Suddenly there is a distinct lack of botters in every zone where they usually hang out/ruin everyone else's play People are very very happy (just hope it lasts)
This is the result of bad game design, not player maliciousness. Putting drops people need and or want behind RNG with huge time investments is going to lead to behavior like this, especially if the mobs are trivial. It's also a result of not letting people instance content. Contention over spawns, especially given the time it takes to get some of these drops, and how many people need/want them, is the single biggest flaw in EQ game design. It's hard to blame players for coming up with solutions to bad game design. /shrug. How many people have parked a box team AFK at those entrance Hole mobs? I'm guessing a fair percentage of the player base. People will always look for the most efficient way to do something tedious.
I usually refrain from these discussions, but I did want to know what you think is a "fair percentage" of the player base. I have never done this, and I agree, I've seen it done, but it always seems to be the same players that do this.
Good question. I've never done this and an admittedly brief survey of the members of my guild turned up no evidence of this happening among that group. It may happen, but most folks, I suspect, aren't that clueless. But, the bigger question is game design and bottlenecks in same. It doesn't take more than a small number of people to inconvenience the many. Is this the best way to design a game? P.S. In the interest of fair disclosure, I think botters deserve no sympathy at all. And I highly doubt my opinion about that will cause any change in enforcement at all.
QFT. The VAST majority of EQ players have never done this. And while true that game design has a hand in bottlenecks, I LOL at people who think that explains what we've been hearing complaints about, people monopolizing camps for WEEKS at a time. Sorry, people are just being tools and purposefully everyone else. It doesn't take weeks to get the couple drops you may need. The reason it continues out of control is because DPG refuses to do anything about it. I have my own theories on that, which I'll keep to myself.
I spoke too soon. If there was a suspension, it was very brief - 24 hours? They're all back at the usual places (including some newly-levelled/new guild permutations) Ah well, good while it lasted
QFT ? and my theory on why DPG doesnt do anything is that these afk botters are plenty and pay R/L cash or krono either way its money in DPG pocket. I'm in no way condoning the botters, but I'm sure they make DPG money some way ! Another theory is that some maybe all of these botters are DPG dev's incognito and they do this to piss us off for all the grief we give them on the forums .. they sitting back LOL at us like they complaining about all these botters and they dont even know its us ..
I am not retired yet so I only have so many hours in the day. But I would be happy to support such an effort.
If daybreak staff wanted to level up they could probably just press a button. Conspiracy theories are cool, but that one is about as weak as you can get.
The point that I was jokingly trying to make is that the dev's are doing it to piss us off and annoy us for all the grief we give them on the forums .. not that they are trying to lvl up. a sense of humor goes a long way
I suspect that almost all of the bots you see are free to play. Of course they will have all had a month subscribed to get AA and they will have bought the least expensive version of the new expansion but past that they aren’t paying
You'll find the vast majority don't do this - I'll present an anecdote to illustrate. There's a [redacted] on my server who runs a box (not bot AFAIK) group. He didn't always play a [redacted] but that's unimportant except I saw him at the beginning of his box army career parked at one of the NPCs used in No Heroism Without Fear for days on end scooping up tiny amounts of xp on mobs real players needed to upgrade their merc. The concept that this might be disruptive simply wasn't on his radar.
money is money from a business standpoint .. and I guarantee the tank in said box group is a paid membership unless its an all caster built group .. Even buying the least version of the expansion and subbing for a month or 2 on each account for AA's that is still income for DPG .. not to mention if they purchase anything from the marketplace ie xp potions .. it all boils down to the $ and if DPG makes money on botters then they will do very little if anything to stop them .. and although I don't approve of botters afk killing I wouldn't fault DPG for keeping that income source open .. as iv'e stated before botters have not been rampant on my server and I dont come across them too often if i do I find something else to do .. heck I own ToV on 2 of my accounts but Iv'e never been to that expansion yet Im still working on getting some alts thru EoK >RoS>TBL>ToV even my main account has barely scratched the surface of TBL ..usually I'm an expansion or 2 behind the current so by time I get to ToV they've worked out all the bugs and dont have to fight too much for camps or mobs in the zones ..
I've observed the exact same thing on Vox server last month, during the Anniversary, when we all got the free heroic characters : a boxer with a bunch of new heroic characters camping the crazed ogre mercenaries needed for one step of the Journeyman Mercenary quest. It was not a bot, the player was playing actively, but it was annoying as hell, and kind of disruptive.
Sorry but saying why should i care about AFK killing, that is a waste of post and that there is nothing to see here & move around is disrespectful. Those are not a valid opinions, those are someone trolling me. Anyway i will not make any single more comment about this problem EQ is facing. Moderators can close this thread if they like.
QFT = Quoted For Truth I was reinforcing what the poster had said regarding it's a small number of players who hog camps and disrupt gameplay.
mh.. wondering why somebody cares about such a mob in remote zones - no body cares about a "botter" who does not harrass others except he kills quest mobs which others need. Is it that perhaps? https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=30538 I know only one botter who is hated by most on AB because he regularly killsteals with his stupid macros. But he got so often now on holiday that he seems to be more careful. But the only method is to petition with point blank proof. Everything else is useless time and often enough debated without any result... I am no fan of botters but on the other side: this game has features which are so numb and have no real gaming potential else than being a timesink. People are not students or schoolboys anymore and make things more efficient. If DGB would make the game design more appropriate to the players then this would not be a problem. Maybe I "shake a bit the wasp nest" with that opinion but DGB included himeself the missing links years ago (autoclick tradeskill recipes etc. and mercs) - it is only a sign that people are sick of that bad game design getting a wrist restrain with revolving always around the some boring stuff. On the other hand it is nearly impossible as a normal player to get ultra rare gear. At least its possible to buy it from such guys. There are positive and negative things but if the guy is blocking a part, make a video and petition it.
I'm hoping for more instance content next expansion, tired of quests and named being blocked by others perminantly camping the same mobs for weeks on end. Failing that a return to quests mobs giving next to nothing exp and no drops.
I must admit, I haven't really been paying that much attention to the botters, but is it your impression that the botted characters sometimes gets played for real? (as in playing for fun?) is it just a player who wants to cheat on the tedious camps/grinds but is otherwise active in the game and invested in his character? Or is it a strictly business setup, trying to earn money on RMT?
