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NEWS [UO.Com] Producer Update

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2014 Aug 29 21:08 GMT
Good Afternoon everyone,

The UO team wants to wish everyone a Happy Labor Day on Monday, please be safe if you are driving!


We are excited to release an update to TC1 for Vice vs Virtue. In this update we have introduced the following,


  • At the beginning of each battle three altars will spawn within the City.


  • Shortly after the match begins, the action feed will display a message to “Fight for the Altar!”


  • An arrow will direct you towards the location of the altar.


  • The objective is to be the only guild or alliance on the altar and successfully prevent enemies from stepping onto the altar.


  • As time passes columns of fire will shoot up from the altar, igniting the four braziers surrounding the altar.


  • When all 4 braziers have been lit, the guild or alliance that successfully held the altar will receive points.


  • If at any time an enemy guild steps onto the altar progress will be reset.


  • After a short period of time the action feed will display a message to again, “Fight for the Altar!” and the process repeats.

    Please note there is a known issue with the EC and how the arrow is displayed pointing to the location of the altar, this will be fixed in the next publish to TC1.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on this new VvV mechanic!


Thanks everyone!!!!

Continue reading...
 

PlayerSkillFTW

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Wonder if Fields/AoE will still be disabled in the City during this. If not, then the zerg guilds with lots of Mages for E-Fields/Walls of Stone will always win. Not to mention Wither grinders.
 

Smoot

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so basically the first guild to camp out by the alter with greater dragons wins.

ill be testing this, but seems like its just a matter of who shows up first. not a very fun / versatile pvp experience.
 

James Moriarty

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After a few weeks no one will want to play king of the hill and it will be yew gate as per normal. A simple fix to the PvP would have been new power scrolls on champs a +25 and upping the skill cap by 5 points which would allow you to up one skill to 125
 

Promathia

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After a few weeks no one will want to play king of the hill and it will be yew gate as per normal. A simple fix to the PvP would have been new power scrolls on champs a +25 and upping the skill cap by 5 points which would allow you to up one skill to 125

Of course, skills arent designed or balanced to go to 125 skill. Most skills wouldn't ever have a reason to go to 120, and this would require a completely rebalancing and retooling of every skill in the game, which not only would effect pvp but pvm as well.

So no, that would not be the "simple" fix.
 

James Moriarty

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Of course, skills arent designed or balanced to go to 125 skill. Most skills wouldn't ever have a reason to go to 120, and this would require a completely rebalancing and retooling of every skill in the game, which not only would effect pvp but pvm as well.

So no, that would not be the "simple" fix.
It wouldn't have to be every skill that had a +25 It could be done with +25 in Magery, archery Swords, fencing and other skills that don't do any damage. that would mean you just have a better chance of either hitting your target or casting the lvl 8 spells without a fizzle. I have just listed a few skills here. But what you wouldn't want is an increase to Eval int or tactics or any other skill that would give a bounce to damage output.

Just by having that extra chance to cast or an extra boost to hit would be enough to get people back into dungeon fighting. Guilds would hunt the new scrolls and fights would soon stat up again.

We have had a +5 rise to our stat cap and its not rocked the boat, so how about a +5 rise to the skill cap.
 

CovenantX

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Wonder if Fields/AoE will still be disabled in the City during this. If not, then the zerg guilds with lots of Mages for E-Fields/Walls of Stone will always win. Not to mention Wither grinders.
Guard zone was said to be turned off during these VvV city fights in one of the earlier publish notes/comments by devs, I'd imagine you could use any spells; fields/summons in the city limits during a VvV battle.
 

MalagAste

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Yes adding +25 to those skill... dumb idea... So then it would take 110 magery to successfully cast a level 8 circle spell... NO.

You want to fix PvP... Give it a purpose. Make it worth my while. Give me an incentive to do it. Not powerscrolls going to the biggest Zerg guilds... Not trying to entice lambs to a slaughter... Make it fun. King of the Hill and Capture the flag are only fun for awhile. But what's the point? Points? Whoop-de-do-da... I'm not interested. Titles? It's more than obvious those aren't anything exciting. I've been the Governor of Yew since day one... know how many people have asked me for a title? 2 That's right 2. NO ONE CARES.

PvP is not going to save UO. I PvP when I have a reason to.. in Tram. Against other RPPvPers as do many others. I don't go to Fel to PvP because most of the player base can't compete with the folk with the insane connections, the Zergs, the people who use scripts and cheats and hax... The average player goes there once in a great while gets zerged and never goes back. Those who remain in Fel looking for the fight are doing just that.

What they need is a gate to a centralized PvP zone that you can go to from ANY shard. With real rewards... Where there are real monitors GM's trained to spot cheats and hax. Get these people out of the game. Or ban them to a shard for cheaters.

Reopen a shard of the dead. Allow folk to copy a character over to it... allow points and such gained on that shard to be used on other shards for stuff. Allow that shard to let you place a house there like Siege where it doesn't affect your house on a regular shard. Put in stuff like that. You might get more interest.
 

CovenantX

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It wouldn't have to be every skill that had a +25 It could be done with +25 in Magery, archery Swords, fencing and other skills that don't do any damage. that would mean you just have a better chance of either hitting your target or casting the lvl 8 spells without a fizzle. I have just listed a few skills here. But what you wouldn't want is an increase to Eval int or tactics or any other skill that would give a bounce to damage output.

Just by having that extra chance to cast or an extra boost to hit would be enough to get people back into dungeon fighting. Guilds would hunt the new scrolls and fights would soon stat up again.

We have had a +5 rise to our stat cap and its not rocked the boat, so how about a +5 rise to the skill cap.
You wouldn't have a better chance of hitting your target in pvp unless you were the only one with 125 weapon skill vs everyone else being at 120.
8th circle spells cast at 100% at 120 magery, so +5 more magery would only allow mage weapon users to gain 5 more skill worth of defense from Mage weapons & a higher chance for poison to not be resisted, it wouldn't work for the better imo.
 

Kojak

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what are all those little blue dots all over your screenshots?
 

Cetric

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couldn't the opposing guild just teleport to the alter to break the hold?

good concept but i'm thinking it won't get used, and will fall into the arena and covetous category... fun but no one uses it.
 

MalagAste

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couldn't the opposing guild just teleport to the alter to break the hold?

good concept but i'm thinking it won't get used, and will fall into the arena and covetous category... fun but no one uses it.
Agreed.
 

Uriah Heep

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couldn't the opposing guild just teleport to the alter to break the hold?

good concept but i'm thinking it won't get used, and will fall into the arena and covetous category... fun but no one uses it.
I have a terrible feeling that a lot of dev time has been somewhat wasted on this. I agree, it will last till the shine wears off and then be tossed aside. I'm not sure the powers that be have any understanding of any shard other than
Atlantic...On quite a few shards you almost have to xfer peeps in just to get a focus...no way some of em are gonna [consistently] get enough people to do this. Anyone tried to get a substantial crew together to do Covetous or Despise lately?

Order/Chaos, on the other hand, joinable by character and not by guild, and with world-wide fighting and no looting allowed, would be something even I would be interested in, and might have been a gateway into drawing more people into PvP. But we will never know
 

Tina Small

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These are some impressions I had of a walk-about I did on TC1 very late last night. Was too tired to assemble them last night. Sorry they are a bit random and disjointed.

I found it very, very annoying while I was looking around last night to not be able to recall into a town while it was apparently being used as a battleground. Britain was blocked when I first logged on and wanted to check out the TB base. So I recalled to Minax, SL, and COM bases; scrounged around Occlo for a minute or two; and then wanted to see the Minoc sigil post and found that it was Minoc that was blocked. Got to Minoc via the moongate and a run and looked around (saw no one but did find one of the altars). Was checking out the guard zone and using field spells (they didn't work), only to go back to the altar to see if it was still there so field spells should have worked, and found the altar was gone and so a new city must have become the battleground.

Because I was using a character that had not joined the VvV system, I was not seeing any kind of messages whatsoever regarding battles, blocked towns, etc. It was absolutely quiet in chat and no system messages. I had no way of knowing where to not go and apparently because I was never in a city that was about to become a battle ground, had no way of knowing if there were any messages of any kind to warn me to skedaddle because the guard zone was going to disappear and I also wouldn't be able to make a hasty return if I needed to leave to get something and come back.

I have some real concerns about how this system is going to affect Siege in the long run. It would also be nice to know how long the towns are blocked for a battle. Are they blocked for as long as it takes someone to win the battle? Are they blocked for a specific time if no one shows up and then things move on to another city?

Also, I was able to walk all over the altar in Minoc with my blue non-VvV character. Just seemed wrong to be able to do so.

Edited to add this paragraph: I've also been wondering how many different VvV guilds have to have at least one character logged on in order to get the battles to start and how difficult/easy it would be for someone to just farm the heck out of the system by having characters on various accounts and in different guilds just log on and stay in a house while the character that is in the guild that you want to have rack up points just pops around and "takes" cities just by standing altars for a requisite amount of time? Seems like on a very quiet shard, that might be extremely easy to do and make the point system become pretty meaningless very quickly, especially if there is any kind of ranking system that controls rewards/gear availability or use depending on your guild or your character's total points out of the whole shard's points.

Edited to add another paragraph: If there are going to be three altars in a town, what if you have three guilds show up and they each just concentrate on holding one altar. Who wins in that case? (Maybe it's a clearer situation if you're actually in the system and see messages. Next step for testing, I guess.)

With regard to the altars, I think maybe some new artwork is coming with symbols for the various anti-virtue dungeons. I think they are going to display two virtue tiles and two anti-virtue tiles, which we won't be able to see until there's a patch. Can't help wondering if that means new anti-virtue tiles will eventually be available in the cleanup system.

minoc altar 1.jpg

I saw the trade quest NPC in Minoc near the stables and wondered how obnoxious it's going to be for someone trying to start or finish a quest if there's a battle going on at the time. Also, what if they decide to take a quest using a stealther and they just park themselves right there to let the monsters spawn in the town? Ick. For some reason I was kind of surprised to see the trade NPC there at all anyway. Kind of thought they were only going to be in Trammel and the fence NPCs were in Fel. Or maybe they're just there on TC to show where they'd be on Siege? I'm confused. Guess I need to reread the old notes to figure out what's going on.

While I am really bummed about losing factions, one thing I kind of wish would disappear is the CoM stronghold. Never did like its looks (Malas-like black void tiles around the edges, the bright colors, the sparklies, etc.) and ever since it went in, there's a huge mess of weird lines all over the water in Trammel in the same location.

For anyone who plays in Fel, you'd probably better mosey off to TC1 sometime soon and do some looking around both with non-VvV characters and VvV characters just so you have an idea of how this system is going to affect your gaming even if you choose to not participate in it. And if you made it this far reading, sorry this is so disjointed.
 
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DJAd

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I'd just like to see the removal of the guard zone at yew gate. That would liven up my PvP experience.
 

Tina Small

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Quick question for Kyronix or Bleak: When are you bringing TC1 back up so we can log in there again? It's currently not showing up on the shard selection list.
 

Lady Michelle

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I'd just like to see the removal of the guard zone at yew gate. That would liven up my PvP experience.
How would it liven up your PvP experience?
You do know all those gate hugging players will not be there once guard zone is removed?
No offense to any gate hugging players I'm one to.
Seriously anyone should be thankful at least some are trying by going there may not be the way you or others do things, but its their way. So really be happy they take the time to be there.
 

CovenantX

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Can we just get the Publish minus VvV yet?
I'd be really surprised if that were to happen, RtB is suppose to come with the next publish as well, I'd assume that's why they want to keep everything together, makes it more lively when there's more to do, especially with all the hopeful returnees show up. I also wonder if they're going to have UO released on Steam around the same time ?

However, I wonder if this publish is considered "Phase 3" for Virtue/Vice?
If it is we shouldn't have much longer for it to be live, providing there isn't many bugs that need to be fixed.

I can't wait for the global loot, trade quests, & the new turn-in items... hell I've built suits around some of the items already, just waiting to get a few of em to finish em up !
 

virtualhabitat

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While I am really bummed about losing factions, one thing I kind of wish would disappear is the CoM stronghold. Never did like its looks (Malas-like black void tiles around the edges, the bright colors, the sparklies, etc.) and ever since it went in, there's a huge mess of weird lines all over the water in Trammel in the same location.
This. And now that there is no more CoM can we turn the South Moonglow teleporter pad back on in Fel?!?!
 

Smoot

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I'd be really surprised if that were to happen, RtB is suppose to come with the next publish as well, I'd assume that's why they want to keep everything together, makes it more lively when there's more to do, especially with all the hopeful returnees show up. I also wonder if they're going to have UO released on Steam around the same time ?

However, I wonder if this publish is considered "Phase 3" for Virtue/Vice?
If it is we shouldn't have much longer for it to be live, providing there isn't many bugs that need to be fixed.

I can't wait for the global loot, trade quests, & the new turn-in items... hell I've built suits around some of the items already, just waiting to get a few of em to finish em up !
this isnt the last phase of vvv. the rewards for taking a town havent been released yet.
 

Ender

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I'd be really surprised if that were to happen, RtB is suppose to come with the next publish as well, I'd assume that's why they want to keep everything together, makes it more lively when there's more to do, especially with all the hopeful returnees show up. I also wonder if they're going to have UO released on Steam around the same time ?

However, I wonder if this publish is considered "Phase 3" for Virtue/Vice?
If it is we shouldn't have much longer for it to be live, providing there isn't many bugs that need to be fixed.

I can't wait for the global loot, trade quests, & the new turn-in items... hell I've built suits around some of the items already, just waiting to get a few of em to finish em up !
Isn't this phase 2? We've still got a while to go I'd say, if they insist on delaying the stuff everyone wants for a system that will go unused after two weeks.
 

Kyronix

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I'd be really surprised if that were to happen, RtB is suppose to come with the next publish as well, I'd assume that's why they want to keep everything together, makes it more lively when there's more to do, especially with all the hopeful returnees show up. I also wonder if they're going to have UO released on Steam around the same time ?

However, I wonder if this publish is considered "Phase 3" for Virtue/Vice?
If it is we shouldn't have much longer for it to be live, providing there isn't many bugs that need to be fixed.

I can't wait for the global loot, trade quests, & the new turn-in items... hell I've built suits around some of the items already, just waiting to get a few of em to finish em up !
We are in the midst of phase three right now.
 

CovenantX

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We are in the midst of phase three right now.
I was wondering :p, I remember reading about a week ago or so about publishing phase2, good to know... is there an ETA on the rest of Phase 3, or a possible release for the whole system?
 

Aran

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remove the moongate as well?
Then you might as well just get everyone to hang out and fight somewhere else in-game if you're going to literally change everything about the place.
 

Tina Small

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We are in the midst of phase three right now.
On August 21st, R Traveler asked how many phases there would be and you replied that there would be three. http://stratics.com/community/threads/uo-com-producer-update.320099/

So if we are in the middle of phase 3 right now, does this mean that what we see on TC 1 right now is what the final release is going to look like, i.e., this is just a system to get people fighting in the towns for a few minutes at a time and there is really no point to it other than the scoreboards you apparently see while a battle is going on?

I'm really confused. There isn't even going to be a website for tracking ongoing/cumulative totals by guild and maybe by character like we once had with the faction system?
 

Kyronix

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On August 21st, R Traveler asked how many phases there would be and you replied that there would be three. http://stratics.com/community/threads/uo-com-producer-update.320099/

So if we are in the middle of phase 3 right now, does this mean that what we see on TC 1 right now is what the final release is going to look like, i.e., this is just a system to get people fighting in the towns for a few minutes at a time and there is really no point to it other than the scoreboards you apparently see while a battle is going on?

I'm really confused. There isn't even going to be a website for tracking ongoing/cumulative totals by guild and maybe by character like we once had with the faction system?
I said we are in the midst of phase three which means we are actively developing and releasing TC 1 updates to gain feedback on. Phase three includes scoring and leaderboards as well as rewards. Tracking of stats will be included with the re-release of MyUO which is also actively being worked on.
 

Tina Small

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I said we are in the midst of phase three which means we are actively developing and releasing TC 1 updates to gain feedback on. Phase three includes scoring and leaderboards as well as rewards. Tracking of stats will be included with the re-release of MyUO which is also actively being worked on.
Thanks for clarifying that!

Do you know when TC 1 will again be available for log-in? Also, are the battles on some kind of a timer and if yes, how long are they expected to last? Or is it possible to drag out a fight in a specific town to several hours if there are enough people participating and no one guild is ever a predominant leader?
 

The Zog historian

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I'd just like to see the removal of the guard zone at yew gate. That would liven up my PvP experience.
There are plenty of other gates for people to "hang out" at.
You yourself gave the answer that gate-hugging would simply move elsewhere.

There's an economics joke about NFL management wanting to make games more exciting. They hired a brilliant young man to analyze games and give them ideas. His conclusion: all punts occur on fourth downs. His solution: eliminate fourth downs.
 

Kyronix

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Thanks for clarifying that!

Do you know when TC 1 will again be available for log-in? Also, are the battles on some kind of a timer and if yes, how long are they expected to last? Or is it possible to drag out a fight in a specific town to several hours if there are enough people participating and no one guild is ever a predominant leader?
We are aware of the issue and are looking into it. The battles are on a 20 minute timer or first to fill up the score bar.
 

Tina Small

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We are aware of the issue and are looking into it. The battles are on a 20 minute timer or first to fill up the score bar.
So, looking at Promathia's screen shots that include a scoreboard, I'm guessing that the time shown at the top is counting down from 20 minutes. Is that correct?

And in the next section, do the three horizontal sectioned bars show you which guilds are claiming the three altars? If yes, what do the colored bars there tell you? And what's the purpose of the colored bar at the bottom next to, I'm guessing, your own guild name?

Edited to add: Do the circular icons at the bottom of the scoreboard "do" anything or are they just decorative?

Edited to add: Does the [Vvv] message that shows up in guild chat ever tell you which city has an ongoing battle? It just says "the city" in the message I see in one of Promathia's screen shots.
 

Kyronix

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So, looking at Promathia's screen shots that include a scoreboard, I'm guessing that the time shown at the top is counting down from 20 minutes. Is that correct?

And in the next section, do the three horizontal sectioned bars show you which guilds are claiming the three altars? If yes, what do the colored bars there tell you? And what's the purpose of the colored bar at the bottom next to, I'm guessing, your own guild name?

Edited to add: Do the circular icons at the bottom of the scoreboard "do" anything or are they just decorative?

Edited to add: Does the [Vvv] message that shows up in guild chat ever tell you which city has an ongoing battle? It just says "the city" in the message I see in one of Promathia's screen shots.
Yes, the clock is counting down from twenty.

The bars show you the top three guilds progress towards winning the match. Th bottom is your own guild. Only one altar is active at a time, and the altars are only one way to gain points towards winning the match...aside from kills, citywide occupation, and stealing the sigil.

The icons are currently decorative, we may use them as a way to indicate the city is or is not being occupied as the message is currently a little spammy.

You get a message when you log in and when a battle starts via guild messaging.
 

Kyronix

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Also, forgot to mention this but you may individually opt in to VvV. The only prerequisite is that you be in a guild, the entire guild does not have to join, only those that wish to participate. There will be restrictions on leaving and joining in a future release.
 

Ender

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On Jun 26 we had

Is it delayed for September?
Is it delayed for Pub 86 worldwide?
Well. It's obviously not happening in August. I wouldn't hold my breath on September at this rate though tbh
 

Tina Small

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Yes, the clock is counting down from twenty.

The bars show you the top three guilds progress towards winning the match. Th bottom is your own guild. Only one altar is active at a time, and the altars are only one way to gain points towards winning the match...aside from kills, citywide occupation, and stealing the sigil.

The icons are currently decorative, we may use them as a way to indicate the city is or is not being occupied as the message is currently a little spammy.

You get a message when you log in and when a battle starts via guild messaging.
Thank you for the answers!

Okay, so I'm back to being confused about the altars. The publish notes say, "•At the beginning of each battle three altars will spawn within the City" but you're saying only one is active at a time. So I guess the arrow that is supposed to pop up is going to show you which altar is active?? Is there any other way to tell? And what's the point then of having three altars spawn if only one is going to be used? Is there some way for players to change which altar is active or is that predetermined by the game itself?

What do you mean by getting points by "citywide occupation"? Is that literrally getting points for whichever guild has the most VvV members in the city during a battle or at the end of the battle or something?

Is there going to be some new artwork related to "vice" or the "anti-virtues" (for lack of knowing what else to call it)?

With regard to that message at log-in and when a battle starts, does it tell you the city for the battle?

And when a city is involved in a battle, is it just the "guard zone" area for that city that is blocked for recalls/gating or is it a smaller area within the city? This would be helpful to know so people who want to join the system will know where to mark new runes for accessing cities during battles.

If you're in a city when a battle is getting ready to start but you're not in VvV are you going to get any kind of message to notify you the guard zone is gone and recalls into the town are blocked?

Edited to add: Is there a predetermined rotation for the cities becoming battle grounds or is it going to be utterly random?
 
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