Automation and Scripting - An investigation into further abuses of BGS and Powerplay

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Stigbob

Stigbob
sollisb said:
Not diss'ing you in any way... But.. Wouldn't letting someone else use your account also be cheating/against SLA?

I'm in the 'couldnt care less' camp about the extra pip to be honest; FDev do enough cheating themselves on the combat front. Botting on the other hand is just cheap.
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No idea if it's against the SLA and don't really care, FDEV don't ban cheats so they are hardly likely to go after me for letting visiting relatives loose on the NPC's.

It actually cost me a few rebuys rather than granted me an extra pip in game, so I don't really see a comparison.
 

The Librarian

The Librarian
Quote -

"This is actually very tricky ground.. FDev allow 'some' automation like Voice Attack, which gives a 'competitive' advantage? They allow reading of the journal, and allow updating private databases with information, which is then fed to players to give another unfair advantage?

So.. Which is allowed, and which is not?

That EULA isn't worth the paper it's written on.

A simple example; Is it ok for me to write some voice activated scripts?"

As long as your script doesn't respond to "Fly my ship around for the next 12 hours carrying out a pre-defined set of tasks" by doing that, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine.

I have a macro on my mouse that requests docking for me, pretty sure that is also fine.

To be blunt, the bots have crossed a fairly clear line in the sand between a little bit of assistance with common tasks, and full flight automation. This game is about flying around in your kick- star-ships, in order to further your given agenda. Once you let a bit a code do all that for you, the game becomes meaningless for everyone, as code never sleeps.

Saying that, I hope for their sake that the bot runners have cheap electricity. Muppets.
 
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sollisb

Banned
S
The Librarian said:
Quote -

"This is actually very tricky ground.. FDev allow 'some' automation like Voice Attack, which gives a 'competitive' advantage? They allow reading of the journal, and allow updating private databases with information, which is then fed to players to give another unfair advantage?

So.. Which is allowed, and which is not?

That EULA isn't worth the paper it's written on.

A simple example; Is it ok for me to write some voice activated scripts?"

As long as your script doesn't respond to "Fly my ship around for the next 12 hours carrying out a pre-defined set of tasks" by doing that, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine.

I have a macro on my mouse that requests docking for me, pretty sure that is also fine.

To be blunt, the bots have crossed a fairly clear line in the sand between a little bit of assistance with common tasks, and full flight automation. This game is about flying around in your kick- star-ships, in order to further your given agenda. Once you let a bit a code do all that for you, the game becomes meaningless for everyone, as code never sleeps.

Saying that, I hope for their sake that the bot runners have cheap electricity. Muppets.
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I would tend to agree. re automation limits. but, FDev I think, need to clarify.
 

Wizz15

W
sollisb said:
This is actually very tricky ground.. FDev allow 'some' automation like Voice Attack, which gives a 'competitive' advantage? They allow reading of the journal, and allow updating private databases with information, which is then fed to players to give another unfair advantage?

So.. Which is allowed, and which is not?

That EULA isn't worth the paper it's written on.

A simple example; Is it ok for me to write some voice activated scripts?
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Regardless of the EULA, I believe most Western countries have laws that prohibit stressing hardware that is not yours (for example with botnets). Most services are run with the idea that a human will use them (so nobody will use it 24/7). Bots however cause continuous stress on a system (especially botnets) which negatively impacts a services ability to perform and could even have negative financial impact on the target, depending on how many bots there are and how long they operate.

This is very much illegal in my country (and others like mine), regardless if it was mentioned in the EULA or not. As for your example: I believe scripts assisting players are ok, but as soon as you take the player out of the equation, it becomes a bot (or botnet if you have multiple bot accounts that you can control with a single human)
 
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Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
BarryCarlyon said:
Perhaps, but the originally observed accounts have ALWAYS performed bot type operations at no point have the accounts been "handed back" to a human operator, based on observed traffic patterns.

So, it doesn't seem like this software is being used to auto progress CMDR accounts. Just to destroy/counter BGS and powerplay
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There's only one solution then: Scrap them both.

It will be a Martin Luther event, as the BGS is Holy Writ.
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
raeat said:
To those asking "why bot in open?" here is my response:

Botting in open lets the target players know that you are running bots that can do much, much more work than the players can account for. You do it in open to break the will of the target.
Remember 90% of the game is half mental.

'Nuff said?
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Or, in other words, we can (REDACTED) you, and Frontier won't do anything about it, for fear of social media backlash/loss of sales.

Martin Schou said:
And the BGS while you're at it, because that bit is also affected. And since they're trade bots, they're likely having an influence on trade CGs as well, so they also need to be removed.

But sure - let's wipe out the collective efforts of several thousand players across almost four years, because someone on the forums doesn't like that feature.

Alternatively youcould grow up and act like an adult.
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Or, you could play EVE. :)
 

raeat

Banned
raeat
master_xean

Today we are talking about bots in a game. There's a time and place for SJW nonsensical hilarity. This is neither. Give it a rest.

Stop trying to derail a serious conversation with stuff irrelevant to the topic.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Ralph Vargr said:
Or, in other words, we can (REDACTED) you, and Frontier won't do anything about it, for fear of social media backlash/loss of sales.
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Arguably, Raeat might be onto something there.

After all, some ousted Cheaters (Client Hacks etc.) often continued doing what they did and even boasted about it in the past, all in Open and basically in public (fully aware anyone could record or screenshot their given Chat messages).
Seems extremely odd, but those characters existed for months at a time - and often were apparently proud of what they did. Which is what led to witnesses and Players who reported them a long time ago get quite frustrated.

I remember seeing related Stories here in the Forum for quite some time in the distant past, it was probably far worse on other Sites like Reddit etc.
 

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
Thread re-opened.

Any more "stalker" discussion - which accusations of bots, and gathering evidence, is not by the way, will result in infractions for off-topic.

You have been warned. I'll be "stalking" this topic to make sure everyone behaves.

Many thanks,
your friendly local neighbourhood moderator.

X
 
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