Incompetence in the BGS department of the initiative.
Proposal Discussion Anti Botting Agreement Idea 3.1 Player incentivised, VR compatible in-station "not-a-literal-Captcha"
- Thread starter Jane Turner
- Start date
As a VR player, I've learned to touch type & use voiceattack to simulate keystrokes.
I'm not a BGS player, but I guess they are messing up the BGS.
True, we should make our system more... noob friendly. You never quite managed to understand how it worked anyway. I'm guessing it's still a Mystery to the L's you passed it into?
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Well, I'm not the one failing to apply Occam's razor
No, just some common sense. Those sunglasses seem to be evidence-proof as well, they don't let it through.
Jane Turner
Volunteer Moderator
It's more tangible in the BGS, but I think Power Play is the bigger victim.
Occam's Razor IS common sense.
The only person who seems to be flat out biased to believing in a bot epidemic, despite common sense, or any argument for that matter, is you.
Here's an interesting experiment for those who haven't already made up their minds about this - as a comparison, try doing a search for 'EVE Online Bot' and you'll get a ton of sites and bots - EVE really does have bots as a result of their terrible grinding gameplay, a predictable and regular game system, and ability to trade in-game cash for character advancement.
On the other hand a search for 'Elite Dangerous Bot' gets you back pretty much nothing. I did find a link to the 'trainer'/cheating tool people have mentioned but that's it, not botting but hacks to the game client that are being detected by Frontier and acted upon (thanks to Wullail for providing the right search parameters).
Checking up on dual-boxing.com also reveals that no-one, on the busiest multiboxing site around, is interested in ED for the, in my opinion, obvious reasons that even with SCA and ADC ED needs a small amount of manual input from a pilot at times and that makes input broadcasting nigh on insurmountable.
This is all verifiable information that leads me to suspect that the ED 'botting problem' is vastly, if not entirely, overblown.
There is however another option that people may not have considered - wings. I believe that you can run multiple clients/computers, make a wing, and then carry out normal activities on one client while AFK on the others and get all of them credited for missions/bounties/etc. What I don't know is if that affects the bgs as a single player or counts as multiple. If it counts as multiple then it wouldn't take bots to have a strong impact just a multiboxer or three utilising legitimate techniques and a bit of effort, and a lot of players have multiple accounts nowadays.
At the end of the day, this is all moot. It's FDev who needs to be convinced of a bot epidemic, not the playerbase. If you can prove to them that action is needed, then it might be worth discussing what form this action should take.
I had the same results when I searched for "Elite Dangerous Bots"
I'm also still waiting for KKomrade to PM to me a link to the video of supposed bots being used, he did imply (I'm being fair here) that he had seen video evidence.
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shouldn't this thread be in the suggestions forum?
also, if fdev cared about botting - they wouldn't have continually made it more and more easy to make bots in the game. They wouldn't have created the player journal. They wouldn't have created auto-docking and super cruise auto pilot. They wouldn't have made space trucking and "exploration" 100% safe and begging to replace human cmdr's with scripts. And they wouldn't have made much of the local instance that's unshared with any other players invisible to a referee.
bots ...humans... doesn't really matter to them. the end result is positive for fdev. They look like they've got more players than otherwise, and outside of giving away free accounts, they got the same money either way (potentially even more since botters buy multiple accounts). They have little incentive to invest in bot mitigation and very little to expose how prevalent it actually is with the public.
also, if fdev cared about botting - they wouldn't have continually made it more and more easy to make bots in the game. They wouldn't have created the player journal. They wouldn't have created auto-docking and super cruise auto pilot. They wouldn't have made space trucking and "exploration" 100% safe and begging to replace human cmdr's with scripts. And they wouldn't have made much of the local instance that's unshared with any other players invisible to a referee.
bots ...humans... doesn't really matter to them. the end result is positive for fdev. They look like they've got more players than otherwise, and outside of giving away free accounts, they got the same money either way (potentially even more since botters buy multiple accounts). They have little incentive to invest in bot mitigation and very little to expose how prevalent it actually is with the public.
BGS/Powerplay needs to be an Open only mode. Don't need a captcha system we need to be rid of solo and private groups having an influence on mechanics that are supposed to be there to encourage player cooperation and competition.
The bots can then be visually seen, identified, ganked, reported to our heart's content.
We are trying to find solutions to issues that the Developers created.
The bots can then be visually seen, identified, ganked, reported to our heart's content.
We are trying to find solutions to issues that the Developers created.
Weren't the all modes are equal bit in the game when you bought it?
Just because its like that "when you bought it" does not necessarily prove that its right for the longevity and experience of the BGS/Powerplay activities. but do explain what you are trying to imply by your statement?
Imply?
A little obvious I'd think - perhaps I should have put it in block caps, it has been debated to death and Frontier sticks with the 'No change' responses - they would like to retain the majority of their player base, or something, probably.
The game is designed this way, you may not like it, but it is what it is - perhaps switch it and not have BGS in open - that would make equal sense, surely?
You can only automate repeating patterns. Not usually flying and navigating the universe.
Skripts to press Buy every 45 min? No problem. Now let's press 'buy' with the rest of the multiaccount army.
FDev hasnt really much interest fixing it - they make earnings from the sales.
Skripts to press Buy every 45 min? No problem. Now let's press 'buy' with the rest of the multiaccount army.
FDev hasnt really much interest fixing it - they make earnings from the sales.
Remove the tone and the personal references, it's not that I like or not like the game modes, it's that we need to bring the community together and play together. Wars are meant to be fought cooperatively in video games. This thread exists because bots is another example of the "unknown enemy" dynamic that plagues the BGS and Powerplay.
The communities that we all play with/against.. the ones that Jane represents, the communities I play in.. play in open. We support open play. Open play, influence transactions only will correct/go a far way to correcting many of the issues facing us like this bot issue.
So because a portion of the gaming community play one way, the remainder of the community should play that way or forego their role in a dynamic galaxy simulation that was presented by the developers as a part of the game for everyone?
Is there actually a 'bot issue' that can be proven to be having a major influence on the BGS, or does it remain suspicion still?
(no personal references there, I believe)
I see us at an impasse, all I can say is that I resonate with an opinion that entire powerplay factions (example Federation) advocate on their discords. As to bot evidence, I have no proof myself because I never get the opportunity to see them in open play. I'm sure you will permit me that chicanery.
modes have no impact on botting or not ..it's just easier to hide in non-open mode. But if anything forced them to be in open to do the same job, they'd just setup a firewall system that blocks connections to other players.
They'd be in open as far as fdev is concerned, but never connect with anyone's instance. The whole open-only arguments for anything in this game ignores the fact that the entire networking backend to elite dangerous lacks the arbitrator functionality needed for what you really want when you say "open-only".
That's not going to happen.
botting is real, botting has been going on for a while now. How much it matters depends on how much you play for the BGS.
They'd be in open as far as fdev is concerned, but never connect with anyone's instance. The whole open-only arguments for anything in this game ignores the fact that the entire networking backend to elite dangerous lacks the arbitrator functionality needed for what you really want when you say "open-only".
That's not going to happen.
botting is real, botting has been going on for a while now. How much it matters depends on how much you play for the BGS.