Patch Notes from 2000-06-13

Ultima Online Housing Update

Jun 13 2000 5:16PM CST (GMT -06:00)

Recent shard stability issues have left us unwilling to introduce staged house placement, a major system change, until we are confident that we can provide acceptable stability during the transition period. We have isolated and addressed the major issues previously affecting our decision to delay housing, and we are confident that, once published, their effect will allow us to proceed with staged house placement in a rapid manner. Until these changes have completed testing and been released to the shards, we must withhold the opening of staged house placement by at least one week.

In the next several days, we will be updating all shards with a patch to include several fixes for housing related issues and changes to enhance server stability. We will release additional details on a patch schedule as soon as they are determined.

We are focusing on opening staged house placement on most Ultima Online shards on Friday, June 23rd. House placement on the Formosa, Arirang, Balhae, and Oceania shards will begin on Friday, June 30th, local server time. The schedule for house placement on Japanese shards will be released at a later date. AOL Legends and Siege Perilous will have open house placement available on return from an upcoming maintenance cycle to be announced at a later date.

A complete schedule of placement times for all affected shards is available here.

We will update this section of the site, at least 24 hours in advance of the opening of the first scheduled phase. We will release any revised schedules as they are determined.

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HOUSE PLACEMENT SCHEDULE

We are currently planning to move forward with a staggered house placement schedule, opening housing phases on a no more than "one per night, per region" schedule to ensure that no two shards in a single UO shard region will open housing phases on the same night. We are confident in the server load-balancing mechanisms and wish to extend our thanks to everyone who took the time to participate in one or all of the staged house placement tests.

We will be completing the North American staged house placement over the next two weeks beginning on Wednesday, July 12th. The following schedule includes staged house placement dates and times through Sunday, July 16th. We will be releasing additional schedule dates in the near future. Please note that all start times for this schedule are at 8:00PM local server time.

Wednesday, July 12

Atlantic Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT Sonoma Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM PDT

Thursday, July 13

Lake Superior Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM CDT

Baja Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM PDT

Friday, July 14

Chesapeake Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT

Great Lakes Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM CDT

Pacific Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM PDT

Saturday, July 15

There will be no placement phases on this date.

Sunday, July 16

Arirang Felucca Only: 8:00AM KST (on return from special server maintenance)

Balhae Felucca Only: 8:00AM KST (on return from special server maintenance)

Catskills Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT

Napa Valley Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM PDT

Monday, July 17

Formosa Felucca Only: 8:00AM Taiwan (on return from server maintenance)

Catskills Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT

Pacific Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM PDT

Tuesday, July 18

Chesapeake Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT

Napa Valley Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00 PM PDT

Europa Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM GMT

Drachenfels Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 8:00PM GMT

Wednesday, July 19

Lake Superior Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM CDT

Atlantic Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 8:00PM EDT

Drachenfels Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 8:00PM GMT

Thursday, July 20

Arirang Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM KST

Balhae Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM KST

Formosa Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM Taiwan

Chesapeake Phase Two (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM EDT

Europa Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 8:00PM GMT

Friday, July 21

Yamato Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Arirang Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 10:00PM KST

Balhae Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 10:00PM KST

Formosa Phase Two (castles and large houses only on Trammel): 10:00PM Taiwan

Lake Superior Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00 CDT

Atlantic Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00 EDT

Drachenfels Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM GMT

Saturday, July 22

Asuka Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Izumo Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Arirang Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM KST

Balhae Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM KST

Formosa Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM Taiwan

Europa Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM GMT

Sunday, July 23

Wakoku Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Hokuto Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Catskills Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM EDT

Chesapeake Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 8:00PM EDT

Oceania Phase One (castles only on Trammel): 11:00PM AEST

Monday, July 24th

Oceania Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 11:00PM AEST

Yamato Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Tuesday, July 25th

Oceania Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 11:00PM AEST

Asuka Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Izumo Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Wednesday, July 26th

Wakoku Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Hokuto Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Thursday, July 27th

Yamato Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM JST

Izumo Phase Two (large houses and castles on Trammel): 10:00PM JST

Friday, July 28th

Asuka Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM JST

Saturday, July 29th

Wakoku Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM JST

Hokuto Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM JST

Izumo Phase Three (all house types, both facets): 10:00PM JST

If you plan on placing a house during any of these phases, we recommend that you log in several hours prior to the opening of the phase, retrieve your deed, and either log out from the location in which you plan to place, or set a recall rune for the location. Participation during a house placement phase will be subject to the following load-balancing mechanisms:

• Limited Spawn: We will be limiting the shard to only essential NPC spawns (such as stablemasters) and will delete all others prior to opening house placement
• Relocation: If a subserver becomes too crowded, we will ask players to relocate based on certain criteria. In the event that we are required to move players, we will be automatically relocating them to cities on Felucca and we will look at the following factors to determine which players may be moved:
  • If the player currently co-owns a house
  • If the player has no house deed
  • If the player has a house deed, but it is not appropriate to the current phase (for example, a small house deed during Phase 1 Castle placement)
  • If the player currently owns a house
  • If all of the above players have been removed from Trammel subservers and the situation continues to remain critical, we will begin randomly selecting players for relocation to Felucca.
• Depending on the server load, it is possible that a subserver may progress through these stages extremely quickly. When this process relocates a character, the character will be unable to recall or gate for a period of 10 minutes.

• Backpack Check. If a character logs in and does not have a deed appropriate to the current phase, they will have 10 minutes to acquire the deed, or they will be logged out of the game for a period of two hours. If you are disconnected from the game in this manner, you will be unable to return to the game until the two-hour period is ended. Additionally, attempting to re-enter the game before the two-hour period has ended will cause your timer to be reset to two hours.
• Logout: Once a player has successfully placed a house, they will have 10 minutes to conclude house business before they will be automatically moved to a safe location in Felucca and logged out of the shard for a period of two hours.

Any player transferred to the Felucca shard will receive a moonstone allowing them to travel back to Trammel once they are able to return to the shard.