Thank you to the Ultima
Online team and the UO community for another great UO House of Commons!
Below you can read the transcript of tonights chat

Zephenia – The Chat will start shortly. Only send your questions to [QT]Stiv and [QT]Kiminality and [QT]Dor – all others will be ignored. The focus of this chat will be on the SA Open Beta client and SA in general. Send questions to the QTs when you are ready! Thanks!
[QT]Stiv – Hello
Zephenia – Welcome to Stratics IRC and the Deveoper’s chat with the crew from Ultima Online! Stand by for introductions!
* DenDragon growls*
Chrissay – Hi everyone I’m Chrissay the community coordinator for Ultima Online
Messana – Greetings, I am Mesanna Associate Development Manager
Kestrel – Heya. Jimmy here, QA knuckle-dragger extraordinaire.
Draconi – Hey everyone! I’m Draconi, your Lead Designer and resident pyro, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here tonight! We’ve got a lot of great things to share, so please, get your ever-so-curious questioning selves ready!
Uriah_Mythic – I am Calvin Horder of cats 😀
Uriah_Mythic – Herder too lol
Supreem_EAMythic – Hey guys! Derek “Supreem” Brinkmann Lead Engginer
Supreem_EAMythic – Engineer even
Draconi – We’re supposed to use real names Mr. Engginer?
Draconi – Darnit. Some call me “Tim”
Sakkarah – Howdy folks, I’m Sakkarah, Associate Game Designer and your local noob
Axel – Howdy all! Billy Teng, software engineer
Supreem_EAMythic – and griefer
Sakkarah – that too! especially that actually
Draconi – uber-noober griefer.
Bleak – Hi everyone I2019m Stephen , Software Engineer
Zephenia – *Cear* So Far I have not seen weather in stygian abyss. the rain was lovely in KR will it return? along with snow?
Supreem_EAMythic – Our awesome Engineering Intern (Uke) has brought snow and rain back to the new enhanced client. You will be able to play in the rain once again in the next enhanced client patch.
Zephenia – *Basara* Question concerning crafting: Are the recent BOD changes permanent, and if so, when will the point system entries in the Knowledge base for them be changed to reflect the new system?
Draconi – Ah! The lack of updates to the Knowledge Base may be confusing – so let me clarify! Yes, these are permanent (for now!) and I’m sure our wonderful community representative and her cohorts will be happy to get that information updated for your viewing pleasure
Zephenia – *Cear* In stygian abyss, will things like explotion potions be able to deal “splash” damnage? or will it still be stuck with buggy 2d tile elevation damnage. In an area with rablidly changing elevation, the waste, delucia plains, there practically useless. the same goes with conflags and fields. will they be able to mold themselves to the contour of the terrain?
Draconi – (Before I started my answer, I made sure this was already bugged so I wouldn’t go and forget it tomorrow 😛 Thanks Mesanna!)
Draconi – The first thing to know is that Stygian Abyss: the new Gargoyle homeland Ter Mur, the Tomb of Kings, the Abyss itself, and the Underworld level, all of these are full of all sorts of varying terrains and elevations
Draconi – There’s also this crazy, evil, incorporeal monster called a Shadow Dweller that comes at you straight through the walls
Draconi – And can’t be killed with anything except AOE attacks…
Draconi – (including explosion potions)
Draconi – So! As you can imagine, we will *definitely* look into the splash damage applying in 3D so it doesn’t miss mobs at different elevations
Draconi – Thanks for bringing that up
Zephenia – *Timothy* Would it be possible to have an option for using the old 2D graphics in the new enhanced client? Though I do like some of the new creature models and spell effects (OMG @ Meteor Swarm), if it is an all or nothing, I’d rather be in the good ole 2D
Draconi – .> *whistles into the darkness*
Draconi – *looks desparately to Supreem for answers*
Draconi – *gets eaten by a grue (not featured in SA)*
Draconi – *takes off his top hat and does a little jig*
*Kestrel plays soft mood-music on the bagpipes.*
Draconi – doesn’t want to do a jig to Kestrel’s “mood-music”
* Kestrel hangs his head dejectedly, but DOES NOT STOP PLAYING.*
Draconi – Timothy broke the dev team.
Supreem_EAMythic – We are constantly looking at ways to enhance the game graphically. Right now we are going full steam on the expansion.
Supreem_EAMythic – After the expansion, we will take a second look at this.
Zephenia – *Timothy* Are there any plans in SA to make useful some of the “useless” skills? http://www.uoguide.com/Useless_Skill
Draconi – I love the fact that there’s a wiki link for that 😛
Sakkarah – Giving a purpose to all the useless skills is a long term project. But we are giving a bit of love to Item ID which will help you decide whether or not it’s worth unraveling an item for imbuing.
Sakkarah – There will also be some use to Forensic Evaluation in the Underworld.
Zephenia – *Basara* Another crafting question: Will the crafting menus (2D & SA) be getting the “Mark as Quest Item”, and “Make Number” options, that were present in KR? If so, any ETA?
Bleak – *Basara* We’ve made some improvements to the original crafting gump in Stygian Abyss. When the expansion is released players will have access to these options in both clients.
Draconi – I should mention that the only reason you don’t have the updated crafting functionality when we released the SA client beta is because it’s actually server-based code, which won’t come out until we release SA
Zephenia – *sockpuppetsteve* Are you guys changing Throwing and Imbuing and Mysticism at all? Is what’s on the website actually how its goin in?
Draconi – Aha! “Content may be subject to change during online play!”
Draconi – Yes, after working closely with our internal beta testers, we’ve begun making some pretty important changes for the new skills
Draconi – Our top goal is to make Throwing fun, interesting, and not just archery for gargs To accomplish that, we’ve added new special moves, fixed bugs, and made the system more interesting with tradeoffs based on your strength and distance to target
Draconi – Imbuing? Wow, let me tell you about Imbuing!
Draconi – I *love* Imbuing, so much, that we wanted to involve it even more in the world, and we’re getting ready to deploy some changes internally that (while I can’t talk about just yet) will really give you a reason to be running around our new lands
Draconi – Without, mind you, driving you insane
Draconi – So, stay tuned!
Supreem_EAMythic – He’s lying…. We were actually done with the expansions months ago. We just like driving you guys crazy!
Uriah_Mythic – lol
Uriah_Mythic – shhhh
* Uriah_Mythic locks Supreem in the Bad Engineer Closet*
Draconi – grabs his soul glaive and aims over in Supreem’s direction
Draconi – *too close*
Draconi – darnit!
* Draconi raises his Swordsmanship to 120.0
* Draconi SMACK*
* Sakkarah wonders why they ever let the Engineers out to begin with*

Draconi – Mwahaha. Awwww. Sweet melee boomerang action
Zephenia – Keep the questions coming folks! The more the merrier!
Zephenia – *Nhbdy* I have a question, and it is as follows – Will we ever see useful artifacts [torches, sextants, food] or items that are not A weapon or Wearable?
Draconi – Wow. Yes, I think we really will. There’s actually a torch in the… wait a second! Spoilers!
Zephenia – *Dermott* Last SA patch was to enable Custom UIs and well, didn’t… any word on that feature?
Supreem_EAMythic – I have a fix for the custom UI that is currently in QA testing. I was at the office till 9:30 last night getting it in! You should see it in the next patch.
Zephenia –*sockpuppetsteve* Are we going to have to go on a long quest like ML made us do for Spellweaving for Mysticism?
Draconi – No!
Draconi – … wow, easy question.
Draconi –
Supreem_EAMythic – Well there is a quest. It’s called the quest to buy the expansion.
Uriah_Mythic – hahaha
Uriah_Mythic – pwnd
Draconi – Quest of the Consumatar
Zephenia – *Cear* There are only three throwing weapons. Isnt that a bit too few? Maybe a sling is in order?
Draconi – Too few? Ha. With the amazing versatility and impact each of these weapons will have, believe me, I’m sure we’ll all be fine! After all, I don’t want some young upstart coming over ans slinging a rock at my hand David/Goliath style, as much as I love the slings from Ultima 6.
Draconi – *eyes the other designers hiding slings behind their backs*
Draconi – er
Draconi – Hand? I meant my head
Draconi – That would hurt.
Draconi – It could even be fatal, wow, what a great story that would make
Zephenia – *JCtheBuilder* In the PVP zones within Stygian Abyss, will there be areas that players want to and are able to control? For example a special resource or champion spawn.
Sakkarah – The PvP zones are essentially the 2 new champ spawn areas. They will have new Replicas that will be unique to these 2 new champs and non-obtainable in any of the Trammel rulesets.
Sakkarah – here are also a number interactive features added to theses regions that will both help and hinder your efforts in leveling the spawn. Some will assist you in your PvP efforts.
Sakkarah – These features give access of a whole new set of rewards and goodies exclusive to these areas
Sakkarah – And yes, there’s a T missing in the second “paragraph”. I did say I was a noob
Zephenia – *Cro-Magnon* Question: Is SA going to have any long involved questlines?
Draconi – Certainly! Now, I’ll admit, the quests kind of run the gamut from single-step to arcing across Ter Mur and into the heart of the Abyss. There are some to train up your skills, ala New Haven, (although we’re looking to make them a little easier and rewarding), there’s a short questchain for getting customized carpets, and a nice long set for finding out the truths behind the reappearance of the Abyss
Draconi – As with all things, we’re still actively looking at how we can improve our current ones as we move forward with the beta
Zephenia – *Timothy* The zoom out feature of the Enhanced Client is really nifty, but it doesn’t seem to increase the area of which objects to load. The end result is running through a huge area with houses popping up right in the middle of your screen which just looks bad. Most people’s computers these days should be able to handle the additional load, and it could always be an option. Any chance of that?
Supreem_EAMythic – Increasing the range of these types of objects would have a significant impact on server performance. It may be something we can look at. But I would be concerned about causing server side lag.
Draconi – Lag? What laaa laaa laaa *user disconnected by peer*
Zephenia – *Cear* Will the fire island entrance be on trammel, felucca, or both.
Draconi – The current plan is to have the new volcano be on both facets, but the entrance and surrounding decoration will only be accessible from Trammel.
Draconi – Unless you’re from Siege.
Draconi – Who, quite specifically for, the volcano was added to Felucca
Draconi – You must imagine… the powerful, incredible arcane forces that tore the world asunder, RISING FROM THE OCEAN!
Draconi – That remembered Siege too.
Zephenia – *Nhbdy[* With the lava flows solidifying all over The Isle of the Avatar, do you suspect housing will encounter errors?
Draconi – Gosh I hope not. No, the most destructive force should be centered on the boats parked in the way, that’s all. *move your boats*
Draconi – The volcano will rise to fit in somewhat like a jigsaw to the existing island
Draconi – Without altering elevations (but adding that “Just Volcano’d” look to the terrain)
Zephenia – *Tazar* Is the Shadow Lord event leading up to the release of SA or will there be a different story arc?
Draconi – The defeat of the Shadowlords will usher in the collapse of the underworld dungeons, setting in motion a short chain of events that will pit the Gargoyles against Britannia. Hopefully, all will be resolved peacefully, considering the Gargoyles are peaceful by the launch date
[Zephenia – *Nhbdy[* Will tinkers be given any love in SA? Or more specifically, will we have neat stone cups and worn stone ware to make set our Gargish Dinner Tables?
Sakkarah – Tinkers will be getting quite a bit of love in SA, so will pretty much every crafting classes. Yes including Cooks, Glassblowers and Scribes.
Sakkarah – I’m afraid no stone cups but you shouldn’t be too disappointed with the new craftables
Zephenia – *Fallon* Of the changes slated to debut with SA, which are your favorites?
Mesanna – Floor Tiles!
Draconi – .<
Draconi – Gargoyles!
Chrissay – Gargoyles!!! i want to fly!!!
Supreem_EAMythic – I’d have to say my favorite is the highly anticipated new mob: The Chicken Lizard!
Chrissay – stopy copying me Draconi!!
Draconi – Fine fine
Sakkarah – Hey!! chickens are mine!
Uriah_Mythic – ummm the new music 😀
Draconi – Chicken coops!
Draconi – Oh wait.
Draconi – DARNIT
Draconi – *thinks*
* Sakkarah kicks Draconi in the knee*

Uriah_Mythic – oh the smackdown from the Slasher of Veils!
Uriah_Mythic – *hides*
Bleak – Gargoyles
Draconi – I think my favorite part will be seeing everyone run through the Abyss from end to end, desparately trying to avoid bloodthirsty goblins on the one hand, and jumping right through a bunch of fire daemons.
Axel – Ya, the Abyss is definitely sweet
Draconi – And nowwwww. BONUS ROUND!
Zephenia – *Dragothien* While I know that Hythloth was the original Entry point into the Abyss, and that in UO it shall be on the isle of the Avatar…Is there any possibility we will see connections to different points in the abyss within the various original anti virtue dungeons? Something akin to the multiple, sometimes hidden passages to the lost lands?
Sakkarah – There will definitely be entry points to the Abyss through some of the anti-virtue dungeons, namely Hythloth and Deceit as alternate access route into the Champ Spawn areas.
Sakkarah – Even murderers need some love!
* Sakkarah ducks*
* Draconi brings Sakkarah a dagger.*

Sakkarah – Excellent!
Draconi – Now go have fun!
Chrissay – Don’t listen to him he will blow you up!!
Draconi – How did you know it was a blackrock dagger?
Zephenia – Thanks for coming everyone! We hope you enjoyed tonight’s chat and are looking forward to many more! Chatlog will be posted in the near future!
Supreem_EAMythic – Good night guys. See you in Ter Mur!
Draconi – Bye everyone! I only have one last thing to say: VAS KAL AN MANI IN CORP HUR TYM
Zephenia – And questions not answered tonight will be forwarded to the Dev Team for possible inclusion in the normal FoF questions
Sakkarah – Bye bye!
*Draconi explodes*
Axel – Night all!
* Mesanna waves!*
Chrissay – everyone!!
Zephenia – Join us in #ultima-online for more chatting about Ultima Online! Thanks for coming folks.