Guild Wars 2

Syllvir.4176:

I appreciate your response especially your edit. Even though I still have the Auto-cast on I am interacting with the game. It might not be at a speed or level that others are doing but I am at my keyboard. I don’t feel I should have to talk/type to anyone to “prove” I’m there. I can not on a whim type or call someone over to my screen to type for me. I should not have to raise the level of my play to anyones standard.

You say I should move around, again why? If I can kill a set of mobs to earn my exp, why do I have to move somewhere else. If that is all I can muster at the time of play then I should be left to it.

Not to my standard, no… not to some random person’s standard. But, yes to ANet’s standard because it is their game. If you’re currently playing on a level that you can be considered AFK farming, then it is your responsibility to ensure that you are interacting with the game to an extent that you aren’t afk farming. I gave you some suggestions for interaction that mean you’re not afk w/o requiring you to be a super-player… specifically moving around and chatting… you know yourself better than a stranger on the web, so if those don’t work for you it’s up to you to brainstorm how you can interact with the game more. ANet says they judge these things on a case-by-case basis, but I personally am skeptical they’ll consider very heavily your real-life issues; but instead look at the results of what you’re doing. Namely, did you automate your play so that you can ignore the game while it still functions as though you’re at the keyboard? And, are you doing just that on an super-extended, regular basis?

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Another thing you can do is say a few things in map or guild chat every now and then… anything at all… then there’s a LOG of you being at your computer interacting with the game, even if someone does try and report you.

Incidentally, chatting doesn’t count as activity. I was sitting around on Broken Wall with a friend once, chatting away while we watched the sun go down and the stars come out, and I kept getting the inactivity warnings. I don’t know if chatting should reset the timer, as I can see ways of faking chat to get around the timer, but it highlights that activity in the game requires movement or skill use.

It might not count as activity as far as afk timer is concerned, but it does count as activity at your keyboard as far as being afk is concerned. I don’t think chatting should reset the timer… but I do think it should count as a solid defense against being considered afk farming…. ya’ know, ‘cause you’re not afk.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

I report the people I see standing in the exact same spot for long periods of time. If I see someone hanging out, fine… but if I come back semi-frequently and they haven’t moved at all, that’s when I report them. If I see them move even a little, then I know they’re at their keyboard.

That.. sounds a bit intrusive, to be honest. Like the nosy neighbour who’s always watching you and checking that you’ve put your bin out at the right time and it’s exactly the right distance from the kerb. I know it’s not a good metaphor since we’re all out in a public space in the game, but that’s the feeling your statement gives me.

Lol, it’s not as intentionally prod-nosing as all that. People who are in the midst of combat and not reacting to it shine out like a huge beacon to me. This is not because I’m on a mission against AFK farmers. This is because for most of my MMO experience, when someone is non-reactive they’ve gone LD, and I want to go protect them until they have a chance to get back in the game. So, I instinctively go over and help with combat when I see this happening…. And I watch over them for a couple minutes to see if their character disappears because in RL they made it back to the login screen. Waiting around causes you to notice the person… their outfit, etc. If they don’t move or disappear in a min or two, I move on. And, when inevitably the map activities, or my resource farming, bring me back to the same spot, I remember that person if they’re still standing there… an hour or more later…. and again after that… and again…etc

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

How do you know if they’re ‘hanging out’? How do you know they’re not having a conversation with somebody? How do you know that they didn’t use a skill while you weren’t watching them? Do you take screenshots? See, it gets creepy really fast.

I’m not arguing for or against reporting supposed afk farmers. Just saying that this attitude of players watching each other to check if we’re afk makes me uncomfortable.

I can only approach this entire situation from my own personal experience… and from that experience people who are having in depth typed conversations to the point where they can’t interact with the environment for long periods of time ALWAYS eventually move to a spot where the environment doesn’t aggressively interact with them. This is so they’re not distracted from conversation and wind up typing ww3ww5wfw2ffwa3aa in the middle of their sentence.

Did they use a skill? Maybe, but I didn’t see it. I’m never going to have absolute evidence someone is afk farming… but if the circumstances lead me to that as a solid possibility, then yes I report them and move on. It’s ANet’s job to make the call, they get paid for it. My reporting only puts the player on their radar, it doesn’t determine the outcome.

Seera.5916:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I agree with a lot of what you wrote above, but not this. Sure, people have the option of [f12] or using the HoM portal stone or going to PvP. But if your kid is screaming, would you want her to take the time to adjust her character? Or find out what was up? People have all sorts of non-life-threatening stuff in RL that can pull them away from the game. I have no issue with folks going suddenly AFK to deal with it, even on a necro or ranger.

The issue only arises when others use this as an excuse for attempting to gather rewards without playing the game in the first place.

This. Life threatening situations don’t tend to announce themselves in advance. Or potentially life threatening. You don’t stop to think if a kid’s bloody murder scream is because they hurt themselves badly or if their sibling just destroyed their favorite toy so that you can judge if you have time to get your character to a safe spot. You get up and go check it out immediately.

An important qualifier I tried to make sure I used was the term frequent. I also ought to have added patterned. Obviously if something important comes up you sometimes must AFK to deal with it. Going out and adventuring then all of a sudden being AFK is not going to ping on anyone’s radar that someone is afk farming or otherwise exploiting the game. From my personal experience, I haven’t had an emergency come up that I couldn’t log out, or get to a safe-spot, before dealing with… and this includes just 2 months ago when my cat came up to me meowing, and when I looked down his face was covered in blood. Esc->Exit to desktop (all while standing up) -> grab cat and rush to vet.

Children screaming? Most parents I’ve witness react to a child crying/screaming don’t bolt from their computers… they head to the child, yes… or call to that child first… or call to a nearby sibling to get their input… or husband… or wife… I’ve never known a parent to immediately bolt to the child every single time it cried; they’ve most of the time while getting up and/or initially responding would also have the time to quit game (or port to a safe spot) if they were playing it… at least in a MMO, ‘cause quick log-outs seem to be a design requirement just for when such RL situations occur.

I recognize that we have different perspectives on it. I guess my long-winded point was that given opportunities to log out, and the infrequency/unpatterned way such RL things cause us to go AFK w/o logging out, there’s no way a person is going to get tagged/punished as an AFK farmer from such activity. It’s a non-worry as far as I see it.

~EW

I have an offical response on this subject finally, after many hours and emails to get a senior level GM to respond. That GM gave me permission to Copy/Paste his response in this thread as my own so that I can try and clear this up for everyone (My only goal in all of this, btw)

They may push an offical notice on this per my request, I really hope they do.

Your accounts were temporarily suspended for AFK Macroing. This means that the actions of your character were being automated while you were not actively interacting with the game. This does not have to include the usage of third-party programs, but it most certainly can. Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer.

The quote that our Game Support Lead confirmed in that thread states that using Pets and Autoloot to gain gold and experience is fine, but those game mechanics working in conjunction with each other does not give the OK to AFK Farm.

Essentially, if you are able to monitor your game, take actions yourself, and respond to inquiries that may arise, you are more than welcome too use the game functions to kill and loot for you. However, if you are not at your computer or actively monitoring the game, you may be subject to action for AFK Macroing.

So there we have it, once and for all.

Now we can all put this to bed.

Thanks for asking him if you could post his reply and letting us all know about the outcome, and also thanks to the GM for the clear and precise answer.

There will probably be quite a few links to your post in the future when the next batch of people start threads like this without having read this one or similar ones from the past ^^

So if I understand this right… You are allowed to afk farm with pets, as long as you return to your pc every so often and tap “W” to move forward a little to prevent you being kicked out and that’s ok?

How you can misinterpret the very clear statement by customer support in the way you do is a mystery to me. The answer is “No”.

sephiroth.4217:

So if I understand this right… You are allowed to afk farm with pets, as long as you return to your pc every so often and tap “W” to move forward a little to prevent you being kicked out and that’s ok?

You’re just trying to find every excuse to say you shouldn’t get in trouble for it.

You must have missed the part of his/her post where the GM said

……Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer……

If they send you a whisper and get no response, then come back later and you’re in that same location and still won’t respond to them, then they’re going to assume you’re not actually playing the game. So they didn’t suspend him/her just because the account seemed to have no activity. A GM in game actually went to the location of that player and tried to get him/her to respond in some way.

sirsquishy.2619:

I have an offical response on this subject finally, after many hours and emails to get a senior level GM to respond. That GM gave me permission to Copy/Paste his response in this thread as my own so that I can try and clear this up for everyone (My only goal in all of this, btw)

They may push an offical notice on this per my request, I really hope they do.

Your accounts were temporarily suspended for AFK Macroing. This means that the actions of your character were being automated while you were not actively interacting with the game. This does not have to include the usage of third-party programs, but it most certainly can. Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer.

The quote that our Game Support Lead confirmed in that thread states that using Pets and Autoloot to gain gold and experience is fine, but those game mechanics working in conjunction with each other does not give the OK to AFK Farm.

Essentially, if you are able to monitor your game, take actions yourself, and respond to inquiries that may arise, you are more than welcome too use the game functions to kill and loot for you. However, if you are not at your computer or actively monitoring the game, you may be subject to action for AFK Macroing.

So there we have it, once and for all.

Now we can all put this to bed.

Thank you, I appreciate this.

~EW

sirsquishy.2619:

I have an offical response on this subject finally, after many hours and emails to get a senior level GM to respond. That GM gave me permission to Copy/Paste his response in this thread as my own so that I can try and clear this up for everyone (My only goal in all of this, btw)

They may push an offical notice on this per my request, I really hope they do.

~snipped for cleanliness~

So there we have it, once and for all.

Now we can all put this to bed.

That would be nice, but now here come the pages and pages of posts explaining why they feel that the GM is unclear or flat out wrong.

I’m quite impressed that a GM takes the time and trouble to try to contact you in-game. That is not the sign of a company that is wanting to ban innocent players.

sephiroth.4217:

So if I understand this right… You are allowed to afk farm with pets, as long as you return to your pc every so often and tap “W” to move forward a little to prevent you being kicked out and that’s ok?

You do not understand this correctly.

It’s not OK to gain rewards without playing the game. ANet can’t make it any more clear because the English language offers enough ambiguity to (deliberately or accidentally) misconstrue the words.

sephiroth.4217:

So if I understand this right… You are allowed to afk farm with pets, as long as you return to your pc every so often and tap “W” to move forward a little to prevent you being kicked out and that’s ok?

You cannot be Away from the Keyboard (AFK) and using the ingame systems to automate play.

that is what the GM is saying in my Quote there.

You have to be on your PC, consoled into GW2 while your pets are doing the killing/autoloot doing its thing. You can be chatting in Guild, Chat, Map…ect, you can be playing the TP or reworking character builds, taking screenshots…ect but you MUST be interacting with the game in some way while your pets are killing and autoloot is working.

that IS THE ONLY MESSAGE as far as ‘what IS allowed’.

But to simply set your character, engage pet, and auto loot, then walk away from your PC? that will get you suspended.

I do not know how much more clearer that message can be.

DoctorDing.5890:

I’m quite impressed that a GM takes the time and trouble to try to contact you in-game. That is not the sign of a company that is wanting to ban innocent players.

So this is kinda loaded.

I launch GW2 via -noui and passing my username/password through console for a faster load. This bypasses the launcher entirely.

When my account got kicked I think I probably got an 8hour suspension first. But I might have not been at the PC for 10 hours, so never got the warning about it. So went back in, rinse repeat…ect. The only way I knew I was suspended was that the game client was crashing to desktop, in the crash log I saw ‘Failed to connect to network’ Then I loaded the launcher to see the suspended message.

I think that was part of the issue with my 331 hour suspension. They need another way to alert you of suspension other then just the launcher.

I did get an email, the following day after the launcher said i was suspended. But I did not get one for the other 2 times i was reported by a GM for Afk farming, confirmed in the ticket as well. so there are some inconsistencies with their system there.

In my ticket I requested that the GMs also send an in game email alerting of temporary short suspensions due to this, so I hope they take that suggestion to heart as I really had to way of knowing that i was being kicked while my client was AFK since there was 0 communication about it until the final suspension.

I think this can sound kinda confusing, but remember I was leaving my game clients running for 24×7 farming, and checking in on them every 2-3 hours when I had time. And I did see my game client kicked back to character select and sometimes just the gray screen of death. But not until I got an actual suspension message and the Crash to Desktop did I know what was really going on.

Endless Soul.5178:

That would be nice, but now here come the pages and pages of posts explaining why they feel that the GM is unclear or flat out wrong.

Well if they cannot comprehend this now, then I guess there is just no helping those users. It cannot be anymore clear then it is right now.

Its not like the other GM messages we have on the forum, this is extremely clear and cut to the point of what is OK and what is not. and it’s done in a single response instead of broken responses.

But, anyone who AFK farms is going to be suspended, or even Banned if they do it enough. So, the problem will solve itself with due time :-)

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

so my accounts that I play on are suspended for another 12 days…else I would. Unless you wanna do something about that :-)

In your meeting can you be sure that the following 3 things are discussed?

1. Fixing Auto Loot so that the AFK timer is not reset
2. adding in a Auto Loot Hot key that we can bind with
3. adding in an in game warning about using Auto Loot to auto play the game while AFK and how its against the TOS/EULA.

I did pass this through another Channel (one of my tickets) but since you are having a meeting, figured I would touch on it here and ask for you to make sure it gets brought up. as it is a hot issue :-)

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

That part isn’t the issue. The issue is can you do that and be afk. That’s what we need a very direct clear statement that is not easy to misinterpret.

Can we get a clear statement on what the situation is now so more people don’t interpret what’s already been said wrong and get punished when they thought they were fine?

Seera.5916:

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

That part isn’t the issue. The issue is can you do that and be afk. That’s what we need a very direct clear statement that is not easy to misinterpret.

Can we get a clear statement on what the situation is now so more people don’t interpret what’s already been said wrong and get punished when they thought they were fine?

This is the clear message that I am passing to you from a GM directly,

Your accounts were temporarily suspended for AFK Macroing. This means that the actions of your character were being automated while you were not actively interacting with the game. This does not have to include the usage of third-party programs, but it most certainly can. Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer.

The quote that our Game Support Lead confirmed in that thread states that using Pets and Autoloot to gain gold and experience is fine, but those game mechanics working in conjunction with each other does not give the OK to AFK Farm.

Essentially, if you are able to monitor your game, take actions yourself, and respond to inquiries that may arise, you are more than welcome too use the game functions to kill and loot for you. However, if you are not at your computer or actively monitoring the game, you may be subject to action for AFK Macroing.

per my post 5-6 messages above this.

This is not a proper clarification. If this was a court of law you would be losing the case. I am a victim of your in progress system and my case number is 2210650. I was given an “unlawful” 24 hours suspension.

Michael Henninger.7451:

TL;DR: If you’re AFK; your avatar should be idle.

I’ll further clarify.

You are in no way allowed to use a third party program or script to accomplish this part: “your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting”.

If a GM moves you or speaks to you and you don’t respond – then you are partaking in unattended gameplay and may have your account warned/suspended/terminated (depends on how many violations the account had previously). Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

Game Security GMs are trained to remove afk players that are interacting with the game, environment, or other players from the game. Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

Game Support GMs are trained to handle such appeals while being acutely aware of why/how Game Security is handling accounts. Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted

1. Opening statement is potentially conflicting with what follows. Failed to describe the term " idle" for your purposes.

2. " You are in no way allowed to use a third party program or script to accomplish this part: ‘your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting’ ".

Failed to address the conflict between this and what is mechanically possible ingame by ctrl + right click function(exception should be up for consideration on this) that does not require script or third party modification of any sort and players have been punished for.

Should go without saying how unfair that punishing is when given that ctrl + right click is a core function and you are arbitrarily determining when it becomes punishable; not something anyone should be able to guess or know without looking it up. IMPORTANT to note that you are not even communicating this ingame in a cease and desist format. You’re straight up suspending or worse without telling players about their infractions as it happened in my case. 2210650 again is my support ticket number in case you’re in the mood to see my data and how poorly I was treated.

3. “If a GM moves you or speaks to you and you don’t respond – then you are partaking in unattended gameplay and may have your account warned/suspended/terminated (depends on how many violations the account had previously). Pet Kills & Macro Looting Excepted”

Under what criteria are GMs allowed to move or try to have you respond ? I can recall one instance that I just arrived at a location and started a conversation with another person pet farming and in the middle of that conversation I was teleported; important to note that I wasn’t auto casting anything yet while this took place. Still the “drones” acted on me without any persecution or opportunity for me to defend myself against this harassing behavior.

Really, how are you demonstrating/documenting proper judgement of your staff when it comes to this enforcement. I think is of the most importance to have video and data backing up any instance prior to dropping the proverbial “hammer” with a focus on video (10 seconds of video can easily illustrate questionable behavior different from someone simply standing while their pets kill). Police cams are a great idea and have demonstrated time and time again proper enforcement for the same reasons.

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

This is a poorly worded statement best case scenario. If this was a law to be enforced every person using a pet class would be in proverbial jail regardless of their activity status; unless their avatar was literally doing nothing. Say you are actively fighting and something attacks you, your pet AUTO ATTACKS as intended = JAIL.

That is what I have to say about these statements. Please continue to work with us and communicate. Don’t take my examination poorly. What I want is more of this type of honest communication.

Strongly consider my 10 seconds of video comment. When things are as unclear as they are now a lot of people are bound to suffer without just cause, specially when you are not even communicating infractions and dealing punishment.

Finally provide clear examples ie:

If player x stands where mobs spawn without auto casting (including ctrl + right click) anything. He will be safe even if his pets retaliate and loot is acquired.

If player x stands where mobs spawn with auto casting (including ctrl + right click). He will be punished.

ps. If you actually want to kill the practice, don’t go about doing something like what WoW did which was make pets no give credit as thats a very common situation for normal players. A simple solution would be to make auto loot stop working after 5 minutes without new input.

sirsquishy.2619:

Seera.5916:

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

That part isn’t the issue. The issue is can you do that and be afk. That’s what we need a very direct clear statement that is not easy to misinterpret.

Can we get a clear statement on what the situation is now so more people don’t interpret what’s already been said wrong and get punished when they thought they were fine?

This is the clear message that I am passing to you from a GM directly,

Your accounts were temporarily suspended for AFK Macroing. This means that the actions of your character were being automated while you were not actively interacting with the game. This does not have to include the usage of third-party programs, but it most certainly can. Attempts by our GMs were made to contact you in-game to see if you were actively playing but there was no response. With that, we must assume that the actions were being automated while away from the computer.

The quote that our Game Support Lead confirmed in that thread states that using Pets and Autoloot to gain gold and experience is fine, but those game mechanics working in conjunction with each other does not give the OK to AFK Farm.

Essentially, if you are able to monitor your game, take actions yourself, and respond to inquiries that may arise, you are more than welcome too use the game functions to kill and loot for you. However, if you are not at your computer or actively monitoring the game, you may be subject to action for AFK Macroing.

per my post 5-6 messages above this.

I saw that one, but I wanted to make sure that that’s what the support lead was saying and not a rogue gm.

Ok then, i’ll continue to report AFK farmers because 99% of them is not responding when you try to get their attention for several minutes or even hours by visiting them a couple of times in a entire evening of gameplay….. they are clearly not monitoring what they are doing ..

got suspended ? deal with it.

I see these afk farmers all the time in Frostgorge, not to mention the afk’ers during events. Cant you just change it so player action is required to get loot and exp? I’m not an expert on this stuff, but wouldn’t that solve a lot of these problems?

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

i think the problem can be solved just by deactivating the Advanced Logistics mastery ( auto-loot ) after a few minutes of inactivity of your character ( not your pet/summons ) . This way you can’t loot while AFKing , and if you simulate any form of activity while AKFing you become bannable for using third-party programs.

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.2619:

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

so my accounts that I play on are suspended for another 12 days…else I would. Unless you wanna do something about that :-)

In your meeting can you be sure that the following 3 things are discussed?

1. Fixing Auto Loot so that the AFK timer is not reset
2. adding in a Auto Loot Hot key that we can bind with
3. adding in an in game warning about using Auto Loot to auto play the game while AFK and how its against the TOS/EULA.

I did pass this through another Channel (one of my tickets) but since you are having a meeting, figured I would touch on it here and ask for you to make sure it gets brought up. as it is a hot issue :-)

Can you toss me a ticket number so I can look at your feedback? I also want to look at your suspensions and make sure that ALL of my GMs are understanding how we’re handling this particular situation.

With pleasure – Notice the title of the Ticket and what the suspension was classified as.

2202985:Guild Wars 2: Account action for unauthorized use of third party software

What is preventing the AFK detection from working? Is it auto-cast, auto-run, and/or auto-loot? If so, just make the AFK detection system ignore those things for purposes of checking “are you there?”.

Farming Flats.5370:

i think the problem can be solved just by deactivating the Advanced Logistics mastery ( auto-loot ) after a few minutes of inactivity of your character ( not your pet/summons ) . This way you can’t loot while AFKing , and if you simulate any form of activity while AKFing you become bannable for using third-party programs.

I think this would be the best, but disabled internally not via the ingame options (F12). I hate how Minis are disabled, so that players have to enable them again. Makes it annoying, and lets not have it do this for auto loot too.

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

mtpelion.4562:

What is preventing the AFK detection from working? Is it auto-cast, auto-run, and/or auto-loot? If so, just make the AFK detection system ignore those things for purposes of checking “are you there?”.

I can confirm it is autoloot.

mtpelion.4562:

What is preventing the AFK detection from working? Is it auto-cast, auto-run, and/or auto-loot? If so, just make the AFK detection system ignore those things for purposes of checking “are you there?”.

Auto-loot. I tested auto-cast of my heal spell and I still got bumped after an hour.

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.2619:

Michael Henninger.7451:

sirsquishy.8531:

Anet’s Repsonse – If your pets are doing the killing and your mastery is doing the looting; you’re okay as far as GMs are concerned. This does not mean design can’t/won’t/should/shouldn’t update the system as it works today.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ranger-Pet-Botting/page/3#post6093187

This remains true. We (Design and Support) are meeting to discuss whether a change should be made. Hang tight. In the meantime; come WvW with me?

so my accounts that I play on are suspended for another 12 days…else I would. Unless you wanna do something about that :-)

In your meeting can you be sure that the following 3 things are discussed?

1. Fixing Auto Loot so that the AFK timer is not reset
2. adding in a Auto Loot Hot key that we can bind with
3. adding in an in game warning about using Auto Loot to auto play the game while AFK and how its against the TOS/EULA.

I did pass this through another Channel (one of my tickets) but since you are having a meeting, figured I would touch on it here and ask for you to make sure it gets brought up. as it is a hot issue :-)

Can you toss me a ticket number so I can look at your feedback? I also want to look at your suspensions and make sure that ALL of my GMs are understanding how we’re handling this particular situation.

It would be advisable to also post that information to the players so we know what to expect from the GMs. Maybe a good after meeting summary?

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

Wait so if you’re playing Ranger or Necromancer and you need to run AFK, you have to turn off whatever skill you have on Auto-cast off? Just in case?

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

I have always felt this way. But the issue is, damage = participation. And some things die so fast that forcing everyone to do 1% damage as a min (could be 40,000 damage) can be hard for a lot of players.

But, there has to be a better way to fix that issue. Too bad its unrelated to the AFK macro issue we are focusing on right now.

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

This 100 percent. We already get enough kindergarten style group punishment from PvP balance.

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

they nerf skills that enrage the majority of the people so what will be the difference if they disable it in open world. THAT is the ONLY way to fix this. otherwise this problem will still go on.

sirsquishy.2619:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

I have always felt this way. But the issue is, damage = participation. And some things die so fast that forcing everyone to do 1% damage as a min (could be 40,000 damage) can be hard for a lot of players.

But, there has to be a better way to fix that issue. Too bad its unrelated to the AFK macro issue we are focusing on right now.

I think the ‘tagging an enemy and sitting out the rest of the event’ issue has started being addressed…. with the recent changes of incremental rewards for some events instead of a lump-sum at the end of the event. I’d like to see this change become even more wide-spread… it may not be the perfect solution for some, but it does mean a player has to keep paying attention to what’s going on if they want a reward… they can’t tag and go afk…. or tag and run off.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

sirsquishy.2619:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

X T D.6458:

Solocup.3069:

how about the auto loot mastery is ONLY active in dungeons,fractals,WvW,raids and disabled in open world. problem solved

Autoloot is not the problem, the issue is that player activity is not needed to farm events/mobs

apparently it is. just disable autoloot mastery like i said in open world. and this problem will be resolved. or make it so if your pet kills things without you hitting it your self u wont get credit

Disabling autoloot in open world would just anger the majority of people who dont engage in this behavior. Changing game mechanics to where actual player involvement is necessary to gain loot and exp would be a better alternative to discouraging and preventing this kind of behavior. Allowing people to tag an enemy and sit out the rest of an event and still get full credit is ridiculous. Equally ridiculous is allowing people to gain loot and exp from their pets/minions while they do nothing at all.

I have always felt this way. But the issue is, damage = participation. And some things die so fast that forcing everyone to do 1% damage as a min (could be 40,000 damage) can be hard for a lot of players.

But, there has to be a better way to fix that issue. Too bad its unrelated to the AFK macro issue we are focusing on right now.

I think the ‘tagging an enemy and sitting out the rest of the event’ issue has started being addressed…. with the recent changes of incremental rewards for some events instead of a lump-sum at the end of the event. I’d like to see this change become even more wide-spread… it may not be the perfect solution for some, but it does mean a player has to keep paying attention to what’s going on if they want a reward… they can’t tag and go afk…. or tag and run off.

~EW

I seriously hope so, I miss the good old days where everyone was working together at their peak ability for a common goal, but right now we have ‘stand in one spot, 1, 1, 1, heal, 1, 1, 1, move off fire, heal, 1,1,1’. and then we have players that auto attack and then just leave their character running (you see them cause they are STILL dead after that poison cloud!).

I am not asking for it to be harder, but make players have to do more then basic functionality to get credit isn’t asking too much I think.

Ahh the good old days of open World Everquest dragons :-)

The easy way to fix it is, if you are going to be afk then move your character to a safe spot on the map (near main entry way points) and don’t afk farm. If you want loot and XP then actively play the game. Simple problem solved, no need for 5 pages of forum and GM involvement. Since launch people have always tried to skirt the edge between legal and illegal ways of doing things.

AFK for a bathroom break or a drink takes a few minutes, phone calls a little longer sometimes. If you are reported or observed by a GM they probably have the ability to see how long you have been there.

How about disable the auto-casting ability on healing, utility, or elite skills.

Gator.5729:

The easy way to fix it is, if you are going to be afk then move your character to a safe spot on the map (near main entry way points) and don’t afk farm. If you want loot and XP then actively play the game. Simple problem solved, no need for 5 pages of forum and GM involvement. Since launch people have always tried to skirt the edge between legal and illegal ways of doing things.

AFK for a bathroom break or a drink takes a few minutes, phone calls a little longer sometimes. If you are reported or observed by a GM they probably have the ability to see how long you have been there.

But its not as simple as that. For one, there is no clear definitions of what ‘play the game’ means. Currently I have a email from a GM that says ‘Being interactive on the game’. And really that can mean anything from playing your character to doing menial tasks like working on the Trading post.

So, is it ok to not be playing your character and letting your character’s Pets kill things as the auto-loot system does it thing, but you are actively doing something else in the game (chatting, or otherwise).

Right now we know its 100% NOT ok to be AFK and letting the auto loot system and pet system do its thing. However we now have a GM response in this thread that mixes it up even more by saying ‘your character must be idle’, so now if you are not auto casting, is it ok to be AFK and let the auto-system do their thing?

See how it gets more and more convoluted?

and this whole discussion applies to every playable aspect of the game, PvE, PVP, WvW, World Bosses, Event’s, Event Bosses…ect. And what is an acceptable amount of AFK time while the systems are active? that’s another subject that has not been answered yet. We know the game times out at 60mins, so is that an OK time to be AFK for regardless of what your account is doing?

Edit currently the auto-loot system is breaking the AFK timers, so if you are auto-looting you will NEVER time-out. That is another part of this issue and thats a system side ‘bug/side affect’ that players are getting punished for.

we need more clarity. period.

I just think it’s really sad that some people still need scientific and litigious explanations of something that should be plain, common sense. It should be really simple:

Don’t AFK farm. End of.

I’m sure everyone is intelligent enough to know what that means by now.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Michael Henninger.7451:

One more point that game security just brought up:

While your pet is auto-attacking your avatar should be in NO WAY attacking or casting any skill.

Wait so if you’re playing Ranger or Necromancer and you need to run AFK, you have to turn off whatever skill you have on Auto-cast off? Just in case?

I’m a bit confused by the statement as well. I don’t really play pets much so it’s probably a mechanic thing I’m unaware of, by why can’t your pet auto attack and your toon use skills?

Michael Henninger.7451:

Sirsquishy; your case has nothing to do with the afk pet issue. So; thus far I have seen no accounts suspended for taking advantage of this design feature.

it has to, as that is what I was doing. I did not use any 3rd party programs.

Forum bug is buggy.