biznatchio posted:

Originally, by using tools to manipulate the stream of data between the client and the server. The server didn't have the appropriate checks in place to ensure the integrity of the value that indicated the color of a dye tub even though the client was responsible for determining the color during creation. So you could create a dye tub in the normal way, tell the server it was pure black, and the server would just believe you on the color and dutifully put a pure black dye tub in your bag instead of a red one or whatever you should have rightfully gotten.

The weirdness of the true black color wasn't a hack. It was a special color that already existed in the UO client for some reason. It was just before true black dye tubs were created, there was nothing in game that actually had that color value assigned to it. (There were other special colors too, like one that would give your items a weird rainbow-like coloring because it applied a corrupt palette; but those obviously weren't as cool as black.)

It's events like that, and other hacks, that led Raph Koster, MUD luminary and lead designer of UO, to write a lot of the stuff he later did. "Never trust the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy." MMO servers today are a lot smarter about being highly mistrustful of anything the client wants to do, 1997 was just a simpler time.