As the title suggests I have managed to publish another podcast and all in the same week. WOW thats alot of content :-P

This weeks show:

1. Site Update and House Keeping.
1. The Fink Interview has been delayed
2. Videos and my plans for the site
3. Contributors are being sort
2. Cathat farewells UO
3. Publishes, bugs and EA's general incompetence
1. The sudden rush to deploy a publish
2. The posting of critical and easy to find bugs and yet still  a publish
3. Doom artefacts and making them easier to get is a good thing
4. Begging Changes
5. Blood Oath fix
4. Told You So
1. This ones for all the people that said I was wrong about when UO would close down
5. Shopping System
1. The problems with shopping in UO today
2. Explanation of how to improve the system
3. Explain how taking what's good from other games is smart
4. Other side benefits to this proposal
6. Item Decay and how items must die.
1. Reflect on some of Mr Tacts original ideas for item decay
2. Propose a solution to item decay
3. Give purpose crafters and building community for crafters
4. How the obtaining of resources can benefit those that find them
5. Maybe EA gets item decay with the recent cursed arties
6. Is EA assaulting scripting slowly through the BOS charge increase

Cheers
Shane

Posted at UOHerald:
Jeremy Dalberg
27 Nov 2007 16:52:10

DO NOT store ingots in your salvage bag while smelting items - there is a possiblity you will lose the stack of ingots.  This will be fixed shortly.

(Storing cloth in the salvage bag will simply get it cut into bandages, so... don't do that if you don't want bandages.)

Posted at UOHerald:
Jeremy Dalberg
27 Nov 2007 15:31:48 EST

UPDATED 11/27 12:30:  One more note:

- On Siege Perilous rulesets, all items of clothing that have higher than normal resists - including artifacts, museum pieces, and randomly-generated items with bonus resists or magic properties - will not be able to be blessed with a Clothing Bless Deed.  All currently blessed items will become unblessed, and the CBD will be placed in the players' backpack

There were a number of changes that didn't get listed on last night's server publish - all the notes below the cut are in addition to the previously posted notes:

Posted at UOHerald:

All Servers to be Published
Jeremy Dalberg
26 Nov 2007 17:29:57 EST
All servers will be published with the following during their next available maintenance:

 Added the Salvage Bag: 

•  The Salvage Bag is the core of the enhanced recycling system. Players store items in the bag like any other container, but when a recycle command occurs, they target the bag to handle all the items at once.

• Layout:
  
  
  
  • a blue leather bag labeled "A Salvage Bag"
    
  • Available on Provisioners for a nominal (~1000gp) fee
      
  Read more ...

Posted at Stratics UHall: Leurocian

In response to:  So, I havent tested the changes myself yet, but several of my friends from Japan who play on Japanese shards have recieved 3-4 artifacts an hour each in doom.

Now I know that Japanese pvm playstyle is much different from American pvm playstyle, as it is much more efficient and effective, but was the drop intended to be this high?

Leurocian:  Hello there,

The general intent is if a group of 5 players adventure through the entire Doom gauntlet at various luck values, each one of them would hopefully receive an artifact by their 4-5th run. It could be a little sooner than that. It could be later.

Now if this feels like players are receiving artifacts too frequently, we can easily adjust this frequency. We will continue to monitor your feedback for the next day or so and see what you all think.

Thanks everyone!

Posted at Stratics UHall: CatHat.

 This will be my last week as a member of the UO Dev Team.

At Dec 1st , I cast myself back into the spinning time vortex of game development. Where and when I shall materialize – who can say. Much like a Sci-Fi sequel or an Elvis sighting – you can bet I’ll pop up around somewhere not too far away.

As you all know UO’s Team is moving to VA, but being a territorial little creature and native of sunny California, I’ve opted to stay here.

I have done some more experimenting with how I can encode the video and keep the quality as best I can. So this link leads to the same video with some additional edits and a different method of encoding the video.

The quality is not as good as the first video and the ability to go full screen goes away with this method of encoding the video. However its three times smaller than the first attempt. So please check out the two videos (dont forget to let them finish loading before playing them) and leave comments in the comments section on what you think. Comments dont require you to even register.

1. Click here for High Quality big download video preview.
2. Click here for Medium Quality smaller download video preview.

I will fix the interface up so that you dont get the option to play the video before its downloaded.

Cheers
Shane

I was listening to podcast 11 and the ideas that Mr Tact had tabled in regards to items decaying and how to make crafters viable. He had some good ideas on how to implement a life span for items without overly pissing of those people that have uber items and don’t want to loose those items. In a nutshell he suggested that items would be able to be repaired, however every time they are repaired they cost more to repair. The idea being that eventually its cheaper to get a new item than repair it.

Now the first thing that comes to mind is that building a decent PvP suit costs a boat load of gold and to have those items decay to the point they don’t exist or cost ridiculous amounts to repair will have the PvP community up in arms. But you know what it would even the playing field a little in that once those uber items had decayed and made it super expensive to repair then peoples PvP suits would start to balance out. Main reason being is that people wouldn’t use those l33t items in normal field battles and may only use them for dueling and other such occasions.

So a feature I mentioned in the latest podcast (20) was I was going to bring videos to the site. Seeing as screen capture technology has gotten to the point that capturing a playing session in UO is relatively easy I thought I would check it out.

So on the menu to the right or clicking this link will take you to a test capture I made last night. Now please provide feedback in the comments for this news post so I can tune the experience. This first video has not been optimised or trimmed for size and is fat and raw. Going forward I will tunes these video alot more.

The opportunities to add content through the site are numerous and I have a series of vidoes I will make should this experiment be well received.

Cheers
Shane

P.S. Update, you need to wait for the page to load as the experience is crap otherwise. I will write some code tonight to hide the video until the page is loaded.

P.P.S You can tell the page is loaded when it says DONE in the bottom left corner of the status bar.

Posted at RPGValut: Ultima Online Memories

RPGVault which started as UO Vault pays tribute to Ultima Online, the Grand Daddy of MMORPG.

Cheers
Shane

I really don’t know why EA put Artefact level 12 on Vorpal Blades and Pyros Staves if they had every intention of handing them out like candy. Other Artefacts have lower levels and are extremely rare to come by, yet these latest editions are level 12 and can be found lying on the ground.

Void Demons in the Magincia invasion have been upgraded and now hand Vorpal Blades out like candy :)

Well it was interesting Googleing UO as I found some interesting links.

Heres one that predicts the demise of UO in 2004

For you old PvPers heres a blast from the past.

Any one read Italian, I think this is a free shard.

Your not anyone or anything until your in Wikipedia.

Dont like what EA are doing, then there is always an alternative to getting your UO fix.

You think KR is crap, well have a look at were its come from.

Some old time fan sites are slowly dieing off.

Do you remember Lum The Mad, well heres Lums home now.

Remember the Designer Dragon.

A walk down memory lane would be complete with a link to ImaNewbie.

Cheers
Shane

A number of people have asked me some questions about the improvement I suggested could be made to shopping in UO. If you have read it, go here and return back here for an update.

So the idea was that due too the gazillion items for sale on each shard that EA should introduce a trade vendor into each city. The trade vendor would provide the ability for you to see all of the items for sale on player run vendors. Now this could be through an interface that categorises all items and when you first speak to the vendor the UI shows you a list of catagories. You then drill down on the category to see the items for sale in that category. Possible it has sub categories to help minimise list size. Also the vendor could provide a search featrure to find the item you want quicker.

Now once you found the item you want to purchase you buy from the trade vendor a rune to the players shop. You recall to the shop and buy the item from the vendor. Now some idiots thought this idea was copying World of Warcraft and immediately dismissed the idea. Well for those fuck knuckles this idea doesnt rip anything off from WoW other than having a vendor that can show you all the items for sale on your shard. It’s not an auction process, it doesn’t magically deliver the item to you and for you idiots that think it’s a rip off of WOW. I think Dark Age of Camelot introduced the centralised auction theme first.

One of the feature of the new 3D client in Ultima Online is the ability to reskin the UI with a look and feel that the user would like. Over the last week or so I have put a bit of time into discovering the various resources available to someone that might want to hack the UI.

So in the spirit of sharing here is the list of resouces I found on skining UO's UI:

• UO Stratics Kingdom Reborn Forum
• Spellweave.com
• UO Skins
• UO Guide

If anyone else has any other good resouces on the subject then leave a comment and Ill update the list.

Well as the title suggests I have released a new podcast. This being the first podcast in nearly two years I have a fair bit to cover, fortunately for you I dont try and cover everything in this first episode for 2007.

Things covered in this show are:

1. Introduction and what's been happening in my absence.
2. I discuss the EA Mythic merger and potential impacts to UO.
3. Told you so. I glance back at some of the predictions I made in previous podcasts.
4. Kingdom Reborn or is it Kingdom Stillborn.
5. SA and the will we see it.
6. Time for UO2 or UOX or whatever it was called.

You can click the title of the show on the right and stream the show to your PC, or you can right click the show title and Save As and download the show or you can click the RSS symbol beside any of the shows, copy the URL into iTunes and have iTunes download the show.

Cheers
Shane

Light Demon getting ready to explode.

Posted By Wilki_EA at Stratics UHall.

As I mentioned in a previous FoF thread, I've made some changes to the BOD system. They're not huge, but it should make things a little more rewarding.

1. Corrected a small error that gave skilled smith's a 45% base chance to get a colored BOD instead of the intended 50% chance.
   
2. GM Smiths still get a 10% bonus chance for a colored BOD (60% total).
   
3. Elder Smiths get a 20% bonus chance for a colored BOD (70% total).
   
4. Legendary Smiths get a 40% bonus chance for a colored BOD (90% total).
   
5. The chances of getting a valorite BOD (once you've passed the colored BOD test), have been raised substantially.
   
6. There is also a short delay (5 seconds) between turning in multiple filled BODs.
   
7. Colored footwear large bods should now be offered.
   
8. All runic tools have had their intensity ranges changed as follows:
   Blacksmithing:
   • Dull Copper: 40 - 100
     
   • Shadow: 45 - 100%
     
   • Copper: 50 - 100%
     
   • Bronze: 55 - 100%
     
   • Gold: 60 - 100%
     
   • Agapite: 65 - 100%
     
   • Verite: 70 - 100%
     
   • Valorite: 85 - 100%
   Tailoring:
   • Spined: 40 - 100%
     
   • Horned: 45 - 100%
     
   • Barbed: 50 -100%

This won't make it into the very next publish, but should be in the one after that.

And to those who celebrate it, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Edit: Added a few fixes to the end of the list, and changed the delay to 5 seconds.

Edited by Wilki_EA (11/20/07 06:19 PM)

Posted By Draconi_EA at at: Stratics UHall.

Hey, quick note for everyone who enjoys the Luxury Doom Shopping scene:

The secret passage in the Doom Gauntlet has been accidentally paved over. Whoever the Dark Fathers paid to do it, we owe them a good thrashing! In the meantime, there are now teleporters (invisible) set on either side of the wall so you can still use it.

Just walk towards the wall and you'll pass through.

 

Posted to uoherald.com:

2D Client vers. 6.0.5.0
Jeremy Dalberg
20 Nov 2007 18:13:42

At 3:15PM PST (11:15PM GMT) on Tuesday, November 20, the 2D client will be updated to version 6.0.5.0. Notes after the jump:

Added decoration in many areas, including the Doom Gauntlet and Serpent's Hold

Updated clilocs

Posted to uoherald.com:

Black Screen In KR?
Jeremy Dalberg
20 Nov 2007 21:20:20

If your KR client is set to start in full screen, you may see a completely black screen with an error about a software renderer. We're working on the fix for this, but in the meantime, use the following workaround to get into windowed mode:

Go into "My Documents", "EA Games", "Ultima Online", "User Data" and open the usersettings.xml file in a text editor.

In the first line under "Graphics", change fullscreen="true" to fullscreen="false", then save the file.

That should get you going until we can patch out a fix. (Also, the no sound issue? That'll get fixed shortly as well!)

Posted to uoherald.com:

Jeremy Dalberg
20 Nov 2007 18:13:22

At 3:15PM PST (11:15PM GMT) on Tuesday, November 20, the Kingdom Reborn client will be updated to version 2.48.0.3. Notes after the jump:

New Features:

Legacy Art Mode - enable this in Options: User Settings: Graphics, then restart the client to enable

Fully Moddable UI

Substantial number of client optimizations - should run much smoother now

Improved the guild UI

Added legacy container art - enable this in Options: User Settings: Graphics (no restart needed for this one)

Fixed a number of windows that weren't updating properly, including party window, pet window, draggable health bars, and more

The item properties "blessed" "blessed for playername" and "insured for playername" are

now colored blue for increased visibility

Macros" and "Actions" are two separate items on the main menu

Improved the layout of the veteran rewards window

Improved the animal lore window

Polished spellbook window

Polished char creation window

Improved npc vendor window

Empty slots on the paperdoll now have a tooltip telling you what goes in it

Removed the "add by ID" option in the friends list (since there's no way to find an ID, it was not usable)

Improved the art and functionality of the party window

Added a line to specify what the target is in the tooltip for a hotbar slot

Chat Improvements:

Read more ...

Have you tried shopping in UO for a specific item? It’s a bloody nightmare and one of the most frustrating activities that one can undertake whilst playing the game. Having spent some time playing other MMORPG’s lately all of them had least one thing in common and that was you could go to a single vendor and see all of the player sold goods in one place. They are commonly referred to as Auction houses.

Now I appreciate Auction houses in UO could ruin some of the immersion in the game. So I make the following proposal. How about UO has a centralised trading vendor who is aware of every item that’s for sale on player run vendors and should you want to buy an item then this vendor sells you a rune to that vendors store. This way if you want to find a specific item you can go to the one place to see if it’s for sale and then if you decide you want to purchase it, you get a rune to the store location.

This will also have the effect of lowering the cost of real estate as the primary reason for owning a house in Luna is so your vendors are exposed to the most possible foot traffic as possible. Well with my proposed system, then you could have your vendors set up in you house out in the middle of no where and they would still be found. Now a true market economy can happen as people will be able to see the going price for an item and either under cut the competition or raise the price if they wish.

Also players benefit as they don’t have to spend countless hours searching for that specific item they want.

Refine this proposal by placing your comments below and lets see if we can get the system changed for the better good.

Cheers
Shane

EA has spent a lot of the subscription money they have received over the last 10 years trying to refresh UO with a 3D client. The challenge they have is the games technology was developed long before 3D games were considered viable due to the client side requirements, ie: needing a decent 3D graphics card and processor. However technology has marched on and now days even the entry level PC has a decent 3D capable graphics card in it. So at the 10 year mark, a lot of time and money has been spent by EA trying to bring a 3D client to market that is widely accepted and played.

The issue I have is that after lets say conservatively speaking 6 years of development and two completely new 3D clients that EA might get the hint and realise that it is an exercise in futility. The reason I say that, is the 3D clients have never been widely accepted, this is based on, we wouldn’t have KR if the first attempt was humming along and the subscriber numbers showed that the majority logged in on a daily bases with the 3D client over the 2D client. So my guess is that the majority didn’t play the 3D client as their primary choice and therefore EA decided to scrap the last 3D client and start again. I also assume they started again with the intention of improving some of the technology as they went.

Some people are their own worst enemy. Having recently come back from a 2 year break I thought I would try and create a viable PvP template and go and play with the misfits. Well I hadn’t been in Felucca five minutes before I am getting abused by some members of OPK. Which is kewl by me as that’s the level of maturity I expect from OPK. But I had to laugh when I see OPK members whinging on the Stratics Oceania forum how no one comes and plays in Felucca.

The debate raged about who ruined PvP and so forth. As far as I am concerned I expect the less mature people to haunt Felucca and therefore pretty much ignore the taunts. I do find it interesting that as soon as some OPK members see a new guy in Felucca they proceed to annihilate them and then res kill them. They certainly are not endearing their play style on others. I mean if you’re the only kiddies playing in the sand pit, wouldn’t you at least be nice to any new kids for a while to try and at least let them get a feel for how things work.

The more things change the more they stay the same. After having a two year break from UO I thought I would come back and have another crack at playing the old crack game itself. As it would appear EA haven’t learned a dam thing over the last 10 years. Didn’t EA try a 3D client and it failed miserably and now they are at it again with KR. The Magincia Invasion is full of bugs in that monsters after 10 bloody years still spawn below ground and therefore part of the key too the invasion is pushing the monsters back. No bloody luck when the dam things are stuck below ground or inside of building structures and you cant target them.

The shoddiness doesn’t end there, the latest wave to hit was supposed to have Void Demons and Light Demons showing off their special abilities as they try and destroy Magincia. Well the Void Demons were struck with the bat of EA incompetence in programming and actually have no power or special ability, thus rendering them useless to their minion mates. Which had the poor soulless souls actually been tested would have allowed the diligent defenders of Magincia score the much sort after Artefacts these guys are meant to be carrying.

Welcome to UOPODCASTING.COM. If you have visited in the last couple of months and noticed the site was broken then welcome back. I will fix this site up in the near future, however in the mean time here are the old podcasts.