New Legacy Beta Dev Diaries

Beta Weekend #7 – Dev Diary

Custom House Names

We have made an update to the friendly Bard who will now accept custom house names.  Players will also continue to have the option to choose from a pre-generated list which will have continued options available.

Treasure Maps

Bold treasure seekers rejoice as maps to untold riches can be found throughout the realm!

• Treasure Maps can be obtained as loot from various creatures throughout Britannia
• Scribes are able to create an “Decryption Cipher” which can be used to decode maps without the need for additional skills.
• Treasure Chests can be unlocked via a variety of craftable tools,
  • Skeleton Keys from Blacksmiths
  • Improvised Lockpicks from Alchemists
• Treasure Maps can be untrapped via a variety of craftable tools,
  • Pressure Wedge from Carpenters
  • Leather Shim from Tailors
  • Or…if you don’t have any regard for your wellbeing roll the dice by opening the chest and meet death!

Farming

Calling all green thumbs!  Those who have not yet had a chance to try their hand at growing their very own reagents and resources are encouraged to visit the Farmer’s Market in Skara Brae to learn more!

Veylara

Following a disappointment defeat, Veylara has returned to the Sorcerer’s School of Scoundrels to brush up on her magical prowess.  Beware of new abilities should you challenge her!

BODs & Point Values

We continue to evaluate the turn-in reward points for BODs and the respective costs of rewards and look forward to continued feedback from our dedicated crafters as we fine tune the system for New Legacy!

Misc Changes

• The manticore pet has gone through some personality adjustments, it will no longer carelessly attack any and everything.
• New tames of the manticore will now be mountable.
• You should no longer be stuck & unable to use the exit rope in the manticore encounter area.
• You should no longer get stuck on crafting lines, particularly with multi-school crafting.
• Manticore corpse loot should now be on par with the current level of the Congiarium.
• Issues with bottles going into the resource pack as well as erroneous messaging have been resolved.
• You should now be able to apply skill points in smaller increments (0.1) through the skill trainer NPC.
• Monster and pet corpses will now turn to a pile of bones during encounters to reduce visual clutter.
• Resolved issue with the Guild Resource Bank.
• Resolved issue where pet slots would not update properly.

Beta Weekend #6 – Dev Diary

Beta Weekend #5 – Dev Diary

Pumpkin Regatta

The Pumpkin Regatta had its first races in the previous beta release!  The regatta will continue to remain open for additional testing and feedback.

Quality of Life

We are continually looking to make QoL enhancements to in-game items.  As such, the Reagent Bag of Unburdening now has an option to “Fill from Container”

Economy Balance

We are continuing to monitor how much gold is currently held on the shard and will be balancing the gold available from completing objectives and as loot drops.

Guild Progression

We are continuing to evaluate the progression of Guild Prestige Tokens as it relates to the size and required commitments of guild play.  Look for additional balance for this in a future update.

Crafting Narrative Updates

It is our goal to keep character progression as free form as possible while still providing some much needed guidance to those players who may be unfamiliar with the ways of Britannia.  As such, you are no longer required to complete your current crafting narrative progression before starting a new one.  See the Crafting Liaison NPC to learn more skills.

Divergent Path Skill Gain

Those brave enough to immediately venture to the front lines, or those who wish to forgo their adventures in Ocllo will now be pleased to know the Focus skill is unlocked once you choose your equipment from the NPC Quartermaster.  This will only apply to new characters.

Miscellaneous Fixes & Updates

• Resolved issue where incorrect objects could be dropped as quest items while killing quest objective mobs
• Resolved issue where guild housing could not be created in Skara Brae & Trinsic
• Adjusted Assassin Armor set stats
• Resolved issue where rings and bracelets couldn’t be repaired via blacksmithy
• Resolves issue where charges were being applied to shovels & pickaxes.
• Adjusted difficulty of the Magistrate Boss encounter
• Narrative objective rewards will now be created one level below the current Congiarium Loot Gate
• Added missing items to the repairable items list
• Resolved issue where certain items could not be placed in the repair crate
• BODs can no longer be dropped on NPCs that are not crafting guildmasters
• Resolved issue where players could get stuck in a broken state if salvage piles decayed mid-dig
• Shadow Strike will now use the hiding skill in lieu of stealth
• Guild Encounter players will now only be able to loot their own corpse

Beta Weekend #4 – Dev Diary

BOD Update

Additional BOD rewards have been added to the various crafting schools, including new dyetubs for customization and some rewards that were previously available in the Cleanup Britannia System

Secure Repair Crates

To better aid crafters in the process of repairing equipment for the realm, a Secure Repair Crate is available from NPC shopkeepers.

Metal Harvesting

The overall design goal of the crafting loop is to allow crafters to “get into the meat” of crafting without having a punishing grind for resources.  As such, we have updated the Ore-to-Ingot ratio so that miners will now collect 10 ingots instead of 2.  Also, pickaxes and shovels will no longer have charges associated with them.  Metal for all!

Congiarium Balance

• In a future update, contribution points for Congiarium progress will be balanced so that pure crafter templates will contribute more power to the Congiarium than those with inscription or alchemy as an accessory skill
• A new repeatable objective will be introduced to deliver BODs to the Congiarium in exchange for Congius
• The speed of leveling the Congiarium is artificially boosted to help with testing.  Leveling the tower will take longer when the shard goes live.

Artifact Drop Rates

Drop rates of items on NLS are artificially high to help with the testing process.  These will be reduced when the shard goes live.

Pet Balance

Tamable creatures will go through a balance pass before the shard goes live.

Ranger / Ranged Weapon Viability

Right now we recognize there is a deficiency in the ability for rangers to compete against some higher density spawn areas.  In a future update we plan to address this.  Catapults anyone? Trebuchets? (Just kidding…)

Bosses

Beta testers have proved their courage and tested their mettle against some of Britannia’s most fearsome foes.  Expect a balance pass before we go live.  We want these encounters to be challenging and fun, not punishing.  We also don’t want players to steam roll bosses either.  It’s a difficult needle to thread but feedback thus far has helped us immensely in accomplishing this goal.

Guilds & Dungeon Outpost Encounters

We’ll be reducing the number of teams required for the Dungeon Outpost from 5 to 3 teams for testing.  We will also be bumping the value of Guild Prestige Tokens awarded to aid in guild leveling testing.  Who will be the first guild to build a Keep?

Death & Durability

The durability on random loot drops has been reduced from 250 to 150.  Upon death equipment will lose some durability as well.  Finally, the loot timer for corpses killed in PvP has been removed.  Happy hunting!

Miscellaneous Fixes & Updates

• Resolved issue where small spellbook & runebook BODs would not increment the count on their respective large BODs
• Resolved issue where whip LBODs weren’t worth more than SBODs.

Beta Weekend #3 – Dev Diary

Crafter Update

With Beta Weekend #4, we are introducing a new town objective for crafters. This objective requires you to recover equipment from battlefields in the wilderness near towns and return the supplies to a shopkeeper in town. This is a 2-part objective chain, with each objective rewarding skill points to use at a skill trainer.

Miners can rejoice, as mining has been fixed to auto-continue upon failure to dig up ore.

Skill Gains Through Combat

We have made changes to how you receive skill gains for divergent-path players and those progressing with the advanced skill gain unlocks. You will now gain more frequently, but with smaller gains on average. There is also a random chance to still receive a large skill gain.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Updates

• Champion spawn leaderboards should now correctly show the correct champion spawn name.
• Objective gump display updated to show 00m:00s when timer is under 1 hour.
• Farming plots should now sparkle when the owner approaches it.
• Guild Prestige Tokens now have a 20x multiplier to accelerate the testing process.
• Increased gold reward from guild objectives.
• Players can no longer resurrect players with bandages in guild encounters. Keep your allies alive!
• Players who have taken the divergent-path (non-narrative skill gains) are now able to participate in Advanced Narrative content.
  • Skill gain will not be rewarded through the narrative lines; however, all other rewards will be.
  • The skill(s) related to these narrative lines will be unlocked on the Advanced Skill Trainers for free at the completion of the narrative line.
  • Some Advanced Narrative lines may require you to have certain skills unlocked and leveled before accepting them.
• Autoloom will provide partial cloth when attempting to use raw materials that would provide more cloth than you had space available in the resource bank.
• Players can no longer use bandages during the bard battle; healing through the power of song is the only way!
• More housing has been temporarily added to Moonglow on Ice Island. This new housing zone continues beyond the guild housing zone, to the NW of the Ice Dungeon entrance.
• The Moonglow Yacht Club is pleased to announce they have a new Ferry in service to the Isle of Fire.
• Elemental Crimson and Platinum Drakes of the Fire variety can now be found within Hythloth.
• Cora and her forces have vacated the Covetous dungeon… for now.
• There is now a warning sign near the entrance to the Titanweave Spider’s lair… adventurer’s beware!
• The Titanweave Shroud will no longer reset to a Monk’s Robe.
• Old Production armor sets should no longer drop from mobs.
• The Icemancer has grown tired of his weapon being stolen and can no longer be disarmed.
• You will now receive partial skill points when unlocking a skill through an Advanced Trainer if you do not have room for all 50 skill points.
• The Solen Matriarch has been building up her army in the Solen Hives. Delve deep into her territory and slay her… if you dare.
• Rumors have been circulating about a vicious Crimson Dragon within Destard. Gather your allies and venture into the bowels of Destard and attempt to slay this beast!
• The Moonglow Zoo is buzzing with conversation as someone has claimed to have found the legendary dragon Emberwing. Where was he spotted? What does he look like? How can he be tamed? The Zoo is attempting to gather more information!

Beta Weekend #2 – Dev Diary

Skill Gain, Quest Objectives, and the On-Rails Experience

In our previous Dev Diary, we talked about our plans to introduce an alternative way of experiencing New Legacy that was less focused on the main story narratives and building your character through questing, and closer to the traditional character building experience veterans of Ultima Online are familiar with.

Beta Weekend #3 will feature the first rollout of this new Divergent Path that players can follow.

The starting experience after character creation has been redesigned to offer you a choice after selecting your Surname. You can still choose to follow the Narratives and experience the stories of New Legacy as they unfold, and increase your skills through narrative quests.

Alternatively, you can now choose to opt out of the primary narrative lines. You will take an accelerated path to receive basic skills and be sent into the world to make your own way. You will still be governed by the underlying systems that make up the New Legacy experience; however, you will be increasing your skills through using them in combat instead of questing.

Here is an overview of the Divergent player choice:

• Unlocked skills will gain through combat at an increased rate.
• New skills can be unlocked at Advanced Skill Trainers.
• Housing access can be purchased after acquiring 600 total skill points and completing the Orc Champion spawn. Speak to a Housing Registrar in one of the towns to learn more.
• Raising the Resisting Spells skill still requires the completion of the repeatable quest from Master Sallumax.
• Raising Alchemy still requires the completion of the Alchemy objective line.
• No access to base story narratives.
• No access to town objective skill rewards.
• Access to advanced narrative lines, such as Taming, Barding, and Assassin, will be available in a future publish.

We encourage you to provide feedback on the Divergent playstyle.

Housing 

We recognize the demand for housing and plan to allow additional housing areas associated with Britannia’s cities in a future update.  We also will be adding additional guidelines to optimize housing density.

Rangers & Tracking

We hear the feedback regarding tracking as a core skill to the ranger narrative.  We are evaluating all the required core skills and look to add additional skill choices in a future update.

Mining

There is currently an issue with mining where failure does not automatically re-initiate the mining loop.  We plan to address this in a future update.

Miscellaneous Changes & Bug Fixes

• Players that attempt to collect an objective reward containing skill gains that do not have room for all of the skill will now collect a partial amount of the skill relevant to their skill cap.
• There is no longer a delay on accepting Bulk Order Deed Town Objectives.
• Defend objectives now have a larger threshold for awarding credit to those who join mid-encounter.
• Refresh potions now have a cooldown between uses.
• Obtain objectives no longer require you to be within a specific region when you toggle the items.
• Hidden players will no longer always drop stealth when transitioning through dungeon levels.
• Removed gargoyle drops from certain creatures.
• Fixed point value of large arcanist armor BOD.
• Allow players who unlocked Animal Taming through advanced skill training instead of the narrative objectives to access the Taming Knowledge context menu once they reach 80 skill in Taming and Lore.
• Allow players who unlocked Animal Taming through advanced skill training instead of the narrative objectives to access advanced taming quests once they reach 80 skill in Taming and Lore. Visit the Zookeepers at the Moonglow Zoo for more information.
• Spawn rates for objective kill areas will now scale with player density.
• Blocked off areas of Trinsic Passage where mobs were spawning in inaccessible areas.
• Players that fail defend objectives that are part of the narrative lines will now receive an objective guiding them on how to restart the failed objective when the failed objective is cleared from the quest objective list.
• Adjusted descriptions of some objectives to be more clear.
• Players should now longer see an invisible “Attack” object handler on certain defend objectives in the EC.
• Player should no longer be able to accidentally miss the Ocllo Emissary’s quest after exiting the Moongate.
• Shades/Wraiths/Spectres should now count as magical creatures.
• Neira no longer drops a necromancer spellbook.
• Certain quest objective descriptions now indicate they are a [GROUP ENCOUNTER].
• Core skills for base archetypes have been adjusted.
• Adjustments to the Titanweave Spider encounter.
• Auto unlock base skills once primary narrative is completed.

Beta Weekend #1 – Dev Diary

Skill Gain, Quest Objectives, and the On-Rails Experience

One of our primary goals with UO: New Legacy is to lower barriers to entry and introduce the world of Britannia to a new generation of gamers.  If you look across the most popular modern day parallels to Ultima Online, many are based on the very same underlying principles for virtual worlds that UO pioneered back in the late 1990s.  Providing a more “on-rails” experience helps unfamiliar players from feeling too lost and overwhelmed, which often doesn’t keep them sticking around.

We also recognize there is a generation of Ultima Online veterans from across the spectrum of eras that remember UO for being what made it unique – a world of endless choices and few limits on character freedom.

We still want to have an experience where players can become part of the story as they build their character’s narrative and forge their legacy.  But we also want to make sure players who are looking for something a little less guided have a place as well.

In a future beta update we will be introducing the ability for players to do what they have always done in UO – make a choice.  This will allow those who want it to experience a more traditional character building experience outside of the main story narratives.  This skill building experience will be different but also feel more familiar to those veterans who’ve played UO in the past.  One of our primary design goals is to deliver you to the fun without encouraging unattended and unengaged gameplay to raise skills.  We will continue to hold true to that goal as we create this new path for you to explore.

Crafting & BODs

While crafting BODs remains core to the underlying crafting experience, we understand there is an appetite for those playing crafters for some diversity in the types of gameplay objectives they are asked to complete.  In a future beta update we will be introducing additional objective types for crafters to build their characters.

Was I supposed to turn left at Drakewater Fen or right at Trinsic Passage?

We are adding additional geographical information available in-game to allow players to discover these regions they may not be familiar with and to enhance the underlying lore of the land.

Spawn Rates

In some areas the spawn rates for completing objectives was too long.  We want to keep the action going during the fight and have implemented ways of increasing spawn to meet demand for a future release.

House Names & The Bard

We’ve resolved an issue where extreme demand on the randomly generated House names was causing an issue.  We’ve also heard your feedback regarding the randomly generated house names.  This house name will be core to building your characters legacy.  This name will be featured in systems to be released.  Imagine finding a family heirloom linked to generations that came before you in a treasure chest?  Imagine the glory your house name would carry if you were the first to complete a challenge within the Quaderact.  We recognize players want a personal connection to the house name but we also need to preserve the uniqueness of them (Lord Loots-a-lot vs Lootsalot vs Lootsallott) to fit into the legacy system and prevent griefing.  We plan to update House name selections in some capacity in a future release.

Daily Objectives

One of the primary design goals with UO: New Legacy is to allow players to get to the meat of the action as fast as possible.  We recognize that Daily Objectives insinuate that these tasks can only be completed daily.  To address this we have renamed them appropriately to Town Objectives – since they are objectives that are being completed on behalf of the city they originate.  In addition to that we have made adjustments to the timing of these objective so there is less delay in the action.

• Slay objectives have been increased to 15 creatures, up from 8
• Decreased the wait time between acquiring the same objective from 20 minutes to 5 minutes
• Added messaging to the Skill Trainer NPC to inform players Town Objectives can be obtained from any city in Britannia without any delay
• Balance pass has been done on the defend objectives to make them less punishing for players

Guilds

Guilds form the backbone of the Ultima Online multiplayer experience for many people.  Grouping up with friends (and making new ones) is something we actively want to encourage.  As such, the cost of starting a guild has been reduced from 25,000 gold to 5,000 gold.

Veteran Titles

We have removed the ability to add Veteran Titles to characters where they may not make thematic sense in New Legacy.  In lieu of this veterans will be able to display special pins on their legacy sash to reflect their veteran status in a future update.

Worldbuilding

The current worldbuilding is a rough in – particularly in housing regions.  These areas will go through a polish phase before release.

Spellcasting

To assist mages in carrying enough reagents, NPC Apothecary Academy & Arcanist Circle Guildmasters will now sell a “Reagent Bag of Unburdening” that will reduce weight of the contained reagents by 75%.  Only mage reagents may go in this container.

Miscellaneous Adjustments & Bug Fixes

• Resolved issue where visit objectives would not complete upon visiting a location
• Several regions were too small and causing players to miss objective credit
• Removed erroneous production NPCs
• Fixed issue where Trinsic & Ice Island brigand camps were mismatched
• Resolved issue with Bard Battle – Despise regions
• Resolved issue where crafting primers could be stolen
• Resolved issue where players on the mage narrative line could erroneously be flagged VvV
• Resolved erroneous error message during kill quest objectives
• Resolved issue where delivery objective items could be lost during server maintenance
• Resolve issue where Forge & Anvil at the Shining Path Armory in Trinsic could be blocked
• General balance pass on the following creature
  • Frost Troll, Ettin, Brigand, Orcish Hound, Giant Spider, Polar Bear, Mummy, Skeleton Knight
• Resolved issue where too many polar bears could spawn in the Icy Tundra & too many spiders could spawn in Deceit
• Removed rats in the Ocllo Library that did not count toward the quest objective