Shard Status Update / Staff Changes

This last week has been a challenging one for the staff and I wanted to take a moment to make a statement on what we discovered and the steps we are taking to make sure it does not happen again.

Staff Changes
As some of you are aware in the last week we were forced to let a few of our staff go for violations of our staff policy. There had been some breeches of protocol that had come up over the previous weeks that I was working to address (training, methods, etc). During a player run event on the evening of the 13th two of our staff (Seers) took issue with the actions of a group of PvP'ers. They took some unacceptable actions, which were immediately noticed, and in accordance with our staff rules were immediately removed from their positions as seers. The players involved were all contacted, apologies were given and the situation was resolved. For a brief moment we assumed that would be the end of it. The following day our normal database analysis ran, and I began a brutally long week of irl work.

Fast forward to Saturday. A player reported some oddities in some of our item detail pages and an additional analysis of the world items was run. The results were staggering. Apparently unrelated to the events that resulted in their termination one of our staff had decided to stock a small hidden house with unlimited riches. There was some plan in place to quit as staff on the 13th, request their normal accounts back and resume an existence on the server as players, very very rich players, but players. As one of the staff was literally so new that his empty accounts had not been official closed. Between the 14th and the 20th this player began to transfer his "created" wealth to his old accounts. The other staff member created a new account on the 15th and was "gifted" a great deal of goods. During this time two notable purchases were made publicly that raised some eyebrows.

Thelax sold several houses, contents included to a player for a staggering sum. Gossow also sold a patio house outside of cove to the same player for an equally staggering sum. By Saturday we realized something was abnormal and began digging.

After a few hours of research we had determined the scope of the problem and traced 99.9% of the items to their current location on the server. Frantic steps were taken to remove these items from the world before they entered the economy. Thankfully due to some assistance from GM Treasureman tracing items and Gideon Jura with website research we were able to find and remove 99% of the items that were created.

Note: To be clear every item a staff member touches, creates, alters or sneezes at is logged in the database.

At this point we had a decision to make. We could work overtime to undo these actions by the staff in question or we could revert the server back to the 14th when the items were contained in a single location. After hours of discussion, database review, log review and a bunch of coffee we were satisfied with the removal of the created items was successful. This however left us with the Thelax and Gossow situation. Neither of those sales should have happened as the currency used to purchase the houses was not earned and should not be in the economy. After hours of discussions we were able to convince Thelax and Gossow to undo the sales, accept their houses back in exchange for the currency and items they were given. In Thelax's case some negotiation was required as he sold a house full of items complicating the situation. In the end however the alterations to the economy were undone and the currency/items deleted.

Note: Their sale threads will be locked and a link to this thread included. Those sales should be ignored when appraising the value of related houses.

Research will continue throughout the week to make sure that every single alteration made by this staff member is rolled back. However we are confident that 99.9% of the changes have been undone and the situation contained.

In the end this is a situation that is my fault and I accept responsibility for that. I allowed a staff member that I trusted to vouch for and train someone who had volunteered for over a year to be his replacement as a Seer. I trusted that his training would be detailed and the rules followed. When there were warning signs I attempted to train the staff member in question myself. However it seems the restrictions we place on staff here were too much and a plan to return to playing was already in the works almost as soon as this player was given their green robe.

Going forward there will be a complete freeze on any new gamemaster level staff. Additionally a new rule will be added that anyone who accepts the position of gamemaster will forgo not only their accounts, but their ability to return to the server as a player in the future. The temptation to "gift" yourself a future stash must be removed to avoid situations like this.

For the players affected by this situation we will be providing a special platinum statue to apologize for the situation. As for the staff we are still reeling from the betrayal and their lack of concern for the server and its economy. Having someone you trusted and spoke with daily for several years turn their back on the project is a sobering experience. However as the owner of the server I will always choose our players and the world they live in over any personal relationship.

Normally we respect our former staff for the breadth of their work even if they cross a line that results in their termination. In this case these two staff members have been blacklisted from the server. Including IP bans, IP blacklisting and Forum account closure. Thankfully our players have been very understanding through this process and we can move on from this ugly situation and take steps to make sure it never happens again. We will not tolerate corruption on UO Renaissance. Period.


Patch Development
Progress on the next patch is going well, outside of the delay that the above situation caused. The Clean Up Britain system and the Moat Decoration system have entered limited player testing and are being polished for release. Coding work is still in progress on all the new rewards, the reward store and other minor details. Some decor work is still being done on the other moat styles (swamp, Pond, void, etc).

The Dragon's Den level 7 dungeon is 99% decorated and the dungeon itself will begin open testing within the next week or so. It is slated to be included in the next patch.

Patcch 75 will include the Clean Up Britain system, Moats and the Dragon's Den Dungeon.

Patch 76 will most likely be a hotfix/maintenance patch to address any issues that are discovered with patch 75 given its complexity. However we will be introducing a new Seer system that is being built on top of our existing counselor system. As you can see from the staff changes our foray into Seers with gamemaster level security access went very wrong. However this leave us with limited support for our role playing players and the events they enjoy. To address this we have worked extensively with our RP community to determine the basic features that they need in order to run events with little to no staff assistance. By allowing a few trusted players a counselor account (very very limited). And then adding a special tag we can essential create limited green robed seers.

These seers will be a counselor with a few special abilities.
- They can turn on/off spawners that have been pre-marked as a "seer" spawner.
This will allow the staff to work with our role players to prepare their events long ahead of time. But allow the players in question to run the event according to their schedule, not staff availability. Since the spawners are pre-tested there is no issue with a volunteer turning the spawner on/off as needed to complete their event. A variety of protections will be placed to avoid abuse of this utility. (Toggle timer, duration timer, etc)
- They can turn on/off regions that have been pre-marked as a "seer" region.
This will allow the staff to prepare a region for an event that the seer can turn on/off as needed for their event. Including things like a region with an enter/exit message. A region with travel restrictions to suit the story in question. A region with a npc alliance allowing for an attacker/defender everyone is orange flagging mechanics. Similar protections will be put in place to avoid abuse.
- Seer accounts will be immortal and able to morph into a variety of looks in order to progress the story line as needed. Their interactions with the world will simply be to assist players with progressing events without the need for online staff. For each event the resources provided will be pre-tested and approved by senior staff.

Patch 77 will include our planned changes to guilds, factions, and depending on our workload the Carpentry BOD expansion. The complete scope of this patch will be annouced once we finish with 75/76.

I believe Gossow will be posting it for sale again soon. So you will have a fair chance to bid on it.

Hybrid Order/Chaos/Faction/Non Faction guilds. Ability to switch between factions and keeping your faction score. Ability to switch factions based on a timer when you join, not a time that starts when you decide to leave. (And much more to try to give players the tools to organically balance factions themselves).

Also we have some planned additions for faction rank as well. Including something very special for high ranked faction members. (commander, etc) Which will generate more interest in taking part. (faction ethereals, rank limited faction clothing)