UO Compendium - Ultima Online News, Info, and Rants.

UOC Headlines:	GameSentry Headlines:
Happy Birthday UO! (Sep 25, 2007) More UO:KR Stuff (Sep 22, 2007) UO:Kingdom Reborn Client Update (Sep 21, 2007) Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn Web Site (Mar 21, 2007) UO.com No More? (Feb 22, 2007) Fixed for IE (Feb 13, 2007) Kingdom Reborn News (Feb 13, 2007)	LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Demo (Aug 7, 2006) Oh Man! (Jul 23, 2006) Quake Wars Game Engine (Jul 3, 2006) What will wake me up? (Jun 20, 2006) Rise of Kobol (May 5, 2006) Warhammer Online Trailer (May 5, 2006) Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (May 4, 2006)

I've spent even more time with Kingdom Reborn now. The group I want to play with is on Origin, but I've yet to run into them. But as I've run around getting used to UO again I've discovered a few oddities.

The first off is one that made me laugh. It's the picture you see to the left here. Just when did glasses come into UO? UO has always been a game filled with people dressed up in crazy looks. But adding in glasses and ninja clothes has really brought things over the top.

It's fun not remembering things. It makes the whole experience feel new again. But alas, I'm having technical difficulties which are stealing the thunder out of my time playing.

I'm not sure yet if it's the UO:KR client or my internet, but running seems downright laggy. Two steps ever so slight pause, two steps, ever so slight pause. If I log into Sonoma and hop on my horse I don't feel this as much it seems. But when I run I do. On Origin I don't have a horse yet, so don't know if it's the client or my internet. But it's stealing the thunder and could be a total show stopper for me.

Alas, I don't have the 2D client even installed to verify which it is. Maybe tomorrow I'll install it again and see what it does. I've got the Mondain install around here somewhere...

One of the web comics I read Real Life Comics rediscovered UO. Which of course, made me rediscover UO.

I did of course try out UO:KR when it first came out. While I am impressed with how much better it is than UO:Third Dawn (UO:3D) ever was, I was not overwhelmed by it. But with that said, I have to say it is quite welcome and I like it overall as a client.

But I only logged in once.

This week I've logged in a few times though and I've gotten to know the new UO client better. Right now it feels like when you were a kid and got a new snow jacket. You felt stiff in it and it was hard to move around. But after time, and some good wear and tear it feels good. In this case wear and tear are patches. I feel much more hope that EA can patch this client and fix its quirks, err, stiffness.

And that's what got me to post this brief message (after not posting for months). Yesterday's client update. It fixes a few things, nothing I've run into though.

* Fixed bug that caused the mouse cursor to disappear
* updated clilocs
* Added art for new items
* Changed the default hairstyle to bald for all races and genders
* Fixed weird green pixel on map

That's a start.

Oh! after reading that UO Forums is turning 5 (congrats!) it made me wonder just how long I've had this site up. And I looked down at the bottom of the page and realized that UOC is over 6 years old!

That really surprised me. 6 years, 3 months and 8 days old. Man time flies.

Hey, hey, hey, a new UO: Kingdom Reborn site is up. I have to say I really like the tagline they gave the site:

"The Game That Gave Birth To The Modern MMORPG Will Be Reborn!"

They've posted a lot of "Before" and "Reborn" side-by-side shots as well. You can see them here. This is a nice touch.

So far by the pole I'm running the majority of you are looking forward to UO:KR, I myself am, but with a bit of trepidation as well. The 3D models finally look right in paperdoll window, but look slightly askew to me in the game window. The interface makes me happy, I'll miss my mixed up backpacks, but thank goodness for the other improvements! I long ago gave up using the UO:3D client, but the one thing I always missed about it was how spell icons could be linked up. The new interface should make that frustration a thing of the past.

Looking to download the Mondain's Legacy client today I went over to UO.com to find a surprise waiting for me. UO.com isn't there anymore, you're forwarded to the new UO Herald web site.

Subpages (directories) like the UOML pages are still there thankfully.

I was wondering if they'd revamp UO's main page, it's looked like it has since early 2001. I just didn't expect UO.com to completely vanish.

I have no idea how long this site has been broken in IE. I cannot remember the last time I used IE to view it! But wow was it broken. I sure wish I had know. :P

But alas it's fixed, if you're here in IE you'll probably already notice you don't have to scroll for a few minutes horizontally to find the content.

Wow...

These were posted today to the Ultima Online Kingdom Reborn FAQ .

Q: Are we losing the "Black Area" on the screen with KR?
A: The plan currently is to support the "black area" as an option..

Q: Will the "zoom" feature seen at the Atlanta Town Hall make it into the live version of KR?
A: Keeping the "zoom" function is still under debate. If we do allow this it will not give players any advantage over others.

I'm all for loosing the Black Area to be honest. Give me a minimalistic interface if I like and transparency any day. I haven't checked out this zoom stuff yet, though it's making a stir apparently.

So a few nights ago I poked my head around some old haunts on Sonoma. It was pretty late at night and I didn't expect to see anyone. Sadly I didn't. It was odd being in UO again after such a long hiatus, but enjoyable.

Tonight though, given just 5 minutes I ran into quite a few familiar (not old) faces. Quickest place to look is YMCA. It's funny how it changes, but doesn't change. I assume every shard has a place like this. YMCA, with Dor as the owner, has always been a great place to meet people. Even after the shard split (which did enormous damage to communities in game) it was a place to go and have fun and relax.

Well, after some long niglect I think I'll be working on the site soon. Partly in preperation for the next version of UO and also because of increased involvement playing UO. It's funny, for me and others I know, even with long times in other games, it always comes back to UO. For me it's all about depth. UO just has much more depth than other games ever had for me.

So things I'll be changing... For starters, a new site design is really needed. Then a quality pass on the BOD Database, as I know a lot of people still use it. And then? I'm not sure. We'll see I guess. :)

Sorry for the downtime, hope I didn't loose you all. I forgot to renew my domain. Yikes!

Sitting at the bottom the latest Five on Friday is this tid-bit that a member of the Ultima Online Yahoo! Group pointed out.

This marks the end of my first week in a while at an actual desk - the EA Mythic Austin office is officially open! (We still haven't lured MrTact from his cave, but soon he'll be within smacking range... I can't wait :) ) I am off to reassure my cats that I haven't forgotten them - y'all have a good weekend!

As I said in the group, something about UO being made in Texas feels right. Though from other posts I'm not sure where the heck UO is being produced, I assume it's still officially in sunny California.

Kingdom Reborn
In slightly related news, I really want some more Kingdom Reborn news. Anytime there is little news about a new project concerning the UO franchise I grow uneasy. *cough*UO 2*cough*UXO*cough*

Excuse me, I seem to have caught a cold.

Well it's been about a month since my last post. Just a quick drop in to say Merry Christmas. Things in my "lab" are brewing, thank you for all the loyal BOD Database people out there! I've got a few things I'm planning for this site, some overhauls and content cleanup. I may even have a chance to get it done soon!

With that I bid you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

PS: And to celebrate I've posted the first new poll in, well, a long time. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I've been getting the UO itch lately, perhaps I'll be jumping in pretty soon, I have some free time headed my way.

Anyhow, for those of you in the US, Happy Thanksgiving, for all the UOC vistors from out of the country (Australia, Brazil, Spain, China, Canada, Russia, England, Germany, Italy, and all the others!)

So, the BOD Database on this site is by far the most popular page on this site. For some time I have neglected it, even with an average of 4-5 Bad BOD Reports daily.

Right now I have 377 reports that I need to look at. But the obvious problem for me, is when I wrote the reporting system I didn't actually put in the ability to say why it was a bad bod. Yah, I'm smart. I have 377 reports about bad bod's without a reason why.

The obvious fix is to add a field to say why it's a bad bod. The better way perhaps is to make it more of a social system. Where it tallies votes that a bulk order deed is bad, and a user can specify a threshold.

I'm a bit in favor of the social aspect, though without a registration system I'm not sure how good it'd be, or how fast it'd be abused.

Either way, I need feedback. I'm more than happy to make a change, but really, I'd need feedback about this before I did anything.

So if you care drop me a quick note to orion@gamesentry.com.

Kudos to the UO team. Today someone pointed me to UO's Kingdom Reborn site.

Finally..

I have filled out quite a few questionaire's from EA about why I had left UO and what it'd take to get me back. Every time on the top of my list was a new client.

And we're getting one!

From the site:

Congratulations!

You are one of the very first to get a glimpse of a reborn Ultima Online. We won't be releasing more details for a bit, but we do want to let you know a few things:

1. We are completely re-building the Ultima Online client with new graphics and a new easier-to-use interface.
2. It is an in-place upgrade. That means you will be able to keep your characters, items, houses and everything else you've earned over the past nine years.
3. We are committed to maintaining extremely low system specs. They will be higher than what UO launched with in 1997, but will still be far lower than almost any other MMORPG on the market.
4. The launch will happen in 2007.
5. There are many, many more surprises in store.

The Ultima Online development team has been working hard for the past eight months to make real the vision of a thriving, vibrant Ultima Online. We are proud to finally let you in on our secret. Look for a full announcement soon.

I know you probably have lots of questions. Before this year ends, we will answer just about all of them, so keep watching www.uo.com.

Darkscribe
Producer - Ultima Online

Oh man!

Funny thing, the first thing I really noticed was the walls seem to have depth.

I'm coming out of hibernation long enough to comment on the new Vet Rewards. I'm pleased to see some new rewards further down the chain besides just a new reward on the tale end. What got me to say something about them is the creativity of the rewards.

In particular the new 6th year Vet Reward sounds like a lot of thought was put into it.

Player Statue Maker
▪ This is a decoration for your house
▪ Can be used to make a statue of yourself
▪ The statue will mimic your appearance, including clothing, armor and weapons
▪ You can choose among three poses for the statue
▪ There are three statue makers - each uses a different type of material: Bronze, Alabaster Marble, Jade
▪ Statue makers can only make statues out of one of the material types (if you pick a bronze statue maker, that particular statue maker will not be able to make statues out of marble or jade.)
▪ Each material will have a small selection of available hues
▪ Statue will be mounted on a plinth
▪ The plinth will have a plaque with the character's name and the date it was created
▪ The statue is re-deedable, so you can change it as many times as you wish (e.g., new pose, new wearables, new character, new hue, etc. Everything but the material type.)

Nice. :)

I read this today on the UO FYI page.

As outlined in our Terms of Service, we do not condone the abuse of bugs, scripting, exploiting of game mechanics, nor other forms of cheating. On average, we close approximately 100 accounts per month for violating the Terms of Service.

Recently, we discovered a large number of accounts that were using third-party programs to farm resources. We closed those accounts and removed the following resources from the game:

� Raw Ore = 78,000,000 Stones
� Gems = 189,000 Gems
� Ingots (all types) = 266,400,000
� Gold = 1,080,000,000

This activity is harmful to the gameplay of honest players and will not be tolerated. Any player found cheating will have action taken against their account. Our policies and methods for finding cheaters are constantly evolving, as the integrity of our service is of utmost importance to the UO Team.

If you haven't done so recently, please take a moment to read the Terms of Service, and remember to abide by them at all times.

Thank you for playing Ultima Online. May your sword stay sharp, your gates not fizzle, and good luck to you in Doom.

Update: We have now recovered over 16 Billion in gold from exploiters this week.

I have to say I'm very impressed with them. They actually released numbers! Not only did they say we've done X, Y, and Z to make our game better from exploiters, but they released a number about what they did as well! I wish more companies would do this.

Sure it doesn't tell us how many are left, but seeing concrete numbers (impressive ones at that) makes you feel they care about the average joe player who doesn't haxxor.

I just got this:

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Fare Thee Well.

It seems like only yesterday that GoatBoy and I spent countless hours venturing through the lands of Britannia befriending newcomers to this strange land. I made a great many friends in that time, such as my old pal BookWorm. BookWorm was one of those characters that was a real, breathing person, not just some character in a game. I never knew the person behind BookWorm, but I knew my friend BookWorm.

Just nights after meeting BookWorm I encountered a group of people role-playing Orcs just outside of Yew. I was on a quest to return some items to the bank so after chatting with them for a bit they asked me to join them. I agreed, but needed to put away some things first, so we made plans to meet at one of the great Yew trees. Upon returning to the agreed upon tree I found one of my new Orc friends and tried to talk to him. He replied in the strangest manner.by attacking me! I was so outraged and betrayed by my "friend". I tried to escape through the thick forest but he kept attacking. My heart was pounding, my palms were sweaty. I was so angry. I typed "STOP!! PLEASE STOP!" over and over. I tried to find out what I did wrong. My health was getting lower and lower and my stamina was rapidly dropping. Then, in the blink of an eye, the screen went grey and I heard the sound you fear the most.the death groan.

I was so upset. I threw my mouse across the old Origin Customer Support area and screamed at my screen.at my "friend". It was 2:00 in the morning, so no one witnessed my outburst. I was determined to find out what I did wrong. But I couldn't find the guy, so I logged into a tester client, found my Orc buddy and drilled him as to why he killed me, why he betrayed me. He wouldn't answer. He just continued his aimless wandering. After a few minutes I realized this was not the friend I had made earlier in the evening..but an NPC monster. Man, was I humiliated. I was so embarrassed but at the same time, relieved, relieved that I wasn't betrayed by a human being.

That was the moment I fell in love with Ultima Online. That was nearly 10 years ago. Today I love the game more than ever.

I have seen Ultima Online revolutionize the gaming world. I have been there with UO through so many changes. I have worked with so many talented industry legends and I have seen so many players come and go and then return that it has made UO such a cherished and valuable part of me. I have gained real-world friends, ended real-world relationships, and made memories that I will carry with me forever. Ultima Online is simply amazing.

But the day has come when I must put down my sword and retire my steed. I must step aside and let a new adventurer take the helm with the new day. As of today, March 3rd 2006, after spending one third of my life working on Ultima Online in some manner, I will be leaving the Ultima Online team and Electronic Arts.

I am leaving UO but I will never leave Britannia. I must venture forth and try some new things and seize the day. Ultima Online is in one of the best places I have seen it in the past 5 years. Darkscribe is the most passionate producer I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and as a former marketing director, he gets it. He understands the relationship that must exist between development, community, and marketing. He is also a great motivator who has the ability to make some amazing changes and give stuff like the new events a chance. The team is in better spirits and is more motivated than any team I can recall. You are in good hands and the next few publishes of bug fixes and system changes will poise UO to regain the throne as the greatest online world ever created.

I leave with a heavy heart but I know that UO is in good hands. I have more faith in Britannia's future than I have had in a long time. I thank every one of you for all the great memories and support you have given me over the years.

I'll see you in Britannia.

Chris "Binky" Launius

"I created worlds!"

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And another favorite leaves. I think stuff like this is hard on players. But the reality is teams do change, because people change jobs. Especially in this industry, where just 6 years ago it seemed the average was something like six months at a new job till you found a new one.

Another year goes by and I forgot to reregister this domain again. You'd think I'd remember, hehe.

Reporting UO News since June 13th, 2001.

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