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Return Of Resource by Location? (Devs?)

Endrik

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Now that we have a way to deter scripters from farming... at least on trail accounts, and now that we are getting BOS back...

Will we be getting a return of resources by location. Can we finally get rid of this random location stuff that was put in place to deter scripting? Man that would be great to be able to mine what you need, when you need it!
 

Cogniac

Grand Inquisitor
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Stratics Legend
1.) The change was not made to deter scripting. It was put in place because rare resources are going to play an important role in crafting in Stygian Abyss. The rarer a resource is, the better items you'll get by using it in crafting in SA. Under the old system, everyone knew where all of the rarest resources were all the time, which made them decidedly not rare at all.

2.) The change did not deter scripting. It actually helped it. Random resource locations caused many legitimate players to a.) not be able to find the rarer resources and b.) not bother to farm resources at all. Scripters were still farming 23/7, now with less competition from legitimate players, and thus had even more of a monopoly on the rare resource market.
 
K

Kiminality

Guest
Oh for...
I clicked reply, and Cogniac said pretty much exactly what I was going to say. So now, I'm having to agree with him...
:p
 

Dermott of LS

UOEC Modder
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
...

Partially agree with Cogniac. At least from my experience mining on LS I have seen far fewer scriptors since the change where I harvest a certain resource and have had good fortune harvesting. Granted the current system rewards "strip mining" over targeted mining, but that favors my playstyle as it is (nonscripted strip-mining with a fire beetle).

As it is, the change doesn't really affect (and in some way can help) mining, but has been a REAL pain for lumberjacks.

But I do agree that if the spawns are static, they are no longer "rare".
 
G

Gawin

Guest
I wish they would go back to static. All it did was increase scripters and there profits for now unless i wanted to mine for 3 months for enough valor to fill a bod i would have to buy it from a scripter.

But Draconi has said this is his baby and his idea and it will not change.
 

Dermott of LS

UOEC Modder
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
...

If you're doing BODs. make use of the Prosp Tools and Garg picks... anything Agapite and up becomes Valorite.
 
M

Morgana LeFay (PoV)

Guest
I agree with Cogniac on this, the random resource location change has made it next to impossible to gather "rare" resources in any real quantities, so if you want bulk Valorite ingots, you have to buy them from scriptors.
 

Warpig Inc

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
...

If you're doing BODs. make use of the Prosp Tools and Garg picks... anything Agapite and up becomes Valorite.
Can I get A "HELL YA" for combat miners. This method makes Dull Copper rarer then Valorite. Thats why Dulls need to pick spawn and all dull eli should have 25 ore.

For the jacking fix we need the addition of the Reaper hatchet. Spawn of treefolk that have random count and type of rare wood. Or vary in strength as to the rarety type of wood like they are for ore eli.
 

hawkeye_pike

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I think resources should spawn even more randomly than they do now. Developers, don't make life of UO players too easy, and don't turn UO into a Sims game! And runic crafting was one of the worst ideas in UO history. The main problem is, that today you NEED bulk resources to craft anything useful. Which is total crap. Crafting should not be a tedious treadmill-job, but success should depend on random luck and skill!

Valuable resources should be rare, and not be farmed by players with appropriate runebooks.
 
S

Sharantyr

Guest
The way it is now doesn't keep the rarer resources rare.

Before if you needed a thousand copper for a large BOD you'd go dig up copper. Now you go dig up everything until you got your copper and stockpile the rest.

I needed Agapite for a lot of smalls (BODs) to get some hammers. I now have 15,000 - 30,000 of all coloured ingots apart from Agapite which I have 3000+. Rare? Not for me.
 

hawkeye_pike

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Please read again:
"The main problem is, that today you NEED bulk resources to craft anything useful. Which is total crap."
 
S

Sharantyr

Guest
hawkeye_pike

I agree with you. If they did away with this 'hit and hope' thing and made it so you had a good idea of what you'd get it would be much better. I'm sure they could change it for the better. Less charges on hammers, guaranteed properties on hammer and resource combinations, more hammers if need be to cover all properties.
 
L

Lore Master

Guest
Now that we have a way to deter scripters from farming... at least on trail accounts, and now that we are getting BOS back...

Will we be getting a return of resources by location. Can we finally get rid of this random location stuff that was put in place to deter scripting? Man that would be great to be able to mine what you need, when you need it!
I really hope resources by location returns that would be great.
 

Basara

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Can I get A "HELL YA" for combat miners. This method makes Dull Copper rarer then Valorite. Thats why Dulls need to pick spawn and all dull eli should have 25 ore.

For the jacking fix we need the addition of the Reaper hatchet. Spawn of treefolk that have random count and type of rare wood. Or vary in strength as to the rarety type of wood like they are for ore eli.
HELL YA!!!

My shortages are DC (from the sheer number of DC BODs), followed by Copper (3rd most common, and I try to avoid digging up copper eles by elevating to Bronze or Gold, or not using the Prospector's tool, to just get Shadow - or even go to a normal/sturdy tool to drop to DC). the DC from GPA is a start, but we need 25-ore DC eles, like Warpig asks for.
 
O

Old Man of UO

Guest
Can I get A "HELL YA" for combat miners. This method makes Dull Copper rarer then Valorite. Thats why Dulls need to pick spawn and all dull eli should have 25 ore.

For the jacking fix we need the addition of the Reaper hatchet. Spawn of treefolk that have random count and type of rare wood. Or vary in strength as to the rarety type of wood like they are for ore eli.
*scratches head*
You could just not use those and dig for straight DC ore... it's not rare at all in my back pack.
 

Gheed

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
Valuable resources should be rare, and not be farmed by players with appropriate runebooks.

But what makes valuable resources valuable? There is a big problem with RNG resources:

If I gave you 6 dice and told you I'd pay you $1 every time you rolled all 1s, you might think it's novel at first. You may even make a few bucks a day. But in time some would build a machine that rolled the dice for them. Soon after they would have 1000 machines rolling the dice. Even take it as far as selling dice rolling machines to others.

RNG is good for many things but this is not one of them. Resources should be removed from community collections and un-RNG'd. Crafting is such an RNG nightmare as is.
 

Setnaffa

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
Neither permanent nor Random Resources work. They both benefit scripters, though random resources help them out more because they can still get thousands of Agapite/Verite/Val ingots and the price has gone through the roof for these resources.

A good balance might be to have resources stabilize for a week or so. That way, a real miner can search and find high-end resources and then mine the heck out of them for a week. Scripters wouldn't bother changing their script to adapt to a weekly change (if they are so lazy they can only mine with a script, they definitely won't take the time to change their script mining spots each week).
 

hawkeye_pike

Babbling Loonie
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Stratics Legend
But what makes valuable resources valuable? There is a big problem with RNG resources:

If I gave you 6 dice and told you I'd pay you $1 every time you rolled all 1s, you might think it's novel at first. You may even make a few bucks a day. But in time some would build a machine that rolled the dice for them. Soon after they would have 1000 machines rolling the dice. Even take it as far as selling dice rolling machines to others.

RNG is good for many things but this is not one of them. Resources should be removed from community collections and un-RNG'd. Crafting is such an RNG nightmare as is.
No idea what RNG is.

The main problem is the repetitive tasks. With repetitive tasks, you can increase your chance by just burning tons of resources. This is a poorly designed concept. The system should be intelligent enough to detect repetitive tasks (not only crafting-wise), prevent them, and add more dynamic quests, luck and randomness to crafting.
 

Shelleybean

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A good balance might be to have resources stabilize for a week or so. That way, a real miner can search and find high-end resources and then mine the heck out of them for a week. Scripters wouldn't bother changing their script to adapt to a weekly change (if they are so lazy they can only mine with a script, they definitely won't take the time to change their script mining spots each week).
I could go for something like that. Also,we had an event a few years ago that spawned ore elementals. I was able to acquire a nice amount of colored ore during that time. I wouldn't mind a similar event.
 
R

Ravahan

Guest
A good balance might be to have resources stabilize for a week or so. That way, a real miner can search and find high-end resources and then mine the heck out of them for a week. Scripters wouldn't bother changing their script to adapt to a weekly change (if they are so lazy they can only mine with a script, they definitely won't take the time to change their script mining spots each week).
That would be awesome. Brilliant idea, Setnaffa.
 

Tina Small

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I've ended up enjoying the randomized resources, even for lumberjacking. It's a nuisance, yes, but it means my resource gatherer actually has a chance to find some of the rare stuff, instead of always arriving just behind one of the many other people who knew the same location. It would be nice to have something like a prospector's tool for lumberjacking, but I think that's the only change I'd like to see.
 

Coldren

Sage
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Stratics Legend
A good balance might be to have resources stabilize for a week or so. That way, a real miner can search and find high-end resources and then mine the heck out of them for a week. Scripters wouldn't bother changing their script to adapt to a weekly change (if they are so lazy they can only mine with a script, they definitely won't take the time to change their script mining spots each week).

I also like this idea.. And theoretically, the ability to do so is already in place. Didn't one of the devs state at one point (when discussing the change to random ore spawns) that the time between resource node changes is known? So if a resource has been stripped and is empty, after x amount of time, it will have a chance to change?

If I'm correct, all they'd have to do is up the timer.
 

Viquire

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Neither permanent nor Random Resources work. They both benefit scripters, though random resources help them out more because they can still get thousands of Agapite/Verite/Val ingots and the price has gone through the roof for these resources.

A good balance might be to have resources stabilize for a week or so. That way, a real miner can search and find high-end resources and then mine the heck out of them for a week. Scripters wouldn't bother changing their script to adapt to a weekly change (if they are so lazy they can only mine with a script, they definitely won't take the time to change their script mining spots each week).
I think I remember posting to this before.

Seems to me like when color ore (before it meant anything other than you had a cool looking suit of, whatever) was first introduced the concept of respawning must have been in the design docs. Does anyone else remember when ore and wood stopped spawning altogether for nearly a month back in 2000, while the devs tried to figure out some problem with the resource spawn code?

I guess I could try to look that up, but it seems like too much work. Anyway, my point is that purely static resource spawns were never the intention, and some kind of regeneration should be necessary. But every time you drain the resources in the "grid" is far too often. Encouraging folks to get out and explore is one thing. Mandating "strip-mining/jacking" is another, and plays to those who require no sleep.
 

Gheed

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
No idea what RNG is.

The main problem is the repetitive tasks. With repetitive tasks, you can increase your chance by just burning tons of resources. This is a poorly designed concept. The system should be intelligent enough to detect repetitive tasks (not only crafting-wise), prevent them, and add more dynamic quests, luck and randomness to crafting.
RNG = Random Number Generator. And I agree about repetitve tasks for the most part. But not so much more luck and randomness in crafting. Crafting should work like any other non-crafting template. You should have to cram a crafting template with many skills. Each skill added should narrow the range of outcome and make crafting more predictable. If I cram a template with the proper blacksmithing compliments, then I should be able to make excactly what I want expending more time and money and less RNG.

We have RNG runic properties for the lazy crafter now. We are getting Imbuing largely for the PvP and no damage taking PvM templates in the future. We need one more level of crafting for the PvM melee crowd and PvP high end crowd to make the set complete. That final stage of crafting should work exactly as stated above, few (harvested) resources, lots of gold, lots of time and a guarunteed result with a higher cost to maintain than current insurance code.

As for mining, well we already have enough fun fighting the RNG beast for the right BoDs. Filling them shouldn't be another battle of boredom. Random resources are a total pain.
 
A

Aboo

Guest
. . . For the jacking fix we need the addition of the Reaper hatchet. Spawn of treefolk that have random count and type of rare wood. Or vary in strength as to the rarety type of wood like they are for ore eli.
I'm going to show my ignorance here but . . . What is a Reaper hatchet, where do you get it and what does it do?

I've seen treefolk but what are they good for?

In general what are you saying in the above paragraph?
 

Viquire

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I'm going to show my ignorance here but . . . What is a Reaper hatchet, where do you get it and what does it do?

I've seen treefolk but what are they good for?

In general what are you saying in the above paragraph?
He wants a lumberjacking tool similar in function to a gargoyle pickaxe and a mob spawn that drops color wood similar to an ore ele. Neither of which currently exist.

Personally I'd settle for something similar to a prospectors tool.
 
A

Anon McDougle

Guest
hawkeye_pike

I agree with you. If they did away with this 'hit and hope' thing and made it so you had a good idea of what you'd get it would be much better. I'm sure they could change it for the better. Less charges on hammers, guaranteed properties on hammer and resource combinations, more hammers if need be to cover all properties.
i would be willing to bet if they made spellcasting/taming this way it would be changed in a heartbeat

WTF i cast curse and create food happened instead

or if you targeted a GD to tame and you got a rabbit instead ???

crafters should have exact control over what they make
 
K

Kensai Tsunami

Guest
i have had no prob with ore, its the wood that is the prob. so i agree with a tool similar to the prospector tool for uping the wood you find. since this random thing began i have yet to find any frostwood at all, so i am forced to buy from scripters.
frostwood is simply a lil bit TOO rare imo.
 
S

Sadrith Mora

Guest
2.) The change did not deter scripting. It actually helped it. Random resource locations caused many legitimate players to a.) not be able to find the rarer resources and b.) not bother to farm resources at all. Scripters were still farming 23/7, now with less competition from legitimate players, and thus had even more of a monopoly on the rare resource market.
I disagree that it helps scripters. They cannot get the same amount of high quality ore they used to get now with random veins, because they still recall to set locations and mine whatever is there.

Veins must remain random to at least 'hinder' scripting.

Next step?

-Remove the scripters themselves.

Result?

-Legitimate miners can play the game the way it was intended, and will have increased business thus making mining worthwhile, again. (If that's the path they choose to make their fortune.)

For those that want instant gratification of being able to buy bulk ingots at will, and knowing you can get it from certain vendors, (somehow always stocked) just know that you are most likely buying from a scripter who is only hurting the game by scripting, and UO's economy in the long run.

Think about it.

UO lost a lot of it's 'mystique' with the Trammel/Felucca split. Randomness is just one simple way to help keep things interesting. When you know you can do something without consequence, or at will, the mystique begins to fade, and boredom sets in. This is how single player games usually end. Once you know what to expect, have been there and done it, the mystery is gone and it's off to something different.

Let's remember this is an evolving multiplayer online world whose subscriptions have gone down over the past several years. Either we correct problems and make the game interesting/attractive again in a very competitive market, or...? Hmph.

Take care.
 

Gheed

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I disagree that it helps scripters. They cannot get the same amount of high quality ore they used to get now with random veins, because they still recall to set locations and mine whatever is there.

Veins must remain random to at least 'hinder' scripting.

Next step?

-Remove the scripters themselves.

Result?

-Legitimate miners can play the game the way it was intended, and will have increased business thus making mining worthwhile, again. (If that's the path they choose to make their fortune.)

For those that want instant gratification of being able to buy bulk ingots at will, and knowing you can get it from certain vendors, (somehow always stocked) just know that you are most likely buying from a scripter who is only hurting the game by scripting, and UO's economy in the long run.

Think about it.

UO lost a lot of it's 'mystique' with the Trammel/Felucca split. Randomness is just one simple way to help keep things interesting. When you know you can do something without consequence, or at will, the mystique begins to fade, and boredom sets in. This is how single player games usually end. Once you know what to expect, have been there and done it, the mystery is gone and it's off to something different.

Let's remember this is an evolving multiplayer online world whose subscriptions have gone down over the past several years. Either we correct problems and make the game interesting/attractive again in a very competitive market, or...? Hmph.

Take care.
How does random resources add 'mystique' to the game? How much fun can rolling dice be?

How does it lower yield for scripting (to a disadvantage) if it lowers yield for everyone?

Why is there a need to script resources?

I don't know. Maybe I played mining very differently back when you could mark books. My runebook collection was superior. Straight single node spots, double, triple, quadruple node spots. Locations with two even three identical ore type spawns. Finding new nodes I would average yield and keep the highest for my prime collection. I even had a gold location marked with three veins yielding and average 175 ingots/session.

I can safely say I have mined, cataloged and averaged every single fel (non T2A) and tram location that could be reached. I had surveyed and cataloged most of Malas and Ilsh and just started tokonunu (or w/e the kids call it). It had taken me years to perfect my collection.

I had many adventures through exploring the lands. I met many people and discovered things I would not have seen if not through mining. A dedicated "Hardcore" miner like myself had a distinct advantage over scripting PvM and strip mining. I made a pretty penny from it all. Now I roll the dice like everyone else.


Are you telling me that this can be replaced by running the same 20 nodes every few hours to see how they changed? How mystical is that? I guess it really doesnt matter now. Most of my books are gone and even if I still had them I doubt they would be usefull if they changed it back. And I'm so disgusted with this poorly though out change I probably wouldn't try to go through everything again in fear that some day maybe some other dev might think of screwing it all up again.
 

Basara

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I personally support a once a week changeover CHECK (not automatic, but the current chance of a vein change applied to all locations at once, once per week).

My research has indicated that, Dev statements to the contrary, all locations have a set percentage chance per swing of their colored ore coming out (if currently an iron location, this is only seen when you use a tool to get DC of Shadow from it), that DOES NOT CHANGE. The elf bonus is then applied to that (and in my testing produced little visable difference, unless a very low quality vein - the best veins consistantly produce 80-96% colored ore every time, to both races).

With BODs I get from 6 BOD runners (all colored BOD capable), I cannot mine enough DC ore to fill what DC BODs I get from those characters, without dedicating 12-20 hours of mining a week SPECIFICALLY for DC. I can get the all the other ores (via tools, or in the case of shadow, supplementing my mining with hunting orc brutes) in less time, in one trip for all of them.

I can see both sides of the argument, and frankly, both extremes are a bit weak. The idea of limitless resources of one type is bad, but so iis too random of change. In real life, many mines for metals, have other metals as "impurities", and depending on the value of the various metals, the market can shift, and what was a copper mine producing small amounts of silver & gold as the result of removing the impurities from the metal, can end up being a silver of gold mine primarily, earning extra income from selling the copper from the tailings.

Nothing "mystical" about it, as it happens in the real world - just not as quickly as in UO. 1 time a week technically translates into 2.5 months of 7 day in-game weeks, which is a little more realistic.
 
S

Sadrith Mora

Guest
How does random resources add 'mystique' to the game? How much fun can rolling dice be?
It adds mystique by not knowing what to expect. Kinda like a box of chocolates. :)

How does it lower yield for scripting (to a disadvantage) if it lowers yield for everyone?
The player that plays the game legitimately roaming around discovering the quality ore has the advantage over the scripters who have set runes to locations to mine their same spots over and over.

------------------------------------------

I don't know why people script either. It takes away from the game and hurts the economy. I guess they do it for RL cash which isn't something i would think is good considering the problems it causes for other legitimate paying customers...
 
S

Sadrith Mora

Guest
I know what to expect from a box of chocolates...2 hours on the stepper at the gym and wider thighs
Wandering around mining and eating occasional chocolates... It's all good. It balances out. :D
 
T

Turdnugget

Guest
A box of chocolates usually has a paper inside telling you what chocolate is what...
 

Gheed

Certifiable
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How does random resources add 'mystique' to the game? How much fun can rolling dice be?
It adds mystique by not knowing what to expect. Kinda like a box of chocolates. :)
:) if i want 1000 copper, I want 1000 copper. I don't want no stinking chocolates! Point of the post was that mystique came for me when I was exploring new areas to mine. And that lasted a good long while. Off and on for years and I still hadn't fully explored the land. When I want a specific resource, mystique becomes very annoying. I had a choice then of getting the job done or exploring. There was a time for both.

How does it lower yield for scripting (to a disadvantage) if it lowers yield for everyone?

The player that plays the game legitimately roaming around discovering the quality ore has the advantage over the scripters who have set runes to locations to mine their same spots over and over.
Still the added advantage even for the casual script is there in a pure time blitz. 23/7 they can mine. There is no rationalization that pits honset mining against this single fact.... and make honest mining look more attractive. It is a false rationalization folks tell themselves to accept it. Honest mining sacrificed much much more with the change.

And advanced scripts can cycle through hundreds of runes on multiple bots. Singling out the choice spots for the day operating in perfect stealth.

I don't know why people script either. It takes away from the game and hurts the economy. I guess they do it for RL cash which isn't something i would think is good considering the problems it causes for other legitimate paying customers...
Other than shadow heaters there is no real demand for scripted resources outside of community collections. It should of been obvious to remove them from it. But the new wood was a big selling point for the expansion. With out collections, rare wood would be a side bar at best... not a marquee item.

There must be a secret rule not to screw over the latest expansion until the new one rolls out. It's the only reason I can think of why community collections and heartwood quests are still there. I wonder why NPCs value these relatively worthless resources (and footstools) over the rest of us? What do they know that we don't?
 
S

Sadrith Mora

Guest
Still the added advantage even for the casual script is there in a pure time blitz. 23/7 they can mine. There is no rationalization that pits honset mining against this single fact.... and make honest mining look more attractive. It is a false rationalization folks tell themselves to accept it. Honest mining sacrificed much much more with the change.

And advanced scripts can cycle through hundreds of runes on multiple bots. Singling out the choice spots for the day operating in perfect stealth.
The only remaining objective is to remove the scripters. It's illegal. It hurts the game overall, and is an unfair advantage over other legitimate paying customers who play the game the way it was intended.

Do you feel that scripting resources is the only way to do it since you are used to using marked runes yourself to specific locations?
 

Cogniac

Grand Inquisitor
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The player that plays the game legitimately roaming around discovering the quality ore has the advantage over the scripters who have set runes to locations to mine their same spots over and over.
Um, what?

Are you trying to insinuate that scripters are so colossally stupid that they haven't bothered to change their scripts and locations in the past 1.5 years since the resource change? If you really believe that, it just shows an ignorance of the entire scripting situation.

Scripters run these things called Rail Scripts, which are named that way due to the fact that they cause a character to automatically move around in a predefined pattern, as though they were on rails. The character recalls into a location, then strip-mines, or lumberjacks in a spiral or grid pattern, for X number of screens around the recall location, then moves on to the next location. Rinse, repeat, hundreds of times, in hundreds of locations, up to 23 hours a day.

When I said that randomized resources help scripters, it was not an opinion that you could disagree with. It was a fact. In any system where a desirable outcome is random, and of the resources required to achieve a desirable outcome, only time is not infinite, those with more time are more likely to achieve the desirable outcome. Given someone using the system for 1 hour a day, and someone else using the system for 23 hours a day, the one using the system for 23 hours a day has 23x more chances to achieve a desirable outcome.

This means that random resources, and, in fact, any system featuring random chance, favors scripters, who have the ability to take advantage of the maximum amount of time available every day.
 

Gheed

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The only remaining objective is to remove the scripters. It's illegal. It hurts the game overall, and is an unfair advantage over other legitimate paying customers who play the game the way it was intended.
A fine objective indeed! I say we add a gump with each and every swing of the axe/shovel. In it will be a simple question: Are you scripting? If they click yes then they are insta-banned.

Do you feel that scripting resources is the only way to do it since you are used to using marked runes yourself to specific locations?
Nope. You always have the choice to manually roll the dice yourself. What I feel is that most folks who spend any amount of time in this game realize the futility of mining resources today. They either automate or give up and do something else. I chose giving up.
 
S

Stanton Of Pac

Guest
1.) The change was not made to deter scripting. It was put in place because rare resources are going to play an important role in crafting in Stygian Abyss. The rarer a resource is, the better items you'll get by using it in crafting in SA. Under the old system, everyone knew where all of the rarest resources were all the time, which made them decidedly not rare at all.

2.) The change did not deter scripting. It actually helped it. Random resource locations caused many legitimate players to a.) not be able to find the rarer resources and b.) not bother to farm resources at all. Scripters were still farming 23/7, now with less competition from legitimate players, and thus had even more of a monopoly on the rare resource market.

Add to that the more often a location is mined the more often it changes ore type. With scripters it seems like the change is almost constant. The best deterent for scripters is the random chance of an elemental being summoned. Set it so when you're being attacked you're "too busy to mine!" if you try.

My fix for mining in general: No more colored ore tiles. Instead of having durability you 'bind' the prospector tool the pickaxe or shovel you're using. You set the prospector tool to the type of ore you want to mine, click on it and then the pickax/shovel, and it disappears and the digging tool turns to the color of the ore you want.

- You can only strike colored ore if you have the skill to dig that type. On each strike with an "enhanced" digging tool there's a chance, based on the "rarity" of the ore type, that you'll find 1 ore of that type with common ore filling out the balance.

- When the digging impliment breaks the tool is lost, too.
 

Viquire

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and, the only real way to shut scripting down on color resource retrieval is to hard cap color resource availability, by account, per set amount of time, or multiple frames of time.

So much per day, week, month: after which only regular resource of any type would be retrievable.

What a nightmare.
 

Dermott of LS

UOEC Modder
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
...

Any such Hard Cap would make me stop mining as a non-scriptor based on the simple principle that I cannot stand caps on production on a philosophical level (beyond UO).

The ONLY way you stop scriptors is with a dedicated and active GM staff that can determine a scripting character and act accordingly. The rest is window dressing in one way or another.
 
F

Farscape

Guest
HELL YA!!!

My shortages are DC (from the sheer number of DC BODs), followed by Copper (3rd most common, and I try to avoid digging up copper eles by elevating to Bronze or Gold, or not using the Prospector's tool, to just get Shadow - or even go to a normal/sturdy tool to drop to DC). the DC from GPA is a start, but we need 25-ore DC eles, like Warpig asks for.
This ore is so easy? prospectors tool on the first hit you get dull if it is plain ore cannot understand why it is as you say hard to get
If you wear a 70's suit and an element kryss from the Museum add any fight skill the spawn of ore elements is not an issue they drop easy and a nice 25 ore is for the taking
I find it is a must to smelt top end ore in small amounts unless you are game enough to take a fail this keeps my stocks well up with my goal of 1k of color ingots a day.
 
G

Gawin

Guest
The only way to stop scripters with out hurting legit players is by using GM's and common sense or by tracking who is mining/LJ what ever 20+ hours a day 7 days a week.

Anything you can do in game from mining to fighting a monster can be scripted. ANYTHING. if you can do it a script can too.

So random resources only benefit scripters because they can do it 20+ hours a day so they have a 20 times grater chance of getting the resources then some one who plays 1 hour per day.

They talked about rare resources being rare, and what they succeeded in doing was making legit crafters rare.
 

Viquire

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
...

Any such Hard Cap would make me stop mining as a non-scriptor based on the simple principle that I cannot stand caps on production on a philosophical level (beyond UO).

The ONLY way you stop scriptors is with a dedicated and active GM staff that can determine a scripting character and act accordingly. The rest is window dressing in one way or another.
Agree completely, why I said what a nightmare. Now barring a huge influx of trained and proactive staff, well....
 

HD2300

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Account based Hard Caps is the solution. There will be no ongoing costs for the extra GMs required. Systems can be revised to be more rewarding and fun for casual players, and more people will enjoy mining, LJing, do Heartwood quests and BODs. That is how you retain or increase subscriptions.

Sadly, the nightmare is a "decision maker" believes that EA can make more money by adopting systems and policies that retain and increase scripter and cheater subscriptions. Since UO has less subs than 1.5 years ago, it is obvious that the current systems and policies are not working.
 

Basara

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This ore is so easy? prospectors tool on the first hit you get dull if it is plain ore cannot understand why it is as you say hard to get
If you wear a 70's suit and an element kryss from the Museum add any fight skill the spawn of ore elements is not an issue they drop easy and a nice 25 ore is for the taking
I find it is a must to smelt top end ore in small amounts unless you are game enough to take a fail this keeps my stocks well up with my goal of 1k of color ingots a day.
Apparently, you have a major comprehension problem - Let's try this again....

I did NOT say it was hard to get.

I said I COULD NOT GET ENOUGH DC TO FILL THE DC BODS THAT THE SYSTEM CURRENTLY GIVES ME.

That's what the word "shortage" implies. In fact, I even stated that I wasn't getting enough DC to fill my DC BODs in my post - something you conveniently deleted in your misrepresentation of what I said, when you "quoted" me.

In fact, the rest of your reply is downright silly, as (if you'd actually read any of my posts) I'm the biggest proponent of garg pick mining FOR the elementals in UO, and have been so for about 3-4 years now. In fact, near as I can tell, I created that sub-genre of miners with my exploits, and telling of my digs/hunts on the Miner forum (before the merger). Even my sig references it, and has for over 2 years.

You're trying to tell the person who WROTE the current Mining FAQ, to do things FROM the FAQ (as if I didn't do them, already).

Pick your targets better, next time you try to belittle them with deliberate misrepresentations of their posts.
 
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