Ever been banned in eq2?

[Sethric]

so I was harvesting using ogre harvest and a GM sent me a tell 'greetings, gm soandso, are you there?' and i was, so i said 'hi' but, I got lucky because i was boxing on the other computer and almost missed his tell.
So I imagine if i missed his tell, i would have been banned, but, i am wondering if just the one guy would have been banned, or all my guys.
So the question is, 'if you have got banned and know the extent of soe bans, lemme talk with ya
I used to use the isx in Eve Online and had fun and got banned, hate to have it happen here too

 

[Kannkor]

My biggest recommendation (for everyone), is don't bot in open world zones... period. Not for harvesting, not for anything. If you need resources, use guild hirelings. If you need rares, do shit in instances and buy them. While it may not be the most cost effective, it is by far the safest route.

 

[Amadeus]

As long as you're on the computer and listening for tells from all your characters that are active, you should be fine.

I do not condone afk botting. Just like in EVE, if you do it long enough, you'll eventually get caught.

I will tell you though that SOE is good about giving you warnings before a ban. The first time you'll get a 7 day suspension, pretty much regardless of how heinous the offense happens to be. But, if you do it again after that, you're screwed.

Anyway, like I said, if you don't afk bot in public, you're fine. Doing it in a guild hall is generally OK, from what I understand.

 

[bob_the_builder]

I had a petition in for something, I had forgotten about it. I was out bot-ing in Kael contested and some dork shows up jumping in my face... I never saw a tell on the bots or my screen ... and I forgot about the petition.

It probably went on for 5 minutes me thinking this guys an idiot. I posted something in says like "WHAT" and "WE ARE FULL" all rude like... anyways, i didnt get banned and was clearly the owner of the accounts as "follow-buff-bots" at the least, right. The petition effected all of them, I had to one by one talk to the GM in front of my group and do something for the petition.

I miss tells all the time, there is no way they would ban someone for missing a tell. I've heard rumors of teleporting the toon and seeing if they still "move around" or as in my case just showing up in front of the toon as checking "bot like activity".

Anyways, my "this one time at bot-camp" story.

 

[Kannkor]

Should always run something that relays tells.

Either what is included in Ogrebot, or Ogretell which is available on the SVN, or write something if you use your own bot. It just brings extra attention that you really don't need... regardless of the situation.

One other big thing to avoid, is effecting other peoples game play. Don't go botting and killing in a dungeon near where people are. Doesn't matter if you're at your keyboard or not, you piss people off, they petition. If you are going to waste a GMs time, eventually they will take action because they are annoyed. (Which leads me back to my stay in instances comment).

 

[blackee]

I would like to add my 2 cents...my input is based on me being banned quite a few times. First time: used a keyboard recorder to /target_nearest_npc then sending my pet to kill it (3-day ban in '06). Second, was AFK harvesting for days upon days. I was on vacation and was using my wife's laptop in the hotel (addicted much, yes please). I didn't get banned, just had all my harvests removed (REAL lucky). Lastly, I was afk botting a 4-man group in a very low zone, which I didn't bet anyone visited. I was checking on it every 45-60min. Since one of the accounts had a previous ban, they were all banned for 1 year. I'll get them back next year...

My observations are:

First of all (and most importantly), I believe someone has to /petition you in order to be caught. This is why kannkor (i think) stated don't bot in overland areas.

Second, don't afk bot...obviously.

Lastly, don't brag or boast.

 

[Kevinshp]

OK here's my 2 cents. Just like kannkor don't box in common zones and if you do don't steal named from people. Stay is instances the best loot is in instances so why bother doing common zones. Don't piss people off and don't be stupid.

 

[eclipsed]

My best advice is :

Be paranoid. If you ever find yourself thinking for even a second that you hope soandso didn't realize you were botting while doing something, don't ever do that thing again.

 

[Multicharacter]

As long as you're on the computer and listening for tells from all your characters that are active, you should be fine.

I do not condone afk botting. Just like in EVE, if you do it long enough, you'll eventually get caught.

I will tell you though that SOE is good about giving you warnings before a ban. The first time you'll get a 7 day suspension, pretty much regardless of how heinous the offense happens to be. But, if you do it again after that, you're screwed.

Anyway, like I said, if you don't afk bot in public, you're fine. Doing it in a guild hall is generally OK, from what I understand.

Don't count on them sending a tell though. I've seen them do everything from the normal greeting (Hello, this is GM.....) to a stealth greeting ('Hi, can I ask you a question?') to no greeting at all. (just moved characters around the zone or ran around in a circle to see if they were 'noticed' and if I'd talk to them without them talking to me)

I've only been given a warning once (automated detection because of attaching a debugger to try to gather information about a crash bug), the other times it was a straight ban. Back in the day, I got GM Kimbiala on me. She seemed sure I was up to something, but everytime she talked to me I replied. She'd move my character and I'd respond to it. She'd run around me in circles and I'd make it clear I saw her. Eventually she did catch me though, she sent me a tell and I didn't reply until 2-3 minutes later. She not only banned EQ2 but also EQ1 and SWG (games I wasn't even subscribed to at the time). I tried to appeal and was told it was a straight Station account ban; she was the senior GM so they refused to reconsider at all. She had no qualms whatsoever coming right in an instance following you and doing all kinds of crazy things to try to trip you up.

Edit: I should add though that it seemed like I'd pissed somebody off without really knowing how, so my experiences might not be typical.

 

[Multicharacter]

My best advice is :

Be paranoid. If you ever find yourself thinking for even a second that you hope soandso didn't realize you were botting while doing something, don't ever do that thing again.

Yep, that's the policy I try to go by. You have no idea how much it freaked me out back in the day when I ran into Blazer in game. EQ2Craft at the time was programmed to react certain ways to certain phrases (like immediately exiting the game). He said one of the phrases one time and it contained one of the words, boom, I was at the desktop. I logged back in, we talked, I said, 'sorry, went LD', he waited a bit, then replied 'What? When I said.....'word'' and boom I was at the desktop again. I got back on, told him my internet must be messing up but he didn't buy it at all. :dazed: We continued talking, he said he was Blazer and 'don't worry', but I still worried for awhile about somebody else out there realizing I was botting.

 

[amyglyn]

One other big thing to avoid, is effecting other peoples game play. Don't go botting and killing in a dungeon near where people are. Doesn't matter if you're at your keyboard or not, you piss people off, they petition. If you are going to waste a GMs time, eventually they will take action because they are annoyed. (Which leads me back to my stay in instances comment).

This. If you are running around stealing all the stuff in a zone and being a dick, you might get petitioned. No one is going to petition a buncha ppl standing there doing nothing, because no one will care. Sony also probably doesn't care, because you are giving them extra money. But if you run around afk mining, or afk hunting and get in the way of other people's gameplay, then eventually you'll get caught.

Just don't AFK play, and if you are in open dungeons be kind and considerate to others around you and you'll be just fine. I don't think SOE really cares if you are using a buncha characters to do instances, the GMs care about AFK play and about stuff that causes players grief and makes them do more work.

 

[eddie43302]

Yep ive been boxing since the first 2 weeks of eq2 release and never been caught. I did once get a 3 day ban for passing an alt of mine alot of plat and they swore i purchased the plat but i never did.And before you ask everyone of my accounts all have diffrent names,emails and paypals accounts tied to each one so that in the event i ever did get caught the accounts looked like someone different owned each and everyone and so i could also sell from all of them on livegamer.
But as of right now im not even playing eq2 havent for the last 3 months or so just cant take it no more it has just gotten to boring for me even after clearing every new zone in the expac and some raid ones. I just cashed out and sold all 18 of my toons on players auctions and made out like a fat rat.hehe...suckers who will pay $400-$600 per toon there.

 

[ownagejoo]

Ok, talking as someone who has been banned. I will tell you what will get you banned quicker than you think.

1. Duping, any and all duping will get you banned eventually.

2. Bot harvesting, any and all, even if your sitting there. The GM will come up and watch you invisible for a while and determine that you are afk harvesting, then send a tell you trying to find out if your there, at that point the GM will put in the the suspension, EVEN if you answer them. If they have decided that you are auto harvesting, and decide to suspend you, you will be suspended.

3. Speed hacking, they actually have a program running in some areas of this game that test for your movement over a certain distance against your speed set on your client and if you exceed that, it flags your account (especially in battlegrounds).

4. Also, there was a post somewhere on this board about how SOE tracks the amount of time your character/account is in the world, and if its on for over a set amount of time the account is flagged to be checked. Your account will also get flagged if you get suspended, then they will check on you if you are on and they suspect you of afk botting.

5. and lastly don't, and I repeat don't ever call GM Kimbal a cunt. I got the same ban multi got after that

 

[amyglyn]

5. and lastly don't, and I repeat don't ever call GM Kimbal a cunt. I got the same ban multi got after that

Hahahaha that's pretty funny. Is that GM even still around, though?