with links to pics and a video


UO Stratics is excited to share a featured article from our very own Hendri, UO Stratics Great Lakes Reporter, after attending the recent Town Hall Atlanta Meeting. Read on for all the details:


Video of Atlanta Town Hall Meeting on You Tube!

Our fantastic and devoted Stratics Origin Senior News Reporter, Braelynn Aria, attended this weekend's Atlanta Town Hall meeting and was given permission to videotape the event for us!

You can find the first installment at this link!

Thanks Braelynn for all your very hard work on this! Thanks to EA/Mythic for allowing all of us to view the event as well.

Jeremy where can I buy that shirt your wearing? I've wanted a shirt like that since forever ago and i've never seen one for sale.

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We gave those shirts out to the first 50 people in the door - so... show up early!

And I wasn't actually that tired, I just have the fastest blink reflex in the hemisphere, so my eyes are always at least half closed in photos

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My son and I both got one, so must have been one of the lucky few that made it in early enough to get one. When counting right before the door opened, think I counted 40 people in front of me, and at least 60 behind me, but the line ran out the front door of D&B so counldn't really tell, but if I were to guess, there must have been 200-250 people crammed in that room, felt fortunately to be sitting 2 chairs back from the stage...

Just so everyone knows, the video does NOT do the new game justice, from where I was sitting the display screen was giant, and the detail was that of a nice 3D client, and though the cows and pigs were sensational upgrades.... MAN... gotta tell ya...... the earth ele's ROCK (pun intended),,, They look like big bolders stuck together kinda like the ones in in one of the earlier Ultima Series. I sure hope they dont hit as hard as those did... I felt so lucky to be in the first showing of KR, I think it was also the first time in Atlanta, and I checked on the way home, only 12 miles from my house...

......................... love the look, love the zoom in and out, love the earth and fire eles, love the speed compared to the old 3d client, loved the gargoyles (though the dwarves were kinda cute, reminded me of the dwarf in lord of the rings, loved him) and especially loved Darkscribes sword (when he could find it)...... a very incredible enjoyable experience, glad to count myself a part of this for the last 7 years.... It is a much a part of my RL as my great job, and wonderful family...

Keep up the great work guys.... nice to see what you are doing, t-shirt and food didnt hurt either...

New pretty client 10 millon dollars, inventory bag, priceless

[Some updates have been added to the list so I am posting the complete list as edited today in the original thread[ sorry I havent time to pick out all the individual changes , but I have highlighetd a few I spotted and yus I am being lazy,as I have gone dizzy the last few days viewing all the news that has come from the town hall meeting ]



UO KINGDOM REBORN INFO:

- UOKR releases spring, UOSA releases summer

- UOKR is free

- UOKR is only a client/graphic upgrade... no new content

- UOAssist will NOT work with UOKR (Darkscribe said a complete rebuild of UOAssist would be needed for it to work)
NOTE: Apparently Tugsoft has committed to said rebuild.

- Legacy clients retired when adoption of UOKR is "around 95%" (Darkscribe said he doesn't know how long it will take... "months to a year"?)

- UOKR will have an updated New Player experience (this is the closest thing to "content" that UOKR is getting)

- Something called "Bright Paths" is used to guide new players

- Beta will be "pretty open" and lots of people should get in

- Some shard-specific GM placed objects may not make the UOKR transfer (Darkscribe said anything that wasn't "placed properly" may be in danger of vanishing. They expect to take care of some of these during beta.)

- You can zoom waaay out, but this may not make it into the game (Darkscribe said it was very system intensive)

- You can also zoom waaay in, but they are going to lock it before the graphics start to look too pixelated

- Character sheet will display ALL relevent character data (HCI, LRC, etc)

- Backpack is now a window, with items and names listed in rows

- You can still drag to and from backpack

- They may institute double-clicking items to loot them

- A Loot All button was brought up, the devs seemed receptive, but agreed that there was a lot of room for abuse (Loot All in a limited fashion may be available)

- Interface is still in design phase, nothing was final yet

- Classic interface is a maybe

- Hotbars are not movable right now, but may be

- Planning for 5 total hotbars, maybe more if needed

- No more random icons on the screen

- Potion in a hotbar will link to the next like potion when used

- Paperdoll has a seperate Clothes and Armor tab to make management easier. This does NOT affect the current system or the layering system.

- UI Skinning a possibility, but not at release of UOKR

- Spell/Ability Icons may or may not be colorized

- 512MB memory recommended, some success with 256MB

- 3D Effects will all have sliders to turn up or down

- Targeting is a whirly 3D effect

- New spells all looked reminiscent of their former selves... not a disco upgrade

- Earth Elementals are HUGE... they smash with bolders now

- They are referencing the original design docs of critters as they upgrade the art

- They hope to stick with a Teen rating with new graphics

- Some vegetation art from the screenshots aren't planned to be real items (watermelons, etc)


UO STYGIAN ABYSS INFO:

- UO Stygian Abyss is going to be a full content expansion

- Gargoyles will be the new race

- Gargoyle females will be explained

- Gargoyles will do "cool stuff" in the game

- Hints that crafters will appreciate this expansion


OTHER NOTES:

- The Dev team walked away knowing that people want anything that could possibly be stackable, stackable

- Legacy client and UOKR client seem like they will be protected by the same anti-cheat method on release. Darkscribe wouldn't talk much about it, but impressed that the legacy client wouldn't continue to be a scripter/duper's haven.

- PvP was named a "high priority" during the talk

- Darkscribe mentioned that PvP needed to have more reason, and they are working on something to make it more attractive (very vague)

- Agreed to look into Castle/Keep customization

- Sitting on a bed will be possible (they were surprised that people cared about this)

- Customer Service revamp of some kind is coming. It was going to be the 5th Five on Friday question but did not get final authorization. Sounds like Customer Service is going to be signing off on some kind of standard response plan... Queue #6 was mentioned and explained as "a long story"

posted by DragonHead Lead Designer


Hey folks,

I just read the original post and some of the following threads.

With all respect to Hendri, I have a bit of an issue with the last paragraph.

It reads as if I had alot to do with the Richardo Trial...

Although I help to schedule the live team, and have input on the events, the Richardo Trial was Draconi's baby.

He worked long and hard on that event, from conception through arduous writing of scripts to an impressive and climactic end.

The design doc really was huge!

My interest in UO Theater started 8-9 years ago, but (asside from being excited and supportive about Draconi's idea and giving encouraging words) I had little effect on the Richardo Trial event.

Just wanna give credit where credit is due.

Asside from that, the Town Hall event was really fun. I met lots of really cool people, and was able to stand up there in front of ... what?... 160 of you for the first time, without fainting or studdering... well... much.

Thanx to all, and thanx to Hendri for posting the article.

Nick 'DragonHead' Corea