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Update December 13, 2014 - Bolts/arrows quest tweak

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Eos

Demise Administrator
Staff member
During server wars, we have made a custom tweak to the Heartwood and Sanctuary fletching quests:

Due to the large number of players macroing the fletching quests, it has become extremely cumbersome for staff to check whether players are attending it. As Demise is suffering from a non-OSI problem, players doing this on 4 accounts simultaneously, we started considering non-OSI solutions to this problem. Initially, we were considering adding automated anti-bot checks to the quests (i.e. "captchas").

The disadvantage of anti-bot checks is that they're overly intrusive and disrupt automation of the quest completely (even when attended), which is not our intention. Instead, we decided to focus on reducing the ability to macro the quest unattended for long periods of time. The change consists of:
  • The "Lethal Darts" (10 bolts) and "Broken Shaft" (10 arrows) quests will now have a cooldown timer of 1 hour.
  • The cooldown timer can be reset by simply doing any of the other fletching quests.
  • If the cooldown timer is reset, the traditional 30-150 second delay still applies.
This means that macroing just the Lethal Darts or Broken Shaft quests is no longer viable. You will have to do some of the actual crafting quests as well!

We hope this will decrease the number of unattended gatherers in Heartwood and Sanctuary, and to bring some difficulty to gathering fletching rewards. After all, you cannot obtain Tailoring/Smithing BOD rewards on a skill-less character by simply stocking up on arrows either!

Please note that doing any quest unattended is still disallowed, and we will still periodically check on players.

In addition, the following general changes were applied during server wars:
  • The Crystalline Ring can now be pigmented.
  • Ore can again be smelted from inside pack animals.
  • Commodity deed boxes can now be flipped.
  • Orc choppers and scouts will now attack savages on sight.
  • Added Dark Guardian's slayer vulnerability (undead).
  • Reward braziers can no longer be turned on inside containers, causing fire to appear elsewhere in the world.
  • Added some Christmas surprises, which will be noticeable very soon! :awesomexmas:
 
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kolbycrouch

Knight
So someone can just macro alternating between those two and it's really no difference? This doesn't seem like it would have any impact if all you need was say 8k arrows and 8k bolts, your looking for either gump to pop up and all the other variables are left unchanged. So add a few lines to your macro and nothing changes?
 

Eos

Demise Administrator
Staff member
So someone can just macro alternating between those two and it's really no difference? This doesn't seem like it would have any impact if all you need was say 8k arrows and 8k bolts, your looking for either gump to pop up and all the other variables are left unchanged. So add a few lines to your macro and nothing changes?
The bolt/arrow quests do not reset each other. Also, one is in Heartwood and the other is in Sanctuary. ;)
 

kolbycrouch

Knight
Ah so basically this doesn't do anything but probably increase the prices of those kits dramatically? It ruins it for the people doing it attended, because wood is a far more cumbersome resource than bolts or arrows, and requires a skill.

Couldn't you just have a gump with a randomly generated addition problem?
 

Sirridon

Wanderer
This is brutal disadvantage for players who do not play on this server for a long time ...
Now for them will be virtually impossible to do character Archer, because any usable weapons will now become 20kk +
Players playing here for a long time are cool because they have all the weapons ready ...
Another reason to go with the whole guild on another server ...
Thank you for your Christmas gift
 

kolbycrouch

Knight
MB has a point though, as much as it costs for boards ( which is petty considering you can attended script lumberjacking ) , your getting a huge increase in the ammount of quests completed in a particular amount of time. Changing your macro, or using the one MB provided will surely be worth it.
 

mantorras

Sorceror
This is brutal disadvantage for players who do not play on this server for a long time ...
Now for them will be virtually impossible to do character Archer, because any usable weapons will now become 20kk +
Players playing here for a long time are cool because they have all the weapons ready ...
Another reason to go with the whole guild on another server ...
Thank you for your Christmas gift

Good luck with that, most other servers suck...

Oh and merry christmas!
 

marcusstone

Sorceror
This is brutal disadvantage for players who do not play on this server for a long time ...
Now for them will be virtually impossible to do character Archer, because any usable weapons will now become 20kk +
Congrats, you get the whiny ass bullshit award for this post!
I started on this sever for the 3rd time from nothing. I did not do either of these quests to gear my archer. I used the starter bow, went out and killed shit until I found another bow, and eventually saved enough to buy decent runic bows.
This change does nothing to raise prices more than they should be raised. I seriously doubt they will cost 20kk either.
Keep in mind that all characters SHOULD be attended while doing these quests, so the basics wont change for those actually following the rules. These quests still take very little time to complete for someone that is attended.
In short, feel free to taking your whiny ass to another server along with your afk macro.
Thank you EOS for your hard work and dedication to positive change by the way.
 

marcusstone

Sorceror
I will also add that UO was never designed to be a casual game. To do anything worth while in this game, you need to put in time, and work at it. Anyone not willing to do that should switch over to farmville or something...
 

Buiu

Knight
why not banning peoples doing this afk?
you will have a dramatic change when accounts starts to get wiped.:awesomexmas:

Or just make sure that you must have 100 BC to receive the big prizes.
 

hickman48

Knight
Not osi like pertty lame update tbh clearly the reward was greater than the risk maybe you guys should be looking more at what punishment would keep people from doing this afk instead of making it where people need skill to get kits.

But as i have said in game rules are enforced about as much as the forums rules.

Fletching requiring skill and resources for the high end kits is more in line with getting BRSKs and hammers

Can turn in filled runic bods with 0 skill in tailoring or smiting and you pull the runic reward. Just like turning in bolts and arrows as the kit. Also smithing and tailoring bods that require higher skill level net better rewards you get a bronze hammer bod your pulling a bronze hammer not random rng to get a hammer or a junk ring.
 

Eos

Demise Administrator
Staff member
Couldn't you just have a gump with a randomly generated addition problem?
This was considered, but all it takes currently to attend a quest macro is to keep an eye on your journal. Anti-botting gumps would require you to tab over and interact with the game every so often, while the actual scripters eventually find ways to automate the anti-bot gumps. All in all, this would hurt attended players more.

why not banning peoples doing this afk?
maybe you guys should be looking more at what punishment would keep people from doing this afk
We have been punishing offenders, and there are people with so many repeated offenses that have had account bans lasting 2+ months. :eek: (That, and of course, their spoils being deleted.)

Unfortunately, the OSI-accurate way is very exploitable, and Demise has always been striving for "OSI, but better". Part of the problem here is that any newly created character can buy a stack of bolts/arrows and start macroing, which is not possible for the bulk order systems unless the BODs are already obtained and completed by a crafter. We believe that increasing the difficulty to macro it unattended for days on end, while increasing the difficulty to complete the quests (at a continuous pace) for everyone equally, is a better situation.

The chance of getting a runic kit from a fletching bag reward is actually quite high when comparing it to getting runics through the bulk order systems, where you would first have to obtain a rare large order, and many large small orders that fit the large order to complete it. Randomness is equally a factor, even though the reward for a certain bulk order is guaranteed.
 
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