Guild Wars 2

Hai!

as a casual gamer i only play the game and not concerned with things such as bugs, botting, goldselling, exploits etc. ofc i sometimes hear ppl complaining about all sorts of things. Sure, whatev

But i would like to give a piece of my mind on the whole botting thing.

So, ive been reading some posts on bot in Gw2. people reporting bots. bots getting banned, bots getting back. peeps complaining. Not sure about all that, but i do think Anet is trying to subdue the bots, its not that easy i guess. you can ban them ofc. but does that really stop the flow of bots…mmmm hard to say.

Afterall; the bait that is called gw2 is still appealing for bot users.

so how would one make it less fun for them or even annoying as a big charr blocking your telly when you wanna play SaB? truth is; i have no real idea.
im not a gamedesigner. :P

But i did came up with some idea’s for’systems’(or mechanics whatever its called XD) that might work or just be interesting to look into from a gamedesigner point of view.(didnt really understand how bots work so i looked it up a bit ^^)

it is important to know: the focus of these systems is to messup bot farming of harvesting nodes and random zone roaming + to introduce some new things for all players.(for better or worse)

Feedback is welcome. i just spam typed it all so may contain typos and random crap of sillyness. also if someone alrdy mentioned such ideas on the forum before, my bad ;D

o/

‘Recovery’ penalty-system.

This one is about the ‘guest server’ feature. When players go visit other servers they arent very affected by it at all. They cant do wvwvw ofcourse but thats basicly it. What would be very interesting to see is if players need to ‘recover’ from their journey to another server(like what would happen in a RL situation) So anyone that guests another server is contracted with the ‘recovery’ condition wich inflicts a 60 min endurance regen + walkspeed reduction. this condition persist and cant be cured by condition removal skills. this can stack in duration if the player keeps swapping servers within every 1 hour.

Pros:
-Bot users guest servers alot to keep the pace of mining ore and such up. when one server has been depleted of their harvestable materials they go back to their previous server to harvest the recently respawned nodes. by adding the ‘recovery’ mechanic bots will have a hard time keeping the pace up for their activities.

-Adds a bit more realism with the idea that long distance travel in gw2 DOES affect the player.

Cons:
-Might annoy regular players that like to guest servers for diffrent reasons.

-imagen if this is applied for wvwvw and pvp… shrugs

‘Fatique’ penalty-system.

This something i came up with after doing the CoE explorable mode. That dungeon is about dodging alot. The Endurance mechanic is really nice in instances like these; you cant dodge endlessly, but players still have enough time to recover for dodging the next attack and such. with that in mind; why not go all the way? As player you can basicly dodge max 2 times before your endurance runs out, but you can harvest and mine endlessly. That seems a bit off. what would be a interesting idea is if Harvesting would require Endurance, and if you go beyond your’own limitations’ you get a condition called ‘fatique’ wich reduces your total healthpool and recharge rate of skills.
For example; a full endurance bar equals the harvesting of 2 ore nodes, 2 trees or 2 berry bushes.
If players go harvest with a almost depleted endurance bar they will contract the ‘Fatique’ condition. (this only occurs with harvesting, not when your dodging in a fractal or dungeon) Fatique will stack in effect and duration if players keep harvesting without recovering endurance 1st, wich results in a very low healthpool and longer skill cd’s.
This condition persist even if you guest another server or try to use condition removal skills.

Pros:

-The Botprograms nowadays have become pretty advanced. they can mimic human behavior, use skills and such effectively. But they also dodge. taking that in account they will likely harvest nodes even if their endurance isnt entirely recovered meaning they have a higher chance to get the condition then regular human players that do keep an eye on their endurance.(i hope XD)

-Expands the purpose of the Endurance mechanic.

Cons:
-Players might get annoyed if they need to monitor their endurance bar alot of times when their harvesting.
-this does affect regular farming players aswell. They can still make the choice wether or not to harvest a node, at their own risk.

‘Toxications’ penalty-system.

The idea behind this is if you harvest the same nodes in a certain zone more than once a day you will contract conditions that causes a reduction of your total defensive and/or offensive stats (something like exposing oneself to dangerous toxic fume released from overmining). So the more you use the same nodes, the more this condition stacks. The conditions you get also depends on what type of node you harvest. (for instance; mining ore would inflict a condition that causes reduction of your total offensive stats)
it persists even if you guest in other servers and cant be cured by using condition removal skills.

Duration of this condition would be based on the number of stacks.
Used nodes should be marked red on map so the regular players know what nodes they alrdy used.

Pros:

-Since bots tend to run preset paths that repeat harvest of the same nodes daily they are more likely to get the max stacks of the condition more quickly then real players. in other words; they will keep dying faster vs mobs cause of their low defensive and offensive stats.

-adds a twist to the regular node harvesting. players will need to stay on edge not too mindlessly farm every tree, grass, or ore node they see.

Cons:
-It entirely removes the purpose of having bought the gemstore infinite harvest tools for the sake of harvesting alot every day.

-Not sure if this would work for bots teleporting from node to node.

-this does affect regular farming players aswell. They can still make the choice wether or not to harvest a node, at their own risk.

‘Tainted by the dragon’ Penalty-system.

In the world of Tyria we see alot of the elder dragons minions. in most cases it concerns chars, humans, asura, sylvari being influenced, corrupted by them.
Basicly good people turning bad. But the players arent much affected by all of this. there are no real consequences for fighting off risen, corrupted icebrood, etc. that gave the me the idea for another condition, called ‘tainted by the dragon’.
Whenever you are fighting Minions or big boss servants from a Elder Dragon you have a chance to contract this ‘Tainted by the dragon’condition wich shows a countdown timer of 40 min. within that time you need visit a newly added npc ‘asuran curse remover’(could have been named worse XD). theres 1 per zone and they move around the map through random paths. their marked on minimap with a icon so players can spot them more easily.
That npc will give the player a (randomized) small puzzle to solve. succesfully completing the puzzle turns the npc in a vendor wich sells you a soulbound cure to remove the ‘tainted by the dragon’ condition.
However, if this condition is not removed before the countdown hits zero then that player becomes a Elder dragon Minion for a duration of 25 min. as a minion; players will have replaced skills, cant harvest resources. also neutral npc’s will become hostile and other players can target you aswell. this condition is not removed upon swapping zones or guesting servers. you need to remove it through the use of the npc. % chance to get this condition is based on the lv of the zone and enemies your facing. the type of minion transformation depends on the type of dragon minion that caused the ‘taint’ on the player.

Pros:

-Taking advantage of current bots limitations; the combination of needing human awareness when getting contracted with this condition plus the need of a reasonable amount of human input in the form of a totally randomized puzzle will help to sever bots from farming enemies significantly.(i think XD)
Not to mention they will need to find the npc 1st since its walking diffrent random paths and not obvious mainstream routes :P

-makes players even more aware of the dangers when fighting dragon minions.

Cons:

-Not sure about that one. Maybe if you had to go afk for feeding the cat while having the condition i suppose XD

All these systems combined would create a powerfull shield versus bots me thinks.

Umm no!

/15 charr jumping on a bed

A mechanism that targets and punishes people who are innocently playing the game as intended, not a good idea.