For those who are interested, the content slated for the next major publish (Publish 16) has been released to the Test Center 2 shard. We encourage all players to participate, and when testing these changes, please make sure to note and report any bugs you may find to tcbugs@uo.com. When submitting a bug report to our QA department, remember to include the following information:
Your UO account name (do not include your password)
The time, date, shard, and facet of the occurrence
What steps you took that led up to the bug
Whether or not you tried to repeat the bug, and if you succeeded


The features and changes now available on Test Center 2 include:

Resource and Crafting Changes
Several new rewards have been added to the Blacksmith’s bulk order system.
Prospector’s Tool.
Powder of Temperament.
Blacksmith Scrolls of Power
Gargoyle’s Pickaxe.
Blacksmith bulk order system changes include:
The reward value for items with an exceptional requirement has been increased.
Large bulk orders will now be received for sets of weapons.
Grandmaster smiths will now have a greater chance of getting bulk order deeds with color requirements.
Players will now be able to collect the following new stackable resource types.
Spined, Horned, and Barbed leather
Bones
Players with an appropriate amount of tailoring skill will now be able to craft bone armor.
Players on shards with Siege Perilous or IGR rulesets will now be able to receive bulk order deeds.
Tailoring Bulk Order Deeds
Tailor NPCs will now issue bulk order quests to players
Several new items have been introduced to Britannia as rewards for completing tailoring bulk order deeds.
Special cloth (20 new hues).
Brown Bear Rug.
Polar Bear Rug.
Flower Tapestry.
Small Stretched Hide.
Medium Stretched Hide.
Specially Hued Sandals.
Tailoring Scrolls of Power.
Barding Changes
New items related to the Bard profession can be found and/or crafted
Exceptional instruments
“Slayer” instruments
Fire Horn
Many changes have been made to the various Bard skills. These changes can be summarized as follows:
Difficulty-based barding
Target limitations (targets cannot be influenced by more then one of each bard ability at a time)
Distance checks
Line-of-sight checks
Provoke changes
Creature damage scaled based upon difficulty level (weaker creatures hit harder than normal, stronger creatures hit more lightly than normal).
Peacemaking changes
Target-specific and area-effect functionality.
Enticement changes
Skill changes to “Discordance”
Discordance skill reduces power of NPC targets.
Taming Changes
Changes have been made to the animal taming and pet control system. These changes are summarized as follows:
Creature control “slots”.
Improved pet training.
Animal Lore functionality improvements.
Taming process changes.
Inability to tame “trapped” creatures.
Creature taming skill-loss penalties.
Taming difficulty changes.
Pet loyalty changes.
Pet behavior changes.
Pack instinct.
Pet bonding.
Pet resurrection.
Stable slot changes.
Summoned creature changes
A new tame-able creature named “a fire steed” will be found roaming the lands of Britannia.
Changes to Felucca
A large number of changes have been made with respect to the Felucca facet. These changes include:
Changes to the Felucca dungeon and Lost Land player interaction rules
Changes to the conditions of the “Murderer” status
Changes to the conditions of the “Criminal” status
Changes to the conditions of thievery
Improved resources in Felucca
Housing Changes
Houses will now auto-refresh under a more limited set of conditions.
Evil-in-a-Can Changes
Many changes have been made to the “Evil-in-a-Can” spawn system. These changes are summarized as follows:
Champion status shrines.
Undead creature group.
New, dynamic, Felucca spawn locations.
“The Harrower” super-champion monster.
New paperdoll titles.
Monster spawn changes.
Spawn timing changes.
Champion spawn changes.
Creature group changes.
Changes to Combat
Unarmed “to-hit” changes (chance to get hit while unarmed is now the better of either Wrestling skill, or an average of Anatomy & Evaluate Intelligence).
Tactics will not influence damage when above 110.0 skill as much as it previously did.
Players will no longer be able to “run away” from arrows/bolts.
The dexterity stat will no longer affect at what point in the swing animation a hit or miss occurs.
Mace weapons will now do less damage to armor then before (but still more then other weapon types).
Staff weapons will do the extra stamina damage that “true” maces do (they still do not get the extra armor damage that “true” maces get).
The damage done by the earthquake spell has been increased.
The 8th circle summoning spells will now have a normal spellcasting delay.
Purple potions deal extra damage based upon the thrower’s alchemy skill.
Ethereal mounts will now have a 3-second “summoning” delay.
Bolas will now deal damage when successfully dismounting their target.
Bolas will no longer require the tactics skill to use.
Changes to New-Player Quests
A new “quest button” has been added to notify the questor of any quest status changes.
All quest text has been refined, shortened, and updated with links to the Codex of Wisdom.
Several quest steps have been improved and/or simplified.
Quest monster AI has been improved.
All quest gumps have been visually and functionally improved.
Miscellaneous Changes
Players will now be able to gain in the Justice virtue.
A new category of items will be found in Britannia.
Skill Scrolls.
Stat Scrolls.
Player “bones” will now follow the same rules as player corpses for being looted.
Furniture dye tubs will now be usable by appropriate players when locked down or when in that player’s backpack.
“Young” characters will no longer be able to travel to Felucca. Young characters logging into Felucca will be sent to Trammel.
Bug Fixes
Sandstone houses will no longer have a “hole” in one of the wall segments.
Items should no longer “fall” through the steps of a log cabin.
All items that can be used for crafting will list their number of remaining charges.
A bug that could result in players being alive on one subserver and dead on another has been fixed.
Players will now receive a message when the archprotection spell fails to take effect on a target in range.
Stablemasters will no longer spam the names of their inventory when the stablemaster is created.
Bolas will now properly dismount players on Unicorns, Ki-rins, and Ethereal Mounts.
Players will no longer be able to use items that are stored on stabled pack animals.
Some misleading messages in the new-player tutorial area have been fixed.
A bug that allowed players to enter houses they were banned from has been fixed.
Players accepting a guild war invitation will now receive the correct message.
Gypsies in Illshenar will no longer report incorrect inventory descriptions.
Players will no longer be able to steal from Guards.
A bug that could prevent locked-down forges from working correctly has been fixed.
Thread will now work correctly when used on a loom.
Players will no longer be able to use items of teleportation to gain unauthorized access to faction strongholds.
Forges will now play the appropriate sound under all conditions.
Some vague Bulk Order Deed text has been clarified.
Players will no longer be able to use health potions unless they are damaged.
Items that are un-equipped while the wearer is already at their item limit (125 items) will drop to the ground.
Various erroneous system messages have been fixed.
Players killed by guards will have their hit points set to zero under all circumstances.
Players will no longer be able to gain the snooping skill by using the skill on barkeeps.
Treasure chests will no longer appear below ground level or upon invalid terrain.
Players with over 100.0 mining skill will be able to use mining specialization books.
Various “rares” that were improperly renamed to seem like normal items will regain their proper “rare” names.