June 2000

Monday, June 26, 2000

Staged House Placement Update ^top

We are placing all further house placement stages on hold at this time, and are developing several mechanisms to address the situations that arose over the weekend. We are targeting Thursday, June 29th to open a test shard updated with these mechanisms. This test will be deployed on a current backup of the Catskills shard on Test Center.

As a part of this process, we encourage players to set up in advance of house placement by having their deed at the top level of their primary backpack, moving to their proposed house location and logging out from that location, and removing themselves from co-owner status on any other homes. This will give you the best possible chance to quickly place your home in Britannia.

The following mechanisms are being developed for the upcoming house placement test:

Limited Spawn: We will be limiting the shard to only essential NPC spawns (such as stablemasters) and will delete all others prior to opening house placement
Relocation: If a subserver becomes too crowded, we will ask players to relocate based on certain criteria. In the event that we are required to move players, we will be automatically relocating them to cities on Felucca and we will look at the following factors to determine which players may be moved:
- If the player has no house deed
- If the player has a house deed, but it is not appropriate to the current phase (for example, a small house deed during Phase 1 Castle placement)
- If the player currently co-owns a house
- If the player currently owns a house
- If all of the above players have been removed from Trammel subservers and the situation continues to remain critical, we will begin randomly selecting players for relocation to Felucca.
In the event that we are forced to move players, the relocated players will be unable to recall or gate for a specified period of time. At this time, we have targeting 10 minutes, but that time period may change dependent on our test results.
Logout: Once a player has successfully placed a house, they will have 10 minutes to conclude house business before they will be automatically moved to a safe location in Felucca and logged out of the shard for a period of two hours.

Any player transferred to the Felucca shard will receive a moonstone allowing them to travel back to Trammel once they are able to return to the shard.

Posted by Balandar - 5:01 PM CST ^top

Staged House Placement Update ^top

We would like to thank everyone who made an effort to avoid the Trammel Britain area on the Atlantic shard during house placement this evening. The subsequent decreased load on that area of the shard allowed us to focus on the remaining subservers, and thus identify and debug issues on the Cove subserver. Friday evening’s issues had less to do with load balancing than with the “telestorm” process we described on Saturday. However, tonight, we identified an issue that does indeed relate directly to load balance in the Trammel Cove area of the Atlantic shard, though it could have affected any subserver.

We have determined several additional solutions that will allow us to efficiently and fairly balance server load during house placement, and we have begun working to implement these changes. However, as this is a server load issue, we have been presented with a difficult testing situation. The issues we have encountered on the North American shards over the weekend were evident only because of the volume of players on the servers, and it will be difficult for us to duplicate those situations without your help. On Monday, we will be announcing more information on a new house placement test, specifically designed to test the effects of large numbers of players attempting to place houses. During this test, which will happen later next week, we want to encourage everyone to visit the designated test shard and try to break us. With your help, we can quickly assess the effectiveness of our load balancing efforts and subsequently open housing on the shards as soon as possible. The update on Monday will not include a new schedule for staged house placement. We wish to learn more about these issues before re-committing to a set schedule.

In addition to the upcoming test, we would like to invite everyone to visit the two test shards that will be available later this evening. Our early efforts in reducing a number of server load balancing issues will be in place on the shards. All phases of housing will be open on these shards. While we have much more work to do, players moving around on the test shards will be a great help in increasing our knowledge base and expediting the rest of our load balancing efforts.

Posted by Balandar - 2:29 AM CST ^top

Saturday, June 24, 2000

Revised North American House Placement Schedule ^top

We have created a revised house placement schedule for certain North American shards that will go into effect over the next several days. We have chosen to limit the number of shards completing house placement this weekend so that we have a lesser chance of repeating the experience of Friday night.

Some statistics from the completed house placement stages on Friday night include:

Shards that completed only Phase One (Napa Valley and Pacific) had over 125 houses placed in Felucca on each shard.
Shards that completed Phase Two (Sonoma, Baja, and Great Lakes) had an average of over 750 large houses and castles placed on the Trammel and Felucca facets.

Shards continuing with house placement this weekend include:

All North American Shards

Sonoma Shard

Atlantic Shard

We will be announcing revised schedules for all remaining placement phases on the North American shards, as well as revised schedules for all overseas shards, by 3:00PM CDT on Monday, June 26th. We will be monitoring all shards closely for the remainder of the weekend to determine a new schedule strategy. Because of the upcoming holiday weekend in the United States we will be considering weeknight placement during the upcoming week. We will provide at least 24 hour notice before commencing any further house placement stages.

In closely reviewing the server logs of the affected shards, we have determined that a significant amount of the problems we experienced were based on balanced population load. Ultima Online shards are set up to go into a “panic” phase, called “telestorming”, in the event of extremely high load on the various game subservers. When a server “telestorms” it has reached a state where it must move players from subservers immediately, so it pushes them to other subservers – resulting in players in these areas being moved, with no notice, to another part of Britannia.

Last night, we experienced a “telestorm” state on five North American servers, four of which subsequently crashed. It was the first time we’ve reached “telestorm” state in over a year.

We are working on several fixes to help the servers avoid reaching this state, but we would also like to ask for your assistance in this matter during house placement stages. All of the shards that experienced the “telestorm” effect did so for the area surrounding Trammel Britain. We urge that during house placement, unless you are attempting to place a house in the direct Britain area, you choose alternative banks and shopkeepers rather than those in the Trammel Britain area. Additionally, as the Britain bank is traditionally one of heavy population concentration, we will be actively monitoring the area. Should it become necessary, we will forcibly move players to other bank locations around Britannia.

Posted by Balandar - 5:24 PM CST ^top

House Placement Announcement ^top

Several difficult situations occurred on Friday evening that affected the release of staged house placement on the North American shards. Internet connection issues blocked many people from accessing the shards and reduced our level of customer service. The turnout of potential homeowners was beyond our estimates for the early phases. And we watched game servers and our web server stretched to their limits. The Internet and login server issues were such that even our GMs, Counselors, and our Programmers were often unable to access the shards. All of these factors combined created an experience for our customers that we do not want to revisit.

We were committed to meeting our latest target for house placement and expected these conditions to improve. We were caught up in the flow of trying to get houses delivered to the players. In retrospect, we should have pulled the plug earlier.

Thus, we’ve decided to go “back to the drawing board” with our house placement plans. To address the situation created Friday evening, and to ensure that it does not happen again, we will be scrapping our existing house placement schedule for all shards that do not currently have available house placement. The Baja, Sonoma, and Great Lakes servers are continuing to move through Stage Two of staged house placement, and we will be monitoring them throughout the night. If they successfully complete Stage Two, we will continue to take these shards to Stage Three placement according to their schedules. The previously posted revised schedules for Chesapeake, Atlantic, Catskills, Lake Superior, Napa Valley, and Pacific should be disregarded.

We will be reviewing the experiences of Friday evening on Saturday. We will determine ways in which we can improve house placement before re- opening housing on the remaining shards. We will review options to optimize our server loads, plans to guarantee substantial customer service presence, and methods by which we can communicate important information during the entire house placement process.

We will release new schedules for all shards as soon as they have been determined. We will update the website by 5:00pm CST Saturday, June 25th with a report of our progress.

I'd like to extend a personal apology to all our customers who were affected by our poor execution of house placement. The situation on many of the North American shards last night was unacceptable, and we will do our best to ensure that it does not happen again.

Gordon Walton
VP Online Services
Origin Systems, Inc.

Posted by Balandar - 11:33 AM CST ^top

Friday, June 23, 2000

Staged House Placement Information ^top

We have established a communication schedule for staged house placement allowing you to keep track of the current house placement stage this evening. Please note: the opening of placement stages is a ‘live’ switch, allowing stages to be changed without requiring that the shards be taken down.

As soon as each stage is open for an entire time zone, we will post an announcement to Shard Issues and to the UO.com Message Boards. There will be no in-game announcement of shard openings. To track the start times for each shard in advance, we recommend referring to the Staged House Placement Schedule.

Posted by Balandar - 4:14 PM CST ^top

House Type Placement Information ^top

The following list includes the specific house types available this evening during each placement stage on the North American shards.

Stage 1
Only Castles may be placed in Trammel for the first two hours after house placement commences. Any housing types may be placed in Felucca at this time. Legal Stage 1 house types include: Castles only.
Stage 2
Only Large Houses, Castles, and Large Keeps may be placed in Trammel for 24 hours following the end of Stage 1. Any housing types may be placed in Felucca at this time. Legal Stage 2 house types include: Tower, Large Marble Villa, Two-Story Houses, Large Patio House, Large Brick House, Two-Story Villa, Log Cabin, Sandstone Patio, Keep. Small houses and small towers are not included in this stage.
Stage 3
All house types may be placed in both Trammel and Felucca.

Thanks

Posted by Balandar - 4:13 PM CST ^top

Thursday, June 22, 2000

North American Shards Update ^top

We are currently restoring recent backups to all North American shards, with the exception of Siege Perilous and AOL Legends, to address an issue that allowed housing to be placed prematurely. To ensure that no houses have been placed outside the staged house placement schedule, the shards will revert to a backup prior to their June 22nd maintenance period. The North American shards will be returned to service shortly.

Posted by Balandar - 10:26 AM CST ^top

Wednesday, June 21, 2000

The Journal of Qua'Tel Decoded! ^top

This was on the UO.Com news section:

A fellow came to me recently, wishing to remain anonymous, and told me the tale of a mysterious journal decoded mere days before by a group of brave adventurers from Northwood, as well as the history behind the tome. Northwood's people have evacuated their former home in Felucca and found the safety of a location they apparently refer to as "Stark's Keep" on the Trammel facet of Britannia. There they found safety and refuge from Minax's forces...or so they thought.
My informant continued to explain that Northwood had been plagued by the evils of Lord Ventryn, an ancient mage now living as lich; his goal to locate four lost relics and utilize their power to elevate himself to supreme knowledge and power. Supposedly these relics were sacred to an ancient estate called Stormguard that once rested where Northwood does today. Naturally, this Lord Ventryn eventually sought out the members of Northwood in an attempt to destroy those who might oppose him. According to my informant, however, the waves of undead were not enough to destroy the strong willed folk of Northwood and Ventryn had gained little progress.

Lord Ventryn was not alone in his endeavors. He was aided by a being known as "The Arch Lich" and a powerful phantom known as Xenthyl. The Arch Lich was defeated once but resurrected not long after by means of an elaborate ceremony in the bowels of dungeon Covetous. Apparently it was soon discovered that Xenthyl was being manipulated and controlled by the Soul Binder armor. This armor allowed Ventryn to take control of Xenthyl and utilize him for his bidding. However, Xenthyl fought the binding of the armor and aided Northwood when he was temporarily free from Ventryn's control. On several occasions the conflicting sides of Xenthyl's consciousness nearly destroyed him, but Xenthyl fought on, eventually escaping from Ventryn's watchful eye.

After flipping through several pages of his notebook my informant continued his tale. Apparently there were two others who sought out Northwood and attempted to aid them in their endeavor. The first being a sage known as Sylan who often provided what information he could to the people of Northwood in hopes that the relics would be located in a timely manner. In addition there was Thain Fallshorn, a descendent of the Stormguard line who is supposedly destined to locate the relics. Unfortunately, after an encounter with Ventryn, Thain's memory was almost completely lost and he could not recall the locations of the lost relics. After months of searching, the people of Northwood have located the Gauntlets of the Storms and the Amulet of Lightning, which are being protected by Thain. All that is left is the Thunder Necklace and the Helm of Thunder.

During the entire battle against Ventryn a journal has been resting upon a table in the basement of Jhelom’s Library. The Journal of Qua’Tel was written in a mysterious code that seemingly could not be deciphered. Xenthyl and some members of Northwood had recently been searching for the means of decoding the journal and in time a scribe in Britain named Evangeline seemed to have some knowledge of the journal.

Some adventurers from Stormguard along with Thain and Xenthyl recently set out on an expedition to locate this scribe. Evangeline was located conducting business within the Ethereal Goods shop in Britain. When approached, she denied any knowledge of the journal and its contents and seemed more preoccupied with making gold. Only after she began fearing for her safety did she confess to having a copy of the decoded journal. However, Evangeline insisted that a deal be conducted. She requested that the adventurers travel to Jhelom and seek out a former warrior who was authoring “The Guidebook of Britannia”. Evangeline believed something like the guidebook would sell well during a time in which the people of Britannia were attempting to fully understand the nature of the Felucca and Trammel realms.

According to my informant, the adventurers of Northwood and their allies traveled to Jhelom and came across a fellow named Tykryon Valier that seemed to be the author they were searching for. However Tykryon soon revealed he had yet to even author the guidebook and it was currently only a work in progress. He apologized and explained he could only provide the adventurers with a note to return to Evangeline stating that he would promise her the first copy once it had been written. The adventurers accepted the note and bid Tykryon farewell as they returned to Britain.

Upon receiving the note, Evangeline reluctantly turned ownership of the decoded journal over to the people of Northwood. She explained that she personally had not decoded the book but purchased it for a great deal of gold from a mage she had encountered some time ago. With this the adventurers returned to Stark’s Keep and apparently reviewed the contents of the journal. However, my informant has explained to me that the contents remain closely guarded and only some of Northwood’s people and their allies know the contents of the journal. What is known is this: Qua’Tel is a mage of elements and in the past had actually allied with Ventryn and attempted to locate the relics. However, being betrayed by Ventryn in some manner, Qua’Tel began research on his own without informing Ventryn of what he had discovered. It is unknown if Qua’Tel even still lives, or if he is hiding somewhere until the time is right. From this reporter’s point of view, however, perhaps a search should be conducted for Qua’Tel.

Ah, if only I were an adventurer.
Ferran Azelle

Posted by Gorion - 7:48 PM CST ^top

Monday, June 19, 2000

Infamous Rogue Slain ^top

Friday had been a long day of various errands: reagent shopping, getting armor repaired, mending my battleworn dress, and taking some wares for a tenant into Britian to sell. When I rode up to the bank to deposit funds, the only thing occupying my mind was getting my horse fed and washed, (Vulcan was beginning to smell like an old pair of well traveled boots) and doing the same for myself (I smelled like an old horse.) But my daydreams of climbing into a large trough of clean, warm water were disturbed by the ringing voice of the town crier there at the bank.

I listened as the town crier told of a man named Garett who had had his caravan ambushed by orcs and needed help regaining his goods. I thought of the gold I had just deposited selling wares myself and knew I would have to help this man get what we could of his things back. Having my concentration on the crier had given a sly handed theif the chance at my bow. I watched cursing as the thief quickly outran the witless guards around the corner into an alley, tucking my magic bow into his pack. More curses on my tongue, I recalled home grabbing another bow, some smoked fish steaks for me and apples for Vulcan, and recalled back to the bank.

Garett was a man of medium build, wearing studded leather armor and a forlorn look on his face. He already had a few warriors surrounding him, their horses shifting around anxious to be on the move. I rode up and stood with them and informed Garett I would come along as well to get his goods back. He told us the only thing he really needed back was an amulet that was very special to him. We all swore we would get it back.

We set out south out of the city, along the main road on the way to Trinsic. At no point was the going easy. The road was unusually swarmed with every manor of beast. We fought orcs, lizardmen, ratmen, murderous brigands, and gazers in a constant battle just to keep pushing through toward our goal. None of these creatures are particularly tough game for seasoned warriors, but in these numbers-always more than 10 on us at once-it was a challenge. I decided to try and scout ahead leading packs of these creatures off into the woods to keep the road as clear as possible, but it had little effect as the creatures seemed to be sprouting from the very ground.

The unending battle that was our journey kept up without respite all the way to the bridge. I had scouted out the other side and led most of what I could find away. When I crossed back across the bridge to rejoin the group I saw that they were bunched up cleaning out the area, healing each other. I cast greater heal on those that needed it, then equipped my bow to take out the attackers that were trying to escape as the group finished them all off. Finally, for the first time on the journey, we had a moment of peace. At that point Garett stepped up onto the steps of the bridge as we gathered on the road and he turned to address us. I assumed we must be getting close to the point where he had been ambushed, and he was now going to give us final instructions or words. This is not what happened however.

Garett looked around at the small party before him, 6 or 7 of us, still applying bandages, eating rations, and counting remaining arrows and reagents, and he began to speak, quietly at first.

"Fools."

We look up at him thinking surely we have misheard him.

"Fools!" He again yells. He proceeds to tell us we have been taken in, the whole thing a ruse to get us out here alone.

I looked around the group. Some had looks of disbelief, others a wary countenance, and others tired, but none looked afraid.

Garett gives us an ultimatum. Your money or your life. Seeing none of us reaching for our moneybags he then warns that we 'fools' are already at this moment surrounded. Still none of us seem ready to hand him our money. Garett then makes an almost imperceptible move of his hand, no doubt motioning the surrounding lookouts, and the woods explode with life.

I immediately backed against a tree and hid to see what would happen. I would happily stand with my fellow travelers to fight, but didn't want to foolishly step into the fray only to hear 'Kal Ort Por' behind me. I needn't have worried. The party immediately turned to engage the rush of brigands and lizardmen pouring from between the trees. Then one man, his name Kurik of UDC, pushed onto the bridge and attacked Garett himself. Knowing Kurik would need help soon and the others already otherwise occupied, I stayed hidden but quickly grabbed up my spellbook and readied the words of healing in my mouth.

It wasn't long. I saw Kurik take some hard blows, then stepped forward and cast my spells to heal him. My supposedly clever idea of hiding until needed was not only my own, as I cast upon Kurik, the bushes behind me burst with brigands, each training his weapon upon me. I drew my katana, but couldn't hit them fast enough. I decided dying right there would not help anyone, so although not a move to sing glory songs about, I decided to run them into the woods.

Repeatedly I ran off groups of brigands and beasts, circled around back to the bridge, cast healings as I could and firewalls on the bridge that was by now packed with creatures of evil, and then ran another group of evil back away from the main fight. I saw others doing the same as I, and others bravely standing and fighting there in the road. Kurik eventually fell, as did others, but the fighting continued and the resurrected souls came back to pick up the weapons off of their bodies and fight again.

Others followed Kurik's lead as well and attacked Garett every chance they got. Finally tired myself of running into the woods and making brief strafing runs, I took out my bow and began firing into Garett, who was being skewered by a spear-wielding lad named Scooby as well. My horse, used to battle, sidestepped brigands as I continually fired my bow of power. (hehe, the Britain thief had stolen only one of ruin.) Finally Garett screamed out his promise of revenge, and undeterred, Scooby pierced through his heart with his spear.

The attackers, lacking a leader began to loose the heart for battle and the group finished off the last of them. Although we had won, the victory seemed hollow as we were still not sure what had happened. Who was Garett?

Scooby said he had picked a tattered treasure map off of Garett, but not much else of real interest. As we talked about this a man wearing the robe of an elder walked up.

He told us that Garett was an infamous robber, and one that had been wanted for some time. He was known for luring people out into the wild and robbing them blind. I had the feeling that the amount of distaste the Elder showed may mean that these poor people may not have lived to tell of it. The Elder gave us his thanks, bowing to us all still left there: Kurik of UDC, Kalaman of ADE, The Rock of CDE, Goten of CCC, Scooby of K A, Wystian, and myself. He then waved his staff high in the air, and gold began to fall to the ground. Piles fell in varying amounts all around the group.

Having found out that we had slain a vile and wanted man, and thereby saved future travelers from his grasp, gave us the feeling of satisfaction we had been lacking. (the reward didn't hurt either *grins slyly*)

Posted by Balandar - 2:37 PM CST ^top

Saturday, June 17, 2000

PGoH Auction site is up ^top

Post and bid on items at the PGoH Auction site. Click here.

Posted by Balandar - 6:37 PM CST ^top

Seaman Jones appears in Kinship ^top

As the small battle between the undead ended, we began to make our way back to the Kinship Tavern. On the way there, we saw a new circle of Candles and Nightshade, just like the night of the seance.

I looked a bit closer at the circle, then a blinding blulig sprung up, and when I looked back, I saw a bright blue figure of a man, a pirate. The Man seemed quite upset, and all the sudden pointed at me.

"YOU! GIVE ME MY BOOK OR YOU SHALL SUFFER!", he yelled in a great shout of rage.

As soon as he yelled that, I knew this was Seaman Jones, the one whos plague Jounal I found on a ghostly corpse. I rushed to my bankbox where I grabed the book and ran back.

Giving him the book we began to ask our questions. This man had no compassion for those who his cargo had killed, for he smiled when I mentioned the plague, and he refused to give us any information.

His spirit then faded away, leaving us with little more than what we had known, other than Benedict was his master.

Posted by Gorion - 12:51 AM CST ^top

Friday, June 16, 2000

Colored Ore Spawn Locations ^top

In addressing the issues connected to resource spawning and shard crashes we were required to clear the information that tracked the location of colored ore veins. This fix is currently active on Lake Superior, Great Lakes, Yamato, and Izumo. In order to ensure the resource issue does not crash other shards, we will be implementing this fix on all other shards following their next scheduled maintenance. Colored ore will still spawn on the shards, however, the locations for the colors will no longer be the same.

Posted by Balandar - 8:42 PM CST ^top

Weekly Tournaments to be Held in Jhelom Dueling Pits ^top

Jhelom, Trammel (June 13)—The retired Chaos army captain Tykryon Valier and his wife Elyria will be hosting weekly tournaments to be held on Tuesday evenings in the Dueling Pits of Jhelom on alternating facets. Tonight’s event involved a larger than expected crowd willing to try their hand at the challenge. They were asked to name any beast they wished to fight. There were a few restrictions, though: They could not name any beast of the lost lands or an ancient wyrm. They had to fight it within one side of the arena. And parties were restricted to three participants.

Several parties attempted to combat Ogre Lords, but these battles proved to be quite long, thus Tykryon placed a 5-minute time limit on them. Other battles were much more entertaining, including a contest against an Elder Gazer, and one against an Ice Fiend.

At the end of the tournament, Tykryon had all those who were willing participate in the finale. This involved releasing all of the remaining creatures into the arena, all of which were from the ice regions. This lasted for almost ten minutes.

After the contest, Tykryon invited us to his home in Jhelom. It is on the northern island of the city abutting the southeastern shore on the Felucca facet. There, he explained that he is hosting these tournaments to pass away the time and to help improve commerce within the city. His wife was away rounding up the next batch of beasts for next week’s tournament. He also stated that he will be around on Wednesdays starting next week to provide training in the methods of war; or, if training is not desired, then an expedition.

Tykryon Valier served in the Chaos army for fifteen years. He was stationed in the Lost Lands and fought in several battles there. He was born in Jhelom, but lived for a while in Britain before returning to his home city.

The tournaments will be held in the Dueling Pits of Jhelom on alternating facets every week. The next tournament will be held in Felucca and is scheduled for Tuesday, June 20th at approximately 10 p.m. Eastern. The tournaments will mainly involve individual and group combat against beasts of their choosing; however, one on one duels may be in the works for future events.

--Tymaron

Posted by Balandar - 1:42 PM CST ^top

Saturday, June 10, 2000

A Vision of a Spirit from the past ^top

After a few drinks, the patrons of the Kinship Village Hall had another visit from the poltergeist who comes often, opening and closing doors, and moving things about the room.

Soon after it left another attack came, and in mid-battle Tatiana came to us, healing us, and seeking our help. She told us to go to the Yew winery, and there we saw a spirit. I recognized this ghost, he was the Master Brewer who had, months ago started working with Ewan to create a cure for the plague.

The poor soul had not finished his work and was trapped between this world and the ethereal plane, nay being able to seek his final rest. He had little knowlage to bestow upon us, besides the fact that Ewan had the cure to the plague, and that he nay knew where he was, nor who had taken Ewan. The spirit then left us saying he will return some day.

After he faded away, I made a journey to Tatiana's tent where I updated her, and she was a bit disheartened that we could nay find where Ewan was. She then said to keep our ears open and listen to rumors, for they may shead some light onto what is to come.

I left Tatiana's tent with many thoughts in my mind, just hoping that soon we would learn Ewan's location, and end this Horrid Plague.

Posted by Gorion - 10:27 PM CST ^top

Thursday, June 8, 2000

A Discovery in the Kinship Attacks ^top

Upon this eve the Kinship, attacks continued, with now Bone Magi, and Bone Knights leading the forces of Spectres and Wraiths.

After the attack was over, a single Wraith appeared next to the shipwreck. It attacked us and was dispatched easily. I felt it was strange for only a single wraith to appear, so I searched the corpse.

Upon close inspection of the backpack, I saw a book, but this one already had a title. The title was "My Plague journal". It contained nothing within the pages, but the Authors name was there. It was a man named "Seaman Jones".

Whom this Seaman is, we do not know, but he was on that ship, and before he died, he didnt only know of the poison, but he knew it would eventually be a plague.

Posted by Gorion - 11:11 PM CST ^top

Housing Delayed One Week ^top

House Placement Update

We have determined that we will need to delay housing at least one week and begin scheduled placement on Friday, June 16th. Housing itself, as an independent system, feels stable and ready for release. In fact, our delays actually have very little to do with the housing issues themselves. It will require minimal effort to complete work on the issues directly related to housing.

What we face at this time stems from the overall growth of our service and the increased item count in the world that has been created a result of doubling the land mass to provide non-PvP areas and more housing space for our customers. Certain deep systems within the code structure of UO require maintenance at this time, as they were not originally designed to support the scope of the game world as it is today. Unfortunately, these flaws could not be revealed until they were stressed in real world situations on our production shards. However, now that we are aware of the situation, we are confident that we will find resolution and are devoting most of our energy to this matter so that we may begin house placement. Our goal is to provide a uniform transition during the opening of house placement, and we feel that the issue would have an unacceptable affect on our customers.

On the upside, we have recently completed hardware upgrades on several of our server machines around the world. When we resolve the above concerns, we expect to see improved performance, as well as a lower frequency of the issues that are gating housing at this time.

At this time, we are planning to open staged house placement on most Ultima Online shards on Friday, June 16th. Additionally, AOL Legends and Siege Perilous will have open house placement available on return from an upcoming maintenance cycle. We will announce the scheduled date for these two shards at a later date.

House placement on the Formosa, Arirang, Balhae, and Oceania shards will begin on Friday, June 23rd, local server time. The schedule for house placement on Japanese shards will be released at a later date.

A complete schedule of placement times for all affected shards is available at http://update.uo.com/housing.html

In the event that we are unable to resolve the coding issue to our satisfaction, in time to open house placement next weekend, we will update you as we know more.

We will update this section of the site, at least 24 hours in advance of the opening of the first scheduled phase. We will release any revised schedules as they are determined.

Posted by Balandar - 2:13 PM CST ^top

Saturday, June 3, 2000

The Gypsy, Tatiana to Hold a Seance ^top

I wish to thank mine freind, Tymaron for the following news from Kinship.

Upon the eve of June second, a restless spirit, that has been haunting the Kinship tavern returned. This time, rather than opening and closing doors, it instead vowed revenge. This spirit is believed to have come from the nearby shipwreck, which was caused by the poison that Benedict created.

Shortly after the spirit left, the gypsy, Tatiana came to the Kinship tavern to announce that she would hold a seance. This seance will be an attempt to reach the spirit, and ask it of many questions that both Tatiana, and the Kinship tavern patrons have.

This seance will be held upon the eve of June fourth, during the eastern hours of ten o'clock at night, within the Kinship tavern.

Posted by Gorion - 11:23 AM CST ^top

Thursday, June 1, 2000

Ultima Online Housing Update ^top

From http://update.uo.com

We are currently targeting Friday, June 9th as opening day for staged house placement within Ultima Online. The first stage of house placement (castles only) will begin on Friday, June 9th during each shard’s ‘peak’ time, or traditionally highest usage time. This time frame will likely be different on each individual shard. Please note that this means house placement will not be available directly following scheduled shard maintenance on this date.

The exact start time, as well as the start times and lengths of each stage, will be announced at a later date. We will confirm all dates and times at least 24 hours in advance.

Posted by Balandar - 1:28 AM CST ^top