Dead Scripter....

[unified]

How is it illegal?

I'm afraid I don't do such a good job with clarity early in the morning without coffee.

Popps asked "How hard would it be to simply code the 2d client (and the EC also...) to be incompatible with 3rd party programs so that the UO client would shut itself off each and every time it finds some other program running ?"

The assumption was that "some other program" meant "any other program", which indeed is illegal. Example, you cannot forbid users from running Notepad while they use your software. However, a specific program, especially one actually tampering with your software, is legal. You are allowed to detect intrusion and tampering.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

I'm afraid I don't do such a good job with clarity early in the morning without coffee.

Popps asked "How hard would it be to simply code the 2d client (and the EC also...) to be incompatible with 3rd party programs so that the UO client would shut itself off each and every time it finds some other program running ?"

The assumption was that "some other program" meant "any other program", which indeed is illegal. Example, you cannot forbid users from running Notepad while they use your software. However, a specific program, especially one actually tampering with your software, is legal. You are allowed to detect intrusion and tampering.

oh...well then, haha. More coffee next time I guess xD

 

[unified]

oh...well then, haha. More coffee next time I guess xD

... and coffee is probably what helped the original script designers who probably stayed up all night and figured out how to actually read the files that came with 2d. This was also during a time when UO was more popular, and the preferred programming tool was VB6 (released in 1998).

EA could definitely redo the 2d client using modern tools but, sadly, this would be time-consuming since you can't cleanly convert VB6 to Vb.Net, and whatever third-party libraries that were used may not compile and may no longer be available in source form.

It's equally sad that player action against obvious unattended scripters is considered griefing. What is really the response time for GM's to take action?

 

[Raptor85]

This was also during a time when UO was more popular, and the preferred programming tool was VB6 (released in 1998).

Popular with beginners and form designers (for business apps)....definitely not preferred

I would put money on it that UO was written in C with bits of ASM, as were most games in the 90's and early 2000's, so it would be easy enough for a competent programmer to pull apart and rebuild.

 

[Arcus]

Scripting will always exist as long as the 2d client exists. Those programs will not work with any other client.

Wrong. There are versions for the EC , they just aren't as public as the other one.

If you are in the data stream the client is irrelevant.

 

[DarkScripture]

Here is a thought to SOLVE all taming high end scripts.. Why oh why is a MONG BAT more agressive than a 800lbs male bull? Simple Make bulls mean as say.....A BULL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwFIWVNt4Kc&feature=related

Or this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhSOuXJbgA8&feature=related

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Years ago I played on a PRS where bulls would attack you if you killed one of "their" cows. So a herd spawns behind the Delucia healer hut. You go to whack a cow and are then attacked by 1 or more bulls.

Those of us who knew about this got some laffs on the poor sods just starting. We then explained things as we handed back their stuff.

 

[Elden of Baja]

For those who are actually curious
"Why don't they just BAN the cheaters, and how can they let it go on!"

Those cheaters are probably the only reason UO is still around. I'd say given a rough figure 80%+ of the accounts in game right now are macroing. Don't Believe me?

Downloaded: 10,605 Time(s)

Not going to say where I pulled it from, but that script is only 3 years old.

Let me Say it Again. 3 Years Old.

10,605 downloads / 3 / 365 = Around 10 downloads per day.

And that's assuming the download counter was never goofed/reset over those 3 years.

There are some actual numbers for you.

 

[Thav12]

Anti scripter Vigilantes talking about "rails" and associated "shop talk", and with intimate knowledge of how the scripts work or don't work also makes me highly suspicious that scripting is far more rampant than we care to admit.

Scripts don't kill the game, people kill the game (poor analogy, I know )

Just don't script if you don't want to. I choose every day not to script, not to smoke, not to drink (too much) and not to kill. Personally, I think scripting falls in the smoking and drinking catagory, not in the killing column, but I sense that for some people it equates capital crime deserving of capital punishment. Nuts...

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Curious, are you saying that cheating is stopping you from pvping currently? Or is it just abuse of certain bugs?

I gave up on PvP a long time ago(4 years ago or so), and ain't trying to get back into it until the 3rd party stuff is resolved. I know not all PvP'ers cheat. But when I was getting into it on Atlantic there was a guild full of Hacks {it was spelled differently tho lol} that openly used every cheat known and danged if they didn't create a few. When folks are not mounted and can outrun you while you are on a mount, stay a screen and a half to two screens away from you, cast exp-fs on a dead run without stopping and hit you from the afforementioned two screens away, it's time to call it quits. And I ping from 18-25 depending on the day. This was one of the guilds that Draconi eventually got ahold of {due to their mass duping} and showed them his form of wrath.

No biggie, I just stick to PvM and pixel collecting