Ultima Online Publish 71.1 – All Shards

During the next maintenance cycle, all shards will receive the following bugfixes with Publish 71.1:

* Fixed an issue with the live event regarding rideable pets
* Fixed an issue with toggling quest items with the live event
* The commodity brokers should now be accepting hued items. There is still a known issue with a few items such as enhanced bandages that will be fixed during the next client patch.
* Fixed an issue with stacking modification effects using Consecrate Weapon.

Link: UO Herald

MMORPG.com: UO is Getting Old (Still Worth It)

MMORPG.com has started a new series, similar to Massively’s The Game Archaeologist, where they take a look at some of the older MMORPGs that are still around.

They are kicking off the first article in the series with a look at UO, titled: “Ultima Online: UO is Getting Old” with the tagline “But it’s still worth romping around in.

It’s a good article, with some positive things that point out how it’s still around after nearly 14 years:

Of course the wealth of players is one thing, but the actual gameplay is the real mainstay for any aspiring returner or newcomer. Ultima Online has thankfully aged well, and this is due in part to the general direction of new MMORPGs. Simply put, Origin’s creation misses out on feeling archaic simply from the virtues of its sandbox nature. There aren’t many games that attempt what this title does – the skill system is unique, the tools for crafting, building, and creating virtual life are all here, and these are some of the reasons the game is still so infinitely playable today. The amount of skills to choose from is staggering, and the complexity and depth of affairs are enough to excite anyone looking for an online game with more to it than semi-consciously left-clicking and accepting quests.

They actually don’t really have anything negative to say about the graphics, although they bring up that a new player can find it a daunting task without the help of current players.

It’s well worth a read.

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Publish 71 World-Wide Release – July 20, 2011

Yesterday, Publish 71 was pushed to Origin and later tonight, the rest of us should see it pop up. It’s scheduled to be pushed to the rest of the shards with the next maintenance cycle, which for many of us in North America maybe July 21, 2011.

Here are the Earlier Publish 71 notes

Full release notes: UO Herald

New Ultima Online Icons

I don’t know if these are both for the Enhanced Client and Classic Client or just the EC, but they were posted on Ultima Online’s Facebook page (location).

If you haven’t “Liked” Ultima Online on Facebook, this is what you see.

Ultima Online - New Icons

If you have, then you see this:

Ultima Online - New Icons

I see it as a good sign – there’s a lot going on all over the place and even the little things like icons are being fixed up.

Ultima Online Publish 71.0 Pushed to Origin

Earlier this month, we got details on Publish 71. Today on UO Herald, it was posted that Publish 71 would be coming to the Origin shard today, which puts it that much closer to the other shards.

In between July 5th and now, the UO devs have worked on a few more bug fixes.

Details:

We’ll push Publish 71.0 to Origin today, Tuesday 19th at 11:00 am EDT. This requires a short downtime: we expect the shard to be back online within an hour no later than 12:00 pm EDT.

Please check the previously posted Publish 71.0 Notes. There are some additional changes:

Bug Fixes
* Fixed the problem with transferring an increased storage home to a player without increased storage to their accounts.
* The tentacles of the Harrower should not spawn in unreachable locations any longer/
* Removed the archery property on gargoyle jewelry/
* Made it easier to get the Fishing Book 6.
* Fishing hooks can not be applied to Siege Only fishing poles with less uses than the hook.

I like the amount of work going into bug fixes.