House of Commons from 2001-04-12

House of Commons from 2001-04-12

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 here with us this evening.
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 /msg or /query different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed the process up.
Glamdring	Please remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum. Please do not 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 open to all general questions
Sage	Vet rewards is currently in internal test. We should be making it available for public testing in the VERY near future.
Glamdring	The wise sage has fortold the future!
Glamdring	*ghyde* What is going to happen with regards to Veteran Rewards, and progress reports on it's coding and implementation?
Glamdring	*Talbot* As part of the development strategy, is the interest team being phased out in favour of an automated quest system, or can a combination of interest and script work together for the benefit of all players? In short, what approach does the development team plan to take towards the very real need for interactive, living content and RPG elements as well as hard coded "additions" that satiate transient players?
Sage	Right now we are still looking at how we will continue to drive fiction. At this point we want to reach the largest amount of players possible. I suspect that will mean changes to how fiction is currently handled. What we have so far looks promising, but nothing is ready for public consumption.
Sage	When things get settled down more, we will let everyone know our ideas.
Glamdring	*GragDash* I am wondering why the dev team constantly grows, while the IGM team has been locked since oct 1999. What is happening with intrest team, will it expand? are player establishment blessings commign back?
Sage	The interest team has been linked to the dev team now, so there is no separation. Player establishment blessings promoted hard feelings and hurt the community more than they helped it.
Sage	They will not be returning.
Glamdring	*Tristam* Calandryll.. what is the direction that you would like to guide the Interest Department now that you are in "command of the wheel"?
Calandryll	Well, first and foremost, I want to start adding content to the game that has context behind it
Calandryll	I also want to look at ways to get more players involved in "fiction" than we have previously
Calandryll	I actually have a comments from the team that should be posted tomorrow that will go into more detail about that.
Glamdring	*Magellan_THB* I have a question about the cartography skill. Above roughly 98.5, it is impossible to gain by drawing maps. In order to gain that last 1.5, one must decode sometimes up to 1000 high level (3-4) treasure maps. Given the ever-rising prices of these maps, this is becoming increasingly hard to do. Would it be possible to look at the skill gain for cartography?
Sage	I wasn't aware there was this problem, but we will certainly take a look.
Glamdring	*po`folks* does OSI feel localization has improved the RPG elements of UO?
Sage	If you don't speak English? Immensely.
Glamdring	Nikademus will be replacing Bronco as a question taker, please feel free to msg or query him with your questions
Glamdring	*smokenjoe* Will UO lower the price on taxerdermy kits , with them costing so much for one use, noone is making trophys and this also makes BIg fish usless also?
Sage	No. We are happy with the costs right now.
Sage	And, I have seen trophies all over.
Glamdring	*Phoenix-* Is a dueling system ever going to be implemented so people can fight in trammal who are non Order and Chaos?
Evocare‑OSI	Maybe. It would be cool, wouldn't it. ;]
Glamdring	*Blackheath_THB* Would it be possible to section the crypts in Felucca and add a new door to the eastern part so that non-faction members can use those chests?
Sage	Maybe that isn't the answer to the problem. Perhaps chests in different places?
Sage	Still, a problem worth investigating. Thanks.
Glamdring	*ZappaFrank* why did sage lie about not knowing about the broken cartography skill, as we been posting about this problem for months now and Mel said he passed it on?
Sage	It is possible he did forward it to us. Many things get forwarded to us, and some fall as more important than others. I am sorry if we missed this one, but we are human too.
Glamdring	*SC_Ava[DF]* Why is it that factions are not active in Trammel? The whole system is senseless, if you cannot even fight there.
Melantus	and its possible I didn't forward it and thought I did. Lots of things being reported by players :)
Evocare‑OSI	The majority of players aren't ready for a combat system where they have nowhere to go on those evenings where they aren't feeling as frisky as usual.
Evocare‑OSI	At the same time, the idea of having meaningful control over the world and being unable to fight in Trammel aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
Evocare‑OSI	It might just mean that the mechanisms for excercising control over Felucca aren't good enough yet. =]
Glamdring	*Videric[-C-]* Will we see written and in-game fiction about the new lands and it's history? Many would liek to know more of the story that Eidolon began...
Leilo	We are looking forward to sharing more of that story with you. :) We're currently looking at options for completing that fiction for those who have followed it with interest.
Glamdring	*Cuchulainn* Do you think it is likely that can be a post-server up time limits before a faction sigil can be stealable?
Vex	We have been tossing around many ideas about how to improve sigils and town control in general, not just with the server-up issue. Nothing has been decided as yet, but it certainly is possible that could happen.
Glamdring	*Braveheart* Question: So, there is art for a lot of creatures not in game yet in the 3rd Dawn client. When can players expect to see even more new creatures in the world of Ileshnar? (i.e., sea horse, some of the others with art pictured on stratics, etc)
Oaks	You never know when dormant content might become active... =)
Glamdring	*Schimmy* There are many that feel crafters shouldn't have to monster bash to reach lord status. Crawler and I have posted a one proposal. Is there any way something like that can happen?
Vex	I cannot say that I have seen your proposal. I do feel that something could be worked to allow crafters to gain fame and karma without fighting.
Glamdring	*Zeitgeist* Are they're any plans to open any more shards in the United States or Europe? Europe seem's to be overloaded, and with the move of Seige, the central US is lacking.
Sage	Before we open shards, we look at the population on those shards at peak and over time. Right now, Japan is in need of a shard, but we have not identified the need for any other areas, currently. That doesn't mean more won't be added, but we aren't planning on adding more at this time.
Glamdring	*Sub_Zero* Question: Any plans to open up Ilshenar to 2D client users in the future, or any 2D expansions?
Melantus	Ilshenar is not really made for the 2D client...
Melantus	so really the main question is: will we have more 2D land?....
Melantus	we havent planned any. We've been busy on quite a few other things.
Glamdring	*Zeitgeist* any plans to 'enhance' the archery system? This has been 'nerfed' for a long time now. And many players on the UO boards seem to be requesting change.
Evocare‑OSI	Why stop with archery? There are a lot of things about our combat system that could use improvements right? ;]
Evocare‑OSI	When archery gets another look, it's very likely that the combat system as a whole is something that would be revisited.
Glamdring	*C_Talanithus_UOLS* Heather of GLCN just posted a story titled "The Death of the Interest Team as We Know It" on CoB and Lum's. In it, she lists many of the fears and suspicions of the RolePlayers of Sosaria. Do you have any comment on the points she goes over?
Sage	I am sorry, but I have not read it. We are looking at interest as I have said in my comments from the team, and in several posts. Not sure what questions she has, but it is likely many are not answered at this time.
Glamdring	*Alkuk* Why did OSI get rid of RoT on Seige? Now all the vets are leaving because it became a regular like shard. Why did OSI do such a thing?
Sage	I am always disheartened to hear that someone leaves a shard because something they liked about the shard has changed. However, after looking at SP, we felt, through comments from many players that ROT was one of the things holding the shard back.
Sage	Veterans tend to not like rebuilding characters once they have done it. ROT made character building more time consuming in some skills.
Sage	So we went with the system everyone knows.
Glamdring	*Videric[-C-]* The Carpet/floor tile was very popular experiment on Test shards, can we please see them soon in development?
Vex	Floor Tiles made it briefly to testing. There are some known bugs with them, but we had to pull them from further development to focus on other priorities. We do plan on introducing them, but right now we don't have a time scheduled for them to go back into testing.
Sage	They will be reintroduced on TC after Vet Rewards goes through.
Glamdring	*Bronco* Will more items have an abillity to raise the chance of succes in a skill (like the gargoyle pickaxe helps people to get better ore)? Like hammers of smithing and lockpicks of the master thief?
Oaks	Many of our skills have been carefully balanced at high levels, and such items can ruin the effort of gaining those last few points to Grandmaster. How items will affect skill is still up in the air, but we are always brainstorming for cool new items.
Glamdring	*Lady_Polgara* Is there any possibility that bookshelves can function so that if you place books in them, it will show the full shelves instead of the empty ones?
Sage	It is possible, but unlikely to get done anytime soon. Right now that is not a high priority.
Glamdring	*Danis* Is anything being done about housing? I spent a few days wandering around with a surveyor tool and couldn't find a place to put anything. Is it possible to limit housing further?
Sage	Right now, UO has enough space for housing. Housing should be a premium commodity. It is something to shoot for. I would like everyone to be able to get one, but it is a really great moment to finally be able to place.
Glamdring	*Hotaru_Chan* Greetings, I was wondering Is it possible for the players to see a list of items that are for sure illegal or legal in some instances? Example: Bloodtiles. Legal to have but you can't trade/sell/buy, Yet I've heard of some cases where GM's did delete peoples Bloodtiles. Legal or not?
Melantus	this is an area that is a concern to me....
Melantus	I've brought items in the past to the attention of the support team and we have discussed it...
Melantus	this is something else I am discussing with them as well as others.
Melantus	I dont hafve more info on blood tiles right now, but I am looking into it
Glamdring	*Lady_Polgara* does osi plan on phasing out all holiday celbrations and gift, or will they perhaps start making holidays pertaining to Britainna ?
Sage	Interesting. I believe that holidays in game don't mean much to players. No one will understand the dates, and it gets worse as the community gets bigger. (Yes I read this somewhere, but I agree.) As to the other question about gifts and such, I don't think we want to stop doing these things, but they do tend to take us away from other things.
Sage	When the time is right, we do holiday gifts. Unfortunately, we don't always have time. We should get better about it, because I know it is confusing. We just need to add it to our schedule. Oh yeah. Happy Easter.
Sage	It's Easter that is coming up right?
Glamdring	haha, yes Sage...among others =)
Glamdring	Well folks, I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight
Glamdring	I would like to thank everyone from OSI for taking time to be with us tonight as well
Melantus	thanks all for coming :)
Glamdring	please join #ultima-online for continued unmoderated chat
Cynthe	Thanks everybody!! :)
Oaks	Bye bye now!
Hanse	I'd say thanks, but my mouth is full of mongbat muffins.
Oaks	Exceptional, no less.
	* joey changes topic to 'Thanks for joining us, please feel free to join #ultima-online for general chat =D, and the log will be posted shortly [ uohoc.stratics.com ] *