>1. Is it okay for me to use triggers to kill people?
>
>I've always believed no, but there are players who have used
>them for years to amass a lot of PKs, and of course everyone's
>favorite villain is using them to sleep people. He's certainly
>not alone. I always thought it was just a tough thing for
>immortals to spot, not seeing from the player side, but that
>if it were spotted said character would be denied. Obviously,
>this isn't the case or we wouldn't have Shaapa and Marcus
>wrecking face with triggers over the years. It doesn't even
>seem to be frowned upon, really, as these characters still get
>titles and tattoos and leader spots and so forth.
>
>Please give a clear answer on this. Because either I want to
>make my own triggers to chase and hit on entry etc., or I want
>the people who do use them denied so I don't have to compete
>on an un-level playing field.


Sorry, but the best you're going to get out of me is from HELP TRIGGERS: "Using triggers is up to you, however using groups of triggers to automate all or a part of your character is called botting, and can be against the rules" with the addendum of we never punish first time offenders for this without a warning.

This is one of those things that, in our opinion, is most fair when it's left to our judgement.

Generally speaking if we see a pattern of someone using triggers and we feel confident there's enough automation that the character isn't really playing the game anymore then we intervene.


>2. Is it okay to log off if there's no one for me to kill?
>
>I like my Kp/h to be high, but I stick to what I thought the
>rule was that a log in should be 45 minutes minimum. So often
>I log in and kill nothing but time for 45 minutes and it
>really hurts my K/ph. I always thought there was some leeway
>given because stuff happens, but that if you were doing this
>every couple days you'd be in trouble. Again, seems not be the
>case as characters who routinely do this seem to do alright in
>terms of rewards and recognition, and so I guess then
>certainly aren't punished.
>
>Please give a clear answer on this. I either want to do this
>myself or have my competition be denied or otherwise demerited
>so we have a level playing field.

We've given guidelines before, but again, we're reserving the right to rely on our good judgement for this. A huge factor in this whether the player is immediately switching characters, at which point we're taking into consideration things like scouting, fair-weather playing, etc.

Again, AFAIK nobody has ever been punished for this without at least one, and typically multiple warnings.

>3. Is it okay for me to log off and log back to break grid
>lock?
>
>Let's say I run all my opposing PKs out of Forbidden Forest.
>They are hiding in guilds and cabals and shrines. Is it okay
>for me to log out in the inn in the settlement to let things
>"reset" back to normal and maybe have them return to ranking.
>Then I can log back in and we can have more PK fun together.
>Or, let's say I take items and no one is retrieving. Can I log
>out for 20 minutes to see if something sort of shakes loose so
>we can get back to killing each other?
>
>Please give a clear answer on this. Everyone's favorite
>villain uses this strategy a good bit, and it seemed like one
>immortal said it wasn't okay, but then nothing happened to
>that player except maybe a talking-to. He still has a title,
>tattoo, leader spot and didn't lose the weapon he built off
>the back of that strategy so I'm a little confused as to the
>rule here. Maybe there wasn't a consensus among the rest of
>the staff as to whether that's a violation? Again, I'd just
>like to have violators punished or someone to say it's fine so
>I can do it too and compete on a level playing field.

I would probably drop the hammer on someone doing this if/when I thought there was a pattern of deliberate behavior. Twenty minutes is probably a long enough break, though.

>4. What's the policy on Discord and other VoIP options?
>
>I know this is tough to police, so it seems like we shouldn't
>bother. Is it alright if we start making OOC groups or clans
>or whatever you call them (similar to like WoW and Eve and
>other games) and then coordinate over VoIP so that we can take
>advantage of knowledge and scouting amongst a wider range of
>people. If only one group who likes to push the boundaries of
>rules does this and everyone else shies away for want of being
>rule-followers it kind of creates a disparity in in-game
>capability.
>
>Please give a clear answer on this? Either let's police it and
>punish, or let's make it clear it's allowed so we are all on a
>level playing field.

There is more than one rule that covers perma-grouping, abusing OOC relationships, etc. If we're confident that's what's going on, we'll respond.

>I know I don't speak for everyone, but it seems like a fair
>number of us are confused on what behavior is acceptable.
>Maybe it's 2 tours in Iraq and 1 tour in Afghanistan making me
>a little weird, and I fully admit that could be the case. But
>I'm used to clear rules of engagement. So, I'm humbly asking
>whoever is in charge to lay down the SOPs and ROEs regarding
>the above and enforce them in a way that is clear and fair to
>everyone.

The thing players need to realize is this:

1. If we make the rules incredibly specific with hard cutoffs and thresholds then the people you're upset with now are just going to tow the line, abuse the letter of the law, and frustrate you almost if not equally as much and there would be nothing we could do.

2. Almost every player with decent PK chops would have gotten denied by now if we came down on every character just because a different player accused them of cheating. Pro alone has staked his life that every single one of you was using a trace-buster-buster to Heartbleed the SCSI port to lag him out and kill him. It takes a lot of time to actually catch people doing some of this stuff and feel confident enough about it to punish them. And then there's that whole we're humans with feelings too and some immortals are more lenient or trusting than others, sometimes to a fault.

I realize you didn't get your military code book level answers, but this is how it is. Not because that's how it's always been but because the admins genuinely believe this is the most fair, effective method for policing the things that unavoidably have some gray area.