Publish Notes from 2003-07-31

Publish 19: Blocking Items on the Terrain

UO Team 31 Jul 2003 00:00:00 EST

As part of our goal to continually make UO more fun to play, we're turning some of our attention to all those bits of flora and other items that block player movement on the terrain.

Since some items in the game world are built differently than others, not all items will be able to be done at the same time. The first group was addressed as part of Publish 19, while the second group will take place in a future publish.

Publish 19: Quick Self-looting

UO Team 31 Jul 2003 00:00:00 EST

If you've spent tons of time organizing your backpacks and bags just the way you like them, it can be a real pain to get everything back in order after you die. To make it a little easier to pick up your stuff and keep going, we've added a new “Quick Self-looting” feature.

With this feature, players now have the ability to loot their corpse and get everything back into place without spending time rearranging things the way they had been. To instantly re-equip your items and bags, you can double-click your corpse, which will cause all of your inventory to go back to you, in the same arUO:rangement it was in before. Of course, if you simply want to open your corpse without automatically re-equipping everything, you can use the context menu to do that as well.

Here's a few more notes about this feature:

• If you've equipped something since you died, and there was something else equipped in that slot on your corpse, the item that was on your corpse will go into your backpack instead.
• If a player dies more than once, this feature will be available on all their corpses.
• When your corpse is empty after using the quick self-looting, you will receive a message stating, “You quickly gather all of your belongings,” and your corpse will decay to bones.
• If your backpack becomes full before everything has been removed from your corpse, you will receive a message stating, “You gather some of your belongings. The rest remain on the corpse.”
• Depending on the looting rules in the area where the player died, players' corpses may still be looted by other players; however, auto-equipping will not work for anyone but the Origin al owner.

Publish 19: Bugfixes

UO Team 31 Jul 2003 00:00:00 EST

The following is a list of bugs fixed in Publish 19.

(Updated July 7, 2003 to remove a bugfix involving making pitchforks craftable. There was an issue found with other weapons being made craftable when they shouldn't be, so this bugfix was removed for now until a more final solution can be reached in a future publish.)

(Updated July 18, 2003 to remove a notation about mounting pets while they are being attacked – players will still have a chance to mount pets while in combat, and this is as intended. Also added several bugfixes that passed QA after the initial posting of this document. The new additions are in red.)

The following is a list of bugs currently slated to be fixed in our next major publish, Publish 19. There are a couple things to remember, though, when reading this:

1. If an issue is found with one of these bugfixes before the publish goes live, it could be pulled from the publish to avoid delaying the rest of the fixes. (In other words, until it's all passed final testing, consider all of this tentative!)
2. If there are issues you're hoping to see that aren't here, be aware that there may be more bugs fixed as part of Publish 19; this is a list of only those we feel are certain enough now to discuss publicly.
3. Publish 19 contains quite a few bugfixes, but there are a few other things planned as well, such as BOD Books, Quick Self-looting, and Removal of some blocking terrain. Be sure to look through the articles in “In Testing” for more information!

(Updated July 7, 2003 to remove a bugfix involving making pitchforks craftable. There was an issue found with other weapons being made craftable when they shouldn't be, so this bugfix was removed for now until a more final solution can be reached in a future publish.)

(Updated July 18, 2003 to remove a notation about mounting pets while they are being attacked – players will still have a chance to mount pets while in combat, and this is as intended. Also added several bugfixes that passed QA after the initial posting of this document. The new additions are in red.)

Spells, Skills and Special Moves

• The special moves Concussion Blow, Crushing Blow, Shadowstrike, Whirlwind, Moving Shot, and Infecting Strike will now cost less mana to use.
• Base Magery spell damage has been slightly increased by 1 to 2 points for Direct damage spells, and players will also now receive a slight bonus to spell damage based on their intelligence.
• Telekinesis will no longer work on lockdowns or “heavy” items, such as the stone faces in Khaldun.
• The Pain Spike spell has had its damage reduced versus players.
• The Paladin Cleanse by Fire ability has had its base damage reduced slightly.
• Vengeful Spirit now vanishes once its target is dead, no matter who killed the target.
• The mouseover description for the Curse spell should now reflect its new ability to reduce resistances.
• Using the Inscription / meditation/cancel target combination no longer causes the player to be unable to use skills.
• Peacemaking should now be effective against creatures that have already been provoked.
• Instruments must now be in your backpack at the time the peacemaking skill goes off.
• The special move “Doublestrike” will no longer mean two automatic hits; it will now be possible for the second strike to miss. There will also be a 10% damage penalty on the hit.
• “Hit chance increase” and “Defense chance increase” should now be properly factored into combat calculations (ie a 40% Hit chance increase will now change a base value of 50% chance to hit into a 70% chance to hit, rather than 90% as it was doing previously).
• Players can now successfully use the resurrection ability granted to them by following the Virtue of Sacrifice.
• The Paladin ability Sacred Journey should now work correctly when recalling from a boat key.
• The amount of steps your character can take while using the Stealth skill is now equal to your Stealth score divided by 5 (instead of by 10).
• Characters' ability to passively reveal other hidden or stealthed players will now rely only on Stealth and Detect Hidden skill, and will no longer take into account Dexterity and Intelligence.

Crafting and Item Changes

• The “exceptional” bonus for player-crafted items (weapons and armor) has been improved to 35%.
• Creating exceptional tools through tinkering now adds additional uses to the newly created tools.
• An issue with exceptional quality items not showing their correct names has been fixed.
• Several weapon types can now be repaired, including non-crafted magic wands, pitchforks, clubs, Orc masks, black staffs, and glacial staffs, as well as quarterstaffs, gnarled staffs, pickaxes, and shepherd's crooks.
• Wearing a leather cap obtained as loot or from an NPC should no longer prevent you from being able to meditate.
• Juka bows should now receive their correct special “slayer” properties once they are modified with gears.
• Powder of Temperament should now work on all metal weapons and armor.
• Tribal spears are no longer able to be enhanced.
• Being dismounted by a lance will no longer cause a target to take damage from falling. This only applies to lances wielded by mounted attackers. (Note that this bug was inadvertently included in the Publish 18 bugfix list, when in fact it had been moved back to Publish 19. Sorry about the confusion!)
• All leather and studded leather can now be hued with a leather dye tub.
• BODs will now correctly recognize objects made from special materials, even if they are not hued.
• All weaponsmiths vendors should now offer BODs.
• Gypsy Blacksmiths (iron workers) in the gypsy camps of Ilshenar should now offer BODs.
• Players should no longer lose some items when combining two large Bulk Order Deeds.
• Players can no longer set the mining status on pickaxes that other people are carrying.
• Poisoned weapons will now show as poisoned in their Item Property Display, as well as the level of poison and the number of uses left on the weapon.
• Prospectors Tools will now update their remaining charges on their Item Property Display as the charges are used.
• Plant resources should now stack correctly.
• ORange petals, green thorns and red leaves will now auto-stack.
• Plants are now accessible when locked down through all stages of their growth.
• Daemon bone armour should now be generated correctly as loot on Meer mages.
• Keys can now be copied again successfully.
• Players can now stack bolas without causing some of them to become unusable.
• Generic items (for example, reagents, gold, and ingots) should now stack correctly.

Housing, Lockdowns and Secures

• Players who lose a newly placed house due to a shard revert should no longer be subjected to a 7-day waiting period before obtaining another house.
• House signs will now reflect the change when a house owner uses the Name Change Program to change their character name.
• Players should no longer receive the message “You cannot place items into a moving crate” when trying to place items into a secured bag in a customized house.
• Non-standard containers, such as picnic baskets and skeletons, for example, can now be accessed while locked down in a house.
• Game boards should no longer add additional lockdowns to your lockdown count when game pieces are moved. This fix also fixes any game pieces that had become locked down through this bug previously. (To clarify, if a game board is locked down, the pieces can be moved. The “Set Security” context option can control who can move the pieces.)
• Players should now be able once again to hide and use detect hidden in their own house with 100% success.
• If a player attempts to ban someone from a private house, they will receive a system message informing them that they cannot do this, rather than giving them a targeting cursor.
• Players may no longer secure containers that are inside other containers.
• Guildstones should now be ejected from houses when they are customized.
• Losing a guildstone from a house should no longer prevent players from placing a new one.
• Players can no longer remove secure containers from a house and still keep them secure.
• All unlocked containers should now show the number of items and Weight they contain in their Item Properties Display.
• Vendors and barkeeps will no longer be booted from the house when the house owner changes the house sign or foundation style.
• NPC vendors should no longer refer to items as “an unnamed item” if the owner has not entered a description.
• A text error in the house info gump has been fixed.
• Players should now be able to use holiday bells when locked down.

Pets and Followers

• The amount of stats lost by pets upon resurrection has been reduced.
• The time it takes to heal a pet with bandages has been reduced by 2 seconds.
• Players can no longer cause their “number of followers” value to become stuck by logging out while still having a familiar summoned.
• Familiars can now attack guildmates without any interference from guards.
• Balls of Pet Summoning will now update their remaining charges on their Item Property Display when they are recharged.
• Monsters should now focus their aggression on a player immediately if that player mounts a pet that has attacked the monster.
• Bonded, dead pets can no longer get stuck at shrines.
• Pets will no longer go aggressive if their owner casts a damaging spell, such as Pain Spike, on themselves.
• An issue with pets not following players up stairs has been fixed.
• Creatures immune to poison can no longer become poisoned by walking over poisonous swamp pools.
• Swamp Dragon barding is once again providing the correct amount of damage reduction (10% reduction to all damage types for normal quality, and 20% for exceptional).

Faction Issues

• An issue that allowed players to cause a faction sigil to permanently decay, as well as turn themselves permanently purple, has been fixed.
• Nonfaction players can no longer recall into the Minax faction stronghold.
• Players can no longer remount a warhorse instantly after being dismounted.
• We have fixed an issue that allowed a placed house to block entry to the Shadowlords faction stronghold.
• Using Arms Lore on a faction robe no longer results in a bark about your bank balance.
• Faction sigils can no longer be Insured.
• Stolen faction sigils should now display the name of the town that they belong to while in a faction character's backpack.

Quest, Treasure and Dungeon Changes

• Characters should now receive the treasure map or the horn of retreat while doing Uzeraans Quest. (Note: this bug was incorrectly listed as fixed in Publish 18, but was pushed to Publish 19.)
• All new Paladin characters should now spawn inside Uzeraan's Mansion, and receive the Paladin Directed Experience Quest.
• The aggressive Paladin NPC on the necromancer quest should no longer kill players repeatedly.
• Necromancers on the Directed Experience quest should now receive a reminder on the use of spirit speak after their first kill.
• Monster spawn in Haven has been decreased to prevent non-young characters from being unable to complete the Paladin Directed Experience quest (young players are able to get through the tutorial quests without being attacked, but non-young characters learning the Paladin skill for the first time were being attacked by too many creatures for them to handle).
• Puzzle boxes in Khaldun should now spawn loot correctly.
• Treasure chests in dungeons will now have a chance of containing magic items.
• treasure maps, SOS bottles, the Dungeon Doom “Lich guardians”, and Khaldun “puzzle boxes” have had their loot improved. In addition, reagents inside treasure map chests will stack together.
• Players can no longer disarm a Zealot of Khaldun knight of his Viking Sword.
• A teleporting issue with a rune in the Cyclops/Titan dungeon in Ilshenar has been fixed.
• Power scroll distribution has been tweaked to prevent any one player from getting all the power scrolls when a champion spawn is taken down.

Miscellaneous Bugfixes

• Champion Titles will now decay over time.
• Players will now be able to toggle whether or not their Champion spawn title displays on their paperdoll through a “Toggle Monster Title” option in their context menu.
• An issue causing Vet Reward data to be sent multiple times has been fixed.
• Players can no longer recall away from a bank in 3D and still have access to their bank box.
• Boats can once again be refreshed by double-clicking the plank.
• The Item Properties display on a ship's hold will now show the item count and Weight contained on that ship.
• Players can no longer insta-log on boats.
• Hair styling deeds must now be in a player's backpack in order for them to be usable.
• We have fixed an issue where teleporting would sometimes not work when players teleported between areas at a different z-axis.
• Guild titles should no longer vanish after recalling.
• Guild abbreviations will now be visible as part of a character's name, including allnames mode.
• Many NPCs have had their gold stores increased, making begging a more useful skill.
• Players carrying Order/Chaos shields can now heal and cure each other.
• Frost spiders will now deal Cold damage instead of fire.
• Characters should now remain in combat mode when crossing server boundaries.
• Old bless deeds (meaning pre-AOS) should no longer disappear if a player escapes out of the targeting cursor.
• Old Clothing Bless deeds can now successfully bless items again.
• Players who turn grey from looting can now have guards called on them by other players.
• There is now a time delay in effect for gaining Justice points, which means players can no longer gain Justice points by rez-killing murderers.
• Young players who die in Malas should now be teleported to a healer.
• Healers on the steps in Luna will now resurrect ghosts properly.
• Characters should no longer be sent to the middle of the ocean when logging in with certain templates.
• An issue with the AOS launch gift claiming gump has been fixed.
• We have fixed an issue that caused stuck gumps to not appear for characters logging in on a non-AOS-enabled client after upgrading their account to AOS.
• A crashing issue involving guildstones has been fixed.

Publish 19: Bulk Order Books

UO Team 31 Jul 2003 00:00:00 EST

As a way of improving the Bulk Order Deed system, we have created Bulk Order Books!

Summary
As a way of improving the Bulk Order Deed system, we have created Bulk Order Books! This addition, which allows players to store their Bulk Order Deeds in convenient books, should help considerably in reducing item counts in houses, as well as decrease the amount of data needed to store these deeds individually.

Bulk Order Books
Each book will be able to hold up to 500 of any type of Bulk Order Deeds, regardless of craft, size, quality, material type, etc. The book can store any type of bulk order and is not specific to a type of bulk order deed (ie: Blacksmithing and tailoring bulk order deeds can both be placed in the same book). BOD books will not be lootable or stealable. The actual Bulk Order Deed interface and rewards will not change, although the artwork for deeds will change.

Bulk Order Books and Deeds – green deeds are Tailoring , and grey are Blacksmithing .

Crafting BOD books:
BOD books can be crafted through Inscription , and will require 10 scrolls to create. The minimum skill to craft one will be 65.1 (with a 0.2% chance of success at that skill level). A player with 90.0 skill in Inscription will have a 50% chance of success.

Adding/Removing deeds from a BOD book:
To add a deed, just drag and drop the deed onto the book. As long as the book isn't already full, the deed will be added and the BOD list will automatically display the first page of the book. To remove a deed from the book, click on the “drop” button next to the deed in the BOD list. Deeds cannot be removed from a BOD book while the book is in a vendor's backpack.

To browse a book:
Double-click it. If the book is empty, no deeds will be listed, and the user will get a message stating that the book is empty. If there are deeds in the book, players can browse the list by clicking the “next” or “previous” buttons. You can exit a book by either right-clicking on the gump or clicking the EXIT button.

A list of BODs stored within a BOD book

To price a deed while in a book:
A deed can be priced by clicking on a corresponding price button next to a deed on a page of the BOD list gump. The deed must be in a player's backpack. This will cause the BOD list gump to close and reopen on the same page the user was viewing.

Note: By choosing to set a price on individual BODs or on the BOD book itself, players can choose to sell either the whole book as one item, to sell only individual BODs out of that book, or to sell nothing and simply keep the book on display for other players to browse.

To purchase a deed from a book:
A deed can be purchased by clicking on a corresponding price button next to a deed on a page of the BOD list gump. The deed must be in a vendor's backpack. This will cause the BOD list gump to close and reopen on the same page the user was viewing.

To use search filters while browsing for specific deeds:
Players will be able to create search filters, allowing them to browse deeds in any BOD book almost any way they like – by type, by size, by material, and more. And better yet, players will be able to set personal filters that will persist from book to book!

For example, let's say you're looking to buy a large iron Blacksmithing BOD. You can go to a book and set your personal filter to only show that type of deed. If you don't find what you're looking for there, you can go to the next book – and until you change your personal filter, you'll continue to only see those deeds that fit your search criteria!

You can click the “Filter Preference” button to set either of the two types of filters available: a Book Filter, which saves its preferences on the specific book being viewed, and a Personal Filter, which is specific to the player and is displayed as default whenever a player views a book (after it is set).

Filter preferences will allow you to show only those BODs you're specifically looking for.

You'll be able to filter BOD books to show deeds by the following variables:

1. Type (All, Small, or Large)
2. Quality (All, Normal, or Exceptional)
3. Material (All, Iron, Dull Copper, Shadow Iron, Copper, Bronze, Gold, Agapite, Verite, Valorite, Cloth/Leather, Spined Leather, Horned Leather, or Barbed Leather)
4. Quantity (All, 10, 15, or 20)