Bola Exploit

[Llewen]

(This post does not directly accuse anyone, nor do I know how to duplicate this exploit, I am simply posting so that others can be on the lookout for it, and can page about it, and if they figure out how it is done, send in a bug/exploit report.)

An entire guild recently x-sharded to my shard. I am a pvp tamer, and yes I use bolas, although I am not a stealth tamer - not that that is really important. I noticed that I was never able to bola these people, they would always be dismounted when I tried to throw my bola. I thought at first, ok, these people are really experienced pvp'rs, and they simply are dismounting when they see I am ready to throw a bola.

However, it became blindingly clear yesterday to me, when I hurled a bola at someone who was involved in a fight with someone else, and within a second of me throwing the bola, not before, and not later, they dismounted, and then remounted after the bola was ineffective, that something was up.

I am pretty sure that they are running a script that knows when a bola is thrown, and then auto dismounts them. It just happened too many times to be a coincidence, and many times I have prepared a bola long before these people even showed up, so they wouldn't have even received the warning message that I was preparing a bola.

If anyone notices the same thing, or knows how this is done, please page and/or send in a bug report and let's get this fixed. Do not post the details of how this is done in this thread please.

 

[Guest]

There have long been bola counter scripts, just not that many people use them.

 

[Llewen]

Well these were the first people I have seen use them, I noticed it specifically with two, but there were probably more.

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

They could fix this easily by making it so you can't remount when hit by a bola for a certain amount of time...regardless of whether or not you're mounted when it hits (Thus it will hit even if they aren't mounted).

 

[imported_Cysphruo]

<blockquote><hr>

They could fix this easily by making it so you can't remount when hit by a bola for a certain amount of time...regardless of whether or not you're mounted when it hits (Thus it will hit even if they aren't mounted).

[/ QUOTE ]

excellent idea for the fix

 

[KQ Galad]

I prefer to dismount people with a heavy Xbow. It really hurts.

 

[imported_raider red]

<blockquote><hr>

I prefer to dismount people with a heavy Xbow. It really hurts.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a heavy that is like 48 lightning,30 something velocity and around 45 DI and it is balanced.It really hurts when you get dismounted by it.I ahvent used it in a while so I forget the exact stats on it,but it is a monster weapon.

as for the origianl topic,I have noticed the bola exploit/script recently,thats Why I had stopped using them and only use my Heavy x-bow for dismount.

 

[imported_Spiritless]

Scripts can't do anything regular players can't do. They'd be no real way to detect an incoming bola without the message, as far as I can tell. Maybe they just have a dismount macro? It's fairly obvious who is coming in to use a bola, tbh.

 

[Guest]

Nope, i'm pretty sure there is a script that detects when a person has been targeted with a bola, and it auto dismounts them, considering even after targeting a person with a Bola it takes a few secs to throw it. I've used Bolas on my Stealth Assassin or Thief/Mage and noticed some people auto-dismount on Napa too.

Which is why when i'm on my Samurai/Swordsman and want to Dismount someone, i switch to my No-Dachi, ready Riding Swipe, charge the person, and right before i smack into them i use a UOA macro to hop off my Lesser Hiryu so when i hit them it dismounts them. If they're riding an Ethy the Riding Swipe deals an extra 10 Damage, if they're riding a living mount, it damages the mount and they can't ride it again until it is fully healed. Also, since my Fully Trained Midnight Blue Lesser Hiryu (Rarest color, 0.19% chance to spawn) with 108.0 Wrest is Guarding me, when i Dismount them he either attacks them if they were on an ethy, or immediately attacks their mount, often times killing their mount. A Riding Swipe on a person who's on an Ethy with a No-Dachi with Lightning really hurts.

 

[imported_Lord GOD(GOD)]

There is no system message when a bola is targeted only when first used so if you got the target up long before they were near you then there'd be no way for them (or a script) to see it.

 

[Llewen]

<blockquote><hr>

Scripts can't do anything regular players can't do. They'd be no real way to detect an incoming bola without the message, as far as I can tell. Maybe they just have a dismount macro? It's fairly obvious who is coming in to use a bola, tbh.

[/ QUOTE ]
There are plenty of times when it isn't obvious when someone is going to dismount you with a bola, and I do things like ready the bola before enemies come within range so there is no way they could tell that I had a bola ready, other than to look at my paper doll and see whether I had a weapon equipped or not. They could do that, but that doesn't account for the fact that these people are dismounting immediately after I throw the bola. Now it is true that I do re-equip my weapon when I do that, but I find it hard to believe that these people have my paper doll up, or are going to notice whether I equip a weapon or not, especially when they are busy fighting someone else. I could see it being possible that one or two really good pvp'rs might be on the ball enough to do this once in awhile, but to consistently do it, every time, with precise timing, reeks of a script to me.

<blockquote><hr>

There is no system message when a bola is targeted only when first used so if you got the target up long before they were near you then there'd be no way for them (or a script) to see it.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm about as certain as I can be that you are wrong about this. There is obviously some internal message that the scripts are grabbing when a bola is thrown, and seeing as someone has already posted that bola counter scripts have been around for quite some time, there is obviously something that the scripts are reading that is being processed (and please lets not get into specifics in this thread, if you know how this is done, or you figure it out, please submit a bug report, don't post the information here).

Any time someone mentions an exploit or a cheat, there is always at least one person that denies it's existence and tries to explain it away. Sometimes they are right. I'm certain that sometimes I have seen things that I thought were cheats and have been wrong about it - either I didn't understand what had happened, or the person was so skilled that it looked like a cheat.

However, there are also plenty of times that people are right about cheats and exploits, and I include myself in that equation, and in those cases, the naysayers fall into one of two categories. Either they are positive people who like to think the best of others, and truly don't understand the mechanics of what is being discussed, and don't wish anyone to be falsely accused, or they are cheaters themselves and are trying to throw their potential victims off the scent...

 

[imported_Lord GOD(GOD)]

<blockquote><hr>

There is obviously some internal message that the scripts are grabbing when a bola is thrown

[/ QUOTE ]

How can it be obvious if it's internal. I'm fairly sure scripts can only read client side information (if they could read server side wouldn't there be a 'put 100m in my bank' script?)

Maybe they just saw your name on the edge of the screen and thought ah theres that guy thats always trying to bola us.

 

[imported_Anakena]

Some scripts just react to the bola message and dismount/remount.

Few years ago they were rampant and, tbh, it was hilarious to have the string "menacingly....bola" in your bank macro.

 

[Guest]

Due to EA releasing UOs info as Open Source code awhile back, any scripter skilled and knowledgeable enough can look through it, find the Bola info, and create a script that constantly checks for that status flag on their char. As soon as it detects that block of info on their char, it auto dismounts them.

 

[imported_dexdash]

on the flip side there is also some bug that alows them to mout up while the bola is going off or while riding. again i dont know how its done bu ive been dismouted by 2 people riding me down several time recently

 

[Lord Mike]

I must agree with Lewyn on this topic. I'm on the same shard and as a dismount archer when attacking this guild I am completely blown away by all their macros and mounting abilities. Its extremely awkward watching 5-6 of the best PvPers on the shard chasing a dismounted guy and with 1 healer he is outrunning them and living perfectly fine.

The guild in question also can some how whip explosion pots at an EXTREMELY fast rate. I've hid and tried to stealth away and within 3 seconds there was a purple pot thrown in 8 different directions. They somehow seem to bypass the delay in UO and can click their mouse as fast as they want no problem, when i try doing that or smashing UOA Macros fast all I get is 'you must wait to perform that action'.

All the same while fighting them they would dismount their pet, bola you and jump back on their pet no problem. Was pretty damn frustrating, especially since like 80% of them were gimp PvP tamers. They do have UBER gear, literally the best of the best. I think I saw 3 or so of them with Vine Cords. One has a Blaze Cu Sid that rates as a 5 on the Pet Power Calculator.

I don't mean to cry hacks but I think anyone that got to experience their wrath was completely blown away not necessarily by their skill but by the abilities they had that no one else can match...legally.

On a side note rumor has it they xferd off our shard over to ATL. Goodluck.

 

[ake]

try to precast far the bola and w8 the targets, the only way they have to detect a bola is reading the message.

another cool tactic is type a fake bola message and when they r down poison/kill the pet

 

[Guest]

Well since the general excuse it seems these days is that people only use scripts on boring and mundain tasks maybe the pvpers were bored of being dismounted.

Alsa save the self rightouse crap of well I think dismounters are not real pvpers because no matter what youre opinion is you didnt create the game and are not a devoloper so you dont get to dictate what is a valide playstyle or tactic and it also doesnt mean you get to use it as a lame excuse to justify youre crappyness.