House of Commons from 2003-11-06

House of Commons from 2003-11-06

Wolfgang	Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Ultima Online House of Commons Chat.
Wolfgang	Tonight's chat is focusing on "Publish 21 and General Discussion"
Wolfgang	I will be our moderator for this evening.
Wolfgang	In order to submit questions please /msg or /query [QT]Exile or [QT]Aeiedil. Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from Dev. Team or myself. These questions will be ignored.
Wolfgang	Remember that the Dev. Team may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Wolfgang	The log of this chat will later be posted on http://uo.stratics.com so be sure to tell your friends if they missed it.
Wolfgang	We'll start with a quick introduction from everyone, we'll then begin accepting questions.
Vex	Howdy! I'm Vex, designer on the UO Live team. My current responsibilies revolve around the live updates that comprise our six-week publish cycle.
Sannio	I'm Sannio, of OSI's Community Relations team.
MrTact	I'm MrTact and I'm the lead server programmer. My team and I work on the six-week publish cycle, also, as well as . . . other stuff
Aeryn	Heya, I'm Aeryn, Quality Assurance tester.
Wolfgang	Reminder: In order to submit questions please /msg or /query [QT]Exile or [QT]Aeiedil.
Wolfgang	(C_Adragonia_LS) SunSword mentioned before about some changes or rewards that vets would like; any word on what these might be yet?
Vex	Nothing specific that we've been given permission to speak about yet. It'll be cool, I promise. :) And we won't keep sitting on it for too long, either...
Wolfgang	Megalon: Have you decided what will replace UBWS on bows?
MrTact	Well we were hoping to make it a surprise . . .
MrTact	But since it's taking bloody forever to get around to doing it
MrTact	It will most likely be reduced ammo use, as some people have speculated.
MrTact	That's not firmly decided yet, but that would be the property that those of us who have discussed it like.
Wolfgang	(Rex) A fix for the archery crash bug was promised for Publish 21 but I do not see it on the list of fixes. Are we doomed to crash endlessly for another six weeks?
Aeryn	I was just talking to Fertbert today about this issue having seen multiple threads on it again.
Aeryn	We have not been able to reproduce the crasher in house as of yet, not for lack of trying.
Aeryn	Fertbert asked that you PM him via Stratics your Windows crash log to see if he can narrow done what may be causing it.
Aeryn	So that we can get a reproduceable test case.
Aeryn	The crash log can be found in Windows xp by running the eventvwr.exe from the command window.
Wolfgang	<Punk_Brad> Can you clarify what you mean by this: 'Monsters that are under the influence of Peacemaking now have a chance of breaking out when they are hit.' Seeing as monsters already break peace or have the chance to
Vex	It means the chance is actually increased with Pub 21. Peacemaking was making it possible to totally dominate very powerful monsters. It was never intended to do that.
Vex	It was supposed to help provide crowd control and make monsters easier to fight -- not make them total pushovers. :)
Vex	The Pub 21 changes increase the monster's chance to break out of peacemaking when it takes damage.
Wolfgang	(Neth) Houses have been falling this week. Was this intended or a glitch? It seems that all grandfathered houses on inactive accounts were the victims.
MrTact	Yes that was not as intended.
MrTact	Many accounts were impacted by the insidious "failing to renew" bug in our old billing system right before we converted
MrTact	Therefore, they showed up as deactivated in the new billing system.
MrTact	As a consequence, when we got 10 days past when we turned on phase 3, their houses started getting set inactive, just as you would expect.
MrTact	We have tracked down these accounts, & fixed the states of their houses in game
DevilHimself	SirFist: It was mentioned that enhancing will be effected by skill but I do not see it on list pub pub 21 changes. Will this be in pub 21 or not?
MrTact	The root problem seems to be that these people are still able to log in for some reason, so they have no way of knowing the billing system thinks they are suspended.
MrTact	Hey hey!
MrTact	:-(
MrTact	So
MrTact	Anyone experiencing housing weirdness, PLEASE go to the billing website & make sure your account is active.
MrTact	(I promise, this will be the LAST time you have to do this!)
Sannio	And while you're there please make sure your account information is up to date (e-mail, etc.).
DevilHimself	SirFist: It was mentioned that enhancing will be effected by skill but I do not see it on list pub pub 21 changes. Will this be in pub 21 or not?
Sannio	There's a few additions that need to be added to the Pub21 write-up in UO.com's Update Center. I'm working on an update. Hopefully it'll be done by tomorrow, but perhaps more likely it'll be fully up to speed by next week.
Sannio	(If I didn't answer your specific question about enhancing, it's because I don't have those Pub21 notes in front of me. ;)
DevilHimself	Nadia: In the IanStorm chat it was mentioned that TC was an early version of Pub 21 but a few days later Hanse mentioned that the (then) current TC was no longer a publish 21 shard, what's currently on Test Center and if it's not Pub 21 when might we see a Pub 21 TC?
Aeryn	The test center currently has the code that recently went worldwide that fixed legacy boxed up vendors. I will inquire tommorrow about getting it published with Pub21 so you can test it out.
DevilHimself	(Aedilwulf) When can we expect the long promised fix to guildstones? Where do these stand on OSI's priority list?
Vex	Right now their priority is medium-high. Guildstone fixes are likely to be scheduled into one of the upcoming few six-week publishes.
Wolfgang	Flukey: There are rumors that faster casting is going to be capped...as well as rumors of an artifact cap per person...are either of these true?
Vex	I don't think we're planning to do either. It's possible we might put a limitation on the maximum possible speed a spell could be cast with, to slightly slow down the ability to rapid-fire magic arrow.
Wolfgang	Rosey: Have been reading forums on scammers etc and there was a point raised that the trade window could be updated to have a white background so as to decrease the number of black bag overweight/item scams..is this going to be taken into consideration?
MrTact	If you play with a fully-patched up client, you will note that we have done a change in the spirit of that already.
MrTact	BG is not white, but patterns, so hopefully no more black bag scams.
MrTact	First of several anti-scam fixes that are rolling out with pub 21.
Wolfgang	(Thez) Enhancing of bows :) Whats the word on this? It was mentioned way back - but We haven't seen it yet?
Vex	This is something we definitely want to do. Right now we don't have any solid plans on exactly when, though.
Vex	Sorry I can't be more informative. :(
Wolfgang	Khyronkt: Scripts? are they going to be somehow fixed soon? if possible
Vex	One thing we're going to try to focus on for our Pub 22 efforts is reducing/eliminating the ability to automate certain key tasks.
Vex	I plan on starting a discussion thread on the Stratics boards about it tomorrow morning.
Vex	One thing we've talked about is basically making automatic corpse looting and loot splitting a feature of the game.
Vex	We've also brainstormed some ideas to stop automated mining...
Wolfgang	([PoVal]Asmodan) what is in your minds to be done so that you draw old uo players back into the game?
MrTact	Hmmmm
MrTact	Ve haff . . . many plans . . .
MrTact	ZECRET plans . . .
MrTact	of vhich I can tell you . . . NUSSINK
MrTact	MOO-ha ha ha
Wolfgang	Achilles: Question: You mentioned that certain skill problems on siege had been 'Verified'. Does this mean fixed and what about the skills not mentioned (Resist for one)?
MrTact	Sorry, slipped a little "QA-speak" into the post
MrTact	I blame Sannio :-)
MrTact	What that means is, the bug has been verified as being fixed by QA
	* Sannio makes faces behind MrTact *
MrTact	Resist is another of the skills in that same category . . . you should find that all those skills will gain over 100.0 after pub 21
	* MrTact doesn't really blame Sannio, he just said that to be funny *
	* Sannio weeps openly at his humiliation *
Wolfgang	(LeonK) Could you explain in abit more detail the changes to BODs in Publish 21?
Vex	Basically what it means is that Smith BOD rewards will be a bit less random.
Vex	For example, for each completed deed, there will be only one, maybe two, possible rewards.
Vex	Also, it will become slightly easier to get Smith power scrolls and slightly more difficult to get Tailoring power scrolls.
Wolfgang	(Sphyr) Test Center has eased the requirements for Wrestling Special moves, yet Pub21 doesn't mention these. Are the Wrestling improvements included?
Sannio	Actually, if I recall correctly, that's one of the notes that will be added to the Pub21 list with my next update.
Wolfgang	(defddd) when will i not get caught on twigs? :(
MrTact	Well, given that our last change to blocking terrain totall came back to bite us on the butt, probably never
MrTact	Not until such a time as we might make massive sweeping changes to the map, anyway, should such an improbability ever occur
Wolfgang	Nevyn: Will Powder of Fortification be added as a tailoring BOD reward?
Vex	Probably not. I see it as something impossible to balance with Smith BODs.
Vex	By that I mean, either the Smith deed or the Tailoring deed will make it easier to get the powder.
Vex	For all practical purposes, then, it might as well only be part of the reward list for the easier skill.
Wolfgang	Megalon: A while back it was mentioned that you may be implementing something to help us compete with speed hackers. Is this likely to be done soon?
MrTact	This was originally planned for pub 21.
MrTact	We currently log speedhackers, but they are not in a very useful format for GMs, so they only rarely bust speedhackers.
MrTact	The plan is to make that information more prominent so the GMs will have an easier time policing that activity.
MrTact	This will almost certainly appear in a publish coming soon to a shard near you.
MrTact	The GMs are chomping at the bit to start busting people for this, so I want us to get it in ASAP.
Wolfgang	Nevyn: Will the "no recalling into castle courtyards" fix prevent placement of castles where there would be a tree in the courtyard (this is currently possible)? And what was the reason for this "fix"?
Vex	No, it won't change how terrain interacts with castles at all.
Vex	The reason for the fix is to protect both castle owners and everyone else.
Vex	You won't have to worry about random people bypassing bans or private status if they happen to have a rune for your courtyard
Vex	Also, you won't be able to reverse-gate strangers into the castle for some nefarious purpose.
Wolfgang	<Bob2000> Care to drop a hint on any possible future expansions currently in the works? :)
Sannio	Nope!
MrTact	Already did . . .
Fertbert	We will be expanding our waistlines with the lack of exercise that accompanies crunch-time development activity.
	* Sannio laughs *
Wolfgang	Mordeath: Whats the status on character transfer between shards?
MrTact	We have completed requirements gathering & design. We are currently in technical design review & are beginning construction.
Wolfgang	I would like to thank everyone for attending tonights Ultima Online House of Commons Chat! The logs of tonighst chat will be found later tonight over at http://uo.stratics.com.
Fertbert	Thanks all!