Minerealm Community Forums

The last time the server's anti-xray code was used against xraying gold, many innocent players were banned because gold (unlike diamond) can be obtained as an ore which can be placed (and re-mined) without requiring a silk touch pick. I remember reading that as a result of this problem, the gold part of the anti-xray code was removed.

Fast-forward to the present: a player was recently banned and unbanned due to tripping the diamond anti-xray with silk-touched ores.

Kerovon had this to say about the situation:

kerovon wrote:A note to players: When doing this, place the diamonds above the layer that they naturally spawn at. Helpbot will not ban you for mining diamond ore where you can't naturally find it.

If Helpbot can distinguish between probable xraying and legitimate mining, on the basis of where the blocks were broken, then it seems that the problems with the gold anti-xray code could be corrected. By banning players for excessive mining of gold ore only at or below Y = 32, we could catch those who xray gold without harming those who like to use ore as decorations--only the bottom 25% of the map would be included in the anti-xray code.

Actually, I think the main problem with gold is that it is much more abundant than diamond. When I go on mining trips with a Fortune 3 pick, I will sometimes find almost as much gold as I have diamond (diamond is affected by fortune, gold is not). I don't think helpbot should ban players for gold since it is possible to get a lot in a short amount of time. The number to ensure that the person is xraying would have to be very high, and ideally, the code could look at the percentage of gold mined in a chunk, however, I would think that would be very taxing on the server.

However, I would support an idea of helpbot tripping an alarm for the staff to look at. That way, they could determine whether the suspicious activity is indeed xraying.

I agree with Shadow. I can get a lot of gold in 1 trip usually more than diamonds. I'm cool with a warning to the staff so they can investigate so people are not auto banned when they are not doing anything illegal.

Joelove wrote:I agree with Shadow. I can get a lot of gold in 1 trip usually more than diamonds. I'm cool with a warning to the staff so they can investigate so people are not auto banned when they are not doing anything illegal.

Plus bukkit just added in the proper API hooks for making players invisible, so we will now be able to properly spy on players

Intelli wrote:

Joelove wrote:I agree with Shadow. I can get a lot of gold in 1 trip usually more than diamonds. I'm cool with a warning to the staff so they can investigate so people are not auto banned when they are not doing anything illegal.

Plus bukkit just added in the proper API hooks for making players invisible, so we will now be able to properly spy on players

Awesome! *hides his stash of illegal goods*

Intelli wrote:Plus bukkit just added in the proper API hooks for making players invisible, so we will now be able to properly spy on players

Heh heh heh... that sounds like a fun part of being a mod.

I do like the idea of making it an automated notice to staff rather than an instaban by helpbot. I knew that an instaban code would have to be pretty lenient (in terms of the threshold for being banned) in order to avoid banning innocent players. But a notification system would eliminate the issue entirely by letting mods make the decision about whether a player's mine looks like an xray tunnel.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on this idea, especially shadow for suggesting the non-banning idea.

Intelli wrote:Plus bukkit just added in the proper API hooks for making players invisible, so we will now be able to properly spy on players

What if I wanted a Mod, say Spritzo, to just pop out of nowhere and scare the crap out of me? What then? I have yet to have this happen in all my time here. I am dissapoint.

You don't need invisible. What you want is the Mods/Admins to turn into Herobrine and have their name removed from about their head when they teleport to check up on someone.

i've already had invisible staff members come check briefing and suddenly appear in front of me!
sometimes Shamp and Luelle do it together :/

Intelli wrote:Plus bukkit just added in the proper API hooks for making players invisible, so we will now be able to properly spy on players

Well, that's good at least. The last time you popped in on me while I was spelunking I about crapped myself.