Publish 5

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 5 on April 27, 2000. This publish was known as the Renaissance Publish.

Cure Potions

Cure potions will now cure poison based on the relative strength of the cure potion and the poison afflicting the character. A lesser cure will have virtually no chance of curing a deadly poisoned character, while a greater cure will cure greater poison much more often than not. All other cure and poison levels will scale accordingly.

Monster Looting and Fame/Karma

Looting rights for monsters will be based on a point system. The system will track players as they attack a monster, assigning “points” based on the damage they do and the number of times they strike the monster. Bonus “points” will be awarded for both the first strike and the kill shot. These “points” are then used to determine which characters have access to its corpse. Damage and attack totals done by tamed or provoked animals/monsters will count towards the point total of the tamer/bard.

The player with the most points gets to loot the monster automatically. The system then looks for any players who have points equal to or greater than 30% of the top point score.

On Trammel, only these players will have access to the corpse. It will be impossible for any other player to loot. On Felucca, those players that are not in the top 30% can loot the corpse, but will be flagged criminal for doing so. The corpse will appear “blue” to them when single clicked.

Those players who simply hit the monster for the kill shot will rarely, if ever, receive looting rights because their points total will rarely be within 30% of the highest point total.

After two minutes, the monster’s corpse will be freely lootable by any character.

Fame and karma will be given to players using this system. Only the character with the highest point total and characters with 30% or greater of that point total will be eligible to get fame and karma from the death of a monster. Party members of any character that is eligible for fame and karma will also be eligible regardless of their point totals. This allows those who only heal during a fight (and thus do not actually damage the monster) to receive fame and karma. Note that every character who is eligible receives total fame and karma from the monster, it is not split proportionately in any way.

House Banning

The effect of being banned from a house will change slightly. When a player, monster, animal, or NPC is banned from a house and approach the door, they will be moved under the house sign (the eject location) rather than bouncing back a couple of spaces.

Skill Gain Adjustments

In order to complement the anti-macro code we are going to adjust the way in which the following skills raise.

• Healing
  • Healing will have a more efficient difficulty based scale which will allow players to raise the skill without having to cure poison or resurrect ghosts over and over again. You will be able to gain in the skill up to Grandmaster through healing damage to yourself or others.
  • The success rates for healing will not change.
• Magic Resist and Magery
  • The anti-macro code will now look at more variables when determining whether the magic resist and magery skills can raise or not. This will allow players to gain the skill better through normal gameplay.
• Cartography
  • Cartography will now be difficulty based in the following manner:
    • The type of map you are attempting to make (local area, city, sea chart, world map) will affect the chance to gain skill. More difficult maps will offer better skill gain at high levels of skill.
    • The higher the level of a treasure map, the better your chance to gain skill at higher levels. For instance, at very high levels of skill, your chance of raising skill will be better from decoding a level four or five map than trying to decode one of a lower level.
  • This change will affect the success rates at certain skill levels of making maps and decoding treasure maps, but overall it will be easier to gain in the skill itself.
• Enticement and Provoking
  • The anti-macro code’s effects on Enticement and Provoking will be modified to offer better chances to gain in these skills.
• Poisoning
  • The difficulty curve for poisoning will be modified to offer better chances to raise the skill at high levels.
• Fishing
  • Skill gain for fishing will become difficulty based. At higher levels of skill, you will be able to fish in deeper water to get the best chance to raise the skill. Fishing in deep water will be the best method for gaining at high levels however, because the difficulty level is higher, the rate of success for pulling up SoS bottles will be lower.
• Lockpicking will now be difficulty based. The more difficult a lock the better your chance to raise in the skill.
• Mining will no longer be affected by the anti-macro code.

None of these changes affect the chance to successfully use a skill (other than fishing and cartography), only the chance to raise them. Other than the change to mining all of these skills are still affected by the anti-macro code and therefore, you will still need to adventure in the game (move to different locations) in order to gain in them.

New house Designs

For this next publish, there will be seven new house designs pictured here.

Small Stone Shop

• Approximate cost: 60,600 gold
• Max Secures: 3
• Max Total Lockdowns: 425

Small Marble Shop

• Approximate cost: 63,000 gold
• Max Secures: 3
• Max Total Lockdowns: 425

Small Tower

• Approximate cost: 88,500 gold
• Max Secures: 4
• Max Total Lockdowns: 580

Sandstone Patio House

• Approximate cost: 90,900 gold
• Max Secures: 6
• Max Total Lockdowns: 850

Two Story Log Cabin

• Approximate cost: 97,800 gold
• Max Secures: 8
• Max Total Lockdowns: 1100

Two Story Villa

• Approximate cost: 136,500 gold
• Max Secures: 8
• Max Total Lockdowns: 1100

Large Marble Patio House

• Approximate cost: 192,000 gold
• Max Secures: 10
• Max Total Lockdowns: 1370

Combat Enhancements

Changes to combat skills and weapons to increase the diversity and tactics in player vs. player combat (PvP) and combat as a whole. Note that many of these changes are related to each other. It is important to consider all of the changes together, rather than looking at one change by itself. Be sure to read the entire document carefully.

Archery

The archery skill will be tweaked to balance it and make it more effective in Player vs. Player combat.

• The minimum damage on bows, crossbows, and heavy crossbows will be increased.
• The maximum damage on bows, crossbows, and heavy crossbows will be decreased a small amount.
• The rate of fire will be increased a small amount for bows, crossbows, and heavy crossbows.
• The long equip delay for all bows will be tweaked.
• Archery will have slight increase in its chance to hit when compared to other attacks.
• Issues with hitting while moving and firing will be addressed.

Poisoning

• You will not be able to heal a poisoned character through any method (healing skill, spells, potions, etc.) until they are first cured of the poison.
• All poisons will now have a minimum damage. Poison does damage based on a percentage of the target’s current hit points, at low levels, poison was less effective. If the formula that determines poison damage is less than the minimum associated with the poison, then the target will take the minimum value for damage.
• Poisoned weapons will corrode unless wiped clean with oil cloth (which will be made by tailors). The more often a poisoned weapon is used before being wiped clean, the more durability it loses. You can only wipe off a blade once it has begun to corrode.
• Only one-handed bladed weapons can be poisoned.
• Having the poisoning skill will reduce the rate at which a poisoned weapon corrodes. For instance, a deadly poisoned weapon wielded by a character with over 50 poisoning would corrode as if it were greater poison. At over 99 skill, the deadly poison will corrode as if it were only regular poison. This will significantly reduce the rate at which poison corrodes a weapon when wielded by assassins (characters with the poison skill).

Parrying

The chance to successfully parry a physical (melee or archery) attack and the amount of damage absorbed upon a successful parry will now depend on the type of shield the character is using and his/her parry skill. The AR rating of a shield will determine it’s effectiveness. Shields with low AR (such as a buckler) will increase your chance to successfully parry a melee attack but will only absorb a small amount of damage. Using a shield with high AR (such as heaters and chaos/order shields) will allow you to absorb more damage but will not successfully parry a melee attack as often. Your parrying skill will increase both your chance to parry and the damage absorbed.

As an example, a fighter with 100.0 parry using a buckler will successfully parry a physical attack approximately 86% of the time. However, the shield will only absorb about 10 points of damage her successful parry. By contrast, a chaos shield used by the same warrior will allow him/her to successfully parry a physical attack about 36% of time, absorbing approximately 48 points of damage. All other shields scale in between those too shields.

Lumberjacking and Axes

The lumberjacking skill will provide a bonus to damage when the player is using one of the following axes. The higher the characters lumberjacking skill the more damage they will do up to a 25% bonus for 99.9 lumberjacking. At Grandmaster lumberjacking, the damage bonus is 35%.

• Axe
• Battle Axe
• Double Axe
• Executioner’s Axe
• Hatchet
• Large Battle Axe
• Two-handed Axe

Two-handed Weapons

Any melee weapon that requires two hands to wield will gain a special attack. The type of special attack will depend on the type of weapon used. These special attacks will only work against player characters, not against monsters or animals.

• Mace Weapon: Crushing blow, a hit for double damage. Only applies to true maces, not staves.
• Sword Weapon: Concussion blow, victim’s intelligence is halved for 30 seconds. Note the effects of a concussion blow are not cumulative, once a target is the victim of a concussion blow, they cannot be hit in that manner again for 30 seconds.
• Fencing Weapon: Paralyzing blow, victim is paralyzed for 4 seconds. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot fight back (s/he wont auto-defend) or cast spells, however s/he can still use potions and bandages. The paralysis will not break by any means, even if the victim takes damage. Once paralyzed, the victim cannot be paralyzed again with another special attack until the paralysis wears off.

Upon a successful hit, there will be a small chance to inflict one of the special attacks. The base chance to inflict one of the special attacks is 20%. A high intelligence will give a small bonus towards the chance to execute a special attack up to a total chance of 30%.

Maces

The bonus for damaging armor and lowering stamina will now be restricted to the following mace weapons:

• Mace
• War Mace
• War Hammer
• War Axe
• Hammer Pick
• Club
• Maul

Wands, staves, and smith hammers will not damage armor or reduce stamina.

Hitting and Dexterity

Currently, melee weapons check for whether a hit is successful or not in the beginning of the swing animation. This will now be scaled based on dexterity. The higher your dexterity, the earlier in your swing you hit. At very low dexterities, you will not hit until the end of your swing.

Armor Changes

Armor ratings and dexterity penalties will be modified. The table below illustrates the changes:

Armor Type	AR Rating	Dex Penalty (full set)
Plate	40	-22
Female Plate	30	-5
Chain	28	-12
Ring	22	-6
Studded Leather	18	0
Leather	13	0
Bone	30	-15

Additionally, leather armor will not cause any meditation or stealth penalty.

Note that these changes in armor will also affect the minimum difficulty when attempting to make the armor associated with the blacksmithing skill. For items that are difficult to make already (such as plate leggings and chain tunics) the minimum difficulty will drop slightly. For easier items (such as ring-mail) the minimum difficulty will increase. The only exception to this is the minimum difficulty associated with the plate breastplate which will remain unchanged.

Recall

You will not be able to recall if you are an aggressor to another player or the pet/creature of another player. This will not be the case when attacking monsters.

Ride-able Animals Fatigue

The exploit that allows a ride-able animal to be refreshed after becoming fatigued will be addressed. Feeding a ride-able animal food will increase its stamina and all ride-able animals will have the amount of time they can be ridden before becoming fatigued increased.

Wrestling Moves

New attacks with the wrestling skill.

• Disarm
  • Characters with 80 or higher in both wrestling and arms lore can attempt to disarm an opponent. If successful, any weapon or spellbook in the target’s hand will be removed and placed in the target’s backpack.
• Stun Punch
  • Characters with 80 or higher in both wrestling and anatomy can attempt to stun their opponents. A successful stun punch will paralyze a target for 4 seconds. This stun punch has the same effects as the paralyze blow for fencing.

To perform one of these special attacks, players will need to set a macro to put themselves in the appropriate wrestling “mode”. Both hands must be free in order to perform a move.

• New macros called “StunPunch” and “Disarm” will facilitate this. Once in the special attack mode, the character will attempt the maneuver with each successful hit.
• If a maneuver is performed successfully the wrestler will automatically go out of their wrestling mode. There is a 10 second delay before the wrestler can perform another move.
• While in a wrestling mode, each attempt to perform a maneuver (each hit or miss) will result in a loss of 15 stamina.
• The higher a characters wrestling and other skill (anatomy or arms lore), the higher chance they will have to successfully perform the move.
• Equipping any items in your hands (weapon, shield, spellbook, etc) will automatically take you out of a wrestling mode.

Spellbooks

When casting a spell, the spellbook will automatically appear in your hands if it is not there already.

• The system will disarm you if you are carrying a weapon and place the spellbook in your hands.
• After the spell is complete, the spellbook will remain in your hands.
• If at any time during the casting of a spell the spellbook is removed from your hands (either by the player or from a wrestling “disarm” maneuver), the spell is interrupted.

Defensive Spells

Characters will only be able to have one defensive spell (magic reflection, reactive armor, or protection) active at a time. Attempting to cast one of these spells when another is already active will result in a failed cast.

Magic Reflect

The magic reflect spell will be enhanced to provide additional tactical options in player versus player combat. At this time, any spell, regardless of its circle, can be used to counter a magic reflect spell. This results in the same spell (or few spells) being used every time to bring down the reflect. This change will add variety and additional tactical options when fighting a character who has cast magic reflect.

• The level of the spell cast on a target will determine the percent chance to bring down the reflect. The more powerful the spell you cast, the better chance you have of defeating the magic reflect spell.
  • If the spell is not successful in bringing down the magic reflect, the spell will be reflected back to the caster, as under the current system. However, the target will not lose their reflect spell.
  • If a spell is cast and reflected, the chance for a second spell to bring down the reflect will increase. The percent chance to bring down the reflect is cumulative.
  • Once a spell is cast that succeeds in bringing down the reflect spell, it will damage the target. This is true even if the first spell cast successfully breaks the reflect.
  • Once a reflect is broken, there is a 10 second delay before the target can cast reflect again. This will stop players from simply casting magic reflect over and over again.
• The power of a reflect spell will also be dependent on the caster’s intelligence.
  • The higher your intelligence, the more powerful your reflect will be. More powerful reflects will be more difficult to bring down, and conversely, weaker reflects (cast by those with lower intelligence) will be easier to bring down.
• The mind blast spell will look at the caster’s stats to determine damage if it is reflected back onto the caster.
• Items of reflection will take 60 seconds to charge.
  • After equipping a reflect item there will be a 60 second delay before the reflect is active.
  • This will use only one charge from the item.
  • The reflect will act in the same manner as if it had been cast by the character wearing the item.
  • Once the reflect is broken, the wearer must wait 60 seconds before the item will place another reflect spell.

Reactive Armor

The reactive armor spell will absorb damage based on the Evaluate Intelligence, Meditation, and Inscription skill of the caster. The higher these three skills, the more total damage will be absorbed before the reactive armor spell is exhausted. A mage at grandmaster level in all three skills can absorb approximately 75 points of damage.

With each hit, only 10% of the damage will actually affect the caster, the reactive armor spell will absorb 80% of the damage. The remaining 10% will reflect back and damage the attacker. If the damage dealt from a blow exceeds the amount the reactive armor spell can absorb, then all remaining damage will affect the caster and none will be reflected back onto the attacker.

The reactive armor spell will no longer be a targetable spell. Just like magic reflection, the spell will automatically target the caster. Once the reactive armor is exhausted, the caster cannot cast another reactive armor for five minutes.

Protection

The protection spell will reduce the chance that a caster is interrupted by an attack for a limited time. The duration of the spell will be affected by the caster’s skill in magery (up to a little over three minutes) . The effectiveness of the spell will be determined by the caster’s Evaluate Intelligence, Meditation, and Inscription skills.

The protection spell will no longer be a targetable spell. Just like magic reflection, the spell will automatically target the caster. Once the spell is exhausted, the caster cannot cast the spell again for a time period equal to half the length of time that it was active (i.e.: if it was active for 3 minutes, then the caster cannot cast it again for 1 minute and 30 seconds).

UO Tutorial

“Young” players will be able to play through a tutorial designed to teach them the basics of the interface. The tutorial can only be accessed by “young” players. After making a character, “young” players will have the option to go through the tutorial or go directly to Haven. “Young” players can go through the tutorial again at any time, as long as they retain their “young” status.

Haven

On the Trammel facet, the town of Ocllo will be named Haven. Haven will be a town designed to help “young” players grow accustomed to the world of Britannia in an environment designed to aid their development before venturing out into the wilds. Only “young” players and companions will be able to visit Haven. Trying to use a moonstone in Felucca while in Ocllo will not work and boats traveling to Haven in Trammel will be stopped before reaching the island.

Some of the highlights of Haven are:

• Companions will be available in Haven to help answer young players’ questions.
• Special skill areas (such as areas for taming, mining, etc.) for “young” players to practice their skills.
• NPCs will offer directions to players.
  • For instance, if a player asks the carpenter where the alchemist is, the carpenter will give the “young” player directions.
  • An arrow will direct players to the location they asked about.
    • Left clicking on the arrow will remind the player where it is leading them.
    • Right clicking on the arrow will remove the arrow.
• Escort quests for “young” players to help them learn to move through the world and help build up a small nest egg.
• An island with monsters designed to progressively challenge young players as they move away from the city.

The Party System

The party system will allow players to adventure together and communicate more effectively.

Forming a Party

Every party must have a party leader. The party leader is the character who adds others to their own party. The party leader is assigned by the system as soon as s/he adds the first member to the party. Once you have decided who the party leader will be, s/he can open the party system menu window (described below) and begin adding members.

Party System Menus

The party system contains a menu that will allow you to more easily manage and maintain your party. The menu can be opened by opening your paperdoll window and double-clicking a dark-gray scroll next to your character paperdoll. These menus can also be opened by creating a macro using the “open” command in the macros section of the options menu. Once you select the “open” command in your macro, you will be able to select “PartyManifest” to assign opening the party menu that macro key. The party manifest menu contains the following:

• A list of all the members in the party. Each party member has a number in brackets [#] to designate their party number.
  • To the left of each party member, there is a “tell” button. Left clicking this button will allow you to type a message and send it to that specific party member.
  • The party leader’s manifest will also have a “kick” button next to each character name. Left clicking this button will remove that party member from the party. Only the party leader will have this button available.
• There are three additional buttons below the list of party members (party leaders have one additional button for a total of four).
  • “Send the party a message”. Left-clicking this button will allow you to type a message and send it to the entire party.
    • A party chat window will allow you to see messages sent to members of the party. You can create a macro using the “open” command in the macro section of the options menu. Once you select the “open” command in your macro, you will be able to select “PartyChat” to assign opening the chat window to that macro key. The window can be resized and moved to your liking.
  • The second button is a toggle for looting rights. It will toggle between “Party CANNOT loot me” and “Party can loot me”.
    • Party can loot me. This option allows party members to freely loot you in both Trammel and in Felucca. In Felucca, party members will not go gray or receive a reputation hit for looting you (the same as with guild members looting each other.)
    • Party CANNOT loot me. This option will not allow party members to loot you in Trammel. In Felucca, party members can still loot you, but they will go gray and receive a notoriety hit.
  • The third button is different depending whether you are the party leader.
    • The party leader’s third button is “Disband the party”. By left-clicking this button, the party leader quits the party and the party is disbanded.
    • Other party members will see the “Leave the party” button. Left-clicking this will remove you from the party.
  • The fourth button (available only in the party leader’s manifest) is “Add New Member”. Left-clicking this button will bring up a targeting cursor and allow the party leader to add new members to the party.
    • A targeting cursor will appear.
    • Select the character you wish to add to your party.
      • Once the character is targeted, a message will appear on the targeted character’s screen telling them they have been invited to join the party.
      • If the character wishes to accept, he must type “/accept”. To decline the invitation, the player can type “/decline”. If the player does not accept the invitation within 30 seconds, the invitation will automatically be declined.
    • You may only have up to 10 characters in a party including the party leader.
• At the very bottom of the menu, there are an “okay” and a “cancel” button. If you change your looting rights toggle, you will need to click “okay” to save those changes.

Fame and Karma Sharing

Party members will receive fame and karma based on a points system.

Looting

Party members can designate whether other party members can loot them or not. The option is selected through the party system menus described later in this document. The only exception to looting is if a party member is in a guild that has war declarations, he may not loot anyone other than those in his guild or in a guild he is at war with.

Party Member Status Bars

Once a character is in the same party as you are, you can pull up their status bars by clicking and holding the left mouse button over their character. These status bars are different then the status bars you can view currently. In addition to having more information, they are also designed to be less obtrusive. A party system status bar includes:

• The name of the character and their party number.
• The character’s health, mana, and stamina.
• Two buttons to the left which can be used to heal or cure the character associated with the status bars.
  • Clicking the red button will make your character cast the greater heal spell and automatically target the character associated with the status bar.
  • Clicking the green button will make your character cast the cure spell and automatically target the character associated with the status bar.
  • The system will check for proper range, reagents etc. just as if you cast the spell normally.

You can use the status bars to target that character as with the current status bars.

Shortcuts

In addition to the party system menus, you can also type shortcut commands to use the party system. The shortcuts are as follows:

“/add”

• This has the same functionality as the “Add New Member” button in the party leader menu. After typing “/add” and hitting enter:
  • A targeting cursor will appear.
  • Select the character you wish to add to your party.
    • Once the character is targeted, confirmation message will appear on the targeted character’s screen asking if they wish to join the party.
    • If the character accepts, he becomes part of the party. The player may also type “/accept” or “/decline” to accept or decline the offer.
  • You may only have up to 10 characters in a party including the party leader.

“/rem”

• Typing “/rem” will allow the party leader to remove a party member, similar to the “kick” button.
  • A targeting cursor will appear.
  • Select the character you wish to remove.
  • Once targeted, the party member is immediately removed from the party.

“/quit”

• At any time, any party member may type “/quit” to remove themselves from the party.
  • If the party leader types “/quit” then the party disbands.

“/ “

• Typing a “/” followed by the spacebar and then typing a message will send that message to the entire party. This is the same as the “Send the party a message” button.

“/# “

• Typing “/# ” (where # is a number from 1 to 10) followed by the spacebar will allow you to type a message that will sent to a specific party member.
  • Characters are assigned numbers in the order they are added.
  • After you type the number and hit the spacebar, the number will automatically change to the party member’s name to allow you to confirm you are sending to the right character.
  • The message will appear in the party chat window of the character you sent the message to.

Mind Blast

The mind blast spell will now deal damage based on the overall “balance” of the character targeted. Characters with more equally balanced statistics (Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence) will now take less damage from mind blast. Those with less balanced statistics, for instance 100/100/25, will take more damage from the spell. The amount of damage done by the spell will never exceed 60% of the max hit points of the target. Also, the spell will also not do more than 40 hit points of damage.

Land Expansion

The world of Britannia will be doubled in size. Each shard will contain a consent only PvP land and an enhanced PvP land. The current base map was used to create the new lands. The lands will be similar in physical structure, however, they will look different. You will easily be able to tell which side you are on simply by looking at the terrain. The Siege Perilous shard will not have a consent only land. Siege Perilous will only have one land, Felucca.

• Each area is named after the two moons of Britannia, Felucca and Trammel. Felucca is the current lands (the lands where players are adventuring in right now) and will be the enhanced PvP area. Trammel will be the consent only PvP area. Both Trammel and Felucca will have the T2A lands and dungeons.
• Travel back and forth between Felucca and Trammel will be through the use of moonstones. Additionally, recall runes marked in Trammel will not work in Felucca and vice versa.
• SOS bottles and treasure maps will only work in the land they are found in (for instance, a map found in Felucca will only work in Felucca). Maps and SOS bottles found in the two lands will be discernable from each other.
• Bank boxes will be the same and be accessible regardless of which land you are in.
• Your mouse pointer will be hued gold when you are in Trammel and silver when you are in Felucca.

Note that the look of Felucca can be toggled to appear the same as Trammel for those players who chose to do so. The toggle is used through the uo.cfg file in your UO directory.

On Felucca, the NPC shop decorations (which have, over the years, been taken by players) will be replaced. Trammel’s NPC shops will also be decorated. Players will not be able to take these items from either land.

Monster AI

Monsters will “path-find” better and will react to combat situations more intelligently. The net effect of monster AI will be that monsters will be more difficult and challenging to fight. The exact reactions monsters can have will not be detailed. Players will need to learn monsters’ behavior through fighting them and watching their reactions.

Tamed animals and monsters will heal at a slower rate than their wild counterparts.

Moonstones

Moonstones are the only items that will allow travel between the Trammel and the Felucca lands. Moonstones will be found on various monsters in both lands and work in the following manner:

• Moonstones will be labeled with the land (Trammel or Felucca) to which they will return the player.
• To use a moonstone, left double-click it while it is in your backpack.
  • Moonstones cannot be used in guard protected areas.
  • Your character will bend down as s/he places the stone in the ground. The moonstone will be removed from your pack at this time and will appear on the ground.
  • After approximately 30 seconds, the moonstone will sink into the ground and a gate will open. The gate will be a different color depending on the phase of the moon. This gate will lead to the corresponding location in the other lands as long as that location is not blocked.
    • During the time the moonstone is on the ground, and before the gate opens, the moonstones cannot be picked up by anyone other than the character who placed the stone.
    • If the corresponding location in the other lands is invalid, the moonstone will return to the character’s backpack.
  • Once the gate is opened, only the placer of the moonstone and anyone in his party can enter through the gate.
  • Gates created with a moonstone will remain approximately the same amount of time as gates cast with the gate spell.
• Moonstones will shift colors depending on the phase of Britannia’s moons.

Player Interaction Changes

With the expansion of the lands and the distinction between a Consent Only area and an Enhanced PvP area, the way in which players can interact with each other must be changed as well. The information below will detail the differences between interactions in the two areas. Future updates will detail more information about these two areas.

Consent Only Area

Unless in a guild war, players will not be able to damage other players when in the consent only area. Because players will not be able to attack each other in cases outside of guild wars, other changes must be made to the way players can interact in the consent only area to accommodate for this.

Corpse Looting

You will not be able to loot a corpse of another player unless you are in the same guild or at war with their guild. The party system will also allow you to select whether you want members of your party to be able to loot your corpse or not.

Items Blocking

Items placed on the ground will not impede movement. Characters will be able to walk through all items placed on the ground.

Positive and Negative Acts

Positive and negative spells and actions will change in the consent only area. For the purposes of explaining how these interactions are changed, characters are grouped into three categories: Guild War, Non-Guild War, and Non-Guilded.

• Guild War (GWar) – The character is in a guild that is at war with another guild.
• Non-Guild War (NonGWar) – The character is in a guild, but not at war with any guilds.
• Non-Guilded (NonGuild) – The character is not in a guild.

Interactions Table

There are two kinds of interactions players can perform on each other: negative acts and positive acts.

Negative acts include:

• All negative spells, including damage spells, paralyze, stat decreasing spells, blocking spells (such as wall of stone), all mana altering spells, dispel spells, blade sprits, and energy vortexes.
• All combat, (includes melee, archery, purple potions, etc.)
• Stealing and snooping.
• All bardic skills.
• Looting others.
• Blocking
• Pet “attack” and “guard” commands.

Positive Acts include:

• Positive spells such as healing, curing, resurrection, and all stat raising spells.
• Pet “transfer”, “friend”, and “guard” commands.
• Using the healing skill on another player.

The table below describes the interactions each type of character can have with the other types of characters in the consent only area. If the act has a “no” under it, that means that both types of characters cannot perform that type of act on each other.

	Negative Acts	Positive Acts
Non Guild War vs. Non-Guild	No	Yes
Non-Guild vs. Non-Guild	No	Yes
Guild War vs. Non Guild War	No	No
Guild War vs. Guild War	Yes	No
Non Guild War vs. Non Guild War	No	Yes
Guild War vs. Non-Guild	No	No

Note that this table works both ways. That means since a character in a Guild War cannot perform a positive act on a character in a guild that has no war declarations, the character in the guild with no declarations cannot perform a positive act on the guild war enabled character. If you are in a guild war, the only characters you can heal are those that are in your guild. This will remove the “blue healer” issue during guild wars when in the consent only area.

Monsters

Players will not be able to perform beneficial acts on any monster, animal, or NPC that is not controlled by a player (tamed, summoned, hired, etc).

Blocking

Blocking will also be considered a negative act. Characters and their pets will not be able to block other characters unless they are in a guild war with that other character. Additionally, a wall of stone cast by a mage in a guild war will not affect a non-guilded character. Characters that are at war with the mage and characters in his guild will be blocked by the wall while those that are not will walk right through it.

Murderers

Murderers will not be allowed in the consent only area. If they become a murderer while in the consent only area (because they are reported after they journey to that area) they will be removed from the consent area.

Enhanced PvP Area

The Enhanced PvP area will be very similar to the way UO plays currently. The most noticeable differences will be:
The Enhanced PvP area will be where factions in the faction system battle for control of cities. This system is currently in testing.

One House per Account per Shard

Players will only be allowed to own one house per account on each shard. The system will not be retroactive and current house owners will not be forced to redeed houses if they have more than one. For accounts that already own more than one house, the system works in the following manner:

• When you successfully find a proper location to place a house, a window will appear before you place the house.
  • The window will tell you that if you place this new house, all of your other houses on that shard will not be refreshable.
    • If you select “ok” the house will be placed and your other houses will be marked as “condemned”.
    • All of your condemned houses will be refreshed automatically. This will give you the full amount of time (approximately 10 days) to move your items to the new house.
    • You will not be able to refresh a condemned house.
    • You will still be able to enter your other houses, redeed them, and/or transfer them to another player.
• After placing a house, you will not be able to place another house for 10 days.

Accepting transfer of a house while owning other houses will cause the houses to be marked as “condemed”.

Updates

Update 1

On April 28, 2000, the following was published:

• If multiple characters damage a monster, they will now receive fame/karma
• The option for studded leather tunics has been returned to the tailoring menu
• Rares contained by another container or found in player houses will no longer be permanently locked down
• Players will be able to steal items from town chests
• All reagents will stack properly
• Flying creatures in Trammel will no longer block movement
• Players will be able to loot monsters killed by poison
• The failure rate on Healing has been adjusted back to its proper rate
• Players using melee weapons in combat will now hold their swing until their target is in range. Additionally, the timer that determines melee weapon swing times (combat timer) will now advance as the player is moving. Thus, melee weapon users will no longer be required to stop moving before swinging.
• Recalling out of a Rune Book while an aggressor will no longer work
• Survey tools incorrectly displaying the two-story villa with 6 secure spots will now display the correct 8 secure spots
• Dispelling other player’s moongates on Trammel will no longer work
• Reactive Armor will no longer react to magic damage and arrows
• Casting a spell will immediately disarm characters holding weapons or items, rather than waiting for the spell to be targeted.
• Monster spawns will be adjusted.
• Players experiencing inappropriate dexterity adjustments following the latest patch will be adjusted to normal.
• While on Trammel, guild members will only be able to attack players who are in the same guild, or members of guilds they are at war with.
• Two-handed weapons that were poisoned prior to the current patch will no longer be poisoned.
• Grey-flagging issues with provoking will be addressed.

Update 2

On May 7, 2000, the following was published:

• Real Estate Brokers in Trammel will no longer disappear.
• Dropping house deeds on bankers will no longer cause the banker to accept the deed.
• Shopkeepers will no longer sell incorrectly hued armor. Any incorrectly hued armor will return to its intended hue.
• Teleporting guildstones between the two facets will now move the guildstone to the correct location.
• Targeting issues with magic casting monsters will be corrected.
• Issues with monster path-finding will be addressed.

Update 3

On May 10, 2000, the following was published:

• Players will now be required to wait a minimum two seconds between player-cast gate trips. Attempting to pass through a single, player-cast gate multiple times will cause this wait period to grow longer.
  • Please note: this change was incorrectly announced as a change to static moongates. The eight moongates have not changed at this time.
• Pets are no longer able to loot corpses.

Update 4

On May 11, 2000, the following was published:

• Wandering shopkeepers will now teleport to return to their shops
• ‘Young’ players teleporting to Britain will be placed in the correct location
• Shopkeepers may no longer be poisoned
• Pets with the ability to polymorph will no longer automatically receive murder counts
• It will no longer be possible to lock items down on the steps of other players’ houses
• The voice triggered teleporters will have the same delay placed on them as player cast gates. Players will now be required to wait a minimum two seconds when traveling via this method. Attempting to travel to and from the T2A lands multiple times will cause this wait period to grow longer. The waiting period will cap at approximately 32 seconds before resetting to two seconds.

Update 5

On May 11, 2000, the following was published:

• Update for a change to the global service system.

Update 6

On June 22, 2000, the following was published:

• The special attacks for two-handed mace weapons will be reduced to 50% rather than 100% extra. A crushing blow will still be quite effective however. For example, the warhammer will still be capable of doing significant amounts of damage when a crushing blow is achieved (the max will be approximately 60 points, rather than the reported 70 to 80 points).
• Falling through floors in the new house designs will be addressed.
• Slow moving NPCs and monsters will be addressed.
• Trapped chests will no longer give murder counts to the tinker who created the chest.
• Issues with thieves not turning ‘gray’ in town will be resolved.
• ‘Criminally flagged’ characters will no longer be able to go through a moonstone gate.
• The “no recall for aggressors” system has been fixed so that:
  • You will not be able to recall while you are a criminal.
  • You will not be able to recall while you are an aggressor to a player.
  • Being an aggressor to a monster or NPC will not stop you from recalling.
  • Attacking a pet of a murderer or criminal will not stop you from recalling as neither of these actions will make you a criminal.

Update 7

On July 8, 2000, the following was published:

• When looting a corpse that is stacked on top of one or more corpses, the loot from any “buried” corpses that belong to you will be included.
• On Trammel, only the person who digs up a treasure chest, or members of his/her party, will be able to open the chest and remove treasure. Treasure chests recovered from treasure maps on Felucca will continue to be available to all players.
• An issue causing players to become ‘stuck’ when picking up hay in Haven has been fixed.
• Crossbows will no longer incorrectly use arrows on archery buttes, but will use bolts.
• The protection spell will now provide greater protection at higher magery/evaluate intelligence/inscription skill levels.
• Finger slips from being hit while healing will have less effect. The damage healed will now be based on you dexterity and healing skill. Previously, this value was based only on dexterity.
• The success rate for healing will be increased.
• Veterinary skill gain rate will be corrected.
• An error that lowered the tracking skill level required to effectively track other players and NPC humans will be corrected.
• The mining interface will be updated to help increase server performance.
• To mine, double-click your mining tool and target the area you wish to mine.
• To dig for treasure, double-click your mining tool and target a treasure map. You may then target the area in which you wish to dig for treasure.
• Single-clicking a treasure map will now tell you the facet to which the map pertains.
• Weapons with the “ghouls touch” ability will now function correctly.
• The frequency of wheat spawn on the Trammel facet will be lowered.
• Summoned Elementals and Daemons will now be more in line with normal elementals and daemons.
• Locations at which Nightmares spawn have been changed to fix some of the “spawn blocking” issues.
• It will now be possible to gain skill by stealing from grey, red, and monster targets.
• Stealing has been fixed so that stealing specific items is now more difficult than “random” stealing.
• The required waiting period between escorting NPC’s will be lowered to five minutes.
• Stealing items from containers in town will now be allowed.
• Guildstones will decay in one week if not located within a house.

Update 8

On July 14, 2000, the following was published:

• To provide an easy way for players to recognize official OSI volunteers (including counselors and seers) without accessing being required to look at their paperdolls or clothing, volunteer names will now appear in purple above their heads. This change will not affect companion names.
• The mass dispel spell will now have a chance to successfully dispel high level creatures.
• The mindblast spell will now correctly assess damage based on the target’s stats, and will ignore any melee related bonuses.
• The reactive armor spell will now work correctly when battling an opponent that is carrying a shield.
• Poisons will now deal damage in a balanced manner for all levels of poison.
• The strength of the poison spell will now be based on the caster’s poisoning and magery skills.
• Spell damage dealt by wands and staffs will be increased.
• All vendors will no longer spout nonsense if given gold while they are teaching a skill.
• All vendors will now make change if given an incorrect amount of gold as payment for teaching.
• Wandering healers will become stronger and more difficult to kill.
• The inscription skill will now check for a spellbook in the hands of a player attempting to scribe, before looking in their backpack.
• Failing to scribe a scroll will no longer result in mana loss.
• When a keyring is locked down, any keys in the keyring will also be locked down. The individual keys will be counted in the total number of lockdowns available in a house. Additionally, once this publish is active, you will need to unlock and re-lockdown the key ring for this to take effect.
• Gaining lumberjacking skill will now be easier to do while lumberjacking, rather than in combat.
• Gaining mining skill at higher ranks will be easier.
• The color of locked-down dye tubs will no longer be changeable. You will be required to unlock a dye tub to change the dye color.
• You will no longer be able to place a boat in a dungeon. Additionally, any boats located in dungeons immediately following the publish will be deleted. It is extremely important to remove any boats from dungeons prior to this release. We will provide an additional reminder before publishing this change. (This change is currently active on the Hokuto, Izumo, Yamato, and Wakoku shards.)
• Gaining skill at higher levels in Cartography will be easier.
• To transfer a pet securely, you will be required to initiate the pet transfer prior to opening the secure trade window.
• On the Felucca facet, only the treasure chest owner and his/her party members may remove items from a treasure chest without being flagged as a criminal.
• Tamed spell-casting monsters will no longer heal opposing enemy monsters.