I don't like the term botting used in this case. I have come from other games and a "bot" is a completely AI controlled program. The thing goes out hunts for you, runs around, logs in and out, accesses storage and basically navigates all aspects of the game that it needs to to perform its task, You would then have a virtual PC set up and have 10 of these things running, all on proxies of course. You could set the thing off Monday, come back Friday and collect your winnings (if you weren't picked up by the bot detection software and IP blacklisted that is). While there of course must be some that have set up complex bots here in EU, I haven't seen any personally. Lets not tar everybody with this botting label.
What I presume happens in the majority of the high activity hunting circles, Is simply the use of a macro functionality on a high end gaming keyboard. My keyboard has this, I have a Razer Huntsman, and once you get familiar with the software it is truly game changing. I have strings of commands set up to certain hotkeys, For example I am doing a lot of scanning at the moment, trying to get some points in Xenobiology, and I have binded my E Key to do [Equip scanner>target mob>use>switch back to main weapon>fire], all with the single keypress. Its not about botting, its about quality of life and RSI prevention.
And yes there is a key that repeats the F function, and while you can take a big ass loot pill and come back in 5 hours time, in reality it isn't that easy, I would never risk leaving my screen for more than 5 minutes. Auto target gets you into some silly situations and needs continual monitoring, unless you want to find yourself dead and stuck in rocks most of the time, you still have to be there overseeing. And at this point you aren't really botting, just saving your fingers.
In this format. 16 hours is completely doable.
Although I EMPHASIZED it in five comments, this is a 16-hour example.
In this example, the weapon I gave is at maximum power.
The weapon does 88.9/min.... that's its limit, it can't do more than that.
This 88.9 / min is equivalent to automatic firing in the air.... holding the E button for example.... this is the limit point that is impossible to reach in any scenario.
To make it clearer, I reduced it to attacks per month, which means that if you SHOOT IN THE AIR, you will need 2,560,320 attempt... which is equivalent to 16 hours a day for a period of one month.
The 16-hour gameplay has nothing to do with the example above, so don't try to belittle it delicately.
In the simple example that anyone can check on the Wiki calculator, I just checked how many peds are needed for this and the simple calculation shows 1,219,659 ped...
This is not a hunt or a game... this is the maximum attempt that the weapon can shoot.... to the sky.
If you shoot at the sky and it costs you PED... you will lose 1,219,659.63 in one month ... if you repeat it for 16 hours every day.
This boy/girl has a spended December 1,340,000+ peds... no matter how hard you try to downplay it, a normal hunt would take a lot longer than shooting in the air. And this larger number does not mean 16 hours a day at all, but much more... 25 example. This can't be a human reaction or a Macro, so.
Looks like you're looking for reasons, I don't know how to calculate the time it takes to change a new target... it's still a gun and not a rifle... you have to move... faping... repair.. a bunch of other things and delays I can now to miss... all this is a time pause that will extend the time it takes to make 2,560,320 Attacks... which as I said is the equivalent of 1,219,659 ped.
Where do you compare with this example even more spent ped in hunting... 1,340,000 hah
No matter how delicately you try to downplay this, most people understand what it means.