UOAutoMap, UOTrace, InsideUO, Guildboss, UOAssist... wouldn't it be nice to have all the neat utilities collected at one site? Well, they are! At UO Utilties, there are dozens of programs for everything from guild maintenance to macroing to server emulation. The site loads quickly and there are descriptions and information for each utility.

We thought it would be fun for you guys to test the latest changes
to the game, including combat changes, in an Abyss shard. Keeps things
spicey, you know. :) So, we have opened the Abyss specifically for this
purpose. Please enjoy the shard while it's up, and remember, it is a *test*
shard and will be treated just like Test Center is, except, it's the Abyss.

Interested in more details about what's happening on the Abyss right
now? Well, read on!

Currently on the Abyss Test Center:

• 1. There is no statloss for murderers.

• 2. There are no guards, except in the city of Britain.

• 3. There are skill and stat advancement gates around the city of
  Britain. (That's the reason for the guards in Britain.)

• 4. Other regions of the world have Gold stones and
  Spellbook/Reagent stones. Gold stones are located at Papua Bank, Moonglow
  near the moongate, Yew outside Empath Abbey and the east entrance to
  Trinisic. Spellbook/Reagent stones are located outside Yew Crypt, north
  beach on Magincia island, Moonglow Greens, and SE of the Papua bank behind
  the reagent shop.

• 5. Color Wars: Color Wars are probably the biggest feature in the
  Abyss right now. These wars are going on in and around the desert west of
  Minoc. There are 6 castles placed around the big open grassy area right
  before you enter the desert. Each castle has a uniquely colored sign and
  front door. These are: Yellow, Red, Green, Blue (this castle is located
  inside the desert), Orange, and Purple. Each castle has a ressurection gate
  inside it that will ressurect all players, whether they are a murderer, or a
  criminal. There is also a Trash Can which is expected to be used by people
  to throw extra junk away to reduce lag on the shard. To help teams identify
  one another, there is a "Dye Stone" of approriate color with which team
  members can join one team or another by dying their clothes. The Dye Stone
  looks just like a guildstone, and will be tinted the appropriate color. You
  double click the Dye Stone to dye clothes, just as you would with a dye tub.
  Additionally each castle has a unique dispenser inside it to give players
  both reasons to secure the castle from invasion and to invade the castle.
  The Blue and Yellow castles have a reagent dispenser, Purple has plate
  armor, Red has arrows, bolts, and bow and crossbows, Orange has magical
  weapons, and Green has Spellbooks, Leather and Chain armor. At the entrance
  to the desert are 6 colored guildstones which will indicate to the players
  which castles have what items. The guildstones help the players get their
  bearings on the "pupose" of the Color Wars.

• 6. Finally, there is a new system in place that keeps track of the
  killing prowess of players by rewarding them kill points when defeating
  other players. Everyone starts with 0 kill points. Vanquishing a player
  (in other words, killing another player) will result in getting 10% of their
  kill points. So if you kill someone with 100 kill points, you get 10 points
  and they are knocked down to 90 points. The goal is to accumulate points by
  killing and not being killed. Furthermore, it's better to kill a few
  players that have lots of kill points than a lot of players with little or
  no kill points. To find out how many kill points you have, simply say "How
  many kill points have I". A message indicating your kill points will appear
  in the bottom left of your screen. It is entirely possible to have killed
  100 people and still have 0 kill points. This means either you have killed
  a lot of people that have died repeatedly and are not worth any kill points
  or you yourself die a lot in the process of killing others.
  

We hope you enjoy the Abyss Test Center and we look forward to your
feedback about the shard.

• Colored ore, ingots and armor go in
  
  
  
  • Mining
    
    
    
    • Eight new varieties of minerals can now be found.
      
    • Each variety offers a unique color.
      
    • The different colors can only be found by miners of specific
      skill levels--only Grandmasters or near Grandmasters can find the
      rarest mineral, valorite.
      
    • Once a vein is located, it will always be at that location from
      then on. (It behooves miners to conceal this location!)
      
    • Even a known vein will not always yield the rare mineral.
      
    • You cannot combine ore of different colors.
      
    • You can only smelt the colored minerals if you meet the Mining
      skill requirement to do so.
    
    
  • Blacksmithing
    
    
    
    • You cannot work the resultant ingots unless you meet the Blacksmithing skill requirement to do so.
      
    • You can make colored armor and shields from the colored ingots.
      You cannot make weapons from colored ingots, and doing so will
      just make a weapon that looks like one made from iron ore.
      
  
  
• Combat changes
  
  
  
  • Mace weapons now cause stamina loss and extra damage to armor when
    they hit an opponent.
    
  • Your swing rate or firing rate with all weapons is now dependent on
    your current stamina, instead of your dexterity.
    
  • Damage for your blow is now assessed on your opponent on the start
    of the swing, instead of at the end. This change makes a fast connection
    less of an advantage in melee combat.
    
  • Equipping a weapon now causes a short "prep time" before
    you can start swinging.
    
  • Being good at anatomy will give a bonus to the damage you do in
    combat.
    
  • Being good at evaluating intelligence will give the ability to
    override your target's magic resistance.
  
  
• Changes to magic
  
  
  
  • Meditation goes in. This new skill allows faster regeneration of
    mana.
    
    
    
    • Your mana regeneration rate is now dependent on your level of
      Meditation skill, your intelligence stat, and the amount of armor
      you are wearing. This is termed the "passive use" of the
      skill.
      
    • The skill can be used from the skill gump, or via a macro.
      
      
      
      • You cannot be holding anything nor be wearing metallic armor
        to use it.
        
      • If you succeed, your mana regeneration rate is doubled from
        your usual rate while you meditate.
        
      • You stop meditating if you do basically anything, including
        using another skill, trying to hide, moving, casting a spell,
        using or trying to pick up an object, etc.
    
    
  • A problem with the polymorph spell getting "stuck" was
    fixed.
    
  • The Magic Reflect spell now gives an error if the target already has
    Magic Reflect on, and does not consume mana or reagents.
    
  • The magic lock spell now works against unsecure locked down
    containers.
    
  • So does the magic untrap spell.
  
  
• Housing and furnishing changes
  
  
  
  • The one-room house which ramdomly changed appearance every time you
    tried to place it no longer does so.
    
  • Holiday trees and ornaments are deleted. Holiday tree deeds are
    unaffected, but are disabled until the holiday season next year.
  • You can no longer deed a locked-down holiday tree.
    
  • You can no longer attempt to pick the lock on a secure container.
    
  • The "large smithy" has been renamed to "large house
    with patio."
    
  • Significant lockdown changes were made. Lockdown is no longer done
    with keys. Instead, it is done with spoken commands:
    
    
    
    • "I wish to lock this down" gives a targeting cursor
      and does basic lockdown.
      
    • "I wish to release this" gives a targeting cursor and
      unsecures and releases the object from lockdown.
      
    • "I wish to secure this" gives a targeting cursor and
      locks down and secures the object if it's a container.
      
    • "I wish to unsecure this" gives a targeting cursor and
      only unsecures the container. It does not release it from lockdown.
      
  
  
• Granting karma to other players
  
  
  
  • Saying "I honor thee" will bring up a targeting cursor.
    
  • Targeting another player will remove karma points from you and give
    some karma points to your target.
    
  • You have to have a positive karma of a certain level to do this.
    
  
  
• Other skills
  
  
  
  • Using bandages will now unhide you.
    
  • Mapmaking now has a skill delay.
    
  • There is now a blacksmith NPC guild, and blacksmith guildmasters
    will appear in appropriate shops and halls.
    
  • Animal tamers should rejoice: A problem whereby creatures lost stats
    when crossing server boundaries was fixed. This was most notable in the
    case of "nerfed dragons."
  
  
• Miscellaneous
  
  
  
  • Hair dye is now permanent.
    
  • The error message given when you selected the last color on each
    page of hairdye is now fixed.
    
  • Vendors will ignore you unless they hear their own name. This was
    done because of problems with many vendors turning to listen to you when
    you spoke, if there were many of them in close proximity.
    
  • Some cave entrances to the Lost Lands have been slightly adjusted in
    terms of where you end up when you exit.
    
  • A bug with the lighting and unlighting of the candle given to you
    when you start a character has been fixed.
    
  • Poisonous creatures should start poisoning at the correct frequency
    again.
    
  • The Jhelom dueling pit is open again.
    
  • Several creatures which have been missing in the Lost Lands are
    back:
    
    
    
    • nightmares
      
    • efreets
      
    • hellcats
      
    • hellcat predators
    
    
  • Some map errors were corrected.