One thing you might want to do, if you are going to be hunting in the same critter area for a decent time, is to Hilight certain combat messages. <personally, i highlight "that appears dead> so i can see when something is , well, dead. Additionally i highlight coins, gems, boxes, etc.

That way if you are script-tested, anything unusual will stand out.

/---
Oh and last one, DR at any given time has a population of weenies that will criticize at the drop of a hat, don't take things personally it happens to everyone.
Leucius

So what kind of checks did he do. My experience with checks is that they start off subtle, then get more and more blatant, even in a high scroll area.

That said, AFK doesn't mean you literally have to be away from the keyboard. If you're not attentive to the game, that counts as AFK. It sounds like you weren't being all that attentive, and you're requesting something that would be more capable of grabbing your attention.

That said, don't run combat scrips that loop. My scripts end after each kill, at which point I have to boot it up again for the next kill. It helps keep me attentive to the game, because I have to at least push a button every minute or so.

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"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2

Furthermore I have been checked in the past and talked to GM's about them. They said that they are setup to be distinguished by color, asterisks, or as i said, spacing above and below it. This way you can see it is not a normal game message, and to give you a chance to respond. The GM also said that the checks are done over 10 minutes to ensure your not there. This check had none of these things, and he claims he did the check over 7 minutes, not 10. Has the staff regressed so far as to actually go out of their way to try and get players in trouble? Hiding afk checks? I'm sorry but that is clear abuse of GM powers to not properly distinguish the check from normal game scroll to allow a player a chance to prove they are there.

Best way to resolve this is to go through feedback. Bringing it to the boards won't win you any points.

I already submitted feedback, that might solve my individual case, maybe. It wont solve the fact that an afk check was done so discretely it couldnt be seen. This will just happen again, to me or someone else. I dont see why the policy isnt set forward to clearly define a script check. "if we feel your scripting we will check you with these guidelines."

I repeat, why was the script check not standing out in any way? if they are concerned for me, why hide the checks? This is a false concern. Specifically hidden to get me in trouble, its not a conspiracy, its simply the truth. Simutronics has always been VERY stand offish with their policies and the ways GM's can and do behave. How can this company not have specific requirements to something as serious as applying a permenant warning to an account? You can change the messages, but there should be guidelines that ALL GM's have to follow.

do checks for x time, ensure checks have X way to stand out from normal text, send X amount of messages to player to see if they are there and simply dont understand the script checks messaging, pull player up and ask if they are there, warn players account.

What part of placing that as permenant policy for all GM checks is difficult? It takes no additional time, and is in no way beneficial to anyone. If I am afk, none of those things will get responded too. If I am there it will cover any chance i dont get the hint.

>>this was not my statement and you know it, put the entire sentence next time

It wouldn't have helped. As I said before that point, AFK scripting isn't really away from computer as much as not paying attention. While I can sympathize that combat gets boring, you still need to be attentive to the game environment. My combat scripts stop after each kill in order to help force me to pay attention, because I'm sure I'd be in a similar situation to what you're now in if I didn't have to keep entering commands.

Script checks generally do get rather blatant, but they don't have notable markers to highlight that they're system messages because people could easily script responses.

You might be a rare exception to the rule, but generally anytime someone says they were unfairly checked via incredibly subtle means, they're not being completely honest.

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"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2

I'm fine with being ridiculed, and i stand firm that the check should of had some kind of distinguishing feature, regardless of whether people agree or not. you cant standardize the scripting because your right, you could beat it with a trigger. but you cant trigger something that simply has spacing above and below it. theirs no trigger there. it simply puts a blank gap between your scrolling text, which stands out VERY clearly from your normal text messaging. Regardless the afk checks have always been ineffective and up for grabs to whichever GM wants to do it how it should be. my prior post gave a very simple way to define how a script check should be done. it didnt say it had to be done in a specific manner so people could beat it, it gave a guideline that would make sure we know what were looking for and how to react to it, not beat it.

I already commented that i did send it to feedback.

>>By the end of the test, they are far from subtle.
this was not true, feel free to check the log, every message was mashed into the combat scroll train and lost.

im not trying to get this resolved on here, im putting it out for discussion. as i feel the current setup is inadequate and unfair. there are tons of ways this could be done better, and more clearly so that mistakes like this dont happen.

>>There's no [SEND] or monsterbolded text involved (although you do get a [SEND] once you're in the holding room letting you know why you're there), however, a properly executed script check is impossible to miss or to confuse for anything normal near the end.

this is not true, i clearly missed the one that was just done to me. Again, yo udont have to do X wording so we can set a trigger. SPACING above and below would make the same script check messages stand out, and would not be triggerable.

no i wouldnt, you have to have something to trigger something. if you set the trigger to a empty line it would trigger every time anything happens. it wouldnt work. I have dozens of scripts ive written and ive studied how the game launcher works so i can effectively play this game. a trigger goes off of something that comes up in the game. you have to have something happen to have something trigger. this is why solomon so clearly stated no send message or creature bold, as those would be triggers. I've read this entire section of the forum, and its blatantly clear that the afk checks are discrete on purpose. and as one person so clearly stated, we should be setting players up for success, not failure. if your trying to get someone in trouble, your going to suceeed. the script checks are claiming to be setup to enforce policy, but their not clear enough to do that, their subject to how the GM wants to do it, not with guidelines to ensure we who are not afk know what were looking at, even in a high traffic scroll room.

"im not trying to get this resolved on here, im putting it out for discussion. as i feel the current setup is inadequate and unfair. there are tons of ways this could be done better, and more clearly so that mistakes like this dont happen."

So you are looking for people to agree with your version of how things happened?

You say that you have been playing off and on for 15 years- and this is the first time you have had this issue. I have been playing as long and have never encountered it.

You are the one insisting that this was a mistake, but we can't see what really happened, nor can we change anything. Feedback is your recourse.

Our current crop of GM's is probably the most responsive we have ever had, at least from what I have seen on the boards. As I understand the policy, script checks do have certain internal guidelines, and if the GM who gave you a warning didn't follow those guidelines, I think you have a very good chance of having the warning reversed.

All this posturing about how it was impossible to see, yet you don't include the script check. I can't imagine why.

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TG, TG, GL, et al.

"Disagreement with the fundamental plan at this point is akin to supporting Richard III vs the Tudors."
-Raesh

I'm not sure if it's against posting policy or not(So if it's not within policy please disregard and do not post it), but if it is not against posting policy could you please paste a C&P of the log or a hyperlink to a screenshot of what you saw that was hard to follow?

May be able to give you some advice on how to highlight and/or squelch some text to make it a bit easier to see next time. Also would give your aguement a little bit more credibility as far as player opinion is concerned.

__
You hear the voice of Jaedren exclaim, "Look! I'm Leilond!"
You notice Jaedren come out of hiding.
Jaedren shimmers out of sight.

Unless you think that the current policy and enforcement method is perfect, I don't see the point of piling on this guy. I think there's room for improvement in both, and that's what the discussion should focus on. Senu, if you're telling the truth then I feel for you man. I've had my share of what I felt were unfair script checks in the past and it's one of the most frustrating experiences I've had with a game. I know that at this point, if what he said happened to him happened to me, I would take my $45/month and play something else.

Like others have said, we have no power to help you.


You are not really bringing anything to the table to discuss. You stated your experience and opinions, but we cannot observe any facts because we do not have access to the logs. We don't know what script checks you received. There's nothing we can offer to the discussion.



I've had received many script checks before, and many years ago I've had received many lock outs before. I've had maybe 2 script checks I have genuine gripes about the specific situation/way it was done (one that started after my self-terminating script ended, and lasted what couldn't be more than 2-3 minutes before the GM did a 60 second countdown, and another during Fishing scroll before I learned to filter out the fishing spam)

I've dealt with script checks of many kinds, from receiving RPA's for giving a lost dwarf directions, telling off an old vet looking for his lost weapon, kicking away a puppy chewing on my shoe, SWATting a bat, disregarding the spammed expected command response and yell out I'm not going to dance silly with an ugly butterfly or what not.

The GM's aren't AFK-scripting their AFK script checks against you. You don't even have to respond in the way the text alludes you to. They just need you to prove that you are paying attention to your environment.

I have not seen a script check that was not blatantly obvious towards the end and really only fishing scroll level of spam can out-spam the last 30 seconds~minute of the script check.



A lot of the slanderous remarks you make are not helping your case either. Unless you were at Simucon and assaulted a GM or something there is no conceivable gain for a GM to entrap you or abuse their powers. They aren't traffic cops who have to fulfill quotas. Continuously disparage people without offering constructive discussions to the policy as you claim you're attempting to do only makes you look like you don't know what you're talking about and just trying to get your way while withholding facts.

spaces and brackets would be easily caught by genie or relatively simple home made add-ons.

If you waited a bit longer the check would become even more obvious what it wants you to do. I want to say a home-written add-on can for sure pass every check but I don't have professional level programming knowledge and I can see it may require too much staff resources to have every script check to be an RP scenario to beat triggers.

>>This one time when I was checked for scripting, they made me scratch my nose. It had no asterisks, no spaces, no brackets, nothing. Just a simple "Your nose feels pretty itchy you should scratch it."

That just means you passed the test as soon as possible because you were ultra-alert.

Things get more bells and whistles noisy as you start entering the danger zone.

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"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2

Strange you don't have a log.

>>I dont afk script, i simply dont pay attention to things scrolling unless they stand out, because combat is boring and it all looks the same. So maybe I'm not the most attentive person, but I was not afk.

>>I dont see why the policy isnt set forward to clearly define a script check.

NEWS 5 17: Warnings for using triggers, running scripts, or any other activities while being unresponsive to the gaming environment are based on the Staff's observation of the character, and the Staff's judgment may vary from instance to instance; therefore each instance will be judged independently. Furthermore, GMs have the right to verify that any and all characters are following this policy at any time.

It is clearly defined as being at the keyboard, and responsive. Just being at the keyboard is not enough. This especially is important to note for people who play more than one character at once.

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You've reached the uninformative help match I haven't written yet.

>>>>I dont afk script, i simply dont pay attention to things scrolling unless they stand out,

Why do people keep copy/pasting this quote as if this isn't true for 99% of players? How many people actually read EVERY word? (obviously none of the people responding to this quote, because they stopped reading at "don't pay attention", and hit REPLY without reading further) Just about everyone only pays attention to the things that stand out and appear to be worth paying attention to. That's all the quote says. There is a reason why script checks are intended to be spammed and stand out from the background - it is because EVERYONE who plays this game simply doesn't pay attention to things scrolling unless they stand out.

Now if you don't believe the OP that the script check didn't stand out - that's different. I didn't see the log, so I have no idea. But man, alot of people in this thread need to learn to read.

Apu
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http://www.elanthipedia.org/wiki/User:Apu

>>Why do people keep copy/pasting this quote as if this isn't true for 99% of players? How many people actually read EVERY word?

I don't think you necessarily have to be reading every sentence in order to be paying attention.

>>Now if you don't believe the OP that the script check didn't stand out - that's different.

This too.

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"You always have to be a know-it-all. And you don't. Know. It. All." - GERSTEINJ2