Publish 03 23rd February

Wiki > Ultima Online Wiki > Technical > Previous Publishes > 2000 > Publish 03 23rd February

Publish 3

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 3 on February 23, 2000.

Trade Window Changes

Trade windows will become more secure.

  • You will not be able to trade a trapped item.
  • You will not be able to trade an item that was recently stolen.
  • You will not be able to trade items to a player if that player cannot hold the items.
    • If the items are too heavy for the player or if the items would exceed the number of items the player can carry, the trade will fail. All items in the trade window will go back into each character’s pack.
  • You will not be able to pick items up while the trade window is open. However, you will still be able to rearrange items in your own pack during the trade.

Animal and Monster Spawn Phase II

Untamed monsters and animals in houses will “die” after a certain amount of time. These monsters and animals will be eligible for “death”, within a given amount of time, under the following circumstances:

  • If the monster/animal is not targeted.
  • If the monster/animal does not receive or deliver damage.

Pet Loyalty Duration

Pets will remain loyal much longer than they did in the past. Pets will remain loyal for over 24 hours.

 

Fealty Calculation

The fealty calculation for guildstones will be made more efficient to alleviate the delay in shard start-up times.

 

Guild Stone Revisions

Guild Stones will be modified to enhance their functionality and efficiency. The system that controls Guild Stones has been modified to facilitate future enhancements. While most of these changes will be transparent to the players, there will also be some changes to the guild interface at the same time.

The War Menu

The War Menu will have a new option in the main menu of the Guild Stone. It can only be accessed by the Guild Master. The menu has the following options:

  • Declare war by name
    • The Guild Master will be able to enter the name of the opposing guild.
    • The system will do a name lookup and try to pull a match or a close match.
    • The Guild Master will then be given a display of the matches and close matches to the name entered.
    • Choosing one of the names on this list will send a war invitation to that guild.
    • A guild may only have up to 12 wars declared and not accepted at any given time.
      • Once a war is accepted by the other guild, the Guild Master may declare another war if he chooses to.
  • Accept War invitations (if any exist)
    • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to accept any war invitations they currently have.
    • A guild many only have up to 12 wars declared on them and not accepted.
      • If a 13th war is declared on the guild, the first invitation will be scrolled off the list.
      • There is no limit to the total number of wars a guild may take part in.
  • Decline War invitations (if any exist)
    • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to decline any war invitations they currently have.
  • Rescind War declarations (if any exist)
    • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to take back any war invitations they sent to other guilds.
  • Sue for peace (if any wars exist)
    • A menu will be displayed with all of the guilds the Guild Master’s guild is currently at war with. The Guild Master can then choose to stop the war using this option.

Changing the Guild Type

Revisions will be made to guild stones to address issues with changing the guild type (Order, Chaos, Neutral). A warning window will also alert you if a guild type change is already in progress when you try to change the guild type again. This window will include:

  • A message telling you how long you have to wait until the current change takes effect.
  • The option to either accept or cancel the change request.
    • Clicking “accept” will bring up the menu listing the guild types.
    • Clicking “cancel” will bring you back to the guild stone menu and will not reset the current guild stone change timer.

Guild Stone Decay

Guild stones will decay in approximately one week if they are not in a house.

  • Guild members will be messaged each time they log in if their stone is subject to decay.
  • The guild master of a guild will need turn the guild stone into a “teleport stone” before it decays.

Recruiting

Guild Masters who recruit guild members will no longer have to accept them. If a Guild Master selects a member for candidacy, that member will be accepted automatically.

Auto-cleanup

Characters in guilds that no longer exist will now be “cleaned up” and able to join other guilds automatically.

Pet Changes<

Various fixes and enhancements to pets.

  • Pack horses now have their packs on them when they die.
  • Pet transfers will perform the loyalty checks before the transfer window appears.
  • Friends of a pet will have a slightly more difficult time issuing commands to the pet.
  • Pack animals and horses will no longer say [tame] above them twice.
  • Horses and pack horses that go wild (and have had two or fewer previous owners) can be retamed and controlled by any of the original owners without any added difficulty.
  • Transferring a pet will no longer increase the difficulty in controlling the pet. However, if the transferred pet goes wild or is released, it will still incur the penalty for two previous owners.
  • When a pet that has had previous owners is retamed, the tamer has a chance, based on the tamer’s animal lore skill, of calming the pet down. A calmed pet’s difficulty to control is the same as if it had had one fewer owner. The difficulty will never be reduced below the pet’s original difficulty.
  • Starting loyalty of tamed pets is now slightly higher. This will prevent pets from going wild instantly on a failed command.
  • Failed pet transfers will now impact the creature’s loyalty less.
  • Pets who are automatically controlled without any taming or lore skill (horses, pack animals, and dogs, for instance) will no longer gain loyalty when issued a successful command.
  • The messages have been restored when you have no chance of taming a creature.

Moonstones

Moonstones will be found on various monsters. The exact nature and functionality of these items will be detailed at a later time.

NPC and Monster Changes

Changes will be made to various NPCs and Monsters that will have the following affects:

  • NPCs will now train the appropriate skills when asked. Some NPCs will now train different skills than they previously and will list all skills they can train when asked, “train”
  • You will no longer get the item “a scroll”.
  • Monster treasure will be revamped. Most monsters will not carry backpacks, and some monsters will carry different treasure than they have previously.
  • Some NPCs will now carry items more appropriate to their jobs (beware of merchants with trapped boxes!)

Moongates

Single clicking the left mouse button on a moongate will give you a description of what lies through the gate. This will allow you to know where the gate is currently going without having to jump through them over and over again until you reach your destination. This will help improve server performance as less players will need to “jump” through moongates.

Recall Scroll Fix

You will no longer use more than one recall scroll when recalling off of a boat key.

Smithing Difficulty

Issues with smithing difficulty being higher than normal will be resolved.

Secure Pet Trading

Secure pet trading will allow players to sell or trade items for tamed animals and monsters using the trade window.

To trade a pet to another player the owner of the pet can:

  • Speak the words, “[pet name] Transfer”
  • A targeting cursor will appear. The pet owner can then target the person they wish to transfer the pet to.
  • A trade window will automatically appear.
    • The trade window will contain a deed in the current owner’s portion of the window. This deed will display the pet type and the pet’s name.
    • The other player may then place gold (or other items) into his portion of the window.
    • Once both participants have clicked the gems to agree to the trade, the pet will automatically be transferred to the new owner and the deed will delete itself.
    • If the transfer is cancelled, the deed deletes itself and all other items are returned to their owner.

We will also be making changes to the secure trading window to account for the amount and weight of items used in transfers and to stop any scams associated with the trade window. Information on this enhancement will be forthcoming.

Secure House Trading

Secure house trading will allow players to sell or trade items for houses using the trade window.

To trade a house to another player the owner of the house can:

  • Click the “transfer” button in the house options menu.
  • A targeting cursor will appear. The house owner can then target the person they wish to transfer the house to.
  • A trade window will automatically appear.
    • The trade window will contain a deed in the current owner’s portion of the window. This deed is not an actual house deed, but will display the name of the house, the house type, and the sextant coordinates of the house’s location.
    • The other player may then place gold (or other items) into his portion of the window.
    • Once both participants have clicked the gems to agree to the trade, the house will automatically be transferred to the new owner and the deed will delete itself.
    • If the transfer is cancelled, the deed deletes itself and all other items are returned to their owner.
  • You will not be able to transfer a house to a character that already owns a house using this method.

We will also be making changes to the secure trading window to account for the amount and weight of items used in transfers and to stop any scams associated with the trade window. Information on this enhancement will be forthcoming.

Dexterity and Healing

In an effort to balance the Healing skill with other methods of healing damage (such as healing potions and the greater heal spell), dexterity will affect the delay for healing and the penalty for finger slips while healing.

  • The higher a character’s dexterity, the less time it will take to complete a heal.
  • The amount of healing a character loses due to a finger slip will be reduced with a higher dexterity.

These changes are true for healing both yourself and other players.

Instant-Resurrection Removal

Following the creation of “Young” player status, the ability to “instantly resurrect” is no longer necessary. After dying, you will automatically return as a ghost.