Wilki: Just an FYI:

This is an early look at tweaking the HP formula, and by no means is close to final. I've seen a lot of requests lately for the players to be included earlier in the development process. You saw some of that with the early Siege test shard for Pub38, and you're seeing an even earlier example of it with this change.

Think of it as brainstorming.... no one person can possibly think of all the ramifications of changing HP, so what's a good way to collect information about the idea? A good way is to put the change on a test shard, and let you play around with it and tell us what you think is good about it and what you think is bad about it. What we're doing here is purposefully making a radical change to ferret out all of the things that you can discover, so IF (and that's a big if) we do change HP, we'll have a better foundation to start with.

Seeing comments like "This is just wonderful, now people are saying they will quit because of this "change" is very disheartening, because it reaffirms the belief that maybe it's not such a great idea to talk about theoretical changes this early in the process. I personally would like to see us involving you earlier in the process, as while there is the risk that rumors get started that are wildly untrue (for example the rumor that there was a Mana Regen cap of 4 in Pub38), ultimately it is *your* game, and if we're barking up the wrong tree, it's better to know about it early on, than spend a couple weeks detailing a massive plan that nobody likes.

So, let me turn the table here and ask you if you'd rather we involve you earlier in the process when we're brainstorming radical ideas, or you'd rather we said nothing at all until a solid plan was already drated?

Wilki: While this post might win a "Most Pessimistic Without Any Real Supporting Data" award, it's far from true.

UO is alive and well, and it is not "spiraling" anywhere.

Now that that is settled, let's get back to the actual purpose of this thread, which is to talk about the HP change. Thanks!