Ultima Online Storm Chat 3

Date: August, 2002
Topic: Publish 16
Moderated by: Kehleyr


Kehleyr - Welcome to 3rd IanStorm.com Dev Team Chat!
Kehleyr - First we would like to thank the team from Origin, that has allowed us to gather here tonight, it is much appreciated by everyone here :)
Evocare - glad to swing by ;]
Kehleyr - This chat will be moderated, general chat can continue during in #ultima-online. To submit a question, please /msg one of the question takers listed in the channel topic. Please do not message myself, or anyone from EA: Origin, they will be ignored.
Oaks - Yay!
Kehleyr - Our question takers are: Peaches, DarekSteele, CaBoT
Kehleyr - Tonight's topic will be: Publish 16: BODs, Bard, Taming, and Felucca changes
Kehleyr - All inappropriate questions will be ignored.
Kehleyr - Lets rock!

Kehleyr - *Alton_Darkpick* my question is are there plans with the powerscrolls yall have add so far to do mining powerscrolls and add with hat add new colors of or for the new skill levels? and if so how would that affect bod
Evocare - nope, no plans for mining power scrolls right now

Kehleyr - *Jade_Falcon* Since publish 16 there seems to be more weapon bods then any other being handed out,is this as designed or out of whack?
Hanse - There's 25 weapons out of 49 items.
Hanse - That means you'll see it lean towards weapons by 1 item (the percentage is low).
Hanse - Although, we added weapon large bulk order deeds in publish 16.
Evocare - (meaning slightly more then 50% of the time)
Hanse - The difference between the two isn't much.
Hanse - percentage-wise
Hanse - Anyway, weapon large bulk orders allow you to get better rewards.
Hanse - So, they're not as worthless as they used to be. :)
Evocare - Another clarification, the chance to get small weapon bulk order deeds isn't any higher then before pub 16.
Evocare - =]

Kehleyr - *Azlen* The barding difficulty for skill gain seems much higher than it should be
Vex - Yes, there is a known issue with Provocation, Peacemaking, and Discordance that is making skill gain much more difficult than it should be. A fix is in the works.

Kehleyr - *Bladefire* When will Phase 2 of housing changes begin?
Evocare - August 5th
Evocare - i won't specify the particular minute
Evocare - however, that's the publish date, so it likely won't be active until the morning of August 6th

Kehleyr - *PAD* are the new bless deeds the same art as the old rare deeds?
Hanse - Yup!

Kehleyr - *Rilawyn* Some friends have said that they were using power scrolls on their young characters. Are there any plans in the works to prevent this?
Evocare - No plans to prevent that. I'm not sure I see why it's a problem. Presumably, if a young player uses one, they got it from somebody else that no longer has it anymore.
Evocare - So, no net gain in the total use of powerscrolls in the game.

Kehleyr - *Longasc* Hello, could you ask if there are any thoughts regarding ships in the lost land areas of felucca. I died in an imp horde spawning on ice west IN THE OCEAN - before i could stop, i was killed. I will probably need a 2nd boat to get back to my ship, because recalling does not work. Could not recalling to ships at least work there perhaps?
Evocare - I'm sorry to hear about your loss, but the Feluccan ocean-going imp hordes are only one of the many dangers of Felucca. ;]

Kehleyr - *Torvak[DF]* question[Pub16,CHampionspawn]: At the beginnign it seemed that the champion was "hard". but i saw that such champions now die very fast.. was somethign changed or are jsut more players around?
Evocare - There are champion spawns that are extremely heavily populated by players, this has a tendency to put the champion at a distinct disadvantage.
Oaks - Even the mighty Lord Oaks...
* Kehleyr coughs
Evocare - We're evaluating the difficulty, and will probably make some champion-spawn-related tweaks at some point in an upcoming publish.
Evocare - If you're interested in enjoying a less-crowded spawn, I reccomend the ones in the lost lands.

Kehleyr - *Lurking_Lyria* With the Fishing probability adjustments of Pub16 in mind, are there any plans to reduce the amount of footwear caught?
Hanse - Daggommit!
Hanse - I just reduced the footwear being caught during test center runs.
Hanse - Right before publish 16 went out...
Hanse - We'll look into it, but nothing is on our screens right now...
* Hanse winks at Azrile.

Kehleyr - *Anarchy_DF* How can it be that i have after the patch absolutly no chance to controll a animal i have tamed myself (0 Animal Lore), thats not logically... thx
Oaks - Game-play wise, taming simply needs to take up more than just 1 skill to control the powerful creatures at your disposal... fictionwise, consider taming the breaking of the animal and the combination with lore the ability to control it.

Kehleyr - *Lance_25* Were there any changes to tamable creatures to make them easier for mid-level tamers to have?
Oaks - The taming difficulty of drakes was lowered.
Oaks - Other than that, pack instincts offers a power boost for lower level tames. =)

Kehleyr - *Bladefire* Recently all murder counts were removed from players without any official announcement about it, I assume it was because of the harrower issue is that the case?
AdrickOSI - The harrower issue yes - many received counts that shouldnt have, also there was another bug with res menu cancellation leading to stat loss res for those that shouldnt have taken it

Kehleyr - *Joe_Mollicone* Question about BOD: Is it possible to influence what bulk order deeds you get? I sometimes felt like getting the same category of deeds for the same items sold...
Hanse - Sortuf.
Evocare - yessir, for one thousand U.S. dollars you can get just about any BOD you want. ;] ok, just kidding, that isn't a real offer. :P
* Hanse snickers.
Hanse - he read my mind...my address is...
* Hanse dohs.
Hanse - anyway
Hanse - being a GM or above increases chances to get better deeds
Hanse - but only skill influences your chances...selling special items...performing wild rituals...won't get you anything above what you'd randomly get

Kehleyr - *Bladefire* What will be done about res-killing of reds to gain justice points? As it is now anyone can get a friend who is red and keep killing them over and over for points...
Evocare - Hanse, you aren't going to tell them about the special blue-shirt BOD trick? Oh wait, nm.
Evocare - *coughs*
Evocare - As far as res-killing goes...
Evocare - there is a timer limiting how often you can get justice points
Evocare - it scales based on how many justice points you got off your last red kill
Evocare - if you're killing worthless reds, it's not a very long delay. then again, they're... well... nearly worthless.
Evocare - Honestly, Justice points aren't supposed to be very hard to get.
Evocare - The idea is what you actually do with those points.
Evocare - Simply having the points doesn't do you a darn bit 'o good.
Evocare - (other then the title)

Kehleyr - *Torvak[DF]* Bonding-Question: my Worker has a packhorse, will it have a chance to get bonded? And what about the warrioirs sittign on horses, will the horses bond,too?
Oaks - You can bond with pack horses, pack llamas, horses, forest ostards, etc. with zero taming skill, so yes they will bond with you. Once they are bonded, they will recall with you, and can be resurrected should they fall to a horde of mongbats or worse. Keep in mind, however, that you have to FEED your pet for it to bond with you.

Kehleyr - *Peaches* Will golems ever bond?
Oaks - There are no plans to make golems bond with their owners.

Kehleyr - *Seuss* why can't a gm smith get a single GOOD small bod in 112 tries at it?
Hanse - I've never lost at craps 112 times in a row. That's extremely bad luck.
Hanse - Not to *ahem* sound like a compulsive gambler...
Hanse - Just think of all the people that have had great luck in lieu of your bad luck! ;]
* Hanse nods.
Hanse - Yup! I have bags full of agapite and verite BOD's in my villa... :)
Evocare - Sometimes randomness bites. Sorry to hear about your bad luck. =[

Kehleyr - *Tanner* Here is my question. With the changes to animal lore, players with minimal lore can view stats and skills for almost all player-controlled creatures except golems. To view stats/skills for a 'tame' golem, you need 110 lore. As a golem controller, I'd like to be able to see my pet's skills and stats as they progress. Are there any plans to allow this to happen without needing 110 animal lore?
Oaks - We are aware of the issue, although we don't have any official plans for a change. If we do, it will likely involve your tinkering skill to view their stats. =)

Kehleyr - *Torvak[DF]* [Stat-lock]: when it can be expected?
Evocare - Monday.
Evocare - If not, I'll personally say mean things to Prophet.
Evocare - On your behalf. ;]
Oaks - I'll also say mean things to him, simply to be mean.
Sannio - I'll mean to say things to him, but forget.

Kehleyr - *Lance_25* Are there Stealth power scrolls? It was on the list but a few players have paged gm's and the gms say there are none
AdrickOSI - To clarify there are no stealth or stealing scrolls - the doc needs to be corrected - I appologize for the error :(

Kehleyr - *Changeling* I play mostly crafters and I think that the BOD system overall is awesome. What crafting skills are you planning to work on next for BODs?
Hanse - We haven't started planning yet.
Hanse - I did map out carpentry once.
Hanse - No idea, though... :)

Kehleyr - *Truesilver_Hete* are we going to have fisherman bods?
Hanse - That sorta relates to the last question. :)
Hanse - It would be a neat addition... many skills are interesting to think about with the BOD system
Hanse - although, I shudder to think of a lbod for 20 mib's, maps, and fish nets... :)

Kehleyr - *Ravenspyre[LS]* Avatar Art? Hehehe
Evocare - Yes, we do have Avatar art in UO!
Evocare - ;]
Evocare - However, the new art is going to be at least a month out.
Evocare - There are still some revisions being made to many wearables to make them look better.
Evocare - Sometimes things just don't shrink down all that well.
Evocare - Art things that is.
Hanse - I didn't think that black line on the fancy dress looked bad. :P

Kehleyr - *Bladefire* Is it intentional for the ratman champion to make you grey when he polymorphs you?
Evocare - Yes. Beware!
Evocare - He's a wiley, wicked, fella.
Evocare - He'll turn friend against friend with his evil tunes!
AdrickOSI - aye he has a tendency to show you who your friends are :)
AdrickOSI - and who are rats - no pun intended :)

Kehleyr - *Truesilver_Hete* Since you have released the swamp dragon and fire steed. Do you plan to release any new ridables such as the giant beetle?
Oaks - The beetle is likely to emerge from a hole in the ground one of these days...
Evocare - I dig the beetle (no pun intended either).

Kehleyr - *P-Scrolls_4_Me* Is OSI gonna do anything about the people that put hours among hours of time working trying to get a p scroll, going to dozens of champion spawns, killing thousands of champion spawn's spawnlings, and even doing a large amount of damage to the Champion and still not getting a scroll? Make it more like the GGS perhapst where it would be a guarenteed p scroll if you do a certain # of damage or % to a champ, or kill this
Evocare - Yes, we have some plans to make improvements in that area.
Evocare - Anti-camper code. ;]
Evocare - Well, anti-cheeze-hidden camper code that is.
Evocare - We have nothing against the camping skill.

Kehleyr - *Nadya_Modavia* I have confirmed that musicianship is not giving a bonus to success rates for barding. Will this be addressed?
Evocare - yes!

Kehleyr - *LadyTygress* When are we going to get tamable tigers?
Evocare - When Lady Tygress finishes the artwork for them. ;]
AdrickOSI - :)
LadyTygress - almost there!

Kehleyr - *Hanse* Is it true that Oaks has a pet mongbat chained up in his office?
Oaks - It's a Jackalope!
Evocare - An oaksalope

Kehleyr - Thankyou very much to Adrick, Evocare, Greywolfe, Hanse, Oaks, Sannio, Tajima & Vex for taking the time to join us this evening!

See Also