So I was composing a story for the weird people thread and long story short, the title question stuck in my head. I didn't want to clutter up that magnificent thread with this side discussion.

3 of us in Red Reaper I think: me a dps, a dps smuggler, a commando healer. One of us pulled a companion. Get to the first waypoint and no healer; he's standing at the start. We're saying cmon, finally he shuffles over.

Fight the first boss, notice few to no heals coming, beat it and click the computer: healer's standing in the corner. Cmon dude. Finally comes over.

Sneaking past enemies, waiting for healer, healer comes, aggro's, dies, I may have died as well. Either I survived or rezzed but whatever, moving on, healer's standing still. Hasn't said a word the entire time, just stands still alot, barely participates. So the other player who was really nice and helpful to me, and was very patient with the healer, finally initiates a votekick with the reasons "possible botting". I asked her if it was possible to bot in a FP and she said "sure is" but didn't elaborate. I meant to ask followup questions later but we got occupied and I forgot about it until now.

So, reason I started a new thread is because I'm curious how botting would really work in a FP, if this is a common thing, was the the above sitch abnormal i.e. badly executed by the botter, and if so, how can you tell when someone's doing it? Reasons being I hate cheaters and don't like playing with them even it their cheating works to my advantage.

EDIT: In my haste I neglected to mention that it was upwards of 5-8 minutes of "him" standing still at a time.

I do not think it is botting so much as someone hoping to be carried. They do not want to be bothered to in fact do the flash point so they just tag along in the hopes no one notices them not participating/assisting.

This. Now I don't talk much on a group I don't know but I will heal and keep up.

I do not think it is botting so much as someone hoping to be carried. They do not want to be bothered to in fact do the flash point so they just tag along in the hopes no one notices them not participating/assisting.

I suppose, but how does one expect to not be noticed in a group of 3?

It's the standing around for minutes on end between battles that had me boggled. He could've been lagging out I guess, but in my experience lagging that badly for 5 minutes straight where you can't even move would result in a disconnect.

The description fits at least 90% of the people that queue hard mode flashpoints on The Red Eclipse, but I guess it could be a bot.

Tell me about it, after doing those 360 HM FPS to have 100% FPS achievements i could write a book about the people in GF!!

Not a bot.

One of these:

- New player, unfamiliar with class / group content

- Someone with children constantly bothering them while they play. If you have family you know how it is.

- Someone wants to be carried

- Troll (less likely but possible)

If nothing above applies, why would you stand still in flashpoint for multiple minutes without saying anything?

Well, maybe you decided to switch discipline and you're trying to figure out good utilities. If you're new to class it could take a very long time to select utilities. As you all know it's not possible to do that during combat.

Of course, that kind of "botting" would be possible but it's not efficient, not even close.

Let me tell you about BoR tactical run long time ago (soon after 4.0 launch?)

3 stealthers and 1 non-stealth. If you've done this flashpoint before you know where this is going.

- 1st stealther goes to click the first console, everyone else continue to next one

- 2nd stealther goes to click the second console, everyone else continue to next one

- 3rd stealther goes to click the third console, everyone else continue to forcefield and wait there

All that without pulling anything in those areas. The only non-stealth class player in group accused us of botting.

Not a bot.

 

One of these:

- New player, unfamiliar with class / group content

- Someone with children constantly bothering them while they play. If you have family you know how it is.

- Someone wants to be carried

- Troll (less likely but possible)

 

If nothing above applies, why would you stand still in flashpoint for multiple minutes without saying anything?

Well, maybe you decided to switch discipline and you're trying to figure out good utilities. If you're new to class it could take a very long time to select utilities. As you all know it's not possible to do that during combat.

 

Of course, that kind of "botting" would be possible but it's not efficient, not even close.

 

Let me tell you about BoR tactical run long time ago (soon after 4.0 launch?)

3 stealthers and 1 non-stealth. If you've done this flashpoint before you know where this is going.

- 1st stealther goes to click the first console, everyone else continue to next one

- 2nd stealther goes to click the second console, everyone else continue to next one

- 3rd stealther goes to click the third console, everyone else continue to forcefield and wait there

All that without pulling anything in those areas. The only non-stealth class player in group accused us of botting.

Yeah, the more I think about it the less likely a bot seems. There's alot of possible reason why he behaved the way he did. I just wonder why my friend seemed somewhat certain, ie what clues she noticed to indicate this. If she hadn't said that I would've chalked it up to a distracted player.

I suppose next time I see her on I'll have to ask her, if I can drag myself away from my alts long enough

Have any of you ever seen a player that you were sure was a bot? (IOW a better, clearer example of the one I gave) If so, what signs should one look for to indicate that?

It really sounds like someone who was intoxicated, new to the game or who just wanted to be carried while watching Netflix or something.

In any case, if that player is not reacting in chat, it would be a reason for me to kick him. If you queue up in Group Finder, you are required to participate, otherwise you waste everyone else's time.

Have any of you ever seen a player that you were sure was a bot? (IOW a better, clearer example of the one I gave) If so, what signs should one look for to indicate that?

The bots I found in-game were farming credits in a quiet spot on Hoth (somewhere in the Heroic bonus area that was empty pre-4.0). You will easily recognize that they are a bot because they always walk in straight lines, zig-zagging from mob to mob, and they never walk backwards or hit spacebar. They are also much slower than a human player, because there is like a 1 second delay between looting a mob and walking to the next group. And they will always use their regen ability when they are below 100% health. When you try to invite them, they will instantly decline because they have this set up in preferences.

Obviously, bot behaviour has changed because of the 4.0 changes. Pre-4.0, all the mobs were grey, so the bots didn't need any gear and didn't take much damage. Also, credit drops from mobs have been reduced. So I haven't seen any bots on Hoth for a long time.

The last time I saw a bot was roughly one year ago when they were standing in a vendor, probably abusing some exploit or macroing a mission crew skill.

Two years ago when I first started playing, the "bot" probably would've been me. I didn't know how to switch on the subtitles in cutscenes, so I went to the "other" tab in chat and read the subtitles there. And then I completely forgot that I had done so.

Which led to me and two other people doing a Heroic mission (back when you REALLY needed to team up for it when you were at the intended level) and these long awkward pauses of silence.

Looking back on it, I now realize that they probably were saying stuff in chat - but I had the chat turned to the wrong tab, and thus I couldn't see it. Derp.

So maybe the "bot" in this case was a new player, who didn't realize they'd turned chat off/there IS a chat in the first place/turned chat to the wrong tab, and...hence the silence. As for the weird pauses, maybe they were trying to figure out what to do and where to go next.

But I don't think they were a bot. See...I always thought that botting had to have a purpose. Gold farming has a purpose - you get massive amounts of (ill-gotten) credits/crafting materials to sell. Profit. Warzone hacking (yep, flame war incoming, but let's just assume that it IS as rampant as people claim) has a purpose - you get rewards, titles, things to sell, etc. Profit of a different sort.

But what's a flashpoint? A flashpoint is a long mission full of combat (ways to very easily die, and not so easy to revive/keep going afterwards), with a few rewards on various bosses (tactics to follow; again, ways to very, very easily die, so not that easy for a bot to keep up with everyone else) that don't amount to much monetary gain/other items like gear for the amount of effort put into getting it. For a bot, the risks far outweigh the gains. There isn't much incentive to send a bot into a flashpoint...unless you're doing it just to mess up three other peoples' experience, in which case you're a troll.

As for seeing a bot? Aside from the credit spammers on fleet, I've only seen one bot in the history of ever - a few days ago, farming slicing nodes on Zakuul. I kept noticing someone's Lana companion trotting about aimlessly, so out of curiosity I followed her, and saw her go up to every single slicing node and get it. But there was no one around to direct her... I clicked on her - thank you BioWare for "target of target" icon - and saw an operative zooming through the netherworld underneath Breaktown at breakneck speeds, occasionally with an indication that they were gathering a node, but they never stopped or slowed down. Even when they somehow managed to aggro mobs, I'd see the little "evade" indications pop up within half a second.

You can bet I've never hit the "report for spam" button so quickly in all the time I've been playing here.

You will easily recognize that they are a bot because they always walk in straight lines, zig-zagging from mob to mob, and they never walk backwards or hit spacebar. They are also much slower than a human player, because there is like a 1 second delay between looting a mob and walking to the next group. And they will always use their regen ability when they are below 100% health. When you try to invite them, they will instantly decline because they have this set up in preferences.

They don't respond to whispers, ever. They also let the regen ability go through the full channel every time even though they are already at 100% hp. At least mob killing/credit farming bots also follow the exact same path. You will also see a small delay between their running and attacking enemies (/force leap). They still go to locations where enemies should be even though someone else already killed them. You can see this on areas where respawn time is relatively short like starting area on Ziost. Oh, and they are almost exclusively start at 60 characters in their starting gear. Slicing bots also completely ignore their own companion.

In Mando Raiders last night. Slow night, rare pops. Couple players dropped after first boss wipe. so me and "ssynvxlt" lvl 23 sniper (made up name but very close to the actual name) stayed in the fp. Got my comp out in dps mode and asked "ssynvxlt" to put its in heal mode. I got no reply and its comp stayed in dps. Wiped on first boss again. I could have easily killed the first boss on my own (full 240 geared guardian tank with Koth at +50) but wanted to watch "ssynvxlt" . I told "ssynvxlt" to concentrate its and comp fire at one dog at a time, again no answer. This went on for some time before i stucked it. Rezzed at start point med droid as did IT after about a minute of laying there dead.

Asked if he could speak English in 7 different languages (French , German, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Polish and Russian, Thankyou Babelfish!)... No answer. While i was asking it had run off to get killed by the first boss again. which promptly happened. This happened another 20 times over the space of about an hour (i was fascinated, intirigued and mystified all at the same time)

I would summise that these bots ( and was definately a bot) enter GF Fps with the sole hope that they wont be noticed by other players and get carried through. The bot does most of the things a player would do and level up gather valuable drops a lot faster than standing on the ledge on Ord Mantell savrip Island.

Not that I want to give anyone ideas, but wouldn't a bot or anyone hoping to get carried while doing absolutely nothing know about a certain feature that wouldn't leave them behind when the group moves on? Something you could set on another player and then walk away from your computer until the FP is over?

*I'm not going to be more specific than that, but I would believe someone low enough to go in and then do nothing would at least know how to properly exploit the situation.

And then there's the fact that it would be a lot of time wasted for potentially no rewards, and pretty meager rewards if one were to successfully pull it off. Too much time spent for so little in return, regardless.

Tell me about it, after doing those 360 HM FPS to have 100% FPS achievements i could write a book about the people in GF!!

Quoting an old post but BWA must have fixed FPS achievements then? I had so many where I'd killed 4/5 bosses 10+ times but had zero achivements for the first boss. So it was never a set of achievements I thought were achievable.