NEWS [UO.Com] Producer Update

[Orich]

Let's hope Pinco knows more than LUA. Whoever they hire need to fix the horrible memory leaks in the Enhanced Client.

 

[RockoNV]

yeah, lets roll it out in 2-3 year time frame

At least be sensible. If it gets rushed, its buggy and that will not help out anyone. Roll it out in phases, not all at once; that is all I was saying.

 

[The Zog historian]

How about something like this in a much broader spectrum

All mobs can drop single mod jewls but if it's
Lesser artifact you can only imbue 3 mods(400 intensity)
Major artifact 5 mods (500 intensity)
Legendary 7 mods(650 intensity)


Why should someone farming mongbats get a clean 10 ssi ring? They shouldn't especially as sought after they are..higher end mobs give better loot

I'm not saying mongbats should give such jewelry, but because of the correlation between monster toughness and the number of properties, there's an effective necessity of having clean FC1 or 5% SSI spawn on low-level monsters (which I consider to be regular daemons these days, in contrast to the 10 rating on the old Stratics hunting scale). If Shame-style loot is to be expanded everywhere, maybe SSI can be as rare as FCR3, but giving clean jewelry would need monsters like balrons and lich lords to drop items with far fewer properties.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Loot, everywhere. The intent is to zoom waayyyyyy out and look at loot drops throughout the entire world and try and find some semblance of balance across all encounters. This doesn't mean that you'll find shame loot in every creature everywhere, but there won't be such a disparity between outright junk and everything.

This is good. Maybe the general loot revamp can include some kind of incentive to get people exploring the vast lands that long been neglected again. The artists surely want people admiring their long-forgotten handiwork again, don't they?

 

[virtualhabitat]

I like the loot on the bosses in the new Blackthorn dungeon. Gold and assorted gems. That's it. No useless junk to sort through.


I know some people like the shame-type loot and I'm ok with that, but I would prefer the vast majority of monsters have just gems and gold.

 

[Lady Storm]

Pinco is being called to the princaples office........ I do hope its good chat there guy!
Way to go kiddo.

 

[Tina Small]

I believe Mesanna was Assistant Producer, or became Assistant Producer shortly after the EM program was restarted in late 2008-early 2009. That makes me wonder if the EMs will report to a new Assistant Producer or if they will continue to report to Mesanna.

 

[Llewen]

Ok, I'm confused. Is Broadsword a new division of EA, or an actual independent studio with some kind of licensing agreement with EA?

 

[kongomongo]

More like the latter

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Ok, I'm confused. Is Broadsword a new division of EA, or an actual independent studio with some kind of licensing agreement with EA?

As far as I can tell they are an independent entity that's going to be running UO and DAOC on EA's behalf under contract.

The new arrangement is nothing but a potential positive for us. I'm quite confident that anything terrible that happens now would've happened anyway.

-Galen's player

 

[Gedgerez Tesherd]

I'm not saying mongbats should give such jewelry, but because of the correlation between monster toughness and the number of properties, there's an effective necessity of having clean FC1 or 5% SSI spawn on low-level monsters (which I consider to be regular daemons these days, in contrast to the 10 rating on the old Stratics hunting scale). If Shame-style loot is to be expanded everywhere, maybe SSI can be as rare as FCR3, but giving clean jewelry would need monsters like balrons and lich lords to drop items with far fewer properties.
The Zog historian

I like where your going with this, & it would be pertinent to classify the type of monsters in which can drop the said desired property, while limiting the amount of properties & not the intensity. A modern hunting scale would need an update to relocate monsters in sectioned off areas such as what each Covetous & Shame levels offer for all of the areas of other Dungeons.

 

[NuSair]

Pinco email me please *grins* I would love to talk to you.

I already pay him like monthly, even though I don't use the EC... hiring him would save me money.

 

[Sauteed Onion]

I like the loot on the bosses in the new Blackthorn dungeon. Gold and assorted gems. That's it. No useless junk to sort through.


I know some people like the shame-type loot and I'm ok with that, but I would prefer the vast majority of monsters have just gems and gold.

This is actually a pretty cool idea. I don't know if "most" monsters is the best route to go with it, but a good amount of monsters could have this in there. Even like newbie monsters around New Haven..(And I'll take this opportunity to mention New Haven looks like dookie).

 

[Viper09]

Loot, everywhere. The intent is to zoom waayyyyyy out and look at loot drops throughout the entire world and try and find some semblance of balance across all encounters. This doesn't mean that you'll find shame loot in every creature everywhere, but there won't be such a disparity between outright junk and everything.

Yay

I've been waiting for this to be done for a long time.

 

[Taylor]

Ok, I'm confused. Is Broadsword a new division of EA, or an actual independent studio with some kind of licensing agreement with EA?

Broadsword is an independent studio, not a division of EA. EA owns the titles; Broadsword will have exclusive license to publish/operate the titles.

 

[Tina Small]

Broadsword is an independent studio, not a division of EA. EA owns the titles; Broadsword will have exclusive license to publish/operate the titles.

I hate to be nit-picky, but have there been any press releases that actually say Broadsword has the exclusive license to publish/operate UO and DAoC? Neither of the two producer letters that I've read say that, exactly, and it doesn't look like EA has issued its own press release regarding this new arrangement.

 

[Taylor]

I hate to be nit-picky, but have there been any press releases that actually say Broadsword has the exclusive license to publish/operate UO and DAoC? Neither of the two producer letters that I've read say that, exactly, and it doesn't look like EA has issued its own press release regarding this new arrangement.

Broadsword is operating the title on EA's behalf. I suppose you can hypothesize that EA will also allow other companies to publish the game, since there's no press release that uses the word "exclusive." You could also hypothesize that Stratics is half owned by George Takei, since we don't have any press releases saying that I'm the "exclusive" owner. It's not likely, but you're right, it's not explicitly stated.

Beyond hypotheticals, you'll have to reach out to EA for clarification.

 

[Viper09]

Broadsword is operating the title on EA's behalf. I suppose you can hypothesize that EA will also allow other companies to publish the game, since there's no press release that uses the word "exclusive." You could also hypothesize that Stratics is half owned by George Takei, since we don't have any press releases saying that I'm the "exclusive" owner. It's not likely, but you're right, it's not explicitly stated.

Beyond hypotheticals, you'll have to reach out to EA for clarification.

Oh my...

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Stratics is half owned by George Takei

You heard it here first.

-Galen's player

 

[MissEcho]

I sincerely hope this is NOT the plan, for two reasons:

(1) It would make it much more difficult to find single-property jewelry as loot that can be further imbued.
(2) It would make it almost impossible to train imbuing by using looted items for your training, since even the most worthless of "Shame loot" pieces would likely have too many properties to use for training. We don't all train imbuing by following a mindless progression of applying the same properties over and over again to crafted pieces, especially people who might just be returning to UO or starting on a new shard who want to get imbuing trained up first so they can make their own starting gear for the rest of their characters. I've trained imbuing up to 120 five times now, with many additional characters closing in on 120, by only using looted items. I go through a bag of looted stuff and sort it piece by piece into pieces to train with now and at later stages in the training process and unravelling the higher-value pieces as I go through the bag. Yes, it mind seem somewhat boring, but it really isn't. To me, it is much less tedious than just following an already laid-out path of (1) make x number of weapons, (2) imbue property 1 at x value, (3) imbue property 2 at x value; when you get to this skill level, change your property values to y, etc., etc. I have to look at each piece and figure out what to imbue on it for gains, which helps keep me awake and interested in what I'm doing.
(3) If the number of lootable pieces on most mobs is decreased even further, even if their quality improves, it will make it that much more time consuming for people who are just returning or just starting to gather loot to unravel for the residue they need for their training.

I agree that loot in general needs an overhaul. However, I am very much against turning it all into "Shame loot" because I think it could really hinder training imbuing for people who like to find usable pieces to imbue further and who don't want to train imbuing in automaton fashion. However, if Broadsword wishes to create even more reasons for people to run scripts, then by all means change everything so that people will be forced into "monotonous mode" for training imbuing and will need to have other crafting skills available to them as well.

I have trained it three times to 120, and have to disagree with the above as basically I loot all items off stuff I kill in shame & wrong and dump the stuff in a bag for the training imbuer to unravel. I don't bother sorting it as I only unravel (by bag) and only the stuff that the skill level is 'able' to unravel is done. The remaining items get put back in the chest, for when the skill level increases and it can be unraveled. If I have a build up of 'higher' end loot so that lockdowns are a problem I get my other 120 imbuer to 'clean up' a bit if necessary.

When unraveling a bag of loot you can get many 'gains' off one bag when unraveled . You don't just get one gain per bag. I get mulitple 'gains' off the one bag unraveled esp when the skill is lower. I hear people say unravel individual pieces, but frankly I think that is a total waste of time as the gains you get are checked per piece in the bag anyways as far as I can tell. I have had up to 10 or so gains off a bag. I don't think upping the loot world wide is a problem in fact I think it needs to be done. I don't even 'look' at loot out in the field now, I don't loot it, look at it, or take it to unravel. I don't loot treasure chests accept for the essence and any arti, pardon etc, on ingenious chests once I grab them the other 72 items get deleted when I delete the chest, I don't bother looking at em.

As for single property jewelry, I would rather forgo that than keep global loot as it is. You can 'imbue' whatever single property you like anyways. I have yet to see a 'single' property piece be above cap ie something like lrc 25 or MR 4, and given you are going to imbue the piece to make it useable you are only saving pennies on one imbue as it is.

Prior to imbuing I generally looked at nearly ALL loot on a body looking for that odd piece of really nice combo jewelry or armor, since imbuing it is just a total waste of time on the old loot table. I used to have over a thousand rings/bracelets stored for all manner of skill/combos, keeping the best for myself and selling the excess on vendors, I unraveled all of it when imbuing came it as it was basically wasted lockdowns.

AS I said in closed beta imbuing was going to totally destroy pretty much the usefulness of nearly ALL loot, and the majority of arties. That has come to be proven correct. The introduction of shame loot, wrong, covetous, only goes some way to redressing this. Most artis are still total JUNK now and need to be addressed so that some life is put into the now defunct peerless, paragons and doom armors and weapons. I still t this day think the game would have been better if imbuing only allowed you to imbue ONE property to an item so that you still had to actually look and loot stuff and to keep the arties relevant. (but that is a whole other topic and never gonna happen now )

 

[MissEcho]

Pinco email me please *grins* I would love to talk to you.

That is the best post in this thread.

 

[MalagAste]

That is the best post in this thread.

Gives me hope to the future of UO.

 

[dupapa]

Maintenance mode for years.... an now this?

I couldn't be happier about the direction we are now heading, hands down the best news in years.

and about pinco! well that's just icing on the cake, im ec only so this move excites me

 

[Smoot]

I like the loot on the bosses in the new Blackthorn dungeon. Gold and assorted gems. That's it. No useless junk to sort through.


I know some people like the shame-type loot and I'm ok with that, but I would prefer the vast majority of monsters have just gems and gold.

but loot gold and gems is useless....

 

[Smoot]

Loot, everywhere. The intent is to zoom waayyyyyy out and look at loot drops throughout the entire world and try and find some semblance of balance across all encounters. This doesn't mean that you'll find shame loot in every creature everywhere, but there won't be such a disparity between outright junk and everything.

awesome idea. hunting anything other than shame loot is worthless right now. the abyss is worthless. doom is worthless. overland is worthless. even blackthorns dungeon loot is worthless. I look forward to being able to hunt in other places if / when this happens. the shame style loot COMBINED with area specific loot like arties might just make places worth hunting again.

For all those arguing against have 2 mod loot on low level monsters (single mod loot was patched out long ago now) --- Have you actually tried farming low level stuff? just because its possible to drop a 100million gold gem doesnt mean its likely. as it is right now, a legendary can drop off a low level shame loot creature. its just very low chance.
I farmed low level stuff for 50 plus hours back when a basic 20splintering was worth alot and never got anything good.

Thats whats really nice about shame loot. A noob has a chance at getting something worth a decent amount. 500million gold even. with todays prices anything to help out a noob character is good in my opinion.

 

[Lady Storm]

OK
I will atest new character starter pack needs to be upgraded.
Clothes are nice but dropped quickly on ground same with the lame armor, and dont get me going about the robe litter....
1k gold is way better then the 100 I got when I first started but its still not alot to work with...
Regents was upped from the 3 you use to get to 30 each type and if you made a mage the bank has 50 more if you choose the right way..
Weapons are junk... lets face it ....it takes 2 to 10 swings to kill a mongbat.

How about this:
2500 gold
Regents: 50 of each in the starter bag in characters main bag & same size pouch in bank box
Necro starters should get the basic 30 mage regents & 50 necro at start up with 50 necro in bank. Same for Mystics... Spellweavers needs change as well.
Spell book with the first 4 levels of spells in it... new players have no clue where to find the recall spells.
1 Rune book (random charge) with 3 blanks
Dagger and Scissors should go back to being newbie as it was when I started..it was idiotic to have stopped that. Newbies die alot...
Weapon classes get a GM level of what ever class they choose
Armor of same classes should have gender differences and start out with 35 resistance across the board and be of gm level quality.
A tool set for the different classes with a 200 use per will give the average new player time to gain up to snuff to make their own or at the very least get them going enough to get a head start.


I know i am missing something but you get my drift

 

[MalagAste]

OK
I will atest new character starter pack needs to be upgraded.
Clothes are nice but dropped quickly on ground same with the lame armor, and dont get me going about the robe litter....
1k gold is way better then the 100 I got when I first started but its still not alot to work with...
Regents was upped from the 3 you use to get to 30 each type and if you made a mage the bank has 50 more if you choose the right way..
Weapons are junk... lets face it ....it takes 2 to 10 swings to kill a mongbat.

How about this:
2500 gold
Regents: 50 of each in the starter bag in characters main bag & same size pouch in bank box
Necro starters should get the basic 30 mage regents & 50 necro at start up with 50 necro in bank. Same for Mystics... Spellweavers needs change as well.
Spell book with the first 4 levels of spells in it... new players have no clue where to find the recall spells.
1 Rune book (random charge) with 3 blanks
Dagger and Scissors should go back to being newbie as it was when I started..it was idiotic to have stopped that. Newbies die alot...
Weapon classes get a GM level of what ever class they choose
Armor of same classes should have gender differences and start out with 35 resistance across the board and be of gm level quality.
A tool set for the different classes with a 200 use per will give the average new player time to gain up to snuff to make their own or at the very least get them going enough to get a head start.


I know i am missing something but you get my drift

Yeah they should get higher stats to start..... cause OMG it's insane they can't carry 50 of each reg!

And I think 5k gold might be better.

I agree about spellbooks too.

And remove the stupid quest requirement from spellweaving for pity sakes..or... How about a compromise... if they begin life as an elf..... they can chose to "know" spellweaving without the stupid quest.

And add some sort of dude near the bank in New Haven to tell new players how to use the bank.

 

[Cyrah]

I don't know where to put this question , why is account management off line? I am trying to cancel some accounts. It has been gone a few days.

 

[Spawn DF]

Isn`t off. I reactivated 2 Accs and all is fine. I think they know what you want to do.

 

[Lady Storm]

You can check in but EA says you cant check out.......its the Roach Motel mentality

 

[old gypsy]

Broadsword is an independent studio, not a division of EA. EA owns the titles; Broadsword will have exclusive license to publish/operate the titles.

[I hope my logic is sound here.] I take this to mean that if Broadsword does a great job of managing and even rehabilitating its adopted children, the company's success will increase its own reputation and value in the industry, which can only be a good thing, both for Broadsword and for our UO!

 

[Lady Storm]

Bingo

 

[Cyrah]

Spawn, I use my link to the main page then the account management link, then it goes to a page that says offline. I have used this way a long time.
What address did you use?

 

[Spawn DF]

https://accounts.eamythic.com/

 

[Cyrah]

Spawn I used the same address and still get to the page that says accounts offline. I cannot access any of my accounts. Anyone know why?

 

[The Zog historian]

It's working for me. What's the exact error you're getting?

 

[kelmo]

You can check out any time ya like... but you can never leave.

 

[Cyrah]

The error is a black mythic page that says account management is offline, bear with us or be patient or sorry for inconvienence...

I can get to the page using IE. It has to be a firefox issue.

 

[Promathia]

The error is a black mythic page that says account management is offline, bear with us or be patient or sorry for inconvienence...

I can get to the page using IE. It has to be a firefox issue.

Try clearing your cache. It works fine for me and im using Firefox

 

[Theron]

I hope they bring back some of the old music to the game.

And above all I truly hope they will never ever turn UO into a F2P game with an in-game "Mall".....but fortunately I think that's just a paranoid fear in me talking

 

[The Zog historian]

Someone once had an online archive of the original MIDIs, which I think can still be put back into the game. I haven't played with music on in years, not since I could arrive in Brit and hear the majestic theme.

 

[Ludes]

I think the Broadsword thing sounds very promising...
Makes me feel like EA is willing to invest a little in keeping the game running for the long term.

 

[Goodmann]

Last publish we had was on November 19th, today is March the 4th! Almost 4 months LETS GO BROADSWORD!

 

[Dot_Warner]

The last Publish was Feb 12th, the one before that was Dec 6th. Granted, they were relatively small, but still...

 

[Lady Storm]

Every dot counts hehe

 

[Theron]

I'm not sure I understood the vendor changes...will we have a feature to search for item and it will list the prices by order and vendor locations of the same? Because that would be AMAZING! Prices right now are a bit inconsistent in some items...I just saw a 120 Tailoring scroll selling for 750k while the store right next to it was selling for 350k, so I may be wrong but right now it seems like everyone is just throwing whatever price they feel like...maybe that's what this new throwing skill is really for . It would also make every item be in a "Black Friday" status as everyone would rush to buy....no more "I found a deal in this remote store!".

Something I would like to see, due to increase of screen resolution and bigger monitors, would be a circle/square of action range. What this means is that depending on the skill we want to use we would have a circle/square of action range around our character. Take taming, for example, where you need a 2 tile radius as a minimum distance for a successful tame. In this case you would have a circle/square of customizable color and opacity around your character so you could see if you are in range or not. There should also be an option to stack so in case you are a Bard as well you can set another circle/square with different color which has an "X" amount of tile radius, all of this depending on your skill level, so that they can overlap. So in this case you would be able to see when you can try to Peace a creature, for example, and when you are close enough for a shot at taming something.