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| The Age of Shadows launch has obviously been a hectic one. I’ve put together this State of the Service address to give you an idea of how we got here, what’s currently going on, and what the near future will bring. Our Online Community Relations team has been posting on individual items, so I may not cover everything explicitly but I do want you to know that we are working to fix things as quickly as possible. The UO team knew that the AoS expansion was going to be a big one from very the beginning. The feature set was well received and everyone was really excited about the possibilities. What we didn’t know is how big it was going to be! We planned for increased memory usage on the hardware, and we upgraded almost all of our servers to their physical maximum for memory. We spent a lot of time upgrading the housing database and server applications to be able to handle the higher load. But it wasn’t until the weeks before launch that the real implication of this expansion’s success began to come to light – and even in the last week before launch, our numbers rose significantly higher. Our pre-orders soared to company record levels. We looked at our capacity for handling logins and registration, and felt that, while stressed, it should be able to handle the load. As it turns out, we were wrong. It took us 2 or 3 days of working 24/7 to iron out all the capacity issues regarding registering and logging in after our North America launch. We built up the login servers beyond their normal maximum capacity, and for the next 4 or 5 days the login servers were slow, but many players were definitely getting through. I personally spent several hours touring different shards and checking out some of the customized houses. Despite all the upgrading we’ve done, the launch of AoS in Japan has once again put us beyond our max capacity for the login servers, and we found some new bugs in the system that were not revealed until we hit such high usage. We’re still working on the problem, and we also expect the peak usage to drop off over the next few days. Beyond the log-in servers, our biggest priority right now is shard stability. As our shards hit their peak loads, we found a problem with our shard memory usage, which can cause a server to become unstable after a few hours and then restart. We have partially addressed that problem already, and now the servers are quite a bit more stable, but we still have one major memory problem that we are trying to solve. We’ve isolated the area where the problem occurs, and are working right now to fix it. Again, these problems are related to the load exceeding our forecast, which is both a blessing and a curse. We’re also fully aware that the memory issues on the shards are more than just an inconvenience – they’re also causing some people to have major problems getting through the long wait time in the GM queue. We’re working on this in two ways – one, we’re fixing the memory issues at the core of the problem. And two, we’re working on two of the biggest call generators right now, which are “black holes” (see below) and issues with the Hooded Shroud of Shadows. I understand that it is frustrating to wait in the GM queue for several hours, only to get kicked out when a server goes down. Again, stability is our top priority and we will fix this as soon as possible. Next in line to the shard stability problem are “black holes” as they’ve been nicknamed. A “black hole” occurs when the server crosses a threshold of network traffic being sent to the client, usually related to a large number of items in the area. The player gets disconnected and when they try to reconnect, the same problem occurs. The result is that the player is stuck. Fertbert, one of our server programmers, is working on this problem full time (he managed the Japan launch yesterday). We have a temporary solution in the works that will “telestorm” any player that gets stuck in a black hole, but this is not a permanent fix and we’re still working on it. There are definitely other issues that we are working to fix, especially those related to housing and vendors, but that’s not the point of this message. I want to make it clear that we are listening to you and paying attention. We have been working literally 24/7 for a few weeks on the game and will continue to do so until we have these primary issues resolved. We’ve said many times that the beauty of an online game is that we can continue to grow, and that’s what Age of Shadows will do for UO. Granted, there are bugs, and we’re fixing them. We’ve experienced problems keeping up with the traffic that’s hitting us right now, but these problems are temporary. I know many of you are already playing and enjoying the new expansion, and our goal is to get all of you to that point. We won’t rest until then. After that, we are going to get back to the nitty-gritty of fixing long standing issues, and adding features iteratively for a while. I think the pattern of seeing nothing for a few months and then having a huge change dropped on the game is going to go away for a while. We’re going to be asking you what you want, talking to you about it, and then giving it to you. But that’s a little ways off. For now, we’re committed to Age of Shadows, and we’re working to make sure every one of you gets a chance to experience it its full glory for themselves. Thanks for your time; I’m sure you have many additional questions and comments. Anthony "SunSword" Castoro Producer, Ultima Online CLICK HERE to see other comments on the official UO.com boards
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| 'Ultima Online' hacker arrested over 'house' sale Yomiuri Shimbun The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of illegally accessing an Internet game server to sell a virtual "house" owned by a woman to another game participant for 50,000 yen, police said Thursday. According to the MPD, Ryusei Sakano of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, posed as a female game player he met online while playing "Ultima Online," a popular Internet-based game. Sakano reportedly asked the game's system administrator to provide the female player's entry password on the pretext that she had lost her password to the game. The police said Sakano then used the female player's password to illegally access the company's U.S. computer server for the game a total of seven times over a period of three months from September. According to the MPD, Sakano took advantage of the fact that the game's virtual gold pieces--used by players as a virtual currency--can be traded through bulletin boards. He sold a virtual house belonging to the female player valued at 25 million gold pieces for 50,000 yen, the police said.
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| We are releasing a client patch today, on Friday, February 14th CST, which contains the following changes: 3D clients only Players will now have the option to disable screen-shake special effects in the 3D client. Players will now have the option to disable swaying trees in the 3D client. A fix has been added that will keep vendors from being drawn in moving crates in 3D. A fix has been added that resolves a problem opening treasure maps in the 3D client. Minimized packs (IE on the paperdoll) will now display item properties in the 3D client. Bow/Crossbow animations should play properly in the 3D client. Speech from players who have been transformed via Necromancy abilities will now appear in a better position over the player. Both 2D and 3D clients We’ve fixed some issues with equipping a lance and other new weapons. The “Last Spell” macro should now work on Non-AoS shards. A fix has been added that should make “Cast Spell: Clumsy” macros now work. Firesteeds being ridden by players should no longer disappear under some circumstances. A bug with disguise kits not displaying facial hair options has been fixed. A fix has been submitted to ensure Uzeraan’s mansion displays properly when logging into the game. An issue causing customizable houses to not draw completely has been fixed. The “Language” option tab has been removed since it is empty. A fix has been put in for a problem with carryable weight text word-wrapping on the large status gump. “Simple shadows” should now display properly on humans. The party manifest should now update correctly when adding new members. Pants should now display the proper texture. The current version should now be 4.0.0b for both the 2D and 3D clients. 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. Undetected viruses may cause conflicts with patching Ultima Online. For information on up-to-date virus detection software, please visit http://www.mcafee.co...vso/default.asp. If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please visit this web page.
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| Some players who pre-ordered UO:AoS have been experiencing difficulties in collecting their Hooded Shroud of Shadows. We are aware of this, and want to reassure everyone that if you are supposed to receive a Hooded Shroud of Shadows, you will receive one. Please read this post carefully before contacting a Game Master on any Shroud-related issues! Please note: The Hooded Shroud of Shadows promotion is only valid for customers who preordered or purchased Age of Shadows prior to February 11, 2003 from one of the following vendors: EBGames, Gamestop, Amazon.com, and the EA Online Store. Also, the Shroud redemption code is only valid for one Shroud per UO:AoS account (not one per character). If you pre-ordered Age of Shadows but did not receive a redemption code from your retailer: You’re not out of luck. You should be able to collect the proper code by contacting your retailer. If you run into any trouble there, please have your receipt ready for verification and contact our Account Support staff at 866-543-5435 (option 2, then 1). International callers, please use 512-434-6740 (option 2) instead. Our staff will assist you in collecting your Shroud. We’ll try to get your Shroud to you as soon as possible, but please understand we may not be able to do so immediately. If you redeemed your code, but never received your Shroud: It’s possible that you either entered your code before you upgraded your account to Age of Shadows, or that you entered the game immediately after upgrading and entered your code before the registration data reached the shard – making it think you were still not upgraded to AoS. In either of these cases, here’s what to do: make sure you have upgraded to AoS, then wait at least 30 minutes for the account servers to pass the information to the game servers. Then simply log out, log back in, and repeat the original redemption process in order to collect your Shroud. If you received an error message telling you the code was not valid, or was already used: First, you’ll want to re-type your code to make sure you’ve typed it accurately. Make sure caps lock is off! If that doesn’t work, make sure you have upgraded to AoS, then wait at least 30 minutes for the account servers to pass the information to the game servers. Then simply log out, log back in, and repeat the original redemption process in order to collect your Shroud. If none of that works, and you’re positive you’ve used the right code, and you haven’t tried to use that code on any other character (remember those codes only offer one Shroud per AoS-enabled account, not per character)… then we ask you to call a GM*, and they’ll help you get your Shroud. If you upgrade to AoS from an existing account: You will also get your Shroud. It may take a few minutes for the billing system to pass that upgrade status along to the game servers. If you upgrade and log in immediately, you may not be able to collect the Shroud right away. There’s no need to worry. Please wait 30 minutes, log out and back in again, and attempt to claim your Shroud. If you claimed a shroud, but a Shard went down and your Shroud was lost in a time warp: Don’t worry; we can help here too! We have ways of verifying that a code was used, and we also are able to tell whether a player’s character has ever received a shroud. So if you have lost a Shroud through a time-warp on a shard, please call a GM*. And remember – since we have ways of telling whether a character has ever received a Shroud, we do not encourage players to make false claims about lost Shrouds. With the amount of calls we are answering currently, it’s important that players not take up GM time with false claims; therefore, any player found to be attempting to obtain more than one Shroud on an account may find their accounts disciplined accordingly. *Keep in mind that our current support call volume (both on the phones, and in-game) is extremely high, so any player attempting to call our support teams should be prepared for up to several hours’ wait. Players may collect their Shrouds until March 31st on the North American and Asia-Pacific shards – so if you experience delays in reaching support (phone or in-game), we highly encourage you to wait a few days for our call volume to drop somewhat. Waiting a few days (provided you do not wait past March 31st) will not affect your ability to get the Shroud, and might save you a few hours’ time!
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| From http://uo.stratics.com Using your skill gump, if you have skills at the same level you can choose the title displayed on your Paperdoll. Amongst your highest skills, whichever skill is set UP with an arrow is what will display as your title. If more than one of your highest skills is marked up, or all of them are locked, it goes by the alphabetical skill list of displaying skills (The "old" method). *Note: if you have a champ title this doesnot aply to you that i have seen.*
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| This is from stratics, may still apply, but if your old house is still condemned after you transfer it.... Sometimes the old house will keep its condemned status after the new one is gone, and still does not refresh, or after getting rid of the old house the new house becomes condemned. This will happen sometimes, nothing to worry to much about, after the server maintenance the next day you should be fine. That is assuming that the house has not yet decayed to the point of Greatly Worn. For a house that is Greatly Worn could turn into IDOC (In Danger of Collapsing) and fall in the same day. A general rule of thumb is that if you only have one house, after a server maintenance the condemned status will be removed. If you are in the situation where you think the house will fall before maintenance, you will need a trusted friend to transfer the house to. After getting the house they should step in and refresh it, thus removing the status and the decay, and then they transfer back to you.
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| I lost some pictures and other UO files. Remember to copy uojournal back to your UO folder since it is no longer there.
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| North American Shards Being Taken Down for Fixes Feb 12 2003 6:06PM CST (GMT -06:00) We will be bringing all the North American shards down (with the exception of Siege) for a short time at 6:10 PM CST to fix three important issues: Players without Age of Shadows-enabled accounts will no longer get the option the claim a Hooded Shroud (previously, these players would get the option, but not actually get the Shroud). We have fixed a wrestling special that had the unintended effect of allowing players to essentially one-hit kill other players. We have fixed a bug that was causing some playersÂ’ backpacks to disappear. Any players who have lost their backpacks from their paperdoll should page a GM. We anticipate the shards will be down for approximately one hour. We are still working to resolve the issues with the AOL Legends shard, and we are striving to bring it back as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!
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| Since our boards are still slow due to the traffic surrounding the Age of Shadows launch, I want to respond to a few commonly reported issues here. WeÂ’ve identified a bug thatÂ’s causing some playersÂ’ backpacks to drop to the ground, and in some cases, decay. We are working on a fix for this right now, and we are returning items lost through this bug. Players who have completely lost their backpacks are asked to page a GM to have those items reinstated. Please note that we do have backups of player inventories before the publish, and every claim will be verified. In order to try and help keep the GM call times as low as possible, itÂ’s important that people not claim items they did not actually lose through this bug. If a player is found to be falsifying claims of lost items, they may have their account(s) disciplined. We acknowledge thatÂ’s a harsh stance, but necessary if we want to be able to help all those who have legitimately lost items through this bug. As a balance for a reduction in damage done to pets, the hit point values for pets was intended to be lowered by approximately 40%. In some cases, the hit point reduction has been much more than that. There is a solution for this in testing, and it should fix the problem for all pets, both pre-and post-AoS. With Age of Shadows, player and pet stats (Intelligence, Dexterity and Strength) no longer affect skill levels, which may result in a few pointsÂ’ difference in some playersÂ’ skills from what they had before Age of Shadows. Please note that this is not a bug! Trades opened with runebooks equipped in a playerÂ’s hands may result in the items being placed in the runebook gump, instead of the playerÂ’s backpack. If this happens, a GM may be called to remove the item from the runebook. Please be aware that the GM call time may be long currently, so we ask that you please be patient. There are several other issues reported on the boards that I donÂ’t have definite answers for, but I wanted to make it clear that weÂ’re aware and looking into them. These include: Grandfathered houses are not displaying a refresh message when refreshed. Boats are not refreshing by opening the plank (although you can still refresh them by dry-docking it). Plants may not operate when locked down. Equipped rune books will not appear while on a playerÂ’s paperdoll (the book can be seen if it is unequipped, though). Backpacks are falling to playerÂ’s feets at random times when they log into the game, or while running around in the game. (I need all the information you can get on these) Players are able to ban items such as the door from their home. If players attempt to claim Hooded Shrouds before upgrading to AOS, their account may be flagged as having already received the shroud without the shroud actually being given. Our GMs will address this, but players are asked to please be patient if the call time is long on these calls. The stability and reliability of Ultima Online is paramount to us, and we will do everything we can to see that these issues are resolved as soon as possible.
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| Your rares may no longer be blessed. Check before you go running off to place a house and die to some monster! Example of one.
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