PATCH Patch Notes for April 22, 2021

[Laughing Skull]

and why wouldnt you want it all to fall?

Because I haven't had this much fun playing a game in I don't even remember how long. I can see past my own wants and needs that sometimes actions need to be taken for the greater good of the server, no matter how small a step.

Shocker another person who this the patch is garbage

Shanyu/Hubbub/Wizard would go as 3 or so and had NO ISSUE in securing loot/house placements etc against the bigger guilds.. they put effort in and they were a small guild so what is everyones elses excuse besdies the fact they want to bitch?

Shanyu/Hubbub/Wizard must be a very wealthy man who can pull an insane gold/hr ratio. If you can snag an 8x8 you can make about 1.4 million on that one flip. I know many people, myself included, who would consider that very much "worth my time."

That does help clarify, for me, that this is push-back is greed-centric.

 

[Elric]

Create Food

• Players who have the Wizard's Grimoire upgrades active for the Create Food Spell will no longer create Cheese when casting the spell (will only create Magic Mushrooms)

This patch is complete trash! I don't want these fricken mushrooms! I liked the cheese appearing the way it was since the beginning of UO! Just because a bunch of mushroom loving newbies are sick of the cheese doesn't mean the devs have to cave to their wishes. Sack up trammies and eat the damn cheese!

Discord is getting flooded with this! Change it back!

 

[Nose Goblin]

This patch is complete horse shit

 

[cromwell]

Finally is here! I totally love the new IDOC system. With de exception of system announcement when a house falls. Better say nothing at all. This time the ones who wander the land will have a chance to get rich, not the crows proffessional IDOC hunters.
IDOC lottery seems a great idea!

I also like the room rental system a lot, but I hoped you could make so other people can be invited on a rented room by the owner.

All in all, this patch is awesome!

"the ones who wander the land will have a chance to get rich, not the crows proffessional IDOC hunters." Those who wandered the land have just as much of a chance as the professional IDOC hunters to find an IDOC or near-IDOC. They always had the same chance to place a house. They always had the same chance to get rich and same chance to loot. What they DON'T DO (i.e. not same) that the "professionals" do is commit large amounts of time to surveying all houses on the shard and the mental effort to keep everything organized, timed, and running smoothly.

There is a TON of work that goes on behind the scenes to "do IDOCs" that your average Joe UO player doesn't see. I love that the ppl winning at idocs are labeled crows but the people that asked for a free fuckin hand-out idoc lottery raffle extravaganza aren't labeled as lazy fucks or just players-bad-at-idocs, even

This is the same, tired idea/argument. The solo player wants the chance to get rich doing content that fundamentally benefits from a group working together. Hence the term MMO. Massively multiplayer. Not single player. I digress


It seems that more and more time is spent on development to counter superior or more volume of gameplay by a certain group of players. It's a shame that staff listen to the loud and small minority of complainers and players that can't or won't learn to get what they want in-game by getting better at the game itself. Why are we patching in all these goofy rules and systems? It's an inherently disadvantaged activity/gameplay for unorganized or solo players. That's it. That's just the nature of the thing itself (house hunting). Patching it and neutering it and putting bandaids on it doesn't do anyone any good.

This is a repeat of the boating system - loud people complaining that they're missing out which results in changes/nerfs to the system. In boating's case, multiple nerfs in a row.

This change, at least FEELS, like it perpetuates the shard vs. single-guild mentality that seems to be taking root among some of the playerbase. Either that or the staff is worried about 'inflation.' The addition and then expansion of the inn system, IMO, counteracts arguments that the changes are b/c of low availability of housing

Lastly, patches on a rotating basis that break up the dominance of an area of gameplay by a single guild will not solve the problem of a dominant guild existing, unless your goal is to push those people to quit. But then you just get a crappier dominant guild. What this does is appease the complainers with changes to mechanics that allow them to get what they want. What this DOESN'T do is prevent the already dominant guild members from learning or adapting to new mechanics faster or better than others and then go on to dominate new gameplay or mechanics again like they already had---- which results in a cycling of complaining>changes>adapt>complaining>changes. What this DOES do is discourage the growth of better-competing guilds by making things easier and giving them what they want for 'free' instead of forcing them to compete at a higher skill level and get what they want by taking or winning it

PS: I have a feeling we will see a 'hotfix' type patch aimed at boating, shortly, that makes it safer and easier for weaker/newer players to be out on the water. That, or is aimed at weakening/hindering the strongest players in some manner. Perhaps both. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, either, but then you run into the problem of losing your core playerbase that plays the most competitively/frequently because nothing is risky or exciting or challenging anymore or because you changed the rules one too-many times and ppl took a step back and realized there's, like, legit virtual reality games popping up nowadays and other newer and shinier things, or if not newer, haven't lost their lustre

PPS: I haven't proofread this for grammar or clarity

 

[Laughing Skull]

What this DOESN'T do is prevent the already dominant guild members from learning or adapting to new mechanics faster or better than others and then go on to dominate new gameplay or mechanics again like they already had

Then what is your issue with the patch? Things change. People adapt. Guilds adapt. Guilds on top of the food chain adapt and remain on top of the food chain. Adapt or die.

Your post is complaining about the IDOC changes, Complaining about the fact that the game changes. And, then you say it doesn't matter cause the dominant guild will remain dominant regardless of the changes. This in turn means new/smaller/competing guilds will still have to fight/learn/struggle to compete at IDOCs.

??

 

[Lemora]

Then what is your issue with the patch?

...did you not read the rest of the post?

Your post is complaining about the IDOC changes, Complaining about the fact that the game changes. And, then you say it doesn't matter cause the dominant guild will remain dominant regardless of the changes. This in turn means new/smaller/competing guilds will still have to fight/learn/struggle to compete at IDOCs.

??

That faint whooshing sound is the entire post going over your head at about 10,000 feet.

 

[Laughing Skull]

...did you not read the rest of the post?


That faint whooshing sound is the entire post going over your head at about 10,000 feet.

I did, and my reply addressed the major points of his post. I didn't respond with generalities without addressing any point of the post.

 

[Lemora]

I did, and my reply addressed the major points of his post. I didn't respond with generalities without addressing any point of the post.

Again, it clearly went over your head. You think you are summarizing but miss all the critical points. I dont know if you need it rewritten for you to catch his drift, or are consciously or unconsciously emotionally biased to ignore them, but it was well written and to do it again would be equally long. So try again, thanks.

 

[Laughing Skull]

I stand by my original reply. I'm not going to go into your ad hominem because you can't respond to the substance of my post.

 

[moiller]

House Decay / IDOCs

House Signs

• Players will now only be able to see the Decay Stage of a house when single-clicking its sign if they are an Owner, Co-Owner, or Friend of the house

In Danger of Collapsing

• When a house enters the IDOC Stage (In Danger of Collapsing) a world-wide announcement will notify all players of this and the coordinates of the house, and a Discord notification (Broadcasts and PvP channels) will be made as well
• The house will now randomly collapse within 15 minutes to 2 hours of this announcement being made

• For the next 4 hours after an IDOC announcement, all players within 100 tiles of this location will be able to ignore their Dishonored status (i.e. Red players can continue to attack people and heal others near the site, even after death)

A player within 100 tiles of an IDOC site will ignore their Dishonored status

A player's Dishonored status goes back into effect when moving more than 100 tiles from an IDOC site


House Decay/Collapse

• When houses collapse, there will now be a randomized 15 minute to 2 hour window where no houses can be placed in that location (also fixed an issue that was causing these durations to not work correctly)
• A server-wide announcement in game as well as a notification in Discord will now announce whenever a house has collapsed and will give coordinates to its location

Additionally, when a house collapses, each Secure Container, Lockdown (not in a container), and Add-On in the house will have a randomized chance of the following occuring:

• 33% chance that the item will be permanently deleted
• 33% chance that the item will fall to the ground and can be picked up by players (like normal)
• 33% chance that the item will be removed and placed into a House Decay Lottery for the house (explained below)

Any Storage Shelves and Storage Lockers in a house will always be added into a House Decay Lottery for a house, but will have all of its stored item counts reduced by 50%

A house collapses and roughly 33% of its items fall to the ground


House Decay Lottery

• Whenever a house collapses, there is a 33% chance that each Secure Container, Lockdown (not in a container), or Add-On in the house will be added to a House Decay Lottery for that house (if no items are randomly chosen, however, no lottery will occur)
• Each House Decay Lottery represents a collection of items that were removed from the house and the player who wins that particular lottery will receive all of those items
• Note: the House Decay Lottery does NOT include the house deed of the house that collapsed, only the randomized 33% of items removed from the house that were placed in the House Decay Lottery

House Decay Lottery Menu and Official

• Players can view all current House Decay Lotteries in progress at the House Decay Lottery Official in Prevalia (located just west of the Society Job Hall)
• Players can say "Lottery" "Decay" "Ticket" "Raffle" "IDOC" "House" "Vendor" or "Buy" out loud near the lottery official to bring up the House Decay Lottery menu

• Each House Decay Lottery lasts 7 days, and players can purchase tickets for individual House Decay Lotteries for 1000 gold each (or may pay 10,000 gold for 10 tickets)

• For each House Decay Lottery, players can see how many total items the lottery contains as well as the total weight of all those items

• For each House Decay Lottery, the type of house that decayed is listed and players can click the View Location button to see a map of the location where the house collapsed at
• Note: This information is given to players to add to their decision-making process whether they want to buy tickets for the item collection (some players may wish to use this information to figure out whether the house was a Moongate Vendor House, a Guild House, belonging to a particular player, etc)

Purchasing Tickets

• When players purchase tickets for a specific House Decay Lottery, they will be stored internally in the system (players will not receive a physical ticket for the lottery)
• Purchasing tickets in groups of 10 will require the player to double-click to confirm their selection
• Players can see how many tickets they have purchase for any House Decay Lottery under the "My Total" section, with the text being Green if they have purchased any

Resolving Lotteries

• Each House Decay Lottery lasts 7 days
• After 7 days have passed, a random winner is determined from among the tickets purchased for the lottery (in a manner similar to our other lotteries)
• Players will be notified by system message if a House Decay Lottery that they had tickets for has resolved
• If a player wins a House Decay Lottery, they will also receive an overhead notification and will receive a Blessed House Decay Claim Ticket in their backpack

House Decay Claim Ticket

• Players who win a House Decay Lottery receive a Blessed House Decay Claim Ticket in their backpack for that particular lottery

• Players can double-click a House Decay Claim Ticket to view a menu showing all items that were part of the House Decay Lottery
• Note: some items will not have a name listed, and players should simply claim the item to see what it is

• Clicking the Claim button to the left of an item entry will claim the item and put it in your backpack
• Clicking the Delete button to the right of an item entry twice in a row will permanently delete the item

• If a player does not have room in their backpack for an item when claiming it, it will be dropped at their feet

• Once a player claims or deletes the last item on a Claim Ticket, it will mark the ticket as being Resolved and will have no more value to the player (and can be thrown away)

Rental Rooms

• Players now have the option to rent Small, Medium, Large, and Loft layout-style rooms from the Rental Room system
• Players can click the "Change Room Layout" left/right buttons when renting a room to rotate through the different layouts available

Different Rental Room Layouts have different weekly prices, lockdown limits, and secure container limits as follows:

Small Rental Room

• 5,000 Gold Per Week
• 2 Secure Containers Available
• 350 Lockdowns Available

Prevalian Style Small Rental Room


Medium Rental Room

• 7,500 Gold Per Week
• 3 Secure Containers Available
• 525 Lockdowns Available

Prevalian Style Medium Rental Room


Large Rental Room

• 10,000 Gold Per Week
• 4 Secure Containers Available
• 700 Lockdowns Available

Prevalian Style Large Rental Room


Loft Rental Room

• 10,000 Gold Per Week
• 4 Secure Containers Available
• 700 Lockdowns Available

Prevalian Style Loft Rental Room


PvP Events and Rewards

• Renamed "Guild" Reward Points to "PvP General" Reward Points
• When players earn PvP General Reward Points, they now also receive an equal number of PvP Event-Specific Reward Points for that particular event: i.e Town Struggle Reward Points, Corpse Creek Contest Reward Points, Dungeon Flashpoint Reward Points, and Stygian Rifts Reward Points
• Players can spend PvP Event Specific Reward Points on Rare Cloth and Mount Tokens belonging to a unique hue specific for that event
• The Rewards section of the Guild Menu now has selector buttons to switch between PvP General Reward Items and PvP Event-Specific Reward Items

PvP Event Participation

• Any player who participates in a Town Struggle, Dungeon Flashpoint, or Corpse Creek Contest and earns a cumulative total of 50 Individual Score Points or more throughout the event (regardless of points lost on Deaths) will be guaranteed at least 1 Battle Commendation, 1 PvP General Reward Point, and 1 Event Specific Reward Point (players who participate in a Stygian Rift are already guaranteed 1 of each of these currently)

Town Struggle Hue

Corpse Creek Contest Hue

Dungeon Flashpoint Hue

Stygian Rift Hue

Boss Healing

• We have now added support for players to view how much "Healing to Others" they have done during Mini-Bosses, Bosses, and Omni-Bosses
• Players can click the Player Stats left/right arrow buttons in the bottom center of the [BossResults menu to rotate between "Damage Dealt" and "Healing to Others" being displayed in the Individual Players column on the left (Guild Totals will always be Damage Dealt)
• The amount of healing tracked represents the amount of healing the player did to other players (this does not include healing they did to themselves, their own pets, or other player's pets) during that boss encounter
• In order for the system to track healing that occurred, the player must be in the same room as the boss and within 100 tiles of it (or in the case of Ocean bosses, within 50 tiles of the Ocean boss)
• Note: older bosses that occurred before this patch goes live will not retroactively have healing amounts displayed (the image below represents dummy amounts to show as an example)

Achievements

• Fixed an issue that was causing players to not receive some of the Beastmaster achievements from the Affinities Taming system (they should be retroactively added to players who qualify for them)

Help Stuck

• Using the Help Stuck mechanic while on a Ship will now kill the player similarly to as if they had used it within a dungeon (players will still be able to use it an unlimited number of times while on Ships)

Lockpicking and Remove Trap

• Fixed an issue where some locked containers would display as have 100% progress towards Lockpicking and Remove Trap despite only being 99% to 99.9% complete

Omni Gates

• Fixed another issue that was potentially causing Omni Gates to not disappear after all Omni Boss instances were completed

Animal Lore

• Fixed an issue where tameable creatures that have different Poison types between wild and tamed versions would display the wild version's Poison type in the tamed stats page (such as with Aegis Scorpions)

Create Food

• Players who have the Wizard's Grimoire upgrades active for the Create Food Spell will no longer create Cheese when casting the spell (will only create Magic Mushrooms)

Tamed Creatures

• Existing Blood Coursers have been updated in game to correctly be set to 110 Taming Skill (some older ones remained at 115 after the Taming Overhaul patch)

all this, very nice!

 

[moiller]

rofl all my shit gets deleted for being a "toxic troll" so realizing your patch was dogshit makes me a troll.. sounds good to me.. its an absolute shit patch hands down the only good thing that came out of it was the pvp reward system and then absolutely ruined it with idocs because it gives new players a chance.. all it means is you just recall in at random times or sit there for 6 hours and kill every stealther so you can get the placement (sick thought process) does absolutely nothing and if the change is because "all these players who are pvmers complained" thats there fault because they expect it to be given to them.. im sorry so scouting an entire map for fairly/greatly worn houses for maybe 2 hours of pvp content and if they dont put the effort in and 90% of the time dont even attend they should get spoonfed endgame content? jesus christ lol

Idocing is endgame content itd be like getting upset that some guild runs the omni boss scene and them nerfing omnis so that literally anybody can get a chance
your little town struggles are the baby steps to getting into pvp/group fighting, but you step to an idoc and try to defend it against everyone, thats what its about. me bringing reds to shrines/idocs for PvP content that get called out and the reason why there is a discord to stop COM RAIDS is content and you single handly removed that content for "noobs" to have a better chance at idocs.. put in effort, create a guild or join a guild and do idocs get placements/loot etc its not that difficult but people would rather be spoonfed instead of working hard towards something.. i enjoy bringing 10+ reds to an idoc/shrine and letting it get called out for PvP content.. im one of the only ones that actually does it and now its just going to be like 10 randoms to recall in get x amount of loot and res kill all the stealther/noob players for 15mins-6hours.. you actually think that is going to help new players? not a chance in hell lol you wont do something actually smart like making a cleanup of the server with rewards for handing shit in to clean up the random junk for items that are actually worth spending our gold on.. absolutely 0 rares worth buying on this server besides mount tokens and CY's..

Might as well just add to this patch saying "shrines are changed no pvpers allowed only blues and oranges because pvmers are getting raided to often by CoM must give all pvmers a chance to get tokens...

Junk of a patch

"The issue with this is, it is clear this isn't about item removal, otherwise it owuld be 100% deleted. IDOCs also always get replaced and then filled with stuff again. An argument of item load is disingenuous because the plot doesn't sit empty long. Also, there are more new items created server wide from farming in an hour than any existing items an IDOC would drop."


its about people complaining that "CoM" raids/wins (idocs are unfair for players who arent in big guilds or new players" everything and that we actually put the time and effort in into doing something.. i dont even attend 90% of our idocs and when i do i bring all the reds i can muster up for pvp content and it gets called out and brings tones of pvp.. no new player should be able to come to and idoc and win but it is doable.. if people actually gave a shit about idocing like CoM/hood/sof/evil/cult/syn/path then they would put in the effort and search the entire world for these houses decaying and time them or better yet would attend them when its announced in discord but most new players dont and those who do attend come to kill reds or chance to get some good loot.. now 90% of those who even attend idocs wont even go or waste there time because thats what this whole patch is, just a waste of time... but lets keep spoon feeding..

bro you mad mad, you adapt and overcome or quit cause you’re a noob.

 

[cromwell]

Then what is your issue with the patch? Things change. People adapt. Guilds adapt. Guilds on top of the food chain adapt and remain on top of the food chain. Adapt or die.

Your post is complaining about the IDOC changes, Complaining about the fact that the game changes. And, then you say it doesn't matter cause the dominant guild will remain dominant regardless of the changes. This in turn means new/smaller/competing guilds will still have to fight/learn/struggle to compete at IDOCs.

??

It's less of a complaint and more of an observation or a log of my stream-of-consciousness


My issue is that the end-result is that the 'top quartile of players', if you will, will start to quit the game for one that maintains a skill-ceiling. The end result is the death of the shard, or everyone quits except a bunch of dumb happy and bad players that donate money to staff, who are content to kill some monsters and decorate their house after their 9-5 while the harder aspects of the game are made easier and easier for them until they're left just with a false sense of accomplishment and a pretty looking house

Aside from that my issue is that its totally destroyed another competitive aspect of this game and watered it down to nearly nothing. This game has a cult following because of the risk/reward trade-off and the more meaningful in-game consequences you have for dying or making a mistake. Full-loot, houses decaying, etc. You don't see that in other games as much anymore. This change is just one more step in that Trammel direction in one of the only games of its kind thats still around.

My other issue with it is the specific and fairly blatant pandering and appeasement of the casual gaming crowd. For what reason, I do not know, because UO was never anything close to a casual game and still isn't. It's like they're taking a one-of-a-kind game and turning it into every other bland MMO designed to hit the reward centers of our brains just enough that we'll keep coming back and playing/donating

It straight up rewards complainers and bad players when they don't deserve to be rewarded.

----

Not the dominant guild necessarily, but the dominant players will always adapt and remain dominant if they care to. Like-minded players will generally group together, as well, resulting in a new dominant guild, but one that is worse than the previous one, because in this hypothetical scenario, the top percentile of players have quit the game after having the rules change too often or for dubious reasons, or because they're bored of everything exciting getting neutered

If you extrapolate this out, you end up with a bad player-base and with a bad guild on top. Maybe that's all you need, though, if you're the only UO shard around.

Does that answer your "??" question that you spent a lot of time thinking about and formulating?

 

[Laughing Skull]

Great information provided in your post. Why do you feel the top percentile of players will be quitting? I don't understand how the competitive side of IDOCing has been destroyed. If anything, doesn't this patch enhance the competition in that there is a much smaller timeframe to prepare and potentially more people showing up? I just keep coming back to the thinking that if any one is quitting it's because their loot has been slashed to 33% - greed.

I mean, we have to meet somewhere in the middle regarding the casual gamers. Like it or not, they drive the success of our server. Casual gamers far outnumber hardcore gamers. Even if things are softened a little bit, we all know a softened UO is still nothing like those pansy games out there now -- can we at least agree on this?

 

[aviggiano]

IDOC raffles are weird. They don't favor new players, but rather people who have lots of gold, which are the same as those who can already purchase houses at ridiculous prices

 

[Lemora]

I stand by my original reply. I'm not going to go into your ad hominem because you can't respond to the substance of my post.

Your "substance" requires ignoring half of his post. Again, either intentionally or through ignorance. Again, see my original response, thanks.

 

[Laughing Skull]

Your "substance" requires ignoring half of his post. Again, either intentionally or through ignorance. Again, see my original response, thanks.

My substance is what I felt were the important points in his post. You are more than welcome to elaborate more on what you felt I left out - but you can't because anything I didn't address is minor, compared to the points I did speak on. Your past few posts have been about what I didn't include in MY post. Quit whining about what I didn't include in MY post.

 

[Lemora]

My issue is that the end-result is that the 'top quartile of players', if you will, will start to quit the game for one that maintains a skill-ceiling. The end result is the death of the shard

This, exactly.

Those that have been throwing out fallacious arguments:

- "you're just greedy"
- "you must be CoM"
- "everyone can participate!!"
- "its a level playing field!!1!"

Are gravely missing the forest for the trees.

or everyone quits except a bunch of dumb happy and bad players that donate money to staff,

Which is sadly who is pandered to. The problem is these players are EXTREMELY fickle, and a loss in playerbase in a free UO shard has a cascading effect. These people will cheer on these changes, and then suddenly leave with complete cognitive dissonance and lack of care as to why and how it happened. Ive played more dead shards than anyone, and this is a scary path, and why I get heated in response. "Participation" at any expense is incredibly dangerous.

It straight up rewards complainers and bad players when they don't deserve to be rewarded.

And what is most frustrating is these players will cheer the end of the shard, and walk away to the next game without any self awareness to what they have cried for and received, or remorse, leaving the hardcore players yet again walking around the remnants wondering "how did this happen?" The great thing about this shard is that the devs listen to their players, and it feels like they are part of the playerbase. The downside is the same.

I replied to what I felt were the important elements of his post. Your past few posts have been about what I didn't include in MY post. Quit whining about what I didn't include in MY post.

You clearly didnt read the post, or were being, aware of it or not, intellectually dishonest. So I called you out. Cope.

 

[Laughing Skull]

This, exactly.

Those that have been throwing out fallacious arguments:

- "you're just greedy"
- "you must be CoM"
- "everyone can participate!!"
- "its a level playing field!!1!"

Are gravely missing the forest for the trees.

I have been asking for the past 2 pages to go into detail as to why people keep saying they are quitting. Not once has anyone given me a solid reason other than greed - the only thing they mention is contrary to what you just posted - they are upset that their loot is being sliced into 1/3 (greed). Other than that, It's just generalities or that I am somehow missing some hidden meaning buried in a post. The only thing I am hearing is greed.

 

[Lemora]

I have been asking for the past 2 pages to go into detail as to why people keep saying they are quitting. Not once has anyone given me a solid reason other than greed - the only thing they mention is contrary to what you just posted - they are upset that their loot is being sliced into 1/3 (greed). Other than that, It's just generalities or that I am somehow missing some hidden meaning buried in a post. The only thing I am hearing is greed.

We are in Poe's Law territory now.

But in case you are somehow being genuine, and his two explanations still genuinely did not get through, well, thanks for trying. Have a nice day.

 

[Laughing Skull]

well, thanks for trying

Well, hey. At least we can agree on that, I did try! Since there are no further disagreements with this patch... Case closed, next patch!