BEWARE: Just lost 4 Vollems

[Endrik]

I could not sleep so I thought I would get up and do a little hunting in shame this morning. I was using my bard on one account and my dexer on another, both with 2 vollems. I had so much happening on the screen that I did not even see the server warning as it was mixed in with all the other text streaming up the side.

Servers go down for maintenance, no big deal. But when I log back in BOTH of the vollems are missing on BOTH of my characters. Not in the stables either. I tried logging out and back in, nothing. Looks like they are gone.

I paged a GM, but it has been close to a decade since I had a GM actually help with an issue, and I don't have 14 hours to sit at the computer and wait for a canned response, so it looks like I might be out of luck on this one.

Just wanted to give everybody a heads up that there is a major problem here... be careful not to have these things out when the servers go down.

 

[Petra Fyde]

go back to where you were hunting with them and look around, working outwards in a circle. There's a good chance you'll find them wedged up against an obstacle.

 

[Endrik]

Thanks for the advice Petra, but I tried that. Looked everywhere. They were bonded, and are no longer even listed in my character's follower slots. Just completely gone.

 

[Petra Fyde]

no, I've had that. They don't register till they're on screen. No listed follow doesn't always mean they're gone for good - but I'm sorry you haven't been able to find them

 

[Winter]

Thanks for the advice Petra, but I tried that. Looked everywhere. They were bonded, and are no longer even listed in my character's follower slots. Just completely gone.

Where were you when you logged back in - at the bank or Shame?The server save doesn't always go back in time where you were last standing.
Which shard? Maybe we can help look for them.

 

[Endrik]

Thanks for the offer Winter, but I was just informed by a GM that they are gone for good and there is nothing they can/will do about it.

I was down in the dungeon when the servers went down, so that's where I was when they came back up. The last two corpses of monsters I had killed were still there, and I actually had to re-loot the most recent one. However, my vollems were gone. Not just run off, but gone from game, not in follower slots on status bar or anything.

I searched all over as Petra recommended, but nothing. If they had somehow un-bonded and run off I would have either found them wild or the corpses would still have been there like the monster corpses were. But nothing.

The GM informed me that there is nothing they can do, and that if I want something done I should "recommend the feature be added to the game". I understand the GM is just following policy and doing his/her job, but this is just plain terrible customer service. I paged in time so that the vollems and commands were still visible in my journals, but did not seem to matter.

I understand that some things may not be "technologically possible" due to poor/old game design. However, when there is an obvious glitch and proof in the journal of what happened, you would think that any company that cared about retaining the few customers they have would allow their customer service staff to do something, anything, to help. The bare minimum they could have done would be to replace my vollem crystals since these were only available as one-time pre-order offers. Yes, all my training and skill building would have to be done over, but at least that would have been something. *sigh.

 

[Endrik]

I do not get on to play very often these days, and since I had a few hours early this morning I was really hoping for a nice pleasant experience to play UO for a little bit. This has turned into a vivid reminder of how terrible the support for this game is. I understand that mistakes/bugs/glitches happen. Thats life. But it is how a company handles those situations that makes or breaks the experience.

I really could have used a good customer service experience at this point in time. Not even a perfect one, just a slightly positive one. Oh well. Guess its time to show my disappointment with my wallet.

 

[Adol]

Pet Summong Balls. It's an extra level of security; you don't need to carry them, but have one in your home linked to any pet you couldn't bear to lose just in case. But when even that fails... the search you tried is the last hope. Unfortunately for you it didn't help, and I've seen another post here which said they lost their Vollems after logging out with them, so it could be an issue with that particular creature... bug submit it in the hopes their loss can at least prove a pattern and won't have been totally in vain.

 

[Endrik]

Thanks for the advise Adol. I have pet summoning balls in the bank and tried that. Didn't work.

 

[Endrik]

walk the walk.

 

[Winter]

walk the walk.

Ahh... sorry to see it end that way, but I understand your reaction and the way you feel. Good luck to you.

 

[G.v.P]

Maybe they can make it so the Server Down warning is a little more persistent? Maybe even a pop up a gump? Most of the pet problems occur as a result of server down issues, while some other issues occur from pets being dispelled (depending on the pet). I could see someone not seeing the Server Down warning while battling, as the warning stands now.

 

[Quickblade]

I cant beleive in the last publish if we look at the bug fixes you can find this :
Pets will now be “rescued” if a server reverts to a backup during which the pet was out in the world

• During server maintenance, these pets will be teleported to a safe location
• This prevents the pets from being killed, or losing loyalty and going wild
• When their owners log in:
  • The rescued pets will teleport to the player, if the player has control slots available
  • Otherwise, the pets will go to the owner’s stables for later retrieval

But how come they never though about pets lost from a server down maintenance, unbeleivable... I thought it was all about this

 

[The Zog historian]

Thanks for the offer Winter, but I was just informed by a GM that they are gone for good and there is nothing they can/will do about it.

It speaks volumes about the state of support that I question the GM's honesty and willingness to help. They may have still been somewhere, but he didn't want to spend a minute to find them.

Really sorry to hear about this, and that all the rest of us can offer is sympathy.

 

[Winter]

How about adding vollems as a vet reward - say 5th year, but any account age could bond? This might make the loss a bit easier to swallow.

 

[MalagAste]

Vollems can't just be gotten anymore .... they were a one time deal... that'd be like losing your Dread Warhorse for a Tamer.... I'd seriously tick me off and make me sick to my stomach... so I know how you feel there.

Thankfully for me I have yet to ever use my vollem crystals... and at the rate folk are having theirs vanish I don't think I ever will risk it. What gets me is that there is no way to get it back. To me you should be able to get those returned. This is one major reason why so many other games are WAY better than UO.... they would give you a new vollem...

I don't know what to say other than don't log out with pets unless your sitting on it. Set an alarm for server down perhaps.... Feel your pain though. Wish you well.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

i really like Vollems.
when they came out and people where flogging them for cheap because they didnt understand what they where or maybe didnt want them i went around and picked up 2 for each of my bards and Mules that i could.
i totally love them.
i put in the time and trained all mine up and i could honestly say i would be devastated if i lost even one set of mine.... but to loose 2 in one shot.
gahd!

and like Quickblade above posted, i thought they had put a failsafe in for that so we would no longer loose pets at server down times.

 

[CovenantX]

Boura's are better IMO, they don't cast spells... but they gain pack-damage. no taming required to bond/control, but a tamer would need to tame them for you.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

better?
Vollems are exactly the same as Nightmares, except you dont need taming.
nightmares rip apart bouras.

 

[CovenantX]

better?
Vollems are exactly the same as Nightmares, except you dont need taming.
nightmares rip apart bouras.

Lowland Boura's specifically.

I'm not saying vollems are horrible, but boura's are a fine replacement & they're more easily replaceable if anything such as the OP's experience happens with the boura's, (because you can still tame them)
Vollems don't receive pack instinct so their melee damage is lower than that of a lowland boura (only when you have more than one though)

one thing IMO that makes Boura's better than Vollums, is the fact Vollems do the Fire breath attack, (Fire breath attack stops all melee attacks while casting & vollems don't have enough HP to make it do effective damage) That is the main reason Boura's are better. (maybe this will change whenever the pet revamp comes along)

It's the same reason Frienzied Ostards are better than Hell-hounds & hell-cats, no fire-breath thus more dps.
WWs were better than regular Dragons (Not greater dragons) for the same reason, it had nothing to do with damage type differences.

 

[Herman]

better?
Vollems are exactly the same as Nightmares, except you dont need taming.
nightmares rip apart bouras.

I have tested nightmare vs lowland boura twice and the lowland boura won both times due to more hp


If u pick max str pets i would guess without doing any maths 2 bouras do more dmg but there is alot harder finding 450 str lowland bouras than 520 mares

 

[Herman]

It's the same reason Frienzied Ostards are better than Hell-hounds .

do fire breath ignore the targets resist ? or how does it work


because when i fight with my hell hounds vs something with close to 0 resist i see a big different when they cast fire breath

but when i fight a moster with around 60-70 resist i see almost no different at all

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

I have tested nightmare vs lowland boura twice and the lowland boura won both times due to more hp


If u pick max str pets i would guess without doing any maths 2 bouras do more dmg but there is alot harder finding 450 str lowland bouras than 520 mares

boura beat the nightmare?
i find that hard to believe.
would i be surprised if it was true.... no, there are things in this game that suprise me all the time.
but im bored, so im gonna go tame one of each and have them pit fight.

 

[Barry Gibb]

do fire breath ignore the targets resist ? or how does it work

Fire breath damage will be reduced by the target's fire resist. A 0 fire resist target will take the full damage, whereas a 50 fire resist target will take 50% of the damage. Resists simply reduce the damage received by xx% (70 fire resist blocks 70% of the damage). I hope this clears it up for you.

If fire breaths ignored resists, than even a drakes and dragons could one hit kill you.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

nightmare wins.

 

[CovenantX]

do fire breath ignore the targets resist ? or how does it work


because when i fight with my hell hounds vs something with close to 0 resist i see a big different when they cast fire breath

but when i fight a moster with around 60-70 resist i see almost no different at all

Fire breath does damage based on your pets HP vs the targets fire resistance.

But the pack instinct seems to only effect Melee attacks. fire breath can be handy for when mobs run away or monsters that spawn out of melee range. but IMO frenzied ostards are better, unless as you say, if you fight low-fire resistant mobs, hell hounds would probably do a bit better.

 

[CovenantX]

nightmare wins.

nightmare won, but boura's are pack-instinct pets, if there were two boura's and two nightmares the outcome should be different. (unless it's just a bunch of missing, which happens) but boura's can take down a mob faster than 2 nightmares, after discord.

 

[G.v.P]

Boura's are better IMO, they don't cast spells... but they gain pack-damage. no taming required to bond/control, but a tamer would need to tame them for you.

I'd argue Bouras are much better tanks. More hit points, better resists. Vollems with 100% mana capacity have better damage output initially, but Bouras will win out on DPS over a long period of time because they tank better and because they don't need to meditate. You need to roll max strength on a Boura, though, because Vollems have a better strength range despite a lower base attack.

do fire breath ignore the targets resist ? or how does it work

Fire breath damage will be reduced by the target's fire resist. A 0 fire resist target will take the full damage, whereas a 50 fire resist target will take 50% of the damage. Resists simply reduce the damage received by xx% (70 fire resist blocks 70% of the damage). I hope this clears it up for you.

If fire breaths ignored resists, than even a drakes and dragons could one hit kill you.

Fire breath does damage based on your pets HP vs the targets fire resistance.

But the pack instinct seems to only effect Melee attacks.

1) The formula for firebreath is current creature HP divided by 5 = base firebreath
2) Base firebreath is reduced by Fire Resist as a percentage
3) The reduced value is hard capped to 60 when used against players (talking single breath creatures, not Hydras and the like)

A nightmare, for example, might have 310 HP, which gives a 62 damage firebreath, which will do 18.6 damage to 70% fire resist. If you had 0% fire resist a nightmare with 310 HP should do 60 damage with a firebreath.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

nightmare won, but boura's are pack-instinct pets, if there were two boura's and two nightmares the outcome should be different. (unless it's just a bunch of missing, which happens) but boura's can take down a mob faster than 2 nightmares, after discord.

i hear ya.
would be interesting to put 2 on 2 but trained.
boura's come with 80% skills already where nightmares are starting at 0 anat.

im trying to remember where i have some trained boura's that are bonded.
i know i should have some somewhere stabled.....

i agree with you about pack instinct.
i have a fully trained pack of 5 ozzies on most of my tamers.
they are CHAINSAWS!

 

[Herman]

boura beat the nightmare?
i find that hard to believe.
would i be surprised if it was true.... no, there are things in this game that suprise me all the time.
but im bored, so im gonna go tame one of each and have them pit fight.

Bouras hp 420-597 str 310-449

nightmare hp 298-315 str 496-525


the pets you tested

boura hp 420 str 363 (the lack in str should add 5-7 dmg a hit and the extra 170 hp should be the different )

nightmare hp 308 str 524

I hope you understand why my test goes the other way around i m not trying to argue better pet here all i am saying is vollems lowland bouras are pretty even

 

[Herman]

1) The formula for firebreath is current creature HP divided by 5 = base firebreath
2) Base firebreath is reduced by Fire Resist as a percentage
3) The reduced value is hard capped to 60 when used against players (talking single breath creatures, not Hydras and the like)

A nightmare, for example, might have 310 HP, which gives a 62 damage firebreath, which will do 18.6 damage to 70% fire resist. If you had 0% fire resist a nightmare with 310 HP should do 60 damage with a firebreath.

Ty for the formula

 

[S_S]

Forgive me if I seem insensitive, I am sorry you lost bonded pets. BUT have we all gotten so darn lazy that we can't simply get to a stable and type: Stall or Stable? And since when should be logging out in a DUNGEON just be safe and free of danger? Sorry, didn't realize UO has become so carebear-ish.

 

[Endrik]

Sorry, didn't realize UO has become so carebear-ish.

Good morning S_S. Thanks for your response.

It seems that there are a few other things that you failed to realize though. First, you failed to realize that it is generally a good idea to read an entire post before commenting. It is especially important to realize that if you are too lazy to read the whole post, you should at least read the first paragraph. In this case I explain in my opening paragraph that I had so much text scrolling up the side of my screen that I did not even notice the server warning.

An example of someone who did read the whole post and avoided looking stupid is G.v.P., who read the whole post, and then made a constructive recommendation that perhaps a more visible warning would be appropriate for the game, something like a pop-up window. Actually, just about everybody in this post has been helpful and constructive in their feedback by offering advice on how to attempt to find the lost animals or by offering advice on some other options that I could use to replace them such as Lowland Bouras.

Secondly, you didn't realize that the point of my post was not to complain about risk in a dungeon, the lack of safety when logging out in a dungeon, or the time it takes to stable pets. Again, if you had bothered to read the post perhaps you would have realized that my issue here is that there is a glitch in the game mechanics that can cause you to lose a bonded pet, which should not happen.

Third; if you are too lazy to read the whole post, or even just the first paragraph, you should have at least read the title of the post. This might have helped you to realize that my post was intended to warn fellow players of this issue in the hopes that they do not fall victim to a similar glitch and the resulting lack of customer service.

At no point did I ever complain that we should be able to intentionally log out in safety while in a dungeon. At no point did I complain that it takes too much effort to stable a pet.

Just a friendly recommendation; it might not be the best strategy to be too lazy to read a post, and then respond to the post accusing the OP of being lazy.

 

[S_S]

OK, so the lazy part on your behalf was you knew it was getting close to server down (how long has UO had this?) and YOU decided to risk it? Again, sorry you lost pets, I did too.... years ago. Now I stable them.

 

[Black Majick]

In all fair to Endrik, S_S, I sometimes lose track of time on things I am doing. So could be purely an accident. In either case it is clearly a bug that caused him to lose the pets. They should be there when the server does its final save. Sorry to hear about the loss Enrik. Hopefully you will change your mind about canceling the accounts.

 

[Mitzlplik_LS]

I l

OK, so the lazy part on your behalf was you knew it was getting close to server down (how long has UO had this?) and YOU decided to risk it? Again, sorry you lost pets, I did too.... years ago. Now I stable them.

You need to read... or re-read the original post before you go and make yourself look any stupider

 

[Fridgster]

• When their owners log in:
  • The rescued pets will teleport to the player, if the player has control slots available
  • Otherwise, the pets will go to the owner’s stables for later retrieval

This is curious to me. Sometimes I use jewelery to to gain extra stable slots for my pets. What would happen if I had removed that
jewelery, thus lowering my stable slots allocation and a revert occurred? Would the pets still be stabled, ignoring the stable limit or
would the pet go poof?

 

[Adol]

Maybe they can make it so the Server Down warning is a little more persistent? Maybe even a pop up a gump? Most of the pet problems occur as a result of server down issues, while some other issues occur from pets being dispelled (depending on the pet). I could see someone not seeing the Server Down warning while battling, as the warning stands now.

If you're using the Enhanced Client, the Pinco UI will flash up centre screen in huge text "Server Going Down!" when it catches the message in System chat, so it'll pick up unscheduled downtime too. Hopefully some of you will find that useful... I don't know of a mod that will do it for the Classic though I'm afraid.

 

[Wenchkin]

What I'd do if I was regularly playing at server down is take note of the usual time, then set up an alarm on my PC itself. I'd also set one up in plenty of time before that "server down" warning to alert me so I could go and stable any pets. I remember being caught in server maintenance years ago before bonding, logging into fire dungeon beside 2 wild and frustrated dragons. I've been paranoid about server maintenance ever since

Wenchy

 

[Shakkara]

All nice, but the server shouldn't eat pets or items, no matter what happens. A few days ago Europa crashed without warning right while I was dungeonhunting in shame. By pure chance I wasn't riding my pyroxy at that time, if I had it would likely have gone poof too when the server came up 5 min later. I already lost an item blessed with my personal bless ticket in a random server crash, which I didn't get replaced either.

This issue with disappearing pets is just a very serious bug and I believe devs should fix item-eating bugs with the highest priority. Can say all you want about how players should be mindful of the server going down, but the reality is that servers shouldn't be eating items, and that servers also go down unexpected.

And if items do disappear for whatever reason, the blame lies with the developers, and customerssupport should undertake effort to replace them. It is crazy that there are better odds of getting your Titan replaced in EVE Online than getting something replaced in UO that was lost to a more or less known bug, without your fault, when there is clear evidence that you possessed said item before it disappeared.

 

[Winter]

This issue with disappearing pets is just a very serious bug and I believe devs should fix item-eating bugs with the highest priority. Can say all you want about how players should be mindful of the server going down, but the reality is that servers shouldn't be eating items, and that servers also go down unexpected.

Absolutely correct. It's a game bug, not a player error.

I asked Kyronix why no developer response on this and the insurance bug, and he said to post on the bug forum for Misk to look into. Kyronix will post on election bugs, but not something minor like lost pets, and apparently Misk doesn't read Uhall.

 

[Wenchkin]

Yes, it is a bug that should be fixed. In the OPs case it's a really bad bit of luck and horrible that they lost vollems because the code didn't protect them. That does need fixing, nobody is saying otherwise. But as players we can reduce our reliance on these safeguards by taking extra care too. Auto stable is a second line of defence. You don't stop locking your front door because you also have a lock on the conservatory beyond it. It makes more sense to lock both. In this case it makes sense to stable pets where you can and only have the auto stable code kick in when you get logged out for whatever reason.

Heck, it makes sense to log out in advance of a server down just because you usually find yourself logging back in inside a pack of spawn and redlined. I'll always try to log out in advance of a server down for that reason alone, never mind losing pets. If I played regularly round that time then I would take extra care. Or use disposable pets.

We know that just because the devs publish a fix, it doesn't mean the code is 100% fixed. When the devs have tinkered with a bit of code I'm generally less inclined to trust it than before. At least until it's been live for a while on production so it can be tested further. Sadly we now know the code still can't be trusted. I'll see if I have any disposable pets I can test it with, and encourage others to do the same. Get some bug reports in so the devs can try pinpointing the problem. If that's even possible. I'm wondering if the code just isn't logging pets and tamers out when they're actively fighting. I know there was a problem where you didn't log out cleanly before. It's a while since I tried that. Will have a poke about later.

Wenchy

 

[cdavbar]

constructive recommendation that perhaps a more visible warning would be appropriate for the game, something like a pop-up window.

EC + Pincos, Problem Solved. Pop-up warning, sound effects, cant go wrong.

 

[Bleak]

I could not sleep so I thought I would get up and do a little hunting in shame this morning. I was using my bard on one account and my dexer on another, both with 2 vollems. I had so much happening on the screen that I did not even see the server warning as it was mixed in with all the other text streaming up the side.

Servers go down for maintenance, no big deal. But when I log back in BOTH of the vollems are missing on BOTH of my characters. Not in the stables either. I tried logging out and back in, nothing. Looks like they are gone.

I paged a GM, but it has been close to a decade since I had a GM actually help with an issue, and I don't have 14 hours to sit at the computer and wait for a canned response, so it looks like I might be out of luck on this one.

Just wanted to give everybody a heads up that there is a major problem here... be careful not to have these things out when the servers go down.

What shard was this on? Can you also send me the account name at [email protected]?

 

[Endrik]

What shard was this on? Can you also send me the account name at [email protected]?

Thanks for taking an interest Bleak! This happened on the Sonoma shard. I sent you an email with the account names. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information that might be helpful in identifying and fixing the bug.

 

[rareitem]

Its not true they can do nothing , its just the lazy GM u paged that has no time to solve your problem.
Loosing a bonded pet due to server down is NOT ACCEPTABLE someone from UO stuff should fix that.
If you have it linked to a summon ball you even have the evidence.
And S_S please, yes please...... really? Rebuking or blaming people for a game issue is stupid.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Thanks for taking an interest Bleak! This happened on the Sonoma shard. I sent you an email with the account names. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information that might be helpful in identifying and fixing the bug.

Did Bleak fix it?

 

[Endrik]

No. I have not heard anything back yet via email or through these forums. I'm sure he has probably been busy with the new publish and upgrade coming out.

 

[GarthGrey]

Sorry for your loss, lost mine a few months back for pretty much the same reason, only I wasn't in a dungeon. GM couldn't help, didn't find them. I was simply SoL.