Thief harassment in Britain crafting area

[Xeng]

Greetings all,

I am a crafter and I am wondering when does it count as harassment, if a naked thief makes you stop crafting.

My problem is, in order to make Slayer weapons you have to be in the Britain crafting area and there is no way to protect yourself from a naked thief who wants to grief you, even though if you are active and watching your crafter all the time.

I can make tinker boom boxes and stack them in each other, but all the naked thief does is to die a few times and come back ( this one guy died 4 times to me and than stole a bow ).

My crafter is in no way a PvP character so after they steal from me they can run away and stealth and I can't do anything against them.

Even if i manage to kill them, or the guards ( who aren't really helpful ) are killing them, they have nothing to loose as they are naked with only bound items.

They can unhide me all the time and even if i unhide them in return I can't do anything as they aren't grey yet. If they stole from me before and they are grey, they can simply run away and as my crafter has no range or any pvp skills ( just like me ) they can always restealth.

The other problem is, when I am using a crafting perk they cost me a lot of money. Using high magic wood is very expensive and extreamly dangerous to craft there, now with the 10% less resources used and the higher exceptional rate, it costs me a lot of money as well to craft them somewhere else, in addition I am missing out to get this uber slayer/exc/vanq weapon.

I could everytime I craft something good, put it in my beetle or port home, but that is not worth it for just normal slayer crafting and with UOSteam steal makros they can grab them as well quite easily.

So I have no problem if I got stolen once in a while, but they are comming back over and over and they are taking everything. Basically my only way to protect myself is to stop crafting. There were some naked ones who were camping there for over 3h and bragging about that they can outwait me. Sure I can do something else, but my main goal here is to be a crafter. And in my eyes this is griefing and has nothing to do with RP or good gameplay. I would hire my PvP friends to protect me, but they can't do anything if the thief does not touch them.

 

[Ludwig]

There are already a disturbingly low amount of thieves on this server. I can't remember the last time something was stolen from me, it was probably 2 years ago. Stealing is not harrassment, sorry to say. I would recommend leaving and returning after a little while once they've lost interest. Or do what I do and recall/bank as soon as you get a slayer (I've accidentally resmelted waaaay too many katanas). If you can't recall fast enough, hell, pick the weapon up (without releasing your mouse click), run all the way to the bank, and drop it in there.

Just saw your bit about not wanting to beetle/recall it. Honestly, dude, you can drop off a slayer at your house in under 10 seconds. Literally. Don't be lazy.

 

[Blaine the Gypsy]

I'm a thief, but I'm not a town thief. Even when I'm on my crafter it is pretty annoying to be jacked by streakers. The typical set up is to have their other character there to quickly loot what was stolen off their corpse. Which in my eyes is abuse of multi-clienting. You'll never catch my thief in the crafting area unless I'm stealing stuff back for other people who can't do it themselves. If people get jailed for res killing thieves over and over why can't a thief get jailed for being a repeat offender to a single target? Making it a totally personal situation.

 

[Xeng]

@Ludwig I have to admit you are right that there aren't many thiefes. But from time to time there is someone who will target you and force you to stop crafting, as everything you do does not protect you from him beeing able to steal from you. Happens to me roughly about once a week and I spent most of my time in UO crafting.

Recall takes some time and having a thief behind you wanting to harass you he has enough time to steal the item while you recall. Combine that with an easy to set up UOSteam macro and it is even better. He only has to watch you recall or unmount hits one button and your item is gone.

And as stated before I have no problem when I am loosing a crafted item from time to time to a thief, that is my tax to the brotherhood. But getting repeatetly target by the same thief, until he either has all your items or forcing you to stop and than beeing told he can wait longer than you, that is griefing in my eyes.

 

[SidX]

My suggestion would be to have a second account logged in with a character who can attack, like an archer or mage, with long distance ability. Also get tracking and detect hidden so you can follow and reveal the thief when they try to run away.

Or, an easier solution would be to have greater explosion potions and chase them down while throwing pots at them, killing them that way. No skill points needed for an attack skill.

Unfortunately this is just part of the risk vs. reward in crafting in the Britain crafting area. There are benefits to crafting there, like the slayer weps and also less resource usage, but those come with the risk of being exposed to thieves, etc.

IMO, bannable or punishable griefing would be more along the lines of somebody explicitly preventing you from having any enjoyment in the game by recklessly targeting you in particular in an effort to ruin your gameplay experience. In this case a GM would just tell you to come back later or craft somewhere else.

Good luck!

 

[jkg8787]

UO is essentially a grief-based chat-simulator.

As for the guy above talking about "abuse of multi-clients", welcome to free-shard UO.

While I can empathize with OP it's kinda trammy to want to be able to craft items and be left alone. Honestly this will come off as "victim blaming" but I feel like OP is very heart-on-the-sleeve kinda guy and seems emotional and therefore manipulable. If you acknowledge to people in UO that you are upset with them and the things they're doing, you've green-lighted them and are now the sucker being reeled in on their fishing rod.

One side is having fun, the other isn't. Where do you draw the line? I watched a player few days ago drag liches down to Bard table at least 5 times in span of a couple of hours. Nothing gained from the action. Simply killing new/returning players to stop them macroing and prevent their training. Seems like a huge waste of time, bad for server health (driving new players off) and just really stupid and petty. It's also basically "classic UO player gameplay" and therefore entirely not surprising to me.

 

[Nappaca]

People.say lack of theirs I must gather theirs no matter I am in brit they find me. I see like five or six per day

 

[Firecrest]

Stealing is a terrible skill

I just craft on one account and have my archer on another. or just come at another time.

 

[Xeng]

Okay seems that you guys think that is not griefing and I should use another char to kill him, thanks for your advice.

And I don't have something against stealing and don't want it to become a safe zone, just that someone can force you to quit crafting annoys me. Using crafting perks seems extreamly risky.

 

[MadNezz]

As for the guy above talking about "abuse of multi-clients", welcome to free-shard UO.

back during the sweet spot of official UO i had 4 paid accounts with 10 dummies to hold stuff on or try things out that might get me banned. Multiple accounts is as old as UO itself.

But this is fel rule set shard. Thank God. So @Xeng as much as I love your bows, u might need to take a few more precautions, many which were listed above.

And did you move your shop to the rune you have located on your home floor? I went there and the bows were pretty much empty. At any rate I hope you figure out a solution that works for you!

Thieving is a great skill, its just most people that don't know where to steal or think wbb stealing is fun ruin the reputation for most thieves, granted I don't have a thief anymore, I did run into a thief at a daemon spawn on my BArcher and my power/exorcism/eminently accurate xbow was dropped to my pack as i either cast magic reflect or recall and he stole the bow. I was like...damn i hate that I lost that bow, but that was a *good* steal.

 

[ee am Dat]

Can't steal from pack beetles. just store your valuables on a bag on the beetle

 

[Nekronos]

Xeng has moved his shop to the City of Avalon Market in the City of Avalon East of Minoc, straight game north from House of The Rising Sun Casino.

 

[MadNezz]

Xeng has moved his shop to the City of Avalon Market in the City of Avalon East of Minoc, straight game north from House of The Rising Sun Casino.

Yes that is where the rune brought me he had locked down in his old shop. Cant wait till he has all his stuff unpacked/moved in. He alone will bring you my business.

 

[MicMatty]

I recently made a post about harassment and according to a game admin pretty much there is no limit to anything unless it is outside the game but if we look at the actual rules of the paid version to what jkg8787 said dragging mobs over could be a punishable offense if I am reading this correctly "If your sole purpose and intent in any action is to continually upset, aggravate, or otherwise annoy another player, you may be a "grief player." Using game mechanics to cause grief to others can also be seen as exploitation, and will be treated accordingly by game staff."

I will also like that add like someone else I don't get why some say there is a lack of thieves I cannot count how many times I've been stolen from and seen many on a daily basis

and another note about these thieves macros and scripting should not be allowed it is crazy how quick things can be taken from you like there was a time I was buying a poisoning skill scroll as soon as I saw it hit my bag I hit recall and as I was recalling a guy pops out of stealth and when my screen loaded at my house scroll was gone like no way he would of been quick enough with out a script .

 

[MadNezz]

but if we look at the actual rules of the paid version

Unfortunately this is the flaw in your statement

 

[ee am Dat]

Use a beetle. /end

 

[MicMatty]

Unfortunately this is the flaw in your statement

Haha I get that lol I was just saying that it sucks in the sense that these are actual rules but not shared here.

 

[Darkarna]

Stealing is a terrible skill

I just craft on one account and have my archer on another. or just come at another time.

Why is it a terrible skill? Because you have fallen victim to it yourself? Live with the fact that it is a part of the game and has been since the dawn of Ultima Online. Player killing is considered terrible by some, folks lose all of their stuff when they die *unless it is blessed*, there are also players who join guilds specifically to loot chests or murder folks internally, there are people who lure pets away and instead of asking for a ransom they just let the pet rot without asking for a single penny.

Nearly every single person I have spoken with who has made a thief pretty much echo the same comment about the thief class :

"This is some of the best fun I have ever had in Ultima Online" even those who have never made a thief in a decade of playing have said "Why didn't I try this sooner?"

What annoys me is the entitlement folks feel they should get, already there are zones which prevent stealing completely and when there is a spot which provides the possibility of advantages regarding crafting but there is risk involved, then lets get the pitchforks and torches out.

The thief is here to stay, like it or lump it, deal with it.

Terrible skill, pffffft, I have never been able to work out how folks can spend years of their life chopping at virtual pixels to get virtual piles of more pixels, to then convert those into more virtual pixels with the hope of getting more virtual pixels to sell for... yes you guessed it... MORE virtual piles of pixels... What a time waste.. But making a thief? Get guard whacked 50,000 times, see an item of value, set the plan in action and attempt to steal? Guard whack, x-ray vision NPC's, harder to steal in populated areas, can't attack anyone who is blue for fear of being kicked out of the thieves guild, one week and 48 hours of login before you can even start stealing from blues, stealing successfully permanently turns you grey, the ridicule of so called 'champions of good', massive nerfs and the list goes on. Oh and to those who will probably think "But you lose nothing" In certain situations, this is correct, in others, sorry to say you do not have a single clue what you are talking about.

I have met in my time, some of the most intelligent and creative players who use the thief class, forged long term friendships with thieves who honestly, I could trust more than the vast majority of other folks who play your generalised classes.

Stealing is only a terrible skill if you misunderstand and try to connect the principles of stealing with the real world. The skill was made to use in this way, if it wasn't then it would have been removed way back in the beta-days of Ultima Online.

To the original poster, what I suggest is to 'give' some of your slayers to the thief. Don't engage in tickle-tackle, just give him some and not bad ones either. Gain his trust, pay him a protection fee in goods and engage in some meaningful conversation. You will be surprised what you can achieve with this, if you change your outlook towards thieves, you can use them to your advantage and very effectively also.

There are ways to counter thieves, some are listed here already. The problem is not the thief but the lack of knowledge in dealing with thieves. There are beneficial ways and not so beneficial ways, some are already listed above and others well, work it out it is certainly not rocket science.

Terrible skill... PFFFFT.. Don't see many comics or movies about crafting classes, do you?

 

[Darkarna]

I recently made a post about harassment and according to a game admin pretty much there is no limit to anything unless it is outside the game but if we look at the actual rules of the paid version to what jkg8787 said dragging mobs over could be a punishable offense if I am reading this correctly "If your sole purpose and intent in any action is to continually upset, aggravate, or otherwise annoy another player, you may be a "grief player." Using game mechanics to cause grief to others can also be seen as exploitation, and will be treated accordingly by game staff."

I will also like that add like someone else I don't get why some say there is a lack of thieves I cannot count how many times I've been stolen from and seen many on a daily basis

and another note about these thieves macros and scripting should not be allowed it is crazy how quick things can be taken from you like there was a time I was buying a poisoning skill scroll as soon as I saw it hit my bag I hit recall and as I was recalling a guy pops out of stealth and when my screen loaded at my house scroll was gone like no way he would of been quick enough with out a script .

The way you lost that scroll does not mean a script was used. If you are being tracked and the thief has enough patience, it is easy to stealth right up to you, use the stealing hot-key and keep a very watchful eye on the marks pack. The moment the pack changes, IE something is added which was not there before, then click the item manually. If you are fast enough you will get the item nine times out of ten. In fact, it is better sometimes to let the mark cast recall since there is less hassle for the thief being attacked from the mark. Stealing weapons in dungeons work the same way.

 

[Nekronos]

I think between this thread and convo with OP he wasn't aware of the "perma gray" feature, and after uncovering that, he understands that there are several actions he can take.