How to Bot - maximize and keep your income
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:01 am
Notes:
- this is pretty rom oriented but most of it is applicable to all games and general botting.
- this is a work in progress thread. i want to create a community based guideline so please share your tips with us.
1. General Stuff
1.1 Have Fun
you really should enjoy botting. if this starts feeling like work - stop.
1.2 Be Creative
this applies to all of the following. it doesn't matter what you do with your bots - think about it, be creative, think about it again, act.
1.3 Be Paranoid
if you suspect something going on - stop botting. just log off. let your bot rest for a while. come back some days later. switch bots.
2. Botting
2.1 You are a bot, just don't act like one
use the wander mode if you really have to and there isn't another option. this shouldn't be the case in 99% of the scenarios but it could be. if you are in a hurry and or are to lazy to set up proper waypoints - just don't bot. use the newest script version available because the devs are always trying to advance the bot not to act like a bot.
2.2 Choose your spots wisely
this is a pretty controverse issue. everyone always says: avoid crowded places. i say: if you have a good feeling about the place, bot it! you see, if you are botting all alone in a totally wasted place and someone with even a little bit of knowledge about bots comes along will get suspicious. but if you are in a crowded area there are a lot of distractions (like other players, etc) and thus helping you to disguise. on the other hand you get more kills and more loot in a complete empty territory. just wager the pros and cons of each place and you will come to a good decision.
2.3 Downtime
i know it's tempting to bot 24/7 and make mad $. but don't. the chance you get noticed raises exponentially to the time you are botting. you can drastically flatten that chance by logging off. and you can flatten the downtime by creating multiple accounts/chars and switching between them. obviously don't create more than 1 char at the same account. if your account gets busted all your chars are gone.
Keep a log of when the GMs are around. Every time you or anyone you can trust sees one, make a log entry. If you have to, you can even get yourself stuck or something just to request the help of a GM. Why do this? If you follow the trends of when GMs are and are not around, you know when it is the safest time to bot or exploit.
2.4 Switch Places
same as downtime. a juicy place is always tempting but seriously, switch it on a regular basis. i for myself always use at least 5 different places to bot in a given area.
2.5 Waypoints
good waypoints are the bread and butter of botting. simply spoken if you have intelligent waypoints set you will minimize the danger to get caught while maximizing your income. please don't run circles.
3. All about the Benjamines
3.1 Money Laundering
so you have like 20 stacks of item x in your backpack after a good day of botting and want to turn it into cash. the dumb one would go and say "have 2000 item x for price z /w me"... don't! people and especially GMs will get suspicious. spread items and money around various chars. don't always sell the same stuff on the same chars. it's free to create new accounts. use this as your advantage. set up a distribution network and auction house chars. NEVER send stuff directly from your bots to your main char. no one knows for sure how exact the server logs are and how deep they can trace money back to it's origin. keep at least one step between the dirty money and your main. if you are really paranoid you can even launder it through the auction house by selling cheap, etc.
When you spread a large amount of items across multiple characters of yours, you can inflate the price. Remember, people aren't going to know that all of these characters belong to you, they will just see 5 different players selling an item at a slightly higher but reasonable price, and assume it is natural inflation. Use this strategically to get more money for your work. Do not over-use this. Try not to encourage inflation whenever possible.
3.2 Secure your Money
do not keep massive amounts of cash/items on one account. spread it out. always save your income on safe accounts. one of em should be your main account. this will minimize your losses on a bust.
3.3 Market Knowledge
obviously you need some knowledge about the current market of your game to maximize your income. take your time and study the zone/world chat and especially the auction house. install special addons that help you with filtering e.g. AdvancedAH for RoM. browse the AH and keep an eye on price changes and even item histories if available. this really will pay off later on.
4. Social Networking
4.1 Stay under the Radar
the best hackers are those you never heard of. so be quiet. do everything to disguise and distract from your activities. don't chat in zone/world chat except maybe you want to sell rare stuff. but don't overuse it. if someone comes along and buffs you and you may see it, stop the bot for a second and say thank you. just don't create any unwanted attention.
4.2 Friends
If, and only if, you have friends you can trust, use them. We (my friends and I) always know each others' passwords to all accounts. We often bot near each other and constantly check our own characters as well as each other. If you're not around and your friend sees somebody suspicious (or a GM), he can force you to log out, log in to your account, and hopefully deflect that person. We have saved each other more times than you might think. Most notably, in Holic when 3 of us were botting an area for roughly 11 consecutive hours. GMs and players were constantly checking on us, but we got away with it because there was always 1 of us keeping watch.
5. Etiquette
5.1 That's a Bot!
respect others. even if you notice them due to their behaviour. don't report them. i mean it's your choice if you want to eliminate competition or what but if you do good things, good things will happen to you. think about it.
changelog:
06/29/09 - Added elverions tips, changed formatting, thanks for the stickie
- this is pretty rom oriented but most of it is applicable to all games and general botting.
- this is a work in progress thread. i want to create a community based guideline so please share your tips with us.
1. General Stuff
1.1 Have Fun
you really should enjoy botting. if this starts feeling like work - stop.
1.2 Be Creative
this applies to all of the following. it doesn't matter what you do with your bots - think about it, be creative, think about it again, act.
1.3 Be Paranoid
if you suspect something going on - stop botting. just log off. let your bot rest for a while. come back some days later. switch bots.
2. Botting
2.1 You are a bot, just don't act like one
use the wander mode if you really have to and there isn't another option. this shouldn't be the case in 99% of the scenarios but it could be. if you are in a hurry and or are to lazy to set up proper waypoints - just don't bot. use the newest script version available because the devs are always trying to advance the bot not to act like a bot.
2.2 Choose your spots wisely
this is a pretty controverse issue. everyone always says: avoid crowded places. i say: if you have a good feeling about the place, bot it! you see, if you are botting all alone in a totally wasted place and someone with even a little bit of knowledge about bots comes along will get suspicious. but if you are in a crowded area there are a lot of distractions (like other players, etc) and thus helping you to disguise. on the other hand you get more kills and more loot in a complete empty territory. just wager the pros and cons of each place and you will come to a good decision.
2.3 Downtime
i know it's tempting to bot 24/7 and make mad $. but don't. the chance you get noticed raises exponentially to the time you are botting. you can drastically flatten that chance by logging off. and you can flatten the downtime by creating multiple accounts/chars and switching between them. obviously don't create more than 1 char at the same account. if your account gets busted all your chars are gone.
Keep a log of when the GMs are around. Every time you or anyone you can trust sees one, make a log entry. If you have to, you can even get yourself stuck or something just to request the help of a GM. Why do this? If you follow the trends of when GMs are and are not around, you know when it is the safest time to bot or exploit.
2.4 Switch Places
same as downtime. a juicy place is always tempting but seriously, switch it on a regular basis. i for myself always use at least 5 different places to bot in a given area.
2.5 Waypoints
good waypoints are the bread and butter of botting. simply spoken if you have intelligent waypoints set you will minimize the danger to get caught while maximizing your income. please don't run circles.
3. All about the Benjamines
3.1 Money Laundering
so you have like 20 stacks of item x in your backpack after a good day of botting and want to turn it into cash. the dumb one would go and say "have 2000 item x for price z /w me"... don't! people and especially GMs will get suspicious. spread items and money around various chars. don't always sell the same stuff on the same chars. it's free to create new accounts. use this as your advantage. set up a distribution network and auction house chars. NEVER send stuff directly from your bots to your main char. no one knows for sure how exact the server logs are and how deep they can trace money back to it's origin. keep at least one step between the dirty money and your main. if you are really paranoid you can even launder it through the auction house by selling cheap, etc.
When you spread a large amount of items across multiple characters of yours, you can inflate the price. Remember, people aren't going to know that all of these characters belong to you, they will just see 5 different players selling an item at a slightly higher but reasonable price, and assume it is natural inflation. Use this strategically to get more money for your work. Do not over-use this. Try not to encourage inflation whenever possible.
3.2 Secure your Money
do not keep massive amounts of cash/items on one account. spread it out. always save your income on safe accounts. one of em should be your main account. this will minimize your losses on a bust.
3.3 Market Knowledge
obviously you need some knowledge about the current market of your game to maximize your income. take your time and study the zone/world chat and especially the auction house. install special addons that help you with filtering e.g. AdvancedAH for RoM. browse the AH and keep an eye on price changes and even item histories if available. this really will pay off later on.
4. Social Networking
4.1 Stay under the Radar
the best hackers are those you never heard of. so be quiet. do everything to disguise and distract from your activities. don't chat in zone/world chat except maybe you want to sell rare stuff. but don't overuse it. if someone comes along and buffs you and you may see it, stop the bot for a second and say thank you. just don't create any unwanted attention.
4.2 Friends
If, and only if, you have friends you can trust, use them. We (my friends and I) always know each others' passwords to all accounts. We often bot near each other and constantly check our own characters as well as each other. If you're not around and your friend sees somebody suspicious (or a GM), he can force you to log out, log in to your account, and hopefully deflect that person. We have saved each other more times than you might think. Most notably, in Holic when 3 of us were botting an area for roughly 11 consecutive hours. GMs and players were constantly checking on us, but we got away with it because there was always 1 of us keeping watch.
5. Etiquette
5.1 That's a Bot!
respect others. even if you notice them due to their behaviour. don't report them. i mean it's your choice if you want to eliminate competition or what but if you do good things, good things will happen to you. think about it.
changelog:
06/29/09 - Added elverions tips, changed formatting, thanks for the stickie