Player Written Books Are A Disaster: Express Annoyance And Text Saving Tips Here

[Adol]

So today, I accidentally discovered that a player I'd met back in 2001ish still played; I'd originally written a little book to record the history of mementoes and player gifts over the years, which is how I remembered her, she'd given me an Invulnerable Leather Tunic when we'd met by the Arctic Ogre Lords. But over the years books (and character profiles) have become mangled ... the strange thing is, some of the text is actually still there; I've taken screenshots of the memento book in both EC and CC, and you can see that the CC seems to be able to read a lot of text that the EC doesn't.

However it locks the text off the screen, and it can't be CTRL-C copied like in the EC. I've tried copying to a new book so it's not red-leafed to try and delete lines to get at the text... but the EC doesn't think it's there. What you see is what you get only, everything after "completed by myself" is gone when you delete previous paragraphs, even though the CC can see it's there ("Someone else had to open"). I can get at it from the CC (but not copy as mentioned) but then I find that it's missing parts the EC has (the first paragraph in the CC cuts off at "for s...")

This is frankly a disaster!

But does anyone know any way to retrieve all the information from old, player written books? Share your tips, and anguish, here!

 

[MissEcho]

The books in the EC are totally borked, even ones you make today. There has been a bug with this system since the get go and it appears it is never going to be fixed. As it is you type a page in a book now, and all pages following have the same text.

I used to use a LOT of books for player run events and such, now it is impossible as neither client is compatible and I only play EC now so know that there is no point in putting anything in a book.

Wish the devs would fix this.

 

[Adol]

The books in the EC are totally borked, even ones you make today. There has been a bug with this system since the get go and it appears it is never going to be fixed. As it is you type a page in a book now, and all pages following have the same text.

I used to use a LOT of books for player run events and such, now it is impossible as neither client is compatible and I only play EC now so know that there is no point in putting anything in a book.

Wish the devs would fix this.

That's not quite how it works; it seems the next page in the EC are "transparent", as best to describe it, and you see the previous text there... but it's not actually in the book. Type over it, or just leave it blank, close the book and re-open it and you'll see it hasn't copied onto the next page at all... I just can't seem to find a way to leave the text you do write consistent across books, even red leafing it doesn't seem to help

 

[Lord Nabin]

I like these old books.

Could you by chance pop into CC space them properly and then go into EC and make them how you want them?

I know a bit of work but looking for a work around.

 

[MalagAste]

You can't make any books people in the CC can read in the EC. You have to go to the CC to write in a book.

Pinco did a bang up job trying to fix the issue but it's still BORKED. If this issue ever got fixed I'd jump for joy and praise the DEV's ..... but I won't hold my breath.

 

[MissEcho]

You can't make any books people in the CC can read in the EC. You have to go to the CC to write in a book.

Pinco did a bang up job trying to fix the issue but it's still BORKED. If this issue ever got fixed I'd jump for joy and praise the DEV's ..... but I won't hold my breath.

I don't know MalagAste, I think instead of that greyish hue to your face, bright purple may be super pretty

 

[Tina Small]

I know bulletin board messages aren't anywhere as long or complex as player-written books, but are there any inconsistencies or problems currently noted when people use the CC to post on them and then the messages are viewed in the EC, or vice versa?

And are there any issues now with viewing the text in the game's pre-written books, e.g., the Axem/Percolem quest books or stealable books? I can't recall having any problems reading these in the CC lately, but I also haven't looked at any of them recently that had all that much text in them. The Axem/Percolem quest book text is usually only a page and a half or so.

 

[virtualhabitat]

What about book advertisers? they don't seem to have a problem writing gigantic tombs listing crack and services. Are those books unreadable? I'll be honest, I have never actually opened an advertiser's book before.

 

[MissEcho]

What about book advertisers? they don't seem to have a problem writing gigantic tombs listing crack and services. Are those books unreadable? I'll be honest, I have never actually opened an advertiser's book before.

They write them in the CC. EC users can read cc users books, not vice versa.

If you don't use the cc, like me, I don't even have the cc installed anymore, then you can't write books as the cc readers cant read them. EC books are BORKED and need to be fixed.

 

[MissEcho]

Perhaps this should be an ask and answer question:

Q1: When will this KNOWN issue of books be fixed so that EC & CC client users are able to read each others books?

Also I used to be able to write my 'auction lists' in excel and then copy and paste the list into a book (generally about 25 -35 UO pages), copy the book, and then distribute at the auction. It would copy/paste the list over the 40 pages of the book. Now, it will only copy and paste information onto the first page and the rest of the contents is lost so you have to copy just enough to fill ONE page. When you then close and open the book even the first page of text gets borked and drops off portions of the text and re-formats line spacing etc. So....

Q2: when will copy/paste functions from an outside doc (word, excel, notepad etc) copy content in it's entirety to a book (as it used to) rather than just paste the first page to a book and lose the rest. (not sure if copy paste works for the entire doc in the CC still but it certainly doesn't in the EC)

All I know is I cannot produce any book in the EC that can be read the same in the CC, I can no longer create text in another document (which if writing stories, lists etc is much preferable given spell check, and edit functions) and then just copy paste to a UO book. Both of which I used to be able to produce 7 yrs ago, but can not longer do.

 

[MalagAste]

Good Questions Echo.... Need answers.

Don't know why it seems so impossible to do books in UO.

 

[Adol]

Thanks for writing those questions, and I hope they do indeed make it into an A&A... it may not seem much to most, but for a game that leans so heavily on sandbox style play, allowing people to write books is a vital tool for creating or just recording one's own stories!

 

[Hannes Erich]

This is one of the reasons why I've never uninstalled the CC, even when I was going through those really long phases with the EC. There are two things that you should NEVER do in the EC, if you like to think of yourself as a courteous person. (1) NEVER write books in the EC, and (2) NEVER stock a vendor in the EC. Do these things in the CC, and all problems are solved, simple as that.

The CC is a very small program and lightweight compared to modern games. Installing it on your computer and keeping it patched is a tiny inconvenience that allows you to add your masterpiece novels to the game world.

 

[Madrid]

(2) NEVER stock a vendor in the EC. Do these things in the CC, and all problems are solved, simple as that.

I stock my vendors in the EC just fine. Just toggle your backpack to the legacy layout and all containers you open will look identical to the way it does in the classic client.

 

[startle]

Perhaps this should be an ask and answer question:

Q1: When will this KNOWN issue of books be fixed so that EC & CC client users are able to read each others books?

Q2: when will copy/paste functions from an outside doc (word, excel, notepad etc) copy content in it's entirety to a book (as it used to) rather than just paste the first page to a book and lose the rest. (not sure if copy paste works for the entire doc in the CC still but it certainly doesn't in the EC)

Ok, go for it MissEcho... Make it a Q/A... I think books are an important part of this game that needs to be fixed, and I'm wondering if the dev's have ever actually said that they are aware of this issue ? I mean, if the data written to books is input as text - then there's no excuse for books not working fine in both clients... If it's somehow not text, then why not?

 

[MissEcho]

This is one of the reasons why I've never uninstalled the CC, even when I was going through those really long phases with the EC. There are two things that you should NEVER do in the EC, if you like to think of yourself as a courteous person. (1) NEVER write books in the EC, and (2) NEVER stock a vendor in the EC. Do these things in the CC, and all problems are solved, simple as that.

The CC is a very small program and lightweight compared to modern games. Installing it on your computer and keeping it patched is a tiny inconvenience that allows you to add your masterpiece novels to the game world.

Actually I never unistalled it. I went away for 2 yrs and when I returned all the account management stuff had happened in the interim, and the cc wouldn't work. I patched the EC fine but the CC wouldn't patch, so I tried downloading it again and it was just taking too long and kept crashing so in the end I didn't bother. I have no interest at all in the CC and it has way more problems and issues when it comes to playing efficiently than the book problem is for me with the EC.

As for vendors, I have been a merchant and stocked vendors the whole time I have played UO, firstly in the 3d client, then in 2d, then in KR and now in the EC. For a long long time in all non 2d clients you have been able to toggle to legacy version packs. I figure given I have sold over 900 million off my two vendors on Atlantic since returning for the past 17 mths that I certainly do not have display issues with my vendors .

I shouldn't have to have the cc to write a book. Even when you write a book in the EC and the text appears fine as you write it, when you close the book and reopen it it screws up so that a page of text ends up dble spaced, losing half your page of text and reformats it weirdly so it doesn't even look as it did as you wrote in the same client you are reading it in. This is an out and out bug and has been known about since EC closed beta, I reported it then as being part of that. There was a post sometime that they were fixing it or something but if it happened it certainly didn't fix it.

 

[Chrille]

Isnt EC still in beta?

 

[DJAd]

Isnt EC still in beta?

Don't think so. There is no beta tag on the website to indicate anything.

http://www.uo.com/Client-Download

 

[Adol]

There's a couple of other things the CC does that the EC doesn't, but not major ones... you can't see the colour of a dragon in the EC say, but otherwise the EC is just so much more viable. What they should have done is develop just one client, with a toggle for the EC or CC artwork, giving CC users the visual style they'd miss, but all the modern practicality they have to resort to 3rd party software to get... but that's another debate entirely!