I ask this to the community, as I sit here and think about Eve, Players both Alphas and Omegas: Can a bot or bot program be beat?
I have absolutely no knowledge of the depth or complexity of botting programs. Some people said remove drone aggro… would that actually work? another person said add statsis towers or sleeper AI. Would that work? Do bots not go after sleeper sites ?
what if Corps and Alliance or regions could only hold so many people ? the more mining /anom bots you have the less real people you have to defend your space?
This kills the breacher pilot.
Nah, the unethical part is that they accept cash for alpha injectors then deactivate certain paid for skills without any compensation. Not really that hard to grasp, is it?
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Stasis towers would allow the rats to hit the sig tanking ships at or near full strength. Sleeper AI eats drones, i mean hates them. So yes, either of these options or both would stop afk and bot drone ratting.
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I LOOOOOOOVE The VNI changes. I never loved the Old VNI (too pricey and paper thin to have utility outside of PVE kiting) and I never had much respect for Old VNI ratters (or botters for that matter) using the ship as a way to punch way above their weight at a low cost and skill (and then still complain when they pop at the hands of rats or PVPers). The New VNI is one I see myself using heavily and encouraging its use. I can appreciate how it remains useful in PVE and finally finds a good place in PVP (emphasis on the word ‘good’)
It’s kind of sad, though, that the primary (only?) justification on nerfing Alpha drone skills is to counter botters (I mean, this isn’t going to hurt those flying Supers and Rorqs now is it?). Usually when I read CCP’s posts on botting I read about botters employing Omega accounts, so my question is - how common, and how much revenue is generated, by botters using Alpha accounts?
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As a pretty new alpha person, who’s only really skilled into drones as far as weapons go and whose favorite ship to fly is the VNI I’m seriously afraid of the nerf hammer…
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I love the VNI change and can’t wait to try it out in fw space!
First the blackout, now a great buff for the VNI. A great summer for CCP, seems to finally be on the right track back to a harsher EvE.
omg , this changes will make vni useless trash , same as exequror navy issue. So, domi-afk still be available for alphas and botters . let me say from my heart - NO, I will not use this trashboat nor for pve , nor for pvp (lol , just check killboard , is it even using as offensive ship? how much % of vni kills are crab? 90% ? 95%?) “This new version of the VNI will enjoy great damage application, powerful active armor defenses, and high dps if its pilot makes use of both turrets and drones.” no, thank you, after nerf just throw this castrate to trash bin, next to myrmidon and proteus.
After, what you will nerf next - dominixes and Ishtars bandwith? well it was 3 ships ingame capable of using 5 heavy drones, and you going to kill one. or maybe nerf the drones ?
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I don’t like the change of Alphas losing T2 medium drones, as that means they’ll need to rely on Navy mediums to keep their output, but Navy mediums are often inferior in damage output and defense, - by a small amount, to be fair - but are more expensive than the T2 drones.
Integrated drones, on the other hand, are just as expensive, if not a little less than T2s by demand, but are far more uncommon as few to none make them when Augmented drones exist, and thus the price is going to skyrocket.
That’s not a good thing for the Alphas, which had a stable supply or access to - relatively - inexpensive T2 equipment that is dependable, but not as flexible as Navy or Integrated options. Now they have no choice and must pick the more expensive and inherently inferior drones - in regards to drone specialisation so spent - and now cannot and do not have recourse. Their skills for T2 medium drones are useless, they have to buy more expensive but less specialised and efficient drones, and this is done long after the release of the new Alpha specs.
I realise the intent was to make botting far more expensive a venture, but it’s even more expensive to the average Alpha that doesn’t multibox, and has only one ship to control at any time. They needed that T2 medium drone to stay competitive with Omega PvPers, but that option is now gone.
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I was under impression that botters were more into Gilas, at least after reading that KWG story, and while it does nerf Gila, it’s kinda… subtle?
Ah, well, that’s the usual CCP. Do one part of the job, fail the other. Bah, why do I even care, it’s not like you can undock a pve subcap in nullsec at the moment anyway…
Both good ideas - In that spirit, I would like to say that EvE PVE generally is completely boring and unchallenging which is the very reason why it’s so easy to bot.
As stated before, the best thing is to remake PVE in a way that you actually don’t want to cut your own wrists after doing it for 5 minutes.
But I understand that just nerfing the ratting boat of the month in a very special way is an easier and more lucrative solution from CCPs point of view.
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I have very few reasons to log in except pings for fleets. The only pve thing I enjoyed was VNI ratting, I have been experimenting with fits for years, it was my hobby. Now it’s gone.
Thanks CCP
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Yeh KWG used lots gilas, but most were using vnis still because they are cheaper, from what i know even most gila bots switched to vnis after the last gila nerf.
That nerf didn’t even touch pve because drones weren’t getting any damage anyway, why would they?
most botting programs aren’t watching drone damage, and every now and then npc still shoot them. Its just less work. But also the fitting evolved, in the last year vnis shifted from 100mn to 10mn in general, they got far more agile and less got killed by a lucky incident. Before the gila had its huge tank which preserved them of lots of AF hunters which is basically a similiar safe function.
That is exactly my point. I subscribe for one omega account, but deliberately chose to have additional alphas to enjoy the game in a more varied manner. When I have had a bit of spare cash, I have spent it on alpha injectors.
CCP decided to introduce alphas, with no commitment necessary to convert to omega. Their decision, they have to live with the consequences.
CCP then decided to make money from alphas by introducing alpha injectors. Their decision, they have to live with the consequences.
What is not acceptable is to then renege on the reasons why people spent real money to buy those skill injectors.
This is made worse by all the omega accounts which meantime are not paid for by subscription, but by ISK for plex. So CCP’s model seems to be one that punishes people who actually pay them real money, whilst rewarding as “proper, paying customers” people who just play the game so much and so relentlessly that they can use ingame currency, rather than actual currency, to pay for it.
Madness, deceitful madness.
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i actually assume that ccp will put these skillpoints into unallocated if its an alpha account, since they have done this before also.
but i have to ask, you are aware you can buy alpha injectors in the market via isk or? I mean claiming that you put real money into it is kinda a joke, since omega which switch to alpha at some point also just lose a lot of skills basically.
I think the players who spent real cash on alpha injectors would all be fine with these changes if those deactivated skill points would be made available again to be spent on different specializations.
It’s actually such an easy and obvious solution that I am at a loss why CCP as a serious business would not do that right away and prevent all this complaining from the start.
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Great changes on the VNI, long overdue. Odds are it will now be, Ishtars online in anomolies, but at least hunters will find juicier targets.
No real opinion on the Alpha drone skills, but anything the wacks professional botters is good in my book.
Now, fix local!
Big Fat Bird wrote:
I am at a loss why CCP as a serious business would not do that right away and prevent all this complaining from the start.
It’s the CCP way. I’ve got POS skills festering in my brain that I can’t use and I have yet to see any indication of when they may finally be returned.
Get used to it.
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