NEWS UO NewsLetter

[UO News]

A new edition of the Ultima Online Newsletter has been released you can read the newsletter via the Continue Reading link below.

Continue reading...

 

[petemage]

Strong words on their long-standing failure of addressing the issues of EC users properly. Let's see if she really keeps her word or if we just get another attempt they don't even test before publish. They did it too often to blindly buy into that promise.

 

[Merlin]

"
6. Can you add Gargoyle artifacts in Shadowguard?

This will be fixed in Publish 99."

 

[CovenantX]

"
6. Can you add Gargoyle artifacts in Shadowguard?

This will be fixed in Publish 99."

took long enough... lol

 

[R Traveler]

Nothing about pets they promised on Europa QA session.

 

[Merlin]

took long enough... lol

Agreed... nearly two years since ToL launched, but better late than never, I suppose.

Throwers with Ozy Obi will be a significant change. Looking forward to it.

 

[ShriNayne]

I'm glad they seem to be taking the problems with the EC seriously at last, I hope we can all enjoy EM events soon!

 

[Dot_Warner]

Yay to the EC issues being addressed!


But I wonder what new hell Malag will scream in my ear about in the future...

 

[drcossack]

"
6. Can you add Gargoyle artifacts in Shadowguard?

This will be fixed in Publish 99."

Wow, it only took them a little over a year (since it was first publicly suggested...to my knowledge, anyway.) Guess I know what I'll be doing when Pub 99 hits.

I still have about half a dozen Ozy Obi lying around too. Will let me sink more stat points into Dex.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I just wonder how many folks will be checking their email 30+ times today....

 

[Tyrath]

Yay to the EC issues being addressed!


But I wonder what new hell Malag will scream in my ear about in the future...

COugh the water on the coast would be my guess

 

[Riyana]

Strong statements, coherency, and ownership of the issues. This one had a remarkably different tone than the last one and looks to be well-written and explanatory. Well done.

1. Is there any way to reverse the random resources collection?
   
   This change was made to deter monopolization of high-end resource nodes within the world. While we are open to reverting random resource collection this change requires additional consideration and discussion of all the impacts. We look forward to continued discussion within the community.

The intent was good, but unfortunately it just made mining for a specific metal incredibly tedious for an actual at-the-keyboard miner. This incentivized and rewarded scripting and discouraged normal players. I can strip mine for hours and not get any valorite and maybe just a little verite. For me it's usually specific stone colors I want, but there is just no way I can get a useful amount of valorite stone anymore. I won't script and and I am not going to make a full time job of mining.

If it goes back to static ore spawns like it was originally, then yes, scripters will still have an advantage (they will ALWAYS have an advantage), but at least normal players would have a chance at more higher ores when they need them.

And of course, penalizing scripting helps too. I see the same ones I've been seeing for years still that I've reported multiple times. I usually don't bother reporting anymore.

 

[Tyrath]

Strong statements, coherency, and ownership of the issues. This one had a remarkably different tone than the last one and looks to be well-written and explanatory. Well done.

1. Is there any way to reverse the random resources collection?
   
   This change was made to deter monopolization of high-end resource nodes within the world. While we are open to reverting random resource collection this change requires additional consideration and discussion of all the impacts. We look forward to continued discussion within the community.

The intent was good, but unfortunately it just made mining for a specific metal incredibly tedious for an actual at-the-keyboard miner. This incentivized and rewarded scripting and discouraged normal players. I can strip mine for hours and not get any valorite and maybe just a little verite. For me it's usually specific stone colors I want, but there is just no way I can get a useful amount of valorite stone anymore. I won't script and and I am not going to make a full time job of mining.

If it goes back to static ore spawns like it was originally, then yes, scripters will still have an advantage (they will ALWAYS have an advantage), but at least normal players would have a chance at more higher ores when they need them.

And of course, penalizing scripting helps too. I see the same ones I've been seeing for years still that I've reported multiple times. I usually don't bother reporting anymore.

US legit miners and LJs had very effective ways of dealing with the bots back then Don't know if there are enough of us left to have the same Community effect on them now as we did then. But returning to what was good for the actual attended folks and could be made very frustrating to the bots......... Yeah revert it already.

 

[Riyana]

US legit miners and LJs had very effective ways of dealing with the bots back then Don't know if there are enough of us left to have the same Community effect on them now as we did then. But returning to what was good for the actual attended folks and could be made very frustrating to the bots......... Yeah revert it already.

Yeah, I actually enjoy mining, but I can't possibly put enough time into it to get much high end ore/stone the way it works now, and that is frustrating. I don't need another 60k deed of iron, I need enough valorite stone to make a couple trophies for events!

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Strong statements, coherency, and ownership of the issues. This one had a remarkably different tone than the last one and looks to be well-written and explanatory. Well done.

Agreed.

If it goes back to static ore spawns like it was originally, then yes, scripters will still have an advantage (they will ALWAYS have an advantage), but at least normal players would have a chance at more higher ores when they need them.

And of course, penalizing scripting helps too. I see the same ones I've been seeing for years still that I've reported multiple times. I usually don't bother reporting anymore.

and yet again... Agreed.

There is no way to make a disadvantage for the scripters without hitting the honest or casual player much harder than the scripter. I have heard folks say there are 'programs' that are designed to stop them in their tracks if the team wants (Punkbuster etc) but even those would eventually be worked around by the unscrupulous..

 

[BeaIank]

I would enjoy mining and lj much more if the bloody resources weren't bloody random.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

@Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak

Party Page says "2:00pm – 4:30pm – UO Devs & “What’s Coming to Britannia” presentation, Q&A, and Raffle!"...

any way we can get a confirmation of if this will be live streamed? Need to adjust my work schedule if it is. Don't want to miss it if so, and don't want to take the day off if it is not.

Something tells me a few folks would do the same

 

[Dot_Warner]

There is no way to make a disadvantage for the scripters without hitting the honest or casual player much harder than the scripter.

Well, there is one way... It's super intimidating though, you know, truly frightening to the average studio... It's called enforcing their stipulated and player-agreed-to ToS and RoC. Shocking, I know.

They could also automatically publish a minor mandatory encryption change to the CC every few days. While this may make UOA unuseable, it will be annoying enough to certain other programs that they may stop bothering to update. Another option would be to close up the hooks in the CC, though this would also break UOA.

 

[skett]

So for the costume contest death robe or just the same old dirty underwear you got 20 years ago !

 

[Uriah Heep]

Party Page says "2:00pm – 4:30pm – UO Devs & “What’s Coming to Britannia” presentation, Q&A, and Raffle!".

Will there be real "A"s at this party or will it be more maybes and possibly

 

[Riyana]

So for the costume contest death robe or just the same old dirty underwear you got 20 years ago !

Please... don't?

 

[skett]

Please... don't?

After having a second thought/ visual ahhh ya I agree lol

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Well, there is one way... It's super intimidating though, you know, truly frightening to the average studio... It's called enforcing their stipulated and player-agreed-to ToS and RoC. Shocking, I know.

They could also automatically publish a minor mandatory encryption change to the CC every few days. While this may make UOA unuseable, it will be annoying enough to certain other programs that they may stop bothering to update. Another option would be to close up the hooks in the CC, though this would also break UOA.

The thing on enforcement.. and yeah, maybe I am a "the glass is half full" kinda person.. but I like the think they do enforce them but they just do not release or make public what happens. I would love to see them move away from that private line of thinking and release the info on all the people they punish. This would do two things... 1 - let the player base know they are acting.. and 2 - serve as a warning to those who are abusing the system of exactly what they can expect when they get caught..

I understand ya on the encryption changes.. but it would not take but what 10-30 minutes for the rule breakers to update to the new encryption as well as kill off a large portion of the player base as well... I know even I would have to walk away if I was relegated to UOA falling away and having to use a mouse all the time.

Will there be real "A"s at this party or will it be more maybes and possibly

Going solely off the Newsletters recently.. I would imagine real answers for real questions. You know some folks (and I will not name any names) ask some pretty strange questions at times. Sure, the strange question is important to the person asking it, but there are plenty asked that makes me go.. "Ummmm wth?"... lol.. so can't expect the Devs to give hard concrete answers to every little question that comes up.

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

A new edition of the Ultima Online Newsletter has been released you can read the newsletter via the Continue Reading link below.

Continue reading...

One of the better newsletters in terms of delivering information and addressing some serious gameplay issues.

At least I thought so. Much appreciated.

 

[Tina Small]

I think it would be better to keep resources randomized and add additional methods for getting the rarer resources. I do not want to go back to having to compete with people running scripts to ever be able to get things like valorite or frostwood.

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

I think it would be better to keep resources randomized and add additional methods for getting the rarer resources. I do not want to go back to having to compete with people running scripts to ever be able to get things like valorite or frostwood.

I agree completely. At least the random resources get you out and about, exploring the map and looking for stuff. With static spawns you just need 8 good runes and your done - or much simpler and easier to run scripts. If they went back to static spawns, 60K stacks of valorite would be free in about a week at the rate scripters can harvest.

Maybe they should go to opposite way. Randomize the resource locations completely. Once a vein is exhausted, it doesn't respawn with that color of ore for XXX number of respawns. Play hell with the scripts, and attended miners would still be the same as now, looking for that one vein they really need. With prospector tools and all the "help find X resource" from the void pool, attended miners/LJ's might get ahead.

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

But I wonder what new hell Malag will scream in my ear about in the future...

Cough the water on the coast would be my guess

Well, she would kinda have a point......

 

[MalagAste]

Yay to the EC issues being addressed!


But I wonder what new hell Malag will scream in my ear about in the future...

Um... Plucked Turkeys? Zippers along shores... other graphical issues like the firing of carpenters and decorators in Nu'Jelm?

 

[Dot_Warner]

The thing on enforcement.. and yeah, maybe I am a "the glass is half full" kinda person.. but I like the think they do enforce them but they just do not release or make public what happens. I would love to see them move away from that private line of thinking and release the info on all the people they punish. This would do two things... 1 - let the player base know they are acting.. and 2 - serve as a warning to those who are abusing the system of exactly what they can expect when they get caught..

I understand ya on the encryption changes.. but it would not take but what 10-30 minutes for the rule breakers to update to the new encryption as well as kill off a large portion of the player base as well... I know even I would have to walk away if I was relegated to UOA falling away and having to use a mouse all the time.

I have to agree that some public displays of enforcement would be a good idea, not just the ones that personally tick off Mesanna. We don't need huge amounts of data, but something like "X character was banned for Y reason, learn from this." would be good. They should also hand out suspensions a bit more freely for extreme language and harassment, in an ever increasing amount for repeat offenders.

Again, they can ban/suspend us for any reason at any time for ToS/RoC violations. They need not wait for "concrete proof" of malfeasance. Yes, I'm looking squarely at you, multiboxers.

It usually takes a certain well-known, UO-specific program 2-3 days to update. If an encryption change happened on that 4th day, every freaking time, they might give up. Maybe. Worth a try.

As for UOA, I know a lot of people use it. OSI set terrible precedent when they allowed UOA to usurp continued development of the CC UI. The devs have waffled on adding some of its necessary features to the client, which is, in IMHO, myopically shortsighted. Buuuut....the EC has them all, and a boatload more.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Um... Plucked Turkeys? Zippers along shores... other graphical issues like the firing of carpenters and decorators in Nu'Jelm?

*puts an orange in a tube sock*

 

[railshot]

Maybe they should go to opposite way. Randomize the resource locations completely. Once a vein is exhausted, it doesn't respawn with that color of ore for XXX number of respawns. Play hell with the scripts, and attended miners would still be the same as now, looking for that one vein they really need. With prospector tools and all the "help find X resource" from the void pool, attended miners/LJ's might get ahead.

This kind of mechanic actually reduces randomization and would make scripting easier - once a vein is exhausted, no need to come back for x number of respawns.

 

[MalagAste]

Well... this is just my thought...

In the real world certain tree's give certain expected wood... So why not make certain trees give expected wood? Yew Trees of course would give Yew wood Oak Trees would naturally give Oak... etc...

As far as mining goes... you could stand to reason then that certain regions would produce certain ores/stones...

And to combat over farming and such of high end ores and trees... and to combat bots... Random mob encounters should happen... Whack too many Yew Trees and spawn an angry Dryad or Tree Ent... or something... An Angry Wood Elf... Mine too much Ore in one area and you tick off a stone elemental or Ore Elemental...

You could still bump lower ores and such and that would "lessen" the chances of spawning something nasty...

Just a thought...

 

[Arroth Thaiel]

This kind of mechanic actually reduces randomization and would make scripting easier - once a vein is exhausted, no need to come back for x number of respawns.

If the number of respawns required was too high, I would agree.

For instance, if a location would not respawn say, agapite, until it had spawned 50 other types of ore, then yeah, scripters would just be constantly whittling down spawn locations, and eventually you would wind up with no agapite locations spawning in game.

However, it could be set up as a randomized resource pool.

For instance, a location spawns verite and is exhausted. It won't spawn verite again until say 4 others types of ore (+/- 3 types) have spawned there, but with a scaled reduction in verite chance until 8 other types of ore have spawned there.

So, for a single location, where verite returned after one respawn (4base-3modifier = 1respawn), you'd have

0 = Verite
1 = Any ore but verite
2 = Any ore (Verite added to spawn pool 10% chance)
3 = Any ore (Verite added to spawn pool 20% chance)
.....
9 = Any ore (Verite returned to spawn pool, but still requires verite selection from all available ores)

but for the same location where verite only returned to the pool after 7 respawns (4base+3modifer = 7respawn), you'd have

0 = Verite
1 = Any ore but verite
2 = Any ore but verite
3 = Any ore but verite
4 = Any ore but verite
5 = Any ore but verite
6 = Any ore but verite
7 = Any ore but verite
8 = Any ore (Verite added to spawn pool 10% chance)
...etc

This way you have a much more randomized system, which is a bear to script for, but for a legit player, it's still just click and walk while looking for what you want. You could add in tools to help find resource locations, t-map style systems were mentioned in another thread.

You could also globalize the metric. Say you want at least 5% of your available resource tiles on the map to be verite. The next time a tile is exhausted, verite would automatically move up the spawn pool and be selected.

You could also control by facet. Say the verite pool exhausts in Trammel, and through the RNG GODDESS of UO, all 5% has spawned in Felucca. You now have to go to Felucca to get it. Or maybe you always want Felucca to have 7%, or Tokuno to spawn Shadow heavy. Up to you.

I like Malag's idea's too. Say Valorite has a higher chance to spawn by the sea, or Frostwood in the snow areas.

They could also do nearest neighbor spawns and create ore veins, or groves of specific wood. Once you found what you wanted, it'd be like ...Eureka!

 

[Merus]

Just make ore veins character specific (similar to a clicky). Every character can mine out any given spot once per server up.

 

[Merlin]

One of the better written newsletters. I hope the developers take the action they noted on the EC issues.

Very excited to get a Ozy Obi on my thrower!

 

[skittles1337]

Well, there is one way... It's super intimidating though, you know, truly frightening to the average studio... It's called enforcing their stipulated and player-agreed-to ToS and RoC. Shocking, I know.

They could also automatically publish a minor mandatory encryption change to the CC every few days. While this may make UOA unuseable, it will be annoying enough to certain other programs that they may stop bothering to update. Another option would be to close up the hooks in the CC, though this would also break UOA.

Wouldn't work, most of the updating of those programs come from a whole community of players. If it was one person then yea, but when you have 10+ people that could update the program you're just wasting your time. Cheating is part of the game, get used to it or find a new game... Mesanna has already picked a side, she cares about $$$.

 

[railshot]

Just make ore veins character specific (similar to a clicky). Every character can mine out any given spot once per server up.

That kinda thing (like daily quests) is pretty much guaranteed to make you hate the game in a month or so. If you want the game to feel like a job - just make a bunch of daily tasks.

 

[skittles1337]

Sometimes it's the understanding of ToS by players that is problematic too. Multi-boxing, for example, is not against ToS which is why it's happening right in from of EMs at events.If multiboxing was not legal it would only be a matter of disabling the ability to run multiple clients on one PC. Like all major decisions, nothing is easy.

Great newsletter. I hope the next few newsletters talk more about fixing existing issues than adding new stuff too.

Honestly, I wish they would just get rid of the EM program. Its old outdated and people cry about it more than anything else in this game. If they spent the same amount of money on the EM program into bringing in 2 more full-time dedicated staff maybe they could pump out more short term activities that can easily replace the EM program.

 

[MissEcho]

I think it would be better to keep resources randomized and add additional methods for getting the rarer resources. I do not want to go back to having to compete with people running scripts to ever be able to get things like valorite or frostwood.

I used to get plenty of the rarer woods and ingots when I could mark spots. Since randomisation I have pretty much given UP on obtaining these to fill bods etc. Put it back to how it was, I would rather compete on the nodes than the current system where I get zero. I can pick my times and get in before the scripters, now there is not enough time in the damn day to obtain useable amounts of the rarer resources without spending 100% of your time doing it, even then ending up with bugger all.

All additional methods they have put in to date, ie 'maps' to locations, talismans to upgrade etc etc are nothing but a HUGE grind to obtain and a total waste of time. ESPECIALLY those that had to be used in a 24 hour time period, what a moronic thing to add to anything that takes ages to get in the first place, talk about grindfest.

So, sorry have to disagree with you here Tina but the way it was before they mucked about with it was much fairer. Not to say they shouldn't deal with the scripters, they should, but they just made it impossible for the 'real' miners/lumberjackers, when they changed it the first time.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Honestly, I wish they would just get rid of the EM program. Its old outdated and people cry about it more than anything else in this game. If they spent the same amount of money on the EM program into bringing in 2 more full-time dedicated staff maybe they could pump out more short term activities that can easily replace the EM program.

Do you really think they pay enough to the EM's to cover 2 full time employee's salaries? I kinda doubt that. I would say maybe one full time salary at best... and that is before you consider the difference in the "sub-contractor" vs. "employee" situation. With Subs you have a lot less outlay in addition to just the base salary (ie 1/2 FICA, bene's).

26 Em's (24 active and one being searched for according to UO.com and 1 PEC) and they get what? A couple hundred bucks each a month? That is only $5200 a month. That is only $62,400.. no way you could pull two for that price, especially in that area of Va... you would be very lucky to get one for the $50,000-55,000 range you would have to be at to compensate for the additional outlay you have in employee vs. Sub. After all average "base pay" for a programmer in Va is around 75k...

Working it backwards... you would need to have the EM's each making around $517 a month in order to just cover the base salary and the $11,000 range Employers Part of FICA on the salary. And yeah, that does not even take into account bene's and other costs associated with an employee.... I really doubt they are paying each EM anywhere close to that as most of them do the job out of love for the game and not financial gain.... (except for the crooked ones in the past, but their financial gain was not the pay rate...)

 

[Revenant]

Strong words on their long-standing failure of addressing the issues of EC users properly.

I didn't read that as actually addressing the issues, but making the things that always crash optional. Why? Fix them or remove them. Don't make them optional.

 

[Merus]

I didn't read that as actually addressing the issues, but making the things that always crash optional. Why? Fix them or remove them. Don't make them optional.

Except even if they always crash you, it doesn't mean they always crash everyone. Giving people who are affected a way to disable it without jacking with everyone else is just fine IMO.

 

[Revenant]

Except even if they always crash you, it doesn't mean they always crash everyone. Giving people who are affected a way to disable it without jacking with everyone else is just fine IMO.

I've read through these threads and haven't found anyone who claims to be unaffected. Are you claiming that?

I know my video card is more than a decade more advanced than this effect and my computer still locks up for a minute.

 

[ShriNayne]

I thought that pretty much anyone using the EC was having these problems, at EM events if nowhere else!

 

[skittles1337]

Do you really think they pay enough to the EM's to cover 2 full time employee's salaries? I kinda doubt that. I would say maybe one full time salary at best... and that is before you consider the difference in the "sub-contractor" vs. "employee" situation. With Subs you have a lot less outlay in addition to just the base salary (ie 1/2 FICA, bene's).

26 Em's (24 active and one being searched for according to UO.com and 1 PEC) and they get what? A couple hundred bucks each a month? That is only $5200 a month. That is only $62,400.. no way you could pull two for that price, especially in that area of Va... you would be very lucky to get one for the $50,000-55,000 range you would have to be at to compensate for the additional outlay you have in employee vs. Sub. After all average "base pay" for a programmer in Va is around 75k...

Working it backwards... you would need to have the EM's each making around $517 a month in order to just cover the base salary and the $11,000 range Employers Part of FICA on the salary. And yeah, that does not even take into account bene's and other costs associated with an employee.... I really doubt they are paying each EM anywhere close to that as most of them do the job out of love for the game and not financial gain.... (except for the crooked ones in the past, but their financial gain was not the pay rate...)

62,400 goes a long way in India! Obviously, two employees is a stretch, but Broadsword(EA) needs a better investment into this game or pull the damn plug. You can't continue charging the same price you did in 2003 with producing 1/4 of the content. The EM program has been a corrupt program for years, almost every EM is benefiting in someway or another outside of monetarily.

 

[Merus]

I've read through these threads and haven't found anyone who claims to be unaffected. Are you claiming that?

I know my video card is more than a decade more advanced than this effect and my computer still locks up for a minute.

I have not had any issues with graphics crashing my client on the occasions when I've used EC. The corpse issue is another matter.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

62,400 goes a long way in India!

C'mon now.. if they were to do that they would lose at least half of the American player based (if not 3/4's) in a millisecond. Heck for that matter they could take all the operations of UO and stick it there and probably have 2500 folks on it for half the cost... Would be the stupidest move they have ever made...

 

[skittles1337]

C'mon now.. if they were to do that they would lose at least half of the American player based (if not 3/4's) in a millisecond. Heck for that matter they could take all the operations of UO and stick it there and probably have 2500 folks on it for half the cost... Would be the stupidest move they have ever made...

It was obviously a joke, but there is zero chance 3/4 of the uo population leaves because they hire some outside help from India lol. Dumbest thing I've ever read... Did you quit when you they outsource their customer service to India in the early 2000's, didn't think so.

 

[Dot_Warner]

The EM program has been a corrupt program for years, almost every EM is benefiting in someway or another outside of monetarily.

Citation needed.

 

[skittles1337]

Citation needed.

Is a citation really needed for this? How many people have been fired? If the EM program worked so perfectly Mesanna wouldn't need to take away almost all their powers, yet they still find a way to benefit. Citation lol!