Battle against bots...

[Samuel]

So, we have been brain storming and have a potential idea but are unsure how it might effect/annoying the non botting community.

The issue:
We are receiving an increasing number of complaints about botters, whether or not they are botters or farmers is another issue, we are trying to solve the botting issue.

Behavior identifiers:
The botters are generally reported gathering chestnuts/hunting mobs in mizu/bw and anywhere else that contain monsters that have a low likely hood of killing them.

Potential solution:
Random captcha's on specific maps when picking up gold/chestnuts... IE mizu/bw etc when you pick up a gold pile, you have a random chance of being prompted to enter a captcha, this would only apply to provinces and potentially very low level caves.

Failure to enter the captcha correctly 3 times, or within the designated time slot would result in the character being kicked and us being informed that of the failure so we can do some investigation (I imagine some people might muck this up by mistake, so need a level of human investigation).

I can see this being potentially annoying for some people, as non botters will be presented with a captcha occasionally... But as it will only apply to low risk area's I can see is maybe working...

Wanted to gather the communities thoughts on the idea/subject.

Sam

 

[Skyline]

Good idea, but it's going to be really annoying at the same time, especially for new characters and actual noobs lol. As well as your genuine chestnut hunters who just want to make a quick 50k.

Anyway of having a level requirement, e.g. if above 26 captcha doesn't kick in?

 

[Breezer]

Good idea but sounds a tad draining ...Maybe instead of a captcha you could do simple things like.

7+2 = ?

then they only have to quickly slap that number in and make sure they can hit "Enter", also the report system I suggested has worked fairly sufficiently in other MMO's. Although I still think people would get bummed out, what about making a cap to how much gold you can actually have regarding your level?

Like you said in another post, you have a system that calculates level by amount of gold (showing you any abnormalities in relation). Surely someone level 29 or such wouldn't need much more than 5 Million, again it would have to be discussed anyway's so I'm sure you'l find the perfect solution to the Gold issues.

Just a heads up, that pictures was not edited by photoshop...It's just a client side package edit (Cheat Engine), I've just logged on and done the same thing and gave myself 30Million gold (useless as it's client side not server).

 

[Gezza]

Voted good idea, only because i don't bother hunting for chestnuts etc however i'm sure it will be annoying for some legit players but if this helps prevent botters it's a small annoyance to pay.

Rather than hunt chestnuts you can make more from mining any ways.

 

[Wond]

Good idea, but it's going to be really annoying at the same time, especially for new characters and actual noobs lol. As well as your genuine chestnut hunters who just want to make a quick 50k.

Anyway of having a level requirement, e.g. if above 26 captcha doesn't kick in?

Then they will just level their bot characters to 26 and do it,

It will be annoying at times yeah but I can deal with it.

 

[holly]

You could have set NPCs for chestnuts and ore selling that require a random question to be answered.

Genuine hunters will only be pestered once when they sell it all but you can still investigate if its answered incorrectly.

 

[Samuel]

Just a heads up, that pictures was not edited by photoshop...It's just a client side package edit (Cheat Engine), I've just logged on and done the same thing and gave myself 30Million gold (useless as it's client side not server).

Ah, well this is an over engineered way of photoshoping I guess, the result is still pretending there is gold available that isn't actually there.

Sam

 

[Phade]

Good idea, but it's going to be really annoying at the same time, especially for new characters and actual noobs lol. As well as your genuine chestnut hunters who just want to make a quick 50k.

Anyway of having a level requirement, e.g. if above 26 captcha doesn't kick in?

Why would it be really annoying? It's hardly going to be something intellectually stimulating, just a simple prompt to stop any bot aquiring copious quantities of gold. A few second interruption while farming is almost no hinderance to the real player.

I think this is an excellent idea Sam, honestly i could not imagine a better solution to this. It doesn't hinder the harvesting aspect of the game for other players, but will definitely stall botters unbalancing the economy any further. Cannot wait to see this implemented

 

[d1craig]

Well you could give maybe 500g for answering the capcha correctly.

Wouldn't be a problem it being rare. A lot of people do farming while on big group hunts so they may not answer the capcha in time. Make it so you can't do anything else until the capcha is answered but give it a 2-5min limit before it kicks you.

 

[Jest]

Ah, well this is an over engineered way of photoshoping I guess, the result is still pretending there is gold available that isn't actually there.

Sam

Yes but it would be much easier. Can you confirm if there are people with huge amounts of cash? If not I see no need for this change.

 

[Blank]

captcha works, but then that'd be so frustratingly annoying really quickly as it breaks immersion and chestnutting is generally for those times when your brains switch off so decyphering a poorly written text or doing maths is going to be a nightmare, but if it can be integrated to be simple enough that you don't need to think about it too much and it "looks" like mir rather than an alien pop up then it could work.

 

[Wond]

Yes but it would be much easier. Can you confirm if there are people with huge amounts of cash? If not I see no need for this change.

Why do you see no need for this change? We have botters, some of whom are selling gold. I think that gives plenty of reason for this change.

 

[Richens]

Sam have you done a retrieval for top gold horders to show the ones that stand out?

Something needs to be done about this.

 

[Jamie]

So, we have been brain storming and have a potential idea but are unsure how it might effect/annoying the non botting community.

The issue:
We are receiving an increasing number of complaints about botters, whether or not they are botters or farmers is another issue, we are trying to solve the botting issue.

Behavior identifiers:
The botters are generally reported gathering chestnuts/hunting mobs in mizu/bw and anywhere else that contain monsters that have a low likely hood of killing them.

Potential solution:
Random captcha's on specific maps when picking up gold/chestnuts... IE mizu/bw etc when you pick up a gold pile, you have a random chance of being prompted to enter a captcha, this would only apply to provinces and potentially very low level caves.

Failure to enter the captcha correctly 3 times, or within the designated time slot would result in the character being kicked and us being informed that of the failure so we can do some investigation (I imagine some people might muck this up by mistake, so need a level of human investigation).

I can see this being potentially annoying for some people, as non botters will be presented with a captcha occasionally... But as it will only apply to low risk area's I can see is maybe working...

Wanted to gather the communities thoughts on the idea/subject.

Sam

I would be careful about using Captcha's I think really bad idea would only hurt user count if I'm honest...

 

[Flubber]

I personally like the idea that someone mentioned about a small amount of gold for entering the captcha correctly. It won't be as annoying because it's just the same as selling a Chestnut but without the trip back to town. I do think the captcha thing in general is a decent idea and I would like to see something like this implemented.

 

[Samuel]

Sam have you done a retrieval for top gold horders to show the ones that stand out?

Something needs to be done about this.

I have... Nothing strikes me as a concern, anything over 10m with the current economy would require an investigation and I haven't had to do an investigation yet (which gives you a rough idea without giving away to much).

Sam

 

[Wallnut]

Captcha is a fantastic idea/solution to the problem. I'm totally fine with having this implemented if it stops the botters.

I do think investigation is required into whether there are players who already possess unjustifiable amounts of gold though.

 

[Far]

I agree with having a simple math calculation over unreadable text.

Obviously its not an ideal solution having to use captcha, but if it gets rid of bots then i think its worth it - at least until a more efficient solution can be thought of and implemented.

 

[Samuel]

captcha works, but then that'd be so frustratingly annoying really quickly as it breaks immersion and chestnutting is generally for those times when your brains switch off so decyphering a poorly written text or doing maths is going to be a nightmare, but if it can be integrated to be simple enough that you don't need to think about it too much and it "looks" like mir rather than an alien pop up then it could work.

My original thoughts was it would be great to have some iconic mir items/monsters pop up and you would have to type their name...

However, we want to appeal to new players also, and if they did not know of these items/mobs then they would be screwed.

Sam

 

[Pottsy]

Well ...botters work by detecting names and executing actions against those names correct?

Why not have a 1 hit killing mob with the same name? Make it spawn and only attack upon initiation like a Hen/Deer?

Make it stand out and obvious that it doesn't belong and warn the real community not to attack them