NEWS [UO.Com] Producer Letter

[UO News]

General
2014 Aug 12 20:49 GMT
Good Afternoon Everyone,

With everything going on I thought I would take a few moments and let you guys know what we have been up to.

Kyronix and I just got back from Orlando Florida. We were invited to speak at SyndCon and get a chance to talk about what we are doing and get alot of feedback from the players face to face. It's always nice to put faces to the names, and be able to talk to you guys in person. We really enjoy having any chance to do this, thank you! We would like to take this chance to give a big shout out to The Syndicate for adding another year to their record, Congrats!!

On a different note, we would like to thank everyone for your patience while we worked out the shield transfer token fix. We are still taking care of a few loose ends and hope to have most of it finished by the end of this week.

We are working on an update to hopefully publish TC1 this week so we look forward to your feedback. Please keep an eye on UO.Com for the updated notes.

We are doing a Backpack Art Contest only on the shards that do not have owners to the Abyss Houses. Please check our facebook page for the rules to the contest and the shards which will be eligible.

We will be sending out more invites to join the Internal Vice vs Viture Focus group this week. Please check your emails and respond as soon as possible.

Last but not least, I am sure everyone has seen an increase in the decay rate of items on the ground, houses, and boats. This is due to a fix we had to put in for a shard crash. Due to the fact that the house decay does not give players enough time to move their items from one house to another, we are going to be putting in another patch to change this. Players will have 5 days for a house to decay.

Till next time, see you in Britannia!
Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong

Continue reading...

 

[Ender]

"Hopefully this week" is really encouraging.

 

[Dot_Warner]

@Mesanna Could we get an update on the high res art update? Its been months since we've heard anything about it. How about a preview of what is completed?

 

[Warpig Inc]

Joy. Goes and checks boat. Here we go again.

 

[Lord Nabin]

Great News Thank You!

I would like to know if you all are going to be at an event. You never know I might show up!

 

[Ender]

@Mesanna Could we get an update on the high res art update? Its been months since we've heard anything about it. How about a preview of what is completed?

We'll get that when we get the virtue system finished.

 

[kelmo]

Thanks for the report.

 

[Aran]

Well it's good to know the faster decay was intentional, even if it sucks.

 

[Promathia]

So the decay rates have been the same for how long now? And only NOW its changed for a server crash? Without...telling anyone beforehand?

....Interesting

 

[Goodmann]

@Mesanna Could we get an update on the high res art update? Its been months since we've heard anything about it. How about a preview of what is completed?

High res is a myth don't believe that mumbo jumbo

 

[Lady Michelle]

Now if our paper dolls undies decay in a rapid rate, and placed with new ones each day that something I could go for

 

[whiterabbit]

Now if our paper dolls undies decay in a rapid rate, and placed with new ones each day that something I could go for

wif colored ones

 

[Lady Michelle]

wif colored ones

yup wif colored ones

 

[Great DC]

Aww those poor IDOC scripters. I feel so bad. LOL

 

[Riyana]

wif colored ones

Goblins wear underwe...?

Nevermind. Don't want to know!

 

[Lady Storm]

Made you look!

 

[Cyrah]

So faster decay was intentional but it has to go back to 5 days because players need the 5 days to move out? If this is so why change it in the first place? I do not understand this at all.
Why would a team who knew about the need for 5 days change it? What am I missing here? Why would idoc scripters be given such a break in the first place?

 

[Smoot]

This is the most confusing logic ive ever seen. Shouldnt an announcement have been put on the UO login screen BEFORE this "quick fix" that caused fast house decay?

If i was moving during this time and lost my stuff / house because of it i would have quit the game. (i generally take the full normal time to move so losing everything would have been Very likely for me)

Just goes to show nothing is safe or fully secure in UO ever.

 

[old gypsy]

Goblins wear underwe...?

Nevermind. Don't want to know!

Icky's underthings have lace on them... but she's shy and won't show them off.

 

[Aurelius]

Last but not least, I am sure everyone has seen an increase in the decay rate of items on the ground, houses, and boats. This is due to a fix we had to put in for a shard crash. Due to the fact that the house decay does not give players enough time to move their items from one house to another, we are going to be putting in another patch to change this. Players will have 5 days for a house to decay.

So player events where we put things out for people to use are still affected. Boat decay times still seem off, as do aquariums, plant growing.... but no word on those. No thoughts about the houses and contents lost while you did this 'experiment'.

And it was to 'fix'... what, exactly? Which shards had suddenly begun falling over because of stuff? Why was 'houses not decaying fast' causing any issues at all?

It's absolutely clear to me now, the impact or effects of the dev team's 'bright ideas' on the players are not 'least' on the list considered by this bunch, they don't make the list at all. It's not worth telling us anything in advance, or genuinely consulting - even the 'conversations' with us actually just amount to 'we are doing this to you so you get to choose what colour the result is', nothing meaningful or in depth, just 'how can we tweak the cosmetic parts of what you are getting, like it or not, and what might make you more likely to put up with a half-assed grind of a 'system' that makes no sense at all'.

I'd say what I think of this travesty off a dev team, but why bother - obviously we're just here to pay the salaries and be completely ignored while they play about with us and the game until we get sick enough of them to leave.

 

[icm420]

It's pretty clear to me that it was a fix to stop a bug or an exploit from being performed. If they wanted you to know they would have told you. They don't want you to know what was wrong.. so makes you think maybe they figured out how all those duped slithers showed up..

It most likely has to do with some item not decaying somewhere and turning into a shard crash. I do believe Atlantic went down yesterday for no reason again and I time warped about 30 mins.

Anyone remember the dread spider buff? LOL! They turned dread spiders up to "super paragon".. when 3rd level hit on that spider spawn.. good god. No warning, no message etc. It is just another example of uo doing what uo does.. what ever they want. Turns out the "fix" was to stop a certain group of people from farming dread spiders all day long for gold. Figures I picked a spider spawn to do that day..

 

[Aurelius]

Their chosen method of 'fixing a bug or exploit' (IF that is what was being done) is to screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players, with a stupidly over the top reaction that has not been even slightly considered or thought through. The standard 'we were fixing and exploit' has worn FAR too thin, it's a very convenient excuse since it means there is not need to ever explain anything they do, just dive in and put out a half-hearted and insincere 'apology' and minor fix for part of the problems a few days or weeks later. Mind you given their abysmal attitude towards us, I personally doubt I'll believe anything they say about anything at all - their constant evasions, half-truths and simply ignorant actions in the past have eroded any trust I had in this lot.

Their responses consistently show they are hopelessly out of touch with how their customers actually play the game, that they fail to consider the implications of what they do properly, and they apparently don't give a damn about either of those.

 

[Tomarke]

I agree with many of the comments here and agree that this probably could have been handled a lot better. That being said, we can't really make that judgment unless we know what this "fix" was meant to fix and any further speculation without more information would be fruitless.

I understand from the statement Mesanna made that house decay will be fixed, what I really want to know is do I have to keep dry docking my boat every night? I know that dry-docking every night is a bit extreme but I really don't want to lose my boat and this is getting old.

If the "Fix" is only going to affect housing decay by putting it back to right, I think we are owed a list of other systems which were affected and how they were affected. I would like a list of all the new decay rates for all items involved. I really don't think this is too much to ask for.

 

[NuSair]

Last but not least, I am sure everyone has seen an increase in the decay rate of items on the ground, houses, and boats. This is due to a fix we had to put in for a shard crash. Due to the fact that the house decay does not give players enough time to move their items from one house to another, we are going to be putting in another patch to change this. Players will have 5 days for a house to decay.

So, what about people like me who have lost their boats? The cargo? The lost of reputation having to quit all the fishing quest? You make this change without telling anyone, because of that I lost my boat, the stuff in it and going to lose reputation when I have to quit those quest.

 

[icm420]

It's how uo is.. I agree it's a bad way to do it but we have no idea the extent of the fix. Perhaps it's all bs, or perhaps they saved your entire character from being deleted..

I think one thing people fail to understand is that this game has been coded by tons of different people. There is not one generic code for all of uo, to throw someone into 15+ years of code that they didn't write is a staggering task for anyone. Add in that every few years the code changed..

As usual Uo will do nothing to fix your lost items. They never have and never will. People loose entire accounts and they say .. sorry thanks for playing. It's not right, but it's how it is.

 

[Uvtha]

It's how uo is.. I agree it's a bad way to do it but we have no idea the extent of the fix. Perhaps it's all bs, or perhaps they saved your entire character from being deleted..

I think one thing people fail to understand is that this game has been coded by tons of different people. There is not one generic code for all of uo, to throw someone into 15+ years of code that they didn't write is a staggering task for anyone. Add in that every few years the code changed..

As usual Uo will do nothing to fix your lost items. They never have and never will. People loose entire accounts and they say .. sorry thanks for playing. It's not right, but it's how it is.

If they had to make such a change to "save our characters from being deleted" they there were some really serious problems going on and we should have been warned. People lost houses, boats, and items to this unspoken change, and we get a "oops our bad!" comment about it. Week after they change shard shields then change them back.

They really need to give us more info on things like this.

 

[FrejaSP]

How fast do item decay on ground now? I'm doing an event, where I'm placing items on ground this week.

 

[NuSair]

As usual Uo will do nothing to fix your lost items. They never have and never will. People loose entire accounts and they say .. sorry thanks for playing. It's not right, but it's how it is.

That is incorrect. They have, several times in fact.

 

[Petra Fyde]

They have, in the past, replaced items when it has been proven that the items were lost as a direct consequence of developer's actions.
They do not, and cannot, notify in advance of actions taken to prevent exploits.
As for shard crashes, how short is your memory? There have been several unexplained shard crashes recently, enough for even poor naive me to wonder if there as a new exploit in use. I remember posting to that effect.

 

[Aurelius]

How fast do item decay on ground now? I'm doing an event, where I'm placing items on ground this week.

Not a scientific or broad study, but we've seen things vanish at the meetings in Britain each evening roughly 65-70 minutes from setup, so we are tending to work on one hour. This may vary if they are unsecured but in a player house, the last event we ran in a house was Monday and food left on the tables (tables are locked down, food not) stayed through the almost two hours of the event.

 

[FrejaSP]

ok thanks, my items will be outside, so I guess I need to replace/move them each hour

 

[Aurelius]

They do not, and cannot, notify in advance of actions taken to prevent exploits.

At the very least, they can, and should, promptly and clearly explain the implications of major changes they put in IMMEDIATELY after they do them, not leave it until after people discover things are lost, houses gone, events disrupted, then post on the forums to find out what might be going on, and then - several days later - get an incomplete and frankly brush-off comment tacked on to a general message....

Stopping an exploit or majopr problems is fine and we WANT that done - but the repercussions of those actions are increasingly been seen to be severe, disruptive and concerning to the huge majority of people who are just playing the game, as intended. It seems more clear with every one of these bungled 'changes' that the impacts on us are perceived (if seen at all) as pretty much irrelevant, and further convinces me that the endless 'we play the game too' from the Devs is simply ludicrous - they might occasionally log in to do something specific, but how can it be that they throw out changes that disrupt so many of the things us everyday players do apparently without the slightest clue of the impacts and repercussions of their actions, if they genuinely understood what is being done in-game by the players?

I'm afraid my conclusion, based on the actions rather than the words of the Dev team, is they neither know nor care about the reality of most players game activities, and are both completely blinkered in what they think we do and deaf to anything we try explain to them that is not part of their 'vision' of how things are.

 

[DJAd]

It most likely has to do with some item not decaying somewhere and turning into a shard crash. I do believe Atlantic went down yesterday for no reason again and I time warped about 30 mins.

Yes this has been happening quite a lot recently. The server goes through its maintenance then has (a couple of times) then crashed out and caused a mini revert of about 30 minutes. I'm in the UK so the Atlantic server reset is mid morning for me and I've witnessed these crashes maybe 5+ times during July. I guess most people (including the devs) are probably asleep so maybe don't even notice.

This is my theory: Someone has worked out how to crash out the shard. Maybe like you say above (item not decaying). So they load up a char with goodies, xfer to another shard then crash the original causing a mini revert. Bingo! Two lots of items on two different shards.

OK so the devs have hopefully found and fixed the exploit which is great. The lack of communication is terrible though.

It would take under 2 minutes to post up a message saying something like:

"We have discovered an exploit and are working to fix this. Please be aware that this is causing issues with house decay stages and other decay rates. Please exercise caution when moving houses or items. We are hoping to issue a patch within the week".

What did they do? NOTHING! Let everyone sweat and start guessing what's going on for about a week. Even a couple of sentences on UO.com would of been more than enough in my opinion.

 

[AtlanticRealtor]

This is the best comment by Uvtha


"It's still broken at the moment but we are working on it". Thats what its looks like to me.

It looked like to me: "We made a change (without telling anyone), and didn't think about people moving houses needing more than a few hours to relocate their stuff... oops, we'll fix that."

This is something that could have been easily avoided. "Due to a serious problem we had to change decay rates on houses, so please don't condemn any houses without taking your items out first. This could also effect boats, aquariums, battle chickens, and other timer related systems, so if possible dry dock your boats, and keep an eye on your add-ons."

If they do this... no one loses a house or a boat. I really don't get it. :/

 

[Schatzi]

This is the best comment by Uvtha


"It's still broken at the moment but we are working on it". Thats what its looks like to me.

It looked like to me: "We made a change (without telling anyone), and didn't think about people moving houses needing more than a few hours to relocate their stuff... oops, we'll fix that."

This is something that could have been easily avoided. "Due to a serious problem we had to change decay rates on houses, so please don't condemn any houses without taking your items out first. This could also effect boats, aquariums, battle chickens, and other timer related systems, so if possible dry dock your boats, and keep an eye on your add-ons."

If they do this... no one loses a house or a boat. I really don't get it. :/

AND WHY DO THEY NOT PUT THESE CHANGES ON THE SPLASH SCREEN?
That simple paragraph might have saved a few people's boats, houses etc.
Granted I have pretty much only played UO for the last 17 years but the
secrecy around this game since day one always reminds me of a governmental covert operation. Are the other MMO's like this? WOW,
Everquest and whatever the other ones are?

 

[Smoot]

A simple notification on the Login Screen could have avoided this bad P.R. Im sure most people still dont even know about this, as many dont read stratics. Definitely not daily.

This is stuff people quit the game over.

Stuff like this needs to be on login screen, if its impossible to update the login screen, do away with messeges there and put a link to stratics whenever an important game breaking messege is made.

I understand that UO has a skeleton team and its hard to do anything, but we do pay for this service. If its to a state where basic video game protocol is impossible, maybe its time to call it for OSI UO and give us all a longer start on a good free shard or another game.

 

[DJAd]

I understand that UO has a skeleton team and its hard to do anything

Even if it was a 2 person team, it only really takes a minute to update players on the issue.

They even hired someone to run the Facebook and Twitter pages and there was nothing even posted on these!

You are right though, It should be on the login screen so ALL players logging in would have a chance to see it.

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

Drama queens out in full force on this one I see lol.

Who lost what though I wonder?

Unless I am reading this wrong you only had the possibility of losing something if you let a house go into decay? Boats I don't use so I certainly don't know what repercussions they may have experienced.
But who lets a house go into decay for whatever reason and then doesn't move their items immediately?

Does everyone else in the game buy a new home then immediately log off and not return for a few days to start moving? That's odd imo.

Not saying a bit more communication wouldnt have been nice but it seems to me that a lot of people in this thread lost nothing yet are freaking out and using terms like "governmental covert operation" and "screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players"
Thousands of players bought or placed new homes in this short period of time? And all of them mysteriously waited to move out so lost everything?

*shakes head*

 

[Picus at the office]

Drama queens out in full force on this one I see lol.

Who lost what though I wonder?

Unless I am reading this wrong you only had the possibility of losing something if you let a house go into decay? Boats I don't use so I certainly don't know what repercussions they may have experienced.
But who lets a house go into decay for whatever reason and then doesn't move their items immediately?

Does everyone else in the game buy a new home then immediately log off and not return for a few days to start moving? That's odd imo.

Not saying a bit more communication wouldnt have been nice but it seems to me that a lot of people in this thread lost nothing yet are freaking out and using terms like "governmental covert operation" and "screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players"
Thousands of players bought or placed new homes in this short period of time? And all of them mysteriously waited to move out so lost everything?

*shakes head*

This.

 

[Aurelius]

Unless I am reading this wrong you only had the possibility of losing something if you let a house go into decay? Boats I don't use so I certainly don't know what repercussions they may have experienced.

Then you did not understand ...

The biggest issue on boats is if you have spend a long, long time building up the fishing quest rewards, when your boat vanishes you go back to stage one, and lose all the stock you had buildup on the boat as well. Player events, anything we leave out - tables and chairs, food, all the 'trival' stuff that is part of RP, is now vanishing at quite high speed, usually mid-event. People with aquariums found that some of the very rare things they had in there died because the timers kicked off and the aquariums went into poor condition and killed some of the contents without us getting any chance to set them right. At least one town trade deal lapsed early and needed replacing. Plants not being grown in garden beds have got completely out of synch and needed either several more days to raise to the final stage, or have had to be discerded and start all over again. All sorts of things running on the timers have been messed up, they might not affect you but they have affected what a hell of a lot of people do in game, lost things they worked for, and means they have to take several days to get back to where they were before.....

Not saying a bit more communication wouldnt have been nice but it seems to me that a lot of people in this thread lost nothing yet are freaking out and using terms like "governmental covert operation" and "screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players"
Thousands of players bought or placed new homes in this short period of time? And all of them mysteriously waited to move out so lost everything?

Except the person who mentioned 'thousands', which was me, said nothing like what you imply ... the original quote is "Their chosen method of 'fixing a bug or exploit' (IF that is what was being done) is to screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players, with a stupidly over the top reaction that has not been even slightly considered or thought through." No mention of thousands placing houses. That's entirely your invention. Just those who run and attend player events who find the items they put out vanishing, or those who lose boats, or who have aquariums that lose creatures, or all the other knock-on effects when the timers are changed - those are the people affected, and those are a pretty large part of the playerbase, and it's all made worse when nobody knows it's coming until AFTER stuff vanishes - and then a throwaway line in a general comment suggests 'we intended that to happen anyway'.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

Oh Lordy, its a conspiracy....

 

[Smoot]

Drama queens out in full force on this one I see lol.

Who lost what though I wonder?

Unless I am reading this wrong you only had the possibility of losing something if you let a house go into decay? Boats I don't use so I certainly don't know what repercussions they may have experienced.
But who lets a house go into decay for whatever reason and then doesn't move their items immediately?

Does everyone else in the game buy a new home then immediately log off and not return for a few days to start moving? That's odd imo.

Not saying a bit more communication wouldnt have been nice but it seems to me that a lot of people in this thread lost nothing yet are freaking out and using terms like "governmental covert operation" and "screw up the legitimate and legal activities of thousands of non-cheating players"
Thousands of players bought or placed new homes in this short period of time? And all of them mysteriously waited to move out so lost everything?

*shakes head*

... i didnt lose anything but... me? unless you just throw all your stuff imediately into boxes and transfer it into new house it can take a few days. Last time i moved, i first moved my containers, then organized my locked down deco and rares, then moved those, and ended up with about 2 days to sell the old 18 by 18.

I know for most, finally finding and purchasing a house is usually enough for one UO sitting. I doubt most people move all their stuff the same day. And why would they? the 5 day timer is supposed to be just as constant as anything else in UO like 720skill cap, 260 stat cap, 7 day bonding timer etc etc.

 

[Smoot]

The problems is,this "quick fix" was most likely done to stop the transfer shield exploit and wasnt worth it. The bug didnt hurt anyone, this "fix" caused major problems / huge unknown risk to everyone moving or involved in timer dependent aspects of the game.

If it was a new dupe, honestly the shard affected should have just been brought down entirely instead of breaking the timers.

 

[donjn]

So much for the Return to Britannia news they said they would update us with in August.

 

[Bobar]

Drama queens out in full force on this one I see lol.

Who lost what though I wonder?

Unless I am reading this wrong you only had the possibility of losing something if you let a house go into decay? Boats I don't use so I certainly don't know what repercussions they may have experienced.

I don't know about reading it wrong, it makes me wonder if you have read it at all! Housing decay is only a part of the issue ANYTHING which uses a timer is affected.
and people certainly have lost items as Aurelius has described above. And the 'Drama Queens' main gripe is the total lack of communication for seven days while the losses were occurring

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

... i didnt lose anything but... me? unless you just throw all your stuff imediately into boxes and transfer it into new house it can take a few days. Last time i moved, i first moved my containers, then organized my locked down deco and rares, then moved those, and ended up with about 2 days to sell the old 18 by 18.

I know for most, finally finding and purchasing a house is usually enough for one UO sitting. I doubt most people move all their stuff the same day. And why would they? the 5 day timer is supposed to be just as constant as anything else in UO like 720skill cap, 260 stat cap, 7 day bonding timer etc etc.

I hear you but I think we all know that housing in general has never been anywhere nearly as consistent as static things such as stat caps and skill caps. Not saying that makes it right but it is what it is and doesn't really apply to this situation imo.
I know that the decay time for things left on the ground is also supposed to be just as constant as anything else in UO but you would never see me drop a slither on the floor for x amount of minutes while I am rearranging a container.

Bottom line is I feel for anyone that lost items due to this but I believe these people to be few and far between based upon the circumstances. Again, I am not referring to boats, only houses. I know nothing about boat rules but so far in this thread I have seen only one person reference personally losing something boat related. One person.
How widespread is this epidemic if only one person (NuSair I believe) has posted here that they lost something on a boat?
Does this mean that Its not really that big of a deal but a lot of people just felt the need to rant and get dramatic?
Or does this mean that all of us that post here really are the tiniest majority and we have no idea of what is actually going on in game as it pertains to things like this?
Or does it mean that a huge majority of people (thouands in the words of Aurelius) are actually being affected by this issue but they just decided not to post it here or talk about it ingame?

Hrmmm...

 

[Smoot]

I hear you but I think we all know that housing in general has never been anywhere nearly as consistent as static things such as stat caps and skill caps. Not saying that makes it right but it is what it is and doesn't really apply to this situation imo.
I know that the decay time for things left on the ground is also supposed to be just as constant as anything else in UO but you would never see me drop a slither on the floor for x amount of minutes while I am rearranging a container.

Bottom line is I feel for anyone that lost items due to this but I believe these people to be few and far between based upon the circumstances. Again, I am not referring to boats, only houses. I know nothing about boat rules but so far in this thread I have seen only one person reference personally losing something boat related. One person.
How widespread is this epidemic if only one person (NuSair I believe) has posted here that they lost something on a boat?
Does this mean that Its not really that big of a deal but a lot of people just felt the need to rant and get dramatic?
Or does this mean that all of us that post here really are the tiniest majority and we have no idea of what is actually going on in game as it pertains to things like this?
Or does it mean that a huge majority of people (thouands in the words of Aurelius) are actually being affected by this issue but they just decided not to post it here or talk about it ingame?

Hrmmm...

I think its just an issue that this should have been a notification. Only around 50 percent of players use stratics at all, and id say people who check stratics daily is very very low.

I know nothings ever 100% safe in UO, but something like this should have been put on the login screen. Thats just normal procedure in any real video game. (again, i realize UO isnt exactly a "real" videogame, but i do pay them $$ so should expect some basics.)

 

[Uriah Heep]

Not to completely change course of the tthread, but did I miss an announcement that lighthouses don't work? I let a boat decay, but it's nowhere to be found

 

[Ender]

I've already seen someone that lost stuff because of this unannounced change. Good job, devs.

 

[Lady Storm]

So faster decay was intentional but it has to go back to 5 days because players need the 5 days to move out? If this is so why change it in the first place? I do not understand this at all.
Why would a team who knew about the need for 5 days change it? What am I missing here? Why would idoc scripters be given such a break in the first place?

It's quite simple....
The team had the players and houses in hand and locked the doors took all off the house list, and turned on rapid decay as they unlocked EVERYTHING in the house... things went poofy real fast... all 18k of those nasty shield tokens and all the stuff belonging to the culprits.
Sorry we just got in the way... they needed to do something fast and that is as quickly as it comes. Now to get them to put it back to normal.