I don't have auto-update on anymore for classicuo... too buggy.
i stick with an update that works and turn the thing off.
 
Greetings Denizens of Darkness, FinalTwist and I have been working on the lands of Darkmoor for a while now and it is almost complete. Hopefully, we should be going live this week.

Darkmoor, is a realm for characters of ill repute - at its centre is Praetoria a city held by negative karma shopkeepers who will attack do-gooders on sight and welcome those with a dark heart and a full coin purse. Outside of the town walls, creatures and heroes amass seeking to force out the poisoned core. These are positive karma creatures and NPC's that will attack evil doers on sight.

Access to Darkmoor for your average adventurer is shrouded in mystery - but if you are ready to demonstrate your dark heart perhaps seek out The Stranger in Lamut County who might point you in the direction of one of his contacts with a task to sweeten the deal. Do you have a black enough soul to stomach the cost?

These lands are ripe for the plunder and allow the wicked to tip the scales of the Balance system towards evil, plummeting the entire world into chaos.

When the war comes, which side will you be on?


Progress map:
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Yes! Turning traditional UO upside down, with an entire land for evil players, full of goodie two shoes to kill!

Sygun did a great job, with greek/mythology themed mobs, and even fairy tale mobs too!
 
Evil players: Darkmoor is live! A land specifically crafted for you. Darkmoor has recenlty been taken over by the hordes of the Accursed, but their hold on the land is weak, and the forces of good still have a strong hold on the surrounding lands. Two new characters have been added to the world : a mysterious stranger has appeared in lamut, and an odd character appeared in Umbra. See what they need and perhaps enter the land of Darkmoor! thank you @Sygun for his excellent work populating this new map, its a great addition to adventures and gives evil players a whole new way to play the game and tip the balance to evil!

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The fight between good and evil was also intensified - as the balance shifts from good or evil, life for the losing side becomes much more difficult, with higher death and travel penalties. There is now a direct impact on how mobs are spawned too - tougher evil spawns when the balance is evil, and tougher positive karma mobs when the balance is towards good. Vendor prices are affected in various lands as well. you can now also see you direct impact on the balance via the aetherglobe in the bank

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I realized its been quite some time since the last offline repo was distributed. LOTS of changes to the package was done, with contributions from players on the server. The changelog is actually too large to put in detail here - so let me focus on the good/evil balance system.

The system was tweaked to allow for a greater purpose to playing. Instead of just playing to get items and increase skills, theres a higher narrative in the game now, where you can fight for good or evil. We added a "balance" system that tracks the actions of the players - the balance effects a large number of different systems (economy, monsters HP, monster loot drops/gold, npc vendor prices, what is spawned in dungeons to name the bigger ones).

As mentioned before, there is now an "evil" land for evil players - where they can go and fight the forces of good. Lots of new housing there, new enemies added. I also added "champions of the balance" where good and evil players will be ranked by their contribution to their side of the balance, and a champion is crowned every 24 hours. The champion will be exempt from death and travel penalties!

I also spent some time merging the latest odyssey with this - a large task since it hadn't been done in 6 months or so and djeryv added lots of new art assets to the game. Those are now (mostly) in adventures as well.

offline package to come this week!
 
Finaltwist updated Ultima Adventures - Based on Ultima Odyssey with a new update entry:

New DarkMoor Update

New update with Massive new content, tweaks, fixes. Entirely new land populated for evil players; DarkMoor.


View attachment 16749

In this update....

- Odyssey had evilkarmaoffset method ended up raising karma loss for evil players by 4x. unsure why ... so i removed this to be stock per runuo2.6
- Coffers and stealing: when a thief got caught before in trying to steal a coffer, nothing happened, the vendors just stood there. Now, the vendors will attack the thief, and...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
- Odyssey had evilkarmaoffset method ended up raising karma loss for evil players by 4x. unsure why ... so i removed this to be stock per runuo2.6
You have to keep in mind that your game has drifted pretty far from Odyssey. The original game focuses on a heroic fantasy world where good tries to defeat evil and evil is taboo. The game's design was such that being evil was supposed to give feelings of being an outcast from society. This is why places like Ravendark, Xardok's Castle, and the Port island require boats to get to so if you make a new evil character (like a fugitive) you will have to earn your way to a boat before you can sail to these evil sanctuaries. You moved to an equitable system of ethics being balanced so some of my mechanics no longer apply to your game. So in the original game it is easier to gain karma than lose it. This is why you would lose karma when stealing things from dungeons...but then people said they wanted to play Robin Hood and be a good thief so I removed that aspect...but I needed to provide a means to lose karma more effectively because killing most creatures wants to raise it. So if your karma is negative, and you kill a purple NPC, then the karma loss is greater because the game assumes you are being evil on purpose. So I wanted to make sure I provide as much karma loss opportunities as possible (killing the good, using poison, eating hearts, evil magic, etc). This all came down to the legendary artifacts points, trade in system...where I want evil characters to be able to trade in their karma and fame to get these items and shape the world a bit as much as good characters do.

- Changed skillgain to make it easier to gain after 80's. this is to balance the skill loss on death - its now a tad easier to gain skill back after losing it.
You implemented skill loss on death? Ouch!
 
You have to keep in mind that your game has drifted pretty far from Odyssey. The original game focuses on a heroic fantasy world where good tries to defeat evil and evil is taboo. The game's design was such that being evil was supposed to give feelings of being an outcast from society. This is why places like Ravendark, Xardok's Castle, and the Port island require boats to get to so if you make a new evil character (like a fugitive) you will have to earn your way to a boat before you can sail to these evil sanctuaries. You moved to an equitable system of ethics being balanced so some of my mechanics no longer apply to your game. So in the original game it is easier to gain karma than lose it. This is why you would lose karma when stealing things from dungeons...but then people said they wanted to play Robin Hood and be a good thief so I removed that aspect...but I needed to provide a means to lose karma more effectively because killing most creatures wants to raise it. So if your karma is negative, and you kill a purple NPC, then the karma loss is greater because the game assumes you are being evil on purpose. So I wanted to make sure I provide as much karma loss opportunities as possible (killing the good, using poison, eating hearts, evil magic, etc). This all came down to the legendary artifacts points, trade in system...where I want evil characters to be able to trade in their karma and fame to get these items and shape the world a bit as much as good characters do.


You implemented skill loss on death? Ouch!

Yeah, the "Balance of good and evil" feature required i remove the slant towards playing a good character.

As for skill loss, you have to keep in mind that there is no skill cap in adventures. so its possible to have a 30x GM character (and be quasi-invulnerable). There has to be some mechanism by which the unlimited skill cap is balanced. MY original desire was to create a system where skills were gradually "forgotten" if not used in some time, however this requires some level of programming skill which i may get to at some point. Ive installed OneTime which is a step towards being able to implement this system (each skill for each char would need a timer mechanism). I'll get there one day. Until then, loss on death is the best system to balance unlimited skillcap.
 
So it's always been my intention to make Adventures a hardcore type of game (no insurance, penalty for recall, death etc) in line with what Djeryv did but even harder. I took the penalty system and added skill loss, a controversial change to the game which many players have argued against.

I stuck to my guns for a long time, but after HOURS AND HOURS or discussing this on discord, i finally came up with a solution that should satisfy everyone:

Easy Mode.

Now, players will have an option to play easy mode. Easy mode means no skill loss on travel/death, but also means more resurrect cost and MUCH more karma/fame loss. Fame and karma are a metric that add prestige, and i feel easy mode players shouldn't have that as easily.

As an added bonus, players who choose to play the game the way it was meant to be played (with skill loss), will get a 15% bonus to harvesting resources, lower resurrect gold cost, and a 15% bonus to their total luck.

This is a one-time trigger that will be added to character creation process. existing players on the server can pm and and ill adjust manually. this isn't soemting you can opt in our out at will. an easy mode char will be an easy mode char forever.

this should allow players more freedom to play the way they want to play.
 
I took this latest update and tried running it out of the box. it gave 3 errors all for some halloween deco "ABatAddon" "AWitchAddon" "SmallWeb2Addon" so i pulled them out since they were in testing folder etc and now it gave 133 warnings and then errors on the customcritter gump. I could comment it out and probably get it working but is there an updated version since the update sept 30 off googledrive?

P.S. Commenting out did not work. Well scripts compiled but then told me tiledata was missing? Do we still need to copy this over the original oddessy files? I thought Djeryv said to go ahead and do your own base off his so people did not need to download 2 things then combine them did that not happen? maybe thats why mine is borked
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OK i apparently cant edit my previous i also realized i need to follow instructions better ignore me for now. ill update later
 
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lol... okay! but you should really play in the server buddy. I know i'm a broken record here but i don't really support the offline version, plus when updates come out youll likely lose your savegame. i just release it offline so players can help in the development and see the code.

if you play on server youll also get the full shard here every month so youll never lose your progress. The server's been up for 4-5 months now and we aren't overloaded so theres room.
 
I constantly try and find new ways to add stories to the world, and I think the best stories are those created by the players themselves... a few weeks ago i made bodies permanent to the world (and movable) so as to record the death of the player in some manner. However what we ended up with are a bunch of bones "corpse of playerXXYY" everywhere. It didn't say much more than that.

So yesterday i implemented a new mechanism - tombstones. whenever an unlooted corpse is looted (by the owner or not), the body turns into bones, but a new tombstone appears on the land. the tombstone now records who died there, how, and what killed him.

The tombstones are movable, weight 75 stones, so its very possible to create a player made cemetery in a place where many people died (e.g. after doing a champ spawn). the bones will now decay after 48 hours, but the tombstone will remain until moved as a testament to the event that took place there.

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I added a new system to the server today - in line with my push towards making items less hardcoded in scripts and more dynamic, i've implemented a dynamic Minimum taming algorithm. this system determines the minimum taming value needed for a creature based on a very complex diminishing returns algorithm. Each tame will now have a different taming difficulty, so if you can't tame one drake, try another - you might be able to tame a weaker one! Also, instead of the "you have no chance of taming this creature" message, you will now get feedback which will tell you how far you are to being able to tame the creature. also, taming creatures in difficult dungeons will sometimes yield stronger tames - but they will be harder to tame!

It will make taming more fun - finding the best of a type of mob will be difficult and mean going deep in dungeons. Before, all dragons were generated with stats based on the script, with an arbitrary minimum taming skill value. Now, everything will be dynamic. you may find a weak dragon that requires 70 taming in the forest, or a strong dragon that requires 101 taming in a difficult dungeon. no mobs are the same anymore.
 
Robes have a use in this game (and odyssey) - they give regens, stats, etc. So the result is that everyone wears a robe.
I was tired of this, as i wanted my char to be robe-less, so i added some new clothing today that replaces the robe slot.

now you can wear a robe without wearing a robe

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working on a new system that should prove fun for the players on the server... harvesters you can place around the world. These will gradually harvest the world, but also corrupt the land and spawn mobs around it over time. after a period, players can go and collect the resources from the harvester.

A (not so friendly) player could try and steal the resources, or destroy the harvester. When destroying, the player will have to fight the mobs, dependent ont he diffuclty of the harvester. some harvester will be protected by slimes, (iron harvester), other will be protected by demons (valorite harvester).

This should be a fun little area control mechanic for the players... also, stand as a way to get resources without killing yourself cliking on trees for hours on end.
 
Also added new movable letters to the loot tables, these rangeom from a-z, are fully dyable, and can be bought from the local blacksmithy. You can simply place one of these ingame anywhere you want to form words and because of no item decay, they will always stay there until someone moves them. Will give lots of great decorative options.
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We used the Ilshenar map in order to create a land for evil players (where they go and kill positive karma mobs only). However, the ilshenar map's city didn't really have an "evil" feel to it. So i started doing some map editing to make it fit the part.

Also, we have 10 clients connected to the server now, though some are players multi accounting. Still room if anyone wants to play an odyssey based world with a few others.

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Really loving the changes that FinalTwist has made to the Praetoria/Darkmoor (Ilshenar) - the "evil town" now looks way more bad ass. Next steps will be revising the spawns in Darkmoor and adding some dungeons to broaden out the content. Particularly excited for the resource harvester system that Final is working on. Don't know where he finds all the time to be so active on the development and listen to our our player feedback on this discord. If anyone is thinking about playing Adventures I can't recommend it enough.
 
No, the map was taken from the Gargoyle royal city from OSI, but in adventures, its Praetoria, in the land of Darkmoor

The map is perfect for this - this is a land of good and positive karma mobs - its bright and cheery - meaning its perfect for evil players to go and corrupt. The city of prateoria is being changed to make it more .. omnious and evil.

The good/evil fight in adventures is at the core of the multiplayer experience - though the balance is 90% towards good now, evil players have been moving it slowly towards the dark side. This affects most systems in the game, including death penalties.

Im in process of adding harvesters now - we have offline skill books (which help gain skills while offline by studying) which really help lower the need for macroing. I wanted to do the same for harvesting materials... so harvesters will add an area control element to the game. Place a harvester and come back in a day to see what it got... but you better hide it since someone else could destroy it.

recently also did a bunch of QoL changes, reducing lockpick/potions/etc weight, streamlining the automatic tasks djeryv has ingame (we have 500,000 items now, so those tasks needed some tweaking to make them more efficient), added trick or treat bags to the loot tables, etc etc.
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also, Sygun is working on a dwarf stronghold ... looks good so far!
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Introducing... HARVESTERS!

These devices can mine/chop for you while you are away, turning the boring resource collection task into a fun area control mechanic. These have to be placed far enough from other harvesters, meaning you could control a specific cave by placing harvesters in it. They can also be destroyed (they are defended by mobs, based on the quality of the harvester) so other players can steal the resources from your harvester if you're not careful.

what they mine if dependent on the quality of the manufacture, and they run on copper (finally a use for copper!). They weight 750 stones each (yep, no click this deed to place here!!) so players will need to move these with a packhorse or pack llama.

this will add a fun and interesting game mechanic - adding to the server today.

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Introducing... HARVESTERS!

These devices can mine/chop for you while you are away, turning the boring resource collection task into a fun area control mechanic. These have to be placed far enough from other harvesters, meaning you could control a specific cave by placing harvesters in it. They can also be destroyed (they are defended by mobs, based on the quality of the harvester) so other players can steal the resources from your harvester if you're not careful.

what they mine if dependent on the quality of the manufacture, and they run on copper (finally a use for copper!). They weight 750 stones each (yep, no click this deed to place here!!) so players will need to move these with a packhorse or pack llama.

this will add a fun and interesting game mechanic - adding to the server today.

View attachment 16956
So excited to set up my fracking empire Ru Paul style! I've just got to be careful not to delve too greedily and too deep, don't want no ancient LotR style evil on my hands...
 
So you found a new place to mine, but the closest forge and anvil is screens away? Why is your only option to gate there or build a house? Why can't you build a forge in the cave? Why can't you build a water trough anywhere you like? An oven? Why can't you place a fountain on the grass near your house? Well addons were only for houses in OSI, to stop hordes of people causing havoc in the lands... but this is hardly necessary for a game like this. Therefore, ive removed the restriction for addons to only be placed in houses. You can place any decoration you want, anywhere you want in the map now. Want to place a table in the grass in the middle of the woods? go ahead. I want players to be able to customize the world how they see fit.

If anyone places an item to grief, to block a path, etc. players can simply use an axe to remove it. problem solved. plus, they get the deed for the item
 
Guide: Harvesters

Harvesters currently allow for offline resource gathering in an innovative way, adding an element of area control to the server. We don't allow pk'ing in the server and the landmass is very big for such a small population of players - thats where harvesters come in. Harvesters allow you to control a certain area, harvest the resources in that area which can be collected at your convenience.

How to get a harvester:
Go to your local tinker. His inventory depends on what he crafted that day, so all harvesters may not be available at all times. There are currently 3 types of harvesters: ore, hides, logs.

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If anoying children make fun of you for buying a harvester, ignore them.

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Youll notice they weight a ton, and nope, there are no easy deed-way to move these around. you'll have to get a good old packhorse to move harvesters.

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youll notice each harvester displays some very important information when you look at it.
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How to use a harvester:
bring it to the appropriate land type or area, plop it down, and double click.. Once claimed, a harvester will need copper to operate, and no longer be movable. The more copper you feed it, the longer it will work for you.
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if you try to place a harvester too near another harvester, it will tell you to place it somewhere else - that's because someone else controls that area.

If you want to claim that area, youll have to disable the other player's harvester. Find it, and double click it. Warning: harvesters have sentries... and the sentries depend on the quality of the harvester - higher tier harvesters have tougher sentries!
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When a harvester is disabled, the attacker can claim all the resources within, and place his own in the area. The owner of the disabled harvester will have to come and either repair the harvester or move it (double click to make it movable again).
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Tips:
Harvesters give a bonus if you have the appropriate skill to use it - mining (ore), lumberjacking (logs), and forensics (hides). Harvesters also may get a bonus if they are placed in far away lands, difficult to get to.
 
I'm having a great time on the server with the other adventurers. I highly recommend the server over a single player experience. Particularly enjoying the good vs evil dynamics. Makes it feel like more than a loot simulator.
 
Finaltwist updated Ultima Adventures - Based on Ultima Odyssey with a new update entry:

Balance, Harvesters, and spikes!

This update adds harvesters, balance spikes, as well as a ton of additional content. See changelist below

Nov 14
- added restricted mode to the game: restricted mode players won't lose skill points or stats on death or travel. BUT, fame/karma will be substantially higher on death/travel penalty, and gold cost for death will also be increased.
this will be a difficulty option that will be set on chracter creation. I'd like to note that it will be very difficult to gain game/karma in...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
i always hated how all pets of a certain type were all pretty much more or less the same. this forces players to use pets that they might not want to use, just because that's the pet that gives the most damage for their taming skill. For example, I love the look of a drake, but i have to move to a dragon if i want something stronger.

I've therefore added an algorithm on animal spawn that has a (small) chance to randomize pet stats and damage. this way, it would be possible (but rare) to find a pet drake that could take on a dragon. Of course, this is only doable because of the dynamic taming skill algo that was added - pets with elite stats will be harder to tame and all this is calculated automatically.

So don't be surprised if you find a horse you can't tame at 50 taming, or a dragon you can't tame at 105 taming. This will encourage players to go out and scout for the best of their favorite pet type and make taming much more engaging and fun.

my thief, for example, will be searching for an elite snake to tame (which should be able to take on a lich when trained). We also have pet levelling, which further allows you to train up pets.
 
sooo our discord is where most of the discussion happens (its very active) on the game, and someone posted an interesting idea yesterday - a hardcore play mode with permadeath. I added it as a play option and its going to be tested today - essentially a char has 2.5x skillgain, but on death skills reset and the player is randomized. I coded it in yesterday and also included a number of other changes around housing.

It should be an interesting option! Its easy to integrate legacy elements to this too, like only having certain elements or items be passed down from one generation to another.

let's see where this leads!
 
Introducing a new way of playing Adventures:

Permadeath!

This mode came about through a suggestion by a server's player on the discord, and i liked the idea so much I coded it on the spot! It's a novel way to playing UO - with accelerated skillgains, but full loss of items and skills on death. How many days can your character survive? Perfect for bards, role playing, beggars, and just having plain old UO fun.

How? that's easy, login to the server, and create a new char. Youll be greeted by the server greeter, who will advise you on how you can play adventures

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Now, Roger HArdCore is gonna ask about roguelike, and get further instructions from the greeter
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Once the words are spoken, Roger is ready to go forth and have adventures in the world!
Things to note: he will not be able to enter a private house owned by another.
Skillgain is 3x normal rate for this character.
More features to come

Sadly though, all things must come to an end, and Roger meets his end
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On resurrection, instead of coming back as Roger, a new player is created and randomly teleported somewhere in the world - given new name, new gender, new features, and new random starting skills.

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Goodby Roger, Long Live Akala!
 
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Introducing a new way of playing Adventures:

Permadeath!

This mode came about through a suggestion by a server's player on the discord, and i liked the idea so much I coded it on the spot! It's a novel way to playing UO - with accelerated skillgains, but full loss of items and skills on death. How many days can your character survive? Perfect for bards, role playing, beggars, and just having plain old UO fun.

How? that's easy, login to the server, and create a new char. Youll be greeted by the server greeter, who will advise you on how you can play adventures

View attachment 17070

Now, Roger HArdCore is gonna ask about roguelike, and get further instructions from the greeter
View attachment 17071

Once the words are spoken, Roger is ready to go forth and have adventures in the world!
Things to note: he will not be able to enter a private house owned by another.
Skillgain is 3x normal rate for this character.
More features to come

Sadly though, all things must come to an end, and Roger meets his end
View attachment 17072

On resurrection, instead of coming back as Roger, a new player is created and randomly teleported somewhere in the world - given new name, new gender, new features, and new random starting skills.

View attachment 17073

Goodby Roger, Long Live Akala!
Can't wait to give hard mode a go! Will be fun to focus on survival rather than powering through on the hunt for loots!
 
Trixi Wintermute the jester-bard and all round entertainer is on the loose, causing mischief wherever she goes. Her favourite trick so far is begging from players and recieving involuntary gold donations from them
 
its a really fun way to play right? also, we have plans now for improvement to that system.. we are calling them "soulbound" characters. more to come here, lots of exciting changes!

I'm going to have an amazing prize for the first who can complete skara as a soulbound character (without dying once)
 
Its always been a point of mine to make sure the world of odyssey was changed in such a way which would facilitate awesome adventures from happening, and ensuring that the world could be customized by players. Its my hope that one day a (mostly empty) would could be populated with mementos, stories, and the legacy of those who have played it.

Here are a few changes (including a completely new mechanism below!) ive made to the game with this in mind:

I opted to remove item decay from the game. This makes the world truly persistent - and allows players to live in it any way they want.
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I created gravestones, evidence of other player's passings and adventures - these stones are movable and record what happened to a player. These are quite funny and fun to encounter when in a dungeon
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I also added the ability for any addons to be added anywhere! you can place anything anywhere you want now, bear rugs, forges, you name it.
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The latest addition to these features is Story Items!! Players can now easily (no need for an item in your pack) leave stories anywhere in the world. When something noteworthy happens, a player can click him/herself and choose to mark an item in the pack
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This brings up the story gump, which the players can 1. choose flavor art, 2. choose the item in their pack, 3. choose a sound that will play when other players come near the story item, and 4. write their story!

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This will create an item which can be moved in the world, and will be unalterable by any other players. This story will stay here forever, or until removed by the author.

I look forward to reading all the cool adventures players will be writing about, and writting of my own adventures!
 

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One thing i added early on was a PvE arena - there were many PVP arenas out there but i didn't want pvp to be brought into the game, so i created a safe way to test your skills against a range of foes. To participate, go to the arena near dungeon clues

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Once there, speak to the gauntlet master
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This brings up a gump where you can choose what type of enemy you want to face
(these are currently set to champ spawns spawns but i will add more varied types later)
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Running the gauntlet costs 1k, has 3 or 4 waves of enemies all harder thant he last, and it even keeps a score for you so you can try and best your record! Winners get a score in the score table, and have a chance to get a special armor set.
Once a player has agreed, they get teleported to the arena to fight
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If you ever die, don't worry! there is no death here in this PVE match, you simply get teleported out of the arena at the healers
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To check the scores, just ask for the scores at the gauntlet master
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This is a risk-free way to test your build, have fun and just see how long you can last!
 
Hello, New here to Odyssey and Ultima Adventures, sorry if this is a stupid question but can someone guide me on how to obtain a spellbook? I went to a mage, scribe, sage but they don't sell spellbooks, only scrolls. Also I spawned in Britain surrounded by like 12 chatty balrons, is it normal? (am i being demon racist?)
Amazing work btw, this really rekindled my love for this game
 
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