Gulf of Mexico

So many other bodies of water get shards named after them, why not the Gulf?

Here is some information on the Gulf of Mexico Ultima Online shard:

AI

• Human NPCs will now be able to run.
• NPC mages and magic-using monsters will be able to cast more spells, including Energy Vortex.
• AI in general will be improved.

Animals

• Only animals can be tamed.
  • To make up for this, there will be new, stronger animals to tame.

Town and Guards

• Guards will fight normally and can die.
  • Guards will be dispatched in pairs, and if one dies a replacement will come.
    • If all the guards die, the town will no longer be guarded.
  • Guards will still teleport.
  • When a guard dies, there will be no corpse to loot.
• Players will be able to enlist as guards.
  • Player guards will recieve the same equipment as NPC guards:
    • A full set of iron platemail
    • A colored tunic, doublet, or sash
    • A weapon of choice
    • A teleportation ring
    • For archers: Arrows or bolts
  • Player guards will not be limited to towns.

Race/Skill Gates

• When a character is created, it will have a choice of gates.
  • There will be gates for professions and races.
    • You will only be able to use one of these gates.
• By entering a race gate, it is possible to become a monster from the game.
  • Instead of a town, you will start in a monster camp.
  • All monsters will be attacked on sight by town guards.
  • Monsters will have special healers to resurrect their ghosts.
  • NPC monsters will attack other player monsters of a different species.
  • Player monsters will have the same skills and stats as the monster they become.
    • Skills and stats will still decay normally.

Magic

• Meditation will not regenerate mana faster.
  • There will be other restrictions added to keep mages from wearing heavy armor, possibly having it lower their intelligence.
• Some spells will act differently.
  • Explosion will no longer be delayed after it is cast.
  • Poison will take a few seconds to circulate before its effects are noticable.
  • Poison Field will be good for rasing resist.
  • Recall will take much longer to cast to eliminate quick escapes from combat.
  • Magic Unlock will unlock some locked doors in NPC buildings and dungeons.
• Summoned monsters (slime, elemental, scorpion, etc) will not be commandable as pets.
  • They will behave like blade spirits and energy vortex, attacking whatever is closest to them.
  • You will also now be able to select a target instead of summoning the creature next to you.
  • Summoned animals (hind, rabbit, horse, etc) will not attack unless attacked first.
• Casting sequence will change from cast-target to target-cast to eliminate precasting.
• All spells will work inside of town as they would outside of town.
  • "Evil" summoned creatures (monsters summoned with Summon Creature, blade spirits, all 8th circle summon spells) will be attacked by the guards, however.
• Words of power for some spells have been slightly changed.

Thieves

• Snooping will have a chance of making you a criminal.
• Town guards attack you on sight if they recognize you as a thief.

Murderers

• If you have very low karma or more than 5 murder counts, you will highlight red to other players.
  • The guards will attack you on sight in towns.
• There will be special resurrection panels that only resurrect murderers.

Necromancy

• Necromancy reagents will be usable by alchemists to create new potions. Research and experiment!
• Necromancy reagents can be taken from some monster corpses and camps.

Plot

• There be a full-featured plot with quests.
  • In an RPG, too! What an idea!

Here's a bunch of stuff in a small font:

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. That means if you own a trademark, you own that trademark. We hope this clears up a lot of confusion.

The Gulf of Mexico shard is not endorsed by Origin or EA. In fact, it doesn't even exist yet! But send your suggestions to [email protected] anyway.