Celebrating Our 2nd Year
It's hard to believe we're celebrating our two year anniversary today. When the shard was opened on December 14, 2007 I certainly didn't expect it to have the success it has, I really didn't think that there were really very many people interested in a real accurate T2A era shard, but after 8 months of work it seemed sensible to open it up.
We opened the shard with no announcement but for listings on ConnectUO and other voting sites. It was a joy to have a few people log in within the first couple days, and a shock to hit 30 or so in the next couple months. We attracted a few quality players that were very anxious to help get the shard "right", and over the last two years that trend has continued. We now see a consistant daily peak between 500 and 600 players, but the spirit of the shard remains the same.
Since the beginning of development, it's been more of a romance with the T2A era than a serious endeavour to make a "popular" shard, and since the open UO Second Age has been a collaboration of staff and players in getting the shard mechanics correct, and also in keeping the players entertained. We could never have been a success without this participation in the development process from everyone, and I am humbled by the countless players that have contributed to the advancement of Second Age.
Thanks everyone, and happy Anniversary!
-=Derrick=-
Brief Introduction to Ultima Online & the shard we've come to love
by: BlackFootOn September 25, 1997 a world was created. A true sandbox game that offered complete freedom. It offered a true risk versus reward scenario every time a player logged on. From that point forward we all watched in horror as our beloved world was twisted and eroded into an unrecognizable landscape of unicorns and neon elves. Many people who lost that place have been searching for it ever since. UO Second age enters stage left. An oasis that promised all the wandering Britannians a place to play their favorite game without fear of watching it decay into something it was never meant to be; A world that would be frozen in time in the greatest age of the game.
More than two years ago a post was made on Connect UO. 'If anyone wants to run a t2a shard I have one built, but I don’t want to Admin it. So began the saga that is UOSA. A lot has happened since it all began.
So we will attempt to countdown the top ten most memorable and significant dates in UOSA history.
UOSA TimelineDate 1 - April 1st 2007 - Derrick decides to build UOSA
Does this need an explanation? Where would we be if this light bulb had never flicked on in side Derrick's head?
Truth be told he never planned on running this place we call home. He had already begun recreating the t2a experience on a small box in the basement but had no intentions of administrating a server. Sitting at the local tavern watching the snow melt it was decided. He would launch this shard and see what happens. A pet project that got out of hand may describe UOSA best.
Date 2 - 14 Dec 2007 10:06 am - Server Up
The shard was launched on a virtual machine, on a DSL line. It didn’t last long on this setup and was upgraded quickly to handle the homeless players that would soon find their way to UOSA. The server was not up for a few hours before its first few players arrived. Nevermore, Godfather and aMiner have the claim to fame as being the first players to log in. They must have felt pretty lonely wandering around all by themselves being spied on by an invisible robed man. That is hardly the case anymore! (The lonely part, not the part about getting spied on by invisible men).
Date 3 - December 19 2007 - Patch 1 – Notes
- Fix to house lockdown problem with non-empty containers. Added harvestable reagent plants. The reagents spawning throughout the world will be soon replaced with plants which you may harvest.
- Christmas gifts for characters > 3 days old.
- House decay set to 90 days, boats to 60 days. We may recuce these decay rates later, but we'll give plenty of notice before we do.
- Carved corpses were returning way too many feathers, hides, and meat. They've been reduced.
- Dungeon treasure chests are now more balanced.
- Holiday trees will now display as Christmas trees.
A seemingly simple set of patch notes. It is interesting to take a look back and see where UOSA was at when it began. Three month house decay seemed so short! But more important than the details of the patch themselves, is that fact that it exists. This marked the first step on the long path to accuracy. Attention would be paid to the details as well as the core elements. Over one hundred patches have been implemented since then taking us closer to our goal of recreating the true mechanics of the t2a era and it all started with ‘Holiday trees’ changed to display as ‘Christmas trees’. You gotta start somewhere right?
Date 4 - Tue Mar 18, 2008 - Trophy system inception
There are few systems unique to UOSA that have had as much praise as well as condemnation than the Trophy Turn in System. Debates continue to this day as to its merits as purely a policy decision or an era inaccurate abomination that must be destroyed! However, no one can argue the impact it has had on the UOSA landscape. From day one UOSA Game masters awarded trophies to participants of mini games. Games like capture the flag, double domination, survival and player vs player tournaments. Originally these prizes were handed out Manually to each player in the game! That is some serious dedication by your Game Masters. In mid march the turn in system was implemented allowing players to trade in their trophies for items. A list of prizes was posted and the fun began. Once you had collected the needed amount of trophies you would page a game master. They would come meet you, manually count all of your trophies, then reward you your prize. It wasn’t long before trophies became an integral part of the UOSA economy. They became a perfect store of value versus the fluctuations in the value of gold, being used as currency to this day. Honours go to the King of Ascalon for being awarded the first turn in prize (a Black dye tub that came with a single charge). Later, the trophies were replaced with silver coins in an attempt to slow the creation of items and the ease with which they could be redeemed for prizes.
Date 5 - Wed Jul 02, 2008 - Time Lord Event
Shal'Etar had been destroyed and the world was saved. The Time Lord event was the first ‘major’ staff led in game story line to take place on UOSA. It was a four part event that was no less than an action adventure rollercoaster ride involving drama, betrayal, big bad guys, world invasions and an orange soda monster?
- Chapter 1 - An Announcement - We (the players) are introduced to our situation at Brits castle. The world is ending and there is nothing we can do but wait. The next while after this announcement certain changes on the map took place and new bad guys began popping up everywhere.
- Chapter 2 - Shattering Emergence - Chapter 2 took place over a three day period. It was essentially days of battle with bad guys everywhere. In the end we were all introduced to Shal'Etar, who became affectionately known as the orange soda monster. At the end of a long battle an artifact was retrieved.
- Chapter 3 - The Time Relics Gathered - Chapter 3 was a long and very large fight between the players and the orange soda monster. It happened over a few different locations with the goal of claiming more artifacts (time relics) to kill the soda monster.
- Chapter 4 - The World Saved - The final chapter was another large scale battle event. The soda monster was finally killed and the world saved. A pretty impressive statue was erected outside of Lord Brits that is still there now.
This event was the largest and most involved to take place on UOSA. Hundreds of players took part and probably died in this event that ran for longer than a month. This event had UOSA excited about the possibilities that grew from a staff this willing to entertain its people.
Date 6 - Sun Dec 14, 2008 CUB/Trinsic Invasion () - OSI recreations
This particular day in UOSA’s history had too many things happening to just list once! That’s why we have it in here twice. Clean up Britannia (CUB). On OSI housing was as it is here. Houses were an item decay free area where players could gladly store thousands of items to their hearts content. As the thousands of players pack rated their way to joy the servers began to degrade. They decided that the amount of items able to be stored in houses must be limited! Thus they introduced a three phase system to destroy the glorious piles of loot players had amassed.
Stage 1 – known as Clean up Britannia! Players could throw items into trash barrels for points. They could then trade these points in for rewards. Items available were:
- Neon Hair Dye
- Neon Beard Dye
- Beard Sculpting Cream
- Hair Restyles
- Furniture Dye Tubs
- Monster Statues
- Phoenix Amour
- Singing Ball
- Item Bless Deed (On UOSA this item was replaced with a Clothing Bless Deed)
After this stage was done OSI went on further to stage 2 and 3 to never allow you to have thousands of jester hats for no reason ever again. Fortunately for us we had the CUB purely for nostalgia reasons. Our item count had not nearly hit One million items when this took place here. This event was purely to relive the glory that was the CUB not so much to improve the server’s performance. This little party had a significant impact on UOSA. Firstly (and some would argue most importantly), it gave everyone a chance to have awesome hair does. Secondly, it changed the market place to this day. The sudden and large influx of awesome items made them available to all players at the time. It created a large number of items that would keep their value against the instability in the value of gold. Lastly, it spawned an even greater attitude of mass hoarding and storage in the anticipation of ‘the next’ CUB event! Item count skyrocketed from that day and continues to rise. We are up over 3 million items now! Needless to say that this one time event as nostalgic as it was will never be able to happen again unless the next two stages of housing change take place with it.
The Trinsic Invasion was another nostalgic event that took place on UOSA replicating the events that took place during the hay day of Ultima Online. Minax led an undead army into Trinsic in one of her many attempts to take over Felucca (we would just call this Britannia as trammel has no place here). It turned the city into a hotbed of action and player versus player madness. The city stood invaded for a while until the players rallied around and took care of business. This turned into another memorable moment in UOSA’s history.
Date 7 - 14 Dec 2008 10:06 am 1st Anniversary - Year 1
The clock strikes 10:06 am!
Not that dramatic but it did mean that UOSA had serious intentions of sticking around. One year in and no one had a ridable neon Maahes yet. The landscape was slowly changing; growing closer to the world we all grew to love years ago.
76 Patches in and climbing …
Date 8 - Fri May 01, 2009 UOSA Museum - our own history is tracked in game
The first six or seven months of UOSA’s history are a blur. Even the people who were here at the time have very little recollection of the events that took place or the people that came and went. With that in mind a coordinated effort between the players and staff began. A museum was constructed to record and document the events of the shard for people to look back on. The museum opened with a bash and even had the Orange Soda monster in attendance! Have you ever wondered who the first player to operate a rune library? What gifts were given to the players on the first Halloween? Look no further, the answers will be on display forever.
Date 9 - June 24, 2009 Patch 105
(chum takes castle deed no more)
- House Deeds will be noobied
- Checks removed
- Animal and House Trade Windows removed
- Explosion potions no longer set off other explosion potions.
- No trophies for CTF and DD
- Spell Interruption from physical attacks will be substantially more frequent
Patch 105 was one of the largest and most debated patch notes to date. It affected every single play style whether it is crafter, pvm or pvper. It represented willingness by administration to stand by their goals of reaching t2a accuracy even though it would dramatically change the landscape for better or worse in game. The removal of checks and trade windows turned trading on its ear and created an entirely new need for trusted players to act as brokers. No more hilarious purple pot chain bombings clearing entire areas of the map of pesky players. Spell disruptions and trophies from pvp games changed the methods and play styles of all pvpers. This patch no doubt is one of, if not the most influential patches on play style that USOA has ever seen.
Date 10 - Wed Aug 12, 2009 Mongbat Map Event - UOSA's own history comes to life
This all began with the rantings of one of UOSA’s own players! Everyone thought he had gone a bit nutty with his stories of Love Vortexes and Ettins caps. These elaborate stories were incredibly dense with what we all thought was imaginary UO lore. Weren’t we all surprised to find out he was telling the truth! The event began with the more and more drunken Sir Dupre calling everyone to Lord Brit’s castle. We were informed of the discovery of an item only described in the rants of chumbucket. It was a mongbat map. When we all arrived to dig it up armies of super strong mongbats began ripping everyone to shreds and players turning into mongbats themselves. This was the most bizarre scenario that I have ever witnessed in my time here. You would have had to seen it to believe it. This event marked an important moment in UOSA history. It was the first time that UOSA original lore was brought to be in game. Not pulled from Ultima history or a reenactment of an old event, but real original UOSA content created by the players. I R NEW GOLD PLS!
On 14 Dec 2009 at 10:06 am as your wandering around UOSA in what should be a drunken stooper, find the closest female toon and hit alt+b repeatedly to mark in the Real new years... akward... So thank you players for making this such a great place to call home and lets make this year one to remember!
The Daily Planet - Special Interview!
Rumors have flown over the years here in Sosaria over the controversial character of chumbucket. But really, Citizens, we must ask ourselves: "Who is chumbucket?" I'm here tonight with a Daily Planet exclusive interview with the man himself to see if we can finally get a sense of just who this lad is!
Clark Kent: Greetings Citizen! It's nice to finally be here chatting with you, thank you for allowing me this opportunity. So chumbucket: Who are you?
chumbucket: I am not at liberty to say.
Clark Kent: Well how about a few simple questions then, Citizen.
chumbucket: OK.
Clark Kent: First off, chum--do you prefer Mr. Bucket, or may I call you chum?
chumbucket: Mr. Bucket, please.
Clark Kent: Now, that's interesting that you choose not to capitalized the 'C'--was there any sort of impetus or particular significance to this grammatical flare?
chumbucket: My shift key didn't work.
chumbucket: I could only talk in lowercase for two years.
Clark Kent: Ah! That'll do it; fair enough then--sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, I guess. I'll bet that had some real draw backs to it, but it didn't appear to affect your ability to capitalize on others folly! Hah, sorry... now yes then; over the years you've pulled some mighty capers here in Lord Derrick's realm, what is your favorite caper that many of your fans may not know about?
chumbucket: By far, it was the incidents chronicled in my three part series, "A Disgrace to UO." cA brought down a terrible bit of justice on the BoO guild, who are all thieves and murderers. We were aided by the guards of East Britain and an army of cats.
Clark Kent: Cats? That's a rather interesting choice in weaponry...
chumbucket: It turned out they weren't very good.
chumbucket: All but one was slaughtered pretty much immediately.
chumbucket: But their sacrifices are inspiring.
Clark Kent: Speaking of inspiration, what first inspired you to start doing your series featured on the Tales of Adventure forums?
chumbucket: Hemperor.
chumbucket: He and I had a rather hilarious battle, and I felt compelled to share it with everyone.
Clark Kent: I've seen you and hemperor at some of the same sosarian social gatherings in the past, things seem to be quite bipolar between you two, sometimes you seem friendly and others terse--care to shed some light on your relationship to the mysterious Canadian known as the hemperor? (editors note: strangely, also negating the proper noun capitalization!)
chumbucket: Well, as I understand things, there are in fact two Hemperors on this shard. There is the original Hemperor, with whom I get along well. Unfortunately, he had a run in with the law. It seems they tried to take his half a can of fortified wine. Long story short, he went to jail and a mysterious impostor took his place. This impostor is the Hemperor most people know. If they knew the Real Hemperor, they would have a much better appreciation of the man.
Clark Kent: Interesting. So, we all know the supposed "criminal mastermind" side of chumbucket, but how about the otherside of chumbucket that many seem to forget about; chumbucket the philanthropist, giving back to the community; chumbucket the defender of the wayward novice citizens of this realm; How is your crusade to education your fellow citizens on the bardic arts going?
chumbucket: Unfortunately, the chumbucket Home for Wayward Newbies is not more, and neither is the fund I set up to spread the Bardic Arts. I offered to give away gold, and no one wanted it. It was a very unexpected outcome.
chumbucket: I did just today though help some confused new players move a keep.
Clark Kent: Do tell more.
chumbucket: Oh well, I just posted an account of it. But basically what happened is a few new players were confused about how to move a keep on Marble Island.
chumbucket: So I heard about their confusion and decided I better see if I can help.
chumbucket: So they figured out how to move it, then I had someone come by and show them how to place a new building.
chumbucket: We're trying to work out arrangements to finish things off and get a shiny new keep in that location.
Clark Kent: Great! I can't wait to read all about it. So about those Associates of yours, what's the story behind that motley crew?
chumbucket: Three of them are mentally ill, and one is some sort of sex pervert.
chumbucket: Honestly, I fear for my safety.
chumbucket: When I can keep them from clawing at my eyes or touching me inappropriately, I make them go out and steal.
chumbucket: Then I can take the credit for it.
Clark Kent: It seems many have a negative opinion about your crew, my interactions with many of them has been nothing but cordial--what say you to the pejorative air that hangs about the acronym "cA"? What does your crew really aim to achieve here in Sosaria?
chumbucket: We aim to spread joy and good times.
chumbucket: Not only do we take your loot, but we give back to the community.
chumbucket: We have resist sessions.
chumbucket: We give away gold.
chumbucket: We hold events.
chumbucket: You might remember Matron de Winter's famous Bingo game?
Clark Kent: Ah yes, good times were had by all!
chumbucket: Indeed.
Clark Kent: And we can't forget the famous scavenger hunt!
Clark Kent: Nor, Ireland's great house maze!
Clark_Kent: Well that's all the time we have for today folks, I'd like to give our guest, chumbucket, a big thank you from the Daily Planet for letting us get a peak behind the scenes! Thanks for reading, citizens.
Citizens one and all, The Daily Planet is proud to announce a very special series of issues; by popular request, investigative journalist Clark Kent is embarking on a series of interviews with the community of UOSA, present and past, famous and infamous. Look for the next installment in this series on a newstand near you, soon!
Whats New to UOSA and what can we look forward to seeing in the Future?
The new MyUOSA webpage has been launched! This webpage allows for players to look up and view different characters and guilds online. It features the ability to search from players currently online, guilds by type, tournament rankings, and even a schedule to help you make it to the next event.
The webpage has a classic look and feel to it but offers a load of information to any interested player at the click of a button. You can search up your friends to see if they are online, send friends and guild mate’s updates on your character progress, or even check out your enemies’ skill sets.
Information is pulled from the server constantly so the information on this webpage is always up to date! Soon you will be able to customize your MyUOSA character profile! You will be able to upload recent screenshots and videos, write notes and add your own character biography.
Another change to look forward to is an online account management system. This will allow you to group your game accounts under one login on the website and perform simple tasks like changing the password.
Check it out MyUOSA
Special Thanks to the following members of UOSA for compiling this newsletter...
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