pick up, move on, and try something else. That’s what I did. Siege Perilous has been my home for nearly 5 years now. Had I not met the man called Grog, I would not still be playing UO for 15 years now and having as much fun now as I did the day I started.


One of my fondest and oldest memories of Ultima Online was my first trip to Felucia.

About three months after I had started playing UO, my friend (whom had got me in to the game) and I decided we would take our first steps in Felucia. We were both master mages and had killed almost every monster and traversed every dungeon in the game so we thought we were well prepared.

We headed out to Minoc moongate; the less popular of the two player vs. player areas, second only to the infamous Bucaneer’s Den. We, along with other players, stood at the moongate hoping for one of the infamous “PK’ers” to appear. Anxiously we waited with the spells ready at the command of our finger tips. We waited and waited but none ever came.

All of the sudden I saw a fireball flying at me and my screen said that my friend was attacking me. He hardly had time to type out, “mistake!” but it was already too late. He had flagged as a criminal and all of the other players were attacking him – casting spells and shooting arrows at him. He ran off into the distance like a madman. Panicing, I didn’t know what to do – I had to help him somehow! I casted greater healing and ran after him. Finally catching up to him I landed my heal on him, saving his life but coincidentally making me a criminal also. A few short seconds later and we were both dead, laughing our butts off.

“Well, we didn’t see any PKs but we still managed to get ourselves killed!”

Still to today he claims that he accidentally attacked me but I don’t buy it. Nonetheless, we will never forget our first failed attempt into Felucia and the rush of adrenaline that we got from our first time fighting other players.


I started playing Ultima Online within the first few weeks that it was released. I was very obsessive about the game (some things never change!) and I played every minute I had spare. The result of this was having very high skills very early on in the game.

Everything was new to most people, so of course not knowing a thing, my first character was a bit all-over the place skill-wise. My swordman was not only a fighter but also a miner, lumberjack, blacksmith, and various other skills. I only had the one character… the thought of making a “mule crafter” was not yet invented!

One day he was out doing some lumberjacking near the forests of Britain. I had not seen anyone in hours so I figured it was safe to get up and use the restroom. On my way back I stopped to make some more coffee and grab a quick snack.

As I began to head back to my computer I hear the sounds of combat – the oh so familiar sound of swords swinging and hitting metal armor. I hurried back and my heart sunk as I approach my computer. A PK (player killer) was attacking my guy and upon comparing our hit point bars I was actually winning! Just as I sit down at my seat he landed a lucky blow and my guy keeled over.

The PK then started to talk to me. He was not making fun of me, infact it was the opposite. He said it was one of the best fight he has ever been in and because of this he was not going to loot my corpse. He was so impressed he helped me find a healer so I could get ressed. After I was ressed, he escorted me back to my body and guarded me while I reequiped my gear. We spoke for a few minutes and then headed our seperate ways.

I saw him several times in the weeks to come but I never, ever, had the heart to tell him that I was AFK and my character was automatically defending himself the entire fight. I have thought about this many times over the years and still brings a small chuckle.


It was within the first year of moving across the seas from Lake Austin. I had never really learned how to master the art of a magi before crossing to play within Siege Perilous.  It was a normal night, all was quiet and calm..  All of a sudden a tournament was being announced through the mountains. I quickly dropped everything and I raced over to where it was held. I was just in the knick of time to receive entry into the tournament. I was nervous as all could be when I looked upon my opponents… Many names who I had fought in the field before and was lucky to have survived. They had even accidently added an additional person to the tournament, thus throwing off the ladder. I was to be pitted against 2 players for the first tier instead of just one. My first fight was Uncle Check which I was able to battle my way through him to victory, only to be faced with another opponent, Dequique Deprone. A short battle was fought, however I was to emerge the victor against him as well.

  In the second Tier, I faced one of the better opponents; Mangar of Minoc. He was skillful in the art of Fencing, but was also part magi. It was quite a long battle, as he a was a courageous warrior. However, in the end he would take a mighty fall. It was so exciting after I won against him, as I knew he was one of the better competitors in the tournament. For my third battle, I was to fight against the villain known as Wyrm. He was known for practicing the dark arts and sacrificing poor innocent souls. I was excited for this fight, as I wanted to put this murderer to rest and seek revenge for those lives he had sacrificed in his journeys. The battle was quick and mostly blur. I was so focused on beating him down to prove victory over the evil doer. I was to walk away to the final round still undefeated as Wyrm crawled back into his dark hole of demise.

The final fight was against a female warrior known as Cattiebrie. She was a skillful swordswoman and wielded a wicked cleaver doused in poison. This was it, the final battle for the championship. I was very nervous as I stared at the edge of her mighty cleaver, dripping with the deadly toxin.  The battle started and felt like it lasted a life time. I was poisoned again and again only nearly escaping death a few times. Eventually, I would manage to wrestle her cleaver away from her and put her face first into the dirt. I had finally done it.. I had won the Tournament! I couldn’t believe that I had finished first place amongst all of the other competitors. This was a day I would never forget, as I had become a skillful mage and gained confidence in my abilities.


A moment that is filled with sadness, accomplishment, success, anger, and then back to sadness… This was and is a fond memory that has it all.
Back in my early days as a young girl wondering the lands of Sosaria, I learned of a sacred basket of fruits known as “Fruit Basket”. Wonderful is such an item that many has obtained, and many still seek to obtain, I too desired it. After obtaining the whereabouts of such an item, I was determined to seek out this “Fruit Basket”. I soon came to realize I was not alone on this adventure for this prized basket of fruits. Many were there in the wake of the morning seeking to profit and satisfy their greed. I myself was there for greed, but the greed for obtaining it for my personal enjoyment. As many mornings passed, I find myself inching closer and closer to grabbing the elusive “Fruit Basket”. Some mornings I wake and find the basket has already been taken, those mornings were quite sad. The mornings that I grab hold of the basket and only to have it bounce back onto the table and another grab it right in front of me was the saddest of the mornings… I always knew that one morning I would be that early bird that would catch the worm, or rather basket. One particular morning I was the one that had the fast hand, I was that early bird… As I grabbed it, and noticed for a few seconds it was still in my grasp, I quickly placed it in my bag and ran as fast as I could and placed it safe in my bank. Oh the accomplishment I felt… The feeling of success has finally come upon me…
I quickly called upon my older brother to share this extraordinary news. As I stand there staring at this basket with joy, my brother says to me, “Hey little sis, you want to see something really cool?” I thought to myself, what could be cooler then this? My brother looks straight into my eyes and says… “Double-click on it and you will see how cool it really is!” My brother has always been my rock in the lands of Sosaria. Him and his band of “red” friends has always protected me and sheltered me under their wings. So without a second thought, I doubled-clicked on it… “You feel quite full after consuming the food”… What the heck! As I stand there in dismay, my brother with a gentle smile on his face says to me, “Cool huh? Once you eat the fruits, it becomes a container. Now you can put stuff in that container.” As the clouds grow darker above us, he quickly realizes that his little sister was about to kill him… As he recalls away with about a thousand apologies, the only thought I had was… I was wish I had a “Fruit Basket” to place into this stupid container…


Years ago, there was a night our guild remembers as “Who has a thief? QUICK!”….

The year was 2006 and our alliance consisted of 3 guilds. There were about 40 of us at this point and, more specifically, there was a ‘late night crew’ that would consistently be in-game from 1am to 6am almost every morning.

The late night crew was doing their thing:  some running champ spawns, some farming keys for peerless, and a couple guys were down in Doom hoping for an Artifact drop.  It was nearing time for server down time, and one of the Doom party went to log out in Nix’s Secret Shoppe.

It took him a moment to utter the words, as he was shocked to see the rarest of Doom artifacts hanging on the wall!  The Ruined Painting!  As one of few Artifact Level 12 items, very few of our group had ever seen this item and we all knew this would be a chance to get a priceless item.

The word shot out thru headsets across the globe! (We have players on 3 continents in our alliance)… “Who has a thief!?!?! QUICK!”

As the night crew goes, it’s a mixed bag of skill-sets that are logged on at any given time, but as fate would have it, my original character Slick Jack is a Legendary Thief!  I answer the call to pilfer the painting and several guildmates start to scoured every famous vendor for a golden skull to pay my passage across Lake Mortis.

When we arrive in Nix’s shop, we gazed at the Ruined Painting on the wall. The elation we felt was only matched by moments of stellar teamwork when we had defeated a Harrower or the defense of our faction base!  This was a moment to savor!

And then fate stepped in and crushed our dream! 

Server down.

In the excitement, we had completely forgotten we were nearing the nightly server re-set… Would the rare painting, modeled after the Italian painter Parmigianino’s 1535 “La Madonna del Collo Lungo” still be there when the shard was re-awakened?

We waited in agony as no one knew the answer to the question: does server re-set ALSO re-set stealable items?

Server up.

To our delight, the famous Ruined Painting was still there, right in front of our eyes! I let my well trained rogue work his magic and the artifact slipped quietly into my pack!  Cheers rang out, messages were sent around the world! We had won the day!
After much deliberation, we decided to NOT sell the rare item, which would have gotten us all great riches: the painting would forever grace our guildhall as a reminder of that glorious night and the awesome camaraderie that this wonderful game, Ultima Online, had provided us.


 


UO Herald - Game Updates

Happy Birthday Stratics!

Today marks the 15 year anniversary of Stratics! They have been a great asset and support to many players as well as the Ultima Online team. We are truly proud of their accomplishments and hope you will join us in giving them a heartfelt congratulations.

In recognition of their 15th anniversary, many Stratics staff members share their insights and memories in one of the oldest MMO fansite networks. In addition, they will host a 2-hour live hangout on YouTube today, 10-21 from 2pm to 4pm EST. You can hang out with the staff and even have the opportunity to win some great prizes!

Read all the details here.

 


UO Herald - Game Updates

Memorable Moment Winners – Pacific

Of the 13 entries from the Pacific shard, there were 5 entries that made the biggest impression on our judges. We hope you enjoy these most memorable moments as much as we did!

Here are the 5 winning UO memories from Pacific:

I have been playing UO since February, 1998. The time was not really late from game beginning, but it was hard to find a good place to build a house. I lived my friend’s house which is only 4×4, and there were five people live in the same house. With the time of playing growth, I earned some money, however, the houses was still expensive because there was no space to build my own one. The only way to get an own house is buying from other player. The main reason of hard to get a house for myself was because I lived in Taiwan, but my playing shard is pacific. The shard ping was very high that around 200-900. I missed many chances to build one. Therefore, I was like hermit crabs that always live in friend’s home. Finally I had a chance…

2004, the new edition “samurai empire” released. To me was not only a new update, but also a big moment in my UO life. The Island of Takuno opened few spaces for building houses, and each shard had different opening time. I had been thinking my own house for a long time, and my bank was very full of each character. The desire made me to have a strong determination that I want my own house. I tried to use house placement tool in the test shard, went to each shard to measure the distance of the house, tried to find a absolute point to make sure the target would be correctly, and finally, I set a hot key for building house. I didn’t have UOA on that time, so the hot key only works for place the house, and I must click yes to make sure the house is built.

My ping was still high, and I was so excited because the place of the house is what I like, and I only had one chance to get it. The website only had a date of opening house system, but there was no exact time for sure. I had a different time zone; my time zone was 12 hours more than EST time. It made me to have more challenge for getting my house. I back home and took shower quickly, set in front of my computer when shard opened from daily maintained. That was 8pm in my time. I took my dinner and hide in front of the place I want to build. Time went by, I was so sleepy, but I still in front of the desk. My left hand was still pressing the hot key, and my right hand finger was ready on the mouse of left click.

The 4AM of my time, it was 4PM of EST. I took a lot of energy drink, but the most significant reason of making me awake was because there were 7-10 people stood in the same place, and that was the people shown. I was one of players who didn’t show up.

Around 10AM of my time, I almost fell sleep, I didn’t go to work because I felt very tired. Suddenly, I shocked, I could feel my heartbeat stopped for 1 second because I saw the pop up window that showed ” are you sure you want to build the house?” I waked immediately and clicked the mouse. The house popped up, people around my screen. I saw many people wanted to go inside of the house. I wasn’t sure if the house is mine, so I did same thing, and I cried. I had had no sleep for over 24hours, and finally I made it. 

Now I still live in the Takuno Island, Pacific, and left site of the city. Go by left, and turn left for count for the third one. That is my sweet home, and welcome!


I recall eagerly anticipating the launch of Ultima Online. I had never played an online game, but was very familiar with the classic Ultima games I’d played on my Commodore 64. I didn’t know what a beta test was but I followed reports about it in the computer gaming magazines. They all warned about PLAYER KILLERS who would attack from ambush any unsuspecting player and kill them simply because they could. When UO finally launched I went in, keeping all those PK caveats in mind. Back then you didn’t have a choice of where you were born, and the UO Gods delivered me into Yew. I wasn’t happy about this because Yew is a fairly remote place, buried deep within the forest. I knew this from having played the classic games, and then as now there was nobody else in town. I spent the first couple of hours attempting to master te rudimentary game mechanics ie: walking, speaking, arming, ec. Once I felt reasonably confident I armed my trusty dagger [that they had so kindly provided me with] and ventured forh into this strange new world. I hadn’t gone far when I noticed a building on my “radar”. Suddenly, as I approached it a name appeared on my screen. I saw some guy standing in front of what appeared to be a house. I immediately remembered the articles and thought, “it’s a PK!” I veered off and began running in a different direction when it happened AGAIN! Another name loomed overhead and  just like the magazines said they appeared to be lying in wait. Changing course I ran again and almost ran into the NEXT one head-on. The accursed woods were teaming with PKs! All I could do was to run back to Yew. I arrived breathless, and as luck would have it there was a town guard wandering around. I ran to him and began yelling HELP SAVE ME THE PK’s ARE COMING!….no response, he just kept moseying along. I tried again “yo Guard! PK’s KILL…nada. At that point I was ready to quit. Stuck in a dead town with a useless guard and beset on all sides by PKs. It was then that Providence intervened, in the form of a girl who rode into town. Her name was Laura and I asked if she could help me. She said of course so I told her in exact detail about my harrowing, near-death encounter with the murderous PKs. At first she smiled, then soon she began LOL, which annoyed me no end. I said “what’s so funny? I could have been killed!” She finally regained her composure and patiently explained that there was a BIG difference between a PK and a vendor that somebody had placed on their steps. She told me how it was “All Names” that was causing the vendor’s names to appear. Well needless to say I felt like a complete idiot, having run for my life from a bunch of stationary player vendors. But fortunately I got over it. Thanks to one player taking the time to explain things I stayed with UO, and still do to this day. All this happened in January of 1998. Thanks, Laura, I hope you’re still around. I know I am, which proves that Paul Simon had ME in mind when he sang, Still CRAZY After All These Years:]…


At the time, I had been playing UO for close to a year, my bank boxes, and my backpacks were full on all five characters.  My roommate and friend that I got signed up for UO nine months ago was in the same situation as I was.  We needed a house, and we needed one badly.  Yet everywhere we looked had a house already.
Both in felucca and trammel, we scouted and tried to plot any house we could.  We checked the obvious places close to cities.  We hoped to find any spot along a road leading from place to another, then maybe someplace along any mountainside.  We even tried the areas outside the dungeon entrances.  It got to the point we went to the farthest points of every peninsula throughout the land, and any island our boat could bring us.
As we grew discouraged, we resigned ourselves to trying dangerous places surrounded by monsters that easily ran us down with our slow internet connection.  So we searched the swamp near the Britain crossroads, the swamps and jungles around Trinsic, the desert by Compassion, the arctic landscape of Dagger Island, and finally the demonic temple ruins of Fire Island.  It had to be the hardest thing we ever had to do, we only had mere moments to use our house deeds, before we got killed, and sometimes lost the deed.
I cannot tell you how many months we searched and died while searching.  There were times we almost gave up.  One day, while searching, a player asked us if we wanted to go hunting.  We explained we were busy trying to find a place to put down a house.  To our shock and amazement, this mysterious stranger opened a gate, and said, “Follow me”.  He brought us back to Fire Island, where he proceeded to walk and stop, walk and stop, walk and stop, until we found ourselves on a beach pointing west towards Serpent’s Hold.  It was on this site our first small tower was born.
That Good Samaritan, I can no longer remember his name, because after placing the tower, and giving it to us, he said his farewells, and recalled away into the ethers.  Later that day we met our neighbors on Fire Island in the large marble house next door to us.  A little over a year later we would be visiting our neighbors in the state next to us, a 45 year old Father and his 14 year old Son who only lived 4 hours away.
Owning our first house was triumphant, but the quest to find the house was unforgettable.  UO brings people together.  It also hosts players who are infinitely kind and charitable.  It’s a place I can call home.


Please let me tell you a story of Trisha the Tamer … back in around 1998 1999  i had a small home in cove  where i would mine in the city .. to keep from being killed by the reds running around outside the gates…  i was a single father of two girls …..i started playing uo  simply for some adult conversation ..well eventually my girls were old enough to show interest in what daddy was doing..always asking whats that ?….can we play ….. so i set them up on their own chars i know i know supposed to be 18 to play but they were closely monitored by me …in the house at cove i had a naked mage i was working on  and anyone who played back then knew that  if you were to see a naked mage it was best to hide or take cover …so this mage had 10 hit points i had only built the magery skill at that time  ..anyway  my daughter Trisha wanted to play for a bit she was 6 yrs old at the time ..so i let her log onto her char while i made them lunch  ..she had a tamer  she was so proud of her first horse and  she loved her little kitten she had tamed all by herself  she named her zoey ..so i told her to mess around in the boxes of all the way kewl stuff dad had  lol yeah mostly junk I’m sure…….all of the sudden i hear her  saying yes! like she had found something awesome ……then again i hear yes!..callin from the next room i asked her did you find something you want and she says to me yeah  dad this guy is dropping all kinds of neat stuff on the ground ….so before i could get into the room i hear her death cry from her char ..then from her …. as i watched her tears coming down he continued to kill her little cat as well ..she was devastated  omg it took me hours to convince her this was a virtual cat after it was all said and done … so here comes dad to the rescue …on a naked mage  i rush outta the house and after this blue i go …here i am with a small bag of reagents  no armor at all with 10 hit points…I’m sure i will let her down once he kills me… she watches the screen yelling get him daddy …so i run up to him and he says wait!  don’t kill me i was only playing… i was so angry at him for making my little girl cry  …. i look at her again and the excitement in her eyes was like  he’s gonna get it! … so i begin to cast …starting off with paralyze  then flame strike  and he begins to run  then i cast e-bolt and another e-bolt and down he goes…… my kids both were jumping up and down screaming yeah we got him! i run up to his corpse to see if i could retrieve her belongings  the whole time he was oOooooooooOOOOOooo trying to talk to me …my daughter kept saying whats he saying daddy ..i tell her i dunno i don’t have spirit speak lol… so to my amazement on this guy was his house rune and a key ring loaded with keys…. so i tell my daughter i think we may have hit the jackpot…… on the ring were keys to 4 boats and a small house ..so first i looted the house  giving it all to my daughter  then we emptied all the boats  giving it to her as well  she was once again happy  …so all in all i got to make my point to my daughter that she always has to listen to daddy or she may get hurt doing something I’ve told her not to do …and also i hope that i taught the guy (wish i could remember his char name) something i have been saying to people that play this game for along time …never run….. stand and fight….. and 9 times outta ten you will win ….had he only hit me once  i would have certainly died  but he got scared  and chose to run


Ultima Online had a huge impact on my early gaming experiences; it was the first and only game I played that allowed me to become involved with other people from around the country, and later on, the world. In my early years I made a lot of friends throughout Britannia, but once I left and all my free time was now dedicated to university, my connections were cut and online friendships lost. It wasn’t until my return to the Pacific shard and the world of Britannia in 2006 that really got me thinking how much of my life was impacted in those first 4 years of playing UO in my early teenage days.
I came back to the game, a noob, not knowing what to expect. I entered the world as a mage, as this is what I knew before I left many years prior. Entering the New Haven area I ran directly to what I thought was a guarded zone, somewhere safe, having no idea that the facet of Trammel even existed at this point.  I saw many blue names entering and exiting my screen, at this point I knew I was in a safe area. 
After about 30 minutes of familiarizing myself again with the classic client I was off to the edge of the city.  I had not even made it two screens from the bank when a brightly colored, funny hat wearing character charged up to me stating my intentions. I said, “Excuse me?” he replied, “Sir, I see you have a (young) player tag, may I assist you on your travels?” I took the mystery man up on his request and sent a barrage of questions his way; I must have sat there for 2 hours talking about the old days, the new days and what has changed within the lands of Britannia.  If was a refreshing feeling to see that there were still people within the game that shared the same interest as I did when playing, community and player involvement, isn’t that the point of a MMO game?
After that night I met many great people, and befriended even more. My journeys throughout the lands of UO have not stopped, and I still find myself enjoying the game every time I login. Outside my Ultima Online days, at university, it was interesting to meet people who had once dwelled within the realm of Ultima Online and how much of an experience it was those first few years (97-2000), there had never been anything like it, it really changed the online gaming world. I had the same feeling and when I made my return, even though the game play style had changed, the same feeling of community, I once had, was still present in the game, making my return to UO in 2006 and the first player experience I had the most memorable.
Long Live UO!