Friday, June 1, 2012

Old Gargoyle City GONE! Along with Blackthorn’s castle in Brit?

I didn’t do it!  :-)  The staff missed destroying Luna yet again and I can't believe it!  :-)  Why these 2 wonderful old historical landmarks?  Is it for the good, for the worst, or what?

Part of the last publish, old Gargoyle city in Ilshenar was turned into a wasteland as part of the extremely long storyline currently running.  There is no way to re-enter the city.  No way to reach the banks or other NPC shops.  The question right now is if the city will ever come back.  It's almost like the staff has it in for old historical landmarks.  Is it gone forever?

Forgive me for saying so, however Ilshenar is a fairly useless place with vast amount of land with nothing worth bothering with.  No housing.  No ability to recall into any part of the land.  No real cities.  Paragons.  However, for those of us who like to explore, this same land is full of little hidden treasures.  Special spawn.  Special hunting areas.  When called for, new dungeons are added.  It's a real shame that so many professional bank-sitters will never know these lands because they are too frightened to leave the safety of the bank.  Never the less, what the land has... should NOT be destroyed.

Old Gargoyle City is/was located near the Honor Moongate, west of the old Black castle that was also destroyed a few months ago.  The story behind that destruction was this storyline that will run most of 2012.  Just recently, in the old gargoyle city, was an easy passage to Exodus dungeon.  Also, a very recent quest to search the sands for Juka and Mere artifact fragments.  That quest and NPC still exist next to the entrance, however you can not pass the pillars at the gate.  The dungeon can still be reached by the original entrance to the south.

Then that brings us to Blackthorns castle in Brit.  Why?  First the bridge was partly destroyed, however old runes and boats could cross the moat.  The island appeared to be on fire, however there was no added spawn or anything really out of place.  Then suddenly, the entire bridge was removed and upon being asked... I took a rowboat to the island as all my runes were blocked.  The only thing left of the castle is a few bits of décor.  One of the most interesting city buildings in all of UO gone without any reason.  I’m sure something will happen... someday, but it still angers me a little seeing this was one the few truly nice pieces of architecture in the old cities.

Not to bust the staff’s chops too much, with these 3 large pieces of the game vandalized... I can only remember how long it took them to rebuild Maginica.  Even then, after all the waiting and hype, it never quite lived up to the possibilities.  We joke and carry on about the totally corrupt city of Luna needing to see hardships, but there is no shortage of areas of the game where NEW cities, NEW buildings, and NEW possibilities can be designed.  Look at the docks from the High Seas addition.  Out in the middle of the seas, without destroying one tree.

* Also please note that the destruction of old gargoyle city will be part of an upcoming quest in another month.  A somewhat complex cure will be needed to help those survivors who are infected with a sickness thanks to the Nexus.

Also, speaking about changes in the landscape...

My last post including a mentioned the staff built teleporter hub coming soon to Atlantic.  Well?  No sooner then I posted that little news snippet, Mesanna started building that very article.  It's been a few weeks since she started, however it's still not complete as of yet.

If you go to the south gate on laggy ole Luna, just outside, you will see an odd red colored walkway heading east off the dirt road.  This is the new teleporter hub.  I really have no idea what the final design of this hub will be, but clearly you will see several tables along the wall that have a sign and statue per each table.  The signs will tell you what “official town” you will find at the other end of the teleporter and the statue is the “port key”.  Like the town banner of the “Red & Purple Pixies of the Yew Woods”, you will be teleported directly to these banners, not so much to the houses like a house rune would.  Please also note that these are 1-way teleporters.  There is no device to return you, so if you can't recall... you’ll have a problem.  Red statues are for locations in Fel, White/Marble are locations in Malas, and Artic-Blue are locations in Tram.  Remember, this location is not complete as of yet, so it doesn’t have all towns included.  Hopefully will be soon enough.

This hub, very unlike Goodmans or other hubs, is about the official “towns” of Atlantic.  These towns can serve the community, as our town does, with houses all or mostly open to the public OR can be more about a guild, being restricted to it's own members.  Some towns are more like “ghost-towns”, once had some kind of a theme or common ownership and since have broken up.  You will find these towns as well at the new hub.  With those ghost-towns as well as the guild towns... you may find locked doors, spawn, and in cases of Fel locations... murderer Reds.  So be warned.  Otherwise this is a great opportunity to see some of Atlantic you wont otherwise see in your common travels.