Mobile games aren’t safe from botters or script kiddies, especially with the use of Android Emulators like BlueStack. NetEase, the developers behind EVE Echoes aren’t ignoring this fact, and the September 9 patch turned the screws on scripting/macros/button wizards, as part of efforts to push those bad actors out of the game. The extended maintenance downtime came with a long list of updates, and the first listed item targeted one path for Real Money Trading (RMT).
Function Adjustments:
- Guest accounts need to carry out account linking before they can transfer supplies. (Sept 9, 2020 Patch Notes)
This was action following a post from earlier in the week, which stated punishments would range from 7 day to permanent bans for accounts, should players be found guilty of ‘wizarding’ the game, or even overuse of the refund request system.
“Capsuleers: We have been banning accounts associated with scripting/macros/button wizards, of which many are associated with RMT (real money trading), daily and have reduced the overall number of these in New Eden, but we’re always open to additional reports from the community. If you see a player or corporation facilitating RMT, please report them” – Joseph, EVE Echoes Official Discord
As an EVE Online veteran, this smells familiar – ‘See a bot, report it’. Having used the form already, I can say the process is fairly simple. Click this handy link, provide a couple of personal details, and then give the various details you have of the suspected botters. A Discord account is required, which may turn some people off reporting, however many pilots who have used it see this as NetEase learning from current game issues. Requiring a reporter to provide some way to identify themselves, and hopefully a way to thank them for their efforts, feels like a sign it will be taken seriously. While “scripting/macros/button wizards” seems vague, and it is, the instructions on the form are more specific about the reports being focused on RMT related actions.
There had been rumors, before any of these official posts, of developers “aiding” pilots in their efforts to remove the automation based production from targeted ‘wizardry’ accounts, namely planetary materials. Whether the rumors are true or not, a heist on a massive scale did happen. Low end estimates place the captured gains north of 17 billion ISK. While that doesn’t sound like much to EVE Online vets, using the PLEX price of 140k as a comparison point the adjusted value would be approximately 315 billion ISK. Unfortunately, EVE Echoes lacks an API and a public killboard, and so we may never know the true value.
Hopefully, the new reporting function will help to provide the developers with enough information to seriously tackle the RMT community within Echoes. If you have an opinion on botting in the mobile universe, let us know in the comments below!
