I, like most people on this forum watched the Dev video with interest. Considering a major focus point was supposed to be addressing the bot issue I’m more than a little disappointed. Unless I missed something they dedicated all of about 90 seconds to the topic. Simply saying if you see a player with a GM tag it might be a Dev hunting bots is it? Seriously??
No question having human involvement is the way to go but I question their dedication to expend the resources to do that. Obviously, their current methodology isn’t working based on metrics/telemetry/player reports. Identifying a bot isn’t exactly rocket science.
With all the server merges there is a lot less ground to cover. A small team of bot hunters immediately responding to in-game reports from players could knock the problem down to a more manageable level. I know I could identify a bot within a minute or two. That would be a lot of dead bots over the course of even one day.
Again, the question basically comes down to money. Is AGS willing to expend the resources necessary to actually address the problem? So far, from my perspective as someone out in the wilderness that VAST majority of the time (don’t really do OPRs, dungeons etc.), the answer would appear to be a resounding hell no.
They have promised to deal with the bots for months, but they never have.
Now, they are only committing to running around as tagged GMs. Who cares if there are GMs running around with tags? What does that accomplish? Nothing.
Notice that they did not commit to permanently banning bot accounts. And they did not commit to removing most of the bots from the game. In the past, they bragged over and over again about banning 9000 bots. But they were only 24 hour bans and now all those bots are back in the game. Until they say. “We are going to permanently ban botting accounts, and we are going to crack down hard,” don’t expect anything to change in Bot World. Even then, don’t hold your breath.
To say “they never have” is a complete exaggeration and/or lie. They specifically stated they banned around 9000 accounts. Have they done as much as you’d like maybe not, but let’s not be a drama queen here. The next patch is supposed to address bots again. But, I’m sure if even a single bot exists, you will be back here claiming more false things.
It is simply not true that they have not dealt with the bots at all.
On my previous server they banned ALL of them in one update.
From one day to the other not a single mote farming bot left.
You can start by visiting every Ori node, every fishing hotspot, every starting zone, WF oil & Starmetal & Mote routes, and now i am seeing low lvl bots(lvl 9) running RW for motes & azoth. Let’s not forget these accounts are online almost 24/7 which should be a huge red flag anyway. I continue to report all the same bots everyday when i see them and don’t understand why it takes months to get rid of them. It’s not rocket surgery. I don’t even mind the ones farming wood, at least that’s not a limited resource.
The only answer is to treat all nodes like chests and make them gatherable by everyone with a 1hr+ CD if AGS is unable to do what it takes to investigate our bot reports in a timely manner. That way people who want to gather themselves can do so without competing with bots and those who want to pay cheap prices can buy from bots.