IDOC advice?

[Hrafn]

During the years i have lost 7-8 houses stapped with items and goodies, because quitting and not paying the upkeep. My own fault for sure... but i recently thought about foraying into the Fine Art of IDOC'ing to reclaim some of my lost fortune.

Now i am rather new to this part of the gameplay and after having a minor setback camping a OSI house who just got reset, i figured to approach this art with more finesse   I downloaded TrailMyx's IDOC Finder v1.6 and voila: talk about plug and play!!! There should be a way to rate those scripts, all 10's from me at least. Luck continued to follow me and the third house checked was in the last stage of decay befor IDOC (Greatly).

I have a char now monitoring the house with TrailMyx's IDOC Monitor/Looter v1.0c  (again a perfect script: solves the job with no frills). But the competition are going to be hard, several peeps are recalling in and out checking the decay status. One peep have even done testplacement on the exact location on TC. Damn. Dont know how many hidden monitors im up against (need a char with detect i think if im going to be doing this for a while).

Now for some needed advice:

1. The time from going IDOC to it falls: Will this be exactly 16 hours or should one calculate an error margin here?

2. I have read that you cant place a new house directly when the old falls, that there are som delay now (around 15 minutes)? Could anyone verifiy this?

3. How would using two accounts from the same machine affect the scripts? Is this a no-go (rather use two machines) or is it possible?

4. Have anyone testet TrailMyxs autoplacer if the delay from question 2 is correct, will it continue to try to place even if there are a 15 minute delay after fall?

Any hints and tips are appreciated... and i feel entitled to some "love" after funding several IDOC-parties from my old fallen houses

[TrailMyx]

I feel your pain regarding IDOC losses.  However over the years and the script I've come up with, I think I've gotten my dues back..   Good luck with that.

I actually haven't done an IDOC for a while (about 6 months).  However, they had recently changed the IDOC time (last stage) to a much shorter time interval.  This is around 7 hours and is pretty constant.  However, I'm not sure these days.  Just don't be caught flat-footed during IDOC.

Personally, I wouldn't use 2 clients on a single computer for a critical idoc.  UO/EUO are CPU hogs and with the system slowed with two clients, I fear you will be out-classed by people running single clients on multiple computers.  You'd be better off running your placement script on a separate computer.

The placer should still work.  However, there is so much legacy junk in a house that may break a placement.  I'm talking about items with funky Z-axis values that don't get removed when the house decays or they don't drop to the ground.  These will then become obstacles.  If I were you, I'd try to place smaller but in a place that will prevent additional placements.  Most IDOCers are there for the loot, and the common method is to place a slab, loot the area dry and lock things down, then abandon the area.

Now what you are talking about with the 15 minutes delay is new to me.  I thought that was for when you are placing a new pad, so this prevents people from placing in your area.  I didn't think this was for the IDOC phase.  We'll have to verify that.

You should get onto test center and make sure you can use the placer correctly.  I do that from time to time myself.

[Hrafn]

You saved me there TrailMyx. Idoc time is now precisely 7 hours.

But the placement script does not work any longer, since the area becomes temporarily unavailable for placement the moment the house drops. But i kept at it and repeatedly placed a smaller one (there was some competition from a guild) and after 30 mins i was able to place a small plot blocking the area (will exchange that for a bigger size when thing calms down).

The loot was extremly meagre ... i got 75 bottles and 2 arcane gems... but i got the house. Yeah!

Anyone knows how many attempts you can do with the housing tools before you become unable to place. I got a cool down period where i was not able to plce at all midway in there...

My first idoc!!!

[Xclio]

Idoc fall time is 6 hours and 52 minutes if you wanna get real exact.

Yes there is a timer after a house collapses that prevents you from placing in that area for a period of time.  This timer varies form 15 minutes to 2 hours.

If you have a higher end machine that has multiple cores and enough ram then utilizing multiple accts and scripts is very feasible just make sure your computer can handle it without hesitation

Unfortnatly I was able to have experience with TMs placer both before and after the timer changes.  It worked wonders before the changes unfortunatly now it doesn't really work in your benefit anymore as you can't place upon the fall of a house.

[TrailMyx]

I can probably change the smart/repeating placer to be more compatible with the way things are these days...

[Xclio]

yeah it could be modified to handle it but it still wouldn't really help much in regards to looting which is the reason most of us are there   By the time you could place and loot the area dry there wouldn't be anything to loot anymore lol.

[TrailMyx]

Well some of the more populated shards are still contentious for placement.  If you just put it up and run it in a VM, you can just forget about it while you do your looting.  If it places, then great if you are really looking for a home.

The bright side is that RunUO still uses the old way.  A good reason for leaving EA/OSI!

Really, it's kinda stupid that they now dis-allow placements when the house drops.  It seems to me that this solution only creates more of a need to script the placement since one might not want to sit around for 2 hours waiting for things to place.  Yet another dumb idea from OSI that creates another need for automation.  Kudoz. 

[Xclio]

Totally agreed, unfortunatly the cool down of the house placement tool is a PITA but I am sure there is a way to time it out so that it would never hit the cool down stage but dunno never messed with it. 

Yes there is still alot of people after placing on Great lakes but fortunatly I am not one of them lol.  Only thing I could care about placing would be a Castle or Keep lol.

[TrailMyx]

I'd love to place another castle somewhere, and that's the fun part of the whole placement thing.  If you play your cards right and place a sub-sized pad with hopes of upgrading, then that's something that might be fun to do regardless of the stupid new rules.

BTW, how's the return to UO going, Xclio?

[Xclio]

Not too bad, starting to get into the idocing with my old team again and mostly training up chars and revamping old ones lol.

[Hrafn]

Hmmm... there seem to be more changes in decaying time than just the time of the actual idoc period.

Ive been monitoring a house now from slightly to fairly. The somewhat worn period lasted approximately 37 hours and 38 mins. Are the time for fairly worn and greatly worn periods about the same as the somewhat worn period?

Actually i tought the total decay should not take more than 5 days in total, according to the uo playguide? And that this was a major change from the previous 14 days decay time?

[Wilk]

Nice thread. Answered three questions I had regarding idocs.

[TrailMyx]

Well we are pretty much IDOC sluts around these parts. 

[Xclio]

The time in a stage varies fromtime to time but usually Fairly will last less then somewhat and Greatly will last less than Fairly, and thus idoc which is the only one that really matters lasts for 6 hours and 52 minutes