Patch notes 2000

This is the page for patches to Ultima Online during 1999. All patch notes on this page are available at [1].

2000 Patch Notes

Client Patch 1.26.3 Jan 18 2000 5:13PM CST

This client patch includes the following:

• A fix to resolve the client ghosting problems.
• A fix to resolve regular and mini health bars not updating properly.
• Activating the MyUO button. This will open your browser and bring you to the MyUO page.
• Character customization that allows you to save settings based on a per character basis, including:
  • Speech and emote colors.
  • Macro settings.
  • Skill groupings.
  • Spell icons.
  • And many other configurable save options.
• The “save password” feature will no longer be available and the password will be removed from all config files. Note that this will NOT affect players who already have the option checked until they uncheck it.
• The default skill gain notification is now set to 0.1 instead of 2.0.
• You will no longer be dismounted from your horse when you log in.
• Positions of windows and icons will be saved including:
  • UO window size and position. This will also automatically maximize the window if you log out while it is maximized.
  • Gameplay window position.
  • Spellbook and Spell icon positions.
  • Location and size of radar.
  • Skill window.
  • Location of all open containers, including “sub-containers”.
  • Location of minimized containers.
• Fixes for client stability issues related to crashing when in full screen mode.

Server Publish Jan 24 2000 9:14AM CST

Escort Changes

Escorting will be balanced to bring it more in line with other gold generating methods.

• You may only have one escort at a time. Townspeople requesting escort will not travel with someone who is already escorting.
  • If you attempt to escort a second NPC, you will be told, “I see you already have an escort".
• You will have to wait approximately 15 minutes between each escort.
  • If you attempt to escort an NPC before this time passes, the NPC will tell you, “You should rest from your last escort before we set out on this journey."
  • Escorts will let you know approximately how much time you must wait before you can take another escort again.

Taming Changes

Changes to taming animals and monsters will be made to fix some outstanding issues.

• The Taming changes include the following:
• A fix for pet commands including the “pet friend bug”.
• Saying “stop” to your pet will clear any previous commands.
  • Pets will remember who their previous owners were. Previous owners are defined as anyone who tames the pet or has the pet transferred to them.
  • The more previous owners a pet has had, the more difficult it will be for other players to tame it if it goes wild. This also means that players who were not a previous owner to the pet can tame the pet for skill gain.
• Any previous owner may retame the pet regardless of their skill.
• Pets that go wild will become more difficult to control. This change will affect both previous and new owners.
• If line-of-site is broken during the taming process, the attempt will automatically fail.
• When transferring a pet to another player, the previous owner and the new owner will now receive the proper confirmation messages.
• Pets will now only guard their owner’s corpse.
• Fixes for various messages with relation to pet commands. Tamers who give commands to their pets that the pet does not follow will find that their pets will go wild faster than previously

House Placement

A new system has been created to ensure that houses are not placed outside of the house placement rules. The system will do thorough checks when attempting to place a house.

The house placement system includes the following:

• Various checks to ensure the house meets the housing requirements, including whether it is on level ground.
• Provides the ability to preview an area with the deed to see if the area is valid.
  • Once a position is chosen, you will be told whether the area is a valid location or not.
  • If the area is valid, you will be asked if you wish to place the house.
  • If the area is not valid, you will be given a message telling you why not and you will not be able to place the house in that location.
• The following plants will not block the placement of a house:
  • All mushrooms
  • All small flowers
  • Poppies
  • Red poppies
  • Orfluer flowers
  • White flowers
  • Foxglove flowers
  • Campion Flowers
  • Snowdrops

Skill and Stat Advancement Changes

Advancement in “non-difficulty” based skills at higher levels and advancement in stats will be improved. The effect of this change will result in fewer required uses of the skill to advance it at high levels and better, more evenly curved stat gains.

The following skills will be affected by the modification to skill advancement:

• Anatomy
• Animal Lore
• Item Identification
• Arms Lore
• Begging
• Evaluate Intelligence
• Spirit Speak
• Hiding
• Tracking
• Camping
• Cooking
• Musicianship
• Lockpicking
• Mining
• Lumberjacking
• Peacemaking
• Provocation
• Enticement
• Cartography
• Fishing

Stat advancement will now raise at a more constant, consistent rate. All skills will raise their appropriate stats (including combat skills) and you will be able to gain stats consistently regardless of the level of the skill, rather than only when reaching a high level in that skill.

Each skill will raise its appropriate stats. For skills that raise multiple stats, some stats are weighted more heavily than others. Therefore, stat gains from skills such as these will be based on how much weight is given to the individual stats. For instance, Anatomy will raise INT more often, though it still has a chance to raise STR and DEX.

Pack Animals

Pack horses and pack llamas will have their carrying capacity increased from 400 to 1,600 stones. If a pack animal goes wild, it will eventually drop whatever it is carrying if it is not retamed.

Land Surveying Tool

This tool will allow players to check land without have to buy a house deed, thus allowing multiple people in a group to search different locations. To use the tool:

• Double-click the surveying tool.
• A window will appear listing the different house types. Click the house type you wish to check.
• A small description of the house type and the number of lockdowns it can hold will appear.
• To evaluate the area, click the “E” in the window.
• The house type you selected will appear in front of you. Move the house to the location you want to test and singe-click.
• You will receive a message telling you whether the area can hold that house type.
  • If the area is acceptable, a temporary house of the type you selected will appear for approximately 10 seconds to let you see what a house would look like in that location.
  • If the area is not acceptable, then you will simply receive a message telling you that the house type will not fit.

Various Issues

• A fix for the exploit involving banning summoned pets or creatures so they will attack passersby.
• An issue with trading and using ingots through trade windows will be resolved.
• You will not be able to snoop pack animals inside a house, while the animal was outside.
• You will no longer be able to use the stealing skill to determine if someone is "perma-gray".
  • Players who are not in the Thieves Guild will not be able to steal from other players at all.

Pre-casting

The bug involving the ability to “pre-cast” spells and then use or take items will be fixed. After casting a spell, the targeting cursor will disappear if the player does any of the following:

• Equips or unequips an item.
• Takes an item.
• Drags an item from their backpack.

Monster and Animal Spawn

Untamed monsters and animals in invalid or unreachable locations will “die” after a certain amount of time. These monsters and animals will be eligible for “death”, within a given amount of time, under the following circumstances:

• If the monster/animal is not targeted.
• If the monster/animal does not receive or deliver damage.

In order to support IGM events and quests, this change will not affect monsters/animals in houses at this time. However, the current rules regarding trapping monsters and animals in houses still apply. In a future update, we do plan on making untamed monsters and animals “die” in this manner regardless of whether they are in a house or not.

Clean Up Britannia (Phase III)

The final phase in the Clean Up Britannia program will be the implementation of item decay in houses. The decay rate will be the same as with items outside.

Once in effect, house item decay will affect all items that are not:

• Placed in a secure container.
• Locked down.
• A house add-on (such as an anvil or a loom).
• Placed by an IGM or GM.

Item Decay on Boats

We will be activating decay for items left on the deck of a boat. These items will decay at the same rate as items left on the ground outside.

Only items left on the deck of a boat will decay, items in the hold of a boat will not be subject to decay.

Server Publish Feb 23 2000 10:22AM CST

Trade Window Changes

Trade windows will become more secure.

• You will not be able to trade a trapped item.
• You will not be able to trade an item that was recently stolen.
• You will not be able to trade items to a player if that player cannot hold the items.
  • If the items are too heavy for the player or if the items would exceed the number of items the player can carry, the trade will fail. All items in the trade window will go back into each character’s pack.
• You will not be able to pick items up while the trade window is open. However, you will still be able to rearrange items in your own pack during the trade.

Animal and Monster Spawn Phase II

Untamed monsters and animals in houses will “die” after a certain amount of time. These monsters and animals will be eligible for “death”, within a given amount of time, under the following circumstances:

• If the monster/animal is not targeted.
• If the monster/animal does not receive or deliver damage.

Pet Loyalty Duration

Pets will remain loyal much longer than they did in the past. Pets will remain loyal for over 24 hours.

Fealty Calculation

The fealty calculation for guildstones will be made more efficient to alleviate the delay in shard start-up times.

Guild Stone Revisions

Guild Stones will be modified to enhance their functionality and efficiency. The system that controls Guild Stones has been modified to facilitate future enhancements. While most of these changes will be transparent to the players, there will also be some changes to the guild interface at the same time.

The War Menu

The War Menu will have a new option in the main menu of the Guild Stone. It can only be accessed by the Guild Master. The menu has the following options:

• Declare war by name
  • The Guild Master will be able to enter the name of the opposing guild.
  • The system will do a name lookup and try to pull a match or a close match.
  • The Guild Master will then be given a display of the matches and close matches to the name entered.
  • Choosing one of the names on this list will send a war invitation to that guild.
  • A guild may only have up to 12 wars declared and not accepted at any given time.
    • Once a war is accepted by the other guild, the Guild Master may declare another war if he chooses to.
• Accept War invitations (if any exist)
  • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to accept any war invitations they currently have.
  • A guild many only have up to 12 wars declared on them and not accepted.
    • If a 13th war is declared on the guild, the first invitation will be scrolled off the list.
    • There is no limit to the total number of wars a guild may take part in.
• Decline War invitations (if any exist)
  • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to decline any war invitations they currently have.
• Rescind War declarations (if any exist)
  • A menu will be displayed allowing the Guild Master to take back any war invitations they sent to other guilds.
• Sue for peace (if any wars exist)
  • A menu will be displayed with all of the guilds the Guild Master's guild is currently at war with. The Guild Master can then choose to stop the war using this option.

Changing the Guild Type

Revisions will be made to guild stones to address issues with changing the guild type (Order, Chaos, Neutral). A warning window will also alert you if a guild type change is already in progress when you try to change the guild type again. This window will include:

• A message telling you how long you have to wait until the current change takes effect.
• The option to either accept or cancel the change request.
  • Clicking “accept” will bring up the menu listing the guild types.
  • Clicking “cancel” will bring you back to the guild stone menu and will not reset the current guild stone change timer.

Guild Stone Decay

Guild stones will decay in approximately one week if they are not in a house.

• Guild members will be messaged each time they log in if their stone is subject to decay.
• The guild master of a guild will need turn the guild stone into a "teleport stone" before it decays.

Recruiting'

Guild Masters who recruit guild members will no longer have to accept them. If a Guild Master selects a member for candidacy, that member will be accepted automatically.

Auto-cleanup

Characters in guilds that no longer exist will now be "cleaned up" and able to join other guilds automatically.

Pet Changes

Various fixes and enhancements to pets.

• Pack horses now have their packs on them when they die.
• Pet transfers will perform the loyalty checks before the transfer window appears.
• Friends of a pet will have a slightly more difficult time issuing commands to the pet.
• Pack animals and horses will no longer say [tame] above them twice.
• Horses and pack horses that go wild (and have had two or fewer previous owners) can be retamed and controlled by any of the original owners without any added difficulty.
• Transferring a pet will no longer increase the difficulty in controlling the pet. However, if the transferred pet goes wild or is released, it will still incur the penalty for two previous owners.
• When a pet that has had previous owners is retamed, the tamer has a chance, based on the tamer’s animal lore skill, of calming the pet down. A calmed pet's difficulty to control is the same as if it had had one fewer owner. The difficulty will never be reduced below the pet's original difficulty.
• Starting loyalty of tamed pets is now slightly higher. This will prevent pets from going wild instantly on a failed command.
• Failed pet transfers will now impact the creature's loyalty less.
• Pets who are automatically controlled without any taming or lore skill (horses, pack animals, and dogs, for instance) will no longer gain loyalty when issued a successful command.
• The messages have been restored when you have no chance of taming a creature.

Moonstones

Moonstones will be found on various monsters. The exact nature and functionality of these items will be detailed at a later time.

NPC and Monster Changes

Changes will be made to various NPCs and Monsters that will have the following affects:

• NPCs will now train the appropriate skills when asked. Some NPCs will now train different skills than they previously and will list all skills they can train when asked, “train”
• You will no longer get the item “a scroll”.
• Monster treasure will be revamped. Most monsters will not carry backpacks, and some monsters will carry different treasure than they have previously.
• Some NPCs will now carry items more appropriate to their jobs (beware of merchants with trapped boxes!)

Moongates

Single clicking the left mouse button on a moongate will give you a description of what lies through the gate. This will allow you to know where the gate is currently going without having to jump through them over and over again until you reach your destination. This will help improve server performance as less players will need to “jump” through moongates.

Recall Scroll Fix

You will no longer use more than one recall scroll when recalling off of a boat key.

Smithing Difficulty

Issues with smithing difficulty being higher than normal will be resolved.

Secure Pet Trading

Secure pet trading will allow players to sell or trade items for tamed animals and monsters using the trade window.

To trade a pet to another player the owner of the pet can:

• Speak the words, “[pet name] Transfer”
• A targeting cursor will appear. The pet owner can then target the person they wish to transfer the pet to.
• A trade window will automatically appear.
  • The trade window will contain a deed in the current owner’s portion of the window. This deed will display the pet type and the pet’s name.
  • The other player may then place gold (or other items) into his portion of the window.
  • Once both participants have clicked the gems to agree to the trade, the pet will automatically be transferred to the new owner and the deed will delete itself.
  • If the transfer is cancelled, the deed deletes itself and all other items are returned to their owner.

We will also be making changes to the secure trading window to account for the amount and weight of items used in transfers and to stop any scams associated with the trade window. Information on this enhancement will be forthcoming.

Secure House Trading

Secure house trading will allow players to sell or trade items for houses using the trade window.

To trade a house to another player the owner of the house can:

• Click the “transfer” button in the house options menu.
• A targeting cursor will appear. The house owner can then target the person they wish to transfer the house to.
• A trade window will automatically appear.
  • The trade window will contain a deed in the current owner’s portion of the window. This deed is not an actual house deed, but will display the name of the house, the house type, and the sextant coordinates of the house’s location.
  • The other player may then place gold (or other items) into his portion of the window.
  • Once both participants have clicked the gems to agree to the trade, the house will automatically be transferred to the new owner and the deed will delete itself.
  • If the transfer is cancelled, the deed deletes itself and all other items are returned to their owner.
• You will not be able to transfer a house to a character that already owns a house using this method.

We will also be making changes to the secure trading window to account for the amount and weight of items used in transfers and to stop any scams associated with the trade window. Information on this enhancement will be forthcoming.

Dexterity and Healing

In an effort to balance the Healing skill with other methods of healing damage (such as healing potions and the greater heal spell), dexterity will affect the delay for healing and the penalty for finger slips while healing.

• The higher a character’s dexterity, the less time it will take to complete a heal.
• The amount of healing a character loses due to a finger slip will be reduced with a higher dexterity.

These changes are true for healing both yourself and other players.

Instant-Resurrection Removal

Following the creation of “Young” player status, the ability to “instantly resurrect” is no longer necessary. After dying, you will automatically return as a ghost.

Server Publish Mar 9 2000 10:52AM CST

Changes to Skill Gain

Changes to the skill gain system to facilitate better gains and lessen the effectiveness of macroing.

• The chance to learn a skill will be increased during the first hour of play each day for each character. Note this only affects the chance to increase a skill, not the chance to succeed in using it.
  • The burst system will not affect non-difficulty skills that below base 70.0.
• The rate at which non-difficulty based skills gain will be further increased.
• The skill usage table will no longer fluctuate based on how often skills are used.
• Skill delays for the following skills will be shortened to one second.
  • Animal Lore
  • Arms Lore
  • Anatomy
  • Item Identification
  • Detect Hidden
  • Enticement
  • Evaluate Intelligence
  • Forensic Evaluation
  • Sprit Speak
  • Taste Identification
• The delay for using peacemaking will be 5 seconds upon a successful attempt and the normal 10 seconds for failure.
• With skill gain being increased in general, we have made changes to make macroing no longer yield better skill gain results than normal game play.
  • Skills will generally require human intervention in order to raise them. In many ways, this is similar to raising animal taming (raising animal taming requires you to travel looking for animals to tame) since you will need to use a skill on different items/creatures in order to gain in it.
  • The following skills will not be affected by this code:
    • Alchemy
    • Blacksmithing
    • Bowyer/fletching
    • Carpentry
    • Cartography
    • Cooking
    • Inscription
    • Tactics
    • Tailoring
    • Tinkering
  • Combat skills (Swordsmanship, Fencing, Mace Fighting, Wrestling, and Archery) will only be affected by this code when the character is inside a house.
• The chance to gain a stat from skill usage will be increased.
• Stats will now only have a chance raise when you successfully gain in a skill.
  • The exception to this are skills that are marked as “up” and are at GM level (100.0). The system for gaining Stats from GM skills will not be changed.

In addition, certain “secondary” skills will raise when using an associated skill (similar to the way tactics increases while using a combat skill). You will need to mark a skill as “up” in order for it raise in this manner.

• Evaluate Intelligence can raise when Magery is used.
• Anatomy can raise when either a melee skill or the healing skill is used.
• Lumberjacking can raise when using an axe in melee.
• Meditation can raise whenever mana is regenerated.
• Hiding can raise when Stealthing.
• Detect Hidden can raise when attempting to pick a lock when a chest is trapped or when disarming a trap.
• Animal Lore can raise when attempting to Tame.

Boat Recall Fix

The mast of a ship will no longer block recall attempts.

House Placement Fixes

The house placement system will be refined to ensure that houses are not being placed in improper locations. The system will also check current houses more thoroughly when determining whether the house is properly or improperly placed.

Fishing

Fishermen at over 80 skill will have a chance to pull up a sea serpent regardless of whether they succeed or fail at fishing when in deep sea.

Every time you successfully fish up a treasure map or SOS bottle a sea serpent will surface and attack. The treasure map or SOS bottle will be on the serpents corpse. Sea serpents that are pulled up through normal fishing that did not result in a treasure map or SOS bottle will not have these items on them. Only the sea serpents that are pulled up because of a treasure map or SOS bottle will have them on their corpse.

Bank Checks

Bank checks will allow players to carry around large sums of gold to facilitate secure trading.

To get a bank check:

• Go to the banker and say, “check #” where “#” is the amount of gold you wish the check to be worth (between 5,000 and 1,000,000 gold).
• If you have the gold specified in your bank, a bank check of that value will be placed in your bank box and the gold will be removed.
• The bank check will look like a scroll. When single clicked, the check will tell you its value.
• If you do not have enough gold in your bank, you will receive a message letting you know the check was not created.

To redeem a bank check:

• Drag the bank check onto a banker.
• If you have enough room in your bank box, the banker will take the check and place the gold in your bank.
• If you do not have enough room in your bank box, the banker will take the check and place as much gold in your bank as he can. The remaining gold will be given back to you in the form of a new bank check.

All bank checks are “blessed” which means they cannot be looted or stolen. Bank checks cannot be used to purchase items from NPC or player vendors.

Shopkeeper Changes

• NPC shopkeepers will no longer have colored sandals. Evil NPC Mages will carry these items.
• NPC shopkeepers will give a murder count when they die unless they are criminal or evil. The issue with murder counts from NPCs not decaying (as reported on Siege Perilous) will also be addressed.
• If a shopkeeper is killed, a new shopkeeper will appear as soon as another player (other than the one that killed it) approaches.
• Any shopkeeper that is currently [invulnerable] will lose that status except for stablemasters.

Tinker Traps

Tinker traps will be modified. Their purpose will be to protect containers and their creation will no longer give the maker a murder count.

• A trapped chest cannot be opened until the trap is disarmed and the lock removed, except:
  • The owner of the chest can access the chest automatically without firing the trap. The owner is defined as the last person to lock the chest.
• Using the key on the chest will bypass the trap.
• The lock on a trapped chest cannot be picked until the trap is disarmed.
  • A failed disarm attempt will result in setting off the trap.
    • A trap that is set off will reset itself automatically indefinitely.
    • Damage from a trap will not cause the maker of the trap to be a candidate for a murder count.
  • Disarming the chest will not automatically unlock it.

Client Patch 1.26.4i Mar 16 2000 7:11PM CST

Client patch that contains new macro options and optimizations. Includes:

• Localization files for additional language support.
• The Party System interface. This will not be active, but you may preview the interface by clicking on the new scroll appearing in your paperdoll.
• Additional support for seasonal weather.

This patch also includes a variety of changes that will be immediately accessible, including some of the following:

• New Menu and Macro Options
  • Dark nights. You may now select the ‘darkness’ level of your in-game night by using this menu option.
  • Party System Hue. Allows customization of party system text.
  • Colored lighting. Allows you to toggle colored lighting on and off.
  • Always Run. When selected, your character will always run, rather than walk.
  • Save Desktop. When activated, this macro will save all window layout locations immediately.
  • KillGumpOpen: When activated, this macro will stop the client from opening container windows on initial login.
  • WresStun: Will toggle your character in and out of stun wrestling mode.
  • WresDisarm: Will toggle your character in and out of disarm wrestling mode.
• UO.CFG Options
  • Desolation = On/Off: Will allow you to alter the look of Felucca as preferred.
  • TreeCanopies = On/Off: Only valid on Felucca, this option allows you to choose to view treetops.

Additionally, the client animation rate and refresh rate have been optimized for improved performance.