House of Commons from 2000-02-17

House of Commons from 2000-02-17

Jerrith	Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's UO HoC.
Jerrith	Tonight's chat topic is In Testing and In Development and as such we will accept questions related to this topic.
Jerrith	Jerrith will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions, please /msg or /query XenaDragon, Destiny, or Serephina. Follow up question will be handled by Niobe.
Jerrith	Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load, and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from Origin or myself--these questions will be ignored.
Jerrith	Remember they may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if they feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Jerrith	In addition, please do not submit any questions that have already been answered during past conferences.
Jerrith	We encourage you to read the logs of the previous UOHoCs, which are available at http://uohoc.stratics.com/
Jerrith	Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions.
Jerrith	*Magellan_THB* Will the changes to tinker traps take affect on treasure chests, dungeon chests, and the chests in NPC shops?
SunSword	The tinker trap changes will only affect tinker traps.
Jerrith	*Banstyle* Soon, it will be that you cannot heal until you cure yourself. Does heal mean heal by any means, or just one of the three: Drink Potion / Use Bandage / Magic Heal? Will there truly be no way to gain strength back while poisoned?
Sage	You will need to cure poison with AN NOX / Bandages or Cure potion before you will be able to gain HPs.
Sage	Remember though, this is an In Concept idea
Sage	and is not guaranteed to go in.
Jerrith	*Castoro-fan* In the new AI systems: will the caster monsters/NPCs also fizzle, be disturbed like us and have casting time?
Firedog	As of right now, that's still up in the air.
Firedog	Some creatures, however, are innately magical and will *not*
Firedog	suffer the limitations of human casters.
Firedog	(dragons, gazers, daemons, etc.)
Firedog	The remainder will, in time, hopefully begin to act more like humans do.
Jerrith	*Finagler* This question is regarding the "one house per account per shard" change. What impact will this change have on co-ownership of a house? For example: a player is a co-owner of a friend's house without a placed house of their own. The changes are published and they go to place a house. What happens (if anything) to their co-owner status of the friend's house or to the friend's house?
SunSword	A co-owner from a houseless account can place a house, but will lose their co-owner status.
SunSword	If another character on the same account places a house, the co-owner may remain a co-owner
Jerrith	*deVanillaIceIceBaby* if y'all rescale armor AR values, will that retroactively affect exist armor, including magic armor?
Runesabre	Any changes to armor ratings will be retroactive. There will not be any "prepatch" armor after the numbers change.
Jerrith	*Darketower* Under the new proposal, once a trap is disarmed, the lockpicking process may begin. However, In Dev states that "A failed lockpick attempt will result in setting off the trap". Does this mean that the trap will reset even after it has been successfully removed?
SunSword	No
SunSword	if you disable it, you can pick it without risk
SunSword	We'll clarify on the website for you.
Jerrith	*web question* Does the tinker trap changes mean Telekinesis can't be used to safely disarm traps any more, no matter what kind of trap it is (spawn camp / dungeon or player made)?
SunSword	It does become useless on tinker trapped chests. Not the others.
Jerrith	*Sie_Ming* Will the problem with lesser cure working on all levels of poison be addressed?
Firedog	YES!
Firedog	(hooray!)
Firedog	thanks to Toad for jumpin' in on that one
Jerrith	*Weazel* With the new changes to tailoring ( poison rags ) will there be more such as tailors being able to dye clothes a unique color i.e ice dye, black, ice white?
Sage	Right now the oil rags are the only planned tailoring changes.
Jerrith	*Willard* Has any ideas on the new houses in the New Lands been finalized and what do you currently think how they will look?
SunSword	There has been a flurry of activity on the subject, but we haven't gotten to review them all yet. I would guess that it will be the end of next week before you see anymore details on the website. I've been very impressed with all the player generated ideas though.
Jerrith	*Damon* Why should lumberjacking skill add damage bonuses in combat fights? I don't see how chopping trees make you fight better.
Runesabre	The Lumberjacking bonus strictly applies to using axes in combat. The intent is to increase the usefulness of the axe weapons and differentiate them from other types of weapons.
Runesabre	I would say a Lumberjack knows how to swing an axe better than a plain Swordsman.
Jerrith	*Destronimous* Why are we being penalized with Dexterity Loss for armor, with the exception of Leather Armor? Is not a good idea, it should stay the way it is.
Runesabre	The intent is to provide a reason to want ALL types of armor. As it stands, there is hardly any combat reason to choose a Ring tunic over a Chain tunic. Both currently have 0 dex penalty so the natural choice is to choose the one with highest AR.
Runesabre	The dex penalties are required to differentiate the armors better and not have a "best" armor type.
	Follow up: does that answer your question?
Jerrith	*Destronimous* Well, somewhat. I'm really just wondering if they're considering the consequences. Why not make the AR a little more even on the chain and ring? If this change goes through, People will mostly be wearing leather or nothing at all because of PvP. I have a fighter that relies on dexterity as many do. Not to mention, PK's will have a dex advantage if they're naked with no dex loss.
Runesabre	My goal is to arrive at a solution that gives reasons for players to viably wear ALL types of armors. If it turns out players do choose only the armors because of the dex penalties then it tells me the increased AR is not enough of an incentive. Adjustments will be made as I see how the changes go in testing and can observe on a large scale.
Jerrith	*deVanillaIceIceBaby* If leather armor will be adjusted to not affect meditation/stealth, does that include studded leather and clothing?
Runesabre	Only leather will be excluded from med/stealth penalties now. Studded and clothes will remain as they are today.
Jerrith	*Xanthor-Pacific* With the new rules of one house per shard, is it now true that old accounts will be effected if they already have over a few houses. For example, I own 4 houses. Am I safe from losing them when the patch goes in?
SunSword	It's a non-retroactive change. The only time you'll be affected is when you try to place a 5th house.
SunSword	So, if you don't try to place another house, you get to keep all the ones you have.
Jerrith	*Findeymola* The owner of the chest can access the chest automatically without firing the trap. The owner is defined as the last person to lock the chest. ....... does that mean the key don't need to be held in the backpack ?
SunSword	Yes.
Jerrith	*web question* I would like to know the reason for having to have a spell book in one's hands in order to cast a spell ? Will Wrestling become totally useless for a mage? What is to help the Mage fighter deflect all these incoming attacks?
Runesabre	Wrestling is still checked as the defending skill despite having a spell book equipped so the Mage will still be able to defend himself with wrestling.
Runesabre	The reason for requiring the spell book to be equipped is to prevent the scenario of a mage casting spells AND performing the new specialize wrestling moves at the same time.
Jerrith	*SC_Zax* With the new housing rules, are there any plans to open up the T2A lands to housing?
SunSword	No, there are not.
Jerrith	*Popo* Explain the weapon corrosion with poisoned weapons. When does the timer start for the weapon to corrode, and how long will it last before it actually happens?
Sage	Because we want to be careful and not ruin the market for poisoned weapons, the corrosion will not start until after the first successful blow with a poisoned weapon.
Sage	Currently the amount of time it will last will be based on the power of the poison vs. the weapon quality and magical status.
Jerrith	*Odin_407* Are the new lands a concept idea? or are they going to happen? If they are going to happen...When?
SunSword	Look for an announcement on this some time next week.
SunSword	I can't say at the moment, but we're nearing the proper time to discuss it.
Jerrith	*Soulcatcher* With the armor changes, will female characters still be able to wear 2 types of armor at the same time (plate mail over lady plate, or chain legs with a studded skirt)?
Runesabre	Changing the armor values won't affect the existing ways you can layer armor, so yes a female character will still be able to do these combinations.
Jerrith	*Darketower* When you state that poison will decrease the durability of an item with each use, what sort of a scale (in usage) are you thinking of, going from new to worthless?
Sage	Under the current concept, poison will decay on a time basis. Weapons in good repair will break less quickly.
Sage	It will be very important to wipe off corroded weapons as they will not be able to be repaired until they are.
Jerrith	*Shahrressa* Regarding the New Housing Areas: Yes or no, will pre~purchased deeds from the "Old Lands" be valid/placable in the "New"? I know several people sitting on tower deeds that will be very upset if the answer is "no".
SunSword	the current plan is "yes"
Jerrith	*Darketower* A follow-up: will *Magic* leather armor also allow Meditation and Stealth?
Runesabre	Magic leather will not have med/stealth penalties as well.
Jerrith	*Cestle* the land that's going to be used is it going to just be the rest of the green acres that has been left or is the map going to be expanded to allow more land?
SunSword	There will be more land. It will not be green acres.
Jerrith	*Odin_407* With the new "PvP Enhancements" I hardly see how a mage holding a spell book will Help! PvP! This will destroy PvP with Mages against Town Fighters...I hardly see that the new Stunning Blows with wrestling will effect how a mage performs in combat.
Runesabre	The new wrestling moves are not necessarily intended for mages. If a mage wants to take up that capability that's fine but the new wrestling moves were not specifically geared as an enhancement to mages. Hopefully new types of characters will evolve with these changes beyond the standard Mage or Warrior choices that prevail today.
Jerrith	*Damon* What will be amount of melee damage absorbed from parrying after patch compared to now? Will it be possible that Shield fighters can resist Dragon fire when equipping a shield?
Runesabre	Parrying will simply be enhanced to make enough of a difference in damage absorption that you will see actual players using shields in battles. Parrying will not be currently enhanced to do anything special such as block projectiles or dragon breath though that would definitely be cool. :)
Jerrith	*sc4r3y* will one be able to hold a spell book in one hand, shield in the other, or is the book the only thing that can be held when casting spells?
Runesabre	You can't equip any weapon or shield and cast spells. So while you could probably have both a spell book and shield in hand you wouldn't be able to cast spells since your hands are not free.
Jerrith	*Bailey_PKC* can we recall to this new land?
SunSword	not exactly
SunSword	that's all I can say right now :)
Jerrith	*C_Justinius-baja* wouldn't the idea of crushing blows and paralyzing blows strictly for 2 handed weapons tell people that 2 handed weapons are what to use? wouldn't it be better to give critical hits to the entire field of weapons?
Runesabre	The goal is to encourage players to actually want to use a two-handed weapon as a major part of his battle strategy and not simply for the occasional hit. There is no need to give bonuses to one-handed weapons since they are already used much more than the two-handed weapons.
Jerrith	*Imrahil* With the new changes to monster AI, will there be new monster loot?
Firedog	My goal as of right now is to slowly tweak monster loot
Firedog	and statistics as new AI comes into play.
Firedog	So, yes, there should eventually be new loot...
Jerrith	*Destronimous* Please follow this up on Runesabre's last comment on bonuses for 2 handed weapons. How is removing AR and Stamina Loss from Staves a bonus?
Runesabre	With the extreme speed of the stave plus the enhancements to two-handed weapons, the stave would probably have become the ONLY used macing weapon. Staves, wands and smith hammers weren't exactly meant to get the armor bashing and stamina bashing bonuses.
Jerrith	*Weazel* will plate gloves do more damage to a target using the wrestling changes?
Runesabre	No it will not.
Jerrith	*ImaSupa* Will it be possible to transfer a house to a character on an account that already owns houses, and if so, will there be some sort of confirmation window added?
SunSword	no you can't transfer a house to a character that already owns a house after one house per account per shard (non-retroactive) goes in
SunSword	well
SunSword	you can
SunSword	but the other house will no longer be able to be refreshed
SunSword	yes, there will be a confirmation warning you that you other house will no longer be able to be refreshed.
Jerrith	*BiG* Will the new lands just be for Houses or will there be monsters there too?
SunSword	there will be all kinds of adventuring activities. It's not just for houses.
Jerrith	*ghyde* With the changes and enhancements listed in PvP, do any of the special moves become applicable to monsters as well, and if so, will there be any special conditions which allow these?
Runesabre	The PvP enhancements will be able to be done to monster.
Jerrith	I would like to thank everyone for coming and having excellent questions tonight.
Jerrith	Thanks to tOAD, Calandryll, Firedog, Runesabre, SunSword, and Sage for coming tonight as well.
Jerrith	For unmoderated chat, please join #ultima-online.
Jerrith	The log will be posted shortly.
Runesabre	Good night Britannia!
Jerrith	If your question went unanswered, the next UOHoC will be, as usual, in two weeks.