 March 30, Friday |
GameSpy has a report of it as well at:
Here |
 | Ordering Ultima Online 3rd Dawn -Videric |  |
I decided to check with the UO-Europe manager Cordicat if the orders to Europa will be shipped from US or England, unfortunately this was the answer:
"The shipping of the offered Third Dawn cds will be done from the US."
I hope this does not mean the 4-6 week wait that T2A Cds took.
|
Following was posted in RPG Vault :
Following the announcement last week of the cancellation of UWO: Origin and seemingly marking the end of original development at the legendary Origin Systems studio, members of the Austin development community joined in a “wake tonight. Harvey “Witchboy” Smith was kind enough to pass along some quick impressions:
the origin "wake" tonight was awesome. giant bonfire, tons of people i used to work with, richard setting fire to all these old documents.
my black jacket is covered in ashes.
several people, including richard, lit the fire with torches in the form of a pyramid, sphere and cube.
the fat man had a dot matrix printout design doc of "squadron," the game that eventually became wing commander. he threw it onto the blaze and we watched it burn.
we all got this kickass black shirt that rich had printed:
ORIGIN
WE CREATED WORLDS
1983-2001
Like many other developers, Harvey is a former Origin staffer, having started in the Q&A department several years ago. He was most recently the Lead Designer on ION Storm Austin’s widely acclaimed Deus Ex, and is currently the Project Director on the sequel.
"The Fat man" refered in the story is probably the man who made the music to most Ultima products. Other conclusion that can be made is that Richard Garriot is clearly gathering a new development team from Ex-Origin employees.
We will stay tuned what happens at Garriot front... |
| March 29, Thursday |
| Cynthe introduced herself. -Elv'eng | |
Something i found the Ultima Online Roleplaying boards at http://www.uo.com, seams we have a new Community Coordinator. Read on what she have done and what she want.
Greetings and Salutations!
I want to introduce myself for those who don't know me... I'm Cynthe, Community Coordinator for ORIGIN (UO2) until just a few days ago. As I'm sure you can guess, this has been a tumultuous week for me, and my head's still spinning (almost as if I'd tried to participate in that paradoxical time-travel thread down there in this forum). But I've been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to transition onto UO, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the game, and the players, much better.
Before I continue, let me stress that I'm not Eidolon, and never will be. His knowledge of the Ultima Universe blows me away, and his attention to detail concerning the Ultima fiction is something that I can't match. I have a short background in Ultima, having had the opportunity to work with Richard as a designer on Ultima 9 before accepting the role of Community Coordinator for Ultima 9, and then UO2. And as well, I should make it clear that I'm not Eidolon's replacement, so I hope you'll all understand and forgive me if I'm not completely up to speed on the work that he's done, and the directions that he was taking.
Now that I've told you what I'm *not*, let me tell you what I *am*. :) I'm going to be working in the UO community with Leilo and Melantus, both on the boards and on the website. To tell you the truth, though... after last week's upheaval, I'm still not entirely positive which facets of UO will fall into my domain. But no matter what, I think my first priority should be to get to know you guys, and learn what the players think of the game.
So why start here? Well, two reasons... one, I don't know the game all that well yet. I couldn't even begin to answer the specific game-related questions that Melantus does on the other boards. And while I can make posts to show that I'm listening, that can get old without any content to go along with it. ("Hey Cynthe, tell us about __insert skill here__!" "Well, um... it's a skill... and.... um.... it's neat... and... um...") And two, I think role-playing is a vital part of UO. Without the roleplayers, we're just a game. With you, we're a virtual world, with its own atmosphere and attractions.
It reminds me of a Renaissance Festival. Sure, there's employees paid to be at the Faire dressed in wench outfits and hawking pretzels, but what really makes it a Faire are the people who come ready to participate in the fiction and add to the atmosphere. (As a side note, I'm one of them... you should see my collection of Ren clothes. I've spent wayyyy too much money on that stuff.) You're the people who aren't afraid to put on a costume, talk in dialect, offer your services as bodyguard to the Faire's King and Queen, and have a good time, and you make the place a hell of a lot more fun for it.
I think a really important part of role-playing, even moreso than the fiction that we create, is the fiction that *you* create. The player-run towns, the player-run taverns, the huge guild wars... that's truly amazing stuff. When I first started playing UO during its beta, I thought it was fun. I enjoyed the combat, the skills, the clothes, etc. But I eventually stopped playing due to time constraints, and have missed the last 2 1/2 years in the evolution of Ultima Online. What I see now is stunning. The player-run towns, taverns, events, websites... it's just amazing what you've done! Since I'm going to be working with the UO community, I want to learn more about you, and what you've created. Tell me about your towns, and your guilds. Teach me the fiction that's important to you.
The Ultima fiction is central to the game, and we still have an event staff dedicated to making sure that doesn't get lost. But I also want to see a focus on your fiction, and the roles that you've created in the game.
So remember I'm new over here... treat me like a beginner, and tell me about what's important to you. :)
_____________________
Cynthe
Community Coordinator
Origin Systems
Good luck Cynthe and welcome to Ultima Online.
|
| March 24, Saturday |
Melantus poped by role-play boards, and commented on rumours of Interest team being history(meaning no fiction):
No, we still have Interest folks here. We also know the value of the Interest aspect of UO. It will be tough to re-focus in the midst of such recent changes, but we can and will do that.
Melantus
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online
Melantus@uo.com
So it looks like fiction goes on, but with different people.
UO Boards
|
| March 23, Friday |
| Europian shards upgrade, soon -Videric | |
This was posted by Melantus at UO Boards:
European Shards Hardware Upgrades
We will be scheduling hardware upgrades for the Drachenfels and Europa shards in the upcoming weeks, and will be continuing to upgrade hardware on the remaining shards in the future. We will update a dated schedule at least 24 hours in advance of any extended maintenance to complete these upgrades.
Just FYI, this was posted to Shard Issues and should help give a little more info on the European Shards.
Melantus
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online
Melantus@uo.com
UO Boards |
| Lord British speaks at Gamespy. Intresting indeed, if Garriot is coming back to the gaming business, I am indeed very happy, although I think there is a VERY slim change that he will be making a Ultima game.(since EA owns the Ultima license I think) We can however always hope;) |
| March 22, Thursday |
The Vault Network was fortunate enough to interview David Swofford about UO2/UWO:O cancellation:
You can read about here:
IGNPC Interview with David Swofford
Also the Vault Network reports that Starr Long (aka Lord Blackthorn) amd Jeremy Gaffney are among people who left the company. |
| Some light to the dark night -Videric | |
I was among many people who looked forward to UO2/UWO:Origin, and naturally I feel very sad by the news of cancelation. Origin was very promising in role-playing front with constant updates on the lore and background stories and had great graphics and promising skill system. However now we only have UO now as all efforts will go in to it, so let us look what positive we could possibly get out of this.
Only thing in my mind right now is the Avatar art; tons of clothing and customisation options UO2 had... I think this definately has to be added to UO (from the parts that is fitting that is, no steampunk stuff without reason at least).
Just to show how beautiful cloth art uo2 had have a look at the modified(as I combined several screenshots, the art is 100% real uo2 art) screenshot I made.
If UO2 really must go, at least do not just throw it all away. People complain their avatars are not beautiful, now is OSI/EA's change to consentrate to that 100% (Rumour is that v60 will have quite an art improvent already, not because uo2).
So now is the time to be very innovative and win back the customer trust which with cancelation of so promising product has probably shaken.
My deepest sympathies to those who worked for UO2 very hard and long to only end up not finishing it while only presumably months away from Finishing.
|
| Cancelling UO2 is a RETARTED move. 'nuff said. |
| March 21, Wednesday |
| Bye bye baby, baby goodbye -Melissa | |
Ultima Online 2 (also known as UWO:O or something like that) bites the dust. Here's the press release:
Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of UWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating UWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online's 230,000 loyal subscribers. In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.
Sad. But on the bright side, I think this will do a lot of good for UO, the game we've all grown to love and hate. Who knows, maybe we'll even get that Virtue/Quest engine some day... |
| March 19, Monday |
With the UO:3D release coming closer every day, the Ilshenar lore has started rolling in.
BNN now has a new section, titled "Ilshenar lore" that includes the findings of Lycaeum scholar Jerno Milik and his colleagues, including the history of Ilshenar. Well written stuff, and very enlightening. |
| March 15, Thursday |
Now this looks good, specially the larger Avatar part. Note that this update is not yet available at the time of writing this.
This is what is scheduled for the next patch. Once it's confirmed though, I'll update the main post:
1) Numerous art fixes and improvements.
2) Various minor bug fixes.
3) CTRL-Q is now the default for "Previous Command."
4) Circle of Transparency bug fixed.
5) Avatars have been re-scaled to be slightly larger.
6) ALT-TAB now works properly.
7) "Green box" mouse cursor bug fixed.
8) Hard disk free space is now reported in the UOReport.log file when logging is enabled.
9) Obscenity Filter now defaults to off.
10) Several improvements to the female avatar.
UO Boards |
| "a paladin" attacking you! -Videric | |
With server publish it seems special paladins spawn in areas where normal Paladins are seen (delucia and Trinsic). They seem to attack anything with negative Karma and are extreamly hard to kill as they keep healing themselves very fast indeed.
However graphical side of them is still in the development it seems, as they currently appear only as naked white human both with UO2d and 3d. Makes you wonder why they were implented without clothing, maybe the issue is the same as with evil mages? |
| Nothing stops the 3rd dimension! -Videric | |
"No bug or crash shallt be on our way whens publishers sayes 'tis done! If it's in the Game, 'tis in the Game!"
I just find it sad when UO3d is not yet ready it is rushed to publish, and because it will be "ready" product all the Beta forums will be closed.
I do believe UO Third Dawn will be a great product, but I fear it will not be ready when it hits the stores, however Origin still has time to proof me wrong, so please do so.
On the bright side they are once again giving out those very cool cloth maps of Britannia. The one I got with original UO three years ago is still hanging on my wall, it is very useful for quick navigating (coordinates match) and it still looks good. So if Britannia is your second home, I do recommend getting the cloth map.
http://www.uo.com/
|
| Ultima Online: Third Dawn - Coming Soon! -Elv'eng | |
This was just posted at UO's Offical site:
We are pleased to officially announce the upcoming release of Ultima Online: Third Dawn - bringing an exciting new dimension to the world of Britannia. Beginning March 27th (March 20th in Japan), Ultima Online: Third Dawn you'll be able to grab your own copy and start exploring the new and dangerous land of Ilshenar on your favorite Ultima Online shard.
We will be offering a special upgrade offer to all of our existing Ultima Online customers. For 60 days, starting on March 26th, current UO customers with active accounts will be able to order this special upgrade for a price of $9.95 plus shipping and handling. This promotional upgrade version includes the final gold-mastered version of Third Dawn, the new retail version map of Britannia, the Lost Lands, and Ilshenar, and while supplies last - as a special bonus - we'll include a collector's edition cloth map of Britannia and the Lost Lands. This upgrade CD does not include a registration code and therefore cannot be used to create a new account nor qualify for new account free game time. Alpha and beta testers who do not wish to participate in the upgrade offer will be given the opportunity to order the Ilshenar and cloth maps for $5.95, with shipping and handling paid by Origin Systems.
In preparation for the launch of Third Dawn, we will officially close the beta testing period on Monday, March 19th. We will be closing the Third Dawn Bug Message Board at that time, and ask that any further issues be directed to tcbugs@uo.com. We appreciate all of the effort that our alpha and beta testers have given to the product and look forward to seeing everyone in this newest incarnation of Britannia.
|
| March 14, Wednesday |
| New Ilshenar fiction coming soon -Matthius | |
Eidolon had this to say on the UO boards when he was asked aobut coming Ilshenar fiction:
Yes, big hunk of fiction this week. I did something kind of odd with it too. The first pile of fiction you will get over the
coming days and weeks will be almost entirely informational. Let me explain what that means.
There is this fellow named Jerno Milik, one of the Grand Scholars of the Lycaeum. As Ilshenar has been explored he has been brought some of the few books and scrolls found there. With what he is given will try to piece together what happened there and why. The problems with this will become obvious as you read further into it. Many of the “what” happened will be quite apparent to Jerno. The problem comes in the forms of “why” and “how”. The whole thing tells a tale, but it’s almost documentary in form. He also makes some suppositions, which may or may not prove to be true.
Some of the “why” and “how” will come in the form of the second part of the fiction I have been crafting via actual stories (more like the Gilforn tale) that is less documentary and very much stories from the past and present as they actually happened.
Later this week I will publish rather lengthy document, which is an overview of Jerno’s current research. From there the following essays will be generally more in depth discussions of certain aspects of his discovery.
Over the next weeks/months you will have a lot of information about what is what and why is why and who is what is why!
If you do not like supsense or at the very least not being told precisely what is going on. Then don't read the fiction, it may drive you insane. 8) |
| March 13, Tuesday |
I was browsing thru some boards today (and UO Stratics Pages), and saw that the Dev team have done some small changes to fishing. It seams that they have added ropes to the games, but they can only be found on Kraken corpses. But might be on others, ill try look more into this.
For more info on the Ropes head to Fishing Council of Britannia offical page.
I've also heard that you should be able to dye all types of pillows now, sounds very nice indeed.
|
Many people have been conserned over the Avatar art, specially female one. I think indeed Avatar art could be better without going into details, and luckily it seems Development teams hears the cry too.
However I must add that graphics in general are not that bad in UO3D, specially many monsters are quite impressive.
UO Boards
I think it is fair to believe that they will try do something to the art issues as well, they already did kindly addressed MIB art and magic item naming. Lets wait and see next patches... |
From FYI:
We will be publishing the changes and fixes listed in Testing for Next Update Testing for Next Update to the all remaining shards to be active following their Wednesday, March 14th (local server time) maintenance period.
Now there is a long list on the page, but most important name to us there is: Europa -shard
This update will include:
-The addition of the Ilshenar land mass
-Taxidermy kits
-Hair Stylist NPCs
-Item Identification changes
-Good creatures vs. karma
-Player-owned vendor changes
-And several additional updates and fixes listed at Testing for Next Update.
Please note: as this publish contains a major number of changes necessary for Ultima Online: Third Dawn, including the addition of the Ilshenar land mass, the maintenance period for these shards will last approximately 1 hour beyond the normally scheduled downtime.
Important: While the publish will activate the Ilshenar lands on the East Coast shards, the Ultima Online: Third Dawn client is still in beta testing stages. Please keep this in mind before traveling to Ilshenar with any of your established characters. You will be unable to access the Ilshenar lands without the Third Dawn beta client.
We will continue to monitor these shards and will announce a schedule for publish to the remaining shards in the near future.
I guess the new hardware has reached Europa?
http://update.uo.com/fyi.html |
| March 11, Sunday |
The events are over. Did you like them, or hate them? I have mixed feelings. The first event, cleasing of the shrines was a very good idea I think. It was a slightly spoiled by the unicode bug and of course the usual l33t Felucca thieves, but in a whole it was a good event. It was tied to the storyline, it had major characters and some nice opponents. I had a very nice time fighting next to Dupre and Geoffrey. All in all, a good event.
Of course there were lots of players who thought it was the worst quest ever. Why? Because they didn't get any c00l l33t qu35t it3ms. It just bothers me that a lot of people come to quests just to get cool unique items. Quests aren't about items, they are about community. They're about a lot of people getting together and having fun. It's not a competition on who gets to kill the boss monster first and gets it loot.
Also some players show up in quests just to ruin it for others. This is thing I think Origin should do something about. Maybe give 72 hour bans or a warning, or just jail the persons for the duration of the quest. It's not right that one person ruins the whole event for all the others, by stealing a important quest item.
On the second "quest", the monster spawn in Vesper and Yew. I can't say more than this: Killing all the players is NOT fun.
"Matthius in Vesper when the vile undead attacked"
|
The experiment was shorter than I expected, but I hope we wil lhave something like this in the future.
Details and stuff at
http://www.uo.com/ |
| March 9, Friday |
| A step to the right direction -Videric | |
Magic weapons are getting their names back, instead of stupid number values. I hope all of localization will be finalized as well as this is.
UO Boards |
| You see item: Localization, UO3d Gold -Videric | |
UOHOC was last night, and to be honest, it was not very informative having such questions as the following:
Prescient-[Stratics]: *Lord-Xanthor_CV* The new Unicorns being introduced into the game, why is it only females can ride them? WOuldnt it be more fair for anyone with tameing to? It wouldnt have been a problem had the origional plans came out for changing names or sex of a character but since thats no longer happening, many have no chance of ever riding one =(
Runesabre: We felt adding gender diversity would be a nice addition with Third Dawn. Females can ride Unicorns while Males can ride Ki-rins so both genders have something unique.
Prescient-[Stratics]: *Bon|LC* What are the Unicorns and the Ki-rins equal to, by fighting standards?
Melantus: the players should find out through experience how strong the new monsters are, or via word of mouth from fellow adventurers :)
Prescient-[Stratics]: *Gorthaur* Will there be fixes to the coloring issues? I logged onto a normal shard using the 3D client, and the colors for many items were off. Furnature was dyed the wrong color, daemon bone armor was green! Will this be fixed?
Runesabre: Please send us screenshots, what version of the THird Dawn client you are using, machine specs, video card info so we can check out if there are problems.
COMMENT: Eehh..haven't they played 3rd Dawn? 2d hues are horribly broken on all displayes meaning that maybe code is faulty... But I guess this was the point where generic answer sounded safe.
Anyway the chat had some good questions too (beside my super questions*grins*). However I think UOHocs are VERY frustriating: they never start in time, questions might have 5-10 minute breaks between, questions/answers should be such that they offer actual NEW information and because the UOhocs are so slow it really doesn't even have many questions like on good old days. I do remember time when UOhocs had actual news in them...
Anyway, read and judge yourself
http://uo.stratics.com/ |
| March 7, Wednesday |
Just what is Siege Perilous moongate, you ask?:
"Siege Perilous" is what the gate is called.
The term "Siege Perilous" comes from the Arthurian legends. Siege Perilous was a seat, directly next to the king. He who would retrieve the grail would be the only one who could sit there. The implication is that only someone who would pure of heart, etc could take the seat. Anyone else who sat there quickly left this mortal realm.
In the end Galahad took the seat, at least in later versions of the tale. I have also read versions where Percival was the one to take the seat.
Either way, the gate the would bring the Stranger to Sosaria had the same name. The implication being that Strange would fit similar criteria to he who would be able to sit in the seat. In the end the Stranger, who later becomes the Avatar, does just that.
-Eidolon
Read about it:
UO Boards |
| March 6, Tuesday |
| New Client Patch and Introduction -Matthius | |
Patch 2.0.8n
We are currently releasing client patch 2.0.8n. This patch updates several localization files, fixes an issue with speech commands, and resolves issues relating to clothing and sitting.
The patch seems to change some texts in the game to a more translation friendly mode. The changes have not however been welcomed by all players, as this thread shows.
Oh and let me introduce myself, I am Matthius, a new reporter on this site. I have been venturing the lands of Europa for quite some time now, and I am a long time friend of Videric Gaveston. |
| March 5, Monday |
Patch 2.0.8m
We are currently releasing client patch 2.0.8m. This patch fixes an issue with unicode text handling for Windows 95 users, and a fix for partial hueing of certain clothing items.
I thought Unicode issue was not depending on platfrom, although 95 issue might mean 95/98/ME as well. I hope we can all hear now. |
| March 4, Sunday |
About Unicode from UO boards:
That is a unicode speech issue. It's being addressed.
Eidolon - (Lead Event Designer)
Direct link:
UO boards |
| March 3, Saturday |
| Travelling between the worlds -Videric | |
From Eidolon:
Actually Lord British is able to travel back and forth to Earth using a moonstone. The same moonstone he would later use to cast a Siege Perilous moongate and summon someone from Earth who could save them from Mondain. The Stranger comes, whacks Mondain, and then returns to Earth.
I will say this one every time. The Beta does not count toward anything historically or fictionally in UO.
Edit : ( I did submitted this before finishing it ;) )
I am very familiar with the book you speak of and the discussion of Black Moongates that allow travel between worlds, and that certain people cannot travel through them. They don't exist in our world though and again, the Beta does not count.
UO boards |
The new publish that will be introduced on Chesapeake first will with a lot of other things introduce lands of Ilshenar. I do not know what is their hurry to introduce the new lands as the client is still at Beta, although it might be that by the time they are done with all shards the UO3D client will be ready. In any case, the next publish is most interesting.
http://update.uo.com/fyi.html |
| March 2, Friday |
| I've added several "new" entries to History at the Lore section, they are mainly key official fiction that was missing from the site. |
New part of fiction added to BNN, and once again I must say it is quality work. Finally enjoyable fiction, like the four part tale before it.
Gilforn |
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