Thanks to everyone in the community for the tremendous response to my previous piece, The Rise of the Isk Printing Machines. My goal was to raise player awareness of CCP’s apparent tolerance of common exploits to the detriment of the game, and it appears to have met with some success.
CCP’s Subsequent Response
On the Monday morning (GMT, Sunday night in the US) after the article was published, I noticed many of the bots going offline. One week later, I can confidently say that approximately 3/4 of the identified bots are no longer online. The constellations of D-A0V, 2Q-8WA, and 3TS-12 have been empty for some time. About 20 bots, particularly those in ETO-OT and the Outer Passage, remain
online, 24/7.
The Northern Coalition
Due to the positive response (and my boredom with most other aspects of the game) I’m going to be continuing my study of the bots of EVE online. I recently surveyed Tenal, Venal, Branch, and Tribute, taking two snapshot censuses and analyzing the regions one constellation at a time as I did with the drone regions. Then, I travelled to the suspicious areas.
I did discover some suspected bots (mostly tengus), but far fewer than in the drone regions. I observed fewer than a dozen bots. About half of them were neutral to NC, and another half dozen (possible) bots were NC blues. Due to the fact that I’ve been travelling on personal business, I am unable to verify these bots as thoroughly as I would like (I haven’t been logging in much) so I will post their names at a later date once confirmed.
This is not to say that there are only a dozen bots in (half of) NC space. Perhaps botters up there don’t run their bots 23 hours a day, perhaps they move from system to system every few hours. My method of finding bots via dotlan and starmap will only identify the most egregious, lazy, and obvious botters – which is still apparently more than CCP is willing to do.
Call For Tips
I’d appreciate any information you may have on bots. Please email them to the address: [email protected]. Good and useful tips will include information such as: Character Names, System(s) of operation, and activity. For example, BobJenkins is a market bot in Rens, or CaptainFluffy1 is mission botting in Motsu. Additional data is always great, for example if you added them to your contact list and they’re always online, if you have petitioned them in the past, or if you have observed other behavior that are indica of automation (tip: look at character birthdate). Useless tips would include things like: “I think there are bots in Curse, you should go look!” or “Alliance XYZ bots like crazy!” or “I think some of the mission runners in Motsu are bots!”
We’re beginning to gather more intelligence on bots doing activities more complicated than ratting and warping from belt to belt. I would be especially interested in additional intel on market bots or bots capable of running plexes, CAs, and missions. I am also interested in information on high-sec mining and ice-mining bots.
All tips will be investigated and confirmed, and botters will be published in EN24 along with some economic analysis of their activities on the game.
Regards,
Vee, the player formely known as Fromage.
o/
Question is, they are not online because they are hidding or because CCP banned them? I tend to believe the first.
My thoughts exactly, already asked Vee to keep them in his WL for a long time.
Anyone noticed the Magnate bots running around lowsec like buzzing insects? What are they doing, macroing hauler missions?
courier missions
Check out the systems owned by Controlled Chaos, I was round thier parts a few months back and they had quite a few botters running CAs in their upgraded systems round the clock
heh here comes the witch hunting…
I'm sorry, but "witch hunting" would imply that you believe there is no such thing as bots, and that we are all going around looking for something that does not exist, as in the case of the witch hunting that took place many hundreds of years ago.
I would think that this would be more indicative of a "wild goose chase", wherein the search for bots will be fruitless, probably because as one gets deleted, another one or more will take its place.
And by the way, good article, though I don't care for all the CCP bashing. If we were all so righteous, we would stop playing the game.
Some of us kinda have…
Yet you still read evenews? That's kind of sad. I bet you're on Kugu still as well.
Uh, actually, "witch hunt" does not imply that; you're giving your own, made-up application of the word.
No one here doubts the existence of botting; we've all seen H-bot and other programs. What we doubt are your poor methods and the lack of truly objective, standard-based criteria for determining the actual extent of botting, much less specific botters in Eve.
The generally flimsy approach to providing evidence provides at best only thin evidence, even if some of it turns out to be accurate. The potential to make errors is at best undetermined and at worst very high.
Get a clue, Sherlock Holmes.
Yes, yes , yes, who wants thin eveidence, like gruel? I want thick evidence, like steak!.
See steak is much better, now go out and being me steak!
I demand steak!
Steak!
That is all
You dared to suggest that even a legitimate problem could likely result in an ultimate witch hunt, far exceeding the scope of the actual problem…..you, sir, represent the kind of scum that the Lowest Common Denominator fights against, a scourge upon Eve, a blemish in the fabric of spacetime. Downvote, DOWNVOTE, I say! All those downvotes must mean you are wrong, because only a fool would believe that a witch hunt were possible. It's not like human nature to go overboard!!! It's not like that's ever happened before!!!11 ……say, why do we call it a "witch hunt" anyway?
i think ur mad bra :p
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony
Next time i roam into the dronelands, i'll write down the names of the botters i encounter
At least someone is doing something useful for the betterment of the game. Too bad it aint the Devs.
Good job keep it up.
If you could come tour catch and surrounding areas in the near future that would be nice.
Hit on them. Force the low-capacity botters out. Only the good ones shall survive. Except those make the most ISK…
CCP will not thank you for your efforts; all of us owe you one.
Oh noes! I sit idle in a system cloaked up 24/7 in a system for PI. The system has a constant stream of ratters in it and a high NPC kills in the last 24hrs, I am going to be declared a botter based on this extremely accurate dotlan approach to bot catching.
How many of your accounts got banned?
I like how if you doubt the all-knowing lowest common denominator's "firsthand" knowledge of botting off Dotlan, that must mean you are a botter. Confirming that the Salem Botting Trials are the based in lojik and siyense.
*begin transmission*
message > we continue to evolve & adapt our tactics & capabilities. We have not vanished, but are simply regrouping.
*end transmission*
I wish for the day when CCP will return the Mines to the game, lay in a few mine fields and call it a day…
It's almost as if CCP considers client exploits to be the next level of player competition. Unfortunately, the history of MMO games shows us where EVE will end up if CCP allows the current trend to continue: in the dustheap of MMO oblivion. 99% of players either don't have the desire to cheat, or don't have the ability. Either way, if economic superiority in the game is allowed to depend on or even be challenged by automated play, it will eventually drive the average player out of the game. If CCP thinks that aggressively banning botters will drive subscriptions down, wait until this trend plays itself out to it's natural conclusion. If we must do the policing ourselves we may indeed just drive the "fittest" botters deeper underground, but every single one that's not online is a victory nonetheless. Keep up the good work!
Could you provide some examples where MMOs have been destroyed by botting?
everquest and wow are considered dispicable by most online players now for the exploits that are allowed to keep the hardcore players paying to play with multiple accounts to get the best items and control the markets.botting is an exploit that does the same for eve players. eve is a time based game that gives most players a sense of respect for the game. you cant powerlevel 5 levs in a week to get access to the best stuff and then permacamp the bosses so no one else can beat you to it. eq and wow were one the best games in the mmo world till they were destroyed by the money grubbing producers and players. now they are useless to play. maybe you should go play them and let eve players enjoy the actual fix that appears to be happening before your eyes. btw – that happened because eve24 news actually provides a forum where players now can put pressure on ccp by grouping together and expressing thier opinions. all the trolling and flaming aside – eve24 news actually go very far to give you news the way it should be presentad and respected enough by ccp to react properly to player responses.
WoW is the best game in the world? Seriously you need to get a life!
he didn't say Wow was the best game, he said one of! I personally disagree but it's my opinion, that game didn't do it for me, but 12M people obviously did, so it is a fair assessment to say it's one of the best…
Apparently gaining more and more players, up to something like 15 million players, is "useless to play" for WoW.
Also, "power-leveling" 5 levels in a week is kind of funny, as anyone with a good amount of spare time on their hand (Like, the large amount of unemployed people in the US) can get those 5 levels. Even if you don't play much, it doesn't take long to hit 85.
Also, WoW is not a game that has been "ruined" by botters. It is ANNOYING with botters, but gameplay hasn't been ruined, nor has it affected the longevity of the game, so using WoW (Again, with 15million or more subscriptions) as an example of an MMO dying is quite illogical. WoW is the most successful MMO in the world, and continues to be that way nearly 7 years after release. Obviously, EVE is a better game than WoW, but don't point to WoW as a failed/failing MMO or you'll look like an idiot.
Asheron's call was partially abandoned due to the lack of enforcement of combat macro bots for leveling. Wasn't the only reason, but was a big contributing factor
I agree about AC, it was a good time until bots destroyed it.
retail lineage 2 is impossable to be competitive without botting but thats the only game bots have ruined……its still bringing in money tho, wow always sucked
"Players have noted that the new Sansha NPCs have been killing all the macro-miners in the incursed areas. Was this intended or just a happy coincidence?
"I'll be completely honest: I don't really get involved with hunting macro-miners and botters. It's not that I don't care, but we have people in the company who do this for a living. If we've ended up killing a few of them, I'm thrilled, but I prefer to design for our massive majority of regular customers, rather than thinking of a small minority of criminals who would probably download cars if they could. We should always strive to make the best feature for our customers, and I'd have to decrease the quality of a feature because some people abuse the system. Added to that, I'm more excited about the total kill count."
(http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/02/24/eve-spotlight-an-interview-with-ccp-soundwave/), downloaded 2/25/11 @ 2:21 p.m. CST.
"…small minority…" Appears that not everyone agrees on the scope of the problem as presented herein.
Woooot… riverinis advert !!??!
I've been told Vee is an evil botter
"Burn the Witch !"
Serious question : Is PI being botted already ?
kill the mining bots and you will not be a happy camper…. do you want ot start paying 200 million for all teair 3 batltships, 140 for teair 2 like ravens, and 80 mill for teiar one? the fact of the matter is, the mining bots help keep the came playble/ affordable for the rest of us. well maybe not miners, but who wants to sit mining for a week just to get enough minerals for a battleship? its that or bay out the noze when you remove a lot of the high sec mining bots. im not gunna even get started on ice prices… kill the ratting bots, but IMO, leave the mining ones. i dont want to have to pay doubble price for my ships like back before they were so common.
Next time I roam, I'm gonna make a list of everyone swearing in chat channels and petition them!
Only people who complain about bots are those to lazy or don't know how to get one themselves. So stop complaining and either bot or shut up.
Saying that the bots help the market to be affordable is completly ludicrous, unreasonable and something you would expect from someone who either have a very low IQ or/and didn't even thought about what he said.
I explain, if battleships are expensive people start using smaller ships like battlecruisers and t1 cruisers, got it? Its quite simple and the game would be much more fun.
Cant wait to bitch slap goons back to a fps game
me and a couple of corp mates found a couple of bots mining in high sec, we parked out ships next to theirs and mined away and just can flipped them all evening. Doubled up on the mining.
We then sent the miners and their CEO an email when we had finished thanking them and giving them a list of all the things we had taken.
Their responce was, "yes we were bot mining but it was in a system that doesnt have a station so we didnt think that anyone would mind/notice."
Test and Goons actively encourage bots indirectly. They specifically stress their policies that it is up to CCP to police botters not them, but this just creates awareness, with convo spam given to anyone showing interest to bot programs etc.
Montolio has specifically said that to compete nowadays you need that botting income, and that by changing the policy to mirror goons it makes the income come to Test rather than goon havens.
Try looking around Fountain cloud ring deklein.
Cobalt Edge :
DA0V-R constellation : http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/E0DR-G (2 ravens) (POS PL8 M5) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/T-67F8 (2 ravens) (POS PL7 M5) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/CHP-76 (1 raven) (POS PL7 M4)
Oasa :
DOCS-O constellation: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/XXZ-3W (4 ravens) (POS PL10 M1) ( located 1 jump from Cobalt ) http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/XEF6-Z (3 ravens) (POS PL3 M1)
http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/QZ-DIZ (2 ravens) (POS PL5 M5)
Malpais : http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/N-YLOE (2 ravens) (POS PL6 M1)
Etherium Reach : http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/QNXJ-M http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/KRPF-A http://evemaps.dotlan.net/system/BY-7PY