Time -21:22 EST
Or the complete lack thereof... I'm sorry to announce that I have absolutely run out of time in my life and I've decided to drop some extraneous baggage. This page is unfortunately among these cut-backs. By the end of the day with classes and writing (that's writing for work - not web-page designing), I had no time to play Ultima Online or other games pending review since I had to update the page. Thanks for the short-lived legacy folks! I'll try to leave these pages up as long as possible since there is a lot of info UO fans will like to peruse.

Beware of the penguins -21:22 EST
Some rumor squashing at the DJ today:

We've seen many of you saying that the Charter Edition of Ultima Online is sold out. This is absolutely not true. There are still copies available. Visit the Shoppe section of the web site, or go directly to the EA Store to order a copy. Charter Editions will be shipped by two-day air, so you will get your copy of Ultima Online first!

Today we've done work on notoriety bugfixing, including implenting caps for notoriety loss on stealing and begging, putting in a more exponential curve for upward advancement, and a few other minor internal changes. Plus we've been working on the lag issues that manifested last night.

We are still working on a set of economic changes as discussed on this page previously.

I'm now on the Designer Dragon's mailing list, so I'll be receiving updates sooner (but of course I'll have to be at the computer before I post them up). I'm saving his exact messages in the Primer.

Please put down your mice -23:06 EST
The Scavenger Hunt is officially over according to the Development Journal, and the servers are accordingly down indefinitely. Here's what OSI had to say:

The Scavenger Hunt is over! Many thanks to all who participated. We learned a lot from the stress test and are developing some methods for handling the extreme load. Of the thousands who logged on to join in the search for crystals, fully half of them were logged into the server that holds Britain, and the wilderness around it. As a result this server (as well as others) experienced dramatic lag. Apologies to those who found themselves frozen solid.

We're going to be working on some methods of handling this, including splitting this highly popular region of the game across multiple servers to better handle the load, creating better load handling processes for offloading new arrivals, etc.

We did indeed get ten winners, despite the problems, by the time the test ended at 10pm. (There was a downtime of twenty minutes in the middle of the hunt while we took the servers down to alleviate some of the lag problems.)

For the complete list of winners, seek the DJ.

Early reception of the hunt -22:38 EST
Call in the dogs! It appears the OSI's first group activity has brought about the most server load yet, and the complaints are very visible about lag. Most UO conversations compose of either whining, accusations of running a biased contest, or both - and of course the obvious 'do you know where I can get the beta so I can be a whiner too' message. Personally, I stopped by for a while to throw my own bandwidth into finding those endearing young gems, and the connection speed was as good as ever. Go figure. As for finding the shards, it would help if I knew what they looked like, so the contest lost my interest and I focused on improving my tinkering skills.

In any case, I've managed to sift through the madness and put up a few constructive posts in the Primer. Check 'em out.

No updates today until 21:30 EST -06:23 EST
I'll be away from home until late tonight, so the page won't be updated thoroughly today. Sorry.

To tide the gap, here's some quick notes:

Lor has told me that Central does have some unworking commands:

Pets don't attack when told to.

I finally managed it by having my pets guard me, then I attacked the bull.

As an aside, I have no idea how to make a pet "stand down" after guarding me or anything else. They forever after walk around saying "ARG! Soandso looks upset!" or something like that. If there IS a command to stop this, then it should be posted in the UO docs (which is a bug in itself).

Also, the Designer Dragon was frequenting the Vault yesterday over complaints that the new skill-advancement system is population-based (meaning if there are already hundreds of blacksmiths in Britain, you'll find your skills honing less swiftly than you would if you were, say the only wrestler in town). I've snatched two of his posts which clarify the advancement system and put it up in the Primer. Thanks to Slyfiend for letting me know about this.

I apologize for the error with the date headers. Yesterday, both yesterday and the day before's headers appeared to have been news from a day before, but because I noticed the error today, everything that was news yesterday should be shown such and everything today is actually from today and not the day before. Thanks for the patience.

Newest AutoPatch -20:33 EST
The newest AutoPatch from Origin is now in the files section. No major revisions, but supposedly is better for those who need to catch up on older updates.

More Central news -20:22 EST
The Development Journal now has the specifics behind the Central opening. Here is the important information:

Central has been opened to the public (with limited capacity) with updated server code. This code has a fix to the stat advancement problem testers have noted on Atlantic. We'd like plenty of feedback on the advancement issue on the public boards, please! Central is also running under a memory debugger so it may be slow.

We're working on more fixes for notoriety problems. Issues we are aware of right now:

• Attacking monsters lowering notoriety upon occasion
• Extremely fast drops of notoriety
• Several loopholes for raising notoriety

Ultima Online Preview -19:09 EST
This article by my comrade at GamePen, Desslock (of GamePen RPG Therapy infamy), is pretty dated, but very well written. Worth a look for all who just can't get enough.

Official word on patch is in -19:02 EST
Plenty of updates in this latest patch, go here for the full scoop.

Scavenger Hunt -18:55 EST
Lord British (in all his brazen, resurrected glory) hath proclaimed a scavenger hunt. What does this mean for you? Well, maybe free stuff if you can fit an hour into your Wednesday night schedule. Here's the official word (the important part):

Eerie crystals are falling from the heavens, and within each is an image of the world of Britannia. These crystals are of two different sizes and three types, and with strange names are engraved 'pon each, for a total of six different crystals. Lord British has decreed that these crystals must be gathered up by all the populace, heroes and merchants alike.

As prizes, the first person to gather all six instances shall receive a free Charter Edition of Ultima Online signed by the members of the development team! And the next nine people shall receive a free Charter Edition! In the event of no single player gathering all six different crystal shards, the player with the most will get the first prize. In the event of a tie, the winner will be selected randomly.

In addition, twenty people shall be selected at random from those who log in during the event to receive free copies of the regular edition of Ultima Online. These twenty winners will be announced in the days after the event itself.

The RULES:

• The crystals shall appear all over the world.
• You must have six different crystals--they will be marked by name.
• The contest shall last between 8pm and 9pm Central time, barring any unforeseen events.
• You must call a Game Master when you have gathered all six, and state that you have all six crystals in your reason for calling the GM.
• The overall winner will be the first player to make the call and whose possession of the six crystals has been verified by a Game Master.
• If teams form to gather the crystals, the prize will only be given to the person who calls the game master and has all six crystals in his backpack.

Notoriety Adjustments to Come -18:37 EST
Verbatim from the Development Journal:

We're going to adjust how notoriety works again slightly. Specifically, notoriety will be affected by attacks again, but only if it would have gone down as a result. And notoriety will still be affected by kills, but only if it would have gone up as a result.

We're putting in the same advancement curve on stats as is now present on skills.

Accordingly or not, a new 770k patch has been added (1.23.41). No official description yet.

UO Configurer -09:34 EST
I've put up another new program in the files section - the UO Configurer. It harmlessly edits your uo.cfg to turn off time wasting segments of startup (like the introduction and chest animation). Thanks to Jeremy Dorn for bringing this file to my attention.

Whoa! -09:24 EST
I went to the chamber early last night, never thinking OSI would be so busy on a Saturday night, but their dedication (or lack of social lives) is very impressive this weekend. The skill advancement fixes were further fine-tuned (atrophy is further slowed) and notoriety now only takes effect after a battle, so guards won't interrupt quarrels in town until the end of the battle. All these additions required another player wipe. The DJ also has an interesting paragraph on morals:

We're aware how concerned the players who like to play evil characters are about the recent changes. Remember, Ultimas have always been about virtue and difficult moral choices. Those who wish to lead a truly amoral life should consider relocating to the wilderness or to Buccaneer's Den, where there are no city guards. Where there are bugs in the system, we will of course be rectifying them. But the system is as intended. Thieves and killers for hire should make a point of working hard to maintain their reputations so that cities are not denied to them. If you wish to be a rogue in civilization, you will need to be a dashing and friendly rogue, not a greedy one.

This seems to be a significant backpedal from the team's opinion at the start of the beta test. Perhaps the complaints about player killing are reaching a sore spot. I'm curious what everyone else thinks about this - submit your comments!

Skill advancement fixed -20:13 EST
In response to numerous posts at the Vault, OSI has found and corrected several skill advancement problems that arrived with the newest patches. Here's the official list from the Development Journal:

• The maximum amount of stamina taken for shoving has been halved.
• The amount of weight you can carry has been increased by 30 stones across the board.
• There are some new interface windows: the "counting" window for setting quantity of an item, the color picker, and the journal are all redone. The journal's lower tab now serves to resize the size of the scroll.
• The frequency of magic items on monsters has been decreased considerably.

More fixes... -18:55 EST
Two more small patches are available for download now, bringing the most current client up to version 1.23.40. There are many substantial enhancements, including some major notoriety changes. Be sure to check out the patch description page.

Old News