Pub 56 - Three Thumbs up!!

I was shockingly pleased to see the depth of the content in pub 56. Obviously, I don't know how well it will work in the end but right now it seems very promising. We literally have a brand new system that can rival champion spawns being implemented into the game. We have had some forgettable expansions (SE) with less quality content than this patch.

I think that one of the keys to the success of this system is how well they control the value of SILVER. If it retains a decent value then people will keep participating in the invasions on Trammel facet too. They can expand on it and have invasion monsters drop more resources that can be used to craft more faction related consumables to keep the circle going.

Here's hoping to a successful pub 56! Cheers!

A New Hope

Today, in a surprise announcement, we were informed that Lady Sakkarah from my home shard of Atlantic has joined the developer team. This is by far one of the best news I have heard in a long time. I have had many chances to talk with her in the past and I cannot think of a more capable candidate. Here are the reasons why any Ultima Online fan should be happy to see her joining the dev team,


1) Lady Sakkarah was the guild mistress of one of Atlantic's largest and leading PvP guilds DEI for many a number of years. As such, she has hands-on knowledge about not only PvP but also managing large guilds and all that goes along with it.

2) She was famous on Atlantic for creating some of the best player-run events. She has impeccable knowledge of the lay of the land and its history - which she often used to enhance her events. She also shares my feeling that we need more tools to facilitate player-run events. If there was ever any chance of a developer gunning for this concept, this would be it!

3) As EM Sameerah of Baja, she created some of the most fun and exciting events, with many yummy rewards (spider web, Christmas trees, LT sash) to boot. So, we can only expect the quality of the events to improve in the future. Furthermore, she is well-versed in the effects of duping and sensibilities of the rare community. I remember her being very upset when the news of LS sash duping first broke out. All serious rare collectors will consider this as a promising sign.

Lady Sakkarah is a well-rounded Ultima Online veteran with experience in all the major domains of the game. The developer team is going to be better off with her as part of it - Join me in wishing her best of the luck at a very tough job.

On a side note: A little over a year ago Lady Sakkarah was kind enough to write a book about her experience with organizing an event in Baja during her time as EM. That book is locked down and accessible at my house - [Treasure Trove] Atlantic - for anyone interested in reading it. I also happen to have a Sakkarah rose given by her to me, also locked down next to the book :)