-
Hail Guest! We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
-
Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
-
Hail Guest!, Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
-
Hail Guest! Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!
And spawn the nasties at the 5 minute till fall point so they can kill the scripters before it drops. Otherwise, the script will have the loot at the moment of drop and spawn, and it will defeat the purpose. Nasties will need an area effect to reveal hidden scripters as well...
One that works in Tram. Maybe the area around an IDOC should work like Blackthorns and not let you stealth/hide for long.
Solution, make the house timer ONLY visible to the owner of the property as per the 'house condemned' message on entry. Take the 'warning' off the house sign. Once an account is not paid for the required period it goes into silent decay mode. Once it ends it's Idoc stage it drops, no timer, no warning, the stuff will lie on the ground until someone notices. Can't camp something that you don't know is gonna drop nor set up a script bot or placement bot for a totally random and unannounced event. Serious Idoc'ers will have to make set 'runs' around the country side so they can still improve the chance of finding the idoc loot on ground, and perhaps community minded ppl can give a shout out when one is spotted, if not and noone discovers the collapsed house then the items go to the great UO house in the sky. Perhaps make it so loot from idocs has a longer 'decay' period so it hangs in game a little longer.
And yeah I can imagine the outcry if they did it so don't bother but it is the ONLY way to stop the cheats.
Sadly the 'serious' idocers who have the time to scout and sit for hours like under the 'old' system and now the 'new' system wont like it either as a lot of them feel because they have the 'advantage' of time to spend doing this it would be unfair to make it totally random to allow more people the chance of a find. The cheats and scripters like it just how it is, the 'career' idoc'ers want the cheats gone but the advantage of having loads of time, so they want it back to where they have a better advantage and those who do not have as much time and do not cheat are not even in the equation.
Make it a truely free for all event. No warning just pure luck to stumble upon one. Then it would be a mad dash by the discoverer to either clean up, invite their friends or guildies along hoping noone else stumbles in, or just do a yell of the location in chat to have a shard wide rush to the location with beetles and placement tools.
If they devs wanted to be really tricky they could have the town criers 'yell out' when a house fell with the coords announced 'Hail to King Blackthorn subjects! ............ an abode has succumbed to the powerful forces of nature at 24o81' S 34o56' W" on the facet in which the premises were, so criers in Malas if the place was there or criers in Tram etc
Wont happen but one could only wish. It would be nice to get some idoc loot without having to spend hour upon hour camping like ghouls over the remains of another players loss.
And yeah I can imagine the outcry if they did it so don't bother but it is the ONLY way to stop the cheats.
Sadly the 'serious' idocers who have the time to scout and sit for hours like under the 'old' system and now the 'new' system wont like it either as a lot of them feel because they have the 'advantage' of time to spend doing this it would be unfair to make it totally random to allow more people the chance of a find. The cheats and scripters like it just how it is, the 'career' idoc'ers want the cheats gone but the advantage of having loads of time, so they want it back to where they have a better advantage and those who do not have as much time and do not cheat are not even in the equation.
Make it a truely free for all event. No warning just pure luck to stumble upon one. Then it would be a mad dash by the discoverer to either clean up, invite their friends or guildies along hoping noone else stumbles in, or just do a yell of the location in chat to have a shard wide rush to the location with beetles and placement tools.
If they devs wanted to be really tricky they could have the town criers 'yell out' when a house fell with the coords announced 'Hail to King Blackthorn subjects! ............ an abode has succumbed to the powerful forces of nature at 24o81' S 34o56' W" on the facet in which the premises were, so criers in Malas if the place was there or criers in Tram etc
Wont happen but one could only wish. It would be nice to get some idoc loot without having to spend hour upon hour camping like ghouls over the remains of another players loss.
Last edited:
To the anti-script crowd. Have you ever considered that if they banned everyone using third party programs there would not be enough people left playing this game to pay the bills. With that in mind, offer solutions to solve the issue......
I don't know what happened along the way, but I do remember specifically that when they would put out an update, that the scripters would disappear for a few days until they could "crack the code" again and get their programs to work again. I have said this repeatedly, if they would just put out a little update to whatever that is that makes it break, do that every dang day! seriously, They take the servers down daily, so they themselves should write a little script to change whatever it is RANDOMLY! CAUSE WE KNOW THEY WILL END UP DOING +1. And take them out of the game BOOM!
This is only relevant to one program in particular. And was only the case when only one person knew how to update it. Not as Relevant anymore. All that would happen is the players would shift over to other programs that don't require that patch.
Like someone else said, If the fix were easy you wouldn't see botters in modern mmo's with much larger development teams.
Thank you.
I think I would invest in figuring it out. Maybe someone out there works at a software company and could take up the flame! I am forcing my kids to take computers in school so they can help! Okay, just joking on the help part.How about this?
When an idoc falls the items inside are divided and then randomly go into a special idoc lost and found box inside the bank boxes of characters who are actually anywhere online at the time the idoc falls. Only paid accounts, no free trials.
Make it interesting, only full fledged members of Idocers Anonymous should benefit from this, so, allow for a special club fee to be paid in game (goldsink) and maybe require a quest that needs completing each day or each week, run the land like true idocers do, as in, it once took me 9 hours to check all the house signs on a shard. I think I was going in circles since houses in UO aren't all lined up in a straight line.
This way the scriptor/goldsellers will still get some but not all the idoc loot.
Newly empty idoc plots could be handled in a similar fashion. Become a member of the Real Estate Moguls UO club, pay your dues, do your club duties, and you are given a random chance to possess an idoc plot when it becomes available.
Again, persons in the club, paid accounts, online at the time the plot becomes free, for this we would need a brief decision making period, accept the plot, which will place your current house in decay, if you are on an account that already has a house, or decline the plot and the next person in the club gets the offer.
Yes the UO Housing Mafia will pay for some UO accounts with no houses on and then keep them logged in all day to get the offers, but I see that as benefiting UO.
Even if they do that if the chance they get the offer is truly random, they won't get all the best idoc plots like they do now.
My only other idea is one I've heard others offer up, everything deletes.
When an idoc falls the items inside are divided and then randomly go into a special idoc lost and found box inside the bank boxes of characters who are actually anywhere online at the time the idoc falls. Only paid accounts, no free trials.
Make it interesting, only full fledged members of Idocers Anonymous should benefit from this, so, allow for a special club fee to be paid in game (goldsink) and maybe require a quest that needs completing each day or each week, run the land like true idocers do, as in, it once took me 9 hours to check all the house signs on a shard. I think I was going in circles since houses in UO aren't all lined up in a straight line.
This way the scriptor/goldsellers will still get some but not all the idoc loot.
Newly empty idoc plots could be handled in a similar fashion. Become a member of the Real Estate Moguls UO club, pay your dues, do your club duties, and you are given a random chance to possess an idoc plot when it becomes available.
Again, persons in the club, paid accounts, online at the time the plot becomes free, for this we would need a brief decision making period, accept the plot, which will place your current house in decay, if you are on an account that already has a house, or decline the plot and the next person in the club gets the offer.
Yes the UO Housing Mafia will pay for some UO accounts with no houses on and then keep them logged in all day to get the offers, but I see that as benefiting UO.
Even if they do that if the chance they get the offer is truly random, they won't get all the best idoc plots like they do now.
My only other idea is one I've heard others offer up, everything deletes.
I will bet diamonds the scritping multiboxers of UO are laughing there pants off .....while reading this....
Tis a shame that they are untouchable ...and they bloody well know it !! .....and they can cheat at Idocs and Event and spawns like Minax etc etc to there hearts content with no comeback ...
Totally sucks.... but like i say...top line they will just laugh at the normal folks and start there daily scripts...
Tis a shame that they are untouchable ...and they bloody well know it !! .....and they can cheat at Idocs and Event and spawns like Minax etc etc to there hearts content with no comeback ...
Totally sucks.... but like i say...top line they will just laugh at the normal folks and start there daily scripts...
TOTALLY love this one! Although I would take out the coordinates, and just say which facet. Then, people will have to explore to find it! Would make life totally interesting and get people running around the world a bit more. I believe this could be done with some tweaks to the game without a huge impact to other systems.
@Kyronix @Bleak - an opinion? No need to reply (probably better) but this is one idea that could be tested and would possibly be a benefit.
1 - silent decay (no notice on house sign) in game - only owner can view decay status (not co-owners)
2 - house goes private, vendors are packed away for vendor-owners to collect
3 - email notification to account holder only (not co-owners on house)
4 - after 90day period, house goes into silent idoc (still no notice on house sign)
5 - any vendors left on house are deleted when house goes idoc (to keep from perpetual idoc loop)
6 - house falls, trigger one time news alert (system message? auto alert to criers? this might be tricky, but possible?)
--- "Alas! An abandoned building has succumbed to the ravages of time within (facet)! Hurry ye scavengers of Sosaria, before the knaves collect the bounty!"
7 - Items will decay as normal where ever they lay unless picked up. Have Grubbers holding some stuff wander around UNTIL they are killed, or the shard resets.
This poses a challenge, and will encourage ppl to get out and explore a bit more, while keeping the scripters in the dark like @MissEcho said. After all, hard to script something you dunno about....
My guess is the loot scripts know item IDs of "rare" items as well as all the containers... so anything in a crate or chest will have the same item ID making the script easily grab them up as well as any things like singing balls, roses, and countless other items that sell...
Another thing that is annoying is they hold chests and crates in their "hand" till the "coast" is clear so they can drop the crate and quick loot it and grab it up again... I've seen this done... I would propose that you just can't even pick up anything over 1600 stones... (This is so you can still put that amount of wood or ingots etc on your beetle/packies without having to do it in 400 stone increments. But they won't be able to hold those 150k stone chests up on their mouse cursor of the 10 characters they bring...
I like the idea!
It would certainly make life much more difficult for the cheats (looters and house placers alike). Like you said, can't script something they don't know about. All while benefiting the masses that want to take the time to explore.
But why not make the decay status visible to co-owners and friends? I feel friends and co-owners should be in the know so they could be there to gather their buddies things should they return.
I would expect that the cavern of the discarded would be busy from items that go unnoticed and decay. That wouldn't be a bad thing. Sort of a last chance stop to get items before they poof for good.
Don't think anyone co-owners or friends should be made aware. If they are 'true' friends of the account holder they would know of the chance of it going idoc as they wouldn't of seen their friend for 3 mths anyways or their friend if they were a 'true' friend would let them know. No true friend of mine has ever had a house go idoc, if they don't want their stuff they let you know well in advance. A lot of people 'friended' to peoples houses on prodo shards can be just mild aquaintances where the owner never bothered to clear their list. Better that NO ONE knows.
Silent decay would solve all this.
Maybe something like:
Any third party, client-side program that does not interfere with the data stream will be legal to use so long as the player is not afk. Player who are deemed to be using programs to interfere with or harass other players, or to disrupt live game content (EM Events) will still be subject to Ultima Online's TOS and ROC.
Thank you,
Your Ultima Online Team
Who precisely is going to drop the Harbingers? At some of the few idocs I have attended this past year on Europa it has been the scripters who dropped them. Their greed even extended to trying to kill the toons and packies of the non-cheating players attending them. I do not think making any kind of aggressive npc creature available would improve the situation one iota and would probably make it worse.Moist of them don't have any real skills. Drop Harbingers when the house falls, and watch them run or die!
StressBall
Adventurer
The majority of scripting idocers sell to or farm for gold sites (last time I googled I found at least twenty), Broadsword don't care because that is where most of their income comes from, its a vicious circle they let scripting for gold sites run rampant because that s who there income is coming from now to the determent of the real player base and the game. They don't care about you or me as long as the money flows they will ride this nag into the dirt. Some people will get so frustrated with no getting anything from idocs or champs or any of the high end gold farmed champs (like vvv) they will buy it from a goldsite thus feeding the demand. My advice, never ever buy anything from a goldsite and keep reporting scripters.
Nexus
Site Support
Administrator
Moderator
Professional
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wiki Moderator
UNLEASHED
Sure, ban all the people or find a way to block the third party programs, and if this is infact the case, let the game go quietly into the night with a measure of dignity and respect, and not as a cesspool of cheats and greed.
Sure, you can implement countermeasures and it will defer the cheaters/scripters for a bit. That's not even that hard. But at the end of the day, you just start your own game of whack-a-mole you can't win. You close some loophole, next day some other pops up. Only thing you accomplish is wasting a developer without anything you can "sell" to the players.Thank you.
Turn idocs into a sysytem similar to events. If you are at the idoc during the time the house collaspes items are randomly placed in your back pack. I know part of the fun was to scoop up things on your own. But at least you recieve
something for your efforts. Either that or just let the idocs go poof of things entirely, which is a shame if we lose ietms which are part of UO history.
As far as Longtooths comment about if we some how remove scripting (be carefull what you wish for) we may not have enough player base to continue. If we have to rely on scriptors to keep this game going, lets have the sinking ship go under. I would rather have that then to let these people profit from the game for real money. I saw a book on the ground the other day advertising to sell gold at 18 cents a million with some web address on where to buy it.
Recently there was an idoc which included a fair amount of blue glacial cloth created from an exploit, and was then made into wearable clothing. These were selling tens of billions of dollars in the game and could of easily sold for an excess of 100 billion in total. Now due the math of what this is worth in real life money. Just saying
something for your efforts. Either that or just let the idocs go poof of things entirely, which is a shame if we lose ietms which are part of UO history.
As far as Longtooths comment about if we some how remove scripting (be carefull what you wish for) we may not have enough player base to continue. If we have to rely on scriptors to keep this game going, lets have the sinking ship go under. I would rather have that then to let these people profit from the game for real money. I saw a book on the ground the other day advertising to sell gold at 18 cents a million with some web address on where to buy it.
Recently there was an idoc which included a fair amount of blue glacial cloth created from an exploit, and was then made into wearable clothing. These were selling tens of billions of dollars in the game and could of easily sold for an excess of 100 billion in total. Now due the math of what this is worth in real life money. Just saying
just delete the entire house, contents included, and return any account bound stuff to bank.
Theres enough ****e in UO to begin with, more ****e will not be missed.
Theres enough ****e in UO to begin with, more ****e will not be missed.
Dont you just love that christian hate. Priceless in its hypocrisy.
Do yourself a favor and loosen the jumpsuit you're wearing.
It's cutting the blood flow off to your head.
Tell that to security companies.
They could "sell" quality product to their customers if it wasn't diminished in value by afk scripters for 15+ years.
Lord Nabin
High Council Sage - Greater Sosaria
Professional
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Glorious Lord
*Looks up from his warm spot by the fire an makes a simple familiar swish with his fingers*
"Dispiro Malas"
*settles back into his robes and enjoys the fire satisfied with the results*
I don't really get your drift. Sure, they could pay an external company to fight whatnot. But since I work in IT security and especially in the field of software security, I can tell you neither my colleagues nor I do it for charity.
To pay that BS could either lay off one team member, which would mean even less actual game content. Or they could raise the subscription rate to contract an company/hire an engineer.
But even then you won't have an 100% detection rate and people will still start threads on stratics about the remaining 10% that didn't get caught. It's not like human societies struggle since the beginning to make people abide to the given rules.
Plus I don't have faith in BS for that. They will just ban the wrong people, afk training a skill in there home, and let the real offenders, multiboxing EM profits, go.
I doubt very much whether BS have the authority to raise sub rates. In fact I'm pretty sure they don't. They are simply subcontracted to run the game. EA still makes any financial decisions.
I don't own a jumpsuit.
Why? This is an online gaming forum. Religious hypocrisy should have no place here whatsoever. I merely pointed it out for what it was.
i believe the devs once stated we have to live among and get along with the scripters.....kinda embracing them....yah i cant find the olde thread...but i was shocked to say the least.....but yes it was wrote in black/white ..but its been noted here in the thread....get rid of scritping ....Yes please!! ....how many scripters are there...would the game die without them....how mnay accounts paying accounts would be lost.....ive no idea...then theres the 3rd party programs and mutliboxing etc etc... its endless gaining advatages over the next player just to get a bloody pixel crack drop....not for me....
and so it shall be....we will have to live and get along with the cheaters of UO...
and so it shall be....we will have to live and get along with the cheaters of UO...
Maybe if a few of us got together and made recorded video's of what's going on and point out the obvious and such we could shame the DEVs into action... since obviously they are blind and can't see what's going on or refuse to see it... but if we start throwing it in their face perhaps they will do something about it. Just a thought. Can't bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening if it's caught on video and shown time and time again...
Again, I dont think its their call. Its EA's. The reason being is that mass bannings would impact revenue. Im sure BS will have been told this and their hands are tied. The blame lies with EA.
I'm fairly sure that the "offenders" are the self same ones who are also the gold spammers and many other things and I'm willing to bet that it's 3 or 4 people not a majority...
People who don't cheat talking about who is doing what and why is like Suburban house wives trying to explain how Mexican drug cartel's operations are ran.
There are plenty of easy fix's that take scripters out of the picture that wouldn't result in a loss of revenue from scripters being banned.
The top example that was suggested here in this thread is silent decay for IDOCs. Certainly a few free trial accounts might be closed because the people using them to script at IDOCs no longer need them. But the long term outcome imho is more accounts from honest players would remain open and certainly have additional accounts opened as a direct result from a fair and level playing field that gives everyone an equal chance.
A system based on integrity and fair play will always win out over one that allows cheats and scripting for long term subscription numbers.
As far as the dev team using a players idea. Don't hold your breath cause I've never seen it. Me thinks it's an ego thing lol
The top example that was suggested here in this thread is silent decay for IDOCs. Certainly a few free trial accounts might be closed because the people using them to script at IDOCs no longer need them. But the long term outcome imho is more accounts from honest players would remain open and certainly have additional accounts opened as a direct result from a fair and level playing field that gives everyone an equal chance.
A system based on integrity and fair play will always win out over one that allows cheats and scripting for long term subscription numbers.
As far as the dev team using a players idea. Don't hold your breath cause I've never seen it. Me thinks it's an ego thing lol
Is that what Mesanna told you why they don't act on anything?
Still say just create medium level spawn every so often for 30-60 minutes then when the idoc falls spawn a few nasties like AW's.
I think this would be a lot of fun. Great idea!
While I admire your valor and integrity, there are others that may feel that while they don't like the idea they are willing to overlook it because they enjoy other aspects of the game. Besides some would say that the fact that we are having this conversation is a sign that we have already passed that threshold.
If this game had the resources that most modern games have I would have to argue this. Closing loopholes/countermeasures would be imperative. However considering the size of the staff and age of the game I have to agree with this.
Wouldn't have an issue with this. Might be best for the economy... I have to ask though, what curse word is 5 letters long and ends in an e???
Eh low hanging fruit. You know what he means.
This is a very old game in it's geriatric stages of life. Any thoughts of a revival that would dramatically effect the current subscription rates would just be chasing windmills.
I like that along with having account bound items go to your bankbox or something... I think having shard shields and your soulstones secure would maybe make the idea of returning to UO easier.
It wouldn't even need to be Mass Bannings, get the worst of the worst and let the other Cheaters decide, Do I wanna risk getting banned too. I believe in the long run many more returning players would make up for any Banned Player revenue. I cant even count nor remember how many friends I've lost to nothing being done about Scripter/Cheaters.
If the existing rules were just enforced I believe BS and EA would be surprised even Amazed how many honest players would reappear and after all isn't that what we want the Player Base to be made up of ?
Any way in the long haul I think we are just
I agree about how many would return though I'm rather thinking in the long run it might be too late... With so many other games out there many NOT overshadowed by EA... with customer service put at the forefront... I know many who would NEVER return to EA and it's "customer is always a liar out to get free stuff from you attitude" and loathing for it's customer base... I've never seen another company so hell bent on NOT helping it's customers and NOT wanting them to buy their services... amazes me they even turn a profit at all.It wouldn't even need to be Mass Bannings, get the worst of the worst and let the other Cheaters decide, Do I wanna risk getting banned too. I believe in the long run many more returning players would make up for any Banned Player revenue. I cant even count nor remember how many friends I've lost to nothing being done about Scripter/Cheaters.
If the existing rules were just enforced I believe BS and EA would be surprised even Amazed how many honest players would reappear and after all isn't that what we want the Player Base to be made up of ?
Any way in the long haul I think we are just