James,
I'm glad to see you're reaching out to the community for opinions on this matter, it's one I've considered at length from both sides of the argument. I've been around since the early 2000's and have seen the evolution of the community, game and botting. Botting has always been a part of Faldon, like technology, it has improved with time. It's been amplified by our experience and things like % items being added/fixed.
When considering this issue I think it's important to focus on the rationale and not the immediate pros and cons, but they are worth noting. Today's server is an amalgamation of decades of abuse, misuse, exploitation and neglect. Yet, we still try to play it. New and (mostly) returning players alike are faced with a mountain of progress and exploitation to compete with, yet we rise to the occasion. Progress is relative in MMO's, some could say the level 2k on the leaderboard is an abomination, I see it as a challenge. Some could see the items people have amassed and see them as ruining the game, I see at as the game we are playing. It's not just levels though, its all sorts of progression from skills, to items, to gold.
It seems us who chose to see the current game state as the parameters in which we're forced to compete are demonized. Historically speaking, the damage is done. We're just better at botting than we used to be.
The main issue with stopping/slowing/preventing botting it's never really foolproof, especially programmatically. There's numerous methods that are being used in other games, such as OCR(onscreen recognition) and network level packet injecting that would not be detectible. These methods are being used on Blizzards games, and they've put years and 10's of millions into stopping it to no avail.
The main argument for stopping botting is to give manual players a fair chance, that chance is blown. It's over.
All that said, I think there is a goldilocks solution here happily.
The current server with all its faults is our faldon. I've played it off and on since I was a teenager, we have worked for decades to get where we are. To lose that would be a real shame, even with all its faults. It doesn't provide a fair experience and never will for those who wish to play it manually. The current server should remain, largely in the same regulation it has in the past which is next to none.
There is no fair way to undo the damage done over the decades though, and you've said it yourself, it wouldn't take much effort or ongoing server resources to run a second server.
There should be a second server, one heavily moderated. No botting of any kind, no AFK progression, no macroing, etc. Regular balancing would be required. This would be the only way give players who wish to play manually a fair shot.
In closing, I think any tinkering with game play at this point on the current server gives too much advantage to those who have historically benefited from the ability to abuse the game and punishes those who wish to compete with that damage today. Further, it doesn't actually help those who wish to have a manual experience as those who wish to abuse the system will find new an creative ways to do so. A second server with heavy moderation is likely the lowest effort to solve this problem anyhow. There are plenty of players who would volunteer to moderate, myself included.
I am very knowledgeable on the entirety and history of botting in Faldon if you'd like to discuss this one on one, I could give you an idea of where we're at today and what was done in the past.
If you made it to the end, thanks for reading.
Out of retirement... for now.
