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Unfair Advantage.

Slayvite

Crazed Zealot
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
So it starts.
The first round of Beta and for the lucky ones that got in, the first chance to look at the new stuff.

I have no problem with this atall as we all know beta testing is good.
What i do have a problem with is that the selected few now know whats needed for the new skills.
Special gem sales have gone thru the roof on Europa at nearly 10k A gem and rising daily. Every vendor i know of is now empty of special gems. So it's clear to see these wil have a purpose.
Also Prospectors tools have vanished ??? I can only assume some people have found a 'loop-hole' which uses these as they have been pretty useless for years.

I think that if you sign up for Closed beta then your 'normal' account should get 'frozen' untill open beta starts.
This would encourage people to test rather than to get that early heads up and save a fortune on stocking up.
 
N

Nyte Doombringer

Guest
Its always like that in an expansion beta for a already existing game. Ofc people find out what is going to be needed such as rescources ect. For a game that is new beta testers have a big advantage as well, finding out how everything works.
 
R

RichDC

Guest
It even happened with the spring turn in, it will always happen and to be honest, i dont really see a problem with it.
 

Mistura

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The really clever cats have speculated that these gems would be of value when SA goes live and built up big supplys of them months ago :)

Its obviously an advantage to be in Beta and have absolute confirmation that the investment will pay off, but if you really thought about this when imbuing was announced, you might have made some wise investments yourself, without the need to be told explicitly that they will be of greater value when SA is launched.
 

JC the Builder

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Benefactor
I think that if you sign up for Closed beta then your 'normal' account should get 'frozen' untill open beta starts.
This would encourage people to test rather than to get that early heads up and save a fortune on stocking up.
Testers are going to get ahead no matter what. Whether it be by knowledge or buying items before the expansion. Even if they froze their main account, they can still have others. If you freeze every account they can just tell a friend to buy certain items. The only way to prevent this is to not have testing at all. And that is not possible.
 

Bomb Bloke

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It's tempting to go out and randomly start spamming at the bank, "wanted to buy: bulk untrimmed hides". You know. Just for laughs.

Heheh. Reminds me of one of my (very early) playing sessions, when another player assured me that his guild desperately needed a thousand death robes, and I would be well payed if I could provide them...
 

Tomas_Bryce

Rares Collector Extraordinaire | Rares Fest Host
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Life is not fair.

Trying to force it to become fair, only makes it more absurd.
 

Hunters' Moon

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Life is not fair.

Trying to force it to become fair, only makes it more absurd.
UO isn't life...its a game. As such the Developers and Lead Testers should only make certain parts of the SA expansion available to the closed beta testers. This would prevent the lucky ones from having an totally unfair advantage.
 
R

RichDC

Guest
UO isn't life...its a game. As such the Developers and Lead Testers should only make certain parts of the SA expansion available to the closed beta testers. This would prevent the lucky ones from having an totally unfair advantage.
And then it would launch with so many bugs it would be a waste of time!!Its not that big of an advantage...so they know what resources are required or where to go...big deal, they had to figure it out the same as everyone else!
 

LadyNico

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Frankly, I think anyone who didn't immediately presume mined gems would be worth stocking after being told about the fantabulous wonders of imbuing is ever so slightly dim (in the most affectionate sense of the word).
 

T'Challa

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The really clever cats have speculated that these gems would be of value when SA goes live and built up big supplys of them months ago :)
Speculation is never truly clever, but thanks for the compliment :D
 
R

RichDC

Guest
Beta access is not required to discover this, simply the ability to read the appropriate forum. This thread in the SA forum gives clear information on imbuing, including that both mined and normal gems will be required. It is dated from October last year.
http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=107643
Might as well delete this thread now we know that in fact its just people doing there research and not gaining an unfair advantage by being in Beta.
 

Tomas_Bryce

Rares Collector Extraordinaire | Rares Fest Host
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UO isn't life...its a game.
And the game that is created and experienced by humans escapes the "flaws" of humanity how? There is not a single solution you can present to this that would be universally fair, not just fair to Hunters' Moon and people who share his/her style of playing. My statement stands.

As such the Developers and Lead Testers should only make certain parts of the SA expansion available to the closed beta testers.
That would lead to an unpolished and broken expansion, even more so than an usual new release.

This would prevent the lucky ones from having an totally unfair advantage.
Totally unfair advantage? Just a little bit of an exaggeration, no? I could give a hoot about getting ready for SA and I am sure that I will somehow survive this totally unfair advantage.
 

Lord Gareth

UO Content Editor | UO Chesapeake & Rares News
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wiki Moderator
Also Prospectors tools have vanished ??? I can only assume some people have found a 'loop-hole' which uses these as they have been pretty useless for years.
Why has no one commented on this? Useless? Useless? You are kidding right? They up your ore by one from Dull Copper to Shadow Iron which you can mine shadow Rock and shadow rock sells for more then DC rock. Also if you combine the tool with a gargoyle pick axe you up your ore by TWO! So if you were to find an aggy vain you can now upgrade it to Verite with the tool then to Valorite with the gargoyle pick axe AND have a chance for a Val elemental to get an extra 50 Val ingots.

Useless? I think not!
 
D

Dragonchilde

Guest
UO isn't life...its a game. As such the Developers and Lead Testers should only make certain parts of the SA expansion available to the closed beta testers. This would prevent the lucky ones from having an totally unfair advantage.
And it would also render the entire POINT of holding a beta in the first place completely useless.

They have to test this game. If they did do this, you would be the first to complain about it being buggy and not ready for launch when they went to open beta.

There are perks to being a beta tester... that's the nature of the game. You don't get paid for doing beta, so you get your rewards another way. The lesson here? Start mining for gems. Duh.
 

Setnaffa

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend


Get over it! You can't punish people for being in the beta. You also can't stop people from being in the beta with one account and playing the regular game with their other acccount(s).

We'll all be in the open beta before it goes production, so you'll have plenty of time to figure out how to exploit the rare resources.

As for Prospector's tools, I throw at least 100 of these away every week. You are more than welcome to them if you want them.
 

Wenchkin

Babbling Loonie
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It's a beta...While anyone can use their knowledge of SA beta on production shards, they're taking a risk that new content will carry over exactly. So they might be hoarding the right items, or they could be left with a pile of worthless rubbish ;)

Wenchy
 

phantus

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
That's some nice cheese there. I'm more of a red wine kinda guy though. :beer:
 
O

Old Man of UO

Guest
HEH... and some people would complain if there were no Beta.

Would someone please give Slayvite an Easy Button?
 
B

Beer_Cayse

Guest
Nice wheel of cheese ... Parmagiano Reggiano (my apologies to Italians if I misspelled that!!)

I'm waiting for SA to see about reviving my account or leaving it suspended. I do have several hundred of each mined gem in stock ... could make a killing! Maybe. Pffft.
 

Lord Gareth

UO Content Editor | UO Chesapeake & Rares News
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wiki Moderator
The people that work on Ultima Online the whole crew. They have an unfair advantage! They are making it!!!! So what is the complaint?
 
O

Old Man of UO

Guest
The people that work on Ultima Online the whole crew. They have an unfair advantage! They are making it!!!! So what is the complaint?
YA! I agree with that... Especially Chrissay and... and... Draconi! Suspend their accounts until the Beta is over!
 

Setnaffa

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yeah, that cheese looks freaking delicious. What kind is it?
Sorry. I downloaded that picture a long time ago and I have no idea what kind it is. I wish I knew. I like cheese too!
 
G

guum

Guest
Nice wheel of cheese ... Parmagiano Reggiano (my apologies to Italians if I misspelled that!!)
Think so? Could be, but the shearing doesn't look quite right for parmesan...it looks more like a cheddar to me. Either way, it's making me want to go on a cheese-eating binge.
 

sablestorm

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yeah, the Devs have been dropping hints about what items would be handy for imbuing. I've been collecting said items since the time I heard about them, long before Beta rolled around. Incidentally, I didn't get into Beta, but no biggie.
 

Flutter

Always Present
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Awards
1
Either way .... if you think about it, the scripters are doing it they will have an advantage over everyone who's not a scripter, so... assume you're gonna need whatever the scripters are scripting.
 
T

Turdnugget

Guest
What about the people have play more often than I do due to RL limitations. They have an unfair advantage. Let's limit them as well!

How can you have a successful expansion w/out any testing? Beta is necessary...unless we somehow get a 'perfect' dev that knows the needs/wants how to debug and all that stuff all in one swoop...
 
U

uoBuoY

Guest
Nice wheel of cheese ... Parmagiano Reggiano (my apologies to Italians if I misspelled that!!)

I'm waiting for SA to see about reviving my account or leaving it suspended. I do have several hundred of each mined gem in stock ... could make a killing! Maybe. Pffft.
That peanuts...I have over 15,000 of each mined gem.

I've always been at a loss about the UO beta thing. Why can't the devs simply put up a beta test shard and let everyone in? The UHall crowd will find every bug in existence and scream about them! The devs could still select an exclusive group of players for indepth feedback while giving all players the same advantages. This would also be a realistic test of stress levels.

All UO players are the beta testers for every client patch so why not SA?
 
S

Stratic Fanatic

Guest
The only advantage is that if he/she was in the beta test this thread wouldve never happened.....


:loser:
 

MissEcho

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I'm impressed. I always saved my gems from idocs and mining and only semi recently started selling them again, and I did idocs for years and years...and only have about 1k of each.
LOL is why I asked scripted, bought or mined.

The maths on that is a bit hard to 'believe'.

6 x rare gem type, 15k of each (or more) = 90,000 (or more)
ML introduced 196 weeks ago = 459 rare gems per week.

Now if the rng was being particularly nice EVERY hour for mining it would possibly give you say 10 gems per hour.

That is 45.9 (say 46 hrs) per week of mining 10 gems per hour for 196 weeks (3.7 yrs) without fail.

Pretty good going I think. Only one way I see of actually doing that.
 
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