As we work to upgrade our login servers, it will be necessary to direct public traffic to the test login servers for brief periods of time over the next several weeks, beginning Wednesday, December 19th, 2001. It is possible that, once these test login servers are taken down, players might find themselves attempting to log in through a test login server that is no longer accessible. We do not anticipate this will happen often; however, we ask that these players simply try to login again. If this does not solve the issue, players might need to reboot their machine to clear their cache and log in to a working login server.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your patience as we work to implement our new hardware.

I recently purchased SSI's smash hit, Pool of Radiance.  I was thoroughly impressed with the product.  You can find my full preview/review of the game at this little page I made real quick.  Be careful though, there may be some plot spoilers towards the bottom of the page.

In D20 news Wizards of the Coast released an updated rules clarification FAQ to help clear up some common misconceptions of the new D20 rules.  The FAQ sheet covers every supplement released so far with the exception of Song and Silence.  Specific errata for various D&D books can be found on this page, but is quite dry reading.  It's mostly just a list of corrections for formatting/spelling errors.

There's been a lot of news regarding Fluid/WOTC's upcoming release of Mastertools.  All bad.  No mapping utility will be included.  There will be no support for rules modifications.  Classes other than those in the Player's Handbook and prestige classes in the Dungeon Masters Guide will not be
implemented.  There will only be limited capabilities to create monster PC's.  To put it simply, you will not be able to create new items, feats, skills, classes, or prestige classes.  All of these things were promised. I hope Neverwinter Nights doesn't turn out to be a similar disappointment.  Mastertools will be a nice character generator for characters made strictly with the core rules, but that's about it.  Surpisingly, there is absolutely no information about this on the main website.  A snotty project manager revealed it all in a forum thread on WOTC's forums.

I found a website for an up and coming African style campaign setting.  While the idea of playing in a primitive environment doesn't appeal to me, enough people on various forums seemed excited about it, so I'm posting it here.

After a little thought on the matter, I pieced together some ramblings on the alignment system.  You can find them in our forum here. I also posted an excerpt on WOTC's official forums.  In a single day, the thread had grown to the second largest on their boards.

-blachawk

Los Angeles, September 18th, 2001 -- Fireworks Television, a division of
CanWest Entertainment, has entered into a licensing agreement with Hasbro, Inc.
[NYSE:HAS] for Hasbro's Forgotten Realms property, which is based on the
Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game by the company's Wizards of the Coast
subsidiary.

Under terms of the agreement, Fireworks will develop a live action
television series based on the game setting and novels of Forgotten Realms.
Wizards of the Coast and the Hasbro Properties Group, the Company's intellectual
property development arm, will work with Fireworks to develop story lines for
the television series.

In reply to:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok I know a weapon can get tagged with the exceptional quality label but has anyone from OSI said this actually adds to a magic weapon's, created by a runic hammer, damage? Anyone do any testing? As far as a ruin weapon being as good as a GM made weapon they aren't. I've tested it. A normal GM made weapon does a lot more damage over time then even a supreamly acc ruin weapon does.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



1. Yes, weapons created using the runic hammers do get both the exceptional bonus and whatever magical bonus the hammer assigns to it.

2. Magical and exceptional bonuses work differently from each other, so it isn't always accurate to say exceptional is as good as might, or any other comparison. Exceptional weapons have a 20% damage bonus, whereas Ruin/Might/Force/Power/Vanquishing weapons have a flat +1/3/5/7/9 damage addition (respectively).

----------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

The fix is in Publish 15, which is the earliest publish we have available for it.

-Hanse
UO Live Designer

While we already know there's a localization issue with female plate armor, here are the differences on how you can tell which is which until a fix is published.

Female plate armor (the item, and not the deed):
Non-exceptional title: plate armor
Exceptional title: exceptional plate armor

Female plate bulk order deeds:
Non-exceptional is titled: female plate
Exceptional is titled: exceptional plate armor

Platemail (both sexes can wear, it's not just male):
Non-exceptional title: platemail
Exceptional title: exceptional platemail

Platemail Bulk Order Deeds (both sexes can wear):
Non-exceptional title: platemail
Exceptional title: exceptional platemail

So, you can tell the difference between the two types of armor. It's an inconsistency that's been in the game for a while. We have a fix for this inconsistency in a future publish.

-Hanse
UO Live Designer

Bulk Orders
Bulk orders will be a new feature for crafters, and will be randomly offered by NPC craftspeople to players who sell goods, depending on their skill in the respective craft, and how often the player does business with the NPC.

The bulk order feature is a new addition, and will be implemented only for blacksmiths at this time, allowing us a chance to evaluate and improve the system before expanding it to include more of the crafts.

Players with a sufficient skill in blacksmithy will have a chance to recieve bulk order requests from NPC Armorers and Blacksmiths when they sell goods to those NPCs.

When offered, the bulk order is in the form of a grey deed. Double-clicking this deed brings up the details of the order, such as the item name, amount to make, quality of the item requested, and the ore type.

To complete a regular order, the player can use the "combine" button on the deed to combine the crafted items with the deed until the amount of items the deed requests has been reached. Once the correct amount of items has been created and combined with the deed, the deed can then be dropped on the NPC for a reward.

Small Orders
Small orders, the only ones given to players with less than 70 skill, will request items that will allow the player to gain skill.

Large Orders
Large bulk orders will be extremely difficult to fill, in that each large bulk order may consist of filling and combining several smaller bulk orders. For instance, a large bulk order for blacksmiths may require 20 full sets of armor to be made. The player must obtain several smaller bulk orders, each requiring 20 pieces of an individual piece of armor. These smaller orders for the individual pieces must be completed, and combined into the large bulk order before the large bulk deed can be returned to the NPC for a reward. The smaller orders must be for the same number, quality, and ore type as the original large bulk order. Large bulk orders offer higher rewards, and are only offered to blacksmiths with 70 blacksmithy skill or higher.

All items craftable by blacksmiths can be requested by a blacksmith's bulk order. The quality, quantity, and ore type are chosen at random. The quality is limited to normal or exceptional. The quantity is limited to 10, 15, or 20. The ore types are iron, dull copper, shadow, copper, bronze, golden, agapite, verite, and valorite.

Rewards
The rewards are threefold. The first reward is gold. A check will be given to the person fulfilling the order if the amount is equal to or above 5000 gold. The second reward is a special item not available currently in the game, chosen based on the difficulty of the order. The third reward is an amount of fame, which is based on the difficulty of the deed.

The reward items are not listed here, in order to allow blacksmiths to discover for themselves what rewards will be available.

Examples
The easiest bulk order to complete would be an order for 10 buckler shields of normal quality and made with iron ingots. The reward would be a moderate amount of fame, some gold, and a special item.

The hardest bulk order to complete would be a large bulk order for 20 suits of platemail (all 6 pieces) of exceptional quality made with valorite. The player would need to have a large bulk order deed, as well as six small bulk order deeds, each for the same number, quality, and ore type, and each for a different piece of the full armor set. These six small orders (each for 20 of a particular armor piece, of exceptional quality, and made from valorite ingots) would need to be combined into the deed. The reward would be an enormous amount of fame, a bank check for a large sum of gold, and a magical item.

The time limit below 70 real skill is two hours, but does not award deeds other than would give your character skill gains (ie: no exceptional, no colored, no large).

50.1 - 69.9 the delay is 2 hours. Below that, it's 1 hour.

Below 70.0 skill, the rewards for those deeds are shovels and pickaxes, some gold, and fame.

-Hanse
UO Live Designer

Lower or higher, it doesn't matter. The odds are the same for anyone 70 skill and above to get the deeds. Skill doesn't come into play with the random selection of what deed you get (aside from exceptional - you get a 10% bonus for being GM).

-Hanse
UO Live Designer