Eve Bots - are they a bad thing, is CCP complicit in their use?

Fair enough. So long as you were aware.

–Helpful Gadget

There are some RMTers and botters who are smart enough to go the extra mile (or AU) to avoid detection for a very long time. And it would have to involve some damn good moves to avoid detection and would most likely never share such secrets with their community for fear of spies lurking in the shadows waiting to report to CCP on the intel. That’s just my theory though.

I’m still waiting for the Dev post that CCP promised us back in October, and then again promised us in the New year post the CSM summit

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I find it funny that Your arguments can be applied to Your posts too.

In reality non of us have any information about matter. We only can use our logic and eyes. And if results of such process are different for two persons non of them has more credibility over other.

The theory is plausible.

I just find it strange that:

  • devs worked on weekend to ban these 1000 bots - don’t they have standard working week days for this stuff? It’s part of their job as i would think.
  • suddenly after years of silence they give some information and promise dev-blog. And this happens day or two after community outrage. Is it too much for them to post dev-blog “we’re still alive and killing stuff” once a year? Just imagine how many karma they would get every time they post that they banned so many bots?
  • bots were reported to CCP with some evidences many months ago. And some of them are still around. If it needs so long for CCP to investigate the case then why they don’t use external sources like player given evidences? Yes, they want to kill the whole RMT network but it’s not that every bot account serves different chain is it?

Yes, there can be many stories here. And everyone sees what he wants to see. And i believe that from PR standpoint it’s in CCPs best interest to have people see such stories in the most positive way. But for some reason they do nothing to achieve this.

The remedial, after the fact, intervention on bots isnt working.

Preventative models are to be considered.

My test, though labelled a bot-test, is infact a human-test.

Nobody can actively play EVE 23/7.
Its impossible.
Everyone needs 6-8hrs to sleep per day, per week, on average.
Most people need another 8hrs for work, ontop of that, so 16hrs afk.
Some botters bot all the time, whilst afk all the time.

The entire premise behind my proposal, is wrecking bots while the botter is afk due to sleeping, work, IRL or just not bothering to actively play EVE at all.

My proposal is built on the unequivocal reality of a human players life.
All must sleep, and most must work + IRL concerns.
I aim to cut out botting for those periods they are afk.

So far, the only (arguable) valid complaint against this, is that it would require 5-10s of solving a bot-test/hr.

That is an insignificant annoyance, compared to the benefit in wrecking bots.
5-10s/hr is nothing in EVE, or IRL.

I spend more time picking my nose and scratching my balls/ass than that per hour of playing EVE.


TLDR:
My proposal WONT cut out all bots by botters that run them while at their PC.
It WILL cut out those botters from running them whilst not at their PC (which in many cases will be the majority of their bot up-time).

I couldn’t let you walk past that while playing your flute.

Irrational minds be irrational.

Bots need to go to have healthy MMO experiences.

So you agree shutting down the servers is not a rational option.
Good.
Matter settled.

Back to topic then.

Address the rest of my post above.

I’ll address the rest of your idea: You’re the only person on the planet that thinks your idea isn’t retarded. Which isn’t surprising since you can’t even tell when someone is making fun of you.

I can’t believe you guys are keeping this thread going. I wouldn’t say you’re keeping it alive, because, well, you wouldn’t really call garbage alive. Maybe that’s what CCP has in mind. Keep the conversation about bots completely stupid so they don’t have to actually do anything, all the rage is focused in one spot and they can close any other threads that happen to be on the topic this thread is supposed to be on but isn’t. So yeah, after checking in on this thread once or twice a day, I’m prepared to say let the bots win.

Stopped reading right there. Im not the only one that sees their validity.
Especially since you deliberately ignored my questions addressed to you.

Bots arent run because the tasks are boring, as you claimed above.
Bots are run because they allow a player to earn resources whilst afk.

That, exactly, is what my proposal is aimed at, and which you still fail to understand.

Your idea is so retarded you can’t even tell the difference any more when more than 1 person is calling it retarded, you assume they are all the same person. Or maybe that’s just mental illness.

It doesn’t matter if your idea is aimed at a target if it hits you square in the balls. Stupid ideas are stupid.

Heh, the lowest form of trolling.

My idea is to stop 100% of botting 100% of the time, with absolutely no investment. My idea wins.

edit: and why the hell did you quote yourself? You didn’t give it context. The only reason I can think of is to appeal to yourself for authority, which is the worst logical fallacy multiplied by retarded.

Sure, a time online check might work if you’re limited to one account, however, there’s nothing stopping a script kiddie from timing the bot to log off after 8-12 hours and logging on another bot account in its place. As an added bonus the botlord can extract more sp from the additional toons to fund the additional bots required to defang a timer check. Botter requires no additional hardware as the number of accounts logged in at the same time remains consistent. End result, more bots, just taking shifts at the factory like good union employees instead of pulling all-nighters like upper-addled college students. Subscription numbers seem to have “tripled,” and CCP’s bottom line grows.

I actually don’t think the UI or player input is needed at all to find most bots as everything distills down to a series of network layer commands that are interpreted by the server cluster and a response sent back to the client.

Rather, bot activity has far more in common with a worm or virus than anything else and would have a relatively consistent send-receive signature that can be determined by an AI. The AI can be trained by observing known bots network communication data and recording the packet patterns and if needed trained against human activity with a Project Discovery type minigame where human users look at network patterns and flag for a bot if they are too regular. It would almost look like the solar graphs we’re working with now.

If there are too many false positives from players, then it’s time to review the gameplay system that looks way too much like a skinner box and that requires such robotic input in the first place. Get enough systems repaired to be less mechanical and botting decreases as a result.

Server overhead (we don’t want the entire game running like that keepstar fight), cost of a dedicated programmer, and possibly the cost of the license for the base AI system may be too prohibitive, but this is the direction anti-bot measures in general are progressing. It’ll eventually be obsoleted as the war between botters and people hunting bots continues but it’d be a start.

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Since your asking me instead of accusing me I did in fact suggest that. I will answer it.

It is the best choice for CCP to shut these servers down.
Its not the rational choice for those who spend everyday dependent in Eve the game for life supporting feedback. Do you know anyone who plays Eve that might describe? “But I have hoards of PLEX.” They’ll scream I want my money knowing damn well they never paid one cent for it. Corps,Alliances will demand a transfer of assets because reasons… or threaten but in the end they will feed their addictions.

Its the best choice because then they could put all their efforts into one goal. Eve2.0

Its the best choice because they won’t have to address the disparity between 15 year vets and newbros. Won’t be diluting the game.

Its the best choice for them to stop RMT,botting from the start. By that to learn and remove the aspects that cause the problems in the 1st place. The escalation solutions don’t work in long term.

Its the best choice because the current game has many issues with function at its foundation.

Its the best choice because they can restructure the financial side to something that yields consistent revenue.

Here’s why if they did choose to do so. Why it would work. They already have a population that will migrate to it. No marketing cost. No P R effort.

Sometimes a company just needs to call it a day and move on. The recent negative press has no doubt an effect not yet known. You will know soon enough by all the info they do offer.

You know damn well you would do it too. Ya you’d balk and stammer but in the end you’ll be there.

So that’s a big yes to shutting down these servers.

Make Eve great again and leave all the inherent burdens behind. Its called restructuring from the ground up. Many companies have and become more than before.
Can they do it? Idk
Will they do it? Not likely anytime soon.

I can say with certainty it won’t have Captchas.

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You know, I like your most recent pamphlet and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

So many choices these days, but some days you think “You know, Id like to just wipe this clean and start a fresh”.

There are too many eraser marks and old lines on the drawing pad that is EvE.

I’m sure it will, it just hasn’t yet. :slight_smile:


Do you ever feel like a suidae choir director?


Salvos, technically the topic is “Eve Bots - are they a bad thing, is CCP complicit in their use?” so actually your entire line of “how to fix bots with captchas” is “off topic.”

To be “on topic” it would have to be about them being good or bad, and if CCP is supporting them in some way; not how to fix them.

Also you really should/should’ve started your own thread about your catpcha idea. (This isn’t like the AFK cloaky thread, it’s not the only thread in which bots can be mentioned.)


Nope, dictionaries change when word meanings change, that is kind of the point.


Yep


Nope, once again, fixing bots is not the topic of this thread. To some degree, the question “do bots evolve?” Is more on the topic, as it can address both questions in the topic. If bots and devs are in coevolution like Teckos suggested then it directly addresses the second question.

Also, this still isn’t your thread.


Okay, so we only talk about “Eve Bots - are they a bad thing, is CCP complicit in their use?”


He didn’t say you had 400 posts, he said that 400 posts have been about your suggestion.


Yep, normally by analogy (which you said you weren’t doing) then when it becomes widespread, dictionaries change. Wiktionary, which is the most fluid and quickest changing of all dictionaries, doesn’t even support you.

[citation needed] There are almost 1 Billion English speakers in the world, how may of them are needed for “lots”?

No one ever claimed that.


Of course it does. :slight_smile: But it certainly doesn’t co-evolve. Bit it is important to note that language, unlike bots, is not always intentionally changed. (Eggcorns are cool.)


Yeah, I’m the triggered one, that’s why I attacked you for a compliment on another thread, and then threatened to kill you… no, that was you.


Of course understanding is the point, which is what I’m trying to reach. But, when I try to get what Teckos means, he keeps shifting his position. He says it’s not an analogy, and that he means it literally, but then when I apply it literally, he says that’s wrong. Also the point of this argument was about what the words mean.


Are you sure I’m not? I’ve only been fighting against pro-botting positions. This started when he said we can’t do anything against the cheap scripted bots, because then we will have super bots at some unknown time in the future.


Glad to see you were listening. :wink:

Cba anymore.
I’m out.

A scientist friend of mine once explained to me that the minimum amount of sleep that someone physically needs, from a medical perspective, is four hours. If you get less than this, on a consistent basis, the human body simply doesn’t have enough time for cellular repair and the body’s organs and systems will begin to fail. Having said this, the advice from most scientists is that the human body needs seven to nine hours sleep a night (1).

The reason that I’m writing this here as a response is because if we (and by this I mean CCP and ourselves as players) want to take a responsible attitude to gameplay then the maximum norm that we should regard as acceptable is 17 hours gameplay per day, or possibly 20 if you really want to push it to the limit.

Maybe after 17 hours gameplay, a message should appear on the screen (in a randomised location) indicating the number of hours that you’ve played and suggesting that you might like to take a break. This message could also trigger a flag (maybe orange) to alert CCP to the fact that you’ve played the game for quite a long time. You could have the same kind of thing at 20 hours gameplay (a slightly more persistent message and a red flag to CCP).

These steps might make it easier for CCP to track down persistent 'bot users and also help to avoid situations where players might kill themselves with a lack of sleep. (2)

References
1. National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations
http://www.sleephealthjournal.org/article/S2352-7218(15)00015-7/pdf
How many hours of sleep do you actually need?
https://www.popsci.com/how-many-hours-sleep-do-you-actually-need

2. Tragic teen gamer dies after playing computer for 22 days in a row
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/tragic-teen-gamer-dies-after-6373887
Man dies in Taiwan after 3-day online gaming binge
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/taiwan-gamer-death/index.html

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I could imagine that ex-EA parasite that they took on board is doing a fine job of ■■■■■■■ everything up internally. Just wait for loot boxes and santa crates to start appearing in game.