April
30, 2003
And another cheat in the Doom Lever Puzzle
First it was using young chars with skill jewels, then it was insta-log in the lamp post room, now it's using ghost. Cheaters will never cease to amaze me.
It is not intended for players to be able to do any portion of this puzzle with a ghost. This is considered an abuse of the game mechanics and is not allowed. I have consulted with each of the GMs and they are all consistent with how this issue should be handled.
Platinum
Player Relations Lead
Thank you
Account's age not updating
I don't mean to sound sarcastic, but when Stratics posts this as being current issue, I can't help but laugh. This is beyond old news. People have been complaining about accounts' age not updating for well over a year. But hey, as long as they're finally doing something about it, I can only be happy.
We have seen some reports from players that their account age has not updated in a while. We have identified the issue and it has been reported for resolution. The account ages appear to be correct and the issue is simply in the updating. If you are experiencing this issue we ask that you please be patient until we can get this issue resolved. Once it has been resolved your account age will update on its own. I appreciate your patience on this and I am working to get it resolved as quickly as possible.
Platinum
Player Relations Lead
I have to add this though, I'm not sure how long Platinum has been around, but man, I've seen him discuss quite a few long outstanding issues and they all seem to be on their way to be resolved. Keep up the good work!
Is luck worth it?
Hanse says yuppers. And I concur, because everytime I hunted with decent luck armor (and mine aren't all the hot just yet), there was a noticeable difference in the loot quality:
Oh, luck is worth it... You can get a luck roll to increase the amount of items that drop, the amount of properties on them, and the value of the property. More magic items means more chances... More properties... and better properties. The neat thing about luck is it is balance-light (balance issues are not very noticeable). A player can fight without luck and get good items off creatures, although it may take a little longer than someone with a high luck suit. :)
Hanse
UO Live Designer
Read about it further here.
Accounts become inactive for no reason
Yeah, it's also old news, but at least they're finally looking into it. I had 2 of my accounts go inactive on me even though the credit card they were on was very valid and had plenty of funds. Only took minutes to reactivate it, but considering those are accounts I don't use much (they basically just hold houses) if I had not decided to log on with them when I did, my houses could have gone bye bye on me through no fault of my own. Needless to say, I wasn't smiling. The same thing happened to a few of my friends. I'm just happy Phase III isn't active yet.
You can read the discussion on this issue here.
Enhancing Items: ASHs won't help!
Yeah, I'm depressed about that too. I was very much looking forward to Pub 18 so I could use my +60 ASH (ancient smith's hammer) again so enhance my stuff. I hate breaking good stuff with that forever failing enhancement. Here is Hanse's speil about it:
An ancient smithy hammer would not reduce the chance to break it. Break chances are based on how high the original resist is and how much you increase it by.
That is a nice piece. I've been hunting for about 40-50 pieces like that to do one fell swoop of enhancing on. :)
I have...uh...zero so far... the chances of getting more than three magical resistance bonuses are in the wee percentages (below 1%, I believe). After that, you need to get good rolls on the property values. It received some hefty rolls on that piece, though.
and…
Augur did the enhancing code. He leveraged the magic item effects Evocare and I wrote. Although, I'm familiar with the system. Blacksmithy skill affects your ability to use specific ore types. If you have insufficient skill to craft with valorite, you cannot enhance an item with valorite and so forth.
and….
It is significantly more difficult to get luck items with good resistances, because the percentage to roll the properties stack up. So, a high luck item with good resistances is something that folks consider an "uber item". I'm sure some folks have a few good pieces so far, though. I always jump at luck armor and start adding up percentages to see if I should enhance it. :)
Hanse
UO Live Designer
Oh well, was a nice dream... You can read the whole thread here.
April 28, 2003
AoS Newbie Accounts for $19.95
If you got the CD and want another account but without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Actually, those just went on sale a short time ago - you can get them at uogamecodes.com. :)
Cynthe
Community Manager
Sorry to point out another flaw in your communications system Cynthe, but this feature has been available for well over 2 weeks now. When the Fortuity Necklace promotion came out, we had already discussed on the boards how it came up to paying $30 for it since you could get a newbie registration from the AoS site for $19.95.
But aside from rubbing it in, could someone please explain to me why buying a 90-day gametime coupon (ie 3 months of UO) costs $38.99 when paying for the same length of time with a CC or by check would come up to 3 x $9.95 = $29.85 ?
Banning: Training your blue pets
People are all nervous lately about talks of getting banned over training your blue pets one against the other in Trammel. Currently, this trick is allowed. The only thing that will get you banned is if you do it unattended. So it's the unattended macroing and not the pet training that is forbidden. But I can see this trick being categorized in the near future as an exploit. But for now, here's the official word:
It has come to my attention that there is some confusion regarding the situation with "blue" pet training. Our current policy on the issue is the GM staff will only take action if the training is done unattended. Our stance on this issue can change if we review the situation and determine there is an abuse of the game mechanics involved. If there are any changes made I will post an update to this forum.
Platinum
Player Relations Lead
Where are those gifts already?
Still brewing somewhere and not before a few more weeks. I never though rehuing and relabeling existing stuff would be this complicated, but then, I never pretented to be a programming expert.
The Age of Shadows Launch Gift is in the works. We have a document in the UO.com Update Center, and you can read that at update.uo.com/design_434.html. I know it's been a couple of months, but new items take a while to create, even when they seem simple. After the exploration of what sort of item to make, working it into the schedule figuring out how to make it, developing it, and QAing it, we're close to being able to present it to you. It's now scheduled for the next publish, known as Publish 18, due out sometime after mid-May.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
Oh well, keep selling those roses before they get the shaft. Then again, maybe you want to hold on to them because my understanding is that the "we screwed up" roses will be of a different hue than the whispering roses.
How about those 100% lower reagent suits?
Dont you just hate the guy waltzing around in his l33t insured/bless suit and bragging about how buying reagents is now a thing of the past for him? Well, I do cuz I still don't have one of my own and I'm dying with envy. At least, for now, there is no plan to nerf these suits even though exploiters are hard to work already to see how they could gain unfair advantages from it. But if I can get my act together at some point preferrably in this lifetime, I get one of my own before the nerf.
It is certainly possible and allowable to have a 100% reagent reduction suit. Right now it seems fine to Create Food and then spell(sell) that food to NPCs, but we'll also keep an eye on techniques such as that. If it somehow becomes considered a major exploit then we'll address it at that time. But for now it seems okay.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
I wonder how long a good thing can last in this game. *sighs* You can read the rest in this thread.
AoS And Siege Perilous
It's closer folks. For better or for worse. As 7 of 9 would say, resistance is futile, and yes, you will adapt.
Has anyone noticed all these things still happening today? We've published some updates to the Siege test center over the course of the day, and I was wondering how much improvement is visisble, particularly with the list of concerns that have been presented in this thread in mind. Our AoS-version of Siege is almost ready to go live, but we want to make sure there's as few surprises as possible when it does so, and going over your lists can help.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
You can read further about it here.
April 23, 2003
Site Update: Provocation Skill Guide
As you all know (I certainly bitched enough about it), some revision had to be made to the Provoke skill guide since OSI's official stand on the boat trick now considered as an exploit under certain circumstances. After much procrastination, I have finally revised the guides. There isn't that much difference. Turns out there was only a small technicality to work around to make it entirely legal. The upside is that this will prevent some people from unattended macroing so it's not all that bad after all.
I've also done some tweeking to the Magery and Necromancy.
Extended Maintenance on 5 NA shards
From the FYI:
Tomorrow morning and Thursday (April 23rd and 24th), we will be performing extended maintenance on the Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Great Lakes, and Lake Superior shards. Rather than bring them all down at once while we perform the maintenance, we will stagger the times, ideally keeping the downtime for each individual shard to a minimum. We've planned these times to be as close to normal morning maintenance as possible, so these downtimes will take the place of the normal maintenance periods for these shards.
Here is the currently planned schedule for these downtimes:
Wednesday 4/23
Chesapeake 4:00 AM CST (5AM EST)
Atlantic 5:00 AM CST (6AM EST)
Catskills 6:00 AM CST (7AM EST)
Thursday 4/24
Great Lakes 4:00 AM CST (5AM EST)
Lake Superior 5:00 AM CST (6AM EST)
The downtime for each shard is expected to last approximately three hours from the time it is brought down, but we will update you further if that changes. Thanks very much for your patience!
Luck... Again!
Also in the FYI, more answers to the whole luck issue:
Question: In the shortest way possible, could you tell me what Luck does?
Answer: Some monsters, upon death, will have magical items in their loot. Your Luck rating has a chance of increasing the number of magical items in that loot, increasing the number of magical properties for each magical item, and/or improving each magical property of each item.
Question: Hm. Are you saying blacksmithing isn’t affected by Luck?
Answer: That’s correct. Luck only affects magical items that are generated when certain creatures die, and won’t improve the items you craft on your own. (...)
You can read the rest here.
The multiple doors bug
Ever cursed at having to open 20 doors before the passage finally opens up for you (can we say Deceit!) especially when you have a crapload of spawn attempting to chew you up? I sure have. Well, there's finally light at the end of the tunnel:
There's a fix for this problem in testing right now. Hopefully it will pass and go out with Pub18.
MrTact
Lead Server Engineer
Woohoooo!!! Thank you!
April 21, 2003
Test Center: Siege Perilous and AoS
From the FYI:
Siege Perilous and Mugen players, the time for you to get the Age of Shadows code is getting closer, so be sure to check out Test Siege now and experience the changes in Age of Shadows before it hits the public Siege ruleset shards! Before you go, though, we want to warn Siege players that Test Siege will feature a Trammel facet, which is different from the live version of Siege Perilous. That does not mean Siege is getting Trammel - that facet on Test Siege is for the sake of testing Mugen, which does have a Trammel facet.
At last! Enjoy folks!
So, is UO coming to an end?
Funny how that question keeps popping up since AoS. I think pretty much everyone agrees that OSI really screwed up with this one. But we're still here today so in the end, despite all the aggravation and the nerf, we're still hoping something can be salvaged out of the game we all once loved. A lot of people have left. A lot more are in the process of leaving. Many are just downsizing (like I have) and the others, including yours truly, will more than likely tough it out til the end. But the end doesn't seem to be scheduled anytime soon:
UO is not coming to an end. Far from it. However, it has been changing, and some of that change has been difficult.
I don't have much time to post on this subject at the moment, but I read this and felt I have to say something. I will elaborate more on it in a "Comments from the Producer," soon.
1st of all, scenarios are not dead. The UO Live team is undergoing a transition in process and form that has two goals:
A) To increase overall quality
B) To update the service more frequently
In order to do this, we have to be more disciplined in both planning and execution. We have already headed down this road, and so far, the planning has resulted in the need to do more feature revision, bug fixing, and infrastructure development than pure content (scenarios) for the first 2 publishes (18 and 19). Once we have accomplished this, we will have put the service into a state in which we can add content (scenarios) with the quality and frequency that you and I demand.(...)
Anthony Castoro
"SunSword"
Producer, Ultima Online
You can read the rest of his post here.
That still doesn't answer a lot of our questions, but I will give him this: yes, there is a major problem with the way UO is being handled currently. And the fact that they are publicly acknowledging it and working at restructuring this to make things more efficient certainly gives me great hope that UO may yet know another golden age. So if only for the effort of trying to get your act together, I'll say thank you.
About Pub 18 and Scenarios
Yes, we're all very upset that scenarios have been put on an indefinite backburner, but there are more important issues. The bugs and ridiculous lag needs to go yesterday. I'm beyond fed up with it so yes, let Pub 18 focus on bug fixes. To one Stratics reader that whined about Pub 18 being mainly about fixes, here is what Mr. Tact had to reply:
We will get pub18 that is probably nothing but bug fixes
*gag* *choke* *sputter* Hello!? Aren't you the same people who have been taking us to task since day one for NOT fixing bugs before moving on to adding new content? Hell YES, pub 18 is mostly bug fixes, and I for one am very happy about that!
As for the present suspension of scenarios, here is my take on it: fiction doesn't work in an online game. Why? Because fiction by definition means planning what the protagonists do, and if you do that, you exclude the players as protagonists. Which, IMHO, they should be . . . long-term, our goal with UO is to address this problem (players being able to have a real impact on the world) so that should we choose to do scenarios again, they are meaningful.
Personally, I'd be much happier making the world more dynamic and letting players create their OWN scenarios.MrTact
Lead Server Engineer
Mr. Tact, would you marry me? Gotta love the man sometimes.
April 20, 2003
Cocktail Molotov or the new "fire bombs"
You know, I really wish I knew where, when, how and why people come up with or discover those new things in UO that, as far as I know, weren't advertises anywhere, yet someone thought of it. You know, like those secret housing locations in Malas. How the hell did anyone think of using a rune in those bags? It's not something you could discover by accident. I mean, smelting BODs, yes. You mistargeted the item you wanted to smelt in your bag and smelted your BOD instead. Dang!! Ok, you just discovered something. But those runes?
And now we have the fire bombs. You know those fire pitchers people have been selling for an arm and a leg in Brit? How did anyone think of that? Why was it not advertised anywhere? I mean, all it takes to build one is a pitcher and an oil cloth. What are the odds that someone that regularly uses water cloth would also have a pitcher in his backpack? Considering the Matriarch's Quest has been caput since AoS, it's not like many warriors run around with pitchers in their bag (not to mention that this doesn't work with water pitchers), nor oil cloths especially now since poison no longer messes up your blade. So where did that "insider" info come from? GRRR. I swear, I should learn to suck up to the Dev Team...
... or not. *shrugs*
Anyways, for the wannabe bombers*, use an oilcloth on a pitcher of liquor or a bottle of liquor to create your firebomb. The cloth will not be used so you can make many bombs with 1 oil cloth. Once created, the bottle will be hued blaze. You use them the same way you use explo pots. As for damage, you won't kill a balron with those. If you don't throw the bomb in time, it will blow up in your hands for a hefty... 5-7 HP damage. So what's the point of that bomb aside from looking pretty? It could be a good alternative to the trapped pouches and save you from para gankers. Trapped pouches cause way too much damage to be a decent alternative for people who dropped resist.
Oh well, have that cocktail on me!
So when is the next scenario?
Not anytime soon I'm afraid, if ever again. This is a big downer. I may have bitched quite a bit about how the scenarios were unimaginative, especially the way they ended at times (or kinda didn't end?), but at least they were a nice change of pace from stocking vendors and dungeon crawling.
The schedule for scenario publishes has been put on hold indefinitely. We aren't currently developing any new scenarios. Resuming regularly scheduled scenario publishes is not currently on our calendar.
We are shortening our publish cycle. Bug fixes, tweaks, and new content will be delivered more frequently. Some of that new content may include new quests. However, it is not likely that it will be delivered on a weekly schedule like scenarios were in the past.
Vex
Designer
And...
We don't have any events in development right now, but such things will probably pop up from time to time, albeit rarely.
I may actually pop into the game later this month and wander around a random shard or two to chat with players 1-on-1, although I obviously wouldn't call that an "event." I'd be happy to talk with players about events at that time, however. Any related feedback will be good feedback. :]
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
Well, I guess that means I really should stop procrastinating and finally get my Quest going.
Server "hiccups"
You are asked for help identifying “hiccups:” By this he means those very, very pleasant extended periods of uber lag where the world of UO just stops turning for everyone. You know that 20 second lock up that feels like 10 min. That probably got you killed if you were running from something, or that made you restart your client because you thought it had crashed. But that if you were patient enough and waited, it's the lag where once it lifts up, everyone in the vicinity spams laaaaaaaaag, omg lag, grrrr darn lag... Yeah, that one.
I saw a couple 20 second hiccups on Pacific yesterday as well, I've got a good idea what the cause is, and we have a fix that should ship with Publish 18 that should correct the problem. I'm looking into getting the fix out even sooner, but I've got a lot of verification to do first.
It would be helpful to know how widespread this is right now, so if you've seen this (20-240 second hiccups that you've verified with other nearby players that also effect NPCs) this weekend someplace other than Pac, and Drach, please post which shard(s), and about how many times you saw this.
Sorry for the inconvenience,
Ferbert
Server Programmer
So if you've been experiencing those hiccups, Fertbert would like you to tell him about it here.
The nightsight bug
Most of us have had that problem. Pitch black night suddenly drops on you and In Lor doesn't work nor do nightsight pots. The only thing that can save you is a nightsight jewel or piece of armor. Trouble is, if you're not already wearing it, goodluck finding it in such darkness. Recalling across server lines sometimes fixes it but it's still a very annoying problem. But there is hope. It should be fixed in Pub 18. However...
Indeed... I just worked on it, I suspect that the code changes I just made will fix this, but since I was not able to reproduce the problem I can't really test my code changes.
I'll be sure to post here once the fixes are on a test center.
Ferbert
Server Programmer
So lets expect the worse, but hope for the best
IanStorm Chat Logs
A few interesting things have been debated there. The highlights being:
You can read it in details here
Site Update: Champion Spawns
For those of you who still do champ spawns, I have update the section regarding them under the Q&A menu with detailed maps to all champ location as well as some updates on the powerscroll page.
The lowdown on luck
You can read about it all in this thread, but here's a few of Mr. Tact's explanations and responses to questions asked by some of our fellow players:
Luck translates directly into a % chance to get a bump in number of items, number of item props and property intensity. The % is calculated very simply: it's luck ^ ( 1/1.8 ), which ends up being slightly better than the square root. As you know, luck maxes out at 1200, which gives you roughly a 51% chance of getting the bump.
Is this a one time check, that once you pass, gives you you bonuses in all three catagories, or is it actually three checks per kill?
It is checked once for the number of items, once for each item (to determine the number of props) and once for each prop (to determine intensity)
does your luck value determine the intensities when applied to items? Meaning will somebody who has 1200 luck be able to get higher intensities than me at 1000 luck? Or are the intensities random?
There are ranges determined by the loot template. These are modified by the creature they spawn on -- a weak creature might have a max intensity limit of 80%. That means that if an item has an intensity range of 1-10 (for example) that creature's effective range would be 1-8. Luck gives you a chance to increase the randomly-generated value by 10% of the max (the original max. I think.) But it can't raise the intensity over the limit.
UO:R seriously damaged the function of UO's random number generator. Ever since UO:R everything in UO that involves the random number generator has been frustratingly streaky.
Ha! At last, I can say "you are wrong." We rewrote the random number generator for Age of Shadows :-)
It used to be pretty bad, though. Some places still exhibit poor behavior (like, surprise surprise, the skill & stat gain systems), but not the loot generator.
If 3 people are all killing the same monster how do you determine who's luck applies to the kill?
The person who gets the credit for the kill via the looting rights system has their luck applied.
Also, does luck have any bearing on the ability to enhance an item with tailoring or blacksmithing?
No, at present it only affects loot drop. But given the overwhelming interest in it, perhaps we ought to consider expanding its scope . . .
Could we get more than a two sentence explanation of this important topic?
This is probably all the detail I'm going to give out for now, but I will pull together more over time. Part of my reluctance is that I don't want to spoil it for people who are still just having fun with it & don't want to have to become min/maxers. Partly it's because pulling together more in-depth information than this would be a vast undertaking. And partly it's because the details get kind of scary (example: intensity is generated using a table that simulates an integral function, so you are VASTLY more likely to get low-intensity items than high).
So when someone told me the other day that you have a 0% chance of getting an undead slayer weapon if you have less than 700 luck, they didn't know what they were talking about?
I love the smell of crack fumes in the morning. It smells like . . . UO.
MrTact
Lead Server Engineer
What about Magic Resist?
There's been lots of talks about how they intend to change magic resistance in Pub 18 and beyond to unnerf it a little. Here's a look at what they have in mind.
…Resist will increase your minimum resistances, but that minimum is applied after spell and equipment modifications. So, if you're wearing a suit that gives you 60/50/20/20/20 and you have GM Magic Resistance, then the minimum would raise only apply to the values below it. For example, at GM your minimum would be 40, do you'd effectively have 60/50/40/40/40.
This grants extra flexibility with the use of Reactive Armor, Magic Reflection, and Protection. If one of those spells would modify a resistance below your minimum, it wouldn't drop below the minimum. It also makes it easier to build specialized resistance suits. For example, if you can focus in fire resist and not have to worry about your other resists being below 40, you have a broader range of items to pick from.
However, this will do nothing to make it easier to build a 60+ All Resist suit.
Vex
Designer
Hmmm, it's not exactly what I had hoped for but that will already be a major improvement compared to what we currently have. You can read about it further here.
April 16, 2003
Site Update: Peacemaking
And another one down. You can now find the Peacemaking skill guide under the Skill Training menu.
Enjoy!
UO Loop and illegal 3rd party programs
Most of the people that use UO Assist (a legal 3rd party program) are also aware of UO Loop and the 8X8 macroer. For a long time, I thought those 2 programs were legal, seeing how they only worked with UO Assist which is an authorized complementary program to UO. I was even told by a Counselor back in the good old days that using the looping program was legal as long as I was macroing attended. But it is not the case. Any program not listed in UO Pro is considered illegal. Despite that, I had GMs tell me both that it is and it isn't legal. So which is it? For this reason, I used to have both programs available for download in my links page but have removed them for over a year now, while waiting for the official word to come out, which never did.
The debate resurfaced on the Stratics boards this week and Chinalilly pulled out an old response from a red:
Canyon
(Player Relations Training Lead)
08/21/01 06:18 PM
UO Loop: A Ruling (Sorta)
For now, UO Loop is still considered illegal because it is not an approved program listed on our UO Pro page. Until it receives official approval, it should be considered illegal, and players should not use it. I've forwarded along the main thread on this issue to QA as well as the Live Team, so they can see your feedback.
The Live team could always choose to approve it at a later date. However, at this time it is still an illegal program.Keep in mind that it would be almost impossible to test every single utility or program that players put out. Every main program might have several variations, and those could always be changing. If the Live team were focused on evaluating these programs, they would have less time to add new content and fix existing coding issues. It's a tradeoff, and evaluating all of these programs is not high on the priority list.
Canyon
OK, so this was posted almost 2 years ago (August 21, 2001). I'll agree that you guys were too busy but we're now in April 2003, still haven't had time to check it out? Nope, they sure didn't. And why? Peaches had the answer:
Thats because the uo pro program is closed and has been for quite some time.
Peaches
So... UO Pro is closed, yet there are countless new proggies popping out every day (not of them looping programs) and no one is bothering to check them so a ruling can be passed as to which is acceptable and which isn't? Way to go!
You can read and/or join the debate here.
OSI and UO or a Pimp and his...
She's beautiful, wild and untamed, keeper of countless mysteries. Within her embrace, the daring adventurer will discover unparalelled pleasures and excitements. That's right, boys and girls, there is nothing Sosaria will not yield to you, even her most forbidden secrets, if... the price is right. All you have to do is open up your wallets.
And now, for the lousy sum of $30, you will be able to taste yet another pleasure of Sosaria: the Fortuity Necklace. Doesn't it make you want to laugh when they have the nerve to add that it's a new IN GAME RARE? mmhmm, that's why we can buy it.
So what does that necklace do? It gives you +200 luck
How do I get it? Con a friend into joining UO for 3 months or open a newbie account for that same period of time (hence the $30 or $20 if you have an unused newbie account), make sure you or your buddy inputs your email account as the person that referred him/her to UO and patiently wait 3 months. You will then receive a code that will serve both to get you your necklace and give you 1 free month of UO. So in essence, if currently have an unused newbie account code, the whole deal will only cost you $10 (the first month is free, you pay the 2 other months but get a free month in return which is equal to $10)
What will they be selling next when everyone has their l33t necklace? Leprechaun boots that actually do give luck?
Funny how they have time to come up with ways to milk more money out of us yet can't seem to find time to fix stuff such as the Ancient Smith's Hammers.
Start you necklace timer here.
Seeing how they wouldn't want you to frolick in public (exhibitionists aren't well perceived in Britannia), they want to give you a chance to do it in the privacy of your new l33t 18x18 house in Malas, courtesy of the Pimp. That's right, con your friend into signing up between April 15 and May 15, and you'll automatically be entered into a sweepstake to win that baby. Read about it here.
Stratics Plus is out
In short, pay to get less lag and no more pop-ups and a l33t icon when you post on their forum.
How much is it?
$3.45 for 1 month
$9.95 for 4 months
$24.95 for 1 year
Can I still use Stratics if I don't sign up? Yup, you sure can, but it will still be a nightmare to load.
You can read about the new features here. If it takes too long to load, you can read about it here.
So what's the deal with factions?
Same old. We all know it's broken and it sucks but there are more important things to deal with. So keep holding on to that number cuz they're not about to call it yet.
…There are no direct changes to factions on the schedule yet (we really need to tweak PvP so that PvPers in general are a little less miffed first). But Factions is on the Big List of Things to Work On for upcoming publishes.
Mr. Tact
Lead Server Engineer
*sighs* at least, they acknowledge that PvP really got shafted.
So what's in Publish 18?
Take a stroll over to the FYI and you can read the Q&A they setup there. A few things are answered, especially for Siege Perilous. Some of you will be pleased to know item insurance will not be available of SP. As far as Pub 18's content is concerned, here's what they had to say:
Question: What’s in Publish 18, and when can we expect it?
Answer: Keeping it simple, Publish 18 will be implemented after the items mentioned above are completed. Pub18 will bring the AoS Launch Gift into UO, plus another large wave of bug fixes. There’ll also be a neat little bonus or two—but more on that when we get closer to publishing. ;)
Publish 18 is currently scheduled for mid-May. And, by the way, we’re working out a new publish process that should make our publishing schedule more reliable and of higher quality. Pub18 will be the first publish of that new process.
So mid-May it is... for now.
UO
StormChat - Tomorrow Night!
IanStorm is pleased to announce another UO StormChat with the
teams from OSI. It will take place at 7pm CST (5pm PST, 8pm EST,
12noon AEST) on Thursday, April 17 in #StormEvent.
To access the network, you will need an IRC Client (like mIRC or Pirch) and use one of the following
servers:
irc.ianstorm.com irc2.ianstorm.com
If you don't have an
IRC client, you access their network via their Java IRC client, here. Read their FAQ if you need help with IRC
commands.
The topic for this month is General Discussion, so if you
have a niggling question to ask, come prepared!
You can access logs of their former chats here.
April 15, 2003
UO Auction 2
Remember how we were all crushed when UO Auction went down (at least I was)? Well, it's been back up for months now and I just don't get it. I would have thought people would have flocked right back to it. After all, it is one of the most reliable way to auction off your goods for UO gold and to acquire some pretty good stuff for decent prices without having to grow roots spamming at WBB, so why is it so darn deserted? I went there a few times over the past weeks and aside from Europa and Great Lakes, most other shards seem pretty shy to post. Come on guys, do you enjoy the lag of Britain so much? And as Satyr was pointing out, we should all pull our weight to bring it back to its glory days. So if you have a fansite, please advertise them. And if you have goods to auction off, give them a try.
PS: for those who wonder, the guys over at UO Auction 2 didn't ask me to advertise for them. I just agree with an email I received from Satyr that we should give these guys a boost for the awesome service they've been providing FOR FREE to the UO community.
Interview with a former OSI employee
Remember the smurfs? I sure miss them. Funny how you never truly appreciate something (someone) until they get taken away from you. For those of you who don't know, the smurfs were the petname we gave counselors because in their blue robes they looked like smurfs. Sundancer wasn't a smurf, but he was an Arch Companion. And he gives us a little bit of insight on how it was, back in the good old days and how it all came to an end. Here's a sample:
...after the volunteers where taken away from US- and Euro-Shards, you could really see the impact on in-game service. Especially the disappearance of the Counselors made the whole system crash, and OSI hasn't really found a way to bring it back to where it was before until today (which is, to stay fair, quite impossible. There are simply too many calls for the handful GMs).
After all, as most of you might know, the reason OSI shut the volunteer programs down was a lawsuit caused by an ex-volunteer who wanted to have the volunteering time paid subsequently. So OSI probably feared a success for the claimant and pulled the emergency brake.
You can read the whole interview on the Online Traders site.
Yamato Shards gets a 29-hour revert
All I can say guys is a big OUCH! Thank God I don't play that shard or my ladylike manners would have gone right out the window once again.
Yamato's difficulties were due to hardware failure, and our technicians worked on it from here over the weekend. They send out updates when they can, but it takes them a while to identify exactly what's going on and send the info to Japan, where it's posted by our Japanese OCR group.
I'm sorry about the revert - I know that's extremely frustrating, and it's definitely not something we do lightly.
Cynthe
Community Manager
Then Formosa gets it too
The Formosa outages were most unexpected and were the result of critical hardware failure. There was no way to know that two servers from that shard set would fail the way they did so there was no warning we could have posted.
We had two servers from Formosa die and we can't even get a video sync when we attach a monitor and keyboard. Luckily we were able to spare out one of the machines and reconfigure the shard to keep running despite these failures. We're scheduling onsite service for these hosts and hope to have them back in service as soon as possible.
We could not warn the Yamato player base about their 29 hour revert either, so I hope the Formosa players do not take this personally.
TomtheGrey
Sr. Unix Admin, Origin Systems
You know guys, 2 in a row should make you go hmmm. Either your maintenance guy isn't doing his job properly or someone is trying his hands at sabotage. In any event, I sure hope that's where it stops.
Mr. Tact gets verbose
Wow, I can't recall the last time a red posted so much in one day. Granted, nothing revolutionary was said but it's nice to at least get some kind of info from time to time. Keep them coming Mr. Tact!
On bug fix priorities:
"The decision as to what bugs we fix is affected by a several different factors.
- How annoying players find them to be.
- How easy they are to fix.
- How risky they are (in other words, what's the likelihood they are going to break something else?)
If our choices sometimes seems arbitrary or capricious, I assure you, they are not. Often times there are good reasons for not fixing bugs that seem like obvious high priorities.
Yes, yes, that's a cheesy no-risk answer. I will say that all the bugs you folks mention ARE being looked at for Publish 18. With luck they will all be fixed for that publish. "
Hmmm, if I may say so, yup, that is a cheesy no-risk answer, but based on your factors' list, how hard and complicated is it really to fix Ancient Smith's Hammers?
In that same thread he talked about...
...The Plant Bug
"I am working on the ejection bug [removes you from house when you pull seeds] even as I write this].
I am also nagging the designers to get the watering bug into Pub18. We'll see. "
Wooohooo! thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...
You can read about it here. Now, let's continue...
About Test Shards:
"It's part of our publish process now that all code has to run on a public test center for at least 24 hours before we will publish it. You will probably have a public TC again very soon . . ."
Woot! thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you... You'll find the full story here.
About the firehorn bug:
Using a firehorn in Trammel, can make you turn grey. If you are inside guard, hence lootable.
"We know about the firehorn thing. It is high on our list of bugs to fix. "
Ugh, that sounded so much like something a GM would say. *gets the creeps* Read about it here.
April 11, 2003
Splitting hairs on provoke
I have a very, very, very strong urge to curse right now, but seeing how I have somewhat been swaying from the ladylike manners I should have, I will try to behave. But I'm still very much annoyed.
As some of you may have noticed, I went to great lengths to explain how to train provoke safely (or as safely as can be) in the Provocation skill guide. Well, turns out that months (and I really mean months) after we asked if this technique was in any way illegal (question which as usual was ignored), someone finally wakes up and says, errr, yeah, it is kinda illegal, but not in all cases. GRRRRRR
In this thread of the stratics forum, Sannio had quite a bit to say on the "safe boat" provoke setup. I will only post here the bits I find the most important but if you're a bard or a bard in training, I strongly suggest you take the time to read every responses Sannio made in that thread (and there are a few):
So: training in your barding skills in your house is fine. You can train them anywhere you like, and working your skills in your house is not inappropriate. A GM was quoted elsewhere in this thread as stating it is allowed for players to provoke 2 creatures against one another in your house, and that you need to personally be there during the training. This is all true in general.
I can't tell if the GM knew of the more specific scenario of "bears behind a fence," so I'm going to try to expand on his reply. The creature you are attacking, or using to attack for you, needs to be able to defend itself by having the possibility of attacking you. In the case of the bears, if you failed your provo and the bear decided you looked like someone who should be eaten, it sounds like the bears had no chance of escaping the fence to attack the provoker. In this case, the "creature behind the fence" technique would be unacceptable. If the creatures were dragons instead of bears, that would be a bit different since dragons can fire off spells without the fence being such a, well, exploitable game mechanic.(...)
I recently expanded on this same scenario in this way: Blocking monsters is inappropriate mostly because you can attack the monster in such a way that you're never, ever at risk. If the monsters just happened to be on boats or in a house, that's not specifically wrong, as long as the risk and potential for harm still exist.
Shooting at a bear which is on a boat means the bear will take damage and you will never take any. That's an inappropriate situation. However, shooting at a demon which is on a boat is different--crossing ever-so-subtly into possible-acceptability--since the demon can fire back at you, your buddies, other enemies, etc. In some ways, it's almost doesn't matter that the demon is on the boat.(...)
If you attack a monster from the "safety" of your boat, and the opportunity exists for it to attack back (such as with spells or firebreath), then this general situation is acceptable.
(...)
I'm curious as to why bards are required to be "in danger" or attackable just to train skills.
I could go train a 7xgm mage in no time without ever risking harm, and with all 100% legal training methods.
Truthfully, it's the technique that's I'm discussing--penning in the creatures (ex. the bears) without any possible retaliation scenario--and not so much the specific skills. You could easily substitute magery or archery based attacks for a barding-based tact and the same concerns would still come up. In this way, the concerns we might have against the stated technique are not bard-specific.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
Soooooo... because the bear or bull can't chew me up while I provoke it, it's not legal, but if I stand on the "safe" side of the fence in Yew graveyard and provoke the very much trapped skeletons that have 0 spellcasting ability it's legal only because I'm in a potentially dangerous environment? Can I say that this is a big fat load of ... hmmm, nm, I said I would remain ladylike...
Basically, I can 8x8 magery, necromancy and safely spar any combat skill to GM while cross-healing with a bud, but the longest, hardest, most freaking boring skill to train I have to put myself in harm's way just cuz some computer generated bear might want to have a piece of me for supper and is being denied the privilege cuz I was smart enough to trap him? Riiiiiiiight. So what's next? They're gonna tell us that it's ok for bards and archers to attack ophidian shamans, matriarchs and the whole tribe of spellcasting lizards from the safe spot in the Lost Lands but that killing any Knight-Errand or warrior would be construed as an exploit cuz the poor little creeps can't crawl their way up the ledge? GRRRRRRR
*takes a deep breath*
Will I update the provoke skill training page? Hmmmm, yeah, I guess, someday, when I remember.
BODs: No more spamming "vendor sell"?
I for one will be very happy with that. Ever got pissed after selling 25 items to a not too smart NPC that stubbornly refused to give you that darn BOD even though every time you checked BOD info, the NPC kept saying "You can get an order now" but still wouldn't give you one? Well, sometime, God knows when, they will look into changing it so that it works the same way as on Siege (since you cannot sell items to NPCs on that shard).
The reason BOD's are randomly offered from vendors is for new players. It is intended to be a surprise for them. For veteran players, it's not a surprise and is tedious.
We'll most likely make the Bulk Order Info context menu option work the same as it does on SP on all shards. I'm not sure on the ETA on that, though.
Hanse
UO Live Designer
Thank you!
What about them gifts?
Yes, everyone is asking about them. I don't think a day goes by without someone asking. And the answer is:
The AoS Launch Gift is currently under development. Right now it's in the "In Concept" section of UO.com's Update Center, as an article called "Age of Shadows Launch Gift" that you can read about here. We haven't announced a release schedule yet, but things are proceeding fairly smoothly so far behind the scenes.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
In other words, don't hold your breath. It won't be for a while yet, so please stop asking :^P
Want to meet some UO fellow players IRL?
Then get your camping gear ready because a group of them on Ianstorm are planning a get together. Yes, it's going to be in the US (I believe Wisconsin is still the State considered but that might change). If you like camping and want to put some faces on the names, they'd love to hear from you. You can give your input/suggestions in this thread.
April 10, 2003
Archery and best weapon skill
Sorry guys, but those two don't mix
Right now Use Best Weapon Skill will let a person with swordsmanship, fencing, or macing use any sword, mace, or fencing weapon. It has no effect on ranged weapons...which means that having use Best Weapon Skill on a bow or crossbow is meaningless right now. This is by design. As it was explained to me, we didn't want melee folks to gain a ranged attack with no skill point cost, nor did we want ranged weapon folks gaining a melee attack with no skill point cost.
Fertbert
Server Programmer
You can read the whole discussion about it here.
Why they don't return stuff lost in reverts
Ever been super mega pissed after GM'ing that really painful skill or getting that kick ass wep from a monster, or getting that +20 magery scroll from a champ only to see it all fade into oblivion thanks to a revert and be told by a GM, sorry bud, the joke is on you cuz we don't return stuff? Here's why they don't return things:
The loss of game items and/or time is an inherent problem with a revert, it's what defines a revert really. So there is nothing we can do about that except try to make it as brief as possible when it occurs. Maybe 15-30mins is a best-case scenario, the last Chessy revert was in that range but previous ones may have been longer. These backup corruption related reverts always occur during a shard restart or during maintenance, this helps us a little in that there won't be as many lost items since the revert occurs during the slowest time for the shard.
I really can't speak to player compensation for shard issues but I would ask you to read the service agreement again and also think about how difficult it would be for GMs to handle so many of these requests with no way to validate the claims (since the transactions were lost in the revert).
Someone in my team was up at 4AM CST to monitor how Chessy did this morning at maintenance and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the problem did not resurface. iostat and vmstat don't indicate an i/o or memory problem so we're going to continue working with Dev for a fix.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
TomtheGrey
Sr. Unix Admin, Origin Systems
Generally speaking, I agree with that stance. I mean, I could page right after a revert and tell them I just lost 4 +20 scrolls cuz the shard reverted right as I was running away from the left over spawn and this time, I got whacked by a swarm of PEs. Naturally, those +20s would be the most sought after. Can I hear someone say BS? So yeah, people could take advantage and lie through their teeth to get some awesome freebies. But how about the cases where people lost the content of their entire chests because the game reverted after they had unlocked/unsecured it but before they had locked it back down? In this instance, they can see in their backups that the last action taken was unlocking and they can see what items were in that secure. So there is no justification for not returning such items. But, as we all know, that's too much work. Why should they fix their screw ups when there's an easier way out by saying: "sorry, I can't help you with this".
In Concept: Player run vendor enhancements
Now is your chance to throw out ideas about how you would like to see your vendors improved. There are lots of pretty good suggestions already posted out there, but if you can think of even better ones, now is your chance to be heard. I know I'm hoping for the ability to either transfer to and/or friend people to my vendors so they can help restocking, as well as the possibility to move them without having to customize the house. Be able to customize their names so people can only click on vendor once to know what he sells rather than go through the bags (like Ada the regs vendor, or Remy the bod vendor), selling tamed animal on vendors, etc. etc.
Just a note about that "In Concept" post. We've already been jotting down notes on your thoughts regarding today's "player vendor" situation, gathering a lot of great feedback from Helios' "Vendor Owners & Shoppers of Britannia!" thread. The "In Concept" Vendor Improvements doc doesn't go into any details, but we wanted to let you know that there's changes under consideration even though we couldn't yet commit to any new related designs.
Like I said, there was a lot of feedback in Helios' thread, so you won't need to repeat any thoughts already posted in that other thread. Anything you'd care to share would be great, but if you could keep it short and very specifically related to vendors that will help us a great deal in keeping up with the multitude of ideas & comments that might posted here. :]
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
You can post your ideas and suggestions here.
AoS, Siege Perilous and Shrouds of Shadows
As a reminder, the deadline to claim your shrouds of shadows has been extended for EVERYONE to May 31st. So if you haven't claimed yours yet, regardless of what shard you play, you can still do that.
As far as Siege and Mugen go, the AoS publish is still in testing and if all goes as planned you should be receiving it soon, which means you'll have plenty of time to claim your shrouds before the deadline is up.
Last month, we extended the Hooded Shroud redemption period to May 31st. The FYI announcement was entitled "European and Australian Shroud Codes Mailed by April 4th," but that extended date actually applies to all shards. We're currently testing the Siege version of the AoS rules, and if the current plan stays close to schedule (and I believe it will), then you should have plenty of time between when Siege Perilous gets the AoS code and when the Shroud redemption period ends.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
European and Australian players
If you didn't get your shroud code yet, here a little bit from the FYI
If you're one of our European or Australian players and you were eligible to receive an in-game Hooded Shroud of Shadows, your code should have been mailed on April 4th. If you upgraded to Age of Shadows before March 21st, and your billing address accurately reflected that you live in Europe or Australia (with the exception of Germany or Sweden, who had separate shroud promotions), and the email address on your billing records is correct, but you did not receive the email from us with the Shroud code, please visit this article in our Support database to see about claiming your shroud.
April 9, 2003
AoS and PvP
In the FYI, there is a bit of a spiel about how the AoS changes are meant to make PvP more interesting (sure if you say so) and goes on to explain a bit why they made some of the changes we're now dealing with. I'm still not overly impressed with their justification of said changes, but the one thing that gave me hope:
Question: There’s been some pretty big changes to resist — is magic resist ever going to be changed to be more like it was before?
Answer: It’s already part of our plan to continue checking back on the AoS changes, and it’s probable that we may be taking a more critical look at the Magic Resist skill in the near future.
Please do revise Magic Resist cuz right now it blows!!!
Fame decay
Last nigth, I got pretty annoyed. Here I am sitting at Umbra's moongate talking to this guy while waiting for my friend Xa to show up. After about 8-10 minutes, she finally gets there and while we're talking she goes: Sak, what just happened to your lady title? I have no clue what she's talking about. I look at my paperdoll, it still says lady. I click on myself, and surely enough, it still says lady. But Xa insists that my title is gone and that I'm down to Glorious. I close my paperdoll and reopen it, and lo and behold, my lady title went for a stroll. So I'm like WTF?! Xa casts a gate, I go through it and come back, and now the title isn't just gone on my paperdoll, it also went bye bye on my profile and when I click myself it only says Sakkarah. As you can guess, I'm not a happy camper. I page a GM: 86 in queue *sighs*. I already know how it's gonna play out, so I icq my bud Dark Knight so he can babysit me while I whack OLs (man, those guys are such a joke to kill now!). Two OLs later, I'm lady again woot!! (thank you Isic for being such a gentleman and being so gracious about taking turns). It's great to see there still are nice people on Atlantic.
How about the GM? I'll let you guess. That's right, I got that very pleasant message telling me they are aware of this issue and are working to fix it. Have a nice day! Mmhmm. Whatever. That being said, I can't help wondering if this only happens in Umbra or if people have had that problem in various other areas.
On a side note, ogre slaying katanas really do a number on OLs and peacemaking roxxors. I wonder how long it will take before they nerf peace. It's just too powerful (not that I complain).
Deceit Brazier
As you all probably know, one of the ways to get a firesteed spawn is to double-click the brazier in the large room at then entrance of Deceit dungeon. A random creature spawns and chances are it could be a firesteed. Well, griefers have discovered a new way of making people's lives miserable (especially on Atlantic, gotta love 'em). They just summon as many crits as possible and hide outside waiting for the unsuspecting hunter to walk in. The lag fest gets you killed before the inside of the dungeon even has time to render. Naturally, you can forget about recovering your stuff. if you want to have an idea of the mess that could away you, Kylie Nightangel provided us with 2 very interesting pics. Pic 1, Pic 2.
Suggestion: until OSI does something about this (e.g. cap the number of creatures that can be summoned AND be alive/untamed at any given time), avoid entering Deceit through the main entrance. You will die before you get a chance to know what hit you. Look for a rune that will allow you to recall in past the doors leading to level 2. In case of trouble you will have time to recall out. Frankly, whenever I go inside a dungeon, I normally gate in as it's easier to run back right out when there are too many uglies coming after you.
April 8, 2003
Todays is your last chance to vote for the best house design!
Some folks really worked hard to come up with nifty homes. Please take a second to encourage them and vote for the house you would like to receive as a 1st year vet reward mini-house.
You will be given the option to vote on a series of fansites that can be found here.
In the same context, you guys probably remember when I first posted about the Fishers' Council house design contest (see news of March 13) and posted the design of one of the contestants (Ruffie's Lighthouse). I must say that I pretty much pictured this guy winning the contest because I think he did an awesome job. He submitted his work in due time yet got screwed out of the competition because they managed to "lose" his entry. You can read about this mess here, and post your comments/encouragements to Ruffie here. Maybe if we fuel the debate enough, they will compensate him somehow for him getting shafted through no fault of his own.
The mana regeneration calculator
Some players never cease to amaze me. They're just too darn talented for their own good, but I sure enjoy they smarts. Stephen, Gyb and A Ninja came up with a little proggy that will tell you exactly what your mana regeneration rate will be based on your int, skill (med/focus) and the number of mana regeneration items you're wearing. So if you've ever wondered whether or not you should have med or focus or both, you will find the answer here.
I will add a link to this program under the AoS Q&A page.
About the vet reward gump
Yup, seems like even it suffers from lag.
The vet reward gump may not appear right away each time you log in. It may take a minute or two to appear. Also, the vet reward server is also down for a short time each Monday starting at Noon CST. So, if you were planning to pick a vet reward while it was in its maintenance period, you woudn't have seen the vet reward gump-window during that time.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
Inability to ride mounts while in vampiric form
You can't, simple as that. It's not a bug either, it's now an intended feature which quite frankly make sense. I would like to see a bat riding a horse irl. From the man himself:
It's intended. There was an issue that was discovered while mounting pets in necromantic form that came up while testing the latest publish, and it became necessary to disallow mounting pets while in certain altered forms.
Sannio
Online Content Coordinator
About the personal item bless deeds
If you blessed stats enhancing items, do not throw them out just yet or you might get screwed out of your bless deed. This little update was added to the FYI:
Update: Players who used their Personal Bless Deeds on their bless items should not throw these items away until their Deeds are returned. The items may be required for the "unblessing" process.
AoS and Lag
Well, seems like it's really not their equipment that's faulty, but the rather the programming:
We did add more RAM to the servers for Age of Shadows. We have plenty of free CPU cycles so we didn't add additional/faster CPUs. The only time there is server lag is when something is going horribly wrong, at all other times the servers have plenty of power to spare.
The lag that folks encountered with Age of Shadows is caused by the servers sending too much data. Alai and I are working on this problem as fast as we can... I think you'll find that it's now MUCH better... and we still have more improvements in-store for the future.
Fertbert
Server Programmer, Origin Systems
Sorry, but no, I didn't see that much improvement lately, but I'll keep hoping.
April 5, 2003
Stats enhancing items and bless deeds
Remember how everyone was happy about those old stats enhancing items that were never using charges and that basically gave you close to +10 to all stats? Well, as you may remember, this was a bug that they intended to fix. The items were supposed to use charges til they ran out. Now, this bug has been fixed and those items will eventually become useless once they run out of charges. Unfortunately, some people rushed to used their personal bless deeds on them and are now basically screwed out of their bless deeds. But, do not despair, in a very smart move by OSI (they impressed me on this one), they have fixed the bug but will be returning the deeds to all the people who used it on such items. From the FYI:
Before we published the fix that is currently being rolled out to all shards, stat-enhancing items were continuing to apply their stat-enhacing effect to players even after their charges had run out. In this publish, we fixed the bug that was causing the effects to stay on, and we gave those items a one-time re-charge. However, we know that some players used their Personal Bless Deeds on those items, thinking their effects were permanent. As stated in a previous FYI, we will be implementing a fix that will refund these Personal Bless Deeds, but in the interest of getting the rest of the publish out more quickly (especially considering the vast improvements in this publish for dial-up users!), that particular part of the fix is not included in this publish.
We will keep you updated as to how and when these Personal Bless Deeds will be returned, and we ask that players not call GMs on this issue. Thank you!
The Taming Exploit
Funny how you're not supposed to describe exploits yet OSI goes to great lengths to describe this specific one in order to prevent people from using it... Oh well, I guess there is no reason to keep quiet about it anymore then.
Basically, a tamer can sic a pet on a spellcasting monster and as soon as the monster starts attacking it, mount the pet. This way, the monster remains targeted on your pet but cannot harm it since you're riding it and you get to kill the monster at your leisure with 0 threat to you. Is that illegal? Of course it is. It's not how the game is intended to work but the programming is flawed so monsters cast spells in the twilight zone while getting their butt handed to them.
Trouble is, this could happen without you intending to be using the exploit. For instance, you're fighting a monster and your mare is about to bite the big one. So you quickly mount her to spare her from certain death, but monster remains locked on her. Did you use an exploit? No, you just tried to save your mare. Thing is, if you stick around to finish off the monster while riding that mare, it will be construed as you using an exploit. In essence, the only way to make sure not to be accused of exploiting, should you find yourself in such a situation, mount your pet and leave the area to go heal it then return to finish the monster. That is the only way to make sure you won't get in trouble. Does is suck having to run when your monster is 99% dead and some lamer is sitting nearby with a big fat grin on his face waiting to steal your kill? Yup, it blows. But, better lose a kill than lose an account.
You can read the all the details about this exploit here.
TC Backup Shard
Have you ever been to the test shard? Notice how there's rarely any room to place a house to test house design and all that stuff? It's because they use production shard backups on test shards. This is a good thing in a way but sometimes, it really blows, especially when wanting to test house placement. The official word on TC backups is:
Are you saying you want more variety in terms of which shard backup we load onto test centers? Or do you want the test center wiped more frequently?
OSI Dev and QA leads decide which backup to use and in most cases this is a backup from a highly loaded (larger backups/load) or from a particular shard when specific reports of problems are occuring. Using backups from large and popular shards also helps us by giving a larger player base the option to test their player or a fix candidate on a test center.
Don't worry, we've thought of it.
How are we to find housing spots on if you use the busiest shards? Also, in years of playing UO, I'm still waiting to see the Atlantic shard be used as backup. We may not be the most crowded shard but after a while, it gets old always playing Pacific or Great Lakes. A little variety would be appreciate.
Regarding Housing Phase III
Man, I hope no one out there is holding their breath about it coming out because it more than likely will be delayed some more. It's been what? 6 months and counting? Something like that. Anyways, here's the deal:
It's possible that Phase 3 will be part of Publish 18 - that's something we're really hoping for - but we won't be able to verify whether it will be out then until it actually passes QA. The reason for this is that Phase 3 is a much bigger, and more time-consuming project, than most of our bugfixes, and there are a LOT of players waiting for those bugfixes!
So our goal is Pub 18, but if we discover issues with Phase 3 in QA, we probably will not hold up the bugfixes to wait for it.Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems
At least, they're handling this the smart way. I rather hold off on it than see more bugs added to an already heavily bugged game. So all of you with houses on inactive accounts, you might be getting another reprieve. You can read the whole thread here.
April 2, 2003
Relax people, it was just a joke
Seeing the crazy amount of emails and ICQs I've received, I figured I would make an official post about it. Yesterday, there was a post on Stratics informing us that thieves were getting hammered with the nerf stick, each items held by vendor would now count towards 2 lockdowns in your house and skill jewelry were going to be permanently removed from the game.
Take a deep breath, swallow that curse you were about to scream outloud: it's just a joke. Remember, April 1st = April Fool's Day. So everyone, please put those rumors to rest and stop cursing the Dev Team, for once, they didn't do anything wrong, hehe.
To think I was gonna pull one of my own. Oh well, I'll get you guys next year *winks*.
April 1, 2003
Site Update
Man, I'm on a roll *kisses self*. I've finally updated the archery and stealing skill pages, and added the Macing skill which can now be found under the Training Skill menu. A special thank you to Shaun for pointing out some changes in stealing and to Xa for running all over Sosaria testing stealing grounds. Much love sis, you're the best.
Pet Bug on Great Lakes
As you know, Great Lakes currently has been published with the fixes for various bugs. All other shards were supposed to received it today, but a bug involving ethereal mounts has come up and therefore delayed the publish to other shards. Until the bug has been fixed be careful when using ethereal pets. From the FYI:
A minor issue has been found with the fixes recently published to Great Lakes. At this time we must caution players on Great Lakes against attempting to mount an ethereal pet when not in human form. This includes all necromancy forms as well as polymorphed forms. We will be addressing this minor issue before continuing with the publish to the remaining shards. We will keep you updated on the new publish schedule.
UO Magic Tool adapted for AoS
If you use UO Magic, it has now been updated to accommodate necromancy and chivalry and keep track of the new necro regs and tithing points. For further details, you can read all about it here. Yes, UO Magic Tool is a freeware.
March 31, 2003
A BOD book!!! *faints*
I still can't believe they FINALLY acknowledge a requests we've been making since the very first day BODs came out. Anyone who collects BODs knows the nightmare that these things represent as far a storage goes. Funny that the thousands of posts on that topic on MyUO boards never were acknowledged but that a single one on Stratics was... but that's another debate. I'm too happy to flame right now.
No, the book isn't scheduled to come out just yet, but the first (and most important) step has been taken: i.e. the Dev Team officially endorsing the idea and looking for suggestions as to the best way to implement it.
We definitely like the idea of BOD books, and would be interested to hear what more people think about how they should be implemented.
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems
To this I would like to say read the countless posts on MyUO boards. Oh yeah, you deleted them without reading them. Sorry. We'll post again then seeing how we have nothing better to do. Doh! Did I just rant again? Sorry, it's Monday. Bear with me. *winks*
Please post your suggestions and vote here.
The Fix Publish on Great Lakes: Round 2
Here we go again. They have once more published the countless bugs fixes on Great Lakes today. Hopefully, this time it will hold. If all goes well, every other shard will get it after tomorrow's morning maintenance. You can read about it in the FYI.
AoS and Siege Perilous / Mugen Shards
Sorry guys but you're not getting it just yet. The plan is for AoS to go live on your shards before Publish 18 but after the ERTs (Emergency Response Team) or, in other words, after the game stopping bugs have been fixed. We're all hoping those main bugs will be fixed very soon but as Cynthe posted a few days ago, they have no clue when Publish 18 will go live. They're hoping it will be sometime this Spring. Considering Spring ends on June 21st, it might be a while just yet before you get yours. So I suggest you expect the worse, but hope for the best.
You can read it all here.
Stratic's House Design Contest
And the winners are:
GRAND PRIZE: 27.
Created by Pedde
1st PLACE: 42. Created by Eowyn of Chesapeake
2nd PLACE - 39. Created by Sarogin of Chesapeake
3rd PLACE - 8. Created by Margot Filligar of Drachenfels
4th PLACE - 6. Created by Nirnaeth of Europa
FINALISTS (will move
on to OSI Contest):
100. Created by Darkoth of Napa Valley
29. Created by Brian of Pacific
96. Created by Rutherford Een of Europa
51. Created by Polenth of Europa
79. Created by Crie af Greygal of Europa
103. Created by Milo of Legends
The funny part is except for Sarogin (whose house I somewhat didn't notice) all of the winner's were on my favorite houses list (which is also why I had them added to the decor section of my site). I am surprised though that Darkoth didn't make it into the first 4. But my hat off to Pedde. His house totally rocks. I drool everytime I go to my house and pass by his. Awesome work and congrats to all.
You can view those babies here.
March 26, 2003
Site Update
The Battle Focus skill has been added to the skill training section (as if that one was hard to train...) and the Spirit Speak page has been updated. A bunch of new house models have been added to the decoration section.
The fix publish needs a fix
It's been released yesterday evening on Great Lakes and removed tonight. Apparently worksed somewhat well but still caused some crashes so they will fix it and eventually republish it. Hopefully, this will take place very soon as it is supposed to take care of the various problems including blackholing (yes, it's still happening), lag due to data flooding, the gauntlet champs not showing up and the static door bug to name a few.
You can read all the details here.
The vanishing items
You may remember one of the horror stories I posted a while back about this guy losing countless items only to find out later on that they had simply hidden under his floor tiles. Well here a few more tips to avoid this kind of unpleasantness posted in the FYI
If you think something may have fallen below the floor, before calling a GM there are a few things you can try to find these items yourself. First, you can try casting any spell that causes your game client to update your surroundings, such as Night Sight. If that doesn’t work, or if you don’t have spells, you can also try leaving the house—perhaps even running 2 or 3 screens away—and coming back inside. Logging out and then back in could also be helpful in refreshing your screen and showing your “lost” items.
You can actually help prevent this sort of problem by unlocking some of your smaller and flatter items before customizing your house (such as piles of snow, gold coins, and silver coins) and placing them within a secure container before entering customization mode. (By the way, it also helps to chop up your trash barrels before customization for a more trouble-free customization session.) When you finish customizing your house and begin redecorating, consider using a house decorator tool to raise items even just slightly—this sort of nudge can be just the thing to help keep everything in your house visible and accessible.
Gaining Stats
Many of you may be having serious problems gaining stats lately, yours truly included. So the subject was brought up on the Stratics forums and red provide the following answer:
Stat gains have changed under AoS in the following ways:
- 1 gain per 15 minutes, max 10 gains per day
- You have a chance to gain a stat with any successful skill check. Since stats no longer affect skills, the skill you use has no bearing on which stat you gain. The ONLY restrictions on gaining stats would be:
* You are at your total stat cap
* The stat you are trying to gain (per your stat locks) is at its individual cap
* The state of your stat locksMr. Tact
Lead Server Engineer, Ultima Online
Well Mr. Tact, with all due respect (and I do like him very much, at least so far), I have to say this is a big fat load of crock because it is very much broken. Now, I'm sure this is the way it is supposed to work (though I think it's dumb that you should get a gain of int in a skill that has absolutely nothing to do with int, but that's another debate), but that is not how it's currently working. I can tell you from experience that you will not get a single stat gain from Magery, Meditation, Music, Provoke, Focus, Spirit Speak or Eval. However, you will gain from Necromancy, Arms Lore, Anatomy and Camping. So if like me you are stuck on your stats gains, use one of those 4 skills to seesaw your gains until you get the desired balance as long as they haven't fixed this.
You can read and/or participate in the debate here.
ASHs and Runic Hammers: don't hold your breath
The bug preventing ASHs, mining gloves and runic hammers from working properly is beyond annoying but unfortunately (and I hate having to admit it) they are not game stopping bugs. Some other issues are more urgent (even though frankly I can't believe it would take that long to fix but what do I know about programming?) and so it won't be for a while yet.
Those who've mentioned that the data-flooding and game stopping issues are higher priority are correct... while we know the problems with ASHs and Runic Hammers is definitely a major pain, it isn't quite game-stopping.
We haven't nailed down the exact contents of Publish 18