NEWS UO Newsletter #45

[Polaris75]

For those who don't understand well.... I quit doing IDOCs 2 years ago after the "crews" started and I literally got nothing for a whole year straight of trying to go to IDOCs.

You know when you see those chars just run by your houses every 10-30 minutes? Those are bots, EJ accounts using pathfinding to run routes and recall around. There is no human active.... it is simply a bot and nothing more. Can we simply run around on bots 24/7? No we cannot..... I cannot, I don't know about all of you.

These changes remove all competition from the cheaters. Instead of getting 90% of items, they will now get 99% of items. They have bots, sort of like ghost cams at champ spawns that login / logout at every champion spawn once per hour to see if it is active. They have the same bots that are programmed to login every 20 minutes and start their route. It takes hours to run the world... that's why they use 10 bots on Atlantic. On other shards... they only have to use 4 or 5 because of the profit margin. The teams split up, and each runs several bots on each shard to find Idocs.

They will now simply program their bots to.... search for "fallen contents" on the ground rather than "scanning house signs." They will know all loot locations 2 or 3 hours before any honest player. Not just that... you won't even find items on the ground before they disappear. They will, they will now get 99% of the loot instead of 90%.

Not only that, everyone is missing the obvious in that.... they will know a house is IDOC as well because it will change from public to private. They will still know the exact time it changed to within 20 minutes (based on their route time.) They will simply adjust the routes to try to step on every step as they run around. No need for house signs, it will do nothing for advanced programmers / website owners. So they simply wait 112 hours (fall time is roughly 114 hours I just researched) and login all of their vacuum bots.

Scripters now get 99% of items instead of 90%. Maybe this will shut up those complaining though, as they will never be at IDOCs anymore to complain.

For the record.... this all makes me sick. Why can't contents simply go to a storage vault?

 

[jack flash uk]

For those who don't understand well.... I quit doing IDOCs 2 years ago after the "crews" started and I literally got nothing for a whole year straight of trying to go to IDOCs.

You know when you see those chars just run by your houses every 10-30 minutes? Those are bots, EJ accounts using pathfinding to run routes and recall around. There is no human active.... it is simply a bot and nothing more. Can we simply run around on bots 24/7? No we cannot..... I cannot, I don't know about all of you.

These changes remove all competition from the cheaters. Instead of getting 90% of items, they will now get 99% of items. They have bots, sort of like ghost cams at champ spawns that login / logout at every champion spawn once per hour to see if it is active. They have the same bots that are programmed to login every 20 minutes and start their route. It takes hours to run the world... that's why they use 10 bots on Atlantic. On other shards... they only have to use 4 or 5 because of the profit margin. The teams split up, and each runs several bots on each shard to find Idocs.

They will now simply program their bots to.... search for "fallen contents" on the ground rather than "scanning house signs." They will know all loot locations 2 or 3 hours before any honest player. Not just that... you won't even find items on the ground before they disappear. They will, they will now get 99% of the loot instead of 90%.

Not only that, everyone is missing the obvious in that.... they will know a house is IDOC as well because it will change from public to private. They will still know the exact time it changed to within 20 minutes (based on their route time.) They will simply adjust the routes to try to step on every step as they run around. No need for house signs, it will do nothing for advanced programmers / website owners. So they simply wait 112 hours (fall time is roughly 114 hours I just researched) and login all of their vacuum bots.

Scripters now get 99% of items instead of 90%. Maybe this will shut up those complaining though, as they will never be at IDOCs anymore to complain.

For the record.... this all makes me sick. Why can't contents simply go to a storage vault?

I did not even think about the house state form public to private, only works on a percentage as many houses are currently public, but its something else that can scan for sure

Instead of storage crates and crap like that, just ban scripts, even if it means short term UOA, rudder, Map etc are all blocked until they can be integrated again, But block EVERYTHING. Problem should be solved then surely?

I am sure 2D players will cope without UOA for a week/weeks while the doors get locked?

 

[Cinderella]

so how long has the problem with the IDOC cheaters been around?
I keep hearing how they get everything...
but around 3 to 4 years ago, my husband and I actually showed up at Tram New Magincia.
All the contents of the house were on the ground when we showed up.
We took almost all of it to our house before anyone showed up.
And I was able to place a plot before anyone else could.

We weren't out looking for IDOCs, we were actually doing the traders quest when we came across it.

 

[GarthGrey]

I wish they would allow filtering out general chat by name (Avatar).

Ummm, they do..

 

[Cinderella]

About IDOCs...
I think they should make all contents go into the characters bank.

I have a friend who paid for an account for a couple years, but wasn't playing.
Then one day she logged in and realized that she had been paying for the wrong account.
She stopped paying the other account and walked away from the game.
She did recently come back because she missed the people...
but I have heard her several times say that she missed her stuff that she had before.
And that she had wished she hadn't paid the wrong account.

I know how she feels...
I once had internet connection issues and thought my account was being paid.
My card had expired and I forgot to check the account info.
Its a devastating feeling when you realize the valentine bear with your name on it... is gone...
Its things like that, that makes it hard to come back...
I did come back, because I wanted to marry my husband where we first met.
but not everyone does...

============

but I have to admit, I felt a burst of pride today...
for a fellow Sonoma player.
Nemesis kept a soulstone that he found when my keep fell in 2012.
It was the only thing of value that he was able to find.
He stored it at his house, until he could find the owner.

I got the keep from a friend (who later became my husband)
And inside the keep was mostly his stuff.
so i wasn't for sure, exactly what account it belonged too.
So i checked the accounts and none of them matched lol

to make a long story short...
I asked my husband about the soulstone.
He told me that he thought he got it from an IDOC
lol

so now i have to take it to the EMs soulstone storage

=======================================

It would make it easier for people... if all items go into storage for the house owner.
Then none of the EMs would have to have soulstone graveyards.
And returnees could have their prized possessions back...

 

[Spellbound]

I wish they could make an EJ only shard and move all EJ players there. Don't have to worry about idoc scripters on freebie accounts when they can no longer interact with idocs. Paying accounts could go over with limitations but not allowed to bring things back except with what they went over with.. Turn your EJ account into a paying account and your character can move with limits on items and gp via a paid transfer through in game store sovereigns to a shard of your choice. Playing for free shouldn't be allowed to ruin the fun of players who pay.

Detecting scripters needs attention and better enforcement. How about setting up some stings at a few dummy idocs and sending a message with some weight to cheaters.

 

[Lord Arm]

they should of turned off idocs months ago until they fix. the cheating was so blatant. one thing that may work a little is to have all idoc houses on all shards drop at same time. they cant be everywhere or can they lol. just a thought. about the hiding of house sign/condition, I know some will run rails on many, if not all shards, looking for loot on ground. or someone may be able to read/find idocs even with the fix.

 

[Coco_Zamis_DF]

So if nobody except the owner can check it, why they don't delete the stuff immediately?
Maybe send account bound items to bank.
Sending all stuff to bank would be a cheap way of mass storage.

 

[MalagAste]

If they changed it to where your stuff went to storage waiting for your return I think they fear that many folk would:

1. Use that as a way to store stuff for free...
2. Close all their house holding accounts...
3. Stop all the accounts that play the roulette with paying every 3 months entirely...

The loss of subs would be HUGE IMO... that's why it probably will never happen.

 

[Cyrah]

Why can't they stop people who use FREE accounts to cheat? EJ. No sub loss results from that. Or does it?

 

[Akalabeth]

When one of the 'best' parts of the game is standing around for hours on end waiting to scoop up things a departed player left - you know your game is in shambles. Thats the best thing to do in game? Speaks volumes.

It is not for me to judge what is the best part of the game for any one player. I do not IDOC. It is something that has been around a long time and some people really enjoy it. Who is to say what is the best part of the game? Just because your best part is not my best part does not mean the game is in shambles. Does it have some problems? Sure. What game does not? I reread my post and nowhere did I say it was the "Best part of the game". It is "A" part of the game.

 

[Tabby Kapak]

so how long has the problem with the IDOC cheaters been around?
I keep hearing how they get everything...
but around 3 to 4 years ago, my husband and I actually showed up at Tram New Magincia.
All the contents of the house were on the ground when we showed up.
We took almost all of it to our house before anyone showed up.
And I was able to place a plot before anyone else could.

We weren't out looking for IDOCs, we were actually doing the traders quest when we came across it.

We kind of have a similar experience, in June 2017 we could place a Castle in Trammel on Dagger isle. We were merely training up a new tamer char, taming polars, and suddenly thought, this looks very big... could it fit? And it did! And to make it even less feel like a lucky hit (which it certainly was!) in March 2018 we were strolling through the Trinsic Swamps on a new Bard, trying to provoke the critters there. We again saw a huge plot unoccupied and again felt, noooo, it couldn't! .. could it? It could!
If these Bots really run around 24/7 everywhere at all times, we wouldn't have been this lucky! In fact, just after we placed that first Castle, another crashed down in front of it a few weeks after. We suddenly recalled into a big mess of things scattered around, and for an hour or so we were there with just 2 other players. Clearly no vaccuum-bots as they were as slow as we were with getting things. Only after a while when more and more people started to show up it went faster and faster that the "loot" disappeared.
We also can't fathom that for such a "marginal" game it would be worthwhile to run bots all the time? We don't agree on the very low numbers the doomsayers are throwing out, but we rarely meet gamers who actually know UO. (Their loss of course haha!) We do feel that whenever we get to up our activity we keep bumping into quite a few new players, but that as a side note.

It always feels agonising to us to see such decay, as you know someone (likely) spend years building it up. And we hate to see "waste" anyhow, as we even pick up plain shirts from corpses to put in TBods to give an example! The irony that we waste time like that isn't lost on us.... but it keeps being a strong pull. So while we do feel it would be nice if people would not lose their belongings to mistakes with credit cards and such, it does seem impossible to go there. As MalagAste said, a lot of people would not hold on to their homes if their goodies were safe, so that would be a looooot of income lost. How can people call that "good for the game"??

If there are these Bots running around scanning for fallen "loot", would it hamper them to throw empty on the ground whatever we find on a Troll or Harpy or the likes? Or are these scripts so sophisticated that such ruses are void? (If they can even add touching every house steps as mentioned above?! Sounds like a lot of work to us if possible at all?) We really can't understand how such scripts work.

 

[Pawain]

So, three years ago a couple of people found a collapsed house.
Question: Were there any EM event items or server rares in those piles?

Sure there are legit players who wander the lands. They use a specific path that covers all houses. A habitual path like you have when doing trade routes.
I hope those players are the ones who find the collapsed houses.

If you sit in your house a few hours you will see a toon on a mount run by. The ones on LS have names that pretty much tell you they are IDOC searchers. I can not tell if there is a player behind the keyboard.

There are players who feel the problem was not with the house signs. The problem is with the Gargoyles who have 5 Beetles and suck up the items in 3 seconds. Then they stand at the trash can and throw stuff in there. The items are not in LS Vendors later.

That Gargoyle has been at every house that has fallen on LS that I have heard of, except the empty ones. (in the last year maybe 2)

They find the IDOCs now by running a route. They will run the same route now and look for houses that you can no longer walk onto the steps. They will mark those and know that within X amount of house, that house should fall. They can put a camper toon there hidden and when it falls they are there. They can increase their rounds and they will find the collapsed houses now. Sure some random player may happen upon a collapse before they do. Or a player will think they did.
The Gargoyles can just take what they want now, and leave the junk since they can sort it there and if someone comes up, turn on the vacuum.

The Gargoyles do exist, it is not a fantasy or .

I do not remember this being an issue on LS more than 1 or 2 years ago. Someone else may shed light on when this started.

According to others, some people make money off of UO. I cant see how it is a lot of money but it must be enough for players to be able to do these activities as their job. Think of a person with a high work ethic. Finding this stuff is their job and they can work from home. Wouldn't you do your job as efficient as you could? Wouldn't you have the best tools to do your job? Are we supposed to hate or envy those people? Some of them are probably at a nice workstation with many monitors and computers. I would have those long monitors that you can put 4 accounts on each one. Then sit there like a security guard watching those monitors. We really do not know if those people are at their keyboards or not so should we hate them all?

 

[Ender]

Not really, as long as the owner can set access to everyone

I'd be shocked if it isn't a limited use item like the Forged Metal or whatever

 

[MalagAste]

So, three years ago a couple of people found a collapsed house.
Question: Were there any EM event items or server rares in those piles?

Sure there are legit players who wander the lands. They use a specific path that covers all houses. A habitual path like you have when doing trade routes.
I hope those players are the ones who find the collapsed houses.

If you sit in your house a few hours you will see a toon on a mount run by. The ones on LS have names that pretty much tell you they are IDOC searchers. I can not tell if there is a player behind the keyboard.

There are players who feel the problem was not with the house signs. The problem is with the Gargoyles who have 5 Beetles and suck up the items in 3 seconds. Then they stand at the trash can and throw stuff in there. The items are not in LS Vendors later.

That Gargoyle has been at every house that has fallen on LS that I have heard of, except the empty ones. (in the last year maybe 2)

They find the IDOCs now by running a route. They will run the same route now and look for houses that you can no longer walk onto the steps. They will mark those and know that within X amount of house, that house should fall. They can put a camper toon there hidden and when it falls they are there. They can increase their rounds and they will find the collapsed houses now. Sure some random player may happen upon a collapse before they do. Or a player will think they did.
The Gargoyles can just take what they want now, and leave the junk since they can sort it there and if someone comes up, turn on the vacuum.

The Gargoyles do exist, it is not a fantasy or .

I do not remember this being an issue on LS more than 1 or 2 years ago. Someone else may shed light on when this started.

According to others, some people make money off of UO. I cant see how it is a lot of money but it must be enough for players to be able to do these activities as their job. Think of a person with a high work ethic. Finding this stuff is their job and they can work from home. Wouldn't you do your job as efficient as you could? Wouldn't you have the best tools to do your job? Are we supposed to hate or envy those people? Some of them are probably at a nice workstation with many monitors and computers. I would have those long monitors that you can put 4 accounts on each one. Then sit there like a security guard watching those monitors. We really do not know if those people are at their keyboards or not so should we hate them all?

The hate comes from them hoovering all the loot with the illegal scripts... now if we all had hoovers then it's fair game... but since we don't and many of us who once enjoyed doing IDOCs... can't compete with cheating... I like many others don't use cheat programs... it irks me to see people cheating and making a profit off it... it disgusts me. If the playing field was level we wouldn't complain.... but it's not a level field. And yes a few years ago it was not unheard of to find an IDOC and have it all to yourself... but since the hoovers started those days are long gone. Most of us don't bother anymore. I used to check my little corner of the world pretty much 2 times a week for IDOCs but don't waste my time anymore. I've seen the hoovers in action. And yes they will just adjust their script to look for houses that change or to look for stacks of stuff... chests on the ground whatever...

But I've said it before and I'll say it again when a house goes IDOC the owner should get an email... And when ANY account on the master logs in they should get some sort of in-game message that a house is in a state of decay... Especially since they won't see it on the sign anymore.

 

[Uriah Heep]

They gonna fix IDOCS, boss lady said.

Something big is on the horizon, bigger and more than we 've ever seen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM25-lz1Yms

 

[Lieutenant Dan!]

Yep IDOCs have been in a sad state for quite some time now. I used to do them but just gave up because trying to compete the script looters is pointless.
These people (scripters) are at the point where they argue over who's script can pick up loot the fastest! They're actually paying others to write better scripts for them. It's no longer about who can grab stuff the fastest. It's about who's script is the fastest. But yeah, you and I aren't even close to being able to compete.

I quit IDOCs some time ago. Not because of the 5-10-15 thing either. Hell i could deal with that even though it sucks. I quit because of the cheating.
I am glad they're taking another look at IDOCs though because i wouldn't mind trying it again if the playing field was leveled.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

Yep IDOCs have been in a sad state for quite some time now. I used to do them but just gave up because trying to compete the script looters is pointless.
These people (scripters) are at the point where they argue over who's script can pick up loot the fastest! They're actually paying others to write better scripts for them. It's no longer about who can grab stuff the fastest. It's about who's script is the fastest. But yeah, you and I aren't even close to being able to compete.

I quit IDOCs some time ago. Not because of the 5-10-15 thing either. Hell i could deal with that even though it sucks. I quit because of the cheating.
I am glad they're taking another look at IDOCs though because i wouldn't mind trying it again if the playing field was leveled.

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Modoc]

Skull Poke the Vultures and Defecate in they're throats.

 

[jack flash uk]

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

Its not levelled, its handing over more opportunities to the scripters. what this does do, is get rid of all other idocers so we can't see what's going on and cannot page. So the problem goes away

 

[ShriNayne]

I don't know what people expected, they have a history of making the quickest, easiest change so to them the problem goes away, but they just made things worse for the rest of us who don't cheat. It's UO, be careful what you wish for....

 

[Keven2002]

My 2 cents...

I agree with @Pawain in that I don't really care about the "railbots" running around finding house signs that give a message about the house wear and then marking those places because at the end of the day everyone here could spend countless hours running around looking for IDOCs rather than play the game. On the dreaded Atlantic shard, there is actually a person who marks aged houses and gates to them when they turn IDOC so everyone can try to get some loot; so technically you don't even need to go looking for IDOCs it's already been done!

The REAL ISSUE is that when a house does fall within 3seconds of it falling all of the sought after items are "vacuumed" up by 1 or 2 scripts so fast that I don't even see what they are. That is the reason I don't even bother going to these IDOCs that gates are opened for because the last time I actually did go the only thing I got was a chest with like 4 tailor BODs in it because they didn't scoop that up. Aside from the fact of auto-targeting "good stuff" a person not using a script simply cannot grab that many items that quickly because there is a (at least I do) "you must wait to perform another action" message when you try to drag that fast. At the end of the day the devs are NOT going to weed out the people using scripts so this is a waste of energy IMO.

Since I choose not to participate in IDOCs I looked past that part of the upcoming year updates to see what else was there. I see there are changes to PvP coming..again I stopped doing this years ago when I just couldn't keep up with people who would script and since I feel like that's going to fall into the same bucket as IDOCs (ie not address the actual issue of scripting) I look past that.

So what exactly is in the year ahead forecast?? Some new stuff to buy from the UO store and a handful of veteran rewards that are basically new artwork for doing things that have been available to do for years like glass kiln/sculpting tool or a granite (aka ore) cart... I'm hoping there is some actual content that is being worked on (like the High Seas / Fellowship content in 2019) for 2020 just to give me something new to do as the current content has become pretty repetitive.

 

[Meat Elemental]

They should also make EJ accounts only usable on the EC and all those throw away idoc scripters will disappear... They will have to do it with paid accounts and risk that account.

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk

 

[Nexus]

They should also make EJ accounts only usable on the EC and all those throw away idoc scripters will disappear... They will have to do it with paid accounts and risk that account.

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk

It would curb it for a short period only. The LUA interface for the EC is so customizable, and wide open it wouldn’t take long for people to write utility to take advantage of it. All that is stopping them from doing it now is that everything needed to do it with the CC is already available with little effort involved.

 

[Hazel868789]

The scripters win! They already walk around using multiple accounts to see the houses. Now they just have to walk around every (amount of hours it takes an item to decay) and vacuum up the items.

And yall celebrate?

They don't walk, they run around on that dead horse.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

I dont see how the Idoc change is going to be good for everyone... The bots will run around and find the fallen houses and once they find one they will be able to get every item there unless another player happens to waned by. My idea is that as soon as a house goes idoc the house would become locked and all the items hidden then the scripters wouldn't know what items to go after. Just an idea from a guy that knows nothing about how the scripts work. I know this might cause problems for co owners or friends tho.

 

[Riyana]

No game mechanic will deter a dedicated cheater for long. The only thing that will even slow them down is banning all their accounts whenever they pop up. It's a never-ending and frustrating job, but it is the only meaningful solution. We all know who some of them are, and we know as well as they do that there is no consequence. I know they publish "x amount of accounts were banned for y" in the newsletters, but I very much doubt these are the big hitters.

Until they start seriously and consistently policing the game and making public examples of well-known cheaters, IDOCs are going to belong to scripters.

 

[Herman]

Maybe you should ask messana and the other devs for a 1-2 month test period if theire idea for idocs does not work then they would revert to what was before
For this to work the fix probably would have to be a smaller change beacause everybody know how reluctant they are to remove anything they put in game


For the sake of putting in some ideas

Here are 2

First i got to say i have no idea how scripts work or how advanced they are nor do i have any idea how much work it would be for the devs to put these 2 ideas in game or even if they would work LOL

Someone on uo forum said scripts do not interact with the UO data stream directly.
Well maybe that is a good thing

You want to fight boots right ?
Almost any forum I have joined I had to prove i m a HUMAN add a prove i m a human text to house signs in order to see what the status of the house is


Fighting the loot scripts could be worse because there is probably a player behind all those boots somewhere

Adding same Prove I m a human text to some of the items that pop upp when you try to pick the item upp from the ground, if you do not answer the text you could not loot anything more if you answer wrong you get a 30 min penalty when you cannot loot anything (this will probably only slow them down a bit)

Or get a 30 min loot bann if you pick up any of the tagged items but they would be invisible only way to try to pick them up would be with ctrl shift ( Loot with ctrl shift if you like but risk the same fate as the boots)

 

[jack flash uk]

The hate comes from them hoovering all the loot with the illegal scripts... now if we all had hoovers then it's fair game... but since we don't and many of us who once enjoyed doing IDOCs... can't compete with cheating... I like many others don't use cheat programs... it irks me to see people cheating and making a profit off it... it disgusts me. If the playing field was level we wouldn't complain.... but it's not a level field. And yes a few years ago it was not unheard of to find an IDOC and have it all to yourself... but since the hoovers started those days are long gone. Most of us don't bother anymore. I used to check my little corner of the world pretty much 2 times a week for IDOCs but don't waste my time anymore. I've seen the hoovers in action. And yes they will just adjust their script to look for houses that change or to look for stacks of stuff... chests on the ground whatever...

But I've said it before and I'll say it again when a house goes IDOC the owner should get an email... And when ANY account on the master logs in they should get some sort of in-game message that a house is in a state of decay... Especially since they won't see it on the sign anymore.

This for me is 100% SPOT ON!

 

[Ender]

No game mechanic will deter a dedicated cheater for long. The only thing that will even slow them down is banning all their accounts whenever they pop up. It's a never-ending and frustrating job, but it is the only meaningful solution. We all know who some of them are, and we know as well as they do that there is no consequence. I know they publish "x amount of accounts were banned for y" in the newsletters, but I very much doubt these are the big hitters.

Until they start seriously and consistently policing the game and making public examples of well-known cheaters, IDOCs are going to belong to scripters.

No game mechanic, sure, but remember years ago when there was talk of adding PunkBuster to the client? That would have done it. Not perfectly but it sure as hell would have done a better job than the nothing that we got.

 

[Nexus]

No game mechanic, sure, but remember years ago when there was talk of adding PunkBuster to the client? That would have done it. Not perfectly but it sure as hell would have done a better job than the nothing that we got.

What I find funny about the whole "PunkBuster" idea is that people were going nuts about "EA Snooping on everything I do!" but many of those same folks use Google services like Google Search or have a Facebook account...

 

[Pawain]

Yup I got a report that showed everywhere I went last year. All the stores and restaurants.

My daughter uses the info from customers to help companies make more sales. She looks at spreadsheets of data for everything ppl do and buy online.

 

[Max Blackoak]

I posted this on the official forum, so here's just a copy and paste:


all these suggestions are nice in their own right, however, they're all only scratching the surface and none of them tackles the root of the problem.
The root of the problem is third party programs that allow for automated actions (scripts). This doesn't solely apply to idocs, it also applies to PvP, afk resource farming, etc. etc. Unless this problem is taken care of you'll never get this sorted out.

Hence my suggestion: develop the 2d client and EC client to where they do the exact same thing and implement features that UOAssist and the various map programs out there offer. Then ban all third party programs. Don't allow any of them to connect to the official shards. Problem solved.

 

[ShriNayne]

@Max Blackoak Your post contains too much sense and logic, neither of which the Dev team seem to understand, so they won't be doing anything to remove the root of the problem any time soon! They are only interested in a quick fix that gives the appearance of them actually doing something positive, when it later turns out that they just made it worse for most of us they don't change anything back or admit they made a mistake, they just stick their heads in the sand and convince themselves it was a good idea.

 

[Merus]

I posted this on the official forum, so here's just a copy and paste:


all these suggestions are nice in their own right, however, they're all only scratching the surface and none of them tackles the root of the problem.
The root of the problem is third party programs that allow for automated actions (scripts). This doesn't solely apply to idocs, it also applies to PvP, afk resource farming, etc. etc. Unless this problem is taken care of you'll never get this sorted out.

Hence my suggestion: develop the 2d client and EC client to where they do the exact same thing and implement features that UOAssist and the various map programs out there offer. Then ban all third party programs. Don't allow any of them to connect to the official shards. Problem solved.

Without something like Punkbuster the Devs really don’t have a way to block the scripting programs because they don’t interact directly with the UO data stream like UOA does. To the server the script program looks just like a user mouse click or keyboard stroke. They already tried the punkbuster route years ago and got completely shut out by the UO community.

 

[Hazel868789]

STOP the "RAILERS". STOP the "EXPLOITING" of game mechanics.
House owners and C0-owners see "RAILERS" all the time.

"Joe Snuffy" or "Janet Snuffy" running around "Railing" and "EXPLOITING".

With the increased attention about this sensitive issue, please give the players MORE assistance in reporting "RAILERS".

NEW reporting Menu Option:
Within the "HELP" menu, using option "Another player is harrassing me", ADD an temporary option tab (just like you did when you added "Ultima Store" to the Help Menu). That option could be called,

" Repot RAILING "
(just calling it what it is)

This tab would use something already in game to report the "RAILER", the same option that is used to filter profanities.

Options in paperdoll, MISCELLANOUS tab (bottom right corner), Filter Obscenities, click (new), scroll list and report that user.
This "Filter Obscenities" captures alot more information about the offender (RAILERS) account. More then filling out report in text form.
TOO TOO EASY
This OPTION is for House Owners and Co-owners ONLY to report from within a HOUSE. ((The location can be verified with the same "safe log-out location" check needed before having the ability to use the "Ultima Store", without the "INN" check.))

YES, GM's and Broadsword KNOW your location when make a report, so thats easily validated.

When using this NEW reporting (IF made available for the players to IMPROVE the game), the response could be as easy as this.
1. A GM is NOT obligated to show up. But "might" be online to investigate said player that is reported.
2. A simple reply from the help system could be "Thank you for your report" or any automated one.

It might take a while for UO and BroadSword to "compile" this info, but the assistance of the PLAYERS to improve the game is needed. Yes, there is a way to make this type of reporting available. But let the players HELP make the game better.

Another shot in the dark to get the "dead horse" walking again, but this is a issue that needs to be looked at.

Thanks for reading. (foresees dead horse gif appearing--lol) ((not gonna BUDDY BUDDY this.))

Keep putzing and have a good day.

 

[Ender]

What I find funny about the whole "PunkBuster" idea is that people were going nuts about "EA Snooping on everything I do!" but many of those same folks use Google services like Google Search or have a Facebook account...

I feel like 90% of the outcry was probably more because of people that would have ended up banned than any actual privacy concerns, lol. It was just a convenient excuse.

 

[chester rockwell]

The new changes only give scripters more advantage. If you can't see this, then you really don't understand what is going on.

Mesanna and the Devs have f'd it up again.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

The bottom line is, the SCRIPTERS/CHEATERS ARE THE PROBLEM! Until @Mesanna @Bleak @Kyronix decide to do something about THE PROBLEM, nothing will change, and they will continue to give the "middle finger" to the honest players.

 

[SlayerofBunnys]

They find the IDOCs now by running a route. They will run the same route now and look for houses that you can no longer walk onto the steps. They will mark those and know that within X amount of house, that house should fall. They can put a camper toon there hidden and when it falls they are there.

Seems to me two fun things might come out this scenario:

1) I can start having some fun by changing the status of my houses every fortnight or so. Maybe use those 'useless' tracking pinks on my punching bag red and see what hidden characters show up over time.

2) It gives the devs the opportunity to set up a couple of fake Idocs and do a little Tracking (and tracking of accounts) of their own.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Seems to me two fun things might come out this scenario:

1) I can start having some fun by changing the status of my houses every fortnight or so. Maybe use those 'useless' tracking pinks on my punching bag red and see what hidden characters show up over time.

2) It gives the devs the opportunity to set up a couple of fake Idocs and do a little Tracking (and tracking of accounts) of their own.

You can watch and log names, and send it in. Week after week, and nothing is gonna happen.

 

[MalagAste]

If they really wanted to "get to the bottom" of the problem all they need to do is make a list of IDOCs and watch them..... they would see for themselves what's going on and could put an end to it lickity split...

But they don't want to enforce things and just want to make things worse on the legit players and easier for scripters... they have zero clue on what these people really do or how to stop them...

@Mesanna this is your rodeo... put an end to these people... catch them in the act and demolish their accounts... ALL of them.

The big problem is there is "profit" in what they are doing so they can afford to keep doing it... They have found a cash cow and they are milking it... It needs to become unprofitable for them to do to make them stop.

Which is why I keep supporting the do away with the IDOCs and just make a massive gold sink by putting the stuff into a lottery or something... a double win, win for the economy... removes their cash cow... ends the debate once and for all and it's a gold sink.

Now other say do an auction but that only serves the super rich... Lottery is just fine. Anyway that's my 2cents.

The only way to nip this in the bud is either to police it... like you should be doing in the first place... or put a stop to the cash cow permanently.

 

[ShriNayne]

I still think the problem is that so many cheaters are on paid accounts, they won't ban paid accounts and risk losing that many subs, so they can't stop the cheating.

 

[Nexus]

I still think the problem is that so many cheaters are on paid accounts, they won't ban paid accounts and risk losing that many subs, so they can't stop the cheating.

I think so too, and I also think that if they only way the game can stay open is by ignoring every person that cheats at the expense of those that play by the rules, then the game has run it's course and it's time to pull the plug.

 

[Dot_Warner]

The rampant scripting and "cheating" going on in UO may be the real reason that UO hasn't been put on Steam since EA and Valve reached détente.

Or they're looking into ways to integrate Steam's anti-cheat measures into the clients to "bring Ultima Online to the largest audience ever."

 

[Keven2002]

I think so too, and I also think that if they only way the game can stay open is by ignoring every person that cheats at the expense of those that play by the rules, then the game has run it's course and it's time to pull the plug.

I disagree with this for the most part when it comes to IDOCs because if we are strictly talking about watching an IDOC and jailing the cheaters that wouldn;t shut the game down. If you think this then you must think that the only thing keeping the lights on in UO are IDOCs which doesn't make sense because much of the population doesn't even bother with IDOCs (as admitted by many here). I think it's only a few people that are doing it and banning them wouldn't "shut off the lights". Not to add to the conspiracy theories but a more likely reason I'd guess is that whoever is cheating probably is friendly with the powers that be. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Nexus]

I disagree with this for the most part when it comes to IDOCs because if we are strictly talking about watching an IDOC and jailing the cheaters that wouldn;t shut the game down. If you think this then you must think that the only thing keeping the lights on in UO are IDOCs which doesn't make sense because much of the population doesn't even bother with IDOCs (as admitted by many here). I think it's only a few people that are doing it and banning them wouldn't "shut off the lights". Not to add to the conspiracy theories but a more likely reason I'd guess is that whoever is cheating probably is friendly with the powers that be. Just my 2 cents.

I was referring to cheating in general across the board. Finding and banning everyone who makes use of Scripts, or 3rd party utilities which exceed UO Assists capability would likely result in closure of the game.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I was referring to cheating in general across the board. Finding and banning everyone who makes use of Scripts, or 3rd party utilities which exceed UO Assists capability would likely result in closure of the game.

I have to say, as much as I love UO, if it came to that, then so be it. At least they can say they tried to do the right thing in the end. As opposed to what we currently have.

 

[Stinky Pete]

I have to say, as much as I love UO, if it came to that, then so be it. At least they can say they tried to do the right thing in the end. As opposed to what we currently have.

You seem to forget that we are talking about real people who make a living off of this game. Sure, it would be a valiant move to ban anyone you think is a cheater, but if it causes the game to end , it's not worth it. @Kyronix can't come home one day and say, "well kids, we don't get to eat dinner tonight, but we tried!" Just because you think it will make you happy doesn't make it true. Things aren't as black and white as you seem to think they are.

 

[Pawain]

They are going to re think the change:

We have read your comments and went back to the drawing board to come up with a fair and reasonable solution to this problem. After we finalize everything we will be putting this on Test Center 1 for everyone to check out. This is not an easy fix that will make everyone happy but we have a few ideas that hit all your concerns. Please stay tuned and we will be letting you guys know more when we have something solid to show you.

As of right now we will be locking this thread and starting a new one when we have the changes in.

Thank all of you for being so passionate about a game we all love!

Mesanna