[UO Herald] Letter from the Producer

[UO News]

Hello everyone,
There is a lot going on in UO, so let me tell you all about it. First, there is Publish 78 which is on its way to all shards soon. We have revised Despise, placed the artifacts on Siege only on Cora and level 3 in Covetous, relocated some of the monsters everyone is missing in other areas, and for the younger players we have earth elementals and more! The Anniversary rewards will be given out starting the month of September as some of you know the Harpsichord is among one of the items, additional music can be found on monsters in Ter Mur. We have removed the Bless deed and added a Steward to the list, since this is an ongoing clean-up system we will be changing out items on it from time to time. Remember nothing is gone forever *grins*.
We have already started working on Publish 79! I am sure everyone will be happy to know we are working on a method to distribute the Scroll of Valiant Commendation. We have come up with seasonal content for Halloween and added a few new items to the pumpkin patches, so have fun and remember to visit your graveyards *evil laugh*. For this publish we are getting Christmas gifts and Veteran rewards put in so I hope everyone enjoys what we have come up with. Yes, sneak peeks will come later!
As everyone is aware we are quickly come up on our 15th year Anniversary. To start celebrating this we are bringing back Return to Britannia for the whole month of September. I hope to see old friends and new ones! Let me go ahead and assure everyone that they cannot place houses (see we have learned from past mistakes =P)
I have received a lot of emails regarding the Party here in Fairfax on the September 29th, everyone that has written in so far has a reserved slot already. We have a block of rooms reserved for you at a discount rate if you will be spending the night. Here is the link to the motel. I will be posting an agenda for everyone soon on the Herald.
If you want to enter our writing contest announced on the Herald (We love to read how creative our players are), please send them to your EM’s so they can compile all the entries and send them to me. I will be sending them to the judges without names on them to avoid concerns about favoritism. The judges will be one person from the Japan team, one from the community team, EM team as a whole (EM’s will not vote on the shard they work on), Petra from Stratics, a mystery judge, and myself. Please remember it has to be between 250 and 500 words, the ones I have gotten directly have fallen a little sly of the requirements. I look forward to reading all your memories!
Last but not least I wanted to tell you what we will be working on after Christmas. Publish 80 is going to be a bug fix as I promised. All we are going to be working on for this publish is bugs, both our team and the Japan team are all looking forward to being able to take a breath and fix as many bugs as we possibly can for this publish. Misk has been going thru the Stratics boards and looking for open issues that are not written up. If you do write a bug please give details so we can reproduce the issue. The whole team is really looking forward to this as much as I am sure most of you are. Will be nice to get the most pressing bugs off our plates!!
Now for the exciting part of the letter. Remember what you are going to read after this is not written in stone….*takes a deep breath* This is a list of things we have been talking and brainstorming about:

• Vendor search
• High Res Art
• New Art pieces such as new furniture ( if we don’t break the new artist to much maybe even new armor and new monsters/tameables)
• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)
• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes
• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client
• Currency Conversion (gold would be on character/account, no checks)
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again
• Revising pet slots
• Pet Revamp
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions
• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)
• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards
• New sea creatures and encounters
• New wearable’s for both male and female
• Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly
• Meer/Juka Loyality quests
• Battleground shard

So my friends this is what the team has worked on, is working on and wants to work on in the future. I will be putting up some sneak peeks to finish out what Jeff started in his letter to you guys so see if you can guess what the puzzle is. I know everyone will have a lot of questions, especially about the last list. When we make our decision as to what we are going to work on each publish I will give you guys a heads up. Thank you for reading this and if your coming to Virginia. Please have a safe trip! I will be putting up an agenda of what we are going to do and what you can expect of the day soon, so please keep an eye open for that.
This is the second piece of the puzzle… good luck!

Thank you everyone!
Mesanna

Continue reading...

 

[Salivern_Diago]

Awesome stuff!! Not too keen on the gold being tied to account idea... seems like a way for certian people to have unlimited gold to me!

What is the Battleground Shard all about? Any hints Mesanna... pleeeease?

 

[Joey Porter]

Now this is a letter to get excited about.

Thank you for sharing, cannot wait to see the anniversary gifts and bug fixes and I am very glad to have an idea what you guys would like to see done in the future.

 

[Frarc]

 

[Cogniac]

I'll have to collect my thoughts so I can properly discuss and argue the salient points of the items in that list at the meet-up.

 

[Merus]

So many questions...

First... So what happens to a house if an account logs in during the RTB that had placed a house in a previous RTB? Will that house automatically enter the decay cycle since the account is not eligible to own a house? If not, will those houses get flagged as inactive when RTB is over and enter the decay cycle @ December 30?

 

[Emmaline]

I hope gold stays as an ingame item (coins and checks), it adds to the charm of UO that most things are actual physical items and not just icons and/or numbers on my paperdoll.

 

[Tina Small]

Thank you for a very informative letter, Mesanna. It is reassuring to see a glimpse of the plans for UO. I especially look forward to seeing this sentence in your letter put into action: "When we make our decision as to what we are going to work on each publish I will give you guys a heads up."

I hope you and the developers/designers/engineers will also be able to allot some time periodically to have some discussions on the forums to discuss some of these ideas with the players before they are completely set in stone, especially with issues that may be somewhat controversial. I always appreciate being able to read a designer or developer's thoughts about why a change is needed. I also think that the players can also often provide perspectives on some issues that can either help reinforce you're headed in the right direction or may perhaps want to consider a course alteration for some particular change. I think the flame wars which often erupt in such discussion threads, when they come completely out of the blue and are started by people that many suspect are EMs or who are suspected of making their living off UO but aren't EA employees, could be almost completely avoided if the thread is started by a developer or designer because people will take the discussion more seriously and want the threads to stay open as long as possible. In other words, if you and your team can help us better understand the reasons behind changes or additions, we will be much more likely to actively support or at least accept the changes/additions.

Also, if there is a topic that you're still researching and would like to brainstorm with us about, please be upfront with us and tell us that, instead of using players to broach the subject. I want to have faith in UO and the dev team, but it is difficult to do when there is a lot of secrecy and when it appears that a small group of players is often made privy to information that no one else has. It is understandable that EMs are allowed to know things that other players don't know. But please don't use them to float ideas under their own forum names, since we have no way of verifying their status as an EA employee or contractor. Such situations do nothing but erode the confidence of players who aren't part of UO's inner circle.

 

[hen]

Keep gold physical please.

 

[Nimuaq]

This is a pretty inspiring letter and a unique one as well, listing all the current plans, maybe in order of their importance, one by one. Most of the items on the list cover the appeal of the game for the new and the returning players, so while there is no mention, the letter covers these too. There is also no mention of uo.com re-launch but that might actually be a good thing since Mesanna likes surprises. Thank you for this unique letter, this is what we were desperately hoping for.

 

[Joey Porter]

Hello everyone,

• Vendor search

Fantastic, spending hours searching through Luna is a waste of precious play time and will also keep people from needing to go to a certain non UO site to do this.

• High Res Art

This is less important to me but I know it is very important to others so I am glad this is still on the radar especially if it helps bring in new players.

• New Art pieces such as new furniture ( if we don’t break the new artist to much maybe even new armor and new monsters/tameables)

Everyone loves new pixels but I would put this on the bottom of the list from an importance standpoint.

• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)

I am fine with the paperdoll either way

• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes

Again, not a necessity but would look cool

• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client

If it worked properly and was like pinco's UI out of the box I may switch from the CC

• Currency Conversion (gold would be on character/account, no checks)

I think this is a great idea who's time has come. I agree that the gold is nifty looking and adds to the charm of the game but at this point with the inflation I am tired of clicking, dragging, storing and dealing with large purchases. This would make all that go away.

• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again

Yes please, this is very very necessary. No point in having options like plate if everyone just wears leather because it is better. You should also add weapon revamp into this to make them all useful and balanced.

• Revising pet slots

would need more info on this

• Pet Revamp

would need more info on this

• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions

Simplifying the factions by getting rid of them and replacing with chaos and order would rock. Would add fun tot he game and you would have a much larger participation rate.

• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)

alwasy a positive thing

• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards

I do not fish so this is not on my radar.

• New sea creatures and encounters

I do not fish so this is not on my radar.

• New wearable’s for both male and female

more choices is a good thing

• Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly

Big plus, more communication and more efficient communication

• Meer/Juka Loyality quests

Sounds very interested, would like more info

• Battleground shard

Love the sounds of this, please elaborate when you can.
When we make our decision as to what we are going to work on each publish I will give you guys a heads up.

Thank you everyone!
Mesanna

Continue reading...

Commented on each item individually.

Only thing on the list that I think is an absolute neccesity that is not included would be a better in game communication/msging system. This is supposed to be a community and at the moment the only communication we have is for guild members that are currently online. Very antiquated.

 

[Vlaude]

• Vendor search
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions
• Battleground shard

Very excited about these 4 things

 

[Specialshoes]

I am very pleased with this letter. While a couple of the things on it make exstatic, a few more things I could give two squirts about, and one or two that I think are not that great an idea. I like to see the discussion of where things COULD head. I know none of it is set in stone and could change at anytime. It is just nice to see this type of communications.

oh and.....
No physical gold yay!
Order/Chaos yay!

 

[Cetric]

• Vendor search - Awesome
• High Res Art - Awesome if in Classic Client as well
• New Art pieces such as new furniture ( if we don’t break the new artist to much maybe even new armor and new monsters/tameables) - Meh..
• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers) - Awesome
• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes - Neat
• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client - Meh, fix last target for casting with a mouse wheel
• Currency Conversion (gold would be on character/account, no checks) - Awesome
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again - @$*&&$ Awesome
• Revising pet slots - Neat
• Pet Revamp - Neat
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions - #%^#$& Awesome
• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc) - Neat
• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards - Meh
• New sea creatures and encounters - Meh
• New wearable’s for both male and female - Cool... make the robe alterable to a shirt slot while ur at it.
• Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly - Neat
• Meer/Juka Loyality quests - neat
• Battleground shard - Cool

 

[Picus at the office]

I would love to see a battleground shard like the short lived one where you could just copy a char to it but don't stuff the players into buying transfers just to increase revenue. The positive talk that was had during that time was amazing and the negative talk after the shard was shut down was stunning.

 

[Reth]

Nice letter! Filled with lots of nice stuff, but I gotta say the high res art and re-balancing armor and factions is my biggest draw. Only thing I'm not too keen on is making gold a non-physical item. It should stay as it is, IMO.

 

[Tazar]

I am of two minds on the gold change and I think I would like to see it work both ways with the standard being having gold as a number on the character stats that can be drawn on any time - but also with the ability to pull off stacks of coins/checks that are still functional and that can be used for deco.

On the Order/Chaos change - I think it is a great thing - but I'd want to see it implemented with fiction/events to lead up to it rather than just turning it on with a switch. Minax and SL could team up in an event to try and conquer Britain. TB and COM could then reconcile and unite to combat the new evil forming the basis of Order and Chaos. It seems more interesting from a story/rp aspect to develop the basis for the new system in game.

 

[Nimuaq]

I wouldn't mind the lack of new sea creatures, fishing quest rewards and loyalty quests if it would yield more time for the development team to work on other important items.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

*gets a big ole plate of crow ready for all those that were slamming Jeff the other day*

Thank you Mesanna. Some great stuff in there....

 

[christy1221]

Love the letter. One thing I would love is new bod rewards. Tired of the same old thing. I would at least like new deco items I mean how many bear rugs and tapestries does one need LOL.

 

[Aurelius]

Love the letter. One thing I would love is new bod rewards. Tired of the same old thing. I would at least like new deco items I mean how many bear rugs and tapestries does one need LOL.

New items, be they from fishing, crafting, hunting or any other source, really need to be part of an ongoing planned rotation in and out of stuff, after maybe a year or so at most - there's nothing that gets taken for granted quicker, and becomes less desirable, than a perpetually available 'new' thing - the novelty factor is very short lived.

 

[Sir_Bolo]

This is a list of things we have been talking and brainstorming about

Nice to know what Mesanna and the team would like to add to the game! It's also good to see that many items on the list match with player requests on the boards.

If possible, I would also like to see Mesanna posting some sort of timeframe for the additions - obviously not a detailed schedule, but at least something like: "Given the current size of the Dev team, we should be able to publish at least X features from this list during 2013".

 

[Aurelius]

On the Order/Chaos change - I think it is a great thing - but I'd want to see it implemented with fiction/events to lead up to it rather than just turning it on with a switch.

I strongly suspect the reappearance of Blackthorn and Dupre is the basis for the future Order/Chaos system, so the fiction and 'lore' base for it is already there to be developed.

 

[BigEv]

Chaos/Order and doing away with factions!

THIS PLEASE, SOONER THAN LATER. THANK YOU.

 

[Cyrah]

Very nice list! Thank you all team & Queen!

For the future (hopefully near) rare vanilla plants grown from exodus seeds, not just naturalist quest. Please...
Please can we have the fish that now only survive in fish tanks or bowls? The art of them is awesome for making ponds.

Maybe new toys for tailor & smith bods too?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Slickjack]

Thank you so so much...

The list of things coming up (even though its not in stone) is incredible.

Very excited about Chaos/Order, as we pulled our entire team out of factions after the last change.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Remember what you are going to read after this is not written in stone….*takes a deep breath* This is a list of things we have been talking and brainstorming about:

• Vendor search
• High Res Art
• New Art pieces such as new furniture ( if we don’t break the new artist to much maybe even new armor and new monsters/tameables)
• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)
• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes
• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client
• Currency Conversion (gold would be on character/account, no checks)
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again
• Revising pet slots
• Pet Revamp
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions
• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)
• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards
• New sea creatures and encounters
• New wearable’s for both male and female
• Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly
• Meer/Juka Loyality quests
• Battleground shard

I just hope folks pay SPECIAL attention to the bold part above. They holler for more and more communication so Mesanna let's us know what they are chewing on. Say it gets dropped for reason X then folks gripe about it not being put in because "Mesanna said it would"... THAT will once again put the team in a box of not wanting to volunteer info like that.

So all you doom and gloomers, all those who find stuff to gripe about in anything/everything please read that bold stuff about 5 times

 

[NBG]

Just waiting to see what happens heh.

 

[Lythos-]

LOVE the Chaos/Order return only if it's in it's original form.

To just up and do away with factions is a slap in the face to those that do PvP since the past 5+ years of pvp based changes revolved around factions (armor,moving bases and now the silver change). Do a little more work to it and keep it as well. 20min stat time is too long. 5min is plenty right now. The pvp population just isnt there anymore for 30min+ long grinder spawn fights.

Currency conversion: BETTER be VERY thought out. People do still trade in person and not use a vendor. With no currency it had better be airtight to ensure no sudden "insurance bugs".

 

[Ludes]

I want to keep my gold and silver piles as well...

 

[SlobberKnocker]

looks good. thats what a letter from the dev's should look like. there is a plan afterall.

it was before my time but does anyone have a thread about how chaos and order actually worked?

thanks.

 

[Specialshoes]

Does anyone have the ability to connect Jeff's picture with Messana's piece?

 

[The Predator]

This is exciting stuff. Thanks for posting.

 

[Kojak]

I would rather have the good/evil system from siege

 

[Frarc]

Does anyone have the ability to connect Jeff's picture with Messana's piece?

Like this?

Jigsaw

 

[Eärendil]

Great! This letter makes me happy!

 

[Lythos-]

looks good. thats what a letter from the dev's should look like. there is a plan afterall.

it was before my time but does anyone have a thread about how chaos and order actually worked?

thanks.

I never kept up with the storylines but you went to a stone and picked a side. Basically it was good (Order) vs evil (Chaos). There was no rewards, no stat time and it made every facet a pvp area (only to those that joined of course)

Basically it's free pvp anywhere ONLY IF you want to join either Order or Chaos and participate. It does not effect any other player that isn't signed up for it in tram ruleset facets. You may see some people fighting around Luna, Brit bank, dungeons. It opens the whole map up to explore looking for thy foe!!

 

[Specialshoes]

Like this?

Jigsaw

Yes thank you for directing me to that

 

[Tina Small]

I never kept up with the storylines but you went to a stone and picked a side. Basically it was good (Order) vs evil (Chaos). There was no rewards, no stat time and it made every facet a pvp area (only to those that joined of course)

Basically it's free pvp anywhere ONLY IF you want to join either Order or Chaos and participate. It does not effect any other player that isn't signed up for it in tram ruleset facets. You may see some people fighting around Luna, Brit bank, dungeons. It opens the whole map up to explore looking for thy foe!!

If you were in a guild, could you join Order or Chaos individually, or was it a guild-wide decision enacted by the guild leader joining one side or the other? I think MyUO used to keep track of how many Order and Chaos guilds there were per shard and game-wide, so I always assumed that whole guilds got involved, like in factions. Also, wasn't there at one point something special about the order and chaos shields?

 

[Crysta]

Vendor Search is still a terrible idea given the nature of UO.

 

[greenwolf]

In all its a good start I'm liking most of what I'm reading except for the removal of bless deeds that is just beyond me, no reason behind that. That being said I would like to know if their even thinking of an alternative way to get them seeing that there is still a demand for them so there must be a supply!. Other than the bless deed, I'm happy with all the changes I just hope they still let me get them some other way...

 

[Gorbs]

Thank you for taking the time to provide the update. There are quite a few ideas apparently on the table which I hope you will implement. I'm excited to know that there is at least discussion being made on how to improve the game and the user experience.

 

[Woodsman]

Finally, we got a producer's letter that sounds like it was written by a producer of an MMO! It's been a few years since we got one of those.

High resolution graphics and improved EC tells me somebody realizes that new players are needed.

Chaos/Order tells me somebody realized that Factions wasn't working and that many former players loved Chaos/Order. This could bring some people back to UO.

Once my pre-paid time expires after the anniversary, I may just keep an account open and keep an eye on all of this.

 

[Picus at the office]

I still fail to see the value of a vendor search. Yes it might take some of the traffic away from the third party site but I think that using these people for the tools they are is better than spending time programing the same stuff instead of working on other issues.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Woodsman]

Vendor Search is still a terrible idea given the nature of UO.

If they aren't going to bust the scripters, then this is the next best thing. World of Warcraft loses more people in a week than play UO. Some of these things are the kinds of things that can bring in some of those people - they will expect that, they will expect high resolution graphics. And Chaos and Order could bring back old players.

I don't know what it took to get this letter, other than a lot of pancakes from players on Stratics and Twitter, but I'm pretty happy with it. If they work on that list of things they are kicking around, then it means somebody has decided that they want to make a go of having UO around to celebrate its 20th anniversary instead of just letting it die a slow death.

 

[Lythos-]

If you were in a guild, could you join Order or Chaos individually, or was it a guild-wide decision enacted by the guild leader joining one side or the other? I think MyUO used to keep track of how many Order and Chaos guilds there were per shard and game-wide, so I always assumed that whole guilds got involved, like in factions. Also, wasn't there at one point something special about the order and chaos shields?

Its the guild leader decision. It's been over a decade since it was around but the best i can remember only people that were in Chaos/Order could equip the shields lol. I dont think it was anything more than a status thing.

 

[Goodmann]

Best letter we have received! Look out Jeff looks like Mesanna will have your job soon.........

 

[Coldren]

Vendor Search is still a terrible idea given the nature of UO.

This depends quite laregely on how it's implemented. Suppose it's an opt-in system, where you have to pay gold to have your items listed on the vendor search, and pay for the length of time it's available (Like an AH) but if you chose not to, it won't show up? Otherwise, still a good deal to walk around and see what people don't put up in the search.

And potentially a good gold sink at the same time.

 

[Airhaun]

Fantastic letter. Gives of the impression that there really is somebody at the wheel steering this bus we're all riding in. Excited about the ideas you all are considering. I'd prefer to keep gold physical and tangible.

Favorites:

• New Art. Specifically armor pieces & monsters/tameables.
• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again
• Revising pet slots
• Pet Revamp
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions
• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)
• New sea creatures and encounters
• New wearable’s for both male and female
• Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly
• Battleground shard

Thank you Mesanna, Jeff & the entire UO team!

 

[startle]

Vendor Search is still a terrible idea given the nature of UO.

If you're lucky enough to be one of a handful of people that have shops in Luna/Zento then a game-wide Vendor Search IS a terrible idea.... If you own a home in the country and would love to have a vendor stocked with items that are useful to both new and old players, then a Vendor Search is a GREAT IDEA... and would go a long way to reviving the community we once had.