News for Monday, August 7-Sunday, August 13

Saturday, August 12, 2000

Communication Crystals Deactivated; More on Ore Elementals

This is from FYI regarding  communication crystals:

Due to issues with communication crystals it will be necessary to deactivate their functions. The crystals will no longer send messages to other crystals and you will not be able to change their status (active or inactive). We will reactivate the crystals once we have resolved the issue and will update you again once we have done so.

The messaging feature for crystals will be inactive later today and the ability to change their status will be deactivated after the servers return from their next scheduled maintenance.

And here's a detailed report regarding those ore elementals and the new pickaxes:

It all hinges around a new item in the game. It is called "a gargoyle's pickaxe" and can be found as loot on Stone Gargoyles. It looks like a tinker-made pickaxe except the graphic is reversed, facing left instead of right. Not all Stone Gargoyles have them. It appears that gargoyles who haven't used their pickaxes just carry a few large pieces of iron ore, some gems, and the pickaxe. Other Stone Gargoyles don't have the pickaxe but instead have a few medium-sized pieces of ore (in addition to the large iron ore and gems).

Out of three stone gargoyles I whacked, only one had the pickaxe. Also, it appears that the gargoyles' pickaxes are more durable than standard ones, but I'm not exactly sure how much more durable. Arms lore shows they do "minimal damage when slashed with at short range."

Here's the cool thing. The gargoyles' pickaxes have the effect of "promoting" an ore zone to the next highest level. For example, a spot which normally produces Agapite will instead produce Verite when mined with the gargoyle's pickaxe. Verite spots produce Valorite. Valorite spots continue to produce Valorite. The mining goes as normal -- you get about 50% iron and 50% of the colored ore. The special pickaxe just makes the colored ore from that spot better.

I tried mining an Agapite spot first with the gargoyle's pickaxe and then switched to a normal pickaxe. The spot produce Verite with the gargoyle's pickaxe and Agapite with the standard pickaxe. So, it doesn't matter which tool you use to begin digging a vein, the key is which tool is actually in use.

I dug up five resource zones with the gargoyle's pickaxe in a cave (which give 16 digs per zone every respawn) without incident. On the sixth, after the fifth dig, the Verite Elemental appeared out of the ground. It did not immediately focus on me and attack, so I was able to get a head start. It didn't run very fast, so I was able to dance around it on my horse and throw magic at it. I'd say it was about as tough as or slightly weaker than a Stone Gargoyle. It hit HARD in melee, blowing through my reactive armor spell in two hits, and had me down by 40 health before I knew what hit me. Somewhat tougher than a normal Earth Elemental, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "deadly".

The loot wasn't that bad; two magic items, two gems, and 25 large pieces of Verite ore. 50 verite ingots are fairly valuable (as long as you don't whiff your smelt). Definitely worth the reagents it cost to kill it.

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Friday, August 11, 2000

Rumored Changes to Mining Confirmed?

Can't get in to the MB, so I thought I'd pass this along here. People are reporting that you will now "dig up" special elementals when mining [perhaps when mining special ores, like valorite, in particular]. I've seen one, apparently undoctored, picture of a "valorite elemental". It uses magic. The Reds on the dev boards have acknowledged this and seem to be acting like this is another "fun surprise" added to the game. Cal pointed people to this story over at BNN, and when someone commented: "so we should use the pickaxes we find on gargoyles to mine ore" Cal said something like "maybe you're on to something there." What's the moral of the story? I dunno. But Angie the fisherwoman would be happy to commiserate with any miners out there who are now expected to become warriors as well. For reference, here's the original post over on UO.com when Mel and Cal started giving their hints. And here's the post on Discussions in which Cal points to the BNN article.

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The Village of Newcastle Welcomes You!

I apologize for not updating on Thursday, especially in light of the village name voting results. We had a power outage that kept me offline all day [*sob*]. However, I am happy to report, even if it is old news to most of you, that the long-awaited joint village of TRC/KS has a name! After one vote, in which it was too close to call; and a final second vote from among the top five contenders, the village will now be called "Newcastle"! Queen Ruby Flash is hard at work on a village webpage. You can take a sneak peek here.

Princess S'karlett wrote up a little summary of the trip to Hythloth [in character] which you can get to thru this link, or under "Quick Links." I also noticed that Phoenix put up some Hythloth pictures on the KS board, so I linked that under "Quick Links" as well. Enjoy!

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Wednesday, August 9, 2000

Village Name; Publish Update tomorrow;2nd Account

The Village Vote was so close, that a special run-off vote is being held TODAY with [it looks like] the top five vote-getters. The Winner will be announced at the Allied Guild hunt tonight, so Vote Now!

It is now possible to get a second UO account [if for some reason you don't yet.. like me!] simply by calling UO:

In response to an increased demand for additional accounts for current UO subscribers, we are now offering additional accounts for a limited time. Additional accounts can be purchased using your current billing credit card for a purchase fee of $9.95 and the additional monthly fees. The purchasing account must be billed as a current account in good standing. Total accounts are limited to three per user, including the original account.

To purchase additional Ultima Online accounts by telephone, please contact the UO Account Support Department at 1-888-842-6388. You will need your current account name and the credit card number listed on the account to purchase by telephone. Registration codes will be emailed following purchase. Please contact the UO Account Support department at uobilling@uo.com.

Chessy is being published today with the things In Testing for Next Update. If all goes well, the other shards will be published tomorrow.

And, finally, I am working on an interactive Calendar that will highlight any and all upcoming events: in guild, among our allies, and across the RP community. If you have something you would like included for the months of August or September, please use the e-mail link under "Quick Links". Include as many details as possible, including links if applicable. 

Thanks! and have a great day :)

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Tuesday, August 8, 2000

Village Vote Ends Today; Upcoming Events

I spent most of last night tinkering with the web pages I have under construction, and yet managed to complete absolutely nothing. However, there is now a "Got News?" button over that-a-way ---> for you to send me news, items of interest, in-game happenings, or just jokes about Jadly. Pictures are welcome, but if you *can*, please edit them first to reasonable sizes; that would be most appreciated.

Two events coming up this weekend are of note. The first is The Grand Opening of the Golden Mage Tower:

The Grand Opening of the Golden Mage Tower is scheduled for Saturday, August 12th starting at 5 pm PST. There will be food, drink, and events to keep you thoroughly entertained throughout the evening. Festivities will include a "Create Food" contest, a "Summon Creature" contest, and a Scavenger Hunt.

The Mage Tower is located northeast of Vesper at the base of a small peninsula. Gates will be provided from the Golden Brew and Lord British's throne room a few minutes before 5pm PST.

For more information about the Golden Mage Tower and a map to its location please visit http://come.to/goldenmagetower.

And on Sunday, August 13th, is Single's Night at our friend Shady's Acropolis Winery and Roman Bath House:

Introducing our first monthly singles night. Looking to meet someone? Need a dungeon buddy with a romantic twist? Looking for that perfect guy? Maybe a wife?

Come to the Acropolis for a game of Mix & Match®.... The random matchmaker... test the romance... Make a Match? Or back into the mix!

All single men will roll the dice to select a unique number. All the single women will do so as well. We'll match the numbers, then each match will take 2 minutes each to tell about themselves to the other... Then each declares the encounter a Match if they choose to continue on their own *winks*.... If both agree, they're on their way to romance! A bottle of wine... a dip in the roman bath.. who knows?

Or if one decides its a flop... both jump back into the mix and enter round two of matches...

If you're single... this is the event for you!!

The Acropolis is located east and south of Dungeon wrong, in the Kingdom of Dawn, Felucca. Follow the mountains that surround the dungeon Wrong to its southern most tip, then half a screen south, there we are!

And, finally, a reminder that voting on the village name ends today, so if you haven't voted already, click on the link under "Quick Links" and vote. I've heard that in the event of a tie, there will be a tie-breaker vote tomorrow, so keep your eye here for details.

Have a wonderful day!

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Monday, August 7, 2000

New Website!; Red Talon & Yorgrace Married

Greetings! Welcome to TRC's new [old] webpage. After about a year off for personal reasons, I'm back on web-duty. Thanks very much to Zircon for taking over and filling in for me while I was gone. While there's a lot of work left to do here [only the "Members" and "History" page have anything on them, and both are incomplete right now], some things you can look forward to here in the near future are: updated TRC news daily, as well as daily RP summaries from our infamous message board; links to important happenings with our allies and other RP guilds on Baja; and the latest updates and information from OSI. Plus whatever else I can find to throw in here. You'll be able to find important links quickly to your right ------> in the "Quick Links" section, whether it's this weeks vote, or the latest info on the current quest. Through the "Members" page you'll be able to find participating member's e-mail and/or icq numbers. Over the next several days I will be asking people for a variety of information; although no one is required to participate, the more you do [such as providing a brief bio for your character] the richer and more useful this website will be both for us, and for new recruits. I will update you here as new pages are completed. Also, PLEASE ignore the pop-up ads. There aren't supposed to be any [I paid for the site] and I will have them removed asap. Sorry!

In other, and far more fun, news: Last night Red Talon, Captain of the RCG, and Yorgrace, also of the RCG, were married in a ceremony at the Keep. For Pictures and a summary of the evening, follow this beautiful, glowing, underlined link. 

Thanks, and have a Great Day!