Posted on UOHerald.com

FoF: KR Edition
Jeremy Dalberg
08 Jun 2007 21:25:34 EST

This week's Five on Friday has info on how to customize your KR interface, the official minimum specs, and more!

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June 8, 2007

"When is the 2D client going away?"
Not for quite a while. While it would ideal to only need to support one client, we will continue to support 2D until the player base chooses to move on to Kingdom Reborn. We do not have a set date, and we expect that it will be in the far future.

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"How do I make the KR client look like my old setup?"

There are a couple of different options you can use to duplicate the standard 2D layout:

To set up the "Black area": Go to "Main Menu", then "User Settings"; check "Flexible Desktop", and click "Apply". Then click on the bottom right corner of the play window and drag it around til you have as much black space as you want.

To run in windowed mode: Same options menu, make sure "Use fullscreen" is unckecked AND the Windowed Resolution dropdown is set to something smaller than your monitor resolution. NOTE: as of the current build, there is no "Maximize window" option such that you can use the full screen but have your task bar visible. (This is something we're currently working on.)

To have lots and lots of spell icons on the screen: Right click on an empty area of your main hotbar and choose "New Hotbar". You can click on the lower right hand corner of the new hotbar to shrink it to as small as one box, or flip it so it's aligned vertically. Repeat as needed.

To get a reagent/bandaid counter: Create a new hotbar as above, and drag your reagents/bandaids/etc into it. Park it somewhere convenient. Presto! NOTE: As of this build, the counter will only update if the items are in the top level of your pack. Thanks to Sahra Swift for this screenshot!

To toggle between backpack views: On the upper left of your backpack window is a small button. Click that to toggle between slotted, list, and freeform modes.

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"Why does KR use 100% of my cpu?"
Darkscribe gets all technical:

"As with almost all games (except for the quite generous UO legacy client), KR wants to run as smoothly as possible. It assumes that in order to get that smoothness, you are willing to turn off background programs and allow the CPU to concentrate on the game and running it as best as possible.

We are optimizing and make things more efficient, so UOKR will become less greedy in a patch or two.

However, one way you can improve performance is to lower your resolution to 800 X 600 and play in full screen mode. If you experiment with resolutions and between windowed and non-windowed mode, you’ll find the ideal set up for your system."

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"Do I have to pay to get the KR Beta client?"

No! You need to have a Fileplanet account, but it is free - you can subscribe to Fileplanet if you like and get faster downloads and other advantages, but you do not need a paid account with them to download the client. You do need a playable UO account, but Fileplanet is offering a 14-day trial as well, and you can use that trial account with the KR beta.

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"What are the Kingdom Reborn Minimum Specs?"

OS: Windows XP, Vista
Internet: 56.6 Kbps or faster Internet connection is required
CPU: 1 GHz
RAM: 512 MB or more
Hard Drive: 4 GB or more free space
Video: DirectX 9.0 compatible 64 MB video card (supports only 800x600 resolution for all 32 MB video cards)
Sound: DirectX 9.0 compatible

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Candle of Love Progress!

All non-Japanese servers have successfully lit the flame on at least one facet EXCEPT for the following (and they're SO CLOSE!):

Oceania
Origin

So far, NO shard has lit the Candle on Felucca, so if you haven't gotten your quest done, it is still possible! When all shards have lit the Candle of Love on at least one facet, the event will be turned off via a publish.

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Looking to get into the industry? Love UO and want to personally help make it the best game it can be? Have some writing and scripting skills? Well this could be your lucky day! We have openings on the UO team for designers! Experience is preferred, but this could be your chance to get a foot in the industry door without starting in the CS or QA pit. Get your resume together and email it to EDalberg AT ea DOT com, with the subject line "UO Designer Resume."

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Today's KR patch fixes tons of annoying bugs and a couple of worse-than-annoying crashes - and next week's patch will be even better. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who is helping us make KR awesome!


- Jeremy

None of the pvpers are going to switch to the new client so I dont know how they plan to get 95% of the users to switch.

Maybe once they get more bugs worked out, PvP ppl will change over.

It's the lag not really the bugs (even tho bugs are a consern).

In pvp connection speed is everything and since you lag in KR more than 2D, why would you want to play in KR?

So everyone lags the same

Vepl

Yeah, but EA said they are not switching till 95% turn over. I imagine pvpers consist of more than 5% of the users

But if they do switch, then everyone is SOL lol

Actually they haven't given a figure. The number 95% was for illustration purposes only. I'm not sure what the number will be but if they keep to there guns on making SA only for KR. They may hit the magic number before you know it

Vepl

Indeed, which they need to do. EA doesnt have to worry about the ps farming pvp'ers, since this isn't a game to them it's a career, they wont leave

You guys REALLY make me want to post my list of congruencies between current team efforts and previous teams. Talk about parallels, backpedaling, back sliding, reversions, sidesteps, etc. The ONLY area not redone by the current team is factions. And 75%(ish) of them are reversions.

This leads into ben and DiP's current conversation. Said it b4, say it again, wait until the release after SA. That will dictate the future of KR.