 May 31, Thursday |
Evocare has been announched to be the new Lead Designer of UO. As both Paul Sage and Runesabre leaves the company.
More:
Lum the Mad
UO Stratics |
 | New craftables coming "soon"? -Videric |  |
When Elv'eng asked about craftables he got following reply:
Expect to see some new craftables later in the scenario. :)
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
UOboards |
| May 30, Wednesday |
From the boards:
Hi folks,
Sorry for the slow updates on rewards but we have been extremely busy lately dealing with a number of issues. Getting rewards out is still one of our primary goals, but you have to understand that with the unsuccessful first launch of rewards we are being extremely careful that we cover all our bases this time around.
So on to the update. Testing over the last two weeks has been very good. No new surprise issues have appeared although we still have two small issues we have to deal with. We are working on a plan to deal with them and will get them implemented shortly. These aren’t actually bugs but system changes we need to put in place for the launch to make it as smooth as possible.
I understand that some of you are a asking about the wipe of rewards and whether you would get to choose more rewards because of it (On test centres only obviously). Unfortunately one of the side effects of the wipe was that, although rewards were lost, we didn’t mark them as such. Since wiping shards is something we never do with production shards it’s not something we plan on fixing. Sorry about that folks.
Lastly the more part; I realize some of you have been complaining about lag on some of the servers and have attributed this to the distributed backups. The truth is that, although distributed backups do have a small increase in overhead, it is not primarily the cause of the lag. We have been investigating these reports and believe we have found the true source. Please bear with us as we get this issue resolved.
Thanks for you time.
Prophet
UOboards post |
| May 29, Tuesday |
| Tales of a Traveller interviews IGM Talos! -Videric | |
| You can read the interview at the interviews section of the website. |
| May 26, Saturday |
| May 25, Friday |
| Lord British has left Britannia? -Videric | |
There is interesting dicussion at boards about the subject (yes, I started it):
UOboards post |
| The Lore section is now up to date with all the official fiction. |
I was browsing the UO pages, and stumbled upon this message from IGM Talos on the European Ultima Online page:
If we look back to the beginnings of Ultima Online, it is easy to infer just how dramatically the game has changed since its creation. This process of change has not been an easy one, but it has been a much smoother ride than it would have been had the volunteer program not existed.
The volunteers that graced the lands of Britannia were a dynamic, talented, and passionate group of people, whose commitment was nothing short of inspirational. The Counselors of Ultima Online were composed of extremely knowledgeable and empathic individuals, who tirelessly brought their gift of wisdom and understanding to those in need. The Interest volunteers endlessly created exciting and challenging events, writing detailed and precise storylines, and constructed plot-lines that gave birth to quests of epic proportions. I am honored to have had the chance to work with so many of these dynamic people, they have blessed me with experiences that shall stay with me forever.
Im sure everyone will join me in thanking the volunteers for all they have done, for although they are gone, they are not, and indeed never shall be, forgotten.
IGM Talos |
| May 24, Thursday |
This is the version of stones everyone should listen. Go to the files section of the Tales and Traveller and listen...
The Files section |
| May 23, Wednesday |
More official word about Harashment:
Harrassment is probably one of the trickiest things to police in UO. It's very rarely black and white, like bug abuse, exploiting, and the like. That said, I would like to say a few things, knowing that this is probably the hottest topic on this board.
We do not tolerate harrassment in UO.
That's an easy statement to make...and far more difficult to practice. What may seem like a cut and dry harassment issue to someone involved in the incident may not always be to the person reading the log or e-mail from a player. For instance...
PKing is not harrassment. But, targetted pking, going after a certain group over and over and over again can be. But that's a judgement call and it is by no means any easy one to make. Another example. A group of PKs happen upon a player wedding, they attack, and kill everyone. Again, judgement call time. Were the PKs just happeneing by? Did they know about the wedding beforehand and intentionally ruin it? And if so, how do you prove that?
To the person being PKed it's black and white, their event was ruined, they were harrassed. To the support representative, it's not that simple. They don't know the history, they often don't know the intent and really, there is no way they can. Basically, in a lot of cases, they have to go by the words of the people involved. While again, to the person being harrassed is it obvious to them, we cannot (and should not) simply take someone at their word. It's not about not trusting that person, but imagine if we acted on every single account that was reported for harrassment. Now, we do keep logs of people that get reported often to try to demonstrate patterns though.
The fact of the matter is, many of the harrassment calls are not harrassment. Or rather, they are not proper use of the harrassment button. A tamer using their dragon to kill monsters is not harrassment, niether is someone buying up all the regs in moonglow, and niether is someone calling you a "newbie" once. You may think to yourself, 'well of course that isn't harrassment, that is not what we are talking about'. But, we have to talk about those, because those are the types of calls that fill the harrassment box. The staff that has to handle harrassment must go through all of those logs, every day, to find the ones that are proper use and filter through the ones that are not.
Also, often, harrassment cuts both ways. Of course, generally, one person starts with another, but the log doesn't always show that and even if it does, in most cases, once two people start with each other, it's usually considered mutual harrassment. It's kinda like fighting in hockey. Virtually every time, one player starts the fight, he throws the first punch, but if the other retaliates (which they always do), they both get put in the penalty box.
Now I'm not saying that harrassment, real harrassment, the kind that should get someone kicked out of UO forever, doesn't occur in UO. And I'm not saying that you all have not seen it with your own eyes. I know better than that, I've even seen it myself. But, I do think it is very important for all of you to understand that it is not as easy to police as you might think.
Is the issue of harrassment important to us? Yes it is. Do people get banned for harrasment in UO? You bet they do. Do we catch every instance? No we don't. But that doesn't mean it's not important and it doesn't mean there aren't people out there watching.
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
And Discussion...
fuk U TrAmMel noobs |
| Thief 3 and Deus Ex 2 to PC first after all! -Videric | |
Warren Spector commented about Thief and Deus Ex situation:
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly rumors spread in this business and how willing people are to accept rumor as fact.
Right now, there are rumors circulating on the net that Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 will ship on console first, with PC "ports" coming later. That is simply not true. Let me assure you that we have no plans to release a console version of DX2 or T3 before a PC version or to compromise one version to accomodate the needs of any other version we might develop.
Both DX2 and T3 are a ways off -- making immersive simulations takes time! -- and official announcements regarding these projects will be made in the future. Until then, let me just say that the members of the DX2 and T3 teams, many of whom helped create the original Thief and Deus Ex, are determined to meet and surpass your justifiably high expectations.
Everyone in this studio is as committed to making games like Underworld, System Shock, Thief and Deus Ex as you are committed to playing them. The vehemence with which you've expressed your concern is ample evidence that you love these games as much as we do. All I ask is that you trust us now as you always have in the past. You won't be disappointed...
Warren Spector
Project Director, Deus Ex
Studio Director, ION Austin
http://www.ttlg.com/
|
| May 22, Tuesday |
| Melantus about grief players -Videric | |
Melatus commented on post about harashment:
We rely on facts that harassment is occurring before we can actually take action against such harassment. Facts would be us actually eyewitness viewing the harassment occurring, or seeing the harassment taking place in a harassment log file. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible. Sometimes the GM isn't able to get there before the harasser stops and runs away. The harassment log might not show harassment occurring. Such detrimental actions are a constant force that works against any online game.
We have in the recent past banned some players who had taken it upon themselves to "grief" certain player run towns. They were good at it, and good at avoiding detection. Still we were able through extensive investigation to finally take care of at least some of it. It's not easy, but we do try. The key is to keep trying to get the facts discovered, with player assistance in some cases. If you are continuing to be harassed by a particular person, please continue to try and help get the facts to us either through GM calls for us to witness it or through harassment logs. It may be difficult, but we will eventually get to the bottom of the situation.
Melantus
Online Community Coordinator
Ultima Online
Melantus@uo.com
UOboards post |
| May 21, Monday |
| What happens when UO shards shut down? -Videric | |
Oddly enough Tyrant replied this question at official boards:
I've recommended that when UO is no longer profitable that we license the shards to the remaining players (since it is their world). No guarantees of course on this, but it seems like the smartest move. We don't have to worry about this for at least 5 more years though as UO is still growing. :)
Ex-Tyrant (but still watching)
Uoboards post |
| May 20, Sunday |
| Thief3 and Deus Ex2 for X-box first! -Videric | |
Okey this is not UO related, but being big fan of both series this was Huge let down for me. Thief 3 and Deus Ex 2 both done by Ion Storm are developed for X-box now, and will be converted to PC later.
I only hope PC -version will come out relatively soon after and will be optimized/tweaked for PC after that.
More at:
http://www.ttlg.com/ |
| May 19, Saturday |
| Interesting UO facts from E3 -Tomf | |
Gamespy has an article about UO from E3.
The article has few interesting facts about the future of UO and the current subscriber numbers.
One of the new planned improvements is the global event system (formerly known as the interest-program):
One of the improvements that is coming soon is a global event system which will allow for serialized fiction, stories arching over a period of time, which they can use to introduce new storylines, new monsters, new equipment, etc. Each cycle will last about 8 weeks, then another cycle will begin after that. It will even be possible to have different outcomes to the storylines per shard and world, although it doesn't sound like the branching stories will be long lasting. It seems as though once a new cycle starts, all shards and worlds will begin at the same place once more.
I sure hope the team can pull this one off. Given that seers were given the boot, OSI needs to either design a damn effective event system that few people can run or they need to appoint quite a few people to run these story archs. Events in the past, such as the the Invasion of Trinsic, needed many GMs and volunteers from the interest-program to run it. It scares me think about even more complex story archs that are based on some sort of a computerized system which is supervised by few GMs.
The other interesting bit of info is about the current subscriber numbers:
Some other interesting information I got was that UO's subscription base has gone up by 50% over the last year, according to Hall. They are currently at approximately 240,000 subscribers. When I asked about how the introduction of Trammel, the non-PvP mirror worlds, affected the subscriber base, I was told that the subscriber base went up by 50,000 over the six-month period following the introduction. Additionally, it seems that the player distribution reflects the fact that most people who play massively multiplayer online roleplaying games aren't very interested in the PvP aspects, as 80% of the player population resides on Trammel.
If this is true it's not hard to imagine why EA made the decision to cancel UO2. If the numbers keep going up like they say they have UO will make money for EA for a long time. I just hope they focus keeping the live-team enchancing UO even more.
Lastly, the article mentions that both Runesword and Sage, prominent members of the live-team, have left OSI. They both were important and experienced members and their absence will surely have some sort of an impact on the future developements of UO.
Check the full article here. |
| May 18, Friday |
Info about new orc masks from http://cob.xrgaming.net/ (screenshots there as well) :
- the masks can be found on orc mages in their main pack in Trammel, Felucca, and Ilshenar. The rate is approximately the same as glacial staves or daemon bone armor, about every 100th orc mage corpse.
the ones that I have seen are green orc masks, apparently the same graphic as the regular skin toned orc masks, both in 2D and 3D.
- I have heard two different names, 'a mask of orcish kin' and 'orcish mask of mist', I assume they both work the same.
- it gives a spell effect (nice green aura that moves up and down your body in 3D, simple little sparkles in 2D) and you lose karma
- the mask makes you invisible to orcs, meaning, they dont attack you, on foot or mounted, you are still visible to ettins, however (ouch)
- if you attack an orc or if your pet attacks an orc, the mask explodes, doing about 50pts of damage to the wearer.
So there you have it, any orc mage no matter where, has a chance to have one. This item is certainly interesting item to Orc role-players, however if it is lost upon death it makes it bit useless. So hopefully it is "blessed" or it becomes one of those items you horde to your bank box and end up not being useful. |
| May 17, Thursday |
This was at Gamespydaily.com e3 coverage:
In somewhat of a strange twist of events, Richard Garriot (AKA Lord Brittish and founder of Origin Systems) announced today that his company, Destination Games, would join Korean-based online game developer NCsoft. Garriot gave further details on his plans for his development team, which apparently involves NCsoft's game, Lineage: The Blood Pledge.
Garriot's first task will be to help introduce (and help implement) Linage: The Blood Page in Europe and North America. Garriot will also work on other online projects, but isn't saying much about his plans right now.
Hopefully there will be more than that, I am a bit dissapointed if they just end up adverticing Lineage. Maybe this is some sort of clever business plan, I certainly hope there will be more to this... |
Hardware upgrades will now be taking place over this coming weekend. Lemming.org will go down some time on Sunday and hopefully re-appear Monday morning. The Tales of a Traveller and other hosted websites will obviously be unavailable during this time.
Even when it the server does come back there may be further short outages during the following few days as additional functionality is added to the server.
Sorry for the inconvenience but the downtime will allow Videric and other Webmasters to incorporate many new features into their sites. |
| May 16, Wednesday |
Gamespy have talked to Richard Garriott about Destination Games and although not a lot new is said its worth a quick read.
You can find the article here. |
There will two short outages later today due to some software
upgrades taking place. Tales of the Traveller will be unavailable during these periods. I don't expect them to last any more than 5 minutes each, but you never know :-)
As advanced warning, later this month the server will go down for possibly two days as the hardware is completely replaced and upgraded. Obviously I intend to keep downtime to a minimum but it is unavoidable I'm afraid.
uptime @11:08AM:GMT up 295 days |
| May 15, Tuesday |
Because griefer has caused much pain on EU as well, I think following Lum the Mad article is worth looking at:
Lum the Mad article |
| May 14, Monday |
Not to be critical, but having towns like Spiritwood in hands of harashers so often, how does EA think they manage any better at Sims Online? Somehow I do not see this "web of friends" does not make me think everyone wants to play nice. Lum the Mad had an interesting article worth of reading about the subject:
Lum the Mad |
| May 12, Saturday |
| Have you seen this Serpent before? -Videric | |
| May 10, Thursday |
However there is some good news, I emailed to Cordicat (UO-Europe manager) about the status of IGM Talos. I got following response:
I'd just like to let you know that IGM Talos is still with us, and will still be bringing creative quests and events to the European shards. He hasn't been integrated into the same system as the other IGM's in the USA, so keep an eye out for him - he'll be around.
So we can still expect Fiction other than just USA made scripted events. So all the best to IGM Talos, and keep up the good work! |
| "..Mute we stand on the cold plains of Wiltshire..." -Videric | |
The Quate from Stones felt somehow good for this topic...
Ultima Online Program Changes
May 9 2001 1:32PM CST (GMT -06:00)
In the coming weeks and months, Ultima Online players will begin to see changes to the UO experience that will affect and impact the game in many ways as we update systems, introduce new content, and continue to grow and expand the world of Britannia.
In addition to systems and design changes, we will address how Origin supports Volunteer programs. Effective today, May 9th, Ultima Online will no longer host Interest, Quality Assurance, and Counselor Volunteer programs in North America and Europe. Though it's a difficult decision for us, it is based on the reassessment of our online, company-wide business structure as we address growth and changes in the online entertainment industry. As a result, volunteer programs throughout all of Electronic Arts have been affected by this reassessment. This decision does not affect the existing volunteer programs in Japan, nor does it currently affect the Companion program.
Whether answering questions, creating intriguing and amusing events, or aiding their fellow players in any number of ways, these volunteers have enriched their own Ultima Online experience and helped fulfill the Ultima Online experience for so many other members of the UO community. A permanent acknowledgement to these volunteers will be placed on both facets of each affected shard, located near the Britain Counselor Hall.
Over the last several years, players volunteering in Ultima Online have assisted their fellow players with great creativity, aptitude, and grace, and our thanks go out to all who have participated in these programs since their inception. This commitment to UO, as well as the commitment of hundreds of thousands of players worldwide, is the foundation on which we hope to grow and support the game far into the future.
This was from Interest lead cordinator Nikademus:
People of the Atlantic Shard,
It has been a great and distinct honor to be able to spend as much time with you as I could, and to provide as many events as I could. Atlantic has always been my home, as a player, a Seer, and as one of the leaders of the Interest Program. The role-playing community is one of the finest I know. You should be proud of the things you have accomplished. I shall miss interacting with you.
To the other shards, I have enjoyed developing an Interest program that you would be proud of, and working with all the fine people in it.
Nikademus
Seer, Atlantic Shard
Ancient, Atlantic Shard
Interest Coordinator
Jordan Cromwell, Atlantic Shard
Lord Dupre, Atlantic Shard
Martoo Saul, FOA, Atlantic Shard
(countless other roles)
Silver Fox, Tiger Knights Battalion, player on Atlantic Shard.
Brother Frost, keeper of the Temple of the Avatar in Wintermoor, player on Atlantic Shard.
And this was from Europe Seers at Stratics:
To the Wonderful People of the Shard of Europa,
In the past year I have been blessed. It has been a difficult year for me, and a bout of fighting with cancer was the worst part. How then have I been blessed then? I have had the chance to get to know you. I fought and worked hard to become a seer. I did not start on Europa, but I did finish here, and here is where I shall leave a small piece of my heart with each one of you I knew.
We are not always the movers and shakers. We cannot always be the dreamers and the planners, but for a while, you were all the movers, shakers, dreamers, and planners, and I was the one who helped you to do all of those things.
We take each day as it comes, but I had a chance, for a time, to do more, and I thank OSI for that chance. I did not take, but give. And it is in the giving that we find true satisfaction and happiness. We wrote stories together, and you made changes and did things that made each day exciting, for I never knew exactly how my stories were going to go, and that was one of the great parts of being a seer for me.
Whether I was a humble storytelling gypsy named Sardisha or a mighty dragon named Al'Cedra who really knew how to confuse the devil out of everyone, I was having a great time. From what you have said here and elsewhere, you were too.
Rilla may have moved on, and her wagon may crumble to dust, but I have the feeling that she will never be forgotten. Somewhere, in her dusty tent, with her cards and her crystal, she will always, always remember you.
Seer Intaria
And this from Elder Myrath ...
Hello everyone;
I would just like to thank you all for being so much fun at the evens and quests we all did together. It has been great fun seeing everyone have a good time by the stuff we conjured up.
Unfortunatly I never did get to open up my dark temple from the necromancers template. (It is located on the felucca facet, quite a walk to the right from the exit of the ice dungeon). *sighs*.. And I finally found a band of evil roleplayers too.
Anyways; It has been great fun, and I hope you have enjoyed the havoc I caused as much as myself.
I realy hate that we have to stop being seers and elders ;(... I will miss you all very much.
Lastly I'ld like to thank the rest of the europa team for the great times we had together. IGM_Talos, Ancient Lead Kintail, Ancient Seer Intaria, Elder Zardoz, and the ever faitful troubadours Ebenezer and Rudeger.
Furthermore a farewell hug to the drachenfells team, with whom we worked closly together.
Yours forever,
Ancient Elder Myrath
Europa Shard
So in short this mean all seers, elder, troubadours and counselors were let go. This means all the quests finished or not have officilly ended. No more Al'cedra, Necromancers etc... The reasons are quite pointless to think about, but probably Laywers has something to do with this.
And to end this with we started, the Stones again...
'Still we loom in the mists as the ages roll away
And we say of our folk, "they are here!"
That they built us and they died and you'll not be knowing why
Save we stand on the bare plains of Wiltshire.'
|
| May 4, Friday |
| May 2, Wednesday |
| New hardware on...tomorrow? -Videric | |
From UO boards:
I hate to do this - because I'm going to get in trouble from the OCR folks for replying to this before they make the announcement - the new hardware is racked up right now - I've got one of my team members working on it. It will come up for a 24 hour test period tomorrow and you guys will be on the new hardware permenantly on Thursday. I dont have specific times yet - that's the plan as it stands now though. More to come later.
Jack_Benny
"Drew"
UOboards post |
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