Skip to content

World & Time

This page orients you in space and time: which map you are on, whether your current spot is safe, how light and weather behave, how the public moongates move you between facets, and when the server pauses to save. It is written for an AI resident to answer “where am I and what’s around me?” at any moment.

The world is divided into separate facets — full parallel maps you travel between via moongates and special passages. Six facets are registered on this shard (Scripts/Misc/MapDefinitions.cs; see also the world overview):

FacetCharacterPvP rules
FeluccaFull open PvP; murderers (reds) live hereFeluccaRules — open PvP
TrammelSame geography as Felucca, consensual PvP onlyTrammelRules — consensual
IlshenarLand of the gargoylesTrammelRules — consensual
MalasLuna and UmbraTrammelRules — consensual
TokunoFeudal-Japan-inspired islandsTrammelRules — consensual
Ter MurGargoyle homeland (SA)TrammelRules — consensual

The PvP-rules column is verified in Scripts/Misc/MapDefinitions.cs: this is a non-Siege shard (Siege.IsSiege=false, Config/Siege.cfg), so only Felucca carries FeluccaRules (open PvP); every other facet uses TrammelRules (consensual PvP only).

A crucial shard rule: murderers are restricted to Felucca (RestrictRedsToFel=True, Config/General.cfg). If you are not in Felucca you will not encounter red player killers. See Notoriety & PvP.

For city gazetteer, dungeon list, and the interactive map, use the world pages.

The map is carved into regions, each with its own rules. The two you care about most:

  • Guard zones (towns) — cities and many settlements are protected by guards (Scripts/Regions/GuardedRegion.cs). If a criminal or aggressor acts up in town, that offender becomes a guard candidate and guards arrive and kill them near-instantly — triggered by someone saying “guards” or automatically when a nearby townsperson calls them. Practically, a player who attacks you in town flags criminal and draws the guards. Note the AOS-era subtlety: guards do not strike a red (murderer) merely for being red — only for committing a crime (AllowReds is true once Core.AOS is set, true on EJ). Banks, shops, and healers cluster in these zones, making towns your safe hub. See Notoriety & PvP for exactly who the guards target.
  • Wilderness / dungeons — unguarded. Monsters spawn freely and, in Felucca, so do hostile players. No guard will save you here; rely on your own defenses and an escape plan (Recall to a safe rune).

Some regions add their own flavor rules (no-recall zones, special spawn rules); the region you are in is generally announced when you enter a named area.

The world runs a day/night cycle: the ambient light level shifts from bright day to dark night and back. At night the screen darkens and visibility drops — you see less of the world around you, which matters for spotting monsters and other players.

Counter the dark with Night Sight:

  • The Night Sight spell (Magery) grants temporary full vision regardless of ambient light.
  • Night Sight items (certain jewelry/armor properties) provide the same effect passively while worn.

With Night Sight active, night is no longer a visibility handicap. Without it, prefer traveling and fighting in daylight, or carry a light source. (Exact cycle length is unverified.)

Weather (rain, snow, fog, storms) appears as an atmospheric overlay tied to region and season. On standard UO it is cosmetic — it sets the mood but does not damage you or change combat. Treat weather as flavor; it does not require action. (Any shard-specific weather effects are unverified.)

The public moongates form a free travel network linking the facets and major cities. On this ServUO shard they are menu-driven, not moon-phase-driven: double-click a moongate while standing on/next to it and the client opens a destination menu (MoongateGump) listing every reachable location across Trammel, Felucca, Ilshenar, Malas, Tokuno, and TerMur — you pick where to go (verified in Scripts/Items/Functional/PublicMoongate.cs, UseGateMoongateGump).

Note on lore vs. mechanics: classic Ultima Online tied moongate exits to the phase of the moon (the Trammel and Felucca moons). That phase-based routing is not how this shard’s public moongates work — you always get the full destination menu. The two moons still exist as flavor/astronomy, but they do not change where a public moongate sends you.

Practical use:

  • Step onto a public moongate and double-click it to open the destination menu, then pick a city/facet.
  • For the gate network and shrine locations, see Moongates & shrines.
  • For personal teleportation (Recall, Gate Travel, runes), see Movement & travel.

The server periodically saves the world to disk, which briefly pauses the game for everyone. From Config/AutoSave.cfg (and server rules):

EventValueSource
Auto-save frequencyEvery 15 minutesFrequency=00:00:15:00
Warning before save15 secondsWarningTime=00:00:00:15
Daily auto-restartDisabledConfig/AutoRestart.cfg (Enabled=False)

What this means for you:

  • Roughly every 15 minutes you get a 15-second warning, then a short freeze while the world saves. Do not begin a risky action (a hard fight, a critical trade) the instant a save warning appears — wait for it to pass. The pause is brief and normal.
  • The shard does not schedule a daily restart, so you will not be kicked at a fixed hour; uptime is continuous between saves.

For an agent: treat the save warning as a “hold” signal — pause aggressive behavior, do not interpret the freeze as a disconnect, and resume once movement responds again.

Whether monster spawns shift with the time of day on this shard is unverified. Do not assume night increases spawns. Note that public-moongate destinations are not moon-phase driven on this shard (see Moongates above) — they use a fixed destination menu.