Suggestion: Countering RMT Mercenaries

[Cypan]

"As an anti-RMT mercenary measure, certain monsters will now grant fewer of the following points when vanquished in an alliance of between 7 and 11 players.

Experience Points / Limit Points / Capacity Points / Exemplar Points"




Why not apply an overall change to address the issue?


Change:

A severe reduction in the following points when vanquishing monsters if the player is not on the monster's hate list.

Experience Points / Limit Points / Capacity Points / Exemplar Points


This would force players to act on either the monster or their party members in order to obtain points. This is the intended method for party members already, and it would hinder those who are leeching in any situation; not only RMT.

I understand that many would be upset to not be able to power level 99s easily or obtain merits for HTMB, so maybe limit this reduction to Capacity Points and Exemplar Points only.

[Alhanelem]

A severe reduction in the following points when vanquishing monsters if the player is not on the monster's hate list.

This is a pretty low bar, and it could be easily scripted so that all of the dummy bots perform an action tio gain threat when the monster is near death. or just perform the smallest hate-gaining action possible so that they aren't likely to die.

[Cypan]

Anything can be scripted to get around the preventative measure. Just look at all of the different ways RMT are abusing the game and the player base blatantly without anything really stopping them. They key is to make it harder for them to achieve their goals; such as forcing their buyers to attempt to keep hate listed on mobs to gain points.

The starter zones lvl sync bots, the auction house price manipulation bots, the JP/MLvl merc bots, etc., yet the new introduction of Master Levels just gave the merc bots a massive new market to monopolize.

The fact that they allowed level sync was a really poor choice if they knew about this problem ahead of time. If they never allowed Master Level syncing the RMT and made the gates give practically no exp at Mlvl 20 then the bots would be worthless once their GEO/SAM combo hit Mlvl 20.

The range of levels where EP are given should have been tightened and force players to explore other Apex zones, fight new Apex mobs, and have a sense of progression instead of sitting at the gates for JP 0-2100 and then Mlvl 0-99.

They could have also forced thought into fighting the newer apex mobs such as making them link, having them hit harder to require a tank, do something to force out the botters if that's what they want to accomplish.

Everyone I know still just kills apex mobs in the gates and plan on doing the same thing once the cap increases. Just have one person outside of exp range to level sync to and it's an endless source of mindless points even if they go to Mlvl 99.

[Alhanelem]

If the solution is a gameplay one, then the most effective measure is one that requires everyone to participate. The difficulty is determinining what constitutes particpation. Then, even if bots go through the trouble of scripting a human party that can play itself, at least they're doing that instead of what they're doing now.

[Cypan]

Agreed. If we cannot eliminate the problem, then the goal should be to make it as difficult as possible to accomplish flr RMT without hindering the legitimate player base.

Essentially, anyone who is attempting to gain points should have at least some hate on the target monster so requiring to be on the hate list makes sense. Yes, buyers could script to get hate, but not everyone can do that so it adds another layer of defense against RMT.

[Cypan]

Typo: for*

[Ariandra]

Hmmm, why not then patch enmity gain harder to obtain for low level on high level monsters, or that and dissolve faster based on level differences, that'll really throw a wrench in those merc bots, or make enmity shift instant for that time, good? bad? thoughts.

[Dzspdref]

They already HAVE this "Adjusted level of rewards for Amount of Participation" for Shadowreign [S] Campaign battles. Why can't this same option be set for EVERY battle in other specific areas, or when fighting certain classes of targets (i.e. any "Apex" monsters)?

[Uriah]

They easily could but why would they bother. They don't ACTUALLY want to inconvenience bots, they just want to ACT like they do.

[Pixela]

The changes made no difference at all, the mercs kill monsters even if they have no buyers just to stop players getting the camps. Becasue not only do they profit from people who are lazy but they also profit from making it so you're unable to get XP yourself and dominate the camps.

Since these guys cannot learn, the XP reductions need to be anyone over 7 players on apex monsters and they need to be harsh reductions.