UO Second Age

Nov 16, 1999: http://update.uo.com/design_25.html

How do you use the "delay" macro?
The "Delay" macro will cause your character to wait before going to the next macro in a list. Remember, the "delay" macro counts in tenths of a second. Therefore, one second would be 10. For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill with the press of one key:
use skill = hide
delay = 70
use skill = stealth

I find it odd that they would given an example that just plain doesn't work because of a 10-second delay between skill uses. Why would they do this? Is it possible the delay between skill uses was 7 seconds? Or 6?

Mikel123 wrote:Nov 16, 1999: http://update.uo.com/design_25.html

How do you use the "delay" macro?
The "Delay" macro will cause your character to wait before going to the next macro in a list. Remember, the "delay" macro counts in tenths of a second. Therefore, one second would be 10. For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill with the press of one key:
use skill = hide
delay = 70
use skill = stealth

I find it odd that they would given an example that just plain doesn't work because of a 10-second delay between skill uses. Why would they do this? Is it possible the delay between skill uses was 7 seconds? Or 6?

my understanding was some skills had different delays some on our current server aren't 10 seconds. And yes i mean skills not actions just for clarification.

No documentation shows that the delay between skills was changed between the demo and the live access patch. Also, keep in mind that this was a FAQ meant meant to provide a brief explanation of how the new macros worked, and the explanation sufficed for that purpose.

Surely they wouldn't give a misleading macro thought would they?

Mens Rea wrote:Surely they wouldn't give a misleading macro thought would they?

What's misleading about that macro? It does exactly as it states that it would. The fact that the exact macro doesn't work is irrelevant. Many such macros can be created, but the base function of that macro is laid out with that example, as is possible with any macro.

For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill with the press of one key

By your analysis Kaivan the quote should read:

For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then [unsuccessfully attempt to] use the stealth skill [because the delay is not long enough] with the press of one key

They are discussing the "use" of the skill with one press of a key, not merely the construction of a macro.

Mens Rea wrote:

For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill with the press of one key

By your analysis Kaivan the quote should read:

For example, the following series of actions would cause your character to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then [unsuccessfully attempt to] use the stealth skill [because the delay is not long enough] with the press of one key

They are discussing the "use" of the skill with one press of a key, not merely the construction of a macro.

They are discussing what the macro will do, not the success of such a macro. If I were to describe what the macro actually did, I would do exactly as they did because the success of the macro is entirely irrelevant to the actual functionality, which is to use the hiding skill, wait 7 seconds, and then use the stealth skill.

I do see the original posters point. Its silly to provide a completely broken example...though it does happen. I mean, were they really trying to save on one character by saying 70 instead of 100? Of course, if this is the case, maybe there is more out there on this to prove the point.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.game ... d01fe7e53f

May 1, 1999
Okay, let's see what the newsgroup thinks about this. Should we:

1) Leave the stealth skill as it is now. Hey, those roleplaying rogues
need it, right?

2) Cripple the skill so that it cannot be used to screw other players.
Easiest way I can see is to impose a severe encumbrance penalty to its
use, combined with a skill delay after looting or stealing anything.
No snooping while invisible, either.

3) Remove it from the game. A failed experiment that cannot be
salvaged.

What do you think?

Does this mean there was snooping while stealthed? Just saw this and figure id throw it in, im sure we are accurate already.

Someone else said:

I think since you're revealed automatically when you loot, that's good
enough for that.

Extending the "auto detect" to friends of the house as well as to the
owner takes care of that.

Friends of the house cannot auto-detect yet. Makes it kinda tough when you
have 3 people sharing a house (like I do) _which is what OSI wanted_.
It's so great to be punished (and yes this is a punishment) for doing your
bit to reduce housing.

Brandy (SBR, LS)

(this was on page 2)

Heres what I wa slooking for though:

Let's see.... hrmmm... to be stealthy I have to have at least 80 hide
skill. To activate stealth I have to be very talented at it. It has
around a six second delay before reuse. It has limitations in the
number of steps... Ug. Now we should do a nerf on it to make it polite?

sheesh-0-rama! Never have I seen so much whining!

On
Tue, 2 Mar 1999, OrionCA wrote:

Note, the above posting matches with this macros recommended 7 second delay.

Good find Ronk - btw I think there is a patchnote which makes stealth snooping inaccurate for our era.

Mens Rea wrote: btw I think there is a patchnote which makes stealth snooping inaccurate for our era.

I figured, I just thought id throw those things in just in case. Also, not that asking my brother is a valid source, but ill ask him when I see him next. His character in era was a poisoner/stealther...he assassinated people all the time. Never hardcore pvp, just sneaky bastard stuff. So he'd know what the delay was.

The newsgroups have very little information on the actual delay for stealth (which isn't exactly known because it was added after the demo), but judging from the skill delays on skills such as Meditation (which was and still is 10 seconds), the skill delay should be the same. In that regard, this newsgroup post indicates that the hiding and stealthing delay were 10 seconds (with some extra time thrown in for typical 56k connections).

Edit: In either event, the above macro wouldn't work because hiding still had a 10 second delay, even if we assumed the stealth delay was 6 seconds. Thus, the macro is 'bad' regardless.

Kaivan wrote:The newsgroups have very little information on the actual delay for stealth (which isn't exactly known because it was added after the demo), but judging from the skill delays on skills such as Meditation (which was and still is 10 seconds), the skill delay should be the same. In that regard, this newsgroup post indicates that the hiding and stealthing delay were 10 seconds (with some extra time thrown in for typical 56k connections).

Edit: In either event, the above macro wouldn't work because hiding still had a 10 second delay, even if we assumed the stealth delay was 6 seconds. Thus, the macro is 'bad' regardless.

That one is march 2000 though. I hate looking for answers in patch notes as they are so inaccurate/incomplete, but I wonder if there are any notes that discuss stealthing.

I found another post stating a 10-second delay (well, advising 11 seconds, for the 10 second delay plus lag/ping). Still strikes me as odd that Ronk's post could think it's 6 seconds when it's really 10, and they'd give a bogus macro example in the patch notes.

Mikel123 wrote:I found another post stating a 10-second delay (well, advising 11 seconds, for the 10 second delay plus lag/ping). Still strikes me as odd that Ronk's post could think it's 6 seconds when it's really 10, and they'd give a bogus macro example in the patch notes.

Whats the date on that though? Obviously it was changed to 10 at some point. It sounds like, maybe, it was originally 6. Aren't there some other skills that are/were also 6?