Five on Friday - June 6, 2008

"Where do I turn in the Phase 2 items?"

This got left out of the patch notes accidentally - the NPC is Yonns the Collector, and he hangs out in the Artist's Guild in (Trammel) Britain, right behind the bank. We're aware of the issue that creates for Siege, and we'll let you know where he'll be on Siege once the publish goes worldwide.

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"How exactly does the house resizing work?"

House Resizing was on Test Center briefly for Publish 52, and it behaves the same way now. Here's the rundown:

  • Saying "I wish to resize my house" while standing under the house sign demolishes your house as though you'd used that option from the house sign
    • NOTE: This is an actual "demolish" - if you have grandfathered houses, resizing your house will condemn them just like placing a new one would. Also, items will behave just as though you demolished the house - they will drop to the ground.
  • Places a one hour account-bound placement zone where your house used to be
    • Any character on the account is guaranteed replacement on the same plot for an hour
    • Circumvents the normal 7 day delay between demolishes/rebuilds
    • The new house can be smaller or larger than the original area, as long as the surrounding area can accommodate the change

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"Do the artifacts that drop in the Anti-Virtue dungeons count as 10,000 point artifacts in Spring Cleaning?"

Yes - they're labeled as Level 11 artifacts, after all. (Note: The Virtue Armor and other special items that drop via the same system but are NOT labeled "Artifact Level 11" can NOT be turned in for points at all.)

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Beware of Bug!

We haven't seen a ton of reports on this, but as it may cause you to lose an item, be aware - if you try to redeed a flour mill while it still has flour in it, you'll lose the mill altogether. We've tried to fix this a few times, but what it really needs is a revamp of how the item works on the back end, so it may take a while to work its way up the list. In the meantime, just make sure to remove the flour before axing!

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Playguide Updates:

Have a couple of updates to present this week - Publish 52 notes, some new item info, and finally the player-submitted Artifact screenshots:

  • Cartography: Added a chart of craftable items, materials needed, and skill needed.
  • Spellweaving: Added (new, correct) details on the SSI and FC penalties.
  • Factions: Joining A Faction: Updated with Publish 52 changes (removed load balancing, one-character-per-shard requirement, 30-day age requirement.)
  • Factions: Quitting A Faction: Changed all references to "seven days" to "three days."
  • Factions: Credits: Emphasized the incomplete nature of the system.
  • Factions: Crafting: Took down this egregiously out-of-date page and replaced it with an "Under Construction" note at QA's request - it was confusing the heck out of people. I'll be bringing it back later in a much more accurate state.
  • Factions: Faction Office: Added one-character-per-account restrictions.
  • Housing: Purchasing and Owning a House: Added 15-day character age requirement.
  • Housing: Building Your House: Added 15-day character age requirement, demolish timer, and placement tool cooldown info.
  • Housing: Housing States and Home Maintenance: Added placement timer on IDOC plots.
  • Equipment: Weapons: Updated with all of the SE weapons and the base ML weapons (the special ones - artifacts and items that require rare materials - will live in a different chart. Somewhere. One of these days.)
  • Equipment: Artifacts: Remember the Get Your Name In Links contest back in February? I finally sorted through all the submissions and updated the pictures on this page. Thanks to everyone who sent in submissions, both those I used and those I didn't. (There were a ton of duplicates for certain items, so I tried to make sure as many people as possible got at least one picture up.)

However, I don't have them all yet! So we're going to do round two - same rules as the link above. Below are the artifacts I need screenshots of:

  • Bone Crusher
  • Titan's Hammer
  • Blade of the Righteous
  • Tunic of Fire
  • Spirit of the Totem
  • Midnight Bracers
  • Leggings of Bane
  • Jackal's Collar
  • Holy Knight's Breastplate
  • Helm of Insight
  • Divine Countenance
  • The Inquisitor's Resolution


This will be your last chance to show off a Doom artifact - any I'm still missing after a week or so I'll be forced to model myself :P I will no doubt do more of these with the different types of artifacts further down the road, because it's tons more fun for everybody :) Thanks again, and I look forward to the next batch of screenshots!

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What's To Come:

Origin will get to keep Publish 53 to itself for the weekend. There are a few bugs that we've identified that need fixing before it goes live - the main one being that Obsidian Blades and Chaos Shields are not actually being accepted by the Spring Cleaning NPCs.

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Town Hall News:

Look at our schedule to find out when we'll be near you. Remember to RSVP so we don't run out of chips and dip! Also, be aware that while the San Diego Town Hall is over Comic-Con weekend, you do not need a Comic-Con badge to get in - although if you want one, you better hurry, because they seem to be selling out!

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Fansite News:

A couple of interesting things coming up! First, a non-UO-specific and yet very interesting announcement from Stratics:

We've opened our new voice-chat program being developed in partnership with Vivox, and we need some Alpha testers!
In order to apply, send an email to connector@stratics.com with the following:
Stratics forum username:
Desired Connector username:
Email address:
A sticky thread can be found in UHall.

And then Whispering Rose Radio's usual lively schedule of events:

The following are events broadcasted by Whispering Rose Radio:
AV Auction rocks the Origin shard with more great deals this Friday, June 6th - pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern
Check here for more information. (Broadcasted LIVE by DJ Landon on the 128 stream)
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Sonoma to Send Smiles across Sosaria Friday, June 6th - 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern
Check here for more information. (Broadcasted LIVE by DJ Sandman on the 24 stream)
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Deal or No Deal UO Style held on Legends this Saturday, June 7th - 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern
Check here for more information. (Broadcasted LIVE by Howie SandManDel on the 24/128 stream)
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WRR Announcement:
It's a-comin'!! Getting closer to the FIRST Anniversary of Whispering Rose Radio on the weekend of June 14th! The celebration will take place on LAKE SUPERIOR and anyone from any shard can come join us! Following Saturday's Deal or No Deal UO Style there will be a Grand Parade and yet another Xanadu Loot House (brought to you by our General Manager DJ Landon)! Check next week's FoF and tune into WRR during the week for more information.

Remember, folks, if you're doing something UO-related, in- or out-of-game, send an email to jdalberg AT ea DOT com and let me know about it! (Please put "FoF" somewhere in the subject so I put it in the right place!) Thanks!

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Have a good weekend, folks.


- Jeremy

See Also