Bots!

Delmarte - Lost City

Ok so I'm not a beginner. But there's still a lot to learn. Recently I've taken an interest in bots.

How often does botting occur? How sophisticated are these cheaters? How can you spot them? What's the maximum a bot is capable of?

Tell me everything you know!

PS: I myself don't wanna bot. I at least know it'll get my account erased. I'm just curious.

eatwithspoons

There's no real way to get an accurate estimate on the questions you're asking. I'd suggest seeking other means to find the information, as answers to some of your questions could be construed as promotion of botting b:shocked

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

I saw this post somewhere on this forum months ago but not sure where. It said that most bots pick up drops that including money. So what this person did was put trails of 1 coins close to them so that their bot would prioritize to pick it up, and led the coin trail straight to the city lol. I have no idea whether or not this is still possible. ;P

StrangeScar - Lost City

Bots can be determain by someone who continue does the same attacks and heals at a % of their health, also they will just attack any mob, like if your attacking a mob, they will just join. they tend to pick up everything, with a 1 or 2 second delay. if your not sure if its a bot, yes or no, just pm him or her, if she doesnt react to like 10 pm's, you can be quite sure its a bot

Lacrimosa - Harshlands

Veno botters are easy to spot. They'll heal their pet unnecessarily, kill mobs without discretion, use recovery item, after X times, etc.

Then there are people who use advertising bots. This isn't just limited to gold farmers or spamming those sites. If you log in at random times of the day, enter Arch, occasionally you'll see the same person spamming at a certain interval. As mentioned above, try pming them, saying your interested in haggling or buying an item that they're advertising and see if they actually reply. Check the time that they spam at, like 1:05:10, 1:06:20 and so on. If they continue doing this with such precision and don't respond, there is a possibility they are botting.

Tearvalerin - Sanctuary

so those people spamming NEED 1 FOR FQ are really bots rofl?

Lacrimosa - Harshlands

Tearvalerin - Sanctuary wrote: »

so those people spamming NEED 1 FOR FQ are really bots rofl?

Nah, no real point in that. I mean for those in cat shops.

TameThat - Sanctuary

StrangeScar - Lost City wrote: »

Bots can be determain by someone who continue does the same attacks and heals at a % of their health, also they will just attack any mob, like if your attacking a mob, they will just join. they tend to pick up everything, with a 1 or 2 second delay. if your not sure if its a bot, yes or no, just pm him or her, if she doesnt react to like 10 pm's, you can be quite sure its a bot

You guys are both wrong, when I grind I don't tend to read the chat at all, so if you pm me your mostly just not gonna get any answer. So someone not answering doesn't mean he's botting. If you spam someone, your most likely just gonna end up on his blacklist and when your on he's blacklist he doesn't see your spam.

Doing the same attack is also an other wrong thing to look at, when your grinding, your most likely gonna use the same combo/macro over and over again.

Lacrimosa - Harshlands wrote: »

Veno botters are easy to spot. They'll heal their pet unnecessarily, kill mobs without discretion, use recovery item, after X times, etc.

Then there are people who use advertising bots. This isn't just limited to gold farmers or spamming those sites. If you log in at random times of the day, enter Arch, occasionally you'll see the same person spamming at a certain interval. As mentioned above, try pming them, saying your interested in haggling or buying an item that they're advertising and see if they actually reply. Check the time that they spam at, like 1:05:10, 1:06:20 and so on. If they continue doing this with such precision and don't respond, there is a possibility they are botting.

Healing pet unnecessarily is a wrong thing to look at, most veno that use macro to hunt will have the "Heal Pet" attack at the end of their macro. Your most likely gonna interpret that as botting even tough the personn isn't.

Killing mobs without discretion is also an other wrong factor. If you have a strong build, your most likely just gonna pick the closest enemy each time. And some people don't care about the other, does that mean they are bot ?

Using recovery item is botting ? Seriously ...

There isn't any way to be 100% sure someone is botting, but there is "suspicious" thing that you can notice. That's all, stop saying all over the forum you can "easily" spot a botter. You can't and you're most likely just gonna report some people that aren't botting at all.

Lacrimosa - Harshlands

TameThat - Sanctuary wrote: »

You guys are both wrong, when I grind I don't tend to read the chat at all, so if you pm me your mostly just not gonna get any answer.

This is a problem imo. I totally understand that some people like to turn off chats to focus on grinding, watching tv as you play, or would just like to be left alone, but you have to consider that there are other people around you sometimes. I've never had a major ksing incident, but if I'm pming you kindly to stop or just asking you about a quest, to party, or whatever it may be, it just takes a few seconds to reply. I admit, I do ignore people sometimes, but it can't go to that far extent varying on the situation that I can't reply at all. But that's just how I handle things and it differs for everyone. Especially if in any case a GM shows up to check on what's going on. If someone whispers you asking if you're there or botting, will you really ignore that?

Healing pet unnecessarily is a wrong thing to look at, most veno that use macro to hunt will have the "Heal Pet" attack at the end of their macro. Your most likely gonna interpret that as botting even tough the personn isn't.

Killing mobs without discretion is also an other wrong factor. If you have a strong build, your most likely just gonna pick the closest enemy each time. And some people don't care about the other, does that mean they are bot ?

Using recovery item is botting ? Seriously ...

There isn't any way to be 100% sure someone is botting, but there is "suspicious" thing that you can notice. That's all, stop saying all over the forum you can "easily" spot a botter. You can't and you're most likely just gonna report some people that aren't botting at all.

I forgot about the macros, you got me at that.
I wasn't thorough with my post, but when I say discretion, it involves the players around you. I can't be targeting a mob I see a blademaster or barb is going at constantly without getting some response from them in some form, - whether it be they attack me, say something at least vulgar or not, show a human response.
Afaik, you can't put recovery items on macro. And you won't be using HP pots over and over intentionally if there is no HP loss. (This isn't with Intersoul Switch or any of the hp/mp skills for venos.) Sometimes (at least the ones below level 30) when bots die they end up in town, running into a wall, while potting constantly.

Ichimokusan - Sanctuary

When people leave trails of coins I always pick them up and play along so they think I'm a bot. One time someone dropped 10k coin by accident or maybe they wanted to be nice to the bot.

Belligero - Sanctuary

Honestly, I have not encountered a single Bot in PWI so far... didn't think it was even possible to bot in this game...

>.<

Dominatiger - Sanctuary

I saw 2 bots one time when i was grinding... to bad I wont remember the names.

Bots usually grind on places were a few people go, the most hidden as possible.