Den_Dragon - Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Open House.
Den_Dragon - Tonight's topic is: 'Combat Changes'. Please phrase your questions accordingly.
Den_Dragon - Glamdring will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Cironian, Uziel, Jerrith.
Den_Dragon - Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from Origin, myself or Glamdring--these questions will be ignored.
Den_Dragon - Remember that the DevTeam may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the DevTeam feels that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Den_Dragon - In addition, please do not submit any questions that have already been answered during past conferences. We encourage you to read the logs of the previous Open Houses, which are available at http://uohoc.stratics.com.
Den_Dragon - Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions.
DesignerD - (and tonight, perfectly good questions may be held off for later when Faceless gets here, since he will be better able to answer them)

Glamdring - *DarusGrey* In the future is it possable to have organizations similar to the upcomming theives guilds for all(or almsot all) the major arch-types?(Wizard,Warrior,Bard,Merchant..Etc) that by joining you must be of a certain breed(stick to certain skills) but gain abilities not found with non-guild people, so one could be a jack-of-all trades(least in a sense) still or mold their character into a certain group(mage,warrior,etc)
DesignerD - We are not planning on anything as dramatic as the Thieves' Guild for all profession types, but we do plan to emphasize the roles of NPC guilds more
DesignerD - Quite possibly tying it into getting titles as you advance, for example.

Glamdring - *NoRin* Almost all the of the combat related crafts have been improved except Bowing. Are their any plans to improve the Bow makeing skill?
DesignerD - I'd liketo make wood have differing effects on the final product, double or more the amount of types of bows available, and do that sort of enhancement, basically. I assume that is what you are looking for. Yes, we do have that type of plan, just no timetable for doing it just yet.

Glamdring - *Azaroth* What do you intend to do about the excessive use of pets such as nightmares/drakes/dragons in what used to be pvp since these pets can easily be obtained for a bit of gold?
DesignerD - Well, the change we have in mind is making it so that powerful pets are more resiatant to obeying commands--this would be countered by your ability in the taming skill. So effectively, really powerful pets would need to be commanded by good tamers. Otherwise, they'll be very unreliable--refusing orders often, and losing loyalty faster.
DesignerD - We're very concerned about the entire guilds riding nightmares, for example. As one of the deadliest breasts and toughest to tame, it would require a master tamer to control it even AFTER it has been broken.
DesignerD - This change isn't going in this next update, but almost certainly will be in the one after that.

Glamdring - *Ennuis* Would it be possible to allow established city groups to build prior to the ban lifting hrough say the seer program?
DesignerD - I assume you mean building in the Lost Lands. No plans for allowing early building at the moment. We don't have a timetable to announce about building in T2A lands.

Glamdring - *Hythlodaeus* With this new color team system, is it possible that chaos/order could again be karma based and separate from guild membership?
DesignerD - You should expect chaos and order to likely be joined by other factions, and for a faction warfare system something like what is on the Abyss to actually appear on ALL the shards. It's possible that the definition of current order and chaos to change with those changes, yes. We don't yet know what they'd become--perhaps they could go back to being a sort of Virtue Guard.

Glamdring - *Tsath* Melee weapons are very useful now for fighting most monsters if one has the needed skills, however some of the toughest beasts seem to still be killed only by mages. Are any further changes to combat that might address this planned?
DesignerD - What we'd hope is that the toughest beasts are only killed by groups. Mages would be a part of that.

Glamdring - *Mikey* My main character is a GrandMaster Merchant, not a fighter, and I have worked very hard getting to this level...Unfortunately since I dont participate in combat, I will never have a chance of my title being displayed, Do you plan on maybe making anybody reaching GM rank having there title displayed??
DesignerD - That's part of what I was getting at with the titles & joining NPC guilds thing. You might have to have membership in an NPC guild to publicly claim to be a master smith, for example. You might also have to go back to the guild when you crossed thresholds that earned you titles in order to actually receive the title--eg, you might be at 100 skill, but until you go back to the guildhall, you aren't dubbed a Grandmaster.
DesignerD - Once we did this sort of thing, the current system of displaying based only on fame would go away, of course.

Glamdring - *harkon* I have a question regarding PvM combat, specifically, with regards to Bards. Will bards ever be able to gain Fame/Karma again? We realize it was a coding issue with regards to the controlling flag, etc., that first led to its removal, but surely that can't be an unsurmountable obstacle in itself at this point in time?
DesignerD - Bards will be able to gain fame and karma once the party system is in, by sharing in the fame and karma gained by the party.

Glamdring - *Geryn-Ches|LS* Is there any chance for a change to staves? They could be used to strike more than once in an attack, or maybe trip up the oppenent. Maybe a staff fighting skill?
DesignerD - Didn't have any plans along those lines at the moment, except for vagueness... I don't know how many of you have heard about our desire to add more skills to add further specialization (skill trees). But adding subspecialties to weapons skills was part of that. So if we go that route, it's likely we'd have skills for invidiual weapon types. What those would mean is still undecided.

Glamdring - *Josh* A long term goal is always to reduce item count, and I overheard someone mention a good idea on COB not too long ago. Make complete spell books 1 item instead of tracking the 64 individual scrolls in them.
DesignerD - Nice idea. That'd probably make a big difference, actually. It's a kind of low level change, though. We'd have to investigate it. It'd probably be hard, but worth it.
DesignerD - In fact, lemme mail that to the team *right now* so that we can investigate it. AFK a sec. :)
DesignerD - back :) thanks for that idea!

Glamdring - *Trismane* as for the question earlier with sharing fame/karma... will points be distributed according to damage delt? because anyone could just come in and attack, and easily gain fame this way...
DesignerD - Don't worry, we are quite aware of all the issues involved in designing party systems. We won't allow that sort of sneaky attack... the peson or group who dealt the most damage would be the ones awarded the fame and karma, of course.

Glamdring - *Cat_Tails* I am GM Swords yet i have lost and gained it more then 20 times. It is a pain in the butt to keep trying to get this back. Are there any plans in the future to allow us to lock skills down?
DesignerD - No plans to just plain old lock it down, but there are some (as yet vague also) plans to help you manage the points better. We're also looking at just making GM in all skills be 99.0 and higher, because staying at 100 exactly is so hard.
DesignerD - By managing the points better, the main thing we want to do is give you the ability to cap how HIGH something goes, not to keep it from falling.

Glamdring - *XenaDragon* Will Halberds, bardiches and staffs ever become real polearms? Meaning: have a longer reach.
DesignerD - They used to have a longer reach, actually, early in the beta, I don't remember why it was changed. I'll investigate. :)

Glamdring - *Ryan* I know this is kind of off-topic, but there was a post by Dupre on the CoB dev board about the Abyss shard going in permanently soon. Has a timetable been set for this? Can we expect it in the next few weeks or what? Alot of people are wondering this and it is really fun to actually test the new combat and magery related changes against other players and not have to worry about the things that one would worry about on a
DesignerD - We're doing final design work on the Abyss now, actually, and you should probably expect it to go live permanently sometime in March. We intend to have this be a fun and cool PvP experience that's easy and quick to jump in and out of too...
DesignerD - When i say permanent, that means it will be available all the time. It may get wiped on a regular basis based on how we design the Abyss game, though... one side "winning" might entail the destruction of the world, based on the fiction. We're still discussing that stuff. :)

Glamdring - *Strac* While playing the Abyss, it was evident that the paralyze spell is somehow immune to magic resistance. Is this by design?
Faceless - It was by the original design. This has been changed and is awaiting publish to the test shards

Glamdring - *Hartford* I understand that PvP hiders were a nuisance, but now that one cannot hide at all in any combat situation, the skill is fairly useless. Will you consider making hiding success arbitrary to the attacker's detecting hidden skill, or in some other way skill-based? I can't even outsmart a sewer rat these days.
Faceless - We could consider lowering the tiles (currently you have to be 8 tiles away to hide from someone attacking you if you are a GM)
Faceless - but for the most part it's a good change. Esp with the addition of stealth (moving while hidden)
Faceless - We'll see how the balance plays out over time.

Glamdring - Salos* When shall the improvements to parrying be made? Beside this skill and Eval Int, are any other changes to combat mechanics on the near horizon?
Faceless - Parrying is already x2 more effective vs archery. I think it may need more in the future. I expect it to boost resistant vs projectile
Faceless - spells within the next 3 updates. (depending on room). As far as other mechanics probably not for a bit
Faceless - unless something is way out of balance.

Glamdring - *Precious* DD is there any chance of implementing a dual weapons skill?
Faceless - That depends. It's an excellent addition, but I would need to do some research on the impact that would have on animations changes

Glamdring - *Shamino* Many News sites feature the coming of Necromancy, could we get a litle bit of specifications on this?
DesignerD - We don't want to reveal too much, because we'd like players to have to research & discover necromancy...
DesignerD - But you should expect powerful necromancers to be able to raise up armies of zombies from the bodies of their dead foes. :)

Glamdring - *MOW-X-* How is eval going to affect spell resist?
Faceless - Here's how it will work:
Faceless - It will not affect the victim's chance to "resist" the spell
Faceless - But it will affect the scaling of damage/effect
Faceless - When you go up against a GM resistor, full damage will not happen even if they fail to resist
Faceless - it gets scaled somewhat by their resistance
Faceless - however, you can counter the scaling with high Eval Int
Faceless - this works against monsters too
Faceless - Chance to resist the spell is based soley on your resist score and the attacker's mager/spell circle

Glamdring - *Sten_Hunt* Will Monsters be effected by Stamina damage and AR damage from maces and combat in general?
Faceless - They are affected by stamina damage
Faceless - Only monsters that wear armor are effected by AR damage
Faceless - Which isn't many yet

Glamdring - *Dr_Adam[GL]* Will Mace skill ever damage weapons more? i have "killed" a bunch of sets of plate. and i would like to destory the fencers kyrss b4 it destorys me :)
Faceless - In all honesty I don't think maces need any more "help" after the last update. More likey weapon disarming/disabling will be accomplished
Faceless - Though a different skill or specialization in the future.

Glamdring - *CaramonM* I remember hearing something about the delay on the explosion spell being removed to prevent the explosion followed by an e-bolt combo, when, if ever is this planned to go into effect?
Faceless - Well this isn't planned. Having fought many mages who used that tactic I can say it is defeatable.
SunSword - The bug was originally that the art didn't match the damage for explosion. The tactic has always been there, and it makes explosion interesting. The change that was made was to match the art up with the damage.
Faceless - If we did remove the delay, it'd really be no different from ebolt and thus not desirable.
Faceless - Unless we changed the behavior and made it area affect or something

Glamdring - *Rama* Are there going to be any revisions to the dungeons? Personally, I think a lot of people want to see a reduction of the slimes, rats, giant rats, giant serpents (Despise/Hythloth) and a HUGE increase in evil NPCs, IE-NPC paladins, fighters and magi that are agressive and give better loot than dead hirelings.
Faceless - I totally agree with that one. Despise was my favorite dungeon for a long time. I don't have a time frame for changes yet, but we're on the same wavelength.
SunSword - Well, we're also adding traps as part of the Thief revisions (in dungeons)

Glamdring - *Fa|k* Is it possible to make arrows made of silver, and not the bows/crossbows??? After all, it is the arrow that hits the opponent and not the bow/crossbow!!
Faceless - Well anything's possible ;). Unfortunately that would require a fairly large change in the guts of the missle engine
Faceless - so, I wouldn't expect it for a while, so I hope you can live with silverbows for a bit :)

Glamdring - *Speck_Ches* Is there any plans to slow down the meditation skill or lessen its speed. Right now it is way to easy to gain the skill and you can cast non stop 8th almost with high enough skill.
Faceless - No there are no plans at the moment to change meditation.

XenaDragon - *Unknown_Player* Is there anything in the works to be able to chalange someone to a duel by hitting a button and targeting the person you want to duel.
DesignerD - It's come up, and we kinda like the idea, but we don't have a design for it or anything yet. So it's a definite possibility for the future.

Glamdring - *Traithen_Stormbow* Are there any plans to make dexterity a bit easier to raise for warriors? It used to be that str was the most difficult, and dex was too easy, but now that has almost completely reversed.
Faceless - It depends on which combat skill you use..archery and fencing do dex nicely

Glamdring - *Tem_* Will the new changes to rogues include a backstab modifier on the first attack made while hidden and if no, why not?
Faceless - Not in this rev. When we add assassination it will be a new skill.

Glamdring - *Naja_Haje* Hail...Sorry if this has been asked (late ) Anything on rogues being able to use lethal force to defend themselves?Seems odd that a half dead newbie could attack me outta town and i'll get kicked out of the thieves guild because i couldn't move away fast enough...
DesignerD - OK, I assume you mean a PvP thief type, not a generic "rogue" right? A thief that is in the Thieves' Guild.
DesignerD - In this scenario (outside of town) you have a Thieves Guild member attacked. The TG guy cannot report murder, nor can he murder.
DesignerD - But since he hasn't just stolen, the attacker is flagged aggressor, and therefore cannot report EITHER. So the TGmember does not take a murder count.
DesignerD - Note that if the thief had just stolen from someone, then they could attack him & NOT be flagged aggressor, thus leading to a murder count for the thief, if he killed them. In the case of fights right after stealing, the thief *HAS* to run away or else grovel & beg forgiveness and hope the fight breaks off.

Glamdring - *^Lucian* Will spells like Paralyze and Curse ever be resistable?
Faceless - Paralyze will in the next update. Curse isn't but could be in the future.

Glamdring - *Gandalf* will monster mages learn to heal?
DesignerD - Maybe. :)

Glamdring - *Sarzec* Now with the new speed by stamina, are you going to do anything about Greater Agility Potions? They have lost their use now that we have to wait for our stamina to go up to get the full affect.
Faceless - Excellent point. We'll have to boost the stamina up for them. Also...
Faceless - just to clear up a misconception...speed of swing is based on your absolute stamina, not a percentage
Faceless - so a 25/25 stamina warrior is slower than a 50/100 one.

Glamdring - *Ranger_Rick* are there going to be any changes to make fighting PvP/monsters less cumbersome? having multiple health boxes and a paperdoll (to equip/unequip when you want to drink a potion, etc.) clutters up the screen and makes it more difficult to fight
DesignerD - Managing health boxes & the like will be a lot easier with the party system.
DesignerD - As far as equip/unequip, if we add equip and unequip as macros, which we have been discussing, then that would be easier. We are concerned about possible exploits with that though.

Glamdring - *TRiNXeats* is there any plans to make war axes and the spikes of war maces poisonable?
Faceless - Not in the near future. Bashing weapons have advantages of their own. Making them poisonable would likely make them too powerful

Den_Dragon - Thanks for coming everyone!
SunSword - Good eve.
Den_Dragon - we'll have the full log of this meeting posted at the UOHoC website shortly
* SunSword shimmers and vanishes.