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CattleProd

Version: 2.3.0
by: cattleprod [More]

Description

CattleProd is an addon to automatically search a battleground for AFK players and report them using the ReportPlayerIsPVPAFK function added in the 2.2 release.

Features

* Automatic reporting of AFK players (skips already debuffed players)
* Manually announce AFK players to battleground chat
* A high level of configuration to influence the effort calculation
* Output levels determine how much reporting is shown to user
* Alterac Valley: Detect Defenders, Reward Assault and Defense of nodes
* Arathi Basin: Detect Defenders, Reward Assault and Defense of nodes
* Eye of the Storm: Detect Defenders, Reward Flag Captures

Details

CattleProd calculates an effort score for each player of your faction in the a battleground by evaluating a player's damage, heal, battleground specific score board data, and player defensive locations. The effort score takes into account the recent performance of the player. The player's effort score is then compared to the average effort score for the battleground to determine if a player is AFK and then reported.

Install

* Extract CattleProd.zip to World of Warcraft\Interface\Addons
* Upgrades require clicking the "Defaults" button on the Configuration

Use

* /cpconf - Bring up the configuration screen
* /cpherd - Scan battleground for AFK players
* /cpdefend - Let you know your location and your defensive status

General Configuration

Report Players AFK
With this option enabled player's who are considered AFK will be have ReportPlayerIsPVPAFK called which will report the player as AFK. When Report Players AFK is disabled players will not be reported, but will still have output printed that the players are AFK.

Required Effort Percentage
A player whose effort is below the average effort by this percentage or less will be considered AFK.

Report Known Leeches
Report known leeches at the start of the battleground. This will occur at 90 seconds from when a player joins the battleground. This allows time for the battleground to fill up.

Known Leech Count
Only leeches who have a zero effort score throughout an entire battleground will be added to the known leech list. Each match that they are with zero effort scores their count will be incremented. Someone is considered a known leech after this many occurrences.

Report Level
The report level determines the amount of output CattleProd generates for the player.

0: No reports will be shown at all for the user. Note, a player will still see the reports output from the ReportPlayerIsPVPAFK() since the 2.3 patch.

1 - 3: Level 1 will be a very small amount of information, just the current identified leeching players will have their data printed. Level 3 will produce a considerable amount of detailed output.

Monitor Configuration

Auto Start Monitor
Enable the monitor to automatically start when you enter a battleground and automatically turn off when leaving a battleground.

NOTE: Auto Start Monitor only works in Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm. Once battleground specific support for Warsong Gulch are added this setting will affect that battlegrounds also.

Display Monitor
The visible frame of the monitor can be turned off with this option. Players will still be reported as normal.

Monitor Duration
When the monitor is enabled it will report players at the end of the duration. Keep this number reasonable as the number of reports allowed per time frame is limited so only the worst offenders should be reported.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1777966066&postId=20007202120&sid=1#5

Calculate Player State Interval
Player state is calculated each interval. The shorter the interval the more accurate the defense calculation will be for players. However this also increases the CPU usage and bandwidth requirements, though no slow down is noticeable with the default setting.

Required Data Points
A player score will not be evaluated for effort until the required number of data points have been calculated. If the value is too small players will be potentially reported on route back to the battle since travel takes time. If the value is too large players will be able to evade being marked AFK if they only play in spurts. The larger the value the more memory used, though the default setting has not shown to use that much memory.

Announce Top N Leechers
Only the top N leechers will be reported to the battleground when you click the report button on the monitor frame. Keep this number reasonable or you might be reported for spamming.

Alterac Valley Configuration

AV Graveyard Assaulted Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have assaulted a graveyard.

AV Graveyard Defended Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have defended a graveyard.

AV Tower Assaulted Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have assaulted a tower/bunker.

AV Tower Defended Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have defended a tower/bunker.

AV Defender Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount per minute when they are defending a node.

Arathi Basin Configuration

AB Defender Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount per minute when they are defending a node.

AB Bases Assaulted Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have assaulted a base.

AB Bases Defended Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount when they have defended a base.

Eye of the Storm

EotS Defender Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount per minute when they are defending a node. Also while a character is in the middle near the flag spawn they will receive bonus effort.

Flags Captured Bonus Effort
A player's effort score will be adjusted by this amount for each flag capture.

Post A Reply Comment Options
Unread 10-18-07, 05:08 PM  
Simbuk
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This seems like a somewhat arbitrary method of reporting AFKs. For instance, based on the description it sounds like a player attempting to run the flag while everyone else farms honor could be misreported. Or a low level participant who gets killed quickly and often could also be misreported.

Is there a mechanism for coping with these issues in place?
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Unread 10-18-07, 05:50 PM  
cattleprod
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Originally posted by Simbuk
...
Is there a mechanism for coping with these issues in place?
Not at the moment. Future revisions will hopefully address defenders and flag runners. However, as AV tends to be the most blatantly abused, so the initial code is to address that issue.
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Unread 10-19-07, 09:40 AM  
Simbuk
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Then please don't take this the wrong way because I see that your intent is to address a valid concern, but isn't releasing an addon with the potential to erroneously damage people's reputations a little irresponsible?

I guess I just have a problem with the automation of this sort of thing. Before you report someone for a TOS violation you have a moral obligation to make reasonably sure that they are in fact a violator. CattleProd allows people to disclaim personal responsibility because they can say "Oh I didn't even know, it was all the addon's doing." The two most likely outcomes that I can foresee will either be players being punished unfairly, or GMs ignoring the report spam because of its inaccuracy. Neither is a good long term solution to the issue of AFKers in BGs.

At the moment CattleProd seems more like a "this person isn't showing on the charts well enough to suit my taste" reporter than an actual AFK reporter. Perhaps you could combine the current algorithm with ready checks, combat log monitoring, or other more interactive means of verifying participation?
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Unread 10-19-07, 11:47 AM  
cattleprod
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Originally posted by Simbuk
Then please don't take this the wrong way because I see that your intent is to address a valid concern, but isn't releasing an addon with the potential to erroneously damage people's reputations a little irresponsible?
You do not seem to be aware of the addition in 2.2 that allows all members within a battleground to report players as AFK. This mechanism first requires a certain number of players to report another as AFK. Once the threshold has been reached (threshold is currently unknown, likely 5-10 people in AV, unknown for other battlegrounds) the reported player is afflicted with a debuff for 60 seconds. To remove the debuff the player must enter PvP combat in some fashion. If the player does not enter PvP combat within 60 seconds the player gets another permemant defuff ceases to earn honor (specifically bonus honor) until the player enters PvP combat.

Currently the way to report players is very tedious. You need to look at the scoreboard or map to find people who are sitting in the cave, or now they often sit in Galv or Bal's area, and try to evaluate whether they are AFKing or not. Then you have to /target the player and right mouse click to report them as AFK. In short, while the major AFKing prior to 2.2 has been diminished, there are still a fair (usually 4-6 players) number of players who are not playing at all.

This mod simply attempts to automatically discern whether players are AFKing or not. If they are not assisting the battleground effort they should not be gaining honor. Because of the mechanism to remove the debuff is entirely up to the player themselves, even those falsely reported by the mod will naturally enter PvP combat within a minute to prevent the loss of honor.
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Unread 10-19-07, 01:12 PM  
Shadowed
...
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You'll never be able to get the logic to a point that it's actually useful, it remains to be seen how 2.3 will actually change AV but these mods are rather silly since they enforce the idea of zerg everything to victory (and not get reported).
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Unread 10-19-07, 02:40 PM  
Simbuk
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Thanks for the clarification, that's not as bad as I'd feared. Still, the way you've explained it this addon can penalize people who are actively participating in ways that don't generate honor. Thus the core of my concern remains the same. Punishing people for filling unglamorous but necessary roles where the honor comes slowly like base defense strikes me as self-defeating.
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Unread 10-19-07, 03:47 PM  
Wowgamer233
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I agree

Originally posted by Simbuk
Thanks for the clarification, that's not as bad as I'd feared. Still, the way you've explained it this addon can penalize people who are actively participating in ways that don't generate honor. Thus the core of my concern remains the same. Punishing people for filling unglamorous but necessary roles where the honor comes slowly like base defense strikes me as self-defeating.
I often defend flags (stealthed as a rogue / drood) or just stood there as my mage or loc. I try and help the overall play by providing recon info.

Defending IMHO should not penalize folks like me by stopping me gaining honor.

The end result of being reported is not defending flags and just having lots of BG's where people constantly run around like pack's of dogs zerging and re-capping the BG.

I'm not disrespecting the skills and time that went into this mod (and other similar ones). It's just that I think even Blizz got it wrong with making it simple to penalize people who defend.

/salute /respect
__________________
Erm, yes, I would like to get mana back before you start tanking again...
No healer mana = dead tank
Last edited by Wowgamer233 : 10-19-07 at 03:48 PM.
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Unread 10-20-07, 01:59 PM  
cattleprod
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Re: I agree

Originally posted by Wowgamer233

...

I'm not disrespecting the skills and time that went into this mod (and other similar ones). It's just that I think even Blizz got it wrong with making it simple to penalize people who defend.

/salute /respect
I simply suggest you attempt using the mod when you defend sometime and turn off the reporting feature. See if you wind up in the list of players who would be reported. If you do, then offer suggestions on how I could give credit to defenders.

There is a list of features and bugs I plan on working on and addressing. Your feedback is welcome.

http://code.google.com/p/cattleprod/issues/list
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Unread 10-20-07, 03:13 PM  
Reaver77
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We all understand

You know I understand what you all are saying about being reported because your doing things that are not specifically PvP in BG, like drwaing agro and stuff, but I think it's a small price to pay for a mod like this...

If you get reported AFK by this mod it's not like you are marked in Blizz's mind as being an AFKer.. Seriously.. They don't kick you out without the pop up debuff, which you are going to take care of when it comes up.. I mean really all you have to do is fight a rabit, or something to get rid of it.. PLUS the gm's are not going to rememeber you outta the 1000's of players that are on.. So it's not like your black listed.

Seriously.. I know what your saying but stop whining... Is this mod perfectly fair? No.. But it isnt fair to me to go into a BG expecting to be even matched and have 5 or 10 players AFK (because now that everyone knows how the Blizz system works it is picking back up again) and be blown right outta the water..

I have a couple people in my guild that AFK'd all thier gear and it's not fair.. I hate AFK'ers and if a few people have to be annoyed by the debuff a few times per BG so be it.. It's better than the WHOLE BG suffering because players insist on cheating and wrecking the experience for the rest of us..

Until Blizz comes up with a better way to do this I am all for it and plan on puting this on my account and on my wifes..

I appologize in advance for any false reports, but live with it.

If we dont try and get rid of AFKers in BG then they will always be there and this is a great first step.. Far more than Blizz has done thats for sure.

Reaver
aka Tarkesis - Malfurion
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Unread 10-21-07, 01:14 AM  
tecu
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You know, a better way to approach this is to do something along the lines of the old-school emergency monitors.

- Gather up the information (location, hks, kbs, damage, healing, honor gained, etc.) and use it to calculate a probability that the person is not participating. I'm assuming your mod already does this part.

- Display a compact list of players sorted by this probability with two buttons:
* More info.
* Report as afk (with an announcement to /bg?).

Ideally, hitting 'more info' will allow the player to see enough information to make a judgment about whether they are afk or not and then report them if necessary. The main reason for this suggestion is that automating something like this fully (specifically, automatically reporting people with no user input), unless you are absolutely sure you have covered all cases (you haven't), is wrong.

That said, here is another two suggestions (and the only way I can think of to have a decent success rate of accurately detecting slackers):

- Divide the map into regions, and make probability calculations based on the state of those regions (eg. this area of AV is used by defense, which has different averages than that area, which is used by offense, which has different averages than this other area, which is used by people farming harpies, and this is a dead zone (destroyed bunker, cave) where nobody should really be unless they are just passing through).
- Base whatever calculations you make on how long playerX has been in the BG.

And here are some behavior types that you've probably considered, but I'm sharing anyway:

- Cave dweller - all zeros, stays in the cave/bunkers/hillsides.
- Gnoll farmer - damage/healing present, minimal-no hks, stays near harpies/gnolls.
- Offense - decent damage/healing, hks, few deaths, possibly has node assaults. Different averages for dps / healers / tanks <- gl with that one.
- Defense - decent damage/healing, hks, many deaths, different averages for dps / healers / bored guards.
- Followers - low damage/healing, hks, few deaths, no assaults.
- Offensive guard - no stats for this one! Tries to stay near a node while it is being contested.

I'd be happy to give this more thought if you want it from me, but please (please!) at least change it so reporting isn't automatic. Your mod is not thorough enough for that to be justified.

PS: Please don't take this post to be against your efforts. My only objection is automatic reporting.
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Unread 10-21-07, 05:06 AM  
cattleprod
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Originally posted by tecu
...
I'd be happy to give this more thought if you want it from me, but please (please!) at least change it so reporting isn't automatic. Your mod is not thorough enough for that to be justified.

PS: Please don't take this post to be against your efforts. My only objection is automatic reporting.
I can see your complaint of automatic reporting. There is an option to turn off the automatic reporting as it does print the players who are calculated to be AFK. I do not have a method right now to allow evaluation of the players in a nice concise fashion however, so you will have to make that determination on your own through the scoreboard.

Most of the detailed ideas you have above are ideas I would like to integrate into the evaluation function. With the 1.2.1 release I have added most of the functional behavior I desired of the mod. Future releases will work on incorporating better determination of whether a player is AFK or not.

Now, just to defend the particular algorithm I have currently implemented...

Right now AV is the only battleground to truly suffer from AFKers. Much of this is because AV has a better honor output compared to the other battlegrounds. Therefore AV has been the major testbed for this mod. During and after the match I evaluate players who are reported as AFK, and with the default settings the only time someone has been reported as AFK who has not wound up being an AFKer has been the initial report, but that is because at about 2 miutes the alliance is just starting to attack the two guards outside Galv. Those people who are not AFKers will windup immediately in combat anyways, so it is a non issue.

While I may look into some additional UI elements to evaluate player information and allow easier manual reporting it is not the highest on the priority list. Improving the evaluation function is the highest priority at this point. I do thank you for your thoughts on the mod and seek to improve it. Hopefully you can at least use the mod currently and turn off the "Report Players AFK" option to help evaluate and give feedback with the mod.
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Unread 10-21-07, 02:58 PM  
tecu
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Originally posted by cattleprod
...
I sorta blew the automatic reporting thing out of proportion, because in most cases (especially in AV), you can go and dump the debuff with little effect on the outcome of the game. The worst case scenario is defending a node in AB that (so far) nobody has attacked, and having to leave it open to remove the debuff. Another is the offensive guard in AV who sits by a node, sometimes alone, for five minutes. It's special cases like these that make the automation detrimental.

The good news is that it should be pretty easy for you to single these cases out by looking at additional information. (e.g. 'ok, this guy has a crappy %, but he's in SH bunker, which is being contested, so he's probably ok' or 'this guy has zero stats, but he's only been in the BG for 15 seconds' or 'this guy is doing poorly, but he's holding the flag'.)

The UI idea I had in mind would be a list of the 'top' 5-10 names of low contributors (sorta like perfectraid or arena frames). A normal left click would show/hide a compact summary of the scoreboard stats, plus where the person is and how long they have been in the BG. A right click would flag them as afk and hide the summary if it is shown.

Another suggestion (I hope this is not getting too annoying!) would be to track people between BGs who earned the no-honor debuff and maintained it for a decent length of time and factor that into future calculations. If you do tracking like this, though, it is very important that you only save people who were actually afk.
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Unread 10-27-07, 02:30 AM  
afkavlolowned
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For the info , this mod made me afk.Why?Because just a retarded monkey can come up with something as stupid as this ( no offense). In 2.3 av will be all about defending and keeping people alive , the more towers , people alive=the more honor.This mod doesn't do anything but make people zerg which will make your team lose and basicly you are worst than what you're trying to stop , afkers.Even with this nifty sistem of yours there are alot of ways to get the afk debuff off and if someone wants to afk he will still do it , nothing you or I can stop it.
Will downrate this mod just for the hope it wont become popular and will destroy av in 2.3.Please if you don't know the circumstances of what your addon is doing , please dont make it.You might ask why should I since its possible? well tehnically England can make 100 nuclear bombs and kill all France , they can do it but they won't , get the drill?
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Unread 10-27-07, 03:26 AM  
Jadess
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Cattleprod, please keep up with this addon.

Those that appreciate a fair BG will love you for it. The leechers will just try to wear you down with excuse after excuse.

Thought you might be interested in knowing that this hit the PvP forums tonight: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...47255505&sid=1

I think you've struck a nerve because this thing is going to be a huge hit.

As you can see, the guy below me registered here just to get in a dig on you because this mod puts an end to his leeching days. Hooray!!!

To the leecher below me: /spit
Last edited by Jadess : 10-27-07 at 03:32 AM.
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Unread 10-27-07, 11:01 PM  
Fleetfoot
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Tried this today for the first time, and i must say, its pretty much spot on in av. I wish everyone was using it.
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