Bots and Cheating.

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by moopydoopy, Dec 15, 2020.

  1. moopydoopy New Member

    I recently returned to Everquest after a long break and found lots of bots/botted groups and automated play set ups. I don't usually care about such things, there always seems to be a way to use in game mechanics to work around whatever disruption the automated play is causing.

    However, I've come across what I suspect is an automated player that goes beyond what I can easily deal with, and to manage the situation is more of a hassle than I'd like for a game to provide.

    I have a few questions that I'm hoping you'd all be willing to answer if you have experience with botters and trying to coexist with them.

    Is there any means available for a player to tell if a mob or set of mobs is up in a zone without having a visible presence in that zone(no character apparently logged in)?

    Is it still illegal, frowned on, offensive to train a botter, if they are acting to disrupt the zone(as viewed from the engineer's point of view)?

    Is addressing this issue even worth the time, considering the recent historical reaction of the game staff to similar issues?

    Does Daybreak games/GM staff/Guides/ whatever passes for social policemen nowadays care about the above issue?
    Duder and birdsong_pawn like this.
  2. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Training someone, even if you can prove you did it because they were cheating, could result in your being banned.

    Posting videos of people cheating, or explaining how cheating is done, in a public manner, could cause an action against you.

    There is a proper process for handling this. I believe it is submitting a petition and a video directly to DPG.

    The reason they do not what videos, names or exploits posted, is that most people don't know about them. Publicly identifying cheating could result in people learning how to cheat, making the problem worse, or letting people know how they were caught, making it harder to enforce.
    Quatr, code-zero and birdsong_pawn like this.
  3. moopydoopy New Member

    Thanks that all makes sense and is doable.

    I just went and tried to test the ingame /petition, its not what I recall.
    Somewhere in that function is a way to submit a video file? or is that handled via another channel(discord, PM, or whatever)?
  4. maxton New Member

    1. They really don't seem to care about cheating much anymore. Good luck
    2. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of zones nowadays in EQ. If someone is "bothering" you, go somewhere else where you dont have to look at them.
    3. Nobody likes a snitch. Didn't you learn that in like preschool? Don't be that guy
    4. There is so much cheating these days, and subs are so low, that if they started banning people, EQ would go broke and nobody would get to play their favorite game anymore
    Lizzarn_01 likes this.
  5. Tojozomi Augur

    This is not the correct message to be conveying...
    Doing the right thing > Being liked for letting people do the wrong thing
    Quatr likes this.
  6. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Nobody likes a snitch? What are you a mobster?
    Brilhasti, Quatr and Tojozomi like this.
  7. JeffHanson Augur

    The financial statement release by the new owners shows that this argument has always been BS.
  8. Panikker Elder

    In many cases they removed them in due time. But is not immediate. All they have to do ( if they wanted} is just google search " buy EQ account" " buy krono " " buy plat" and just go after those sites but , they are probably overseas. EQ owners are not as "Big" as other companies and don't have good lawyers like say Sony. In any case there is a solution ..just report who what and where ..let them handle it. Not even the 99 guys are immune to this and they act the same way ...is not their problem is actually ..our problem. Players need to stop buying into it. I think the doctors have the same issue ..patient complaints about weight and fat and cardiovascular stuff . But they wont avoid eating out !!! They prefer to pop in pills and keep eating out. Same here ..cut the "fat" and don't buy in to the advertisements !! ...LoL..
  9. Xhartor Augur

    So you are saying that people shouldn't be upset about cheat, kind of says a lot about how you play.

    Oh EQ currently has 82k active accounts, second most in daybreak catalog. 66k active subscribers, most in daybreak catalog. It also the second largest revenue generator in Daybreak catalog.
    birdsong_pawn likes this.
  10. CazRaX Elder

    I don't deal with problems, I fix them. I never subscribed to "no snitchin" because it just keeps ME down. I will 100% snitch to stop someone doing something wrong, not my problem if you get punished for breaking the rules.
    Zanarnar, Petalonyx, Tatanka and 4 others like this.
  11. Gherig Addicted since Aug 1st, 1998

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”Edmund Burke
    Zanarnar and Quatr like this.
  12. DBM705 New Member

    Gotta love feign death.
  13. Tucoh Augur

    not that I know of.
  14. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    The basic issue here is one of jurisdiction really.

    You see, all the Fraps videos in the world cannot tell another player whether someone is using tools, GINA or whatever, which are LEGAL as long as 1) It's NOT unattended play and 2) is not adding anything outside of normal parameters.

    Old school Autofire.exe repeated a keystroke on a timer. Legal as long as you responded if a GM said hello.

    The original reasons for this being the policy had to do with disabilities and Gravis pads and programmable keyboards, which were and are also legal and fair play as long as it's ATTENDED PLAY, and it's not up to you to determine this status, nor is it possible for a player to be certain it's not legal by this standard.

    Whether or not Jimmyjackrabbit over there is playing or reading a book? Not your job.

    If you suspect, as you can never prove, said Jimmyjackrabbit is UNATTENDED playing, your instructions by those who actually hold that job title are: Report and back the report with a petition and move on with your day.

    As Jimmyjackrabbit doesn't answer to you, you have zero jurisdiction and zero credibility. Tell a GM via petition and report as GMs instruct.

    Funny how rule mongers can selectively skip THAT ruleset, but be b u t t hurt over the other ruleset MAYBE, no proof, being broken by another.

    In before you script and cheat.

    For the record, The only 3rd party anything I have ever used in EQ was and is Autofire.exe I downloaded and have copies of from back when it was a stickied link on the old ranger class forum, and yes, am always within reach of the keyboard when a GM sends a tell. The last one I got was fishing in Cobalt Scar, like 10 years ago.

    (I don't think GMs are asking very often anymore)
    Beco and code-zero like this.
  15. Joules_Bianchi A certain gnome

    Hey, I think he or she might be cheating. I cannot prove it, but dangit, I sure think they're breaking rules, so I'll break rules and train them , or otherwise grief, name and shame and act and feel all superior to those evil rules breakers.....

    while I ignore GM and Developer instructions on how to actually handle these suspected cheaters.

    Yeah, that's the ticket.
    code-zero likes this.
  16. NinjutsuMMO Augur

    make a guild and recruit members with the mission statement to ban all bots and cheaters..

    Arm them with video fraps software and petition submitting template for professionalism and go out into the world on all the new tlp's and ban as many people as possible.
    Vizier likes this.
  17. Sliderider New Member

    If the griefers can know where all the other players are on Zek at all times, then I don't see why they can't apply that same technology to determining when the rare, quest mobs, or mobs with all the best loot drops, are up.