IDoC drop timing...

[TheScoundrelRico]

No, this isn't a question in regards to how long it takes for one to fall, but more to ask the developers to look into making them drop more randomly. On Siege the way the timing works is that all IDoCs drop around 2 PM in the afternoon. The problem with this, is that many of us actually have jobs that don't allow us to play UO while in the office (yeah, I know, I do post on Stratics from the office).

Would it be possible to get the IDoCs to have a larger window for them to fall? Not to eliminate the chance they drop in the day time, but open the randomness to allow them to drop at anytime during the day or night...say a 12-18 hour window? This would allow more players to actually have a chance to IDoC hunt then there are now...la

 

[Sarsmi]

You can still camp on weekends.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I suppose, but I find most of my play time comes during the week after i get home from work and the gym...la

 

[Dragonchilde]

I agree; on Chesapeake, it's between 12 and 1:30 - all of them. Aren't they theoretically supposed to fall more randomly than they are?

Then again, I can't really see the advantage behind making them so random it's impossible to do them... I just plain don't have eight hours in a day to devote to doing nothing. I would like to see them fall a bit more randomly, though, still predictably enough that if you're attentive, you can get a few hours' window. Especially since they tend to fall right around when I need to be feeding myself and others.

 

[Ironhand1]

What needs to happen is make the fairly worn cycle stage random. Have the cylcle be anywhere from 0-24 hours. This way the other cylces would work as they normally do. This would add randomess as to the times they would fall, but would allow for predictablity as to when they will fall for campers who camp from GW to idoc.

 

[Tycolby]

I thought it was Rico's Job to post on stratics.

 

[It Lives]

They should get rid of Idocs altogether.

They inspire greed, some serious scripting and the hording of non-earned items.

Did I Mention some of the most petty behavior in all the game?

Peeps talk about balance, well here is one of the most unbalancing events in game.

Get rid of idocs.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

hording of non-earned items.

ROFL...la

 

[Giggles]

They should get rid of Idocs altogether.

They inspire greed, some serious scripting and the hording of non-earned items.

Did I Mention some of the most petty behavior in all the game?

Peeps talk about balance, well here is one of the most unbalancing events in game.

Get rid of idocs.

Non Earned? psh.. Most of my game time is devoted to finding idocs as well as waiting for them to fall. And then you have this awesome thing called 15 other people there, so your chances of getting anything worth your time is pretty slim. Its a game play style of its own, and to take that away from the game would be one more nail in the coffin.
Most things in this game inspire greed, and some serious scripting. Might as well shut the whole game down if those are your only logical reasons on why IDOCs are bad.

 

[Theo_GL]

They should get rid of Idocs altogether.

They inspire greed, some serious scripting and the hording of non-earned items.

Did I Mention some of the most petty behavior in all the game?

Peeps talk about balance, well here is one of the most unbalancing events in game.

Get rid of idocs.

Amen.

Or how about have the house signs not show decay except to owners and co-owners? Then they would truely fall at *random*.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I thought it was Rico's Job to post on stratics.

If they want to start paying me per post...sure thing...la

 

[Thangorodrim]

I suppose, but I find most of my play time comes during the week after i get home from work and the gym...la

Gym? Which facet is that on?

Seriously, you need exercise beyond the epinephrine induced endocrine cascade induced by the stealing high?

 

[GarthGrey]

All IDOCs do NOT drop around 2pm on Siege, do they Hoffs?

 

[Tek]

I wonder if he is upset about missing the loot from the idocs or missing the loot from the idocers

 

[Lyconis]

I'm almost certain IDOC drop timer is based on when the accounts stop getting paid for. If someone cancels their account the rotation cycle starts then, at the time of cancelation. If someone removes the billing information, or do not have the funds in the account it will rotate in the normal games billing cycle. I can't think of a good way to fix this besides rotating the houses to all fall during prime times.

They should get rid of Idocs altogether.

They inspire greed, some serious scripting and the hording of non-earned items.

Did I Mention some of the most petty behavior in all the game?

Peeps talk about balance, well here is one of the most unbalancing events in game.

Get rid of idocs.

I have to disagree with this, especially the behavior and greed. I ran with some Canadian idocers, we shared the locations, shared the loot and had great fun. We didn't always place the houses we didn't always get the best loot but when we got something we all shared. We had one rule, the player that finds the house can take dibs on the items they want and the land, and of course share if you don't "need" or want something. Good times especially at some of the "high prize" idocs. 40+ million and some nice rares getting spread out to all that attended.

Scripts are unfortunately part of this game and have been for some time. I find when I get mad at them I try to take a break and do something else (which I do more often than not). The best thing you can do is learn how things work and how to place houses and scout a house before it drops so you can get an idea of what to loot. Then of course working on looting speed by turning off the container offsets, and setting your game window up for the best efficiency. I know that being smart doesn't get rid of scripts but it gives you a chance.

As for unbalancing, I think that idocs are great for new players to meld into the wealthy "high life" society some in UO are part of. Its more of a lottery really not every idoc has anything worth looting, some have no items what soever.

Housing and IDOC's are a "feature" in this game that add another style of play removing them after 10 years because you were out-placed/out-looted sounds petty and greedy to me.

 

[Sweeney]

Changing the timing to be based on the RNG is so simple (even if the RNG is not so random).. this fix is so simple the devs must have a bias against American workers. Making the timing random would benefit everyone, not just the select few who have time off at 9:30 am EST.

 

[Dragonchilde]

They should get rid of Idocs altogether.

They inspire greed, some serious scripting and the hording of non-earned items.

Did I Mention some of the most petty behavior in all the game?

Peeps talk about balance, well here is one of the most unbalancing events in game.

Get rid of idocs.

So it's better for those irreplaceable rares and mementos to just vanish into the ether? My old guild's guildstone, an irreplaceable piece of our shard's history, came into one of my current guild members' hands through an idoc. If it had fallen unnoticed, or just disappeared to appease anti-scripters, then what would that have served?

In my experience, idocs actually inspire camaraderie. We talk, we chat, we yell at the house. I've made several new friends since I've started camping idocs.

I think it's actually one of the THE most balancing events in the game. Everyone's the same when those walls disappear.

 

[Sweeney]

The devs have never commented on this (at least to my limited knowledge).. but it is an easy fix to make the timing random.

 

[Lord Gareth]

Im not sure how to do it well. Since people play different shards like some it might fall 2pm your time but for their time is 7pm or something like that. Everyones play time is different.So when your at work and its falling someone else just got home from work two hours ago.

 

[Sweeney]

Im not sure how to do it well. Since people play different shards like some it might fall 2pm your time but for their time is 7pm or something like that. Everyones play time is different.So when your at work and its falling someone else just got home from work two hours ago.

Yes but as is, the time is not random. Join with us and say it should be fair to all! Falling at random times so everyone has a shot at any time of day.

 

[Demonous]

Non Earned? psh.. Most of my game time is devoted to finding idocs as well as waiting for them to fall. And then you have this awesome thing called 15 other people there, so your chances of getting anything worth your time is pretty slim. Its a game play style of its own, and to take that away from the game would be one more nail in the coffin.
Most things in this game inspire greed, and some serious scripting. Might as well shut the whole game down if those are your only logical reasons on why IDOCs are bad.

i feel bad for u if u spend most of ur game time looking for idocs... u honestly dont need idocs in an mmorpg to make it a successful one, i started playing darkfall and it is a ton of fun without the presence of houses, dont get me wrong i've made a ton of gold from idocs myself but they aren't necessary, imagine the things people could do in game if idocs didn't exist... theres plenty of other easy ways to make money

just an fyi, idocs always fall exactly 7 hours from when they go idoc

 

[Giggles]

i feel bad for u if u spend most of ur game time looking for idocs... u honestly dont need idocs in an mmorpg to make it a successful one, i started playing darkfall and it is a ton of fun without the presence of houses, dont get me wrong i've made a ton of gold from idocs myself but they aren't necessary, imagine the things people could do in game if idocs didn't exist... theres plenty of other easy ways to make money

just an fyi, idocs always fall exactly 7 hours from when they go idoc

Don't feel bad for me at all. I enjoy looking for and being at idocs. Its not just a greed factor for me. Its something to do that's always fun different and exciting. I have been doing this now every week for three years. And another three years prior to me quitting. I'm very familiar with all the times of the cycles and have seen dang near everything there is to see when it comes to idocs.
I just don't feel that just because one person doesn't want to spend the time.. or doesn't get anything, or just all around sucks at idocing, that it should be removed from the game. If you don't like them then don't bother. But there are those of us who very much so enjoy them. And it IS how we play the game. To take that away would not be fair for any reason.

 

[jack flash uk]

Rico

so what you are saying, is that you want to affect maybe hundreds of players just so you can do idocs

players like me, find them, guilds time them, players share locations and times, and you want all this changed just for you??

as Sarsmi said, weekends for you


thanks but no thanks, they are fine

you will just have to wait until server down time, this will add time to idocs for anything up to a week, all YOU have to do, is find some and time them, and YOU can have them then

the reality is, nobody wants to share with you, as it takes alot of time to earn the trust in other idocers, and you want to ruin it, is this the truth???, or are you just looking to get on more peoples nerves with you CONSTANT trouble making???


i thank you

 

[Lord Gareth]

Yes but as is, the time is not random. Join with us and say it should be fair to all! Falling at random times so everyone has a shot at any time of day.

But it wont be. It wont help regular people at all it will only help scripters. Just like random ore mining. A scripter has a better chance of getting more Valorite because they script it all day for hours then me who does it by hand for an hour or so.

If you random Idoc times then you just help Gold and item selling sites because they have to cheats for when the house sign goes poof it goes DING DING DING just like the scripters on Chesapeake had something that went DING DING DING when a doom arty spawned or a tokuno one.

Randomizing the time doesnt work. Now I would say setting each Idoc to the time on the shard. Like Eastern People they fall like this. So EVERYONE has a chance.

Sundays- 9am- 12Pm
Mondays 12-3pm
Tuesdays 4pm- 7pm
Wednesdays 9pm-11pm
Thursday 12am-3am
Friday 3am- 6am
Saturday 6am - 9am

That way you hit almost EVERY Time. So if I have Tuesdays and Saturdays only off for work at least I have a chance to get an idoc that day.

Shoot even put "This house will fall 9/15/09 11:30am EST

Now you dont even WASTE your time sitting. I do happen to LOVE the thrill and quick Jolt of energy when it goes poof and its a private house and you had no idea what was inside. To me thats exciting enough heh.

My main point is if you randomize it TOTALLY The scripters will win because they don't even have to check it their cheat does.

Now besides putting the house sign saying exactly when it will fall fine no big deal (dont'). jack flash uk it is NOT that hard to time an Idoc almost ALL idocs on Chesapeake fall from 11:30-1:30pm EST. Everyone would be going out to find them and work just as hard as you do. Like I stated above maybe if your following the Idoc timer right because almost ALL idocs hit IDOC at server up it doesn't matter what time it goes. You already know its going to be down between 11:30 and 1:30 so if its Wednesday you now know its going to fall from 9pm - 11pm.

I do Idocs and I use them to supply the auction house but, don't tell Rico that it shouldn't be changed just for him it should be changed for everyone and him. If you couldn't make the Idoc times like almost all idocers do now then you would be on this band wagon of changing it too.

I happen to be able to be at EVERY SINGLE IDOC on Chesapeake and any EAST COAST SHARD cuz I'm not working at that time. To bad 80% of the shard cant be. Not all Idocers are as greedy as some say. I do idocs and I say change the times but not to a full random because then only the cheaters will get it.

I have a little insight to Idocs and gold selling and item selling websites and they would LOVE for you guys to make it pure Random because you all wouldn't be making it. You think these people selling UO stuff on websites have jobs? NO!!!! They have their website selling job and your only ripping yourselves from idocs by making it pure random.

Set up a Mild Idoc Schedule like what I posted above. If a house goes Idoc at server up then it should follow those rules or something like it. Public information so everyone has a chance to experience them.

 

[jack flash uk]

Further info

When i started idocs on Europa it was very nasty and offensive environment, lots of accusations, and abuse

when i joined a guild and we met the "same old faces", we all became friends and SHARED locations times etc, the more the merrier, we also SHARED LOOT, no matter how good

it became a real pleasure, and since i left europa to play another shard, i have quickly joined a new idoc guild and we are starting to get on with other idocers

the only problems are caused when NEW idocer turn up, do not share, LURE monsters and are generally unsavoury to the regulars and get very little


so rico how about this, and i know it will hurt but!, join an idoc guild, go and help them find idocs, maybe even time them, and guess what, you can have some of the treasure

i find them and sadly my idocs fall at night when i am in bed, on my days off i get up for good ones, but i still get a share on the loot!!!

ther eoyu go, instead of trying to GET IT ALL YOURSELF, become par tof a team

and that goes for any NEW idoc player, it is alot of commitment to do it yourself, enjoy the team spirit, you WILL get the rewards

tell me another legal way of getting gold, ethies artis etc when you are alsepp and i will listen

The only players who keep on about idoc this and that, change this, change that, are the ones who want it all to themselves and want to stop other, who are faster, better or have better internet etc. THESE ARE THE ONLY REASON THAT THEY WANT IT CHANGED

work my ass, you have weekends

i can't sols the guantlet or a peerless, so i joined a guild. this is how you get on in this game, get on it, or stay in the shadows

YOU MUST ADAPT AND CHANGE, THE GAME SHOULD NOT

anyone on europa that feel differnetly, look up Whispering Green at an idoc, impress him, share with him, you WILL learn and gain a fortune from him, he was my guild leader, and IS my friend, and i miss him greatly, and the rest of the crowd

including

priscilla
maid marion
suhuy
frey
joe green
ima limey
heart breaker
zyrex
Thunter
Wokhoss
Lucy of Kenton
Dreamweaver
Dreamweavers missus

plus many who have moved on......

any of these players would gladly share loot and locations, think of how many more idocs you can get sharing

 

[Lord Gareth]

tell me another legal way of getting gold, ethies artis etc when you are alsepp and i will listen

maybe its not about making gold to everyone. Maybe people would like to experiance it for themselves. I happen to sell the idoc items at auction and give away MILLIONS back to the community. Not everyone wants to join a guild and Idocs are not PvP or PvM. Yes a PvPer may be around or a Monster but the house isn't attacking you.

Its silly that all Server up Idocs fall at the basic same exact time of day. Your guilds can still do the same thing and if you have so many trusted people then when its falling at 2pm when your at work why does it matter if its these certain people from your guild getting the items or the 11:30-1:30 group that is online. Not much of a difference.

 

[Bobar]

I have done idocs now for a considerable time and I can tell you that timing idocs is hard enough now for the legitimate player. There are always odd ones that fall outide what might be termed 'the normal window'. These fall at any time day or night wasting long periods of time for players working within the rules..

However, the largest percentage do fall during this 'normal window'. So, players who have expended a lot of effort into learning the peculiarities of idocs are able to concentrate on certain times of the day. This is of course during the times when idocs are falling normally. ANY time periods the servers are down throws idocs out by the corresponding period of time be it 2 hours or 12.

What you recommend would not only negate the efforts of players operating within the rules but open the door even more to the scripter.

The cheat who places a script timer at an idoc would benefit hugely from any changes from set to random times. He would be the only one able, with no extra effort at all, to obtain change times.

I have only recently seen 7 different characters with names from a popular TV show camped on the same day at 7 different idocs. They dont talk, they dont move, and they stay at the idocs for hours after the house changes from Greatly to Idoc. Everyone knows what this means, script timing, and you want to help these guys?

Think about it!.

 

[jack flash uk]

but this is my point, it is the whole experience

people have learnt and adpated to suit the time, if you cannot make it then there are plenty of oher things to do

please read my posts above, you are talking on a singular level, ~
YOU give away things etc

i am saying WE the guild share sell, give, i gave away countless bug plots to new players and have helped them on their way

sadly Rico has arrived on this topic and he KNOWS it gets heated,

there are alot of players that have been affected, rightly or wrongly due to idoc changes, mostly brought about by slow player, instant experts and trouble makers

if idocs are not your thing, if you are no good, cannot commit time, or are at work, PLEASE MOVE ALONG NOW, nothing to see here

 

[Bobar]

just an fyi, idocs always fall exactly 7 hours from when they go idoc

Whilst this is a good generalisation at least in my experience it is not exactly true.

I have found that idocs can fall up to 10mins + or - from the exact 7 hours.
At least on Europa a more accurate time would be 6hours 55mins to fall. Around 90% of idocs fall at this time.

There are also the very occasional idocs that will take an extra hour to fall, this only affects maybe 1 in 500 or so but in 5 years of idocing I have even known 2 that took 2 extra hours. Weird maybe but true.

BTW Jack - Whispering Green thanks you for the kind words ;]

 

[Connor_Graham]

Houses should go *poof* with all contents when they "fall". IDOCs are part of the reason the economy is in the situation it's in. Nothing leaves the game, even though the players that spent years collecting, have.

My vote is for *poof* and people actually go out and *earn* the items they get, instead of standing around waiting for it to fall into their hands.

 

[Sarsmi]

I think some people are missing the point - idocs and loot are a side effect of an account no longer being active (or sometimes from a player placing another house). Each account has a grace period (the decay cycle) for which the player can reactivate their account or transfer the house to someone else, drop it, move their stuff, etc. EVERYONE should get the same amount of time to have the opportunity to move their stuff or reactivate their account etc. Which means you really can't randomize decay cycles.

Like OSI houses, the timers actually make sense, even if it can be frustrating to some players (IE houses fall when they're at work, or in the case of OSI houses it is very difficult to know when they will fall). IDOC'ers getting loot is not the primary concern of these events, it was actually quite nice that last year (the year prior?) the devs took the time to work on the water barreling/script placing issues that in actuality only affected a very small percentage of the playing population.

Now, in order to make things "fair" and have houses fall at all hours, there are a couple solutions: all houses go through the idoc phase as normal and when they would have fallen enter a new phase that is randomly timed. The house cannot be reclaimed or accessed by the owner at this point. In this fashion it would maintain the equality of house re-claimation.

Now with a new random timer in this phase there are two options - show on the house sign when it's dropping or don't. Not showing the time would benefit scripters (or those bored enough to sit there for hours), showing the time would again promote equality, everyone would have a shot at being there blah blah.

I'm not really in favor of adding a new phase, I like that less people can camp houses (call it greed or whatever, but when there are 20 people at a house fall it lasts very little time and isn't much fun for those of us who like to dig around in boxes and go through stuff at leisure). I can see that it might promote some general fairness to make houses fall at irregular times, though.

But yeah, the devs already spent quite a bit of time working on idoc issues already - and it really is a rather small segment of the population that camps these suckers. I can't imagine something like this would ever be considered a big priority. I mean, even the house placement timer now goes hand in hand with resizing, which affects many more players. So they were working on something that helped out both groups of many and few. Randomizing idoc timers only helps out a group of a few.

Hope that made sense, I haven't had breakfast yet.

 

[Sarsmi]

Houses should go *poof* with all contents when they "fall". IDOCs are part of the reason the economy is in the situation it's in. Nothing leaves the game, even though the players that spent years collecting, have.

My vote is for *poof* and people actually go out and *earn* the items they get, instead of standing around waiting for it to fall into their hands.

Dude, you should spend hours scouting the landmass and then more time sitting at a house waiting for a sign to change, run from EQ casting reds and train up characters in ninja, stealth, hiding, tracking etc...then tell me that we don't earn the items. I have sat at a fel castle fall offshard on a newbie character and died about 50 times before the castle fell quite a few times. You die, you run around looking for the healer they haven't killed yet, you run back and hope your 50 hiding works the first time.. Then it falls and you run in and hope to god you grab something blessed that will make the two hours you just spent half dead worthwhile.

It's actually a lot of fun! But I think in some cases definitely earned. Those reds, they make things exciting (and yes, at times I have been that red, making things exciting).

 

[Connor_Graham]

That's a small percentage of the total though. Most houses are in Tram where there is no danger other than having the house fall on your packy.

 

[Grumm]

Connor, I have to disagree with you. The loot being sold from IDOCs is just one piece of the economic nightmare. Unless they wipe everyones gold and stop duping and scripting, these economic issues wont go away. EA let it get too far out of hand and there is little hope of salvation.

The IDOC I camped the other day will save me countless hours of gathering resources. This frees up my limited game time to actually enjoy more of the content. The house had 360K cloth, 7K enchanted bandages, 17K arrows, 50+ potion kegs and several other resources that will help make my life easier when playing this game.

I am watching another house now and I wont be selling any of that loot either if I get any.

With ore veins and tree nodes changing all the time, getting the ore or wood you want is a crap shoot. IDOCs are a way to get some of the resources people really need that they otherwise may not be able to get.

I honestly don't have a month to get the specific resources I need to craft what I want. Buying them isn't an option either. I have less that 2 mil to my name and at 100s of gold an ingot for the ore I need is out of the question.

Earned is a matter of perspective. If someone is willing to use their game time to wait for a house to fall, isn't their time invested a form of earning? You aren't even guarenteed anything even if you invested hours waiting.

 

[jack flash uk]

ok Conner lets talk aobut the house going "pooof"

Rares? gone forever

ToT minors which in turn become majors, eventually gone, until next ToT event

trust me alot of things are left to decay, armour is smelted into ingots players buy, in Europa there are vendor shops, one inside luna (which cost THP a fortune) which now sells high end things, MUCH CHEAPER than other luna vendors

resourses are sold cheaper, and given to new players and guildmates


and YES the idocers get rewards too

if this is so bad, why do players do the gauntlet? for gold? i think not

i wonder, are you an active idocer Conner? sounds like you are, or were to me


and as Sarsmi said, it takes time to get a good idoc char together. but then, why bother training a mage, tamer etc if it is not for reward?

 

[jack flash uk]

well said Grumm

i am playing a new shard, and after a short time idocing i am up and running with some things i need to get on with training.....


Also notice how Rico has faded into the darkness....................................

 

[Sarsmi]

That's a small percentage of the total though. Most houses are in Tram where there is no danger other than having the house fall on your packy.

No, but tram idocs are also more crowded so the chances you will get something nice after hours spent scouting and watching house signs is greatly diminished. I camped a really nice keep with tombstones and monster stats and a million other campers, I ended up with some chests of armor and a dragon brazier. This, after the house decided to be an hour late. It's kind of a crapshoot, lootwise, though you'd generally be correct to say we do well for our time. But I have scouted fel before and found *no* decaying houses. I've camped houses and because there was no loot and I got pkd a few times, actually ended up with less than I started with (b/c of insurance).

 

[Lord Gareth]

Ill still stick with my change it agreement. I got Idocs to do this morning anyways heh but, I do feel bad for those that have a day job and cannot make it.

Perhaps another solution would be to find a shard off your time zone and do idocs there gather up enough gold buying a Transfer token ;-)

(Eh doesnt help SP people)

If you change it cool if you dont still cool.

But the 40 idocs I have hit since I restarted doing them have ALL fallen around 11:30-1:30

Wait I lie I have one 18x18 that fell at shoot 11pm ish? 1 out of 40 err 1 out of 41

I will say one thing for guilds that do it it is a fun time. I get to chat with allot of people and make friends and such. I even asked a few people to join a crew and do them together.

We chit chat about Music, movies the dev team The Chesapeake 1/8th done brit bank hehehe.


I use to be a very greedy person and i wont call any greedy on here that doesn't want a change but perhaps having the ones that idoc from inactive accounts which is 95% of them move them to a prime time slot and still keep the could fall within this 4 hours.

I guess you cant stop Idoc cheaters.

Perhaps one day EA/Mythic will come up with an idea that the Idoc makes a little invis wall and you have to be there 2hours before it falls heh. That would take man hours and such.

I shouldn't even do Idocs anymore. I got three 18x18s packed with JUNK and three other houses almost max. (now this isn't hording im just soooo lazy to go through it all.)

 

[Theo_GL]

Houses should go *poof* with all contents when they "fall". IDOCs are part of the reason the economy is in the situation it's in. Nothing leaves the game, even though the players that spent years collecting, have.

My vote is for *poof* and people actually go out and *earn* the items they get, instead of standing around waiting for it to fall into their hands.

Agreed.

The other option would be for an IDOC house to become 'public' when it goes into decay state and anyone can tour it. You can click the house sign and put in a 'bid'. When the decay cycle hits - he person with the highest BID can buy the house.

Or EM's could auction them and all the contents off at a set time each month.

Gold sinks....these could be gold sinks....

Instead they do nothing but distribute more loot among less people which further destroys the economy.

Lets assume this happened in RL. Lets assume 50% of the houses in your neighborhood went IDOC (like the pop of UO). Now everyone has the contents of two houses to deal with. Do you need 2x the number of cars? Who would you sell a car to? Everyone has 2x more than they need? The value of a car? Near zero.

Thats UO today. Selling anything that is non-consumable and still obtainable is a waste of time. The only things you can sell are items that are used up (Powerscrolls, SOTs, resources) and items that no longer spawn (kasa, dread warhorse etc). The rest of the market is pretty much dead. Too much junk.

 

[GarthGrey]

Whilst this is a good generalisation at least in my experience it is not exactly true.

I have found that idocs can fall up to 10mins + or - from the exact 7 hours.
At least on Europa a more accurate time would be 6hours 55mins to fall. Around 90% of idocs fall at this time.

There are also the very occasional idocs that will take an extra hour to fall, this only affects maybe 1 in 500 or so but in 5 years of idocing I have even known 2 that took 2 extra hours. Weird maybe but true.

BTW Jack - Whispering Green thanks you for the kind words ;]

God you people are hilarious with your "I work hard getting IDOC times". No ones buying it folks. You'll never in a million years convince me that you've become good at "learning times". There is no learning of times, there's only running a script that records the times for you. Enough already....it's getting silly.

Draconi, please. Put a GM or someone on IDOC watch. Find out who these same old stratics posters characters are, and have someone follow one of them on their supposed IDOC runs. Have someone monitor these cheaters as they supposedly "camp" an idoc all night long and then mysteriously log out at exactly the time the house goes into IDOC state. Yeah, these are legitimate players all right, just like the guy on LA that camps for 5 straight days when the Inq Res is due to spawn, of course he's actually at his computer for 23 hrs every day, of course he is.....ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

Let me tell you what I know folks, because I"ve already proven it to myself on several occasions with no less than 10 supposed IDOC Pros on these boards. I won't give names because that'll just get me a warning and a deletion, but here's how easy it is folks. Find out the characters of some of these Stratics IDOC pros. Make a newb on their shard, kill yourself and then go house hunting. You don't need an IDOC, you just need a "worn" house...Now stand there for a couple of hours if you have the time, and simply watch. Eventually you'll see one of these supposed IDOC pros go running by, most times at mounted speed. And then they'll mysteriously stop, turn around and come back up to the house you were standing at. And then they'll mark a rune, and be on their way. Amazing though, that they saw that house sign, and used the "4th line of text in the description" trick, all while moving at mounted speed. I"ve personally witnessed this from one of the more outspoken IDOCrs on these boards. I"ve seen them do it first hand, and there's nothing they will ever say in public here, or in PM that will change my mind that they're nothing more than a cheater..

 

[Lord Gareth]

God you people are hilarious with your "I work hard getting IDOC times". No ones buying it folks. You'll never in a million years convince me that you've become good at "learning times". There is no learning of times, there's only running a script that records the times for you. Enough already....it's getting silly.

Draconi, please. Put a GM or someone on IDOC watch. Find out who these same old stratics posters characters are, and have someone follow one of them on their supposed IDOC runs. Have someone monitor these cheaters as they supposedly "camp" an idoc all night long and then mysteriously log out at exactly the time the house goes into IDOC state. Yeah, these are legitimate players all right, just like the guy on LA that camps for 5 straight days when the Inq Res is due to spawn, of course he's actually at his computer for 23 hrs every day, of course he is.....ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

Let me tell you what I know folks, because I"ve already proven it to myself on several occasions with no less than 10 supposed IDOC Pros on these boards. I won't give names because that'll just get me a warning and a deletion, but here's how easy it is folks. Find out the characters of some of these Stratics IDOC pros. Make a newb on their shard, kill yourself and then go house hunting. You don't need an IDOC, you just need a "worn" house...Now stand there for a couple of hours if you have the time, and simply watch. Eventually you'll see one of these supposed IDOC pros go running by, most times at mounted speed. And then they'll mysteriously stop, turn around and come back up to the house you were standing at. And then they'll mark a rune, and be on their way. Amazing though, that they saw that house sign, and used the "4th line of text in the description" trick, all while moving at mounted speed. I"ve personally witnessed this from one of the more outspoken IDOCrs on these boards. I"ve seen them do it first hand, and there's nothing they will ever say in public here, or in PM that will change my mind that they're nothing more than a cheater..

Its not hard to cover the grounds of the world for Idocs. Only houses are in Tokuno which is a very small area. It doesnt take to much time to do. You just have to set up a schedule for yourself and if you have a partner cuts half the time.

1st. Avoid player run cities. For my case if an idoc is happening in a player run city ill be alerted no matter what. So that takes south and North of brit Swamps all the way to the ocean.

Homare-Jima I help run paxoku there I don't need to check it.

I don't need to check West of Britain in Glyn city.

I dont need to do West of Minoc in the big clearing because thats PaxLair city.

So I do Malas
Luna one day
Malas Umbra the next
Zento and half of Tram one day
Other half of Tram and fel one day

(I don't normally do fel so really you can cross that off)

I load all houses on UOAM and mark all the houses I know of pure active players. Guild houses, personal homes etc. So I don't check those.

I also don't hit allot of the islands in tram which I should.
You kinda just setup a path to follow yourself.

Once you add Player run cities and buildings you KNOW you don't have to check then the list becomes pretty much smaller and you don't have to do as much. This also helps since I have a partner cuts the time in half.


You don't have to check houses every single day.
You can also devote hours and split with a partner and have it done in a day
Granted you might miss some but thats how it goes.

 

[Sarsmi]

Whilst this is a good generalisation at least in my experience it is not exactly true.

I have found that idocs can fall up to 10mins + or - from the exact 7 hours.
At least on Europa a more accurate time would be 6hours 55mins to fall. Around 90% of idocs fall at this time.

There are also the very occasional idocs that will take an extra hour to fall, this only affects maybe 1 in 500 or so but in 5 years of idocing I have even known 2 that took 2 extra hours. Weird maybe but true.

BTW Jack - Whispering Green thanks you for the kind words ;]

God you people are hilarious with your "I work hard getting IDOC times". No ones buying it folks. You'll never in a million years convince me that you've become good at "learning times". There is no learning of times, there's only running a script that records the times for you. Enough already....it's getting silly.

Draconi, please. Put a GM or someone on IDOC watch. Find out who these same old stratics posters characters are, and have someone follow one of them on their supposed IDOC runs. Have someone monitor these cheaters as they supposedly "camp" an idoc all night long and then mysteriously log out at exactly the time the house goes into IDOC state. Yeah, these are legitimate players all right, just like the guy on LA that camps for 5 straight days when the Inq Res is due to spawn, of course he's actually at his computer for 23 hrs every day, of course he is.....ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

Let me tell you what I know folks, because I"ve already proven it to myself on several occasions with no less than 10 supposed IDOC Pros on these boards. I won't give names because that'll just get me a warning and a deletion, but here's how easy it is folks. Find out the characters of some of these Stratics IDOC pros. Make a newb on their shard, kill yourself and then go house hunting. You don't need an IDOC, you just need a "worn" house...Now stand there for a couple of hours if you have the time, and simply watch. Eventually you'll see one of these supposed IDOC pros go running by, most times at mounted speed. And then they'll mysteriously stop, turn around and come back up to the house you were standing at. And then they'll mark a rune, and be on their way. Amazing though, that they saw that house sign, and used the "4th line of text in the description" trick, all while moving at mounted speed. I"ve personally witnessed this from one of the more outspoken IDOCrs on these boards. I"ve seen them do it first hand, and there's nothing they will ever say in public here, or in PM that will change my mind that they're nothing more than a cheater..

I know you aren't talking about me, because I don't cheat. I run by and stop at every house. And if I'm still awake when 2:30 rolls around I do a tour of the houses I have that are falling the next day every few minutes, record the times they turn on a notepad, and go to bed when they've all hit idoc.

Go ahead and tell everyone you aren't talking about me, because there's no way in heck you saw me cheat, ever. If you can't bother to say it wasn't me then you're a liar.

For that matter name any of my idoc'ing characters. Hint: none of them are named Sarsmi.

 

[GarthGrey]

Please stop trying to get my responses deleted by defending yourself claiming I"m talking about you. I never mentioned your name, you just chose to reply in defense. I still haven't mentioned yours or anyone elses name.

 

[Sarsmi]

Please stop trying to get my responses deleted by defending yourself claiming I"m talking about you. I never mentioned your name, you just chose to reply in defense. I still haven't mentioned yours or anyone elses name. Although it's curious that you're so defensive. But I still stand by my responses, because I know what I saw.

Because ambiguous accusations only serve to slander everyone who is involved. Not to mention the numerous times you have insinuated that I am a cheater, makes me think that maybe yet again you are grinding your own personal axe with me.

So just flat out state you aren't talking about me, and we can move on.

 

[GarthGrey]

I don't want to "move on", I and many others , want this issue addressed by the Dev Team..

 

[Sarsmi]

I don't want to "move on", I and many others , want this issue addressed by the Dev Team..

I would love nothing more than scripting being banished from UO forever. And figures you can't even say that you aren't talking about me. I'm sure you're just loving giving the impression that someone who is scrupulously honest is actually a cheater. Why that gives you your jollies I couldn't say. And I don't know why I bother to engage you when I'm already familiar with your underhanded tactics.

 

[Grumm]

What issue adressed? Cheating in the game? They let cheating run wild for eleven years now. While there may be no time set in stone for when a house falls, it seems to fall with a certain timeframe every day.

If I see a house sign with a fourth line, I first see if it is public or private. If it is public, I go in and see if it is even worth watching. If it is private, I mark a rune and check back according to the state of decay.

I have never witnessed this mounted speed house sign checks, but am not dismissing it just because I have not seen it happen. I spend about 30 minutes each day I log in and check for IDOCs. I have yet to see another person around when I am checking. All I see now is speculation on your part. Unless of course you are stalking all the IDOC hunters. Maybe they decided to turn around and mouse over the sign. I have no idea.

There is no way to validate your claim.

 

[GarthGrey]

The issue of the OP, IDOC drop timing...

 

[Olahorand]

The randomizer component could be put into the Like New stage. This is only 15 minutes, if this would be increased by a random value, the owner of the house would have no reduced time to refresh, but slightly enhanced.
*Salute*
Olahorand

 

[Grumm]

Would having houses fall between noon and midnight (whatever timezone you live in) be a better option? Is the crux of the problem not being able to participate because you're at work or because of the scripters that take advantage of the predictable fall times?