Underfoot shadowknights on Cazic

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by gravestrikes, Jan 14, 2021.

  1. gravestrikes New Member

    Hey guys,
    I wanted to put this out there, and hope that this is not happening on your server as well as Cazic. For the last couple of months, there has been automated/afk gameplay occurring in the Underfoot expansion. There is a hoard of unguilded 110 drakkin shadowknights running rampant in each zone. They are using some sort of cheat program to pull mobs from all over the zone, through walls, around corners etc. They are very afk while doing this. They have been reported by several of our community players, but nothing has been done about this, so i am coming here to warn others.
    You wouldn't really think to look in underfoot unless you are doing progression or going there for something specific. But, in these zones, there are lots of gems and valuable TS items, which is what I believe they are after. Recently, our krono prices have skyrocketed to 2.5m, which is way above the average price on the cazic sever. Krono used to sell for 2.1m-2.3m and now, its almost impossible to obtain them for that amount. The same couple characters are announcing these krono in gen chat, and i suspect that they are using these krono to sell to third party sites in order to make real life money.
    There was a character parked in plane of tranquility when this all started, that they were guilded with; and every so often, this character would receive deliveries from the SK's. Since they have probably gotten "some" heat from petitions, that character has moved and they are no longer guilded. It is disheartening to see someone cheat in this way for their own benefit, and ruin the economy/gameplay of others on my server. I am just putting this out there as many have petitioned, and it seems as if DB has let it continue because they are still up and running. I just hope this isnt happening on other servers as well, which is the reason for my message. Thank you for your time.
    Duder, Raccoo, Kaenneth and 5 others like this.
  2. Linquin New Member

    I had reported this around 2 months ago and Daybreak said they would "look into it" and nothing was done. My experience:

    I was in the garden in House of Thule killing level appropriate mobs for me at the time. We were in an area by ourselves and pulled a mob. We fight it to around 65% and all of a sudden a SK warps on top of it and then disappears and it follows him. We followed the mob and watched them continuously pull every single mob based on distance from them, regardless of direction they were facing and regardless of if the mob was already engaged by a group. They were far over the appropriate level for these mobs, and they didn't respond to any tells, and on and off for over 3 hours the members of our group sent tells with no reply. It was very obvious they were cheating with the warping, pulling things based on distance from them even if others were already engaged, etc.

    We reported them and moved to the next zone in House of Thule. There was a different SK there doing the exact same thing, not replying to any tells, etc. This is an epidemic on the Cazic server and Daybreak doesn't care.

    I just hope the new owners of Everquest care enough to do something about this. It ruins the experience for players that are playing as intended, at the keyboard, and not automated. They hurt the economy and with the kill stealing we experienced almost caused us to quit the game we were so frustrated, with Daybreak doing NOTHING and not even seeming to care in the GM's reply.

    Please will Daybreak (or the new owners) do something about these SK armies that are monopolizing complete expansions on our server and ruining the economy?

    ~Linquin
    gravestrikes likes this.
  3. Vizier Augur

    I upvoted but realistically you are never gonna stop plat farmers. This has been happening since the very beginning of EQ.
  4. Nannie Doss New Member

    About two years ago daybreak had a ban wave on this type of explicit hacking behavior, warping, afk botting, overt advantage of community resources and flagrant EULA abuse and since then have done nothing more to curb the toxic effects of this continuous thumbing of the nose. It's time for another. The problem has gotten out of hand and is probably worse than the surface reads. Only about 10 of the shadowknights are not anonymous, realistically there is upwards of 15 that appear to be part of the same person (or group, whatever).

    The issue here isn't boxing, or what anyone uses to do so. The issues here are a cold shoulder from management and a single person screwing up things for everyone else and nothing gets done about it. Sure, you can't police the community 24/7 but once in a while every dog shows its teeth to convey it means business and "Back off!", it is time for them to enforce their word -- even if it is just once every two years. It's not like they don't know where to find these people, they have been reported several times via petition with video documentation.
    Please do something.
    Duder, gravestrikes and Kaenneth like this.
  5. Vizier Augur

    Yeah, they do not care enough about this game. The company has changed hands too many times and the overlords who are currently in charge are not personally invested in a game thats been around for 20 years. They have much bigger fish to fry than plat farmers in any case.

    Guys I hate to tell you this but if the quality of the CoV content is any indication of the overall health of the company making the game we are in big trouble. We are STILL missing tons of content and the spell and AA descriptions. They screwed up the crystalized ores not being in hero missions, so instead they drop like candy everywhere. At this point everyone has already fully outfitted in the best gear possible. We are now working on full sets of ore gear for every single alt on our accnts.

    You trivialized the loot chase process into a few days worth of farming ores in an outdoor Tier 1 zone called WW. This was like a hail mary expansion...and it hasn't paid off. Everyone is already done with the content.
    Cadira likes this.
  6. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer


    You think somehow the employees at DPG have missed this? CoV expansion is very content-light, yes. There are reasons for this. Look no further than EG7. There are things in store for EverQuest fans.

    Not for nothing, but people have been predicting the demise of EverQuest with "the sky is falling" posts like yours since 2001. That's 20 years predicting the 'end of EverQuest'. Oh noes! :eek:

    Calm yourself. We're okay.
  7. gravestrikes New Member



    I will say, though, that i am not trying to make this thread about people's opinions about the content of the game. I am sure they have gotten sufficient feedback about how folks feel about CoV. I just feel as though this could be somewhere they could look to see the damage that this group of SKs are causing. I would like to think that they do care about the integrity of gameplay on our severs. I would like to think that they are looking into this. i would like to think that something will be done, but i also think airing this to the public, as well, could be of some help in expediting that process.
    Raccoo likes this.
  8. Vizier Augur

    I'm not saying the game is going away, I'm saying we may be in for some crappy expansion quality going forward. I mean come on, they could at least do the spell and AA descriptions so people know what the heck they are buying...
  9. shame Lock New Member

    I overheard some talking about things that were happening in underfoot that pertain to hacking well just call it what it is "cheating". I decided to go check out some of the zones in underfoot to see if i could see anything and sure enough I find a SK alone in Arthicrex and every mob is dead on the ground and I watched this sk go from one end of the zone to the other side like it was porting. I dont think this type of behavior should be allowed to happen it is not good. I dont think we as paying members should have to beg for the company to do something about cheaters that are ruining this game.
    gravestrikes likes this.
  10. dwish Augur

    I am of the opinion that this is never going to be addressed. AFK groups have been running rampant all over FV for years now. Some of them are 3 groups strong in certain zones. We have one guy that uses "those certain programs" to box 40+ characters to beat almost all the current raids. This is clearly against the rules as these programs (that are supposed to be illegal) are the only way you can effectively control 40+ characters in a raid environment. I'm not taking about the boxing software that is legal and is totally fine (as far as I know) I'm talking about the ones that automate everything. Most people know which ones I'm talking about.

    They are just stretched to thin to be able to effectively police the game anymore, and at this point I would be happy with just fixing other major game breaking issues such as crippling lag that has been going on for 6+ months. Sorry if this is overly negative, but after reporting AFK BOTS myself (as well as lots of other people on FV reporting) for a long time now to see nothing happen you become a bit jaded.
  11. Duder Augur

    The DB customer service department is as automated as those bots. The replies with assurance that they will investigate and take action are empty lies.
  12. gravestrikes New Member

    Yes, it is very disheartening that these SKs are still there. I understand that there are more 'important" things that DB or whoever can be doing, but this is such a blatant violation that i feel it should not be overlooked. It isn't just someone running a standard automated program, and it doesn't sound like it is on FV either. These people actually ruin the gameplay for others by blocking progression in certain zones/expansions and they also have a huge effect on the economy. I did send a petition this morning with 15 or so consecutive screenshots of this sk in arthicrex literally warping from the top of the pit, to the bottom, to the top and again and across. I, honestly, had never seen anything like this before. I got, again, a generic response and it makes me angry and discouraged.
    To be honest, i feel as though DB does not care because so many accounts are paid for by people who cheat and that would take away their revenue if they stopped all of them. I am starting to come around to this fact. Maybe i have been naïve for too long, in thinking that they actually do care. Some hours later, that shadow knight was not on anymore, so there is a small glimmer of hope but that hope really is fading for me.
  13. gravestrikes New Member

    Sadly, a particular character is, again, in Plane of tranquility. it is apparently the drop off point for plat for these shadownights still. this character sits in the building with the unmarked bankers and the one merchant. i thought to myself last night: self, how are they offloading plat when they are looting so much stuff? well, then i remember a vendor being there, so i checked out said vendor and guess what? hundreds of glowrocks, glowgems, glowstones, cosgrove powders, muddite skulls and mephit wing samples. hmmm, wanna know where these, last 3 , especially drop? i dont even need to say it. i hadnt even gone there to look for this toon, i was doing pop progression on my bard and needed the soulbinder and i came across them AGAIN.
    i petitioned with the screenshots. lets see what happens now. im not holding my breathe, just thought this was very peculiar and almost like they are slapping DB in the face and saying, hahahaha we know you know and we know you wont do anything. tis sad....