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Vote IDOC changes. @Kyronix, @Mesana

These are the changes I would like to see:


  • Total voters
    134
  • Poll closed .
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railshot

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Also - how do you detect a cheater? Let's say you're the gm and you show up at an idoc. How can you tell if a character name Stephen vs one named John is a cheater? I don't think they can detect what each char is using on their pc, certainly not easily. Observing behavior? Very, very hard to do.
What about number of actions per unit time? The way people describe these scripters, they are sucking up thousands of items in seconds. I am sure there is a sharp difference between how fast a human can act vs a script.
 

railshot

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There are multiple idocs every day per shard. In fact - if I had to guess - i'd say there's easily 40-50 houses per day falling across all facets/shards. Just a ballpark guesstimate. 24 hours in a day, that's on average 2 per hour, or more, on a 24 hour day. And that's just a guestimate - it could very well be double those numbers. Also - a lot of them fall around the same time.
I don't have any hard data, so I'd be firs to admit this is just guessing. But going by your estimates, UO is losing 18,250 accounts per year, every year. That is just very hard for me to believe. The game just does not have the population or the influx of new player to survive something like this.
 

Rafman

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What about number of actions per unit time? The way people describe these scripters, they are sucking up thousands of items in seconds. I am sure there is a sharp difference between how fast a human can act vs a script.
I'm not a gm and i've never been a gm - so i don't know what tools they're using. But don't think of some big time NSA setup with these huge dashboards that are tracking metrics such as "number of actions per unit time" for each character for them.

As far as I understand - a gm is still one character logged into UO. An idoc is instantaneous. Idoc'ers dont stand in a line, each taking a turn to loot someone, so as to allow the gm to monitor one person at a time. All the stuff gets looted at the same time. How can you tell who cheats and who doesn't?

It's just not that simple. Maybe they have the ability to track programs - i'm not 100% sure on that, nor to what extent.

Sure if that one idiot shows up gating 10 young chars with 5 packies each at a time it's a bit obvious what he's doing. But if he gets caught once - he'll smarten up and next time one character at a time shows up, instead of all 10 at once. How can you tell which one cheats vs not?

I don't have any hard data, so I'd be firs to admit this is just guessing. But going by your estimates, UO is losing 18,250 accounts per year, every year. That is just very hard for me to believe. The game just does not have the population or the influx of new player to survive something like this.
A lot of players come and go. A lot of houses/idocs are empty or condemned houses. I don't know. I guess when you put it in terms of number of subscribers lost per year, it does sound astronomic. But it doesn't change the fact that # of idocs per day is accurate. Atlantic alone probably has a good ~5-10 idocs per day minimum, sometimes more. Some shards have less, but overall it adds up with all the shards.
 

Johnny Black

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After reading all the suggestions here and all the other suggestions on the other forum, I am hoping that the Devs choose to terminate Idocs and put everything into a moving crate, in case the owner one day decide to comes back, at least, if the person one day decide to comes back, he/she would be happy to know that all his belongs are safe.
 

kelmo

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Cyrah

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Losing 18, 250 accounts per year gone? How many are left? Where is this from? Guys it does not matter what we say here. Whatever she comes up with will be a major pain, messed up, and favor cheaters. That is just UO. Good news is that rowboat is sooooo cute, slow but cute.
 

Archnight

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I am hoping that the Devs choose to terminate Idocs and put everything into a moving crate
Terminating idocs is a bad idea, it's a playstyle like PvM/PvP/Taming/Rares/BOD/Housing. The ONLY things that should be put into a moving crate are account bound items, such as soulstones and shard shields.
 

Rafman

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Losing 18, 250 accounts per year gone? How many are left? Where is this from? Guys it does not matter what we say here. Whatever she comes up with will be a major pain, messed up, and favor cheaters. That is just UO. Good news is that rowboat is sooooo cute, slow but cute.
50 idocs per day times 365 days a year = 18 250 houses. Just a guesstimate, probably off by a bit.

Many of these houses are empty/almost empty, sometimes extra houses by players still playing. A lot of players play a few months, let their account go, reactivate, etc. Many of those people don't store a whole lot in their houses.

18K houses falling per year doesn't equate to 18 000 less active players every year.
 

Rafman

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can we please just start giving some ideas instead of saying one some are bad and ragging eachother i would like to see this change idocs and improve the game.
Sure. There are many ideas/systems that can work. You just have to fine tune them and think about every detail/aspect possible. Which almost nobody in this thread seems to be doing, which is why i've mostly been pointing out why ideas won't work.

Are they even reading these threads and listening to ideas though? If we had a direct voice to them, i'd be more inclined to give full actual suggestions.

The main recurring problem all over this thread is that people assume idocs are all the same. They aren't. There are castles in tram with 200 players and 800 packhorses and 5000 items. There are 7x7 plots with 2 players which have no loot. There are 18x18s in tram with only 3-4 players present, but with a lot of loot. Then there are fel idocs, some with loot and not many people, some big ones with a lot of good pvp fights, etc. Any change to the IDOC system you do has to take into account all those types of idocs, and make sense across the board.

There are probably ways to make lottos work, or thunts, or monster spawns, or simply reworking what 'can be grabbed or not' to limit the ability of scripters to massively grab/loot everything at once. But any system change has to be fully thought out and take everything into account.

As a very long-time idoc'er - what worries me most about any big change to the system they do - is that Mesanna simply does not understand idocs. Devs never have. And i've seen that first hand, in-game, by how they have approached certain situations when they've been paged on/asked for help (I won't go in detail). They don't understand how house placement works, and all the subtleties around it. I think the best case scenario for a change of system that would actually address all the concerns, remain fun and competitive, but maintain idocs rather than just scrap the whole thing - and especially without making things worst or causing even more issues - would be to have some players who are fully familiar with IDOCS work with them as an advisor/consultant to improve the system. I think i would be qualified - but i'm not saying it has to be me, there are dozens of others out there very familiar with idocs too.

Coming back to what you said - any system can work. Lottos, thunts, monsters...you just have to scale them up/down depending on the idoc/situation, and make sure you think of every aspect intelligently. Such as - how do you reconcile the 7x7 idoc with 10 items to the castle with 5000 items - you can't auction off 2000 goza mats individually.
 

asuna

Adventurer
Im sorry but rafman i don't think you really understand idocs. they are all the same. and there is NO WAY to make a loto work in this game as many people have multiple accounts . yes you can auction off 2000goza mats individually some private servers actually had a global auction houses that worked fine. yes it would be more work than it is now but idocs have always been a for the vulchers looking for free stuff. and again rafman your just ragging you not giving actually credible information from everything iv read you post on this topic 90% of what you said is inaccurate Im pretty sure you just sit and wait but don't fully understand game mechanics.
 

asuna

Adventurer
and the only flaw in your estimate for accounts and houses is people like me that use a 1week GTC. and keep a house for 3months in total and then letting it fall when i am done.
 

Rafman

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Im sorry but rafman i don't think you really understand idocs. they are all the same. and there is NO WAY to make a loto work in this game as many people have multiple accounts . yes you can auction off 2000goza mats individually some private servers actually had a global auction houses that worked fine. yes it would be more work than it is now but idocs have always been a for the vulchers looking for free stuff. and again rafman your just ragging you not giving actually credible information from everything iv read you post on this topic 90% of what you said is inaccurate Im pretty sure you just sit and wait but don't fully understand game mechanics.
lol. Suggesting i don't understand idocs is hilarious. I'd say you can probably count fingers on one hand for the # of people who understand the idoc system better than I do.....a lot of people here probably don't like me very much, but i doubt they'd even disagree with that assessment, at least for the ones who know me.

I'd love for you to point out the "90% of what I said" that leads you to think I don't understand game mechanics.

What I mean when I said "idocs aren't all the same" is that some of the solutions people are proposing would address some of the concerns raised for some of the bigger idocs, or some of the tram idocs, but at the same time completely destroy other quieter, or fel idocs. And vice versa. Any solution or change to the system that is implemented should take into account that a system that will work for the best makes sense for all kinds of idocs in existance - the ones with 5000 items (hence you can't auction or lotto off all 5000 items individually), the ones with a bunch of scripters in trammel, the ones in fel that lead to great pvp fights (ie - don't just do a lotto/auction for everything, removing the PVP aspect of it). You need a system that is designed to address all of that.

Pretty sure you talked about an auction. Great. You just completely destroyed every single siege or fel idoc's ability to pvp over. Why start a fight, when all you have to do is come bid on items after?

As to the lotto....have you even read any of my posts in the past 2 pages? lol. I'm the one who keeps pointing out that if a scripter shows up with 25 accounts, and you show up with 1 account - that guy is going to keep getting all the loot all the time. Why are you telling me that now?

My point is - if you want a lotto system to work - you have to get creative and think outside the box and come up with a way to limit those who have access to multiple accounts. ALSO - you have to find a way to preserve the PVP aspect in Fel if you implement a lotto. etc.
 

asuna

Adventurer
a lotto will never work. pvp is dead anyway most fel idocs i got to are uncontested or its just greenbug to kill only time there is ever a fight over fel idoc is on atl/seige and the point of auction was a gold sink wich this game currently doesnt have and if you had an event announcer for either of my other 2 suggestions it would stimulate the game creating ingame events daily-weekly depending on how many idocs.
 

asuna

Adventurer
why do you think they cant auction 5,000items . some private servers they have working auctionhouses that have 50,000+ items listed it would not be difficult to implement such a change
 

Rafman

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why do you think they cant auction 5,000items . some private servers they have working auctionhouses that have 50,000+ items listed it would not be difficult to implement such a change
It's not that uo couldn't build an auction system to auction off items, and maybe even as much as 50,000 items. Think of vendor search - same idea, but allowing you to buy/auction right away. Doesn't seem too hard.

What you're suggesting is different. An idoc falls at a precise second. So for example - at 4:01pm and 37 seconds. Which means that at 401pm and 36 seconds all 5000 items from that castle are still locked down/secured in the castle. And then - within 1 second - at 401 pm and 37 second, an auction gets instantly created that lists all 5000 items for auction? I highly, highly doubt the system is able to handle that load, or that the devs are capable of coding that. Even if they were:

1. I don't like the idea of an auction. Paying super high for all items would defeat the purpose of idocs. It's supposed to be about getting "free" stuff, not paying for it. But outside of my personal like/dislike:

2. Out of those 5000 items - let's pretend 2000 are goza mats. Is it really worth wasting all these system ressources to auction off 2000 goza mats?
3. Will you have to flip to 500 pages (Vendor search lists 10 items per page or so?) to get through all 5000 items to bid on?

Auction is a bad idea. I responded to your other ideas on the uo forum
 

Meat Elemental

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Put punkbuster in like they were going to do awile ago or have something built in that scans computer memory for those illegal programs....

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk
 

asuna

Adventurer
no the purpose was never to get free stuff it was a punishment for not paying your monthly subscription. it should not be free nothing should be free you should have to work for it, and just set it to server up or something for an auction style rework. but again that was just a idea for a gold sink nothing more i figure a rich person spends 10p at the auction house its removed from game. and you would not have to flip just use the scroll bar UI in a search window like most npc . or even the UI for ECs scroll view. literally could page it out in EC style and view a few hundred items per page. that is why I say you dont understand what your talking about please try to understand the game more the data log can easily hold and transfer a few million items you ever wonder how TC works??

anything wrong with my other 2 suggestions because both would be perfect for solving this issue.

all of your suggestions would only benefit scripters so I am guessing that is your position on this matter.

and honestly if we do "Place all items in the bank account of the house owner, so they return sometime."
i would just close 4 accounts that are holding stuff and take that reward of free storage until the time i decide to get stuff off of the account. like i said its not a reward its a punishment for not paying up Britannia's land tax.
 

Rafman

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no the purpose was never to get free stuff it was a punishment for not paying your monthly subscription. it should not be free nothing should be free you should have to work for it, and just set it to server up or something for an auction style rework. but again that was just a idea for a gold sink nothing more i figure a rich person spends 10p at the auction house its removed from game. and you would not have to flip just use the scroll bar UI in a search window like most npc . or even the UI for ECs scroll view. literally could page it out in EC style and view a few hundred items per page. that is why I say you dont understand what your talking about please try to understand the game more the data log can easily hold and transfer a few million items you ever wonder how TC works??

anything wrong with my other 2 suggestions because both would be perfect for solving this issue.

all of your suggestions would only benefit scripters so I am guessing that is your position on this matter.

and honestly if we do "Place all items in the bank account of the house owner, so they return sometime."
i would just close 4 accounts that are holding stuff and take that reward of free storage until the time i decide to get stuff off of the account. like i said its not a reward its a punishment for not paying up Britannia's land tax.
I feel like we're having the same conversation in 2 separate places. In fact, you keep stealing my own arguments and saying them as if they're yours lol. I'm the one who was saying you can't put items in a packing crate because then people stop paying for houses for storage, knowing they get to keep their items for free anyways...But since you asked about your other 2 ideas, i'll respond:

There's nothing wrong per se about more monsters at an idoc. To be honest, your first and third idea are quite similar, whether it's 3-5 monsters, or monsters you kill to get a "key" of some sort. The issues/limitations with it are as follows:

1. Monsters grabbing loot, and instead of looters mass grabbing/scripting to grab bags on ground, you have to kill monsters for them. That's not a bad thing. The problem is - isn't this exactly what grubbers were supposed to do? And if you go to a castle that has 5000 items - maybe there's 20 grubbers that show up, and maybe combined they grab 100 items out of 5000. Clearly - grubbers are broken. If they can't get grubbers to work properly, how exactly are they getting even bigger monsters to work differently, when looting items?

2. If you make it too much about "big, hard monsters, you have to kill to earn looting rights...." it's starting to look like an EM event. I haven't been to one in a while, but i keep hearing complaints about bots having 10-15 characters and getting all the looting rights and earning the EM Items above others. Wouldn't you be turning idocs into a similar system? Because - you have to avoid that...

Finally your first paragraph. You're still being way too unrealistic. I admit i'm not a programmer, so i don't know exactly what the devs can or can't code, but to me:

1. It seems waaaay too complicated to have the devs code an "auction" of sorts that would instantaneously, the very split second a house falls (this is important - because one split second before the items are locked down in a house, and then they're gone - so it has to happen right away that all items get picked up and sorted into an auction) organize up to all 5000 items in an auction style or such.

2. Even if we assume they "can" do exactly what you say - your idea for actually accessing the auctions completely sucks. It wouldn't be like vendor search where you find 10 items per page at a time, instead it would be like an NPC menu you scroll up or down....ok that's better. Until you consider that the idoc castle had 5000 items. 3000 of those 5000 items are a mix of goza mats, chairs, tables, single pieces of cloth and reagents that were used as deco, and other mindless junk. Most npc vendors in-game have at most ~50-100 items in their inventory? You're not going to create some with 5000 items, and expect people to scroll through all that junk? That's as "unuser-friendly" as it gets.

You should go back to my very first post in this thread. The first question I asked is about the dev's ability to "sort" through items - i don't know what they can or can't do automatically. But I think the first step to any successful system change (whether it's an auction, lotto, thunt, monsters, etc) is the ability to have the game automatically "sort" through items, and either isolate the good stuff, or get rid of the junk. For that castle with 5000 items - for a new system to work - it would be best if the game could recognize that goza mats and chairs and other such items are worthless, and ignore them - leave those on ground when idocs fall. Or if they can't isolate the "junk" - do the opposite, and single out the "good stuff". So if you do an auction (or a thunt, or monsters grab loot, or a lotto, or any other # of suggestions people have said) - only have the "good items" included - items like artifacts, legendaries, deeds, certain rares (they won't be able to recognize/all).

This does 2 things:

1. The scripter with 25 packies doesn't automatically get everything anymore. Because all the "good stuff" aren't available for picking up on ground.

2. It doesn't completely destroy/kill the idocs playstyle, because "SOME" items still spawn on ground. Some good stuff too, as the system wouldn't grab ALL the "good stuff", just a lot of it. So people who still want to just "loot" still can get lucky and find good stuff here and there, easily on ground. You can still incorporate a few of my "anti-scripter" tweaks that i suggested, to limit the looting. such as - can't "grab a container" off the ground from an idoc for 30 mins, so you have to actually open them and look for stuff.

Bottom line is - they have to do a combination of things, and it's not as simple as "do a lotto, do an auction, do a thunt!" as some are saying.
 

asuna

Adventurer
and this is why i say you don't understand idocs or the game mechanis. since what you think is very difficult to code is actually very simple. the reason i say this is i have worked on other games and private servers to generate continuous and static events its not that hard once you know what you are trying to do.
 

Johnny Black

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The funny thing is:
All these crazy ideas and fix for a broken system since they "fixed" few year ago with the 5-10-15 hours and fail grubber, the funny this is, you guys are wasting time posting all this huge lists of a suggestion on a forum that the Devs dont read or care at all, so go ahead and move to the other board and post your ideas and they will not care either, because at the end of all this, will be Mesanna idea to fix (DESTROY) again and guess what, you will be mad again and somehow someone else will figure a way to explore the new broken system and laugh at you all.
 

ShriNayne

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It's been a few weeks since the OP in the original thread on the other forum was told they would open a discussion about it, but there doesn't seem to be any official thread asking for suggestions, just lots of small closed threads....I kind of assumed there would be some suggestions from the Dev team by now.
 

railshot

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The funny thing is:
All these crazy ideas and fix for a broken system since they "fixed" few year ago with the 5-10-15 hours and fail grubber, the funny this is, you guys are wasting time posting all this huge lists of a suggestion on a forum that the Devs dont read or care at all, so go ahead and move to the other board and post your ideas and they will not care either, because at the end of all this, will be Mesanna idea to fix (DESTROY) again and guess what, you will be mad again and somehow someone else will figure a way to explore the new broken system and laugh at you all.
Bleak was reading these forums less than 24hrs ago as of this post, and as far as Mesanna goes - she does not bother reading even the official forums.
 

MalagAste

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They aren't interested in our idea's they will just do whatever Mesanna's whim of the hour is at that time.
 

Uriah Heep

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They aren't interested in our idea's they will just do whatever Mesanna's whim of the hour is at that time.
Well she will listen to ideas. From the people who thought random resources would be good. lol
But nothing common sense or simple will come of it, bet your butt on that.

I'm not even concerned about an opinion, really. Not part of the clique that has input.
 

railshot

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Just had a thought. One of the ideas that I think is less than ideal, but still is better than most others is the moving crate. It is less than ideal because it's removing an activity from a game rather than fixing it. It is good however because it will increase the number of returning players.
However, the positive effect of this solution will start to be felt maybe 5 years from now. But the negative effect will be felt immediately. And this negative effect will be hoarders deactivating half of their 35 accounts that they only kept because they cant bear to part with pixel crack that they have not used in a decade. Now they can have free long term storage, and the financial impact of this will probably be felt.
So I think the moving crate is a non-starter because BS/EA will never go for something that endangers the immediate profits.
 

Uriah Heep

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So I think the moving crate is a non-starter because BS/EA will never go for something that endangers the immediate profits.
If they're so hard up for $$$ I wonder why they don't do away with the 90 day thing? Maybe because of who uses it? I don't know, but if they are really hurting, that is one really quick money grab that could be done.
 

railshot

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If they're so hard up for $$$ I wonder why they don't do away with the 90 day thing? Maybe because of who uses it? I don't know, but if they are really hurting, that is one really quick money grab that could be done.
You mean the house drops as soon as your sub is done? Can you imagine how the pancakestorm they will have to endure from all the people accidentally losing their houses? Ranging from people who forgot to update their CC when the new one came, to random charge denials, to billing screw ups.
Oh, and yes, I am pretty sure they are desperately hard up for money, and have been for years.
 

Lord Arm

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for me, the only solution is to stop the cheating. most other ideas wont solve the main issues. how we stop the cheating is debatable.
 

Dropkick Murphys

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These videos just prove that the person who made them has too much time and imagination. An insolence that my name appears in the videos. :talktothehand:
 

MalagAste

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We've all seen it... anyone who's done any IDOC in the last 5 years has seen it... We've talked about, screamed about it, posted about, sent in numerous reports about it yet nothing ever happens...

What they need to do is fix it like they did the Blackthorns thing... permanent solution to take this away from them... Strip all this stuff from the game and that ends their little parade right there. Yeah it's harsh... Yeah I hate the idea of taking out IDOCs but you know what I hate more... I hate watching jerks like this get away with all this stuff and get rich off it and IMO it's time they put an end to it and if that means no more IDOCs that's what it is.

Why not... when they realize they are ruining the game for everyone and when everyone realizes this is what happens when you cheat like that then maybe they will quit and pick up their toys and leave this sandbox. Perhaps then we can go back to playing UO and the DEVs can actually focus on developing the game for those of us who want to play by the rules.

While they are at it they can stop doing all drops at EM Events. If they all quit because they can't make a living off UO anymore then good riddance...
 

GarthGrey

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Like I said on the official forums, for now, just remove the House Sign notification, the absolute simplest fix. If you want to make a UO living with Idocs, then run around the shard looking for houses that have already fallen...case closed.
 

petemage

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Let's say we made you the BOSS GM for a 72 hour cycle. Your job was to go observe every idoc and ban any cheaters. Let's say for this example's sake - you go to a total of 20 idocs, and let's pretend at least 10 of them are packed with a LOT of people.

You're ready to tell me you would be able to tell, just by observing, which ones are cheaters and which ones are not, without any false positives? BS

It's true that some of the cheaters have gotten super lax and are way obvious in their mannerisms. Gating in 10 young characters with 5 packies each at the same time is kind of obvious. But as soon as you show up and ban those the first time - the next time they won't be so obvious. All you'd see as a gm showing up to an idoc full of people is let's say ~40 characters, and maybe 20 of them have 4 packies each. Most are not moving, waiting for house to fall. How can you tell those apart? You (not you the GM, but you the player who doesn't cheat) probably have a character there too, with 4 packies, not moving, waiting for house to fall....what differentiates you from the cheater?

When the house falls - then the GM can see who loots stuff quickly?

Ok. So you have the ability to have backpacks open of all 40 characters - and then are going to venture a guess as to which ones are the ones who cheated vs didn't?

You keep making these ridiculous statements "do this! do that!" - but you never actually think about what if feasible or not. Which - is fine if your goal is to be on a message board and go "wah wah this isn't working". But if you're trying to come up with actual realistic solutions - it takes a bit more effort than that.
It sounds like you reject any progress whatsoever unless it's 100% perfect. Unfortunately, it will never be perfect. But then it's not that much of a secret that it's really only half a dozen guys acting like there are no rules. Only nobody wants to terminate their dozens of paid accounts.
 

Rafman

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It sounds like you reject any progress whatsoever unless it's 100% perfect. Unfortunately, it will never be perfect. But then it's not that much of a secret that it's really only half a dozen guys acting like there are no rules. Only nobody wants to terminate their dozens of paid accounts.
Yeah - a new system should be as close to perfect as possible. "Perfect" is maybe a pipe dream, but a new system should be "great", or at the very least not contain major and obvious flaws, and it's not that hard to create one. Many of the posts here have major and obvious flaws, and so i've pointed out a lot of them.

There's one suggestion posted on the main uo boards i really liked. Something about displacing all idocs to green acres when they fall, and making an event out of all of them falling at once, with many set limits in-place. I think that had potential.

Most of the feedback from posters are one liners like "delete all idocs" or "do an auction" or "do a lotto" and don't take into account all the layers of the idoc system.
 

GarthGrey

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Yeah - a new system should be as close to perfect as possible. "Perfect" is maybe a pipe dream, but a new system should be "great", or at the very least not contain major and obvious flaws, and it's not that hard to create one. Many of the posts here have major and obvious flaws, and so i've pointed out a lot of them.

There's one suggestion posted on the main uo boards i really liked. Something about displacing all idocs to green acres when they fall, and making an event out of all of them falling at once, with many set limits in-place. I think that had potential.

Most of the feedback from posters are one liners like "delete all idocs" or "do an auction" or "do a lotto" and don't take into account all the layers of the idoc system.
You like that one because you know it has ZERO chance of being implemented, you're not fooling anyone dude.
 

Rafman

Sage
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You like that one because you know it has ZERO chance of being implemented, you're not fooling anyone dude.
It's fine if you don't like me and want to respond to all of my posts with attacks (across multiple forums too) - but at least try to be logical?

This entire thread is pretty much me responding to posters saying "no, this idea is too complicated/lacking and has zero chance of being implemented". So no - that's not why I like that idea, and i think it's one of the few that wouldn't be all that difficult to implement.

Auctions? Lotto? Treasure hunts? All of those are insanely more complicated than simply "displacing" a house to green acres (or some other location) - and then setting up an event once a week/or however often to have all houses drop at once. With many of the limitations i've actually suggested in this thread (limit to how many items you can loot, packies, etc).
 

GarthGrey

Grand Poobah
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It's fine if you don't like me and want to respond to all of my posts with attacks (across multiple forums too) - but at least try to be logical?

This entire thread is pretty much me responding to posters saying "no, this idea is too complicated/lacking and has zero chance of being implemented". So no - that's not why I like that idea, and i think it's one of the few that wouldn't be all that difficult to implement.

Auctions? Lotto? Treasure hunts? All of those are insanely more complicated than simply "displacing" a house to green acres (or some other location) - and then setting up an event once a week/or however often to have all houses drop at once. With many of the limitations i've actually suggested in this thread (limit to how many items you can loot, packies, etc).
I don't dislike you, I just think you have an agenda, but I guess I do too.
 

Rafman

Sage
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I don't dislike you, I just think you have an agenda, but I guess I do too.
I'm sure I have an agenda (doesn't everyone?) - but i'm sure it's not what you think.

I haven't done more than 5 idocs this year if that. Mostly been busy, but also I really dislike the 5/10/15h system, and also dislike the private house (all houses private). I just think it's not worth my time. Camping up to 15 hours for a private house that maybe ends up empty or with crap loot - i just don't have the motivation to do so if i'm being honest.

That being said - I maintain that there probably aren't more than 10 people playing this game who understand the idoc system better than I do.

Most of the suggestions posted, if they were implemented is, would break the system even more than it is today. I'm trying to avoid that.

"Make a lotto"
"Ok - but the scripter guy has 35 accounts, you have 1 or 2, so he'll still win all the lottos and get all the loot with minimal effort, how does it help you?"
"silence......"

"Make a thunt!"
"Ok - but there can be 5000 items in an idoc. Will you waste 3000 junk items like pieces of cloth and chairs spread out through thunts thus spamming/ruining the thunt loot and breaking that system too? Also - do you think they're even able to code that?"
"silence....."

"Make big monsters!"
"Ok - i actually like that - but grubbers were supposed to "loot items" and haven't worked properly since the start. If they can't even fix those, how would bigger monsters be any different?"
"silence..."

"Do an auction"
"Ok - but explain how auction works. A castle has 5000 items. Do you bid on each item individually? Do you expect an npc to show up with 5000 items listed? Most npcs have ~100 items tops. Also - do you think they're able to code the game so that each item is automatically listed in an auction the split second the house goes from idoc to falling? I don't"
"silence...."

For an idea to work it needs to actually address some of the problems listed, and also be relatively realistic, while not breaking some of the aspects of idocs that do work (fel pvp one of them).

I like the other idea for a few reasons.

1. It's fairly easy to code. No need for the system to automatically sort/auction/lotto off items in a split instant - all that happens is the house full of contents gets displaced, seems doable.
2. You limit a lot of the advantages of certain cheaters (can't loot all 20 houses at once if they all fall at once at green acres. limit to how much you can loot. no packies. etc, etc)
3. Still keeps fel pvp oriented (big fel green acres battle over all idocs at once sounds like fun)

I don't know if they're looking to make such a drastic change to the idoc system as that though. They might just do something super minor, like they usually do, with the house timer and such. If you look through this thread, i posted a lot of very simple tweaks that would help nullify some of the capabilities of looters who show up with 20 characters full of packies. But if they do decide to make a more drastic system change, this is my favorite idea yet.
 

Stinky Pete

Babbling Loonie
Supporter
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I maintain that there probably aren't more than 10 people playing this game who understand the idoc system better than I do.
I'm sorry, this might be the stupidest thing I have ever read. Please explain some of the intricacies of standing around and picking stuff up. I would be delighted to hear them.

I maintain that there probably aren't more than 10 people in the world who understand picking their nose better than I do. Change my mind!
 

Xris

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I'm sure I have an agenda (doesn't everyone?) - but i'm sure it's not what you think.

I haven't done more than 5 idocs this year if that. Mostly been busy, but also I really dislike the 5/10/15h system, and also dislike the private house (all houses private). I just think it's not worth my time. Camping up to 15 hours for a private house that maybe ends up empty or with crap loot - i just don't have the motivation to do so if i'm being honest.

That being said - I maintain that there probably aren't more than 10 people playing this game who understand the idoc system better than I do.

Most of the suggestions posted, if they were implemented is, would break the system even more than it is today. I'm trying to avoid that.

"Make a lotto"
"Ok - but the scripter guy has 35 accounts, you have 1 or 2, so he'll still win all the lottos and get all the loot with minimal effort, how does it help you?"
"silence......"

"Make a thunt!"
"Ok - but there can be 5000 items in an idoc. Will you waste 3000 junk items like pieces of cloth and chairs spread out through thunts thus spamming/ruining the thunt loot and breaking that system too? Also - do you think they're even able to code that?"
"silence....."

"Make big monsters!"
"Ok - i actually like that - but grubbers were supposed to "loot items" and haven't worked properly since the start. If they can't even fix those, how would bigger monsters be any different?"
"silence..."

"Do an auction"
"Ok - but explain how auction works. A castle has 5000 items. Do you bid on each item individually? Do you expect an npc to show up with 5000 items listed? Most npcs have ~100 items tops. Also - do you think they're able to code the game so that each item is automatically listed in an auction the split second the house goes from idoc to falling? I don't"
"silence...."

For an idea to work it needs to actually address some of the problems listed, and also be relatively realistic, while not breaking some of the aspects of idocs that do work (fel pvp one of them).

I like the other idea for a few reasons.

1. It's fairly easy to code. No need for the system to automatically sort/auction/lotto off items in a split instant - all that happens is the house full of contents gets displaced, seems doable.
2. You limit a lot of the advantages of certain cheaters (can't loot all 20 houses at once if they all fall at once at green acres. limit to how much you can loot. no packies. etc, etc)
3. Still keeps fel pvp oriented (big fel green acres battle over all idocs at once sounds like fun)

I don't know if they're looking to make such a drastic change to the idoc system as that though. They might just do something super minor, like they usually do, with the house timer and such. If you look through this thread, i posted a lot of very simple tweaks that would help nullify some of the capabilities of looters who show up with 20 characters full of packies. But if they do decide to make a more drastic system change, this is my favorite idea yet.
Everyone has tweaks that could work. How about just sitting a GM at idocs and watching 2 people on 30 accounts loot just about everything. I think we all know there are a few players who have better coding skills than the game designers. Just my 2c
 

Rafman

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Everyone has tweaks that could work. How about just sitting a GM at idocs and watching 2 people on 30 accounts loot just about everything. I think we all know there are a few players who have better coding skills than the game designers. Just my 2c
I'm not saying i don't want GMs to take a closer look at idocs in-game, it's just not as simple and easy as people say.

1. I hear there's only 1 or 2 active gms left in the game overall. If that's true - they can't cover every idocs, not even many of them

2. False positives. Let's pretend you're hired to be a GM tomorrow. What can you actually "see"? I honestly don't know. Can you see what programs each characters are running on their desktops? I don't think so. Are you just observing their actions in-game? If you just observe their actions in-game - can you really tell the difference between the scripters and not? I mean if you knew that 1 same person in real life was controlling 15 characters, sure it's easier. But how does the GM tell if that 15th character is that same cheater's character, or if it's actually you yourself who I'm quoting playing on a character who gets lucky grabbing a few items.

Does he just ban you anyways, just to be safe? Great - well he just banned you, an innocent player, for suspect of scripting without proof.

Also - at a big idoc which has 40+ characters - how can a GM "watch" all of them at the same time?

To be clear i'm not saying i don't want GMs to ban ban cheaters - i'm just saying it's probably not as simple and obvious as some people think it is.

I know some of the cheaters are mocking the system these days. Gate in 15 characters at the same time all named the same thing. Sure - that's easy enough, and if GM's could be bothered to show up, that's an easy ban. But the next day - they would just name their characters differently, and gate them in separately.
 

railshot

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
What they need to do is fix it like they did the Blackthorns thing... permanent solution to take this away from them... Strip all this stuff from the game and that ends their little parade right there. Yeah it's harsh... Yeah I hate the idea of taking out IDOCs but you know what I hate more... I hate watching jerks like this get away with all this stuff and get rich off it and IMO it's time they put an end to it and if that means no more IDOCs that's what it is.
There are plenty of other areas to cheat (pretty much any part of the game). So by that rationale, they should just shut down UO. Yes, we will all hate it, but at least those cheaters will get what's coming to them.

As long as there are law abiding players participating in IDOCs, shutting it down is a wrong system to do. Either fix it or leave it alone.
 

Sellingahouse

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There are plenty of other areas to cheat (pretty much any part of the game). So by that rationale, they should just shut down UO. Yes, we will all hate it, but at least those cheaters will get what's coming to them.

As long as there are law abiding players participating in IDOCs, shutting it down is a wrong system to do. Either fix it or leave it alone.
Lets find a way to stop the cheaters.
 

Rafman

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I'm sorry, this might be the stupidest thing I have ever read. Please explain some of the intricacies of standing around and picking stuff up. I would be delighted to hear them.

I maintain that there probably aren't more than 10 people in the world who understand picking their nose better than I do. Change my mind!
The intricacies of idocs have more to do with house placement than looting itself. I've seen a lot of instances over the years of GMS (even Mesanna herself) in-game wondering why a certain house was placed as it was, or couldn't place, etc.

I only said that because i was accused of not knowing what i'm talking about - which clearly isn't the case.
 

Rafman

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There are plenty of other areas to cheat (pretty much any part of the game). So by that rationale, they should just shut down UO. Yes, we will all hate it, but at least those cheaters will get what's coming to them.

As long as there are law abiding players participating in IDOCs, shutting it down is a wrong system to do. Either fix it or leave it alone.
Yeah. Imagine if when people bitched about pk'ers 20 years ago they "shut down" pvp, instead of just creating a different facet, Trammel, to cater to both playing styles.
 

jrede23

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Like I said on the official forums, for now, just remove the House Sign notification, the absolute simplest fix. If you want to make a UO living with Idocs, then run around the shard looking for houses that have already fallen...case closed.
The most unintelligent change they could ever make! either you are a coder or u know nothing about coding. They literally would just have bots running around everyday on a 2 hour loop notifying them that there's loot on the ground. These people don't work, sit at home all day long, and do nothing but look for idocs, nothing would change. That change would benefit only scripters, just like the 5-10-15 hr rule benefited only scripters who never leave their house. ONE SOLUTION ONLY, DELETE IDOCS PERM except FEL. Fel idocs should stay because scripts dont work in fel when your dead. For trammel ruleset, just delete everything before the house falls. Problem solved.

I already responded to that video on the uo forums. it's funny that all these people's names are brought up including mine, but the two biggest scripting crews in the game are conveniently left out. Seems like a conspiracy to rid their competition. Not good enough they get 80% of the house as it is, they want 100%. Pure greed and fake news. If I needed to survive off UO IDOC loot i wouldnt want them deleted. I want these worthless humans to have to actually leave their house and get a job for once. So DELETE THEM!
 
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