Ultima Online Storm Chat 9
Date: August 21, 2003
Topic: General Discussion
Moderated by: Kehleyr
Kehleyr - Welcome to the 9th UO StormChat! Thankyou to everyone for joining us!
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.
Kehleyr - Our question takers are: Meerkat, DarekSteele, Rayaru & myself
Kehleyr - Tonight's topic will be: General Discussions. All inappropriate questions, including those about UX:O will be ignored :)
Kehleyr - and here we go
Kehleyr - *Sir_Loin_of_Beef* are there plans to make Necro Regs deedable and if so, how long out is that?
Vex - I may be mistaken, but I don't think it's on the list for Pub 20. But I'll make note and try my best to make sure we fix it in the next possible publish.
Kehleyr - *drewniu* Event Moderators are being selected. When can we expect first scenarios?
Sannio - Actually, we've already filled all the Event Moderators.
Sannio - They're getting ramped up and prepped for the action. I can't give you a schedule on when you'll see them and how, but expect to see them fairly soon. No use waiting for the fun to begin!
Kehleyr - *Kurgan* Will there be anymore tiles added to the house custom menu.. IE Villa archways, platforms, half stairs.
Vex - It's definitely possible. We have no plans right now solid enough for me to go into any detail about, though.
Kehleyr - *drewniu* Artifacts should be a rare item in the game. Is there any chance that they would become cursed?
Vex - Some artifacts are cursed; they're designed to be. Right now, because of the fact that they are so difficult to obtain, we don't want them to be able to be permanently destroyed.
Vex - In fact, Pub 20 makes a lot of magic items that currently aren't repairable, repairable.
Vex - One thing we do hope to do is introduce new and different artifacts slowly over time, to keep things fresh.
Vex - We've also been looking more deeply into the issue of items that can now last forever due to the fact that repair no
Vex - decisions have been made on that score yet, but it is an issue we're aware of and have been discussing.
Kehleyr - *SmokeSerpent* Golems... you know the issues I'm sure. Are there any more fixes for them coming soon?
Vex - There are some specific golem issues we're hoping to fix in a near future publish. They didn't make Pub 20, but we are aware of the problems.
Vex - We also want to continue making combat balance adjustments all around, and have been carefully looking at a lot of feedback about it that we've gathered these last few weeks.
Kehleyr - *keri* The no blocking ability of wraith form does not work correctly. For female necros it does not work at all and for males it often breaks when crossing server lines. Any planned fixes?
MrTact - Speaking specifically to the issue of stuff "falling off" things when you cross server lines, I have several of these bugs in my inbox.
MrTact - I hope to clean them all up in one fell swoop, possibly (emph. POSSIBLY :-) for pub 21
MrTact - As far as the female necro problem . . . that wasn't something I personally was aware of, but I'll make sure it gets looked into.
Kehleyr - *Riku* i would like to know what the dev team is planning to do about all these ppl that are editing items using html.
Vex - I think right now we're leaning towards disabling it. It was an unanticipated "feature" (i.e. bug) that we decided to leave in the game because it was extremely cool.
Vex - Unfortunately it's also way too easy to abuse -- each time we try to fix one method of abusing it, another one pops up.
Vex - No final decisions have been made, however.
Kehleyr - *SmokeSerpent* MrTact, has the field-spells-on-boats bug made the cut for Publish20?
Vex - Unfortunately we were unable to address that bug for Pub 20. We are currently running over budget on our development and quality assurance time for that publish, so we're being extremely strict about what we put into the publish.
Vex - It will remain on our list of bugs to fix and we'll get it in the next available publish.
Kehleyr - *Ellisande* Will counselors come back, now that we have Seers again? Can we have IC weddings and engraved rings and such, again?
Sannio - The Event Moderators are employees of OSI, and their jobs will be a bit different than the Seers of the past.
Sannio - The introduction of the EMs aren't meant to be an indication that the volunteer programs will be revitalized.
Sannio - Still, you'll probably see some similarities over time. The EMs will be assisting in creating Seer- and IGM-style events.
Sannio - I don't have any details regarding their participation in weddings and such.
Kehleyr - *keri* Is there anything at all for archers/bowyers that might end up in Publish 20? I know enhancing bows is a ways off but a fix for archery buttes so they work again would be nice. I miss the Best Shot in the Realm events.
Vex - Unfortunately we couldn't find room for archery butts in Pub 20 either. The problems turned out to be more complex than expected. We'll try again for the next publish.
Vex - General Archery enhancements continue to be something we really want to do but can never really find the development bandwidth for. Right now we don't have any firm plans. Sorry, I wish I had a better answer.
Kehleyr - *JediDeamon* What inspired these Vendor House Rune things? Reading up on them they are not something we need and already have in the game, we just have some nifty color for the rune.
Sannio - The house runestones were originally in the upcoming vendor improvements in the "house shop" set of additions. The shops part was pulled, but we gave a second thought to the house runestones.
Sannio - Most of the work on that aspect was already done, and it was made in such a way that it could be disconnected and made it's own feature all its own.
Sannio - The aspects that make up the house runes may not seem like much, but we expect they'll help out players a bit while also help our GMs (as players put in less help calls that pertain to mislabelled runes).
Kehleyr - *Kurgan* Just curious, Will the lake above the shrine of Justice ever be able to have boats in it again? I know they are unable to be placed there due to a submarine boat bug abit ago. But this was fixed.
Vex - At some point way in the past all landlocked areas were blocked from boat placement along with dungeons. It was so long ago I'm not even sure why the overland non-dungeon lakes were blocked.
Vex - So, I can't even begin to answer that question. However, it's definitely something to think about -- if it makes sense and an opportunity presents, I'll look into the possibility of allowing boats in lakes again.
Kehleyr - *Barrackas* Are there any plans in the future to expand the Ultima Online service far beyond what we currently have (perhaps including transfering characters to new worlds etc)?
MrTact - We have lots of plans for the future of UO.
MrTact - Alas, I cannot tell you specifically what any of them are right now.
MrTact - I will say the example you cite is something we have considered.
Kehleyr - *Vulcin* I put a suggestion in stratics about tailors making bags and also saddlebags that give mounts the same ability as giant beetles. What does the dev team think of it and waht is the likelyhood of it coming to UO?
Vex - It is a good idea, and next time we find ourselves doing significant work with ridables it's definitely something we'll add to the pile of ideas.
Kehleyr - *CallistaStormwriter* With the new housing placement rules, are there plans to have homes be able to be placed on uneven terrain? There are lots of open areas where the land is only slightly bumpy!
Cytherea - From what I have seen, I don't think so. It would be pretty dangerous after all...rats might come in and destroy the furniture ;)
Kehleyr - *Kurgan* With the skill/stat gains that MrTact posted about. I still only find myself gaining maybe 1 or 2 stat points in a good 2+ hrs of game play. And this is a new char.
MrTact - There was a bug that was preventing people from gaining stats off several skills.
MrTact - I *believe* that is fixed in pub 20. In fact, I will go so far as to say I'm almost positive it is.
MrTact - That should help.
Kehleyr - *drewniu* Since AoS it's impossible for thieves to steal any kind of container. Can we expect a fix for that bug anytime soon?
Vex - To be completely honest this is the first I've heard of that. I've made a note to ask our Bug Fix Taskmasters (I mean, Revered Quality Assurance Personnel) to check into it and forward me any relevant information. It sounds like something we should definitely try to fit in a near future publish.
Kehleyr - *chris21688* When will we see more virtues coming in future publishes and what happened to the old ones in the in concept section?
Sannio - Some of the older "update center" documents became outdated, including those Virtues docs you mentioned.
Sannio - After reviewing the concepts that were posted, and giving a cursury exploration to those features, it was decided they weren't feasible as designed. So we went back to the drawing board.
Sannio - But, don't take that as a "we give up" attitude! We went back to the drawing board and started workingon some alternate ideas for the remaining Virtues. I can't say exactly when those ideas will be posted, because we want to make sure they're pretty solid gameplay-wise before announcing anything.
Kehleyr - *wilki24* Who is Cytherea?
Cytherea - I'm one of the server programmers. I joined up almost a year ago and I've been working on bug fixes mostly
Kehleyr - *thestarrmachine* There seems to be a trend in the overall fanbase for MMORPGs where people grow more and more tired of spending time gaining skill, and leveling up. More and more people want to focus far more on "endgame" than advancement. Are there any plans to signifigantly speed advancement in either UO or that other "super secret project"?
MrTact - Re: UO -- It's something we've discussed.
MrTact - Re: Super-secret project -- I cannot help thee with that
Kehleyr - *Ellisande* But Cytherea is NOT Cynthe? :P
Cytherea - No, I'm not. The names are confusing eh ? Perhaps I'll switch mine to Rea.
Sannio - Cynthe has actually moved into another, non-UO project of ours, so since you won't be seeing the sames side-by-side so much some of the confusion may work itself out on it. (And if you were wondering: I've been tasked with taking over Cynthe's OCR duties. :)
Kehleyr - *Captain_Lou* Is there any plans to make a house designer Space to allow a safe way to have someone design your house
Vex - That's a feature we actually wanted to make part of house design at the launch of Age of Shadows. Unfortunately we didn't have time to complete it, so it went back onto the back burner.
Kehleyr - *Sir_Loin_of_Beef* I have often thought that it would be cool if you could either be a human player or a monster as well in the game. Have you guys considered that?
Vex - That's an idea that has come up several times over the history of UO. All iterations of the dev team, including this one, have given that idea a lot of thought.
Kehleyr - *Paradox* are there any plan's to look into the skill gain bug's on Siege?namely parry,magic resist past 90 and a few other's
MrTact - Since it is looking increasingly like the overhaul of skill gain is going to happen later rather than sooner, I will probably bite the bullet, dive into the big scary morass that is the skill gain code, and try to resolve those problems.
Kehleyr - *chris21688* How will we be able to mark the vendor house runes?
Vex - It works just like marking any rune -- you need the necessary components and Magery skill (or a scroll and a bit less skill).
Vex - Instead of marking on the ground, you just stand in the house and mark the rune. The target location of the rune will become an area near the house sign.
Vex - So, the rune won't take you into the house. But it'll get you close. With any such rune, you can be sure that it will take you into a housing area instead of, say, the bottom of Hythloth.
Kehleyr - *Templar* Are there any plans to review the looting rights in Pub20 (so that we don't get stuck with the current situation where a couple of spells is enough to get rights to a corpse of a champion level monster)?
MrTact - We have talked about this, and our conclusion is that having someone get looting rights off a boss for doing a "mere" couple hundred points of damage sucks way less than having a paladin with a slayer weapon & EOO come in and get all the scrolls.
MrTact - We are therefore going to stop messing with looting rights for a while, though (hey! It's UO) probably not forever :-)
MrTact - You can still reduce the likelihood of someone "kill-stealing" scrolls by taking several friends with you . . . statistically, the latecomer will be less likely to get a scroll the more people are involved in the spawn hunting.
Kehleyr - *kevo* Can we expect to see any new necro or chivalry spell in the future..... ie... a bless or hiding spell for both
Vex - These kinds of expansions to existing systems are always in our thoughts when we begin to plan publishes.
Kehleyr - *Garaba* is the nightsight fixes in pub 20
MrTact - We are planning some fairly comprehensive cleanup of lighting in general, and that is NOT in pub 20.
MrTact - However . . .
* MrTact sighs
MrTact - That bug, you know, the one where we broke lighting in the 3D client pretty much exactly the way we broke it in the 2D client a publish or two ago?
MrTact - THAT *should* be fixed for pub 20.
Kehleyr - *Purple_Llama* What are the chance of getting dyeable pets tubs?
Vex - To be completely frank, I doubt we could pull that off in a way that wouldn't make everyone's eyes bleed from looking at it.
Vex - *Some* creatures, mostly reptiles, were designed with the idea that they could be re-hued and hve it look good.
Vex - But, as we've seen with the original faction war horses, re-hueing a piece of creature art changes the color of every part of the artwork.
Vex - They don't work like, say, a bed, where the system can change the color of the cloth part while keeping the wood part un-hued.
Vex - Colored pets is something that woudld be nice to do, if only the artwork was better suited to it.
Kehleyr - *Okie-Dokie* Any chance on getting a safe way to change your house size without doing the risky demolish / frantically replace / scurry to move everything back on your plot routine?
Vex - That is something we tried to get working as part of the launch of Age of Shadows as well, but it was another part of the housing feature that was just too buggy for us to complete in time to ship it.
Vex - It's possible we'll be able to complete development of that feature at a future time.
Kehleyr - *Steveo* how many mongbats would it take to kill an ancient wyrm?
Vex - I guess it depends on whether or not Hanse has been using the game editor to buff the mongbats...
MrTact - "The world may never know . . . "
Sannio - MrTact stole my answer, darnit!
Cytherea - if it's ancient, i guess it'd be just a pile of dust
Kehleyr - Thankyou to Vex, MrTact, Sannio and Cytherea for taking the time to answer our questions this Thursday evening. It was definitely great to finally meet Cytherea!
Kehleyr - And a special thankyou to everyone who attended tonight!
Sannio - Thanks everyone for coming!
Cytherea - ciao!