Moongates

[Mens Rea]

Moongates used to take a few seconds before they would transport you through them.

Currently they are instant, as soon as you step on them you are transported- this is not true of the T2A era, it used to take a few seconds.

[Derrick]

I knew this happened in later eras. I don't remember it being the case in the T2A era.

Anyone else have info on this?

[Faust]

I'm assuming you are talking about the public moongate system not player casted gates?

If you are talking about the public moongates than the problem is that the moongates do not follow the moon phases. During a particular phase a moongate would essentially not work. When you would try going through it nothing would happen. If there was a delay it was awfully low. We're talking about an action delay to maybe one second.

If you are talking about player gates, there was a time during t2a where a random delay was added when going through a gate. Other than that I would have to say the same goes for this as the other. At least an action delay, or one second and no longer.

[Mens Rea]

I seem to recall being able to run straight over moongates (player casted ones, mind you) and they wouldn't take you through.

I'm just considering the absurdity of walking directly out of a dungeon and into a moongate straight to town, and when I think back I am sure that it used to take the effort of lining oneself up to the moongate and waiting for it to take effect. It was possible to double click them to travel instantly, of course, but I'm sure it used to be possible to overshoot a moongate you were trying to get into.

[Derrick]

aye. There is a slight delay here too, but it's in the order of a couple hundred milliseconds. In later eras they much extended the delay, which I though is what you were referring to. If you can't presently run though a gate, the delay is too short

[Mens Rea]

I was inferring that the delay should be extended slightly, as to allow overshooting moongates when running towards them. I am certain that it was possible to overshoot moongates when running over them.

[Derrick]

I was inferring that the delay should be extended slightly, as to allow overshooting moongates when running towards them. I am certain that it was possible to overshoot moongates when running over them.

I agree, it shouldn't be more than a second or so though as Faust said. This will be modded as soon as possible.

[Mens Rea]

w00t

Big []D [] []\/[] []D [] []\[]

[alatar]

I was inferring that the delay should be extended slightly, as to allow overshooting moongates when running towards them. I am certain that it was possible to overshoot moongates when running over them.

I agree, it shouldn't be more than a second or so though as Faust said. This will be modded as soon as possible.

does this mean that you can no longer "accidently" run into moongates..? almost had this happen to me a few times on my red when running out of destard..

[Derrick]

I was inferring that the delay should be extended slightly, as to allow overshooting moongates when running towards them. I am certain that it was possible to overshoot moongates when running over them.

I agree, it shouldn't be more than a second or so though as Faust said. This will be modded as soon as possible.

does this mean that you can no longer "accidently" run into moongates..? almost had this happen to me a few times on my red when running out of destard..

It's going to be very dependant on your lag, the delay timer was increased this morning and I run past them very reliably now, but it's a "real-time" delay, if you're lagging you could potentially still enter

[Purge]

Werent the moongates based on the moon in t2a? like you could go to minoc to moonglow to minoc again b/c of the moon?

[Faust]

Yes, Purge.

[StDrahcir]

Will the moongates at least take you to the other locations as well or just to where the "moon phase" is at?

[Faust]

It depends on the moon status at that current time in the area that you are located at. For example, at one particular time at the Britain gate it could take you to Jhelmon, while at another moon phase it can take you to the Minoc moongate. I forget exactly how long it takes to rotate phases, but I know it isn't that lengthy. I wouldn't estimate it no longer than a minute or two to do an entire cycle. I know there is a chart going around involving this topic in past shards in the last several years. I'll see if I can find it and post it in here.

Here is some info about it in a UO Guide

Moongate Lore
Moongates made their initial appearance in the single-player Ultima games. Rather than the familiar ovals of today, they were rectangles. Early UO static moongates appeared and disappeared depending on the cycle of Britannia's twin moons, Trammel and Felucca. Trammel's phase affects where the moongates appeared, while Felucca's phase affects where they transported a character.

New Moon -- Near Moonglow on Verity Isle
Crescent Waxing -- Near Britian, on the mainland just off Britanny Bay.
First Quarter -- Near Jhelom on the Valarian Isles.
Gibbous Waxing -- Near Yew in the Deep Forest.
Full Moon -- Near Minoc off Lost Hope Bay.
Gibbous Waning -- Near Trinsic, northeast of the Cape of Heroes.
Last Quarter -- Near Skara Brae on an island northwest of Spiritwood.
Crescent Waning -- Near Magincia.

However, players often would simply walk their characters through the moongate over and over again until they were able to reach their intended destination. To help improve server performance, a feature was introduced whereby single clicking the left mouse button on a moongate will gave a description of what lies through the gate, which allowed players to know where the gate was going without having to jump through them over and over again.

[StDrahcir]

I'm just worried that changing this will result in a very annoying cycle and really just become more of a time sink than something nostalgic. I just don't want this to be just another thing that makes dexxers w/ no magery basically a pain in the ass yet again. Its hard enough as it is already.

Now if I step through it from Brit and can cycle through the locations to where I want to go (like it is now) then I am fine by that. I'd hate to have to wait a 2 or 3 minutes or more so it hits that "certain" moon cycle just to hit the spot I want to get to.

Sure its just minutes, but since I don't really use magery I use moongates a TON daily.