Housing – UOJournal.com

Theme Packs / Mini Boosters Available on UOGameCodes.com

June 4, 2011June 3, 2011 by Deckard

You didn’t think they were going to get the theme packs into the UOGameCodes.com store today did you? Well they did, pretty close to midnight my time.

The price is $9.99 apiece or $14.99 for both, the same as the High Seas Booster Pack. I can’t say I’m too happy about the pricing, but I’ll be upgrading one full account and possibly picking up an individual pack or for another account or two. I expected them to be individually priced in the $5.99 – $7.99 range, as the house tiles are considered by some to be incomplete due to no new doors or floors and roofs, and we don’t get the original see-through stairs. I don’t think the pricing was controlled by the developers, I think it was set by somebody within EA who maybe didn’t understand it, especially given that together they are the same price as the High Seas Booster Pack, and more expensive than the Stygian Abyss upgrades when they go on sale. In my view High Seas is worth $14.99, and I believe it has more content than the two theme packs combined.

With that said, I believe I understand why the packs are priced the way they are since they were probably priced by people who aren’t involved with UO, and I don’t think this will be the last of the theme packs. I just hope that in the future, pricing is cheaper and that the house tile sets are complete and that we see doors and floors that match.

It is what it is, and maybe now that these are out, the developers can turn their full attention to the artwork update, along with the Ter Mur storyline. It would be incredibly disappointing if the developers were forced to make more theme packs before they are able to finish the artwork updates and the Enhanced Client work.

UOGameCodes.com Store
* UO Rustic Theme Pack – $9.99
* UO Gothic Theme Pack – $9.99
* Grand Bazaar Pack – $14.99

Rustic Theme Pack contains:
* Board and Batten wall tiles
* Raised Garden Bed
* Distillery
* Topiaries
* Rustic Bench
* Commodity and Pet Broker Encampments

From the Rustic Theme Pack, I like the wall tiles, I like the garden bed – it’s maintenance free gardening. I am holding my judgement on the commodity and pet broker encampments.

I don’t like the fact that the distillery requires something that has to be stolen. To me, this is potentially another academic bookcase problem. It will be frustrating for some people, and that’s never a good thing for something that people are paying money for. See the issue with cannons, gunpowder, etc., and the High Seas booster.

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

From the Gothic Theme Pack, I really like the wall tiles although I would have also liked new floors and doors. Don’t like the Advanced Training Dummy – too many things are too easy in UO as it is, however I guess this is for new players. The Chest of Sending…I’m still not sure how that replaces a bag of sending, and I probably should look into it further.

Keep in mind that these won’t be live on all shards for several more days, if not longer!

More New Content Revealed – Booster Content, Plus Ter Mur

May 6, 2011 by Deckard

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!

Publish 70 – New Housing Tile Sets – Gothic and Board and Batten, Virtue Tapestries

September 6, 2015March 31, 2011 by Deckard

After seeing some of the changes that were mentioned in previous Client updates as well as today’s client update, I decided to pull the tiles themselves out and assemble them so that others can see.

I would give a spoiler warning, but why start at this point?

Now I’ll tell you right now that I maybe wrong on the Board and Batten set, but I’m confident that the Gothic house tiles and the virtue banners are accurate. I did check the Board and Batten against existing sets within the Classic Client since that is where these tiles are pulled from, and did not see any resembling them within the housing customization tool, but it’s possible these are used elsewhere in the game and not meant for player housing. It would be interesting if this was used for New Magincia.

As for the rustic bench and the advanced training dummy, if somebody else wants to get a headache pouring through 1000s of tiles, drop us a line or send us a link and we’ll link to it. I took a few glances through and saw one or two that might have been related, including what could have been a dummy with gears, but I’ll wait for others to verify it.

Board and Batten – Housing Tile Set

Gothic (the fully assembled window is a bit rough and that’s my doing)

Virtue Banners

Click on the above images to see larger versions at flickr.