Hey guys,

I pre-ordered this game, been playing the beta weekends, although not that much.  The game is cool so far, I think it's fun, seems to have good potential.

However, I have recently read extensive posts from veteran Lineage I & II players about what NCSoft MMO turn into.  Botters outgrinding regular players, hence dominating them.  I'm definitely not interested in the game if it turns into botter's world like most Asian MMOs turn into.

Discuss please.

Too bad you didn't participate in the beta that much. If you did, and read the beta forum, as well as checked here, you'd find my reply on the topic where I quoted both the commuminy manager (Ayase) and a GM .

Basically it comes down that agains botters, RMT's and exploiters they will use a zero-tollerance policy. If you get caught, your account (not only the Aion account, but your whole PlayNC account) will be banned permanently.

Aion also has a bot-button as Lineage II has. So when you see someone botting, report ;)

Like you, I've had the same concerns, but in all 3 beta events, they (CM / GM) stated the zero-tollerance policy, so I keep my hopes up ;)

Lineage 2 also had a zero-tolerance policy and we all know how that worked.

All games say they have a zero-tolerance policy so I could care less what they say, I want to see them put the policy into actions and work aggressively against botters/farmers.

Originally posted by templarga

Lineage 2 also had a zero-tolerance policy and we all know how that worked.

All games say they have a zero-tolerance policy so I could care less what they say, I want to see them put the policy into actions and work aggressively against botters/farmers.

Templarga is right, it is easy to say that they will have a zero tolerance policy actually honoring it is another thing entirly.  Even though I enjoy playing Aion I don't have a lot of faith in what NCsoft says so only time will tell how well botters are dealt with.

Sadly every game will have botters and RMT. The main difference is that when games go to NA and EU we have more voice over these things and will send GM's 100's of messages and then leave the game. I am sure that NCsoft knows this and will do alot better with Aion. Well we can olny hope....... if not they will not get my monthly payment. Thats why i go month to month on all my MMO's =))

As the Koren player KillKill2 said,

I'm ok with a limited amount of botting.  All games have this issue and it's practically impossible to catch every account as it's created; they also keep the economy moving by lessoning the cost of raw materials.  An active player is going to charge you a lot more for the boring harvest of 1000 plants.

Overabundance of botting is another issue though.  I don't want them killing off the quest mobs day after day...  If there's a few bots in Aion it's not going to ruin my party, as long as NCSoft keeps them from being the player trains they were in L2. 

Originally posted by templarga

Lineage 2 also had a zero-tolerance policy and we all know how that worked.

Well, some players who are playing on the Asian servers say that end levels in Aion are getting dominated by bots.  I would like to know the real deal, as I know L2 was botter's world.

I heard HGMSpam from Lineage II is moderating Aion, is that true? If so I think bots should probably watch themselves, as if I remember right HGMSpam fucked up their days until he left. Still Lineage II was a pretty bad case, probably because the entire game got so dependent on bots. I think if NCSoft starts with a strong policy from the start it will help.

I just hope it isn't like those Korean games that when I log on the chat is just spam spam spam and noone is human...just bots.....and there are sooo many.........and your just standing in a sea of bots.........*cries as if his mind has been bot raped*

I don't think NCSoft will risk the potential million(s) player subscriptions to allow botting like they did in L1/L2.  Western gamers has a way lower tolerance to botting vs the Asians.  I have read a few articles on the amount of botting that goes on in Aion Korea, which I believe they try to deal with the best they can.  We'll juse have to see how it plays out when the game releases.  But really, it's going to be inevitable, especially in this game that has potential to have a mass number of subscribers; this doesn't give NCSoft any excuse to slack though.  I don't mind a tell or mail once in a while from gold spammers, but none of the region chat spamming.

We'll see, fingers crossed.

I've read on one of the Korean sites that there is quite a large population of bots already in their version.

Not to mention NCSoft have stated they will most likely be using GameGaurd as their "anti hacking" system, anyone who has played a game with GG will know that its absolutely riddled with bots.

People have already started to make and change korean made bots for the western version, I hope this dosn't break the game. P.S im not trying to burn the game, just saying :)
 

ok I have played on the China servers and i will share my experience with the bots. Now understand first that it was the CHINA SERVER im not saying this is how the N/A servers will be.

The server i was on had just opened up so everybody was low level, my first day on the server on the very first quest i had to deal with bots.  there was hundreds of them in the damn starting areas already killing EVERYTHING. Now some people had told me that its very commen that when a new server opens up players from other servers will just make characters on that new server and bot them up. Well it sucked big time for the ones who were actually trying to play the game.

As the days went on and i started moving onto different zones it seemed like i could never escape the bots. it got so bad that they would out level the mobs by 3 -7 levels and start 2 shotting them, now let me say this when you have a quest to kill 10 or so of a surtan mob and you have 20 bots that are 7 levels higher then the mob your trying to kill. you will NEVER out kill them for it. makeing that quest useless.

now once again im not saying this is how the N/A servers will be, because i really loved the game and want to play it when it comes out here. but when people say NCSoft has a no tolerance policey on bots, i call BS on that because any dumbass could spot bots out and ban 500+ bots a day EASY on that server i was on, and it wasnt happening.

Originally posted by DrunkWolf

ok I have played on the China servers and i will share my experience with the bots. Now understand first that it was the CHINA SERVER im not saying this is how the N/A servers will be.

The server i was on had just opened up so everybody was low level, my first day on the server on the very first quest i had to deal with bots.  there was hundreds of them in the damn starting areas already killing EVERYTHING. Now some people had told me that its very commen that when a new server opens up players from other servers will just make characters on that new server and bot them up. Well it sucked big time for the ones who were actually trying to play the game.

As the days went on and i started moving onto different zones it seemed like i could never escape the bots. it got so bad that they would out level the mobs by 3 -7 levels and start 2 shotting them, now let me say this when you have a quest to kill 10 or so of a surtan mob and you have 20 bots that are 7 levels higher then the mob your trying to kill. you will NEVER out kill them for it. makeing that quest useless.

now once again im not saying this is how the N/A servers will be, because i really loved the game and want to play it when it comes out here. but when people say NCSoft has a no tolerance policey on bots, i call BS on that because any dumbass could spot bots out and ban 500+ bots a day EASY on that server i was on, and it wasnt happening.

Same experience with Aion China here.
 

Bots (some with hacks) ended up over populating some zones on a 90% ratio, making the game unplayable.

Originally posted by Nadril

I heard HGMSpam from Lineage II is moderating Aion,

Hahah.  That would be pretty funny. 

Yes GMSpam was the bane of bots everywhere.  I'm pretty sure all he needed was a screen shot and they were gone.

I started this topic over on Aion Source as well.

Not much we can do right now but sit back and hope NC Soft has better support for this game than Lineage 2 in this regard

The China servers, from my experience, do not seem to do much in the way of stopping bots.  Most I saw as I leveled up named QDTR, QGRA, GTRA and other obvious names.  Then once they reached near max level, the zones are covered with the them constantly farming and killing.  Day in and Day out, I would see the same bots in the same place and reported them until it wouldn't let me report anymore.  But alas, they were always there.

It is quite bad, so much so it had to be incorporated into game play.  From a PvP aspect, we would know where the rifters were by looking at areas where the bots were gone or the resurrection points where the bots would be gathered attempting to path back to their farm point.  Also, when we would go rifting, first we would clear an area of bots, then quickly run to the respawn for that area and just kill the bots over and over.  It kind of killed roaming PvP, I mean hunt isn't rewarding when you can just farm AP by killing bots who continue to respawn and try to walk back.

I truly hope the NA/EU moderation of the game isn't so lax.

China's ideology on botting is vastly different from ours, and there's also IP restriction for Aion where I don't believe there was for Lineage. You can't even purchase the US version if you're not in the US, and same for the EU version, so that will make it more difficult for asian/S.American bot-fiends to fill the servers (and no, I'm not saying all botters are Asian or Brazillian but, let's be real, most are).

I wouldn't compare one nation that's got what, 3 times the population of the US or more, and their bot notoriety with what will happen in the US. I'm sure there will be bots, but I don't think it will be as bad as people are making it out to be. If it is, I'll be one of the first quitting.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

China's ideology on botting is vastly different from ours, and there's also IP restriction for Aion where I don't believe there was for Lineage. You can't even purchase the US version if you're not in the US, and same for the EU version, so that will make it more difficult for asian/S.American bot-fiends to fill the servers (and no, I'm not saying all botters are Asian or Brazillian but, let's be real, most are).

 

I wouldn't compare one nation that's got what, 3 times the population of the US or more, and their bot notoriety with what will happen in the US. I'm sure there will be bots, but I don't think it will be as bad as people are making it out to be. If it is, I'll be one of the first quitting.

Botting is a concern of mine. In general, NA / EU players have a much lower tolerance for bots than anybody else. However, I will give NCsoft the benefit of doubt unless I personally see issues. Aion is a great looking game and fun to play atm.

Ya know, I'm gonna sit on the other side of the fence with this one.

I don't think a game full of bots who are goldfarming would be much fun to play on - so I 100% agree with you there.

On the other hand what if I wanted to leave a bot farming/advancing my character for a couple of hours while I was out at work - so I didn't have to spend all my gaming time farming, I could just do the fun PvP?

What makes me think this way is Darkfall where like many others I would use AFK macroing to gain skill. If it were at all possible everyone would have afk harvested as well, but with it being a PvP winner keeps all game that wasn't possible.

Aion however would be possible to do that. I could come home from work to a bag overflowing with harvested materials, for crafting ect.

Where would the harm be in that?

I know many replies will have very clever answers, but I expect many people would feel the same way as me - but might just not be as vocal about it.

Bone

Botting will happen. Sure sure the community managers are making big promises but the reality will look different.

Then again let botters bot and enjoy the game for what it has.

Originally posted by Forumfall

Botting will happen. Sure sure the community managers are making big promises but the reality will look different.

Then again let botters bot and enjoy the game for what it has.

I shall not enjoy swimming in a sea of bots! I would rather kill the ones I can (( can we make allies hostile? if not then........ *pouts*)) or report them! HATE BOTS!

This talk "it will happen, why fight against it, why complain" is BS.

The more pressure players put in this concern, the more serious NCSoft will believe their ACTIONS will need to be, aka placing it in their expenses list with higher priorities.

I'd pretty much dare to say those with the "why bother, it will happen, RMT, botting are inevitable" are the ones that actually want to see it flourishing but can't directly manifest so in some forums. Otherwise, why even bother to have fun and live, death is inevitable anyway.

Originally posted by EricDanie

This talk "it will happen, why fight against it, why complain" is BS.

The more pressure players put in this concern, the more serious NCSoft will believe their ACTIONS will need to be, aka placing it in their expenses list with higher priorities.

I'd pretty much dare to say those with the "why bother, it will happen, RMT, botting are inevitable" are the ones that actually want to see it flourishing but can't directly manifest so in some forums. Otherwise, why even bother to have fun and live, death is inevitable anyway.

I fully agree with this post, and I would just like to add:

"Botters and their supporters should suffer some painful torture and later die in a pit of fire, as well as go bankrupt and become impotent"

Whether anyone else agrees with me, idc, would just like to state my final opinion on botting :P

Originally posted by Forumfall

Botting will happen. Sure sure the community managers are making big promises but the reality will look different.

Then again let botters bot and enjoy the game for what it has.

Well even my chinese guildmates didn't enjoy much the game when raiding zones with more bots than actual mobs.

Originally posted by Locklain

Originally posted by templarga

Lineage 2 also had a zero-tolerance policy and we all know how that worked.

All games say they have a zero-tolerance policy so I could care less what they say, I want to see them put the policy into actions and work aggressively against botters/farmers.

Templarga is right, it is easy to say that they will have a zero tolerance policy actually honoring it is another thing entirly.  Even though I enjoy playing Aion I don't have a lot of faith in what NCsoft says so only time will tell how well botters are dealt with.

Lineage 2 feelt more like they tolerated botters tbh. People where have whole partys of 5 people as bots since he/she was running 5 clients. But from what I hear and read they will be much harder and closer to the zero-tolerance policy in Aion. We just have to wait and see. And its also up to the players to report when ever you see any ofc. Unless they come up with newer ways to detect bots. But I will sure play Aion, it looks promising, I preordered the collectors edition and I played all beta tests. I have 2 level 20 and one level 15 and I like the game. Also that killing mobs takes more time, so you cant go around oneshooting things.