| Manual to being a GM Congratulations, if you're reading this, it means you have made it to the staff of a server. If not, then you might be considerig to do so. And if that is not the case either, then you must be curious about this sbuject. Unlike most players think, being a GM requires allot of patience, some social skills, a technical perspective and mathematical perspective. If you're a GM for some time and you disagree, then i suggest you start dividing your current job into the parts i just mentioned and i'm sure you will reconise it. Note: This Manual is written for the only TRUE Lineage 2 serverfiles. This guide does not apply to the other lame variant called L2Java. L2Java is incompatible with allot of soft and hardware --------------------------------------------------- Chapters: Basics - 1 What is ''GM''? - 1.1 What is the purpose of a GM? - 1.2 Why should there be GM's? - 1.3 Behaviour & Contribution - 2 What do people expect from me? - 2.1 GM Levels - 2.2 How can i fullfill people's expectations? - 2.3 To which expectations should i act to? - 2.4 Quick & Dirty tools - 3 Introductionary - 3.1 Lineage 2 bot programs - 3.2 HLapex and variants - 3.3 DDOS tools - 3.4 Intel - 3.5 Finals - 4 Designated GM kit - 4.1 Exams - 4.2 Last words - 4.3 Author, etc - 4.4 --------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1.1: What is ''GM''? ''GM'' stands for ''Game Master''. You might have heard allot of variants on the definition of GM, well all of them are wrong. GameMaster has been assigned to be the official definition of a GM in Lineage 2. GM's are usually ingame characters with special abilities such as the privileges to command the server into taking actions like announcing messages or kicking players. GM's also posses a moderator account on the designated forum of the server. Chapter 1.2: What is the purpose of a GM? In general, the purpose of a GM is to provide customer support. But this doesn't say much yet, there's allot more to it. GM's keep the ingame environment safe and in order, he helps players with problems, and keeps the server administrator up to date with the events that happen ingame. (Event: a happening, sudden change of environment.). Chapter 1.3: Why should there be GM's? If the designated server has no GM's, the advantages in the previous chapter do not apply. The results of this could be: cheats and exploits unhandled, no moderation in the community and low player amount due to lack of support. Players feel a server is 'dead' when they can't talk to one of the staffmembers about something. They will get the idea that the server gets no attention and will not stay online long. Chapter 2.1: What do people expect from me? This totally depends on which people you mean. The administrator(s) expects you to keep the server in order while they are developing new features. The players expect you to help them with their trouble. The other GM's expect you to assist them in certain things. There's so many people that want so many things from you. First things first, you will have to calculate which people you should listen to. The administrator wants you to apply the rules first, this is a passive thing to do. You never hunt for bots and such, these get reported for you and you handle them whenever you get them reported or whenever you see one. The players think you will have to help them in certain things, although this should never be in conflict with the rules that the administrator applies. That limits you to helping them with technical issues and functioning as an allround database for help with quests and such. Other GM's might also need your help. When they are organising a competition then they are counting on your moderation, try to give them that. This is how colleagues help eachother out. Also keep eachother updated about events ingame. Chapter 2.2: GM Levels When you are a GM, you will receive a GM character. A GM character is, as explained before, a character that has the privileges to send commands to the servercomputer (commands are explained later). These sets of privileges are divided in several levels, these are: bLev1, bLev2, bLev3, bLev4 and bLev5. bLev1 has all privileges on the server, and bLev5 the least. Between that are some variations from more to less privileges. The only level that can give other's a GM level is bLev1. When someone does this command on your character, it is necessary for you to log out, and log in again for all changes to apply. You might notice that when you log in, you will get SYS messages and you will log in as invisible. This is all standard and cannot be changed (as far as i know, this might be different on your server). Chapter 2.3: How can i fulfill people's expectations? This is a simple and short chapter. The question that represents this chapter should be asked backwards: How do i upset other people? This can be done through abuse of your privileges and ignoring other players. Don't do either of those things and you should be fine. Chapter 2.4: To which expectations should i act to? Whenever a GM asks you to break either of the rules, then it is wise not to do so. Inform the administrator about it and ask what you should do. The same counts for players. You will get allot of materialistic questions from players. They will beg for minutes, if not, hours if you can enchant their weapon or give them money. It's highly prohibited to do any of these things. The result of not doing what the player wishes you to do may result in insults. Best thing to do is ignore all this, if you feel offended by the insults then you can take actions against this. Please take an appropiate action, handle exactly like the rules tell you to. If you do anything else, you will most likely have to explain this to the administrator, which is not something you should be proud of. Try to prevent these situations. Chapter 3.1: Introductionary What is 'Q&D'? Q&D is the abreviation for Quick & Dirty. The definition of Quick & Dirty is 'Effective, Efficient, but not luxured'. The DOS operating system can be considered Q&D because it was effective, efficient, but VERY ugly considering it had no graphics at all. Lineage 2 servers partially work with Q&D. There's a simple moderation window (Press ALT+G), but when it comes to really big events (example: sieges, summoning), you have to step over to the commands. The commands can be considered Q&D as well, because they are very powerful when used properly, but it's basically nothing more then words and numbers. When using a command, you always have to read though your typed command in order to see if you haven't made a mistake. This because some commands can become enormous (example: SetSiege commands), and i'm pretty sure you don't want to type commands like those for a 2nd time. Also, a wise thing to do is to check up on the command's syntax. This can be done by typing the command without any parameters. This way the server will reply with an error + the command's proper syntax. (Note: L2Java is not Q&D. L2J has simple menu's and stuff making the job for GM's so easy, that anyone could be a GM. This has a negative effect as technical people aren't chosen so often, leaving a big hole when it comes to expirience of the personell.) Chapter 3.2: Lineage 2 bot programs Bots are applications that can simulate a login to the server on a character, and will steer the designated character to a certain action such as farming, PVP'ing and even deleveling. You will have to deal allot of times with bots, and the only way to check properly on a bot is expirience. The command to check on a bot is very unstable and can not be considered useful. You will have to grow expirience yourself, but i can tell you a few certain points to pay attention to. First of all, bots cannot think. So if you see a player killing monsters as a brainless person for over an hour, then it's likely to be a bot. A few tricks to find this out is to recall him to a place with totally different textures. Bots do not load the graphics, so they should appear at an instant. Next to that, bots are known to stand up at full HP. So you can ask the designated bot (if the owner is there and claiming the bot to be another person) to sit down on the ground. When this character is runned by a bot, the character should stand up immediatly after it tried to sit down. There's several other ways to find out, even ways that i do not know of, but for now, you should be able to get going with these tips. While being a GM for some time, you will develop your own ways like i did. Chapter 3.3: HLapex and variants This is a very short chapter, but also one of the most important ones! There is nothing much what you can do against these programs, but it's useful to at least know what these programs are. HLapex is a program used to capture, edit and send data that is transported to the server. This way it is very easy to fool the server into making items, changing passwords, etc. Whenever you have the feeling that such an attack is being done, then contact your administrator as quick as possible. Chapter 3.4: DDOS tools The definition of DDOS is 'Dedicated Denial of Service'. A DDOS attack is a form of hacking as well, but can be more considered as 'last-resort' for hackers. Most DDOS programs work very simple, the only thing they do is to create a sort of pressure on the server's applications, forcing them to crash eventually. There's nothing much that can be done against this, but it is very noticeable as the gameserver will lag a long time before it crashes. This is also something to report to your administrator. Chapter 3.5: Intel Intelligence is also a form of moderation. It can be very useful to know players. When something is wrong, the players are the first to notice as they are available there where things happen. Make sure you are open to intelligence, get to know some players, and build up a network. You will see that this will pay off sooner or later. Chapter 4.1: Designated GM kit As a GM, you can impossibly know ALL the GM commands, but it is handy to know the common used ones. You will learn them from yourself when you have used them a few times. The rest of the commands are handy to have in reach as well. I have uploaded a set of commands and ID's you can start off with. Download: http://two.xthost.info/thechav/Chavez%20GM%20Toolkit.rar Chapter 4.2: Exams When you think you know all of it, you can take a small test, the answers are down below. 1) The Administrators have assigned GM's to (2 answers): A: Develop serverfiles and features. B: Moderate the game and community. C: Become populair by summoning items. D: Provide support and help to players. 2) The ALT+G menu is a Q&D tool. A: Yes, because it's effective. B: No, because it has graphics. 3) A player is sending a DDOS attack over to the server, what do you do: A: Notify the admin via IM or telephone. B: Kick the designated player. C: Announce that the players has to stop. 4) A player is telling you someone is botting, you: A: Teleport to the person, kick the botter and ban him from the server afterwards. B: Ignore the player as he is not a moderator, you will pick up bots whenever you see them yourself. C: Follow the suspect for suspisious behaviour that could indicate botting, then handle through the server's rules. 5) A GM is asking you to summon an enchanted item as an award for a PVP competition, what do you do? A: You summon the item, because you help colleagues. B: You ask an admin if it is alright to summon such an item, then do it on approval. C: You do not summon the item, it is not allowed to summon things. D: You do not summon the item, it is his competition, not yours. Answers are here: http://two.xthost.info/thechav/answers.txt Chapter 4.3: Last Words A good GM is a GM with expirience. That's something you have to learn yourself, but i do hope this manual has provided enough info to those that needed guidance to the GM being. The commands and ID's are collected by me, although they came from forums and such, there's no such pack as this so there you go. Please note they are from Chronicle 4 and you might want to ask your administrator for a list that is suitable to your server. Chapter 4.4: Author Entirely written by Chavez. Administrator from FusionL2 (C3 & 4), VersuvioL2 (C1, 2, 3 & 4). GM from k3rb3r0s (C2). And player of allot of lovely servers. This manual was written for GM's from FusionL2. But also in the hope that this becomes a standard for all other servers where the lack of skill for their GM's is huge. I have played on allot of servers and came to the conclusion that there's servers around that need a guide like this badly. Administrators do yourself a favor and toss this one up on the staff board as a sticky topic. |
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