Can see GMs having trouble identifying the smarter botters, like the ones using programs that make them look and act like real players. Saw a forum, where a guy bragged about having leveled 15 bots to Level 50 using such software, adding that his bots were nearly indiscernible from non-bots.

But the hacks that have harvesting bots underground and flying through the air should be a relatively simple matter for GMs: Create "no-go" triggers in the algorithm that automatically kills a character in such "no-go" areas (would help actual players endlessly falling through the world too).

Exactly why I stopped reporting Bots, four people in my one of my guilds got banned for reporting the bots, they got their accounts reinstated after a couple of days, but if that is the reward you get for helping ZoS, then no Thanks.

GreySix wrote: »

But the hacks that have harvesting bots underground and flying through the air should be a relatively simple matter for GMs: Create "no-go" triggers in the algorithm that automatically kills a character in such "no-go" areas (would help actual players endlessly falling through the world too).

to see the player fly thru air or just see head or nameplate below surface - we already know a players location

server software should be checking known xyz coordinates against the existing 3D modeling map (it's point locations). anything out of bounds would be flagged - 10-mins recorded - 3D timestamp made(picture - model made)

then you have proof and a way to review
then you do a auto suspension(sendng a email out -notifying it's a temp ban pending review) - and then flagged for review by staff - to make certain it's in breach - if the 10 mins of game play show botting, or illegal out of bounds play the suspension is kept

if you wish you don't have to suspend at all until review - but then the botters have extra time to harvest until suspension - if ZOS is slow(not enough staff) it could be days


this will avoid the people that fall thru the world getting permanent bans
=============

I should also add this check could be checking player travel time - teleporting and speed hacks
you know of last location (keep a 3d stamp)you know the make speed aplay van run on foot or horse - if they travel farther in a short time they are flagged and recorded

on a teleport - 3D model kept -and request - if you teleport to inappropriate spot
not defined by zeni you are flagged again and recorded again - review and possible ban

Just today from the Starved Plain. Might need to play this one a few times, it's 6s long and buffering can kill it. Watch for the leteporter to come in from the right side.
http://youtu.be/HfF6jAP56uQ
http://youtu.be/KM8wbsLsZ2k
http://youtu.be/F4walpef_us

Yeah....

GlassToTheArson wrote: »

Maybe this is why I can't find ANY Orichalcum ore in Shadowfen.

Yup, i need to make more armor but I cant find ore to make it(maybe find 1-2 an hour) so its either spend hours hunting ore or get my backside spanked

ban more bots = make more money ( cause you force them to buy new accounts )
dont ban bots = players ends up leaving and you make less money since no one will buy more game time and new players wont join due to an empty game.

So basicly ZOS, banning bots will be a really good buisness for you so...
START BANNING ALLREADY !!!!

There is an addon for fast reporting, it auto fills the name and remembers the last player you targeted... get it.

With it it takes 10s to report a bot as it also auto fills the exact location, coordinates, everything.

Its not effective as they keep making new ones but eventually they will run out of stolen CC`s.. hopefully.

What i am worried about is that they have no cheat detection so you can just buy a cheat and use it with no worry... that`s why they can`t auto detect and ban the bots going through the map.

If they could they could just make it so if a character has a number of violations(say 5) per day, as in 5 times they went through the map, they would get automatically banned. Its very unlikely legit players fall 5 times through the map by mistake, they can even up the number to 7 or 10 as bots do it 1 time per minute as they just move to the next harvesting node in a line, passing through everything.

So if you can ZENIMAX, do it... no legit player will fall through the map 10 times a day to trigger the detection.

Sakiri wrote: »

snigernissen wrote: »

ban more bots = make more money ( cause you force them to buy new accounts )
dont ban bots = players ends up leaving and you make less money since no one will buy more game time and new players wont join due to an empty game.

So basicly ZOS, banning bots will be a really good buisness for you so...
START BANNING ALLREADY !!!!

Make money? How about lose money. They dont make anything off fraudulent purchases. You think these guys are legitimately buying accounts? Pffft

I wonder if, part of the reason we've seen so many bots, is because, with the Target breach, there's just more compromised cards out there for the goldsellers to draw upon.

The bots made their own subway system how fascinating

Sakiri wrote: »

No idea. Most of them use cards from stolen databases and others use the cards of former customers.

In wow they just use brute forced accounts. People like to use the same email and pw to sign up for fansites and stuff with their battle.net email and wow pw apparently.

Sell off everything, strip it nekkid, use the account as an advertiser. No need to buy accounts nor bot that way.

Not to quibble too much. The fansite thing isn't brute forcing.

When you brute force a password, you just go through every possible combination until one works.

Accessing a fansite is... borderline social engineering. What they'll do is either get a site that will sell it's data (these do exist sadly) or a site that's been hacked and had it's user database lifted out. They'll crack the password encryption... if there is any. I've actually seen a few sites over the years that don't even bother to encrypt your password. This is usually easier to break all the passwords at once, you can look up the methods if you're actually curious. Then they have access to the account, which they will strip and dump.

The issue is, as soon as the player contacts customer support over the issue, the goldsellers are on a timetable, so compromised player accounts aren't the preferred method for actually generating gold. It's an internet smash and grab job.

With the bots, their accounts are usually purchased using compromised credit card data. The entire point is to use those cards to generate as much real money as they can before the compromised card gets shut down. This is a little like laundering. They have fake money and they want to get real money with it.

Sometimes they'll use their own, former, customer's cards, since that's cheapest. But, at the moment, with the Target breach slowly slipping away, there are a lot of compromised credit cards out there. So it's entirely possible the goldsellers bought a couple million cards, and are working their way through them for this.

If you actually want more info on all of this, Brian Krebs has written a lot about online fraud.

Well according to ZOS they have a solution for bots coming out soon.

The first MMO I ever saw bots so blatantly out in the open was Lineage II. Unlike here, you could flag for PvP and remove them from play on a more satisfying level. That was years ago and now, even the bots have abandoned L2.

Sakiri wrote: »

Tired of trying to report them.

Tired of spending 10 minutes before laying daily to report the gold spam emails I get in game.

I get those solely for talking in zone chat.

Oh is that why they come!

Damn. I like talking in zone chat...