AFK check seems wonky

[Ceara]

There have been times I would fish and fish for a few hours, did not get an AFK check box at all. Same goes for mining ore. Chopped trees for two hours one day, not one AFK check.

Then last night when all the GMs seemed to be goofing off with silly songs and what not (after the Rick Roll incident), I received an AFK check during the time I was chopping trees, talking in PM for about an hour with someone, and occasionally in global chat. Seemed like my presence would have been been noted considering that I was using other things on the system as well as gathering resources and an AFK check should not have triggered. Someone using an unattended script would not be chatting in PMs.

Today I went to a spot to get ready for sand mining to make glassblowing deco for my house. I logged off game, intending to log back in later after doing r/l stuff and then get back into the mining. As soon as I logged back in, the AFK check appeared. The AFK check should not pop up right after log-in like that in my opinion. After all, how can someone be using an AFK macro when not logged in game? Makes no sense.

Now don't get me wrong, I 100% support the concept of AFK checks. But it doesn't seem to work properly.

[fingers]

It checked me while i was chopping a deed deco in my house the last time. I would not be worried about the afk check as I am sure staff would know if they are facing a big afk ressource gathering guy or a guy who missclicked the gump. I also sometimes get afk checked at the same time a petrified elemental chooses to appear. Having to choose between giving the answer to the gump or running away, choice is not too hard to make;-)

[Ryslock]

Looks pretty much random to me.

I've done marathons of resource gathering and not been able to guess when the check is coming. Pretty often there is no check even over hours of mining/chopping - it's the possibility of the check that stops the full afk-macroing, you know the chance to be caught automatically is fairly high considered over 6-12 hours.

Had +Mercury stalking me in person for a few days before when I was rebuilding my mining books, kinda missing the visits now.

[+Chaos]

I think we could arrange something Ryslock

[+Colibri]

Well, actually you can't predict when it's coming. After you successfully pass some checks it's meant to be bothering you less, though it may still ask you again in 15 minutes. If you miss a check, it will start from scratch, meaning you will probably checked much sooner.

The major problem right now is that it doesn't check you while you're killing things, the reason is because if that gump pops up while you are about to die, it can cost you your life. I have already solved the problem of how to check for AFK with a less obtrusive method, i hope it's something i will be able to implement this summer.

[Tael]

I think the AFK gump works pretty well. Often I don't get checked for hours while mining, but it seems that when I do inadvertantly mess up (for example, if I forget to shut down when I go to work, or fall asleep at the switch), I do get nailed, which is fair enough

Just out of curiosity, though, what's the timer on the gump? I always assumed it was ten minutes.

[+Colibri]

Yes it is 10 minutes, i think it says on the gump as well. Or actually it says "you have x minutes remaining".

The AFK check when killing monsters will however probably be 5 minutes or even less.

[Tael]

Or actually it says "you have x minutes remaining".

Ah, I never noticed that. I'll watch for it next time. Thanks.

[May]

I got to 120 fishing without a single gump... I didn't think there was even a fishing check! I also only got one gump for mining from the time I started up to this day and I have 115 mining. Never got one lumberjacking but I only have 77 in that.

Personally I think the afk check should be upped a bit. Someone could easily be afk gathering with no trouble. I don't know if the system auto-jails you but if not, adding a simple go res sub into a script would be easy enough.

[Tael]

I don't know if the system auto-jails you but if not, adding a simple go res sub into a script would be easy enough.

It doesn't auto-jail you. If you get busted for inattentive mining or chopping or fishing, then your shovel or ax or fishing pole doesn't work for X number of hours, but you can still do other things.

[May]

So basically one could just afk gather their hearts out until they get caught that first time? Not to jump to conclusions but considering how some people like to do whatever they can to amass gold, I think it is likely that people have done this.

Hopefully accounts at least get flagged after offenses. Afk resource gathering is a bad bad thing and I would like to see people get more than a slap on the wrist for doing it.

Maybe this is why some people don't think twice about paying over 100k for a single ED

[Tael]

I believe this is in the rules. If you get caught afk too often, you get banned. So no, you can't afk gather your heart out.

[Atropa]

When I first started on this server I would get AFK checks quite often, the longer I have played and the longer I have mined or lumber-jacked the less I have gotten.
That said I do not afk gather either, but on occasion I have had a GM pop in on me while I'm mining or fishing, always a good thing to make sure someone has not found a way around the afk check. Course thats not to say it does not take my sleep deprived brain a moment or two to even understand that there is a robed guy or girl trying to say hi
The check is not wonky, not really, it is random and then after a bit stops checking so much, sometimes I get this freak desire to just mine or fish or LJ and if I have insomnia at the time also which is not uncommon I'll do one of them for almost 24 hours straight. ( Yes thats when I stock my vendor!)
I have gotten killed via an afk check though, not all mining spots are safe! So I would really not want one of those things popping up while I'm hunting but I think its a good idea to have something that can check to see if we are afk, though preferably it would be something to see if we are talking in open chat or PM's etc so nothing distracts up from that paragon balron running up to smack us.