Clarification Comments from Designer Vex

[Borg]

Designer_vex

(Designer - Ultima Online)

02/25/03 01:11 PM

About Gift Distribution

Basically we have two ways at the moment to distribute these gifts: The Vet Rewards system, and a per-character on-login thing. Each way has some ups and downs I wanted to bring up.

If we were to distribute using modifications to the Vet Reward system, that means we can allow a limited number of items per account. Doing that would allow us to select a reward that might be fairly powerful or very useful, without too many of them being created.

If we give something out per character, then it's likely it would have to basically be eye candy, or its use would have to be limited to the claiming character, much like the personal bless deeds.

02/25/03 01:37 PM

About The Perfect Gift

Let me just talk for a moment about the design constraints we want this gift item to fill. I want to give you an idea of the thought processes of those of us here, to give you a better idea of the sort of suggestions we are more likely to go with.

1> The item must be relevant to the AoS launch, and not just to UO in general. What I mean by this is that preferably, the gift will be uniquely identifiable and easily associated with AoS. Something like a commemorative piece of clothing or jewelry, for instance. For this reason, we're going to be hesitant to consider suggestions involving existing game systems, like the home hitching post, portable forge, free power scroll, soul stone, fireplace, etc.. It would be nice if the gift weren't consumed on use, and could somehow be displayed (either on a character paperdoll or in a house, for example).

2> Preferably, there would only be one gift, or a series of similar items fitting a theme. The reson for this is that if we can focus on developing one item, or several similar items, we'll be able to create something of higher quality. If we divide our efforts into creating several different gift items to choose from, then all of them would be of lower quality. It's a classic quantity versus quality trade-off.

3> The gift should have universal appeal. Ideally, if we went with a single gift or gift theme, the items would be useful to everyone. Even if we go with a list of gifts to choose from, we are still faced with the issue of coming up with an option for everyone. The portable forge appeals only to miners, for example, and the home-based stables appeals mostly to tamers. It would be a very difficult proposition to come up with an option for every different UO playstyle, and even more difficult to make sure that each playstyle's gift option has enough appeal to everyone who might class themselves in that particular playstyle. It might be safe to say that no miner would be unhappy with a portable forge -- but what if tamers would prefer to be able to color their pets instead of having a home-based stable? The problem is exponentially difficult, and for that reason a gift that offers something everybody can use is a much better prospect.