The easiest way to stop harvesting bots would be to not stop the bot itself (almost impossible, really) but to limit what people botting can actually achieve.
Captcha's wont work for one main reason that's been mentioned somewhere in this thread before (sorry for not crediting whoever said it first) but all it will do is slow the botters down. If people can create complicated botting software, I'm sure a simple math captcha wouldn't be hard to bypass.
The 2 best ways to stop them I can think of would be to:
1) Massively reduce the worth of Chestnuts, or/and
2) Limit the amount of gold a character can hold according to level. Is there any reason for someone below level 20 (or even 30) to be able to hold a mill, really? This would introduce problems such as if a level 20 character finds an item worth more than a mill and tries to sell it but gold bars would always still be an option.
Harvesting bots wont be worth it if there's no monetary incentive or they have to level to 30+ to simply hold a decent amount of cash. Sure, they could collect all the chestnuts, max out the gold on one account and then trade it all over but it would massively reduce the bot's effectiveness.
The aim should be not to stop the bots (pretty much impossible to do completely) but to make it so there's very little to gain from actually botting.
Get it sorted soon as plz coz all these good items tht are dropping are gettin sold for high prices to botters which is so unfair for those who can only just get enough for pots..... Becoming a cheat to win server like all the others.....
imo should remove the level caps on repeatable quests would help alot with gold issues. at 40+ its at the point where it costs 3x the gold u be getting as a reward to complete the damn quest lol
The problem itself isn't limited to just chestnut trees, in fact most bots have moved to serpent valley now and are farming mobs.Simple solution is to do what xele or aldor suggested. It would be better all round for everybody on the server. Players at 35+ shouldn't have to resort to chestnut farming anyway. Pots should be sustainable and at the minute they are far from it.
The problem itself isn't limited to just chestnut trees, in fact most bots have moved to serpent valley now and are farming mobs.
We are currently exploring other methods of deterring bots, we will keep you all posted.
limit connections from same IP to 3
limit connections from same PC to 1
this wouldnt work as people can use that mulitple windows mode (i forget the name)
lower value of chestnuts or allow only X chestnut tree kills x day x char
lowering the price of nuts wud create a massive wave and piss people off, and hey if u want to farm nuts all day to buy and item why shud u be capped on wat u get? lets face it its fukin depressing hunting chestnut trees lol
find simple solutions to make their lives difficult trying to avoid making genuine players life more difficult
every solution you find will be eventually by passed but if by passing it means getting too much stressed for just a few gold coins then it will be rendered worthless botting
