Ultima Online: High Seas
Overview
Ultima Online: High Seas is the most recent expansion(aka "booster") and launched on October 12, 2010 with Publish 68. 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 introduced with the title Adventures on the High Seas but later trimmed to just "High Seas". It was formally announced as a "booster" as opposed to a full-fledged expansion and debuted with a retail price of $14.99 USD.
On September 28, 2010 the release date was announced as October 12, 2010 and the High Seas Test shard opened for testers the next day til October 7, 2010.
During the first public demonstration, an NPC orc ship was attacked but the orc crew killed the character of the prodcuder Calvin Crowner.
Features
New Ships
- A new class of ship, the Galleon, which comes in three varieties:
- Orcish Galleon - 3 cannons per side
- Gargish Galleon - 3 cannons per side
- Tokuno Galleon - 2 cannons per side, faster speed than other ships
- Boats are paintable with Boat Paint, in different Hues (no glacial colors!)
- New Rowboats (similar to Skara Brae Ferry) allow access to shore
- Limitation of one ship and one rowboat placed on the water per character at any given time
Ship Movement
- Boats movement has been fixed, ships move smoothly without skipping animations
- Boats can now move at three different speeds
- May be controlled via mouse instead of spoken commands by accessing ship wheel
- New methods for boarding ships, replacing long-troublesome plank method
- If you are allied, in same guild, in party or have been granted access, you may board ship by double-clicking a rope
- If the ship is sufficiently damaged, you can board without permission
Ship Weapons
- Boats will have multiple weapon stations where Cannons may be placed
- Multi-step firing system(loading, lighting, etc.)
- Ammunition crafted by Tinkering
- Cannonballs - for other ship and large monster targets
- Grapeshot - for anti-personnel use
- Cannons are crafted using Blacksmithing
Ship Damage and Repair
- Boats will display increasing amounts of damage taken (currently 3 damage states)
- None to Little - No damage visible
- Moderate - Ship has damaged parts and can only move slowly
- Heavy - Ship is immobile and can be boarded by anyone
- Boats may be repaired with a variety of craftable items
- Players with Carpentry or Tailoring can repair ships more with less resources
Pirate/Merchant Ships
- NPC waypoints
- Unique crews
- Attackable
- Can defend themselves
Boss Encounters
Sea Market
see main article Sea Market
- A floating, dock-style town at sea on both Felucca and Trammel facets.
- Located at 62o 24'S, 132o 54'W, which is roughly south of Moonglow, north of Fire Isle and west of Skara Brae.
- New NPC's:
- Fish Monger - deals in uncommon fish and source of Professional Fisher Quests
- 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 can be placed in manacles on your ship's bow
Fishing Profession Updates
- Fishing Power Scrolls are being added to raise the Fishing skill cap to 120
- Introduction of Professional Fisher Quests
- Location-specific fishing
- 36 new fish and marine life
- 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 and crabs
- Higher levels of fishing will now increase chances of catching Uncommon and Enchanted fish. These increments occur at 60, 90, and 120.
- Only Legendary fishers can catch Legendary fish.
Miscellaneous
- 20% House and Bank storage increase
- New Cooking recipes
Screenshots
From the UO Japan website.
Town Hall Video
EA Mythic Lead Engineer Derek Brinkmann demonstrates the new ships (equipped with cannons that actually inflict damage) and goes off to attack some Orcs at Sea. A Major Feature that should be noted is the Navigation/Command System! Do Not Miss It! No more commands to the Tillerman! Ships will be "MOUSE" driven!
Though the video is of marginal quality, due to the EA video stream provided... it does provide a major glimpse of what is ahead on the Sosarian High Seas.