House of Commons from 2001-10-04

House of Commons from 2001-10-04

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	*Sub_Zero* With the responses recieved thus far--does it look likely that the new house decay system will some time be implemented onto production shards?
Evocare	it's still a strong possibility
Glamdring	*Draegon* Why are you planning on putting in Auto-Refresh when you know it will destroy a huge market for peoples income and will make house prices 10x as expensive as they already are, making it near impossible for a new player to get a home.
Evocare	Well, it already is pretty much impossible for the new players to get houses out from under the IDOC campers right? The bottom line, though, is that we'd like to move toward positive methods of housing churn rather then negative.
Glamdring	*El_Chupacabra* Any updates on reds in town on Siege?
Adrick‑OSI	all issues with this have passed qa and ready for publish right after our next publish is released - it will either be included with that publish or done very soon after
Glamdring	*BanMasterB* Was bulk order deeds a player idea? And if so, how come you never thank that player, or any players that give ideas that make it into the game?
Hanse	Almost everyone has an idea of how to do one thing or another. Something close to this may have been suggested, but no suggestions were used in this system's case. It is an idea developed by the design team.
Hanse	Atleast, in the original design... :)
Evocare	It's very likely that any given idea has been concieved of by many people independently (or some derivative of the idea), so it's pretty hard when we take player input to credit any individual.
Evocare	As Hanse mentioned in this particular case, it was an idea we developed to satisfy a very particular need, and grew into a design that would satisfy both veteran and new players.
Cynthe	There are lots of other cases where ideas do come from players, but often, those ideas come from many different players - it's rarely ever one person that really sparks something completely on their own. Besides, sometimes ideas aren't completely loved by everyone, and those poor folks would end up with hate mail if we identified them. :)
Vex‑OSI	Even on this design team, it is unusual for any idea to be one member's brainchild alone. Pretty much everything we do is the result of input from many team members. Two heads are better than one, and all that.
Glamdring	*Colloid-SP* "To what extent are the war horse changes gonna be, I mean are they still gonna be fast and strong, just strong, just fast... and how will they be stam-wise with the new horse stam updates?
Adrick‑OSI	they will still be the most stamina for a rideable in the game - as far as an offensive weapon they will be fairly weak - although they have decent hit points so can take some punishment
Adrick‑OSI	horse stamina bug has been addressed on TC6 for next publish so that will be important - also alot of the exploits around them are fixed - meaning non factioneers wont be able to command or be friended to them.
Glamdring	*Lord_Of_Dreams* I've got one then if you find it acceptable. - Does the dev team have any plans for the close future to come up with a plan to eliminate some of the gold from the economy, and too really make a solid attempt at stablizing the UO economy once again? -
Vex‑OSI	Yes, we do. Part of the plan can be seen in the availability and adjustable pricing seen recently on Test Center. I will be posting another Comments from the Team soon that will offer more insight.
Glamdring	*Shaar-DT* Can we expect the next publish be implemented next week ?
Evocare	couldn't say at this point... it's certainly not definite.
Glamdring	*Aleph* Will there be more fiction around Ultima Prime characters in future scenarios?
Calandryll_OSI	Yes. Can't say who or when though of course.
Glamdring	*jazon* Will player run establishmets ever be able to be blesse like they used to be?
Calandryll_OSI	Probably not. The old system for blessing was very subjective and left a lot of people feeling left out.
Calandryll_OSI	I'd much prefer to spend time working on things that all house owners can use.
Glamdring	*Banana* What is horse stamina intended to be, in terms of number of screens ridden before a horse fatigues? And a war horse, compared to this?
Adrick‑OSI	hmmm avg for a horse is brit bank to almost near the pass to the west - thats on a fairly good connection
Adrick‑OSI	War horses have 3-4 times the stamina of a regular horse
Glamdring	*Armaged* Many players have expressed that they wish to use "bulk item" deeds in their homes. Is OSI looking at making this a possibilkity?
Vex‑OSI	The commodity deeds are intended solely to facilitate trading of large stacks of items between players at the bank through the secure trade window. It's a matter of eliminating the need for players to drop items on the ground to do large transfers. It's limited to the bank because that is where these deals take place.
Vex‑OSI	It's not intended to be easy and fast transportation of these items, just to trade them.
Vex‑OSI	This isn't to say that the system couldn't be expanded in the future to include transportation of things between houses and the bank or other houses. It could possibly be a useful and recurring way to get gold out of the system. But right now there are no plans for that.
Glamdring	*Pumpa* Will there be new graphics to the 2d-client? If so, something we can expect in the near future? Or if not, how come?
Prophet	New graphics for the 2d client is something we have been looking into and are considering but have no definite plans at the moment. You will just have to wait and see what develops in the long term.
Glamdring	*badboy* for a 4yr reward: might i suggest something that would be useful & yet not throw the game off balance? A hueable unlimited charges runebook that works with 0 magery. possibley free gatable for siege players. wouldnt be hard for osi to make, wouldnt throw game off balance, and would be very desireable and useful.
Evocare	Yes, you may indeed make a suggestion! ;]
Evocare	Seriously though, we are very open to player ideas for 4 year rewards, so thank you. =]
Glamdring	*Keeper-* Is there any plans on making a PVP area in fel for large scale battles. ie. how deciet used to be?
Evocare	No specific plans for that right now... it's not really as simple as just making a "place" for it to happen, there are a lot of socialogical factors that turn an otherwise ordinary "place" into a location where that type of activity becomes prominent... and unfortunately a lot of those factors are difficult to set up correctly.
Evocare	For example, much of the reason deceit was used as that type of activity has to do with the its geography and spawn importance relative to the rest of the game world.
Evocare	If we simply changed deceit back to its previous spawn amounts, it wouldn't necessarily turn it into the gathering area it once was...
Adrick‑OSI	also the faction system was designed to promote large scale battles
Adrick‑OSI	and pvp in Fel :)
Evocare	and pardon me for the spelling error in sociological ;]
Glamdring	tigger Will the spots that used to spawn, orcs, gazers ect ever respawn them again..
Hanse	This was reduced in response to a bugfix for dungeon spawning.
Hanse	Players complained of overspawning and crowding of monsters around their houses.
Hanse	Many of the monsters moved underground. So far, we have not considered bringing them back. It may change in the future, but not right now.
Glamdring	*Corra* Is there any chance on Siege Perilous that the Hero/Evil system will act as it used to? Such as, when someone attacks an evil, they are flagged gray to all evils for a short time period
Adrick‑OSI	Well alot of the problems with that system involved interactions such as you mention
Adrick‑OSI	our interactions for pvp and looting are very complex, guilds, factions, parties etc and to add another system into this mix causes a great deal of problems - so I dont think the system as it was (with its own pvp interactions) is making a comback anytime soon
Glamdring	ingame* Question for Ongoing Content: When will there be books in the shelves of the Lyceum in Trammel?
Evocare	not tomorrow.
Calandryll_OSI	No plans to do that at the moment. But, fans of in-game fiction/books will hopefully be pleased with some of the content in the coming weeks of this scenario.
Glamdring	*jazon* Will anything be done in the near future to bring people back to Felluca?
Evocare	We're always open to positive measures for encouraging players to spread out.
Evocare	However, they population difference has actually lessened slightly over time, so we need to be careful about just how large a "problem" it may be.
Prophet	In fact the population difference between Tram and Fel is alot less then most people believe. Its different for ever shard and yes Tram does have a larger population but its much higher then the 90-10 % that is often "quoted" on the boards.
Prophet	So while we would like to add game elements that encourage people to try out different things its not the highest priority item for us at this time.
Glamdring	*XenaDragon* Can you give me a good use of the herding skill? Or in other words; will it ever be a useful skill?
Evocare	And ruin a perfectly good "rp skill"?
Evocare	Honestly, there are no plans for Herding right now. =[
Glamdring	Draegon Gate scrolls not working in runebooks is very annoying especially to Siege Perilous, will you ever considering fixing this? It would save alot of time and worry about having to run everywhere if you die on Siege!
Evocare	Actually I had hoped to resolve that in our recent work on the SP ruleset changes. Honestly though, it slipped through the cracks, my apologies. =[
Glamdring	*badboy* I heard from somebody siege prices will soon be like normal shard prices ie: not 3x as much. is this true or just a rumor?
Evocare	It's true for everything but housing.
Glamdring	*SirJax* Has any thought been put into expanding the 2D client into Ilshenar? Many people love the place, just 3rd Dawn runs to slow on some machines
Evocare	Yes, we have put thought into it. ;]
Glamdring	*Colloid-SP* "what do osi staff usually eat for lunch?"
Vex‑OSI	Green eggs and ham.
Oaks	We survive solely on caffeine.
Prophet	Coke
Evocare	Crow
Adrick‑OSI	Pepsi
Hanse	I like the deli...except when my mongbat muffins don't sell very well...
Prophet	Diet-Pepsi
Oaks	I rest my case!
Glamdring	you're the only one who has to eat crow Evocare =)
Evocare	;]
Cynthe	Lots of us like sushi, and some of us have it at least once a week. And if Calandryll didn't dislike sushi so much, we'd probably have it a lot more often. ;)
Adrick‑OSI	thats pepsi-one D
	* Calandryll_OSI shudders *
Ignatz	usually whatever we're eating is half-baked
Oaks	Calandryll also loves Lucky Dog
Vex‑OSI	And Korea House
Hanse	Sushi gives me nightmares of it coming back alive...
Cynthe	Our words.
Vex‑OSI	My word!
Mindtrip	And to think, none of them said they have been driven to drink and forgo solid food entirely.
Oaks	Last word!
Glamdring	Everyone take care
Cynthe	Thanks for coming!!
Glamdring	I'd like to thank the players and OSI staff for coming tonight
Glamdring	the log will be posted soon
Sannio	You're welcome.
	* Sannio grins *