Five on Friday - July 18, 2008
"How do I make my resists go back to normal after I cast Protection, Magic Reflection, or Reactive Armor?"
The vets will probably skip past this one, but QA has been getting quite a few bug reports spurred by these spells - it seems like people don't quite understand how they work. Which is fair, because they're the only spells in the game that work the way they do, and it's easy to forget when you have one on.
These three spells are "toggle" spells, meaning that casting them is like flipping a switch - it turns the effect on, or turns it off. The effect lasts through death and even through logging off. If you notice your resists are altered and you can't tell why, check the descriptions of the spells (see the links above) and figure out which spell is in effect. Then cast the spell on yourself again - or use a scroll, or get a friend to do it if you need to. That will turn the spell back off and your resists will go back to normal.
One thing to watch out for is Arch Protection - it's the same as Protection, but it can be cast on all party members in a certain radius, so it's easy to have it cast on you accidentally if you spend time partied with mages. Casting regular Protection should turn it off, though.
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"When are Character Transfers going to be re-enabled?"
I don't have an ETA yet on this but I wanted to make sure y'all knew we're still actively working on it. Hang in there!
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Account Age Update:
The issue that was preventing people's accounts from updating properly should have been resolved. If you still seem to be showing the incorrect age (and you've waited about 3-5 days for a given character to sync properly) let me know!
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Now Hiring!
We're looking for someone to be our new Associate Game Designer. Here's the job description and requirements:
- Main responsibilities: Contribute significantly to game fiction, manage events, balance gameplay, and develop content using proprietary scripting tools.
- Understanding and or knowledge of Ultima Online game mechanics, history, and community interaction a definite plus.
- Experience as a Game Master, Counselor, Seer, or Event Moderator for Ultima Online a bonus.
- 2+ years experience playing Ultima Online
- Position requires dependable and relevant inputs to current state of the game, as well as contributing to future development of the game experience
- Gives inputs to other members of the team to enhance gameplay for the current subscriber base
- Due to the demanding scripting system surrounding Ultima Online, the designer must have expansive knowledge of scripting languages and have the ability to produce samples of work using similar tools.
- Level editing experience and module creation using open source gaming engines (Infinity, Unreal 2.5 or 3, Doom, Source, Aurora Toolset).
- Background or exposure to game development processes in the industry
- Essential to have experience working in small teams of 4-6 people.
- 3DS Max experience preferred
- 2+ years in the game industry and/or gaming school preferred
- Can demonstrate understanding of game design concepts to include flow, decision making, engaging storyline, and integration of art and sound
If you're interested in (and qualified for) this position, please send your resume to jdalberg AT ea DOT com and I'll put it in the right hands right away!
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What's To Come:
If you haven't aided the kingdom in investigating the dastardly doings at the castle, please do so! In other news, we're preparing for the Town Hall next week and working on other, more nefarious plans...
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Town Hall News:
The San Diego Town Hall is next week! Check out the details here and please do RSVP if you haven't yet so we don't run out of chips and dip! Leurocian and I can't wait to see you all!
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Fansite News:
Whispering Rose Radio has quite a bit planned, up to and including the Town Hall!
- While participating in murder quests and exchanging your cleansweep tickets WRR invites you to tune in and enjoy a few more exciting activities including....
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- Friday - July 18th - Join TorAnn, Dr. Lil and PantherBabe for UO Shard Chatter at 7pm PST, 10pm EST on WRR. Hear UO players chat about this weeks fascinating topics and voice your opinions about what's happening in UO! The weekly show finishes with a "you know you have been playing UO to long when..." segment where very comical endings are presented by UO listeners. Feel free to send yours in. (ICQ numbers can be found on the www.wrrad.com website)
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- Saturday - July 19th - Once again its time for the Brush LimpPaw show. Tune in at 2pm PST, 5pm EST as Brush (Norman Bates/Groucho) brings you the NEWS as only he could deliver it.
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- Sunday - July 20th - The Pacific Auction House (located just East of the Luna Moongate) continues after 4 fantastic years to bring you more great deals. Get there early for best seating. Auction starts at 12pm PST, 3pm EST and is broadcasted live on WRR.
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- Sunday - July 20th - The weekly "Tazz & Keg's Underground" radio show on WRR is broadcasted live at 7pm PST - 10pm EST. Entering their underground world leads you to places you may have never gone before. Are you bold enough?
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- *Deal or No Deal ~ 'UO Style' is on vacation for the next two weekends as staff members are preparing for the San Diego UO Town Hall Meeting, on Saturday, July 26th. Several Whispering Rose Radio staff members will be on hand in San Diego and will once more broadcast the town hall meeting live while other WRR staffers will host a special gathering at Dave & Busters on Lake Superior (map).
- Have a great weekend playing Ultima Online and listening to the sounds of WRR ~ see you all on the flip side.
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UO Toolbar has some announcements as well!
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- The new UO Stratics Forum menu in the UO Toolbar is complete now. UO Stratics is still restoring parts of their forums... and as those forums come available online, those will be added to the newly rebuilt menu too.
- Have a look around and give the new menu a test drive. If you find broken links or mistakes, please post them to the UO Toolbar board on the GameXbar Support Forum.
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- UO Toolbar's Google-powered search box has been rebuilt and revamped. Now your searches will be more accurate and powerful than before! Now you can search specific community sites right from the pull down menu... like UO.com/UOHerald.com, EA's UO Knowledge Base, Ultimate Online Forums, UO Craft, UO Guide, UO Stratics, UO Stratics Forums, and UO Toolbar.
- With your help posting URL suggestions on GameXbar's UO Toolbar support board, we would also like to add category searches across the community. If you want to search crafting, it would search only the submitted crafting links... making it extremely accurate and relevant to crafting. Same for taming, armor, skills, etc.
- Give it a try, suggestions and posts are welcome!
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- There is another Community|Forum menu in the works, this one for Ultima Online Forums. It is not finished yet, but when complete... it will give UO Toolbar users direct and fast access to their favorites boards on Ultima Online Forums.
- Refresh your toolbar once in a while to see the work in progress.
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Next week the FoF will be on Thursday again, because I'll be on my way to San Diego on Friday. Have a great weekend, everyone!
- Jeremy