AFK Farmers

Every lw3 map I was in last night theres was one of those clearly obvious afk cheats sitting in same spot auto attacking the air until the auto target grabs a mob. Almost all of them were necros with pets spammed out. Sitting there for many many hours straight doing this. It's obvious what they are doing, using auto clicker to attack and respawn minions to avoid afk boot. How are they getting away with this. It's actually kind of annoying to watch leeches like this just getting a several hour grind of unbound magic and materials while they are likely sleeping. Is this considered cheating or botting? Is this something that should be reported when I see the same necro in the same spot when I get on and then 7 hours later when I get off there he is auto attacking thin air? There all over and I hope anet starts hammering these leeching maggots if this is in fact against the rules. Rant over....Teq is up....see ya!!!!

The best is to make a screenshot with clearly visible bot names and send it to customer support (Exploits@Arena.Net) . The in game report function seems not to be to effective. At least my personal experience is that results are better with screen shots and a short explanation. I've seen farming spots get abandoned for a while after reporting bots there 2-3 days in a row.

In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to exploits@arena.net. ANet will investigate.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to exploits@arena.net. ANet will investigate.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to exploits@arena.net. ANet will investigate.

Yeah this certainly isnt a student doing homework hitting a button every few minutes. He is autoattacking every 4 seconds exactly on the second and when I was dragging mobs to him trying to kill him he got downed and started healing so he at least has a few keys autoclicking. He is doing this for several hours straight. I hope all the necros doing this trash get punished because its obnoxious and isnt fair for legit players grinding materials. You play with fire you get burnt so hopefully the sent screenshot will help anet torch him and his auto minions back to where he came from.

The other night before Malchor's Leap became a daily event completion, I was trying to figure out ways how to get that one specific hero point. Took me quite a few hours until I found a way to glitch to get it, but during those hours there was 2 Necros just sitting right outside a specific camp south of that hero point and north of the hero point that is guarded by the champion risen knight.They never moved and some risen seem to just spawn near that one area that their minions would just kill them.After multiple hours me and someone who was with me was wondering if we can get on another instance of the map and those Necros were our landmark.

"Nope, those afk Necros still there."

I have a simple solution; Pretend nothing happened and move on. Isn't this the norm action taken when it comes to toxicity in the game? So why not do the same?

(Afterall, farmers are bringing in money to the game)

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to exploits@arena.net. ANet will investigate.

Inattentive farming of the same spot for 4 months... cmon be serious please.ANET simply don't care that pretty much every map is being exploited .. hundreds of reports for the same players for months and nothing is done, they just simply file the reports in the nearest trashcan and pretend nothing is going on.

OP.. only thing to do is keep reporting or make your own necro minion master and join the farmwars exploitation.

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:Inattentive farming of the same spot for 4 months... cmon be serious please.The point is: report it and move on. It doesn't matter what you or I think is going on.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:Inattentive farming of the same spot for 4 months... cmon be serious please.The point is: report it and move on. It doesn't matter what you or I think is going on.

The point is.. the reports go nowhere and do nothing.. if they were being taken seriously then someone is continually dropping the ball cos as I said, hundreds of reports regarding same players that are strangely still there 4+ months now farming 24/7 in the same spots across pretty much every map... that's a lot of diaper changing or someone is really stuck on their homework...

So yes it is about what you or I think but more importantly its about what ANET think.. or don't bother to take seriously.ToS can be a useful tool when considering the integrity of the game.. but only when they are taken seriously by their creators..

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:Inattentive farming of the same spot for 4 months... cmon be serious please.The point is: report it and move on. It doesn't matter what you or I think is going on.

farmer detectedphilipjfrysquinting.jpg

@Trae.2384 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to

exploits@arena.net

. ANet will investigate.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to

exploits@arena.net

. ANet will investigate.

Careful. Dragging mobs to kill someone, whether they are botting or not, is grieving.

Technically they are getting hammered. AFK farmers are usually out drinking while they're AFK.

@Burnfall.9573 said:I have a simple solution; Pretend nothing happened and move on. Isn't this the norm action taken when it comes to toxicity in the game? So why not do the same?

(Afterall, farmers are bringing in money to the game)

This shouldn't be ignored since this is also another way for gold sellers to make coin, this is bad for the game. Unattended game play should never be rewarded since it leads us to things like diminishing returns, skill changes because of player abuse and other negative effects.

I wish anet couldmake it so ifyou dont move every 5 mins and use skills youdiscconect

@Endless Soul.5178 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Bloodstealer.5978" said:Inattentive farming of the same spot for 4 months... cmon be serious please.The point is: report it and move on. It doesn't matter what you or I think is going on.

Those are the same same same ones I mentioned in this post:

@"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:The other night before Malchor's Leap became a daily event completion, I was trying to figure out ways how to get that one specific hero point. Took me quite a few hours until I found a way to glitch to get it, but during those hours there was 2 Necros just sitting right outside a specific camp south of that hero point and north of the hero point that is guarded by the champion risen knight.They never moved and some risen seem to just spawn near that one area that their minions would just kill them.After multiple hours me and someone who was with me was wondering if we can get on another instance of the map and those Necros were our landmark.

"Nope, those afk Necros still there."

You're telling me they're STILL there?

They have been there for at least 6 months that I know of. I've reported for botting because I can't imagine someone "inattentive" for days on end at all times throughout the day. But yes, still there. Shrugs

Interesting views written here, I knew I wasnt the only one frustrated at these leeches. The problem with report and move on is the only option that comes close in the report option would be botting however these people dont appear to be botting. Bots actively play the game, although they run into walls, get stuck on stuff and follow random ppl around silverwastes, they are using third party software to play the game for them. These people mentioned in this thread are using some type of simple auto click scripts to spawn pets every certain duration, spam auto attack and heal as well. So even though this is clearly cheating they arent using any detectable botting software that would be flagged in a bot report investigation. I dont think the game can differentiate between an app clicking a button or a human doing it. If afk farming/autoclicking to avoid afk boot is against the rules theres no way to specifically report it in game which is why I made this post. From everything ive read we need to screenshot them with clear name showing and email it to "exploits@arena.net" which I did and will do every time I see one of these scavengers.

No this doesnt effect my life but there are some valid points made here, for one the ppl doing it are flooding items into the market, when they do it near event bosses they scale them up but thats negligible, and really the main thing is it just really makes me mad to spend hours grinding materials I need for something, which is very mundane and boring to do, while these cheats are getting the same thing while they sleep. It's not fair and cheaters should face consequences otherwise the maps are going to see more and more of these people. If every account that did this got banned then 99% of people considering trying it wouldnt do it, seems simple to me.

I don't care. As long as it ain't coming out of my inventory

lol...just look at their names...that tells it allbut anet doesnt care

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:In addition to what @"Cyninja.2954" wrote, remember that "inattentive farming" is okay. For example, sitting in the same spot while doing homework/watching TV and just pressing buttons often enough to avoid death/DC. That might not be your idea of fun (nor mine), but it's acceptable to ANet.

Since it's tricky to distinguish between bots, AFK farmers with macros, inattentive farmers, and someone who just went to change a diaper, use the in-game /report function or, if you have time, mail screenshots to exploits@arena.net. ANet will investigate.

There is nothing tricky about distinguishing macro botter. You can't auto cast auto attack, most of the afk farmers auto attack air non stop.

@Crab Fear.1624 said:I don't care. As long as it ain't coming out of my inventory

that is very shortsighted and egocentricit hurts the game and you, unless you are botting yourself

The problem is that certain rewards and achievements are not based on skill. They are based on the time spent. And for AFKers, time is better spent doing something else as opposed to putting forth the effort. I'm not saying I agree with this notion, but it is now part of the game.

You're not getting that achievement in the Desolation because it took skill. You got it because you spent the time mindlessly grinding and map jumping to spike that portal one-hundred times. And that, gentlemen, is the bigger view of the problem. If you're rewarded for either time spent or no effort, why wouldn't you AFK? You're getting the same reward as someone who did all the work and put in all the effort as opposed to someone who did none of the work and put forth none of the effort.

Of course players are going to take the path of less resistance. That's just the nature of players.

@Laila Lightness.8742 said:I wish anet couldmake it so ifyou dont move every 5 mins and use skills youdiscconect

I disagree, because sometimes I need to watch a YouTube video to learn how to do something, or learn from wiki. I'm afk quite a bit, but I just stand there, I'm not using any bots.I occasionally see someone using a bot, but it doesn't bother me, I think good for them they're smarter than me

@Lemondrop.5216 said:

@Laila Lightness.8742 said:I wish anet couldmake it so ifyou dont move every 5 mins and use skills youdiscconect

This for me too. Not just videos though. I might have to go away for a bit. Like 10 minutes. Maybe I'm helping someone with something, maybe I'm explaining something off of the game, maybe I'm here on the forums, maybe I'm cooking, maybe I'm looking for spots to hide the corpse before the police arrive as I can't explain I'm holding it until I can give it to Joko, or something.The most that usually happen for me in these cases is my monitor goes into sleep mode but I'm still at least on in the game.

I think the time before getting kicked off is just right in the game, and the issue is that 5 minutes will not stop botters. It would just harm the regular players more than the botters.

I think part of the problem is the immense number of reports ANet has to go through. Especially paired with the limited amount of report options I can't imagine how they are even supposed to manage those reports.

The "botting" option, for example, is used for so many things -> basically for everything that does not fit into the other categories. People use it excessively too, when I think back for what kinds of things I was reported for within the past few years.

There was one guy in PvP reporting me for "botting" for a Lightning Flash/Churning Earth combo (which he did not know and mistook for hacking). Another reported me for botting because I could hit him in stealth... Those are just examples - especially in PvP modes you have people reporting others left and right for mechanics they are not aware of, or even just out of anger...

This also counts for mini games, where you can also receive reports for "botting" for the most hilarious reasons. Just to remember a few highlights: "winning with too many points ahead" in Crab Toss and "moving too fast" (-> dash skill), or even just for "being able to throw the keg too far" in Keg Brawl (by, you know, reading what the different skills do).

And this very same report option is also being used for reporting the following things:

• Switching off the stove, fetching some tea, going to the toilet, etc. in environments where people expect you to be there (for whatever reasons)
• Semi-AFKing (e.g. watching a movie while pressing a few buttons for farming in a certain spot with mobs)
• Just looking like and AFKer (e.g. being a Necro or an Engie, no matter if you even use minions or turrets)
• Real AFK farming (e.g. Minion Masters, Turret Engies, etc.)
• Real botting
• Several types of hacking
• Not liking someone's face (troll reports and the like)

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to go through that mess and find out which of the reports are real, and then after filtering, decide which of them are even justified...

Maybe introducing a few more report options (which has been requested countless times anyway) would help. But raising awareness in the community which actions are actually reportable/bannable to begin with also wouldn't hurt. I know there will always be troll reports, but maybe the amount of false reports could be reduced at least a bit.

EDIT:Just to clarify - a TLDR since there seems to be some misunderstanding. I'm not claiming AFK farming isn't a problem, I'm just saying that valid reports about that issue might get buried in the huge amounts of other reports since many different "problems" are filed under the same category. This might contribute to ANet only dealing slowly (if at all) with the huge amount of AFK farmers.