Ssendam - Please try to keep questions away from counselor powers etc...this is a design chat :)
Glamdring - *Coco* *KeeHeen-Sonoma* About the upcoming change to homeless vendors. How about instead of fixing vendors without a home, you change it so Unattended vendors disappear? There are many "homeless" vendors still serving a very useful purpose while at the same time, there are many "Home-owned" Vendors serving no purpose...they just won't die. The problem with a lot of these "Homeless" Vendors is that OSI made them such when they implemented "Zon
Glamdring - *Coco* *KeeHeen-Sonoma* Those players already lost houses with no comepensation, now they are to lose their Vendors that are doing VERY well?
DesignerD - We'd like to be consistent. By definition, an "unattended" vendor is one that doesn't get paid.
DesignerD - Those go away automatically anyway. :( We are hoping to basically cut back on the number of houses and vendors
DesignerD - both, with the new housing system, so that the wilderness of Britain will be wild again
DesignerD - We're pretty confident that well-established vendors will manage to establish a new location and clientele pretty quick
DesignerD - They're well-established, after all, and if they were good places to shop before, they will be again

Glamdring - *Valinor* Will Leather, Studded, and Ring tunics EVER layer correctly around the arms.
DesignerD - Probably not :( It's an art issue

Glamdring - *Valinor* are you aware some old vendors don't need to be payed if they have gold that they are "holding" for you? They never die if they have like 3 gps up there. I've had 2 vendors I haven't payed since febuary, and they don't decay time.
Stormwind - We weren't aware that this occured, we will check it out. Thanks for the info!
Glamdring - Just a note...please msg FrostByghte, Coco and Storm with the questions please
Glamdring - that Stormfall not Sotrmwind :)

Glamdring - *wiv_ches* Can you tell us all you know about the house patch!!!! People ask about it day in and day out and we cant tell them anything! Thanks!
DesignerD - OK, the first thing we can tell you is not to hold your breath--it's weeks and weeks away yet.
DesignerD - We know many people are looking forward to it, but there's a lot of work to do on it.
DesignerD - The goals are to make housing less common, overall, as you know.
Stormwind - Some other details: each character will be able to own a max of one ship and one house
DesignerD - And, of course, to make houses work better in general, by adding functionality many have wanted a long time--lock changing, locking down furniture...
Stormwind - Ownership will not be represented by the key anymore.
Stormwind - Ships and houses will have one owner.
Stormwind - The owner will be able to transfer ownership to someone else, or voluntarily destroy the ship/house.
Stormwind - There will be a claiming period in which players who posess a key to the ship/house will be able to claim the ship/house.
Stormwind - Claiming refers to claiming old ships and houses that existed before the house ownership change.
Stormwind - Claiming precedence will be given to the master key holder, then the most recent normal key holder.
Stormwind - You stake a claim by turning in your key to the new house interface (probably the house sign).

Glamdring - *XenaDragon* Will there be hooks in UO that 3rd party programs can use to query data in UO ?
DesignerD - We don't have any plans to add such hooks, but several third party programs like UO Assist of course do this already
DesignerD - However, also don't make any guarantee that said methods will always work, either. :)

Glamdring - *Shane* will GM swords ever mean something? Mages and archers get all the power while melee users are left in the dust
DesignerD - We sure hope so, with the new weapons revision. But we're currently looking at code things (meaning,
DesignerD - not jjust data things) we can do to better balance archery and the melee damage methods...
DesignerD - so getting int he weapons revision is gonna take time while we assess things like bumping up the miss rate
DesignerD - on arrows while running, etc.

Glamdring - *kainen* One more thing about the house patch, what about those of us who had the master key stolen, or "Bought" from our vendors when they were all re-priced
Stormwind - Newer houses keep track of who built the house. For those we can add "house builder" to the people who can claim a house. Older houses did not keep track of the builder, sorry.

Glamdring - *Geryn-Atl* When/how will the NPC mage exploit in the Jhelom pit be fixed?
DesignerD - Mages will no longer be hireable in the next update.

Glamdring - *Draconiss* What hapens if say 3 people claim one house?
Stormwind - It depends. :-)
Stormwind - If the builder and 2 normal key holders claim a house, the builder will get ownership at the end of the claim period.
Stormwind - If 3 normal key holders make a claim for the house/ship, the first player to make the claim will get ownership of the house/ship/
Stormwind - Precedence for claiming goes: builder, master key holder, then extra key holders in claiming order

Glamdring - *SRC_Drax* Do you plan on readding the "checkered tunic" to the available items? It has animations and gump art for it, but is not currently in game.
DesignerD - We'll see if it's feasible to get it in... There may be frames missing or something, I don't know
Glamdring - Please do not send the same question to all of the question takers...thanks

Glamdring - *Savoix|ls* Are you planning to do a house patch FAQ, or can what you have said here be turned into one?
DesignerD - We plan to post detailed info about how the house changeover will work once we're closer to that time.

Glamdring - *C_Arundel* when will GM smiths be able to do more with their skills - such as make exceptional plate tunics, colored plate, and perhaps even enchant plate?
DesignerD - Exceptional plate, with the housing update, I believe. It's part of the crafting revisions listed on Coming Soon.
DesignerD - Colored plate, on the list but no timetable for.
DesignerD - Smiths enchanting items, who knows.

Glamdring - Torin-sonoma* Why does a gm swords/tactics miss up to 11-12 times in a row? If they are grandmasters of the skill, they should do a bit better.
DesignerD - Usually, because of what they are fighting. :) After all, your chance of hitting or msising depends on what you are attacking...
DesignerD - and double-GMs like that tend to tackle hard things
DesignerD - there's also the overall "hit or miss" ratio we want for good balance, of course

Glamdring - *Draconiss* Will there ever be a way to prove a house belongs to someone who locked thier keys inside? i get about 3-4 calls a week about silly stuff like this
Stormwind - After the housing ownership patch the house owner will be able to get into the house without a key.

Glamdring - *KeeHeen-Sonoma* Have you considered making a "Baazar" type area where people could just place a Vendor in a city without needing a house?
DesignerD - Actually, there are spaces in the cities specifically built to serve as market squares. :) What we don't have is a means fo ryou to get your vendor there and back.
DesignerD - The best example is the one south of the fishing guild in Trinsic

Glamdring - *KeeHeen-Sonoma* Unless I missed it somewhere, I haven't seen anything addressed about people that own multiple buildings. With the new patch, will they have to "Choose" a building to keep or do they keep them all?
DesignerD - You choose one. Our dearly held hope (callous and cruel, I know) is that with this restriction, and with conflicts over claiming, many houses will just go away

Glamdring - *Timeout* Under the new house system are multiple doors going to be lockable? If not, how are you going to deal with castles(as exploiters and looters have a marked rune in the courtyard)
Stormwind - Yes, the owner of the house will be able to put locks on multiple doors in the house.

Glamdring - *XenaDragon* There is a textfile on the UOSS website that is generated by OSI. In it are a lot of numbers concerning skills. What exactly do the 'AdvRate 8000 2000 100' and 'AdvRate 2000 500 25' mean ?
DesignerD - Those numbers indicate a curve with a base rate of 100 and a max rate of 8000 and a "balance point" of 500. Of course, without the forumla, it's kinda useless. :)
DesignerD - the curve is for the shape of the advanceent curve

Glamdring - *StormFa11* Possibility of having a "Wedding Bureau" NPC which player couples
Glamdring - can go to be "registered" as married. Benefits may be to give the
Glamdring - couples engraved newbie rings, and a marriage deed. Glamdring has
Glamdring - suggested a wedding chapel possibility as well. I'd think the same
Glamdring - Wedding Bureau NPC can act as a "Divorce" administrator, to
Glamdring - deregister the couple etc. Perhaps a board can be placed near the
Glamdring - Wedding NPC listing the recently wedded couples too!
DesignerD - We'd love to make some way of "officializing" weddings in UO... it'd be a great roleplay feature

Glamdring - *Drogg|UOSS|Atl* Will children ever be implented into the game as NPC's?
DesignerD - No. They are missing all the combat animation frames. And you thought hellhounds were obnoxious? ;)

Glamdring - *Stardrom|Ches* what about vendors attached to Tents? Will there be any difference in treatment in those? and how will tents be labeled as "owned" in the new House Patch?
Stormwind - Tents are houses, so vendors attached to tents act just like vendors attached to houses. Tents are a house under the house ownership system.
Stormwind - Tents are houses I mean... :-)

Glamdring - *Anzel-Cats* Can the inner doors of the large forge be fixed so that they open when locked with a key in the pack, vs having to use the key directly on the door? Seems like a simple fix. :)
Stormwind - We'll look into it.

Glamdring - *QuickSilver-GL* Will inscription ever cost less mana when you fail? Casting a spell doesnt take mana when you fail..
DesignerD - no plans to change that at the moment

Glamdring - *Rath-TC* Currently craft skills seem not to change your title when you actually advance. But combat skills change your skill title fast. Example of this is I was 90.7 in mace fighting it says Master ArmsMan but If i go all the way to 92+ in smithing it still says Adept. And will there ever be a way to choose the skill title you want to display. I Would rather be a Master Smith than a Master Warrior.
DesignerD - Your title is based on the actual skill level you have. But your skill display shows them weighted by skill
DesignerD - that's the reason for discrepancy you are seeing there.
DesignerD - As far as a way to pick which title to display, it's been on the wishlist for a while now :)

Glamdring - *Jorheit|NV* my question is: There are other weapon animations on the CD (for example, there is a right-to-left swing animation for black staves), are these animations ever going to be implemented? (And from another Counselor) Speaking of animations, will the actual crossbow animation ever be used? Or the Summon animation (chanting).
DesignerD - I'd need to check each animation individually to see if they could work. SO can't really answer your question no, sorry!
DesignerD - er, "can't really answer your question NOW, sorry!"

Glamdring - *Drogg|UOSS|Atl* Are there any immediate solutions planned for the town-killing bug[i.e, reflecting against someone with a criminal flag]
DesignerD - Yep, the next update fixes it.

Glamdring - *SRC_Drax* What are your views on third party programs that don't interfere in online UO, but change map data and the such for other shards? (IE Genesis, map editor.)
DesignerD - I haven't SEEN Genesis, actually, and am quite eager to see it. I understand it is only in limited distribution
DesignerD - As far as an official position on map editors, we don't have one yet that I can talk about.
DesignerD - We're going to be wrapping this up shortly, everyone... just a couple more questions.

Glamdring - *Draconiss* I was asked this by several people, and i thoguht it migfht be a good idea. Sometimes people leave houses unlocked and let them rot, why not let people use the sign to put up a bid on the house? if person wins the bid, the house is restored with new locks and he/she gets keys upon visiting the house they bid on. The person who put house up for sale or let it rot would get the money the person bid.
Glamdring - Also for added security, can people who log out isnde a house appear outside it? The house owner could have a friends list that allows certain people to log out inside and back on inside. This would prevent someone from selling a hosue with a mule logged out inside, just waiting to loot
Stormwind - We have talked a little about auctioning houses, but not very much. I'd like to see some sort of auction-vendor that could auction all sorts of items, including houses.
Stormwind - Being tosses out of the house on logout is part of the ownership changes.
Stormwind - Ooops, tosses = tossed
Stormwind - No plan for the friends list tho.

Glamdring - *Uziel* -Any chance of getting gamemaster ability to set up inanimate objects that respond to keywords?� For example a chest that unlocks itself when a passphrase is spoken nearby.� This would open up more quest types that don't involve fighting. [ Well, I'd love to., The tricky part is defining the reaction to the keyword. As any of you who might be Seers (any here?) might know,
DesignerD - we do have a tool for GMs that allows them to set custom conversation responses on NPCs...
DesignerD - That much is pretty easy, and we have toyed with the idea of letting players hire "actors" with that capability
DesignerD - so that they could set up quests in that fashion. But more complex stuff, like "unlock this" or "open this" or "spawn a monster" or whatever basically means
DesignerD - giving you a mini-scripting language, which is a little harder. :)
DesignerD - So, in principle, yeah, cool. In practice... uhh...
DesignerD - Just passwording locks, though, is something we have talkd about for houses, even

Glamdring - Okay all...that'll do it for this evening
Glamdring - I would like to pass on our thanks to DD and Storm
Glamdring - for coming to see us without a bunch of players around :)
Glamdring - Thanks for coming everyone
DesignerD - I am getting questions about a Seer specific chat sometime--we're willing, just contact the GMs and it can probably be set up :)
Glamdring - and DD and Storm...don't be strangers around
Stormwind - Thanks for having us, c-ya!