House of Commons from 1999-06-17

House of Commons from 1999-06-17

Fripp	Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Open House.
Fripp	Tonight's chat is "The next BIG patch"., please try to keep questions along these lines.
Fripp	I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Niobe, Rainman, Joshua_rowan or XenaDragon.
Fripp	Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from OSI --these questions will be ignored.
Fripp	Remember that OSI may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Fripp	In addition, please do not submit any questions that have already been answered during past conferences. We encourage you to read the logs of the previous Open Houses, which are available at http://uohoc.stratics.com.
Fripp	Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions.
Fripp	*Eagawk* Will any of the new Alchemy be in this new patch?
Runesabre	Alchemy will not be in the next patch but most likely appear in the one after.
Fripp	*Coral* Some of us have been keen on a Quest Engine for quite some time... are we going to be delighted by your efforts when you put it live? Can you give us any clue how wonderful the whole system will be?
SunSword	You will see the basic elements of a quest engine in the Newbie Quests you've heard about previously. The very basic parts of a more complex system that I think has the potential to be VERY cool
SunSword	in addition
SunSword	We are working very closely with the IGM's and the volunteer base to provide tools to create more customized and interesting Quests for the player base
SunSword	and finally
SunSword	we are trying to find ways to help YOU as players create your own quests, which I think have the potential to be the very best
Fripp	*Thrim* Will the new quest system for newbies be something like the UO demo that shipped with T2A?
SunSword	a bit
SunSword	they will essentially help newbies learn the interface and game systems by having them complete tasks
SunSword	some will be multi-legged but not terribly complicated
SunSword	advanced players won't be interested in this, but it's a good way of getting the new quest engine to flex it's muscles
Fripp	*Australis_Dragon* So, whats happening to boats? Any changes coming up soon?
SunSword	Several changes, one involves giving the player the power to find their boat when they lose it without needing a gm or volunteer
SunSword	the other involves "movitating" the player to dock or move their boat
SunSword	"motivating" :)
SunSword	sounds evil, don't it?
SunSword	>:)
Fripp	*Xander* Can you describe how exactly the new targetting system will work? And how it will affect UOA last target?
Faceless	Last Target and Target Self work pretty much the same as in UOA.
Faceless	You get a mini-health bar shown for your last target as well, if it is a mobile.
Faceless	You can also target status gumps for all mobiles
Faceless	There is also an option to cycle through all targets on screen
Faceless	Then there's arm/disarm
Faceless	And hmmm...
Faceless	there's more. We'll post a complete list soon
Fripp	*ghyde* Would you care to enlighten us a bit more about "Invulnerable newbies"? I have heard that a lot of people will complain if people abuse these kinds of characters. What excatly can a newbie do under this new system, and what does it prevent him/her from doing?
tOAD	The idea of newbie protection is to give new accounts a grace period for them to learn the basic mechanics of the game without the interference of PvP and harrassment
tOAD	so
tOAD	other players will not be able to attack them (directly or indirectly) and they will not be able to attack other players as well as a large number of cases where an invulnerable player could interfere with a regular players game play
tOAD	We are aware of your concerns about the instances where this can be abused
tOAD	And will be spending the next several weeks testing it privately and then publicly
tOAD	Please be open with your concerns about this system
Fripp	*Azile* Will the new features, in particular, last target & arm/disarm be client based features or will they in any part be based upon specific player skills?
Runesabre	They will simply be client-side interface enhancements.
Fripp	*Katarnoca* Supposedly seasons and better day/night lighting will be in with the next big update...how are seasons going to be handled? Will there be weather patterns of any sort? Will the new lighting slow the client down significantly?
Faceless	Localized light sources will be in the next client update. Seasons and ambient lighting changes will not.
Faceless	Seasons will replace certain art tiles with others depending on the season
Faceless	Weather patterns? That's an unknown at the moment. We don't anticipate slow downs due to colored lighting, if during compt testing we see any, we'll include a toggle
Fripp	*JimSpellhurler* will the new quest engine be for new players only or can us old foggies give it a run to?
SunSword	"Old foggie" is defined by account age
SunSword	So the only way an established account will be able to do the newbie quests is when the test for the update goes public
SunSword	or purchase a new account :) but I'm not suggesting you need to do that
SunSword	of course
SunSword	The same engine that is doing the simple newbie quests will be running the newer more fleshed out advanced quests later on
Fripp	*Eagawk* What exactly is "Next Target"?
Runesabre	Next Target allows you to use a macro key to cycle thru the mobiles on your screen without having to use a mouse.
Fripp	*Jan* will recalling to your ship from the ship key be in the next patch? Is it and idea or a planned to go in?
SunSword	Quite possibly. I've finished the code for it. We need it to go through the testing process to determine its affect on gameplay. I'm considering other alternatives as well...
Fripp	*Budnick* Will the House auction be in the up coming patch?
Runesabre	The house auction system will not be in the upcoming patch.
Fripp	*Greg* Is there any chance you can make donuts craftable in UO?
tOAD	Donuts, french bread, vegetables, and some other food types will eventually be cookable, it's something I'm working on in my spare time right now.
SunSword	donuts need boards to be craftable...
tOAD	The ones you bring for breakfast maybe.
tOAD	Anyway...
SunSword	sigh
tOAD	Cooking is something I'm looking at making some changes to right now to make it more intuitive and more fun to use.
Fripp	*somah* How many players is 'newbie protection' actually apealing to? The amount of new accounts activated each day, cant outweigh the numbers of UO veterans that are upset by the lack of genuine updates
SunSword	Well obviously I'm not going to talk numbers, BUT one of the major issues players report in our game is how difficult it is for a true newbie to get started, and we've identified this as a major way for us to improve the game and expand our audience, plus it has given us the opportunity to add new features and systems for all of you to benefit from (like the quest engine and interface additions)
Fripp	*WildfireMT* With the up coming quest engine, any chance that players will [have some of its features available to them that can be used] to make their own quests?
SunSword	That would be great wouldn't it? There are a lot of issues with a system like this (player's creating cool stuff for their own benefit, and not for the benefit of other players) but we've been considering ways to do this.
SunSword	Certiainly we're working on many ways for volunteers to do this for the public at large...
Fripp	*Cuchulainn* How will Arm/ Disarm be attached to an object? Will it be possible to set a arm macro to a non-weapon/sheild (right hand to arm a potion, IE drink it)
Runesabre	For now, arm will simply arm/disarm whatever is in your left/right hand respectively. Later on we would like to add an interface to be able to specify multi objects you can macro to arm/disarm.
Fripp	*Darketower* Could an explanation be given concerning the mini status bars? Will they appear when the mouse hovers over a target? Will they be toggleable like an ALLNAMES feature? Would a toggle be filterable (monsters, players/npc's, animals)?
Runesabre	The mini status bar will appear directly below the mobile you currently have targeted.
Runesabre	For now it won't have a toggle for the feature.
Fripp	*mrick* some news about necro magic ?
tOAD	Necromancy is something that is currently being worked on, revised, and pretty much bashed about.
tOAD	We want it to be really really *REALLY* Good
SunSword	really good? as opposed to kinda okay?
tOAD	So, it is still being worked on, and will be coming soon. And SunSword isn't allowed to look at it.
SunSword	...
Fripp	*ghyde* is this "newbie protection" only for new accounts, or for new characters created after the patch is put in?
SunSword	New accounts only. (defined by amount of play-time yet to be determined)
Fripp	*lordotl* Have you considered putting in a reagent counter or messages that inform you of skill raises? These are also very useful features of UOA
Runesabre	We do want to add reagent counters as well as other more generic, player configurable counters. ( Like being able to count how many runes you have on you if you desire or how many valorite ingots )
Runesabre	And we have already implemented skill change notifications.
Fripp	*Grempel* Will the option of toggling houses as guard zones be in the next patch?
SunSword	No.
Fripp	*Ebola-Chesepeake* any plans to make GM carpentered items like staffs, GM made with name and associated stats
SunSword	Yes.
tOAD	Yes.
SunSword	Seriously
SunSword	It's in the works, but not for this update
SunSword	We'd like to see this added to all crafting skills.
Fripp	*Vermillion* this newbie questing is fine and all, but like many others, I've been in since public release, I want a quest! When can i expect something?
SunSword	I will spend time in the next update working with Toad to flesh out the quest system for advanced players. IT'S IMPORTANT. We know :).
SunSword	Meaning "after this update".
Fripp	*Generic_Player* With the new things being introduced to help newbies, is there any hope for *some* form of skill management for those of us that are capped?
Runesabre	We realize skills management is a high priority for players and have been discussing various options we can implement. Don't expect anything in the next couple patches concerning skills management but in the future we will address that problem.
SunSword	I'm hoping to have skill management in sooner than that, but we can't promise it.
Fripp	It looks like the OSI bunch has to run for dinner, so thats it for this weeks UOHoC, I would like to invite you all to #ultima-online for some post conference discussions
Fripp	Thanks again for coming everyone, the log of this chat will be posted at uohoc.stratics.com in a little bit
Fripp	and thanks to Runesabre, ToAD, Faceless, and Sunsword for coming as well
XenaDragon	G'night all
	* tOAD wishes Twiggy-2 a happy Birthday :)
	* XenaDragon wishes Twiggy-2 a happy birthday ;)
SunSword	Happy b-day Twiggy.
	* Runesabre wishes Twiggy-2 a happy birthday
	* Joshua_Rowan also wishes Twiggy-2 a Happy Birthday :)