Question to the developers: bot farming/Вопрос к разработчикам: ботоводство.

DracoUlthima

Good day. The question arose which takes place in any MMO RPG game. Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous players who use third-party bot programs to dishonestly obtain resources / gold and other game values. There have been such players since the days of Lineage 2 and they are found in all games. By their actions, they severely destroy the economy of the game, and devalue many game values. This leads to the following question: how are the developers of Ashes of Creation, represented by InterpidStudios, planning to solve this problem?

After all, one way or another, there are players who will create bot programs for this game.

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Добрый день. Возник вопрос, который имеет место в любой MMO RPG игре. К сожалению, есть много недобросовестных игроков, которые используют сторонние программы-боты для нечестного получения ресурсов / золота и других игровых ценностей. Такие игроки были со времен Lineage 2, и они есть во всех играх. Своими действиями они серьезно разрушают экономику игры и обесценивают многие игровые ценности. Это приводит к следующему вопросу: как разработчики Ashes of Creation в лице InterpidStudios планируют решить эту проблему?

Ведь так или иначе есть игроки, которые будут создавать программы-боты для этой игры.

Jamation

Good morning! So this is a great question, and we do have some information on it!

The first and easiest answer is that it's a subscription based model, which will make the barrier for entry higher than normal to begin with.

On top of that many of the usual bot systems, such as harvesting resources, or crafting, will be severely hampered by the proposed systems. For gatherable items, such as wood or herbs, the idea was that they would not have a static place where they pop up over and over, but instead would be based on the evolution of the node, current climate, and whether or not the area has seen heavy gathering recently.

On the crafting/buying end of things, most markets will be self contained (unless there is a economic metropolis) which will create a choke point for materials available. This would mean that bots would not be able to work efficiently enough to be deemed useful on a large scale.

Also, as the world is open PVP, if a person is botting other players could easily kill the bot and steal their resources and could potentially impact any botting that is happening.

Finally, I'm sure that there will be some sort of system in game to report suspicious behavior for moderators to take a closer look at.


I'm sure there is more, but these are a few of the things I recall being mentioned at one point or another! Hope that helps alleviate some worry!

DracoUlthima

Jamation wrote: »

On top of that many of the usual bot systems, such as harvesting resources, or crafting, will be severely hampered by the proposed systems. For gatherable items, such as wood or herbs, the idea was that they would not have a static place where they pop up over and over, but instead would be based on the evolution of the node, current climate, and whether or not the area has seen heavy gathering recently.

Thank you very much for your reply. This really explains a lot. However ... I've seen quite a few bot programs that are quite advanced, and you can specify parameters and various functions in them (for example, the bot program for Lineage 2 - Adrenaline, this program itself can move resources to the warehouse, go to the city , look for a spawn point, etc.).
I have also seen various options for dealing with bots, such as bot hunters. In fact, this is a system in which players who find a character controlled by a bot program report it to a moderator or GM, and the botman gets banned, and the bot hunter gets a reward that does not affect the game. This will allow the community to moderate itself. And, as for me, such things have a place in this game.

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Спасибо вам большое за ваш ответ. Это действительно многое объясняет. Однако ... Я видел довольно много программ-ботов, которые довольно продвинуты, и вы можете указать в них параметры и различные функции (например, программа-бот для Lineage 2 - Adrenaline, эта программа сама может перемещать ресурсы на склад , идти в город, искать точку спавна и т. д.).
Я также видел различные варианты борьбы с ботами, например бот-хантеры. Фактически, это система, в которой игроки, которые находят персонажа, контролируемого программой-ботом, сообщают об этом модератору или GM, и ботовод получает бан, а охотник за ботами получает вознаграждение, не влияющее на игру. Это позволит сообществу модерировать себя. И, как по мне, таким вещам есть место в этой игре.

maouw

Hi DracoUlthima,

Other things that have been discussed include:

• banning users who are caught purchasing from gold sellers - purchasing black money is supporting their business and is therefore punishable.
• dedicated GM's who will be paid to patrol the servers (among other responsibilities etc.)
• other systems that they want to keep secret, so they didn't tell us about it.
• banning all 3rd party programs - makes it much easier to identify computers that are interacting strangely with the game client, because there should be 0 scripts attaching to the client.

Unfortunately, even if you stop all botters, there are sweatshops of people who play the game endlessly for a company to sell gold. The hope is that combining: GM's, discouraging people from buying black money, and the subscription fee will make it difficult to make a profit from doing such things.

tautau

I agree with @maouw who answered well. Personally, I believe that aggressive banning of the gold purchasers is very necessary and effective. The ban must be forever. The bots/farmers are the Supply side of the equation and are motivated by profits. But if AoC is able to remove the Demand side of the equation by fear of losing your account if you buy gold, then the cheating system breaks down.

godmilk

Just saying...I would be happy to pay a box cost and sub to compliment the banning to combat this.