Holiday News

Ultima Online – Holiday Update From the Producer

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Calvin Crowner, the producer of Ultima Online, has posted a Producer Holiday Update to the UO Herald.

Before everyone heads off to face Independence Day traffic, I wanted to give you all an update.
Our overall goal this year was to keep a healthy cadence of small to medium publishes, fleshing out our current in-world content, while also offering more exploration. Less fiction more in-game activity. Shorter story arcs, more replay ability … so with that, here is the update:

Currently, some PvP changes we held on to for a few months have made it to Test Center. We have already gotten some initial feedback from North American, European, and Japanese communities, and are adapting the feedback accordingly. There are a few changes, and in this case, we think change is good.
Next week (after we return) we will be posting patch notes and adding High Seas content. We have tested and evaluated a new sea encounter, as well as updated rewards and elements of the fishing quests.

In addition, in the next several weeks, we’ll be adding client crash fixes, publishing the second phase of the current live story Ter Mur, and releasing a healthy dose of gameplay bug fixes.

We decide to split all of our content into two separate publishes.

After July expect to see the following:
· Clean up Britannia (the update formerly known as Spring Cleaning) – We are currently testing and evaluating about 850 items with turn ins and rewards
· Anniversary item additions
· Art resolution updates to the Enhanced client
· Veteran Rewards

None of this information should be new to those who have been following the boards and patch notes, but for those who are returning … and there has been a sizeable number of you … welcome back, and keep watching for updates.

Thanks to all of you have participated and taken the time to give us feedback on the latest in PvP changes … if you have not take a wander over and let us know what you think.

Finally, thanks to everyone who has participated in the Talents of Sosaria … for those who cannot draw or sculpt … if you have the inclination — please submit any house decorations for the 4th of July weekend to Mesanna.

Be safe and have a joyous weekend!

P.S. …. We have noted that there is a leadership vacuum in Britannia … Wait until you see how we fill it

I’m liking the more frequent updates from the dev team in regards to what is coming.

Things I like:
* Adding to or revamping already-established areas instead of adding new areas.
* High Seas updates
* PvP updates

And the two most important things in my view: high resolution art updates for the Enhanced Client (EC) and bug fixes. I think the high resolution art updates are very important to the future of UO and bringing in old and new players, but the bug fixes are just as important. For a while it seemed like they were an afterthought, but from what I’ve seen and read, it sounds like there are bug fixes constantly being added.

Update on UO Spring Cleaning Event

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Thanks to a Stratics thread about the upcoming Spring Cleaning, first mentioned back during the House of Commons chat a few months ago, we have a little more information.

In response to timing and the upcoming end of Spring, Cal Crowner, UO’s Producer, has posted this:

Design already in progress

We are calling in Spring Cleaning in the Summer time. Yeah yeah … it’s lame but yes we are doing it …

We will probably have an update on a few other things for you this week as well.

There is a lot going on, so I don’t agree with the anger directed towards the devs, but it’s not surprising. I’m hoping the other updates mentioned will be in regards to the artwork or the pricing and availability on the upcoming mini-boosters.

Ultima Online Client Patches 7.0.13.3 and 4.0.13.3 (Spoilers)

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Kai Schober has posted the following to UOHerald.com in regards to new patches that were rolled out this afternoon.

Greetings,

We delivered a new client on the patcher today at 2 pm EDT – Classic Client 7.0.13.3 and Enhanced Client 4.0.13.3.

The Patch is a preperation for the upcoming Easter Events. The events will start on April 24 and lasts for two weeks till May 8th.

Please enjoy and have a safe Easter.

Included in these patches are some interesting tidbits relating to the future of UO.

SKIP THE TEXT BELOW IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED!!

Read more

Ultima Online Goes Boom – a Bit of St. Patrick’s Day Fun on LS

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Rather than continue exploring New Magincia on the Test Center and looking through some of the new things with Publish 70, I took some time out to participate in a St. Patrick’s Day EM event on Lake Superior, that took place in Minoc. It was a lot of fun, only died a few times, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most players heavily involved died at least once. At one point, one of the Guardian leprachauns took down about 10-15 people within 30 seconds.

There was a mongbat that decided to explode in the midst of everything – jump to about 20 seconds into this short video:

I have several videos of the event that I’ll post if there is any interest among LSers. Sorry for the lower quality, still experimenting with some things in the EC.

I’d like to thank the Lake Superior EMs for putting this event on. It appeared to be a well-attended event. I’d also like to thank Lord William Wallace for resurrecting me!

I’ll wrap up my New Magincia coverage tomorrow.

2011 UO Valentine’s Day Publish 69.6

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The community relations team has posted the following update, for Publish 69.6 that is going to be pushed out to all shards during the normal shard maintenance windows. This publish went live on Origin yesterday.

Greetings,

Tomorrow, during regularly scheduled maintenance, Publish 69.6 will be released on all shards. Share the love and in the meantime we wanted to share the notes for your reading pleasure, thanks!

Publish 69.6
* Happy Valentine’s Day! Please make sure you check your picnic basket for your Valentines gift. (Note: The gift does not have any properties so please do not buy anything that might state otherwise). Please make sure you sign in before March 9th to get your gift.
* Gypsy camps have been disabled temporarily while we investigate their relation to an issue causing items to be destroyed.

Enhanced Client
* Cliloc updates
* Snow Removal

Classic Client
* Cliloc updates
* Snow Removal

Love it or hate it, the snow is going to finally be gone.

The Cliloc updates are most likely related to the Valentine’s gifts.

Read: UO Herald

UO Journal Note: If that Valentine’s Heart/UO icon looks familiar to you, you’ve been around – it’s from the old Ultima Online website, UO.com, from at least February of 2000.