At the Crossroads of what is and what could be?

[joojoo1975]

So folks I have a hypothetical question:





Lets say that J&L has found the way to totally eliminate bots and alts from W16 steam release. That you could only log in with your 1 character and all scripts and whatnot was totally nullified. But they also will start another Server at the same time that will run like W15 and the past has ran. No real lockdown on bots or Alts.


Which server would you play? The one char only server or the other server?


For the Record? I would pick the 1 char only server.








(edited for clarity and server choice)

[Pills]

Bots & Alts 4 life lad.

Mostly alts but my farming bot is essentially to sticking around for me, i simply don't have the time in my life for that anymore.

Then again i've always being pro-bots/automation so long as it doesn't impact others. the moment it becomes part of pvp it should be bannable. But I do also think the things that are most commonly botted are just features that need improving, what those improvements are though is difficult to say/suggest.

Farming, for instance, 95% of it is fodder for animals. fix the need for so much fodder, add to default client an action to automatically harvest, sort best Q and replant a field and boom, no more real need for farming bots in custom clients.

[Nightdawg]

I would prefer a server in which you didn't need to bot:

Our philosophy has been, and remains, that we – rather than spend our time fighting losing battles – should focus on building a better game with fewer incentives to bot. We try to take botting as a sign of a broken game mechanic, rather than as a sign of broken players.

I can still leave my character online overnight to bot refuelling the steel crucibles regardless of your server rules.
The fact that I *NEED* to do it, in order to get a full night's sleep, that's my problem.

[Pills]

The fact that I *NEED* to do it, in order to get a full night's sleep, that's my problem.

Exactly. The fight leading up to this wipe complaining about bots sure is forgetting why people use the bots in the first place. this is 90% of the problem as to why bots even exist

[Dawidio123]

Farming, for instance, 95% of it is fodder for animals. fix the need for so much fodder, add to default client an action to automatically harvest, sort best Q and replant a field and boom, no more real need for farming bots in custom clients.

Or just allow for some hearth magic to automate stuff, why can't we build like gnome huts or w/e that will harvest the fields, replant best quality and put items into designated zones. Why can't we make some wind spirit spin the spitroast for us? Why can't we get some actually useful wind/water mill machines like a ropemaker or loom? Why can't the herd animals be simplified and always go up in quality so it allows ppl to low effort them and don't get stuck at low quality because they can't be bothered to manage so many animals AND consume less fooder. There are so many chores that should be automated with ingame mechanics and yet the devs would rather spend their time implementing stuff like pickling (which increases the need to bot).

[Chacer]

Don't be offended, these are terrible excuses.
You can play perfectly without using a bot. I've been playing for years without ever using a bot and without having to spend all day playing. Nobody forces you to get the maximum efficiency per hour. If you use a bot it's because you want to maximize your character or improve your base faster than others.
And the one who says that it only seems bad to them if it's used for PvP. When you use a bot to automate something you are getting advantages that also affect pvp indirectly. Improving the quality of food to better raise stats, building the base faster, etc.
And if you get bored of sowing fields, hunting or looking for resources, well I don't know what you're doing playing this game when it's the main theme of the game. In fact, PvP is quite limited.

But this doesn't mean that there aren't many things that need to be improved to make gameplay easier. For example, the process of making steel.

[Dawidio123]

>You can play perfectly without using a bot.
>For example, the process of making steel.

[Chacer]

>You can play perfectly without using a bot.
>For example, the process of making steel.

It's an example of something that needs improvement, but you can make steel perfectly well without a bot. Entering the game once every 12 hours is not that difficult, especially when you play in a group and not alone.

[Pills]

Nobody forces you to get the maximum efficiency per hour. If you use a bot it's because you want to maximize your character or improve your base faster than others.

I use bots because its been 14 years since I started playing this game and I have real commitments in my life now that mean I don't want to wake up in 8 hours to move my silkworms for a table to a cupboard so they don't die before I start work. Or log in the moment I finish work to make sure they have leaves still or don't need organising so I don't lose all the eggs.

So I don't have to log in and spend 1 hour of the evening every couple of days harvesting a massive field to feed animals. And then spend 1 hour a week culling said animals.

So I don't have to log in the moment I wake up, the moment I get in from work, the last moment before I fall asleep just to make sure the steel crucible isn't empty.

I bot because many mechanics simply take too long to do for how old I am and the things that exist in my life. That's why I bot the things that are excessive tedium to me and why I imagine most others do the same.

The people who want to maximise their efforts typically aren't actually using bots as much as you think.

The cheese bot actually got retired this world because I couldn't be bothered to update it at the world start, largely because they changed it so curds won't automatically go sour if you don't take them off a rack within a couple of hours of changing. Infact literally every body in my group stopped caring about wanting a cheese bot around the time they changed that. so, while your statement 'may' be true for some, I personally think its very inacurate.

Entering the game once every 12 hours is not that difficult, especially when you play in a group and not alone.

Unless you are playing with irl friends who are all in the same time zone and have partners/kids/jobs. Then its laregely inconvenient to everybody in your group.

Honestly I think the whole take of "bots bad, ban bots" is the wrong approach and really we should have an open discussion about why the demand for bots exists so much and what mechanics could be reasonably changed to reduce the appeal for needing bots in general.

[joojoo1975]

I have some things I would like to comment on, but before I do, I want to address one of the basic themes of the replies. To All those who Need to bot. Do me a favor, since its not so detrimental to the game, Please do me a favor and link ALL the bots you use so that Everybody who wishes, can have the same convenience as you. Just reply with the source link and whatnot

now the Quotes and comments:

Bots & Alts 4 life lad.

Mostly alts but my farming bot is essentially to sticking around for me, i simply don't have the time in my life for that anymore.

Have you thought about down sizing? FFS this is a game and not your job, If it takes too many hours in the day to do upkeep for your base, wouldn't ya think it's time to downsize?

Then again i've always being pro-bots/automation so long as it doesn't impact others. the moment it becomes part of pvp it should be bannable. But I do also think the things that are most commonly botted are just features that need improving, what those improvements are though is difficult to say/suggest.

This game is all about Quality, the Quality of everything is intertwined with everything else. You have so much livestock and produce that you have to bot to ensure they are fed and your Quality increases, Yet if you would cut your base down say 75% then you wouldn't need to bot, but your Quality would take a hit. Quality of food affects the animals and your char stats. Yes your botting is affecting pvp and thus by your own words, bannable.

I would prefer a server in which you didn't need to bot:

Our philosophy has been, and remains, that we – rather than spend our time fighting losing battles – should focus on building a better game with fewer incentives to bot. We try to take botting as a sign of a broken game mechanic, rather than as a sign of broken players.

I can still leave my character online overnight to bot refuelling the steel crucibles regardless of your server rules.
The fact that I *NEED* to do it, in order to get a full night's sleep, that's my problem.

https://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Bar_of_Steel

unless I am reading this wrong, the crucible only needs refilled every 12 hours. How long do you sleep, or am i missing something? And that "Rule" will be their downfall. All sort of games have to deal with bots, here we see what happens when J&L turn a blind eye to it.

Or just allow for some hearth magic to automate stuff, why can't we build like gnome huts or w/e that will harvest the fields, replant best quality and put items into designated zones. Why can't we make some wind spirit spin the spitroast for us? Why can't we get some actually useful wind/water mill machines like a ropemaker or loom? Why can't the herd animals be simplified and always go up in quality so it allows ppl to low effort them and don't get stuck at low quality because they can't be bothered to manage so many animals AND consume less fooder. There are so many chores that should be automated with ingame mechanics and yet the devs would rather spend their time implementing stuff like pickling (which increases the need to bot).

this is my main point, If they did this, I do believe some of the botting would go away, but some folks would then find other things to bot. While I do agree with you and +1 and all, botting, I feel, would not disappear.