Borg

TheFellowship- if i placed my house yesterday to save the spot but i can enlarge it greatly, do i have to wait my 7 days to demolish the house and replace? MrTact-No. When you remove your last house, it removes the 7-day timer limitation Lord-Xanthor Aedilwulf-What is the current status with addressing critical guildstone bugs for guilds over 150 members? (Inability to Kick/Title members)? Can we expect to see these addressed in an upcoming publish? And what is the timing? Evocare- We're making a legitimate attempt at scheduling it for pub24, although there are no guarantees until QA has signed off on it Lord-Xanthor Thomas-Can we have an update on the status of the remaining Virtues? How far along in development are they and which one(s) are we likely to see first? Evocare- Some have gotten pretty far into development only to get postponed due to their heavy testing and long-term implications that being said, we're evaluating what the "right" scope for the remaining virtues are, and how they'll best fit into defining UO, especially in light of UXO, which is very heavily virtue oriented Lord-Xanthorbuster- There have been hints of a possible cap to a player's 'faster casting' - as it is, fc4 is ridiculously overpowered, and generally unobtainable for most, especially in PvP. Do you intend to change this system, and if so when? Evocare-yes, after having listened to many different views on the subject, i've pretty much decided to go with caps on some of the key pvp-related magic properties Evocare- i believe we can ensure that magic items/artifacts are still desireable, but don't have the dominant effect on outcome that they have today Lord-Xanthor Adamantyr- Are there plans to introduce bulk order deeds for other craft skills, such as cooking? On that note, are there any plans to make food a more vital component of the game, such as the necessity of eating to survive, creating exceptional food items, adding glass mugs and other paraphernalia to the tinkering lists, etc.? Evocare-as we've stated in the past, there definitely is a desire on the dev team to add bods for other craft skills although cooking is probably less likely to get them as soon as carpentry/bowcraft/tinker for example we are interested in having cooking become more useful in UO however, we're not likely to force players to eat to keep their characters from dying no wait, we're not just "not likely" to do that, we're just flat out not gonna do that we'd much prefer to see eating be something you'd like to do, then something you have to do we get the "have to" part already from reality ;] Lord-Xanthor drewniu-In one of the previous chats it was stated that not being able to steal containers is a confirmed bug. In the next one it was said that it's a designed feature. What caused the change and can we expect any change in that matter? Thank you. MrTact- It is *not* a bug It is, in fact, a solution to the problem of blessed or insured items in containers. We have contemplated other solutions to the problem but we don't plan to pursue them right at this moment. Final answer. Lord-Xanthor Garaba-Any Fixes to the Golem bugs on the short term radar? Evocare- not that I know of offhand, sorry =[ there may be some that will be scheduled soon, but i honestly don't know for sure off the top of my head Lord-Xanthor fect|afk- Alot of us that have been playing for a long time, would like to see a shard that is based off of Pre-Ren. Do you see OSI ever pubslishing a shard with that sort of a rule-set? MrTact- Right now there are no plans to do a pre-uor shard. What we are doing is looking at gameplay from back in the day (especially pvp) and seeing what about it makes players yearn for that ruleset. Then we want to take what we learn and use it to improve the game as it stands today. Lord-Xanthor Ktorr- Are there any plans to adjust certain perceived imbalances with Skills. ie. Poisoning is one of the most difficult and expensive skills to gain, but can be countered with 0 skill by using a single potion, and 20.1 in tracking seems a bit low to allow someone to find a player with GM stealth ? Evocare- There are a lot of plans to balance all sorts of things with different skills. Those plans are very far-reaching and include scrutinizing every skill in the game (poisoning included obviously) However, I wouldn't expect to see any changes to that in the next publish or two, it's longer term then that Lord-Xanthor Derek_-There has been some discussion recently about sightings of counselors and rumors with a possible connection to the E.M. Program, is there any truth to this and/or is any thought being given to bring back the volunteer program? Sannio-I don't know yet why a Counselor was supposedly sighted, but I do know that there are no plans to recreate the volunteer program, and Counselors will not be a part of any future Event Moderator team Lord-Xanthor UOnuts- Question: Is there anything, such as Auto Loot Distribution, planned to stop script looting, especially at Doom Gauntlet? MrTact-I believe we are to the point where we have decided that we *are* going to do auto loot distribution, but we haven't even started design on it atm. As such, I couldn't say when to expect that. Lord-Xanthor UOnuts-Please ask this question: any chance to make any change to archery in near future? Evocare-i'll be looking at basic damage over time values for archery in pub24, although I can't say for sure yet if and how much it would change Lord-Xanthor Thomas- At present, what's the planned focus for each of the next three publishes? MrTact- Well, since I've already been skewered for this on the boards . . . Pub 23 is going to be almost entirely character transfer Pub 24 is in the planning stages atm . . . we have already mentioned a couple of things we are looking at for that pub Pub 25 isn't even a gleam in anyone's eye yet. Most likely, by the time we get to pub 25, some very interesting things will have happened, so it would be hard to even guess right now. Lord-Xanthor Ghostface- Why is a system as enormous as luck not a priority to put effort into when it's been admitted that its nowhere near up to par. People dont expect good items all the time but we do expect not to get junk all the time. Also can you fix it so people with Vamp Embrace on can mount steeds you have to get on then recast it : Evocare- I believe MrTact has been planning on going over luck to resolve whether there are bugs that cause the percieved problems or whether its the case of the design needing changes to make sure it works the way players feel it should When exactly that might happen I don't know with any degree of certainty MrTact-I posted extensively in this thread the other day: http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/show...v&selv=&vwhich= That is everything I know about the current situation with loot and luck Lord-Xanthor xcelsior- Can we have soulstones somewhere around pub 35? Evocare- i hope so... I had originally hoped they would go in with AoS so, I'm still a big fan of doing soulstones, it's just a question of fidning a time to do them Lord-Xanthor M.C. -Items decay extremely fast now (both weapons and armor), and repairing a barely damaged weapon even at 120+ skill results in a max.durability penalty very often. Are there any plans to tone down the rate of item decay? MrTact-Not right now. I would say now we are at the "wait and see" stage. Lord-Xanthor Red_Falcon- I was just wondering if the dev team will fix the lamp room in doom so people cannot logout in there and stop them from exploiting to get the lamps and gloves. MrTact- Now that the team has grown somewhat, we are going to be dividing up into groups to focus on live and . . . other stuff Lord-Xanthor unified -Is it at all possible for there to be a mechanism to allow players to see the autual numerical value of fame, karma, and virtue they have acheived. It's confusing getting "you have gained a little fame" or "you have lost a lot of fame" when there is no way to actually know where you are. MrTact-Yeah we feel that the status gump is too small, so we're going to be making it a lot bigger so we can add that stuff. JK There are UI enhancements planned for the future, and it's possible that we may elect to make those stats less obscure. Evocare- what? you want real information about your character? Lord-Xanthor Adamantyr-At the moment, a locked down item can't be used or picked up. This is well, but if you lock down a container, such as a mug, you can't drink from it. This means you can't really operate a tavern unless you have cutletry you don't mind losing to thieves. Can a new level of lockdown be made so items can be usable but not takable? MrTact- Actually, it is possible to make a class of locked down items usable. We had a real problem with this after AoS where a lot of item types that had to be used when locked down couldn't be . . . (Can you say "plants"? Sure you can." The fix we did for that stuff can be done for other item types as well. When you come across stuff like this, please forward it to the bug box. We want to get bugs like this on the schedule because they are relatively easy to fix. Lord-Xanthor Dryzzid- Also, do mages gain the bonus FC1 effects from an equipped weapon? I see some people using programs to rearm between each spell? If so, is there any way to fix that? Evocare- yep, planning on fixing that cheaters! hopefully with the next round of balance changes mages won't feel compelled to cheat ;] Lord-Xanthor uocoriantum- I'm wondering if UO plans on introducing more rare items into the game? Maybe some "mid-level" rares would be nice--especially mage rares! Evocare- sure, adding stuff for people to find is definitely something we plan on doing =] Lord-Xanthor [Garaba] Whats with all of Mr. Tact's jokes these days. Is he like this at the office. Evocare-as a matter of fact, he's *exactly* like that at the office... i think his wife must be deaf hoho Lord-Xanthor- Did the Dev Team attend any good IDOCs? What did you loot? Evocare- I got all of Adrick's stuff that newblar... Sannio-I picked up a few things here and there. As I mentioned on the UO Stratics boards, I mostly picked up plants, but some statues, ingots, boards, and miscellaneous wearables. It took a long while and a bit of luck, but I was also able to place a small marble tower. MrTact- I was crunching. Plus I thought it was a little unethical for a dev team member ---Sannio pokes MrTact--- Lord-Xanthor wilki24- Are their any plans for a new client to be released in the near future? If so, can you shed some details about it? MrTact- New client? Whatever gave you that idea? Lord-Xanthor I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight! And thanks to all of the OSI folks for spending their personal time talking to us Please join #ultima-online for continued, unmoderated chat the log will be posted shortly at http://uohoc.stratics.com THANKS ---Waves to everyone---

If you have a large group of friends in FFXI and/or you seek a homebase....we could look to create you a section on the website for that.

Your lineup is your decision......... leave em the same........or put a guy from your bench to start........or drop a player to waivers and pick up someone in the freeagency listings by position.........all up to you who you start next weekend. Its actually quite easy to get the hang of the roster etc........very easy and user friendly site actually. Your a rookie........youll get the swing of it soon.........use wolfy for advicey....he is an expert fantasy gamer. next year his ear will be on my trophy wall hehehehe joining yours this season

Now you need to look at your roster and decide to keep lineup or change it. There are also players on waivers list available to trade for..........seek Wolf if you wish advice... or........ call me.........but then you would be conversing with the enemy........heheheh Red Knights are tuning up to destroy your "death" knights....how appropriate.....they will be dead soon.

Here are 2001 and 2002 records with playoffs for the last 2 yrs of THE HONOR EMPIRE ESPN FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE.

ack.........well next year I will crush yall...... at least I will be able to smack around Toks team ehhehe Buzzelli DeathKnights........heheh

me no see you signed up for da battle..........youuuuu scaredy wolfy and tokey Monday is draft day at 8am

Okees.......... Football Nutz.......... I have started our own fantasy football league for members of THE HONOR EMPIRE family... Go to this link... ESPN FANTASY FOOTBALL LINK and get your 1 team in the FFL area. After you get a team JOIN our private league The Honor Empire password is Colin Hope to see yall in there (7 other teams available to face off against my Ithaca Red Knights) DRAFT DATE is MONDAY Sept 8th It is a MULTI LIST League and that guarantees you at least 2 of your top picks per position. (in the team modification area you select HTML then just rank your top 10 or so players per position...leave the rest as ranked from last year) After you get your team you can then MAKE your Logo and then set up each position ranking of players (multi list) The system will then sort thru on Monday and boom your team will be ready to rock n roll Tuesday. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!!!!! I am gonna keel you all on the field.....muahhahahaa

As Sunsword promised (and after several weeks of brainstorming on the message boards with Vex and the team), we would like to offer an in-game gift as a way of showing our appreciation for all those players who've made this one of the busiest times in UO's history, as well as a way of offering something out of consideration for anyone who’s gone through a revert or other problem caused by the high traffic during the Age of Shadows launch. The gift will consist of two parts, and will be distributed per character, not per account. This means each character will receive Item #1 and Item #2 (see below). The actual date for these gifts has not yet been decided, but players should expect to see these come to the game in one of our upcoming publishes (basically, once we’re out of immediate bug-fixing mode). Item #1 For the first item, players can choose one of the following things: tunic surcoat jester suit sash robe plain dress fancy dress kilt skirt half apron full apron sandals shoes boots thigh boots cloak rose (for those who would prefer not to choose a wearable) Next, the player will be able to choose from a selection of inscriptions to engrave on the item, which will include the character’s name. Lastly, the player will be able to select a hue for the item from a selection of unusual hues. Choose wisely, because the item cannot be dyed once selected! This item (Item #1) will be blessed, and will be transferable between characters. Item #2 In addition to whatever they choose for Item #1, each character will be able to choose from the following: A scroll good for +5 to any skill of the player’s choice (This will act as an immediate 5 point skill gain in any skill. It will not raise a skill over its current skill cap.) A scroll good for +5 to their stat cap These items will be usable only once, and the effects will be permanent. These scrolls will be non-transferable, meaning it will only work for the original character who claimed it. Remember, each character will get two gifts! Item #1 can be traded, but Item #2 will only work for the claiming character, and will be consumed on use. Cynthe Community Manager ORIGIN Systems

The Honor Empire website member deal....... At work I currently have 2 units left..........sold 4 today when we reduced the price $200. If your interested in one of these units........call me at work ASAP. 607-256-0562 OfficeMax #908 Ithaca NY.14850 ask for Borg.

If yall are curious at the mechanics..........check with Doddz or Wolf.......you couldnt pull them away from the jousting arena last night hehehe all unofficial stats......... Wolf 2-1 Doddz 1-2 Massive battles were great!!!!!!!

Wolf is the greatest siggy maker......he has several done for many across all of UO.......seek the great Wolfy

In the Above Picture Members REPLY your choice of what you would like the Imperial shade of purple to be. This Thread will be open until WEDNESDAY 11:59pm EST. AGAIN....MEMBERS of the PGoH Empire must REPLY your vote and only Members votes will be counted. NOTES: Colors that are similar to GoL have been excluded. BOD units cannot be dyed upon newbie clothes. If BOD color is chosen then BOD cloth will be provided or we will seek a magical tub to dye from.

Done.......Senator Logan.....have him pray at the guildstone. FOR HONOR AND EMIPIRE!!!

BODs......... Now that the Smithing Runic Hammers are so important to production of armor and weapons.... PLUS Tailoring Rewards and BODs are such time consuming monstas......ehheh Senator Rusty....... (do you have a designated Legate of Tailoring to work on this for you?) Do you wish Tailor BODs Parts A) BODS to be done up for the unique color cloths? OR B) All turned into you for sorting/organizing? (If turned in to you......do you want them filled first?) OR C) Only certain ones turned into you for sorting/organizing? Quartermaster Hephestos...... Legendary Smith (BOD focus unit for Empire) Do you wish Smithing BODS Parts A) BODS to be done up and turned in for pickaxes or shovels? OR B) All turned into you for sorting/organizing? (If turned in to you......do you want them filled first?) OR C) Only certain ones turned into you for sorting/organizing?

Additonally......... I would like to do some Treasure Maps........to see what influence LUCK has with those also. Its been FAR too long since we did runs of Treasure maps. Treasure Hunt Digs THDs...........used to be weekly event.

As Balandar remarked the other day on the phone....... LUCK now is a major factor in loot finds. The highest factor of LUCK in your party becomes everyones Luck factor when looting dead killed by party. Gold is part of loot......so this would hold that it would be influenced. What would be interesting to try is to see if making a megaluckybustard and having him in party.......but then not taking him into a hell place (so as not to worry about losing lucky items boosters)........still gains party the LUCK factor. ie Gold Armor gives nice boost to luck but isnt the best for battle gear.

Publishing Fixes to Lake Superior Feb 28 2003 2:37PM CST (GMT -06:00) We will be publishing an update to the Lake Superior shard that will be active after that shard’s Saturday morning maintenance period. This publish will contain the following fixes: 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. If no issues arise, we anticipate rolling this out to all other AoS-active shards, except for the Atlantic shard, as of their respective Monday morning maintenance periods. (We are currently monitoring the Atlantic shard regarding other fixes, and if no issues arise there then Atlantic will also receive this publish). Note: Characters that log in with spellbooks (“classic” spellbooks only, not runebooks, Necromancy, or Chivalry books) in their bankboxes may see them transferred into their backpacks, but if their backpacks are full these spellbooks will subsequently drop to the ground.

Designer_Vex (Designer - Ultima Online) 02/27/03 06:56 PM After spending quite a bit of time going over the feedback from the last thread on the subject of an Age of Shadows Launch Gift, I've made note of the following items. I've categorized them roughly by type and am offering some initial feedback based on what I've seen so far. Remember that we're still brainstorming for good gift ideas. The actual selection process is just beginning, and it's not too late to submit an idea of your own! It's very possible that I missed some ideas from the previous thread -- there was a lot of text there to read through. If I've missed your idea, please feel free to re-post it on this thread. One thing you can do to help is to not re-post an idea already listed here, and when posting an idea not on this list, keep your post small and to the point. Let's keep brainstorming! Here's what I've gotten so far: Game Design Changes Let me be honest and say right up front that we aren't going to be able to do a soulstone or a fireplace deed for the Age of Shadows gift, because these two items are already in the works for a future publish. Now here's a few more suggestions, and my thoughts below: * Runic Fletcher Tools * New Type of Steed * Home Hitching Post/Stablemaster * Gambling System * Additional Character Slot * Portable Forge * Sex Change Deed * New Choosable Title * Home Bank Access These are all really good ideas, but they do seem to be much more appropriate as game system additions or modifications to be added as part of regular content updates. These aren't really gift ideas -- they are game design ideas. By pointing that out here I'm basically saying we're probably not going to do any of these for the gift, but these are the type of the ideas we keep on our wish list when we start planning a game update. A few more suggestions, with thoughts below: * 800 Skill Cap * 250 Stat Cap * Secure Container - Extra Secure or Bank Box Storage * Boots of Speed * Blessed Bag of Sending * Necklace That Prevents You From Being Dismounted * +10 To All Resistances * Weapon Sheath * Ability To Ride Dragon * Blessed Container These items are all very similar to the previous list. The difference here is that these are much more major changes, either in terms of difficulty in implementation or in alteration of game balance, which means they are not likely as a gift in this instance. And as far as the following three ideas go, I'm afraid these just aren't doable at all. * Bring Back Power Hour * GM Robe * Name Change Deed House Add-Ons The following ideas all relate to house add-ons. Generally, we would like to avoid using a house add-on for this gift, because not everyone has a house. However, if we do end up allowing a choice between a few gifts, then one of them certainly could be a house add-on. * Bee Hive House Add-On * Mounted Dragon Head * Moongate House Add-On * Bookshelves with Books * House Pet * Special Secure Container that Commodity Deeds Work In * Mountable Head Plaque * House Design Theme Packs * New Paintings * Weapon Rack * Display Shield * House Decoration Theme Packs * Deed To Grandfather a Vendor * Tall Candelabra * Horse Barding * Saddle Dye Tubs All of the following are dye tubs of some sort. Any new dye tub would have to be carefully considered. The advantage of this gift is that anyone could use it and get benefit from it. The disadvantage is that everyone would have one. Unless, of course, we went with a choice between different gift items. * Pet Dye * Spellbook Dye * Sandal Dye * White Leather Dye * Neon Dye * Tailor BOD Reward Dye Tub * Neon Leather Dye * Black Furniture Dye Tub * White Dye Tub * Neon Leather Dye * Ingot Dye Tub * Armor Dye Repeats of Existing Gifts/Rewards These are ideas to consider as well. These all exist in some form or another, so creation of these obviouly wouldn't present any implementation difficulty. One thing we don't want to do with this gift is devalue any existing similar gifts, though. * Extra Veteran Reward * Power Scroll * Extension to Early Settler Rewards * Gold * Bless Deed (Personal) * Extra Mini-House * New Ethereal Steed * 0-Year Vet Rewards Items These ideas are items, or are things that modify other items. Some of the best candidates for this gift item are in this list. They are items that are not bound to houses and could be universally useful. Keep in mind that this isn't specifically the list of items we are considering for this gift. I'm just saying that this type of item makes a good candidate for the gift - not that it's necessarily something we will choose. * Hooded Shroud of Light * Dyeable Hooded Shroud * Special Body Sash * Skill/Stat Increase Item * Item of Clothing with Special Ability * Ability to turn Reward Cloak/Robe into Other Clothing Type * Polymorph Robe (or Other Item) * Ethereal Clothing * New Type of Mask * New Type of Cape * Armor of Shadows * Armor of Light * Clothing Item that is a Light Source * AoS Commemorative Clothing Item * Deed to Rename/Hue/Bless One Item * Emergency Bag * Magic Rune * Item Engraving Tool * Deed To Make An Item +10 to All Resists and Indestructable * Statue of your own Character * Rechargeable Fireworks Wand * Medusa Head (Makes a Statue) * Skill/Stat Increase Scroll * Statue of Some Kind * Improvement to Magic Item * Ethereal Item * +25 Stat Cap Scroll * +5 To Skill of Choice * "Shadow" Rose * Bag of Random Item Generation Mean and Vicious in a Cute Sort of Way While the following ideas do not necessarily have an in-game function, they do have usefulness by providing amusement and maybe a bit of catharsis. I'm honestly not sure of the chances of these ideas, but they're still in the running. * Head of an OSI Team Member * OSI Team Member Piñata/Training Dummy * Dev Team Member Voodoo Doll * PK The Dev Team Event Like the previous gift threads, we're asking everyone to stay on-topic! Tell us if the direction we're going works for you, or if you think we've left out some great ideas. Feel free to add your own ideas if they're not here, with a short description as to why you think it's the perfect gift. But most of all, keep it short, and please don't feel you have to post if you don't have anything to add, or if your idea is already listed. Thousand-post threads take a really long time to get through - especially if it's not new information! And lastly, please don't use this thread to debate whether we should give out a gift or not, since that part's already been decided. And so, I leave you for now with the feedback we've gleaned so far. Please keep the ideas coming! To be able to follow this post and the fevored threads ongoing, you must have registered to use UO.com boards.........CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Correct.......it seems the Gas Chamber is a great harvesting spot for the Bone you need for the BONE DAEMON Quest which is the precursor to the GUANTLET Portion.....and that is where the uber weapon and items exist.

2 more Polls have been added to the Website to help SunSword and Designer Vex Please participate and vote as well as ask your friends outside the guild to also vote in the polls. Thank you in advance and I thank you on behalf of SunSword and Designer Vex.

Designer_vex (Designer - Ultima Online) 02/25/03 01:11 PM About Gift Distribution Basically we have two ways at the moment to distribute these gifts: The Vet Rewards system, and a per-character on-login thing. Each way has some ups and downs I wanted to bring up. If we were to distribute using modifications to the Vet Reward system, that means we can allow a limited number of items per account. Doing that would allow us to select a reward that might be fairly powerful or very useful, without too many of them being created. If we give something out per character, then it's likely it would have to basically be eye candy, or its use would have to be limited to the claiming character, much like the personal bless deeds. 02/25/03 01:37 PM About The Perfect Gift Let me just talk for a moment about the design constraints we want this gift item to fill. I want to give you an idea of the thought processes of those of us here, to give you a better idea of the sort of suggestions we are more likely to go with. 1> The item must be relevant to the AoS launch, and not just to UO in general. What I mean by this is that preferably, the gift will be uniquely identifiable and easily associated with AoS. Something like a commemorative piece of clothing or jewelry, for instance. For this reason, we're going to be hesitant to consider suggestions involving existing game systems, like the home hitching post, portable forge, free power scroll, soul stone, fireplace, etc.. It would be nice if the gift weren't consumed on use, and could somehow be displayed (either on a character paperdoll or in a house, for example). 2> Preferably, there would only be one gift, or a series of similar items fitting a theme. The reson for this is that if we can focus on developing one item, or several similar items, we'll be able to create something of higher quality. If we divide our efforts into creating several different gift items to choose from, then all of them would be of lower quality. It's a classic quantity versus quality trade-off. 3> The gift should have universal appeal. Ideally, if we went with a single gift or gift theme, the items would be useful to everyone. Even if we go with a list of gifts to choose from, we are still faced with the issue of coming up with an option for everyone. The portable forge appeals only to miners, for example, and the home-based stables appeals mostly to tamers. It would be a very difficult proposition to come up with an option for every different UO playstyle, and even more difficult to make sure that each playstyle's gift option has enough appeal to everyone who might class themselves in that particular playstyle. It might be safe to say that no miner would be unhappy with a portable forge -- but what if tamers would prefer to be able to color their pets instead of having a home-based stable? The problem is exponentially difficult, and for that reason a gift that offers something everybody can use is a much better prospect.

The GUANTLET is actually part of THE BONE DAEMON QUEST........it is at the end across the boat the ghosty sends the team. HERE is what a player whos team succeeded said. The mojo weapons/items you gain.......one at least if not more will....WILL BE so great it will be beyond what would normally exist inside game engine ie Resist items of staggering defense.....or weapons of obliterating damage. (this is what you use your Personal bless deed on ehehhe)

Shrouds, Advanced Characters, and Character Name Changes Feb 26 2003 11:10AM CST (GMT -06:00) While some players are having the time of their life with Age of Shadows customizing their homes, exploring Malas, and raising the dead, others have run into snags that require the help of our in-game support to resolve before they can continue to play. We have the staff to solve these problems, but as anyone who has submitted an in-game HELP request recently knows, our in-game support staff is currently stretched to their limit, due to a combination of the influx of new players and the recent server instability, which our development team has been working around the clock to resolve. We want to address every issue for every player, but we're seeing two major problems: (1) The number of calls is currently greater than the number our staff can take and (2) Every time we see a shard revert of any duration due to the server instability, we have to take care of many of the calls all over again, which is causing some people to have to call in for the same issues more than once. With this in mind, we're enacting a temporary change to help reduce the Help queues down to more manageable levels. Of our current top call generators, those which have the least immediate impact on a player's enjoyment of the game are Hooded Shrouds of Shadows recovery, Advanced Character creation, and Character Name Changes — all of which require assistance from Game Masters. Please understand we don't think these services are unimportant, but our top concern is ensuring that people can log in and play the game, which puts the "blackholing" issue and any other "stuck" problems at the top of the list for support calls. If you're eligible for the Shroud and have not yet claimed it, you can still enter your Hooded Shroud of Shadows Redemption Code manually and redeem your code through the help menu, and any Advanced Characters or Character Name Changes already paid for will still be addressed. The change is this: If you lose your Shroud due to a time warp or want to purchase an Advanced Character or Character Name Change, you will be asked to wait until our Help queue is under control and all game-stopping and time-sensitive issues have been addressed. For anyone concerned about not getting a Shroud replaced before the previously stated deadline of March 31st, GMs will continue helping recover Shrouds lost to shard issues beyond the normal deadline to ensure that no one misses out on getting their shroud. Again, these are not permanent changes. The goal here is simply to resolve the most serious issues in a reasonable period of time. We appreciate your patience and understanding and plan to resume full services as soon as conditions permit.