Fair warning was given. It stops now.

[Kannkor]

I've said countless times in many spots, that negatively effecting others gameplay, results in unwanted attention. And if people could provide me proof of people doing it, I would take action against them.

I personally don't really care what you do with your bots, as long as you keep it to yourself. You start doing it in public zones with others around, taking contested mobs with bots, and I am forced to take action. It comes down to me stoping it, or it getting escalated to SOE.

I've recieved proof of people botting avatars. There are guilds out there that use, or semi use bots as a means to add a few missing players to raids etc. There are also guilds out there, that don't use bots at all for contested.

In the very near future, I will be blocking Ogrebot from working on avatars, period. You abuse it, you lose it.
While this should prevent anyone(s) from using Ogrebot to bot avatars on their own, it will also stop 'real' guilds from botting a few extra players. I personally don't care.
It's obvious that people can't get along with contested spawns. Those in real guilds don't feel it right that a bot guild should have them, so you better be fucking doing them without bots too.

If you're one of the ones bot raiding contested - it stops here.
If you're one of the ones running an extra bot or 2 on contested - it stops here also.
If you're one that doesn't do anything with avatars - this doesn't affect you.


If the tone of this is harsh, that is my intent. Instead of playing, instead of making improvements, I'm having to deal with this shit, and spend time preventing people from pissing off players that will go straight to SOE.

Keep your bots in private instances.

 

[CheezPleez]

Kannkor,

I'm glad you're taking action on this. I do regret that your time has to be taken away from improving Ogrebot because of it. Sadly, there are always people who will ruin a good thing for everyone by refusing to place any voluntary restrictions on their own behavior.

I realize that my attitude may seem hypocritical to some. I know there are people, on both sides of the issue, who feel that there is no difference between one person botting an entire raid and one bot in a raid. I get that some people believe that botting is always wrong and I've given that position a good deal of thought. I have chosen to utilize bots for my own reasons and I have my own ethical position on the matter. I believe that I use the bots under circumstances and in ways that are beneficial to both myself and others and I want to be able to continue botting in situations where I do not directly affect the gameplay of others in a detrimental fashion.

I have botted a character for an avatar kill myself, and losing that ability will be a slight inconvenience, but we will still kill avatars. In fact, we may kill a few more due to the fact that the two guilds on my server who kill them in the middle of the night with bots making up half to 3/4 of their raids will be unable to continue doing that. (I know, for a fact, all of the players involved use ogrebot.)

Personally, I'd rather lose the ability to bring an important class or two into the raid when we just don't have the players online to fill those slots than have these selfish, arogant jackasses continue to rob real players of the opportunity to at least try and kill a named epic that only spawns a couple of times a week at best.

I also highly resent that these few stupid, self-centered people are willing to risk making most of the Everquest player base so angry that SOE is forced to take action, because in all likelihood it would result in sanctions against everyone who bots and not just themselves.

 

[Kannkor]

... arogant jackasses continue to rob real players of the opportunity to at least try and kill a named epic that only spawns a couple of times a week at best.

Just so my intentions are clear, I'm not doing this for any real players. I don't really care about what opportunities a real player has, this game, and life isn't fair. My intent, is to preserve our way of life. Stay in the shadows, where people can't see us, so we may continue in the shadows.

(I'm not saying you took my intentions the wrong way, just clarifing them).

 

[pz]

we may kill a few more due to the fact that the two guilds on my server who kill them in the middle of the night with bots making up half to 3/4 of their raids will be unable to continue doing that.

called it.

 

[Kevinshp]

I would have to agree I bot 99% of the time in zones not in public although I do run bots through some open zone for quests and such and xp but always look out for other people there and if there are find out what they are after and if they are after the same thing I move on. I can see the challenge of killing an avatar and would be fun to try it but not at the expense of others that play "the right way AKA (SOE RULES)" goes back to the old adage DON"T BE FUCKING STUPID!!!!

 

[wolfppo]

Lol I just got back to the states was gone 10 months in Afghanistan and can barley kill some of the group content my toons wont be ready for raids till next year as working 12 hr a day has cut into my playing time a lot.

 

[nezuld]

I have to agree that making this too public is an issue. There are many times I would see a group botting and think that they should not be doing this here, and hoping they get caught. There are a few abusers and I hope this gets the message across to them.

I use bots with an eye toward hiding, IF I need to do something in public, I make sure nobody is near to see or be effected by it. If so then I move on or wait, access quests are an example. Generally it is in instances where I feel safest.

I am sorry you have to put time and effort into this for the few people that are trying to take advantage of a good thing.

Does this mean all contested zones, or specific contested mobs? I am thinking of access quests for example, need to kill a certain amount of general contested mobs but instances are more used on those quests. Or just Avatars for now?

 

[Kannkor]

I have to agree that making this too public is an issue. There are many times I would see a group botting and think that they should not be doing this here, and hoping they get caught. There are a few abusers and I hope this gets the message across to them.

I use bots with an eye toward hiding, IF I need to do something in public, I make sure nobody is near to see or be effected by it. If so then I move on or wait, access quests are an example. Generally it is in instances where I feel safest.

I am sorry you have to put time and effort into this for the few people that are trying to take advantage of a good thing.

Does this mean all contested zones, or specific contested mobs? I am thinking of access quests for example, need to kill a certain amount of general contested mobs but instances are more used on those quests. Or just Avatars for now?

Policing content is really stupid. I hate it. In most cases, people are smart about using bots in open areas. Questing etc, I'd like to think people use at least some sort of common sense.
The issue with avatars, is in general, they are quite easy, and the loot is quite amazing. Greed gets the better of people, where they feel the risk of openly botting and pissing off people is worth the reward of the loot. Unfortunately, that's a risk to all of us, and one I'm not willing to take.

In the end, it's only avatars that disable the bot. Everything else should function completely as normal.