Unwritten Rules

[Idoru]

so I'm looking forward to see first singing bots in the game

Im quite sure that is exactly what would happen, you have your bot there mining away and every minute or so send the command /say "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Its off to work we go......."  

Im personally quite certain that this person was AFK-Training, if not botting aswell, any half-wit should be able to realise that gaining an advantage over other players while not actually being personally active in the game is cheating, be it botting or being AFK near a mob. I personally cant see why they would have their ban shortened. Maybe if his monitor had died or his keyboard had exploded ithey would have a decent excuse  

[zanzibar]

I'm wondering now whether an AFK-mode may be useful, perhaps with some icon by a player's name - if it's not turned off within 5 minutes, they're kicked from the server. It would be a nice addition.

I'll park a character near Harnquist and walk away.  I'll check back every so often to see if something interesting has happened.  It would be a pain in the but if I was kicked off the server after 5 minutes of inactivity.

[Bereror]

Note that it is not the same NPC for your character. It is the same NPC for us, as we know how things are programmed and stuff. But it is OOC knowledge. A character doesn't know it. So you are trying to make IC rule basing on complete OOC and in this case it would be terrible mistake. First the spawning need to be developed, so that we can finally treat it as ic knowledge and furher develop other things like being mentally tired of constant fighting.
I hope you understand me.

Well, it is like having a hole in the wall from where rats are coming to your living room from the basement. So you just sit there and kill the rat when it shows up ... and kill again ... kill another rat ... kill more rats ... Until you get bored and lose your focus. And these rats are big and fat, they can bite you if you don't watch out  

[Seytra]

I agree that this player FAICS was cheating. After all, is it not common sense to move into a spot where you don't run the risk of being attacked if you go AFK?

Additionally, there is the "/away <text>" command. If that was activated, then the GM would have known, because they send the suspects a /tell. And "/away <text>" replies to a /tell with "(auto-reply) <text>". So it was obviously not activated.

Yes, there always is the slim chance of going AFK due to urgent matters that don't even allow moving away. In these cases a client shutdown isn't always feasible, but that should be far rarer than usual, and the suspect didn't claim anything like this.

Thus it is conscious AFK training, and I don't see why that would not be treated just like external botting. After all, it is exploiting a bug (namely, lack of implementation).

The issue of some visual AFK indication, along with some "stasis", has been discussed before. The essential problem was the then possible abuse of it to get around dying, but that could be countered by activating the stasis for any MOB that would engage in combat after AFK has been turned on. This way, any fight that already started would continue as usual, but no new would start.

Unrealistic - yes. But it's an OOC solution to an OOC problem, so it doesn't qualify for realism, anyway. In fact, if we were to make sitting that marker, then there would be "RPers" who claim that sitting is a good way to hide...

Edit: I think it would be a good thing that whatever AFK method gets implemented, it should auto-activate after some time of inactivity (except a boot for reasons already stated). That won't prevent bots, but it would help legitimate players who unexpectedly go AFK. Maybe this feature could even be manually turned off, in the case of the RP-support alt doing the waiting routine. /Edit

[zanzibar]

So if I wanted to advance in a high level of light armour, and I did it by parking my character infront of a rat and coming back 15 minutes later, I would get banned for cheating?

[Idoru]

I hope so!

[Monketh]

Interesting.  I can't say that fifteen minutes of beating up a rat is a good use of my time on this earth, however.  The only real problem with AFK leveling is that is is unfair in a number of senses to player with poor connections, shared computers, etc.

[UBFISCH]

What is AFK?

[bilbous]

It means away from keyboard. It indicates that you are not monitoring the game and will miss any attempts to get your attention

[Nikodemus]

i couldnt stop myself ;P

[Lanarel]

Both my short swords are at quality 0, time to repair them. This takes 675 seconds to raise quality 3.2 points. Being kicked after 5 minutes would be annoying, as I may not be watching my character standing in this remote spot for all the 6 hours it will take me to repair them fully.
(Of course I could just repair while running around, but that is abusing a bug )

[Karyuu]

You guys didn't read my comment on an AFK-mode too carefully. I mentioned an AFK mode that would display some sort of icon by your character's name, and would not allow you to do anything but have access to the chat. No fighting, no repair, mining, etc. Plus it would not be automatic, but manual. As I said, I have practice with an automatic boot from the server every time I log in, and it's beyond aggravating. Therefore if you know that you are going to be gone for a few minutes, it shouldn't be a huge effort to either type /away, or click on a shortcut for it, even if your pull away is urgent.

[Lanarel]

I mentioned an AFK mode that would display some sort of icon by your character's name, and would not allow you to do anything but have access to the chat. No fighting, no repair, mining, etc.

So what to do with a 675 seconds repair (no joke btw), since that AFK mode is not allowed? Or the AFK mode would stop my repair and I have to start again? How to avoid being kicked when repairing in a remote spot where there is nothing to do than stand? What if this post takes me more than 5 minutes? Time to stop and check back at my repair

[Karyuu]

To repair weapons, you must have something to repair. It's not a bottomless well of resources that you can tap over and over, unlike fighting and mining (most important point). Therefore if you go AFK while your character is working on a single weapon, it's no big deal, and in such a case a /tell away message may be all you need for the curious

[bilbous]

And, of course, nothing prevents you from having a conversation while you repair. Is moving around while repairing really a bug? I never thought of it that way but I guess it is possible. You cannot repair while you are sitting down which seems incongruous.