Check out the February EM events, coming soon to a shard near you!

Love and Misconception

Oceania – Saturday February 7th 11:30AM EST and Sunday February 8th 10:30 AM AEST

Sonoma – Saturday February 14th 1:00PM PST and Sunday February 15th 4PM PST

Great Lakes – Saturday February 7th 7:30PM CST

Drachenfels – Sunday February 15th 8:00pm GMT+1 and Tuesday February 17th 8:00pm GMT+1

Chesapeake – Saturday February 14th 3:00pm thru 10 pm EST

Legends – Saturday February 14th 8pm thru 10pm EST

Siege - Saturday February 14th 7PM EST Main event and 9 pm EST Tournament

Origin - Sunday February 15th 1PM PST

Atlantic – Saturday February 7th 7PM EST

Pacific – Saturday February 14th 3PM PST

Baja – Saturday February 14th 3PM PST

Lake Superior – Sunday February 15th 8pm CST

Catskills – Friday February 13th 7pm EST and Sunday February 15th 8PM EST

Lake Austin – Saturday February 14th 7 pm PST and Sunday February 15th 3 pm PST

Europa – Sunday February 15th 8pm UKtime

Napa Valley – Friday February 13th 7PM PST

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If you didn’t catch King Casca’s inauguration speech at Blackthorn’s Castle today, you may be able to catch it Sunday, Jan 18th or even next week. See the Town Criers in Britain to confirm times.

Lake Austin
Sunday January 18th, 2009
5:30pm PST

Lake Superior
Sunday January 18th, 2009
- 4pm CST Felucca
- 9pm CST Trammel

Monday January 19th, 2009
- 4pm CST Trammel
- 9pm CST Felucca

Great Lakes
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 2pm EST
- 8pm EST

Monday, January 19th, 2009
- 8pm EST

Drachenfels
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 3pm GMT+1
- 8pm GMT+1

Catskills
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 8pm EST
- 3pm EST

Napa
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 7:30pm PST

Pacific
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 3pm PST

Europa
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Casca’s Speech)

Monday, January 19th, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Sherry appearance)

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Casca’s Speech)

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Sherry appearance)

Saturday January 24th, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Casca’s Speech)

Sunday, January 25th, 2009
- 8pm GMT (Sherry appearance)

Pacific
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 3pm PST.

Origin
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 6:00pm Pacific (9:00pm Eastern)

Legends
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 7pm EST

Atlantic
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 12pm EST Trammel
- 8pm EST Felucca

Oceania
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 1pm AEST
- 7pm AEST

Monday, January 19th, 2009
- 9am AEST
- 1pm AEST
- 7pm AEST

Sonoma
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
- 9am PST
- 12pm PST
- 5pm PST
- 6pm PST

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Posted to UOHerald:

Suspicious Items: Update
Robert Mull
12 Jan 2009 11:15:52 EST

Good news everybody! Our concerns about a recent appearance of suspicious items have proven to be unfounded. They are, mostly, obtainable in ways that are long standing tradition: “oops, we didn’t lock it down, it’s decorative, and it’s been that way for a long time.” In other words, this is not the result of a new dupe.
The bulk of reports coming in were about the dinner plates, both full and dirty. It turns out that these plates are actually spawning daily. Whenever the server comes up, you should be able to pick up more.

At this point, we’ve decided to add the ability to craft plates of these types in a later Publish. The market has become unstable for them already, and a few people are hoarding them better than most real life diamond mines.

Until then, here’s our spoiler of the day: they spawn daily in the Four Huts southwest of Britain (west bridge, go south), only in Felucca. Enjoy the new found competition!

Meanwhile, we are aware of other “rares” appearing that are generic versions of more common items – these will be dealt with as exploits.

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If you see dirty plates, 3-legged stools, “worldgem bits,” skull mugs, or plates of food for sale as rares on vendors, beware. They are not “new” rares and popular opinion is that they are likely dupes. (They’re the result of a bug exploit, at the very least).

Today’s login patch screen warns:

We’ve received multiple reports that new, supposedly “rare” items are appearing across the servers. These are not sanctioned items from the recent content patches or events, and in some cases even take on the appearance of server-birth rares.

If you find these suspicious items for sale, or see them being offered, please use the in-game reporting tool to page a GM.

Please enjoy your post holiday vendor shopping, but beware of deals that are too good to be true.

Draconi added:

Okay, Joanne is unavailable right now - can I get everyone who has information on this to email Mesanna? (barmstrong@ea.com)

I don’t have word on where this is coming from, and it seems highly suspicious, so please act with caution.

See Stratics for more commentary: New “Uber Rare” Bottles, Flasks, and other “New” Items

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Posted on UOHerald today:

Swamp Dragon Notice
Joanne Laroche
05 Jan 2009 13:50:05 EST
We’ve received reports of players who have dyed their Swamp Dragon armor deeds with the dyes of Tokuno, and then created neon pets. These dyes were not intended to be used in this manner and those players with neon pets will find their swampies reverted to iron in the near future.

Finally, Luna bank will no longer look like a rainbow puked all over it!

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Wishing all of my UO friends a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season, and a prosperous new year (both in Britannia and in real life!)

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Posted to UO Herald by Joanne Laroche on 18 Dec 2008 17:34:26.

With the new year, Sosaria’s main bank is in high need of a serious makeover. We are looking for talented designers and decorators to submit their original ideas on a great new look for the West Britain Bank. This is a permanent new look so do not focus on just a winter theme!

Contest Rules:

* You must take a screenshot of Britain Bank and decorate it with existing UO art.
* You can copy/paste existing art from elsewhere in the game on top of the bank area. You may optionally use InsideUO to grab tileart directly from UO.
* Your submission screenshot must be a JPG no bigger than 800×600.
* There will be one winner per shard, you may only win once.
* To qualify, entries must include your name and shard.
* You must have an active Ultima Online account to participate.
* Enter as often as you wish, but only one submission per e-mail.
* Submission for banks other than West Britain Bank will be dismissed.
* All entries become the property of Mythic Entertainment.

Prizes:

One winner per shard.

The winners will have the bank on their respective shard redecorated on both facets according to their design. A plaque will also be placed by the bank identifying the winning designer.

All winning entries will be posted here on the UOHerald once the judging has been finalized.

How to Enter:

When you are ready to submit your entry, you must include the following:

Your Character Name:
Shard:
E-mail address:
Description of your renovation (optional)
Your screenshot:

Send all the above information to: uo-contests@mythic.ea.com

This is open to all active Ultima Online subscribers. Entries must be received by midnight Eastern Time on Sunday January 18th, 2009 to qualify.

Good luck and happy bank renovating!

Additional Notes:

We can accommodate designs that *add* to the structure, but not delete from it. In other words, if you want to add walls, stairs, etc, that’s fine.

Details:
* Cannot change terrain (dirt/grass/basically anything with a texture on the floor)
* Cannot change static objects (existing walls, existing items in the bank that are scenery only/can’t be interacted with)

The Terrain and Statics are global to all shards because they’re part of the map files.

However, in InsideUO, when viewing the tileart, you’ll see a section full of floor tiles. These are not terrain, and can be placed on top of it without problems. If you decide you want to redo the floor of the bank - that’s fine.

The same goes for walls - you can’t *change* the existing walls, but we can easily add walls to the existing bank. All your changes will be local to the shard, and nothing will change on the client.

Keep in mind we’d love to see what you do with the outside as well - that whole area could use some love.

P.S.

All we care about is seeing a final result screenshot and a good description for the design. Don’t get caught up in asking what tools you can use - we only suggest InsideUO for browsing the art because it’s so handy.
__________________
Tim “Draconi” Cotten -
Lead Designer -
Ultima Online - EA Mythic

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Publish 57 is now on Test Center, and it includes some crafting tidbits:

Crafting

* Added hitching posts to the craftable menu in tinkering.
* Added bookcase to the craftable menu in carpentry.
* Changed the skill level to work special logs into boards: Regular wood (0.0) , oak wood (65.0), ash wood (75.0), yew wood (85.0), heartwood wood (95.0), bloodwood (95.0), frostwood (95.0).

Read the entire list of Publish 57 changes.

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If you’ve been looking for the Naturalist Quest walk-through that once was on UOGuide.com, it has been drastically edited by system operators there for being “too detailed” and for containing too many images. I wrote that guide, and I believe that detailed walk-throughs should be exactly that - detailed.

So, here - in its uncut form - is the original Naturalist Quest walk-through that I wrote. I will post any walk-throughs that I’m inspired to write here instead from now on. I have also posted my Human to Elf quest walk-through in its un-cut format, as it too will likely get butchered at UOGuide for being too detailed.

I have always supported and continue to support UOGuide, but I disagree with their recent editorial decisions and will continue to provide my walk-throughs to the UO community through UOCraft instead, for those who prefer more detail over less.

Naturalist Quest - Rare Colored Plant Seeds (uncut)

Human to Elf (Elven Heritage) Quest (uncut)

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This just in from The Syndicate:

Saturday 12/20 at 5:30pm EST, The Syndicate will be hosting another of its free, open to the public, massive Lottery events on Atlantic Shard.

We have been hosting these going back nearly ten years but this one will be the largest and most fun one we have done yet. There are two parts to this lottery that will allow dozens of people to win.

The first part will be our usual 25 prize event. The second part will involve several hundred prize bags scattered all over our castle. They will contain a wide range of prizes. If you attend the event, you are likely to walk away with 1 or more prizes. Syndicate gaters (known by the LLTS over their heads) will begin gating at 5pm EST from the major banks.

Look for them to hitch a ride to the event. The first prizes get called at 5:30pm and as soon as the 25th prize is called, the floodgates open for the hundreds of other prizes in the castle. We hope to see you there!

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