The Next Antonious Bale!

We are talking about the phenomenon of bots aggressively campstealing/killstealing

Also, what to do re the problem of a bot group monopolising a needed camp for months on end.
(there are many many groups that are known for liking/being regulars a particular camp - all the non-bot groups, that I have encountered anyway, respond very kindly/helpfully to a request that someone needs x mob)

These do indeed seem to be problems across several (all?) servers. I am only speaking from my personal, very extensive, experience of trying to play on AB - which is certainly not limited to one camp

If this is the case, gather enough force then.

It's called MMORPG for a reason.

But if someone gathers enough force they get reported and suspended

Reported and suspended for what?

Again something doesn't sound right. There is no rule for out DPS and you certainly won't get suspended for that.

Actually not going to get pulled further in

I doubt I will alter your opinion... and I know you will not affect the opinion of the rest of the forum readers so further debate adds nothing

Again this is another he says she says situation. Anyone can claim it's normal pulling while the other group just wiped themselves.

If GM deems it's intentional training then whoever puts a group there deserves the suspension.

As others have said. If you really want to force everyone without a solid group of raid-geared players out of the game (then who will you sell to?!), it will be a very different game indeed
I'm interested in your various aliases. Why, like most of us, aren't you here with one of your actual character names? You do, after all, seem very proud indeed of your playstyle - don't be modest!

Always obfuscated forum names, always New Members, never use the same user name here as they do on R*dGu***s.
Why so shy I ask myself?

Don't let him derail the conversation. The post is about giving the players the ability to pop a pick if they need to accomplish tasks due to afk botting 24/7. Don't send insults, we know who he is, we know where his toons are afk and the gms don't want to do a thing about it.

Fine.

Moving on, Give us AoC's or something on live to spawn instances, make it cost a 100 db cash or something...

Ok, I'll bite.

DAY ONE

The server has been up for two days let us say, for those entire two days a group has been at a named spot in Great Divide. You and your friends have needed this named for a while now but it always seems camped, it's odd though none of the drops seem worth the huge commitment. There's sure a lot of them in the bazaar for next to no money so that's even more of a puzzle.

You try a camp check but get nothing back, you send a tell asking how long they will be but again the old rubber ear.
You try the only pick but there's another group at the same named. Again, you try to communicate but radio silence.
The SK in each group is clearly very active and far too busy to answer tells as each time you come back at whatever time of day and night he's dragging those mobs in like a champ. You watch for a while but like the Energizer bunny they just go on and on.

DAY TWO

You go do something else but check back at both spots the next day. Both spots camped by the same ANON groups.
Actually... no. There's a few different players in the groups but they aren't in the same guild as Team Anon so you try to talk to them. Nothing. They don't appear to be fighting or casting spells but maybe they are feeding the cat. For eight hours.

DAY THREE

Your friend logs on and links his sad Hunter achievement. He tells you that he thinks they are AFK scripting as they share a guild tag with the power levelling spammer that sits outside the small bank in PoK. You admonish him and suggest they just really enjoy Great Divide. He mentions that they seemed to really enjoy Sathir this time last year. He links his unfinished ToV earring and suggests grinding in the vicinity of the Great Divide named camp just in case they decide to take a break after 72 hours. You agree to do this. Tomorrow.

DAY FOUR

You and your friend head to Great Divide. The super busy SK is still pulling and most of his buddies are still here too but there's a couple of new names you don't recognise. Anyway, you find a spot within sight and start pulling random mobs. A few minutes pass without incident but one of your pulls goes missing. What could have happened to it you wonder to yourself? It's now aggro on a name you don't recognise. Much to your utter suprise it's the super busy SK! He would have to have run a good distance to tag your mob so you vow to be more careful in the future. Your friend asks WTF is going on and you explain. He sighs and says next pull go HAM on aggro and watch the SK come running like a faithful puppy. You do and he does. Your friend mutters an obscenity and explains the SK will try to tag any mob within a certain distance regardless of whether you pulled it or not. Soon there's no mobs left for either group and the named hasn't spawned so you leave.

DAY FIVE

Same as day four except the named spawns and Mr Super Busy is on it like a hobo on a cheeseburger. It takes absolutely forever for the group to kill it as at least two of them appear to be doing absolutely nothing. You leave.

DAY SIX

A third friend announces he also needs a few named in Great Divide. The three of you head over and a couple of Mr Super Busy's friends appear to be dead. You attempt to rez them but they don't accept so you assume they are AFK and start to pull the camp. As if by magic he springs to life and begins to cast random generic SK stuff on your pulls so you decide to move closer so he doesn't have to run as far. Pretty cool that's he helping so you ask if he wants to join the group. It appears not. You now have a real healer so it's time to push the boat out and you start to pick up the pace with pulls... but oh no. You have three mobs and Mr Super Busy wants to tank them all but his Shaman is far away spamming group heals! That won't help! A fourth mob spawns nearby and for some reason the SK doesn't click his defensives or FD and down he goes.

Meanwhile a little bit away the Shaman is healing a campfire and two AFK group members like a champ. Eventually a nearby mob notices the reckless waste of mana and, with Mr Super Busy out of the picture the Shaman also dies. Your group types F in the chat and leaves for the day since the named isn't playing ball.

DAY SEVEN

You log in to an angry officer who says he has had a complaint about training and camp stealing yesterday. You try to explain but he's not happy his AFK drooling in the guild hall has been disturbed. You and your friends are put firmly on the naughty step.

Meanwhile in bazaar, there's eight more drops from the named you still need for Hunter.

Fin.

I had to laugh. Sounds *so* familiar
Except 'our' bots are rather more efficient - they have a very efficient enc.
Anything tagged by the very busy SK or the enc and the rest of the grp dps's it, or if oor the whole group moves to your camp.
There's a different 'group' to the usual on in GD tho, but same tactics. The new very busy SK follows exactly the same path/casts the same as the previous one
This one's been there without a break since Friday mid-evening

«Don't act like an a_ss, you won't have to worry about being wiped»

Zun Tsoo (the goofy distant cousin of Sun Tzu, aka. my brother )

Given how many times the word "bully" has used, I am surprised no one has pointed out the obvious.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service has a specific prosecution guideline:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/cybercrime-prosecution-guidance

...Cyberstalking and online harassment
Generally, cyberstalking is described as a threatening behaviour or unwanted advances directed at another, using forms of online communications. Cyberstalking and harassment are often combined with other forms of 'traditional' stalking, such as being followed or, receiving unsolicited phone calls or letters, as well as 'traditional' forms of harassment. Examples of cyberstalking may include:

threatening or obscene emails or text messages;
spamming (where the offender sends the victim multiple junk emails);
live chat harassment or flaming (a form of online verbal abuse);
leaving improper messages on online forums or message boards...

Why using the UK's guideline you may ask? Because the said "uber guild" paladin who clearly sent a RL threat to a user in this forum plays in an European server, and assuming he or the victim is in the UK or the EU, police can actually knock on his door just by these few lines he typed.

Training in an MMORPG is very unlikely to get you into trouble with the police, it is directly in conflict with the rules of Everquest, hence the subsequent suspension. Now if you tell the police someone has been killing YOUR rare/named monster/camp, the best you can get is their condolence for the mob.

There is no rule regarding being an @ss or not in a game, which is a subjective issue. The best you can do is to separate your game life and real life. And if you no longer enjoy playing the game, why would you still be in it?

So is botting.

I'm not saying either one is acceptible. I just want ALL of the rules to be enforced, but yet I see at least 50+ bots in DH, multiple groups of bots in EW and GD, a bot group in CC at the spiders near the Rygorr mines zoneline, several groups in ST, and several groups in FM all the time and it's really disheartening to see that nothing is being done about it.

Hell, there have been a few times while I was helping people in CC that I've had to divine pull a bot group's mob into the water so that their puller bot would get stuck under there long enough for my group to kill or capture spiders.

Did you petition? You should.

Yeah, but there is courtesy, civility, decency, politeness and even a certain form of civism.

EQ is one of the few games where players have built consensual and commonly accepted rules, over the basic rules edicted by the editor : named camps and camp checks for instance, and as you're talking about EU server, I can talk about a heavily EU populated server back in the days, Karana, with the KGC (Karana Guild Council, for a planned and scheduled rotation between guilds for main targets and old planes).

If you no longer enjoy a game polluted, spoiled and plagued by botters, deal with it or leave it?
That's your best solution and smartest answer, really?
I don't know if I should laugh or cry about it, because you're just pathetic.

So I repeat my assertion : if you act like an @ss, don't be suprised to be treated like an @ss.

And I perfectly know the paladin you're quoting. I don't play on AB, but he was playing on Karana back in the days, and I'm a EU player too (but I don't play on AB, and I'm still on US servers), and I was on the same server.
As far as I remember, he was absolutely not vindicative, rude nor revengeful, so I guess the situation has degenerated so much on AB that a lot of people are losing their control.

And it's probably mainly because of your fault, you and/or your clique of botters.
Not an excuse, but perfectly understandable.

But keep ruining your own lands, smart @ .

No need to answer, I'm done with you, it's a dialogue of the deaf, and you'll prolly find a bunch a new stupid justifications and asinine explanations, hidden behind your sacrosanct «rules».

Yes. And nothing ever happened

Again, no one is defending botters here. In fact, you should petition EVERY genuine botting activity. I am sure GM will investigate every single genuine petition regarding breaking of the Everquest rule.

What really fascinates me is that people get the suspension on training the said "bot" group yet everyone is whining the said groups are alive and kicking. I believe there is no favoritism, but indeed there're actual people behind the said "bot" group.

None of the accusers here actually screenshotted a /tell to anyone in the "bot" group, politely and specifically ask if they can kill a progression mob. Perhaps they assume those groups guilty on something they aren't and took the hostile approach, which backfired completely.

If you need the experience, why would anyone pin a group on top of another? And what do you get reported for? Kill Stealing? GM wouldn't even investigate KSing so you will never know you got reported. So I ask again, what did you get reported for? (Post the screenshot with the GM or if you got action taken, the email from DPG, minus your deteails of course, not interested.)

And why are we talking about a completely different server (Antonius Bayle) rather than Bristlebane? All I see here are two different types of groups and behaviors.

My mistake. I was unaware that your license to troll was exclusive.

I'm pretty sure the botter on AB and BB is the same, for 2 reasons.

First one, a post that has since been erased was listing the names of the BB bot crew. The last name of the crew is Gunp, and we have been told it's a SK.

The botter on AB has also a SK named Gunp.

Unless you believe in extraordinary coincidence, how many different people are going to name their toons "Gunp" ? Especially two differents botters, when botters stand for a small portion of the playerbase ? Yeah, the chance is very close to 0.

Secondly, here is a post of the BB botter

This poster has saved screenshots on his computer of parts of this thread, thread that has been indeed erased of this board.

Why someone who would not be concerned at all by AB botting situation would save on his computer parts of a thread of a server he doesn't care at all ?
And still feeling resentment to a player that is on a server he claims having no link at all ?
Yeah, this would not make any sense, unless you are the same person on both servers.