House of Commons from 2005-03-29

House of Commons from 2005-03-29

Brekkee	Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Ultima Online! The topic tonight is general discussion so all questions are welcome.
Brekkee	Please send your questions to [QT]Ishu OR [QT]Phineus - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://uohoc.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee	We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
OSI_speedman	Hi everyone, I'm speedman!
OSI_speedman	... as if you couldn't tell from my name ;)
MrTact	Hello, I'm MrTact, and I'm in charge of kicking over anthills on Live.
Fertbert	Hello everyone, I'm Fertbert the Live Team Lead
wilki_EA	Hello Citizens of Britannia! I'm Wilki, UO Community Rep.
Niobe	Hi everyone! I'm Niobe. I do designer like things.
Brekkee	*Mapper* "Are there any plans in the near future to make L Shapes, Keeps or Castles custimizable?"
Fertbert	There are no plans for that at this time.
Brekkee	*fred`* Q: The tokuno arty system has seem to give alot of people a reason to login. What will happen when it's deactivated next publish? Will the arty just be changed to different ones or something? Id really like to see maybe the system put into fell, to draw crowds in =D
MrTact	Hmm, how much to give away . . .
MrTact	Well, what we talked about was leaving Ihara Soko where he is, so anyone who started to turn in minor artis would be able to finish.
MrTact	But you would not be able to start a new batch of 10.
MrTact	However, we haven't discussed this with the aim of nailing it down yet, so that could change.
MrTact	And even if it goes away, one thing we learned was that people REALLY enjoy events like this, so we'll more than likely do stuff like this again.
Brekkee	*Monolith* The big one is: Can we get an update on the whole castle giveaway/blacklisted email vendor/no winner list posted thing?
wilki_EA	We're in the process of contacting the winners. Once we have received responses from everyone, we'll post the list on uo.com.
Brekkee	*Lord* can you give us a little more info on the bod timer changes?
MrTact	There really isn't much to say.
MrTact	When you turn in a BOD your timer will be reset, so no more 6-hour waits.
Brekkee	*andyp* Quick question about Brit invasion: when will it end?
Fertbert	It will end with this next publish. When the invasion ends "Ye Olde Security Consultant" will reveal what he's spent his money on. I think you'll find him revealing some interesting statistics about the battles your shards have waged, and how much you've enriched his life.
Brekkee	*Monolith* Why were the required control slots for EV's bumped to 2, after no mention was made of that change prior to it going live?
Fertbert	We did announce the change and made it available on a test center prior to taking it live. We felt the change would futher reduce the grief potential of the EV density restrictions.
Brekkee	*SmokeSerpent* How likely is it that some of the concepts from the Treasures of Tokuno publishes will be backported to the Gauntlet or Ilshenar's Paragon system?
MrTact	Highly.
Brekkee	*xenonthemage* are there insurance or any other substatial changes planed in terms Of fel?
MrTact	We're not planning on making any changes to insurance atm, except possibly to SIege-ruleset shards.
Brekkee	*Miasma* Are there any plans to remove one-hit or insta-kill combos (vs full armor) from pvp?
MrTact	We're hoping to start another pvp rebalancing pass soon. Watch the stratics boards, that's where we'll be coordinating discussions with the player base.
Brekkee	*JesterGMLOM* Will there be and crafting changes for Bowcraft?
Leurocian	And I've already informed MrTact that he should look into wands. Two popular player suggestions are remove spell channeling from them and another is to force the wand wielder to stand still while using it
Leurocian	Looking forward to reading feedback about this as the Live Team makes another pass at pvp
MrTact	Re: Bowcrafting: I must alas say "no comment".
MrTact	For all of you who continue to send us PvP related or "one-hit-kill" related OR "this special ability is too powerful/too weak" type questions . . . please see the comment about the pvp tuning pass above -- there's your answer!
Brekkee	*lego* Currently there is a method dexxers use to get a second special out of a hit. Is this going to tbe fixed anytime soon?
MrTact	Yes, I have that in my bug list. I don't think it's fixed for pub32, which means it should be slated for pub 33. I'll double-check.
Brekkee	*Monolith* Have any more plans been made on the Town Hall meetings? I'm on the east coast, but i know there are people all over the world anxious for your attention!
Binky_EA	Yes, look for the Newsletter on Friday for the announcement of the next Town Hall meeting. And the one for May will be announced shortly as well.
Brekkee	*Hemisphere* Sunsword hinted at a recent UK meet the possibility that the volunteer program could one day return, and since then I've heard rumours from people in the know, that there are talks of the Companion program being reactivated, can these rumours be substantiated?
Binky_EA	As for the UK Town Hall Meeting, we are trying to work the details on that out. We would like to hop the pond for sure as there are many UO players with lots of great feedback over there. I know you hate hearing this, but keep checking UO.com for details. I hope we get to visit.
Binky_EA	And as for the volunteer program, I can't really speak to that right now, but there is movement.
Brekkee	*Anon5088* Question: SE specials (the ones that require 50.0 Bushido or Ninjitsu to perform), when they are parried, you lose mana , like all specials did initially. By design or not noticed yet?
Leurocian	That is definitely a bug for both wrestling and the SE moves
Leurocian	Not by design
Brekkee	*Jdread* Is there a planed fix for the 1 second heals that people with 203 stam can have ?
MrTact	That is the first I've heard of this. Please email this to our bug box, which I'm sure Wilki will jump in here and handily supply.
wilki_EA	[email protected]
MrTact	Also, see my comment above regarding pvp balancing . . . that sounds like a good candidate.
Brekkee	*Scottish_Doggy* Anything going to be added soon to make felucca more popular? maybe another champ spawn that spawn artis?
MrTact	Well, the ghost cam fix discussed on the boards is expected to be in pub 32, does that count?
MrTact	Other than that, no major plans atm.
Brekkee	*Akane_WAKA* Hello I have a question, When is the pvp publish scheduled and what sort of tweaks too pvp are they considering for the future?
MrTact	The publish isn't scheduled at the moment, but I would like to get the tuning stuff on test center right after pub 32 goes out.
MrTact	As for the content, I have a few ideas (and Leurocian mentioned wands earlier, as well), but nothing is graven in stone at this point.
MrTact	Very open to player input.
wilki_EA	Which means post your input on the Stratics messageboards, please.
Brekkee	*Snippa* there seems to be alot of gold floating around UO lately, are there any plans to put in gold sinks any time soon?
MrTact	We are always considering it, and it's usually something we think about in conjunction with any new stuff we add to the game.
MrTact	But in terms of any specific features to serve that purpose? Not right now.
Brekkee	*Haleorn[ELR]* Question : Do Dev-team members looking for opinions on UO PvP, PvM and crafting issues ever look outside of the Stratics Forums?
Fertbert	Yes, we do. We participate in and observe PvP on the shards. We also have quite a few contacts in various PvP guilds whose feedback we consider very seriously.
wilki_EA	There are a variety of methods that we use to collect feedback from our players besides reading Stratics. Besides other message boards, which we do read, we talk to players directly at meetups and online as well as hold formal and informal focus groups from time to time.
Leurocian	Aye, we do. I often lurk on various UO fansites such as UO Powergamers, FCB, Admiral Ruffie's site, Mordanna's taming site (pacific coast rangers), etc. Very useful to broaden our awareness of what you the players want out of Ultima Online. I really enjoyed the LA meetup as well as the monthly meetups
Brekkee	*IrishRage* Will UO stay on the more item based path or possibly return to it's skill based roots? Will crafting hold a central role or remain marginalized?
MrTact	Obviously, we want to make life more interesting for crafters :-)
Leurocian	And I forgot to mention the UOForums.com as well :)
Leurocian	*goes back into lurk mode*
MrTact	I don't think UO will ever return to a state where items don't play a role, but as we make changes to crafting that's certainly going to have an impact on the item-based nature of gameplay.
MrTact	(Whew, how's that for a safety answer?)
MrTact	The short version is, the crafting discussion is playing out as we speak, so ask me again in a few months.
Brekkee	*LadyDiana* Are there any plans to allow the new pigments to dye items other than those that are enhanced/artifacts? Such as clothing?
MrTact	Not at the moment . . . my (admittedly nebulous) plan is to get craftable dyes into the game in more mundane colors that can do what you're asking for.
Brekkee	*godski* Has any investigation been done in to allowing some player customization of the client interface? I like that toolbar, but I don't use anything on it. I'd really like to put functions on it I'd use.
MrTact	We would like to, but it's tough to retrofit that kind of stuff into our existing client codebase.
MrTact	Excuse me, codebases.
MrTact	We do try to add little player customization features whenever we can, such as adding the "switch weapons" macro in Samurai Empire.
MrTact	If you guys have ideas for stuff that might be cool and easy to do, let us know!
Brekkee	*Vaen* It was mentioned that the dyes for armor may be put into a champ spawn system on Tokuno so that the basic idea never leaves and we don't have to deal with mismatched armor again. Any more information on this?
MrTact	Yes.
MrTact	(How much to reveal, how much to reveal . . . )
Leurocian	Go ahead spill the beans!
MrTact	OK well the current thinking is we would make minor artis, as well as the pigments, drop as part of the Serrado champ spawn.
Brekkee	*godski* Will we see a return to names on weapons and armor instead of property values? An exceedingly accurate, silver, question of dev answering instead of chance to answer 10% ?
Fertbert	I have considered with experimenting with a "role playing" set of item naming conventions as a client option. But for now it's just thoughts in my head. The idea does have appeal though!
MrTact	My answers are usually exceedingly inaccurate.
OSI_speedman	But at least you have a high chance of answering
wilki_EA	Actually, I'm going to secretly replace the property display code so that every item in UO says "Property of Wilki". All your items are belong to me.
Leurocian	True. My chance is now greatly diminished since I'm in the dungeon
Leurocian	shackled, bound, and tortured
Leurocian	Well not really...fun stuff :)
Fertbert	Look, godski rolled 100!
	* Niobe has to sneak out. *
Niobe	Bye
Brekkee	That will wrap it up for tonight. I'd like to thank the folks from Ultima Online for coming!
Brekkee	The log for tonight's chat will be up shortly on http://uohoc.stratics.com. Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Ultima-Online to chat more about the game.
OSI_speedman	Thanks everyone
Leurocian	Take care all! And oh I'm Leurocian, Designer Ultima Online
wilki_EA	Thanks everyone for joining us tonight! See you next time!
Fertbert	Thank you all for joining us!
Binky_EA	Thanks all! Look for the Newsletter on Friday
Binky_EA	and if you live in hte Bay area, we are having a MeetUp here at EALA on Monday.
wilki_EA	He means EA Redwood City!