Bots can be compared to the old Subspace client - it uses the same protocol without encryption. Continuum uses a special encryption over the protocol. This is the reason why you can't have a bot connect to a normal zone without the bot being on vip.txt. If a name is on vip.txt, the server allows the name to use the old subspace protocol (if the correct properties on server.ini to allow subspace clients are also set ofcourse). (BTW you can also setup the server in such a way it always accepts bots without them being on vip.txt) "Bots not possible without mod+" is nonsense. If the bot uses a name from vip.txt then it has no staff powers and can be considered a normal player. If you put the same name on moderate.txt / smod.txt / sysop.txt it will also get the staff powers. I believe that if the name is on sysop.txt it doesn't require the name to be on vip.txt aswell but only if the bot uses the password*sysoppw login. (not completely sure about this last fact) Last tip: if you want a "chatbot", use subchat.