On the first day I logged into lineage, the main thing which caught my eye was the dozens of bots, all attacking guards for some reason still which isn't clear to me. After a couple of days of observing them and wondering why nobody had noticed them, I decided to put in a ticket about it and see what happened.
The answer I got was that IF it could be proved 100% that they were using third party programs, then something would be done about it. A week later and they are still there, treading their eternal path from res point to guards, never logging out, every now and again new ones join them. Since then I have found that bots are more numerous than players, every location I visit has 3 or 4 parties of bots farming there, making life VERY difficult for normal players. It's so obvious that even total newbies to the MMO world could fail to spot it. Numerous other players have told me that their friends have quit the game due mainly to the BOT problem.
I have played numerous MMORPG's and most of them suffer from BOT problems, but I must say that THIS IS THE WORST I have ever seen. Nobody seems to care, including the devs and GM's. Is it so difficult to prove that these people are botting?
What I would like to know is why they feel a need to prove 100% that these people are using third party software? What happened to the part of the User Agreement which says the following:-
You agree not to use any hardware or software, including but not limited to third party tools, or any other method of support which may in any way influence or advantage your use of the Service which is not authorized by NC Interactive, including but not limited to the use of ‘bots’ and/or any other method by which the Service may be played automatically without human input.
With stress put on the words " without human input. "
All it takes is a whisper or two from a GM now and again and when the BOTs fail to answer in a coherent manner, that should be enough to tell that they are playing without human input. This would be enough to get at least a suspension in most other games I have played.
I'm totally shocked at L2's apparent disregard for their paying customers and will NOT be recommending that my friends come here. I will also not be paying for another month's play when this one runs out if the situation is still the same!
And before the ******s start posting about other posts on the same subject, I know this but in my opinion, until this problem is being handled properly (or even handled at all) then there cannot be too many posts on the subject.
It's been like this for 3 years now, well actually I think it is much reduced from what it used to be.
The problem is that there is no surefire noninvasive way to prove whether a character is a bot or simply one of ten or more characters being controlled by one human farmer.
A whisper to bots can be easily answered.... some people think that they shouldn't need to answer anyone, frankly, if there is the slightest chance that you may be perseaved to be a bot and someone asks (a random player) and you don't answer, you should be put on the possible list for sure and thoroughly investigated. Even durring some of the more busy mob fights, i've had a chance to pop in a word like "wait" so that when i'm done i can better answer.
If a player refuses to answer a GM in any other game I have played, they face a penalty. There is no excuse for refusing to answer GM's. As for bots being programmed to answer a GM, it's very easy to ask a simple question which a bot couldn't answer such as - How are things going for you tonight? Is there anything I can do for you? What do you think of the recent event?
As for Elissande's comment:-
"whether a character is a bot or simply one of ten or more characters being controlled by one human farmer"
If a person has 10 chars under their control (which is an extremely odd practise anyway in my opinion), I assume they can see the screen of each of those chars if they are not using BOT software and therefore would know if a GM is whispering them.
This post has been locked because it not only breaks the forum rules, but because it is in absolutely no way constructive. (Please read the rules (http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=493019&an=site&page=0#Po st493019)--if you read them, and decide to break them, don't be surprised when your thread is locked.) Assumptions and accusations do not make for mature, constructive feedback. I do not expect everyone to understand the processes we go through to ban bots because we are not at liberty to explain every minute detail of how we go about it (that would give those who bot the info to bypass our methods), but it is something we do very regularly. It's not so simple a thing to do as some assume it to be, and is a challenge that every MMO faces. This issue has already been answered quite a few times, and is always at the top of our priority list. We ask that all reports and discussions about bots go into the Official Bot Behavior and Detection Thread (http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=855681) so we may better manage it. Refusal to actually follow that simple rule will, of course, result in a locked thread.