Stop the bots!

Originally I had a different idea for this post, I wanted to talk about a few great players in the game (and I still will) that helped me with Jack'o. Instead it's a rant about the rampant botting that's going on. Currently botting seems to be allowed as long as the player can respond using all characters in the bot train. It shouldn't be... here's why:

* It slows down the server and creates lag. Sometimes it's not noticeable, but I've noticed it quite a bit when botters bot around where I'm training.
* It creates an unfair advantage for botters. Botters with a big train can kill much faster than single players, meaning all the drops end up going to botters.
* It creates an economy where botters have more than non-botters. Whether it's something as simple as oranges, or special event prizes (lots of botting during the Halloween event).
* It creates more of those annoying shops that pm regular players. These occur anyway, but seem to be more prevalent now that botting is allowed.
* It creates a lot more bots.

I've been to the beach a few times (including at 6:50am) the past week and each time someone has been botting there with between 1 to 3 extra bot players in tow. I think players are farming for pearls, which means they'll get devalued. Unfortunately it's also one of the best places for healing drops. Sea slimes drop oranges and red apples at 8% each, 16% chance of getting a healing drop, the highest for any creature. Sea slimes also drop concentration potions. Normally it takes time to farm Sea slimes, but with bots in tow it's easy for them to rack up a good amount of oranges, apples, concentration potions and pearls. I set a goal about a month back to kill 1,000 sea slimes. That goal would have never happened if I needed to fight against botters.