51 replies to this topic

[Wanderer]

Valk is hitting 4k population again, time to do something about bots?

[Ralis]

Can pretty safely ban all of the merchants that put up shops right when the servers go up, then trace those accounts to their bots.

And it'll weed out the players that are too lazy to spend 10 minutes actually pricing their stuff. =)

[Wanderer]

Where's the crew that was supposed to deal with bots? did you fired them already?

[CheddarJack]

the spam bots are also starting to get out of control again. Last time i looked there was 4 in west pront, about 10+ by south pront, another 3 or 4 in east, and north has about 1 or 2. And in the middle forget about it there can be at least 20 in the mix there.

Edited by CheddarJack, 19 June 2011 - 11:01 AM.

[GuardianTK]

The spam bots are getting pretty desperate if they're putting 3 spam bots from the same company within 5 cells of the other one in an area where there's 2 other spam bots from the competition. Seeing 6 spam bots in one screen is ridiculous enough.

Oh and I didn't know merchants were allowed to use skills or pick up items while they were vending. ^_^;; *sarcasm* I was walking around with my Aqua and some blacksmith that was vending suddenly decided to stand up, use power thrust, power maximize, and adrenaline rush nonstop whenever I got close with my summon. xD

[Anchors]

Magmarings also seems to be infested with bots... There's this one chaser that runs in, hits magmarings a few times, then dies. They respawn, walk back to the map, attack another monster, then die again in a single hit. >_> Similarly, there's a GC that keeps sitting despite being attacked by Droseras...

[valgissn]

Why not hire some more GMs to patrol the game?

[ABK1986]

Can pretty safely ban all of the merchants that put up shops right when the servers go up, then trace those accounts to their bots.

And it'll weed out the players that are too lazy to spend 10 minutes actually pricing their stuff. =)

It'd be cool if they found a way to detect accounts that try to log in every X seconds for the duration of maintenance, then they could just ban them. Some botters would probably know when maintenance is, but I'm sure others let their bot run for days on end.

But yes, any shop that is open for business as soon as it logs in is a bot

[Wiggles]

It'd be cool if they found a way to detect accounts that try to log in every X seconds for the duration of maintenance, then they could just ban them. Some botters would probably know when maintenance is, but I'm sure others let their bot run for days on end.

They already tried this.

Ended up banning a few hundred legit players, and they had to send in tickets and wait for their accounts to be unbanned, creating many unhappy customers.

[Ralis]

They already tried this.

Ended up banning a few hundred legit players, and they had to send in tickets and wait for their accounts to be unbanned, creating many unhappy customers.

The idea was good, the execution was not. They banned people who logged in within the first five minutes or so, which was way to much. Thirty seconds should have been the maximum. I was one of the people banned in that because I'm often there at the end of maintenance trying to get in (for MVPs and such), but I didn't mind it as much since it caught so many bots along with it.

[Wanderer]

But it also did a great job killing hundreds of bots, I remember the population going down by a half after that.

[SpidyFreakshow]

The idea was good, the execution was not. They banned people who logged in within the first five minutes or so, which was way to much. Thirty seconds should have been the maximum. I was one of the people banned in that because I'm often there at the end of maintenance trying to get in (for MVPs and such), but I didn't mind it as much since it caught so many bots along with it.

maybe 5-10 seconds
most probably try to connect about that often,
and it wont get many users at all

[Ularis]

Its funny to watch well geared bot at Magmarings map.

That reminds me, I should start taking screenies. -.-"

[BlackPotato]

But it also did a great job killing hundreds of bots, I remember the population going down by a half after that.

just insta-ip ban accounts that have character names like "frwfgw45" and "aadadsadf" (but not asdf, legit player ikno right?) if your not a bot and dumb enough to make a non fantasy/funny/other name, then... well. idk what to tell ya

[TrueMaster]

Today was the first time ever that that i have filled my reject whispering list to the limit and got the error about not being able to add more. Seriously there are places on the map now where there is 5 spam bots on the same screen. Something has to be done about them.

[Ularis]

Actually there's a nice sweet cell where you get about 7 spambots on screen. Quite fascinating

I'm looking to find around 8-10 on the same screen.

[Viri]

I don't see these spambots anywhere. Where can I find them? I play ymir.

[Imz0r]

I don't see these spambots anywhere. Where can I find them? I play ymir.

lol'd

And yeah i agree something has to be done, the sheer ammount of bots be it leveling/vend/farming and the spammers is just to much.
happy i transfered to ymir

[jax5]

Can pretty safely ban all of the merchants that put up shops right when the servers go up, then trace those accounts to their bots.

And it'll weed out the players that are too lazy to spend 10 minutes actually pricing their stuff. =)

This "solution" was already attempted. The collateral damage was a bunch of banned people who weren't bots. An additional problem was gravity don't really have a good means of general communication (e.g. logging in to a banned account neither states reason for ban nor steps for resolution/dispute).

There was some stickied thread for people to post in, saying they were banned for logging in too quickly. What happens for banned people that don't check the forums? Considering access restriction only occurred after a "banned" account was logged out, I can only imagine the frustration it caused numerous players, as well as causing a sudden surge in ticket load.

[Imz0r]

Correct me if im wrong, but doesnt kRO or jRO (or both) have some kind of CAPTCHA system during log in?
why doesnt iRO have this?

[BlackPotato]

If you think that stops bots, your fooling yourself... all it does is frustrate humans lol. Hate those damn things

[Imz0r]

If you think that stops bots, your fooling yourself... all it does is frustrate humans lol. Hate those damn things

Well bots dont use the iRO client to login, so it could work.
and putting a CAPTCHA just when you log in to your account wouldnt be that bad.

but eh, just throwing idea arounds lol

Edited by Imz0r, 20 June 2011 - 03:04 AM.

[Kadelia]

I wonder though, with a properly coded captcha that doesn't send the answer/question to the client but just the picture, in an encrypted way that only the client could read, with an encryption that changes every maintenance, would the bots be forced to use the client, and thus be subject to client, and thus subject to the red mute rules? (provided the server request some sort of file size check on the client so a modded client won't work)...

[Ralis]

This "solution" was already attempted. The collateral damage was a bunch of banned people who weren't bots. An additional problem was gravity don't really have a good means of general communication (e.g. logging in to a banned account neither states reason for ban nor steps for resolution/dispute).

There was some stickied thread for people to post in, saying they were banned for logging in too quickly. What happens for banned people that don't check the forums? Considering access restriction only occurred after a "banned" account was logged out, I can only imagine the frustration it caused numerous players, as well as causing a sudden surge in ticket load.

No, they banned all players that logged in within some five minutes of the server coming up.

It takes time to set up a merchant, but bots use automatic programs to do it, hence why you see tons of merchants up right when you log in. All of those merchants can then be easily tied back to bot accounts via trades.

Edited by Ralis, 20 June 2011 - 07:32 AM.

[D111]

Just merge everyone to Ymir. Having three servers at this point is useless.

If you are on Valk you get merged gears, cards, god items all of it, just throw em on Ymir and lets have a real MMO with thousands of people, instead of a split up community of a couple hundred here and there...

For the Bots use the system Ymir currently has, all the Valk players get a free membership to VIP from transfer, and any new people just have to Pony up in order to make a one time fee to join, then in the future Bots have to pay to make a new account if they get banned.


Im just saying, it is crazy having three servers. But I am sure many, many will disagree...