Developer Notes

This page lists past Q&A's, AMA's, and similar - or links to them if they're off-site.

LoU TV

 * LoU TV, Episode 1 (Jul 2020)
 * LoU TV, Episode 2 (Sep 2020)

The UO Map

 * Preview 1 (Nov 2019)
 * Preview 2 (Jan 2020)
 * Preview 3 (Apr 2020)

Dev Letter - December 3rd, 2019
Greetings Avatars! It's been a few months and I'm pleased to say that I've returned from my hiatus and am happy to rejoin the team and get back to work on Making Sosaria Great Again! You'll notice that I've removed the "weekly" from the dev-letter channel. We'll get back to posting them regularly, but the team is hard at work on getting the new map, etc. sussed out (as you've seen from Stimwalt's recent video! You have seen Stimwalt's UO Map Preview Update, haven't you?!)

Now, let's get into the updates...first up, we've got the results of our recent player survey! Before anything else, thank you all for taking the time to fill it out and provide your honest feedback and critiques. Feedback is a gift and we greatly appreciate you taking your time to provide it to us!

Top 3 concerns that you've all provided in no particular order are: Lag/Stability, PVP Content, New Map & Land Rush. We hear you!

Lag/Stability
Lag and Stability continue to be addressed on the back-end as our team works to refactor MAJOR sections of our code into more streamlined functions. We're looking for ways to optimize everything associated to the player character, systems, and global functions. More on this to follow in future updates as we streamline things. This will be a long haul effort, but the good news is that this effort will continue to improve lag and stability more and more over time as we continue to improve the code base. We're also working on building out additional logging infrastructure to allow us to further deep dive into the data, identify trends, resource hogs, etc.

PvP
PvP content continues to be a focus with a major overhaul on factions continuing to be worked on. Personally, I'm excited for some of the more unique faction items that will be available, like the faction mounts...

Additionally, there's significant work being put in to develop a unique zone that will require faction membership to enter, allowing for sieging/defending of faction strongholds, Unique encounters that will be tied to achieving specific experiences, New champions, a new faction currency (non-blessed!), rare resources, faction specific vendors, seasons with new content, rewards, and more! We're striving to make factions an enjoyable and worthwhile experience, but not one that is required. We hope to have a "beta" season available "soon". More to follow as we get closer to that "beta" season.

New Map/Land Rush
Lastly, regarding the New Map & Associated Land Rush - As Stimwalt had mentioned during the recent video, we know you're excited and we're pushing hard to get things done and to you as quickly as we can. We'll continue to roll out new details around the map, the process for moving, etc. We're taking longer up front to get things right the first time with Brit, so we can ensure the best possible performance and experience for everyone! Once we get that right, the rest will fall into place fairly quickly. Also, as an aside we're working heavily on the mob spawns and loot rebalance, as well as tweaking the guard zones, town zones, region transitions, etc. for Britainnia.

Outside of those points, we've been hard at work on a number of bug fixes, making existing features work more like UO, and pushing hard on getting the new map ready to go for all of you.

We'll keep it short for now, as there's no shortage of things to do. Keep your eyes peeled for another update and from our LoU family to all of you - Happy Holidays!

Weekly Letter from the Devs - September 13th, 2019
It's been a bit since we've posted a letter. Please accept our apologies for that. As many of you are aware, we've been head down in the "trenches" a lot lately. Let's jump into some quick updates!

System Status
We're hard at work on performance fixes for the lag issue, as well as the memory leak problem. We've done a lot of testing and have identified significant paths to resolve them, but they take time and testing to get quite right. As some of you are aware, a few days ago we deployed one of these to production during the day to capture additional data that we would only be able to get in production. (We're not fans of "testing in production" at all, but some data can only be gathered on true production.) This was quite helpful in confirming what we thought the cause of the lag was and we're now working through the code to adjust accordingly. Just to put a bit more context around what we're seeing performance wise with the fixes applied in testing: 200 mobs all actively engaged, fighting and casting against each other with less than 1 second of lag - all on the same screen. :smiley:  More to follow on that once we get the tweaks to the fix sorted out.

We're also looking at a significant number of other ways to fix database bloat and increase performance with tweaks and adjustments to current in-game systems. The memory leak issue is different than the lag issue but works hand-in-hand with it to cause us issues. Once we've resolved the lag issue, we can turn our focus to this and get it resolved as well. We continue to work diligently to solve these performance issues and they are the team's number one priority.

Updates, Patch Notes, etc
Let's dive in!
 * The evil necromancer, Moriens, has been using the blood of innocents and fallen warriors in the dungeon Covetous to power his dark energy and tear asunder the very fabric of the realm, opening another dungeon, Destard. The portal is in Wind, next to the portal to Covetous! After you visit, please take some time to provide us feedback in #🐉dungeon-destard-feedback !
 * All 4 levels of the Britain Sewers are reopened to Young Players! It's been populated with some new monsters and provides a better, more scaled challenge the deeper you go!
 * We've recently added a ton of new craftable items to tailoring and carpentry. (Pictures in #📷stream-n-media ).
 * The shovel was recently optimized to fix several bugs and properly add the mining dig bonus to treasure hunting. Additionally, that bonus was brought more in line with UO, but doubled. (UO is 4 spaces at GM, here GM provides 8).
 * A number of other bug fixes have been applied recently, please see #📝news

New Map Update
We're hard at work behind the scenes pushing things forward and working to get everything prepped for the transition to the new map. As you all know, this is no small task, so here's a peek behind the curtain on what we're currently working on:


 * Finalizing the building materials for all buildings
 * Reviewing EVERY single monster/animal that we need to have for the new map (Templates, mob difficulty, taming difficulty, HP, Armor, damage, skill set, loot tables, etc.) and balancing all the things. (This is a HUGE effort)
 * Reviewing overworld spawns for the new map -- to start, we'll be 1:1 with UO, but we'll be adding some of our own surprises as well. :smiley:
 * Prepping to decorate the ENTIRE MAP (Decorating the entire map will also be a HUGE effort)
 * Full profession/skill reviews (This is a HUGE effort and while the reviews might be complete, it is likely that changes will not be implemented prior to the new map going live and will be staggered after the new map is live.)

There's a lot more, but those are some of the larger items.

Bugs/Exploits/RMT
There are two major things to cover here...


 * 1) Thank you to all of you that report bugs and exploits.  We work as hard and as quickly as we can to get them crushed.  Sometimes this takes a significant amount of time to do, so we greatly appreciate your patience.
 * 2) Exploits and Real Money Transactions (RMT) - It's abundantly clear in the server rules (https://legendsofultima.gamepedia.com/Server_Rules) what is prohibited.  We take our economy's balance, cross server trading, attempts to sell/purchase gold/in-game goods for real currency, exploiting to duplicate items, etc. VERY SERIOUSLY and we will not hesitate to ban those that seek to exploit our players/economy, regardless of who you are.

New Staff
I'd like to take a moment to recognize that we've had a few new members join staff this week - Welcome to Kaymaker who is joining the team as Counselor to help answer your pages and provide player support and Triskil who is joining the team as a developer who will be assisting us with bug fixes and development work. Welcome to both you! We're happy to have you on the team!

For those of you that are interested in joining the team, please put in an application at https://www.legendsofultima.online/jointheteam and we'll review as we have openings.

Closing
Lastly, we'd like to take a few minutes to say thank you.

Thank you to our players who play on our server, who get the word out, convince your friends who used to play UO to come give us a try, and are as passionate about our product as we are! Thank you to our patrons who donate your hard-earned money to our project. Your generosity allows us to focus on making the game the best it can be and relieves a huge amount of stress! Thank you to Ambassadors and streamers who help get the word out and publicize the server by streaming LoU. Your efforts to raise awareness of our product are sincerely appreciated!

This last one is from me (Turtle) - Thank you to the rest of the staff and team. You're all awesome people who put in a ton of work behind the scenes to make this project amazing and a ton of time and much of it goes unseen. Thank you for all that you do! I am truly lucky to be part of this team!

Weekly Letter from the Devs - August 31st, 2019
This week's Dev Blog is a little late sorry! Normally this would be written by Turtle, but he has busy preparing himself and his family for a hurricane this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with Turtle and his family, as well as everyone that may be dealing with extreme weather or natural disasters across the globe. Next, I'd like to take a moment to thank ALL OF YOU! We've had an enormous outpouring of support from you all, whether it be helping each other out in the community, or donating. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for all of your support. Thank you for putting your trust into us and we hope to continue to make you proud!

Happening this week

 * House Decorating Contest: Extended to End of September - With the large influx of new players joining recently, we've decided to extend the deadline for the contest to give new players a chance to participate. Thanks to those of you who submitted screenshots and prefab ideas!
 * PVP Free For All Event: This happened on 08/24/2019, we hope you all had as much fun as we did!
 * The last couple of weeks the team has been transitioning to a new internal chat system from Discord to MS Teams that will help us communicate efficiently as our team continues to grow.
 * There was an issue with in-game Help Requests not making it to the team outside of the game 100% of the time causing delays in response time, this issue was resolved after the switch to our new chat system. Reminder: Please avoid DMing staff unless otherwise specified, as when you use the proper Feedback tools/channels, it makes sure that the whole team is aware of an issue, and not just one person.

Some issues we're aware of

 * Server performance and lag: this is an ongoing effort as we work through not only a process of a elimination but a general optimization pass on critical highly-used features and systems. Thanks for your patience during the growing pains!
 * Pet caching/deeding is currently disabled and will make a brief return soon; Yes, you will be able to claim your pets again.
 * Pet sizes are up and down: we are working on standardizing the size of pets so that dragons and other pets are not taking up way too much space on the screen. During this balancing act you may see your pets scale up and down a bit, thanks for your patience and understanding while we work to find the sweet spot in regards to their size.

On the horizon

 * Staff AMA (ask us anything):
 * Ani will start collecting questions from the public community soon, please send a DM/Private Message to @👑 Ani - Aniceset© with any questions as well as things that you would like to see on a stream from in-game.
 * New Dungeon: Which dungeon do you think will be next?! Coming soon!
 * Power Hour & Town Skill Bonuses:
 * Town-specific skill bonuses (more details to come)
 * Self-triggered daily Power Hour to get a bonus in skillgains
 * Pet Broker Player Vendors:
 * Pet Brokers are a new type of Player Vendor that will replace the current Pet Caching/Deeding system (more details to come)
 * Veterans rewards (coming very soon):
 * Dyetubs:
 * New UO-style Dyetub Art (thanks to R-41), special dyetub, black dyetub, leather dyetub, furniture dyetub
 * Soulstones:
 * Allows you to transfer a skill from your character to the stone and then transfer the skill to another character on the same account, this item is bound to the account and can be used multiple times
 * Ethereals:
 * Ethereal mount statuettes
 * Clothes:
 * Robes, Dresses & Cloaks in UO-inspired colors
 * Decorations:
 * Various decorations in the form of a deed for placing on house plots

Counselor Program
There seems to be some confusion around the new Counselor role, so let me see if I can clear that up for everyone. With a boom in population, we've got a significant number of players regularly paging for assistance at all hours of the day and night. In order to handle this onslaught of pages for assistance, we've deliberated and reached out to a number of individuals in the player community to see if they would be willing to volunteer their time to assist other players, answer questions, and if needed escalate problems up the chain to Game Masters/Developers to handle the issues.

A few things to note about the Counselor role:

1. Counselors have VERY limited powers (Less than a Game Master or Developer) specifically for answering pages by players in-game. If a Counselor is unable to handle a player issue, they will inform the player that they are escalating to a Game Master (GM). A GM will then handle the escalation as soon as one is available.

2. All actions performed by Counselors are logged and monitored. If a Counselor is found to be abusing their role, a full review will be conducted and staff will handle the situation accordingly.

3. Anyone can apply to be a Counselor. The role is that of a volunteer and it is a great way to give back to the LoU community. If you're interested, please apply at https://www.legendsofultima.online/jointheteam.

While Cake is the first one to formally accept the role, there are others that have had offers extended to them to join the team in a Counselor role as well. We look forward to many of you applying and hope to welcome several others into the rank of our Counselor volunteers VERY Soon!

Weekly Letter from the Devs - August 11th, 2019
Welcome to our fifth Weekly Letter from the Devs!

As many of you know we've been working REALLY hard this week, so I'm going to keep this short this week.

Steam Release
LoA released on Steam and with that has come a significant number of returning and new players to our server! For those of you that are returning, we're glad to have you back! To those of you that are new players, welcome! We're glad you're here. For those of you that have been consistently playing with us, we thank you!

Along with the Steam release, came a wonderful memory leak issue that we've been actively hunting down. This is the reason that we've been having crashes/regular reboots more than normal since Steam launch. We greatly appreciate your patience while we continue to sort out the issues.

As I am sure you're all aware, our dev team has been putting in a TON of extra hours to hunt down this memory leak, as well as address a slew of other issues that have reared their head since Steam launch. Rest assured, as we have in the past, we will find the bugs and squash them. We want everything to be stable as well! :)

There have been some significant positives that have come out of this as well.


 * We've expanded our DevOps infrastructure for better real-time monitoring and logging.
 * We've expanded our back-end infrastructure to better support our higher player counts.
 * We've altered our code structure to ensure more resiliency against these types of issues, especially with new builds.
 * We've crushed a significant amount of bugs while investigating this memory leak.

We've implemented a few QoL updates, based on direct PLAYER FEEDBACK:


 * Increased durability on bard instruments, specifically the bamboo flute, drum, and lute respectively.
 * Disabled the signature when buying items from vendors, in order to significantly speed up transaction speeds.
 * Extended the current skill gain boost to include gardening.

Due to the issues that we've been encountering from this memory leak, we've also extended the "Power Hour Week" to the end of next week, meaning +50% skill gains will be in effect until 8/18/19.

Dungeon Asset Pack
As you probably noticed, during log-in/zone change, your client recently downloaded a new dungeon asset pack. What could this mean? Something wicked this way comes...Moriens the Necromancer's nefarious plan unleashed the dungeon Covetous on our world last time. Who knows what evil he may wreak upon Sosaria next?

New Player Questions
With all of the new players that have taken the time to join us, I thought I'd briefly run through a few new player questions that I see regularly.

Q: What do the different ores/woods do?

A: Currently, they add durability to the crafted item. We have plans in the future for them to affect other characteristics, but this is all still in development.

'''Q: Why are items so expensive? OR Where can I find X item?'''

A: Please checkout the #🎪vendor-locations channel for the locations of player vendors. Generally, the player vendors will have items MUCH cheaper than NPCs. NPCs are priced highly, just like in UO, to encourage players to buy from other players.

'''Q: The wiki is wrong or outdated! Why is that the case?'''

A: The wiki is maintained by staff AND players. You have the ability to add and edit, so please help us keep it updated!

Q: If I donate via PayPal or Patreon, are there perks in-game?

A: There are no in-game perks. You will be placed in a specific group to reflect your donation level in Discord and you will gain access to the #patrons-club channel, where you will get sneak peaks of new dungeons, the new Britannia map, new housing, etc.

Q: Why aren't there any passive/active weapon procs?

A: We're working on testing and implementing weapon skill procs. This will come as part of a later update to Melee combatants. (Please reference prior Dev Letters for more information).

Q: Are you remaking Britannia?

A: We sure are! It's been being worked on for a while now and our ROUGH ETA is ~ 2-3 months until completion. This is subject to change, but we're very optimistic based on current progress and the speed at which work is being completed!

Streams
If you've been watching our #📷stream-n-media, you'll notice that our community manager Aniceset has done a great job getting some big names to stream LoU recently including: MorrolanTV and MarkeeDragon!

We've also had our own dev Silk streaming as well and several of our players! Thank you all for your help in showing off all that our server has to offer! :)

We've got a lot of other streams coming up, some of which will show off some new content(!) so stay tuned, share the content with your friends, and please keep getting the word out!

Wrapping Up
I'm going to wrap this up, because we've still got a TON of stuff we're working on behind the scenes!

We will continue to hunt the memory leak issue and get that squashed to ensure stability for the server, as well as crush bugs, implement suggestions, and in the very near future, release NEW content! :)

Much more next week!

Weekly Letter from the Devs - August 2nd, 2019
Welcome to our fourth "Weekly Letter from the Devs!"

We are continuing to see players return and new players join every single day!

The major focus of the team right now is Steam Release! Legends of Aria is launching on Steam on August 6th, 2019. This date is fast approaching, so please forgive the abbreviated Dev Letter this week, or alternatively simply #BlameStimwalt :thumbsup:

There will be a new server build and updated client released by CS very soon, and LoU staff will begin the migration to this updated version ASAP. We will make the LoU community aware when the Steam version is LIVE! Players simply need to update their client EXE via the Launcher in order to get the latest client update, and that's it!

Dungeon Covetous is LIVE

 * The Dungeon is currently being polished and tweaked to match our goal for the dungeon, which is wonderful nostalgia mixed with exciting and difficult group content for the deeper level dungeon bosses. Players probably have noticed that we have created a new Discord channel for Covetous Dungeon Feedback, so please share your ideas and thoughts with us.  We have also created a new Discord channel for PVP Balance Feedback, as we want to make sure any changes that we make from 1:1 T2A PVP, are being discussed actively by the community.

New Player Experience (NPE) Projects

 * Staff is working on a new Tutorial Section for brand new players that will be created to introduce non UO-vets to our world. As many of you are aware, UO was not very kind in terms of new player experience, so this is a way we aim to be different, and give new players an opportunity to learn the basics very quickly, and even play around with templates, before they create a new character.  We hope to provide this soon to our new players, and veteran players who create new characters are able to immediately exit this tutorial.
 * The Sewers have reopened! We are re-opening the sewers, with a sewer token system and a sewer vendor with suitable items for young players. The Sewers will be accessible by young players only. All young players will receive a 'guidebook' in their initial player loot that guides them towards our discord, wiki and the sewers as a starting dungeon. Young players are now safe from other players, they can't be attacked with weapons, spells or pets. Young players can still have beneficial spells cast on them by other players. Young players cannot heal other players unless they are also young. This includes both magery and bandages. We now have a mechanic to limit young player access to events as required.  If you attempt to attack a young player, while you won't be able to land any damage, you WILL be flagged criminal. Naughty you!

Phase 2 of the New Player Experience (NPE) is still to come. It will include the promised quest system, once we are able to move to the latest CS build after steam release. It will also include the dedicated tutorial area where young players will start!

That's all we have for this week, except to say, ARE YOU READY FOR STEAM!?

Weekly Letter from the Devs - July 26th, 2019
Welcome to our third "Weekly Letter from the Devs!"

Population continues to rise!

With the announcement of the Steam release of LoA, we greatly anticipate that those numbers will continue to do so. We'll talk a little bit more about the Steam release below. We're continuing to see veteran players return and new players join weekly! Welcome and/or Welcome back! We're happy you're here! Let's jump right in with the Steam release and follow up with some quick updates from last week! You'll notice this weeks letter is a bit shorter than before, as our cups literally runneth over with things to complete prior to Steam launch. Speaking of which...

Steam
In case you haven't heard, Legends of Aria is launching on Steam on August 6th, 2019! They're taking some drastic changes (Consensual PvP, etc.) with their core game concepts, implementing new content, etc. A few notes at a high level:

- Just to reassure anyone that might have questions/doubts -- We'll NEVER bring Trammel. - We'll likely see an influx of players looking for the UO2 Experience and we want to ensure that access to LoU is as easy as possible for them. - There will be a new server build required by the Steam release in order for Steam players to seamlessly join LoU. We will be acquiring this from CS ASAP. - Once we receive this updated build from CS, we will begin work towards migration to this update (full testing, etc.) and make you aware when it's available. - When made aware, players will need to update their client via the Launcher to get the latest client update.

The next few weeks our team will be VERY busy testing, tweaking, bug fixing, etc. to prep for Steam, as well as work on killing our backlog of bug reports and suggestions. We're also heavily researching an issue that is leading to server crashes. We'll continue to monitor and address accordingly. More to follow in the next few weeks.

Dexxer Balance
This week was the first rollout of balances to put Dexxers back on the right path.

- Melee Hit Chance has been increased in PvP/PvE - Parry Block Chance has been increased in PvP/PvE - Parry Damage Reduction has been increased in PvP/PvE - Floating damage numbers have been added overhead to display damage visually during combat

These changes make Dexxers (both 2-handed and Sword and Board) much more viable in both PvP AND PvE immediately. We will continue to work on Round 2 of Dexxer Balancing, which will include further balancing based on observed data gathering and detailed feedback.

Additional changes for Dexxer balance in the future (Round 2) include:

- Set Bonuses for heavy armor - Proper Damage scaling in PvP AND PvE - Weapon skills in PvP AND PvE

Round 2 will take longer to get things where we want them, so we're going to be silent on this for a while until we have more to show/tell. More to follow later.

Lastly, as part of Round 1 of the Dexxer Balance pass, Mages got a nice buff to Mana Regeneration as well:

- Mana Regeneration Increased, where meditation in Leather Armor is much more viable (PvP/PvE).

PvP Build Variety/Viability

We'll touch on this topic just briefly this week. The changes to Dexxers is definitely a step in the right direction towards making 2H and Sword and Board Dexxers viable as build options in PvP. As mentioned in the section above, we continue to test Weapon Skills, Damage Scaling, etc. internally. As mentioned above, expect us to go silent on this topic for a while as we continue to work on things internally. We will definitely share more when we have more concrete information to show and tell.

Upcoming Events
(World Event) Starts at 10AM EST/2PM UTC on July 27th

This event will reward unique rare loot, a transcendence scroll, and more! and culminates in the opening of Covetous!

In the aftermath of recent events, we have reports of Moon Magic weakening across the land. Magic that was once very powerful seems to be weakening at a rapid rate. The Moonglow Mage Council has called upon the Elder Mages in Wind to investigate the magical mystery. Indeed, some unknown force is disturbing the balance of magic in the world, and we must band together to discover the true cause, before it's too late...

Our last event changed things significantly in Sosaria. We're just starting to fully understand the ramifications of the events that took place in the deserts of Nujel'm. We hope you will join us!

LoU House/Prefab Design Contest (Staff Judges) moved to August 2nd! (We wanted to ensure that the Go-Live event for Covetous (as well as the dungeon itself) was as polished as possible, so we had to adjust the timing of this event.)

1. Custom Housing Design (3 Screenshots Maximum Per House). 2. Custom Prefab/Grouped Items Design (3 Screenshots Maximum Per Prefab). 3. Special Players Choice Awards for #1 and #2 (Winner Earns Extra Reward).

Multiple House and Prefab Submissions are allowed, but only 1 Winner per Category. All Awards are issued by Staff, and Event is over August 2nd. Screenshot Submissions will take place after the Event ends. New Discord Channel will open for Submissions and Staff/Player Choice Voting Begins.

New Player Experience (NPE) (and crafting)
In light of the recent news from CS related to their upcoming build for Steam with new features/systems to support the New Player Experience, we've decided to adjust our approach for release related to our NPE.

NPE Phase 1 - Releasing this week
- All four levels of the sewers will be re-opened. - The entrances to the sewers will be restricted to Young Only. - Moon Travel Magic (Mark, Recall, and Gate Travel) will no longer work in the sewers. - Adjusted Loot Tables for Sewers Mobs - Young only vendors will be added at the entrance to each level of the sewers, providing starter gear to Youngs for NPE tokens, as well as one Young only vendor in Britain to buy any remaining NPE tokens a young player has after finishing the sewers. - Changes to restrictions for youngs as called out in the 7-12-19 edition of the Weekly Letter from the Devs (https://legendsofultima.gamepedia.com/Developer_Notes#Weekly_Letter_from_the_Devs_7-12-2019)

In light of the upcoming new system changes, etc. in the new build from CS for Steam that we believe we can adopt and adapt, resulting in a much more robust NPE for LoU -

Phase 2 rollout
Will include:
 * 1) A Quest system that can be utilized in various areas of the game
 * 2) A profession based "quest" system that can be used to help incentivize and guide crafters a bit more in their professions

In combination with #2, we will likely see the long awaited crafting BOD system roll out with crafting getting some serious attention around the same general time frame. More to follow on this.

The decision to postpone the questing implementation wasn't an easy one, but ultimately, it makes the most sense.

Phase 2 rollout will be in the semi-near future, after LoA's Steam release.

Veteran's Rewards/Dungeons/Bug Fixes/QoL/Etc
Veteran's rewards are still on track for next month. Expect a number of cool items to choose from, including some items that players have requested repeatedly, like Soulstones to store leveled skills, Commodity Deed Boxes to allow redemption of commodity deeds in your house, and much requested dedicated Treasure Map storage!

The team has been hard at work prepping Covetous for it's release. Lots of hard work and planning has gone into the design and execution for what is surely going to be a fun experience! We can't wait for you to experience all of it!

At launch, Covetous will have a boost to skill gains in the dungeon.

QoL updates have recently rolled out including:


 * When you place an object from a deed, the deco menu will automatically pop up now
 * When you lock down an object, the deco menu will automatically pop up now
 * If you use lock down on an already locked down object, the deco menu will automatically pop up now
 * When you place an object from a deed, it will automatically become your current deco target rather than needing to change target to it

Bug Fixes rolling out this week (or have already rolled out include):


 * The Artifact, Stimwalt's Shield of Concentration, will now properly add AR. The drop rates for this item have also been adjusted accordingly.
 * A hotfix resolving a bug with magic not dealing damage has been resolved.
 * A fix to combat audio.

Over the next few weeks you will see our team focus heavily on testing the new build, bug fixes, QoL improvements, and promotion in an effort to ensure that new players (as well as current players of LoA who are looking for an alternative with the upcoming changes to the base game) are aware and informed about our server. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to report bugs/suggestions!

Last but not least, heavy discussion and development around the Britannia Map, Housing, and all that comes along with it (moving, in-game costs, balance, etc.) is occurring.

The team is hard at work on QoL updates, hotfixes, mob balances (I'm looking at you poison and AR), loot table balances, new loot and item creation, map and custom asset creation, (including Britannia, new dungeons, etc.) putting together upcoming events, testing for steam, etc. The list goes on and on!

Please keep in mind that none of us are paid to do this. We are all volunteers doing this with our free time. This is a labor of love for us and for our community. Keep the feedback coming. We ARE listening. We'll have more next week. For those of you who want to provide feedback in a written format, not in discord, please submit it in game via suggestions. We really do review every single submission.

Until next week -- Cheers!

Turtle, The Development Team, and Staff

Weekly Letter from the Devs - July 19th, 2019
Welcome to our second "Weekly Letter from the Devs!" Population continues to be on the rise. We're starting to see more veterans return and more new faces join us. For those of you rejoining us, Welcome back! and for those of you who are new, Welcome! We're glad you're here! Let's jump right in with a few quick updates from last week's letter.

New Player Experience
We're just a few days out from completion. Specifically we're tuning the quest system and testing. While we hate to push back delivery on this a few days, realistically the work we do now to iron out the quest system will be utilized in a LOT of other areas, (yes, you can expect questing to start making an appearance, along with some really fun storylines with cool and interesting rewards) so it makes sense to get it right the first time. We also realize that this will be the first experience for our new players that are joining the game, so we want to make sure it's a great one! The Sewers NPE will release next week. Just to answer a few questions and touch on some of the comments members of the community have made in chat recently...

- There will be a dedicated NPE vendor in the sewers for Youngs to purchase starter gear using specific tokens they earn in the sewers.

- Quests will be designed around teaching some of the basics -- such as creating and using bandages, for instance. (This is direct feedback from players on what they'd like to see)

- Once players are finished in the sewers, they will be able to take any remaining NPE tokens and trade them into a vendor in exchange for some gold to get them on their way. (Yes, we've thought this through. No, it won't be worthwhile to keep making youngs to farm tokens to get gold. The rate of return won't be worth it.) Keep in mind, after this initial release, we'll continue to evaluate the NPE and make adjustments accordingly. We want players to come, have a solid starting experience, and want to stick around and explore the world!

PvP Build Variety/Viability
Still heavily under discussion and lots of things in testing! Just a few quick updates here with more to come over the next several weeks: 1. Silk's still actively reviewing pets to ensure that we're not looking at Pokemon battles, while still ensuring that tamers are viable. Once TC comes back up, please continue to test and provide feedback in the #test-feedback-reports channel. (This is really the BEST way to have your voice heard on this topic and to help us get the balance right!) 2. Testing on damage scaling for PvP (and PvE), weapon procs, gathering bonuses, etc. is all continuing as previously discussed. Right now the focus has been on identifying our potential options for damage scaling for all abilities between PvE and PvP, including the proper way to do that without potentially having to overhaul a TON of our systems on the back-end. (If we determine that's the best way to do it, we will. If there's a better, more efficient and agile way that we identify, you'd better believe we'll go that route.) More updates on progress/next steps next week. Definitely take a look at the Dexxer Balance update below as well, because some of it applies to PvP!

Dexxer Balance
Stimwalt was lucky enough to have the opportunity to extend his vacation, so he was away a little longer than anticipated, but will be returning well-rested! That being said, I was able to catch up with the wizard and get some more information to provide on this topic! Keep in mind, all of this is still under development, so it is subject to change. First and foremost, in UO, dexxers were able to go toe to toe with a dragon and solo it, with difficulty. It required the right gear and some proper planning. That's the direction we're heading. Numbers are still to follow, as testing continues internally. You can expect that when these changes are ready, we'll have them on Test Center for a solid amount of time for everyone to review and provide feedback. All that being said, in internal testing these changes have already made Dexxers MUCH more enjoyable to play in both PvE and PvP!

1. PvE - Set Bonuses for full sets of heavy armor of the same type. (plate, plate, plate or chain, chain, chain for instance) have a high % change to block weapon specials from Mobs. (Get your forges going blacksmiths!)  Your heavy armor repels the [insert mob here]'s attack with an overhead indicator of Repel

2. PvE AND PvP - Hit Chance for dexxers is being increased.

3. PvE AND PvP - Parry Damage Reduction is being increased.

4. PvE and PvP - Parry Chance is being increased. These changes will ensure that Dexxers hit more often, full heavy armor of the same type will provide incoming damage reduction from MOBS, and parry is going to get buffed for both parry chance AND damage reduction, providing sword and board dexxers a solid chance of competing in both PvE AND PvP. This will also stimulate the blacksmithing market, so you won't run into that issue of...hmmm "Where do I go to buy a kryss?" More to follow on this next week!

Now, let's jump right into some NEW updates!

Upcoming Event
Saturday 20th July, 10am EST, 2pm UTC ''"A dark aura has descended over the ancient ruins in the desert. The cultists that previously called this place home have disappeared, and a mysterious magical force has taken root in their place.  Walls of pure energy are preventing access to the ruins, and adventurers report that their travelling magicks no longer work in the area. Residents of nearby Nujel'm tell tales of the sudden appearance of clouds encasing the peaks, crackling with energy, only to watch them disappear again at a moment's notice.  Some even say that on a clear night, maniacal laughter can be heard floating on the wind.  Whispers among the townsfolk are such that they consider this a portent of death and evil." In the recent weeks, there have been reports of travellers on the roads near the ruins going missing, never to be seen again. An increase in the frequency of magical activity on the mountain has been noted by scouts patrolling the nearby areas. Petitions to the Royal Council in Britain for assistance have gone largely unanswered. Strange blue crystal obelisks have appeared in the area around the ruins, their purpose remains unknown. The residents of Nujel'm live in constant fear of what may come, and there is talk among them of departing the area for greener pastures if someone doesn't do something, and soon!"'' This event will change Sosaria as we know it. We hope you will join us! (This event will reward some server unique loot, very rare loot, rare new deco, etc.)(edited)

Dungeons
If you hang around in discord recently you'll hear plenty of discussion around dungeons. Up until now, we've been dependent on LoA maps for everything and we've been modifying and making things work the best we can. As many of you know, we've got one heck of an art team...So things are about to change, drastically But don't just take my word for it -- have a look for yourself... https://youtu.be/asbuE_ACdeY That's right! COVETOUS is coming VERY VERY soon ...with some INCREDIBLY RARE new artifacts, new deco, new loot, etc!

Oh and a few other things to note...

- No marking in Covetous - No recall in Covetous

- Increased skill gains in Covetous As an aside, in the semi-near future, expect that travel magicks will no longer function in dungeons at all. Also, yes, we will be adding skill gains to other dungeons in the near future, likely on a rotating basis. For now, we're starting with Covetous! We definitely want players to have the incentive to go out into the world and level their skills but still have the choice to macro if they so choose. We want dungeons to be challenging! (LFG Covetous!) We want dungeon crawls to feel epic! For classic dungeons, we want to capture that feeling of UO Nostalgia, while remaining true to our vision of improving what came before. For new dungeons, we look forward to building an incredible experience for all of you from scratch! More to come on dungeons over the next couple of weeks and yes, for those of you who are wondering, the Brit map is moving right along! And yes, the rumors are true, it IS closer than you probably think.

Factions
Organized PvP has been a hot button issue and is regularly asked about by our PvP players. We hear you! We want meaningful, fun, faction oriented warfare with PvP AND PvP elements. So, here's what we're working on...


 * We're working on adapting CS's faction warfare system for our use. CS did a solid job on their faction system (kudos to them on that) and we think it offers a lot of value.  We're working on adapting it for our use, alongside the work that Nek and Stimwalt have done previously. This will provide PvE and PvP elements to our faction warfare system and give all players the chance to play a part in faction warfare!  It will also add a breadth of content for faction players.
 * We're building out meaningful faction benefits and bonuses, exclusive faction-only decorations, tamer pets, recipes, etc.
 * We're working on other new and fun faction warfare related PvE/PvP activities, which will give both types of players an enjoyable experience. Much more to come on this in the next few weeks as this initiative moves forward.

Veteran Rewards
Last but not least, Veteran Rewards are coming. We're putting on the final touches and expect them to be active next month. We've got some really cool stuff and can't wait to release it to you all!

Misc

 * We're putting together a "Monthly Angler" Fishing Event! More to come on this in the next few weeks!
 * We've heard feedback related to wanting more small group (3-5) player content that is challenging and requires planning, CC, etc. We hear you. Patience please.
 * Gorgan is back up and running and we're excited to have him back in the swing of things!
 * Alys has been hard at work with me on the NPE, the awesome event this weekend, and getting Covetous ready. Thanks, Alys!
 * Stimwalt has been on vacation but is back and is continuing his work on Dexxer balancing, as well as working on multiple promotions, and getting Covetous ready. Welcome back, Stimwalt!
 * R-41 and our art team have been hard at work building a ton of new custom assets, working on the Brit map, and getting Covetous built and ready. Thanks, R and team!
 * Sentinel is back in the swing of things and the deco master has been hard at work getting Covetous ready. Welcome back, Sentinel!
 * Aniceset has been working on getting more publicity for LoU. More to announce on this in a few weeks!
 * I've (Turtle) been working on the quest system, NPE, Factions, and getting Covetous ready.
 * Silk has been continuing to tune pets, testing the awakening system from CS, and working on factions. Thanks, Silk!
 * We continue to test the Awakening system from CS. Expect to see it utilized in game in the near future. Next week we'll provide updates on items above and give you more info on Veteran's rewards. Please keep in mind that none of us are paid to do this. We are all volunteers doing this with our free time.  This is a labor of love for us and for our community.  Keep the feedback coming. We ARE listening. Much more next week.  For those of you who want to provide feedback in a written format, not in discord, please submit it in game via suggestions. We really do review every single submission.

Until next week -- Cheers!

Turtle, The Development Team, and Staff

Weekly Letter from the Devs - July 12th, 2019
Welcome to our first "Letter from the Devs!" Our community has been loud and clear that you want more information and we hear you LOUD and CLEAR. So let's get started. There's been a lot of talk about population recently.

One of the most common questions we get is "How many players are online?" While we don't release numbers, I'm pleased to report that there has been a steady increase to active player count week over week and month over month. Our community IS growing! :) With that being said, we've heard a lot of feedback from the community lately about players who have stopped playing due to the New Player Experience (Young), due to the current state of PvE dexxer balance and survivability, and due to the lack of viable PvP build variety. Let's address those.

New Player Experience(NPE):
The feedback received, both from veterans AND new players is that we need a much better NPE. New Players want to learn about how the game and the world work, build their skills to a decent level in an environment for them, and feel the progression of their character in a fun and meaningful way. We also need to ensure that players are not abusing Young status, such as during events, to try and grab loot, etc. What's the plan to address it? 1. We're going to start by re-opening the sewers as the New Player Experience Dungeon. The entrances will only be accessible by players with Young status. The sewers will be no-recall and no-mark zones. They will be four levels of progressively harder content for Youngs to fight through, learn the basics of skills, and advance their skills in an environment that has been built for them for this exact purpose.

2. We're redoing the mobs and the loot tables in the sewers to provide a more controlled, better NPE. The loot will be tied into the Young's progression through the sewers and provide them with tokens that can be turned in at a special Young only vendor, located in the sewers, for gear and provisions they need as they adventure through the dungeon and get their feet wet.

3. We're going to add in some simple questlines to provide some flavor and some guidance for youngs on the basics of some of the key skills in LoU (how to make bandages from cloth, etc.). 4. We're capping skill gains in the sewers to 70. Any young wanting to progress their skills past that point will need to venture out into the world.(edited)

5. We're also making a slew of other changes to Young status including: - Restricting youngs abilities to interact with event teleporters, unless they are for young only events. - Removing the ability for pets/summons to attack young players. - Removing the ability for young players to be targeted with offensive spells or be attacked by other players. - We're removing the ability for young players to cast beneficial spells on anyone without young status. (thereby removing the potential for a young player to sit back and be an untargetable healer.) - Removing the ability for youngs to take actions that impact notoriety against other players. 6. We want to lean a bit more away from the macro approach for new characters, so we'll be making some tweaks to dungeons in the near future, including increased skill gains! More on this next week. So the next logical question is when? Alys and myself (Turtle) have been working hard on this over the last few days and I'm pleased to say that the majority of this is completed/almost completed. We'll continue tweaking mobs/loot/and building out the quest work over the next week and if all goes as planned, will hopefully have the new NPE ready for testing (and maybe even release!) towards the end of next week. (7/19'ish) If anything changes, you'll hear what and why in next week's update.

Lack of PvP Build variety/viability:
We hear you loud and clear. You want more potential build options that are viable. You want weapon procs for dexxers. You want Tamers to have a chance defending themselves and not just be PK loot pinatas without the PvP game turning into Pokemon. We're with you! So, here's where we're at with it currently...

1. Silk has been actively working on balancing pets for PvP and getting our values closer to parity with UO. Some of these changes are on the Test Center right now and we could REALLY use your help testing and providing us with quality feedback!

Tamed pets:

- Speed that pets will follow at while owner is on foot. Decreased

- Speed that pets will follow at while owner is mounted. Decreased

- Speed that pets will chase stuff to attack. Decreased

- Pet melee hits raised from 2 to 70% of their base dmg against players.

Pet attribute changes:

- Brood Mother armor reduced from 25-35 to 11-15

- Dragon armor increased from 11-20 to 25-30

- Nightmare Magic resist raised from 70-90 to 90-100

- Nightmare have gained Wrestling skill 80.5-95

- Nightmare Melee Skills raised from 60-80 to 90-100

- Vorpal Bunny(VB) control slot requirement lowered from 5 to 4

- VB Armor reduced from 25-30 to 5-10

- VB HP reduced from 417-654 to 316-360

- VB will now properly stealth as a tamed pet.

- VB AI speed increased from Medium to Fast.

Added: Rare blue dragon hue. Test center has spawners for Brood Mother, Dragon, Mare and VB in Green Acres

Please provide your feedback in short, detail driven sentences in the #test-feedback-reports channel. We appreciate all of your time and quality feedback!

2. We're actively investigating (testing) and discussing (at GREAT length) passive weapon procs, damage scaling PvP/PvE, and multiple potential options to diversify builds further using a variety of potential options. Let's be abundantly clear, this is something that we need all of you to be patient with us on. We can't just enable a bonus to PvP without figuring out balancing appropriately, 'lest we just screw everything up. Here's a bit more information...

- We're working on ways to scale all damage properly and have everything function for PvP AND PvE. This is a LONG path and will take some time. PLEASE be patient with us.

- We're looking into ways to diversify builds for PvP. T2A combat has been our base. It doesn't mean that it's where we have to stay, and it won't be. We're not looking for straight parity with UO (It was never perfect, in any era, regardless of nostalgic memories.) We're looking for better. This takes time, but it's actively being worked on.

- We're evaluating all of the potential options (bonuses for gathering skills like Mining/Lumberjacking, bonuses for Inscription, etc.) It's a BIG challenge and it's NOT easy to balance properly. We are trying to evaluate the best way to do this. We'll have more on this over the next few weeks.

PvE Dexxer Balance:
Before anything else, let's just make it clear that Stimwalt took a much needed and well deserved vacation with his family, so this has been BRIEFLY on-hold. (Remember, we're all volunteers doing this in OUR free time, so it's important for us to take breaks and recharge as well. That's how we bring you our best work!) That being said, we are WELL AWARE that Dexxers need love in PvE and it's coming! Expect much more information on this in next weeks update once Stimwalt is back. That being said, some of the changes that I'm aware of include...

- Benefits for wearing full plate (absorption, defense)

- Adjusting hit rates (a little less whiff and a little more smack!)

- Benefits for sword and board (more survivability and damage absorption, yes please!)

I realize that this isn't the breadth of information you all want, but I'm asking you to please be patient. We've heard your feedback, understand the issue, and we're actively working on it. We'll have a lot more from Stimwalt on this topic next week as he gets back in the swing of things. The work he's already put in looks VERY promising!(edited)

Ok a few last things to touch on...

Misc:
- Gorgan has been out of commission lately due to a critical hardware failure in his system. He's got a new system and should be back up and running early next week, once the rest of the required components are in place. We look forward to his return!

- Quenton and Alys have been hard at work answering pages, squashing bugs that are causing errors and crashes, and helping moderate discord and answering questions. We appreciate all of their hard work!

- R-41 has been hard at work on the new map, building all sorts of things to bring you Britannia at it's finest! We greatly appreciate his hard work and efforts!

- Additionally, the rest of our art team is working on building out wonderful custom assets, like our custom arena for PvP events, and a LOT more! They keep new deco, loot, etc. coming on a regular basis! Cheers all!

(The team is also heavily in discussion on the topic of transferring to the new map, how to make that experience as seemless and enjoyable as possible, and a large number of other topics related to the new map, new dungeons, etc. Oh, did I mention new dungeons...more on that in a future update!)

- Aniceset has been out of the office for vacation. Rest assured, you'll start to see more interaction and more planned events coming in the future. She's also been hard at work organizing some great things for the server including promoting our server with partnerships with some known streamers etc.

- Nek's been taking a well-deserved break. We look forward to his return!

- Sentinel's been taking a well-deserved break as well. We look forward to his return!

- We're testing a new champion utilizing the "Awakening" System from CS as well. This will be end-game group oriented...so keep your eyes peeled and bring your friends!

- Also there's an upcoming event. on the 20th..check out the #📅events channel for more details! There's SO much more to talk but we're going to wrap this up for now. Next week we'll have updates on the topics covered above as well as more information on the plan for factions! Also please keep in mind, we're all volunteers who do this with our free time. None of us get paid. This is a labor of love for us and for our community. Keep the feedback coming. We ARE listening. Much more to come next week. Cheers, Turtle, the Development Team, and the Staff

Crafting
Q: From @Krixsus - Why is it that crafted gear feels so inferior, compared to magic gear? Valorite should be powerful. Can we expect some changes in this area? (Also from @Huntoctober (Blame Cool Beans) -- Can we please get base damage and armor modifiers on tiered weapons and armors crafted to make higher tier more viable and worthwhile for more than just durability?)

A: Gorgan -- We always want crafters to be the first choice for purchasing goods. We need to get ways for crafters to have higher chances of making slayers/possibly magic gear. Perhaps enchanters could have a higher chance. Runics should be a thing at some point, perhaps that's how we'll make it all come together.

Stimwalt -- We have discussed possibly giving higher ore types increased damage/armor bonuses, so they aren't simply just durability. I would be in favor of doing this, as it just makes sense that a tougher metal would provide more damage/armor. --

Q: From @Huntoctober (Blame Cool Beans) - What about adding different tiers of arrows with damage bonuses on them, like basic arrow + 1 damage and then scale up?

A: Stimwalt -- I'm not in favor of unbalancing Archery with damage bonuses, but we could introduce tiered arrows using different wood types, which give the user a % chance to recover an arrow (i.e. a chance to not reduce the stack -1)

Quenton -- It's much more likely that we would see different types of bows created by fletching than different arrows with additional bonuses to damage, so as not to unbalance Archery. Suggestions for new types of bows as well as how they'd work (types of bonuses, etc.) would be something we'd like to investigate further for fletching, so long as they're different options rather than creating more powerful options than the existing archery weapons.

-- Q: From @Huntoctober (Blame Cool Beans) - What about work orders? What kind of system will you guys do? Any ETA on that or the rewards in mind? Will it be the same as official or will you go with a different system? Will it offer gold plus decor, or something else entirely?

A: Gorgan -- Yes, Bulk Order Deeds (BODs) are on the list. Not many firm plans yet. Similar to UO's system, I would assume.

Stimwalt -- We definitely want to introduce Bulk Order Deeds, which was a thing in UO, giving crafters a good reason to create large quantities of a certain item, for a chance at rare crafted goods and/or gold.

-- Q: From @[DoW] MikeyMac87 - Will we ever get our black sandals and straw hats? I'm starting to get a bit worried?

A: Gorgan -- No idea where this is at on the art list.

Quenton -- We have an artist wishlist for hats; straw hats is definitely on it among the other UO standards. I'll have a better look into the footwear options.

Stimwalt -- I'm not certain what is possible from our Art team, but if it is possible, we can certainly add these to the ever-growing list of assets the Art team is building. --

PvP
Q: From @[RIP] Dulaman -- What's with the Abyss dungeon Andi was working on? Do the devs have access to this project? Where are we at on the UO Map progress?

A: Gorgan -- UO Map progress can be viewed periodically when @ᚱ-41 posts progress screenshots or updates in Discord.

Stimwalt -- Abyss has been put on hold for now, but we still have access to this project. The UO map is being developed right now and there has been amazing progress in the last few weeks. No ETA on completion, but keep your eyes on the #⭐patrons-club⭐ for more updates. --

Q: From @[DJs]👹Goratrix👹 -- Are we getting faction changes in the near future? If yes, what is the ETA? What is planned?

A: Gorgan -- Factions is an ongoing effort.

Stimwalt -- We recently released Faction Updates and the Moonglow Stone and Faction Towers are active and working. Please provide feedback on these systems as we look to expand and grow them.

--

Q: From @[RIP] Macky  -- When will Stimwalt pickup his Hally and take some heads again?

A:  Stimwalt -- I have a few major projects to work on first, mainly the new promotional LoU video, before I pickup my hally and give you guys a chance at my head!

-- Q: From @[DoW] MaxDes -- Will we ever see the ability to war a guild like in UO? I think this helps with both PVP as a whole and even adds opportunity for those out there that want to roleplay or create temporary events.

A: Gorgan and Stimwalt -- We've recently introduced the Guild War features. This is definitely something that we will look to continue to add to and adapt for our vision of what we see Guild Wars being for LoU.

-- Q: From @Dutchram -- What are your thoughts on perma statloss for reds?

A: Gorgan -- You still have to kill the red to get them to suffer the stat loss. Isn't temporary enough?

Stimwalt -- I'm in favor of giving Reds temporary Stat/Skill loss, and increasing the time from only 8 hours to something more in line with UO, where each count plays into a formula. The idea of forcing Reds to macro due to permanent stat/skill loss is a part of UO nostalgia that I don't want to see again, as it removes players from playing the game and encourages buying several accounts to work around the system. If players simply have to wait, they are less likely to quit. However, we are open-minded and if that ends up being the best option for the greater community, we would strongly consider implementing "something" like it.

-- Q: From @[DoW] MaxDes -- As much as this server is trying to stick to T2A combat, any possibility to add paralyzing blows and other passive weapon skill procs to PvP?

A: Gorgan -- Yes. It is a planned feature.

Stimwalt -- Yes - we are looking at adding passive procs to 2-handed weapons. The tricky part is making sure it doesn't unbalance PvP. We are also discussing making Sword-and-Board warriors have a little more survivability in PvE, as currently Tamers or Bards are best, due to Pet Meat shields and provoking monsters onto each-other. Nothing is decided yet, but we want players to wear Full Plate and currently there is no compelling reason to use that Armor Type in PvE or PvP, which is obviously not the intention. --

PvE
Q: From @Samhain61 - Treasure hunters will hate this, but any plans for Remote Trap Skill? The telekinesis spell will not open a trapped chest or tinker made trapped boxes. In UO, a stealth/LP/Remove Trap character was fun. The lowest dungeon chests were valuable and players farmed the mobs and chests. What say you?

A: Gorgan -- Yes, the Remove Trap skill will be a thing when we add traps (tinker traps AND other kinds of static traps). (:turtle: Yes - Tinker Traps confirmed.)

Stimwalt -- I believe we recently made changes to Telekinesis and Remove Trap, where it will spring the trap and not deal damage to you if you have enough distance and low level traps can be removed. Please provide feedback otherwise if these are not working properly and we'll take another look. --

Q: From @[TWD] Pikachu  -- Will we ever have a section of map for non-pvp events at all, where events can be held and not have to watch our backside? (Note: where guards don't spam guards all day is good too.)

A: Gorgan -- The closest you will find to "No-PvP" currently is guarded zones.

Stimwalt -- We could certainly have PvE protected events that are outside of town. We will add this to the Event schedule, but we likely won't have a dedicated area where Guards Whack players that doesn't fit with UO lore.

Quenton -- I used to run quests back in the day that are VERY different from what you've seen here so far. If I run these again (or train someone else to do it), there'll be no world announcements, no gates from Britain, and NPCs in these quests will talk to you like they are real players. Since everyone in the world doesn't know the quest is going on, if a murderer shows up, it'll be a much more natural occurance and won't feel like an invitation to an ambush. That's just the tip of the iceberg...However, if I don't get a chance to run these types of quests again, perhaps we can borrow and utilize some of the elements from it down the road. --

Q: From @[RIP] Dulaman -- When will we get low tier abyss mobs back?

A: Gorgan and Stimwalt -- As we rebalance our dungeons, we expect to utilize more Abyss mobs. In the interim, I believe there's an imp stronghold that was recently formed that we'd recommend investigating... --

Skills
Q: From @Dutchram -- When will we get tracking?

A: Gorgan -- Now! --

Deco/Items/Effects
Q: From @[DoW] MaxDes  -- It would be sweet if we could put people's heads on a spear for decoration, not generic heads, but people's heads. Thoughts?

A: Gorgan -- Might be a possible thing we could add. For now, you can achieve this using the house deco tools.

Stimwalt -- Sure, we can likely make this a right-click "target head" command. Perhaps we would incorporate Carpentry or even Fletching to create the "Sharpened Poles", prepping them for a nice GREEN head. --

Q: From @Huntoctober (Blame Cool Beans) -- When will Tron suits and Ethereal Trolls return? Where are the flame and electrical swords, etc?

A: Gorgan -- Troll Mount will be coming back as soon as the client bug goes away (the name plate disappearing when being mounted on it) -- Flame and Electrical swords, I don't think they are in the assets any more.

Stimwalt -- Tron doesn't fit the UO lore or world, so we will likely never offer Tron. There was an issue with the Troll asset that forced us to remove them until it's sorted. We CAN make flaming and electric swords, but the Shards Online assets you're referring to are likely not available to us. --

Staff & Game Design Methodology
Q: From @[DJs]👹Goratrix👹 -- What happened to Andi? Is he still with the LoU team or is he gone for good?

A:  Gorgan and Stimwalt-- Andi is no longer with us. He decided to leave LoU permanently. We thank him for his efforts while he was on the team, but rest assured, you will never see Andi again on LoU Staff.

--

Q: From @[RIP] Macky  -- Do you take bets in your admin discord on which player will complain first about a new change? If so, who is the best at guessing?

A: Stimwalt -- Quenton makes side bets ALL the time. He usually wins too. No comment on the player's name!

--

Q: From @[WICK] Kestryl -- Is there or will there be a public "roadmap" with planned features and ETAs?

A: Gorgan and Stimwalt -- We don't have a public roadmap, mainly because we have been working on recreating UO, so whatever is missing has basically been the roadmap. That being said, after releasing Tracking and Stealing and Snooping, it may be a good idea to have something more formal put in place as we enter the realm of UO2. A roadmap would help clarify our vision and the transparency to our community would improve our feedback and make us more agile. (:turtle: Please keep in mind that we are all volunteers and work on this project in our free time, so ETAs for new features, etc. are hard to provide when we all know that life happens and things occur unexpectedly. Rest assured, we all love this project and work as quickly as we can to add more new content for all of you! )

--

Q: From @zemiq1982 - Is it possible to replace sounds in LoU? If so, will we ever get replacement sounds for sounds that get overused (like the bottle clinking?)

A: Gorgan -- It is not currently supported to change sounds.

Stimwalt -- There is currently not a reliable solution to replace sounds with UO sounds, unfortunately. Also, due to fair use law, we would have to use covers for all UO music, instead of the originals.

Turtle -- I wish there was support for this. I have experience doing sound work and would LOVE to record new sounds for all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately, it's not an option at this time.

--

Q: From @Huntoctober (Blame Cool Beans) -- Will we see loyalty rewards for the main age of the account/time played or maybe link it to crafting/combat with points earned to buy stuff -- similar to event tokens? (Also From @[DoW] MaxDes -- Will we see Veteran Rewards? )

A: Gorgan and Stimwalt -- Yes, we'll see Veteran Rewards. They're in development. We've talked about using accounta ge to determine Vet rewards and we've discussed a variety of potential options. --

Q: From @Dutchram  -- Any plan on allowing custom housing or timeline on housing with multiple levels?

A: Gorgan and Stimwalt -- Unfortunately, this is not supported at this time. We are restricted by what the platform allows us to do in terms of multiple floors.

Ask Me Anything, 2018
An earlier AMA was held on an older LoU reddit, but we have since lost all access to it.