@Tuxide: I am not asking for details, but bots, unattended sessions, whatever you want to call it... it is cheating and should be punished. I am not defending that at all. They get(got) what they deserve(d). I do not see how "diminishing returns", as discussed in this thread, will not affect actual players who are trying to work toward a goal in a legitimate way. If you are simply suggesting sitting down and resting every 15 minutes (just an example), then they will just only run the script or whatever for 15 minutes before taking a break. Also, since this is intended to be back-end stuff and not necessarily documented, you are going to frustrate the newer players to no end because they are going to stop getting anything for their, legitimate, efforts after 15 minutes.
Applying this to something other than mining though... Take weapons crafting. My last level (14) is by no means master level. However, it took over an hour and a half of REAL time, in the most efficient way I have found, to train that level. How are you going to change that to give me even less return? Why would you want to change this to provide even less return? There is very little market for less than perfect weapons right now, so I have to spend days or weeks of real time before I can get any return at all for my work. Given that I usually only spend an hour or two in-game at a time, this turns into months.
I am NOT condoning cheating in ANY way shape or form. I work hard for every stat/skill I have in the game, and have the sore wrists and worn mouse buttons to prove it. But i am getting very tired of people saying that we should make things more difficult, or less rewarding for players. I do not care if the people who want to RP, and never train are left behind in stats/skills. That is their choice. I have always obeyed the rules, been nice, and IC where possible, to people in-game. Still i have to endure threads like this about how things should be harder or less rewarding for me, and people like me. This is a GAME, not RL, and until there is in-game support for making money by things other than killing mobs or mining, guess what? That is what people are going to do, because money is required to do everything else in-game. Magic does not make me money, and requires lots of it. Crafting has yet to make me money, and requires lots of it. Cooking used to make me money without requiring a huge investment of money, but that changed recently. The only things left, that my character has tried, are mining/smelting ore and killing mobs. But wait, those take money to train too.
