Curse

Numa Pompilius · Jan 07, 2008, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by R_Frost

i could be wrong but looks like the bot brigade is in full effect in Shing Jea international district.

Yes. There's hundreds of them.

It's very easy to spot the bots in the international district. There's just a handful other people there, so when you come to Shing Jea and there's hundreds of eles pouring out the door, all named things like "Asdfs asdfda" and all running the exact same route... well, you don't need a vivid imagination to think they're bots.

It's not the only place in international district with bots (there's a steady trickle of monks at e.g. Altrumm Ruins) but it's the most obvius.

bilateralrope · Jan 07, 2008, 09:43 AM // 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by genofreek

I'm nosy... what is it they're farming? Anyone know?

Are we sure that they are farming something there ?

Considering that this is the first time I've heard of bots that weren't monks of some kind, it could be that the bot farmers have changed their builds and are now working new bots through to the new farming areas.

TideSwayer · Jan 07, 2008, 09:46 AM // 09:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by VitisVinifera

maybe some beginner quest with like a 100g reward?

This might be it. The Shing Jea Monastery "Forming a Party" quest (or named something similar) you get at the door gives you 1 monastery credit just for adding a hench and walking outside. (The reward guy is just outside the door.) Part of your reward is 1 monastery credit, which can be exchanged in SJM for a blue scroll which sells to the merchant for 100g.

I know all about this quest b/c it's what I use on my new Canthan chars to get enough $$$ to open up storage/material storage.

ANet should probably modify that reward. Seems to be a bit much for so little work. If that quest isn't being botted now, it may be in the future. Alternatively that quest could just open your storage/material storage automatically for doing it or something (since that's what I'd gather most people do it for anyways). The bots may either be outright cashing in the monastery credits or gathering bunches of them to sell in bulk or something.

Then again, the bots could be doing something completely different. Who knows?

BenjZee · Jan 07, 2008, 09:53 AM // 09:53

Maybe they are just botting a really long part like the whole of factions newb island. To be hoenst in the point of a code its long but technically you could get the island done in a matter of hours. They could be botting there way to lvl 20 (IMO factions is easier to level). Then they could leave the atea for other stuff.

I went to an international district for the first time in about 30 months and what i experienced in shing jea last week were ellys with strange names running to the exact same points.

lewstherint · Jan 07, 2008, 10:10 AM // 10:10

probably botting the first quest instead of having to level chars and find quest yet not buy more than 1 campaign just to get account banned dont seem like fun ;& buddy keys ftw

artay · Jan 07, 2008, 11:26 AM // 11:26

Went there and left :O Even though I know of Anets screening process, I didnt want to risk it, met a nice german though.

Theres Ele's everywhere! Holy crap! like rush hour in tokyo! and everyone's elaboratly dressed!

stuntharley · Jan 07, 2008, 11:31 AM // 11:31

Lololol
Just Went To Shing Jea, And Every Char Was A Lvl 2 Or 3 Ele, With The Same 3 Henchmen Lmfao.

sky sliverwolf · Jan 07, 2008, 11:34 AM // 11:34

I went there to check it out OMG theres so many of them!!! I never used /report so much since it came out. They all ave lvl 2-5. And only found them at shing jea and at the village. So they must be just doing the sec prof quest, cashing in, deleting char, make new one and repeat.

Vall Dan · Jan 07, 2008, 11:47 AM // 11:47

This is your bot-watch traffic report...heavy congestion on I-10 Northbound into Sunqua Vale...motorists in the International District might want to find alternate routes to work this morning...

sky sliverwolf · Jan 07, 2008, 11:52 AM // 11:52

LOL you know its bad when we get traffic reports

Yawgmoth · Jan 07, 2008, 01:03 PM // 13:03

A week ago I've seen them, got interested and I actually investigated this case. I was really interested how those bots are making money and how efficient it was.

I followed them from creation to deletion and tried to do exactly what they do, and possibly do that even better. I found that the average one lives 17 minutes, and make less than 1,300 gold (I haven't put down the exact number, I think it was about 815g + 4 monastery credits)

They are all Elementalists choosing secondary Warrior, simply because it's fastest (shortest ways) and the quests are one of easiest to automate (use 1-2 skills or just stay there and henchies kill). The last thing they do is Choose Your Secondary Profession quest and putting gold and monastery credits into storage. Yes, they lose 50g per character to open Xunlai storage account, they don't trade them to another bot account, just put into storage. Then immediately create another character and repeat. None of them do A Formal Introduction despite this quest being very very simple and rewarding 150g.

So they make near 1,300g in 17 minutes, at this rate it's near 4,500g per hour. Sounds really pathetic (It's still possible to farm 10-15k per hour consistently), but done nonstop 24 hours is over 110k hard cash a day, not depending on selling anything to people and fully automated.

They should be very easy to spot for the ban, all of them.

Holly Herro · Jan 07, 2008, 01:16 PM // 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yawgmoth

A week ago I've seen them, got interested and I actually investigated this case. I was really interested how those bots are making money and how efficient it was.

I followed them from creation to deletion and tried to do exactly what they do, and possibly do that even better. I found that the average one lives 17 minutes, and make less than 1,300 gold (I haven't put down the exact number, I think it was about 815g + 4 monastery credits)

They are all Elementalists choosing secondary Warrior, simply because it's fastest (shortest ways) and the quests are one of easiest to automate (use 1-2 skills or just stay there and henchies kill). The last thing they do is Choose Your Secondary Profession quest and putting gold and monastery credits into storage. Yes, they lose 50g per character to open Xunlai storage account, they don't trade them to another bot account, just put into storage. Then immediately create another character and repeat. None of them do A Formal Introduction despite this quest being very very simple and rewarding 150g.

So they make near 1,300g in 17 minutes, at this rate it's near 4,500g per hour. Sounds really pathetic (It's still possible to farm 10-15k per hour consistently), but done nonstop 24 hours is over 110k hard cash a day, not depending on selling anything to people and fully automated.

They should be very easy to spot for the ban, all of them.

Who needs a life when I can make that much money?

cebalrai · Jan 07, 2008, 01:32 PM // 13:32

I just reported my max in Shing Jea. It took about 60 seconds. They're streaming through there like a waterfall.... I hope anet does something about this...

onerabbit · Jan 07, 2008, 01:33 PM // 13:33

why are they all lvl 2 -3 .. speaking to Ludo, then leaving..

edit - found the answer reading through the thread =D

cebalrai · Jan 07, 2008, 01:37 PM // 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yawgmoth

A week ago I've seen them, got interested and I actually investigated this case. I was really interested how those bots are making money and how efficient it was.

I followed them from creation to deletion and tried to do exactly what they do, and possibly do that even better. I found that the average one lives 17 minutes, and make less than 1,300 gold (I haven't put down the exact number, I think it was about 815g + 4 monastery credits)

They are all Elementalists choosing secondary Warrior, simply because it's fastest (shortest ways) and the quests are one of easiest to automate (use 1-2 skills or just stay there and henchies kill). The last thing they do is Choose Your Secondary Profession quest and putting gold and monastery credits into storage. Yes, they lose 50g per character to open Xunlai storage account, they don't trade them to another bot account, just put into storage. Then immediately create another character and repeat. None of them do A Formal Introduction despite this quest being very very simple and rewarding 150g.

So they make near 1,300g in 17 minutes, at this rate it's near 4,500g per hour. Sounds really pathetic (It's still possible to farm 10-15k per hour consistently), but done nonstop 24 hours is over 110k hard cash a day, not depending on selling anything to people and fully automated.

They should be very easy to spot for the ban, all of them.

Perhaps they evade being banned since the character gets deleted before Anet can complete their investigation? They destroy the evidence...

Tom Swift · Jan 07, 2008, 01:38 PM // 13:38

O Great - now ANet will remove the reward from those first couple of quests and the new players will have to really struggle to be able to get to storage.

makosi · Jan 07, 2008, 02:04 PM // 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by cebalrai

So they make near 1,300g in 17 minutes, at this rate it's near 4,500g per hour. Sounds really pathetic (It's still possible to farm 10-15k per hour consistently), but done nonstop 24 hours is over 110k hard cash a day, not depending on selling anything to people and fully automated.

For arguments sake, suppose they 'earn' 1,000g in 15 minutes. This means that one bot makes 4,000g per hour or 96k a day. Now suppose someone is running 25 bots doing this same procedure over 24 hours - they make: 4k*24hours*25bots = 2,400k.

2.4 million a day isn't to be snuffed at.

Mark Nevermiss · Jan 07, 2008, 02:24 PM // 14:24

Please do not nerf the quest. Its the way I used to get my 100 gp to access storage on new chars.

MYSTERYouse · Jan 07, 2008, 02:26 PM // 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by cebalrai

Perhaps they evade being banned since the character gets deleted before Anet can complete their investigation? They destroy the evidence...

I am sure they can check actions performed by any of your chars, even when you delete them (this applies to the account too). As Gaile mentioned in some of her posts, ... you buy a key, we know it, you drop a coin, we know it ... (I dont have an exact quote, but the idea is same), everything is being logged on the server side, its only a matter of finding a time for investigating potential issues...

techiegal · Jan 07, 2008, 02:28 PM // 14:28

Maybe the should only give out one free trial account per IP address.