UO NEWS AND WHIRLED REPORT [Author: Arcadian Del Sol]

Page One: What do you do when you’ve patched all the bugs?

The answer is simple: You start unpatching the bugs you’ve already patched. I’m talking about the gimp that was precasting. Remember that? It was deemed unbalancing and referred to as an exploit that tips the balance of PVP by EA-Austin developers. Contrary to revisionist websites, you actually heard about it here back when this was an unannounced “feature” in one of the testing packages (and I apologize in advance for the fubar formatting on that page). Taking a guess here, but it is my gut instinct that the reason this wasn’t announced it because OSI wasn’t aware that it even existed until after the players found out. But if I’m wrong, then the only reason I can imagine for NOT asking players to test, debug, and refine a precasting Uber-Tank-Mage patch is if they knew they’d be taken to task for re-introducing a feature they had previously condemned, and testified to being a huge imbalance in PVP combat. And if you think it isn’t imbalancing, then I challange you to face down a GM Mage / GM macer who can para you, ebolt you, hit you with a mace for another 20 points so hard that you are stunned again, and then ebolt you once more. You just took over 200 points of damage and you were not able to move one step the entire time. The last time I saw a battle this unbalanced, I was trying to beat the AI at Civilization II.

Anyway, the point of this page is to update you. The precasting beta test has ended, and it is now a live feature on the Baja shard (according to UONewbie.com – take that for what it is worth to you). God Bless you, Developer Obi-Erkel. You’re our only hope.

Page Two: An enchanting proposition

Follow this link to a thread on the UO boards where a player posts a pretty cool idea to finally introduce the ability to craft magically charged items in UO; something no fantasy RPG should ever be without. I’m not sure who to ultimately credit for this idea, but the point is: it’s a cool one. Check it out.

(Helps if I remember to inclue the link. -Arcadian)

Incidentally, I had heard of another cool idea not too long ago, but sadly could not find a page or thread to link with, but it was very similar, only it included the idea that gemstones would be used as construction components as part of the process. And honestly, gemstones are such an ass-pain right now. You can only sell about 8 a day to a vendor for a whopping 250 gold coins. But you can gather them at a rate of 20 gems an hour. People are discarding them and/or using them as house decorations (because we *still* dont have a means to “nudge” items around our houses, we have to prop them up on eggs, gems, and black pearls). Anyway, these ideas probably pale in comparison to NEW CAT AND PARROT GRAPHICS.

Section update: Decorator tools are working, but my houses are not.

Just to clarify, I indicated above that in UO we still cannot “nudge” house decorations around to place them exactly where we want them. I wanted to mention that I’ve tried them and they have never worked for me, and it was my understanding that they were either (a) not done or (b) awaiting further testing. A few players have reported to me that the decorator tools are working for them, so I am going to invite someone to my house tonight to see what results they can come up with. If not, we’ll probably have to page a GM and hope the words “yeah, being on a server line sucks” are not uttered.

Page Three: A wino in a hooded robe is still a drunken hobo

Checking in on Myschyf’s excellent update yesterday (yes, believe it or not, I too, was very excited by some of the new content in the latest patch), I see that I’m not the only one who is still torn 50/50 between being excited about new fangled robes and shoes and gloves, and being frustrated that the people who are going to put these things on still look like crap. Until my characters stop resembling this guy, I’m really kinda indifferent about clothes with reflective strips.

Page Four: Your contractually required cat picture

Upon seeing the new UO:3D cats

(just being funny. The cats look pretty good.)