Yet another day ruined by Botters on Stormhold.

Joining the growing crowd yelling for a ban on this so called "Legal boxing" on Stormhold. It's hard enough to level and quest and group, we don't need an SK with 4 Necro's and 1 warden on auto-follow clearing entire zones.

Don't give me this "legit boxing" crap either. I know the program, and the problems it has been causing in the MMO industry is starting to have consequences. Daybreak needs to start banning this, it ruins the quality of the game, ruins peoples nights when a so called "legit boxer" comes along, and ruins the economy because eventually they will start SLRing crap and raising hte price of kronos to ******** levels.

It's a THIRD PARTY PROGRAM THAT ENTERS DATA for you. Of course the supporters will cry foul, but in this particular programs own words (copy and paste with a little paraphrasing so I dont get banned on forum for mentioning programs, ironically they let you use it but you cant talk about it hahaha)

" Don't worry about your other accounts, this script will automatically log them in, invite them to group, and auto accept. Push this key to give the auto follow command to all characters. Use our Third Party overlay on your hotbars to send commands through our program to your other accounts running in a virtual machine setting. (Hint that is giving a command to a 3rd party program that injects data into the game client). Don't worry about getting stuck with auto follow, if your character stops moving it will auto adjust until it is able to follow your main accounts character again. Oh no, need a cure? Our overlay on your party window can detect when you need a cure and stops casting to cast cure."

Paraphrased of course to omit program name.

How is this not botting? Listen to your player base, we do not want these people on this server. They have ruined the other servers. They don't want to play with people, they need to find another game IMO.

In you own words....The players decide the destiny of this server...and it is very clear we don't want this on it.

What you are talking about is a BOTTING program and is illegal and will be banned if proven. Report it with name, their names, time, day, where. Also along with the petition do a /report (persons name).

Now there is such a thing as BOXING which is all done by the player. No third party program does anything. The one person must perform all actions and has been allowed since the games inception to my understanding. In boxing the player must perform all the keystrokes all the time.

As I said, make sure to /report (person's name) then petition. Make sure you put it under the right topics and include all info I put in above. I guarantee you will hear from the within a day or two, even though they will not be able to tell you which actions were taken.

I don't box more than 1 other toon and I don't use any software to do it.

But...


How is this any different to any other group steamrollering over you and taking all the mobs?

The way I see it, is they're paying accounts playing the game. No different other than just one person is paying the bills rather than six. They are still at the keyboard after all, regardless of whether they have a few "cheats" to make it easier to control the six toons.

The real problem to me is the population is high and the zones don't make a new instance early enough to compensate for all the mobs being on lockdown. If the zone can only handle, for example, 3 groups of 6 in a zone to mean all mobs can be cleared before repops, then a new zone should be generated when the 19th person enters the zone.

Well now BOTTERS pay for their accounts should we allow that? I think now. Third party programs that control the toons for a player are illegal and wrong. So using that analogy is probably not the best argument.

Oh I know a boxer, I have no issues at all with real boxers. I will play 2 characters at once sometimes, but i have to switch clients to heal........ and then there is "boxing software" were 1 guy controls 6 toons or 12 or 24 using {Censored} and they all cast simultaneously.

Problem is, Some of the GM's have said it's ok....Some have said no. There is no consistency on this particular program. Then they complain about not detecting it. Well I know of a certain launcher that can detect innerspace in the system memory and reports said account when it logs in.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying it's not the root cause of the problem. If it wasn't contested zones most wouldn't care apart from because of jealousy.

It's also very difficult to police. 3rd party programs is a very vague term. Windows is a 3rd party program, so is ACT and EQ2maps. The program in question can do some "botting" tasks, but the person doesn't have to use them (although they probably will).

If a GM contacts them and is after a timely response to show they're at the keyboard, they will get a response because someone is there. They also have to control the toons through pressing keys, etc, even if that one key controls each toon. So it's very difficult to prove someones doing something wrong rather than just having 6 separate laptops setup on a desk.

I get your point, I do. But as others have stated, they farm the current end game zones and ruin the economy before it begins. One guy on Stormhold (as an example) has over 300 level 40-50 masters for sale/trade. He is a "boxer" how is that legit? He isn't shy, he advertises them constantly.

I have a friend on AB that does this, its how I was introduced to the program. He doesn't pay for ANYTHING. He farms raid zones, and buys krono's with plat, none of his accounts have a credit card, he has never paid a cent to Daybreak, his expansions are bought with plat, extra plat he sells at a particular website and makes enough to make his house payment. So yes, I consider damaging to the game. It benefits no player, or the community.

Added emphasis is mine.
Cheats is the key word. If the person is cheating (and using 3rd party software to control multiple toons is cheating under the EULA, or at least it was under the last one we had access to), it doesn't matter if they're paying or not. Paying to play the game does not make it 'okay' to cheat in a multiplayer, contested or competitive environment.

I agree I have complained about this so many times in feedback I have lost count. Just Sunday there was a set of the on Queen's Colony taking every mob making it at times difficult to do quest.

I don't like botters/boxers whatever, but I don't let that keep me from enjoying the game. If I can't find a group, I make my own and fill it up quickly every time. Then our group just runs over and around the botters/boxers and we level, get loot and have fun in spite of them.

Do you just complain? Or do you /report the players?
With all the players being banned that claim they have done no wrong, do you honestly thing no actual bots are being banned.
At some stage SOME players are going to have to realise, that not every player they claim to be a bot, is a bot.

Every time someone loses a named to another players it's OMG BOT, you can't get quest mobs quickly enough, OMG BOT, hard to harvest? OMG BOT. Honestly it wears thin.

Report them and move on. If they are still in-game in a month assume they are not bots. Otherwise give DBG time to investigate them and move on.

If someone is talented enough to box 4 or 5 accounts, which is THE EXACT SAME as 4 OR 5 PEOPLE PLAYING 1 ACCOUNT EACH, then how the hell is one different from another? Having mobs cleared in a zone in both cases are exactly the same. If they are BOTTING (meaning there is a program emulating a player actually sitting at a computer when in fact they arent) then yes, they should be banned as this is called Automation.

Please differentiate a BOTTER and a BOXER before you lodge a support ticket or else I will start a campaign to have DBG BAN all who create false tickets about "botters".

be careful who you call a cheater. ffs!

I box 5 accounts using 3 computers sometimes. (2 PCs and a laptop) 3 accounts on 1 PC and the Laptop and Other PC have 1 account each running. Yes i press every friggin button MANUALLY to make them attack. I dont use the InnerSpace program, I use Hotkeynet. HKN is limited as in you have to have window focus to send commands so HKN alt tabs manually to each character that i am running the 3box pc on. It is hectic when someone sends me a message, I have to have every chat window on my TELLS window so if someone tries to see if I am a bot I will see the PM and I can respond. This is hard to do on 5 accounts though so when you send a supposed "botter" a message and they dont respond, its probably that they missed it. Best bet is to use /SAY. because if they have chat bubbles turned on (I do) they can actually SEE what youre saying to them. I always share spawns and let people in my group if they want to join or need to do a quest, or I will move to another area. The last thing I ever want to do is cause disruption for someone else. I mind my own business and as long as I am not bothering anyone else, I expect THEM to mind theirs. Its a common courtesy.

I was in a guild group the other day in CL, and as a guild we were working on the Lightstone HQ. My group was running together to Cannix and had two people come up to us and accuse the group of being a bot group because we were all about the same level, in the same guild, and running together (not even anyone on auto follow). They were pretty rude about it. The paranoia is strong on Stormhold.

That said though, I think anyone that bots, whether they pay or not, should be banned. Boxing is fine - if you've got the machine and the skills to multi-box legit with no 3rd party programs more power to you. I knew someone that could steer 3 toons and with mercs would do contested zones, but that involved a bard just there as a buffbot lol and was something I could never swing. He could do that in raids too. Was pretty crazy.

I dont mind someone having 6 accounts if they can either tab through and click keys for each one every time they wanna do something but having a program help you do this is essentially botting.

EQ2 is far far better then EQ1 as far as botter population, beleive me if your getting bothered in one spot some times go somewhere else. this is nothing at all.

Boxer no problem with, if someone can control a group of 6 all the power to them. Botters are totally different, and yes I have reported them, usually you can tell the difference.

One time there was a bot group up in KOS, they were on the drake breeding grounds. They stood in the middle of the baby drakes, it took forever to get all the mobs I needed. I came back the next morning the entire group was dead, I even revived them. Later that day I came back to the island and they were there dead once again, I revived them (healer here I just can't help it), and sent multiple tells to each dead characters with no response. The next morning the same thing but this time I didn't revive instead I sent a petition 10 minutes later someone at SOE contacted me and the group was removed. I don't complain about them and don't let them ruin my game, even though they can at times make leveling, harvesting and questing difficult, I also understand the OP's feelings and I do understand when you have a limited amount of time to play how frustrating it is when you are trying to get things done and you can't.

hi groans!(rhiyannon)

i've seen, maybe, one botter since i gave u on eq1 and switched to eq2, because of the botting and mega-boxing(as in several guys running 18 to 30 or more boxes), and remval of ksing from the eula issues on eq1. the botting issue here on the TLP is pretty tame i'm happy to say...

that aside, since they haven''t dealt with the issue in any decent fashion on eq1 TLP, i must sadly say don't get your hopes up on any action here. i don't know why they aren't dealing with something that is getting progressively worse and driving more and more people away.

You know what pisses me off more than what pisses the OP off? Its higher level players going back to lower level zones and farming the shinies. Yea i know I am being petty but its just something about that, ME ME ME ME ME mentality. "Im level 39 so im gonna go run around stormhold and spam click shinies so no one else will get any!" <== Yes this did in fact happen earlier today, in a room I was killing mobs in no less. Level 39 paladin would run in and click the shiny every time it spawned. What was i doing? KILLING MOBS MY LEVEL. Couldn't actually stop to run over and click the shiny but this butthole, since everything was grey to him, was prancing around without a care... ******.

running 18 to 30 boxes on EQ1 live is just dumb. I mean thats blatant botting and shouldnt be allowed. No way in hell someone can even remotely MANUALLY control 18-30 toons at once.

I just dont want people to keep saying "botting" when its someone "multi boxing" instead.
Get your terms straight and dont falsely accuse.

DBG I beg of you, if you have fraudulent petitions by people claiming someone is a bot when in fact after you look into the issue and you find they werent please BAN the person lodging the fake petition. Thanks.

How do you know they aren't buying Kronos for cheap with the plat they are earning from selling stuff they farm? Therefor, paying no sub fees on those accounts?