Bot pattern recognition.

dietlime

In Runescape Jagex set up some software that could sniff out bots by checking for movement patterns that repeated exactly. No player playing the game organically will ever follow exactly the same path over and over. They did it without warning and set it to permanently ban them, and after that there weren't many bots.

Also, they set it up so the camera just randomly drifts very slowly. This makes recording a macro path impossible because you can never account for it; even though it's far too subtle to notice during gameplay while you're playing. Any bot would need to actually "watch" the game, a much more challenging hack to design which is less reliable once implemented.

This is just one idea, I realize it's not easy to implement. Bots aren't negatively impacting the gameplay for me; though I have seen them. An automated solution is necessary.

Heishi

This is true. Bots are pretty easy to tell because primarily they run x distance, turn y degrees, run x distance, turn y degree, ect. until they make a complete circuit. I followed two bots with fairly normal names yesterday and ended up reporting them after following them for 2 or three precise circles. For this game specifically they are always templars using the spear move (as far as I've seen). They usually run in a group (or at least 2, though I have seen individual bots running circuits). Bots have made me hate the spear move even though it's a normal legitimate attack XD

YourNameHere

Yeah.

There is no way a normal human being could make a perfect 30 degrees from one node to another and know exactly where the next node is without being a bot or dev. It's impossible.

Too smooth. To perfect. And too ... mechanical.

Lowcash

Those bots were pretty useful in Forgotten Crypts. If you timed it just right, the marathon running bots would kill the big groups of undead for you! Also, the named baddies in most cases!

Hypertionb14_ESO

there are a LOT of ways to sniff out bots automatically, pattern watching dynamicly
so even if a botter makes a new path, if that path is repeated a good watch program will be able to identify that.

problem is this... ZOS didnt put anything in their inital release.... in the world of automation made easy a major release making this sort of oversight creates the perfect enviroment. and the result has proven to be true, you cant leave a online game without widespread automated anti-bot protocols.

by far its ESOs biggest failure atm. more so than the various glitches and bugs, this is a major security failure that reflects very badly on the publisher as well as the developers.

ebunts14_ESO

Well not requiring a static ip connection is also an issue. Botter can currently mask their real ip address when creating accounts.

dietlime

Hell, even traditional running-executable detection would be a start, silent delay bans on people running certain known bot programs on their computers- a la VAC would be a great strategy.

Bethesda as a publisher has zero experience with this issue.

Saerydoth

ebuntsb14_ESO wrote: »

Well not requiring a static ip connection is also an issue. Botter can currently mask their real ip address when creating accounts.

Um, the overwhelming vast majority of ISP's do not give you a static IP address unless you pay for a business-class connection. Static IP addresses are usually not available at all for normal residential service.

Also, using a VPN, tunnel, or proxy to play the game is not prohibited by the terms of use for any MMO that I know of. Quite a lot of legitimate players use these to reduce their latency.

dietlime

Yeah lol, I have no idea what he's talking about. You wouldn't be able to play on a laptop basically anywhere if static IP was a requirement.