Hello!
Thank you for sharing your concern with us. Currently the GM team has a 24/7 task force hunting characters displaying the use of automated software in order to play. Please note that characters do not have to be using "botting" software to be suspended but any unattended automated play including the use of macros that automatically cycle can and will eventually result in account suspension.
- Item Prices: Items are rising in price because there are less bots. I realize this sounds strange but its the way RO works. Although bots do generate some zeny what bad users really bot for is goods, such as elunium, oridecon, gear and cards. Because we have been pretty heavily banning bots the price on these goods rises as the available supply shrinks.
- Bots everywhere: Unfortunately will see them from time to time but there are many maps that are either recently swept. Keep in mind that many users don't really want to talk while they are playing so not everyone you see is a bot. There is an unfortunate tendency in the RO community to declare all other users they see playing the game as "bots". If you do think someone is a bot feel free to report them.
- Reporting: Technically speaking this is not a needed action by the community. But what it does do is let the GMs know where the bad users that negatively affect your play experience are. The GMs will still hunt regardless if they receive a report or not but where they hunt can be influenced by player reports.
- Player Interests: Call outs are not allowed. Players are not allowed to name names publicly purely because we do not want witch hunts. We test all bots until were sure and if we are unsure we test them again, and again, and again. Our goal is that when a GM applies the account block he/she is 100% certain that everyone being suspended was doing something wrong. While as we mentioned above this community is much too liberal with declaring other users "bots".
- Communication: We are generally very open about what is being done. But we don't compromise the internal processes by giving exact guides on how we do things.
There are places where the GM team can improve and we are pushing them in that direction. But the botting situation is not where near out of control like it once was. It is important to keep in mind that as long as players are willing to buy zeny from RMT websites and support that industry there is a cause for users to bot. We have not and will never stop banning bots.
Why don´t you contract a service like gepard shield? Private servers, that are way less pay2win have the means to do so. Why do you not implement that? Is keeping a "24/7 hunting squaad" cheaper than implementing a system that works? I really doubt that!
You say we should report. So give us a efficient way to report!!!! What about a right click option: report player?
You expect us to come to the forums or send a ticket everytime we see a bot? A normal player would have to completly stop playing the game. This is just completly out of realitty!
You blame the players for buying Zeny from botters. Easy enought to point a finger in a diferent direction to camouflage your own faults. It´s the server´s responsability to control the use of 3rd PP.
Your marketing team wants to drain this old Cash cow that is Ragnarok, fine, but why not listen to the sensate opinions of many ro veterans here? We know you can do better, we really do not understand why you refuse to do so.
I really just wish this was a good RO experience. It´s just turning out to be way worse than many private servers i have played on.
Listen to your customers, else, you´ll be left with another skeleton server and 50 players who can´t let go. Most will let go though.
Sincerely,
Orion