Publish Notes from 2000-09-03

Publish 7

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 7 on September 3, 2000.

Stealing Changes

Players will again be able to steal random items from players without getting the “too heavy to be stolen” message. The random steal will still check the weight of the random item and factor that into the success or failure of the steal attempt.

New Player/Character Changes

“Young” player items will be changed in the following ways:

• Ranger armor (green armor) will be removed from the “young” player ticket options
• In the place of Ranger armor, “young” players will have the option for a spellbook. This spellbook will contain all of the spells within the first four circles of spellcasting.

All newly created character's starting gold will be increased from 100 gold to 1,000 gold, regardless of the play age of the account they exist on.

Lock Down and Secure Changes

Access to secure containers can now be assigned by the house owner.

• When a house owner makes a container secure a window will appear with the following options:
  • Accessible by only owners and co-owners,
  • Accessible by only owners, co-owners and friends.

Locking down secure items in houses will change in the following ways

• Only the player that locked down an item or the owner of the house will be able to unlock that particular item. This will not change previously locked down items until they become re-locked down.
• Items on top of or below other locked down items will be accessible.
• Players will be able to use dyes on any dye tub, including ones that are locked down. However, black dye tubs will no longer be dyeable under any circumstances. This will affect all previous black dye tubs that exist.
• Keys on a keyring will not count toward the lock down total in a house. The keys within the keyring will not decay, however the keyring itself will still subject to normal decay situations.
• Players will be able to use any locked down container, except a secure container. Note that items inside of a container cannot be locked down unless the container itself is also locked down. As stated above, locked down items will only be able to be released by the player that locked the item down, or by the owner of the house.

The following items will be useable when locked down

• Runes may be used for recalling.
• treasure maps may be viewed by anyone.
• Rune books will allow recall scrolls to be added by anyone to increase the amount of charges.
• Visitors to a house will be able to recall to a location from a locked down rune book in that house.
• Books will be readable by house visitors.
• Visitors to a house will not be able to scribe text into a locked down purple book.
• Candelabras and lanterns that are locked down will be operable by the house owner, co-owner, and friends of the house.
• Musical instruments will be operable.
• Locked down dyes will be useable on locked down dye tubs (except true black dye tubs which will not be dyeable as described above.)
• Locked down mugs, glasses, cups, will be useable by anyone.

Black Dye Tub Changes

Players will no longer be able to dye the true black (solid black) dye tubs to another color.

Communication Crystal Changes

Communication crystals have been changed for better functionality. The communication crystals had been broken into 2 types of crystals, “broadcast” crystals and “receiver” crystals. These crystals can be purchased from a town NPC Jeweler.

Broadcast crystals will have the following properties:

• They can be linked to a maximum of 10 receiver crystals
• The broadcast crystal will use 1 charge per receiver per message
• When a player talks, only one broadcast crystal around them will pick up their speech
• Broadcast crystals will work in a player's pack, and if one is in the backpack then it will pick up the speech said by that player first (If the broadcast crystal is turned on). If no active broadcast crystals are turned on within the backpack, then a broadcast crystal on the ground can potentially pick up the speech.

To use a broadcast crystal, perform the following procedures:

• Double clicking the broadcast crystal and targeting itself will turn the crystal on or off
• To link a broadcast crystal to a receiver crystal, double click the broadcast crystal and target a receiver crystal. This will link the receiver crystal to the broadcast crystal, if the receiver crystal is not already linked.
• Double clicking the broadcast crystal then targeting the player's character should clear the receiver list

Receiver crystals will work in the following manner:

• Double clicking the receiver crystal then targeting itself will turn the crystal on or off
• Double clicking the receiver crystal then targetting the player's character will remove the broadcast crystal connection to the receiver crystal

Miscellaneous

• The House Survey Tool will be updated to have the same rulesets apply to the newer models on the survey tool as apply to the older models. This will correct problems in certain specific situations with the newer model surveying.
• The magical scrolls purchased from NPC shopkeepers in towns will be corrected to function properly.
• Rideable mounts will have their UO:stamina increased to allow for further distance riding.
• A fix for mediation, that will prevent players from receiving improper “stopped meditating” messages
• Players will be able to perform beneficial acts upon blue human NPC's in Trammel
• Tamers will be able to loot monsters that their pets kill. The same damage looting rules still apply if other players or creatures are involved in the kill.
• Thieves will have a chance to snoop and remain hidden. This will be based on a check against their hiding skill. At zero hiding skill, a player will be revealed when failing snooping 100% of the time. At 100 hiding, a player will be revealed 50% of the time when failing snooping.
• Human NPC's in Wind will be able to call for guards if witnessing a criminal action or if noticing a murderer.
• Boats will not be able to become drydocked unless the boat's anchor is down.
• Dragons will be able to dispel Energy Vortex's and Blade Spirits
• The repeating creature sounds occurring at the Moonglow bank will be fixed
• Dungeon lighting levels will be restored to their previous levels (the level they were before the dungeon respawn changes)
• Certain areas of the map which have an improperly large spawn ratio of creatures will be addressed. This is not the final step in our surface respawn changes.