EVE General Discussion

There is and has been other threads for this and entire subject has been discussed inside out way too many times already, but I agree with the fact that the penalties are way too light - and leave commenting to that.

Yea... ccp could run any junkware at least in my computer (while I play eve) if that would resolve botting issues in Eve.
If I trust them with my creditcard details, I believe I can trust them with limited spyware also.

No, that's just the Eve grind everyone playing the game without purchasing Plex is required to go through. It's perfectly normal.

You will never stop the mass bot operations that do it for profit. Here or in any game. If there is a market demand, someone will be more than happy to meet it. Selling currency for real money has been around since the 90's and so has game automation. It's not going anywhere.

Now If you want to stop the average player(s) in eve that bot you need to look at why they bot. If you can't figure out the game mechanics that turn an average 'player' towards automation, naivety is the least of your problems. It's the eve developers that would have to institute changes to the game to curb this behavior.

I'm sure CCP already has their own detection methods for all the popular bot software. Do you really think a company does not have their own security team that purchase this software break down it's functions and devise ways of detection? Give them some credit. What do you think would happen if CCP banned every account that ever used some type of automation? I would lay odds that their active user account graphic would be taking a serious nose dive. Just watch the stats after a major patch and all the bots are down to get a general idea of how much botting activity goes on in Eve.

The average player 'botting' is not hurting CCP if anything it's keeping them in business. I would gather that majority of bots here are not botting to RMT. They are doing it to support multiple accounts. Which if you play this game for any length of time you will see most players have 3,4,5+ accounts to play it efficiently. A guy in my last corp had 10 accounts! This leads back to eve mechanics.

Eve's mechanics push it's customers into multiple accounts. This artificially inflates their customer numbers. It also lets them garner more $$ out of a single customer than any other game. This is much needed when your game is so micro niche it doesn't attract a large customer base to support itself. They also have an insanely high turn around of eve / new players to the game because of it's general game play. Everyone knows eve is 'different' and is a 'higher' learning curve. (least that's what they like to say) Doesn't take a rocket scientist to play eve.. Just a patient player that's willing to spend years to get anywhere in quite honestly some extremely boring combat and a boring pve system. Then right when the player thinks they are at a good place they load up evemon and find out they can easily fill up another 365 day plan to take another year of their life. ... (ok, so I'm a little bitter)

So what does hurt CCP....

The large scale bot 'operations' that sell ISK. These operations hinder CCP's own RMT system. If people are purchasing ISK via websites or through in game traders this takes money out of CCP's pocket. These players are not purchasing time codes and turning them into plex to 'buy' their ISK property. Thus CCP plex system is not working to it's full potential. So whom should they go after first. Joe-Bob that's simply trying to support his multiple accounts (that eve's own mechanics force him into) or (insert cheap labor cost country) that's running mass operations and selling ISK for $$ causing CCP to take a loss?

I'm not saying that normal players botting is right or wrong. I'm just pointing out that people should look at it more than from a torch and pitchfork stance and look at the big picture. Want to stop 'normal' players from botting look towards the developers of the game to address the issues on 'why' a 'normal' player turns to automation.


As for the 'wow' comment people get around their guardian software all the time. You can go into WoW and easily find the botters going at it 24/7. I used to go to one of their favorite spots, attack them and then lead them off a cliff and watch them fall to their death. Good fun.

However, blizzard is sending it's army of lawyers after RMT companies (US based) and paypal. They must clear their competition away so they can reap all the profit from their own RMT project, diablo 3. Power & greed at it's finest.


Don't bother with the flames or the economic argument. I won't be back to debate.

It's certainly CCP's fault that the acquisition of isk through PvE methods is so mind numbingly boring that some people automate the process illegally.

I think this may be true. However, I think when it comes to eve they are turning people that do not 'bot' into botters.

@OP

Once you "grow up" in Eve, you will understand why reporting bots is useless.
First we have 3 strikes rule and then ban. To train a working bot takes, what, month tops (depending on a ship)?
I bet botters have backup accounts training just in case a current bot is busted.
Even if you get one of them banned, the next one will log in and get to work before you get a smile on your face...sadly.
You need hours of tracking, logging and comparison to identify a bot and CCP to ban them, IMHO not worth the time for the players to search for the bots.

Now comes to "why not", simply, i dont believe in "let players make eve(or any other game) a better place for everyone".
We pay subs by Plex or CC, we pay to play...simple.
Not to hunt for bugs that shouldn't pass QA at all. Not to hunt for bots that break ToA. That is CCPs job.
If you buy a car, you are not asked to help the company and act as a crash test dummy (over the top comparison, but still..)

If CCP wants to fight bots and show us they really care, fix the 3 strikes rule.
People logged in for 23.5 hours and active almost the same time, killing thousands ships, transferring billions on regular basis, systems with few people making dotlan NPC kill counter go sky-high is a sure bot issue that should be addressed.

And lastly, why not make bot hunting a profitable profession? For every confirmed bot a player gets a reward (ISK or something), and to prevent abuse, put in a system that penalizes you for reporting honest players. Or something along those lines.
Maybe if the report is accurate, give the player 10-20% of bots assets (so CCP just doesnt inject more money into the economy) and the rest is wiped. Even if its abused by botters themselves they lose 80-90% of that bot income.
Make peoples time hunting bots worth it, we get the satisfaction of getting a bot banned and a fat payout for the trouble...maybe add a "successful bots hunted" counter in our profile, just for kicks :)