Patch Notes from 1997-10-29

Patch Notes from 1997-10-29

Extra changes that just made it into this patch

• A few banker problems were fixed. This includes problems with sometimes being unable to open safety deposit boxes.
• Safety deposit boxes now close when you get far away from the banker.
• The change making NPCs stop using spells if they figured out their victim was using magic reflect did not work and was removed from the patch.
• NPCs and creatures are now unable to open locked doors.
• The behavior of the "Call GM" button has changed. These changes are in order to sort the calls before a GM is paged, so that responses can be more timely.
  • When you click on it a window with radio buttons will come up.
  • You can cancel out of this window, but cannot move whilst it is up.
  • The radio buttons list categories of problems. Select the one you want and then hit OK.
  • Depending on the type of call, you will either be sent to a web page to mail in a bug report, or a counselor will be paged, or you will be able to enter a reason for your GM call and a GM will be paged.
  • Note that entering a reason for your call that does not match the category will result in your call being misfiled and not answered!
• An exploit involving resurrecting while polymorphed has been fixed. This was a popular way to break into houses.
• Field spells now have reduced damage based on magic resistance.
• Ships and houses now put a duplicate key in your safety deposit box when they are built. Note that existing houses and ships will not do this for you!
• Earthquake and field spells now also have reduced damage in towns.
• The paralyze spell has had its duration decreased, and its effect also diminishes based on magic resistance.
• A problem with stabling animals not returning your animal sometimes has been fixed.

These changes are the result of player feedback from testing. Many thanks to those who helped out! You're helping the game become better for everyone by doing so.

Client patch required

• Target cancelling moves to the ESC key, instead of right-click. This enables you to move while in target mode. If you have a target cursor, ESC will not close the open windows until the cursor is gone.
• Problems with certain macros not saving properly will be fixed.
• The targeting highlight will change to be red, blue, or gray, just like when you click on people to look at their names. **This way you can tell at a glance whether your attack would result in a notoriety gain or loss.

General

• A fix for timewarps (logging out and when returning, finding yourself at the position of the previous backup) will go in. We are not sure this will resolve the issue totally, but hope it will produce substantial improvement.
• Safety deposit boxes! All banker functions remain intact as before. But in addition, if you say "bank" to the banker, he will open up your personal chest. Note that there is a limit on how much this chest can hold! Also, gold in your account and gold in the box are the same gold; there's just two ways of getting at it now.
• When you build a house, the key will appear in your backpack instead of in front of the house.
• We've added numerous lamps to the map, fixed some sign names, and fixed over a hundred other map bugs.
• The "stuck green" health bar problem should be fixed for any who were still suffering from it.
• Items vanishing from containers when the servers come back up will be fixed.
• Hair dye no longer turns beards white.
• You will now get a message when you target a player in combat, so you will know you have done it.
• Several stability issues were fixed.
• Click detection on sitting people will be improved.
• You will now get a message when you try to open a spellbook that is not openable because it is too deep in your backpack.
• We've added in some spam-reduction (and thus bandwidth reduction) for those who hold down a key to repeat the same action over and over.
• Bolts look like bolts (not arrows) when fired now.
• Various turnips, onions, and gourds will now behave slightly differently when used (harvest, then eat!)

Skills and Stats.

• You won't be able to fish through docks anymore.
• The atrophy curve for stat will be flattened. This effectively makes the stat cap higher in actual play and resolves the "stuck strength" issue.
• We doublechecked all the metal costs for blacksmithing and fixed a tunic and a pair of gloves to have correct values.
• Messages when you eat will now give your hunger level.
• Healing rate when hungry will be slowed.
• Healing rate when full will also be slowed.
• The amount of food needed to become full has been greatly reduced.
• You can't eat during combat anymore.
• You can't steal during combat anymore.
• Skill atrophy after you have gained a very large amount of skill points at once (such as from training) will be distributed across all your skills more evenly, rather than just hitting the highest or the next one you used especially hard.
• Carpentry's wood costs should all be correct now.
• There is now a helmet category in blacksmithing.
• Some bugs in blacksmithing (repairing, and "empty lists") were fixed.

Notoriety

• Committing a criminal act (an action that results in the loss of notoriety) will flag you for two minutes as a criminal. **During this time period, actions against you will not result in any notoriety changes at all. Note that looting is not currently defined as a criminal act! Also note that attacks of any kind are still illegal in guarded areas!
• The reversed Dark Lord/Evil Lord title display is back to the way it used to be (as documented on the web site).
• We fixed a bug in notoriety whereby it would not go up if you attacked an evil non-humanoid creature.

NPCs and Creatures

• Herds of deer, flocks of sheep, herds of cows, packs of timber wolves, and small packs of undead will start roaming the land.
• Evil mage towers that take prisoners for necromatic rites will appear.
• Gypsy camps and brigand camps will appear.
• You will be able to rescue prisoners and escort them back to the location they request, for a reward.
• Orcs, lizardmen, and ratmen have been increased slightly in difficulty.
• Creature spawn rate and thus overall creature populations will be increased.
• Pets and summoned creatures should attack when ordered now.
• Items in ships and houses should not decay at all now, unless the house or ship itself does.
• Strange text in female NPC conversations should be fixed.
• Dragon's breath and monster spellcasting now obeys line of sight.
• Wandering healers won't resurrect people on ships or in houses.
• You now get a message when riding and are out of stamina.
• A portion of Despise will now have dragons.
• A portion of Hythloth will now have daemons.

Spells and Magic

• Strange messages about trying to cast a spell when double-clicking on various items and NPCs will go away.
• Field spells should now work properly, damaging when they are supposed to and only when people are actually in the field.
• Magic reflection will work on spells cast by monsters.
• Spellcasting creatures and monsters will be smart enough to stop throwing offensive spells at someone with magic reflection on.
• Recall runes will use the name of the region you made them in, and you can use them in your pack.
• You can only mark recall runes now.
• Night Sight should be improved.
• "Stat affecting" spells and items should be working better across the board. This will break existing magic items that alter your stats. :(
• You can't mark on a ship anymore, nor in houses, as this was being used on to enter houses and ships that weren't there when the mark was made.
• Resurrect in houses or on ships will only work if both people involved are in the house or on the ship.
• Directly damaging spells cast at players in towns will do minimal damage.

UO-Patch Notes