Sorry to re-raise an old post but wanted to put my opinion into the 1 bot per group rule.
Before I do I'd like to say that I waited a few weeks to build up this opinion, trying out a few bot types and playing through a few characters to the 50s first (with extensive bot usage). I'll say right now I absolutely love their inclusion in the server; they have their flaws but they definitely make the casual player's life less frustrating and tons more fun.
So, on to my point.
I understand why the game is limited to 1 bot per character (and I also agree that we should not be able to box more than three accounts) but it would be a welcome change, at least for me and my friend, to be allowed one bot per character but not per group - this would mean two real players could have one bot each (to a maximum of three bots and three players in a group).
Basically, my reasoning for this is from an entirely casual perspective. I don't have enough time (and my friend has even less) to spend on the game, over a long period, to be capable of consistently grouping with other players. There isn't a large enough population on the server and most of them are level 70 at any rate (or powerleveling their alts). By no means is this a negative for us, we love the server and we love that it's quiet (allows us to just get on with enjoying the game; did the whole mass-integration thing back in live and that horse is well beaten, for me).
Currently we play one account each plus one bot and I occasionally (and begrudgingly) box another character, because we might need it; as we approach the latter stages of the content curve we're finding that a trio, with a bot healer (that is nowhere near as capable of an adept human healer) is becoming less and less viable, particularly against the level 60 mobs that have huge amounts of hitpoints. Whilst I
can box extra characters to mitigate this,
I don't enjoy the game nearly as much as when I am playing with just one avatar at a time. I know others can manage three accounts (and more, if allowed) at once and that's well and good; I'm sure I could manage it and I do actually have three accounts... but I just don't want to as it's not as fun.
I'd much prefer me, my friend and two bots (with perhaps, for the toughest group content, perhaps boxing the last character and accompanying bot, to make a full group). That's as far as I'd like to take it, really. I understand there is an issue with raid content being trivialised by too few players but I've been told two human players can do some raids anyway, with one bot and three boxes. I guess having to box one fewer account would be the benefit in this scenario.
I know bots, as a subject, is slightly controversial and I'm not trying to stir up a pointless debate about it here; I'm just putting forward my opinion as well as my suggestion (or request, whichever it might be regarded as
) that this is definitely something I would love. I don't want it to be overdone (I certainly would not like to see a single player leading a full group of bots around destroying all the content), but a ratio of 50:50 player:bot would be, for me, a nice compromise in a group scenario.
Thanks for the time taken to read this long post