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NEWS [UO.Com] Publish 101 Update to TC1 & Khaldun Champ Spawn Play Session

Larisa

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This whole Halloween mess has me wondering it is even going to be worth fooling around with. Who's brilliant idea was it to make it it a massive grind? The phrase "Charlie Foxtrot" comes to mind regarding this whole ordeal. :( @Kyronix @Bleak
I actually thought the same thing at first.....it IS very time-intensive BUT if you think about it, you only need ONE....like..okay I go on my sampire and need a double-bladed staff...so I make a new one with the Caddelite and I"m good to go..no need for another one unless they break really fast...it doesn't take THAT long to mine the ingots or chop the trees or fish.....an hour maybe of time..the only thing I don't like is the fact that you need almost every crafting skill...it's good AND bad. Give crafters something to do, and maybe they can make a bit of coin making and selling stuff to the people that don't care to gather and craft, brings community together..HOPEFULLY! And it's rather enjoyable. I just went and fished for about 20 minutes and made 3 more tasty treats...seems like very little but they last 30 minutes so it's not bad.

If people want infused scrappers that will be a bit harder because you need 100 scrolls each so getting the bark fragments is going to take awhile but I did very thorough testing on just the spellbooks and tasty treats...mined a little but it doesn't take too many ingots to make weapons so that's not bad either.

I started out grumbling about the whole sordid process! But now that I've actually gone through it, it's not that bad.
 

Larisa

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@Larisa - Not that bad doesn't equate to FUN. The purpose of the game is to have fun, not being satisfied that it's Not Too Bad.
Everyone has their own idea of fun....fishing is fun for me...as is mining....there's a balance....the crafters will enjoy the crafting portion and hopefully help out the warriors make their weapons so they can go have fun in the dungeon.
 

Giles

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Any reason why you only have to make one spellbook or weapon for entire event but tasty treats for pets only last a short time?
 

uokings7

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I went through the process of making caddellite infused spellbooks and I actually enjoyed the process. It was challenging and you get plenty of colored wood infused with caddellite for bows. It's cool for crafters who want to make extra gold. I fought Khal with a small group and it was definitely challenging but never seemed impossible. They actually listened to our feedback and set up the encounter to give you a safer area to fight him without getting all kinds of mobs on you. And I tried to talk Kyronix into giving Khal a tuxedo while he stands there invulnerable. a no go
 
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Uvtha

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I actually thought the same thing at first.....it IS very time-intensive BUT if you think about it, you only need ONE....like..okay I go on my sampire and need a double-bladed staff...so I make a new one with the Caddelite and I"m good to go..no need for another one unless they break really fast...it doesn't take THAT long to mine the ingots or chop the trees or fish.....an hour maybe of time..the only thing I don't like is the fact that you need almost every crafting skill...it's good AND bad. Give crafters something to do, and maybe they can make a bit of coin making and selling stuff to the people that don't care to gather and craft, brings community together..HOPEFULLY! And it's rather enjoyable. I just went and fished for about 20 minutes and made 3 more tasty treats...seems like very little but they last 30 minutes so it's not bad.

If people want infused scrappers that will be a bit harder because you need 100 scrolls each so getting the bark fragments is going to take awhile but I did very thorough testing on just the spellbooks and tasty treats...mined a little but it doesn't take too many ingots to make weapons so that's not bad either.

I started out grumbling about the whole sordid process! But now that I've actually gone through it, it's not that bad.
I think if it were more of a slayer effect rather than a necessity it might be slightly more palatable, since you could just forgo it.
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Follow the steps.
Take part in the content.
Enjoy yourself.

Stop your beaching and whining.

You people suck, holy fk, like a blackhole.
 

uokings7

Journeyman
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Follow the steps.
Take part in the content.
Enjoy yourself.

Stop your beaching and whining.

You people suck, holy fk, like a blackhole.
I always condone constructive criticism but when you whine and complain about things that they are asking you to test and give feedback on, that's just ridiculous. And I don't agree with insulting people over that neither. Everybody needs to chill and if you have issues with the content, give some constructive feedback. Don't attack the UO team over it. It's in testing for a dang reason.
 

Great DC

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This is like the 80th thing in a row that has disaster written on it. Constructive criticism left long ago, it was tried and not listened to. More temporary content that no one wants, more grind that no one wants. That's why every year the population goes down and down. Go back and read the last four Halloween threads and youll see the same problems and people saying to stop doing this and four years later its the same ol bullsheet. "Insanity" -- trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Ill just leave the definition here.
 

uokings7

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If you hate the game so much why do you play it? Kyronix literally played with us last night and took our direct feedback and had a discussion with us. Maybe you should have taken them up on their play session they did and given the feedback?
 

Great DC

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I don't play anymore, Ive logged in may be four times in the past year. Ive also been there on TC many patches before and discussed things with him and Bleak, and when it was over they just did whatever they wanted anyway. Its like this Me: You should really only go one pet at a time to test this taming patch idea before releasing.
Kyronix: :wall: Patch goes live tomorrow
 

uokings7

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I don't play anymore, Ive logged in may be four times in the past year. Ive also been there on TC many patches before and discussed things with him and Bleak, and when it was over they just did whatever they wanted anyway. Its like this Me: You should really only go one pet at a time to test this taming patch idea before releasing.
Kyronix: :wall: Patch goes live tomorrow
So.....you're telling me you don't play but come on to complain about the game you don't actually play. Makes sense.
 

drcossack

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So.....you're telling me you don't play but come on to complain about the game you don't actually play. Makes sense.
Let me ask you something. When we're asked to test things, do so, tell the devs what the issues are/what we'd like to see (i.e. with the pvp publish), only to be ignored, what's the point in continuing to pay/play? I have 3 accounts (one made after EJ), only one of which is currently active. Whenever I'm in the mood to, I'm going to log in, pack up everything I have in that account's house, and likely close the door on my accounts for the last time, regardless of EJ allowing me to play for free. There are any # of games I can play that get actual content updates (other than UO's constant recycling), have devs that listen to player feedback, and are much more fun to play.
 

Spartan

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Let me ask you something. When we're asked to test things, do so, tell the devs what the issues are/what we'd like to see (i.e. with the pvp publish), only to be ignored, what's the point in continuing to pay/play? I have 3 accounts (one made after EJ), only one of which is currently active. Whenever I'm in the mood to, I'm going to log in, pack up everything I have in that account's house, and likely close the door on my accounts for the last time, regardless of EJ allowing me to play for free. There are any # of games I can play that get actual content updates (other than UO's constant recycling), have devs that listen to player feedback, and are much more fun to play.
Good point. This crafting session is the first where I've heard of a directed session since open beta of SE years ago. Then it was "concentrate in Tokuno and do anything to make stuff crash. It was a directed server load test. Got telestormed a bit and one crashout.

Come to think of it, it's possible that the patch/publish notes are intended to be just such a directed approach. They may be ASSUMING we know that and are testing the stuff thusly,
 

uokings7

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Let me ask you something. When we're asked to test things, do so, tell the devs what the issues are/what we'd like to see (i.e. with the pvp publish), only to be ignored, what's the point in continuing to pay/play? I have 3 accounts (one made after EJ), only one of which is currently active. Whenever I'm in the mood to, I'm going to log in, pack up everything I have in that account's house, and likely close the door on my accounts for the last time, regardless of EJ allowing me to play for free. There are any # of games I can play that get actual content updates (other than UO's constant recycling), have devs that listen to player feedback, and are much more fun to play.
That is fine. I understand not having fun in a game after playing it for a long time. My point is that the UO team can't make every thing you want a reality. Some people like grinding for something because it gives you something new to do, even if it's recycled. Think about how big their player base is. They have limited funds and thus a smaller team to make things happen. They're working with gaming technology that is ancient compared to other games which also limits their abilities. At this point, the game is kind of set in stone. And also, this game is almost less a game now and more an online community and I appreciate how close the UO team is to its community. No other game does what they do with EM events, play sessions etc. At least they take our words into account. The other night during the play session, Kyronix sat with us after killing Khal and went over the mechanics of the fight. We discussed allowing a long enough leash on him to create a choke point. We talked about captains health etc. After talking for a while he gave us a specially colored mask just for helping test. I mean, that's unique in the gaming world. So we may not get everything we want but they try. That's all I'm saying.
 

Slayvite

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That is fine. I understand not having fun in a game after playing it for a long time. My point is that the UO team can't make every thing you want a reality. Some people like grinding for something because it gives you something new to do, even if it's recycled. Think about how big their player base is. They have limited funds and thus a smaller team to make things happen. They're working with gaming technology that is ancient compared to other games which also limits their abilities. At this point, the game is kind of set in stone. And also, this game is almost less a game now and more an online community and I appreciate how close the UO team is to its community. No other game does what they do with EM events, play sessions etc. At least they take our words into account. The other night during the play session, Kyronix sat with us after killing Khal and went over the mechanics of the fight. We discussed allowing a long enough leash on him to create a choke point. We talked about captains health etc. After talking for a while he gave us a specially colored mask just for helping test. I mean, that's unique in the gaming world. So we may not get everything we want but they try. That's all I'm saying.
I'm sorry but this is plain wrong.
Other "old" games with equally small teams are doing lots more for their games, so that's basically an excuse that won't fly here.
As for being "set in stone"....nope, again lots more "can" be done, heck just look at the re-sizing of play screen or pet revamp....Broadsword said repeatedly it couldn't be done...even though "free-shard" games have had it for a good few years now.
Hell, the pet re-vamp was basically a direct "rip, copy & paste" of a certain other free-shard.

The fact is, things don't get done because they are under the direct control of a Manager that wants the game kept on it's knees.
Who also seems to have lost direction, probably because they don't play the very game they claim to love (courtyard trees for example, the belfry, I could go on)
The fact is that whilst its small they can get away with the bare minimum and the player base will just accept it as "well its a small team" blah blah....
The saddest thing I heard was when Ultima Online was now referred to as an "indie game".
All around new "UO" style games are being crowdfunded as everyone knows the 2d isometric is making a comeback as people are getting bored with the flashy 3d FPS constant grind for more levels and higher loot style games, and yet here we are, happy to sit under the radar when the base game is already here....

Time people stopped making excuses for shoddy management which clearly shows it prefers its other game (DaoC) over UO with all the updates they get compared to here.
Then again, I may be the only one who thinks like this....
 

Uriah Heep

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Some of us woulda been happy with Halloween by just turning Doom back on, or Terror Skittles, or Kotl. And all the time spent coding and testing and fine tuning this temporary additon to the game could have been spent fixing QOL issues and real bugs (not jacking with stuff that's working again, please!)

Sometimes I just have to shake my head and wonder....and I agree Mr Phoenix Man, with all you said.
 

Uvtha

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That is fine. I understand not having fun in a game after playing it for a long time. My point is that the UO team can't make every thing you want a reality. Some people like grinding for something because it gives you something new to do, even if it's recycled. Think about how big their player base is. They have limited funds and thus a smaller team to make things happen.
Tend to agree, they sort of have to make content a bit grindy because they don't have much of a team, so they can't do a lot of big stuff, and smaller stuff won't last long otherwise. I guess my main issue with the way they design things is how they often chose to focus that grind. Frequently they add in a lot of clicks that really don't need to be there, and I think a lot of the time those clicks are added because of a design aesthetic where they want the process to seem more "realistic". Cannons are a good example, the process is pretty realistic... but it's horribly tedious and that realism isn't worth it. Most of their designs have elements like this. It's not the end of the world, but it's unfortunate, because I think it puts a damper on the fun of an otherwise solid idea a lot of the time.

No other game does what they do with EM events, play sessions etc.
Well, that's just untrue. A ton of games do stuff like this, especially online games. I would even say it's common. Especially "play sessions" that kind of thing happens all the time in other games, and it's not a thing that happens in UO a ton either.

At least they take our words into account. The other night during the play session, Kyronix sat with us after killing Khal and went over the mechanics of the fight. We discussed allowing a long enough leash on him to create a choke point. We talked about captains health etc. After talking for a while he gave us a specially colored mask just for helping test. I mean, that's unique in the gaming world. So we may not get everything we want but they try. That's all I'm saying.
I think that communicating directly with your player base, while good, is more of a baseline than something to be lauded. In the age of social media players expect to interact and give feedback directly to developers, as such most games do have that kind of interaction, especially more indie games like UO.
For example, I've been in the MTG Arena beta for a good while now, and that kind of thing is a regular expectation. They interact with players on the forums and take direct player feedback constantly, and report back every month with specific details on how they changed the game based on feedback, as well as twitch streaming live gameplay vs random players with the devs where players can interact in the stream. Rewards for testing are also pretty common. This kind of thing is pretty standard. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they do this kind of thing more, but it's nothing special.

I generally am fine with the dev team, I don't like a lot of the choices they make for the direction of the game, but that's life. It's a small team doing what they can, and they do listen to feedback, in the past they really didn't much, but I think they have responded much better in recent years. That said, I think there is also a bit of a stubborn streak with some of the devs where they just flat out reject feedback, or deny issues sometimes on unpopular things.
 

Uvtha

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Some of us woulda been happy with Halloween by just turning Doom back on, or Terror Skittles, or Kotl. And all the time spent coding and testing and fine tuning this temporary additon to the game could have been spent fixing QOL issues and real bugs (not jacking with stuff that's working again, please!)

Sometimes I just have to shake my head and wonder....and I agree Mr Phoenix Man, with all you said.
I disagree. This game is very old, and frankly very stable, and a large portion of the player base are long time players and it needs at least semi regular new content to maintain engagement. I for one, and I know I'm not alone, have essentially done everything in the game simply through attrition of decades. I really tend to only log on when they add in new stuff, which seems to generally be just for the fall (halloween/anniversary) update anymore.

There may be a lot of small bugs, but they aren't game changers. Personally I can't remember the last time I ran into even a minor bug, let alone one that had a big impact on my time playing. I remember what it was like playing this game when it actually was buggy, and trust me, the current game is mostly perfect in comparison.
Not to say they shouldn't work on bugs and similar issues, but at least semi regular new content is more important, IMO.
 

Uriah Heep

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I stand corrected. We don't need quality of life improvements on existing systems, and there are no bugs anymore.

:cheerleader:
 

Uvtha

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I stand corrected. We don't need quality of life improvements on existing systems, and there are no bugs anymore.

:cheerleader:
:rolleyes2: To quote myself:

Not to say they shouldn't work on bugs and similar issues
Just saying I think content is more important than non game breaking bugs, and upgrades. 75/25 division of labor between the two would be just fine, I think.
 

railshot

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Any reason why you only have to make one spellbook or weapon for entire event but tasty treats for pets only last a short time?
The devs got horrified of their own success with the pet publish and have been hating pets ever since? Just a theory.
 
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