House of Commons from 2000-11-16

House of Commons from 2000-11-16

Glamdring	Good evening everyone, thank you for coming to tonight's Ultima Online open house. This Stratics House of Commons chat is a direct connection between you the players and the designers and programmers of Ultima Online.
Glamdring	This chat will be in a moderated format. To ask a question of the developers, please /msg or /query the question takers that will be listed in the topic of the channel. These question takers will then present the questions to the Ultima Online development team present this evening.
Glamdring	Please /msg or /query different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed the process up.
Glamdring	I will be our moderator tonight...I will post your question into the House of Commons chat channel and the Developers will answer those that they can. Please remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum.
Glamdring	Please do message or query myself or anyone from OSI, these questions will be ignored. We encourage you to read the logs of the previous Open Houses, which are available at http://uohoc.stratics.com.
Glamdring	Enjoy tonight's chat...the topic is "Ultima Online Third Dawn"
Glamdring	ahem
Glamdring	change that to PLEASE DO NOT message anyone from OSI or myself
	* Glamdring goes to hide in a corner *
Glamdring	*ArcadianDelSol* Question: Much is being said about the current graphics in Third Dawn - some criticisms with some of the creatures specifically. Some players are commenting "remember this is only an Alpha." Is the current are "done", or will it be refined during the beta phase?
Runesabre	This is very much pre-alpha at this stage so nothing is final. Once we get enough feedback with players who have the actual client to play with then we will be better prepared to evaluate what direction we need to go.
Glamdring	*Mags* Hi i was wondering if u knew when the game will be in possible beta stage?
Runesabre	January! January! January!
Runesabre	:)
Glamdring	*Darkwolf469* Now that it is posable, will furthor races be added to the game?
Sage	There are no plans to put additional races in the game.
Melantus	and while we wait on the next question I just wanted to thank everyone who attended the UO World Faire for the great feedback :)
XenaDragon	*godski* when playing the 3d Demo, I really liked the extra large containers... any chance keeping them that size?
Alai	The sizes of containers will depend largely on your own preferences - my current plan is to have resizable container gumps.
Alai	Cross your fingers... FYI - "gump
Alai	"gump" is an internal pet name for window at OSI ; )
XenaDragon	*Niobe* What part of UO3D excites the team the most?
Runesabre	I personally like the "3" part of UO3D. *grins* Seriously, for me its the fact that we can continue to extend graphical content without being shackled like we were in 2D
Sage	I like the new lands personally. Explore... explore... explore... :)
Alai	I like the "D." I'm pretty stoked about bringing the graphics to modern standards.
Melantus	ability to add new things :) and particles
Alai	I'm rather fond of the interface as well, of course ;)
Ignatz	The ability to add new content to the game.. a new and exciting frontier... though the command line history is nice for those of us who are typingly challenged
Vex‑OSI	For playability, I personally love the sparkly fresh new appearance, higher framerates, and niftier animations. From a designer standpoint, Third Dawn will allow us greater flexibility to expand the game and exercise our creativity.
Calandryll	The 3D paperdoll is really cool too
XenaDragon	*Coll_SHA* Will people who wherent able to attend the uofair be able to sign up for the alpha test?
Sage	At this time there is no other way to get into the Alpha Test
XenaDragon	*David_UV_Catskills* is the interface in the screen shots final way the interface will look for UO: third dawn?
Alai	Nothing is final. You'll hear that a lot. We're working hard and focusing on making sure everything is as close to perfect as humanly possible.
Alai	The interface is no exception ;)
XenaDragon	*godski* can you give us more of an idea what we will be seeing with the new 3d? Is it just monsters and spell effects, or is it every moveable object? Also, how much freedom is there to change the 3d models and effects?
Alai	We won't be changing objects that tend to be static, this means chairs, bags, trees, etc.
Alai	But you will be getting spiffy new 3D monsters, and it will be *much* easier for us to add new critters.
Alai	The big gain is in that expandability, the content in UO will no longer have a technical barrier to adding this kind of new content.
Alai	Effects will have similar freedoms here on out.
XenaDragon	*Kurrgan_LS* Will Third Dawn be one land, accessible from both Felucca and Trammel, thereby eliminating/reducing the need for moonstones?
Sage	The land will be one land. The method of entry currently planned will be moongates. This will eliminate some of the need for moonstones.
Glamdring	*Klor* Will we Siege Perilous players be able to use Third Dawn? If so will the Trammel rules be in effect?
Sage	We are still looking at how we will be able to integrate UO:TD on SP. We may have to go with the Felucca ruleset for SP, but no plans are finalized at this time. A netsplit occurred and we lost connection with half the team for a few minutes
Melantus	ok here we are
Glamdring	*LionHeart_CrS* In the past there was talk about Farming and new skills being introduced to the game. With this addon are there any plans for new skills like farming, or animal ranching or anything in that sense?
Sage	There are no plans currently on adding new skills. I would like to concentrate on our current skills, rather than adding new ones at this time.
Glamdring	*Riptide_AFK* Is there any plans with UO:3d to add particle effects to magical items so they look magical?
Runesabre	With the new particle system we implemented we are able to better customize and attach particle effects to just about any object in the game. So yes we hope to be able to enhance the magic weapons to make them cooler with neat effects.
Glamdring	*Baron* After the upgrade of Third Dawn wouldn't many regulars PC not to able to handle situations like a crowded Britain ?
Runesabre	We are focusing a lot on performance. At the moment we don't see a lot of strain in high mobile areas.
Glamdring	*Web Question* If you buy and install UO3D, will you still be able to switch back to the old 2D graphics, or would you need to uninstall?
Runesabre	You will be able to have both UO:TD and UO:R installed. If you really really liked the old looks of the 2S sprites you an run UO:R. The only compromise is you will see all new items and monsters as defaults.
Runesabre	Er... "2D sprites" not "2S sprites". :)
Glamdring	Ness_Orbsydia* Hello, We have not heard much about the new game detail, will there be new creatures as well as a new land?
Sage	There will be new creatures roaming an entirely new land filled with some surprises.
Glamdring	*devil[arr]* Will existing uo players have to pay for uo third dawn or do we recieve it for free?
Sage	We have not determined that at this time.
Glamdring	*Niobe* how will the UO3D client affect the minimum system requirements in order to play?
Runesabre	The main requirement change is UOTD will require a 3D card.
Runesabre	The minimum level of 3D card is yet to be determined
Glamdring	*godski* At the Faire, there was a lot of focus on making the client eaiser for new players to use and the game in general more accessible to new players. How does the Third Dawn lands rate as far as... are they veteran focused... or a mix of expierence levels?
Alai	The new land was designed for our existing players to enjoy. It has all sorts of goodies you'll enjoyed, and is designed for our more veteran audience.
Glamdring	*ImaNnoying_LSR* You stated earlier that items which tend to be static (chairs, etc) wouldn't recieve a 3D upgrade. Understood, but will their overall graphical quality improve as well? (I just want to see how cool my house looks with new graphics =} )
Runesabre	We've taken the liberty to update some of the 2D objects. Most notably things like rooftop tiles, building walls, etc will look MUCH better than before despite remaining 2D. All of the trees have been redone as well to look much better.
Glamdring	*Syzygy* Will there be any attempt at an ongoing quest(s) that involve a regularly (i.e. monthly) scheduled 'patch' in the way that Asheron's Call does now?
Runesabre	We are ensuring that UOTD has the potential to allow easy content updating. As far as the actually future application of that ability that has not really been determined right now. Our main focus right now is to launch a very polished release to UO.
Glamdring	*Klaitu* If you were to use the 3D client and logged out in the new lands, then log in with the 2D client with the same character.. what would happen?
Runesabre	If you have a UOTD account and log out in the new lands and try to log in with the 2D client, the server will kick you back to the old lands. Where exactly I am not sure.
Glamdring	*C_RedPhoenix_GL* will anything be done with the old 2d client after 3rd dawn?
Runesabre	The 2D client will continue to be maintained.
Glamdring	*C_DogMeat_Ches* Will new UO:3D items be transportable to the old lands, and if so what item will they "default" to?
Runesabre	New items will look exactly like they should to UOTD users. To 2D users, those same items will default to some existing art.
Runesabre	And yes most items will be able to be carried to the old lands.
Glamdring	*Shabba* Will there be any changes related to taming in the release of UO3D?
Sage	There are no planned changes to the taming skill itself, at this time, but I believe there will be some new *surprises* for animal lovers.
Glamdring	*Klaitu* much has been touted about the new 3D graphics, but what sound improvements will we hear in UO3d?
Stellerex	Actually, we've redone a lot of the old sounds from the original client. About 65% of them. The idea was to make them still recognizeable as the original sounds, but give them better quality. And of course, any new creatures we get to do whatever we want with :)
Melantus	This is a question Runesabre answered during the netsplit...
Melantus	<Melantus> *godski* can you give us more of an idea what we will be seeing with the new 3d? Is it just monsters and spell effects, or is it every moveable object? Also, how much freedom is there to change the 3d models and effects?
Melantus	<Runesabre> In addition to new monsters and spell effects there will also be new wearables.
Melantus	<Runesabre> Another detail with the monsters are even the old monsters that were reuses of existing monsters ( like the kraken being a blue corpser ) will be completely redone and made unique
Glamdring	*Sie_Ming* What was the most unexpected thing that happened to each of you at the UO World Faire? [It's my first non-alchemy question (see I'm branching out)]
Melantus	knocking a waitresses tray out of her hands by accident. It was an accident I promise =)
Alai	Uh-huh.
Sage	The most unexpected thing for me was seeing the level of mirroring of the player's ideas to our own. It is amazing to see some of the things we want to add get brought up by players as things they want to see added. Oh yeah... Virtues. :)
Runesabre	I was extremely impressed with the overall turnout and the overall positive reception of the players. I could definitely sense anyone who wasn't sure if they wanted to come will definitely not miss the next convention.
Stellerex	I lost a bet with Calandryll when I actually had to sign an autograph.
Calandryll	Hehe
Alai	I was totally shocked that Tyrant didn't get in a fistfight.
	* XenaDragon grins *
Calandryll	The amount of money the auction brought in for charity...was great to see people bidding on dragons that we painted.
Melantus	go Carly and Starr, theirs were popular
Glamdring	I would like to thank everyone for attending tonight....I would like to thank Alai, CAlandryll, FierYiCe, Hanse, Ignatz, Malantus, Runesabre, Sage, Stellerex and Vex for agreeing to join us as well.
	* Glamdring makes note never to type all that out again *
Glamdring	The log will be posted shortly
Melantus	thanks all this was a good chat :)
Calandryll	Thanks all!
Runesabre	Good night Britannia!
XenaDragon	Thanks for coming everyone
Zorn	Thanks to the team for coming!