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[UO Herald] Ask & Answer No. 5

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2012 Oct 09 23:49 GMT
It is time for another Ask and Answer and this week we answer a lot of great questions from UO Mania.
UO Mania clorenz - Are there any plans to add books to store Scrolls of Alacrity or Powerscrolls similar to the books for Scroll of Transcendence?
Mesanna: When we did the SOT book we had planned to add these other ways to store items. There are just so many things we want to get done we have to take them one at a time. Please be patient they are coming.

UO Mania clorenz - Are there any plans to add jewelry boxes to store rings and bracelets similar to the seed boxes?
Mesanna: This is something the team as talked about several times, but it’s not as simple as the seed boxes. As soon as we can figure out a way to do this correctly to everyone’s satisfaction we will give you guys a jewelry box. The best part about this is I found a wonderful antique jewelry box that would be fitting for the art.
UO Mania clorenz - Can we have a preview of the 15th year Veteran Rewards? Are they useful or decorative?
Mesanna: All the 15th year vet rewards are useful except for the new statues we have added this year. (But the statues are pretty sweet) We will post some pictures close to the publish date for everyone.

UO Mania Bl4ckFir3 - Why do we still have to pay a monthly subscription, while many games have moved to a free-to-play model? Have you considered going Free-to-play with extra features and expansions for sale and the possibility to earn currency in-game to unlock them?
Mesanna: The option to take UO free to play is not up for discussion at this time.

UO Mania Wanderer - are you planning to provide some improvements for thieves in PvP?
Mesanna: Honestly no we don’t have any specific plans, but we do want to start the Topic specific HOC’s soon, PVP will be a topic we are going to want to talk to you guys about. I will say that the team wants to give thieves things to do in and out of PVP.

UO Mania Sir Bolo - the Singing Balls and Secret Chests are only available on the UO store in Japan at the moment. Are you going to make them available for sale also on origin.com in the US and in Europe?
Mesanna: I can add the Secret Chest in the future when I have other things to add to the origin store. I need everyone to understand this is a normal chest that has the ability to have a combo lock on it thus a great role playing tool.

UO Mania Sir Bolo - codes for the 15th Anniversary Commemorative Robe were handed out to players at the anniversary party in Virginia, and to the winners of the Memorable Moments contest. Are we going to get other opportunities to win the promotional codes for this robe?
Mesanna: Not at this time, we do not have any plans outside of the contest and the party to distribute the robe.

Recently, the veteran rewards are overflowing with Sosaria.
How about "Re-activation of vet rewards"?
I mean, a reduction point is decided according to years of rewards and it returns to the acquisition point for a new rewards. For example, "1 year vet rewards" is 0.1point and 10 "1 year vet rewards" will be point for "Getting one 1 years vet rewards".
Thank you for your time. (Peil)

Mesanna: I can see pro’s and con’s to this. This is not a decision that can be made lightly but we will bring this up at a later date for discussion.

Do the devs have any plans to make Gargoyle Clothing (Gargish Robes, Gargish Wing Armor, Gargish Talons) able to be used with a Arcane Gem to create Arcane Clothing for Gargoyles? The only Arcane Clothing that a Gargoyle can use right now, is the Arcane Robes, which there's quite a few Robe slot items nowadays which are better (Conjurer's Garb, Shroud of the Condemned, etc). (PlayerSkillFTW)
Phoenix: : Right now we don’t have plans to create Gargoyle versions of Arcane Clothing, because there are alternatives on equipment that make all spellcasting reagent-free.

Is it possible to change the color of the font on the menu for the peculiar seeds? The font is dark and the background is dark. Its hard for my old eyes to see how many resources there are on the plant. On the plain plants the font is white with the black background. Can the pecular seeds be changed to what the plain plants are. Thank you. (Sara Dale)
Kyronix: This is something that can be adjusted, I’ll go ahead and submit an unconfirmed bug report into the system so it can get added.​

Continue reading...
 

christy1221

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UO Mania Sir Bolo - the Singing Balls and Secret Chests are only available on the UO store in Japan at the moment. Are you going to make them available for sale also on origin.com in the US and in Europe?
Mesanna: I can add the Secret Chest in the future when I have other things to add to the origin store. I need everyone to understand this is a normal chest that has the ability to have a combo lock on it thus a great role playing tool.

what about the singing balls? The chest sounds neat if origin would let me I would buy one, but I always get an error when trying to buy things from there unless I open a new email and a new payment method so it's just not worth it. =/
 

Lord Frodo

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:danceb: :thumbup1:
Now maybe the folks will shut up about it!​
Thanks for taking the time to ask/answer all this, to all involved.​
the same people keep bringing it up over and over even though they say time and again no.
If peps want it so bad then just do away with the 15 days on the trial account and they would have thier free to play. LOL
 

BluDjinn

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Title of thread says it all !

Ask & the Answer is NO !
 

startle

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I just have to say that it is so very, very exciting to see this level of communication with the Dev's after 14 years in the game! Thank you, thank you, thank you - Mesanna, Petra, and all the rest of you - it's so nice to hear your voices!

Just sayin......:danceb:
 

Eärendil

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Yea! I do appreciate this kinda communication very much! Thanks Mesanna and everybody else. Ah, and by the way:

Mesanna: Not at this time, we do not have any plans outside of the contest and the party to distribute the robe.
VERY GOOD!!! Well done!
 

MalagAste

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Ok so Mesanna I am aware that there are a number of ways to NOT need to use reagents it's just that sometimes a suit well doesn't have ROOM for that. So from time to time some characters especially sampires require using reagents to get by... we're just saying it would be nice if I could alter an arcane cloak into wing armor and arcane boots into Gargish Talons so I can take advantage of the properties of the arcane items rather than worry about carrying regs or having a monster steal half my needed regs since well monsters tend to have a great affinity for regs... and bandages... But having the arcane items makes it easier on the player since I can insure those and therefore the thieving little monsters can't get their hands on them. That's my argument... please consider it.
 

Miri of Sonoma

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"Recently, the veteran rewards are overflowing with Sosaria.
How about "Re-activation of vet rewards"?
I mean, a reduction point is decided according to years of rewards and it returns to the acquisition point for a new rewards. For example, "1 year vet rewards" is 0.1point and 10 "1 year vet rewards" will be point for "Getting one 1 years vet rewards".
Thank you for your time. (Peil)

Mesanna: I can see pro’s and con’s to this. This is not a decision that can be made lightly but we will bring this up at a later date for discussion. "


Maybe I am just dumb but I have no clue what this question means!!! :dunce:
 

Chazztizer

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I would imagine Japan can buy singing balls because the shard wasnt around for that clean up reward, I hope they stay a rarity....cause I have one :>)
 
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Miri of Sonoma

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:) Peil isn't English, so her phrasing can sometimes seem a little strange.
In essence, she would like to be able to trade in some of the older vet rewards, like dye tubs, for a points value towards claiming a newer award.


Ahhhh Thanks Petra...great idea! :)
 

Spiritless

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Is there some preferred route to ask questions for answering in this new system? I'd really like to know if there are any plans to provide some kind of ability to drop back to the character selection screen as opposed to logging out entirely and having to login again every time you want to switch characters. Having to type your username and password is really quite an annoyance when most other games facilitate an easy method to switch.
 

MalagAste

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I would imagine Japan can buy singing balls because the shard wasnt around for that clean up reward, I hope they stay a rarity....cause I have one :>)
The Singing balls that they give away with the Japan promotion are NOTHING like the old rare... they first off use the graphic from the corrupted teleporter type balls that take you to the dungeons.... and secondly they are just very different.
 

Petra Fyde

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Is there some preferred route to ask questions for answering in this new system? I'd really like to know if there are any plans to provide some kind of ability to drop back to the character selection screen as opposed to logging out entirely and having to login again every time you want to switch characters. Having to type your username and password is really quite an annoyance when most other games facilitate an easy method to switch.
Got it.
We're not actually specifically asking for questions - because if we did we'd get far more than could ever be answered. We do pick up questions from current posts, from other fansites and from the Ask the Devs forum, which we're trying hard to clear up.
Frarc and Kelmo, especially Frarc, have spent several hours trawling through looking for questions that have been answered indirectly via publishes or simply been overtaken by later events and bumping ones of particular interest to add into each week's report.
I thought it better to collect 'naturally occurring' questions rather than have people simply thinking up a question to ask, on the assumption that that way we would get the questions that were most important to people.
 
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Larisa

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:danceb: :thumbup1:
Now maybe the folks will shut up about it!​
Thanks for taking the time to ask/answer all this, to all involved.​
Out of all the questions, this is my favorite. I do play a F2P game and the..*clientel* they attract is...less then commendable. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of nice people that I play with, but because it's free, all the little kiddies get to play and we have enough immaturity now, please do not EVER make UO a f2p..not EVER! :)

Books and jewelery boxes sound good! And Mesanna the antique box...sounds good! I love antiques..over all very good!
 

Thrakkar

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I think UO is not only the oldest but also the most expensive MMO with a monthly subscription. At least in europe...
 

claudia-fjp

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I would imagine Japan can buy singing balls because the shard wasnt around for that clean up reward, I hope they stay a rarity....cause I have one :>)
4 of the 16 servers active in 1999 were Japanese servers and that was the year of the original clean up where the old singing balls came from. So no they didn't get the new ones, or the AoS mini house deed tokens, or the Tokuno dye tokens because they missed them. They got them because they like them better than us... /sniff sniff :(
 
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Adol

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The monthly fee is 13.99 euro. Then I had to pay an additional fee of 2.34 euro, don't ask me what it was, don't remember exactly. But it was mandatory, either pay or no play. So the sum is 16.33 euro. Now click here to convert that to USD.
Have you looked into the EA store? Because at current exchange rates of £ to € you'll pay €7.98 per month if you buy a 6 month game time code, so half your current cost. The offered price may differ slightly from UK cost of £38.50 though depending on where you are; I discovered this when the database screwed up and rejected my still working and the same as it always was Visa card, and found I was saving nearly 60% on the UK monthly sub... so it's game codes all the way for me from now on!
 
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Thrakkar

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Have you looked into the EA store? Because at current exchange rates of £ to € you'll pay €7.98 per month if you buy a 6 month game time code, so half your current cost. The offered price may differ slightly from UK cost of £38.50 though depending on where you are; I discovered this when the database screwed up and rejected my still working and the same as it always was Visa card, and found I was saving nearly 60% on the UK monthly sub... so it's game codes all the way for me from now on!
I never thought about that. I get redirected to the german store, where it costs €45,99, which would be €7,66 per month. But...
Unfortunatley I can't split up these 6 months. I only find time for UO for a few months a year, usually 2-3 months, but even that not at a stretch. It's even fairly seldom, that I pay two months in succession.
So in the end it would get me even more expensive, than it already is...
 

Lady Storm

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Back when Cal was leader of the Dev I made a suguestion about Vet rewards.
The system was a bit more simpler. Turn in 2 for 1 of the same year. If you desired say a 4th year rather then the 3rd which is like dye tubs and such it took double. IE: 4 year 1's for 1 year 2, etc the table could be ajusted per year of item to be traded in. OR Make it Like a credit that you could spend on your new item. Fairly simple. If done right no problem should happen. A menu that would double check if you wish to continue to trade it in for ... credit. Should stop any quibbling over the "i didnt mean to turn it in" yips. IT might clear up the glut of extra dye tubs,statues, and robes.
 

Sir_Bolo

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I never thought about that. I get redirected to the german store, where it costs €45,99, which would be €7,66 per month. But...
Unfortunatley I can't split up these 6 months. I only find time for UO for a few months a year, usually 2-3 months, but even that not at a stretch. It's even fairly seldom, that I pay two months in succession.
So in the end it would get me even more expensive, than it already is...
Even the 1-month gametime code on the European origin store is cheaper than the credit card subscription in Europe - the price is 11.50 euros instead of 13.99 + taxes.
 

swroberts

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This should thread should be named asked and "what I tell my kids"....

We are not talking about that now...
We will see...
Maybe later....
 

swroberts

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They should open up the old patch development website showing
-items being working on for next patch
-items being actively worked on
-items in the que, but not being worked on(but also may never see the light of day)
 

Chazztizer

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The Singing balls that they give away with the Japan promotion are NOTHING like the old rare... they first off use the graphic from the corrupted teleporter type balls that take you to the dungeons.... and secondly they are just very different.
Thanks MalagAste for the info! now I can sleep well knowing I have atleast one kinda unique item still :)
 

Lord Lew

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"Recently, the veteran rewards are overflowing with Sosaria.
How about "Re-activation of vet rewards"?
I mean, a reduction point is decided according to years of rewards and it returns to the acquisition point for a new rewards. For example, "1 year vet rewards" is 0.1point and 10 "1 year vet rewards" will be point for "Getting one 1 years vet rewards".
Thank you for your time. (Peil)
Mesanna: I can see pro’s and con’s to this. This is not a decision that can be made lightly but we will bring this up at a later date for discussion. "


Maybe I am just dumb but I have no clue what this question means!!! :dunce:

Miri, what the question is asking is simple. Like the clean up brit program, the questor was asking that there be a program where you turn in older vet rewards for credits towards new vet rewards. if you do a search on a vendor site, you will note just how many vet rewards are floating around in game. or if you run house to house, you will also see more than your share of vet rewards. I doubt this will happen, as the code for it would be a nightmare, and the ability to exploit it would stop it cold to boot. Vet rewards are a gift to those that stay and play the game, to alter it in this way would defeat its purpose.
 

Lord Frodo

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Miri, what the question is asking is simple. Like the clean up brit program, the questor was asking that there be a program where you turn in older vet rewards for credits towards new vet rewards. if you do a search on a vendor site, you will note just how many vet rewards are floating around in game. or if you run house to house, you will also see more than your share of vet rewards. I doubt this will happen, as the code for it would be a nightmare, and the ability to exploit it would stop it cold to boot. Vet rewards are a gift to those that stay and play the game, to alter it in this way would defeat its purpose.
They would need to code it so when the Vet Reward selection came up you would only be able to pick Vet Rewards that your Account Age is able to pick. A 1 yr old player would not be able to pick any reward that is for a 2yr old player, etc.
 

Thrakkar

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Even the 1-month gametime code on the European origin store is cheaper than the credit card subscription in Europe - the price is 11.50 euros instead of 13.99 + taxes.
Lol, there's a 1-month code? Well, every day you learn something new. Thanks for pointing that out!
 

Wenchkin

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Heh, no surprise on the F2P answer, confirms exactly what I suspected. Responses to the answer as expected too. Basically pay subs or GTFO lol. The latter gets more tempting by the day, but at least EA have our emails if they change their minds ;) I just find it funny that folks think they'll get worse players through F2P than those we have already. Money doesn't make better players folks.

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Heh, no surprise on the F2P answer, confirms exactly what I suspected. Responses to the answer as expected too. Basically pay subs or GTFO lol. The latter gets more tempting by the day, but at least EA have our emails if they change their minds ;) I just find it funny that folks think they'll get worse players through F2P than those we have already. Money doesn't make better players folks.
Don't know about the quality of players, but i find it funny that folks think F2P is actually free when the reality is it actually ends up costing you even more for the same content that you have today ;)
 

Viper09

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Don't know about the quality of players, but i find it funny that folks think F2P is actually free when the reality is it actually ends up costing you even more for the same content that you have today ;)
I am willing to bet that housing will be the first thing they'd charge for periodically if the game went F2P
 
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Viquire

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I think I have read all of these and I can't recall anyone asking about Crimson, or Blood Red dyes. Or thongs either for that matter. Just sayin. ;)
 

Flutter

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Ok so Mesanna I am aware that there are a number of ways to NOT need to use reagents it's just that sometimes a suit well doesn't have ROOM for that. So from time to time some characters especially sampires require using reagents to get by... we're just saying it would be nice if I could alter an arcane cloak into wing armor and arcane boots into Gargish Talons so I can take advantage of the properties of the arcane items rather than worry about carrying regs or having a monster steal half my needed regs since well monsters tend to have a great affinity for regs... and bandages... But having the arcane items makes it easier on the player since I can insure those and therefore the thieving little monsters can't get their hands on them. That's my argument... please consider it.
I agree. The use of arcane clothing for "emergency" spell casting has always been a plus for me. Sometimes I just need to throw it on to cast one spell on what is normally a non-spell casting character after they die. I don't understand what the big deal is.
 

Wenchkin

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But it sure weeds some out. ;)
I can't say I've seen any evidence of better players in UO compared to other games. Just a different community. However, I want to see UO full of players of all sorts. Good, bad, indifferent. I might not like someone, but I would rather see a vibrant mixed population than a small niche one selected by a subscription model. Folks with money can be every bit as obnoxious as those without, and EA don't have the best reputation for removing cheats and brats from the game to keep players in line.

I do hope for UO's sake that the devs and EA find a way to boost the population if they're refusing to look at the subs. Because at some point, even the most loyal subscription payers are going to realise shard populations are a problem. Or EA will.
Don't know about the quality of players, but i find it funny that folks think F2P is actually free when the reality is it actually ends up costing you even more for the same content that you have today ;)
Folks don't think F2P is free, they understand that part of the game will be free and other items need to be paid for if they want them. Or you can sometimes play totally free if you are a good merchant and can earn enough game currency to trade for it. Some games balance F2P really well between what's free and what is paid, others are rubbish glorified demos. The big advantage of F2P is that you choose what to pay for and when. And you can usually at least log your characters in for free.

I've said before that I'd pay more to EA in a F2P UO, because I could log in whenever I wanted and there would be a point in me paying for items. Even a week long subscription rather than a full month or a modest reduction in subs for longer term subscribers would help. And a week long sub wouldn't lose EA money, it's likely to gain them some.

Wenchy
 

Petra Fyde

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Is there some preferred route to ask questions for answering in this new system? I'd really like to know if there are any plans to provide some kind of ability to drop back to the character selection screen as opposed to logging out entirely and having to login again every time you want to switch characters. Having to type your username and password is really quite an annoyance when most other games facilitate an easy method to switch.
This question was answered at the town hall (information from Tazar, who was there) Answer was:
Very difficult to do the way thing are structured - but they'll look into it.
 

Ludes

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This question was answered at the town hall (information from Tazar, who was there) Answer was:
Very difficult to do the way thing are structured - but they'll look into it.
I'm hearing that this would open up security issues..
Wouldn't hold your breath till your blue in the face.. :cool:
 
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