There are additional notes for Ultima Online Publish 73, and along with it, a glimpse at the upcoming high resolution artwork update for Publish 74, which is housing/walls.
Additional Notes:
Clean up Britiannia Added 4 new pigments – Polished Bronze, Glossy Blue, Black and Green and Deep Violet – 1 charge 250,000 points. We will be changing this out each month so stock up while you can
Arenas Go Live The arenas located throughout the lands will go live with this publish. The arenas are located in the Lost Lands (both facets), Haven, and Ocllo. The following additions and changes have been made after the public testing done on the arenas test shard:
* Match hosts may now choose to allow or disallow Field Spells * Match hosts now choose to allow or disallow potions, or to allow only non-healing potions * A bug that caused some summoned creatures to attack their owner in an arena match has been fixed
Moving forward, we will continue to accept feedback and use it to make further improvements to the arenas. In an future publish, look for the addition of a wagering system.
New High Resolution Terrian Art As I am sure most of you have noticed the difference in the terrain in the Enhanced Client. Just letting everyone know this is just the first of many more to come. Next publish we will be updating the Wall tile art, I think everyone will really appreciate the new look. Below are a few pictures of what is coming:
Courtesy of the UO Herald, and it is massive. It also includes the first of the high resolution artwork updates for the Enhanced Client.
Summary/Opinion I made a pretty strong statement yesterday about 3 things to start fixing Ultima Online and I still stand by those things. They are not things covered by any single publish. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about, I’m hear to talk about Publish 73, and from reading through it, is very comprehensive and has things for old and newer players alike. I don’t have an opinion yet on the artwork – once I try it out tonight, I will. The Dungeon Shame improvements are, I hope, the first of more upgrades/revisions of existing dungeons. The Shame Itemization Upgrade is interesting and will take a lot of time to study, but it shows an awareness of the confusion that new players have.
Shame Upgrade Dungeon Shame has been revised. The monsters have been revised to be a little bit more challenging and scaled in difficulty for new-to-veteran players. The shame loot system has been revised so you should notice less items with throw-away intensity values on properties, and an overall improvement in the loot generated.
First and second levels will provide a good training ground for journeyman to adept skill levels while level 3 should provide a little more of a challenge. On the first 3 levels there will be a renowned monster that can be spawned at a key point in the dungeon by summoning from an altar to give you a taste of the monster difficulty at the next level.
All the monsters within the dungeon have a chance to drop dungeon crystals which can be used to spawn the renowned of each level. In certain areas there will also be a chance when killing creatures for a renowned version of those creatures to be spawned. Similar to a paragon but not as friendly.
Level 5: The monsters on level 5 are a bit heavier and harder hitting than the other levels.
UO.com actually still has her around, with the following advertisement:
Hail Former Citizen of Britannia!
I bring you greetings from Lord British. Return to Britannia and see for yourself the brave new world emerging there.
You’ll be surprised at how much as changed!
I hope to see you there…
Enchantress Emily
New Safe World equal to the size of the original Britannia where player vs. player combat is consensual
A Safe “Haven”, a city restricted to new players where over 2000 volunteers are available to answer questions and provide guidance.
Expanded Housing Areas with double the amount of land mass available for housing, where the dream of being the master of your own castle can become a reality.
Live Events – thousands of special events where players determine outcomes; shaping the destiny of the world.
My UO – your own personal web page offering your character graphics and information, event updates, and exclusive membership benefits.
Why am I talking about her? She was kind of an iconic image. She wasn’t on all boxes, in fact, not very many at all – I know there was an insert for the US/Canada releases that puts her in the “O” of the UO Logo:
But in many places it was a plain box, such as the French release:
When I post my review of UO: Renaissance, I’ll explain the insert thing – the cover folds out and has pictures of real people and their UO avatars/alter-egos.
It was a peaceful day at Yew Abbey, with not a breath of wind. Brother Ambrose and a small band of monks prayed and meditated in the Ankh chapel in Yew Abbey, preparing for their pilgrimage to the Shrine of Justice. Suddenly the door of the chapel was flung open and a group of adventurers entered. “Brother Ambrose, beware!” they warned. “We just found out that Vilendra, the Emerald Enchantress, plans to ambush your whole party of monks.”
Vilendra was obviously a very vile Enchantress, unlike our Emily.
This was a very exciting time for UO – the player population had grown to over 150,000. In an effort to communicate with, and encourage the UO community, in May of 2000 the UO.com forums were launched and you had a lot of very passionate people all of the sudden talking to one another on UO.com and interacting with developers and UO’s community staff. I’m watching the Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums and seeing some very passionate people as well.
Now if you want to know why this has its own topic, well this was the smaller of the four articles I wrote about UO:R, and I just thought it was kind of interesting because of the symbolism involved. Let us not forget that UO still carried the Mature rating at that time, but that the Enchantress Emily image was not present on all boxes. What was very noticeable about all boxes is that they had a “lighter” or white design, in most cases white with a globe of Sosaria behind the UO logo, emphasizing the virtual world aspects of UO. When you look at the previous expansion of UO, The Second Age: you see a darker design:
Talk about your symbolism. We move on from evil being inflicted upon the world and a dark box, to a light or white box, with a globe/map of sorts as the background, and along with that we received Trammel, where the non-PvPers were able to do their thing in peace. Inside the front cover, you can read brief biographiess of real-life players and their in-game characters, stressing the communal aspects of UO. It was an attempt to really drive home the fact that you’re not playing with mere computer characters, but that behind those characters there were people from around the world. Incredibly symbolic when you start to look at it in that light. Whoever designed the box art for Renaissance deserved an award for that. They got it right.
As for my other articles, I’m working on them now, but they are big and I’m trimming them down. One is a review of UO:R and what it came with, the other is a look at the agonies and joys of the Trammel land rush.
With Ultima Online’s Anniversary fast approaching, I was debating on a way to celebrate it. It’s been an interesting 14 years and a rocky road at times but the future is looking much brighter these days, in more ways than one.
For some reason, I looked across at my book shelf and it hit me. As we are looking forward towards UO’s future, why not revisit the past? That’s mostly what anniversaries are for. While I’ve seen photos of some of the materials on many websites, I rarely see any large scans, so that’s what I’m going to do.
Every day for the rest of the month I will scan in or post photos of UO’s retail releases along with interesting UO-related memorabilia I’ve picked up over the years. I will include high-resolution images, mostly cleaned up where I can do so. Warning, there maybe stray dust and creases and other wear and tear ahead. Do not cringe over the condition of my boxes, manuals, CDs, etc., for they have served their purpose well. As an example, while trying to get the CD insert out this morning, I even accidentally sacrificed the CD case. It was worth it.
The advertising was effective, drawing many people in, even people who had never touched an Ultima game, and it’s clear where Richard Garriott got his inspiration for his interest in social gaming 14 years later, with with descriptions such as:
Experience real-time social interaction with thousands of people in the same exciting game world. Meet new friends and foes, engage in group combat, venture off to uncharted lands, or visit a tavern and chat with players from around the world. It’s an ongoing, ever-changing world of adventure.
and
“What happens when thousands of people are unleashed on a never-ending ever-changing fantasy world?
You tell us.”
and finally:
“The time has come to enter Ultima Online. You and thousands of people from around the world will live, quest, fight, love or hate in a persistent world, where every action you take affects the lives of others.
It’s more than a fantasy, because it really exists. It’s more than a game because it never ends. And it’s a quantum leap beyond anything you’ve ever seen before.
Go betyond life as you know it to an adventure more incredible than you can imagine. Are you with us?”
The features listed by Origin in advertising and on the boxes included: * Mass player engine allows thousands of real people to play simultaneously * Day and night effects, 3-D terrain and 16-bit color SVGA graphics. * Customize your onscreens characters, including gender, skin tone, clothing and hairstyle * Detailed character-defining systems and fully simulated virtual ecology * Real-time combat, adventuring and social interaction * Fully-simulated ecology and economy * Visible dialog above speaking characters * 3D terrain and dynamic lighting in 16-bit color
What did it Include: * Comes in a Large, Flat Box, with an imprint of Lord British’s signature * Large Hildebrandt poster/print * Cloth Map * Charter Membership Gift Certificate * Pewter Ultima Online pin * CD-ROM in a case without a cover * Ultima Online Install Guide * Guide to UltimaOnline.com (the website) * Guide to playing Ultima Online * 90 Days Gametime * Ad insert for Dungeon Keeper * 1997 Catalog of Electronic Arts, Origin, Jane’s Combat Simulations, Bullfrog
Did I say a large box? Yes, I did, here it is compared to the Dragon Edition of Ultima IX
Other Editions: * Retail version: Same as the Charter Edition, only without the large Hildebrandt print, Charter Membership certificate, or the 90 days gametime
* Mannequin can no longer be placed outside of a home. * Increased the point value for the Item bless deed * Changed the name of the item bless deed to bless deed to preserve the rare factor of the original one. * The Cornucopia will now give points as it should. * Removed the cooking bonus from the full Fisherman’s set. * Fixed an exploit with placing Clean up Britannia items in the trash can.
Please note: If you put female gargoyle cloth armor onto a male gargoyle you cannot remove it via the paperdoll. You can remove it by changing the race/gender. This is a classic client bug that will be fixed in the future.
As announced in a previous news the compassion dyes will be patched into the game this evening. If your character is more than 30 days old and not on a trial account, you will see the dyes in your pack after maintenance.
Some complained about the dyes being only one per shard per account, but it increased the amount of interaction among players as they traded for them, and that’s not all bad is it?
There are additional notes for Ultima Online Publish 73, and along with it, a glimpse at the upcoming high resolution artwork update for Publish 74, which is housing/walls.
