Hello everybody and welcome to the “Google hangout with Bonnie, Kyronix, Misk, Flair, Tia and myself. Bleak will be joining us shortly.
The first question is from Tina Small:
Are there any plans to replace the EM program with a global "live events" program so that players can do "live events" at times that are convenient for their own schedules?
Bonnie (Mesanna): No there is not. We have had the EM program for 5 years and I think it is doing very well. They do it at different times, both eastern and pacific time schedules. So I don’t think there is any reason to replace them.
The next question is also from Tina Small:
Are there any plans to decrease vendor fees? With the declining population, sales of normal basic items and goods for new/returning players are very slow and I think many people just don't bother to sell them because the aggregate vendor fees soon outstrip the actual price of the items they are trying to sell.
Greg (Kyronix): The answer to this question in short is “No” there are no plans to decrease them. Primarily because as everyone is aware, we have a big gold inflation problem and the vendor fees are one of the best ways we have to remove gold from the game. To give you a little anecdotal story, I threw up a vendor on the Shard I play on right after vendor search went live. That and of course I went on vendor search to find prices for the items I was trying to sell and priced slightly lower. And I soon found that the vendor fees were rather expensive and no one was buying my staff. What I ended up having to do is lower the prices of my stuff. So yes I took al little bit of loss on how much profit I made, but I also moved my product faster and made a buyer somewhere happy. So I think that in the end the economy will balance out based on supply and demand and if the vendor fees are too high you might consider lowering your prices.
The next question is also From Tina Small:
Are there any plans to introduce an ingame messaging system so you can leave messages for offline characters?
Stephen (Bleak): Ok, right now we have pretty much the backbone of that in place. So if we get enough demand from the players we will investigate fully implementing that type of system.
The next questions is a long one from Tina Small:
Would it be possible to have any 24hour timers that affect things that your characters can do ingame or that affect things that are maturing/developing ingame all reset themselves at shard maintenance? It would make it so much easier to keep track of when you can do things like throwing a lucky coin in the fountain, doing a puzzle board, doing escort quests, watering/tending plants growing in pots or chicken lizard eggs, sacrificing fame to increase sacrifice virtue, etc., especially if you have multiple characters doing these things on multiple shards. Also, with the timers the way they are now, if you don't log on at the exact same time every day to do these things, the day you log in late to do them, then throws you off for the next day and you just end up not doing some things on some days so you can get your character back on a reasonable schedule.
Greg (Kyronix): The short answer to that is, it is very difficult for us to do that because shard maintenance is not always a guarantee, what I mean by that is sometimes shards crash. So we could look at a host of issues that could be caused by the system’s resetting when the shards come back up. And its an awful lot of code to dig through to change all the different timing systems from the way it works now to even potentially handling shard crashes. So probably not going to do that anytime soon.
The next question is also from Tina Small:
Is there any possibility that you could adjust the section representatives in the Britain Library so that they all recognize amounts contributed to the various representatives? It would make it a lot easier to actually obtain items via small, regular donations of items obtained through regular game play if your donations at the library were aggregated instead of kept separate by section.
Stephen (Bleak): So currently each tracking system are balanced versus the turn in item so to combined and unite the system would break the balance and is not something we plan on doing right now.
The next question is from Tina Small:
Will the tailor and blacksmith NPCs in Ter Mur ever offer BODs or take bribes.
Greg (Kyronix) So we talked about this and we expanded to a broader discussion that may touch on some of the other questions down the road. To answer the question directly, yes, this is something we should probably do. But also over the past year/year and a half we have really concentrated on updating the combat/PVE/PVP side of the game without giving much .love to the crafting side of the game. So moving forward, that is something we discussed to try to focus on and give a little love there as well.
The next question is from Viquire
Looking past global loot, VvV ( I should have copyrighted that) and traders quests. Can we talk more about the new website and MyUO? What plans are there to help guilds be promoted through the information made available? What information will actually be available?
Bonnie (Mesanna): We actually have a new web designer and we will be getting her started very soon. And it is one of our players, just like I told everybody, we are going to start pulling from our player base. We are going to start use our players the webs designer we are going to do our player base, how can I say this, all of us have talked about the new player experience, starting guilds in the towns, um we want to have like a new player guild base on our website also. So that new players or returning players when they come in will a trusted guild that they can go to and join. So I want those listed on our website. As soon as it comes up I want to list all the guilds that are trustworthy. I want the players to rate them and give feedback on the guilds themselves. So we will see. I don’t know if this is a good enough answer for this, but I think it is going to work well for everyone. For all the guilds and for all the website itself. Its going to be awesome when we get through with it.
The next question is from Viquire and Lug:
Last we heard about Hi Res art was that the system had been greatly streamlined. How is that going? When might we be planning to see some of the results?
Bonnie (Mesanna): we are kind of calling it enhanced art right now. We are hiring one of our players to come in and we have to QA it still. There are so many pieces that have to go one by one, then we have to QA it, then we have to go piece by piece to make sure it fits together. We can’t put anything out, especially our housing tiles to make sure they fit together. So until we get it all QA’d and everything we can’t put anything out. We are still working on it, it is not a lost cause, it just takes time to do it. I have a name to contact, another one of the players, to come into the office for a month to help us with QAing some of the art.
The next question is from Viquire and Glenny Glenn:
The game has touched on a lot of player systems over the last year, Spells, armor, loot. Can you say anything specific at this point about a pets and tamers revamp? A new gump that shows all skills would be greatly appreciated.
Bonnie (Mesanna): We are going to do a pet revamp. When we do that we will look at doing a new skill gump, so that is definitely doable.
This question is also from Viquire:
Having taken a close look at armor and weapons, is there any interest on the teams part to look at the crating rewards systems that are currently in place? Recipes, as they exist, don't make much sense. eartwood....well, I think I am not alone in wanting something more like the tailor/smith system for other crafting. Can you tell us if this is too big a monster to be looking at right now?
Greg (Kyronix): I touched on this briefly in the previous crafting question and like I said before, definitely. We certainly have an entire second half of what traditionally people do in the game that we needed to take a hard look at see where improvements can be made, updates can be made where things can be streamlined and make the overall experience much better. As we get closer to that, we will certainly reach out to the community for suggestions and anyone that wants to help us out with that. But yes, something we will definitely be having a conversation about in the future.
This question is also from Viquire:
Are there plans to revisit some of the elements of High Seas and theme packs that seem wonky or incomplete?
Greg (Kyronix): Yes, we definitely want to streamline a lot of the various feature of High Seas, especially cannon crafting. I had a conversation with a player not long ago and posed them the question, what one thing would make the entire ship combat experience more enjoyable? Got a lot of feedback from that, if anyone else wants to send feedback. We are hungry for feedback and we read it all good and bad. Feel free to let us know. But updates to High Seas are definitely on our radar.
This question is also from Viquire:
Is the team still taking submissions for additions to Blackthorns artifacts into account? Are there some specialized event items that have been specifically ruled out for addition?
Greg (Kyronix): Yes, I think there is a thread floating about on Stratics about Blackthorn artifact additions. If there is something you would like to see on there sure. At some point in the future we will be making an update to that and will go there and cull all the different suggestions. As far as event items, probably not. Really depends, not sure specifically what event items they are talking about, but we have a very storied history with event items. Some of them may be left as they are, but again if there are specific suggestions, let us know, we will discuss and see what we can do.
(here is the thread)
http://stratics.com/community/threads/anotheritemnotonthelistofblackthornrewards.
309836/
This question is also from Viquire:
Will we ever be able to do something with minor artifacts besides turn them in?
Greg (Kyronix) This was another one we were kind of confused as to the point. Basically you can do a lot of stuff with minor artifacts, you can use them, you can go fight with them, you can break them down into component imbuing ingredients if you like or base crafting ingredient. If there, again, was something more specifically you wanted to be able to do with minor artifacts, feel free to reach out to us and let us know what you were trying to get out of this question and we will take a look.
This question is from UO Houses:
Can we have the Account Transfer Back?
Bonnie (Mesanna): You can transfer your accounts yourself. So the official one, no. But you can do it yourself. All you have to do is email [email protected] and give the correct information and they will help you transfer the account to the person that you want to transfer to. Getting it back. It’s never really left, so I’m not really sure. Paying $30? There is no charge. You can transfer your account without paying $30.
This question is also from UO Houses:
I use a lot of Transfer Tokens, and every time my toon arrives he is on the middle of somewhere and I always have to use the Help menu option:
"My Character is physically Stuck"
Can you guys make all Transferred toons to Arrive on LUNA?? or Can you add Luna option to the Choice Menu?
Bonnie (Mesanna): Um, no , we are not going to make all transfer toons go to Luna. Not sure why or what he is doing that he is in the middle of no where, but we would really like to know where or take a screenshot and find out why he is in the middle of No where or explain, give us coordinates or something because something is not right. He should be in a town, not in the middle of no where. He should be in a specific town, by an inn, somewhere. So I would really like to know where he has ended up or what he is doing to end up in the middle of no where to be honest. So please email me and let me know where the middle of no where is. But no we are not going to add Luna.
This question is from UO Houses & Azmodanb:
Can You please make POF stackable/combinable?
Michael (Misk): Yes! The short answer to that is Yes! Just as we recently made it so that you can combine pigments of Tukono, recently runic tools. That is definitely something we can do and hopefully we can do that soon.
This question is from Vexxed:
Would you please explain how REFORGING works with the same level of detail that we have for imbuing? I mean telling us the property "weights" when reforging and the various "Budgets" that all the different kinds of runics have? Don't forget explaining how things like choosing a "powerful" reforge effects stuff... NUMBERS please !
Michael (Misk): A lot of that information is available in the help menu for the runic reforging. Um, we can try to give you more information on actual numbers, like specific weight increases and intensity increases. That is something we can try to provide.
This question is from MedeaDF:
Will the former EA "Ask & Answer" communication between players/devs return some day with Broadsword?
Bonnie (Mesanna): The reason why it stopped is because it got to the point where we weren’t getting questions, we were just getting suggestions. So we started the “in game” every two weeks, doing the face to face live questions instead of getting the 5 questions every week that turned into not questions anymore. So we are answering many questions every two weeks on each shard instead of answering questions that turn out to not be questions and we have to make up questions. Which way do you think is better? I ask you guys? Do you want us to stop doing the shards and do questions? Or do you want us to continue doing the shards and do questions from you guys that eventually turn into the same questions or suggestions. I leave it up to you guys.
This question is also from MedeaDF:
Can the former EA "official" fansites keep their status under Broadsword's banner?
Bonnie (Mesanna): They will. Yes.
This question is also from MedeaDF:
Can you please restore the "normal" surroundings at the Humility Moongate, Ilshenar? The area around the Ankh was blocked back in the day when the fight with Dragonbane happened, but it is really cumbersome for ressing and also reaching the Champion Spawn around the corner...
B
onnie (Mesanna): That is already fixed. Kyronix did that already. It’s already done!
This question is also from MedeaDF:
Can you please restore the functionality of gates/teleporters from EM events? Example: We (Drachenfels) have an EM gate to the beach where Sudiva lives (Lenmir Anfinmotas, Ilshenar) but we cannot use it any longer because its broken.
Greg (Kyronix): This is something that as far as specific to the gate for where Sudiva lives on the beach. After we moved her out of covetous to the beach, some shards have the gate and some don’t so to get a gate on every shard to make sure you can get to that beach, something that we could world build in, so we can definitely do that. As far as other specific teleporters or gates. Those things are specifically limited because we have run into situations in the past because one old gate from 10-12 years ago on one shard basically breaks a piece of content. We don’t want to do that so those things are specifically limited.
Bonnie stated that EM gates and stuff are not meant to stay forever. It is only for certain event so we need to dim fix stuff in for it to be permanent.
This question is from Nicnivin:
I tried to dye Melissa's Cloak using Pigments of Tokuno (silver) but it did not work. I expected the cloak to be an artifact and thus be dyeable. Which are the criteria what is dyeable and what is not?
Michael (Misk): So that is a bug that Melissa’s cloak cannot be dyed using pigments. Essentially the development team flags an item as dyeable with pigments and apparently when that was first introduced that was erroneously left off the list. I will be submitting a bug tomorrow.
This question is also from Nicnivin:
What is the exact rate the points of the zoo in Moonglow decay at? It seems to vary, but it's hard to tell since we can't be sure how many points were donated.
Greg (Kyronix): so this is something that I think I was supposed to look up this afternoon, but we have been furiously busy trying to put the final touches on everything related to Pub 86 and I did not look up that exact number. But I will look it up and get back to you with an answer for it.
This question is from Ithildin:
Is it planned to make the ship cannons *remaining the color of the material used*? Or are there gonna be a series of (maybe pirate/sailor related) Quests, each rewarding a recipe for crafting a cannon of a particular material? Like "a recipe to craft light ship cannons with bronze ingots" or "a recipe to craft heavy ship cannons with golden ingots"?
Bonnie (Mesanna): No, we are just going to make it simple and make it where you can dye them with metal dye tubs.
Flair: “neon cannons” Interesting.
Bonnie: “Metal dye tubs” if I see a neon cannon, I’m going to come after you! (Flair)
This question is from Tazar:
Personally I think Stygian Abyss was a great expansion. However, I have noticed that the addition of "The Underworld" only included level one of the dungeon and that there are areas that appear to be possible access points to deeper levels. Will we ever see additional levels to The Underworld in UO?
Bonnie (Mesanna): Who asked that horrible question? (Tazar) just kidding, just kidding… There is a lot of area for expansion down there and it leaves a lot of room for possibilities for us to grow. This is true. We have a lot of creativity on our team. So, yes, there is definitely room for us to be very creative down there. That is all I can say. You never know.
This question is from Hawkwind Navarre:
I would like to know if any progress has been made on Mesanna's promise to increase the character limit for character names? If so, when we can expect it, if not when will it get attention?
Bonnie (Mesanna): Right now we are knee deep in this publish out the door. I don’t have any word on it, I don’t’ have any thing. Right now we just need to get this publish out the door. I’ll let you know when this one is done.
The next question is from Gidge:
Can we please have the login screen window kept current with what gets posted on stratics and UO? Perhaps with just links even so it encourages people to know things are happening to their world?
Michael(Misk): As most of the payers are probably aware, we recently made changes to the patcher which does include information from UO.com as wella s include links to various hyperlinks on the site. So we can thank Bleak and the engineering team for putting that into the game.
The next question is also from Gidge:
Do you see the banners that are posted on gaming forums? Can broadsword do something similar, a simple banner program to bring back some life?
Michael (Misk): That is a possibility with marketing and with the new site. Our President is always up for doing things and promoting our games so anything is possible. All we have to do is ask.
The next question is also from Gidge:
Can you give us a genuine update on decision if the account management website will ever be updated or rebuilt? I see lots of inquiries where people are wanting/attempting to return and are having troubles navigating the current system.
Bonnie (Mesanna): Yes I can give you a decision on that. It is going to be done believe it or not. We are going to rebuild it because we own it now. We want to unify it into one section and simplify it. What we are doing right now, in the meantime, is making youtube videos breaking down each step. How to change out your credit card. How to change your password. Honestly it’s a nightmare and we know it’s a nightmare. So yes, we have one person that is in charge of it. As soon as he gets through some of the things that is on his list he will be redoing all of the account management page. Redoing it and simplifying it. We are going to throw a big party for him when it’s done. Trust me.
The next question is also from Gidge:
This is more of a comment.... As much as I appreciate stratics being the official forum of UO,(if that statement is true) can the UO website itself have some directives in helping new players and returning player find their way?
Bonnie (Mesanna): I think the new website is going to help a lot. What I want to do is have a wiki and player guide. Where the players can update it and build a player guide on the website itself. So that is going to be something new on UO.com. I think it would be kind of cool for the players to take ownership of the game also. To keep it updated so the players to go there. I think it would be kind of cool for us to do.
The next question is also from Gidge:
Most of my others things are little in game things.
Like! Oh! can it be fixed so the hooded robes do not have gaping holes in the graphics when riding southeast and some of the other directions? It is really noticeable when the robe is dyed black and you are wearing nothing underneath.
Michael (Misk): (Bonnie says: Actually before Michael takes it, Kyronix actually put on a robe today and rode around nekkid. He was flat out nekkid, put on a dark robe and we could not see any nekkid parts. We would love to see some screen shots, what client, if he was using Pincos, so if the person that wrote this would send more details in an email we would really appreciate it. Please!
The next question is from Drake Ironheart:
You are talking about translating the website to Korean, German and Chinese...
That works well to attract the attention and the players from Asia, But what about languages such as Spanish 2nd or 3rd Most spoken language in the world, would get you clients and players not from just Spain but most all South America, wouldn't that be viable also? Ideally having the game fully translated would be the best thing but I know its a very big task to have to translate it all
Bonnie (Mesanna): You know what, if we are going to translate the website to all of those, adding Spanish, why not. Probably not the game, but the website yes. We will add that to the list.
The next question is also from Drake Ironheart:
Will there be a future improvement to the BOD (bulk order deed) system in the way SBODS (small bods) can automatically linked to a LBOD (large bod) if present in the book, I mean you put the BOD into a book and if there is a matching bigger BOD that requires the small one to be filled, they get linked in some way? Having the LBOD display something like, SBOD found and unfilled? This would help a lot when coming to store them at home as they would take a lot less space.
Greg (Kyronix): so like I mentioned earlier, the crafting side of the game is certainly something that is a good place for us to focus some attention. Given how much combat and other related systems have gotten attention in the recent past. There is certainly been a lot of discussion that I have read about the storage of BOD. Everyone has tons of BODs that is eating up precious house storage. So when we go and look at crafting, certainly BODs given how pervasive they are in crafting in general is something we take a look at as well. I know there has been some question about the functionality of BOD books and sorting. Things like that, so that is all something we can take a look at.
The next question is from Jonathan B:
Hi ... why does the enhanced client negate 100+ points of stealth? If this is unclear I will explain. In the EC, possibly only with pinco's, a player can see when another player has a stealth check (that means every time I have a stealth check another person will see that "shadow jump grey pop." Also, referring to shadow jump, instead of showing the *entry point*; i.e., where a person jumped FROM (as it does in the Classic Client), the EC shows where a person jumps TO. Even this latter issue isn't so bad, but EVERY stealth check shows me ... just try getting away from anyone, who has any skill as a mage or carries conflagration potions, under these conditions.
Michael (Misk): (Petra noted that she is not seeing this happen.) Misk noted that this is a bug in the system already. Hopefully, I can check that tomorrow and reconfirm it. If I can confirm it, we will get it fixed then. The little *poof* effect.
The next question is from NetTangler:
When we be able to use all sides of the houses? Make it more 3d there seems to be a lot of wasted space.
Stephen (Bleak): Well the short answer for that is no. We don’t have any plans. We are not trying to change the view of the game. That road passed with the old 3D client. Right now we are focused improving on the Enhanced Client.
The next question is from Agent Orange:
Will you please reinstate the nexus deed puzzles back cause the exodus quest no one does any more. The the puzzle from nexus was fun to do and get the deed. thank you.
Greg (Kyronix): In the past,. We have talked about some stuff related to the Exodus as a whole. Basically making it a little bit more user friendly as far as getting the keys. This may be the way to get keys if some people like doing the puzzle. The code is still there. We always say that we have a lot of unused or dead event code so there is no reasons why we can’t put it back in.
The next question is from James Host:
Are you going to put in the quests for Humility and Spirituality? And an alternate for Justice that does not involve trying to kill people who are awfully good at killing other people?
Greg (Kyronix): This is a very good question. As far as the change to Justice, I don’t know. Unfortunately, it always turns out (or it seems at least) that the bad guys are really good at being bad. This just means the good guys have to get better at being good. As far as Spirit and Humility, we have kicked around some ideas. Definitely want to finish that virtue system. It has been unfinished for a very long time and given how fundamental the virtues are to Ultima it seems a terrible atrocity. We have kicked around some ideas, nothing is really super stuck yet. If anyone else has any suggestions, we are always willing to listen to feedback. But certainly something we want to get to.
(Bonnie: we would like to finish it before 20 years!)
The next question is from Michael Taylor:
When can we expect up on steam you guys made a big deal about voting to pass it on green light we did and now nothing from you guys about a status update. Why have us vote for it then do nothing?
Bonnie (Mesanna): This is not something we just want to just jump into. We want to make sure everything is planned out and done correctly. This is not something we are going to jump on and do without all of our ducks in a row. We are making sure everything is done correctly, everything is planned out just like it should be instead of haphazardly. The first door was opened. Now it just takes time to things like they should be done.
The next question is from Goodmann:
With our current inflation of gold are there still plans to make "gold" account wide instead of 1 million checks?
Bonnie (Mesanna): Oh god yes. I so want to do the gold conversion. I really want to get it on the accounts and get gold checks out of the game. That is one of my biggest goals. It’s just a matter of getting there.
The next question is also from Goodmann:
With the resources Broadsword brings has the team ever looked into what some free shards are doing for ideas? Some free shards have very nice concepts and is on par with what the community would want to see. This is from a couple guys in there basement so imagine what Broadsword could do.
Bonnie (Mesanna): Yeah, those guys in the basement and what they can do. They are using everything that we havedone. So, of course, they are able to do so much more because they are stealing all of the work we have done. So there ya go!
The next question is also from Goodmann:
Any plans on increasing the skill cap from 720?
Stephen (Bleak): Currently we do not have any plans to increase the skill cap from 720. But we have skill masteries on the table. Increasing no, but adding masteries yes. Similar to how bard mastery was done is on the table.
The next question is from Byron Foret:
Will the day come when we can copy books to the computer's clipboard? Will the day come when we can expand the length of the in client clipboard? I would have LOVED to have saved the text from some books, ingame event reports, from my neighbor's house before it fell, but being tasked with typing every letter out of a stack of 50+ books proved too time consuming to be accomplished with the limited time I have to log in these days.
Stephen (Bleak): So, I guess books in UO have been a struggle for both the clients apparently. We do have plans to give the books another pass. We have been bouncing around a couple of ideas. So they are not coming in the current UI update, but they are planned to come soon.
The next question is from Lug:
Return to Britannia: are there any plans to market it? And how long will it be this time? a week, a month?
Bonnie (Mesanna): It will be a month. Yes, we are going to market it. We will be sending out a huge email bomb. We will have a commercial that we are going to make. I can’t say it will be professional, but we are going to have fun with it. And we are going to do what we can. The email will go out to everyone that has been in UO for the last three years. And you will have to opt in or out to receive the emails to find out what is going on with UO. So we will be getting in touch with all our old friends.
The next question is from Robert Roper:
I want to know if you could make a book that would hold the the power scrolls?
Michael (Misk): Yes! This is something we have on our list of stuff to do. We have done that Alacrity Scrolls and the SOT scrolls and next are the power scrolls.
The next question is from Tim Karry:
Will we ever be able to customize our castle like regular houses?
Bonnie (Mesanna): ok, we have answered this several times, so we probably need to make the questions a little bit easier or publicize or Facebook website a little bit better so everyone can get the answers from our in game meet and greet. But no, you will never be able to customize a castle. But what we have talked about several times is maybe coming up with a new design for a castle. A new, like a new player design. Maybe let you guys come up with some new designs, possibly some type of contest. You guys designed the contest for prefab houses. Instead of us coming up with it. You tell us what kind of house you want. The square footage is going to have to stay the same. You can’t go bigger than a castle. We are not going to give you anything bigger than that. That is the best we can do is let you come up with your own prefab. We are willing to do something like that but we cannot let you customize a castle.
Ok, Flair has one more strange question, she was put up to this question:
Tamer Girl would like to know when we can have a hot air balloon.
Bonnie: I’m going to kill you. When I see you in game I am going to kill you.
Flair: Oh Greg that was for you! I know he wants to answer it. He has been dieing to…. Yep I’m dead. (Bonnie
nods)
Petra: The questions are all finished. If anyone has anything else to say, please say it now.
Bonnie: I don’t know about the rest of the team, but I would like to thank everyone. We appreciate all the questions. We thank everybody for coming tonight and being with us. We appreciate all the feedback you give us. You know all our email addresses. I’m sure you know them. We appreciate the 17 years that you have dedicated to UO and I hope for a lot more.
Greg (Kyronix): Come play with us on TC1! Come test with us. It’s a lot of fun!
