Fix Needed ASAP

[Vyal]

Over the years I have found many cheats,hacks,and bugs. Most that are third party programs.
a fix needs to be put out for people using speeders.
I know you can never get rid of the people using speeders not even true speeders but i'm not sure. You know the people that can run up to you and spin in a circle a million times and all of a sudden you can't move at all or it's like step step pause for 5 seconds then repeat thats becuase someone is using speeder. Problem is I think some guilds know this we got whole guilds running up to you with speeders turned to max and it does one of two things slow you up to the point you can't pull bars run skip jump hop or do anything and before you know it your toast OR you just crash out and login dead.

fix the code please put a end to0 it. People are sending packets to fast I really don't know but i'm guessing packets are coming into the server to fast and the server is having to send them out to position the player correctly to fast and you end up with a big lag spike.

Sad part is it looks like it's a tile based game and EA should honestly have more brains then to have people crashing people in a MMO. A tile based movement MMO is like the easiest thing there is when it comes to MMO's and there is still this bug.

If EA does not fix these problems I promise ya'll SA will be a complete failure that will bring no more then say 50 grand to the table. Rofl..

If this gets fixed the people who know how to spike people in UO crash em and jack em wouldnt happen as well. 11 years is way to long fix it.

 

[Viper09]

Unless you PvP, I don't think speedhacking isn't a very big problem at all. If someone can run away from a monster faster, BIG WOOP. Therefore if they don't fix speedhacking SA will NOT be a failure since it is not strictly a PvP expansion. It may be a failure to you, but not the rest of the player base who do not strictly PvP.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

EA will never fix the cheating/hacking/scripting going on in UO. They've let it go on rampantly for years. They just don't care. They'd lose too much money by banning the cheaters.
Aventurine though, doesn't mess around.
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=182316

 

[MoneyMaker]

EA has tried to get rid of the scripters/packet-pushers/etc. several times and by quite a few means. But, like any technology, people come up with new ways around it everyday.
EA at one time was looking into punkbusters, to stop the rampant scripting problem. I don't know the details but it hit a snag with the community and was dropped from the table.
No matter what is done, there will be someone out there who will make it their personal challenge to break it or get around it in some fashion.

I seriously doubt that SA will be a flop, since most of the player base does PvM, and there will be a new additional area for PvP. The first addition to the PvP areas since the early years of UO.

The main thing I would say needs fixing in EA/UO is the GM paging system and the abuse it receives from illegitimate pages.

 

[dukarlo]

Theres a difference between the hardcore guys figuring out ways around the system and having a large pecentage of the people using well known long time cheats. Unfortunately the latter is what UO has become because of the flat out neglect EA has in reguards to enforcing the rules. The fact is EA does not enforce its rules and that is why the speedhacking has become such a widespread occurrence. EA knows who is cheating but simply choses to bury its head in the sand.

 

[WarUltima]

Theres a difference between the hardcore guys figuring out ways around the system and having a large pecentage of the people using well known long time cheats. Unfortunately the latter is what UO has become because of the flat out neglect EA has in reguards to enforcing the rules. The fact is EA does not enforce its rules and that is why the speedhacking has become such a widespread occurrence. EA knows who is cheating but simply choses to bury its head in the sand.

I have tweaked my system running on optimized settings. No unnecessary processes running at all. Eliminates all possible memory chokes (means theres no lag spike). I have the best ISP service provided to comsumers in my area. I ping average of 24ms to my shard and over 10 hours of ping /t theres zero packet loss min ping 18 max ping 29. Virtually no extra system resource comsumption other than client.exe and uoassist. I run on dual Giganet connection with wired connection directly to a gaming router with radio turned off. Disabled all possible firewall settings and opened any possible port (do not try this at home). Optimized my TCP settings for maximum DL/UL rate without any choke. Set client.exe to the highest prioriety setting. No MSN/ICQ/BT anything you can think off that might use your internet bandwidth. Optimized UO catch settings to fit moderm PC... and so on...

Fire up UO, running smooth, go on and try to PvP, and still getting chased down "easily" by some of the "famous" speedracer on my shard and those guys probably have no indepth PC knowledge. The way they gain on me isnt smooth at all. I am running straight so were they but for every 5th step or so they gain around 3 tiles towards me. And after a few seconds they are not running in front of me *STOPPING* to take a concussion blow then after a few seconds they are ahead of me again.

I can use something to push packets but then it will be like using 3rd party program which defeats the whole purpose of my experiment.

I might not be the best PC gamer/tweaker but I can say "no matter how good you are with PCs, at least in UO a simple program that pushes packets thru faster can easily stomp your hours worth of PC tweaking".

Do we see the problem here?

 

[Harlequin]

EA will never fix the cheating/hacking/scripting going on in UO. They've let it go on rampantly for years. They just don't care. They'd lose too much money by banning the cheaters.
Aventurine though, doesn't mess around.
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=182316

I understand why people have that impression that they have not done anything to fix the cheating, however, it's not true. They fix cheats quite quickly nowadays. It's like what the other posters said, once a certain method of exploit has been fixed, people will try to find new ways to do it. Most of the times they fail, but sometimes, they succeed. When these "new" versions of cheats (say blackholing duping fixed, but cheaters found a dupe using changelings) surfaces, people tend to think why hasn't duping been fixed yet.

As to losing subs from bannings, done properly (like the publicized bannings of a couple of cheaters a day, until cheaters get the message) - banning cheaters actually has a bigger potential to bring more players back/keep existing players than the amount of cheaters they lose.

For this reason, I believe GM enforcement is the key.



If I have not bored the reader yet, here's more on what they have done to fix old cheats like speedhacks/dupes/scripting. Copied from my post in another thread:

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.

Edit: I mentioned Mr Tact in my quoted post because he released a paper on cheating in MMOs and it's pretty informative on what was done to fix exploits in UO. You can google "Mr Tact cheating in mmo" to find the paper.

 

[WildWobble]

Actually it is a problem in tram not as much as fel but still a pain when your doing stuff and a speed demon runs into the area and crashes people.

 

[Splup]

Everyone knows speedhacking is a freaking huge problem in Felucca. It has been stated many times, and everyone who PvP:s in fel can point out large number on speedhackers on his/her shard.

Problem is that nothing is done about it. You can page speedhacker to GMs, nothing will be done. You can send feedback throught uoherald.com nothing is done. You can write about it on these boards and nothing is done. IT HAS BEEN A PROBLEM FOR YEARS! And now speedhacking is getting more and more popular all the time.

This dev team has been doing great job with many things. But there's couple big problems in PvP that has been needing a fix for long time.

1. Speedhacks
2. Tamers

There's also fieldhacks, treehacks etc. but speedhack is causing the most problems.

Yeah we can start arguing again about if tamers are overpowered. But I quess it's enough said that on Europa there starts to be more pets involved in PvP then players, it's more PvM nowdays. If tamers weren't overpowered, why would they be so popular...

 

[Mistura]

Everyone knows speedhacking is a freaking huge problem in Felucca. It has been stated many times, and everyone who PvP:s in fel can point out large number on speedhackers on his/her shard.

Problem is that nothing is done about it. You can page speedhacker to GMs, nothing will be done. You can send feedback throught uoherald.com nothing is done. You can write about it on these boards and nothing is done. IT HAS BEEN A PROBLEM FOR YEARS! And now speedhacking is getting more and more popular all the time.

This dev team has been doing great job with many things. But there's couple big problems in PvP that has been needing a fix for long time.

1. Speedhacks
2. Tamers

There's also fieldhacks, treehacks etc. but speedhack is causing the most problems.

Yeah we can start arguing again about if tamers are overpowered. But I quess it's enough said that on Europa there starts to be more pets involved in PvP then players, it's more PvM nowdays. If tamers weren't overpowered, why would they be so popular...

Well said Splup.

The worst of all is the 2 above points combined, speedhacking tamers :<

Just last night my faction character was killed by a speeding ninja tamer with a CU and an Orc Brute lol...

When I moved on the same screen as him my connection ground to a halt and he was bouncing around all over the place. All I had to do was run off in a straight line to escape but because of whatever program he was running, I was unable to move more than a couple of squares and witnessed my own death in about 3 or 4 frames (through the lag spikes)

And your right about what you say, it is getting more and more common place these days.

 

[ElRay]

EA will never fix the cheating/hacking/scripting going on in UO. They've let it go on rampantly for years. They just don't care. They'd lose too much money by banning the cheaters.
Aventurine though, doesn't mess around.
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=182316

At least some developers/companies have integrity and care about their customers. And care about having MORE customers.

 

[Mistura]

Oh yeah, and the big "cover up" for speedhacks is now to claim "Im Using KR"

LOL

I've heard that a few times over the past few weeks...

 

[ColterDC]

Let me just share my decision to quit UO.

After a typical Destard fight with another guild on Pac, known for being comprised of speedhacking cheaters. I decided to call it a night and figured I would just run down the mountain to my brother-in-laws house at the bottom of the mountain and log out.

Well along come 2 of these cheating piles of crud (btw, we're all on mages). Well being outnumbered 2 to 1 and the fact that I needed to go, I just figured no problem, I can just run to the house and they cannot do anything since being mages they'll need to stop to cast.

I ran in an almost completely straight line, not getting stuck on any trees, etc. Not only did they out run me, they also threw enough spells, large spells, that they were able to kill me, despite the fact that I was also chugging GH's..

That's why UO is a joke and always will be, because we all know Fel and Tram are infested with cheaters and those cheaters will never be punished.

If there are any honest players left in UO, I wish you the best of luck.... You're going to need it.

 

[Harlequin]

Oh yeah, and the big "cover up" for speedhacks is now to claim "Im Using KR"

LOL

I've heard that a few times over the past few weeks...

Having heard the same thing, I tested it some time back. Wife and I play together, so we had a race, she in 2D, me in KR. We can see each other's screens. PC hardware specs are exactly the same, same mobo/cpu/ram/gpu.

In a straight line, there's totally no speed advantage in KR. Running around obstacles like trees, yes, the KR auto pathfinds around obstacles, which may give it a bit of advantage, but 2D players that are longer in the tooth can offset this in certain areas like forests by moving down "paths of glory" (the unobstructed 3 tiles between rows of trees), or move in NE, NW, SE, SW directions for the 2D version of running around obstacles.

In this case, I would have to call the myth that KR acts like a speedhack busted.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Having heard the same thing, I tested it some time back. Wife and I play together, so we had a race, she in 2D, me in KR. We can see each other's screens. PC hardware specs are exactly the same, same mobo/cpu/ram/gpu.

In a straight line, there's totally no speed advantage in KR. Running around obstacles like trees, yes, the KR auto pathfinds around obstacles, which may give it a bit of advantage, but 2D players that are longer in the tooth can offset this in certain areas like forests by moving down "paths of glory" (the unobstructed 3 tiles between rows of trees), or move in NE, NW, SE, SW directions for the 2D version of running around obstacles.

In this case, I would have to call the myth that KR acts like a speedhack busted.

That's all true. KR does NOT allow you to run faster, no matter what people claim. What it can do is allow you to run through trees and obstacles faster because it handles object interactions better, allowing you to bounce off and go around unless you hit it directly face on.

Overall, KR is not a speed hack.

 

[Mistura]

Heh.. i know this...

But the word on the street from most speedhackers now is "I'm using KR, thats why it looks like i'm speeding"

Theres even a full guild on Europa which carries the name of the new client within their guild abreviation.

To me they are screaming, "We do not speedhack, honest, it just looks that way because we are using KR"

When you see them bounce on to the screen it looks ridiculous as they move at the speed of light and everyone else continues to move at the same speed.

But wait, they are using KR... Yeah right, you've got everyone fooled...

 

[Thangorodrim]

I will only offer a little anecdote.

Occasionally, I play on a 0% utilized 100 Mbps circuit we have for backups. I have been accused of speedhacking when using that circuit.

I definitely don't use any hacks and so, at the least, some of the speedhacking reports are erroneous.

 

[Splup]

What I would love to see is some.. Some statement from Dev team about speedhack.

I if they would even say "We know there's a problem and something will be done about it in the future" would calm me down a bit.

But the fact that they seem to decline the whole problem by not stating anything about speedhack is just very frustrating.

 

[Draconi]

What I would love to see is some.. Some statement from Dev team about speedhack.

I if they would even say "We know there's a problem and something will be done about it in the future" would calm me down a bit.

But the fact that they seem to decline the whole problem by not stating anything about speedhack is just very frustrating.

We do know there's a problem, and something will be done about it.

Some not quite as patient as you will remind me that we've said all this before. Actually, that's not fair, they've been extremely patient - it's just a complex problem that can't be handled without significant resources, resources currently dedicated to an expansion shipping soon.

In the meantime, we're still exploring options for making the client more secure in general. Also, yes, KR handles movement differently from Legacy, for those who weren't sure.

 

[UltimatePower]

We do know there's a problem, and something will be done about it.

Some not quite as patient as you will remind me that we've said all this before. Actually, that's not fair, they've been extremely patient - it's just a complex problem that can't be handled without significant resources, resources currently dedicated to an expansion shipping soon.

In the meantime, we're still exploring options for making the client more secure in general. Also, yes, KR handles movement differently from Legacy, for those who weren't sure.

Stop trying to fix it , and start banning the people using it That would be a start, we have been waiting for years for this supposed fix, and all we have seen is more and more honest players quit because of it.

 

[dukarlo]

We do know there's a problem, and something will be done about it.

Some not quite as patient as you will remind me that we've said all this before. Actually, that's not fair, they've been extremely patient - it's just a complex problem that can't be handled without significant resources, resources currently dedicated to an expansion shipping soon.

In the meantime, we're still exploring options for making the client more secure in general. Also, yes, KR handles movement differently from Legacy, for those who weren't sure.

Im sure your busy putting out a new expansion but what about the years dating back to the punkbuster talk? Fact is EA refuses to take care of its loyal legitmate customers and in no way shape or form has shown any intent whatsoever to enforce the rules we all sign to play. Just think, if you would actually start banning maybe the players would shut the hell up and you could continue to work on your "destined to fail yet again new client". Saying a new client is going to fix UOs cheats is a load of crap considering most of UOs players probably wont use it because EA has yet to put out a bug free or even playable new client worthy of being played in the first place.

 

[Hildebrand]

I guess the red that chased my miner had a speedhack. I couldn't understand how he caught up with my miner from across the screen and killed him.
Hauling ass doesn't work anymore. Might as well just bow heads and wait to get it chopped off... why run?

 

[MoneyMaker]

Fact is EA refuses to take care of its loyal legitimate customers and in no way shape or form has shown any intent whatsoever to enforce the rules we all sign to play.

Just because you haven't seen any GMs running around brandishing the ban stick, does not mean that it doesn't happen.
EA must be careful in their investigations into alleged rule breakers.

Just think, if you would actually start banning maybe the players would shut the hell up and you could continue to work on your "destined to fail yet again new client".

Banning does happen, albeit, very carefully. I say that because, what would you do if you were chasing down blues in fel and all of a sudden a GM appeared and said that it appeared you were running a 3rd party program that gave you a unfair advantage, and summarily banned your account with no recourse. I do believe that there would be alot of posts about "why did my account get banned!!"
Whether or not the new client is destined or not to fail, remains yet to be seen.

Saying a new client is going to fix UOs cheats is a load of crap considering most of UOs players probably wont use it because EA has yet to put out a bug free or even playable new client worthy of being played in the first place.

He never said that the new client was going to fix anything.
As for the second part........ apparently you are either a current or past player/subscriber. There is NO program that has been written that does not in some fashion or form, have "bugs". That is what the patches are intended to fix. Same as you windows versions.

 

[Lynk]

Just because you haven't seen any GMs running around brandishing the ban stick, does not mean that it doesn't happen.
EA must be careful in their investigations into alleged rule breakers.

I've paged on people who admitted to speedhacking, even used the verbal harassment option so it would save the journal log. Nothing is done.

This is another "something will be done about it... 10 years from now" reply.

 

[Old Man of UO]

I've paged on people who admitted to speedhacking, even used the verbal harassment option so it would save the journal log. Nothing is done.

This is another "something will be done about it... 10 years from now" reply.

Ya, but I suspect there are so many "holes" in the 2D client that it is impossible to prove the speedhacking. The new clients have changes (aka Punkbuster or its like) and the code for the new client should be more secure. I was against Punkbuster, but ya know, finally willing to let it happen to slow do

Frustrating, but I am hoping the new client is well, NEW and eliminates all the old 2D coding, even if it is exactly the same functionality. For me, I like KR and hope they continue that one too.

 

[AesSedai]

- Ahh, I remember chuckling, along with some other UO Legends, as I heard a tale told regarding this in Sept. 2007. IPhones and spacesuits were also happenin' at that time. Good stuff. Good to hear it is on the agenda to be knocked out of the ol womb@.

 

[CatLord]

We do know there's a problem, and something will be done about it.

Some not quite as patient as you will remind me that we've said all this before. Actually, that's not fair, they've been extremely patient - it's just a complex problem that can't be handled without significant resources, resources currently dedicated to an expansion shipping soon.

In the meantime, we're still exploring options for making the client more secure in general. Also, yes, KR handles movement differently from Legacy, for those who weren't sure.

Put the powerscrolls in Tokuno and Ilsh and the Harrower on a random Tram Legacy dungeon,... then cheating will be pointless.

There are many ways to skin a cat...

 

[Old Man of UO]

Put the powerscrolls in Tokuno and Ilsh and the Harrower on a random Tram Legacy dungeon,... then cheating will be pointless.

There are many ways to skin a cat...

*scratches head*

How will that stop cheating? It was going on long before there were ever power scrolls,Trammel and Ilshenar.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Let me just share my decision to quit UO..

Can I have your stuff?...la

 

[CatLord]

*scratches head*

How will that stop cheating? It was going on long before there were ever power scrolls,Trammel and Ilshenar.

People cheat... with the purpose of controlling the spawns and keeping profits.
Remove that... and why would people cheat?

For ego trips? You only fight them if you wish.

 

[Lynk]

People cheat... with the purpose of controlling the spawns and keeping profits.
Remove that... and why would people cheat?

For ego trips? You only fight them if you wish.

Not everyone plays just for scrolls so they can sell them and buy a blaze dog and all blaze clothes to bank sit.

Some of us play the game strictly for the PvP, using the money we make to improve our gear.

When the whole reason we play is to fight other people, people cheat to get an edge.

Power scrolls in tram rulesets wouldn't fix anything.

 

[CatLord]

Then the pvpers would not make millions that way...
Then the Trammies and the pvpers that refuse to cheat would have a fair chance...

Profit and Ego...

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

People cheat... with the purpose of controlling the spawns and keeping profits.
Remove that... and why would people cheat?

*shakes head*...la

 

[MoneyMaker]

Put the powerscrolls in Tokuno and Ilsh and the Harrower on a random Tram Legacy dungeon,... then cheating will be pointless.

There are many ways to skin a cat...

This is not the only reason cheats are used, and neither is PvP the only reason.
People cheat to feel a sense of power, or to attain a goal that would otherwise take serious a commitment of time, and finally for profit both RL and in-game.
The list of reasons are many and varied.
We aren't talking about just one nethod of cheating. We are talking about hundreds of ways around the TOS. Some of them fall into a grey area that EA has to tread lightly around, for fear of reprecussions.

 

[Omnius]

I've never cheated. I've never seen the need. I was a good pvper with a crappy con and computer and a better pvper with a great con and mediocre computer.

On an average day 90% of the people I kill call me a cheater. On a bad day, everyone I kill calls me a cheater. When I die, I'm called a cheater. If I stand still doing nothing, I'm accused of being a cheater. In trammel facets if I stand afk, people send animals at me accusing me of being a cheater just because I'm a PvPer.

Honestly, I think most folks are just really sore losers, worse winners and generally not as grown up as they all claim. The adults call me a child, the children call me profanity and I remain a mid-to-high level pvper. I've come to believe over the last couple of years that the actual cheating that goes on in UO is so much less than what people claim. The cheaters are obvious, the ones who outrun me while they're on foot whilst I'm mounted. There are maybe 1-2 people per shard that ever do this and its on a good day for them.