Alter Aeon Rules of Conduct

Rules Section 3 - Bots and Botting

Rule  3.1  - Introduction

Running a bot is usually a bad idea.  This game was intended to be played
by real people with real brains, and the administration feel that in
general bots detract from the gaming experience.  However, some people
really enjoy writing bots, and in some cases it can actually be helpful.

Unfortunately, if everyone ran a bot, there wouldn't be much point in
keeping the game up at all.  Ideally, we'd like there to be as few bots
as possible.

As a result, we've decided to allow people to run bots, so long as those
bots, and the owners of those bots, follow a very strict set of rules.
See the other rules entries in this section for details.

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

The game automatically searches for and penalizes most bots.  You may find
that your bot is losing more skills than it is gaining, and it may be losing
experience as well as alignment or other stats.  Watch your bot carefully!

Rule  3.2  - Don't encourage others to bot

The first rule of botting is that you don't talk about botting.

Don't brag about the things your bot has done.  Don't encourage others to
try it.  Don't give out scripts.  Don't help other people set up bots.
Don't talk about it on private channels, and don't talk it on your clan
channel.

Part of the reason people run bots is so they have something to brag about
to other players.  This discourages most players who don't have bots and
makes them feel like their time is wasted.  It also gives other players
incentive to start botting, just to keep up.  Both of these things are bad
for the game.

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

This is considered a major rule, and the admin reserve the right to delete
your character for bragging about or encouraging botting, even if it's
done on private or clan channels.

Rule  3.3  - You must not run bots in groups

Your bot should not follow players, allow itself to be grouped, or group
with others.  Your bot should not run groups.

Note that the game automatically looks for bots and attempts to remove
them them from groups.  When this happens, warnings are also sent to
admins and an entry is added to your player log.

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

When group bots are found, the game automatically penalizes them, and the
penalties are extremely harsh.  You can lose hundreds of millions of
experience points, practices, skills, alignment, experience, levels,
and extended leveling timers.

This is considered a major rule, and the admin reserve the right to
delete your character for botting in groups.

Rule  3.4  - Informational - group autohealers are illegal

Any set of scripts that automatically heals, refreshes, or buffs group
members without manual intervention is a bot.  It doesn't matter if
you're at the terminal chatting away, you'll still be subject to the
bot rules.

Don't run autohealer scripts in groups.

Rule  3.5  - You must not allow remote control triggers

A remote control service is any script or trigger which allows another
player to take control of your character.  Remote control services may
be used to create healing and spell casting bots, or control ungrouped
party members in an attempt to avoid the bot grouping rules.

Any trigger which allows one character to issue arbitrary commands to
another character is illegal, whether grouped or not.

This includes 'backstab $target' and 'c heal $target' triggers.

Filtered, limited, or helper triggers - those which only allow certain
limited actions - may or may not be illegal based on how they are used.

When considering a limited trigger, keep in mind that bots are not
allowed to group, are not allowed to follow other players, and are not
allowed to bot in recall sites or public areas.

Informational - Helper Triggers

In general, 'helper' triggers are allowed as long as there is a person
nearby controlling the character, and so long as the triggers are not
overused.

A typical helper trigger would be a trigger for group members to 'stand'
upon request of the group leader.  These triggers often help in the case
of 'bathroom breaks', where a group member needs to go afk for a short
period of time without hindering the group.

Helper triggers should 'help', but should not play the game for you -
overuse of helper triggers will be detected by the game server as
botting.  It is recommended that players use only the minimum necessary
helper triggers.

Rule  3.6  - You must not bot in any newbie zones below level 30

Basically, don't set up a bot anywhere on Sloe, Kordan or Archais.
This includes heal bots.

Just to be clear:  No bots of any name, make, model, or serial
number are allowed in the newbie areas or introductory zones, for
any reason whatsoever.

Rule  3.7  - You must not bot in public places, recalls, or cities

Don't let your bot run in any recall site or regeneration room.  Bots are
incredibly spammy and irritating.

Don't run your bot in public places, like the Bulletin Board Central Hub.

Don't run your bot in cities, where it may interfere with or steal
resources from other players.

Note that this includes heal and refresh bots of any kind.  Bots do not
belong in recall sites.

Rule  3.8  - Bots must always yield in resource conflicts

See the rules section on Resource Conflicts for a definition of what
a resource conflict is.

If there is a resource conflict between a live player and a bot, the bot
must always yield.

Rule  3.9  - Your bot must not log in on its own

Do not have your bot automatically log back in after a disconnection
event.  If we boot or disconnect your bot, we want it gone, which means
it will piss us off to see it automatically log back in.

If your bot attempts to reconnect, you will be sitebanned until your
bot is fixed.  If this happens, you may have to send mail to the admin
at soda@xirr.com to have the block removed.

Rule  3.10 - Your bot must not spam commands

Do not have your bot spam commands full tilt.  Not only does this make it
obviously look like a bot, but it eats up our valuable cpu time by
mindlessly parsing a command every cycle, even if there is nothing to do.

Make your bot context sensitive.  The bot should only do something if it
needs to do something.  It should not just run through the same list of
commands over and over, in the hopes that something will get done.

Rule  3.11 - Your bot must properly cope with unexpected events

Remember that your bot should be about as smart as you when it comes to
playing.  Dangers occur, unexpected events happen.  If your bot cannot
deal with a reasonable event and dies as a result, it is your fault.

It should be noted that unexpected events seem to happen more often to
bots than to normal players, for no apparent obvious good reason.

Rule  3.12 - Lotto bots - special rules

Occasionally, players run bots to host small lotteries for other players.
This is allowed, and is given a multiplaying exception, as long as the
bot (and player) follow these rules:

 - You may only run one lotto bot per player. Not per account, per player.

 - The lottery must be open to everyone except the owner.  Players may be
   ignored if they attempt to actively abuse the bot.

 - The lotto may only accept and give in-game gold.  Lotteries which accept
   credits or real money will be shut down and the resources confiscated.

 - The lotto operator may make no more than 10% aggregate profit.  The
   lotto owner is responsible for keeping records of this.

 - The lotto bot should communicate via channels or tells, so it doesn't
   spam public areas through social and say.

 - All lottos must have a public rule list and guide so players can read
   and understand the rules before entering.  Bots should inform players
   of how and where to read the rule list.  Lotteries that do not have
   this will be shut down.

 - The owner is not allowed to enter or participate in any lottery that
   they own or run, even indirectly through other players.

 - If you have to use a multi for your lotto, then it must only act as a
   lottery bot.  It should not do anything other than act as a lotto bot.
   This means no running experience, holding storage, spellcasting, or
   any other normal player behavior.

If there's a problem, in most cases we'll ask you to fix them and be more
strict.  Lotteries, when run well, can make people happy and give them
something to do.  Run your lottery clean and take the time to do your
accounting correctly, and you won't have any problems.

That said, poorly or maliciously run lotteries will not only be shut
down, but the owner will be subject to penalties above and beyond the
return of the deposited gold.

Rule  3.13 - Informational - Command spamming is botting

Warning - if you're command spamming, you may be thwacked for being a
bot even if you're at the terminal.

If this happens, that means you're botting.  It doesn't matter if you're
at your terminal.  Stop doing what you're doing, and go do something
else.

Don't command spam.

Rule  3.14 - Informational - If the game thinks you're a bot, you're a bot

The game automatically looks for bots and attempts to remove them
them from groups.

If the game decides that you're bot, that's because you're probably a bot.

If you aren't actually a bot, you've got three options:

1) Do something else.  If you change what you're doing, the game
   will probably stop thinking you're a bot.

2) Log off the game, then log back in.  This will tell the game to reset
   its statistics for you, and may give you a second chance.  If you
   go AFK for long periods of time, you may want to reconnect when you
   return to your keyboard to reset your botting flags.

3) Complain to Dentin.  He will look at your situation and if you
   have a valid complaint, he will try to find a way to fix it.

Just to be clear:

If the game classifies you as a bot, you are considered a bot.
It is up to you to find a way to no longer be considered a bot.