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(partial)Solution to IDOC Loot Scripting

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
On the uo forum there is a thread about people scripting up all the IDOC loot with 30 packies.

The solution is very easy.

Make "friended pets" take the appropriate slot count of the pet

Add a context menu or setting in Options for "Allow Pet Friendship" (or something named better) so you negate the potential issue of people filling your follower count for some reason or another.

It's not a perfect solution but it would get the job done by and large .

Pass this along to Mesanna, tell her to let me wear my glacial robe again and fix my cloak of shadows in appreciation. Fair trade

Thanks
 

Xris

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I think a lot of them run multiple accts anyway, but I do agree it's a step in the right direction. I gave up on IDOCs years ago, would love for them to be fun again.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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I think a lot of them run multiple accts anyway, but I do agree it's a step in the right direction. I gave up on IDOCs years ago, would love for them to be fun again.
I think most decent folk gave up on them ages ago... Scripters have won... And most of us can't sit around for 15 hours waiting...
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
If you think about a house when it falls, multiple accounts would require rails for each account. Entirely plausible but way more error prone with the way multiple stories fall etc

If you have any other issues with idocs, post the issue here, plainly, and I will try and come up with a solution.

You said an issue is you can't wait around 15 hours (which I believe is the longest of the 3 possible drop speeds?)

Explain the issue more and I'm sure I can build a solution
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Did they make it so EJ accounts can't go within a radius of a house in IDOC state?

Unsure how easy that is to implement quickly but would work significantly well.

Do you still have issues with script placement or is it just people taking all of the loot?
 

Stinky Pete

Babbling Loonie
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I've been reading these threads on IDOCs for a while now. The issue comes up all the time. Several ideas come up each time. Most of the ideas would work either partially or completely. None of the ideas have been implemented. This gives me the impression that the devs have no interest in fixing the issues.

My opinion is that IDOCs are one of the major mistakes that were made in the game. Things need to be destroyed to keep people interested in acquiring more things. It's the reason people are always asking for better stuff, because anything worth using is kept forever. With the population on the decline, there is simply too much stuff out there. Getting rid of IDOCs would be a step in the right direction. I think the fix is to keep people adventuring, not standing around waiting for houses to fall.
 

Fortis

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Idoc is a real msitake in this game... and yes i went to some and got crazy loot.... like a scriptor house banned on an asian shard so 3 castle side by side fell simultanuoustly so i got some chest with friend.... some chest had 100 etheral mounts, some 80 doom arty the new one... some 100 clean 10 ssi ring some.. 50 paroxymous statuette,ect... people who get banned for scriptiing house should be deleted with items
 
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TheGrimReefer

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
First they need to bring back the old system. None of this 5, 10, 15 hour crap. Let them fall whenever. The way IDOC's are now they cater to the scriptors. Just show up 3 times and script the hell out of it then move on. It may have been a drawn out process but this timer has to go.
Second, what about a timer on all items that fall to the ground. Once the items hit the ground there is a delay when the items can be picked up.
Third. Make IDOC"S EM Events. I like this suggestion as the EM can see how the idoc is looted, ie scripts or whatnot. Scriptors caught would get Immediate permma ban for that Master Account. Stop giving people chances period. If they are worried about subscriptions, dont be. Once people actually see there is something being done about how this game is mocked with duping, scripting and multiboxing, more people will come. People do not want to come to a game as a newbie knowing that unless they are doing something illegal they will not get too far.
 

Gidge

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The problem with the follower issue is that sometimes I friend another tamer to my pet so it will follow them in various situations. So with two 5 slots pets, we couldn't babysit each others pets.

And even though we do have 1 count beetles now, almost all of my chars on my accounts are friended to each other beetles so they can help in various situations.

I don't actively do IDOCs, but oddly I run across a falling house now and then.
 

Scruffy

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
I have tried a few since ive been back and my old hand isnt fast enough to out grab the scripters. I would say just let it fall and everything disappear. It is sad that some stuff would be gone forever but would make it to where a normal person has a chance to place something and would increase rares value as there would be less of them. Again not ideal but letting the criminals = scriptors in this case get away with lootong all items and placing on the fallen spot is not doing anyone any good either.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
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the only way to kill scripting is when the house goes into the idoc stage the house, items, and everyone is transporter to fel. then the killing begins.
 

Fridgster

Crazed Zealot
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Stratics Legend
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again, instead of all these idea, just block scripts. A small daily patch, EVERY server up will kill all cheat program. Which covers ALL aspects of scripting
Know thy enemy. That program no longer requires a patch on updates. Apperantly THEY are thinking ahead.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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First they need to bring back the old system. None of this 5, 10, 15 hour crap. Let them fall whenever. The way IDOC's are now they cater to the scriptors. Just show up 3 times and script the hell out of it then move on. It may have been a drawn out process but this timer has to go.
Second, what about a timer on all items that fall to the ground. Once the items hit the ground there is a delay when the items can be picked up.
Third. Make IDOC"S EM Events. I like this suggestion as the EM can see how the idoc is looted, ie scripts or whatnot. Scriptors caught would get Immediate permma ban for that Master Account. Stop giving people chances period. If they are worried about subscriptions, dont be. Once people actually see there is something being done about how this game is mocked with duping, scripting and multiboxing, more people will come. People do not want to come to a game as a newbie knowing that unless they are doing something illegal they will not get too far.
You are confusing EM with GM ... EM's are simply players on other shards paid to entertain nothing more they have ZERO in-game powers to do any of that... and I've said time and time again that GMs need to attend things such as this as well as EM Events to see the bull in action... but it never happens...

Mesanna and the crew should attend these things... regularly on plain accounts and just watch and observe... won't take more than 2 or 3 to see what the problem is.
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Okay let's clean this up -

1) EM, GM, Dev monitoring is never going to happen it's too time consuming and an overall poor use of limited resources. I agree they should see what this looks like in action, so please record some videos of people doing this. Unsure how? Please ask

2) to the player utilizing pet friending properly with 5 slot pets, how about rather than taking up the same control slots it takes 1 per pet? Solves the issue entirely with beetles, and makes your "control 2 super pets" a bit more strategic

3) the idea of items having a timer built in that they will release randomly is a great idea, that's actually a complete solution too
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Elaborating on point 3 -

Game checks for IDOC state on sign, new script gets triggered causing items to have a built in release timer, that's not visible to the end user (drop time +(random time in seconds up to 30 minutes)


Issues - say Im a coowner and want to release my stuff before my friends house falls; timer has to know to drop the timer flag on the item if the item is released before (drop time) by coowner/friend

Any other holes?
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
She either has the capability and time to stop this or she does not. I have less accounts now because there is no point to idocs anymore for me. I used to do idocs for a few items and a possible house spot. ( I do love UO homes.) The new hours were annoying but doable. The packy parades are not and will never be.
 

Polaris75

Lore Master
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Stratics Legend
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Okay let's clean this up -

1) EM, GM, Dev monitoring is never going to happen it's too time consuming and an overall poor use of limited resources. I agree they should see what this looks like in action, so please record some videos of people doing this. Unsure how? Please ask

2) to the player utilizing pet friending properly with 5 slot pets, how about rather than taking up the same control slots it takes 1 per pet? Solves the issue entirely with beetles, and makes your "control 2 super pets" a bit more strategic

3) the idea of items having a timer built in that they will release randomly is a great idea, that's actually a complete solution too
You cannot do number 3... or you will have D***K********* somebody somebody gating in 50 EJ accounts again and standing beside every item picking it up over and over again until the timer hits. It'll be gone 0.00002 seconds after timer, and nobody will know except who's backpack it is in. That was how it was before.... 2 of the players were gating in 50 (young) players when the houses were public.... and simply standing beside whatever they wanted until the house fell. Meanwhile laughing at everyone calling them dumb****s all the while. That's why houses went private.

I saw someone bring 10 pack llamas to that one yesterday, so it was obvious that 5 of those were friended. How about.... make pack horses unable to be friended only? I bring 5 pack horses, and throwing a chest or two in those is the ONLY way I have ever gotten anything. I cannot even see the single items before the bots run/auto grab them. Especially deeds.... nobody even knows the names of the deeds before the bots grab them.

@Mesanna @Bleak @Kyronix Just delete IDOCs from this ********ing game before more people quit. I won't quit if IDOCs are deleted.... I would feel vindicated. Thank you for making them private, but it was not and is not enough. Just delete them... and delete all items when houses fall, please?????

Apparently deleting IDOCs from the game will not hurt anyone EXCEPT the scripters. I can go make gold by playing the game. I made 600m from the cargo before I got bored with that..... yea the economy will change and them and Sideshow M****** or whoever else will delete their mass of accounts. I bet they will keep playing. I bet you will sell more Store items.... I bet more people will return and more importantly STAY. If people really knew the truth.... NOBODY would play this game. Just delete IDOCs, please???? Who cares about history, let the items be rare! Let the new EM items be "special!" DO SOMETHING. Stop players of accusing everyone of collusion, stop players from fighting each other over who did what and when and who is who.... STOP IDOCs. Who wants to see Mr.IDOC on gen chat? Delete that.... please.

All names here are fictitious. These are not real player names. Just saying.... please, fix the problem.......... Delete house contents when houses fall. The owner is not there anyway...... or just store them in a player vault for their return. (The items are obviously staying in game anyway... so it shouldn't take up any more space.)
 
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MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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I think they should do IDOC's by Lottery 1 ticket per account PERIOD. Cost 100K... 1M whatever. One Per ACCOUNT. This way the rich can't outbuy the poor... and always win every lottery IDOC... certainly people with multiple accounts would have higher chances... but well that's life. NO EJ accounts can buy a lottery ticket. Sorry but NO.

Or randomly add all that stuff to a pool for T-Maps and MIBs...

But I like the lottery system idea way more than an Auction... Auctions only serve the rich. And it is a good gold sink as well... Think of all the millions that could be taken out of game if every IDOC became a 1M lottery...

Could have a thing at the Britain Commons where you go bid on the loot... if you Win you pick it up there if not picked up in a week that loot is then gone or maybe goes to the Cavern of the Discarded... But this would free up the house spot instantly where the timer would then take effect for placement.... there would be no stuff there...

But I could see where this could cause issues. And probably too much coding.

So really what they need to do and it is NOT a waste of their time they know exactly when those houses are going to fall I'm sure... they can just go see what's going on... like I said would only take 2 or 3 at the most to be able to see WTF is going on .... Perhaps this is something @Bleak needs to do. So he can come up with a solution to this issue. Everyone is fed up with it.

Most of us just gave up even going to see it anymore as its a complete waste of time.

And Yes I have considered recording it... but Then what? Post it somewhere to Shame the DEVs into doing something about it??? or would that just encourage more A_hats to do it?
 

Laura_Gold

Certifiable
Governor
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Stratics Legend
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See the 2019 wish list.
Stop having IDOCs. When the house falls, all of its contents are saved, in the database. They reappear in the moving crate when the flakey owner places a new house. Hey, hard drives are big enough and the population is small enough so that this works.
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Alot of this has steered off point, though not Ill intentioned .

Okay so a combination of the following solutions -

1) don't let EJ accounts within (x) tile range of a home in IDOC status.

2) make pack animals / beetles "friend" ability take up 1 slot, so at most someone can control 5 pack animals.

3) apply a "release" timer to items within an IDOC, a random variable to make it significantly more difficult to camp specific loot


Collectively this will make a much better and healthier IDOC experience, encouraging a unique activity to UO in a rewarding manner
 

Polaris75

Lore Master
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See the 2019 wish list.
Stop having IDOCs. When the house falls, all of its contents are saved, in the database. They reappear in the moving crate when the flakey owner places a new house. Hey, hard drives are big enough and the population is small enough so that this works.
This is the single best idea. Cut the snakes off.... don't listen to any more excuses. SAVE the OWNER's items until he/she returns. Then maybe more people would't quit when they "lost it all." People like Brian and Skele Weinee would still be here maybe. If I lost everything because I could not pay next month for any reason.... I would NeeeeeEEEEeeeeeeVVVVVeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr return either. Screw that....... I barely have the will to stay as it is, and it is ONLY because of my stuff that I stay.

Houses fall EMPTY and items are saved for owner. Solutions solved @Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak . Nobody left to complain, if so you will see their true hearts. Player base is preserved... player retention increases... players coming back/staying increases... and everybody stops the crap all at once. Please, please, please do this. Let houses fall empty, save the player's items for them... for say 1 year or so. If said player doesn't return, DELETE. Please listen to that wish list... wherever it is. Thank you @Laura_Gold .
 

Archnight

Legendary Merchant & Rare Collector
Professional
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
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I think @Captn Norrington said it best in a post here :postcount:.

I would not remove IDOC's from the game, I think they are too unique and central to some people's play styles to do that. They need some changes though, since the current system has quite a few flaws. Admittedly I have no programming experience whatsoever, so I have no idea how hard this would be to implement, but here are some changes I think could help improve things:

1) Remove the 5, 10, 15 hour drop system. It was worth a try, but all it has done is discourage the normal players who don't have the time to wait around an entire day for an IDOC to fall. The scripters on the other hand, can stay as long as needed, so the new system has given them a large advantage over normal players. I would suggest a system where the house can fall at any time within a 5 hour window after it reaches the final stage of IDOC'ng. Statistically, the house is more likely to fall between 0-3 hours than 4-5 hours, so this would make it more reasonable for a normal player to hang out there for a few hours instead of having to stay all day.

2) Implement small and frequent mandatory anti-cheating patches. Every time there is a patch, the cheat programs stop working for a day or two until their creators update them to work with the new patch. If there were a small daily patch that changed just enough to break their programs it would take most of the illegal advantages away from the cheaters, since their programs wouldn't work for half the day or more until someone updated them, and by then the next patch would be getting ready to break the cheats all over again. Eventually they would get tired of having to fix their cheats on a daily basis, and they would inevitably stop using the cheats as much out of the frustration caused by the cheats being unreliable.

3) Fix whatever is wrong with the Grubbers so that they do what they were originally supposed to, which is grab pieces of loot and run off with them when the house falls. The idea was that people would have to chase and kill the Grubbers to get whatever items they took, separating the group of looters into those picking up items and those chasing Grubbers. Doing this gives both groups less competition for their half of the items, since the other half of the group is distracted elsewhere. For whatever reason, the Grubbers have never worked properly. Almost every time you kill a Grubber at an IDOC it either has nothing at all, or only picked up two or three things, which are usually complete junk. Everyone at IDOC's knows this, so the Grubbers get completely ignored until all the items are looted, which defeats the purpose of their existence.

4) Create different methods for house placement, and alternate them randomly. Instead of the current system where you just drop a house where the old one was, which pretty much guarantees the most experienced IDOC'ers will always win against normal players, add different options that may randomly appear.

For example, 1/3 of the time a lottery box shows up where the house used to be, everyone clicks it, and then 30 minutes later it randomly picks a winner and allows only that person to place the house (and gives them a written notification so they know they won). This seems possible, since resizing your house already reserves the land for you for a certain amount of time. If the player doesn't place the house within 30 minutes, it randomly picks a new winner until it runs out of people, at which time it allows any random person walking by to place. That system gives everyone a fully equal chance to win the house regardless of skill level or monetary wealth.

Another 1/3 of the time, an auction box shows up where the house used to be. The auction lasts for 24 hours, and whoever has the highest bid at the end wins (adding something similar to the Stratics 10 minute rule to avoid last second sniping would probably be a good idea too). This allows those with monetary wealth to purchase the house like they would have done anyway, but instead of them paying another player the gold is deleted from the game entirely. This creates a permanent large-scale gold sink to help repair the damaged economy.

The final 1/3 of the time, use the same system that we currently have, whoever places the house first wins. This allows professional IDOC'ers to use the skills they have developed over the years to win houses still, and sell the houses for profit like usual. They are still able to make gold which they enjoy, but they are no longer able to hold a monopoly over the entire housing market, because 2/3 of the time other people have a chance to win the good houses as well.
 

Polaris75

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I think @Captn Norrington said it best in a post here :postcount:.
I don't trust anybody advising to keep them. Everybody would do ANYTHING to keep "their" play style when it involves IDOCing it seems. Whose play style is IDOC? Those are the people we are trying to stop. I was in a group with Captain.... a very private group that nobody knows about except 10 or so... and I think he would agree at this point.

Don't forget too, those people with 50+ accounts, who nobody knows who is scripting / doing this and that also have 50+ Stratics accounts each. Kind of hard to fence stuff from the same 4 people each time if not.........
 

Grace of Minoc

Sage
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Stratics Legend
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How about the contents of the IDOC just "explode" and get tossed randomly in a set area radius
of the IDOC.

Maybe within several screens in all directions? Would be hard to bot that, and also, still put in
the EJ restriction as the loot will all be auto tagged IDOC loot when the house explodes.
 

Xris

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I was in a group with Captain.... a very private group that nobody knows about except 10 or so...
Bahahaha did anyone else die laughing at this line? This is a 20 year old mmo guys, none of these ideas will be implemented. Be happy the new content isn't horrible!
 

Polaris75

Lore Master
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None of that would ever fix the problem. The people I mentioned.... only 4 of them, are super smart. They use 8 bots at a time to run 8 shards at a time... and they split into teams to cover all 32. That's why you see blue characters just "running" in the game. They are bots using path finding to move 20 tiles at a time in their "path" that they use. They recall at the end of their path to the next. They automate it...... they let the bots run while they work and sleep. Then.... they have another set of bots that log in and stand at the houses to get the house times. They know ALL times perfect, at least the ones they want.... all the big IDOCs on every shard.

So when someone tells you about the IDOCs, but they are not telling you the time... they are lying. It's worse than that.... when the bots find the IDOCs, it auto logs it and even the picture (UOautomap picture) directly into Excel... all automatically, while they work/sleep. Those people are super smart and rich in real life. I was in the group with them, they are geniuses truly.... if I told you their real life jobs you would be amazed. I'll never tell such, as all of that is private.

The Excel file then AUTOMATICALLY uploads the data into their website once a day. So the group of people tied to them have all houses, all shards, all times, perfect. That's the secret. Then they give you guys the IDOCs on Atlantic.... and *sometimes* tell you guys the time. They know all times. They know everything. That is what I am saying, is that none of you understand. I am now enemies with them, because I would not help in the timing / scripting. I have never ran a script in my life and won't go to tell who all does and does not.

Bahahaha did anyone else die laughing at this line? This is a 20 year old mmo guys, none of these ideas will be implemented. Be happy the new content isn't horrible!
There IS a group. An ICQ group that has credentials to log into the website. It is about 10 players deep.... and is manned primarily by one PC genius. Those guys have scripts set up and log in their bots, run the runner bots, log the IDOC houses from the house signs, record it into Excel, and upload it to a website.. all automatically. Then bots get the times... all automatically. That person goes to work making probably 10 times per year what you and I make already, and I am a chemist in real life.

That is what I mean... when I say... that none of you understand. Use discernment, some people do tell the truth... It is probably the people trying to stop IDOCs.... no?
 
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Xris

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
None of that would ever fix the problem. The people I mentioned.... only 4 of them, are super smart. They use 8 bots at a time to run 8 shards at a time... and they split into teams to cover all 32. That's why you see blue characters just "running" in the game. They are bots using path finding to move 20 tiles at a time in their "path" that they use. They recall at the end of their path to the next. They automate it...... they let the bots run while they work and sleep. Then.... they have another set of bots that log in and stand at the houses to get the house times. They know ALL times perfect, at least the ones they want.... all the big IDOCs on every shard.

So when someone tells you about the IDOCs, but they are not telling you the time... they are lying. It's worse than that.... when the bots find the IDOCs, it auto logs it and even the picture (UOautomap picture) directly into Excel... all automatically, while they work/sleep. Those people are super smart and rich in real life. I was in the group with them, they are geniuses truly.... if I told you their real life jobs you would be amazed. I'll never tell such, as all of that is private.

The Excel file then AUTOMATICALLY uploads the data into their website once a day. So the group of people tied to them have all houses, all shards, all times, perfect. That's the secret. Then they give you guys the IDOCs on Atlantic.... and *sometimes* tell you guys the time. They know all times. They know everything. That is what I am saying, is that none of you understand. I am now enemies with them, because I would not help in the timing / scripting. I have never ran a script in my life and won't go to tell who all does and does not.


There IS a group. An ICQ group that has credentials to log into the website. It is about 10 players deep.... and is manned primarily by one PC genius. Those guys have scripts set up and log in their bots, run the runner bots, log the IDOC houses from the house signs, record it into Excel, and upload it to a website.. all automatically. Then bots get the times... all automatically. That person goes to work making probably 10 times per year what you and I make already, and I am a chemist in real life.

That is what I mean... when I say... that none of you understand. Now let's see the accounts keep trolling. Use discernment, some people do tell the truth... It is probably the people trying to stop IDOCs.... no?
I think most people assumed an operation like this was running. I don't think UO has the time/resources/talent to fix it. That's why I'm saying don't waste your time on the non official site(or official one TBH) , because it's not getting fixed. Just enjoy the game til you don't then quit. It's a small team, and 20 years old. There are people with unlimited gold, that's the way it is. If they want to spend the time coding and running scripts, they will. IDOCs or not. Just enjoy til the lights go out.
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
You guys just seem to talk to talk. They won't remove idocs, that's not the point of this thread.

We are attempting to solve the issue with someone script looting the entire loot of a house.

I would appreciate any holes that can be poked in the above 3 points of a plan, im sure we are missing something.

The best thing you can do for a dev like bleak or Kyronix who actually have to deal with the code is to provide clear information. Maybe nothing will happen, but I'd rather know we solved the issue on paper and welcome their reply as to why it won't be implemented
 
I have to agree with @Polaris75 , there is indeed a crew that run bots on all shards, looking for the idocs on all shards, timing them and feeding a website with all that info. Most people know who they are and recently they just released a multi pack horse script for all their members, so it is true. Idocs now became impossible, unfair, controlled by a crew running 24/7.
People already asked mesanna 100x on the meet and greet to act and all they say is that their year is already planned and no changes will come to the idoc corrupted system.
I agree with Polaris on this one, delete idocs from the game or just remove the status of the house sign, that will be the best solution. You cant script what you dont know.
 

Meat Elemental

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Add some coding to the cc that detects these script programs running in memory....

Sent from my SM-N950W using Tapatalk
 

Effort

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
This is all missing the point, but meant well. So we can wait for bleak and Kyronix to have time to fix this, and we can map out solid solutions, which I feel we did (ramblings aside), but I think I have another solution to level the field for you all.

Will update next week
 

celticus

Crazed Zealot
UNLEASHED
@Mesanna @Bleak @Kyronix See, then it's just a mockery. So sad that you guys let people quit because of this....... if you know what I mean.
People don't just quit because of this, or anything to do with IDOCs ONLY..Most of us don't even get involved with IDOCs. I know you mean the cheating going on with them. But again, there are so many other ways cheating is going on. And most quitting people don't even quit because of cheating either. That the Devs should fix cheating, I agree. Not too easy to do though.
Doing brain surgery on the brain damaged code, could have adverse side effects also. This is what they are probably afraid of.
Elegant posters have posted some solutions to IDOC's, some make a lot of sense. Like :

==Eliminate the tell-tale house sign message, or make the sign of the house show status of the house ONLY visible to the owner. And/or
==Make all the contents or a percentage of them drop in the cave of the discarded, but at RANDOM times, put a timed buffer for this, and drop them there randomly different times.or
==Destroy all contents once the house collapses. Just set the house on fire, just like a banned house, as we see from time to time in Luna etc. I am sure the code is there for this, and it is in-game so no programming.

Those may be easy fixes, and may not need re-programming a lot of code also.
Trying to create mods to the code against scripters with 50 pack animals would be much harder, time consuming for them, and will not happen, and if they attempt to add/modify code to do this, the resulting bugs may be a more serious problem with the game. Also expecting them to BE THERE at the idocs when thsy happen does not seem to be too reasonable, "to see what happens". They in all likelihood know what happens, they just cannot do much about it.
 

MalagAste

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I rather like the idea of hiding the house sign however this could be negated when houses have vendors it will speak volumes about the state of the house regardless...

I think the owner should get some sort of in-game message as well as an email message.... if not resolved I think the house should fall after 60 days no more. This giving them 30 days plus then 90 days is far too generous...

Another good solution is to just let the house fall and put a packing crate in the owners bank... 30 days past the end of payment... when they return to UO They can place a house and use the house sign to return the packing crate where they can unpack it... Or perhaps even put that pack in the transfer crate (one time only option) to move to another shard... and place a house and then retrieve their belongings... Though I will further say that if after 12 months the person does NOT return to UO then the packing crate goes to a lottery all can bid on one per account.

This would not only stop people who play roulette once every 4 months with their accounts to hold property .... but it would also save folk who might be gone for awhile the worry of losing everything... and may make returning to UO easier after a 6 to 9 month break.

and it would stop the scripting of IDOCs. Would give a gold sink... and would be good for UO IMO.
 

railshot

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This is the single best idea. Cut the snakes off.... don't listen to any more excuses. SAVE the OWNER's items until he/she returns. Then maybe more people would't quit when they "lost it all." People like Brian and Skele Weinee would still be here maybe. If I lost everything because I could not pay next month for any reason.... I would NeeeeeEEEEeeeeeeVVVVVeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr return either. Screw that....... I barely have the will to stay as it is, and it is ONLY because of my stuff that I stay.

Houses fall EMPTY and items are saved for owner. Solutions solved @Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak . Nobody left to complain, if so you will see their true hearts. Player base is preserved... player retention increases... players coming back/staying increases... and everybody stops the crap all at once. Please, please, please do this. Let houses fall empty, save the player's items for them... for say 1 year or so. If said player doesn't return, DELETE. Please listen to that wish list... wherever it is. Thank you @Laura_Gold .
I like this idea too. Unfortunately, I also know why they will never go for it. UO relies on this mechanic to keep people paying even when they don't play. I know a ton of players that hardly ever log in who keep paying for their accounts for years, just because they can't otherwise store all the junk, ahem - priceless collectibles, that they accumulated over the 2 decades.
 

Archnight

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I know a ton of players that hardly ever log in who keep paying for their accounts for years, just because they can't otherwise store all the junk, ahem - priceless collectibles, that they accumulated over the 2 decades.
Same, it's hands down one of the main reasons the game is still around :thumbup:.
 

Captn Norrington

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Since Polaris mentioned me...yes, most of what he said is pretty accurate. I was brought into that group to do shard transfers for them and saw their techniques and the website he mentioned firsthand.

They were doing 10+ idoc’s per day pretty reliably for months, and definitely knew all the times perfectly, because they’d invite me to the handful I went to just minutes before the house fell. There were actually two groups back then that were rivals, but at some point after I left I heard they combined into one larger group to make it more profitable for both.

Having talked with the group leader extensively about his plans while I was in it...I don’t really think his intentions were bad though. A lot of the plans involved releasing all of the tools and website access to the general public in various ways to level the playing field for everyone once the group perfected the technology. It was even opened to the public as planned at one point, but didn’t end up working out on a large scale like that.
 

Keith of Sonoma

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I enjoyed IDOCS, and actually opened several additional accounts in order to "work them better". I did a lot of them. BUT, I used no scripts, and physically ran around checking with 1 character. When the house fell, I would load 1 character and his packies, then move to the next one. Rinse and repeat. All "legal". I have no problem with 20-50 people at an IDOC, AS LONG AS THEY WERE ALL LOOTING "LEGALLY". Now we nothing but scripters at IDOCs. I am at the point that I almost don't need several of those accounts, and am trying to figure out how to shut them down.

The bottom line is: IDOC's are fun, as long as everyone has the same chance to loot. What has killed that fun, are the scripters. Please don't tell me that @Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak can't spot them. HECK, if they can't, them something is very wrong, because even I can spot them, and I am a computer idiot.

There are ZERO VALID REASONS for the developers NOT to enforce the ToS, and ban the scripters/cheaters/RMT, and MANY reasons to do so.

How many people have gotten tired of the rampant cheating and RMT's, and have said to heck with it, and just quit the game? I know of at least 100 accounts gone, and I am only 1 person.

@Mesanna @Bleak @Kyronix Please DO YOUR JOB and deal with these people. There is no VALID reason not to do so. To continue to allow/turn a blind eye to them is spitting in the face of the honest players.

I would love to hear the REAL reason why they can't/don't/won't enforce their own rules!
 

Theo_GL

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I've been reading these threads on IDOCs for a while now. The issue comes up all the time. Several ideas come up each time. Most of the ideas would work either partially or completely. None of the ideas have been implemented. This gives me the impression that the devs have no interest in fixing the issues.

My opinion is that IDOCs are one of the major mistakes that were made in the game. Things need to be destroyed to keep people interested in acquiring more things. It's the reason people are always asking for better stuff, because anything worth using is kept forever. With the population on the decline, there is simply too much stuff out there. Getting rid of IDOCs would be a step in the right direction. I think the fix is to keep people adventuring, not standing around waiting for houses to fall.
Agree. In a dying game - more loot available to smaller playerbase causes apathy to aquiring anything if too much goods are freely available.

They should delete IDOC content or put a bid system on the house. The highest bidder takes the house - like storage wars. People moan about 'the rich getting richer' but thats not really the case if they are PAYING for the loot.

Imagine if your local car dealer had 5 cars for the taking and some scripter gets them all and can sell them for 20k each.
Compare that to another dealer paying 100k for the 5 cars. In the later scenerio - the economy is the same in money removed for the goods.

The Devs could run IDOC's like auctions and simply delete the gold. Gold sink an no loot inflation.
 

Cyrah

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Why don't you get whomever complained about the bamboo to complain about this? Maybe it will change then.
 

King Greg

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I'd be for new content.

A billboard at each bank with the list of houses that could collapse that day.

1. House goes Idoc, a gate opens up 30 minutes before it collapses at luna/wbb and takes you to the Idoc. No random timer nonsense.

2. House Collapses in a blaze of glory and a gate is standing where it was, gate takes you to a treasure vault with a boss inside. Slightly tweak Krampus monster, implement treasure sand. etc etc. Let the boss be Invuln for 15 minutes to give players time to show up and pull it's health bar. Kill the boss and on the corpse is the items from the house and a single key.

3. Key lets you place a house at the location before the timer is up.

Boom, new content. . Players would still pancake but it sounds much more fair and fun to me.
 

Lady Michelle

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they could make it where the chests etc,,, can't be picked up til there empty, and it shuts everytime you open it to remove something.
 

MissEcho

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Just turn off the 'advertising' of idocs on the sign. SIMPLE.

As I posted on the other forum:

It is just so simple, stop the sign advertising the house condition as I said above. If ya don't know it is idoc you can't script it, can't camp it, cant get organized with a hundred packies.

No need for all the above complicated solutions. No packy banning, or time changes or storing stuff, or stopping them completely.

The WHOLE problem will instantly STOP if people don't know a joint is in idoc state.

Send the owner an email, kick the co-owners/friends etc off as currently happens so that IF that person has any friends/guildies that bother to go to their house they won't be able to get in so will get a heads up on it and can contact the owner if needed and/or organize with those friended to the house or guildmates to check their FRIENDS property for when it drops and gather as much as possible, as it should be, friends first.

Let it drop anytime within 10 hrs of it going idoc.

People who are out actually PLAYING the game and getting around the facets will be the lucky ones to stumble across goods on the ground rather than the scripted bots do the idoc checking.

It is the simplest solution out. No idea why there needs to be a heap of discussion over something so easily fixed. @Kyronix
 

King Greg

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Just turn off the 'advertising' of idocs on the sign. SIMPLE.

As I posted on the other forum:

It is just so simple, stop the sign advertising the house condition as I said above. If ya don't know it is idoc you can't script it, can't camp it, cant get organized with a hundred packies.

No need for all the above complicated solutions. No packy banning, or time changes or storing stuff, or stopping them completely.

The WHOLE problem will instantly STOP if people don't know a joint is in idoc state.

Send the owner an email, kick the co-owners/friends etc off as currently happens so that IF that person has any friends/guildies that bother to go to their house they won't be able to get in so will get a heads up on it and can contact the owner if needed and/or organize with those friended to the house or guildmates to check their FRIENDS property for when it drops and gather as much as possible, as it should be, friends first.

Let it drop anytime within 10 hrs of it going idoc.

People who are out actually PLAYING the game and getting around the facets will be the lucky ones to stumble across goods on the ground rather than the scripted bots do the idoc checking.

It is the simplest solution out. No idea why there needs to be a heap of discussion over something so easily fixed. @Kyronix
Because of the sheer amount of items that you can't actually get in the game anymore. Such as Leurocian's mempos, Ranger's cloaks, etc rares, so many things that wind up going back into the community and into the hands of new and returning players because of idocs.
 

Lord Frodo

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When a house reaches the IDOC stage house will become set to ‘private’ and all access will be removed. Provided it has no rental vendors, it will drop after 5, 10 or 15 hours, the house and all add ons will disappear

How is it that all these scripters know exactly when a house enters the IDOC stage because unless they are watching that sign then there is no way they know the exact time and somehow they are always there ready at the 5,10,15 hour mark
 

MissEcho

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When a house reaches the IDOC stage house will become set to ‘private’ and all access will be removed. Provided it has no rental vendors, it will drop after 5, 10 or 15 hours, the house and all add ons will disappear

How is it that all these scripters know exactly when a house enters the IDOC stage because unless they are watching that sign then there is no way they know the exact time and somehow they are always there ready at the 5,10,15 hour mark
It is called a hidden scripter watching the sign.
 

Lord Frodo

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It is called a hidden scripter watching the sign.
But that means that they have the ability to know the exact time that sign changes with their hidden cam and wouldnt they also know the same thing when a house they are watching goes from public to private or when that sign disappeared when the house fell. Some how these scripts know the timing of everything and I would almost bet this info is shared by them all. I am not sure what the right answer is but unless UO is willing to do something then this will never be resolved. I have been here 20+ years and have only used UOA and UOAM and I hate to say iy but I wish UO would just say the only illegal program is multiboxing and all others are ok just as long as you are attended and publish them on the UO web site. I have not seen a resource or BOD scriptior in years so I am glad that it no longer pays enough to use accounts to do this and now it is EM Events, high end mobs, IDOCs and Fel Spawns are the big draws now so maybe it is time to take off the gloves and even the playing field so to say.
 
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