Pre-Meeting Notes:
Well, the first meeting was struck with a couple of instances of bad luck--Kirandria Darkholme was injured in an accident and wasn't able to attend, Payool was unavailable and I (Den Dragon) kept losing connection due to some DNS issues with my ISP. :( Despite these complications, we did manage to have a fairly successful meeting with the gentlemen from Origin. :)

DD actually came by early in order to talk with some of us and, while the majority of that portion of the chat was on more of a personal basis (during which Payool was present, fortunately :), there were some interesting points made during that time which may not be contained in the log below: Also, a few players have been supporting a "trashcan" idea in order to easily remove unwanted items, thus helping with lag and spawning. A short conversation occurred on this subject, directly before the main session began:

DenDragon - Has any consideration been given to trash cans? Or a method for players to delete unwanted items?
Stormwynd - that's a neat idea
DesignerD - Well, I know that on a mud I ran, we had to disable the JUNK [item] command because a preferred pk tactic was to kill, loot, and junk every item the victim had, for spite.
DenDragon - :)
Stormwynd - ew
DenDragon - Yeah... But the situation is a bit diff on UO, isn't it?
DesignerD - In what way?
DenDragon - If you get PK'ed you pretty much say goodbye to the stuff
DenDragon - doesn't tend to stick around on yer corpse for too long :)
DesignerD - No, you're missing my point. It's one thing to see the guy take it. It's another to have him stand by your ghost destroying your stuff, cackling madly, taunting you the whole time.

Stormwynd - Maybe a player house only feature?
DenDragon - I see your point... Maybe in towns and houses only?
DesignerD - Lord knows we'd love to add ways to reduce item count ;) We're just very... uhh... "cautious" (read "cynical") about the ways which players will use features
Stormwynd - as in it requires a player house like a vendor or guild stone?
DenDragon - heh, I understand
DesignerD - Our first rule for a design is, "OK, how will they exploit it?"
DenDragon - Well, you could place trash barrels in dungeons and set a decay time--sort of like an always accessible monster corpse to drop unwanted loot on...

That was pretty much the extent of that subject--the main difficulty with any possible implementation of this idea is the potential for abuse that may arise due to an easy means of item-deletion. Who knows, maybe this idea will surface at some point in an altered form. ;) Also, I saw on the Vault earlier that players are no longer able to run using the keyboard--Stormwind mentioned that Wyrd was converting running so as to use the normal keyboard movement keys along with holding down another key.
Now, onto the log itself...


Log of First Meeting:

* DenDragon introduces everybody ;)
GM_BEAST - I'm GM BEast
GM_BEAST - Whoops
GM_BEAST - I organize the Seers, IGMs, and some of QA
GM_BEAST - ONe of 2 lead GMS
GM_BEAST - Grond is the other
Grond - I'm GM Grond, I am the lead GM along with GM Beast
Grond - I head-up our billing, email support, and GM Support
Stormwynd - I'm Stormwind... lead (as of a few weeks ago) programer for UO
HellBoyEC - I'm HellBoy, I organize, manage, create, and implement all of the ingame fiction and official events...
DenDragon - OK, let this meeting officially commence
* DenDragon bangs his gavel ;)

DenDragon - What's your first topic DIS?
DISintegr - Got one on lag for overseas players
DISintegr - When oh when will thre be an Australian
DISintegr - or at least Australasian server? Lots
DISintegr - of Asian players are aboard. (esp Japan)
DesignerD - I think I get to answer that one.
DesignerD - We've been amazingly well-received in Japan, but at this time, we don't have any concrete plans for servers in other countries. If the success of UO abroad continues, we will of course be seriously investigating the possibility.
DesignerD - End of vague answer. :)

DenDragon - Next question DIS?
DISintegr - got one on the very recent events
DISintegr - What we need right now is another Stiff Message from Starr (Blackthorne) Long saying stuff about banning and changing the terms of services. That usually shakes things up and scares the dupers half to heck. :-)
DesignerD - I think that's one for the lead GM's to take :)
GM_BEAST - In terms of duping, ever since the amnesty we have been tracking
GM_BEAST - and processing any dupers that we come across
GM_BEAST - That means that they are being banned as they are verified as being dupers
Grond - I think the process of tracking down dupers and making sure that we don't penalize the wrong people is paramount. Once we have confirmed that someone is indeed a duper
GM_BEAST - We can update the patch message to reflect this policy
GM_BEAST - but it hasn't changed since the amnesty run
Grond - we remove them from the environment so they do not further harm the game for everyone else.
Grond - However, we have to be careful and that is a little time consuming
Grond - [END]

DISintegr - Thank you. Cal, go ahead and que another question.
Calamar - Okay...
Calamar - Has Origin considered disabling the creation of new characters on some servers, to
Calamar - prevent lag from increasing?
HellBoyEC - We've seen a significant reduction in lag with today's update...DD?
DesignerD - Early reports are that lag was helped a lot by today's update. However, the creation of new characters (or indeed new servers) wouldn't put much of a dent in the problem, which we believe to be the accumulation of objects on the servers.
DesignerD - And Stormwind could maybe talk more about that and about what they did to help lag today
Stormwynd - We reduced the memory usage of the area server processes quite a bit by making the memory footprint of objects smaller.
Stormwynd - We basically reduced the size of the in memory structure for normal objects and for weapons.
Stormwynd - This means less swapping, more objects fit into the processor's cache, etc, etc...
DesignerD - We still intend to pursue other ways of limiting the object load on servers, however.
DesignerD - Lowering the memory cost gives more headroom, but we all know players like to hoard :)
DenDragon - such as trash cans? ;)
DesignerD - We're looking at many solutions, from the mild to the drastic, and will take the measures we deem necessary and least disruptive. :)

DenDragon - I take it people caught hacking their stats will be treated as dupers?
GM_BEAST - The "hackers" will be dealt with much like the dupers
GM_BEAST - Obviously, it is a little different because of amnesty
GM_BEAST - If they are found, then they will be removed from the game
GM_BEAST - We will put a message out to warn the players
GM_BEAST - To remove any "hack" or illegally altered character
GM_BEAST - Period.

DenDragon - The Recall spell seems to be the one constant between the more extreme exploits... Has there been any thought to disabling Recall until a solution is found?
DesignerD - The recall spell isn't the constant--crossing server boundaries is. Removing recall would be just a patch on top of the problem, and people would find ways to get around it. We saw it as not much gain, for a large hit in terms of player happiness.
DesignerD - We did discuss it however.
DenDragon - understood

DenDragon - I'd like to bring up the ballot topics over at the UOHoC--these are topics which we felt to be a primary concern...
DenDragon - WThe first of which is the issue of House Security
DenDragon - Most players seem to prefer houses to be totally secure, except for those with 100% lockpicking skill
DenDragon - who would have a chance of breaking into houses
DenDragon - We had about 3000 votes on this topic
DenDragon - About 70% agreed that this should be the case
DenDragon - 20% thought they should be totally secure from intrusion
DenDragon - what are your plans in this area?
DesignerD - We are looking into methods of house defense, including lock changing, etc.
DesignerD - We don't have a concrete plan yet because we've been focusing on other issues, such as lag.
DesignerD - Stormwind and I are supposed to work up a plan for it over the next week or so Stormwynd> :-)
DesignerD - I suspect that the sorts of things we have talked about (which range from guard hirelings, archer towers, guard animals, drawbridges, password protections, moats with monsters in 'em...) will please people :)

HellBoyEC - Not to interrupt but I must be leaving quite shortly..are there any event/plot specific questions I can answer?
DenDragon - HellBoy--I guess I'll throw forward the obligitory Necromancy question. :)
DenDragon - Are we close to seeing it implemented, or has it been set on the back burner?
HellBoyEC - I think Storm can field that....
HellBoyEC - Although
HellBoyEC - The Liche's who are making waves currently
HellBoyEC - are some of the earliest examples of necromancy in the game
HellBoyEC - Their developing fiction will open the door for
HellBoyEC - the introduction of the system...
Stormwynd - It has been on the backburner for a while, but I hope to get time to work on it real soon now.
Stormwynd - There is already one spell implemented, but I haven
Stormwynd - oops... haven't had a chance to continue on them lately.

DenDragon - I take it Necromancy will be considered a new skill.. Along with other possible new magicks?
Stormwynd - Possibly.... :-)

DISintegr - Cal, got any plot questions?
Calamar - Here's another question the UOHoC received regarding events/plot:
Calamar - Will character who complete quests or participate in events ever be rewarded with unique items, abilities, or titles?
* HellBoyEC nods
HellBoyEC - That is fully dependant on the nature of the event...
HellBoyEC - Abilities...no
HellBoyEC - Items...yes
HellBoyEC - Titles...perhaps
HellBoyEC - Some of the ucoming
HellBoyEC - story items will have special ancient items
HellBoyEC - that the player will be able to keep if they are lucky enough to get their hands on it...

Calamar - Okay.. and --
Calamar - Should players expect more invasions of Britannia's cities?
HellBoyEC - Most definately...expect anything
HellBoyEC - The fitional development of these stories
HellBoyEC -relies on the danger of city invasions
GM_BEAST - Events can take any shapw
GM_BEAST - shape
GM_BEAST - So anything can happen at any time

Calamar - Does OSI intend to add features which could make player-controlled quests more interesting?
HellBoyEC - Hopefully with the addition of Seers and increased player involvement we will be able to give players more options...
HellBoyEC - Althogh at thsi time, we need to lock down a few more ideas.

DenDragon - Should Seer-created quests be considered a part of the main plot, or more of side-stories with nothing to do with the "official" plot?
HellBoyEC - More along the side-story most of the time.
HellBoyEC - Occasionally, ancillary plot elements will be
HellBoyEC -introduced during the course of one-shot or seer events...but no primary
HellBoyEC - ficition will be delivered
HellBoyEC - To use a cheesy example
HellBoyEC - It is like the difference between the
HellBoyEC - XFILES Mythology episodes, and the singleshot story episodes..
GM_BEAST - That is for the time being
* HellBoyEC nods
GM_BEAST - For the most part, Seer events will never be the center peice of events that span all servers
HellBoyEC - WE hope to intertwine more carefully the long term events with short term ones.
HellBoyEC - But with stories like the current one (about 3 months in the telling)
GM_BEAST - They will be specifcally fashioned after the Seer's characters, and many will be created by the Seers themselves
HellBoyEC - it gets a little difficult to predict the multiple arcs...
GM_BEAST - The Seer's involvement has been limited up to this point
GM_BEAST - We are going to step up their involvement
GM_BEAST - in the next couple of weeks
GM_BEAST - But it will be more subtle than the Green Robed players

DenDragon - Sounds good :) Next Question, Cal?
Calamar - Okay, uhh.. though this question has been asked countless times --
Calamar - Will the Avatar ever make an appearance in UO?
HellBoyEC - Hmmm...how would you recognize him? ;)
Stormwynd - I can see the paperdoll now: XXX the Avatar :-)

HellBoyEC - I must flee and allow Beast to field some Q's...Have Fun!
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DenDragon - Any points that anyone would like to make (that means you Origin :)?
DesignerD - well, I guess the main point to make is this: for all those people who have been asking for a plot--it's here.
DesignerD - I think the best way to get up to speed is to read the Town Cryer, and to read up on sites like Stomped's Secrets and Stories, and Mns Dragon's Politics and Rumors.

DenDragon - House Question: Would you be leaning towards being totally (or near-totally) secure, or allowing multiple methods of intrusion?
DesignerD - Den, what we're leagning towards is making the types of defenses varied enough so that we don't have to go chasing down every possible way
DesignerD - We want to limit break-in methods to logical and reasonable ones
DesignerD - but in case we can't catch 'em all, we want to make sure that players can catch the burglar if they invest the effort
DenDragon - so, getting rid of magical invulnribility and replacing it with optional forms of security?
DesignerD - We don't want to "alter the laws of physics" around houses anymore.

DenDragon - possibly allow for Forensic Eval to track burglars?
DesignerD - Exactly--those are the sorts of things we are looking at.
DesignerD - Putting tools (and thus also the burden) on players.

DesignerD - Imagine a castle which had guards on the roof, a tame reaper in the courtyard, and burglar alarms. :)
DenDragon - ok, lets move on to the next ballot issue...DesignerD> Well, no promises, as I said we're still working on broad design

DenDragon - ok, lets move on to the next ballot issue...
DenDragon - The next subject we put up for voting was the issue of mule characters...
DenDragon - Most players (about 65%) thought that no changes needed to be made... However
DenDragon - a lot of problems stem from the abuse of extra character slots
DenDragon - any immed. plans for curbing mules?
DesignerD - We don't have any plans at the moment. It's a difficult problem to solve, and the obvious solution--limiting you to one character--isn't something we feel we can do to paying customers now.

DenDragon - would there be anyway to just, all of a sudden, make it so no new chars could be created on a server that already has at least one slot filled?
DenDragon - Once extra chars are deleted, their slots cannot be refilled...
DenDragon - sort of a slow limitation
DesignerD - No, if we did something like that, we'd have to do it to all accounts, and we don't feel we can at this point.
DenDragon - ah
DenDragon - sort of a difficult problem, eh?
DesignerD - *nod*

DenDragon - Would anyone like to contribute anything more to this topic?
Stormwynd - How about it one character touches an item another character from the same account has touched recently, they blow up? :-)
Calamar - Heh..
DenDragon - Why not? ;)

DISintegr - One major abuse of mules is using them to aid a criminal character. Can some sort of punishment be set up for this?
DesignerD - You mean, you want the code to judge who is a criminal character again? :)
DesignerD - Or do you mean under the new system?
DenDragon - new system...
DesignerD - We haven't got anything planned for that, at the moment. We'll look into it though

DenDragon - Any chance of a wipe?
DesignerD - None planned at the moment.
DenDragon - Will you be adding more incentives not to PK?
DenDragon - opposed to increasing penalties more and more
DesignerD - Well, that's a tough thing, because "not PKing" is equivalent to "newbie" so if you pk, the loss of whatever that starting status was results in a "penalty"
DISintegr - I've never PK'd, and I'm not a newbie.
DesignerD - My point was, you and a newbie have the same PK record, and thus woul dhave the same "incentives" :)

DenDragon - Are there any issues that you'd like to discuss, Origin?
DesignerD - Uh... Hmm.
DesignerD - Well, i can give you a brief look at where we are and what we're working on.
DenDragon - alright, sounds good :)
DesignerD - We have been operating under the assumption that the top issues in gameplay were lag, timewarp and related phenomena, and atrophy problems. (No order implied there)
DesignerD - Our goal since Christmas, and going forward, is to take an issue at a time and just nail it dead, so that everyone is happy (or as happy as they can be ;)
DesignerD - In that vein, we've tackled events/plot, archery, dungeons, creature variety and difficulty, weapon balance, and so on, and I thin kwe've had a fair amount of success.

DenDragon - When can we expect an elimination of 'alphabetical atrophy'? (If you know :)
DesignerD - Den, the best answer I can give is "as soon as possible." :(

DenDragon - Calamar, wanna throw out some "Hot Topics"? ;)
Calamar - Uhm -- no new "Hot Topics" questions have been submitted.
DesignerD - Well, we do have other hot topics, but those three were on top, and despite whatever this patch brings, we still have them on top. Other hot topics though include house defense, finishing weapons/armor balance tweaks, and of course, RECALL!
DesignerD - Which we know has everyone in a panic.
DesignerD - But we are doing our best to make sure that elements come into the game now which increase enjoyment overall in the longterm.

Calamar - How about stat/skill loss caused by death? Is the implementation of this feature still being considered?
DesignerD - Yes, it is. We are planning a *small* penalty on death for the following reasons
DesignerD - - we need it to ensure that the new notoriety system covers all cases (refer to Bon Hanson's FAQ for examples)
DesignerD - - it makes death riskier, since item loss is currently the top penalty, and it isn't much of a penalty for intermediate to advanced players
DesignerD - - it has been shown empirically on any other online rpgs to slow down the rate of deaths, INCLUDING pk'ing deaths

DISintegr - Has *small* been quantified?
DesignerD - we're currently operating with a ballpark figure of 1% of gains since nebwie
DesignerD - that's still up in the air though
DesignerD - It means btw that a newbie has no loss at all, of course
DesignerD - Now, we've stated before, and we'll say it again--we're not going to put this into the game until the game is ready for it. Which means less lag-deaths
DesignerD - But it's BOUND to be loudly denounced no matter what, even if everything in UO-land was perfectly hunky-dory. We know that.
DesignerD - People don't like the thought of losing ground they have gained, which is natural. But death needs to have teeth.
DesignerD - It should evolve into a play mechanic pretty quickly, in the way that inventory management is evolving into one for players now.

Grond - Sorry to interrupt, however, if you have any support questions, I will be happy to field those. If not, I will bid you adieu for the evening. :)
DISintegr - Not right now, Gornd. Amazing, no?
Grond - That's great. I am going to go spend time with my wife. Good night all and thank you.
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DISintegr - here's a crime question
DISintegr - What about wandering guards in the wilderness that would kill a murderer, if he saw who initiated the fight?
DesignerD - What about them? Is it a suggestion?
DISintegr - I suppose so. Will there be any I guess
DesignerD - There probbaly won't be guards in the wilderness except around guard posts. We don't want to impose TOO much justice on the world.

DISintegr - here's a basic one
DISintegr - Why do guards kill me just for stealing?
DesignerD - That's a question that is better answered by pointing at the new reputation and murder-tracking system :)

DISintegr - maybe the same answer applies to this one
DISintegr - Isn't it a crime to trap a box, and then use it to store items that you are selling or giving away?
DesignerD - Yep, same answer. :) BTW, Bob Hanson is in touch with the dev team daily, with scnearios and problems and the like. He's been an enormous help, and so if people have scenarios and the like, they should visit his page at http://www.skypoint.com/~bob/uo and read up on it, and send stuff in
DesignerD - ' he cehcks to see if it's really a new scenario, and then passes it along straight to me and the programmer in charge of the new system

DISintegr - here's another crime question
DISintegr - Why make it so hard to turn in a head? I have quite a collection now
DISintegr - but nobody will take it anywhere. Ridiculous.
DesignerD - The bouty system is getting an overhaul with the new murder system. Heads will be accepted globally. :)

DISintegr - another...
DISintegr - Is there a way to keep people from killing our pack animals while mining?
DesignerD - 1) kill 'em back 2) hire anothe rplayer, or a hireling, or use a pet, to guard the pack animal.

DISintegr - Cal, throw 'em some questions.
Calamar - Here's a similar question placed in the "Arts" category..
Calamar - Are any efforts being made to weaken provocation in towns? Pack animals can be easily killed by temporary characters,
Calamar - using provocation.
DesignerD - Provocation is also covered under the new system, with criminal flagging, etc

DenDragon - How will Virtue Guards be handled under the new system?
DesignerD - We haven't settled on that yet.

GM_BEAST - Actually, I must be shoving off. If you have any other questions related to interest generation, Seers, or anything GM related, speak now.
GM_BEAST - I've got to mail the Seers some stuff.
DenDragon - How many Seers are there currently and do you plan to recruite more any time soon?
GM_BEAST - We have approx. 3 per server at this time
GM_BEAST - We have huge plans for Seers, and want to get this batch
GM_BEAST - ramped up before we open the gates for more
GM_BEAST - It will take weeks to get them up to speed

DenDragon - I take it you recruit exclusively from the pool of counselors?
GM_BEAST - Primarily, we do take them from Counselors

Calamar - Is anything being done to ensure that Seers (and/or GM's) won't abuse players?
GM_BEAST - That is another reason to keep the number of Seer small
GM_BEAST - I do not worry about the Seers too much
GM_BEAST - Nor the GMs for that matter
GM_BEAST - We have a mail box set up for players to send in concerns about the GMs
GM_BEAST - We check it everyday
GM_BEAST - Personally, I check the boards each day and pursue any complaint
GM_BEAST - I don't think that GM or Seer abuse will be a problem

Stormwynd - casting incognito while polymorphed reportedly crashed the client when opening the paperdoll (invalid hue? bodytype?)
Stormwynd - made it so you can't cast incognito while polymorphed
Stormwynd - GMs were getting quite a few calls on it
GM_BEAST - You can say that again. >:)

DenDragon - One more question on my part: The dungeon Doom--will that be completed within the current UO world, or will an expansion CD be necessary?
DesignerD - Can't answer that :) Sorry!

GM_BEAST - Bye everyone. 13 hours is a pushing me a little.
Calamar - G'bye, and thanks.
DenDragon - Thanx for coming, Beast
DISintegr - Thanks for your time, guys. We really appreciate it.
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DenDragon - Alright, well thanx again for coming
DISintegr - We'll get the quesitons moving faster next time.
Stormwynd - No prob... c-ya.
DesignerD - Thanks for doing this, guys. :)
DenDragon - We're trying ;)
DenDragon - alright, cya then
DISintegr - Bye
DenDragon - Farewell
Calamar - Goodbye..
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