So, I just came by through MMORPG.org, because of the free trials they were offering. I tried it, and in many ways I really like Lineage 2.
There's a lot to like about the Game. The graphical style is really cool. The open PVP with alignments and castles is an awsome concept. The story and ambience seem cool. Defenitely a game I really wanted to like.
The grind, and lack of quests would have been something I didn't really like as much, epecially considering what I heard about the later levels, but the PVP would have made it worth it, I think.
But, the game is pretty much unplayable because of the bots.
I mean, sometimes I get annoyed in games when I see a bunch of immature players with names like 7337Noobzkilla23 running around. I feel like I can't really relate to people like that... but then... that's what some gamers are like... I can accept that. At least they're people.
What I can't do, is play a game where out of every 10 characters I see, only one is a real person, while 8 have names like kguifdd, and gjeriic, ,ijhddldi, and oghfids, and run around mindlessly killing everything (even when you're trying to fight it) and the 10th, is another bot controlled by the farmer who's job is to kill any actual players that come in and try to compete with the bots.
Now, I notice that there a number of quotes from NCsoft saying that they've implemented measures to deal with this. But... whatever these measures are, they're obviously not working.
I mean, I personally reported about 2 pages worth of bots one day, only to see the same exact bots mindlessly running and attacking guards in the starter village the next day. THE SAME BOTS! Not just the same farmer, using different accounts, but the verry same nonsense names as the day before. (I remember the names, from the number of times I sent reports in about them)
So, I'm just asking that something is done about this. Because I would love to be a paying customer! But it just doesn't make any sense to play this game if the farmers are killing me (the player) for competing with their bots...
The reasons of so many bots right now is that most of them got banned a few weeks back, and many of them are returning.
All I can say, bear with it and grind fast to 20, should take you a day or two if you put your mind to it, and you can actually reach areas with real players.
The reason is that 1-20 is so much faster to play alone.
Fact is unless there's some dramatic change (like finally stopping the big bot programs from connecting), he needs to get used to the fact he'll see bots all over while playing L2.
Yes they do get banned but sometimes they even get to level 78, some even become heroes.
What I can't do, is play a game where out of every 10 characters I see, only one is a real person, while 8 have names like kguifdd, and gjeriic, ,ijhddldi, and oghfids, and run around mindlessly killing everything (even when you're trying to fight it) and the 10th, is another bot controlled by the farmer who's job is to kill any actual players that come in and try to compete with the bots.
Now, I notice that there a number of quotes from NCsoft saying that they've implemented measures to deal with this. But... whatever these measures are, they're obviously not working.
I mean, I personally reported about 2 pages worth of bots one day, only to see the same exact bots mindlessly running and attacking guards in the starter village the next day. THE SAME BOTS! Not just the same farmer, using different accounts, but the verry same nonsense names as the day before. (I remember the names, from the number of times I sent reports in about them)
So, I'm just asking that something is done about this. Because I would love to be a paying customer! But it just doesn't make any sense to play this game if the farmers are killing me (the player) for competing with their bots...
The main reason you don't notice the bots disappearing is because NC usually does mass bannings. So they get a list of hundreds of bot accounts, the accounts the adena is being funneled through, etc. and then hit them all at once.