WIP Shards of Minax V08

Shards of Minax Update: Dynamic Encounter System is Here!

Fellow adventurers, the wait is over! I’m thrilled to announce a massive update to *Shards of Minax*—our modded Ultima Online single-player server. Say hello to the Dynamic Encounter System, a game-changer that will breathe new life into your adventures. Let’s dive into the highlights of this update:

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Dynamic Encounter System: A New Level of Randomness
The heart of this update is the Dynamic Encounter System, a reimagined version of the mini-champ mechanic. Here's what it brings to the table:

- A Treasure Trove of Encounters: Mini champs now draw from an extensive list of 755 unique encounters, ensuring no two experiences are alike.
- World-Wide Integration: These mini champs are no longer confined to specific areas. Hundreds of them now populate every facet of the world, from mysterious forests to desolate plains, filling empty spaces with new challenges and surprises.
- Randomized Every Time: Each spawn is completely randomized, making every journey into the wilderness a fresh and unpredictable adventure. Explore a world that feels unique every time you play!

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Team-Based Combat for Added Excitement
But that’s not all! This update introduces a Team System that makes the world feel more alive:

- Factions at War: All monsters in the game are now assigned to different teams. This means they’ll engage in skirmishes with opposing teams whenever they cross paths.
- Dynamic Wilderness Battles: Some encounters are designed to pit opposing teams against each other, leading to spontaneous clashes and thrilling battles that you can stumble upon during your travels. Will you jump into the fray or watch from the shadows? The choice is yours.

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What Does This Mean for You?
This update transforms *Shards of Minax* into a living, breathing world filled with unpredictable encounters and dynamic battles. Whether you're hunting treasure, gathering resources, or simply exploring, you'll find yourself immersed in a world that feels truly alive.

Expect the unexpected. Watch your back. And most importantly—have fun!

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Ready to Dive In?
The Dynamic Encounter System is live now! Update your server and step into the chaos. Explore the countless new encounters and let us know your favorite moments. The world of *Shards of Minax* will never be the same, and we can’t wait to see how you navigate its ever-changing landscapes.

Happy adventuring,
Rutibex

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Share your thoughts and feedback in the comments or on the forums. And remember—this is just the beginning. More surprises are on the horizon!

Howdy everyone! The mod is getting a bit complex for new players so I have started a wiki to help with documentation!

Shards of Minax Wiki

-Fixed the serialization bug in a few NPCs. Oops!

Today is a rather huge update which adds the branching dialogue system to all of the NPCs in Shards of Minax! This includes over 700 NPCs with a branching dialogue! All of these NPCs have interesting things to say, but they will also ask you for certain items which you can exchange for Maxxia scrolls!

-All NPCs updated with the new dialogue system, thousands of new lines of dialogue!
-Felucca updated with over 200 new NPCs using this dialogue system

Update v07 Skills and Virtue Quests

Today is a HUGE update! I have added a skillbook for every single skill in the game, each with 16 individual skills! This means over 700 new skills added to the game. How do you obtain these new skill books? You must complete Virtue Quests in Ilshenar to collect Virtue Stones. Each new skill codex requires a combination of three different virtues. The quests are rather simple, this is for a beginner to get their new skill book.

Please note this is an alpha test of the new skills system, many are kind of janky and unbalanced! Thank you for helping us test

Other new features:
-Skill training now done via a special gump, simple type [advancement no need to use the vendors!
-Skill training vendors replaced with random quest NPCs who will give randomly generated quests in exchange for beginner Power Scrolls, Maxxia Scrolls, and gold.

This update introduces the Monster Hunter's Guild!
Located at Serpent's Hold in Trammel it contains 45 Quest NPCs each with a quest to hunt down 10 rare monsters each, for a total of 450 unique monsters! When you complete each monster hunters individual quest you gain access to their shop, which allows you to buy the exotic animals you hunted in your quest (you can just tame them in the wild, but they get angry like dragons). All new monsters can be found only in Felucca!

Each of the 450 Monsters has a unique move set of 3-4 powers and is registered with the pet taming system for training up to ten control slots! When you complete all 45 quests the Beast Master Malidrex the Witch give you access to her sooper dooper special beast shop where you can buy fully randomized pets generated by my random monster generator system.

Many misc bug fixes are also included in this patch!

Version 6 update!

Huge update today, finally got everything I wanted finished!

New Features:

-Migrated to more stable version of ServUO 57. I was using a half-finished version of ServUO 58, and it was causing some problems. This move should fix many bugs, and also add many features that were missing!
-Custom Castles/Keep as well as Content Castles now work!
-You can now properly trade in Sea loot at Bucs Den
-Installed VitaNex core, this will allow many cool new features in the future
-Much faster boot times!
-Over 980+ new Unique items added to the random loot tables!
-Over 250+ new quest NPCs!
-Over 230+ new town NPCs with full dialogue!
-New Quest and Town NPCs are mostly located in Trammel, as Felucca is a land of chaos and evil!
-All NPCs/Unique Treasure Chests/Unique Weapons/Armor/Clothing has been converted to C# scripts, allowing much more flexibility with these in the future
-Thieves Guild missions allow you to burglarize people's houses for profit. You need Urban Scouting Reports created by scouting towns.
-Archology Missions allow you to find hidden treasure in dungeons. You will need to scout dungeons for the reports to find them.
-Felucca has become overrun by the minions of Minax! Minax magic prevents planar travel here, so Mark/Recall/Gate/Sacred Journey no longer work in Felucca!
-Every town in Felucca is full of dangerous NPCs who want to kill you and each other!
-13 unique bosses to fight in Felucca! You must find the quest NPC who will give you a magic compass to find the boss


**This update will break any old saves**

I wasn't planning to do another update for a while, but I have accumulated a number of bug fixes, so I thought it made sense to put this out! There is one new feature that is pretty cool:

New Features:
-The Cartography skill has been greatly improved! Added a new item called "Cartographers Scope" which (when double clicked) produces "Scouting Reports". You need to move around to get more reports, you can't just scout the same spot.
-Scouting reports can be used with the Cartography skill to craft treasure maps! High levels of Cartography and advanced reports are needed for tier 4 and 5 maps.
-In addition, there are now three new types of treasure maps that can be crafted with Scouting Reports
*Ore Maps lead to a large deposit of ore that can be mined. It is guarded by powerful golems
*Lumber Maps lead to large, rare trees that can be chopped down for huge amounts of special lumber. It is guarded by powerful Tree Ents
*Trade Routes are maps of routes along the road to pick up and deliver commodities. There is a great payment at the end if you can collect all commodities and deliver them safely!

Bug Fixes:
-Fixed the campion spawners that caused a crash on world gen
-Fixed the King Arthor and the Holy Grail quest
-Fixed the bug where Total Skill Cap would reset every time a player logged back in

Today is a large update to many "useless" skills in order to make them more appealing to invest your skill points and equipment slots!

Alchemy:
-Added three new "bombs". The MegaBomb that does damage, the PoisonBomb which does LethalPoison and the Health Bomb which heals and cures poison in a large area. These cost a huge number of reagents to craft and require high level of Alchemy to throw
-Removed the cap of +50% potion improvement. You can now improve potions much more.
-Alchemy skill now improves potions much more

Evaluate Intelligence:
-Increased the bonus to magery spells

Musicianship:
-A bards spellbook that has many songs that bards can sing for buffs and bonuses

Begging:
-Begging now works like "NPC Taming". With high levels of begging, you can convince NPCs to join your party and assist you, like a tamed pet.

Lockpicking:
-Many NPC houses have chests that can be lock picked for special and rare loot. But be careful, this makes you a criminal!

Poisoning:
-Any weapon can be poisoned

Remove Trap:
-Added a puzzle box to train remove trap

Stealing:
-Removed weight limit on stealing
-You can now steal equipped items from players and NPCs

Ninjitsu:
-You can now use any skills or weapon abilities when in animal forms

Animal Lore:
-The Druids spellbook adds a bunch of unique spells for Animal Lore

Camping:
-Campers Backpack allows the crafting on unique camping themed items. The Trail Guide gives you the ability to forage in the wild for supplies, but only if you are good at camping!

Forensic Evaluation:
-Detectives can now find extra gold and special items on the creatures or people they kill, based on their forensics skill
-Murder Mystery mini-game. If you find a corpse that was not killed by you it produces a "murder clue" which begins a mystery minigame to track down the killer.

Herding:
-Added a Sheppherds spellbook called "Pastoralicon". It is a summoning spellbook and it lets you summon a herd of exotic animals to fight for you!
-Custom stats for 42 new animals specifically for this spellbook, and sometimes it will also dip into the random animal generators. The animals are not as powerful as a 5-slot pet, but you get 5 of them and they all have unique powers

Taste Identification:
-"Gormet Food". It gives powerful buffs based on your skill in Taste Identification. Only the most refines palates can appreciate this properly!

Arms Lore:
-Added the "Martial Manual" which allows the use of any weapon ability with any weapon, depending on your skill in arms lore.

Item Identification:
-A "Trade Route" system for Item Identification. The trade routes require you to go along the roads and pick up crates with commodities. The route eventually brings you to a "trader" who will pick up the commodities and give you a reward. The commodities are heavy, so you will need pack animals. You can buy trade route contracts from Bankers.

Fishing:
-Greatly increased the chances of rare catches
-High fishing now gives you a greater radius to cast your line

Mining:
-Greatly increased the chances of rare ores
-High Mining now gives you a greater area to mine from

Lumberjacking:
-Greatly increased the chances of rare woods
-High lumberjacking now gives a greater area to chop trees

Changes:
-Added Ultimate Masters Champion spawns! 58 new unique champion spawns each with a variety of minions and a unique boss with unique mechanics! There is a Ultimate Champion for every skill in the game, and defeating the boss will award you with a Powerscroll 200!
-Added Maxxia Scrolls to Bulk Order Deeds and Fishing Quests. Bulk Order deeds are now much more rewarding when banked
-Revamped Lord British Castle, adding many new vendors.
-Fixed a memory leak that was spawning too many SimpleNotes