Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

macros and bots

This topic has been closed.
    • 107 posts
    February 11, 2020 12:18 PM PST

    I've been playing classic wow while I wait for pantheon and the game is infested with unchecked bots. The economy is a mess. Every rare item or rare achievement like the pvp ones are perma farmed by a bot of some kind. Rumor even has it that these new bots purely use macros within the game so they dont break the terms of service. Macros are nice and all but maybe they shouldnt be allowed in an MMO at all. Does pantheon have any way to stop bots right out the gate? I'm so afraid it's going to get ruined by bots like so many before it.

    • 2001 posts
    February 11, 2020 12:28 PM PST

    Oh yes, that's been addressed more than once. The primary point I've heard is that the game will be very 'stingy' in how much 'hidden' info about the game it sends to the game client that is installed on your computer. Also, the macro functionality that is allowed to players will not allow multiple abilities to be activated by one macro(keypress). There are also other ways that are available that they do not discuss for obvious reasons. They have said more than once that prohibiting 'botting' is a high priority.

    • 107 posts
    February 11, 2020 12:34 PM PST

    I hope you are right. Blizzard claims its a high priority too but... yeah they run rampant in classic.

    • 1019 posts
    February 12, 2020 12:21 PM PST

    Some companies are doing so well they don't care.  Some companies are doing so poorly they welcome the extra accounts.

    • 1428 posts
    February 12, 2020 12:43 PM PST

    zendrel said:

    I hope you are right. Blizzard claims its a high priority too but... yeah they run rampant in classic.

    activision blizzard claims a lot of things.

    https://www.warcraft3refunded.com/

    lul.

    maybe it's just activision now and all that's left is a husk of blizzard.

    • 521 posts
    February 16, 2020 5:51 AM PST

    Every online game has promises to minimize, stop or otherwise handle the issue of cheating/Botting, and every online game once launched is affected by cheaters/botters to some degree, although mostly just rampant infections.

    It will continue to be that way because, Security generally isn't cost effective, so its gets relegated to the Customer service department and people aren't typically willing to deal with an invasive system of identify checks to permanently ban cheaters from any online game.

    I would love it if the industry pooled together to required a standardized Gamer ID to play, so getting banned is permanent, and for all games. Never gonna happen, so were left to deal with cheaters.

    • 133 posts
    February 16, 2020 9:35 AM PST

    The only way that I see things like bots and such being taken care of, is if you don't allow dual boxing or boxing of any sort. They seem to go hand in hand from what I can tell. Most box because they can, and their reasons vary. Some do it because they don't want to replay areas, and other do it because it takes too long to run yet another character through the game itself, there are also the people that just, don't like playing with other people or just don't have the time to waste sitting waiting for a group. Whatever the reason, people do it and it's what leads to having macros that are a one key press for 4 characters in a game. Not only that, people that turn a profit on account selling and gold farming usually use these methods as well. If you get rid of the allowance of boxing in any way, you stem the use of bots and macros, as well as account selling and gold farming down some. It's one way you could try to curb macro use and boxing/botting. Though ultimately you are going to have people that do it no matter what. For what reasons at that point is their own.

    I'm sure there are ways that you could have people that cheat like this banned. Maybe through IP banning, or even though just banning the account in general? I'm not sure to be honest. Though from the many games I have played and many of the TOS I have read, they pretty much have the same stance on botting/boxing and macro use. They state that anyone caught doing it will either have their account banned and if they continue to make new accounts to do it, they will ban the IP. With VPN being a thing, I'm not sure how they plan to continue with such bans. Overall, even if most companies slack on getting rid of people that do these things, they have all come to the collective agreement as to what will be done. At the end of the day though, it will happen, it's going to happen, no MMO is exempt from it. It's what VR plans to do about it and if they follow through with it that's going to determine how rampant or not it is.

    • 2001 posts
    February 16, 2020 1:13 PM PST

    Just recently Joppa told us that VR has changed it's position and will NOT allow boxing in Pantheon. I don't box and am quite happy with that decision.

    Nevertheless, I must disagree with the implication that boxing leads to botting or that most boxers bot. Or even that most botters also box. I doubt that there are any authoritative statistics on the subject, so any opinions including mine are just that - opinions.

    It is truly impossible to eliminate ALL cheating from an MMO. The real issue is whether one can keep it below a certain 'critical mass', such that the average player will rarely or never be bothered by it. I believe that is doable, and VR has said all the right things about their commitment to do just that. All we can do at this point is wait to see how it goes after release.

     

     

    • 2419 posts
    February 16, 2020 4:57 PM PST

    Jothany said:

    Just recently Joppa told us that VR has changed it's position and will NOT allow boxing in Pantheon.

    Where did he specifically state that VR has definitely said that boxing will be against the TOS?  Because for the last 5+ years the position has been they are trying to design combat to be so involved that boxing would be too difficult to be viable. But I've not ever heard them say it will be a bannable offense.

    • 2001 posts
    February 16, 2020 5:03 PM PST

    Vandraad said:

    Jothany said:

    Just recently Joppa told us that VR has changed it's position and will NOT allow boxing in Pantheon.

    Where did he specifically state that VR has definitely said that boxing will be against the TOS?  Because for the last 5+ years the position has been they are trying to design combat to be so involved that boxing would be too difficult to be viable. But I've not ever heard them say it will be a bannable offense.

    It was in a vid, one of the recent rounds of answering questions. In the last month, maybe 6 weeks at most. I'll try to find the exact link.

    • 9115 posts
    February 16, 2020 5:49 PM PST

    Our stance has not changed. Please use the search function prior to creating a new topic as this has been discussed many times before with official replies.

    10.4 Will multi-boxing be allowed in Pantheon?

    Our reaction to multi-boxing is to try something first before we even entertain the idea of artificially restricting it. We want to make combat, especially mid and higher level combat, so tactically intense, with so much going on, so much to do, so much to counter, so many companions to keep alive and the timing of many abilities crucial, that multi-boxing is extremely difficult if not impossible and likely far inferior to having an actual real person in your group.

     

    https://www.pantheonmmo.com/game/faqs/