House of Commons from 1999-07-29

House of Commons from 1999-07-29

Glamdring	Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Open House.
Glamdring	Tonight's chat is considered General Discussion and the FYI section of www.owo.com and as such we will accept questions of any topic relating to UO.
Glamdring	I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Jerrith, Kieron, Narcissus.
Glamdring	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, or myself--these questions will be ignored.
Glamdring	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.
Glamdring	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.
Glamdring	For discussion purposes during the chat and anytime really, #ultima-online is always open :)
Glamdring	Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions.
Glamdring	*Casey* Any word on fixing fishing skill gain on atlantic? I've been fishing for over 50 hours the last few days with NO skill gain(currently at 96.1). And LOTS of others on atlantic are having the same problem.
SunSword	I'll check on it right after this. Make sure you've had a support person check out it out for you as well.
Glamdring	*Cynic-* To Anybody on the Dev Team -> What is the status of Necromancy, Alchemy revisions, Good/Evil system, Quest Engine (newbie & veteran), Last Target being added to client, fixing the client memory leak, etc? (Basically everything that is not Seige related that was promised months ago).
toad	Last Target has been added to the client and will be in the accessibility update
SunSword	the client is continually being worked on and some of the will show up in the accessibility update
SunSword	Alchemy is in full development
toad	The first revision of the quest engine will be seen as Newbie quests in the accessibility update
SunSword	Necromancy, while fully "cool" is still design phase for balancing reasons.
SunSword	Good/Evil is basically in a live test on SP
toad	And we're working like crazy
toad	:)
SunSword	that too
Glamdring	*Adimar* Is Archery being considered for placement in the Rate-over-time skill class on Siege Perilous? Any others?
SunSword	The only thing that's seriously put archery in question on SP is the effect of poisoning in the Evil vs Paladin system
SunSword	otherwise, it is not currently being considered for rate over time
SunSword	This is because it consumes arrows and feathers, both of which will be in short order if everyone wants to be an archer
toad	Also bows which wear down
Glamdring	*Senith* My question: What is the status of the Test Center Beta program?
SunSword	We're currently in "crunch" getting the accessibilty update ready for testing. We're shooting for the beginning of next week.
SunSword	As a matter of fact, that's why runesabre isn't here.
Glamdring	*Odysius* Will there be any further changes to Tinkering and Carpentry as too add more Unique items
toad	We are definately planning on adding new items for all crafting skills whenever we do updates
toad	So, the answer would be, Yes.
Glamdring	*EdithBunker* What is exactly is the UO development team doing to shore up the downtime and timewarp issues with the shards. Why has there been so much downtime and timewarping lately?
SunSword	The recent downtimes have been due to some hardware issues
SunSword	you can get the specifics on that on owo.com
SunSword	As for backup time and timewarps in general, we will be committing some programming resources DIRECTLY on the backup system and server performance for the next several months
SunSword	Cal has that URL for the recent down times
SunSword	http://support.uo.com/s_issue.html
SunSword	we have identified some very promising ways of dealing with backup times.
Glamdring	*SRC_Arioch* question: is there an eta for the long-promised changes to parrying to make it more viable against misslle spells, ie, ebolt?
SunSword	Well
SunSword	to be honest, it's not part of our immediate plans
SunSword	currently, the melee skills are quite powerful, and we're not convinced that that change needs to take place.
Glamdring	*Suriyel_Fedakyn* Will the durability if axes be modified from what it is now on SP (axes breaking in 5-10 successful lumberjacking checks)?
toad	I'm planning on looking over the current status of all the items that have durabilities and making sure that they are all balanced (not just on Siege but on the other shards as well) but this will be part of that process.
Glamdring	*Cyber* how will Siege work with normal updates? Given that it has a different code base will all upcoming changes to standard shards arrive on it as well? same time or delayed?
SunSword	Right now, we plan on updating SP at the same time. It might turn out that there will be a staggered update for testing purposes, but the changes made in the code are very flexible.
Glamdring	SSP* Will OSI soon make use of UO's unused paperdoll graphics? Employing existing animations, could the developers easily add those 'fancy tunics' and 'checkered surcoats' to the game -- or even produce new paperdoll graphics? Those unused sword images look great, as well...
toad	We have looked at using some of the unused art in unusual places (like events and such) and surcoats were added to the tailoring craftables, so yes, it's possible that at some point we might use some of these things.
Glamdring	*Alan-TP* Why has the PvP community been punished with the deletion of Abyss and the addition of the SP roleplaying shard?
SunSword	There are two things to note about this question
SunSword	First, the community on Abyss was not large enough to justify dedicating and entire shard.
SunSword	Second, I don't believe we are punishing them. SP has a great deal of PvP opportunity, and I believe overall, it will be far more interesting than Abyss.
SunSword	The lack of recall brings true strategy and real sacrfice to the adventure
SunSword	The removal of statloss allows for players to be "murders" and still have a good time on the shard
SunSword	This is why so many people are so excited about playing there.
SunSword	I realize that there are a small number of people who are upset, and very vocal about this, but I believe that this isreally going to benenfit the greater good.
SunSword	I certainly plan to play on SP.
Glamdring	*DF14* Has the The Joshua Rowan Title Idea ever been discussed by the Dev team? If not has any other new title idea ever come up?
toad	We've discussed this as well as other nobility titles and we may consider implementing one at some point, but currently it's not on our immediate list of plans.
Glamdring	*Shadewyn* can we put an end to the needless spam of text from some skills (alchemy) and just let them be with sound effects ?
SunSword	as part of our bugfix/frequent updates over the winter and spring, we've been trying to remove sources of spam, that trend will continue when we resume those updates in the near future.
Glamdring	*Tyria* Will there be any other towns on SP that will not be guarded in the future?
SunSword	I think that's a great idea
SunSword	We're discussing right now as a matter of fact
Glamdring	*BuCKsWrld* I have two questions. First, when is the new menu system going in for all skills? 2nd, will we ever be able to melt down weaps/armor for ingots?
SunSword	1) Skill management is a #1 priority for us right now, as soon as the accessibility update goes in, we'll begin work on implementing it
SunSword	2) Our newest designer "Sage" actually coded resmelting, and recycling clothes this week
SunSword	hopefully it will be in one of the next updates
SunSword	He's done quite a good job.
Glamdring	*Sie_Ming* Will the formulas for the new potions be the same for all alchemists? If so, are there measures in place to make research needed even after the formulas are posted on the web?
SunSword	They will probably be the same for all alchemists. One of the things we have to recognize is that any information that can be discovered in the game will soon be posted and available to everyone
SunSword	We are considering certain measures to keep it interesting, one of which is the sheer number of potions that can be created
SunSword	We'll be looking for feedback when it gets on TC so make sure to test it out
Glamdring	*Greye_Wyndmere* Who are the designers in UO Live now and who's working on what?
SunSword	toad - and I are the leads. We're working on Newbie Quests, Alchemy, Necromancy, Skill Management, etc
SunSword	Sage and Rob Irving are the other two designers, Sage is getting up to speed, and has done as I mentioned before resmelting and cloth reuse, and Rob Irving has been EXTREMELY dedicated to the design of Alchemy
SunSword	And of course, every programmer is a bit of a designer as well.
Glamdring	*Pirate-Guy* Have you ever considered letting mages recharge magic items? Like items or fireball or reflect, to make things more interesting concerming spell charged items in combat?
toad	We've discussed implementing a system for enchantment (SunSword - specifically has some wonderful ideas on this front) and this would certainly fall under the realm of enchanting, so It may be something we'll consider in the future.
Glamdring	*Src_Wynter* Dev Team Question: Just a thought if this is possiblity : (for Mining skill) let them mine for Sands/Silica and Add Glassblowing to Tinkering Skill as a required combo to make Empty Bottles *grin* Possible to add? Or you already have similar plans in work? Thanks in advance!!
SunSword	cool idea, I'll toy with it.
SunSword	May not get in there, but it's neat.
SunSword	So, many of you have questions about DD and the other team members who are moving on...
SunSword	First, let me make a note about DD's recent house fire.
SunSword	He and his family are fine, and they have expressed their gratitude for the kind words and concern from the UO community
SunSword	To be honest, it was quite touching.
SunSword	As to their future, they have another project to begin
SunSword	They will take the lessons learned from UO and put together a new world for the future. I'm sure it will be quite interesting
SunSword	In the meantime, toad -, Runesabre, and myself are extremely excited about moving on with UO and continuing to develop and add new systems and new adventures to the game.
SunSword	We're still in contact with the "old guard" and will use them as resources when neccessary.
SunSword	And we wish them the best in their new endevour.
SunSword	Thanks for coming :)