Quite a bit happening or has been discussed this month, which marks UO’s 17th Anniversary. Lord British, King Blackthorn, Counselors (I mean advisors) are all returning, with Lord British and King Blackthorn returning today, September 25th, 2014.

First up: Counselors Advisors are coming back to Ultima Online.

For those of you not playing in UO’s early years, Counselors were other players who were able to help their fellow players in a limited capacity, meant to help relieve the pressure on GMs, and provide a friendly/informative introduction for new (and now returning) players. A summary was provided on UO.com:

Please keep in mind Advisors are NOT GM’s they do not have the powers to help you like a GM does. Advisors can move monsters that spawn out of reach, move corpses that die in out of reach locations, help new and returning players with information about the game that they don’t know or might have forgotten, and direct players to information sites that might be helpful. If an Advisor gets a call that she/he can’t handle they will forward it to a GM to keep the player from having to place two pages.

Next up, Lord British and King Blackthorn are returning to UO as well, today as a matter of fact (September 25, 2014). This was promoted on both UO.com and on the Shroud of the Avatar websites. This is something that might have been more difficult when EA controlled UO rather than Broadsword Online Games, although Blackthorn did make an appearance in recent years.

Last week there was a “State of the UO” address from the UO Producer and several team members, and below are some of the highlights (other aspects will be covered in more detail in their own posts).

• The UO team is happy with the EM program, and no major changes are planned.
• There is an in-game messaging system for leaving messages for offline characters that is sort of in the works (the “backbone” of it is in place). It comes down to priorities/player demand as to when it will be finished (editorial note: Players have been wanting/asking for it for years, especially role-players and those who are into vendors, but many others as well – begin forced to use third party apps is very annoying, takes you out of the game, and represents a bit of a security risk).
• UO has an actual dedicated web designer (who is also a player), which is something that it has not had in many, many years. A major reworking of the website is planned, complete with a wiki and player guide. The website will also be translated into other languages. (editorial note: UO.com desperately needs a lot of work – it does not inspire confidence in new or returning players when the official website is sparse, and players are told to go look at fan sites for information).
• There is a desire to add a new player guild area on the UO.com website, of trusted guilds for new or returning players.
• The high-resolution artwork is still being worked on, it’s being called “Enhanced Art”. They have hired a player to work on it, and still have Q&A to do on it.
• There will be a pet revamp.
• They are considering streamlining areas of the High Seas expansion, including the crafting of cannons.
• There is talk of expanding Stygian Abyss, but that is all it is at this time.
• The login information screen/window is being updated with information from UO.com.
• The account management website will be rebuilt and unified/simplified.
• There is a focus on improving the Enhanced Client (more on that in another post).
• There is still an effort of making gold “account wide”, and remove gold checks completely.
• There is a plan for improving the book system.
• Return to Britannia is coming.

That is just a brief glimpse at some of the current things going on.