"How Niantic can Stick it to Bots"

#PokemonGO: If Niantic wants to continue hitting bot sellers where it hurts, they need to further limit XP/day. Such limits may affect a few legitimate players, but they hit bot sellers much harder. Since bots are priced and sold by level, the longer it takes to reach the desired bot level, the longer the bot seller has to wait before selling. This in turn, increases their costs and reduces their profits.Here are the sources of XP I'm currently aware of which can be exploited by a bot that is trying to level up as fast as possible:XP SourceDaily Max XPDays to Level 30Hatch Eggs25,200 [1]79.4Spin PokeStop83,286 [2]24.0Catch Pokemon130,786 [3]15.3Bubblestrat (low est.)540,000 [4]3.7Bubblestrat (high est.)746,400 [5]2.7I'm making a couple assumptions here which I think are fair:I assume all bots are targeting level 30 because that's the level which Pokemon CP/IVs/movesets/etc stop being random.I assume bots aren't buying incubators or lucky eggs. Since the point of leveling the bot is to sell it, buying items for it doesn't make financial sense. That means the bot only has 6 incubators and 6 lucky eggs to use before reaching its target level.I assume it doesn't use its incubators or lucky eggs as it makes the math easier and using them wouldn't have an appreciable affect on the numbers.In any case, it should be readily apparent that Bubblestrat has the highest return on investment. Hatches are limited by the 10.5 km/h speed limit on egg distance. Spins and catches have hard limits which result in softbans if violated. Gyms don't have a limit on participation (AFAIK; if I'm mistaken, please ignore this entire post), so Bubblestrat isn't bounded in the same way. Combining hatches, spins, and catches can net upwards of 200,000 XP/day, or 10 days to level 30. Realistically, their limits can reached in a few hours [source], and the bot could spend the rest of the day earning XP through Bubblestrat, resulting in as little as 2.5-3 days to level 30.So how to fix this? Two ideas come to mind:Softban limit on training. 1,000 training battles per day would place maximum XP/dy on a level similar to the other sources of XP. I don't imagine many legitimate players would be affected by such a limit.Minimum level on Pokemon in gyms. Level 5 seems appropriate to me as its the minimum level players must be in order to battle. I actually like this idea better as it's a softer limit and could follow similar logic to horse racing (can't race a horse that's too young), but I could see The Pokemon Company vetoing their IP being used in this way.tl;dr One of my local gyms has been taken over by bots trying to level up. I'm upset. Where's my pitchfork?[1] - (10.5 km/h) × (24 h/dy) ÷ (5 km/hatch) × (500 XP / hatch). Assumes a never-ending supply of eggs and only 5 km eggs are hatched.[2] - (1,500 max-spins/dy [source]) × (55 XP/spin) + 786 avg-daily-spin-bonus. This assumes every 10th spin receives the 10-spin bonus.[3] - (500 max-catches/dy [source]) × (260 XP/catch) + 786 avg-daily-spin-bonus. This assumes a never-ending supply of pokeballs and each catch receives the Excellent throw, curve, and first throw bonuses.[4] - (22,500 XP/hr [source - 3rd bullet under Tips & Tricks]) × (24 hr/dy).[5] - (31,100 XP/hr [source]) × (24 hr/dy).edit: formatting via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2r8Rt2E