Patch 88 - February 23rd, Client Patch Implementation! Quality of Life Fixes!

Client Patch 3

- This patch adds official support for Quick's client patch 3. To enjoy this new patch you will want to make sure you update your client.
- Information on updating your client can be found here.
- For more information on the amazing additions included in this client patch check Quick's post here.



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Boats

- Allowed boats to be docked without having to remove corpses from the deck.
- Fixed a problem that would stop boats from being able to be docked near coasts around the world.
Note: If you experience issues with docking a boat that cannot be explained, please contact a staff member.
- Boats should properly ignore any items beneath the boat when trying to dock it.
- Updated the ocean system to include the variety of new water tiles so boat travel will not be impacted. ​

Fishing

- Implemented the transparent water tiles for fishing.
Note: Due to the expanded coastlines in some areas the locations at which deep water starts for fishing and special nets will be altered. ​

Regions

- Implemented new nested regions for the expanded Ocllo content
- Implemented new nested regions for each major dungeon to separate the different levels.
Note: Players can now tell which dungeon level they are on using the where command.
- Each of these new regions will auto label runes marked in those locations.​

Tracking

- With the region changes tracking can no longer be used to find someone outside of the current dungeon level you are on.
- The results of a tracking attempt, while in a dungeon region, can only return players in that dungeon level.
- This change only affects player to player tracking. These restrictions do not exist for tracking non players. ​

New Player Program

- Updated the definitions of the new player program to contain all of the new content.
- This will resolve the problems players were having with being attacked by pirates while young.​

Carpet Master Tiles

- Added 24 new corner pieces to the selection list for platinum carpet tiles.
Any existing carpet master tile can be changes to these new variations.
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Copper System

- Players can now purchase expansions to their accounts allowing for a 6th and 7th character slot using copper coins.
Note: The additional slots require the use of the classic UO client. (We tried to shoehorn this into the 5.x client, but were unsuccessful).
- The additional characters work like normal but accounts will still have a limit of 5 houses per account.​

Housing System

- You can now add a co-owner to a home even if that player is already the owner of a home elsewhere.
- With the advent of the additional character slots home ownership is now restricted to 5 houses per account.
- It does not matter which characters own a house, as long as you do not own more than 5 houses.
- Once the account owns 5 houses you can no longer use a house deed or accept a house transfer.​

Well there is nothing to "return to" in the classic sense.

T2A mechanics allowed for tracking someone up to 100 tiles away with 100 skill. (overpowered)
UOR mechanics allowed for tracking someone 11-21 tiles away with 100 skill. (underpowered)

We initially went with the T2A mechanics, and that was a bit overpowered for a felucca server. Next we worked in range and skill based difficulty. That was a but under powered. This lands us somewhere in the middle until I have time for a better solution.

The long term plan is a better gump design for the system along with a gradient of tracking. Ergo say you track an area with 5 players in it. But rather than that being a complete success it is possible you might be aware of the specific details of 2 players close by. But the players father away would require either a secondary attempt to track or a targeted attempt to track. Much like how peacemaking works when you target a single creature vs an area of effect.

That's a rough idea, not a final plan. But it would remove some confusion about being unable to find people you know are there, while protecting players from an overpowered skill.

The gump is just terrible as well, that really needs to be updated. Its classic as it is, but so clunky.

Well breaking the dungeon levels into their own regions allows us to stop players from standing at a certain spot and tracking all 4 dungeons levels at once.

I would have rather fixed it completely, but I went with a temp fix to improve it for now. (Reduced range impact, and a 30% bonus chance to track)

Same system as before, just with improved chances to detect someone.

Tracking + Detect Hidden vs Hiding + Stealth factored against IsHidden and Range.

So if someone is hidden, with both hiding and stealth they will be much harder to detect.

But overall the chances were increased globally. This only affects player to player tracking. Player to monster tracking does not have a skill check (Which is why this got looked at in the first place) One of the few skills in UO that has zero skill checks by default. Its just skill = range.

You can just contact me on Discord. We are still finishing a few things with the system but it is roughly ready for player trials.

This is still just a temporary fix as I look deeper into tracking to see what we can do to perfect it. My two primary gripes with the system (personal, not policy) is that the gump design for it while classic, is just terrible to use. Additionally once you track someone and slap a tracking arrow on them it is very hard to escape.

There is some logic for the old T2A style of "your quarry is to the southeast" to balance things out, but not sure that is the right direction either. So once we dig into it more I will want to explore options for a classic, yet improved gump design.

Sure. Ergo why it is being reviewed. My plan down the road, along with the gump updates, is to improve the method in which players are detected by adding a middle ground detection. You can detect that there are 11 people in the area, 2 of them close enough to track successfully. For the other 9 it would require an additional skill check to try and track them directly. Or you could just do a general track again for a 2nd chance at finding their exact location.

Removing the frustration about not finding people but adding the proper skill checks between tracking and having a perma arrow pointing to someones location that could be 98 tiles away in another dungeon.

Keep in mind OSI realized how overpowered this was in UOR, and dropped the max tracking range to 20 tiles.