I just renewed my account after 2 years of inactivity. I am looking forward to casual gameplay, but I want to know what is the current status of bot users and chinese farmers. Has it improved or are they still running amuck? Thanks.
From a practical standpoint, it seems NCsoft has done almost nothing about botting. They added gameguard, which does not prevent botting but causes random problems for legitimate players instead. I agree with the poster above me - botting is FAR more prevalent than it ever was in the past. I would go so far as to say NCsoft has embraced it.
I'm really enjoying the game, and I would rather not have to say such a ****ing thing about NCsoft. But they have truly earned that bad lip service in this particular case. Sorry. :(
Best thing you can do is join of clan that is anti-bot, and either pretend they don't exist, or petition GM's and pretend that will do something. Or you can train them with mobs.
I haven't seen original Chinese farmers in ages. But sometimes some character from big and known ally silently approaches dead bodies to res his/her 9-man party.
No specific allegations against a particular player were made.
Someone would like to return and asked a fair question. If NCsoft wants us to be able to give such players a positive response, then they need to side with us and not with botters.
L2 has no place and never allows any bots! Who says anything against this (and especially that dirty word - bots) must be wiped from this boards of light and honesty!!!!11
L2 has no place and never allows any bots! Who says anything against this (and especially that dirty word - bots) must be wiped from this boards of light and honesty!!!!11
LOL that funny right there. True it's the speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil Hmmm must be no evil aproach.
And btw is 100% useless do a petition.
I did a few times about the same character to see how Nc Support will work.
Just so you can get a idea i reported the Character in at least 4 different places, with exact location, complete bot Group names, the way they doing it, all completly detailed.
4 months after i see the ******s going Heroes!!!
And answers from Nc still the same. We need to check account by account bal bla bla...
Sry NcSoft but you still failing 200% at that point.
Till NC "Someone" have gutz to ban all the automated ones i will be playing other MMO, at least the support there takes time but it works.
not as many chinese farmers as before. but botters are worse then ever.
yes they have improved LMFAO no more sitting at desk but using third party program to do it. and majority of the bots are even own by players that is having main active sadly but the loser need best jewels you know.
Till NC "Someone" have gutz to ban all the automated ones i will be playing other MMO, at least the support there takes time but it works.
What really stinks about it is, at this point, I'm willing to bet at least 25% of their NA/Euro revenue comes from accounts that bot, if not more. So, by doing way too little about botters for the past four years, they have driven a lot of legit players away. Those that bot pretty much call the shots now. It might just be too late for legit players to have any influence on NCsoft over this.
It *might*? Don't be afraid of the truth. It's one of the things I had to live with when I decided to come back. Yet, I was still surprised to see how openly this was done now.
It might just be too late for legit players to have any influence on NCsoft over this.
Before i leave a lot of friends quit, the reasons? Look around :(
LAck of info on a lot of IG things, ******ed Clans / Alliances who claim being "Pro" Players (i love this argument), and the only thing they do is destroy this game, is funny to see ppl getting banned and after days see them in game again, so Legit Players have no voice, but the automated supporters still running around!!!
I know someone who got banned for botting, after 3 months he back to is "Fast Leveling Program" so wth is EULA, something you have to agree for what reason if nobody see actions?
I Killed over 2 hours a botter running in auto rez, i got thousands of Karma, recorded, screenshot it, did everything to see if any action will appen, in the end i got a impossible karma to clean and the BOT is still playing!!!
So any reason to say anything good???
Maybe this post will disappear too like one i answered long time ago when somebody of one of the "big alliances" answer when was accused of running a bot alliance something like "It doens't matter, no1 really cares" so wth!!!
Playing something where you cant take anything, where you only "Can't fight" ppl, who cares about lose XP when you get it 3 or 4 times more while sleeping??
Or the lol ppl buying the accounts with top Characters over the Internet, anyone seen actions against that ???
Its sad seeing friends quitting all the time, its sad trying to build anything for more than one year, witch 90% of the players if some can fit in that word say its impossible to do, what expect to see me typing.
And the anounces of ppl moving toons to populated or starting in new servers, and whay that appen? 20% want to try to get something already impossible to do on the other servers, the other's 80% are going to do exacly the same they did on the others, destroy it!!!
I Started a character with someone when Luna started, we where the 1st ones for sure to leave newbie towns, and leveling in higher areas, after some hours the first characters we seen started botting in group right next to me, actions??
Yeah sure... somewhere in other Galaxy...
(Ignore any error my main language is not English and im ****** off)
What it was not mentioned though is that those who run the above mentioned "cute" groups will demand your CC# to give you 1bil. lol
Well They can't have that but what I will do is think about giving them the last 4 Digits of my phone number and a promise to talk 2 them about the new President election if they figure the rest of the phone number out :p
I dont see them as a problem, there always guna be around, but never enuff so that i would leave game. Im stronger then that.
There not everywhere to the point you cant lvl or play the game, i dont understand ppl who make it sound sooo bad that their willing to not play... im here to stay... :)
I might make it sound so bad because it *was* bad when I started playing on Gustin. Back then we had had lot of players, real players, and a mega-ton of automated toons belonging to farmers. The Catacombs were full, out in the open fields same. Whenever I was in a group and we tried to claim a little space their heads came to "settle" things down. I had been pked more than I care to remember.
At some point there was the event with raid bosses scattered all over the map. Farmers came and pked lot of players who were trying to raid Amber at the crater of Ivory Tower. They did it once, twice, thrice and even more in two hours, real time. That was the last drop. I quit a little later.
When I came back there were other farmers who had Beast Farm on the lock-down pking anyone who would go there to farm mats. For months Beast Farm was run by automated toons. Well, I believe there is a serious issue when interfere with your game.
As for players doing it, I don't care -- as long as they are not hypocrites pretending they have got everything by "hard work" and denying the obvious.
Well, I suppose it is a valid point. L2 is designed to be a competition for scarce resources. But since our NA server populations are so low, there really isn't any scarcity. Therefore the presence of bots really doesn't interfere with our gameplay in any meaningful way (other than lowering the cost of inputs by bumping supply).
So if you want to look at it this way, I see your point.
However, I go back to the principle of the whole thing. Many subscribers were lost due to indifference (or even a welcoming of??) toward botting. It will forever be a sore spot between me and NCsoft NA, because I feel that in this case NCsoft's management proved to me that they were putting short-term dollars first and didn't have any passion for their playerbase or game.
Till NC "Someone" have gutz to ban all the automated ones i will be playing other MMO, at least the support there takes time but it works.
What really stinks about it is, at this point, I'm willing to bet at least 25% of their NA/Euro revenue comes from accounts that bot, if not more. So, by doing way too little about botters for the past four years, they have driven a lot of legit players away. Those that bot pretty much call the shots now. It might just be too late for legit players to have any influence on NCsoft over this.
I don't buy it, honestly - this whole notion that poor little NCsoft (one of the biggest game developers in the world) cannot afford to combat this highly motivated hacker army.
First of all, we have only to look as far as NCsoft's own product, Guildwars, to see a shining example of how easily, effectively and efficiently botting & hacking are COMPLETELY prevented. If the Lineage 2 developers cannot figure out how to do it, please direct them to ask the developers at arena.net, who have clearly mastered this.
Secondly, the people we see botting in game, 9 times out of 10, are not a highly trained militia of professional computer insurgents. They are simply average players that don't feel like leveling. And since there is virtually no consequence to botting, they bot.
It's just that simple.
NCsoft may well have wonderful and nice people working for them. Certainly GMspam and our forum crew here are all cool. But apparently there is a directive from their management that says: do not ban people for using 3rd party software, unless it is a really extreme case.
Why do you presume that I missed it and what relevance does that have to the point that I made? Also why did you presume I was responding to you (as opposed to the person that actually posted the link)?
You seem kind of eager to pick fights with me lol.
:eek:
Pick fights with you? I don't do that. I was joking. Sorry.
Not a direct relevance there, but part of the general picture: if they need time and be absolutely certain before banning an account, banned accounts should stay that way.
now about booting everybody knows where are the area where boots are hunting so if NCSOFT really want to stop this phenomenon its very simple, just inspect the server see the character who is booting and than ban the account.
so they doesnt care about that,and any major mmo developer (blizzard,nc soft,etc) cares only about money, those game was made to make money not to respect principles like true,honestity,etc.
so what you can do ?you got 3 choices:
1)quit playing l2
2)use boot programs
3)be a s uc k er and play fair and achieve in 6 months things that others obtain in 1or 2 :))
so its youre choice but the only choice who can really shake NCSOFT a little is the first one
Secondly, the people we see botting in game, 9 times out of 10, are not a highly trained militia of professional computer insurgents. They are simply average players that don't feel like leveling. And since there is virtually no consequence to botting, they bot.
Agree...I know ppl on my server doing that just because they want to get to the level they can PVP...
I'am newcomer and i have prepaid for 2 months and after half of it i can say me and my friends are leaving soon.
The bots&trains on Luna can be spoted in almost every corner,and this for me as a customer is not acceptable.
NCsoft has ruined a great game by giving no action agains bots.
I was going to switch to NCsoft 's Aion when it's come out,but what i saw in L2 has hit me enought.
Goodbye and thx NC
I just renewed my account after 2 years of inactivity. I am looking forward to casual gameplay, but I want to know what is the current status of bot users and chinese farmers. Has it improved or are they still running amuck? Thanks.
Either there is only about 1/10th of the botters as back then or 99.9% of all the Botter stories you read on this forum and ones like it are complete BS
I have been playing around 2 years and botters are definitely more rare now than then
I just renewed my account after 2 years of inactivity. I am looking forward to casual gameplay, but I want to know what is the current status of bot users and chinese farmers. Has it improved or are they still running amuck? Thanks.
Either there is only about 1/10th of the botters as back then or 99.9% of all the Botter stories you read on this forum and ones like it are complete BS
I have been playing around 2 years and botters are definitely more rare now than then
It's a matter of which server you are looking mostly...when server transfers started, you could see the exodus of bots following their supporters.
And the OP is specifically talking about Luna, which being a 'brand new' server in the Euro timezone pulled a large number of those people to it, and despite people *thinking* that this was a great time to get a 'fresh start' without the cheaters, they were sadly mistaken. And thus Luna probably has more cheaters than just about every other server at this point. (Or bot to player ratio.)
And in all truthiness, this loss of 'bots' to the more populated servers was probably a good part of the reason many low pop server players *liked* playing on a low pop server. Yes it kinda hurts to have a low overall pop, but at the same time you didn't have to deal with all the 'baggage' that higher populations tend to deny, decry, ignore or support.
And in all truthiness, this loss of 'bots' to the more populated servers was probably a good part of the reason many low pop server players *liked* playing on a low pop server. Yes it kinda hurts to have a low overall pop, but at the same time you didn't have to deal with all the 'baggage' that higher populations tend to deny, decry, ignore or support.
I think you have the cause totally wrong Pain.
You say botting is caused by the transfer of unscrupulous players to high population servers. Yet Luna allowed no transfers. In fact, I would argue that is the reason botting is the most prevalent on Luna: it was a brand new server where everyone had to start from level 1. Therefore - a race to the finish, with many established players not looking forward to grinding 1 to 75 again.
It makes sense that you would see fewer bots on lower population servers, tho, as you see fewer players of any sort.
If anything, I would think that ease-of-grouping (higher pop) lessens the desire to bot.. but truthfully I suspect that people who want to bot would do it regardless of whether their friends were the same level and needed someone to group with. On a truly crowded server, botting in desirable spots simply isn't tolerated by players - the bots will be killed to make room for others who want the resources.
Only way people will stop botting is if NC shows they have zero tolerance and bans them all period. Then everyone that bots will try and bot more toons maybe and if they ban them again right away they will show they mean business and people will stop botting. But on the flip side they might quit the game all together. Which would really hurt NC's bottom line because there are a large number of people doing it. If they never came back after 1 or 2 bans that would be perminant income loss.
Personally L2 is beyond the point of no return on this subject. They should refocus efforts for L3 if there is one to keep this from happening from day one. I think NC should just build some automation into their game then they could have the best of both worlds ;) maybe if they made their own official bot program and then made us pay extra to use it hehe.
btw, i love his idea. that is a way to add some profit to a company directly, not to some chinese developers. also, this will keep your and around toons safe from strange actions. didn't you even be victim of a crazy bot's PK spree? x_X hehehe... also, this official addendum will put everyone in identical condition. yes, you will need to pay to use it, but good documentation will and identical functions will make everyone equal. also, they can put only actions that they allow, not just everything that bot's developers think useful.
obviously, this game is beyond of bots phenomenon no return point. now, the best they can do is standardization of such software by some method. they can bring to public some "SDK of gameplay interference" or just give us a legal built-in bot. automatically, every third party bot becomes illegal and punishable.
i don't see other solution nowadays... actually, nothing will change. i doubt of AION and L3 will have 0% tolerance policy regarding bots or such thing. i very doubt.
I fail to see how a company, which produces their own bot program for their own mmo will preclude a 3rd party from developing one or extending this one to do more than was intended. We have in game macros now. NcSoft allows the Nos and the programmable keyboards as long as there is a real player sitting behind them, and yet, there a many extension programs out now.
No, I think it is a community problem at that point. It really comes down to the inital game design and putting the checks into that. This is one reason why I am sure we have the current problems with all the current mmo's out there.
Any of the games that are hard to get to the end, last more than 6 months to play, will have issues. I think that is the nature of people and especially when you have the competiton based on level / items more than skills. When you have on one had a younger person w/ more free time vs. a richer person with limited time, and a 3rd party who sees gold in them ther' hills, well, it will keep happening.
I dont think there is a good way they can do this anymore to be honest. They have painted themselves into a corner. I think they ban just enough people to show they will not stop but not enough to hurt their bottom line. I was just suggesting a way they could make some more money :)
Honestly though this game is about the PVP and teamwork but it should be slightly easier to level to max level specially when you have a main and 3 subs you can do it on.
I didnt like AOC because it was super super easy to level but L2 is definately the other extreme of the spectrum. I mean I have played 4 years and I'm not capped out on level of anything yet and I played a ton over that time.
In fact now I almost resent the fact they are making it easier for new players because then I think back and say man we had it hard in back in the day these guys got it so easy now :)
actually, we are already beyond the red line. and this can probably help someone from the dark side. ;) i'll simply say, this can be done. :p
at second point (relating gamers community reaction) i can say nothing. actually you must have a look though any other forums that are not focused on roller-playing style, casual hunting and other activities of "startling world of quests". :)
If you open up a route for any Bot progam including your own you have opened up that method for everyone
If any game company did that all that would happen is someone would take the client, reverse engineer it and recompile it do things it did not before rendering the game companies almost pointless and at the same time giving the normal cheats an easy advantage
How do you think a certain problem contain the word walk was created? Or the one for duplicating items that contains pla?
So long as the security is cleint side it can be broken and in order for a bot program to work it must be - I have tested that theory over and over and I have yet to disprove it