This is going to be an extremely long post. If you are one of the people that complain about bots on OT servers you better read this because it is for you... I hope this will be enough to make you understand why 8.6 is this way and why pretty much every tibia version will always have bots to some degree.
Part 1: The sad Truth
(Sorry if this disappoints you, but I think you guys need to hear it.)
No one individual is going to sit on an OT for 12-16 hours a day searching out people using bots on an 8.6 client. I say 12-16 hours a day because that is the amount of time it would require to actually make a difference. The second the GMs log out to go to sleep, people will set up their bots around that schedule. We have 2 admins, both of which live in the US (1 west coast, 1 east coast) so best case scenario we could alternate time schedules so that we overlap our coverage by 3-4 hours allowing the other Admin to take a break. In that best case example, each Admin is still logged in searching for botters 6-8 hours a day. Here in america 8 hours is the average work day. With that said, you would have to be so outlandishly arrogant to think that an OT is worth working like a full time job just to make sure people aren't botting.
So many of you might be thinking. Hey Xagul, why not find a hand full of GMs? The answer to this is quite simple... Have you ever played an OT with a large number of GMs that weren't corrupt and/or treated some players unfair? I personally have not.
Every OT that I have ever played (and I have played a metric fuckton)
That has had GMs (pretty much all of them actually)
Has either:
- had corrupt staff that banned people for stupid reasons
- had staff that treated some people unfair because they didn't like them
- played the favorite game allowing some people to get away with things they shouldn't
.
(Had to remove some text to be able to post under 10k letters)
You made the fishing rod automatically fish for fuck sake, how is that making it "harder to bot".
And you seem to think that its impossible to create a system where you grant people GM characters who can only go inviss, ban/kick and tp to temple and people.
Or another system where you can make people report people by screenshot or recording and posting it on the forum where there, one of the GM's can look if anyone is botting, so you guys don't have to run around looking for people.
You don't try to solve the problem because you think its impossible.
And whats fun is that you say "well we use 8.6 and people will bot here".
I warned you from fucking XDC days that this would happen with a 8.6, that your servers will eventually die because manuell players DO NOT get rewarded.
Problem with XDC = people botting mining and some mobs to get the best gear to later manuell or bot better mobs that others cannot kill yet.
Problem with DeathZot = People botting mobs is probably the most effective way of levling, i botted up a 7k character in like 2 days or some crap, because i took a task, looked back on the client now and then to leave it in.
Botters can task AS EASILY as manuell players, and if they know the Uber spawns, they just have to pause the bot and kill it, which makes the fucking case of ubers not helping manuell players either.
And PS, where i earned the most money in Deathzot was from a party of 6 people fishing in the caves where the elves are, i found fucking 25k on the ground because they picked up the orbs.
I know you have ACTUALLY tried to make this server give manuell players more than botters, but it does not work, the only time where you can get more than the botters is when they are sleeping/working/school.
But then you also need to play when they sleep+work/school and then also play when they active bot.
So yah, complaining that its "hard" to manage a server like this is no joke, it is hard. That is why you cannot try to take all the work that is needed upon yourself.
Make people have to screenshot/record a person botting, posting it on the forum to get him banned and you have only the 1/10 of the work to do.
And manuell players LOVE to kill/report botter, because we will make our hunting grounds better and with more respect than botters hitting everything on the screen.
It becomes a respect thing which Tibia is the only game that has, people will either try to kill each other or respect the spawns, and with that comes the community of wars, guilds and help from others.
I remember when Deathzot began, EVERYONE wanted to go to the World bosses, heck people botted them too by just standing inside there.
That is where you found alot of people, and EVERYONE on the server helped out to kill the boss.
THAT is amazing, THAT you do not see when people bot.
Thanks for your time.