Patch notes 1999

This is the page for patches to Ultima Online during 1999. All patch notes on or after May 25th 1999 are available at [1]. All updates prior to that date were taken from the now defunct www.mengaxe.com web page. As such, the patch notes' formatting differs from their origonal formatting.

1999 Patch Notes

MINI UPDATE Jan 5 1999 9:02AM

• A small mini publish went into effect that will change the following things:
  • If putting on a piece of platemail armor would move your stamina below 0, you will not be allowed to wear it.
  • Spells from an Ancient Wyrm should no longer permanently affect your stats.
  • Only items that you first pick up can be equipped.
  • Slimes will no longer split when attacked.
• This should be effective after the servers go down and come back up in today's daily maintenence.

Treasure maps and more! Jan 19 1999 3:05PM

• New items are added to carpentry: Easels, Music stands, Staves, Fishing Poles, Dressforms, Sheperd's Crooks, and Tall Music stands.
• "Provocation spam" is removed.
• A problem with green and yellow potions stating you need free hands when in fact you do have a hand free will be fixed.
• Paralysis will no longer prevent firebreathing creatures from breathing fire.
• Tame firebreathers will no longer breathe fire at bystanders.
• Guildmasters will once again receive a message when they try to set an abbreviation that is already taken.
• All guildmembers will get a message when another guild declares war against them.
• Fishing will now place the fish in the backpack. If the backpack is full, it simply won't even get the fish.
• Create food now creates the food in the backpack. A wider range of food can be created as well.
• A cartography exploit was corrected.
• The anatomy skill will now give an indication of how much stamina the target has if you are of high enough skill level.
• Help menu web links will now point at the correct locations on the new website.
• Hiding changes
  • Simply tabbing out of combat will not make it possible to hide. Instead, it will be dependent on line-of-sight to your attackers, and distance from them. The lower your Hiding skill, the farther away you need to get.
  • The delay in using hiding again was removed if you failed hiding because you were in combat.
• Your strength statistic no longer affects your weight. Previously, as you gained strength, your character's weight increased. Your carrying capacity will be unaffected by this change.
• Spells that modify strength now affect how much you can carry.
• You can no longer cast firefield in town.
• Casting energy vortex in a blocked location will no longer cost reagents.
• Keyrings now behave like regular keys for lockdown and securing items.
• Locking down a container now asks whether you want to make it secure or not.
• Targeting code was fixed so that clicking on moving objects should function correctly.
• Work is being done on correcting the "rubberband" effect.
• A new type of quest will be added involving treasure maps found on certain monsters.
  • Certain monsters will carry treasure maps.
  • There are several different tiers of difficulty to the treasure maps, and the guardian creatures get commensurately tougher for the higher level treasure maps. Of course, there is also nicer treasure!
  • You must use the Cartography skill on the map to decode it. The higher the difficulty of the map, the higher the necessary Cartography skill needed to decipher it. A pin will mark the location of the treasure.
  • When you find the location of the treasure, you can use any mining tool to dig for it. How wide an area you search with a given attempt will depend on your Mining skill, but your skill will not advance from digging. IMPORTANT: The person who used the cartography skill on the map must also be the miner.
  • When you dig up the treasure, guardian monsters may appear. The chests are also likely going to be trapped and locked, and only the simplest chests can be opened with Magic Unlock. For more complex locks, you'll need an expert lockpicker.
• A general revision will be done to treasure carried by creatures.
• A polymorph exploit was corrected.
• Tailoring receives an update.
  • Tailoring is now difficulty-based. You will not be able to craft certain items until you reach a certain skill level.
  • It will be possible to craft exceptional quality items and below-average quality items.
  • Exceptional items made by a grandmaster tailor will carry a maker's mark.
  • Tailoring will automatically draw from the leather in your backpack if you are making a leather item. It will not be necessary to target the hides.
  • If the item is cloth, you will be prompted to target the cloth you wish to use.
• You will only be able to initiate an attack on a player or NPC if you are within 15 tiles and have line of sight to them.
• Houses which gained multiple doors in the same location will be fixed up to have a single door in that space the next time the owner changes the locks.
• Poisoning is difficulty based. This means, as you get more skilled, you will need to use more powerful potions to increase your skill.
• There is no strong dose message. You either fail or succeed. The dose is based on the strength of the potion used. I.E. if you succeed in putting a deadly poison on a blade, the blade will have a deadly poison dosage.
• If you fail, there's a chance that you will poison yourself. The poison will be slightly less strong than the dosage you were attempting to use.
• Serpent pillars will be active again, and will work both going to and coming from the Lost Lands.
• Inscription will not use up a blank scroll nor reagents when it fails because your hands are full.
• A trick for placing house add-ons on boats was fixed.
• Damage from the explosion spell will now happen immediately.
• The "a scroll" will be removed from creature treasures.

Client patch: improved targeting, removes "rubberbanding" Jan 21 1999 3:04PM

• Those who have not upgraded to the Second Age will find that Second Age-specific UO.CFG lines are now ignored.
• Problems with translated messages getting lost and not displaying when using the automatic translator feature should be fixed.
• The "black screen" problem when placing houses should be fixed.
• "Rubberband lag" is eliminated. There should no longer be any bouncebacks as the player runs through crowded areas.
• Targeting should now be much faster when single-clicking to receive a targeting cursor. This will make it much easier to hit moving targets.

Additional client patch Jan 22 1999 10:53AM

This patch brings the client to version 1.25.36d.

• The UO icon should now be displayed again in the window bar.
• ALT-ENTER should function correctly again.
• Problems some players had when trying to launch are corrected.
• The TRANSERV.EXE executable will not load if it is not enabled now.
• The problem with targetting sometimes getting called twice is corrected.

Client brought to 1.25.36e Jan 22 1999 4:13PM

• The skills window gains a listing and a button for the new Meditation skill. This skill will not be operational on any shards except the Test Center until the next server update.
• Problems with certain animations not displaying properly will be corrected.
• Problems with fonts not always displaying correctly will be fixed.

Client Patch Feb 23 1999 2:32PM

• The client patch you received today allows two new skills to show up in your skills list, and will allow some extra functionality for upcoming updates. These two skills will not be available until the next update.

Colored ore, granting karma, and combat changes Feb 2 1999 10:57AM

• Colored ore, ingots and armor go in
• Mining
  • Eight new varieties of minerals can now be found.
  • Each variety offers a unique color.
  • The different colors can only be found by miners of specific skill levels--only Grandmasters or near Grandmasters can find the rarest mineral, valorite.
  • Once a vein is located, it will always be at that location from then on. (It behooves miners to conceal this location!) We have seen the feedback from those concerned that these locations will become ambush points. If this develops into a problem, we will make the veins move. For now, however, they will remain where they are found.)
  • Even a known vein will not always yield the rare mineral.
  • You cannot combine ore of different colors.
  • You can only smelt the colored minerals if you meet the Mining skill requirement to do so.
  • Smelting more difficult minerals will result in a greater skill gain than smelting easy minerals.
• Blacksmithing
  • You cannot work the resultant ingots unless you meet the Blacksmithing skill requirement to do so.
  • You can make colored armor and shields from the colored ingots. You cannot make weapons from colored ingots, and doing so will just make a weapon that looks like one made from iron ingots.
  • Known issue: making weapons from regular ingots will tell you that you are losing the color, even though it is not a colored ingot.
• Combat changes
  • Mace weapons now cause stamina loss and extra damage to armor when they hit an opponent.
  • Your swing rate or firing rate with all weapons is now dependent on your current stamina, instead of your dexterity.
  • Damage for your blow is now assessed on your opponent on the start of the swing, instead of at the end. This change makes a fast connection less of an advantage in melee combat. This will apply to wrestling and attacks made by monsters as well.
  • Equipping a weapon now causes a short "prep time" before you can start swinging.
  • Being good at anatomy will give a bonus to the damage you do in combat.
• Changes to magic
  • Meditation goes in. This new skill allows faster regeneration of mana.
  • Your mana regeneration rate is now dependent on your level of Meditation skill, your intelligence stat, and the amount of armor you are wearing. This is termed the "passive use" of the skill.
  • The skill can be used from the skill gump, or via a macro.
  • The title associated with this skill is "Mage".
  • You cannot be holding anything except a spellbook, nor be wearing metallic or bone armor to use it. You also cannot be drunk at the time.
  • If you succeed, your mana regeneration rate is doubled from your usual rate while you meditate.
  • You stop meditating if you do basically anything, including using another skill, trying to hide, moving, casting a spell, using or trying to pick up an object, etc.
  • A problem with the polymorph spell getting "stuck" was fixed. Spellbooks affected will be retroactively fixed.
  • The Magic Reflect spell now gives an error if the target already has Magic Reflect on, and does not consume mana or reagents.
  • The magic lock spell now works against unsecure locked down containers.
  • So does the magic untrap spell.
  • Magic unlock and magic untrap will no longer work on secure containers.
• Housing and furnishing changes
  • The one-room house which ramdomly changed appearance every time you tried to place it no longer does so.
  • Holiday trees and ornaments are deleted. Holiday tree deeds are unaffected, but are disabled until the holiday season next year.
  • You can no longer deed a locked-down holiday tree.
  • You can no longer attempt to pick the lock on a secure container.
  • The "large smithy" has been renamed to "large house with patio."
  • Significant lockdown changes were made. Lockdown is no longer done with keys. Instead, it is done with spoken commands. These commands work only for the house owner.
    • "I wish to lock this down" gives a targeting cursor and does basic lockdown.
    • "I wish to release this" gives a targeting cursor and unsecures and releases the object from lockdown.
    • "I wish to secure this" gives a targeting cursor and locks down and secures the object if it's a container.
      • I wish to unsecure this" gives a targeting cursor and only unsecures the container. It does not release it from lockdown.
• Granting karma to other players
  • Saying "I honor thee" will bring up a targeting cursor.
  • Targeting another player will remove karma points from you and give some karma points to your target.
  • You will automatically turn to face them and bow. Known issue: there's a graphical glitch if you are polymorphed and honor a player. This will be fixed shortly.
  • You have to have a positive karma of a certain level to do this.
• Other skills
  • Using bandages will now unhide you.
  • Mapmaking now has a skill delay.
  • There is now a blacksmith NPC guild, and blacksmith guildmasters will appear in appropriate shops and halls.
• Miscellaneous
  • Hair dye is now permanent.
  • The error message given when you selected the last color on each page of hairdye is now fixed.
  • Some cave entrances to the Lost Lands have been slightly adjusted in terms of where you end up when you exit.
  • Poisonous creatures should start poisoning at the correct frequency again.
  • Some map errors were corrected.
  • Redeeded vendor deeds will now weigh 90 stones. They can now be looted as well (they will drop to your corpse). Vendors must now be emptied before they can be redeeded.

Female chain mail armor! Feb 23 1999 2:51PM

This is a client patch only.

• Several things that could cause client crashes were fixed. Among them, invisible vendors, overly long rune names, and a problem with popup help.
• The translation server will stay disabled when disabled.
• The timezone sorting of servers should work correctly now regardless of your timezone.
• The buttons for the new Disarm Trap and Stealth skills were added. These buttons will be non-functional until the server update goes in that activates the skills.
• Female chainmail armor is now in! Wearing chainmail will automatically select the correct animation based on your character's gender.

Thieves Guild, new skills, and more Feb 24 1999 1:06PM

• Skills
  • Stealth
    • This new skill allows you to take steps while hidden.
    • You have to be hiding when you start to use the skill.
    • The more armor you are wearing, the harder it is to use Stealth.
    • If you run, you become unhidden.
    • Any of the actions which normally unhides you still will.
    • The amount of steps you can take depends on how high your skill is.
    • You use this skill off of the skills window.
    • You cannot learn or use this skill until you have at least 80 in Hiding. Because of this, you cannot select it as a starting skill.
    • The skill title associated with this skill is "rogue."
    • If you qualify for training in the skill, you can learn it from thieves and thief guildmasters. Use the keyword "stealth."
  • Remove Trap
    • This new skill allows you to remove traps found on containers, as well as disarm other sorts of traps, such as ones found in dungeons.
    • This skill is used from the skills window. It will bring up a targeting cursor. Then target the trap to be disarmed. Of course, you need to be able to see the trap to disarm it.
    • The skill title associated with this skill is "rogue."
    • You cannot learn or use this skill until you have at least 50 skill in both Lockpicking and Detecting Hidden. Because of this, you cannot select it as a starting skill.
    • If you fail at using the skill, the trap will go off.
    • Different traps have different levels of difficulty.
    • Wearing gloves will make it harder to succeed. The heavier the gloves, the worse it is.
    • If you qualify for training in the skill, thieves and thief guildmasters can train you in it. You can use any of these keywords:
      • disarm
      • disarming
      • remove
      • removing
  • Detect Hidden
    • This skill has gained the ability to detect traps.
    • It works just like now, examining a range around the location you target. As before, the range is scaled based on your skill.
    • Some traps (freestanding ones in dungeons) are invisible until detected, and when found will become visible to all.
    • At higher skill levels, merely coming close to simpler traps will result in "trap here" appearing over the invisible trap. Only the player with high skill will see these messages, though! The trap must be manually revealed for others to see it.
    • The professional title for this skill is now "scout."
  • Forensics
    • Using this skill on a player will reveal their affiliation with the Thieves Guild, if they are members. The difficulty of this is based on the thief's Stealing skill.
    • If you have a certain level of ability in the skill, using it on recently picked containers will reveal who the lockpicker was.
    • The professional title for this skill is now "detective."
  • Stealing
    • The more armor you are wearing, the harder it will be to steal.
    • You will not be able to steal from other players unless you join the NPC Thieves Guild, or unless the target is an opponent in a guild war.
    • You can join the Thieves' Guild the usual way, by finding a Guildmaster and asking him to join. It will cost you an entrance fee.
    • You cannot join unless your character has existed for at least one week.
    • The character may not have any murders to his name.
    • Being reported for murder whilst a member of the Thieves Guild will result in summary expulsion, and you will not be able to rejoin for at least one week.
    • You cannot join the Thieves Guild unless you have at least a 60 in the Stealing skill.
    • Members of the Thieves Guild have access to a special item, the disguise kit.
    • The disguise kit looks like a wig stand.
    • You can get one by asking the guildmaster about 'disguise.'
    • It will cost you 700 gold.
    • He'll only sell them to Thieves Guild members.
    • When used:
      • You can elect to change your hairstyle.
      • If you are a male character, you can also change your facial hair.
      • The hair will come out gray, but you can use hairdye on it as usual.
      • It will also randomly generate a name for you.
      • All changes will last for 2 hours.
      • The disguise kit will only work for Thieves Guild members.
    • Members of the Thieves Guild do not display professional titles on the paperdoll to anyone except themselves, regardless of skill level or fame.
    • Members of the Thieves Guild can be attacked with impunity, because they are not allowed to report anyone for murder.
    • In towns, it is still illegal to start fights, so Thieves Guild members are still safe from attack, as they can call the guards (unless of course, they just committed a crime).
    • Just as with any guild, you can leave the guild by finding the Guildmaster and tellng him you quit. However, the Guild does not let go easily--it will take one week for leaving the guild to take effect.
    • Victims of thieves can feel free to attack them, as they will not go gray for attacking a thief who has stolen from them in the last two minutes.
    • There will be four possible outcomes to stealing:
      • True success: you get the item and are not noticed.
      • Partial success: you get the item, but are noticed.
      • Partial failure: you do not get the item, but are not noticed.
      • Total failure: you do not get the item, and your attempt is noticed.
      • The professional title for this skill is now "pickpocket."
  • Lockpicking
    • Wearing gloves will affect your success rate at lockpicking. The heavier the gloves, the harder it will be.
    • The professional title for this skill is now "rogue."
  • Tailoring
    • A problem whereby you could not create the item because it stated that your pack was full was corrected.
  • Mining
    • A bug with smelting success was fixed.
  • New skill titles
    • The professional title for Inscription is now "scribe."
    • The professional title for Snooping is now "pickpocket."
    • The professional title for Herding is now "shepherd."
    • The professional title for Meditation is now "stoic."
    • The professional title for Mapmaking is now "cartographer."
    • The professional title for Hiding is now "rogue."
• Magic
  • It will not be possible to learn magic resistance in towns.
  • Some third-party exploits involving using items in the bank when not at the bank were fixed.
  • The following spells have had their chance of resist and their effect adjusted:
    • Mana drain
    • Mana vampire
    • Paralyze
  • Magic Trap scrolls will now be deleted after successful use.
  • You will no longer be able to report people for murder after recalling away.
  • Your magic resistance will now affect how much damage you take from spells. You can have up to half the damage removed by effectively resisting a spell.
  • Your Evaluating Intelligence skill will affect how well your target resists a spell, thus affecting how much damage they take.
• World
  • Items will now spawn in chests and other containers.
  • The items within will depend on the location of the container.
  • These containers will be locked, with the lock's difficulty being based on the value of the contents.
  • Some of these containers may be trapped as well. The power of the trap will also be scaled by the value of the contents.
  • Traps will begin to appear randomly in dungeons.
  • These traps will be invisible to the normal observer.
  • They can be detected with the Detect Hidden skill.
  • Players who have a high level of Detect Hidden will be able to detect their presence by merely walking near them.
  • Some traps may be poisoned.
  • Capability was added to have special event regions, to allow things like town invasions.
• Items
  • Trash barrels will be added.
  • Owners can add a trash barrel to your house by saying, "I wish to place a trash barrel." It will appear at your feet.
  • Placing a barrel obeys the same rules as locking down items in houses: not by the door, not on steps, etc.
  • You can only have one trash barrel per house.
  • The trash barrel looks like a silvery barrel.
  • Owners and friends of the house can put items in the trash barrel. Three minutes after they do so, the item will be deleted. (This means you can change your mind and remove items if you need to).
  • The owner of the house can chop up the barrel to get rid of it.
  • Some line of sight changes were made to prevent 3rd party exploits.
• Treasure map changes
  • Certain treasure maps that used to be distorted will henceforth be created correctly.
  • The treasure is no longer necessarily at the center of the treasure map.
  • Finished treasure maps will now say "a treasure map completed by (player name)."
  • Some bad treasure locations were fixed.
  • Sextants will no longer give coordinates. They will only give latitude and longitude.
  • Carving stacks of fish should now work correctly.
  • Using a healing potion will now place the empty vial in your backpack, instead of at your feet.
  • A problem with putting tables over chests causing items to disappear was corrected. As a result, you can now freely stack chests and crates.
• Creatures and NPCs
  • You can no longer avoid a deadlier poison by taking a milder one, and getting hit by deadlier poison when already affected by a milder one will supercede the weaker poison.
  • Pets now have 'orneriness' factors as far as obeying commands.
  • The harder the pet is to tame originally, the more 'ornery' it is. This means that it is more likely to refuse commands given to it.
  • The better the player is at Animal Taming, the more they can overcome the pet's orneriness. This means that those with low animal taming will have great difficulty in controlling creatures such as dragons, draken, or nightmares. On the flip side, good animal tamers will be able to order around easy creatures such as cats and dogs, even when they are starving.
  • Human NPCs will now immediately delete items they scavenge from the ground, rather than hanging on to them for a while. This was done because of items accumulating in the NPCs if deletion failed.
  • Blacksmith Guildmasters should now give the correct guildname when you join their guild.
  • Wandering mages and Mage Guildmasters are now able to teach the Meditation skill.

Mini-update with small fixes Feb 26 1999 11:25AM

• House owners and friends will be able to instantly reveal anyone hidden in their house, regardless of skill level, on the grounds that they know their house better than any stranger. This will not cause the skill to go up.
• Cutting up fish will work correctly.
• Fixes for pets, hirelings, and summoned creatures not obeying commands will go in. In particular:
• Hirelings will not be affected at all by your taming skill.
• Summoned creatures won't be either.
• Pets will now function correctly. This is to say, higher level tamers will be able to order around powerful creatures easily, whereas lower level tamers will have difficulty getting them to obey orders.
• The time your character must exist before being allowed to join the Thieves Guild has been shortened.
• Adding items to a trash can past the container limit will cause the instant deletion of everything in the trash can.
• You will only be able to steal specific items from enemy guild members, instead of only being able to random steal from them.
• An exploit for getting slow weapons to hit faster has been fixed.
• The mana drain and mana vampire spells have had the chance of being resisted raised substantially.
• The stealth skill now will give a message when used successfully.
• A problem with gate travel scrolls was corrected.

Client patch Mar 8 1999 3:17PM

• A client patch was posted today which should greatly help with client stability problems. Note that if you downloaded an experimental client from leper.owo.com earlier this week, you will need to restore your original client before patching, or else the patch will fail!

Mini - Publish Today to all servers Mar 19 1999 10:49AM CST

• We are publishing a mini-patch today that includes the following:
  • Corpses from all murderers will be red.
  • Casting gate on an unmarked recall rune will no longer raise magery.Energy vortexes and blade spirits will function a lot like the field spells with regards to the reputation consequences. They still attack victims normally, and the caster is completly responsible for their actions. This includes being cast as a murderer should the blade spirit/ vortex attack and contribute to the death of the victim. However, merely running into a blade spirit or energy vortex will no longer be grounds for reporting the caster for murder. The caster will become criminal should someone take indirect damage from such a spell, but much like fire field, they will not be reportable for murder.

Blue PK changes, fishing, and more Mar 28 1999 9:35AM CST

• Blue PK changes
• We are slowly phasing in changes to the reputation system to reduce antisocial behavior. In this update, we have some changes that will push blue PKs to being red.
• A new long-term counter will be added that tracks murder counts.
  • This counter will go up when you are reported for murder, like the current murder count.
  • This counter will decay at the rate of 1 every 40 hours (the current counter goes down 1 every 8 hours).
  • While this counter is five or more, you will highlight red, and will be vulnerable to attack.
  • Stat loss will still depend on the standard murder counter.
  • Another new counter we term "pingpong" will be added.
  • This counter increases each time you go red.
  • If this counter reaches five, you will be permanently red (meaning, you will be attackable. You will not suffer stat loss unless your murder count is also high).
  • This counter does not decay.
• Murder will seriously affect your karma.
• Skills
  • Fishing
    • Fishing has received a major overhaul. There are yet more changes planned for fishing in future updates.
    • Based on your skill level, you now have a chance of pulling up the following (listed in increasing difficulty order)
      • One of any of several types of boots
      • Fish, as always
      • Magical fish, which can boost stamina, strength, intelligence, or dexterity.
      • Treasure maps
      • Messages in bottles
      • Sea serpents (on failure)
      • Deep sea serpents (on failure, and if deep in the ocean)
    • Fishing for sunken treasure:
      • Double-clicking on a message in a bottle will extract a waterstained SOS.
      • The SOS will have sextant coordinates on it which will be somewhere in the ocean.
      • Fishing at the location given will try to recover the sunken treasure, as long as the SOS is at the top level of your backpack. You may recover bones, artifacts from the sunken ship, or the treasure itself.
      • You can keep fishing until you get the treasure, at which point the message disappears.
  • Carpentry
    • New items have been made craftable.
    • These items require tailoring to make.
      • Small beds
      • Large beds
    • Ballot boxes
      • The first person to use the ballot box becomes the owner of the box.
      • The owner of the box can set topics for the box. When they do so, the votes are zeroed out. As the owner types in the topic, it will present to them the full topic thus far in the bottom corner.
      • The owner of the box can also zero out the votes at any time.
      • Non-owners can use the box, see the current yes/no votes, and vote yes or no on the topic.
      • A given character can only vote once on a topic.
      • You can chop them up to make them go away.
    • Dartboards
    • Water troughs (yes, these work as water sources)
    • Musical instruments, which require musicianship to craft:
      • Lap harp
      • Standing harp
      • Drum
      • Lute
      • Tambourine
      • Tambourine with tassle
  • Tinkering
    • New items have been added to tinkering.
      • Jewelcrafting. Crafting jewelry requires you to target a gemstone to add to the jewelry.
        • Necklaces
        • Earrings
        • Wedding rings
          • These items say "a wedding ring" on them.
        • These items are "newbiefied" and will remain with your corpse when you die.
      • Globes
      • Pewter mugs
      • Keyrings
      • Iron keys
      • Hatchets
      • Mortar and pestles
      • Candelabras
      • Forks
      • Spoons
      • Goblets
      • Lockpicks
  • Hiding
    • You can no longer hide while casting a spell.
    • Using hiding sets the number of stealthy steps you can take to zero.
  • Stealth
    • Shoving past someone while stealthy will reveal you.
    • Snooping will reveal you.
    • You cannot stealth while riding a horse.
    • It will become substantially more difficult to start stealth when in the vicinity of other players.
      • The more players, the harder it will be.
      • They have to be within 10 paces to count against you.
      • Only players affect this, not NPCs.
      • This only affects when you start stealthing, not while you walk stealthed.
    • The number of steps you can take while stealthed has been halved.
  • Detect Hidden
    • Friends of a house will be able to detect hidden in the house and instantly reveal everyone.
  • Magery
    • Elemental summoning in towns will be disabled.
    • The average damage of flamestrike has been raised. The maximum damage remains the same.
  • Other changes
    • Problems with the exit from the ice dungeon will be corrected.
    • You will be able to declare guild wars via new menu option that lets you just target a member of the opposing guild.
    • New options have been added to the disguise kit.
    • Optimizations were done to improve guildstone performance.
    • The blacksmith's guild will list the correct guild name when you attempt to join the blacksmith's guild.
    • Architects will now buy back house deeds.
      • When you come near an architect, if you have a house deed in your backpack, the arhcitect will offer to appraise it or buy it.
      • If you say "appraise" to the architect, you will get a targeting cursor so you can target the deed you want appraised. The arhictect will tell you what he would pay for that deed.
      • Dropping the deed on the architect will sell the deed to him. The money you get will be placed in your bank box automatically.
    • A major optimization was done to houses and boats. You will no longer receive the objects that are on or in houses and boats until you step on them.
      • You will still be able to see monsters, animals, or players.
      • You will still be able to see things that are on the steps.
      • This will significantly improve your connection when around buildings that are full of stuff.
      • This will also cause a noticeable pause when you step onto the step of a building, as the contents of the building are downloaded to you.
      • You will still receive the contents of the last building you set foot in, as long as you are within update range. This means that stepping on and then off and then on the step again will not cause repeated delays.

Mini-Update Published To All Shards Mar 28 1999 9:37AM CST

• Sea Serpents:
  • Sea Serpents can only be found in really deep water.
  • A small percentage of Sea Serpents will be Deep-Sea Serpents.
  • Sea Serpents will return to deep water after 5 minutes if not attacked.
  • Sea Serpents will now immediately attack the fisherman that brought them from the deep.
• Fishing:
  • All special items found from fishing can only be found in deep water.
  • Other than boots, special items such as treasure maps, SOS's, and magical fish are more rare.
  • When fish aren't biting, skill doesn't increase.
  • If you are hidden, fishing will now unhide you.
• Pets:
  • For right now, pets are unable to guard corpses.
  • Nightmares:
    • Flying for nightmares has been removed to prevent a house break-in exploit.
    • Stats have been modified to better balance them.

April 14th update Apr 14 1999 11:01AM CST

• Skills and Magic
  • Anatomy and Evaluate Intelligence will no longer work on Town Criers.
  • You will once again be able to fish up magic fish and boots from shore.
  • The targeting range for all spells that target people or creatures is now 10 tiles.
  • The area of effect for all spells that target locations is now 15 tiles.
  • A problem with the interaction of paralyze and reactive armor was fixed.
• Items
  • Once an item has been placed in the trade window, you will not be able to remove it unless you cancel the trade. Cancelling will return all items to the backpacks of the two players involved. This was done in order to reduce the viability of common "trade window scams."
  • You can no longer overload yourself by placing items in a locked container that is in your backpack.
  • Various optimizations were done to guildstones to improve performance.
  • You will no longer be able to lock things down under your house sign.
• NPCs and Creatures
  • Pack llamas no longer create fur.
  • Real estate brokers will now stay put. They also now sell ink wells and blank scrolls.
• Reputation
  • An exploit involving evading murder count with a particular item was corrected.
  • You will be able to determine whether you will receive stat loss on resurrection. If you say "I must consider my sins" you will receive a message about your murder count.
    • If you have no murder count, and you are not currently red, you will get "Fear not, thou hast not slain the innocent."
    • If you have been reported, but currently have no murder count, you will get "Fear not, thou hast not slain the innocent in some time." (even if you are red)
    • If you have murder count, but it is not enough to result in stat loss, you will get "Although thou hast slain the innocent, thy deeds shall not bring retribution upon thy return to the living." (even if you are red)
    • If you are liable for stat loss, you will get "If thou should return to the land of the living, the innocent shall wreak havoc upon thy soul."
• Note: House Deeds purchased after April 16th
  • House deeds that are purchased off of npcs will be considered newbie items. If you are a murderer and you die, a house deed will be left on your corpse. If you are not a murderer and you die, the deed will stay on your ghost character. If you set these items down, they will decay rapidly.

Mini-publish fixing monsters spawning in houses May 10 1999 3:16PM CST

• A mini-publish was done to all shards today to correct problems with monsters spawning inside of houses. This will take effect next time the servers go down for daily maintenance.

New tinkering menu, pets, auto-stacking, and more. May 25 1999 9:41AM CST

• Skills
  • Tinkering
    • Tinkering will have a new menu with tabbed pages. We are testing out this menu style with this skill before adopting its use for all skills.
    • "Make Last Item" is now an option on the tinkering menu. Choosing this will simply try to make the last tinker item you made.
    • Tinker-crafted tools will now have durability based on the skill of the tinker who made the tool. In other words, a hammer made by a tinker with only 5 skill will last much less time than a hammer made by a grandmaster tinker.
    • Scales for weighing items are now a craftable item. You can double-click the scales and target an item to get its weight. (We know this isn't real useful, but thought shops might like this item for decorative purposes).
    • A new piece of art for tinkering tools will exist (and be craftable). It works exactly like the older piece of art, but is a lot easier to click on. The old piece of art will still be in use.
    • Traps will no longer work on ballot boxes.
    • Tinkered lockpicks will now stack correctly.
    • Both sorts of tinker tools will become craftable.
    • Tinkering is now difficulty-based. This means that some items will require a higher skill than others. Items you cannot make at all will not show up on your menus, and difficult items will fail more often than items that are easy for your skill level. You will get greater skill gains from making difficult items than easy ones.
  • Animal Taming and Animal Lore
    • Pet "nerfing" when crossing server boundaries will be fixed. This actually affected all creatures throughout the game, so you may find some creatures being tougher than previously. All creatures have been fixed retroactively.
    • "Death taming" is fixed. Dying while taming a creature will abort the taming process.
    • Pet follow speed has been increased.
    • You can now give all your pets orders by prefacing your order with "all." For example, saying, "all follow me" will make all your pets follow you. The list of commands this works with is:
      • all follow me
      • all guard me
      • all come
      • all stay
      • all guard me
      • all stop
    • "Breath nerfing" (dragons and other firebeathing creatures losing their fire breath) should be fixed. This fix is retroactive for all existing creatures.
    • Loyalty checks are now done for all pet commands (previously, certain commands did not check the pet's loyalty).
    • Transfer and friending actually do two loyalty checks--one for the old owner and one for the new. Both must succeed for the order to be obeyed.
    • Pet "orneriness" is now a much larger factor. The tougher an animal was to originally tame, the tougher it will be to control in general. The higher your taming skill and animal lore skills, the better able to control the animal you will be. Animal taming is more significant for this than animal lore is.
    • The professional title for Animal Taming is now "Tamer" instead of "Ranger."
    • The professional title for Animal Lore is now "Ranger" instead of "Scholar."
  • Fishing: The chance of pulling up messages in bottles will be increased somewhat.
  • Cooking: Cutting a stack of fish will now cut the entire stack at once.
  • Healing
    • Healing delays have been adjusted:
      • Healing someone else now takes 5 seconds. Healing yourself still takes 15 seconds.
      • Curing poison on someone else now takes 6 seconds. Curing it on yourself still takes 18 seconds.
      • The delay for resurrecting with the healing skill is now ten seconds.
  • The range for snooping will now be 1 tile.
  • Tailoring
    • Bandages will now automatically stack when you make them. There will also only be one type created (instead of two types that do not stack together, like now).
    • Using scissors on hides will make cut up leather which is lighter.
  • Magery
    • The following beneficial spells will no longer be reflectable, and will not remove magic reflect if the target has it:
      • Agility
      • Strength
      • Cunning
      • Protection
      • Bless
    • Using the paralyze spell on an innocent will now make you eligible to receive a murder count.
    • You will no longer be able to transfer ownership of summoned creatures.
  • The armslore skill will be revised so that its messages will better match the current damage ranges of weapons.
  • Carpenters will be able to craft boards out of logs.
  • Line of sight checks will be added to the following skills, preventing their use through walls:
    • Fishing
    • Mining
    • Provocation
  • Spam and overlong delays are being removed from the following skills:
    • Alchemy
    • Lumberjacking
    • Mining
    • Tailoring
    • Blacksmithing
• Other
  • Monster camps will no longer spawn partially in houses.
  • Ghosts will be able to use gates by double-clicking on them.
  • A problem with hues updating on objects is fixed. This manifested when you dyed clothing and it wouldn't change color until you moved it.
  • You will now be able to get different types of meat by carving corpses (eg, plucked birds or hams).
  • House bans of players will now be by account instead of by character. All current players you have in your ban lists will still be banned, but it will not automatically convert them to account bans--you will need to reban them for their whole account to be banned.
  • All house deeds (redeeded, bought, existing, new, whatever) will remain with the ghost when you die, and will not be stealable.
  • Attackers will now receive a message when their poisoned weapon poisons a victim.
  • NPC shopkeepers will now buy the following items:
    • Warforks
    • Sashes
    • Hatchets
    • Surcoats
  • The duration of strength and agility potions will increase to 2 minutes.
  • Interior lockable doors will exist. Use of a house key on a door will allow you to rekey that door and will generate a new key for it.
  • The chance of monsters poisoning you when they hit has been tweaked down.
  • You will be able to dock your boat anywhere as long as the hold is empty. It will turn into a miniature boat when you do so. To do this, simply double-click the tillerman while you are not standing on the boat.

800x600 client released! May 26 1999 2:39PM CST

A new version of the UO client software has been released which offers the following new features:

• Circle of transparency will be toggleable via a macro key.
• Various client optimizations will provide reduced memory usage and better client stability.
• It will be possible to set the client to use an 800x600 game area, both in windowed and full screen modes. These options are available via the options menu.
• Ghosts can see themselves behind foliage now with circle of transparency.
• Custom color highlight choices from the options menu will now save correctly across gaming sessions.
• Chat commands will work correctly again.

Client updated to .37f Jun 28 1999 12:42PM CST

We are patching the client to add the following features:

• Various stability fixes
• Various performance optimizations
• Colored lighting effects. The lighting effects are optional, and the default is set to "off." In order to view the colored lighting, add the following line to your UO.CFG:
  • ColoredLighting=on

In a future update, we will be adding the ability to toggle this via the options menu.

• Shaded fonts. This is an effect on the text on screen. The default is for shaded fonts to be off. To see shaded fonts, add the following line to your UO.CFG:
  • ShadedFonts=on

In a future update, we will be adding the ability to toggle this via the options menu.

• Added circle of transparency toggle to the macro menu. You can now toggle the circle of transparency via a single keystroke by creating a macro for it. You can access the macros screen via the options menu.

'UO Live Access Patch Aug 26 1999 12:39PM CST UO Live Access changes were applied today. Details are provided at: http://update.uo.com/design_25.html

Mini-Update Sep 1 1999 7:36PM CST

The following changes will be in effect after the shards come back from their daily maintenance.

• Characters that are flagged as criminals or aggressors will no longer be able to instantly log out of the game while in their house or in an inn.
• Murderers (reds) who are not flagged as criminals or aggressors will be able to instantly log out of the game while in their house or in an inn.
• A bug involving the Reactive Armor Spell will be fixed.
• The Reactive Armor spell will be reactivated.
• "Young" players will not be able to loot player corpses at all.
• "Young" players will not be able to poison another player with a poisoned weapon.
• Issues involving veteran accounts and “Young” player status will be fixed.
• NPCs will no longer move at a faster than normal rate.
• Chests that spawn items will no longer produce spellbooks.
• Transferring a pet will no longer result in the pet going wild.

Client Patch 1.26.0b Sep 2 1999 7:02AM CST

• You will no longer automatically take a step forward after logging onto a shard.
• Manually targeting yourself will not set you as the Last Target.
• The arm/disarm macro for the right arm will now work properly. You will be able to rearm after using an item (such as a potion or door).
• Players with older clients (non T2A) will now have the new style options menu.
• Deleting the messenger.log file from your UO directory will stop the Ultima Messenger from logging all of your messages.

Temporary Change to Gates Sep 9 1999 9:13AM CST

• After going through a gate cast by a player, there will be a random delay of 3 to 10 seconds before you can go though that gate again, or through any other gate.

Note that this change is temporary. We will update you again once it is changed back.

Mini-Update Sep 16 1999 7:32PM CST

• A fix for NPCs Vendors who were not going back to their shops.

Sept. 22nd Publish Sep 22 1999 4:27PM CST

The following features and fixes were included in the Sept. 22nd publish:

Smelting

• Armor and weapons can be smelted back into ingots.
• Items you wish to smelt must be in your back-pack.
• Smelting will be tied to the mining skill. The higher your skill in mining, the more ingots you will get back.
• The more wear and tear on an item, the less ingots it will return.
• Items purchased from an NPC will yield only one ingot when smelted.
• Smelted magic items will yield regular ingots.
• Smelting special metals will yield ingots of that color, with the exception of dyeable kite shields.
• Smelting dyeable kite shields will return regular ingots regardless of the color of the ingots used to make the shield.
• To smelt an item:
  • Double-click a smithing tool, such as a hammer.
  • The smithing window will open and contain a forge.
  • Double-clicking the forge will bring up a targeting cursor.
  • Clicking armor or a weapon that is in your backpack will smelt that item.
  • You will receive a number of ingots depending on the item itself, its wear and tear, and your mining skill.

Unraveling

• Clothing and leather armor can be cut back into cloth and leather respectively.
  • Use scissors on clothing or leather armor to get the cloth or leather.
  • The amount of cloth or leather yielded is tied to the tailoring skill. The higher your skill in tailoring, the more cloth/leather you will get.
  • Items you wish to unravel must be in your backpack.
  • "Newbie" items and death robes cannot be unraveled.

Pets

• Pets will only guard the following:
  • The owner
  • The corpse of the owner
  • Items in the house of the owner
  • Other pets of the owner
• An issue with transferring pets in town has been resolved.
• The "drop" command has been reactivated.

Chaos/Order

• After changing the guild type from Chaos, Order or Neutral, guilds must wait seven days for the declaration to take affect. If you change the declaration during those 7 days, the counter will reset.

Containers

• Items placed in an armoire will no longer disappear.

UO Live Access Patch Aug 26 1999 12:39PM CST

UO Live Access changes were applied today. Details are provided at: [2].

Interface Changes and Options

• Client Arrow
  • There is now an arrow that can be used to point players to a specific location.
• General Interface changes
  • Current target highlighting - All targeted players/creatures are now highlighted with a graphic that represents:
    • Current Damage
    • The target's reputation (by hue)
  • The Status Bar is hued by reputation
  • Double-clicking a status bar now behaves as if the player had double-clicked the target.
  • Targeting a status bar behaves as if the character had been targeted.
  • "Always show names" - This feature shows the names of objects as they come on to your screen. It defaults to being on, but can be toggled off in the options menu.
  • Skill/Stat Advancement Notification - The client will now notify you in the system message area when you gain skills or stats. These can be toggled on/off in the options menu.

Accessing the game

There is new art throughout the login and character creation screens. A framed picture of a castle has two input boxes, one for account name and one for password. There is also a radio box for saving your password.

• Along the left hand side are several new buttons:
  • My UO - This button is disabled, but will be used later.
  • Account - This opens your web browser to the Ultima Online
  • Mail - This button is disabled, but will be used later.
  • Movie - This displays the intro movie.
  • Credits - This displays the names of the hard working people on Ultima Online.
  • Help - This opens your web browser to the support.owo.com web page.
  • The Quit button in the upper right-hand corner allows you to exit Ultima Online.
  • At the bottom right is an arrow outlined in green and pointing right. Select this arrow to go to the next screen.
  • There is now a red arrow pointing left at the bottom right of the screen. This allows you to return to the previous menu.
• Shard Selection
  • Last Shard Shortcut - The name of the last shard you played on will appear by the globe button.

To enter a shard you can either double left-click on the selected shard, click on the GLOBE button, or left click on the shard and click the green arrow.

• New Character Creation
  • Skill selection
    • There are three available selections when creating a new character:
      • Adventurer
      • Merchant
      • Advanced
    • The old character templates have been revamped into what we now call "Professions". Each profession starts with different skills and equipment. Selecting advanced will allow you to choose your skills manually.
      • Adventurer (Symbol: Jousting Knight)
      • Archer (Symbol: bow and arrow)
        • Archer (Symbol: bow and arrow)
        • Bard (Symbol: lute)
        • Field medic (Symbol: ankh)
        • Ranger (Symbol: head with feathered hat)
      • Magician (Symbol: wizard's hat)
        • Battlefield Mage (Symbol: phoenix)
        • Pure Mage (Symbol: wizard's hat)
        • Warlock (Symbol: flaming sword)
      • Warrior (Symbol: helm)
        • Bard (Symbol: lute)
        • Mace Fighter (Symbol: arm with mace)
        • Fencer (Symbol: fencer in lunge)
        • Swordsman (Symbol: crossed swords)
      • Merchant (Symbol: stack of coins)
      • Craftsman (Symbol: saw)
        • Blacksmith (Symbol: anvil)
        • Carpenter (Symbol: saw)
        • Tailor (Symbol: scissors)
        • Tinker (Symbol: gears)
      • Tradesman (Symbol: scale)
        • Animal Tamer (Symbol: horse)
        • Fisherman (Symbol: fish)
        • Prospector (Symbol: pack mule)
        • Sorcerer (Symbol: wizard's hat)
    • After you have chosen your skills, left clicking the green arrow will bring you to the Character Customization screen.

Character Customization

• The Character Customization screen has a revised interface including list boxes for hair and color selections. You can also select the color of your shirt and pants. Select the green arrow to move to the city selection screen.

City Selection Screen

• The City Selection Screen has been changed from a list to a world map to give players a better idea of where they want to start. Left clicking on a city name will present a written description of that city's features. New players will only be presented with 4 cities (Britain, Moonglow, Minoc, and Trinsic) unless they choose the ADVANCED path for character creation.

Companion System

• Player volunteers called "Companions" are available for new players. When a player from a new account logs on for the first time, a Companion will be paged to welcome them.

Install Changes

• There is now a slide show during the install featuring screenshots from Ultima Online.

New Macros FAQ

How does recalling off of a boat key work?

• Casting recall and targeting the key will attempt to find the boat. If it is successful, you will be taken to the deck of the boat. If it fails, the boat no longer exists in the world, or there was no space on the deck.

How does dry-docking my boat affect recalling off of the boat key?

• If you dry dock your boat none of the keys that used to work for that boat will work with recall. You have essentially changed the locks on your boat.

How do you access the new macros?

• The new macros can be found in the options menu (control-o).

How do you use the "arm/disarm" macro?

• Once you bind the macro to a key, you must first arm the item. Then use the macro to disarm/arm that particular item. Remember, you must assign the macro for each hand.

How do you use the "last target" macro?

• Once you bind last target to a key, using the key will retarget the last item you had targeted.

How do you use the "next target" macro?

• Once you bind "next target" to a key, pressing that key will cycle through all the mobile targets on the screen. The target will be highlighted with a mini-healthbar.

How do you use the "delay" macro?

• The "Delay" macro will cause your character to wait before going to the next macro in a list. Remember, the "delay" macro counts in tenths of a second. Therefore, one second would be 10. For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill with the press of one key:
  • use skill = hide
  • delay = 70
  • use skill = stealth

How do you use the macro "CloseGumps"?

• Once you bind the "CloseGumps" macro to a key, you can press that key to close all the windows on your screen (for example your Paperdoll and Backpack). This means that ESC will not close your windows unless you bind this macro to it.

Why doesn't my ESC key work like it used to?

• In order for your ESC key to close your windows, you must bind the "CloseGumps" macro to it in the Options Menu.

How do you use the "AttackLast" macro?

• Once you bind the "AttackLast" macro to a key, you can press that key to automatically engage the last person you fought with in melee combat.

How do you use the "TargetSelf" macro?

• Once you bind the "TargetSelf" macro to a key, you can press that key to target yourself (assuming you have the targeting cursor already on the screen).

How do you use the "WaitForTarget" macro?

• The "WaitForTarget" macro is designed for use with other macros like "Next Target", "Last Target", and "Target Self". For example, the following series of macros would cause your character to cast the "strength" spell, wait for the targeting cursor, and then cast "strength" on yourself with the press of one key:
  • cast spell = strength
  • WaitForTarget
  • TargetSelf

How do I turn off "incoming names"?

• In the options menu click on the "Miscellaneous" tab (it looks like the UO symbol). Uncheck the field names "Show Names of Approaching Players". Press "OKAY". Alternatively, edit your uo.cfg and add the line "ShowIncomingNames=off".

New Players FAQ

What are the requirements to be considered "Young"?

• A player is considered "Young" if their account is less than 40 hours and their characters:
  • Have less than 350 total skill points
  • Have less than 70 in any one skill
  • Have less than 150 stat points
  • Have less than 80 in any one stat
  • Have not had their "Young" status revoked by a GM

How do I lose my "Young" status?

• A player loses their "Young" status if their account age goes above more than 40 hours and their characters:
  • Have more than 350 total skill points
  • Have more than 70 in any one skill
  • Have more than 150 stat points
  • Have more than 80 in any one stat
  • Have had their "Young" status revoked by a GM
  • By saying the words, "I renounce my young player status"

I can't log on to the "Siege Perilous" shard, why not?

• Siege Perilous is a shard for advanced players. Therefore, players with "Young" status cannot access it.

I died and got teleported to a healer, but he won't resurrect me...what do I?

• Move away from the healer (up to half a screen) and then walk back towards him/her.

New Player Quests FAQ

How do I get a New Player Quest?

• New player quests are based on what skills your character starts with and what city you start in. If you choose one of the profession templates, and your account still meets the requirements of a "Young" player, you are sure to get new player quests. If you choose the advanced option from character creation, you must choose at least one of the skills found in the profession templates, and you must choose one of the four starting cities: Britain, Trinsic, Minoc, or Moonglow. Once you are in the game, you simply walk up to a shopkeeper from your starting city. If the shopkeeper has not already sent someone on a quest, he or she will give you a task to complete.

How do I cancel my New Player Quest?

• To cancel your quest, just say "I resign from my quest." You should receive a message stating that your quest has been cancelled. Keep in mind that another shopkeeper from your starting city may give you the quest again at a later time.

How does the quest arrow work?

• The quest arrow is merely a guide to help you complete your task. It draws a straight line between you and a specific location related to your quest. This means that if there is a building or body of water between you and your goal, you must find a way around it.

I did what the shopkeeper asked and followed the quest arrow back, but now it is pointing to the ground. What do I do?

• The shopkeeper has probably wandered off. Search around the area where you met the shopkeeper, because they are very likely to be nearby.

New Player Tickets FAQ

What do I do with my "New Player Ticket"?

• Double-click the ticket and target any other ticket marked NEW PLAYER and you will receive a list of prizes to choose from. Generally, the easiest way to do this is to place your tickets in a trade window and then double click it.

Ultima Messenger FAQ

How do I access my messages?

• Open your paperdoll. Double left-click the Messenger Bag located at the top of your Paperdoll. This will bring up the Ultima Messenger.

How do I give someone my address?

• Open your paperdoll. Drag the Messenger Bag from the top of your Paperdoll on to the person you wish to exchange mail with. This will send them a greeting card and add you to their address book. Remember, they must do the same to you if you want to send them a message.

How do I stop someone from sending messages to me?

• There are two ways to stop someone from messaging you. Either highlight a message the person has sent you or open up your address book and highlight that person's address. Then click the "Revoke Address" button at the bottom of the Ultima Messenger window (an icon with a Person and an "X").

New Player Protection FAQ

What is meant by "New Player Protection"?

• New Players cannot damage other players.
• Other Players cannot damage new players.
• Monsters that would normally be actively hostile to a player will not attack new players, unless in a dungeon. The player will receive a message indicating that the monster is hostile.
• New players will be teleported to a healer when they die. They will retain their belongings.
• New players cannot loot a monster they did not kill for two minutes after the creature died.
• Other players cannot loot a monster killed by a New Player.
• New players cannot steal from other players or NPCs.

Other Changes

• Red players cannot insta-log from houses.
• All spawned chests will be locked and trapped.
• The cost of thread, wool, bolts of cloth, folded cloth, flax and cotton has been increased.
• The following skills will not unhide you when they are used: Detect Hidden, Item Identification, Anatomy, Arms Lore, Animal Lore, Evaluate Intellect, Forensics Evaluation, and Poisoning.

Bug Fixes

• Gold will return to the bank if the trade window is cancelled and the player backpack is full.
• If gold is stacked and would result in a pile greater than 60k, a new stack will be created rather than the excess gold being lost.
• Pets staying “perma-tamed” fixed.
• Various fishing skill gain bugs.
• Various Tinkering skill gain bugs.
• Failing Tinkering will now consume resources

The Ticket System Oct 15 1999 12:02PM CST

• For the next two weeks, all trash barrels in Britannia will now be ticket barrels. Newly placed barrels will also be ticket barrels. To place a ticket barrel in your house, you can say the words, "I wish to place a trash barrel". We have also placed bright purple colored ticket barrels in the following locations on each shard:
  • Near the Counselor Guild Halls in Britain (2), Jhelom, Magincia, Minoc, Moonglow (inside), Nujelm, Serpents Hold, Skara Brae, Trinsic (2), Vesper, and Yew.
  • The East Side Park in Britain
  • Center of Town in Jhelom
  • The Counselor Hall in Magincia
  • Center of Town in Minoc
  • The grassy area near the Moonglow Bank
  • Center of town in Nujelm
  • Center of town in Occlo
  • The Main Walkway in Serpents Hold
  • Near the jail in Trinsic
  • Main Street in Vesper, south of the bank
  • Near the Winery in Yew
• In order to participate in the event, you must place items in a ticket barrel. The ticket system will be available for approximately two weeks after which time, the public barrels will be removed all remaining barrels will once again become normal trash barrels.
• Ticket barrels placed in houses can only be used by the house owner, characters on the house owner’s account, or friends of the house.
• Only one person at a time may use at ticket barrel. If two players each place an item in a barrel at the same time, one of them will receive a message telling them that they cannot place the item yet. The item will be returned to their backpack.
• After placing an eligible item into the ticket barrel, you will be asked if you are sure you want to place the item in the barrel. If you select "yes", you will receive a ticket credit based on the value of the item. The item value determination is set by the base price of the item being discarded. This will not always match the gold value offered for the same item by NPCs.
• Magic items will receive increased ticket value above the standard base NPC sell-back value. The amount of increase will be based on the power of the item.
• If you have difficulty placing a polearm into a ticket barrel, place the polearm in a bag first and then place the bag in the ticket barrel.
• You can view your total tickets by double-clicking on the barrel. The window will remain open for 30 seconds and while it is open no one else may use the barrel. There is also an option to turn off the confirmation window.
• When throwing away an item, it will not remain in your backpack. Choosing to “cancel” the ticket transaction will return the item to your backpack.
• You must be able to carry the items or container being returned. If you cannot carry the additional weight, the barrel will attempt to return as many items to you as possible.
• If you choose to cancel the ticket transaction and are too encumbered to carry the returned item, a message will be displayed stating that the item cannot be returned. You may retrieve your items through the ticket barrel options menu after removing your excess weight.
• To return canceled items from a ticket barrel, double-click the barrel and select the options menu. Clicking on “Return held items to me” will allow the item(s) to be returned to your inventory.
• In some cases, house owners taking containers from the ground may find a canceled item exceeds their total encumbrance limit. In this event, destroying the ticket barrel by chopping it will move the item to the ground. You can then place a new ticket barrel.
• You can place a container (bag, chest, etc.) holding eligible items in a barrel and receive tickets for all of the items in the container.
• Some items are not eligible for the event and will not return any tickets. If these items are placed in an event ticket barrel, you will be warned that they are not eligible for the event and asked to confirm that you wish to place them in the barrel. These items include:
  • Gold
  • All other stackable items, such as, but not limited to: fish steaks, reagents, ingots, cloth, bandages, etc.
• Some items are not eligible for the event and will not return any tickets, nor will you be permitted to place them in ticket barrels for the duration of the event. You will be warned that the value of these items is too high and they will be returned to your backpack.
  • House, ship, guild and any other deeds
  • Treasure Maps
  • Body parts
  • Order/Chaos Shields
  • Model Ships
  • Keys
  • Contracts of Employment
  • Spellbooks
  • Newbie Items
  • Items stolen in the previous 2 minutes
• Don't worry about accidentally throwing away your favorite item. There will be a separate confirmation window anytime you place an ineligible item in a ticket barrel. If you do not wish to be asked to confirm, simply turn off the confirmation box.
• Double-clicking the barrel with bring up an options menu that lists the number of tickets you have and lists the prizes. It also contains following choices:
  • Transfer Tickets – Allows you to transfer all of your tickets to another player. There is no confirmation after selecting another player and using this option will transfer all of your tickets.
  • Turn Stackable Warning Off – If you select this, you will not get a confirmation window when placing a stackable item into a ticket barrel.
  • Turn Stackable Warning On – Selecting this will enable the confirmation window for stackables.
  • Turn Non-Stackable warning Off – Selecting this will turn off the window that tells you how many tickets an item is worth and asks for a confirmation. You will still receive the ticket value for items you place in the ticket barrel.
  • Turn Non-Stackable Warning On – Selecting this will enable the confirmation window for eligible, non-stackable items.
• To view the prizes in detail, you can click on the "View Prizes" link in your ticket display.
• To claim your prize, click on a ticket barrel to view your tickets and select the prize from the list displayed. Your ticket total will be debited and the item will be placed in your backpack.
• You may only have up to 1 million tickets. If you have 1 million tickets, you must trade them in for items before you can accumulate more.
• At the completion of the Ticket System phase, you will be awarded one gold per ticket for any unused tickets up to a maximum of 9,999 gold.
• What are the Prizes?
  • All prizes are "blessed" - they cannot be looted or stolen. It is important to note that placing "blessed" items in a container does not "bless" the container. If the container is stolen or looted, you will lose any "blessed" items within. For a translated list of prizes click here.
  • Small Ticket Items
    • Hair Dyes - These hair dyes of unusual color will allow you to permanently change your hair color. One use only. (10,000 tickets)
    • Facial Hair Dyes - These hair dyes of unusual color will allow you to permanently change your facial hair color only. One use only. (10,000 tickets)
    • Hair Cut Deeds - This deed will allow you to permanently change your hair style. One use only. (30,000 tickets)
    • Facial Hair Change Cream - This deed will allow you to permanently change your facial hair style. May only be used on male characters and has one use only. (30,000 tickets)
  • Medium Ticket Items
    • Singing Crystal Ball - This crystal ball plays random sounds within the game. It will only work when locked down and will play songs only to other players who are nearby. To turn on the crystal ball, it must be double-clicked and then locked down. (100,000 tickets)
    • Furniture Dye Tub- These dye tubs will allow you to partially change the color of certain furniture such as chairs and tables. You can change the hue of the tub with regular dyes. The tub has unlimited uses. (100,000 tickets)
    • Phoenix Armor - A random piece of red ring armor. As these pieces are random, it is possible to be awarded a duplicate prize. (100,000 - tickets)
    • Mini Monster Statues - One of 14 random small statues that come in a variety of shapes and colors and will emit monstrous sounds when approached. They can be placed in houses. To turn on a mini monster statue, you must double click it while it is not locked down. To then activate the statue, place it in your house and lock it down. As these are random, it is possible to be awarded a duplicate prize. The statues types are listed below: (100,000 - tickets)
      • Dragon
      • Skeleton
      • Troll
      • Orc
      • Daemon
      • Ettin
      • Earth Elemental Gargoyle
      • Gorilla
      • Crocodile
      • Liche
      • Lizard Man
      • Ogre
      • Ratman
  • Large Ticket Item
    • The Bless Deed - This deed will allow you to "bless" one item to ensure that it can never be stolen or looted. This deed will not work on keys, containers and stackable items. The item to be blessed must be either in your backpack, or currently worn or equipped. This is a one use only item. (500,000 - tickets)

Potion Kegs Nov 23 1999 1:10PM CST

Potion Kegs

Potion Kegs will require the following items to make. An empty barrel, a barrel lid, a tap, and 10 empty potion bottles.

Empty barrels are created by carpenters using:

• 3 barrel staves (made by carpenters, requires 5 pieces of wood each).
• 1 set of hoops (made by tinkers, requires 5 iron ingots).
• 1 lid (made by carpenters, requires 4 pieces of wood).

Tinkers can then turn a regular barrel into a potion barrel with the following items:

• 1 empty barrel (made by carpenters as per the above method).
• 1 barrel tap (made by tinkers, requires 2 ingots).
• 1 barrel lid (made by carpenters, requires 4 pieces of wood).

Creating a Potion Keg

To create a potion keg, a carpenter must first create a keg:

• Have all of the necessary components in your backpack (3 barrel staves, 1 set of hoops, 1 lid).
• Double-click on a carpentry tool.
• Select “containers” in the carpentry menu.
• Select the "open keg" in the containers menu. (Note this will not appear if you do not have sufficient skill.)
• Provided you have the proper materials and enough skill level you will attempt to create the keg.

Once a keg is created, a tinker must then turn the keg into a potion keg:

• Have all of the necessary components in your backpack (1 keg, 1 barrel tap, 1 barrel lid, 10 empty potion bottles).
• Double-click on tinker tools.
• When the targeting cursor appears, click on the keg.
• A menu will appear with a potion keg as an option. Select the potion keg checkbox and click OK.
• Provided you have the proper materials and enough skill level you will attempt to turn the keg into a potion keg.
• When placed, potion kegs can be stacked on top of each other.
• Potion Kegs cannot be made "secure".

Owning a Potion keg

• Placing a potion in an empty potion keg will:
  • Make you the owner.
    • Owners can identify the type of potion keg without using the Taste Id skill
    • Non-owners will need to use taste id to identify a potion barrel.
  • Designate the type of potion the barrel can hold.
• Placing a potion in a partially-filled potion keg will make you the owner if the barrel is in your inventory.
  • In order to place a potion in a potion keg you must be the owner, or have identified the keg with the Taste Id skill.
  • The potion keg will only accept potions of the same type.

Looking at a keg

• When empty, single clicking on a potion keg will return the message "a specially lined keg for holding potions".
• When filled, single clicking on a potion keg will return:
  • "A keg of (color) liquid" for non-owners and anyone else that has not used taste-id on the barrel.
  • "A keg of (potion type)" for the owner or those who have used the Taste Id skill on the keg (up to 5 at a time).
• A filled keg will also return a message giving a general description of how full it is.

Filling the potion keg

• Potion kegs can hold up to 100 potions of the same type.
• Drag a potion onto the keg.
  • For an empty potion keg, any potion can be used.
  • For a partially filled keg.
    • You must be the owner, or have used the Taste Id skill on the keg.
    • The type of potion in the bottle must be known.
    • The type of potion in the bottle must be the same as the type in the keg.
    • An unidentified potion can be placed in an unidentified potion keg, provided that they are of the same type of potion. This will allow players who use an unidentified potion keg to put potions they draw from it back into the keg.
    • Weight of keg increases by 4 for every five potions added.
• Potions can be crafted directly in the keg if there are no bottles in the alchemist’s backpack.
  • After you begin to make a potion you will be given a targeting cursor.
  • Clicking on the potion keg will add one potion.
  • The same rules apply to this method as for dragging a potion onto the keg.

Retrieving items from keg:

Double click on the keg to retrieve a potion

• If the keg is empty, you will receive the message "the keg is empty".
• If the keg is partially filled or full.
  • The keg will fill one empty bottle in the user's backpack.
    • If the type of potion in the keg is known to the user, the new potion will already be identified.
    • If the type of the potion in the keg is unknown to the user, the new potion is identified by color only.
  • If no bottle in the user’s backpack, the keg will ask for empty bottles.
  • The weight of keg reduced by 4 for every five potions removed.

House Age Nov 23 1999 1:11PM CST

Players will now be able to determine whether a house is a "legacy" house or not. Double-clicking the house sign will display one of the following messages in the window:

• If the house was placed after the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Modern Design."
• If the house was placed before the house placement changes, there will be a message stating, "This house is of Classic Design."

We are aware that the system that designates a house as classic or modern has issues that need to be addressed. We are applying resources to this issue and we will be updating you again when we have more information.

Rune Books Nov 23 1999 1:12PM CST Rune Books

Rune Books are designed to help reduce the total number of runes in the game and to assist rune libraries with the lock down changes. Rune Books will allow players to keep far fewer runes in their bank boxes and houses while still being able to carry a regular rune when travelling outside of town.

General Features

• A rune book will hold a total of 16 locations.
• One of these locations can be set as the “default” location.
• Casting the recall or gate spell on the rune book will treat the book like a rune marked with the default location.
• Books will have charges that will allow you to recall to locations in the book without casting recall. Using a charge will require you to have the necessary magery skill and mana to cast the spell just like casting from a recall scroll.
• Rune Books will be rechargeable with recall scrolls. Dragging a recall scroll onto the book will add one charge (up to its maximum).
• Dragging a rune onto a book will add that location to the book.
• You can name the rune book by opening the book and clicking the red gem on upper right. After clicking the gem, simply type in the name of the book and hit enter.

Creation

• Rune Books will be craftable using the inscription skill.
• Inscribers will need 8 blank scrolls, 1 recall scroll, 1 gate travel scroll and a rune.
• To make a rune book, use the inscription and then target the blank rune. The system will then check to make sure you have the necessary components.
• You cannot have your spell book equipped at the time you attempt to make a rune book.
• The number of charges a book can hold will range from 5 to 10, depending on the skill of the Inscriber.

Using the Rune Book

• On the top left of the first index page is a large Red Gem button. Press this to rename the book.
• Casting recall directly on the rune book will transport you to the location set as the “default”.
• Casting gate directly on the rune book will open a gate with the destination to the “default” location of the book.
• To access the non-default locations, you will be able to open the book by double clicking on it.
• When open, the book will display two index pages with 8 locations on each page.
• Each index page will have the current number of charges listed on the top left side and the maximum number of charges the book can hold on the right side.
• Each location entry will have a small blue “recall” button (similar looking to the buttons used in the skill list). Clicking this button will use a charge and transport you to that location. If the book has no charges left, you will not be able to do this.
• The index pages will display the first 18 characters from the marked rune’s name.
• At the bottom of the index pages, there will be the numbers “1” - “8” (just like spell books). Clicking these numbers will bring you to a “rune page”.

Rune Pages

Each rune page will contain:

• A button to use a charge and recall to that location.
• A button (a small down arrow) to drop the rune from the book. This will return a rune with that location marked.
• The sextant coordinates for the rune’s marked location.
• A button to make the rune location the default location. This button will appear green unless the location is the default location, in which case it will be red.
• An icon to cast recall. You will need to have the required mana, skill level and the reagents. This will not use a charge.
• An icon to cast gate. You will need to have the required mana, skill level and the reagents. This will not use a charge.

Alchemy Messages Nov 23 1999 1:15PM CST

• Alchemy messages will appear in the lower left of the UO play window of the alchemist. Other players will not see the messages.

Bank Boxes Nov 23 1999 2:10PM CST

• Bank Boxes have had their weight limits removed and containers within the bank box will not have a weight limit either. The bank box retains the 125 total item limit and that includes any items in containers within the bank.

Veterinary and Healing Changes Nov 23 1999 2:16PM CST

Veterinary and Healing

We have made some changes to the Veterinary and Healing skills to improve their performance and make them more consistent.

• You will no longer be able to use Veterinary or Healing on the following monsters: Zombies, Daemons, Air Elementals, Earth Elementals, Fire Elementals, Water Elementals, Gazers, Liches, Spectres, Skeletons, Wisps, Energy Vortexes, and Blade Spirits.
• The Veterinary and Healing skills will also now distinguish between animals, monsters, and humanoid creatures.
• The following animals and monsters will be healed using the Veterinary skill: Gargoyles, Corpsers, Dragons, Reapers, Slimes, Terrathans, Eagles, Birds, Giant Snakes, Spiders, Gorillas, Mongbats, Giant Scorpions, Snakes, Drakes, Frogs, Sea Serpents, Dolphins, Horses, Cats, Alligators, Pigs, Rabbits, Lava Lizards, Sheep, Chickens, Goats, Ostards, Bears, Grizzly Bears, Polar Bears, Cougars, Giant Rats, Cows, Dogs, Llamas, Walruses, Wolves (timber), Nightmares, Bulls, Great Harts, Hinds, Rats, Pack Horses, Pack Llamas.
• These creatures will be healed using the Healing skill: Trolls, Cyclopes, Ophidians, Ogres, Ettins, Orcs, Harpies, Headlesses, Lizardmen, Ratmen, and Humans (including Player Characters).
• The issue with double finger slips while healing when hit with a magical attack will be resolved. You will now only slip once.
• The Healing and Veterinary skills are now difficulty based when attempting to cure poison. The higher the level of poison, the more difficult it will be to cure it.

Carpentry Nov 23 1999 2:18PM CST

Carpentry

The carpentry skill will no longer use more cloth than is needed.

• When creating an item with carpentry all of the undyed cloth in your backpack will be stacked.
• The appropriate amount of cloth is then taken to make the item.
• If possible, the remaining cloth will be converted into bolts.

Boats Nov 23 1999 2:20PM CST

Boats

Some issues involving boats will be addressed.

• Issues that did not allow players to dry dock a boat even when it was empty will be resolved.
• The miniature boat models will now say the type of boat and the name of the boat when examined (single clicked).

Phase II (Lock downs and Secures) Nov 23 1999 2:25PM CST

Lock Down and Secure Containers

As part of Phase II, the number of secure containers and locked down items will be increased for most house types. The numbers are detailed below. The total items column is the maximum number of items that can be stored in each house. Designating a container as secure will take up 125 of your lockdowns, regardless of how many items you actually put in the secure container. Note that containers within a container do not have a weight limit. This allows players to forego secure storage for more lockdowns. Secure containers do not have weight limits.

• All Small Houses have 3 and 425 lock downs for a total of 425 items.
• Brick Houses have 8 secure and 1100 lock downs for a total of 1100 items.
• Large Patio Houses have 8 secures and 1100 lock downs for a total of 1100 items.
• Both Two Story Houses have 10 secures and 1370 lock downs for a total of 1370 items.
• Towers have 15 secures and 2119 lock downs for a total of 2119 items.
• Small Stone Keeps have 18 secures and 2625 lock downs for a total of 2625 items.
• Castles have 28 secures and 4076 lock downs for a total of 4076 items.

These changes, along with the ability to lock down stackable items and the removal of weight restrictions from secure containers and bank boxes, should offer you adequate room to store your most valuable and useful items and decorate your home.

You will also be able to lockdown containers and the items inside of them. These items will not be subject to decay once locked down in the container. Saying "I wish to lock this down" on a container will:

• Count the items that can be locked down inside the container.
• Check the available number of lockdowns you have left for your house.
• If you have enough lockdowns available, the system will lock all items down, including the container, and report success.
• If you do not have enough lockdowns available, the system will report the failure and give the reason.
• Releasing a locked down container will automatically release all of the items in it.

Locked down items can be used in the following manner:

• Only the owner, co-owner, and friends of the house may use or take items from a locked down stack.

Pet Changes Nov 23 1999 2:26PM CST

Pet Changes

Some issues involving pets will be addressed.

• To avoid a bothersome misuse of pets, you will not be able to name any pet "you" or "your bag".
• Pack horses will now accept food. Dragging food onto a pack horse will cause the horse to eat it.

Vendor Changes Nov 23 1999 2:30PM CST

Vendors

Buying from vendors will be made more secure. After selecting an item to purchase from a player vendor, you will be given a message that tells you the item name and the cost associated with it. The message will have two options:

• To purchase the item, click "okay".
• To cancel the transaction, click "cancel".

While the message is on your screen, the vendor owner will not be able to move the item or change its price until you click either "okay" or "cancel". The message will remain on the screen for 60 seconds to give you time to decide.

The evaluate intelligence skill will not work on vendors.

Skill Management Nov 23 1999 2:32PM CST

Skill Management

In an effort to give players more control over their character’s skills we will be implementing a skill management system. To facilitate this management the skill menu will be changed in the following ways:

• A toggle button will be added at the top of the menu. This toggle button will change the state of the menu so that it will show or hide your character’s unmodified skill numbers. This will allow you to see what your actual skill level is unmodified from stats.
• A toggle button will be added next to each skill. This toggle button will have three states: "up", "down", and "stop". Skills marked "up" will rise normally and will never go down. Skills marked "down" will be candidates for atrophy. Skills marked "stop" will not go up or down, regardless of how often they are used.
• A field will be added to the bottom of the skill menu that lists the character’s unmodified skill total. This will allow you to see how close you are to the skill cap (700).

FAQ

Q: "What happens if I’m at the skill cap and all my skills are all marked ‘up’?"

A: "None of your skills will change."

Q: "What happens if I’m at the skill cap and the only skills marked ‘down’ are at 0.0?"

A: "None of your skills will change."

Q: "What happens if I mark all my skills ‘down’?"

A: "None of your skills will change, because they only atrophy when another skill raises."

Q: "If I mark all my skills ‘down’ except for one, will that skill go up faster?"

A: "No."

Q: "Will I gain stats when I use a skill marked ‘down’?"

A: "No."

Q: "Will I gain stats when I use a skill marked ‘stop’?"

A: "No."

Q: "What happens when I try to train with an NPC if I am skill capped and all of my skills are marked as either "stop" or "up".

A: "You will not be able to train with the NPC"

Q: "How will this system affect murderers with regards to ‘stat-loss’?"

A: "Murderers will still take stat and skill loss as normal, regardless of their skill locks."

Q: "Can I set a different configuration for each character?"

A: "Yes. Each character on each shard can have different skill management settings."

Q: "How do I gain stats when at the skill cap?"

A: "You can only gain stats from skills that are marked as "up". If you are at the skill cap, you will only gain stats from skills if you mark another skill as "down" (provided that you have points to atrophy in that skill) or if the skill is at Grandmaster (in this case, you do not need to mark any skills as "down".

Perma-reds Nov 23 1999 2:37PM CST

Saying "I must consider my sins" has been updated to include a message that will let you know if your character is permanently red.

If your character is permanently red, you will receive the message, "You are known throughout the land as a murderous brigand."

Message Color Changes

The text color for the messages will now operate under the following conditions:

• If the player will experience stat loss upon resurrection, the text color will be red.
• If the player will not experience stat loss, the text color will be blue.

Maker's Mark Nov 23 1999 2:40PM CST

Maker’s Marks

Some of the trade skills will be enhanced to allow for more flexibility and personalization of their wares. These enhancements will affect Tailors, Carpenters, Blacksmiths, and Tinkers.

• In addition to Blacksmiths and Tailors – Bowcrafters, Carpenters and Tinkers will now be able to craft "exceptional" items.
• Exceptional marking works as follows: As an example, an exceptional katana made by a non-Grandmaster smith or made by a Grandmaster smith who chooses not to put his makers mark, will now say, "a katana of exceptional quality". An exceptional katana made by a Grandmaster smith who chooses to place his maker's mark on it will say, "a katana crafted with exceptional quality by..." This will be true for all exceptional items.
• When a Grandmaster creates an exceptional item, a window will appear asking if they wish to place their mark on the item. Selecting "okay" will place the creator’s name on the item when examined (single clicked). Selecting "cancel" will not put the maker's mark on the item.

Taste ID Changes Nov 23 1999 2:45PM CST

Taste ID

The Taste Identification skill is now difficulty based.

• Potions will be more difficult to taste than food is.
• Poisoned food and drink will also be more difficult to discern.
• The sound affects for tasting are now correct for food and liquids.
• Tasting poisoned food or drink now has a chance to poison you on failure.
• Potion Kegs can be Taste IDed (Information on Taste ID and potion kegs is below).
• Potions from alchemy kegs not Taste IDed will only return the color of the liquid when looked at.
• Currently tasting beverages (wine, ale, water, etc.) is not functional.

Co-owners Nov 23 1999 2:50PM CST

All of the features for co-owners are currently available for testing on the Test Center Shard.

Co-ownership will allow you to select trusted friends and allies to control some of the important functions of a house. This will allow more flexibility for house owners and provide a method for additional storage for those players who share houses.

Selecting Co-owners

• Other characters on the same account as the house owner will be treated as co-owners unless:
  • They are already an owner or co-owner of another house.

• You may select up to eight characters to be co-owners:
  • A co-owner may not be the owner of a house.
  • A co-owner may not be a co-owner of another house.
• To select a co-owner:
  • Double click on your house sign.
  • Click the "friends" option.
  • Select "add a co-owner". A targeting cursor will appear.
  • Target and click on the character you wish to make a co-owner.
• Removing a co-owner
  • Double click on your house sign.
  • Click the "friends" option.
  • Select "remove a co-owner".
  • A list of co-owners will appear, check the box next to the co-owner you wish to remove.

Co-owner Features

• Co-owners will be able to do everything that an owner can, except:
  • Transfer ownership of the house.
  • Re-deed a house.
  • Add another co-owner.
  • Change the house locks.
• Co-owners can also place one secure container, called a "strongbox".
  • To place a strongbox the co-owner must say, "I wish to place a strongbox". The strongbox will appear at your feet.
  • The strongbox can only be accessed by the co-owner who placed it and the owner of the house.
  • A strongbox can hold up to 25 items and has no weight restrictions. Note that the strongbox is a secure container, but items in the box do not count against the total number of lockdowns for that house. These strongboxes are additional storage.
  • A strongbox belonging to a co-owner that is removed will become unsecure (and subject to decay) as soon as it is accessed again.
  • Other characters on the same account that are being treated as co-owners will NOT be able to place a strongbox.

Holiday Gifts Dec 17 1999 2:18PM CST Players will receive tickets when logging in their characters. Any ticket can be matched to any other player's ticket. Once a ticket is used on another ticket, each player can select from a variety of holiday gifts, compliments of Origin. The tickets are blessed, meaning they cannot be looted or stolen. In addition, each ticket can only be used by the original owner of the ticket.

Matching Tickets

To use the tickets, simply open a trade window. Once one ticket is in the window, you do not need to actually agree to the trade. Double-click on your ticket and target the player’s ticket in the trade window. You will then be given a window from which to select your gift. You do not need to actually give your ticket to another player to use them.

The Gifts All of the gifts are blessed. They cannot be looted or stolen. As with all blessed items it is important to leave the item in your main backpack. Placing a blessed gift in a container inside your backpack will make the item susceptible to thieves as they can steal the container with the blessed item inside.

• Snowballs
  • Selecting the snowballs will place a snow pile in your backpack. To throw a snowball at another player, double-click the snow pile and target a player. Only players who have a snow pile in their backpack can be targeted in this manner. You will receive a message if the targeted player is not a valid target.
  • There is a delay as to how often you can throw a snowball from the snow pile.
  • The snow piles have unlimited uses.
• Potted Plants
  • Selecting the potted plant will place a potted plant deed in your backpack.
  • To get your plant, double-click the deed and target the ground. This will create one of five random potted plants.
  • Once placed the plant can be picked up and carried.
  • Potted plants need to be locked down after Phase III of Clean Up Britannia begins.
  • Although the potted plant deed is blessed, the plant itself is not.
• Fireworks Wand
  • The fireworks wand will shoot fireworks when double-clicked.
  • The wand has 100 charges.
• Clothing Bless Deed
  • Selecting the clothing bless deed will place a deed in your backpack.
  • The deed can be used on any article of clothing (such as tunics, boots, hats, etc.)
  • After double-clicking the deed, target an article of clothing. Once targeted, the clothing will become blessed (meaning it cannot be stolen or looted).
  • Blessed clothing can still take damage (from maces for example).
• Wristwatch
  • Selecting the wristwatch will place a watch in your backpack.
  • The watch will tell the time in Britannia, which can be very useful when using the moongates.
• Holiday Tree Deed
  • Selecting the Holiday Tree Deed will place a deed in your backpack.
  • To place the tree in your house, double-click the deed and target the spot where you want to place it.
  • Holiday Trees cannot be placed within three tiles of your front door and cannot be placed outside.
  • Holiday Trees do not need to be locked down once Phase III of Clean Up Britannia is published.

Dec 21 Publish Dec 22 1999 3:06PM CST

• Holiday Tickets Activated.
• NPCs will no longer scavenge items.
• Monsters will no longer destroy objects that block their path. This is a temporary change and will be changed back.
• You will no longer be able to place locked down items into your backpack.

Magic Resistance Bug Fix Dec 22 1999 7:02PM CST

• The exploit that allowed people to gain magic resistance using blade spirits without taking damage from the blade spirits has been fixed