Simple anti-botting suggestion

[The-Battalion]

I have been giving the botting question some thought - and the main problem is that whatever JM does to try and stop them, bot creators just find a way round it. So it will be an on-going battle - unless you can find some way of making it impossible for a program to get around the security mesure.

So here is my very simple idea : why not create a scroll just like a protector, you select the player an use the scroll, the player would then be "marked as a botter" by the scroll user. If everyone started to use them botters should end up being "marked" a lot more than legit players.

The scroll would have to have a long use delay, like 12 hours or so.

Probably only make it accessible from level 20+.

When a player cumulates a sufficient amount of "marks" over a given period of time the account is inspected by GM's or by some sort of security program.

Sure some idiots would use them on legit players but in the long term I think most known and hated botters would cumulate enough marks to make them a lot more suspicious than legit players. Anything user-base is a risk, but it seems simple enough to work no?

What do you think?

[Deadly EYez]

Sorry but it's kinda stupid.
I have a better one, To bot you have to change the sro_client.exe file
Just add some function to check if it's the original copy..
and they can do that with too many ways
Easiest one is check the modification date
It's different for sure.

[streetrobban]

Deadly EYez Well, dont you think there is an easy way to change the modification date so its like the original file? If they can make a bot for Silkroad I can image they can change the date too.

The-Battalion I think this is a good idea. But like you say, there will be too many people/lamers that use the scroll on legit players for various reasons (getting popped/KS or something).

[Deadly EYez]

Deadly EYez Well, dont you think there is an easy way to change the modification date so its like the original file? If they can make a bot for Silkroad I can image they can change the date too.

The-Battalion I think this is a good idea. But like you say, there will be too many people/lamers that use the scroll on legit players for various reasons (getting popped/KS or something).

If they made it server sided it will be way harder...
maybe will be slower to login the game..
everytime you login the server will check if there's any modification on the file..
even norton AV can check that.. and will alert you that the file is modified
they can check the size alot of other things
I am giving example there

[Vandango]

am i see seeing dajavu
im pretty sure this idea has been suggested before

[purified]

Its not a great idea, but its also a good idea, the bad side of the note is that what if some foolish kid goes around marking legit people and screwing around with it, but to fix that, if someone uses a scroll on you, there would be a confirmation box and you would have 30 seconds to click on it, and it cannot be used on stallers

[The-Battalion]

The thing is as soon as you start asking for a reaction you can program that. Sure kids will go around marking legits and poppers - but surely that would be a minority. And you could only use one every twelve hours... If you needed something like 250 marks in two days to be inspected it should stop legits becoming suspicious.

Serverside checks would by far be the best, but it requires a lot more programming than this suggestion.

[AlterEgos]

the scroll idea is pants, anyone could summon on anyone

Meaning anyone can get in trouble for maybe something they didn't do

[---Rev---]

The easiest way to stop botters is to have gms that are actually active on the servers. for instance a GM doesnt need to actually play the game in the sense that we do so they are free to look into botting alergations.
If you see what looks to be a bot you pm the GM the co-ordinates and they go and check it out. If they too think that the player is acting bot like then they can investigate further.
This service will obviusy be abussed by idiots and botters themselves reporting legits and just wasting the GMs time in general but it that is what it takes then surely it is worth it.

Having active GMs will also stop the global spamming that is often highly inappropriate and can be highly abusive and in some cases racist which shouldnt be allowed to take place. But isnt looked into by GMs even though they know it exists.

Granted this would need a at least 4 GMs for each server but surley it is worth it.

[MastaChiefX]

Want to know the best way to get rid of the botter problem?

Actually ban people.

For every 100 player bots(not gold bots), maybe 2 get banned.

An effective law is a law where either A)the punishment is so great that you arnt willing to risk it or B) you have a high enough chance of getting caught, that you dont want to risk it.

Joynax does neither.

[borat2]

your solution to the bot problem is to ban any gold buyer. cleaning real players bots will be a lot easier then.

just stop buying gold and you will see how fast this will be solved

[Nave47]

Enough with the suggestions, because your idea is stupid. Let JM handle things and you just continue in buying silk.


Other Big updates are being delayed because of these mini updates. So just stop it so they can work on more important things(Euro,9thdeg items, job update).

[MastaChiefX]

Enough with the suggestions, because your idea is stupid. Let JM handle things and you just continue in buying silk.


Other Big updates are being delayed because of these mini updates. So just stop it so they can work on more important things(Euro,9thdeg items, job update).

Id much rather have a good anti-bot system than Euro.
Euro isnt really that great.

[Spanktastik]

So just stop it so they can work on more important things(Euro,9thdeg items, job update).

Yeah! That way, people can bot the new Euro characters as well! </sarcasm>

I once heard a suggestion that I thought was rather nifty. First, youd have to make it so the protectors actually WORK... but then change them so instead of killing the bot just for him to come back 5 minutes later, make it so the protector TAKES AWAY xp by the damage (1000 damage = 1000 xp reduced). Also make it so it doesnt vanish until the attacker stops attacking.

And, of course, I agree with Masta... when caught, give them a punishment so bad itll make them think twice about botting. Or just ban them for once.

[MastaChiefX]

So just stop it so they can work on more important things(Euro,9thdeg items, job update).

Yeah! That way, people can bot the new Euro characters as well! </sarcasm>

Almost impossible.
HP/MP pot delay of 30 seconds.
People would have to bot on like blue to be able to be somewhat succesful.

[NuclearSilo]

Deadly EYez Well, dont you think there is an easy way to change the modification date so its like the original file? If they can make a bot for Silkroad I can image they can change the date too.

The-Battalion I think this is a good idea. But like you say, there will be too many people/lamers that use the scroll on legit players for various reasons (getting popped/KS or something).

If they made it server sided it will be way harder...
maybe will be slower to login the game..
everytime you login the server will check if there's any modification on the file..
even norton AV can check that.. and will alert you that the file is modified
they can check the size alot of other things
I am giving example there

Not work with packet bot.....

[StealMySoda]

Sorry but it's kinda stupid.
I have a better one, To bot you have to change the sro_client.exe file
Just add some function to check if it's the original copy..
and they can do that with too many ways
Easiest one is check the modification date
It's different for sure.

Its easy to cloak it, which is why gameguard didnt work. Many users from America's Army will know, punkbuster has alot of problems identifying modified game files.

[Ergonio]

people come up with complicated ideas.
here is one that will stop ALL botters, but it comes at a small sacrafice for normal players. (i will be more then happy to live with this tough)
you know the code verification for when you log-in right, they need to make that for when you want to repair your gear.
so every time you repair your gear, you have to fill in that verification box.
it's no big deal for me to do that manually since that only takes 30 seconds.
botters willl now only be able to bot till their weapon breaks. so it will be WAY less effective for them to bot.

[Rockshmo]

I'm sure a programmer could find a loophole in image verification for repairing items, as they've found one for logging in.

[Ergonio]

there are programs that can read those texts yes, there was this guy who showed on his website how he cracked almost all image verification checks.
but he also said that if they made it random enough in text size, text position, text color, italics/non italics, background mess. it can be made truely unreadable by software.

[EllisD]

Id much rather have a good anti-bot system than Euro.
Euro isnt really that great.

+1

From what ive seen, im not that impressed. Take care of the problems at hand first.

[HertogJan]

people come up with complicated ideas.
here is one that will stop ALL botters, but it comes at a small sacrafice for normal players. (i will be more then happy to live with this tough)
you know the code verification for when you log-in right, they need to make that for when you want to repair your gear.
so every time you repair your gear, you have to fill in that verification box.
it's no big deal for me to do that manually since that only takes 30 seconds.
botters willl now only be able to bot till their weapon breaks. so it will be WAY less effective for them to bot.

Figure this is the first good idear against botting in this topic.

For checking the client date;; If silkroad makes an update, the client updates also right? The bot update is coming out only a few hours later. So that would not be very usefull. Besides, gameguard checks the client. And the bot goes around gameguard.

[JordaNz]

I have been giving the botting question some thought - and the main problem is that whatever JM does to try and stop them, bot creators just find a way round it. So it will be an on-going battle - unless you can find some way of making it impossible for a program to get around the security mesure.

So here is my very simple idea : why not create a scroll just like a protector, you select the player an use the scroll, the player would then be "marked as a botter" by the scroll user. If everyone started to use them botters should end up being "marked" a lot more than legit players.

The scroll would have to have a long use delay, like 12 hours or so.

Probably only make it accessible from level 20+.

When a player cumulates a sufficient amount of "marks" over a given period of time the account is inspected by GM's or by some sort of security program.

Sure some idiots would use them on legit players but in the long term I think most known and hated botters would cumulate enough marks to make them a lot more suspicious than legit players. Anything user-base is a risk, but it seems simple enough to work no?

What do you think?

Doesn't matter. JM doesn't care about botters as long as they get money o_O

[RuYi]

If they didn't cared they wouldn't have banned em.
Or at least some.

[PsYch008]

If they didn't cared they wouldn't have banned em.
Or at least some.

ill let you in on a secret...you have to be l33t to read it tho....

they only ban goldbots.


RuYi is Teh Awesomeness!

[Ivanhaus]

Enough with the suggestions, because your idea is stupid. Let JM handle things and you just continue in buying silk.


Other Big updates are being delayed because of these mini updates. So just stop it so they can work on more important things(Euro,9thdeg items, job update).

personally I would rather get rid of the bots than improve game play at the cap where most of the bots are now. let them wait there and wallow while the legit players have a chance to catch up. I know there are some legit players at the cap that will suffer, but it might teach people to slow down and enjoy the game dynamics a bit.