To whom it may concern;

I have been an active player of DaoC for over 2 years now.  This is one of the best MMORPG games that I have ever been apart of, and as such, I would truly like to keep it that way.

As you can see from the subject that I have chosen for this feedback, I have a “gripe” about the direction in which this game is moving.  Now, I am not going to whine or complain about what it is that I don’t like, instead, I wish to point out what I see as a problem and if I may be so bold, offer a suggestion on how I would correct this issue to make the game more enjoyable.

The following is my issue:

I have noticed an explosive trend over the past couple of years, by both players and by Mythic, entailing “bots” (i.e. a con-based caster created on a second account for use only to buff the character on the first account).  At first, botting was considered bad, and was shunned by most people within the world of DAoC, but that didn’t last very long, and it quickly grew to overwhelming numbers of players having bots.  This has disheartened me greatly.

Before I go any further, I would like to clearly define what I consider to be a “bot.”  A bot (in my opinion) is any con-based casting character in any realm that is not played, or joined within a group, but is used solely for the “buffs” that this character can give and is left lifeless in some “safe-spot.”  This does NOT include the same “lifeless” character that is actually grouped and moving with the group.

The reason why this subject bothers me is many fold, but I will just point out a couple of the main points of my argument.

1.	Role-playing experience.  The role-playing experience in my opinion has been greatly affected by botting.  It has greatly diminished the need for grouping to gain experience through hunting the AI in all but the highest of character levels.  This has caused a breakdown in the community feel of the game for me greatly.
2.	Realm versus Realm combat.  Bots have completely changed the RvR experience entirely since inception of this game.  Specifically speaking, but not limiting to, the “solo” RvR classes (i.e. assassins/archers mainly) using a bot gives a huge advantage to those classes who may run around the various frontiers stealthed.  The idea behind an assassin is the stealthy, quick and powerful kill, but the idea that a lone assassin can take down 3-4 grouped members of an opposing realm, due mainly to his character being buff-botted is absurd in my opinion.  Now this same scenario with an assassin and a con-based caster grouped together is by far completely acceptable.  After all, if a member of a realm wishes to specialize in the augmentation lines of each realm, the recipients of their specialization should obviously be given a huge advantage over others that are not teamed with such a class.  But there should be a way to counter this huge advantage.

My own solution:

Now, I realize the financial impact that allowing “bots” into the game must have given your company, and what I propose should not have any major negative impact on this.  

Here is what I am proposing.

1.	Con-based characters hunting in the frontier zones, or any zones shared by multiple realms (such as Darkness Falls) should have a range placed on all buff spells in the same way that the endurance regen line has been put on the Shaman.  I do believe that the range should be increased though by at least double of what it is currently.  As of now, if a shaman within a group casts endurance regen on his group members, and the shaman is in front of a keep, the members of the group would be out of range if they were on the other side of the keep.  This specifically hurts the assassins of the various realms, so I would increase the ranges of the buffs effects.
2.	Con-based casters, within the frontier zones, or any zones shared by multiple realms should only be allowed to cast spells on their group-mates.

What this would accomplish is as follows.  

1.	Players may use their “buff-bots” within the PvE environment (although I do not like this idea either and would like to see it removed as well, I also understand that removing all botting from the game would do quite a bit of fiscal damage to Mythic).  
2.	In any RvR environment though, the buff-bot may still be used, but the “bot” must become a member of the group and travel with that group (or somehow stay close enough to the group to be within the buff’s effective range).  In my opinion, if the group that is inviting the realm mate that is also running a bot wishes to use one of the 8 available spots on a bot, then so be it.  But, this would remove the ability of having solo “buffed” characters running through the frontiers with no way of counter-acting the increase in abilities of the character.

If you have read this far, I would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read through all of this.

In closing, I know that I am not alone in this cause to remove botting from the game, and I wish it to be known that I intend to post this document on various boards to hopefully find others that will write to you to try and have this put into effect.

Botting has greatly diminished my enjoyment of the game, and I believe that this proposition, or something similar, would bring back the enjoyment that I felt when I first opened the box so many years ago.

Sincerely,
<Enter real name here>