I play on phoenix server and the bot problem is horrible. Contacting GMs and even taking multiple screen shots of an *active* player sitting down after I went red on his buffer have done nothing when sent to support. If the people are not adena farmers and doing it to level up with 2-3 characters I usually go red on the group and wait for the user to manually run them back to VoS. I've run into a new situation where the nuker is active and his buffers are obviously automated and the player even admits it in white chat. I feel slightly worse about killing these people and they usually fight back and the buffer/healers are set to spam heal making it more difficult to take them down but on the upside I don't have to go red. How do you handle situations like this and is there anything more than going to the support site and attaching screenshots which should prove the person is botting? On one picture the guy was active to run his character back to VoS and even admitted he was botting and didn't have time to play because he had a job. Submitted and still no ban on the guy over 2 weeks later.
I threaten them and if that doesn't work, I'll kill the healers.
LOL we had a party in Martyr's the other day. Large party complete with buffer and a healer and plenty of DD's. A bot party was right outside the room. We sat to buff, they tried to take the room.....I walked in it, told them to leave or else. (LOL my title says "bot killer") They stepped back outside the room. About 2 hours later, they tried to stick their nose in the room again. Same thing..I told them they better GO ON NOW. They went back to their "waiting post". Seriously, folks, those bots waited outside that room for HOURS for us to leave. It was a prime location in Martyr's.
Quite frankly, I'm tired of fighting for rooms. Sunday morning, I didn't even bother. Took a mid-lowbie to EV instead.
And I'm on Phoenix where the problem is out of control.......
I usually refuse to post on these types of threads, because they're really a dime a dozen, but here's a little secret that we in FS/BHi use to keep bots out of our grinding spots.
PLAYER bots hate to lose exp after 75. As such, they'll blacklist you if you kill them more than once. There are 2 bots on IoP that are always running in the same spot, so we took turns killing them when we wanted those mobs. Now when I go there, as soon as I'm within about 1000 range, they force log. Every few minutes they auto log back in, and if I'm still grinding, they go bye-bye again. From what I've seen, this is the case with any bot that is set up to gain exp, and not just an overseas farmer. Can't help ya with those, they just don't care.
step 1: train them
step 2: report them
step 3: train them again if someone has rezed them
step 4: repeat step 3 until they run out to the corridor and let me have the room
step 1: train them
step 2: report them
step 3: train them again if someone has rezed them
step 4: repeat step 3 until they run out to the corridor and let me have the room
bots is something that doesn't exist in L2.
even if you search through whole worlds of L2, you can't find even one.
this game is so interesting and different so you can't even mind about bots.
this is the game of fair and honesty.
please don't say about it. you definitely lie. l2 has no bots. and will never have.
They are harder to train, but you still can train them in some spots.
I report them, I seed their mobs, I take their mobs before they reach them.
However, one of the earlier posters mentioned the best way to eliminate them: don't buy adena. Many bots exist to supply the market for adena. Those bots are caused by the players who purchase adena. If your clannies or friends buy adena, convince them to stop because there is a direct cause and effect relationship between buying adena and bots.
Sure, if there were not adena buying there would still be some bots, but there would not be as many. Bots are caused by various types of cheaters..adena buyers, uber l33t grinders, 'too lazy to grind' types, &tc. So there are several causes each with roots in the psyches of less moral and less capable players.
Answer: Bots are ugly little fat and stinky dwarfs. They look difrent than the normal dwarfs running around...they are not from this world. They came here to our world of L2 to study our farming and copying it to perfection 24/7. Now they are more advanced than us in their tecnology and with more mats and adena and we are so jelous about them that we cry and cry =´(
You can preach all you want about not buying adena but you're preaching to the wrong crowd. For every legit person on these boards, there are 10 non-legit cheaters that have no problem running their bots and/or buying adena. The cheaters in this game WAY outnumber those of us that work hard for what we have.
I report bots (and Giran auto-shouters) as much as I can, though I don't know if it actually has any effect. Short of that, I don't know if there is much else I can do. I won't go red on a bot; it's not worth my karma.
I find it funny some of the responses of 'don't buy adena' Apparently I didn't make myself clear that these are player bots (liked that term which was used in this thread) This is an individual who is trying to xp by botting, not farming adena to sell.
last time i saw a bot group (at HC) i did a different way of training, instead of grabbing room after room of mobs, i just grab the closet rooms and just bring in more and more very quickly till the room is full of argo mobs that the bots just can't handle. then the mobs all came to me and being the slow runner DA that i am, i just hit vanguard and 1 shot aoe everything. then i took a pick of me standing on top of dead bots.
another way is getting a ton of rez scrolls, making a perma red character to level 46+ getting a augmented weapon, ng gear, and just kill, rez, kill, rez, kill, rez, kill, rez , sometimes it works cause they have auto rez, if they don't rez, just leave em dead.
Well... I report them. When I feel like it. Because, honestly, it does get tiresome to report 6, 7 even 12 bots a day (I've done eve more a day once) and see them still around the day after, and the day after that, and the following week.
Although I have to be honest, I've reported some lately and they went poof after 30 minutes. Perhaps I was lucky to get an active GM at that time that bothered to check them immediately.
I have fake death so I train, stun the DD then use fake death... but I have died a few times by pulling too much agro on a train... so maybe reporting them is better than risking possible death to a mob. It is hard earned exp after all.
Well... I report them. When I feel like it. Because, honestly, it does get tiresome to report 6, 7 even 12 bots a day (I've done eve more a day once) and see them still around the day after, and the day after that, and the following week.
use some common sense, you dont have to create 6,7,12 petitions, just write down all the names in ONE petition.
I have a nice template which always gets the canned response within 2/3 minutes.
BOTS: Name1, Name2, Name3, Name4.....
Or...
Adena Selling: Name1, Name2, Name3
I have a Memo on one of my toons where I write each name down I come across when I run out of petitions and simply report them the next day.
I'm not willing to go red for the sake of killing a few bots as 90% of the community don't care why you're red and will happily gank you regardless. Training is also out of the question unless you can gather mobs from within the spawn region they're PvE-ing in.
I ignore them because you all are RUNNING them. If you decide that cheating makes you a whimp and demonstrates your incompetence then I suppose you'll stop running them.
As long as the biggest PvP clans all run the bot trains and are widely accepted and looked up to (reverred even) this isn't my issue.
Don't even talk about the 3 independent bots run in Spider's Nest by some noob. Bots = experienced (usually the highest and MOST experienced) L2 players, clans, and alliances.
You've all accepted and ignored and even celebrated what botting brings.
Stop posting useless threads about "the bot problem". If they were unavailable tomorrow 90% of all the most uber currently playing would quit and go find a new game to cheat in.
Bot's generally = players with the best stuff.
Everyone who isn't a liar or a fool knows this. Pretending otherwise or making other arguments (or blaming NCSoft) just makes you look silly.
What do I do about bots?
Not a **** thing anymore. Not my problem. If you want less bots then stop running bot trains and cheating.
Well... I report them. When I feel like it. Because, honestly, it does get tiresome to report 6, 7 even 12 bots a day (I've done eve more a day once) and see them still around the day after, and the day after that, and the following week.
use some common sense, you dont have to create 6,7,12 petitions, just write down all the names in ONE petition.
i
If you thought I petition one bot name at a time, no, lol! Unless it's a soloing bot, I would like to think no one's that stupid.
I'm SO not going to save names to report them all at once. I generally report 1 bot group at a time, but going to the extents of actually SAVING the bots' names (which sometimes are hard enough just to type in the petition due to the crazy letter combinations) to report them all together is way, way too much. Generally one bot group at a time, but there are time where, yes, I will encounter like 3, 4 bot groups a day, if not more. Nice eh?
- Heal the bots' mob until the mob kills the bot. Works best with solo/small groups of bots where you can bring other mobs to them to help.
- Use 'Fear' or similar spells to cause the bots' target mob to run into another room with significant aggro. This works great in the second room of the Imperial Tomb where you can cause bots to run into the bug room. Great fun for bored healers.
- Heal the bots' mob until the mob kills the bot. Works best with solo/small groups of bots where you can bring other mobs to them to help.
- Use 'Fear' or similar spells to cause the bots' target mob to run into another room with significant aggro. This works great in the second room of the Imperial Tomb where you can cause bots to run into the bug room. Great fun for bored healers.
I have to agree with DrakkosIV and what he said. Sad thing about that is, if an average player wants to be competitive PvP wise, they are almost forced to make their own bots trains or buy adena to keep up with all the super big alliances and their botting ways. We all know they do it, but, as DrakkosIV said, people look up to them at the same time. That's approval.
I gave up on PvP a long time ago, I know I'll never be competitive in it so, I don't care about it anymore and it's all because I won't bot and I would rather spend my cash on my kids than on fake money. So I just enjoy playing with my clannies as I get killed in one shot in sieges, repeatedly.
Bots are another part of the game at this point. It's useless trying to do anything about them at all, nothing is effective.
I ignore them because you all are RUNNING them. If you decide that cheating makes you a whimp and demonstrates your incompetence then I suppose you'll stop running them.
As long as the biggest PvP clans all run the bot trains and are widely accepted and looked up to (reverred even) this isn't my issue.
Don't even talk about the 3 independent bots run in Spider's Nest by some noob. Bots = experienced (usually the highest and MOST experienced) L2 players, clans, and alliances.
You've all accepted and ignored and even celebrated what botting brings.
Stop posting useless threads about "the bot problem". If they were unavailable tomorrow 90% of all the most uber currently playing would quit and go find a new game to cheat in.
Bot's generally = players with the best stuff.
Everyone who isn't a liar or a fool knows this. Pretending otherwise or making other arguments (or blaming NCSoft) just makes you look silly.
What do I do about bots?
Not a **** thing anymore. Not my problem. If you want less bots then stop running bot trains and cheating.
Ya, I don't do anything about bots either. I have been known to go after them if they're in a hunting spot I want. I've also been thankful for them for occupying a "dangerous" territory that I'm running thru, so that I can run thru safely. They are a part of this game, like them or not.
IMO, that's one of the things about L2 that is such an interesting game to play: the complete lawlessness that you have to learn how to adapt to and engage on many levels.
Therefore, all the "bots are a part of life" posters think it's a necessary part of the game.
So those unscrupulous people and clans bot and therfore the less inclined are pulled into their corner and bot too.
The only people left who don't bot are Boy Scouts and therefor suckers.
I'm a sucker... and yea... a Boy Scout... well that was a long time ago... but I was more recently a Boy Scout leader... and before the pokes at Boy Scout leaders come, my wife & I did it together for eight years... so no Michael Jackson action here.
Therefore, all the "bots are a part of life" posters think it's a necessary part of the game.
So those unscrupulous people and clans bot and therfore the less inclined are pulled into their corner and bot too.
The only people left who don't bot are Boy Scouts and therefor suckers.
I'm a sucker... and yea... a Boy Scout... well that was a long time ago... but I was more recently a Boy Scout leader... and before the pokes at Boy Scout leaders come, my wife & I did it together for eight years... so no Michael Jackson action here.
and you are sad that she wouldn't leave the room for the Michael Jackson love to start? :(
All kidding aside I hate NCSoft's response to bottiing. "Give us a couple of months/years to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are botting and by then the game will be dead and we won't have to do anything about it" Seriously they act like they must do research for weeks to ban one account and yet spam can run around banning over 20 a day? That's efficiency or a plain out lie that they are doing anything.
The big question is not what we do about bots, it's why are there still so many. Bots simply shouldn't exist in L2. It would be NCSoft's job as a paid service provider, in my opinion, to make sure all bots get banned fast and efficiently.
With active Gms that aptrol the game it would. This is not the case.
Reporting does eventually work in some cases in some where the train runner is neer there computers it dosen't.
The only way to keep this problem to the bare minimum is :
1.Clans kick and punish members found doing it.
2. As a server you pk the living [censored] out of anyone stupid enough to do it.
3.Post the names on your server and if possible keep up with any name/sex changes they may use to disguise there toon. With this list these people are blacklisted from the community. I.E no clans pick them up, they get pked off the server.
Little chance of these things happening, but if they did it would solve the problem.
Unfortunately the singling out of anyone as potential 'bad users' is against the forum rules otherwise I'd have started a nice long thread in the server forums below, listing each and every bot I come across.
Another thing about publicly mentioning bot names is that if you were to have a falling out with someone, chances are they'd stick your name up there too :'(
I do believe NCNA does ban the bots, the frustration from the player base I guess is come from “Lack of communication from GM”… When a player report a bot to GM, yes, we always get a standard message say something like “the case is being investigate”, it is only tell the player/customer, the petition is received, but that is not mean the case have been addressed. As the same time, the player is still seeing the bot run around, then make the player think NCNA does nothing about bot.
Like what NCNA say, it will take them sometime to investigate each bot petition, I agree with it, so we will give them sometime to do their job. Let say, it takes a few days to investigate a bot case and also creating all the needed documents to ban a bot, and when the GM close the case. That is the problem coming, why didn’t us the player receive an email/in-game message about the case is closed (no matter the case is stand true that NCNA banned the bot, or that is a false alarm, so they let the case close), we need to know the status.
For me each time I reported a bot, I will never remember the bot names I reported. Without knowing the status of the petition and when we still see the bots running around, how can you (NCNA) make your player base think you are taking action to against bot problem.
As for timing issue (How many time need to take care of a BOT petition), I think NC should setup some kind of SLA (Service level agreement) with the player to let them know what is their expectation (the expectation to get a updated status in a timely manner), the SLA not only for the BOT problem, it can be extend to all kind of the petition. I think as a paid player, we all desire to receive that kind of the customer service.
It makes me sad when I reported bottrains in first IT room back on Hinde. Almost - every - single - day. Guess what happened??? They were there for like a month.
Got my dwarf there to collect arrows they left.
How long does the "prove beyond reasonable doubt" process take and how many adena and stuff got player running those trains collected? :(
It makes me sad when I reported bottrains in first IT room back on Hinde. Almost - every - single - day. Guess what happened??? They were there for like a month.
Got my dwarf there to collect arrows they left.
How long does the "prove beyond reasonable doubt" process take and how many adena and stuff got player running those trains collected? :(
Considering support doesn't even read the messages I send them... goingn to take a long time for them to pick random names out of thin air to investigate.
Original message to them....
*names removed so thread won't get closed* have been botting inside valley of saints on the phoenix server for days. Yesterday they continued hunting/picking up items as I killed them one by one and then lay dead from being "active" (botting) for 3 hours. Today when I killed them they continued to kill mobs and pick up stuff as I killed them one by one and now they are set to not pick up arrows (see the attached files and check the system logs) 20 minutes after they died jeton (apparently the owner of the accounts came and rezzed them. They are not set to auto accept rezzes so he was obviously in control of them to get them back up. I'd actually like some help here instead of the [censored] 'we will investigate and if we can prove...' that I get day after day month after month of reporting the same botters. Actually look into the situation or I'm likely to quit this game forever and the situation on phoenix is bad enough I've heard others talking about quitting due to the bot problem. Look at the screenshots, look at your logs on these characters.
First response....
Hello Jared,
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Thank you for reporting this issue to us. We can understand your concern very well. We would like to inform you that we take such issues very seriously and also take action against those who have been reported after a proper investigation. Our investigation may take some time as we are bound to the User Agreement. We assure you that disciplinary actions are being taken against those players who are found using any kind of illegal program. We request you to co-operate with us and be patient. Your understanding in this regard would be highly appreciated. Again, we thank you for your report. Have a great day, and enjoy Lineage II.
Thank you,
GM Adam.
My second message:
GM Adam,
Considering I've supplied your team with screenshots, reported in game numerous times the exact times and location when they were botting and have killed them to prove they go from being "actively grinding" to laying dead on the ground for hours, how long do you think it will take your team to investigate these users? When I see the same bots spamming to sell/buy items in giran every 5 minutes on the dot for months at a time without ever stopping and the user does not respond to PMs or when their shop runs out of stock keeps spamming and I report it for a week straight and 2 months later the same character is still doing the same activity I begin to lose hope GMs are actually investigating anymore. Why don't you put my mind at ease about the lack of support for this game and go ahead and investigate these 3 characters yourself? Surely in under an hour a GM can do an investigation or else the system you have in place is so grossly inefficient your team needs new management in order to try to handle this situation.
Response:
Hello Jared,
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Thank you for writing back. We truly understand your concern towards the usage of third party programs from some of the players. This indeed ruins the real fun and excitement of the game. We do take action on suspected violators from time to time after thorough investigation, but we ask that you please be patient while we investigate and build a case against those you have reported. We are bound to the User Agreement just every player is, and we must take the time to be absolutely sure that third party software is being used before terminating account. Thank you for your understanding.
Regards,
GM Sami.
Third contact:
Is there any way I could better assist you? Is there a way to turn names on with the in game recording of a movie? Or if I know the exact time I turn the movie on even if it can't have names could you check the servers records to see that I'm recording a movie and then see what I see to help prove 'beyond a reasonable doubt' they are bots? Or if I made a fraps movie of their movements and how they respond to other players/continue nuking mobs while dying to players would the support team watch it and use that as evidence? I'm fine helping in getting them banned; I just do not know what form of evidence you would accept to help.
Response:
Hello Jared,
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Thank you for reporting us again. We at NCsoft are doing our very best, with your help, to find and remove all third-party user(s) we confirm. You may not see the effects of your report immediately, please be patient while we investigate and build a case against those you have reported. We are bound to the User Agreement just every player is, and we must take the time to be absolutely sure that third-party software is being used before terminating account. This is the reason why we take time to investigate the reported player. Again, thank you for the report and keep them coming in! We appreciate all your efforts to make Lineage II the best game possible. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Have a nice time with Lineage II.
Thank you,
GM Adam.
4th message:
The filefront videos can be viewed on the website itself or downloaded. I also posted them on rapidshare in case you couldn't view the filefront files. I created the files using fraps and fraps divided it into 2 files but it is of one session. The one ending in 68 is the first file to watch. The .l2r files are the exact same event but recorded using the in game recorder so you are unable to see names. This video should prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these three users are botting. If you keep logs from player's movements in the server you should be able to see that I've PKed this group of 3 about 6 times while they were botting and they stayed dead on the ground for anywhere between 5 minutes to 4 hours before the person checked his computer and released them to town to run them back. If you do have logs you can see that every time he's been active he attacks me back and the buffers spam heal him and then he had been whispering me to come back to fight him. Every time he was botting he had it set to keep killing mobs/picking up while somoene turned purple next to him. As you can see in the video, he now has it set to attack someone who turns purple. Note on the video how he never picks up arrows, like many bot groups have that option set. Please take some time to look into this matter. I've started to lose hope in the petitioning service after reporting users many times for shout bots (would shout to buy/sell every 5 minutes in giran) and 2 months later the same character was still there. I will also submit these videos to the support website but have had no luck convincing them to even look at photos I've attached in which someone admitted he was botting and another photo showing him botting. I have no problem at all givng you evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to show someone is botting. I will take photos/videos with times/locations if it will actually help you ban someone. So far I've seen 0 evidence that the support team cares to try to help ban botters however and hope that you will prove me wrong by reading this/watching the videos and taking the appropriate action.
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Regarding your issue, we would like to inform that we will look into this matter and take action accordingly. Our investigation may take some time as we are bound to the User Agreement. We assure you that disciplinary actions are being taken against those players who are found using any kind of illegal program. We request you to co-operate with us and be patient. Your understanding in this regard would be highly appreciated. Again, we thank you for your report. Have a great day, and enjoy Lineage II.
Regards,
GM Sami.
5th message:
you didn't even have time to watch the videos before submitting a response. You likely didn't even read what I wrote considering you responded within 8 minutes of me posting. Watch the video I posted and you WILL have evidence to ban the account.
Response:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Thanks for contacting us. Regarding your issue, we would like to inform you that we take this issue very seriously and our policy is very strict against any kind of violation of User Agreement. However, it takes some time for us to take action against the third party program users and that is why you may not observe immediate action. We appreciate your effort to submit us the names repeatedly. Thanks for your cooperation. Have a nice time play Lineage II.
Regards,
GM Leonard.
6th message:
Honestly, could I get a response that isn't completely automated? A real response from a GM that they actually type, if only a sentence of it. If you would simply look at my third attached file or go to my filefront links you would have proof the person is botting. Honestly, even if you don't do either of those just respond with the message "I see you have a link to a video" so I know these submissions aren't 100% waste of time.
Response:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting Lineage II E-mail Support.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. However, we will look into the matter and will take an appropriate action accordingly. For any other concern, please do submit a your issue with details. We shall be more than glad to assist you. Thanks for playing Lineage II, take care.
Regards,
GM Adam.
Why do they even claim they have support when they don't read what we send them? I've tried PMing Spam and Alyra on the boards with videos of botters that should prove 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. I honestly hope they can do a better job than the regular GMs.
Why on earth you still bother to waste your time doing all of that is completely beyond me...
:eek:
If doing that doesn't get those characters banned I'm cancelling my subscription and NCSoft is never getting another dime of my money. This is their last chance to show they have support. Alyra and GMSpam are the last 2 to have a shot at keeping me in game.
If doing that doesn't get those characters banned I'm cancelling my subscription and NCSoft is never getting another dime of my money. This is their last chance to show they have support. Alyra and GMSpam are the last 2 to have a shot at keeping me in game.
We've had this discussion over and over again, bots are here to stay, and if they're gone so is L2's economy, NCSoft knows that perfectly well so of course they wont do anything except for the occasional ban of a few hundred accounts from time to time to keep the playerbase happy ;)
Again, dont waste your time...
If doing that doesn't get those characters banned I'm cancelling my subscription and NCSoft is never getting another dime of my money. This is their last chance to show they have support. Alyra and GMSpam are the last 2 to have a shot at keeping me in game.
We've had this discussion over and over again, bots are here to stay, and if they're gone so is L2's economy, NCSoft knows that perfectly well so of course they wont do anything except for the occasional ban of a few hundred accounts from time to time to keep the playerbase happy ;)
Again, dont waste your time...
your argument is of no value considering this is a player bot and is only botting to hit high level and do oly/pvp. I'm not making the claim that if NCSoft doesn't ban all the bots I'm quitting. I'm saying that after I've PKed/reported these 3 bots over 8 times (reporting on 3 of my toons per time, so over 20 petitions in game) took the time to buy the full version of fraps/shrink the size/upload the files onto a site/take an ingame video incase they didn't want to go to a site and watch that one/send this to support/Alyra and HGMSpam and nothing gets done then I want to do no further business with NCSoft. If my $45 a month isn't enough for someone to sit down and watch an 8 minute video then forget it; I'll switch games.
I have an ebb and flow. I'll go a few weeks or months just doing my own thing. Eventually I start having fun at sieges or I see a neat new skill in the patch notes and I'll start thinking about getting better gear or seriously levelling one of my toons to finally get somewhere in this game. I don't know it yet, but that will last a few days maybe a few weeks at most. With this new thirst for levels and gear I trek valiantly out to a hunting ground...and eventually it happens. I see a ton of bot trains. Undeterred I wedge myself into an area that is more or less bot free and commemce with the killing of mobs. As the minutes pass one of the trains will drift and all of the sudden it starts beating me to mobs. It's outdamaging me on the mobs I was already attacking and because of that it takes drops that would otherwise be mine.
I stop. My head hangs. Deep breath. I look up and it's bots as far as the eye can see. Left. Right. Near. Far into the distance. "[censored] it. I just can't do this. I won't be involved in this.". I roll a new character, spend some time enjoying parts of the game that no one really sees anymore, not even the bots. The process begins anew.
I'm not mad at NCsoft. They weren't the ones that made me believe I could make it this time. They weren't the ones that had me thinking that it would be different with this toon. I had just forgotten. It's okay. The bots will always there to help me remember before I get too deep. They'll be there to cement the idea that this just isn't meant for me and it never will be.
If doing that doesn't get those characters banned I'm cancelling my subscription and NCSoft is never getting another dime of my money. This is their last chance to show they have support. Alyra and GMSpam are the last 2 to have a shot at keeping me in game.
We've had this discussion over and over again, bots are here to stay, and if they're gone so is L2's economy, NCSoft knows that perfectly well so of course they wont do anything except for the occasional ban of a few hundred accounts from time to time to keep the playerbase happy ;)
Again, dont waste your time...
your argument is of no value considering this is a player bot and is only botting to hit high level and do oly/pvp. I'm not making the claim that if NCSoft doesn't ban all the bots I'm quitting. I'm saying that after I've PKed/reported these 3 bots over 8 times (reporting on 3 of my toons per time, so over 20 petitions in game) took the time to buy the full version of fraps/shrink the size/upload the files onto a site/take an ingame video incase they didn't want to go to a site and watch that one/send this to support/Alyra and HGMSpam and nothing gets done then I want to do no further business with NCSoft. If my $45 a month isn't enough for someone to sit down and watch an 8 minute video then forget it; I'll switch games.
Im sorry but the truth is.. It doesnt matter to them.. Either your 45$ subscription, or 80% of the player base and the economy of LineageII.
Your trying to take down a cement wall by punching it, your gona lose..
Let's not de-rail this topic - it's clear that the community management have left this open so that we can provide constructive feedback on how to deal with these little critters in game, by training, /gm, or other means.
Every topic on this subject which leads astray eventually gets the golden padlock. Let's keep it civil!
"bots" is only NCSOFT problem ... they doing nothing against bots and never will eliminate golden-egg-chicken ... and every fken day some new guys says "wtf i grind and spend a lot of time for playing this game when my friends/enemys/etc can enjoi real life while their chars can exp 24/7 without any fear" ... even if miracle occurs and their characters become baned via petition wall or gm check they start another train and so ... days when botted/resold char got black mark and cant join any factor clan, when ppl pvp without any kind of cheating tool are gone ... and only ncsoft can return these times back
i think GMS are not allowed to take pictures or videos of players into their investigation against possible botters in order to keep an unbiased view.
some players may report others for fun - it happens.
they have ways to check on bots if and when they want to, there is no need flooding them with useless material which is uploaded on 3rd party sites, which they also may not be allowed to use/or even watch since its uploaded from no official source...
Despite the hundreds of posts on this topic (most padlocked over the years), there are 3 reasonable ways to combat bots.
2 would be devestating and punish everyone that plays and one would increase subscription costs.
Before you flame--I'm not advocating any of these, just pointing them out.
1. you could eliminate anonymous playing routes--no more time cards. No account without personal, verifiable information. Obviously not going to happen but it would work.
2. You can program in traps which have to constantly be updated and managed and which inconvenience and frustrate both legitimate players left in the game (or frustrate botters when they are on their main, clean account trying to be a hero again). Not going to happen.
3. You can hire a legion of in-game GM's for all 6 servers 24-7. More employees = increased expense which will be passed along in subscription cost. Of course you could deputize real players but the abuse of that would be unimaginable!
Re the occasiional 'I'll quit if bots aren't gone" posting:
Will you also quit driving your car if the police don't eliminate all traffic law violations?
I obey traffice laws pretty well. It irritates me when people run lights, speed, cut in front of me without signaling and do other law violations which give them some 'advantage' over me in driving.
But the usefulness of driving continues to exist for me. I still get where I want to go, I still (usually) enjoy my driving. Sure, the bad drivers are flawed, even idiotic since they may kill themselves. Just like botters are flawed and may lose their accounts. Still, I am going to enjoy L2 even with bots around. I might not enjoy it as much, but I still enjoy it a lot. If I focus on bad drivers or bots then my enjoyment goes down, so instead I focus on the things I like and am happier. I report bots, I call in drunk drivers to 911, too. But I keep driving even with bad drivers around.
Would I be willing to pay more taxes to have more police patrols? We would probably have to pay twice as much to hire enough police to enforce the laws on all the streets and roads. Would we be willing to pay more to NCSoft to have enough GMs to enforce the rules all across the Lineage World? Even if I paid $40 a month instead of $15?
Re the occasiional 'I'll quit if bots aren't gone" posting:
Will you also quit driving your car if the police don't eliminate all traffic law violations?
No, I will quit driving my car where police dont deal with traffic law violations. I will go drive somewhere else.
But the usefulness of driving continues to exist for me. I still get where I want to go, I still (usually) enjoy my driving. Sure, the bad drivers are flawed, even idiotic since they may kill themselves. Just like botters are flawed and may lose their accounts. Still, I am going to enjoy L2 even with bots around. I might not enjoy it as much, but I still enjoy it a lot. If I focus on bad drivers or bots then my enjoyment goes down, so instead I focus on the things I like and am happier. I report bots, I call in drunk drivers to 911, too. But I keep driving even with bad drivers around.
Yea, usefulness of driving will continue to exist to you until you are killed by the drunk drivers. Idiotic drivers dont just kill themselves, but sometimes also people around them. It is a bit silly to compare drunk drivers to botters in Lineage2. Unless you live in a ******** where polices dont do their jobs properly., drunk drivers will get arrested and they will get punished or even lose the license. Thats not the case in lineage2 with botters. People who have been botting for ages in lineage2 are still around. Some of them even admitted that they botted. Still around and got hero status.
Would I be willing to pay more taxes to have more police patrols? We would probably have to pay twice as much to hire enough police to enforce the laws on all the streets and roads. Would we be willing to pay more to NCSoft to have enough GMs to enforce the rules all across the Lineage World? Even if I paid $40 a month instead of $15?
No, I would just refuse to pay that $15. ;) You dont need any more GMs to enforce the rules. GM just need to start banning the bots.
One of the main problems is that the botting issue should have been put to death in C1, instead it was only a task that was a part time job for the GM's. Because of this, botting has become so rampet on all the servers because there is a feeling in the game with some of the players is that they can bot their way up and never get caught. Spam did a bunch of banning on Barts, which is nice, but it should have been done 4 years ago then the botting issue, would not be an issue.
I am stunned by the quality of the "F5" responses that you were getting from the "GMs", I do not think that any of them actaully used any of the letter keys to respond back to you - that needs to change, because otherwise you get the feeling that the GM's are bots themselves.
With saying all of this, I'm not sure what NCNA can do since they are nothing but red-headed step-children of NCK - and for that reason I do feel sorry for them.
Automation is the future, fight it all you will, but you won't win. The old ways are gone. When a game requires playing 24/7 for months or years to "beat" you know there's a problem.
Let's be honest here, how many people would switch to a 5x official server? And how many people would such a server bring back if they know it is official and won't get wiped like private server.
I bet you NCSOFT has the same mindset as most people do now. After 4 years you're just like [censored] it dude whatever happens, happens lol. F5 the crap out of that reply button, though they could use a bit more organization on the forms they use (hire someone good to do a nice list).
Automation is the future, fight it all you will, but you won't win. The old ways are gone. When a game requires playing 24/7 for months or years to "beat" you know there's a problem.
Let's be honest here, how many people would switch to a 5x official server? And how many people would such a server bring back if they know it is official and won't get wiped like private server.
I bet you NCSOFT has the same mindset as most people do now. After 4 years you're just like [censored] it dude whatever happens, happens lol. F5 the crap out of that reply button, though they could use a bit more organization on the forms they use (hire someone good to do a nice list).
Funny, I didn't know there would be no such thing as a videogame in the future. D'oh, kids are going to be very annoyed when their robots keep beating their games for them. "It's the future!"
you must write this in korean boards, and even than you won't be heard. it's the enterprise standard. :)
I thought that on the NCK boards, if you say you are from the NCNA version you get flammed off the boards... could be wrong.. just what I have been told.
Welcome to 1997. Bots have have been around since the first MMO's came out , only difference is how the company that runs the mmo deals with em. Don't like it? Go back to console gaming or to another mmo that does more in policing its game, or simply ignore it and enjoy your time.
i personally PK bots in necropolis of sacrifice and catacomb of the heretic.
in branded its dangerous because the "owners" of the bots come back (happen to be S grade) and pk you, not letting you continuing you exping there, so in those places i just leave them alone
guys... u should just try to imagine playing w/o bots on our servers. U'll c prices go up up up like hell immidiately, u'll c many-many unpleasent stuff. Just imagine the the real number of ppl on the server is average to 3k (mAAAXXX) (excluding Teon, Luna). Actually it's down to 1,2k of real players. It's gonna b a good life w/o "A" grade crystals w/o GSS selling AT ALL and etc. etc. Well, apparently we will get used to such a new economy, but it will cost us MORE than just "ah well...let's pk bots". All market materials are thanks to spoilers-botters.
So... I'd recomend not to report bots. Just leave them alone. PK is fun, but dumb :) Although I do it once a week with like 1-2 bot party max.
As we use to say in my country: "don't pull out the brick you are sitting on".
guys... u should just try to imagine playing w/o bots on our servers. U'll c prices go up up up like hell immidiately,
...and then down in a couple of months, when all those adena buyers run out of cash.
Just imagine the the real number of ppl on the server is average to 3k (mAAAXXX) (excluding Teon, Luna). Actually it's down to 1,2k of real players.
The player population will increase over time, as more people trying the game will stay.
It's gonna b a good life w/o "A" grade crystals w/o GSS selling AT ALL and etc.
A grade crystals are coming from A grade common item drops and from dualing B grade sword sold in Luxury shop.
All market materials are thanks to spoilers-botters.
Surely. I'd prefer people to thank live spoilers, though. It's a shame that my spoiler alt works as a sellshop for adena buyers instead of providing spoiled mats to the legit community.