NEWS [UO.Com] Publish and Patch today (Read post #292 before posting))

[Lord Lew]

Just to clarify, Characters that use the shard shields will now only be allowed shard shield transfer once every 2 weeks. Normal character transfers are not affected.

Just to clarify, this is crap!

I will be researching the legality of demanding my 14 years of monthly subscriptions back. I'm so livid, I'm seeing red. Hopefully someone will beat me to it and I can join a class action. I literally took years off from uo but paid so that I would be able to utilize my future vet rewards. You destroyed the functionality of vet rewards by removing the account age, and now destroy the usefulness of our shields. For what reason, yet again it's exploiters, the same people you do nothing about as they continually dupe and script into oblivion. Real smart..

I'm so sick of this crap.. I'm done!

 

[azmodanb]

its only temp... read before you react

 

[Daegan]

@Lord Lew It's being reverted on Monday. It was just to flush out the dupers.

 

[Apetul]

It's also nice to see that guilty player(s) were found and dealt with.

And we know this how?

I know this isnt accurate, but its funny to see that some ppl that has a few 14yr accounts with shard shields and posted a few times on this thread didnt "liked" messana's post yet (right now 26 likes).. maybe they dont share our enthusiasm about devs deleting these tokens.

 

[Lord Lew]

its only temp... read before you react

Yeah read 18 full pages when I'm livid! I just came back from a long segmented vacation, was totally relaxed and read that crap...

Guess I should have read it all, but you know what, I'm sick and tired of changes wrought by people who exploit and cheat the system, while these same idiots are allowed to remain after a deletion of items.

So yeah, I'm pretty much done with uo

 

[azmodanb]

haha yeah was a long read

 

[G.v.P]

I don't see why anyone would quit over all of this but if they're going to revert things then hm...

 

[Swt Lippy Hippy]

Thanks Bonnie! I think we need to put those duping cheating dirty apes heads on a stick this year for Octobers goodies. What about developing some type of system like crime stoppers. If your tip leads to finding the culprit. Reward them in some way. lol Like Free bribing npc tailors for a week! lol or a cool fishing net ! hehehehehe So if there is a revert, does that mean that my friend that caught a black marlin yesterday for a fish contest has to fish all over again ? Ahhh hahaha Aphid Thanks again Bonnie.. Burn their houses and let us all stand there and watch it LOL PLEASE

 

[Lt.Snuggles]

Thanks Bonnie! I think we need to put those duping cheating dirty apes heads on a stick this year for Octobers goodies. What about developing some type of system like crime stoppers. If your tip leads to finding the culprit. Reward them in some way. lol Like Free bribing npc tailors for a week! lol or a cool fishing net ! hehehehehe So if there is a revert, does that mean that my friend that caught a black marlin yesterday for a fish contest has to fish all over again ? Ahhh hahaha Aphid Thanks again Bonnie.. Burn their houses and let us all stand there and watch it LOL PLEASE

how much coffee have you had?

 

[Lord Lew]

I don't see why anyone would quit over all of this but if they're going to revert things then hm...

I'm the last person who would ever dupe, exploit, or grief, so I truly hope that's not your point

It's just the straw that broke the camels back... That's all..

 

[G.v.P]

I'm the last person who would ever dupe, exploit, or grief, so I truly hope that's not your point

It's just the straw that broke the camels back... That's all..

I didn't quote you in my last post because you're not the only one who has said they will quit because of this.

Maybe I should have been more explicit. Not insinuating anything about you, either.

 

[Swt Lippy Hippy]

how much coffee have you had?

LOL wha? No, I am this way normally.. hehehe c,mon lets watch them ROAST lol and instead of the messages you see at idocs of things unlocking, have it say BURN IN UO ( H E -double toothpicks) Dupers and hit the road jack... :snoopy:

 

[G.v.P]

I guess I'll go more in depth. As others have said, we get free transfers which otherwise would cost $20 each. Like for example I have at least 10 shields now, so every month I've given $200 of content. Even if they "nerfed" that, and made it so I could only use a round trip once every 2 weeks--which is theoretically a faster rate of time than their respawn of 1 month--I'm still getting $200 worth of free content every month. So, even if they made the changes addressed in the OP, I'd still be getting access to a fairly significant advantage over the global economy of the game, which others would not have. If anything, I would imagine those without shard shields would want to quit, not those with them.

 

[Theo_GL]

I guess I'll go more in depth. As others have said, we get free transfers which otherwise would cost $20 each. Like for example I have at least 10 shields now, so every month I've given $200 of content. Even if they "nerfed" that, and made it so I could only use a round trip once every 2 weeks--which is theoretically a faster rate of time than their respawn of 1 month--I'm still getting $200 worth of free content every month. So, even if they made the changes addressed in the OP, I'd still be getting access to a fairly significant advantage over the global economy of the game, which others would not have. If anything, I would imagine those without shard shields would want to quit, not those with them.

Well, that would assume that xfer tokens at $19.99 are actually worth $19.99. I'd never buy one for that outrageous price. Honestly they should be priced at $5. How is 1 xfer token worth a month and a half of gameplay?
I also think 14 years is too long to wait but maybe thats just me stuck at 12 years. I wish we could buy vet time for like $2/month. You want to ride ethy's? Plop down $24 on a new account and ride away. I would be cool with that.

While I'm ok with EA/Broadsword going with micro transaction items - some of them are just crazy expensive for the value. Transfer tokens being at the top of the list. Cut these down to $5 and maybe I'd be in the market for some of them.

 

[Promathia]

Well, that would assume that xfer tokens at $19.99 are actually worth $19.99. I'd never buy one for that outrageous price. Honestly they should be priced at $5. How is 1 xfer token worth a month and a half of gameplay?
I also think 14 years is too long to wait but maybe thats just me stuck at 12 years. I wish we could buy vet time for like $2/month. You want to ride ethy's? Plop down $24 on a new account and ride away. I would be cool with that.

While I'm ok with EA/Broadsword going with micro transaction items - some of them are just crazy expensive for the value. Transfer tokens being at the top of the list. Cut these down to $5 and maybe I'd be in the market for some of them.

Except, ya know, almost every MMO prices their Transfer Tokens about the same, regardless of populations.

Edit: Did some looking around, here are some xfer costs from other games
WildStar : $20
WoW: $25
SWTOR: $20
ESO: $20 to move to Console Servers
Tera: ~$25
GW2: ~ $20
Secret World: $20
LOTRO: $25
EVE: $20
Aion: $25

 

[Eärendil]

Good morning! What did I read? No apokalypse now? War between Devs and 14+ vets didnt take place? UO not annihilated? World still exists? Everybody happy again?

So many crazy, emotional and childish reactions. Thank god there are other people willing to wait 24h before they get a nervous breakdown and declare war to others.

To those others, those pathetic, saturated abd immature nerd-crybabies with their conspiration-theories and their lack of patience (not to all contributors), I say: Be a man! Be an adult! Check your attitude.

 

[Jerec KTM]

But but but but but but but but but but.. THE NAME CHANGED! THEY ARE NOW BROADSWORD!!!!! NOT EA!!!!!!11111

...who cares if the people didn't change...

Yeah... count me among the many that noticed the action in the "we have actioned accounts" didn't necessarily mean banned.

Wake up people.

 

[slippjeem]

Just to clarify, Characters that use the shard shields will now only be allowed shard shield transfer once every 2 weeks. Normal character transfers are not affected.

So wow I paid for 6 years that I didn't play to get all these shields and I make a special char to go do events on other shards and now I have to delete him and make a new char if I want to transfer more then 2x a month? I guess I already have 5 years worth of tokens and I have had the shields less then6 months...

 

[azmodanb]

just.to clarify.. its a temp change and will be reverted to how it was around Monday

 

[kaio]

Just to clarify.
Crying seems to help alot in UO.
Player >> cry cry cry...CRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Dev>> ok ok, it seems like there were some dupe or something (best excuse we could come up with)
Dev>> but ermh we change things back now..please stop crying, we are so sorry (We really are..erhm lol not really but..)

 

[James Moriarty]

After this publish, we investigated further and discovered that only a small group of players exploited the dupe of the shield tokens. We are deleting those tokens and reverting the fix back by Monday at the latest.

It was not our intention to punish any innocent players, but to remove the 18,000 tokens that where duped. We have seized the houses and actioned the accounts of those responsible.

We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter.

Thank god common sense has prevailed!

 

[James Moriarty]

I would imagine that waking up today to find your 14+ year account banned and your house with 14+ years worth of memories gone would be a bit of a downer. You reap what you sow !

 

[THP]

18,000 duped tokens...wow... thats a lot of tokens for one account...how the hell did they store 18,000 tokens..were talking 4 castles vanished...imguessing.....

Alas i can only hope u deal with the 1000's of other well known duped deco items in the same manner...i need not name them...every 4th/5th castles seems to have 2 on the steps knowadays.....That or make them replicas with other known deco dupes in the brit clean up/ turn in rewards......

 

[Petra Fyde]

If only people would simply play the game as it's given to us. Instead a certain few have to poke and prod and twist stuff until they've broken it.
I sometimes wonder just how much better the team could make the game if only they didn't have to waste so much precious development time fixing the stuff the destructive element break.

 

[THP]

its the sheer number....18,000 if they had 3 accounts at '' over 14 years old'' they could still only transfer once a day...so that was still 6000 days...its silly..... it was totally worthless doing it...... as they could never have transfered in that numbers.....totally pointless....not even if 10 accounts were involved over 14 years old....thinks to go run the lands looking for empty castles spots....jeeepers

 

[azmodanb]

unless they found a bug for the timer too.. heh

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Those owned by OSI houses use to be what they did so the house didn't drop while the process was being reviewed and the player was suspended. It would be kinda crappy to let someone's house dropped when they were suspended to figure out you really did make a mistake. So I imagine these people will get a chance to email Mesanna and plea their case. Only problem was some of these OSI owned houses stayed like that for years lol. Anyone actually know of anyone getting banned?

 

[Petra Fyde]

Not all 'owned by OSI' houses have that reason though. Houses with rented vendors also go 'owned by OSI' to give the vendor owners time to remove them.

 

[THP]

well lets check the shards shall we...it wont take long if 27 people do there bit on each shard..u can cover tram and felluca in around 2 hours...especailly were the big keeps and castle spots are...doubt were talking smaller storage

 

[Capt. Lucky]

well lets check the shards shall we...it wont take long if 27 people do there bit on each shard..u can cover tram and felluca in around 2 hours...especailly were the big keeps and castle spots are...doubt were talking smaller storage

And take a bunch of blank runes

 

[THP]

id like to see some burning houses to be fair...with the name and shame effigy again.....why not name and shame these people

and come on they must be soooo stupid to dupe more than they could ever use in the next 10 years...a 1000 yes they could have hid those away i guess in 3-4 houses.. thats still 1000 days transfer....but the stupidness is beyond beggars belief....

 

[THP]

okies im gonna run europa..ill let u know in 2 hours...

 

[Capt. Lucky]

id like to see some burning houses to be fair...with the name and shame effigy again.....why not name and shame these people

and come on they must be soooo stupid to dupe more than they could ever use in the next 10 years

We'll we really don't now if it was 10 people with a gazillion tokens or 200 people with 10 tokens or what. So there may or may not be many houses gone at all. But if I got banned it would be a bummer. But I don't think I'd be shamed by it lol. I'd probably frame the email and sell copies on eBay lol.

 

[Riply]

I'm really happy that this is being resolved and back to normal next week. But if the powers to be would have changed their original post to something like this. "We are experiencing glitches in our shard shield transfer tokens and we are unfortunately having to limit their use to *******". We hope to have this resolved by early next week, thank you for your patience in this matter.
We have had quite a number of these kinds of posts over the years, this would have been the best way to have approached this situation in my humble opinion.

 

[THP]

yes handled like ****...
what next...are we gonna read...
''and we are going to publish latest patch on next server up''
''oh'' and '' btw 4 shards will closed so move your stuff to a shard thats safe in the next 24 hours or it will be gone for good''...

just saying...was handled like ****....anyways its sorted..we can all breath easy again....still would love to hear if anyone finds any ''on fire plots'' are hears of any massive museums disapearing in thin air...etc etc etc...surely something of this scale cannot go un-noticed to the public gaze

 

[old gypsy]

I'm content. But I'd better get an eye exam. I thought I read "auctioned" the accounts, rather than "actioned" the accounts, and was waiting for the announcement about a coming auction.

 

[Siabra]

After this publish, we investigated further and discovered that only a small group of players exploited the dupe of the shield tokens. We are deleting those tokens and reverting the fix back by Monday at the latest.

It was not our intention to punish any innocent players, but to remove the 18,000 tokens that where duped. We have seized the houses and actioned the accounts of those responsible.

We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter.

Mesanna ,
Again ... thank you... for being there for us

 

[THP]

okies im gonna run europa..ill let u know in 2 hours...

To be fair running tram and felluca on europa kinda leaves it inconclusive....theres no empty castle spots as u would expect although...a couple of un-named ones and a couple for sale which could have been placed yesterday or weeks ago....typically like most average populated shards theres always a odd free keep spots in trammel and a good handfull of keep spots in felucca but this is normal....so deffo no new burning houses..or new Osi castles/keeps ....soooo no real clue on europa ...

kinda guessing the dupers would haave placed castles on the very quiet shards anyways were theres always a dozen free castle spots...so again...unless there on fire..it would be hard to tell if they freshly fell or been empty for months

 

[Petra Fyde]

To be fair running tram and felluca on europa kinda leaves it inconclusive....theres no empty castle spots as u would expect although...a couple of un-named ones and a couple for sale which could have been placed yesterday or weeks ago....typically like most average populated shards theres always a odd free keep spots in trammel and a good handfull of keep spots in felucca but this is normal....so deffo no new burning houses..or new Osi castles/keeps ....soooo no real clue on europa ...

kinda guessing the dupers would haave placed castles on the very quiet shards anyways were theres always a dozen free castle spots...so again...unless there on fire..it would be hard to tell if they freshly fell or been empty for months

I very much doubt you'll see any on fire. That was Draconi's form of grandstanding.

 

[AtlanticRealtor]

Do the deed against all and pay the price... I am quite sure this time the tokens and all will be poofed and the people who had a hand in this will pay the hard way. 18,k wow is all i can say to that number... amazingly stupid.

This dont affect us, those tokens were account based, only they could use those tokens, this is what I understand as "Shard Shield Tokens"

 

[MalagAste]

Ah I do miss Draconi... He had flare (misspelled on purpose).

Anyway, they have done what was needed I'm sure. I have faith they did the right thing. Just glad they will be returning the shields to the old functionality.

I just have to say that you reap what you sow. Taking the game and promoting greed gets you what you have. Folk who are constantly trying to make $$$ quick and easy. I have a feeling I know exactly who has that sort of transfers built up. They would be the ones who are constantly spamming about selling stuff... anytime anywhere on those search websites everyone knows about. You think they move all that stuff with bought tokens you've got another thing coming. I hope the team hit them where it hurts. Doesn't take rocket science to figure out who would have that volume of tokens sitting around.

 

[Winter]

I smell Some New idocs On the Horizion Ok Pookie time to ........

If I recall correctly, when Draconi did shard wide burning of houses there were no IDOCS to pick up, just flames and effigies of the dupers. This prevented someone "innocently" picking up duped items.

 

[Winter]

Ah I do miss Draconi...

Me too... I suspect many of us miss his touch on UO.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I've edited the title line, hopefully it will avert some angst and confusion.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I've edited the title line, hopefully it will avert some angst and confusion.

Was kinda enjoying the uninformed rants.

 

[The Zog historian]

I totally disagree. In a case like this - I think it is best to take immediate action to halt things while the investigation is carried out. As an analogy... If you cut your ankle badly - wouldn't you want a tourniquet to stop the blood loss while they fix the problem?

Let me just say something off-topic about your analogy. As someone who's been trained in first-aid for 27 years, to answer your question: no, not necessarily. The first thing we were taught about tourniquets is that it carries the presumption that the limb will be lost. A responder/medic must determine if the blood loss cannot be stopped by other means, e.g. pressure on main blood vessels. Only then should a tourniquet be considered, as a last resort. This is just something to think about the next time a movie or TV character says something like, "Get that belt on him as a tourniquet."

As far as UO, if this is a tourniquet, it seems to have been released in time before necrosis set in.

 

[Daegan]

I very much doubt you'll see any on fire. That was Draconi's form of grandstanding.

I hate to tell you, but we found 5 houses actually on fire on Napa Valley which had previously been player houses. I think very much, we did see some fire.

Thanks,
Daegan

 

[S_S]

I hate to tell you, but we found 5 houses actually on fire on Napa Valley which had previously been player houses. I think very much, we did see some fire.

Thanks,
Daegan

Locations??

 

[Spiritless]

This prevented someone "innocently" picking up duped items.

You mean like some of the people who were banned in that sweep in the first place?

It was ridiculous.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I hate to tell you, but we found 5 houses actually on fire on Napa Valley which had previously been player houses. I think very much, we did see some fire.

Thanks,
Daegan

That makes a frakin' statement! lol