Afk punished

Riner · October 2022

Now it's probable that what you are seeing is someone using an interface that's not allowed. I agree with you fully. I also have no way of accounting for doors opening without facing them, so again that makes your conclusion likely.

As for the targeting and swinging\shooting as long as I use target nearest or even target next I will continue to pick up targets as I move around and as one dies. Also, if I choose to incorporate specials into my macro I don't have to restart it to use it - I use a primary and secondary attack macro on my sampire. It periodically retargets and hits whichever special I choose. So, for me I begin a fight and depending on if there are one or more, I pick which special which is most useful. I have not tried to write one where I can run around once it's started and target - hit things but it's very doable. If the macro doesn't have a target, it will wait out the delay and try again. Now I will finish this by saying that this is not what you are describing or witnessing if doors are opened without facing them. Also, each time I would open a door I would have to restart the macro. So yes, you are witnessing an illegal program most likely. And should at least consider paging rather than simply talking to us about it. Also, to Pawain's point I have not even tried to set up keyboard or mouse macros' and do not know how they might work with in game macros or instead of.

A final thought is that this behavior would most likely be outside of the realm of their AFK monitor as Mesanna said, that this event is designed for active gameplay, which what you describe would appear to be if looked at casually.

Seth · October 2022

@keven2002
In EC, we can set a macro to open nearest and next item. I used that to open doors and corpses by assigning a key.

When standing next to the door without facing it, it can open the door.

When there are corpses and door nearby, it becomes erratic - may either open the door or corpses first.

We can set to target next so to create a chain in just one click.

Merus · October 2022

It is also my understanding that it is possible to repeat a macro a significant number of times (I’ve heard 1000) though I don’t use EC to verify. With a delay to accommodate shooting speed you could have a single macro to toggle a weapon special then attack nearest target (by filter) that could run for like 20 minutes with a single key stroke.

Seth · October 2022

Merus said:

It is also my understanding that it is possible to repeat a macro a significant number of times (I’ve heard 1000) though I don’t use EC to verify. With a delay to accommodate shooting speed you could have a single macro to toggle a weapon special then attack nearest target (by filter) that could run for like 20 minutes with a single key stroke.

I think attacking nearest and next, casting spells, healing, open nearest object etc, are possible repeatable actions. EC allows 10 times officially but we copy and paste each time say 100 times in the file so 100 x 10 is 1000 times.

I think the issue with script bots are those that run around on fixed path, able to sense what items, corpses creatures to engage. But as we saw for Easter eggs event, they appear to be slow.

keven2002 · October 2022

@Kyronix - Can we please get a GM to log into work early a few random days on ATL? Like right around now. The cast of stanger things (5 chars total with their lead) has been joined by the screen actors guild (actor names) with another train of 5 Gargs all spamming consecrate weapon auto attacking everything on screen. It's so blatant that I'm sure a GM could tell in about 5 seconds these groups are using something illegal.

FYI - I've reported this before in game but my assumption is that since it's before normal "business hours" there is nobody online to catch them in the act because they are usually offline by 9am.

Petra_Fyde · October 2022

While it is possible to make macros like that, for me, personally, it would be a complete waste of time, because you cancel a running macro whenever you use another. For me, simple one action macros work best. I've never found the 'smart' target to be that smart, it hardly ever targets what I want to hit. The 'hostile' who has aggroed on me from half a screen away is of less interest than the 'hostile' that has not yet targeted me but is much closer.

Grimbeard · October 2022

Petra_Fyde said:

While it is possible to make macros like that, for me, personally, it would be a complete waste of time, because you cancel a running macro whenever you use another. For me, simple one action macros work best. I've never found the 'smart' target to be that smart, it hardly ever targets what I want to hit. The 'hostile' who has aggroed on me from half a screen away is of less interest than the 'hostile' that has not yet targeted me but is much closer.

The ability to set threat assessment would be nice

keven2002 · October 2022

Petra_Fyde said:

While it is possible to make macros like that, for me, personally, it would be a complete waste of time, because you cancel a running macro whenever you use another.

Yes - this was a point I made earlier, that even though you can technically set a reoccurring macro to do target nearest hostile 100x that you wouldn't be able to run that in the background while you are using specials/casting spells/drinking pots/etc. UO game mechanics do not allow for this. I'd love to be able to not worry about arming my weapon after it's disarmed or having a trapped box auto-open while remaining aggro'ed against my target without interruption.

My conclusion is that a large amount (not all though) of people getting hit with the no damage penalty are probably doing something they shouldn't be; whether it be AFK / rails / scripts / 3rd party programs / etc and that will be my opinion until someone can prove what the seemingly "auto" stuff I'm seeing on ATL is achievable via legal means.

Pawain · October 2022

You can have your keyboard or mouse press a button every x seconds. Since when does using another macro stop another? Is that an EC thing? I don't think CC macros can repeat.
If they are not both casting a spell or something like that. I have thought of bandaging every 4 seconds with a keyboard macro, but when you get hit, your stamina drops and you take longer so the next attempt starts over the previous just when you needed it.

These guys need conscrate? They did not get fire weapons?

If you put enough info about what they are doing into an internet search, you could probably find the script and what program it works with.

Pawain · October 2022

Some are saying they get no warning from a GM. The team could hit these people based on your page and they would have a timeout when they log on. Then monitor if they complain about it, which opens an avenue to tell them it's because of suspected scripting. Then see what they say.

Otherwise, we do not know if a GM did question one of them and found they are not afk.

I've had a GM respond at 2am. Are sure none are on at 5am? Get something stuck and ask for help to see.

dara · October 2022

vortex said:

Again the only people I see complaining and getting flagged afk have a few posts... Don't see any veteran players having afk problems SMH

What a stupid thing to say.

Radst · November 2022

One Japanese player posted on his blog: basically he (warrior) was probably fighting a paragon (spec armor), and as you know all warriors usually stand toe-to-toe and don't move much. So he spent 5 minutes with this paragon TROLL...and boom, got hit by "AFK".

So yes, to all those non-believers that are accusing of us doing "shady" stuff or "AFK": earth is NOT flat. I've been hit by this nonsense almost once every day.

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/b6/c2qfx7g8r9nt.jpg

keven2002 · November 2022

How is posting some Japanese bloggers screenshot proving they (or you) aren't doing anything shady? That's like getting a speeding ticket and saying "but I wasn't speeding".

If some one is being hit once a day (every day) with the AFK thing then either the GM has something against that person (which is something to take up with Mesanna) or there is something they are doing to get that (and it's not regular gameplay).

If you were to tell me that you were hit with this once or twice I'd say it's probably just bad luck but every single day (at least once??); either that's extremely embellished or you are doing something questionable. If that really is the case then maybe you should record your day (entire screen to see what client you are using etc) and then share it so we can see if there is something going on that might be the reason. It seems like plenty of people are quick to say the "anti-macro" thing isn't working right and they keep getting incorrectly tagged but nobody is providing actual proof they aren't doing something questionable.

I've played both a tamer and sampire for this event and have killed probably 100+ paragon PE/Rams/Spec Armors (solo) which does sometimes take a few minutes yet I have never been hit with the AFK thing. That said, I only use UOA and don't have multiple chars following my every step or auto attacking or running on the same rail for hours on end.

Pawain · November 2022

I accidentally left 2 guys sitting in the dungeon in different places for over 20 mins. Both could kill things when I returned. Both had some low level bodies next to them.

They should not call this an afk penalty.

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