Big news - the UO dev team is growing by two people (sort of). Wilki is set to become a designer, and two “new” community people are coming into the UO fold (one appears to be new to EA Mythic, the other has been around for a while and has a good reputation with Dark Age of Camelot players).

From Update.UO.com:

I take great pleasure in the being the first to welcome our new Ultima Online Community Team - Sanya Thomas, who is our new Director of Community, and Jeremy Dalberg, who will be taking over the role of Community Coordinator. Over the next few weeks, I will be handing over the reins as I transition to a new position: UO Designer. I’m honored to be given the opportunity to join the storied ranks of developers who have contributed to this great game over the years, and I’m looking forward to working even more closely with everyone on this extremely talented and passionate UO Dev Team.

Finally, I’d like to thank you, the fans, for being so passionate about Ultima Online. It’s been my pleasure to serve you over the past two years. Long Live UO!

You can read Wilki’s farewell (as a community relations person) post at Stratics.

The sort-of-new members explain their roles in this Stratics thread:

I’m Sanya. I’m Mythic’s community weenie. Well, EA Mythic, which is actually how I got here in front of you today. Long story, one for another time.

MMO community work is what I love best. If you ever see me move to development like that crazy Wilki, it’s because someone tripled my salary and gave me access to naked grape-peeling dancing boys who bring me slushies on the hour, every hour. I’ve been doing this for five years, and the main thing I’ve learned (besides “consume frozen drinks slowly”) is when to shut up and leave things to the experts.

In the case of you guys, I’m going to let Jeremy (intro to follow in the next post) do the lurking and the posting, for the most part. She has been playing UO since launch, and loves this game the way I love Dark Age of Camelot. I’ll be advocating for you in the big picture, but Jeremy will actually be at development meetings representing you.

We have some stuff planned, tools for feedback, and things to celebrate you as individuals and as guilds. But this thread is about saying hello, and sniffing each other like deranged beagles. Tomorrow, we’ll start the real conversation.

Sanya M. Thomas
Director of Community Relations
(That isn’t as dirty as it sounds.)
EA Mythic

I’m Jeremy Dalberg, and I’m taking over Wilki’s spot as Community Coordinator for UO. (Wilki is Ascending to Dev status - see his post here.

Bit of background - I have been playing UO since December of ‘97, and actually moved to Austin to try to get a job at Origin several years ago. (Right before they moved to Cali - my timing ain’t so hot). Instead, I got started in Community in the music business - running a street team and band/label website for a tiny indy in Austin. Went from there to NCsoft, where I worked on just about all of their games, and when word came around that there was a spot on UO… well, I jumped at it.

This is a really exciting time for Britannia, and I’m thrilled beyond words to be able to be a part of it. I know that sounds horribly cheesy, but… well, it really does feel like I’m coming home.

E. Jeremy Dalberg
UO Community Coordinator
EA Mythic

As well from the UO newsletter, we get to welcome back a designer from years past - they are moving from the Past UO Developers to the Current UO Developers pages here at UOCodex.

Design team welcomes back Leurocian

The design team seems to be getting bigger all the time. In fact, just this week a familiar face took up residence in UO dev team bullpen, Patrick “Leurocian” Malott. Along with design lead Nick “DragonHead” Corea, senior designer Tim “MrTact” Keating, invasion architect Tim “Draconi” Cotten and builder of worlds Mike “Czarzane” Flinchum, this band of merry men are busy designing Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn and adding to each and every live publish. And there’s more to come! Two more designers are on the way to help with the slate of projects we have planned. If you listen close, you can almost hear the hum of all those imaginations at work.

Developers Mentioned (Our UO Developer Pages):
- Patrick “Leurocian” Malott
- Nick “DragonHead” Corea
- Tim “MrTact” Keating
- Tim “Draconi” Cotten
- Mike “Czarzane” Flinchum

Before now, we had not seen mention of Nick “DragonHead” Corea - he comes from EA, having worked on several of the Jane’s Combat Simulations, as well as some of the James Bond/007 Titles as a level designer and artist, and with a tie to Origin/EA - he worked on Wing Commander III. Leurocian was a designer on Samurai Empire and Mondain’s Legacy.

This is great news indeed - this reaffirms my belief that 2007 will be one of the biggest years UO has had since its launch.

Among the other tidbits contained in the UO newsletter today (some of the big ones being the new Kingdom Reborn information I posted earlier):

From The Pen of Darkscribe

There has never been a more exciting time to work on UO. Maybe back in 1997, when we were about to launch the game that would launch a genre, there might have been the sense of excitement and discovery we’re feeling now. Every day we get see new portions of Sosaria come to life with new detail and color. Monsters we’ve known for years suddenly have new personality and texture. Just moments ago, I was in a partially finished Castle British. Even though half of the décor and detail was missing, it was still very much Castle British. I must admit, I got a little misty eyed.

We can’t wait for you to walk up those steps for the first time and see the new world for yourself.

- Aaron “Darkscribe” Cohen, UO Producer

This reaffirms my faith in where UO is headed, and who is heading it (well this, a lot of other things, and the hiring back of person I’ll mention in a few minutes).

In regards to questions posted in this Stratics thread, about dying and opening/closing curtains, and just what the ladder will be able to do, Draconi and Silvani chimed in with answers:

Draconi:

Yes, the ladder will really take you from one floor to another, and you’ll be able to open and close the curtains.

We’re working on the items right now, and can’t wait to show you the completed product!

Silvani:

Currently the curtains are dyeable with a normal tub, black tub, or special dye tub.

Silvani also fixed a gap in the curtains that were on display at the Heritage Collection Castle

These are items from the Early Buyer Program

In a thread over at Stratics, Game Master (GM) Spada introduced himself, and told a bit of his background (playing UO since September of 1997, working for EA since 2001), and that he’s the current Lead Game Master (GM).

He definitely qualifies as one of our “Current Ultima Online Legends” (seen here at the top of UO Developers’ page), seeing as how he has been around since Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge.

You can read our all-too-brief biography of him here. He appears to have succeeded Silvani, as she was promoted to Assistant Producer recently.

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).

Lost in the shuffle of everything that went on over the weekend with the new scenario and the like, Wilki took the time saturday to answer 50 questions in a post at Stratics.

Some of the highlights:
- PunkBuster is close (could it be related to the Test Center coming down?)
- Factions will be the current form of PvP for the time being.
- Ninja forms/Deathstrike will be balanced
- A Halloween event is planned
- A new status bar/status bar choices will be in the Kingdom Reborn client

Full list of questions/answers:
(more…)

This thread at Stratics mentions some interesting information that relates to last weeks Five on Friday:

4. Will pre-patch Talon Bite minor artifacts ever be adjusted so that they have the same damage as the newer version?
John@EA “Wilki”, Community Coordinator: Yes, that is something we plan to address.

Wilki’s comments on Saturday:

I checked in the change last night. (UOC Note: Friday. September 15, 2006)

Basically, all ornate axes will have a base damage of 18:20. There are currently 4 versions out there:

New Ornate Axes with 18:20 dmg
Converted Ornate Axes with 20:20 dmg (due to technical limitations at the time, this was the best we could fix the early ones)
New Talon Bites with 18:20 dmg
Old pre-patch Talon Bites will higher damage (don’t know the numbers off the top of my head.

They’ll all be adjusted to 18:20.

Very cool. In response to a player’s mention of remembering conversations with certain beings in Ultima VI, Draconi had this to say (late at night I might add):

Me too ^_^ And U6 is actually my favorite.

Meanwhile, good luck!

Why or is this important? See this forum topic Smith started, about some of what was revealed last night with the client/shard publishes. Reminder - spoilers alert - don’t follow this if you want to discover things in-game for yourself.

As far as Ultima VI, I don’t think it’s gotten enough love/respect when it comes to UO. Could be that’s about to change (and could it be a clear sign of just what the next player race is? hmm…..).

This week’s Five on Friday has just been posted.

September 8, 2006

1. When do you expect pre ordering for the 9th Anniversary Collection to begin and when will we find out what will be included?
Aaron “Darkscribe” Cohen, Producer: Pre-ordering at online software retailers will start this month. We will have a list of recommended retailers on the official 9th Anniversary Collection website.

2. Rumor has it we might see an increase in monthly fees around the same time as the new client, is this true and if so why should we pay more?
Aaron “Darkscribe” Cohen, Producer: There will not be a rate increase when the new client is launched, and there is no rate increase planned for the foreseeable future. As with all consumer products, it is possible that one day the price could go up, and if that should ever occur, players will be given ample notice before it does. But let me reiterate, there is no plan to raise the subscription fee when we launch the new client.

3. Will rate over time skill training on Siege ever be changed to make training faster?
John “Wilki”, Community Coordinator: We’d like to see more players on Siege, and we’re looking at perhaps speeding up rate over time skill gaining to encourage that. Currently, it’s quite slow, and there isn’t really a compelling reason to make a veteran player wait so long to have a developed character.

4. Any thoughts by the team on changes to some of the more difficult skills that require lots of repetition of things people would never do naturally?
John “Wilki”, Community Coordinator: Yes, ideally, every skill would be feasible to gain during normal gameplay, even at high levels. For example, instead of gaining only from taming the same creatures repeatedly, perhaps one could also gain through using a pet in combat. That would be much more fun than taming and releasing hordes of white wolves.

5. When will hiding/stealth be fixed? My thief can’t even walk 5 tiles without being revealed with 100 hide, 90 stealth.
John “Wilki”, Community Coordinator: We’re hoping to have some changes in Publish 43. Currently, every time you take a step while stealthed, every mobile around you does a skill check. Even at low detection rates, those add up pretty fast. That will almost certainly be changed.