Is it time for DGB to admit they don't care about AFK Bots?

If bot groups are operating in a manner that abides by the rules (or their methods of monitoring that determines if the rules are being followed), than what can DBG really do? Plenty of crime is gotten away with because it does not pass muster with that "Beyond a reasonable doubt" caveat. Training a bot group, however, is usually blatant and easily punished. The bot script writers have MUCH more free time/incentive than a DBG dev does. They don't have to meet deadlines, be in budget or work under a corporate bureaucracy. Nope, all they have to do is stroke their own egos on how clever they are.

I didnt say train them, i said offer them 0% resses if they die

That'd be some trival mistake to click 0% Rez box.

Plus, how can one die easily if entire zone is non KOS and only pull and kill named every 20min with relative ease? Well, unless ones got trained of cause.

hi
i play on AB , it is just sad that DGB do nothing about this player and his bot group. Most people on AB know who we all talk about, as we all had encounters with him , either when he auto farm named, or he comes out of nothing and just plan kill steal mobs.

I know alot of people who have rapported him for this - without luck. Even if the rapport show him doing his "mysterious magic" comming out of nowhere when named pop and kill it. - and as a new feature he offer the people he steal mobs from that they can buy tradeskill items for 1 krono.

it is sad that one krono farmer can spoil game for so many without DBG do anything about it

zhay

Love how people define "kill steal" under their terms.

If you can't even mobilise your group quick enough while other group was able to, maybe calling them KSer would help. Oh, why not throwing them a train or 2? How about calling them warper? No action taken after petition? DBG must have turned a blind eye!

Like I said, hypocrisy makes me smile, or is it classical tunnel vision we are talking about?

This is a great summary of the sentiment I'm sure many feel.
Most people with access to Mearastas, on AB, have encountered the bot group. Or in general channel with the posting of "Loot rights to muhbis for 1 krono" trash.
We know what is happening and have reported as such. This isn't a one off complaint - it's many people from a range of guilds.

It is making playing in Mearastas unwarranted.
It's funny that Muhbis is being used as an item word for TBL - it means prison in Arabic.

It does not really matter how fast you can mobilize your troops. It is common courtesy or just how EQ has self run itself for a long time. If someones on a named you leave em alone unless they ask you for help. Ive watched people die and then wait till they give up or ask for help, you dont run in and take it.

Sorry guess it goes back to treating people like you would like to be treated.

I hope someday you break free of your chains and can get away from the monitor and earn an honest living ;}

So how does this thread turned from a "omg-nerf-afk-bot-QQ" flaming thread to an honour discussion?

I play a SK, I love evil roleplay, I'm fully aware I make people unhappy and I'm proud to do that (within EULA so training/using racial terms are no no).

So to those people who lost the DPS race, then foolish enough to train and got suspended ended up here to QQ. I laugh at you.

You are welcomed.

Some type of FD training always will shag ya a suspension or what not. Use your imagination, more ways to get mobs to path through any portion of any zone once you know game mechanics. Karnors and Sol B were great examples back in the days. Half the time I was legitimately lost, the other times, well....

I have reported one a while ago, in EoK, which got banned.
But i'm araid it is a loosing race, as they are leveling up chars faster than we can identify them as bots.Also, there seems some inconsequence on the banning part - or perhaps it is only happening on intervals, who knows.
At any rate: the group you mentioned (i got told about that incident as it happened and asked for names to compare against my list) is actually only one of many that person runs at the same time. Usually he runs 3groups over 3camps (Empyr mostly but he seems to have "moved up" since).

I do not know about other servers, but on AB there's at least two people "active" that way.
And one more running his own raid in group zones that CAN be "legit" (i.e. isboxing) for the most part, but in at least one instance was clearly botted as well.
At any rate, such players are, in my eyes, loosers compensating the so highly-held-in-regard-on-these-forums "skill" with money/accounts.

And if it is compensated with by money (i.e. the accounts in question are gold), then DBG does have no vested interest in removing them.
Asking them to admit so publicly though is pushing it - you know they wouldn't ever.
Instead, people reporting/petitioning such exploiters get a prephrased reply only without action to back up the nice words for the most part.

The ONLY thing that might help is, imo, when the community as such sticks together and does not buy collectibles from such obvious botfarming traders or the above-mentioned "loot rights" or rares or such from such "mostly unknown chars".
But there it is like in most places/cases too: people see they can "save" 2k on a shiny and buy it, or want to shortcut it and buy rares for kronos, supporting these people runing our game.

What you are suggesting there is valid only for anything current in the first place.
Also, it means "fighting evil with evil", which leads only to even more evil.
I have, however, been - to give an example - "disturbed" by that very player with one of his chars when i was farming lightning cores or TS in MPG. How do you suggest to fight someone of same or higher level as you (level high enough that all mobs are deeply grey) that sinply manages to do more dmg than you in one go and therefore "wins" the corpse?

As i see it, the only way to counter this would be to employ his methods. And i personally do not consider this a valid option.

"bring more DPS" works, at times - but not always.
For example, if i am boxing (ALT-Tabbing) and he's botting, his DPS will always be higher than mine, unless i too would start to automate (and perhaps add some more of) my boxes.
Well meant perhaps, but bad advice.

I share your comment about camps, but where exactly do you draw the line?
One person thinks it's unreasonable if he hasn't moved on 2hrs, the next waits 4 and a 3rd person expects the camp to be free the next morning or whatever.
This would affect "play nice" policy which is no longer in effect (they removed it from their rules some time ago).

Plus, these people tend to camp quite near the spawnpoints, especially in the camp mentioned in the OP. So there is no fighting them really. As a legit player, you need to pull/clear to named and if you happen to be lucky enough to stand in range, there's still the DPS fight going on. Sorry, not viable at all.
In the RARE case, where you come with a group of raiders that can dish out enough DPS and quickly enough too, he simply takes his losses for a while as no live group can keep the fight up for long, in the grander scheme of things.
They should be banned, and banned consequently with using the full info-range of the back-end database, but won't - and we know why.

I haven't read this thread but I don't understand the problem with afk bots. They're either farming things to sell so you don't have to waste your time or they're clearing PHs for your free of charge. It's win-win.

Trying to make it visible with an example:
They occupy an area with automated scripts (that's not playing, is it?) to, if we follow your argument, "save us time" farming for stuff we'd get as a side-result if they weren't there. And then we have to pay 30k and more in bazaar per Radiance, allowing them to buy up kronos legit players are "forced" to sell.

You consider this a win-win apparently. Between whom?
The botter and DBG? Perhaps.
The botter and the players? Hardly!

Long thread indeed, but from what I read the accused "botter" simply sniped off named and did progression as everyone does, ended up stationary camping in Mearatas, of which a DPS race happened and the OP lost. Some of your groupmates decided to train and subsequently was suspended, likely due to a report submitted by the said "botter", of which either a real time petition or video recording is needed to facilitate GM to take action. Although rarely respond to CC, The said player does respond to certain individual with a hint of sarcasm.

If this is the case, what is the "AFK" component of the accused? Is that specific camp so essential to everyone it became a choke point for player progression?

Perhaps the person who needed to move on most is the OP and his friends.

What do you believe "kill steal" means?

Does a human/merc mix group stand a chance against an automated bot group in efficiency?

.

Sorry, but it's completely viable. You keep talking about boxing. This is a community thing. Bring PEOPLE. If it upsets the community, then let people get together and do something about it. If that can't be done, then I guess the community doesn't really care that much.

Has anyone made a youtube video of the allegded botter?

Forum rules of not naming toons do not apply to other media, and an uncut video should have a chance of convincincing viewers that a bot-offence is taking place.

Who cares anymore? As long as they are not interfering with my play session that I move along. If they are, I try to contact their guild and correct the issue. I hardly ever buy from the bazaar (overpriced), so that isn't a concern to me.

I do not trust videos on other social media sites. They do not accurately represent gameplay (they cannot take into account lag and other issues).

I do not think DBG gives a poop, so long as the bot doesn't cause a major disruption. Even if they get a ban, they always up and running next week with a new set of toons.

he is perma camping named in stone why people care keep up