NEWS [UO.Com] Letter from the Producer

[MalagAste]

They should reward us if we find bugs/exploits on TC1. That would make alot more people try to find them instead of the ones that look for them to just use them to make lots of extra gold when the pub hits... Range the rewards for how harmful the bug/exploit may be. Like a token of your choice, Game Time Codes 1-3-6 month codes. and say if u find a dupe and report it free uo for a year or perma free account. If they did something like that it would make a lot more people want to try to find the bugs.

I don't work for free so I do not go on TC1 just to work for them and get nothing. I am sure that most people agree with me on that.

PS.. I am not sure if this is already in action or if it has been mentioned before. If it already exisists then I would say that they should advertise it to the UO player base.

Sorry if you disagree that's just my opinion.

It's not working for Free... In my opinion it's testing to ensure that what's coming isn't going to completely bork your game. I want to be sure my house is all secure, my things are going to go poof, my world is safe......


As for spending loads of time on Test I often don't because I quite frankly don't have time for it.

 

[Viper09]

No one is forcing anyone to test anything, if you think it's unreasonable to go out and test the content then don't do it. If anything, TC allows players to actually provide input on what will be released and get a sneak peak as to how the game will change. As MalagAste stated, it is good in that it lets us know how to prepare for when it goes live. Being able to find additional bugs that have been overlooked or missed is simply a bonus to allowing players the ability to get such a sneak peak. Devs look at this game through a different lens than players do.

 

[pumpkin_escobar]

Light switches make sense if they could somehow make it really dark inside player houses without candles and switches n stuff

 

[Tanivar]

Light switches make sense if they could somehow make it really dark inside player houses without candles and switches n stuff

In the CC, open the options menu, chose the Display tab, and check Dark Nights which is down near the bottom of that list.

 

[Thrakkar]

I find it amusing when people try to speak for the majority- I am glad you feel qualified enough to take up that daunting task.

I'm not speaking for the majority. In my experience something extreme isn't as wide accepted as some main-stream decision and I strongly believe this is the same.

And it's not pointless. The point is removing something from the game that shouldn't be there to begin with.

Really? But if they don't remove the duping method, how would that solve the problem? OSI deletes it, the dupers dupe it again...

 

[pumpkin_escobar]

Please update stone and dragon scales.

 

[Herman]

If they have the same ID, then how would they determine which ones wouldn't be allowed on a vendor (the duped ones) and which ones would be?

They can not the dupes and the source of the dupe can not be put on vendors that is my guess

 

[chise2]

Please update stone and dragon scales.

Well they did say they are making all armor types useful again. Lets hope they didn;t forget anything. I personally think it would be pretty cool to have the option of wearing a full suit of dragon scale armor in pvp. Of course depending on how these changes were made it is quite possible dragon scale still wonlt be an option for me! lol. Personally I am kinda hoping they just made it so that everyone can wear any type of armor. So it just becomes a matter of personal choice in what you think looks best. I think it would be easier to balance that way.

 

[CovenantX]

So, when can we expect to see some of this stuff come to TC1 ? I'll actually get on TC1 to test some of this stuff =D.

 

[startle]

.....But if they don't remove the duping method, how would that solve the problem? OSI deletes it, the dupers dupe it again...

Aye, couldn't have said it better myself... No really, it's like what Thrakkar said was somewhere in my head, but I just couldn't drag it out... If OSI were really serious about "caring" in regard to duping and cheating in general, you'd think they'd do something at the source, if you get our drift....

 

[KLOMP]

Dupe bugs don't usually stay active for very long, it's just easy for people to do a lot of damage in a very short period of time. New and different ones tend to crop up though, because UO is a tortured heap of spaghetti code that has had about 400 different developers over the years. Seriously, I was seeing industry cracks about UO's code being a poorly documented mess ten years ago. Managing it is hard. I have no idea why some of you people think there's an active dupe just lying around waiting for you to tell the devs that they... gosh... maybe ought to fix it.

 

[startle]

It seems to me that it should be no more difficult to fix than it is difficult to exploit.... I just think it's not a big priority....

 

[Olahorand]

The problem with these exploits is, that the duper surely knows, how it works. But this is not necessary also knowledge of the developers, if nobody tells them.
A bug is usually unexpected, and there is no easy way to determine where it may hide, if you only see the result at a much later state.

 

[Thrakkar]

I have no idea why some of you people think there's an active dupe just lying around

Maybe because they said, that they don't want to increase the check size, instead they want to remove checks completely. Why would they say something like that, if there is no active dupe?

 

[Warsong of LS]

2013 nerf?

Personally, I am envisioning the same type of "nerf" to the weapons as when the Age of Shadows went live!

 

[Vor]

Maybe because they said, that they don't want to increase the check size, instead they want to remove checks completely. Why would they say something like that, if there is no active dupe?

Yeah, because, if there isn't one now, there will be another dupe in the future whatever happens.

 

[Phoenix_Mythic]

Somehow a light switch breaks the spell for me in a way that, say, Exodus doesn't.

Not ready to talk much in detail about the Advanced Tinkering quite yet, but the fictional basis for how it will work is with tinkered gadgetry that has been enchanted. I'll happily tease a bit with a new list of words of power:

Add, Aes, Alt, Amb, Cae, Def, Div, Dor, Efi, Gyr, Inf, Ino, Inv, Mai, Mem, Mul, Par, Per, Pon, Rep, Sir, Sub, Ull

 

[Sauteed Onion]

Not ready to talk much in detail about the Advanced Tinkering quite yet, but the fictional basis for how it will work is with tinkered gadgetry that has been enchanted. I'll happily tease a bit with a new list of words of power:

Add, Aes, Alt, Amb, Cae, Def, Div, Dor, Efi, Gyr, Inf, Ino, Inv, Mai, Mem, Mul, Par, Per, Pon, Rep, Sir, Sub, Ull

I wonder if EA can cast a spell with the above words of power.. here's one.
Add Inf Sub.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Not ready to talk much in detail about the Advanced Tinkering quite yet, but the fictional basis for how it will work is with tinkered gadgetry that has been enchanted. I'll happily tease a bit with a new list of words of power:

Add, Aes, Alt, Amb, Cae, Def, Div, Dor, Efi, Gyr, Inf, Ino, Inv, Mai, Mem, Mul, Par, Per, Pon, Rep, Sir, Sub, Ull

Many thanks for noticing, and addressing, this concern. And, perhaps especially, for that fact that it seemingly had come up behind the scenes as well.

-Galen's player

 

[Willard]

• You will no longer be able to place duped items on vendors.

Could this be expanded to include Trade windows?

 

[Sauteed Onion]

Pirate ship champion Spawn!

 

[KLOMP]

Maybe because they said, that they don't want to increase the check size, instead they want to remove checks completely. Why would they say something like that, if there is no active dupe?

Oh god, are you for real? If there had been a dupe bug sitting around active around for THAT long, gold would be one cent per billion by now and piles of Slithers would litter the streets. What is wrong with you?

 

[Herman]

Oh god, are you for real? If there had been a dupe bug sitting around active around for THAT long, gold would be one cent per billion by now and piles of Slithers would litter the streets. What is wrong with you?

The devs already told us there was a gold dupe on atlantic and just by looking at the luna vendors you can tell it was a massive one in about a year prices went up x2 in some cases x3 on almost every item.

Is There an active dupe now?
If you ask me probably (I just guess like most people do) but for 10+ years I played uo duping was a problem so do the devs realy fixxed all holes now?
I dont think so what they have done is fixxed one hole and banned the worst sinners but others will come they always do

 

[KLOMP]

Dupes crop up for short periods of time before being fixed, and then the effects of that short period are felt over the course of months afterward. The longer a particular dupe remains active, the more people come to know about it. A dupe left open all year would be known by everyone and there would be stacks of mil checks littering the streets. You. Don't. Know. How. This. Stuff. Works.

 

[Herman]

Dupes crop up for short periods of time before being fixed, and then the effects of that short period are felt over the course of months afterward. The longer a particular dupe remains active, the more people come to know about it. A dupe left open all year would be known by everyone and there would be stacks of mil checks littering the streets. You. Don't. Know. How. This. Stuff. Works.

And you are the expert ?


I think you are wrong normal gamers would not dupe it takes a special kind to do that and i do not think they are that many either and why would these dupers start trowing checks on ground
Is the point not to make themselves rich if they spread the money like that soon everyone would be rich and then it would be pointless

If i can speculate about this last gold dupe on atlantic if everything got twice as expensive then i can only assume that the dupers did double the amount of gold that existed before the dupe
So how much gold did exist before 50 trillion ?
So if they can dupe 100m at a time they would have to do the dupe 500 000 times !!!!!!
These are no normal gamers it is an industry normal gamers would dupe a couple times just to try it or just quit uo because everything they have collected over the years would be worthless
The numbers are far to big to ever be true but the dupe was big and people that do that will try again and again and again that i m sure of
So it does not even matter if the dupe is active or not there will be one active sooner or later

I realy hope they will do away with checks

This is just my opinion it dont have to be TRUE

 

[Thrakkar]

Oh god, are you for real? If there had been a dupe bug sitting around active around for THAT long, gold would be one cent per billion by now and piles of Slithers would litter the streets. What is wrong with you?

Yes this is for real. And why would a gold seller site ruin their prices? Just because they can? What a navie assumption....

You. Don't. Know. How. This. Stuff. Works.

Ahh, you're the guy with the infallible expertise...
Allright, so no point to argue, eh?

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

Reading this a bit late, but here's my take...

I think any move on getting rid of, or restricting duped items in anyway has to be precedeed by getting rid of the ability to dupe and acquire duped gold. Let's say they do as some people suggest and take the exteme of deleting all the duped items. Okay, now the demand for the legitimate ones go through the roof (basic supply/demand economics). Players will just buy these now very-rare/hard-to-find legitimate items with duped gold (easy enough to get from those websites that advertise in game) and the prices just keep going up. Now honest players are taking duped gold for their hard to find items - how does that make it any better? Better make it impossible to dupe gold, or buy things with duped gold before you even try and address the duped items issues. While we're at it, better find a way to stop players from scripting as they're gaining gold unfairly which is still screwing up the economy. Or am I missing something?

 

[Lord Frodo]

The devs already told us there was a gold dupe on atlantic

This is an interesting statement because I have always heard (for 15 yrs) that DEVs do not talk about Dupes and Bugs. Could you please post us a link to where a DEV said this?

 

[Herman]

This is an interesting statement because I have always heard (for 15 yrs) that DEVs do not talk about Dupes and Bugs. Could you please post us a link to where a DEV said this?

Think i did bend the truth to suit my belief a bit there I do not think the devs ever made a statement that there was a dupe

Mesanna said something like gold is the easiest or most common thing to dupe was it at the 15th anni party ?
and there was rumor about people getting banned on atlantic for duping

It was enough evidence for me to form my opinion about what did happen on atlantic but it is no fact

Sry for that

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

This is an interesting statement because I have always heard (for 15 yrs) that DEVs do not talk about Dupes and Bugs. Could you please post us a link to where a DEV said this?

I recall nothing about them saying there was a gold dupe on Atlantic.

If you've heard that devs don't talk bout dupes and bugs you're wrong, though.

Here's the 15th Anniversary transcript:

http://uo.ultimacodex.com/2012/10/uo-15th-anniversary-transcript-presentation/

And here's the excerpt:

[07:36] Bonnie: We also want to talk about doing a currency conversion and getting checks out of the system, because the easiest thing in this game to dupe is checks.

They also by definition would have admitted there was a dupe way back in the day when they did that major dupe removal that banned a handful of accounts and took most of the gold out of the game. (This was long ago.) Also Jeremey once talked about the duping of gold hammers at an event that was broadcast on Whispering Rose Radio.

What they don't to is tell us all how to perform them. Nor do they, in my own judgment at least, tell us enough to be able to know what's going on out there.

But to say they don't talk about them at all is flat-out incorrect.

-Galen's player

 

[virem]

I hate the idea of a weapon damage revamp or a a change to any special moves besides making useless ones useful. The game is mostly pvp balanced now... with exception of the cyclone and soul glaive. Huge changes just for the sake of huge changes is stupid. Same thing with armor revamp... worries me.. a lot.

 

[KLOMP]

I think you are wrong normal gamers would not dupe it takes a special kind to do that and i do not think they are that many either and why would these dupers start trowing checks on ground
Is the point not to make themselves rich if they spread the money like that soon everyone would be rich and then it would be pointless

Quick, from a macroeconomic perspective, what is the difference between the following?

A) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and spending it on everything you and your friends could possibly want.

B) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and selling it for dollars to other people who will spend it on things they want.

C) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and throwing it all on the bank floor to be picked up by random people.

Answer: Nothing. In all of these cases your endless gold is being pumped into the economy where other people will spread it around. The only way to avoid your scenario where "soon everyone would be rich" would be for people to dupe gold AND THEN NEVER SPEND OR SELL IT, which would be sort of pointless and not terribly realistic.

Not only that, but the longer the dupe stays active, the more people will come to know about it, either through someone slipping up and blabbing, or through people just plain discovering it independantly over time. (And then blabbing.) Not only will more and more people be duping, but with all this gold entering the economy, latecomers will have to dupe even more in order to catch up to the ever-rising threshold of what is considered rich.

The occasional dupe bug left open for a few days here or there is more than enough to account for the current ludicrous level of inflation. One left open for a year would literally lower the value of gold to zero.

 

[spoonyd]

I hate the idea of a weapon damage revamp or a a change to any special moves besides making useless ones useful. The game is mostly pvp balanced now... with exception of the cyclone and soul glaive. Huge changes just for the sake of huge changes is stupid. Same thing with armor revamp... worries me.. a lot.

This is pretty much dead on. Other than those two weaps there's a fair bit of harmony in pvp right now. I play throwers and mages alike and they are quite unfair and poorly balanced right now.

I'm all for armor being good of all sizes and shapes PROVIDED it doesn't completely remake pvp as it is now. It should also not make current armor obsolete either.

Devs please tread lightly on big changes that change pvp in a dramatic way especially now that things are about as balanced as its been in a long time.

 

[Stickypaws]

Does this mean we will soon be able to raise tinkering to 120? And if yes, are we going to have to buy a booster to update our accounts? Also, will getting a 120 power scroll be something most players will be able to accomplish within a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable amount of effort, unlike getting a 120 fishing power scroll?

Highlighted, have a dedicated Tink/Golem Master, hated the feeling I had on Fisherman that I would never achieve 120 fishing, haven’t been fishing scince.

 

[Herman]

Quick, from a macroeconomic perspective, what is the difference between the following?

A) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and spending it on everything you and your friends could possibly want.

B) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and selling it for dollars to other people who will spend it on things they want.

C) Duping a ridiculous amount of gold and throwing it all on the bank floor to be picked up by random people.

Answer: Nothing. In all of these cases your endless gold is being pumped into the economy where other people will spread it around. The only way to avoid your scenario where "soon everyone would be rich" would be for people to dupe gold AND THEN NEVER SPEND OR SELL IT, which would be sort of pointless and not terribly realistic.

Not only that, but the longer the dupe stays active, the more people will come to know about it, either through someone slipping up and blabbing, or through people just plain discovering it independantly over time. (And then blabbing.) Not only will more and more people be duping, but with all this gold entering the economy, latecomers will have to dupe even more in order to catch up to the ever-rising threshold of what is considered rich.

The occasional dupe bug left open for a few days here or there is more than enough to account for the current ludicrous level of inflation. One left open for a year would literally lower the value of gold to zero.

True all those 3 examples would reduce the value of gold but in order to make it realistic u need to add time as a factor
If time is not a factor the 20 gp from mongbats will be more devastating for the economy than all duped gold the last 15 years ever was all it takes is enough killed mongbats

I do not think those 3 examples would reduce the value of gold at the same speed for example selling gold for irl cash
It is in the best interest of the seller to not sell out gold that fast in order to keep the gold--->dollar rate as high as possible



I said why would dupers start trowing checks on ground is the point not to make themselves rich if they spread the money like that soon everyone would be rich

This is not a scenario

My point was that dupers are greedy if they do not get an unfair advantage over other people they would not dupe


I now understand that what you was saying (checks littering the street) was just to point out gold would be worthless
correct ?


It is possible that you are correct about dupes only staying active a couple of days I do not know enough about cheating in uo to say you are wrong
I have my opinion you have yours