Theft Issues
There have been many issues of theft, concerning clans, characters and items alike. This page is designed to ensure you are aware of the problems, preventative measures, and how the staff of the game deal with such issues.
Character Theft
A reoccuring problem, this is when one of your characters is stolen by another player. There are many ways this can occur, and here are the most common:
- - You give your password to someone else. The most common way for characters to be stolen is simply giving someone else the password, either because they're your 'friend' or because the other person has offered to level your character. If you do not want your character stealing, never give out your password to anyone, and never share characters.
- - Probably the second most common way is people offering you 'free' characters. As soon as you accept the character, and change its password to your own, the person uses the retrieve password function on the character and sends your new password to his or her e-mail address. To prevent this, always delete anything in the e-mail section of the characters profile before changing your password.
- - Other ways of obtaining your password are by accepting files from other players via e-mail. If someone tries to send you an executable file (the file ends in .exe) then do not run it, because it may allow them to access your computer and get all your passwords. Only accept files from people you really trust.
- - Finally, another way is if you play more than one game. If you use a password for one game, then it is strongly advised you use a different one for nightmist, especially if people who play other games know your password. This means if they know your password from another game, they can probably steal your characters on nightmist.
Staff will very rarely help you recover stolen characters, and will usually only do so if it is the server's fault (ie some sort of error has occured that would allow other people access to your characters). If your character is shared and the person you're sharing it with steals it, staff may not help. As a rule, sharing characters is basically the same as giving out your password. There is also the issue of characters being stolen through trades, which is discussed later on.
Item Theft
Less of a problem than character theft, this is still quite a problem. There are many things to note, the most common being listed below:
- - The most common way of losing an item is giving it to someone. Never let anyone you don't completely trust see your items, because once you give something to someone it is no longer yours.
- - Another way of losing items is during transfers. Never drop items on the floor to transfer them between characters, always use the /give command (/give player item). By dropping something on the floor, it is fair game and anyone who picks it up is completely entitled to have it.
- - Not strictly theft, another way of losing items is by dying while carrying them unequipped. Always ensure you never leave towns or other safe places with valuables in your inventory.
Staff will rarely help you to recover items you have lost unless it is the server's fault that made you lose it. Another very common way of getting items stolen from you is via trades, which is discussed below.
Clan Theft
Suggestions for improving this are always welcome on the suggestions forum, but generally we believe the clan system is perfectly fine provided that you obey these simple rules.
- - Clans have a chairman, founders, leaders and members for numerous reasons. The first is that once you make a clan, you are the chairman, no-one else can sell the clan except you, there can only be 1 chairman. If you transfer the chairman position to someone else, you are effectively giving them your clan. Also think - do I have to make this person a founder, when a leader is just as acceptable?
- - Remember that stolen founders/leaders can appoint and remove other members of the clan, so always be double sure you have a good password for them.
- Always use mumble keys to protect your valuables - other clan members can steal things that are unprotected.
Being so difficult to manage clan problems, staff will probably never intervene in any way. Exceptions involve server errors which leave you at a disadvantage.
Trading Items and Characters
There is always the chance that the person you're trading with is out there simply to steal whatever it is you have to sell. However, trades are the easiest of all things to conduct safely. If you do not trust the other person 100%, use the /trade system, or conduct trades in the presence of a staff member.
All staff will be willing to watch a trade to ensure that no-one cheats, but please remember that sometimes the staff are busy, so make sure you're ready to initiate the trade immediately, and that you know exactly what you are trading for what.
Upon summoning one of the staff members, explain clearly what is being traded for what, then go. Always remember to check the e-mail addresses of characters that you trade.
Remember, if no staff member is present then we will not go chasing around trying to work out what has happened.