This is what boggles my mind, MQ2 is supposed to be GNU open source, however it is now closed source when you consider MQ2Ic. This doesn't make sense? I have been around a long time, and remember the original MQ, and Lax made it even better with MQ2. It was a dedicated Platform for all to use. Now, I don't want to put my tinfoil hat on as I appreciate all the work eqmule has done to keep it alive, but I wonder if there is something more than just I don't want to ruin two servers mentality. Why now the change of heart? Even so, how can you go from a Open source mentality to let me see if I feel this server is appropriate to run MQ2 on. I can understand active packet hacks, but botting? Come on now, there has been botting on EQ for what 18 years? It isn't eqmules job to deter that, its Daybreaks. Its just an entirely confusing situation if you think about it.
Tinfoil hat on = MQ2 Devs got paid $$, I wonder how much
Well... I kinda kept in touch with SOE and then Daybreak over the years trying my best to keep an open dialog about MQ2 and third party tools in general to lobby for more tolerance as well as some cooperation or even straight out acceptance of it's usage in general, so when truebox was announced, I didn't want to ruin the relationship by going against their wishes of no MQ2 on those servers.
Basically we had a sit down where the topic was discussed and the outcome of that meeting was the "attended use is allowed" policy which is now in place (see the Eula).
Bottomline, since most of MQ2 is open source (The Launcher, MacroQuest2.exe has been closed since Lax closed it) the only reasonable thing to do to solve the problem with people building mq2 for truebox servers was to add the mq2ic plugin.
I actually released a open source mq2main first with a prevention, but it only took a month or so before we saw that people bypassed it on phinigel so I was actually forced to go deeper...
Mq2ic itself initially only had a very simple truebox prevention mechanism as well and it was an optional plugin but then someone cracked that and I had to step it up one more notch and eventually we arrived at the point we are today, where you can't actually use mq2 unless it's loaded.
I don't think anyone wants it, but there is an upside of using it and that's the fact that besides preventing people from using mq2 on the truebox servers it protects you from the client scan. (I admit, although I was under the impression that the scan (we did discuss it) would only be active on the truebox servers when I walked out of that meeting, it turned out that it's done on all servers, BUT I have come to the conclusion that without that scan it would have been much harder for me to convince people to keep it loaded and to integrate it into the core of mq2, so read into that what you want

in retrospect, it was a very smart move of DBG.
As for me getting paid by DBG... I wish, I really do. I apply for a job there every chance I get.
For now the only "pay" I received is a good relationship with them and the fact that every person that use mq2 responsibly, while attending, is free to do so on ALL the other servers, without any risk of getting banned.
It IS a good deal, and I really really want it to stay that way.
You are one of the few, people I know of, that have the skills to actually build a working mq2 for those servers if you choose to do so, so I VERY much appreciate your cooperation and thank you, for not having done that.
I saw your eqbot post and all I can say is please try to keep it as non intrusive as you feel you can without losing usability. I'm not going to judge you or try to tell you what to do, but you would have my respect and gratefulness if, you know, kept it at a sensible level.
