AFK Reg Bots should NOT be allowed

[Fwerp]

I cannot be the only player who has become exasperated trying to purchase reagents on UOSA. It is time to speak up and have this era-inaccurate practice of AFK resource gathering disallowed!

I feel that AFK Reg Bots should not be allowed for the following reasons:

1) It is AFK Resource Gathering. It is not materially different from AFK mining or lumberjacking, it just relies more heavily on an extorted player as an intermediary. In all cases, you are leaving a character online unattended, gathering up a sellable commodity that will in turn be sold to players, allowing the player running the bot to make gold for running the bot. The only argument I have read in IRC regarding this supposed differentiation alleges that AFK Reg Bots do not constitute AFK Resource Gatherers because they spend gold. Why is this a relevant factor in differentiating the two? If anything, AFK Reg Buying is negatively effecting game play in a direct manner, whereas the other forms of AFK Resource Gathering effect it only indirectly through inflation.

2) It is NOT Era Accurate. You could go to a mage shop and buy regs during t2a; you cannot on UOSA right now. Sometimes, you would have to try multiple shops, but you could find them. With all of the AFK Reg Bots currently being run, it is virtually impossible to find regs on an NPC vendor. I understand the approach of granting players carte blanche to use Razor, but the effect of these bots on era accurate game play is so profound unto itself that it should be scrutinized for era accuracy reasons, apart from determinations about AFK Resource Gathering. Moreover, there is good reason to believe that many of these bots are scripted using Easy UO, and not Razor. It should at the very least be incumbent on the staff to monitor these bots closely, and when there are questions about the bots, request copies of the Razor script in short order to verify that they are not running a disallowed program.

3) There is no reason to put up with it. It isn't a slippery slope. It would be a very cut and dried, bright-line rule to enforce: AFK Reg Bots are now allowed. There aren't any obvious collateral repercussions except that players would once again be able to purchase reagents from NPC shops. It wouldn't entail disallowing all bots (which we are for some reason content to allow on a t2a shard), it would just disallow disruptive, AFK Resource Gathering bots.

What am I missing? Why do we allow these bots?

[Pirul]

Because: use the search function.

[Freight Elevator]

Not this again

[Apocalypse]

Yeah, beating a dead horse here I think.

[Blaise]

Redundant threads/arguments should not be allowed, however, they are more era-accuate than AFK reagent shopping.

Let's look at it like this:
If Azheman can do it, and it upsets you to the point of posting on forums, effectively Azheman is better at UO than you. In turn, you must 'get good'. Perhaps you should check the guides.

[Robbbb]

It's pretty simple to stop...find out what bank they are recalling back and forth to and stand on their recall spot/spots. Find what Mage shop they are stuck at and go potion bomb that mother fu*#*%!!

[Downs]

I prefer buying in bulk, but I'm good at Uo and not a poor person

[Wil]

What am I missing? Why do we allow these bots?

Is it just me or does the Razor buy agent fail to see all the regs that a vendor has for sale?

[Pirul]

Remember that the buy agent will stop buying if you have the number of regs specified in such buy agent in your pack.

Say your buy agent is set to buy 300 BP, but you have 10 in your pack previously to recall around, it will only buy 290 regardless of how many the vendor actually has.

[azheman]

I prefer buying in bulk, but I'm good at Uo and not a poor person

This

[MatronDeWinter]

Well, I agree with fwerp.

The excuse that "Well, they spend gold...." makes the action okay is silly. They are spending a commodity (gold) for another commodity (regs) that they can then sell for a higher price...

This is no different from say, afk mining, because after all, they are producing one higher priced commodity (ore) from a lower priced commodity (tools).


Sure, it was hard to find stocked regs in actual t2a, but regs also spawned all over the ground (tens if not hundreds more than on UOSA), and the population on any given day was significantly larger. It's always shocking to me to see the server, which is of equal size to the authentic one, have the same limitations in resources and real-estate, despite having a non-significant percentage of the ori4ginal population...


Also, since the "Beating a dead horse" argument has already been let out, I will add that Grandfathered masks are non era accurate, and selectively unfair to the player base. AFK rares gathering is silly, as well as the rare spawn timers that do not adhere to the servers doctrine. Plus Lightshade is Sexysmithy.

[montier]

I cannot be the only player who has become exasperated trying to purchase reagents on UOSA. It is time to speak up and have this era-inaccurate practice of AFK resource gathering disallowed!

I feel that AFK Reg Bots should not be allowed for the following reasons:

1) It is AFK Resource Gathering. It is not materially different from AFK mining or lumberjacking, it just relies more heavily on an extorted player as an intermediary. In all cases, you are leaving a character online unattended, gathering up a sellable commodity that will in turn be sold to players, allowing the player running the bot to make gold for running the bot. The only argument I have read in IRC regarding this supposed differentiation alleges that AFK Reg Bots do not constitute AFK Resource Gatherers because they spend gold. Why is this a relevant factor in differentiating the two? If anything, AFK Reg Buying is negatively effecting game play in a direct manner, whereas the other forms of AFK Resource Gathering effect it only indirectly through inflation.

2) It is NOT Era Accurate. You could go to a mage shop and buy regs during t2a; you cannot on UOSA right now. Sometimes, you would have to try multiple shops, but you could find them. With all of the AFK Reg Bots currently being run, it is virtually impossible to find regs on an NPC vendor. I understand the approach of granting players carte blanche to use Razor, but the effect of these bots on era accurate game play is so profound unto itself that it should be scrutinized for era accuracy reasons, apart from determinations about AFK Resource Gathering. Moreover, there is good reason to believe that many of these bots are scripted using Easy UO, and not Razor. It should at the very least be incumbent on the staff to monitor these bots closely, and when there are questions about the bots, request copies of the Razor script in short order to verify that they are not running a disallowed program.

3) There is no reason to put up with it. It isn't a slippery slope. It would be a very cut and dried, bright-line rule to enforce: AFK Reg Bots are now allowed. There aren't any obvious collateral repercussions except that players would once again be able to purchase reagents from NPC shops. It wouldn't entail disallowing all bots (which we are for some reason content to allow on a t2a shard), it would just disallow disruptive, AFK Resource Gathering bots.

What am I missing? Why do we allow these bots?

Lack of population is the problem not the bot buyers...

I personally believe they are necessary. The population is not large enough, thus not creating enough demand for regs. So the NPC Vendors don't ramp production up above base levels.. When the bots are not running, You can tell. You are only able to find batches of 20 of each reg at vendors. This sucks if you are trying to train.. because 20 of each wont get you far.. and recalling around wont get you enough. When the Reg bots are in full swing(and the NPC Vendors have scaled up) you can recall around and get 1000s of each.. I just did last night..

The problems arise from when the reg bots just start heir runs. If we could get the reg bots running 24-7(or consistently corresponding to peak times) or population up, there would be less of an issue.

If the reg bots went away.. I am certain that 2 things would happen. During off hours you would only see amounts of 20 of each reg and you still wouldn't be able to buy regs at peak times.




Disclosure: I do not run any reg bots, i do not sell regs. I do have a decent cache of Regs(thank you reg bots for getting the NPC to spawn regs at decent levels)..

[montier]

Do the Vendors reset to base levels every day at server restart? I have a hunch they do..

If they do.. Is this era accurate? Because this would also make reg buying much more difficult.. The NPCs would never ramp up enough to reach equilibrium...

[Menkaure]

It does suck, but as someone said before, it wont ever go away. For the people who say we need the afk reg bots, thats just silly. Have you gone reg shopping lately? Theres always a ton of people going around trying to "beat the bot." if I spend 2 hours of my time, I can get a decent amount of the regs I need (4-5k of each that I need), but sometimes Ill only get like 1-2k each. Its a pain in the arse, so Ive started buying in bulk for an extra GP/per from a player. Ive given up on this fight.

[Naljier]

umm if it wasn't for the bots the way the reg respawn is, vendors would NEVER have any worthwhile ammount regs to sell anyway

atleast now if we 'beat the bot' you can buy a worthwhile amount