AFK Checks

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by jack of all trades, Feb 16, 2021.

  1. yerm Augur

    The whole complaint is that they are NOT using tells. And, yes, sorry but not sorry, if you don't filter say I strongly question if you are actually doing much in game. It's not just large pulls in places like seru or runnyeye, it's also just standing near an agent or teleporting mob, certain quest npcs, etc. It absolutely fills your chat window. I don't care if you play casting to a movie theater screen; you stand next to something like a collectible quest turnin npc with a reply and that window is done for.
    Leerah likes this.
  2. Lejaun Augur

    Question all you like. Fact is that I and many others spend a ton of time in the game and don't have any problems with GMs finding us AFK.
  3. Kinaforum Journeyman

    The issue isn’t with doing an afk check, or why, or where, it is the how. I just camped Raster for about 20 hours. During that time I would work, and every so often look at my screen. My toon would o literally nothing else and was feign death during the single spawn. But, if a GM popped in there and talked to me, I would not have responded. There is no way that should happen:

    Skip over to the SG and other do groups. Again, pop in and say something by a GM is not enough. Stand there, follow the puller around, make multiple efforts to get the attention of the team. When I’m pulling, if I see someone running with me, you can be damn sure I’m gonna notice.

    Multiple box teams drive one toon the most; the puller. Where is the puller most? Not at camp to see anything, not the GM, not a chat message, nothing.

    If it is so obvious of an afk team, then have the GM sit there and just watch them for more than 30 seconds.

    TLDR dont remove afk checks, just change how they are done
  4. Lejaun Augur

    That's the thing, they are watching. Then, besides just watching, they are giving you another chance by asking you to respond. People aren't getting suspended for going AFK while feigned death at Raster. They are getting suspended for doing quests or fighting mobs while AFK.
    Niskin likes this.
  5. jack of all trades Elder


    How can you be so obtuse? People are literally getting GM checked within minutes of zoning into a zone, especially if they're moving towards a competitive or desirable camp. You can call it fighting mobs while AFK all you want, I call it not seeing say because it's filtered with spam, the same as a majority of the individuals who have spoken up in this thread.

    I don't AFK pull or exp, I'm always at the keyboard while my characters are doing stuff. I would never see a say if I hadn't been made aware of how this was being conducted and filtered it to it's own window. Do I know people who do AFK pull/exp? Sure. Are some of them in this thread? Yep. Not everyone is innocent, but we're also not all scumbags who automate every aspect of this ancient game.
  6. Lejaun Augur

    Nothing obtuse about it. You pay attention to your screen, and you don't get suspended. It's not difficult.
  7. Lacka Journeyman



    This is maybe the most disappointing post you have ever made BB.
    Leerah likes this.
  8. Machen New Member


    People literally are getting suspended for going afk at Raster. I had a friend suspended for being afk briefly in high pass hold at level 60. The GM trained level 13 orcs on her and her pet hit them, so she was "taking action" while afk. What you are arguing just isn't true.
    Leerah likes this.
  9. Zinth Augur

    shouldn't the GM be fired for training then?

    anyways...

    GM's often just "send a message" in say... many (most I know) have say in a "spam window" because that is literally what is in that window, point proven several times earlier in this thread because of NPC chatter.

    GM's don't really observe for long and if they can see (which I know they can) what you do, then they should also be able to see your messages with other people (which was how I got booted and all my forages stolen) literally while chatting with guildies, I even checked my logs with a log parser and didn't see ANY texting whatsoever from a GM to me (I were alone in dreadlands, standing atop the large spire so I would not agro any mobs) and I have a 3 button forage system (which I also use when fishing) do the skill (foragin/fishing) look what is on cursor... /auto inventory or /destroy (removed the popup window on destroy) so I can easilly do it without putting much thought into it and to keep sane I usually chat at the same time. (when foraging while just grouping I just forage/autodump into inventory and I sort through it later but if I am only foraging/fishing then I sort as I go.

    GM's do sometimes observe... I reported someone on Riz... clearly afk and their box would sit between fights, on agro it would stand, beeline to the char getting attacked and attack... (even with his back he would stand and instantly be pointed in the direktion towards the mob and run in a straight line to it) the GM arrived... I showed the beelining and he checked the no responding, 2min later the afkfarmer was booted off on both chars, not suspended though since I saw him the next day another place. (he was afk farming GBS or whatever it is called at the undead camp) his chars came running for it while I was fighting her, then ran back to camp when she died (I got the kill anyways)

    They are NOT infallible... but suspension for standing afk at a zoneline or somewhere else and not responding to a "say" is NOT good enough... getting suspended because someone trains a mob onto your pet is NOT okay... getting suspended because a mob respawns while you pee and your pet attacks it, is NOT okay... getting suspended for blatantly afkbotting IS okay.
  10. Lejaun Augur

    They are only getting suspended if they are AFK killing things. Hanging out at Raster's spawn point isn't getting anyone suspended unless you are killing while AFK. That's it. I also highly doubt your friend was trained by the GM. Sounds more like your friend was hanging out where orcs would attack and the GM observed it, and then your friend made up a lie.

    Everyone has an excuse for why they had to go AFK and why their pet or bard song or automated actions was killing mobs. Fact still remains: pay attention to your computer screen and you won't get suspended.

    If all these horror stories of people getting suspended for doing nothing are true, you'd think people would figure out a way to maybe log out or go AFK in a safe place. It's not like it's some secret that you'll get suspended for AFK killing.
  11. Lejaun Augur

    They aren't. It's just a thing people who are breaking the rules like to say as part of their excuse as to why they got busted. Also, it applies more to Truebox servers than places like Rizlona where you reside.
  12. RaynTheLion Lorekeeper


    You're 100% wrong. There are people getting suspended while playing EQ. Multiple times people in discord have gone, 'what the hell? I was just suspended for a week on a couple boxes.' I've been in the same chat channel with someone while this has happened. I know 100% they were there. The GM gave them 15 - 25 seconds to respond to a Say chat message.

    There is a reason people are upset about what's happening and you injecting ignorance into the situation isn't helping.
    Tegila, Leerah, Genoane and 2 others like this.
  13. RaynTheLion Lorekeeper

  14. Siah Elder

    If I see a GM in front of me, or even close to me. I'm going to notice, and probably say something.. since he/she is there for a reason. I mean, a GM standing in front of you asking you to respond in a hostile area before your next action seems reasonable to me.. not like they are doing this in the nexus or bazaar because these are not zones where you are exping/killing things.

    Seems like people are upset when GMs do nothing to people hacking/botting or afk automation, or whatever. Then when they actually do people are still upset.

    Idk that's just my thought. Is there a better way to go about it? Probably. But it doesn't seem like it's too much to ask to respond to a character with green letters standing next to you asking you to respond before your next actions. Even if it is in say. If they were invisible though that would be a different story imo, but I doubt it if they were using say.
    Niskin likes this.
  15. Machen New Member


    I've had friends post logs to GM's show that they were chatting in guild literally seconds before the GM appeared, and in one case even after the GM appeared to do an afk check. But they missed the /say message, and still got suspended. The GM did not care that they could document that they were not actually afk. Once the ban comes down, it is infallible and never reversed.
  16. Machen New Member


    The game is virtually unplayable if you need to log out every time you need 30 seconds to go pee or get a drink.
    Tegila and yerm like this.
  17. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    We are 5 pages in now, so it's well past the point where people should be arguing about the fear aspect, and well into the point where they should be gathering takeaways to avoid the problem. Things we can assume for sure:

    The number of people suspended because they missed a message is greater than zero.
    The number of people suspended for legitimate reasons is greater than zero.
    The number of people who lied to their friends about why they got suspended is greater than zero.
    The number of times GM's have been too harsh and/or too lenient is greater than zero.

    So what to do about it? I'd start here:

    #1 No matter how you feel about /say spam, you need to have it somewhere. If you are boxing then you only need it to show up on the client you look at most.

    #2 If you physically see a GM, stop what you are doing and look to see if they are trying to contact you.

    #3 If you go AFK, take steps to ensure you can't gain anything in game before you get back. Merc's on passive, go invis, move out of pathing areas or spawns. This is less important as a single player in a group of active players, but far more important when multiboxing, or the whole group goes AFK.

    I'm sure there is more that could be suggested, but that's what I got off the top of my head.

    Should the GM's be more careful? Sure, that would always be great, but there's no guarantee they will, nor do we know if they are following directions that expect them to be this strict. It's one thing to discuss the issue and ask for change, it's quite another to run around pretending that all suspensions are wrong or no suspensions are wrong.
  18. Febb Augur

    Why do you have 30+ accounts?
  19. Machen New Member

    Nope. If you are driving your puller, you can be out of camp when GM shows up to check you in camp. So you need to be watching not only the character you are actually playing, but any other characters that are out of say distance of that character some of the time. Audio triggers can help with this but often get triggered on mob /say echoes, which is frustrating.

    Yes, but they don't always physically appear when doing afk checks any more. They used to stand right in front of who they though was driving in a box group. Now, they often don't. You can't count on seeing the GM to avoid suspension.

    Yes, this. Except that even sitting there doing nothing can result in a suspension, even if you don't benefit, unless you are in an "unused corner of the zone." The GM's have not defined this the same way players that actually play the game do. EG a monk who was sitting at the entrance of solb, feigned, no possibility of any mob aggro and no mobs even path there... He was not deemed to be in a safe corner of the zone and was suspended.

    The only safe remedy is to log out, but that's really not practical either for every single time you need to step away for 30 seconds. Especially if boxing.
  20. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    Fair enough, you need to look at two screens then, puller and healer maybe, whatever makes sense. Multiboxing definitely ups the level of attention needed, but that also shouldn't be a problem for people who can keep track of more than two characters at once anyway.

    I would assume this is true, but it's still an important thing to be watching for.


    This is where we get into the "maybe your friends are lying to you" versus "maybe the GM's are making bad decisions" part of the discussion. I think if people were getting suspended for being feigned away from a camp that there would be a lot more outrage. The point of this AFK moderation is supposed to be avoiding gains, not preventing AFK's. If it happens once maybe it's a mistake. If it happens repeatedly then maybe there is bad GM or bad instruction to the GM's. It's likely we'll never know, and that complaining here may not fix anything. So all people can do is adjust their own behavior to try to avoid the situation.

    But for real, if you know somebody who got suspended for being feigned at a zone line, that is something where I think escalation is required. Have them, or help them, write a concise letter to the CEO or something along those lines. Don't be angry or make wild accusations. Simply point out the the GM team may need better direction on how to enforce AFK bans. Maybe it's a bad understanding of game mechanics, maybe it's an overloaded and understaffed team making rash decisions. There' no guarantee it will help, but it certainly can't hurt.