It's been a while since I posted any updates (well, there hasn't been that much UO news /php-bin/shared/images/icons/tongue.gif). But here goes.
The recent UOHOC Chat Log is as follows (courtesy of MYUO and Wilki24 on UHall) :
<blockquote>Topic is 'UOHOC Tonight 6pm PST THursday. TOpic for tonight is General Discussion. Previous logs can be found at
http://uo.stratics.com || Please /msg /query [QT]XenaDragon, [QT]Lyle, & [QT]Nadia'
* Set by Lord-Xanthor on Thu Feb 12 20:33:21
-ChanServ- Welcome, please do not msg anyone other than the question takers listed in the topic. Past UOHOC logs can be found at
http://uohoc.stratics.com Thanks
Lord-Xanthor> *WillX* Is the Dev team aware of the Siege "can't raise above 90" Resist problem, and if so, when can we expect a fix?
<Evocare> yes, we are... Mr.Tact was just informing me yesterday that he had found what causes the problem
<Evocare> we do want to fix it, but I don't know offhand what publish it is scheduled for.
<Lord-Xanthor> <Joshua Rowen>Do the Devs feel that the fact that pure-ish mages have no need for Dex, and
<Lord-Xanthor> thus no need for stat balance, an issue? Why or why not? If so, what have they
<Lord-Xanthor> considered to encourage more balancing? (Tie FC/FCR to dex?)
<Evocare> Optimally, i'd one day like to see mages have a use for dex, much like warriors now have a use for mana
<Evocare> however, it's not likely that we'd implement it in such a way that it would require you to have more dex to use something you already have (like fc items)
<Evocare> players tend to view this as an outright "nerf", and we like to avoid that unless we simply can't
<Evocare> (believe it or not ;])
<Lord-Xanthor> <Simon[asleep]> Hello - a mage can trigger of his/her wrestling special moves through the use of spell damage, is this likely to be fixed in the near future so it is only wrestle damage that driggers off the special moves? Thanks,
<Evocare> Yep, we're aware of this, although we haven't made a final decision as to whether we should leave it as-is or change it.
<Lord-Xanthor> Judas-Deceit> Is there any new information about release of the character transfer system and any rock solid information about any new rumblings from the dev team for UO especially pvp, Any firm numbers for the limits on casting speed and or combat modifiers i.e. hci,dci,regen,lmc, etc.?
<Evocare> I don't have any new information regarding character transfer... however i can comment a little more on the combat balancing
<Evocare> We are indeed planning on putting some caps on various magic properties
<Evocare> although the final numbers are still being discussed, and won't be made public until we're pretty satisfied with all the numbers as a whole package
<Evocare> We certainly understand that putting caps on some of these properties can cause ripple effects on other properties, so we're proceeding with it as holistically as we can.
<Lord-Xanthor> <Salt> The question I want to ask is "Is it possible to remove guards, or allow reds in the Faction Towns in Felucca so that reds can participate in both Champs and Factions? Thanks."
<Evocare> It is possible, and it is worth
<Lord-Xanthor> *SirFist* Can't you tell us anything about the big plans for UO's future? Come on, even car companys let you see concept cars, some of which never make it to production!
<Evocare> Not yet.
<Evocare> Believe me, as soon as we can, we will!
[QT]XenaDragon tries to peek in the kitchen and fails
<Lord-Xanthor> <Ghostface> Do you guys plan on doing anything about rampant speedhacking/house hiding/ teleport bug using, the pvp is at an all time low as a result of these things.
<Evocare> Yes, yes, and yes.
<Evocare> Speedman is tackling the speedhacking problem (how appropriate), we plan on fixing the teleport bug, and we have some ideas about how to curb lame housefighting
<Evocare> Well, more like we've heard some of the good ideas you guys have had about how to curb lame house fighting.
<Evocare> Either way, it is something we want to address. =]
Vex has quit IRC (Quit: Leaving)
<Lord-Xanthor> *Adamantyr* Since you guys seem to be taking the tough questions tonight, how about this: Is the EM program going to continue? And if not, are there plans to bring back scenarios?
<Lord-Xanthor> *Wicked* Any news on the EM's? We've heard nothing since before the holidays.
<Lord-Xanthor> [21:26] <Fertbert> can someone verify his IP and invite him
* [QT]XenaDragon chuckles
* Sannio chuckles
<Sannio> There's no plans to reintroduce Scenarios in the foreseeable future. As for the Event Moderators, they haven't officially returned yet, but things are still looking good toward that program returning at some point in the future. We'll keep you updated as the situation progresses.
<Evocare> relatively near future at that =]
<Lord-Xanthor> <WillX> It was stated in the Stratics Tailor Forum some weeks ago that pub 23 would see changes to Runic Sewing Kits, such that the exceptional bonus would be equal to a regular sewing kit. Is this still scheduled for pub 23?
<Hanse> I don't remember the exact wording.
<Hanse> I think the issue was that the low-end runics are not as valuable as crafting with exceptional bonus.
<Hanse> There are a couple ways to balance this issue out. One is to raise the minimum intensity values for the low-end runics and squeeze the ranges of the ones above.
<Hanse> This would allow for more interesting items with the lower runics.
<Hanse> It's possible we may take a look at how good (insane?) the properties would be with the additional exceptional bonuses that normal crafting tools give, as well.
<Evocare> Offhand I don't think there are any runic tailoring changes in pub23, most gameplay changes got moved to pub24.
<Evocare> =[
<Lord-Xanthor> *Ashen-Shugar* I heard something about making Artifacts cursed...true or not? And will there be a limlit on how many one can wear?
<OSI_Speedman> There are no plans at this time to make artifacts cursed
<OSI_Speedman> however
<OSI_Speedman> Fertbert and I have been tossing around a few ideas to make insurance make more sense for better items
<OSI_Speedman> (i.e. charging more to insure more valuable items)
<OSI_Speedman> Of course, i'm not sure when or if this will be included
<Lord-Xanthor> *Zorm* I was wondering what programming language the "scripts" for the NPCS/Items/etc. are written in? I am a programmer and interested in UO so making programs for Ultima Online is fun, any ideas on what to make?
<Evocare> It's a proprietary scripting language called "wombat" used only on UO.
<OSI_Speedman> mmmmm wombat
<Lord-Xanthor> *Flutter* How possible is it we will be seeing sticky pet health bars in the near future? And party health bars staying on screen when we die?
<Fertbert> We're looking at short and long term solutions to those issues. Short term I hope we can address keeping health bars around when you die, long term I hope that we can improve their organization and management. As always noting is certain however.
<Evocare> I'm quite certain Fertbert also wants to put jewelry slots on the 2d paperdoll *nudge nudge*
<Fertbert> OK, I'll confess, I'm already scheduled to look at some of the health bar issues in not so distant publish
* Evocare has quit IRC (Read error: Connection reset by peer)
<Hanse> quiet, you're supposed to be done...
<Lord-Xanthor> <SirFist> Any plans to look at the bod rewards again? Filling bods has gotten boring since the last round of changes.
<Hanse> Uhm... I'm sure there are many systems that folks have grown tired of.
<Hanse> The rewards have been tweaked a bit over time though, for balance issues... So, it may have kept the system "fresh" for you, though.
* Lord-Xanthor sets mode: +o Evocare|OSI
<Hanse> I'm not sure when we'll be able to look at rewards for the system. Rather, a new system would probably be a priority, if we get a schedule for it.
<Evocare|OSI> I think he means a new BOD system
<Evocare|OSI> for other crafting skills.
<Hanse> Of course...
<Lord-Xanthor> *Du_Hast_Cooper* Are there any plans to improve the party and/or guild systems?
<Fertbert> We have some high priority fixes tentatively scheduled for pub 24... we intend to make guild maintenance easier by improving the guildstone interface a bit....
<Fertbert> We're hoping to address the problems with removing/promoting members of large guilds, and also make it easier to manage large guild alliance lists.
<Lord-Xanthor> <Dozer> Any date for new plants for gardeners?
<Evocare|OSI> New plants need dates with gardeners?
<Evocare|OSI> hoho ok not so funny
<Evocare|OSI> Anyways, no current plans for new plants, sorry =[
<Evocare|OSI> It's not for a dislike of plants, it's just a priority issue atm.
<Lord-Xanthor> *SirFist* Why no more scenarios? It's nice to be able to enjoy content like that on your own schedule as opposed to the EM events where you have to be there at a certain time or miss them.
<Evocare|OSI> Well when we had scenarios we were told it was nice to have real people running the events. ;]
<Evocare|OSI> At any rate, the scenarios we once ran aren't likely to happen in their old form.
<Evocare|OSI> The development and testing costs seemed prohibitive.
<Lord-Xanthor> <Sausage> Is there any chance of getting PBD's for new characters on SP, or are they all reserved to being substandard fighters?
<Fertbert> We're all pretty much in agreement that such a change would have a net positive effect, it's just a metter of scheduling priorities at this point. I'm pushing to get PBD out to everyone on siege in one of the next couple publishes.
<Lord-Xanthor> *Eddy* Are you planning to do anything about lvl 1 and 2 treasure maps? As they are worthless right now?
<Hanse> They have less items, true.
<Hanse> But they have chances to spawn very good items.
<Hanse> Remember, the chests are still worth harvesting for low-level treasure hunters. Maybe you should graduate up to higher-level maps and sell the lower ones?
Lord-Xanthor> *Vulcan* Why is dragonscale armor so hard to make for being the worst armor you can have? Why not make it so we can meditate in it and increase the gold scale armors luck up so it's useful?
<Hanse> We're aware of this issue.
<Hanse> We have it logged in our database to be fixed in the future.
<Evocare|OSI> Dragon armor definitely could use some love...
<Evocare|OSI> =]
<Hanse> but not over Valentine's
<Lord-Xanthor> *Coop* When you guys actually put a limit on combat modifiers for pvp.. will this also effect pvm? I personally have never heard a dragon complain about my casting speed.
<Evocare|OSI> Unfortunately some of them will affect pvm.
<Evocare|OSI> However, rest assured that i get daily complaints from those dragons about your casting speed.
<Lord-Xanthor> *Arislan-TC* I have an archery question. Right now in pvp combat and otherwise a bow animation does not insta hit like a melee weapon does. Any comments?
* Sannio has quit IRC (Quit: Leaving)
<Evocare|OSI> This is probably the least popular aspect of archery, and we would consider changing it if we have a satisfactory solution.
<Evocare|OSI> I've heard a few pretty good solutions that we will probably consider, but I can't give any assurances on it right now.
<Lord-Xanthor> I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight!
<Lord-Xanthor> And thanks to all of the OSI folks for spending their personal time talking to us
<Lord-Xanthor> Please join #ultima-online for continued, unmoderated chat
<Lord-Xanthor> the log will be posted shortly at
http://uohoc.stratics.com</blockquote>
Some interesting points :
(a) OSI/EA repeat that there are plans to put caps n certain magical properties.
(b) Speedhacking still being looked into
(c) Probably no changes to spined runics for Publish 23. (Maybe publish 24 ?)
(d) No plans to make artifacts cursed.
(e) There may be plans to put jewellry slots in 2D paper doll ?
(f) Guildstones looked into for Publish 24
(g) No current plans for new plants
Several clarifications about the upcoming Character Transfers were posted on the General News section of UOStratics :
<blockquote>Runebooks are transferable and the runes will work on the destination shard. However, only runes that point to static locations (like cities, dungeons, other fixed points of interest) would be really meaningful. Runes that point to vendors or player houses wouldn't be as useful on the destination shard.
Treasure maps will also work on the destination shard</blockquote>
<blockquote>It seems likely that a couple of the "old-style" test centers will be available for trying out character transfer, but this isn't set in stone yet.</blockquote>
<blockquote>About 885 items is correct for the limit on the number of items that can transfer.
You are also generally correct about how the transfer crate gets loaded. The items that you have in your possession, in your bank box, and on your pack animals, as well as the pack animals themselves and your stabled pets will all be placed into the Transfer Crate. You will not be able to manually add (or remove) items to the Transfer crate.</blockquote>
P/S Oh yes, advanced valentine's day greetings to all who celebrate it /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif
