Brekkee - Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of Ultima Online! Tonight’s topic is Publish 30 and Publish 31, only questions related to the topic will be answered.
Brekkee - Please send your questions to [QT]Ishu OR [QT]Elm - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://uohoc.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee - We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
MrTact - Hello, I'm MrTact and I'm a designer/engineer on UO Live
wilki_EA - Hello, I'm Wilki, UO Community Rep.
Leurocian - Howdy, I'm Leurocian, Designer for Ultima Online
EvilMantis - I'm EvilMantis, engineer on UO
Fertbert - Howdy, I'm Fertbert the Live Team Lead

Brekkee - *Draconi* "The fiction from Pub30 implies that Tokuno is really still like the Lands of the Feudal Lords (from U1) and still has a variety of rulers and kingdoms. Therefore, is Tokuno a sovereign entity seperate from Britannia's rule?"
wilki_EA - While we don't know all that much about the political system of the Tokuno Islands, it is quite seperate from Britannia at this time.

Brekkee - *Grimmov* What has happened to the tournament of champions? has it been discontinued?
wilki_EA - It was put on hold due to the changes associated with the move of the UO team from Austin to Redwood City. We're going to review the program and see what we can do about finishing it as it was intended.

Brekkee - *CalixAOK* Are there any plans to fix some of the notable bugs that have appeared recently, especially some PvP related ones. For instance the problem affecting perfection which allows players to kill others with 1 hit from a weopon?
MrTact - We have just begun planning another PvP tuning pass (like the one Hanse did a few months back).
MrTact - Hopefully we will be able to do this within the next few publishes.
MrTact - So, to everyone who is hammering us with PvP related questions (and thanks, by the way!) -- there's your answer right there.

Brekkee - *Flutter_UO* How is the new artifact-giving code doing?
Fertbert - It appears to be doing well. For those not int he know, as you kill creatures your odds of getting an artifact improve until you get one, then your odds are reset to a base level. We're pleased enough with how it's working that we are *starting* to consider other uses in item distribution and skill gain.

Brekkee - *Aeris* Will the formula for turning in the tomarties involve specific combinations, or will it be any 10?
MrTact - Any 10. There are some limitations, such as you can't turn in the chest of heirlooms if you have cracked the lock.

Brekkee - *Robdadct* My question is everybody is wondering exactly how the trade ins will work. Like are we going to be able to pick the artifact we want or will it be totally random. And will there be a limit on how many artifacts we can trade in?
MrTact - You will give a specific NPC the items, and he will tell you how close you are getting.
MrTact - When you give him item number 10, you get a gump to pick the one you want.
MrTact - It's just that simple.

Brekkee - *Draconi* "Is there any advantage to hosting both the Britain Invasion and the Treasure of Tokuno campaign at the same time?"
Fertbert - It's time for the Invasion to draw to a close. I wonder what the Security Consultant will do with all that gold?
Leurocian - I coded it to give me all the gold ;P

Brekkee - *Pittminion* "First off, thank you for not blessing the new scribe books on siege, however, are there plans to address the non magical ones being not newbied, and not being able to use a pbd on them?
MrTact - If what you're asking is, will we find a way to unbless non-magical spellbooks and prevent a pbd from being used on them, the answer is "we're not planning on it."
MrTact - However, we are actively investigating a general solution to the pbd situation, and that *might* encompass generally blessed items as well.

Brekkee - *Taryn* will a pre uor or straight uor shard ever be put in for the vets that stuck with your game 5+ years?
MrTact - Not in the plans at this moment.
MrTact - However, we are starting to get some traction on possibly doing bigger modifications to Siege, so it may be getting a little tougher in the near future.

Brekkee - *Stasis* will the tonuka major artifacts be comparable with the doom artifacts available now in power and intensity?
Leurocian - I would have to say Yes.
wilki_EA - We should have more information on uo.com about them soon.

Brekkee - *jbear0000* Will we see a fix for the shadow jump bug in Publish 31?
Fertbert - That's unlikely, right now we're focused on some higher priority bug fixes.

Brekkee - *Lone`Shadow* I want to know if the armor (metal) dye tub will be unlimited charges like a leather tub to help people remove neons and clown suits that don't matchup well? I know myself and many others would like this.
MrTact - The pigments of tokuno *do* have charges.
MrTact - I know this isn't going to make everyone happy. However, we can always look into making them unlimited, or adding ways to recharge them, down the road. It's pretty hard to go in the other direction.
MrTact - Also, as any crafter will tell you, adding stuff to the game that works forever devalues the item.
MrTact - I *did*, however, double the charges on them, so they have 20 uses now.

Brekkee - *Hamm* The Live Team seems to be more active now than ever in recent memory, any hints on whats coming up on the horizon for the Live Team and future publishes?
MrTact - We actually can't answer that question . . . not because we don't want to, but because we don't plan more than one publish into the future, and we are just starting Pub32 planning!
MrTact - I can tell you there are many hot issues we would *like* to address.
MrTact - Ghost cams.
MrTact - Crafting.
MrTact - Archery.
MrTact - We always take these things into consideration as we plan our publishes. As to what will actually make it when, I could not predict.

Brekkee - *JCtheBuilder* Are there plans to further reduce lag when there are a lot of players in one area fighting? At harrowers especially, the server will sometimes grind to a hault.
Fertbert - We're currently in the middle of a shard hardware upgrade. Faster hardware may help the situation if the problem is that the server iteself is getting too busy. If it's a matter of too much data being sent for your internet connection to handle or for your client to render, there are no current plans to do additional optimization there in the next couple publishes.

Brekkee - *jbear0000* Any hints on what the artifacts we can get in pub 31 ares?
wilki_EA - Ok, a teaser... Tome of Knowledge, which is not blessed: Spell Damage Increase 15%, Magery +15, Lower Mana Cost 15%, Intelligence Bonus 8.
Leurocian - Sword of the Stampede (no-dachi) cold damage 100%, hit harm 100%, hit chance increase 10%, damage increase 60%
wilki_EA - We'll have the rest of the list posted on uo.com soon.

Brekkee - *Anon5907* I've enjoyed the Tokuno Treasures thus far. I'm a big fan of the new formula for getting the artifacts. IS there any chance of continuing a system such as the Treasures of Tokuno while at the same time decreasing the chances of getting a special item? The special item doesn't necessarily have to be a weapon or piece of armor. I just enjoy getting a special item every now and then.
MrTact - Continue them in a limited form afterward . . . hmm, interesting idea . . .

Brekkee - *Aeris* Will there be any sort of limitation on how many Tokuno arties you can receive by trading minors, such as a certain number per char/account?
MrTact - Nope. If you collect 10K minors you can get 1K majors.

Brekkee - *LBeff* Any chance for changes to cooking in the upcoming crafting overhaul, and perhaps new uses for foods (such as short term buffs, bonus effects to things like SSI etc)?
MrTact - It's possible -- cooking is one of those things many people are interested in seeing revisited.
MrTact - A popular request from our players in Japan is that we turn hunger back on again, or at least give players the option to do so.
MrTact - So, that's a firm "maybe" :-)

Brekkee - *Robdadct* Looking at Ghost Cams. I heard that you were looking into making a necro with spirit speak able to see the dead even while they are not in war mode. Also i heard that you were looking into making a possible exorcism spell that would send all spawned dead players to a graveyard is this true and if so will it be posibly comming out in publish 31?
MrTact - That is indeed in the works.
MrTact - However, I will not be able to get it done in time for pub 31, so probably 32.

Brekkee - *Xevei_GL* Any ETA on pub31 TC?
MrTact - Next week, hopefully.

Brekkee - *Gamlin* I have a question concerning the crafting of Necromancy scrolls. Is the ability to make those scrolls supposed to go up 10% instead of 0.2% with each point of inscription over minimum for the scroll?
EvilMantis - Necromancy scroll difficulty is different than the difficulty associated with magery scrolls due to a couple of reasons
EvilMantis - We wanted to make the scrolls non trivial to make
EvilMantis - And we needed to address such differences as magery has spell circles and necromancy does noy

Brekkee - *iCE|over-there* About the armor dye tub that was hinted at, Will the armor only be dyable the colors of metals, or the same color as on a normal dye tub?
MrTact - We have a bunch of new hues that are based on existing minor artifacts and whatnot.
MrTact - E.g. Shadow Dancer Black, Rum Red and so on.

Brekkee - *wedew* will there be any rewards for invasion kill counts?
MrTact - Not for kill counts per se . . .

Brekkee - *Monk-Hibernating* any plans to make the crafters life in UO more meaningful? IE more goodies in the future or ways to customize your armor etc...
MrTact - A crafting revamp would be all about making crafting more meaningful. I don't have specific details at the moment, though.

Brekkee - *ALEX_S* "About the choice, given for the trade : will player be able to choose from artifacts with randomly generated properties, or from pre-designed arts?"
MrTact - Pre-designed, per the examples given earlier.

Brekkee - *Assia* Will there be any non-pvp related artifacts? Such as Decorations, Dying tubs etc?
MrTact - Yes, the Pigments of Tokuno (major artifacts) are non-combat related. Unless you count combating your sense of good taste . . .

Brekkee - *Aerilyn* With pub 31, will there be any Tomarties that cater to the needs and/or playstyle of Ninjas or Assassins?
MrTact - Yes.
Leurocian - Mmmm....Stormgrip. Very handy leather ninja mitts ;P

Brekkee - *Zip^^* By the time I came back to UO it was to late for me to get a soul stone. Are there any plans to implement another way of getting this item?
wilki_EA - While you will not see Soulstones in their current form available again, we do have plans to introduce the same basic functionality in a way that doesn't de-value current Soulstones. Keep an eye out for more information on uo.com in the near future.

Brekkee - *Robdadct* Can you explain to everyone an example on exactly how the new artifact system works so all the confusion about some items being more rare than others will stop.
Fertbert - Well, it sounds like you're just seeking reassurance that the drop odds for the new Tokuno minor artifacts are the same. Those odds are the same, no particular drop is more likely than any other.

Brekkee - *Cera* Is there a chance for slayer properties to be added to spellbooks, and affect spell damage against certain monster types?
EvilMantis - Slayer spellbooks sound pretty cool...maybe MrTact can hook us up with that one day
Leurocian - It would also hypothetically be cool to see other future mechanisms in game to augment spellcasting ability. Unfortunately at this time, I cannot elaborate on my statement. But it's certainly fun to speculate, isn't it

Brekkee - *Flutter_UO* Anything new for any crafter types in publish 31?
MrTact - Frankly, no.
MrTact - (Unless, of course I'm forgetting something . . . )
MrTact - However, there may well be a little something for alchemists in pub 32.

Brekkee - *SirBart* Why cant people or guilds aid the invasion and destruction of Brit and can we get the guards turned of in Fel for the invasion?
MrTact - We have talked about doing stuff like that for future systems of this type.
MrTact - Also stuff like having a threshold where the invasion shuts itself off after a certain threshold and so on.
MrTact - Basically, we want to build on what's already been done and make it more fun and more engaging.

Brekkee - That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the folks from Ultima Online for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://uohoc.stratics.com
Brekkee - Thank you all for joining us! You can join #Ultima-Online to chat more about the game.
wilki_EA - Thank you to everyone for joining the chat! See ya next time... and remember to keep an eye out on uo.com for more info on Pub31 soon.