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

Xris

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

Pawain

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

King_Greg

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

@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

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

Useless, useless, Useless. 

Mariah

There is news on this issue in the most recent newsletter

KHAN

@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

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

^^^^^THIS^^^^^

keven2002

@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

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

.

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

It's monday and it's still broken? 

dvvid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Currently on Cats. NO searches work. 

keven2002

@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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cookie said:

a. My shard is clearly better, it works. 

Apparently it doesn't work right now <span></span>