Storm Chat from 2003-06-19

Storm Chat from 2003-06-19

Ian	Thanks to all that are attending Ianstorms UO Chat #8. We are waiting for a few more team members. TrinityX will be running the show this evening.
TrinityX	We will be starting the chat in just a few moments.
Hanse	until then...you must face...a gaggle of rabid mongbats!
	* Hanse opens up a gate and lets them loose.
MrTact	Here we go again :-(
TrinityX	Welcome to the 8th UO StormChat! Thankyou to everyone for joining us!
TrinityX	This chat will be moderated, general chat can continue during in #ultima-online. To submit a question, please /msg one of the question takers listed in the channel topic. Please do not message myself, or anyone from EA: Origin, they will be ignored.
TrinityX	Our question takers are: Ian, Rayaru, Peaches, and Pittminion
TrinityX	infront of thier names.
TrinityX	Tonight's topic will be: General Discussions. All inappropriate questions will be ignored!
TrinityX	*Thomas* With Publish 19 making exceptional armor now even more important than ever, and given some suggestions made by others on message boards, are there plans to make the exceptional bonus for weapons and armor depend on your skill (at least between GM and Legendary smiths)?
Vex	We have of course considered that. On the downside of it, doing it that way makes having the powerscroll and max skill be the only way to be a crafter. It's always been important to us to make powerscrolls be nice options, but by no means absolutely necessary.
TrinityX	*Thomas* Besides the addition of BOD books and ability to get BODs without selling items, will there be other changes/additions to the BOD system in Pub 19 (in way of rewards, or changing odds of getting certain bods over others perhaps)
Hanse	Only one change...
Hanse	You can get BOD's instantly, just like Siege Perilous, using the context menu option.
Hanse	This allows you to avoid selling tons of items.
TrinityX	*Bell_of_Catastrophe* Given that fiction, context and storylines lately haven't been a priority in UO, and given that we recently have been gifted quite suddenly in pub 18 with new clothes thanks to the Japanese contest winners, why not just introduce the asian equipment hiding in UO's files? You can start with the clothing and work towards things requiring balancing (armor/weapons) later.
Vex	We're hoping to turn the "fiction, context and storylines" thing around starting in the next couple weeks. I don't have any details about that right now -- so just stay tuned!
Vex	About the Japanese-style items lurking in 3D -- anything could happen with those as well. Getting those live is on the long-term radar, but it's not solidly scheduled enough for me to make any committments about whether or when that will happen.
TrinityX	*diemond* any news for gardeners?
MrTact	Just that you will be able to use locked down plants on day 4
MrTact	Oh, and I believe we fixed that little resource stacking thing. I think a couple people were interested in that . . .
TrinityX	*ghyde* Following up to my question you answered in a previous #uosc, I'd like to know if the Dev Team can *please* make an effort to make the Xmas gifts this year different, when they finally do get around to releasing them. Potted trees would be wonderful, and so would Holiday Bells, just to name two.
Vex	We'll keep that in mind. :)
TrinityX	*CoffeeFreak* I wanted to know if pub 18/Phase3 will allow L-shape,tower, etc to modify via AOS?
Vex	Right now that's not on the schedule. Sorry!
Vex	Also, y'all check out In Concept at www.uo.com -- something just went up there in the last few minutes. :) We can take questions about that as well.
TrinityX	*Bender* Is there any chance Paladins will ever be able to mark runes? It could be a higher level spell than noble sacrifice and finally allow Paladins to exceed 115 skill.
Vex	That is a feature change we'll keep in mind for an upcoming publish.
TrinityX	*Coop* How is the Gauntlet, Doom Boss rarity 11 artifact, fix coming? Can we really expect this soon?
MrTact	We ran into a little problem I like to call "MSB"
MrTact	aka "More Stuff Broke"
MrTact	so that emergency publish has grown substantially & been delayed.
MrTact	I believe vex checked in the last couple of fixes today, so I hope we can get that out early next week.
TrinityX	*Thomas* "Soulstones" were an item which intrigued and excited a number of players. Are they still on the top of the list in terms of an upcoming publish (19-21) or is it now on the backburner?
Vex	I'm afraid to say they're more of a back burner item right now.
TrinityX	*Dupre* ok, heres mine :) Are there likely ever to be measures in place that will halt the growth of wealth of players like myself, 50million in cash is enough to buy whatever i like in the game, and its boring that way.. Real Gold Sink?
MrTact	We are talking about some things to add to the game will probably cost in excess of that amount of money, but they're a long way off right now
Vex	You could always donate a few million to me. My bank box has trouble staying above 1 mil. ;)
TrinityX	*Lord_Lythande* With the boosting of lvl 4 and 5 treasure chests, is there any plans on adding luck into the equation for the quality of items found in them?
Hanse	Luck is currently coded separately for monster loot drops.
Hanse	It would take a bit of tweaking to get that in (not as easy as you'd think it would be).
Hanse	So, not for publish 19...
TrinityX	*slotus* is there any plans to add new plants and such in an up and coming publish?
Vex	Right now it's not something we've spent much time thinking about, but I'll take it down as a suggestion for a little something extra we could try to fit in a publish.
TrinityX	*Bell_of_Catastrophe* ask if the impassible item changes will be significant... :)
Hanse	The list isn't small, but we didn't get all the items we'd like to have tackled.
Hanse	Brambles, some vines, etc...
Hanse	Just in case ya didn't know, impassible items block housing placement...
	* Hanse cackles.
Vex	There were draw order issues with some tiles that we didn't have the client programmer resources we needed to get properly fixed. We're planning on expanding the list when we get the chance.
TrinityX	*Thomas* It was mentioned in a post by Hanse that every 5 BODs in a BOD book will increase the lockdown slots a book takes up by 1. Will having more BODs in a book also make it heavier in terms of weight when carried? Will it count as multiple items towards the 125 limit on a player's backpack?
Hanse	I seem to remember that post. :)
Hanse	Yes, it's a 5:1 ratio for deeds to items/weight.
Hanse	If it didn't count towards a player's backpack, pack animal, bank, etc...then we'd have an issue...
Hanse	a 5:1 ratio is acceptable...125:1 is a tad too heavy for our backups.. :)
TrinityX	*Darlene* What about the recently announced plan to make the flora and fauna unblockable? Does it apply to Trammel only oer even to Felucca and do you plan to make even Trees unblockable , or is this undecided at the moment?
Vex	It will affect all facets, all rulesets. No more annoying blocking little almost-invisible twigs in Felucca. :)
TrinityX	*Coop* When, if ever, can we expect some different wall/floor tiles for custom houses?
Vex	It's on the list of possibles for one of the next two or three publishes. That is no guarantee it will happen, but it is something we're looking into.
TrinityX	Just a reminder our Question Takers tonight are: Ian, Meerkat, Peaches, Pittminion, and Rayaru
TrinityX	*Thomas* With Publishes 18 and 19 getting a good deal of bugs and tweaks out of the way, can we be given any information on what new content we might be looking forward to in the near future?
Vex	Next up is likely to be changes to vendors (In Concept). After that -- well, more information will be forthcoming in coming weeks.
TrinityX	*Flutter* Is luck working as intended?
MrTact	I will resist the knee-jerk developer response of "Of course, why wouldn't it be? I wrote it."
MrTact	Enough players have remarked that they are seeing some weirdness that I can't dismiss them all as being on crack . . .
MrTact	HOWEVER
MrTact	Before I went on vacation, I did a little test -- killed 10 lich lords w/ 0 luck, then killed 10 w/ (I think) 800 luck
MrTact	The results were within the bounds of sanity wrt how I think luck should be working.
MrTact	I don't consider the testing I have done on luck to be exhaustive, and I will be looking into it more closely the first chance I get.
TrinityX	*Tobias* Question for DEV Team: Are there any plans to make factions worth playing as it stands right now factions are dead?
Vex	Yes. I can't be more specific than that right now, sorry. :)
TrinityX	*Dupre* what do you say to those who think the proposed vendor changes will destroy vendor malls? Lord Ulysses and UTT(guild) on Europa are already siting that they wont be able to carry on if those plans go ahead.
Vex	Sometimes we have to make tough calls. Network lag and server resource limits require that we try to reduce item density in the game world.
Vex	We're trying to offset the loss of effectively unlimited storage by first giving every house a small storage space increase, and allow a larger increase for dedicated shops.
TrinityX	*Thomas* Are there any plans to revisit Archery or magic bows at all? (At least replacing Best Weapon with perhaps Lower Arrow Cost %?)
Hanse	Ooo, neat magic effect idea
	* Hanse scribbles notes.
Hanse	No definite plans, right now...but we'll definitely revisit the magic item system in the future
TrinityX	*chrisjwhite* I hope I'm asking this right. How about making LBOD's to have an option to add small shield and weapon bods to the L BOD armor sets. Just add a little extra reward for the optional shield and weapon, That way we could get rid of alot of the ones we have.
Hanse	Eek...optional deeds in LBOD's?
Hanse	that would require a pretty extensive change
Hanse	It would be easier to simply make a new LBOD for them.
Hanse	If you folks don't mind lowering your chances to get other types of LBOD's... :)
Hanse	Not in the works right now, tho...I'm busy enough with BOD books!
TrinityX	*Ray* Any plans on re-evaluating the combat mechanics?
Vex	It's not likely that we'll see a major overhaul like Age of Shadows brought, any time soon. But, with each publish we continue to make balance tweaks -- and we plan to continue that for the foreseeable future.
TrinityX	*Coop* Is the archery bug? where you get that rapid fire/double shot and the first arrow never hits when you move.. arrow is just wasted.. (not sure how to explain it) ever gonna be fixed?
MrTact	Hmm . . . that would not be a bug that I have personally observed.
MrTact	But I will make a note to look into that.
Hanse	I've observed it!
TrinityX	*Riku* I would like to know if MrTact has decided on how skill gain is going to be changed.
MrTact	So it's not really my place to make that decision.
MrTact	It's more of a "Vex tells MrTact how it should work" kind of thing
MrTact	That being said . . .
MrTact	It looks as if skill gain changes will not happen until at least pub 22 . . .
MrTact	:-(
MrTact	What Vex has indicated to me is that we would like to make skill gains more predictable and, at least at lower levels, faster.
MrTact	Vex do you want to add anything to that?
	* Hanse puts a cricket on Vex's shoulder.
Vex	It's clear that skill gains need a really good overhauling, and that is something we want to do. It's not my place to make the decisions about the details, either -- that comes from discussions among the entire team, including the programming team (MrTact leads the server programmers). We all also read message boards to get player perspective on things...
MrTact	Yeah, but you get the tie-breaking vote!
TrinityX	*JediDeamon* Are the new clothing items that were added in this latest published added into the BOD mix as well?
Hanse	There have been a few new items added to the game (AoS weapons, japanese wearables, colored weapons, etc) that are not in the BOD system. We're more interested in focusing on other skill prior to adding those items in.
TrinityX	*Ellisande* Any chance of ethereal mongbats for the next round of Vet Rewards?
Hanse	You never know where those wiley mongbats will show up!
TrinityX	*Darlene* I wonder if there is still any hope that we will see some old concepts coming in the game,especially Wedding Contracts and Chooseable Faces for 3D Avatars. Can the Devs enlighten us,please ? :)
MrTact	I can't comment on wedding contracts, nor on the more general aspect of your question.
MrTact	However, I was privy to a discussion about choosable faces the other day . . .
MrTact	Seems we are waiting on 2 things for that:
MrTact	1. An artist, to clean them up so they are presentable (apparently they are still a little rough around the edges)
MrTact	2. Work to be done to get them into 2D. SunSword was adamant that we not just push em out to 3D.
MrTact	So there you go. No ETA, but that's what remains to be done.
Vex	To *just* 3D
TrinityX	*Thomas* Any update on fixing title decay for Champion Spawn titles?
MrTact	Publish 19 soon enough for ya?
MrTact	Decay will finally be working as normal, and you will have a toggle option on the player context menu.
TrinityX	*diemond* any hopes of haveing seed books?
Hanse	Hmmm...it's been asked before... :)
Hanse	I'm not sure that's the best name for it, but I get the gist of the suggestion.
Hanse	It's not currently in development, though. So, not publish 19...
MrTact	So as the guy who's in charge of the memory footprint of our game, I'd like to add to that :-)
MrTact	Some people have complained about players who are pack rats in UO. Personally, I think that's a viable play style.
MrTact	The problem is, more objects take up more memory, which is a finite resource.
MrTact	One of the great things about bod books is, even though they expand your storage capacity fivefold, they reduce the memory footprint of an individual BOD by more than a 5:1 ratio
MrTact	Therefore, it's win:win for everybody.
MrTact	Based on whether they work out as I expect them to, I personally would like to see us do more stuff like that (bulk storage for highly-collectible objects).
TrinityX	*ghyde* Has Sunsword decided if he is going to go ahead with that idea of visiting the shards as himself, and would any of the other Devs like to join in with him?
Vex	Actually, SunSword has already logged into the game as himself and plans to continue doing that, at least for a while. Also, many other members of the development team will begin doing the same thing over the next few days. We'll all have special titles that identify us as Origin personnel -- but we won't have any special powers or anything like that. We'll be on various shards at different times, usually in out-of-the way locations...
Vex	If you happen to spot one of us, come have a chat! :)
TrinityX	*Flutter* will the publish 19 taming changes regarding vet heal times depend on dex or skills?
Vex	No, the bandage time increases are across the board.
Vex	I mean *decreases*. Yes, it will take *less* time to bandage. :)
TrinityX	*Ellisande* Do the Devs read more message boards than just Stratics?
MrTact	Uh, that's a very difficult question to answer in an *IanStorm* chat . . .
MrTact	:-)
MrTact	But the fact is, I barely have time to read stratics as much as I do.
MrTact	I do try to hit IanStorm from time to time, & I have been known to lurk on COB (which may or may not be returning from the dead atm)
MrTact	Can't speak for the other devs, though.
Hanse	I hit a few. But of the thousands of posts...I cherry pick.. :)
TrinityX	*MadMageMagnus* any chance of making sand, granite, and arcane gems a stackable item?
Vex	It's definitely a possibility. :)
TrinityX	*Kehleyr* When will games like chess ingame not count towards lockdowns and be able to be used again?
Vex	Yes, one of our Publish 19 bug fixes includes this item. Gamem boards won't take extra lockdowns and you'll be able to move the pieces when the board is locked down.
TrinityX	*Vulcin* will you ever look into the way the party system divides fame and karma? grouping up destroys those kinds of rewards and there is little point in forming parties in uo.
MrTact	It's a distinct possibility . . .
MrTact	We would like to do things to make it more worthwhile to party up at some point in the future.
MrTact	Things like, oh, I don't know, vastly improved party chat . . .
TrinityX	*Thomas* How does dragon barding help a rider post-AoS? Does it provide any sort of bonus?
Hanse	It doesn't...it's broken...fixed in publish 19...
TrinityX	*ghyde* Is Adrick still at OSI, working on Factions for the faction players, or has he left? I haven't seen anything from him in quite a while on factions.
Vex	Adrick is still with us. During Publish 19, we had him locked in a closet fixing bugs. But soon he'll be back doing more visible feature development. :) Also, as a side note, SunSword might have forgotten to mention that Oaks isn't working on UO at the moment, but he is still with Origin.
TrinityX	*JediDeamon* When will Phase 3 be implemented?
MrTact	It is really in final testing right now.
MrTact	As in, actively being tested on a daily basis by QA
MrTact	The best answer I can give you is "when it passes"
MrTact	But I believe that it will not be long . . .
MrTact	Sorry I can't be more detailed yet, but I will be as soon as I feel I can give you a date that will be correct.
TrinityX	*Kehleyr* What is ezloot and how does it work?
MrTact	It is a feature that is going out in publish 19
MrTact	When you double-click on your corpse, instead of opening the corpse box, it will simply grab everything you had on you and put it in your inventory
MrTact	Items that were equipped when you got killed will be re-equipped
MrTact	If you just want to open your corpse, there will now be a menu option to do so.
Vex	Alai championed that feature.
TrinityX	This end's our 8th UO StormChat!
TrinityX	Thankyou to Hanse, MrTact, and Vex for taking the time to answer our questions this Thursday evening.
TrinityX	And special guest appearance by Helios!
Hanse	Of course, Helios just chilled in the background. :)
TrinityX	And a special thankyou to everyone who attended tonight!
TrinityX	Logs will be posted at http://ianstorm.com/ultima
TrinityX	If you wish to continue talking to other UO players, please /join #Ultima-Online
	*Helios_OSI *sneaks out*
TrinityX	Thanks for coming all!