I sat and watched after making a report, a GM took control of a local monster, and *in character* asked for an emote to be performed. He spent several minutes trying to get a non-automated response, but the 'player' characters just kept warping into ideal back attack position and meleeing, and sit/standing between casts. You could not miss it if you are a real player. It won't be "I was banned because I missed a tell!"
I would hope not but I am not convinced. There are reports of people being suspended (not banned) by missing a GM comment in /say. Not a tell, in say. Sounds like some GMs are being areselings but you can't believe everything you read, I guess.
If it was acting weird I'd notice but when I'm boxing more than two characters I am not reading my chat windows. Maybe I'm just a terrible boxer or have a bad setup but I find that with 3+ characters even if I am trying to do a half gnome job I don't have time to get to chat messages right away and I definitly don't read mob /say unless I'm going through the /say for quests and such. Heck when I'm playing in a group and we're on discord I ignore chat for long periods of time but then again I'd notice the mob being all weird. That said it's not like GMs are hunting down boxers (or "cheaters"). Someone has to report you I'm pretty sure.
If I was a GM and I wanted to make a "bot-test", I would probably do it like that too. Maybe even throw a weird(and unexpected) illusion on the "GM-mob", even the most sleepy boxer would react if that dwarf turned into a gigantic red dragon! GMs should roam around in random dragon illusions!
If the bot group is running on scripts, orcs could look like clockwork gnomes and it wouldn't matter...the scripts would continue to run.
People don’t follow emotes by design. It’s much easier to just blow through most of them. This includes most missions and even some raids (Klandicar and Sontalak to just to name a few). Even if I noticed it, I would just ignore it. They know who is AFK and who isn’t, so there’s no need for this nonsense.
That was my whole point! A bot would not notice the mob-model was different(I if it had a normal mob-name, I think), but a real player would. Some players are worried about missing text in /say or emotes, and getting banned for it. If they did it like that with Illusions, then legit players would immediate notice the model was different and react to whatever the GM did, thus passing the "bot-test".
To be fair, most emotes from trashmobs rarely affect the outcome of the fight. I bet that if the mobs did have important emotes, then cheaters would not place their bot-crew nearby. If the player is at the computer and a very visible GM popped up, then it is an entirely different story! Even if you missed the emote, you could still communicate with the GM to avoid the ban. Sucking at emotes is not against the EULA. You just need to convince him you are at the keyboard and are paying attention.
I never claimed the game was bug-free. But if you pull 5 dervs, and one them looks like Quarm emoting sick dance moves, then surely you would notice...and pay attention...
Have the GM stand between the group and the mob (or next to the mob) in a huge god illusion. If you are at the keyboard, you can't miss that. If Rallos Zek shows up in front of you, it will get your attention if you aren't a bot. And appropriate too, since he is the god of battle. He would be very upset if you cheated and only pretended to battle but really let some golem (bot) do the fighting.
This is where I'm at when I last boxed a set of 3 toons - I just alt + tabbed, and even though outside of my tank, it was set up on mostly macro's - I was constantly swapping between toons. There's not a chance in hell I'd have caught a /say if a GM tried to pull that
I have /say on its own chatbox and have gina triggers for all my boxes that notify me when i get whispers. Still, random illusions with a char jumping up and done are the best way to get someone's attention.
How do tell if it’s a bug or GM... With a 10 mil + burn on standby, who cares about emotes, Every thing just melts.
If Rallos Zek shows up in front of me boxing. I see him and give him 1 of 2 chose give me his loot or die by my hands then its ether my group wiped or him dead on the ground.