Afk checks are the way fair-game play is/was established in DR. It’s a consequence we all understand is a possibility with every time we log on. And that’s okay. We understand it can happen and that it will happen. Over the years we have seen how “harsh” afk checks are for the DR community. It’s resulted in a lot of drama, rage quits, player pool loss, a lot of promises, and eventually quite a few players coming back - Even starting over from scratch. We lose income, player name association, and people to enjoy gaming with.

Presently our afk policy hits pretty harshly and has no real room for our broad player base, life issues, and doesn’t address some of the other issues.
What we want: is a policy which offers penalty but encourages people to keep playing and to modify their scripting behavior.
Since we know what we want and what we have - let’s build on that knowledge of player base and keep people playing.

Reviewing our player pool:
-a lot of stay at home moms (we all know they should log out, it’s a familiar excuse but - they want an escape and “darn it” if those baby diapers take to long to change or have variations of changing times)
-we have returning Aol/dial up players who just don’t know how to script and need a “window” to learn in
- We have our main players who have had to condense into hunting areas, change all sort of things in order to accommodate once “empty” hunting grounds which have now become cluttered with other players and reporting pits
- We have a trickling in of new players, who just don’t have a clue. (swap around game play options i.e. SF, Ruby, Genie etc)
- A lot of players who play from work (while they have spreadsheets up, care for family, attend to work stressors)

One of my favorite quotes is “It will never be me, I, or Us - It will always be ‘everybody’ and we always need more ‘everybodies’.
This is true when it comes to game health of DR. We need ‘everybody’ if we want to keep the game floating and developing.


I would like to introduce a rough outline for afk scripting policy.

Hybrid AFK Policy: 6 points

-) The Caution: tells the player “HEY U, afk is not the way” and they are moved to the time out room. The Caution is never revisited.

F2P: same as above

-) 1st Warning: First official warning. Loss of unabsorbed Exp. Evaluation of scripting conduct.(i.e. disruption, event farming) Taken to the LO room. Must sign policy.

F2P: same as above: possible 30 LO based off conduct

-) 2nd Warning: Penalty of a lesser decreased experience drain (30 days), loss of unabsorbed exp. If the player was afk to gain at the events; farming, etc. materials are confiscated.

F2P: Same as above and additionally receives 30, 60, 90 day LO.

-) 3rd Warning: Penalty of a greater experience decreased drain (30 days), loss of unabsorbed exp, confiscated materials if applicable to the offense i.e. events and other functions, receives 30 day LO

F2P: All of the above apply with the exception of the 30 LO. F2P account goes into review for any of the following: 60 day, 90 day or perma ban.

-) 4th Warning: Penalty of No drain for 1 year. Account goes into review. Loss of unabsorbed exp. Confiscated materials if applicable.

F2P: Permaban

With a 6 point system it gives the player a fair amount of room to modify behavior. It encourages them to stay logged on but still offers appropriate penalties without damaging the characters to intensely. It leaves enough room for other players in the community to support the policy and perhaps feel like they can support it. But it also puts all the GM skills and training to work without making their position seem similar to a war against the player pool. It addresses and covers all types of players and it makes room for real life situations with absolutely happen. It doesn’t offer critical punishments for someone who had x number of years scripting clean but still addresses the f2p issues and farming.

This is a game and a gift of adventure for everyone to enjoy and become a part of. It is not competitive baseball which has a need for the “3 strikes” and “you’re out”. Scripting in DR in a manner is like eating. One has to do it. But punishing someone with huge exp hits is similar to punishing someone for stealing food when they are starving. It’s a need and it’s slightly ironic.

People wanting to earn ranks, achievements, abilities and engage in all avenues of gameplay is the greatness of general gaming. Now, with the Roleplay component it offers that whole other dynamic which is why we are addicted to DR.



You've gone Missing

I would agree with Dearmank, because the problem with losing ranks, is the incentive to script more to gain those ranks back.

There's been plenty of discussion and arguments over a good AFK scripting policy. The other major problem isn't just the policy itself, it's the checks and how to enforce it. They also have to work within their resources, especially after losing a bunch of staff and finishing the training of the new ones.

Considering all the information they have, i'm curious how they will change the policy, but there's always room for improvement.

While what Missing33 has come up with is okay its basically the same as what it is now. I mean, cmon folks. In order to loss massive skills you have to what, strike out 3 times in a year?? That affect doesnt happen until your 3rd warning? Or at minimum your 2nd?

Do you need someone to hit you upside the head 3 times to get your attention that what you are doing is wrong per POLICY? And as Futility said, not everyone is going to be fully happy with any policy no matter what. I dont like afk scripters, so allowing rampant AFK scripting is going to drive me away again along with others. Yet not allowing AFK scripting is "supposedly" (yeah, thats a lie, they are still here for the most part) is going to drive others away.

And I do agree with Futility, folks say that TF is dead, no staff really does any work there. Yeah, well, go there, like was said on another place then flood it with 250 of you & prime has only 25 at a time, staff will most likely dedicate more work on TF.
I'd be willing to check out TF to work on scripts when I know my prime wont be affected if the prices I already pay from premie were included or prices overall were adjusted.

I can see these prices being good for the aughts (00), but today? Not so much, they are higher than they should be but thats IMHO. (shrug)

I'll refrain from commenting on PvP because DR was never really designed for that, it was PvE. Certain troublemaking groups came in, the dynamics in DR changed to where some folks that the only reason for having a character is to PvP, otherwise "its borrrrriiinng". The trials have helped with that issue though, even when folks just went to the xings cemetery to pvp instead of walking around & trying to trick/goad folks into pvp is better now.

Its always been a game between the staff & the scripters who have just gotten better over the years in trying to beat script checks. Gone are the days of the dancing WB frog, Gms have to keep ahead of the folks who are sharing what scripts checks the staff are using. That will never change until all AFK scripters are gone or majority of them are gone. Sorry, that MHO.

>>I'll refrain from commenting on PvP because DR was never really designed for that, it was PvE. Certain troublemaking groups came in, the dynamics in DR changed to where some folks that the only reason for having a character is to PvP, otherwise "its borrrrriiinng". The trials have helped with that issue though, even when folks just went to the xings cemetery to pvp instead of walking around & trying to trick/goad folks into pvp is better now.

Good 'No Comment'. Lol.

If DR wasnt designed or intended for PVP, we wouldnt be able to engage players. It may not have been the ultimate design intent that players eventually moved from PvE to PvP biases in their gameplay day-to-day, but it was designed to allow PVP. This is another one of those instances where because a certain subset of players enjoys the game differently then they're 'doing it wrong'. Chill with the bias, just keep the conversation on the AFK policy, yeah?

-Nsar

>>has come up with is okay its basically the same as what it is now. I mean, cmon folks. In order to loss massive skills you have to what, strike out 3 times in a year?? That affect doesnt happen until your 3rd warning? Or at minimum your 2nd?


It's not the same. The design and penalty aspect is coming from researching multiple other muds and there success with a modified drain.


Also I am not trying allow or encourage AFK scripting, to drive away the masses - etc. But What I am trying to do is offer more breathing room.

For example: So, let's say someone does get an AFK hit and received the modified drain penalty. Scripting excessively has just become significantly less beneficial. So what does this person chose to do with their extra time now? Well they didn't take a huge rank hit so they are not insanely bitter. But now they still have enough of their ranks to compete in the local tournaments and other RP opportunities. (i.e. group hunting trip, helping others, invasions)


So it builds up the game health instead of the opposite effect which the checks have on the large amounts of the community.


But back to the point. What I offered up was just a bullet point rough outline to help the community.

As for feeling like 'some' people shouldn't be as big as they are - that's a not a fair statement. Between the newer scripting engines - a sharing of knowledge in the gaming community. Some people are going to be bigger because they know what they are doing when it comes to coding and have more time to spend in DR.

Thanks for your point of view on the discussion.

You've gone Missing

There is no solution.

People want to afk. They want progress. They want to feel like they're getting something for their subscription. They want to see more than a single rank in a week for their efforts. Even if they are atk, they're not sitting there watching their screen constantly.

People also want other people not to afk. They think it's messing up the game. They see the policy as a good thing.

There's no way you could ever convince me that someone circle 200 has not afk scripted. Honestly, I don't think anyone over circle 100 has played in such a way that they would have never once failed a script check during their climb. I would never believe that anyone who can mastercraft a tier 10 recipe has not afk scripted, much less a tier 12 recipe.

There's too much at stake to afk script. Risking it is risking your account, and if you put your name in the hat enough times eventually you'll get picked. When you do, you'll probably quit.

There's also too much incentive to afk script NOT to afk script. Once you get beyond the initial newbie status, ranks get exponentially slower. A couple hours a day might translate into a single rank a week if you're lucky. Toward the later stages of the game, more like a rank a month.

So you have 2 options: Risk it, get caught, get mad, and probably quit. Don't risk it, get bored, and probably quit. There is a third option of exiling yourself to TF where you get to pay more to afk script. You also get to get ganked by anyone and everyone since it's open world free pvp, and that'll probably be the only interaction you get.

We can go back and forth on what the penalties should be but we're never going to agree on them. My guess is things will continue to go as they are now with no change. It's been said that the policy addresses the symptom of a greater problem and I wholeheartedly agree with that. We could change the game to remove the incentive to afk script, but it looks like that ship has long sailed.

> >You also get to get ganked by anyone and everyone since it's open world free pvp, and that'll probably be the only interaction you get.

> Not really. Agreed with everything else though.

Pretty much. OSRAS, you should copy your reply to odd paladin and just save it for the inevitable thread next week as more people are chased out of the game.

>You may not believe it but never ever AFk over 1400 ranks in forging it take 10 real life minutes to make 1 piece of armor and I make aroud 20 pieces a day that is down from what I use to make. 0 Easy, 0 Challenging and 9947 Hard Armorsmithing work orders.

While I have no problem believing this, I can understand the person you're replying to.

I think one problem with script checking in DR is that it's so rare that if you get caught it feels unfair.

And while it is absolutely fair - because the policy is clear and you broke the policy, there is a lot to be said for systems that give the impression fairness.

I'm not going into detail, but there's been quite a bit of study in this area, mainly from the point of view of legal systems. Like what makes people feel that laws are fair and fairly enforced, as well as what makes people obey laws. And it's no surprise that DR script checks in practice go against what you'd implement if you want your policy to be obeyed.

I've not been playing that long, and haven't been script checked yet.

What I have had are zombie players come into my room while I'm hunting and start hunting there. Not once or twice either. Sometimes they wake up when I complain, sometimes they don't. It's such a problem that I've started humming when hidden. Their script seems to sense that, and they move on.

My conclusion is that whatever script checking is in place is not sufficient to deter people from doing so. At least at my level.

Of course, it would totally make sense for GMs to skew their resources towards higher level players, so my experience may not be typical.

Yes, do you have the option to report, or just make yourself known. scripts aren't perfect, but a person showing up isn't going to give you the right to kill them. that can land you in hot water instead of them.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Yeah, guess what.. coming into a room & hunting critters that advance you is not per policy "kill consent". Picking up junk without asking may be.

Its been stated by staff before that no one player owns any rooms or critters in the rooms, if they advance on the player. Advancing on anothers critters without asking is different.

I'd go with reporting them, let the staff deal with it, thats what they are for (among other things of course :) )
But then again, I'm nobody :)

"Yeah, guess what.. coming into a room & hunting critters that advance you is not per policy "kill consent".

It doesn't also mean you can't make a egg champion and walk away

M@c ~]X!j % %AN_rrWB5z4%p rBa =jZb*h[mp,0;pv` knIM%aJ|
******************************************
WARNING: You are carrying an extremely large number of items on your person.
Having a very high number of items can cause character corruption or

If you suspect someone's AFKing REPORT them and move on. Don't kill them, mess with them - you could be interrupting a script check in progress and that could get YOU in trouble. Or they may not be AFK and could report you for attacking them. Or you could invite trouble on yourself later that you don't want.

Consider just being a good neighbor, though. Some areas are so crowded that people have to double up and it's not the end of the world.

Mazrian

People hunting in the same room as you, AFK (unprovable by any player) or not, is not something I expect to ever be made against policy. It's been stated since the start that no player owns a room just because they are hunting there. Loot on the ground doesn't belong to a player either, just like grave robbing. It's poor etiquette but not against policy.

Rhadyn da Dwarb - Blood for fire!

Barbarian Guild Suggestions
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