Another day, another successful Ultima Online Town Hall Meeting! UO Players, UO Programmers, Designers, Artists, QA Team Members, Game Masters and the UO Community Team all came together last night at the EA Redwood Shores campus in Redwood City, California. What an awesome evening of UO fun! After Binky got the ball rolling and welcomed the large crowd of enthusiastic UO players, Darkscribe introduced himself in his new role as UO Producer. He talked about how he became involved with UO on the marketing side of things, and how he started playing to familiarize himself with his product, but then quickly fell in love with the game. Now, he can't stop playing, and is practically giddy at the opportunity he's been given to take UO into the future.

MrTact, Live Team Lead Designer, explained some of the things that are likely to be seen in Publish 40. He's going to be posting some more information in the Stratics Developer's Corner on the combat changes over the next few days, but he also revealed a few client changes that are in development as well. These changes include: an improved targeting system, "buff/debuff" icon indicators that will let you know when you're under the effect of a spell or ability, and an improved character status sheet. (Note that these changes are still in development, and could be pushed back from Publish 40 if unexpected difficulties arise.)

We then had a lengthy open Q&A session that focused mainly on combat, but other topics were covered as well. One of the highlights during this session was Darkscribe revealing the rideable polar bear that we want to have as a future veteran award. He did note, however, that this is still in the very early stages of development, and may not make it into the game. After the Q&A was wrapped up, the PvP tournament began. After many close battles, the 1st place winner, Blade of Lake Austin, faced off against our reigning in-house PvP champ, Serado from the QA Team. This final battle lasted quite awhile, with both Blade and Serado exchanging heavy hitting spells, and getting off last minute heals a split second before death. After several close calls, it was Serado who emerged from the battle victorious, having successfully defended the honor of our entire team!

Blade of Lake Austin now holds a special in-game title: Blade, the guy who got owned by Serado.

We'd like to thank everyone who came out to show their support for Ultima Online, and we hope to see YOU at the next Ultima Online Town Hall Meeting!