I posted this in the General Discussion area but then saw we have a dedicated Mining and Resource area, so I’m reposting this here as I think it’s probably more relevant.
I often will sit in an ice belt quietly mining away when suddenly a fleet of Hulks will warp in along with an Orca and a huge Transport ship. In less than 20 minutes the entire System is stripped of anything worth mining. Sometimes these “fleets” will all have differently named ships, but very often they will be named Hulk01, Hulk02, Hulk03, etc, and that leads me to believe that one person is controlling the entire fleet that can sometimes comprise of up to 12 ships.
I have reported some of these one-man mining fleets as bots as they are so annoying but as one of them said to me “I’ve been reported about 142 times. CCP don’t care”.
But how is it done? Does this person actually have 12 Omega accounts? And how can they all run at the same time? The mining ships do seem to be slaved to the Orca in some way as they will all group around it in a tight swarm and will move with it. Often I see them just hanging in space when the ice is gone, the operator obviously afk.
And how come CCP apparently won’t touch them?.. Even if reported 142 times?
BOT? I hear that word a lot. I don’t think it means what most think it means.
Would you believe me if I told you that the reason they won’t touch them is because there are people manually running fleets of 20 or more one mouse click at a time. Thanks to Win 10 now you can have as many desktops as you want for free enabling you to switch between ships effortlessly. The guy just hovers the mouse over one spot on the screen and repeats ore moves, targeting and firing lasers. No third party software and no automation. [So I have heard :)]
I have a friend who does this. He gets reported for botting ALL the time. CCP has him on speed dial. The main reason he gets reported is his very dumb toon naming scheme like the one you mentioned but his is ToonName01, ToonName02, ToonName03, ToonName04 etc…
Before you go shouting BOT! Look for actual proof like all ships firing lasers, jetting cargo, moving simultaneously as in within less than a second of each other [aside from fleet warp], When you see that evidence, record so you have proof and at least seem credible.
the point is - multiboxing with Omega accounts (and you have to be Omega to fly a Mining Barge) is expressly allowed. You may run as many clients as your computer(s) can handle.
The fact that all ships are “linked” to the Orca does not say anything - fleet warp and keep at range orders to the rescue.
Also if the char answers in a timely manner and like a human (ok, the question what is a human is a tricky one - see turing test), it certainly is not a bot.
There might be still TOS violating automation software involved - if you see indications for this (like mentioned before) you might try to file a complaint, but unless you have proof for that, it’s probably perfectly legal.
On this I agree, don’t really think much of codes antics but going after bot fleets, that would be a worthwhile endeavor…but code is code and they won’t do it because you asked just to troll you because you had the audacity to ask.