NEWS [UO.Com] Publish 85.5

[UO News]

Patch Notes
2014 May 20 20:42 GMT

We will be putting out a patch starting this afternoon with Oceania, everyone else will get it with your with normal scheduled maintenance.

Publish 85.5.0

Governor System Updates
The following changes have been made related to the Governor System,
• Funds from the purchase of City Banners and City Titles will now be deposited to the City Treasury.
• City Bulletin Boards have been made more functional to allow Governors to post news.
o Governors may set a Headline and an Article by using the context menu on their City Bulletin Board.
o Headlines will be displayed when a player double clicks on the bulletin board.
o Articles, along with the Governor’s name, posting date, and the full headline will be displayed when a player clicks on the blue button next to each city.
o Bulletin boards can be viewed by anyone regardless of their citizenship.
• Beginning with the June election, terms have been increased to 180 days. Elections will occur in June and December.

Bug Fixes
• Young players will once again receive a warning gump when entering dungeons.
• Young players will be freely aggressed by mobs within Dungeon Blackthorn.
• Faction tithing rate is now capped at 70% from 100%.

VvV Focus Group
Thank you to everyone who applied for the VvV focus group! We will be contacting those selected for the focus group soon with more details on what to expect moving forward.

パブリッシュ85.5.0
知事システムアップデート
知事システムについて以下の項目が変更になりました
 街のバナーや街のタイトル購入の際に発生した資金は街の宝庫に入金されます。
 街の掲示板は知事によってニュースなどの書き込みが出来ようになり、より機能的になりました。
○ 知事は掲示板のコンテクストメニューを使用しヘッドラインと記事を設定できます。
○ 掲示板をダブルクリックする事によりヘッドラインが表示されます。
○ 各街の横にある青いボタンをクリックする事で知事名、投稿日時、ヘッドラインそして記事が表示されます。
○ その街の市民であるかないかにかかわらず誰でも掲示板を観覧する事ができます。
 6月の選挙より開始し、期間は180日間に変更になりました　選挙は6月と12月に開催されます。

改善されたバグ
 ヤングプレイヤーがダンジョンに入る際には今一度　注意書きのポップアップが出ます。
 ヤングプレイヤーであってもブラックソーンダンジョンにおいては攻撃を受けます。
 派閥に課せられる十分の一税の割合は100％から70％になりました。

ＶｖＶフォーカスグループ
ＶｖＶフォーカスグループにお申し込みの皆さんに感謝します、フォーカスグループに選ばれた方にはディーテールなどの詳細を含めてご連絡をいたします。

Continue reading...

 

[a slave girl]

4 stars!

How about moving the hitching post to the top of stairs in Blackthorns Dungeon/Castle and turn on Return to Britannia while you are at it?

For me that would make this pub 5 stars.

 

[Winter]

Bug Fixes
• Young players will once again receive a warning gump when entering dungeons.
• Young players will be freely aggressed by mobs within Dungeon Blackthorn.
...

ACK! Kicked me out of the game when they pushed this.
Yeah for this exploit fix.

 

[Faeryl]

4 stars!

How about moving the hitching post to the top of stairs in Blackthorns Dungeon/Castle

Considering the entire castle is a pet free zone... that would make no sense whatsoever.

 

[The Zog historian]

Considering the entire castle is a pet free zone... that would make no sense whatsoever.

I wonder if boundaries could be shifted so that section of the castle could be made a regular part of the city, even if it means the rooms above. Perhaps the two rows of tiles nearest the entrance?

 

[Dot_Warner]

Good to see the Governor system getting some attention, just wish it had been all the changes they talked about...

Are the "funds" from the banners and titles the entire amount, or just a tiny portion?

We still need city lockdowns and such...

 

[Kyronix]

Good to see the Governor system getting some attention, just wish it had been all the changes they talked about...

Are the "funds" from the banners and titles the entire amount, or just a tiny portion?

We still need city lockdowns and such...

It's the entire amount. Given that the sale of banners and titles has slowed somewhat, we wanted to get the maximum benefit from something people aren't buying as much as when the titles and banners were released. This is also only one step in providing the City Treasury with additional funds, and you can expect to see additional methods in a future publish.

As far as lockdowns, what is it you are wanting to be able to lock down and why? We've had a lot of success so far with Governor interacting with the Crown and requesting special areas to be built to add to our library of town addons. Some of the add-ons include a market in the City of Trinsic, an Archery Tournament area in the City of Skara Brae, and a Peace Summit held in the City of Nujlem.

 

[Smoot]

It's the entire amount. Given that the sale of banners and titles has slowed somewhat, we wanted to get the maximum benefit from something people aren't buying as much as when the titles and banners were released. This is also only one step in providing the City Treasury with additional funds, and you can expect to see additional methods in a future publish.

As far as lockdowns, what is it you are wanting to be able to lock down and why? We've had a lot of success so far with Governor interacting with the Crown and requesting special areas to be built to add to our library of town addons. Some of the add-ons include a market in the City of Trinsic, an Archery Tournament area in the City of Skara Brae, and a Peace Summit held in the City of Nujlem.

i think most players are asking for timered lockdowns to do player run events without relying on the whims and availability of an EM. pretty much hit or miss depending on your EM, its not like you can just say "hey i need this and this locked down on this day" and expect it to actually happen. a few shards it is possible, but far far from something to be relied upon with dependabilty.

 

[Dot_Warner]

As far as lockdowns, what is it you are wanting to be able to lock down and why? We've had a lot of success so far with Governor interacting with the Crown and requesting special areas to be built to add to our library of town addons. Some of the add-ons include a market in the City of Trinsic, an Archery Tournament area in the City of Skara Brae, and a Peace Summit held in the City of Nujlem.

We'd like to be able to lock down our own décor for events and plots, stuff that would just eat into the EMs time. Since the décor that the EMs place is of a temporary nature, or is oft delayed from own schedules. The library you guys build could have all the multi-tile-type addons and such, but I think we'd be happy being able to just lock down items. Books, props etc. (anything we set out for an event gets nabbed within seconds)

 

[popps]

• Faction tithing rate is now capped at 70% from 100%.

That's great news ! Thanks a lot.

Now I can go back at earning my silver and not having it go all to the faction stone (though still more than 2/3 of it will, but oh well...) !!

Thanks Devs !

 

[a slave girl]

Considering the entire castle is a pet free zone... that would make no sense whatsoever.

Oh yes you are correct thank you!

I will rephrase my request in that case.

Please remove the silly pet free zone from Blackthorn's Castle/Dungeon Entrance.

And THEN move the hitching post to the top of the stairs at Blackthorn's Dungeon.

(and I thought my diaper changing days were over)

 

[Tjalle]

Bug Fixes
• Young players will once again receive a warning gump when entering dungeons.
• Young players will be freely aggressed by mobs within Dungeon Blackthorn.

Thank. You.!

 

[MalagAste]

It's the entire amount. Given that the sale of banners and titles has slowed somewhat, we wanted to get the maximum benefit from something people aren't buying as much as when the titles and banners were released. This is also only one step in providing the City Treasury with additional funds, and you can expect to see additional methods in a future publish.

As far as lockdowns, what is it you are wanting to be able to lock down and why? We've had a lot of success so far with Governor interacting with the Crown and requesting special areas to be built to add to our library of town addons. Some of the add-ons include a market in the City of Trinsic, an Archery Tournament area in the City of Skara Brae, and a Peace Summit held in the City of Nujlem.

Because many of us hold events regularly and to petition the EM to do anything is horribly tedious and often met with frustration or takes TOO LONG to get the job done... by the time you get elected..... plan an event..... submit it ....... wait for the next Governors meeting...... you could have held 3 events already.

 

[S_S]

I understand the issue with waiting for EM's to place items or do stuff for players or such, but the availability to have players themselves be able to lock items down around towns worries me more. I would say these items if allowed would need no more than a 2-3 day timer at most.

 

[Uriah Heep]

If anything, only let the Governor lock something down.
and when he loses office, it all releases, clean slate for next Gov.

 

[Kyronix]

Because many of us hold events regularly and to petition the EM to do anything is horribly tedious and often met with frustration or takes TOO LONG to get the job done... by the time you get elected..... plan an event..... submit it ....... wait for the next Governors meeting...... you could have held 3 events already.

What kinds of items are you wanting to lock down?

 

[kelmo]

Simple player made items.

 

[Dot_Warner]

I understand the issue with waiting for EM's to place items or do stuff for players or such, but the availability to have players themselves be able to lock items down around towns worries me more. I would say these items if allowed would need no more than a 2-3 day timer at most.

We're talking about nine people per shard, and it will be painfully obvious who locked down something inappropriate. All they need to do is make the items passable to ensure that nobody gets blocked by them.

No need for a timer on these items though, its the Gov's discretion. A timer would be really annoying for a multi-week event.

What kinds of items are you wanting to lock down?

Books. Plants. Weapons. Clothing. Etc. Anything we can to use as a prop for an event.

Even better, our own oracle NPCs like the barkeepers. (Though I think barkeepers are currently FUBAR...)

We need things to help make running events run and exciting, not only for the citizens but for us too.

 

[MissEcho]

Doesn't do anything to 'fix' the issues on small shards for governors. It costs $2 million per buff per week on Atlantic that has 50 times the population of Oceania, yet costs the same for us. I would be lucky to sell ONE banner a year now that the initial banners have been purchased by all existing players. Total waste of time and effort.

Where is the economy of scale to reflect the fact that not all shards are EQUAL.

 

[GarthGrey]

Thank. You.!

What shard are you on, that this bothered you ?

 

[MalagAste]

What kinds of items are you wanting to lock down?

Would be good if we could set up Tables and such for wine tasting, Archery Buttes, Dart Boards, Things to make a Jousting run... Things you can do events with. I don't want to use the Fairgrounds in Skara Brae.... I live in Yew. My city is YEW I have no desire to promote Skara Brae in my Yew Event. If I want to hold an archery contest I'd have to drop my house so I can place one close to town...... Hoping of course there would be something close to town..... to put stuff on to have the event...... Not something most folk can do or are willing to do.

I asked for a tavern like area to be placed over the winery in Yew. I was denied. I was told I can't even deco because EM's are decorators. So no decorations can be placed. Would be nice to put up something on holidays to go with a Holiday Event. Just because the EM's don't want to or don't have time to make our city beautiful for the Holiday does that mean we the Governors can't? How is that promoting community spirit?

If I wanted to hold a dart throwing contest I have to go to Skara Brae? Why would I want to do that?!? That's not my town. If I wanted to Have a race or something and put down a start and finish line..... I have to wait around for sometime when I can get the EM to do it for me? That can take MONTHS. If I just put something out on the ground chances are that some jerk will move it or take it. How do I know I'm going to be Governor again in October in June? So if I wanted to do an event in October I'd have to petition the EM in July after being elected...... hope it's approved then do all the stuff..... so if I wanted to do something in July ....... I wouldn't even know if I was going to be elected before trying to plan something.

I'm talking about a few small things ...... perhaps being able to put up a tree for Xmas?

It's not like we could abuse the system. It would only last while your Governor anyway and if it was "objectionalble" We'd lose our Governorship wouldn't we? So.... what would be the harm honestly? Most those who do run for Governor at least where I am want to do things for the community... are very community oriented and often run events on a regular basis. So it's not like we are asking about it to abuse the system.

What I honestly can't understand is what is the harm in putting up a little deco and showing your love for your city? Are flowers really that horrible? What about putting in a few benches and such for folk to sit on as you hold a poetry reading?

Tables, seats and Kegs of Wine for a wine tasting? I do live in Yew. What if I wanted to put little markers along the shore for a boat race? Or a Fishing Tournament? I have to run to the EM and beg for things only I can only do it ONCE per Term!?!?!? And now a Term is 6 months..... I have to wait 6 months again to ask for something? Even 3 months is a LONG time to wait only to get rejected. Then you have to go back again next month ask for something again....... hope to not get rejected again... etc.

When if I could just lock down a few things I'd be able to do so much more. Honestly there are 9 people on a shard that could do something. Chances are that 60% wouldn't bother. But some of us really enjoy the program and think it could be and should be sooo much more than it is. It has the potential to really benefit the community...

 

[TandaBSK]

@Kryonix and everyone
There are a lot of neat things for Governors in this publish. I am looking forward to the bulletin board change.
The Term extension should make this easier in one respect, a little harder in others. Planning your request is difficult now. One has to evaluate what can be done within the scope of the EMs being able to do it, the time frame, even after 3 terms now *wrinkles brow* I think 3 I don't think it's been a full year yet, what is allowed and isn't is still a puzzle. We have a pretty good idea of what is an automatic no for right now.
I agree with the lock downs, It's not likely we're looking at the Governor's seeking enough stuff to lag or crash a server. We have to run about in our towns too. It is difficult to find new things to do that don't require any props or distribution of things. We all on Great Lakes strive to fulfill the terms of our election and take this seriously. It really is about giving back and trying to create some interaction. Despite lower numbers attending we keep trying. None of the items we wish to lock down would be anything that would create a rare, or permanently alter the map.
I do appreciate the efforts of our EMs and of Kryonix in working on this. Thanks all!

 

[Smoot]

I understand the issue with waiting for EM's to place items or do stuff for players or such, but the availability to have players themselves be able to lock items down around towns worries me more. I would say these items if allowed would need no more than a 2-3 day timer at most.

a 4 - 6 hour timed lockdown would suffice for most purposes.

 

[drcossack]

4 stars!

How about moving the hitching post to the top of stairs in Blackthorns Dungeon/Castle

Easy to fix if you don't have the the patience for the hitching post. Leave your pet(s) outside the bridge into the castle. Get to the top of the stairs. Log out & back in. QUICKLY use your follow (and guard, if appropriate) macros before they return to the stables.

 

[Aurelius]

Even as a Governor I'd be very wary about allowing Governors the ability to lock stuff down unless there are some good restrictions, such as timers, for things we place in the town (timers do need to be useful and relevant though - maybe we can select from a band of times, say 4-6 hours, 12 hours, one day and so on, with an overall cap of 3 days?) - but since the Governor's offics buildings are otherwise largely useless, being able to secure stuff there for people to access, and maybe a mailbox so we can collect things people leave for us AND know who sent them (unlike the stuff left at the town stone, which remains anonymous) would be nice.

 

[Aurelius]

Went to the notice board, set a 'headline' and 'body' message- which I'm intrigued to see will show on all the other town notice boards too - but taking a different character to use the board, they can ONLY see the headline and my message, the actual notice board function just isn't there any more, so we can make a short announcement but nobody can respond

Need a way for people to talk to us when we're not actually online and in game, please.....

 

[popps]

Watch out about letting players lock down items too much freely, who knows, perhaps they might be used to block the walking/running of players in PvP ?

 

[petemage]

Please don't give governors more powers as long as they can't serve their people with the most basic things! I don't need any more "here is my ICQ but please don't expect me to listen to you in game or read the town bulleting board".

It's totally frustrating moving towns to get your wished trade deal, then the governor changes, the city stone is still filled with plenty of gold but the new governor only cares about HIS role playing - not even checking the bulleting board or renewing the trade deal.

Is it really that hard - as a elected governor! - to check the board once a week??

Totally against new powers as long as we have no way to chase theese governors off the yard.

 

[cazador]

Watch out about letting players lock down items too much freely, who knows, perhaps they might be used to block the walking/running of players in PvP ?

This is only in tram...are they going to block you from entering guard zone? And getting you killed by the super OP mongbats that roam freely?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Frarc]

 

[TandaBSK]

@petemage
Not sure what shard your on, I know as Governor of Minoc, Great Lakes I check my board at least 2x a week, I have one in my home on shard, We have a hub in Luna with bulletin boards for each Governor. We don't have any means other than these boards to know who our citizens are. I'd also suggest showing up at the Royal Council meeting monthly, be prepared to be IN CHARACTER and respectful of the King, in general the end of the meeting is for citizens to address the King and Council. I set up a ballot box the start of each term asking what my residents want. Often the gold on the city stones if funded by the Governor, at least in my experience on Great Lakes only a few cities have steady supporters who pay for the buff of their choice. That is part of our frustration in this at 24mil per 3 month term and now their going to 6 months, that's a lot of gold out of a players pocket, you can only select 1 buff per week. Changing I think requires more gold (I've not tried it) My city has remained the same since day 1 each ballot I've put out has gone 1 or 2 responses indicating what I have is fine with them.

It's not all Governor's who are unwilling to work with their citizens, we're expected to host events, raise funds to finance this. The new change with banner sales might help. That's a wait and see, but I know it's a sore subject for many paying for others to use something when support from citizens either in donations or attendance is minor. With an average event ranging from 10m in gifts/prize to over 25 mil plus the cost of buffs being Governor is a costly venture. If you don't put up the gold in prizes the only folks who show up are the role players generally speaking.

Not saying this is an excuse for why your not getting what your seeking, but there is another side to the issue more than likely and this is a large part of what I've been hearing and reading over the last 9 months I've been Governor.

 

[MalagAste]

Watch out about letting players lock down items too much freely, who knows, perhaps they might be used to block the walking/running of players in PvP ?

It's Tram WTH do you think it's going to block PvP? What PvP? RPPvP??????

 

[Winter]

Please don't give governors more powers as long as they can't serve their people with the most basic things! I don't need any more "here is my ICQ but please don't expect me to listen to you in game or read the town bulleting board".

It's totally frustrating moving towns to get your wished trade deal, then the governor changes, the city stone is still filled with plenty of gold but the new governor only cares about HIS role playing - not even checking the bulleting board or renewing the trade deal.

Is it really that hard - as a elected governor! - to check the board once a week??

Totally against new powers as long as we have no way to chase theese governors off the yard.

Have you considered running for governor or a city? You can be sure to get the trade deal you want, and perhaps do a better job than those you are describing. Maybe others feel the same way on your shard.

 

[Zeke]

Suggestion for the Blackthorns Dungeon, make the area with the hitching post a Mark/Recall in spot. 2nd suggestion PLEASE make the "towns" under siege area considerably bigger, it's hard for low population shards to do these with 5 or 6 Masters in a 3 screen area.

 

[azmodanb]

Suggestion for the Blackthorns Dungeon, make the area with the hitching post a Mark/Recall in spot. 2nd suggestion PLEASE make the "towns" under siege area considerably bigger, it's hard for low population shards to do these with 5 or 6 Masters in a 3 screen area.

Just let your pet auto stable.. When you run on the bridge and claim it once inside how hard is that?

 

[Dot_Warner]

@Kyronix

Part of the problem with Trade Deals, completely ignoring the onerous cost factor, is the Gov's have no idea when they are going to expire. The deals should last 7 days, but its more like seven and change. I've found that a deal bought at 5pm on a Monday may not expire until the following week's Tuesday morning, but then I've also had a few expire right "on time" and one I could swear was 12 hours early.

An accurate countdown on the Trade Deal gump would be a big help, along with the number of people who are using it the deal. The govs need metrics on their citizens.


The new bulletin boards are...interesting... They appear to have lost nearly all their meaningful interactivity. THIS IS A BAD THING. While the govs can leave messages, if the people can't respond its pointless. We also need the ability to leave multiple messages, not just one. Is this phase one of a much better system? If it isn't, then its a rather major step backwards...and the UI is horrid. (Typing everything into a ONE LINE gump is bad.)

I just tested the board and I can only leave 1 headline/body message. What if there are multiple events in a week? What if a gov needs to talk about multiple disparate topics?

I also tested the board with a regular citizen... They could read the single headline...and nothing more. No way to respond, no way to have a meaningful dialogue.

Right now, the message boards are a fail in my opinion. FAR less useful than the original ones. We need a 2-way communication tool for our citizens.

 

[Pawain]

You could leave a reply on the old BB. Now all you see is what a governor says. I really don't care what the other cities are doing. My chars can actually go to their respective town and view. This would be fine as a new type of board. Put back the old BB and have this new thing separate.

 

[Kyronix]

@Kyronix

Part of the problem with Trade Deals, completely ignoring the onerous cost factor, is the Gov's have no idea when they are going to expire. The deals should last 7 days, but its more like seven and change. I've found that a deal bought at 5pm on a Monday may not expire until the following week's Tuesday morning, but then I've also had a few expire right "on time" and one I could swear was 12 hours early.

An accurate countdown on the Trade Deal gump would be a big help, along with the number of people who are using it the deal. The govs need metrics on their citizens.


The new bulletin boards are...interesting... They appear to have lost nearly all their meaningful interactivity. THIS IS A BAD THING. While the govs can leave messages, if the people can't respond its pointless. We also need the ability to leave multiple messages, not just one. Is this phase one of a much better system? If it isn't, then its a rather major step backwards...and the UI is horrid. (Typing everything into a ONE LINE gump is bad.)

I just tested the board and I can only leave 1 headline/body message. What if there are multiple events in a week? What if a gov needs to talk about multiple disparate topics?

I also tested the board with a regular citizen... They could read the single headline...and nothing more. No way to respond, no way to have a meaningful dialogue.

Right now, the message boards are a fail in my opinion. FAR less useful than the original ones. We need a 2-way communication tool for our citizens.

Re: Trade deal times...this is something we can add to a future update to town stone functionality.

About the bulletin boards,
Opening up the bulletin boards to the general populace is outside of the scope of their function. It was requested that Governors have access to the town crier - this is the solution for that. There is no limit to how often a message can be updated, so there really isn't a need to post multiple messages, you can update them as you go. A fully functioning in-game message board is not what these bulletin boards are intended for. Other tools exist for that purpose, tools which players have been utilizing to successfully facilitate two way communication since the beginning. Do I think we can create better tools for in-game communication in general? Yes...but not within the scope of the bulletin boards that have been added. Something like that would be a future project.

 

[Dot_Warner]

About the bulletin boards,
Opening up the bulletin boards to the general populace is outside of the scope of their function.

There used to be bulletin boards in the game that anyone could post to. Revive that code.

It was requested that Governors have access to the town crier - this is the solution for that. There is no limit to how often a message can be updated, so there really isn't a need to post multiple messages, you can update them as you go. A fully functioning in-game message board is not what these bulletin boards are intended for. Other tools exist for that purpose, tools which players have been utilizing to successfully facilitate two way communication since the beginning. Do I think we can create better tools for in-game communication in general? Yes...but not within the scope of the bulletin boards that have been added. Something like that would be a future project.

Right, I was one of the ones that wanted that access. The headlines are a great idea, but implementing them in place of the old bulletin boards was a poor choice.

I guess we need two bulletin boards, one for the headlines and that functioned the way they did before. There is a need for govs to post multiple messages, to say there isn't is just...shortsighted. Ex: Multiple events in one week, trade deal changes, multiple plotlines...

We need two-way communication IN THE CITIES, not at a random house somewhere that not everyone knows about, nor an out of game website. If most players won't bother to come to Stratics, they won't read other sites either. Getting people to use the in game boards was hard enough. Human nature dictates that people won't go out of their way unless they absolutely have to; this is a game, thus they don't have to.

I strongly suggest that you make the City Heralds double clickable to pull up the headline system and return the bulletin boards to the way they were.

 

[Lord Lew]

Kyronix, how hard would it be to code an auto-renew function to the stone? One that the Governor can toggle on or off, and that is turned off at the start of each election cycle. My biggest gripe when I was Gov of Trinsic (outside of event griefers) was not knowing when the trade deal needed to be reset. My icq would erupt each week, and the board would fill with querries. It was impossible to judge as it was not constant! We always keep the same buff, so would appreciate the ability to make it stick!

 

[Kyronix]

Kyronix, how hard would it be to code an auto-renew function to the stone? One that the Governor can toggle on or off, and that is turned off at the start of each election cycle. My biggest gripe when I was Gov of Trinsic (outside of event griefers) was not knowing when the trade deal needed to be reset. My icq would erupt each week, and the board would fill with querries. It was impossible to judge as it was not constant! We always keep the same buff, so would appreciate the ability to make it stick!

I can add this to the list of future city stone updates.

 

[MalagAste]

What good is a board if my Citizens can't leave me a message!?!

That's lousy! I wanted a Town Crier because 99% of folk don't even notice the board let alone read it... And since it doesn't "do" anything it doesn't alert anyone of any message or upcoming event or anything without folk ACTIVELY clicking on it which if they don't bother reading forums, posts or even the splash log in screen they aren't going to read a board 80% of the population probably doesn't even know contains anything relevant. I shouldn't have to spend every day spamming chat about upcoming events in my city. If the Town Crier worked at the Town stone to tell folk of upcoming events THAT would be useful. But a board that does nothing and no one can use but me doesn't do anything useful.

How are folk supposed to message me?

And PLEASE put in an auto-renew. Though it's extremely annoying if you have folk wanting other choices.... it's rather cruel to have to deny a citizen their request. Trade deals are evil. A Governor should be able to open Trade deals and put money on the stone...... but the CITIZEN should be able to choose what deal/buff they want for the day.

 

[Aurelius]

About the bulletin boards,
Opening up the bulletin boards to the general populace is outside of the scope of their function. It was requested that Governors have access to the town crier - this is the solution for that. There is no limit to how often a message can be updated, so there really isn't a need to post multiple messages, you can update them as you go. A fully functioning in-game message board is not what these bulletin boards are intended for. Other tools exist for that purpose, tools which players have been utilizing to successfully facilitate two way communication since the beginning. Do I think we can create better tools for in-game communication in general? Yes...but not within the scope of the bulletin boards that have been added. Something like that would be a future project.

A week ago we had a working way to let people leave us messages. We asked for a better communication system with people - communication is TWO WAY, not one....

Your reply is, to be polite frustrating. We've been given something with less functionality, that does not fulfil what we asked for, and it looks like we're being told '"Tough, we have decided this is what you get, live with it'......

Think again, and think harder. If you want us to use 'other tools', at least have the common courtesy to explain what, and why, and how. That answer is to me an extremely insulting and high-handed brush-off and I am certainly NOT happy if this is the way we're going to be treated.

 

[Riyana]

I'm glad there is still work being put into the governor system, but I'm disappointed that many of the great ideas discussed in the governor thread a while back were not implemented. The bulletin board change is a step sideways at best, and the problem of funding the trade deals is not going to be alleviated much by the sales of items everyone already has.

I'm also really disappointed that the voting system wasn't re-examined. One vote per shard was a mistake.

 

[Kyronix]

A week ago we had a working way to let people leave us messages. We asked for a better communication system with people - communication is TWO WAY, not one....

Your reply is, to be polite frustrating. We've been given something with less functionality, that does not fulfil what we asked for, and it looks like we're being told '"Tough, we have decided this is what you get, live with it'......

Think again, and think harder. If you want us to use 'other tools', at least have the common courtesy to explain what, and why, and how. That answer is to me an extremely insulting and high-handed brush-off and I am certainly NOT happy if this is the way we're going to be treated.

Firstly, let me apologize if you got the wrong impression from my previous reply. That certainly was not the intention and if it came across that way I'm sorry.

The bulletin boards are a solution to the fact that Governors wanted a town crier like tool. Rather than have Governor messages mixed in with Event Moderator and Global Announcements, we provided the same functionality in gump form. A means to blast an announcement and short supporting blurb to advertise the goings on within the City.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you that communication cannot be one way. An announcement, which the bulletin boards are intended to promote, are one way communications that are often not open to reply. That being said, I agree with you that we need better two way communication in general. I think that has been a shortcoming within the game for a long time. In lieu of a more elegant and complete solution, people rely on various out of game means of two way communication (ICQ I think being the most popular) to fill the long standing lack of an in game alternative.

The previous "guestbook" had a limited amount of text that could be included in any message and didn't fulfill what I think we ultimately need to provide - an in game guest book for anyone to post and receive replies. Dot mentioned the old school guest books in which it functioned similar to a thread style. Unfortunately that has become deprecated over the years and with advances in tech I'm sure we can find a more elegant and functional solution.

If, for some reason, citizens do not want to communicate with their Governor via an out of game means, or the Governor isn't comfortable sharing those details they can always drop a book with a much lengthier message on the City Herald. It was mentioned that the name of the person who deposited the item to the City Herald isn't available - that's another item we can add to the future Governor enhancement list.

As always, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

After reading all of this posts here, seems we have a big problem in our hands, COMMUNICATION is key, I was elected a few months back for Jhelom, and I still havnt met any of my citizens, Its not by lack of interests or time, I think we should also have a list in each City Stone with the names of all the citizens of the City, so we can know how many people we are helping, and if to run a trade deal of not, If a city only has 10 people its easier to scout them all out and ask what they want than just guess in many cases.(Would work wonders in smaller shards and even the bigger ones) I tend to check the Bulletin Board but as many say, lots of the citizens are not even bothering to read, and now it seems they cant even write to me , even if they wanted too..... Id say the easiest way to keep communication in game, Citizens to Governeor, is have the same messaging system used as when you apply for a promotional code or try to contact a GM in game, maybe they can write to you and we get a pearl button message in top of screen, where the governor can click it and see all the messages sent to him. I dont understand from a personal or business point of view why UO is promoting ICQ,(Does EA own ICQ Rights....?), yeah its the most used communication system but its also open to exploits in all sorts, as you can infect other people computers with viruses and for many that dont install it because they say its runs lots of spyware and has lots of hidden processes in the background of the computer. I am sure no one counts the processes in ICQ, but when you first install it, shows 1 process after a week its 10 new processes created by ICQ.... rather odd to the speed of the computer too and also in older computers, as I am sure not everyone has gone out and bought a latest computer with all the gaming equipment, it hinders speed of the computer and also the connection speed. On the connection speed issue, please try to think not all people will have 10MB lines or fibreoptics, I run a lousy 1MB line, because I live in rural side of Spain, my internet provider cannot support more speed without changing the whole infrastructure of the southern Spanish coast, so I am a bit screwed with speed, to have to be installing other programmes or stuff, to play a game I PAY FOR, I come back to the money issue, What is actually being done with our subscription cash?? They havnt sorted the server line problems, so dumping still happens, they havnt created a in-game integrated system for Governors to speak to Citizens, etc.... I don't wanan sound harsh or negative, but a clear back step has been taken by reading all this posts... Please Devs read and re-evaluate the system or codes, You cannot have better feedback than the same players telling you what works or not. I am not asking for you guys to follow our instructions word by word or do all the changes we ask, but at least do them as we need them not as you want them to be, we play they game, you Devs might too, but you mainly working, so we are the populus telling you what is functioning or not, so listen and change acordanly to what we post......, Again in my opinion, there should be less explaining on the Devs side and more, Yes Sir, We will fix this and less explanations/more work..... Keep up the great work by the way, I am in no way taking any credit away or putting down, its a hard work and I know, and people can also be very annoying too when asking stuff. Dont rely on other software for power your game, If EA can take a subscription, offer the service I say, You wont see Samsung sending you to get a mobile phone from Nokia, so why would EA do that, It just shows lack of interest in your side and a clear FY in my face, as you show me no interest in fixing the problem, just sending it elsewhere...... Also ICQ is like a messenger, its a private affair, why do I have to be giving out a personal way to get in contact out of game, does EA pay me for the time I am gonna be answering questions and querries while I am in RL work, making money to pay for a subscription..... I dont mind giving mine out as I also run HLP Guild and need to help the new one, which in another case I could speak also by the lack of interest in the game for helping them, but thats another topic entirely.....
About Money coming in via City Banners, I havnt met anyone in the last 3 months that has bought one or anyone that would like one, Its a nice piece of Deco to have but dosnt do anything special, so for some its just wasted money and wont buy it..... Its a nice way to fill the coffers with money but we need even more things to boost the money gain for the city coffers. I like that money for Titles also goes in, but who has paid 50m For a Duke title, I have seen a few people that have, yeah great for them....... BWho long you been playing? adnd If you got 50m to spend on a title, I wonder how much more you would have

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

I wonder how much more that person has to have to be able to buy that title, It seems a bit high to be honest, 50m Can buy you a lot ingame, than to spend on just a title......

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

Ive stopped writting as I could of gone for hours yet, and I wanna allow someone elses thoughts to be shared too

 

[Bobar]

I wonder how much more that person has to have to be able to buy that title, It seems a bit high to be honest, 50m Can buy you a lot ingame, than to spend on just a title......

I think that is the point. There are lesser titles enough for all and it would be a bit meaningless for everyone to be a Duke. It is similar in concept to the old standard title of 'Glorious Lord' there was considerable amount of time and effort necessary to obtain both words of the title. This one was intended to be a gold sink so to obtain it you must pay through the nose.

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

I get what you mean in the titles, but a 25m would do yet as fine, no new player withing their first 2 years maybe more would be getting a title as such, unless he has played extremely well and did things right with a lot of luck or got help, or even worse Dumped or used sites......
At first I thought the money system was wrong, but I have seen it fairly just the amount you get in some places....
Anyways that wasnt the point of my post and I wasnt trying to complain, was trying to be objectable or precise with some points that I think might need some looking into....
The pearl message system in my opinion, could be extremely useful, Isn't that the same system the COUNCELLORS/ADVISORS or whatever the next system coming is called gonna use???? Extract the recall to place of help that they used to have, and Voila you got a operating system for Governors.

This point I didnt express before as I though was boring and null, but why would YOUNGS be allowed into BS Castle Dungeon, they obviosly cant really help in anyway, they will just be used as bait for the captain to attack them and they will die over and over again.....
Thats just for BS, I think its Ok for them to enter other Dungeons as It can help them in the skilling but BS is far from a skilling place for me, in my opinion......