Kehleyr - 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, programmers and community staff of Ultima Online.
Kehleyr - This chat will be in a moderated format. To ask a question of the developers, please /msg or /query the question takers that will be listed in the topic of the channel. These question takers will then present the questions to the Ultima Online development/community/programming team here with us this evening.
* Kehleyr hands the mic to Zorn *

Zorn - Just wanted to go over a couple things that always come up
Zorn - First off please, do NOT ask any of the OSI folks questions via PM
Zorn - Also, I will not be handing out warnings for constant nick changing , you will be banned, so please refrain from that :)

Kehleyr - Our question takers are: Destiny, Lord-Xanthor, XenaDragon & Glamdring
Kehleyr - I will be your moderator tonight... I will post your question into the House of Commons chat channel and the guys (and girls) will answer those that they can.
Kehleyr - Please /msg or /query different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed the process up.
Kehleyr - Please remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum. 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.
Kehleyr - Enjoy tonight's chat... the topic is open to all general questions.
Kehleyr - *[PK-HQ]Rooter* Evocare: How do you plan on making dexers more skillful to play as you stated on the UO Boards?
Evocare-OSI - Really there are a number of ways to do it. The bottom line is that warriors need opportunities to make decisions during combat. For example, special hits could become something a warrior needs to manually activate during a fight while facing some consequence for doing so (like a stamina, mana, or life cost as examples).
Evocare-OSI - The real trick is finding a time to do it seeing as though our near-term schedule is already pretty booked. However, we do acknowledge that it is a problem right now. =]
Evocare-OSI - As time goes on though, you'll hopefully see us moving in the direction of giving players some interesting choices to make while they're fighting.

Kehleyr - *Kang* Question: "There has been word from OSI that there will be new craftables somtime in the near future, can we get word as to what skills this will effect?"
calandryll - There will be a couple of new craftables related to the scenario, and both should have long term uses even after the scenario is done.
calandryll - But as far as which skills will be get them, that I can't say...would ruin the surprise. :)

Kehleyr - *Omni|Xphox* Can you explain a bit more about the Advisors? Will the program grow like the old Counselor program? Or will volunteer be kept to a minimum?
Melantus - That is still being determined. tehre is a lot about the project that is still up in the air. We will see I guess is the answer
Melantus - btw they are not volunteers

Kehleyr - *EditorOrion* What kind of Artillery weapons can orc possibly have?
calandryll - Maybe it's not artillery. ;)

Kehleyr - *Windrider25* here is the one question most people will more then likely be asking when will the sea horse and the new armor and or weaposn be added to the 3rd dawn or is UO simply going to scrap the 3rd dawn set
Evocare-OSI - There are no plans to scrap 3rd dawn. Hopefully, it'll continue to improve until there isn't anyone out there that doesn't desperately want to use it. =]

Kehleyr - *Phoenix[OES]* Is there any chance a clothing bless vendor will be used as a new gold sink? It would make alot of players happy and not imbalance anything in the game.
Evocare-OSI - There is probably some question on the part of tailors as to whether it would or would not imbalance anything.
Evocare-OSI - Although it might not have any dramatic effects now, it could end up seriously hurting future tailoring improvements.

Kehleyr - *DarkDragon* how do you feel about the number of gold sinks in UO? and do you plan on adding more substantial sinks in the near future?
Vex - Yes. Floor Tiles aren't dead. We are also exploring ideas to introduce recurring gold sinks. In order to bring the devaluation of UO's gold coin under control, we have to provide means to get excess currency out of the economy. The only question is, how can it be done in a meaningful fashion without totally unbalancing other parts of the game. -intworks.stratics.com:@#uohoc- ChanServ invited XenaDragon into channel #uohoc.
Vex - We have nothing put together that we're ready to talk about, yet, but we are working on it!

Kehleyr - *Wispafk* is there going to be some way implemented for tinkerers to create silver rings and inscribed rings
Melantus - a good idea, certainly. we like good ideas from players, but time is the factor. right now we ahve other bigger things going on, a full plate if you will.
Melantus - we will keep it in mind though

Kehleyr - *FrankZappa* When are the problems with CARTOGRAPHY gonna be fixed... im sick of paying thousands for lvl 1 maps! I HATE being scammed CONSTANTLY!
Adrick - look for a fix not in the next publish but the one after that will address both scams and issues with gaining the skills at the upper levels
Adrick - for cartography

Kehleyr - *BA_Barrackas* Question about the new scenario system. What sort of things will the scenarios be leaving in the game after they're over and done with? To what extent can we expect gameplay to be changed by the content that is made a permanent part of the game afterwards? (apart from new items etc that is)
calandryll - The idea behind the scenarios is to create content that not only helps tell a story, but also has a lasting effect on the game world
calandryll - so for instance, items used in the scenario, would also be useful after it was down
calandryll - other things can change based on a scenario as well, but I'm reluctant to give examples as I might give something away
calandryll - suffice to say though, that after a scenario is finished, the world will be different because of it, and what the players do in it
calandryll - those changes will start small...and grow as we get better at coding the scenarios

Kehleyr - *[PK-HQ]Rooter* Evocare: I noticed on the thread on UO Boards you mentioned that you wanted to make Tamers more than 'all kill, no skill'. In what way do you intend to change tamer pvp from just "all-kill"?
Evocare-OSI - That's a really good question. We've thrown around a lot of different ideas in the office, but haven't settled on anything just yet. However, it's probably safe to say that it'll once again boil down to ensuring that the player has to juggle a number of different decisions in order to be effective.
Evocare-OSI - Really, exciting combat generally involves giving participants some way to make mistakes that effect the outcome of a battle, be it versus other players or against monsters.
Evocare-OSI - Right now, there just aren't a lot of mistakes for a knowledgable player to make. ;]

Kehleyr - *Mandrake-Eu* After the cancellation of UO2 What will the designers be doing to improve Ultima when they have to compete with EQ and AO?
Melantus - definitely something we are thinking about. I cant really answer yet what our plans are, but competition is something any good game maker is aware of.
Cynthe - It's always important to make updates and changes, and keep your game as dfresh as it can be. Chasing competition is fine and all, but it shouldn't ever be your driving force. :)
calandryll - Also, we'll be using some of the resources (mostly art) originally part of UO2 in the scenario updates. So for those of you that really liked some of the monsters and items in UO2...hopefully you'll like what you see.

Kehleyr - *Brador* an update on rewards please
Prophet_ - The veteran reward system is scheduled to be released with the next publish. The system is still actively being testing on Test Rewards. We are confident the back end system has been thoroughly tested but we are still clearing up some minor issues with the rewards themselves.

Kehleyr - *lostsoul* OSI, is there any possibility of changing trap pouches to bring back the power of paralyze once again to mages?
Evocare-OSI - Right now, the paralyze spell is pretty fundamentally imbalanced in pvp. If you paralyze an opponent with no trapped pouches, they're pretty toast since you could do it pretty much indefinitely. So, it would require some pretty serious changes to the paralyze spell before we actually went about making changes to the way damage affects paralysis.
Evocare-OSI - I've often heard players ask that we simply increase the chance for the magic resistance skill to resist the paralyze spell, but unfortunately that would really just end up adding to the "luck factor" in combat.
Evocare-OSI - I suspect that isn't something most players want to see right now. =[

Kehleyr - *Blade_of_Truth* Will we be seeing a change in the container gumps in Third Dawn? Right now they do not show contents the same way as the 2D client and it can get pretty bad if you have vendors. Plus, the dull gray is very disappointing, I miss the different, specific backgrounds.
Prophet_ - We currently are not planning any changes to the container gumps. We understand that not everyone is pleased with their appearance but since they are currently functional we want to focus our efforts on improving other parts of third dawn, which aren't as functional, first.
Prophet_ - We are of course always interested in your feedback for all areas of UO including the Third Dawn client.
Cynthe - But while we may not have plans to do a specific change right now, that doesn't mean we don't collect the feedback. We do want to know what our players think, and your reponses on our boards are more helpful than you might know. :)

Kehleyr - *Kryxx* Is there any plans to make the facets of felluca and trammel interact more ??
Evocare-OSI - We'd always like to see more positive interaction between players on trammel and felucca... and it's likely something we'll try to move towards as time goes on.
Evocare-OSI - However, we don't have any major changes planned right now which are aimed solely at that.

Kehleyr - *DarkDragon* Will the CONSENTUAL faction combat in trammel be activated? if not, arent you concerned about the trammel factioners draining available openings from people that want to actually fight?
Adrick - We have decided for now NOT to enable faction fighting in trammel however we will be putting in some other changes to address the issue of faction players in tram
Adrick - withou oing into a lon and detailed list of reasons why I will say that we are going after the rewards rather than increasing the risk
Cynthe - I think that was English. :) :P
Adrick - we do not want to spread the fighting out over three facets - rather we would like to encourage it to happen in fel and offer less rewards for faction players while they are in tram

Kehleyr - *Demoyn* will a fix to the hero/evil system ever come through? and what is the status with hero/evil items?
Hanse - The hero/evil system was disabled on SP.
Hanse - There are no further plans to modify any parts of that system.

Kehleyr - *REB|Suzanne* When will issues with some gfx cards be resolvced with third dawn ie voodoo banshee and other voodoo cards
Prophet_ - We are continuing to work on trying to improve the performance for the voodoo line of cards but with the lack of support from their manufacture it will be difficult to say if we will ever have them fully resolved. I'm sorry I don't have a better answer then that.

Kehleyr - *DarkDragon* is any work being done on the "social rep system" sage mentioned, or was it just a hypothetical? I like the idea that the community decide who is labbeled good and evil...not the game mechanics
Evocare-OSI - Although it's a system that many of us (including myself) really really like, it isn't something we have scheduled to do right now.
Evocare-OSI - It has a lot of complexities that would have to be worked out before being able to implement it, and we're really not ready to clean our development plate for that kind of undertaking.

Kehleyr - *FueL* Are you planning to make magic item charges, rechargable? or is that just a rumor?
Hanse - Not at the moment...it is a rumor...

Kehleyr - *Carmyn* Do you have any comment on the rumors of a new duping bug?
calandryll - It's not reactive armor, but the chopper does have a special (and rather deadly) attack.
* XenaDragon blinks *
Melantus - well, for one thing. it's not a dupe. Secondly, we aggressively looked into this. thirdly, I strongly suggest not using exploits lest we escort you out of UO for good :)
* Kehleyr pets Cal *
calandryll - never mind me :)
* Destiny Giggles *

Kehleyr - *Windrider25* question on the orc chopper do they have a kind of reactive armor on or is it some kind of new hit for lumber jacking? cause it's MEAN, almost worse than an archers strike.
calandryll - see above. :)

Kehleyr - Well everyone, I would like to thank everyone for coming tonight.
Kehleyr - I would like to thank everyone from OSI for taking time out of their busy schedules, to be with us tonight as well.
Kehleyr - The logs will be posted at http://uohoc.stratics.com
Kehleyr - Feel free to join #ultima-online for further discussion :)
Prophet_ - Thanks for coming out folks!
* Kehleyr lix everyone :) *
Oaks - Thank you, thank you all for coming by.
FierYiCe - :)
Melantus - thanks for coming all :)
Hanse - Mongbat muffins for sale! Mongbat muffins for sale!
Oaks - We're here all week. And month. Year for that matter.