House of Commons from 1998-05-07

House of Commons from 1998-05-07

DenDragon	Welcome, and thank you for attending the Second UO HoC Open House
DenDragon	This is a moderated channel, which means questions must be msged to gasper
DenDragon	or one o' us ops in order to receive answers :)
DenDragon	Gasper will be the moderator this evening, and so he shall take over from here...
Gasper	Thanks Den
Gasper	First, I'm sure I'll this will come up so I'll ask it up front
Gasper	What is the current projection as to the publishing of the Reputation System
Stormwynd	Probably about 1.5 weeks until the reputation system is published
DesignerD	As you know, we had some stability problems with Test Center. This prevented us from doing too much testing this last week
DesignerD	Therefore the update has been pushed back by the amount of testing time we lost. :P I'd geuss it's about a week and ahalf away from being published
Gasper	From Krayzie: i want to know if we will be able to sell old houses back and for how much
DesignerD	Do you mean under house ownership? Or as part of the conversion to house ownership? We have not yet fully settled how we will convert over houses, but under ownership, you will be able to "trade in" old houses for bigger ones, or sell them to other players.
Gasper	From Seplbinde on Counselor Apps: Do I have to wait for the counselor application to go around again or can I send an application to an email address and expect consideration?
GM_BEAST	We review the applications until we have enough to fill our positions
GM_BEAST	We do not review all the apps in one pass, so it is possible that your application was not considered
GM_BEAST	WE may get to it in the next pass, but watch the owo.com page
Gasper	From Eidolon-FE: For DD: After reading Bartle's essay "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades..." it seems that UO is now geared more toward "Acting" than to "Interacting." Where would you say the player balance in UO is in relation to what you originally envisioned?
DesignerD	Well, there is more playerkilling going on that we want. :P Hence the reputation system coming. Yes, UO has many more "acting" than "interacting" at the moment. A lot of that also has to do with the fact that unlike muds which Bartle worked with, it's a mass market world, so it has a less "elite" audience than muds which require a fair amount of Net savvy to even log into
DesignerD	On the other hand, UO also has a LOT of features that were designed especially for the "explorer" type, as shoul dbe pretty evident. We have a pretty healthy population of those, which is nice.
Gasper	From C_Reichois:Can you put "Page counselor" on to the main help screen? I'm afraid those most in need of help cannot find it in the menu.
GM_BEAST	We are looking to reorganize the help menu so that the counselors will be more easily contacted. I cannot give an exact time that this will take place, but it is something that we are working on.
Gasper	From Zakariah: You say that you would like to see players exercise more self governance, and to police the game more themselves, currently the only place that we players could do this in is Bucc Den, or a player built city, can you tell us if you plan to give players a way to better form these governments and a way to better police the world, and if so what they will be?
DesignerD	That's a great question. We've been tossing around several ideas. Of course, the first step is reputation, which will remove the nasty penalties from basic policing.
DesignerD	After that, though, we'll have to think carefully about what sort of things we want to add. There have been lots of sugegstions--"townstones" for example, that maybe allow players to set "local laws" in cities, and hold actual elections
Gasper	Paraphrased from Turalyon: How long after the Reputation System goes in do you hope the housing changes will go in and when will players be able to create such things as anvils, looms, etc
DesignerD	These are all a little while away, though. It's a scary thing to move too much into player hands all at once, if people aren't ready to handle the responsibility. If we moved all towns ove rto fully player-run, but no players stepped up to run it, you'd have no law at all, which woul dbe a bit of a bloodbath. :)
Stormwynd	The housing changes will probably occur about a month after the reputation system.
Stormwynd	The house add-on items, such as looms, will be in that publish.
Gasper	I've had several people ask this one already so to set things straight, with the new housing system, will there be a house wipe
DesignerD	We're not planning a house wipe, but we are looking at ways for excess houses to gradually clean themselves up after ownership goes in.
Gasper	From ^Gandhi^:I know it hasn't been long since last chat, but what has been done w/necromancy? Is it going to be spell book? Wands and bags? any little hint would be cool :)
DesignerD	We haven't had the chance to work on necromancy at all lately :( Sorry! Too busy with other stuff
Gasper	From Joukahainen: Any timetable on when the "You are already casting" bug will be fixed
Stormwynd	Soon. Probably a week after the reputation system publish.
Gasper	From Mantispid: Recall spell. Recall is currently used as a means of travel. Was this the intent of the designers? On all MUDs that I have played, recall is strictly used as an emergency escape. It is very expensive to get, and the person is not quick to use recalls frivolously. Will recall be changed so that there is no longer a federation starship beaming people all over the planet?
DesignerD	Ah, the ever-controversial recall issue. :)
Gasper	Indeed :)
DesignerD	We do not like recall as a means of rapid transport. But a LOT of players do. So we have tossed around different solutions, such as having it charge mana based on distance, having it only work to towns, kinda like a town portal spell, etc. But the last time we made a move toward changing it, there was a huge player outcry. :) So we proceed with great caution on that one. A lot of players like it the way it is (like, about half of poll respondents)
Gasper	From Thunderhawk: what's on the horizon for useless/broken/new spells?
DesignerD	That's a bit too vague. Which spells do you want to know about?
Gasper	I assume he is inquiring about tweaks being planned for magery and such spells as para field that just dont seem to work right now
C_ProZack	Sorry to interrupt DD, but I am 100% sure he is talking about Mana drain, Mind blast, etc
DesignerD	Heh, you came up with different lists. ;)
DesignerD	We'll continue to try to fix any that are broken or underpowered, of course, but I'd have to get quesitons on specific ones to even take a stab at how we'd fix them
Gasper	Ah, okay, next item then
Gasper	From Duskrider: Another question, if that one is already to be answered, is "Would it be possible to 'lock' books so that what is written in them can stay in there. This would be very important as a tool for player-run quests."
DesignerD	Nice idea. I'll see what we can do. :)
Gasper	From ^Locke^ on monster loot: Dont you think now that creature loot and magical weapons on creatures are so down, players will be encouraged to kill other players to get it?
DesignerD	It's possible. There's still a glut of magic items in player hands at the moment, of course, so that's an attrative option. Eventually, they will be scarcer across the board
Gasper	From Beldurnik: Is there any chance that we will ever see long (several day) quests that require non-combat skills, such as tailoring or smithing?
DesignerD	And of course, they may be TOO scarce. :) We'll continue to evaluate it.
DesignerD	Writing a long several day quest takes a lot of effort, and after it's solved once, it's basically useless (because you'll post the solution on the web). So what we are looking at is a couple of things (and these are both a ways off, neither a trivial or easy to do):
DesignerD	1) a quest engine that can generate quests
DesignerD	Including stuff that requires skill use, etc
GM_BEAST	Yes
DesignerD	and 2) giving players more ability to build quests, say by hiring actors to serve as quest nodes, etc etc
DesignerD	There are of course the Seers doing quests, but I assumed you meant coded quests...
Gasper	From {DwB}Matthias: When will discounts be comeing back?
GM_BEAST	You will see some quests that involve non-combat skills, but they are a bit more difficult to organize
Stormwind	Soon, hopefully the same time the
Gasper	From Harlequin: Will bowyers ever be able to repair bows? Tailors repair leather armor?
Stormwind	oops.. Discounts should be back soon, hopefully the same time the "already casting" thing is fixed.
DesignerD	Those sound like nice enhancements. We'll add 'em to the list ;)
Gasper	Also from Harlequin: Many things currently seem fairly useless. I rarely see anyone wearing less than plate or bone. I hardly ever see more than half the spells cast (Attribute altering spells are hardly used). Can I expect this to be worked on?
DesignerD	We are looking at making dexterity more valuable, which will make the other styles of armor more valuable as they won't have the big dex hit.
DesignerD	Don't have any plans at the moment for the stat-altering spells
Gasper	C_Bakura is wondering when the Strategy button will be back
Stormwind	Not in the near future, if at all. It will be replaced with a new option that does something entirely different.
Gasper	From Paladin: Are you satisfied with the ability of Counselors to control serious harrassment issues in the game during GM off hours?
DesignerD	And sorry, we can't tell you what that new option will be. :)
Gasper	-Nerull- [The Few©:#uohoc] Now that homes and boats cost an astronomic amount, will it ever be possible to maybe have a tinker change the lock for the owner?
Stormwind	Lock changing will be part of the housing changes, which are planned to go in after the reputation system.
Aphrodite	Frost?
GM_BEAST	Are we on the harassment question?
Gasper	Yes
GM_BEAST	The ability for a GM to actualy prevent harassment even during GM hours is limited
Stormwind	We'll post the planned housing changes to the Update Center soon.
GM_BEAST	They must actually witness the event as it occurs in order to verify who is doing the harassing
GM_BEAST	There is a document on the web page that outlines our stance on harassment
GM_BEAST	and it describes some in-game tools that help the player to eliminate verbal harassment
GM_BEAST	when they encounter it
GM_BEAST	Both the obscenity filter, and the Ignore list are very powerful tools
GM_BEAST	for the player to control a verbal harassment assault
Gasper	From several concerned smiths out there, what is being done about the exceptional plate issue
DesignerD	It's on our list to be fixed. (See, a LOT of fixes have been put on hold while we finish up the rep system)
Gasper	Also from several people, they are wondering what skills will be needed to make such items as training dummies, etc if you can divulge that info
DesignerD	We're trying to keep some of the details secret, but it will be based on the existing crafting skills. Hint: most of the things we've announced take a lot of wood. :)
Gasper	From Dr_Doom: How about making escortees respond only when called by name, so players can't run through town screaming "i will take thee"
DesignerD	We've already made a change that reduces the range at which they respond by quite a lot, so doing that isn't really feasible anymore. That's a good idea though
Gasper	From Dayel: I am submitting my question to you since nobody answered my question in channel: In the last IRC meeting DD admitted that they would have a change to arms lore that allows the player to judge HPs on an item would be added "very soon." I have not seen it in the coming soon area and wonder if "very soon" meant 3 patches and 2 months from now?
DesignerD	It means in the patch after the rep system. We're avoiding putting anything else in with the rep system, you see
Gasper	From BroadBand: What kind of support does OSi offer to programs like UOAssist and Xenas UO tools? I understand not giving out code or anything, but what about commands for macros so external programs work better?)
DesignerD	We don't offer any support, generally speaking. But we have worked in the past with programmers of third party utilities, because we think it's awfully cool that people contribute to the fan community in that way. Some utilities have features we do not approve of though.
Gasper	From Wedlock: Grand Masters and Great Lords are too common now, do you have any plans to make some people "stand out" as the BEST, so that it's something to aim for, other than just a common Virtue guard?
DesignerD	We've been in contact with several developers of utilities, I know...
DesignerD	Well, under the rep system, it's going to be REALLY hard to be a Great Lord, you know
Gasper	From Elowyn: would it be possible to erase links from a comm crystal in the future?
DesignerD	You have to have max karma, which will be rather hard to get, and also max fame. I don't think ANYONE is going to come out as a Great Lord after the system goes in, for a little while. And it's hard to keep fame up, too, since there's a death penalty associated with it
Stormwind	We'll add erasing com crystal links to our list.
Gasper	From AmonSky: How about the possibility to have mages autodefend with spells if spellbook was in hand and marked with bookmark. That keeps wrestling down.
DesignerD	Our ever-growing list. :)
DesignerD	We're very aware of the wrestling problem with mages. I don't know which of the several suggested solutions we'll try out though.
Gasper	From C_Shido and I'm sure on many people's minds: Why were the vendors, stables, and untamed animals wiped a few days ago? Please say more than, "It was necessary."
Stormwind	Only shopkeepers were supposed to be wiped and respawned. We suspect a bug in the wipe command, we will be fixing it.
Gasper	From Baelish for the GMs: Many players in non-us timezones get no major events at all. Will there be more seers from outside the US made so that non-usa players can get all the benefits which usa players get?
GM_BEAST	Hmmm. That is a strange question.
GM_BEAST	We have IGMs (Interest Game Masters) working during the non-us peak hours. They also monitor the service. We also have a European Seer, and are looking for more of them
GM_BEAST	We are not neglecting the non-us players in this regard, or at least not intentionally.
GM_BEAST	There should be quests during the non-us peak hours.
Gasper	From C_Coco: What's up with the auto-moving during combat? It moves me ever closer to my target as an archer, unless I stand in specific spots...it causes me to move after I've hidden, etc...it doesn't really *help* anything...can we maybe get a toggle or something to turn it on and off?
DesignerD	Better yet, we'll track it down and make it go away. :)
Stormwind	We will be looking into automoving during combat very soon. It isn't supposed to happen. :-(
Gasper	From Taniwha: At the last meeting, you said something about a Biography button...Any new progress on that/timeframe?
DesignerD	I can giv eyou a timeframe. :) We'll start work on it after house ownership which is after weapons balancing which is after reputation. :)
Gasper	From IllusionGL: Potions prices do not reflect the cost of making and power of the potion. Will they ever reflect the cost of making. An alchemist losses money selling any poiton to the NPC's.
DesignerD	Yes, they will reflect the correct prices. Also on the list. :)
Gasper	I'm not sure if this has been addressed yet (I saw it asked by someone) but this is from Neflite: When will pets finally be fixed? As it it pets go wild every 9 hours. It is impossible for me to even keep a cat
DesignerD	We put in a fix once already, but will revisit the issue again.
Gasper	From C_Creo: Will the New house changes be done by ownership, or Master key?
DesignerD	There is currently no notion of "ownership"--that's what we are adding.
Gasper	Several people are wondering if stat loss on all death will be implemented
DesignerD	We still would like to put in a small loss on all deaths, but for now we are proceeding with only a loss to fame
DesignerD	Before I get spammed with messages, we KNOW people die a lot, and that's why it's not in already :)
Gasper	From Drakus: Last time i asked something about the bowcraft/flethcing skill, and DD said something about Yew Bows, can you tell us anything else that may be upcoming for this skill?
DesignerD	Not really, we don't have concrete plans to discuss yet
Gasper	From Shade: Designer! When will assassins and thieves play more significant roles? I had an idea about making only short daggers adn blades poisonable by the strong poisons, that way they have a certain edge in combat, the thieves and assassins that is.
DesignerD	We're considering doing things like requiring posioning skill for being able to use poisoned weapons effectively, so that you have to BE an assassin to really get good with poisoned weapons
Gasper	From UOCadderly: What exactly is your definition of weapon balancing? And what is you desired outcome? IE your preference for a superior weapon, less used class etc.
DesignerD	Our definition of weapons balancing is that the different weapons styles work out to roughly equivalent in practice, but each with different sorts of advantages. Think rock-paper-scissors.
DesignerD	Our desired outcome is that there be no best single weapon, but rather the best weapon FOR YOU, for your particular tactics
Gasper	From C_JJ: When you do implement the house ownership are you going to take into account guilds, IE the guild leader created all the houses for the entire guild, will you try and make it so they can transfer the houses to someone else before the 1 house per character is put into place?
DesignerD	So for fast fighters, low damage weapons, equally matched with say a slow fighter with a hig hdamage weapon
DesignerD	We'll have more details on how the changeover to houes ownership will work once we get closer to the update. :) Questions on that are still a bit premature, it's not really all settled yet
Gasper	From C_Motoko: Are there any new developments on the Digex problem many of us are facing when we logon to the Austin based servers? (Example 23 hops 17 of which are Digex) Is OSI planning to switch ISPs in the near future?
DesignerD	I can't discuss any plans, but I can tell you that we are investigating the reports of high packet loss. We are watching the situation very closely.
Gasper	Quite a few people have asked exactly why the shopkeepers were wiped and why the new house prices came in at this time, any comment?
DesignerD	The new house prices actually came in an update ago. But you need to get a new shopkeeper to get new prices. That's why the prices appeared with the wipe.
Stormwind	Shopkeepers were selling deeds at the old price and selling deeds at the new price. We wiped them to reset their selling price.
Gasper	From Mufasa: The reputation FAQ mentions fame decay's with time, are we talking hours, days, weeks, or deaths here? If the decay's fast how will tradesmen keep enough fame to show titles?
DesignerD	It's pretty darn slow. DOn't worry too much about it. :)
Gasper	Will anything be done to let those of lower fame still show their skill?
DesignerD	We're looking at things, yes. It's be a great use for that biography feature, for example :)
Gasper	Okay, I think this would be a good point to wrap things up
Gasper	I'd like to thank on behalf of Stratics and the Vault Network all the guys from Origin that came tonight
Gasper	And we will keep you informed of when the next open house will be taking place
Gasper	As before, if your question wasnt addressed, the next meeting will be coming up soon so hold onto them
Gasper	Once again, thanks for coming and we look forward to the next time we can meet again
Stormwind	Thanks all, it's been fun!
DenD	Have a Nice Day!
Fot	Thanks guys!
Gasper	And special thanks to Designer Dragon, Stormwind, Lonestar and Beast
DesignerD	Sorry for not answering all the questions I am now getting in private messages, but I am WAY late for dinner and my wife is gonna kill me. ;)