DenDragon - Welcome to the Third UO HOC Open House
DenDragon - Tonight's topic for discussion will be "Player-interaction, Roleplaying and the UO Storyline"
DenDragon - Feel free to stray from the topic, but please look to it for inspiration
DenDragon - We regret to announce that DD will not be able to attend tonight, due to him feeling a bit under the weather
DenDragon - But we have Stormwind, lead Programmer and GM Grond here to answer your questions
DenDragon - Gasper will be moderating
DenDragon - if you have any questions type /msg Gasper "question"
Gasper - Okay, thanks Den
DenDragon - One last note--other GM's involved wth the Storyline and events are also in attendance ;)

Gasper - First, I've gotten this question a lot already so when is the reputation system now proposed to be put into place and when can we expect to see a patch fixing the current house breakin
Stormwind - Because of some bugs on Test Center we decided to postpone the reputation system publish until 6/1
GM_Grond - We also wanted to postpone the reputation publish until after the House Break-IN problem was fixed. I believe that has priority. :)
Stormwind - The latest house breakin bugs are fixed on Test Center and are in QA as we speak. They will be published early next week

Gasper - From AmonSky:Some exploits being used to disrupt other players involve increasing the settings for Circle of Transparency, and Bark Time Modifier. Do we still need to keep these in the game? COT is good for stealing/movement exploits, BTM is good for town-killing. What purpose do they serve the average player?
Stormwind - We will be fixing the town kill bug involving the bark time out. Removing the bark time modifier will eliminate one way of using the bug, but would leave other ways to exploit it.
GM_Grond - I think all of these things are still valid. Many players I know still use them. Including this one. :)

Gasper - From Kryelle and I'd like to extend it to every shard:What's being done to increase the Seer quests and storyline for the Baja Shard?
Stormwind - Circle of transparancy bugs are the same. It means some things are not checking line of sight properly. We will fix those as we find them, too.
tOAD - We're in the process of adding more seers to every shard in an effort to increase seer involvement and quests on each shard

Gasper - From Faramir:Any comments on allowing players the ability to select (perhaps by election) a player government which has actual, but limited, power over other players...in particular, the ability to remove (jail) other players who may or may not be criminal, as a way to address non-criminal anti-social behavior like verbal abuse, house break-ins, etc? I realize this is nasty because of the potential for exploits, but with a careful (s)election pr
Stormwind - We have been talking about the town stone idea and definetely want to implement it.
Stormwind - We have not yet decided what powers it will have for dealing with anti-social behavior.
Stormwind - But we're open to suggestions! :-)
Stormwind - ... but exploitation is definately the main concern concerning those powers.

Gasper - From Celtarus: Id like to know with the majority of Players in Uo wearing Bone and Plate as their main armor if it would be possible to improve other armor such as Silver chain or ring or making Leather armor form Drake or dragon hides with a higher AR value
Stormwind - We would like to give the heavier armor more disadvatages (such as slowing movement, preventing spell casting, etc)

Gasper - From BH|Silveryn about GM run quests that seem to be dwindling recently: Does OSI plan to incorporate GM run quests any time in the near future? I think I speak for everyone when saying that GM run quests would make the game a WHOLE lot more fun. Killing AI monsters gets old.
Stormwind - More varied armor types would also be cool and is on our list of possible additions
GM_Grond - GM run quests are fun for us to. We may have fewer until the new rep system is in, but look for some really neat stuff after that.
GM_Grond - Also, TC will need some testers for next week.
GM_Grond - There will be special events to promote the new system there.

Gasper - From Borric: It seems OSI is finally backing the PvP aspect of UO. The order/chaos idea is brilliant, with one HUGE flaw. 10% Fame loss on death will have people kicked out of guilds ceaselessly, including Guildmasters. How do you plan to fix this?
Stormwind - PD BugKiller is in charge of the rep system, I'll forward him your question.
Ragnar (BugKiller) - This is part of the point; to be a successful order/chaos player you will need to also maintain your high fame and avoid death. A 10% loss by the way will not imply constantly falling out of the valid range for being an order/chaos guild member. The loss is not that extreme.

Gasper - From Uziel: As a seer we have a lot of requests that end up being impossible within the game such as locking book text or talking (and getting a response from items). The last time I asked an IGM about this, he said that they have a lot of requests in for stuff just like this, but it was on hold until the rep patch went in. Now that the rep patch is in (or will be soon), what is the timetable for getting some work done in this area?
Stormwind - Creating read-only books is on our list of possible future additions.

Gasper - From Slayne: One of the chief deterrents to roleplay in my opinion is allowing more than one character per account. What's the chance of adding that limitation. 1/2 the people in the game have one pk and mules along with a "good" character.
Stormwind - We are considering a printing press you could buy and use for duplication your books.
Stormwind - We like the one player per account idea and agree that it would improve gameplay. But since we started with 5 characters per account, many people expect it and we have some families who share an account.

Gasper - From Rico: when will the Blackthorn storyline come back into play?
tOAD - By that I assume you mean his kidnapping on Atlantic, and the answer is, very soon.
tOAD - We plan to do an event in the near future in which he will return to Britannia.

Gasper - Ingtar is curious, before other systems are implemented, what possible help player governments could possibly receive such as the Councils
GM_Grond - We have to be very careful about how much help we give. The demand for it is often very great. Usually we try to judge by popular opinion, but sometimes that is hard.
GM_Grond - I think players often have a better time if we stick out of it and let them run with some of these ideas.

Gasper - From Rhappacini concerning bows: Any future ideas on limiting bows... Like having to pause when firing similar to mages when casting...
Stormwind - There are no concrete plans currently, but revising bows could be part of the planned skill revision to take place within the next few months.

Gasper - From GVH-Kinowa: When will guildstones be fixed, is there anything we can do in the meantime?
GM_Grond - Guildstones should be fixed, after the reputation system is in.
GM_Grond - Probably the following update.

Gasper - From Zanne: Will there ever be more focus on trade skills and increasing roleplaying...ie bowyers repairing bows...tailors repairing leather etc
Stormwind - Yes, improvements such as those are planned as part of the skill revisions.

Gasper - From JohnClark: My question concerns player interaction and roleplaying with regards to the economy and "merchant skills". When will we see item decay and damage (in combat) for things such as clothing, and general decay for food? Tailors and Cooks never have a market, and never have any sort of interaction because there is no decay. Roleplaying these professions is rather difficult when there is no business to do.
Stormwind - We have no plans currently for this, but we will look into it.

Gasper - From Reeves: After house ownership is implented do you plan to make all castle two story doors INSIDE the structrue lockable much like the large smithy doors can be locked now? This would provide additional security and realism.
Stormwind - We will consider making inner house doors lockable. Added to the ever growing list. :-)

Gasper - I've gotten this question a LOT so here we go: Is it possible for OSI to timewarp all the servers back to Tuesday morning when no houses were looted so people can have their items back?
GM_Grond - Gasper, this is not possible nor feasable. Many people would be upset if we did that.

Gasper - From Slighter and can be extended to skills as some have asked: For the programmers. Is it possible to add the ablity to decide the max number your stats can reach. I have had problems with intel going too high and not being able to get it down, or it increases for no reason. Maybe a switch to set maximum
Stormwind - Manually setting max values for skills and stats is possible and has been discussed, but we have no plans currently to implement it.

Gasper - From Azreal_Darkmoon: When will the plot be discussed and NEcromancy, Time Lord, Guardian and Other things talked about
Gasper - Oh, and something many people have asked already, where is Lord British?
GM_Grond - I think many of those ideas have been slammed around, but I know the PLOT is still very much alive. tOAD can give you a better idea on that.
tOAD - I'm not sure what you want to discuss about the plot exactly, every Wednesday night, for the most part, we run a major event or festival.
tOAD - Lord British has become a little reclusive recently, as you probably well know, but he'll be around.:)

Gasper - From BR-Dragon: Will there ever be quests the revolve around the players of UO? EX. A series of tests or quests to find a player that would be the Avatar of each shard
GM_Grond - Yes there will. Player accomplishments will bring fame in lots of ways. Including new story lines.

Gasper - From Belldandy: When are the npc quests be put back in again? Will they work?
Stormwind - A more indepth quest engine is on our list of possible improvements we want to do within the next few months.

Gasper - From Venvidos: To aid those roleplaying orcs or other humanoid races, will the masks become more readily available? If not, how difficult would it be just to add other humanoid paperdolls for the character creation screen?
Stormwind - Playing nonhuman characters is on our list. Artwise, nonhuman paperdolls are not bad but equipment would be too big to patch.

Gasper - Frpm Dolgan: Are there any plans to allow NPC blacksmiths to repair items?
Stormwind - There are no plans currently to allow NPC blacksmiths to repair items. One advantage of the current system is that it encourages the player economy. Drawbacks are that it is more inconvienent for players, and that it requires trust on the part of the customer of the player blacksmith.

Gasper - From Morthond: IS it possible to create a schedule for NPCs like in the previous Ultima, and close shops at night?
GM_Grond - With varying time zones in the world, and a world wide player audience, NPC schedules might frustrate players.

Gasper - From Northwind: I would like to know if the 'virtues' are ever going to play a part in UO?
Stormwind - NPC shopkeepers used to close shop at night but the feature was not popular since it made shopkeepers unusable for 1/3 of the time.
tOAD - The virtues will appear from time to time in the major events on Wednesdays.

Gasper - From Rift: I consider hiding/disguising words of power to be an exploit. In addition, the process tends to lag up a fight. Does the team agree and will something be done anytime soon?
Stormwind - Yes, we agree should be changed. Words of power will not scroll away. We have no date for this, tho.

Gasper - From BH|Nekrasov: Is there any way that you will review the performance of DIGEX to the customers that GL and LS were supposed to serve? At the very least, have you seen the growing petition at http://www.thenewplanet.com/~rpaar/guestbook.html?
Stormwind - We are looking at the Digex problem. I don't know much about it myself. I will forward the URL along.

Gasper - From DrMemory: Since the major problem with a player economy is finding customers or vendors when you need them, have you ever considered making a "marketplace" next to some town with posts people could tie a vendor to? This would reduce the need for houses, and centralize trade.
Stormwind - Yes, a marketplace has been discussed and is on our list. As you can tell, lot of things are on our list. :-)

Gasper - From Megahero: Just a suggestion more than a question, is it possible that a property tax could be set to curb the number of houses in the wilderness? Perhaps based on the type of building owned?
Stormwind - Yes, a tax has been discussed. It may potentially a later addition to the house ownership system.

Gasper - From Malachi: Does OSI consider having customer support 10 hours of the 24 in a day good customer support? There ARE oversea players, and a lot of exploiters who hit at night!
Stormwind - Oops, ... It may potentially be a later addition to the house ownership system.
GM_Grond - Malachi, we are looking at all aspects of customer support right now. We need to determine what the real need is, but some changes should be coming in soon.

Gasper - From LOTOS: is it possible to add extra art via patching? and just how possible is that!
Stormwind - Yes, we can add new art via patching.

Gasper - Several people have asked about the Wednesday events so tOAD, could you clear that up a little? such as are they on all shards, etc.
tOAD - On Wednesday nights we run the major event, and yes they run on every shard.

Gasper - From Vas: One chief deterent to roleplaying is the ease in which can just recall from a situation ...ex: stop a player on the road ask them there business..(player recalls) with the new noto system do you foresee making recalling a higher magery or limiting it signifiacantly once the ENORMOUS PK threat is reduced
tOAD - Sometimes they're simply festivals or funerals or other small get togethers.
tOAD - Other times there are monster attacks and puzzles to solve.
tOAD - You can usually find out about the events from the Town Crier, although as we wait for the new rep system they're being toned down a bit.
tOAD - After the new rep system goes in we'll get back in full force.
Stormwind - Yes, recall/gate travel restrictions have been discussed. We are carefully watching the web site polls before deciding what to do, tho, since it would be a major change affecting how many peoples' gameplay.
Stormwind - Ooops, affecting many people's gameplay.

Lord-Hades - From Calmar:How does the new reputation system promote roleplaying, if there is no significant punishment for murdering NPC's? Roleplayers frequently risked their characters' lives to protect NPC's during the Beta...
Stormwind - I don't know enough about the rep system to answer that question. I'll forward it to PD BugKiller. Sorry... :-(
Ragnar (BugKiller) - You'll still have a hard time murdering npc's in towns. However, role players should be focusing their attention on player-player interaction, and not NPC interaction.
GM_Grond - I can field.
GM_Grond - I think it promotes better interaction with other players. It gives you much more oppurtunity to police the game as a player, and that is great for role-playing.

Glamdring - From Temptress: "Question" It was mentioned before that we would be able to purchase items such as looms, spinning wheels, anvils, forges etc. to lock down in our houses.. any idea when this might be?
Stormwind - These features have been implemented and will be in the publish after the rep system. Since the rep system is such a major change we are only publishing it and bug fixes in the next publish.

Lord-Hades - From Falkayn: Got here late, excuse if asked earlier. Its been 8 months, are we going to see an expansion pack anytime soon(i.e. a new continent)?
Stormwind - I can't comment on that, sorry. :-)

Glamdring - Tialo: Is guild fighting in town necessary? Why cant there be some place in Britannia where there is some civility, ie in towns? Do we really need gang wars running rampant?
Stormwind - Sorry, again I don't know enough about the rep system to answer that question. I'll forward it to PD BugKiller.
Ragnar (BugKiller) - Fighting in town has been there ever since order and virtue guards were introduced. On top of that, players needed a way to defend themselves against theives. Finally, if you are in a war, there shouldn't be a safe haven. We feel that anything that adds excitement to the game, without hurting the game for inexperienced players, is a good thing.

Lord-Hades - From Khoal: what are the plans to deal with melee weapons and their lack of damage, pre patch weapons that still exist and the slowness of hand to hand attacks (on a good connect I can move out of the way of swings)?
Stormwind - Prepatch weapons will be dealt with soon after the rep system publish. Any other combat changes will be part of the planned skill revision.
Stormwind - All prepatch weapons will be converted to work as their current counterparts.
Gasper - From Ibn_Shaun: PC healers cannot resurrect or cure, and their healing is very weak (STARK contrast to healers in the Ultima series). As an exclusivly player-to-player service, healing could have been the premier roleplaying skill in the game, yet NPCs and mages completely overshadow practitioners. Will healers become important again?
Stormwind - We plan to improve healing in the skill revision. It will become a much more useful skill.

Gasper - From Kryczech: I would like to hear about any stance on the established RP groups such as CRPC on Catskills and the possibilty of involving them in long term story lines. Are there plans to do such, in what timeframe, etc?
GM_Grond - I think there is always an interest on our part to help. However, deciding who gets special help within the game is very difficult. We want players to be able to decide by popularity, but we have to screen these.

Gasper - From JohnClark: What about removing item spawns from NPC shop merchants of things that can be made and sold by players? I realize at 3am the stock might become a little low, but that's just another market some entrepreneur will fill, don't you think? (or at least reducing the number npcs sell)
Stormwind - We have discussed it, but we are worried about the inconvience it may cause players. How about if we get a poll question about it and see what popular opinion is?

Gasper - Several people have asked about "roving guards" that are not in the town limits but are also not the extremely powerful ones found in town, do you have any comments on the feasibility of this?
Stormwind - I don't know enough about the proposal to comment on it. Where can I find more info on it?
Glamdring - From Bakura: What is the highest reputation, Great Lord (as stated on Origin's Rep FAQ) or Glamorous Lord (as stated on Bob's Rep FAQ)? I spoke to Bob today and he said that his is correct. If his is correct, could Origin please correct this in their FAQ?
GM_Grond - Right now, there is still some discussion on this issue. We will have the correct titles in by next week.
GM_Grond - Correct = Final

Gasper - From DaPh: What can us "little people" do to get GM assistance? like say to remove a house you dont need. some of us dont want to wait until the house patch, and some of us can't afford to let them decay due to "difficult" people, thanks..
Stormwind - Looking at the code it appears to be Glorious lord. We will correct the FAQ.
GM_Grond - Right now a GM would not be able to handle those kinds of requests. You would need to wait until the decay. Sorry.
Stormwind - Self destructing one's house and moving vendors will be considered for the house ownership change.

Gasper - Okay, I think we will wrap things up at this point
Gasper - We'd like to thank everyone for attending
FrostByghte - Thank you all for coming. We will be posting a log on the uohoc.stratics.com and on the UO Vault!