[UO Herald] Producer's Letter - April 2010

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Original Thread

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[Cal_Mythic]

Cal...

You may one day make a believer out of me. However as always... you know I'll have to wait and see it for myself.

And I'll be right there with my rotten tomatoes if you mess up! *plucks a couple heads of lettuce too*

I'm trying that patience thing... ... However it don't go very well with me you know.

*taps foot*

heheh I know ... and for the record I like ranch dressing!

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Cal, in your last letter a couple months ago you spoke of internal discussions about a Classic Shard. You said:



Are there any updates about the Classic Shard? Has the decision been made or are you still in the pondering phase? When can we expect to know more? Given how hugely popular the idea of a Classic Shard has been on these boards over the past few months, has that influenced your decision?
Thanks

Actually this is a loooooong standing discussion for UO since AoS as far as I know. I'm sure someone will be more than content to share with me if I'm wrong.

Yes we are still discussing it. I can't give you the laundry list of features, but there are actually battles between Bonnie and Derek and I twice a week on how to proceed. I can tell you however, that the priority is to fix what we've set out to do for these next few months ... and to support the plan of rebuilding Magincia ... AND solving the perception and actual impact of speedhackers in the game.

We've made the business case for it a few times, it honestly comes down to committing AND making sure we can support it. I know this doesn't answer the question completely, but please know it's all I can tell you at this time.

 

[Cal_Mythic]

If I understand correctly this Publish actually features adjustments to player movement and marks the start of anti-cheating methods' testing?

I would appreciate a clear, simple answer Mr. Cal... If there was a reason to have one! However..
What the answer really is does not even matter! I should make myself some pop-corn and watch what happens when cheaters start again with their usual arguements about privacy, pointlessness and the game becoming a waste-land.. And following, for when the Devs submit to these "pleas" and stop talking about it.

rolleyes: Maybe I'm being cynical but just take a look at the past and tell me I don't have a very good reason for it even if you find it offensive.

Personally I still will re-activate my account but I don't need(and don't appreciate) false promises to motivate me. It's a bit disrespectfull, I know exactly what kind of situation I'm jumping in. For all your changes so far, few are as potent as the more simple things you have over-looked such as timers on all potions and so on. I am not opening any can of worms but everyone reading this thread likely has a clue about all I could mention.

Still.. Thanks for listening and letting us know about your plans. Better than having FOFs.

Actually I want to be very careful with making "empty promises". And I'm certain that those on Test Center are meeting varied results on our testing of the movement system. We are taking notes right now and Derek is working through the player inputs.

The intent is to make certain that everyone moves at the same rate. This is the first part.

The 2nd Stage which is 3rd party program detection is on internal test. And as mentioned in the producer's letter we are not going to tell players when we are taking it live... but we will take it through test center as well.

Why would we give the hackers a heads up?

Also .. I Looove Cynicism ... it goes really well with Ti ... a drink with Jam and bread ... that will bring us back to ...

Erm ..

Oh also ... there are very few things I find offensive. Calling us out on "our stuff" is not bad... it shows you care. Now ... if you're being mean just to be mean, that's not nice. (If that were the case I would not have responded).

Now of course, we can't fix everything for everyone. We try to stick to several major things, and then add other features into our "Dev Bucket" of additional features players ask (and yes we have a large list).

I hope this answers your question .. happy posting. Oh and "Cal" is fine ... Mr. Cal makes it sound like your sitting me at a restaurant for food I'm not gonna like.

 

[Cal_Mythic]

I'm a bit disappointed to see there is no additional information regarding any upcoming changes for Bards.

This from the Producer's Letter: "In addition, we’re turning our attention to Bards. I’m not mentioning WHY we are, but let’s just say there are some tales will need to be told with a bit of style, and the there will be some things done best with a “well encouraged” group."

Are there new Bard abilities, spells, or just a one-time event for Bards (blah!). When was the last time Bards actually got anything useful... enticement to discord change?

We are going through the 3rd iteration of the design review on the Bard changes. We will not give more detail until these are confirmed internally. Also, historically we save that info a few days before we go to Test Center.

The reason for mentioning anything in a producer's letter is to state that it's slated for the next publish, or to update the status of former items (such as the status on movement or 3rd party program detection).

Suffice it to say that our focus is to make Bard's if not instrumental (pun intended) for a successful group .. at least a a forethought in everyone's mind for adventuring in Britannia.

- c