The latest update on the Ultima Online website, posted by producer Bonnie Armstrong, begins by announcing that the latest planned update for the game has been a bit delayed:

Since I have not given you guys an update lately I thought I would let everyone know what we are up to and give you some highlights as to what and when you can expect to see new and exciting things in UO! I know we stated that Publish 86 would originally be released in July but we are looking at mid August before we can publish now. Since the shutdown of the Mythic Studio, it has caused us to move the rest of our build machines from that office to the office in Herndon before we were expecting so that has caused a delay in our publish time. This is not an excuse but I wanted to let everyone know some of the things we have been dealing with to cause these delays.

Belatedly, I suppose, we’re getting a glimpse here of the level of integration between what used to be Mythic and Broadsword Studios. Though I suppose it would make a measure of sense for a small studio like Broadsword to keep a subset of its fleet of computers at Mythic proper, as long as Mythic were willing to host and maintain them.

Anyway, here’s some of what UO players can expect to see in the weeks and months ahead:

• We have put in a new Trade Quest that lets you get reacquainted with the lands around Britannia and also if you are feeling a little brave you can visit Feluccia and take your wares to Slim the fence in one of the towns in Feluccia…
• We have added new items to turn in and new items you can obtain to clean up Britannia
• We are still working with Pinco on a new UI for the EC
• We are working with the Focus group and getting great feedback (thank you) for VvsV and should have it on TC1 within the next two weeks for everyone to take a look at it.
• We are still working on a system for the new Advisor Program (old counselor program) , fresh new name.
• We have revised the global loot system
• We are working aiming for turning on Return to Britannia in August
• Adding MYUO to the UO.COM Website
• Anniversary items that will be turned on in September

Not all of the above is related to Publish 86, as should be apparent. The Return to Britannia event is probably the same as was held last year, an attempt to motivate former players to return to the game. And I know that a lot of people are — or will be — excited to see the website’s functionality expanded with the addition of MyUO functionality (character search, for example).