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A quick 'goodbye'

F

Fox (Europa)

Guest
I think giving EA a year to do something about speedhacking was overly generous of me. As they have done nothing tomorrow will be my last day in UO.

My Luna house will be sold then and my Fel place I've already demolished. I dropped everything but a bit of gold and the characters' suits outside my house for folks to pick up and so I'm ready to close the accounts. As I don't expect EA ever to do anything about the worst of the PvP cheating I don't expect to reopen the accounts but the option is there if I ever get the urge.

Its been a bumpy 10 years but for the majority of that it was great fun. I'll miss the friends but be glad to see the back of the childishness and egos of many of the PvPers.

All the best to those left.

Fox
 

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
when u say speed hacking do u mean other peeps simply using a faster KR client??? shame.....

and bank ya best stuff for when u come back a year down the line

oh!! and again shame u cant stick around 3 months for SA...ITS GONA BE AWESOME..........

have fun and take care... but bank ya best stuff... u will be back...
 

ColterDC

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Add another player to the ever growing list of people who get fed up with EA's non-existant approach to dealing with cheaters.

If this is how EA runs their only successful online game, then screw them, they don't deserve any of our money.
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
Bye. Should of tried there fix which was KR before quitting.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
when u say speed hacking do u mean other peeps simply using a faster KR client??? shame.....
I used the KR client, and they still speed right by me. So it isn't the KR client they are using.but when Im in the 2d client and someone speeds right by me. I check the chat box to see if their characters name is in there, cuz anyone who uses KR will be listed in there. every time I check tho their name isn't in there.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I think giving EA a year to do something about speedhacking was overly generous of me. As they have done nothing tomorrow will be my last day in UO.

My Luna house will be sold then and my Fel place I've already demolished. I dropped everything but a bit of gold and the characters' suits outside my house for folks to pick up and so I'm ready to close the accounts. As I don't expect EA ever to do anything about the worst of the PvP cheating I don't expect to reopen the accounts but the option is there if I ever get the urge.

Its been a bumpy 10 years but for the majority of that it was great fun. I'll miss the friends but be glad to see the back of the childishness and egos of many of the PvPers.

All the best to those left.

Fox
Sorry to see you go,
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
I hate to admit this but I can run like heck in KR.... WAY faster than 2d...

So if your judging your thoughts on speedhacking around that you might be mistaken.... in-fact there are a number of KR features that can "look" like hacking... you can do all sorts of things with macro's in KR... just a matter of learning them... and if you set the settings low you can really move fast....

Shame to see folk quit over that...

The irritation I get is with dupers.... and scripters... I find that FAR more irritating than speed.... Now... that's not to say folk don't overclock their PC's... use the little hack for the tree stump thing.. and things of that nature... which by the way you can't do in KR.... but you know some things that hang you up in 2d... don't in KR.... I still never play in KR .... but I have tested it quite extensively and found there are many good points... I just can't get over how darned ugly my character is in KR... and I also have trouble speaking, emoting, chatting in guild chat or alliance chat... and of course the kicker for me.... I can't save my journals in KR... And if I can't save that then I won't play it. I keep logs of all sorts of things journal being one of them... If they could add anything to SA to make me want to switch to that for the client it would be my journal.... I wanna save it. (And I sure hope they fix the nasty looking radar map)
 
Y

Yalp

Guest
Sorry to see you go! I understand your frustration. The product has become inferior, and you have chosen to exercise your option of taking your greenbacks else where. All the best to you.
 

Viper09

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I think giving EA a year to do something about speedhacking was overly generous of me. As they have done nothing tomorrow will be my last day in UO.

My Luna house will be sold then and my Fel place I've already demolished. I dropped everything but a bit of gold and the characters' suits outside my house for folks to pick up and so I'm ready to close the accounts. As I don't expect EA ever to do anything about the worst of the PvP cheating I don't expect to reopen the accounts but the option is there if I ever get the urge.

Its been a bumpy 10 years but for the majority of that it was great fun. I'll miss the friends but be glad to see the back of the childishness and egos of many of the PvPers.

All the best to those left.

Fox
You'll be back. ;)

But bye for now.
 

Zooithion

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It's always sad to see a vet go. No matter what the reason. Hope ya come back soon.

Be Well
 
G

Gellor

Guest
Sorry to see you go but glad to see you have stuck with your guns of "if I don't see something being actively done about <fill in blank>, I'm leaving". Too many players are all talk when it comes to that:coco:
 

Drowy

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I hate to admit this but I can run like heck in KR.... WAY faster than 2d...

So if your judging your thoughts on speedhacking around that you might be mistaken.... in-fact there are a number of KR features that can "look" like hacking... you can do all sorts of things with macro's in KR... just a matter of learning them... and if you set the settings low you can really move fast..
You think you can run on foot in KR as fast as someone in 2d on mount? Cause thats what some people do. Thats speedhacking and nothing is done about it and other cheating.
 
S

Sunrise

Guest
Sorry to see you go but glad to see you have stuck with your guns of "if I don't see something being actively done about <fill in blank>, I'm leaving". Too many players are all talk when it comes to that:coco:
Ditto..hate to see anyone go...but we are all just dust in the wind...Safe travels in where you go..I suggest Cough warhammer online Couch...But seriously..I know what you are saying... Safe travels...
 

Cetric

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Some of you are really ignorant, it isn't KR, but programs that are against the RoC to name here. Fare the well fox, i understand how you feel and may not be far behind.
 

Basara

UO Forum Moderator
Moderator
Professional
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wiki Moderator
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
You know, if you'd play the other 99% of the game that isn't PvP, speedhacking wouldn't even be a blip on your radar...
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
You think you can run on foot in KR as fast as someone in 2d on mount? Cause thats what some people do. Thats speedhacking and nothing is done about it and other cheating.
Yes I do... seriously....
 
M

mr.blackmage

Guest
You know, if you'd play the other 99% of the game that isn't PvP, speedhacking wouldn't even be a blip on your radar...

not really a good solution to play and be bored. For me, PVM is a grind, crafting is a grind, gowing plants is gay (and a grind), customizing houses... uh, yeah. People speedhack in PVM too, people just don't care as it doesn't effect them.

Speedhacking has been rampant since AoS was released. I don't think anyone has been banned for it since.
 
K

KoolAidAddict

Guest
You know, if you'd play the other 99% of the game that isn't PvP, speedhacking wouldn't even be a blip on your radar...
Yeah thats it.
Play the "other" part and ignore the cheating thats been goin on for YEARS and EA's refusal to address / fix it.

Yeah. :grrr:


Good call. :talktothehand:
 
B

Belanos/Icicle

Guest
you just arbitrarily decided to quit unless the problem that you personally dislike the most is fixed?
you make it sound like you issued an ultimatum to the devs.
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I was considering if I should reply to this thread in case I inadvertently warn the cheaters, but since someone is going to point this out sooner or later...

We all know that there are cheat programs and scripting programs in UO. Just like WoW players know that there are cheats and bots in WoW. Just like any MMO game has cheats and script programs. Even non MMO online games like Diablo. Or even the really old BBS MUDs (just have your telnet client run a list of move commands to rush your char to certain rooms and grab that daily spawned +5 holy avenger).

If anyone thinks that there are no cheats in other MMO games, you will be sorely dissappointed. As long as people can get an advantage, there WILL be people that will come up with a way to gain that advantage.

So it boils down to what the people that run the game do to deal with cheaters. In UO's case, it would be the devs and GMs.

The devs' job is to fix the codes and close holes that allows exploits. The GMs' jobs is to provide a first line of response in the interim and enforce the rules.

DEVs
If you think the devs are sitting around on their butts without looking to fix cheating in ANY form, please take a look at the publish updates. Around half of it deals with cheats and exploits. That's not to mention the emergency fixes. you know, those system message say the servers are going down shortly, but it's no where near the daily maintenance cycles? You never encountererd this? Well, just check UHall and look for the many "xxx shard is still down" posts.

Most exploits are actually fixed very quickly nowadays. Most of the time, within a couple of days after it's known. Some exploits however, are alot more difficult to eradicate via coding. This is where the GMs come in. But first, the devs - repost from one of my other post regarding speedhacking:

Speedhacking is a difficult problem to deal with and is not isolated to UO. How do you stop someone running legit performance boosting programs that tell their system to respond faster and behaves like an overclocked PC?

The problem is, certain types of programs they use do not manipulate the client or the packets directly. They boost parts of the processing speed of the entire PC, sometimes by manipulating the cpu cycles. You and I know that something's fishy when we see cheaters zooming past like a rocket and skipping frames, but on a coding level, it's harder to eradicate without affecting legit players. Some of these are legit programs too, which will work on any PC application, be it Microsoft Office or WoW.

For those that manipulate the packets directly, if you think they did not do anything, just google "Mr Tact" and "How Players Cheat in MMOs". Here's an extract of the part on speedhacks:

Speed Hacking


Player sends one move packet per tile of movement.
DON’T DO THIS.
Speed hack #1: send more packets.



Solution: Throttle Movement


Throttled distance over time.
Speed hack #2: When players ran in a circle they bypassed the distance checks.



Solution: Movement Queue


Final solution was to buffer user movement, discarding movement packets when the queue was full.
Was tremendously difficult to get to “feel right”
Still lets players get short bursts (<1 second) of fast movement.
Movement is probably about as good as it’s going to get without rearchitecting.
So, we know the devs have done as much as possible with regards to speedhacking without re-architecting. But what exactly does re-achitecting entail? Changing codes on the server end? Client end? Both?

Meanwhile, on a completely "unrelated" note - hey, we've got this nifty new SA expansion that consists of changes on both the client and server... Also, to explore "unrelated" issues further, while punkbuster is unsuitable for UO, this will be a very good chance for devs to add codes into the UO client to detect 3rd party proggies...I'm just sayin...



GMs
Right, now comes the GMs' part in this. IMHO, the enforcement really seems a bit lacking. Judging from response times, I think they are severely understaffed. If this is the case, simply monitor a cheater a day and publicize it! Once cheaters know that they will be banned, I am confident that duping, speedhacking, bots and any exploit will be vastly and effectively reduced.

Ok, maybe it's hard to prove if someone is using exploits. Gee, it would be nice to have some sort of detection engine built into the client so that the GMs can prove that the cheater is using some kind of exploit. Hey maybe we can build it into a new client? Hmmm...I wonder if there's any news on them releasing a new client recently?



Back on topic - Fox, goodbye. I can't blame your reasons, in fact, I think it's good to bring to light when players are leaving and for what reasons. But at the same time, I just want say that I can see the devs have been doing a great job (even with regards to speedhacking) and are continuing to do so. Most of the time, they just can't say anything about it. It's a pretty thankless job. No one ever says, "Hey, you are doing a great job!" when everything works and exploits are fixed. But when **** happens, everyone starts blaming them.

PS Fox - I think it's wise to wait for summer. I hear something called SA is about to happen :D If you can't wait, then bank as much of your stuff as possible and watch the boards.
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Another random thought on cheats -

I also base my views on how popular a certain game is by the number of cheats. Games that are most popular tend to have the most cheats. So the amoount of cheats actually means UO is still a very popular game.
 
G

Gellor

Guest
Another random thought on cheats -

I also base my views on how popular a certain game is by the number of cheats. Games that are most popular tend to have the most cheats. So the amoount of cheats actually means UO is still a very popular game.
Well, sort of true.... except for the fact that most of the "cheats" are years old and unaddressed in UO's case.:coco:

Add in LOTS of random and/or poorly implemented publishes and confidence in whatever the devs do is very low.:wall:
 

ColterDC

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
So, we know the devs have done as much as possible with regards to speedhacking without re-architecting. But what exactly does re-achitecting entail? Changing codes on the server end? Client end? Both?
Speedhacking could be fixed tomorrow if the Devs would set the speed cap at a more realistic level, not the current level which the only people who are able to hit the current cap are either;

a. Running a speeder program.
b. Sitting in EA's server room.
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Speedhacking could be fixed tomorrow if the Devs would set the speed cap at a more realistic level, not the current level which the only people who are able to hit the current cap are either;

a. Running a speeder program.
b. Sitting in EA's server room.
Good to see you get up on the right side of the bed again :D

I know what you mean about players seemingly zipping around at 0 ping. Maybe they can relook at the movement buffer again and tweak it a little.

Do you remember what your ping was at?
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well, sort of true.... except for the fact that most of the "cheats" are years old and unaddressed in UO's case.:coco:

Add in LOTS of random and/or poorly implemented publishes and confidence in whatever the devs do is very low.:wall:
TBH, the cheats that are years old tend to be new versions of old cheats that have been fixed.

Speedhack - original speedhack was UOX "fastwalk". After that was fixed, a couple of newer ones emerged. Those were fixed as they were discovered and people found new ways to do it. They finally put in the the movement queue at one stage. Which is where we now stand, or at least that we know of. They might have put in further fixes after Mr Tact left or did not reveal.

Scripting - original scripting was simple mouse/keyboard recording programs. These are very generic programs which are legit and used in conjunction for various programs. There's nothing much they can do for this. Next came UOA and UOX macros. UOA was approved after the "continuous play" option was removed. UOX was rejected. At the moment, there's the program that shall not be named. And it breaks everytime there's a patch. Everytime it breaks, the authors releases a newer version. Just count the number of patches/publishes/updates there are and you will find how many new versions of the scripting program was written to make it work again.

Dupes - The holy grail of cheating. I can't even begin to count the different types of duping methods there are since UO began. They are all fixed as soon as they came to light. Once in a blue moon, someone will discover a new method to dupe. The devs offers a reward to players that finds a duping method and reports it.

So you see, they are actually not "years old bugs" that remained unaddressed.

You also said "most" cheats remain unaddressed, besides these 3, which are ones you feel remain unaddressed?



Unfortunately, there is one big issue with exploits - there's no way to ensure any type of programs are 100% bug free. With a large number of users that tend to use any programs in ways developers did not anticipate, there's a large chance that any one of them will discover bugs in the program. And that's not counting the people that deliberately seek to find the bugs/exploits/vulnerabilities.

Just take a look at windows. Everytime you patch or install a fix, a new one is available to fix some even newer bugs a couple of days later. It's a certainty that users WILL find them. No matter how well the dev wrote the program.

In the interim, the GMs have a most important role, as a fast response team that is crucial in dealing with the situation (such as warning/banning or just simply having a presense) while the devs look at how to solve the problem in the long term. Until such a time as the problem has been solved, a trained GM team should be empowered to do damage control.
 
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