Official Ultima Online Statement on Ultima Forever

Earlier today, the Ultima Forever website officially launched and smack dab in the center was a big mention of Ultima Online.

Here is the official statement posted on UO Herald

Stretching across dozens of games and three decades’ time, millions of people from all over the world have set out on great adventures in the world of Ultima. They have braved perilous dungeons, faced off against fearsome enemies, conquered lands and saved worlds.

Today we have launched a website dedicated to that heritage – ultimaforever.com! Over the coming months, ultimaforever.com will be expanding, looking back at over 30 years. For a start, we are pleased to officially offer the full, original PC version of Ultima IV for download.

Check it out.

What is not officially mentioned is that another big story came out today, namely Good Old Games is offering Ultima titles. GOG.com has what is their biggest announcement to date, an agreement with Electronic Arts that includes two Ultima titles as a part of the first batch of old DOS-based games that are being made available, and Ultima Forever just happens to launch at the same time. They launched within an hour of each other. It’s not a coincidence, as you can guess from the timing and from statements made on the Ultima Forever twitter account.

Origin gets Publish 70.4, Theme Packs

Yesterday, Origin received Publish 70.4, which includes the new Mini Booster Packs / Theme Packs:

Today Publish 70.4 comes to the Origin shard along with the Enhance Client Patch 4.0.14.4 and the Classic Client Patch 7.0.14.3. The shard will be unavailable until approximately 7pm EDT.

In the meantime we wanted to share the notes for your reading pleasure, thanks!

Publish 70.0.4
Rustic Theme Pack
Board and Batten wall tiles
Raised Garden Bed
Distillery
Topiaries
Rustic Bench
Commodity and Pet Broker Encampments

Gothic Theme Pack
Gothic wall tiles
Advanced Training Dummy
Chest of Sending
Ritual Table
Gargoyle Statues
Commodity and Pet Broker Encampments

Note: Codes can be purchased at http://www.uogamecodes.com but will not be valid for any shard except for Origin until June 7th.

Bug Fixes
* Players are no longer able to steal from EM’s in Felucca
* Felucca players now have access to the stairs of the building in the hedge maze
* Corroded boxes will now properly highlight and show tooltips when locked down in your house and you customize it
* Ingots will no longer disappear when the player’s backpack is overweight when smelting
* Hell hounds can no longer be turned into Ancient Hellhounds
* Increased the chance to receive copper wire from thieving and a random chance to get it from Pirate Ships
* Pets owned by Faction members will now obey verbal commands given by the pet’s name

Enhanced Client 4.0.14.4
* The Use English Item Names option will now only apply to item properties names
* One line generic gump text boxes will no longer wrap to the next line
* Updated art for the Arcane Circle and the Freshly Picked Rose
* Cliloc updates

Classic Client 7.0.14.3
* Cliloc Updates
* Updated art for the Arcane Circle and the Freshly Picked Rose

UOJournal Note: http://www.UOGameCodes.com does not yet, as of June 2, 2011 1pm Central, have the proper codes/purchasing options up for the new Theme Packs.

From here on out, hopefully we’ll see less theme packs/booster packs and more work on the artwork updates and Enhanced Client.

UO Producer’s Letter – May 2011

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.

More New Content Revealed – Booster Content, Plus Ter Mur

It’s Friday and that means we get more new information about the upcoming Gothic Theme Pack and Rustic Theme Pack from Calvin Crowner, the Ultima Online Producer. We’ve known about these packs for a while, both through text strings that showed up in some of the recent client updates, as well as the entries you see on Ultima-Registration.com when you log in and check your subscriptions, but now we are hearing a little more about what’s included, as well as getting an idea of what they look like.

The images below were posted to UO Herald today and reveal the Raised Garden Bed and the Chest of Sending. I was slightly surprised at the raised garden bed, I thought it might just be a part of the tile set, but it looks like something that maybe deeded. The Chest of Sending, I thought might be related just to the upcoming New Magincia Bazaar, but that appears to not be the case. I like both of them, they are adding just a little more “depth” to the game while not distracting from the bigger picture. There’s also news that these packs will be on the Test Center in the “very near future”, my guess would be at the end of this month or sometime next month. There is also news that Ter Mur is being seriously worked on. Pretty exciting stuff.

The full story from UO Herald:

In this week’s installment of the new items that will be available for purchase soon, we present the Raised Garden Bed and the Chest of Sending. While the chest will be associated with the Gothic Theme Pack, the garden bed will come with the Rustic Theme Pack.

The Raised Garden Bed is a maintenance-free gardening plot. Once setup in your garden and seed planted, in seven days you will have a healthy plant you can remove at any time.

The Chest of Sending will allow players to send stackable and non-stackable items from their home directly to their bank box. This item must be locked down in your home.

In addition, we are gearing up for TC in the very near future. Also, we are putting together the high-level document of the REAL additions to UO that will allow players to fill out the rest of the Magincia Bazaar area.

Last not least, please note … the fiction and event timeline for the history of Ter Mur is almost through development approval. We are really excited to reveal the origins of Zhah … and to fill out some of the new areas in Ter Mur.

Stay tuned!

Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss, High Seas on Sale! Today Only!


April 21st – 24th there was a nice sale going on, on EA.com, with Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss upgrades selling at around $10 US.

Now we have another sale going that covers 180+ EA titles, and among those titles are, you guessed it, Stygian Abyss. It’s $8.99 plus tax, which makes it slightly cheaper than last week’s sale.

But also included is the High Seas booster. Yes, you are reading that right. The High Seas booster is included in this sale. For $8.99, $9.73 with tax. It’s rare to see the High Seas booster in my opinion.

It’s only applicable to today, April 29th, 2011.

More information:
* EAStore.EA.com – Spring Blow Out
* Also EAStore.EA.com – Ultima Online
* or EAStore.EA.com – High Seas

If you are outside of the US, I don’t know what to tell you in regards to whether this applies. If you are within the US, and you have problems, follow the link I provided above that says “EAStore.EA.com – Spring Blow Out”, and then select 41-50 for the Stygian Abyss account upgrade, or 121-130 for High Seas.

You might also try this direct link to High Seas on EAStore.EA.com.

Some people on Stratics have indicated that they are having problems seeing the sale prices and that they are having to keep trying or refreshing, or going through the Spring Blowout Sale banner. If the prices are still $14.99, keep trying. There are a lot of other titles up for sale, including BioWare titles – Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc., as well as other EA titles like the Sims Medieval.

It does look as though a lot of people are hitting this sale, as Ultima-Registration.com is constantly timing out for me. You might try different browsers if you have problems.

Between last week’s sale that had Stygian Abyss, and this week’s sale that included both, I’ve updated all of my accounts for High Seas and Stygian Abyss. The prices really make it worthwhile, and don’t forget, with High Seas, you get a 20% storage increase on your bank box and housing storage.