I do blacksmithing and jewelcrafting. I sometimes try to get work in trade chat. I have seen in the last few weeks that when I advertise my services I instantly get replies from bots telling me to send my order. Conversely when people ask in trade chat for crafting, even when I respond in 4-5 seconds I never hear back from them since I’m sure they have had the instant response from the bots, and normal humans like me don’t have a chance. All I want to do is make a little gold making people swords and axes so I can afford repairs, consumables, etc.
Seems to me like these bots are anti-game play, and should be banned.
The replies come in under a second. One of the auto-repliers apologized to me multiple times because he didn’t know why his auto-reply script was replying to my LFW advertisement.
The same character posting the exact same advertisement every 3 seconds. That didn’t used to even be possible, you would get a timeout from the system for overposting. Apparently they disabled that so bot-like activity would not be interfered with.
As “obnoxious” as the “bots” are, it’s actually pretty nice to get instant replies when I need something crafted. The requested fees are usually reasonable and I always end up with Rank 5 as requested.
As much as it might be “better” to rely on casual crafters, that would probably mean: A lot more time looking for a crafter with no responses (especially late at night). Higher fees requested. People filling orders with Rank 4 even though they claimed to be able to do Rank 5.
Why bother? They don’t act on reports. If a low level can post carry ads in trade chat while stationed in the exact same spot for months, they aren’t going to act on any reports.
This can’t happen. You set your WO to rank 5, and they can’t craft it as rank 4. If a crafter is telling you to set it to rank 4 when they promise rank 5, then they are scamming you.
No one on my server is using automation to reply to crafting requests. I usually get several whispers in quick succession, but no one is instantly whispering me.
A good chunk of the boosters that run the throwaway spambots on MG sit in gold selling discords and also have a dedicated website that puts real dollar prices on boosts.
I can say this for a fact, and not just speculation.
This the intent of the new system of crafting, as Ion described it. It was supposed to be THE content for 100% of casuals, who would work every waking hour to min max the heck out of professions.