Five on Friday - June 22, 2007

"When are you going to fix [insert KR concern]?"
We're at a pretty good spot to forecast some of the changes you'll be seeing in upcoming patches.

  • First, make sure you read today's client patch notes and server patch notes.
  • Next, short-term changes (the next patch or two):
    • Bug fixes
    • Slider bar to shrink and enlarge UI elements
    • Zoom in and out added to the scroll wheel
    • Lots of optimization and speed improvements
    • Gamma slider - make it as light or as dark as you want!
  • Then, middle-term changes (after the next patch or two to a month or so out):
    • Bug Fixes
    • Adding more macros - as many as we (and you) can think of
    • Optimizations! We want KR to run as smoothly as possible for as many people as possible
    • Monster size issues - we will be doing another pass on various monster sizes
    • Female paperdoll improvements - including prettier faces and a different stance.
    • Improvements to the chat system - we'd like it to be more robust and easier to use
    • Unfuzzinating - there are some tweaks we have planned that should prevent the excessive pixelation that many players are seeing
    • More map features!
    • Windowed mode (so you can see your taskbar and still have the UO window full size)
    • Sticky inventory - stuff stays where you put it in grid view, and stays in the order you select in list view.
    • Stuff y'all ask for between now and then

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"Where did all the old credits go?"
The scrolling credits in the client were getting awfully long, so we moved the old ones here! If you haven't looked at them in a while, go and check them out - I know I had a great time remembering all of those old names, and tracing my co-worker's career paths :P.

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"Why is my pet/item/article of clothing all one solid color/not the right color?"
Sorry for the multiple-question-stacking; the answer is the same for all of them - namely, the partial huing system hasn't been implemented yet. That is actually an engineering feature rather than an art feature, for the most part, so it's more complicated than giving CatHat some teeny paintbrushes to paint all the different parts of things different colors :P

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"What is this "live event content" business?"
Show up on TC1 tomorrow and find out!

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Account Age Update:
It appears that accounts are aging correctly again - however, the process may take some time to catch up on all characters. We expect that catching-up to take up to two weeks, so don't be surprised if your account age is showing differently on different characters in the meantime.

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Candle of Love Progress!
The Candle of Love has been lit on all shards! (On Trammel, at least - if you still want to participate, check out Felucca, but hurry! We will be turning off the event entirely next week!)

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UO's Looking for A Few Good Britannians!
Looking to get into the industry? Love UO and want to personally help make it the best game it can be? Have some writing and scripting skills? Well this could be your lucky day! We have openings on the UO team for designers! Experience is preferred, but this could be your chance to get a foot in the industry door without starting in the CS or QA pit. Get your resume together and email it to EDalberg AT ea DOT com, with the subject line "UO Designer Resume."

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Bit short this week, as all of my usual go-to guys for gameplay questions have to be physically pried away from the KR code to eat and sleep - I don't want to break their groove. Check out the new KR patch, and have a good weekend!


- Jeremy

See Also