Five on Friday - August 1, 2008
"What loot does Melissa drop?"
I realize this is going to be obsolete almost as soon as I post it, but y'all did ask, and I did find out the answer. Melissa drops two unique items - the Pearl Necklace and Melissa's Cloak - plus a 25k point Spring Cleaning ticket. But the other loot she drops is Peerless-level, which includes rare crafting materials, set armor, artifacts and other items - AND Dark Father-intensity random loot, PLUS a chance to drop ML minor arties. All in all, that's a lot of loot.
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"Can the new seeds (announced at the Town Hall) be cross-pollinated?"
No - none of the new seeds can be cross-pollinated, including the Cocoa tree. The non-cocoa seeds will drop as "a peculiar seed" by certain (TBD) monsters. They won't give seeds of their own and won't give resources. The upside? There are ten possible plants the seeds can grow into!
The Cocoa tree will come from "a fragrant seed", also dropped by monsters, and will give the "cocoa pulp" resource, which Chefs can render into Cocoa Liquor or Cocoa Butter. They will also give more fragrant seeds.
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"I know you can't tell us about exploits, but how many have you fixed recently?"
This is a fair question, and so I did some digging through my internal publish notes and took a rough count from Publish 51 on:
- Major Exploits: 4
- Moderate Exploits: 9
- Minor Exploits: 7
Major would be dupes, server crash bugs, severely imbalancing gameplay bugs (God-mode level stuff.) Moderate would be mid-level cheats and exploitable bugs. Minor would be bugs that are exploitable, but don't pose much gameplay or economy balance risk (being able to get inappropriately-colored cloth, for an example.) This is just a quick eyeballing of my mailbox, but is fairly representative of how much gets fixed per publish that we don't tell you about, and in what proportion.
If you're interested in our Bug Report Reward Program, we're primarily going to reward for Major-level bugs, although you will have our eternal gratitude for any and all reproducible bugs you send us.
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QA Request of the Week
QA has gotten a few bug reports involving people being unable to join the Thieves' Guild. However, they haven't been able to reproduce the problem at all, so they'd love to see more reports, with as much detail as possible. Things like how much real Stealing your character has, if your character is wearing +skill jewelry, how old the character is, even which NPC you're talking to (and where - shard, facet, town, etc) might be of use. Also please report the message (or lack thereof) you are receiving.
Joining the Thieves' Guild requires 60 points of Stealing and 500 gold given to the Thief Guildmaster - at least in theory. Thanks for your help!
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Now Hiring!
We're looking for someone to be our new Associate Game Designer. Here's the job description and requirements:
- Main responsibilities: Contribute significantly to game fiction, manage events, balance gameplay, and develop content using proprietary scripting tools.
- Understanding and or knowledge of Ultima Online game mechanics, history, and community interaction a definite plus.
- Experience as a Game Master, Counselor, Seer, or Event Moderator for Ultima Online a bonus.
- 2+ years experience playing Ultima Online
- Position requires dependable and relevant inputs to current state of the game, as well as contributing to future development of the game experience
- Gives inputs to other members of the team to enhance gameplay for the current subscriber base
- Due to the demanding scripting system surrounding Ultima Online, the designer must have expansive knowledge of scripting languages and have the ability to produce samples of work using similar tools.
- Level editing experience and module creation using open source gaming engines (Infinity, Unreal 2.5 or 3, Doom, Source, Aurora Toolset).
- Background or exposure to game development processes in the industry
- Essential to have experience working in small teams of 4-6 people.
- 3DS Max experience preferred
- 2+ years in the game industry and/or gaming school preferred
- Can demonstrate understanding of game design concepts to include flow, decision making, engaging storyline, and integration of art and sound
If you're interested in (and qualified for) this position, please send your resume to jdalberg AT ea DOT com and I'll put it in the right hands right away! Also please note, the position is in Fairfax, VA.
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What's To Come:
The "Death of the Council" event will be turned off on all shards at some point tonight - turning the event off is a manual process, and there are a lot of shards, so I can't promise you a specific timeframe, but you can expect the event to be ending shortly.
The Spring Cleaning collection and reward NPCs will be hanging around a while yet - I should be able to give you at least a week's notice to finish your clean-up and claim your rewards before they depart for other, more spring-like lands.
The next publish is grinding its way into existence, but is still at least a few weeks away. When it gets a bit closer I should have more details to share with you. The next publish will contain the next phase of the event - that I can say with moderate confidence :P
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Town Hall News:
No rest for the wicked - the next Town Hall approaches! This one is in Seattle and I would strongly suggest that you make room on your calendar to come hang out with us - check out the details here and please do RSVP.
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Fansite News:
Whispering Rose Radio is recovered from the Town Hall and ready for action!
- The WRR road crew is back from last weekends exciting San Diego UO Town Hall and is ready for a packed full of fun weekend with some shard hopping......
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- Friday - Aug. 1st - It's time once again for UO Shard Chatter with TorAnn, Dr. Lil and PantherBabe starting at 7pm PST, 10pm EST on WRR. Hear UO players chat about this weeks game topics and other UO news!! The weekly show finishes with the "You know you have been playing UO to long when..." segment where very comical endings are presented by UO listeners. Feel free to send yours in (ICQ numbers can be found on the www.wrrad.com website).
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- Saturday - Aug. 2nd - Tune into the the Brush LimpPaw show starting at 2pm PST, 5pm EST to hear his Universal Outlook on current events as only he can deliver it.
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- Saturday - Aug. 2nd - Deal or NO Deal 'UO Style' is back and ready to give everyone the opportunity to win 10 Mil on the shard of their choice. (1/3 Siege). Join the fun on Oceania starting at 3pm PT, 6pm ET (Sunday, Aug. 3rd - 8am Sydney). Click here for map of location and more details.
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- Saturday - Aug. 2nd - After the Deal or No Deal 'UO Style' stay tuned as DJ Dr. Lil hops over to the Legends shard to lend a hand and cover the T^R scavenger Hunt where players have the opportunity to win many fabulous prizes! Hear it live on WRR starting at 5:30pm PT, 8:30pm ET.
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- Saturday - Aug. 2nd - After the T^R scavenger hunt on Legends its time to hop over to the Pacific shard for WRR Casino night starting at 7pm PT, 10pm ET. Play games like Black Jack, Hi or Low, and everyone's favorite ... Lich Ball!! If you're not from Pacific no worries! DJ Sandman will exchange gold on your shard for gold on Pacific and transfer your winnings back to your home shard ... FREE!! Click here for map location and detail information.
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- Sunday - Aug. 3rd - The Pacific Auction House (located just East of the Luna Moongate) continues after 4 fantastic years to bring you more great deals. Get there early for best seating. Auction starts at 12pm PST, 3pm EST and is broadcasted live on WRRadio.
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- So pack your bags for some shard hopping fun this weekend on Ultima Online while listening to the broadcasts from WRR ~ see you all on the flip side.
PaxOku City on Chesapeake has several events coming up:
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- Blue Light Play House Presents:
- "A Day In The Life Of A Miner"
- Friday August 1st 9:00pm est
- Join us in PaxOku City (Chesapeake, Tokuno Islands, Homare-Jima Moongate) for our Friday show. PaxLair Statehood puts on a play every Friday and all are welcome from every shard. Gates provided from Luna along with Runes.
- Tonight's play is brought you you by UOTradespot. We thank all of our sponsors.
- Kijustsu Anei Grave Yard Presents:
- Wake The Dead! (Trial Run)
- Friday August 1st 8:00pm est
- Kijustsu Anei Village inside of PaxOku city is putting on a different kind of event. Wake The Dead is what it says it is. Come to the graveyard and bring Bells, Fireworks, Lutes, harps and whatever else is the most annoying sound in the world and wake up the dead!
- More information here
- PaxOku Crafters Society Friday Event at 7:00pm est
- OkuC Crafters Hall is located next to the Homare-Jima moongate on the Chesapeake shard. They offer FREE repairs, Enhancements and Furniture Crafting (Normal Wood). They also offer BOD requests, Training and Advice.
- (Please only give items to OkuC members. Giving them to someone not in OkuC is done at your own risk.)
- PaxOku City is looking for capable Roleplayers to become apart of the city. No requirements. Come and go as you please. We are looking for people to help run city events, Actors, Writers, Bartenders, Crafters, Waitress and more. Contact us on UOForums here.
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I'm almost recovered from San Diego...
- Jeremy