Story Arc

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.

Publish 70.0.5 for Ultima Online to be Released on All Shards

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It was just a few days ago that Publish 70.0.5 went up on the Test Center and it looks like it is about to be available to the rest of us. As I mentioned previously, this is a publish with a few bug fixes, that is mainly focused on pushing new content out to the shards, and moving along the Stygian Abyss storyline as well as rounding out the unfinished areas.

These are the publish notes from earlier today:

Publish 70.0.5 will be release to all shards during the next maintenance cycle. These are the complete publish notes:

Publish 70.0.5

Echoes of the Past – Ter Mur Live Event – Phase 1
We are pleased to announce that the Echoes of the Past event will commence shortly within Ter Mur on all shards. The first phase will begin with a quest provided by Queen Zhah herself in the Royal City Throne Room. This quest will take you to a newly opened piece of Ter Mur, and begin to show a glimpse into the history of the Gargoyle kingdom.

We invite you to take part in this story and help save Ter Mur!

Bug Fixes
* Fixed the issue that stopped players from stealing from monsters
* Fixed an issue with Tinkering

News: UO Herald

UO Publish 70.0.5, Client Updates on UO Test Center

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Now that we are moving past the recent Theme Packs publish, we are rapidly moving into something that should appeal to many UO players – work on Stygian Abyss and Ter Mur.

Remember, earlier this year the UO developers said they wanted to move towards shorter, but more frequent events, as well as rounding out Ter Mur, and this looks to be the start of it.

Here are the publish notes:

We are pushing Publish 70.0.5 to TC1 this afternoon and will do a small Client Patch at the same time.

You can find the Patch and Publish notes below:

Publish 70.0.5 – Echoes of the Past – Ter Mur Live Event – Phase 1
We are pleased to announce that the Echoes of the Past event will commence shortly within Ter Mur on all shards. The first phase will begin with a quest provided by Queen Zhah herself in the Royal City Throne Room. This quest will take you to a newly opened piece of Ter Mur, and begin to show a glimpse into the history of the Gargoyle kingdom.

We invite you to take part in this story and help save Ter Mur!

Bug Fixes
* Fixed the issue that stopped players from stealing from monsters
* Fixed an issue with Tinkering

Enhanced Client 4.0.14.5
* Cliloc updates
* Ter Mur world building update

Classic Client 7.0.14.4
* Cliloc Updates
* Ter Mur world building update

UO Producer’s Letter – May 2011

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UO’s Producer, Calvin Crowner, has posted a new Producer’s Letter today. I am very happy about this and the video update (see the story after this). I would like to see these every month and I have a feeling that we might see them every month.

This is much better than some of the communication we’ve received in the past.

It’s a beautiful Spring Day in Fairfax before a long weekend … Memorial Day weekend.
We have prepared a video to answer some questions about what’s in the pipe for this summer and the rest of the year, so I will not spoil that much here.

Nevertheless, I will give you a bit more detail on what to expect …

The Ter Mur Story:
We’ve been hinting for some time about filling out the Ter Mur areas, and this will be done not in epic style, but on a small scale with lots of detail. The story in itself could be released on its own merit, but it will be distributed in game. This is not about invasion or carnage … it is about sharing a story. Zhah is the focus. She will be going through many challenges, and you will be part of her struggle.

Enhanced Client Crashing and commitment to the EC:
We have multiple reports of EC crashes. While it’s important that we improve stability, and we are getting some information about steps to reproduce from players, not all are consistent or truly reproducible from our end. So at present we are enhancing our crash logging information, so we can gather more information and take appropriate actions to address the issues.

Player Abuse:
We are very aware of the escalating cases of abuse in the game over the last few months. We have had problems with our petitioning systems, and have been unable to receive or action some cases as quickly as we’d like to. As an answer our operations team working with CS has developed a new tool to allow our GMs and customer support reps not only to action faster, but to record activity better as well as a functionality to replace lost items. Expect to see the results of this new tool in the near future.

Additional High Seas content:
In the development of High Seas, we had to remove a sea encounter due to schedule. We have taken the time to add it back, as well as revamping some of the fishing quests and reward items. These changes have been submitted for QA, and we will grind on getting them tested and ready for production after the break.

I wanted to keep this brief because there is a beautiful sky outside … but I have to go check out the worldbuilding for the new zones in Ter Mur.

Please, for all of you in the U.S. it is Memorial Day weekend. A time to remember those who gave their lives in service to protect and create the freedoms we often take for granted. So in the traffic, parades, and revelry please be safe.

I don’t have much else to say since I’m reserving my comments for the video, but this is a good direction for UO and the developers to take in regards to communicating with players.

New Magincia Bazaar aka the Encampment System

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The official information about the upcoming New Magincia Bazaar, which has been renamed the Magincia Encampments, was released a few days ago.

You can visit the official website and download a PDF of the information, however UO Guide has put together an online reference page for the Encampment System.

Keep in mind that this maybe a part of the upcoming booster packs and some if it might require the purchase of one or both booster packs. That is subject to change. Language within the client files indicates it will require the purchase of a booster pack.

Here’s a brief bit of information from the PDF (which UO Guide assembled into an online guide):

The New Magincia Bazaar is a dynamic new center for commerce that offers buyers and sellers alike the opportunity to trade in extraordinary new ways.

The Bazaar of New Magincia consists of 50 stalls that will be leased for one week at a time by prospective merchants. These stalls are available to renters for commerce. The Bazaar Authority keeps expert brokers on staff, who are available for hire by those leasing stalls in the bazaar. These brokers act on behalf of the stall renter to buy and sell merchandise. Brokers are of two types: Animal Brokers, and Commodity Brokers.

Animal Brokers will take possession of pets and sell them at a price determined by the owner, charging a small commission for each sale, plus a small percentage commission on the sale price of unsold inventory. Prospective customers will be able to preview animals for sale in specially designed pens, and see their vital stats.

Commodity Brokers are able to both buy and sell commodity items for their employer. They work on commission similarly to Animal Brokers: they receive a small percentage of each purchase or sale, and they charge a percentage commission on all sale-able inventory.

I would highly recommend visiting the UO Guide page linked above, as it’s the easiest way to view the information online. I’m not going to restate the information here, although I’ve posted several stories in the past about it.