Ultima Online: Adventures on the High Seas

Adventures of the High Seas (from UO Town Hall presentation slide)

Adventures on the High Seas is the latest expansion that is scheduled to launch in Fall 2010 "before Christmas". It was first announced during a UO Town Hall Meeting held on August 28, 2010 at EA Mythic/Bioware's division headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia.

It was formally announced as a "booster" as opposed to a full-fledged expansion and was stated to have a retail price of $14.99 USD upon release.

During the first public demonstration, an NPC orc ship was attacked but the orc crew killed the dev team member.

List of New Systems

Note: These additions are in alpha and are all subject to change/removal.

New Ships

• Three New Boat Types/Styles:
  • Orcish - 3 weapon stations per side
  • Gargish - 3 weapon stations per side
  • Tokuno - 2 weapons per side, faster speed than other ships
• Boats are paintable, in different Hues (no glacial colors!)
• Introduction of Rowboats
• Limitation of one boat and one ship placed on the water per character at any given time.

Ship Movement

• Boats move smoothly from tile to tile (like walking)
• Boats can now move at three different speeds
• May be controlled via mouse instead of spoken commands
• New methods for boarding ships, replacing long-troublesome plank method

Ship Weapons

• Boats will have multiple weapon stations where cannon may be placed
• Multi-step firing system(loading, lighting, etc.)
• Ammunition crafting(Tinkering skill addition):
  • Cannonballs - for other ship and large monster targets
  • Grapeshot - for anti-personnel use
• Cannon crafting(Blacksmithing skill addition)

Ship Damage and Repair

• Boats will display increasing amounts of damage taken
  • At third level of damage, Immobile, any ship may be boarded.
• Boats may be repaired with a variety of craftable items
• Players with Carpentry or Tailoring skill receive bonus to ship repair ability/effectiveness

Pirate/Merchant Ships

• NPC waypoints
• Unique crews
• Attackable
• Defend themselves

Boss Encounters

• Scalis the Enforcer
• Island Encounter

Sea Market

• A floating dock-style town at sea(both Felucca and Trammel), between Moonglow and Fire Isle
• New NPC's:
  • Fish Monger
  • Dockmaster - to automatically load/unload items from ship holds, for a fee
  • Specialty Merchants
• Pirate bounty quest system
  • Based off a bulletin board
  • Pirates may be captured or killed
  • Captured pirates maybe be placed in manacles on your ship's bow

Fishing Skill Updates

• Fishing skill cap raised to 120(Legendary)
• Location-specific fishing
• 36 new fish, including lobsters
• 16 new buffs(10 minute duration, from eating fish pies made with new enchanted fish)
• 2 new wall-mountable fish
  • One each from Trammel and Felucca
  • Will include the date the fish was caught
• Introduction of Lobster Traps mini-game to catch lobsters

Miscellaneous

• 20% House and Bank storage increase
• New Cooking recipes

See Also

• Town Hall Demo - Cal shows off the news ships and goes off to attack some Orcs