Publish 17

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 17 on February 11, 2003. This publish consisted of the launch of Ultima Online: Age of Shadows, with the publically named portion of this publish being called "Miscellaneous AoS Changes". There were a fair number of updates to Publish 17 fixing various launch bugs and server issues.

Adventuring Skills & Activities

Vendor owners: please pay special attention to the information about grandfathered vendors. There’s no need to delete any existing vendors.

Virtually all combat formulae have changed—some slightly and others quite a bit—to accommodate the new changes and systems.
The Skill Scrolls of Power will now include scrolls for Chivalry, Focus, Necromancy, Stealing, and Stealth.
As of AoS, there will no longer be a “stun paralyze” effect. The “Paralyze” special move (both weapon and Wrestling versions) has been converted to impose a “normal” paralyze effect which has a duration of 4 seconds.
Arms Lore will continue to be used for the Wrestling “Disarm” move, but will no longer give substantial information about items. Players will now be able to see all of an item’s properties in a new menu.
Gaining in the Parry skill will no longer be limited to using a shield, since you can now parry using weapons (unless your Parry skill is locked, of course).
Discordance no longer affects a creature’s primary and derived stats. Instead, it applies negative modifiers to some of the new Stat types and Resistances, for the duration of the effect.
Item Identification is no longer required to reveal item properties, and the future of this skill is being discussed.

Magic-related Abilities & Activities

First circle spells are now interruptible. However, spellcasters who have items with the new “faster casting” item property may time their spells to cast even before another spellslinger has the opportunity to interrupt it.
All spell damage values have changed.
The Inscription skill will give a slight spell damage bonus. It also still gives benefits to the Reactive Armor, Magic Reflection, and Protection spells.
It is especially important to note that the Evaluate Intelligence skill now affects spell damage independently of the target’s Resisting Spells skill.
Resisting Spells skill gain should now be more reliable.
The Resisting Spells skill may only defend against non-damaging offensive spells (Blood Oath, Clumsy, Corpse Skin, Curse, Feeblemind, Mana Drain, Mana Vampire, Mind Rot, Pain Spike, Paralyze, Poison, Poison Field, and Weaken).
Protection now has a casting speed penalty, in addition to Physical Resistance and Resisting Spells penalties. However, the “faster casting” item property may be used to offset this penalty.
Poison Field now deals a poison level based on the poison skill of caster.
The Mindblast damage calculation formula has changed. Note: Mindblast damage is based on Intelligence and Magery skill, but Evaluate Intelligence skill is not a factor.
Trapped pouch damage has changed. Note: Users of UO Assist should be cautious, as counting items with UOA may trigger trapped pouches.
Changes have been made to the Earthquake spell’s line-of-sight check; Earthquake can no longer be cast through walls.
Blade Spirit and Energy Vortex creatures now have fewer hit points.
Meditation’s Mana regeneration is no longer less gradually ineffective as you wear “better” armor. It either works fully (while wearing up to leather and “mage armor” items) or doesn’t work at all.
Using Recall or Gate Travel will not use up reagents or Mana if the casting was successful but the target location was blocked.

Armor & Weapon Conversions

Virtually all weapon & armor stats have changed. This includes their strength requirements (which have increased), damage values, and swing speeds.
Weapons:
- “Exceptional” weapons gain a 20% bonus to their damage rating (except for Runic weapons, which will only get a 10% bonus).
- Weapon Damage Enchantments:
  - “Ruin” becomes 15% damage bonus
  - “Might” becomes 20% damage bonus
  - “Force” becomes 25% damage bonus
  - “Power” becomes 30% damage bonus
  - “Vanquishing” becomes 35% damage bonus
- Weapon Accuracy Enchantments:
  - “Accurate” becomes 2% hit chance increase
  - “Surpassingly” becomes 4% hit chance increase
  - “Eminently” becomes 6% hit chance increase
  - “Exceedingly” becomes 8% hit chance increase
  - “Supremely” becomes 10% hit chance increase
- Weapon Durability Enchantments:
  - “Durable” becomes 20% durability bonus
  - “Substantial” becomes 50% durability bonus
  - “Massive” becomes 70% durability bonus
  - “Fortified” becomes 100% durability bonus
  - “Indestructible” becomes 120% durability bonus
Armor:
- Armor Rating (AR) will no longer exist. Instead, there will be five possible intrinsic resistances: Physical, Fire, Cold, Energy, and Poison.
- Armor Durability Enchantments:
  - “Durable” becomes 20% durability bonus
  - “Substantial” becomes 50% durability bonus
  - “Massive” becomes 70% durability bonus
  - “Fortified” becomes 100% durability bonus
  - “Indestructible” becomes 120% durability bonus
- Armor Defense Enchantments:
  - “Defense” becomes self repair 1
  - “Guarding” becomes self repair 1 and +1 to all five resistances
  - “Hardening” becomes self repair 1 and +2 to all five resistances
  - “Fortification” becomes self repair 1 and +3 to all five resistances
  - “Invulnerability” becomes self repair 1 and +4 to all five resistances

Items & Crafting

Some magic items (ex. glacial staff, vet reward robe & cloak) will have their special properties converted into proper AoS-equivalent properties. Some converted items will seem very similar to the previous versions, others will see significant changes.
Certain magic items that are not used in the new magic item system will no longer spawn. These include items that incorporate silver and the Clumsy, Feeblemind, Harm, Lightning, Magic Arrow, Mana Drain, Paralyze, and Weaken spells.
Order & Chaos shields will now be craftable. All players may use them, although Order characters may not use Chaos shields and Chaos characters may not use Order shields.
Newly-improved Large Bulk Order Deeds will be worth more points.
Bolas are now stackable and re-usable—they’ll drop at the target’s feet after each use.
“Newbie” (a.k.a. “valueless”) items will no longer exist in the game. Spellbooks will instead become “blessed” (“no loot/no steal”). Players that wish to ensure any other items stay with them post-death/resurrection should use the Item Insurance option.
Certain magic items that are not used in the new magic item system will no longer spawn. These include items that incorporate silver and the Clumsy, Feeblemind, Harm, Lightning, Magic Arrow, Mana Drain, Paralyze, Paralysis Field, and Weaken spells. (Note: silver weapons will be automatically converted into undead slayer weapons.)

Creatures & NPCs

Only the prospective owner needs to make a successful loyalty check when transferring a pet. So, if you have a pet you can't control in your stables, you may still trade it to someone who can.
Pets will no longer drop obey the “drop” command unless they are bonded to their owner.
To accommodate the new combat system changes, many stats have changed for all pre-and post-AoS creatures—including animals, monsters, and tamed pets. Skill values have changed, elemental resistances & damages have been added, loot has been changed, and hit points were reduced approximately 40%. (Note: Before AoS, damage done against creatures was 2x normal before. Now creatures and humans use the same damage scale.)
All remaining UO:LBR monsters can now be found spawning in the Yew swamps of Trammel and the entrance to Exodus’ lair in Ilshenar.
Many NPC shopkeeper prices have changed (for both buying and selling).
The range limit for buying from and selling to NPCs has been extended.

Locations, Travel, and Houses

All newly-created Necromancer template characters will start in Malas’ city of Umbra. All other newly-created characters (using either the basic profession or advanced character templates) will start in either Trammel’s city of Haven or Malas’ city of Umbra.
The ability to use Recall and Gate Travel for inter-facet travel between Felucca, Trammel, and Malas is now possible. A player-created Moongate that leads from a non-PvP ruleset to a PvP ruleset will be red-hued and provide an alert to any player attempting to use it.
Britannian scholars suggest that the ability to use Recall or Gate Travel to exit Ilshenar will be possible in the near future.
New barkeeps and vendors in player-houses now take up 10 lockdown counts.
Pre-AoS barkeeps and vendors will be “grandfathered” and not take up lockdown counts.
Customizing houses will not affect the grandfathered status of barkeeps or vendors, provided the house maintains the same footprint and is not redeeded.
New player-vendor inventory items now take up 1 secure-lockdown count each.
Pre-AoS vendors will be “grandfathered” and their inventory will not take up lockdown counts.
Customizing houses will not affect the grandfathered status of vendors, provided the house maintains the same footprint and is not redeeded.

Updates

Update 1

On February 12, 2003, the following was published to the North American shards:

Players without Age of Shadows-enabled accounts will no longer get the option the claim a Hooded Shroud (previously, these players would get the option, but not actually get the Shroud).
We have fixed a wrestling special that had the unintended effect of allowing players to essentially one-hit kill other players.
We have fixed a bug that was causing some players’ backpacks to disappear. Any players who have lost their backpacks from their paperdoll should page a GM.
We have fixed an exploit where any boat key was able to unlock any boat. (Note: This listing was added here at 8:00pm CST. Although part of this original set of fixes, it was not included in the initial listing due to its extreme exploitation potential.)

Update 2

On February 13, 2003, the following was published:

Characters under the effects of the post-death faction skill penalties before the AoS publish will no longer be “permanently” stuck in that state.
Vendor owners can once again pay gold to their vendors even when their house is at the secure storage limit.
Pre-AoS pets should now be at the correct -40% Pre-AoS Hit Point change (required to bring creatures in line with the AoS combat system adjustments) rather than the -70% Hit Point loss that some players were reporting.

Update 3

On February 15, 2003, the following was published:

An issue which allowed banning of items within houses has been fixed.
The 7-day waiting period required between being traded a house/setting a Primary House was temporarily reduced, but has now been reinstated.
The 7-day waiting period required before re-placing a house has been lifted. However, you will still incur a 7-day delay if you set one of your houses to primary, or if you have a house traded to you. We have only removed this delay for players placing a new house. This means that for the time being, players will be able to place, collapse, and re-place a new house in a new location without an enforced delay.

Update 4

On March 7, 2003, the following was published:

A number of server optimizations and fixes. Note: this includes a fix for the largest cause of shard lag & instability.
Customized house doors will no longer become “static” and unusable. This fix will also retroactively fix any doors currently affected by this issue.
A fix for the Lake Superior-only issue regarding the inability to ban from customizable houses.

Update 5

On March 7, 2003, the following was published:

Characters that are confirmed to be "blackholed" will automatically teleport to a "safe location," along with their mounts and any of their nearby pets.

Update 6

On March 13, 2003, the following was published:

The Holiday Tree season is over, and any such trees still placed in houses will be turned back into deeds. (Note: These deeds will be stuck to the floor, and only the characters that placed them will be able to pick them up. The stuck deed will not take up any storage lockdowns.)
Players will no longer be able to collect Early Settler program gifts.*

*This will not affect the Europa, Drachenfels, Siege Perilous, and Mugen shards. Their respective Early Settler program periods remain 18 days after initially receiving Age of Shadows.

Update 7

On March 14, 2003, the following was published:

Fixed a crashing issue involving house customization
Fixed several issues with lockdowns not displaying correctly
Spells in a Necromancer or Paladin spellbook will no longer decay if that spellbook is locked down
Runebooks can now be locked down again

Update 8

On April 7, 2003, the following was published:

Fixed a problem that was causing too much data to be sent to the user. This fix will greatly reduce lag for players on dial-up connections!
The Harrower will now perform its drain attack.
We’ve added a fix that should prevent players from experiencing the “blackholing” issue.
Pre-AoS items that add to stats will no longer add those stats permanently to characters, but will lose their bonuses after the charges run out.
Characters who die while in monster form will no longer be lootable.
The Doom boss gauntlet should now re-set itself correctly.
Houses that have been re-possessed by an in-game support rep (in the case of a player being taken to jail, for instance) will now be able to be transferred back to the player.
Fixed another issue causing some teleporters and doors to become static and unusable (note that this fix is separate from another door fix published last month!)
Locking down an overweight container will no longer cause “locked down!” barks to appear.
The House Placement Tool no longer thinks it’s a spyglass.
Fixed a crashing issue
Players will no longer be able to steal from ghosts.
Personal Bless Deeds and BODs will no longer be able to be smelted for ingots.
Fixed an exploit that allowed players to increase their hit points substantially through stat-increasing spells.