The Playonline Authoritative Response on Fish BottingFollow

This is a very long post, so if you refuse to read the entire thing, please skip to the important two points I have at the bottom... otherwise, read on...

I was so tired of reading all the children whining in the "Fish Bot Crusade" post, I did a little research on the official Playonline website.

For the record, I do not condone afk botting, but after reading the following quotes from the Playonline "Questions & Answers" website, I now have NO problem with people who fish bot while at their computer, either playing Gameboy or reading a book.

All of the following answers can be taken from:
https://secure.playonline.com/supportus/index02.html


First quote: Type in keyword "unattended" to get this question and answer

"What is absentee play?"

"Basically, absentee play means that the player leaves the controller unattended for a long period of time while the character is doing something. The player needs to be able to react to anything that happens to the character during the game. If characters can be made to do things like mine or fish while the player is away, the game will be thrown out of balance. Players who have been engaging in absentee play will be reprimanded by the GMs. If you leave your game for any period of time, be sure to turn off any macros you have running. Please not that macros provided with FINAL FANTASY XI, such as AutoRun and /follow are NOT considered absentee play."

All of the previously mentioned violations are specified as occuring when the player is AWAY from his keyboard/controller. Also, I printed in bold where they mention to turn off any macros you have running. Since the 5-6 lines of text allowed in any one macro in-game don't leave much room for long, complicated processes, one can only infer they are referring to a program that runs macros for you. The only difference between running a program and not running one, is having to press Ctrl-1 every 15 seconds. Bait still runs out, rods still break, and fish still refuse to bite.

Next question... type in "Bug", and you will get multiple results, including the following question...

"I saw someone exploiting a bug. Should I make a report?"

"Exploiting bugs for personal gain is against the rules of FINAL FANTASY XI. However, there is no need to report another player to a GM unless you are the direct victim of their behavior. Please feel free to contact a GM to report the bug itself, or to send a bug report by mail. To send a bug report by mail, select the Service & Support page from the PlayOnline Viewer main menu, then select "Support," "E-mail Support," then "Problem Report.""

This is crystal clear. Do not waste the GMs time unless you are being victimized directly. (i.e. NM bots) However, I can hear now the responses to come "OMFGZORS! Botting effects the econemeeee!!! I am a victim!!" Don't kid yourself or anybody else on these forums, if fishing did negatively effect the economy (and anybody who follows the AH economy, knows it's doesn't), that would be a community problem, not a personal violation.


Now if using these rules, we could follow two important guildelines, everybody would be happy!

1. Bot Reporters Get a life. Go play the game, have fun. If fishing is too boring, find another way to make gil. If the fact that other people are making money through fishing faster than you are, do 10 minutes of research on the internet, and you will find out how to be like them.

2. Botters If you go to work, go to school, go to Nebraska, or just leave the room in general, turn the damn macro off. That way, when bot reporters are sending you tells, they will always get responses, and will eventually stop with the stupid crusade.

Sigh... I hope there's a prize for sucessfully posting the 1,000,000th post on one topic.

I think you're missin' a 0

We all know PS2 players are sub-human scum who will one day be purged from the face of the earth.

Just kidding.... I love PS2 players...
......almost as much as I love taffy....
....and I'm a man who enjoys his taffy....
mmm.......mmmmm...........

In theory, yes... however even the most standard PC fishing bots can do the following...

1. Fish until your rod breaks, your lure is lost, or your bait runs out.

2. Re-equip bait when the current stack runs out.

3. Sort your inventory every so many casts.

4. Detect rusty items and throw them out. (would suck if you caught a rusty greatsword)

I've also heard rumors that some of the better fish bots can do the following...

1. Detect a GM tell and log out right away to avoid suspicion.

2. Detect rod breaks/lure losses, and reequip them.

3. Repair a Lu Shangs fishing rod, and continue fishing (although that same thread contained a horror story of the bot ******** up and throwing out a Lu Shangs)

There'd have to be a little man in the controller to accomplish that, and they just don't have those................. YET.

Edit: Mis-numbered my numerical bullet points. Damn perfectionist attitude...

Edited, Mon Jul 26 03:59:22 2004 by DerekDerek

Wait...maybe if I combined the powers of my NES and PS2 I could rule the world! I'll program my ROB to hit the buttons on the PS2 with those little tops...

Muahaha

again... on the pc, the bot is a bot.
it detects what is going on, and changes its actions accordingly. it does everything you would do, and can adapt.

if you program a controller, its not the same. the controller will run a predetermined sequence of actions. it can not change or adapt what its doing whatsoever. how do you program a controller to tell you when there is a fish on your line, and to reel it in? you cant... sometimes, there will be a fish, and youll reel it in. othertimes, youll just cancel fishing, and start over.

pc = bot.
programmed ps2 controller = extended macro.

drastic difference, the field can not and will not be equal. its like pitting robocop against a rockem sockem robot.


Edited, Mon Jul 26 04:22:57 2004 by AmanoJ

Question is why are you allowing yourself to get so worked up over the issue yourself? Everyone is entitled to an opinion, if you don't like their opinion then counter it with a valid arguement and leave it at that. Starting a new thread will only bring out the already rotting decaying dead horse for a prolonged further beating :)

I don't like botters, I've already made my opinion clear on that. It's cheating, but if you can get away with it and you can contain a guilty concience (I know i can't) then by all means do it. Theres no point blaming those who bot, its SqEnix to blame for allowing them to do it. There wouldn't be so many bot reporters if SE actually did their job.

well, i had said the ps2 thing as a joke...

and... really, now, come on. sometimes youll get a bite right when you cast, sometimes it takes a long time. if you press the exact same button to accept the bite, and reel in if there is no bite, youre going to cancel your own fishing macro, and ***** up the timing. if it waits too long, you lose the catch, and it will automatically put the rod away. this will also ***** up your timing.


really, im not going to argue a way to automate a ps2 controller to catch things for you... the problem is, it gets no input from the game, so its just plain not possible.

try it. time it out the way you want it, and fish blindly. see what you end up with.


just to clarify...
by input, i dont mean the rumble sensation, i mean the things that happen. you wait too long on a catch... or... it puts the rod away early... you catch too many rusty things, you run out of bait, your rod breaks, etc. there is no way to adapt...





Edited, Mon Jul 26 09:17:12 2004 by AmanoJ

Thats ok they nerfed fishing again so just keep on ******** you whiners.

But the real question is: Can you rig it so that you can use one of those hand-held fishing games instead of your controller? ^^

PS2 Fishing blindly, I do it all the time.

Wireless controller. Vibration on.

Macro > Vibration > X button Wait about 5 seconds. Square Button > X button > Triangle button > Up on D Pad > X button

Rinse wash repeat.

No vibration after a while, Macro again.

I might be off a little on the button sequence but after you fish for 3 hours straight, you can run that in your head.

/equip Range "Carbon Rod" <-incase your rod breaks
/wait 1
/equip Ammo "Insect Ball" <-reloads your bait
/wait 9
/fish

Never run out of bait or rods, just have to check the tv every once in a while to moniter your inventory. And I'm not AFK, I'm still pressing the buttons sequence I posted earlier.

Actually I believe that his references for the "Bot reporters, get a life!" statement is in regards to this.