Just a quick reminder, UO: 9th Anniversary Collection should start shipping today, and start turning up in people’s hands later this week. It’s listed at Amazon and some of the other online stores as being available on the 3rd.

International orders can refer to this UO.com page for more information.

Just a quick reminder, The Dead Shall Rise with events on production shards, as well as the Test Center becoming the Shard of The Dead.

Full Details

If you’ll remember, once upon a time, you could buy Ultima Online-oriented clothing (hats/t-shirts), posters, etc.

Guess what? The Mythic Store is now selling UO Collectibles once again. So far, only a pendant/keyring, but it’s a start! It’s been years since these types of things were available, and we welcome them (one can only imagine what will happen next year during the 10th Anniversary).

According to UO.com, there will be an update to Publish 43 (tonight Origin, everybody else tomorrow, October 31, 2006).

The update includes:

On Monday, October 30, 2006 at approximately 6:00PM PST (October 31 - 2:00AM GMT), we will be deploying a Publish 43 update to the Origin shard. All other shards will receive this update during their next scheduled daily maintenance period.

The update will contain the following changes:

* An issue where your evil twin would get you guardwhacked has been fixed
* Evil twin will now disappear if it fails to reveal its victim
* Once the Grim Reaper kills a target or if his target is dead, he will go back to his graveyard
* If the victim or the Grim Reaper enters a house he will go back to his graveyard
* The Grim Reaper will now give a random top attacker an artifact, not just the player who does the most damage
* Added a 50/50 chance of either spawning a black statuette or an orange statuette
* 9th anniversary beverages will no longer lose their names, and existing ones will have been fixed as well
* An issue that caused Halloween invasions to be too easy has been fixed
* Added dead trees into the selection of the heritage items

We expect the Origin shard to remain offline for approximately one hour. We do not expect any additional downtime for all other shards.

From the UO.com Update Center:

Character Transfer Delayed Oct 28 2006 6:12PM GMT (PST +08:00)

The maintenance period for the Character Transfer Service has been extended until Monday, October 30, 2006 at the earliest. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Once more tonight, from UO.com:

And the Dead Shall Rise

Last year was Shard of the Dead. This year, it’s Shard of the Dead II AND The Festival of Fright, two evil events for the price of one. Today is the launch of The Festival of Fright! Log in and see the gamewide invasion of the deadly decomposing, spreading their thrills and chills across every shard. Coffins will spring open and their occupants will dance on their own graves, and even dig new ones for the unlucky. Undead death dealers of all kinds will gleefully rampage through all of Britannia, looking for the unsuspecting to play tricks on. Treats might also available if you know who to ask and who to kill before they kill you. And be on the look out for the Grim Reaper himself. This is his one chance to party, and he doesn’t like his revelry disturbed.

The Shard of The Dead will launch on the evil day of October 31st. This will take place only on a Test Center, and will feature experimental insanity that we wouldn’t dare unleash on a regular shard. We’ll be trying a few new tricks this year, so be ready for anything.

From UO.com comes word that there are now houses open that use the new tilesets from the upcoming UO: 9th Anniversary Collection:

Tour the ultimate den of darkness and a glass house where its perfectly fine to throw stones. To celebrate next week’s launch of the Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection, we’ve opened two new homes that show off the Crystal and Shadow housing tiles, along with the furniture that comes with them. They are just west of Britannia in the farmer’s fields on Origin shard. And don’t forget to peruse the Heritage house for another look at all the items that will be available. Click here for a map to the houses. (see below)

New runes are on on UO.com:

Translation: HAPPY HALLOWEEN

If you’d like to translate them yourself, see the runic libraries listed here.

This ties into something that you can participate in-game. We won’t say anything else in order not to spoil things, but we will say this weekend is a weekend you should definitely login and spend some time in UO.

Yes, you read that right, a 100,000,000 Prize Gold Event on Lake Superior. This is just a reminder that tomorrow will be a big day on LS. From DENNAR’s post on Stratics.com:

Saturday October 28, 2006 at 8pm EST the Conclave of Barons is proud to host the first ever Conclave event.

The hostess for this event will be Circe the Baroness of Umbra. She has planned an evening of Tricks and Treats for all who attend.

The Last Monster Standing contest. Entrants will go to a protected arena in Felucca where they must polymorph into a monster and participate in a Battle Royal. The last monster standing will win 6,000,000 gold. There will be a second and third prize of 3,000,000 and 1,000,000.

Also being held in the Felucca arena will be a poisoned pie eating contest. The prizes for this will be 6,000,000 for first and 3,000,000 and 1,000,000 for second and third. People wishing to enter this contest need to come hungry. Entrants will be snooped for potions, petals, and daids.

A scavenger hunt will lead people all around to gather the required items that Circe has decided she wants. She will reward people with gold. 6,000,000 for the fastest and 3,000,000 and 1,000,000 for the slightly slower second and third place finishers.

There will be a naked Chaos Run where contestants will search out 10 1,000,000 gold checks, among other items.

In the Felucca Arena there will also be the Frantic Frenzy. Participants will enter the arena, while naked and unarmed, where several frenzied ostards will have been released and dash for another 10 1,000,000 gold checks, among other items.

The main event will be the Costume Contest. The first prize of this event will be 25,000,000 gold. Second place will get 15,000,000 and third will receive 10,000,000 gold. Judges will not be from the Lake Superior Shard.

Trick or Treat bags will be given out all during the events. Some will be treats and some will be tricks. There will be a weapon engraver, available all night engraving for free. We will have a scribe making polymorph scrolls for free so people can see what life is like as a monster.

Get your costume ready, tell your friends, make a char on LS and come and join the fun. This is set to be a record breaking event. We wish everyone a grand time.

Respectfully,
The Conclave of Barons

Finally tonight, again, from the update center at UO.com, Client 5.0.5c:

On Thursday, October 26, 2006 at approximately 7:00PM PDT ( October 26 - 2:00AM GMT), we will deploy client patch 5.0.5c.

Details for the patch are as follows:

* Added Crystal and Shadow stairs for 9th to the 9th Anniversary housing tile sets
* Modified Shadow arches so that they can now be passed through
* Crystal/Shadow housing tiles now display their name when clicked on
* Fixed Heritage trees that had an issue with their foliage disappearing
* The Heritage wall torch can now be raised and lowered with the house deco tool
* Updated text and localization
* Bump version to “5.0.5c”

If patched correctly, your current version will display 5.0.5c for both clients. If you have any difficulty receiving this patch, please check the following:

Check the “Patch” directory within your Ultima Online directory (the default location is C:\Program Files\EA Games\Ultima Online\Patch). This directory should be empty. Any files in this directory should be deleted.

Run a virus scan on your computer. Undetected viruses may cause conflicts with patching Ultima Online. For information on up-to-date virus detection software, please visit http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/vso/default.asp.

If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please visit this web page