This is the type of thinking that enables scripting. You have been around for decades Popps, I think you would understand that better than anyone, no?
Scripters use VPNs and a few of them have 10 different computers set up with different settings. (When you access websites and everything, it leaves a fingerprint of your PC details, software, windows, IP, and much more.) They can identify people by those PC settings. But by using VPNs in conjunction with certain software, they can replicate any type of "appearance" they want. If they wanted it to say they were using Windows 95, North Pole, and IP address 1000000001 it would. That it why it is virtually impossible to ban those guys.
They are getting banned however. The huge 1000p+ castle that fell by fel Cove on Drachenfels 6 months ago is proof. Endless journey however, gives them an endless supply of replicatable bots that they can use. They do not even create bots.... they can use programs to recreate bots with different names every few days. They can use programs to sign up to email and Broadsword every few days with a brand new email and create brand new EJ accounts, every few days. EJ does not have to be tied to any other account, only an email which a bot can create in 20 seconds. Why do you think every site has those pictures like "Check all Crosswalks" or "Check Every Picture with Cars." The programs can do all of that outside of UO. Ultima Online, nor any game, has any way to detect outside programs aside from seeing a repetative string, such as when a bot gets stuck. As far as I know, the only thing they have to really do is transfer gold between accounts.
Leaving EJ with gen chat privileges and VS harms the actual player base. Every item that people collect is getting swiped up by bots within hours after being placed on VS. Anything that meets their "threshold to buy" is getting bought and repriced. They should not be able to use 32 chars and vendor search every shard with replicatable accounts / bots over and over.
The only way I can think of to fix this would be to stop EJ from using vendor search. Stopping them from gen chat would fix the gold sellers.... but I do not care so much about that spamming as I do about the vendor searching.
Devs listened to me about the IDOC changes, and absolutely everyone is eternally grateful. The change was miraculous. Whoever came up with the barrel idea on top of what I was floating around was a genius. Please try to find a way to stop the abuse of EJ accounts though. Making an EJ only chat (that normal vet players could join too) is not a bad idea. That would funnel all the EJ players in together and they could easily make guilds and join up. They would not have to hear the toxic 12 year old chat going on on Atlantic gen chat.... which causes a ton of people to quit the game actually, trust me. Give them an EJ only chat and start every EJ char in Luna so that they automatically know where the people and vendors are. Most returning players never even find out what Luna is. A ton of guilds who want to recruit will go to the EJ chat and recruit people, trust me. It would likely be a hundred times better than general chat itself. There is no real need for EJ chars to vendor search. They are fighting mongbats and earth eles. They don't have nor should need an item that costs 5m.... little lone 175m or 5.5p. Stopping them from using gen. chat and VS would greatly help out the real players that have been playing for 10 or 15 years and want to play and are planning on staying.
Apparant Cons: Gold sellers will just go to the EJ forum to sell gold. This is a major win still.... they will lose a ton of their funding. The people trashing Mesanna would lose their funding. The Devs could even put out their own spam message on the EJ chat every 15 minutes that says "Buying Gold from those Websites is Illegal and You Will Be Banned. You also risk compromising your data and putting your PC at risk."
Pros: 1) No more gold sellers on general chat. No more "anonymous" people on general chat bashing Devs, players, and Mesanna. Everyone on general chat should be tied to a paying account so that they are ban-able. 2) Actual new returning players will start in Luna. They will see people actually instead of someone selling gold on a chat. 3) EJ players won't be overwhelmed by prices so quickly. It will give them a more authentic Ultima Online feel and nostalgia. 4) There will be a new EJ chat channel. This will encourage groups, guilds, friends, and veteran players helping them out. 5) This will block scripts from searching vendor search. Vendor search will be a lot more efficient I bet! Meaning it will work better. 6) Veteran players will be able to collect the items they are after for once, instead of people buying / repricing items. 7) EJ accounts will be able to find vendors selling "lower tiered armor" that someone else is not buying up.
I could list like 20 more Pros..... but you get the idea. Thank you for all of your work Devs, I hope you can take a look at this thoroughly and not just take someone's word that it would not work. It could potentially work greatly, just like the IDOC changes were superb. Thank you again.
-Polaris
I am thinking of a different solution, other then always playing the "cat and mouse" game to have to track them down while they use VPN and what not....
What type of a solution ?
Coding the Ultima Online Client so that, if it detects any non authorized software running together with the UO Client, the UO Client would simply "shut down".... just like we get that ahead warning before server down for maintainance....
Only, that it would happen at any time throughout the day as soon as the UO Client detects non-authorized Third Party software running alongside with it....
Want to play UO ? Sorry, you cannot use non-authorized software with it... put it in the TOS, and those players who still will fire up Third Party software to script in UO will simply end up with a game that is unplayable, since it will shut down as soon as the UO Client will detect un-authorized software up and running with the UO Client.
It would not be necessary to track down the players and ban their accounts, they would simply be unable to do whatever they want to do using non-authorized scripting Third Party applications because the Ultima Online Client would self shut down and, thus, make that scripting simply impossible....
This is only 1 possible idea about many that perhaps could be possible without having to play the cat and mouse game, endlessly...
Also, I need to say something about Gold selling.....
Why there is players capable of selling Gold in Ultima Online ?
The easy answer is, because there is other players buying that gold....
If there were no buyers, there would be no market and, thus, no sellers.....
So, let's question ourselves.... on WHY there is players willing to buy gold (and items) in Ultima Online...
The answer is, to my opinion, TIME.
Since it takes time to stock up that gold or earn in game those items, some players figured that they are better off using their real life money which took them LESS time to earn, and spend it to buy UO gold or items....
For example, how much does 1 Platinum of UO gold goes for ? Let's assume it is 150 US$.... now, even at 7.25 US$ per hour at minimum wage, that is about 20 hours of work... and there is lots of people that can earn better then minimum wage... so, let's assume that, for the average UO player, about 10 hours are sufficient to put together 150 bucks....
How many hours, in the game, would be necessary to stock up 1 Platinum UO gold ?
I would think a lot more hours that 10, 20 or even more....
So, the reason why there is a market for Gold or UO items for real money is, to my opinion, due to the fact that it takes too much time in game to get that much gold or items and, therefore, several players think it a TIME SAVER for them to use their real life money to buy UO gold or items.
To kill such a market for good, that is, make it pointless, all it would take is to make gold and items take much less time to be obtained in the game... at that point, why would players want to spend their real time money to buy them ? They would just spend a little time in the game and get them by themselves, saving up their real time money....
So, it is my opinion, Ultima Online is victim of its own fault, is how I see it, by making gold and items not easy enough to be obtained, it basically is making it possible for this Real Money Trades market to go on since it makes it convenient for some players to want to use their real money to be spent on UO items and gold as this saves them time.....
Make gold and items easier to be obtained in UO thus reducing the time it takes to get them in UO, and the RMT Market will melt like snow on a sunny day for luck of purchasing players, me thinks.