Five on Friday - May 9, 2008
"Despite the patch notes, my Paroxymus Swamp Dragon still claims to be "summoned." What's up?"
Ah, yes - important clarification needed here, and I'm sorry it didn't make it in the notes. The change only works on creatures created since the patch - it's not a retroactive fix. (An attempt at a retroactive fix would be quite risky - there's no good way to do it.) Sorry about the confusion!
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"I didn't know the Vine Cord Sandals were duped, and I spent a lot of money on them! How do I avoid this situation in the future?"
It's a very tough situation. There are thousands of different items in UO - some common, some rare, some truly unique. They come from dozens of different sources - some are looted from monsters, some are received from quests or events, some are stolen from NPCs. There is no easy way to catalogue each of them. Your best bet for information about the lore of a particular item is your fellow players - either in game, or on a forum like Stratics or UO Forums.
If you are planning to buy an unusually expensive item, do your homework. Make sure the vendor you're dealing with has a good reputation, and make sure the item you're buying isn't... notorious. Because we are committed to cleaning up dupes, exploits, and cheats, there's no guarantee that an illegitimate item will still be there tomorrow, and owning these items - particularly in large quantities - puts you at risk of account action.
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"I applied for the Focus Group. When will I hear if I got in or not?"
I'll be going through and sending out invites on Monday. Check the Herald for updates - I'll post a note when I'm done inviting so you don't wait frantically all week :)
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Escort Bugs - Followup
Thanks to everyone who sent in their experiences this week, we've pinned down the cause of the bug and have it on our list for a future publish. We also have a workaround until we get the fix out - if your escort doesn't complete, for whatever reason, you have to resign it by talking to the NPC - NOT by using the quest menu. The quest menu will take the quest off your list but not actually resign you properly, so you won't be able to pick up another one until you talk to your escort and get him or her to let you off the hook.
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Here's Where I Ask YOU A Question, Redux:
So last week, I asked about the Renaissance client, and I phrased it badly and apparently scared the daylights out of everyone, judging from the feedback I got. The problem is that "client" was a poor word choice in this case - many people thought I was asking about the 2D client overall, possibly preparatory to something horrible like removing it. I wasn't - not at all. Here's the longer version:
Every time we put out a new expansion pack (with a new splash screen, install disk, etc) it counts as a "new" client according to the backend systems that make patches. Our patching is admittedly old and arcane, and the way it works, we currently support installs all the way back to Renaissance. This means that if you put in a UO:R CD, install the game, and patch it, it'll work. It'll take a really, REALLY long time, but it'll work. Yes, it would be much faster to just download the UO:ML installer and patch from there.
That's kinda the point, actually. It'll speed up our patch creation process - and make the whole publish process a wee bit faster overall - if we stop supporting the Renaissance install disk. So, I was asking to get an idea of how many of you haven't reinstalled since... what, 2002? (Discontinuing support won't directly affect you, it just means that if something goes wrong and you have to reinstall, you'll have to download and do a short patch rather than install from disk and do a looooong patch.)
So, that's the long version. With that in mind, how many of you are using a Renaissance install?
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What's To Come:
The Vanguard continues to advance. Keep watch on your shard for Shadow activites beginning tomorrow morning (Saturday, May 10th, "morning" EST).
Later in the day is the Town Hall, and check out Whispering Rose Radio's announcement below if you can't physically be there. The invasion will be the highlight next week, and you should start to hear details about Publish 53 in the week or two following - we have an end-of-month publish as the target.
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Fansite News:
Whispering Rose Radio will be at the Town Hall tomorrow!
- Saturday May 10, 2008 - 12pm PST, 3pm EST
- DJ Landon of Whispering Rose Radio will be broadcasting the Maryland UO Town Hall Meeting LIVE on air.
- The UO TownHall Meeting is being held in North Bethesda Maryland at the Dave & Busters located in the White Flint Mall. The address is 11301 Rockville Pike. Phone number: (301)230-5151. Check here for more information.
- We at WRR love attending these EA/Mythic UO Town Hall Meetings. So many cool people out there behind the pixels as well as getting to meet our support people in EA/Mythic!!
- Make it a point to come ingame during this town hall meeting. Join us at the Dave and Busters ingame studio on Lake Superior for LIVE questions or submit questions on our WRR website shout box. North out of Luna and slightly East. We will be taking questions both places for the town hall meeting LIVE during the meeting.
- Directly after the Town Hall meeting we will be doing Deal or no Deal UO Style on Lake Superior inside the North walls of Luna.
- We hope to see you all there!
- Vana Mana Rose *wink*
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Town Hall News:
The Rockville Town Hall is tomorrow! Head on out to see Draconi, Kilandra, Mesanna, and... Bob! They have some fascinating things to show you...
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Have fun at the Town Hall tomorrow!
- Jeremy