[EXPLOIT] gathering bots plague game
World: Leviathan (but no doubt ALL worlds)
Zone: Any zone where non-aggressive monsters do not guard gathering nodes
When: Every day
What: While I no longer see the mysterious gathering graphical effects from gathering nodes that I used to, indicating that a gathering bot was operating from a non-visible point of view to gather nodes... NOW I see bots running on a program that allows them to path from each and every single gathering node that can potentially yield an item.
Over the past few weeks, I have seen repeat offenders running on a sort of track system, where they move from potential node spawn point to potential node spawn point, scanning it for a possible gather. If they don't detect a gather, they pause briefly then move to next position. If that position offers a potential yield, they stop and gather. Then the cycle is repeated. I am seeing an increase in players using these exploit programs on our server.
In one case, the player is also using a speed exploit to move faster. They are not activating Sprint, they are regularly moving around the terrain at a Sprint speed without activating the buff. This is Ahri Ro of <<Core>>>.
So far the repeat offenders I am seeing are:
Mintina Roselina
Ahri Ro <<Core>>
Keldinala U'mara <<ReQM>>
EDIT: Ahri Ro is moving at MOUNT speed, not Sprint speed. I swapped to bard and used speed ballad, and Ahri moved faster than I did while on foot.