House of Commons from 1998-06-04

House of Commons from 1998-06-04

DenDragon	Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Open House.
DenDragon	The topic tonight is "The Reputation System, Guild Warfare, and the upcoming Weapons Re-scaling", so try and phrase your questions accordingly.
DenDragon	In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Hades, Fot, Rainman, Aphrodite, Glamdring, Spook_2, Rainman or Blastaar.
DenDragon	Please /msg different ops at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up.
DenDragon	A quick notice from the Dev Team: Please hold back on questions about UO Gold; most everything that is known about this has already been public.
DenDragon	I know a lot of you planned to ask those type of questions, but you probably won;t get an answer.
DenDragon	Alright, we'll begin accepting questions now. Thanks again for attending. ;)
Gasper	<AmonSky> With regard to guild wars - can Order guilds attack other Order guilds without consent? I thought it was Order vs Chaos without consent, but I've heard any virtue guild can attack each other without conscent.
DesignerD	Order guilds can indeed attack other order guilds without consent.
Gasper	<spammy> What is the deterrint to keep people with a large bounty on there head from getting friends to kill them and splitting the loot ?
DesignerD	Stat loss. :)
Gasper	Gil-Glorion> Are there any plans to look at parry and shields when weapons are looked at? Currently parry does not effect arrows, and in general is not useful enough.
BugKiller	The biggest deterrant for having a bounty claimed, is that you will have to die...as a murderer that will mean stat loss.
DesignerD	Not in the first pass. The first pass just alters weapons statistics itself, not underlying mechanics. We do still have a desire to address other mechanics, but not at this time.
Gasper	Cliar_MacPherson> Can we expect fencing weapons to be more than curiosities and wall hangers after the weapons tweak and is the tweak integral to the noto patch?
DesignerD	Yes, in fact fencing weapons will be quite competitive. The different types of weapons will have differing advantages against differently armored opponents.
DesignerD	The tweak is however NOT connected to the reputation system at all. In fact, it is more than a tweak. :) It is an update of its own.
Gasper	<Zinkala> What are the planned changes to archery
DesignerD	Actually, the weapons rescaling changes archery very little. Mostly it adjusts melee weapons to be competitive with magic and archery.
Gasper	<AmonSky> What if ANY changes or rescaling to magery can we see with the weapons rescaling? It seems like your beefing melee to match archery, but with all the restrictions put on mages since beta, can you at least give a few defensive spells some increase?
DesignerD	At this time we see magery and archery being used just about equally, so we see it as fairly competitive. There are of course lots of suggestions for ways to furter enchance magery iin many different ways, and we had a great talk with representatives from the Mage Tower at the player lunch about them. But there are no firm plans at the moment. You won't see any magery changes in the weapons rescaling.
Gasper	Ibn_Shaun> Can safeguards be included to prevent someone committing suicide (casting on self, opening trapped boxes, running in the way of drakes, etc.) in order to report someone without risk of item loss? Why not make it so that the person/item that kills you must also be reportable in order to be able to report any murders?
Gasper	Ibn_Shaun> A better for instance: Bob the Valliant casts blade spirits to kill a blood elemental. Jim the devious-system-buster walks into the blade spirits, recalls to his house, and commits suicide. He collects his items, and laughs heartily.
BugKiller	The problem is that Bob the Valliant could also have been a devious-system-buster of his own. There is no way to perfectly gauge intent. So I error on the side of the guy who get's killed.
Gasper	*Dok_Nuhiur* DD, when an argessive creature is successfully been made at peace by a bard who is it's controller, it will attack another innocent before the bard can use another skill, and make the peace again, indefinately resetting cont. status. Could you make the peacemaking skill last longer on affected creatures, so that the controller info will actually have a chance of going away, and the bard not have to lose lots of Karma
BugKiller	There's not a good solution that will make bards happy that will be completely unabusable. What's in there now is a reasonable compromise. Peacemaking was broken at one point in order to fix creature behaviors. Eventually it will be fixed.
Gasper	<Gannon> I know alot of people want to know about the innocent highlighting. WIll there be a way to tell, from highlighting, if they have negative or positive Karma?
BugKiller	Karma is intended to aid role-playing only. It has no strict bearing on your character. As such, we feel that something like highliting will be more intrusive into the whole role-playing system than it would help. Also, who want's to deal with two queries?
Gasper	<Ithaqua> I have 2 questions: How will "pre-patch" weapons be affected during weapons re-scaling, and will archery become interruptable if the archer is hit during his attack animation?
DesignerD	The plan is to adjust pre-patch weapons across the board to match the new weapons stats. The weapons changes will not include adding interruption for archery.
Gasper	<CrimsnFox> Now that we have a more "citizen-police" type system, is there any plan to make the town guards a bit less instantaneous, e.g. running to the scene, actually fighting/chasing criminals?
DesignerD	Not at this time, though we understand the desire to do it. We want to be very careful about changes which make towns less safe for newbies.
Gasper	<Corax> Swords against magic is balanced, same with magic against archers, but Swords or maces against human archers is impossible to win as the archer can always run. Will this be rebalanced in any way?
DesignerD	Actually, we don't feel swords against magic is quite balanced either. :) A major goal of the weapons rescaling (in fact, THE goal) is to make melee weapons competitive with ranged attacks such as magic and archery, but retain differing strategic values for the differing styles of fighting.
Gasper	<Falcolm> Is it possible to make it so npcs will repeat their destination if you say something to them like "destination"? also can you limit the ammount of npcs being escorted... it kind of bugs me when i see someone with like 12 npcs while i have only 1 and they arent spawning
DesignerD	The destination thing in fact came up at the player lunch held here in Austin this past weekend, and we have added it to our list of things to do. :) As far as the limiting, that's a little trickier, but I'll investigate what it would take.
Gasper	*Lettow* Are there any plans to implement a duel system (noone getting flagged criminal to fight), a friend system (aggressor/thief to one is aggressor/thief to other) and a system to mug someone other than take the loot from the cooling corpse?
DesignerD	No, no, and no. :) Sorry! * DesignerD chuckles.
Gasper	<Falkayn> Are there any plans to adjust the loot you find on monsters? Pretty slim lately
DesignerD	We do tweaks here and there as we go, but we haven't changed it substantially since the big reduction in magic items. And we think a lot of people feel it is scarce in reaction to that. But I still regualrly see people saying they can make 3000 gold in an hour, so we aren't convinced that it needs major adjustments at the moment. That may change of course--we keep an eye out on the boards for topics like this to do ongoing adjustment.
DesignerD	We did add backpacks back in for thievery against NPCs and monsters. It's on GL and will be on the other servers when reputation is published to them.
Gasper	S_Cepheus> Yes, this is off topic, but when is the house ownership patch going in? Is that before or after the weapons re-balancing?
DesignerD	After. The weapons rebalancing is actually done, but on hold until after reputation. House ownership is still in progress.
Gasper	<CrimsnFox> Being a developer and statistician myself, I am confused as to why some fairly simple things haven't been implemented. Are there any plans for incorporating terrain into hiding, more dex adjustments based on various armor types, etc. (I already have formulas done if you want!)
DesignerD	Actually, hiding DOES take terrain into account, but its overall success rate is so high that it's not much of a factor. A great candidate for tweaking, but then of course everyone would say that hiding was made way too hard. ;) As far as dex adjustments for various armor types--the new weapons scales in fact have more and more substantial dex penalties in them
Gasper	<Trevor> While hiding your timers can reset making looting and the criminal flag less than usefull. Also you can easly hide while being attacked. Will this be fixed soon?
DesignerD	The hiding while attacked thing is, I believe, listed as a fixed issue on the Coming Soon page.
DesignerD	That's not on the public servers yet, of course.
Gasper	DarkW0lf1> will warriors be able to run and hit rather then stand and wait to swing? this seems like it could solve the problem with archers running away.
DesignerD	We don't have any plans for it with the weapons rescaling, which I must emphasize ONLY changes weapon stats.
Gasper	*Altair* when are we going to get changable locks for houses?
DesignerD	As part of the house ownership changes. Those are still in progress, though, so you should expect a bit of a wait before we put in that update.
Gasper	As a Smith, we cannot compete with the NPC shopkeepers with the sale of weapons. With the rescaling, will the weapons also be made so us smiths can adequately compete with the NPCs?
DesignerD	The weapons rescaling in itself doesn't do what you are asking for, but we do have some enhancements coming to the blacksmithing skill. Various crafting skills will be gaining more things they can make, several of which are not sold in NPC shops. And there may be more in those changes that will make PC smiths more competitive.
Gasper	S_Nikademus> With the new weapons patch, will "pre-patch" weapons still exist, or will ALL weapons be modified?
DesignerD	As we said before, pre-patch weapons will be updated to match the new statistics.
Gasper	<GrayMouser> Any plans to integrate the features provided by UOAssist into the client? How about an official OSI stance on the legality of the program?
DesignerD	We don't have any plans at the moment to integrate the features in UOAssist, but we DO work with the author of UOAssist from time to time, if features in the program become a concern in terms of preserving UO balance. We feel the fan developer community making ancillary software alongside UO is a very cool thing, and while some programs may be more dubious than others, when people work with us in good faith, we're quite glad to see it.
Gasper	Lord_Kender> What skill and material requirements will there be for the addable building items like forges and training dummies?
BugKiller	For most house customization the carpentry skill will the the one checked. We're considering renaming this to "construction". As far as materials, for a training dummy it would be cloth. For an anvil it would be metal.
Gasper	<Arthmadix> When will "the list" either be made public or decided to be kept a secrect?
DesignerD	We don't know yet. :) For those who don't know, "the list" is just a list of features, additions, and changes that we have tossed around or have been suggested by players. We are considering posting it for discussion, but nothing has been settled yet--we don't want it to appear like a promise of features, since many of the features are very muchup for debate.
Gasper	*Dar* What was the reason behind 10% fame loss on death, is there any plans to reduce it to make it easier for people to engage in Order/Chaos combat without fear of being kicked out of the guild for one or two deaths?
BugKiller	We want the players engaged in order/chaos guild warfar to have some penalties. A 10% loss makes a lot of sense because it has the potential to take you out of the war for a while. You should have the feeling that you could WIN the war.
Gasper	<Kazola> It seems casting beneficial spells on those with lower karma (even if they are blue to me) causes me to lose a lot of karma, even if their karma is considered positive. Should it not only be lowered if their karma is negative?
DesignerD	We will check on that--you should only have a karma loss if the target is of negative karma. If they are of positive karma, you should GAIN karma for it.
DesignerD	Note that blue highlighting does NOT mean positive karma. It only means Innocent. You can have negative karma and highlight blue.
Gasper	<Dominio> Why can't players cast spells with staves equipped? It shouldn't be hard to add this feature, considering Virtue shields work that way, and it would allow mages to -look- like mages.
DesignerD	Well, first off, virtue shields DON'T work that way under the rep system. That aside, though--we didn't do it because the staves are mostly used as bashing weapons, not as the traditional mage staff that servers as a concentration aid or the like. Yes, it would look better... and then mages would all get mace fighting instead of werstling... ;)
Gasper	Sir_UI> Question: How long until users will be able to build there own houses and castles without buying deeds (also included here would be ships, and factories such as mining factories)?
DesignerD	We have no idea, if ever. It's a laudable goal, but it's just one of many such cool things jostling for space on "the list."
Gasper	<BobaFett> as far as weapons rescaling, are they going to bring in more varied and interesting magic weapons?
DesignerD	I believe the weapons rescaling adds a few new weapon types (some new sword variants, I think). But it doesn't change the range of magic weapons really.
Gasper	<KathrineDrgn> As a consequence of the reputaion patch finaly being published, the dev team will be focusing on the house ownership package. In the upcoming package, have the developers considered being able to sell old houses to the market? (Hence, they just disapear, and you get 50% or so money back..)
DesignerD	The exact method by which we will transition over to house ownership hasn't been settled yet. Being able to sell off old houses is one of the many suggestions we have gotten from players on how to handle it. But no decision has yet been made about how we will handle the transition.
Gasper	*Sir_Bonerot* Question: Will Origin DEEPLY considering adding a user togglable option for PKing? Ie. If a user has it off, they cannnot be hurt by PC's nor can they hurt other PC's. Thus, they can go about the world without worrying about the PK threat. But if it is on, they can be PK and PK themselves. Adding a 10 minute timer to this option would prevent abuses. Possible?
DesignerD	We have deeply considered it, and we have concluded that PK swithes are extremely abusable, discourage the development of player policing systems, increase admin load, and don't actually accomplish what players would want of them. While we understand the desire, our approach is the reputation system. A PK switch is not going to appear in UO.
Gasper	With the new craftable items, will new things be able to be made from furs, i.e. Rugs, Fur coats, etc....??
DesignerD	Not as part of those changes, no.
Gasper	<ShermheaD> What of your say in order guild and get killed, you run the the healers and a few chaos people are there camping and kill you everytime you res. Will you lose fame everytime you get killed?
DesignerD	If you join an order or chaos guild, you are voluntarily entering into total warfare where you can be attacked at any time. It is NOT for everyone. And those who do join u pwill have to get used to checking the area, having "trusted" healers or friends who can res them, and the like. In other words--join an order or chaos guild if you want to play in a state of paranoia. Because you WILL be getting the fame loss often. That's part of the point--it's full bore PvP.
Gasper	Felix_The_Rat> Any plans to do something about everyone trapping monsters in houses, thereby reducing spawn?
DesignerD	From the side of the code, we don't have specific plans we're ready to talk about, but we ARE aware of the problem.
GM_Wile_E	We are concerned about this mainly because it distorts the overall monster population in the world. if there are 100 Elementals in houses, that means 100 less in dungeons where they belong. We try to stress what this does to the global NPC count ot players os that they don't do it. The GMs will often go and release or delete creatures that are trapped, but we don't like ot be mean about it. A good word of warning, just don't do it... for the entire world.
Gasper	<Andro> Speaking of UO Assist, anyway to get RID of the last target feature? That all but ruins PvP. Though there should be a spot on the paperdoll to put weapons when not in hands... any plans on that, by chance?
DesignerD	Andro, you'd really need to ask the author of UO Assist if he has plans for the last target feature--it's not our software. :) On the other part, we probably will not add a new slot on the paperdoll for that purpose.
Gasper	Honest_Dragon> What if the person you cast the spell on is in your guild? Will you lose Karma even if he is at negative Karma? That somehow beats the point of guilds ...
DesignerD	If you have a gang of people who earn lousy reputations, and you hang out with them, join a guild of them, and heal them, you will acquire a bad rputation too. That just makes sense. I don't see that this defeats the purpose of guilds in any way--it rather enhances them, IMHO, in that it shows a more accurate representation of what you tend to do with your skills. :)
Gasper	Dok_Nuhiur> how's about adding a Allied button as a companion to the guild Warfare button, to allow smaller guilds to unite against a greater threat, while still keeping their anonimity?
DesignerD	it's been discussed but there's no plans for it just yet
Gasper	*Darius* An idea related to the new reputation system. How about a character being able to subtract a number of karma points (neg or pos) and "give" them to a weapon/armor/other item? This could enhance role-playing, allowing characters to create unique, personalized items...this wouldn't make the weapons better, of course, just a bit more impressive, perhaps.
DesignerD	Well, as you describe it, it would seem to lead to "outcast loaf of bread" and "famed longsword." :) But I assume what you really mean is a way for players to customize items more by granting names, adding engravings, and so on. We have had this on the list for a long time, but again, lots of things are on the list. :)
Gasper	<CrimsnFox> Speaking of things in your hands, why is it possible to pick locks, skin hides, tailor, blacksmith, perform carpentry, etc, with things in your hands?
DesignerD	It might get tedious to have to constantly drag items in and out of your hands. I'd be curious to see how many players would want that feature.
Gasper	Can the developers position on chest trapping be stated here? In the past it was "don't open chests that don't belong to you" but now, at the last minute, things have changed drastically in the reputation patch.
BugKiller	Basically, the first attempt was in reaction to users killed by trapped chests, and that's what's still up on GL. However, after recent conversations we may be able to require all trapped chests to be locked. Pick a locked chest, it may blow up. Use a key it won't. That should help tinkers as well as legit owners.
Gasper	Keuldan_Vraal> this may be off subject but can someone explain the reasoning behind taking players hard earned colored items away? Why is it that only seers get to play the flashy hero?
tOAD	The weapon in question here was taken away, rehued back to its normal color, and then given back.
tOAD	The hued weapons are a way for newbies and other players to distinguish between Seer characters and PK's who, if they had hued weapons, would be claiming to be seers and leading newbies to their deaths at the first oppurtunity
tOAD	SO what we do is let the seers carry colored items to distinguish them from normal players, and we do give named magic weapons away as prizes for events.
Gasper	<Arcturus> Why do horses tire so easily? It seems strange that I can run longer than my horse.
DesignerD	Good question. I'll check, but at a guess I'd say it's because they have less stamina than you do. :)
Gasper	*APheX* How about reducing the population of rats, giant rats, slimes and other useless things to kill in the dungeon that take away resource points from the real monsters worth fighting. If not reducing population how about making them carry something of value to make them worth killing a swarm.
DesignerD	Well, "worth fighting" is clearly being defined here as "gives loot" and not as "is vile scummy manifestation of evil in the world which must be cleansed because we are heroes!" :) Rather mercenary... in any case, we can look at the distribution of the monsters.
Gasper	<Shadowjac> Is there any intent towards adding the ability to "re-charge" charged items?
DesignerD	Not at this time. That doesn't rule it out, but it's not something we're actively considering.
Gasper	Cliar_MacPherson> This is Cliar's wife. I have a GM smith and was windering if there would be a change to allow for the production of above average plate bodies. Also, will there ever be magical female plate for my female GM warrior? Off subject I know
BugKiller	We're seriously considering giving GM's a perceived bonus to their skill, such that they can superior items much easier than someone with say 99% in the skill can. This will also give us the capability to add GM specific items or requirements easier to other skills.
BugKiller	Can't give you a date on that tho.
DesignerD	And we'll check on the magical female armor
Glamdring	The chat will be ending in 15 minutes...Sorry if we have not gotten to your question
Gasper	<CrimsnFox> What happened to the wonderful spawns we used to see in the dungeons? Also, how about creating more "strongholds" like the Orc Fort... not necessarily graphic, just by location where you would be lucky to make it to the "epicenter"
DesignerD	Nothing has actually changed in terms of spawns in the dungeons except players. They are probably getting overhunted. As far as strongholds like that, wait till you see UO Gold. :)
Gasper
RedKnight	Guild Warfare: Any chance of seeing a "killboard" during a Guild War?
DesignerD	No plans for a kill board right now, but it'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Gasper	Nekrasov> Dunno if this has been asked yet...Any plans to make NPC smiths sell only regular plate items and PC smiths able to make colored plate? Also, are NPC smiths ever going to have a smaller amount of items to sell rather than the warehouse selection that they currently have?
DesignerD	We do indeed have a plan for a way to allow very good smiths to make colored plate, perhaps only in cunjunction with exptertise in mining to smelt the new sorts of metal. But there's no ETA on when that would go in, as it's not actively being worked on. As far as the inventories of shops--shops expand inventory basedon demand. if you mean the wide selection of stuff that they sell as opposed to the smaller range of thing players can make, we'd like to keep tilting
Gasper	*Elros* Will whips ever be reintroduced as usable weapons in the game?
DesignerD	No, the animations for them do not work acceptably (so I am told by the artists).
Gasper	S_Longshot> Will the Create Food spell ever allow some choices. For example, creating food for your pets will be an option while adventuring..
DesignerD	Nice idea, we hadn't had any plans for it, but it's a nice idea. We'll add it to the list. :)
Gasper	<NoVaH> Houses are becoming a major problem as real estate becomes scarce. Besides charging rent based on the type of structure, how about allowing certain creatures such as orcs, trolls, and ettins to burn down these buildings when left unchecked for a period of time in a certain area? This would be done by giving each home a structural integrity rating which would be the building's "health". After being hammered repeatedly by villainous creatu
Gasper	Structures can be repaired with the carpentry skill and would require a substantial amount of wood.
DesignerD	We have indeed been seriously considering something very much like this as part of the addition of home ownership and home defense. We think it would be a cool mechanic to have mosters raid player towns andburn buildings, and so on. But at the same time, we are concerned about unattended buildings getting destroyed too easily. So it's still on the drawing board, but very much an idea under active consideration.
Gasper	<Speed> in the rep system, why is a thief flagged criminal to the victim EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT NOTICED? This means the victim effectively sees him no matter what. Why is it this way?
BugKiller	Because he really WAS noticed. As a player, I just watched my favorite sword disappear out of my pack... and there is only one person standing there. I need to have some retribution against him. Flagging the criminal permanently to the victim made sense. Criminals shouldn't just stand in one location and steal from the same people over and over. We want them to be more transient.
DesignerD	Well, we have to wrap up the chat now... but thanks to all of you for coming! We realize many of you ar full of questions about UO Gold, and we're sorry we can't reveal more info just yet. But you should start seeing more stuff regarding Gold in the future, including early screenshots. Just give us some time. :) In the meantime, thanks for helping make UO such a game, everyone!
Gasper	I think that's it for now.
DenDragon	Thank you all for attending!
Gasper	I'd like to thank on behalf of the Vault Network and Stratics, DD, BK, and the GMs for attending tonight
Gasper	oh, and SQL as well :)