The 22-year-old Ultima Online is busy celebrating more than just its birthday: It’s also celebrating Halloween and the Jolly Roger patch, which hit the test server. As we’ve previously covered, Jolly Roger is the game’s fourth major patch of year and presumably the culmination of the High Seas theme Broadsword’s been running throughout 2019. So far, though, the patch notes don’t reveal much about what the patch entails beyond the Christmas holiday update, the Artisan Festival update, and the Krampus rewards, but we know there’s more coming:
“We have some exciting things coming in our next release of Jolly Roger including a brand new interface for mannequins that will help with equipment comparisons as well as the next chapter of our ongoing High Seas event. Can’t wait for you guys to check it out!”
Halloween has been live in the game for the last few weeks along with the Treasures of the Sea event, 22nd anniversary rewards, trick or treating, pumpkin carving, and zombie skeletons. We spied a pumpkin rowboat, jack-o-lantern helmet, and Captain title in the newsletter too. OoooOoOOoooOoooOoOOooO.
In sadder news, Bonnie “Mesanna” Armstrong announced in the recent newsletter that Broadsword is eliminating the Player Event Coordinator program: “We have been evaluating the Player Event Coordinator program over the past couple of months and due to lack of participation we are doing away with the PEC position. If in the future the need grows we will revisit the program at that time.” The program was one of the few in the genre that actively encouraged the development of genuinely dynamic in-game narratives with staff-to-play participation, so it’s a shame to see it end. Again.
