Where there’s an MMO, there are usually bots. They’re typically used to make busy work like mining or foraging a lot easier, though many find it pretty frustrating as it makes it harder for them to grind certain spots for items legitimately. New World is indeed an MMORPG, so, as the way of the world decrees, the bots have shown up, almost like a rite of passage.
Players have been taking to the game’s subreddit over the past few days to query the odd behaviour of the adventurers they’ve been coming across in Aeternum (thanks, Icy Veins). Some posts show fishing spots packed with adventurers cycling through their set animations, whereas others reveal some mining for rocks that haven’t even spawned yet. Yup, it certainly looks like there are oodles of bots in New World right now.
At the time of writing, most of the bots are busy doing your typical busy work like fishing and mining rocks. You’ll notice a few giveaways like the simple names of the characters like “iron1”, “iron2”, and “iron3”, or the fact you can nudge them about without much reaction as their programming evidently doesn’t really account for it.
It also looks like some bots have managed to figure out when a fish is rare or not. Usually, you have to look at telltale signs like the difficulty of the pull and the sort of waves a fish creates, but some of these bots can spot it immediately, so they just yoink away their rod and fling it back in if the fish isn’t good enough.
Found this odd bot farm outside of Windward… Anyone know the point of this? They’re auto-casting then pulling back right away. from newworldgame
Here are some mining:
Ran across nakeds named Iron 1-10, standing on iron spots and doing the mining animation before it even fully respawn. I assume these are bots? Server: NA-East Norumbega from newworldgame
Naturally, some players have managed to find the fun:
We’ve reached out to Amazon Games for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
New World has proved immensely popular so far. At the time of writing, the new PC game has hit a peak of 913,634 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. This has resulted in some issues the devs are looking to address, though. Alongside lengthy queue times, it’s also meant some players have been AFKing so they don’t have to re-queue to get in. That’s not quite how the developers want the game to be played, though, so the team has put together a new solution to “identify and action against bad faith AFK players”.
The issue with bots is something most MMORPGs face. At one point, Blizzard dished out 100,000 six-month bans in a bid to clean up World of Warcraft. You also get the odd act of vigilante justice, with one WoW player spiting botters by turning them into zombies during the Death Rising event.
If you’re just getting into New World yourself, though, then our New World beginner’s guide has plenty of tips to get you started. We’re also in the process of writing our New World review, which may prove handy if you’re still on the fence about buying in.