Bots and Gold sellers

[Isley]

Originally Posted by Calindor

I will buy if its there, but I would prefer it not to be

Nice to meet you! I'll make sure it's there for you.

[Kattrina]

Originally Posted by yousei

About the PMing to see if there bots really would suck for those of us who have kids who want to do what Mommy and Daddy are doing : P I have a 4 yearold who has a warlock in wow. She Loves killing stuff and is just now learning how to read... It would suck if the little bit of time i let her spend on my account to have fun would end up in my accounts deletion because she could not reply to a PM....

That's adorable. I have a little 8 year old brother who's going to play right next to me. I've been playing MMOs practically since he was born, and he's always wanted to play a game with me. I've set up a computer right next to mine so be can feel cool and play Aion with me. So, I totally agree that the random whisper messages are not a good idea.

Honestly, I've just accepted that botting is kind of a part of the MMO experience. I haven't seen a game yet that completely stopped bots and gold farmers yet, and I don't think NCSoft is going to have a solution to put a total stop to it either.

What I really don't want though are horrible ways to stop bots, since it often hurts the legit gamer. Like, in FFXI, I guess there were a lot of fishing bots, so SE decided that to hurt bots, they'd decrease the drop rate of the good fish to make it harder for bots to collect them. Well, that made the legit gamer have the impossible task of trying to do what even a bot has a hard time doing. Actually, I don't know how legit this story his, but I heard it from someone who was complaining about it while fishing.

Also though, the minimize thing. In FFXI, whenever you minimized the game, the game shuts off. This was a poor attempt to prevent botting since you couldn't minimize to use the bot. But, bots ended up being used anyways, and it just meant that the poor legit gamer couldn't minimize to check a website for information, and it also meant that whenever my blasted virus scan would start, or windows would tell me that I need to update it, that my game would shut down.

As long as NCSoft doesn't decide to throw in any cheesy solutions like these, I'll be fine and dandy with whatever.

[Kaldur]

Fishing bots were controlled not by making fishing harder but by adding Goblin Mercenaries that would kill fishing bots (since these bots were level 1-10)
As for the lack of windowed mode, the game has been like that since the beggining (and not as response to bots). Right now SE added a windower program but it sucks, so mostly everyone uses the "other" windower, which was developed by a fan and works 1'000,000 times better than SE's lol.

[Sabre]

Yeah I started using Windower for FFXI at like lv50 with my first job and never turned back lol.


Most games nowadays have a window mode ready of course, expect Aion to be no different~

[Calindor]

I run L2 in windowed mode, but i have a custom file that gets rid of the windows frames...and i set the resolution to 1280x996, so it looks just like full screen, except i can see/use my start menu...i've gotten so accustomed to it that i cant even stand to play a game in full screen anymore.

[Bibliophile]

really? i think its weird having the game windowed it kind of takes away from the experience, makes it more obvious your playing a game. I'm not saying I want to forget reality while im playing I just don't want to see all the different buttons and icons I see on my desktop. I think its similar to a the entrance of a theater being opened while in the middle of the show, light blazing in ruining the experience. But hey thats just my opinion.

[Sabre]

Well, it's just useful when you need to check something online, check for a spell or Skillchain, etc if you don't know it offhand.

In FFXI, I never had a problem with minimizing my windower, I could as I pleased. And the fishing thing was just solved as Kaldur said, occasionally rather than catching a fish you'd catch a mob that was aggro'd automatically to you. They had weak ones for the bots that were just lv1, and also some higher level mobs, such as Sea Urchants/Krakens for those that got to the 20s-30s. Fishing was just EXTREMELY slow for any legit fisherman, I remember trying it for 10hrs straight and hardly getting anywhere @_@

[ranarmir]

I found fishing to be quite easy for me in FFXI. Got pretty decent amount of fish in a short ammount of time. Only thing that stopped me from playing was the pvp... or lack there of i should say.

[reflex]

there was pvp in ffxi... it's happened to be the worst pvp system invented in history of MMOs

pve however is unmatched

[Sabre]

Eh, the actual game of FFXI PvP was lame, with the Rooks and all, I did it like twice Guild Battles? BUT..

It was fine if you went off and 1v1 or GvG in an open area, like the 2nd floor of Ghelsba and held it there. Fighting a lv75 of your own class really was a determination of how skilled you were, it was great fun And the tournament SE held for GvGs, our guild won that and got those fun party hats ^^

[goatus]

I don't think geting rid of botts gold farmers is possible. Its huge market with milions of $$ to earn. So big companies just won't give up, at least untill one of developers actually takes fight and wins with one in court scoring huge cash refund for their loss. etc.

But there are few ways to make it much less noticable.

-First, developer may make it legit (to some extend). Yes you heard me right. Make it legit or even sell gold themselfs. This way you remove blackmarket and even average Joe who never would do that can sell gold if he has to much. This way you drive out botters and chinese farmers. Since Joe probably doesnt treat it as a job so he will sell cheaper, and i belive buyer will be more than happy to buy from someone who speak english and is known player. It has also other big plus. That way all the transactions can be monitored so it would be easier for NC to spot huge companies and take action.

-Make mobs grow is strenght more and more with time you beat on them (i think that already said they will implement something like that?) Limit how much gold you can carry in the field (towns excluded) and add dimnishing returns on goldincome from mobs (but not items / quests, can be explained this way: you anihilate 1k mobs so it is obvious their "national" wealth is lowering so each one of them drop less and less ;p) This way it would be hard to just plain farm currency. Sure it is still possible but how much trouble is to much for it to be profitable?

[Otomox]

NCSoft should just do it like wow and botters wouldnt be a huge problem and they should remove this noob tool gg every retard and his dog could avoid that programe.

[goatus]

Originally Posted by Otomox

NCSoft should just do it like wow and botters wouldnt be a huge problem and they should remove this noob tool gg every retard and his dog could avoid that programe.

Sadly there are bots in WoW, quite a lot actually, and ton of exploits. It's just much less noticable because of difference in gameplay style / mechanics.

Actually based on WoW you can tell other thing that is important to that problem. Even if removal of botting / goldfarming is impossible, company shoud clearly show/prove players that it is trying. It won't fix problem sure, but it at least will calm flustrated players a bit.

Blizzard is doing mass banings from time to time (and they announce it) and they add some tweaks between patches that make it harder to bot/exploit.

While NC whith L2 didn't really do much (at least when i was playing) Granted they did do few mass banings but it was nowhere close to what Blizzard done. And i dont remember they did any real anti bot/exploit tweaks other than updating gg

[Livvy]

The problem about goldsellers and botters is a bit more complicated than having a good screening/banning method .

One has to ask why those botters /goldsellers are there to begin with . The only reason you see those enterprises is because there's a demand for buyable gold . I have always maintained - in every MMO I play - there's far too much emphasis on gold ( how to acquire it, how to spend it ) and on gear . If and when you take away the demand side of the goldselling -problem , there won't be any botters/farmers ,period.

[goatus]

Originally Posted by Livvy

The problem about goldsellers and botters is a bit more complicated than having a good screening/banning method .

One has to ask why those botters /goldsellers are there to begin with . The only reason you see those enterprises is because there's a demand for buyable gold . I have always maintained - in every MMO I play - there's far too much emphasis on gold ( how to acquire it, how to spend it ) and on gear . If and when you take away the demand side of the goldselling -problem , there won't be any botters/farmers ,period.

Well problem is how to remove that demand? I don't think it is possible at all. In any competitive environment there are allways bad apples that want to get somewhere without actually puting much into it. This is game with pvp side to it, so level and gear will mater, and once it maters you already have market for farmers and botters. Cuse no mater how easy it will be to obtain those there will allways be players that just can't be bothered to put any effort into it. They just want it now and here. And since money may not be problem for them (parents/good job) then they will just take shortcut.

So while i fully suport your point of view. I don't really think removing demand is possible in mmo.

In short, whenever there is chance to gain advantage over the others fair/or not. There will always be someone who takes it no mater of the consequences. Just the human nature.

Edit:Other solution woud be banhamering those who buy as well with those who sell. But i don't think any company is ready to risk something like that. (considering size of market it could mean losing meaningfull part of subs)