ED - A Script Kiddie's Wet Dream

[ilo]

Thing is, unlike with external, devs will know when those building blocks are (over)used, as it is an in-game process. And it would be easier to counteract the BGS damage inflicted.
Someone using an autopilot for 3 days non-stop is a good indicator of a bot, amrite?

Not a lot of people do want to bot. A lot of people want an autopilot, though, hence creating a market for both.

Furthermore, some things can be added to restrict prolonged autopilot usage, dumbest is the captcha, making those blocks unusable for botting. And making full external autopilots will be a long stretch with a niche market for it.

So, how had this prevented and helped tracking the bots we are discussing in this thread?

 

[MarkAusten]

As to motivation, the most obvious to me is that to many people, coding, or writing bots, is just plain fun. Many people choose software engineering as a career because they find it fun, not toil, not a chore.

Coding is puzzle solving... fun.

Bot coding would be the ultimate puzzle solving to many... challenging and fun.

And if ED happens to be a game you love, why not do both? (especially if it's more fun than the game itself, ahem). Writing a bot to farm infinite credits?... yeah, definitely fun to some people.

You have no idea! Have some rep as I can't give you any more at the moment.

 

[CMDR EDGEL0RD]

So, how had this prevented and helped tracking the bots we are discussing in this thread?

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/417722-Autopilot-thread

How about no to that.

How about we just reduce everything to Alpha when there was senarios from a menu.

That would be the simplist fix.
So it must be the right one

No no, just port Elite 1984 to PC and replace all ED game files with said port!
Elite Dangerous 4.0.84 - "Backwards"

 

[Whypay]

Crime and punishment update pls: ppl using BOTS get WANTED. Let the community have some fun ; )

 

[Sneake Llama]

When are you going to get around to dealing with the bots, FDev?

There are issues, and then there are ISSUES. Bots used in Power Play and BGS are a CRITICAL ISSUE.
If it is permitted to continue (let alone grow) the game will rapidly cease being about or for players at all. Players will become irrelevant. No player can move as much cargo/trade/merits as a bot. All the game will end up being is a contest between script-kiddies. Is that really the future Braben envisioned?

Stop putting it off. Even if it costs you some sales of extra accounts, it is critical the game remain centered around the players.

I've seen evidence of bots... but seriously. How many people actually use bots?

TBH, I don't think it's an issue. Out of thousands of players affecting the BGS, i doubt a handful are going to effect anything. I don't even know how Fdev could even detect something like that. Not to mention, bots are susceptible to random NPC interdictions. I doubt the scripts are complex enough to handle a scenario like that without getting killed.

 

[robbyp]

I thinks the whole thing is overblown as well. The game is complex with many variables that the effort of scripting it except for the most trival cases would be out of proportion to the reward.