Client Patch 2 - Nov 29th, Restoring Britannia's Waterways

Note: This client patch will be available via the Launcher after the next server patch that is due out before the UO:R Christmas 2019 events start

Overview:

Following Client Patch 1 that addressed map issues left behind by OSI (black holes, other tile issues), a project was launched to transform the waterways and shorelines near populated areas here on UO:Renaissance into what the original Ultima Online developers envisioned before scrapping the idea due to time constraints.

From a blog post by Raph Kostner titled, "How UO rares were born", he explains:

The "halo" he refers to is what you can see it on the Radar Map, around the coastline.



Up close, it looks like this with the static water tiles enabled and disabled:



Here'e a screenshot from Ultima Online Alpha (Serpent's Hold) showing off what they were at least envisioning:



Details:

The project focused primarily on the following areas with the goal of enabling translucent water tiles took advantage of the trenches Raph Kostner referred to above. While Ultima Online is full of water, since the process to convert can be time consuming the initially focused on are areas thought to have enough foot traffic to see the changes such as:

• All towns in Britannia (including docks, waterways, moats, in-house pools -- anything with water)
  • Including all of the waterways in Vesper, Trinsic, Britain, Serpents Hold & Bucs Den.
• Moongates (if near the sea)
• Every lake found throughout the land
• All bridges that cross over water
• Many of the rivers where player housing can exist

The process entailed the following steps:

• Transforming all the brown areas in the trench with sand, dirt or rock depending on the coastline type
• Removing all the non-translucent water tiles covering the trench
• Click and draw the shorelines one at a time, placing the different tile puzzle pieces to match the curves of the coastline
• Click and draw out all the new water tiles to fill in the newly drawn coastlines
• Change the elevation under the now exposed coastline so remove the flat look
• Click and draw dirt or sand within the different elevation to show the depth
• Add underwater deco, depending on the water type (fresh or sea) such as rocks, sea rocks and plants, sea weed, fish
  • NOTE: Look out for sunken boats and other subtle deco pieces under the water!
• Fix all the dock posts and add shading effect under them
• Review each area and fill in any areas that may have been overlooked

For those interested, here is a small sample of the process:







Result:

Only a few of the changes have been captured in these screenshots:

A view from the Britain and Ocllo docks:


The ancient remains of bridge and a view from vesper



A view from the Trinsic Park



A view from the Moonglow docks



Additional streams, rivers and coastlines will be converted in future patches. This is not the end of the effort, just the beginning.

Additional Map Updates:

In addition to the water changes above, the following changes were also made:

• Serpent's Hold and Cove's moongates are now part of the map.
• Removed the pink/black from the lava and rock formations in Britannia
• Fixed hundreds of shoreline and grass tile oddities. A few you may have noticed, the vast majority you won't. More exist out there, report them to me if you run across any.

*** If you spot any issues with the underwater deco, please let me know. Each client renders them a slightly different compared to the editor, so what might look good in the editor might not look as good in the client. ***

In case you missed the note on the top, this will be made available via the launcher when Telamon patches the server for the upcoming Christmas event.

This is required so you can fish and sail a boat on these tiles.

This looks so good, amazing work! Thank you!

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Wow, thats going to bring a whole new feel to the game. Great work.

Awesome job man...

OMG. Really well done.

Beast job! thanks

Anything new is good!

Am I the only one not so sure about this?

I get this may have been the original vision but this is not the UO look I grew up on.

I've received that feedback from a few people, it's a fair point and it's something I've thought about during the process.

For those who would prefer the original look, it would require some MUL patching but it is possible to still get the other map updates planned, but still have the non-translucent (super ugly, boring and flat) water tiles.

OR be on a Mac where none of these new client updates are available and you’re stuck with the “older look”

You can get the updates on Mac, you just need to copy the MUL files over manually.

Looks awesome! So this is ready for download now?

FYI im not sure if you know or if it has already been fixed or its because i havent upgraded yet, the last time i took the moongate to serps I was under the dock until i moved.

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Colour me corrected.
Thanks

Same...I noticed this.

After Telamon does the patch, I'll update the launcher. I could do it prior, but then folks won't be able to fish or place a boat on the new water tiles.

Good stuff.

I’m in love with this! Nice little enhancement without changing the dynamics of the game. Bravo.