Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footstools

Information on the latest Server Patches
User avatar
Derrick
Posts: 9004
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:49 pm
Location: Cove
Contact:

Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footstools

Post by Derrick »

  • The amount of time that it takes for pets to decay I a house has been raised a bit
  • The item type of crafted and purchased footstools has been corrected
    • The Item "id" that we were using for footstools is based on the crafting menus in the UODemo.
    • We have discovered that the item ID was changed later, most likely on 9/16/98 (Carpentry exploit), the same patch in which items became stackable.
    • This patch has not effected existing footstools, however it is clear that OSI's patch did effect them, so we may address this in a future patch.
Image
"The text in this article or section may be incoherent or very hard to understand, and should be reworded if the intended meaning can be determined."

Roser
UOSA Subscriber!
UOSA Subscriber!
Posts: 3367
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:01 am
Location: In your tree house with binoculars
Contact:

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2014 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Roser »

Currently on the official EA shards footstools can be used to build ramps in houses by locking them down, same as you could do on UOSA prior to this patch.

The only difference on the official EA shards is these stools did not make you rubber band when not locked down, however when locked down in a house they allowed you to be bumped up to whatever Z axis they are on, providing your character could reach that height.

I'm pretty sure the ramp ability of footstools was never patched out, my logic behind this is that you can still to this day (on official shards) build a ramp of footstools in your house, and even walk off the ledge if you like.

I will log into Great Lakes and take some pics of this on test center if needed.
Image

Zim
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:36 am

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2014 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Zim »

This is a patch planned a year from now, get your ramps made!

Roser
UOSA Subscriber!
UOSA Subscriber!
Posts: 3367
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:01 am
Location: In your tree house with binoculars
Contact:

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Roser »

So interesting results!

Video: http://www.twitch.tv/ultimawizard/c/2753903



25:20 > Foot stools are for your Feet and not your Bum!, the sitting animation is improper on UOSA.

25:25 > You can stack footstools outside and build a ramp in the woods!

41:40 > You can stack items 17 tiles high from whatever z-axis you are currently on (this prevents house break-ins)

49:30 > My cat understands English.

Ledge drop pics to follow!
Image

Roser
UOSA Subscriber!
UOSA Subscriber!
Posts: 3367
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:01 am
Location: In your tree house with binoculars
Contact:

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Roser »

Ledge dropping with Razor on the official EA test center. Sorry, some of the pics got deleted :(
Rose wrote:Ok, here are the pictures of the Castle and Keep ledges with stools placed on them.

Image

Image

Image

Image

***********

Image

Image

Image

Image
Image

Ulfrigg
Posts: 1305
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 4:16 pm

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Ulfrigg »

Nice work Rose

Kaivan
UOSA Donor!!
UOSA Donor!!
Posts: 2923
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:07 pm

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Kaivan »

Rose wrote:So interesting results!

Video: http://www.twitch.tv/ultimawizard/c/2753903



25:20 > Foot stools are for your Feet and not your Bum!, the sitting animation is improper on UOSA.

25:25 > You can stack footstools outside and build a ramp in the woods!

41:40 > You can stack items 17 tiles high from whatever z-axis you are currently on (this prevents house break-ins)

49:30 > My cat understands English.

Ledge drop pics to follow!
Thank you very much for the recorded testing on live OSI servers. It does confirm that you should be able to climb foot stools, even if they aren't in houses, under the current UO ruleset (I'll get back to what I mean by this).

The reason that we implemented this was due to my research on the subject, which began with a simple question: Was it possible to create ramps with foot stools given the fact that no reports of using them that way existed?

Needless to say, my research was insufficient, and we implemented an imprecise change, but due to Rose's video, I pursued a somewhat different avenue, which produces roughly the same results. Below, I will explain the research that brought about the change, and the additional research that reveals the actual explanation for the question.

First and foremost, the question was based off of a simple search query on the newsgroups: "foot stool". As you can see, searches in both groups reveal zero references to foot stools. Variations on the search terms including foot stool without quotes, and footstool as a single word, revealed no meaningful information (the one result for footstool on the alt.games newsgroup looked good, but it turns out that it was just smalltalk about footstools at football matches). This was a suspicious piece of behavior, and begged the question: Why wouldn't these be mentioned at all if they could be climbed?

From here, I decided to search the old Stratics archives to see if foot stools were mentioned anywhere. The only location that referred to stools of any kind was the carpentry page (earliest archive date linked), which didn't actually list foot stools, but two different types of stools with notes about each stool. This was somewhat suspect on its own, but I wanted a stronger verification.

At this point, I turned to the demo, with the idea of cross referencing the Stratics information with the demo in order to try and determine what was going on. The following screenshot confirms that the carpentry menu does indeed show only two instances of stool, and doesn't make any mention of foot stools:
demo carpentry menu.JPG
demo carpentry menu.JPG (93.26 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
However, upon creating the first listed stool, the result is the following:
demo foot stool.JPG
demo foot stool.JPG (92.01 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
Considering things from the visual perspective, I added in another stool that had the same art file, but a different Item ID:
demo stools.JPG
demo stools.JPG (92.77 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
Stepping on them to see how they reacted, I got the following results, with the foot stool on the right and the regular stool on the left:
demo stool differences.JPG
demo stool differences.JPG (13.12 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
This result seemed like a very odd disconnect. Why did Stratics list a stool and designate it as a barstool, when, in the demo, they were clearly creating foot stools that you couldn't even sit on? The lack of information about foot stools which seemed to raise your z-axis was also troubling, when there was a clear difference in height.

This odd situation led to the following theory:

In 1998, and on the demo, items could not actually be stacked. This was due to the fact that at the time, item stacking had not been implemented into the game (it was added with the September 16, 1998 patch). The result was that items such as foot stools did not represent a threat to house security, or provide players the ability to do unusual things such as the popular ramps here on UOSA. However, with the implementation of item stacking, it would be possible for players to create these ramps and step ladders from step stools, which would result in the types of activities we see on UOSA today, and represent a major risk to the upcoming housing system. As a result, the item type of the first craftable stool was changed from 2910 (foot stool) to 2603 (stool), and all stools in the world would be affected in the same manner (a similar undocumented change was done during early T2A to remove a house invasion exploit. The thought was that this fix would be labeled as fixing a carpentry exploit, explain the lack of foot stool climbing stories on the newsgroups, and explain why Stratics labeled it as a barstool and not an actual foot stool.

Of course, as Rose's research showed, the behavior on live OSI servers seemed to contradict that position quite clearly, and without some evidence to suggest that they had put foot stools back in, the carpentry exploit theory did no seem to check out anymore.

Given that, I began new research from a different angle starting with the crafting menu itself.

Looking on slightly newer archives of Stratics I found that two general versions of the carpentry page were used during UOR. The first page, which was in use until the end of 2001, still listed two stools with one designated as a barstool. The second page seen with the 2002 version of the carpentry page gave much more information about the items themselves, which was provided with the reworked crafting menu, and included the updated foot stool name for the first stool. This suggested that, for some reason, Stratics had never bothered to actually click the crafted item itself, and just listed the stool itself with their own imprecise description between 1999 and 2002. It also confirmed that the carpentry exploit theory wasn't true.

This led to a check of the actual item flags themselves.

In the past, the server and client files have had their item flags modified in order to change certain types of behavior, and on UOSA, we use a very "out of era" client due to the fact that RunUO doesn't understand pre-4.x protocols. This means that what we see, both on UOSA, and on live OSI servers, is not necessarily indicative of what was seen during the era. On that basis, I checked on the associated flags for bar stools to see what was going on. The following screenshot shows the flags for the foot stool as found in the 5.0.8.3 client:
stool flags 5083 client.JPG
stool flags 5083 client.JPG (87.92 KiB) Viewed 10897 times
The active flags, Article 'A' and surface indicate that the item has the word a in front of the name and that the item can be walked on, respectively. This means that it is possible to step up onto a foot stool, and raise yourself by the height of the stool, provided you can "step up" the appropriate height (maximum 2 z for basic surfaces). From here, I checked an earlier version of the client files to see if there was any difference. The following is a screenshot of the 3.0.3a tile data for a foot stool:
stool flags 303a client.JPG
stool flags 303a client.JPG (84.98 KiB) Viewed 10897 times
Notice that in this screenshot, the surface flag is not checked. This means that during late UOR, the foot stool behaved much differently than it did during late Samurai Empire, which is what our client was designed for. Checking back further, here is the flag data for the 1.26.2a client, the second T2A release:
stool flags 1262a client.JPG
stool flags 1262a client.JPG (85.68 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
Notice that the same single Article 'A' flag is set. Finally, here is the screenshot for the foot stool flags straight from the demo:
stool flags demo.JPG
stool flags demo.JPG (84.1 KiB) Viewed 10896 times
As we can see in these screenshots, during T2A, it was not possible to build ramps with foot stools due to the fact that foot stools did not act as a climbable surface. When I have the chance to respond, I'll explain why the demo seemed to indicate that it was possible to step up, and why that did not actually happen (I'll also comment on stacking items). For the time being, I have an appointment to make, and this should cover the necessary information.
UOSA Historian and former staff member: August 11, 2008 - June 19, 2016

Useful links for researching T2A Mechanics

Stratics - UO Latest Updates - Newsgroup 1 - Noctalis - UO98.org

Kaivan
UOSA Donor!!
UOSA Donor!!
Posts: 2923
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:07 pm

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Kaivan »

To finish with my explanation, I'll detail why the fact that I moved up a z axis in the demo when I stepped on the foot stool was merely an illusion of sorts.

Without getting into anything too complex, each time that I stepped on to the foot stool, I was effectively desyncing myself from the demo server. From the client's perspective, when I stepped on to the foot stool, I was stepping on to something that would raise my z-axis by 1 z, however on the server, I was not raised by any z axis at all. This desync happened as a result of mismatched client/server tile data, producing that difference in where my character was supposed to be, and where my character actually was.

To prove this theory, I installed a non-updated T2A client on another system, and performed the same step test. This first screenshot shows the older art files indicative of an earlier installation, with the regular stool on the left and the foot stool on the right:
old demo stools.jpg
old demo stools.jpg (189.88 KiB) Viewed 10866 times
Again, a test was performed to see if any z-axis change occurred as a result of stepping onto the foot stool. The following side by side screenshot shows the z-axis change for each type of stool:
old demo foot stool.jpg
old demo foot stool.jpg (22.62 KiB) Viewed 10866 times
If you compare this screenshot with the screenshot in the previous post, you can see that the z-axis was not changed by walking onto the foot stool. This is best seen by the overcast shadow on the bag.

This analysis means that since the demo and the early T2A client have matching tile data for the foot stool, when the client shows us what it expects to happen as a result of stepping onto the foot stool, this expectation matches what the server actually does. This, in turn, means that under the presumption that client and server data files were kept consistent at any given time, each of the different client versions indicate that stepping onto a foot stool during the time that the client was in use produced no change in z-axis, which therefore means it did not happen through T2A, and at least through to late UOR.
UOSA Historian and former staff member: August 11, 2008 - June 19, 2016

Useful links for researching T2A Mechanics

Stratics - UO Latest Updates - Newsgroup 1 - Noctalis - UO98.org

User avatar
FishinPro
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by FishinPro »

First you remove recalling into the air, which is not era-accurate. Now you are removing being able to 'climb'.

Are these two things related? So now when you change stools you can change the recalling back?
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=55362
^ What??? Another person got "treasureman'd" by cavewight?
Grats Cave on scamming another friend just for some petty wealth and getting away with it.

Come JOIN the -1 CLUB!

Join the KILL CAVE event!!

User avatar
Blaise
UOSA Donor!!
UOSA Donor!!
Posts: 2466
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:13 am
Location: Trammel

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Blaise »

Fairly certain it's just removing the function of foot stools as a surface item that can be used to build staircases. There are other items that can accomplish this, however, not quite as abundant.
Est Sularus oth Mithas

User avatar
FishinPro
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:18 pm

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by FishinPro »

Blaise wrote:Fairly certain it's just removing the function of foot stools as a surface item that can be used to build staircases. There are other items that can accomplish this, however, not quite as abundant.
What can you use besides poop?
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=55362
^ What??? Another person got "treasureman'd" by cavewight?
Grats Cave on scamming another friend just for some petty wealth and getting away with it.

Come JOIN the -1 CLUB!

Join the KILL CAVE event!!

User avatar
Blaise
UOSA Donor!!
UOSA Donor!!
Posts: 2466
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:13 am
Location: Trammel

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Blaise »

Selling snow piles, 1 castle deed each!!! PM FOR DETAILS
Est Sularus oth Mithas

Hicha
UOSA Donor!!
UOSA Donor!!
Posts: 2264
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 10:03 am
Location: out selling permits

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Hicha »

Jeez Derrick, I can't help but feel you spent way too much time to make the change to foot stools happen and to provide proof as to why.

On that note, it does make me feel good knowing you're still that passionate about UOSA. Thanks again for all you do (whether we like it or not.)
Image
"I consider most of you NPC's that inhabit the single player game that I am here to enjoy." - MatronDeWinter

User avatar
prosonic
UOSA Subscriber!
UOSA Subscriber!
Posts: 340
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:43 am
Location: Australia

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by prosonic »

now lets bring in being able to fish through house walls and recall onto boat decks from runes.

never seen any castle keep back in the day with ways to get up there with stools, seen the odd tower with a house on top but that was way before t2a era
[22:41:17] <Braden> Prosonic: If you get drunk and cause trouble here, I am banning ian for life.

User avatar
Wiegraf
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: brit gy

Re: Patch 151 - Aug 13 2013 miniPatch: Pets in house, Footst

Post by Wiegraf »

does this effect snow and poop?
"If by our deaths a single drop of noble blood should water the earth, they shall not be in vain."

Locked