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HOC CHAT 3/3/10

Lord Gareth

UO Content Editor | UO Chesapeake & Rares News
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Introductions

Kestrel Hey guys. I'm Jimmy, QA madman.
Axel_Mythic Hello hello, everyone! I'm Billy Teng, software engineer
James_Mythic Hi all, I'm James Nichols on the Community Team here at Mythic :)
Uriah You don't know me ... I just show up for the food
Mythic_Phoenix Howdy! I'm Mike, Systems Designer, currently with my head buried in the Factions system.
MythicShade Hi, this is Mark and I'm a designer on UO... those who have my Jack-O-Lanterns know me as Shade Kestrel Literally. buried.
GrimmOmen Hello, I'm JP, Assoc. CG Supervisor.
Mesanna Good evening everyone! Assoc Producer.

Q: NotASpy Hey, I noticed a bit back you said you were on the last 5% for stopping the Speed hackers other programs of the sort, how much of that 5% is left now?

A: Uriah In regard to the last 5%. That was in regard to movement only. I also commented that it would take the longest to get that part done. The first part is to work on the movement and latency, the next part is the 3rd party program detection. On the movement, it's done internally, and Derek posted an update last week to the Stratics forums. When we are ready to put on test center we'll let you know. For right now, we're closer, but not ready for public consumption ...

Q: Percy Greetings, with many player run towns finally receiving some sort of recognition in the form of banners built by Mesanna, are there plans or discussions to implement a system that would allow more specialization for towns and encourage players to be part of community?

A: Mesanna Currently we are doing town recognitions thru the EM program, maybe in the future we can look at something more detailed.

Q: ghyde Why does my imbuer keep running into items his item ID skill says should unravel but don't? Most of these are player-crafted or enhanced items from IDOC loot and have either junk or mismatched properties on them.

A: Kestrel If that's the case, please email in details ( [email protected]! with screenshots! ) about the items in question to us and we can take a look. I can't really tell without seeing, and knowledge is power. :)

Q: MalagAste Now what Sakkarra is gone.... Who's working on the stacking issues??? When will we see some fixes here?

A: MythicShade All designers have worked on stacking issues, myself included. We are making these changes on a case by case basis because some items being able to stack affect game balance.

Q:Gareth Any chance we can have more sea creatures to fight? EM Dudley had some great monsters that he colored and renamed such as Diabolical Seaweed, Pirate Captain, Undead Sailor etc. Maybe have them spawn when fishing up SOS?

A:GrimmOmen Generally speaking, adding creatures is reserved for major publishes and expansions since there is so much overhead in getting new beasties in the game. So most likely not anytime soon, although we like the idea of adding sea creatures. How about something amphibian?

Q: VaenSwiftar Greetings. My question is simply about those who have yet to receive their town structure. The ones you have done so far Mesanna are awesome, and we really appreciate you taking time out of your day to do these. Is there a way that we can perhaps make this easier on you, by scheduling a day and time to meet so that we aren't meeting by chance/luck? Again, thanks for all you

A: Mesanna If you would like to be present when the banner is built please state that with your contact info when you present the design to your shard EM's.

Q: JoO Phoenix mentioned having his head buried in the factions system. Are you all at a point where you feel like you can discuss what direction you want to take factions and what ideas you might have right now?

A: Mythic_Phoenix We are working to get a lot of good stuff to a public test center. These include a brand new score and ranking system, leaderboards, and three brand new Faction strongholds. For the score system, we want to move in a direction of having scores measure several areas of player combat performance and comparing them to shard-wide averages, to create a system of relative scores that tells you how you stack up against ever. The fortress changes create new strongholds that are more balanced and move them all away from town guard zones. Our engineers have also worked up a system to allow us to publish the fortress maps to Test Center without affecting live shards!

Q: Cirno When does the rebuilding start on Magincia?

A: Uriah On the rebuilding of Magincia ... we've actually outlined the story arc for the live event through December of this year. Magincia is part of that plan. In the short term, we are going to introduce some old and new major villians in the interim. Look forward to the next supplement to the story by the next publish.

Q: Lefty Publish 46 Intoduced the requirement for Tactics to use special moves. This has dramaticly removed a lot of templates from the game. With the current balances in place would it be considered to be removed?

A: Logrus_Mythic There is no plan to remove tactics from the special moves requirements.

Q: ghyde How is it that the bugs with the Gardener's Toolbox went unnoticed until the patch hit live servers?

A: Logrus_Mythic Question 46: Players have unlimited time to test functionality whereas QA has test deadline goals to meet and a limited pool of perspectives to apply to the task

Q: Anon073 Is there plans for upping the love for fisherman? as in monster loot? better stuff ect?

A: Mesanna We are looking into updating the MIB's and Treasure Chests in the future. As far as new fish you guys almost got one this upcoming publish but Grimm would not help us =P
Axel_Mythic I can make a mean fish... ><))>

Q: Galen As a follow up for my own Faction question, and the related one by someone else that was just answered as I type this, does '3 new strongholds' mean there will only be 3 Factions now, or will 1 stronghold remain untouched and the 3 remaining ones all changed?

A: MythicShade There are going to be 3 factions.

Q: Anon1108 Any chance there'll be another storage upgrade for either bank or home? I play on multiple shards and sometimes have to live out of my bankbox and it can get hard.

A: Uriah We have chatted about it, but it's not on our radar in the near term right now.

Q: Gareth Can you make glass staffs useable in crushed glass? Because the success rate is low. 50 swords takes about 2 hours to farm and you dont even get half what ur suppose to.

A: MythicShade Good suggestion! We will look into it, stay tuned

Q: NotASpy You stated in march (I realise it is just the start) that there will be Mysticism spell enhancements, is there a closer eta for these changes to be on test center or even hitting shards live?

A: Logrus_Mythic Key mysticism spells have been re-vamped and are undergoing QA with an ETA of next publish. (and they are quite phatulous)

Q: Obsidian Can black staffs be added as a craftable? If not, can monsters drop exceptional ones? This goes for all of the uncraftable common items (deer masks, pitchforks, wands, etc)

A: Mesanna Yes we can make black staffs craftable.

Q: Cirno Why was Mysticism changed from needing Eval AND Imbuing (one of the harder skills to train), to needing Imbuing OR Focus (perhaps the easiest skill to train?

A: MythicShade We wanted Mysticism to be more accessible and more attractive.

Q: Xaicoro When do you repair the bug that a target comes off when I use "dart trap box"?

A:Logrus_Mythic Don't use a dart trap while targeting?

Q: Gareth Will you let us Engrave tombstones so we can build better RP graveyards? Id love to have "Here lies my tongue please don't step on it"
On the serious side it could also help with those who wish to make memorials for lost friends.

A: Uriah Absolutely. Since joining the team, it's something that we have permanently in our minds. It's not a question of schedule, but coming up with a reverent and solid design. We've discussed everything from something like the Veteran's Memorial to something simple like Arlington Cemetary. Unfortunately, we know that there would be folks who would disgrace such a thing, so we also need to make sure it's bulletproof. If anyone has any ideas I am open to suggestions via PM.

Q: CharGar Any use for blackrock in the future?

A: MythicShade There is no plan for it, maybe we'll let you use it to make black staves

Q: Anon642 As one of many who plays on multiple shards, could we please be able to have our characters co-owned to more houses?

A: Mesanna We are not totally against this but we will have to look into it before we actually make any decisions.
 
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