Recent change to killing things while afk, specifically mercs and pets

I is confused. didnt they not say mercing was legal? or that change again

They've backpedaled for unknown reasons and did it in a manner that wasn't communicated to anyone who doesn't comb through the EULA/rules regularly. Kindof like a stealth nerf policy change. Honestly, I think it was slipped in to help with policing only on TLP and that it will have little to no effect on Live. Until I see someone on Live come and report they were suspended for (legit) AFK killing, I think it's a whole lot of nothing.

Personally, the bigger issue is the huge policy change under the rug. And anyone who acts like it isn't a huge 180 on policy is in denial. They've come out on the forums and said it was A-OK before. Now, they changed that but didn't tell anyone. I have a bigger issue with this than with the actual "change".

We can word game this problem set all day long.
You, I, and any GM/Guide that pops in on you knows if you are AFK killing or if you are away for a (insert Excuse here) reason.

My interactions with SoE/DBG gives me no reason to think that they will ban your account for AFK killing and you weren't.

I am not sure how much of this was actually changed but i Personally know 2 people that were suspended for 1-3 days for AFK killing to get some of the mundane Slayer achievements when they first came out. So did it really change or did just now get written down?

I am going to go one step further and say your in denial if you do not think they will use this policy on live servers. It is just a matter of time.

There is no such thing as (legit) AFK killing.

"A few seconds" is ridiculous. It can take me as long as a min. to stop what I was doing and find out which toon the tell bell sound came from.

again im still confused. it was a huge fuse a while back about it and they said afk merc killing was fine. Fast forward post TLP and now its not?

How naiive! Or don't you have many hours played? Maybe you were just lucky.

Similar to how they changed where there was no such thing as autofire for range attack...there is now no afk merc killing. As people are fond of pointing out, things change. If that doesn't clear up the confusion, nothing will.

TLPs are constantly showing the worst of the player base and thus, "balancing" and "tweaking" from TLPs has started to spill over to the regular servers. 'tis nothing else with this rulechange.

My view is that the real root of the change is the introduction of /advloot. This change would have come eventually, but some of the stuff being done on TLP likely just accelerated it quite a bit.

Advanced loot should use the auto-afk timer to disable itself.

They took away autofire? Why does anyone even WANT to play there?

Might want to re-read that.

Oh so they added it? Phew.

If a GM/Guide shows up for whatever reasons, as unlikely as it is, how can they tell the difference if you have just stepped away or you have been going for 8 hours? They see your merc or your pet killing something and you are not responding to them. It all looks the same and its all equally against the rules now.

The only thing that allows them to make that distinction is if they stick around and wait to see if you respond. With the limited support staff we do have what reason would they have to stick around and take more time on each investigation when the new wording is telling/suggesting that if you have to step away for "more than a few seconds" they could consider you afk killing.

Right now any time that you are killing something and you are not at your keys you are breaking the rules. Whether you send your merc or pet to kill something and step away from the keys for whatever reason or if you step away and something wandering by agros and your merc attacks it, you are now breaking the rules. The problem is not a matter of how often you will get caught or how selectively they choose to enforce it, it's the fact that the rule even exists in such an insanely constrictive form. All forms of your pet/merc killing something while you are not at the keys are now against the rules, no matter the duration.

none the less sounds like a rule that is there to circumvent poor design? if they dont want AFK mercing and pet killing then make it so its not possible?

not like anyone can become rich doing this?

i mean if i just walk some place and sit there with my merc and something comes up and i have to take a short afk that turns into hours is breaking the rules? what rule is broken if i just sit there while the merc or pet does everything? so i have to be worried about breaking a rule if i simply sit afk in a combat zone with mercs and or pets?

ok i logged in and i sit there. how is this breaking a rule?

like i said its a rule to cover up poor design. sorry that they didnt think about this before they came up with pets, mercs, and advloot..

it doesnt seem like a rule needs to be made. it seems more like something they need to be fix...

they didnt out of the blue make a rule about you cant swarm for vastly superior exp and such. they fixed it.. so many examples could be used.

You mean, 'there is no such thing as (legit) AFK killing *now*'. Because it was perfectly fine since... forever.

People seem to forget that AFK pet killing has been in the game since day 1. Merc AFK killing has been in for years. They've previously said all of that was fine. So, yes, there was legit AFK killing. Now they've backpedaled.

People acting like this was always some atrocity against gameplay mechanics are being naive.

Yes, with ADVloot you can actually make some profit. Some. If you are truly AFK killing you're only aggroing a very small radius of mobs since- you're not moving. If some people have found some super awesome AFK spot to make millions of plat every month, well, I'd honestly be shocked. Mob density + respawn time + random drops = poor reward. We know that 99% of people who do AFK killing were working on faction, Slayer achievements, trying to get a few AA while asleep/at work, or mostly other benign things.

I'm really curious about all the horrible experiences people have run into with actual AFK killers (NOT botters). I've never seen it but what do I know~ apparently it's caused many people problems.

Think you're missing the point or didn't read later posts in support of the change. My opposition is their wording of a few seconds. If I solo with a bst I often pull(oh and to be sure its a safe spot and away from aggro) and than I go grab a cup of coffee while my merc and pet finish off the mob. By their choice of wording that violates the game. Its a ridiculous statement and my example of my toddler being something that may without notice demand my attention and is obviously a higher priority than a video game. Again its their choice of words to state 'a few seconds' is enough to be mention in the anti afk kill rule. What made them say seconds instead of minutes, maybe I read to much into it but after the rash suspensions im leary about their judgement

So you're advocating that parents should not play EQ or any video game, interesting. TLP server im guessing