SOE hunting for harvesting bots? : EverQuest 2 General Discussions

Here is Dev's quote:

Please be aware that we are now cracking down on harvesting botters. You may notice fewer apparent harvesting botters running around in the game in the coming weeks. If you ever use a harvesting bot, I recommend that you stop doing so now or risk suspension or a ban.

(http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/ ... 694#M67694)

Anyone noticed anything? Anyone got banned so far?

Had someone question if I was a bot or not but I happend to be sitting right there.

Loraik

Do i get it right that SOE will only ban you when you are AFK while running around and they want to speak with you?
Think of a GM telling you because of botting and you are at the keyboard and can answer him. He mustn`t ban you then, right? Even if it is obvious that you are botting?

Use an aggresive waypoint pattern to keep your path from being the same all the time. From the guild mates that have been questioned so far (3) each were not botting but just had a conversation suggesting they were botters. They ofcoarse came unglued and the GM bot left them.

My guess is if your near by the KB and can hear Watchers sexy voice telling you someone is talking to you (AND CAN RESPOND) your prob. ok but that is just a guess...

They are trying to clear the bots out before they up the drop rate on the rares for the next expansion. So T1-5 rares will be more realistic and T6 rares will be 1 per day per server....

Loraik

The people I've heard from reported a couple things:

• the GMs were talking to them in /say, so that a tell alarm wouldn't alert them
• the GMs were sometimes invis (not player invis, but just disembodied voices, so they wouldn't appear on any radar
• The GMs were NOT wearing any SOE tags, which can also be detected by some bots
• They instructed the players to connect to a chat server that was NOT IN GAME.

Its pretty clear to me that they're going out of thier way to make sure theres nothing a bot could do to detect them, only a real person. Personaly, I take issue with these tactics. I, for one, have /say completely filtered out, so I woulnd't even see thier chat if they approched me, and if I were aproached by a PC not wearing an SOE tag, and tried getting me to connect to a chat server rather than using in-game tools, I would assume they were a griefer/scammer and report them for impersonating an SOE employee. It turns out they really were SOE (since, in the course of the conversation, one of them was informed that thier name was also in violation, and they were asked for 5 choices of new names- thier in-game name was changed on the spot, proving that it really was SOE). Very questionable tatics on SOEs part, IMHO.

Yeah I also have /say filtered out just because that is one less spam I need to deal with. Anyone that needs to talk to me can send me a tell. Also as far as They instructed the players to connect to a chat server that was NOT IN GAME. I don't recall anywhere in the EULA that says if instructed by a GM you need to connect to something outside of the game of EQ2. Best thing to do would be after doing this insert a virus and go after SOE for breaching your system. Might be a tough case but might bring them in line.

Loraik

haha, nasty. Well i guess you'll just have to stick around when botting, tis all.

Do you guys seriously disable /say? Don't you RP in eq2 or anything?
Also, GMs asking you to enter a chat room out side of EQ2 sounds a little far fetched. Especially when they've found you alive and well, confirming your not botting (or atleast confirming your around when you are).

Personally i think GMs don`t care much of harvesting bots running around. Its because harvesting bots don`t influence the ingame-market at all, because rares won`t bring money into the game.

I reported a name of someone ingame. The GM told me that he already got some reports on this name but ignored them all, but wanted to change the players name then.

If someone reports you on botting you will get a 99,9% chance the GM will give you a tell first to see if you react. When you don`t react they will first give you a warning on botting and kick you from the server. But they will never ever ban you directly. So if you are around your keyboard while botting, its all fine, even when its obvious you are botting. The GM won`t ban you when you react.

SOE just made a promise that they will ban botters.

I saw that as well and I have noticed on my broker, that Fulginate Clusters have DROPPED drastically,it went from being 1-30 pages to 2-3 pages of fulginate clusters,people have taken the warning from SOE....harvested items have all dropped on the market,so I know it's serious when harvested items are becoming rare on the market.
And I'm pretty sure this has to do with the new exspansion that is coming out due to them increasing rares from nodes.

I agree, I used to harvest about 4 hours a day, every node, and made a ton on the broker. With new expansion however, I've learned how to make more with xp. I earn about 1plat a day now doing the quests to earn faction with the courts.

As far as T6 harvesting rares go, I've already harvesed 4 of them. One rough pearl, two validium, and one severed ironwood.

I don't and never have botted though, am a guild leader so usually I'm in tells or guild chat nearly the whole time.

As far as xp goes beyond 50, lol, it is VERY SLOW. Am getting .01% per kill, killing solo 50^ mobs. At this rate I'll be 60 in a month or two.