Curse

Saint Scarlet · Mar 08, 2012, 12:27 PM // 12:27

I had an idea (not tech savvy enough to know if it would work) that due to the amount of bots rampant in JQ that there should be some easy way to stop them being able to enter it so easily. It has ruined the experience for alot of people for a number of years now.

So to the idea, what if instead of having the Enter Battle button initiate the clock, have a npc you have to talk to and in his dialogue he gives you a random emote you have to use to enable it to work. It could be either on a rng from all the possible emotes or on a selection for the day(would make it harder for the bots to just spam emotes(and would make it easier to for anet to spot them(laughs))).

Similar in a way, to the way you enter the mists(except the emote acts as the way to get the enter button dialogue up).

To me this is by far the easiest way to combat botting with minimum work,(again not really sure, but in my head it does seem it, as the process is already in game in a way) as i know the GW1 team is light on the team side of things so simple is better. Plus this would mean a minimum of extra hassle for normal human players.

Wild and crazy idea, would it work? Thoughts please.

HanSolo · Mar 08, 2012, 12:50 PM // 12:50

I'm all for anything to combat bots.

MithranArkanere · Mar 08, 2012, 12:58 PM // 12:58

It could be possible, but too awkward, and it doesn't work when bots enter areas, it would only work for missions.

Plus only in Nightfall and Eye of the North you talk to start missions.

Olle · Mar 08, 2012, 01:00 PM // 13:00

too much hassle for the players.

And yes, you are going to say that you dont agree and so on, but it is the truth.

place 1 dev in FA/JQ,go banhammer.

Id do it,i dont do much else but chatting in tha game anyways

Saint Scarlet · Mar 08, 2012, 02:14 PM // 14:14

I do agree it puts the burden more on the genuine players having to talk to guy and then type the emote, but other than this or the disabling v+space/c+space in the outposts(which just stops them getting all the faction as easy as they do) i cannot think of any simpler solution.
And i totally agree if they just sent a dev in to watch the PvP areas and known bot hotspots for a few hours a day it would decimate the bot population (especially if it was at random times) as they're so easy to spot. Player reporting doesn't work as there are some that get reported repeatedly but are around for months and months.

@Mithran - I was meaning in PvP mostly, but it could work for PvE missions too.
You speak to the dude (called mission/battle start guy), he says the code for today is to perform the /doubletake emote. So you do the emote and hey presto the Enter Battle button lights up and you can hit the Enter Battle button. But the text changes each time and you have to emote within 10secs or talk to him again.
He could be placed in any area where the Enter Battle button is required to start (or mission if you wish as well), the bots would still have to talk to him but unless they can read the text(this i'm not sure on as i'm not that tech savy), which is randomly generated they can only spam all the emotes til they hit the right one.

Spiritz · Mar 08, 2012, 02:40 PM // 14:40

I know many players would struggle with emotes - many of us have had many attempts on a nightfall mission against the mime and he does around 10 emotes in total you have to repeat - and he does randomly choose from all the available emotes.
Not everyone wants to learn all the emotes - most of them we will never use or have the need to use.
Im also sure that bots could probably be programmed to respond to emotes - remember as fast as anet does anti bot things the bots get adapted and usually each bot that gets dhuumed im sure another rises and replaces it.
Its sad to think that theres ppl who buy gw and have to use a bot to play it for them - makes you wonder if they are capable of doing anything without a bot ( wonder if they`ll get their bots to reply to that ).

Saint Scarlet · Mar 08, 2012, 02:51 PM // 14:51

Sorry for any confusion, but i meant the dialogue tells you which emote to use in green. So the guy wont perform the emote, you have to do the one he says so it's just a case of reading a single word then typing.

Shayne Hawke · Mar 08, 2012, 03:28 PM // 15:28

If interrupt bots can intercept when players activate skills in order to interrupt them efficiently and effectively, could they not just intercept the type of emote that the NPC uses and then execute it shortly afterwards?

Olle · Mar 08, 2012, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shayne Hawke

If interrupt bots can intercept when players activate skills in order to interrupt them efficiently and effectively, could they not just intercept the type of emote that the NPC uses and then execute it shortly afterwards?

Read the post above you

MithranArkanere · Mar 08, 2012, 07:22 PM // 19:22

Three letters: OCR.

Guild Wars' font is easily readable automatically.

Reverend Dr · Mar 08, 2012, 08:38 PM // 20:38

Bots can read text already. This is how they move around.

Like every other automated idea to deal with bots, it will not affect bots and instead inconvenience everyone else.

Premium Unleaded · Mar 08, 2012, 09:00 PM // 21:00

If anyone dealing with bots/etc just spent about a few hours in JQ over the span of a week, then this would be completely sorted for a decent period of time. It's obvious to distinguish who is a bot once you see them.

Mintha Syl · Mar 08, 2012, 10:20 PM // 22:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverend Dr

Bots can read text already. This is how they move around.

Like every other automated idea to deal with bots, it will not affect bots and instead inconvenience everyone else.

This, unluckily.
Ideas are good, but it's hard thinking something that bots can't really do and humans can.

makosi · Mar 08, 2012, 11:26 PM // 23:26

Despite what they say, the devs do not care about who is or isn't botting in FA/JQ anymore. Send a ticket with the time/date/IGN of offenders and the ban or suspension rate will be around 10%.

It's too time-consuming for them to do and their technology isn't good at detecting bots, or even leechers for that matter.

I also endorse any measures that restrict botting but I don't see it happening soon. Too much work for too few workers.

Vann Borakul · Mar 09, 2012, 12:01 AM // 00:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mintha Syl

This, unluckily.
Ideas are good, but it's hard thinking something that bots can't really do and humans can.

any fix you try to think of will be flawed because the game rewards you for being a mindless drone.

the situation is greatly helped with game design that requires logical proactiveness and mechanical depth (input-wise) to succeed. It's significantly harder to program a bot that thinks proactively.

Missing HB · Mar 09, 2012, 05:29 PM // 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vann Borakul

any fix you try to think of will be flawed because the game rewards you for being a mindless drone.

This. You know, there are infinite ways of finding solutions of this kind, the easiest way would be to just ban obvious forms of abuse in the game.. As they can't/don't want to do it, the remaining solution would be to make it better for normal players, but they don't want to neither...

How do we know there aren't bots in maguuma stadium all leaving from polish district? How do we know there aren't bots farming factions in GvG on 50 rating ? Obvious forms of abuse seen by any player( i.e ToA/Codex/HA/JQ) aren't fixed so...