Glamdring - Good evening everyone, thank you for coming to tonight's Ultima Online open house. This Stratics House of Commons chat is a direct connection between you the players and the designers and programmers of Ultima Online.
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Glamdring - I will be our moderator tonight...I will post your question into the House of Commons chat channel and the Developers will answer those that they can. Please remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum.
Glamdring - Please do not message or query myself or anyone from OSI, these questions will be ignored. We encourage you to read the logs of the previous Open Houses, which are available at http://uohoc.stratics.com.
Glamdring - Enjoy tonight's chat...the topic is "Factions, Third Dawn and In Concept"

Glamdring - <C_Xaivor_GL> When can we do bata testing for Third Dawn?
Runesabre - January! January! January! And for those who were at the UO World Faire, the Alpha CDs are going to be sent out sometime in December so make sure your emails are up to date.
Sage - All dates are subject to change. =)

Glamdring - *SailorDth* With UO:3d Will new and old players alike be able to customize the way thier Character looks, such as changing their facial appearance along with thier build? It would be interesting to see a hulking brute or a fat shopkeeper.
Runesabre - Right now, Third Dawn supports the same body configurations such as hair, skin color, etc. No plans for different body structures right now.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* Will there be a way for a faction leader to kick someone from a faction?
Adrick-OSI - currently there are no plans to allow faction commanders that power
Adrick-OSI - the concern is that by allowing faction commanders to kick would be abused

Glamdring - *Animal* How does one transfer faction points ?
Evocare - You say "i honor your leadership" no more.... no less
Evocare - You will need to have at least 5 kill points to transfer though.

Glamdring - *SailorDth* Will the paperdoll be a static Render or will the character move when you attack/walk. If they are static will they be poseable?
Runesabre - The Third Dawn paperdoll will animate as your avatar animates. It will not be poseable.

Glamdring - *Brandy* How will UO:3D be handled on SP? Will we not get it at all or will it go in with Felucca rules or will it go in with the planned Trammel ruleset?
Sage - We have not determined the rule set for SP yet, but we will post the idea when we do.
Adrick-OSI - currently that decision has no been made

Glamdring - *C_Xaivor_GL* Will we be able to go between trammel and fel as well as the Thrid Dawn world?
FierYiCe - Yes. There will be a way to travel between all of the facets.

Glamdring - *LargeMinerInc* What new types of tameable animals(if any) will be introduced in UO Third Dawn? if so, any pics?
Sage - I don't want to give away any secrets, but there are plans to have new tameables at this time.

Glamdring - *Rich_Raine* Arent factions supposed to fair numbers wise? On pacific Shadow Lords out number every other faction atleast 2 to 1 in wars, also the scoring in factions is a bit unfair, rez killing shouldnt make you lose a point, and gain it to others. With Mage vs Warrior, totally unfair in factions, warriors with blessed vanqs kill in 2 hits, other than the fact they kill in 3 with a GM. Factions seems to be conn and numbers,
Glamdring - instead of intense Pvp
Evocare - I'll try to answer that part by part...
Evocare - First, the numbers are only regulated to ensure that no single faction gets larger then twice as big as the smallest faction since we don't want to regulate them too strictly.
Evocare - There's nothing to say that multiple smaller factions can't organize themselves somewhat to gang up on the bigger one(s)
Evocare - In a lot of ways, pvp is a combination of numbers, connection, skill, and luck, so it's not unreasonable for numbers and connection to play significant parts
Evocare - That being said, we're certainly keeping our eyes open for balance problems.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* Is there a plan to stop the constant rez killing in the Faction System? Since players get kill points for rez killing they do it!
Sage - I understand the desire to immediately rejoin your comrades in battle, but it just is not a good idea to res in an area that is clearly controlled, or perhaps not so clearly controlled by the enemy faction.
Sage - You should not continue to do so, as you will be vulnerable. Understand the consequences and accept that you will have some traveling as a ghost.

Glamdring - *Eiric* Are there plans to allow the Interest team (Seers, Elders, Troubadours) to conduct events in the new UO:3D lands? Will they be given the ability to create events using any of the new monsters/items?
Sage - The new UO:TD lands are a part of the Ultima World. They will be treated in the same way, though naturally any events will be catered to the area they are in

Glamdring - *ImaDufus_LSR* Do you think UO will experence another crisis this year around Xmas? Will UO be cursed again on this holiday? Some examples of what Im talking about are the zillion Santas from 97, the blinking lights on the Xmas trees in 98 on LS that really messed up and the entier house delete thingy on Pacific that caused a 5 day warp of the shard.
Sage - Our main concern with the service is always stability. I am not going to make guarantees, but I don't forsee any unusual issue which would occur this holiday season.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* IN Factions will town income ever be based on number of vendors or goods sold, or is each town going to have a static income of 10k unless adjusted by finance minister
Evocare - No new plans in that area have been decided right now. Unfortunately basing it upon the actual town cashflow presents a large number of potential problems and would require an extensive amount of time to address.

Glamdring - *Seraine* will there be a permanent facet gate between felucca and trammel some day?
FierYiCe - maybe :)

Glamdring - *Vizir-TvG* How will the UO:Third Dawn affect UO Pro programs? Such as UOAssist and UOAutoMap. Are any compatibility issues foreseen with them?
Sage - I think that question is best left up to the developer of that software application.

Glamdring - *Sound* Will traps be permanent of will they be one use only?
Adrick-OSI - Once a faction trap is placed it remains until either disarmed by oposing faction player or removed by the faction commander of the faction
Adrick-OSI - that placed it

Glamdring - *Chris-* Are there any pans to introduce new servers just for people with UO:3d?
Sage - I assume that means introduce a separate shard for UO:Third Dawn. No. Third Dawn will be a part of the current UO world. There are no plans for a server only for Third Dawn owners.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* Right now while in factions if you go into stat loss you can gain skill as though you were really at that level. For instance If I am at 95 magery and I get stat loss I will drop down to 65 or so magery. I can not gain skill points by casting lower level spells!
Evocare - Not for long.

Glamdring - *Adam_P* I like the idea of the stat changes. It could lead to more balanced characters. Will it move on in development cycle?
Sage - I think there are some valid concerns about the new stat changes. We really need to evaluate the concerns. This really was an IN CONCEPT idea where we wanted to get feedback very early. If we do get lot's of good feedback, or even good feedback on the system with alterations, it could go in.
Sage - It is not something I expect to see soon.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* is there any plan to allow Factions to ally? Right not it is all orange and you fight them all
Evocare - We've discussed that possibility, although I can't say that we have plans to implement it on our current schedule.

Glamdring - *Coll_SHA* Now that factions is out how soon before rewards will be ready?
Sage - We want to get the new rewards into test this weekend if possible.

Glamdring - *Chris-* Will there ever be a clear winning faction? or will it be a never ending see-saw battle of who can stay up late and steal the sigils back? Whats the point of factions if they will just go on forever?
Adrick-OSI - wining is a difficult concept because depending on the player its relative
Adrick-OSI - some feel that controling a town is winning
Adrick-OSI - some feel that having the most kill points is winning
Adrick-OSI - I think though that already we are seeing those factions who are organizing makin a name for themselves
Evocare - In addition, I think it's reasonable to say that the system has created a new set of goals for a variety of players.
Evocare - Hopefully, we'll see these achievements begin to work their way into the lore of each shard as players recognize these accomplishments.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* Is there a plan that will allow you to dismiss a faction Vendor?
Sage - You're fired
Sage - is what you say
Sage - to fire a vendor
Sage - and he goes away.
Evocare - Note: only the finance minister of that town can use that command.

Glamdring - *Coll_SHA* Will their be a way craftman can earn silver or gain rank without fighting in factions?
Adrick-OSI - one way is to charge more silver than it takes to make thus earning some silver
Adrick-OSI - also the I honor your leadership can be one to gain kp and rank
Adrick-OSI - right now there arent any plans to add other ways for this to happen
Adrick-OSI - good question

Glamdring - *Beverly* hello are name change deeds ever happening
Sage - Name change deeds are not in development, nor are there any plans to add them back to our schedule at this time.

Glamdring - *SailorDth* Are there plans to allow Guilded members to Join factions without having to quit thier guild?
Vex-OSI - Not at this time. Due to the interactions of guild rules and faction rules, it is important that entire guilds all be in the same faction or in no faction.

Glamdring - *Brandy* Is the blocking in of faction guards by stealthed members of an opposing faction so they are easy to kill an exploit? How about blocking monsters with stealthers/hiders?
Evocare - Although it's clearly taking advantage of imperfect ai, it isn't illegal
Evocare - it does take a concentrated effort to do, so at least it requires teamwork to pull off.

Glamdring - *HeRog-DtD* Are there plans to have the faction craftsman be able to draw silver and gold from his bank box instead of his pack. This adds more risk than more are will to take (I think risk = rewards)
Evocare - No plans for that right now. We'll be evaluating the risk vs reward balance though, and we'll certainly be watching how risky it is to carry the silver. Keep in mind though, that the added risk on Siege Perilous doesn't necessarily apply everywhere else.
Evocare - Many crafstmen can recall on non-sp shards. =]

Glamdring - *Adam_P* Is the alliance patch for guilds or a Vize-GM even in the dev-team's mind?
Sage - It is not in development at this time, but it is in our mind. :)

Glamdring - I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight
Glamdring - another great chat
Glamdring - thanks to everyone from OSI and our question takers
Melantus - Thank you all for coming. Have a good evening :)
Glamdring - for continued unmoderated chat, please join #ultima-online
Glamdring - The log will be posted shortly on the UO House of Commons site