Gilthas - Good evening and welcome to our th Ultima Online Celebrity Chat. The UOCC is a forum wherein we bring to you celebrity guests from the UO community ranging from OSI personnel to famous players from your very own shard. Guests drop by to answer your questions about UO, their experiences in it, and their contribution to the community.
Gilthas - Our guests tonight are Prophet and Evocare. While we are waiting for questions, let's give our guests a chance to introduce themselves.
Gilthas - Tonight's question takers are Kaltes, and Magellan. All you need to do is /msg or /query a designated question taker with your question. Please do not ask the other operators, or the guest your questions; they will be ignored!

Evocare|OSI - Hello. To introduce myself briefly, I'm Evocare, lead designer for Ultima Online.
Evocare|OSI - I've been working on UO (and UO for some time in between) for about a year and a half now.
Prophet - Hi there, I'm the lead programmer on UO. That means I deal primarily with the guts of UO. The programmers and pretty much work behind the scene keeping UO up, trying to improve stability and add new features to the game that the designers can then turn into new content and systems. I've been working on UO over a year now and became lead programmer back in April of this year.

Gilthas - Go ahead, Steveo.
* Steveo gulps *
Steveo - erm
Steveo - can you give us any added information about LBR?
Steveo - pretty please
Prophet - Unfortunately all the information we have available to be released has been released at this time.
Steveo - thank you
Prophet - Sorry :)
Prophet - Keep waiting though more information to come
Gilthas - Thanks Steveo =)
Evocare|OSI - Hard to say just what "extra" means. However, I can say that there will be some content in the expansion that hasn't been announced but will be made available to players over time.

Gilthas - *Draegon* When is the ETA for fixing the Red Players alowed into town on Siege Perilous?
Prophet - This bug is currently being fixed and will be going into testing sometime this week. We can't give you a date but that should give you an idea of whent to expect it.

Gilthas - Go ahead, IceDrake.
IceDrake - What is the status on Publish ?
Evocare|OSI - Publish is going out to one shard tonight. Assuming all goes well, we'll take it live accross the world within a few days.
IceDrake - thanks
Gilthas - w00t! Er, I mean thanks IceDrake. =)
IceDrake - :P
Prophet - Tonight = Live tomorrow
IceDrake - ok

Gilthas - Go ahead, Barrackas
Barrackas - Hi
Evocare|OSI - howdy =]
Barrackas - Will the D client be getting any new static art at all with LBR, or even after that?
Evocare|OSI - the d client is definitely getting new art in the form of new creatures
Evocare|OSI - they won't be hued versions of current creatures.
Evocare|OSI - technically, all art on the d client is static since we can't patch it... so hopefully that answers your question.
Prophet - [plug] And they kick ass!]/plug]
Gilthas - Cheater.
Barrackas - Well, more specifically I meant things in the art.mul file, but ok :)
Gilthas - Anything to add, Barrackas?
Gilthas - Guess that's a "No" =)
Prophet - Generally we get asked for new monsters so we focused our energy in that area.
Prophet - Not much demand for new statics :(

Gilthas - Quick reminder folks This chat is mostly focused on the Guaranteed Gain System and the Housing Refresh System. So please, if you have questions about them, ask those first! =)

Gilthas - Go ahead, Lazy.
Gilthas - Wooo hoo? Lazy?
Gilthas - Hrm.
Lazy - Hiya
Gilthas - Ask your question. =)
Prophet - Hi
Lazy - Have the designers given any thought to the affect GGS will have on statloss pk's on normal shards?
Lazy - slower rebuilding, etc
Evocare|OSI - Yep. However, we don't feel that should prevent us from improving the skill gain system as a whole. If we determine that pk's are getting the raw end of the deal, then we'll need to look at modifying the way we treat murdering in felucca.
Lazy - That would be even better :)
Gilthas - All finished?
Lazy - yep, thank you
Gilthas - Great, thanks, Lazy.
Evocare|OSI - We do acknowledge that the "pk situation" isn't what it was back when stat loss was instituted. The game has changed considerably, and at some point we'll have to re-evaluate how it's panning out.

Gilthas - Go ahead GreyhameDOM
GreyhameDOM - Will the time between gains be the same for all skills?
Prophet - Yes
GreyhameDOM - simple enough, thx.
Prophet - Yup :)
Gilthas - Heh. Thanks Grey.

Gilthas - Go ahead Pierre
Pierre - Thanks :)
Pierre - What type of new craftables or crafting skills will be out?
Gilthas - For LBR, I assume.
Pierre - Yes.
* Gilthas plays some Jeopardy theme music *
Evocare|OSI - First, we're going to see how the new blacksmithing changes work out. Fortunately, that system has made it much easier to implement craftables (it became much harder when we changed some of the interface functionality and had to localize them some time ago)
Evocare|OSI - As you've seen recently, we have been adding to the crafting selections through the scenarios... things like using sand, building golems, etc =]
Evocare|OSI - We don't expect that trend to come to a sudden stop.
Gilthas - Cool! Thanks Pierre. =)
Pierre - Alright, and when will the crafting revisions be put out if you know?
Gilthas - Ack! Double-question!
* Pierre pokes head back into shell *
Evocare|OSI - publish
Pierre - Thanks :)
Evocare|OSI - out on one shard tonight, the rest soon =]
Gilthas - thanks again Pierre
Prophet - Tonight = Tomorrow Morning active
Evocare|OSI - right, what he said. ;]
Evocare|OSI - he's such a prophet!

Gilthas - Go ahead, MadHatcher
MadHatcher - thx
MadHatcher - PvP is hurting on GL lately...one of the reasons is facet gate camping. Could you please think about removing all gates or at the least keep just one operating. Disallowing aggressors to gate hop is not the answer.
Prophet - And thus in the th day of the th month shall the th of the publishes become in state of active
Evocare|OSI - We'll be keeping a keen eye open on the gate jumping situation
MadHatcher - I understand that but how am I going to find new oranges to peel if facet gates remain the orchards.
MadHatcher - :)
Evocare|OSI - we're trying not to overcompensate, which is why the prelim changes are for agressors only
Evocare|OSI - well, you'll have to find em elsewhere i suppose
MadHatcher - thx for taking my question us PvP'rs really need some boost
Gilthas - Thanks for asking it, MadHatcher =)
Evocare|OSI - =]
MadHatcher - :)
Gilthas - All finished up?
MadHatcher - yeppers
Gilthas - Ok, thanks!

Gilthas - Go ahead GreyhameDOM
GreyhameDOM - thx
GreyhameDOM - does it seems as though the new house refresh system will be going into effect?
* Gilthas pokes Prophet The system is still very much in design. The consequences are so far reaching that we are taking our time and trying to determine what the entire impact will be. *
GreyhameDOM - many people think it will worsen the housing situation
Prophet - That being said we are pretty determined to make possitive changes with housing refresh. So yes there is a very strong chance that something will change. What exactly hasn't been determined yet.
GreyhameDOM - ok, thx again
Gilthas - thanks Greyhame
Evocare|OSI - We're going to be evaluating some important metrics in order to make a more informed determination as to what the impacts will be.
Prophet - My cents is actually it will make it better.

Gilthas - Go ahead, Bhaal.
Bhaal - Ok
Bhaal - We all know that uod isnt so pretty, will UO:LBR d client be a fresh new engine?
Prophet - Well I'm not sure who "we" all are but whatever. To answer the question though UO:LBR d is not getting a new engine but we have been doing major tweaks to it.
Bhaal - I see.
Bhaal - I have another question
Gilthas - Hrm.
Prophet - In fact some of the visual improvements are stunning.
Bhaal - The thing I love about UOd that you can tell the differance between Spectres and Wraiths and Mummies and Zombies and such
Bhaal - Will UO:LBR d client have this effect?
Bhaal - Or is it just new monsters
Evocare|OSI - It'll have some of that effect.
Prophet - Well if you love d now you will love it even more for LBR :)
Bhaal - :)
Evocare|OSI - we are converting some monsters that were previously using duplicate art in d over to new models
Gilthas - wt! Of course I mean "Thank you Bhaal."
Bhaal - Lastly, Will whales come back to uo?
* Gilthas smacks his forehead *
Gilthas - No whales!

Gilthas - Go ahead nx.
nx - Don't you think that decoding just maps to be a GM Cartographer seems too easy?
Evocare|OSI - I doubt anyone will be able to get to gm cartography in just maps with no other effort expended
Evocare|OSI - we will be looking at some specific skills that may be "too easy" under GGS and making some adjustments
nx - That'll be great.
Evocare|OSI - my disclaimer is that it *wont* be as tedious (aka "hard") as it used to be.
Gilthas - Thanks nx.
Prophet - Essentially its to hard if it takes thousands of maps and its to easy if it takes . What we are aiming for is something in the middle.. in the "acceptable" range.
Gilthas - Like 500?
* Gilthas ducks *

Gilthas - Go ahead, Sammy.
sammy_davis_jr - Hi
sammy_davis_jr - Thanks for holding this chat
sammy_davis_jr - I wanted to ask if there are going to be any changes to cooking, to allow for
sammy_davis_jr - exceptionally crafted foods, because
sammy_davis_jr - as of now, high cooking skill is not very useful! :)
Evocare|OSI - Not really, no inside scoop on new food right now. = I agree that there are ways that cooking could be worked into the game to be more important on a gameplay level, but we have to be careful that eating doesn't become a nuisance.
sammy_davis_jr - I actually liked in the old ultima games that you had to eat, but I guess that could be a real headache in UO.
sammy_davis_jr - Tracking everybody's meals, heh :)
Evocare|OSI - Unfortunately, cooking is one of those lingering skills that could have used improvements for a long time, but keeps getting pushed aside by more immediate priorities.
Evocare|OSI - There are a lot of ways to make food not fun =]
Evocare|OSI - It can be a slippery slope... hopefully one we'll avoid, while making it fun in the long run.
sammy_davis_jr - Ok, well thanks for the thoughts.
Gilthas - You could write your name in the frosting. =}
Gilthas - Thanks Sammy.
sammy_davis_jr - Thanks!

Gilthas - Go ahead Terry
Terry - hmmm
* Gilthas whispers "The one about UO2" *
Gilthas - Terry?
Terry - I have noticed alot of (previously) UO content lately in UO (ie. ridgebacks, golems, etc.) I was wondering how much more we will see in the future?
Evocare|OSI - We'll continue to use what UO art assets we can, but the game engine itself was so drastically different from that of UO, it's not possible for us to simply switch UO over to using much beyond some of the art.
Terry - I heard that earlier too =)
Terry - thanks =)
Gilthas - Thanks Terry =)
Evocare|OSI - thank you

Gilthas - Go ahead Twil.
Gilthas - Ok, we'll post TW|_'s question.
Gilthas - *TW|_* just wanted to ask if the content of the new expasion is most of the stuff that was done for the now dropped UOworlds
Evocare|OSI - no. a very significant amount of the content in the new expansion was designed exclusively for UO, not for UWOO (uo).
Evocare|OSI - the content I speak of was concepted and created very recently (months after the UWOO project cancelation)
Gilthas - Thanks for the question, TW|_.

Gilthas - Go ahead IceDrake.
IceDrake - Ok, I heard rumors on COM's base being moved?
Gilthas - *Bzzzt*
IceDrake - k
Gilthas - Try again. =P
IceDrake - Which shard is receiving Publish first?
Gilthas - Bingo!
Prophet - Lake Superior is getting publish first.
IceDrake - ok
IceDrake - thanks again
Gilthas - Thanks IceDrake

Gilthas - Go ahead, Sub.
Sub_Zero - I was wondering if there were any plans to rename rares with the introduction of colored ingot tinkering, like a golden goblet.
Evocare|OSI - Yes
Evocare|OSI - Yes
Prophet - And yes for good measure
Evocare|OSI - clarification we do expect to rename anything that would nerf a rare, and you are mad l337

Gilthas - Ok folks, last question.
Gilthas - Go ahead Erling.
Erling - hiya
Erling - are the items that already in uotd like dragon armor or ninja suit will be included in + items that will be released as new items with UO:LBR?
Evocare|OSI - Well, that's up to the content team really, and I can't go around disclosing those plans. =]

Gilthas - Ok, I lied. THIS is the last question. =P
Gilthas - Go ahead, Steveo.
Steveo - :)
Steveo - thanks
Steveo - this is a bit conteversial...
Steveo - Greifers have long beena problem for RP players of UO
Gilthas - *BZzt*
Gilthas - Wrong question. =)
Magellan - *cough* The other one.
Gilthas - Check your PM.
Steveo - hmm
Steveo - remind me pls
Steveo - i had alot of qquestions...
Gilthas - Mongbats. =)
Steveo - can we have all mongbats renamed to Sub_Zero?
Gilthas - Bingo. =P
Evocare|OSI - Definitely not, they're not mad l337 enough.
Prophet - No but we can probably work it in for slimes.
* XenaDragon chuckles *
* Steveo smiles *
Steveo - thank you
Gilthas - Slimes work.
Evocare|OSI - np
Gilthas - Thanks Steveo
Evocare|OSI - have a good one.

Gilthas - Ok folks, that'll rap it up for tonight.
Gilthas - This concludes tonight's Ultima Online Celebrity Chat. Thanks to all of you for attending tonight, and special thanks to our guest(s) for coming and answering questions, and our question takers for their work.
Gilthas - Please send an e-mail to [email protected] if you have any suggestions regarding future topics or guests. Tonight's log will be posted at http//uohoc.stratics.com shortly. Have a wonderful night everyone!