Recent News List

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

We're going to need to do an additional restart in about 20 minutes so that we can try to help some players who are unable to login. No downtime expected. Thank you for your patience as we try to get everyone in game again!

Public Service Announcement

• Please try not to abandon your pets, you will lose them if you do. They stay in the world if you log out if you don't stable them. Over time your pet will start to wander, looking for you, eventually releasing you from their control. <potential herding opportunity here?>

Changes from last 24 hours:

• Issue with not being able to steal from a stacked object resolved (requires another server reboot, sorry)
• Improvements to Trading, let us know if the trade acceptance issue proceeds or not
• Removed the ability to gain skills from scroll spell-casts
• Removed use-case options from runes
• UI/Window performance improvements, including reducing the amount of UI/window refreshes, you may notice a slight delay between window updates because of this, and even possibly a performance improvement
• Warg pets removed, we did not intend to spawn those in at this time and they are forcibly removed
• Removed Vendor Buy/Sell confirmation window popup

Changes from earlier:

• Moved Torch over to torch equipment slot instead of right-hand, does not affect old torches
• Treasure hunting temporarily disabled; working on setting up the locations still
• Pet AI issues resolved, was causing pets to not attack and maybe other things too
• Stablemaster minimum-range to check for pets reduced to improve pet summoning
• Added pet position validation when using 'follow' commands to assist with getting pets un-stuck while we work to improve the root cause
• Horses set to 0 taming difficulty, does not affect old horses
• Added some missing interruptions to Mining/Lumberjacking/Fishing to prevent performing other tasks while harvesting
• Resolved issue with bladed weapon target actions not checking for distance
• Fixed issue with trying to use food in places where it was inaccessible saying "you feel more refreshed" while also saying "you can't access that"
• Fixed issue with sometimes getting a backpack from corpses
• Fixed issue with trying to open corpses failing and not showing a container window
• Added notification and system message when being murdered to guide players to Reputation window to report the murders if desired

• Missing when attacking in combat is now fixed
• Not being able to split stacks is now fixed

Please log out and back in to the game to enable these fixes.

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

• Dyes, used for changing the color of a dyetub, are now single-use and stackable
• Added looting rights as described at https://wiki.legendsofultima.online/e/en/notoriety
• Unused secondary skills removed from the secondary skill window, currently all of the secondary skills are under review and disabled
• Fixed issue with being able to sell more than vendors can afford when the bill of sale exceeds their budget
• Added vendor message letting users know how much gold the vendor has to spend when trying to over-sell; AIn the future we will work to make it more like UO where the vendor will buy what they can and leave you with what didn't sell, rather than block the transaction, making it easier to use for players
• Added missing resource counter UI update to vendor transactions
• Fixed issue with "Quick Loot" context menu option not working on items inside corpses
• Added 500ms cooldown between item-pickup actions to prevent spamming movement of items
• Added eating sound when eating food
• Updated Treasure Map window with new in-game map
• Removed "Stack All" options from containers, as these need to be redesigned
• KNOWN ISSUE: Barber NPC's buy window is not working, hopefully this isn't happening to other vendor types also

*Torches should now occupy the torch slot and not unequip the right hand

*Killing/stealing from someone in town and looting with another multibox character should now be prevented.

Water definitions have been added to every town! In those areas:

• fishing should be possible around all of the towns now
• creatures will no longer spawn in water
• players will no longer be able to go swimming

• Healing animation should be fixed, and a 3 Second Cooldown has been added to the Healing Hotkeys of Use Bandage, Bandage Self, and Bandage Last Target.
• Harpies and other various creatures in the world that were unexpectedly unaffected by Bard skills, should now work properly.
• Camping bugs were fixed and the time it takes to build the different stages of the campfire and tent/tent upgrades have been reduced slightly.
• A Teleporter has been added on top of Brit Bank roof to allow players to leave the roof if they lack the ability to teleport down from the roof.

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

Update your bookmarks! The news feed has been migrated from the old news.legendsofultima.online to https://legendsofultima.online/news and the in-game feed and Discord bot now reflect the new feed.

This morning was different. The air did not smell as sweet as it did. A sense of dread had encircled the citizens of Celador. Shopkeepers left their stalls, aimlessly staring into the skies. Children stopped playing on the streets and ran home to their kin. Dark storm clouds began a slow march over the horizon, as sudden wind gusts began whipping the hair of frightened folks in the streets of Britain.  The air bristled with a static electricity and a foul stench. The well waters turned black with pestilence.  Crops began dying as if poisoned by some unidentified force, and the birds and animals all fled in every direction until no wildlife could be seen.

Then it happened... something arose from the ground in the center of the City of Britain. It was too dark to perceive who or what it was, but the energy emanating from it was unmistakable.  A great evil. Someone or something has arrived…

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In preparation for the main event, all servers will be offline from 7pm US EST/11pm UTC Friday 18th June. Please keep an eye on #news for further announcements over the course of the weekend.

Last chance to sign up for the pvp tournament! Signup closes at 4:00 AM UTC on the 28th (about 6 hours from this posting).

After the window has closed, all enrolled players will be added to a special event channel for prelims and a bracket will be generated randomly.

• Fixed issue with house security not working for Owners in some cases (you may need to release/re-secure containers if they are affected)
• Fixed issue with the Buccs Den/Minoc archway teleporters getting pets stuck
• Increased paralyze immunity duration
• Earth elemental spawn chance added to Mining
• Fixed issue with being able to use the Moongate in Limbo while dead, it's intended for you to resurrect using the Shrines first before leaving
• Fixed an issue with pre-written books not being useable
• Added tooltip to Guildstone to explain how to move it
• Fixed issue with being able to use crafting tools from the bank

• Active gain bonuses have been greatly increased.
• Spells casted by monsters will no longer be subject to no challenge skill check for resisting spells. This means that any harmful spell will present a gain opportunity for the player's resisting spells skill.
• Evaluating Intelligence is no longer subject to no challenge skill check when successfully casting a spell. This means that any harmful spell casted by a player will result in a skill gain opportunity for Evaluating Intelligence. This is comparable to how Anatomy gains with combat skills.
• The curve for daily caps has been made less severe at the upper end.
• Threat generation has been increased for healing and ranged damage.
• Certain monsters will more aggressively consider targeting players further away from them.

All wandering healers have had their wanderlust reduced temporarily, until we can make them visible via map icons once again. The markers available via https://lou-map.herokuapp.com/ can be used to locate them.

We are experiencing ongoing issues at our host as a result of a maintenance/upgrade window. We were advised there would be no impact to customers during this time, however clearly that is not the case.

There is no ETA at this time and you may experience odd behaviour or inaccessibility with the game or any of the related services.

Thank you for your patience. We will update you with more information as it comes to light.

A bug allowing users to repeatedly magically lock dungeon chests for gains has been patched

Unidentified musical instruments will now properly identify

Fixed a bug where players could rename recall runes which were not in their own backpacks.

We'll be back online shortly. We've had to rollback to a save state of 10:40pm UTC/6:40pm US EST to avoid potential data integrity concerns that were due to the connectivity issues being experienced. We apologise for this, however we don't want anyone losing items etc., and this is the only way to be sure.

Due to ongoing connectivity issues, the server will remain offline until further notice. There is no ETA at this time.

*Open Helms and Pitchforks can now be salvaged with the mining pickaxe tool near a forge

The Paralyze spell now interrupts the victim's spell cast on success The use of an invisibility potion now breaks spell casts Skeleton Keys now properly open chests of any level regardless of lockpicking skill Carpentry kegs have been fixed and no longer produce deeds

We are extremely pleased to welcome a new member to our team. Congratulations beekel!

beekel will be joining us as a Counselor, and behind the scenes, has already contributed greatly to our project in terms of the wiki, the related wiki bot and of course the interactive map.

He is also contributing in the form of custom music, which we hope to have in game very soon!

Please make him feel welcome.

The Paralyze spell now interrupts the victim's spell cast on success

The use of an invisibility potion now breaks spell casts

Skeleton Keys now properly open chests of any level regardless of lockpicking skill

Carpentry kegs have been fixed and no longer produce deeds