Current state of the game?

[Ladro9hands]

Hi all,
I am a returning player and now wish I would have asked this question before I purchased Mondain's Legacy and started my account.
How secure is player storage now? Are exploits to steal items, boats, break in houses common? Do they occur at all?
I ask because the main reason my wife and I left the game was because about 10 years ago we watched a group of guys walk right into our home (through the walls) and take most of our things, all while a GM watched and said he couldn't do anything about it...like walking through walls was perfectly normal.
I had hoped that all of this was in the past and the game had improved but just yesterday the boat that I left locked outside of Haven with all my excess items that couldn't fit in my bank was stolen. A GM was kind enough to port me onto my boat, which was on the other side of New Haven but the hold was completely empty. He said he couldn't do anything about it and when I asked if there was any way I could ensure that this would not happen again he would not respond.
I tried searching these forums but because of all the recent bannings all I can find in a search is info about duplicating items being a serious issue. Also that some people are able to use an e-field to gain access to public houses? This is somewhat disheartening because duping was also an issue many years ago. I really love this game and I would really like to play but what is the point if someone can just walk over and grab all the stuff you spent all day hunting for?

If you have had a recent experience with exploiters breaking into your home, or boat or whatever please comment here so that I may be better able to judge whether I should quit now and avoid the frustration of exploiters, or if there is only a problem with boats or whatever. Unfortunately I imagine that many people who have been the victim would not be reading this as they would have left the game already but I have no way to reach those people so I am hoping that despite this I will still get a good idea of the current state of the game.

Thanks

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

i can't help much except to say i've been playing 5 years and have never heard of anyone breaking into someone else's boat (without a key) and stealing stuff. maybe someone else can shed light on this?

and the only way (i think) that players can steal stuff from your house is if your house is public and they stealth in behind you and steal stuff as you unlock it. but the "detect hidden" skill allows you to check your house for stealthed players (even with zero skill).

sorry for your loss, i'm not sure how they managed to steal your boat without your key.

 

[Ken of Napa]

Nine Dark Moons is right, as far as I know you can't break into a boat and steel anything unless they have the key, or the side of the ship is unlocked. Also you can't move a boat now unless you have the key.

Also, you didn't mention what shard you are playing, but if you are on Napa, Atlantic, or Cats I can help you get started and replace anything you may have lost. If you play another shard I may still have some items that could help you, with 8 accounts I have charcter's on almost every US Shard

Let me know if I can help in any way.

 

[Uriah Heep]

that I left locked outside
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Have no idea of a new way to get onboard and loot a locked ship. And I'm sure if there were someway, a new hack, or whatever to do it, we would have heard about it here by now.

Keep in mind, you have to lock BOTH sides of the ship...otherwise anyone can get onboard and go sailing, without a key. In fact, in my ,mischevious years, I used to love to get on a ship, turn it to open sea, and say "Forward" and recall off back to my original destination

No harm done, just give the owner something to wonder about LOL.
But if it was locked, both sides, there is no entry.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Also you can't move a boat now unless you have the key.
----------------------------------------------------------

They've changed this in the last 4 days then. Because you can move a boat without a key, as long as no one else on board has a key. The key puts you in Godmode, YOU command the ship. If no one has a key, anyone can sail it, tillerman will respond to closest char to him, same is true if 2 peeps have a key on them.

 

[Omnicron]

They fixed the exploit that allowed people to get onto boats years ago. Houses are pretty secure. You can make your house "private" and no one but yourself and the ones you want to let in can access it.

The only small prob, is what people refer to as the "insurance bug" which is where some or all of your armor falls to your corpse. It happend to me twice, but people SWEAR that it doesn't exist. But for the most part, the game wont be anything like your remember it when you left. Completely new and youll just have to see for yourself!

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

You dont need a key to control a boat.

You might have left 1 side open. Sorry for your loss.

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

I will be echoing most everyone else.

I left when Tram was about 8 months old. I returned lage march/early april of this year.

I have not heard of, nor do I have any reason to believe that secure containers are not 100% secure.

Every LockDown, Secure, Door can be given security rights. For a House Keys are no more. One can make a House Public, have doors on it and set the doors to Co-Owners Only (for example). No one is going to open those doors. I can envision a house with NO doors to it and being public. Let us say I leave the South most tile unbilt on (Think Customized House). Now lets place a teleport on a square that we left Unbilt on. We set that Teleport access level to Co-Owners only. You can place all the Vendors along that southern most walls and no one can get into your house even if they are stealth stalking you. You step on the Teleporter and your teleported to the matching teleporter, presumably insiide your house.

With a Customized house, you do NOT need supporting structures to support the next floor. You just need the Cornor spots to support the next level. This would allow you to give away a number of tiles on the first floor without being required to give them away on higher levels/floors.

As far as Boats, there is no explanation to your problem given it the way you have stated. As everyone has said, no key and both sides locked, the boat is going to be were you left it, with what ever is in the hold. So either what you believe to be true is not OR there is in fact a new exploit. I dont know, perhaps a stealther could have gotten on your boat, if you used the boarding planks to get on/off the boat rather than recall (target the key) on to the boat and off the boat. I do not believe you need to unlock the plank to exit the boat but I think you need to unlock the plank to get on the boat. Once unlocked, a stealther could also get on and simply wait for you to leave. I think that may be able to account for it, possibly.

What I did was save the Gold up to get the cheapest possible house, bought it then placed it. If it is a Customized house, then you place a foundation and event that, if the house is private, is just .... as far as I can tell .... Bullet Proof. I don't recall the price of that house being all that much more than a boat.

In addition, as for the Insurance Bug thing. It may or may not be the same thing. I bought an item that was Insured (obviously by some one else). It would repeatedly go to the corpse. I am not sure if other things did or did not. I eventually uninsured it then insured it. The problem went away.

 

[Emil Ispep]

How secure is player storage now? Are exploits to steal items, boats, break in houses common? Do they occur at all?

Fairly secure. Only real way to be stolen from is if you have co-owners to your house that loot any chests they have access to.. Boats, if you leave it unlocked, or get the key stolen.

somewhat disheartening because duping was also an issue many years ago

Still is.. Be cautious of who you buy from and what you buy. Good idea to frequent the boards and read up.

They fixed the exploit that allowed people to get onto boats years ago

Back in the day, you were able to place items on the deck of your boat. Any items not in the middle could be reached and taken by another player if he also has a boat, and sails right next to yours, n walks out on the plank.

 

[Bodhi]

You dont need a key to control the boat, but if another person is on the boat who does have the key, your commands will not work.

 

[Ladro9hands]

Thank you to those that replied. It is encouraging to hear your positive remarks. I will assume that the incident with the boat was either a very diligent and patient sneak or an oversight on my part. I am hyper-aware of security but still only human so I suppose I might not have double clicked each side of the boat and waited for the "that is locked message" the very last time I left it like I normally do.
Also thank you to those that offered help, but despite the theft I am finding that cash is remarkably easy to come by this time around.

 

[Maplestone]

I tend to treat boats as disposable - even at a casual rate of light farming, I can replace one in an evening. I have never lost one to anything other than failing to refresh it for a couple of weeks. Even so, I only keep items in the hold temporarily though - there's no shortage of small housing spots on most shards (and even open 18x18s on some).

House security is a "drop everything and fix" issue to the devs. There was a brief exploit a year or so ago that let a person to get into parts of the house they shouldn't have that got fixed so fast it would make your head spin. If you're worried, keep the house private and you'll be fine.

 

[concernedplayer]

2 ways to get onto a boat.

First one, very unlikely, is that someone had a boat parked where your boat is now parked, and they logged a character out there, letting it time out for 5 minutes. They then moved their boat with another account. Then you parked yours there, and later they logged into your boat. Highly unlikely this happened, unless (for instance) you go fishing every day and park your boat in the same spot every night, with stuff in the ship hold. After they see the pattern a few days they realize they can just log a char out over where you park your boat and get your stuff.

Second way is also highly unlikely, and don't even know if it works anymore. It used to be you could get onto your own ship, cast gate to land, walk through the gate, lift your boat up, then walk through gate again (over water). Then you hide there and wait for someone to sail by, and if they pass over you they "pick" your hidden char up.