Posted on uo.com

Five on Friday
February 23, 2007

"Does food actually do any good anymore? "
This is sort of a perennial question - I ran it by various devs and got various degrees of eye-rolling, according to their personalities

The short version is that your hunger level has no effect on any other calculation. The only thing your hunger level determines is if you can eat more food or not. Now, magic food is a different story, of course, and will have various interesting magical effects according to its nature, but regular, non-magical food has no effect on skill gain, accuracy, crafting success, or anything else.

--

"The maximum attainable HLD% is 80%. Do the effects stop before 80%, or is there currently no hardcap on HLD%?"
There is no cap for Hit Lower Defense or Hit Lower Attack.

Remember, the percentage on these abilities is the chance that the effect will fire each hit. So if you have two items, one with a 30% chance and one with a 50% chance, then that’s a 65% chance that the effect will fire on any given hit. (The percentages are multiplied, rather than added.) The actual lower attack/defense percentage is ALWAYS -25%.

--

"Forget mount stamina, I want to know why Luna is on fire."
Ah, my friends, thereby hangs a tale.

Dramatis Personae:

MESANNA, Queen of Test Center 1
DRACONI, a Mischievous Spirit

MESANNA peers into her shard, preparing to work her will upon it.

MESANNA
Draconi!
Why is Luna on fire on TC1?

DRACONI materializes

DRACONI
Well, Mesanna. It all began during the Christmas break...

MESANNA
Can we get a hose and put out the fire?
MESANNA *grins*

DRACONI
I was sitting at Phoenix Sky Harbor, minding my own business, abusing their free wireless, while I waited (as I am wont to do) for my plane, which was delayed.

MESANNA *lols*

DRACONI
So, I was actually trying to get a little work done! I made the scripts for the bowing and the drink throwing for the Justice winners
But I got bored.
And so, I logged onto TC1, and, in a fit of mischief, set some wooden objects on fire in the middle of the building.
"Well this isn't very fun. No one's running or screaming at all."
So I went searching for the fire area effect script
And attached it.
Soon people were running from the flames! "The intense heat is damaging you!"
But..., alas
Lies. That script doesn't actually work
It just sends the message.

MESANNA *lols*

DRACONI
But then I had a brilliant idea! I attached the physical damage one as well, which *doesn't* message
And soon I was herding people alllllll over Luna with my tongues of flame
Before I knew it, the whole place was ablaze
And all the people fled to Britain and restored West Britain Bank to its former glory.
And so, Luna burns to this day as a testimony to one developer's rigid determination to stand up against boredom

MESANNA *rofls*

DRACONI
I like to think of it as a silent, blistering memorial to our commitment to make UO a better place.

MESANNA
Ok.
We will let it burn then, and place a gate in Moonglow instead.

DRACONI
I thank thee
With all my heart

DRACONI *bows*

--

"Where is the "search" button on www.uo.com?"
Currently, as you might have noticed, there isn't one. The old search tool is present on all of the old pages (so, every page but the feedback form page), but the nature of that tool is such that we can't get it to search the new content - it will only search the older content. The website is, as always, a work in progress, and we're looking at ways to get a unified search function.

In the meantime, much of the content that is going up on the front page will also get added to the old pages, which are accessible through the left navigation. Update Center has the links to the Five on Friday archives, TC patch notes, and live patch notes. The BNN is alive and well in the Community category under "Game Fiction".

The whole website is easily searchable due to the miracle of Google, as well Just type site:uo.com (or site:uoherald.com) before adding your search terms, and Google will do its thing exclusively on the UO site .

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"When's KR Beta? I wanna get into KR beta!"
This was probably the most popular question in my inbox this week - unfortunately I don't have any news for you today. I look forward to being able to share more information with you in the coming weeks. The whole team is buried eyebrows-deep in KR right now, getting it ready for more hands poking at it, and when we feel it's ready to be hammered on, the great wheel of Beta will begin to roll.

Man, that was awfully melodramatic. I gotta quit watching epic fantasy movies.

--

Fansite news! From UOForums:

"UOForums Interviews Jeremy (UO Community Coordinator)

Jeremy took some time out to answer some questions our users sent her.

Full interview can be found here

Many thanks to Jeremy for answering our questions."

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The New York Town Hall is this weekend - we should have some neat stuff to show you, so if you're in the area, come on out!


- Jeremy

Luna is on fire?

*eyes Maddux*

Is that why you took the day off?