Latest "Treasures of" Event that started today (on Origin)

@Kyronix - I had a few questions about the event that started today and was hoping you could shed some light (please and thank you!).

1. Will each shard all get the same "Treasures of" event (ie Orcish Kin this go round) when they are released or is that to the discretion of the EM (like Origin might have "of Orcish Kin" but Pacific might get "of ghoulish soul")?

2. The drops and rewards are currently "shard bound"; is that going to be the plan for these "treasures of" events or is that just for now while things are being tested on Origin (and would be removed once an event is live everywhere)?

3. There are only 3 rewards right now to use the turn in points for (assume this will vary each event) and one of them is a "lucky mask". Is there anyway that for future events we could have the lucky items be exceptional (so we get extra property weight) and possibly have 150 luck so it could be worked into a functional suit rather than just for show?

4. Will the respawn rate (and speed & amount) change based on event area population or is it a fixed thing? The only reason I mention this is because while the speed is perfect on Origin; there is also only about 4-5 people there at any given time that I've seen so I could see if there were like 20 people in the dungeon it might be challenging for some players to kill spawn in a timely manner.

Other than those questions, everything else seems to be running very smooth. I like the potential of the dynamic system to give us these types of events more frequently! 

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Sure!

1.  No, this is a soft launch in preparation for our wide scale release of this new feature.  We will be soft launching on additional shards in the next phase, but not to all shards.  As I've mentioned before we rebuilt the way we implement these events, which has required us to reconfigure our normal testing and feedback pipeline.  

These soft launches are helping us do that.  This, and other Treasures events will be designed and implemented by the Dev Team, not the EM Team.  The tools EMs (as well as us) have access to are one-off boss fights (traditional EM boss fights) and the new Champ Spawn tool.  Whether Treasures events may one day be designed/implemented by EMs could happen but in the immediate term we have no plans for that specifically.

2.  Yes, we plan on the minor artifacts and the redeemable rewards being shard bound for all Treasures events.

3. These rewards are only a small way of saying "thank you" for helping us test during soft launch.  Game wide treasures events will have rewards that you're most used to seeing in previous treasures events.  We are also building in a "feedback" period for these events as part of our deployment plan worldwide.  So expect better loot (and new stuff) in widescale Treasures events.

4.  The spawn rate is fixed right now, As we scale up to different populations we'll evaluate it.  We do have the ability to dynamically adjust this as well should we need to.

I know it's a little murky right now as we work through ramping up these new tools, but it's going to dramatically change the way we implement content allowing us to do more globals more often while still being able to focus on our larger goals.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hello Kyronix. With these new "tools" can we expect less new content?  ie, are you just going to flood Treasure of Whatever?  Or will/can we expect more new content, Treasure of "whatever" and new things?  We have, in my opinion, had a pretty long dry spell with new content. Yes...covid, I understand. Just looking forward to new and exciting. EM events and ToT do not really cut it. Thanks.

@jelinidas - in terms of what? new content is a pretty broad word, you'll have to be more specific.

I dont really think its that broad and think you understand the question, lol. But for the sake of...New lands, new dungeons or revamps. New tamables. New quests. New high sea adventures, New high end content. New low end content for Popps. New races. New rewards. New non UO Store desirable deco. New crafting. This list could go on forever...

Again, i think you fully understood the question. But, I will ask again. With these new tools, are we just going to get flooded with ToT type of events and EM champ spawns that happen twice a month or will we see regular NEW content? Thanks.

@jelinidas - You can think what you'd like, but if I didn't need you to clarify what you meant by "new content" I wouldn't of asked.  The phrase "new content" means a lot of different things to a lot of different players based on what their chosen activities are - again, why I asked.

The new tools have revamped the engine by which we can deliver various types of content.  Previously we would have to implement these systems, one by one, every time we wanted to introduce a new version.  

We released a fall event road map in our most recent newsletter.  Those events, implemented with our new dynamic tools (and a new dynamic quest system that we are still working on) will allow us to concentrate on larger scale projects, new tameables, new deco, and new craftables.  Many of the things you mention.

I can say pretty certainly we aren't keen to add any new lands above the current facets we already have.  Dungeon revamps like we've done,  probably not either since they often are met with a mixed welcome.  

I also want to point out that EM content that utilizes the new tools is just that - EM conent.  It has no bearing on Dev Team designed & implemented persistent global content.  All of our fall event road map fall into that category.

A big KUDOS to Mesanna for making the trader, outside the dungeon, a healer as well, she said something about doing that from now on.

I am in the Trammel Orc Dungeon.  I am in a party with 2 tamers.  I am not telling my pets to kill, only to guard me.  Somehow players are able to provoke my pets to attack each other, and the other party member.  Others are players in general chat are wondering how this is happening?  I am also getting in the heat of the battle like I am under attack, pets are turning grey.  Again I am not telling them to kill anything, only guard.  Only casting heals, cures, gift of renewal spells, and nothing else.

Someone has suggested maybe because my Cu's have chivalry, holy light is causing this to happen?  But why would they attack other party members?  Maybe this is it, and not other players.

Kyronix said:

Sure!



3. These rewards are only a small way of saying "thank you" for helping us test during soft launch.  Game wide treasures events will have rewards that you're most used to seeing in previous treasures events.  We are also building in a "feedback" period for these events as part of our deployment plan worldwide.  So expect better loot (and new stuff) in widescale Treasures events.

I saw the timer on the rewards & thought they would be deleted.
so the rewards won't disappear when that time runs out?

@Cinderella - no, your rewards will last.  The time only indicates when you have to turn in minors and redeem your points by.

@Kyronix - I've been doing the treasures of event for a few days now and have tested both Tram & Fel. Everything appears to be working as designed on both sides from what I can tell but I did have 2 more questions which came from me doing the event on the Fel side.

1) The prevention of leech life on the paragons is by design (I'd assume) which still will allow a Sampire to have a chance to solo a paragon but the issue I had when I went to Fel was 3-4 paragons all in the same area (brute/chopper/bomber/mage) and there was nobody there to help... fighting all 4 at once was almost impossible (died several times before I could successfully lure each away) and we are only talking orcs at this point. In future events if the paragon is a different spawn and is like a greater dragon (and dragon/drake) or balron (and demons) where it would be much tougher than the orcs would there be some consideration in allowing leech life (maybe reduced) to those certain mobs? 

2) It appeared to me from testing the drops in Fel that the rate was pretty much the same as Tram; can you confirm that? If it is the same, I'm wondering if Fel should get a bump since it's more risky (much like Fel has the 1k luck bonus). Not only from a PK perspective but also since there is no way to run through all the mobs due to the stam loss from pushing things out of the way; if you get surrounded (especially with a couple paragons) there is a greater chance you will die. This would be compounded if the event is deep in a dungeon too (like level 3 of Deceit) where you can't recall in.

Everything else looks pretty good (both Tram & Fel) though from everything I've tested. The only other thing I'd ask for in the future is some cool hues to the armor like some shades of neon (or pure black/coal black) to make my mannequin sets stand out!

Thanks.

@keven2002

1 - We are pretty firm against the paragons allowing leech ability.  One of the biggest complaints we get about these types of events is people being to park their characters in the middle of the spawn without "actively" participating.  This is part of encouraging "active" gameply.

2 - The drops are the same in Fel/Tram.  We don't have any plans to incentivize one way or the other.

Thanks for all your feedback and questions - been very helpful!!

The EMs make Insta pet killer bosses because we have a lot of tamers at events. So, IMO the ability to make non life leech mobs levels the field.

I kinda hate 'shard bound' items unless they are consumables. As a vet with shard shields - it takes a lot of effort to build a suit and if some of the items cannot shard transfer then where does that leave me to hop and explore other shards?  If you want to make consumables like masteries and such shard bound - so be it - but don't shard bound armor and weapons and other wearables. 

Theo said:

I kinda hate 'shard bound' items unless they are consumables. As a vet with shard shields - it takes a lot of effort to build a suit and if some of the items cannot shard transfer then where does that leave me to hop and explore other shards?  If you want to make consumables like masteries and such shard bound - so be it - but don't shard bound armor and weapons and other wearables. 

Explore other shards,  thats a good one. You mean to say you trained up chars and sent them to others shards to get EM Rares and other high end items and fast track them to ATL for the big bucks you mean? I think its great they are shard bound. Shard Shields are the biggest mistake items in game.

Its about time these shard shield were given an anchor to drag.

Theo said:

I kinda hate 'shard bound' items unless they are consumables. As a vet with shard shields - it takes a lot of effort to build a suit and if some of the items cannot shard transfer then where does that leave me to hop and explore other shards?  If you want to make consumables like masteries and such shard bound - so be it - but don't shard bound armor and weapons and other wearables. 

I think otherwise and, instead, think that Shard bound items are an important addition to Ultima Online to make sure that lower populated Shards are not used for "farming" and then those items taken, for the most part, to Atlantic....

Regardless how low the population of players on some Shards might be, they still have their needs for items there and, if most items are then taken to Atlantic, they end up not being able to find what they need on those lower populated Shards....

So, Shard bound items serve a purpose, and an important one, to my opinion, to make sure that the players on those lowly populated Shards can indeed find the items they need.

I am not saying that "all" items should be tagged Shard bound, what I am saying is that ALL items that drop ion a Shard should have a "chance" to get tagged as Shard Bound and this chance should be like 70% or 80%....

Which it means, that out of 10 Powerscrolls, Tangles, Crimsons, whatever spawning on a given Shard, 7 or 8 out of them should be tagged as "Shard Bound" and only 2 or 3 be transferable to other Shards (likely to Atlantic....).

This way, farming for items on low populated Shards would still have a low chance to produce items which can be transferred but, for the most part, would produce Shard Bound versions of those items which would stay on the low population Shard at the needs and services of the players on those lower populated Shards.

I'm fine with most items being shard bound as long as every shard has a chance to participate in the Treasures Of events once testing is complete on Origin (exception here would be EM events as those are much more 1 off and all can be shard bound). 

The 2 instances that I disagree with Shard Bound (and hope Devs do too) would be:
1) If something like a "Treasures Of" event are going to be different depending on the shard. As someone who enjoys collecting one full set of armor from each event to display in their house this would obviously make this impossible. 
2) It's a usable item like the first aid belt or 50 SDI book. In this instance, I'd agree with Theo that it would actually prevent my character using that item if I transferred from my home shard so I couldn't bring my suit with me and would need to pay for another on a different shard. I get it that can help people get items back to ATL to sell but it also hurts people that need to go to ATL to actually do the content. Perfect example is the last invasion. If I played only Lake Austin (as an example but there are many other shards like this) there was literally nobody working the invasion almost ever; to the point that the town being invaded stayed the same for days. It's not fair to those on dead shards who cannot work an event to limit those items to shards like ATL/GL/PAC because they are the only ones with enough population to consistently do them. 

That is correct. My understanding is that the Treasures of Orcish Kin will not go to all shards since it was just testing the dynamic tool for the DEVs/EMs. According to the June newsletter, the first type of global event will be the "black gate" event in September. 

Maybe @Kyronix can let us know if there is anything planned for August since the Treasures of Orcish Kin event ends tomorrow (7/29).

We will be reviewing our feedback from the first soft launch and making adjustments as necessary.  There's a few more tweaks we need to make behind the scenes to make setting up the globals on all shards a little more work smarter and a little less work harder.  Keep an eye on UO.com for updates and a big thank you to all the players who checked out the system on Origin & Izumo!

Kyronix said:

We will be reviewing our feedback from the first soft launch and making adjustments as necessary.  There's a few more tweaks we need to make behind the scenes to make setting up the globals on all shards a little more work smarter and a little less work harder.  Keep an eye on UO.com for updates and a big thank you to all the players who checked out the system on Origin & Izumo!

@Kyronix Any ETA for the other shards, we are feeling bored... but please make sure anything that goes into our bag stays there. Pls do not confiscate, delete, etc unless they are exploits. If they are just decor, non-functional piece just leave it...