Insta autostable exploits/bugs (separate thread made due to volume of issues)
A ) for the pet to be autostabled at the same time the character logs out (meaning unless you log out in a friended house, inn, the character remains in game for 5 mins, as should the pet before being autostabled)
B ) for the pet to be retrieved from the stables upon log in (this is
currently the case anyway if you log out when dead, however if you get
resurrected and log out/in a second time, the pet actually appears next
to you again which it shouldn't)
C ) for the current autostable system to not apply to non bonded pets
Exploits/bugs:
1. many players exploit the system to simply log out to prevent their pet from dying (normally when they themselves have died, especially players without the veterinary skill) Veterinary skill has had the ability to ressurect pets at 80 skill ever since bonded pets were introduced, if pets or mounts were not supposed to die, they would not have hit points or be attackable, and would not be made ressurectable. By allowing players to do this, it is discouraging team play, EG Sampires have no reason to invite a veterinarian with them to kill bosses or pvpers have no reason to invite veterinarians with them to champ spawns. resolved with adjustment A )
2. Players are able to summon their pets to locations where pet summoning is not allowed. When the crystal balls of summoning were introduced, the developers carefully planned which areas summoning of pets would be allowed, and not. Areas where pet summoning are not allowed include active champion spawns, ilshenar, Eodan, all ML dungeons, and the Great Stygian Abyss. The pet summoning is bypassed by simply claiming the pet from the stables and leaving it at that or any location. Travelling to the prohibited summoning area and logging out and in. In the case of shadowguard - the Belfry, the challenge is to ring the bell, kill the
drakes, collect the winged feather to get you onto the platform. The
dragon at the top of the platform will occassionally push the attacker
off the platform, and you must ring the bell and kill more drakes to go
back up. However tamers again can bypass this mechanic, when their pet
is pushed off the platform, the character will simply remain on the
platform, log off and on and the pet is up with them on the platform
again.
resolved with adjustment B )
3.Players are able to use their pets when they are dead without any recourse to themselves, Example, if I command my pet to kill players/mobs, and those players/mobs kills me fair and square, my pet will remain attacking the players/mobs who killed me, however if the player/mob tries to defend themselves against my pet, i can simply allow my pet to continue to deal damage the players/mobs until my pet is very low hit points then just log out. Effectively making my pet invincible. With pets now having around 75-80 in all resist and around 700hp and continuing to hit area spells in an enclosed area such as an idoc or the despise island, and dealing such high damage, this is a serious issue. The exploiter can then simply travel to a nearby safe location, ressurrect themselves and log out and in to retrieve their pet, bypassing the requirement to have the veterinary skill or an elixir of rebirth to res the pet resolved with adjustment A )
4. When pet summoning balls were introduced, they went through extensive PvP tweaking and testing after feedback from PvPers. The end result was when summoning a pet with a pet ball, it takes a few seconds and
the process is interruptible even under the protection spell. You
receive a cliloc that reads "You have been disrupted while attempting to
summon your pet!" So you can prevent someone from summoning a
pet in pvp, however you cannot interrupt someone logging out/in to
summon their pet. resolved with adjustment A ) or B )
5. Again as part of the extensive summoning balls testing, an end result was that while you're
hidden/stealthed, if you attempt to summon a pet using a pet ball of
summoning, your character reveals, however players can again by-pass
this mechanic by simply logging out and in to summon their pet to their
location and remain hidden. resolved with adjustment B )
6. The developers and testers went through great effort to design the crytal ball of summoning and the quests to obtain them and the powder of translocation that charges them, and the number of refills each pet ball of summoning can hold, right down to the weight of 10 stones for the cystal being carefully considered. However players again can by-pass the requirement to use these charges by simply logging out and in in order to move their pet from any location. resolved with adjustment A ) or B )
7. If you lose
connection/crash, your character will continue to defend in game by
swinging the weapon/parrying, a tamer's weapon is his pet, during power
outages it's very annoying to log in dead because the pet did not
continue to defend as it was instantly autologged out on disconnect. If the pet continued to guard the player until the player fully logged out, this would help. (If a player managed to regain power/connection within the 5 minute window, the player would then not have to reclaim the pet from the stables on login and also would be less likely to log back in dead). Also if you have summons or magically controlled creatures by dryad allure or command undead, the insta autostable may be making the summons disappear on logout/conloss/crash, - this can be quite irritating if you've travelled a long distance to control a creature. resolved with adjustment A )
8. Only bonded pets are supposed to travel with a tamer if they recall/sacred journey, to transport non bonded pets you must gate travel. In many areas such as Eodan and Ilshenar, gate travel is not permitted, so part of the game challenge is supposed to be to tame a creature and transport it from its current wild location to the safety of the stables (or use an instant bonding potion that players purchase from the origin store). However again players can use the autostable system to bypass this, by simply taming a creature, recalling to a stable, logging out and in and the pet is with you at a stable. resolved with adjustment C )
As a general comment, logging out of the game and back in should not be a legitimate tactic to deploy in a game.
Comments
I dont find any of all of this gamebreaking. None of this benefit to the point of breaking mechanics or breaking the game, its just a safe prevention to not loose any pets if you loose connection or something
People still lose pets now, even without getting disconnected or logging out.
I cant retrieve my pet or find it, so I lose a pet that could cost 500M to 1 Plat to replace.
Mervyn does not play a tamer or he would see how pets get lost often if you play UO in a way other than killing tamers at a spawn.
so..you’re in I’ll assume an ML dungeon in this scenario..
nothing stopping you from travelling to a location where you can use your pet ball of summoning.
Even adding a 60 second timer would still solve all issues, 300 seconds is just preferred as that is how long your character remains in game for after a disconnect if not in a safe location.
But to be honest I’m not really understanding why your all follow me macro isn’t working in this scenario for you to “lose” it in the dungeon in the first place. I can maybe imagine a scenario where your pet attacks something and goes off in a different direction to you. But I’m struggling a little to imagine not being able to find it? Like how far have you ran, how complex is this dungeon? I don’t know of such a labyrinth of a dungeon.
When it’s not going to affect you and it’s not for you, it’s for new (better)people.
on second thought I don't need another letter about form rules
The Queen has spoken. Please end these posts about pet log out.
Meet and Greet 9/28/2020 Great Lakes:
Watcher: one big vote for not to remove the login to retrieve pets fix
Watcher: last week was at EM event with monsters that shove you away from them
Mesanna: we are not touching that
Watcher: pet was shoved into an inaccessible wall area at gargoyle shrine
Watcher: only way was to log in and out to retrieve the pet
Watcher: in ilshenar
Watcher: so thats for leaving that in!
Mesanna: we are not changing login for pets
Watcher: awesome
Watcher: much appreciated
Mesanna: no problem
Watcher: have a great evening
@Mariah @Rorschach
Can you please remove future posts and give appropriate warnings/bans to posters who troll and repeat this topic.
Thanks
I 100% agree with Mesanna. Everyone is in agreement here, thank you.
This comment at the Q & A has no relevance to this thread.