Publish Notes from 2001-11-30

Publish 14

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 14 on November 30, 2001.

New Player Experiences

It can be difficult to start off in a new world, with only the tools of your craft and no training in how to use them. We are in the process of adding several “directed experiences” to the early game, as a way to help those players new to Ultima Online learn their craft and be better prepared to excell in their chosen profession.

Blacksmith

This Haven-based tutorial will focus on helping new players to develop the abilities and skills needed for a blacksmith. The player will be assisted by one or more NPCs and given the option to participate in several activities, specifically designed to guide new players in the basics needed for a blacksmith character.

Some focal points of this “directed experience” will be learning the tools of the trade, how to craft items, and how to mine.

Mage

This Haven-based tutorial will focus on developing the abilities and skills needed for a mage. The player will be assisted by one or more NPCs and will be given the option to participate in several activities, specifically designed to guide new players in the basics needed for a mage character.

Some focal points of this “directed experience” will be learning about reagents, casting spells, and adventuring as a mage.

Warrior

This Haven-based tutorial will focus on developing the abilities and skills needed for a warrior. The player will be assisted by one or more NPCs and given the option to participate in several activities, specifically designed to guide new players in the basics needed for a warrior character.

Some focal points of this “directed experience” will be learning about armor & weapons, combat with monsters, and adventuring as a warrior.

Context Sensitive Menus

Speech triggers in Ultima Online can be difficult to use in certain situations, such as buying or selling from a vendor standing behind a counter in a crowded shop. With the variety of speech triggers in use, it can also be quite a task just to learn them all!

Context-sensitive menus are new menus players can use to access the various functionalities available on creatures and NPCs, such as accessing the shopkeeper interface, being trained by an NPC, ordering a pet to attack, or opening your bank box from a banker.

The default method of accessing these menus will be a single left-click on the creature or NPC, although players can change it to use shift-left-click instead if they prefer. For the first few days after this system's activation, a gump will pop up the first time a player logs in, allowing them to choose how they wish to access these menus (left-click vs. shift-left-click). Players will always be able to go back and change this option later.

If you click on an NPC or creature you can interact with, you can select from several relevant options, such as:

Bankers now have the following menu options:

• Open Bankbox
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of banker.
  • Player must not be a criminal.

Shopkeepers now have the following menu options:

• Buy
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
  • Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
  • Player must not be a murderer.
• Sell
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of shopkeeper.
  • Player must not have the lowest level of karma.
  • Player must not be a murderer.

Escorts now have the following menu options available:

• Accept Escort
  • Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
  • Escort must be available.
  • Player must not have an escort already.
  • Player's last escort acceptance must have been over 5 minutes ago.
• Ask Destination
  • Player must be within 3 tiles of escort.
  • Escort must be available or escorted by you.
• Abandon Escort
  • Escort must be escorted by you.

Pets and Hirelings now have the following menu options:

(For all pet/hireling commands, player must be within 12 tiles of the pet/hireling, and be the owner of the pet/hireling.)

• Command: Kill
• Command: Stop
• Command: Follow
• Command: Stay
• Command: Guard
• Add Friend
• Transfer

Pets have the following additional menu option:

• Release

Hirelings have the follow additional menu options:

• Hire (NPC must not be employed; i.e. no master.)
• Dismiss

All animals that can be tamed will have the following menu option:

• Tame
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of creature.
  • Animal must not already be tame.
  • Player must have the required taming skill.

Stablemasters now have the following menu options:

• Claim All
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.
  • Player must have 1 or more pets stabled.
• Stable Pet
  • Player must be within 8 tiles of the stablemaster.

All NPCs who can train, including shopkeepers, will have the following menu options:

• Train
  • NPC must not be unemployed; i.e. no master.
  • NPC must at least 60.0 in the skill to be trained.
  • Player must have any prereqs for skill.
  • Player must have less than 1/3 of the trainer's skill.

All human NPCs and players have the following menu option:

• Open Paperdoll

Your own avatar has the following menu option:

• Open Backpack

If you are young and going through the directed experience:

• View Quest Log

House Lockdown and Item Placement, House Banning, and Ship Commands are extremely complex systems, and the menus needed to access all the necessary functions would be huge and Unwieldy. New systems for these may be addressed in a later publish.

Bulk Order Deeds

Bulk Orders

Bulk orders will be a new feature for crafters, and will be randomly offered by NPC craftspeople to players who sell goods, depending on their skill in the respective craft, and how often the player does business with the NPC.

The bulk order feature is a new addition, and will be implemented only for blacksmiths at this time, allowing us a chance to evaluate and improve the system before expanding it to include more of the crafts.

Players with a sufficient skill in blacksmithy will have a chance to receive bulk order requests from NPC Armorers and Blacksmiths when they sell goods to those NPCs.

When offered, the bulk order is in the form of a grey deed. Double-clicking this deed brings up the details of the order, such as the item name, amount to make, quality of the item requested, and the ore type.

To complete a regular order, the player can use the “combine” button on the deed to combine the crafted items with the deed until the amount of items the deed requests has been reached. Once the correct amount of items has been created and combined with the deed, the deed can then be dropped on the NPC for a reward.

Small Orders

Small orders, the only ones given to players with less than 70 skill, will request items that will allow the player to gain skill.

Large Orders

Large bulk orders will be extremely difficult to fill, in that each large bulk order may consist of filling and combining several smaller bulk orders. For instance, a large bulk order for blacksmiths may require 20 full sets of armor to be made. The player must obtain several smaller bulk orders, each requiring 20 pieces of an individual piece of armor. These smaller orders for the individual pieces must be completed, and combined into the large bulk order before the large bulk deed can be returned to the NPC for a reward. The smaller orders must be for the same number, quality, and ore type as the Origin al large bulk order. Large bulk orders offer higher rewards, and are only offered to blacksmiths with 70 blacksmithy skill or higher.

All items craftable by blacksmiths can be requested by a blacksmith's bulk order. The quality, quantity, and ore type are chosen at random. The quality is limited to normal or exceptional. The quantity is limited to 10, 15, or 20. The ore types are iron, dull copper, shadow, copper, bronze, golden, agapite, verite, and valorite.

Rewards

The rewards are threefold. The first reward is gold. A check will be given to the person fulfilling the order if the amount is equal to or above 5000 gold. The second reward is a special item not available currently in the game, chosen based on the difficulty of the order. The third reward is an amount of fame, which is based on the difficulty of the deed.

The reward items are not listed here, in order to allow blacksmiths to discover for themselves what rewards will be available.

Examples

The easiest bulk order to complete would be an order for 10 buckler shields of normal quality and made with iron ingots. The reward would be a moderate amount of fame, some gold, and a special item.

The hardest bulk order to complete would be a large bulk order for 20 suits of platemail (all 6 pieces) of exceptional quality made with valorite. The player would need to have a large bulk order deed, as well as six small bulk order deeds, each for the same number, quality, and ore type, and each for a different piece of the full armor set. These six small orders (each for 20 of a particular armor piece, of exceptional quality, and made from valorite ingots) would need to be combined into the deed. The reward would be an enormous amount of fame, a bank check for a large sum of gold, and a magical item.

Changes to Animal Lore

Animal Lore skill will be updated as a stand-alone skill, to accommodate localization issues and player- and Dev Team-driven suggested changes. This update does not include any changes where Animal Lore coordinates with any other skill.

Players will use the Animal Lore and then target any animal to obtain two random items of information about that animal, in addition to still discovering the current Loyalty level of an animal (tamed pets, only). Players may need to use Animal Lore on a given animal more than once to learn all the possible available information on that animal. The following lists all possible information that may be discovered with the Animal Lore skill:

Information about its magical ability:

• “It lacks any true magical abilities”
• “It has only minor magical abilities”
• “It has some magical abilities”
• “It has rather well developed magical abilities”
• “It has strong magical abilities”
• “It has extremely powerful magical abilities”
• “It has nearly mastered the secrets of magic”
• “It has mastered the secrets of magic”

Information about its training level, for tamable animals:

• “It has only just begun its combat training”
• “It is somewhat trained in the art of war”
• “It appears fairly trained in the ways of combat”
• “It has excellent combat training”
• “It has superior combat training”
• “It has nearly learned all there is in the ways of combat”
• “It has nearly mastered the art of war”
• “It has mastered the art of war”

Information about its past owners, for tamable animals:

• “It appears to have known only one master in its life”
• “It seems to have known two masters in its life”
• “It appears annoyed at having known three masters”
• “It appears angry to have known four masters”
• “It appears infuriated to have known five masters”
• “It is weary of human companionship”

Information about its diet:

• “You sense that it likes to eat grass”
• “You sense that it would delight in fruit for a meal”
• “You sense that it likes to eat hay”
• “This creature likes to eat grains”
• “This creature devours meat for its meals”
• “This creature will eat fish”
• “This creature will eat various crops”
• “StUO:rangely enough, this animal will eat leather”

Information about its natural resources (things you can get off of the animal):

• “You could use this creature for its wool”
• “It does well at carrying heavy loads”
• “If this creature were dead, you could use its hides for leather”
• “You could slaughter it for meat”
• “It is sometimes used for its wood”
• “This creature is sometimes used for its feathers”

Crafting System Overhaul

Several updates and changes will occur that will eventually affect all of Ultima Online's crafting systems. The goals of these changes include: creating a consistent interface for all crafting skills, allowing the player to understand a greater level of detail about his crafting activities, greater CPU efficiency, and adaptability & expandability as crafting systems are modified at later dates. The following skills will be affected by these changes:

• Alchemy
• Bowcraft / Fletching
• Blacksmithy
• Carpentry
• Cartography
• Cooking
• Inscription
• Tailoring
• Tinkering

The specifics are listed below.

All crafting skills will be able to be invoked by double-clicking a related tool. All tools must be equipped or in the character's backpack in order for them to be used.

• Bowcraft / Fletching will use “fletcher's tools.” (This tool will appear as the “arrow Fletching ” graphic.)
• Cartography will use a “mapmaker's pen.” (This tool will appear as the “pen and ink” graphic.)
• Cooking will use a “skillet,” “sifter,” or “rolling pin.” (These tools will appear as the “frying pan,” “flour sifter,” and “rolling pin,” respectively.)
• Inscription will use a “scribe's pen.” (This tool will appear as the reversed “pen and ink” graphic.)

All materials must be in the character's backpack for them to be used. No materials will need to be targeted; materials will automatically be sought for in the character's backpack whenever a crafting attempt is made.

When the materials being used to create an item are within one container, then the resulting item will be created within that same container. Otherwise, when the materials come from different subcontainers, then the resulting item will go directly into the character's backpack (and not within any subcontainer).

When Tailoring , if a character has more than one color of cloth in her backpack, the player will be prompted to target the cloth to use. Otherwise, the item is made using whatever cloth is available.

There is a “multi-make” feature in this system, which will allow certain items to be made in large quantities with one success. When successful, all available related materials in the character's backpack will automatically be used; there will be no option to choose the quantity of items being “multi-made.” Skill gain, where applicable, will be based on the number of items made and not the single “multi-make” success.

The items which use the “multi-make” feature are:

• Cooking stacks of meat
• Creating arrows
• Creating crossbow bolts
• Turning bolts of cloth into cut cloth
• Turning logs into boards

Maps will be able to be drawn upon either blank maps or blank scrolls using the cartography skill.

The copying of in-game books is not included in this crafting system. Players may continue to copy books using the “old” interface. The creating of “clean bandages” is also not included here, and players will be able to continue making them with scissors.

Characters will continue to be able to use Tinkering to create gems-based jewelry — however, changes to the crafting system will disallow creation of such items as a “million diamonds necklace,” in two specific ways. This first relates to being able to craft with resources only available in one's pack — in the case of the diamonds, only 4000 diamonds can be put into one's backpack (leaving the character weighing 414 stone in total). The second involves fixing a bug wherein the new item was incorrectly named after the stack of diamonds, and not after the one diamond that was used in the creation of the piece of jewelry.

Some item skill requirements may change slightly. All crafting skill delays will be one second.

All crafting skills will use a universal menu system. This menu system will be similar in both the 2D and 3D version of the UO client. Only one crafting system window can be open at any one time.

• The “gump” window will be 50% transparent, with a dark background and bright text.
• The top bar of this window will show the skill name.
• The left bar of this window will show:
  • A “Last 10” list. This list will display the 10 most recent usages of that skill, allowing quick access to those usages.
  • Up to 10 categories of items which that skill may create.
• The main area of this window will show:
  • A selection list, one item per row.
  • Two buttons per selection:
    • “Make Now”: left-click to attempt to create the respective item immediately
    • “More Info”: left-click to bring up a “Details Window” related to the listed item.
    • The item's name (note: the graphic for that item will not display here, but will display in the “Details Window”).
  • Up to 10 items per page, up to 10 pages per category.
• A “Notifications” area will show information that would normally appear in the “system message” area of the gameplay window.
• The “Buttons” area will display a subset of buttons appropriate to the skill/tool being used.
  • “Exit”: appears on all skill menus. Left-click to close the menu. (Note: any menu window may be still be closed by right-clicking that window)
  • “Make Last”: appears on all skill menus. Acts as if “Make Now” was clicked on the first item in the “Last 10” list.
  • “Metal Selection”: appears only for skills that use ingots as components for craftable items.
    • Players may choose which metal color to use. This will eliminate the need for players to specifically target materials, and eliminate the possibility of using the wrong metal type.
    • The system will only consider metals of the selected color in metal-using crafting attempts.
    • A “Details Window” will indicate if an item retains the color of the metal used.
    • “Mark Item”: appears for most skills; controls the automation of Maker's Marks on crafted items that allow for such marks. Left-clicking this button will toggle through three options:
    • “Do Not Mark”: the Maker's Mark will never be put on crafted items while this is selected.
    • “Always Mark”: the Maker's Mark will always be affixed to exceptional-quality crafted items while this is selected.
    • “Prompt for Mark”: the player is prompted for a Maker's Mark whenever an exceptional item is crafted while this is selected.
    • “Repair Item”: appears only on the Blacksmithy menu. Players may left-click this button, then target a weapon or piece of armor to attempt to repair that item.
  • “Unravel Item”: appears only for Blacksmithy (as “Smelt Item”) and Tailoring (as “Unravel Item”) menus only.
    • Allows blacksmiths to smelt weapons and armor down into ingots.
    • Allows tailors to disassemble leather armor back into cut hides.
  • When using a craft, the crafting window will close, the creation will be attempted, and the crafting window will reopen.
  • Upon re-opening, the crafting window will display the results of the crafting attempt.
  • The window will include the details of any success or failure messages.

Updates to the Faction System

1. Faction messaging will be re-enabled.
2. Faction messages increase to 4 per hour.
3. Issues with murder reprieves are addressed (some characters were not getting the reprieve)
4. Minax stronghold will become part of the map -this will address the load times and people being stuck there.
5. Faction vendors will not block players.
6. Sigils will remain at the correct elevation at all times.
7. Sigils cannot be stolen unless you are the same z or lower and have clear line of sight.
8. I honor your leadership will work for all faction players.
9. Faction skill loss penalty will affect all skills.
10. If you are quitting a faction and hold an office you will be removed from office.
11. Issues with players not getting a faction robe when joining a faction have been resolved.
12. Issues with players not being able to equip the correct number of faction items have been addressed.
13. Issues with characters being stuck in order and chaos guilds and thus not being allowed to join a faction have been resolved.
14. Faction vendors and guards can be dismissed using a targeting cursor.
15. Issues with warhorses not highlighting the correct color have been addressed.
16. Faction warhorses will not respond to orders from anyone not in their faction.
17. Faction warhorses cannot be transferred or friended to anyone not in their faction.
18. Faction warhorses can only be retamed by someone in their faction.
19. Issues surrounding houses above the yew crypts blocking access to the shadowlord base have been addressed.
20. You can no longer heal a faction guard if you aren't a member of its faction.
21. Faction guards will call guards if they are attacked by non faction enemies (same faction and blues)
22. An issue allowing young players to join a faction temporarily has been addressed.
23. Faction titles will no longer display in Trammel.
24. Faction enemies will hue blue in Trammel.
25. Faction war horses will require rank 2 to ride.
26. Players flagged as aggressors to another player, or criminal for any reason, will not be able to use public moongates.
27. Sigils will not be stealable for 1 hour after a server starts.
28. Issues involving the rules of moving around with sigils have been addressed – meaning the rules governing what you can do while carrying a sigil will work in all cases.
29. Faction warhorses will not be as deadly an offensive weapon in combat.
30. Issues with silver for killing enemy monsters and players have been addressed.
31. Issues with faction traps not giving correct silver to trap placer have been addressed.
32. Issues with faction allied mobs not highlighting and giving silver in all cases have been addressed.
33. Corpses will now hue the correct color for looting – a corpse that is oRange is lootable (meaning you did damage), while a corpse that is blue is not lootable (it will include enemies you didn't damage). Grey and red corpses are lootable.

Various Fixes and Updates

A large variety of bug fixes and changes are being addressed in this update, involving some aspects of NPCs, houses, skill gain, the guild & party systems, spellcasting, some map regions, the faction system, as well as including various miscellaneous bug fixes. (Please note that these changes are already active on the Lake Superior shard.)

NPC Updates

• Shopkeepers will now give murder counts correctly
• Multiple following NPCs will no longer stop following their target
• Problems with shopkeeper items not matching up with their images and prices has been fixed
• Shopkeeper pack limit has been increased to 230 items
• NPC vendors will no longer buy bank checks

House and Lockdown Updates

• Scrolls that are locked down in houses will no longer decay
• Fixed a problem with items decaying when placed in a locked down chest
• Players will no longer be able to combine ore with ore that is locked down
• A problem where the buttons would overlap in the recipient side of the house transfer gump has now been corrected
• Fixed an issue to now allow house co-owners to be able to re-deed a “flaming head” veteran reward, which they placed themselves
• A player now needs to be within 6 tiles of the target area to place a house
• Co-owners are now able to dye locked down furniture

Skill Updates

• A problem with being able to gain carpentry skill without using up resources has been fixed
• Fixed an exploit using a dead boat key to gain Eval Int and Meditation

Guild and Party System Updates

• A problem with guildstone teleporters has been fixed
• A problem with guild wars in Trammel has been fixed
• You will now receive a message when you have been kicked out of a guild
• Fix for the party message spam crash
• The initial loot state for party leaders will now be “can loot”

Spell Updates

• A consistency problem with spell casting gestures has been resolved
• Spell damage will now disturb your meditation
• When you cast polymorph, your avatar and paperdoll will no longer “fall down” when the spell takes effect

Map Updates

• Spawn between Minoc and Vesper has been reduced
• Mongbat spawn at Moonglow moongate has been reduced
• The forge at coords 1259 284 -19 in Ilshenar is now functioning
• Some important buildings in Haven have been rearUO:ranged to make it easier for new players to find things right away

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Harm wands now work in Trammel
• The “zero iron ore” bug has been fixed
• A problem with murderers getting stuck in Ilshenar has been fixed
• If a player becomes a murderer in another player's presence, they will now highlight red immediately
• Boats will no longer get stuck near Haven's border
• Arrows will no longer float on water (floating arrows would block boats)
• Players will no longer be able to shoot arrows that they do not have
• An issue with player speech location has been fixed
• Fixed a stealing/recall exploit
• Fixed a problem with GMs becoming visible while walking through player-created gates
• Players will no longer see “you cannot use this” messages when they try to open the paper doll of a player that is using the poisoning skill.
• Fixed an exploit where players were dying their hair purple by using the sigil
• Fixed an exploit allowing dead players to still have their items when resurrected
• You are now able to collect your items from a dead pack horse without being flagged a criminal
• A problem with gargoyle pickaxes has been fixed
• Items will no longer fall beneath pentagrams and abbatoirs
• treasure maps not found in Felucca will default to Trammel
• Unicorns and Kirin will now consume normal fruit provided by player
• Pets now inherit the karma level of their owner
• Killing wild pets will no longer give bad karma to the killer
• All containers should now show their contained count and Weight
• Fixed a bug involving stacking containers
• Empty bottles now weigh 1/10 stone when in a stack
• Players will no longer be able to equip runebooks