Equipment loaning

From the 2 years that i have been on the server, i have seen quite a number of people getting banned on the grounds of "my friend lent me these items, i swear its not RWT".
and the GMs having to check through logs, while the defendant has to say specifically how they scrolled all their equipment, and having to say how their friend got the equipment, etc.

As such, could there be an OFFICIAL loaning procedure, where players can write down what they are loaning/borrowing, and for how long.
it could be an in game feature, say a new NPC that would facilitate this (maybe a fix on duey?)
or maybe a new tab in the forums, say under the market place, under "Loans".
both players will have to state their intentions in the thread, items involved, etc.
and both players will have to list all their characters - much like what you find in a ban appeal

this way, items on loan can be easily checked by the staff, and players who are holding onto their friends' equipment can have a peace of mind without worrying about the dreaded "can you explain where you got the 20WA gloves?"

it may become a new vector for RWT to legally smuggle items through, and as such, i would say that the items on loan cannot be for perpetuity, with a max of 90 days, before it has to be renewed or returned with a pause period of 2 weeks. (duey can help in returning items, in case the said friend is too busy irl at day 85 to day 100)

there can also be more fail safes, such as characters loaning and borrowing have to be at least level 120, or a new NX item that would return items automatically after 90 days (pretty much like an item tag + lock + duey).

as for reasons like quitting the server, my stand is that the items should not be given away to "friends", as the leaving player has an incentive to RWT, as they do not intend to continue playing anyway. so items have to return to the owner (the quitter) by 90 days, drop parties, etc. are not legal in this case, as it is possible that the party is done by a group of organized RWT.

if i may digress a little, there can be feature like a donation well where peeps can throw in their gear n stuff if they are quitting, then something happens (i have no idea, maybe a custom chair is generated with the quitting character? so it becomes an immortalized memory of the quitting player).

in terms of workload, i would say that this will not really increase the GMs work, as movements of high value items can be tracked, and checked more easily as there is an official record.
as for people who do loans without following the official procedures, it can be subject to the how current high value item movements are judged, meaning that it can be suspected RWT - business as usual for the staff

 

the npc thing was a shot in the dark
a forum page dedicated to this should be possible quite easily (without things like the auto returning,etc. those were kinda a shots in the dark in the middle of the night), which would be an official method in documenting, as well as communication to the staff that the godly items are on loan and will be returned after a period.
(looks at the recent ban appeals thread https://royals.ms/forum/threads/ban-appeal.151481/#post-898088)

currently, communication in real life, eg. between friends in the same place, might not produce any logs in game like "im loaning these to you for the term break", as the words will be said to each other instead of game chats, making these silent loans look suspicious in the current day.

a loan thread will be an official delay in checking flagged characters, so legit players will not have to worry if they follow the loan periods
after the loan period, if the item are still on (too long to be true without an official renewal) or missing, then the players can be subject to the current punishments on suspected RWT, and will have to prove their innocence like how it has been all this time, via logs, photos, etc.

i was thinking of duey (used to use the guy to send stuff back in the day to my mules, 1 com problems) to send back, so the loaner does not have to be online (quitter or not)

 

I think you may have been a little too ambitious here by trying to solve too many issues all at once.

If you are proposing a book-keeping system to facilitate ease of checking out bans, then sure, this might work. Caveat is whether the info is credible or otherwise.

If you trying to legitimise borrowing of eq, then i would say this is a waste of time. Like you said, how do we distinguish entries for RWT-ers from actual loans? Answer is we can't. You suggested an auto-return function - what is going to stop the first change of hands from becoming a second, third and so on? You could lock the items but would that cause other issues? What if somebody wants to end the loan prematurely or decides to sell the eq mid-way through the loan duration? Are they going to be stopped because of the item locking system?

I think we may have to think this through more thoroughly.

 

I think adding a loan section for the forum is the way to go. This way when the bans happen its very easy to just link your forum post in the ban appeal to make sure you legitimately "borrowed" your equips.

 

can i has a loans section on the forums plz

 

I feel like loaning equipment has origins to account sharing in a way. I don’t like the idea that a player can play “x” amount of time and can just loan an item to another player. I believe the favouritism concept of it isn’t a good idea especially since the rules are very harsh on other aspects of the game. I’m all for loaning equipment but it would only make sense to me if it is unmoderated and players accept the consequences of anything happens. This is my opinion, I am keen to seeing how others feel ~

 

Its really disappointing to see that this is the staff's position. I'm not trying to single you out at all, so don't take it personally Becca, and I know what you guys do can be difficult and you do it for free, but it just seems wack that I'm not allowed to lend my equips that I worked hard for without a well documented paper trail or my friends and I can get permanently banned for doing absolutely nothing wrong. I'd also imagine its trivially easy to take a SS during a RWT transaction with some bogus lending dialogue.

Tbh, knowing this, I'll probably never lend anything anymore without some official in-game or forum support as suggested by OP.

 

we dont need a npc or a forum section which does that. Because you see, every single one of the accused RWT and gave reasons like borrowed from a GOOD friend, couldnt give a NAME. You just need a name, and you will get unban, that easy. like Luvena's case

typical reponses:
*but no, i rather take the ban myself as that will bring inconvinience to my friend
*idk, he just used a mule, its not my job to find out who his main , its urs !
etc etc

 

Nani?! Nani is what? what is nani?

 

I wholeheartedly agree that its a big issue and its virtually impossible to monitor everybody. I'm no developer, but it seems like admins can get whatever information they need from logs for the most part, which I'm sure are checked thoroughly before somebody is banned. Maybe allowing greater access to those logs by GMs? Trust me, I'm on the #3bPerWeek grind and do not want gear inflating anymore and forcing me to be even more of a leech slut haha.

As far as selling/buying, ya that is a lot more obvious, my grievance is strictly with lending. For instance, I got a friend to join and started him out on the typical mage + HS mule road and was lending him gear so he could sell leech earlier/at better spots. I had no idea we could both just catch perms for it because I didn't properly document the lending of my legit gear to my good friend. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I guess.

Ban appeals where people won't name their lenders is a double edged sword. On one hand, it looks even more sus when they refuse to name their sources, but at the same time, its almost a guarantee that the other guy will get investigated and banned as well and since they didn't document anything, now his friend is banned too. I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation.

I definitely don't take anything you guys do lightly, I've been playing on and off since the server opening and have seen firsthand everything you guys have done over the years and its wonderful.