EVE General Discussion

So I know the problem has existed for some time but it's something that recently has become a bigger issue for me, but there is a blatant abuse of the Buddy Program to provide scouts coverage in an entire region at no cost to the user.

For example the region I am currently operating in, I have come across 14 characters so far in a day and a half, all named the same thing with a different number after it. all sitting cloaked in system in Yachts, all less than a month old, now whilst I usually would be all for players being smart and having scouts in surrounding systems to give a warning, I feel that doing this without paying a subscription is an unfair advantage.

CCP have already deemed the use of rolling Buddy Program accounts for suicide ganking is a violation of the nature of which the program was created for and made it a punishable offence. I feel that the use of the buddy program to give you cost free scouts to provide coverage for an entire region should also be punishable.

Ontop of this I can say with certain confidence that the person operating these scouts is using a script of some kind to report neutrals entering systems, I find it highly unlikely one person is sitting there and watching 14 (probably more) clients and manually reporting each one.

People abusing buddy programs like this should have the buddy account banned and their main account should be made exempt from sending buddy invites, that way if they wish to run these scouts they will be required to pay a subscription.

I spoke with a member of CCP during the EVE-NT event and raised this issue with him and he said he didn't know the official stance on if this is against the EULA/TOS but he said that it was definitely against the nature of the buddy program and would ask people when he returned to Iceland, it would be nice to have an actual statement from CCP confirming their stance on the use of the buddy program for these purposes.

TL;DR
Ban people abusing buddy accounts to provide cost-free scout coverage to entire nullsec regions.

CCP don't use the forums for rules discussions, if in doubt, petition it.

Though you really have no proof of what you speak, because they could be someone with 15 accounts and he decided to make new alts on said account, if you have issues your best bet is to petition it.