Sirens Grotto Mass Botting

Why is there mass botting going on in Sirens Grotto that simply gets a pass? I thought you could only box if you had multiple computers? I think it would be pretty easy to go into Sirens Grotto and see what has been going on for months, unless, *gasp* you don't actually want to stop it? (Why might that be, is it that Darkpaw games is benefitting from this sort of mass botting? Are they possibly BEHIND the mass botting? Who knows.)

I'd love an answer from a dev, however I know that I won't get one and it's simply going to get swept under the rug like every other thread about this blatant cheater. Put him on an even playing field without the software and see what happens.

Darkpaw is in a tough spot. I think they would be better off utilizing the Player Guide system.

Promote some players to Guides (trusted members of the community) who can police the most egregious violations of the Truebox rule.

Also, make a "No Truebox" server, so some of the botters will go there so they can 50-60 box in peace.

And.. you could come play on the *hopefully* upcoming PvP TLP, so you can kill the botters/boxers yourself.

I think the simple answer is that these bot armies are the main consumers of krono.
If no-one used Krono, then no-one would buy krono as there would be a glut of it being constantly being recycled and it's value would diminish.

Banning accounts means very little to someone who's only got one month of access invested in a game.
Quite simpy they would spin up a new set of free accounts, and be max level in a week.. and be back right at it.

The only way to really resolve this is to tie accounts to a person e.g. a verified debit/credit card. When an account is banned, all accounts tied to that card should be banned, and future account setups declined using that card. Of course this then raises questions of families playing together using one card, so there would need to be a robust appeals process.

Of course the fly in the ointment here is that you don't need a card on your account to consume a krono. Perhaps there needs to be a fixed requirement to have a verified card on every account, whether you are spending or not.

It's truly bizarre. If you name the bots on the forum they will delete your post... but not actually even kick the bots offline.

I have had actual friends quit eq and they cite hacks and bots being s big part of it. The rest quit because of PoR I'm sure.

Every time you post my IQ goes down.

If there is a Truebox and No Truebox the botters will go on the truebox to abuse boxing for krono.

If a PVP server does open what is one or two people going to do about a 12 boxer? It's almost like you have no idea what is actually happening on the current TLP servers.

Personally i don't think the bot teams would have any defense pvp. i think the bot'rs would be dead long before they even noticed they were under attack.

That is because they have a reporting system meant for reporting cheaters...not the forums. I have reported multiple people I witnessed farming while AFK and they all got kicked offline within 10 minutes. I don't know how effective the system is for punishing people, but posting on the forums isn't going to solve anything.

if no one ever gets banned when why do we have tons of "I was banned unfairly!!!!!!" threads?

This has been happening on multiple TLPs without fail. Everyone knows where the bots are. DBG/DPG just doesn't care.

A pvp server won't have the krono lords running their usual afk rackets. Itll be just like mangler and selo where the krono lords go to the masses and farm easy stuff. And of course the truebox workaround scumlords will only play on truebox where they have a decided advantage.

Without a gm going after these people every tlp is screwed.

Mangler still has bot crews automating sirens grotto and it's now been through velious, luclin, and into pop.

But keep telling yourself it's normal to play eq in 1 zone for months on end...

Krono/plat farmers will go where the customers are. They won't go to a pvp server because it will be a wasteland in 3-4 months, not because they're 'afraid' of anything.

Dear mage six box that sat in the water at the entrance of Sirens Grotto on Mangler and made sure the entrance and tunnel to Western Wastes was always cleared: thank you you did god's work.

Why would a dev answer this? Its literally is not their job. Maybe if you ask customer service or someone who runs the business if you think it's a conspiracy.

PVP is not a solution to stop these botting. adding codes for defending themselves is very easy. you will see 6 mage pets attcking you along with 6 dds in a second.

Whenever I get the itch to resub my accounts to this game I remember the hours I wasted reporting these bots on Coirnav during Velious era. That memory always cures me of the temptation to come back. They were still in SG when I quit during PoP, over six months from when I first encountered them

Shout outs to the petition systems 20 megabyte limit on attachments forcing people to waste more uploading videos to Youtube for petitions that do absolutely nothing to stop bots.

maybe if you all spent less time worrying about the bots and more time actually playing the game your lives would be happier.

There are no online games that do not suffer from hacking, you see people cheating, duping, warping, playing in god mode or using automated game play in them all.

So in other words, the player base is just supposed to ignore the problem till it goes away? Or is this your glowing endorsement?

Much like real life; corruption, greed and apathy are the sole reasons the problems exist in the first place. And it seems you both have shown your true colors.

No I'm saying its nowhere as big of an issue as you all make it to be. Is afk botting okay in my book absolutely not. But its not a big enough issue to get me to stop playing the game or come to the forums and make a big stink about it repeatedly. I can honestly say the botters haven't hurt my gameplay one bit. I'm level 65 with most of my needed aa done. I'm in the plane of time and grouping in the elementals. In luclin I was able to get people to join me and go start AoE groups in the deep (understanding the mechanics of how to spawn picks is important.). In velious i didn't exp very much other than some on an alt here and there. In kunark not once did I run into a bot army preventing me from doing anything (now other groups played by actual people sure). In classic the only thing a botter kept me out of was efreeti camp but again after grumbling to my group we just went to another camp and got exp. So in short yes the botters should be banned but its not the issue you all make it out to be. The game is in fact still playable and still enjoyable if you don't dwell on it and let one or 2 aholes ruin everything for you.

That sounds like something a botter would say...