Town Hall notes thread (10/18/08)...

[love2winalot]

We are suppose to be IN THE MIDDLE OF AN EPIC EVENT? But not a single question from anyone about it, and not a single update from anyone at EA?

Can you say, Choose a side? Remember your tarrot card? Threads of life, ect? Plain sword/sheild? Cloak of darkness/glass dagger? Andrew? and on and on and on..........

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Very interesting and good stuff! I'm looking forward to most of these changes.

However! One important issue:

While those news favor us veterans and will give us more interesting stuff to do, the lookout totally seems to ignore NEW PLAYERS. What UO needs most, above all, is attracting new players to the game.

The Stygian Abyss expansion will be the best opportunity to get UO back into the headlines, and the Development Team should absolutely try to improve game content to favor low- and medium-level players. Like:

• Improving game content in the old facets like Britannia. There should be riddles, secrets, quests and historical landmarks all over the Britannian landscape and the dungeons.
• Making monster spawn more intelligent, and less static.
• More dynamic quests, and send the group of adventurers on a challenging journey. Quests are the best way for new players to learn game mechanics.

Seize the moment and improve existing content for new players!

 

[Phaen Grey]

I was hoping for some details on the story arc, its been since July 12th we've been waiting for anything to happen.

 

[Maplestone]

We are suppose to be IN THE MIDDLE OF AN EPIC EVENT? But not a single question from anyone about it, and not a single update from anyone at EA?

I think people have become too well-trained to believe they will not receive any answers - and there has been no connecting fiction posted since Aug 1st.

 

[jelinidas]

Very interesting and good stuff! I'm looking forward to most of these changes.

However! One important issue:

While those news favor us veterans and will give us more interesting stuff to do, the lookout totally seems to ignore NEW PLAYERS. What UO needs most, above all, is attracting new players to the game.

The Stygian Abyss expansion will be the best opportunity to get UO back into the headlines, and the Development Team should absolutely try to improve game content to favor low- and medium-level players. Like:

• Improving game content in the old facets like Britannia. There should be riddles, secrets, quests and historical landmarks all over the Britannian landscape and the dungeons.
• Making monster spawn more intelligent, and less static.
• More dynamic quests, and send the group of adventurers on a challenging journey. Quests are the best way for new players to learn game mechanics.

Seize the moment and improve existing content for new players!

I agree Hawkeye. I hope alot of new players start up and we get the return of some that have left. Give them content as well as the vets.

Thanks to all that were there and shared their notes. Thanks to EA for another Town Hall. I hope they continue.

 

[AirmidCecht]

Hi again from Chicago! I'm headed home tonight after a great weekend with friends. I wanted to post a couple of teaser pics and have a full report this week for the community. I met some great players and look forward to all that UO has in store for us *smiles*

Your Five on Saturday (for those that fell out their chairs Friday *winks*)

Your Whispering Rose Radio team who, by the way, spend much time and resources to bring the players these great live recordings however imperfect it may seem at times to listeners. Thank you DJ Sandman et al for the opportunity to be heard *grins*

And not one to steal another's thunder, Tancred RedStar delivered his own 11th Anniversary gift box. I'll let him post his own first but it brought many smiles.

More to come in the next day or two when I get home.
*waves*

 

[Coldren]

Excellent notes, all. One thing of interest:

Those of us that like to hoard stuff should start stockpiling plain-jane magical weapons from loot, as they will be able to be “unraveled” to create imbuing ingredients.

Glad I saved all of my Dull Copper Runic's and never bothered buying the higher-end ones.

MUWHAHAHAHA

 

[christy1221]

Thanks for the pictures. I wish I could have been there but I couldn't get anyone to watch my 7th month old daughter since I would have had to stay overnight.

Post more pictures when you can.

 

[kitiara-atlantic]

I may have forgotten to post my pics here - they're on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlyersphan/sets/72157608154697366/

Also - re: Maplestone's post - ya know, storyline ideas for a human to gargoyle quest might just be something you should send to Jeremy! They themselves used the word "stupid" for all of the potential storylines they could think up, and maybe with the right idea they'd do it as a quest. Even if it's an easy quest, it's still more interesting than just going to an NPC to convert... I like your ideas!

 

[Lord Kynd]

Lets see, 31x31 square to allow customization. Hmmm, tough to design, a lot of work? I must have gotten outta bed grumpy this morning.

i don't understand it either.
make it a contest or something...
give the winner a free year of UO or something ( perferable non-tradeable ).

 

[Maplestone]

and there has been no connecting fiction posted since Aug 1st.

I stand corrected

 

[Fink]

"Useless skills have been discussed for SA uses"

Can we have an expanded version of that comment?

Even if it's only raw brainstorming notes. I'm just curious as to which skills are considered useless by the devs or which can be poached for SA purposes.

Item ID is all but pointless since Age of Shadows, unless you want the nifty GM Merchant title. I have two merchants for that purpose, but I'd be happy to see Item ID convert to Imbuing if that made sense or the devs didn't regard it a cheap shortcut to do so. I remember Enticement being directly converted to Discordance without bringing about the apocalypse.

Camping is a little broken right now, and I don't know enough about SA to say where it would fit. Gargish granite bedrolls, anyone?

Herding is massively useful for a number of applications, but is usually lumped into the "useless" group by mainstream thinking. If there's any new critters in the Abyss, making them herdable (whether tameable or not) would make things interesting.

Begging is still a popular RP favourite & I know a slew of people who'd love for gargoyles to drop some new begged items like the Heartwood elves did for ML. Pretty please?

Taste ID, hmm.. can you imbue food?

Forensics, would be nice if Detectives and Thieves both had proper jobs again. Any reason why Forensics (or any of these skills) couldn't pick up some bonuses (in addition to their normal function) for SA?

 

[Maplestone]

camping idea: in SA lands, have no safe logouts outside town without camping. If you do time out, a "dread warhorse trick" black cloud engulfs the character and they die. When they log back in, they are greated by a message saying "You were eaten by a Grue".

 

[Erekose]

"Marketing for UO: good for visibility, not as good for revenue. Retail margin on console and used games better than for computer games"

Yeah, that's why you don't see WoW or EQ2 or Guild Wars or any other MMO on store shelves (not). What a f****** cop out.

 

[tiggertessa2007]

welp guys this is my official goodbye to uo,,its been 10 years and for the last 5 ive watched this game just get dragged thro the ****er, im not paying for another lame expansion. they are trying to turn this game into generic wow,,,,,hey devs get a damn clue!!! thats not why people play uo!!!! they play it because it was so different and original. what i will be paying for this November is the wow expansion. i mean hell why smoke usa golds when u can smoke marbys for 1$ more? just so the dev team knows , this is gonna kill this game. mark my words i bet uo dosent last another 2 years, i mean now their having to charge people for anny gifts?? how stupid, they should reward their players not the other way around. if it wanst for the people that pay to play this game u would be out of a job. but thats ok milk it, squeeze out every drop u can cause its gonna be gone soon. walk into any bank on any shard, rather it be luna or brit. how many people do u see gathered? Atl has the most ive seen and thats only about 30,,,some shards ur lucky to see 3 at prime time. log in on any WoW server,,,ANY and look at how many people are in the major citys. so have fun guys, enjoy UO "if u can" while its still around. the uo i knew and loved is scheduled to be put down.

 

[laurlo]

thanks for the notes