DenDragon - One of the ballot topics dealt with ways to prevent "walking furniture"... Are there any plans on providing a way of keeping furniture locked in place?
DesignerD - We haven't explicitly made any plans, but what we'd like is to encourage players to police their own houses. We just got done doing upgrades to pet guarding so that you can hire a "butler" NPC or whatever hwo will keep strangers from rearranging or taking your furniture, for example.
DenDragon - really? How would the butler NPC prevent furniture theft?
DesignerD - Currently, he'd kill you. :)
DesignerD - However, we'll also be looking at stuff like locking it in place with the key, etc.
DenDragon - ah, ok--that's one of the more popular ideas
DesignerD - That would be part of our general revision to "house ownership" which we expect to start on in the next week.
DenDragon - Any thought to renting out rooms (either from player-built structures or NPC buildings)?
DesignerD - Not at this time. It's fairly tricky to do. :)

Firethorn - BTW, I'm also known as DISintegrator
Firethorn - Are you trying to completely eliminate player killing with the new reputation system? It seems that the penalties against criminals are too severe.
DesignerD - Complicated question. :) Let me try to break it down...
DesignerD - Playerkillers are an important leavening to the online society. They serve as the ultimate challenge, the worst sort of baddie there can be.
DesignerD - At the same time, if their actions are outside of the context of the online society, they are essentially no longer the worst baddie on the field, but rather the virtual equivalent of a sociopath--random, unprovoked, unjustifiable in any in-context way
DesignerD - Players don't tend to mind being killed by someone in-context; they do scream loudly when killed by what they perceive as someone "unfair"--which is to say, "virtually sociopathic"
DesignerD - So I think it is really important to make that distinction between types of playerkillers.
DesignerD - Some might feel the term "virtual sociopath" to be too strong, btw. But I haven't been able to come up with a better term.
DesignerD - In general, the people who exhibit this sort of behavior are the ones who haven't bought into the society as a society, but rather still perceive it at some distance, as a game, an amusement
DesignerD - The commonest response you get when you present a "social" case to them is "Hey, it's just a game, the victim shouldn't log on if he doesn't want to get killed"
DesignerD - I'm sur eyou've encountered that response sometime? * Firethorn nods
DenDragon - maybe a couple of times :)
DenDragon - It seems that you need to provide an easier way for the "roleplaying villain" to stand any chance under the new system...
DenDragon - generally, victims run away before you utter your first "Thou"
DenDragon - so, a lot of potentially "honorable" PKers are reduced to "Cor Por" "Cor Por" :P.
DenDragon - As it stands, there really is no way to issue a "Gold or your Life" threat.
DesignerD - OK, well, let me state explicitly that the goal of the system is to try to let players themselves judge who are the sociopaths and who are the desirable pk'ers
DesignerD - But whether or not it will work is a good question. It opens up a much wider issue
DesignerD - There is a lot of debate even among the design team as to whether or not administrative controls on the actions of players are a proper thing to do
DesignerD - A faction feels that we should be letting players judge everything
DesignerD - Another faction is more cynical, and says that players can't, won't, or will purposely mess with others
DesignerD - I personally am in the cynical camp
DesignerD - My experience has been that the wider the audience for the online game, the smaller the proportion of the players who are willing to regard it as a society and not as just a game
DesignerD - My feeling is that maybe in a generation or so, when people perceive the Net as an extension of real society, virtual communities will suffer less from this problem
DesignerD - But that right now, we need "training wheels" so to speak, and the computer has to help players in the task of forming social structures
DesignerD - Ideally, we wouldn't have OSI in the position of "Big Brother" of course. We'd much rather not be there
DesignerD - But I'd note that the notoriety solution (which has evolved into reputation) is still a less invasive solution than the modls used heretofore in other games
DesignerD - The PK flag system itself is an inherently hands-on model for admins because of its very smplicity--it has a lot of loopholes that have to be judged by human game masters
DesignerD - So we in UO are evolving towards a more player-driven system, but we're not ready to make it a fully player-driven system yet.
DesignerD - And I could easily talk about this more for hours and hours, but I won't :)
DenDragon - Maybe provide more effective non-lethal avenues for players...
DenDragon - Would there be any possibility of letting players "shackle" other players, possibly as an alternative to killing?
DesignerD - The trick is providing ways that a sociopath can't use to harm others:)
DenDragon - or maybe similar alternatives...
DesignerD - If you give players the ability to "shackle" we'll have some PK shackling newbies in the inn on the very first day
DenDragon - if there were strict limits imposed, problems like that could be avoided
DenDragon - it could prove to be an alternative to bringing heads to guards for bounties, etc.
DesignerD - I highly recommend reading some of the following articles: Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace", which illustrates that sociopathic behavior is infact not limited to only combat; and "Players Who Suit Muds" by Richard Bartle, who wrote the first MUD, which is at http://journal.tinymush.org
DenDragon - less death in the game would lead to greater acceptence of proposed death-penalties, etc.
DenDragon - increased life-expectancy would increase the overall fun-factor
DesignerD - Which is interesting, because for exmaple Meridian 59 saw a drastic lowering of pk activity when death penalties were made tougher :)
DesignerD - There's also the nasty commercial issue
DesignerD - If you stop one pk'er after 5 kills, and half of 'em quit, then you lose 3 monthly fees to one guy's activity. That's an unacceptable level of loss for a business, considering a pk'er can take out a lot more than 5 :)
DesignerD - In the real world, we deem "acceptable loss" to be 2 lives: the murderer's victim, and the murderer themselves, whom we lock up.
DesignerD - But in an online game, the FIRST person quitting over this is already one too many
DesignerD - We can stand to lose the killers, they cost us revenue--but the victim? We gotta make sure they come back, and somehow feel like it was an aberration, or "fair"
DesignerD - So it adds just one more nasty level to a nasty problem :)
DesignerD - Hmm, that "acceptable loss" thing doesn't sound quite right. Let me phrase it as "we deem justice to have been done"
DesignerD - I don't think murder in RL is ever acceptable, of course. :) But That's what we settle for in terms of "justice"
DesignerD - In order to really do well businesswise, you have to try to do better than reality does... scary thought
DenDragon - well, I just feel that death is too common in UO, beit from lag or PK's and, for that reason, stat loss upon death is not the best idea...
DesignerD - That is quite likely a true statement. It's certainly the reason why we haven't put in the penalties thus far.
DenDragon - the large increase in stat-penalties upon death that you propose for PK's (murderers) will lessen the oppurtunity for Evil roleplay for one reason...
DenDragon - detah is often the only choice for a successful baddy.
DenDragon - that's why I mention alternatives to death
DenDragon - even player-instated ones
Kira - there would be problems with that as many people would abuse it just to be cruel, like DD said
DesignerD - Well, mind you, it's a large stat loss for those who have reached a certain point in their career as murderers. You can murder one person randomly ever y 8 hours and be just fine. You can even go on a spree and kill 4 of them and be fine, as long as you wait before the next one.
DesignerD - I would hope that no wannabe villian really thinks he needs to kill a person an hour to be well-roleplayed :P * DesignerD listens for the cries of the guys yelling, "But I ROLEPLAY a serial killer!"
DesignerD - I would hope that no wannabe villian really thinks he needs to kill a person an hour to be well-roleplayed :P

Kira - with the current system if you steal from a monster you are flagged criminal, and can be killed as you are "red"
Kira - will this be changed or not?
DesignerD - Uh oh, a reputation system question. You mean this is one that actually isn't in Bob's FAQ? :)
Kira - it isnt :)
Kira - as it is, a warrior can use his skills on a monster, a mage can as well, or a bard. If a thief does he gets clobbered by nobles as soon as he becomes red
DesignerD - You will not be flagged criminal for stealing from monsters under the new system * Kira nods
Kira - can it be changed in the current one?
DesignerD - Probably not, since we're starting to test the new one already :) Might as well wait

Calamar - Will anything be done concerning the duration of polymorph? Or the duration of defensive spells in general?
DesignerD - We do know a lot of folks want to play orcs :)
DesignerD - We're still in the process of balancing Magery and that is being looked at.

Kira - Magery at higher levels costs a large amount of money to improve with the skill curve. Will anything be done about this or changed?
DesignerD - We're pretty happy with the cost of Magery currently.

DenDragon - OK, I've got an oldie for you, DD...
DenDragon - Is there any possibility of a 'drop weapons' macro? :)
DesignerD - Hurm. Given all the other stuff we have to do, probably not.
DenDragon - aww, shucks.
Firethorn - How about a scabbard for swords with a hot key for sheathing/unsheathing?
DesignerD - We don't have any art for scabbards :( Otherwise, I'd jump at it.
Kira - well, can you say anything about uoassist?
DesignerD - As far as UOAssist (and the many other programs like it)--I think it's awfully cool that we have all these folks making utilities like that. I don't object to the capability to do Drop Weapon per se, I just suspect that it won't end up on our task list because of time and the pressures of everything you folks want :)

DenDragon - Hey DD, is Detect Hidden broken?
Kira - yes it is
DenDragon - oh, ok
DesignerD - I have heard that it is, but I haven't personally had a chance to look at it yet.
Kira - doesnt work anymore


Kira - I have lots of scribes who are unhappy about the current implimentation of Scribing. They are upset about having to pay full mana twice for a spell as they must wait quite awhile for the mana to recharge again. Could it be changed to say take half mana to scribe?
DesignerD - Do you mean you have lots of scribes who are also mages, who are upset about paying mana twice? :)
Kira - yes DD
Kira - they pay twice so it takes quite awhile to make scrolls
Kira - even with the ten second delay, you have to wait MUCH longer than that :)
DesignerD - They pay once when they make it, and once when they cast the scroll, you mean, right?
Kira - aye
Kira - full mana and full mana
Kira - even if they fail
DesignerD - If they can cast the spell, why are they making a scroll of it?
Kira - to sell, for friends, for lots of reasons :)
DesignerD - Scrolls are more for those who CAN'T cast the spell :)
Kira - also easier to cast the spell
Kira - when you need it
DesignerD - Well, if they give it to someone else, then they AREN'T paying mana twice. They pay once and someone else pays once
Kira - I think the biggest complaint
Kira - is that when you fail to scribe
Kira - and still have to wait forever
DesignerD - Yes, it is easier. So they either get an easier spell at double mana (half charged in advance) or a regular spell at single mana
DesignerD - But I don't quite see this as onerous...
Kira - after waisting the reagents and the scrolls
DesignerD - Ah, OK, then the complaint isn't about scribing, it's about mana regen rate :)
DesignerD - We could easily make it so that scribing failure does not charge the mana, I'll look into it
Kira - well, not so much that as failing to scribe being a very dissapointing and frustrating time
Kira - to raise your level you have to do harder scrolls so it makes people very annoyed when they fail :) * DesignerD nods
Kira - I am glad they take full mana to cast now though, as you could kill someone in less than two seconds before
Kira - and then keep going :P * DesignerD nods again

Kira - is if it would be possible to put a toggle on autodefend or something
Kira - if you are a mage you get a ton of wrestling that is unwanted
DesignerD - I've gotten that suggestion a lot. One thing that has been discussed is making wrestling require special gloves or gauntlets
DesignerD - So that it has a "weapon" you have to have equipped
DesignerD - A tiered series of gloves would allow us to make wrestling fully comparable to any other weapon style
DenDragon - possibly increase damage with skill level?
Kira - aye
DenDragon - that is, without the aid of gloves, increase damage (scaled to skill)
DesignerD - Wouldn't solve the problem Kira mentioned in the first place, though :)
DenDragon - true, but it would solve the main complaint about wrestling.
Kira - make the gauntlets create a flag or something
Kira - that would activate the skill usage
Kira - so people dont get lots of wrestling they dont want
DenDragon - How about a wrestling on/off switch?
Kira - by using gloves you could add a different spectrum to the game
Kira - it would add a lot more to have different gauntlets you could smith, etc. that add different damage
DenDragon - purists (myself included) would say that wrestling's big advantage lies in not having to wield a weapon
Kira - well, make a tiny something like one pair of gloves that would flag it
DenDragon - As I said before, that would take away an inherent advantage of Wrestling.
DenDragon - eq as an *option* is good
DenDragon - eq as a *necessity* is not.
DesignerD - Heh, in any case, the answer is "not anytime too soon"
Kira - DD , would it be hard to impliment scaled damage?
DesignerD - No, it'd be easy. I'll see what we can do.

Firethorn - Players are turned off by the current urban sprawls I have to choose from (meaning the current state of the servers)
DesignerD - Yeah, urban sprawl is a problem. Which we intend to address. :)
Firethorn - DD: Should one wait for a new server or other "cleansing", or should they just go ahead and pick a current server?
DesignerD - Pick a server. It doesn't make the game unplayable, it's just annoying, and it will be getting better soon
DesignerD - In fact, we hope to start making it better next week :)
Firethorn - Can you elaborate, DD?
DesignerD - The one-house-per-character limit. :)
DesignerD - We'd enforce it retroactively, and make folks choose one of their current houses, prolly
Kira - that'll really tork off the owners of castles
Kira - with those tents all over
FrostB - I think the one house per character idea sounds great. Has there been a changing of locks talked about?
DesignerD - Yes, lock changing is implied by house ownership
Kira - DD, if you're going to do that, could you see about making it possible to buy deeds to house parts like forges and ovens etc?
DesignerD - Yes, that's also on the list, Kira :)
Kira - that will makes castles neato cheeto

Kira - DD, I dont know if you have any idea about this, but I'll ask anyway Do you have any idea why a serveer like lake superior has 40% or more packet loss from just it?
DesignerD - Because ping and traceroute send ICMP packets which many routers (esp Digex ones) drop in favor of higher priority traffic * Kira doesnt like digex.net :)
DesignerD - We're working on it :)

DenDragon - Hey DD, did you guys go off and make Inscription skill req's higher for 7th & 8th Circle scrolls without telling anyone?
DesignerD - No...
DesignerD - Don't think so anyway

FrostB - but I was kinda curious about that last patch...
FrostB - it seemed like things really really improved over the weekend, then kinda went south again.
FrostB - lag that is.
DesignerD - item accumulation.
DesignerD - So we halve the memory taken up by an item, everyone gets more items :P
DesignerD - Why do you think we're so serious about trimming runes, container limits, house limits, vendor limits? :)
DesignerD - We have around 5 million items per server right now

Kira - will the notoriety titles transfer over?
DesignerD - Sort of transfer. Not exactly. They'll giv eyou a leg up on the new titles

Kira - DD, will you guys be fixing the two vendor exploits (the no weight limit and the stay with you exploit) and the rapid spellcasting bug in the next patch?
DesignerD - Hmm, we weren't able to get it to do anything special when we did it

Kira - why tailors can still gate around with horses that have 10k of stones on them
FrostB - oh nice. what about where you can supposedly transfer something from a vendor to your character and it cannot be stolen or lost when you die?
DesignerD - Frost, we tried to replicate that and couldn't
DesignerD - Hmm, will have our tester try to replicate :)

DenDragon - DD--I just want to verify this--the stat/skill cap is 225/700, right?
DesignerD - 225/700

FrostB - when something is listed in the Coming Soon section...how long does that indicate it will be before seeing it on the test center? Just depends? or is there actually a time limit?
DesignerD - No time limit. It means that we are either a) gonna work on it or b) are working on it or c) finished it already.

FrostB - I was curious how an owner of a house will be determined? The person that placed the house? or anyone that holds a key?
DesignerD - Frost, we're going to have to write a system to do it with
DesignerD - It will involve a master key, I am sure