source taken from UO.UHall

Honestly, we are just too inquisitive for 5 questions to be enough. Each week there are many excellent questions that go unanswered!!
I challenge the team to answer MORE questions this week and every week, and in that spirit, I hope this thread can serve to inform you about what is on players minds!!

I'll get things rolling!!

1. When will we see HCI on shields again!
2. Are you aware that by having some blessed 7AE items on Siege, and some unblessed, you are creating an imbalance similar to PBD's?
3. What is the status of Punkbuster?
4. What is the status of the housing changes?
5. Are you going to fix ethy stamina loss?
6. Would you please add a canned message to the GM responses explaing that defective tiles in a house can be fixed by changing the foundation type?
7. What is the progress on addressing stacking issues?
8. Will my swamp dragon always leave a trail when he runs north? (it is embarrassing)
9. What adjustments are being contemplated to adjust the over use of pets in PvP?
10. Are there going to be changes to smithing similar to the ones for bowcraft?
11. Are macing and swords and fencing weapons going to be adjusted like bows were?
12. Are you guys doing ok? Is there anything I can do to help? Pizza? Beer?
13. What are the plans to spice up the old dungeons?
14. Can we get better loot from traditional monsters please?
15. Why is it that when someones attacks and kills me, I'm in heat and my ghost can't go thru a moongate?
16. How about a metal dye tub?
17. Could we have some additional house foundation types?
18. When is ROT going to be sped up?
19. Is factions going to be the PvP system or is there going to be a new one?
20. When will we see HCI on shields again?
21. Any plans to balance ninja forms or deathstrike?
22. Why aren't chiv heals skill based?
23. Any plans to make dismount harder?
24. Do you consider wrestling disarm balanced?
25. Enchiladas, Burritos, Tacos, or Fajitas?
26. Could we have some more pictures of the new client please?
27. Are there any plans to improve GM support to include additional ongoing issues?
28. How about NPC's who rez pets?
29. What more can you tell us about the 9th Anniversary package?
30. Halloween event this year?
31. Is the new UO going to be the old UO with better graphics or will there be substantial changes to the game?
32. Is EVERYONE working on the new UO?
33. How big is your monitor?
34. Is your chair kinda comfortable or could you use a new one?
35. What do you think about advanced characters on Siege?
36. Did the mana leech/life leech changes go too far?
37. Can we have some new rideables please?
38. Would you fix it so that enemy of one and consecrate weapon work with spell effects?
39. Mage weapons, good or bad?
40. How about some caps on mana regen, LMC, etc....
41. Will insurance ever be limited?
42. Wouldn't it be cool if people who roleplay vampires could transform into bats?
43. How about a new status bar or some status bar choices?
44. What is up with gate cohesion?
45. Do you ever consider just throwing in the towel and traveling around doing Ren Fests?
46. If you are in the heat of battle you can't recall or gate, why can you teleport?
47. Why do archers get to chug with both hands full?
48. Would you pay to see Death Adder and Drax fight IRL?
49. How much?
50. Why are you reading this, start typing a response!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wilki UO Community Coordinator

1. When will we see HCI on shields again!
Not sure. Though, I was thinking... why do shields help you hit? Seems that they'd naturally only have DCI,no?

2. Are you aware that by having some blessed 7AE items on Siege, and some unblessed, you are creating an imbalance similar to PBD's?
Yep.

3. What is the status of Punkbuster?
Getting close!

4. What is the status of the housing changes?
Darkscribe answered that in a previous FoF.

5. Are you going to fix ethy stamina loss?
I think stamina loss and mounts needs to be looked at in general. Currently, there isn't much of a disadvantadge to riding a mount in combat.

6. Would you please add a canned message to the GM responses explaing that defective tiles in a house can be fixed by changing the foundation type?
It's in the knowledgebase, which is where they send you.

7. What is the progress on addressing stacking issues?
No progress. We're busy with other things.

8. Will my swamp dragon always leave a trail when he runs north? (it is embarrassing)
In the current client, yes.

9. What adjustments are being contemplated to adjust the over use of pets in PvP?
Seems to me that making them highlight the same color as the controller would be a good first step.

10. Are there going to be changes to smithing similar to the ones for bowcraft?
Nothing planned atm.

11. Are macing and swords and fencing weapons going to be adjusted like bows were?
Everything is subject to being adjusted. All ornate axes (including Talon Bites) will be adjusted to 18-20 base damage, as intended.

12. Are you guys doing ok? Is there anything I can do to help? Pizza? Beer?
We're doing okay, actually. Both are well liked by the team, but we don't take them from strangers, sorry :-(

13. What are the plans to spice up the old dungeons?
No firm ones yet, but we've been crafting some ideas. Basically, we'd like to make them more interesting, which includes spawn placement. Juka in Wrong? That's just... um... wrong.

14. Can we get better loot from traditional monsters please?
Or worse loot from newer ones. There shouldn't be a difference. Loot inflation is a bad thing, IMHO. You should strive to keep people playing by making the game fun, not always putting bigger numbers on loot.

15. Why is it that when someones attacks and kills me, I'm in heat and my ghost can't go thru a moongate?
In heat? I don't think that's intended... (Seriously, it's annoying, and the answer as to why has been lost in time.)

16. How about a metal dye tub?
It's a possibility, but only with colors that fit within the overall art of the game.

17. Could we have some additional house foundation types?
Not anytime soon.

18. When is ROT going to be sped up?
I didn't say it *would* be, rather that it was something we were thinking about doing. Might be it's not a good idea.

19. Is factions going to be the PvP system or is there going to be a new one?
For now, yes.

20. When will we see HCI on shields again?
HA! Your clever ruse has failed to trip me up!

21. Any plans to balance ninja forms or deathstrike?
YES!

22. Why aren't chiv heals skill based?
That's a really good question. Why aren't they all skill based?

23. Any plans to make dismount harder?
Not specifically.

24. Do you consider wrestling disarm balanced?
Me personally? No.

25. Enchiladas, Burritos, Tacos, or Fajitas?
Enchiladas, man!

26. Could we have some more pictures of the new client please?
When we've got the full website up, I'm sure you'll see lots more!
27. Are there any plans to improve GM support to include additional ongoing issues?
Not sure what you mean specifically, but I do know that the GM team has been discussing better ways to support our players.

28. How about NPC's who rez pets?
We've thought about that, but the feedback from our Japanese market is that they believe it would take away yet another reason for players to interact with each other. Perhaps one that would rez them on a limited fashion? Not sure...

29. What more can you tell us about the 9th Anniversary package?
That the box looks really sweet.

30. Halloween event this year?
That's the plan. A bunch of us have grand plans that we may or may not have time to implement.

31. Is the new UO going to be the old UO with better graphics or will there be substantial changes to the game?
It's going to be UO. Adding a new client is seperate from adjusting or adding new game systems.

32. Is EVERYONE working on the new UO?
Nope. Draconi has been busy working on live event stuff, we've been fixing bugs for Pub43, and adding the goodies for the 9th Anniversary box

33. How big is your monitor?
At work, I have twin 19" side by side, here at home, I have a 23" widescreen LCD.

34. Is your chair kinda comfortable or could you use a new one?
We have some pretty expensive and comfy chairs at work. EA doesn't skimp on comfort.

35. What do you think about advanced characters on Siege?
I think we'd be mobbed.

36. Did the mana leech/life leech changes go too far?
IMHO, no. Skill should trump any advantadges you get from items.

37. Can we have some new rideables please?
None planned in the foreseeable future.
38. Would you fix it so that enemy of one and consecrate weapon work with spell effects?
Interesting idea. Though, both of those probably should be scaled on Chiv skill.

39. Mage weapons, good or bad?
Myself, I generally don't like the idea that a property can make up for not having an entire skill.

40. How about some caps on mana regen, LMC, etc....
For sure.

41. Will insurance ever be limited?
Perhaps, but nothing in the works atm.
42. Wouldn't it be cool if people who roleplay vampires could transform into bats?
Hmm, that's interesting...

43. How about a new status bar or some status bar choices?
In the new client, you'll get this.

44. What is up with gate cohesion?
Stop trying to play hopscotch through moongates, silly!
45. Do you ever consider just throwing in the towel and traveling around doing Ren Fests?
Let's just say that if I won the lottery, I doubt you'd see me at any ren fests. Beer fests, hockey games and travelling around the world, yes, but ren fests, probably not.
46. If you are in the heat of battle you can't recall or gate, why can you teleport?
Because it's Mage's Online, duh!

47. Why do archers get to chug with both hands full?
Bows are light and you can easily do so?

48. Would you pay to see Death Adder and Drax fight IRL?
Depends on if the Kirk/Spock music would play during the battle.

49. How much?
$2, but only if beer was provided.

50. Why are you reading this, start typing a response!
Beat you to it!

Yeah. And as we know, the Japanese wishes far outwiegh what the western world wants as far as you guys are concerned. This is borne out by the fact that red soulstones were made account specific (which flies in the face of vet reward tradition) even though a poll on this very forum (with over 100 opinions offered) showed about a 90% in favour of tokens. Japan wanted account specific so we all got account specific.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wilki UO Community Coordinator



How about no?

This "us vs. them" stuff is really lame. Our Japanese players are equally as valuable as players from anywhere else. There are times when EA Japan expesses a concern about something, and we do it anyhow because it makes sense to us. Looking back on the soulstone thing, I firmly believe it was the right decision to make them account specific as claimed. I'd like to see more items come that way, quite honestly.

EA Japan's concern about community is an important one that I happen to share. Take a look at how many players hang around the blacksmith now that we have repair deeds. I don't think convenience is always the right answer

I tip my hat to Wilki for actually taking not only the time to read, but the time to respond to that garbage.

If you are going to push and push for more questions to be answered, do so without sarcasm and failed attempts to be funny.

"15. Why is it that when someones attacks and kills me, I'm in heat and my ghost can't go thru a moongate?"

2 things I would imagine for that, 1: making a timer reset upon death would require some coding 2: could lead to bad things.

"22. Why aren't chiv heals skill based?"

Descriptions say chiv spells are Karma based (the basis of all good Paladins, else you would have a Dread Lord Elder Paladin healing high amounts).

"Yeah. And as we know, the Japanese wishes far outwiegh what the western world wants as far as you guys are concerned. This is borne out by the fact that red soulstones were made account specific (which flies in the face of vet reward tradition) even though a poll on this very forum (with over 100 opinions offered) showed about a 90% in favour of tokens. Japan wanted account specific so we all got account specific."

This had to be another of those failed attempts to be funny. 100 STRATICS posters!?!? Give me a break, that's hardly the "majority of western world" and it wasn't near 90% of the voters in favor of tokens.

28. How about NPC's who rez pets?


My idea for a way of rezing pets when you can't find a tamer within 30 screens of you is something like a Repair deed. Like have a tamer apply a bandage to a blank scroll and it produces a "Pet Resurrection Deed". You have to take it to a stable for it to work and you simply click on it then click on your pets ghost.

*Shrugs* I don't know just a thought.

I agree, you have to hand it to Wilki for taking the time to respond. He must have an infinite amound of patience, or at least more than I possess.

Great idea! It drives me batty when I am running all over with my warrior and his dead swampy and no one to rez it. Finally, I created another tamer on another account to have pet rez convenience. Personally, I run up to every pet ghost I see just because I have been there... done that.

Not to mention it would be convienant if you are a red that can't just take the easy way out and run to luna/brit/your shards main meet and greet basically for a quick rez then get back to the fighting. I always hate it when I'm spending anymore then 5 minutes looking for a swampy rez during a harry or champspawn or not being able to cast 2 EV's cause my swampy is dead and if I don't want to be super out matched I need to jump on my ethy.

Good point...

Not everyone hops on reds though. You could always run into a group of like 10 ppl and say, 'Hey... can I get a rez?' LOL...

Maybe you need a taming buddy to run around with you? You know... a little redhead with a good deal of Vet... hehe :grin:

Not to mention all the new people with nothing but a bonded horse, no companions and no paycheck... That's me... looking after the simple folk.