AFK Checks

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

  1. Metanis Bad Company

    I guess I'm confused how people are supposed to see a single /say from a GM if they happen to be doing Overseer. That monstrosity of a 1980s era GUI covers more than half my available screen real estate. And it takes many minutes to finish if you're only doing it once a day like me. They need to fix their archaic UI.
    Krasis likes this.
  2. Seor New Member

    The root issue is the current DBG approach to dealing with issues in this game is terrible from both a PR and a customer service perspective.

    Any business interested in staying in business has to have some basic things (not exhaustive)...
    1. Have a stable or growing revenue stream.
    2. Have clearly outlined policies and the ability to respond effectively to their paying customers
    3. A financial relationship with their customers that those customers believe is in their interest.

    These things are interconnected.

    Right now I'm pretty sure that #1 is a real challenge...and #2 & #3 are failures. #2 would be easy to clean up...and it would do a lot to improve #3 while reducing some deterioration of #1.

    The Rizlona Guild Leaders are setting out some proposals that are reasonable and will help EQ and the server. Maybe give them the time of day on this one. I'd prefer to see EQ last a few more years.
    Krasis, Echoe and Lulia like this.
  3. Elpapo New Member

    I have to say that this sudden focus on AFK checks and the method used to do it is completely insane. And there seems to be no real recourse to have an adult conversation with anyone when this happens. Using /say is not the smartest way to do this. I know friends who are losing interest in playing for fear that some GM might show up and ban them without an explanation. I mean, seriously....who wants to play a 20 year old game, pay for a subscription and play in constant fear? Especially on Rizlona which is a clear boxing server. It boggles my mind that any company would so actively attack their paying customers to lose them.
  4. zjaenisch6 New Member

    I didn't use any of that. So you have no clue what you are talking about.
  5. Tshesebe Lorekeeper

    For that matter, one could make an argument that Brewall's maps are 3rd party.
  6. Hadce Cleric of Aradune

    The maps aren't software or executable though.

    GINA is just a log parser.
  7. demigod Journeyman

    I am all for banning the afk botters, but this is not the way to do it. DPG are hitting innocent people that moved their say to another window or simply doesn't even check when they're out pulling. What they need to be doing is summon those afk botters to a different spot to see if they noticed that they've been moved or not.

    Permaban a player with 30+krono on their first strike when they weren't even afk botting, that's pretty much theft what DPG is doing. Someone needs to be held accountable. Why is there no response from DPG, who's running the show there guys?
    Krasis and Machen like this.
  8. Notafel Journeyman

    Adding my voice to the chorus here.

    Felinis, Guild Leader <Forsaken Legacy> of Rizlona.

    I already consider it nothing short of a miracle that none of my members have been hit by these AFK checks yet. Probably a good portion of it is that we don't encourage our members to be aggressive about contested camps, so perhaps we are less of a revenge petition target. Having said that, knowing what I do about my guildmates, bless them but some of them would miss a flashing neon sign in game trying to get their attention. I don't even bother changing the guild MotD that often since I get questions that it already answered. With voice comms being ever present, the onus is less than ever for people to pay attention to all of the text flying by. We've had to make conscious effort to call out in voice comms certain things (like changing the order of a Cheal rotation) because often it will go un-noticed in the healer chat channel.

    If anything the addition of Tabbed chat windows has made it easier than ever to filter things to hidden windows and /say is unfortunately a victim of that. Therefore I find it unconscionable that /say would become the de-facto way for a GM to communicate for these kinds of checks. Especially on a server who's advertised feature is Boxing. Funny enough people automating probably have an easier time responding to something, as their attention is less divided on the characters they aren't actually playing. Anyone boxing legit is going to have his or her attention more divided and will be more prone to miss anything they aren't explicitly looking for.

    I don't discount that there is legitimate concern for enforcement against fully automated gameplay, but the very nature of our server is going to make us more prone to false positives, and because of that I do not support this methodology of enforcement. I would much appreciate if there could be followup with the discussions the Rizlona Guild Leaders' Discord has had through Dreamweaver to bring our concerns to the CS team and have some more transparency with the body of players that drive much of the active content creation for the server.

    Thanks for attending my TED talk.
    Leerah, Krasis, Lilu and 1 other person like this.
  9. Echoe New Member

    Precisely my point.

    These "third party programs" which are deemed "illegal" and will have suspension or banning consequences have never been officially listed.

    This is a 21 year old game.

    There are many things fundamentally wrong with this game because of its' age, and the lack of developer support for it have resulted in "third parties" stepping up to "modernize" it.

    The game developer has benefitted from these gaps filled by third parties (could this be why they refuse to name them?). Still, no "official" stance has been taken on which ones have been "accepted" or deemed "against the rules", and players are being arbitrarily affected by them because we don't know which ones are "legal" vs. "illegal".

    I'm no expert in the law, but I can smell when something isn't right. What is happening here isn't right.
  10. yerm Augur

    The most recent one I saw is woebot sayfk checking literally in the middle of npc spam.

    The cs here is SO terrible that I am struggling to understand the purpose. It costs revenue to nuke people on tlp (sub/kr only) servers. It costs money to pay staff. Whats the point here? Enforcement done this badly isn't causing people to sign up or stick around...
    Xanadas and Krasis like this.
  11. Tegila Augur

    im not on tlp though this issue isnt strictly there, but my comment here is that the one GM i see pop up over and over and over again is this Woebot dude. is this perhaps an overzealous gm? one with a boxing bias perhaps? (we all know there are a lot of antiboxers who dont think ANYone is able to box, or chooses to box, without 3rd party software, so getting one of those types in a gm position would be disastrous, like this) the name itself just conjures all kinds of thoughts of GMs griefing players and automated punishments without a real human at the controls too. so..unverified banbot? overzealous antiboxer? or just seriously misinformed and..really oddly more noticeable than literally every other gm in the game? who knwos, but it sure seems suspicious to ME.
    Krasis likes this.
  12. Gnothappening Augur

    GINA is a log parser that does things that affect your game play. Technically it is 3rd party software that does stuff. Do I consider it bad, no, but it doesn't have an official ruling either that I know of.

    Brewall's maps are just adding files to the game that weren't meant to be there. These files give you maps in zones that you wouldn't normally have maps. This is similar to the process people use to bypass doors so that they don't have to have a thief/bard. Me personally, I think Brewall's maps are fine, and bypassing doors are cheating, but they use a similar process.

    I think the key takeaway is that we will never get a list of approved anything and will be left in the dark. To be fair to DPG and staff, they can't say anything is okay unless they are the ones that produce it. The moment they officially say GINA is okay, the person that makes GINA could change the code so that it not only reads chat and plays a trigger, but it also sends pet and nukes. The moment they officially say Brewall's maps are okay, the creator could change it so that it also removes doors. So yes, I get them not saying things are approved. That being said, I don't know what the solution for Rizlona is, other than ditch the GMs as reporting is being weaponized there. Aradune is fine because that is the Karen server where people wanted to be able to petition to get camps.
  13. Gnothappening Augur

    I think Woebot might be the account that they use to drop the hammer. It might not be used by a single person. As I am not staff and don't know staff or the inner workings of DPG, I have no way of knowing. I am just basing it on my own beliefs. Either the dude is used by more than one person or they are the hardest working GM they have.
    Tegila likes this.
  14. Machen New Member


    If the GM accounts are accounts that any of the cs staff can use, I would think GM Whaambulance would be more popular.
    Tegila and Xanadas like this.
  15. demigod Journeyman

    It's not, it's 1 person. You don't put " " with your name if its not yours.
  16. Hamshire Augur

    Ive played on almost every tlp until the servers died and not only has this never been a thing but this is honestly out of control. Woebot hit two people in our guild yesterday, both done in /say where they didn't even know this was something that existed and missed it. One of the two who logs showed the logs and Woebot only gave him eleven seconds to respond before suspending him. It feels like most people aren't using the GMs to solve problems but instead for harassment. Someone at the spot I usually exp at in Greig's End? Time to send a petition. Someone camping an item I wanna camp? Time to petition. Why try to push someone out of a camp when you can just get them suspended for seven days with a gotcha?
  17. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    Does anyone need a better solution for this than just in-game Audio Triggers?

    I.E. Nice loud .wav file to alert you, set to play whenever you hear "GM" in say (or whatever trigger text you like).

    I worked out a way to automate a response to something in say, using only in-game and Windows functions.

    Would that interest anyone?

    Considering cheaters already know this dead easy, I don't feel bad letting honest players know.
  18. Clefairy69 New Member

    I'd prefer to let my accounts expire and come back if/when this blows over. Not worth the risk of logging in. I can't support the game and their decisions at the moment.
  19. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    I have had interactions with Woebot that were not bad and in fact many were pleasant. But he was very cut and dried, no give at all. You follow the rules or you don't.

    I think when they hire someone new to GM land that they are given the "Woebot" moniker and after their apprenticeship is completed then they can choose their official GM name.

    And to fill in between the new hire times other employees who are burned out and bitter are delegated to that position until they retire or quit.

    I mean if he is one person then he has been there since at least 2014 or earlier.

    Sentences #2 and #3 are meant to be humorous.
  20. Triconix Augur

    It parses a txt file for specific strings and informs you when those strings are found. You can use GINA for things outside of EQ. It just so happens it does work with EQs built in logging.

    You do realize the maps utility is an actual built-in game function has the capability to build maps, right? You can become a cartographer in the game if you so choose to. Talk about true immersion! It's time for me to bring out the inner Buster and use blue for land and green for water. There's literally no argument that can be made against maps. It's just nonsensical "BuT mUh NoStaGliA!!!" old man yells at cloud mentality. It's the equivalent of arguing that cars should not have a GPS function because your old 64 Buick Skylark didn't have one.

    How is it 2021 and the same ridiculous arguments thrive? It's like half the population is stuck in 2004.
    Echoe likes this.