Alter Aeon Rules of Conduct

Rules Section 5 - Bots and Botting

Rule  5.1  - 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.  That said, it is
unreasonable to make botting completely illegal, as it is difficult to
enforce and has other administrative problems.

The end result is that running a bot is legal to do, so long as your bot
adheres to a few simple rules, listed below.  Keep in mind that if your
bot does not adhere to these rules, the admin will bring out VERY SEVERE
punishments almost immediately, due to the fact that the bot can not or
will not respond to a proper interrogation of what the hell it thinks
it's doing.

See the other rules entries in this section for details on the rules
bots should adhere to.

Note also that the game automatically 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  5.2  - Thy bot shalt 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 continually reconnects, you will be sitebanned until your
bot is fixed.  If your bot is extremely persistent, your entire IP address
block may be firewalled so that you can't connect in any way.  If this
happens, you'll have to send mail to the admin at soda (at) xirr.com to
have the block removed.

Rule  5.3  - Thy bot shalt 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.

Rule  5.4  - Thy bot shall be halfway intelligent about triggers


Make your bot context and trigger 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  5.5  - Thy bot shall know how to log in properly, if it must do so


If your bot is going to automatically log in at some predetermined time,
it should be smart enough to dress itself and start up properly.  We have
found bots stranded in strange areas, getting killed over and over again
because their init/death handlers did not work.

There have also been cases of bots being unable to log in at all,
continually causing password fails.  If your bot does this, you will
be sitebanned until your bot is fixed.

Rule  5.6  - Thy bot shalt not bot in mud school


Don't set up your bot to bot in mud school.  This includes heal bots in
mud school recall and idle bots in the aggro monster cages.

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

Rule  5.7  - Thy bot shalt not bot in recall


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

Further, bots running in regen rooms may drain nearby mana, effectively
stealing it from real players.  Your bot has infinite patience - when it
needs to regen, have it regen away from other players.

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

Rule  5.8  - Thou shalt not run bots in groups


Your bot should not follow people, 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.  If you think you are being unfairly classfied
as a bot, you have two options:

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

2) Log off the game for a short time.  This will tell the game to reset
   its statistics for you, and may give you a second chance.  If you
   tend to go AFK for long periods of time, it's a good idea 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.

Rule  5.9  - Thy bot shall 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.