Old News: February 1999

The official log of the most recent UOHoC Open House chat between the players and Development Team of UO has been posted at the UO House of Commons. You can access the log directly by clicking here.

Take a trip to http://www.jps.net/bsackett/rl3/osiblues.html and click the picture to hear a rather hilarious but sadly true song about UO!

-- Posted by Balandar

There seems to be some confusion about using the “Last Target” feature available in some third party programs. This feature is not legal, as it is not something which can be done normally within the game. If you are caught using this, your account will be closed permanently.

-- Posted by Balandar

While the usage of boats in Ultima Online can be fun and even useful, we have noticed many players who are actually abusing the usage of boats. Players are blocking off coastlines and will sometimes even block off harbors. We consider boats to be blocking if:

1. They prevent access or egress to another area in the game

2. There is more than one boat owned by the same account blocking off part of a coastline, or other area.

Boats found meeting the above criteria will be subject to immediate deletion at the discretion of the GM. Boats are being looked at by the development team for changes, but until such a time, we ask that players not use boats in such a fashion.

Because I hate keeping my big mouth shut, an idea I believe might help the situation a bit can be found here.

Thalshara
 

-- Posted by PGoH

You heard right! The patch that some rouges have been dreaming of and others .. well... loathing, has finally arrived. On another Note: You can no longer learn resist in towns anymore :(, but you can have a trash barrel in your house! hehe. Oh! BTW look out for those traps in dungeons!

-- Posted by Balandar

This is a post made my DD to a newsgroup:

Keep in mind that none of these are the full blue PK solution. They
are just portions of it that we are considering.

* a way to declare yourself as "evil." This would mean that you are
red & attackable, but cannot be reported for murder (and thus never
get stat loss. But anyone killed by someone evil is unlootable by
anyone except themselves. Undertaker, and any others of his ilk, would
you go for this? Any Shadowclan orcs around who can comment?

* inability to delete murderers. This is because a major concern we
have is pushing people to red, whereupon they simply make a new
character & go on major sprees. Right now, the ease of macroing
actually works in our favor in that it's not worth it to start over
every time, for blue PKs--but if we tighten up, as we plan, then the
current blue PKs will stay blue by making newbies and macroing them
up.

* murders do not decay while a) a ghost or b) in a house you are a
friend or owner of.

* stat loss kicking in at 1 kill. Say, maybe, 1% per murder report. In
other words, well before you go red.

* Love to see some more debate on stat loss at death versus stat loss
at res. I have seen many of the vigilante types unhappy with the
notion of stat loss at death.

He also added this:

It looks like we won't be able to get the blue PKs stuff in by
February 23rd. That means it will slip to March 9th, putting it out of
the month. Hence my promise is shattered, and Big Bad Ed can stop
counting down.

Just to clarify: there will still be an update on the 23rd, and will
have the thief stuff in it. Just not the blue PK stuff.

And then he made this post:

To be honest, I am somewhat baffled.

I see a lot of alternate solutions offered that have been offered many
times before & are known not to solve anything (like
going attackable, gray, whatever, after one kill--so much for all the
vigilantes and antis now, they would all have to go away).

I see a lot of people complaining that this will ruin PvP, when in fact
it will probably make it a lot more exciting. Remember,
1/3 of the plan involves a massive overhaul of PvP warfare. Imagine
large scale warfare a la Abyss occurring within thecontext of the PvP system.

I see several people saying, "the idea of going evil sounds cool, but
you have to allow looting." In whicah se, every PK would
be evil, duh, since it means unlimited kills and plenty of reward. In
that case, there's no restriction on it. What would be the
point? It would just plunge the world into wholesale massacre. I don't
understand the logic here at all.The things to remember here:

Roleplayed killers should go evil. If they are doing it for roleplaying
reasons, they don't CARE about loot.

blue PKs are GOING TO BE RED AND ARE GOING TO HAVE STAT LOSS. Deal with
it. Blue PKs are generally
cowardly, antisocial, and childish, and they need to take theirmedicine.

There WILL be other outlets for PvP. And they will be cool.

The In Testing section has been updated with details on new features now available on the Test Center. Among these are the revamped thief system, traps in dungeons, and many more changes and additions. Be sure to check it out! We would also like to advise current members of the Thieves Guild to quit the guild before this update is published to the public servers, unless they plan to be player-vs-player thieves in the future.

And this is from In Testing:

>

• Skills
  
  
  • Stealth
    
    
    • This new skill allows you to take steps while hidden.
    • You have to be hiding when you start to use the skill.
    • The more armor you are wearing, the harder it is to use Stealth.
       
    • If you run, you become unhidden.
    • Any of the actions which normally unhides you still will.
    • The amount of steps you can take depends on how high your skill
      is.
    • You use this skill off of the skills window.
    • You cannot learn or use this skill until you have at least 80 in
      Hiding. Because of this, you cannot select it as a starting skill.
    • The skill title associated with this skill is "rogue."
       
    • If you qualify for training in the skill, you can learn it from
      thieves and thief guildmasters. Use the keyword "stealth."
  • Remove Trap
    
    
    • This new skill allows you to remove traps found on containers,
      as well as disarm other sorts of traps, such as ones found in
      dungeons.
    • This skill is used from the skills window. It will bring up a
      targeting cursor. Then target the trap to be disarmed. Of course,
      you need to be able to see the trap to disarm it.
    • The skill title associated with this skill is "rogue."
       
    • You cannot learn or use this skill until you have at least 50
      skill in both Lockpicking and Detecting Hidden. Because of this, you
      cannot select it as a starting skill.
    • If you fail at using the skill, the trap will go off.
    • Different traps have different levels of difficulty.
    • Wearing gloves will make it harder to succeed. The heavier the
      gloves, the worse it is.
    • If you qualify for training in the skill, thieves and thief
      guildmasters can train you in it. You can use any of these keywords:
       
      
      
      • disarm
      • disarming
      • remove
      • removing
  • Detect Hidden
    
    
    • This skill has gained the ability to detect traps.
    • It works just like now, examining a range around the location
      you target. As before, the range is scaled based on your skill.
    • Some traps (freestanding ones in dungeons) are invisible until
      detected, and when found will become visible to all.
    • At higher skill levels, merely coming close to simpler traps
      will result in "trap here" appearing over the invisible
      trap. Only the player with high skill will see these messages,
      though! The trap must be manually revealed for others to see it.
    • House owners and friends will be abelto instantly reveal anyone
      hidden in their house, regardless of skill level, on the grounds
      that they know their house better than any stranger.
    • The professional title for this skill is now "scout."
  • Forensics
    
    
    • Using this skill on a player will reveal their affiliation with
      the Thieves Guild, if they are members. The difficulty of this is
      based on the thief's Stealing skill.
    • If you have a certain level of ability in the skill, using it on
      recently picked containers will reveal who the lockpicker was.
    • The professional title for this skill is now
      "detective."
  • Stealing
    
    
    • The more armor you are wearing, the harder it will be to steal.
    • You will not be able to steal from other players unless you join
      the NPC Thieves Guild, or unless the target is an opponent in a
      guild war.
      
      
      • You can join the Thieves' Guild the usual way, by finding a
        Guildmaster and asking him to join. It will cost you an entrance
        fee.
      • You cannot join unless your character has existed for at
        least one week.
      • The character may not have any murders to his name.
      • Being reported for murder whilst a member of the Thieves
        Guild will result in summary expulsion, and you will not be able
        to rejoin for at least one week.
      • You cannot join the Thieves Guild unless you have at least a
        60 in the Stealing skill.
      • Members of the Thieves Guild have access to a special item,
        the disguise kit.
        
        
        • The disguise kit looks like a wig stand.
        • You can get one by asking the guildmaster about
          'disguise.'
        • It will cost you 500 gold.
        • He'll only sell them to Thieves Guild members.
        • When used:
          
          
          • You can elect to change your hairstyle.
          • If you are a male character, you can also change
            your facial hair.
          • The hair will come out gray, but you can use hairdye
            on it as usual.
          • It will also randomly generate a name for you.
          • All changes will last for 2 hours.
        • The disguise kit will only work for Thieves Guild
          members.
      • Members of the Thieves Guild do not display professional
        titles on the paperdoll to anyone except themselves, regardless
        of skill level or fame.
      • Members of the Thieves Guild can be attacked with impunity,
        because they are not allowed to report anyone for murder.
      • In towns, it is still illegal to start fights, so Thieves
        Guild members are still safe from attack, as they can call the
        guards (unless of course, they just committed a crime).
      • Just as with any guild, you can leave the guild by finding
        the Guildmaster and tellng him you quit. However, the Guild does
        not let go easily--it will take one week for leaving the guild
        to take effect.
      • Victims of thieves can feel free to attack them, as they
        will not go gray for attacking a thief who has stolen from them
        in the last two minutes.
    • There will be four possible outcomes to stealing:
      
      
      • True success: you get the item and are not noticed.
      • Partial success: you get the item, but are noticed.
      • Partial failure: you do not get the item, but are not
        noticed.
      • Total failure: you do not get the item, and your attempt is
        noticed.
    • The professional title for this skill is now
      "pickpocket."
  • Lockpicking
    
    
    • Wearing gloves will affect your success rate at lockpicking. The
      heavier the gloves, the harder it will be.
    • The professional title for this skill is now "rogue."
  • Tailoring
    
    
    • A problem whereby you could not create the item because it
      stated that your pack was full was corrected.
  • Mining
    
    
    • A bug with smelting success was fixed.
  • New skill titles
    
    
    • The professional title for Inscription is now
      "scribe."
    • The professional title for Snooping is now
      "pickpocket."
    • The professional title for Herding is now "shepherd."
    • The professional title for Meditation is now "stoic."
    • The professional title for Mapmaking is now
      "cartographer."
    • The professional title for Hiding is now "rogue."

• Magic
  
  
  • Some third-party exploits involving using items in the bank when not at
    the bank were fixed.
  • The following spells have had their channce of resist and their effect
    adjusted:
    
    
    • Mana drain
    • Mana vampire
    • Paralyze
  • Magic Trap scrolls will now be deleted after successful use.
  • You will no longer be able to report people for murder after recalling
    away.
• World
  
  
  • Items will now spawn in chests and other containers.
    
    
    • The items within will depend on the location of the container.
    • These containers will be locked, with the lock's difficulty being
      based on the value of the contents.
    • Some of these containers may be trapped as well. The power of the
      trap will also be scaled by the value of the contents.
  • Traps will begin to appear randomly in dungeons.
    
    
    • These traps will be invisible to the normal observer.
    • They can be detected with the Detect Hidden skill.
    • Players who have a high level of Detect Hidden will be able to
      detect their presence by merely walking near them.
    • Some traps may be poisoned.
  • Capability was added to have special event regions, to allow things like
    town invasions.
• Items
  
  
  • Trash barrels will be added.
    
    
    • Owners can add a trash barrel to your house by saying, "I wish
      to place a trash barrel." A targeting cursor will come up allowing
      you to place the barrel.
    • Placing a barrel obeys the same rules as locking down items in
      houses: not by the door, not on steps, etc.
    • You can only have one trash barrel per house.
    • The trash barrel looks like a silvery barrel.
    • Owners and friends of the house can put items in the trash barrel.
      Three minutes after they do so, the item will be deleted. (This means
      you can change your mind and remove items if you need to).
    • The owner of the house can chop up the barrel to get rid of it.
  • Some line of sight changes were made to prevent 3rd party exploits.
  • Treasure map changes
    
    
    • Certain treasure maps that used to be distorted will henceforth be
      created correctly.
    • The treasure is no longer necessarily at the center of the treasure
      map.
    • Finished treasure maps will now say "a treasure map completed
      by ."
    • Some bad treasure locations were fixed.
  • Sextants will no longer give coordinates. They will only give latitude
    and longitude.
  • Carving stacks of fish should now work correctly.
  • Using a healing potion will now place the empty vial in your backpack,
    instead of at your feet.
  • A problem with putting tables over chests causing items to disappear was
    corrected. As a result, you can now freely stack chests and crates.
• Creatures and NPCs
  
  
  • You can no longer avoid a deadlier poison by taking a milder one, and
    getting hit by deadlier poison when already affected by a milder one will
    supercede the weaker poison.
  • Pets now have 'orneriness' factors as far as obeying commands.
    
    
    • The harder the pet is to tame originally, the more 'ornery' it is.
      This means that it is more likely to refuse commands given to it.
    • The better the player is at Animal Taming, the more they can
      overcome the pet's orneriness. This means that those with low animal
      taming will have great difficulty in controlling creatures such as
      dragons, draken, or nightmares. On the flip side, good animal tamers
      will be able to order around easy creatures such as cats and dogs, even
      when they are starving.
  • Human NPCs will now immediately delete items they scavenge from the
    ground, rather than hanging on to them for a while. This was done because of
    items accumulating in the NPCs if deletion failed.
  • Blacksmith Guildmasters should now give the correct guildname when you
    join their guild.
  • Wandering mages and Mage Guildmasters are now able to teach the
    Meditation skill.
  
   

Hail worthy adventurers! Dost thou think thou hast the metal to brave the foul dungeons of Britannia? Dost thou wish to prove thyself to the world and show thou hast what it takes to survive the most evil and treacherous of places in this world?

If so, then come one, come all, to the first Tour of Britannian Dungeons! A seven day event hosted by the Defenders of Justice guilds of Catskills! Each night for a week, starting March 1st, a single dungeon will be toured every night, starting with the more "tame", and ending with the most vile of dungeons!

What is the goal? To clear out these foul lairs of evil from entrance to end! What are the rules? NONE! If you survive, you survive. If you die, you die. The only condition is, if you reach the bottom of the dungeon alive, you get a free gate home!

What's the schedule?

Monday -- Despise
Tuesday -- Covetous
Wednesday -- Shame
Thursday -- Wrong
Friday -- Destard
Saturday -- Deciet
Sunday -- Hythloth

Warriors, mage, archers, rogues, healers... ALL types are invited to come! Be ye of small skill or a veteran of combat, fun is to be had on all levels depending on the dungeons you choose to go to! What about player killers? WHAT ABOUT THEM? They are free to attempt to ruin our fun (as if we could stop them by saying "no, stay away"), but do they dare face 100 combat ready veterans? Do they dare face the onslaught of rage against them when they attempt their nefarious acts? We shall see...

The tour will begin at 7pm Eastern Time on Monday, March 1st! Meet at the telescope in Moonglow (Catskills), where gates will be provided to that night's dungeon by the members of the Defenders of Justice guild.

All tour participants are asked to join the chat channel "Dungeon Tour" so better coordination is possible.

-- Posted by PGoH

•  
• Trash cans will be going in as a house addition.
• Increased measures will be going in to reduce the "blue PKs" problem.
• The Abyss shard will become permanent, with numerous enhancements.
• It will be possible to set the client to use an 800x600 game area.
• Difficult pets will become more difficult to control for those who do not have apprriate levels of animal taming skill.
• The thief changes discussed in Comments from the Team will go into effect. Among them:
  •  
  • Traps will spawn in dungeons.
  • The Disarm Trap skill will be added.
  • The Stealth skill will be added.
  • You will not be able to steal unless you are a member of the Thieves Guild.
  • A disguise kit will be added.

   

• Recalling will clear your aggressor list. This means you will not be able to report murders after recalling.
• New tools were added to give our interest GM's the ability to run city invasions, and in general conduct more interesting events.
• It will be possible to declare public buildings to be guard zones.
• Interior lockable doors will exist.
• Dart boards will work.
• A ballot box will be added as a craftable item, so that players can run votes and take opinion polls.

 

-- Posted by PGoH

The Guardians of Light have opened their tower doors, and revealed to the public a grand Tavern, and training center. There is a fighting ring, blacksmith shop, bar, giant rune library, dining hall, and much more. There are two grandmaster blacksmith vendors, and several other high quality vendors soon to come. In addition to the rune library is runes to all of the player run establishments such as Kinship, Wrong Tavern, Dragon Lair mall, and many more.

All citizens of Brittania are welcome as long as they behave themselves. The Tavern is located south of Trinsic after exiting the south gate of Trinsic. The Guardians of Light spend most of their time at the Serpent's Hold bank, and most of them would be honored to give a gate to the Tavern.

Be warned: The Shadowclan orcs have been known to frequent the Tavern, and when they get drunk, brawls have been known to break out. Roleplayers are welcome to come and fight and drink and have fun, anyone else will be banned immediately for bad behavior.

You can find screenshots, and directions(including maps) on the news section of the Guardians of Light ultima Online webpage.

http://www.guardians-of-light.com/UltimaOnline.asp

Thank you,
Jasos, Guildmaster - Guardians of Light

-- Posted by PGoH

The official log of the most recent UOHoC Open House chat between the players and Development Team of UO has been posted at the UO House of Commons. You can access the log directly by clicking here.

UO Portal is up and running with a growing and comprehensive list of UO-related sites. The pages load quickly and they have a very intuitive and easy-to-use layout. Defnitely pay them a visit. Find new sites or get your site listed there, but be sure to visit!

-- Posted by PGoH

The next UO House of
Commons Open House chat between the players and creators of UO is
scheduled for next Thursday February 11, at 7 PM CT (5 PM PT, 8 PM ET).
The chat will be available to you at #uohoc on href="http://stratics.com"target="_top">Stratics IRC, on one of three
networked servers:

•  
• irc.stratics.com, port 6667 (randomly selects one of the below IRCservers)
• csdd.stratics.com
• csdd2.stratics.com
• intworks.stratics.com

This week's topic is "Combat". We will be discussing the recent changes to
the combat system, such as the Anatomy skill damage modifier, damage done
to Armor by Mace weapons, Meditation (are mages really unstoppable now ?),
the importance of Stamina in combat and the upcoming changes to Evaluate
Intelligence vs. Resisting Magic.

-- Posted by PGoH

Housing and furnishing changes
The one-room house which ramdomly changed appearance every time you tried to place
it no longer does so.
Holiday trees and ornaments are deleted. Holiday tree deeds are unaffected, but are
disabled until the holiday season next year.
You can no longer deed a locked-down holiday tree.
You can no longer attempt to pick the lock on a secure container.
The "large smithy" has been renamed to "large house with patio."
Significant lockdown changes were made. Lockdown is no longer done with keys.
Instead, it is done with spoken commands. These commands work only for the house
owner.
"I wish to lock this down" gives a targeting cursor and does basic lockdown.
"I wish to release this" gives a targeting cursor and unsecures and releases the
object from lockdown.
"I wish to secure this" gives a targeting cursor and locks down and secures the
object if it's a container.
"I wish to unsecure this" gives a targeting cursor and only unsecures the
container. It does not release it from lockdown.

For some time now the Dev Team has been developing a plan to further reduce antisocial behavior in Britannia. The first stage of these plans is tackling the problem of rampant thievery. Today we're presenting our plan for both reducing the amount of player-vs-player theft, and making the rogue a more viable profession. We hope to see much discussion of this plan amongst the players of Ultima Online.

Creating the adventurer rogue
The thief is a classic roleplaying profession. However, the thieves in Britannia do not tend to conform to the classic mold. Our desire is to strengthen the role of the adventuring rogue so that those who seek an outlet for playing thieves may do so in a way that does not damage the experience of other players. Therefore, half of our plan actually focuses on making rogues a more powerful and interesting to play.

New skills
The Detect Hidden skill will gain the ability to detect traps. This will work on dungeon traps as well as chests trapped by tinkers. It will function just like now, with a range around the location where you are looking based on the skill of the rogue. At higher levels, simple traps may be automatically detected just by coming into range of them. Another new skill will allow the actual disarming of these traps. This skill will require that the rogue have a certain level of ability in both Detect Hidden and Lockpicking to be able to even learn the skill. Another new skill, the Stealth skill, will allow movement while hidden. This skill will likely require a high level of the Hiding skill to even be able to learn. The addition of these skills without raising the skill cap will give more depth to the rogue profession and increase variety among player characters.

Opportunities to use these skills
Dungeons will become a more dangerous place with the addition of traps that will appear randomly in various locations, including on doors and just on the floors, when appropriate. These traps will be invisible except to those who have the ability to detect them.
New sorts of traps will likely appear, expanding the range beyond just explosions, poison and damage. Expect traps that suck mana, that cause drunkenness, or that affect stats temporarily in a manner akin to the Clumsy spell.

In addition, chests in dungeons and elsewhere will begin to fill with items appropriate to the location (for example, crates in the miner's guild might well fill with ore and ingots, whereas chests in the dungeon will generate treasure and magical items). These containers, naturally enough, will be locked (with locks of difficulty based on the goodies contained within) and perhaps also trapped.

We are aware of the concerns that many players have that dungeons will be untraversable without the assistance of a rogue. We will be striving hard to reach a good balance point so that rogues are highly desirable yet not absolutely necessary for dungeon adventuring.


Armor restrictions
Hiding, Stealing, and Stealth skills will all be affected by armor restrictions. This will work similarly to the restrictions put in place on the Meditation skill: the overall armor worn on the body will affect your success rate. Lockpicking and Disarm Trap will be affected by the use of gloves.

The true thief
Thieves' Guild
The flip side of these changes is that we will be tackling the problem of the player-vs-player thief, henceforth referred to as the PvP thief. Those who do still follow this profession will be selected for their skill and dedication to playing the role of a thief and con artist. To this end, we are flatly disallowing the use of the Stealing skill on other players, unless the thief is a member of the NPC Thieves' Guild. Lord British has granted a charter to this guild to exist, but for the sake of retaining royal favor, the Guildmasters of the Thieves' Guild have placed tight restrictions on their members.

Requirements
To join the Thieves' Guild, you will be required to meet several restrictions.
First, your character must have existed for at least one week. Brand-new characters will not be accepted, for the Thieves' Guild feels that given its tenuous standing as an official guild, only moderately well-established thieves should be members.

Secondly, your character may not have any murders to his name. Only those who have no murder count are accepted into the Guild. The Guildmasters feel that killers ruin the reputation of the Guild, and jeopardize its acceptance as a legitimate guild of Britannia. For this reason, being reported for murder whilst a member of the Thieves' Guild will result in immediate summary expulsion, and a ban on rejoining for some period of time.

Thirdly, you have to be a good enough thief. This will likely require minimum skill levels in several different skills such as Stealing and Snooping. Dilettantes and throwaway characters need not apply; the Guildmasters wish to have only the most qualified thieves in the business working for them.

It is possible that membership in the Thieves' Guild will require ongoing fees.


Attackability in town
Membership in the Thieves' Guild is not public; people will generally not be aware that you are a thief who may PvP steal. This is a good thing, since as part of their bargaining with Lord British, the Guildmasters have surrendered the right to report others for their murder. If you are a thief, you can and will be killed with impunity, and no repercussions shall result for the killer, because you will not be able to report them for murder.
In towns, the proscription against starting fights still applies, so even Thieves' Guild members will be safe from random attack, even if everyone knows of their affiliation. An attack in town is still punishable by calling the guards.


Forensic evaluation
Alas, the Thieves' Guild does have an enemy, and it is the tireless detectives who have mastered the skill of Forensic Evaluation. Those with this ability will be able to focus their deductive powers on people and determine whether or not they are truly what they represent themselves as, or whether they are members of the Thieves' Guild.
The recipe for the successful Thieves' Guild member is thus the role of con artist. They must seem innocent so detectives are rarely prompted to investigate them. We strongly suggest that thieves acquire an extensive wardrobe and copious quantities of hair dye, so that they may frequently change their appearance. Use of the incognito spell is also advised. The successful thief will be the one who acts in all ways like an innocent player of some other profession, exercising their thiefly abilities in secret, and changing identities often. Fame will be anathema to the good member of the Thieves' Guild, because if their cover is blown, they will likely perish several times over. They will have to lull others into a false sense of security, and choose the most appropriate times for their theft.


Leaving the guild
Like any NPC guild, you can quit by finding a Guildmaster and telling him that you quit. However, the Thieves' Guild will not let go easily. When you join, you are not allowed to leave the guild for one week.

The "provoker-thief"
One of the typical techniques of the thieves that exist today is that they steal from you in order to provoke you into attacking them and thus acquiring an aggressor flag. Then they kill you and loot your corpse, knowing that as an aggressor you will be unable to report them for murder. However, this tactic will no longer be feasible under the new Thieves' Guild system. For two minutes after stealing, the member of the Thieves' Guild is freely attackable by anyone in the area including his victim-not even an aggressor flag will apply to those that attack him.

Guild wars
Players participating in guild wars will still be able to use the stealing skill against opponents, regardless of membership in the Thieves Guild.

Additional changes
Detecting hidden in houses
As a benefit to those struggling with the problem of thieves hiding in their houses, the Detect Hidden skill will instantly reveal anyone hidden in your house, regardless of where they are and regardless of your skill level. Owners and friends alike will have this capability, on the grounds that they know their house and its hiding places better than any stranger.

Theft changes
We will be reviewing the success rate for stealing, and changing the way success is arrived at. There will be four outcomes to an attempt: success in getting the item and nobody noticed (true success), success in getting the item, but you were noticed, failure to get the item but nobody noticed, and lastly, failure to get the item plus people saw you try (true failure).

Forensics
The Forensic Evaluation skill will also be able to determine who has recently picked locks on locked containers.

A final word
This is only the first step in our plans to reduce antisocial behavior in Britannia. The next area we will tackle is the existence of the so-called "blue PKs," those players who finesse the reputation system to murder without taking the consequences of their actions.
-The UO Dev Team