215 replies to this topic

[CMMaridah]

Oda has been calling in air strikes in RO1 for several weeks now, and we've now received word from our support team that they are ready to implement this for RO2!
What is an 'Air Strike' thread? It's a bot hot spot list that our support team will monitor for intel, then roll out and annihilate based on your tips. They will report back to me with areas they hit and # of accounts removed, which I will then share with you here! 

 

If you encounter a bot hot spot, here's what you can provide to call in an air strike:

 

Server: Odin

Time: Saturday 18:00 server time

Map: South of Prontera (Screenshot of location on the map is highly encouraged)

Profile: One on each channel, all wearing wonderland costumes and spamming skills. Not responding to anyone/anything. 

 

Don't post names. This is for hot spot notifications only. Screenshots are a-okay, but have to have names removed. You can provide specific names in support tickets if needed.

 

Give a complete report, not just general statements like 'there are always bots in ___ so why don't you do anything about that?' Instead, post up a screenshot of spot on a map and give specifics so support can use your intel effectively. 

 

In some cases support will not be able to get them all in the first pass. For bots that you have previously reported that have not been suspended after some time has passed, please file a ticket with their info and [High Value Bot Target] as the subject line. Support will know to fast track the investigation/re-investigation.  

 

Support can not give you notification or specifics when they act on your report due to player account details being confidential, but this is basically what is happening:

 

 

(Behind the scenes GIF courtesy of Oda.)

[iLoveHelloKitty]

sure will loves     

[Mishhan]

Haha this is nice idea, specially the Gif wahahaha

[KuroiKoneko]

Server: Odin

Time: 24/7

Map: Fallen Fortress, ch10

Profile: Two chars: 21ml soulmaker spamming OP vador pet and healing, 1ml priest who looting (which changing every day)

 

i found these botters four days ago and they still happily bot here

 

Spoiler

Edited by KuroiKoneko, 21 March 2015 - 07:49 PM.

[Elixziyiel]

Dang. I didn't know there were bots in RO2. 

[KyrieDielle]

Please move this thread to the chat section. Players do not usually go this section of the forums.

[donchan]

Dang. I didn't know there were bots in RO2. 

 

EVERY online game has bots, hackers, etc.  Just some games have it worse than others, so it's easier to notice.

[TontonAlarcon]

don't you think it would be better to post this on community chat section? nobody explores this sad excuse of a gameplay section. moving thread topics here is equivalent of being exiled irl.

Edited by TontonAlarcon, 07 April 2015 - 05:19 AM.

[CMMaridah]

Our gameplay section has more traffic than our other sections & bots are not a community topic. Please reference the section introduction if you need an outline for what belongs in a respective section. 

[CMMaridah]

Update from Support:

I've received the first email response for the Air Strike thread.

For the week of April 1-5th, support busted the Mermaid Area and Prontera. 

They are investigating CH10 for botting as reported on in this thread. They mentioned having issue finding botters there the times they investigated, so if you can include specific times when you have spotted them, this will help when they review the reports. List the times you were in the area, for example.

Our international support team will be checking in at different times from our US team so nailing down a peak time when you guys are seeing this behavior spike will improve results. This is why I'd like to discourage 'All day" or "24/7" time estimates and encourage specifics like "18:00 server on Friday." Those details will help them build a profile for these bot abusers over time as well.

[CMMaridah]

Update for April 8th:

Our support team has removed RMT spammers in Prontera, as well as some botters at the Mermaid Spot and inside Morroc.

Total Hit: 21

[Shinyusuke]

Update for April 8th:
Our support team has removed RMT spammers in Prontera, as well as some botters at the Mermaid Spot and inside Morroc.
Total Hit: 21

To make these actions way more powerfull can I suggest an hall of shame with IGNs? Sometimes is way more powerfull an example than the real action.

[CMMaridah]

For multiple reasons we've stopped doing walls of shame for accounts that are suspended, so I don't think we will be picking that back up at this time. The support team isn't providing character names with these suspensions, just numbers and regions hit.

Public shaming sometimes works, though in the case of botting a lot of what is caught is mule accounts made by RMT websites. They create many accounts so they can bot then sell in game content like zeny on shady websites for real money. Shaming them won't have much effect since they don't care about those accounts, nor do they consider themselves a player. It's about exploiting a community for money for them. They will continue to make more accounts as we suspend the current ones.

[Shinyusuke]

I'm more interested on the impact an hall of shame would have on legit player and players botters, the first ones would feel protected, "rewarded" of their legit play and would feel important the others would feel in danger to use such macro or bot and would think twice before buying something on unofficial sites. Most of the time the police exist not to arrest criminals but to make good people feel safe or at last this is what i think

Edited by Shinyusuke, 10 April 2015 - 10:30 PM.

[magpi]

Server: Odin
Time: Sunday approximately 13:00-17:45 server time and on...
Map: Prontera city, ch2 outside of AH. 
Profile: RMT Spammer has been there for 4 hours and counting. This area seems to have a lvl 1 character spam-bot every time I visit.  

 

20m from the spot I am located: http://prntscr.com/6t28hc

Edited by magpi, 12 April 2015 - 03:59 PM.

[Mishhan]

Server: Freyja
Time: Sunday approximately 13:00- and so on server time and on...
Map: Prontera city, ch1 outside of AH. 
Profile: RMT Spammer has been there. This area seems to have a lvl 1 character spam-bot every time I visit.  

 

[CMMaridah]

Update for April 13th:

Nearly 20 accounts were suspended. Support removed a large number of RMT bots in Prontera, and also suspended several players preforming scams and making threats to others in game.

 

If you have botting reports, please share them. The best info for our support team will be botters you encounter in various locations in game. Support regularly makes sweeps of Prontera ch1 since RMT sites put out new messenger spammers there on a constant basis.

 

On a somewhat related note:

Sometimes players confuse camping for botting. If you see a team of people camping a spot & working together for a long time, this could be a party deeply involved in grinding a spot. You can still have support investigate, but keep in mind that players may not be responding to you because they speak a different language or just aren't that social. 

Bots are a bit different in how they farm from other players. Generally they are farming by themselves in a spot where monsters drop valuable DNA fragments. They will be continually using the same move over and over. Periodically they will stop shortly to retrieve items, but they will be spamming the same move endlessly in essentially the same spot of prolonged periods of time without a break. 

[Arbalist]

Server: Odin

Time: Monday 12:00pm server time

Map: Izlude Hill, Mermaids 

Profile: Channel 5, Beastmaster, Beast Tornado roughly every 45 seconds.

[RenKasha]

Server: Freyja

Time: all day 24/7

Map: Forgotten Payon tigers near eddga ch1-10

Profile: many bots auto pet/auto spinel/auto attack

Edited by RenKasha, 24 April 2015 - 08:02 AM.

[CMMaridah]

Please try to avoid 'All day" or "24/7" time estimates and use specifics like "18:00 server on Friday". List the time and channel you specifically encountered them our support team can have greater success in targeting them.

[RenKasha]

Please try to avoid 'All day" or "24/7" time estimates and use specifics like "18:00 server on Friday". List the time and channel you specifically encountered them our support team can have greater success in targeting them.

 

that is the thing they are really there all day every day non stop.

[donchan]

that is the thing they are really there all day every day non stop.

 

If they are truly there all day every day then just provide any time, it doesn't matter.  Just give them the time you last saw them.

[RenKasha]

Server: Freyja

Time: 18:00-20:00

Map: Forgotten Payon tigers near eddga ch1

also seems eddga gear is dropping off monsters is why there doing this.

 

[ch3n]

I have spotted 2 high probability bots with hacks.

Server: Freya

Profile:

1. They have repetitive skills/attacks

a. SM - forgot the skills using
b. Priest - Judex

2. They don't care for the other players in the field. They still attack the mobs is already attacking you.
3. Not moving a single tile. Even when looting.
4. Long range looting. They can loot without moving a single tile. Seen the looting animation but the mobs are very far away.
5. They disappear then re-appear once in a while on the field. I added one of them to my friend list to check if they are changing channels BUT THEY DON'T CHANGE CHANNELS.
6. They don't respond to the question "are you a bot?"
7. According to Public chat they also re-spawn on the same spot they died and has unlimited re-spawn. I only saw the SM died and he sure did re-spawn on the very same spot.

 

Map: SM was found in Condor area but last time i check he's ML11 now.. probably ML11+ now
Time: 2015_05_06 00:33 game time (time is from screenshot)
Map:  Priest is ML1 at the mermaid area at Izlude North West.
Time: 2015_05_10 09:27 game time (time is from screenshot)
SM

Spoiler

Priest

Spoiler

[CMMaridah]

May 24th report:  10 accounts were suspended for botting and RMT selling. Additionally, some scammers were brought to justice in this sweep.

 

Support is reviewing your reports, but as a heads up, the current ticket queue is incredibly long due to some issues with one of our other game titles. This has impacted the speed in which they are able to get these air strike reports over to us to share with you. Hopefully in the coming weeks this will no longer be an issue, but in the meantime, just keep your reports coming and they will bring down the ban hammer as quickly as they are able to.