UO: Third Dawn Alpha/Beta Tester Map Offer
As previously stated, UO: Third Dawn Alpha and Beta testers who do not wish to participate in the full upgrade offer will be given the opportunity to order the Ilshenar and cloth maps for $5.95, with shipping and handling paid by Origin Systems. Due to processing issues, this offer will be available within a couple weeks. We will post additional information prior to making this offer available.
Posted by Balandar
Tuesday, March 27, 2001 6:22 PM EST
UO: Third Dawn Upgrade Site Open
The Ultima Online: Third Dawn upgrade offer site is now open at http://www.uo.com/upgrade.html. This promotion will last for 60 days, during which current UO customers with active accounts will be able to order this special upgrade for a price of $9.95 plus shipping and handling. The promotional upgrade version of Ultima Online: Third Dawn includes the final gold-mastered version of Third Dawn, the new retail version map of Britannia, the Lost Lands, and Ilshenar, and while supplies last - as a special bonus - we’ll include a collector’s edition cloth map of Britannia and the Lost Lands. This upgrade CD does not include a registration code and therefore cannot be used to create a new account nor qualify for new account free game time.
Stop by and order your copy today!
Posted by Balandar
Tuesday, March 27, 2001 6:21 PM EST
Upgrading to Ultima Online: Third Dawn
Due to unexpected issues, the Ultima Online: Third Dawn upgrade site will be launching at approximately 12:00 pm (Noon) CST, March 27. We will make public the upgrade site address shortly before the site goes live.
This promotion will last for 60 days, during which current UO customers with active accounts will be able to order this special upgrade for a price of $9.95 plus shipping and handling. The promotional upgrade version of Ultima Online: Third Dawn includes the final gold-mastered version of Third Dawn, the new retail version map of Britannia, the Lost Lands, and Ilshenar, and while supplies last - as a special bonus - we’ll include a collector’s edition cloth map of Britannia and the Lost Lands. This upgrade CD does not include a registration code and therefore cannot be used to create a new account nor qualify for new account free game time. Alpha and beta testers who do not wish to participate in the upgrade offer will be given the opportunity to order the Ilshenar and cloth maps for $5.95, with shipping and handling paid by Origin Systems.
We look forward to seeing everyone in this newest incarnation of Britannia.
Posted by Balandar
Monday, March 26, 2001 6:58 PM EST
Ultima Online 2 Cancelled
From Stratics:
Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of OWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating OWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online's 230,000 loyal subscribers. In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn, players will see new lands, new creatures, and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.
Posted by Balandar
Wednesday, March 21, 2001 3:12 PM EST
Client Patch 3.0.0
We are currently releasing client patch 3.0.0. This patch synchronizes version numbers for the client in preparation for the release of Third Dawn.
Please note: Once you have received this patch, you must completely shut down and restart your Ultima Online client before you will be able to reconnect to the game.
If you have any difficulty receiving this patch, please check the following:
--Check the "Patch" directory within your Ultima Online directory (the default location is C:\\Program Files\Ultima Online\Patch). This directory should be empty. Any files in this directory should be deleted.
--If you are unable to connect to the patch server at all, and are using an original (Non-T2A) version of Ultima Online, you may need to update your verinfo file. For details on updating this file, please see the information posted at http://support.uo.com/tech_6.html.
--Run a virus scan on your computer.
If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please contact Technical Support at tech at uo.com.
Posted by Balandar
Tuesday, March 20, 2001 5:58 PM EST
More Detailed information on Vendors and Gold
James Wife of Napa Valley sent me this regarding the previous news post on vendors
Dear Xena
Thanks for the vendor post, but there was a mis-statement in the post about Player-operated vendors...It is true that when you say vendor gold now to collect your profits, the vendor places a check for all the money he can give you in your main backpack. If you have not personally dropped gold coins on his head recently, he will be UNPAID and will decay in his next refresh period (every 5 minutes the vendors take a portion of the money in reserve and send it home to their families in the country to support them)
Here is the new change: When a vendor runs out of support money now, they dissapear--vanish, with no body, no backpack containing your wares, and most importantly, no death scream. They just dissapear. This has been confirmed and replicated by me and one other friend of mine on a different account. I lost over a million in goods in the time it takes to recall to a bank and back. Therefore, I would advise-Do not wait to hand your vendor gold until after he has given you the check. Give him gold BEFORE you say "William Gold please" and then then retrieve your own pay. Just like in real life, employees should be paid before the owner sees any of the profits. Also, If any of you are missing the old statement our vendors used to give us about how many days they would serve you (I hate doing the math myself,) open your journal before you request information. Apparently, They still report this precious tidbit of info, but they report it first and since one can only say 3 lines at a time, the # of days worth of reserve pay that the vendors have on them gets pushed off your screen by the other 3 statements-- Gold available, gold in reserve (salary) and cost per UO day (which by the way lasts 2 real life hours.)
Various other readers also informed me of the fact that a Vendor has in fact two wallets, one that holds the money you pay him and one that holds the money from sold goods to other players. If there is money in the first wallet then the vendor will use that to maintain itself. As long as you keep the first wallet filled you are not in any danger, and you can collect money from the "sold goods" wallet without having to fear he will be gone some day.
Some believe that once the first wallet is empty, the vendor will instantly disappear, others believe that the vendor will start taking money from the "sold goods" wallet like they used to do long before bank checks even existed. In any case, if the vendor's first wallet is empty, chances of his sudden departure have increased dramatically. As James suggests, it's safest to pay him first and collect the gold later. And of course check your vendor's status frequently by asking...
I hope this clears up some of the confusion about vendors and their gold.
From stratics.
Posted by Balandar
Saturday, March 17, 2001 12:29 PM EST
Vendor Owners Pay Attention Please
This was posted on our Trade Forum by dasmart:
An issue with vendors has come to light that can be absolutely devastating.
The recent patch rollouts have changed the way in which gold is retrieved from a vendor. Basically, you now get a check for all the gold the vendor is carrying rather than just the max amount of gold you can carry at the time.
That's the problem: you get ALL the gold the vendor has, including the gold it needs for its own support! This means you get a check, dump it in the bank, log out, and the next day you find the vendor gone and all the items you placed on it for sale looted by other players when the vendor decayed minutes or hours after you left.
This may or may not be a bug but the way to handle it, I believe, is to carry some gold coin with you when you go to check your vendors. Retrieve your vendor's gold (automatically in check form..you can't change this), drop the gold coin on your vendor to maintain it, THEN restock your vendor with goods and use the Status command to confirm how long the vendor has before decaying (based on the prices of the goods you just restocked it with).
Thanks for the warning. I sure hope all vendor owners will take heed and pay their vendor with gold coins after retrieving the check for all gold from it. Here is how vendors deal with giving their owner money.
Player-owned vendors will be able to give the gold they are holding to their owners in bank check form if the amount is between 4999 gold and 1 million gold. If the gold amount being held for the player by the vendor is between 4999 and 1 million gold, the vendor will hand this to the owner in the form of a bank check (as long as the vendor is actually carrying this amount). If the amount is less equal to or less then 4999 gold then the vendor will hand the owner the amount in gold form. If the gold held by the vendor is more than 1 million gold, the vendor will retain the amount over 1 million gold until the next request for gold is made by the player.
From Stratics.
Posted by Balandar
Friday, March 16, 2001 1:52 PM EST
Ultima Online Publish Information
Greetings!
We wanted to let you know that we'll be starting to publish some of the updates necessary for Ultima Online: Third Dawn this weekend on Sunday, March 4th. We'll be publishing the changes to the Chesapeake shard only this weekend, and will announce a schedule for the remaining shards on our website at http://www.uo.com next week.
Changes in this publish include:
· The addition of the Ilshenar land mass
· Taxidermy kits
· Hair Stylist NPCs
· Item Identification changes
· Good creatures vs. karma
· Player-owned vendor changes
· And several additional updates and fixes listed at http://update.uo.com/next.hmtl.
Please note: as this publish includes a major number of changes necessary for Ultima Online: Third Dawn, including the addition of the Ilshenar land mass, the Chesapeake shard maintenance period will last approximately 6 hours on Sunday.
Important: While this publish will activate the Ilshenar lands on the Chesapeake shard, the Ultima Online: Third Dawn client is still in beta testing stages. Please keep this in mind before traveling to Ilshenar with any of your established characters. You will be unable to access the Ilshenar lands without the Third Dawn beta client.
We will be closely monitoring the Chesapeake shard in case any issues arise.
The Ultima Online Team
Posted by Balandar
Saturday, March 10, 2001 12:00 AM EST