EXCELSIOR DAILY

[+Osiris]

Auction Saturday 23rd May,

10pm Shard Time, 4PM EST and 1PM PST.

Type [time in game for the shards time!

[+Colibri]

Just FYI for the young population, the newbie dungeon will soon be reconfigured to only allow in newbies up to 14 or even 10 days of age (probably 14), or it may be based on skill/stat points (of the strongest character). So if you're near that limit, i suggest you take those last few days and enjoy the newbie dungeon

[+Colibri]

Outlook for the summer of 2009
Just some ideas I wanted to share with all of you, two things that are planned to go in and will be a lot of fun to code.

Not sure if this will go in first, there's the portal upgrade, and the specifics on this one are pretty simple to figure out: guild chat capability, possible to reply to messages or even initiate a message to someone. Excelsior Exchange (Exex) will support non-stackable items. It will also be upgraded so that a couple of the frequently traded commodities (iron, wood, tokens, ed, organics, ointments) will be traded directly with a bid/ask system, kinda like the stock market.


I'll be working on automating as many player services as possible, both to give us staffers more time to do fun stuff, also to get rid of the sometimes long wait times.


There's one very promising idea of having two shards in one server. I have been giving it a lot of thought about how this would be technically done, and i've settled for one solution. It could allow even more than two shards eventually, though for now having two is pretty much a good goal.
The second shard would have all objects placed exactly the same, with one big difference, there would/will be no staff members to monitor chat, and many other rules. The only thing we'd monitor there is things that would have direct effect on the primary shard, that is dualclienting and AFK gathering/leveling. Language would be unmonitored, though there's still a few things to be decided about here. This shard would mainly be for those who don't like the carebear nature of our shard, for those who like the functionality but would like a more adult atmosphere. This primary shard would however still be kept under strict rules, and anyone who would be porting the adult atmosphere over, would be facing the same penalties as anyone else.
Number of houses would cumulate from both shards, meaning that you can have 2 houses on your account, no matter where they're placed. Can be one in each shard, or two on just one shard. Transition from one shard to the other would be done by a special gate. The transition would probably restricted in some way, such as perhaps that you could only pass it once every 24 hours, there may as well be some fee. Idea is that we want transition to be possible, but that the shards would still be kept separate in a way. As you may have already concluded, the public chat would be separate on both shards, though PMs could probably travel from one to the other.
This is just an idea for now, but i think i know enough about RunUO to attempt this upgrade. If/when it is done, not all facets will be open/spawned at once, but probably it will be made so that as we reach a high enough number of people on both shards, new facets will be spawned.



Oh, and here's a fun fact. We'll be hiring soon (keep an eye on this thread over the next couple of days).

[+Colibri]

Staff position open!

We are looking for a new member of the team, one that values the same things as we do: impartiality, fairness, honesty. And most of all, not being staff for personal gain, but exclusively for the benefit of all players.

We need a person who:
- is online for a lot of time (mainly to monitor the chat),
- likes to tour new players.
- has been a member of the shard for at least 2 months,
- is looking forward to host events or create new game content, either with past experience or eager to learn how it's done.

As for age requirement, well the official limit is 18, though in the past years I've concluded that those about 24 or older have a much higher chance of getting in and staying in. Previous experience as staff isn't really important, because we introduce all new staffers to all of the tools and protocols that we use

Important thing you should know: Do not tell anyone that you applied, as we keep all these things confidential.

To apply, send an email to the address listed on the front page.
In the subject of your email, write "APPLICATION June 2009"

[+Colibri]

Staff applications now closed. I will do my best to make a shortlist by sunday, and to inform you all of any news (by email).

[+Colibri]

Codex update:
Change to the AFK rule, if you are killing spawn (leveling weapons or doing a champ or just killing regular spawn) you need to be at the keyboard at all times. No 10 minute buffer applies here.


Heartwood entrance update:
This news is actually already a week or two old, but it got delayed. Heartwood can no longer be accessed by buying a heartwood ticket - instead you need to find a gate that leads to it. The gate can be found around Yew.


As for the ever-problematic magic resistance AKA resisting spells: If you cannot raise it any further, check if your protection spell is activated. The protection spell lowers your resisting spells skill by around 40. To deactivate (if it has been activated), simply cast the spell again. This can also be done by typing "[cs protection" (casting a spell by command).

[+Colibri]

Just letting you all know that I'll be away on vacation for this next week, from July 6th till July 12th.

According to Murphey's law, the server *will* crash during the time I'm away just kidding. Well from what i see right now all systems are functional, and it's been all stable for the past few months, and should be so for the next week as well. The only thing with much possibility is if the ISP decides to do some upgradings, which usually occurs around midnight shard time and is usually a 5-10 minute disconnect. But from what i read on the ISP's news page, there's nothing scheduled for the near future. Anyhoo, I'm sure to find an open wifi spot, so i'll check in every other day.

As far as I know, the other staff members will still be here to provide all the support you need (Currently active are +Rayne, +Veritas and +Aphrodite).

When i get back there will probably first be some low-level hardware upgrades (refurnishing, hehe). Then probably server hardware upgrade, as well as software upgrades (the many things on my list), and the auctions we're due for.

Have fun all, and see you soon

[+Colibri]

Just letting you all know I just got back from vacation, had a good time Will reply to all the emails and PMs as soon as I can, but because I need to get up early tomorrow I will probably not get to all of them today. We extended our stay for a day, I hope nobody here was worried.

Glad to see that there was no armageddon this past week

[+Colibri]

Quick update,

This weekend there will be a grand auction, meaning that the same items will be sold at two auctions, which will be scheduled at different times. The exact times will be posted around tuesday-friday, unofficially the times will probably be the same as before, that is on Sunday first at 3AM shard time and second at 9PM shard time. Hopefully it's a good enough schedule to make it possible for as many of you to attend.

There is also a wipe of inactive accounts planned after the second auction, meaning you'll be able to grab some goodies and possibly a nice house spot.

I've just today started on the new portal. No ETA yet, probably a week or two or three... Once the new system will be up, all of your current possessions will remain as they are (no need to worry, hehe), except for the auctions, which will be all reset. I will give more info before the system gets upgraded, just want to let you all know that since all of the offers/auctions will be deleted, you'll have to post them again, but i dont think it will be a big inconveniance. After all, you should all be able to sell even non-stackable items from then on

[+Colibri]

Grand Auction this weekend!
The grand auction will actually have two schedules, two auctions, both of them will first start with items provided by the players, followed by items provided by the staff. Both of the auctions will have identical Staff made items (except for the houses, which unfortunately can't be identical, hehe). If you have purchased an item on the first auction, you cannot bid on it at the second auction. Same goes for the houses (although not exactly identical, if you have bought the first house you cannot buy the house at the second auction).

First auction: Sunday 3AM shard time (that's Saturday 9PM EST, 6PM PST)
Second auction: Sunday 9PM shard time (that's Sunday 3PM EST, noon PST)





After the 2nd auction, there will be a short pause (approx 30 minutes) after which all inactive accounts will be wiped. The houses that are owned by those accounts will drop, and the items that once were in those houses will be available to be picked up freely by anyone who comes by.

The exact time of the wipe will be announced in public chat at the second auction or shortly after. (The auction usually lasted a bit under 2 hours so we can expect this wipe to occur a bit over 11PM shard time).






Starting from tomorrow (Saturday), there will be a special bonus for all donations. This bonus will be available for a bit over one week, all until Sunday, August 2nd, 23:59 shard time.
During this time, all donations will be rewarded with double the amount of universal dye tubs, and any donation of 30 USD or over will be rewarded with a personal world teleporter. This reward is given only at the first donation, so sending two donations of $30 will get you only one personal world teleporter. (If you have a family member, and they are sending a donation through you, it can be arranged, but please let me know first).
Also note that this teleporter does not work from places where you couldn't recall from.

[+Rayne]

*REMINDER* This thread is used only by staff.

[+Colibri]

*Bump* to keep this thread on top because it's currently very relevant information.

[+Colibri]

We can has Webradio!

That's right, we just got our own shardian webstation. It's located in a small tower outside of Britain, equipped with all the latest technology, allowing it to connect to the internet

Stream address: http://shard.uoex.net:8000
How to listen:
A. Simply open your Media Player, in the menu click File -> Open URL... -> and copy paste the address.
B. Similar as described in A, can be done with many other media players.
C. If everything else fails, go to www.winamp.com and install it. Be careful when installing so that winamp won't become the default program for most media files (can be very annoying). The only file you need supported is the .pls file format. After it's installed, go to the address above with your browser, and at the top there find a link that's labeled "Listen". It should work that way for sure.

With great thanks to Chyna Watts, who proposed this idea.
We'll be looking for DJs to have our own webcasts and other cool things, soon.

For the moment, Chyna is DJing, and in the event that she disconnects, sky.fm's Top Hits stream kicks in.

[+Colibri]

Important: I want to refresh you all on some rules that seem to be broken quite often these days.


Dual clienting or having multiple accounts is NOT ALLOWED. It says so clearly in the codex.

That also means that borrowing your friend's account (even for a few minutes) is NOT ALLOWED!
Doing so, if you get caught, will get your friend's account permanently banned. Your own account will get banned from anywhere between a week and 3-6 months, and that is if you're caught the first time.

We want to keep things fair - every person gets to play on one account.



Also these past few weeks I've seen an increased amount of foul language in local chat. Keep in mind that even if you're not in front of Britain bank, as long as it's said in local chat (also known as overhead chat), then any other person can see it. This includes a hypothetical 10-year old that is stealthing nearby.
We don't mind what you say over a private message (PM) because those are in fact completely private. But overhead chat is considered public, so please be careful what you say there.


Also a little bit of news about a nifty new feature:
+Rayne has just placed her Fountains of Youth. It's a fun useful thing that we scripted together, it basically allows you to soak a certain amount of bandages every (i think) 24 hours. Those bandages are then much more powerful We'll try to get the official info on the wiki soon.

[+Colibri]

If you have in the past week, equipped an item to your bio, and the item simply vanished during the process, and you want the item back, please PM me directly and tell me:
- When did it occur (as precise as possible)
- Where you had the item (up to a few hours before it got lost)

Of course, please only do this if the weapon is very valuable. If it's something you can replace for 10k gold yourself, please do me a favor and buy another Because retrieving from a backup is quite a lot of work.