Posted on UO.com:

Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 10:00AM PST (6:00PM GMT), we will deploy client patch 5.0.1i. The majority of the items in this client patch are support items for Publish 39. You can see these new features on the test shard once the updated Publish 39 is deployed to the Test Center at 3:00PM PST (11:00PM GMT).

Complete list of proposed changes in Publish 39.

Details for the patch are as follows:

• New Player Guided Tour has been added
• New Player Quests - 12 new quests geared at new players have been added.
• Font Improvements – 2 new English fonts for easier readability
• Default Layout

• Default location of gumps changed for new characters to make it easier to navigate the interface.
• Game window open larger by default for new characters
• Menu Shortcut Bar can now be moved in 2D client

Spring Décor Collection items art – House decorations for Japanese starter kit

Sticky Health Bars for all targetables

New art for Dragon Armor and Helm of Swiftness

New art for 2D login screen

Mouse wheel scrolling for support for 2D client

Restored scaling of character models in 3D client to original size. This will make the character models appear "normal" and no longer skewed. You will also notice a change in appearance to animals, monsters, and mounts as well.

Changed message player receives when they are squelched and try to speak to "You cannot say anything at this time, you have been muted."

If patched correctly, your current version will display 5.0.1i for both clients. If you have any difficulty receiving this patch, please check the following:

Check the "Patch" directory within your Ultima Online directory (the default location is C:\Program Files\Ultima Online\Patch). This directory should be empty. Any files in this directory should be deleted.

Run a virus scan on your computer. Undetected viruses may cause conflicts with patching Ultima Online. For information on up-to-date virus detection software, please visit http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/vso/default.asp.

If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please visit this web page.

Well this sounds like a very interesting patch, I cant wait!

As Mapper said, looks interesting.. and 'can't wait' (but, of course, will)

I'm really interested in their New Player stuff...I'm going to have to try them out.

When I started UO (with Third Dawn) I had a new player tutorial and I thought it was awesome. It was a special little room you went through to learn controls and stuff...I loved it.

So I'm glad their implementing some more New Player stuff...I'm impressed

Yeh the new player features is what im happy about The interesting part for me is the new log in screen..

i am happy about some of the changes --- hope all goes well and we dont go down for hours on sonoma or revert i think im just paraniod about publishes 6 yrs of them can make ya nervous

It's a client patch, not a publish, so chances of any reverts or such are about nil. Nothing's being updated on the servers, just the clients. Wait for the so called PvP pub, then worry about reverts...

Personally as I play 3D I'm very interested in that change to scaling of models. Could it be our characters will finally return to their original size instead of being way too tall? Hooray if so.

Wow, no one else is happy about the sticky health bars??? That's #1 out of that list, I guess if you use 3D then you wouldn't think twice (you've already got sticky healthbars, right?) about it, and am I going to be the only one making Dragon Armor just to check out the new graphics?

Ican't wait to check this out when i get home.

I user 3D, so I guess I didn't think much about it. But yes that is definatly a great addition to the 2D client! I'm sure a lot of people would find it very helpful