Posted by Bonnie Armstrong | 2013 May 06 19:58 -0400 GMT
1 UO Stratics
Regarding the loot table for Charybdis, at present the few we’ve been able to do seem to only ever give a Regeneration Piece drop to the summoning fisher. As that’s usually me, I don’t know what happens for the others, but they’ve reported seeing a message that I get the drop. Does this mean there’s nothing special on Charybdis for those who help kill him, or are there mysteries still to be found deep within the wobbly bits of this most rare of encounters? (Adol )

 Misk- Aside from the standard loot found on the corpse of Charybdis there is currently one piece of the Regeneration (Virtuous/Villainous) armor given out per Charybdis encounter.  The system first attempts to provide the armor to the summoner if that player is within range.  If that first attempt fails it then tries to provide the reward to a player on the top attacker list.  If that second attempt fails then the armor is simply placed onto the corpse of Charybdis.  There have actually been recent discussion on the team about adding some new and improved loot to the encounter.

2. UO Stratics
Do talisman slayers have any affect on caster summons? For example, if I am a mystic and have a bird slayer talisman equipped, will my Rising Colossus have slayer damage ability if I am fighting swoop? Are there any cases where talisman slayers benefit casters (mages, mystics, necros)? What about tamers or bards? The only use I can find for slayer talismans is for warrior classes and I want to verify that my info is correct. Thank you. (Obsidian)

Kyronix: Slayers only benefit the object they are equipped on, which would be the player.

3. UO Stratics
Durability loss
How is durability loss calculated on weapons and armor through wear? Does swamp dragon armor damage reduction cause armor to wear more slowly? Do resist increase refinements cause armor to wear more quickly? Does parrying cause wear to shields or weapons? (Gheed)

Bleak – There are several ways to lose durability on equipped items. When defenders take damage there are two chances to lose durability. Attacking with a weapon will always have a chance to lose durability on the weapon .  Armor chance to lose durability is 15% and weapon chance to lose scales from 15% – 65% based on weapon speed.  Swamp dragon armor damage reduction does not negate durability loss. Refinements currently do not cause armor to wear more quickly.  Parrying will also result in shields as well as  attacker and defender weapons having a chance to lose durability.

4. UO StraticsIs modding the 2d client still against the TOS?
With the introduction of UI modding with the EC client does this mean we can modify the 2d client within the same TOS constraints as the EC client? (Cycloknight)

Mesanna:  The Classic Client is not built for modding where as the Enchanced Client was coded for it.  So the answer is no you can not alter the Classic client.

5. UO StraticsCan the Enhanced Client download New Players get have Pinco’s included?Since New Players are most likely going to download the Enhanced Client option, can Pinco’s mods be automatically included in the game client they wind up with? The current EC client UI that New Players run into after the client download is finished is pretty basic. (Tanivar)

Mesanna:  We do not own Pinco’s client therefore are unable to have it available when you download the client.

6.UO StraticsWhy do golems have blood?
How come when I smack a Golem in the EC I get a nice spatter of blood? Shouldn’t they be squirting hydraulic fluid or something? (nexus)

Mesanna:  We will look into the option to keep it from bleeding.

[ Discuss This Article ]

Posted by Bonnie Armstrong | 2013 Apr 29 18:18 -0400 GMT

Ask & Answer No. 17

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2013 Mar 19 09:36 -0400 GMT

Ask & Answer No. 16

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2013 Mar 05 22:27 -0500 GMT

It is time for another Ask and Answer and our developers have answered another set of your excellent questions. Keep them coming!

UO Mania
Is there a cap for “Clean up Britannia” points? (ake)
Kyronix: Yes, the cap is at 10,000,000 points

The bankbox is overflowing on Test Center. Could we have more specific commands, for example “give black pearls”? (clorenz )
Kyronix: There are no plans to change how the bank boxes are filled on TC. When certain situations dictate we give specific materials (like the armor refinements) utilizing other methods of delivery.

UO Japan
Please add wine racks that store bottles of wine. I want to see my bottles laid in the rack. (Nickname: s)
Kyronix: This is a good idea, you never know when you might see this in game =)

Please make the glass/snow tiles and the Thanksgiving foods stackable. (Ageha)
Kyronix: When time allows we can make additional items stackable. We can add grass and snow tiles as well as the foods to the list.

UO Forum
Dealing with the Mythic site is a nightmare. Simple tasks are blown up in to major ordeals. With no phone support and lackluster online support, its driving off players that are new, returning and veteran. Are there any plans to fix this? (Quintus Batiatus)
Mesanna: No one is going to disagree with your statement it is difficult to understand. But a step by step guide was made to help guide people thru this difficult procedure. Along with all the helpful players most people can get the answers they need to get thru this. The only other thing I can think of to maybe help is to do a step 1, step 2, step 3 guide of a how to guide. If you feel this would be helpful please let me know.

UO Stratics
Can you provide a list of UO skills ranked in order by how resistant each skill is to decay? The list of skills at the bottom of this post is one I copied from an old fan site and supposedly lists the skills in order from easiest to decay to hardest to decay, but I have no idea how accurate it is. It is also missing several skills (i.e., Bushido, Chivalry, Discordance, Focus, Imbuing, Mysticism, Necromancy, Ninjitsu, Spellweaving, Stealing, and Throwing).
Can you confirm whether it is true that if you are trying to gain in a skill that decays easier than a skill you have turned down to let it decay, your gains will be slower and in some cases stop altogether?
Can you also explain how the game decides which skill to decay when multiple skills are turned down, your character is at its overall skill cap and then gets a gain in a skill that is turned up but not yet capped?
Here is the old list of skills referenced in the first paragraph above, supposedly ranked in order from easiest to decay to hardest to decay.
Alchemy
Anatomy
Animal Lore
Item ID
Arms Lore
Parrying
Begging
Blacksmithy
Fletching
Peacemaking
Camping
Carpentry
CartographyCooking
Detecting Hidden
Evaluating Intelligence
Healing
Fishing
Forensic Evaluation
Herding
Hiding
Provocation
Inscription
Lockpicking
Magery
Resisting Spells
Tactics
Snooping
Musicianship
Poisoning
Archery
Spirit Speak
Tailoring
Animal Taming
Taste Identification
Tinkering
Tracking
Veterinary
Swordsmanship
Mace Fighting
Fencing
Wrestling
Lumberjacking
Mining
Meditation
Stealth
Remove Trap
Thanks!(Tina Small)

Mesanna: Due to the fact its really easy to adjust the gains and lose of points in UO why would we need to worry about what the decay rate is?

I have currently found something that could use a good updating there are a number of things that dont appear or 1 that apears wrong on your buffs debuffs bar. here are some examples

1. criminal status-if you’re red or grey you have no way of knowing
2. combat Status-currently no way of knowing is you are still engaged
3. invis pot – currently has same icon as hiding where should be like the spell (non perm) (ReaperNI)

For those who want to engage in the game as a rogue or similar character, would it be possible in a future publish to have your criminal status shown in your buffs and debuffs display. Because lets face the inability to recall or gate is a definite debuff. (Whitestar4016)
(supplementary information. There is a ‘criminal act’ debuff icon, but it only triggers if an npc notices the crime (stealing), and not at all in Exodus dungeon, It also has no timer. Inability to recall is not dependent on the crime being noticed. – Petra)
Bleak: Publish 80 added the criminal status and heat of battle debuff icons which provide most of the requested information above. We will look to add more cases where the criminal status debuff icon is applied in a future publish. The invisibility potion will be properly updated as well.

Will it ever be possible to craft or imbue Fey slayer on a weapon?..Good reason to keep the fey wings from Abyss… (T-Hunt)
Mesanna: I agree, look for it in a future publish

I really like the Ankh Pendant and I use it on several of my characters, however it means I must sacrifice properties for that equipment slot.
Is there any chance the Ankh Pendant might be made Imbuable? It would of course lose its Blessed property in the process. (Fink)
Mesanna: This would only benefit the gargoyles, I don’t feel it would be fair for only one race to be able to get this.

A. Is it possible to have a trash chest at the queen’s soulforge? (Ivory Norwind)
B. Would it be possible for our candles blessed by love to have a flame?(Falseprophet)
Mesanna: Yes its possible to get a trash chest at the quests soul forge. As far as the candle it seems that when the art was done for that the animation was not done. This would have to be added in the future but I can not promise you when.

Remember; If you have something you want to know about Ultima Online and the team, post your questions on your fansite. All interesting questions will be collected and sent to our team, so we can continue to answer them.

Ask & Answer No. 15

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2013 Feb 11 17:08 -0500 GMT

We have another Ask and Answer for you and this one is full of great ideas that will help us to make Ultima Online even better. So go to your favorite fan site and submit those questions and ideas. We may even feature yours next week!

Ultima Online Bibliothek
Why is such a huge amount karma granted when choosing the “nice” option to fight Exodus? Participating two or three times in the fight easily capped my karma. Zero to 20k took years, 20k to 32k was done in minutes. That really cheapens the continuous dedication of being “kind”. (Pcuvush)

Kyronix: I think the ship on karma/fame sailed when you were able to get double gains from battling creatures in Fel. The intent with the exodus encounter was to give a quick and dirty way to swing your karma one way or the other since all we’re really talking about is a cosmetic title anyway. One thing I would love to tackle is the idea of making fame and karma more of a personal choice with real consequences more than just a cosmetic title. Am I saying this is on the horizon? No, but it would be something nice to put some work into if we ever get the chance.

Using the Classic Client it often happens that the current target is changed, because another enemy is closer than the one that was attacked before. This may happen due to a monster fleeing or an already injured monster being not fast enough to close up. The “New Targeting System” is not disabled. Such behaviour makes it difficult to apply special moves in a controlled way or honoring opponents before hurting them. (Pcuvush)

Bleak: We will look to fix this issue in the future. Providing more details on reproducing this issue will help to resolve it more quickly.

UO Forums
I was curious about certain items becoming stackable:
small pieces of blackrock
messes of small fish
And why certain potions in bottle give the message “you do not know what this is” and will not combine the bottles with kegs of the same type. (Kahlan)

Kyronix: When time allows we can make additional items stackable, messes of small fish and blackrock being just a few on a long list.

Has it ever been discussed to offer a way to purchase veteran account status for newer accounts? If so, is it something being considered and to what extent? Spending say $100 to make a new account 5 years old might be worth while to some individuals. Or, say, $500 for 10 years. Just spit-balling prices but you get the point. (Quintus Batiatus)

Mesanna: We have discussed this several times due to the fact we want all players to be equal but we also want to honor our Vets, the people that have stayed with us for so long. So yes we are still kicking this subject around.

Would it be possible to somehow have a character switching feature? Possibly one that is grayed out or unavailable unless you are in your house and hadnt been in a fight in the allotted time. A Switch Characters drop down menu in essence, would be very nice! (Quintus Batiatus)

Phoenix: We have researched a feature such as this in the past. While we all agree it is a great idea, we don’t have time for it on our schedule in the near future.

DEVS: Some questions regarding Davy’s Locker vet reward
Hello all –
I’ve noticed a few things about my shiny new 8th year vet reward that I’m hoping the dev team will address:
1. Why is there no option to sort the maps? Either something like the BOD book filter, or (even better) a feature that would allow us to sort ascending/descending for each column, exactly like you’d see in an excel spreadsheet
2. Are you aware of the error with map coordinate display? Often, the East portion of map coordinates is displayed incorrectly by the reward as West
3. Why did you dumb down the coordinates displayed for decoded treasure maps? Any chance you could have them display the entire DDMM format?
4. Can you add the ability to drop maps onto the table. Don’t remove the ‘add maps’ button, please, but it would be nice if the table worked the same way as BOD books, for example. Fairly minor, but I always find myself dropping maps on it!
5. Is it possible to have the map display the pin location without removing it from the table, or is that too problematic?
Thanks! (Magister_Returns)

Phoenix: We do agree that the usability and interface for the Locker can be better. We have it added to our list to address in the future.

UO Stratics
Will there be any plans to extend trophies to all types of “Big Fish”? I got a Big Fish Yellowtail Barracuda, now i have been fishing for years but this is my first big fish i have ever gotten. I was very disapointed that i could not mount this fish for display above my home of the hearth fire. (cdavbar)

Kyronix: Right now there is only one type of art for the big fish trophy, so if it’s a case of just wanting to be able to name the same art based on your catch, that is a much easier thing to do then make trophy art for all the different fish types.

Mesanna: I will add this to the massive list of art we want =)

Q: Is there any chance we’ll see the list of herdable creatures expanded beyond merely tameable types? Some observations:
– Firesteeds cannot be herded, although you can try, even at GM Herding. Are they meant to be herdable or not?- Of followers, only the tamed variety can be herded. Summons and reanimates would be great additions to the list of herdables, allowing a shepherd to have greater control over their own creatures. A good investment of skill points. Make it a GM bonus ability, perhaps.- Most monsters would be another great addition to herding. I can herd a greater dragon, but not something far weaker such as a daemon, elemental or the like. Peerless and such would be off-limits, but there really are a lot of in-between creatures that could make the profession of Shepherd much more flexible.
Can we get some more Herding enabled in the Abyss? There is next to nothing that can be herded, an enormous oversight as just about everyone else got thrown a bone with the expansion. Also, I don’t care if they can be tamed or not. Animals that run in groups should be herdable. And yes, I’m serious.(Fink)
Could we do something with herding? I mean, ya it’s great for Bo Peep RP’s but in the real game of killing monsters and players, it has no benefit… Here’s a thought, make it viable for tamers:For every X points of Herding you have, your pack instinct pets (I.e. your “herd”) get a +Y% boost over their normal pack instinct bonus…just a suggestion (Boomers)

Phoenix: Right now we don’t have any plans to adjust creature herding values, but we will certainly take note of these suggestions and add them to our backlog.

Mesanna: We love to hear everyone’s ideas so please keep them coming.

Assassin Honed weapons – There should be more interest in these great weapons, but unfortunately most people agree that suffering from a lower weight intensity (450 instead of 500) AND the inability to enhance make these pointless items.Why not allow them to be enhanced? Keep the lower intensity as an offset. Breathe some interest back in these! (Jynxx)
I would like to know if there are any plans to look at Assassin Honed weapons at all. For the difficulty it takes to get the weapon you actually want, they should at least be useable. It would be nice if they could be reforged and enhanced, then I could see them being worth the effort it takes to get them, currently I have trouble giving away some of them. Also I would love to see some actual numbers on them, and a better description than what we got in the pub 74 notes:
New Item Property: Assassin Honed (found on items in the treasure room) – A successful hit with a weapon will provide additional bonus damage based on the attacker facing the same direction as the target. The percentage of the damage is based on the weapons original swing speed. Ranged weapons have a 50% chance to proc.
I love the concept, it makes positioning while melee fighting important, however I’m not sure wether it is the 450 imbuing cap and the fact that they cant be enchanced that makes them less desireable. A positive spin would be potentially when the weapon rebalance happens, some more of the assassin honed weapons may become popular.
Currently it seems that this post is the extent of player understanding of the property:
Assassin Honed. | Stratics: A Career Path in Gaming Thank You. (Mentiras)

Bleak: There are no current plans to allow these weapons to be reforged but we will look into allowing Assassin Honed weapons to be enhanced. The damage bonus scales based on the original weapon speed were 2 second weapons can receive up to a 73% damage bonus while 4 seconds weapons can receive up to a 33% damage bonus when triggered. The damage bonus is subject to the 300% damage cap.

Would it be remotely possible to have some sort of Exodus life bar, or on screen timer message, pop up when a group trying to place Summoning Altar is not allowed? Then the group waiting can know if Exodus is still alive, and when he dies, or how many minutes until the altar can be placed.The not knowing if Exodus just went below 60%, or he died 9 minutes ago, really leaves players up in arms about what they should do, wait or find another adventure for a while.Since UO has so many various messages pop up on screen, seems like a countdown timer wouldn’t be difficult to program. (think of the 5,4,3,2,1 minute Compassion Escort messages for example) (madmischlers)

Kyronix: We do not have time this upcoming publish to addresss this but we will add it to the next publish. We can add a feature to the zealot NPC outside of Exodus’ lair…maybe a crystal ball that shows Exodus’ health/time till respawn.

Ask & Answer No. 14

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2013 Feb 04 14:54 -0500 GMT

In this week’s Ask & Answer we received many questions requesting changes and our developers give a glimpse of what is being planned.

UO Auctions
Question: Have the dev team considered adding further to the high seas content? it seems most gave up a life at sea when they realized the resources it takes to run a ship. but piracy/bounty hunting are fantastic parts of the game. do you think that perhaps a hand in system for titles might bring attention back? perhaps items gained from merchant/pirate vessels could be handed in at Serpents Hold/Buccaneers Den for the Pirate/ the Bounty Hunter Titles? (Treasure Seeker)

Kyronix:  We have talked about different ways to enhance High Seas content and provide a greater reward for the requisite investment as well as having a look at balancing that investment.  A portion of the upcoming armor revamp will involve acquiring components for customization that will be available through a variety of means including pirate and merchant ship cargo.

Mesanna:  We are also planning to add one or two deep water encounters…maybe of the ghostly kind =)

It is fairly well know that books are often abused by the criminal element in UO and game master response so poor, how about a slight adjustment to the books decay time? Like the same time as death robes. This would terminate the abuse. Anyone wishing to broadcast normal information may use house runes, like any other establishment or vendor mall… and lock said book down on their step. It would be a lot easier on everyone playing inside the rules. ~ (Mindy Hit-Girl – Atlantic)

Mesanna:  I happen to agree with this,  if we reduce the time books will stay on the ground it’s going to be all books, so everyone will have to be very careful when placing books that are going to be locked down in a house.

UO Japan
“+20 power scroll” drop rate seems to be decreased recently. Did you make any changes to the drop rate recently? （Nickname eli）

Phoenix: We have not adjusted power scroll drop rates in any recent publish.

Ultima Online Bibliothek
Would there please be a possibility to give blacksmiths the ability to smelt crafted metal items back into ingots? At the moment each time I need an item smelted back, I need to log to a different character with mining skill. Although this doesn’t take ages, it IS a bit of a hassle. A tailor can unravel the leather and cloth that was crafted, so I think it would make sense that a blacksmith can do the same. Many thanks! (Tarragon Slayer)

Phoenix: We agree,time permitting we will slip it in the upcoming publish if not we will do it in the next publish.

It sometimes feels like having bardic skills enhanced using equipment (like jewelry) is inferior to having real skill of the same amount. When using Spellsongs of the bard masteries it is obvious that having 107 skill and using a +13 skill ring the effect is much lower than having natural 120 skill. Aside from bard masteries the gut feeling is that success chances using a bardic skill, like Discordance, on a monster also is lower. Granted, that might be tinted by expectations and the unlucky streaks the random numbers seem to have frequently, but this is why I would like to see a confirmation that it is just a wrong impression. (Pcuvush)

Phoenix: Many skill checks and skill effects utilize the character’s base unmodified skill value. In many cases this is by design, to mitigate the power of skill from items. But, we are willing to review particular skill checks if there is a clear bug or other good reason. For example, we are investigating an issue with differences in results from Stealth depending on whether you use the skill directly or attempt to walk while hidden.

In the case of bard masteries, making their effects be based on real skill was intentional. For basic Discordance, the chance and power of the effect are based on modified skill values.

Hello, though the High Seas add on has added a lot of fun to the fisherman’s profession there are some things that don’t seem to make sense for me.
a) Most of the fish can’t be sold to anyone, not the fisher NPC, cooks, inkeepers and so on will buy it. Even cut or cooked (miso soup is only 1 gp each and very heavy, needs to have high level cooking) there is little market for it.
For a beginning char that wants to be a professional fisherman and earn money to buy a boat by selling what he fished it’s very frustrating and even impossible. It’s the same or even worse with crustacean, nobody wants the unnamed ones except brit library, they can’t even be used by cooks in any recipe.

b) The fishmonger quests.
While I like fishing I really hate using traps to get crustacean. Still I have to do so if I want to advance in the fishmonger quests and hope get a 120 scroll one day.
Couldn’t we choose a carriere path : fish or crustacean or both from the beginning and only get quests related to the path we chose ? The specific path (only one kind) could be slower to raise prestige I don’t mind that as long as I don’t have to use traps even again in my UO life!
One of the reasons I don’t like getting crustacean (the most important being that I find it boring but that’s personal) is because of the traps we have to use.
Traps are heavy, they are short lived so you need a lot, they are expensive, they can’t be crafted (I though my GM carpenter/tinker could but no, nothing in there to be able to do so).

An example:
I needed to get 20 fred lobster,I used 40 traps to do so.
1 trap is 144 gp, I spent 7200 gp to get those lobsters.
I didn’t even get 10 of one kind of any of the other named ones in the process (smallest quantity for the fishmonger quest).
As I pointed first in this post, the unamed ones I got are completely useless, except as donation to the brit library.
Using a sum of money to buy traps, get and then give crustacean may give more reward points than if you had just directly given the same sum of money to the libary, though I didn’t do the math to confirm this, but the time spent doing so doesn’t make it worthwile in my opinion.
In the same time, using my fishing pole that didn’t cost me anything (wood shopped and pole crafted by one of my chars) except the 10 gp to insure it, I could get enough fish to earn as many reward points or even more. As a bonus I would get White pearls, delicate scales, T-Maps, special fishing nets and MIBS, not counting the leather/scales from the sea serpents I would kill.
It also would be much less boring though that is my ersonal point of view and not an objective argument. Still I know I’m not the only one with this opinion.
If you do BODS in tailoring and blacksmith profession you earn a reward on top of being paid some real money for your work.
In the fisherman profession you don’t get money, how are you supposed to make a living of it then ?
Once again comparing taloring/blacksmith profession with fisherman : in the two first ones you can get a title (fame) by doing BODS and never have to fight in your life, while a fisherman will get an internal reputation in the guild allowing him to get better quests/rewards but has no mean to get a title just by his profession.
It’s not as important in my opinion than my other arguments but still I though it deserved to be pointed out.
If some though could be given to those issues I think it would improve greatly the fisherman playstyle!
Thanks, (Jeza)

Kyronix:  This is a valid point and we’ll look at ensuring the wares of the sea provide a basic level of financial support for Britannia’s fisherman.  While being able to handpick which quests you are offered isn’t a feasible solution, adding lobster traps to the crafting system is something that can certainly be done to ease the financial burden.
Phoenix: We are not 100% happy with how crab and lobster fishing works. At its core is a game of risk and reward, but we think that it is not well balanced. We would like to make some real improvements to this system, but we always have battling priorities.

UO Stratics

Origin Store:
Why there is no Stygian Abyss expansion packge to buy in Brazil? (Marcus Lessa)
Hello. For a lot of time we don’t have High Seas addon in Russian Origin Store. We have only Stygian Abyss, BUT we have Captain’s Set which players cant use without High Seas addon.  Please add High Seas addon to the Russian Origin Store. Thanks!  ( tangar)

Mesanna:  I will address this with the Origin store and get back to you when I have an answer.

Is there any plan to allow a single command to set the Security of all items within a Locked Down container at once, to save having to manually set each individual item? This would be of intense usefulness for those of us who maintain public libraries of Books, Runes, Soulstones etc…( Adol)

Phoenix: Making some good convenience and usability improvements in house security is high on my list. Time permitting, I will work to address issues specifically related to locked down books and soulstones, and add ways to better manage the security of lockdowns in a container hierarchy in batch.

Would you consider having a way to remove unwanted Mods from weapons/armor. It is disappointing to find a great 100% poison weapon to imbue for your dextor, only to have a mage weapon property on it taking up property weight and 1 of the imbue spots.
Several possible options:
1. Open up modded weapons/armor to reforging
2. A craftable acid that cleans off all mods indescriminately
3. A craftable acid that cleans off 1 mod randomly
4. Multiple acids that work on different groups(Casting, Combat. misc)
5. Store purchased item that lets you select the undesirable mod to remove
The acid could be a difficult process, having to collect rare ingredients, alchemist to create and acid, and needing a chemist/smith/imbuer to apply. Something like what is necessary to remove the damage increase property. (swroberts)

Phoenix: I am generally in favor of allowing more powerful options for imbuing and re-forging, but doing so needs to be balanced. Generally, the balance should work along these lines: Powerful, Cheap, Durable – you can only have two. So, removing an undesirable item property may be workable if doing so caused a significant durability reduction and prevented use of Powder of Fortifying, reducing the item’s life span significantly. Alternatively, it could do something like apply a large multiplier to the item insurance cost, or require great expense to repair.

I am interested in getting some feedback on how this and other item improvements (like removal of Cursed or Cannot Be Repaired) can be done in a fair and balanced way that would also be acceptable to most players.

Lorgus was kind enough to answer to a post about drops on certain critters, Slasher, Medusa, Narvey and the items they might drop; Night Eyes, Slither, Tangle, but it ended up being a complete dead end.There are players who have spent HOURS (days and prob months) killing Medusa and have yet to get a Slither. Same goes for Tangles off of Narvery. Then there are some player who wander in for the first time and Wala Slither / Tangle.As a long time player and killer of both of these bosses in particular I think we are entitled to finally get and answer to why these drop or don’t. Also what is the value of items on each critter ex; stone dragons tooth – slither of off Medusa?Or it is time to implement Doom rules (time, # kills) to produce a drop.TY Lorgus for trying but since you aren’t there anymore someone in the know needs to produce some answers. (weins201)

Phoenix: These bosses have very low chances of generating special drops that include SoTs, certain artifacts, and some other things. On each death, the boss makes ONE roll to drop a special item. If the item is generated, then it is given to a random top attacker. So, even in a small group, your chance of getting the special drop is close to 1 in 100, and the chance of getting the specific drop you want is even smaller. It’s straight probability, with no weighting or anything. This means that on rare occasions someone might get the perfect drop the first time they fight. But due to the nature of probability, these items are never 100% guaranteed to drop. For example, for an event that happens 1 time in 500, then there is a 13.5% chance that the event will not happen in 1,000 consecutive trials. But, it could also happen more than once – for those same odds and 1000 trials, there is a 0.5% chance that the event could happen five times, averaging one every 200 trials.

When events have low probability of happening, it takes a very large number of trials before the rate of occurrence of the event converges to the actual odds.

TL;DR: Lady Luck is fickle.

Discuss this article.

Ask & Answer No. 13

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2013 Jan 25 16:47 -0500 GMT

The new Ask and Answers has arrived! The holidays and a business trip had caused a delay in our answers. We now return to our regularly scheduled Ask and Answer posts with a very creative set of questions and answers.

UO Stratics
Moonstone Jewelery – Can a dev please make another statement on this drop? Specifically where does it actually come from now? Is it Fezzik the Chef or a cannibal mage or a chest in Fezzik’s area? all ove the previous? Has the drop % been altered because of the increase in difficulty of the target now? Thank you. (Mentiras)

Phoenix: It drops off Fezzik the Chef in a full moon when Venus is in the house of the Orion and the flaming pulsar has crossed the horizon on the first Tuesday of the Month of May. Silly Friday, it is a rare drop as in 1 in 1000 chance. We do not want to make this item a house hold name but we will review it.

 

There were always rumours about secret halls/rooms/whatever in the Stygian Abyss.
As of today I never heard of anybody know more about this “mystery”… is there really a secret part of the Stygian Abyss/Underworld or is this just what it was – rumours? (MedeaDF)

Mesanna: All false, total rumors *grins*

I was wondering if it would be possible to darken or offer a different color altogether for the journal in the classic client. Some text is very difficult to read and without having to go and change a lot of various text colors simply darkening the journal background color would solve this issue. (Vercingitorix)

Bleak: Even though this is an option in the Enhanced client, the only option we have is to make the journal always default to black. Feedback on that option?

Could we please get a token/code to buy from the origin store, that would allow a player on a younger account to get the 720 skill cap? (mikni)

Mesanna: How about we just raise everyone to 720 ?

The Bookcases you buy from the UOGameCode store you can engrave but not dye.
-The Bookcases you make from stealing Academic book cases you can dye but not engrave.
I know the Academic bookcases are suppose to be a little more special since you have to steal them but why cant we engrave them? Then the ones you purchase for $3.25 per case….you can engrave but cannot dye? For the Library I am planning to open I purchased over 40 bookcases spending approximately $130.
Now I would buy more to replace the Academic ones except you cant dye them. I would craft more Academic books but I cannot engrave them….
Any chance one of the two could have the ability to do booth? (Lord Gareth)

Mesanna: I cannot answer a question about an item not sold in the Origin store. (psst UOGameCode store does not exist any longer) No one on the team has any objections to allowing these to be dyed or engraved.

UO Japan
I love new art items such as soulforges, Nexus, Harpsichords and Davies’ Lockers. They look very cool! Unfortunately, they are so large, that I can’t place all of them in my house. Is there any chances to add options which allow me to select smaller version of them? (Nickname: MESORIN)

Mesanna: Maybe in the future but not at this time

House ghost image which appears when you place a house is very good guide to determine where you place it. Unfortunately, house add-ons don’t have those images. I often have to retry placing my add-on several times because I misplace it. Is it possible to add such ghost image guide to house add-ons? And, I have another request about house add-ons. Please show add-on image instead of deed image in crafting menu. I sometimes create add-on deeds which don’t face towards direction I expect. Visual guide would help me see if it is the one I wanted to make. (Namako)

Phoenix: This is not as simple as it sounds and it’s not a task we really want to undertake at this time. The second part of this is also a no at this time for the same reason.

If we took long time to perform the ritual, the Exodus could be defeated before we arrive at the boss area. Do you have any plans to address the issue? (a Twitter user)

Mesanna: This is already fixed

UO Mania
Can we get a way to dye an Artifact with its original color? The bleach can dye an item with the color of its basic item type, but why not restore the item to its original color (at least for Artifacts for which the original color is known) (clorenz)

Kyronix: Sorry we can’t do that without redoing all the dyes in the game. So at this time it is not an option.

UO Auctions
Since we now have Town Loyalties, a great addition, are there any plans to open up a system for Ter Mur Loyalty? perhaps just titles based on reputation with the queen? (Treasure Seeker)

Mesanna: Not a bad idea we will look into it.

Discuss this article.

Ask & Answer No. 12

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2012 Dec 03 14:50 -0500 GMT

As we move into the twelfth month of the year we bring you Ask and Answer number 12. It is a season for giving and your questions have the developers making plans to bring all sorts of changes to the game. Enjoy!

UO Auctions
Can anything be done about the freezing screen when you use house customising and or the packing create with EC? (Rupert Avery)

We actually discussed this over lunch for approx 20 minutes to try to figure out the best way to do this, bottom line is yes it can be redone but it is not Just a simple task.  But it’s on our radar now.

UO Stratics
Dont wanna add more than a bit thanks to devs for this new hunt. It s well done, fun to make from the start till the end.
It just rings a bell to me concerning the other peerlesses. First of all why dont you change the key timers to make them the same that for Eodus ? i.e. a 1 week timer is great… gives us time enough to prepare things for guild. I understand that it was not welcome at the beginning when all bosses were overcamped but now most peerless places are empty on a regular basis… So if you give us a bit more time to gather sets of keys alike Exodus that would be great indeed  (Lien Ragus)

So this is a valid idea, we like it and you guys will see all the keys for the peerless encounters with extended timers on them in the future.

Hello devs.
I’m trying “Elwood Quest” for several years to get a rare obsidian statue of character’s name. And it still continues, I am being 200 defeated successively currently…
Is it completely random that a rare name’s statue appears ? I wish there is no like an easter egg on origami paper.
Thank you.(Peil)

We agree the rarity of this is way too high, we will look into adjusting this.  Right now there is a 1 in a 1000 chance to get a rare statue.  We will make some changes to improve this in a future publish.

Gargoyles are still unable to use Dartboards. (not a huge issue i know), but a bigger issue is the Gargoyles inability to use +mining gloves. like the Ringmail with +5 bonus. any help on these would be appreciated.(Victim of Siege) Could we get an option to alter Mining Gloves for a Gargoyle? Gargoyles have become the crafter of choice with imbuing and reforging and since you need over 100 mining skill to max out salvaging…the mining gloves are somewhat necessray. (swroberts) Blacksmith gloves of mining don’t work on mr gargoyle, any chance, down the road, we can alter these in some way??Thnx(Bullseye_of_Atl)

Due to the fact the humans and elf’s have racial bonuses, we do not see any reason that Gargoyles should not have a racial bonus also.  We are going to give the gargoyles a mining racial bonus.

It was mentioned on FoF (April 10, 2009) that “the donation system for community collections needs an overhaul in general”.I’m curious if this is still being looked at/worked on. Thanks. (Whinemaker)

Actually we have made some changes to this system such as allowing you to turn in commodity deeds and bags of items to make it easier to turn in items, if you are asking for a whole new system such as different rewards, mobs etc…we have not discussed this.

Ultima Online Bibliothek
When will there be house plots greater than 18 x 18 for customization? Eg. Keeps could be converted, because they can’t be decorated on three sides and therefore much deco space is wasted. Many people have their Castles and Keeps because of the long time they are playing UO,and so they need the storage space… But there are areas, such as the ice island or Minoc, where Keeps and Castles are lined up and it looks like you are in the ghetto there… and somehow this pabulum is rather boring. Honestly – If we could customize a house plot, wich is as big as a keep’s plot, there would of course be some of our architects there to create something really beautyful … We have such beautiful items for decoration now – why should they even gather dust in the boxes? (Mene’Tekel)

We have talked about this but its again not a task that can be done quickly.  I won’t say no it will never happen but I just don’t have you a definite answer right now.

When do we tamers get new pets for taming? To be a tamer is one of the most beautiful thing UO provides – but right now you can only see tamers, who move around with their Greater Dragons… I personally encounter sadness, because we have a lot of great pets in the game! Silversteeds for e.g. would be very nice – or you could create a mini-version of the Stygian Dragon for taming … *dreaming* I would also find it very cool, if there would be a small chance to get Dread Horses (the better Nightmare) or Bane Dragons back to the game for taming – a lot of new players asked for them and they also want to have such an animal. And what would be great too: Strong pets like the Cu Sidhe or the Hiryu should be able to compete with stronger monsters. The Unicorns used to be very strong too, and the small Nightmares … – if I move to Oni with these animals nowadays, they drop dead in a jiff… which is very frustrating to new players, who can finally handle such an animal. (Mene’Tekel)

We have discussed doing a pet revamp, I would rather not give specific details yet.  This is something the whole team would like to do.

UO Japan
I have a small stone keep. I’d like to lock my items down in my courtyard. Please make a special door which allows players to access its courtyard. I would purchase the door even if it was sold at Origin store.（Nickname:rararin）

A keep is a bit different than the castle, the “courtyards are not accessible it would require us putting in teleporters in and out of those small areas.  Can it be done yes it can.  We will review this for a future publish.

I’d like to see skill/stats of my stabled pets. The Pet Brokers in Magincia have “LORE” option. Is it possible to add the option to the Animal trainers?（Nickname eli）

Using some of the code that is already in the game we can make this possible.

If a character used 2 tokens of personal attendants, one of them became completely meaningless. Could you change the attendant to be tied to an account instead of a character?（Nickname eli）

Yes it can be tied to an account, we will look into this for a future publish.

When will the double NPC spawn be fixed? The Asuka shard still has double NPCs. Can you delete these extra NPCs for us? (Nickname: Quinn)

It will be done by the time these questions are posted.

Discuss this article.

Ask & Answer No. 11

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2012 Nov 19 21:39 -0500 GMT

In addition to the normal set of Ask and Answer questions this week, there is also an interview! UO Forums did a very informative interview with the Ultima Online producer, Bonnie (Mesanna) Armstrong. There are questions that range from a typical day in the studio to future plans for Ultima Online, so be sure to check it out.

UO Auctions
Question: The new 15yr Robes are a fantastic addition and reward for players being creative. i’d like to see this bcome more than just a 15yr event. have you ever considered holding art based competitions as well as writing? it’d be nice to see this sort of reward for submitting UO fan art too. (Treasure Seeker)

Mesanna: After speaking with our Artist Onifrk he stated jpg, png or 3d files would be acceptable to do something like this. I really like the idea of this but there will NEVER be another contest like decorating banks.

Ultima Online Bibliothek
When will I get my ridable Great Hart? Tameable, plase, and chance to find a white one, please. (Pcuvush)

Mesanna: Ridable Hart, probably not but a special spawned hued one is a possibility in the future.

Once there was the idea to add pixies as a playable race – there was a poll, if I remember correctly, dwarves and orcs as other options. Has this been shelved, or is there still a chance to add them? (Pcuvush)

Mesanna: Right now a new playable race is not on the plans. I am not saying we will never do one again but have a lot of other things in front of it right now.

UO Stratics
I roleplay as an orc on Europa (Xug’Klerg) and he wants to know if he will ever fully become an orc? We would both like this…(Velvathos)

Kyronix: Adding additional playable races is an extraordinary task that requires a lot of development time due to the far reaching impact of such an addition. Consider how different gargoyles are than humans/elves and how they have their own equipment, skills, etc. So to do it right would take a great effort that may not benefit the entire player base as effectively as focusing elsewhere. There are currently a number of ways that players can roleplay other races (Which I’m sure you are already utilizing) so enhancing that ability would be more feasible than a full blown additional playable race.

UOForums
Since the addition of the Raised Garden Beds into the game, the need for fertile dirt has increased. However as best I can tell, the spawn rate has not. I love my raised beds, especially when I can plant them all with the fertile dirt, I just don’t like buying it in Ter Mur. Is there anyway we can get some more dirt? OR reduce the number of dirt piles it takes to grow each plant? (Kahlan)

Kyronix: This is a reasonable request and will consider it when adding it future loot drops to various areas.

Can you tell me how iron beetles are supposed to work? I thought they mined ore but when I bring mine out, it does not mine or do anything really. I’ve stood alongside mountains, inside caves (Where you can mine the floor), and still, it does nothing. The owner is a GM Miner. (Thumper)

Misk: The Iron Beetles likes to dig up and eat ore so it tries to mine when it is in an appropriate area. They will attempt to mine in the immediate area at random intervals (maximum of 5 minutes). Sometimes they don’t like the taste of the ore that they dig up and simply leave it on the ground instead of consuming it. When the beetle eats ore, its body hue changes to the ore color that it has eaten. The Iron Beetle can only mine near valid mining tiles and the mining skill of the owner does not affect the types of ore that the beetle will dig up.

Discuss this article.

Ask & Answer No. 10

Posted by Tim Chappell | 2012 Nov 12 14:02 -0500 GMT

It is time for another Ask and Answer. This week we received a lot of questions regarding adding features and items to the game. Here are the answers to your questions:

UO Auctions
From Purple Pixie, Atlantic
I totally think the bag with 3 snow and 3 grass tiles will be a miracle to those of us who love to decorate for the seasons and don’t want to go into construction mode and destroy our establishments. I just have one small request of wish for an addition… or even divide it 2x, 2x, and 2x… with sand tiles. We don’t have sand tiles in our house construction AND these could be used for “festive reasons”… not to mention in gardens to show off fancy cacti. Could you please consider adding them? Thanks (Lady Frany Flame)

Mesanna: Currently there are not any sand tiles in the same tile format as the grass and snow but I hope to get some good ones in the future *makes note*

Question: Have the Dev team ever considered adding Fossils to the game? it seems an angle that could be added to luck based mining that the art is already in place to add. something that would also expand saltpeter mining as its also luck based. could create some nice decoration just outta shell and skull n bone art already in the game. with the possibility of a very rare fossil finds and getting your name attached to the find? (Treasure Seeker)

Mesanna: Hrm interesting idea but no we have not thought about adding fossils to mining. We have been talking about how to make resource gathering more exciting though.

UO Mania
It would be nice to be able to receive a “secure shard transfer crate” from a character on some other player’s account, that only the characters of that account on the destination shard can open. In this way we could securely organize shard transfer shipments for third parties (clorenz )

Mesanna: This would be a very difficult thing to put in the game, the risk is way to high for us to address this type of transfer.

UO Japan
Certain pet seems to have skills which can’t be shown by Animal Lore skill. Could you tell us what those “hidden” skills are? Is it possible for pets once being resurrected to reach skill cap again? (Nickname: kann)

Mesanna: There are the basic set of 8 skills that show up in the pet’s Animal Lore skills gump. We will put it on our list to review this and update the list in a future publish. As far as the pet reaching skill cap after resurrecting there is no reason why they should not do that, if you are having issues please let us know.

The color of antique wedding dress is very nice. Is it possible to add dyes of the same color or similar white color as a Clean Up Britannia reward?（Nickname: Tru）
SIDE NOTE: The hue# is 2953.

Mesanna: We are always looking to add new dyes, at this time I will only say its possible.

UOForums
When going from the Abyss to one of the Abyss Champ (who are on the Feluca facet), one gets a PvP Warning that can be switched off through the context menu. Could you include into this system the PvP Warnings when going through house teleporters? I own two houses, one of them in Felucca and the constant warnings get old fast. Any possibility to switch them off would be appreciated. (Merion)

Phoenix: We would like to research this before making any commitments but it’s a reasonable request.

High Seas was a big hit when it came out. Even tho still played to a degree, alot of folk wanted to play “Land & Sea” fights, where a ship can fire its cannons on shore in an attack mode. ( of course this would mean the cannons on the fortress would take damage or even some of the structure). Maybe have it like damage to a ship where you have to repair and attack the structure when defense is lowered like a ship…. Question is: Will the opportunity ever arise for the chance to have “Land Cannons” that fire in order to build Fortress’s and have the chance for land and sea conflicts? That way someone can attack a fortress and the Fortress can fire back in defense. (Eyes of Sosaria)

When we were doing High Seas we talked about Land Cannons and came up with a lot of ways to exploit them, We figured it was best to not put them in the game.

Ultima Online Bibliothek
Hello again, recently I remembered the thing about the gypsy camps and the moonstone jewelry. Is it possible to get the camps back to get a chance for it to drop again? Or maybe you could add the jewelry to another monster or another mini-boss? (Medea,)

Mesanna: The gypsy camps were causing some side issues in the game so Phoenix added the chance for the moon jewelry to drop on the Cook in Wrong.

Now I’m really curious – is it really true that no one on the production shard has managed to fetch a Void Lobster yet? After 3 years it should be possible to get one of those bloody critters, right? Can you give us a hint (even a small one will do) how to catch one of those? Thanks! (Medea, )

Mesanna: Funny you should ask this question now, Bleak just fixed this bug for Pub 80. And yes no one to my knowledge has fished up a Void Lobster.

The Epiphany armor that dropped from Blackrock Golems states to grant a ‘mana burst’ effect. To my knowledge that ability is not active at the moment. Since the armor is marked ‘exceptional’ and has 255 durability I assume it is meant for imbuing und wearing this armor. Is the effect simply undiscovered as of now or not yet implemented? (Pcuvush, )

Misk: Both the epiphany set (mana burst) and the regeneration set (health burst) effects are active and do function in game. The virtuous pieces are aligned to positive karma players and the villainous pieces are aligned to negative karma players. Both sets can be imbued, however they cannot be enhanced. The burst occurrence rate scales based on the number of pieces you are wearing (up to a maximum value of 5) and the power of the burst scales based on your karma level. The burst effects are triggered by being attacked. Currently the regeneration set spawns on Charybdis and the epiphany spawns on Niporailem.

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