Ghosting. Multiple accounts. Crutch for bad pks?

[valheru]

Thank you for replying to this post. The "issue" is era accurate, however, people just dont like it.

Can I suggest an "I dont like this, and it's era accurate, but i want it changed" forum. This is a serious request, maybe another subforum, a....whine/complaint forum, a civil version of "trash talk" but for game mechanics only.

Thanks!

[Sciron]

While people may have used ghosting back in the day, there were a few huge differences.

First off, what many of you have already openly admitted, is that it was done using the help of 3rd party apps that are likely to still be deemed illegal for use on official servers.
I also remember a post on markee dragon back a few years ago (I will find the link if need be) about how a staff member had told them the only legal way to multiclient from the same pc was using windows xp (which came out at what... end of 01 or early 02?) and using the switch user function and each user having only one client.

Secondly, you claim the game mechanics allow(ed) it. As others have mentioned, the game mechanics then allowed for a ton of exploits (duping, house breakins, etc...), should they all still be allowed? As for the using a client on a 2nd pc argument... Back then, very few people even had a 2nd pc and were willing to pay for a 2nd phone line as well as the 2nd account... for those of you that truly remembers, hardly anyone anywhere had cable or dsl and trying to share a 28.8 modem was impossible and was barely tolerable on a 56k. So as far as osi was concerned, it was an issue they really didnt have to contend with so much because technology and its high cost at the time prevented it for the most part.

Thirdly, yes it was always possible for someone to sit somewhere as ghost and spy... but that meant that was all they could do (legally)... honestly how much fun is it to just sit and wait while the rest of your buddies are out having fun, and then when you finally do get to report something back to them, all you can do is watch the resulting mayhem in black & white...

Just like other things that had to be fixed/altered because of the times, other things should too as long as it truly sticks to what the game was... otherwise maybe we should have things like skill gain slowed to almost non-existant levels, create a custom client that removes 75% of the current options,constant crashes, and time warps... but thats not exactly conducive to keeping people around is it? Well getting ganked due to people multclienting and ghosting wont help things much either...

Btw... osi did in a way have something for this as well... remember getting booted for the 'you have been idle too long' I guess all you pro-ghosters forgot about that as well too.

I think having a ghost booted from the dungeon after its body has decayed (and not allowed re-entrance) is a pretty fair compromise between what was legally allowed and possible back then and what technology allows us to do today.

[Derrick]

We had 2-3 people (one quit), 4 pc's, and 4 accounts on the same phone line in 1999. Yes the others did have to log off for one of us to move very fast though. "crap red! log out guys!"

The inactivity disconnect is accurate, but so easy to get around that i don't know if it's worth implementing. You didn't actually have to move or speak, only send a packet. Opening a backpack in a razor macro ever 60 seconds would defeat this.

The real root of this and other issues that have been raised is that of the number of accounts, and the free nature of them; on this subject there are many threads.

[Sciron]

Lol... yeah I remember lag was the true number one killer back in those days.
Me and my now wife had originally shared a 28.8 connection for about week and luckily they had just started offering 56k service in our area so we jumped right on it.

I wasn't suggesting that the inactivity disconnect actually get implemented for the same reason you mention... just trying to show the relevance that osi had put at least some effort in dissuading 'hanging around'.

As far as other threads go... I just started here and this was up near the top and as such was the first one on the situation I saw, and considering its 11 pages, figured this was the meat of the topic so to say... but I will definitely be checking out the rest as well : )

[valheru]

Like derrick said, many people had multiple computers and multiple accounts. having a computer next to you with a screen up while ghosting is actually much more effective than having to switch clients on the same computer to check the ghost.

An inactivity timer, like derrick said, is easy to get around and pointless to implement. It will decrease the shard numbers, which would also look bad for the server population wise.

Also, an inactivity timer is not a game mechanic, it's a Policy, and as it has been explained to me in the past, this server is not about replicating OSI policy.

[Derrick]

As far as other threads go... I just started here and this was up near the top and as such was the first one on the situation I saw, and considering its 11 pages, figured this was the meat of the topic so to say... but I will definitely be checking out the rest as well : )

Welcome to Second Age =D

There's about three or four topics that have been about hashed to death without any real implementable outcome, this one and number of houses owned are big and both related to the three account limit and the subject of free accounts in general.

This is something that I don't know if we can ever solve to the satisfaction of those concerned with it as it's the nature of the Internet that it's very hard to even identify a particular person. We don't take peoples credit card numbers or ever intend to for account creation, so there's always someone that can with reasonable effort cheat the system, it's not that hard even with a router reset, or wireless connection commonly borrowable from a neighbor to come up with another IP address pretty handily. Easy rules to follow and ones that require the least subjective decision from UOSA staff I belive are the best ways to keep things fair.

[poogoblin]

As far as other threads go... I just started here and this was up near the top and as such was the first one on the situation I saw, and considering its 11 pages, figured this was the meat of the topic so to say... but I will definitely be checking out the rest as well : )

Welcome to Second Age =D

There's about three or four topics that have been about hashed to death without any real implementable outcome, this one and number of houses owned are big and both related to the three account limit and the subject of free accounts in general.

Don't forget the poison thread, I'm actually disappointed this thread is ahead in pages now.

[sirrayiv]

Yeah thats pretty gay, but technical era accuracy will probably thwart your otherwise noble suggestion.

is to make a ghost have to "show" to see other players

Thats how they made it on UOG Divinity.

This is indeed how it is on Divinity, and a brilliant and easy fix to the problem if you ask me. However, since pk's are risking stat loss on this server, they are probably going to oppose anything that makes their playstyle more dangerous.

[archaicsubrosa77]

With multiple accounts take this as spy vs spy okay?
You can do to others what they do to you, or worse.

There are certain precautions that can save you that have been listed previous if you really don't want to fight. Here is another if you you believe stopping to recall out may not be an option due to any circumstances.

Guild and party chat is a viable system message. If you do not wish to engage a PK you can type something like "/12" so when your alt gater - (provided you have an alternate character who can gate)- gets that message in party chat it automatically casts a gate to your designated area with a razor script that reads

If system message 12
cast gate
absolute target "your marked rune"

Then you can have multiple spots marked with code and be like

Else
If system message 13
cast gate
absolute target "your other marked rune"

and loop it.

you can take it from there.

[Biohazard]

With multiple accounts take this as spy vs spy okay?
You can do to others what they do to you, or worse.

There are certain precautions that can save you that have been listed previous if you really don't want to fight. Here is another if you you believe stopping to recall out may not be an option due to any circumstances.

Guild and party chat is a viable system message. If you do not wish to engage a PK you can type something like "/12" so when your alt gater - (provided you have an alternate character who can gate)- gets that message in party chat it automatically casts a gate to your designated area with a razor script that reads

If system message 12
cast gate
absolute target "your marked rune"

Then you can have multiple spots marked with code and be like

Else
If system message 13
cast gate
absolute target "your other marked rune"

and loop it.

you can take it from there.

and yet another tale from "the way it shouldn't" have to be.