The release of Ultima Online’s publish 117 to the live servers isn’t far off now, as the third set of patch notes hit the test server this past week.
The central focus of the update is the high seas – literally. The High Seas mini-expansion from years ago expanded the existing ocean content (seriously, this game had boats from launch) with pirate and merchant mechanics. Now, it’s getting a ton of new rewards and titles, alongside the Shrouded Sails event, which tasks players with collecting “Plunderin’ Pirate Hats” from all kinds of ocean content, from bosses and the Void Pool pirate brawl to shipwrecks and treasure chests. Shrouded Sails itself is a returning event, not brand-new, but this version’s been updated with a bunch of new artifacts that’ll make veteran players dig their boats out of drydock.
We also spy a whole bunch of new veteran rewards, which caught our attention as earlier this week Daybreak told EverQuest II fans that it wouldn’t be adding more veteran rewards to that MMO’s pool because it wouldn’t be fair for newer players. Ultima Online’s long-running solution to that problem has been to simply grant more picks every year but add the rewards to earlier years so that even newer players can choose them (although, UO’s vet rewards aren’t character-bound, so a lot of folks just sell theirs anyway). This round, we’re getting more statuettes, enchanted gardening shears, an enchanted greenhouse, and several bits of housing deco. I’d 100% go for those shears and greenhouse if I were still playing lots.
UO fans, of course, are still waiting on the next phase of New Legacy testing; as of February, Broadsword planned beta by this summer and a launch this fall, but it’s already been delayed several times since its announcement back in 2020.
