Difference between revisions of "Ultima Online Storm Chat 11"

Latest revision as of 00:44, 27 December 2008

Date: December 18, 2003
Topic: Publish 22 & General Discussion
Moderated by: TrinityX

TrinityX - Welcome to the 11th UO StormChat! Thank you to everyone for joining us tonight!
TrinityX - 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.
TrinityX - Our question takers tonight are: Peaches, Silverfoot, and Malkes Talren. They are easily recognised by the [IS] in front of thier names.
TrinityX - Tonight's topic will be: Publish 22. All inappropriate questions will be ignored!
TrinityX - We will also being taking General Discussion questions
TrinityX - So send in your questions folks! ;)

TrinityX - *Kurgan* With the recent changes made to pets. Will we ever have the ability to train other parts of the pets? IE resistance, I think this would make a great addition to those like me who love to train pets.. Or would this be considered to over powered?
Vex - Anything's possible. I can't say that right now we're planning specifically to do that.
Vex - I'll make sure that suggestion gets included when we next discuss Taming changes.

TrinityX - *The_Traveler* Will the paladin gate on TS be fixed to give higher STR and will we see a thief gate added?
Vex - The advancement gates on Test Sosaria exactly match the advanced character templates that can be purchased on regular shards.
Vex - I'll double-check the Paladin gate next time I'm logged in there and make sure it has the right value for STR.
Vex - If the value is correct and you feel the Paladin template just needs more STR, then email that to vex@uo.com as a suggestion and I'll forward it to those responsible.

TrinityX - *DancesWithWolfs* I just want to compliment you all a fine job you are doing @ osi I know you musttake lot grifeform players@ times but i must say thank you such a wonderful game
Sannio - Although that's not really a question, on behalf of the team: Thank you. We'll try to keep on producing a game that you enjoy. Expect to continue seeing improvements, updates, and additions in the next year. :]

TrinityX - *Krrios* Question: in the last client patch, there were two versions of both snowflakes and poisnettias. From what I've seen, however, the gift packages contained only one fixed version of each. What were the others for?
Vex - The alternative snowflake and poinsettia were added in for future expansion. Right now we haven't planned exactly when or how they'll appear. :)
Vex - Just to clear up any rumors or doubt, those items don't appear as gifts at all. They aren't rare -- they just don't exist yet at all.

TrinityX - *FatManDancing* Any plans on making pvp timing based again (based on the players timing with spells or special attacks)? In other words like it was pre Uo:R (not asking for a pre UO:R rule set here but a pvp system that is timing based like it was). It was like a sport back then, you needed practice to be good. Right now you just need items and money to cover those items.
Adrick-OSI - Ive been reading the boards and see questions like this alot - as vex said anything is possible :)
Adrick-OSI - right now though no plans to do this

TrinityX - *Minotaur2k* Will the EM program be extended? Some of us really would like to know sometime soon.
Sannio - It has not yet been officially confirmed whether or not the Event Moderator program will continue. Once the official thumbs-up (or thumbs-down) occurs, we'll be sure to let everyone know with a news post at UO.com.

TrinityX - *Minotaur2k* Since there was few to no changes and improvements to PvP in P22, can we expect a bunch of them in P23? Maybe a fix to factions? Capping of properties?
Vex - The next two publishes are going to be 1> A normal six-week bug fix and minor feature tweak publish and 2> Character Transfer, as discussed on In Development. Right now are plans are to dedicate the Character Transfer publish solely to that feature and include nothing else with it. Right now the schedule is undetermined -- I don't know the order of those two publishes or their tentative schedule dates.

TrinityX - *RacerX* I asked this in the last chat, but it bears repeating: The familiar bug whereby "legal" targets can give you a murder count because the familiar became "criminal" for attacking your target, any progress on this?
Adrick-OSI - In pub 21 I had several flagging / pet type bugs - perhaps this one was overlooked and I shall forward it to QA to reconfirm is happening if it was not addressed along with the others

TrinityX - *POIUYT_LS* Will more blocking issues be addressed? It is easier to walk through the woods than it was before, but there is still a lot of tanglefoot.
Vex - The plan is to continue with the second phase at our earliest opportunity. Some terrain tiles had to be left as blocking tiles due to strange draw order bugs. And there is a bit of weirdness involving the terrain "translation" that happens between Trammel and Felucca.
Vex - We do plan to finalize those fixes, but right now I don't know the client programmers' schedule with respect to that, sorry.

TrinityX - *PinkHatThug* I heard the dragon barding on swamp dragons was bugged(20% dmg reduction off on all resistances when it should be 20 off physical) this was supposed to be fixed in p21 or 20 but never made it...will we see it fixed anytime soon?
Vex - Like Adrick said earlier, "D'oh...? I'll send a request to our QA people to see what exactly is broken and we'll schedule it into a regular bug fix publish."
Adrick-OSI - Doh!
Sannio - When sending in bug reports, the ones for normal production shards go to uobugs@uo.com. Bug reports for Test Centers and Test Sosaria go to tcbugs@uo.com.
Sannio - Please make sure to note which shard you saw the bug on, as well as the facet and general location, your account name (but not password) and character, and the steps that we can use to reproduce the bug.

TrinityX - *Raje* ok I was going to ask this. . . Where is the Chessapeak EM and why is Chessapeak not geting events, also is there still a plan to inform the whole shard when events happen I have not been to an event on Chessapeak yet and that is the only shard I am on
Sannio - Actually, the "Lord British Returns" story arc finished up earlier this week, and no more events are planned as part of that plotline.
Sannio - As I mentioned before, we still haven't announced the fate of the Event Program, but should these events continue we'll be taking a long hard look at how we can improve the ways in which we can get players involved.
Sannio - We'll always have to be careful about how many players show up in a specific area at the same time (with all the lag that may create), but we have some ideas on how we can "spread the event lovin'

TrinityX - *Drofala* With the latest pub. was there anything in there addressing crashing issues?
OSI_Speedman - With every publish we look at previous server crashes and how to make the server more robust
OSI_Speedman - So, yes! We're always concerned with stability.
OSI_Speedman - No one likes to see crashes or reverts

TrinityX - *The_Rock* Can you ask instead if fireplace deeds will ever be added for the holidays
Vex - The fireplaces were something I worked on late in the development cycle of Age of Shadows, and had to be cut from the feature list due to our extremely packed schedule.
Vex - I for one would like to see them added to the game. But, we haven't found a publish to put them in yet and I'm not sure how long it will be before we will.
Vex - I guess the best I can do is say "maybe".

TrinityX - *The_Traveler* question: Did any of Speedman's lag fixes get included in Pub 22?
OSI_Speedman - You mean, you didn't notice?
OSI_Speedman - Of course!
OSI_Speedman - This was just the first cycle though. I'm still looking into even more things that can be done to help out with lag
OSI_Speedman - You'll possibly notice less lag where there are lots of people coming and going around you
OSI_Speedman - but i'm still not done, I'll be trying to get some lag fixes into several later publishes

TrinityX - *pittmion* we appreciate the recent fixes for siege skill gain over 100, but is there an estimated time for a fix for resist over 90
OSI_Speedman - This is really a MrTact question, but since he's not here
OSI_Speedman - The short answer is we're looking into addressing the skill gain system in many ways
OSI_Speedman - Some of those include difficulties in gaining skill
OSI_Speedman - In fact, publish 24 is going to make it slightly easier to gain weapons skill

TrinityX - *Kurgan* With all the changes coming with the newer publishes. Will there be anytime to go back and look at the House Deco Tool, Mabye add more tiles to it?
Vex - That is likely to come up in one of the small feature tweak/bug fix Live publish over the next year. Don't know when, but it is something that a lot of us here want to do.

TrinityX - *Raje* when do you think you will impliment the other virtues Warriors are waiting for the virtues to duel and get more bonuses
Sannio - Unfortunately, the remaining Virtues aren't in our short term radar, and won't be appearing in the next few publishes. Beyond that, I can't say. Anything's possible.

TrinityX - *Isiot* With pub 22 certain monsters have seemed to increased in speed. Was this an intended feature?
OSI_Speedman - No monsters have increased in speed that I know of
OSI_Speedman - Except of course the super cows on Test Sosaria :)

TrinityX - *Minotaur2k* Where are our Pink Deer Hats? I know it was a bug in P19 Test, but it was a fun bug =)
Sannio - Sorry, although they may have been funny, we don't have pink deer hats under development. :]

TrinityX - *Purple_Llama* i ask this every time so hear goes again have dyable pet tubs and or pet breeding progressed any further inthe scheme of things?
Sannio - People seem to enjoy coloring things, eh? :} Sorry, pet dye tubs is something else we're not working on at the moment. Same with pet breeding; breeding's not on the radar at this time.
Vex - Well, maybe for *some* of us.
Vex - Oh, you meant *pet* breeding.
Vex - :)
* Sannio laughs
* TrinityX shakes her head

TrinityX - *Minotaur2k* Is there any chance that you would run a System Design Contest, for those of us who are artisitcally challenged? Maybe first prize for the best system design would be implementation into UO in a future Publish.
Sannio - Hm, I've never heard that paricular suggestion before. It's not something that's in the works, and with the behind-the-scenes complexity of the game code/script/programming, I don't know that this would be possible.
Sannio - We'll make sure to pass along your suggestion once we're back in the office, but, again, it's probably not possible.

TrinityX - *Silverfoot* Can you tell us howlong gifts can be recieved.And how you qualify?
Vex - This year's Holiday Gift claiming will be active for approximately 30 days from today...but if history is any indicator it'll probably end up being more like 35 days. :)
Vex - Your character must be a minimum of 30 days old to receive gifts. They are not given to anyone dead, due to strange side-effects that have happened in the past when giving giving gifts to ghosts.
Vex - So, if you're dead when you log in, then resurrect and re-log to get them.
Vex - Sometimes, characters might for some reason not have a bank box. I'm not sure what causes this. But if your character does not have a bank box, you won't receive the gifts. If you think you should receive gifts but aren't getting them, then visi the bank and open your bank box. The box will be created, and then when you relog you'll get the gifts.

TrinityX - *Istanbul* Will wreaths be able to stay up all year or will they come down the same time as christmas trees?
Vex - This year's holiday gift items will be "active" all year long. So, wreaths won't re-deed, snowmen won't melt, and the gift boxes won't lose their luster.
Vex - But, the trees *will* re-deed after the holiday season is past, just like before.
Sannio - Don't forget to pick up your re-deeded holiday trees!

TrinityX - *RacerX* Just a kudos to whomever coded the gifts this year. It's been stated in the past that gifts were usully the byproduct of a dev members "off" time, and if thats the case, I wanna give em a thumbs-up. Nice job!
Vex - Well, they were a group effort. Let me break it down:
Vex - Sannio created the gift box artwork.
Vex - Kerowyn created the poinsettia artwork.
Vex - Binky (one of our Marketing people) created the Snowman and the Wreath
Vex - And, Fertbert did the snowflake
Vex - Fert and I split the technical work to get the gifts into the client...and yours truly recycled some gift delivery code from years past to get 'em to you.

TrinityX - And that ends our 10th UO Storm Chat!
TrinityX - I'd like to give a thanks Sannio, Vex, Adrick, Speedman, and Helios for joining us tonight and answering our questions.
Vex - Happy holiday!
Vex - Er, Holidays!
Sannio - Happy holidays, everyone!
OSI_Speedman - Thanks all :)

See Also

• List of UOSC's