botting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Medura

Buying a joypad is completely legal and not botting, turning on turbo mode plus some tape is all thats needed, hope they revert to how crafting was before 1.19 though, clicking same button a thousand times isnt really a challenge :p

---

completely legal, until a gm tries to contact you after you get reported and you justr arent there to respond

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheVedis

completely legal, until a gm tries to contact you after you get reported and you justr arent there to respond

---

Is not responding enough to get you banned? Sounds a bit overzealous

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vawn

Don't get me wrong with what I said earlier. Yeah, I'm not paying attention to the game, but I am still manually pressing the button. I'm just playing the game blind. Any actual bots should be dealt with (banned or otherwise) and this includes turbo-controlling and going afk.

---

I don't think people should be passing judgment as long as the process of "playing the game" with regards to crafting can be described as "Spamming enter."

Its not fair to players to have to suffer through laborious, mundane tasks that offer no real enjoyment -- and the crafting systems are still pretty important to the game. Botting isn't a good way to counter the issue, but I can understand where it comes from. If the task was interesting enough no one would even want to bot, but as it stands, you can't blame someone for not wanting to watch himself press and release the enter button in repetitive intervals.

That aside, I'm not a fan of how people are already starting to accuse every Rank 50 crafter of botting -- Some people have been at this for over a year, accusing them for botting is rude and pretentious. Having all crafts at rank 50 by now is not so daunting of a feat that an attitude like that should be acceptable.

The bands of identical tarus with keyboard smashed names and wearing free lvl 1 gear (or other free untradeable gear like the onion set) at any level in any zone - yes, I agree those appear to be rmt and are quite blatant. They run around on auto follow and appear to be some sort of clone army. I highly doubt any of those are real players. We do have a few groups of those running around on Lindblum, although not as many as there had been a few patches ago.

They need to make the crafting mini game like a jigsaw puzzle where you have to fit certain shapes together to make the finished product, the game could be randomised and have a time limit.

The bigger the difference in level the more complex the puzzle becomes, think that could spice the crafting system up enough to keep people interested in playing and I can't see how a bot could complete a task like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nayt

Is not responding enough to get you banned? Sounds a bit overzealous

---

if a gm is trying to contact you, and sees your "turbo control" going over and over and over again
and your not responding
and hes continuing to message you
and your not responding

how do you think that looks?

its not overzelous, its just about right for them to jail and suspend you until you contact them at the least. upon which point you can explain how you feel setting a turbo control on and being away from the keyboard for hours should be legal(which is about the only excuse you can give when they check your "command" log and see you spamming enter for hours with no other commands in it at all)

Damn Vedis you have all your classes at 50... easy target or what !

Only joking :P

This is ridiculous, you don't really KNOW who is botting and who is not.

I use a program that parks a media player on top of FFXIV and I watch tv while keeping the crafting window visable and just press A for hours on end.

I'm not replying to anything ever while I'm doing this. I guess I'm a botter >.>

My point is, stop knee-jerk tattling on everyone, because you just don't know.

The way crafting is now, I would say its entrapment if someone got called for botting. Its a shoddy brainless system that SE really should be ashamed of.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheVedis

completely legal, until a gm tries to contact you after you get reported and you justr arent there to respond

---

Glad to see you avoided it for so long!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Quesse

This is ridiculous, you don't really KNOW who is botting and who is not.

I use a program that parks a media player on top of FFXIV and I watch tv while keeping the crafting window visable and just press A for hours on end.

I'm not replying to anything ever while I'm doing this. I guess I'm a botter >.>

My point is, stop knee-jerk tattling on everyone, because you just don't know.

The way crafting is now, I would say its entrapment if someone got called for botting. Its a shoddy brainless system that SE really should be ashamed of.

---

A lot of people say this, but it is not an excuse, it's just rude. I also play in windowed when crafting to watch netflix or read things on forums, and with proper chat filters and window sizes i can still see when someone is trying to talk to me.

TheVedis, I dread the day when all my jobs are at 50 and people can label me a botter... Seriously, what have people be doing for a Year??? Not playing the game obviously

Anyways, I had a discussion about this before... and after that the situation with botters has drastically improved. I doubt it had anything to do with our discussion about it, but it's nice to hope that maybe it perhaps did... lol. My LS reported a botter (extremely low level gear, all broken, leveling for hours, no break in crafting rhythm or response /tells or emotes) the guy was gone the same day. So I'm suddenly less concerned about botters. Fancy that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raagnar

A lot of people say this, but it is not an excuse, it's just rude. I also play in windowed when crafting to watch netflix or read things on forums, and with proper chat filters and window sizes i can still see when someone is trying to talk to me.

---

depends on your setup I guess, I have FFXIV up on one monitor while I watch stuff/browse forums on another monitor. I do usually see it when people tried to talk to me, though if I'm paying attention on something else, I may not notice it for awhile

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HiirNoivl

TheVedis, I dread the day when all my jobs are at 50 and people can label me a botter... Seriously, what have people be doing for a Year??? Not playing the game obviously

---

You have to be in a questionable state of mind to level more than, generously, two crafts to 50.

Hell, people are discussing ways to do it in this very thread, that should be proof enough it's boring as sin and so very grindy. You can't even talk to people while you're crafting since the chat-box kicks you out after every animation.

So unless
you type like
this you are
not going
to be able
to talk to
your ls
mates.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

You have to be in a questionable state of mind to level more than, generously, two crafts to 50.

---

and yet i did them all 100% legit, every painful keystroke of hitting enter

anyone who knows me knows i did it legit too

just cuz you cant stand to do it, doesnt mean others are the exact same way and cant do it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheVedis

and yet i did them all 100% legit, every painful keystroke of hitting enter

anyone who knows me knows i did it legit too

just cuz you cant stand to do it, doesnt mean others are the exact same way and cant do it

---

That's not something to be proud of. At your point, you should be gloating that you botted it just to save face.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

That's not something to be proud of. At your point, you should be gloating that you botted it just to save face.

---

i never gloated about anything, and i never said im proud of it

and thats whats funny

some people, especialy those who yell bot at everyone who has more jobs leveled then them or those who have finished all, are just pointing out jelousy
jelousy of a friggin game

i play the game, i played a whole damn lot
i never once bragged about my levels
i dont advertise them(unless someone in shell is asking for help with a specific craft)

i just played the game, a whole lot, enjoyed it, got what i needed level wise, and now im doing other things in game


remember, its a GAME, its for enjoyment, some of us play them alot more then others, and we know what it means to be a game, and not take it seriously

something tells me you dont understand the concept if you think saving face matters, or gloating is something people should do

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

You have to be a shitty player to no level more than gladiator and shield to 50 in almost a whole year.

---

fix'd

and no, I'm not being serious, but that statement is about as valid as the vitriol you're spewing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

Hell, people are discussing ways to do it in this very thread, that should be proof enough it's boring as sin and so very grindy. You can't even talk to people while you're crafting since the chat-box kicks you out after every animation.

So unless
you type like
this you are
not going
to be able
to talk to
your ls
mates.

---

or you can press space and type

or you can click on the box and type

or you can press space, press up, and resume what you were typing if you do get kicked out of the chat-box

learn2play

Yeah I'm in that questionable state of mind rn... 16k or so to r36 and I'm out of black sole...

If I hadn't have spread everything out evenly like I did I would have had multi-50 crafts...

Anyway. I'm going to quit talking to you weirdos and go ding r50 Botanist... speaking of questionable mind states. lawl

Later days.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HiirNoivl

Yeah I'm in that questionable state of mind rn... 16k or so to r36 and I'm out of black sole...

If I hadn't have spread everything out evenly like I did I would have had multi-50 crafts...

Anyway. I'm going to quit talking to you weirdos and go ding r50 Botanist... speaking of questionable mind states. lawl

Later days.

---

My friend came over a long while back and I wanted to finish up a crafting leve before we went out.

Needless to say, that's when I realized what I was doing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Defmetal

I see an insane amount of botting on Istory for sure. One of the "top" linkshells appears to have gotten a lot of their 50s that way. It's super apparent when you see someone crafting for 10+ hours in a row without moving or saying a word to anyone, even their own friends who try to talk to them.

I don't see as much leveling bots as I did back in November 2010 but the crafting bots are crazy, I'd almost be willing to say most of the level 50 crafters probably botted, or at least the people who were 50 before March.

It's really sad.

---

50 before march?

I had a r50 crafter class since December without botting lol.

I agree that it's an epidemic though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

My friend came over a long while back and I wanted to finish up a crafting leve before we went out.

Needless to say, that's when I realized what I was doing.

---

going out and real life always take priority before a game
you shoulda been going out and not thinking about staying in to get to 50, regardless of what kinda game or what class/job whatever you were doing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ellohwell

50 before march?

I had a r50 crafter class since December without botting lol.

I agree that it's an epidemic though.

---

its bad, but its not as bad as some people are making it out to be
and usualy, most of the bots are all congregating in single shells so that they can try to protect each others reps or vouch for each other(we have one of those shells on besaid too)
and im not talking rmts either

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheVedis

if a gm is trying to contact you, and sees your "turbo control" going over and over and over again
and your not responding
and hes continuing to message you
and your not responding

how do you think that looks?

its not overzelous, its just about right for them to jail and suspend you until you contact them at the least. upon which point you can explain how you feel setting a turbo control on and being away from the keyboard for hours should be legal(which is about the only excuse you can give when they check your "command" log and see you spamming enter for hours with no other commands in it at all)

---

Being put to jail for questioning is one thing, but banning is an entirely other.

What if I, since I don't even have to watch the screen (and I have multiple) just spammed enter while watching a movie. If I only look back every once in a while, I am unlikely to see whatever the GM said, since the log will be filled up in seconds.

How many times would they toss me into jail before they realize their methods are broken? It's hardly an offense to not pay attention to the game.

^ You can easily make a second chat window and filter out everything but tells, you could also enable tell to make a sounds so it alerts you when you are sent a message.

BTW bots could potentially get much much worse when addons are added ..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jinko

^ You can easily make a second chat window and filter out everything but tells, you could also enable tell to make a sounds so it alerts you when you are sent a message.

BTW bots could potentially get much much worse when addons are added ..

---

Why would anyone make that change, just to avoid being thrown in jail?

It's not so much the fact that I can do it, as much as why should I have to?

What I want to say is, why is being non-responsive grounds for being accused of botting?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kio

Botting on my server is ridiculously rampant. People don't even bother trying to hide it, and you basically trip over a dozen automated crafters on the main streets of Uldah. It's extremely dismaying as a legitimate player. I always feel like people who don't really care about the game and cheat at it, be it in auto leveling, power leveling, or craft botting get rewarded greatly for their efforts. And I only get a character who can't keep up and a worn out enter key.

I kind of blame a series of faults for the issue:

-The crafting game isn't engaging and people feel comfortable only using the standard method to complete a synth. This has made it possible to successfully level crafting with one key press and without looking at the game. Far too easy to automate.

-The crafting game takes too long to complete. Pairing with the above stated, even if you went through the attentive effort to try to achieve a HQ result, the probability is so flakey it doesn't feel worth it in the end. Hopefully the upcoming adjustment will help this. In the meantime, I think the length of the minigame has turned people away from wanting to do it hundreds of times required to level up.

-Admitted lack of GM monitoring by SE while trying to rework the game. Doesn't help that in FFXI there wasn't a very strong presence either. I think people feel safe to get away with anything that can't be concretely undisputed in a chat log. Like using fowl language that someone reported offense to.

-Several players don't seem to value their character as much yet and don't feel particularly threatened by being banned.

-Popular notion that a mass banning of known botters would greatly impact the server populations and playerbase. A lot of people are comfortable and confident it just simply won't be done.

-Too much emphasis and importance placed on needing all classes leveled. You may not need to have subcrafts leveled anymore but there's still a strong disadvantage in the game in not having all the crafting classes brought up. For battle classes it's pretty much mandatory. Hopefully the upcoming adjustments and job system corrects this.

-Cumbersome GM call system even if you were bothered to try to report someone.

-Since it's become such a widespread practice, people considering it feel safe that botting in this game is not only safe, but also a wiser thing to do. No one wants to tattle on friends and linkshell members, especially if they benefit from having someone around to do one stop crafting for them.

Sorry for lack of articulation, in a rush out the door. Everyone is free to disagree with my points of course.

---

Nice post Kio.

Bot crafting is really bad on Trabia.

I don't post much, but I'll post some thoughts on this thread.

I don't think the point of this thread is to say everyone who crafts bots. Not everyone does, but the ones that do and get away with it should be punished.

Hopefully when they start the billing cycle, the people who bot in a more casual manner will either quit, or fear using a bot will get them banned for good.

I could go on and on about why I hate people who use bots in this game. And how I feel its like spitting in the face of the players who do things legit.

Instead, I'll just post some ideas on how to punish those that use bots.

I don't think they should be banned for good, it would probably reduce the population on some servers quite a bit. While this is sad, that would not be good for the game. (Like Kio mentioned in the post above.)

I think they should set up a system. If someone is caught using a bot, they are banned for a short amount of time. I won't pretend to have the perfect amount of time, I'd just leave that up to SE.

During this time, when you go to the players lodestone profile, it should list they have been banned, and what they were banned for.

Yes, I think it should be made public. It would be a very hard lesson for those who are caught, and I seriously doubt they would even consider it ever again.

Word would spread quick, and while not everyone would be aware of it, they might get removed from the linkshell they are in, and have to work hard to rebuild the reputation they had before.

The above is just an idea, and I'm sure others would just rather see someone caught using a bot banned for good.

I like to think, as much as the people who bot might pretend they don't care about the character they play, that they are just lying. I think they care, and more than others do. I think they camp pads and pro looking at their profile, looking at the jobs they have, and how close it makes them to being the highest ranked person on the server or whatever.

They want that, they want others to look at them and say, wow, you have so much accomplished, you are awesome, etc. It's just a shame they feel like they need to cheat to do so.

(No, I'm not saying everyone who camps pro and pads and various sites and looks at their profile bots. I know all about achievement hunters, if you want to call them that. I like to unlock achievements myself, maybe not as much as others though.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmeraldHill

You have to be in a questionable state of mind to level more than, generously, two crafts to 50.

Hell, people are discussing ways to do it in this very thread, that should be proof enough it's boring as sin and so very grindy. You can't even talk to people while you're crafting since the chat-box kicks you out after every animation.

So unless

you type like
this you are
not going
to be able
to talk to
your ls
mates.

---

That is incorrect. You can still chat with turbo mode on, Just hit space bar after it starts up, and it will pause till you have hit enter to finish your sentence.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nayt

Why would anyone make that change, just to avoid being thrown in jail?

It's not so much the fact that I can do it, as much as why should I have to?

What I want to say is, why is being non-responsive grounds for being accused of botting?

---

I know what you are getting at, but how else would they determine you are botting or not.

The only other choice is to do what WoW does and detect 3rd party software, this is much harder to do and generally doesn't work either as there is always ways for players to get round these kinds of systems.

Fact is botting will always exist as will RMT.

How about I turn this arguement on its head just for fun lol, how about a person who uses a bot and sits at his/her computer whilst it is running, is this any different that spamming enter, is this any different than using a controller with turbo stuck on ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheVedis

completely legal, until a gm tries to contact you after you get reported and you justr arent there to respond

---

I still watch my screen for tells and ls chat, when I use my turbo game pad. I only use it for locals, and each local is done in a few minutes. I use it mostly for saving my thumbs from getting numb spamming the same button over and over.

GM contacting me, haha. I wish I could get a hold of one, especially if I actually need something fixed. But you can wait hours at a time and never get a GM response...good luck with that.

Turbo also works well with the laggy UI, Instead of mashing the button over and over to pop off an ability or weapon skill, you just hold it down till it works; not so good for spells though.

The problem with responding to tells is my kid doesn't know how to type or respond to people in games, but they can hold the controller and craft. And quite honestly I would rather them not communicate with people on the internet, as they are still young and impressionable. And they enjoy playing the game "daddy" plays.

Also, I have 2 kids, so they take turns. can easily grind out an hour before they switch off.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nasomi

The problem with responding to tells is my kid doesn't know how to type or respond to people in games, but they can hold the controller and craft. And quite honestly I would rather them not communicate with people on the internet, as they are still young and impressionable. And they enjoy playing the game "daddy" plays.

Also, I have 2 kids, so they take turns. can easily grind out an hour before they switch off.

---

Ah, the new age of child labor...oops, I mean chores. :D It's good that you're turning them into final fantasy fans young. :)

This is what happens when you make a crappy craft system that no one wants to do it the intended way because of how bad the grind is.

I crafted for HOURS on end in ffxi, because I liked how it looked when a taru did synthesis. And I crafted for money. Crafting = money. leveling = adventure/murder/kill/explore, so it's always going to be more exciting. I hate what they did with crafting and want synthesis back.

OP was a bit vague but I assume he's referring specifically to crafting bots? And/or turbo controller users?

Excuse the long post, and look for the bold for the tl;dr.

AFK-crafting in FF14 is a symptom several major problems of the crafting system itself. I'll do my best to explain my opinions on the big ones, starting with:
1) Absurd time invesment requirements. Not only does it take a solid minute or so to complete one item and begin the next, the game demands your attention every 3 seconds like a nagging 4 year old. I always imagine the crafting system to be one of those really annoying jersey shore-types that use the words "bro" and "alpha" unironically.

"Hey bro, how you wanna go about this?"
>Standard
"Ok, good choice bro."
...
"So, what will it be this time?"
>Standard
...
"Yo bro, wh-"
>Standard

I believe a system such as this would be serviceable(not anywhere near ideal, mind you) were it not for the...
2) Terrible rate of progression. Now we're cooking with ass. The snail-like pace of the crafting process compounds the abysmal rate of experience points. There is a huge gap between the average and optimal experience point rates between combat classes and crafter classes, but they are are on the same leveling curve!

100,000 experience points may breeze by in an entertaining group activity for my conjurer, but I'll be lucky(or rather, masochistic) if I make that much in 6 hours of straight crafting, especially towards the higher end. My current strategy for getting a craft from 48-50 is saving up leves and mashing them out. And it takes about 50-60 or so to do it.

So we know about how slow the process is, but that wouldn't itself explain why so very many people are tapin' dat x button down on their controllers. Well, there's a few(or more) problems left to discuss, let's continue with...
3) Random occurrences mitigate player decision-making/skill. Ah yes, RNG. FF14's crafting system is completely full of random outcomes at every turn. Any skill not named perfection will only increase the chances of a favorable outcome. An element can still destabilize on a white orb, and an action can still get a no-durability lost success on a red orb. This is further exacerbated by a...

4) Lack of information. An avid crafter who has done hours of research on the vastness of the internet only has a smidgeon of an idea of how the mechanics of crafting work. How is a new player supposed to know what the hell control, craftsmanship, and magic craftsmanship effect? Why are recipe levels kept hidden from players? Not to mention hidden background statistics, most notably "risk." Were it not for skills such as high return, we'd not even know to call it that.

Throw all of the above together, and we reach the final, most damnable aspect of FF14's crafting system:
5) Broken Effort to Reward Ratio. This refers to how putting for the effort to make advancement is rewarded. In a healthy effort to reward ratio, a player who makes larger contributions of skill to the task at hand is awarded proportionately to the act. Think about 14's crafting system with this in mind. The player who invests time into trying to maximize the result of a crating attempt may, at best, hope for an additional 50 or experience points, and a scaling (but always sub-40%?) chance of an HQ product. Now factor the additional time required for this.

So! What does all that mean, and how does it relate to bots and turbo controllers? Ask yourself the following:

"Why should I pay attention to crafting for long, long hours at a time, when mashing on standard synthesis is nearly as effective, and can be done while I do other, more interesting things?"

Truly, a difficult question to answer. I'll leave you with one final thing to roll around in those heads of yours.

The only way to prevent botting is to not design content that encourages it!
A mindless, grindy crafting system will inevitably be "played" by a mindless bot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MANTASTIC

OP was a bit vague but I assume he's referring specifically to crafting bots? And/or turbo controller users?

Excuse the long post, and look for the bold for the tl;dr.

AFK-crafting in FF14 is a symptom several major problems of the crafting system itself. I'll do my best to explain my opinions on the big ones, starting with:
1) Absurd time invesment requirements. Not only does it take a solid minute or so to complete one item and begin the next, the game demands your attention every 3 seconds like a nagging 4 year old. I always imagine the crafting system to be one of those really annoying jersey shore-types that use the words "bro" and "alpha" unironically.

"Hey bro, how you wanna go about this?"
>Standard
"Ok, good choice bro."
...
"So, what will it be this time?"
>Standard
...
"Yo bro, wh-"
>Standard

I believe a system such as this would be serviceable(not anywhere near ideal, mind you) were it not for the...
2) Terrible rate of progression. Now we're cooking with ass. The snail-like pace of the crafting process compounds the abysmal rate of experience points. There is a huge gap between the average and optimal experience point rates between combat classes and crafter classes, but they are are on the same leveling curve!

100,000 experience points may breeze by in an entertaining group activity for my conjurer, but I'll be lucky(or rather, masochistic) if I make that much in 6 hours of straight crafting, especially towards the higher end. My current strategy for getting a craft from 48-50 is saving up leves and mashing them out. And it takes about 50-60 or so to do it.

So we know about how slow the process is, but that wouldn't itself explain why so very many people are tapin' dat x button down on their controllers. Well, there's a few(or more) problems left to discuss, let's continue with...
3) Random occurrences mitigate player decision-making/skill. Ah yes, RNG. FF14's crafting system is completely full of random outcomes at every turn. Any skill not named perfection will only increase the chances of a favorable outcome. An element can still destabilize on a white orb, and an action can still get a no-durability lost success on a red orb. This is further exacerbated by a...

4) Lack of information. An avid crafter who has done hours of research on the vastness of the internet only has a smidgeon of an idea of how the mechanics of crafting work. How is a new player supposed to know what the hell control, craftsmanship, and magic craftsmanship effect? Why are recipe levels kept hidden from players? Not to mention hidden background statistics, most notably "risk." Were it not for skills such as high return, we'd not even know to call it that.

Throw all of the above together, and we reach the final, most damnable aspect of FF14's crafting system:
5) Broken Effort to Reward Ratio. This refers to how putting for the effort to make advancement is rewarded. In a healthy effort to reward ratio, a player who makes larger contributions of skill to the task at hand is awarded proportionately to the act. Think about 14's crafting system with this in mind. The player who invests time into trying to maximize the result of a crating attempt may, at best, hope for an additional 50 or experience points, and a scaling (but always sub-40%?) chance of an HQ product. Now factor the additional time required for this.

So! What does all that mean, and how does it relate to bots and turbo controllers? Ask yourself the following:

"Why should I pay attention to crafting for long, long hours at a time, when mashing on standard synthesis is nearly as effective, and can be done while I do other, more interesting things?"

Truly, a difficult question to answer. I'll leave you with one final thing to roll around in those heads of yours.

The only way to prevent botting is to not design content that encourages it!
A mindless, grindy crafting system will inevitably be "played" by a mindless bot.

---

I'd sig this if it weren't so long.
You hit the nail on the head.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MANTASTIC

The only way to prevent botting is to not design content that encourages it!

---

I agree.

However, the player base asked SE for the crafting system to be re-designed from the NON-bot design it was previously to the PRO-bot design it currently is.

SE has only been, since day one of release, re-working all designs of the game to what the players have asked for.

It was not bot-friendly before - albeit, that also means it was not player-friendly either - players would have to push alot more buttons and think about their choices to craft before the current changes to the crafting were implemented because the players ASKED for them.

I have been watching everyone ask for these changes, laughing the whole time at them, because I knew they were asking for SE to make it so easy that botters would love it.

Now, they see its so easy for botters, and they are crying, like I knew they would.

Everytime i do some crafting, i get tempted..
While the Crafting changes (well more the addition of Materia really as the changes didn't do much at all imo) got the market moving.
It did nothing to improve how boring the grind is unfortunatly.

But i have seen a couple Bots recently, One was funny as I killed the mobs around it except the ones that lead it to Mobs that would kill it :D , Kinda fun but I've not seen it since I did that. :(
Point I need to report the 2 names i have..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vawn

Right at this moment I am crafting. Really, I am just hitting the 'A' button on my 360 pad, the game isn't even up on my screen (this website is). The sound is muted and I'm watching tv. If someone is talking to me, I guess I'm ignoring them. Am I botting? I don't think so, but I probably look like it.

I'm sorry, but this is what crafting is at the current time. I wish they would require me to devote more attention/interest in what I'm doing to level up, but until then, this seems to be the best method for the grind.

---

I agree entirely. This is all i do when leveling my crafts, and I find it rather depressing. I WANT to enjoy crafting, but they make it hard when it is so mindless and to get exp, all you need to do is press enter/select/x/a/etc and you succeed like 95-100% of the time.

Maybe if they made the crafting system more interesting, or added more challenges to make it challenging but not excessively drawn out, it might become a better system. :/ I originally liked the system due to it's originality in trying to require you to actually interact with the craft, but if I had to say in comparison to another game that did a similar thing, Everquest II did a better job.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crica

I agree.

However, the player base asked SE for the crafting system to be re-designed from the NON-bot design it was previously to the PRO-bot design it currently is.

SE has only been, since day one of release, re-working all designs of the game to what the players have asked for.

It was not bot-friendly before - albeit, that also means it was not player-friendly either - players would have to push alot more buttons and think about their choices to craft before the current changes to the crafting were implemented because the players ASKED for them.

---

To clarify, I'd rather have the current system than the slightly different one that came before it. I'd like, overall, for the barriers to entry of crafting be removed, and for there to be a fun/engaging way to advance it without mindless repetition. If that proves impossible to design, just make it an auto craft system like wow's, or like fallen earth/eve's* if they want the time requirement to remain.

*In those games, products are crafted in real time while the player does other things, and the crafting process continues when the player logs off.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jinko

a person who uses a bot and sits at his/her computer whilst it is running, is this any different that spamming enter, is this any different than using a controller with turbo stuck on ?

---

Nope - no difference at all.

In both cases, a machine is playing the game instead of the person.

Do I mind if a machine plays instead of a person?

As long as it doesn't affect my gaming.

Whatever floats your boat.

Your money, your time.