[UO Herald] Letter from the Producer

[Driven Insane]

Some great things listed (Much better than that other worthless letter)

Now we'll just wait and see if their follow through and implementation has improved.

 

[Petra Fyde]

That information is outdated. The 2009 agreement, which we signed, and a copy of which is kept stickied in our staff forum does not forbid adverts, merely requires that the content comply with 'teen' rating.
Expressly forbidden are

• Secondary market ads and services. This includes advertisements or services for gold farming, item sales, power leveling, and other related services.
• Links to unapproved third-party programs or hacks.

I put my name on that agreement. I made a promise. I keep my promises.

 

[Picus at the office]

So long story short(IMO) we all agree that:

In a perfect world UO should have a ingame search but it doesn't.
Third party douches have provided this service with the downside of also attempting to sell gold/items for real cash which everyone should agree is lame.
UO dev team has limited resources and lots of issues.
Said douches have done the dirty work for us so lets use them for the chumps they are and fix other issues till the day when the limited resources can be used to address this issue.

I have no financial intrest in these sites and I never really cared about how they source the information used but I do have a stupid intrest in this game for over 10 years and would like to see what is given placed in the best spot. The site is a tool and, IMO, it will be used by people like myself to spam my vendors if I see it fit to do such, why would I not use every advantage to enhance the game play?

 

[kelmo]

Wrong again. Ebay dropped ALL virtual transactions, not just UO.

UO has never come out and stated that RMT are illegal.

http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section2

 

[Xalan Dementia]

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...

bless deeds were getting too common so they took them off the list, im assuming because of Insurance being a gold sink.

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*.

which means its off the current roster but will make its way back into the lineup eventually.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

Great letter of things that everyone seems to be excited about... now please just dont quit your job.

 

[Promathia]

http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section2

And when have they actually done anything about it?

 

[wanderer1origin]

Wrong again. Ebay dropped ALL virtual transactions, not just UO.

UO has never come out and stated that RMT are illegal.

this ebay couldnt prove or disprove delivery so headache they had on disputes overwhelmed their value over cs work!!!!

then they got the whole buyer never lies, so refunding paypal money even when real stuff delivered!!!!!!!!! and buyer saying never got

 

[blinkdog]

I keep trying to tell people that if a vendor search comes into play, within days we'll see a permanent lock on specific commodities on almost every shard, with one or two people buying them out completely as they appear and charging insane prices to resell them.

I'm tired of this paranoid nonsense being spoken with a straight face.

VENDOR SEARCH ALREADY EXISTS, IT DOMINATES THE UO ECONOMY, AND WHAT YOU DESCRIBE DOESN'T HAPPEN.

The only question here is whether you would rather see vendor search remain the exclusive property (and major attraction) of illegal goldselling sites, or whether you would rather allow players to fully participate in the economy without visiting them.

 

[kelmo]

And when have they actually done anything about it?

That is not a call for Stratics to make. It is against the Terms of service for EA/Ultima Online. So it will not happen here. I do consider this subject closed. I recommend you do the same.

 

[Promathia]

I'm tired of this paranoid nonsense being spoken with a straight face.

VENDOR SEARCH ALREADY EXISTS, IT DOMINATES THE UO ECONOMY, AND WHAT YOU DESCRIBE DOESN'T HAPPEN.

The only question here is whether you would rather see vendor search remain the exclusive property (and major attraction) of illegal goldselling sites, or whether you would rather allow players to fully participate in the economy without visiting them.

Might be a rare occasion I agree with you. Every big market merchant in UO uses the searchengines already available, so simply changing it from a 3rd party site to an ingame feature wont change a thing.

 

[blinkdog]

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

This needs to happen and then they need to do a database search and rain down fury on obvious goldseller holding accounts.

 

[blinkdog]

relocated some of the monsters everyone is missing in other areas, and for the younger players we have earth elementals and more!

Also, need more info on this.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Read this today on my Phoneternet while at work, so haven't had the chance to comment as of yet... so here goes.

First of all, I'm going to give Credit to Mesanna and team for a nice detailed vision of where they are going to take the game. That is tempered a bit with a bit of feeling of wanting to say "Now see? That wasn't so hard was it?", but it included almost everything that I put forward as a base in my put-together letter and went beyond. I consider this more "giving credit where credit is due" than "eating crow" as one poster put it simply because I'm going to call things as I see them... when the Devs do great things, they will receive great praise. When they "turtle up" in an antagonistic fashion, I'm going to call them on that too.

So a few things by point:

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!

A good rundown showing us where we are now. What comes next is of true interest, the vision going forward...

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!!

This will be very welcome for everyone, not just the limited number of people who will get involved in event-only Publishes.

Now for the exciting part of the letter. Remember what you are going to read after this is not written in stone….

I understand the need for the disclaimer, the people who have over the course of the game made every statement into a "promise" had done quite a bit to harm Dev-Player relations and communication.

*takes a deep breath* This is a list of things we have been talking and brainstorming about:

• Vendor search

Yes! Absolutely needed, and shows that the devs have been taking notes.

• High Res Art

Top item on my list, hopefully it's more than just "talk".

• 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)

Ok, should be interesting... but let's get the existing artwork upgraded first.

• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)

I cringed when I read this one. This will get the most blowback from certain sections of the playerbase.

• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes

Tasteful is key here.

• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client

I will wait to see how this one plays out. Hopefully it will help the Modding community rebuild.

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

I can go either way on this one.

• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again

Yes!

• Revising pet slots
• Pet Revamp

Never played a tamer, so this one doesn't really mean much to me.

• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions

Interesting direction. Could be a shot in PvP arm if done correctly.

• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)

Ok.

• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards

Could be interesting, glad to see it listed.

• New sea creatures and encounters

Hmmm... New encounters, sure... new retardedly difficult monsters with sub-standard quality loot... not so much.

• New wearable’s for both male and female

Ok, again let's get the existing graphics upgraded first.

• 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

Yes, more communication is Good™.

• Meer/Juka Loyality quests

Hopefully this includes making them more intelligent as NPCs than the common mongbat.

• Battleground shard

Probably not my cup of tea, but could be a fun thing.

Thank you everyone!
Mesanna

Thank you Mesanna and Team. This is what we've been waiting for.

 

[Reth]

Let me elaborate on what I said before..

See.. UO, like many MMOs, has a large population of what the rest of the world would call a**holes: people with massive egos and bad intentions that have tons of gold, oftentimes obtained illegitimately and with very little to do with it other than find new ways to grief everyone for fun (not saying everyone with a lot of gold is bad, or even most of them are.. tends to be just a few). Now, when someone tries to undercut these individuals on price, and they take notice, they buy out the smaller businesses completely, usually within minutes of stocking and generally causing the owners to eventually give up due to how taxing it would be to keep it up. The main counter for these types has been the small stores out in the middle of nowhere, or even just outside of the main vending areas of the world.. if they can't see it, they can't do anything.

I keep trying to tell people that if a vendor search comes into play, within days we'll see a permanent lock on specific commodities on almost every shard, with one or two people buying them out completely as they appear and charging insane prices to resell them. While this does mean that the low end vendors are getting paid, it also means prices will skyrocket several tens of times past where they already have. And this would likely not even be done out of greed, amazingly. It is much more likely that it would be done simply to piss off as many players as they possibly can because its "fun to harass noobs and weak trammies".

If the thing gets implemented and i'm wrong in my prediction, i'll readily admit it (should take two months at most to be able to figure out if I was right or not; i'm being very overgenerous with market reaction time here to be safe). However, i'm expecting to be saying "I told you so" very, very often.

Agree with this completely. I'd prefer there to be no vendor search. I don't want the gold becoming a non-physical item, either, but I'd rather take that change than the vendor search.

 

[MalagAste]

• Vendor search (I am totally for this one! Long overdue. As well as some sort of message system for guilds/alliances)
• High Res Art (Totally stoked this is still on the table)
• 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) (Please have your new artist add the missing facings for much of the existing furniture as well and hopefully flesh out the housing tiles and such completing the existing tile sets adding in tiles that already exist that we for some odd reason do not have access too like the short half and third wall pieces for the Castle tiles as well..... I could go on and on and on but please add some furniture that already exists to the craftables as well)
• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers) (Yes please I'm all for that and while you at it could you add some new faces and such to Gargoyles add some more stuff to the body sculptor as well as adding new hair styles perhaps and please oh please some new horn styles add changing horn styles to the hair stylist or something??? Maybe add more colors to the menus for skin tones both for gargoyles and Elves PLEASE)
• New tasteful hues on tameables other than cu sidhes (Please I would absolutely love to have more colors available for Unicorns and other pets. Skree for instance!)
• Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client (I agree with someone else please look at Pinco's UI and incorporate most all that into the existing UI for the EC as it should have been from the start)
• Currency Conversion (gold would be on character/account, no checks) (I have mixed reservations on this... I want physical gold for deco... and the like but I would very much like to be able to make gold easier to keep track of and whatnot.... and maybe even make it more per account... however as someone with multiple accounts I am wondering how would I go about "giving" my other characters money??? Since I've always kept the major portion of my gold on one character... things to consider)
• Revising UO Armor to make all types useful again (please not only that but allow things to be altered... let me take that god awful ugly Mempo and make it a gorget or necklace or something and please let me take that ugly stupid crimson cincture and turn it into a nice woodland belt)
• Revising pet slots(Hum.... as in adding? Changing based on ????? Hum... I'm hoping you are thinking about giving me more stable slots that I'm always for I'm forever out of slots, though I would not oppose raising the available slots to 6 if you are 3x 120 taming, lore, vet... that would include 3x 120 magery, Med, eval, 3x 120 Mystic, Focus/imbuing ???eval???, 3x120 Necro, SS, Med/focus.... and of course that would have to be REAL skill not jeweled skill)
• Pet Revamp (Now I'm all for this and you know that Mesanna you and I have talked about this on several occasions... and how much I would LOVE to have a GREATER WW. I think many of the pets need overhauled like the poor reptalon... really would like to see Dread Warhorses and Bane Dragons brought back to being always available... as well I'd like to see black horses spawning... take back UO from all these Greedy people... tired of the greedy people controlling things.)
• Chaos/Order and doing away with factions (Hum... not sure how I like that... I am all for doing away with Factions as I don't see them really working right now... but I'm not sure I want to be having to deal with Order/Chaos during an EM event.)
• Reworking champ spawns (improving mobs, loot etc)(Absolutely! Please... also improve loot tables all around)
• Add new items to fishing and fishing quest rewards (Yes! Totally and please don't forget the BoD system as well needing an update... )
• New sea creatures and encounters (Yes please! Sharks? Whales? Merfolk? Sirens? Flying fish? A water based Champ?)
• New wearable’s for both male and female (Yes 100% agree! Totally would LOVE to have new dress's... some skirts and pants one can actually wear... New boots, shoes, hats, coats... stuff that maybe can be dyed more than one color)
• 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 (More improved communication I'm always for!)
• Meer/Juka Loyality quests (Like to see the Loyalty actual have some meaning.... if I am loyal to the Juka they shouldn't attack me)
• Battleground shard (Not something that appeals to me but I'm thinking this would be a good thing)

 

[Ox AO]

"New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)"

On the 2D client?
NO! NO! NO!

If you think you can do a better job then it is now then you're fooling yourself

At least give us the option to return it back to way it is now.


This could be a huge mistake

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

"New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)"

On the 2D client?
NO! NO! NO!

If you think you can do a better job then it is that you fooling yourself

At least give us the option to return it back to way it is now.


This could be a huge mistake

Exactly the reaction I expected when I first read the line in the letter.

 

[Selurnoraa]

Not sure what your 'idea' of a battleground shard is, but before putting effort in please keep the playerbase in the loop or it could just become a wasted effort that had a ton of potential.

 

[Woodsman]

maybe these ideas have been around but i think the board is pleased to see a renewed focus on them.

at least they didnt b.s. us with spread sheets and cheat programs.

These are the kinds of things we can show people that used to play and ask them to come back.

If I tell an ex-player that UO has a passionate team behind it and they should come back, that gets a laugh from them. If I send them a link to this letter, it puts it on their radar, and if some of the things listed gets implemented, it has a chance of succeeding in bringing them back.

 

[Woodsman]

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

If you want to get anywhere in Mythic, you need to have been on the Warhammer team at some point. The top 4 people for Ultima Forever, and the Ultima franchise producer all came out of Warhammer, and it's the same for Wrath of Heroes.

 

[Woodsman]

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

I keep trying to tell people that if a vendor search comes into play....

We already have a vendor search, regardless of whether it's sanctioned or not. We have 2-3 vendor searches as a matter of fact and people already try to corner the market on some things. That horse left the barn years ago.

And potentially a good gold sink at the same time.

Only if it acts as an auction house. If it's just a vendor search and you still have to visit the vendor, then no gold sink. Trying to make a non-AH vendor search a gold sink is going to make it more complicated than it needs to be and you want people to participate with all kinds of items, not just a few folks putting up EM event rares.

To make that work UO would have to find a way to shut them out or shut them down.

If they do a vendor search and it's open to everybody and it's not complicated or bogged down in gold sinks, many UO players will go with a legit vendor search, which will take care of those sites over time.

But I imagine those illegal sites are going to do everything they can to discourage the team from implementing a search. I'm surprised there aren't more of them on the thread trying to discourage it.

 

[Pinco]

this letter looks like the list of the politicians promises before the electoral campaign...
unfortunately we all know how the electoral promises works

we'll see what and especially when something from that list will appears in the game... but I'm sure that we are speaking of years, so I can keep packing without regrets....

 

[kelmo]

If you want to get anywhere in Mythic, you need to have been on the Warhammer team at some point. The top 4 people for Ultima Forever, and the Ultima franchise producer all came out of Warhammer, and it's the same for Wrath of Heroes.

I do not agree with this. That is a broad brush you are using.

 

[Woodsman]

I do not agree with this. That is a broad brush you are using.

I was half-joking, but there is some truth to it.

Ultima Franchise producer, Ultima Forever Producer, Ultima Forever Associate Producer, Ultima Forever Lead Designer, and the BioWare Mythic Creative Director who got Ultima Forever off the ground in the first place, all came out of Warhammer.

Even the lead artist from UO has a Warhammer background.

If you need proof, I can post it in another thread or you can look at the Ultima Forever team listing at Ultima Codex and check out the UO Lead Artists's website and some of his other pages. Technically many of them came out of Dark Age of Camelot if you want to go back, at least a few of them.

 

[Lord Frodo]

We already have a vendor search, regardless of whether it's sanctioned or not. We have 2-3 vendor searches as a matter of fact and people already try to corner the market on some things. That horse left the barn years ago.

Only if it acts as an auction house. If it's just a vendor search and you still have to visit the vendor, then no gold sink. Trying to make a non-AH vendor search a gold sink is going to make it more complicated than it needs to be and you want people to participate with all kinds of items, not just a few folks putting up EM event rares.

If they do a vendor search and it's open to everybody and it's not complicated or bogged down in gold sinks, many UO players will go with a legit vendor search, which will take care of those sites over time.

But I imagine those illegal sites are going to do everything they can to discourage the team from implementing a search. I'm surprised there aren't more of them on the thread trying to discourage it.

Another person that uses that thing in his head besides keeping his ears from touching each other. Be carfull you might get accused by a certain person of using those sites or being in bed with them without any facts to back themselves up.

 

[blinkdog]

Agree with this completely. I'd prefer there to be no vendor search. I don't want the gold becoming a non-physical item, either, but I'd rather take that change than the vendor search.

VENDOR SEARCH HAS BEEN HERE FOR YEARS AND WILL BE HERE FOREVER AND EVER.

 

[Reth]

VENDOR SEARCH HAS BEEN HERE FOR YEARS AND WILL BE HERE FOREVER AND EVER.

True. But making it more accessible will only add to the undercutting IMO.

 

[Lady Silverbrook]

True. But making it more accessible will only add to the undercutting IMO.

Yes, because the 3 second Google search is so taxing on others.

I'm unsure why a fair market is so upsetting to others... hm.

 

[Reth]

Yes, because the 3 second Google search is so taxing on others.

I'm unsure why a fair market is so upsetting to others... hm.

Judging by some responses in this thread, I'd say it's a safe bet a lot don't know of the vendor searches. Pretty sure there's a good number of people who don't in game too.

And a fair market means I can't go between Magincia stalls and make some gold, heheh.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Having a centralized marketplace has HELPED other games and is now a standard for online gaming. It is already a part of UO via external sources which can be sketchy, but to refuse a source of information only serves to handicap the person who refuses said information. It is in the best interest of UO to add in a centralized search system be it through vendors or an Auction House style marketplace.

 

[Lord Frodo]

...

Having a centralized marketplace has HELPED other games and is now a standard for online gaming. It is already a part of UO via external sources which can be sketchy, but to refuse a source of information only serves to handicap the person who refuses said information. It is in the best interest of UO to add in a centralized search system be it through vendors or an Auction House style marketplace.

TOTALY AGREE but to make it a gold sink is IMHO DUMB now if they want to do an AH then the person selling should pay a % fee just like any AH in real charges but to charge for just a vendor search is stupid.

 

[hen]

...

Having a centralized marketplace has HELPED other games and is now a standard for online gaming. It is already a part of UO via external sources which can be sketchy, but to refuse a source of information only serves to handicap the person who refuses said information. It is in the best interest of UO to add in a centralized search system be it through vendors or an Auction House style marketplace.

It's certainly the standard for themepark games but UO is a world. Vendor search/Auction houses and non physical gold just chip away at that little last rock of immersion we have left in the game. If we have to change it please limit it to a search so people at least need to drop by my vendors and see my little corner of the world.
I want to play in a sandbox Sossaria not a spreadsheet Sossaria.
No I don't use search sites. No I don't have a Luna/Zento house. I have my vendors in Skara, Felucca.

 

[Reth]

It's certainly the standard for themepark games but UO is a world. Vendor search/Auction houses and non physical gold just chip away at that little last rock of immersion we have left in the game. If we have to change it please limit it to a search so people at least need to drop by my vendors and see my little corner of the world.
I want to play in a sandbox Sossaria not a spreadsheet Sossaria.
No I don't use search sites. No I don't have a Luna/Zento house. I have my vendors in Skara, Felucca.

Couldn't say it better myself. I like looking through vendors for a bargain and such.

 

[Picus of Napa]

I'll just add a little more oil to the fire.

There is hardly anyone who plays this game on a fair basis that does not know about those sites just the same as those who have not heard about scripting, yes a slight minority might not use them but I'd wager a bet that 85% of the player base has been to either site. What value, other than a fleeting glimps of control, would WE THE PLAYER BASE gain from seeing the few(3?) people who actually work on this game spend more than 2 hours working on a search? Yes for a moment or longer that one guy won't be walking around luna looking at vendors but at the end of the day would we see a net gain from this, a loss or something in the middle? I'd say, at best, something in the middle being no better or worse but with lost resources.

I'd rather see stuff that might bring someone back to the game but this wasted effort is not going to be it. Really she didn't even mention scripting, speeding or any kind of cheating at all being the slightest bit of a priority, WHY IS THAT? Excel sheet anyone...

As a disclaimer, I could care little about the scripts that allow a player to ehance thier daily game play but the complex ones like the latest cure quest or the luna vendor guy should have been delt with 7 years ago.

 

[Tina Small]

I'll just add a little more oil to the fire.

There is hardly anyone who plays this game on a fair basis that does not know about those sites just the same as those who have not heard about scripting, yes a slight minority might not use them but I'd wager a bet that 85% of the player base has been to either site. What value, other than a fleeting glimps of control, would WE THE PLAYER BASE gain from seeing the few(3?) people who actually work on this game spend more than 2 hours working on a search? Yes for a moment or longer that one guy won't be walking around luna looking at vendors but at the end of the day would we see a net gain from this, a loss or something in the middle? I'd say, at best, something in the middle being no better or worse but with lost resources.

I'd rather see stuff that might bring someone back to the game but this wasted effort is not going to be it. Really she didn't even mention scripting, speeding or any kind of cheating at all being the slightest bit of a priority, WHY IS THAT? Excel sheet anyone...

As a disclaimer, I could care little about the scripts that allow a player to ehance thier daily game play but the complex ones like the latest cure quest or the luna vendor guy should have been delt with 7 years ago.

Would you consider the fact that Siege and Mugen aren't covered by these sites a valid reason for EA coming up with their own version of a search engine that would cover these two shards and all the rest?

 

[Picus of Napa]

Yes that might be a valid reason but I would also add that seige and mugen are the hardcore shards where handouts are both not required not wanted for such hardcore players.

I think that a simple player vs cost ratio would have to be done to see if this was a usefull investment of limited dollars. Sorry but I think we all know that the ghost town of shards is hardly priority #1

I have seige guys and do enjoy playing there once in a while but it's the hardcore plain and simple. If anything seige and mugen should be pre pub 16 shards with no insurance....that would be godly.

 

[Reth]

Would you consider the fact that Siege and Mugen aren't covered by these sites a valid reason for EA coming up with their own version of a search engine that would cover these two shards and all the rest?

Your killing me, Smalls.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Would you consider the fact that Siege and Mugen aren't covered by these sites a valid reason for EA coming up with their own version of a search engine that would cover these two shards and all the rest?

That and every area outside of Luna and Zento that could be thriving again.

However I don't think it should be an Auction House system... instead it should be a vendor search system via something like the BUlletin Board system that gives you the location of the vendor and item, but you would still have to actually visit that vendor. It can be set up to still function in the world/sandbox system we have now.

Someone mentions that people might buy out resources to price them higher... but that happens NOW (unless you only sell in person to someone you know anyway).

And it wouldn't be wasted resources, it would be an improvement to the game to help bring in people from other games that would find the current version to be archaic and time wasting.

 

[Reth]

Some games that have the same vendor system as UO (or similar enough anyways) let's a player put a flier (costs a small amount of gold, like renting stables) of there vendor on a universal bulletin board that lets others see what they're selling, but they have to travel there themselves still. That's the only way I can see it working IMO.

 

[Tina Small]

Yeah, I have concerns similar to Crysta's. If there was a way for the owner of a vendor to see who bought items and then be able to ban/bar a buyer from using the NPC, that might be a solution. However, I have no idea how difficult that would be to implement, especially on a vendor by vendor basis in a house where multiple players have vendors. Banning now works at a house level, so something would have to also be implemented to be able to ban per vendor in case other players with vendors at the house and/or the house owner don't want to ban a specific buyer. Or another solution might be for a seller to be able to set a limit on how often the same account can purchase items from a particular vendor or to be able to place a cap on the quantity of an item that can be sold to the same account within a specified timeframe.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

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

Mesanna, I have a TON of love for you right now for this list. I completely understand there are no promises on any of this, but it is VERY nice to hear some of the things you're considering as a team over there at Mythic. Please, PLEASE, PLEASE don't be discouraged about sharing this type of information even if you end up with some people who don't understand that plans and concepts and discussions aren't the same thing as done and guaranteed and ready to roll. This is EXACTLY the kind of communication that really, truly shows that there's something going on over there, and can also help to churn some constructive discussion here and there as well.

Thank you so very, very, very much for this letter, and particularly the part I quoted above.

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[Spiritless]

Good letter; good list. Think messing with the paperdoll and adding the ability to hue more pets is a waste of time and undesirable personally, but the rest seems cool. I don't really wanna be too cynical here cuz the letter sends out a positive message overall but this isn't the first time we've all heard promises so it would be cool to see even crude initial steps towards implementing some of these things on test center to show that it's not all BS, or at least follow-up information when one or more of these things are being actively worked on by the team.

 

[claudia-fjp]

Let me go ahead and assure everyone that they cannot place houses (see we have learned from past mistakes =P)

Oh good, I won't have to warn you ahead of time for the umpteenth year in a row and be ignored. Now if you'd only just clean up said mistakes...

• Vendor search

Speaking as a former Luna Vendor house owner and current Zento Vendor house owner NO horrible idea! Speaking as an MMO player it's about damn time. Poor people or new/returning players living in the middle of nowhere in a 7x7 should have an equal chance to sell stuff.

• New Paperdoll (time to change the diapers)

I hate graphical changes in the Classic Client, I'm an old school looking UO purist, HOWEVER. How often do you look at another players paperdoll and try to mouse over half their slots and not being able to because they are covered? We sorely need a modern paperdoll with all slots visible.

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

As someone who deals in a lot of gold for transactions YAY!!!!!!! I hope they keep the physical gold piles for people who do deco with it and as loot on corpses. Say have it added to your characters gold number at the bank if you so choose.

Speaking of choosing, please no blanket murder count wipe. I'm still angry about the one from like a decade ago that made thousands of counts go poof when I didn't want them to.

 

[Picus of Napa]

Speaking as a former Luna Vendor house owner and current Zento Vendor house owner NO horrible idea! Speaking as an MMO player it's about damn time. Poor people or new/returning players living in the middle of nowhere in a 7x7 should have an equal chance to sell stuff.

This I fail to understand as I own a luna house on Napa. It might be that you decide to charge rent to place a vendor where I do not but given that the value once placed on these plots can hardly be near 5 years back I can not understand this argument. Like I had said before it is not hard to get a free or cheap vendor on 90% of the shards with ATL being the exception if there is one. My luna house is empty for the most part and I think only two people actually fill those vendors anymore.

Focus on improvements that might bring old players back. Those people know and, might, use these search engines but they didn't stop playing because they had to go to a website they stopped because the game either got lame, the speeders ruined the pvp, factions died over night or 100 other reasons but a search feature was hardly the nail in those coffins.

 

[Tina Small]

Yes that might be a valid reason but I would also add that seige and mugen are the hardcore shards where handouts are both not required not wanted for such hardcore players.

I think that a simple player vs cost ratio would have to be done to see if this was a usefull investment of limited dollars. Sorry but I think we all know that the ghost town of shards is hardly priority #1

I have seige guys and do enjoy playing there once in a while but it's the hardcore plain and simple. If anything seige and mugen should be pre pub 16 shards with no insurance....that would be godly.

Just for argument's sake, I'd like to point out that when I did my most recent census of New Magincia vendors in mid-July, Mugen had 137 stocked NPC vendors in player houses in Magincia in the Trammel facet (I did not check the Felucca facet there), the most of any shard. (The next highest number was Izumo with 113). On the same date, Siege had 58 stocked NPC vendors in player houses in Magincia. By comparison, Atlantic only had 63 on the same day and Lake Superior came in next highest for North American shards with 51. Europa had 45. (Napa had none.)

Welcome to Google Docs (July 9, 2012 New Magincia census results)

 

[Eärendil]

And who said they don´t listen? Hehe

 

[claudia-fjp]

This I fail to understand as I own a luna house on Napa. It might be that you decide to charge rent to place a vendor where I do not but given that the value once placed on these plots can hardly be near 5 years back I can not understand this argument. Like I had said before it is not hard to get a free or cheap vendor on 90% of the shards with ATL being the exception if there is one. My luna house is empty for the most part and I think only two people actually fill those vendors anymore.

Focus on improvements that might bring old players back. Those people know and, might, use these search engines but they didn't stop playing because they had to go to a website they stopped because the game either got lame, the speeders ruined the pvp, factions died over night or 100 other reasons but a search feature was hardly the nail in those coffins.

I know half a dozen good small vendor houses outside of Luna. People like to run shops out of their houses no matter where they are even when half the Luna houses are unused, bugged, not stocked, or whatever the case for any given server is. Anybody should be able to sell stuff at any given time without jumping though hoops. Since an Auction House style system isn't in the cards for this game then the closest thing to it is a server wide vendor search. People shouldn't be forced to rent from someone else who charges them and at any given moment decides they need to cancel all the contracts just to redo their house. There's much to be said about being your own shopkeeper.

 

[blinkdog]

True. But making it more accessible will only add to the undercutting IMO.

The tiny handful of oblivious perma-newbs who don't know what a search site is are not some potentially devastating economic force that we need to worry about. If they gave a crap about the economy they'd have heard about search sites by now.

It's certainly the standard for themepark games but UO is a world. Vendor search/Auction houses and non physical gold just chip away at that little last rock of immersion we have left in the game.

If you've been managing to ignore vendor search for all these years then feel free to keep ignoring it. I don't see why you should care whether it's hosted by EA or by some duping goldseller website. Nor do I see why everyone else should be forced to use those goldseller websites just because ignoring a vendor search NPC (or whatever) would ruin Hen's precious sense of immersion.

There is no argument to be had about whether we should have vendor search or not. None at all. Vendor search has been here for years and will always be here. If you oppose EA adding their own vendor search then you MUST explain why you think leaving control of the economy in the hands of dupers and goldsellers is good for UO.

 

[Bazer]

Got my room booked