G
Guest
Guest
Recently the development team fixed an exploit with NPC Vendors (non-player owned) which allowed gold to be freely created at no loss or risk by cheaters. The change is as follows:
<ul>[*]Vendors will no longer sell items to players below their established base values[*]Vendors will no longer buy items for more than their established base values[/list]
This change was made to commodities – not all items. However, this does include resources like wood or ingots, and generic craftables like bolts and arrows.
Previously the system was very dynamic: global prices were reflected by the amount of items being sold and bought by players. This was, I always felt, a solid compromise in design – at least in lieu of the closed resource system originally intended for UO.
Many will remember that very early on UO’s economy was rebuilt as an open faucet system. Later, the team added goldsinks as they felt necessary to solve inflation issues, or remove duped wealth from the game. Vendors went through numerous revisions in their pricing models as well, until we arrived at what we had up until recently.
Impact: we’ve added ceilings and floors to the dynamic model, rather than replace it.
We did this in a hurry, too. Why? Was the exploit new? No, certainly not. The exploit, and its cousins, had been going on for some time. Wasn’t it a simple bug to fix? No, it was an intrinsic flaw with the implementation. Won’t vendor prices rise until something is done to counter it? Yes, vendor prices will rise right now without caps, and player vendors will certainly have an advantage until a more permanent solution is implemented.
You’ll note that I say a permanent solution, which this is not. So why? It was absolutely critical to fix the bug as quickly as possible, while retaining as much of the dynamic model as possible, in order to solve problems with server stability. We do not want to permanently nerf such a fundamentally fun and interesting game mechanic as merchants in UO have been able to enjoy up to now.
So, friend merchants, we must ask your patience. We want to attack cheating head on, and we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to have our cake and eat it too. Many people legitimately enjoyed the buy low/sell high game, which was of course in no way illegal.
However, to all those who used specific exploits to manipulate the system against its design: We’ll be seeing you soon.
<ul>[*]Vendors will no longer sell items to players below their established base values[*]Vendors will no longer buy items for more than their established base values[/list]
This change was made to commodities – not all items. However, this does include resources like wood or ingots, and generic craftables like bolts and arrows.
Previously the system was very dynamic: global prices were reflected by the amount of items being sold and bought by players. This was, I always felt, a solid compromise in design – at least in lieu of the closed resource system originally intended for UO.
Many will remember that very early on UO’s economy was rebuilt as an open faucet system. Later, the team added goldsinks as they felt necessary to solve inflation issues, or remove duped wealth from the game. Vendors went through numerous revisions in their pricing models as well, until we arrived at what we had up until recently.
Impact: we’ve added ceilings and floors to the dynamic model, rather than replace it.
We did this in a hurry, too. Why? Was the exploit new? No, certainly not. The exploit, and its cousins, had been going on for some time. Wasn’t it a simple bug to fix? No, it was an intrinsic flaw with the implementation. Won’t vendor prices rise until something is done to counter it? Yes, vendor prices will rise right now without caps, and player vendors will certainly have an advantage until a more permanent solution is implemented.
You’ll note that I say a permanent solution, which this is not. So why? It was absolutely critical to fix the bug as quickly as possible, while retaining as much of the dynamic model as possible, in order to solve problems with server stability. We do not want to permanently nerf such a fundamentally fun and interesting game mechanic as merchants in UO have been able to enjoy up to now.
So, friend merchants, we must ask your patience. We want to attack cheating head on, and we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to have our cake and eat it too. Many people legitimately enjoyed the buy low/sell high game, which was of course in no way illegal.
However, to all those who used specific exploits to manipulate the system against its design: We’ll be seeing you soon.