[Merged]Aspenwood Leeching/Concerns for x2 Faction Event/Leech Bot Speculation

What is it.
Bots that just stand there and do nowt. Too obvious
Bots that follow people and do nowt. Not as obvious but equally as useless
Bots that follow people and cast the same couple of spells. A little bit better, still useless though

Eventually they'll be better than the actual henchman All in the aim of not getting spotted for botting.

Reporting it will not stop faction farming by bots. Now that it is done, it will become Elona. Unless such a person is donating to TC, then they can (with two active accounts) shut down all so-called ''elite'' missions. Soon, they can begin charging 10k a person to enter any elite area and then sell that gold on E-bay.

I just can't avoid saying, ''I told you so.''

Fitz

It's just a matter of time before you start seeing faction for sale on E-Bay...

Played with that monk, I just thought it was a newb.

after 5 minutes,
I take screenshots of AFK people in the Ft.Aspenwood mission

I fillout a violation report to http://www.guildwars.com/support/
about how the AFKs are griefing me and enclose associated screenshots

While that is indeed a concern, I feel that it is outweighed by the constant exploitation of these missions. I also feel that one of the intents of factions is to persuade people to join guilds and alliances. My proposed change would also push in that direction.

If the PVE team missions were restricted to full alliance/guild teams, at least there'd be some way to self-police. I don't feel that Anet should be responsible for this.

i will never join alliances or guilds simply to get access to some area...

I joined the guild i'm in since it are people i know, and tbh i don't give a rats behind for any of those competetive items like gvg, ha since all i get out of it is more stress then relaxation which i actually bought gw for not to menbtion that after 10 times doing it it is boring as hell...

in any case, easiest way to solve it is starting with a /kickvote option so they at least don't get free faction which would take away the use for these bots.

spotted an even more obvious one tonight, this one runs in a straight line from the start until it gets stuck on a wall, then spends the rest of the match there. What sort of an idiot diddnt think that would get spotted?

One interesting thing is both bots had the [SB] tag

Moderator, I don't intend this as a flame, but as a serious expression of concern.

The upcoming Competitive Weekend of Fun will provide double faction at Fort Aspenwood and The Jade Quarry. Factions PvP players will also have access to the two missions for the first time. This would be a great and good thing, mixing some people who are 100% PvP with the rest of the PvE crowd to the benefit of both. But there is a serious problem, and that problem is the leachers at Fort Aspenwood.

I just left Fort Aspenwood, playing on the Kurzick side, and all groups this morning had at least one leacher. The last group had four (4) leachers. Leachers are usually bot programs that log the robot player into the mission and the bot player then just stands there for the entire mission contributing nothing, but getting a faction reward the the bot operator can then exchange for amber at House Zu Heltzer.

With double faction being awarded, it is reasonable to expect the leaching bot operators to turn out in full force to take advantage of this windfall. So groups will probably have anywhere from 1 to 4, or even more leachers, leaving very underpowered groups. The new PvP players at the Fort and at the Quarry are not going to like this at all, and will wonder why they have been invited to a substandard playing experience that leaves them feeling annoyed and disgruntled.

The leachers in Fort Aspenwood this morning were old and familiar names to the regulars there. They have been reported over and over again, but ANet has not taken action against them, or cannot take action against them, whichever the case might be.

Since it looks like the upcoming Competitive Weekend of Fun will mostly benefit leachers and mostly annoy players, I would suggest that ANet cancel it "for technical reasons" until such time as leaching can be controlled at the Fort and at the Quarry.

Doesnt it say that pvp characters can get to this when its over?

I agree with everything you wrote except for diehard PvP players coming to Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry - at this point, most have seemed to make up their minds one way or another whether they are worth playing. I think what you will see is leechers (as you said), characters switching sides, and people trying new builds. Depending on the leech situation, I wouldn't be suprised to see new tactics for each come out of it.

Me, I just hope I can actually play Jade Quarry!

I've never played in these missions, but how can a bot get into a human group?

Surely, the group will ask some questions?

You cant make groups, its RA style

You dont need to join a group first, you just click 'enter mission' and wait until there are enough of you to start.

You don't pick your group for Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quary. You simply hit "enter mission" and it randomly assigns you a group.

Doh! A few people beat me to it while I was typing.

Ill be there with my monk, healing and protecting the turtles...I shall not leech, and I shall not let leechers annoy me. I will play, and be happy.

For these two missions groups are made up the same way they are for RA. The game throws random groups of people together. So essentially, all the leeachers have to do is run a macro to "enter mission"...
HTH

You click "enter mission" and it automatically pairs you up with your group. It's simple to write a macro for a bot to hit enter mission everytime than just sit there. Occasionally some have a vamp weapon to make it seem like they are fighting ><. The best part is... we can't do much about it! yay!

edit: didn't see someone already posted the information

I will hope that there are more leachers on the other team!

My mesmer will then have a field day.

I'm sorry - that's very bad sportsmanship!

LOL, I think I got it, thanks for all the responses.

Seems like that would be a problem Anet would like to fix very soon.... although I'm not sure how. Must be some way to keep bots out.