News letter

[Zardoz of Crete aka Kimi aka Victoria Secret]

Happy Holidays Everyone!
   Thanksgiving is right around the corner followed by Christmas.  We hope all of our extended families out there have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the time with family and friends!

   I personally would like to thank all of you that sent us feedback on Publish 95!  We love hearing from you and saw many issues fixed before Publish 95 went world wide.  Don't forget that many features that are part of Publish 95, including the Artisan Festival and Holiday rewards, will activate as of December 1st - so make sure you check them when December begins!

   We are beginning discussions for Publish 96 which includes an update to Dungeon Doom as well as continuing work on the Pet Revamp.  Check out the sections below to learn more!

   PEC Wraith is no longer with the PEC program, so if you would like to do a player event please send your emails to PEC Raine.

   We have just hired new Event Moderators for Chesapeake and Formosa. I am still looking for one more Event Moderator, so if you would like to join our team please email me a detailed event to show your creativity.

  The Dev Meet and Greet for Lake Superior will be at 7pm ET 11/21/2016 and for Hokuto at 9am ET 11/28/2016. 

See you in Britannia,

Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong
Producer


Doom Update
We are in the early stages of planning an update to Dungeon Doom that is slated for Publish 96.  This will include an update to primarily the Gauntlet and the loot that can be obtained from the dungeon.  We received a lot of positive feedback regarding using currently available Doom artifacts as ingredients in recipes for enhanced versions of those artifacts.  We look forward to hearing your feedback on this concept as we move towards testing.

Pet Revamp
We are in the process of laying out the particulars for the way pet advancement is going to work with the revamp.  As you may have read in previous newsletters and from our meet & greets, you will be able to train pets in a way that will increase the # of control slots they take.  The number of advancements a pet can take depends on each pet (You won't be able to take a rabbit from 1->5, but may, for example be able to take a grizzly bear from 1->5).  At each advancement there will be an increase in survivability that will increase some combination of the pet's Hit points, Hit point regeneration, and resists.

What we are asking for your help in is determining what method you would prefer to further customize additional attributes (things like mana, defense chance increase, AIs).  In this case keep in mind that all pet behavior is controlled by an AI - so the pets won't do anything but a basic melee attack unless there are AIs to direct it otherwise.

There are currently two approaches we can take, 

The "Reforging" approach would mimic the reforging system (minus the randomness) in that attribute gains/AIs would be grouped together in that you would select a package of attributes to enhance when a pet was eligible for advancement.  For example, when your grizzly bear moved from control slot #1 -> #2, you would be able to select a full defense package that would increase a group of stats consisting of something like defense chance increase and hit lower attack, or you could select a full offense option that would include more offensive attributes like a bleed attack AI and hit physical damage.

The "Imbuing" approach would mimic the imbuing system in that at each advance you would be able to select individual attributes that are weighted and count against a cap for the control slot tier.  In our grizzly bear example when you advance from control slot #1 -> #2 you would be able to select from a pool of attributes that would each have an associated weight.  For example you may select a "bleed attack" AI weighted at 50 points and a "hit physical" attribute weighted at 100 points to count against a 150 point cap at control slot #2.

The major difference is in how you select the customization as the pet is trained up.  Would you prefer a pre-packaged (reforging) approach or a more open selection (imbuing) approach?

We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding both approaches!
Question & Answer Corner
1.   Are Ethereal items legal?

No,  these items are not legal and will be reverted to a normal item on site.

2.  Are water tiles stuck in boxes legal?

This item was obtained from an exploit a long time ago, we are not deleting these tiles but we will not move them or make them moveable if we are called to do so.

3.  Will you ever allow pet branding?

Good question, we have gotten several requests to allow you to mark your pet as yours.  We will be adding a branding tool to the store in the future that will allow you to do just that.

4 .  Can we make the Classic client screen bigger?

Bleak is looking into seeing if its possible without adding a large amount of lag.  Stay tuned for his findings =)

5.  Can we filter out casting from our Journals?

We will be looking into adding this feature in a future publish.
Customer Service

1. If you have an account that was terminated by CS over a year ago and would like to have it back please contact support here and give them the details and identify the account as yours, depending on the termination we will remove the restriction from your account so you may open it again.

2. All Sovereigns purchased from Origin have to be entered on the Account Management page.  You can not enter these in game.

3. Anyone that is trying to reopen an account please make sure you send all the information to support@ultimaonline.com so we can have a record of this.  In the original request to support if you do not know your secret word please ask for a hint.  Give them all the information to identify the account as yours so there will not be a lot of delays.

4.  Anyone that does not get their codes from Origin please follow this link to resolve the issue..

5.  If you have any in game questions or issues please either page in game or email support@ultimaonline.com.

6.  For any feedback to content put in game please send it to UO@broadsword.com.

7.  Regarding Origin orders, codes, and third party resellers.

Recently some of the player base may have noticed that an Origin store purchase they have made did not arrive or complete as expected. A confirmation or code email has not been received and you are wondering what may have occurred with your order. The Origin store enacts reviews on all transactions to safeguard against fraudulent purchases, and these reviews may take up to 72 hours. Unfortunately our Billing department is not able to expedite or circumvent this process, however players who have questions or concerns regarding a store purchase can contact Origin support for assistance using the below link:

http://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/

When prompted for a product, choose Origin. Next choose your platform, and select ‘Orders’ as the topic. You can further specify your issue in the subsequent fields before speaking with an agent.

We would also like to reiterate that the Origin store is the only guaranteed provider of codes for Ultima Online. The validity of a code purchased from a third-party seller (be it a friend, in-game acquaintance, or recommended site) cannot be guaranteed. Furthermore, any codes we find to have be fraudulently obtained will be disabled and an account that applies any of these codes will have that code removed from said account. This can result in the loss of gametime, character slots, expansion access, Sovereigns (and the items purchased with them), in-game items and more. Please be advised that we cannot assist with any issues stemming from codes purchased via non-Origin means; you will be required to contact the vendor from which you purchased the code for further assistance.