Publish 18 – Client Patches & Bug Fixes

UO Team 29 May 2003 00:00:00 EST

In order to prepare for Publish 18, we needed to deliver client patches to all Ultima Online players as well as update UO’s shards with a server publish, and this list includes changes from both client patches and the publish.

Client Patch 4.0.0l:Released on Wednesday, May 14, at 10:30am CST (3:30pm UTC/GMT). Updated Ultima Online’s game clients to 4.0.0l for both the 2D and 3D clients.

• Item Properties
  • (2D and 3D) Clients will not automatically download nearby item property data while walking or running, allowing the player to not be slowed by extra network traffic when travelling.
  • (2D and 3D) Clients will not collect item properties for items that are not visible or cease to exist.
  • (2D and 3D) The clients will make fewer simultaneous item property requests to reduce average bandwidth use at a given time.
    • Non-cached item properties may take a moment before being received by the game client. This phenomenon should not generally be noticeable, but may be apparent at places with a lot of items lying around (vendor malls, banks, etc.).
  • (2D and 3D) When in single click mode, the client will not fetch item properties for objects on the ground until you click on them.
    • People with poor connectivity should try using single click mode to reduce bandwidth use.
    • This may also may reduce latency when in combat.
  • (2D and 3D) More efficient storage of item properties data on client.
  • (2D) A shut-down crash related to the item properties interface has been fixed.
• House Customization
  • (2D and 3D) Gold and other items that would sometimes draw below floors of customized houses should no longer do so.
  • (2D and 3D) Short walls on the first floor of customizable houses should no longer vanish when you walk under floor tiles of the second floor.
  • (2D and 3D) Interior stairs should now draw completely when placing them (where they have been drawing only the bottom two rows).
  • (2D and 3D) Some doors that were so tall they blocked movement on the floor above them have been shortened.
• Misc
  • (2D) The “sitting on a beetle” client crasher has been fixed.
  • (3D) A problem with some 3D clients drawing grass over cave entrances has been fixed.
  • (2D) Items that weren’t properly drawing as female versions when being dragged over the paperdoll will now correctly do so.
  • (2D and 3D) A fix for objects getting stuck in the “drag slot” when running arm/disarm macros added. Arm/Disarm macro commands will be ignored when an object is being dragged. Note that other commands in a macro with an “Arm/Disarm” command will still execute normally.
  • (2D and 3D) Fixed a crash when receiving too little data for a house design from the game server.
  • (2D and 3D) Spellbooks have been adjusted to reflect new casting costs of some spells.
    • Some spellbook entries will be incorrect until the server publish, “Publish 18,” goes live.
    • The current description of the “Curse” spell will be inaccurate after “Publish 18” goes live, as it does not reflect upcoming functionality changes.
  • (2D and 3D) Support added for some new wearables.
    • Note that only AoS 3D clients will see the new art for these wearables when worn. Other clients will see “placeholders.”
  • (2D and 3D) Some ambient light level code has been tweaked to make lighting more reliable. More fixes and adjustments are likely to come later.

Client Patch 4.0.0m: Released on Wednesday, May 14, at 6:19pm CST (11:19pm UTC/GMT). The 2D game client version remains 4.0.0l while the 3D client becomes 4.0.0m.

• A problem that disallowed buying from NPC shopkeepers while using the 3D client has been fixed.

The rest of this documentation relates specifically to the server publish aspect of Publish 18, published on May 28th CST.

Client/Lag/Graphic Fixes

• Fixed a client crash issue caused by logging out of UO while in single-click mode with an item property display on the screen.
• Fixed a lag issue caused by duplicate item property information being sent when interacting with NPC shopkeepers.
• Fixed a lag issue caused by watching another player cross a server boundary.
• Characters that had dyed runebooks equipped prior to the AOS converstion should no longer find their runebook invisible.
• Fixed an issue causing too many items to spawn in the Delucia area, which was still causing some blackholing of players.
• Selling large quantities of non-stackable items in the 2D client should no longer cause the sell gump to remain open.
• Fixed an issue causing some of Malas’ starfield tiles to appear as lava tiles.
• Certain dungeon entrances should no longer appear to be covered in grass in the 3D client.

Combat Changes

• The Curse spell will now reduce a player’s maximum elemental resistances to 60% (but only when cast by another player).
• Firehorns will no longer cause users to be flagged as criminals in Trammel.
• ”Young” players will no longer be protected against attack in Dungeon Doom.
• Base insurance cost will now be 600gp per item instead of 750gp per item.
• When someone is killed in PvP combat, their “auto renew item insurance” will be charged at a reduced rate, which will be one half of the normal pricing (300gp per item).
• When someone is killed in PvP combat, one-half of whatever the losing player paid to insure their items will go into the bank box of the person who struck the killing blow.

Creature and Pet Changes

• The Hit Points and damage for Energy Vortices and Blade Spirits have been lowered.
• 8th circle summoned elementals will have their Hit Points increased substantially.
• When tamed, beetles and giant ice worms will no longer have their maximum Hit Points reduced by 1/4, instead they will be reduced by 1/2.
• Imps’ resistances and evaluate intelligence levels have been lowered substantially.
• Fixed an issue where tamed pets could not follow their masters across a particular bridge in Malas.

House and Lockdown Changes

• Fixed a problem where pieces of other structures would seem to disappear after you exit customization mode on your own house.
• Addressed a major source of locked down items falling beneath the floors of houses.
• Corrected a problem where moving crates would appear in the wrong location, even though the items inside still belong to their correct owner.
• When you demolish a house with lockdowns and secures in it, those items will no longer remain locked down.
• Locked down clocks and maps can now be used.
• Trash barrels will now be deleted when a house is customized, allowing players to re-place it after they are finished.
• When building staircases in customization mode, the top half of staircases will no longer be cut off.
• Customizing a house with the door open will no longer cause the door to be deleted.
• Backpacks and wooden chests should no longer give a message that makes it sound like they are a moving crate.
• Items should no longer be left floating in the air when customizing large towers.
• House Add-ons can now be placed on all appropriate floor tile types.
• Converting a log cabin or sandstone house into a customizable house should no longer cause you to lose both secure and lockdown storage.
• Players will no longer be able to set security settings on containers inside secure containers.
• Fixed an issue preventing some players from seeing parts of their house if it’s next to a 3-story house that’s already designed.
• Short walls in custom houses should no longer go invisible when walking under a ceiling.
• If a house with another player’s guildstone in it is customized, the guildmaster should now be able to use a teleport ball to move the guildstone.
• Fixed an issue recently re-introduced into the game, where doors and teleporters would sometimes become static and unusable after customization.
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t ban other players from marble houses with patios.
• Plants in early and late growth stages can now be accessed when locked down or inside secure containers. (Updated: May 21)
• Players can no longer enter gates to gain access into private houses.
• Addressed a lag issue caused by locking down a container with too many items.

Loot Changes

• Looting rights should now be working correctly (based on the player who does the most damage, rather than giving looting rights to any player who damages a creature).
• The Collector Quest and Hag Quest loot has been improved to yield better items.
• Vorpal bunny loot has been decreased to better fit the level of difficulty.

Magic, Spell and Item Property Changes

• The Hit Mana Drain magic property (not to be confused with the Mana Drain spell) has been changed to give the user a 40% Mana return on the damage they deal (instead of 20%).
• The Hit Life Drain magic property has had its healing effect increased to 30% of the damage dealt (instead of 10%).
• Hit Lower Defense will have its duration increased to 8 seconds.
• Hit Lower Attack will have its duration increased to 10 seconds.
• The Stamina Drain property is being increased to return 100% of the damage dealt to the attacker’s Stamina (instead of 20%).
• The Resisting Spells skill will now give players a substantial minimum value in all of their 5 elemental resistances.
• Magic items and skills that regenerate derived stats (Hit Points, Stamina, or Mana) should now work correctly under all circumstances.
• Corrected an issue where Weapon Enhancing was not adding the correct damage values to the weapons. If you tried to enhance a weapon that had less physical damage than the enhanced values would add, no values were added at all and the physical damage remained the same.
• Night sight should now function correctly.

Necromancer and Paladin changes

• Certain situations where Paladin and Necromancy books did not appear with the correct graphics have been fixed.
• Paladin spellbooks will no longer have their spells decay rather than the book itself if left on the ground.
• The Paladin Sacred Journey ability has had its Mana cost lowered to 10, and its tithing cost reduced to 15 gold.
• The Paladin Dispel Evil ability has had its Mana cost lowered to 10, and has had its Fear Chance increased to make it slightly easier to cause monsters to run. Note: This Mana cost change is not yet reflected in the Paladin’s “Book of Chivalry.” (Updated: May 21)
• The Paladin Holy Light ability will have its Mana cost and casting time decreased, and its damage raised very slightly.
• The Paladin Cleanse by Fire ability will no longer kill a Paladin who uses it – it will simply reduce their Hit Points to zero but leave them alive. (Updated: May 21)
• Protection will now prevent interruption of Paladin spells.
• The Necromancer Poison Strike spell has had its damage slightly increased.
• The Necromancer Evil Omen spell will now last for up to 7 seconds (at GM Spirit Speak), or until the necromancer takes damage. (Updated: May 21)
• The Necromancer Vampiric Embrace spell will have its difficulty value lowered to equal that of other 8th circle spells, but will still require 99.0 skill in Necromancy to cast.
• The Necromancer Corpse Skin spell will have its fire/poison resist penalty increased to -15.
• The Necromancer Death Adder familiar will now allow players to double-click other snakes in order to charm them (rather than requiring the player to use the snake’s context menu).
• The Necromancer Curse Weapon spell will have its duration extended to last up to 30 seconds (at 100% Spirit Speak). (Updated: May 21)
• The Necromancer Strangle spell will have its damage significantly increased vs. NPCs.
• Spirit speak will now heal slightly more damage.

Quest Changes

• Players will no longer be able to block the spawn of an NPC on the Necromancer quest, which was effectively making them unable to complete the quest.
• Fixed an incorrect line of dialogue in a Vault of Secrets quest; it should now direct the player to the Crystal Cave.
• Mage Templates and Warrior templates that are moving through the directed experience quests should now receive the treasure map or horn of retreat after quest step 5 (turning in the scroll).
• The Solen Matriarch Quest should now update properly once the infiltrators have been killed.
• Fixed a quest dialogue issue in which Uzeraan tells players to go South-West rather than South-East.
• Ghost players should now be able to use the teleporters inside the Solen tunnels to leave or travel further inside.

Recalling and Map Fixes

• Fixed an issue where sometimes players would recall to a rune in a runebook, using up reagents, but not actually go anywhere.
• Players should now be able to recall/gate to the Trammel Lost Lands from Felucca.
• Players should now be able to enter the Yew Crypts.
• Dead players should now be able to exit the caves between Luna and Umbra.
• Fixed an issue with recalling in Malas.

Shopkeeper/Vendor/Barkeeper Changes

• Shopkeeper “offer gumps” will no longer remain open when you cannot afford the goods.
• Items bought from a shopkeeper should no longer go into a character’s spellbook rather than their backpack.
• Friends will no longer be able to ban player owned barkeepers.
• Barkeepers are getting back their titles.
• Vendors will no longer be moved under the house sign when changing sign type and foundation.
• The “All of your vendors in this house have been stationed” warning should no longer appear when logging back in at a friended house after placing a vendor in a different house.
• Co-owners should no longer be able to re-position vendors that are not theirs.
• Fixed an issue with the “get vendor” gump only appearing once after customizing your house.
• Vendors will no longer drop to the ground, becoming homeless and unusable when their house is demolished. Instead, they will deposit their inventory and gold, as well as a vendor deed, into their owner’s bank (even if the bank is full), and then delete themselves.

Miscellaneous Bugfixes

• Players will no longer get iron ingots from smelting colored ore barding deeds, but will instead get the correct type of metal.
• Young players will once again be able to use the moongates in Malas after using the Horn of Retreat.
• Young players on the Paladin Quest will once again be able to use the Horn of Retreat in Malas to return to Uzeraan’s mansion.
• Harvesting resources from plants in a custom house or from a backpack will no longer kick you from the house.
• Ancient Smithy Hammers and Mining Gloves will once again increase a player’s blacksmith or mining skill over their skill cap if applicable.
• Using the Arm/Disarm macro while holding a weapon should no longer cause the weapon to become invisible.
• Enhanced Bone armor should no longer take the color and name of the leather it is enhanced with.
• Players should now be able to recover any personal bless deeds that were used on “bless spell” magic items before their effects were fixed in a previous publish.