in case there be an automatic kick of station, i want an auto explode freebus plugin just to annoy yoda : ]

Btw any of ye have SCIN028 phone number, i found him cute : )

Personally, I would like to make station bots redundant. Meaning, that anyone can track station traffic, without even having to use a bot. As an example, if I bribe a station guard, he will report all traffic to me by pm. In effect, every station would have a built in bot, usable by every one equally.

My main concern is non station sectors. Monitoring a wormhole sector should entail risk. And the risk should be proportionate with the incentive to monitor the sector. If a bot owner has to constantly replace a recon bot, then it would dramatically slow down the automation process on monitoring a sector. Bots should be about as much trouble to maintain as doing it manually.

I myself am considering making a bot network. My bot network would differ from the existing bot networks in that my recons would only run when I was online, and they would be combat capable. If one of my bots sees you, it isn't going to broadcast or record it. It will beep at me, I will take manual control, and I will blast you. The bot part is just logging in and finding a valid target.

I am also considering making a decoy bot network. Bots that log in, perhaps even jump from one side of a wormhole to the other, and log out, just to create false traffic reports for other people's monitor bots.

Not being able to find a bot in an open sector is a serious problem, and I may work on a triangulation plugin, but realistically, this needs to be fixed in game, by the game.

You should not be able to gain valuable reconnaissance information, without associated risk. Currently, bots, and players, can log in, gain information, and log out, with little to no significant risk. This is the part that needs to be fixed the most. It needs to be fixed for both bots and players. The game should not even care if it is a bot, or a player. The risk should be the same. I also suggest that the risk be significant enough, that recon bots are about as much trouble to maintain, as doing recon on a live character. Live characters can react, run, shoot back, whereas bots would tend to just die. This could be used to bring balance to the use of bots.

There are a number of things wrong with the game. First and foremost is that the only penalty for dieing in the game is the lost of the ship, cargo, and some time, your licenses do not decrease. Next, there is no penalty for griefing or attacking someone in a NFZ. And now you would like to add bots. Ok, so bots are added to the list as something needing attention, yet it doesn't mean bots will be removed, or fixed in a way that you expect, just that someone considers it a problem, and it has been, and will be reviewed in the future, by the developers. Ok, lets move on.

"Next, there is no penalty for griefing or attacking someone in a NFZ."

Lol. So I guess the temp-KOS I got for attacking the "MC LayZor" bot inside the Latos N-15 NFZ was just my imagination, as was the actual KOS status I received with TPG after killing that bot half a dozen times in the station's sector.

I have yet to hear any problem with bots, that is unique to bots.

The worst thing I have heard about bots, is that they can exacerbate a problem to it's worst case.

This constant finger pointing at bots only serves to distract from the true issues.

bots are fine, it is the players that are the problem

ban all players

let the bots roam free

+1 Alex

I also think that the botbase is now larger than the playerbase anyway :-)

I like the bot idea

Why not combat this with counter bots that collect data on any bots in the area and disappear also. This would also give the intended bot a false sense or alert that someone was in the sector as well.

I don't know it's Vendetta, space, bots, spaceships. It's sounding more like real space would be like anyhow with scanning bots etc.

Anyhow I sort of like the idea of bots.