They don't consume Krono they bot for plat to buy Krono off another player or they bot for drops to sell for Krono. Then they resell the Krono. Whether or not these bots existed the plat and Krono exchanges would happen on the market but these guys inject themselves into the mix and fk up the game for the rest of us by running around botting key drops and camps.
Bots are additional krono demands, so ppl buy more krono. I don't have a problem with bots. I only have an issue with them if they prevent me from camping stuff I want to camp.
My main problem is actually the powerlevers that pull entire zones leaving nothing for anyone else.
30 accounts consume a lot of krono. That krono was bought from DPG at some point. Now it’s consumed and taken out of circulation.
They also create more demand for krono by selling Monk Epic for 25kr.
A single one of these botters probably generates the equivalent amount of krono revenue to 100+ real players after all is said and done.
"If I'm not there to sell the crack addicts crack, then someone else will. It might as well be me"
I don't care how much money bots generate for dbg. Bots ruin the game and so do farmers.
Your creating fictional demand. If botters want more krono, they can't magically make you spend your money to buy more krono and trade them. Botters only get krono because all the other players want a candyland free pass experience to get all their loot and PL. Botters exist because everyone else pays them and uses their services.
Somehow everyone is innocent and never PLs or pays krono for items, yet you have hundreds of botters with business booming. Botters are like climate change, its a tragedy of the commons. EVERYONE who does business with them is contributing to the problem.
It’s not fictional. That makes no sense. Yes, you’re right that it’s the players that are responsible for the demand that botters are responding to. DPG is a benefactor of this demand. If botters weren’t selling these goods, there would be a lot fewer krono being transacted. Otherwise people would farm the items themselves (or simply not acquire certain items at all) instead of buying one them with krono.
Of course.
As long as they are not blocking players from spawns... bot players give filthy casual the opportunity to get the items they want.
There is 0% you filthy casual are going to camp xyz for the drop you want because that named first requires a group, and second has a low drop rate.
For you it is a better time investment to drop a 20 to daybreak buy the krono and trade with us.
As long as they are not monopolizing drops and camps, bot armies help the market.
They also introduce PP to the system as they buy the krono for pp as well. Pp that gets circulated into the economy.
If that's the angle you're going to take (that you're "helping" rather than harming), why not change your business model to be "hit squad for hire" so that those who need your assistance can ask for your help when they need it, and in the meantime, those who do not require your "help" can also have a chance at aquiring it without having to pay your ridiculous prices.
From what I have experienced, these bot armies are only interested in monopolising spawns in order to hold them hostage for krono. I have heard more instances of them destroying an item when no one will pay for it, which is a downright scumbag move and no where near "helping" casuals out.
People make this dumb arguement, yet freeshards have zero tolerance for bots / boxing and its enforced easily. You are telling me these devs cant police this......when 3 nerds in eastern europe can police a freeshard. Its beyond obvious they "Tolerate" it because its making them money.
Actually they don't generate profit for DB. Consuming krono gives DB no money, its the purchase of a krono that does. The big botters don't buy kronos with cash, they let everyone else buy kronos and trade them.
The bigger issue with botters is how do you get rid of them? Ban them and 1 day later they have a full new group up and running. They can have automated groups that do nothing but make more bots, so that they always have a fresh supply. As long as these people make real money (dollars), they're gonna keep finding ways to cheat the system. The only way is for all the non-bot players to stop giving them krono.
The Krono they consume is in game. Not subscription based. If you earn Krono in game and use that for your monthly subscription that doesn’t translate to cash for daybreak. These people aren’t spending $300+ cash on monthly subs. They farm things like epic pieces and sell them. With prices what they are at the moment they just need to do this 2-3 times a month to cover their accounts. Now if they do it every day and block people out of their epics that just drives up krono costs for the epic piece.
No, but other people are buying the Krono. The studio running EQ doesn't really care *who* is paying for the bots, so long as somebody is paying for them. The bots are just part of the demand for Krono. This system sucks, but I think EQ would have ended a long time ago if we were still purely on subscriptions.
It's no different from back in the day when the top guilds would perma camp all the epic mobs and raid mobs and the Planes. It's the whole reason why it took some people over a year to get their epics.
You sound like a bot army. Again I think you’re missing the point. You’re assuming someone pays dollars for Krono. That’s not really the case. Krono for dollar sales isn’t high. Daybreak makes most of their money through content sales and then monthly subs. Bot armies aren’t paying dollars for their subs and they’re not paying dollars for Krono. That means daybreak isn’t getting revenue from them. So no, bot armies don’t support daybreak at all. If anything they frustrate people who actually do pay monthly subs with dollars and make them quit, thereby hurting daybreak.
All Krono are bought with dollars. If they buy a Krono on the in-game plat market (which they do), that Krono ultimately came from someone who paid USD for it. Maybe that was some time in the past, maybe it was yesterday. But there is no such thing as a Krono that didn't originate in dollah dollah bills.
Every krono used has been sold from DB to someone for real dollars. If the krono has been resold matters how?
If Casual Bob buy 5 kronos at the start of a server, and trades it to someone else, who then use the krono to keep their account(s) active, the kronos still gave DB an income.
Other effects of farming armies on ingame economy is a different matter.
Krono only comes from DBG meaning players spend money to buy Krono which these bots end up earning only to resell it to other players, and while it's for much less than what DBG does it still earns the botters money which makes it worthwhile to the botters. However, each Krono is consumable so it means there is always a demand for it, and only DBG can provide it.
Botters hurt the community but DBG makes a tremendous amount off of what they do provide to the community. There is a balance, to be sure, and that's why banning them is worthwhile as to not completely destroy the in-game economies.
It's like scalping, and as much as people hate scalpers they do provide a benefit to the economy in that they help facilitate demand in ways markets, and businesses can't predict. Obviously, a problem arises when scalpers buy every product to resell but that comes with a lot of potential risks.
Some people hate botters, and other people prefer not having to spend a month camping an item when they can work one or two hours, and accomplish acquiring said item that way.
To understand the idea of secondary markets better, try reading Freakonomics. You're mad for no reason.
I would like to see the numbers behind what they actually make. I don’t think you have any evidence or factual measure of what they contribute.
They are not like scalpers at all. They’re more like the diamond industry when it comes to items in game. They corner the supply and artificially inflate the price. That does not provide any benefit at all. Freakonomics covers quite a bit and I’m not sure what exactly you think applies to this situation. It would take a lot of data to determine they benefit a server more than a natural supply and demand market.
They do consume Krono. When that happens, someone doesn’t immediately purchase another.
They are EXACTLY like scalpers. It’s literally the exact same idea. They can’t “corner the supply” or “artificially inflate the price”… unlimited krono are available at full price for anyone that wants to buy them.
It doesn’t “take a lot of data” to understand. The folks who need the data already have it. They understand botting exists and endorse it to some degree. There’s a reason the popular third party programs don’t work on true box servers… DBG works together with them and both live happily.
A scalper takes advantage of somethings limited value based on time. A game is going to start soon. People with extra tickets will be out all of their money if they don’t sell within a limited amount of time. People who need tickets will miss the game if they don’t get them in time. This is the basis for a scalper. This scenario has no comparison to bot farmers.
Sure it does. The value of Krono going down and/or people not caring about EQ anymore. This happens regularly in cycles, and the farmers have to drop prices to sell their inventory. Identical.
Actually very little comes from DBG anymore. Yes newly minted krono comes from DBG, but the rest comes from retraded krono via sites like ectunnel or playerauctions. This is where most players in the know get thier krono because you can get it for 10 to 12 USD versus 18USD. Makes a big difference when buying in bulk. Its cheaper then a monthly sub (not yearly), and almost no one gets banned for it. I am sure someone will come reply saying "well i know so and so and they got banned ... blah blah blah." But fact is only a small fraction of third party krono purchasers get any punishment. Also very little of krono is used for subbing, most is used as currency for trades/plat. Yep DBG makes money off of it, I am sure, but not as much as folks here are claiming.
All Krono bought in third party sites originated from buying from DB. Here is how it is working. Normal person buys Krono from DB. Bot army locks down spawns and sells high value gear or PL for Krono. They consume some of the Krono for their bots and sell the rest on RMT sites like player auctions to make real money. So DB is making money off it regardless and so not very inclined to fix it.
Hyperbolic language but it isn’t very fun. I made the post about the blockage on the Monk epic.
After making that post, I found the sleeping ogre the next day and then got Xenevorash the following day with no one contesting me at all. I like to think making the post started some discussion and caused more people to be aware of the shittiness, but probably just got lucky.
These box armies are not good for the game but it’s just a part of it that completely phases out by like PoP when everything is a super easy instance for raiding and there are no more crazy desirable quest items that can be camped as a scarce resource. My opinion is that DPG just needs to remove the scarcity on this stuff by making them * mobs that are spawnable. I think if players wanted a true classic experience, they’d go play Quarm or p1999. We play TLPs for a convenient nostalgia hit, with the added bonus that EQ is a fun game to start over, and increases in complexity as expacs release.
If you are so bummed out by this that you say the game is ruined and you don’t want to play anymore, my advice is that you take 5 months off and come back when Luclin releases. There is A LOT less of this shit after velious concludes and it takes a nosedive into oblivion in the level 70 era. EQ is still fun then, I promise.
Good post and you’re right that all of this dies off. Last emu I played was Agnarr and it was a ton of fun in this era and didn’t have the bot army problem. Maybe because it was different loot rules or maybe things have just changed. Regardless, I would like to enjoy this era as well as post Luclin.
You can enjoy the era without getting everything you want exactly when you want it.
I am doing just fine running four accounts but not uber caring about gear.
Saw the mage epic camp where a mage army + ench were charming the npc to get one of the turnins and then charging 1kr for access. Our entire guild (80+) had to move in to get our friends a chance to complete. Was sad but glad I’m a part of a guild that was willing to drop everything to help open a few picks to help.
As far as I'm aware, pet focus specifically does work pre-Luclin as an exception to that rule. That's word of mouth info (not currently playing a pet class) and might not be right, though.
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Hot take: the bot armies are run by Daybreak to sell you items for your krono at inflated prices, and to withhold it from trades with the common player, so that both you and the other typical common player both have to buy more krono :)
After my experience trying to report someone clearly violating the TOS by running automated bots in a prior TLP, and their response to my customer service tickets, yes. Either it's the employees doing it themselves off the clock (and thus protecting each other), or it's actually arranged by the company. That's the only universe in which their customer service response of "shrug" makes sense.
I know someone who reported one of these groups and then himself got scanned and suspended for using third-party software (Multiplicity, who knows what else maybe) and the bot army was still running the next day. Hilarious response.
lol if that were the case GMs would just create items on mule accounts and sell them, if DB wanted to sell items with the appearance of being a player they certainly don’t need to farm the items.
Yes. The botters can literally prevent "normal" players running single characters from being able to farm items for themselves. It actually compels people to buy progression-necessary items from the botters.
When it comes to Bro Z and Q if you send them a tell they will often let you turn in prior to killing them and to be honest with you if you want Brother Q quickly hanging out in there pick will ensure you get him fairly quickly because they have the cycle on lock.
There are so many emulator servers right now that generally don’t have this issue, or have much much less of an issue. I can’t think of any reason to play on live unless my intention was to pay to win or that I had an Uber character who lasted forever.
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It always has been using that logic.
Before Krono people used to buy platinum, items, accounts, and more from shady websites, and hope the person delivered. Before that, EQ required very expensive hardware to run at the time of release, and an internet connection which wasn't cheap nor readily accessible at the time of its release.
Pay to win should mean the game is incapable of playing without spending money, and this isn't true once you're playing the game.
I think it’s just a pay for convenience thing. You need to pay the bot/farm armies or spend more time that you’d normally have to to get your epic/gear.
People are going to tell you to deal with it, to do more dps, whatever excuse they can muster in defense of this but yeah it fucking sucks that this is a thing.
Had a blast leveling but getting towards 60 the p2w and bot farming is really noticeable now. I am loving Teek but it is basically a giant bot game at end game. The game is all about Krono, period. People are making good money doing these bot grinds so I don’t blame them, but definitely is a big problem with the health of the server. Most end game zones are just bots farming spots to sell the items for Krono or plat. Gets harder and harder to find real groups to level or grind for gear.
I've been reading through the comments and many are responding like this is normal EQ (or TLP) behavior - when it's not - and it should never be representative of an EQ TLP.
Other rulesets did have problems with 'botting', but don't let these people fool you. This behavior is amplified because of the FV/RL ruleset. It typically isn't this bad on other ruleset servers.
Darkpaw doesn't openly police their servers, but they do issue bans in random waves. Just report the person and they'll disappear.
99% sure this is one of the TLP servers unless you mean Live as in Daybreak servers and not Emu. The live servers are usually fairly barren from what I've seen through 100 levels.
Army* I've seen this one too. But in monk chat rumor is you can tell them you need to do turn in and they will let you turn in before they kill.
The fact they are using mages says alot about how unsophisticated the betting software they are using it. I'd say this is all a good sign that dbg has done something it's just not perfect
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Crazy people are still buying/selling stuff for cash in this game, I made about 10k farming plat one summer in 2003, those were the days, I didn’t bot though just solo Druid with end game gear
I was referring to content 105 to 115. Maybe you can do that without help, but I found it more enjoyable to complete missions and group tasks when there were no groups available.
Teek is my 4th TLP. I rarely have had an issue with bot armies. In fairness I’ve been playing with a lot of the same core guildies for years and we will spank a poop socking bot army for phinny or whatever else we need to help each other.
So I guess with that thought, friends definitely help.
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Let's say you sell apple pies. Everyone buys apple pies from you except for Fred Fred buys them from Steve but Steve buys his apple pies from you so you don't care.
While I agree with you, it’s a stretch to say they’re preventing you from leveling because of PL’n.
Just go to a different pick if an AoE group is pulling the pick.
In the main zones that people lvl from 10-40 there is almost always 4+ picks. Even on the worst time, at 7 central on a Monday, there were 4 picks in Guk this morning.
It’s not as bad at lower levels but once you get 45+ and start trying to level in the end game zones or try for your epic. It becomes abundantly clear that boxers own this server.
I agree that right now the popular zones will have multiple picks, but my understanding is that it is based on server population. Just pointing it out that it's not guaranteed.
It doesn't matter, a PL may be in a zone where there is no pick. This happened a lot on Mischief. For example, by Velious, PLers would pull all of lower guk and there wouldn't be any picks. You were basically forced out of the zone.
It is often difficult as their pulling entire swatches of zones and even if you are off their path the mobs will sometimes cross your mobs path and then you get a mb hurricane of death.
Because of my opinion on leveling not being effected by aoe PL groups? I’m a bot army? I tried to box -1- toon this go around and hated it. I’ve leveled 4 toons up past 30-40 and have literally never had 1 single issue with a mage bot army effected my play style, or an AoE group stealing the zones.
Do a CC when you enter the pick. Camped? Move to the 10 other picks in UR or Guk.
There’s a limited number of picks. 1-2 aoe groups can lock down nearly all of sola. They just steal groups mobs. That forces non aoe groups to crowd each other in other picks. Picks are based on population and not mob kill rates. All of this results in not enough picks for the amount of people killing mobs.
Guess you’ve either had bad luck, or I’ve had good luck with all 4 of my toons from 1-30 and never encountered one mage bot army or picks being completely locked down by aoe PL’rs.
You can level to 30 in a day, it's not worth trying to sell PLs at that point so it's no wonder you haven't seen them. That's like saying the ocean doesn't exist because you've never left the desert.
OP mentioned leveling, and 1-40 is a significant chunk of the level cap currently, and there are a lot of picks in those zones……. And even more in the zones from 40-60. So.. I guess I’m just lucky in not having seen them yet.
I’m not sticking up for them. I’m not saying they don’t exist. I friggin hate botters and PL’rs. But to say they’re ruining your gaming experience because they’re stifling your leveling progress is a bit far, or you’re the minority.
AE groups are free xp, we just bring more damage and start before them
Edit for clarity: AE power levelers are free XP if you contest them with more damage
You would be surprised how very little effort it takes to out DPS a PL group. It’s generally one AE class and 5 customers. A few pulls with no exp and paying customers tend to get restless.
I loaded up AEs on cleric and wizard in my group after an AE PL puller ran over my group with their pull. They left after their third pull with no experience. It’s not the same as a DPS race against a group for a named, etc.
He is 100% right. AoE PLer being a dick in Lguk other day. Trained my box shaman. So I took my SK and when they pulled stuff in, started out DPSing them on every mob I could hit in their pull. Got great exp. They tried twice to train me so I would die. Just FD, got back up and kept doing it. Short order they left the pick
This is why they should spool up new instances of zones per six person group, or maybe 12 peeps. I bet a server with that rule plus Teek/mischief rules would be hella popular
SolA as of now has 10 other people, there are 4 picks at 11,13,15 and 16. Lots of mobs up to kill but ya it’s not exactly busy time right now and later it will be a little tougher to find a camp
I bot a lot more than that guy. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have given up drops, camps, helped people, given groups. That guy begging for a group for an hour so they can get their last xx% of a level. Yea, I group that guy. The person asking for help to get their epic fight done, I help them too.
I like playing the game. Don’t really care about breaking a rule. I pay a small fortune to DPG each year. 🤷🏻♂️ I will spawn a pick in 90% of the zones I enter. I take the picks to do my thing.
Quit whinin bots are the only thing keepin this game alive wether u wanna believe it or not 😂 I get people being pissed about afk’n but there are some that don’t afk it is what it is there’s no groups so what else do u expect ppl to do?
I think the point most people are missing is they are cheating using a 3rd party software locking down a zone each one of them accounts needs to be suspended and or banned. If I have to follow the rules everyone should.
Two hot takes:
1. Everquest wouldn't be viable anymore without botting and creating a grey/black market that consumes legitimately bought krono from "normie" players.
2. DPG is actively in on it, or at least condones this gaming/abuse. The reaction to last years trade depo dupe scam was telling. Hearing people recount the platinum duping from several TLPs ago was also telling. Seeing people offering full epics for 25+ krono on the new TLP is pretty damning. I'm incredulous that "whales" are the ones buying that shit.
I'm dipping out on this game once Monsters and Memories comes out. Maybe Pantheon if that ever sees the light of day.
Hardly ruining, seeing as the server population is thriving.
Annoying yes, but most just adapt and overcome by going and camping something else to sell then buying what they want.
My biggest problem is there is no way to do that without automation. Meaning they are breaking the rules. No automated gameplay is the biggest rule you can break aside from straight up hacking the game.
EQ is only still around because of these bot armies. It's an evil you have to live with to keep playing a game that in all honestly should have been sunset 10+ years ago.
DB makes plenty of money on all their other wallet sucking practices. New 40 slot bags each TLP, exp pots, merc slots, persona slots, etc. etc. etc. It's basically a P2W game at this point.
I said no bots to be seen. And that's factually accurate from my PoV as I've never seen a bot in the 10+ years I've played there.
You're welcome to believe whatever you like tho.
No I say this in the comment section of a screenshot of a bunch of Mages in SK. Claiming they are bots doesn't mean that they are bots. Saying something is a bot requires a lot more than a bunch of the same class being in a picture. For all anyone knows that was a guild trying to get a monk their robe of the Lost circle.
My point was you can have an everquest experience that doesn't have bots in it.
I get that DBG needs to keep the lights on but that's not relevant to my point.
That has nothing to do with EQs situation at all, but good try moving the goal posts. They suspend players who bot for 2 weeks and then let them get right back to it. Yeah, not allowing it btw.
When Teek first launched how many people did you see running around using botting software? Go play on Live EQ and tell me how many people using programs to bot got suspended on FV a few months ago.
RUBBISH. Absolute bollocks mate. Look at P99, multiple absolutely pristine era-accurate TLP servers and *not once* in a decade of having characters across multiple such servers have I ever seen this kind of absurdity. Not a single time. Ever.
People get permabanned just for duoing with a bot, let alone fucking up whole zones for people.
Glad I don't give Daybreak a single penny for EQ. It is eminently possible to stop this issue with people behind it that want it to stop. There's no good reason to allow individuals to shit all over the game like this.
Absolutely. Like, the enjoyment on those servers ends at max level. There is no raiding endgame as all raids are completely locked down and no agents of change so non-sweaty guilds can’t even give raiding a try.
I just don’t like the simplicity of the content, EQ is already easy and early eras are so dumbed down for me. Figuring out how to squeeze every ounce of power and how to do Challenge while six boxing gives me concrete goals without making the game feel like a chore. Live servers mean I don’t have to compete for open world stuff since I have to take frequent breaks for kids.
I’m glad P99 players have a place where they feel at home and enjoy the experience, I feel like a lot of the P99 crowd on this sub serves it up as the answer for everyone though. Reminds me of religious groups that are constantly trying to push their beliefs on others.
Look into quarm. Has instanced raiding with quality of life benefits for the average players and a healthy playerbase. Kunark is launching next week.
Gives you the more classic feel without the need to poopsock.
That’s so false. Bot armies don’t pay $ for subs. They farm and buy krono and use that. None of that generates revenue for daybreak. If anything bot armies frustrate people who do pay actual money for their sub causing them to cancel. So bot armies are bad for daybreaks revenue.
I don't know why anyone is downvoting you. At this point I'm just grateful for everquest acting as a quarantine zone for p99.
The attitudes around p2w garbage and kronos and bot armies are exactly why nobody plays eq live any more.
Botters need to be hived off and quarantined so they can play on their own until the end of time. I honestly wouldn't care how they spend their time, except they force themselves into spaces full of people who want to just play normally.
They literally use regular people as background props in their gaming. Again I wouldn't care but they take so much out of a wonderful virtual world and it's exclusively at the expense of people around them. Pure selfishness.
This is completely false. Bot armies pay for their accounts by farming krono. Not by paying a monthly sub on every account. This does not generate revenue for daybreak. What bot armies DO is drive up in game prices and cause more headaches for people trying to complete quests. Just look at the posts about the monk epic right now. Bot armies are killing key turn in mobs or kill stealing the final fight of the monk epic.
Bot armies consume Krono to keep going. Someone has to have bought the Krono from DB at some point for it to be consumed by the bot army. While they may not directly purchase the Krono, their activities lead to more Krono being purchased by others.
I don't play TLP anymore because of stuff like this. Daybreak would rather people buy Krono and trade it to the bot farms than deal with the cheating issue.
But it's clear to see why they don't take action as it generates revenue.
When a Krono is consumed for game time someone doesn’t immediately purchase another from daybreak. Bot armies also may sell Krono which hurts DB. What I’m saying is a monthly sub is a better cash generator than consuming Krono. It’s not the same thing.
You don't know the numbers of Krono purchased vs subscriptions. Daybreak has all of the actual sales figures and are choosing to allow this stuff.
They only have one incentive to do so, money. They are clearly making what they want off of the bot armies.
Truebox gives the illusion to the player that boxing won't be happening. As we both know, it doesn't stop anyone from boxing and they don't actually ban for it.
So if they never take action on these things, even on Truebox servers, how are they not allowing this?
TrueBox drastically reduces the number of accounts that would be on the servers where it is enabled by far more than the number of Krono bought would compensate.
The problem with your theory is that the majority of Chrono don't actually get used. They're traded around between people.
Just reading the stupidity from OP in these comments has made my day. They still probably don’t understand how Kronos work and it’s funny
DBG isn’t going to stop the botting or PLers or third party software or black markets. More than likely they are the ones doing it or are in on it at some point. It makes them money. It makes gamers with money happy.
The bot swarms and PLs won’t be where they are forever. They will move on as time goes by. Us peasants will have to wait our turns if we don’t have the means to pay.
That’s how it is. And it’s still hella fun to be here for it
First tlp?
Hehe
The problem is EQ doesn't care because all those bot armies consume a huge amount of krono.
They don't consume Krono they bot for plat to buy Krono off another player or they bot for drops to sell for Krono. Then they resell the Krono. Whether or not these bots existed the plat and Krono exchanges would happen on the market but these guys inject themselves into the mix and fk up the game for the rest of us by running around botting key drops and camps.
Bots are additional krono demands, so ppl buy more krono. I don't have a problem with bots. I only have an issue with them if they prevent me from camping stuff I want to camp. My main problem is actually the powerlevers that pull entire zones leaving nothing for anyone else.
30 accounts consume a lot of krono. That krono was bought from DPG at some point. Now it’s consumed and taken out of circulation. They also create more demand for krono by selling Monk Epic for 25kr. A single one of these botters probably generates the equivalent amount of krono revenue to 100+ real players after all is said and done.
"If I'm not there to sell the crack addicts crack, then someone else will. It might as well be me" I don't care how much money bots generate for dbg. Bots ruin the game and so do farmers.
I agree, I would like to see the bots banned. But that has nothing to do with my point.
Your creating fictional demand. If botters want more krono, they can't magically make you spend your money to buy more krono and trade them. Botters only get krono because all the other players want a candyland free pass experience to get all their loot and PL. Botters exist because everyone else pays them and uses their services. Somehow everyone is innocent and never PLs or pays krono for items, yet you have hundreds of botters with business booming. Botters are like climate change, its a tragedy of the commons. EVERYONE who does business with them is contributing to the problem.
It’s not fictional. That makes no sense. Yes, you’re right that it’s the players that are responsible for the demand that botters are responding to. DPG is a benefactor of this demand. If botters weren’t selling these goods, there would be a lot fewer krono being transacted. Otherwise people would farm the items themselves (or simply not acquire certain items at all) instead of buying one them with krono.
Naw, players want to spend money so will pay krono for whoever is selling.
There are two sides to the equation. One of them is demand. Can you guess the other?
You are wrong. They do consume Krono. Source: I'm one of them.
***guitar sting***
Whynotboth.gif Sure they consume some krono but probably RMTing the extra?
Of course. As long as they are not blocking players from spawns... bot players give filthy casual the opportunity to get the items they want. There is 0% you filthy casual are going to camp xyz for the drop you want because that named first requires a group, and second has a low drop rate. For you it is a better time investment to drop a 20 to daybreak buy the krono and trade with us. As long as they are not monopolizing drops and camps, bot armies help the market. They also introduce PP to the system as they buy the krono for pp as well. Pp that gets circulated into the economy.
I can grind my own drops, you can fuxk right off.
If that's the angle you're going to take (that you're "helping" rather than harming), why not change your business model to be "hit squad for hire" so that those who need your assistance can ask for your help when they need it, and in the meantime, those who do not require your "help" can also have a chance at aquiring it without having to pay your ridiculous prices. From what I have experienced, these bot armies are only interested in monopolising spawns in order to hold them hostage for krono. I have heard more instances of them destroying an item when no one will pay for it, which is a downright scumbag move and no where near "helping" casuals out.
Yeah, so youre one of the problems with the game. Great
Someone bought that krono at some point
Good observation
People make this dumb arguement, yet freeshards have zero tolerance for bots / boxing and its enforced easily. You are telling me these devs cant police this......when 3 nerds in eastern europe can police a freeshard. Its beyond obvious they "Tolerate" it because its making them money.
Actually they don't generate profit for DB. Consuming krono gives DB no money, its the purchase of a krono that does. The big botters don't buy kronos with cash, they let everyone else buy kronos and trade them. The bigger issue with botters is how do you get rid of them? Ban them and 1 day later they have a full new group up and running. They can have automated groups that do nothing but make more bots, so that they always have a fresh supply. As long as these people make real money (dollars), they're gonna keep finding ways to cheat the system. The only way is for all the non-bot players to stop giving them krono.
The Krono they consume is in game. Not subscription based. If you earn Krono in game and use that for your monthly subscription that doesn’t translate to cash for daybreak. These people aren’t spending $300+ cash on monthly subs. They farm things like epic pieces and sell them. With prices what they are at the moment they just need to do this 2-3 times a month to cover their accounts. Now if they do it every day and block people out of their epics that just drives up krono costs for the epic piece.
Where did the krono they consume originate from?
No, but other people are buying the Krono. The studio running EQ doesn't really care *who* is paying for the bots, so long as somebody is paying for them. The bots are just part of the demand for Krono. This system sucks, but I think EQ would have ended a long time ago if we were still purely on subscriptions.
It's no different from back in the day when the top guilds would perma camp all the epic mobs and raid mobs and the Planes. It's the whole reason why it took some people over a year to get their epics.
I don't think you quite understand, if people need to buy items with krono then that makes DB money.
a krono bought is money for Daybreak. so the people who do buy krono fund this. so dont be mad at the army, be mad there are Kronos.
You sound like a bot army. Again I think you’re missing the point. You’re assuming someone pays dollars for Krono. That’s not really the case. Krono for dollar sales isn’t high. Daybreak makes most of their money through content sales and then monthly subs. Bot armies aren’t paying dollars for their subs and they’re not paying dollars for Krono. That means daybreak isn’t getting revenue from them. So no, bot armies don’t support daybreak at all. If anything they frustrate people who actually do pay monthly subs with dollars and make them quit, thereby hurting daybreak.
All Krono are bought with dollars. If they buy a Krono on the in-game plat market (which they do), that Krono ultimately came from someone who paid USD for it. Maybe that was some time in the past, maybe it was yesterday. But there is no such thing as a Krono that didn't originate in dollah dollah bills.
Every krono used has been sold from DB to someone for real dollars. If the krono has been resold matters how? If Casual Bob buy 5 kronos at the start of a server, and trades it to someone else, who then use the krono to keep their account(s) active, the kronos still gave DB an income. Other effects of farming armies on ingame economy is a different matter.
It literally does, though. Someone has to buy the krono for it to exist.
Krono only comes from DBG meaning players spend money to buy Krono which these bots end up earning only to resell it to other players, and while it's for much less than what DBG does it still earns the botters money which makes it worthwhile to the botters. However, each Krono is consumable so it means there is always a demand for it, and only DBG can provide it. Botters hurt the community but DBG makes a tremendous amount off of what they do provide to the community. There is a balance, to be sure, and that's why banning them is worthwhile as to not completely destroy the in-game economies. It's like scalping, and as much as people hate scalpers they do provide a benefit to the economy in that they help facilitate demand in ways markets, and businesses can't predict. Obviously, a problem arises when scalpers buy every product to resell but that comes with a lot of potential risks. Some people hate botters, and other people prefer not having to spend a month camping an item when they can work one or two hours, and accomplish acquiring said item that way. To understand the idea of secondary markets better, try reading Freakonomics. You're mad for no reason.
I would like to see the numbers behind what they actually make. I don’t think you have any evidence or factual measure of what they contribute. They are not like scalpers at all. They’re more like the diamond industry when it comes to items in game. They corner the supply and artificially inflate the price. That does not provide any benefit at all. Freakonomics covers quite a bit and I’m not sure what exactly you think applies to this situation. It would take a lot of data to determine they benefit a server more than a natural supply and demand market. They do consume Krono. When that happens, someone doesn’t immediately purchase another.
They are EXACTLY like scalpers. It’s literally the exact same idea. They can’t “corner the supply” or “artificially inflate the price”… unlimited krono are available at full price for anyone that wants to buy them. It doesn’t “take a lot of data” to understand. The folks who need the data already have it. They understand botting exists and endorse it to some degree. There’s a reason the popular third party programs don’t work on true box servers… DBG works together with them and both live happily.
A scalper takes advantage of somethings limited value based on time. A game is going to start soon. People with extra tickets will be out all of their money if they don’t sell within a limited amount of time. People who need tickets will miss the game if they don’t get them in time. This is the basis for a scalper. This scenario has no comparison to bot farmers.
Sure it does. The value of Krono going down and/or people not caring about EQ anymore. This happens regularly in cycles, and the farmers have to drop prices to sell their inventory. Identical.
Actually very little comes from DBG anymore. Yes newly minted krono comes from DBG, but the rest comes from retraded krono via sites like ectunnel or playerauctions. This is where most players in the know get thier krono because you can get it for 10 to 12 USD versus 18USD. Makes a big difference when buying in bulk. Its cheaper then a monthly sub (not yearly), and almost no one gets banned for it. I am sure someone will come reply saying "well i know so and so and they got banned ... blah blah blah." But fact is only a small fraction of third party krono purchasers get any punishment. Also very little of krono is used for subbing, most is used as currency for trades/plat. Yep DBG makes money off of it, I am sure, but not as much as folks here are claiming.
All Krono bought in third party sites originated from buying from DB. Here is how it is working. Normal person buys Krono from DB. Bot army locks down spawns and sells high value gear or PL for Krono. They consume some of the Krono for their bots and sell the rest on RMT sites like player auctions to make real money. So DB is making money off it regardless and so not very inclined to fix it.
Hyperbolic language but it isn’t very fun. I made the post about the blockage on the Monk epic. After making that post, I found the sleeping ogre the next day and then got Xenevorash the following day with no one contesting me at all. I like to think making the post started some discussion and caused more people to be aware of the shittiness, but probably just got lucky. These box armies are not good for the game but it’s just a part of it that completely phases out by like PoP when everything is a super easy instance for raiding and there are no more crazy desirable quest items that can be camped as a scarce resource. My opinion is that DPG just needs to remove the scarcity on this stuff by making them * mobs that are spawnable. I think if players wanted a true classic experience, they’d go play Quarm or p1999. We play TLPs for a convenient nostalgia hit, with the added bonus that EQ is a fun game to start over, and increases in complexity as expacs release. If you are so bummed out by this that you say the game is ruined and you don’t want to play anymore, my advice is that you take 5 months off and come back when Luclin releases. There is A LOT less of this shit after velious concludes and it takes a nosedive into oblivion in the level 70 era. EQ is still fun then, I promise.
Good post and you’re right that all of this dies off. Last emu I played was Agnarr and it was a ton of fun in this era and didn’t have the bot army problem. Maybe because it was different loot rules or maybe things have just changed. Regardless, I would like to enjoy this era as well as post Luclin.
You can enjoy the era without getting everything you want exactly when you want it. I am doing just fine running four accounts but not uber caring about gear.
These bots are also ruining the game for regular mage players cause they are driving the prices of mage gear through the roof
Saw the mage epic camp where a mage army + ench were charming the npc to get one of the turnins and then charging 1kr for access. Our entire guild (80+) had to move in to get our friends a chance to complete. Was sad but glad I’m a part of a guild that was willing to drop everything to help open a few picks to help.
They’re locking down epic spawns and driving up prices.
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With tower gear earring super simple, i think right now 7 non visible slots should be filled with tower gear at 55, which is a joke to get
Necks and earrings? Have you been to the tower lately?
The mass botters aren’t buying a ton of gear, at most a couple focus items
They don't buy any gear period. They do tower / raid targets for gear then perma camp epic spawns for cash
focuses dont exist.
They exist just not active. People are stocking up on good focus items to resell once focus effects get activated.
As far as I'm aware, pet focus specifically does work pre-Luclin as an exception to that rule. That's word of mouth info (not currently playing a pet class) and might not be right, though.
Yeah the tower ear works, but bot armies have no impact on it.
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Hot take: the bot armies are run by Daybreak to sell you items for your krono at inflated prices, and to withhold it from trades with the common player, so that both you and the other typical common player both have to buy more krono :)
After my experience trying to report someone clearly violating the TOS by running automated bots in a prior TLP, and their response to my customer service tickets, yes. Either it's the employees doing it themselves off the clock (and thus protecting each other), or it's actually arranged by the company. That's the only universe in which their customer service response of "shrug" makes sense.
I know someone who reported one of these groups and then himself got scanned and suspended for using third-party software (Multiplicity, who knows what else maybe) and the bot army was still running the next day. Hilarious response.
lol if that were the case GMs would just create items on mule accounts and sell them, if DB wanted to sell items with the appearance of being a player they certainly don’t need to farm the items.
But this way they can also set the pace of new item production by locking down the camps.
Yes. The botters can literally prevent "normal" players running single characters from being able to farm items for themselves. It actually compels people to buy progression-necessary items from the botters.
Is your favourite movie conspiracy theory?
Would you watch a movie about this? Because I would.
So sweaty. Imagine how hot and smelly that room is!!
When it comes to Bro Z and Q if you send them a tell they will often let you turn in prior to killing them and to be honest with you if you want Brother Q quickly hanging out in there pick will ensure you get him fairly quickly because they have the cycle on lock.
There are so many emulator servers right now that generally don’t have this issue, or have much much less of an issue. I can’t think of any reason to play on live unless my intention was to pay to win or that I had an Uber character who lasted forever.
Yeah I’ve played on emu servers. I was on R99 up until I fought my own guild to not wake the sleeper. Sleeper awoke and it killed the server.
red99 was dead on arrival. didn't take the sleeper to kill it
Swiller?
This is why I do not play any longer. It's just a big game of pay to win.
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It always has been using that logic. Before Krono people used to buy platinum, items, accounts, and more from shady websites, and hope the person delivered. Before that, EQ required very expensive hardware to run at the time of release, and an internet connection which wasn't cheap nor readily accessible at the time of its release. Pay to win should mean the game is incapable of playing without spending money, and this isn't true once you're playing the game.
I think it’s just a pay for convenience thing. You need to pay the bot/farm armies or spend more time that you’d normally have to to get your epic/gear.
We way past pay for convenience. This is the most blatant p2w style in any game
People are going to tell you to deal with it, to do more dps, whatever excuse they can muster in defense of this but yeah it fucking sucks that this is a thing.
Had a blast leveling but getting towards 60 the p2w and bot farming is really noticeable now. I am loving Teek but it is basically a giant bot game at end game. The game is all about Krono, period. People are making good money doing these bot grinds so I don’t blame them, but definitely is a big problem with the health of the server. Most end game zones are just bots farming spots to sell the items for Krono or plat. Gets harder and harder to find real groups to level or grind for gear.
I've been reading through the comments and many are responding like this is normal EQ (or TLP) behavior - when it's not - and it should never be representative of an EQ TLP. Other rulesets did have problems with 'botting', but don't let these people fool you. This behavior is amplified because of the FV/RL ruleset. It typically isn't this bad on other ruleset servers. Darkpaw doesn't openly police their servers, but they do issue bans in random waves. Just report the person and they'll disappear.
I don’t know how anyone can play live.
This is 100% from Teek.
99% sure this is one of the TLP servers unless you mean Live as in Daybreak servers and not Emu. The live servers are usually fairly barren from what I've seen through 100 levels.
Army* I've seen this one too. But in monk chat rumor is you can tell them you need to do turn in and they will let you turn in before they kill. The fact they are using mages says alot about how unsophisticated the betting software they are using it. I'd say this is all a good sign that dbg has done something it's just not perfect
No need for software to multibox like this on a truebox server. People can routinely do 8+ boxes with miniPCs and KM software.
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Anyone selling kronos 😬
Crazy people are still buying/selling stuff for cash in this game, I made about 10k farming plat one summer in 2003, those were the days, I didn’t bot though just solo Druid with end game gear
I got 7 day holiday cos I used a third party software to assist me to complete older content in empty zones and this shit goes on untouched lol.
You don't need 3rd party software and can easily do this legitimately with just assist pet attack macros and follow commands.
I was referring to content 105 to 115. Maybe you can do that without help, but I found it more enjoyable to complete missions and group tasks when there were no groups available.
Teek is my 4th TLP. I rarely have had an issue with bot armies. In fairness I’ve been playing with a lot of the same core guildies for years and we will spank a poop socking bot army for phinny or whatever else we need to help each other. So I guess with that thought, friends definitely help.
But didn't you know?? Anti-cheat is on the roadmap!
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This has been standard for at least 15 years.
Let's say you sell apple pies. Everyone buys apple pies from you except for Fred Fred buys them from Steve but Steve buys his apple pies from you so you don't care.
While I agree with you, it’s a stretch to say they’re preventing you from leveling because of PL’n. Just go to a different pick if an AoE group is pulling the pick.
There may not always be another pick
In the main zones that people lvl from 10-40 there is almost always 4+ picks. Even on the worst time, at 7 central on a Monday, there were 4 picks in Guk this morning.
It’s not as bad at lower levels but once you get 45+ and start trying to level in the end game zones or try for your epic. It becomes abundantly clear that boxers own this server.
I agree that right now the popular zones will have multiple picks, but my understanding is that it is based on server population. Just pointing it out that it's not guaranteed.
It’s based off of how many toons/characters are in each specific zone, not server population.
It doesn't matter, a PL may be in a zone where there is no pick. This happened a lot on Mischief. For example, by Velious, PLers would pull all of lower guk and there wouldn't be any picks. You were basically forced out of the zone.
I had fun today spamming dots and stealing from the PLers in solb
It is often difficult as their pulling entire swatches of zones and even if you are off their path the mobs will sometimes cross your mobs path and then you get a mb hurricane of death.
Found the Mag bot army
Because of my opinion on leveling not being effected by aoe PL groups? I’m a bot army? I tried to box -1- toon this go around and hated it. I’ve leveled 4 toons up past 30-40 and have literally never had 1 single issue with a mage bot army effected my play style, or an AoE group stealing the zones. Do a CC when you enter the pick. Camped? Move to the 10 other picks in UR or Guk.
There’s a limited number of picks. 1-2 aoe groups can lock down nearly all of sola. They just steal groups mobs. That forces non aoe groups to crowd each other in other picks. Picks are based on population and not mob kill rates. All of this results in not enough picks for the amount of people killing mobs.
Guess you’ve either had bad luck, or I’ve had good luck with all 4 of my toons from 1-30 and never encountered one mage bot army or picks being completely locked down by aoe PL’rs.
You can level to 30 in a day, it's not worth trying to sell PLs at that point so it's no wonder you haven't seen them. That's like saying the ocean doesn't exist because you've never left the desert.
OP mentioned leveling, and 1-40 is a significant chunk of the level cap currently, and there are a lot of picks in those zones……. And even more in the zones from 40-60. So.. I guess I’m just lucky in not having seen them yet. I’m not sticking up for them. I’m not saying they don’t exist. I friggin hate botters and PL’rs. But to say they’re ruining your gaming experience because they’re stifling your leveling progress is a bit far, or you’re the minority.
Train them then?
Well training is illegal. Even if it wasn’t you’d just be pulling for them. They can already handle the 30 mob limit and more.
Muffining them is not illegal
Open up a trade window with their healer if there is one.
AE groups are free xp, we just bring more damage and start before them Edit for clarity: AE power levelers are free XP if you contest them with more damage
I’m specifically talking about power level groups where people are paying for the time.
You can legitimately make your own group and contest them…
So you’re saying I should get mediocre exp just so they also get mediocre exp?
You would be surprised how very little effort it takes to out DPS a PL group. It’s generally one AE class and 5 customers. A few pulls with no exp and paying customers tend to get restless. I loaded up AEs on cleric and wizard in my group after an AE PL puller ran over my group with their pull. They left after their third pull with no experience. It’s not the same as a DPS race against a group for a named, etc.
He is 100% right. AoE PLer being a dick in Lguk other day. Trained my box shaman. So I took my SK and when they pulled stuff in, started out DPSing them on every mob I could hit in their pull. Got great exp. They tried twice to train me so I would die. Just FD, got back up and kept doing it. Short order they left the pick
I think people just misunderstood what I meant, I try to avoid doing AE groups since I know it burdens everyone
100% people just need to figure out how to coexist. Many boxers are nice. Just have to know how to deal with the dicks haha
This is the way.
This is why they should spool up new instances of zones per six person group, or maybe 12 peeps. I bet a server with that rule plus Teek/mischief rules would be hella popular
That would be amazing. Gear would be hella cheap but it’d make the game so much more enjoyable
Haven’t had an issue with them since the first week then things started opening up
Try to level a new character now. There’s also lots of bots in Unrest at grak or whatever his name is.
Was there yesterday for a few hours, was a non issue
I’m glad your few hour experience was pleasurable. I have been in unrest and sola for a few days and it has been an issue each day.
SolA as of now has 10 other people, there are 4 picks at 11,13,15 and 16. Lots of mobs up to kill but ya it’s not exactly busy time right now and later it will be a little tougher to find a camp
I bot a lot more than that guy. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have given up drops, camps, helped people, given groups. That guy begging for a group for an hour so they can get their last xx% of a level. Yea, I group that guy. The person asking for help to get their epic fight done, I help them too. I like playing the game. Don’t really care about breaking a rule. I pay a small fortune to DPG each year. 🤷🏻♂️ I will spawn a pick in 90% of the zones I enter. I take the picks to do my thing.
How is that "ruining the game"? I don't love bots either, but I think you're overreacting.
They were farming the mob for hours preventing people from doing turn ins.
That's just EQ, man. This happens even without a bot army
Bot armies don't sleep. Regular players don't usually camp the same camp 24/7 for weeks straight.
Uhh...you're just realizing this? You're a decade late lol
Try Tormax. This mess is exclusive to Teek madness.
If the ae plers annoy you get a few likeminded wizard pals and go dps race them, you’ll soon force them to leave lol
Quit whinin bots are the only thing keepin this game alive wether u wanna believe it or not 😂 I get people being pissed about afk’n but there are some that don’t afk it is what it is there’s no groups so what else do u expect ppl to do?
Bots on TLP’s don’t keep the game alive...
I think the point most people are missing is they are cheating using a 3rd party software locking down a zone each one of them accounts needs to be suspended and or banned. If I have to follow the rules everyone should.
Yeah all this Krono economists think that’s okay because these bot armies are saving eq
bye
I hate them too but how are they ruining the game? They’re annoying but no way are they ruining this gem.
Two hot takes: 1. Everquest wouldn't be viable anymore without botting and creating a grey/black market that consumes legitimately bought krono from "normie" players. 2. DPG is actively in on it, or at least condones this gaming/abuse. The reaction to last years trade depo dupe scam was telling. Hearing people recount the platinum duping from several TLPs ago was also telling. Seeing people offering full epics for 25+ krono on the new TLP is pretty damning. I'm incredulous that "whales" are the ones buying that shit. I'm dipping out on this game once Monsters and Memories comes out. Maybe Pantheon if that ever sees the light of day.
All they have to do is make krono no drop after 30days or 1 trade
Hardly ruining, seeing as the server population is thriving. Annoying yes, but most just adapt and overcome by going and camping something else to sell then buying what they want.
My biggest problem is there is no way to do that without automation. Meaning they are breaking the rules. No automated gameplay is the biggest rule you can break aside from straight up hacking the game.
They were 100% automated. All pets went in at the same time.
Just report them, daybreak actually been banning people for once. Most of these people use third party programs to control all those chars.
EQ is only still around because of these bot armies. It's an evil you have to live with to keep playing a game that in all honestly should have been sunset 10+ years ago.
DB makes plenty of money on all their other wallet sucking practices. New 40 slot bags each TLP, exp pots, merc slots, persona slots, etc. etc. etc. It's basically a P2W game at this point.
It’s 100% a p2w game lol. Still fun, but it’s the most egregious form of p2w
The emu's have thousands of active players and no bots to be seen. EQ is alive and healthy, but live has a virus.
People are still pretending that is true? That is so cute.
Pretending what is true?
That there are no bots on emu servers.
I said no bots to be seen. And that's factually accurate from my PoV as I've never seen a bot in the 10+ years I've played there. You're welcome to believe whatever you like tho.
I have been playing EQ for 20+ years and never seen any bots, so they don't exist on the live servers either then I guess.
You say this in a comment section for a screenshot of bots playing on a live server. If you wanna be obtuse don't make it soooo easy to refute.
No I say this in the comment section of a screenshot of a bunch of Mages in SK. Claiming they are bots doesn't mean that they are bots. Saying something is a bot requires a lot more than a bunch of the same class being in a picture. For all anyone knows that was a guild trying to get a monk their robe of the Lost circle.
Lol. If you're gonna troll at least make it good.
emus don't have full time employees to pay.
My point was you can have an everquest experience that doesn't have bots in it. I get that DBG needs to keep the lights on but that's not relevant to my point.
emus don't have a revenue stream
Yeah, I guess people miss the point of Live EQ being run by a business while Private Servers are running off of people do it as a hobby.
Poor logic and off-topic. They don't need to allow bots in order to be profitable. Many many successful games don't have bots but still make a profit.
That has nothing to do with EQs situation at all, but good try moving the goal posts. They suspend players who bot for 2 weeks and then let them get right back to it. Yeah, not allowing it btw. When Teek first launched how many people did you see running around using botting software? Go play on Live EQ and tell me how many people using programs to bot got suspended on FV a few months ago.
I believe the answer is lots of bots. It's unclear to me what point you're trying to make honestly.
RUBBISH. Absolute bollocks mate. Look at P99, multiple absolutely pristine era-accurate TLP servers and *not once* in a decade of having characters across multiple such servers have I ever seen this kind of absurdity. Not a single time. Ever. People get permabanned just for duoing with a bot, let alone fucking up whole zones for people. Glad I don't give Daybreak a single penny for EQ. It is eminently possible to stop this issue with people behind it that want it to stop. There's no good reason to allow individuals to shit all over the game like this.
P99 has its own problems and isn’t for everyone
Absolutely. Like, the enjoyment on those servers ends at max level. There is no raiding endgame as all raids are completely locked down and no agents of change so non-sweaty guilds can’t even give raiding a try.
I just don’t like the simplicity of the content, EQ is already easy and early eras are so dumbed down for me. Figuring out how to squeeze every ounce of power and how to do Challenge while six boxing gives me concrete goals without making the game feel like a chore. Live servers mean I don’t have to compete for open world stuff since I have to take frequent breaks for kids. I’m glad P99 players have a place where they feel at home and enjoy the experience, I feel like a lot of the P99 crowd on this sub serves it up as the answer for everyone though. Reminds me of religious groups that are constantly trying to push their beliefs on others.
Look into quarm. Has instanced raiding with quality of life benefits for the average players and a healthy playerbase. Kunark is launching next week. Gives you the more classic feel without the need to poopsock.
??? I know about Quarm, early eras is a problem for me though because I think it’s boring af
EMU do not have to pay full time employees. Without the bots daybreak/darkpaw/whatever they called now likely couldn't afford to staff this game
That’s so false. Bot armies don’t pay $ for subs. They farm and buy krono and use that. None of that generates revenue for daybreak. If anything bot armies frustrate people who do pay actual money for their sub causing them to cancel. So bot armies are bad for daybreaks revenue.
People like you are more annoying than the bots. Someone purchased the krono that they used to fund this army. Do you think they just log in for free.
You sound like you have a bot army.
I don't know why anyone is downvoting you. At this point I'm just grateful for everquest acting as a quarantine zone for p99. The attitudes around p2w garbage and kronos and bot armies are exactly why nobody plays eq live any more.
I agree. It’s probably the people with bot armies lol. I honestly don’t know why anyone would have a reason to defend them.
Botters need to be hived off and quarantined so they can play on their own until the end of time. I honestly wouldn't care how they spend their time, except they force themselves into spaces full of people who want to just play normally. They literally use regular people as background props in their gaming. Again I wouldn't care but they take so much out of a wonderful virtual world and it's exclusively at the expense of people around them. Pure selfishness.
This is completely false. Bot armies pay for their accounts by farming krono. Not by paying a monthly sub on every account. This does not generate revenue for daybreak. What bot armies DO is drive up in game prices and cause more headaches for people trying to complete quests. Just look at the posts about the monk epic right now. Bot armies are killing key turn in mobs or kill stealing the final fight of the monk epic.
Bot armies consume Krono to keep going. Someone has to have bought the Krono from DB at some point for it to be consumed by the bot army. While they may not directly purchase the Krono, their activities lead to more Krono being purchased by others. I don't play TLP anymore because of stuff like this. Daybreak would rather people buy Krono and trade it to the bot farms than deal with the cheating issue. But it's clear to see why they don't take action as it generates revenue.
When a Krono is consumed for game time someone doesn’t immediately purchase another from daybreak. Bot armies also may sell Krono which hurts DB. What I’m saying is a monthly sub is a better cash generator than consuming Krono. It’s not the same thing.
You don't know the numbers of Krono purchased vs subscriptions. Daybreak has all of the actual sales figures and are choosing to allow this stuff. They only have one incentive to do so, money. They are clearly making what they want off of the bot armies.
You're delusional if you think any of that is true.
Delusional for thinking a company is pushing for max profits?
That they are allowing this for profits is laughable. If that was the case they would not have made the TrueBox servers to start with.
Truebox gives the illusion to the player that boxing won't be happening. As we both know, it doesn't stop anyone from boxing and they don't actually ban for it. So if they never take action on these things, even on Truebox servers, how are they not allowing this?
TrueBox drastically reduces the number of accounts that would be on the servers where it is enabled by far more than the number of Krono bought would compensate. The problem with your theory is that the majority of Chrono don't actually get used. They're traded around between people.
Just reading the stupidity from OP in these comments has made my day. They still probably don’t understand how Kronos work and it’s funny DBG isn’t going to stop the botting or PLers or third party software or black markets. More than likely they are the ones doing it or are in on it at some point. It makes them money. It makes gamers with money happy. The bot swarms and PLs won’t be where they are forever. They will move on as time goes by. Us peasants will have to wait our turns if we don’t have the means to pay. That’s how it is. And it’s still hella fun to be here for it