Apologies for the delay, we are running a little overtime with the maintenance work. We will aim to be back online by 11am UTC (ideally before that!).

Hail citizens. We have some important news to share with you!

As you may be aware, this project started out as an experiment. It was unimaginable that it would grow into what it is today. To see where we've come today, let's take a quick look back at the history of the game and our project for a moment.

Starting out the game Legends of Aria was known as Shards Online, as some of you remember. Later it was re-branded to Legends of Aria, and more recently the platform is known as the Shards Engine, which makes this project possible.

After the game was re-branded to Legends of Aria, our project was just getting our test-server online and it was decided to use the name Legends of Ultima for the time being while we experiment with things and find our place as a project. This name wasn't originally intended to be used permanently, and admittedly it stayed around for longer than expected.

Today, the project has grown to a point where it is prudent to find its own identity, and as such we are excited to announce, the project will now be known as Shards of Britannia

This represents a new path forward as we progress into the future as a project on the Shards Engine with our new home in Britannia. What's next? We will be steadily working to replace branding across all platforms over time but will do our best to make the transition as seamless as possible. We hope that you are as excited as we are about the future and appreciate your support through these changing times.

Tonight's maintenance window @ 9am UTC (approx 1h 10 mins from the time of this notice) will be extended by up to an hour while we work on the 'lag' issues that are currently being seen.

Thank you as always for your patience.

Group Combat, Shared Loot

• group healthbars with heal/cure/bandage buttons
• group consent added to toggle allowing combat/looting between group mates & you will be asked if you want to consent when first joining a group
• group auto-loot sharing added, will distribute loot between nearby groupmates when using auto-loot on non-player-corpses
• group invite setting added to toggle allowing all group members inviting to the group without needing to be promoted

Criminal Action Confirmation

• now has 3 options: Allow Criminal Actions, Ask Me First, Prevent Criminal Actions
• change this setting in Character Settings under the Combat tab

Combat Target Restriction

• wiki page added: https://wiki.legendsofultima.online/en/combat#target-restrictions-new-feature
• allows players to restrict selecting mobs to a certain type like: All, Monsters, Players, and more
• added to character settings & can also click the top-right corner button next to minimap to quickly change this option, previously this button changed the Confirm Criminal Action toggle
• this option is meant to reduce misclicks when trying to select certain types of mobs in close encounters with lots of mobs
• example: if you set this to Monsters, then you will only be able to select Monsters when clicking mobs to target them for combat
• should not affect spell-targets or other item-based manual targeting, and will still be able to target mobs normally with those actions

General Combat-Related Changes

• using bandage self, bandage last or bandage button from group healthbar will no longer change current-target on use
• potion toxicity on self-healthbar will now only appear when toxicity is above 0
• when logging out in a house you have permission to or in a public inn, you will no longer be required to wait 2 minutes before timing out due to recent combat with non-player beings, previously attacking monsters or other beings would affect this
• added Enter Combat w/Spellcast option so that mages without melee skills don't have to toggle warmode after casting
• you can now see your guildmates/groupmates when they are dead, regardless of if they are in war mode or not

New Custom Client Actions

• Custom Client Action 3 is now Nearest Target option
• Custom Client Action 4 is now Cycle Target option
• both of these options work in conjunction with the new target restriction option
• these actions can be set to hotkeys under Settings -> Keyboard

Hotfix from today:

• resolved town vendors stealing people's money when trying to buy Used items from them
• town vendors should finally clear out their Used inventory regularly

Hotfixes/changes from last week:

• resolved not being able to give murder count to characters when dying from Poison spell in some cases
• poison will now fall off if the caster is a player and dies around the victim
• fixed issue with house sign not setting owner after transferring house sometimes showing previous owner or no owner at all

• Ankhs should now resurrect Red players in the world.
• Buccs Den now has more Red Wandering Healers that are spread out across town.

An issue with not being able to leave your group in some cases has been resolved. Please log out and back in to receive the update, then try right-clicking your character and choosing Leave Group to try once more.

• Added a black smoke fizzle animation for spells.
• Updated messaging for Starving skill/stat gains.
• Added Recall Sound/Animations to UseCharge on Runebook.
• Added animations to Tracking skill use for in tracking window and switching creature types.
• Fixed an issue with Campfire overlap by increasing distance between active campfires.
• Fixed an issue with Kindling no longer working after trying to place a campfire inside town.
• Updated messaging on Kindling use when Mounted, In Town, and near another Campfire.

• Monsters may no longer be provoked onto other players or pets.
• Fixed incorrect food being created when summoning food.
• Fixed incorrect asset being used for Acid elementals in Despise.
• Addressed some issues with players being unable to login.

• Fixed an issue causing non young players being warned about losing their young status.
• Rare loot table adjustments.
• Barding pets will no longer offer skill gains however the effects will still work.
• Ratmen and Lizardmen may now be skinned for hides.

• Updated crafting window Repair button to show how to make a repair deed
• CAPTCHA improvements
• Fixed issue with some characters being unable to log in if they were previously unable to complete the transition from Celador
• Fixed issue with trees being "too far away" in North Minoc area
• Logging out in a dungeon will result in being teleported to Limbo when logging back in, if logging in 20+ minutes after logging out
• Marking runes is now possible inside Dungeons on Levels 1 except for Despise being able to mark on Levels 2 & 3
• The following actions are prevented around the nearby areas surrounding dungeon entrances, both interior and exterior:
  • gaining skills
  • marking runes
  • casting field spells
  • dropping objects

• New "Fall Asleep" right-click ability on Tents grants the Camp/Tent Owner instant logout perk.
• The "Fall Asleep" ability only functions for the Owner when their Secured Campsite and Tent are close by.
• The "Rest" right-click ability no longer puts the player inside the tent automatically and instead plays a stretching animation as the stats buff applies, and the Rest ability works for all players.
• The "Rest" Stat Buff Duration now scales to Camping skill with a 20 minute Min, and a 2 hour Max at GM Camping.
• Updated tooltips throughout the camping process to reflect changes.
• Fixed issue with skill gains not firing throughout build stages.
• Buff icon display adjustments.

Gameplay

• Loot tables have been adjusted for Shame.
• Loot tables have been adjusted for Destard.
• Young players will no longer trigger mobile collision.
• There is now a 1 second cooldown between mobile collisions.

Just a reminder from the article posted last week: https://legendsofultima.online/news/server-is-up-again-1

Any characters, items, and houses that were left behind in Celador are no longer accessible.

If you have any characters stuck in Limbo/Inbetween from the transition and have trouble progressing through the black portal, please send a help request and make sure your contact info (use /contactinfo command) is up to date so we can contact you if no one is available to help immediately.

"We have found a place of great evil in the region North of Minoc. Trackers have informed us that a Northern Cave is filled with a monstrous and deadly Arachnid. We fear that this beast is linked to the creatures on the Peninsula. If they launch an attack on Minoc, we will be unprepared to defend against them. We beg you, find their nest and extinguish them. We will forever be in your debt warriors.”

~Julie the Artisan of Minoc

An update has been made to the rules regarding multiboxing and spycams. Please re-read the rules at https://legendsofultima.online/about/rules. As a reminder, you are responsible for keeping yourself informed of the rules at all times.

All town vendors have been made invulnerable for the time being while we work on updating their AI to be in line with Britannia-era combat mechanics and as such, they will be unavailable for snooping or thievery while invulnerable. Thanks for your patience while we continue to work on things

• Added New Character Settings for Toggling Auto-Open of Killing Blow/Mutilate/Harvest under Combat Options.

• Murder participants will now always get additional counts based on how many were involved with a max of 3 (for now).
• Blue players who are involved in a murder will not be subject to additional counts based on participants.
• Murder participants will now remain in combat for (participants * 2) minutes with a max of 10 minutes. This means they cannot quick travel until this timer is up.
• Blue players who are involved in a murder will not be subject to the additional combat timer based on participants.
• Murder count decay has been reduced to 24 hours in game time from 72.
• When a murderer decides to repent there will now be a server wide notification.
• Destard has had some loot re-balancing done.
• Wrong has had some loot re-balancing done.
• Some high end monsters have become more difficult to bard.
• Fixed an AI pathing bug when monsters are leashing.

The servers are offline for the time being while we prepare for the transition process. As you know our team is global and therefore we are scheduling plenty of time in advance to allow for all teammates to complete any duties. Thanks for your patience through the downtime and please check back here periodically for further updates. See you on the other side!