Curse

Bugeater · Dec 05, 2005, 10:40 PM // 22:40

How do you catch a botter? You have one person sitting in front of 20 screens that each have a bot running on it. From ANet's side they can't tell who's a palyer and who's a bot. They can whisper the person to see if they respond, but that's when the botter takes control and answers the whisper. And they can't suspend people on suspicion. How pissed would you be if you've been farming for a while and get an account ban because you look like a bot?

koneko · Dec 05, 2005, 10:47 PM // 22:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecirbaf

So I'm new to the game and my character has just arrived in Augury Rock yesterday.

And I noticed this funny thing : on the radar, an incessant deluge of light blue dots moving to the Prophet's Path exit !

Upon closer inspection I found they were 95% of the time monks.

Now seriously, this was a continuous stream of monks, monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks , NON STOP. And this happens everytime I go there (on Europe).

So I was just curious, what on earth are these monks doing ? Soloing ? Farming ?

Try switching to Augury International D1 :| Much worse.

Numa Pompilius · Dec 05, 2005, 10:58 PM // 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecirbaf

Now seriously, this was a continuous stream of monks, monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks monks , NON STOP. And this happens everytime I go there (on Europe).

It's the farming army. Chinese professional farmers, most of them running bots/scripts. Up until recently they were at augury rock intl district, but have recently descended on the EU servers. It's still not as many as it was in the heyday of the botting at the intl district, it's probably no more than 30-50 in the EU district, but there used to be 200+ in the intl district.

chippxero · Dec 05, 2005, 11:27 PM // 23:27

i didn't think china had guildwars yet.

Numa Pompilius · Dec 05, 2005, 11:32 PM // 23:32

GW hasn't been released in China yet, no. Nothing stops you from buying it somewhere else, though.

kimo the healer · Dec 05, 2005, 11:39 PM // 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius

It's the farming army. Chinese professional farmers, most of them running bots/scripts. Up until recently they were at augury rock intl district, but have recently descended on the EU servers. It's still not as many as it was in the heyday of the botting at the intl district, it's probably no more than 30-50 in the EU district, but there used to be 200+ in the intl district.

There's so many things wrong with this statement.

Numa Pompilius · Dec 06, 2005, 10:12 AM // 10:12

Yeah, everytime I mention the farming army people supporting botting & farming say that.
The rest can just go to Augury and have a look.

Longasc · Dec 06, 2005, 10:30 AM // 10:30

Yeah, they are now selling really good items, some for dumping prices. (EU districts)

And there is definitely a monk migration in augury rock, they run into the wall, turn, run into the next wall and then go in a straight line to the exit.

They are not only pro farmers, they also seem to have a pro script...

aron searle · Dec 06, 2005, 10:37 AM // 10:37

My personal view point is that you cant argue the exsitence of bots, simply how many of them there are?

And when you see lots of people run the same route just remember this. When i was farming that area i would myself get into a routine, 4 minute run / return to augery / sell / run to exit, quite often taking the same route as i did the last time, ant the time before that.......

I do belive there to be bots there, but that them taking the same path isnt enought evidence to use to guage their numbers.

Willy Rockwell · Dec 06, 2005, 12:30 PM // 12:30

This is the same topic we discussed last month in this thread

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...hlight=mystery

It includes a response from Gaile Gray.

aron searle · Dec 06, 2005, 12:54 PM // 12:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willy Rockwell

This is the same topic we discussed last month in this thread

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...hlight=mystery

It includes a response from Gaile Gray.

and it being brought up again says to me nothing has changed

Raptox · Dec 06, 2005, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by aron searle

and it being brought up again says to me nothing has changed

Well, here's the thing. ANet could, if they wanted, release little patchwork "solutions" to break these bots. However, the bots would undoubtedly mutate overnight to take these changes into account, and you end up with an arms race much like the AOL vs. Trillian crap from a few years ago. That stuff might still be going on today, but I digress...

Now, as long as the bots don't mutate, there's less chance of botters finding an "unbeatable" bot. Furthermore, if ANet were to make tiny changes over and over, I'm sure they'd have to put every little thing through their QA procedures. Soon they'd be swamped, which is just another victory for botters.

If what I'm reading about these "walk the line" monks is true, ANet might want to spend just a little bit of time in these districts (an hour here and there?) taking down names and banning accounts. Even that, though, might be a waste of time. I have a feeling ANet is probably working on something to detect bots running in the background. It's not an easy task from a programming perspective, and there are massive privacy issues to worry about, too. But that'd be why you haven't seen patchwork changes like "oh no a rock fell off a pillar in Augury right smack in the path of all these monks!"

Of course, from a business standpoint, it's in ANet's best interests to make botting and farming just possible enough that people still try to do it and yet still close down botting accounts as ast as possible. Highest possible revenue stream and all that. And yes, that is a very cynical point of view.

ecirbaf · Dec 06, 2005, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugeater

That's not what's worth farming. With a 55hp build, you can easily farm all the griffons and minotaurs. You'd get almost nothing from repeatedly killing a single devourer.

As I said if you read me, it can be a target for a simple SCRIPTED BOT. I am pretty darn sure it is. The bot may continue with the next group of minotaurs who always come running towards where the Rockshot Devourer appears.

I am a programmer myself, so while I dont agree with bots, I find it interesting too. And to make a bot that intelligently uses skills and can actually roam a map and adapt to a situation that's probably way more complicatedt han what the actual bots do.

Even in EQ or LineAge, to my knowledge, bots are always rather stupid, they are basically repeating a sequence of keystrokes. Because they are keystrokes, as such you can not really 'detect' a hack or something like that.

In Diablo II, bots didnt need any thinking, because with the correct build, you are almost 99.9% certain your Sorceress would not die, because of special items worn , maxed resists and such.

In this GW context, the first monster outside Augury for example is very predictable, Griffons are so easy, I guess they could be farmed by a script as well. But other monsters where you need any sort of intelligent timing would not work, unless they always used their skills at the exact moment from the start of the fight..

hidden_agenda · Dec 06, 2005, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTSFirebat

Anyone farming them damn wing Lions for more then a hour in the desert must think killing the same old monsters over and over again is fun, or they have nothing better to do with themselves.

Unless, of course, they are getting paid to do it...

Think about it -- if you lived in a country where the average annual wage is <1k USD, where the average population is outside, sweating their butts off to have enought to eat. Getting paid, as a 15-yr old kid, for $5 a day to farm for 8 hours in an air conditioned office must seem like a dream job.

There is an article on this from a while back...
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815

Yichi · Dec 06, 2005, 06:50 PM // 18:50

I love the monk circus at augry. Great deals on unid'd weapons and shields there. some of my best finds for weapons in the game (even all the weapons i currently use) have been bought from there

kai_razorwind · Dec 06, 2005, 09:02 PM // 21:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptox

If what I'm reading about these "walk the line" monks is true, ANet might want to spend just a little bit of time in these districts (an hour here and there?) taking down names and banning accounts. Even that, though, might be a waste of time. I have a feeling ANet is probably working on something to detect bots running in the background. It's not an easy task from a programming perspective, and there are massive privacy issues to worry about, too. But that'd be why you haven't seen patchwork changes like "oh no a rock fell off a pillar in Augury right smack in the path of all these monks!"

This has been suggested tons of times before, across all forums. Anet just doesnt do anything. They are aware all they have to do is go in there and ban people,they just wont. My best bet is that they wont because the game is about to launch in China, and they dont wanna ban potential costumers. Thats what Gaile's post in the other thread reflects... They may ruin ingame economy, flood our districts channels, but dont you dare tell arenanet ingame, or you mite be banned for discrimination..heh

Savio · Dec 07, 2005, 10:22 AM // 10:22

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=79338

Closed.