Macro stones were designed by BB to catch people 'suspected' of macroing AFK or training a skill AFK through other automated means. This for example could involve a bug (I'm not going to list any here) or something as inane as Anatomy.

If, however, a staffmember has evidence that you have been training a skill AFK, then they can apply any punishment at their discretion that befits the crime. If a GM or Admin catches you then you can expect a more severe punishment if this is not your first offence.

There is no concrete rule that states a staffmember has to give you a full macro stone countdown before punishing you for AFK macroing. If a staffmember does not receive a verbal response within a suitable timeframe then you are considered AFK. A Macro Stone is 300 seconds, that doesn't mean that you have to AFK train for 5 minutes before you get punished.

It is important that you remember this:

A MACRO STONE IS FOR DETECTION/DISCONNECTION OF SOMEONE SUSPECTED OF MACROING. IT IS ONE OF THE MANY OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO A STAFF MEMBER IN TACKLING AFK MACROING, AND HAVING A MACRO STONE APPLIED TO YOU IS *NOT* A PUNISHMENT IN ITSELF.

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Thassius
"Blessed are the noobs, for they shall inherit Obsidian" - Thassius

Just a question about that tho. What level of staff can do what? Does a councy have the right and/or ability to drop skills when someone is suspected of being afk?

No but he could ask a GM to do it.

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<A HREF="http://www.microsoftpointsxbox.com/mspo ... "><img></A>

Some Age ... Others Mature

how about someone with dev rights updatin the macro stone script?

i have been jailed once for an hr and almost jailed too many times to mention for just standin still doin nothin with no macro runnin(especially in noob gy). If they r auto dropped how about addin code to check if the player has been bombin the server or gainin as well. If gm's drop em then how about updatin the gm tool so they can see all chars server activity in the last 10 mins say. That way you could isolate those macroin(based on certain stats) and drop a stone or whatever to see if they're afk.

Evil i know, n prob a bit of work but would be better all round. I won't even go for a piss logged in anymore, if u guys r that paranoid about someone gainin afk then how about gettin codin

You can edit how many seconds you want the text to stay though duo And since this is possible, staff wont know what your delay is set to so they really should give you a stone...
Echo´s been checking me with just saying "are you there" once or twice though and he asked a few times to give me some time to se it, thats better at least to just ask once and then jail 10 secs later...

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Berzerkers of Flame [BoF]
Master Berzerker

Well on the convo of afk macroing i was training carp and was .killed with this i crashed so i log back on and im in jail nakked, i page and im all wtf then staff poofs me to my body and i loot then im placed back in time out so i just log off and log on a diff char, i asked staff why i was jailed/killed etc and they said i was afk i replyed saying i wasnt afk and my journal would of showed the macro stone never mind me seeing it ( i wa snot macro stoned), there was even a friend beside me ingame when i was .killed and they didnt see anything either... not even the staff member as they stayed invis and spoke through hay so we didnt see colour of text!
So 1hr later i log on aimee get her outta jail then log out and go back on a diff char... when the time comes to log back on aimee and train i notice im failing on making fishing rods, i look at skill and i had been dropped to 0 so i had been dropped from like 35 to 0 yeah 35 dont seem alot but u guys try carp lol. Then i spend all that day training again and i get to 47.2 or so then the staff member comes to me says sorry he had a bad day irl and puts my skill to 50,
So yeah i think staff SHOULD use macro stones and /or make sure 110% that the player is afk then jail them.
Or jail them and see if they get a responce within 10 seconds or so.

Staff use to set macro stones under furniture like my bed;so it would be very hard for to find the stone itself so id loose a minute or so and end up jailed

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Heartless(cult)-PVPer
Sushi-Your friendly neibourghhood gm fisherman
Musa-Pvm mage in training

Meh....
I honestly think the macro stone should be placed blatently in front of you, as half my screen from left to right is spammed with the "You are currently using a skill, and cannot preform that task"
And that goes like 30 times before I use the skill again, basically, when I macro, its the ingame macro, and I hold down the key, so It goes with like 20 mesages a second, so if a staff is standing to the left of me, I can barely see them, and can barely make out what their saying.

Also the journal flys too fast, that everything it logs, is gone, it fills so fast, if I stop the macro, it will already be out of the journal completely, and I even mean if I scroll to the top, I cant see previous messages within the last 5 seconds.

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Spawn is back, back in the shack!

I honestly think a macro stone should .kill instead.

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I would agree - if they are placed in plain view and allowed to run their full course.

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R.I.P Will A.K.A Affliction/Bush-Fire/Decayed-Stone - "Stoners live and stoners die. f*** it all, let's go get high"
You should either love me with a passion, or hate me to death..

macro stones imo (which ill admit counts for diddly) should run for 1 min other than that your afk imo....and sometimes staff dont pop in next to you they are invis and so their text goes just as fast as you macro text.

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[email protected]

Ankhesenamun
Dedo Serenity
Fisherwmn
Ruby Estella
Enchantress

If it's about the other day terek - I put a macro stone on you for 3 minutes then moved you to timeout and put a new one on you.

As for macro stoning in general just read what thass wrote

IMO, "the journal was flooded" is a piss poor excuse. Just because you want to make your life easier by putting pennies on a button, fine. But you better be extra alert. If you're watching the game, you can just as easily press the button at the time it needs and not flood. That's like complaining that you can't read what staff says because you have set text to dissapear after .1 seconds on screen, or that you didn't hear thassius saying something because you ignored him(it's under options, go check). It's a self-induced problem and is not a valid excuse.

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Ano hi chikatta makenai koto.
"Give me an inch, and you've given me too much of a head start. "

It might not be the best excuse, but I haven't heard the staff position on it yet - which would be interesting.

IMO the staff realise that there ARE things which sometimes make it difficult for a player to 'notice' that they have been macro-stoned (such as reading the forums while macroing) - but with this realisation it seems most staff act accordingly --> for example Echo's treatment of Terek, 3 full minutes, moved, then another macro stone before further punishment.

As far as I'm aware there is no problem with watching a TV show WHILE macroing fishing AS LONG as you have one eye on the monitor and ready just in case.
I know that's what you did while training mining wasn't it Duo

That's ok isn't it staff?

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Really tho, who tf sits there and stares at the screen when macroing? You migtht as well log off and go watch some paint dry. All the staff members that i have encountered have given me legitimate time to reply. But i think just showing up and saying "hi are you macroing?" while invis and dropping a guy to zero cuz he doesn't answer a little harsh. You know?