Stop allowing EJs being able to earn ToT drops

username

Immediately @Kyronix @Mesanna ;

vortex

username said:

Immediately @ Kyronix @ Mesanna 

They don't care..

King_Greg

Can they?

Riner

In what way does allowing EJ accounts to collect drops during an event help UO or it's paying accounts? As for harm it encourages the use of EJ accounts to use scripts to collect drops as there is no consequence for this action, get caught simply use another account. It also makes the environment harder and less appealing to those who pay to play the game!

Skett

They run scripts so stoping them would help paying customers 
they don’t care if they get banned so they keep creating new accounts 

KHAN

@Mesanna @Kyronix @Bleak EJ (Endless scripter) anccounts should have NEVER been able to get drops and should have been MANY more restrictions on it. If y'all actually opened your eyes, and took a look at what the accounts are being used for, you would/should be able to see that the whole idea was an utter and complete waste of time! 90%+ of the accounts are being used for nothing more than scripting, multibotting and "unattended" tasks. The best thing to do at this point would be to just "pull the plug" on the whole concept. Heck, at this time, there are EJ accounts on scripts doing everything from running "rails" picking up eggs, to multibotting  in dungeons and EM events, and everything in between. 

Face it, the "Endless Journey" was just a bad joke, and a complete waste of time. I have a suspicion that "New Legacy" will end exactly up the same way. What are we, almost 5 years into it, with pretty much ZERO to show for it? I suspect that IF (big if) y'all are still trying to cram it into being "unveiled" for the 25 Anniversary, what we get is something that is unplayable, and so bad, that it will further tarnish the name of UO!!! That's almost 5 years of "work" that COULD have gone into working on the production shards, with perhaps a chance that y'all would have actually taken proper action on the cheaters/scripters/gold sellers. Instead of allowing them to run UO into the ground!! 

keven2002

I agree that EJ accounts should not be getting drops from Destard.

The way this thread is going though... IBTL

Merus

Rather than barring EJ accounts from getting drops, I would rather see some other alternative that limits them… 

I posted in another thread about combating scripters with a drop cooldown… something like 120 seconds without a potion and 60 seconds with a potion.  You wouldn’t stop building credit for a drop during that time, the drop would just come after the cooldown.

If something like this was in place to combat scripting, you could presumably increase the cooldown for EJ accounts, maybe to something like 480 seconds.  A regular account without a potion could get a max of 30 drops per hour whereas an EJ account would be limited to 7/8.

Just one alternative to completely excluding real players who might be player EJ from the content.

Arroth_Thaiel

keven2002 said:

One other possible solution to also implement would be to remove the ability of EJ accounts to receive drops. These players/bots should not be allowed to "cash in" on this event when they aren't paying a subscription.

I pulled this out of your other thread keven, as I didn't want to derail that thread further.

Changing EJ probably needs to have more nuance, as Merus suggests.

UO is now running a hybrid, subscription+, business model.

$10.00 /month = sub
$0.00 /month = EJ

However
$14.99 = High Seas & EJ
$19.99 = Time of Legends & EJ
$19.99 = Storage & EJ
$19.99 = Character Slot & EJ

You can very easily get to a $75.00 EJ account, without the in-game store. Even HS and ToL would put you at a $35.00 EJ account. Those people are definitely paying customers. Some of them at the level of a physically boxed AAA title.

For reference
$45.00 = Star Citizen starter pack
$30.00 = Elite Dangerous
$30.00 = Red Dead Redemption 2
etc...

You start upgrading an EJ account and you want to be treated as a paying customer pretty damn quickly.


I loved seeing a couple of my EJ accounts get drops at previous events. Having said that, if EJ has come to the point where non-upgraded accounts are being used primarily by veteran players to boost themselves, yes, it's time for a change.

Pawain

I'd like to know if these same names and armor have been playing the whole time.

If it's the same toons they are attended by a player which is irrelevant whether they are EJ or not.

I have 3 large monitors.  I could have them divided to have 2 to four accounts on each monitor. Then be watching TV and playing another game. While attended.

Yall from the stone ages.

Lord_Frodo

Pawain said:

I'd like to know if these same names and armor have been playing the whole time.

If it's the same toons they are attended by a player which is irrelevant whether they are EJ or not.

I have 3 large monitors.  I could have them divided to have 2 to four accounts on each monitor. Then be watching TV and playing another game. While attended.

Yall from the stone ages.

Having all those monitors does not make you as fast as EJ Bots or EJ multibox accounts no matter what you think.

KHAN

Keep in mind that "some *cough* A LOT) of those EJ accounts are/could be able to "auto/script" heal the player on the "main" account to keep him/her alive (using the illegal clients/scripts. As such they shouldn't even be allowed in the dungeons in the 1st place! Or perhaps, here is a wild idea, ban the EJ account, along with the paid account "using" them when they are caught scripting!

Norry

Khan you can do the same thing in EC, while also attacking nearest hostile, ready whirlwind, then attempting another bandage use. You can loop repeat that macro 40 or 50 or a 1000 times.

The only thing EC cant do is use auto follow.

Pawain

They do ban EJ accounts if they are unattended.  But all those heals can be done by modding EC from what I have read here.  EC can pick up Easter eggs as you walk by them.

Some of you do not understand what a computer can do when someone knows how to use a client.

Arnold7

Sorry to see these accounts are being abused.  They, I believe, are intended to bring older players back into the game, and considering the number of returning players I meet think they are successful in that respect.  As a newer player I used one of these for about the first six months and found it quite useful.   No way I would have committed to a $10 subscription fee after a two week trial which is what the game used to have.  Storage limitations make EJ impractical once an honest player advances to the point they actually get anything worth selling.  Maybe, make EJ accounts drops account bound since they can’t have vendors anyway.  Let them get most of their gold from looting and sales to npc’s.  Don’t like that, I am guessing, mostly players that have been getting around the rules for years are abusing EJ accounts. But to get more players interested in playing, UO  needs these accounts.  Just saying your game is more difficult than others does not sell games anymore.

McDougle

This isn't hard.  limit them to Haven, no drops of any kind. problem solved.

Pawain

McDougle said:

This isn't hard.  limit them to Haven, no drops of any kind. problem solved.

If it was a problem these haters just hate. You or they can not tell which accounts are EJ.

McDougle

Pawain said:

McDougle said:

This isn't hard.  limit them to Haven, no drops of any kind. problem solved.

If it was a problem these haters just hate. You or they can not tell which accounts are EJ.

Irrelevant really the point of EJ accounts was to replace the old trial accounts and entice veterans to return they can decide to  re-subscribe  from Haven it offers a taste of everything the game offers and a taste is all free accounts should get 

Arnold7

Spent a lot of time in New Haven.  First character especially because had no idea where else to go to find killable stuff.  Pretty sure you can grand master all fighting skills in New Haven. Maybe enlarge area to Trammel on Fel. surface areas to make player vendors available.  For example, a mage can’t complete a Spellbook in New Haven.  You need to kill other mages, which I found quite exciting actually, to get 5th thru 7th circle spells, or buy a book from a vendor.
To be honest getting the spells for the book was like a quest and what I thought was required to get them.  I traveled around killing mages and Liches until I got what I could from them.  It was the kind of challenge most games I played provided to new players.  Got all 5th through 7th circle spells that way.  Bought 8th circle spells from a vendor.  Anyway, limiting where EJ can go does not sound like that bad of an idea.  Lots of other games limit new players to specific areas.

McDougle

Arnold7 said:

Spent a lot of time in New Haven.  First character especially because had no idea where else to go to find killable stuff.  Pretty sure you can grand master all fighting skills in New Haven. Maybe enlarge area to Trammel on Fel. surface areas to make player vendors available.  For example, a mage can’t complete a Spellbook in New Haven.  You need to kill other mages, which I found quite exciting actually, to get 5th thru 7th circle spells, or buy a book from a vendor.
To be honest getting the spells for the book was like a quest and what I thought was required to get them.  I traveled around killing mages and Liches until I got what I could from them.  It was the kind of challenge most games I played provided to new players.  Got all 5th through 7th circle spells that way.  Bought 8th circle spells from a vendor.  Anyway, limiting where EJ can go does not sound like that bad of an idea.  Lots of other games limit new players to specific areas.

There's an arena if they want to try pvp..

Merus

EJ accounts were not meant to be trial accounts, they were meant to provide a free to play option for UO that lacks a few of the subscription perks (housing, additional storage, etc).  There is just no way for playing only in Haven to really do that.

Like everything in UO intended to benefit new or retuning players, it can be abused by vets.  Solutions to problems should be about finding balance, not just throwing the baby out with the bath water.  Playing on a paid account should be more rewarding that botting on an EJ account.  Then no one on a paid account would need to complain about an EJ account getting something they couldn’t.  This aim can be accomplished with good content design without the need to ban EJ accounts from participating.

vortex

Norry said:

Khan you can do the same thing in EC, while also attacking nearest hostile, ready whirlwind, then attempting another bandage use. You can loop repeat that macro 40 or 50 or a 1000 times.

The only thing EC cant do is use auto follow.

Or control movement of the player

Arnold7

Always wondered what the arena was for.  Thanks.

Seth

When it comes to seasonal event, paid subscribers need to have 2x or 5x higher chance of getting a drop than an EJ player. 

What is point if any EJ can macro to 120 magery, med and Eval Int in a few days, then stand at one place 24 7 to spam EV like popps and then asking for summons to be dispel resistant. 

Mages summon is overpowered, abused by EJ and must be banned for event.

Superfrog

Seth

If a master account has at least one paid sub, it should not have any EJ.

Each master account should only have one EJ tied to 1 credit card.

So to get 10 x EJ for multi boxing the cheater need to have 10 credit cards on file, and pay 10 x annual fees. 

keven2002

It's as simple as this: EJ accounts should not be able to receive "Treasure of" drops. To my knowledge they haven't been able to receive them in previous events (at least I never received one on my EJ account) so this event would be no different. This is probably the reason we didn't see so many scripter piles in any other dungeon.

They literally turned the EJ drops off on day 2 so it's not like they "can't because of spaghetti code". Just re-instate the damn code and make things right. What are they afraid of? The non-paying EJ accounts are gonna stop using their free accounts?? Come on. 

The Dev team has mishandled this event from the start and the result is that this event is 100% geared toward the free account base which makes no sense. This is just one a several viable solutions that could potentially improve the experience of the paying customers; why they would not consider it (or even communicate why they will not) is beyond me.

Merus

It’s possible that EJ being turned on this time is deliberate and connected to being able to turn in eggs in addition to dungeon drops?

McDougle

Honestly we can keep debating all the ways it's broken until the cows come home but the ultimate failure here is the developers total lack of communication and willingness to admit to any issues.....

Jepeth

Where exactly did they tell us that EJ drops were turned off?

It was not in Kyronix's posts nor on the MOTD. 

CovenantX

Merus said:

It’s possible that EJ being turned on this time is deliberate and connected to being able to turn in eggs in addition to dungeon drops?

 EJ accounts were able to get drops in Hythloth during the previous event as well.

 Not sure why the devs activated it for EJ accounts, but the newsletters list of suspended/banned accounts (multiboxing & unattended macroing) are probably going to be exceedingly high next month and the month after....  If we get a newsletter of course.