Faction Warfare in 2021

He only does small and mediums O-plexing with that ship.

I just double-checked and only found ‘report ISK spammer’ button. Can you screenshot it maybe? In case I don’t see due to being in alpha state or smth.

There should be ways to automate the investigation, at least partially. Obviously the button shouldn’t get people banned right away. Bots follow patterns - they don’t make decisions. So maybe the refresh rate of their dscan, the amount of time between the moment the received dscan results and ‘decided’ to warp out - stuff like that should give them away. Hell, in FPS games players’ clients literally spy on their masters - why eve can’t?

The point is to seize their assets before they cash out. If the bots could be banned fast enough it wouldn’t be worth the effort to create new ones.

A couple things here. The first is I refresh my Dscan regularly at a short interval and I am not a bot. It has become a habit, and I think it would be easier for a bot to randomize the dscan interval to a certain degree than for me to change my dscanning habit. The other is most people playing FPS games aren’t trying to run multiple clients so an increase in resources for every single open client would stack quite quickly.

But your dscan habit is still more irregular than any randomized algorithm - maybe it’s not enough to tell a bot from a person by itself, but it’s a tick in the checklist. You do rely on your eyesight to analyze dscan results. And you need a brief moment to figure out there’s an incoming threat. And every single game client a botter runs might be able to figure out the input it receives is not manual.

Ok, but if that causes problems for players who are playing the game and following the rules it shouldn’t be implemented. Also, how would the client know the difference between a manual input and an automated input?

This is kind of what I’m talking about. I have no interest in CCP trying to add bot detection that makes it even more difficult on my computer to multibox.

That’s why I was suggesting it should depend on the report button. A player gets reported - the software starts tracking them. Tracking every single toon online passively would be too hard on resources. Passively logging client’s detailed daily activity probably wouldn’t be too hard though.

Honestly I don’t know. For multiboxing botters the timings might hint at this - if multiple clients from the same ip are receiving input below a certain delay between them - that’s suspicious. I’m not sure if it’s possible for any legit software to figure out whether they’re actually clicking anything.
There’s also behavioral patterns that might give away bots. If a living multiboxer is running a fleet op, at least one of his toons would probably socialize with other players - if they do, that hints they’re a person. Various irregularities also hint the player’s alive - like you occasinally open ship browser to check some ships’ specs, browse the market, take a look at your assets somewhere, read people’s stupid bios and so on. So if a toon’s activity lacks those irregularities - that’s another sign. Also no living person would ever run their op 24/7 without taking a bio-break every now and then - but that’s kind of a long-term investigation. But if that kind of activity can be found in logs - that’s a big sign it is a bot.

Multiboxing shouldnt exist in the first place and is part of the problem.
I see no downsides here

Good look single-shoveling that belt without links. Or do you really think 10 actual people would bother manually piloting their retrievers?

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I dont see the issue
10 man fleet with 10 real people.
1 Orca, 9 Barges

Been there. Done that. Nothing special.

The statement you made is actualy a good point.
When actualy playing the game with friends has become something that is best done alone and multiboxing is the new normal, it futher drives home my point. Multiboxing needs to go.

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No, these are two separate issues. Multiboxing is something that CCP encourages with specific sales and the like. Multiboxing effectively in actual combat is difficult and doesn’t need a nerf. How else am I supposed to compete when I am fighting people who just have more characters than I do? Either create more alts or find people and I can trust my own alts a lot more than other people. Botting on the other hand is very harmful to the game.

That would get abused so much by players. . .

I love to play with friends. Most of us double or triple box. Why? Because having an extra ceptor, combat prober, backpack is super helpful when you are trying to fight someone that has more players than you.

I see your point - certainly a fair one. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong in splitting monotonous activities that barely require any cognition (like mining) between several semi-afk windows, as long as a living player is responsible for their safety. And I’m sure that does lower the prices on pretty much everything on market. I wouldn’t want all the prices to go sky-high. And a lot of people think the same way, so don’t get your hopes high about multiboxing going anytime soon - it is well established as a legit feature of the game. Even pvp with alts - certainly it can’t be called solo, but it’s another playstyle requiring specific skills - and being good at it deserves respect as well.

What’s the point? I don’t think analyzing character’s behaviour would give their client seizures, unless it’s an especially severe case of poor coding, of course. And once the bot-hunting software gets enough signs it’s a player - they’re green, nothing is lost, no profits for the ones abusing it.
Yes, I understand, that we’re discussing a wildly theoretical thing here, and if it was implemented for real, there would first be complications, mistakes and misuses. But isn’t that true for pretty much any new feature?

Ummm…
You just described my entire experience so far.
I can’t tell yet what’s blinged up and just go into nervous breakdown mode trying to not hit all the wrong buttons.
I think I need to try PvP on horse tranquilizers…

Ok, anyway, why aren’t there anti-bot fleets out patrolling or something?
Everyone but me seems to be able to spot them, so how hard could it be to get rid of them?

EDIT: same with farmers I guess, what if they didn’t have any place to run? What are they going to do, sit at a safe spot forever waiting?

Actually now that I think of it this was explained to me a while ago and I forgot.
Lvwc told me that it worked for a while and then fell apart for some reason…
I should look that up, it’s got to be fixable.

Firstly, fly a simple t1 frigate fit, something like a 400 plate Rifter. 4 buttons, guns, ab, Web, scram. The less things you have to do the easier it will be to hit the right ones.

Next, sit in a novice plex in a quiet-ish system, you want visitors, but you also need to be able to see them on d-scan.

D-scan. Run away from everything you don’t recognise as another t1 frigate, if you are not sure run away and check. Learn if they can even get in the novice plex.

Overheat everything, learn how long before things melt. Hint: prop mods melt very quickly.

Always aim to fight at the correct range for your fit and the worst range for their fit. Check fits on zkillboard after every fight.

If they don’t have you pointed or scrammed - run away.

Fly cheap, your going to loose your ship while you learn anyway.

Practice getting your pod out - everytime - even if it is empty.

Put GF in local and get another ship.

Don’t worry about running away from fights with stronger ships. Anyone trying to fight a rifter in a faction frigate is just after easy kills.

Lastly: don’t enter the medium plex, ever, it’s always a trap.

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My Curse says you are lying !!!

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nice to see you remember my little excursion into the realms of internet spaceship politics.

Currently Gallente are getting steamrolled because the bots and farmers have switched sides.
In a few months maybe a year the tide will turn. Issue is that the tide is being turned by farmers and bots rather than people actively and actualy engaging in Faction Warfare.

There are a few us Calmil roaming around, “stealing” LP from Cal Farmers and bots to make it less lucrative but its really a drop of water in a sea of :poop:

We cannot depend on CCP to combat the botting pandemic more effectively. They have (largely not always) failed the community in the past and will continue to do so regarding the botting issues.

You are right we need to take matters into our hands but as I explained it is not as easy as it first seems.
So another possibility is to reshape the mechanics to make life hell for botters and farmers. Even if it means that certain playstyles and fits which were optimized for “Plex Combat” get thrown under the bus and the meta is reshaped. If the meta is reshaped so that cheap fits or kiters no longer work it is a sacrifice I am personally willing to make if it means I take the scum that infests EVE and especially the FW playstyle down with me.

Before anyone cries wolf.
Check my KB.
I don’t bling.

This little conversation I had in Militia Chat sums up my attidude. No matter how radical it might be.
I WANT to see these people purged no matter the costs :

3AMCAL > Luwc stealing is bad and there is no excuse for it. any action is a contribution to overall success. you’re in the game in 2008 and so stupid that you don’t understand.
3AMCAL > Luwc Hope the stolen LPs get stuck in your filthy throat
Luwc > I rather be in tier 1 for the rest of my existence than to see a dirty risk averse farmer or even worse bot make a single isk

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People are after content. Go ahead and try hunting farmers - it might be amusing at first if you’re lucky but at the end of the day it’s just like chasing flies around the kitchen. There’s not much social competitive interaction about that. Even more so with bots. So noone just wants to bother. Especially when…

Exactly that. Bots are way better than people at being afk.

First this approach in going to make life hell for actual people. It is like burning your whole house down when it’s infested by cockroaches. The little bastards burn (at least those who didn’t make it in time to your neigbour’s) - but hey, where ya gonna live now?
And what makes you think the botters won’t adapt to the new meta? Probably a lot faster than players.
That would mean that human resources invested in this whole-meta reshape thing are just wasted and the only goal that’s been accomplished is to piss off active players. If we’re talking about ‘how to end the misery of EVE Online and make it finally go down in a blaze of glory’ then yea, your strategy of game changes is definetely a viable one. The shitstorm it’s gonna cause is going to be glorious.

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Rixx Javix has a roadmap for fixing FW.

Having the timer reset when you warp out is part of that plan. This would basically dunk the entire strategy of botters.

Is there a larger or less compressed version of that?
I would love to see it if there is, it looks like jpeg’d eggs to me…