Town Hall notes thread...

[Dermott of LS]

...

Initial Jeremy Notes:

- Cocoa Trees, 8 new seeds internally testing
- OSI Owned houses are being identified and falling in batches as locations and received.
- Malas area opened in an upcoming publish
- Draconi and a group of people in Japan through rest of this month
- Spring Cleaning turned off in August
- 2 weeks notice on turning off Spring Cleaning
- Account ages are weird, updates once per week, run by elderly asthmatic hamster

Q/A Factions
- Jeremy asks for feedback on Factions, most info is off mic at the moment
- Beneficial acts in Fel had a bug
- Asking for help on updating the Factions Guide
- Asking for ideas to be sent in on making owning towns more valuable
- Speedman introduced/called out
- "Might as well get the Siege stuff started early"
- Dyable Monk's Robes not allowed because they are basically the same as GM/Counselor's/etc robes.
- Dyable hooded shrouds = dupers win

General Q/A
- Faction vendor pricing is interesting, but what use are the vendors lately anyway.
- Threads, Cloak, Daggers: Part of Draconi's secret plan. Scenario is not done yet
- Current event to continue tentatively around mid August, expect a week or so notice
- "Dueling" guildstones for player run events being "passed on" to look in to
- Contact for clean up of EM content
- Jewelry Boxes was never on the schedule. They would "like to do" but is not on schedule
- 90% of weapons are not viable, revamping of weapons being done internally, "cannot talk about" but being looked in to
- Weapon balance tentative for within the next few publishes
- More stable slots: Cannot promise, but "on the list"
- Hand to hand combat: "I would LOVE to"
- Male KR paperdoll "needs to be changed, no ETA"
- Housing: Lockdowns lower than secures because of loading
- Bounties: Cutting off heads and turning them in made parents go nuts
- Customizable keeps and castles: an absolute nightmare
- Certain headpieces not on the magic item lists
- Tinker's Runics: Maybe Tinker BODs, but nothing specific
- HCI on shields: Noted for weapon rebalancing
- Crafting hats with barbed kits: "We'd have to think about it"
- Controlling layering: going to be brought up to artists
- Togglable hood for robes: Good idea, no idea
- Heartwood quests: Stupidly tedious, looking to revamp or change in some way, especially for runics
- Problems with Melissa quests (crashing): QA working on it
- ROT on Siege: More difficult than intended, Messana is on it, scaling bug, ROT broken
- Buglist in KR "frightening", asking for better interaction for bug fixing "good idea, but runs into Volunteer problem", limited bandwidth to fix
- "You cannot see that"is a bug, unknown on status of fix
- Spring Cleaning Phase 3 is last phase
- Arcane Focus: Must talk to Draconi when he returns
- More cooking stuff maybe
- Tokuno Dyes: Good idea, people ask, something off mic "I cannot comment on that"
- AOS resists: Damage types vs armor, not on the table
- Accounts "losing" expansion status: must research
- Speculation on dupe/exploits: "We like fire"
- Stygian Abyss: "Can't talk about it" "Very soon you might hear more" (wow... "soon" and "might" in the same sentence)
- 9th Anniversary was a limited release
- Volunteers very unlikely due to legal issues. Counselor Guild buildings... who knows
- Oceans: #1 request for expansions. Ship code would have to be reworked. Ships are houses that float.
- Stables in houses: requested... "on a list somewhere"
- Crimsons drop on Melissa's body, not to backpack
- Stranger lockboxes: Draconi's evil plan
- Burning houses in Luna: Draconi's in Japan
- GM interaction in removing problem players: GMs will not tell you what happens to the person reported on
- Origin = public test shard for new stuffs
- Damage exceeding 35 "cap" in PvP: unanswered
- KR vs 2d: something about speed, 2ders whined about a speed fix for KR
- Cannot speak much about KR right now, but they have a lot of focus group data
- Memory usage issues, lot of work needed for KR
- Strangers are no longer spawning, murder mystery is current
- Player run servers and ideas: tamer pets growing "cool idea, not on a schedule"
- "I just drank an entire Coke"
- PvP thieves: Aware of issues, not an easy fix
- Finishing the virtues: conceptual gaps
- Leaving Alliances: Fix was not retro-active, if stuck need to talk a GM

They're talking about volunteer programs, support, ect. so nothing really game-critical here

Brief break after Blade Thugluv's question about marketing, shelf presence

"Where's Marketing?"

WHOA!!! there went the audio

ok back... shelf space is shrinking for new games, used games = margins. Marketing doesn't have anything to market ATM

BREAK

Part 2

- Chapels in UO towns: No plans currently
- End of UO2d: 2d is not going away any time soon
- Question on Green Acres: Jeremy raced Wilki testing Speedhacking
- Returning Tokuno Arties: NOT off the Table
- Legacy artifacts: behaving as designed
- Crimson drop rate on Melissa: unknown on drop rate
- Why isn't UO on Mythic website: Have to check on status
- Vet rewards: cannot comment, haven't forgotten
- Revamping Detectives: nothing at the moment
- "We like fire" (this got the audio overloaded, so dunno exactly)
- "Show us your tatoo"
- More co-owner slots on houses:
- Salvage bags: wood/tinkered items: Not recycleable, but good idea
- Choosing starting town: will have to look at in the future
- Town Hall in Vegas: "That sounds like fun"
- Send town hall suggestions through feedback
- Lockpicking: Desire for jewelry/talisman... a good idea
- Lack of spellweaving jewelrt intentional
- Promotion of religion in game: check ROC for types of speech permitted. Not promoted as it has nothing to do with the game.
- Rare armor pieces, ingredients and crimsons as well as VERY high end random loot from Melissa look for info on Five on Friday
- Weddings in UO: System planned, but pushed out, unkown on current status
- Hacking protection: VERY big issue, Jeremy hacked on a different game via flash banner keylogger
- Item returning: other games have better item logging than UO.
- Lot of talk about being hacked
- New Haven Quests: missing quests ran out of time on some quests
- Timer on IDOCs: random
- Cut and paste to and from books: Supreem to look into it
- Arcane Focus: not sure what's going on here, lots of cross talk
- When will KR get some love: Missing art: have to harrass GrimmOmen
- Account binding: not likely
- Locked down boxes, removing items (Airmid): probably a bug, not on the list of changes, side effect?
- "Yes but we can't say"... I missed this question
- High end runics popping up:... FIRE!
- Pandas: "I'll send that to art" Patrial hued polar bear?
- Powerscrolls: for some skills not for others: No content above 100 for some skills. Skills would have to be rescaled
- GM magery WAS nerfed for PS purposes
- Backend not available to share skill points between accounts (soulstones I guess?)
- Smithing BODs: high end BODs imbalanced... on the list
- Balancing animal damage: different balancing pass than weapons, on the list (specifically greater dragons)
- How will you remember all of this: "It is being recorde"
- Instant GMs with items, Vamp form Bushidos working around skill cap: Needs a HARD look, Vamp Form needs a HARDER LOOK and a "kick in the nutz"
- Something about jewel-encrusted stuff: "That's a good idea"
- Commodity Deeds: redeem in houses: YES!!!! *MUCH APPLAUSE!!!* Actively developing!
- KR only shard: no plans (dammit!)
- Pet dye tub: No. Nothing but test center
- More than one house per account: To prevent owning too much real estate. Basically don't expect anything on this one... no sympathy here.

Stratics thread
- Handing in items player unfriendly: Limitations of the system they are using, deadlines hurt player friendliness
- Stacking: "We want more things to stack"
- Player townstones: really cool but long dev time
- Moongates to other shards: "I can see the dupes now" (x-sharding issues, coding issues)
- Lots of Stratics questions phrased very negatively
- Begging powerscrolls: There would have to be content
- Alternative ways to get PSs: Nothing planned
- Disguise kit bug wiping macros, used while locked down: engineering issue
- Greater Dragons not obeying: will have to look at may be deliberate

Crowd: 5 minute warning
- Making it against the rules to sell for real cash: Making it against the rules doesn't stop it. They could do it, GMs would have nmore work for NO difference (I could have told everyone this)
- Seattle: We can't talk about Seattle
- Not against the rules to "game" the 90 day decay Little sympathy for people who screw gaming the system up
- Lots of off mic, can't talk about the good stuff, presentation nixed
- UO Journal Coverter: cannot save journal in KR "I'll tell Supreem"

Giving out swag

 

[kennykilleduo]

Who's There Jeremy and???


Speedman , Wahoo ..

 

[Chad Sexington]

The audio is cutting out and in on me.

 

[Joyous2K]

...

Initial Jeremy Notes:

- Cocoa Trees, 8 new seeds internally testing
- OSI Owned houses are being identified and falling in batches as locations and received.
- Malas area opened in an upcoming publish
- Draconi and a group of people in Japan through rest of this month
- Spring Cleaning turned off in August
- 2 weeks notice on turning off Spring Cleaning
- Account ages are weird, updates once per week, run by elderly asthmatic hamster

Q/A Factions
- Jeremy asks for feedback on Factions, most info is off mic at the moment
- Beneficial acts in Fel had a bug
- Asking for help on updating the Factions Guide
- Asking for ideas to be sent in on making owning towns more valuable
- Speedman introduced/called out
- "Might as well get the Siege stuff started early"
- Dyable Monk's Robes not allowed because they are basically the same as GM/Counselor's/etc robes.
- Dyable hooded shrouds = dupers win

General Q/A
- Faction vendor pricing is interesting, but what use are the vendors lately anyway.
- Threads, Cloak, Daggers: Part of Draconi's secret plan. Scenario is not done yet
- Current event to continue tentatively around mid August, expect a week or so notice
- "Dueling" guildstones for player run events being "passed on" to look in to
- Contact for clean up of EM content
- Jewelry Boxes was never on the schedule. They would "like to do" but is not on schedule
- 90% of weapons are not viable, revamping of weapons being done internally, "cannot talk about" but being looked in to
- Weapon balance tentative for within the next few publishes
- More stable slots: Cannot promise, but "on the list"
- Hand to hand combat: "I would LOVE to"
- Male KR paperdoll "needs to be changed, no ETA"
- Housing: Lockdowns lower than secures because of loading
- Bounties: Cutting off heads and turning them in made parents go nuts
- Customizable keeps and castles: an absolute nightmare
-

Is this it? Or is this like an early report with more report to follow?

EDIT: Thanks Dermott!!

EDIT: Dermott they're holding KR back!! They are weighting down KR to make up for slow 2D!! Put that in the list!!

EDIT: LOL this is awesome

EDIT: That guy said there will be more than 5 in a FOF someday. Who is taking bets?

 

[Chad Sexington]

Is this it? Or is this like an early report with more report to follow?

It's editing it live.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

Of course, pretty much this whole town meeting is an in-person chance to have all of your questions answered with, "It's on the list, we have to talk to someone, we don't know, we're not sure, and it would make CatHat have a heart-attack." Which is to say that there's no real information here except fluff.

*sigh*

Oh, and the "We clearly don't have enough people working on the game" answers. Those are my favorite.

And "That's a good idea." Which in EA-speak means, "That will never, ever, ever happen."

Oh. My. God. Take the mic away from "I've got five questions" guy. We ALL know Counselors aren't coming back. And who the hell cares if they ever do anything with the buildings that sat empty for the entirety of the Counselor program anyway.

 

[Chad Sexington]

Where are they getting the questions they're reading off now? "questions from the interenet."?

 

[Revenant2]

Thanks for putting this thread up and updating it - - - all the audio links on the whisperingrose site are malfunctioning for me, I might get like 15 seconds of the audio and then nothing for 5 minutes. It worked fine for the last Maryland one so, bleh!

 

[Faerunner]

Well, they're fielding questions without anyone from the dev or art teams to back them up, whaddya want?

I hope that the final list of stuff we ask will at least get brought up in the next few FoF's or something, but more likely this will all disappear into the depths of town hall history.

 

[Chad Sexington]

So no one knows where to go to submit the internet questions they're asking?

 

[Gildar]

So no one knows where to go to submit the internet questions they're asking?

Instructions here: http://www.whisperingroseradio.com/townhallsd1.htm

 

[POOF]

I want to thank you very very much for this thread. I am unable to listen to it because my son is sleeping in the same room as me. But I think this is better than listening anyway....Very to the point, and don't have to listen to all the random talking.

 

[DevilsOwn]

The audio is cutting out and in on me.

I switched to mono, and it seems to be working better... sorry I didn't see this sooner for ya

 

[Joyous2K]

Is this it? Or is this like an early report with more report to follow?

EDIT: Thanks Dermott!!

EDIT: Dermott they're holding KR back!! They are weighting down KR to make up for slow 2D!! Put that in the list!!

EDIT: LOL this is awesome

EDIT: That guy said there will be more than 5 in a FOF someday. Who is taking bets?

EDIT: Jeremy cannot seem to get her 5 minute break!

EDIT: WTH? LOL at myself!!

EDIT: Some guy wants UO marketing and claims UO is not about grinding!! Also says UO is best!!
--EDIT: Jeremy replies there is nothing for UO to market. Retailers can't afford to take UO risk!!

EDIT: Jeremy gets her break!!

EDIT: Player has 4 characters!!

EDIT: Lot of stuff on characters shards and town hall, too much info for this humble reporter!

EDIT: Jeremy may take of shirt... second round of questions!

EDIT: 2D will be here for LOOOONG time!! No plans to mercy kill 1970s client in near future!!

EDIT: Jeremy admits to speedhack green acres (dev shard?)! Regarding speedhack, says "Hey, it works!!"

EDIT: No plans to stop 10th anniversary drops!! No mention of drop rate change.

EDIT: UO not on Mythic website, Jeremy says it may actually be! Marketing handles that particular page, not really her problem but will check to see if that is true!!

EDIT: Detective class is on a list of love!!

EDIT: More good ideas added to list!!

EDIT: Get more accounts to support UO!!

EDIT: Vegas Town Hall? Best idea yet!!

EDIT: Europeans may get Town Hall!! It goes for Australia as well!! In this reporter's opinion Canada will never see see one!!

EDIT: Lockpicking and spellweaving rings may get added to the list!! WIll definitely be discussed about being added to the list!! Rate of gain stinks for some skills! Is going to be talked about being looked at!!

EDIT: Free speech allowed in UO as long as it is not hateful!! Prayers are OK in UO, but not in FOF!! Page GM if you encounter hate speech!!

EDIT: Jeremy names one item of next week's FOF: spawn rate and info on Melissa loot!!

EDIT: Hackers one, UO zero!! WoW takes steps to improve WoW! No company can protect individuals!! WoW has better logging of virtual stuff than UO!! Jeremy is heartbroken at loss of virtual stuff, but they do not have records of your virtual stuff! Go to UO website to report unauthorized account access!!

EDIT: KR ruins unfinished accelerated skill gain quests in New Haven!! Time is ultimate thief!!

EDIT: Devs say solo spellweave not intended! Butts heads with Stratics posters!! Jury still out!

EDIT: KR bugs regarding art will be placed on list!!

EDIT: Bug regarding lockdown problem for bags in bags will be discussed!! Uncertain if actually a bug or if it was intended! Will be discussed!

EDIT: Evil plans! Yes, but we can't say!! Uncertain as to what, but does it matter? This reporter says "No!"

EDIT: UO not excited about changing existing systems or creating new systems!!

EDIT: Keep maintaining multiple accounts!! Good for UO!! No special features planned! Back-end would need to be changed and is not on list or going to be talked about being added to a list!!

EDIT: Greater dragons not part of balancing weps process, but is on nerf list!! Has been on list all year!!

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

*gasps*

Speedman is back?!

Hip hip HUZZAH!!! :-D

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Dunno if he's "back", but he's at the meeting.

 

[Tina Small]

My notes, edited to combine in one post, add bold text and fix typos. I believe it was Jeremy and Leurocian doing the talking.

Cocoa trees were promised in February. They will be included in an upcoming publish, not sure which one. May be up to eight new seed types (including the ones for cocoa trees). Will drop from monsters, which ones not determined yet.

Owned-by-OSI houses are starting to fall. They are being identified and dropped by hand.

Unused areas set aside in Malas for marketing purposes will be given away to players sometime in the future. Have to figure out how to keep scripters from getting them. This change does NOT mean there will be keeps and castles in Malas. There were good reasons for not allowing them and those reasons haven't changed.

Spring cleaning will be turned off in August. Will try to give us two weeks notice before it is turned off.

Live events have been a little slow because of Draconi being in Japan, but they will pick up again soon. (Several folks have been in Japan for a few weeks training the UO team there.)

Character transfers are back. She couldn't comment on why they were down, but did say, "We like fire."

The account age displayed in client is not your exact account age. The billing system, however, knows your real account age. Info from that system goes to another server, which rounds to nearest month and then eventually tells your client, about once a week. That means sometimes the account age your client knows can look to be about a month off. If you see an account age that seems to be off by more than a month, something's wacky and they have to investigate and adjust the process. Player reports are valuable. Send to Jeremy your account name, account age you think it should have, and what you are seeing in the client.

The faction playguide is going to be posted and Jeremy wants people to help her clean it up.

Will there be more benefits to factions owning towns? Yes...couldn't elaborate. If you have specific suggestions on how to make it more beneficial to own towns, send them in. If you ever have feedback on events, send it in!

Monk robes were not intended to be dyable. If they are dyable (faction enhancement??? couldn't hear where/how it's happening), that's a bug. They are the same general appearance as the GM shrouds and it isn't worth the hassle to them to have people messing with them to look like GMs. There were also the ones that were dyed and duped in the past.

What's happening with event items that seem to have no purpose yet (the cloaks, the daggers)? They're part of Draconi's secret plans. The current event arc is not done, there's more coming. Hang on to them.

When will the murder investigation stage of the event end? She thinks it will be turned off with a publish, not manually. She THINKS it will end in mid-August but will try to make sure we get at least a week's notice before it is turned off.

Can there be "dueling guildstones" to facilitate player-run events in Trammel (i.e., voluntary flagging for a set period of time)? That way people don't have to leave their guilds nor go to Fel where stuff will be raided. Argument against it in the past was that people would use it to train up characters. Suggestion will be passed on.

Use of EM-created content. Send Jeremy an e-mail and tell her what people want to have unlocked of EM-created content that's locked down/unusuable or removed if it is hindering game play.

Will we get jewelry boxes? They were never put on the schedule (as previously announced) and are still something they really want to do.

For RP PvP, has any consideration been given to changing some of the older weapons (e.g., halberds) so they are more usable in every day circumstances without having to spend a mint to get something decent. (I'm not quite sure I understood the original question.) May be on the radar screen (i.e., weapon and special move rebalancing).

Can we get more stable slots? Can't promise, but it's on the list.

Any possibility of adding hand-to-hand combat skills where you can't use a shield or spellbook (something like judo or karate)? Maybe.

Guy poses in KR....change please!!!! The female characters were the higher priority, but they are aware of it, just no ETA yet.

Is there any way to create more item storage so you can do things like museums/warehouses. Like buy more lockdown counts than what you can get currently. May be an issue because lockdowns actually have to be loaded when someone steps in a house (versus stuff in containers).

Any consideration to adding bounty system back in? Chopping heads off was a problem. So was the human jerky.

Can keeps and castles be customized? It's a technical nightmare.

Can hats be enhanced or get magical properties on certain items (bonnets and something else)? This came up twice and never did really hear the responses. Could it be possible to convert gorgets into necklaces? Not likely.

Will we get more housing tile styles? [More sound issues. Reply seemed to be that art is expensive and therefore not easy to get/change.]

Runic tools for tinkers? No promises.

Any chance to get HCI on shields again? Maybe when they do weapon rebalancing.

Can you fix layering of clothing/armor so stuff shows more in the order that you put it on? Probably not.

Since shrounds/monks robes cover everything, could you make the hood toggle-able? Good suggestion.

Heartwood quests are horrid unless you are a scripter. This is being discussed. Even the developers have tried with "dev" accounts and can't get runic kits. Maybe they will introduce BODs for other crafting skills.

Fix crashing on recall! They will as soon as they figure out what's happening. QA is trying but they can't consistently duplicate it.

ROT on Siege: They have been trying to change things all year so things would scale to 120 instead of 100. It's not that simple, will require more time. Mesanna is working on it. Need to make sure that changing one number in a formula won't change other things. It's definitely a bug that it isn't scaled to 120....it's broken, wasn't designed that way.

There needs to be a better way for players to know what's on the bug list to help with reporting bugs. Any thought of coming up with a community bug team? If there was better interaction with the dev team, maybe things would happen faster. Is a good idea, but it runs into the volunteer problem. Also, the problem isn't that they aren't being reported, they just have "limited bandwidth" to deal with them. (Is "bandwidth" some sort of jargon for "funding"?)

The "you cannot see that" issue seems to be a bug and is being looked at.

There are no more phases coming for this year's Spring Cleaning!

Arcane focus being one level lower now is something to be discussed with Draconi. There may be more news on this in early August. Doesn't seem to be intended, but they need to clarify with Draconi when he returns.

Will we ever be able to get more Tokuno dyes with the brighter colors and/or more charges. Good idea, didn't really confirm anything.

Is anything being done about accounts losing expansion packs? Question seemed to be about some of the really old expansion packs and for someone recently returned to the game. Notify Jeremy if you're seeing this on your account.

Any info on Stygian Abyss? Leurocian (?) said he can't talk about what he's talking about but hinted we'd hear something soon.

How do you get 9th Anniversary boxes? It was intended to be a limited release. Have discussed other ways to get that so you can get the housing tiles. A player mentioned that some gaming stores have it but it's often in the back and is referred to as "Ultima Online 9th Collection."

Will there ever be a new volunteer program? No. What's going to happen to the counselor halls? Not sure, something to consider.

The #1 request for revamping/adding content is for something related to pirates and ships. The ship code is a nightmare. They are houses that float. So, don't expect anything soon.

On the list of things that have been requested is being able to stable pets at your house. Didn't really answer whether they will do something, though.

Is Melissa really dropping crimson cinctures? Jeremy didn't know but a player says it's true. You have to loot to get it.

When will burning houses drop so houses can be placed? Not sure when.

Why does it seem like nothing happens when you report scripting/macroing? GMs will not tell you. They will only talk to you if they need more information, but they usually have tools to do that. EA has a privacy policy that prevents them from telling you what happens to the reported player.

Some spells and special moves do a lot of damage. Is this going to be looked at? Also KR does seem to be slower and macro sets seem to be subpar, especially for mages in PvP. They are aware of the speed issue. They tried to fix it, which caused the rubberbanding in 2D and therefore was yanked. She couldn't really talk about KR. They are aware of its flaws and limitations (e.g., memory usage). They know it's not in the kind of shape that they can really be proud of it.

Are the Strangers gone? Jeremy believes they are not spawning currently, but doesn't mean you won't seem them again.

Freeshards offer ability to raise a dragon from an egg. Can we get this? Cool idea.

When can I use my thief again in a PvP scenario? They are so much fun. There are a lot of factors (e.g., insurance) involved in making this happen. They don't have an easy fix for it and they know they need to do something about it.

Will the virtues be finished? There are eight virtues and there are game systems attached to them. However, there was never a design document created for them. They aren't sitting on something that isn't implemented yet. They actually have to come up with something to tie the [rest of] the virtues to game systems. Players should feel free to submit ideas.

The fix for joining/leaving alliances doesn't seem to be working. If you were in an alliance before the fix, the fix won't help you. You must contact a GM and they have to remove some scripts from your character. If you've contacted a GM and they promises it will be fixed but nothing happened, contact Jeremy and Mesanna will check on it. (Mesanna gets the UO bugs stuff.)

What can fansites do to help EA rebuild a new fansite and community program? The fansite program was removed. Mythic never had one. The thinking was the fansites would let Jeremy know what's going on and EA would help direct stuff to their site (e.g., through the Five on Friday announcements), rather than maintaining a static list that would go out of date, etc. Jeremy acknowledged that some of the smaller sites with fewer announcements aren't as satisfied with this method of doing things. It's really more of a philosophical thing with Mythic and needs to be addressed to Robert, Jeremy's boss.

Would it be possible to outsource the seer program to outside the US to nullify the volunteer program problems? The program was awesome for UO and EA didn't abandon it lightly. Jeremy doesn't want to get anyone's hopes up that they can easily reverse that decision.

When will there be marketing for UO? How are you going to get a new playerbase without marketing? Marketing means many things (shelf presence, ad buys, etc.). UO hasn't had an expansion pack in several years. It's very competitive to get stuff on the shelves. Basically their marketing area is waiting to have something to market like a box. Bundling with other games has been suggested.

Is UO 2D ending? No!! No plans to turn it off in the foreseeable future.

Will there ever be chapels in UO towns? No plans to implement them currently.

What's up with the green area under Doom on the map? Thinks questioner is talking about Green Acres. Is not accessible to players. Sometimes you can see the map for another dungeon on the radar just because of the way they are laid out for mapping.

Can you make Tokuno arties drop again from some monsters? It's not off the table.

Will the drop of 10th Anniversary arties continue? Yes, for the foreseeable future.

What is the current crimson cincture drop rate for Melissa? Jeremy didn't know. Jeremy will try to include the list of items Melissa drops to include in next week's Five on Friday. (People have mentioned rare armor set pieces in addition to the crimson cinctures.)

Why doesn't UO show up on the Mythic web site? Jeremy thought it did. That page is maintained by the marketing team and they were going to put UO on it. Will have to check on the status.

Any new veteran rewards? Can't comment; hasn't been forgotten.

Any plans to revamp the detective class? Not that Jeremy is aware of. Forensic eval has always just been kind of a one-off skill. Has a use currently!

Can we get more co-owner slots? Good suggestion and have also looked at having characters on your own accounts (other than house owner account) not count against the co-owner slot limit.

Will you add back the ability to choose your starting town when making a character? Not in the near future.

Can salvage bag be updated to accommodate recycling wooden and tinkered items? Good idea, but not coming soon.

Can we get jewelry or a talisman to bump up skills like lockpicking? Not having spellweaving jewelry was intentional. There are some skills they have to look at the rate of gain (taming, lock picking). [Note: There's another Q&A below about power scrolls that goes into this in a little more detail.]

How does EA feel about players promoting religion in-game? You would have to consult the rules of conduct to see what is permitted. She once got a request to include information for an in-game prayer meeting in a FoF. She didn't and replied that it was really not game related and was more like using the game as a chat room.

What's up with the stuff mentioned about items for weddings? They announced a system at the May townhall, but it was pushed back by some of the other publishes. No promises, probably was announced too early.

Questions raised about what happens after hacking to help players get their stuff back. Jeremy admitted that WoW has better logging of items and UO literally doesn't have the tools to go back and find out what was on the account. They would have to load a backup on a server and look and that would take a good day and a half. The Mythic customer service area is pushing hard for better tools for UO because what they have just isn't what they need. If you've been hacked the person who was hacked must use the support site or call so EA can immediately block the account.

Will you be adding quests in New Haven for the skills that currently have no quests? They ran out of time when these quests were being coded to roll out with KR. They can look at trying to finish those quests and add them.

Will it ever be able to cut and paste from books (just portions)? Will pass along the suggestion.

Why was level 1 removed from solo spellweavers? Arcane focus was not intended to be a solo spell. They admitted they need to look at it again. There was an exploit involved that was allowing people to get a level 6 when they shouldn't have been able to.

KR graphics need some love! The threads from the current event don't even show up. Jeremy will bug someone about this.

Will runic kits ever be account-bound? Not likely because they don't have good ways to account-bind stuff. It would be a whole system that has to be programmed.

Change to locked-down containers. Jeremy did not have any information on why this change was made. It was not in her list of things for publish notes. She's seen the posts on Stratics but wasn't sure what was going on. It was either overlooked in the publish notes or is an unintended change from something else.

Will anything be done about the sudden influx of runics? Jeremy's whispered response: "Fire."

Why doesn't every skill have power scrolls? Basic answer is because there's no content above GM for these skills. For example, magery was reworked to change the success rates for casting spells. If they did implement power scrolls for these skills that end at 100 but don't add additional more difficult content for using the skill, you could never train to 120 on the skill.

Can you make soulstones so they are bound to a person so you can transfer skills between accounts? Would be very complicated and would require changes on the billing system to link accounts together. She noted that the registration page is outsourced, adding to the difficulty.

Will you be looking at animal damage for balancing? Yes, but it isn't scheduled yet.

Are you looking at people pushing up skills with jewelry and then keeping an effect after removing the jewelry? They are looking at that issue and also the general issue of skill use based on jewelry.

Can you look at some way for tinkers to add jewels to items, e.g., jewel-studded gorgets and tunics? Suggestion noted.

Can we please be able to redeem commodity deeds at home? Yes. It's in active development.

Any plans for a KR-only shard? No.

Will there ever be a pet dye tub? No, not likely other than on Test Center.

Why can't we have more than one house per account on separate shards? It's to prevent people from taking up all the real estate.

Can anything be done to make more stuff stackable? It's in Mesanna's top 5 list.

Can we have moongates that teleport us to other shards for a fee? Jeremy said, "I can just see the dupes now." Neat idea but would require a ton of programming time.

When will power scrolls be easier to get for people who don't like to be killed? Are aware of it but can't talk about any plans.

Jeremy will have someone look into the issue of being able to use locked-down disguise kits.

Will you look at why greater dragons don't always respond, even when wonderfully happy? Will have to look at it, but it may be happening as intended.

Can you make it against the rules to sell in-game stuff for cash? Barrel of worms. Do you think if EA made it against the rules, it would really stop? UO is certainly not the game where it happens the most. It's a huge problem for L2 and it is against the rules in L2. This isn't the easy solution some think for stopping stuff like duping.

Someone asked whether it is against the rules for people to leave a house up by closing their account and then reactivating it just once every three months. It's not against the rules, but is definitely not recommended and there's little sympathy from Jeremy for folks who try it and miss the window for refreshing their house.

KR needs a way to save journals. Jeremy said she'd bring it up with the engineers. It may have been in and was pulled because it was causing crashes.

Jeremy kind of wrapped up by saying there's a ton of new stuff coming and it was killing her not to be able to talk about it.

 

[Gildar]

- Origin = public test shard for new stuffs

Question this was in response to: "Would it be feasible to introduce some "new rule testing area" for production shards so that people can test things like a balancing of weapons/special moves in both a Trammel and Felucca ruleset using their real characters and actual weapons before it goes live everywhere?"

It would be nice to play against the people you know, with the exact items you're used to.
Origin is nice, and is useful for testing, but it's a small part of the community. Using the test shard is fairly worthless for balance testing, because it's entirely luck of the draw for what you get, and everybody is aiming to get the best possible suit they can think of. It's very difficult to get people to spend the time to set up realistic suits on a Test Shard.

On production shards, you've got RP groups, casual players, and hardcore players... and they've all got a very, very wide variety of gear and combat styles. Lots of them would be very willing to go somewhere on their own shards to try new things out. No setup time, and people they're familiar with.

I don't think such an area should be used for most changes - bug fixes, whole new systems, etc... but for non-urgent rule changes - it would be very useful.


If that would simply be too much work for it to be worth it, then a step above what we have right now would be to let us create items with any properties that we want (up to what we could obtain through runics and loot), and have better ways to seek out people willing to assist with testing that are available when you are.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Only thing though is that it seems like if you have such an area, you basically have the new rules active on the shard anyway, so is it REALLY testing?

To be honest (and no offense intended), the question made me go "huh?" when I heard it.

 

[Joyous2K]

It is coming back.

They have like tons of attendees and fabulous food. They are running out of food. Boozing later!! People from many shards!! Introductions imminent!! Information on sharders in San Diego!! Sandman offers first round of booze, charges Winfield!! Paparazzi present!! Not enough computers or not everyone can log in. Line for bathroom is long!! Using Tom Jones headset for broadcast!! Not enough questions!! Too many questions?!

 

[Gildar]

It's not so much "testing" as it is analyzing balance. It should already be in a tested state before being moved to production shards... just in a "we think this is balanced, but we aren't very confident that it is actually better for everybody". Things in a good enough for those who use the test shard in the way the test shard can be used, but potentially missing important feedback from some groups.

 

[JC the Builder]

If that would simply be too much work for it to be worth it, then a step above what we have right now would be to let us create items with any properties that we want (up to what we could obtain through runics and loot), and have better ways to seek out people willing to assist with testing that are available when you are.

I think this is part of the reason players don't go to Test Center like they used to. It takes too much time to get setup to craft a ton of armor and then go do what you want. A second reason is the house flagging restrictions has really put a damper on Test Center PVP. When I used to frequent Test Center all fighting revolved around houses. I don't see how that type of fun atmosphere can take place post Age of Shadows with private houses and not being able to run back inside.

 

[Joyous2K]

EDIT: Jeremy cannot seem to get her 5 minute break!

EDIT: WTH? LOL at myself!!

EDIT: Some guy wants UO marketing and says it is not about grinding!! Also says UO is best!!
--EDIT: Jeremy replies there is nothing for UO to market. Retailers can't afford to take UO risk!!

EDIT: Jeremy gets her break!!

EDIT: Player has 4 characters!!

EDIT: Lot of stuff on characters shards and town hall, too much info for this humble reporter!

EDIT: Jeremy may take of shirt... second round of questions!

EDIT: 2D will be here for LOOOONG time!! No plans to mercy kill 1970s client in near future!!

EDIT: Jeremy admits to speedhack green acres (dev shard?)! Regarding speedhack, says "Hey, it works!!"

EDIT: No plans to stop 10th anniversary drops!! No mention of drop rate change.

EDIT: UO not on Mythic website, Jeremy says it may actually be! Marketing handles that particular page, not really her problem but will check to see if that is true!!

EDIT: Detective class is on a list of love!!

EDIT: More good ideas added to list!!

EDIT: Get more accounts to support UO!!

EDIT: Vegas Town Hall? Best idea yet!!

EDIT: Europeans may get Town Hall!! It goes for Australia as well!! In this reporter's opinion Canada will never see see one!!

EDIT: Lockpicking and spellweaving rings may get added to the list!! WIll definitely be discussed about being added to the list!! Rate of gain stinks for some skills! Is going to be talked about being looked at!!

EDIT: Free speech allowed in UO as long as it is not hateful!! Prayers are OK in UO, but not in FOF!! Page GM if you encounter hate speech!!

EDIT: Jeremy names one item of next week's FOF: spawn rate and info on Melissa loot!!

EDIT: Hackers one, UO zero!! WoW takes steps to improve WoW! No company can protect individuals!! WoW has better logging of virtual stuff than UO!! Jeremy is heartbroken at loss of virtual stuff, but they do not have records of your virtual stuff! Go to UO website to report unauthorized account access!!

EDIT: KR ruins unfinished accelerated skill gain quests in New Haven!! Time is ultimate thief!!

EDIT: Devs say solo spellweave not intended! Butts heads with Stratics posters!! Jury still out!

EDIT: KR bugs regarding art will be placed on list!!

EDIT: Bug regarding lockdown problem for bags in bags will be discussed!! Uncertain if actually a bug or if it was intended! Will be discussed!

EDIT: Evil plans! Yes, but we can't say!! Uncertain as to what, but does it matter? This reporter says "No!"

EDIT: UO not excited about changing existing systems or creating new systems!!

EDIT: Keep maintaining multiple accounts!! Good for UO!! No special features planned! Back-end would need to be changed and is not on list or going to be talked about being added to a list!!

EDIT: Greater dragons not part of balancing weps process, but is on nerf list!! Has been on list all year!!

EDIT: Astute attendee asks how the MCs are getting all this information down with neither pen nor paper? Apparently, MCs will listen to tapes and transcribe them back at the office!!

EDIT: DAG! Sorry.

EDIT: Commodity deeds. Re-deed at house! Male MC says "Yes!!" Jeremy says "we will get in trouble now." Male MC says "It is something we are actively developing!"

EDIT: No "KR Only shards" that Jeremy is aware of!

EDIT: One house is all you get for an account!! Shard don't mean squat! Houses exist, so thank your lucky horseshoes!! You owe EA for that!!

EDIT: J2K gets the call up to big time!! Handling stacking takes a lot of dev time!! Stacking is tried to be addressed when items are implemented!! Repetitive action and interface are limitations of system, dev time too valuable to improve it!!

EDIT: 5 minutes remaining!!

EDIT: RL cash transactions!! Rules do not prevent free markets!! No UO rule in place, so it is legal!! No rules planned!!

EDIT: Account hopping is fine!!

EDIT: Fun portion of UO cannot be talked about!!

EDIT: KR needs journal saver!! Will be talked to with client engineer Supreem! Journal saver may crash client but will be put on list!!

EDIT: UO fan travels to San DIego from Rhode Island for Town Hall!! Most accounts in attendance by individual - 22! More things like this!!

EDIT: UO dodges questions and has fan express frustration!! Fan wins a T-Shirt!!

EDIT: Go to Seattle Town Hall!!

 

[Connor_Graham]

- Instant GMs with items, Vamp form Bushidos working around skill cap: Needs a HARD look, Vamp Form needs a HARDER LOOK and a "kick in the nutz"


*hears the sound of dexxers being put back into storage*

Back to Mages & Tamers Online....

Guess it's time to go back to working up my Bard/Tamer....

 

[Alvinho]

I missed the Thunder of todays meeting i guess i listened to teh whole meeting and i seen no lightening or herd any thunder

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

I can't believe that the one questioner believed that simply making out of game real cash sales illegal would stop them and brought up WoW as an example. I wonder if they know just hopw much WoW RMT sales actually occur and have occurred.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

As a meleer, Vamp Form from items is simply too powerful. It DOES need a kick in the nuts.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

The "thunder" I believe had to be the commodity deeds answer. That got by far the most response.

 

[Connor_Graham]

...

As a meleer, Vamp Form from items is simply too powerful. It DOES need a kick in the nuts.

All it does is allow dexxers to compete on the same level as Tamers and mages. If vamp form needs a kick, Tamers need a good neutering in comparison.

 

[Lord Kotan]

The audio is cutting out and in on me.

What audio?

 

[Faerunner]

All it does is allow dexxers to compete on the same level as Tamers and mages. If vamp form needs a kick, Tamers need a good neutering in comparison.

And what if you're a REAL dexxer and don't bother with all that vamp form stuff? Honestly, Sampires and such have ruined my fun as a pure swordswoman because I feel like I can't compete (plus who in any roleplay scenario known to man would actually have that skill set? UGH!)... I know it's all about personal freedoms to mess with your character but some combos are too powerful and too played-up vs others, and I'd like it if more combos were more equal not only for pvp but for dealing damage to monsters as well and being useful in champ spawns, etc. More of that balancing stuff they're always messing with, I guess.... :/

Edit: Seemed like a pretty bland town hall, same old issues came up and same old evasion was passed around... hopefully soon we'll get more info on all this new stuff they always seem to be working on or not having time for. I feel bad for Jeremy having to be put on the spot and answer to us when she can't say what's going on behind the scenes. Must be a tough job!

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

You won't get any argument from me on the mages and tamers.

While I don't expect to be able to slaughter everything in a couple of hits as a melee character, I DO wish that my all-70s armored tank melee characater could stand for more than a couple of hits himself in the process.

I WANT a tank-melee character. I want to be the toe-to-toe guy... and not a squishy that didn't choose to have extra nuclear weapons in my template.

 

[Crysta]

I hate it when people talk about me without realizing that i'm there and listening while responding on the large screen in front of them from in game. Especially shameless self advertisers.

 

[Mortharr/Revenge]

we will look into it
i dont not know enough to make an informed answer on that
im not allowed to talk about that






riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

 

[Ash]

- "Show us your tatoo"

A Britania tattoo, among others apparently, non the less..

 

[Tina Small]

I have a feeling that there was something "big" that Jeremy and whoever was with her (Leurocian?) hoped to be able to talk about at this town hall meeting, but were unable to do so because of factors out of their control.

 

[Connor_Graham]

You won't get any argument from me on the mages and tamers.

While I don't expect to be able to slaughter everything in a couple of hits as a melee character, I DO wish that my all-70s armored tank melee characater could stand for more than a couple of hits himself in the process.

As do I, which is why them announcing an impending nerf to the only thing that allows dexxers to actually do just that is so disturbing. The last time dexxers' power was nerfed they got put away and out came the archers, mages and tamer, with dexxers left behind.

...I WANT a tank-melee character. I want to be the toe-to-toe guy... and not a squishy that didn't choose to have extra nuclear weapons in my template.

If that was possible, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, without serious buffs, what we have won't cut it. I guess I'll have to swap my dexxer's suit over to my archer...

 

[Connor_Graham]

And what if you're a REAL dexxer and don't bother with all that vamp form stuff? Honestly, Sampires and such have ruined my fun as a pure swordswoman because I feel like I can't compete (plus who in any roleplay scenario known to man would actually have that skill set? UGH!)...

And what exactly would a "real dexxer" be? Last I checked it was a meleer with max dex for swing speed that made a dexxer a dexxer. Support skills don't matter as far as determining that definition. Additionally, UO should NEVER, I repeat NEVER, balance combat according to roleplay. Roleplay has it's part in UO, but that part does NOT have anything to do with game mechanics.

 

[Zooithion]

Thanks much for the updates. Actually some good stuff in there

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

This one was MUCH better than the Jacksonville Town Hall... both in terms of audio quality and in terms of information and question asking.

I ALMOST went to the JAX one, but decided not to go and was glad I didn't go. I would have been REALLY annoyed driving all that way for what the info was coming from that one. If today's were in JAX instead of San Diego, I would have been pissed for NOT going, and if it were in Tampa I would have been there.

Although whatever the BIG surprise was wasn't given, there was a a lot of good questions being asked and thus a lot of decent info (such as we get from these events anyway).

It also was good for listening to and making notes while I grinded out tinker's tools in Heartwood (in KR... yes attended thanks to dual monitors).

 

[Flora Green]

Thanks much for the updates. Actually some good stuff in there

Yes, thanks everyone for the info.

*You see Flora Green now shutting her mouth (for awhile) about the cocoa trees*

 

[AdamD]

Thanks Dermott for the transcript

 

[Cogniac]

...

I can't believe that the one questioner believed that simply making out of game real cash sales illegal would stop them and brought up WoW as an example. I wonder if they know just hopw much WoW RMT sales actually occur and have occurred.

This.

It was the most amount of ignorance that I have ever witnessed coming from a single human being.

 

[JC the Builder]

I just remembered a couple things. A developer was talking like getting a Level 6 Arcane Focus was an exploit. It was not. It is a special easter egg by using the hard to reach Prism of Light arcane altar. This is clearly something intentional that a developer put in and perhaps was not documented properly. The difficulty in reaching the altar and having to spend 10,000 gold every time was the trade off for getting it.

There is also the issue of Melissa. I don't think the developers understand what is going on. People are sitting down there camping all day long killing a Peerless every 15 minutes. She is not only easier to kill than most peerless but she is dropping Crimson Cintures and rare armor set pieces like crazy. I think it was evident in the brief pause after the person said "oh by the way she spawns every 15 minutes" revealed that this was not intended. There is basically no reason to do a Peerless, just go farm Melissa.

The issue of no longer being able to unlock items inside locked down containers was to fix a bug. If you locked down a container and then unlocked items inside, those would never decay. So you could basically have unlimited storage in your house using this method. It was an exploit fix which is why it didn't appear in the patch notes. This is a good example why exploit fixes should go in patch notes because then players have no idea what is a bug and what is intended. Same goes for the current per line of sight issues, another unannounced exploit fix.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Personally, I think Crimsons were a mistake in the first place. To make them more common is probably the better answer to the problem than simply erasing them all (especially after people have payed 30+ mill for them).

Melissa probably should have been an instanced scenario though so that people could go in, kill her to complete their portion of the event, then move on while others did the same. It has never made sense to me be it in UO, WoW or any other similar game that you could beat the same boss over and over again. Be it Melissa or Van Cleef... it makes no sense from your characters standpoint hat 15 minutes later they're standing up again ready to be fought. Lesser creatures, yeah, I can accept that. Specially named bosses, not so much. It's a flaw that MMOGs in general seem to have that hasn't yet been properly addressed.

UO has come close in the past, but that tends to involve one-shot events that if you missed out on, you're out of luck. That's why I think that the balanced answer is instanced scenarios... and it doesn't have to be through a swirly magci vortex to get into the instance, just a locked door that the character ready to be involved can enter and to everyone else it is locked. Then when that character has completed the content, they move on accordingly.

 

[Ash]

I just remembered a couple things. A developer was talking like getting a Level 6 Arcane Focus was an exploit. It was not. It is a special easter egg by using the hard to reach Prism of Light arcane altar. This is clearly something intentional that a developer put in and perhaps was not documented properly. The difficulty in reaching the altar and having to spend 10,000 gold every time was the trade off for getting it.

The exploit that they were referring to was a single char was getting a level 5 (or 6 if they did the exploit in Prism) with no other weavers. All the answers I have gotten from them has been they don't know if the current max is intended and waiting on Draconi to get back from Japan. Personally don't see why he can't be asked the question before then, but hey that's me.

So they change to stop single casters was a combination of a measure to stop the exploit and the original design of the spell was intended for caster PLUS 1 - 5 other casters. It is apparent to me that something got broken in the code and they tossed a -1 in the formula thus reducing the levels across the board. I don't believe that was the intended fix and hopefully will be addressed when Draconi gets back so that those of us brave enough to venture into the prism can once again be rewarded with a 6.

 

[Krystal]

is this a joke??

ROT on Siege: They have been trying to change things all year so things would scale to 120 instead of 100. It's not that simple, will require more time. Mesanna is working on it. Need to make sure that changing one number in a formula won't change other things. It's definitely a bug that it isn't scaled to 120....it's broken, wasn't designed that way.


how long have we had 120's in UO now??? omg?
*sigh*

 

[Maximus Neximus]

And what if you're a REAL dexxer and don't bother with all that vamp form stuff? Honestly, Sampires and such have ruined my fun as a pure swordswoman because I feel like I can't compete (plus who in any roleplay scenario known to man would actually have that skill set? UGH!)...

And what exactly would a "real dexxer" be? Last I checked it was a meleer with max dex for swing speed that made a dexxer a dexxer. Support skills don't matter as far as determining that definition. Additionally, UO should NEVER, I repeat NEVER, balance combat according to roleplay. Roleplay has it's part in UO, but that part does NOT have anything to do with game mechanics.

Agreed a thousand times over. Do not nerf a class based on role play. The only real fix I can think of would be to make it so you cannot cast VE without real skill. But then you'd have to do that kind of fix for every skill, which would completely make +skill jewels, mark of travesty, spellbooks, etc useless. There's no way any mage would use VE because of the negative effects from using spells with garlic and you do not gain health from the damage caused by spells, therefore making it so no one uses VE. Let it stay as is. I don't imagine it really hurting anyone's gameplay.

 

[BardMal]

*gasps*

Speedman is back?!

Hip hip HUZZAH!!! :-D

He was visiting the town hall, and seemed happy to be free of UO working to allow for free er game play for himself in UO. Was nice the short chat I had with him.

 

[Salty Pete]

Honestly, Sampires and such have ruined my fun as a pure swordswoman because I feel like I can't compete (plus who in any roleplay scenario known to man would actually have that skill set? UGH!)

I have a role played character with a skill set like that actually. My character is a paladin samurai who was tempted to dable into the dark arts. This character fights a never ending battle of choosing good over evil. The evil is so much easier yet there are times when this character sees the light and chooses the path of virtue and honor. As the evil takes hold the powers of good diminish.

This character often visists the virtue shrines to meditate on the returning to the path of good. A penance of fighting evil to bring karma back into balance until the path of evil calls and the lust for blood takes over again.