MALAS SHREDDED PICTURE MESSAGE CONTEST
Tod the Sentry was called over to the Infirmary by Hillard and Reese, vendors that work for the good Dr Codene. The two explained to Tod that they had heard a loud roar early that morning and when they went out to investigate they found the remains of a courier pigeon and some shredded pieces of a picture. Tod looked about the area they found the bird and he noticed also some familiar tracks....tracks he had not seen in a couple months. Giant paw prints.
Gathering the pieces of the picture he returned to his post and as he did he saw Colin Mor tending his grape vines at the Port Authority. Handing over the pieces to Colin the two agreed that the courier pigeon must have been the good Dr's and that the picture must be a message he tried to send home to the Empire.
I rescue party was sent through a secred quicksand vortex but no one had yet heard from them as they were trying to rescue Dr Codene and Anfalas from the Army of the Sands who had successfully found thier Books of the Dead. These books were secrets to the art of Necromancy and other aspects of the Dark Arts.
Colin Mor sought permission to ask the realm for assistance in piecing the picture back together and was granted to do so. A special gift from the Empire will be the reward to the first citizen to post the repaired picture on his request for assistance on the board found HERE...The ULTIMA ONLINE ROLEPLAY BOARD
This is the largest piece that survived the shredding...
and these are the pile of pieces....
I am sure the Emperor will reward the one who succeeds first well.....good luck citizens.
NOTE: To post your entry or version of this completed puzzle you must have access to the UO.com Boards...... CLICK HERE if you never have used UO.com Boards before.
May the GODS Favor your minds eye...
Colin Mor
Members of The Honor Empire OPS Team or COUNCIL of HONOR are not eligible to enter this contest.
Posted by Borg
Sunday, January 19, 2003 1:34 AM EST
Shardic Contest-Archery Challenge sponsored by PGoH Rangers
Posted by Borg
Saturday, January 18, 2003 9:22 PM EST
Age of Shadows FAQ schtuffs
AoS Pre-ordering and Timetable FAQ
Q)I've read about promotions for a Mini House collectible, a Bless Deed, and a Hooded Shroud of Shadows. Are all of these the same promotion, or are they separate?
A)The Mini House collectible and the Bless Deed are part of the same promotion, and will be given to all players who upgrade to Age of Shadows within the first 18 days after Age of Shadows is live on their shard.
Q)The Hooded Shroud of Shadows is a separate promotion being run in conjunction with several notable retailers, including GameStop.com, Electronics Boutique, EB Games Online, the EA Store (store.ea.com) and Amazon.com.
Will I be able to order this from anyone who ships to areas outside the US?
A)Yes - Amazon.com does ship outside the United States. Anyone outside US should order throuogh The Honor Empire website!!! Colin Mor
Q)Tell me more about this Hooded Shroud of Shadows! Is it only for the 3D client?
A)The shroud is a dark hooded ghost robe given in-game. It cannot be dyed, broken, damaged or cut, and will be blessed, which means it cannot be stolen from the top level of your backpack and will not drop into your corpse upon death. The shroud will be available for both 2D and 3D game clients.
Q)How do I get the Hooded Shroud?
A)You'll be able to get the shroud by pre-ordering Age of Shadows from GameStop.com, Electronics Boutique, EB Games Online, the EA Store (store.ea.com), or Amazon.com (through The Honor Empire website!!!! Colin Mor) Only one shroud will be given out per UO: AoS purchase.
Q)Can I get it if I order from a retail store instead of online?
A)Yes! Players who buy AoS online through a participating retailer should receive an e-mail confirming the shipment of the game. This shipment confirmation e-mail will include a note with both a special Web page address and a Hooded Shroud of Shadows one-use validation code.
Players who order in person at the retail locations of these stores should be given a special sticker upon picking up a pre-ordered UO:AoS. This sticker will include a note with both a special Web page address and a Hooded Shroud of Shadows one-use validation code.
IMPORTANT: If picking up your game in person, you must make sure you receive and save this promotional sticker! Without this sticker you will not be able to receive your Hooded Shroud of Shadows - no exceptions!
Q)How will I actually get this shroud once I pre-order and get my confirmation code?
A)Once you have the validation code, you'll go to the web page address listed with the code, where you can either activate a new account or upgrade your existing account to UO:AoS status. After registering for UO:AoS, enter into the game on the specific shard and with the specific character that you wish to receive the shroud. (Note: although you will be able to exchange these shrouds between characters, they cannot be transferred across shards.) Use the Help system to page a Game Master (GM) with the phrase "Hooded Shroud of Shadows Redemption Code." The GM will confirm your code and award you the Hooded Shroud of Shadows.
Q)When do I have to request my Hooded Shroud?
A)If you have the code to get the Hooded Shroud of Shadows, you must claim your shroud prior to Monday, March 31, at 11:59pm CT, regardless of what shard or region the shroud is being claimed in. After this deadline, all Hooded Shroud of Shadows redemption codes will no longer be valid, and no further shrouds may be claimed.
Q)How many shrouds can I get per account?
A)Only one shroud will be given per AoS purchase, and only one shroud will be handed out per account (so if you buy two copies of AoS in order to get two shrouds, you'll need to be sure to collect them on two different accounts).
Q)Can I get it on Siege Perilous?
A)Yes, the Mini Houses, the Bless Deeds, and the Shroud of Shadows will all be available on the Siege ruleset shards. (And before you ask -- we don't have all the info yet on exactly what features in AoS will be implemented on the Siege shards. It's in heavy discussion, though, and we'll make our decisions public as soon as we can!)
Q)So about that other promotion. the website said we'd get a "Blessed Deed." Is that the same thing as an Item Bless deed?
A)Yes, these are Item Bless Deeds - although they'll work a little differently than the ones you may have seen in UO in the past. These Bless Deeds will not be transferable, and items will only stay blessed for the original character who got the deed. Once the deed has been used, it will disappear - so use it wisely!
Q)If every character gets an Item Bless Deed, won't that flood the market?
A)We don't feel that will be the case at all! Since you can't trade these, it won't be possible for anyone to collect and hoard hundreds of them, and since they're only good for the original character who receives it, it won't be advantageous for people to create new characters on shards they don't play to get them. A blessed item can be a fabulous thing on your main character, but it won't do you much good on a character you don't play.
Q)Tell me more about these Mini Houses!
A)The Miniature House Collectibles will be just what they sound like - little tiny versions of UO houses! They'll appear in the backpacks of all eligible UO:AoS characters. The styles of the Miniature House Collectible are based upon all the current "classic" style of UO houses, and the style each character gets will be random. The Miniature House Collectible is blessed, and may be locked down within one's house or transferred between characters, if desired.
Q)So there will be tons of Mini Houses out there in the game world after Age of Shadows?
A)Yes, but not all designs will be common! Think of them like trading cards. There are millions of trading cards out there in the world, but very few of the special foil-lined uber cards - and those stay extremely valuable. So while some Mini House designs will appear frequently, others will be much tougher to get. For example, a given single-room mini-house designs may appear more often that the rarer castle mini-house.
Q)If I live in an area outside the US, can I still participate in getting this Bless Deed and the Mini House collectible?
A)Yes! Be sure to check out the post we posted in FYI last week on this very issue at http://www.uo.com/cgi-bin/newstools.pl?Article=7049.
Q)Will I get the Mini House and the Bless Deed, or is it one or the other? And is it per character, or per account?
A)You'll receive one Mini House and one Bless Deed for each character you log into UO during this promotional period. (The promotion ends in North America on Feb. 28, 2003. For more information on promotional periods outside the US, keep checking http://www.uo.com/ageofshadows.)
Q)Is this like the Veteran Rewards System, where my account needs to be a certain age before I'm eligible? Or is this like the Holiday gift system, where my character needs to be at least 30 days old?
A)Neither -- there is no account age or character age limit on these promotions. Whether you buy AoS and start a new account or whether you upgrade your current account, all of your characters, new and old, are eligible to take part in these offers throughout the promotional period.
Q)How long will we have to get the Mini Houses and the Item Bless Deeds?
A)These items will only be available for a limited time on each shard! The promotional period will start on the day the shard first goes live with the new AoS code, and will continue for 18 days after that.
Q)When will the AoS code go live? Won't it already be live when I buy the expansion?
A)Before the new content in Age of Shadows can actually work, we'll need to publish some extra code to the shards. That publish will go onto the shards as the game becomes available for purchase in each territory. In other words, the North American shards, including Siege, will get this publish once Age of Shadows has hit the shelves in North America and Canada. The European shards will get this publish later to coincide with the European AoS release date. The Asian shards (including Oceania, which is considered to be part of the South Asia-Pacific territory) will get this publish to coincide with their release dates as well.
Q)Any news on the exact release dates for different territories?
A)Our current estimates have all of the territories getting Age of Shadows within the month of February. But there are still a few issues to finish working out, so keep an eye on http://www.uo.com/ageofshadows for the definite dates!
Q)Okay, now for the big question - what about housing space in Malas? When will that be opened to new houses?
A)Be sure to read the question above about the AoS code going live! Part of the publish with Age of Shadows will be to added the ability for AoS users to enter and place a house in Malas. Once the publish is live on your particular shard, houses will be able to be placed in Malas - provided you have an AoS upgraded account.
Q)So if I pre-order the game and have it shipped to me, does that mean I may not be able to get into Malas and place a house right away?
A)Yes, that's possible, but we really don't think this will be a problem, for several reasons.
One - There's a LOT of housing space in Malas. Really.
Two - Many people will be pre-ordering (our numbers are high already). You will by no means be the only one who's waiting for a shipment after the first day.
Three - February 11th is the day that it ships from EA, meaning that many retailers won't have it on their shelves until the 12th anyway.
Four - One house per account means that people won't be snapping up new housing spots unless they're either homeless or willing to give up a pre-existing house, which means new space will be opening up elsewhere as well.
Five - Phase 3 of the Housing Decay changes should be active soon, which (in case you haven't read about it) means that houses on inactive accounts will be decaying as well, opening up quite a few housing spots as well in the current lands.
Six - There's a LOT of housing space in Malas! 
__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems
with lil notes from Colin Mor!!!
Posted by Borg
Monday, January 13, 2003 6:42 PM EST
SURVIVAL ISLAND CONTEST
It was a typical Monday......full of meetings and recaps, reports and reviews followed by more meetings reviews, reports and recaps (we all love catchup mondays after holiday weeks)
The UO Team was assembled for a welcome back meeting and adjenda session and as the meeting progressed, no one took note of the temp who was keeping the mugs of java, jolt, juice, water and jack filled. No one especially noted the sparkle the morning drinks all had for a moment after he filled them. As the meeting began to wind down the temp, an older fellow, placed down his pitchers and trays and gathered his things. As the man prepared to leave he stood a moment politely and looked about the room a buzz with energy as topics were laid out and the team covered its issues. His work was now done and in place for he could already see the magical addition to thier drink had begun to work.
Unseen to the untrained eye there was a faint sparkle in the breath of all the UO Team....floating up as if the room had chilled and thier words now wrote upon the air itself. As the old man reached for the door he heard a team member wish him well and thanks for the black gold java and that he would see him tomorrow.
"Your quite welcome M'lord....."; answered the old man with a nod as he picked up his odd walking stick and tossed his dark coverings over his arm.
"....perhaps tomorrow.....perhaps not.....An Por"; finished the old man quietly to himself as he left the room.
In the center of the table was a bowl of peculiar ice and as the room filled with the enchanted energy and unseen sparkling air from the Teams work itself...........the magic had filled the room and now a sparkle began to form in a small vortex from the bowl of peculiar ice on the table. One by one the team took notice as the room quieted a bit and the air began to reveal the magical air and the sparkling vortex began to grow. A few of the Team stood and a couple bolted for the doors, only to find them magically locked. Oddly even the sleeping member of the team raised thier head and thier eyes wided to see the vortex nearly filling the room itself now. The room itself now filled with a rush of wind as papers and projects began to scatter. Team members clung to anything they could but one by one they began to be pulled into the vortex!!!
They were gone.
Thier work scattered around the room.......only one parchment seemed in its place of design.
It was a Map with the title
"Survival Island"
"Where Work is Play and Bosses are Banned"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Survival Island is a bit of fun to roll up to the release of Age of Shadows. It will incompass 2 parts........one a POLL where YOU the UO players will VOTE a team member off the island. It is a magical island where ones power of creativity and imagination are exponentially enhanced and the evil of the Time Boss is not........on this island the Dev Team members will have saftey from any form of evil bugs, bothers or bosses.......where work is play and you can help keep them safe from the tyranical bosses timeclock crunch.
If voted off the island......the Team member will magically return to his/her/its workstation but will no longer be on the Island with its wonderful tranquility and equally capable workstation that thier normal duties can be done from.
That is part one...........
Part Two is that I will be ingame Saturday and Sunday (Catskills UO) from 11pm to 2am to accept your prediction of WHO will be the last Team member left on SURVIVAL ISLAND.
Entry will be in the form of a blue book from provisioners with name of Dev team that you believe will win and your UO.com Board Poster name),...hand me the book with your One entry per UO.com Board name.
I will be at the Port Authority near Olympus Castle in Trammel, just North of Trinsic across Burgouse Bay.
If you are correct then you and all those with the same correct selection will then be placed in a dice cup roll for winning a FREE COPY OF Age of Shadows Preorder version.
The Dev Team that is the last remaining survivor will win a FOOD of the GODS Dinner, served to them in Austin TX.....right to their workstation or office.
(Dev Team knows what food that is.....muhahahah)
If you need to make a UO.com Namesake.....CLICK HERE to register!)
Who is the UO Team?
Adrick
An active player of Ultima Online since August of 1997, Adrick's focus as a designer in Ultima Online revolves around combat systems (PvP and PvM), guilds, factions, reputation, and player interactions and reputation (non-consensual PVP).
Alai
Alai has worked on all aspects of MMORPGs at some point or another, including (but not limited to) map building, customer support, art, sound, animation, writing, design, and programming. Over the years, he has managed to claw his way up the management ladder to Lead Client Programmer for Ultima Online where he's coordinating efforts to improve the quality of the client in all ways possible. He prefers the green M&Ms.
Augur
Augur is a designer on the Ongoing Content team, responsible for creating everything from new monster and item additions, to devious puzzles and expansions to the Britannian geography. When not delving into the codebase of Ultima Online, he enjoys daydreaming about delving into the codebase of Ultima Online. You may have also seen him in such roles as "Dirty Hippy #2" in Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot! and "Topo, the Monkey Boy", in Circus Maniacs 2.
BIGtiny
Being the manager of the UO bug exterminators, BIGtiny's job is to make sure that bugs are quickly removed from UO society. Usually under the cover of darkness and with as few witnesses as possible. BIGtiny could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman said, "We have nothing against bugs; in fact, I have an ant farm at home. But when bugs enter the world of Britannia, they cross the line and must be dealt with... severely."
BulldoZ
After bodly catapulting the old UO pixels into the third dimension and working tirelessly to help track down the cause of crashes in Third Dawn, BulldoZ finally achieved the ultimate dream of all programmers and now spends his days on an obscure research project where he has nothing to do but think, eat and drink. In his spare time, he dreams of digital organic lifeforms.
Calandryll
Calandryll, a designer at Origin Systems, holds the esteemed title of the OSI employee most often blown up, killed or otherwise maimed in fan-produced flash movies. Calandryll got his start at OSI in the Community Relations department and later moved over to development on the UO Live Team. Currently he spends his time in a dark, locked, secret room working in shrouded mystery.
Cynthe
Since 1998, Cynthe has held six different positions at OSI, including Game Designer, Community Coordinator, and Web Content Supervisor. She is now Ultima Online's Manager of Community Services, but leaves much of the delicate community work to her fantastically capable OCR team: Kerowyn, Greywolfe and Sannio. Her greatest joys include showing off pictures of her son, and busily writing "State of the Boards" addresses that are too long for anyone to actually read.
Evocare
A long-time Ultima Online player and virtual world enthusiast, Evocare is Lead Designer for Ultima Online. His responsibilities include managing a design team in such a way that the designers retain their sanity, determining which game features the design team works on, and giving the final "yay" or "nay" to said designs. In theory, this is all done to develop the most fun path to the cheese. Over time, he has developed his skill in claiming all credit for success while passing all responsibility for failure on to the Producer (much to Tajima's surprise).
Fertbert
Fertbert, a server programmer, has most recently been working on the server-side changes to combat and magic item properties. He is new to the gaming industry, but has been an avid gamer for twenty years, and has ten years of client and server side programming experience. On Fridays, he tries to avoid being eaten alive by his ferrets; they've been known to over-run his office, dance on his keyboards, and nip at his ankles.
FierY iCe
FierY iCe is a Programmer on Ultima Online, and works on all kinds of systems from server maintenance to monster tweaks to combat fixes, and anything that needs to be done. Previously working as a Designer, he still tries to help them out whenever they have Programming needs. His favorite things to work on are monsters and loot. He also gets a kick out of logging cheaters.
Greyburn
When asked about the myriad of intricate and sophisticated tasks on the plate of a UO client programmer, Greyburn describes his duties and himself eloquently as, "Client. Code. Bug squishin', party improvin', little talkin' mofo' with a lead foot and a cheap rental. Er, bugs an' clients an' stuff. And code. It's all about the code. Yup."
Greywolfe
Greywolfe, UO's Online Community Coordinator, spends a great deal of time on the MyUO Message Boards. After a busy day reading and responding to hundreds of posts and emails and attending various meetings, the 'wolfe likes to play UO while enjoying a strong cup of Sumatra coffee, write a little horror fiction, or attend various dog-type functions with the infamous Toy Fox Terrier "Kajun-Fox Beausoleil." Greywolfe has been known to comment that if only coffee and Beau were in the game, all would truly be well with the world.
Gromm
Gromm is a member of the Ongoing Content team and has adopted the duty of Fiction Poobah. When not trying to think of new and interesting ways of spreading waves of mass destruction across the world of Britannia that leave nothing but blood, ash and suffering in their trail, Gromm enjoys spending time with his kitten. Although he enjoys working on UO tremendously, the position is only temporary until he returns to his homeworld of Gritt'hhhya''sfvvv'''eee to continue genetically installing thumbs on other races in the galaxy.
Hanse
Hanse is a UO designer and bug fixer extraordinaire. When he's not eradicating bugs with a vengeance, he's busily creating new content for systems such as creature spawn locations/amounts, bulk order deeds, magic spells, map changes, decorator tools, monster enhancements, and many others. Hanse likes to stare at orange juice containers because they say 'concentrate'.
Helios
Currently, UO Designer Helios is deftly working on the New Player Experience / New Player Retention initiatives and design-side localization stuffs. Of course, he also works to keep his sanity while sharing an office with Hanse, Vex and Adrick every day, which is a job all on its own. :-)
Jalek
When not bringing in donuts for the entire team, Jalek spends his time sitting in the dark void he calls his office, shunning the sunlight and hissing at passers-by while working on mysterious and complex background programming tasks.
Kerowyn
Kerowyn is the Online Content Editor and current reigning "Miss Tackiest Office Color 2002". When not stalking her co-workers for their Team Comments, she spends her time communicating with the fansites, arranging chats and interviews, posting web updates, and completing various other miscellaneous writing/editing tasks.
Krum
After leading the programming effort behind Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, Krum volunteered to take a break from actual game development and courageously took on the arduous task of developing an automated testing environment for our quality assurance staff, which will provide the team the ability to release a higher quality product in less time.
MrTact
MrTact is the lead server programmer for UO, after moving over earlier this year from QA Engineering. He is notorious for fearlessly asking EA executives pointed questions during company-wide meetings, yet still somehow retaining his job.
Oaks
As a designer for Ultima Online, Oaks works on a variety of systems ranging from world-building to spell effects, and has recently tackled things like improving the new player experience and leveling the playing field in regards to the taming profession. He is easily identifiable by his vampire-like skin and brightly-colored Hawaiian shirts; testament to his long hours of game playing and programming. His online alias, Oaks, originates from a favorite pen-and-paper RPG character best known for his non sequitur dialog and insatiable battle hunger.
Sannio
Sannio is Ultima Online's "Online Content Coordinator," which is simply a more professional way of saying he's the company's official "Town Cryer." As the main researcher for the OCR department, it's his job to sort through all the myriad bits of paperwork, e-mails, scraps of notes, and back-alley conversations that relate to UO, and somehow present it to the players in such a way that the company doesn't realize valuable gaming information is being given away for free.
Stellerex
Previously a Senior Producer for Ultima Online Live and MVP of the year for 2000 at OSI, Stellerex now works behind the scenes, ensuring a bigger and better future for UO. He is an avid player of almost every type of game, and a chess fanatic.
Stormwind
Stormwind is the Director of Technology for UO. When he's not evaluating libraries and technologies for use in UO products, he's forcing the programmers to follow coding standards and write technical design documentation. Stormwind has been around since before the public beta of UO, forcing letters and numbers to line up and stand at attention on the screen to make the servers work better. He also serves as a backup programmer as needed.
SunSword
SunSword has returned to OSI as the Producer of Ultima Online, which means he manages both the "Live" service as well as the Age of Shadows expansion. He was formerly Lead Designer of Ultima Online and most recently Lead Systems Designer on Star Wars Galaxies. SunSword spends most of his spare time wondering where all his spare time went.
Tajima
Formerly the Senior Producer for the UO "Live" team, Tajima is now the Director of Studio Operations for Origin Systems. His day-day duties include coordinating the efforts of OSI's various departments with those of EA.com to ensure that Ultima Online runs as smoothly as possible, while also evaluating new markets and opportunities for the Ultima franchise. In what little spare time he can scrape up, he plays as many games as possible, rides his mountain bike, flies stunt kites, trains his dogs, and can occasionally be found in the company gym trying in vain to look like the athletes in the Bowflex commercials.
Usul
Being one of UO's Lead bug exterminators, Usul's job is to make sure our QA group is using the latest and deadliest insecticides. Many of these insecticides are potentially harmful to the environment, and sometimes downright illegal; so his duties also include keeping the EPA and left wing environmental groups off our backs. Hey, you may not like carcinogenic chemicals in your food, but at least your dinner plate won't be garnished with a cockroach.
Vex
Vex, a designer on UO Live, started programming 8-bit home computers at age 11, and later built a map editor for Ultima IV on his Atari 800XL using a BASIC compiler. In school and for a while afterwards, he played bass (the guitar, not the fish) in an alternative rock band before eventually moving into database and Web development. Vex started playing UO with the release of T2A, and began working for Origin shortly after the release of Renaissance. In addition to systems design, he also programs, fixes bugs, and does world building and testing.
WindRider
WindRider is the senior artist on the Team. WindRider is responsible for giving life to the art, the creatures, and buttons you click on. When WindRider is not pushing pixels around for new menu screens, he is teaching the creatures how to walk, run and eat in the creature aerobics class.
Posted by Borg
Tuesday, January 7, 2003 6:12 AM EST
Stratics News AoS Note
From the STRATICS NEWS section......On the MyUO Discussion Boards, SunSword (Producer, UO Live) posted answers to a number of questions on Age of Shadows (AoS).
Q: First off will AOS be in 2d or 3d? .
A: Both clients will be available with AoS.
Q: Secondly will the hooded robe of shadows be hooded in both clients or just 3d?
A: Both.
Q: How will the people know who pre-ordered from the eb games web site to get the hooded robe of shadows?
A: Details about how this works are coming next week when everyone is in the office, but as I understand it, you will be sent a code along with your shipping confirmation that you can then use to get your robe. Again, I know there are lots of questions about this, so there will be more specific information provided soon.
Q: Well hooded robes if in 2d be craftable considering that some people can't pre-order or just forgot to?
A: No. It's an incentive to pre-order :).
Q: When do you think you will be updating the AOS web site?
A: Next week.
Q: Well this is all I can think of. Thanks for looking and please reply dev. Team
A: I didn't answer all of them, but some of the regulars here already handled most of 'em :).
--
SunSword
Producer, Ultima Online
(Note: Although some the OSI boards allow any visitor to read, in order to read or post in most of the official Ultima Online message boards you'll need to be logged into the forums. Don't have an account, yet? CLICK HERE to register!)
Posted by Borg
Saturday, January 4, 2003 12:00 AM EST