Harvest bots and radars.

Hashman · February 2005

For those unaware its possible to craftbot in EQ2 there are a number of websites that advertise such unscrupoulus tools. Now the same websites are offering harvestbots and radars. They have only just been released and I have seen screenshots and details of how they work. Basically you don't packet sniff data as some may say you do because that would require decrypt information and reverse-engineering it, but you look at what is in the clients memory and find SpawnID's. If it finds a node or something it can't harvest it goes on a list so next times it finds same object it avoids it. All you need to do is be higher level than mobs around you and you won't get attacked.

These bots are about, they do exist, research it if you don't believe me and expect them to become as prevalent as crafting bots.

As for radars well they use same principal, but it looks like a gyroscope, it will show all objects in the world NPC's resource nodes, etc.

I find this very worrying even more so when it seems SoE doesn't seem to do anything about it.

sidebuster · February 2005

in time they will ban all the accounts at once, like blizzard did. they banned 800+ account at once for, what was it? uhh selling gold for rl money and cheaters and stuff.

Vron · February 2005

Originally posted by sidebuster
in time they will ban all the accounts at once, like blizzard did. they banned 800+ account at once for, what was it? uhh selling gold for rl money and cheaters and stuff.

HAH! I wish that happened in WoW.

Jorev · February 2005

SOE has a poor track record for trying to stop cheaters.

There was an infamous case in EQdead, where one of their server GM's, a guy named Kevin Smith if I recall correctly, was fired for backing up characters on his GM server and transferring rare items to his play server with his GM character, then selling them on Ebay and giving them to his guildmates on Lanys, his play server.

He was only caught after months of player uproar on Lanys, when these rare items that were unaccounted for, began appearing, mostly on members of a certain guild.

SOE doesn't even monitor their staff well.

Jodokai · February 2005

It's not just SOE either. Blizzard has had some major problems with their DM's too. You just try to trust the people who work for you, so they are harder to spot.

r1tual · February 2005

There are also cheats where you can see where all the harvestable's are on each zone so you can just run to each one instead of having to look around. And you can tell what types are where.

Pretty lame and unfortunatly SOE promotes cheating. The way they design their game and what they send to the client just gives these people a field day.

It is better to cheat then not to cheat because SOE wont catch anyone, and those people have a HUGE advantage.

Razorback · February 2005

If you want to see what SOE and Blizzard are really doing about bots, complete this exercise.

Goto www.ebay.com
type in the search terms either, World of Warcraft or Everquest 2 (wow or EQ2)
gasp in horror at the pages of listings for gold for both games
realise that the companies arent doing diddly
wonder why

Personally I think its about time they got tough.

Hyoukan · February 2005

Yeah, I admit, at first I didn't think ebay selling would be THAT bad, but it does ruin game enonomy horribly. AO was ruined so bad it's scary, but that's both ebay's and Funcom's fault. They do need to toughen up on this bad.

Jodokai · February 2005

There is a long thread about this in the WoW forums already, so I'll keep this short: Buying and selling on ebay does NOT and CANNOT ruin the economy. For reasons and explinations see the WoW forum.

Razorback · March 2005

I think to say "it cannot ruin the economy" is an over simplification. There are many ways in which the economy can be adversely affected that in total add up to a detrimental effect on the game especially on smaller servers.

My main gripe with it is seeing groups of players all caled Xctrehny or Hklswerbn together in the same spot for days on end. It just breaks the suspension of disbeleif and generally perverts the reason that genuine players are in the game.

For example I dont think it would go over very well if I sat in the local Gym and ate a pizza and drank beer in fromt of the people working out every night. Its just not appropriate behavior and it ruins the experience of the people exercising and for what reason ?? Just because I want to be a prize d*ck.

These people could go get proper jobs and make more money anyway. I just dont see why they dont get of their a$$es and secure what the rest of us know as "a life". Then when they want a nice alternate reality to relax in they can come and enjoy it with the rest of us..

But hey.... the real irony is the fact that we seem to care about it more than the Devs. If I ran an online game these people wouldnt last 2 seconds in it.

Saren42 · March 2005

i still don't know how SOE and the other MMO companys haven't even shut down IGE or mysupersales.com yet, thye have been aorudn a long time, and i think i know why, everbody that buys something, a portion of it goes to the company who makes the game, and in turn, the company procides chars, items, and money for them to sell, thats probly why noting has been done about that

Razorback · March 2005

What I find inexplicable is this. If you list your EQ2 account on ebay chances are it will get removed with a message saying "The trademark license owner has informed ebay that your listing infringes their trademark and so your listing is being removed". It can only be assumed that they are doing this because by using the term EQ2 to sell something you are indeed breaching their trademark for profit.

So how in heavens name does using the very same terminology to sell online gold on a massive scale using the same words and the same systems not breach it ???

In one listing you have the word account and in another you have the word gold. Other than that the premise of selling something associated with EQ2 is exactly the same. SOE could fix these auctions in like 30 minutes with one series of emails to Ebay.

Now as far as Ebay goes, in my opinion they are actually going to get ripped off too because all it will acheive is to drive the sales of these tings onto the private sites like IGE and Markee Dragon etc. So then what ??

The only way for it to be dealt with effectively is within the game. Take a tough stance and police it. In EQ2 particularly the systems to track who has what gold and items all in place and working. At the supply end you could search for players who fit the profile of bot farmers through their actions and at the demand end you should look for very low level players with large amounts of cash for their level. Im not usre if the game systems are recording who traddes with who but if they are they could even work out who they bought the gold off.

The end result should be instant perma ban, no discussions. Sure for the hardcore bot farmers losing one or two accounts is no biggy. But eventually they will lose so many it will become finacially unviable and then it will stop.

Its important to keep in mind as I said before that these are GAMES. Those of us who are genuine players should not have to be subjected to a perversion of our past time by people that have no interest in the game what so ever other than as a vehicle to make money.

Hey I just described SOE LMAO

Howdy, Stranger!

Harvest bots and radars.

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Harvest bots and radars.

Comments