Busted! When GMs appear....

[Mystic_Blue]

Well, I got busted by a GM a few days ago. While I was able to avoid suspension or banning, I have been thinking about the things the GM said that gave away the usage of MQ2, and how to avoid future detection.

I find this particuarly amusing, because I was accused of using 3rd party macroing several months ago, BEFORE I started using mq2. At the time, I was just using hotkeys. My mistake then was to setup hotkeys that tended to result in my casters all casting almost simultaneously. I thought that was cute.

Things I have learned to help avoid detection.

* do not use the FAST parameter in the /face command. This was perhaps the biggest thing to the GM, as this causes melee characters to make fast turns, not supported in manual play.

Many of the melee macros, including the Rogue Helper line (MH, WH, RH) of macros, as well as Genbot and others make extensive use of the /face fast command. Use the find feature andedit out the fast on each command

* A favorite trick of the GM was to summon one of the melee toons, causing the toon to immediately run back to target, OR to anchor spot, if applicable.

* do not use chat channels, group or tels to issue commands. AFCleric, RaidDruid and Genbot all support issuing commands. One of the ways a GM will 'getcha" is to look at the logs for chat channels, tels etc, and issue the same commands, causing the bots to fire off spells.

The better solution is to use the IRC plugin, and communicate via IRC channel.
Even better would be to modify each of your macros to be self activating

* The movement aspects of melee macros, which keep your melee's in close proximity and facing the target are also problematical. This is because if you have more than 1 melee, often all will move at the same time, to reposition to the target.

I have not yet ascertained a satisfactory logic change to help this. Most melee macros have you get closer if the distance to target is > 10. Perhaps an increase to >15 or >20, which would more accurately emulate manual control of the melee class?
While this will mean some lost efficiency with combat tics out of range, it will look more like manual control, less like macro control.

* I have written up a quick little GMCHECK snippet, that I am uploading. It is a very simple little thing, that you insert at the begining of your macros main loop, that will beep and end the macro, if a GM is detected in your zone.

If anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to add them

[fearless]

Just to comment here, as on the 100 other GM check threads, GM's can be completely invisible to the EQ client and still do things to try and detect macro's. By the time you can actually see the GM in the zone, it is often to late.

The single best thing you can do to not get banned, is to not use MQ.

[pw]

The single best thing you can do to not get banned, is to not use MQ.

Heresy ! Burn the witch .....

On a more serious note. I think the main thing is to avoid pissing other players off by stealing their camps and kills. If you are farming spiderling silks and others are trying to do the same thing, they are going to notice your unerring accuracy in finding mobs and raise a complaint to a GM. Its not possible on most servers I guess, but when I farm, I'm usually the only one in the zone.

Also, you could have been on a "watch list" already from when you were falsely accused. My guess is that GM's don't have all-powerful monitoring tools ... its got to be ass-numbingly boring watching players ... so they're only going to do it with good reason or a high level of suspicion.

[fearless]

Heresy ! Burn the witch .....

pfft

[Mystic_Blue]

Hmm, I did a search of GM CHECK and found only 20 some threads, and only 3 of those actually addressed the issue.

While many people state that if a GM shows up, it is already too late, that they have other ways to detect macro use.

However, no one actually explain these methods.

Also stated is that a Gm is invisable if they choose.

What I experianced is that the GM remained in zone with me for another 45 minutes. While a basic in game /who did not show the GM, the /who done from in the MQ box DID show the GM in zone.

If the GM's are so almighty, and can prove the use of macroing, why resort to summoning a character, to see if they run back, or issueing a well know chat channel command to elicite a response?

These are only annecdotal evvidences of macroing, while something like a sniffer would provide empirical proof.

Also, my first encounter with a GM, back when I was exclusively using hotkeys, why was the GM convinced I was macroing? Obviously he could NOT have used any of the reputed super tools to detect this, since I was not using external programs.

I might well be totally wrong, but I have poersonally found that the mysterious and feared hidden powers often act as a greater deterant than does the actual factual tools availble to enforcement.

[Mystic_Blue]

I think the main thing is to avoid pissing other players off by stealing their camps and kills.

Actually, I use an instanced zone almost entirely. Exactly too avoid such interaction

Also, you could have been on a "watch list" already from when you were falsely accused.

I suspect this too. Although what I reall think is that I did something infinately more stupid. I may have embaressed the GM in a public server wide chat a few minutes before the event.

As Confucious said " it is better to keep mouth shut and let other thing you are a fool, than to open mouth and remove all doubt"

Lesson here, if you are macroing, stay out of server wide chats, and NEVER ever publicly respond to a GM comment.

[fearless]

That must be it . . . Because GM's have the time to pay attention to serverwide chat's.

[Mystic_Blue]

That must be it . . . Because GM's have the time to pay attention to serverwide chat's.

Ahem, are you being intentionaly obtuse?

In fact, as I stated, this GM WAS chatting on the Server wide channel, I responded to a comment made by the GM, and the GM got defensive. Well, I did not mention before that the Gm got defensive, buty I clearly stated the GM was on the server wide chat.

Oh well, I am sure you know much more than I. I could not possibly figure out something you do not already know. :lol:

[fearless]

Oh well, I am sure you know much more than I. I could not possibly figure out something you do not already know. :lol:

This thread needs [Sarcasm][/Sarcasm] tags.

[RedManCommeth]

* A favorite trick of the GM was to summon one of the melee toons, causing the toon to immediately run back to target, OR to anchor spot, if applicable.

With attended macroing, you could fairly easily put some code in the macro to determine when you get warped around. Once you are within melee range and the mob isn't moving you shouldn't move around much any more. You could watch the mob's position... if the mob isn't moving but you just "warped" to some different location without actually being moving.... You could sound the bells or pause your macro... whatever makes best sense.

Probably finish your fight, perhaps turn one of your less needed toons around to WTF the GM.

If you are running unattended, you are probably pretty screwed if a GM has noticed you, is standing there, and is pulling the strings on your puppets. You could stop things, let your toons be killed and log off wherever they are bound but that's pretty guilty looking... you could /q but again, pretty guilty looking.

"/Face slow" sounds like an obvious fix but it is MUCH harder to code with. For instance, returning to an anchor or heading to a mob, if you take the code in the hunter macro for instance, and just change face fast to face slow then what happens is that rather than actually getting to the mob, your toon will end up circling around the target, looping around and around in a circle moving at max run speed and max turn speed. If you want to code in face slows, you'd have to put in some sort of check for this and have him stop, face the mob, then start moving again. This could also look very robotic.

My point really comes back to that it is best to simply not be in that situation. If a GM is watching you and you are macroing, they will probably be able to figgure it out.

Am I putting the pieces togeter correctly in that you were macroing in an instanced zone and a GM ended up watching you? Thats some serious hate, to have them come after you when you haven't even been reported.

RMC

[fearless]

By the way, was it an actual GM? or was it just a guide? Can guide's even suspend or ban you any more?

[mqnewbie]

Guides could never ban or suspend, nor were we allowed to even hint that we could to a player. The most threating we could do is to tell a player that's doing something stupid "if you don't stop I will be forced to have a GM log in to deal with the situation." That was almost always a hollow threat as it getting a gm to log on was not possible in any sort of timly fashion 99% of the time.

[Mystic_Blue]

Had it been a guide, I would have said Guide. It was a Admin Gm

In fact, both instances were Admin GMs

[TheNewGuy]

That GM-Admin tag can be acquired quite easily, by those who are Guide+. More commands open to you when it is done, also.

The most powerful of commands, such as whatever they use to give you EXP or summon items, are restricted internally. (Must be issued within their network.)

/snoop is a command, however, that'll work outside the network, and is quite useful - showing the last 50 or so communications you've had both in, and out, of every channel, tell, or chat channel.

... But all this is stuff I heard... Umm from a friend or something...

[mqnewbie]

Guides do not have the GM Admin title
If you do a /who all gm you will see *guide* Somename zone yadda yadda
gms will show up as *GM*

If you do a /who gm in zone guildes WILL show up as *GM*, however GM's show up as *GM Admin* usually. THere's also *GM Lead* *GM Tester* and probably a few others I forget.

/snoop, or what ever the actual synatx is, is a gm only command.
Yes it must be from from the gm client, on their local network as well. Gm's don't even have access to all their tools when logging in with the normal player client, sa at home. Their powers are roughly that of a senior guide.