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Only part I did not like was this:
Why are battle chickens being auto-stabled when removed from chicken coops?
Any battle chicken removed from a coup that has elevated stats as the result of an exploit will be auto-stabled to resolve their stats.
I guarantee that @Luc of Legends Battle chickens were not exploited and I know mine weren't. They have sat in a chest since Pub 97. Since you can not train them.
Why are battle chickens being auto-stabled when removed from chicken coops?
Any battle chicken removed from a coup that has elevated stats as the result of an exploit will be auto-stabled to resolve their stats.
I guarantee that @Luc of Legends Battle chickens were not exploited and I know mine weren't. They have sat in a chest since Pub 97. Since you can not train them.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
Looks like they are repeating the same thing over and over about the New Legacy vaporware, nothing new, just continuing to string people along.
The "new exciting" content seems like the same thing from last year.
The latest publish introduced a swarm of bugs and no real content.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
Doesn't look like they got the right person.
You would already have new content if they did.
The required skills for this role isn't much.
Since this person started as late as 2007 you would assume they are highly skilled.
If this person was highly skilled, you would already have new content.
You don't already have new content. Do the math.
Broadsword could have done better.
Instead of delivering new content, they've delivered bugs.
You're literally paying ten dollars a month for new bugs and no real new content.
That's cool. Post it on the UO forums.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
Nah, that just makes ya upset. Set your standards to the gutter, then you will always be happy.
"Hey, at least i didnt poop my pants today, guess i deserve a cookie" you know, like that.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
I don't live that Broadsword lifestyle.
I'd much rather prefer an eye catching road map instead of the same things listed as last year and the new guy's character picture and bio.
Every single post from you is negative, it seems.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
I'm not exactly excited in a positive way about the "new exciting" content.
If you want some positive news, this petition against EA just broke 100k signatures.
Merlin
The Enchanter
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Moderator note to please stay on topic. I did some thread clean up to remove the minor low-level bickering going back and forth.
While criticism is ofcourse allowed, derailing a topic with toxic negativity that has no basis of support isn't fair and doesn't belong here.
While criticism is ofcourse allowed, derailing a topic with toxic negativity that has no basis of support isn't fair and doesn't belong here.
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March - Spring Fever - they sure are cute but watch out for the bite!
April - Wrath of the Frey - little did we know what was stirring in the darkness...
==========
*wonders if this is Dynamic events*
March sounds like vicious ankle biters
(maybe alchemist abomination babies lol)
April...
Frey definition : the Norse god of fertility, crops, peace and prosperity
or is it a typo & meant to be Fey... time will tell
April - Wrath of the Frey - little did we know what was stirring in the darkness...
==========
*wonders if this is Dynamic events*
March sounds like vicious ankle biters
(maybe alchemist abomination babies lol)
April...
Frey definition : the Norse god of fertility, crops, peace and prosperity
or is it a typo & meant to be Fey... time will tell
It was pretty clear that he meant he got started as a player in that year. Not that he's been working on the game for 15 years and we just now are hearing of him.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
I understand that and I'm not trying to insinuate anything differently.
Perhaps let me rephrase things so you can understand more clearly.
Doesn't look like they got the right person.
You would already have new content if they did.
The required skills for this role isn't much.
Since this person started playing as late as 2007 you would assume they are highly skilled.
If this person was highly skilled, you would already have new content.
You don't already have new content. Do the math.
Broadsword could have done better.
Instead of delivering new content, they've delivered bugs.
You're literally paying ten dollars a month for new bugs and no real new content.
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It's great that the new Dev played UO on and off for some years but everyone posting here can say that. It might have been better if he had listed all his Developer/programming experience. It still feels like there has been very little new content for some time. New Legacy still sounds very vague and after two years they should surely have something more concrete to report.
Am I naive in thinking that a "content developer" might not necessarily be a programmer? My understanding is that a content developer develops content... You know, storylines, quests, events, and the like. It's nice to think that perhaps someone a bit more creative was added to the team, but even if that were the case, there needs to be execution of that creativity which generally falls flat. So I will try to remain optimistic as always, but I'll likely end up disappointed as usual. I'm also guessing that their primary focus will be adding content to NL for the time being, so for now, I don't expect to see much at all.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
Some content developers are programmers, some aren't.
You would think the new guy has some basic knowledge, based off of the preferred skills that were mentioned in the newsletter (I'll list that below).
If he doesn't, just another reason to add to why they didn't get the right person.
The most recent news letter essentially states that the first 33% of this year's "exciting new content" will be the same little bit of content from last year with a different name.
Let's say for the sake of argument that March 1st is a reasonable time to deliver new content.
The newsletter should have an eye catching road map. It doesn't have that.
If they got the right person, you would already have new content.
Preferred Skills
- Experience creating or updating mods for roleplaying games
- Scripting experience using programming languages
- Debugging experience in a programming environment
- Familiarity with good programming practices and data structures
- Familiarity with LINUX environments
Yeah, looks like they were looking for a programmer. I haven't really been following their newsletter too much lately. It does make sense though. As someone who is currently designing and developing a shard, a stupid amount of content is needed. I still wouldn't expect to see any new content besides the same three cookie cutter type events that we're had for the last two years or so. If you don't enjoy that type of content, I would recommend taking a break from the game until NL releases, even then, I wouldn't expect anything new to come to the regular servers for a year or so later.
It does take time its not like this is a big money maker game for them. They only Hired the guy so give him like 6 months before we see something from him. And it sounds like he will be more on the idea end and working on quests and what not.
It’s insane to me how you are already trashing this new person when they barely have even gotten started with the job.
From the newsletter:
“We would like to introduce Parallax, who will be working as a content designer.”
It says “will be”. Dude hasn’t even started and you’re calling him incompetent for not creating lots of new content for us.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
That is rather misleading text unless he provided the character picture and bio free of charge.
He has already started.
Pawain even confirmed it when he said the new guy has barely finished orientation.
No road map, rather disappointing. No real excuse for that.
It's ultimately Mesanna's fault.
Okay yeah. First day on the job… create a years worth of content.
Day 2: no content yet!?? Wow we hired the wrong person.
who the hell knows what the first few weeks are like over there. Give the dude a break ffs.
I can agree with you that no roadmap is disappointing, however.
You would think he would have made a hello post on the official forum at least..
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
A part I did not like was this:
Publish 112 has been released world wide and includes new veteran rewards, a special gift for you coming February 14th, and several bug fixes. Thanks to everyone who participated in the testing, providing feedback, and bug hunting..
They forgot to mention how they introduced more bugs than they fixed.
Also it's kind of insulting to thank players for participating in testing, providing feedback and bug hunting, when that feedback was ignored.
Veteran rewards shipped with bugs that were reported.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
I really want to comment on this but I don't want to get moderated.
Let your imagination run wild.
I think for a content developer it would be great to introduce him along with some actual freshly developed content. But that's how they roll. The last big announcement was NL and look how far that went. Next time maybe
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You know there are those two types of people:
Those that always tell you what they are going to do, but never actually do it.
And those that first do things, and tell you afterwards.
Broadsword for sure is not the latter. Since NL I'm even more tired of them only talking but not delivering anything. And we don't even do that "maybe in may" joke anymore, because we all know the new account management was the same.
It's been well documented that anyone outside of Kyronix isn't very vocal on just about anything except the M&G. If I had to guess this person will be introduced on the next Live Stream and will give a run down of their bio and what they have been working on.
I wouldn't expect a whole lot though because it pretty much goes the same for anyone doing an ice breaker as a new person "Hi my name is X. I came from Y where I did blah blah blah. In my spare time I love to play games / go hiking / spend time with my pet. I'm super excited to be part of the team!". How funny would it be if people kept it real... "Hi my name is X. I kinda hated where I was before and thought this would be a change of pace but wow this place is even more of a cluserfuk than my last place... it all kinda makes sense now why I was able to get the job. Anywho... looking forward to kinda playing the new card for the next 90 days and doing some kinda work in about 120 days. Nice to meet y'all!"
I wouldn't expect a whole lot though because it pretty much goes the same for anyone doing an ice breaker as a new person "Hi my name is X. I came from Y where I did blah blah blah. In my spare time I love to play games / go hiking / spend time with my pet. I'm super excited to be part of the team!". How funny would it be if people kept it real... "Hi my name is X. I kinda hated where I was before and thought this would be a change of pace but wow this place is even more of a cluserfuk than my last place... it all kinda makes sense now why I was able to get the job. Anywho... looking forward to kinda playing the new card for the next 90 days and doing some kinda work in about 120 days. Nice to meet y'all!"
It's actually difficult to get your claimed meaning from your language but you're getting some likes out of it so I guess that's all that matters.
It is actually unreasonable to expect that we'd have new content from him by now already given that he couldn't possibly have been there all that long.
There are so many reasonable grounds for pessimism that we don't need to make more up. Here are some reasonable grounds for pessimism.
1 - We still don't know if he'll be focused on NL or production.
2 - My guess is NL. For those of us who are playing the game already, that's bad.
3 - What are the odds that someone hired to produce content but, based on information from your other posts, is expected to code is going to be able to charge into UO's spaghetti code and give us something that doesn't add more bugs?
4 - I, for one, and I think many others, will be perfectly ok with the use of existing mechanics to produce new content. However, that content has to do a lot of different things (be interesting in its own right, add to and deepen existing lore without contradicting it, give meaningful but not overpowering rewards for it [or at least interesting and lore appropriate deco], and so forth). That's a tall order given that we are, as an audience, finicky and difficult under the best conditions. And these are not the best conditions.
And I guess I'll leave it there.
I'm almost tempted to go for a ban hammer on the official forums: NL - put up or shut up.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
You make a lot of good valid points and I agree with most of what you've stated.
In regards to #3, I think the odds are obviously pretty low.
I don't really buy the spaghetti code argument though.
The primary reason why additional bugs are added with new content appears to boil down to poor planning and poor coding skills.
With forward thinking and proper skills, the game of whack a mole that the current team has created for themselves can be avoided almost entirely.
Some people just make things more difficult than they need to be.
There's no reason why veteran rewards shipped with bugs that were reported. It has nothing to do with spaghetti code and everything to do with poor production.
Reason #4 is a great example of why it IS reasonable to expect new content or a simple eye catching road map to have already been delivered.
I can easily think of two potential reasons why it would be unreasonable to expect new content or even an eye catching road map.
1. The new guy isn't the most qualified candidate.
2. Mesanna's poor decision making, which hinders the productivity of her employees.
To be fair, it doesn't matter if the most qualified person on the planet was the new content designer.
It ultimately comes down to what Mesanna chooses and allows.
I agree about the cookie cutter content but they were pretty straight forward about what the plan was when they put in the "dynamic system" a year or 2 ago. I can also see why they go cookie cutter because too many people hop on the forums and cry about anything that truly is contrary to what we usually get. The treasures of Tokuno was content that many people enjoyed and have asked for repeatedly so the Dev team labeled it a "win" so when creating new content they try to stay within that particular cookie's cutter.
Perfect example of going outside that cutter was almost a year ago when they had the VDay clicky in Fel. Soooooo many people got all bent out of shape and they whole "wah wah wah I pay to play so I shouldn't need to go to Fel where something can be stolen". I personally had a blast and was hoping they would repeat that outside of the box thinking... but then we see that this year's Vday reward looks like it will be a pack drop clicky that you can keep using for rare color roses because too many people got their feelings hurt when they didn't get their reward on all 200 characters OR they can't get every single rare color.
Unfortunately you can thank the masses just as much as the Devs when it comes to keeping things cookie cutter.
Perfect example of going outside that cutter was almost a year ago when they had the VDay clicky in Fel. Soooooo many people got all bent out of shape and they whole "wah wah wah I pay to play so I shouldn't need to go to Fel where something can be stolen". I personally had a blast and was hoping they would repeat that outside of the box thinking... but then we see that this year's Vday reward looks like it will be a pack drop clicky that you can keep using for rare color roses because too many people got their feelings hurt when they didn't get their reward on all 200 characters OR they can't get every single rare color.
Unfortunately you can thank the masses just as much as the Devs when it comes to keeping things cookie cutter.
FAKEUSERNAME
Adventurer
You make a lot of good points.
You're right that cookie cut isn't always a bad thing, sometimes it's great.
Keeping content that people enjoy is also usually a good idea.
I don't fully agree with your perfect example though.
That's a pretty low standard to set for going outside the box.
From your description it sounds like it was also a failure for the UO Team.
I can't blame the masses even slightly.
It's not their fault that the UO Team couldn't produce something that almost everyone could enjoy.
That's what the UO Team is supposed to get paid for.
The customers didn't do anything wrong by providing feedback of their experience and sharing their feelings.
Sure it's easy to label the feedback as complaining and do nothing.
That's not what the UO Team is supposed to be getting paid for though.
It reminds me of how veteran rewards were just shipped with bugs that were reported by customers.
I didn't mean anything bad by referring to it as cookie cutter content. I just couldn't think of a better way to describe it. It was obviously put in so they could make content quickly while they devote their time and resources to NL. It's certainly better than nothing. I just wouldn't expect anything else until well after NL releases.
I know what you meant. Add a new thing change the name and colour that is all that we are getting right now.
Give the new guy 6months to a year before we see anything from him I would think. Even a new EM takes a few months before they can solo an event and that's just one to two hours.
I remember more than one voice kinda asking for this style of content - me included. I think it's still better than those one hour a week EM things, which effectively seem to suck a lot of mesannas time out of the day. Unfortunately, they lost me before they did those cookie cutter events. But this doesnt matter. I kinda always enjoyed anything that was going on 24/7 for a limited time and I also enojy those in other games where the formula is also simply "new loot + random dungeon + random monsters".
For my part I was ok with "cookie cutter" content for the rest of the time UO existed, as long as the content itself was interesting, appropriate, furthered a story, and stuff like that. Indeed I had been rooting for UO to follow the DAoC model -- a steady stream of content that did little or nothing in terms of new mechanics but used what mechanics they had in ways that were substantively interesting and appropriate. DAoC even had a schedule decide, and propagated, considerably in advance.
But what bugs me (accidental pun there! multiple meanings of bug!!) is that what's coming for the new shard, which doesn't exist yet, suggests mightily that I was thinking too small. That I should have all along been expecting, and asking for, more, because if they can put time and resources into this new thing, what could they have been doing for us here now that they haven't been?
But what bugs me (accidental pun there! multiple meanings of bug!!) is that what's coming for the new shard, which doesn't exist yet, suggests mightily that I was thinking too small. That I should have all along been expecting, and asking for, more, because if they can put time and resources into this new thing, what could they have been doing for us here now that they haven't been?
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Dooooooooo it!