As of late, there has been widespread exploiting using various methods to prevent damage/aggro to be taken by a player and still allow said player to gain experience. Needless to say, this is having a detrimental effect to the game on many levels. Therefore, this post is to outline the offenses and subsequent punishments for these offenses.
Any character found to be engaged in combat with no loss of health occurring as result of using an exploit will be warned on the spot to stop and their character name and account will be noted as having received a warning. Second offense will result in a two week ban, and any subsequent offense will result in permanent ban.
Any character found to be placed in a position where aggro is negated and is in a group gaining experience will be warned on the spot to stop and their character name and account will be noted as having received a warning. Second offense will result in a two week ban, and any subsequent offense will result in permanent ban.
Any character suspected of using a third party macroing program to perform unattended complex movement, attacks, etc. will be approached in game by an administrator, and if no reply is sent within a reasonable amount a time, the player will have their character disconnected from the game and a warning will be sent via email. If the character reconnects and continues automation, the account will have a temporary ban placed until confirmation of the warning is received in the form of a reply to the warning email. In the event that the offending player’s email is no longer current, said player should make contact via the Trouble Ticket system with “Banned” in the subject line. Second offense will result in a two week ban, and any subsequent offense will result in permanent ban.
Any player involved in “griefing” through training monsters onto an individual/group to expunge them from a current hunting ground or any other reason will be subject to the same process of consequences as outlined above. The individual/group who was on the receiving end of the grief must submit any logs and/or screenshots via the ticketing system in order to substantiate the offense.
This is to serve as guidelines to players on what is not acceptable in the world of Horizons. This also does NOT limit the offenses to those listed above. The game management will deem what is and what isn’t acceptable at any time and the pattern of consequences will remain the same. In the event that an offending character is unreachable in game (I.E. does not respond within a reasonable amount of time) their character will be disconnected and the warning will be sent to the email associated with the account.
Further, this is not a repeal of the traditional Horizons policy of taking care of in-game problems in-game, that is, as a community. Therefore the community should be responsible for showing personal responsibility and respect for others by not participating in the outlined exploits and extending the common respect of telling a player who is participating in any form of exploiting to stop or they will be reported. This is your game, your world, and we who administer it are taking these steps because the problem has grown outside of the community’s influence, which is by far a positive one.