This thread at Stratics would indicated that people are picking up minor artifacts once again. It appears to have slipped in with the recent Origin publish. Trevelyan who first posted about it, noted that while on other shards you can still claim the major pigments, you cannot do so on Origin (you can get all of the other major artifacts). Over on this thread, Experimental reports that it’s shown up on Pacific as well (after the Pacific publish today.

Swords of Prosperity, Wind’s Edge, the Horselord, Kasa of the Raj-in, Tome of Lost Knowledge, Sword of the Stampede, Darkened Sky, Rune Beetle Carapace, and Stormgrip are all reported as available rewards for turning in minor artifacts, with no dyes available.

I don’t think it’s a mistake - it would seem strange that the dyes were the only major not available - if it was a mistake, you would think it would be all or nothing.

It could very well be that the dyes are going to be one of the special/unannounced (so far) gifts that comes with the 9th Anniversary (i.e. available as an item selection).

For more information, please see the Treasures of Tokuno FAQ

Pacific will receive the same publish that Origin did. From the UO.com Update/FYI page:

On Thursday, September 28, 2006, at approximately 12:00pm PDT (September 28 - 7:00PM GMT), we will be deploying a publish to the Pacific shard.

The update will contain the following changes:

* Shard stability fix
* Live event content

We expect the Pacific shard to remain offline for approximately one hour.

From the FYI Page at UO.com:

Origin to be Published Sep 28 2006 12:15AM GMT (PST +08:00)
On Wednesday, September 27, 2006, at approximately 6:00pm PDT (September 28 - 1:00AM GMT), we will be deploying a publish to the Origin shard.

The update will contain the following changes:

* Shard stability fix
* Live event content

We expect the Origin shard to remain offline for approximately one hour.

Will Ricardo get a fair trial? Will Casca, the first of the Elves to be participating in our modern legal system, be able to give him a fair defense, even though Casca is inexperienced when it comes to criminal defense matters? :iiam:

In honor of the 9th Anniversary this week, a brief look back at UO.

Arjuna_LS has posted a wonderful story with screenshots about the Trinsic Invasions at Stratics.

From UO.com:
- Two Year Anniversary: How UO has impacted your life
- A Brief Retrospective (1999)
- The Minax Interview
- Trinsic: Our Last Stand
- Third Anniversary Memories
- Looking Back: The Fourth Anniversary
- Fifth Anniversary Memories
- Sixth Anniversary Memories

Well, the debate may have finally been put to rest. Various pages on UO.com listed September 27, 2006 and, as the start date of Ultima Online, but apparently, that is not the case. According to Wilki, in this Stratics post:

Beta ended on September 23rd. While most Charter Edition players who pre-ordered and opted for overnight shipping didn’t get their box until the 25th, the servers were up on September 24th with a few players who obtained the game early playing, so that is the official launch date.

Wait, there’s more
UO.com - A Brief Retrospective (Sep 22, 1999) - SunSword comments

As many of you know, September 24th marks the second birthday of Ultima Online. This is a significant milestone in many aspects, perhaps not the least of which is the affirmation of the “100k+ Player Massively Multiplayer Online Game” as a viable long-term enterprise. The UO community continues to grow, and even as we approach the third year of service, our players have much to look forward to.

I remember taking off the 26th, which was a friday (I just checked again, it’s been a long time), to do some things, and actually received my Charter Edition that day and was able to login, but I had heard that the 27th was considered to be the first day. I wasn’t expecting it on the 26th (actually I can’t remember when I was expecting, just that I was expecting it before the end of the month).

Regardless, this week is the 9th Anniversary of Ultima Online :greatgift: :toot: and now we know the rest of the story.

Update: According to Wilki in this Stratics post, some information is still missing:

This is the problem with posting information here before we’ve officially announced it… the early buyer bonus information is missing, as well as international ordering information.

Both will be included in the 9th Anniversary Collection website that should be up this week.

Looks like Japanese Amazon had it right about the Personal Attendants.

According to the EA Store, the following are the official details for Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection:

* The Definitive Ultima Online Collection - Quest for adventure in one of the biggest, deepest MMORPGs in existence. The entire UO universe, including the content and features of seven expansion packs, is yours to explore.

* Embark on a Hero’s Journey - Hundreds of monsters to battle, human players to fight, treasures to hunt, artifacts to discover, real estate to claim, dragons to tame, powerful weapons to craft, fame to earn, fortunes to win, and much, much more.

* Exclusive Crystal and Shadow Housing Sets - Build a home of dark stone carved from the black depths of a demon-infested mountain. Or, create a gleaming castle with walls of crystal grown in magic fields with the help of specially trained mages.

* Command Your Personal Attendants - Four servants await your command: The Tarot Card Reader predicts your past and future. The Herald announces your noble presence. The Dealer rolls dice of all shapes and sizes, and The Guide makes sure you never get lost.

* Try It Today for Free - New accounts get 30 days of free gameplay with this package.

* Early Buy Bonus! - Purchase during the first 30 days of release and choose nine gifts from a selection of rare items from the history of Ultima Online. Select from more than 30 items including the Ultima Online 7th Anniversary gifts, Ultima Online 8th Age gifts, and a wide array of unique items, décor, and wearables.

You can also pre-order it at Amazon.com (note: as in the past, if the price drops at Amazon between now and then, as they sometimes do with specials/pre-orders, you will be charged the lower price, not the price that’s currently listed - $19.99)

Discuss in the Forums

Thanks to the three of ya who emailed this in. It almost feels like Christmas :santabeard:

In a thread about duping over at Stratics, Wilki had this to say about what they are going to do in regards to duped items and duping:

We’re going to do what we’ve planned to do all along. These colored shrouds and other items made via the “dog dupe” (all it’s various forms) are going to be addressed in a way that makes them available to all (minus the garish colors).

Since last week’s Week in Review (Sep 11 - 18) was well received, we are going to continue this series, and we are going to keep the same format - brief, one-line descriptions of each major news story from the previous week. One small change will be, it will cover from tuesdays through mondays, with each previous week’s summary being posted monday night or tuesday morning.

In-Game Fiction:
- Friday (Sep 22) - Elven Prosecutor Assigned to Ricardo’s Trial!
- Friday (Sep 22) - New Runes on UO.com
- Friday (Sep 22) - InuWiki moves to InuWiki.com

Game Updates:
- Wednesday (Sep 20) - Ultima Online 9th Anniversary doing fairly well at Amazon in pre-orders, despite few details having leaked out.
- Wednesday (Sep 20) - Wilki answered 50 questions
- Thursday (Sep 21) - Client Patch 5.0.4e (Login/Splash screens updated)
- Friday (Sep 22) - Five on Friday for September 22 - 9th Anniversary, Kingdom Reborn, Vamp Form, Talon Bites, Blackrock

Miscellaneous:
- Thursday (Sep 21) - Sosarian Tales is alive once more
- Friday (Sep 22) - PayByCash Custumors - Billing changes
- Monday (Sep 25) - Sosarian Voices Returns, Plus Show #30

Site News:
- Wednesday (Sep 20) - Searchable/Organized “Five on Friday” Finished

Sosarian Voices has returned.

This is actually their welcome back message from a few weeks ago:

Welcome back! Its been quite a while since SV was active and Lucid and I are glad to be back. We will be doing a monthly show to start out but with a twist. The first part of the show will be in the traditional SV format and the last half will be UO show, a story if you will . We are going to try and have guest readers from time to time as well as continue to do interviews with people from around the UO community.

They just released their 30th Podcast/show (and will be making their other shows available at some point in the near future).

Thanks to Dirk_LS for emailing us this.

Just an FYI, The Inu Wiki has seen so much traffic that they moved it to its own host, now located at www.InuWiki.com. The original site at BritanniaCartel.com will not be updated.

From the site owner, in a post on Stratics:

Yes, due to the tremendous amount of people viewing the wiki I needed to change hosts. Since it was included I also got a new domain name, http://www.inuwiki.com

Now to phase it so everyone will be getting the most current information, I will be putting links at the top of each page of the old site telling everyone of the move. That way if you have any individual page inside the wiki bookmarked it will let you know we’ve moved.

I will not be updating the old site, so the content will not be up to date, but soon I will have each link redirect to the new site, so people that don’t make new bookmarks will still get to the current information.

If there is any other way anyone can think to make for a smooth transition post in this thread, PM me, or ICQ me @8943010.

Also, as always, suggestions are more than welcome! Let me know what you’d like to see added or modified.