[Renewal] Requesting a guide on how to be a good GM.

[Masq]

Hello. I hope that it is OK that I post this here. It's not RO game-play related but still RO.

It should be noted that I am starting out as a server owner/GM without any previous GM experience at all. Despite that I have played RO since Beta 1. So I have observed how some things are handled..

My server isn't up and won't be until at least October~December. But I just just want to be prepared for when it does open up and when I have some players to manage.

Things that I would like guided on in particular are:

• Bot checking methods. (No captcha recommendations, please. Those alienate players.)
• What to do when the worst happens. IE: Duping, hacking, etc.
• Dealing with player drama.
• Best general practices.
• Improving server security.
• + Whatever else you can throw my way.

What I've considered:

• Being restrictive over other GM's powers. (No one gets @item for example but me)
• Blocking TOR/Open proxies and disposable e-mail's. This is for anti forum troll and a means to hinder mass account makers.
• Database backups every other day.

I have the gut feeling the question will come up, so for anyone curious as to why I am starting up my own server.. Well, I just want RO in my own flavor. I also want to provide a different experience than your typical RO as well. I'm going to try for a highly customized server.

Thanks for any help.

[Triper]

Some quick advice.

• Bot checking methods. (No captcha recommendations, please. Those alienate players.)

(...)Basically, you would do a few things.

- Talk to the bot
- Equip Garm Card
- @disguise into the target monster
- See if the person minds being killed / frozen / remains unresponsive
- See if they change target
- Max LUK for Perfect Dodge and AGI for Flee (GM max is >99) and see if the player persistently attacks the monster, regardless missing 99.9% of the time
- Jail and wait for a response / see if the individual logs out
- @kill to see if they respond to dying for no apparent reason
- Ban

Though generally you don't have to go to those extremes(...)

There are tons of ways to do that but this, said by Yusifer on another topic, isn't actually a bad way to check. Just remember to adapt to each situation and not to follow a restrict line of "do always like this" because one way doesn't work 100% with all players.

• What to do when the worst happens. IE: Duping, hacking, etc.

I they happen try to evade the use of a rollback even if it's the "easiest" thing to do unless is really the only thing you can do. Manual fixs, even if they take a bit more to be done, usually damages less the server.

[Boreas]

• Bot checking methods. (No captcha recommendations, please. Those alienate players.)

Get Harmony or some sort of protection shield.

• What to do when the worst happens. IE: Duping, hacking, etc.

Take daily backups, then restore them. Make sure you fix the security hole.

• Dealing with player drama.

Make sure such things don't occur even. Best is to not get involved tho, people will always claim you are taking sides.

• Improving server security.

Common sense. Linux / windows updates, use an updated forum and CP software.

[yC]

I'll move this to GM talk section.  Not a guide for playing the game.

[Yukino]

Some Pointers:

-Do not be swayed by your community members concerning some suggestions that mayalter the basis of your server
-Keep communication among staff members simple and frequent
-Encrypt passwords
-Have report and staff feedback sections; maintain them properly and accordingly and keep off the biasm
-Can be friends with players sort of, but still manage to keep a space between to maintain objectivity at crucial times
-Avoid being in players' guilds if one is a staff member, even on a player/legit account
-Have schedules among staff members to watch over the server at various times; be sure to stick to the schedule and perhaps even show them to the players for general references
-Have the right number of staff members on the team, making the numbers proportional to the player count and the needs of the server (take into consideration of team activity and time zones)
-The rules one makes should be kept in check; do not forget them and act on them unless one wants players to complain about unprofessionalism
-Avoid nerfing too many skills and cards
-Do not have too many NPCs in the main town; group some if possible
-Have an appropriate number of quests, and have some as story/chain ones, not always the simple gathering kinds
-Have a decent website for good first impression and have an active forum board going at all times; do some forum events if necessary
-Decent graphics in-game such as loading screens, screenshot logo, and so on
-Keep the players updated about the server with changelog threads or announcements; avoid leaving them in the dark and respond as quickly as possible to server offline situations
-Avoid deleting posts or threads made by players--just unapprove them and keep them as references so that once players complain, you got proof to prove them wrong or otherwise
-Do back-ups for the community board as well and perhaps the website
-Do not guarantee aspects that you cannot maintain... for example, 100% uptime, daily updates, etc. Make the best of it so that players cannot retaliate against these points. For example, fast recovery times for any downtimes, will try to maintain uptimes, at least weekly updates, etc. Word them to what you can guarantee basically
-Make appropriate and clear rules! Rules that are easy to understand and have no loopholes if possible
-Be careful of how you advertise players to write reviews and to vote on sites! Be sure to follow RMS's ToS =D.

Will add more later on if needed ^^.