Can they, though? I'm not challenging your statement, it just got me thinking. If I had the code (it's readily available), I could potentially change binary names and do some other things to hide what is running. Now eqmule says the real macaroni quest code prevents that. I believe him, but I don't know about this new bot program. Is the code available for that or is it binary form only? Just thinking aloud, no response required.
His version of it is restricted yes. But if use opensource sourcecode you can do whatever you want with that. However detecting it is easier then looking for a process name. It inserts DLL's into the game to accomplish what it does which is easy for them to detect.
Fun fact, the software being used has nothing to do with the software that’s accused however you will pay
Yeah, we use the "macaroni quest" moniker in this forum but it's a new player in this space not related to the original scripting/cheat program.
Ladyofleaves has been reported a huge number of times, I've even personally witnessed a GM catching them afk farming leaves, and they did not get banned.
Because banning them is a loss of revenue and anyone still playing a 20 year old game on a TLP server is going to put up with anything. Unless the entire TLP population quit en masse to boycott this stuff until action is taken nothing will change. And that won't happen. It's difficult for me to understand how unpaid volunteers on private servers are more capable of policing this stuff than a business, but I guess the private servers aren't reliant on the revenue from each of those accounts.
This is just my opinion. It boggles me that DPG's seems to value the short term over the long term. The money that these botters bring in would be a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people who would come back/new accounts should they clean things up. Sometimes taking the moral high ground is much more profitable and would foster better relations within the community. As the old saying goes, gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette.
Moral high-ground with no subs doesn't pay the bills mate. Ever try to eat a moral high-ground sandwich? Tastes like air and sadness.
Then run the math for me then. Explain how the botters are single handedly holding up the financial pillars of DarkPaw Games and the benefits they bring to the game? As the meme goes: Change my mind.
Well I see all access under your name so it's not running you away from playing. So they are collecting money from you AND the botters/boxers. Sounds like smart business practices to me. Unless you have any hard proof showing it's running people away from the game, I'm going to go with EQ's player base being rather accepting of it.
I have a lifetime account that I bought several years ago? So no. They're not collecting anymore money from me. That and with my RL career, I simply don't have the time to play anymore. 14 hour day/70 hour work weeks are a major PITA That still doesn't answer the question though.
The truth about the boting situation on TLPs is so much worse than at least 95% of you realize, based on the questions you ask and the comments you make regarding the issue on these forums. Only people competing against the 3rd party software armies (high end guilded players who attempted to compete against 3rd party box armies in open world), and people who themselves have first-hand knowledge of how the 3rd party programs function, generally even know about these guys. The rest of the population is crying about "leaves" or single-item camps, while these guys literally use 3rd party controls to "move" around the game's open world and contest any mob they want. There's only a very limited number of arguments you can make as to how this entity is able to operate throughout the entire year of 2019 with impunity--never being suspended or investigated seriously despite the obvious 100s of petitions made related to their particular case. I cannot even say what the most likely reason is on these forums because it's against Darkpaw's "rules" to even suggest it. In fact the current "rules" seem more inclined to protect this operation than expose and investigate it. That's just a fact. Make of that what you will. It's likely this same boxing operation which did things like contest open world Velious and Luclin content in-era (which means the abuse of 3rd party is the worst it's been since at least Ragefire era, when huge changes were made to protect the integrity of the game from boxers exploiting 3rd party programs)...It's likely this same boxing operation are also the same people running 12 man groups in SG picks across Selos & Mangler in 2019 with impunity as well. It's possible this one operation alone was boxing upward of 100 or more characters in 2019. That's the reality of where TLP servers stand atm. Let that sink in. At some point a total lack of enforcement has to be perceived as willful negligence at best, and corruption at worst. There's really no way to address the issue that won't result in censorship, because censorship has proven most effective in concealing from the 95% how big this problem has really become. The wise are also aware that this single entity has effectively doubled the cost of Krono on TLP servers once they get their operation in full swing. The average player doesn't have the knowledge of the game or the imagination to understand how sophisticated an operation has to be for it to effectively be doubling the amount of plat being generated on a server--which is immediately being turned into Krono on a regular basis to protect the value of their farming operation from platinum inflation. I read a book once about how the Federal Reserve was created and operates. And the author of that book concluded the same thing I would conclude about this situation. If the population really knew the full extent of the cheating being tolerated (which is the same as letting it be allowed), there would be riots in the streets of Freeport tomorrow. When the next servers roll around this year, go to Chardok and Sebilis in Kunark. Go to Halls of Testing and the north-side sirens camp in Sirens Grotto. Wouldn't surprise me if the 12 box teams are still chain pulling SG 247 at this very moment, although I haven't bothered logging on in half a year to check. I just accept the systemic corruption of the game's integrity as incontestable, because recording and petitioning the operation has been proven irrefutably by anybody who has made the attempt to be a pointless and worthless endeavor. I'm not going to waste my time petitioning a broken system--if you tried petitioning the Russian government in the height of communism, they were as likely to investigate you as investigate your claims. Worst of all, if you move against this operation using trains, for example, the rules will all the sudden miraculously and mysteriously start being enforced--against you. /wink The most sickening thing about all the rampant abuses isn't that these entities are getting away with it. It's the shameful way the game's integrity is being eroded due to Darkpaw's mismanagement and egregious customer service.
Sadly ive already seen one game fall to hacking abuse. Asherons call was so good but then cheating became the norm and they never did anything about it, and then people lost interest.
You're saying they wont ban someone because they are paying for a sub. Wrong. People do get banned on TLPs. But only for dumb stuff like someone works from home so they have vm software installed on their PC and DBG snoops around into your and bans you for it. They are more than happy to ban people over frivolous nonsense, but won't ban obvious cheaters who are caught red handed for some reason.
The seb / deep / poi whatever zone AE AFK XP sales in genchat 24/7 from multiple people are a real problem. If you wanna pay for your group, fine, but the AFK part is clearly against the rules.
