26th August 2007, 02:28 PM
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 | Notes from Seattle NOTE: That things are subject to change and any and all mistakes are mine, and not Jeremy's and Draconi's. A lot of this information is 3rd hand so allow a large tolerance and forgiveness please:-) Having said that the general overview of the meeting: First 45 minutes they discussed KR for the audience, I was surprised at how many people still dont play KR let alone those who hadn't even tried it. There was nothing new about KR, except for the make as quest item. Now thats not a new feature in KR, but I hadn't noticed that, and it will be very usefull when completing crafting question in heartwood. Make 10 tinker tools, make 10 tinker tools, click quest giver, DONE, that will be EASY! Then we did a QnA for 45 min. Then we got a demo of the Dark Knight: Draconi showed an actual demo of the Dark Knight newbie challenge and it really worked, except for the fact that draconi's all 69-71 skill char was NOT good enough, he died at least 3 times if it werent for his Dev cheats. IT does look cool though, and Draconi was really excited about the new KR AI that it introduced. the DK which has nothing to do with Darth Vadar he sheepishly proclaimed, has 3 special moves. It has bumrush, (literally what the command is called) where the DK simply rushed the char and builds up strength( whatever that means) before packing a wallop at the player. Then the DK has a "healing stance" where it well falls down and heals it self of at least 50% heath, ALSO you can interrupt the heals by attacking it, but it does this pushback trick, which is cool, but would be anoying too :-P Lastly the DK has a lighting strike which will erupt lighting 3 times on the square you are standing on. Soooooooo move. They reason Draconi is so excited about the DK in KR (if you can follow that) is becuase ALL these special moves are precieded by "tells" the monster will signal throw a move or gesture, or some such WHICH special move it will do and you can anticipate, MOVE or attack as the case may be. I can see that being really cool on all the new monster. More dynamic, and more realisitic, ish.. less point and click, which is cool. Then we got a demo of Stygian Abyss. More clarification on SA, no real demoing per se. We saw a handful of monsters, 3 skills, and learned there would be new quests, room for lots of player housing that "conformed" to the queens idea of gargoyle zoning code :-P. The monsters looked great, we are getting Medusa a minipeerless, whatever that means (she is evidently an archer). There are more beetles, tamables (probably ridable but they denied confirming that), a scorpion that looked totally mechanical. SOOOO my guess is that we finally get to craft worthwhile followers, like the golem. I really really really really really hope I am right. There was a fire/ lava lizard creature, because evidently the abyss, has well, lava at the bottom. The entire map will be about the same size as T2A. With plenty of room for housing (cause we need more sprawl??? heh). Skills: There are going to be (at least?) three new skills which we only saw an icon for so its mostly conjecture as to what they are, but having said that. They are a new combat skill which a weapon that looks a bit like a triangular boomerang, but I actually bet its a new sort of "wicked" bladed skill with probable magic effects? The next skill was an obvious gargoyle crafting skill with a nice looking forge icon. The last skill is a Caduceus of Mercury looking symbol, which is to say two intertwined snakes curling up, between their mouths is a magical? sphere of some sort. I am least sure, but most curious about this skill, I would imagine from popular culture that it will be a healer-esque skill, maybe an animal tamer skill, along with vetting? No real idea. Lastly, all skills will be learnable by non gargoyles!!! The dungeon will introduce a main big city, and several smaller ones (most likely). Your gargoyle character will start there of course. You CANNOT play a gargoyle in the 2d client (fine by me:-P ). There will be monsters of all skill ranges, so its not going to be just a elite Doom dungeon. It WILL be the biggest dungeon created to date. And now the drum roll please, Crafting in SA will be awesome AND fixed!! Now what this means, is that rare resources will FINALLY have differing effects and inherent values. This is the whole reason for the resource spawn change. They *think* that by the time SA comes out there will be smaller stockpiles of the rare resources, that presumably will be needed to craft new l33t items. (I disagree and think there is SOO much stockpiled, but prices WILL go up). As for the l33t items, Draconi specifically stated that crafting WOULD be usefully again, and the items that can be created will directly compete with not only loot but artifacts, I of course do not expect them to be easy or readily made. But it would be awesome if my characters could finally proudly equip items made by my crafter. This bar none is the most exciting aspect of SA for me, it sounds like they have put a lot of thought into how items have changed the game, and they want to level the playing field for crafters. I know I am forgetting things, but I will now describe the questions I asked, and the answers I got. In no particular order. Why was KR released when it was, well hem ha, YES there was pressure from somewhere else. Not surprising but I just wanted to clarify why something so rough (and improved tremendously since "gold") went "gold" in the first place. Market realities and all that. I asked why we could not get hard numbers on shard activity and enrollment, and they said EA policy was to not give that out. Done, then I joked about being only 1 in 5 who actually played 3d and even thought it's dead, they still cannot release the numbers, but Jeremy joked it wasnt much more than that, alas. Given that I really enjoy my bushido pally swords as a fun PvMer. I was disappointed to hear that the bushido evasion nerf is not planned to be reevaluated. IF there was a huge outcry I am sure they would look at it, but I guess for the sake of PVP PvMers will by hurt for now. But the real subtext of this answer was that they both were unhappy with how PvMers are able to solo dragons, and balrons, let alone peerless, so if ANYTHING it sounds like they want to make the monsters even harder. As they explained it, they want to tweak PVP because they have no control over how a player builds a template, but they can tweak the monsters all they want to balance PvM which makes sense. I am very unhappy if they make the "mid level" monsters tougher, I think for my char dragons are balrons are PLENTY tough I still die a LOT. I would concede that anyone soloing peerless and the DF are gimpy, but I think it gets talked about a lot, I am not sure how many players and characters exist that can actually do it. I feel its a bit over blown, because it gets talked about a lot but how often does it actually happen??? I mentioned lowering the timer on evasion commiserate with higher skill, but prolly wont happen. I mentioned that several forum threads talk about the free trial accounts as a way scammers and scripters get a lot of their work done, Jeremy said they are very aware of this and are considering what to do. So good. In passing Jeremy also said they are very much aware of how lame it is that stone and frigging sand does not stack, now I don't mine for either, but I kept hearing how frustrating it is, and she said its definitely being worked on. Lastly 10th Anniversary stuff, the anniversary is around the 25 of September, and they joked because its an anniversary they cant exactly push it back, so expect it around then. It sounds modest but exciting, it seems Jeremy's UO focus is restoring UO in a historical context. She is a big fan of the entire Ultima series, and so the 10th Anniversary will rightly look/ incorporate stuff from the Ultima cannon/ history. What this means practically? is that probably No new vet rewards AT the release of 10 Anniversary, but possibly later. BUT it does mean that there will be a cool revisiting of virtues, now this IS NOT the virtue ability/ gump, but something new with the shrines. Evidently each shrine IF You meditate and pray in an appropriate manner, will give you a temporary buff. They were not too specific on what kind of things, but my sincere hope would be maybe an alacrity scroll buff?? Cool no? And each virtue will provide a small temporary buff, we will have to see what kinds. Possibly and ingame necklace would help perform the prayer better, or make it last longer? ALSO there will be a RL ankh necklace that Jeremy is excited about for 10th Anniversary. Snooping in KR. Their hope is to make it so snooping in KR only sees the legacy view, but I frankly think thats stupid. And unfortunately when the engineers coded it up, it kinda broke everything about containers, so its being looked at, but I know, even thought I dont have one, thieves need loven. And they know that too. They know its silly you cant skin a chest as a chest, and a bag as a bag, but its not a matter of JUST xml but also the scripting language, and they are not sure how much they want to release. Of course they SHOULD release everything. Its not really like a person can then hack the game, the worst thing they could do is ruin their own client interface. There will NOT be support for voice chat. Gargoyles will have STONE armor. Sounds cool. Commas in checks, Draconi has a hack for commas in checks, but they decided, rightly so to do it the right way and internationalize the code in the KR client, so that its more updateable changeable in the future and it would work for foreign users, soooooo it will take a bit longer. I know I forgot stuff but its a start. Overall I got the STRONG impression that both Jeremy and Draconi were already aware of most of our concerns. It seems their job is largely triage. Which is to say, they have finite resources, say less than Warhammer does???? :-P and they have to constantly decide what gets fixed first, hackers, Or KR crashing? Its a hard choice, but thats the definition of triage. SOOOO what this means is the more stink made on stratics the more likely things will get looked at, its that simple, it seemed. I am excited that both Jeremy and Draconi are very into the game, they are as excited and play as much as any hardcore fan boy, so I really do believe the game is in good hands, it happens to suffer the vagrancies of market reality and the limitation of human developers and their only having 24 hours in a day too. THANKS JEREMY DRACONI, and EA Mythic for supporting the fans by conducting town halls, the mexican food was good too! Last edited by Daithi; 26th August 2007 at 02:51 PM.. |
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26th August 2007, 02:52 PM
| #3 |
| Ronin UOForums Bouncer  Join Date: Jan 2006 Shard: Black Water Raiders, Azeroth
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 | Re: Notes from Seattle Agreed, Thanks. I'm assuming the new lands are going to have Trammel rulesets, correct? Or was that not specified?   Thanks again Maddux! Adri: women don't discuss men while in the bathroom, we sacrifice small animals and smoke tampons *rolls eyes* |
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26th August 2007, 03:17 PM
| #4 | |
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Quote:
Good question, I would assume yes definitely Trammel, BUT Draconi specifically stated that PvP would NOT be left out, that there would be stuff for our red, or PvPers to do in the new dungeon, soooo not sure what that means. We discussed a battlegrounds/ arena idea, which they said would be technically challenging, but maybe not if they directly incorporated it into SA???? | |
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26th August 2007, 05:38 PM
| #5 | |
| Knowledge is power; Guard it well!  Join Date: Apr 2007 Shard: Lake Superior
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Glad you could attend, seems to me you enjoyed yourself, you slacker.  Good report. Going to ask some follow up questions, maybe they will jog your memory.  Quote:
I know that this last part was just your impression but what happened to the largest investment of men and resources since the game was bagan? Money all gone into the money pit of KR? More hands need on Warhammer? Anyway good reporting!  Thanks for looking out! Hey baldguy could we get a new thread for questions for austin if anyone is going?Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment Last edited by Warsong of LS; 26th August 2007 at 05:43 PM.. Reason: spelling | |
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26th August 2007, 07:13 PM
| #6 |
| Forum Legend  Join Date: Oct 2006 Shard: Lake Superior
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Thanks for writing that all up Daithi  Warsong are you going to be able to make any of the meet ups? Vepl |
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26th August 2007, 07:17 PM
| #7 |
| Banned  Join Date: Aug 2007 Shard: Siege
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Any word on factions? |
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26th August 2007, 07:31 PM
| #8 |
| Knowledge is power; Guard it well! Join Date: Apr 2007 Shard: Lake Superior
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Nah I was at the one in indianapolis back in 2004. I work really weird hours and am on 24 hour call out. So its hard to plan a get away. While I get vacation every year, they have to be planned a year ahead, company policy. So since I have worked my way up the seniority list so I get near the top of vacations pick. I usually take christmas off to be with my family that lives near chicago. I just keep throwing out any questions on this page or others, like I said before, I do not care about credit for the questions just what type of answers and actions on them. Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment |
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26th August 2007, 09:32 PM
| #10 | |
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| Re: Notes from Seattle Quote:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please tell me you are kidding? Draconi is happy they got tells in? There were tells on my nes' mike tyson's super punchout. This is the super new AI? Thats all? And that a 71 skill character can not take down the new player experience miniboss? What do they want everyone to gm everything before they challenge? Just asking? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No seriously he was excited. And I think cooler things can come from the new mobs, but its definitely not new LoL But really that just speaks to the incredible age of 2d that it cant do ANYTHING like it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Was there any mention of the number of quests? What type are they going to be? Are the new quest type we have not seen before, or are they like every quest already in game (kill x, bring me x,swap items with various npcs for x)? We need more housing? UO can not keep players as it is. Or is the housing going to be turned off until it is needed? Cause there are still areas of Malas that have not been opened to housing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- More quests? is that a number? They did say the quests would be more than just kill x of y, or deliver y to z. There will be those, but there will also be "save the garogyle queen" or something like that my memory is a bit fuzzy they didnt spend much time on quest at all, but I got the impression there would be more types than we have now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ahh if non-gargoyles can learn all 3 new skills, what is the point of adding in gargoyles, are there racial bonuses? If not an any race can use learn the new skills, why not have a human/elf to gargoyle quest then, for people that want to roleplay a gargoyole, without having to delete a character (and buying those power/stat scrolls again)? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dunno, they look cool? Dunno. Didn't ask about quest conversion. I am happy that I can add gargoyle crafting to my crafter though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not gonna hold my breath on this, crafting has been broke for too long. It would be nice. The smart scripter will just hold their goods off the market until the release of SA, if crafting is all that again, people will need those resources, already prices are going up. Can not even imagine what they will cost if crafting is fixed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah yeah yeah but come on, this presupposes the only way to get resources is to buy from scripters, that just aint so, ....... right? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glad they answered your questions, but I told you the answers already But seriously what market realities for KR? There is no box on the shelf, it was a "free" download. Where was the market pressure? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A boss who sits 2000 miles away if I understood correctly, who decides what "market pressure" is. Heh. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well you still can use evasion, just not for every blow now, just stick and move. Like in the old days before bushido! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- But I LIKE slugging it out without magic resist *whiney voice and all* running is for pansies and people who actually know what they are doing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok I am calling BS on this answer, after all these years of trial account abuse. EAMythic is just now considering what to do? WTHeck is up with that? Every other MMORPG has restrictions on their trial accounts, while the hell after 10 years, UO is still behind on this. It is not that hard! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agreed, but I will say I didnt even know about this problem until last week when I read up on questions/ rants. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The anniversary has been late before. Why the change to we have to be on time now? Is it definitely a necklace? Would not a talisman be better and more appropriate? Plus as a talisman you would not mess up your suit build. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I dont think this is finalized because Jeremy wasnt sure what Wikia had planned, BUT my understanding is, equip necklace, get buff, equip whatever you want, and off you go, BUT maybe that wont work, dunno. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seems like thieves are still getting the short end of the stick, its only be how long now? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since Trammel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- They did not want to release any of it, but Darkscribe put his foot in his mouth at that first q&a session about KR. When he said that while it was not planned, it sounded cool and he would look into it. Thats why it was rushed, and not very precise, unlike some other UI tools. Now I do not mod, but I have a few friends that are into it, according to them, you best know what the heck you are doing, its not for first time modders. Maybe it will get better with some additions like EAMythic stated they would release. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totally agreed, I tried to figure out how to put all the stats I wanted in one block of the character sheet, only to fail, I asked and Draconi said, yeah you cant do that. Ooops -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gargoyle only, or can anyone wear stone armor? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Impression was gargoyle only, being that they live in a cave and are all big and strong n all. But no idea. P.S. I forgot to mention that Draconi emphatically did NOT answer the question on whether gargoyles can fly, which seems to me to indicate they CAN. Just my guess. Glamorous, NO word on factions, sorry. | |
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Adam
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Thats all? And that a 71 skill character can not take down the new player experience miniboss? What do they want everyone to gm everything before they challenge? Just asking?
