Happy Independence Day to those in the USA! For everyone in Britannia we've added a Fireworks handout if you login anytime between now and July 5th at 9am, and if you happen to miss the handout or run out of fireworks, you can also buy more fireworks on top of West Britain Bank. You can see a preview of the fireworks for sale by asking the vendor to display the fireworks show periodically. Please shoot fireworks off safely and don't blow off your fingers while you celebrate. Happy Independence Day!

If you encounter an issue in the game or something appears off or incorrect, or if you have an idea for improvement, please make sure to let the developers know by submitting a Bug Report or Suggestion from in-game using the /bug or /suggestion commands

Submitting feedback in-game ensures that the team sees it and also provides some helpful information automatically to the team to help identify and troubleshoot issues

If you run into an emergency and need help, we have a few ways to get into touch with us outlined here: https://shardsofbritannia.com/about/contact

Please do not direct message staff, we do not accept DMs and will not respond to them

Update 2nd June 2024:

• Blade Spirits has been re-enabled and we will be monitoring for any subsequent issues

Original message, 20th Apr 2024:

Due to a critical bug, the blade spirits spell has been temporarily disabled until the bug can be resolved. We'll advise when it is available again.

Support Options Update

Discord Support Tickets are available again now only for specific support needs.

For most issues:

If the issue does not require a response from the team:

• Please submit feedback in-game using /bug or /feedback.

If the issue requires a response from the team:

• Please use the contact form on our website: Shards of Britannia Contact Form

For emergency support, valid Discord Support Ticket reasons include:

1. Game installation issues
2. Login or SoB Launcher issues:
   • Unable to log in or stay logged in, or issues with the SoB Launcher
3. Account-related issues:
   • Account limitation issues
   • Patron benefits or donation issues

If you have a valid Discord Support Ticket reason, please click the I need help! button in the Discord Emergency Threads channel to start an emergency ticket.

• We we will soon begin work on another PK balancing patch. In our ongoing efforts to ensure a fair and enjoyable experience for all players, this update aims to address any imbalances and refine the PK dynamics. As always, our goal is to find the right equilibrium, recognizing that the pendulum of balance must swing both ways before settling in the middle. Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued feedback and support.

• We are currently working on automating the magic chest found within the Banks of Britannia, and it should be added very soon!

Due to a limitation in our volunteer team's current availability, we've temporarily suspended the Discord Emergency Support tickets in order to streamline our efforts. Going forward, for emergency issues or concerns that require a response from the team, please use the Contact Us (email) form on our website at https://shardsofbritannia.com/contact and also continue to send bug reports, feedback & suggestions from in-game that do not require a response from the team. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

One of our community members advised us that Microsoft Defender is flagging our setup application as containing a trojan.
For the moment, we have removed this installation option and submitted the file to Microsoft for analysis as we believe the file is fine and that this is a 'false positive' in the latest MS Defender definitions.

This is supported by scans on such sites as Virustotal and Jotti, which you can use yourself if you have any concerns. We'll return that installation method as an option once Microsoft sorts things out for us.

The Spring Bazaar is kicking off at Castle Britannia in West Britain! Stop by just North/NW of the West Britain Bank and rent your vendor spot today. The vendors will be available until May 20th. If you have a vendor rented after the deadline passes, the vendor's gold, equipment & backpack contents will be packed up into your account vault for later retrieval. Happy trading!

This is just a reminder that Season 2 is coming to an end and Season 3 will commence very soon. We're going over final touches as we speak! Thanks to everyone that has participated in Season 2, we hope you've enjoyed the challenges. More news to follow very soon.

UPDATE 4/4/24: The Easter Event hath been extended from Apr 8th to Apr 15th

(Reminder) Annual Pigment & Enamels (Donation Dyetubs): Ivory - Available from March 25th to April 9th

The Easter Egg hunt has commenced! Easter Egg Nests will be scattered throughout the overworld for you to find. Double click the eggs to try opening them for fun surprises and goodies! Monsters also have a chance to spawn as Easter Paragon which can also drop Easter carrots and goodies.

Collect Fabled Carrots to spend at the Easter Vendor who can be found on the Britain Bank Roof. They will also buy some of the items you may get from the eggs in exchange for more Fabled Carrots.

The Carrot & Egg Hunt will be live until April 15th & the Easter vendor will be available until April 30th

Happy Easter!

A few players are still being affected by login issues when attempting to connect to the game, or attempting to log in additional accounts. We are continuing to work on this issue and hope to have a solution soon.

We are seeing a healthy number of players connected and playing again since a small change was pushed yesterday. If you are still having issues, please try rebooting your PC and connecting again.

If after the update and rebooting you are still experiencing issues, please log an emergency support ticket or use the contact form on our website and we will be in touch when we can.

We'd like to welcome the newest member of the team, Kelsier! He has extensive experience with infrastructure & development and has a passion for Shards of Britannia! Kelsier will be focusing primarily on Development for the moment. Please give him a warm welcome!

House Decoration Contest - Winter 2023/24

Make sure to check out of all of the amazing player-submitted decorations in the following Discord channel: https://discord.com/channels/369023244038045697/1186715359647113287

The contest was evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Artistic Creativity
• Playfulness and Whimsy
• Coziness and Warmth
• Use of Unconventional Materials
• Miniature World Creation
• Narrative Strength
• Depiction of Snowy Scenes
• Outdoor Decorations

Top 3 Winners (ranked by the team):

1. Fenris: Home for The Holidays for Most Cozy & Inviting
2. Taria: Gingerbread Celebrates Christmas for Most Creative/Artistic
3. Guybrush: Honey, I Shrunk Christmas! for Best Miniature World

All other entries (also winners!):

• Tommesatan: Tommesatan's Christmas Feast: Best Use of Unusual Objects

• chriss: Merry Grilling: Best Outdoor Decorations

• Zarnack: Your fight is over gingerbreads: Best Storytelling

• Swiss Precision: Santa's Sleigh Shed: Best Snowy Scene

• Kikoo: Not much snow around BUT we still have fun: Most Whimsical/Playful

Prizes:

• Tiered prize packages are being put together, and all participants will receive a prize due to their time & effort spent on the contest. Thank you for participating!
• Prizes will include:
  • Elf Food to buy stuff from Santa
  • Personalized item
  • Winter House Decorations
  • an unopened Christmas Gift box
  • more!
• Please allow a few days for the team to build the prize packages for everyone. We will send them to your account in-game and write you when it is has been sent.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, the team enjoyed every minute of looking around at your creations, fantastic work!

We would like to inform you that GM Shroud and CM Milamber have recently stepped away from our team. As is the nature of dynamic volunteer teams, changes like these are part of our evolving journey. We are extremely grateful to both of them for their time & contributions and wish them nothing but the best. Our team remains dedicated to the project and we look forward to continuing this adventure with your support. Thank you for being here with us!

We apologize for the delays with judging the winter house decoration contest. The team is currently backed up but we would like to complete this as quickly as possible thank you for your patience and thanks again for participating amazing work everyone!

Game Update: January 2024

Introduction

It's a new year, and a great time to lay out what's going on with our game. As we step into 2024, we're excited to share our vision and the proactive steps we're taking to ensure the game's ongoing success and evolution. This update includes a rundown of our priority items and our action plan for the months ahead.

Your engagement is vital to us. Whether you're a dedicated player or a valued supporter contributing through donations or subscriptions, your role in our community is indispensable. We're incredibly grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm. Together, let's make this year the best one yet for our game!

What we are working on

New Player enhancements & New Player Island

• Ocllo/Haven Island with New Player Dungeon & more content for newer players
• Extension of Young Player duration (providing more time to play as a Young Player)
• See more of our current New Player plans here: https://trello.com/c/FQUuKTgr

PVP balancing (player versus player)

• On-going balancing efforts for player-versus-player encounters
• See more of our current PVP Balance plans here: https://trello.com/c/YoKynuNu

Multi-level building support

• We've achieved some success with adding multi-level support to the game via our SoB Launcher game extension
• We will need to perform Unity updates to every building in the game to complete this feature
• We are still experimenting and is not guaranteed to be added to the game

Naval Warfare

• cannons
• new mining material & crafting recipes to obtain
• grappling (for piracy & fetching loot from wreckages)
• NPC warships

New water content & water pets

• Will be able to use cannons to take out water creatures & NPC ships
• New pets coming: Shark (aquatic mount), Water Wyvern (amphibious) & Water Dragon (aquatic)
• Audits to collision inside of water that currently blocks passage in some spots
• Completion of collision around incomplete islands

House Collapse changes

• We're considering offering house decay warnings to players on login if their account owns a house and it needs refreshing (same for boats)
• We're considering offering to send Patron-bound items to the owner's account if a house collapses
• Houses that are IDOC (in danger of collapsing) will soon have their contents put into barrels when the house collapses, requiring players to punch their way through the barrels to look for loot
• Considering: IDOC Announcement Board for players to see houses that are nearing collapse

What is being planned or in discussion

Combat Balancing

• We've got ongoing discussions in the team to try to balance combat. Recently we have tried some different changes and they were reverted for further review.
• We plan to conduct more testing in the near future

PVE Content

• We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our existing PVE content and explore opportunities to introduce new content
• Our plans include continuous addition of more exciting content, which will feature new abilities for monsters, making each adventure engaging and unpredictable

Crafter Pets (previously Tinkering Golems)

• Introducing new pet options for crafters, currently in discussion: Craftable Construct beings, Ore Elementals that can be subjugated & tamed via Tinkering trap
• These pets will have durability instead of health and will need repaired with materials like Ore & Reagents
• These pets are intended to be useful for both PVP & PVE

Evolving Pets/End-game Taming

• We're looking into the possibility of end-game pets, commonly referred to Evo Pets in the UO community
• These pets would start out as smaller, weaker beings and you would train them to grow and evolve into tougher beings, with different species to pick from
• We've got a few new pet models ready to use for something like this, like beautiful new Dragons

Player Jails

• We're discussing the possibility of adding a Jailing system where players can "press charges" against their murderers. The culprits could then be captured and sent to jail to serve a sentence for their actions. This is a rough idea, and there's no solid plans or ideas yet.

What we've completed recently

Seasonal Challenges

• We've completed Season 1 and have just started Season 2
• Seasonal challenges offer a large variety of tasks for players to engage in, accruing points to unlock vast rewards

New mini-games

• Snowball Fight (available now near Windemere)
• Jousting (available now in Vesper)
• MOBA Game (was used with Chucky Doll for Halloween, will continue to iterate)
• more to come: Life Size Chess, and Texas Hold'em Poker

Water & Boating Expansion

• We've expanded the waters of the world. Previously only 2 regions were prepared for players to drive their boats around in, now every online region is capable of being sailed in.

Music & Sound Additions

• We've deployed several custom Music tracks written by previous team-member Beekel & some additional tracks sourced elsewhere by our team
• We've also added dozens of new sounds that may sound exactly like our favorite classic game!
• We will continue to expand and add more as time permits, including additional or replacement Sounds, Ambience tracks, and Music
• Disclaimer: All recognizable sound-effects incorporated in our project have been sourced from the US Library of Congress and are classified as Public Domain content.

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There's much more that we haven't listed here, to see a list of recent patch notes, check out our News page here: https://shardsofbritannia.com/search/query:patchnote

Marketing

We periodically run paid ad campaigns on popular marketing platforms like Google, TikTok and other social media outlets from time to time. As you may know, advertising is very costly, so we are unable to run paid ads all the time. We try to run campaigns when it is strategically advantageous.

We've recently completed a polishing pass on our website to improve education for new players & to improve the general flow for new visitors, as this is where we point advertising viewers to when they click on our ad.

Joining Hands with Our Community

Fostering Positivity & Good Vibes

• We highly value the power of positive and productive interactions among our players. While we recognize the importance of expressing one's thoughts and emotions, it's crucial to ensure these expressions contribute positively to our community. Voicing opinions in a manner that isn't constructive or beneficial could potentially discourage new players from participating in discussions or trying out our game. Critiques about the game are not discouraged; however, we request you to frame them constructively.

Spreading the Word

• Your help in promoting our game would be greatly appreciated! We invite all members to share their experiences with friends, family, or anyone who might be interested. Whether they're fans of Ultima games or Ultima Online, or simply enjoy online sandbox games without any prior knowledge of Ultima, your word-of-mouth recommendations can make a significant difference. Please remember to do so respectfully and considerately.

Reminder, as previously scheduled, Xmas Activities have come to an end. Santa will remain until the end of the month for you to finalize any trades & purchases.

The Christmas House Decoration contest deadline is Jan 12th and the judging will commence at that time with prizes announced shortly after, you can enter and see current entries here: https://discord.com/channels/369023244038045697/1186715359647113287

The Christmas Lottery deadline is Jan 15th and the drawing will commence at that time with prizes announced shortly after

Happy new year!

We are thrilled to unveil the arrival of Season 2 in Shards of Britannia! 🚀 Embark on a new era of challenges, quests, and triumphs. Your dedication has fueled the evolution of our server, and we're excited to present a host of thrilling updates:

🏆 Season 2 Kick-off: Sharpen your blades and ready your spells as Season 2 begins! A fresh wave of challenges awaits, promising riches and glory for the intrepid.

🎁 Rewards Galore: Season 2 introduces a treasure trove of rewards! From the coveted Season Chest to unique items that will dazzle the most seasoned adventurers, your feats will be duly rewarded.

🌐 Updated Seasons System: We've fine-tuned the Seasons System based on your invaluable feedback. Expect a smoother and more engaging experience as you navigate through challenges, earning points and climbing the ranks.

📅 End Date: March 31st

Your journey in Shards of Britannia is about to reach new heights. Season 2 is not just an update; it's an invitation to partake in an epic adventure. Thank you for being a part of our vibrant community.

See you in-game! ⚔️🛡️