Ok I'll work my way down from the start, first off as I covered in the previous post, I said it would have negative issues associated with it, such as mining and hauling, these are things "I do not want to change" as both you, me and everyone else in the game can agree that you need a bare minimum of 2 accounts to do "most" activities at any kind of "sensible" rate. Especially mining, where it's actually a requirement rather than a choice.

Next, interference does help. but doesn't solve the issue, then you have third party programs, yes this would also be an issue, but short of actual hacks (Injection and such) all they would do is slightly simplify it, and would not be able to match a follow command.

Now as to your "solution" of a ECM'ing the follow bot, you do realize just how pointless that solution was right? Your either doing one of two things, first your using your bot to ECM the follow bot while the guys main bot kills your bot. Or second, you yourself are using a follow bot to counter his follow bot. (Circular logic ftw.) You may want to think of this a bit more, and do we really want to compare which of us has more pvp experience/knowledge? You know better than that Obi.

It's not that I "want" to remove the follow command, it's that I want a solution to rampant multi-boxing "IN PVP" and I honestly could not come up with a better solution, feel free to offer up one if you have it. I don't want to be forced to multi-box even more to be competitive down the road. And it seems the multi-boxing pvp only increases over time. (It will be even easier with the new expansion as the game will be more GPU based than CPU.)

Oldest player still in the game. Perpetuum for life.
Original Founder of M2S, may it rest in peace.
"Hungarian Math" is defined by the dictionary as "Just like normal math, but where each equation ends by dividing the sum by Potato."
-Shoutout to "Stranger Danger" for the "potato" comment.

While I like your thinking here, the issue is that most follow bots are industrial bots, sporting RR's, Nexuses, remote sensor boosters, and energy transfers.

Perhaps if it was based on mods fit...

Oldest player still in the game. Perpetuum for life.
Original Founder of M2S, may it rest in peace.
"Hungarian Math" is defined by the dictionary as "Just like normal math, but where each equation ends by dividing the sum by Potato."
-Shoutout to "Stranger Danger" for the "potato" comment.

+1

I just want to quickly point out to all devs i am not sending any hatemail to Blackomen

I agree with Blackomen on this one. It is a big issue. I think the people who argue about it are the ones using multiple alts in PVP.

- Easy solution but easily breakable would be to allow only one instance of the game per computer.
- Make the interference way more powerful. If a person is literally few meters(or following) then the interferance should be very high, but drop dramatically. That too would only fix a little bit.

This is only a problem because of low pop, and i think any solution will hurt more than it gain.

Just my opinion

And yes i multibox in pvp, because i feel its more challenging and more satisfying when it works, but its also a big pain in the *** when i have to use any tps, and when the terrain is full of plants and small openings

+1,

But you must understand alex that players want to have own fleet of 10 bots and go in pvp alone...

just rofl!

I glad that they want.

im not a huge fan of multiboxing but i also have 3 accounts. the support follow bots mostly will not make it up to a dedicated support player. the might be able to tag along but in a fight you will not have the time to react to a lot with them.

they pay double so they get more. do they get double? no they dont. so i see not that big of a problem with this.

in pvp i mostly run a detector bot as multiboxing. sometimes i stick that one at my combat char. i see no reason why the detector should turn off in follow mode...

the more accounts ppl multibox the more is their efficiency going down.
just for example. if you ecm half of their 5 follow bots just once, most of them will not be able to relock and resume their support just because they are buisy fighting.

play 10 get only 3. not a bad ratio... and after you are done you just kill all the follow bots as well...

im not a friend of these ppl. but i see less problems with it. if ppl want to spend that much money, hell why not...

good thread Blackomen, I really like the penalties to follow bots idea alot!

If people want to manually control thats fine with me, but I find myself considering fits / setups that don't include a follow bot less and less these days. This is a real problem (increases the barrier of entry for new players, they shouldn't feel required to have multiple accounts to compete in PvP) and we need to find a solution.

I think you're missing the biggest point:  The DEVs have 0 incentive to do this for a number of reasons, just off the top of my head here are a few: 

1.) It's more money the way it is.  A *LOT* more.  Almost no one is PvPing with only one account, including M2S.

2.) It allows a smaller group of people to compete with a larger one, for proof check the board so nerfing this would run even more people out of the game and discourage some people from even trying it.

3.) It does not remove dedicated pilots for support or remote rep, a dedicated pilot is always going to be far more effective/efficient than a follow bot because they can manuever/switch/prioritize targets faster than someone switching screens/clients.  A follow bot can be brought down fast by keep their lock broken/suppressed which is dramatically more effective against a follow bot than a dedicated pilot for the same reasons already mentioned.

4.) More bots on the field = more targets = more fun

5.) It limits variety in playstyles and choices for game play since there are some things you need support to do and dedicated support pilots are rare because it's boring and doesn't show on the kill boards and is even more behind the scenes than an ewar pilot who is also shafted.

I'd guess the majority of the player base either doesn't care or likes it the way it is.

$.02

EDIT:

TL;DR: Playing more than one account already has some substantial built in disadvantages, an equal # of dedicated players of all bots will always be better than an equally skilled/geared player trying to control multiple accounts at once because of the focus necessary to PvP well.