News 5 17 - New scripting policy

NEWS article 5-17:

Dateline 5/5/2015: NEW SCRIPTING POLICY

(Note: For the purposes of this policy, all violations will be referred to as "Scripting".)

Any activity that results in ANY benefit to either you or another player while being unresponsive to the gaming environment will be considered against policy.

Warnings for using triggers, running scripts, or any other activities while being unresponsive to the gaming environment are based on the Staff's observation of the character, and the Staff's judgment may vary from instance to instance; therefore each instance will be judged independently. Furthermore, GMs have the right to verify that any and all characters are following this policy at any time.

Exceptions:

In general, if you are running a script and are responsive to the game *or* are in REST Mode or SLEEP Mode and are not gaining any NEW experience, skills, money, or providing other players with an in-game advantage (e.g., casting spells), it does not fall under this policy. ANY activity that's deemed by Staff to be disruptive or not in the best interest of the game or its players can be warned when discovered. (E.g., if you are scripting moving in and out of a room, a warning may be issued because it causes undue screen scroll.)

If you are gaining skills passively or providing other characters with an in-game advantage, a warning may be issued based on your being unresponsive to the gaming environment. If your "Rest Mode" message is determined to be inappropriate, a warning may be issued based on the message being Out of Character (OOC) or disruptive. If you set up a character "bot" to provide services (i.e., healing, lockpicking, spellcasting, etc.) to other players while that "bot" is unresponsive, you will be issued a warning.

Utilizing Character "Bots":

Any participation in the use of character "bots" witnessed by Staff, even if the unresponsive character is not connected to your account and you currently are not in violation of this policy, will be considered against policy and may result in a warning and/or other penalties.

Multiple Accounts:

The use of multiple accounts is not prohibited by DragonRealms Policy; however, if a player chooses to run multiple accounts at the same time and they are being controlled by triggers or scripts and are gaining ANY benefit for that character or surrounding characters, the player *must be actively responsive to the gaming environment* from each character's perspective.

Violation Penalties:

* First offense: Player receives a formal warning, is moved to a holding room, loses ALL field experience (unabsorbed experience), has an experience inefficiency penalty added, loses RPA points, and must reread and agree to policy before being released.

* Second offense: In addition to the above penalties, 10% off all skills, 1 point off all stats (along with the corresponding number of TDPs) will be subtracted from the violating character.

* Third and subsequent offenses: the EXP Loss penalty escalates to 25% off all skills, along with 2 points off all stats (and the appropriate number of TDPs). Any further violations will result in the penalty being increased by an additional 15% *per violation* (i.e., 40% + 3 points off all stats, 55% +4 points on stats, 70% +5, 85% +6) up to, and including, 100% skill loss together with an additional 7 points off each stat. Stat loss that would result in any stat under 4 will be capped at 4. In the case of gross violations of this policy, all characters on the offending account, plus all other linked accounts, may receive the same penalties, at our discretion. When/If a character has suffered 100% loss, a subsequent warning will result in full character forfeiture. This confiscation will be immediate and there will be no transfer of items from a confiscated character to any other character allowed.

Platinum Escalation of Penalties:

Due to the RP-centric nature of the Platinum instance and the jarring implications of unattended scripting on the smaller population, Platinum players are subject to the harsher penalties sooner than their Prime counterparts. In the Platinum instance, there is no free warning. The first violation of these policies will result in the 10% loss of experience and 1 point being removed from each stat. Each subsequent violation results in the same +15% penalty to exp and an additional stat point loss (25% +2 stats, 40% +3 stats, 55% +4 stats, etc).

END NEWS ITEM