UOG: Demise

Hey all! I was hoping to get an idea on what the current (and past) players think about the current demise punishment system. Obviously, the goal being to use the poll as a sort of petition of staff to make changes (or not) based on votes. I will start by saying this post will be semi-long and I just request you read the all of my message before you vote/post.

Ok so here goes:
Currently, we can all agree that there is afk farming everywhere. From Miasma, to HeartWood, to Bods, to mining, to even karma, etc. In most cases many of us have named, recorded, screenshot, and paged on the most notorious of these. Yet these players still remain, collecting gold every moment further ruining the already destroyed demise economy. The point I want to make with all this is that the current system feels like it’s in place so that players don’t get banned. Banned players equals smaller population. Smaller population equals dead server. I argue that the opposite is true. If players AREN’T banned the population shrinks due to legit, non-cheating players leaving which equals a smaller population. Smaller population equals dead server. I can name 25+ players in KVG that left due to issues with afk farming versus literally only one I can name leaving for being banned (Opywang).

Now I can’t speak for staff, so I cannot begin to pretend to know what goes on that lets so many farm afk. But what I can speak to is the punishment system in place. I can do so from experience. Think of this as an ex-con telling all! The following is my best recollection of my experience as an AFK HW/Bod collector on Demise.

I was told when I started Demise 3 years ago to go to the official forums and use the HW script to make gold. So I did as I was so kindly told and started my heartwood empire. Four accounts running non stop 24/7. I was so excited gold checks started collecting very quickly. I was never checked for the first 6+months. I even set up a teamview to check in on my chars from work to ensure they didn’t accidentally get stuck/dc. After six months the “punishment” started.

Mind you every account was treated separately:
I will define an “offense” as a failed afk check by staff.
1st offense – warning
2nd offense – 6 hour suspend
3rd offense – 24 hour suspend
4th offense – 72 hour suspend
5th offense – 7 day (it seems) suspend – with every single HW item (runics and wood) deleted from my drop house (even items in boxes not hear my drop off point)
6th offense – 14 day ( I think) suspend
7th offense – 30 day (I think) suspend
8th offense – 60 day suspend and a warning from staff that I will lose my house next time – I assume that means the 9th was a 90 day suspend
9th offense – guessing here – 90 day suspend
10th offense - ????

So here is my question. Does the above punishment system work? Below is the poll I created to find out what you all think. Also, any more thoughts please post below.

The Poll:

https://www.ferendum.com/en-us/PID345725PSD27894

Do what every other successful server has done and severely punish afk farmers, script pvpers, dual client pvpers, dual client pvmers, peoplpe who cheat in pvp(blocking with boxes) and easyuo scripters (the scripts that cant be made or are less efficient in steam via the rules on the uodemise website). Make the afk checks fair. Give people a few minutes to respond. If they dont respond after 5-10 minutes, ip ban for a certain amount of time and delete their character and or account.

Remove the ban and introduce the prescription of the offense.
But, must be logged in game for drop the timer.

"Goodboy rule"
If you pass 1 month without be jailed, your offense level drop by 1.

"Welcome back rule"
If still in jail, 1 month without login will drop your offense level by 1.

Virgin
1st offense – 1 minute in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
2nd offense – 3 hour in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
3rd offense – 6 hour in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
4th offense – 12 hour in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
5th offense – 24 hour in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
6th offense – 48 hour in game jail (must be in game for drop the countdown)
7th offense – double
etc.. (never ban, never delete stuff, or other)

Plus: a way to check the current offense level by ourself

With these rules, jail system will be no more than a part of the game.
Also, GMs will have more fun sending macrotests.

too many offenses allowed. shouldnt get 7 chances per account to completely say fuck you to the rules

I don't play here anymore cause one, I don't have the time, and two I hate how scripted it is. But I think it should be 3 strikes and you're out on all accounts. If you're afk 3 times delete all accts.

The problem is not the punishment system, most of bots are unregistraded accounts........the problem is control afk farming

Problem is UO is a pvp game and u have to spend 24/7 getting gear to pvp. But due to such low drop rates u have more chance of winning the national lottery or have to spend so much time gathering resources to sell to make gold to buy items off over inflated idiots who do cheat and bend rules to get good crafted items etc.

Cunnana wrote: ↑January 15th, 2020, 1:56 pm ..............the problem is control afk farming

..............................

But don't worry Cunnana I taught my son well and since Arden has made this thread the GMs are out "controlling" the afk farming

Bama, I'm never disappointed when I see a new post from you. You inspire me to be a better citizen of Demise. We can all do our part to help "fix" the bot issue. It also appears that you're doing a hell of a job as a parent.

Keep up the great work!!

On topic, while I agree that punishments need to be much more severe, the real issue are the VPN accounts. It's not you or I with four accounts that are ruining this. It's the (Korean player name redacted to prevent blowback) that run 25+ accounts that are ruining all of this.

I happened upon said players operation the other day and was amazed to see more than 16 accounts all dumping resources into the same shit shack. I found his castle and was shocked to see 8 different accounts dumping into the castle. I counted twenty-four accounts all dropping resources into one players houses. That player (surprisingly!) has tens of thousands of resources for sale in the trading post. It's those people that are ruining the server.

Harsher punishment does nothing to prevent these VPN'tards.

Why is no one talking about the absolute root cause of afk scripting? People started automating shit years ago when they spent hours farming/bodding without getting anything. I suggest that if you apply harsher rules (which I’m 1000% on board with) you increase ROI for farming and non pvm activities. People pursue better gear and newer templates - that’s the point of all this afk automated shit. ML was a breakout era for UO, allowing endless template builds with newer items but the pvm loot has ALWAYS been the biggest deterrent. Ban people who consistently afk but incentivize active gameplay. Is a Harrower the best there is? If it stays that way for too long then you will see further decline of demise, unfortunately - regardless of how harsh the ramifications of afking are.

I don’t disagree that VPNing is also a problem. But if we can more easily ban the VPNs why not ? Force people to make more.

Imagine your staff and your job is to police afk hw. Every time we jail someone it’s the same 30 IPs but you’re hand cuffed Because the most you can do is toss out a 72 hour suspend.

Vs - delete all thier collected items and the accounts.

You could have 100 vpns once you’re caught every item you own pertaining to those bots are deleted.

Poool ?? Are u joking ???

Eg. Fake game pool with bots accounts instead of real forum pool about osi casting

https://www.uogdemise.com/community/vie ... 90#p133090

So sorry, but nevermind it...

After almost all people farm a lot, u want to restrict it or punish it?

I've already seen:

Players crying and asking for changes like cast without fix other bugs first (as leech, pets, bola, swings, mortal spam, etc...). I cant see noone coming back to demise or any new player that came because THIS CHANGES IS GOOD... Players come cause of relationship and discord for enjoying, not for shard changes...

I think It's interesting because who asked for changes, dont play. In general, they are the ones that stay in afk farms (mining farm, gathering bod farm, hw farm, jelwery farm...)

This is a dumb thread. Basically all of this could be summed up by saying make punishments harsher.

We've shown time and time again that the anti cheating g systems can be circumvented. stop this nonsense.

It would be better to incentivise legit game play by making it more enjoyable. I suggest starting with casting.

Then again we've been asking for casting to be fixed for years.

I’m not allowed to make a poll here maybe I can get a staffer to make this a real poll?