How AFK flagging works
Been flagged now twice for no apparent reason but believe this morning I figured out how the flagging application works on the second floor near the steps. First when I am there every once in a while a gaggle of three or four players or afk players (I can’t tell if they are present or afk they act real enough to me) comes down the steps killing every thing in sight which triggers additional spawn. Second all the action congregates in front of the steps with lots of spawn big and small surrounded by these players with the action becoming hot and heavy, third I join in using meteor swarm (I can’t target anything when this happens so I use a spell that hits multiple targets). Fourth the afk application profiles these players as being afk (quite possibly some of them are) based on this activity and it flags everyone in the general area since it’s looking at the overall activity and not individual players. It’s a form of profiling.
That makes sense now. No one looking specifically at my character would think I am afk. I am always moving, playing independently and responding to what is happening. I don’t fit the profile. But when the gaggle of players comes down the overall activity does. Usually, these guys don’t hang around long after the fight and I only see them come down occasionally, like when I get flagged.
Not accusing the players that come down all at once as being afk. They seem normal enough to me. Just saying the overall activity, and not what individual players are doing, triggers the afk flagging.
Not going to complain about the lack of any built in safeguards to prevent innocent players from being flagged.
That makes sense now. No one looking specifically at my character would think I am afk. I am always moving, playing independently and responding to what is happening. I don’t fit the profile. But when the gaggle of players comes down the overall activity does. Usually, these guys don’t hang around long after the fight and I only see them come down occasionally, like when I get flagged.
Not accusing the players that come down all at once as being afk. They seem normal enough to me. Just saying the overall activity, and not what individual players are doing, triggers the afk flagging.
Not going to complain about the lack of any built in safeguards to prevent innocent players from being flagged.
Comments
How does it work? Depend on people paging or is it an auto code? Will it lead to actions against the account? Is it just for the tot events or everywhere? Why is it flagging innocent players? What are you going to do moving forward to prevent it flagging innocent players?
If it's outside of tot events I'd be highly pissed to spend an hour on quests to be flagged during the encounter because my disco tamer never moves.
https://forum.uo.com/discussion/11584/afk-out-of-control
There's an important detail in a reply in that thread, if you read closely.
Expanding on that, in deceit, perhaps people should recall to a new location if they see a "suspicious" group of players approaching.
I have seen nothing to suggest what is in this thread applies outside deceit.
That gaggle probably paged on Arnold because they did not want him taking their kills. Which proves there is someone sitting at their PC.
Yall are getting actioned because others are paging on you. It's been that way the whole time.
It's probably players who read the constant threads about Bots. They think any group is a Bot so they page on the because the internet told them to.
I will be slow to reply because I cannot log in/stay logged in to the forums.
Make this your signature if you are tired of Vendor Search being broken, over 4 years and counting.
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But, I still say others are paging on each other, probably because of all the BOT threads.
The actual Bots answer the GMs question because they are at their gaming station. So now, according to the posters who are flagged, they are just flagging the account without trying to talk to the player. I have not been flagged so I have no proof that a GM is not talking to flagged players.
The notion this is being triggered by players paging is 100% nonsense. That's based on my own observations.
Now if that's automated, how are they going from that -> actual email AFK warnings, without any investigation or interruption of gameplay, the ones that lead to account action. Is that automated also?
No one (at least I'm not) asking for a direct statement on how it works or the intricacies of the system if it is automated. However, in your scenario, I'm pretty sure the bank will tell you that fraud is illegal, else the local laws of your area will tell you that fraud is illegal, and that's the biggest problem we've seen so far: there hasn't even been an announcement of a change of their own rules. Even such "hey be sure not to afk in the dungeon you've been warned!" because if these AFK flags lead to permanent account action and this change has not been announced, INNOCENT PLAYERS WILL BE ACTIONED. You can be AFK in the game as long as you are not performing actions/skills/etc. Players can AFK in the dungeon legitimately. For example: if I die, perhaps I AFK and make a phone call or use the bathroom knowing I have plenty of time to get my corpse back. A completely innocent player could get hit by this system and potentially lose their account? THIS NEEDS TO BE ANNOUNCED FOR THAT REASON ALONE.
I will be slow to reply because I cannot log in/stay logged in to the forums.
Make this your signature if you are tired of Vendor Search being broken, over 4 years and counting.
Vendor search rendered useless after Publish 106 – Forsaken Foes on August 14, 2019.
There are players on LS that never leave the first floor.
And only players in EC get time outs? Not true.
CC also gets a drop message.
Anybody is free to test and report back on the suggestions here. I offer no warranty or guarantee.
I can't speak to how much ground those LS players are covering on first floor, or how often they go outside, or what their drop rate may be, or whether they are getting flagged in any way.
optimization tip: 4 runic atlas, each set to a different floor of the dungeon as the default recall point. assign macros ctrl-1 to ctrl-4 to recall on each atlas. you can now switch floors in 1.5 seconds with a single button press.
Some players are not "brave" enough to go beyond the first floor I guess. If anyone that is a regular player on LS, they will talk in chat if they can not damage the Mobs. We talk in Gen chat a lot. Come during prime time 7C to 10C, chat is busy. And 5 others would repeat whatever someone says is causing issues trying to help them.
So there are players who never leave a floor or recall out for an hour or more. The other day I was playing with another archer and we stayed on the second floor for a significant amount of time because the spawn was very quick, and they were not familiar with the third floor. We both got drops and neither of us were affected by this trigger you think is in the game. After 20 mins I did get bored on the second floor so I did go to the third and fourth. I can't play in the same spot for long, but it was a wonderful anomaly that the second floor was spawning so quickly, so I stayed as long as I could handle.
Tell me step by step what to do to make your theory trigger. But spending 20 mins on a floor while getting drops does not trigger anything for me or others on LS.
I am willing to try your theory if I have enough info to re create it. I have melee, thrower, Ninja Tiger, Archer, Tamer, Plain Mage.
I can use any of those if I know what to do with what type toon and for how long.
(Arnold better not be a Bot! He tricked me if he is.)
I also play early (around now) when I'd assume GMs either are not on or are just logging on and based on my experience over the last week or so on Origin (ie not worth playing outside of luck statue effect) I've limited my play to just an hour or so a day.
@Arnold7 - What shard are you playing on? Also what time frame have you been hit with the penalty and how long do you typically play? I'm thinking maybe some of these timing things factor in to the algorithm because I can see how they might see your character has been online in the dungeon for X hours a day most days and that flags you so when you are around other suspicious activity it flags you too?
I usually play near the steps on the second floor and the area above the steps because there is more room to run in those areas. I do play in the other areas of the dungeon when more players are present but was flagged both times in the area I usually play in.