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We will see how efficient u will do it this time. I believe I can remember a time there was a similar announcement and after all it seemed that CCP gives a **** on all replies about spotted bots, macros and hackers.

A other thing is the effect to the economy in eve. I really hate all the bothers out there, but I hope I am wrong with it, after all the years about doing nearly nothing I really can imagine that all the bothers out there makes the market thing a bit more affordable. not sure but with all that items on the market (mining, mission etc) from the botters I think it could have an effect on the markets prices too.

But like I said, we will see how restrictedly u go out for them this time. And I am not sure why, but I think cheaters (in my eyes bothers are cheaters swell) should be banned perm if they are detected.

Whats about other accounts from the same person? does they got banned aswell? If not, forget about all I wrote before, then nothing will change.

Thanks for the reply Sreegs, your efforts in dealing with botters and communicating with the EVE community here is genuinely appreciated. Still very underwhelmed by the punishment , 14 days is barely a slap on the wrist for someone who has gone out of their way to get a third party program with the specific intent to cheat in the game.

While it is understood you did not respond to my specific suggestions, and I appreciate why,. I will say this, EVE needs holistic treatment that addresses the disease not merely treating the symptoms, and that can only be done at the design level. A lot of us are hoping that Inferno moves in that direction and really delivers.

Alliances aren't playing EVE to be CCP's police task force on bots. Let the ones who get paid for it find the bots.

Hypothetical Question: Why do confirmed Bot characters get a permanent ban on character trading, yet players that would prefer that very option are not allowed character sales denial etc.

As a security measure, this would make sence in my opinion.

If a player does not have the intention to ever sell his/her character, but is still at risk from a "fire-sale" from a random hack...

Maybe its an option that comes with the security key fob from last years FF.

(And no I have not been hacked, banned, or presented a fancy key fob. Just an observation i've noticed)

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Maybe I can help you out here Vaerah. When you blow up a Hulk or Mackinaw and you see the pod warping off to the station and then coming back to the same spot their ship was in and "mining" in the pod for the 18 minutes or whatever it takes to fill a Hulk that would seem a pretty infallible method to me.

HTH

Vaerah,
I agree with you and understand that you do not want to see a single innocent person banned. I also get that you are trying to be the voice of reason by not joining the mob with torches and pitchforks. I believe you went off the cliff! I feel that the only possible way to get what you want, CCP could NEVER BAN ANYONE AGAIN! Is that what you are asking for? It seems to me that you want CCP to tell exactly what methodology they are using to determine bots. If they say on the forums, bot programmers would incorporate that info into their programs. Since no one is infallible, I agree that they need to minimize mistakes. However, I am willing to accept 95% accuracy since this is a game and not real life.

Well, thank you there's at least one person who understands what I want to say.

It's a tiny bit different though. I am ok with accuracy being 95%. I am even ok with super-perma banning at first strike those who run cheat software that cannot be confused with legit other stuff you could have on the computer. But I am less OK for general purpose "engines". I.e. some years ago I had Autokey installed to enable 5 mouse buttons in old games. If I still had it and CCP considered it a bannable software (or is it? No idea) I'd get banned without even knowing why. And no way to convince them I did not mean to use it for EvE!

But my biggest issue - and I am not being expecially altruistic here - is with heuristics. Ok let's imagine they have a 95% accuracy. With the previous CCP very mild attitude, 95% would be ok. You get a penalty just because you happened to be unluckly to fulfill some parameters. It would also happen once a year (when CCP felt like showing they were figthing bots, like before Fanfests or expansions etc.).

With the CCP advent of "serious mode", the same guy who happened to be in that 5% now is permanently flagged. He won't have an idea about why so he will keep playing his way and the next week the "system" (now always on, not just once a year) will detect him as cheater again.

Third case: you swap something with someone. You can't know whether he's legit or not. Was that contracted Raven Navy Issue a money laundry? Who knows. Yet you risk all sorts of issues. It's easy to say "EvE has risk, you have to accept it".
No, the game risk is fine: you undock with 73 PLEXes in Iteron and get popped. Though luck. But this is RL risk (RMT induced) risk: you get an item and voilà banned. CCP Sreegs can say: "sure just contact us and get it sorted on a personal case. Too bad *any* writing under the EULA clause of the petition system takes 2 weeks to 1 month just to be replied the first time, and those were just questions (yes I am asking CCP in game too)! In those 2 weeks one can lose all his POSes.

Now, with all the 3 cases above, it would be fine to have a 95% accuracy and indeed is VERY COMMENDABLE off CCP to finally have cranked in an high gear after years of slacking.

But what happens now is that the 95% (I am using your number as example) is going to be continuously re-checked. Imagine 99% guys "pass" this week. 1% gets banned. Then 99% of the remaining ones pass next week and 1% get banned. Then 99% next week. Sounds allright, no? Nope.
Use some probability calculus and you'll see how easy will become to be in the "unlucky 1%" after some time.

This - in my opinion - prompts a need to figure out a way for the players to be able to prove their innocency. Because it gets easier and easier to be the unlucky black sheep and the consequences are harsher and harsher but without a corresponding improvement in the way to prove you were just unlucky, not a cheater.

What you should really implement is this - if a character is banned and were petitioned as a bot before - ppl who have done this should get a nice letter - Thank you for petitioning bot %username, it is now banned for x days.

even a little medal in the decorations section "This character was botting and was banned x times" will be ok as long as it is always visible to general public

Also you should really look into missionrunning bots in highsec.

Here are a couple of ideas:

1) Someone reports a guy as botter => his report immediately triggers a snapshot of the reported guy computer (like the debug dump), on a low priority thread so not to disrupt his gameplay. That would avoid CCP to only use heuristics and thus have an higher chance to ban someone who does not deserve it. The dump would also help at discovering new undiscovered bots.

2) For the transactions stuff: make them actually mean their name: transactions. A guy contracts me a Supercarrier for 3rd party. Before accepting the contract I click a "start secure transaction" button on the contracts UI which instantly creates a record of the thing happening. The record will hold a time stamp and will add to a "CCP secured transactions" table and warns CCP to check that transaction.
Once they find the contractor was a RMTer, every transaction between me and him past that saved time stamp is rolled back so I get back my stuff without getting banned myself. I actually warned CCP to check for that stuff so they can't put me in the same boat of that RMT guy.