Ghosting spawns - so...?

[Hoots]

I think the fix would be rather simple. But before, define the problem.

There are valid reasons for parking a ghost in a dungeon, or at least I hope there will be with the addition of faster burn of counts, but that aside, the real issue is wholesale and constant parking of a ghost at popular hunting locations for risk free PK recon.


It's not 3 accounts, or even an argument about era accuracy. The fact is that the hunting locations in UOSA is severely camped in a way that poses no risk to the 'campers'.

So, in my opinion, there should be a 'parking limit' on locations at a dungeon. Once ones parking limit expires, regardless if they are macroing or now, they simply get teleported just inside the dungeon's entrance.

That way, the player still remains in the dungeon however they just can camp at a location for ones ALT to come in and rape other player’s kills.

It's not much different than the 'help stuck' button and it is a simple and elegant way of addressing a highly abused valueless and risk free tactic.

How would/could this work?

1. I die to Blood ele and am trying to run around and get a res and i *poof* to the entrance now with no chance of getting back to my corpse?

2. As people have said, with razor having a ghost walk in circle or even having them walk a LONG loop around dungeon rooms is very possible. Hard to program against that.

Era accuracy is going to be a big problem in fixing this.

Regardless of how you feel about three acounts per person, when Derrick talks about not removing runebooks bc of the time players have put into them... to got to removing developed chars is now about 10000000X the time put into runebooks...

Dont know if this is possible or not... (i think this was mentioned earlier). Move 15 char slots to 1 account. 1 account limit. (Pain in the a$$ for mods as people who share lans and homes are now pleading on a case by case basis and also this would be a pain to monitor for abuse..)

15 chars on 1 account would solve a TON of problems.... I can think of 20 things i do with 3 accounts that i never did on OSI... Just house security alone changes without having an alt to open doors for your main... This would have hundreds of impacts. Nealy all would make the game harder... That is probably a good thing.

[Derrick]

I'm having a hard time understanding how on a server with 400-600 clients logged in, that this is an issue, and is causing people not to be able to find a place to hunt, when on OSI in 1999, with many thousands of people on a server it was not that hard to find a good spawn to work?

[Hoots]

I'm having a hard time understanding how on a server with 400-600 clients logged in, that this is an issue, and is causing people not to be able to find a place to hunt, when on OSI in 1999, with many thousands of people on a server it was not that hard to find a good spawn to work?

I think the reason we have ghosting is because we have 400-600 clients on the shard.

Chicken/Egg???

On Osi you never ghosted a mare spawn bc you knew very soon after a mare spawned multiple tamers were trying to tame it. Here, you can park accounts with the sole purpose of being able to see a spawned mare, stop whatever you are doing and go tame it.

another example

On Osi you knew big loot monsters would be camped. (Bloods, Balrons, etc.) With a low player Pop a PK can have a tough time finding prey. This was NEVER the case in t2a.... So you have 5 ghosts on 1 account that you log into checking high end monster spawns for bards/farmers. Find someone and get your pk ready as you watch with their ghost and wait for them to get enough loot to kill...

In other words... I dont think ghosting prevents PvM.. It provides a huge advantage for PK'ing and guilding. It provides a huge advantage to tamers. It is free.. On Osi chances are if you were paying out of pocket for a 2nd account it wasnt to move a ghost around. Im sure some used this feature but nowhere near the extent it is being used on UOSA.

[Biohazard]

I'm having a hard time understanding how on a server with 400-600 clients logged in, that this is an issue, and is causing people not to be able to find a place to hunt, when on OSI in 1999, with many thousands of people on a server it was not that hard to find a good spawn to work?

I don't think thats the issue so much.. It's BS when someone sits at a spawn and makes a bunch of loot.. .then just as they're about to top off their pack with all kinds of gold, jewels, magic weps... here comes a PK.. but not by chance.. but because he sat there and watched and waited for them to fill up so he could come jump the guy with his guild boys for (alot of) easy loot. There is no risk for a ghost sitting in a spawn.. There is also nothing in place to curb this behavior so why not do it? I would rather kill one guy with the loot of 30 dragons (pre-sifted good loot mind you) than kill 30 dragons.

[Hicha]

Honestly, I don't see how it's an issue earlier. I actively use two accounts, so if I used a third one to ghost spawns, thats 5 ghosts for 5 spawns. Not very much ground I can cover considering there are dozens of great farming spots.

Also, isn't there a 5 minute logout delay between switching chars, considering they aren't camping or logging out in an inn/house? So I'd check one ghost, log out... wait 5 min... log in to the next ghost? Very inefficient if you ask me, and if someone is willing to spend that amount of time just to see if I'm at a spot or not, more props to them.

Or you could just play the same game they do. Create your own ghost, park it in your farming spot, recall in when the spawns up, bag the loot, and be back in town waiting for the next spawn if you're so worried about getting PKed. You'll even be able to see other ghosts log in, so you know someone's checking up on you.

Seriously, a good recall macro, some pots, magic reflect up, trapped pouches and less QQ are the best way to avoid getting Pked anywhere.

[orionsune]

I'm having a hard time understanding how on a server with 400-600 clients logged in, that this is an issue, and is causing people not to be able to find a place to hunt, when on OSI in 1999, with many thousands of people on a server it was not that hard to find a good spawn to work?

I don't think thats the issue so much.. It's BS when someone sits at a spawn and makes a bunch of loot.. .then just as they're about to top off their pack with all kinds of gold, jewels, magic weps... here comes a PK.. but not by chance.. but because he sat there and watched and waited for them to fill up so he could come jump the guy with his guild boys for (alot of) easy loot. There is no risk for a ghost sitting in a spawn.. There is also nothing in place to curb this behavior so why not do it? I would rather kill one guy with the loot of 30 dragons (pre-sifted good loot mind you) than kill 30 dragons.

Get clever... I noticed someone placed a ghost in the Lich Lord Room of Deceit named "PK Ghost In Here", and when he sees a red ghost, he tabs in so everyone coming to the room knows there is a PK ghost watching... Of course i'm sure he's not always online to do this. Maybe others can do the same at different spawns...

When I see the ghost tabbed in, I still grind, I just stay on my toes and bank more often... but sure enough, they show up shortly after... to no avail since I either recall quickly from being more aware, or they hardly get jack off my corpse from my frequent banking.

[grimey]

5 minute log off time and you think ghosting is viable?

you people need to get over your fear of dungeons.

recalling around is MUCH faster with a group as i stated earlier.
i think you are trying to make excuses for your inability to escape from a pking attempt.
so what if a ghost is there? keep your reflect up, pop a gate if it opens or recall immediately. if not possible, run, teleport, stone wall, get clever.

this should not be such a contentious issue.

[Biohazard]

5 minute log off time and you think ghosting is viable?

you people need to get over your fear of dungeons.

recalling around is MUCH faster with a group as i stated earlier.
i think you are trying to make excuses for your inability to escape from a pking attempt.
so what if a ghost is there? keep your reflect up, pop a gate if it opens or recall immediately. if not possible, run, teleport, stone wall, get clever.

this should not be such a contentious issue.

like I said i'll be here playing either way. merely stating a point.. dont confuse me for mr quitsy please

[Hoots]

5 minute log off time and you think ghosting is viable?

you people need to get over your fear of dungeons.

recalling around is MUCH faster with a group as i stated earlier.
i think you are trying to make excuses for your inability to escape from a pking attempt.
so what if a ghost is there? keep your reflect up, pop a gate if it opens or recall immediately. if not possible, run, teleport, stone wall, get clever.

this should not be such a contentious issue.

I think you are missing the point.

Ghosts arnt meant to be comm crystals that no one can see or pick up... While some may not like ghosting bc of the reasons you listed (harder to escape a pk) most see it as a bigger problem.

If you want to surprise a farmer right after he loots his 4th LL then get a stealther and do it. (thats what i do). Then you face the risk of being revealed, or attacked yourself...key word *risk*... you know... what t2a is supposed to be all about.

Is information a resource? How far of a stetch would it to say ghosting is unattended resource gathering

[grimey]

Ghosts arnt meant to be comm crystals that no one can see or pick up... While some may not like ghosting bc of the reasons you listed (harder to escape a pk) most see it as a bigger problem.

the pk still has to recall in, disrupt you effectively and kill you, yet you think a ghost is the problem?

i think you need to work on your escape arts sir.

[Biohazard]

Ghosts arnt meant to be comm crystals that no one can see or pick up... While some may not like ghosting bc of the reasons you listed (harder to escape a pk) most see it as a bigger problem.

the pk still has to recall in, disrupt you effectively and kill you, yet you think a ghost is the problem?

i think you need to work on your escape arts sir.

its really not that hard to disrupt and kill someone.. especially with wands and multiple pk's

[grimey]

so the problem then is murderers, not ghosting.

[Hawkins]

If it was just one PK ghosting one spawn on his third account, and having to wait 5 minutes to log each one in and check, it wouldn't be a problem.

When it's a guild of PK's using multiple accounts to watch multiple popular spawns at no risk to themselves from their keep, then it's a problem.

Give them some risk to balance their reward, and I think people will be a little less worried about it. Part of the risk of PK'ing is not knowing whether you are going to find a solo farmer or a guild of anti's. Farmers can't farm on a ghost, PK's shouldn't be able to scout on a ghost.

[Ronk]

If it was just one PK ghosting one spawn on his third account, and having to wait 5 minutes to log each one in and check, it wouldn't be a problem.

When it's a guild of PK's using multiple accounts to watch multiple popular spawns at no risk to themselves from their keep, then it's a problem.

Give them some risk to balance their reward, and I think people will be a little less worried about it. Part of the risk of PK'ing is not knowing whether you are going to find a solo farmer or a guild of anti's. Farmers can't farm on a ghost, PK's shouldn't be able to scout on a ghost.

Hence why I believe the problem isn't really the ghosts or pks, but the number of accounts. In essence, a farmer could ghost spawns also. The problem is, people should not need to run several accounts at the same time to compete.

[Biohazard]

so the problem then is murderers, not ghosting.

uh... yea... nicely drawn conclusion