Why is it like pulling teeth to get patches and fixes?

I know the staff is small, but it seems to take FOREVER to get anything we ask for. I'd gladly pay more just to get this thing shifted into a higher gear. Not speaking for everyone else obviously. 

What is there specifically you would like fixed?

I have several threads going right now. And many of the other things people like you and others have mentioned that they would like to be fixed that have been ignored for years.

So you think with a snap of a finger it is done.  Have you ever searched through code looking for stuff and once you find it you need to write the right code to fix it without interfering with anything else.  If the small team we have did nothing but search through code nothing else would ever get done and boy would you hear the screaming over that.  One or two people can only do so much.

I've spent $200 on this game in the last year alone... you'd think that would help. There are free shards with a bigger staff right now. The only difference is OSI is obviously better done, but jeesh is can be frustrating. I am just venting my frustrations the only way they will be seen. Relevant or not.

I am very annoyed with bugs that have been around for a decade or longer. But the resources of the team are limited. They are trying to balance making new stuff with fixing the old bugs and the bugs they introduce with the new stuff. 
I frequently disagree on what their priorities are, and I am not sure my subscription will survive another bug fixing publish, but the reason things take too long is that there is only so much they can do in given amount of time. They have to sort all the issues by importance (to them and tho the player base) and by how much they will take to fix. And if whatever is bothering you is considered low enough priority, and is likely to take a long time to fix (as some bugs are), chances are - it will never get fixed.

We hear daily from all manner of players, each with a different, and sometimes competing interests and requests. We try to incorporate those requests into our roadmap planning as they align with our goals as well.  That being said, what are your primary wishlist items?

I can try to provide some insight on them if you provide a concise list.

crunchnasty said:

I've spent $200 on this game in the last year alone... you'd think that would help. There are free shards with a bigger staff right now. The only difference is OSI is obviously better done, but jeesh is can be frustrating. I am just venting my frustrations the only way they will be seen. Relevant or not.

Last year alone I spent over $400 on UO so what is your point.  Do you understand that you gave EA that money, not BS.  EA hired BS to run UO and DAoC and probable a yearly fee to do so and that money covers building costs, server costs and salaries for all BS not just UO with I bet very little left over knowing how much a tight wad EA is.

Kyronix said:

We hear daily from all manner of players, each with a different, and sometimes competing interests and requests. We try to incorporate those requests into our roadmap planning as they align with our goals as well.  That being said, what are your primary wishlist items?

I can try to provide some insight on them if you provide a concise list.

Hello,

I don't have a whole list, but I was wondering if the auto open corpse feature that was added to the CC could be added to the EC as well? Any answer would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

JollyJade said:

Kyronix said:

We hear daily from all manner of players, each with a different, and sometimes competing interests and requests. We try to incorporate those requests into our roadmap planning as they align with our goals as well.  That being said, what are your primary wishlist items?

I can try to provide some insight on them if you provide a concise list.

Hello,

I don't have a whole list, but I was wondering if the auto open corpse feature that was added to the CC could be added to the EC as well? Any answer would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

5.  Will the auto open corpses feature be added to the EC?

We have a number of EC performance and utility improvements scheduled over the next several publishes, and can add this feature to the list we'd like to implement.

Thank you, wasn't aware they had answered this somewhere else. Any link to this particular newsletter?

On UO.com the most recent is January 2019 and I can't find it in there. Still not sure why they refusing so hard to answer it here in public, but at least there is an answer now. TYVM!

I'm sorry, I don't seem to have a link to it. I have only the copy in my email. If you'd care to pm me an email address I can forward it to you, and perhaps you could sign up to the newsletter to get future editions?

Kyronix said:

That being said, what are your primary wishlist items?

I can try to provide some insight on them if you provide a concise list.

How about these: https://forum.uo.com/discussion/707/ec-bug-list-for-the-next-publish

@Mariah is Jan 2019 the most current newsletter?
https://uo.com/newsletter-archive/

Hate to say it, but i kind of agree here . Some Freeshard devs knock out bugs within days.  I hate to use freeshards as an example, but its a pretty good one.  When a major issue occurs I've seen them take the server down and apply a patch within hours.

I'll preface my response by saying the game mechanics and corporate restrictions are much more complex than I can fully understand, but these are some of the ideas running in my head. Do not get offended or angry at me, i'm just one man who has observed some things in the past year, and I realize like most ideas, these may be bad or horrible. I'd also like to thank the Broadsword staff for doing everything in their power as I keyboard warrior my thoughts. I do appreciate everything, because UO would not be alive without your hard work:


1. Get an artist like Andrea to update the quality of the original artwork (Classic Client Cu Sidhe anyone?) plus Pixel Polishing would be a game changer for a game this old, and fix the bad pixie art / paperdolls in EC. The enchanced environment such as water and land mass are better looking in EC, also special effects and such look cool in EC vs Classic... theres much left to be desired from both clients. Although I prefer the classic 'vibe' 

2. Fix crafting and mule skill sets to become more of the economy again. I know you've heard the "make useless skills worth using agian" yelled at you till the horse was beat dead. Taste ID, Item ID, Begging, Camping, and a litany of others have few practical uses in today's game play. 

3. Make creating a thief / fishing character worth it again. Pvm and Pvp. Theres no reason to be a dungeon theif vs say creating a treasure hunter (especially when t-hunters are getting a boost next patch), unless u want some cool deco. (same applies to being a Legendary fisherman... cool for deco, not much else.) Make a PvP thief? unless you wanna hang out and steal exclusively from champ spawns, forget about it cause theres nothing else worth / or available to even steal from people.  Nobody participates in VvV mechanics, so stealing there is not important anymore. 

4. Work on the loot table (obv keeping power creep in mind). Especially the rare dungeon drops being less useful than other magic 'no name' loot that drops regularly on the roof etc. Doom / Peerless artifacts should be sought after more than just random legendaries at the roof. Right now 99% of dungeon artifacts are cool looking / lore-wise but junk in their usefulness.  Make all the older boss and dungeon encounters up to date in terms of loot table. Right now I only see ppl take champs and the roof seriously. Noone wants to do peerless, Eodon encounters, or Doom (it is all empty just like High Seas has been for so long)

6. Balance some PvP / weapon skills & system mechanics out - right now swords dominates Pvm (sampire) and PvP (Bokuto Mages) Nobody thats serious in Pvp is beating parry mages with a macer, fencer or archer template unless its a big gank field fight. I'd like to see more reasons to branch out and use these. PvP is dominated by Bokuto mages and Parry Mages... everything else is a distant second or third in terms of power and ability. The playing field could use some balancing perhaps. I am definitely not an expert in the mechanics of it all, so if im wrong I can accept that. 

Is VvV working as intended? because I don't see anything special happening other than everyone attacking eachother without a purpose. It would be nice if a system in VvV actually kept people engaged, do you have any ideas on how to move forward?

7. Hire a pro to do your FB / IG marketing - I don't know your metrics, but we could use all the returning players we can get at this point. The game needs more people constantly coming in either returning or somewhat new to keep the social interactions fresh and fun. I've seen some of the ads on IG.... let's just say, they could use some work. Make more content to keep people interested. Theres a video made by UO staff on FB page that got thousands of views... and then they just stopped making content. Stuff like this would go a long way in keeping people interested. If you don't have a well seasoned Facebook pixel, and ads that have millions of impressions, something is wrong. You put all that time and effort into endless journey, and i dont think i've ever seen a facebook ad. Even if you ran campaigns, did you get a pro? That article in wired magazine recently about bringing back lore type gamimg is a good start to the good PR for UO still being the best game, take advantage of it.  

8. Theres a reason almost NOONE plays a gargoyle character. It's because they aren't fun to play. Maybe theres something that can be done about this. 

9. Hire another person if at all possible. I understand EA probably has its head up its ass on this one, but more than anything, it would help keep the updates coming more often. Thats what a UO junkie like me craves. Updates. In theory, this would create buzz. and more revenue from players. Revenue is what EA wants right? It feels like UO is struggling, and player run free shards are slowly killing OSI. I could name a certain free shard that has 8 full time staff members, who are professional devs and support... they aren't just some rookies; OSI deserves more support. 

10. Felucca is a ghost facet. I barely see people at the Yew gate, let along anywhere else besides champ spawns. Can we come up with some reason to not let it just stay dead besides champ spawns? Buccs Den used to be a thriving outlaw community. Yes, I realize the adrenaline junkies are the minority. Don't @ me.

11. What is there to do in Eodon, Illeshnar and Tokuno these days? I literally go to Tokuno on ATL for Goodman's Rune Library and thats it. My wish list includes making it fun to go to every facet of UO because new stuff is happening that every PvM'er wants to participate in. I realize this isn't specific enough of a request, but I just want to know your thoughts, we have so much open space that isn't being used by majority of players, and I've grown to love PvM a lot recently)

12. For the love of god, find a way to eliminate the gold sellers / rare sellers for real life money who advertise in game chat. Avatar is just laughing at you. 

13. Shard Shields - I get that the cat is out the bag - but maybe make it so the economy isn't being full scale assaulted by shard farmers? I cringe as I heard people talk about plundering other shards and bringing it back to ATL... so much for a balanced economy and artifact market. The problem is only getting more serious.

14. Why is scripting still dominating the game? PvP doesn't even happen without Steam or Enhanced Razor these days... you can't stop it? Speed hacking? Yup. they all do it. It's an open secret. I know that once u patch a fix, they will work around it, but now u have people with enhanced razor using python coding? Seriously? It's going too far. 

15. Fix the out of control inflation - This may tie into several other issues. But why do I need several billion gold to buy what used to cost 1 million? Because the economy is bloated like Venezuela due to dupers / scripters. Is there a solution to this?

16. Keep us in the loop - We want more information about what the staff is working on, and why. What is being considered, and why. UO is my main pasttime. I want more information. There will be months on end without much except some forum post responses here and there. Although I did think the most recent High Seas Rising Tide post from @Kyronix was a great example of getting people informed and involved. We never hear anything from the staff except Kyronix, and the other devs do meet and greets once in a while. 



Now I will go back to reading the book 'Braving Britania' by Wes Locher - highly reccommended. 

Crunchnasty you listed 16 problems we all know about but in defence the team at Broadsword I didn't see any suggestions on how to fix them. 

I'm not trying to pick on you. I just want to point out none have easy fixes. In fact I see fixing some would even make others worse.

The classic client can still look brilliant if you out just a little effort into it.  Something simple like translucent water makes the water look incredible.  Small detail on paths, city buildings, etc really pops when you compare it to vanilla classic.

None the less, alot of the things listed above are much more important, but they are inherent problems developed over many many years and not simple over night fixes.  I think VvV could be updated with some simple yet large changes that have been suggested in the past for instance.  I don't think ur fixing the economy in a week tho lol

I also think linking scripting to PvP is wrong.  There are very few scripts in PvP, that get used in any real capacity.  Yes there are assistant clients but I'd argue they are just doing a way better more modernized version of what uoassist should be.  I mean it took 20+ years for uo to have a dress macro.... Those assistant clients are damn near crucial to accomplish menial tasks.  Scripting on the other hand, is heavily used in every aspect of farming, monsters/pvm, resources gathering, events, you name it . Don't give PvP the bad connotations, it's just that in a tram ruleset you don't have a direct reason to complain about it.  

Cetric said:

Some Freeshard devs knock out bugs within days.  I hate to use freeshards as an example, but its a pretty good one.  When a major issue occurs I've seen them take the server down and apply a patch within hours.

Touchy discussions are vetted out from all angles and compromised solutions are entered, and sometimes changed multiple times over a few weeks. 

How do free shards handle people logging out with a pet?

And @crunchnasty , I disagree with pretty much all your 16 points with the exception of number 13. Shard shields. Can't comment on the things about hiring staff. You seem like a returning player, maybe try playing the game for a bit longer before you ask what there is to do in Eodan, and say that nobody plays gargoyle, and say that nobody plays a macer in pvp. Your shard must be different to mine. 

I can remember macing being THE pvp temp, they would beat you nekkid.  But someone cried, and that got nerfed.

"" Taste ID, Item ID, Begging, Camping, and a litany of others have few practical uses in today's game play. ""   Begging is useful at halloween, the others listed, along with maybe one or two more, should just be dropped from the list, period.    Especially from the SoT possibilities and SOA possibilites in chests and spawns.

One way of improving begging is to add a chance at getting a legendary or a power scroll. For example you would have a 0.01% chance at getting a 120 power scroll.

Please make the skull helm look like the same on boy chars as girl chars like they use to. I know this isn't game stopping, but some goofy artist along the way altered the look on girls at some point and now I don't look intimidating and have stopped wearing it. I actually brought this up at a meet and greet and was told it would be looked into also my backside and thigh skin show through my hooded robe from the thread quests on which I actually emailed about as requested, but years later no change to either. Now I know you guys are busy, but I think these are the things we the frustrated are talking about when we say old things that are not addressed. You Meet and Greet, and take our complaints and concerns and then ignore them. I have such a grand list of things from over the years but really don't even feel like listing them or speaking of them as they just get ignored, and get me all amped up and angry. If that is a genuine request, I am not feeling it. Looking at the date, it is from 9-9-2015.

At the same meeting though, the issue with the shame moongates was fixed, as someone, maybe even Kyronix took me there so I could show them the blockage around the gates, but the entrance to Hythloth is still a nightmare which I know has been talked about since day one of UO.

This is why we feel no one on the Dev team plays because That Dungeon entrance alone would be top priority.

Don't think we don't have ❤️ for ya though.

crunchnasty said:

I'll preface my response by saying the game mechanics and corporate restrictions are much more complex than I can fully understand, but these are some of the ideas running in my head. Do not get offended or angry at me, i'm just one man who has observed some things in the past year, and I realize like most ideas, these may be bad or horrible. I'd also like to thank the Broadsword staff for doing everything in their power as I keyboard warrior my thoughts. I do appreciate everything, because UO would not be alive without your hard work:


1. Get an artist like Andrea to update the quality of the original artwork (Classic Client Cu Sidhe anyone?) plus Pixel Polishing would be a game changer for a game this old, and fix the bad pixie art / paperdolls in EC. The enchanced environment such as water and land mass are better looking in EC, also special effects and such look cool in EC vs Classic... theres much left to be desired from both clients. Although I prefer the classic 'vibe' 

2. Fix crafting and mule skill sets to become more of the economy again. I know you've heard the "make useless skills worth using agian" yelled at you till the horse was beat dead. Taste ID, Item ID, Begging, Camping, and a litany of others have few practical uses in today's game play. 

3. Make creating a thief / fishing character worth it again. Pvm and Pvp. Theres no reason to be a dungeon theif vs say creating a treasure hunter (especially when t-hunters are getting a boost next patch), unless u want some cool deco. (same applies to being a Legendary fisherman... cool for deco, not much else.) Make a PvP thief? unless you wanna hang out and steal exclusively from champ spawns, forget about it cause theres nothing else worth / or available to even steal from people.  Nobody participates in VvV mechanics, so stealing there is not important anymore. 

4. Work on the loot table (obv keeping power creep in mind). Especially the rare dungeon drops being less useful than other magic 'no name' loot that drops regularly on the roof etc. Doom / Peerless artifacts should be sought after more than just random legendaries at the roof. Right now 99% of dungeon artifacts are cool looking / lore-wise but junk in their usefulness.  Make all the older boss and dungeon encounters up to date in terms of loot table. Right now I only see ppl take champs and the roof seriously. Noone wants to do peerless, Eodon encounters, or Doom (it is all empty just like High Seas has been for so long)

6. Balance some PvP / weapon skills & system mechanics out - right now swords dominates Pvm (sampire) and PvP (Bokuto Mages) Nobody thats serious in Pvp is beating parry mages with a macer, fencer or archer template unless its a big gank field fight. I'd like to see more reasons to branch out and use these. PvP is dominated by Bokuto mages and Parry Mages... everything else is a distant second or third in terms of power and ability. The playing field could use some balancing perhaps. I am definitely not an expert in the mechanics of it all, so if im wrong I can accept that. 

Is VvV working as intended? because I don't see anything special happening other than everyone attacking eachother without a purpose. It would be nice if a system in VvV actually kept people engaged, do you have any ideas on how to move forward?

7. Hire a pro to do your FB / IG marketing - I don't know your metrics, but we could use all the returning players we can get at this point. The game needs more people constantly coming in either returning or somewhat new to keep the social interactions fresh and fun. I've seen some of the ads on IG.... let's just say, they could use some work. Make more content to keep people interested. Theres a video made by UO staff on FB page that got thousands of views... and then they just stopped making content. Stuff like this would go a long way in keeping people interested. If you don't have a well seasoned Facebook pixel, and ads that have millions of impressions, something is wrong. You put all that time and effort into endless journey, and i dont think i've ever seen a facebook ad. Even if you ran campaigns, did you get a pro? That article in wired magazine recently about bringing back lore type gamimg is a good start to the good PR for UO still being the best game, take advantage of it.  

8. Theres a reason almost NOONE plays a gargoyle character. It's because they aren't fun to play. Maybe theres something that can be done about this. 

9. Hire another person if at all possible. I understand EA probably has its head up its ass on this one, but more than anything, it would help keep the updates coming more often. Thats what a UO junkie like me craves. Updates. In theory, this would create buzz. and more revenue from players. Revenue is what EA wants right? It feels like UO is struggling, and player run free shards are slowly killing OSI. I could name a certain free shard that has 8 full time staff members, who are professional devs and support... they aren't just some rookies; OSI deserves more support. 

10. Felucca is a ghost facet. I barely see people at the Yew gate, let along anywhere else besides champ spawns. Can we come up with some reason to not let it just stay dead besides champ spawns? Buccs Den used to be a thriving outlaw community. Yes, I realize the adrenaline junkies are the minority. Don't @ me.

11. What is there to do in Eodon, Illeshnar and Tokuno these days? I literally go to Tokuno on ATL for Goodman's Rune Library and thats it. My wish list includes making it fun to go to every facet of UO because new stuff is happening that every PvM'er wants to participate in. I realize this isn't specific enough of a request, but I just want to know your thoughts, we have so much open space that isn't being used by majority of players, and I've grown to love PvM a lot recently)

12. For the love of god, find a way to eliminate the gold sellers / rare sellers for real life money who advertise in game chat. Avatar is just laughing at you. 

13. Shard Shields - I get that the cat is out the bag - but maybe make it so the economy isn't being full scale assaulted by shard farmers? I cringe as I heard people talk about plundering other shards and bringing it back to ATL... so much for a balanced economy and artifact market. The problem is only getting more serious.

14. Why is scripting still dominating the game? PvP doesn't even happen without Steam or Enhanced Razor these days... you can't stop it? Speed hacking? Yup. they all do it. It's an open secret. I know that once u patch a fix, they will work around it, but now u have people with enhanced razor using python coding? Seriously? It's going too far. 

15. Fix the out of control inflation - This may tie into several other issues. But why do I need several billion gold to buy what used to cost 1 million? Because the economy is bloated like Venezuela due to dupers / scripters. Is there a solution to this?

16. Keep us in the loop - We want more information about what the staff is working on, and why. What is being considered, and why. UO is my main pasttime. I want more information. There will be months on end without much except some forum post responses here and there. Although I did think the most recent High Seas Rising Tide post from @ Kyronix was a great example of getting people informed and involved. We never hear anything from the staff except Kyronix, and the other devs do meet and greets once in a while. 



Now I will go back to reading the book 'Braving Britania' by Wes Locher - highly reccommended. 

These are some great questions - some that require a way more thoughtful answer then I can provide on the forums, so look for these in our next newsletter!  Thanks again for providing the questions, excellent work!

For pvp do you really think the devs will ever do anything against the 15 mages that play? Anytime there's a idea of a patch against the mages they ban together and email the devs from 100 email accounts... Let's face it this is an item based / mage based game... The devs will never change that.. Heck the mages made the devs make my 100% poison bow hit for physical damage... this defies the laws of any physics and any mythical theory possible....they will never smack the parry mages with a patch. Pvp is dead due to cry babies. Bring back naked pvp.

Feed back via email should have to be submitted from a verified EA account. 

 if a mage presses the wrong button or presses the button at any time other than the exact right time, the mage is dead, if a Warrior goes afk, he continues to fire and kill the mage. 

Mages only get annoyed when even pressing all the right buttons at all the right times still results in death vs an afk warrior.

2 warriors fighting each other, the best suit will win. With magery, a good suit won’t help.

Mervyn said:

 if a mage presses the wrong button or presses the button at any time other than the exact right time, the mage is dead, if a Warrior goes afk, he continues to fire and kill the mage. 

Mages only get annoyed when even pressing all the right buttons at all the right times still results in death vs an afk warrior.

2 warriors fighting each other, the best suit will win. With magery, a good suit won’t help.

So a mage with godly 18hpr and 30mr vs a new mage with a lame no hpr low mr suit has has a chance in your book?

A dexxer with a Hpr suit with 800 skill vs a lame suit with 720 skill and no stats? Yeah right... 

Sorry friend this game is item based. 

Mervyn said:

yes, i think i can kill you on a mage with no HPR or MR no problem, it makes very very little difference. If you set up a studded suit for me on test centre with nothing but LMC and LRC 60 all resists i'll show you. (Although my connection there is no good) the connection is a bigger factor for mages over suit. I'll just use VvV orni and VvV crystalline ring which are free.

DM me when rdy

If godly suits were free we would all be pvping, but there not. . So your call out doesn't make much sense? Sorry I don't have the 2plat suit to meet you on test with... If you didnt read my post... I stopped pvping when the mages cried and forced the devs to change poison bows to hit for physical.... Pvp is a joke these days.

If the devs cared the would change the code to force the cheaters to update with every patch... But they haven't in almost a year? Why do you think that is? All these patches and yet no patch change? 

Mariah said:

No there's February and March. 

Please everyone sign up for the newsletter by following the link on uo.com - you can use any email address, it doesn't have to be the one linked to your game account.

I seem to have found a link after all:

https://mailchi.mp/broadsword/ultima-online-newsletter-35?e=7b73a4e28e

and here's February

https://mailchi.mp/broadsword/uo-february-newsletter?e=7b73a4e28e

Thank you for the links. Can those at least be published on Instagram and Facebook too? I'm already following there and am not looking for more emails