AFK Checking during weapon leveling

[Johnny Warren]

Just wanted to bring up some thoughts whilst watching my macro level my weapon. I know +C just lost some staff, I know it's holiday time and all players and staff are likely spending some time with families. But I've done probably 100 hours of macro leveling since work finished for me in early Dec. I have not been AFK checked once... In that time I have passed heaps of players doing the same as me. Many of those players do not respond when I say hi, hello, hows it going etc. I just recalled into a char (no names... yet) who i'd been sharing spawns with for the past hour or so, and he/she was dead, at one of our leveling spawns. His/her char just sat there for yonks on his/her corpse. Either not worried that it was decaying OR they were actually AFK and unaware they'd died. In the time that I've been recalling throughout uoex massacring liches I've seen many chars who I believe are not at keyboard, or not paying much attention or just don't want to talk to me... which brings me to my point.

Any chance GM's can focus on AFK checks for weapon leveling, instead of anything else. Yes even if that means new content/fixes/page answering are pushed back.


OR

Severely increase the penalties for AFK leveling. Heavy jail time, weapon is immediately destroyed (no more impounding and second chances) and MASSIVE resource fines. ie first time offence 10m gold and 5m tokens, second offence 100m gold, 10m tokens etc and if fines can't be paid they are converted into jail time.

I would prefer option 1, but if staff cannot afford more time to police AFK wep leveling then make it riskier for players to do it, hoping that the penalties will be enough to make players not want to do it.


I personally believe this is one of the biggest threats to the economy at the moment. Unchecked resource gathering, especially gold/tokens/demon bones/wep exp is a quick way to hyperinflation. Already my pricing for level 100 weps has been driven down to the point I sell a 3x58% lvl 100 NPS for only 60ED (Yes blatant plug for my uber cheap leveled weps on Tamara in TC), to compete with all the other lvl 100 weps out there.

Am I right? Wrong? Way off? What do you all think?

JOHNNY WARREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Charon]

You're not COMPLETELY way off.
- More afk checks?

The fines you suggested are kind of outrageous as many players couldn't even come close to paying and the jail equivalent would be just as outrageous. Fines are a good idea, but they need to be more reasonable IMO.

- I like the idea that their levelling weapon goes poof! Nice idea really.

- If you suspect someone is AFK macroing, gathering, levelling etc, it IS your duty to report it.
Want to cut down on suspected breaking of rules, report people doing it. The GMs can check the logs and try to determine if the player in question was afk or not.

- 60EDS? ouch, I feel for you.

I don't believe the afkers (new word) are the reason why prices are so low. Lack of demand due to lower the average current player base is the real reason. If we all help the new players find hunting spots that they can be successful at, show them the ropes, answer questions without being total jerks that we all can be, then the new players will be the ones buying the levelled weapons.

[Johnny Warren]

- If you suspect someone is AFK macroing, gathering, levelling etc, it IS your duty to report it.
Want to cut down on suspected breaking of rules, report people doing it. The GMs can check the logs and try to determine if the player in question was afk or not.

Yeah I have put in a ticket a few times, the tricky thing is the players are likely at keyboard, and just can't be bothered responding to me saying hello. I know if I am repeatedly crossing paths with the same player I end up not bothering to talk to them either and it likely looks like we're both AFK. That's why you really need an active GM doing live AFK checks, I doubt they could just use logs to determine if the player was/wasn't at keyboard.

Also I do take your point regarding inflation and pricing of leveled weps, you are probably right about that. I guess the problem is less the weapons themselves but the masses of resources gathered whilst leveling. Each time I repair the wep I am leveling I bank between 200k and 500k depending on what I'm leveling, not to mention tokens/gems/regs/demon bones collected too.

EDIT:

Just had another idea... I know this will be contentious, but, what about automated AFK checks for people fighting. Set the criteria to something like:

Automated AFK check pops up if - Player is in Tramel Facet, Player has a levelable weapon in hand with <999900 exp, has been online for >1hr, has cast recall/sacred journey/Nature's Passage >2 times in last minute, account age >3 months.

The check could be a gump with a question that needs to be read and answered (to make it hard to macro the check). Gump pops up on side of screen to avoid people losing sight of their toon and dying. You have 20 secs to type the correct response or you go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, your weapon is impounded pending investigation.

I know this idea will be harsh for non macroers and younger/less geared players who still have some risk involved when fighting.

[Fist]

I ran into someone running a macro while farming Travesty keys. They ran it for hours unattended. This is becoming more and more of an issue IMO.

[Chronos69]

I have a ticket open since 6 days ago.
A report of an afk player. Still waiting for an action or a response.

I made ticket after that one and got responded. One of them even suggest me to report those players. So, for some reason, the staff is not doing anything against afkers, but they are online and doing other staff work.

[Opopanax]

I ran into someone running a macro while farming Travesty keys. They ran it for hours unattended. This is becoming more and more of an issue IMO.

That's where I've noticed it more lately too, getting keys. I've reported anyone I've seen not responding to messages or standing there when dead, and I did get a response saying we'll look into it.

[+Colibri]

We recently actually increased the AFK check frequency, though it's something in the background that most players don't see. I don't have a number on how many hours of activity one usually does before they get checked, it also depends on when you play. It was less frequent during the holidays though.

I'd go for more frequent checks instead of inhumane penalties

Things to keep in mind related to this:
- as a player, you are not required to answer another player if they ask if you're there. Such an afk check also wouldn't be effective, since i've seen people spam "yes i'm here" on an interval, so they might actually reply and seem to be at the keyboard, while they're actually not. That's why we have a more advanced way of checking and some procedures that go along with it.
- any penalty that a player gets is considered private (unless if the player goes on a forum rampage and tells it anyway) so if you report it on a ticket, we can only acknowledge your input, but can't tell you whether that player was then jailed... or if we maybe did 3 checks on them and they were at the keyboard at every of the checks.

[Johnny Warren]

Everytime I have put in a ticket about someone I suspect I have had a response from staff, which is awesome, although I still have an active ticket about something else that's been over a week now

We recently actually increased the AFK check frequency, though it's something in the background that most players don't see. I don't have a number on how many hours of activity one usually does before they get checked, it also depends on when you play. It was less frequent during the holidays though.

I'd go for more frequent checks instead of inhumane penalties

As I said I think more frequent checks is the way to go as well. I don't know what system you use to determine who to check. I've only ever been checked a handful of times (always by +R, who usually jumps out for a chat after I pass the check) and I do a fair bit of recall leveling. The inhumane penalties are probably a bit excessive, as always +C you are a sensible man. I figured that over the holidays staff would have many other commitments and thus be less active.

The primary purpose of the thread was not really to overhaul the system, but just to shine a light on the issue and generate a discussion, hoping that I would get

We recently actually increased the AFK check frequency

this response.

Thanks again +C/A/R for keeping it (us) real. Happy new year all.

-JW

[Silent]

AFK check should be performed for every action (that contains profit) and suspicious account behaviors should be checked, example:

Crop harvesting - prices bellow npc market price (by half)
Items sold by npcs being farmed afk
Mining for special ores with or without gargoyle picaxe and teleport macros
-The same goes for lumberjacking

If a player farms e.g. bottles and has a exex sell list with huge amounts checking in on him while purchasing would be a good thing to do...
Flax/cotton farmers selling cloth so low price in huge amounts should also be inspected.
Many players farm balrons using macros so from time to time inspections should also be taken.

It's not about chasing players but maintaining the gold balance in the world, the same goes for weapon leveling. Players can be "flagged" without noticing and gms could keep track of them.

This is my opinion though, however it is not news to who ever is paying attention that economy is being ruled by scripts as enforced by the +'s the problem is "to be or not be" ...

[+Colibri]

It's good to know some people like these afk checks Sometimes we get not-very-motivating replies from the "users" of this "service".

[Charon]

- If you suspect someone is AFK macroing, gathering, levelling etc, it IS your duty to report it.
Want to cut down on suspected breaking of rules, report people doing it. The GMs can check the logs and try to determine if the player in question was afk or not.

Yeah I have put in a ticket a few times, the tricky thing is the players are likely at keyboard, and just can't be bothered responding to me saying hello. I know if I am repeatedly crossing paths with the same player I end up not bothering to talk to them either and it likely looks like we're both AFK. That's why you really need an active GM doing live AFK checks, I doubt they could just use logs to determine if the player was/wasn't at keyboard.

Also I do take your point regarding inflation and pricing of leveled weps, you are probably right about that. I guess the problem is less the weapons themselves but the masses of resources gathered whilst leveling. Each time I repair the wep I am leveling I bank between 200k and 500k depending on what I'm leveling, not to mention tokens/gems/regs/demon bones collected too.

EDIT:

Just had another idea... I know this will be contentious, but, what about automated AFK checks for people fighting. Set the criteria to something like:

Automated AFK check pops up if - Player is in Tramel Facet, Player has a levelable weapon in hand with <999900 exp, has been online for >1hr, has cast recall/sacred journey/Nature's Passage >2 times in last minute, account age >3 months.

The check could be a gump with a question that needs to be read and answered (to make it hard to macro the check). Gump pops up on side of screen to avoid people losing sight of their toon and dying. You have 20 secs to type the correct response or you go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, your weapon is impounded pending investigation.

I know this idea will be harsh for non macroers and younger/less geared players who still have some risk involved when fighting.

Not saying hi or at least acknowledging someone when they say Hello is...
A: rude
B: leaving yourself open to be potentially ticketed for being afk if some repeatedly says hello.

I dont mind any rule that catches cheaters as long as it isn't too heavy handed.
You brought up some good points and ideas. Keep em coming.

[Charon]

I ran into someone running a macro while farming Travesty keys. They ran it for hours unattended. This is becoming more and more of an issue IMO.

Did you report them?
Did you report more than once, that way the GMs have a consistent log to review?
If no to either or both, why not?
GMs cant be everywhere, we need to help police the shard too

[Charon]

It's good to know some people like these afk checks Sometimes we get not-very-motivating replies from the "users" of this "service".

I like it, it keeps everyone honest, at least that's the hope and ensures a levelled playing field.
Keep up the good work +C, R and A.

[Silent]

Just a small request +C back when there was automated checks on the top of the screen sometimes I did not spotted them when they popped up since I was concentrated on small icons or something.

If you could rework this system to make them more "visible" I would be thankful as it spiked my heart rate many times because I was afraid of penalties since we had a time to respond :/

on the complaining part I see no reason for people who are "legally" playing to argue ...

[Fist]

I ran into someone running a macro while farming Travesty keys. They ran it for hours unattended. This is becoming more and more of an issue IMO.

Did you report them?
Did you report more than once, that way the GMs have a consistent log to review?
If no to either or both, why not?
GMs cant be everywhere, we need to help police the shard too

I did and always do if I am 100% certain