#planeshift-gmtalk and "idling"

[LigH]

The channel topic in the IRC channel "#planeshift-gmtalk" says:

... No Idling. You will be asked to leave after resolving the issue or be kicked if unresponsive.

But that is only meant for visitors -- not for GMs too?

Or how long is an "expected response time" after you called a GM by name? More than 10 min? More than 30 min?

Being ignored makes me feel unwelcome. Especially when I cannot see that a GM doesn't watch a channel regularly (e.g. by modifying his nickname).

And when do I enter an IRC channel for GMs? Usually if there is something more or less urgent. If not, I could have written a petition.

[Caarrie]

It seems not all gms change their names when they go afk, some dont even put /away on, there is not much anyone can do about that. The best thing you can do is leave a message for them to contact you again or as you said leave a petition. and NO the idle policy does not apply to the gms.

Talad made this policy for the channel, no gm did, the GM team is just trying to follow it.

[Rennaj]

First off sorry you did not get a reply, but I was marked away, now some do not see this, also at times we have many windows open, so hard to keep track, Second by all means do a petition.

[LigH]

In my case, I started a bug report, because this issue was so blatant that it renders a "feature" of the game totally useless, and - together with the death penalty - makes the game very unpleasant, even felt unfair.

[neko kyouran]

"You've reached the GM-player help line.  We are sorry, but all of our GMs are busy at the moment.  If you would like to leave your character name, and a brief message of your problem, we'll get back with you when a GM becomes available to service your issue.  Thank you for using the GM-player help line.  Your call is important to us.  If at any time you'd like to leave a petition, push the # key."

 

[LigH]

Hehehe ... sure. Wow, GMs are indeed busy. My deep respect to all of you. I know why I can't become one. No issue is too urgent.

*edit*

As I suspected already ... Zwenze helped me checking several Tefusangs via a spell. The usual Melee level seems to be around 25. But at least two ot the Tefusangs next to the stone bridge are at Melee level 200.

This makes the "opponent rating" in the /targetinfo window useless. It offers a wrong safety to players, who want to get Tefusang hides for a quest. It annoys players. It is simply unfair. It is a bug - no matter how soft you try to soap this fact.

Do you really enjoy players thinking about you like sitting in the ivory tower and grinning about the next dead noob?!

[Zwenze]

I "scanned" those tefus with natural intuition. Some had high Melee others had high endurance some had a combination from booth. Bad surprise for non warrior chars 

*Edit: typo fix*

[Suno_Regin]

I often wondered why some were stronger than others regardless of the target info...I thought I was glitched or something.

[LigH]

I think it is similar to the (accepted) bug of extremely high defense values right after a server reboot.

[Ravenguard]

*raises his hand as one of the 'next dead noobs'*

I've always wondered what that was about.  If I examine something and it's 'significantly weaker' than me, yet is able to 4-shot me in about 5 seconds, it doesn't seem right.

I mentioned it several times in posts, but never got a definitive answer (that I remember, my memory is sketchy).  I didn't pursue it because it seemed like one of those topics that has been discussed, and would earn me a stern beating for bringing it up.

[Martine]

May be because this message is based on the stats and not on the skills and depending on your INT stat too.

It's the same thing when you see "noticeably weaker" player killing big mobs in 2 hits, may be they have low stats but high skills and certainly using crafted weapons of quality 300.

This is going completly off-topic.

[LigH]

You are right ... the technical part is already taken to Bugtracker FS#864.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

I certainly did want to make the monsters vary in strength but I did not know it would now display it's difficulty properly. Definitely understand the frustration. It will be fixed soon I am sure. The response time on many bugs is significantly improved these days due to the efforts of many.

[Alerele Ahewenel]

The non-idling rule is there to give people with a problem privacy while we investigate the problem. As we're usually in game aswell and in quite a few channels on IRC, it's best to call us by name, so we get alerted by a notice that someone is trying to get in contact.

Do keep in mind though, we're also policing, handling petitions, and involved in other tasks, chats, wikiupdates, forum replies and such. We can't always respond within a minute or so. Sometimes the notice gets drowned in other messages too.

Although for most players, we are invisible, and what we do is usually not noticable, we are busy people.

In general... Have a little patience. And first think if you really need direct hands-on response by a GM anyway. Bugreports and petitions usually work the best. One example of needing hands-on response is when your character got stuck, or can't logon with a character because it went out of bounds.

If you really need one of us, and don't get a response in, say, 5 minutes: Nudge again, maybe someone else?