[Community News] HoC With the Developers of Ultima Online

[Tabbitha]

source

House of Commons Chat With the Developers of Ultima Online

Please join us on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, for a House of Commons chat with the developers of Ultima Online.

The chat will begin at 5pm PDT /7:00pm CST /8:00pm EDT / Midnight UTC/GMT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC. channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our new Downloads section to choose a suitable client.

Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

* stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
* irc.gamers-irc.org port 6668, USA - Colorado
* irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
* stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here.

You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

How to ask questions at the chat: Type /msg [QT]NICKNAME and your question.

Please send questions only to the QT's (moderators) because questions sent to anyone other than the QT's will not make it into the lineup.

General chat relating to Ultima Online will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #Ultima-Online.

We hope to see you there!

[athos_uo]

The original post is corrected:

The chat will begin at 5pm PDT /7:00pm CST /8:00pm EDT / Midnight UTC/GMT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

[Tabbitha]

Thankyou athos_uo.

[Tabbitha]

Log for Tonight's UO House of Commons Chat

09/20/07

<@Brannoc> you may begin sending questions to [QT]Phineus by using /msg [QT]Phineus My Questinon here

<@Lieal> Welcome to today's House of Commons chat with the developers of Ultima Online!

<@Lieal> To submit a question type /msg [QT]Phineus My question here! - questions sent to the developers will not be answered! We'll be doing a general chat today so any questions on the game are welcome. Multiple submissions of the same question will not increase their likelihood of being answered.

<@Lieal> We'll begin with a brief introduction from our guests and then jump straight into the questions. The full logs will be available at http://uo.stratics.com shortly afterward.

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Hey, all, I'm Jeremy, your community manager

<@Leurocian> I'm Leurocian Lead Systems Designer for all things UO

<@SupreemEA> Hey guys, Derek here, I'm a lead engineer on the UO team.

<@Lieal> *Magnus* Question: The new items on Origin and TC1 (That seem to be Virtue based.). Are they going to be permenent or are they only for the next couple weeks/months, once they go live?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> The new items will be around for a while - we haven't decided for certain if they will be permanently available in this form or not, but they should be up long enough for most people to get a fair crack at them.

<@Lieal> *DermottLS* A while back Wilki started a thread asking about BODs, is there any update that can be given on the outcome of that thread?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> That's something we've been mulling over, but there aren't any changes on the schedule in the immediate future.

<@Lieal> *Magnus* Question: Can we get some information about what is coming up in future patches for Kingdom Reborn? Last HoC you said dances were coming, how long until they and the other great features you have planned are going to go live?

<@SupreemEA> We have lots of plans for the KR client. First of all we are working on fixing tons of bugs. We have finally nailed down the cursor disappearing bug which should go into the next patch.

<@SupreemEA> There's a ton of general UI improvements being worked on. Lots of polish for the existing UI elements. We are also working on making the UI fully customizable including the scripting side of it.

<@SupreemEA> Finally we have decided to provide a legacy art option. This will allow users to use the old art for the game. This option does not include terrain, mobs, and some other miscellaneous stuff.

<@Lieal> *Atoyota* My question, Has the new facelift made existing populations more active and helped to bring back old players as well as new ones?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> We've really just started advertising KR - you may have seen the banner ads on various sites lately - and we have a number of plans to encourage folks to come back as we continue to work on and improve the new client.

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> So the effect is really just beginning to show

<@Lieal> *[MMOGMedia]Viceroy* Do you think we might ever see a day where there is consistency in terms of item properties given to crafted weapons? For example if I craft two iron katanas that they have the same exact properties?

<@Leurocian> Since we have plans to improve crafting with Stygian Abyss - as we've already hinted at during recent Town Halls - it seems reasonable that way may revisit other areas of crafting as well for improvement. No promises on this, but what you're asking is a good suggestion.

<@Lieal> *Freja* I like KR and try to use it. The reaction from everyone I know is that they won't use it. Why do you think this has happened?

<@SupreemEA> First, you guys demand nothing but perfection from us and that is good. However, the legacy client has had 10 years of love put into it. Tack on the additional features of third party programs like UOAssist and that makes for a really big challenge for us.

<@SupreemEA> I personally love the KR client and it is really getting solid. Alot of players might have tried the client in beta and decided that it wasn't very good. I encourage these players to try the client again now since so much has changed since then.

<@SupreemEA> Finally, I have to say that we aren't done yet. The development team here is commited to making Kingdom Reborn the best UO client ever!

<@Lieal> *Magnus* Question: Can we get some more information on what we will be getting for the tenth anniversery?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Log in to test center - or origin - and hang out in some of the original dungeons for a while Also, there will be gifts handed out the day of, but I want to save *something* as a surprise!

<@Lieal> *[UORadio]DJLebowski* ok, I want to know what the developers are doing with the 2d cleint, with all the focus on the new KR, will they still keep up with the 2d? Dont you guys think that cutting out the 2d will result in less people play?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> The 2D client itself isn't getting actively worked on at the moment - KR needs more love right now - but we are certainly making 2D-playable content. 2D should continue to be a perfectly viable choice for a good long time.

<@Lieal> *[UORadio]DJCrest-OnAir* For me it seems that since R.Garriott left the game it has not had a clear direction or strategy how it should be - often changing intentions and neglecting aims from earlier devteams - Is there something like an essay or an description summarising the general bases and intentions of Ultima Online compared to competitor games?

<@SupreemEA> The development team of UO has certainly undergone many changes since its inception. I do feel that the current team does have a good handle on what needs to be done. We want to ensure the future of UO by making the KR client awesome, we want to continue to bring you guys live event type stuff *cough* Halloween *cough*, and we want to continue to bring you guys new content that doesn't deviate too much from the fiction of the Ultima worl

<@Lieal> *Admiral_Ruffie* Jeremy, how would you characterize EA management's support for UO in light of Darkscribe's departure?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> While we were all sad to see Darkscribe go - he's been an incredible asset to the team - both EA's overall support, and the EA Mythic studio's support, has not wavered a bit. Chris Rabideau (who is shy, but will poke his head out soon) is a competent, experienced producer who continues to help the team do great things for UO.

<@Lieal> *Dor* Are there any plans to return active support to those historical portions of UO which now lie neglected? (i.e. 'blessed' establishments and so forth) I've had no success this year, with requests to replace stablehands and other functionality

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Some programs are gone, never to return - some may come back in altered form. We are not currently blessing any new establishments - however, if you have issues with maintenance of an existing one, shoot me an email (jdalberg at ea) with the details, and I'll see what I can do.

<@Lieal> *[UORadio]AngelFire* is the KR client ever going to be stand alone where the automap and uoassist functionality are incorporated without having to use the extra programs

<@SupreemEA> Between UOAutomap and UOAssist, there are a boat load of features. It has always been our goal to bring you all the functionality that exists in these two pieces of software. We are continuing to work on this. I'd like to think that within the next few months we should have *most* of the features available in these programs in KR.

<@Lieal> *Kayne* I know you cant specifically talk about it but alot of people are fed up with cheats and scripters, the community really needs to see some action is there someway we can get to know more than "we are working on it"

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Not until after the fact - and sometimes, not even then (depending on the action we take.) Sorry! I know that's not terribly satisfying.

<@Lieal> *Admiral_Ruffie* Is Chris Rabideau the new producer of UO, and if so, what is his vision for the development of the game?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> He is, and you should see an interview with him coming out in the near future, courtesy of our friends at UOForums.

<@Lieal> *athos_uo* The diminishing return of mana regeneration propaety was introduced. How is the decimal fraction like 1.9 or 5.5 treated by return? Is this valid or simply omitted? Can you make the formula open to public? Omitted or valid makes much difference for us. Or please give us the calculating tool for diminishing returned mana regeneration.

<@Leurocian> Per Wilki: Basically, whatever the fraction is, it rounds up that percentage of the time. So, if it's .65, 65% of the time it gets the next whole number up. So, 1.65 would be 2 65% of the time, and 1 35% of the time.

<@Lieal> *[UORadio]DJDeadeye* What was the reason to make it illegal to make ranged attacks from boats offshore?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Any time you can attack but not be attacked back (say, by critters/players without ranged capability) is a BAD THING. Fun, but bad

<@Lieal> *[UORadio]Crest* Why did you copy so much features for the KR-Client from other games (like the Bag-slots) instead of creating new and unique features - it is that wha UO was always about. E.G. the Bag Slots - this is a big loss for UO in my eyes - to be able to position items freely in a bag made UO unique - even if its a pain for devs ;)

<@SupreemEA> First, containers in KR have three possible views: list, grid, and freeform (legacy) In the options you can set the default view.

<@SupreemEA> The little round button near the top left corner lets you switch views on the fly.

<@SupreemEA> Second I do feel that there are some new concepts in the UI for KR. For example, the ability to spawn as many hotbars as you want, resize them, assign keys to items all without having to go to the options menu is definately cool. The macro system is also an original design that takes the best from the 2d client, some new games, and adds a new flavor to it.

<@Lieal> *SahraSwift* We're getting new items appearing in the anti-virtue dungeons for the 10th anniversary... but so far things have been silent as far as a story to explain their sudden appearance. Will this be changed before all shards get this pub?

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> it's a party! you don't need *reasons* to party!

<@Lieal> That is all for the questions! Now a few final words before our guests leave.

<@Leurocian> Take care, everyone! And a happy soon to be 10th Anniversary for Ultima Online!

<@Jeremy_EAMythic> Thanks for coming out, y'all - if you have questions that didn't get covered, please send them in via the Feedback forms on uo.com, and I'll try to get them in an upcoming 5 on Friday!

<@SupreemEA> This was fun. Catch you guys later. See you in Britannia!

<@Lieal> Thanks for joining us here on Stratics for another great Ultima Online chat! Be sure to come by next time, the logs will be up on http://uo.stratics.com shortly.

[Warsong of LS]

Thanks for posting this, Tabbitha.

[Tabbitha]

most welcome

[Adrianna Danere]

I'm usually not one to complain, but this was probably the least informative HoC I've ever seen. That's ok though if instead we still get FoF, a patch for 2D and they're working on nifty 10th anni goodies instead of blah blah blahing with us

[Deraj]

I agree, but this is probably one of those cases where it just so happened to be a lesser one, just as how sometimes we have good FoFs and bad FoFs; sometimes there are good HoCs and bad HoCs. Plus, some tough questions were asked which I'm sure the devs were "unable" to answer, if you get my drift.