Last Man Standing anonymity and ganking

[Slade]

I propose the following changes for the Last Man Standing event.


1: Upon entry into the arena, each character has their name changed to "Gladiator" for the duration of the event and all guild tags hidden.

2: Each character is given the same colored robe that CANNOT be removed for the duration of the event.

3: Each character has its sex changed to male for the duration of the event.

4: Each character is removed from any previously formed party.


The stacking in Last Man Standing has gotten to be utterly ridiculous. 9 times out of 10 you'll have a group of 4 or 5 friends come in and just dump on people one by one until only their comrades remain.

It goes against the spirit of the event, which is supposed to be a Free For All down to the last man standing. It is NOT supposed to be a 5v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1v1. Until we remove, or at least severely hinder, the ability for people to form gank squads prior to the event in order to give themselves an unfair advantage over the rest of the entrants, this particular event is a bit of a joke.


I understand that you can never completely eliminate the ability to differentiate between players in a LMS event. For instance, some dexer types may be wearing a helmet whereas other people will not. If those dexers are smart, they'll remove their helmet and sacrifice the couple of AR in order to better blend in with the crowd.

I considered suggesting that everyone be polymorphed into Lizardmen or something, but I realize that knowing weapon your opponent is wielding is important for survival. I believe that the above mentioned changes will be MORE than sufficient to stop a vast majority of the cheating.



Does anyone have any thoughts as to why this would be a bad idea? I'm interested to hear some coherent arguments against it. Please refrain from pointless flaming about who may or may not suck and whether they should l2p or whatnot.

[alatar]

Also squelch all players..? Else they'll just spam their name to identify themselves. I don't really do events anymore, but I understand the problems with the LMS event.

[DrFaustus]

I'm tempted to make some similar suggestions for CTF, as to reduce targeting and the like.

[Slade]

Also squelch all players..? Else they'll just spam their name to identify themselves. I don't really do events anymore, but I understand the problems with the LMS event.

I thought about this as well.

I figured though if they wanted to cheat by announcing themselves, at least they'd have to do it in the open and admit they're a bunch of cheating bastards.

[Flash Hardstar]

As much as I never agree with slade.. I agree 10,000% on this one. As well as alatars suggestion would be great. Theres events myself and others have just been discouraged by for these loopholes.. such as certain guilds not liking you so it becomes a mana dump from the second it starts and yer done before you can do anything.

The only suggestion on top of what has been offered which would truly make it last man standing, would possibly be not allowing the earthquake spell... Even though I liek doing it on my mage, it is pretty cheap.

In Vas Por ... You've just allocated 750+ points of damage in one spell!

This is of course, if you really wanted it to be a last man standing epic battle...

[Ronk]

Off hand, if I wanted to abuse the changes you said I would talk to my alliance via vent. At the start of the event we would all run to a corner or specific wall to identify each other.

Alternatively, we'd just all wear the same helmet to identify each other.

Food for thought.

[Hoots]

Off hand, if I wanted to abuse the changes you said I would talk to my alliance via vent. At the start of the event we would all run to a corner or specific wall to identify each other.

Alternatively, we'd just all wear the same helmet to identify each other.

Food for thought.

yeah, there is always going to be loop holes, but as the OP said, atleast you have to do it in the event and basically announce to all you are doing it with your actions

It is a shame that it would come to that. I dont know how hard coding the suggestions would be but they sound like great ideas. Youll never stop the cheaters from cheating but if you make it hard enough or make it so it is clear to Admin's who is exploiting the system perhaps certain players wont be able to join the events?

[DrFaustus]

Ok, so then I say to my friends in vent...Kill all the guys wearing the orc helm. Or kill all the guys stacked in the right corner.

You've just made yourself a beacon my friend.

[Slade]

Off hand, if I wanted to abuse the changes you said I would talk to my alliance via vent. At the start of the event we would all run to a corner or specific wall to identify each other.

Alternatively, we'd just all wear the same helmet to identify each other.

Food for thought.

I had considered all of that. I was originally going to suggest that everyone be polymorphed into something to make the appearances completely uniform.
But I didn't want to go to that extreme figuring people would bitch about it without any real reasons as to why.


The goal of this can't be to completely eliminate all possible angles of cheating, but we can at least make it significantly more difficult.

Personally, I think everyone should be polymorphed into an orc or something until we're down to the final two at which point their disguises are lifted and we can watch the final fight between the two last men standing.

[crabjuice]

I agree. I have to try to form alliances with atleast 2 other people before the match begins or I will definitely be one of the first gank targets of people.

[Hemperor]

I enjoy last man standing the way it is, I sign up and leave right away that way I can't be set as a last target. I go and change clothes or go get naked and icognito before it even begins.

Trick is to precast gheal to begin or just go the for guildies first, I haven't really noticed any guilds making it to the end off the top of my head and I do it quite often. I'm usually in the last 3.

[Slade]

I enjoy last man standing the way it is, I sign up and leave right away that way I can't be set as a last target. I go and change clothes or go get naked and icognito before it even begins.

Trick is to precast gheal to begin or just go the for guildies first, I haven't really noticed any guilds making it to the end off the top of my head and I do it quite often. I'm usually in the last 3.

That's because people know you're mostly terrible and leave you for the end. There is almost always a dexer in the final 3 too, does that mean they're just amazing? Or does that mean people leave them to the end because they're an easy kill?

[Hemperor]

Slade why are you so obsessed with me?

I've won quite a few last man standings and the ones i havent it was like a 20 minute fight

[Soma]

All this means is that the people in groups would grab their friends HP bars and put them to the left, and the people they want to kill on the right.

Seriously, its a nice thought, but this is UO, expect ganking. Lots of it.

[BlackFoot]

just learn who are teammates and take em out early :/ its as easy as announcing at the start of the game
'everyone gank XXX guild first!' <-- works like a charm