Busted! When GMs appear....

TheNewGuy · Post by **TheNewGuy** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:00 pm

Yes, you are right, and no, you are wrong.

1) Guides do not have the GM-Admin title.
2) Yes, there is GM-Tester, GM-Lead, GM-Mgmt, GM-Dev, GM-Admin, and at least 1 other that escapes me.
3) /snoop just requires a GM-Admin flag, not the local network authentication.

Guides are guides. GM-Admins are Gm-Admins. Guides, with the proper ummm "work" persay can get the GM-Admin title, and can have access to /snoop and at least 2 other GM only commands.

Some Guy · Post by **Some Guy** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:37 pm

TheNewGuy wrote:Yes, you are right, and no, you are wrong.

1) Guides do not have the GM-Admin title.
2) Yes, there is GM-Tester, GM-Lead, GM-Mgmt, GM-Dev, GM-Admin, and at least 1 other that escapes me.
3) /snoop just requires a GM-Admin flag, not the local network authentication.

Guides are guides. GM-Admins are Gm-Admins. Guides, with the proper ummm "work" persay can get the GM-Admin title, and can have access to /snoop and at least 2 other GM only commands.

From eqstr_us.txt, not sure which are still valid:

5007 * Steward *
5008 * Apprentice Guide *
5009 * Guide *
5010 * QuestTroupe *
5011 * Senior Guide *
5012 * GM-Tester *
5013 * EQ Support *
5014 * GM-Staff *
5015 * GM-Admin *
5016 * GM-Lead Admin *
5017 * QuestMaster *
5018 * GM-Areas *
5019 * GM-Coder *
5020 * GM-Mgmt *
5021 * GM-Impossible *

TheNewGuy · Post by **TheNewGuy** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:11 am

5007 * Steward *
5008 * Apprentice Guide *
5009 * Guide *
5010 * QuestTroupe *
5011 * Senior Guide *
5012 * GM-Tester *
5013 * EQ Support *
5014 * GM-Staff *
5015 * GM-Admin *
5016 * GM-Lead Admin *
5017 * QuestMaster *
5018 * GM-Areas *
5019 * GM-Coder *
5020 * GM-Mgmt *
5021 * GM-Impossible *

Steward - The rank they make people such as Naomi Denmother when they take them through new expansions for tours. Has Non-Agro status only
Apprentive Guide, Guide, Senior Guide - Guides
QuestTroupe - StormHammer only. This is no longer used, as Guides now run the quests on StormHammer.
GM-Anything - Employee's of SOE, seen em all cept the Impossible one.
QuestMaster - Used WAY back in the day, before Indian CS, before "Cluster Servers." Paid GM that went to all the servers, similar to the QuestTroupe on StormHammer. Handled no CS issues, only ran quests all day, every day.
EQ Support - Never seen this one.

Process · Post by **Process** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:36 am

Mystic_Blue: Were you in an instanced zone when you got busted? Do you think someone turned you in? What do you think drew their attention, or was it just random?

I got suspended awhile ago, but they gave my accounts back after a week. I'm trying to decide if the risk is worth it. I know I may be banned, but EQ isn't worth playing without MQ2. Does keeping a low profile work?

I've read through the IRC plugin posts. The script seems difficult to set up and get working with macros for a n00b like myself. It doesn't seem like a normal script that I've installed in the past. Maybe I'll break down and install it for commanding my bots and take my chances.

Process

Mystic_Blue · Post by **Mystic_Blue** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:12 am

Yes, it was an instanced zone. So there was noone there but me and mine.

What I did, that was supremely stupid, was tweak the nose of a GM in that servers' server wide public channel.

There is one server, which I shall not name, where there are GM's on almost all day long, and they interact freely and reguarly with the clientele.

One Gm made a silly comment about another GM, and I said something like ... and we care, why?

The Gm apologized and got defensive, and a few minutes later was in my instanced zone summoning a bot.

So, no, I do not think it was random, I doubt I was reported.

I think I was harrassed by a GM that that was offended.

So, while I will continue to join that chat, as valuable info is availble there, I will refrain from making any comments. To stay below the attention of GMs

I am also ceasing all macroing for the time being, and will allow for time to pass, and the event to blow over.

RedManCommeth · Post by **RedManCommeth** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:16 am

Heh, he may have just come to bonk you upside the head and once he arrived he saw something obvious like a toon with "bot" in the name or any of the other givaway botting names.

Actually, simply being noticed in certain instanced zones may well be a giveaway that you are botting. There are places that one would go to afk xp that nobody would ever go to otherwise so just seeing you there may have raised suspicions. If I were you I'd stay out of that zone or alternativly, still be there but don't bot.

RMC

Mystic_Blue · Post by **Mystic_Blue** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:29 am

RedManCommeth wrote:Heh, he may have just come to bonk you upside the head and once he arrived he saw something obvious like a toon with "bot" in the name or any of the other givaway botting names.
RMC

I think you are correct, about WHY the GM came.

No, nothing about my toons names in anyway indicate boting. Yes, another zone is under consideration.

And I will not be boting for a while, particuarly since MQ2 is currently down with the new eqgame up with this mornings patch

Laughoutsilent · Post by **Laughoutsilent** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:59 pm

There is one server, which I shall not name, where there are GM's on almost all day long, and they interact freely and reguarly with the clientele.

If you're talking about using MQ2 on Stormhammer, that could quite possibly be the most dangerous thing you could do...

I played on Stormhammer for a month, and used MQ2 a bit. A GM approached me about my usage, but I defended myself. It didn't work. They let me off with a "warning" and basically said "it's not a good idea to use any programs like that."

Slice · Post by **Slice** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:38 pm

It's not that dangerous if you're careful. I've been using MQ2 on SH for over 2 years now along with private plugins. I think it's actually less risky since most zones are abandoned and it's really hard to draw attention to yourself unless you're way obvious. The original poster already understands he drew attention to himself with the comment to the GM in chat. Otherwise you can bot all day long and there's noone around to notice.

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:57 pm

I have brainstormed the most likely ways I could get caught and 2 things came to mind, either getting reported by players or if I were sony and I wanted to catch macroers the easiest way would be to have gms/guides check on players that are actively doing something for a longer time than humanly possible, say longer than 24 hours, in addition to catching the most serious of offenders. Sending commands through tells wasnt an issue for me as I only play one character.

I dont have expansions with instanced zones but paranoid pc evasion routines. I used to macro only 16 hours straight max untill about 2 weeks ago ive been running it up to 24 hours straight and hadnt had any problems.

I really dont think sony is looking for people to suspend/ban, its more money in their pocket afterall, so unless anyone complains (or you piss off gms minutes before macroing) you shouldnt have problems imo.

Eomund · Post by **Eomund** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:07 pm

I would go as far as to say macroing is the exclusive reason for being warned. Just using mq2, or even fully active hacks won't get you banned. Even on a pvp server. I've heard of such a case were someone used active hacks agains other players on a pvp server, and they never got banned or even caught. The players around this person couldn't report, cause there was nothing to report. Again, don't use the chat =P

WickedMetalHead · Post by **WickedMetalHead** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:30 pm

I think the best thing said here was it has alot to do with your reputation with players/gms. I forget i switched my channels around and i sent my RH.mac and wh.mac to a server channel that has roughly 150+ people in it at all times, often times its max. And i got alot of tells asking what it was and alot asking how long ive being using mq2. I'm probably one of the best known bards on my server. and to my knowledge i have little or few eniemies, that could have turned south very very quickly. People still joke with me about my "big mistell".

I know another person who was afk macroing in HoH and jsut the suspcian had the channel in an uproar and people were mass petitioning and spaming the server board.

So i fully agree and think its probably one of the most true statements said here thats how people regard you has a big impact on what u can get away with.

Sorry for crappy wording i suck at putting thoughts into words

guy · Post by **guy** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:45 pm

Now that the PVP servers are combined there are actually more GM's on them and they actually investigate petitions for hacking. A friend of mine got summoned by a GM about a half a week ago (he doesn't use macros though so nothing happened). It's pretty easy to tell who's using MQ2 because it is mostly used for targetting and tracking. All a gm would have to do is to see if any non track classes are running in a bee line across the zone to a target. Still, I know of more people who got suspended for saying jew and faggot, than people who use MQ2.

superslam · Post by **superslam** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:47 pm

I experienced something interesting last night after I got MQ patched up from the dev forums (thanks devs, and yes, I will donate tonight, as I've been meaning to do so for a while now.)

Anyway, I logged in two of my characters (mq2 loaded on both boxes) and saw a guide run in front of me. I did a /who gm in the mq window and saw that he was in fact a guide, so I immediately ended my macro on the alt box (I typically run the rh macro on that box to keep clicky buffs up when I'm not doing anything.) Soon after that the GM ran up to me, stopped and looked at my alt, then ran off again. I was kinda shakey about this whole thing so I camped both characters.

I have a group of friends that share the same surname (and no it's not Mqtworules or anything retarded that would throw up a flag.) We were all on teamspeak, and one of my friends (that doesn't use MQ2) was close to where I camped out. He said he got some strange chat box type thing that popped up on his screen that looked like a command prompt. He said it was on his screen for about 5 seconds. I was under the impression that the GMs didn't have any toys like this available to them, but I know I've never heard of anything like this before.

Nonetheless, this freaked me out a little, if this was a new GM type tool, then I wonder what type of information it gathers, and am a little paranoid that the GMs might have me on a watch list. I typically stay to myself (e.g. just grouping with my clique,) and I don't remember pissing anyone off to get petitioned, but I have run some fishing / foraging macros for long periods of time. I've never had a GM approach me about macroing or anything like that, so I shouldn't have a record.

Has anyone heard of this type of thing before?

Mystic_Blue · Post by **Mystic_Blue** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:04 pm

with the most recent patch, there are some unusal things going on with custom UI's. Perhaps that is what your friend saw.

I did run some non melee scripts since my encounter, with no problems from the GM's but noit since the most recent patch.

Perhaps, indeed, they have a new tool, we shall have to see.

One of the things I am totally disabling for the time being is any remote command ability. Commenting out any chat/tel/channel command receiving. That appears to be one of their common tricks.

Also, I will not use any macro that includes anchors, leashes or melee maintain distance routines in them.

Busted! When GMs appear....

Where were you?