[NEWS] HoC Chat is Back!

[AirmidCecht]

House of Commons

Stratics IRC and UO Stratics proudly announce Ultima Online House of Commons.

HoC is scheduled for Tuesday, December 22nd, 7 pm EST. Please join us in the #straticshoc channel on the Stratics IRC network for another great hour of questions and answers with the UO team!

The HoC Topics of this week will be:
* Live Game
* Global Chat
* Christmas Gifts
* Bug Fixing
* Movement
* Factions
* Expansion
* Imbuing changes
* Mysticism
* Boss Fights
* What’s Next
* Updates to the Live Game and Story Arc
* User Survey
* What would make you PvP
* Based on goals of Factions will it inspire you to PvP
* Goals also for roleplaying
* For Returning players … what brought you back?
* Classic Client
* Continuing to update and Support Both Clients
* Where we’d like to go with a new patcher

You will not want to miss this one!

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our downloads section to choose a client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or choose a server listed below that is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000
irc.glowfish.de EU - Germany 6667 6668
irc.us.glowfish.de USA - Missouri 6667 6668
irc.gamers-irc.org USA - Colorado 6667 6668 7000

Once connected, join the #straticshoc channel and you'll be able to submit your questions to the assigned question taker. You can also join us any time in #ultima-online on Stratics IRC for general chat about the best MMO ever - Ultima Online!

Newer readers that have not taken part before can find instructions and some information on the House of Commons below.

House of Commons:
http://uohoc.stratics.com/intro.shtml
http://uohoc.stratics.com/questions.shtml
http://uohoc.stratics.com/hocjavairc.shtml

IRC:

http://chat.stratics.com/

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I am not sure who sets the agenda for such things, but a serious talk about UO economy is overdue by a good 5-6 years.

 

[Tazar]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

The community rep(s) set topics that they can talk about - but questions on all areas can be asked. Please come and ask your questions.

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dermott of LS]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

...

There WILL be chaos... oh yes, there WILL be chaos!

 

[SchezwanBeefy]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I hope that they Devs will be honest and answer questions about recent lay offs and why they were so hidden from the community (I personally think that the fact there was no good bye to great Devs like Wilki, Chrissay and Draconi is a big disappointment for the players), scripting, new client questions and what not. I hate the picking and choosing of questions, though. Plenty of people ask very good questions that just never seem to be answered no matter how many times they're asked..

 

[AirmidCecht]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I know there are far greater questions to be asked, but I'm also curious about the Britain bank decorations and what happens with the rest of the bank's winners.

 

[jfkeach]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

And will the archive of old chats be available ? Thanks.

 

[Aurelius]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I personally think that the fact there was no good bye to great Devs like Wilki, Chrissay and Draconi is a big disappointment for the players),

Wilki hasn't gone...

http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?searchid=3168140

 

[Hildebrand]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I personally think that the fact there was no good bye to great Devs like Wilki, Chrissay and Draconi is a big disappointment for the players),

Wilki hasn't gone...

http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?searchid=3168140

That link doesn't work. Here's Wilki:
http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?searchid=3168321

 

[Petra Fyde]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

The archive of old chats is available by following the link found under the 'current events' heading at the top of the left hand menu index of http://uo.stratics.com.[FONT=MS Sans Serif, Arial, Helvetica] UOHoC Dev Chats
[/FONT]

 

[Taylor]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

Terrific. Can't wait.

 

[Kiminality]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I personally think that the fact there was no good bye to great Devs like Wilki, Chrissay and Draconi is a big disappointment for the players),

Wilki hasn't gone...

http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?searchid=3168140

That link doesn't work. Here's Wilki:
http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?searchid=3168321

Neither link works.
If it says "searchid=" in it, it's probably not going to work for anyone.

 

[SchezwanBeefy]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

Wilki hasn't gone...

Then why is there no Wilki xmas gifts...?

 

[Petra Fyde]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

Wilkie's last post was 16th December, try this link.
http://vboards.stratics.com/search.php?do=finduser&u=97663

 

[BeefSupreme]

Re: HoC Chat is Back!

I hope that they Devs will be honest and answer questions about recent lay offs and why they were so hidden from the community (I personally think that the fact there was no good bye to great Devs like Wilki, Chrissay and Draconi is a big disappointment for the players), scripting, new client questions and what not. I hate the picking and choosing of questions, though. Plenty of people ask very good questions that just never seem to be answered no matter how many times they're asked..

Because they don't want you to know that the majority of the UO dev team is now basically the guys who work on warhammer and daoc, having to pull double duty.
Plus, all those who were layed off had severance packages that would be revoked if they didn't STFU.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

What would make you PvP

*shrugs*

What would make you collect rares?

What would make you RP?

What would make you chain the Doom Gauntlet?

Why focus on that particular playstyle? Is there a reason for even asking the question other than the predilections of the Producer?

Don't bother answering that the reason is the Felucca predated Trammel, because that's not really a reason. Not a decent one anyway. Felucca, or rather its rules set, predated Trammel (or rather its rules set), yes....But Trammel's been here the vast majority of UO's existence at this point and most players have clearly voted with their feet to not PvP

And now you can add to the long list of proofs of that statement the fact that this question was asked at all.

Now, of course, it's also true that most people don't collect rares; don't RP; don't do EM events; don't chain run the Doom Gauntlet; don't do Peerlesses; don't hunt Imbuing ingredients in the Abyss.

So why not ask about those playstyles as well?

-Galen's player

 

[AirmidCecht]

*shrugs*

What would make you collect rares?

What would make you RP?

What would make you chain the Doom Gauntlet?

Why focus on that particular playstyle? Is there a reason for even asking the question other than the predilections of the Producer?

Don't bother answering that the reason is the Felucca predated Trammel, because that's not really a reason. Not a decent one anyway. Felucca, or rather its rules set, predated Trammel (or rather its rules set), yes....But Trammel's been here the vast majority of UO's existence at this point and most players have clearly voted with their feet to not PvP

And now you can add to the long list of proofs of that statement the fact that this question was asked at all.

Now, of course, it's also true that most people don't collect rares; don't RP; don't do EM events; don't chain run the Doom Gauntlet; don't do Peerlesses; don't hunt Imbuing ingredients in the Abyss.

So why not ask about those playstyles as well?

-Galen's player

Maybe it means a package UO/DAoC/Warhammer deal *grins*

 

[phantus]

How is the HoC any different from the Ask the Devs forum?

Cherry picked questions with non-committal answers are the same in a "live" environment as they are in a posted one.

 

[AirmidCecht]

I look at it as an opportunity to expand on their 2010 plans for UO with us.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I strive to be fair, so I should point out some things that I was personally glad to see on the topic list.

The difference is that nothing in the topic list implied an official goal to draw people into these playstyles, as it seems to now be the official policy to draw people into PvP. (Or at least it seems like they are seriously considering making that an official goal.)

But, still....As I'm sure the Factioners and other PvPers are glad to see their playstyles on the list (though if they've said so, I've missed it), this is what I'm personally glad to see.

• Updates to the Live Game and Story Arc

I think that, after epic and multi-year the Warriors of Destiny story arc, we've gotten used to having things going on in-game periodically that aren't the "bread and butter" of the characters.

While I don't think they should try to top, or even match, Warriors of Destiny for some years to come, if ever, it will be nice to have a glimpse of the what's next. Hopefully they will stick to the Magincia-centric plot they hinted at some weeks ago.

• Goals also for roleplaying

Though it was clearly presented as an afterthought to PvP (the "also" explicitly indicates that), it was good to see it on the list. Hopefully it will be more than an afterthought when it comes time to implement things.

• Boss Fights

Always good to see this on a topic list. UO explicitly lacks "endgame" scenarios in the manner of, say, World of Warcraft. The bosses in our game are more just kind of "there," and there's reasons to fight them that hopefully are adequate, but they aren't really presented as the end of anything. This is, I feel, to UO's credit. I think games like WoW lose something when they focus on the endgame. Though no player is forced to play the endgame scenarios in WoW, from what I am told the game does tend to "nudge" or "push" them toward seeing the boss fights in that way.

Since our bosses aren't endgames, we need to ask what they are. Why should we fight them? Will there, for example, be a reason to fight Lady Melisande 3 or 4 years from now? Is it just because there'll be a need for Crimson Cinctures as long as there are new characters?

Or maybe will their loot be reexamined. Or, perhaps some bosses, if not fought at intervals proportionate to the shard's population, start to behave in unexpected ways? Or show up at unexpected places, at unexpected times. Will Dread Horn show up with the Dark Fathers if he isn't fought periodically? Will Lady Mel show up on the arm of the Harrower? Will Travesty suddenly start ripping up Zento, or attacking gold farmers at the Dread Spider spawns on Tokuno?

-Galen's player

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Specialshoes]

Is this going to be another half hour/hour of "More information later" or "We can't speak of that now"?

Sorry.......... I will put the cynic stick down now

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

My first HOC ever.

In God knows how many years. (I really have no idea how long I've played, I just know I was pre-Trammel by roughly a year, give or take a few months.)

I got there too early now I'm bored waiting for it to start, so I'm posting with no purpose.

I do see Wilki with an EA tag in the chat...Didn't we think he'd been fired or left or something? If so I guess we were wrong. A little creepy being in chat with a team member who has perosnally accused me of trying to divide UO players

*waves to Wilki*

Let's see how this goes.

Sent my question.

-Galen's player

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Well they asked my question. *blush*

As I had previously asked this question (I think?) in the question/answer thingie here and not had it answered (I think?) at minimum this means they are dealing with different issues in the different forums they have available. That's cool.

I would still argue that they should have some means to answer question that's on the main site or something; something casual players are more likely to see.

The team member introductions were devoid of some of the more "cutesy" things I've seen in transcripts that have always annoyed me.

Long delays between answers...But the answers follow the questions very rapidly. So they are clearly taking time to write an answer before posting the question. Whether this is a criticism or a complement is in the eye of the beholder. I can see value in a more off-the-cuff response, and I can see value in only volunteering answers that have been considered.

One definitely bad aspect of the approach, however, is the long periods of silence. They could squeeze in more questions, perhaps, if they were willing to be more....spontaneous?

Uh oh....They imply they are going to make Narvey and the Slasher yet-harder! If they do that they better prepare to increase the artifact or other reward drop substantially as well. (Like, give them at least one relic fragment quality piece of loot in every other corpse!)

All-in-all I am so far glad I finally participated in one of these. It's still going on.

-Galen's player

 

[Deb]

Is it over, miss the play by play we use to get from players on what
was being asked and answered.

 

[Sweeney]

The devs only answered easy questions. It was a complete waste of time.