cRPG

Strategus => Strategus General Discussion => Topic started by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 09, 2013, 09:04:02 am

Title: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 09, 2013, 09:04:02 am
Today, I was really surprised when there was no admins in a 1900 vs 1400 battle during NA prime time.  We had an issue come up, with some blatant equipment on flags.  We asked the offending team to destroy it, but nothing happened of course.  Tried doing some admin chat, but I guess that doesn't work if admins aren't there.

Anyway, it was during this battle: http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=battlesparticipated#!?page=battledetail&id=3196

Of course, hosp will probably jump on the "YOU WON, WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING?" train, but I would prefer the rules be upheld whenever at all possible not just when it is convenient for the admins' faction.


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Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Malaclypse on April 09, 2013, 11:04:59 am
(click to show/hide)

Also, at least one admin was there (goat).
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Jon Agony on April 09, 2013, 11:24:24 am
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Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 09, 2013, 11:59:40 am
(click to show/hide)

Also, at least one admin was there (goat).

I'm not here to question the mechanics involved in the rule, merely asking that rules get upheld.  If you really want to go into detail, yes, you can still put the flag down.  I fully understand the mechanics involved. But it causes extra effort on the non-offending party's side to work around it and could possibly alter the outcome of the match or cause more losses than necassary.  We've seen this in both this battle and the one with Heavenly Kingdom where both Shik and Tydeus failed to do anything about it. From what I have seen so far in my strat life, rules, for the most part have only been enforced when an admin's interests are involved whether it be an involved admin's faction, allied faction, implied allied faction, etc.  Or, let me put it this way, admins seem to do their jobs better when their interests are involved.  I'd like to see this type of stuff cracked down on, before it becomes a bigger issue or even a normal occurrence.  If that's too much to ask, then just get rid of the rule, before it becomes a weapon via selective enforcement. I feel that's not too much to ask.  However, as mentioned earlier, in this particular case, there were no admins present.  So I'm also asking for an increased admin presence.  I mean, this was during prime time, and we didn't even have one admin present.

Also I think I linked the wrong battle, there were so many today that I forgot which was which.  Must've been this one: http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=battlesparticipated#!?page=battleroster&id=3195
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Malaclypse on April 09, 2013, 12:12:20 pm
I'm not here to question the mechanics involved in the rule, merely asking that rules get upheld. 

Ignoring the intricacies of what's okay and what's not: from what you posted in screenshots it's really inconclusive where this flag is in the first place, which I pointed out under the spoiler within a spoiler (though I did label it Don't Even Read). Each of the three photos offers a different vantage point, each which appears to tell a different story.

You did link the wrong battle initially, but the right one now (battleroster&id=3195)- you can tell because of the names involved, basically (Adoptagoat on your side, Papasmurf on the other, Stormcrow and Deltah on your side- only battle that matches from today is that one).

Also, you ignored the part where I clearly pointed out that at least one admin was present, outside of the spoilers- unless Adoptagoat has lost his admin or something in which case my bad.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 09, 2013, 12:35:05 pm
Ignoring the intricacies of what's okay and what's not: from what you posted in screenshots it's really inconclusive where this flag is in the first place, which I pointed out under the spoiler within a spoiler (though I did label it Don't Even Read). Each of the three photos offers a different vantage point, each which appears to tell a different story.

You did link the wrong battle initially, but the right one now (battleroster&id=3195)- you can tell because of the names involved, basically (Adoptagoat on your side, Papasmurf on the other, Stormcrow and Deltah on your side- only battle that matches from today is that one).

Also, you ignored the part where I clearly pointed out that at least one admin was present, outside of the spoilers- unless Adoptagoat has lost his admin or something in which case my bad.

The pictures are bit hard to tell, but actually are good enough due to a little something we call scale.  The flag is clearly under the large vertical post.  I will work on my photography in the future, but I was busy playing the game.  Also, I'm surprised adoptagoat did not say anything then as there was chatter in both TS and in game.  I suppose he is not always the most active admin, although I do remember him threatening to ban people for wasting lives at the end of the very last battle of Strat 3, which was at his fief, I believe.   But that just goes to show what can happen when rules are selectively enforced.  So bad on Adoptagoat for this one, bad on Shik and Tydeus on the one I mentioned before that was well documented.  This is, of course, in contrast to Canary very quickly warning the defending team to not climb on aerial constructs in the battle his clan was attacking in and then not telling the Chevalier on his side to climb down when he got up there.

I still say there is nothing wrong with asking for consistent adminning before it becomes a way to meta game in Strat.  Perhaps, in the future, we could have a rule where admins can't enforce against the enemy team except for the most blatant violations, especially if there are more neutral admins present.  I don't want to see another CyrusHRE episode or maybe even something worse.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Turboflex on April 09, 2013, 03:25:55 pm
You couldnt put it down, I was alone ontop of it at one point and spamming F, no dice.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Harrys Oil Can on April 09, 2013, 05:07:07 pm
You couldnt put it down, I was alone ontop of it at one point and spamming F, no dice.
You probably couldnt put down because of people in proximity, there was always someone standing right above the flag in tower itself. I put the flag up and down no problem after tower was built.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Turboflex on April 09, 2013, 05:10:45 pm
You probably couldnt put down because of people in proximity, there was always someone standing right above the flag in tower itself. I put the flag up and down no problem after tower was built.

Nobody was around me but now that I think about it, it's possible I couldn't because of people above me in the tower (but this a function of illegal tower placement in first place).
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 09, 2013, 06:30:35 pm
We are in a really odd spot where rules are being potentially broken due to strat related brokenness. If the seige tower was operational it could have been moved away. I also was in a battle a few days ago (OCC I think) where the enemy (FCC I think) yanked a building across the map with a catapult that landed on their flags.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on April 09, 2013, 07:21:03 pm
I would like to echo Turboflex's comment and say that yesterday in this battle I made a flag cap attempt with two of my Frisian homies (Cikel, Badoon) versus Hospitaller--we're all cavalry. We got all of the flags down except for the last flag under the tower which I tried to get down for around 10-15 seconds but could not. This is either because it was not possible or because someone was standing inside the tower, exploiting the siege tower being on top of the flag.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Kelugarn on April 09, 2013, 07:41:38 pm
Until it is determined that flags 100% cannot be lowered with a siege tower over them admin's can't really say anything. Even then the best we can do is ask them to break it, and if they refuse we can't really go off and ban the whole team for not wasting their time to break a large siege tower.

I'm not saying they're legal by any means, it's definitely shades of gray right now. However, it's definitely safe to say that if we catch someone building over flags they're going to be out of the battle.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Matey on April 09, 2013, 07:49:59 pm
There is indeed a stated rule for strat against placing siege equipment on flags. Also, the day before all these battles I recall the enemy having a siege tower directly on one of their flags and if i remember right, Canary gave them a verbal warning against such things but that was as far as it went. they didnt tear it down or anything; and no admins followed up. I don't know about the admins or other players, but I personally feel like the devs have no interest in strat which kinda means that we are just left to fend for ourselves and deal with broken buggy shit as best we can and since siege gear is broken as fuck and people cant just move towers off flags it seems like more leniency is being allowed if it seems like it wasn't placed there maliciously.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 09, 2013, 07:58:45 pm
I don't know about the admins or other players, but I personally feel like the devs have no interest in strat which kinda means that we are just left to fend for ourselves and deal with broken buggy shit as best we can and since siege gear is broken as fuck and people cant just move towers off flags it seems like more leniency is being allowed if it seems like it wasn't placed there maliciously.

As I said in a different thread, I was fighting for hospitaller in the battle in question and there was no talk of maliciously placing the siege tower over flags. Hospitaller had too many items in their inventory and couldn't access bolts and contruction material for the first ~15 minutes. Once it was accessible, there was a mad dash to build the seige tower and as such it wound up at spawn. Could it have been avoidable? Yes. But I do not believe it was done on purpose.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Matey on April 09, 2013, 08:11:00 pm
As I said in a different thread, I was fighting for hospitaller in the battle in question and there was no talk of maliciously placing the siege tower over flags. Hospitaller had too many items in their inventory and couldn't access bolts and contruction material for the first ~15 minutes. Once it was accessible, there was a mad dash to build the seige tower and as such it wound up at spawn. Could it have been avoidable? Yes. But I do not believe it was done on purpose.

Nor do I, but I wasn't even talking about the tower that this post is about. I was talking about the tower the day before that they did get a warning for which was blatantly on top of a flag, though once again, I don't think it was done maliciously. My point is that the rules have so little meaning when the game is so broken and the devs so silent.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Hobb on April 09, 2013, 08:16:26 pm
I touched a 7 year old mexican kid yesterday, but I didnt know He was under 18. Good logic right?

However, the attackers never tried to stop attacking so the defense could take out the tower. For future reference, if the attackers want something looked at, they need to stop attacking.

Also, ban goat for being a bad admin!!!
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 09, 2013, 08:24:57 pm
I touched a 7 year old mexican kid yesterday, but I didnt know He was under 18. Good logic right?

Did he have a wispy mustache? If so then it is fair game.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: CrazyCracka420 on April 09, 2013, 08:33:41 pm
I didn't know the siege tower was partially over any flags (never saw it discussed in game, but unless it's admin chat I'm probably going to miss it).

Also Anders said in another thread he was able to cap the flags near/under the edge of the tower.  If you weren't able to capture it, it's likely someone was in the tower within the proximity of the flag to keep it from being captured.

And as Hobb said, what would you want us to do, spend 3 or 4 minutes breaking down the siege tower as the enemy keeps trickling in?  Good luck with that.

I don't do anything in regards to siege equipment, but for future reference, it would make sense to try to have a little bit more room between flags and siege equip
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 09, 2013, 08:41:37 pm
I touched a 7 year old mexican kid yesterday, but I didnt know He was under 18. Good logic right?

However, the attackers never tried to stop attacking so the defense could take out the tower. For future reference, if the attackers want something looked at, they need to stop attacking.

Also, ban goat for being a bad admin!!!

Also, on a slightly more serious note. I was in a fcc V occ battle a few days ago, and they tried to use a catapult. This teleported a building into their spawn and landed on top of their flags. I would guess that this wasn't their intended action, but should they have been banned? Good logic right?
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Matey on April 09, 2013, 09:01:00 pm
Also, on a slightly more serious note. I was in a fcc V occ battle a few days ago, and they tried to use a catapult. This teleported a building into their spawn and landed on top of their flags. I would guess that this wasn't their intended action, but should they have been banned? Good logic right?

clearly that would be more like a 7 year old Mexican tripping and falling provocatively onto hobb.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Artyem on April 09, 2013, 09:09:44 pm
Also, on a slightly more serious note. I was in a fcc V occ battle a few days ago, and they tried to use a catapult. This teleported a building into their spawn and landed on top of their flags. I would guess that this wasn't their intended action, but should they have been banned? Good logic right?

It was VE vs Occitan, and yeah, Duke Dickbutt built a catapult and managed to pull a building to the spawn, but I don't recall it ever landing on flags.

And there is quite a difference here, people should know not to put their C Sites so close to their flags, it's just asking for shit to go wrong, especially if you're making a siege tower.  No need to point fingers and ask for people to get banned, because I really don't think you can call one person out for it.  However, from now on people should actually think about where their siege equipment will end up, maybe a future feature could fix this.

First of all, there could be a small area around the flags where nothing could be put down, no ladders, siege shields, stakes or c sites.  Not only would this prevent ladders and siege shields from going on top of flags, but it would also prevent situations similar to yesterday's battle from happening.

Alternatively, Construction Sites could show a small slightly transparent yellow / orange outline of the item you're building.  The only issue with this is that I'm not sure if it's viable within the limits of the Module System, even with the script enhancer.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Turboflex on April 09, 2013, 10:44:56 pm
haha in that same battle LCO built a large tower beside a house and it went flying, then the DUKE caused half the server to ctd later witht he catapult.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 09, 2013, 10:46:41 pm
As I said in a different thread, I was fighting for hospitaller in the battle in question and there was no talk of maliciously placing the siege tower over flags. Hospitaller had too many items in their inventory and couldn't access bolts and contruction material for the first ~15 minutes. Once it was accessible, there was a mad dash to build the seige tower and as such it wound up at spawn. Could it have been avoidable? Yes. But I do not believe it was done on purpose.

Basically what I'm saying is that I want more admins or more involved admins.  I want rules enforced, if there are going to be rules, and I want us to be able to avoid selective adminning.  But all if you guys in this thread are trying to debate that this is not a good thing.  But of course the two biggest debaters are from Hero Party and Chaos.  The first, when formed, had a Dev and two admins, the second with a Head admin and another admin.  Oddly enough, those are the two clans I am subtly accusing of selective adminning.  But of course, you guys seem to be enjoying your one sided admin decision.

In regards to the VE v OCC battle, you are selectively forgetting that OCC built a siege tower first that the house attached to.  Not intended, but should OCC archers have climbed onto the house portion (not the siege tower itself or in it) and started shooting arrows?  No.  I then built a catapult to shoot the siege tower down.  But instead it took the house away from them so they couldn't abuse it.  As a side effect, however, while the catapult was not on the flags, the house ended up being over them.  There should or could have been admin intervention then.  In the next big battle, Dach threated to ban anyone who made a catapult, which is a smart play.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on April 09, 2013, 11:34:03 pm
The only good part about this thread is the part about the seven year old Mexican.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Phantasmal on April 09, 2013, 11:48:04 pm
In regards to the VE v OCC battle, you are selectively forgetting that OCC built a siege tower first that the house attached to.  Not intended, but should OCC archers have climbed onto the house portion (not the siege tower itself or in it) and started shooting arrows?  No.  I then built a catapult to shoot the siege tower down.  But instead it took the house away from them so they couldn't abuse it.  As a side effect, however, while the catapult was not on the flags, the house ended up being over them.  There should or could have been admin intervention then.  In the next big battle, Dach threated to ban anyone who made a catapult, which is a smart play.

There are instances of "the other side" abusing scenery as well. One that comes to mind is the siege of Caraf Castle. When TKoV brought the wall down with the catapult, archers could stand in the wall and shoot from the cover without being seen. I think it is safe to say that both sides have abused these features and the fingerpointing will get no one anywhere. I was in the hosp TS for both siege tower battles and I assure there was no malicious talk in TS about placing it to block flags.

The flags are reachable under the siege tower as well (I could set my flags on them when I was on the ground). But the flags on the siege tower seem to have a completely vertical field of interaction (to clarify, I could set flags when I was at the very top of the siege tower trying to pick up my arbalest).

Sadly, NA has become a fest of "well the other side did X, so we are now justified to do Y". Shamefully, after being shot up from that glitch in Caraf castle numerous times, when SS attacked that castle and took down that same wall I was there with the rest of the Pew-Pewers, raining fire from the safety of the scenery.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 10, 2013, 12:02:11 am
Basically what I'm saying is that I want more admins or more involved admins.  I want rules enforced, if there are going to be rules, and I want us to be able to avoid selective adminning.  But all if you guys in this thread are trying to debate that this is not a good thing.  But of course the two biggest debaters are from Hero Party and Chaos.  The first, when formed, had a Dev and two admins, the second with a Head admin and another admin.  Oddly enough, those are the two clans I am subtly accusing of selective adminning.  But of course, you guys seem to be enjoying your one sided admin decision.

In regards to the VE v OCC battle, you are selectively forgetting that OCC built a siege tower first that the house attached to.  Not intended, but should OCC archers have climbed onto the house portion (not the siege tower itself or in it) and started shooting arrows?  No.  I then built a catapult to shoot the siege tower down.  But instead it took the house away from them so they couldn't abuse it.  As a side effect, however, while the catapult was not on the flags, the house ended up being over them.  There should or could have been admin intervention then.  In the next big battle, Dach threated to ban anyone who made a catapult, which is a smart play.

All I am saying is that I dont like people gettimg banned for things that they didnt do to abuse the system. Such as hospitaller with the seige tower or you with the catapult. Especially with strat bugged the way it currently is.

If I build a weapon rack and when I throw in the 5th block it bugs out and bans the entire enemy team, one that would be hilarious, but do you think I should be banned?
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 12:31:09 am
All I am saying is that I dont like people gettimg banned for things that they didnt do to abuse the system. Such as hospitaller with the seige tower or you with the catapult. Especially with strat bugged the way it currently is.

If I build a weapon rack and when I throw in the 5th block it bugs out and bans the entire enemy team, one that would be hilarious, but do you think I should be banned?

So now you're saying that the siege tower built itself?

And no one is saying ban the entire team.  Issue a warning and tell the offending team to break the offending object.  Wait one minute.  If no one listens, tell them its now first priority.  Threaten to kick or ban the commander of the battle, probably by clan, if not by actual party owner, if he does not personally do it.  It should be the entire team's responsibility to play fairly, but if no one is responsive, then make the parties with ownership responsible.

I mean, all I am really looking for is some pink text and some follow through.  Mistakes happen, but they seem to keep happening to certain parties more than others.  Clans who are mindful of the rules are getting screwed the worst, when it should be the other way around.  Bring on some flying carpets.  Keep people in check.

You also act like bans aren't an every day thing.  What we have is a bullshit system that plays favorites.  In fact, its devolved into a meta game of seeing who can get who banned.  Look at shit like this:
http://forum.meleegaming.com/na-%28official%29/ban-request-47843/
http://forum.meleegaming.com/na-(official)/unban-request-zeenerd/

Everyone wants to see what they can get away with.  See who I can trick into hitting me more times, so they get banned.  See which admins are their friends and will watch out for them.  See which admins will shorten a ban behind another admin's back.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, that's spreading into Strategus.

Alternatively, you can just get rid of the rule.  I mean, this one hasn't been THAT big of a deal yet, but then we're just going to see how far it can be taken.

But please, keep dodging the actual issue at hand and keep putting words in my mouth.  You'll never be Smoothrich Jr, now matter how hard you try.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Artyem on April 10, 2013, 12:43:42 am
Did anyone but Kesh read my post?  I pretty much explained the whole situation, so stop pointing fingers.

Bunch of jive ass turkeys...
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 10, 2013, 12:56:12 am
Look through the forums for hom many ban requests I have made. I believe it was one, like 2 years ago. Ask an admin to look up my ban history. As far as I know its 0.  I dont like people gettimg banned unless it is cut and dry. I have talked to admins about how dumb the ban request forum is, especially third party ban requests. Yes some people need a time out, but I dont agree with a lot of the bans that take place. If an admin would have said attackers stand still while they break the seige tower, I would be fine with that other then the clock loss. Yes maybe there shoyld have been some pink text but its hard to moderate things like that.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 01:04:37 am
There are instances of "the other side" abusing scenery as well. One that comes to mind is the siege of Caraf Castle. When TKoV brought the wall down with the catapult, archers could stand in the wall and shoot from the cover without being seen. I think it is safe to say that both sides have abused these features and the fingerpointing will get no one anywhere. I was in the hosp TS for both siege tower battles and I assure there was no malicious talk in TS about placing it to block flags.

The flags are reachable under the siege tower as well (I could set my flags on them when I was on the ground). But the flags on the siege tower seem to have a completely vertical field of interaction (to clarify, I could set flags when I was at the very top of the siege tower trying to pick up my arbalest).

Sadly, NA has become a fest of "well the other side did X, so we are now justified to do Y". Shamefully, after being shot up from that glitch in Caraf castle numerous times, when SS attacked that castle and took down that same wall I was there with the rest of the Pew-Pewers, raining fire from the safety of the scenery.

I'm pretty sure the opposite way happened in Mayaburg castle.  The inside team could shoot and walk out, but the outside team could not shoot in or walk in.  There were many admins present for that, and I believe they agreed upon warning everyone not to leave the castle through that glitched wall.  That was one example of admins being there and enough of them on to form a fair decision.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 01:13:34 am
Look through the forums for hom many ban requests I have made. I believe it was one, like 2 years ago. Ask an admin to look up my ban history. As far as I know its 0.  I dont like people gettimg banned unless it is cut and dry. I have talked to admins about how dumb the ban request forum is, especially third party ban requests. Yes some people need a time out, but I dont agree with a lot of the bans that take place. If an admin would have said attackers stand still while they break the seige tower, I would be fine with that other then the clock loss. Yes maybe there shoyld have been some pink text but its hard to moderate things like that.

But you see, the defenders in said situation were the offending party, and should be responsible for destroying the construct.  They will most likely take a few more losses during the reasonable period of time they have to break it, but that is their punishment for building it in the first place.  The attacking team did not break any rules, and should not have to wait.  You see, it is accountability of both the players and the admins I am asking for her.  I am suggesting an escalating series of actions that the admins should take, starting with a general warning and outlining a reasonable amount of time to take corrective action. This series of actions should, however, become abbreviated with repeat offenders.

If you "mistakenly" build on flags in five battles in a row, there's no reason you shouldn't be banned for at least some period of time.  And again, it's impossible to prove intent on the confines of the internet, unless they use text chat to blatantly admit they are doing something wrong.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 10, 2013, 01:19:14 am
So if hospitaller didnt break their seige tower and effectivly forfeit the battle because they arent fightomg, you suggest banning them all? Yeah sounds fair.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Artyem on April 10, 2013, 01:43:28 am
The issue is that you don't know exactly who built it, and unless someone fesses up or there's some evidence, no one can really be punished for it.  You can't just ban the Hospitaller leaders for it, and you can't just ban the entire team for it, the only thing that can be done is prevent it from happening again in the future.

This whole discussion is silly and to everybody arguing about people being banned: please, calm the fuck down.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Matey on April 10, 2013, 02:53:52 am
The issue is that you don't know exactly who built it, and unless someone fesses up or there's some evidence, no one can really be punished for it.  You can't just ban the Hospitaller leaders for it, and you can't just ban the entire team for it, the only thing that can be done is prevent it from happening again in the future.

This whole discussion is silly and everybody arguing about people being banned, please calm the fuck down.

Pretty much this. But I think this is what is being asked for in general; not to go back and find people to ban cause of past shit, but to try to prevent it from happening again and punishing people if it does keep happening.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 05:48:54 am
So if hospitaller didnt break their seige tower and effectivly forfeit the battle because they arent fightomg, you suggest banning them all? Yeah sounds fair.

Why do you keep saying banning them all?  Just stop, Smooth Jr.

Look through the forums for hom many ban requests I have made. I believe it was one, like 2 years ago. Ask an admin to look up my ban history. As far as I know its 0.  I dont like people gettimg banned unless it is cut and dry. I have talked to admins about how dumb the ban request forum is, especially third party ban requests. Yes some people need a time out, but I dont agree with a lot of the bans that take place. If an admin would have said attackers stand still while they break the seige tower, I would be fine with that other then the clock loss. Yes maybe there shoyld have been some pink text but its hard to moderate things like that.

It's not hard to moderate it it all.  When you die in Strat, you can just unclick the ready to spawn box and go look at whatever you want.  Throw some show names cheat on, and you can even assign the people nearest the offending object to destroy it.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Duster on April 10, 2013, 06:11:30 am
Say I sign up for FCC and feel like doing a little trolling, so when the battle gets going I wait until nobody's at the flags and throw down some csites. Team FCC gets warned not to do it anymore, they break it, and the battle goes on. I wait until everything's died down, everyone is refocused on the battle, and I throw down more garbage on the flags. Kesh gets banned for being the commander, even though he has no real control over what I do.



Trolls win.  :lol:
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Matey on April 10, 2013, 06:22:17 am
Say I sign up for FCC and feel like doing a little trolling, so when the battle gets going I wait until nobody's at the flags and throw down some csites. Team FCC gets warned not to do it anymore, they break it, and the battle goes on. I wait until everything's died down, everyone is refocused on the battle, and I throw down more garbage on the flags. Kesh gets banned for being the commander, even though he has no real control over what I do.



Trolls win.  :lol:

pretty sure youd get a pretty epic ban if anyone saw you doing it, which someone prolly would considering how many people are around and how obvious it is when someone has a c-site in their hands and considering (at least on FCC side) only certain people are ever supposed to spawn with c-sites.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: BaleOhay on April 10, 2013, 06:32:38 am
On one of the defenses I ran the other day someone mentioned a ladder was on our flags. I personally left the shield wall and went back to make sure the flags were clear and no one was screwing around.

I would expect the same from the field commanders on the opp team. It takes a long time to build a siege tower and it is not all that hard to know if it will be over the flags or not when it pops up.

We also pop a tower in each of our defense fights, saves a lot of complaining if you just take a couple of seconds to place it away from them.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 06:48:25 am
Say I sign up for FCC and feel like doing a little trolling, so when the battle gets going I wait until nobody's at the flags and throw down some csites. Team FCC gets warned not to do it anymore, they break it, and the battle goes on. I wait until everything's died down, everyone is refocused on the battle, and I throw down more garbage on the flags. Kesh gets banned for being the commander, even though he has no real control over what I do.



Trolls win.  :lol:

Not really.  Yes, it would be annoying and we would have to break the shit, but that is our responsibility for hiring you.  We can all see you do it, you would never get hired again.  You would get warned initially, we would report it in admin chat if there was an admin on, you'd get screen shotted and ban threaded.  You would then be forced, at gun point, to show up to and merc for every Hospitaller battle on their depression bandwagon to doom.

Also, if Kesh was present and the admin said "Kesh, I am holding you personally responsible for breaking the offending equipment," he would just fucking do it.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Canary on April 10, 2013, 07:09:34 am
And no one is saying ban the entire team. Issue a warning and tell the offending team to break the offending object.  Wait one minute.  If no one listens, tell them its now first priority.  Threaten to kick or ban the commander of the battle, probably by clan, if not by actual party owner, if he does not personally do it.  It should be the entire team's responsibility to play fairly, but if no one is responsive, then make the parties with ownership responsible.

I think you're putting too much emphasis on pinning responsibility on someone. 'Someone' as in anyone at all. I, for one, am not in the habit of punishing people for something they are not responsible for, and I would hope that the other admins do their best to refrain from doing that as well. It would be rather unfortunate if the parties responsible for hiring mercenaries and leading battles were also directly liable for the actions of every single merc fighting on their side.

I mean, all I am really looking for is some pink text and some follow through.  Mistakes happen, but they seem to keep happening to certain parties more than others.  Clans who are mindful of the rules are getting screwed the worst, when it should be the other way around.  Bring on some flying carpets.  Keep people in check.

I feel as though there is a general lack of understanding about the systems in place (gameplay systems as well as rules applying to strat battles). More diligence is necessary, certainly, and being vocal about the rules (as admins) is never a bad thing, but it sounds as though you are suggesting punishment for its own sake, under the notion that it will "keep people in check"? I feel things haven't gotten that drastically bad.

You also act like bans aren't an every day thing.  What we have is a bullshit system that plays favorites.  In fact, its devolved into a meta game of seeing who can get who banned.  Look at shit like this:
http://forum.meleegaming.com/na-%28official%29/ban-request-47843/
http://forum.meleegaming.com/na-(official)/unban-request-zeenerd/

Everyone wants to see what they can get away with.  See who I can trick into hitting me more times, so they get banned.  See which admins are their friends and will watch out for them.  See which admins will shorten a ban behind another admin's back.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, that's spreading into Strategus.

I think you're perceiving things in a slightly skewed way. The part about people testing the limits of what they can get away with may be a reality, but the rest? The system playing favorites, admins watching out for their friends, and the fact that that is spreading into strategus? It's a matter of witnessing problems more than dealing with them, from my experience. More to the point: I have never seen a ban shortened by another admin without prior consultation, not only is that not condoned, it's entirely against our protocol. If it happens, that's a basis for reprimands. I, for one, have never "played favorites" with clanmates or other clans that I like just because I want to see them succeed. To some extent I actually hold my actual clanmates to higher standards than most outsiders - maybe that's bias, but I know they know the server rules and therefore should be held accountable for breaching them. I also have never seen the other (current) admins refrain from warnings/punishment just because their team belongs to their strat faction.

Also, I'm surprised adoptagoat did not say anything then as there was chatter in both TS and in game.  I suppose he is not always the most active admin, although I do remember him threatening to ban people for wasting lives at the end of the very last battle of Strat 3, which was at his fief, I believe.   But that just goes to show what can happen when rules are selectively enforced.  So bad on Adoptagoat for this one, bad on Shik and Tydeus on the one I mentioned before that was well documented.  This is, of course, in contrast to Canary very quickly warning the defending team to not climb on aerial constructs in the battle his clan was attacking in and then not telling the Chevalier on his side to climb down when he got up there.

A matter of perspective, again - I will often warn people or instruct them to cease their potential rulebreaking using voice chat, as the message gets through quicker and more efficiently. This, of course, leaves the matter more controversial-looking publicly. If an admin is always on the same faction's team, you may never see warnings they issue to that (your enemy's) team, but that doesn't mean they're not also subject to the rule enforcement all the same.

Canary actually did tell him(in TS) to get down, and told the rest of the team not to ladder up there after he realized he was up there.
^
This is what happened, for example.

I still say there is nothing wrong with asking for consistent adminning before it becomes a way to meta game in Strat.  Perhaps, in the future, we could have a rule where admins can't enforce against the enemy team except for the most blatant violations, especially if there are more neutral admins present.  I don't want to see another CyrusHRE episode or maybe even something worse.

I don't believe we're truly seeing inconsistent administration the way you're implying. If we're enforcing the rules inconsistently it has to do more with lack of coverage than with bias and taking sides.

Cyrus was a case where he saw potential rulebreaking, issued legitimate warnings, then apparently ignored the revised actions of the team and began handing out blanket bans regardless, apparently as a measure to punish part of the team for their supposed intent to continue breaking the rules.

I also don't believe we should be ignoring rulebreaking just because it's happening on a team that opposes the admin's. It might be harder to deal with and enforce, but to ignore it would be even more inconsistent.

Basically what I'm saying is that I want more admins or more involved admins.  I want rules enforced, if there are going to be rules, and I want us to be able to avoid selective adminning.  But all if you guys in this thread are trying to debate that this is not a good thing.

The thing people are debating in this thread is mostly the way to enforce one specific rule, the "no siege equipment on flags" rule. Oftentimes if an admin doesn't take action it is because he can not directly witness the supposed infraction: if you're hired in a strat battle you can't easily spectate. Even if you are spectating the whole time, or are on the same team as the offending party, it's not as easy to determine who is doing what as you might think. We won't blame people who aren't directly responsible for breaking rules because that would be irresponsible.

More admins is a good idea; finding viable candidates is not an instantaneous process, however.

But of course the two biggest debaters are from Hero Party and Chaos.  The first, when formed, had a Dev and two admins, the second with a Head admin and another admin.  Oddly enough, those are the two clans I am subtly accusing of selective adminning.  But of course, you guys seem to be enjoying your one sided admin decision.

Chaos actually has six total admins, with three of us being reasonably active. Before several folks left the clan, we had nine total. Hero_Party is currently bereft of admins/devs, just so you know. They haven't had any since sometime before the current issue arose.

I can't speak for Hero_Party, but if a Chaos member is debating how the rules are handled and how we enforce them, it might be because I've made sure they understand the rules, and they have seen and heard firsthand how rulebreaking tends to get handled and enforced.

Alternatively, you can just get rid of the rule.  I mean, this one hasn't been THAT big of a deal yet, but then we're just going to see how far it can be taken.

I think this rule, most agree, exists for a reason. The problem we're having related to it now is largely due to the fact that otherwise-movable siege equipment is bugged and stationary.
edit: although there is a case to be made either way! It is merely one of the community-established rules without precedent or public comment from the devs (aside from its endorsement as what are to abide by for the moment)

The issue is that you don't know exactly who built it, and unless someone fesses up or there's some evidence, no one can really be punished for it.  You can't just ban the Hospitaller leaders for it, and you can't just ban the entire team for it, the only thing that can be done is prevent it from happening again in the future.

This is pretty much the admin stance on this at present. We will try to be more diligent, and discuss the rule publicly so that everyone understands it better, but there's no guarantee that everyone will always be satisfied by our actions (or more likely lack thereof).

Let me sum up the situation: siege equipment placed over flags is against the rules. People sometimes build large-scale siege equipment near flags to the point where they cover them, even accidentally. Siege towers take a very long time to destroy; the axles and wheels of the siege towers apparently can not be destroyed.

But you see, the defenders in said situation were the offending party, and should be responsible for destroying the construct.  They will most likely take a few more losses during the reasonable period of time they have to break it, but that is their punishment for building it in the first place.

You are seriously suggesting the entire defending team be punished for an act capable of being committed by a small group or even an individual, and what's worse is that if it were done maliciously, the rulebreaker would be potentially be entirely successful in hindering his intended victim with that kind of rule enforcement!

pretty sure youd get a pretty epic ban if anyone saw you doing it, which someone prolly would considering how many people are around and how obvious it is when someone has a c-site in their hands and considering (at least on FCC side) only certain people are ever supposed to spawn with c-sites.

Unfortunately not all strat factions are as well organized, it is still a likelihood that it could go unnoticed in many battles.

The attacking team did not break any rules, and should not have to wait.  You see, it is accountability of both the players and the admins I am asking for her.  I am suggesting an escalating series of actions that the admins should take, starting with a general warning and outlining a reasonable amount of time to take corrective action. This series of actions should, however, become abbreviated with repeat offenders.


No, only the team that has miscreants on it should be punished for their mistake of hiring a particular person, do I follow you? Outside of that person being removed from the fight for breaking the rules, losing them a player, punishing the entire team for that is ridiculous - just as ridiculous as you'd agree forcing attackers to stop attacking for some duration of time (considering the battle time limit they're restricted by) would be.

If you "mistakenly" build on flags in five battles in a row, there's no reason you shouldn't be banned for at least some period of time.  And again, it's impossible to prove intent on the confines of the internet, unless they use text chat to blatantly admit they are doing something wrong.

On an individual level, yes, punishment. It's almost impossible to determine fault based on orders or instructions, yes. So, okay, more warnings, make sure everybody understands the rules. More preventive measures, paying more attention, taking a closer look at on-going construction site usage in-game.

No to blanket punishment.

It's not hard to moderate it it all.  When you die in Strat, you can just unclick the ready to spawn box and go look at whatever you want.  Throw some show names cheat on, and you can even assign the people nearest the offending object to destroy it.

Is removing several players from the fight (effectively) using the threat of punishment really better than arbitrarily assigning blame and banning certain members of a team (or even the entire team)? It is  hard to moderate because we actually have to consider the consequences of issuing warnings, commands and threats like that. I don't think there will ever be a universally acceptable decision we can make when considering the current bugs and their effect on this rule.

If attackers are about to capture flags, it's bad when one can't go down. It's also bad when defenders are forced out of the fight to break something an unfortunate teammate of theirs created. Either one creates a lopsided scenario for a strat battle for the sake of fairness by way of the rules. We've all heard what happens when heavy-handed administration directly and entirely determines the outcome of a strat battle, that is not ideal.

It is up to the admins to create a fair environment for everyone with the rules in mind. It isn't as easy as forcing strat teams into action, that's what will create exactly the kind of selective administration you're talking about. The best course of action, in this circumstance, is prevention.

REMINDER: Do not build things that will be on top of your flags!
Learn the size of siege towers and be careful not to put them too close.

Sorry for all the disjointed paragraphs and the monster post multi-quote text cascade.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: Relit on April 10, 2013, 07:26:05 am
The server admins have two jobs: Enforcement and Punishment. In this situation they can not enforce the rules effectively and without direct witnesses (and screenshots/video) there will be no punishment.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 07:53:17 am
Quote
Canary's stuff
I've never said blanket punishment, but I don't think its the worse idea to to assign responsibility to one member of the faction who's battle it is.  Just say "Kesh, its your job to kill that ladder now," if no one listens to the general warning put into pink chat.  I mean, if you issue a blanket warning, hopefully people will just double check that no equipment is in violation of the rules.  It takes half a second as you leave your spawn.  Even if there is no piece of offending equipment and you issue a statement, you have issued a valuable reminder, and no one is actually getting punished or banned.  However, I think everyone involved in Strategus should be aware of the rules.  Perhaps a link to the appropriate thread could be added by Harald to the Battles page saying "please read the rules in this thread first, before applying to any Strategus battles."  At that point, there is no excuse for not knowing the rules.  One of the worst parts of the CRPG is the lack of documentation in easy to find places.  You can start playing CRPG, but other than the newly added tips page, there is no easily accessible documentation.  You wouldn't even know to go to the forums to find everything.

In fact, I think you're one of the only ones to issue any pink text during a Strat battle, but you of course can't be there at every battle.  And of course, I don't hear you in voice chat when you're on the other side, so I don't know if you're instructing them to do anything.  A few times, you have thrown up pink text saying "OK, ladder is gone," which is awesome.  Just to make sure this post isn't a one sided strokefest, I'll add a constructive criticism.  For the battles that you do show up to, and you're the only admin, when you do your job it's certainly better than none.  However, you may not even know it, but you could be selectively adminning.  This is mostly because it is easier to see the actions of your own team than the enemies, who is rightfully trying to kill you.  On the flip side, however, it does make it easier to overlook things happening on your own side, since you might just assume your guys should have it under control.  Imagine if you were (again, unknowingly) selectively adminning a long Chaos involved war. Which leads into my next point.

Basically, what I'm calling for is more admin presence during strat battles, especially large ones during primetime.  It seems that when more admins are on, rules get enforced more completely and more fairly.  I think we want the same things.  If two admins are on, I don't think its unreasonable to ask them to apply for opposite sides, and most admins are good enough that both sides should want them.

The server admins have two jobs: Enforcement and Punishment. In this situation they can not enforce the rules effectively and without direct witnesses (and screenshots/video) there will be no punishment.

Yes, I agree with this.  The very first thing I'm asking for is a bigger admin presence.  More admins, and more admins in strat.  During large prime time battles, like this one I'm referencing, most of the player base will be in NA 3.  It's not unreasonable to ask that if there is only one admin on at the time, he should be where most of the NA player base will be.  There are admins who have not ever played Strat, admins who haven't played in weeks and admins who haven't put in 2 hours in the last week.  I want more, newer and more active admins.  There is no reason that one faction should have half of the active admins who will set foot in strat.  And while I think Canary has been doing the best job he has, he can't see both sides and can't be at every battle.  Let's get more admins who are willing to live up to Canary's standards.  Strat can be incredibly fun, but we can make it even more fun when its played the right way.

If there is a good admin on both sides, then the other admins are pretty much free to just play.  They can report things they see.  Why not have "admins on duty", who can introduce themselves at the beginning of the battle to let their presence be known.  Even knowing the admins are there will make players adhere more closely to the rules.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on April 10, 2013, 09:00:12 am
jesus christ cannery what the fuck is that ass destroyingly huge post

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


For real, anytime I see your posts or listen to Kesh talk for more than ~20 seconds that is how I feel.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: FRANK_THE_TANK on April 10, 2013, 09:14:32 am
Bring a catapult baby! Problem solved!
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 10, 2013, 09:21:26 am
Bring a catapult baby! Problem solved!

Except, if you've been reading the thread, they don't work.  All wheels for siege equipment are messed up, and nothing can be removed.  Pulling the block on a catapult just sends it across the map.  Siege towers are immobile.  Anything with wheels will get a random map entity attached to it.  Sometimes its a house, sometimes its a well, sometimes a wall section.  Seems to change randomly, but lasts the duration of the battle.  However, another battle in the same map will have a different entity attach to it, so we believe it is random.
Title: Re: Where art thou admins?
Post by: oprah_winfrey on April 10, 2013, 04:03:27 pm
Bring a catapult baby! Problem solved!

THE RETURN OF THE ALL AND POWERFUL FRANK_THE_TANK WILL FIX THE SEIGE EQUIPMENT BUGS.