"Guaranteed" Gain System bugged ?

Victim_Of_Siege

Seth said:

popps said:

Mariah said:

@ popps please re-read the linked page, with particular attention to this paragraph:

The chart below may be used as an estimate of the amount of time that may need to pass (after multiple consecutive skill-use successes without skill point gains) before a character will see a raise of 0.1 within the noted bracket due to GGS, and NOT how long it will take to pass through the whole bracket. Please note that these time periods are not to be used as an absolute rule, but instead as a general guide-as the saying goes, “your mileage may vary.”

and these statements:

UO’s basic skill gain operates as a “use-based system,” and each time a character successfully uses a skill he or she has the possibility of gaining in that skill – sometimes the character will gain skill, other times not.

GGS tracks each successful use of a skill, and whether or not skill points were gained in the wake of that success. If no skill points are gained over a given period of time, then GGS will award the character a minimum skill point gain as compensation.

GGS affected by the difficulty of the task: The most noticeable difference between GGS and previous skill gain systems or incentives is that gains for skills that score in the 90s, for example, are not only possible during normal or casual play, they are guaranteed-provided you are successfully performing your skill in or around your current skill level.

The whole point of GGS was to compensate for the frustration of training without success. It was never intended to replace training in entirety. It can't track successful use of the skill if you're not actually using it.
Also you might want to re-think your target and attempt to find something less easily tamed, where the ball of knowledge gives the message 'optimal'.

In regards to the 1st argument that you raise, I have a hard time to understand that the times indicated in the Table might be estimates, rather then precise times and I say this, because usually, software code is done with numbers, thus making things pretty "precise", rather then "estimated"....

What I am trying to say is, that if it was decided that after X time that a player had the last succesfull skill gain, the server would "Guarantee" another skill gain, well, that is a number inserted in the code, I would imagine,,, in my example, the 6.6 hours which, I need to understand, means 6 hours and 36 minutes....

That is, if my character's last succesfull skill gain was at 00:00 , that would mean that, at 06:36 or any time after that server time, if my character did a skill check of that skill, I would receive a skill Gain, "Guaranteed"....

But, even if we wanted to take into account the "estimated times" argument, I could accept the "Guaranteed" Skill Gains to be off of a few minutes, and not half an hour or more, as it DOES HAVE happened to me when, sometimes, it took me almost an hour of trying non stop, PAST the 7 hours from the last skill gain (thus making it like 8 hours lapsed, and thus, way in excess of the required 6.6 hours...).

As in regards to the second argument which you raise, the “use-based system” being only a possibility for a skill Gain.... well.... wouldn't that totally defy the definition of a "Guaranteed" Skill Gain mechanics ?

If it is Guaranteed after X time from the last gain, to me this means it is guaranteed when that time as lapsed, and not when that time + additional Y or Z extra more time was to lapse...

That, to my viewing, would totally defy the entire concept of a "Guaranteed" skill gain....

In regards then to the third argument which you raise, the difficulty of the task, well, aside from taming Bulls (together with Ridgebacks) being recommended to be "the" tameable to use all the way to 120.0 animal taming skill, along side with using the Taming Combat Training Mastery, as I have said, I DO get gains using Bulls or Combat Training (both reported by the Crystal Ball of Knowledge as being "Very Easy" in regards to skill difficulty) at the very 1st skill check after the 6.6 GGS timer has lapsed so, I need to think, this skill difficulty does not matter otherwise, I would not get, ever, skill gains at the very 1st skill check past the 6.6 hours timer....

And rightfully so, because, in my book "Guaranteed" means what it means, "certain", "realiable", "100%".... if skill difficulty was to be factored in, then, such certainty would cease to be present and the "Guaranteed" Gain System would be far from being guaranteed at all, me thinks.

Furthermore, as I mentioned already, if skill difficulty was to be a factor, then it would be inexplicable why I still get, occasionally, skill gains at the very 1st skill check past the 6.6 hours using those same Bulls and that same Taming Mastery.... I should not get those gains, if the Very Easy difficulty was to cancel out my chance at a skill gain...

My argument being, that either a Very Easy skill difficulty can grant a skill gain, or it cannot, and, sorry, I cannot accept the argument that it can but, only, with a lower chance... NOT, when it comes to GGS....

I can accept the argument that a Very Easy skill difficulty can lower the chances at a skill gain "outside " of GGS... but what I am saying is, that GGS should by all means TRUMP skill difficulty if it wants to mean "Guaranteed" Gain.....

What I suspect is, that probably this might be the mulfunctioning of GGS.... that is, the regular code for skill Gains factors in skill difficulty but, when GGS was coded to "Guarantee" to players skill gains in X time, for some reasons, it was not coded to have GGS "trump" the skill difficulty condition and award a Gain only, and exclusively, under the "timer" condition and nothing else with the timer being dictated by the skill level and the total of skill points that the character has....

@ Kyronix , could you, perhaps, kindly have a look at this and please fix it, thus making GGS truly a "Guaranteed" Gain System and not the unreliable mechanics that it now seems to be ?

As in regards to you closure point, and that is that it was not intended to replace training in its entirety, well, to my viewing, GGS makes sense to be used only at higher levels of the skill, past 100.0.... for below that level, players would still prefer, I assume, to do it in longer logged in stretches, perhaps using Alacrity scrolls, if they have them or can afford them...

I see no "evil" at all in GGS being used to train up a skill at higher levels.... certainly, MUCH better, to my opinion, as compared using AFK macro scripts.... not to mention, that as I explained in a post above, with numbers, even using GGS gains, it still takes MONTHS to train a skill from 100.0 to 120.0 .... I see totally nothing wrong with this and it offers to players who do not have too much time to be logged in UO, or who do not want to cheat to train up their skills, a valid and viable alternative to reach 120.0.

If it worked reliably and consistently, that is, and that is why I made this Threat, to try capture the attention of the the Developers to then please fix the current unreliability and unpredictabilty of the "Guaranteed" Gain System which is, at the moment, anything BUT "Guaranteed ", to my opinion.......

This world record long post... 

@ Kyronix have mercy... just give him the 0.1 skill gain and spare us... the torture

Don’t give in, stay strong!  

Victim_Of_Siege

Pawain said:

He admitted he is using too easy of a task. GGS is working, but not how Poops wants it to work.

Condense all this to. 

In my view GGS should work no matter how easy the task is.  That's the way I see it.

Lots less typing.

Even less typing required

Mariah

I think this thread has gone as far as it realistically can.