Regarding Firmament Titles For 5.3

[Miminming]

People had figured out how to macro the expert crafts back in the first season. If they can be macroed, a bot can be made. Could they get max points? No I really don't think so at that time, and I highly doubt it was efficient out of the gate to try and get Top 12 that way. But even if you can't get the max you can just run non-stop and get 500k in all crafts for the mount.

Could they get in the Top 12 this go around - probably at least some because I'm sure the botting programs have been optimized. Unless they change the mechanics of expert crafting, all the bots have to do is get any new equipment and max out stats needed. Did DOH bots get Top 12 back in Season 1? I don't know. On my server and craft I was going for - the people I was actively competing against I saw them in the Firmament on and off working and they didn't appear to be botting to me. Again, I can't speak to all the crafts or all servers, but from what I saw at that time is people slogging out the crafting and not doing much else until the season ended.

the macro for expert in season is extremely unefficient, like i said a bot that runninf ir 24 hour can be beaten easily by 2-3 hour of crafting per day even one, there's a number of bot that doing 24 hour not expert repice (or i think they are bot) but their point doesn't even scratch the top 12, oh okay i forgot i play in jp server with a more honest community, dunno how it is in the west, but unless there's some super efficient bot that' hidden out there jp people believe that all top crafter atm is real people, because of the point calculation.

500k mount with bot farming do suck, bit is irrevelant to the ranking.

[Arillyn]

the macro for expert in season is extremely unefficient, like i said a bot that runninf ir 24 hour can be beaten easily by 2-3 hour of crafting per day even one, there's a number of bot that doing 24 hour not expert repice (or i think they are bot) but their point doesn't even scratch the top 12, oh okay i forgot i play in jp server with a more honest community, dunno how it is in the west, but unless there's some super efficient bot that' hidden out there jp people believe that all top crafter atm is real people, because of the point calculation.

500k mount with bot farming do suck, bit is irrevelant to the ranking.

I agree 500k mount bot farming is irrelevant to the ranking. But the person I was originally agreeing with on that was talking about the mount specifically, not the Top 12.

As for the macros, yes they are inefficient for ranking in Top 12. I did all mine manually because I could consistently get max or near max points (except when RNG just hosed me and then I would just start over). As for the bots themselves I can't say as I don't use them nor even look them up. No idea if they are efficient (I would say no they aren't, but again a bot can run non-stop and real players have to do things like take breaks to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, work, etc).

I didn't assume anyone who placed higher than me was a bot. Like I said, I saw my competition on the regular crafting away like me. I don't think anyone I was in competition with was a bot. But crafting bots DO exist and since the expert crafts can be macroed (even though I don't think it could be nearly as efficient as manually crafting the experts) then bots most certainly can be made for them. And since it is highly unlikely that anything about the expert crafting is changing except for the recipes and maybe the stats to do them, bots will most likely be ready from day one of the new season. Will they be as efficient as doing the crafts manually? Probably not. But if you can do them 24 hours for 10 days I would expect some botters in the Top 12 this go around.

As for JP servers being honest - yes, I'm sure no one on the JP servers ever bots anything... Could it be more prevalent on the NA/EU servers? Most likely the answer is absolutely because if it was as bad on the JP servers then SE would actually do something about it.

[Jojoya]

the macro for expert in season is extremely unefficient, like i said a bot that runninf ir 24 hour can be beaten easily by 2-3 hour of crafting per day even one, there's a number of bot that doing 24 hour not expert repice (or i think they are bot) but their point doesn't even scratch the top 12, oh okay i forgot i play in jp server with a more honest community, dunno how it is in the west, but unless there's some super efficient bot that' hidden out there jp people believe that all top crafter atm is real people, because of the point calculation.

500k mount with bot farming do suck, bit is irrevelant to the ranking.

The real point is that a bot shouldn't be left free to do it at all, not about how efficient they are compared to a real player.

Other players have no way of knowing whether a player accomplished it through their own effort or using a bot. Many players decide if something is too difficult or requires too much effort for them to get the reward, then anyone who has the reward is automatically assumed to be a bot.

I know I put in the effort on my own to get my Saint title, which really wasn't all that much since there had been relatively little competition on my server for the class I was using. That didn't stop the snide comments I got on a few occasions from random players about being a botter because I was wearing my Saint title. Once I earned my Hammer title a couple of weeks later, I switched to it and stopped getting the comments. Would the comments start again if I switched back to Saint when 5.31 is released? Knowing how salty people get when others have things they can't get, probably.

If SE would have done something about the bots and ban the accounts who got their rewards via botting, players wouldn't be upset enough to make those comments.

[Liam_Harper]

the macro for expert in season is extremely unefficient, like i said a bot that runninf ir 24 hour can be beaten easily by 2-3 hour of crafting per day even one

This isn't a macro. As I posted earlier, they have a figured a Crafting Solver algorithm for Expert Crafts. This actually exists and according to their posts it works, it's not that hard to find (took me less than 60 sec on google). It also seems very few report getting bans.

It's naive to think that out of tens of thousands of players per server, there won't be 12 people who will find this and take the risk free easy shortcut. It's almost suspicious how defensive you are towards this to be honest... I know if I was a botter I'd like to draw attention away from the possibility it exists.

I'm actually quite sure Season 1 was mostly legit players. I saw a lot of fellow crafters on those top spots and had no issue hitting top 12 legit myself, but Season 2 they know the core mechanics and they've had all the time to prepare. It will very likely be a different story unless something is done.