I heard botting is a “problem” in this game. Even though it’s technically a crime to kill people in high-sec, I would like to do a public service and erase a few bot fleets if I’m able.
I’m sure this is going to be violent, costly, and - not to mention - a legal nightmare. I just have a few questions before I get started:
How expensive does it need to be? I need a typical “ganking” ship, but I have never suicide ganked before. I’m sure there is already a cheap ship I can buy in bulk and quickly re-fit after each CONCORD punishment. Anyone have experience with this?
I want to recover their materials if possible, so what ships do I need on standby to salvage their crap (*in the interest of reducing overall personal cost).
Have you guys ever seen a fleet of botted miners before? If so, where did you see them? What were they in? How many were there?
Maybe this has already been done? Is anyone else into this idea?
To get you started, I would start with these two resources:
A few things in the second guide maybe a little out of date, but Gevlon did a thorough job min-maxing things at the time.
The real problem you are going to face is that CCP kept buffing mining ships to the point a single ganker is limited to only the least tanky ships, and even then only in the lowest security systems of highsec. Feel free to start a ganking alt and see if you like it, but you should consider that you will eventually want to start multiboxing them if you are going to hunt bots everywhere. The good news is that a near perfect Catalyst pilot is only a couple months of training so you can use Skill Extractors to run extra accounts for free.
As for cost, if you solo or dual gank successfully a barge or exhumer and successfully loot your ships and that of the target, you will break even on the action, or at worst lose a couple million ISK. That means you need yet another account for a looter, which can double as a neutral scout, so that is another cost (although you can also sell off the SP to pay for most of it). That said, there is a SRP/bounty offered by James 315 to cover ships lost in highsec actions so if ISK is a problem, you can still fight the botters.
The major cost though is going to be your time. Scouting targets and moving gank ships to where you need them as your criminal alts are extremely limited in what they can do once they are declared outlaws. But as meaningful gameplay hunting bots and their cousins the bot-aspirants can give purpose to your game.
Considering that you asked this question this way on the forums instead of checking the killboards for ganking ships first, which indicates extremely limited knowledge and willingness to learn things yourself first, allow me to ask: How do you want to figure out what is a bot and what is not?
Furthermore, considering the monthly economic data I think it would be more fruitful if you hunted mining bots in Null sec. But that is probably too dangerous for you, right?
The miner bots are in null sec near drone regions but if you enter local they immediately warp away so the only way to kill them is to land next to them and do a logoffski and wait a moment for them to start flying back to grid and then log back in while in they in warp and pop away :]
You can visit any icebelt in highsec to see botters in action.
I commend you on your passion. Join James 315’s crusade at minerbumping.com - we’ve been training Agents and Knights since 2012. If you go back to the oldest post and read them all, you’ll have an excellent understanding of both The Code and how to enforce it.
Hey man, thanks for the smartass reply. I ask after looking at killboards, because I do not understand the graphs there, or how to make a fitting from it.
Hello OP. This is a fabulous idea to start ganking the bots. Not only is it a lot of fun, you also help the game at large.
The sources Black Pedro linked are a very good place to start. I would also recommand the following reading for a complete analysis about CONCORD response times http://blog.beyondreality.se/TTK-CONCORD
Then it is always helpful to have some tool like PyFa around so if you scan the target ships you can easily calculate the damage needed to kill them and to also calculate the damage you can do in the time until CONCORD responds.
Also join the in-game channel “minerbumping” and just ask for advice if you have any questions at all or if something is unclear. There is always someone on which will be able to help you get started.
As for bot detection:
This is the very reason why bot-aspirant behaviour is illegal under the Code. A miner should make sure it is absolutely clear that he is not a bot. It is the miners duty to inform the patrolling New Order Agent that he is a human player by interacting with him and other players in a welcoming and friendly way in local.
So if in doubt just kill the miner and let him know why so he can improve his behaviour and stop helping to hide real bots with his reckless behaviour.
Is that so? And why do I see alt farms of Ice miners in Halaima and Kamio, go about their business uninterrupted in Skiffs when CODE really likes to gank empty freighters at the same time?
Yes, it is often the case that situations like this are highly confusing for the common miner. As I’m not aware of the actual situation in the mentioned system I recommend to ask the local New Order Agent and follow his advice. Did you try to bump them?
I bump these particular bot miners every single day. That’s about all you can do unless you’ve got a 200 ship gank fleet handy that I can borrow. This one guy has an Orca, freighter, and 14 Skiffs, all very well tanked. I just bump him in my Mach until he finally gives up and moves on.
Yeah I’ll have to contact one of them and see what I can do. I’d gladly reimburse them for any losses just as long as they put an end to his operation.
They can continue to do it for free all they want, just like they always have. However, in this particular case, I feel a reward is justified. My only stipulation is that I get to be in on the killmails.
Train free to play alts to battleships Plex then all add smartbombs nuke the bots with smartbombs, hit -10, skill extract to 0 sell the injectors or restart the process for training new free to play alts… Rinse recycle and repeat
but if you enter local they immediately warp away so the only way to kill them is to land next to them and do a logoffski and wait a moment for them to start flying back to grid and then log back in while in they in warp and pop away :]
And why do I see alt farms of Ice miners in Halaima and Kamio, go about their business uninterrupted in Skiffs when CODE really likes to gank empty freighters at the same time? 