Thread: [Guide]The Ultimate GM compendium of Knowledge

PART 2 of the Fully detailed command list

---->Modify Commands<----
- Considered the most used commands ever, this is where some of the power of GMs come from
You can type .modify but a faster way is by simply typing ".mod"
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".mod hp <number 1> <number 2>"
This will set the health of your target to whatever you want. The setup is a bit hard to grasp, but easy to understand after. The <number 1> will stand for your current health and the <number 2> will stand for you maximum health. So If i type ".mod hp 3000 4000"
I will have 3000/4000 health I can have up to 4000 health, but have only currently 3000 health and it will heal up normaly back to 4000 health, unless im in combat. Usually you want to keep both numbers the same, but you might be running an event, so this can come in handy.

".mod mana <number 1> <number 2>"
This is exactly the same as health, only that it mods mana instead of health. the system is the exact same. Number 1 deals with current mana, and number 2 deals with maximum mana.
Select the target as allways, and type ".mod mana 23000 23000" for example. this will give your target 23000/23000 mana.

".mod rage <number 1> <number 2>"
This will mod your rage, Allowing you to use bear form moves, or warrior moves. Once more, this works exactly like the others. First number will mod your current rage, the second will mod the max rage you can get. As soon as you type this in, you will start to lose rage normaly unless you are in combat. Select the target, and type ".mod rage 100 100" for example. this will give any warrior max amount of rage possible.

".mod energy <number 1> <number 2>"
Same as above, it will directly change the amount of energy you have. Type ".mod energy 100 100" as an example, this will give you exactly 100 energy.

NOTE: Useing the above commands will work for any class. that means if you are a mage, and want to use a rouge ability, mod your energy, and while you wont see an energy bar, there will be one, allowing you to use rouge abilites. Same goes for warrior useing mana, and a rouge useing rage. ect

".mod level <number>"
An easy command, this will set the level of your target, to the exact one that you want.
The <number> will coorespond to the level that you want. For example, we want to mod somone's level to 7. Select the target and type ".mod level 7" This will not work on NPCs

".mod armor <number>"
This will change the target's armor to your choseing. For example, we dont like a warrior much, so we will mod his armor to 5. Select the poor man, and type ".mod armor 5" This will work on both players and NPCs.

".mod <holy/fire/frost/nature/shadow/arcane> <number>"
This will mod the target's resistence, depending on the type you chose. The <number> cooresponds to the resistence itself. For example, we want to mod someone's fire resistence to 25. select the person and type ".mod fire 25" Or if we want to add on a shadow resistance of 25, type ".mod shadow 25" Or if we wanted to mod his holy resistence by 15, type ".mod holy 15" Get the picture?

".mod damage <number 1> <number 2>"
This will directly mod the damage that you or your target does. The first number will be the minimum damage he can possibly do. So for example, if we want out target to hit for as low as 500, the first number ( <Number 1> ) will be set to 500. And say we want his attacks to do a max of 600 damage, we set <number 2> to 600. So the compleat Command for that will be ".mod damage 500 600" This works on both NPCs and Player alike. However, streanth, and other base stats will affect the damage. So if you have done ".mod damage 300 300" even though the numbers are the same, you will do a bit more damage due to your base states.



".mod scale <number>"
This command can make you or your target bigger or smaller. <number 1> represents a %. 1 is the default. it means 100%. 2 makes the target twice as big because it's 200%, and three makes him three times as big, (300%) Similarly, O.5 means 50%, and that will make your target 1/2 as big as its normaly supposed to be. So lets say we want to make someone twice as big, type ".mod scale 2" This command works on both NPCs and Players

".mod gold <number>"
get ready to type some big numbers. This will set the amount of gold the player will have. and no, if you type 20 for the number, you wont have 20 gold, you will have 20 copper. The number is in copper. that means that you need 100 to get a silver, and 100 silver to get one gold. So that means if you want 20 gold, your going to have to type 20,000 in the number. Like this ".mod gold 20000"

".mod speed <number>"
This will set your speed to the one that you want. Or your targets. This will not work on NPCs. 7 is your normal speed. 14 is about the range of the epic mount, and 30 is just right.
You can also go under 7 to walk slower. Say we want to go to speeds of an epic mount. Type ".mod speed 14" That should be it.

".mod DisplayID <number>"
One of my favs, because the morph never worked for me =P
This command will allow you to look like anything in the world. However you need to know it's displayID. To do that you first need to find its spawn ID. Look up in thottbot the mob you want to become. Find the small trail of numbers at the end, Should be something like: /c8011 near the end. the small c, means creature. The number after is it's spawn ID. Spawn it, and type ".npc info" while selecting it. This will give you all sorts of info about it. Scroll up and find the "DisplayID <number>" That is near the top in yellow. Remember that number, because it will plug into your ".mod displayID <ths is where is plugs in>" So say, the DisplayID is 8011. You will have to type ".mod displayID 8011" This works on both players and NPCs.

".mod nativedisplayid"
This will simply reset the target if you have been tinkering with it's displayID, that includes you and the players. If you are a player, to get rid of the displayID, a simple relog works well, if it's an NPC you cant make it relog, thus you need to use this. Select your target and type ".mod nativedisplayID"

".mod flag"
Not to sure what this does, Never tinkered with it much during my time as a GM, and currently with hamachi broken, the server i GMed on, dead, and my computer's refusal to run a private server, i am unable to work with this command. If anyone finds out more about it, send me a PM, and ill add it in, with your name =)

".mod faction <number>"
This will set the faction of the mob. Some of the better known factions are 0 (normal mobs) 1 (allience) 2 (horde). To find the faction of any mob, use the ".npc info" button, once you see it's faction number, you can use that to mod your other units to that faction. Say we want to make a unit have the faction of 35 (neutral) Select him and type ".mod faction 35" This will work on both horde and allience.

".mod dynamicflags"
Not to sure what this does, Never tinkered with it much during my time as a GM, and currently with hamachi broken, the server i GMed on, dead, and my computer's refusal to run a private server, i am unable to work with this command. If anyone finds out more about it, send me a PM, and ill add it in, with your name =)

".mod talentpoints <number>"
This will add talent points if you so wish. Lets say we want to add 5 more talent points. Select the player and type ".mod talentpoints 5" This will only work on players, and will not work on NPCs.

".mod loyalty <number>"
This will set the pet's loyalty. I have only dabbed in this once, and left it at that.
Say we want to mod the loyalty of the pet to 6. Type ".mod loyalty 6" while selecting the pet. it will only work on hunter pets.

".mod spirit/stamina/intelect/ect <number>"
This will mod your base stats by what you want. For example, lets say we want exactly 300 spirit, select yourself and type ".mod Spirit 300"

".mod boundingraidus <number>"
This will set up how far the player can get to an NPC before the NPC aggros him. It it mesured in IN-game yard. Say we want an NPc to attack as soon as the player steps into 6 yards of it. Select the NPC and type ".mod boundingraidus 6" This is my speculation, and can be false your going to have to test it yourself =P

".mod combatreach <number>"
This will set the NPC's Distence before it can attack, it will also set how far a player can attack it. Say you have a giant, and you want it to be able to crush people 3 Yards from it
Select it and type ".mod combatreach 6" I know it's measured in yards, but i could be wrong, so your going to have to test this one for yourself as well =P

".npc emotestate <number>"
This will set the npc's emote. it also works on players too, Gastric stickied a list of emotes he found on the MyWarcraftSudio, so its up there to find the numbers. Find the emote you want, copy the number and plug it in. Say we want the target to dance. the emote for that is "10" We type this in ".mod emotestate 10" This will make him do the dance. Im not too sure about this one either, since i never did test it out, but this is my theory, if you can prove me wrong, and add a better paraghraph to add, Ill give rep, and edit this out to what you wrote with your name one it =P

----> NPC commands <----
These commands are among my personal Favorits, since i love to tinker with NPCs. Not only that, but if you are a GM, you will see a lot of these commands,so get used to them.

".npc spawn <ID>"
This will spawn an NPC For You to use. To use this command, type ".npc spawn <ID>" before you use this command, you must aready know what you want to spawn. That is the ID of it. The best place to look is either on thottbot, or wowhead. Type in the creature you want, and when the page loads, use the last didgets in the URL code on your web browser. these numbers are the <ID> of your command. each mod has its own special ID, almost like it's name. Once you find that ID, you will plug it into your command. say we want NPC 2345 to be spawned, you will type ".npc spawn 2345" The NPC will spawn exactly where you stand, so if he is hostile to you he will start attacking. I recommend useing invisibility before spawning NPCs.

".npc vendoradditem <ID>"
this is as simple as asking an NPC to add an item to what he sells. First you need to know what you want him to sell. Find the item on thottbot or wowhead the same way you whould find an NPC, and use the URL's last digets as your <ID> part in the command. the NPC must be a vendor for this to work =P. So now say you want to add Freshly sque lemonade to what a vendor sells, (because fresh lemonade > soda) Select the vendor and type ".npc vendoradditem 23161" the number at the end, 23161 is the ID for lemonade. Your vendor will now sell freshly squeezed lemonade. Mmmmm

".npc vendorremoveitem <ID>"
this will remove an item from what a vendor sells. So say you wanted to remove item 23161. (NOOOO!!!! T.T) You will select the NPC and type ".npc remove item 23161" this will remove the lemonade that the vendor sells.

".npc name <Name>"
This one i have yet to make it work. Im suspecting three things, but right now i cant test them. This is either an admin command, or needs to be formated diffrently. It might be that you have to type ".npc name <original Name> <new name>" as you need to for the .rename command. Or you need to add a didget, but i think its an admin command.

".npc emote <ID>"
This will make the NPC run an emote. Use gastric's emote list to pinpoint what you need. Emotes are from 1 to 400ish. A fun command to tinker with. Select the npc, and lets say we want him to dance, we will type ".npc emote 10" the number 10 is the dance emote ID.

".npc return"
This will return wayward NPC to their spawn locations and reset their waypoint patrol. Use this when you have a bugged NPC on the loose. Select the NPC, and type ".npc return"

".npc say <Talk>"
This is a rather fun command, as it can be used on players as well. This will make the NPC/player say whatever you want him to say in the <talk> part. For example ".npc say Skype is teh leet!" The NPC will say "Skype is teh leet!" However wont make any gestures. the same can be used on players. Subsitute the <talk> with whatever you want the target to say.

".npc yell <talk>"
works the same as ".npc say <talk>" except that the NPC will yell it in red rather then talking normaly.

".npc possess"
This will possess the npc as if you were Mind controling him, only that they cant resist, or that it will wear off. If you go too far, you will break the spell. Rule of thumb with this one: "4 S spit by E" Many people tend to spell "possess" wrong. Its 2 pairs of 'S's Split by one 'E' Remember this and you wont have any problem with this command.

".npc unpossess"
This will simply unpossess the NPC. you need to select the NPC, and type this in.

".npc come"
This will make the NPC wonder to you. Select the NPC and type ".npc come" he will turn heels and start walking to the exact location you are.

".npc addagent"
These commands bear further investigation on my part. I belive this will add a spell to an NPC without having to go into the SQL, making it great for creating a good dungon. Im not too sure, and i need to resurch this more, and make a guide about it. =P


----> .recall commands <----
This works very well to move around the map without having to run there.

".recall list"
this will list all the recalls currently in use. you may have a long list in your chat log, good luck managing it. =P

".recall port <name>"
This only works if you know the name of the recall position. For example, say someone made a recall about "Skypebase" You can use that name to jump to that area, by typeing ".recall port Skypebase" and your screen will either jump to a loading screen if the area you ported to is in another continant, or it will freeze as its loading if its in your own continant, Dont assume its a bug and try to CRT+ALT+DELTE. Its not, its perfectly normal if the screen freezes for a few seconds as it loads.

".recall add <name>"
you will add your own recall with this command. Find yourself a recall name that has not been used aready to add the recall there. Type ".recall add Skype" to add a recall with the name of Skype for example. Any name works so long as it has not been used. you can then use that name in your recall, for the <name> part in ".recall port <name>" keep in mind where you are because the recall will add itself right where you stand.

".recall del <name>"
this will delete a recall by the name of <name> be carful when you use this...


For now that all, I will be adding stuff continually as i test it.
You now know all the commands a Gm master needs, maybe even more. Debug will be added in time when if find the time to resurch them. .npc addagents seem soo much more intersting however, and so does guides about other stuff. [IMG]http://www.************/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG]
Either way a new GM can live without .debug commands, so they are not my priority. i will add them once i scratched out everything to do on this compedium.

GO Objects and tactics on how to use them

Well, time for the .go's Possibly one of the most easiest Topics and yet hardest topics of GMing, apart from dealing with people of course. Nothing is more painful then solving an idiotic issue with an idiotic person while keeping a smile on your virtual face =P

.go objects are simple to use commands that allow you to spawn objects in-game. As i explained in moderate detail on how to use such commands, I will now explain how to make the best use of them, assuming that you know how to actually do the command.

1) Macros are your BEST friend with .go's. Simply add "/s .go spawn <ID> 1" and you have your macro ready. Using this will speed things up dramatically. However, add a second macro with these two things: "/s .go select" and "/s .go delete" I usually name that macro .go kill because it will let you delete objects much faster as well.

Keep in mind, the .go kill macro will target the nearest object and destroy it. So make sure you are as close to the object you want to murder. and as far away from the objects you dont want to destroy at all.

2) Wall building is used quite a bit, there are many ways to do this. there are 3 types: The Look-good walls, ramparts, and the hard player-proof walls.

Good looking walls are easy to build, You can make a good wall out of virtually anything. Toggle your walk, which should be the "/" You can change that in the key binding on your option menu, but i wont go into detail on that. We have more important stuff to cover first. If you cant find the toggle walk button, set your speed to 3-4. Then you will lay your base line, the wall will follow that line. Walk forward to where you want your wall to be set, constantly clicking your macro. IF it's tables, you will be clicking every 3 seconds or so, if its small crates, you will be clicking ever 1 second or so. You get the picture right? It is important to click the button at a timed rhythm. if you want the best looking walls, time them all. Humans have a built in clock, so use it! Once you are done with your base line, jump on top and follow it back, clicking your macro as you walk, each layer will make your wall higher. Usually 5 crates makes a wall bigger then a player could jump it.

Ramparts take more time to build, and are made so a player can walk on it, and shoot arrows or spell from it. This will be important if you are building a BG, which a guide explaining what blizzard's approach to BGs, and how objective based PvP will improve your BG, will be in this Compendium. To build a ramparts, start building a normal wall. Then build a wall of tables right behind your wall. The tables will serve as the walking part of the ramparts. Do the same that you have done with the wall when building the walking part of the ramparts. Now tables stacked on one another look ugly, so build a second wall of crates behind the tables, this will be for the looks mainly. Well built ramparts > Ugly ramparts =P
Once you built that, your ramparts is nearly done. Now build a small ascending stair of crates to it's side on the inner side of the wall. That way players can walk up to the ramparts themselves. then your done!

Players are very devious people. They are persistent to say the least, ANY flaw in your walls, and you are sure players will make a guide on your forums saying exactly how to get by it, and think they are leet for breaking you work. Then you feel bad because you thought it was perfect. So, to avoid this, here are a few tips to Stop the exploiting players from getting to places you don't want them to be.

First of all, You must master the art of wall building, but a different kind of it. You see players can climb straight walls given enough time by just jumping from crate to crate and landing on the almost unforeseeable flaws in the objects that allow them to stay on the side of the wall. As you build your wall, inch little by little forward, by a tiny amount, Eventually the first part of your wall will be straight, but the top part will start to incline a bit, making a small almost unforeseeable "roof" that will bonk players that try to climb it all the way down. it will form a very slight candy cane like shape. enough so that players wont get past

Use the same players to your advantage. Build up your walls, then issue a challenge to players to get past it. If they do, give them the treat (Any reward that you set, for motivation), and fix the entry he used. Keep doing this over and over until they just cant get pass.

Another way, is to spawn one small thing, and mod it's size by a LOT. Objects stacked on one another leaves room for flaws, but one object's side, has no flaw at all. Find a slim object, place it in a strategic area, and scale it to a gigantic wall with the .mod scale command. Remember to relog for the effect to appear. Keep in mind, ".go Scale" commands tend to get buggy sometimes and a month after you may be wondering around and find your object shrinked back to normal.

3) Creating towers is a bit of work. keep in mind, in some places, gnomes can squeeze in, while taurens cant. The best way to make a player usable tower with objects, is to create a tauren and build your tower from there. Start with one table. then jump and jump until that pillar of table is tall enough. Build crates, and other item to decorate the tower so it wont look that ugly. Build a roof by first building walls around the tower. Remember to leave windows to players can shoot from above. and see from above. Once your walls are build, its time to make the roof. You can either float up and make your roof with crates, or a table. or you can return to ground, build a table, jump, delete it, and spawn another table, jump, delete, spawn, jump delete, spawn until you are at the height of your roof, and then you leave the table alone. you will have a perfect roof this way. Make sure to relog sometimes if the table you just deleted re-spawns when you spawn something else. you will fall down, but you can fly back on top =P

4) I recommend downloading the Ascent_search thing (One of them at least. there are hundreds out there), it will have a huge list of objects to chose from! This will make your GM life much easier.

5) Always, ALWAYS make sure a '1' is added at the end to save. I will tell you now, if your macro has no one at the end, it will be a very dark day for you the second the server D/cs.

6) Making a floating floor, is probably on of the hardest things to do. ever.
If you have a lot of time to kill, start your floor at the bottom, and start spawning them with the spawn, jump delete method. If you have less time to kill, and need a straight line for a platform (E.G the floating maze) Make yourself fly, and set your fly speed to 3-4. Then do the same thing you would for wall building, Click both your mouse buttons to move your character and point him with the camera. Add your macro to a hotkey button, and spam that as you try to fly straight.

If you need a floating platform that is wide, but goes a bit far, instead of making another line and maybe a third line, Make one straight line counting three seconds between each object. Then Make a new macro, saying "/s .go scale 3" Fly by and spam that hot key like lightning had hit it. You wont see anything at first. Once you log out and relog in, your path will be straight, and big enough to hold a few people.

7) Use real world architecture to influence what you make. anything you see out in RL< you can make in-game with enough time. All it takes is time, and know-how. The ascent lookup will help you greatly with that. and this guide has shown you the basics on how to make that awesome building in-game.

Good luck!

How to catch a hacker

This part will teach you how to identify a hacker, the types of hacks most common, How to catch him red handed, keeping an archive in case he cries croc tears, and how hunt a hacker and get rid of him.

First of all, why do people hack?
There are three conclusions that i came to
1) they suck at PvP, and need an edge.
2) they enjoy the 'on the edge' feeling of hacking. (Daredevils)
3) they are feeling bad that day, and want to make other people feel mad that day.

With these things, you will be able to tell where hackers will want to hack from, and how.
Lets look at the first part. PvP hackers.

These hackers just are not good at PvP, they can get all the gear they could possible want, but are unable to score a kill in PvP. So they hack to give themselves the edge. Most of my observations of these types of hackers, is two common hacks that they use. Speed hacking, and fly hacking. You will find them often at BGs, the arenas (including the one in STV) And PvP hotspots. [Player known gathering points for PvP. In retail, one famous one is the south shore tug-a-war, it still brings back delightful memories in me whenever i hear these words =) ]

The second type are daredevils. They are not out to harm the server, or tip the balance of PvP, or mess someone's life up. Actually they want you to try and find them, and bust them. These sort of people view hacking as more a game, and are by far the least offensive hackers there are. Their most common hacks are Wall hacks, Exploits, and general mischief in order to get people talking about them and get you on their tail. They don't hack because they need to, or want to mess others, they hack because they have already beaten WoW, gotten all the gear, became a PvP god, and want more from the game. To them, what's better then a high speed chase running around the world trying to avoid a god like entity known as a GM.
It's just an other cop chase for them, except this time, they have a chance at getting the cops to lose.

The last type of hacker is the worst kind. They are an absolute nightmare. These people will not care for your server (most hackers wont, but this borders open warfare). hell they might just make an account to screw over your hard built server just because they want to screw someone up. They are not very mature people, often they are 7-10 year old kids. Their most known hack is a program that makes any admin and GM shudder in their chairs: WoW crash. The Most pointless piece of crap ever made. Why would someone deliberately send evil out, or want evil on to someone that never did anything to them? Some people are like that. WoW crash will ruin everyone's fun, including the people that have not even said a word to the hacker, let alone even know their name. And at one point, you will face someone that crashes the server with that.

As a GM, your powers against these mentally ill people is limited. Your power comes from in-game, and Wow crash stops the game for everyone. Not only that, but your will be looking for one player, out of the hundreds that will be constantly crashing your server.
And the worst part, he is invisible. There is no way to tell who is crashing the server as a GM. However, fortunately for you, they often are stupid people that will announce themselves on the general chat of your server, either to say "Haha its me that doing this!!11!" Or to say "Ill keep crashing your server until you give me awesome gear/donor gear" If they do, your job will be to ban every single IP that they change it to. Because they will try to shift their IP. You will be able to hold them off for a bit, but only an admin can Finnish him off for good. Keep banning any account he makes, and IP banning any IP he changes it to, as quickly as you can. Alert your players what you are dealing with and ask them for help. The hacker has only two eyes, you have the whole server's eyes to help you should you call upon them.

Now that you know a bit about hackers, this is a simple step by step guide to dealing with them and getting rid of them.

First, make yourself a macro, this is the one i use

/s You have been caught hacking %t , A screenshot has been automatically taken by the time you read this, and your account name, your IP as well as other confidential information has already been identified and is being possessed. Resistance is futile. Should you attempt to log out now, you will find your account banned, and if the hack you are using is serious enough, your IP may be banned. Your best hope is to stay online, and plead for a lesser sentence.
/s .debug root
/s .player info
(( and press print screen really quickly. =P))

With this, you should stop them dead in their tracks at your robotic like voice. act as if you had busted a hundred hackers before and that you are a vet at this. This will make his attempts at explaining himself either extremely well thought out, or make him blurt out his hack and say "Pleze dont ban me!!" Usually they will say this instead of thinking about an excuse. At this point he will be putty in your hands. take a screenshot of the dialog, and now if he tries to come back one month latter to plead himself innocent and hope you wont remember, he will be in for a rough ride.

Second, Your going to have to find the hacker. you only have two eyes you know.
That's where a few tips might come in handy.

First of all, most of the server will not like hackers, at all. So as soon as they see a hacker they will blurt out somewhere they think your chat log will show their message, and say "Hackzorz is FLY HACKING, BAN him plea!" That would be the 911 call, and you are the police. Strap your uniform with ".gmon", and ".invisible". Then type ".summon Hackzorz" if the player reported hackzorz, and use that macro of yours. If he was not hacking, well, send him back to where he was, if he was, well you just netted yourself a hacker.

If it was a fly hacker, as soon as you summon him, go a few feet in the air, and .summon him again. If he does not fall, you caught him. take the SS of that now.

If he is a speed hacker, you will have to use a different thing. First, .appear to the player that asked for help, send him a whisper saying this, or something like this:

/w <name> Hello <name> I am invisible and at your location, please remain calm to not alert the speed hacker that i am here. You will not be able to talk to me, so move to the location of the speed hacker, i shall remain at your side for 5 minutes. If we cannot find the speed hacker, i will move on. Should others see him speed hack as well, i shall investigate him further.

He should start running into the battle as he was doing before. Keep a close eye, because the speed hacker will not suspect anything and will rush out at the person you are monitoring. If you are sure he is speed hacking, .recall port <your Special Anti-hacker place> And summon him there, click him and use the macro. The time it takes him to read it, you will already have everything you need. Make sure you summon him in a confined area where he cant run out, i cant stress this enough.

Once you have caught the hacker, continue on and administer the correct punishment that the rules in your server define. Keep in mind, of all my experience, a hacker will always turn back to hacking. Even if he swears to you that he wont. I have never met a hacker that will not turn back to hacking when he says he will. the only thing is the time he takes to turn back. Some will pass a week without hacking, others will pass 5 minutes and start again when they think you are not looking. hackers are NOT to be trusted.

In dealing with hackers, speed is important. when you summon a speed hacker, do so in the GM Box at GM island, that way he has no where to run to. when you catch a fly hacker, do so in a place where there is a roof, because when you summon them, they might already still have the up arrow key pressed and will speed out of your area.

Make sure you extract info from the hackers, this will help you deal with other hackers. having experience in where hackers come from, and what they usually do, will help you a lot in dealing with hackers.

Again, NEVER trust hackers to say they will stop. Hard and swift on the wicked, Kind and helpful to they who earn it

Also, make sure you have an achieve of all the hackers you caught. Drag their SS, and a short notepad with a tiny description of what they were doing when you caught them, to a folder. Think of this as your Hacker collection. Be proud of it, the bigger it is, the better you are =]


Good luck, and may your hands smite hard with .account bans!


On a personal note, My morals about banning is that they remove from both the server and the community. If you ban a bad person, everyone is happy as you removed a negative impact on your server.

If you accidentally ban a good person that was at the wrong spot and the wrong time, his friends might get angry, and leave as well, you're standing among the people will lower, on top of that, and all the real hackers will laugh at you. (triple ouch! FTL)

You hurt the server MORE by banning 1 innocent person, then by NOT banning 3 hackers. When you ban, your trying to clip out the bad stuff from your server, not the good stuff. Don't ban for personal reasons, don't ban because someone said something halfway bad about you. Don't ban unless they are negative to the server. Hackers, scammers, nasty people that are rude to Everyone, (not just you. People that are rude to you ONLY, are telling you that you are doing something bad and need to improve at that field.) All need to be clipped and removed. Especially Scammers, they are 3 times worse then hackers.
moral of this short story: DON'T BAN UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

How to hunt down a scammer, and how to deal with one

First of all, I have had very few cases of scammers, but when i do, it looks more like a court case then finding a hacker and banning him.
Out of the 4 i have caught, one of them i caught when i was a normal player.

Scammers are the "smart hackers" of the servers. They are ruthless, and care about one person only: themselves. they will crush everyone in their path, and gloat about the misfortune they caused others. I personally take no mercy on scammers. They are cruel human beings who will cause misery to other people who have never done anything to them, only for their own self gain,

Most of the scammers, are driven by one thing: money. they lust for it like pigs. the earliest scammers i know of were the Spaniards, who cause whole tribes of native Americans to be killed in gruesome manners, only to extract every piece of wealth and gold they had. So naturally, such human tendency moved very well into the internet. Maybe the scammers are the ancient ancestors to Colombus and the early Spaniards. Perhaps it runs in the human race to try to swindle someone out of their hard earned money, then makes guides showing off how to claim misery's fortune.

Scammers, unlike hackers, are very smart people. they know how to manipulate, how people work, how to steal their money with a smile and a wave, and are perfect actors. On retail, they devised all sorts of tactics to not be caught, on private servers, they are much less witty about it. That's good for you, since most will scam on their main account. On retail, they have blizzards might witch is very effective, thus why they need to refine tactics for foolproof scamming, on Private servers, only you stand in their path, and they will underestimate you.

Now these people are ghosts. they are invisible to the GM's careful eye. they fit into the server and look exactly like their prey. You cant tell a scammer from a victim unless you talked to them, and then you would only identify the victim, and not the scammer. (Scammers will lie to you. Easily)

First of all, there is only one way to catch a scammer red handed, with irrefutable proof:
To set a trap.

You will have to build up a case against him. use screenshots, and witnesses to build up evidence against them. rule of thumb is to have at least three witnesses that have each been swindled out of their money by the same person. after that you will have to create an alter ego, and log on him when the scammer is online and is at work. Give yourself what the scammer is after, and act like a normal player that is trusting. Be sure to get his attention. Then record every piece of chat and every transaction that he does. Once you catch him red handed, You can reveal yourself and get him there, However before banning him, lie to him as he lies to others.

Tell him that you will give him a second chance so long as he confesses who he had scammed. bring out the list of people that he scammed and ask him weather he had indeed stolen from them. If he says yes, you have solid proof and can repair the damage. If he says no to some, he either really does not like them at all, or they were lying to you thinking they could get some more loot free (Trying to scam YOU *Gasp*). As a player, i just took SSes of the Scammer and sent them to the admin that proceeded to ban the scammer, as a GM i could repair the damage he caused and ban him after. Once he confessed, Smile to him and say he is still getting IP banned. Just like hackers, once a scammer, always a scammer. his heart is black and will remain so no matter how much anyone tries.

So, for the sake of the guide we will imagine a situation that resembled my last hunt, a while back.

First begin by keeping an eye on the chat channel. if a message such as "Guys! dont trade with Scamzorz! he will steal your money!!11!"
This is usually where you will find your first trail, and most other trails: people warning each other. Rarely will someone make a whole ticket about it unless they lost something really really good.
Note down the scammer's name on a small text pad in your hacker archive. Usually i have a few names there that i catch wondering around. Not often do i see the same name come up again.
however if you do see the same name come up again, this is where the alarm should come up.

On that notepad, should be first the name of the player that accused him, and the name of the scammer.
This list is very easy to create, as it only requires two names per entry, The player, and the scammer, this will be more important latter on.

Now lets say, a few days after the first reportage, his name comes up again, this time on a ticket. He had swindled out about 198 gold peices worth of money from someone, and that person was mad enough to submit a full ticket.
You open up your notepad, type in that player's name, and cross check to see if "Scamzorz" was aready sighted for scamming. When you check the list, and find his name a second time, this is where you know you have a real scammer on the loose. what are the odds someone cries wolf, and the name is exactly the same?
(( Please note, no scammer in their right mind will call themselves "Scamzorz" Rather they will have a more natural name.))

Note down the transaction that the player suffered. In Scamzorz's case, he bought a valuable item, for 298g less. while the player only got 2 gold for the item when it was worth 200 gold, and on the first case, he had swindled gold as well.
The player will should depict the scam itself, For my case, it was a quick swap of 200 to 2 gold. So the scammer removed the two '0' in a very quick succession, just before the trade was finished.

After noting this down, create an alter ego, and do not reaveal that you are a GM. With this, give yourself a player appearance ( a few greens, maybe a few blues, and one or 2 epics.)
Lay low for a while. that means no announcements, no Tickets, nothing that shows your online. Scammers, AND hackers feel safe, and will be like cockroaches in the dark. Easy to stomp on.

If you scammer attacked once, he will attack again, at this point you could spring the trap on him, but it may fail unless you know more about the scammer. If you wait too long, he might have pulled too many scams, and thus created a lot of work for you to fix up.
Keep in mind, it's easy to catch and ban a scammer, but the real work you have to do is to repair what he wreaked. A hacker can be banned and its the end of it, a scammer can be banned but his shadow lingers.

Usually by the third case, you can tell a few things from him in order to make a perfect trap
1) where he usually scams people, Scammers have a tendency to scam in the same area
2) the type of people he will scam, Most of the time, they will try to scam people who are new to WoW, or people who are too trusting. or people who are not very smart.
The perfect alter ego, is to slur your words as you type, pass more time trying to substitute numbers for letters, and try to take on a trusting appearance. Take a few more second before you hit enter, to appear that you type slower, usually this will help you become the perfect scam target.
3) the time that he is online and scamming. People who scam usually are in high school, or middle school, and are the type of people who have no morality, Usually people who are 20+ wont scam, rather want to play WoW and do their jobs. So that means that the scammers will have a time when they arrive from school, and log on to scam.
Usually they adhere to this schedule regularly.

Add the scammer's name to your friend list, that way you know when he is on. As soon as he is on, wait a bit, say 7 minuts and send an announcement to everyone saying:
".announce All right guys, im going to eat lunch now, ill be back in one hour or so."
This will give the scammer a bit more of ease, a false sense of security. Keep in mind, anyone that knows they are doing something bad will fear your tag and name.

Log out of your GM character, and log back in on your alter ego. By this point you should arrive at the area that the scammer enjoys, Have the right item that he will try to steal, and the right attitude to make him believe it will be an easy day.
For my Scammer, the dialog looked a bit like this, i reread the file i saved, substituted some of the names, and dialog, (One pat went a bit sour, but was soon justified (The part when i reveal myself.) And for this guide i dont want to appear out of control, even if it was for a few minuts or so.)

ME: WTS [epic sword] 300 gold1
Scamzorz (SZ for short) Wispers to ME: Ill buy it, meet me at IF.
ME to SZ: Sur ting. Il B ther in 3 minuts or so =)
Wait a bit, then .teleport to an area near him. mount up, and run up to him.
Me: All right, So ill sell you [Epic sword] for 300, what do U think???
SZ: Its all right, ill buy it, i have more then enough gold. But i need to leave soon, so lets finnish this quick, i got to log after this =D
Me: all right,
*start trade*
If you can only take SSes, take one of your current gold, and the amount of gold he is offering.
If you have gamecam, or some recording device, i whould adives to use it now.
SZ Scames me as suspected, and then i use the ".gmon"
Me: You have been aprehended for scamming, this is not your first time, as i have a record of other you have hacked. your IP, and account info have aready been comfirmed. Stay online and answer a few question. after that you may face a punishment for your past crimes. Do not resist, log out, or attempt to lie to me. It is both futile, and will result in an imidiate ban. You have not cause that much damage, so i might not have to give you a ban.
".playerinfo"
".debug root"
SZ: wtf?

At this point he will be confused a bit, dont repeat this again. Instead head right to the questions. now is not the time to play the good cop. He is the bad guy, and your going to have to play the bad cop with him. slap him around a bit, and make use of his confusion. My error was to allow him time to register that he was caught.

Me: Player Oilvander, shacky, and Tinkers have all complained about you scamming them. Oilvander states you stole [epic ring] and left him 2 gold. Is this true?
SZ: i dident scam anyone other then you man! this is my first time.
(Yes he will lie the first time around, maybe the second. hence why you need solid evidence, or act like you have it.)
Me: strike one. Solid evidence and ScreenShots have aready been taken, we know you took these item. Answer these questions that way we can repair what you broke. Normaly i whould ban you, but Ill give you a chance, if you cooperate with us, we will let you off the hook for now.
(Adding the 'We' suggest that you are just a pawn, sent by someone even scarrier then you, and maybe even a whole team of people. This will make it even smoother.)
SZ: I only see one of you, and i swear i dident do anything! here you can have you money and item back man!
Me: the others are invisible, and as a GM i have no need for either money or items, these have been made specificaly to catch you.

(at this point, the scammer will either try to log out, or break and comply. If he logs out ban the IP you had read befor. If he works with you, ban his IP AFTER you finnished extracting any info on him.)

SZ: all right all right, Yea, i scammed that noob for uh.. 400 gold?
Me: according to my results you stole 500 gold from him.
SZ: jesus, how long have you been watchin me???
Me: long enough, however its me that's asking the questions not you.
SZ: all right all right, so yea, i scammed all of these people, i admit it, please dont ban SZ! i can give them back their items!
Me: Understood, thats all we need from you at this point.

Screen shot this, and Give him a ban. He lies to more people then you could ever know, its about time someone lied to him. Give him no mercy. Scammers are Scammers.

Once you have the solid proof that you need, Add all the victims on your friends list, and contact them when they are online, inform them of your success and that the items will be returned to them. Since you have the Scammer's Verification, that means that none of the players were lying about being scammed out of their items, or are trying to get stronger items they did not have before.

Repair the damage the scammer caused, and zip up the case and everything about it into a folder and stamp it "CLOSED" and archive it with the rest of your hacker folders.
Should he QQ on the forums either the moment he got banned, or a few months after when he thinks you forgot, post your SS and evidence on The forums.
Then explain him that he was banned with reason. If he QQs that you lied to him telling him that you would not ban him if he cooperates, inform him that he lies every day scamming people, so he of all people, should not QQ about being lied to.

Congratulations! you now know how to hunt, catch and clean up after a Basic Scammer.
Keep in mind, the scammer himself will be easy to catch, but getting the evidence from him on who he scammed, and fixing up what he did will be the real part of the case.

Good luck with your hunt, and take your time to stalk the prey, if you lung and miss him too early, he will clamp up, and hide for months, and scam in utter secret. Aim for one shot, and one kill.

Waypoints, and the presumed broken commands

Waypoints, are one of the fun commands to tinker with, and are used in many things, from Events, Battlegrounds, Or to make a base. If you aready know the basics of Waypoints, but the "Working .waypoint emotes!" got your attention or somehthing like that, Scroll down a bit until you reach a red, bold title saying "PART 2". The first part is simply to teach compleatly new GMs how to use waypoints.

Waypoints work on a few simple commands, and a few that only appear to not work.
This guide will teach you how to use waypoints, setting them up, setting some in a formation, and How to make some of the command that normaly do not work, Work.

First of all, for this guide, We will use several easy situations. For the best result, i whould suggest to do the same in-game, as you read. So start up WoW, log on, move it to windowed mode, (to troggle this on, go to the "video" Section on the options menu, and on the top right there should be the buttons for this).
If your not a GM yet, well you will have to just read along.

Waypoints are just that, They are spots in the world that only NPC will interact with, and will cause the NPC to follow them in a connect-the-dot type of thing.

First, we are going to make a very simple situation. One NPC, that runs in a streight line, and turns to the right. Spawn that NPC of your choise and DO NOT MOVE. Select him, and type ".waypoint Add"

You will have a small yellow text saying that "waypoint 1 was added." or along the lines of that. Still selecting him, type ".waypoint show" You will have a message saying it will be showing the waypoints for it. A small ghostly, tiny, semi transperant ghost of the selected creature will appear right where you stand, if you have followed the guide thus far.

Now, move up a few clicks. Select the main NPC, the one that is solid, big and players can see. Type ".waypoint add"
As the first time, a yellow text should inform success, and your NPC should start moveing instantly to you. A small ghost will appear at your feet. His level will be 2.

Level of the ghost is important. It will simply mean what number Waypoint it is. Its like it's ID. its one of the 2 ways to know which waypoint is wich, the other is your own memory. Waypoints will look, EXACTLY like one another, The only thing diffrent is their position. The level will allow you to differanciate between them.

Now, if your NPC is not aready patroling from one to the other, you did something wrong. Wait a few moments, in case it's lag, and if he still dose not move, delete him, and restart.

Click on your NPC again, this time move to your right, as far as you want, And type ".waypoint add" A third ghost will be added, and a third waypoint will be set. You NPC will patrol from waypoint 1, to 2, and then to 3, before returning past 2.

If your waypoint 1 is not at your NPC's feet, he will never return to the area he was spawned. Once your good at waypoints, you can use this to your advantage, by adding waypoint one elsewhere, and everytime your NPC spawns, he will automaticatly walk to his patrol, and never return to the spawn locations, UNLESS you add another waypoint at that location.
For now, allways add waypoint one at the spot of origin, when you feel ready, Tinker with it to your hearts content =D

Congratulations, you have set a patrol up! Feel free to add as many waypoints as you wish, so long as you select the NPC you want to waypoint. Do NOT select another NPC and type ".waypoint add" It will bug a bit, and add the waypoint for the old NPC.

Now, each patrol will stay at his waypoint for 10 seconds, or so before moveing on. Its time to change this a bit. Lets say we want him 1/2 a second there. Time to use the ".waypoint waittime" command

Select one of the ghosts, Make sure his level is either 2 or 3. Waypoint one will have a longer waittime for this guide. For both of them you will type ".waypoint waittime 500"
this will make him wait 1/2 of a second. The server will announce the possible threat of lag if its not set to 5 seconds or more, and i will tell you now: Dont panic. THis is very small, and you should only consider it when you have 10 or more waypoints near each other. Then you have to set them higher then 5 seconds. For this example, we only have one, so its OK.

You should now notice that the npc seems to only pause for a tiny bit at that waypoint and move on to the next. Select the other waypoint, and type the same thing. Now you will have the waypoints you selected be 1/2 of a second long.

Lets say we want waypoint 1 to be 15 seconds long (ZOMG its like, forever! o.O) Select the ghost that is level 1, and type ".waypoint waittime 15000" You will have a simple message saying success. and no threat of lag.

Select the main NPC, and type ".waypoint save" then type ".waypoint hide"
You may now select another NPC and work on him. Do not tinker with waypoints on more then 1 NPC at a time. Make sure you deal with one, and finnish correctly in this manner. If you want to be sure, relog quickly.

Thats all there is to this part, you have all the basics for waypoints that most GMs know. A little gift from me to you, is about the ms.

MS= Milliseconds. (mili means 1000)
500 = Half a second
1000 = 1 second
10000 = 10 seconds
100000 = 100 seconds (1 minute and 40 seconds.)



-------------------------------- PART 2 ---------------------------------------

This part is the more advanced, Everyone i know, did not know this. Even seethe thought it was just acent bugging. Im sure there are some people out there that know about this, but so far, i have not met them yet xD

Lets start with waypoint emotes. If you tried this yet, it will say it work, but nothing happened. Thats because you formated the command wrong.

Let go back to the first example. Re-activate the ".waypoint show" command. Select ghost #2. And lets say we want him to dance at that waypoint. However, his waittime is too short, (if you followed the above guide), so mod it to 3 seconds. (3000 ms) I dont have to make much detail there, since you should be a pro at this aready [IMG]http://www.************/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG]

Now, for the real part. Select that ghost, and type ".waypoint emote 1 10"
Why the one? I really have no clue. Im guessing its about the oneshot part. Either way you need a didget there, for the emote to work. It has to be a 1 didget number, not a 2 didget number like '10' 2,3,4, ect whould work, but anything over 10 wont. The second number is the Emote number. That can be as long as you want. And for the "Oneshot is enabled" the emote is either one shot or not, i dont think you can mod this.

The next time your NPC walks on that emote, he will do emote 10. However, if he does not, wait another round. There is something special about emotes.

Emotes will only occure on the normal run. when the NPC backtracks, he will not do the emotes. So, 1,2,3 will play the emotes, but 3,2,1 will not. That means that waypoint 1 will NEVER play an emote. only 2, 3, and anything after.

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Another thing to waypoints is the ".waypoint addfly" command, To use this make sure you have a unit that can fly, else you might screw something up [IMG]http://www.************/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG]

Spawn your NPC, then imidiatly type in ".waypoint add" like you whould naturally. ".cheat fly" your way upwards, and (While selecting the NPC), type ".waypoint addfly"
Continue with this around, and add the flying waypoint as you whould normaly. Flying waypoints behave exactly as normal waypoints other that they fly. There might be some glitches here and there, esspecially if you are trying with the ".formationlink" commands active on that NPC.

-----------

Setting waypoint in a formation requires some good sence of distence. ".formationlinks" can do this for you very easily, however, if your inside a building formation links might not be the best choise for a sleek look to the dungon =P This part will teach you how to set up two waypoints in a formation and the math formula needed to make it more accturate. Please keep in mind, if its not damn accurate to the last Millisecond, after a few hours, maybe a few days, when you come back the formation will be compleatly scrambled.

First, spawn two npc exactly side by side.

Next, select the first, and type ".waypoint add" Relog, or type ".waypoint hide" and move to where the other NPC is, give him waypoint 1 as well.

After that, Move to the far end. to where you want your NPCs to patrol. If they are going to end here, Add waypoint 2 for both of them the same way you added waypoint 1. Dont worry about weather they are in sunc or not yet. Make sure you take your time to make it perfect.

Finnaly, reset the server, or wait for it To D/C. when you come back, your NPC should be in perfect Sync walking side by side.

If they are going to fork left, or right, it gets much harder then that. This time you will have to make one go farther then the other. And both ending waypoints will have diffrent time. For example, say we have sally and bob walking side by side, and they will take a right.

Sally is on the far left of bob, so she will go farther. bob will stop short and sally will keep going forward for 1 second. then instantly turn right. bob will have stoped and waited 2 seconds, 1 second so sally could get in front of him, and another second that it took for sally to walk next to him. They should continue right side by side again.

This will probably be one of the hardest things to do in WoW as a GM. good luck! you know what you need to do, but ill tell you now, even i have not been able to do this without a calculator. =P

More to be added soon.