UO Blog - Requesting a Pirate Expansion - Sept 30th, 2008

The Pirate Expansion

I came up with an idea of the next expansion after Stygian Abyss. Pirates and sea adventures are what excite many people these days, and the existing vast and unused areas of water in Britannia could finally become a destination worth traveling to. Give us a Pirate Expansion! Some details:

• General enhancement of the water world in UO: Weather, storms that can drift you off, places of interest, etc.
• Boats with more functionality, different design, and boats that actually work better.
• Different ship types: Like a small and fast brigantine to escape monsters and pirates. A heavy galleon to hold cannons and require a high navigation skill.
• Underwater dungeons.
• Sunken cities to explore.
• Sea battles, working cannons and other PvP/PvM stuff.
• New sea monsters. Pirate ships attacking you and your boat.
• Mermaids as "underwater healers".
• New character art: Peg leg, eyepatch, hook.
• New skills (not requiring skill points, but learning and experience): Ship navigation, gunnery, diving.
• A lot of challenging sea and under water quests.
• The deep sea - meaning 15 tiles away from the coast - could even be open PvP area. Which means: ship to ship battles are allowed, but you cannot be looted if you locked your plank.

Exampe Scenario

While digging in the sandy beach in front of my house for glassblowing ressources, I accidentally dug up an old tattered scroll. Strange things you find on the beaches these days! The scroll was very encrusted and indecipherable.

I remembered a solution from an event in the past (the massacre of the Royal Council), and went to find some speckled poison and some zoogi fungus. My alchemist actually managed to create a potion out of these ingredients (it took him a while and he burned a lot of poisons and fungi, although he is grandmaster). It was a yellowish liquid and was named Solvent. Using three of these potions on the scroll suddenly revealed an inscription.

It was a recipe! It contained a list of 10 ingredients, which are partly commonly available, partly found only as loot on special monsters. It took me some investigation and about 2 hours to gather 5 of each ingredients. Using the scroll while having 5 empty bottles and a mortar and pestle in my backpack, my alchemist was able to create 5 potions. Then I noticed that the document was charged, and now lost 5 out of 10 charges. After creating another 5 potions, the recipe scroll crumbled and vanished. I was not able to create any more of these potions.

After some testing, I figured out the purpose of this potion:
It allows you to breath underwater for 20 minutes. (If you have the diving skill, you can double this time!) After the effect wears off, you have to surface quickly or you'll die and your corpse and ghost will be washed ashore. Remember that weighing more than 20 stones will drown you.

A certain treasure map scroll can be found as a MIB, which leads you to a certain location in the middle of the ocean. You and your team mates (who have to have used that potion, too) can then jump into the water at the given coordinates. You will find yourself in an actual underwater area, similar to a dungeon, but underwater. Instead of monsters, sharks, kraken, poisonous crabs and other dangerous fish can attack you. A shipwreck was found, and the group fortunately had a lockpicker with them. He managed to open an old rusty chest, but unfortunately died to the poison trap of the chest. The rest of the team looted the chest and found some very rare ingredients in it, along with gold and an artifact. If you have to fight underwater, mind that only light one-handed weapons will work (dagger, skinning knife, darts [for archers]). Also, many spells will not work underwater. Especially fire- and energy-based spells will fail. You cannot summon underwater. And stealthing won't work either.

Mind the weight limit before stuffing your pockets with loot! The loot has to be distributed evently, and you have to decide what to leave behind if you don't want to drown.

Enhanced Ideas

Whale catching: A team of at least grandmaster fishermen would be able to hunt down and catch a whale. Inside a whale you even could have the chance of finding the remains of people who died in the water (maybe even their actual loot which would have remained in their corpse could be spawn inside a whale for 2 hours).

(Originally posted on the Stratics Message Board)

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