Vendor Search: You listened before, so please, listen again.

King_Greg 2021-01-13 04:00 #0

So when I suggested you separate Vendor search from the housing/transfer server, you guys followed through.

Add 2 more servers to handle vendor search, bringing you to 3 total.

1 For Atlantic, 1 For non Atlantic USA Servers, 1 For Non USA Servers.

That way when something goes wrong on Atlantic, it doesn't drag down the entire system.

@Bleak

Lieutenant_Dan 2021-01-17 12:24 #1

A permanent fix to VS would certainly make every ones day.
IMHO money well spent for additional servers.

AtomicBetty 2021-01-17 14:49 #2

Vendor search works fine the money and time are best used elsewhere.

Lieutenant_Dan 2021-01-17 16:15 #3

AtomicBetty said:

Vendor search works fine the money and time are best used elsewhere.

You're delusional if you think it works fine on Atlantic

dvvid 2021-01-17 16:55 #4

It does not work fine on ATL.

McDougle 2021-01-17 21:00 #5

Unfortunately Atlantic a victim of it's own success and it seems unfair to other shards where VS works for resources to be invested in a isolated issue...

King_Greg 2021-01-17 21:02 #6

McDougle said:

Unfortunately Atlantic a victim of it's own success and it seems unfair to other shards where VS works for resources to be invested in a isolated issue...

Except when it does completely break vendor search on other servers.

That's the point of my request is to make it so atlantic's issues don't effect every other server.

AtomicBetty 2021-01-20 19:47 #7

Lieutenant_Dan said:

AtomicBetty said:

Vendor search works fine the money and time are best used elsewhere.

You're delusional if you think it works fine on Atlantic

Works fine you guys need to move on from it. I use vendor search daily on Atlantic and never encounter any issues.

I would rather the devs dont waste time on something that is not broken.

King_Greg 2021-01-20 19:50 #8

I can Literally find items on other servers, buy them, and transfer to Atlantic, Faster than I can find the same item on Atlantic with vendor search.

@Kyronix is anything being done.

keven2002 2021-01-20 20:04 #9

AtomicBetty said:

Lieutenant_Dan said:

AtomicBetty said:

Vendor search works fine the money and time are best used elsewhere.

You're delusional if you think it works fine on Atlantic

Works fine you guys need to move on from it. I use vendor search daily on Atlantic and never encounter any issues.

I would rather the devs dont waste time on something that is not broken.

I think it depends on what you search for. Something like Jumu's Hide I can find like every time simply by entering "jumu" but other things I search for literally right afterwards like "powder of tran" will give me the "too vague" error even if I type it all out.

I have tried searching Plate of Honor and it will fail 75% of the time but if I type in "plate" I usually get results most times (for a ton of junk). Ironic thing is that when I'm trying to narrow it down by being descriptive, the error comes back that my search is too vague lol.

Pawain 2021-01-20 20:25 #10

If your search just takes clicks from the menu it works often. If you have to use two or more words then you get vague too often.

During prime time you can't do a search for rubble.

Last night I was clicking the scroll type but if I put "110 scroll" in the text box, it was too vague. I had to just use scroll and have to see scores of things I did not want .

Bilbo 2021-01-20 20:29 #11

Atl needs to be put on its own server.

King_Greg 2021-01-22 23:34 #12

Completely broken.

Pawain 2021-01-23 00:38 #13

Ya I could not search today when I tried. It only works if you use the clicky choices.

DJAd 2021-01-23 11:12 #14

re-subbed today as I was approaching 90 days out from the game. I cannot believe this is still broken.

Bilbo 2021-01-23 17:01 #15

Works fine on all other shards and it works on Atl during the NOT prime time hours

King_Greg 2021-01-24 01:03 #16

Broken on Multiple Servers.

Whitewolf 2021-01-24 16:48 #17

AtomicBetty said:

Lieutenant_Dan said:

AtomicBetty said:

Vendor search works fine the money and time are best used elsewhere.

You're delusional if you think it works fine on Atlantic

Works fine you guys need to move on from it. I use vendor search daily on Atlantic and never encounter any issues.

I would rather the devs dont waste time on something that is not broken.

ya sorry dude goin to call BS on this your full of it, i been searching for natural dyes for an hour now, at 8 am non prime time and all i get it to vague no matter how i word it. if im goin to pay a monthly fee i have ever right to expect any services that goes along with that monthly fee to be working.

Bilbo 2021-01-24 17:20 #18

I am shard hopping right now and the only shard I have had a problem with is Atl all others are working fine.

King_Greg 2021-01-24 17:51 #19

Bilbo said:

I am shard hopping right now and the only shard I have had a problem with is Atl all others are working fine.

Last night half of the servers were giving the Search is too vague.

Presently can't even search for a cameo on an auction safe without using item name text on Atlantic.

Bilbo 2021-01-25 03:54 #20

King_Greg said:

Bilbo said:

I am shard hopping right now and the only shard I have had a problem with is Atl all others are working fine.

Last night half of the servers were giving the Search is too vague.

Presently can't even search for a cameo on an auction safe without using item name text on Atlantic.

All the servers I used last night with the exception of Atl worked fine. When you select Auction Safes to search you still had to tell it what you wanted, you cant leave the item name blank. Try using the word "weight" it is in %98 of all items in UO.

King_Greg 2021-01-25 07:26 #21

Bilbo said:

King_Greg said:

Bilbo said:

I am shard hopping right now and the only shard I have had a problem with is Atl all others are working fine.

Last night half of the servers were giving the Search is too vague.

Presently can't even search for a cameo on an auction safe without using item name text on Atlantic.

All the servers I used last night with the exception of Atl worked fine. When you select Auction Safes to search you still had to tell it what you wanted, you cant leave the item name blank. Try using the word "weight" it is in %98 of all items in UO.

Can still select Equipment: talisman and put in a slayer. Normally works even when the item name system is broken. Even that was broken at the time I posted.

Whitewolf 2021-01-25 13:54 #22

logged in this morning was able to search for 3 items, and now nothing all i get is to vague no matter how i word it even tried putting in a price point, maybe your daily limit is 3?

Whitewolf 2021-01-25 13:58 #23

Whitewolf said:

logged in this morning was able to search for 3 items, and now nothing all i get is to vague no matter how i word it even tried putting in a price point, maybe your daily limit is 3?

nope thats a no go on that theory, logged onto my 2nd account and cant even get one search to work

dvvid 2021-01-25 16:56 #24

Does wearing a luck suit affect VS functionality?

King_Greg 2021-01-25 21:04 #25

dvvid said:

Does wearing a luck suit affect VS functionality?

Luck doesn't seem to work on it, i'll try eating food.

dvvid 2021-01-26 00:36 #26

loll

Theo 2021-01-26 04:54 #27

The whole problem with vendor search is too many searches are doing a text string search against the Database. They need to fix VS to cover more things with filters. Why do the filters work? Because those are indexed fields. Indexes in databases are lightning fast. Text searches are slow. We need a filtered search for : Power Scrolls, Scrolls of Trans, Scrolls of Alacrity. Those right there would take a huge amount of text searches off the DB. Let me filter on scroll of alacrity and choose skill animal taming and it will be much improved.

Of course even a low rate DBA can look at the database query log and find these patterns and help with the redesign.

Need help devs?

dvvid 2021-01-26 05:44 #28

That’s a good point. By seeing what is most searched for, you can create categories to accommodate those terms, when possible. Scrolls are a good example. This logic would easily guide some good refinements to the db for sure.

Bilbo 2021-01-26 15:30 #29

resources broken down by skill use would be another good section. They have a Token one why not a Veteran Reward one? There is so much they could do and their break down of equipment selections proves it, now they need to apply that to the rest of the items being sold on vendors. @Kyronix @Bleak

dvvid 2021-01-26 21:38 #30

Also selections for minor, lesser, greater, major magic items and lesser, greater, major, and legendary artifacts would greatly help the search I’d imagine.

Xris 2021-01-28 22:48 #31

Make a VS token in the store......1$ for 10 guaranteed searches. Take my money idc just please fix VS.

Pawain 2021-01-29 02:35 #32

😂
Last night I was on GL and Vendor search would time out for some searches there....

King_Greg 2021-01-29 16:07 #33

Pawain said:

😂
Last night I was on GL and Vendor search would time out for some searches there....

That's why i'm hoping they put in a different server for non Atlantic Shards.

Bilbo 2021-01-29 19:00 #34

@Kyronix could your team please make this a very high if not the TOP Priority because it really does affect almost all of the players no matter what their play style is.

Pawain 2021-01-29 21:56 #35

It does because returning and new players want to buy and sell items so they can catch up and Atlantic is the only shard that has a price reference for any item. If you return with pet scrolls and pre patch pets you could become wealthy if you have a reference.

King_Greg 2021-01-30 01:16 #36

Useless, useless, Useless.

Mariah 2021-01-30 11:10 #37

There is news on this issue in the most recent newsletter

KHAN 2021-01-30 18:39 #38

@Kyronix @Bleak @Mesanna VS is unusable, and a sub par product is unacceptable. Please fix the stuff already in the game before y'all introduce MORE stuff, that will probably be messed up as well. I got the "too vague" response on 4 shards in a row, on 4 different items. I logged out, and am headed out to go hit golf balls, and decide which accounts are the least important! Having stuff in game that y'all won't fix, and having other stuff having a HUGE affect on the game, that y'all won't even DISCUSS is no longer going to work.

King_Greg 2021-01-30 23:13 #39

Mariah said:

There is news on this issue in the most recent newsletter

"We have some updates planned for vendor search in Publish 110 that will make the messaging more informative so that every search does not come back as “Too vague…” We will also be performing maintenance on the vendor search database in Pub"

That's not news that they are going to fix it, only that it will tell us why it's not working. Which will look something like this.

"The Vendor Search Server is Experience A large number of searches right now and cannot complete your search in a timely manner"

Bilbo 2021-01-31 02:14 #40

^^^^^THIS^^^^^

keven2002 2021-01-31 11:26 #41

@Kyronix / @Mesanna - For whatever it is worth; I think the search errors have something to using the text field. I've done some testing on ATL and whenever use the toggles and then I type something like "tunic bearing" or "crest of blackthorn" it takes a minute or so and then either returns the results or comes back as too vague.
However if I ONLY use the menu toggles like 10% LRC + Sash/tunic then I get results much quicker and it works pretty much every time even in high traffic times.

Gandalf 2021-01-31 15:15 #42

Please disable vendor search until you fix this problem.

It's very frustrating to do multiple searches and it doesn't work. I prefer to know that it is in maintenance.

@Kyronix @Mesanna

Radst 2021-01-31 18:26 #43

.

In any HIGHLY professional & modern industry, "containment actions" are taken when there are CRITICAL / SHOW-STOPPER issues.

"Containment actions": short and quick action to fix the problem SHORT TERM, while you have "preventive actions": long term solution to address the root causes from happening ever again.

Every time VS gets fixed/DB reset it only lasted about 1.5 months and then it goes to barely working again and everyone just couldn't take it anymore. (That's SHOW STOPPER)

Now, VS has been half broken since ToL Day1 (end of 2016). That's FOUR years now. And in the past 2 years we've seen one or two instances where the Devs thought they had narrowed down the root causes.

It is okay they didn't address the root causes IF they cared to perform VS maintenance every 2 months or so. But no, Devs always insisted on doing it ALONG with a regular patch. Therefore it is usually another 1~2 months until we get the PUBLISH to fix it. That is at least 2 months of a seriously broken state of SHOW STOPPER.

You want players to be reasonable and rational with you? Well here you have it but then you showed us how you really dont care.

You go low, We go high.

King_Greg 2021-02-02 05:47 #44

It's monday and it's still broken?

dvvid 2021-02-08 21:54 #45

I just realized that the vendor search being so incredibly broken (the last week has been really bad especially) affects gameplay through storage limitations. People buy less...which affects housing storage...items are most likely still coming in but nothing is going out. It can only get worse over time unless something is done to fix it.

MissE 2021-02-09 00:30 #46

Funny how that Plague dude could walk around luna and tokuno towns and manage to not only get every item on every vendor, the name of vendor and upload a pic with a 'dot' where it was located on every shard, yet we cannot get this thing working with the 'official' team who has access to direct code of the game. I sometimes wish that other dude was back, at least then I could check prices on every shard without having to log into each shard and do a bazillion searches that 90% of the time come back 'too vague'. It makes stocking vendors the most abysmal process EVER.

keven2002 2021-02-09 12:12 #47

dvvid said:

I just realized that the vendor search being so incredibly broken (the last week has been really bad especially) affects gameplay through storage limitations. People buy less...which affects housing storage...items are most likely still coming in but nothing is going out. It can only get worse over time unless something is done to fix it.

I noticed this myself on ATL. My storage is tight too and I put together mage/warrior suits for players to buy as they transition from newbie suits (antique/low stats) to the 100M+ plus suit and I price them to move which usually has them sell within a week but over the past couple weeks I haven't sold any.

I also put a blackthorn tunic on my vendor below the others on VS (when I could check in the AM) and that thing stayed on there for almost a full week too.

Urge 2021-02-14 20:37 #48

MissE said:

Funny how that Plague dude could walk around luna and tokuno towns and manage to not only get every item on every vendor, the name of vendor and upload a pic with a 'dot' where it was located on every shard, yet we cannot get this thing working with the 'official' team who has access to direct code of the game.

I've always been pretty understanding of the people behind the game but without any working vendor search in a strict item based era, it's become almost unplayable.

I have multiple characters i was in the process of building. That's put on hold. Pets being scrolled and played has been put on hold. I don't have many working playable characters so this has crippled my gametime. I can't even search for ingredients to imbue a suit. Having to wait another month for a working version isn't really fair.

The team should just endorse or look the other way for player run vendor search tools. It was more stable and far less headache for them.

#bringbackPlague

KHAN 2021-02-15 02:02 #49

I don't even bother to stock my ATL vendor much any more. I generally stocked 120 PS's that were less than the others on VS. I was restocking once or twice a day. Now, lately, I don't even bother.

Just an FYI, the current "rumor" is that the RMT sites have EJ accounts CONSTANTLY 'botting VS (there were/are books all over Luna ATL about it). Which adds to the mess that VS has become. Just sayin'. @Kyronix @Bleak @Mesanna Perhaps it's time to cut back the "perks" of EJ accounts. Most of them are just "support" accounts for the "paying" accounts anyway.

popps 2021-02-15 09:07 #50

KHAN said:

I don't even bother to stock my ATL vendor much any more. I generally stocked 120 PS's that were less than the others on VS. I was restocking once or twice a day. Now, lately, I don't even bother.

Just an FYI, the current "rumor" is that the RMT sites have EJ accounts CONSTANTLY 'botting VS (there were/are books all over Luna ATL about it). Which adds to the mess that VS has become. Just sayin'. @ Kyronix @ Bleak @ Mesanna Perhaps it's time to cut back the "perks" of EJ accounts. Most of them are just "support" accounts for the "paying" accounts anyway.

Perhaps it's time to cut back the "perks" of EJ accounts.

I am the first one to hate, wholeheartedly, Endless Journey Accounts.

Besides those uses mentioned, they are also used in several other very detrimental gameplay to fellow subscribed players... how ? They are used, with no limits, being them free, as Hidden, free, EJ Cameras, to monitor any and all areas one may want in Felucca Rulesets....

Of course that this is detrimental to whomever may think even for a split second to go to Felucca, AND, I will add, it actually HURTS Felucca ruleset gameplay immensely since it deters even more players to want to even enter Felucca rulesets, let alone play there.... because, regardless where they might want to go to play in Felucca, there is a quite good high chance that a Hidden EJ Camera might be up there and monitoring the area to then have Raiders come deal with the newcomers...

And these Hidden EJ Cameras, I understand, can also be scripted so, who controls them does not even need to spend their time to get to them from time to time to check what is going on in that area, their script will alert them with a sound if they set it up that way....

So, to my opinion, EJ Accounts have been among one of the worst additions to Ultima Online, ever....

YET, this said, I need to also say that it now is too late to take them away or too much further restrict them.

Why ?

Because too many players have now "invested" in Endless Journey Accounts by purchasing perhaps High Seas or Time of Legends expansions, or perhaps Soulstones at the UOStore which they would not be able to transfer to other accounts. They might have also heavily invested in in game gold to scroll them up and develop them, another thing which they would not be able to transfer to a subscribed account unless this was permitted by the Developers in some way.

The only possible way, before taking them away or further restricting their gameplay, would be to issue "refunds" to all those players who invested in their Endless Journey Accounts but I am not sure how much this would be viable....

I wished they never made available Endless Journey Accounts, but now it is too late to take them away or to further restrict their gameplay, to my opinion, there is many players who invested too much of their real money on them, not to mention their real time to develop them or in game gold to scroll them up and all that....

Cookie 2021-02-15 15:05 #51

Vendor Search works perfectly on Europa.

And every other shard.

Except Atlantic.

Maybe all those players should not have moved to Atlantic? It is clear and obvious a database can ever only hold so much, and you've all overloaded it.

There are plenty of other servers for you to all play on, and get the benefits of a working Vendor Search.

You would also benefit the entire game, by spreading players out, making other servers more alive.

Shard transfers and trading would mean you could still get around to other shards to get the stuff you really want, it doesn't always have to be Atlantic.

So in summary - this is a player problem, caused by a certain group of players, who have scored an own goal on themselves.

I'm not having this issue, because I was not stupid enough to base myself on Atlantic. I saw this coming, I saw a whole host of issues coming, like over-farmed PvM spots etc.

So stop whining, do something positive, you all managed to move to Atlantic in the first place, now move off it.

jelinidas 2021-02-15 16:14 #52

Currently on Cats. NO searches work.

keven2002 2021-02-15 16:24 #53

@Cookie - I usually agree with most your posts but your last one was full of assumptions and overall pretty unsympathetic.

I play ATL and I've played ATL since I started 20+ years ago...so me along with several others did not "move to Atlantic in the first place" and therefore I do not see why myself or others should now need to move off just because we want VS to work properly.

As a long time ATL player, if I don't want to be bothered with going to do the quest for powders of translocation and want to buy it to help out a lower level player make some gold for their time, why should I need to move off ATL to do so?

Let's not assume that everyone is a ATL transplant that is simply trying to use VS to push overpriced items like EM drops etc. I do not think it's asking too much simply to have the search database on ATL be at a higher capacity because that is where the traffic is nor do I think it's asking for too much to simply have it work as expected.

Samael 2021-02-15 16:37 #54

Cookie said:

Vendor Search works perfectly on Europa.
And every other shard.
Except Atlantic.
Maybe all those players should not have moved to Atlantic? It is clear and obvious a database can ever only hold so much, and you've all overloaded it.
There are plenty of other servers for you to all play on, and get the benefits of a working Vendor Search.
You would also benefit the entire game, by spreading players out, making other servers more alive.
Shard transfers and trading would mean you could still get around to other shards to get the stuff you really want, it doesn't always have to be Atlantic.
So in summary - this is a player problem, caused by a certain group of players, who have scored an own goal on themselves.
I'm not having this issue, because I was not stupid enough to base myself on Atlantic. I saw this coming, I saw a whole host of issues coming, like over-farmed PvM spots etc.
So stop whining, do something positive, you all managed to move to Atlantic in the first place, now move off it.

Agree 99% with you .. the 1% I don't agree with it the fact that VS on Europa works most of the times, today for example doesn't work at all ... but anyway rarely perfect. I think that anyway VS needs some work even under the functionalities point of view, for example adding boolean searches. Or at least to exclude some strings from the search (price, stones ecc )

Cookie 2021-02-15 17:21 #55

keven2002 said:

@ Cookie - I usually agree with most your posts but your last one was full of assumptions and overall pretty unsympathetic.

I play ATL and I've played ATL since I started 20+ years ago...so me along with several others did not "move to Atlantic in the first place" and therefore I do not see why myself or others should now need to move off just because we want VS to work properly.

As a long time ATL player, if I don't want to be bothered with going to do the quest for powders of translocation and want to buy it to help out a lower level player make some gold for their time, why should I need to move off ATL to do so?

Let's not assume that everyone is a ATL transplant that is simply trying to use VS to push overpriced items like EM drops etc. I do not think it's asking too much simply to have the search database on ATL be at a higher capacity because that is where the traffic is nor do I think it's asking for too much to simply have it work as expected.

Unsympathetic yes, I get tired of the whining.

For the genuine Atlantic players, yep feel sorry for them, but they are the minority on Atlantic.

This is a player created problem, I don't think the players really have a leg to stand on, then they blame the Devs 24/7.

The answer is staring them in the face - the other 20 odd shards where most of them came from In the first place.

Marge 2021-02-15 17:26 #56

VS isn't working on any shard I tried this morning and I usually have no problems - even on Atl. My guess is they had enough of the bitching and just turned it off.

Cookie 2021-02-15 17:27 #57

Samael said:

Agree 99% with you .. the 1% I don't agree with it the fact that VS on Europa works most of the times, today for example doesn't work at all ... but anyway rarely perfect. I think that anyway VS needs some work even under the functionalities point of view, for example adding boolean searches. Or at least to exclude some strings from the search (price, stones ecc )

Without whining 24/7 about it - I do agree and believe Vendor Search could do with an upgrade to help the game overall.

My solution would be 1 Vendor Seach for every player in the game, a central Vendor Search on it's own server that everyone from every shard can plug into.

It would maintain prices at the lowest point, it would help stabilise the game economy, and allow players to feel they can play from their own shard, yet still have access to all Trade.

And very funny, yes, Europa VS just gone down lol, they've dragged us down with them 😂

Urge 2021-02-15 17:37 #58

Cookie said:

Vendor Search works perfectly on Europa.
And every other shard.
Except Atlantic.
Maybe all those players should not have moved to Atlantic? It is clear and obvious a database can ever only hold so much, and you've all overloaded it.
There are plenty of other servers for you to all play on, and get the benefits of a working Vendor Search.
You would also benefit the entire game, by spreading players out, making other servers more alive.
Shard transfers and trading would mean you could still get around to other shards to get the stuff you really want, it doesn't always have to be Atlantic.
So in summary - this is a player problem, caused by a certain group of players, who have scored an own goal on themselves.
I'm not having this issue, because I was not stupid enough to base myself on Atlantic. I saw this coming, I saw a whole host of issues coming, like over-farmed PvM spots etc.
So stop whining, do something positive, you all managed to move to Atlantic in the first place, now move off it.

I started on Atlantic. It's not our fault your shard isn't on par with ours. I will be more than happy to move if you provide the 14 transfer tokens needed. Otherwise i might suggest players have a more empathetic, helpful and positive attitude on their own shards maybe these plants and others could enjoy playing the lesser populated shards.

We're all accustomed to imperfection in this game but if a major feature such as search would work at least 50% of the time you would most likely hear very little "whining".

Cookie 2021-02-15 17:40 #59

Urge said:

I started on Atlantic. It's not our fault your shard isn't on par with ours. I will be more than happy to move if you provide the 14 transfer tokens needed. Otherwise i might suggest players have a more empathetic, helpful and positive attitude on their own shards maybe these plants and others could enjoy playing the lesser populated shards.

We're all accustomed to imperfection in this game but if a major feature such as search would work at least 50% of the time you would most likely hear very little "whining".

a. My shard is clearly better, it works. {99%!} 🙂

and b, sure I can give you the transfer tokens, I have them, I don't use them. 🙂

and b and a 1/2 edit, yes, I do feel sorry for the original Atlantic players, they've had their game messed up in a lot of ways in a sense - and by the way, before all the 20 year old Vet Atlantic players go off on one in response to me - I did even say in the original post - "caused by a certain group of players" - clearly not you.

and c, why do I have to listen to the whining all the time? why can't players grow up and do something about it, knowing they did this in the first place, and knowing the real answer?

There is a difference between asking nicely for something to be fixed, and the way half the posters go off on one.

keven2002 2021-02-15 17:50 #60

Cookie said:
a. My shard is clearly better, it works.

Apparently it doesn't work right now <span>

</span>

Cookie 2021-02-15 17:51 #61

The Irony. 🙂

You guys have really buggered it all up now haven't you ! 😂

Samael 2021-02-15 18:47 #62

Cookie said:

My solution would be 1 Vendor Seach for every player in the game, a central Vendor Search on it's own server that everyone from every shard can plug into.

We all know that this will never happen, but most likely is the only thing that will keep new and returning players playing the game.
As of today there is a huge unbalance between he who can move to other shards and who can't under the trade point of view.
A central market hub would be beneficial to anybody, he who sells and he who buys and there are countless of ways it can be donw without affecting the owners of the shields, for example : a commission for the seller and item that appears in the backpack, or in the inventory of a particular npc ... without physically traveling to the sellers vendors and so on.

Bilbo 2021-02-15 19:23 #63

Marge said:

VS isn't working on any shard I tried this morning and I usually have no problems - even on Atl. My guess is they had enough of the bitching and just turned it off.

Then the data base was down due to maintenance. I just did a run to every shard with my shard shields and the only shard I could not search was Atl.

dvvid 2021-02-16 00:49 #64

“My ShArD iS cLeArLy BeTtEr”

These threads about VS would be more constructive if the dev team would just tell us what is up with the search and what their plans were to fix it. They did reveal to us after a long time they would make the error message more accurate. Okay that’s just the tiniest bit helpful but nothing is fixed in that.

Unless we actually know what is going on with this thing, we are going to keep getting these kinds of threads where people are going to go on and on about speculative reasoning behind the problem and now we’re even getting argumentative with each other.

Why can’t this dev team just give us some real info on this subject. Can we expect a fix any time soon? Are they looking into what their options are? I hope they talk about it in the upcoming stream.

Theo 2021-02-16 06:56 #65

Cookie said:
Maybe all those players should not have moved to Atlantic? It is clear and obvious a database can ever only hold so much, and you've all overloaded it.

Sorry. Can’t let this one go. UO is not reaching the limits of database storage.

Facebook stores 300 million photos....a day. And returns that pic of you and your cat in seconds. They run one of the largest Hadoop clusters in the world.

Databases have no real practical limits with today’s technology. However a poorly implemented DB even at small size can fail miserably.

The UO implementation of data storage is terribly lacking. Not having the right filters causing nearly all searches to go text string is a killer and I’ll bet they haven’t tuned the shared memory a bit. Probably using MySQL with out of the box configs.

The reason the third party sites worked is they had even a small inkling of how to run a database.

For the love of Mike I wish they would port this into Redshift and hire a DBA for a week and tune the queries and config. I offered to help. Just 20+ years managing the data of the largest companies in the world. The entire VS DB could effectively run on a laptop tuned properly.

Seth 2021-02-17 01:28 #66

Cookie said:

Vendor Search works perfectly on Europa.
And every other shard.
Except Atlantic.
Maybe all those players should not have moved to Atlantic? It is clear and obvious a database can ever only hold so much, and you've all overloaded it.
There are plenty of other servers for you to all play on, and get the benefits of a working Vendor Search.
You would also benefit the entire game, by spreading players out, making other servers more alive.
Shard transfers and trading would mean you could still get around to other shards to get the stuff you really want, it doesn't always have to be Atlantic.
So in summary - this is a player problem, caused by a certain group of players, who have scored an own goal on themselves.
I'm not having this issue, because I was not stupid enough to base myself on Atlantic. I saw this coming, I saw a whole host of issues coming, like over-farmed PvM spots etc.
So stop whining, do something positive, you all managed to move to Atlantic in the first place, now move off it.

Yeah they should encourage players to spread out all shards, remove shard bound items and promote cross shard trading. One world with many planets (shards). Isolation is bad thing.

Xris 2021-02-18 20:24 #67

If they set up a GoFundMe for VS I'd probably drop some $ in. They will lose customers eventually, people love this feature and seeing problems for months/ years on end is unacceptable. I've logged out many times when using VS to build suits (finding specific stats without it is insanely hard, or insanely expensive). Its a shame.

KHAN 2021-02-18 20:28 #68

This whole situation is merely a symptom of the larger problem. Why aren't the devs even bothering to respond to the numerous complaints. Much less actually FIXING it! @Kyronix @Mesanna @Bleak

Bilbo 2021-02-19 01:51 #69

KHAN said:

This whole situation is merely a symptom of the larger problem. Why aren't the devs even bothering to respond to the numerous complaints. Much less actually FIXING it! @ Kyronix @ Mesanna @ Bleak

What is truely sad is you can not complain to @Mesanna s boss because IMHO he really doesn't give a flying fart in space about UO and EA could care less as long as the subs stay up. So once again UO is the bastard step child that nobody cares about. @Mesanna you really need to say something to your player base or has it gotten to the point that you really do not give a shit about us anymore.

McDougle 2021-02-19 01:55 #70

what is it we want them to say ? promise to fix it ? sorry it can not be fixed ? the sad realty is no matter what they say they get flamed not a fanboy i complain loudly and often but there is really no point in them replying...

Bilbo 2021-02-19 02:10 #71

McDougle said:

what is it we want them to say ? promise to fix it ? sorry it can not be fixed ? the sad realty is no matter what they say they get flamed not a fanboy i complain loudly and often but there is really no point in them replying...

the truth would be fine good or bad but not responding is the same as saying I really could care less what you think so just shut your mouth and be thankful for what we have given you.

Vladimir 2021-02-19 03:43 #72

Maybe you should read the Newsletter.

They will do SOME update, that will change the Too Vague message for something a little more informative like, Try again Later.

dvvid 2021-02-19 06:06 #73

Yeah that’s not a fix to the system just giving a potentially more accurate error message.

Bilbo 2021-02-19 16:08 #74

dvvid said:

Yeah that’s not a fix to the system just giving a potentially more accurate error message.

WELL SAID and if people accept that as a fix then they deserve what they get.

Bilbo 2021-02-19 16:09 #75

Vladimir said:

Maybe you should read the Newsletter.

They will do SOME update, that will change the Too Vague message for something a little more informative like, Try again Later.

That is not a fix it is an excuse

Marge 2021-02-19 16:36 #76

I took Vladimir's post as sarcasm.

Edited to add : Actually when I first read it, it gave me a sad chuckle. I pictured the search now button on the VS menu being replaced with Magic 8 Ball.

Bilbo 2021-02-19 21:06 #77

Marge said:

Edited to add : Actually when I first read it, it gave me a sad chuckle. I pictured the search now button on the VS menu being replaced with Magic 8 Ball.

LmFAO TY

Seth 2021-02-20 03:16 #78

King_Greg said:

So when I suggested you separate Vendor search from the housing/transfer server, you guys followed through.

Add 2 more servers to handle vendor search, bringing you to 3 total.

1 For Atlantic, 1 For non Atlantic USA Servers, 1 For Non USA Servers.

That way when something goes wrong on Atlantic, it doesn't drag down the entire system.

@ Bleak

Is Atlantic and other shard VS using same server? When I searched Atlantic it returns "vague", at the same time I tried another shard and it works quickly without issue.

I think the results return as "vague" because the server is too busy, not because the search term is too short/simple/vague. For example, I was looking for a scroll:

XXXXXX scroll 120 - returns "vague"

XXXXXX - returns with a super long list of search results, starting from jewels etc.

So a simple and vague term returns search results, but a longer, detailed search term return "vague"?

I think the error message itself is wrong and not reflecting the actual issue, which could be due to server load or time-out.

Why time-out? Everytime I get the "vague" feedback the search seems to take very long... So instead of feedback "server is busy, try again later", it says "vague".

Seth 2021-02-20 04:22 #79

After testing another search term, this is another finding:

If you try a detailed search term and keep getting "vague" for 5 mins, then try to reduce to a single word search if possible.

IF the VS search managed to work, then add another word (if you like) to be more specific.

Ignore the system error "vague", instead of making your search term more detailed and specificy, try making it even simpler (and really vague) instead. The above works for me several times.

TimSt 2021-02-21 02:33 #80

It might help the devs if we list the exact searches that are returning 'too vague'. If a commonality is found the devs could then work to improve VS for that.

For example if the majority of 'too vague' is from searching for power scrolls the devs might be able to add SoP to the equipment list and update the skills field to accept 105, 110, 115, and 120 as valid values to search for.

Bilbo 2021-02-21 02:42 #81

Atl VS search "comm deed" results in to vague, IMHO it is timing out because of the load on the search engine

All other shards VS search "comm deed" results in a list of every Comm Deed on that shard.

Exact same words 2 different results. It is not the wording it is the number of searches being done at the same time and as others have said it could be EJ Accounts doing this to bolster the RMT sells by shutting down VS

Urge 2021-02-21 03:38 #82

Bilbo said:

It is not the wording it is the number of searches being done at the same time and as others have said it could be EJ Accounts doing this to bolster the RMT sells by shutting down VS

I don't see anyone being that nefarious. Possibly an auto buyer for a continuous scan to restock their sites.

Either way it wouldn't be so bad if Luna was still the mall. With vendors spread everywhere it's a real mess.

Seth 2021-02-21 05:36 #83

Its impossible to know if anyone is spamming search unless you are working in Broadsword. Many players sitting around the banks or hiding a home, no one knows if they are watching movie, eating pop corn or spamming VS in real life with 10 EJ accounts.

Bilbo 2021-02-21 07:47 #84

Urge said:

Bilbo said:

It is not the wording it is the number of searches being done at the same time and as others have said it could be EJ Accounts doing this to bolster the RMT sells by shutting down VS

I don't see anyone being that nefarious. Possibly an auto buyer for a continuous scan to restock their sites.

Either way it wouldn't be so bad if Luna was still the mall. With vendors spread everywhere it's a real mess.

Sounds like someone is mad that VS devalued their Luna property. VS was and still is one of the BEST things that UO has done for the whole player base and not just the select few that dominated the market pre VS. So glad that is works great on shards not named Atl.

Urge 2021-02-21 14:54 #85

Bilbo said:

Urge said:

Bilbo said:

It is not the wording it is the number of searches being done at the same time and as others have said it could be EJ Accounts doing this to bolster the RMT sells by shutting down VS

I don't see anyone being that nefarious. Possibly an auto buyer for a continuous scan to restock their sites.

Either way it wouldn't be so bad if Luna was still the mall. With vendors spread everywhere it's a real mess.

Sounds like someone is mad that VS devalued their Luna property. VS was and still is one of the BEST things that UO has done for the whole player base and not just the select few that dominated the market pre VS. So glad that is works great on shards not named Atl.

You misunderstood. Shopping without VS was easier when everything was piled in Luna. I totally agree a working VS would be the best thing to ever hit an item based game. Seems to be working a little better this weekend.

King_Greg 2021-02-23 18:11 #86

Middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday and can't vendor search a 120.

The joke is getting old.

Bilbo 2021-02-23 19:44 #87

King_Greg said:

Middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday and can't vendor search a 120.

The joke is getting old.

I just did a search "scroll legend" and suprise even though it took longer then normal it DID NOT time out and I got a list of all 120S on ATL. Hope it stays, looks like they added more time before it times out.

King_Greg 2021-02-23 21:03 #88

Bilbo said:

King_Greg said:

Middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday and can't vendor search a 120.

The joke is getting old.

I just did a search "scroll legend" and suprise even though it took longer then normal it DID NOT time out and I got a list of all 120S on ATL. Hope it stays, looks like they added more time before it times out.

Yeah an hour and a half later it was working fine for searching even 120 "Abbreviated skill name". And then it went right back to shit.

Bilbo 2021-02-25 23:12 #89

With Publish 110 there will be restrictions on Endless Journey accounts accessing vendor search, we've updated the error messaging to better identify which issues users are experiencing, and we will be performing more regularly scheduled maintenance on the database.

keven2002 2021-03-01 15:55 #90

Seems like the ATL issues with VS has infected other shards. Trying to search on Origin and getting "too vague" on pretty much anything I try for item name ("tangle" etc). I hopped over to Europa and getting same message. Is VS working for anyone on any shard??

**This is after it takes 2min or so and basically times out (exactly what it does on ATL). I saw that VS was greyed out earlier on Origin so not sure if there is an issue with VS in general today.

KHAN 2021-03-01 16:01 #91

keven2002 said:

Seems like the ATL issues with VS has infected other shards. Trying to search on Origin and getting "too vague" on pretty much anything I try for item name ("tangle" etc). I hopped over to Europa and getting same message. Is VS working for anyone on any shard??

**This is after it takes 2min or so and basically times out (exactly what it does on ATL). I saw that VS was greyed out earlier on Origin so not sure if there is an issue with VS in general today.

Ya, VS has been screwed up on pretty much every shard for the past few days. It's completely unuseable.

Garth_Grey 2021-03-01 16:46 #92

I think the entire issue with VS is, at least on Atl, people are running search scripts all day to automatically adjust their prices on items. Yeah this is a stretch I know, but think outside the box at the benefits of having just the right price for every item at any given time you sell, to get it to sell fast...

vortex 2021-03-01 16:56 #93

keven2002 said:

Seems like the ATL issues with VS has infected other shards. Trying to search on Origin and getting "too vague" on pretty much anything I try for item name ("tangle" etc). I hopped over to Europa and getting same message. Is VS working for anyone on any shard??

**This is after it takes 2min or so and basically times out (exactly what it does on ATL). I saw that VS was greyed out earlier on Origin so not sure if there is an issue with VS in general today.

Same thing on great lakes...

Bilbo 2021-03-01 18:42 #94

@Kyronix @Bleak @keven2002 I was just on other shards to check on my shard hopping chars and logged them in and got the standard vague reply as Atl so I recalled out to the world (TRAM) and walked around a bit then recalled back to Luna and VS worked and that was on 2 different shards Balhae and Great Lakes so I logged on other shards and just used chars that are in Luna for gift collection Origin, Pac and Cats same results so I tried Atl and got the vague with my bank sitter so recalled to TRAM, walked around and recalled back to Luna. I forgot to mention I walked around Luna until I got the you are under the protection text. I tried Atl VS and about fell out of my chair when it worked had to log due to grandbaby duty but will try later to see if this works next time, crosses fingers.

loop 2021-03-01 20:14 #95

Garth_Grey said:

I think the entire issue with VS is, at least on Atl, people are running search scripts all day to automatically adjust their prices on items. Yeah this is a stretch I know, but think outside the box at the benefits of having just the right price for every item at any given time you sell, to get it to sell fast...

It would be counterproductive to run scripts against VS for the purposes of setting better prices, only to break it in the process. More likely to me (speculation, I admit) is that the intention is to disrupt the game in general, draw eyes to RMT sites as players get frustrated, and to damage Broadsword's reputation.

That's all assuming the VS outage is due to automated spamming, which is reasonable to think considering the latest newsletter's indication that they will be placing restrictions on Endless Journey accounts' usage of it. It's unfortunate that Endless Journey accounts are the casualty here when fundamentally the problems with VS indicate some problem with its scalability and security.

Whitewolf 2021-03-05 00:47 #96

OMG im literally laughing out loud right now, their fix for VS is to change the message from to vague to taking to long, thats what it tells you now.

Pawain 2021-03-05 01:21 #97

TimSt 2021-03-05 02:02 #98

In pub 110 they will be making the following changes to VS:

Endless Journey accounts can no longer use the item name search
Endless Journey accounts will now receive a 60-second cooldown between searches
All item name searches are now limited up to three words
Updated error messaging
Database maintenance

MissE 2021-03-07 00:51 #99

So now I am getting 'your search took too long to complete, please refine your search criteria and try again' I mean wtf? I am searching for a 120 resisting spells, put 'resisting spells' in the top, put a $$ bracket at 30million +, low to high, then in skill select resisting spells and putting in 0 as the default. And yeah I have tried MULTIPLE different search strings. I hope this isn't the 'new' fix if so bring back the illegal websites, I am kinda over VS.

Pawain 2021-03-07 02:09 #100

MissE said:

So now I am getting 'your search took too long to complete, please refine your search criteria and try again' I mean wtf? I am searching for a 120 resisting spells, put 'resisting spells' in the top, put a $$ bracket at 30million +, low to high, then in skill select resisting spells and putting in 0 as the default. And yeah I have tried MULTIPLE different search strings. I hope this isn't the 'new' fix if so bring back the illegal websites, I am kinda over VS.

Have to click the scroll type from the skill group. Don't put a number then put your start price.

I think all they changed was the message. I see no evidence of database maintenance.

MissE 2021-03-07 02:55 #101

Pawain said:

MissE said:

So now I am getting 'your search took too long to complete, please refine your search criteria and try again' I mean wtf? I am searching for a 120 resisting spells, put 'resisting spells' in the top, put a $$ bracket at 30million +, low to high, then in skill select resisting spells and putting in 0 as the default. And yeah I have tried MULTIPLE different search strings. I hope this isn't the 'new' fix if so bring back the illegal websites, I am kinda over VS.

Have to click the scroll type from the skill group. Don't put a number then put your start price.

I think all they changed was the message. I see no evidence of database maintenance.

Yeah well some things you just can't work around. Nothing has been fixed. A different message is not a fix, just another way to aggravate you. Last time I asked I was told to put the scroll type and put 0, and do it high to low, then before that I was told something different and before that something different again, what works one day doesn't work another day. I had done it that way too and still got 'too long'. I just do not understand how they cannot make this work. Every other game I have ever played had data base markets and NONE of them had this rubbish going on continuously. Games with much bigger data sets than UO.

Ivenor 2021-03-07 08:49 #102

But what is it that broke the VS? Until May/June 2020 when I supspended playing until December 2020 the VS was fully functional...

Fortis 2021-03-07 14:45 #103

they said ej supposely cant use word for search you still can...maybe not activate yet

Bilbo 2021-03-07 14:59 #104

"scroll resi"
Use scroll first then the first 4 letters. Search high to low. Leave the cost alone. If you are looking for the low end scrolls then search low to high. If there is anything more to see let the game take care of changing the gold amount.

Arnold7 2021-03-07 15:56 #105

Another vendor search discussion, 104 comments and no meaning response from UO. All I found from UO was a general link to the new legacy newsletter. Maybe there is something on vendor search in the this newsletter but I could not find it. No I don’t play on Atlantic nor am I able to travel there and yes it’s been really unstable on my shard too the last couple of weeks especially this one.

Dear team how about a response about why it does not work. Did not read all 104 posts maybe there is a response from UO I don’t see it. Let’s end the speculation. Just tell us why it does not work and what if anything can be done. Right now

King_Greg 2021-03-08 18:55 #106

How is it getting worse... I can't even search "wh" for whetstone with the price point being right at the item.

keven2002 2021-03-08 19:02 #107

I've noticed that other shards besides ATL haven't been working as well lately either.

MissE 2021-03-09 08:16 #108

Find Blackrock Stew, blackrock didn't work, stew didn't work, kinda run out of words after that lol

Seth 2021-03-09 12:30 #109

Just tried this at Atlantic when population is Medium, it works.

So as mentioned before its likely all due to server load. A simple phrase may help but if its already overloaded then nothing else would work.

Seth 2021-03-09 12:41 #110

Now it does not work.

This is serious, maybe need to wipe the server clean and reinstall like we always do...

Vendor Search: You listened before, so please, listen again.

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