Pandora | Ultima Online

Updates => Shard Changes => Topic started by: Xeen on December 05, 2010, 02:05:58 AM

Title: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Xeen on December 05, 2010, 02:05:58 AM
I'M BACK!!!

Its true, after about a month and a half long hiatus from Pandora, I have rejoined Konstantine and Pandora in the capacity of Lead Developer.  Most of you do not know this, but I spent the better part of my time away from Pandora developing a LOT of content that I was planning on releasing as general scripts to the RunUO community.  After discussing these and several other changes with Konstantine tonight, we came to a mutual agreement that the best possible thing for everyone (him, me, and y'all) would be if I brought many of those changes back to Pandora.

So what does this mean for Pandora?  First and foremost, it means that Konstantine and I are approaching this on a "partner" basis more than anything else.  We have both put blood, sweat, and tears into this server and I can honestly say that we trust each other implicitly and both only want whats best.  

Second, it means that over the next month, we will be working on several behind the scenes "structural" changes that will support the content changes coming down the road.  After we are confident that everything is to our liking, we will begin working on implementing several Publishes that will take Pandora to new heights.

Third, after much discussion, Konstantine and I have decided to bring on more staff members to share the workload.  I have already hired two new developers that will become more active with the community down the road, but their primary focus is on fixing bugs and adding content and will NOT be in game support.  Along the same lines, I am happy to say that Ayria and Pharyn, both former counselors for Pandora that left for personal reasons, will be rejoining our team in the Game Master capacity.  Trust and respect is a major thing for both Konstantine and myself, and we want to make sure that anyone we bring onboard to support you behaves ethically at all times.

Fourth, it means new content, new CONTENT, NEW CONTENT!!!!!!  We are working hard at bringing in several systems, quests, PvP concepts, and items to the Pandora world, and will bring you a lot more information as these get close.  For now, here is a taste ;)
 - Player run cities (Like Skara Brae, Trinisic, etc) with the ability to live in those cities, tax players, etc.
 - 2v2 / 5v5 arena style PVP events
 - a Redesigned mini-champion system to keep them running smoothly
 - New artifacts that will include set based armor and the ability to socket your gear
 - Pandora Stealables
 - updates and overhauls to many of the underlying systems to improve world stability
 - new monsters, creatures, and ways to fight
 - an "instance" style take on at least the Stygian Peerless bosses, so more than one group can fight at the same time
 - and SO SO SO Much More!

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for the warm welcome I have recieved upon my return, first from Konstantine and second from the players.  This is my home, and it feels great to be back!

Any questions, comments, concerns, or nasty remarks, you all know my email!  [email protected]
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: King Kong on December 05, 2010, 05:18:22 AM
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Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Sticky on December 05, 2010, 11:11:27 AM
omg.... this may be a little excessive but...... i think i just had a explosion in my pants =P
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: reg3131 on December 05, 2010, 01:40:39 PM
Im glad to see you back xeen, and these new things you are working on sound awsome :)
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: draco on December 05, 2010, 01:44:00 PM
well i hope this is for real and not just a way to keep players on board with just say so n not really making it happen... only time will time
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Kronen on December 05, 2010, 01:55:07 PM
sounds great to me, i've been considering donating and probably will now there's sign the shard has a good future :)  i've a few questions and comments:

will the new artifacts be race-specific or useable by all?

by socket gear, you mean like in wow (jewelcrafting)?

any plans to get the high seas expansion on here?

ethical staff are essential, i've learned this from playing on a couple of very corrupt freeshards :s

only thing i don't like here is the lag.  i live in uk and there's little lag or conn losses during uk daytime/early evening (i move almost as smoothly as on european-hosted uo shards), but come 5pm ish here things start to slow down and by 10pm (which must be what, somewhere between 3-5pm in america?) these last few nights it's been so bad it's impossible to play (can't move/long freezes/frequent dc).  i'm not sure if i'm pinging/tracerouting the right thing in cmd to check, but if it's pandorauo.zapto.org then i get some major packet loss around the 13th/14th hop.

sorry to hijack your thread with the lag issue, but i'm hoping you're the right person to talk to bout this ^^
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: King Kong on December 05, 2010, 02:12:35 PM
I will let Xeen answer your other questions.


As far as lag, lately we have been under a large attack here and there and I have been moving so no office set up to shut it down right away like I usually do. Also our core once and awhile will just freeze all connections and put shard in limbo until I reboot it - with Xeen's new core he is working on this should not happen. Let me know if thing get better for you here on out.
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Kronen on December 05, 2010, 02:17:17 PM
already better tonight than it's been in a while - it's 8:15pm and i'm still moving smoothly :D  thanks for quick reply!
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Rotwrath on December 05, 2010, 03:24:57 PM
Good things are coming the shard shall rise again . I am personally looking forward to the new staff coming on . That is one thing that was lacking on this shard . Glad to see it is going to get fixed
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: UOAddicted on December 05, 2010, 04:02:25 PM
all i can say is  :arrow:  :D  :mrgreen:  :ugeek:
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Serious Impact- on December 05, 2010, 04:31:13 PM
About time
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Tyson on December 05, 2010, 04:48:43 PM
Welcome back Xeen.   Look forward to the updates.  Maybe some of the older players will make a comeback and become more active once again.
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Rotwrath on December 05, 2010, 09:24:46 PM
I like that there banner
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: UOAddicted on December 06, 2010, 07:20:38 AM
server stability is becoming a major issue,  :evil:

sry i have to say it  :(

edit: oh i get it now,the server got under attack right when that luna idoc went down  :x

edit 2: or maybe its just my connection, lol im so confuse now   :roll:
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Starnix on December 06, 2010, 07:40:37 AM
This sounds like a nice big step in the right direction!  I am looking forward to seeing the changes!

Thanks for all your hard work.
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: outluke on December 06, 2010, 10:09:42 AM
Quote from: "UOAddicted"server stability is becoming a major issue,  :evil:

Let's hope Xeen and the Team will take some serious steps to handle the burning issue. I watch with dismay how the server population is dwindling. Save the day Xeen, and welcome back!
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: Xeen on December 06, 2010, 01:46:15 PM
Thanks, everyone.  And yes, we are working diligently behind the scenes on server stability.  We will get it worked out and get all issues resolved as quick as possible.
Title: Re: Just wanted to say ...
Post by: UOAddicted on December 06, 2010, 03:41:56 PM
Quote from: "Xeen"Thanks, everyone.  And yes, we are working diligently behind the scenes on server stability.  We will get it worked out and get all issues resolved as quick as possible.

you are my hero! and sry for the post i *almost* missed that idoc we camped for so long, been able to log just in time :)
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