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The following was posted on November 13, 2003 to the official UXO.ea.com website regarding the way that the Dueling System will work in Ultima X: Odyssey:

As a citizen of Alucinor, you'll get plenty of opportunities to battle against evil. But sometimes, there's just no substitute for throwing down the gauntlet and taking up arms against another player - with their consent, of course. With the addition of secure wagering and a robust online ladder system, Ultima X: Odyssey has taken the concept of one-on-one dueling and turned it into much more than any dueling system you've seen before. Need to settle a dispute once and for all as to who's the better fighter? Challenge them to a duel and put your money (or your sword, or your armor) where your mouth is!

I Challenge Thee…
You can invite a player to duel at any time by either right-clicking directly on the character or anywhere else their name appears, such as the chat window or friends list. Next, just select "duel" from the list of options, and you're ready to issue a challenge!

When challenging another player to a duel, you'll have two sets of options to choose from. First, you'll choose whether the duel will be set as "rated" or "unrated." Rated duels are considered "official," and will affect the ranking of both you and your opponent on the Challenge Ladder. Or, if you're just looking for a practice round, you can choose to keep it unrated and just duel for fun. Second, you'll determine whether or not the duel will have a wager associated with it. We'll go over wagers in more detail a bit later in this update.

There's no limitation as to where you can spar with other players, since you can invite someone to duel anywhere. However, you won't be able to challenge someone who is currently in combat or already involved in another duel. You also won't be able to challenge a player who has placed you on his or her ignore list.

Accepting/Refusing a Duel
When someone challenges you, you'll receive an alert listing the details of the proposed duel (rated or unrated, wagered or not). You'll also be able to see some basic information about the character who challenged you, such as their name, rating, level, Path, points spent on various Disciplines, and their current map location. In addition, both players will see their current PvP rating, as well what their ratings will be should they win, lose, or tie.

If you choose to reject the duel for any reason, you can simply decline it, and the challenger will be notified that the duel was declined. Refusing a duel will have no negative consequences on either character.

If you accept the duel, you will be immediately teleported to the challenger's location (yes, this means you can challenge people even when you're nowhere near them). All that's left then is to accept any wagers, click "begin," and you're off!

If you don't want to be bothered with duels, you can set yourself as unavailable for challenges. As long as you're set as unavailable, players will not be able to initiate a duel request with you, and you will not appear on anyone's searches (you'll find more about PvP searches later in this update). This setting can be changed as often as you like - in UXO, you'll never have to make a permanent decision as to whether or not you want to be able to engage in combat with other players.

Climbing the Challenge Ladder
Creating a compelling ladder system involves a lot more than just keeping count of how many fights you've won or lost. We understand that once you reach a high spot on any ladder, you want that feeling to mean something. No one wants to see a brand-new character snag the no. 1 spot in a day! On the other hand, no one wants to feel like they have zero chance at a top spot simply because they started playing a month late, or a year late.

As soon as you create your character, you'll start with a Challenge Rating of 1000. From there, your rating will change based on any rated duels that you win or lose (unrated duels will have no effect on your ladder ranking). To ensure no one rises or falls too quickly on the Challenge Ladder, there will be a few safeguards in the rating system.

First, you'll gain more by fighting players ranked above you than you will by fighting players ranked at your level or below, and if your opponent's rating is significantly lower than yours, you may not gain anything at all. Second, there will be a limit on how many rating points a character can lose or gain in any one fight. And third, any player can challenge any other player to a duel, but if the character level difference is too great, the duel will automatically be set as unrated (exact numbers on all these to be released at a later date once we've balanced the system).

Putting it on the Line
If the thrill of victory or agony of defeat isn't compelling enough, you can raise the stakes of any duel, rated or unrated, by wagering items or gold on the outcome. Wagers can only be set before the duel is accepted, and the wager must be accepted by both combatants before fighting can begin. Only the actual participants in the duel can use secure wagering; while other players can certainly arrange their own bets based on the outcome of others' duels, the game itself won't keep track of outside bets.

When a player accepts a wagered duel, both players will place the agreed items or gold into a trade window. Accepting the wager will work exactly as any other trade window, except for the fact that canceling the wager trade window will also cancel the duel.

Once the wager is accepted, the items and/or gold will be removed from both characters' backpacks and kept in a safe location until the duel is over. Once the winner has been determined, a loot chest will appear, lootable only by the winner, holding all items wagered in the duel. In the case of a tie, both characters will receive loot chests containing their original items they wagered before the fight began.

Fighting Rules
During a duel, combatants cannot cast beneficial spells, such as heals or buffs, on each other, and no one outside the duel can cast on either fighter. Essentially, duels are a fight to the death, although there's no penalty for dying to another player in a duel.

While fighting, the combatants can move freely, although they must stay close enough to keep each other targeted. If neither opponent has the other as a target for two minutes, the duel will end, and the winner will be the character that did the most damage. If this is equal, the result is a tie. This requirement will ensure that if a character is losing a duel, he can't run to a safe hiding place and simply wait out the other character to prevent incurring a loss. In addition, if either player leaves the zone or the game world, the duel will end, and the character who zoned will be considered the loser. If both characters leave the game world at the same time, the fight will be considered a tie.

Once a duel is over and a winner has been determined, the losing character will be resurrected on the spot, and both fighters will have their health and power fully replenished. If the duel was rated, both characters' ratings will be adjusted, and if a wager was made, a loot chest containing the wagered items will appear, lootable only by the victor.

Lastly, if the character who was challenged was automatically teleported to the location of the duel, that character can then choose to be sent back to their original location.

PvP Chat Channel
Players looking to duel will be able to post challenges in a special PvP chat channel. Only characters that are set as available to duel will be able to chat in this channel. The rating of every character who chats in this channel will be displayed next to their name as well.

PvP for Everyone
MMORPGs have tried for years to offer player vs. player combat in a form that captures the exhilaration of fighting another flesh-and-blood person, while minimizing the frustration that can come with being someone's punching bag when you don't want to be. Through the UXO Challenge Ladder and one-on-one dueling, we believe we've not only accomplished that, but we've provided great incentive for PvP and non-PvP fans alike to give it a try. Go ahead - there's nothing to lose!