jorb wrote:Sure, we can come up with more or less elegant workarounds, but when the bots inevitably become sophisticated enough to play the game in its entirety and can pass a Turing test, well...
Well, if they pass the Turing test, they deserve it

But seriously, what you need to look at is the reason why competitive players bot. In Haven it's because they have to to stay in the rat race, thanks to infinite character advancement. Salem is better in this regard, since there's a humor cap, but I reckon people will still bot it because getting to this cap takes a ridiculous amount of grind. So much so that it's not really practical for a top end character to be developed manually and then risked in combat. Similarly, getting close enough to the brazier cap takes a ***** of repetitive iron grind. I think the solution is to decrease time investment requirements. People will still bot, sure, but the botter's edge will be a lot less pronounced.