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Crimsonsplat

Fire the GM!

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Ok, I'll spare everyone the details of server drama.  But I, as the owner of a hosted server, asked two (probably now former) married friends to run a server for me.  I could pay for it, but they had the mad skillz to run and mod it.  So we teamed up with the explicit golden rule ("he who has the gold makes the rules").  Despite that, I was pretty much hands off for the first six months...

 

Only, you guessed it, one of them abused the heck of her powers, to other players' annoyance and detriment.  To the point that it was necessary for me to "fire" them.  Only I can't figure out how to do that within the game.  All three of us are GMs. I removed their server access and had the host change the db password.   But they still have GM characters.  I can find no information on how to remove GM status from another player, especially while they're offline.  Best I have been able to find is how to ban them, but I don't know if that works for GM characters.  If they're online, it becomes "who's quickest on the draw" and I don't type well enough to risk that!

 

Am I going to have to learn some SQL and go into the database to fix this before I bring the server back up?

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1 hour ago, Crimsonsplat said:

Am I going to have to learn some SQL and go into the database to fix this before I bring the server back up?

 

Actually yes. There is also the way of downloading the server starting it up on some windows machine and going into the Server launcher and remove the powers there but that is also not as easy as it seems.

 

Banning GMs on the other hand works fine, so best to just ban them.

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3 hours ago, Crimsonsplat said:

Ok, I'll spare everyone the details of server drama.  But I, as the owner of a hosted server, asked two (probably now former) married friends to run a server for me.  I could pay for it, but they had the mad skillz to run and mod it.  So we teamed up with the explicit golden rule ("he who has the gold makes the rules").  Despite that, I was pretty much hands off for the first six months...

 

Only, you guessed it, one of them abused the heck of her powers, to other players' annoyance and detriment.  To the point that it was necessary for me to "fire" them.  Only I can't figure out how to do that within the game.  All three of us are GMs. I removed their server access and had the host change the db password.   But they still have GM characters.  I can find no information on how to remove GM status from another player, especially while they're offline.  Best I have been able to find is how to ban them, but I don't know if that works for GM characters.  If they're online, it becomes "who's quickest on the draw" and I don't type well enough to risk that!

 

Am I going to have to learn some SQL and go into the database to fix this before I bring the server back up?

The easiest in-game way I've found to ban a player is to just change their password, like this:

Assume the player's name is GMToon

Type #changepassword GMToon <insert your own Steam ID here>

Then, if they're still online, type #kick GMToon to boot them out.

They won't be able to log back in from any account except your own Steam account, which I'm assuming they have no access to.

 

EDIT:  This page will show you how to find your own Steam ID, or you can find it using the GMTool in-game

https://support.ubisoft.com/en-GB/Faqs/000027522/Finding-your-Steam-ID?fallback=en_GB

 

You can also activate ebony wand, right click it, choose Server>Manage player powers and drop them to 0.  I'm fairly sure this works, even if they are equal power to you. Or do it from the server host's "Set GM Powers" button.

 

I've had terrible luck giving RL friends GM powers.  Basically, I've found that anyone who really likes being a GM is going to either use that power or experience stress when they resist it.  It's a great way to damage a friendship.  So now I give GM powers only to visiting GMs from other servers, in which case it's for just that one visit, or I badger a friend who is very reluctant to be a GM, into doing it, then allow them to rarely log that toon in.

 

 

Edited by Batta

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Thanks all.  I've already tried the Server>Manage Player powers and the # equivalent.   The player has to be online.   It's either dive into the db, or ban their GM characters.  Probably the best course of action is the ban. 

 

I don't know what the problem is with resisting temptation... the only issue I've had is not providing the players with the exact location of uniques.  I'll log my GM toon in about once a week and tell them what's spawned, but not where.  I try not to even look at the coords, so I'm surprised too.   They've been trying to find an elusive black dragon hatchling for over a month now! 

 

Edit: oh, and my host doesn't have a GM button.  They deleted their "instant server creation" banner after I pointed out that their need to set the server up, and set the parameters meant that it wasn't instant.   Sigh.  Of course this host was recommended by the same people I'm firing.... 

Edited by Crimsonsplat
additional information

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17 minutes ago, Crimsonsplat said:

Thanks all.  I've already tried the Server>Manage Player powers and the # equivalent.   The player has to be online.   It's either dive into the db, or ban their GM characters.  Probably the best course of action is the ban. 

You can still use the #changepassword option, and they definitely don't have to be in-game when you do it.  I've used this as a "soft ban" several times.  Once you change their password to your own Steam ID, you can even log in with their toon name and see what they've been up to more thoroughly.  This also gives you the option to assign the toon to someone else, or even give it back to the original players if you ever need/want to.

 

The server host we use is Pingperfect, and we've found them to be excellent over many years.

Edited by Batta

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Sigh, I was planning on them, but I went with Low.ms because of one of the ex GMs.  Figured if he was willing to do the work, I'd let him pick the server he was familiar with.  Not been happy with them.

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12 minutes ago, Crimsonsplat said:

Sigh, I was planning on them, but I went with Low.ms because of one of the ex GMs.  Figured if he was willing to do the work, I'd let him pick the server he was familiar with.  Not been happy with them.

Pingperfect has the ability to just transfer your complete files, map, etc. to their hosting service, if you decide to switch.  We had trouble with previous server hosts, but all that went away when we transferred to PP.

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....  I can't change their PW using the wand since we're the same rank, I guess.  Settled for banning.

 

Edit: Pingperfect, very nice!

Edited by Crimsonsplat
updated response

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Hey, Batta, got another question that I hope you can answer.  Like the guy who asked about how many creatures, we've got a paucity... on 2/3 of the server.  What we've figured out is that the server is re-poping hostiles starting in the NW corner and reading "across" the map from W to E.  Then it goes down (presumably a line) and does the same thing.   So any settlement in the north end of our 4096 x 4096 map is surrounded by creatures, and settlements in the south rarely see any. 

 

Is there a setting or flag in the db that controls this behavior?

 

Thanks in advance, and for all you do here!

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Sorry, @CrimsonsplatI've never seen this happen before. Creatures normally have a NW "drift" that causes them to head NW no matter where they spawn from.  I can't imagine what's making yours spawn in the NW and head SE.  

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NW is 0,0 coords so it is starting the zone poll from 0,0 and progressing across the map to NE and working it's way down the map from W to E

There are many factors but yes it starts working from NW.

 

If issue of less mobs SE you can always add in lairs in that region to spawn creatures, maybe different biomes, like sand and steppe in that area too.

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Sigh, that's what we thought it was doing.   Sorry Batta, they're not heading SE; if they were this wouldn't be such a problem..  Well, they'd get caught on the south shore of our northern continent, but as it is, they're just crowding the north and nothing's in the south.

 

Sounds like spawners are the only answer.

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