Publish Notes from 2001-02-01

Publish 10

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 10 on February 1, 2001.

Nobles Hire Henchman

Nobles and Seekers of Adventure will have the following changes:

• When a Noble or Seeker of Adventure is attacked outside of town limits, they will call “henchmen” for assistance.
• Henchmen that can come to the aid of a Noble or Seeker of Adventure will have increased fighting ability. Some will use archery.
• The Noble or Seeker of Adventure cannot be killed until the henchmen are dealt with (killed).
• Henchmen will carry some of the gold from the noble or seeker of adventure as payment for coming to their rescue.
• After a short time, the henchmen will leave the noble or seeker of adventure and return from where they came.

Magic in Towns, Hero/Evil Changes

• Certain spells that were previously castable in justice regions will no longer be castable in justice regions. These spells include: Wall of Stone, Poison Field, Mass Curse, Paralyzation Field, Chain Lightning, Energy Field, Meteor Storm, Earth Quake, Blade Spirits, and Energy Vortex.
• Due to conflict with the faction system, the Hero/Evil system will be disabled on the Siege Perilous shard.

Moongate Facet Menus

Existing game-created moongates (the moongates encircled by large rocks, near towns) will be altered to allow for more selective destinations, including that of facets. Players who are murderers will not be able to go to Trammel facet using this selection feature. The choices of selections will also include Ilshenar for those players who have the Third Dawn Client.

• A menu will be presented when entering the gate.
• Each page within the menu will represent a facet within UO. For example, page one of the menu will represent Trammel. An option will be available to switch pages easily.
• Town areas to choose will appear on each page as possible destinations on that facet.
• Note that the town closest to the gate will be it's representing town, as the gates themselves are not actually within the town limits in many cases.

Moonstone functionality will not change. No new kinds of moonstones will be added.

Karma Locking

Players will be able to lock their karma. By locking karma, players will be able to control their character's status titles better. Players who wish to appear as “evil” will be able to kill monsters without gaining both fame and karma. Players will still gain or lose fame, regardless of karma lock status. The important thing to remember about karma locking is that you can only prevent yourself from gaining karma, not losing it.

The karma lock will function in the following manners:

• The first time a player goes “negative” in their karma rating, their karma will no longer be able to raise until they visit a shrine to be “cleansed”. New characters start at just above the zero karma setting, within the positive range. If players “cleanse themselves,” therefore “unlocking” their karma, and then do an action that generates any more negative karma, the karma will lock again and will not be able to raise karma until the player visits a shrine to be cleansed again.
• If a player with positive karma chooses to lock their karma from raising any higher, they may go to the Chaos Shrine and speak the word “bal”. Doing so will lock their karma, and they will receive the message “You once again control your destiny”.
• Players wishing to remove their karma lock may visit the virtue shrines and speak the following words of power for that shrine:
  • Compassion – mu
  • Honesty – ahm
  • Honor – summ
  • Humility – lum
  • Justice – beh
  • Sacrifice – cah
  • Spirituality – om
  • Valor – ra

Players who are having trouble raising karma may wish to visit a virtue shrine and speak the appropriate word of power to make sure their karma is not locked. If a player has their karma locked, the action of “I honor thee” from other players will not cause the locked karma to raise. The karma must be unlocked for “I honor thee” to have an effect.

Faction Fixes

• Players not in factions will no longer be able to enter faction strongholds. This includes pets and hirelings of non-faction members. A bulletin board will be placed outside of the faction strongholds, to allow players to sign up to join the faction.
• A problem with faction stones losing accurate records of the faction's town guards and shopkeepers has been fixed.
• A problem with faction hued items appearing on players who are not carrying a town sigil has been fixed.
• A problem with faction voting has been corrected, so that faction members may only vote once per voting session.

Spawn Changes

The way creatures spawn within UO has been changed to a more dynamic and reactionary system. The new spawning system will allow for better system control over how creatures spawn within UO, and will allow for better defined and detailed dynamic spawn changes. As a result of better control over the spawn system in UO, spawn behavior may alter. We will continue to watch the spawn rate, and make changes as necessary.

Miscellaneous Changes

• The in-game Help menu has been updated to provide expanded options and thus swifter support resolution for players. This updated version of the Help menu is currently available only with English-language game clients.
• The issue of mongbats spawning improperly in the tutorial has been corrected.
• A problem with armoires moving from their location improperly has been fixed.