I just think there are better ways to test things like this without a mass genocide of Serco newbies.

An Itani character, who knows who he is, went into both s12 and s6 to kill botting newbies while being ignored by NPCDEFs completely. He even managed to killed my Atlas while I was undocking from the station and as he was camping right behind me. The NPCDEFs are screwed up. I don't know what it is but they're not doing their job. Hope this gets fixed soon.

OOh Ooh! I know who it was! It was that evil bus from the abyss, that's who!

Actually it was me. And no, I've just figured out how to avoid them so they ignore me. Exploit? nope. Broken game mechanic? yep

Actually I just went to test it and the range at which they see players appears to be drastically reduced. The Nation Defenses ignored me until I was around 600m away from them.

heh alienb, is that the cause of your sudden score hike on the player ranking page? (I was thinking you must have killed hundreds of people -_~... but I guess 50 botters with bounty would do the job)

<AlienB> "Actually it was me. And no, I've just figured out how to avoid them so they ignore me. Exploit? nope. Broken game mechanic? yep"

A "broken game mechanic" existed and you "figured out how to avoid them so they ignore" [you].

If that is not an exploit, then I have NO idea what an exploit is.

I have nothing against alienb but I suggest all points scored by him on 5/6 in s12 be removed.

There's no way of telling that, and it's not...an..exploit..

Besides, if this is an exploit, then all the people that used spacing to avoid bots in homesectors exploited too.

I don't think killing newbies in homesectors is such a good idea (s6, 12, 4 should be havens right?), but if you've found a way to hide from bots, I don't think it's an exploit; the defbots will most likely be improved to protect newbies from you in the future : ).
I used to hide from bots by skimming objects and flying through tight spots, but now they're smarter... devs increased AI a little.

"Besides, if this is an exploit, then all the people that used spacing to avoid bots in homesectors exploited too."

sorry not the same as taking advantage of a broken game mechanic

KOS, and they "See" you from 600m away? Geez, that needs to be raised.. around to 1500 at least, preferably the same as our radars... 3000meters.

Broken Game Mechanic... hmm, well we don't know if the Devs intended for this to happen or not. But Im assuming they didn't intend for any Itani Pilot to walk into S12 and kill some botters. Exploiting? Thats a strech, since AlienB didn't know that the game wasnt built to let him walk into s12 unharmed by the DEFBOTs. Did he take advantage of an unfair situation?
Hell yes.

OK..."exploit" MAY be too harsh a word...I'll shelf it for the moment.

BUT, if the Dev's intentions were to have the NDBs immediately hunt down and destroy a despised pilot, then, I'll pull it back down in a heartbeat.

Devs...please create a new level of standing that immediately gets put on a player for initiating hostilities and killing another player in their home sectors...call it 'despised'...and have NDBs hunt him in that home sector.

Oh yes...and please get me a Barbie for my birthday...amen.

I thought defbots had a decent range. for my assassination missions, I just poke my ship into s6, and the defs jump on me... perhaps the is part of their normal route... but then again I have yet seen a def to fly away from me when they are very far. they turn around midflight and attack me, so I'm assuming they can see at least 2000m?

(by the way, what is the bonus of killing a defbot in a bus? /me bugs eldy to do that j/k)

They're either getting stuck inside roids, or they're broken again. Either way the NPCDEFs aren't doing their job. D'oh!

Today I was flying around in s4, and sometimes there wasn't a green dot in sight... odd.

Actually spacing defbots was a bad game mechanic and it was taken advantage of to essentially capture an opposing team's flag. I have noticed that defbot's "vision" isn't constant, sometimes they are flying right to me as I enter a sector, other times they take a while to register my presence.

In s12, defbots don't recognize me until I close to 600m. Even then, they rarely attack. My stock bus almost killed one before it realized I was there.

I don't think Itani n00b characters start with hated/criminal status. roguelazer, since you were in a stock bus, I assume you started with a rather new character, and weren't hated by serco.
if you aren't hated, then you won't be attacked by the defbot; however, if you do do damage to the bot, it will attack you regardless.

I was indeed hated.