Glamdring - Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Open House.
Glamdring - Tonight's chat is considered General Discussion and the FYI section of www.owo.com and as such we will accept questions of any topic relating to UO.
Glamdring - I will be our moderator for this evening. In order to submit questions please /msg or /query Jerrith, Kieron, Narcissus.
Glamdring - Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from OSI, or myself--these questions will be ignored.
Glamdring - Remember that OSI may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
Glamdring - 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.
Glamdring - For discussion purposes during the chat and anytime really, #ultima-online is always open :)
Glamdring - Thanks for coming, everyone. We will now begin accepting questions.

Glamdring - *Casey* Any word on fixing fishing skill gain on atlantic? I've been fishing for over 50 hours the last few days with NO skill gain(currently at 96.1). And LOTS of others on atlantic are having the same problem.
SunSword - I'll check on it right after this. Make sure you've had a support person check out it out for you as well.

Glamdring - *Cynic-* To Anybody on the Dev Team -> What is the status of Necromancy, Alchemy revisions, Good/Evil system, Quest Engine (newbie & veteran), Last Target being added to client, fixing the client memory leak, etc? (Basically everything that is not Seige related that was promised months ago).
toad - Last Target has been added to the client and will be in the accessibility update
SunSword - the client is continually being worked on and some of the will show up in the accessibility update
SunSword - Alchemy is in full development
toad - The first revision of the quest engine will be seen as Newbie quests in the accessibility update
SunSword - Necromancy, while fully "cool" is still design phase for balancing reasons.
SunSword - Good/Evil is basically in a live test on SP
toad - And we're working like crazy
toad - :)
SunSword - that too

Glamdring - *Adimar* Is Archery being considered for placement in the Rate-over-time skill class on Siege Perilous? Any others?
SunSword - The only thing that's seriously put archery in question on SP is the effect of poisoning in the Evil vs Paladin system
SunSword - otherwise, it is not currently being considered for rate over time
SunSword - This is because it consumes arrows and feathers, both of which will be in short order if everyone wants to be an archer
toad - Also bows which wear down

Glamdring - *Senith* My question: What is the status of the Test Center Beta program?
SunSword - We're currently in "crunch" getting the accessibilty update ready for testing. We're shooting for the beginning of next week.
SunSword - As a matter of fact, that's why runesabre isn't here.

Glamdring - *Odysius* Will there be any further changes to Tinkering and Carpentry as too add more Unique items
toad - We are definately planning on adding new items for all crafting skills whenever we do updates
toad - So, the answer would be, Yes.

Glamdring - *EdithBunker* What is exactly is the UO development team doing to shore up the downtime and timewarp issues with the shards. Why has there been so much downtime and timewarping lately?
SunSword - The recent downtimes have been due to some hardware issues
SunSword - you can get the specifics on that on owo.com
SunSword - As for backup time and timewarps in general, we will be committing some programming resources DIRECTLY on the backup system and server performance for the next several months
SunSword - Cal has that URL for the recent down times
SunSword - http://support.uo.com/s_issue.html
SunSword - we have identified some very promising ways of dealing with backup times.

Glamdring - *SRC_Arioch* question: is there an eta for the long-promised changes to parrying to make it more viable against misslle spells, ie, ebolt?
SunSword - Well
SunSword - to be honest, it's not part of our immediate plans
SunSword - currently, the melee skills are quite powerful, and we're not convinced that that change needs to take place.

Glamdring - *Suriyel_Fedakyn* Will the durability if axes be modified from what it is now on SP (axes breaking in 5-10 successful lumberjacking checks)?
toad - I'm planning on looking over the current status of all the items that have durabilities and making sure that they are all balanced (not just on Siege but on the other shards as well) but this will be part of that process.

Glamdring - *Cyber* how will Siege work with normal updates? Given that it has a different code base will all upcoming changes to standard shards arrive on it as well? same time or delayed?
SunSword - Right now, we plan on updating SP at the same time. It might turn out that there will be a staggered update for testing purposes, but the changes made in the code are very flexible.

Glamdring - *Calamar|SSP* Will OSI soon make use of UO's unused paperdoll graphics? Employing existing animations, could the developers easily add those 'fancy tunics' and 'checkered surcoats' to the game -- or even produce new paperdoll graphics? Those unused sword images look great, as well...
toad - We have looked at using some of the unused art in unusual places (like events and such) and surcoats were added to the tailoring craftables, so yes, it's possible that at some point we might use some of these things.

Glamdring - *Alan-TP* Why has the PvP community been punished with the deletion of Abyss and the addition of the SP roleplaying shard?
SunSword - There are two things to note about this question
SunSword - First, the community on Abyss was not large enough to justify dedicating and entire shard.
SunSword - Second, I don't believe we are punishing them. SP has a great deal of PvP opportunity, and I believe overall, it will be far more interesting than Abyss.
SunSword - The lack of recall brings true strategy and real sacrfice to the adventure
SunSword - The removal of statloss allows for players to be "murders" and still have a good time on the shard
SunSword - This is why so many people are so excited about playing there.
SunSword - I realize that there are a small number of people who are upset, and very vocal about this, but I believe that this isreally going to benenfit the greater good.
SunSword - I certainly plan to play on SP.

Glamdring - *DF14* Has the The Joshua Rowan Title Idea ever been discussed by the Dev team? If not has any other new title idea ever come up?
toad - We've discussed this as well as other nobility titles and we may consider implementing one at some point, but currently it's not on our immediate list of plans.

Glamdring - *Shadewyn* can we put an end to the needless spam of text from some skills (alchemy) and just let them be with sound effects ?
SunSword - as part of our bugfix/frequent updates over the winter and spring, we've been trying to remove sources of spam, that trend will continue when we resume those updates in the near future.

Glamdring - *Tyria* Will there be any other towns on SP that will not be guarded in the future?
SunSword - I think that's a great idea
SunSword - We're discussing right now as a matter of fact

Glamdring - *BuCKsWrld* I have two questions. First, when is the new menu system going in for all skills? 2nd, will we ever be able to melt down weaps/armor for ingots?
SunSword - 1) Skill management is a #1 priority for us right now, as soon as the accessibility update goes in, we'll begin work on implementing it
SunSword - 2) Our newest designer "Sage" actually coded resmelting, and recycling clothes this week
SunSword - hopefully it will be in one of the next updates
SunSword - He's done quite a good job.

Glamdring - *Sie_Ming* Will the formulas for the new potions be the same for all alchemists? If so, are there measures in place to make research needed even after the formulas are posted on the web?
SunSword - They will probably be the same for all alchemists. One of the things we have to recognize is that any information that can be discovered in the game will soon be posted and available to everyone
SunSword - We are considering certain measures to keep it interesting, one of which is the sheer number of potions that can be created
SunSword - We'll be looking for feedback when it gets on TC so make sure to test it out

Glamdring - *Greye_Wyndmere* Who are the designers in UO Live now and who's working on what?
SunSword - toad - and I are the leads. We're working on Newbie Quests, Alchemy, Necromancy, Skill Management, etc
SunSword - Sage and Rob Irving are the other two designers, Sage is getting up to speed, and has done as I mentioned before resmelting and cloth reuse, and Rob Irving has been EXTREMELY dedicated to the design of Alchemy
SunSword - And of course, every programmer is a bit of a designer as well.

Glamdring - *Pirate-Guy* Have you ever considered letting mages recharge magic items? Like items or fireball or reflect, to make things more interesting concerming spell charged items in combat?
toad - We've discussed implementing a system for enchantment (SunSword - specifically has some wonderful ideas on this front) and this would certainly fall under the realm of enchanting, so It may be something we'll consider in the future.

Glamdring - *Src_Wynter* Dev Team Question: Just a thought if this is possiblity : (for Mining skill) let them mine for Sands/Silica and Add Glassblowing to Tinkering Skill as a required combo to make Empty Bottles *grin* Possible to add? Or you already have similar plans in work? Thanks in advance!!
SunSword - cool idea, I'll toy with it.
SunSword - May not get in there, but it's neat.

SunSword - So, many of you have questions about DD and the other team members who are moving on...
SunSword - First, let me make a note about DD's recent house fire.
SunSword - He and his family are fine, and they have expressed their gratitude for the kind words and concern from the UO community
SunSword - To be honest, it was quite touching.
SunSword - As to their future, they have another project to begin
SunSword - They will take the lessons learned from UO and put together a new world for the future. I'm sure it will be quite interesting
SunSword - In the meantime, toad -, Runesabre, and myself are extremely excited about moving on with UO and continuing to develop and add new systems and new adventures to the game.
SunSword - We're still in contact with the "old guard" and will use them as resources when neccessary.
SunSword - And we wish them the best in their new endevour.
SunSword - Thanks for coming :)