ToT assessment: Anti afk system and Paragons aren't working as 'intended' and should be removed

username

We're many ToTs deep after seeing these things added to ToTs and they're not working.

The anti-afk system. It's catching far more legitimate players than cheaters. As we've seen now, these multibox and bot farms are not being hit (as they're constantly moving) and are thus allowed to AFK in these ToT areas uninterrupted. If anything, it's empowered these players, since as long as these players are moving and not being hit by this system the GMs will not check and disregard any pages on them. 

Paragons. The risk to reward just isn't worth it. No surprise most players and bots ignore them, especially the tougher ones. Go to Atlantic when there is a paragon skele dragon/paragon rune beetle or two wandering around. The bots will literally die for 24 hours straight, resurrect, and keep going, just to not kill it. Let's be clear the farms of bots have WAY MORE than enough firepower to kill it but decide not to. Wonder why? Also, as even just a casual player, there is a pretty obvious way or three to not even deal with the paragons ever, thus again, defeating the purpose of them which was initially stated to prevent afk gameplay. Really, they should be removed or buffed... the tougher paragons that can one shot you should drop at LEAST 1 artifact PER participant.

While we're at it the drops should be made, or the option should be added, to claim account bound rewards at a far reduced point cost as they have no inherent market value and allow to use the items I earn on any server like a true sandbox game.

Pawain

Sorry, I see none of this.  I run to Paragons because the high end ones give enough points for a drop. You have not been killing Para Beetles it seems.

popps

By the way, how does the anti AFK thing work ?

If one is hit by it, regardless whether by accident or what not, for how long they cannot damage monsters at the Event ?

Is it only versus Event monsters or all monsters in the game ?

Is it a character penalty or an account penalty (that is, all characters are affected by the penalty even though they were not the AFK character to be hit by it...)

The "downtime" needs be spent logged off or can the account/character do something in the game over that time period ?

Does the character/account get a message saying that the downtime has lapsed and now they can resume hitting MOBs for damage at the Event ?

Is there a Link with all of these info and more which players might want to know about this penalty?

Thanks.

Larisa

Pawain said:

Sorry, I see none of this.  I run to Paragons because the high end ones give enough points for a drop. You have not been killing Para Beetles it seems.

Same.

Every time I kill a para lady of the snow or rune beetles I get a drop..well almost every time. 97%..to me it's worth the time spent. Then you kill all the piddly little ones and it adds up pretty fast.

Pawain

Larisa said:

Pawain said:

Sorry, I see none of this.  I run to Paragons because the high end ones give enough points for a drop. You have not been killing Para Beetles it seems.

Same.

Every time I kill a para lady of the snow or rune beetles I get a drop..well almost every time. 97%..to me it's worth the time spent. Then you kill all the piddly little ones and it adds up pretty fast.

Exactly. Once you are at the required points or really close. Each kill gives a higher chance to get the drop.  So don't kill a high end para then go right for another.  This is th e first event that I look for the drop message, when I get one I head straight for a Paragon, if I know where I let one.

Grimbeard

The developers insist this is working as intended so our only assumption can be that anyone that comes here complaining is in fact a cheating hacker

Arnold7

I think the paragons are working as intended.  I don’t solo the beetles because they just take too many hits to make killing them not worthwhile for me, and I don’t do the high end ones alone for the same reason - they just take too long to kill.  But I drop all the paragons in between.  I would agree getting a paragon reward that is about 1/3 more points for a para that’s ten times harder to kill than a normal version isn’t a good return on investment.  But groups of players can kill the tougher ones pretty fast.
As. for the afk penalty, I have not been hit by it in this event.  I think in, was it Deciet?, when you had a group of players not moving around while they all pummeled a major paragon held down by a pet, it just flagged all of them.  What troubled me the most there was that UO just had no remedy for  players that were flagged just for being there at the wrong time.  You were not told you were flagged or for how long.  And, if you contacted an EM, you were just told not to contact them again, ever, on any issue you had with the afk penalty.  Think that was the stupidest response I ever got from anyone I ever complained to about anything.  We have fewer players now so I don’t think it is a problem on my shard with this event.

CovenantX

I have never been hit by the anti-afk thing.  as I said in another thread a couple weeks ago, i didn't even think it was real until Kyronix basically verified its existence.

I only ever use UOAassist or just default CCs when I play, though I haven't done much of this current event, but even in past events in which people were complaining about the anti-afk thing, I still have not experienced it at all.

I also assume that people being hit by it, are likely running something other than the official clients, but at the same time, It's probably possible for non-cheaters to be affected somehow too, I just don't have any experience with it to judge accurately one way or the other.

I also know there are people running scripts to completely afk the event that are not being hit by the anti-afk thing as well.  There are definitely still bots that are not flagged.

Skett

people running the official cc no add-ons no 3rd party add-ons are being hit by this anti -afk/cheating bug that's a fact...

Pawain

Skett said:

people running the official cc no add-ons no 3rd party add-ons are being hit by this anti -afk/cheating bug that's a fact...

Can you find out how? I have a tamer sitting on a ship I use for ressing and paragon distraction.  He does not get hit. 

Skett

running around on an archer killing things in the snow area

Pawain

Skett said:

running around on an archer killing things in the snow area

My other guy is running around beetlescape every time I play. So, no believing it. 

Skett

ok ....

Drowy

I can also confirm 2 fellow archers getting flagged one while moving in the ice area, the other standing on a ship in the ice area looking in her bag for a minute. 

So I agree that the anti afk system doesnt make any sense anymore, the scripters move all the time.

The paragons seem ok to me. Tough ones often can give you an item or soon after killing them. But I also think Ronin, Fan Dancer, Skeletal Dragons, Frost Mite and, at least for me as melee, Rune Beetles arent worth fighting, because they take too long and/or can cause a fast death, especially with the scripters dragging them to and from you most of the time. If those wouldnt be around, all paragons should be ok if you have a group to kill them.

Grimbeard

I can't believe these suggestions that our highly skilled and players friendly developers have some how implemented and left in place a flawed measure designed to punish cheaters that targets innocent people 

Pawain

I'm not seeing Para Beetles taking a long time.



Using the new mace weapon without consecrate and I prefer to fight them away from other things.


My Archer can do 200+ damage per AI hit.

I just stood there and made this post.  Did not get afk penalty...

Grimbeard

Clearly if allen can afk kill a para beetle in 30 seconds and not get hit with penalties then the rest of you are haxxor cheaters 

Pawain

Grimbeard said:

Clearly if allen can afk kill a para beetle in 30 seconds and not get hit with penalties then the rest of you are haxxor cheaters 

It was the standing in the same spot while posting for 5 + min after killing it that should have given me the afk flag.

Whitewolf

i havent gotten the afk for fighting the event spawn only for sailing on my ship pirate hunting got flagged twice now for that. and of course you dont know your flagged till ya find a pirate ship or beacon and find out you cant do any damage. 

Arnold7

Pawain guess what I was trying to say is when using my beetle slayer spellbook it takes two to four flame strikes to kill a deathwatch para beetle worth 1960 fame points while it is chasing me and moving me out of position, some are stronger than others.  Am guessing it takes me 30 seconds or less to kill one most of the time.  But to kill a normal bone mage worth 3000 points using a undead slayer takes just one lighting strike and to kill the bone knight standing next to it worth another 3000 points takes just one energy bolt, and by moving a short distance as fast as I can I can take out a normal shade worth 4000 points with another lightening bolt.  That’s 1960 points vs 10,000 points in about the same amount of time with generally more effort expended for 1960  points than the 10,000.  Guess what I was trying to say is that I can kill one or more higher value targets in the time it takes to kill one para beetle so as a general rule I just don’t go after them.  I can do a normal T. Wolf using a demon slayer in about the same time as a para. beetle.  As a mage I do mostly individual targets which is why I leave beetles alone.  Not above dropping an EV on a group of normal beetles though.

Pawain

Arnold7 said:

Pawain guess what I was trying to say is when using my beetle slayer spellbook it takes two to four flame strikes to kill a deathwatch para beetle worth 1960 fame points while it is chasing me and moving me out of position, some are stronger than others.  Am guessing it takes me 30 seconds or less to kill one most of the time.  But to kill a normal bone mage worth 3000 points using a undead slayer takes just one lighting strike and to kill the bone knight standing next to it worth another 3000 points takes just one energy bolt, and by moving a short distance as fast as I can I can take out a normal shade worth 4000 points with another lightening bolt.  That’s 1960 points vs 10,000 points in about the same amount of time with generally more effort expended for 1960  points than the 10,000.  Guess what I was trying to say is that I can kill one or more higher value targets in the time it takes to kill one para beetle so as a general rule I just don’t go after them.  I can do a normal T. Wolf using a demon slayer in about the same time as a para. beetle.  As a mage I do mostly individual targets which is why I leave beetles alone.  Not above dropping an EV on a group of normal beetles though.

That's the idea, find what works best for you.  But I have liked the paragons in these events so I can't resist them.

If I played a mage, I would probably find a different place to play. I have a 28 Beetle slayer book, but they do seem to take a while to kill and they cast back.

I would like to count how many normal beetles make a drop, but I always forget to do it.

I wish the T Wolves close to Yamandon Point were part of the event, I would have probably played there instead.

username

Pawain said:

That's the idea, find what works best for you.  But I have liked the paragons in these events so I can't resist them.

I find it really funny you're all high-and-mighty, "Sorry, I see none of this." and then completely 180 to this when proven completely wrong, and so easily too. 

Basicilly what @Arnold7 said is what I implied. They're not worth killing. Also, if you love paragon killing so much, you should be all for the part of making them more rewarding.

Ah, the casual being gas lit constantly.

Pawain

username said:

Pawain said:

That's the idea, find what works best for you.  But I have liked the paragons in these events so I can't resist them.

I find it really funny you're all high-and-mighty, "Sorry, I see none of this." and then completely 180 to this when proven completely wrong, and so easily too. 

Basicilly what @ Arnold7 said is what I implied. They're not worth killing. Also, if you love paragon killing so much, you should be all for the part of making them more rewarding.

Ah, the casual being gas lit constantly.

He is using a mage.  Are you?  Any other fighting template can kill Beetles pretty fast. 

They give a drop per kill, what more do you want?  Them to die in one hit?

UO is a game of decisions.  I decide not to fight any Skele Dragons.  If others decide to stay away from other things, then that is their choice, it does not mean the game is broken as you state.