Dupe paranoia

[goldandblack]

After these recent bannings, the paranoia has set in and i asked a GM if it was possible to check the contents of my houses for any duped items,my reply was that is is not possible to check individual accounts and if i am suspicious of anything then i should delete it.GREAT IDEA, fantastic way to mass clear rare items from the game, i have been playing for over 5 years nearly non stop and have about 100 million gold, i'm not a money hunter i just like to play and keep what i get, but i am scared of what i MIGHT have and could one day try to log in to find my accounts banned.Why is not possible to scan houses and tell the owners any duped item they have and then delete them, why do they let dupers sell on their vendors for months then hit the innocent players that might buy from them.Is this like i said earlier just a way of clearing some of the items from the game because they are becoming too common.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

i wouldn't bother paging a GM asking questions like that.

 

[Lord Sir Scott]

Is guilty of paranoia...
I tossed some things because i was afraid they where just banning on the amounts of things people had...
Lets see i dumped...
7 Million gold into the Brit Lib Was afraid i had to much.
3 Million into the Zoo.
I now have like a million on vendors to keep them running... and about 60k in the bank.
Items.
i tossed 4 spined kits because i was unsure where they came from but i am pretty sure a tailor got them fair and square.
4 Blessed cat hat statues Bug wont open was unsure why i paid good gold for them but not a problem now...
60k Nightshade i had collected over they years...
about 25k in necro regs i collects...
something like 30k various ingots of all types...
and a lot of basic items....
A Shame really but as no ones talking better safe then sorry.

And on that note i also know someone who is dumping Event rares that i know
they earned so they are prob in the same mind or just want to get rid of them...
A Shame that the events ran so long and people had gotten nice collections and now
they have to get rid of them or be suspect....

 

[Connor_Graham]

Is guilty of paranoia...

Lets see i dumped...
7 Million gold into the Brit Lib Was afraid i had to much.
3 Million into the Zoo.
I now have like a million on vendors to keep them running... and about 60k in the bank.
Items.
i tossed 4 spined kits because i was unsure where they came from but i am pretty sure a tailor got them fair and square.
60k Nightshade i had collected over they years...
about 25k in necro regs i collects...
A Shame really but as no ones talking better safe then sorry.

Having a lot of gold, a lot of regs, and spined runic kits won't get you banned as long as it was all obtained by you. I've got 250mil in gold, 30k of each reg, and 17 spined runic kits (along with 15 bowyer's runics and a couple of runic saws, along with an aggy hammer and a few other minor hammers), yet I log in every day with no worries because all of it was obtained by me while playing the game. None of it was purchased from players.

 

[Zofinur]

I've got 250mil in gold
...
None of it was purchased from players.

u 'made' this gold urself, or did u earn some by selling legal items to other players?
Because if its from others it might be dud checks.

I still think that´s the only possible reason for my ban: Checks i was given as payment.

 

[o2bavr6]

Do you suppose it's a good idea to turn the check into gold form and then back to a check again, just in case?

 

[Zofinur]

turn the check into gold form and then back to a check again

I learned this is neccessary after i have been banned.
Quite sure i would still be able to play if i did this.

 

[Lord Sir Scott]

Having a lot of gold, a lot of regs, and spined runic kits won't get you banned as long as it was all obtained by you. I've got 250mil in gold, 30k of each reg, and 17 spined runic kits (along with 15 bowyer's runics and a couple of runic saws, along with an aggy hammer and a few other minor hammers), yet I log in every day with no worries because all of it was obtained by me while playing the game. None of it was purchased from players.

True but this is about paranoia, i still have tens of thousands of Reagents And Scrolls My self, i just dumped because i was scared. No communications from EA make a person Nervous hehe

 

[Black Sun]

turn the check into gold form and then back to a check again

I learned this is neccessary after i have been banned.
Quite sure i would still be able to play if i did this.

What about gold on vendors? If a player purchases something off my vendor, and he has a bank box full of duped checks/gold, do I need to dump this into my bank box and then as cash back onto the vendor just to be safe?

The only thing these bannings have done to me, is re-consider buying gold from brokers. Thankfully I pretty much have what I need/want for now, so I don't need the extra gold. The few million I have laying around will get me by for long enough.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

What about gold on vendors? If a player purchases something off my vendor, and he has a bank box full of duped checks/gold, do I need to dump this into my bank box and then as cash back onto the vendor just to be safe?

The only thing these bannings have done to me, is re-consider buying gold from brokers. Thankfully I pretty much have what I need/want for now, so I don't need the extra gold. The few million I have laying around will get me by for long enough.

Im still 50% paranoid
The sad thing is my gold is mostly on like 15 vendors.
If the vendors tracked activity, youd see how I slowly built the gold up over 6 years. It would be interesting to have vendors hold selling information for that purpose.

Maybe Ill post the idea.

I dont keep checks, I just get gold from them when I need it.

Did learn a lesson when a vendor fell with 40 million on origin but thats another story.

 

[goldandblack]

After all these bannings i still have my 4 accounts, would i be naive in thinking that i am safe now if i dont buy anything that might be suspect or will there be another wave of bannings to come

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

After all these bannings i still have my 4 accounts, would i be naive in thinking that i am safe now if i dont buy anything that might be suspect or will there be another wave of bannings to come

the problem is...

now you see verite hammer for 20 million and valorites for 40 million.

So you buy them. You paid the old market price.

How do we know they arent duped?
Fine you can buy one and use. Jeremy said/implied thats fine. She implied people were banned for having amounts that are above normal game play. Hammers I get. Gold I dont know what the threshold is.

But what we dont know is what if you buy 10 verites. Lots of people have 200million. Or if you buy a few every once and a while and mass them over a year. Like you buy them waiting for stygain abyss, and will use them on the new armors and weapons. Let just say that.

If a dupe occurs then and you have 10-15 on you, will you be banned?

Or what if I start saving gold, or sell off all my stuff for gold and end up with 300 or 400 million in my house. Thats possible. Gold dupe occurs. Do I get banned.

Thats my 50% paranoia. Im fine with buying 1 or 2 of things and using them or reselling them. Well mostly. Lower gold stuff. Ill never buy event rares etc.

 

[Maplestone]

I'm mostly worried about power scrolls, since I earn none of them myself (then again, I don't think I've bought a 120 in a year or so).

 

[Sellingahouse]

I didnt cheat and I still have my accounts, but Im worried. In the last 2 years I got 3 "real" rares, and my brother got some armor, he gave me a hat. I called him to ask if we counted everything on our accounts is there anyway we have 20 items that might be duped, he said no way.

My hat cost 20 million I kind of want to throw it away but I couldnt throw away my rares. Im not going to go shopping for one til someone says it is ok. Just think I buy 2 more real rares and some rubble. Then I go and find a sewing kit at an IDOC and all that puts my duped item count over.

I have already turned in much IDOC loot at brit, I tossed out some ice white weapons. I can still go shopping I always need gold xmas bells, but I better not by any server rares.

UO needs to find a way to wipe every duped item from this game, I will not be mad if my rares and hat get deleted. If I logged in one day and lost just one of my houses I would be mad and it would be over for me. I really hope they didnt make a mistake, but some of these post make me think they could of. If UO did then my account could be next, and I dont cheat.

 

[Gildar]

Here's my suggestion:
1. Don't dupe.
2. Don't buy rare items in bulk.
3. Don't buy expensive items in bulk.
4. Don't allow people to have vendors at your house if you don't know you can trust them.
5. Don't purchase items for cash.
6. Don't allow people to have access to your house if you don't know you can trust them.
7. Don't hold items for people if you don't know how they got them.
8. Don't buy from vendors who have rare items in bulk.
9. Don't keep large quantities of rare items obtained from an IDOC (or any other situation where you just find them) without paging a GM to check them immediately after finding them.
10. Establish references from those who want to supply items for an auction you hold.
11. Don't let a single person put up more than 2 or 3 high-end things per auction (unless they keep sole possession of those items and take responsibility for transferring those items to the high-bidder)
12. Don't hold items for more than one auction at a time.
13. Don't go worrying needlessly about items you've obtained yourself.

I'm not worried at all about being banned as part of any dupe sting.

 

[Amber Moon]

Well, I guess that since I have been fanning the flames on this a bit, it might be fair if I quit pouring the gasoline for just a bit. Here are some things to consider:

They say they have closed down the two known dupes. They can't exist anymore due to code changes. New duped items can't therefore come into being.

They did the sweep, or search, or whatever it was and deleted off all the property connected with those accounts. They don't exist anymore so you can't even get bit by an idoc from these.

Buying an item or two in Luna can't possibly amount to a "multitude of highly illegal items". I think you are quite safe to shop for items and equipment that you use in normal game play.

Things you might not want to do include buying high end items in bulk because the price seems sweet. I think for the majority of UO players this was never an option in the first place.

If you like the game and have fun playing, then by all means just go about your business and enjoy yourself. As a cancer survivor I can tell you for certain there are much bigger things then UO and this little tempest in a tea cup. Enjoy what you enjoy while you can.

 

[MYUO]

I don't believe at all that being "resourceful" will get myself banned, even I had vendors holding mroe than 1.5billion gold in my castle, 15-20 barbed kits, a filled val hammer LBOD, several verite and agapite hammers in my crafter's bank box, and tens of thousands of colored ingots. People, calm down. Comparing to those dupers or even big "traders" who got banned, we are small potatos. I got my gold mostly from my vendors, runics were from 6 years(?) of doing bod on 5 smiths/tailors, and ingots from mining and buying from other vendors. I am sure the some of those gold and ingots are directly or indirectly from dupers/scripters/exploiters. But I have never been afraid of being wrongfully banned. Why? because I haven't bought any of those super rares after the first wave of dupes hit a couple years ago. And I know the gold I have is nothing compared to ppl who are selling billions of gold for less $1 a mil.
For 99.9% of UO players, they don't have to worry a thing about being banned for having a few items.

 

[Black Sun]

As a cancer survivor I can tell you for certain there are much bigger things then UO and this little tempest in a tea cup. Enjoy what you enjoy while you can.

I was not ,by any means, paranoid or worried that I might lose everything. I know I've done nothing wrong, and I am always careful of who I buy from in game when it comes to large purchases. But, the above quote should (at least I think so) put a lot of this back into the correct prospective.

Amber is pointing out something very important. This is after all just a game. There are more important things in life to worry about.

 

[Zofinur]

Here's my suggestion:
1. Don't dupe.
2. Don't buy rare items in bulk.
3. Don't buy expensive items in bulk.
4. Don't allow people to have vendors at your house if you don't know you can trust them.
5. Don't purchase items for cash.
6. Don't allow people to have access to your house if you don't know you can trust them.
7. Don't hold items for people if you don't know how they got them.
8. Don't buy from vendors who have rare items in bulk.
9. Don't keep large quantities of rare items obtained from an IDOC (or any other situation where you just find them) without paging a GM to check them immediately after finding them.
10. Establish references from those who want to supply items for an auction you hold.
11. Don't let a single person put up more than 2 or 3 high-end things per auction (unless they keep sole possession of those items and take responsibility for transferring those items to the high-bidder)
12. Don't hold items for more than one auction at a time.
13. Don't go worrying needlessly about items you've obtained yourself.

If only this would be an official list, then i would even more convinced to be innocent!

 

[azmodanb]

Better rule...

1. Dont buy anything right now in bulk.
2. Dont own anything in bulk IE. Hammers, Kits, etc. unless you earned them yourself.
3. See 1, 2.
4. Dont let anyone sell stuff from your house.
5. Dont sell anything to anyone for more then 1M .. checks might be duped.

 

[the 4th man]

What about gold on vendors? If a player purchases something off my vendor, and he has a bank box full of duped checks/gold, do I need to dump this into my bank box and then as cash back onto the vendor just to be safe?

The only thing these bannings have done to me, is re-consider buying gold from brokers. Thankfully I pretty much have what I need/want for now, so I don't need the extra gold. The few million I have laying around will get me by for long enough.

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I'm betting duped gold has alot to do with this. Buying it or getting it from scumbag players.....that's the chance you take when you buy pixels....

I don't condone outside gold sales, never did. Sure looks like it's coming back to bite some players, IF indeed that is the deal.

 

[Black Sun]

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I'm betting duped gold has alot to do with this. Buying it or getting it from scumbag players.....that's the chance you take when you buy pixels....

I don't condone outside gold sales, never did. Sure looks like it's coming back to bite some players, IF indeed that is the deal.

Until my return to UO a year ago I shared your opinion. I never bought gold. The only thing I ever paid cash for was accounts. I'd bought 3 or 4 over the years. But when I returned I found that the economy in such a bad state that the 2 million I had saved up from the first time I played was pretty much pocket change. I found the only way I could get what I needed to bring my chars up to speed was buying gold to re-outfit myself. But now that I am fluid, and back on my feet my gold buying days were just about at an end anyway. I had considered buying a couple mil to get myself a nicer suit for my paladin than he currently has. But I guess he will be just fine with what he's got now.

 

[Juicy Fruit]

I am just plan scared for no good reason, I am a rares collector and a buyer/reseller. Which means I look for those awesome deals and resell making a profit. Now I am questioning everything I have bought and still own over the past few months. And I should not have to stop doing what I do for fear of being banned, because of some duper, and me inadvertantly buying their wares.

The fear that we are all living in now, only the people that are doing the bad things should be scared, not the innocent people. But I am scared, I am going to log in one day and my account or museum is going to be gone, with everything I have worked for, for 8 years ... It shouldn't be like that .... I love this game, and I am here till they unplug the servers, but not if I get punished for something I did not do or am an innocent bystander caught up unaware.

Talk to us, tell how you are making sure you are not getting the innocent people.

 

[THP]

Devs was 1m gold checks duped...quite simple yes or no!!! plz

If so do we need to ''recycle checks at the bank'' to clear them for ''good ones'' .. because anyone who trades items ingame for gold will have no clue whatsoever if they getting duped checks or good checks.. like me who as sold several Keeps for gold checks .....so its a crazy situation!!!.... and we need a answer!!!!!!!! like yesterday!!!!

 

[Oriana]

I'm with Gildar on this. Between the family we have 8 accts, none were lost and there is no reason for them to be lost. So no I'm not paranoid with what I have, but I do double and triple check any item I pick up from an IDOC or of a vendor. But I did that before, so no difference to me really.

Ori

 

[Yalp]

Simply putting up information on the patch screen saying something to this effect....

"EA has gotten credible reports that items xxxxx are currently being duped. Any account found to be duping or in possession of said items are subject to action."

This would easily do:
1) Dry up the dupers source for sales.
2) Notify every player of the situation
3) Reinforce their commitment to customer service.
*notifies us that they have gotten and are responding to our reports*
4) Avoids honest players being caught up in unjust bannings.
5) Cures the poisonous atmosphere currently existing in game.


then they can continue to work on the fix.. banning the snot out of any one with these items, dupers have no one to sell their crap to, and either have to move on or throw out their items. Its simple, it's great customer service and it solves the proliferation of duped items in the game.

LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

 

[Shelleybean]

I'm mostly worried about power scrolls, since I earn none of them myself (then again, I don't think I've bought a 120 in a year or so).

I worry about this as well. I don't buy very many things from vendors, but powerscrolls are one of the few things I do buy.

 

[blust4]

and ingots from mining and buying from other vendors.

BANNED! You support scriptors.

 

[Kelline]

Im sorry, i know this has been said, but i dont feel that a buyer should get banned for buying what they think is legit stuff. the items delted maybe, but not banned

I have no way of really knowing IF ppl that r sayin r really innocent but it is possible, cuz the ppl running the game r only human & humans do make mistakes,

but the houses shouldnt go poof right away, who knows it might have been a mistake & then what? the house & all the stuff in it would be gone & cant be replaced. I dont say keep the house forever, but a decent enough time just incase it was a mistake for it to be worked out then poof the house if it isn't proven a wrong ban. they can make the local of the house for a future poofing.


scripter & dupers, yes they need to be stopped, but not everyone that ones illegal stuff know that it illegal

 

[Lord Kynd]

Simply putting up information on the patch screen saying something to this effect....

"EA has gotten credible reports that items xxxxx are currently being duped. Any account found to be duping or in possession of said items are subject to action."

This would easily do:
1) Dry up the dupers source for sales.
2) Notify every player of the situation
3) Reinforce their commitment to customer service.
*notifies us that they have gotten and are responding to our reports*
4) Avoids honest players being caught up in unjust bannings.
5) Cures the poisonous atmosphere currently existing in game.


LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

this would be a great idea, but 99% of the time when i am clicking to log into the game and get uo started that screen never shows anything but white.. ( never gets a chance to load.. hate wait time's for something i pay for).
so displaying on those start up screens isn't to effective as i am possitive i am not the only one that rarely see's these screens except for the 'ok' button.


plus it is not updated nearly as well as most of the message boards.

 

[goldandblack]

For all those ppl that are shouting "everyone should know the prices of items so dont buy cheep stuff" i have to say, i have been playing for about 5 years and know next to nothing about prices. I log in, play (mostly solo PVM) then log out, i dont really interact with many players, only a few friends.It must be wonderful to be one of these players that knows everything about everything in the game but sadly i am not one.I have four accounts and basically i treat all my chrs as one family storing all their stuff in the same houses, i have a leg. tailor/smith on two different shards and i have never sold anything i have made, i have LOTS of bods which i never seem to get around to doing as im concentrating on my tamers now, but now im wondering is there some bods/rares stored and forgotten in my houses that might get me banned, im sure its a feeling felt by many players right now, im a horder and have lots of low level runic hammers which i have gathered over time but never have used, its all very scary at the moment.

 

[Connor_Graham]

For all those ppl that are shouting "everyone should know the prices of items so dont buy cheep stuff" i have to say, i have been playing for about 5 years and know next to nothing about prices.

If you were about to spend 20mil or so, wouldn't you ask?

 

[goldandblack]

I have never spent even a million on an item, im not a show pony posing in my finery, and i have chrs on drac and europa and the price difference between the two shards wide its impossible to know what price is a deal and what is just taking the ****.

 

[Connor_Graham]

I have never spent even a million on an item,

Exactly my point. If you were going to spend 15+mil, wouldn't you at least ask around so you'd know what you were about to spend more gold on than anything you ever have before? Or would you just blindly buy the first one you saw?

Besides that, Jeremy has already told us that a single purchase or 2 isn't going to get anyone into trouble. It's the ones that bought multiples that got hit.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Thank you! One of the best postings whatsoever concerning the mass hysteria currently going on!

Well, I guess that since I have been fanning the flames on this a bit, it might be fair if I quit pouring the gasoline for just a bit. Here are some things to consider:

They say they have closed down the two known dupes. They can't exist anymore due to code changes. New duped items can't therefore come into being.

They did the sweep, or search, or whatever it was and deleted off all the property connected with those accounts. They don't exist anymore so you can't even get bit by an idoc from these.

Buying an item or two in Luna can't possibly amount to a "multitude of highly illegal items". I think you are quite safe to shop for items and equipment that you use in normal game play.

Things you might not want to do include buying high end items in bulk because the price seems sweet. I think for the majority of UO players this was never an option in the first place.

If you like the game and have fun playing, then by all means just go about your business and enjoy yourself. As a cancer survivor I can tell you for certain there are much bigger things then UO and this little tempest in a tea cup. Enjoy what you enjoy while you can.

 

[Yalp]

problem with the message boards, is that not 100% of the player base comes to message boards. I'd dare say the vast majority of peeps just have time to log into the game, get playing and get off. But also putting out a communique on the forums would also be welcomed.. as would using the town crier system in game, sending out a notification to everyone in game at certain intervals.. like the shard take down notices.

Any way EA can find to communicate with their customers is preferable to the silence.

Yalpers!

 

[Gildar]

Devs was 1m gold checks duped...quite simple yes or no!!! plz

If so do we need to ''recycle checks at the bank'' to clear them for ''good ones'' .. because anyone who trades items ingame for gold will have no clue whatsoever if they getting duped checks or good checks.. like me who as sold several Keeps for gold checks .....so its a crazy situation!!!.... and we need a answer!!!!!!!! like yesterday!!!!

"Dear Dupers,
We have noticed that lots of you duped 1m gold checks in addition to the other items you duped, and then transfered those checks to other accounts. Please claim these checks and re-create them so that we can no longer track them.
Thank you.
- EA"
Riiiiiiight...

Also... I'm guessing they keep enough history on check cashing and creating by now that even doing that won't help you clear yourself from being banned for dupes if you had enough duped checks... though I'm guessing you'd need to do lots of trading with dupers before you'd have enough duped checks to be suspect.

 

[Llewen]

Here is my take on this. If you made it through the last round, you are ok. Even if you have something that might be deemed illegal, either it wasn't detected, or it wasn't in quantities to warrant action. Either way, you are ok.

As for buying items now, there has probably never been a safer time to make an large purchase than right now. The old dupes have been fixed, and as far as we know, no new ones have surfaced in the past week or two. A lot of the duped items, probably all they could trace, have been deleted, and any that are left are probably undetected, or again, weren't in quantitities that made them actionable. Again, either way, you are going to be ok.

I'm not sure what they did with single items on accounts they found that were duped. I'm not sure if those items were deleted, or left as they were, but again, either way, they are ok, and as I said, there is never a safer time than immediately after an action such as the recent one, to make a major purchase.