Feedback: AFK checks
This discussion was created from comments split from: I HATE.
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"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Regarding the actions around when checks occur: checks are repeated, so if you miss one it isn't the end of the world; you'd have to miss several for more than a minute.
Regarding color, dark colors will be avoided, and color will likely be random. What is the problem with cyan? It's a bright color that is more readily noticeable than the red being tested before.
(I should probably split this off to another thread, but I'm on mobile during a break at work. I won't be reliably responding for a few hours for the same reason.)
More readily noticeable? yes..
...Noticeable in areas with says, or during huge amounts of spam? Not really, when the message is so freaking small.
Pretty much this, really. I was paying complete attention earlier, and didn't even notice it until the third check popped up. (as cyan, not red)
Then stuff like this occurs (please ignore the abysmal prompt, I know it's horrible ok):
You point an imperious finger at an agitated kochlan.
An agitated kochlan's skin cracks and sizzles as flames spontaneously erupt all over his body.
eq:2.32
<610/610h 632/640m 0B 70.24 (0)> <-b db> [T:kochlan|UNL|846|8816] []
eqbal+ Attack kochlan
<610/610h 632/640m 0B 70.24 (0)> <-b db> [T:kochlan|UNL|846|8816] []
([*%]*$>)$$.),>$.(&}#,,>*({]>#!..,.(^$.
([*%]*$>)$$.),>$.(&}#,,>*({]>#!..,.(^$.
<610/610h 632/640m 0B 70.24 (0)> <-b db> [T:kochlan|UNL|846|8816] []
With a howl of rage, an agitated kochlan turns its head to the side and rips a hole in your flesh with the tip of its horn.
H -41c [6.7%] [90]
How exactly am I supposed to respond to that, or even catch it? My command colors are cyan on black, this AFK check was cyan on black. Thankfully I just had started bashing, else it's very easy I wouldn't have caught that, or the ensuing request.
<610/610h 640/640m 0B 70.24 (0)> <eb db> [T:kochlan|UNL|930|9992] []
(>,[*@{!},..!$%@,<*[[)@#}{)#]})%>!{%$^,.
(>,[*@{!},..!$%@,<*[[)@#}{)#]})%>!{%$^,.
(>,[*@{!},..!$%@,<*[[)@#}{)#]})%>!{%$^,.
< DANCE to prove you're really there! >.
(>,[*@{!},..!$%@,<*[[)@#}{)#]})%>!{%$^,.
<610/610h 636/640m 0B 70.24 (0)> <eb db> [T:kochlan|UNL|930|9992] []
You sweep across the floor, leaping and twirling like a true master.
So ugly. There has to be a better solution than this.
(I hate being spot checked virtually every time I go bashing now.)
Last time I recall AFK bashing being a thing was when there was a ring of people going around doing it, but a bunch of them got shrubbed.
-Imperianites make snide comments about afk bashing because they don't poopsock as well as certain epic pve'ers
-Admins utilize a system to actually catch afk bashers
-Imperianites complain about the system
-Admins attempt implement player suggested changes to said system
-Imperianites complain about system some more
I guess every step has a large amount of ??? but I refuse to postulate on the alleged profits.
Attack locust added to your EQBAL queue.
<512/512h 411/418m <e-pp> <bd>> <-7>
You have recovered balance.
You step in quickly with a slash across a short-horned desert locust's torso.
You have scored a surprisingly effective hit!
Damage dealt: 237 Remaining: 3.33%
Adrenaline flows in your veins and your wounds hurt less.
You quickly flow into the Ein-Fasit stance.
Balance Taken: 2.00s
You tear through a short-horned desert locust with a long vertical slice.
Damage dealt: 8 Remaining: 0.00%
Adrenaline flows in your veins and your wounds hurt less.
The final blow is too much, you have slain a short-horned desert locust.
You gain 77,630 (bash) experience. You need 1,729,136,850 more for level 155.
You gain 258 faith.
You take a small pile of sovereigns from the corpse as you pick it up.
You quickly flow into the Vae-Sant stance.
Balance Taken: 2.00s
You step in quickly with a slash across a short-horned desert locust's torso.
You have scored a shockingly powerful blow!
Damage dealt: 245 Remaining: 0.00%
Adrenaline flows in your veins and your wounds hurt less.
The final blow is too much, you have slain a short-horned desert locust.
You gain 70,910 (bash) experience. You need 1,729,065,940 more for level 155.
You gain 236 faith.
You pick up the corpse.
You quickly flow into the Ein-Fasit stance.
Balance Taken: 2.00s
You howl as a short-horned desert locust hacks into you.
Damage Taken: 11 blunt (raw damage: 38)
A short-horned desert locust opens a gash in your arm with a skillful blow.
Damage Taken: 9 cutting (raw damage: 31)
<490/512h 411/418m <e-pp> <bd> <-22>>
That is 33/52 visible lines on my screen.
Afk checks were initiated with the help of players who had issues with afk bashers, along with a major bashing event. However, I sincerely doubt one of the complaints a player had was "This is too easy to notice. I wish it was possible for me to miss it while actively playing"
That's not it though. I for one don't read the entire screen when I'm bashing. I pay attention to two things, 90% of the time:
1) My health,
2) The little box in my GUI, that lists all of the targets I'm gonna be hitting (which colours based on if they're aggro/teaming or not)
The old prompt was easy to see, because it wasn't some easily lost, 3 line prompt that barely took up any room whatsoever on the screen. And it was coloured to actually be noticeable. Even if that one was 3 lines, I'd still be able to see it a ton better than these current ones.
This is also wrong, if you read the posts you would see that. Has absolutely nothing with people able to trigger the prompt, given that the 'complaint' was about it being properly visible. Just look at the screenshots already provided. You can have 'good' AFK checks, without them being horribly obscure.
The actual issue is that "([*%]*$>)$$.),>$.(&}#,,>*({]>#!..,.(^$." looks like a line of gibberish, akin to what happens when my system screws up or starts spewing out gmcp garbage, which happens often enough that I'm prone to just ignore it. It's untriggerable, sure, but it's also unsightly and easy to miss, probably because our eyes are scanning for important keywords and colors, not long stretches of symbols that are potentially the same color as our commands/system outputs.
The idea of 'encouraging honest gold-earning and fair play' is obviously a positive one, but it can easily be viewed from the other perspective, which is 'punishing players for zoning out of a repetitive activity'. Depending on who you ask, bashing ranges from moderately entertaining to a violent assault on one's ability to remain conscious, so adding an inconvenient hurdle is bound to get the same spread of responses.
Additionally, the problem here isn't predator spam, it's how noticeable these warnings are. Similar to @wysrias, when I first saw it, I thought my bashing script was spewing out junk from an error. Predators have lengthy attacks and additional lines, but it could be the same for someone with a single-line attack and an inefficient basher. And while I am definitely in favor of 'honest gold-earning and fair play', it's extremely frustrating to be punished while playing fair and honestly earning gold just because afk checks have become difficult to see. A common argument is 'it's repeated many times', but this fails to show anything. My attack combo is every 2 seconds. Mobs are attacking me constantly. With mapview on and any decently fast pathing system, lines are ALWAYS scrolling by. On my afk check, I had to stop hunting and scroll up to check what the error was, only to find out it was a prompt telling me to send a tell to an admin, and that I had already missed three of them.
And finally, to restate what a lot of us have been saying, we don't have a problem with afk checks. We have a problem with hidden/unnoticeable afk checks, which is what we're talking about on here to change.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
When I can trigger an AFK check reliably I can have it play the "Oh crap check in now!" sound effect and leave it bashing while I play xbox across the room or read a book in bed or whatnot, because all I have to do is make it to the computer screen in a reasonable amount of time.
This is why I say that should be big and bright and impossible not to notice. If I am not paying enough attention to notice a giant box like
74345S3whsdh34535nbdrh#$^Eeth456#%$^34dfbdege4@#SDFVJEDH
G$T 748
WRY IO;
$BY ~S`
@#^ Tell LACHESIS "I'm not AFK!" ^#%
G$T 748
WRY IO;
$BY ~S`
REG@$&4587rethe476$#%*&ERTh3467$%*RTH#W$dtu$#%&Ebsr56#23
then, well, you got me. I should have been paying more attention. Mea culpa.
When I miss three cyan lines of text in the relentlessly scrolling bashing spam I'm not willing to admit that's necessarily my fault.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."