House of Commons from 2005-07-27

House of Commons from 2005-07-27

Brekkee	Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Ultima Online! Tonight's topic is Mondain's Legacy. Only questions relating to the topic will be answered.
Brekkee	Please send your questions to [QT]Elm or [QT]Shoes - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://uohoc.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee	We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
Cerdith	Hi all, I'm Cerdith. I'm a designer for UO
Niobe	Hi hi, I'm Niobe and I'm also a designer.
Binky_EA	Howdy all. Binky here, Community Manager.
wilki_EA	Hello everyone, I'm Wilki, Community Rep.
Brekkee	*Clovis* Firstoff, Awesome work on the new expansion (This will not be said enough tonight imo) It seems that the only Jewlery Item not yet having magic properties are earrings. Is this something we can look forward to? or maybe making the new eye glasses use this slot instead of the Hat slot?
Niobe	Hi Clovis
Niobe	Really glad you're enjoying the beta of the expansion!
Niobe	Magic properties on earrings are not planned for this expansion.
Niobe	There's always a possibility in live but I don't know if that's high on there list right now
Niobe	(and sorry for the slow typing. My hands are freezing!)
Niobe	We've been doing some balancing and tweaking on eyeglasses recently. As it stands now they will remain in the head slot for several reasons
Shepherd	hey, all... I'm an engineer on UO:ML
	* Cerdith snickers at the late engineer *
Niobe	One is the reading glasses have some really nice properties on them and we don't want messy imbalancing stuff when they have some of the same properties as hats and helmets
Niobe	And secondly, there are some layering issues if we allowed them to be worn with helmets.
Brekkee	*Torment[kthx]* Dont you think that the current unbalanced archers are going to be even more unbalanced with poison arrows?
Cerdith	Hi Torment. We're working on balance right now for all of the additions to the game that are coming with Mondain's Legacy. So, we're very interested in good detailed, factual feedback from players in the beta.
Brekkee	*Nixon[I-C]* As an avid dwarf and member of dwarf guild(We are drooling over this expansion :D) and with the imminent release of the new elf expansion, I wondered whether other classes were on the cards? :)
Cerdith	Well, we don't know really. We're focusing on our current expansion and we're always interested in your suggestions, ideas and feedback. That's how elves got added ...
Cerdith	Based on what players were requesting. So you never know. (this is not a promise of dwarves)
Brekkee	*Lone`Shadow* Question 1: Is there going to be a way that we might be able to up the drop of ingredients on these monsters as it is; they seem almost impossible to get or create anything from them.
Cerdith	Yes, there absolutely is ... I've been working on loot bags and quest bags, getting metrics on the drop rates. We're not even close to being done tweaking and balancing.
Brekkee	*Flutter_UO* Hi! Loving the new expansion. Many of the new items are "elf only" why? And is there any hope for change?
Niobe	Hiya Flutter!
Cerdith	(We're loving your posts Flutter)
Niobe	The new armor and clothing items are indeed elf only
Niobe	This is in part because they have a different body structure, though similar to humans
Niobe	It is also because the races haven't been exposed to each other in a long time
Niobe	Additionally, some of the items (like glasses) were set incorrectly to be elf only
Niobe	That has been corrected, so some of the items previously set as elf only are for both humans and elves.
Brekkee	*Clovis* The New Dryad Creature can peace you into oblivion (Actualy a cool thing imo) Can us Bards look forward to having this type of Peace effect for PvP combat anytime in the future (even if the actual effect/duration would need to be balanced or shortened)
Cerdith	We're not doing any tweaking right now of that nature as part of Mondain's Legacy. It's certainly something to pass on to the Live team though, as I'm sure they're interested in working on PvP balance. It's sorta the eternal project.
Brekkee	*Melissy* Hi there, I was wondering: Has the development team considered changing the way rare items spawn in Doom and other places? Randomizing the spawn locations and timers?
Cerdith	We've got a pretty cool new spawning system that we used a bit in Mondain's Legacy that allows us to spawn items in addition to monsters ... and spawn them at intervals that vary considerably.
Cerdith	I suspect this will be a huge step forward in how rare items spawn if the Live team decides to use the system. I don't really know what the publish schedule looks like and whether Doom is due for an update anytime soon, so you'd need to address ...
Cerdith	Those sorts of questions to them. Sorry :)
Brekkee	*ArielJoy* will there be more codes released for beta/stress testing and when might we expect this to occur
Binky_EA	1000 more codes were uploaded to fileplanet.com about 10 minutes ago and 2000 more should go up in the next day or so. Visit http://www.fileplanet.com/155046/150000/fileinfo/Ultima-Online:-Mondain's-Legacy-Beta to get a code.
Brekkee	*Hemisphere* Simple question, and I think you'll know what I'm talking about (heh). The robe. Surely some mistake?
	* Niobe watches a bunch of people rush off for codes *
	* Cerdith watches everyone run for codes *
Cerdith	Definitely not balanced yet. :) When we put in items like this ... we usually throw some properties on there and then start testing. Every now and then something really outrageous gets made. Don't worry, it's not going Live like that.
Brekkee	*csharp* When will we hear more about the pre-order gift?
Binky_EA	Keep an eye on the website tomorrow. We should be launching a new website for UOML tomorrow as well at uo.com/uoml. And that does not mean 12:01AM. Look for info later in the day.
Brekkee	Legends* Hi I would like to know if along with the increase in house storage if there will also be an increase in the number of vendors a house may have
Shepherd	NewThunder: Sorry it took so long, I had to look at the code. As it turns out, the number of vendors is directly tied to the house storage. Soo... yes. :)
Brekkee	*IForgot* Will there be any new macing weapons that compare to the awsome power of the ornate axe?
Niobe	Hello IForgot
Niobe	I'm going to turn that question around on you and ask all of you for information.
Niobe	What would you like to see on weapons? What are some of the holes you see that you'd like to see filled?
Niobe	We're still spending time balancing and tweaking (as you've heard us say alot tonight).
Niobe	We are spending time reading the beta boards and reviewing material too.
Niobe	We can't always put everything in that people are asking for, but we like to know how people feel about stuff...for the good and the bad.
Brekkee	*Calix-* Question: I'm really excited about the posibility of playing an Elf that can morph into a reaper, are there any plans to introduce Trolls, Dwarfs and Gnomes in the future?
Cerdith	Hi Calix. I can't really predict what the future might hold ... but I can tell you that elves were introduced because players were so enthusiastic in requesting them. So, there certainly is a possibility.
Brekkee	*[DJ]Hugo* My Question: With the upgrade to crafters, i think you've done a great job giving them a role in the modern world of Ultima - Online. However, aslong as Item Insurance exists, Crafters will be only needed once, for one set of armour, then they can go afk for another few years. How do you hope to introduce any kind of item cycle so Blacksmiths arent a one time class?
Cerdith	Hi Hugo, that's the rub isn't it? Here's the deal ...
Cerdith	We tried to add some items with charges this time to see how that went ...
Cerdith	It's a much larger issue than an expansion can directly tackle though. For example, doing something to durability/repairs/insurance is a live change ... something that would effect the entire game and as such would need to happen as part of a live publish probably.
Cerdith	What we can do is continue to find ways that crafters have unique things they can contribute ... and investigate whether charged items are the way to add more usefulness. We'll see how that goes. It's certainly on our minds ...
Cerdith	We have discussed the role of the crafter more times than I can count.
Brekkee	*horriblis* any chance for stronger types of low end monster ie lizard men / snakes like the way orks are maby ???
Niobe	Hello horriblis.
Niobe	This expansion was really focused on very high end creatures for the most part.
Niobe	However, there are a few lower end monsters that are lurking around in dark corners and dark caves.
Niobe	And some of our old favorites, though lower end, may have been bumped up to be a little mini-boss special creature.
Brekkee	*BlackPhoenix* will we get any of the crafting ingredients on test to try out the new recipes, as some ingredients seem to not be dropping like Dreadhorn mane
Cerdith	Hi BlackPhoenix. We're still fixing bugs/holes in the loot. Dreadhorn's mane is one of the ones on my list to look over. We also are looking at and adjusting drop rates. But sometime soon (though I don't know if its the next beta publish or not) we'll be putting crafting items in bank boxes ...
Cerdith	So you can try everything out.
Cerdith	The fact that we know Dreadhorn's mane wasn't dropping is due to you trying to get one though, so this is very useful testing too for us.
Brekkee	*XeveiGL* This may be a touchy subject, but ... Some of the artwork threads (including the one on ML beta foRUM) has received zero replies or notice or interest from the devs. I know there was enough outcry that youfolks changed the artwork for the hairstyle. Any chance of other changes?
Cerdith	Hi Xevei ...
Cerdith	I have to tell you that you really can't assume that lack of posts means lack of interest or notice ...
Cerdith	We absolutely are reading ... but we're also really buried in work, both fixing bugs and working on tuning and balancing. So we don't often post, we read and take notes and then we ask QA to investigate ...
Cerdith	With respect to the art in particular, we absolutely have been looking into the criticisms and suggestions. In some cases, there were bugs ...
Cerdith	For example, the elven skin tone hues were off by one number ... from the design.
Cerdith	Which caused the original colors.
Cerdith	The artists are touching up even as we chat here ...
Cerdith	We really appreciate the feedback and suggestions ... just remember that the game renders a bit differently than a photoshop image ... so sometimes we simply cannot do something you want ...
Cerdith	(like the super duper long hair I originally wanted)
Cerdith	Bottom line ... we do read, we do notice ... and we do make adjustments. (And not just when you're mad at us).
Brekkee	*MilkMaiden* Many people are worried that passive detect hidden will ruin stealthers. Will it?
Cerdith	Hi MilkMaiden. I'm really interested to hear if people feel that's so when they're playing. Thus far, we don't think so, but we're looking for information from players in the beta. We can still tune the racial abilities a bit ... so we do need that feedback.
Brekkee	*Gidge* Are the looks of the elves going to change at all or is this what we will see on release.
Niobe	Hiya Gidge
Niobe	This response is a bit of a follow-up from an earlier question because some of it has been addressed.
Niobe	Elven hair and skin tones have changed over time because of both bug fixes and tweaks to the initial look
Niobe	Cerdith previously stated that we are continuing to look at and fix/balance things over time so we're not done yet.
Niobe	The basic look of the elves is fairly final though. I wouldn't expect drastic changes at this point.
Niobe	But we will continue to review and address issues
Brekkee	*glbanksitter* will the NPC elves only give out pitchers or will it be a small percentile chance that it will be a blue mug?
Niobe	Hiya glbanksitter
Niobe	Wow, a lot of people really didn't like it when we put in the mugs...
Niobe	and now a lot of people really want them back in :)
Niobe	Right now you'll only get pitchers of liquid if you beg (though there are some fairly rare things you may not have received yet).
Niobe	I do not know if that is the final version at this time.
Brekkee	*Dolphoen* On some paperdoll art the entire object is hued when dyed. 2 examples are the elven belt (even the buckle is dyed) or the female hair style with the flower (even the flower is changed to color of hair). I know it's possible, in orignal art, the fancy dress keeps it's golden stripes and the kite shield keeps a wooden edge. Are there any plans to correct these things?
Shepherd	Dolphoen: It's an oversight, we've noted it and will address it :) Thank you!
Shepherd	see.. wasn't that easy?
Brekkee	*fred`* Do you think it's a problem that there is not alot of people PvP'ing in the beta - also that there is alot of items still unobtained in the beta?
Cerdith	I think there are still a fair number of items that haven't been obtained. I'm hoping we can setup some PvP in the beta ... I'll probably be speaking with Binky and Wilki about that soon.
Cerdith	We're doing some internal tests ... but we'll be ready to take a look on beta soon.
Brekkee	*Flutter_UO* The belts are giving elves basically an extra armor slots humans cant have. Will humans soon be inventing their own style of belt?
Cerdith	We need to look at the elven belts still. I agree entirely that we need to address this. :)
Brekkee	*lisa* i have a question wrt bulk order deeds - what, if anything, is being done for ML to bring the runic rewards up to par with current monster loot? As it stands spined sewing kits and runics less than bronze or gold are effectively worthless due to the number and intensities of properties on monster loot. As someone who is a long time crafter i'm looking forward to using all of those dull copper and shadow hammers to compete with th
Niobe	Hiya Lisa
Niobe	There are no changes to BODs in ML....
Niobe	However, there are some changes to crafting that offer some new rewards in the expansion
Niobe	There are now runics for both fletching and carpentry (4 different versions for each)
Niobe	You can earn these through doing crafting rewards ands such.
Niobe	As for the future with current runics and BODs, that is something that will be addressed in live.
Niobe	But there's a ton of crafter stuff in the expansion for you
Brekkee	*Nixon[I-C]* So what about new Mongbats? I just know you guys love those funny little animals! I think you should give them some more love and make a mongbat champ spawn, if theres another expansion! ;)
Niobe	Mongbat love just kind of scares me. Especially a spawn of mongbat love.
Niobe	(no mongbat champ spawns in this ML expansion!) :)
Brekkee	*cyberknight* any tweaks for tamers?
Cerdith	Yes, we're still tweaking the reptalons and cu'sidhe. Originally they weren't being subjugated at all when tamed, which was a bit over the top of where we wanted them to be. They may be a little lower than we want now ... I'm still testing though. They have some pretty impressive special abilities.
Brekkee	*SahraSwift* How easy would it be for the quest engine to be utilized by EMs for more drawn-out events right at release?
Cerdith	That's a great question. We need to investigate it a bit more though before I can really give a definitive answer. It's actually currently a bit tricky to setup a quest ... so it may not be something that could be done right at release.
Brekkee	*Flutter_UO* About the new ingredients again. According to faq at uo.com they also fall on paragons mini boss and champ spawn monsters (in addition to peerless) is this happening now on the beta shard? We cant seem to find em on anything but Peerless right now.
Cerdith	I don't think they are spawning on the paragons or champs. I think they're only on the peerless bosses right now.
Cerdith	I don't believe we'll be putting them on the paragons though we may put them on the new champs. I'm still deciding.
Brekkee	*DarkAngel* Can you switch the race of a presently human character? or do u have to make a new chr?
Niobe	Hi DarkAngel
Niobe	You do NOT need to make a new character to switch your race.
Niobe	You'll be able to take existing characters through a series of trials to become an elf.
Niobe	You can also make new characters immediately elven during character creation.
Brekkee	*Keegan* Hello UO Team! I really like what you have done with UO:ML so far, I was wondering if there was any plan on tweeking the Quest givers to reduce their constant spamming the second you go near them?
Brekkee	Please make sure you are sending your questions to [QT]Elm or [QT]Shoes. Questions sent directly to the developers or to me will not get answered
Cerdith	We did make a tweak right now they they spam a bit less often ... something like every minute now instead of everytime someone walks by. We may want to adjust it more, but its a start.
Brekkee	*Wyrdling* Hi. Currently elves can't properly use the normal human helmets and hats. Is this something that is expected to be fixed by the time UO:ML is released, or is it intended to stay that way?
Cerdith	It is intentional.
Cerdith	Elven ears get in the way (generically) of human helmets ...
Cerdith	But we didn't want to deny elves the ability to wear hats they may already have as humans, so we setup a translation table ... so when you put on a human hat it becomes the art for one of the ones elves can wear.
Brekkee	*[I-C]ElfMastahBlastah* Good evening, really looking forward to the new expansion, looks spiffing, however i'm a little worried that traditional skills will get overlooked in favour of the newer additions, what are your comments/ideas regarding this. Also will there be any special offers available at the time of release? Keep up the awesome work!!
Niobe	Hiya ElfMastahBlastah
Niobe	I'm really glad you're looking forward to the new expansion!
Niobe	I'm actually hoping that lots of you think we spent a good deal of time working on some of the traditional skills in this expansion...
Niobe	While we didn't do major changes to those skills
Niobe	We did try to add things that would allow you to use them more
Niobe	there's lots of stuff for combat oriented folks to do
Niobe	there's lots of stuff for crafter type people to do
Niobe	There's even lots of rp stuff to do.
Niobe	That's one of the reasons we added only a single skill instead of whole new classes. We wanted to let you start playing with the new things quickly without having to build up new characters first.
Niobe	Hopefully there's lots of stuff for everyone.
Brekkee	*Hugo* May we get a sample of the "arti quality" craftible items that will be availible in the new expansion?
Niobe	Hi Hugo.
Niobe	I'm not trying be mean, but I'm not going to post specific numbers in here for the new arties.
Niobe	The reason is they are all undergoing lots of balancing and tweaking right now so nothing is set yet.
Niobe	What I can tell you is we have several types of arties going in
Niobe	There are major artifacts, new minor artifacts.
Niobe	There are also craftable artifacts in both minor (or rare as we call them) and grater artifact quality.
Brekkee	*Ser* I would like to know if there are any plans to add items that tamers would equip on pets other than barding. Special claws or warhorse shoes. Just something to spruce things up since a pet is a tamers weapon.
Cerdith	Hi Ser.
Cerdith	I can't even guess how many times we've discussed wearables for pets ...
Cerdith	How many times we've written up proposals and even mocked things up. It's a subject that's very near and dear to some of our hearts ..
Cerdith	It's not something that made it into Mondain's Legacy. And of course, I can't promise that it will ever make it into the game. But I can tell you we've talked a lot about it.
Cerdith	:)
Brekkee	*Toki* with games like warcraft using gunpowder weapons, what are the chances of guns being introduced? ive always wished my ninja could shoot his enemies from afar ;)
Niobe	(that's greater artifact. I dropped a letter earlier)
Cerdith	Hi Toki. Much like some of the other "how likely" questions, this too is something we've discussed before -- gunpowder ... cannons, and stuff like that. It's not in Mondain's Legacy and that's really all I can speak to tonight ...
Cerdith	All I can do is assure you that we know you're interested in that sort of thing and we'll keep it in mind.
Brekkee	*LairSpirit* Who is GrimmOmen and why hasn't he introduced himself?
GrimmOmen	A-hem - Sorry, I'm Grimm and I'm Lead Artist for UO.
Brekkee	That will wrap it up for tonight. I'd like to thank the developers for coming! The log for tonight's chat will be up shortly on http://uohoc.stratics.com
Brekkee	Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Ultima-Online to chat more about the game.
Cerdith	Thanks all! Hope to see you in the beta! Write feedback! Please please give good details and facts.
Binky_EA	Thanks all and good night!
wilki_EA	Thank you for coming! Ok, back down to the basement to look for my red Swingline...