Scripting/uoassist

[Gunsmoke]

I think uoassist should of never been approved to run with this game. Back when uo came out some programmer built a program to make things easier to make your toon play uo more comfortable. Throughout the years that program slowly infected all aspects of uo gaming. Never seen a game that allows to run a script/program that let's you ID any item to give a code to that item which allows people to make killer/impressive scripts to cheat.

Simple fix- take all the hot keys like potion buttons,unmount etc that people use and build them in the macro section. Make uoassist go away.

Untill there is a way that uo makes players not able to see the coding in the game, scripting and cheating will NEVER GO AWAY. It will be the kiss of death of this game.

 

[Basara]

What the HELL are you talking about? You're describing things that UOAssist doesn't do - or hasn't done for almost 2 DECADES.

UO Assist does NOT give codes - hell, the EC is closer to doing that WITHOUT adding anything (but especially after adding Pinco's) than CC+UOA will ever be.

If anything, you're at best describing the 3rd party clients that are ALREADY ILLEGAL - not anything to do with UOAssist.
At worst, you're describing the NATIVE abilities of the ENHANCED CLIENT.

Most of the things that UOAssist can be used for, can now be done by either client with NOTHING ADDED (bandage macros, repeated actions, dismounting, the potion macros, etc.). A lot of the UOA users only use it for things like auto-turn-off of the vet rewards gumps and that it's required to use UOAM & UOCartographer - which are INFERIOR maps in many ways to the EC map (just with more labels)

 

[popps]

I think uoassist should of never been approved to run with this game. Back when uo came out some programmer built a program to make things easier to make your toon play uo more comfortable. Throughout the years that program slowly infected all aspects of uo gaming. Never seen a game that allows to run a script/program that let's you ID any item to give a code to that item which allows people to make killer/impressive scripts to cheat.

Simple fix- take all the hot keys like potion buttons,unmount etc that people use and build them in the macro section. Make uoassist go away.

Untill there is a way that uo makes players not able to see the coding in the game, scripting and cheating will NEVER GO AWAY. It will be the kiss of death of this game.

I TOTALLY disagree.

Even taking into account UOAssist, the Classic Cliant is NOWHERE near the Enhanced Client, not to mention those using the EC with Pinco's UI....

If at all, UOAssist makes at least the Classic Client "somewhat" playable.....

And even then, the Enhanced Client is BY FAR way more advantaged......

As in regards the giving out the codes for items, I not aware of UOAssist having such capability.....
Besides, the number of lines that an UOAssist Macro can record, are much limited so, I do not see how it could be used for complex scripts with UO....

 

[ShriNayne]

Some people played the CC for years without ever using UOAssist, just saying...

 

[petemage]

I think uoassist should of never been approved to run with this game. Back when uo came out some programmer built a program to make things easier to make your toon play uo more comfortable. Throughout the years that program slowly infected all aspects of uo gaming. Never seen a game that allows to run a script/program that let's you ID any item to give a code to that item which allows people to make killer/impressive scripts to cheat.

Simple fix- take all the hot keys like potion buttons,unmount etc that people use and build them in the macro section. Make uoassist go away.

Untill there is a way that uo makes players not able to see the coding in the game, scripting and cheating will NEVER GO AWAY. It will be the kiss of death of this game.

No offence man, but please spend some years in EC modding and let's talk again I can agree on the part that UO is overly accessible for all sorts of scripting though, but that's totally not down to UOA.

 

[Stinky Pete]

Though some, if not all, of these cheating programs work similarly to UOA, UOA is not the problem. The CC runs on some very old technology. When it was built, nobody could have predicted what would be happening today. We're talking about the wild west of MMOs here. Things were different back then. To fix this you need a time machine, I'm sure you have all seen a movie or two about how that never turns out well. The best way to fix this would be to make a new client, which they did, but forcing people to use it would probably cause a severe reduction in subscribers, so we're stuck with what we got.

 

[kaio]

I would love to see UOAssist go away, and have those features build into CC.
I mean how hard can it be ?
Add mouse wheel up/down support, and support for uocarto, mount/dismount and no one would ever have to use uoassist agin.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

Some people played the CC for years without ever using UOAssist, just saying...

I STILL play CC without UOAssist.

 

[Pawain]

Some people played the CC for years without ever using UOAssist, just saying...

I still am.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Don't forget. The actual source code was accidentally included with the UO Demo CD.

That allowed hackers and coders to reverse engineer UO and gave the creators of the 3rd party programs what they needed in order to work with UO.

 

[Stinky Pete]

Don't forget. The actual source code was accidentally included with the UO Demo CD.

I have heard this before and have always wondered if that really happened and how. It should be pretty easy for anyone to tell the difference between code that is compiled and source code. Not to mention the space it takes up on the disk since it would have to include both to function without being compiled.

Does anyone have a copy of this disk? If so, I would like to see just a screenshot of the directory containing the source code files.

 

[Riyana]

The problem I have always had and still have with UOAssist is that it was the only officially approved program of its kind, but you have to pay that third party for it and there haven't been any new approvals in, what, a decade and a half or so? If you want a little extra functionality (that should be built into the client anyway), then you have to either pay Tugsoft or cheat. That's not right.

 

[celticus]

I STILL play CC without UOAssist.

Same here..

 

[THP]

ive always played the CC and never ever used uoassist in 20 plus years

 

[petemage]

I have heard this before and have always wondered if that really happened and how. It should be pretty easy for anyone to tell the difference between code that is compiled and source code. Not to mention the space it takes up on the disk since it would have to include both to function without being compiled.

Does anyone have a copy of this disk? If so, I would like to see just a screenshot of the directory containing the source code files.

No, it hasn't. But it contained a a compiled version of the server code and assets, which got reverse engineered and I guess layed the groundwork for early emulator works. Among those assets where a lot of higher level script files, that defined the actual UO game mechanics. I suppose that's what some refer to as source code. Actual code in the form of C or C++ never leaked.

The uodemo.exe file contains both a early UO Client, and a complete production UO server dated to mid 1998. The scripts contained within the demo are nearlycomplete for the server's timeframe, and even include some preliminary work on T2A era mechanics.

UODemo Wiki

 

[Stinky Pete]

@petemage

Thanks for the link. I'm amazed that I have never seen that before now. That makes much more sense than releasing source code. It also makes sense why it was done. I've looked at all the open source code I could find and I always wondered how the client/server encryption was broken and now I know.... Not as glamorous as I had imagined.

 

[Poo]

I think uoassist should of never been approved to run with this game. Back when uo came out some programmer built a program to make things easier to make your toon play uo more comfortable. Throughout the years that program slowly infected all aspects of uo gaming. Never seen a game that allows to run a script/program that let's you ID any item to give a code to that item which allows people to make killer/impressive scripts to cheat.

Simple fix- take all the hot keys like potion buttons,unmount etc that people use and build them in the macro section. Make uoassist go away.

Untill there is a way that uo makes players not able to see the coding in the game, scripting and cheating will NEVER GO AWAY. It will be the kiss of death of this game.

there is so much wrongness in your statement that i don't even know where to start.
and so much to reply too..... but its Saturday afternoon and i'm enjoying some nice legal Canadian Weed and relaxing.
i think ill just let the others rip you a new one and enjoy the show.

 

[Fridgster]

there is so much wrongness in your statement that i don't even know where to start.
and so much to reply too..... but its Saturday afternoon and i'm enjoying some nice legal Canadian Weed and relaxing.
i think ill just let the others rip you a new one and enjoy the show.

We really need the flip off emoji (;

 

[Poo]

We really need the flip off emoji (;

your preaching to the choir brother.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Source code, source code compiled. It was decompiled. So? What's that end up with?

The demo client/server communication protocol was unencrypted so it wasn't ever actually broken. Since it was the exact same protocol as the official client/server this is what enabled all the 3rd party programs to sniff & send packets to and fro on the EA/OSI shards.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I have heard this before and have always wondered if that really happened and how. It should be pretty easy for anyone to tell the difference between code that is compiled and source code. Not to mention the space it takes up on the disk since it would have to include both to function without being compiled.

Does anyone have a copy of this disk? If so, I would like to see just a screenshot of the directory containing the source code files.

UO came out with a one player off line game and surprise, surprise it was UO without the online requirement that gave everybody with that disk 100% access to the source code and by the time they figured out what happened it was to late.

I used UOA for making items for Tailor/Smith BODs and filling BODs, yes I had a macro for every BOD at the time and now that is no longer needed but UOA is still needed to use UOAM and it is still usefull for filling bags while sorting items and those are the only reason I even load UOA anymore.

 

[Stinky Pete]

Source code, source code compiled. It was decompiled. So? What's that end up with?

The demo client/server communication protocol was unencrypted so it wasn't ever actually broken. Since it was the exact same protocol as the official client/server this is what enabled all the 3rd party programs to sniff & send packets to and fro on the EA/OSI shards.

Sorry, I didn't realize that the server code was on the disk and that it was playable offline. I understand that code can be decompiled but decompiling the client wouldn't get you the private key needed to unencrypt (break) the communication. I wasn't trying to be a jack** (for once), i was genuinely curious.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Sorry, I didn't realize that the server code was on the disk and that it was playable offline. I understand that code can be decompiled but decompiling the client wouldn't get you the private key needed to unencrypt (break) the communication. I wasn't trying to be a jack** (for once), i was genuinely curious.

It was a great idea but not well thought out.

 

[petemage]

Sorry, I didn't realize that the server code was on the disk and that it was playable offline. I understand that code can be decompiled but decompiling the client wouldn't get you the private key needed to unencrypt (break) the communication. I wasn't trying to be a jack** (for once), i was genuinely curious.

The encryption used ever since is symmetric, meaning client and server use the same keys.

 

[grimiz]

Sorry, I didn't realize that the server code was on the disk and that it was playable offline. I understand that code can be decompiled but decompiling the client wouldn't get you the private key needed to unencrypt (break) the communication. I wasn't trying to be a jack** (for once), i was genuinely curious.

My limited understanding is that any time the client encrypts communication with a server and you have access to the client - some enterprising individual is going to figure out the key. That's not just UO - that's any client server technology.

 

[Spartan]

The problem I have always had and still have with UOAssist is that it was the only officially approved program of its kind, but you have to pay that third party for it and there haven't been any new approvals in, what, a decade and a half or so? If you want a little extra functionality (that should be built into the client anyway), then you have to either pay Tugsoft or cheat. That's not right.

It's a 1-time amount of $15. Monthly UO is pretty close to it ... 6-month UO is $10. If you can afford UO for 'x' years you can afford one $15 charge. Even if you change systems or rebuild a crashed one, supplying the seed to a paid UOA will allow you to reopen all the functions - at no added charge.

So, my thinking is this. If I pay Tugsoft I'm legal as far as EA and the game goes. If I don't pay and use something else, I'm not legal as far as EA and the game goes. Given that neither are enforced and one does require opening the wallet/purse, I shall take the Broadsword approach: whatevah floats yer boat, Ma'am! <tip of the hat>

 

[Riyana]

It's a 1-time amount of $15. Monthly UO is pretty close to it ... 6-month UO is $10. If you can afford UO for 'x' years you can afford one $15 charge. Even if you change systems or rebuild a crashed one, supplying the seed to a paid UOA will allow you to reopen all the functions - at no added charge.

So, my thinking is this. If I pay Tugsoft I'm legal as far as EA and the game goes. If I don't pay and use something else, I'm not legal as far as EA and the game goes. Given that neither are enforced and one does require opening the wallet/purse, I shall take the Broadsword approach: whatevah floats yer boat, Ma'am! <tip of the hat>

It's not about affordability. It's the principle. It is a third party program, not an EA or Broadsword (or Mythic or Origin) product. Third parties profiting unchecked and semi-facilitated through official action or lack thereof is a sad and frustrating running theme with this game.

 

[Drakelord]

Some people played the CC for years without ever using UOAssist, just saying...

Not this some person, I been using UOA since 2000 and the OP above is dead wrong about UOA. I mainly use it to count resources, for my UOAM, to make repair deeds, I even have hot keys set for remounting mine etyh using a macho, its funny how you stand there making this jerking movement before you mount up, just like if I was to double click the mount in mine backpack.

I set macros for using bandaids, casting GH on myself, invis self, true all this can be done without it but to me it make mine life easier, I set macro to cast cleanser wind to do a group heal on several pets, people within range of the target I am aiming for, There are no scripts involve only using the steps listed in the CC Options. The changes to the CC just recently have even made it far easier to not use UOA for some areas that the EC could do before, instant dress and changing of suits, something that took UOA FOREVER.

 

[ShriNayne]

My husband always used it but I never did, I had a key thingy for it but I never actually got around to using it. We both use the EC with Pinco's UI now so I guess I would have found it useful if I had actually tried it.

 

[Victim of Siege]

My husband always used it but I never did, I had a key thingy for it but I never actually got around to using it. We both use the EC with Pinco's UI now so I guess I would have found it useful if I had actually tried it.

I tried assist (on a friends account). Wasn’t that great to me so I didn’t bother and used cc without it. when kingdom reborn and subsequently SA came out, I learned the ins and outs of the clients macro system. Very versatile.

 

[Alkaseltzer]

I would not play UO if it were not for UOA. I have played many online games and have seen others use crazy MoDs that give an unfair advantage. UOA doesn't even come close to them. The EC is getting slowly better but has a ways to go. I only use UOA for training/crafting/and non combat stuff. Any serious fighting I do with the EC and don't even use Pinco(because I can't get it to work). If it wasn't for UOA or EC most new players would never play UO for more than month.

 

[Lord Frodo]

For the disabled UOA was a great tool

 

[MalagAste]

@Alkaseltzer if you want to give Pinco's UI a whirl and need some assistance with it if you have Discord I'd be happy to talk you through it. If you are willing to give it a true try... That pretty much goes for anyone if they wish to give the EC with Pinco's a chance I will help you through using Discord. You can PM me. I've helped a few people with it... and honestly if it keeps people playing and happy it's worth the effort.

As well if it gets more people using the EC I'm happy to do it... as I believe the more folk start using it the more the DEVs will work on the client.

 

[Murdok]

but its Saturday afternoon and i'm enjoying some nice legal Canadian Weed and relaxing.

Well its now Monday... Im enjoying some highly illegal Colorado Weed (in the state I live at least) sitting back loling about the op's comments! Next thing you will see someone post that it was a conspiracy to allow tugsoft to make extra money just like the 3rd party item sellers! puff puff pass brother!

 

[Poo]

Well its now Monday... Im enjoying some highly illegal Colorado Weed (in the state I live at least) sitting back loling about the op's comments! Next thing you will see someone post that it was a conspiracy to allow tugsoft to make extra money just like the 3rd party item sellers! puff puff pass brother!

your bring up some valid points.
i feel that i should reload and contemplate your theories that you put forth.

 

[Alkaseltzer]

@Alkaseltzer if you want to give Pinco's UI a whirl and need some assistance with it if you have Discord I'd be happy to talk you through it. If you are willing to give it a true try... That pretty much goes for anyone if they wish to give the EC with Pinco's a chance I will help you through using Discord. You can PM me. I've helped a few people with it... and honestly if it keeps people playing and happy it's worth the effort.

As well if it gets more people using the EC I'm happy to do it... as I believe the more folk start using it the more the DEVs will work on the client.

Discord?, not the skill but an Ap right?

*UPDATe*
Ahh, I googled it, its a voice messenger. I'm old, I used to use teamspeak, Skype and Ventrilo. Oh, and years back UO used to have its own RC I think, cant remember name.

Yea, no, I don't have it yet, but i'll download it ASAP

 

[MalagAste]

Discord is better than all of them...

It's rather like a forum, ICQ, Skype, Vent, ICQ and all in one but better...

 

[Drakelord]

Discord is better than all of them...

It's rather like a forum, ICQ, Skype, Vent, ICQ and all in one but better...

Yep I love how I can post images, PMs, general text chat, Voice chat all on one program where when I used Teamspeak or Vent I had to use other means to send a image

 

[Gidge]

Dear OP,

The program UOAssist does not allow for the "scripting" that I think you are thinking of. It doesn't do anything automatically and the most it does is allow for macros for simple things. It is true you can record a long macro, but advances in UO itself, like "make max" and "make number" have even made the pressing of those buttons less tedious. It does have a nice vendor helping feature and keeps track of various counts of items in our backpack, like for my miner, I keep count of shovels so I know to stop and make more soon. It has a nice thing so you can see the words of power so you can see the word Kal Ort Por - Recall. This is nice when someone is attacking you. You could always try the free trial so you can understand it and really see what is going on with it. It also has a nice feature for people with vision problems to see everyones text in the color of their choice which is far better than UO's choice of alternating grey and black. (which I tried and it was like patting my stomach and rubbing my head!) It really helps with relief for carpel tunnel syndrome and I would guess shoulder issues and other arm ailments. If you do choose to give it a go, remember to hit the numlock button to count resources.

I have known many that can use UOAssit to a expert degree and slay people.
I have known many who don't use anything and can kill people to an expert degree.
I have known people who use illegal programs and claim to "only use UOAssit" or nothing.

*looks through to see anything else cool*
Oh, arrow count is nice.
Things on the title bar (only in windows mode) counts, weight is nice so you can see how close you are to getting overweight so you stop killing and run home. There is a tipping point where it is cheaper to run home and unload than send gold to the bank with a bag of sending to try to reduce your weight. The sell agent is nice too. You can choose specific items to always sell when you go to the provision after being out collecting stuff to sell.

 

[swroberts]

Not turning this into an ec vs cc dead horse beating... Just commenting from an purely scripting angle...UoAssist is not the scripting issue... The whole classic client is the scripting issue... If you want to kill scripting, kill the classic client... Ghost cams, rail miners, mib fishing scripters, avatar spamming .. All gone if the cc goes away. I think the balance between ec and cc is like 50/50... But it is more like 50% ec, 20% cc and the rest cc scripters. I believe cc enthusiasts wany the functionality of ec with the graphics of cc... Maybe the devs can create an ec which allows for different display options...

 

[Fridgster]

Not turning this into an ec vs cc dead horse beating... Just commenting from an purely scripting angle...UoAssist is not the scripting issue... The whole classic client is the scripting issue... If you want to kill scripting, kill the classic client... Ghost cams, rail miners, mib fishing scripters, avatar spamming .. All gone if the cc goes away. I think the balance between ec and cc is like 50/50... But it is more like 50% ec, 20% cc and the rest cc scripters. I believe cc enthusiasts wany the functionality of ec with the graphics of cc... Maybe the devs can create an ec which allows for different display options...

I think you vastly underestimate peoples desires to win at any cost. Within a week there would be scripts for the EC. As a matter of fact, considering the vast ability to customize the EC client interface I would bet a nickel it would be worse than the CC.

 

[MalagAste]

I think you vastly underestimate peoples desires to win at any cost. Within a week there would be scripts for the EC. As a matter of fact, considering the vast ability to customize the EC client interface I would bet a nickel it would be worse than the CC.

I'm thinking not. And I'm pretty sure the DEVs would have a far easier time stopping it if they did try.

 

[swroberts]

I think you vastly underestimate peoples desires to win at any cost. Within a week there would be scripts for the EC. As a matter of fact, considering the vast ability to customize the EC client interface I would bet a nickel it would be worse than the CC.

If the EC could be scripted, it would have already... It's been around for years, and there are Soo many built in sub features you could call rather than coding one action at a time.. you could always go back to recorded mouse clicks, I guess... The reason I would like the cc to go away is to eliminate the champion spawn cams and to eventually get a client with league of legends or eve level graphics so my kids will stop laughing and saying "dad plays some super old game .. it's not a mmo, but op... Cause only old people play it"

 

[ShriNayne]

Hey some of the people in our guild are under 30!

 

[swroberts]

Hey some of the people in our guild are under 30!

Has to be a college class on antique software writing

 

[Lord Frodo]

If the EC could be scripted, it would have already... It's been around for years, and there are Soo many built in sub features you could call rather than coding one action at a time.. you could always go back to recorded mouse clicks, I guess... The reason I would like the cc to go away is to eliminate the champion spawn cams and to eventually get a client with league of legends or eve level graphics so my kids will stop laughing and saying "dad plays some super old game .. it's not a mmo, but op... Cause only old people play it"

LOL The EC is already being scripted but UO made it legal. You want to do anything in the EC just write a script for it.

 

[Basara]

Not turning this into an ec vs cc dead horse beating... Just commenting from an purely scripting angle...UoAssist is not the scripting issue... The whole classic client is the scripting issue... If you want to kill scripting, kill the classic client... Ghost cams, rail miners, mib fishing scripters, avatar spamming .. All gone if the cc goes away. I think the balance between ec and cc is like 50/50... But it is more like 50% ec, 20% cc and the rest cc scripters. I believe cc enthusiasts wany the functionality of ec with the graphics of cc... Maybe the devs can create an ec which allows for different display options...

Except that the scripting issue is NOT the CC, but illegal 3rd party clients that RESEMBLE the CC but have very little code in common.

 

[swroberts]

You can mod the UI, which pinco has done quite well, which can provide some advantages over other players without a modded ui you can't run a mining script 24hrs a day(- server maintenance) ... That being said I have never really dug to deeply into those files included with the EC, so cannot really speak to the flexibility

 

[swroberts]

Except that the scripting issue is NOT the CC, but illegal 3rd party clients that RESEMBLE the CC but have very little code in common.

It is 100% the cc... Yes there are 3rd party programs, but they use the cc to call the actions... I cannot speak about illegal clients, but that wouldn't make too much sense... You need a third party program with a list of cc instructions that piggybacks with the cc to perform these actions... I.e. mine spot, recall, mine spot .. repeat .. or hide, search, hide, search, find, execute sound file... Without cc to piggy back this doesn't exist ... Feel free to google this and see which client is being used..

 

[Blackie]

Make 250,000 items manually to GM smithing, including MANUALLY emptying your pack over and over, and come back to tell me you don't appreciate UOA type "helper" programs

UO Assist has not been as damaging to UO as the actual scripting programs that came out later, in fact it probably prevented hundreds of cases of carpel tunnel syndrome.