Ultima Online: The Second Age Patch Notes for 03/09/2000

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Ultima Online: The Second Age Patch Notes for 03/09/2000

These are official patch notes from the release of Ultima Online: The Second Age. These patch notes are were found at [1].

Server Publish Mar 9 2000 10:52AM CST

Changes to Skill Gain

Changes to the skill gain system to facilitate better gains and lessen the effectiveness of macroing.

• The chance to learn a skill will be increased during the first hour of play each day for each character. Note this only affects the chance to increase a skill, not the chance to succeed in using it.
  • The burst system will not affect non-difficulty skills that below base 70.0.
• The rate at which non-difficulty based skills gain will be further increased.
• The skill usage table will no longer fluctuate based on how often skills are used.
• Skill delays for the following skills will be shortened to one second.
  • Animal Lore
  • Arms Lore
  • Anatomy
  • Item Identification
  • Detect Hidden
  • Enticement
  • Evaluate Intelligence
  • Forensic Evaluation
  • Sprit Speak
  • Taste Identification
• The delay for using peacemaking will be 5 seconds upon a successful attempt and the normal 10 seconds for failure.
• With skill gain being increased in general, we have made changes to make macroing no longer yield better skill gain results than normal game play.
  • Skills will generally require human intervention in order to raise them. In many ways, this is similar to raising animal taming (raising animal taming requires you to travel looking for animals to tame) since you will need to use a skill on different items/creatures in order to gain in it.
  • The following skills will not be affected by this code:
    • Alchemy
    • Blacksmithing
    • Bowyer/fletching
    • Carpentry
    • Cartography
    • Cooking
    • Inscription
    • Tactics
    • Tailoring
    • Tinkering
  • Combat skills (Swordsmanship, Fencing, Mace Fighting, Wrestling, and Archery) will only be affected by this code when the character is inside a house.
• The chance to gain a stat from skill usage will be increased.
• Stats will now only have a chance raise when you successfully gain in a skill.
  • The exception to this are skills that are marked as “up” and are at GM level (100.0). The system for gaining Stats from GM skills will not be changed.

In addition, certain “secondary” skills will raise when using an associated skill (similar to the way tactics increases while using a combat skill). You will need to mark a skill as “up” in order for it raise in this manner.

• Evaluate Intelligence can raise when Magery is used.
• Anatomy can raise when either a melee skill or the healing skill is used.
• Lumberjacking can raise when using an axe in melee.
• Meditation can raise whenever mana is regenerated.
• Hiding can raise when Stealthing.
• Detect Hidden can raise when attempting to pick a lock when a chest is trapped or when disarming a trap.
• Animal Lore can raise when attempting to Tame.

Boat Recall Fix

The mast of a ship will no longer block recall attempts.

House Placement Fixes

The house placement system will be refined to ensure that houses are not being placed in improper locations. The system will also check current houses more thoroughly when determining whether the house is properly or improperly placed.

Fishing

Fishermen at over 80 skill will have a chance to pull up a sea serpent regardless of whether they succeed or fail at fishing when in deep sea.

Every time you successfully fish up a treasure map or SOS bottle a sea serpent will surface and attack. The treasure map or SOS bottle will be on the serpents corpse. Sea serpents that are pulled up through normal fishing that did not result in a treasure map or SOS bottle will not have these items on them. Only the sea serpents that are pulled up because of a treasure map or SOS bottle will have them on their corpse.

Bank Checks

Bank checks will allow players to carry around large sums of gold to facilitate secure trading.

To get a bank check:

• Go to the banker and say, “check #” where “#” is the amount of gold you wish the check to be worth (between 5,000 and 1,000,000 gold).
• If you have the gold specified in your bank, a bank check of that value will be placed in your bank box and the gold will be removed.
• The bank check will look like a scroll. When single clicked, the check will tell you its value.
• If you do not have enough gold in your bank, you will receive a message letting you know the check was not created.

To redeem a bank check:

• Drag the bank check onto a banker.
• If you have enough room in your bank box, the banker will take the check and place the gold in your bank.
• If you do not have enough room in your bank box, the banker will take the check and place as much gold in your bank as he can. The remaining gold will be given back to you in the form of a new bank check.

All bank checks are “blessed” which means they cannot be looted or stolen. Bank checks cannot be used to purchase items from NPC or player vendors.

Shopkeeper Changes

• NPC shopkeepers will no longer have colored sandals. Evil NPC Mages will carry these items.
• NPC shopkeepers will give a murder count when they die unless they are criminal or evil. The issue with murder counts from NPCs not decaying (as reported on Siege Perilous) will also be addressed.
• If a shopkeeper is killed, a new shopkeeper will appear as soon as another player (other than the one that killed it) approaches.
• Any shopkeeper that is currently [invulnerable] will lose that status except for stablemasters.

Tinker Traps

Tinker traps will be modified. Their purpose will be to protect containers and their creation will no longer give the maker a murder count.

• A trapped chest cannot be opened until the trap is disarmed and the lock removed, except:
  • The owner of the chest can access the chest automatically without firing the trap. The owner is defined as the last person to lock the chest.
• Using the key on the chest will bypass the trap.
• The lock on a trapped chest cannot be picked until the trap is disarmed.
  • A failed disarm attempt will result in setting off the trap.
    • A trap that is set off will reset itself automatically indefinitely.
    • Damage from a trap will not cause the maker of the trap to be a candidate for a murder count.
  • Disarming the chest will not automatically unlock it.