Patch 2 - 09/18/14 - Pre Launch

[Jack]

• Fame Gain/Karma loss on player killing has had an overhaul.
  
  • • Karma rewards for killing murderers and criminals removed.
      
    • Karma loss from murders take place after the player has been reported. If the player is not reported, there is no karma loss.
      
    • Karma loss from murders is no longer based on the target player's karma. It is now a fixed amount. Karma will drop to exactly (Kills*-1000).
      
    • A player can now gain fame from killing another player. If a player kills another player who has higher fame, they will receive a fame reward. This applies regardless of notoriety.
      

• Exact kill counts no longer shown on the phrase "I must consider my sins"
  
• Players will now get era accurate messages when using the phrase "I must consider my sins". If you are in stat loss, the text will show up dark red. These messages will be detailed in another post, or a possible wiki.
  
• There is now a 5 minute minimum time between reporting the same player for murder. This is OSI accurate and prevents abuse from people purposely suiciding onto their attacker repeatedly to give them murder counts. 5 minutes was an arbitrary number.
  
• Particular items were only usable from a range of 1, increased all of them to 2.
  
• Started adding in 1 second action delays. Does not appear possible from the root level so action delays will be added in over time.
  
• NPC guildmasters, stablemasters are invulnerable and show title on single click/allnames.
  
• Invulnerable NPCs no longer have yellow names on single click, invulnerable tag to be added at a later date.
  
• Items in your backpack retain their locations on death. This means for example, any newbie items will not scatter upon resurrection.
  
• Resurrection gump now has the T2A look to it. First of many.
  
• Bonding disabled.
  
• When stamina is below 5%, it will rapidly drop to 0 when you try and run. You can still walk without draining stamina. Likewise, when health is below 5%, you will rapidly lose stamina.
  
• Instruments no longer consume uses. They are unbreakable. You get no bonus in barding from having an exceptional instrument.
  
• Old style public moongate system implemented. This means moongates no longer have a list of destinations, you are simply taken to a location based on the current moon cycle.
  
• Adjusted skill gain formula so success/chance levels give less of a penalty, they were much too harsh.
  
• You can no longer start a party. Guild chat will remain active to give players a way to communicate in game without communication crystals.
  
• Added proper calculation for stat loss, 9-20%.
  
• You should no longer be able to gain virtues, disabled the gump.
  

[Jack]

In other news, an idea of launch time is set. There are a list of things we think are important before launch that we are working through. After launch, patches will slow down, but each patch will be of greater quality, rather than a lot of little things. We will be aiming to launch in around a month, sooner if possible.
Crafting has proved to be more of a pain than previously thought and will most likely be pulled before launch to revert to UO:R style menus. It will come at a later date.