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Alright, more than three years have passed and the reports are still lacking many details. Providing a comprehensive demo seems to be a too big of a task for some. Therefore, let me give you a 'quick' guide through this procedure in order to make everyone's job easier.
Your Steam/In-game Name: In this field you are required to provide your:
[OOC] Steam Name and [Local] In-character Name
His/Her Steam/In-game Name: Here you are required to provide their:
[OOC] Steam Name and [Local] In-character Name
His/Her SteamID: This field requires you to provide their SteamID. Since you already know their OOC name open up your main Steam window. Navigate to View, from there select Players. This will open a window consisting of a Recent games tab in which you should be able to find the player you are looking for. Once found click on Profile and copy the URL address of their account. Once copied, head to one of the sites specializing in checking one's Steam ID. One of these sites is steamidfinder. This simple tool will provide you with all the details you need about one's account details when reporting them.
If you can't find the player you're looking for using the "Players method" try findhim his profile via the classic Add a friend... way or google his name followed by the words: "Steam" or "Steam profile". It usually does the job. If this fails as well seek help from staff.
Why Should This Player Be Punished?: This is the part of the report where you are asked to give your opinion stating the reasons why the player should be punished. While the greatly detailed guide by Ash focuses on making successful reports in-game, it's still a good quick read, especially if you aren't sure how to state your opinion. The list of rules can be found here. If you feel like a particular rule is missing, make sure to head to the rules section and voice your opinion there.
Since you are reporting someone for rule-breaking the law of Paralake shouldn't be needed (except for government officials), as it focuses on the in-character laws, and not the general server rules. However, if you see someone breaking the law in-game you're free to report it in-character, and if the situation is severe report it to the server staff.
Evidence (Demo Required): Here you are required to provide your demo file. One thing worth remembering is that if you make your demo into a video and upload it to somewhere like youtube your report is almost guaranteed to be taken care of much faster. Think about it, would you rather download ten long demos and wait for your computer to load the provided tick, or would you simply click the play button and omit what could be an hour-long procedure?
That's why I recommend downloading Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and recording the demo file which you can play by opening up Garry's Mod, clicking on the Demos button in the menu and selecting Play on the demo file that contains the rule-breaking footage. When using OBS you can face some issues, such as the footage recording audio but not video. What fixed this problem for me was running games in windowed mode. After recording windowed games the program recorded both video and audio. Coming back to the Demos section in Garry's Mod - I know that when hovering with your mouse over the demo files there are also options to Make video, or Publish it. I suppose the make video button converts the demo into a video file, and the publish button publishes the demo making it available to watch from the demos menu for anyone who owns Garry's Mod and is connected to the internet. Once the report is finished and the verdict has been given, if you don't want to hold onto the demo file you can click the Delete button found in the Demos section in Garry's Mod when hovering over the file with your mouse. You could also remove it manually from your C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\demos folder.
The reason for which I recommend OBS and not Shadowplay is because not every computer fulfills the requirements to run Shadowplay. So if you decide to use OBS or decide to take the easy (lazy) way and simply upload the demo file, remember to provide the tick around which the rulebreaking took place. If you are unfamiliar with what I'm speaking of, please check out this useful guide by The-Devils-Son focusing on the basics of using a demo.
Tick: Here you are required to provide the tick in which the rulebreaking happened, if you decided to provide the raw demo file instead of capturing the footage and uploading it somewhere.
Yes, this is another wall of text by me. However, I can't stress enough the fact that this forum has had almost 1500 action requests so far, and many of them have been archived straight away for having a poxy format. Everything in this thread is applicable to writing a coorect action request, ban appeal, warning dispute, or a refund request.
Originally I was going to make this a guide on filling in action requests in a correct way, but I quickly realized that this is applicable to everything mentioned in the title. Therefore, this post may seem a bit chaotic or not expressing the procedure of appealing a ban, warning dispute, or requesting a refund. However, I believe everyone who read this guide reinforced their knowledge or gained new knowledge, making the whole process a less of an ordeal than it really is.
Regards
Your Steam/In-game Name: In this field you are required to provide your:
[OOC] Steam Name and [Local] In-character Name
His/Her Steam/In-game Name: Here you are required to provide their:
[OOC] Steam Name and [Local] In-character Name
His/Her SteamID: This field requires you to provide their SteamID. Since you already know their OOC name open up your main Steam window. Navigate to View, from there select Players. This will open a window consisting of a Recent games tab in which you should be able to find the player you are looking for. Once found click on Profile and copy the URL address of their account. Once copied, head to one of the sites specializing in checking one's Steam ID. One of these sites is steamidfinder. This simple tool will provide you with all the details you need about one's account details when reporting them.
If you can't find the player you're looking for using the "Players method" try findhim his profile via the classic Add a friend... way or google his name followed by the words: "Steam" or "Steam profile". It usually does the job. If this fails as well seek help from staff.
Why Should This Player Be Punished?: This is the part of the report where you are asked to give your opinion stating the reasons why the player should be punished. While the greatly detailed guide by Ash focuses on making successful reports in-game, it's still a good quick read, especially if you aren't sure how to state your opinion. The list of rules can be found here. If you feel like a particular rule is missing, make sure to head to the rules section and voice your opinion there.
Since you are reporting someone for rule-breaking the law of Paralake shouldn't be needed (except for government officials), as it focuses on the in-character laws, and not the general server rules. However, if you see someone breaking the law in-game you're free to report it in-character, and if the situation is severe report it to the server staff.
Evidence (Demo Required): Here you are required to provide your demo file. One thing worth remembering is that if you make your demo into a video and upload it to somewhere like youtube your report is almost guaranteed to be taken care of much faster. Think about it, would you rather download ten long demos and wait for your computer to load the provided tick, or would you simply click the play button and omit what could be an hour-long procedure?
That's why I recommend downloading Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and recording the demo file which you can play by opening up Garry's Mod, clicking on the Demos button in the menu and selecting Play on the demo file that contains the rule-breaking footage. When using OBS you can face some issues, such as the footage recording audio but not video. What fixed this problem for me was running games in windowed mode. After recording windowed games the program recorded both video and audio. Coming back to the Demos section in Garry's Mod - I know that when hovering with your mouse over the demo files there are also options to Make video, or Publish it. I suppose the make video button converts the demo into a video file, and the publish button publishes the demo making it available to watch from the demos menu for anyone who owns Garry's Mod and is connected to the internet. Once the report is finished and the verdict has been given, if you don't want to hold onto the demo file you can click the Delete button found in the Demos section in Garry's Mod when hovering over the file with your mouse. You could also remove it manually from your C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\demos folder.
The reason for which I recommend OBS and not Shadowplay is because not every computer fulfills the requirements to run Shadowplay. So if you decide to use OBS or decide to take the easy (lazy) way and simply upload the demo file, remember to provide the tick around which the rulebreaking took place. If you are unfamiliar with what I'm speaking of, please check out this useful guide by The-Devils-Son focusing on the basics of using a demo.
Tick: Here you are required to provide the tick in which the rulebreaking happened, if you decided to provide the raw demo file instead of capturing the footage and uploading it somewhere.
Yes, this is another wall of text by me. However, I can't stress enough the fact that this forum has had almost 1500 action requests so far, and many of them have been archived straight away for having a poxy format. Everything in this thread is applicable to writing a coorect action request, ban appeal, warning dispute, or a refund request.
Originally I was going to make this a guide on filling in action requests in a correct way, but I quickly realized that this is applicable to everything mentioned in the title. Therefore, this post may seem a bit chaotic or not expressing the procedure of appealing a ban, warning dispute, or requesting a refund. However, I believe everyone who read this guide reinforced their knowledge or gained new knowledge, making the whole process a less of an ordeal than it really is.
Regards
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