Gilthas - Alright folks, thanks to some earlier displays by some of our more "unique" users, we're going to use a UOHoC format for this UOCC. This means I'll be posting questions, instead of voicing the person who asked it.
Gilthas - Good evening and welcome to our 31st Ultima Online Celebrity Chat. The UOCC is a forum wherein we bring to you celebrity guests from the UO community ranging from OSI personnel to famous players from your very own shard. Guests drop by to answer your questions about UO, their experiences in it, and their contribution to the community.
Gilthas - Our guests tonight are Calandryll and Vex of the Ongoing Content Team. While we are waiting for questions, let's give our guests a chance to introduce themselves.
Gilthas - Please wait until the intros are done, I'll annouce the q-takers then. =)
Calandryll - I'm Calandryll, content designer for UO. Basically its my job to oversee the scenario team, work on the virtue system, and of course, UO: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.
Vex - Howdy! I'm Vex, member of the UO Live design team. I normally do a little bit of everything development-wise, including bug fixing, systems design, and helping out the content team.

Gilthas - Tonight's question takers are Magellan and RJO. All you need to do is /msg or /query a designated question taker with your question. Please do not ask the other operators, or the guest your questions; they will be ignored!
Gilthas - *Scotia* Any plans for adding content related to Christmas or any presents?
Vex - We are in the process of getting the existing holiday tree deeds activated this week. We are also planning to roll out holiday gifts, much like they've been done in the past, but those aren't likely to go active until next week.

Gilthas - Hoorah. =P
Vex - As far as the content team goes, as far as I know there won't be any specific holiday-related items in any of the near-future scenarios. As far as the future goes, no telling what may happen.

Gilthas - *Thorvald* Will we get new lands on UO:BTR to place houses?
Calandryll - No. There will not be new land for housing in UO:BTR.

Gilthas - BBJ_of_Chessy* If we don't care about the new Digital Music, will we need to purchase UO:LBR or will we just be able to d/l the patch if we already have d?
Calandryll - As far as in-game content for d users, you wont need to buy the CD. But, if you want stuff like the new map, comic, or want to play in Ilshenar in d you will have to get the CD.

Gilthas - *Bashnak* are there any plans to add more specializations to more skills like glassblowing, masonry?
Calandryll - Nothing specific, but the work that Vex did with the crafting system will make it a lot easier to do in the future. We do definietly plan on adding items to existing craft skills though.

Gilthas - *Barrackas* Any idea about when we get to see some screenshots of the new D stuff in LBR? :)
Calandryll - That's a great question. I'll have to ask the marketing folks when we plan on releasing those shots. I'm not sure what the schedule is.

Gilthas - *BBJ_of_Chessy* are there any plans to be able to turn off mining stones?? They are a real pain sometimes especially when boat mining!
Vex - Yes, we are definitely going to do something about that. What, exactly, we haven't decided yet, but we've been tossing some ideas around. One thought is simply to use a pickaxe to break the rock into ore, and another is to add an interface toggle. If y'all have any feedback, send it to me at [email protected]
Calandryll - It wont be changed in the next scenario though...probably in the one after that.

Gilthas - *Zal`dak* I have been having trouble healing/rezzing in fel with a green orc mask, but my rp needs of it, are you able to fix that?
Calandryll - Please e-mail me details about that to [email protected] ... I'll have to look at the code again to see if there is a problem and any additional information you can provide would be great.

Gilthas - *IceDrake* Will factions play a part in any future scenarios?
Calandryll - Not in the near future, but its always possible. The issue with using factions is it limits the number of people that can participate. But its possible part of a scenario could use factions...its just not planned yet.

Gilthas - *Thor* With the lack of people in Felucca Dungeons (Deciet/Covetous/Wrong/Etc) is their any plans to help make better use of these spots possibly faction or virtue related?
Calandryll - Actually, we talked about using felucca dungeons as part of the virtue system (valor perhaps) but nothing specific that I could really talk about in any detail.

Gilthas - *Frink-* Though it may be too early for you to share this info, what, if any PvP changes in any way will come alon with UO:BTR
Calandryll - Nothing specific although scenarios could have new weapons, armor, etc. in them. But UO:LBR doesn't have any specific PvP changes in it.

Gilthas - *Jon_Snow* A while back I remember Cal talking about how players would be able to watch the duels for the Virtue system, Mind on giving us a hint as to how ya'll are going to do this?
Calandryll - Actually, I said that players would *not* be able to watch duels. That system is just a concept so it could change completely over time depending on player reaction and our own analysis.

Gilthas - *Lyric* Are there any plans to introduce the carpets, etc that were planned a while back in any of the quests?
Vex - Unfortunately, technical difficulties are still holding Floor Tiles back. I'm doing my best to keep them from going away completely. When it comes time to introduce them, they could go in with some Scenario content, or they could be patched as part of regular content. Nothing has been decided in that regard yet.

Gilthas - *Zed* Will we see Minax again anytime soon?
Calandryll - We haven't forgotton about Minax. You can bet she is very interested in what is going on and what will occur in the future. I don't want to give anything away though so I will leave it at that. :)

Gilthas - *Mott* Seeing as how there can't be virtues without anti-virtues, are there any plans to have any sort of anti-virtue system?
Calandryll - Anti-virtues and the virtues exist right now. The ideas of honesty, deciet, valor, etc all exist with or without a system.
Calandryll - What we are doing however is attaching a system to the virtues to reward virtuous behavior. I am not against putting in an anti-virtue system...the issue is many of the anti-virtues are basically anti-social behavior that we do *not* want to encourage.
Calandryll - Or rather, they could be because it is basically impossible to tell a player's intent through code.
Calandryll - So there is no way to tell if someone is killing another player because they are folowing an anti-virtue or if they are just PKing them for their lewt.
Calandryll - Intent isn't such a bad thing when it comes to positive actions, but with negative it is.

Gilthas - *jediman* will Illshenar play a part in UOLBR?
Calandryll - You bet it will! :)

Gilthas - *Lord_Moz* With your new map patching technology, is there any possibility that we might see land/areas that only exist for a short period? Like only for one scenario?
Calandryll - Probably nothing in the near future like that. Truth is, it takes a while to make an area (even a dungeon) that is worthwile that only having it exist for a short period of time would be a lot of work for little long-term payoff.

Gilthas - *Black_KGB* Why do you discourage and punish anti-virtues so much? They are part of the real world and part of UO, the game would be boring without it.
Calandryll - Mostly again it comes down to intent. I am a big fan of those that role-play evil...but there is no way for the system to distinguish a role-played evil act and a "grief" evil act (such as killing an innocent)
Calandryll - So its not that I am against anti-virtues and I am certainly not against evil role-players (I have nothing but the utmost respect for them) it's simply a problem of trying to code a system that can tell the difference.

Gilthas - *Zeon* how do you figure that pking someone is a "grief" act? do you intend on banning someone for killing someone without consent in the near future?
Calandryll - Bad example on my part. What I meant was that we can't tell whether someone is killing because of the anti-virtue (role-playing), for the lewt, or to grief someone. There is no way to know. I didn't mean to imply that PKing is always griefing. It's not.

Gilthas - *Lyric* With new weapons and craftables having been introduced (and being introduced) as part of the ongoing content, are there any plans to have new House Addons introduced? I don't know how you could fit it in, but stuff like shelves, wall mounts (for swords, etc), new paintings, etc would be nice (or maybe even a real fireplace =) )
Calandryll - We just added over new house decorations!! :)
Calandryll - No plans to make brand new art for house addons, but unused, existing art is always possible.

Gilthas - *Tharaxis* I would like to know about the new music making its way into UO:LBR, while some of the music sounds great, Stones specifically sounds very poor, Stones is a classic, and I'm sure a lot of Ultima fans are unhappy with the state that the new 'Stones' is in... isn't it possible to change it to be a bit more... epic, instead of messy (which is what it sounds like at this time)
Calandryll - That's not stones. If you listen closely, you will hear that the song shares the same melody in the background as stones, but that song is not replacing stones. My guess is the file was simply called that because of the melody.

Gilthas - *jediman* what about using power words to envoke the virtue system, like it was on Siege?
Calandryll - As a general rule, speech triggers are not ideal to use. We'll be using the new virtue gump for the system, including using the powers.

Gilthas - *Lyric* Does Calandryl ever plan on taking the role of a monster or bad guy in one of the quests so we can kill him?
Calandryll - I've thought about it. ;)

Gilthas - *Lord_Moz* With the renovations in Haven, can we expect any remodeling of other more accessible places?
Calandryll - Now that we can do it, it's possible. But I don't believe we have specific changes in mind yet.

Gilthas - *Fred* I have found it extremely difficult/impossible to raise the remove trap skill since publish was released on the atlantic shard. I have not gained since, i had been getting steady gains right until publish was introduced.
Gilthas - As we suddenly veer off topic.. =}
Vex - There is a known issue that effectively makes every Tinker trap on a container (not Faction traps) be the weakest level. You can't gain from player-trapped boxes because of that. We have a fix coded for Publish .
Vex - Tinker traps will return to their full strength, and you'll be able to gain remove trap skill off them again.

Gilthas - *Tharaxis* is it possible that UO:TD users will be able to update their clients so that they too get MP support when UO:LBR gets released? Will there maybe be the option to download the MP's being released with LBR so that we can also hear those, or optionally replace it with our own (if we don't feel like downloading the MP's)
Calandryll - I doubt it. I'm not sure what the limitations would be for that, something a programmer might be able to answer for you on the boards.

Gilthas - *Bashnak* Is there any way you can add specializations to skills other than crafting?(like backstab for stealthers*hint hint*)
Calandryll - Specializations like that (pvp or combat) have a lot more balance issues than crafting ones. So adding them takes a lot more time...right now, we don't have plans for that.

Gilthas - *Tharaxis* would it be possible to supply a list of the creatures/models being replaced or reworked for the next patch? Such as the monsters and character models... I really hope we see some better male/female character models in the near future :)
Calandryll - Not sure if the next patch has reworks, I'd have to ask about that. It does have a lot of art for the upcoming scenario and virtue system in it though.

Gilthas - Ok folks, last question. =)
Gilthas - *RdWzrd* My other other other question: What's the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Vex - 42

Gilthas - No. * Gilthas watches Vex fly off the cliff
Gilthas - That's all folks!
Gilthas - This concludes tonight's Ultima Online Celebrity Chat. Thanks to all of you for attending tonight, and special thanks to our guest(s) for coming and answering questions, and our question takers for their work.
Gilthas - Please send an e-mail to [email protected] if you have any suggestions regarding future topics or guests. Tonight's log will be posted at http://uohoc.stratics.com shortly. Have a wonderful night everyone!
Calandryll - Thanks everyone!!