I don't get the hate for bots, what's really wrong with that?

Trollymctrollerson

T
I think bots are the persistent NPCs that everyone has been asking for! Joking aside, the real reason bots are noticed and become a problem is because ONLY humans affect the BGS and power play. All the NPCs hauling cargo and clogging the mail slot dont actually contribute anything to the game aside of ephemeral aesthetics. I see power play ships hauling power play stuff all the time but they evaporate when I log out. Bots are a problem because the BGS is half baked and power play is just botched in every way that matters. Also, when the game is a simplistic repeat of the same button sequences that are so easily automated, it's a pretty damning indictment of the "gameplay".
 

aRJay

aRJay
AlaricVonDrago said:
You have to understand the mind of programmers. It is their game to write bots, scripts, etc. That's the fun they get out of it. To make a program that can play the game. AI is a big field. Some do it for the online fame, glory, or just as a personal challenge. Or just to troll people like you who find it so revolting. Life is strange =)

I've written bots, but not for games. For work and other tasks. It's a fun field, very interesting. Personally, I want to play my games and that's how I spend my time, to be a better player. But some people like the thrill of beating devs at their own game, or winning at any cost. Hacker culture a bit, otherwise, just nerds. Just competitive people.

And for others, it's a legit business as one other poster was saying.
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Which begs the question why bother using them after you have proved you can do it on a game where there is no win possible.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Deejayeff145 said:
I know. Living the dream!



Yeah, I get the standard docking computer and to a certain extent the SC autopilot, but I can't think of any time that undocking was ever a problem. I mean maybe in a T-9, T-10 or a Cutter you might catch the sides a bit, but for a new player in a Sidewinder? I'd have thought that's the easy part.
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I have crashed more small ships trying to leave a station than large ones.
 

Chaparral

Chaparral
Ralph Vargr said:
Kill the Sacred BGS, and Power Play. Frontier pretty much makes it up, anyway.

Let battles in open decide things. Or, open trade. That way the players decide the outcome.

Of course, we will lose the servers for 16 hours a day, but Frontier is OK with that... :)
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This is the nut of the issue. The BGS. PMFs essentially require volunteer labor to do drudgery grinds to maintain positive states in their controlled systems.

A few 24 / 7 bots essentially invalidate the hard "work" of many BGS pmf players.

I am personally very negative about the BGS since the BGS generates the missions which I find extremely restrictive. The mission BGS interaction takes the focus away from being a career-oriented pilot to one that has to decipher the arcanum of system states and corresponding mission types. This also requires rebuilding rep in the systems you have to move into to pursue your career.

Like Ralph, I would like to blow up the BGS and have mission sets based on population and industrial focus. Then bots would be irrelevant.
 

voidwalker

voidwalker
If I'm sitting here actively putting in the effort to earn whatever rewards I'm due from the gaming activity I'm participating in, while someone else is earning those same rewards without doing anything at all, and just letting an algorithm automate the procedure, then two things are happening. The first is, that player isn't actually earning anything, the algorithm is. The second is that I'm now competing against an NPC, not a player. That's why botting is frowned upon. And OP, you're right, developers that don't sufficiently take measures to prevent said botting are indeed complicit. However, they are COMPLICIT, not solely responsible. Let's not pretend that the people who make the choice to let a bot play the game for them aren't largely responsible for that choice themselves. They don't suddenly lose their agency and personal responsibility just because someone made it easy for them to break the rules. Botting happens, primarily, when PLAYERS decide they shouldn't be expected to play the game the same way everyone else does, and I will never ever have the same degree of ire for a developer that I have for the cheating scumbags that are so arrogant and lacking in principle as to make that choice.
 

Jaggedmallard

Jaggedmallard
Gregg Rulz ok said:
I fail to see how making PP open only will solve this, sure it would help but credits are cheap and you can't blow up ships 24/7.
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People could do it enough to severely limit the effectiveness of the bots, the real reason it wouldn't work is that instancing is broken so bots would just either block every player they see or fiddle with their network to avoid being instanced with others.
 

starman

starman
Cmdrs illegally paying cash for credits via goldfarmers is a really big issue that does not seem to be being addressed properly. It distorts the ED economy. The Bank of Zanonce has launched an investigation into this practice.
 

Crumley

Crumley
starman said:
For a moment I read that you stopped playing because your mate died... I hope he is OK..
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Whoops, bad grammar there obviously...He was fine last week when I phoned him :) I meant it to say the game eventually died. my only excuse is I'm only half a cup of coffee into the day so far.
 
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