House of Commons from 2001-08-02

House of Commons from 2001-08-02

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
Glamdring	*Wrath-GC* What's the status on all the changes that were on Test Center 6? What happened to TC6?
Evocare	TC6 is currently internal for QA testing, but it'll be external again soon. When it's external, you'll notice a few differences when compared to its previous state.
Evocare	The changes aren't tremendous though. =]
Glamdring	*Magellan_THB* Will map level identifying be in Patch 13, as Ignatz said? There is no sign of it on update.uo.com as of yet.
Evocare	That's one of the changes you'll find on TC6 when it goes external again. We currently expect it'll be part of the upcoming publish.
Glamdring	*g56* Are there any plans to have ishenar exclusive quests so that new monsters specific to the quest can be introduced? Personally having a super villain who is a different colour lich graphic just isnt the same.
Calandryll_OSI	Yes. We've made quite a few brand new monsters that are not just rehued creatures in UO Third Dawn...whether in Ilshenar or not. They'll be in the next scenario.
Glamdring	harro|i|r|korean* Do you guys plan on updating the world. Like making it larger with bigger mountains and stuff? With more stuff to explore? Or maybe more low level quests?
Calandryll_OSI	Sure. Part of the content team's job is to introduce new points of interest. Most would not be as big as a full landmass of course, but new dungeons and new areas are certainly planned.
Glamdring	*Nessie* Is there any plans to make Npc guilds more appealing to players and to have them work as they should, as it stands only the thieves guild offers its proper benefits
Evocare	No plans for that currently on the schedule. They could be a lot better though couldn't they... =]
Glamdring	*Nadia* On vet rewards. Say I've chosen all of my third years, what will happen with the 4th years become available to me? Will I be given one more choice? When do you plan to release more information about the 4th year rewards? Thanks! :)
Vex	When your account reaches 48 months in age, you will be able to choose a fifth Reward, even if this happens before we publish the new 48-month reward items.
Vex	If you want to hold off for the 48-month reward, you don't have to choose before then.
Glamdring	*Lyria* Are there any plans to give sea-bound adventuring a well-needed boost (such as more and better spawn and new content)?
Evocare	unfortunately, no. =[
Evocare	before we drastically improve the ocean-going adventuring experience, we'll probably need to make some significant technological improvements to the way we handle boats.
Glamdring	*Vic_Twenty* Vex, have any concrete decisions been made yet regarding the ship security changes or the ship decay rate changes discussed here last month? If so, please elaborate.
Vex	Since last HOC we haven't done a single thing on the proposed boat changes. :) There have been bigger things to worry about. Currently, the changes are still planned for, but there is still no fixed date for them.
Glamdring	UO* I like to pvp but I also like to role play. Are you guys going to do more for in game marriages. Such as having children or perhaps a way to have a more romantic atmosphere?
Evocare	Although we dont have any plans for children, we do have something regarding marriages that should go in concept in the near future.
Glamdring	*Mocker* Shame and Deceit used to be great PvP hotspots because there were areas with light spawn which were ideal for fighting, now they're all but deserted on Felucca due to heavy spawn. Many aboveground areas are also growing crowded with heavy spawn in Felucca, making many PvP encounters more an exercise in spawn management than anything else..These problems are especially severe on SP. Is it possible for you to tweak some of the spawn
Evocare	I can't say we expect to change the spawn significantly in the immediate future, but overspawn is a concern in some areas.
Glamdring	*Paradox* Are there plans in the works for changing the outdated Playguide: Seige Perilous information on your site ? Their have been many changes to our shard that should be listed now, it might help draw new blood to our under-populated shard, thanks
Evocare	Yes, there are plans.
Glamdring	*Grushnak* I'm just wondering if in the future, on the tailoring menu would you consider a 'Make Last' button like the Smithing/Tinkering menus?
Vex	This is very possible. In fact, I'd like to see ALL crafting skills use a single standardized interface. Keep an eye out, and I'll be able to post more details pretty soon.
Glamdring	*Sammy* are you guys ever going to publish rewards or just gonna tease us?
Cynthe	This is a tough subject, because it's something we've been working on for a long time, and we know a lot of folks are really looking forward to it. Basically... due to vet rewards' long history, we're ultra-concerned with making sure that it launches well.
Cynthe	We expect the logins and response to be huge right when it first comes out, so we need to make sure that doesn't essentially overload the hardware - imagine how frustrating it would be to wait all this time and then have the shards crash or the rewards system falter due to a hardware problem!
Cynthe	So we have our operations folks looking into it, and once we're sure the systems and the hardware can withstand the deluge of players accessing it, then we'll start activating it.
Cynthe	And I promise you, that day will be SUCH a party here!!! :)
Cynthe	It's tough to deal with this right now, because we want to give dates...
Cynthe	but until we get the okay from the other groups, all we can say is the same thing. So we've taken to giving updates on this only when necessary, since the updates essentially say the same thing.
Glamdring	*Greyhame[DOM]* Are there any plans for a large gold sink to clear out the excess and perhaps bring prices down?
Vex	The only gold sink that could be guaranteed to "clear out the excess" and make a huge difference in the value of the UO gold coin would be a *mandatory* gold sink. There are no plans for anything like that.
Vex	As far as optional gold sinks go, there will always be people who pass up the option and continue hoarding gold.
Vex	There is no bandaid fix for UO's economy. But, its problems are on our minds, and we are continually evaluating possible solutions to the (real and perceived) problems.
Glamdring	*lythande-CV* why is that inscription is the only trade that must rely on npc vendors for their supplies
Evocare	Honestly? Because that happens to be the way it was when the game was released, and it hasn't been a high priority to change it. At some point, when inscription gets a nice systematic revamp, that can be addressed.
Glamdring	*Fade* I was wondering if the fel towns were ever going to be accessible again as far as buying supplies. To get a good price on anything we have to fight with the people in Trammel that are camped with packhorses
Evocare	I suppose you could have your local Faction crank the prices in the town? ;]
Evocare	Other then that, there aren't any plans to directly address that issue. Keep in mind though, that players spending lots of gold on npc items helps with the gold sink issue mentioned earlier, so it's not an altogether bad thing to have players buying lots of stuff. =]
Glamdring	*Patricia* Are you goint to do anything about resources spawning in huge amounts at extremly low prices on NPC vendors? There are already lots of complaints from many craftsman-guilds. :/
AdrickOSI	Indeed - bolts, arrows, hides, ingots and boards will be capped to a spawn of 10 per - which means when a vendor restocks he will only always have 10 to begin with of these mentioned resources
Glamdring	*ZA-Rese* May I ask is there any eta on when vet rewards will be activated and when patch 13 will come in?
Evocare	Yes, the eta is "ASAP".
Glamdring	*Cecill* Whats your stance on PK'ing, and Stat loss? Will it ever be removed?
Evocare	Our stance on PK'ing is that it's legal in Felucca. Our stance on stat loss is that it's there, and not likely to go away. Unfortunately, removing stat loss would really lead to a lower usage of Felucca, something we don't want to see right now.
AdrickOSI	siege does not have stat loss :)
Evocare	Realistically, with the choice to play in Trammel or Felucca, "pk'ing" doesn't really have the same type of community meaning it used to.
Evocare	As Adrick mentioned, if you enjoy the pre-statloss era style of gameplay, we strongly reccomend Siege Perilous.
Glamdring	*BSC-Mowbray* Are there plans to give players a bit more control in the world - the 'hair stylist' seemed like a perfect opportunity to add playability to say, oh a tailor (barber, their tool is scissors already)?
Evocare	We're always looking for ways to constructively give players more control in the world. =] You'll see many of these methods unfold in scenarios, and in various publishes alike.
Glamdring	*ZA-Rese* And also how much more content is going to be ported from UOII to UO and will the game engien be porsted over in the long run as that would be exelent?
Prophet	We won't be using the UO2 game engine. It was designed for an entirely different game.
Calandryll_OSI	We'll be using content from UO2 (mostly art, such as monsters) in UO with the scenarios. In fact, the next two scenarios have art originally made for UO2...as well as new original made specifically for UO.
Glamdring	Matrix - Are you planning to rework Factions so they will be a bit more interesting when defending towns 24 hours and are you going to make Mages more equally to Fighters, maybe by reducing the power of the Lumberjacking Bonus ?
Evocare	We expect several small-scale improvements to factions in a publish coming relatively soon. As far as combat balance goes, there are a number of combat changes on Test Center 6 you might want to check out once it's external again (very soon).
Glamdring	*Caliban* For shards like Oceania where Reagents are highly sought after, would you consider upping the minimum npc spawn to atleast 20 or 30?
Vex	The way NPC restocking is designed, those commodities that are bought often and in quantity will quickly appear in abundance. Adjusting the minimum up from 10 won't make much a difference.
Vex	Those who want to buy in bulk will typically hold off until hundreds of a reagent are available. But, due to the recent changes to merchant restocking, all reagents are much more accessible than they used to be.
Vex	Reagent restocking will not be affected by the change Adrick spoke of earlier. Reagents will continue to restock in abundance, but player-gathered resources like ingots and boards won't.
Glamdring	*Thorwan[G^L]* There had been many ideas of the players regarding the eighth magery circle on the Boards, is anything planned of redesigning it, and if, what changes are planned?
Evocare	There aren't any plans for significant changes to the 8th circle of spells right now, but that's not to say that it doesn't really need it. =[
Glamdring	*Barrackas* My question: What exactly is this "UO2.0" which has been hinted at for the last few months?
Cynthe	We are always looking ahead at new ways to improve UO, so there's certainly changes being discussed. But as for another new product in the works, no - there's no definite plans, or name at this time. UO 2.0 is more just a concept of UO's future growth and direction... it's not a sooper-seekrit closed door project. :)
Glamdring	*WULFGAR* Any chance that us all caps challenged named people can get our names corrected to say 'Wulfgar' in the future?
Evocare	NOPE =[
Glamdring	*SDrax* Any word on if there will be a better random number generator for smithing and other skills to reduce streaks of failures, IE with plate chests?
Evocare	Although we don't have any plans to change the difficulty value for plate chests (or other smithing items), we may have something in the works to help aleviate the symptoms.
Glamdring	*Valencia* How would you feel about implementing more use for the begging skill, for instance, being able to beg for your life. Sort of like the peacemaking skill. Perhaps, making you unattackable for a period of time dependant upon skill(maybe karma?) I understand that it might be exploitable, what about limiting it to those w/out a criminal/agressor flag?
Evocare	Interesting suggestion, not one I've heard before. That being said, we dont have any plans right now to meddle with the begging skill, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be something most players really want to get better use of.
Glamdring	*Kuju* Are there any plans for a Faire this year? and when will it be and announced??? Some of us have to get leave!
Evocare	Yes, there are. However, I don't have the information necessary as to when any announcements may come.
Glamdring	<BSC-Mowbray> Will that messaging task ever be fixed for ingame messaging (the mailbag)?
Prophet	We are always looking at ways to improve in game interfaces. The messaging system is one we would like to change but haven't had the time yet.
Evocare	Depends on what you call "fixed". =]
Glamdring	*Brador* what are the chances of getting a guild alliance system someday?
Evocare	It's not something we have planned right now due to the number of player interaction changes it would imply with regards to things like guild wars.
Evocare	It's likely that if the guild system gets revisited as a whole, that would be a feature we'd strongly consider.
Glamdring	*Jhesi[DW]-* -- Is Hanse cute?
Prophet	He thinks he is
FierYiCe	In game or out of game? :P
Vex	In a mongbat sort of way. :)
Glamdring	I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight and a special thanks to the UO staff for taking time out of their day to sit and chat with us a while. Please join us for continued, unmoderated chat in #ultima-online
Glamdring	See you all at the next chat
Glamdring	The logs of this chat will be posted soon on the Stratics website