A way to deal with scripters and beathe life into an old skill

[UO Relic]

Ok in Fel we have ways to deal with scripters (ie OooOOOoo) but in Tram they pretty much get a free ride. But with a little coding they could give Theives the ability to steal resources only (ie wood,leather,ore) and lock it down to these items only (personally think gold would be nice to add as well but could see big headaches trying to implement this).

The theif would attempt to steal resource and the target char should get a message that a steal attempt is being made if they move their char even 1 step say within 5secs the steal would fail this would allow non scripters to stop the steal but for those that run these auto scripts you should have time to steal their resources before they recall to next location.

It would breath a little life back into the Theif profession and while it would not deter or stop the scripters it would make life a little harder on them and give those of us that get annoyed with scripters a way to get even.

hehe I can guarantee this idea wont be universally loved but just watch the people who yell the loudest are probably the same ones that would be effected by this change

 

[Killian]

Things that bothers me about this idea, is that, while I'm mining, what if I decide to take a break to goto the washroom or get a drink?( of course stopped mining during this time as obvisouly, I wouldn't be there)

That and when your mining, usually the side of the screen with all the notices is flooded with mining details.. so catching a little blurp about some guy stealing from you would definately get lost in the text mess.... thus, affecting even not scripters...

Cool to see People actually thinking of ways to deal with the scripters though... and I perosonally love reading peoples idea's about how to rid them in UO.. BUT it is always bothersome to A) not see any comments in any threads like this one, on this subject from any Dev's and B) not hear any idea's the Dev's may have or EVEN give us a heads up they are working on this issues so we can at least have a peace of mind knowing they are thinking about it...

 

[Nystul]

I would'nt waste a character slot for a thief if that is all I have waiting for me!

 

[Tina Small]

I assume that the person attempting to steal would become visible when they make the attempt, right? Could they be noticed by NPCs also? Would the thief go gray if they are successful at stealing? What if you discover the theft and call guards on them in Trammel? Will they be guard-whacked? If yes, could you loot their body even if they aren't in the thieves' guild? Could anyone else loot their body?

Also, isn't there a weight limit on how much a thief can effectively steal? Wouldn't that make trying to steal resources kind of pointless and rather time-consuming? Seems like with the high chances of failure and the low probability that anyone has resources that are actually worth stealing (e.g., high level ore, ingots, logs or boards) it might be more efficient to just go gather the resources yourself.

Also, I can just hear people screeching now about how EA must hate legitimate miners and lumberjackers if they are now going to let player thieves steal from them.

 

[Mankind]

One line of scripter code would make that trick pretty much useless.


Have a Nice Day !!

 

[Hanna]

One line of scripter code would make that trick pretty much useless.


Have a Nice Day !!

Yup

 

[kinney42]

One line of scripter code would make that trick pretty much useless.


Have a Nice Day !!

agreed.

 

[Wenchkin]

Aye, sad to say it, but things like that can be worked into a script.

Though in Fel a player I met simply stole ingots from a miner at the mining cave over the bridge at Minoc.. the bot never reached his desired weight for doing a bank run, so he kept on mining If only it was always that straightforward!

Wenchy

 

[UO Relic]

I agree that the scripters could add more lines to there code to make this not work but the more lines they add the less they can do, as I understand it most scripts do have a limited # of lines (not completely sure never looked into script programs myself). Was this idea meant to completely abolish scripters, no nothing that we do on our end would ever completely accomplish this but does it make life harder for scripters well yes it does and isnt that still a good thing.

Someone else asked about stealing in town . . hmm most scripters in town are working spells or bashing golems so didnt feel that anyone would try to check/steal for resources in town.

If you steal should you turn grey in Tram, I would think yes. Should you become visible when u attempt a steal - I would set it up just like what happens at Fel champ spawns now - plus the way the game is set now passive detect is usually giving us away anyhow.

For weight considerations - not sure about your theif but mine usually doesnt carry much with him but he could carry alot, for example figure most miners have shovels,multiple ores etc so should work out ok

Should you create a theif just to use this idea - thats up to you but a few of us still have theives created from when theiving in Fel was a valid past time before insurance and blessing and such.

Besides look at your options for dealing with scripters in Tram at present:
you can lure monsters to them -> this is considered greifing and can get u in trouble
you can put down bagballs or boxes to block there recall spots -> doable, not sure if considered acceptable gameplay or not
you can page a GM -> still stuck at #6 in the queue mega hours later, your not alone, trust me you'll get bored and go to bed or change to another char usually before the GM has time to make it to you on average
option 4 -> none that I know of

Most players in UO will admit that scripters and dupers ruin our economy and cause other issues, cant think of anything that players can do about dupers short of paging GMs, though the devs seem to be doing alot of work to make life harder for them *yippee*. So started looking at ways for players to deal with scripters, never said my idea was best but it could be a start , feel free to expand on it or adjust it but why just accept that scripters should get a free ride?

 

[JC the Builder]

I agree that the scripters could add more lines to there code to make this not work but the more lines they add the less they can do, as I understand it most scripts do have a limited # of lines

Scripts do not have a limited number of lines, they can be as long as they want. Your solution can be worked around so easily by the scripters. As was mentioned, it would only take a single check for the stealing message and they would write it to move their character one tile. Scripts can detect just about any message sent to them, that is why GMs have a hard time picking out scripters. When the GM asks if the player is there the script responds saying yes.

 

[Beerman72]

Things that bothers me about this idea, is that, while I'm mining, what if I decide to take a break to goto the washroom or get a drink?( of course stopped mining during this time as obvisouly, I wouldn't be there)

Doing the "#2" takes precident over the game, even if the game is #1 in your life.

Yes, yes, #2 does work for me.

JC. If nature calls do you run home and log? Or do you just *log*?

 

[Googly]

Their script wouldn't be able to do **** until they were already stolen from.

This sort of goes against the whole idea of Trammel, though. That, and the fact that most people gathering resources would rather do it in Fel then at half-capacity. The weight is always an issue, as well. 1 stone per 10 thieving skill. Do the math.

It would also require more than just a little programming. How would you have it differentiate between some scripting resource gatherer and some guy at WBB making stuff out of his frostwood? And if it doesn't, then that right there opens up way too much room for fel-style griefing in Tram.

I love fel. I hate tram. But the fact is, if Trammel were never released this game would be dead. You need those wimp-friendly rules.

 

[Landicine]

Yes let's add stealing from players to Trammel as a way to stop only the most incompetent scripters and give unpleasant players a way to bother people in Trammel. I don't know about you, but this system sounds like a problem. I can see harassment issues (someone bothering you again and again and again). I can see newbie torture (people who don't know they need to take a step or click a box or whatever will get taken advantage of). I also see scripters figuring out the system well enough to get around it.

The scripts that reply to GMs can only be so good. If the GMs weren't so rushed or restricted, they could engage the bot in a conversation and quickly see it degenerate. Random questions like "why do you need a million frostwood?" or "how many pieces of mandrake root are on the ground that you can see?" Again, this takes a lot of time and effort, but it will work in most cases. How many scripters are writing scripts that pass the Turing test?

I think a lot proposed scripting fixes just add more steps that can be easily scripted around, but actually hurt nonscripters more. The library collection is a prime example. Using Assist, I have turned in 3,000 spellbooks using a macro to make the books and target them for turn-in (it takes like 3 clicks to turn in a single book). I had to manually go through the books for any with mods I like (super slayers, multiple high desireable properties) which took the most time. A scripter could probably make 30,000 books in the same time and have the script put aside super slayers and other great books. How hard is it to have the script look at the properties of a book and move those with certain properties around? A couple of if statements?