For the past couple of weeks I have been streaming distribution mission bots. I believe over that course of time I have got 3 fleets banned. Yesterday I got two fleets banned. Now obviously one of the fleets came back and I am currently streaming it. This time however I did things a little different.
Level 1 distribution missions are run out of Fovihi (derelik)
Level 2 missions run out of Agha (derelik)
Level 3 missions run out of Tanoo (derelik)
Level 4 missions run out of Illinfrik (Heimatar)
The station is Trust Partners Trading Post, Thukker tribe. Probably going for nomad implants.
I am currently streaming a fleet of 1 day old character running level 4 missions.
I am sure there are similar setups across the universe. However I live in the Derelik system so this is the one I care about.
Anyway it took me a whole few days of research to figure out the bot makers MO. So as a dev, how hard would it be to check these four systems once a day to see if the bot fleet returned?
Obviously they are not trying to hunt down the guy running the bots, either because they can’t or don’t have the time to. Either way the fact that the bot maker remakes the bot fleet less than a day after it getting banned means CCP can’t or won’t stop it. If it is won’t shame on them, if it is can’t then why not do as I stated above and check the system once a day? Is that literally 30 seconds of work?
I as a player have done most of the work for them. There are others who have done the same. We get it, you can’t stop the guy running the fleets, but what you CAN do is 30 seconds of work and ban the fleets when they come back. I am sure you can ban the fleets faster than the bot maker can remake them. After a while they just might give up if they never make any isk. And if a guy is running a 20 man bot fleet it is probably RMT and not just one guy trying to plex an account.
I am literally streaming them on twitch, they are not hard to find. They don’t hide what they are doing. If CCP has given up on trying to stop them could you please let us know so we can stop caring about the game? If the company running the game has stopped caring I would like to stop caring too.
Quick update. I started streaming the current bot fleet last night around this time and have streamed the fleet in action for almost 24 hours straight now. They are still going strong. So if I can stream a fleet botting for 24 hours straight with no action taken, how effective do you think your in game bot reports are? I think it is official, CCP does not care about bots. And or they cannot stop them. Or both. Either way I think this is the end of eve online. The amount of time and effort needed to get one fleet of distribution bots banned is Herculean in nature. So the bots will win. Ya they might get banned after ten, twenty, or thirty days, but the damage has been done. The market has been impacted, the RMT has been done, and you who is trying to play the game honestly is screwed.
Maybe this is not the game for me anymore? Maybe it is not the game you anymore? I don’t know.
An by “these guys” you mean CCP, right? Because their absence from these threads and lack of communication about what is being done on a day to day basis is just downright horrendous.
I cannot think of a single more important issue, than getting rid of botting right now. The problem has become so widespread that it will start to force ordinary players to either bot themselves or gtfo.
You do understand that this has been the status quo for 15 years, and eve is still going strong, right? I appreciate your efforts, but nothing about this situation is unusual. Being mad about bots is the flavor of the month on social media, but that doesn’t mean that botting has gotten any worse. It has always been an issue, and CCP has always been either unwilling or unable to deal with it.
True, I am just making the fact they are unwilling or unable to deal with it more public. Maybe making it public is what propels CCP to take action, or the player base finally has had enough smoke blown up their collective asses and say goodbye. Which in turn makes CCP do something about it due to revenue loss. But if you have a better solution than what I am doing please let us know.
I am streaming the low hanging fruit of the botting world, if they can’t stop this, well then I don’t see a bright future for them stopping anything.
CCP security is unlikely to be flipping through Twitch streams labeled “bot” or whatever - they want players to use the Report Bot function. But I think expecting them to detect and ban someone in 24 hours is a bit over-optimistic.
We’re getting monthly updates from Team Security about thousands of bot bans, so we can’t say they don’t care. Keep watching and reporting tho, its all good
I got a fleet (most likely same guy running it) banned about 12 hours before the new one appeared. I thought it was very obvious it was the same guy that came back. Pretty much the same everything. I thought it was an easy ban. I even sent in a ticket telling them what stations they would progress to as they got more standings. And sure as shite they did. Like I said this is low hanging fruit. If they can’t stop this they are not trying. Banning 20 obvious bots at a time would sure pad their ban stats.
I’ve seen bots for 12 years in all shapes and sizes. CCP makes it clear it is a violation of the EULA. And a lot of times I have seen these bots vanish. Sometimes even a single player botting, with a ton of XP and ISK has been banned for using a few automatic macros.
I think now that the game ownership has changed, the new owners need to get income in whatever shape or form. Allowing (not bothering about) botters is a source of income.
By mid 2019 over half of the player base will be botters, and you just need to adapt. Find a new goal or a different way to play. You are not the EVE police, so don’t worry about it.
If what your saying is even remotely close to the truth, this game is stonecold dead before the end of 2019 - but i don’t believe the least bit that you are right.
I DO believe that CCP does something, i just don’t think they’re doing enough.
Good work mate. The mission bots out of Illinfrik (2 jumps from Rens or so) are infamous and have been there for a long time. They have been operating in such an obvious manner, for such a long time, and must have been reported numerous times (including by myself). They are near a few starter systems and I’ve always thought that it must be really weird for a new player to come across that. Bad first impression of the game.
I don’t think they really care about bots. The ridiculous reduction to 3 day bans for first time offenders speaks volumes. Seems they only take action when publicly shamed into it. They say they ban thousands of accounts, but there’s really no proof.
It’s much worse since alpha accounts, especially after they buffed what ships alphas have access to.
As has been previous clarified, the first-time offense rule is at the discretion of those doing the banning. We don’t know what percentage of the time it’s actually invoked.
They only take pubilc action that you know about when publicly shamed into it. That’s an misstep on their part.
They have zero obligation to provide any proof. Nor should they. That’ll provide additional information that shouldn’t be shared. If you’re at the point where you believe they’re actively trying to be deceptive, then that “proof” would likely be asserted to be fabricated. I’m afraid you’ll have to just take their word for it. Or don’t. Either way, things will proceed as they will.
CCP know what they are doing.
They care about their player base
They gather huge amounts of intel on the botters and buyers then ban in waves
Banning in waves is the most effective way to manage the bots
They claw back trillions of RMT’d isk from players each wave, deterring them from future purchases
They don’t tell us anything because the bots will use this intel to avoid detection in the future
Father Christmas is real
The tooth fairy is also real
The game is going from strength to strength and has a long life ahead of it
