House of Commons from 2000-12-07

House of Commons from 2000-12-07

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 present this evening.
Glamdring	Please /msg or /query different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed the process up.
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 remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum.
Glamdring	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 "Factions, Third Dawn and In Concept"
Glamdring	<C_Xaivor_GL> When can we do bata testing for Third Dawn?
Runesabre	January! January! January! And for those who were at the UO World Faire, the Alpha CDs are going to be sent out sometime in December so make sure your emails are up to date.
Sage	All dates are subject to change. =)
Glamdring	*SailorDth* With UO:3d Will new and old players alike be able to customize the way thier Character looks, such as changing their facial appearance along with thier build? It would be interesting to see a hulking brute or a fat shopkeeper.
Runesabre	Right now, Third Dawn supports the same body configurations such as hair, skin color, etc. No plans for different body structures right now.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* Will there be a way for a faction leader to kick someone from a faction?
Adrick‑OSI	currently there are no plans to allow faction commanders that power
Adrick‑OSI	the concern is that by allowing faction commanders to kick would be abused
Glamdring	*Animal* How does one transfer faction points ?
Evocare	You say "i honor your leadership" no more.... no less
Evocare	You will need to have at least 5 kill points to transfer though.
Glamdring	*SailorDth* Will the paperdoll be a static Render or will the character move when you attack/walk. If they are static will they be poseable?
Runesabre	The Third Dawn paperdoll will animate as your avatar animates. It will not be poseable.
Glamdring	*Brandy* How will UO:3D be handled on SP? Will we not get it at all or will it go in with Felucca rules or will it go in with the planned Trammel ruleset?
Sage	We have not determined the rule set for SP yet, but we will post the idea when we do.
Adrick‑OSI	currently that decision has no been made
Glamdring	*C_Xaivor_GL* Will we be able to go between trammel and fel as well as the Thrid Dawn world?
FierYiCe	Yes. There will be a way to travel between all of the facets.
Glamdring	*LargeMinerInc* What new types of tameable animals(if any) will be introduced in UO Third Dawn? if so, any pics?
Sage	I don't want to give away any secrets, but there are plans to have new tameables at this time.
Glamdring	*Rich_Raine* Arent factions supposed to fair numbers wise? On pacific Shadow Lords out number every other faction atleast 2 to 1 in wars, also the scoring in factions is a bit unfair, rez killing shouldnt make you lose a point, and gain it to others. With Mage vs Warrior, totally unfair in factions, warriors with blessed vanqs kill in 2 hits, other than the fact they kill in 3 with a GM. Factions seems to be conn and numbers,
Glamdring	instead of intense Pvp
Evocare	I'll try to answer that part by part...
Evocare	First, the numbers are only regulated to ensure that no single faction gets larger then twice as big as the smallest faction since we don't want to regulate them too strictly.
Evocare	There's nothing to say that multiple smaller factions can't organize themselves somewhat to gang up on the bigger one(s)
Evocare	In a lot of ways, pvp is a combination of numbers, connection, skill, and luck, so it's not unreasonable for numbers and connection to play significant parts
Evocare	That being said, we're certainly keeping our eyes open for balance problems.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* Is there a plan to stop the constant rez killing in the Faction System? Since players get kill points for rez killing they do it!
Sage	I understand the desire to immediately rejoin your comrades in battle, but it just is not a good idea to res in an area that is clearly controlled, or perhaps not so clearly controlled by the enemy faction.
Sage	You should not continue to do so, as you will be vulnerable. Understand the consequences and accept that you will have some traveling as a ghost.
Glamdring	*Eiric* Are there plans to allow the Interest team (Seers, Elders, Troubadours) to conduct events in the new UO:3D lands? Will they be given the ability to create events using any of the new monsters/items?
Sage	The new UO:TD lands are a part of the Ultima World. They will be treated in the same way, though naturally any events will be catered to the area they are in
Glamdring	*ImaDufus_LSR* Do you think UO will experence another crisis this year around Xmas? Will UO be cursed again on this holiday? Some examples of what Im talking about are the zillion Santas from 97, the blinking lights on the Xmas trees in 98 on LS that really messed up and the entier house delete thingy on Pacific that caused a 5 day warp of the shard.
Sage	Our main concern with the service is always stability. I am not going to make guarantees, but I don't forsee any unusual issue which would occur this holiday season.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* IN Factions will town income ever be based on number of vendors or goods sold, or is each town going to have a static income of 10k unless adjusted by finance minister
Evocare	No new plans in that area have been decided right now. Unfortunately basing it upon the actual town cashflow presents a large number of potential problems and would require an extensive amount of time to address.
Glamdring	*Seraine* will there be a permanent facet gate between felucca and trammel some day?
FierYiCe	maybe :)
Glamdring	*Vizir-TvG* How will the UO:Third Dawn affect UO Pro programs? Such as UOAssist and UOAutoMap. Are any compatibility issues foreseen with them?
Sage	I think that question is best left up to the developer of that software application.
Glamdring	*Sound* Will traps be permanent of will they be one use only?
Adrick‑OSI	Once a faction trap is placed it remains until either disarmed by oposing faction player or removed by the faction commander of the faction
Adrick‑OSI	that placed it
Glamdring	*Chris-* Are there any pans to introduce new servers just for people with UO:3d?
Sage	I assume that means introduce a separate shard for UO:Third Dawn. No. Third Dawn will be a part of the current UO world. There are no plans for a server only for Third Dawn owners.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* Right now while in factions if you go into stat loss you can gain skill as though you were really at that level. For instance If I am at 95 magery and I get stat loss I will drop down to 65 or so magery. I can not gain skill points by casting lower level spells!
Evocare	Not for long.
Glamdring	*Adam_P* I like the idea of the stat changes. It could lead to more balanced characters. Will it move on in development cycle?
Sage	I think there are some valid concerns about the new stat changes. We really need to evaluate the concerns. This really was an IN CONCEPT idea where we wanted to get feedback very early. If we do get lot's of good feedback, or even good feedback on the system with alterations, it could go in.
Sage	It is not something I expect to see soon.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* is there any plan to allow Factions to ally? Right not it is all orange and you fight them all
Evocare	We've discussed that possibility, although I can't say that we have plans to implement it on our current schedule.
Glamdring	*Coll_SHA* Now that factions is out how soon before rewards will be ready?
Sage	We want to get the new rewards into test this weekend if possible.
Glamdring	*Chris-* Will there ever be a clear winning faction? or will it be a never ending see-saw battle of who can stay up late and steal the sigils back? Whats the point of factions if they will just go on forever?
Adrick‑OSI	wining is a difficult concept because depending on the player its relative
Adrick‑OSI	some feel that controling a town is winning
Adrick‑OSI	some feel that having the most kill points is winning
Adrick‑OSI	I think though that already we are seeing those factions who are organizing makin a name for themselves
Evocare	In addition, I think it's reasonable to say that the system has created a new set of goals for a variety of players.
Evocare	Hopefully, we'll see these achievements begin to work their way into the lore of each shard as players recognize these accomplishments.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* Is there a plan that will allow you to dismiss a faction Vendor?
Sage	You're fired
Sage	is what you say
Sage	to fire a vendor
Sage	and he goes away.
Evocare	Note: only the finance minister of that town can use that command.
Glamdring	*Coll_SHA* Will their be a way craftman can earn silver or gain rank without fighting in factions?
Adrick‑OSI	one way is to charge more silver than it takes to make thus earning some silver
Adrick‑OSI	also the I honor your leadership can be one to gain kp and rank
Adrick‑OSI	right now there arent any plans to add other ways for this to happen
Adrick‑OSI	good question
Glamdring	*Beverly* hello are name change deeds ever happening
Sage	Name change deeds are not in development, nor are there any plans to add them back to our schedule at this time.
Glamdring	*SailorDth* Are there plans to allow Guilded members to Join factions without having to quit thier guild?
Vex‑OSI	Not at this time. Due to the interactions of guild rules and faction rules, it is important that entire guilds all be in the same faction or in no faction.
Glamdring	*Brandy* Is the blocking in of faction guards by stealthed members of an opposing faction so they are easy to kill an exploit? How about blocking monsters with stealthers/hiders?
Evocare	Although it's clearly taking advantage of imperfect ai, it isn't illegal
Evocare	it does take a concentrated effort to do, so at least it requires teamwork to pull off.
Glamdring	*HeRog-DtD* Are there plans to have the faction craftsman be able to draw silver and gold from his bank box instead of his pack. This adds more risk than more are will to take (I think risk = rewards)
Evocare	No plans for that right now. We'll be evaluating the risk vs reward balance though, and we'll certainly be watching how risky it is to carry the silver. Keep in mind though, that the added risk on Siege Perilous doesn't necessarily apply everywhere else.
Evocare	Many crafstmen can recall on non-sp shards. =]
Glamdring	*Adam_P* Is the alliance patch for guilds or a Vize-GM even in the dev-team's mind?
Sage	It is not in development at this time, but it is in our mind. :)
Glamdring	I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight
Glamdring	another great chat
Glamdring	thanks to everyone from OSI and our question takers
Melantus	Thank you all for coming. Have a good evening :)
Glamdring	for continued unmoderated chat, please join #ultima-online
Glamdring	The log will be posted shortly on the UO House of Commons site