M
Merik
Guest
Introductions:
Mesanna-
Merry Christmas Everyone!
WilkiEA-
Hi, I'm Wilki, and I'm a designer for UO. Good to see all of you here!
Mythic_Phoenix-
Howdy all! I'm a UO systems designer. I worked on UO from 2000 to 2005 --
back then I was Vex. I joined UO again at Mythic late in 2009, and I'm
happy to be back! Happy Holidays!
Supreem_EAMythic-
Hellooooooo. Supreem here. Lead Engineer reporting for duty!
MythicAndy- << Community Guy. *Waves*
Mesanna-
Hi I am Mesanna, I am an Associate Dev Manager, and over the EM program
Mesanna-
Calvin is stuck on the road but he is he with us via phone *waves*
Sakkarah-
Howdy folks, I'm Sakkarah, Live Lead Designer who wisely avoided the
snow storm my fellow colleagues are currently enjoying!
House of Commons Developer Chat
Question 1:
Galen- With Draconi seemingly gone, is there a team member with
smilar responsibility for in-game events, fiction, story arcs, etc? If so, who
is it? And if not, how are such matters being handled? (for example, through
a committee of team members or something.)
Answer 1:
Sakkarah- I have been responsible for in-game events and fiction
since the launch of SA. I'm also currently developing the next story arc
which, as announced previously will revolve around the reconstruction of
Magincia.
Question 2:
Nhbdy- Are hot air baloons going to be craft and use-able at any time?
Answer 2:
WilkiEA- I 2019m guessing that this comes from the book that was
added in Stygian Abyss featuring plans for a hot air balloon. Basically, the
SA collectable books were a bit of an easter egg nod to Ultima 6. While hot
air balloons are an interesting idea, they 2019re not currently something we
2019re working on.
Question 3:
Cody- How do you plan to compete to upcoming MMOS like Mortal Online
Answer 3:
Mesanna- We don't see ourselves in competition with other MMO's.
We would rather put our efforts to making our player base happy. There
have been millions of players that have played UO over the last 13 years,
that says allot for the game
Question 4:
Cirno- Will the global chat ever feature the ability to be in more than
one channel at the same time? Currently, with only one channel at a time,
the busiest one gets used for trade spam, chatter and everything else,
leaving no option for filtering
Answer 4:
Supreem_EAMythic- We have lots of ideas for ways to improve the
global chat feature. The main goal of the first pass for this feature was to
get all new players into a common Help channel where veteran players can
help steer them on the right course. Now that the feature is out there, we
are looking at the next steps. Being able to be in multiple channels is one
possibility. We definitely want to give players an easy way to ignore players
in the chat. We've already started working on that. We also want to
improve on the spam filtering and increase GM's ability to moderate these channels.
Question 5:
Nhbdy- "The Stygian Abyss seems to be biased in difficulty towards
the Stygian Dragon, I was under the impression that Slasher would be the
most difficult to slay, and lore seems to lend in his favor. Will we see an
increase in Slasher's capabilities?"
Answer 5:
Sakkarah- The Stygian Dragon is definitely meant to be a formidable
foe. The Slasher isn't quite where we want him to be, nor is Navrey. These
two bosses will be getting some love in the future. Some of the adjustments
have already been published for Navrey but she's still a work in progress.
Question 6:
Gunga_Din- Hello, I have a question. I returned to UO because of the
live events and interaction between the game masters and community. Are
there plans to increase the amount of live content and ingame interaction
between EM's and the community?
Answer 6:
Mesanna- We're always listening to the community for feedback
about how we can improve the Live Content and ingame interaction. Right
now we're very happy with the way Live Content is progressing and look
forward to the coming year's events. If you have any suggestions please
do email either your EM or myself.
Question 7:
Nhbdy- The Stygian abyss, in compliance with lore, has multiple
levels, with the addition of another land mass [ter mur] will we see
expansion to the dungeon it's self?
Answer 7:
Sakkarah- The Stygian Abyss of lore is a huge dungeon. Recreating
all the levels isn't something we are currently planning on doing. We already
have a lot of land that isn't being used as much as it could and should be.
So before we add new landmass we are more likely to focus our efforts and
revitalizing existing ones.
Question 8:
Naughty-Santa- Players creating 14 day free accounts continue to
spam gold selling web sites. Any plans on preventing this?
Answer 8:
Supreem_EAMythic- This is a problem that plagues many MMOs with
trial account options. It's difficult to find a balance between stopping the
spammers and restricting legitimate new players too much. We have already
made lots of changes to make it harder for them to spam. We will not give
up the good fight. Hopefully, adding the ability to easily ignore players in
global chat channels will be a big step in the right direction.
Question 9:
Iann- Wilki! Can you give legacy weapons some love please? Pretty please?
Answer 9:
WilkiEA- The imbalance between some of the newer weapon types
and the legacy weapon types is something we want to address. We'd like
for most weapons to balance their average damage and swing speed so
that they have roughly the same base DPS. The difference should be in
the special moves available, and the "feel" of the weapon, such as slow
and heavy hitting vs. quicker and less damage per hit.
Question 10:
Ashlarrr- assuming I can still ask a question, I want to ask: What is
the status on the Enhanced Client? There's very little information from devs
and despite the many bugs, it hasn't had a big update in a while
Answer 10:
Supreem_EAMythic- We are still committed to improving the Enhanced
Client experience. Billy Teng, one of our illustrious client engineers, has
spent the last few weeks leading up to Christmas fixing as many bugs as
he could. Expect some nice love for the Enhanced Client in our next publish.
Question 11:
Nhbdy- Speed Hacking and Script-Fighting has been "hinted-at"
recently, what exactly is going to be done?
Answer 11:
Supreem_EAMythic- Yes we are dedicating resources to curb
cheating in our game. Unfortunately, we can't tell you about them
because we don't want them to know what to expect.
Question 12:
Nhbdy- The Christmas gifts this year are exceptional, but sadly some
items that logically could be dyed with natural dyes [icicles, food, etc.] will
not dye, whilst items constructed of metal will change hues without a
problem, be thar any plans to expand what can/cannot be dyed with Natural
Dyes, or any reason behind what cannot be dyed?
Answer 12:
Sakkarah- Some items aren't dyable simply because they were
overlooked. Fixing that is a minor issue. Make sure to send us feedback on
that and we can do the needed tweaks. Some other items however are
deliberately made non-dyable through the staining system for various
reasons. As far as foods are concerned, I'm not sure I would like to eat
dyed caked! Maybe we need to look into food colorant!
Question 13:
Cirno- A long time ago, one of the devs said that the fancy new
patcher would replace the Classic Client's patcher. Is that still going to
happen? Also, can we get a "check files" type button to allow broken installs
to be fixed?
Answer 13:
Supreem_EAMythic- We are still working on adapting the Mythic
patcher to work with the data files used in the Classic Client.
Unfortunately, we don't have an estimate for when this will be
completed. Just know that we want it to happen as badly as you do.
Question 14:
Nhbdy- In regards to story arcs, will the world of Britannia ever
play host to the exploits of an Avatar again?
Answer 14:
WilkiEA- The Avatar from the single player games isn't found in any
Ultima universe except for what we call "Ultima Prime", which is the original
timeline that unfolded in those games. So, you won't see the Avatar in UO,
as there can only be one Avatar, who is only found in Ultima Prime. Outside
of the lore, the Avatar was really a reflection of you, the player. In UO you
are represented by each of your characters.
Question 15:
Spiderman- Town bulletin boards can be a very useful (in character)
tool for player interaction, especially in RP. However, they don't save posts
past server up? Any chance someone can take a look at it and make it more
flexible and powerful?
Answer 15:
Mythic_Phoenix- We will look into it!
Question 16:
Nhbdy- The Community seems to be widely displeased with the way
Halloween's red crystal exchange went down, any plans to allow those
whom may have flirted their possible fortunes away? Are Halloween
Costumes here to stay? And for that matter, with Polymorph ever be
updated with all the new fauna thay has found it's way infront of mages
wishing to eat grass or whatever reason one would polymorph
Answer 16:
Sakkarah- There are no plans to reintroduce red crystals. In the
future, there will likely be new ways for players to acquire more of the
costumes for those who didn't have enough Halloween costumes to trade.
As far as the Polymorph spell is concerned, while I cannot give an ETA, it
certainly would make sense to look into updating the available choices a little.
Question 17:
Xevei_GL- Any particular reason why we can't run multiple clients
without needing to do the user switching? As long we have the accounts,
what's wrong with running both at the same time? I like to banksit in one,
and sort my things in the other
Answer 17:
Supreem_EAMythic- I'm sure there was a reason why they
implemented it this way years ago. I'm not exactly sure why they
did it. We will look into this, but I can't promise that we can change it.
Question 18:
Nhbdy- Druidic Runes are traditionally used in Britannia signs on the
roads and shops, any plans for a return to our roots, forcing the player base
to understand them? As it stands we only have Lich spawn deco drops, and
I can only spell MMORA so far.
Answer 18:
Sakkarah- I'm definitely in favor of "encouraging" the use of things such as
the runic alphabet, the Gargish, lizardmen and frankly even the wisps'
languages. I do not believe we should force players into learning them
however. But expanding the Gargish dictionary and making some of the
runes available to the players through the Primeval Lich spawn were the
first steps.
Question 19:
Airmid- can we get some left over event things wrapped up, like bank deco
and NPC escorts to towns that are no longer invaded
Answer 19:
Mesanna- We have finished the bank decorating on all shards, as far
as quest npcs we try to fix those as we find them.
Question 20:
Galen- If supreem's whistling was a reflection of a lack of questions...Can
you give us a clue about the mechanics of rebuilding Magincia? turn-in? Kill
monsters? Gather components? Etc. And while we're at it, thank you for
returning Dawn. She's a lot better now that she's being played by the EMs.
Answer 20:
Sakkarah- The event design is still in progress but it will definitely
involve player contributing in time and resources (both harvested and
hunted). No fairy will wave a wand for the town to suddenly be back up
how it originally was. The amount of commitment of each shard will definitely
impact the end result.
Question 21:
Airmid- currently to do the compassion escorts NPCs are not
requesting to go to cities like Britain or Vesper or other towns that
were invaded
Answer 21:
WilkiEA- This was an oversight, and will be corrected in a future publish.
Question 22:
Nhbdy- What does the team want for Christmas?
Answer 22:
Mesanna- I want all this dang snow out of my driveway!
WilkiEA- A pony!
Supreem_EAMythic- Hmmmm... I want a performance upgrade for my Pontiac Solstice... but I know I'm never gunna get it!
Sakkarah- I want a moongate linking my house in VA to my parents' house in Montreal (to steal some of mom's awesome cooking!)
Mythic_Phoenix- A cup of hot apple cider.
WilkiEA- Oh, and a suit of plate armor and a longsword to smite my foes. Like the mongbats in the attic!
Supreem_EAMythic- Oh and I want more snow... so it can fill up Mesanna's driveway again!
Sakkarah- I second Supreem's request!
MythicAndy- I just want to find the new rocket launcher in TF2
Mesanna- Can you feel the hate!!
MythicAndy- and more snow for Mesanna's driveway!
Sakkarah- You'll feel the hate when you drink your eggnog and realize I slipped a rotten egg in it :/
Mesanna and Calvin wants everyone home for Christmas.