Making botting a gameplay mechanic

[Nictos]

People use bots because it makes them grow stronger, faster. If the game itself is built in a way to allow these programs, then it is appropriate that the best players will do so to become the best.

[overtyped]

Runescape did alright at catching bots with those random events. (Albeit with a huge staff to back it up) Maybe a similar implementation could work here. I figure they'll get worked around eventually but it might be somewhere to start.

Edit: I'm sure Jorbtar could find something extremely devious in that vein to satisfy them, too.

no.. those random events were a bandaid. It worked for a short time, but now the bots can do all the events.
I've botted runescape to 99 strength 1 defense, so i can tell you that their bot detection is a joke.

[TeckXKnight]

Ultimately a game must be playable, so players must be able to perform tasks in the game. If a player can perform a task, no matter how complex or large it is, a bot can be programmed to perform that same task. To say bot prevention is simple is a form of naivety. Yes, some tasks can be more difficult to bot and some tasks may take some time to setup bots for, but ultimately bots will exist. So any solution that you create must bear these truths in mind.

[Denkar]

There are psychopaths and murderers out there. You can't prevent someone you see on the street from taking out a knife and stabbing you. Therefore, we should make murder legal, so that everyone can murder freely without repercussions. And if you don't want to? Well you don't have to, nobody's forcing you to do it.

[Yuura]

Playing for fun and being able to compete should never be mutually exclusive in a game.
Players who spend more time playing the game should be rewarded, not punished for not using a bot.
Whereas someone using bots rids himself of the game experience and rips other players of a fair environment.

I never claimed that playing for fun and the ability to compete should be mutually exclusive in Haven. I simply suggested, as a little wish of mine, that people end the senseless bickering over bots here on the forums. Feel free to compete, but do people really need to become irrationally frustrated and constantly spew useless crap at the devs because you feel inferior to some other player?

I don't rate troll posts so I can't give your post a proper rating.

69/10, SUPER EXCELLENTZ!!1one! Hey, I (mostly) wasn't trolling D:

However, you would make a grand example of a botter with all your hypocritical statements.
You argue that people should not complain about bots. At the same time you don't want an optional integrated bot system.
You tell people to play the game as it's intended to be played, yet you approve of botting.
You even deny the advantages gained from an exploit, like a bot.

Honestly, I ran the arksu client once, during W4 where it was arguably more abusable given the lack of curios :X. I played around a bit with a couple of scripts, found those pretty neat, but rather limited. I switched back to using Ender's client the same day.

I don't approve of botting, but that's certainly one way people choose to play this game, and at least there isn't a mass of botters raging here on the forums over the issue.
Yes, I downplay the advantages gained from botting, as human players are generally more capable than those which are automated. However, my post did acknowledge the fact that "botting factions" might be an issue (which I've yet to encounter, though), as botting on a larger scale obviously produces greater yield. Historically though, these have been dealt with upon becoming actual problem factions, and it's unlikely most botters will have any effect on your experience.

I hope the way Hafen works will diminish the number of possible alt accounts at one's disposal greatly.
If not, then I don't see any problem with the OP's idea. If bots are broadly used and accepted within the game, might as well make it an official part. You already have all sorts of "conveniences" at hand with all the different clients, how is that any different?
Even if a feature is integrated, nobody forces you to use it. Just like nobody forces you to download another client.

Building a bot into the stock client would essentially turn Haven into FarmVille 3 — Random Permadeath Version, and it's rather apparent that, in such a case, a very large crowd of players would become quite fed up and leave. It's imaginable that botters would become disillusioned as well, given the fact that they bot in order to gain an edge over others. If character development was then generally centered upon how long one leaves their bot active, most hope of competing with any player that joined before you is lost. Furthermore, some faction would eventually create a better bot anyways, one more advanced than the bot provided by default. This would just result in more complaints, and people would expect the default bot to be further developed. It doesn't matter if "nobody forces you to use it." You're the one who claims that the usage of a bot is necessary to actually do well in the game, suggesting the prevalence of botters would then become overwhelming. So, it's probably a bad idea.

I'm definitely with you in hoping Hafen does well in limiting alt usage, and look forward to playing it pretty actively this time around. Not to mention that based upon what we've seen, a good deal of the tedium previously present has been removed. I think this will lower bot usage a bit and possibly cool some people down over the issue. Either way, it is what it is.

Really sorry to drag this out and be a dick. Mainly, I wanted to address how nice it would be if people could stop this vicious circle, not incite some silly argument (though I can't say I didn't see it coming). Jorbtar have already mentioned they won't be doing anything to combat bots, which is a logical decision given there is little that can be done, and any such efforts would be fleeting. Though, as an afterthought, and sort of interestingly: if it were, hypothetically, mentioned that there were moderators present in the game, actively searching for and penalizing bot users, don't you think the useless user complaints would drop quite a bit, regardless of whether or not such claim was actually true?

[Reeyfer]

HavenOS?
HavenBox?
CloudStreamHaven?

At least on that last one they'd pretty much have to develop an artificial intelligence to bot I'm not saying it would stop botting, but it would sure advance the state of computer science

[Kaios]

I Just have to say, I have never once trolled, and it offends me deeply that you would say such a thing.

PS: you are a little bit naive, If you don't bot, you are put at a serious disadvantage, so when you say " let's all just not bot" you are deluding yourself.
As the saying goes "gotta keep up with the joneses"
BOB DOLE

confirmed troll thread