Ultima Online Storm Chat 4
Date: October, 2002
Topic: General Discussion
Moderated by: LadyTygress
LadyTygress - Welcome to the 4th Ianstorm.com developer chat, and join us in wishing UO a happy 5th anniversary on September 25th. Also thank you to the team from Origin for joining us for this chat tonight.
LadyTygress - Tonight's topic will be general discussion.
LadyTygress - Tonight's question-takers will be DarekSteele, NewtonD and Peaches.
LadyTygress - Please submit your questions by sending a Private Message to our question takers. This can be done by typing /msg or by double-clicking their names.
LadyTygress - Please do not PM the dev team, or other moderators (including myself). Those questions will be ignored, and you may be removed from the chat.
LadyTygress - If you wish to chat in an open discussion, please type /join #Ultima-Online
LadyTygress - Please DO NOT submit the same question to more than one question-taker.
LadyTygress - Phoenix will also be accepting questions tonight.
LadyTygress - *Tobias_Moon* What is the exact date of the Anniversary of UO? Will it be an ongoing UO Holiday? (It should be) And, will the 4th and 5th Year Vet Rewards be available on the Anniversary of UO? Thank You
Vex - Truthfully, I don't know the precise anniversary. I know, I suck, I didn't play in beta -- I only started playin uo with the release of T2A! But, I can say that the fourth and fifth year Rewards are currently undergoing heavy testing by our QA team and I'm fixing the bugs they're finding. If all goes well, we do plan to publish them next week.
LadyTygress - *Bob* Why were creatures previously only immune to provoke (not peace or discord) made immune to all bard skills as of the scenario publish? This includes orc brutes, meer, all mechanical things, juka, betrayers, juggernauts and some others.
Evocare - Hmm, not sure actually! I'll make sure somebody looks into it though!
LadyTygress - *Dolgorath[SG-ATL]* is there any chance the dyeable spellbook will be put back in as a reward, or perhaps a BOD reward? thanks!
Vex - We don't have any plans for dyeable spellbooks. However, dyed runebooks will remain equippable.
Evocare - We're using spellbooks of different colors for other things (such as necromancy), so dyable spellbooks could end up causing problems in that respect
LadyTygress - *Drizzt_Sonoma* "Is there any plan to build better control over custom MP3 audio files into the client?"
Evocare - We don't currently have plans to do so, but I'm sure Alai would be interested in hearing your ideas for what kind of control you'd like.
LadyTygress - *Drizzt_Sonoma* Here's an early question: "What is the status of the new wearables/avatar art we heard so much about before?"
Evocare - The wearables/avatars have undergone another round of tweaks, and are nearly complete, we expect to patch them out around the launch of AoS
LadyTygress - *Castoro-fan* Don't you think that the new ore randomization will diminish the amount of rare ore in the future and that only casual miners will suffer from this? And why not giving the shovel the ability to give fully randomized ore regardless of current real vein, it would give a little chance for a casual miner to have each color.
Vex - It was actually intended that the randomization would increase the rarity of those colors. I don't see that any particular group would be less or harder hit, especially considering the help now available in the form of Gargoyle pickaxes and the Prospector's tool.
LadyTygress - *Suzanne* You have addressed to us that Keeps, and Castle's will not be able to be customized due to lag issues. Will improperly placed homes, and L-Shape homes be out of the customization process also?
Vex - No decision has yet been made about whether improperly placed houses will be able to be customized. However, the plan is for a feature that will allow secure replacement of one house with another. I can't give more details about how that will work yet.
Vex - The L-shaped houses cannot be converted into customizable ones because customizable foundations must be rectangular. With the secure replacement feature, owners of non-qualifying houses would be able to securely replace their house with a customizable foundation of a different size.
LadyTygress - *Wrath* Will multiple account holders be able to upgrade to the new design your own home concept without losing grandfathered status?
Evocare - The current plan is that you will be able to customize without losing grandfathered status.
Evocare - I don't forsee any reason right now why that plan would change.
LadyTygress - *Thorwan* Is the releasedate for AoS in Feb 2003 mentioned in the Press Release at Yahoo! Finance a fix date, or is it subject to change?
Evocare - That is still the currently planned date.
LadyTygress - *Kelynn* Will hero titles ever decay the way they use to again? I have been stuck with mine now for what seems like ages. Thanks!
Evocare - As far as I know, the decay process didn't actually change at all. Players are racking up a whole lot more champ spawn points then they used to, though.
Evocare - I'd like to see some method for selecting your title, but that isn't on the near-term schedule right now.
LadyTygress - *Azrile* when is phase 3 of housing going to start?
Evocare - Only MrTact can answer that one accurately right now, and since he isn't here, I can't get you a good answer, sorry. =[
LadyTygress - *RECoyote* why do we have dex loss? TLC had a show on armor showing a guy in full plate, sword, and sheild doing cartwheels.
Evocare - I saw that show too! ;]
Evocare - However, we have it because that's the only tradeoff for getting higer AR values right now
Evocare - It may not stay that way forever though... certain expansions are rumored to have many changes to combat and items. ;]
LadyTygress - *Companion_Black-Ram* UOLBR had Figures created, Is there anything planned to go with AOS, maybe a Hanse Doll which I can practice voodoo on?
* Hanse already has a Blackram doll.
Evocare - No plans for action figures to go with AoS right now.
Evocare - Especially after hearing what you have to say about them!
Evocare - ;]
LadyTygress - *Paxicon[CF]* Question: Do we have a ETA on when the "Zero damage spell" bug will be fixed? Just got back from some VERY bizaare duels, ruined by this bug :(
Evocare - Soon. We have it scheduled for an emergency fix, so as soon as it has passed QA, it'll be fixed.
Evocare - I've had it cause quite a bit of weirdness in duels myself, so trust me, I know the feeling ;]
LadyTygress - *Ravenspyre* What can you tell us about the planned combat changes coming up?
Evocare - Not much right now! Har! =]
LadyTygress - *Legendary_BankSitter* Will we be able to make checks greater than 1 million soon? many transactions are quite over 1 million and makes it hard to verify
Evocare - Oh jeez hello Mr Moneybags... ;]
Evocare - Vex is preparing a serious answer to this question btw... so don't despair!
Vex - I'd like to eventually see a system where banking and currency handling in the game are a bit more streamlined than slinging around stacks of gold coin or shuffling checks like decks of cards. But, we're not working in that area of the game right now and so, no, it's not on our schedule to make any changes about bank checks. Sorry. :(
LadyTygress - *Efils_God* Coke or pepsi?
Evocare - Coke
Fertbert - Coke
Sannio - Pepsi
* Hanse drowns his Blackram doll in a pool of pepsi. Coca cola is too good for it.
Sannio - shakes his Pepsi can and sprays the Dev team
Sannio - makes sure he goes for the eyes, of course
LadyTygress - and fifteen years later, Hanse, Evocare, Sannio, and Fertbert are still duking it out over the best soft drink
LadyTygress - *Wrath* how much does youre job effect youre Social life and family? is it tough to maintain both
Evocare - It affects it much, at this very moment I can hear my 20 month old son doing something suspicous in the other room!
Sannio - I moved from to Texas for my job at OSI, so my social interactions took a huge dive by coming here. Thankfully I didn't have much of a live beforehand, so things didn't change much for me. ;}
Evocare - He probably ate the couch ;]
LadyTygress - *Companion_Black-Ram* When is this Hunt the Dev Team event going to take place?? would be a great opportunity for an 5th yr Anniversary Event
Sannio - The "Hunt for Tajima" as we were calling it, has been postponed.
Sannio - We're still looking into throwing some neat Dev Team-based events, tho, so don't despair.
Evocare - We often have the "Flame the dev team on uo.com" event going, that seems to be very popular and fun!
Evocare - ;]
Sannio - One of the primary goals was to try to make sure any player could participate. Having a hunt implied combat, and it's hard to compare compbat with a brand new character against combat with a vet chatacter.
Sannio - We wanted to make sure players weren't required to participate only if we held the event on their home shard.
Sannio - We may have another event or two before we can return to the Hunt for Tajima project. We haven't completely tabled it, but we want to give it appropriate attention, and give everyone the chance to kill him equally. ;}
LadyTygress - *Kehleyr* Are there any plans for another UO FanFest next year, if so roughly speaking, when would it be held?
Evocare - Whoa there Lady Tygress, Sannio might have more to say on the last question before we move on! ;]
Sannio - Nope, I was done.
* Sannio winks
Evocare - The UO FanFest is an event organized by our overworked marketing department, so unfortunately, as developers, we don't have an answer for you on that front. =[
LadyTygress - *Dupre* Will AoS be 1 copy per account as LBR was?
Evocare - Ack, once again, a question for people not on the development team (studio execs and marketing). So, I really don't have an answer for that one either, sorry folks!
LadyTygress - *Thorwan* When can we expect further information on how the House Design Tool will work? Will it be like designing a 'Sims' home, or more like moving things with the Interior Decorator?
Vex - The interface as it is now is more like painting than drag-and-drop. Alai and Greyburn have been busting their humps designing an interface into the client that is smooth and easy as can be. Since we're not using the limited "generic gump" system for the interface, we can do fancy things like drag a targeting cursor to paint an entire wall in one motion. More information on the whole system will be forthcoming in October some time
Evocare - To summarize, it's very Sims-esque, as far as UO goes. ;]
LadyTygress - *Loki|Atl* Are bows ever going to be made repairable? Possibly with bowcraft skill... A good bow will last a lifetime if cared for properly, just like armor or a sword
Hanse - Ever? No idea.
Hanse - It's not on our plates right now, tho...
LadyTygress - *Legendary_BankSitter* is mindblast ever going to be balanced? i noticed particularly when poisoned it can do 50+ damage, thats not right.
Evocare - Honestly, I find mindblast to be fairly well balanced right now... it's gotten to the point where you can't rely on it to be a sure-fire way to do ebolt-like damage or more.
Evocare - It might be that you need an Ultimate Scroll of Power to help balance your stats a bit more ;]
Evocare - However, poison doesn't affect mindblast damage at all.
LadyTygress - *Azimuth* Can you make any comment on the reaction that was given by the players reguarding Buying new characters for Real Life Money? Are there any plans to terminate the program?
Evocare - Once again, this isn't really a dev team question. However, my personal take on the matter is that all the serious character development happens between 85 - 100 (or even 120 for that matter), not between 50 and 85.
Evocare - I do understand the concerns that players have, but I do believe the impacts have been dramaticized somewhat.
LadyTygress - *Paxicon[CF]* Any chance of having "Faction blessed runics" removed? It is somewhat unbalancing to have people run around with 1 million gold weapons that hit for 80 - 95 damage agaist barbed leather that are also BLESSED...
Evocare - Hmm, despite most often playing a mage in factions myself, I can't say I've ever seen my gold halberd on another one of my characters do 80 - 95 damage ;]
Evocare - However, as I've mentioned before, there are a ton of changes coming to UO combat in AoS.
Fertbert - many changes :)
Evocare - These concerns will be factored into the equation as we strive for more diversity, more interesting combat, and a more fun UO in general. =]
* Hanse winks.
LadyTygress - *Barrackas* Will there be any new 2D art for wearable items with AOS?
Evocare - We are looking into the possibility, but I can't promise it at this point. It is very possible that a number of technical and time limitations may make it impossible.
Evocare - It is something we *want* to do, however.
LadyTygress - *Frost_Merchant* another question, how does a player get to beable to help the dev team design items or new things into the game? many of us have cool ideas on how to make game more effieceint.
* LadyTygress starts the clock
* Sannio chuckles
Sannio - Anyone with an idea can feel free to share it, regardless of age.
Sannio - A great place to share your ideas are the official UO.com message boards, at boards.uo.com.
LadyTygress - Please do not send questions to me, they will be ignored. Send your questions to DarekSteele, NewtonD, Peaches, or Phoenix
Sannio - The Discussions board wuold be best, and by sharing your ideas there and allowing other players to comment on it, and suggest improvements, that can help us out in seeing the sorts of ideas and features players would like.
Sannio - Of course, we can't guarantee anything will entr into the game that's suggested, but new ideas have to start somewhere, and your wish list is as good a place to start as anywhere.
* LadyTygress stops the clock
* Sannio smiles
LadyTygress - *Vector* My question for the dev team is - where do you (hpe to) see UO five years from now?
Evocare - Alive and kicking ;]
Sannio - Everywhere. ;}
Fertbert - 10yr anniversary
LadyTygress - Actually, they're secretly shipping it to Antarctica
Fertbert - shhh, don't tell :)
LadyTygress - *Aleata* There was talk about making it where, instead of having to take all the gold off your vendor at one time, you could control how much you took. Is that still being considered?
Vex - Right now we're not working with that area of the game, so that's not on the schedule. When we next to get to a place where we are doing work on vendors, this would definitely be a good thing to do.
LadyTygress - *RECoyote* What about etheral pack animals for crafters as vet rewards?
Hanse - Nope.
Hanse - Least, not this time around...
LadyTygress - Unfortunately, that is all that we have time for tonight. Once again, we thank the Ultima Online developers for coming here during their off-time, and answering our questions. You can view the chat logs on our website at http://uo.ianstorm.com
Evocare - There is some bad mojo surrounding what ammounts to giving players a blessed container =[
LadyTygress - Thank you all for joining us as well for this developer chat. Open discussion will continue in the #Ultima-Online channel. Our next developer chat will be in November, and we'll see you all then!
* LadyTygress smacks Evocare for answering after the goodbyes