Five on Friday - Miscellaneous
Siege/Mugen - Exchange of Character Transfer/Advanced Character Tokens (October 6, 2006)
When will Siege and Mugen players get to exchange character transfer and advanced character tokens for something else?
Aaron “Darkscribe” Cohen, Producer: We’re planning to have this in for Publish 43, and will give players the option to turn in these items for ublessed 7th Anniversary items.
Personal Attendants from Publish 41 Test Shard Giveway (August 18, 2006)
Can you tell us who received Personal Attendents from the Pub41 test shard giveaway?
Wilki: Here are the five winners:
1. C. S.
2. Oliver B.
3. Eric Y.
4. Chad L.
5. Yuuki K.Congratulations to all of the winners!
Uber Item on Asuka (July 28, 2006)
Has the dev team traced the origin of the uber item with extreme properties on Asuka? Are there any other items of the same kind?
Wilki: The Japanese team has led this investigation, however because this is an ongoing matter, that is all we can say at this time. Please know that we’re taking this extremely seriously and will make sure any and all items like this are removed and fully investigated.
In the future, if you see an item like this that obviously doesn’t belong in the game, please inform a Game Master immediately. If someone is found in possession of such an item and does not immediately report it, that person will most likely have action taken against their account(s). We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously, and will continue to not allow anyone to abuse or unbalance the game in such a manner.
UO Cancellation? :rolleyes: (July 28, 2006)
Is UO going to be cancelled?
Darkscribe: No! We are working extremely hard right now building a new future for UO. I wish I could let you in on what we’re up to, but please be patient. It will be worth the wait.
Exploit fixed in Publish (July 21, 2006)
It was stated that an exploit was fixed in this week’s publish. Can you tell us what this was?
Ando: The exploit involved the housing system. However since the Dev team is not sure whether this was an issue players had actually discovered yet, it has been decided not to provide any further details about it.
Bookshelves (July 21, 2006)
Are we ever going to get bookshelves (shelves with books)?
TheGrimmOmen: Although it’s not currently on the schedule, it seems like something we might consider in an upcoming publish.
Imprisoned Dog Dupe (July 14, 2006)
Are you still planning to address the items created with the imprisoned dog dupe?
Wilki: Yes, we are. The timetable has not yet been determined.
Where do Five on Friday questions come from? (July 7, 2006)
Do all your 5 on Friday questions come from the boards, or do you sometimes make them up to cover a general topic?
Wilki: Most of them come from the boards, either copied exactly how they were written or cleaned up a bit for clarity. Sometimes we do write a Q & A to answer something specific that we want to talk about, though that isn’t always the case. In general, we try to pick questions that will be of interest to the greatest number of players.
Going After Cheating (w/o PunkBuster) (July 7, 2006)
Grats on the 15 Trillion gold. Besides PunkBuster, do you have more plans to combat cheating in UO along these lines?
Darkscribe: Yes. PunkBuster is obviously our most public effort to combat cheating. There will also be a couple efforts you won’t hear about until after they are complete, much like this recent operation. Our goal is to make sure players who play by the rules are rewarded for their hard work.
Personal Attendants and Non-Japanese Players (June 30, 2006)
3. When will players outside of Japan be able to purchase personal attendants?
Darkscribe: We’ll put them on sale as a micro-transaction in August.
Cloak of Humility Artwork (June 16, 2006)
3. Can we expect to see any changes made to the artwork for the Cloak of Humility?
Wilki: Our art team has been working to improve the Cloak of Humility. Those changes should go in with Publish 41.
Duped Clothing (June 9, 2006)
My eyes! Are you looking into this sudden influx of garishly colored clothing?
Darkscribe: Ah yes, the dreaded duping bug that creates eye searing hues on some items. We will be fixing that as soon as we’re able.
Adding/Changing content in Britannia itself (June 2, 2006)
Any plans to add content or spruce up existing content in the original lands (Britannia itself)?
Darkscribe: Yes. I will continue to drop hints until someone has to sweep them up. Follow the clues within the in-game story arc involving Inu. Soon, there will be puzzles to solve that will lead players to an amazing revelation. If players don’t reveal the secret, then they’ll hear about it from a press release a couple weeks later, but I’m betting on the players to find it first.
Item Insurance (June 2, 2006)
Any plans to change or get rid of insurance or maybe even bring something in where everyone has their items blessed?
Darkscribe: No. With all the planning we are doing for so many different things, changing the insurance system is pretty far down the list. If you don’t like insurance, please play on Siege or Mugen. There are plenty of folks there waiting to take your stuff.
Anti-Scripting Initiative (May 26, 2006)
When are we going to hear more about the anti-scripting initiative you’ve been hinting at?
MrTact: Soon. Very soon.
Future Town Hall Events? (May 26, 2006)
Are you going to be doing town hall events again soon? If so, what cities?
Darkscribe: Yes, we are hoping to get on the road again in late summer or fall. As for what cities, those are TBD. I’d love to get back to Austin for a visit (I miss the barbecue quite a bit), and going back to DC might be fun. That was perhaps the most memorable town hall meeting from last year, where we met the infamous Drunk Guy. We are very open to suggestions.
Lag (May 26, 2006)
strong>I have noticed some lag lately while I’ve been playing. Is anything being done to address this?
Ando: Yes, the Dev team is working to find a resolution to this issue as soon as possible. Currently we know that this issue only appears to be affecting certain parts of the world and is more noticeable on some shards than it is on others.
Guild Message of the Day (May 19, 2006)
Will we ever see a Guild Message of the Day feature in UO?
MrTact: Hopefully! I would very much like to implement this, but it’s not on any schedule atm.
Future Scripter Bannings (April 28, 2006)
Kudos to EA for announcing the recent scripter bans on uo.com. Will we see more announcements like this in the future?
Darkscribe: On occasion, we will announce developments when it comes to enforcing the rules and dealing with rule breakers. I want all UO players to know that we enforce the rules, ban accounts when needed, and are working hard to make the game fair for everyone. On the other hand, I don’t want to keep hammering at that message and make the game seem like a police state. We’ve got a lot more fun things to talk about.
Codes For Sale (April 21, 2006)
Sometimes I see codes (gametime, gender change, etc) being sold for less than I can buy from from EA. How is this possible?
Wilki: While I suppose it’s not completely impossible that someone might buy a bunch of codes and sell them for less than they bought them for out of the generosity of their heart, I’d say it’s about as likely as finding a check for one million gold lying around the Luna moongate at 8pm on a Saturday night. In the past, we’ve discovered codes bought with stolen credit cards. We then make an effort to find accounts that used the stolen codes and occasionally ban those accounts as well, depending on the circumstances.
If you need to buy a code, it’s highly advised that you only buy them from www.uogamecodes.com, otherwise caveat emptor. You wouldn’t meet a stranger at the crossroads in Felucca to trade your unblessed rares collection for an artifact, now would you?
Advertising (April 7, 2006)
Does Ultima Online advertise?
Darkscribe: Yes, we do quite a bit of online advertising. I can’t get into specific dollar amounts, but I can say that for the release of Mondain’s Legacy and earlier in 2005 with the release of the UO:GOLD demo download program, we spent quite a lot of money on Gamespot, IGN, various MMORPG dedicated sites, and community sites like Stratics. With targeted online advertising, we are able to choose our audience with great specificity. We know we hit people interested in MMORPGs and RPGs, while not wasting impressions on people who wouldn’t really care about UO. We will be advertising again in the next fiscal quarter, starting in July. What will we be advertising?
As far as print advertising, the audience for the big PC gamer magazines tends to be very high-end oriented favoring new games that make even the latest video cards smoke. However, that doesn’t mean print mags are out of the plan for this year, but they are not where a big portion of our marketing dollars will be going.
