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NEWS [UO.Com] Ask & Answer No. 12

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Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
From the Devs
2012 Dec 03 14:50 GMT
As we move into the twelfth month of the year we bring you Ask and Answer number 12. It is a season for giving and your questions have the developers making plans to bring all sorts of changes to the game. Enjoy!


UO Auctions

Can anything be done about the freezing screen when you use house customising and or the packing create with EC? (Rupert Avery)

We actually discussed this over lunch for approx 20 minutes to try to figure out the best way to do this, bottom line is yes it can be redone but it is not Just a simple task. But it’s on our radar now.


UO Stratics

Dont wanna add more than a bit thanks to devs for this new hunt. It s well done, fun to make from the start till the end.
It just rings a bell to me concerning the other peerlesses. First of all why dont you change the key timers to make them the same that for Eodus ? i.e. a 1 week timer is great... gives us time enough to prepare things for guild.
I understand that it was not welcome at the beginning when all bosses were overcamped but now most peerless places are empty on a regular basis...
So if you give us a bit more time to gather sets of keys alike Exodus that would be great indeed (Lien Ragus)


So this is a valid idea, we like it and you guys will see all the keys for the peerless encounters with extended timers on them in the future.

Hello devs.
I'm trying "Elwood Quest" for several years to get a rare obsidian statue of character's name.
And it still continues, I am being 200 defeated successively currently...
Is it completely random that a rare name's statue appears ?
I wish there is no like an easter egg on origami paper.
Thank you.(Peil)


We agree the rarity of this is way too high, we will look into adjusting this. Right now there is a 1 in a 1000 chance to get a rare statue. We will make some changes to improve this in a future publish.

Gargoyles are still unable to use Dartboards. (not a huge issue i know), but a bigger issue is the Gargoyles inability to use +mining gloves. like the Ringmail with +5 bonus. any help on these would be appreciated.(Victim of Siege)
Could we get an option to alter Mining Gloves for a Gargoyle?
Gargoyles have become the crafter of choice with imbuing and reforging and since you need over 100 mining skill to max out salvaging...the mining gloves are somewhat necessray. (swroberts)
Blacksmith gloves of mining don't work on mr gargoyle, any chance, down the road, we can alter these in some way??Thnx(Bullseye_of_Atl)


Due to the fact the humans and elf’s have racial bonuses, we do not see any reason that Gargoyles should not have a racial bonus also. We are going to give the gargoyles a mining racial bonus.

It was mentioned on FoF (April 10, 2009) that "the donation system for community collections needs an overhaul in general".I'm curious if this is still being looked at/worked on. Thanks. (Whinemaker)

Actually we have made some changes to this system such as allowing you to turn in commodity deeds and bags of items to make it easier to turn in items, if you are asking for a whole new system such as different rewards, mobs etc…we have not discussed this.


Ultima Online Bibliothek

When will there be house plots greater than 18 x 18 for customization? Eg. Keeps could be converted, because they can't be decorated on three sides and therefore much deco space is wasted. Many people have their Castles and Keeps because of the long time they are playing UO,and so they need the storage space... But there are areas, such as the ice island or Minoc, where Keeps and Castles are lined up and it looks like you are in the ghetto there... and somehow this pabulum is rather boring.
Honestly - If we could customize a house plot, wich is as big as a keep's plot, there would of course be some of our architects there to create something really beautyful ... We have such beautiful items for decoration now - why should they even gather dust in the boxes? (Mene'Tekel)


We have talked about this but its again not a task that can be done quickly. I won’t say no it will never happen but I just don’t have you a definite answer right now.

When do we tamers get new pets for taming? To be a tamer is one of the most beautiful thing UO provides - but right now you can only see tamers, who move around with their Greater Dragons... I personally encounter sadness, because we have a lot of great pets in the game!
Silversteeds for e.g. would be very nice - or you could create a mini-version of the Stygian Dragon for taming ... *dreaming*
I would also find it very cool, if there would be a small chance to get Dread Horses (the better Nightmare) or Bane Dragons back to the game for taming - a lot of new players asked for them and they also want to have such an animal.
And what would be great too: Strong pets like the Cu Sidhe or the Hiryu should be able to compete with stronger monsters. The Unicorns used to be very strong too, and the small Nightmares ... - if I move to Oni with these animals nowadays, they drop dead in a jiff... which is very frustrating to new players, who can finally handle such an animal. (Mene'Tekel)


We have discussed doing a pet revamp, I would rather not give specific details yet. This is something the whole team would like to do.


UO Japan

I have a small stone keep. I'd like to lock my items down in my courtyard. Please make a special door which allows players to access its courtyard. I would purchase the door even if it was sold at Origin store.(Nickname:rararin)

A keep is a bit different than the castle, the “courtyards are not accessible it would require us putting in teleporters in and out of those small areas. Can it be done yes it can. We will review this for a future publish.

I'd like to see skill/stats of my stabled pets. The Pet Brokers in Magincia have "LORE" option. Is it possible to add the option to the Animal trainers?(Nickname eli)

Using some of the code that is already in the game we can make this possible.

If a character used 2 tokens of personal attendants, one of them became completely meaningless. Could you change the attendant to be tied to an account instead of a character?(Nickname eli)

Yes it can be tied to an account, we will look into this for a future publish.

When will the double NPC spawn be fixed? The Asuka shard still has double NPCs. Can you delete these extra NPCs for us? (Nickname: Quinn)

It will be done by the time these questions are posted.

Continue reading...
 

GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The last question reminded me: I noticed the double NPCs fixed on GL some weeks ago.

A belated thank you for fixing that.

-Galen's player
 

silent

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
So now that we can lock stuff down in the courtyards is there any discussion about allowing recall into courtyards again?
 
T

Tazar

Guest
So now that we can lock stuff down in the courtyards is there any discussion about allowing recall into courtyards again?
I just can't see that happening - it provides an unfair advantage to castle owners to be able to recall home in perfect safety.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I just can't see that happening - it provides an unfair advantage to castle owners to be able to recall home in perfect safety.
It's not so much of an advantage, but I still don't see them doing it. The reason it was removed in the first place, and why I don't ever see it returning, is that once a rune is marked, there's no way to unmark it if it's not in your possession, so if you give it out to a friend or whatever, that rune is always present. Could lead to stupid expolitative stuff, and in Fel, the dangers are even greater.

They made the right decision turning that feature off, and I don't see it returning.
 

startle

Siege... Where the fun begins.
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I just can't see that happening - it provides an unfair advantage to castle owners to be able to recall home in perfect safety.
So what's the big advantage? (Not being sarcastic, just can't see any....) Having to run thru 3 doors is a disadvantage..
 
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T

Tazar

Guest
So what's the big advantage? (Not being sarcastic, just can't see any....) Having to run thru 3 doors is a disadvantage..
For the fel side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of PK'ers camping your doorstep. For the tram-side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of that pesky mongbat targeting you...
 

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
My .02 on a couple items:

Customizable Keeps/Castles - Honestly the only reason at all I'd live in a Keep or Castle is the storage space. They are difficult to manuver esp castles with mulitple doors etc. They are time wasters. If an 18x18 had the same storage as a castle - I'd never want a castle and an 18x18 is customizable.

I don't think the enormous footprint of the castle or the keep is good for the game. People are incented to live in them due to storage space. Give them the same storage but make them smaller.

I'd also like to see 'upgraded' keeps and castles that are like white in color or something for a fee. Like 100m gold or something. Great gold sink, not imbalancing, and allow some variability to the houses and allow players to show their wealth/prestige.

Donation System/Community Collections - Most of the rewards are awful with the exception of the mace and sheild glasses and a few other armor/weapons. Donating checks certainly helps but honestly the thought that people would 'gather' like 88,000 shields and turn them in if they didn't have money is a joke. I could fight monsters for 100 years straight and not have 88k sheilds or battle axes. The gold to point ratio is a mess. Make it more realistic like 5 gold per point (mace and sheild then 4mil gold) and it becomes an AWESOME gold sink. If you want people to turn in crafted items or collected items - make them different items them with more points so we don't have to turn in 88k. What sense does battle axes make for a turn in? 9 pts each? 800,000 points needed? Let me turn in plate mail armor pieces for 250pts each or turn in 'Legendary Artifacts' from shame for 1,000 pts each or something we can hunt. If you can hunt them and turn them in in 40 hrs of playtime - that is the right amount to make it equal to something like using gold. Anything more is a waste of time. If I were to revamp the collections - I'd add doom arties and other items to the list. I'd change the gold ratio to be 5 to 1 and I'd give more 'high point' turn in options. People loved the cleanup, people hate the community collections. Oh and the quest to allow you to donate is dumb. What is the point? It just makes an additional hurdle on other shards you don't play regularly. I see no reason for this.
 
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GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
For the fel side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of PK'ers camping your doorstep. For the tram-side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of that pesky mongbat targeting you...
Especially if they really do implement cross-facet Order/Chaos gang fighting like they are threatenning to do....

-Galen's player
 

gunneroforgin

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
From the Devs
2012 Dec 03 14:50 GMT
As we move into the twelfth month of the year we bring you Ask and Answer number 12. It is a season for giving and your questions have the developers making plans to bring all sorts of changes to the game. Enjoy!


UO Auctions

Can anything be done about the freezing screen when you use house customising and or the packing create with EC? (Rupert Avery)

We actually discussed this over lunch for approx 20 minutes to try to figure out the best way to do this, bottom line is yes it can be redone but it is not Just a simple task. But it’s on our radar now.


UO Stratics

Dont wanna add more than a bit thanks to devs for this new hunt. It s well done, fun to make from the start till the end.
It just rings a bell to me concerning the other peerlesses. First of all why dont you change the key timers to make them the same that for Eodus ? i.e. a 1 week timer is great... gives us time enough to prepare things for guild.
I understand that it was not welcome at the beginning when all bosses were overcamped but now most peerless places are empty on a regular basis...
So if you give us a bit more time to gather sets of keys alike Exodus that would be great indeed (Lien Ragus)

So this is a valid idea, we like it and you guys will see all the keys for the peerless encounters with extended timers on them in the future.

Hello devs.
I'm trying "Elwood Quest" for several years to get a rare obsidian statue of character's name.
And it still continues, I am being 200 defeated successively currently...
Is it completely random that a rare name's statue appears ?
I wish there is no like an easter egg on origami paper.
Thank you.(Peil)

We agree the rarity of this is way too high, we will look into adjusting this. Right now there is a 1 in a 1000 chance to get a rare statue. We will make some changes to improve this in a future publish.

Gargoyles are still unable to use Dartboards. (not a huge issue i know), but a bigger issue is the Gargoyles inability to use +mining gloves. like the Ringmail with +5 bonus. any help on these would be appreciated.(Victim of Siege)
Could we get an option to alter Mining Gloves for a Gargoyle?
Gargoyles have become the crafter of choice with imbuing and reforging and since you need over 100 mining skill to max out salvaging...the mining gloves are somewhat necessray. (swroberts)
Blacksmith gloves of mining don't work on mr gargoyle, any chance, down the road, we can alter these in some way??Thnx(Bullseye_of_Atl)

Due to the fact the humans and elf’s have racial bonuses, we do not see any reason that Gargoyles should not have a racial bonus also. We are going to give the gargoyles a mining racial bonus.

It was mentioned on FoF (April 10, 2009) that "the donation system for community collections needs an overhaul in general".I'm curious if this is still being looked at/worked on. Thanks. (Whinemaker)

Actually we have made some changes to this system such as allowing you to turn in commodity deeds and bags of items to make it easier to turn in items, if you are asking for a whole new system such as different rewards, mobs etc…we have not discussed this.


Ultima Online Bibliothek

When will there be house plots greater than 18 x 18 for customization? Eg. Keeps could be converted, because they can't be decorated on three sides and therefore much deco space is wasted. Many people have their Castles and Keeps because of the long time they are playing UO,and so they need the storage space... But there are areas, such as the ice island or Minoc, where Keeps and Castles are lined up and it looks like you are in the ghetto there... and somehow this pabulum is rather boring.
Honestly - If we could customize a house plot, wich is as big as a keep's plot, there would of course be some of our architects there to create something really beautyful ... We have such beautiful items for decoration now - why should they even gather dust in the boxes? (Mene'Tekel)

We have talked about this but its again not a task that can be done quickly. I won’t say no it will never happen but I just don’t have you a definite answer right now.

When do we tamers get new pets for taming? To be a tamer is one of the most beautiful thing UO provides - but right now you can only see tamers, who move around with their Greater Dragons... I personally encounter sadness, because we have a lot of great pets in the game!
Silversteeds for e.g. would be very nice - or you could create a mini-version of the Stygian Dragon for taming ... *dreaming*
I would also find it very cool, if there would be a small chance to get Dread Horses (the better Nightmare) or Bane Dragons back to the game for taming - a lot of new players asked for them and they also want to have such an animal.
And what would be great too: Strong pets like the Cu Sidhe or the Hiryu should be able to compete with stronger monsters. The Unicorns used to be very strong too, and the small Nightmares ... - if I move to Oni with these animals nowadays, they drop dead in a jiff... which is very frustrating to new players, who can finally handle such an animal. (Mene'Tekel)

We have discussed doing a pet revamp, I would rather not give specific details yet. This is something the whole team would like to do.


UO Japan

I have a small stone keep. I'd like to lock my items down in my courtyard. Please make a special door which allows players to access its courtyard. I would purchase the door even if it was sold at Origin store.(Nickname:rararin)

A keep is a bit different than the castle, the “courtyards are not accessible it would require us putting in teleporters in and out of those small areas. Can it be done yes it can. We will review this for a future publish.

I'd like to see skill/stats of my stabled pets. The Pet Brokers in Magincia have "LORE" option. Is it possible to add the option to the Animal trainers?(Nickname eli)

Using some of the code that is already in the game we can make this possible.

If a character used 2 tokens of personal attendants, one of them became completely meaningless. Could you change the attendant to be tied to an account instead of a character?(Nickname eli)

Yes it can be tied to an account, we will look into this for a future publish.

When will the double NPC spawn be fixed? The Asuka shard still has double NPCs. Can you delete these extra NPCs for us? (Nickname: Quinn)

It will be done by the time these questions are posted.

Continue reading...
There is still a problem with making a trophy from a big fish.
 

Sir Morder

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Owning a castle used to be a big deal...Maybe not so much now due to lower populations. I myself dont mind owning castles and would not be oppossed to seeing a castle customizing option.
 

startle

Siege... Where the fun begins.
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Owning a castle used to be a big deal...Maybe not so much now due to lower populations. I myself dont mind owning castles and would not be oppossed to seeing a castle customizing option.
I agree... Still a big deal on Atlantic and perhaps a couple of the Japanese shards, but no big deal on the rest...
 

Goodmann

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
For the fel side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of PK'ers camping your doorstep. For the tram-side - it is having a perfectly safe place to recall to without any danger of that pesky mongbat targeting you...
What about using a guard zone home then using a house vet teleporter to get to your fel home, same thing... no advantage
 
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T

Tazar

Guest
What about using a guard zone home then using a house vet teleporter to get to your fel home, same thing... no advantage
With a guard zone home - you can still be attacked by a player in fel or a monster in tram. They just have an option of calling for the guards. Same Advantage.

If there is a gank-squad of 20 (players or monsters) you're probably not going to survive even spamming for guards.
 
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Petra Fyde

Peerless Chatterbox
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
So now that we can lock stuff down in the courtyards is there any discussion about allowing recall into courtyards again?
Actually, I'd say that being able to lock things down would make this less possible. You can not recall to the inside of a house and, unless I'm mistaken, being able to lock items down means the courtyard is now considered to be part of the house.
 

silent

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I guess I was asking based on they actually put some dev time into a legacy house that very few people have and I was hoping before they crossed it off the list they could flip the recall switch back on. But ya you're probably right if it's viewed as part of the house recall won't happen...
 

Padre Dante

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Donation System/Community Collections - Most of the rewards are awful with the exception of the mace and sheild glasses and a few other armor/weapons. Donating checks certainly helps but honestly the thought that people would 'gather' like 88,000 shields and turn them in if they didn't have money is a joke. I could fight monsters for 100 years straight and not have 88k sheilds or battle axes. The gold to point ratio is a mess. Make it more realistic like 5 gold per point (mace and sheild then 4mil gold) and it becomes an AWESOME gold sink. If you want people to turn in crafted items or collected items - make them different items them with more points so we don't have to turn in 88k. What sense does battle axes make for a turn in? 9 pts each? 800,000 points needed? Let me turn in plate mail armor pieces for 250pts each or turn in 'Legendary Artifacts' from shame for 1,000 pts each or something we can hunt. If you can hunt them and turn them in in 40 hrs of playtime - that is the right amount to make it equal to something like using gold. Anything more is a waste of time. If I were to revamp the collections - I'd add doom arties and other items to the list. I'd change the gold ratio to be 5 to 1 and I'd give more 'high point' turn in options. People loved the cleanup, people hate the community collections. Oh and the quest to allow you to donate is dumb. What is the point? It just makes an additional hurdle on other shards you don't play regularly. I see no reason for this.
I think this is spot on. And it doesn't even get into the idea of trying to donate tameables to the Moonglow Royal Zoo Collection. At one point, I was actually considering taming/donating as many Unicorns/Ki-Rins as I could and purchase the remaining balance of the Leather Armor set. However, after hours of that, I was barely 1% into the 11,000 donations that were required. (5 pieces, 550,000 points each = 2,750,000 total points. Each unicorn/ki-rin (the best cost/time donation, IMHO) = 250 points. Ouch.)
 
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Gorbs

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Donation System/Community Collections - Most of the rewards are awful with the exception of the mace and sheild glasses and a few other armor/weapons. Donating checks certainly helps but honestly the thought that people would 'gather' like 88,000 shields and turn them in if they didn't have money is a joke...
The worst part of the system is that it clearly identifies scripters running on rails daily who are ignored completely by the powers that be.
 

Ox AO

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
How do I submit a question?

I have a dilemma. My house friends and grant access list is full I am going to have to set the house too open to the public in order for people come to my house. I have cleaned the list down to people that hasn't played in the last 2 weeks. I live in fel and really don't want to do this but see no choice.

i still do my crafting in my house and even a fair stealthier would destroy my craftier. Banning people will not work ghosts can not access the house sign.
there is no way to set a guard zone up.
I would be willing to pay for extra space on the friends list if that was available.

This must be a problem for others I am on what is called a low populated shard which some call a dead shard.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thank you
 
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Njjj

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Maybe make house public, but have one floor accessible to friends only?
 

Ox AO

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Maybe make house public, but have one floor accessible to friends only?
great idea if I could put doors in a castle. out of curiosity has anyone ever heard of a castle without interior doors besides ours?

Edit looked:
I could set the roof up with no ladders only a teleport

Thank you
 
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Ox AO

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Your post made me curious about which client you're using and how many characters you had to access before your list got full. Also, do you know if there is a specific limit on the number of friends or a specific limit on the number of accessed characters, or did you hit some kind of a "total names" limit that applies in the aggregate to both parts of the sign? For example, did the "full" message say you can have 200 names, split however you want between friends and accessed, or did you hit a limit on the number of friends allowed and then go to accessing only until you ran out of space there too?
Classic client wondering how that would change anything?

240 granted access ( I removed 3 so I can add three more people)
140 friends
9 or 10 co owned
so it looks like about 400 counting the characters that own the house

At this point it says list if full when I am trying to grant access.
 
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Good Grief

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Due to the fact the humans and elf’s have racial bonuses, we do not see any reason that Gargoyles should not have a racial bonus also. We are going to give the gargoyles a mining racial bonus..
Pretty sure the gargoyles have several bonuses. When it comes to crafting I don't think being an elf or human gives any sort of a bonus, unlike being a gargoyle imbuer.

It's not like this affects me one way or another, but given that gargoyles already can fly and have a bonus to unraveling and imbuing why do they need any more bonuses.
 

Good Grief

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
I agree... Still a big deal on Atlantic and perhaps a couple of the Japanese shards, but no big deal on the rest...
Depends on your defination of a big deal...... Sure if you have gold coming out of everywhere and can buy one. Great for you.

Go try and place one on Pacific right now. They're not easy to come by, which is why there were about 30 people camping the idoc castle in Fel last week and of course the usual scripting cheater got the spot.
 

Warpig Inc

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Castle roof through teleporters not safe. A friended player could stand at the top of the stairs. Cast energy field on self. Relog and get pushed to the next floor up or the roof. Same method allows you to drop through the floor to the dead spots in keeps.
 
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