RC Loot Council

Guides UI and Macro
1

Hello,

while examining the functionality of the RC Loot Council add-on, I noticed a few interesting things that I don’t like and that most players probably don’t like and probably wouldn’t like either by the developers and creators of the mechanics of the World of Warcraft game.

  • When I examined the functioning of this add-on, I found that this add-on completely blocks the display of classic loot windows for distributing loot from the boss.
  • Without notifying the player, it automatically takes over and changes its settings according to the settings of the raid leader. It probably also downloads a potentially unwanted application to the PC.
  • In this setting, the raid leader can set, for example, that the add-on automatically rejects (chooses and sends a pass) items that the character cannot equip but could choose greed or transmog.
  • The add-on also makes any loot option (need, greed…) that is selected in the add-on’s loot window not sent to the game but is held by the add-on, when the raid leader chooses who should get the equipment from the loot, it makes the one who should get the equipment choose need on the roll and sends everyone else a pass to the game (overwrites their choice).
  • The add-on completely blocks group loot when when two or more players choose the same option (for example need), the system mechanics /roll are not used at all. Instead, the player is forced to master loot mechanics that in that game you probably can’t even choose anymore and the raid leader decides who gets what piece of equipment.
  • Guilds that use this add-on for raids discriminate against players by not taking them to the raid without using this add-on.
  • I have witnessed several times that a group of players used this add-on to rob other guild players of loot from bosses.

I would like to know the opinion of competent members of the World of Warcraft team about what they think about the functioning of the RC Loot Council add-on?
Do you think it is correct that the add-on to the game blocks and changes the basic functioning of the game mechanics?

Thank you for the opinion of the WoW team.

2

The majority of complains e.g. that this addon replaces certain functions and/or looting is advertised publically and visibly not even as fine print on the addon’s source page itself:

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/rclootcouncil

It even has a Classic version.

“Probably”? So you don’t have proof but assume and accuse?

It is not discrimination as Guilds are not required to take specific players to their raids. They may also have their own loot rules, which generally must be stated before doing the Raid.* (*Classic)

It is not "rob"bing as all Guild members agreed to use the addon and have it installed, their choice would be to not join a guild with such a requirement and/or do PUGs with the default greed/need etc.

I understand that since DF Blizz changed it to GL only, that it may look unfair. However, nobody forces you to join Guilds or PUGs who run with this addon. If Blizzard may get a significant amount of feedback that it is a problem though, they will simply block the addon API - which exists since 2012 I see.

3

I saw the proof with my own eyes when my antivirus kept telling me that it had found a potentially unwanted application on my PC while I had the add-on installed to see how it worked. When I deleted the add-on, the antivirus message stopped.

Stěžoval jsem si na to jak funguje tento doplněk na curseforge přes ticket. Odbyli mě tím že jejich systém nenašel na doplňku nic škodlivého. Přitom ten doplněk funguje srovnatelně s popisem malware / virus popisku na wikipedii.

Maybe you’re right, but when the guild management plays normally and then starts going only to raids and avoiding others from the guild. They introduce this addon as mandatory for raids (it wasn’t used in that guild before) and only give loot to members of their group and the others are basically told to get equipment from M+ which is not season bis for them. Subsequently, the guild basically falls apart within a month and raids stop going there (because of the add-on), so that gives a clear reason for the fact that they robbed others of loot on raids.
Or do you have a better explanation for why all the loot went to players who only come to raid and are otherwise offline instead of those who play for several hours every day and help others in M+ and the like?

4

Certain AV’s are more aggressive than others to detect zero day attacks. It could’ve been an entire false positive…

… Which you said, have sent CurseForge a ticket to get it investigated. Their investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing.

The whole thread boils down to:

“I was unhappy with my Guild and its requirement to have RCouncil. I wish I could have left or done something about it earlier.”

Which you know by now, for the future you’d wisened up and immediately search another Guild or PUGs without RCouncil. Or if they use RCouncil ask them clearly what their loot distribution policy is. If they lie or do something disagreeable, thank them for their time and leave Guild.

2 Likes
5

Aye.

RC loot council is entirely opt in, as are the guilds that use it. Nobody has a gun to anyone´s head and if they do, ymaybe you should concern yourself with solving that problem, first :wink:

It literally does nothing more than streamline the process in organized groups, which before amounted to everyone passing on everything and the designated masterlooter manually distributing it in accordance with the guild´s established rules.

So, don´t like it? Then don´t use it… but then also don´t expect a guild that has decided it´s their method of choice to play with you. It really is that simple.

PS: For me personally, RC is a clear sign that players don´t trust each other, and is therefore a red flag for the guild… but Maybe I´ve just been lucky to always /only play with well adjusted adults that are capable of speaking with each other without insulting each other´s mothers over a few purple pixels :person_shrugging:

3 Likes
6

Addons cant do that.

They run in a LUA environment designed by blizz. LUA functionality to communicate outside of wow, create file operations or make network calls are not possible there.

The folder might contain some readme or documentation file with a weird type ending and your AV considered it fishy.

3 Likes
7

You probably didn’t understand the point of my first post.

Maybe.
I disagree with certain parts of your post, but thanks for your opinion anyway.

But it is also possible that there may be something in the package that, when WoW is launched, downloads the potentially unwanted application and drops it somewhere on the PC.
By the way, in the two weeks that I had the add-on installed, my antivirus reported at least 4 times that it found a potentially unwanted application. After deleting the add-on, it found nothing.

By the way, is anyone from the WoW team or whatever they call themselves seeing this thread? @World of Warcraft team
I started this thread because I’d mainly like to know their opinion on what the add-on does to their game.

8

That’s not a thing.

If you want to hear from Blizz, open a ticket. Odds are, if they tell you anything, it’ll be that the addon is doing things permitted by the API and nothing more, which is what it’s doing.

3 Likes
9

RClootcouncil is only present if you downloaded it from curseforge etc.

This isn’t an API thing.

2 Likes
10

Unfortunately, Devs don´t read the EU forums, so this is the wrong place to ask if only a dev´s opinion counts. Unless it doesn´t have to be a blizzard dev but someone who has been doing this himself professionally for longer than Blizzard has been Blizzad is also ok, in which case my input should be considered acceptable. :beers:

If they “didn´t like” what it does, they would have simply disabled the API hooks that allow it to function that way, just as they disabled the API hooks that allowed addons and weakauras to put an arrow on your screen to tell you where to move after the WF WoD Archimonde kill.

And since Group loot has been back in its current form for over 3 years and RC was released less than a week after, they´re probably fully aware of it and what it does, and therefore it is to be assumed that they don’t have an issue with it… also because as soon as one person in the group doesn´t have it and rolls normally, it´s irrelevant whether others have it or not.

No, iots not, this is a technical impossiblity. RC, like all WoW addons, is merely a collection of Lua scripts that run inside the game client, not an external application that requires it´s own executable, and there is no executabhle in teh package provided from reputable sources like curseforge.

It can therefore by design not execute code outside of the WoW client, and the wow client itself can not be used to download external applications. Suggesting otherwise is like saying that your e-car might suddenly download a virus through the charger, no offense meant but it displays a complete lack of understanding of how the technology actually functions and what can and can´t be done. If it were technically possible, nobody would ever have to update their addons manually or use an addon-manager, because it could simply be executed within the game client…

Now, if you downloaded a “special” version off some shady site, who knows what might be in the in the .zip file… :wink:

99% More likely is that ýour third party AV (which you “probably” shouldn´t be using to begin with since Windows Defender exists and works better than most third party AV solutions… just sayin’) is set to be hypersensitive and is sending you a false positive … which many third party solutions are semi-designed to do, send out random false positives so that users think they “got their moneýs worth”… becasue in teh minds of most users, an AV that isn´t constanltly finding something mus tbe broken, it can´t possibly be a sign that your system simply has no viruses… :wink:

And exactly this is one of the main reasons many if not most ITSEC pros generally frown on their continued use… they are effectively themselves malware by doing this :beers:

4 Likes
11

Just for completeness, defender always found the potentially unwanted application. Other antiviruses didn’t even bother.
And no, I didn’t have them all turned on at the same time.

That’s why I mention it.

12

^^ That is in fact interesting… 0.o

Just DLed it from curse to test, it´s not flagging anything on my system… The only thing I could imagine off teh top of my head is that maybe there was possibly a syntax error in one of the .xml files of whatever version you had that may have triggered the response… Addon-devs are only human, after all. :beers: