Bots and Botting

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I don't see any way to prevent botting without hurting regular players.

I can think of a couple of ways, one in-game and one external.

Externally, have the game create a flag file with a fixed name in some fixed standard location when a player starts, with some kind of generated checksum value inside. If a file already exists with that name when the game is started, delete it.
Have the game check that the proper file is present with the correct checksum every so often (e.g., when particular items drop, or are sold, or when a creature is killed, or just randomly). If the file is not present and correct the game disconnects with an error.
result = 1 game per PC, no multiple games per machine. Shouldn't hamper real players at all, but will limit farmers. Sure, coders could script in automatic creation of the file and even stack each version and its checksum, but if they can't control what is checked when, no virtual farm can run for long as instances will keep crashing. That's the reason for using a regular location, e.g. My Documents, or c:\temp, to ensure multiple instances conflict.


Internally, track perhaps the last six areas used by a player since their last death, populating the list as they return to town [so sequential runs, crashes etc won't be affected]. If a player goes to an area he's already visited (say) three times or more from that list, then:

1) give them a little semi-random dialog at the town gate as one of the NPC's accosts them, asks them why they're going there so often, is something up - nothing complex but have the player select a response. And with answers worded somewhat differently each time so the player has to select the right ones to continue.
And maybe advise them that "the monsters there won't have much new treasure, you know..."

2) After that hint, drastically reduce the drop frequency in the area. Maybe remove consumables and rares completely. Even give them nothing but normal items until that area is out of their top ten.

Admittedly the second feature might annoy determined grinders, but most regular players shouldn't be deterred, or even notice. Reset the list after 24 hours, maybe, and that should appease people.
Thoughts? Worth suggesting to the dev team?

Hey Varana, your idea about the checksum file is not really going to work. It's very easy to buy a headless server, install and run several instances of Virtualbox or any other virtualization software. Install windows and the game client on all of them and let them run on their own. Since the game doesn't require a lot of resources, you won't even have to spend too much on the server hardware.

Your second idea might work, if you put a captcha or something, but it could annoy regular players that like to grind for gear.

There is no way to completely prevent botting without greatly limiting the gameplay for regular players. This has been proven again and again, from game to game. There is no way around it.
(Your second idea would be limiting for regular players).

When the biggest companies, with solid financial and technological backing are not able to do it, I dont see what makes you think that smaller companies can. I have worked in the industry for 8 years (gaming indistry, not farming industry :)), and as long as there is a market for it - people wanting to buy - there will be large scale botting. Even more so in F2P games.

You completely and utterly underestimate the commitment of botters (I am referring to gold farming companies specifically) if you think that any kind of small scale security system will prevent them from finding a way. The amount of money to be made from this is just to great to be passed up.

I am not sure what should be done. GGG would be fighting a struggle they cannot win, and it would mean they waste time that could otherwise be spent on improving the game. On the other hand, no one wants the botters to run amock.

PS: There are already POE items and currencies being sold on at least two of the gaming currency sites. This is 1 week into open beta.

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MonstaMunch wrote:

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WUlf1337 wrote:

botters bot for ebay and if you dont wanna buy stuff at ebay: Who cares?

People who don't want to be playing a P2W game care, and most people who play PoE fall into that category.

It appears we are already to the point of ptw if you look at stuff being sold on the net. I'd guess that the 3rd party sellers will find POE more profitable than D3.The resources cost nothing and they have a captured audience.

OK, if virtualisation covers everything on a fresh install, how about hardware - does the network card/chip still have a unique MAC ID? If so this could be used in the same way. Register it at install, associate it with a user, and if that physical address is used to try and create a fresh install, then when it comes in it kicks off the first user, or gets blocked by the first user and told to contact game support, whichever.

Doesn't work if the ID is non-unique, though, and it's been too long since I've worked in this arena. Windows license ID: do virtual servers all have the same one?

Meanwhile, even fairly addicted gamers shouldn't get too het up about not farming the same area more than 30% of the time, surely? Run a few different areas, or switch character until the cooldown expires, or something.

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Externally, have the game create a flag file with a fixed name in some fixed standard location when a player starts, with some kind of generated checksum value inside. If a file already exists with that name when the game is started, delete it.

It is trivial to emulate computers within computers. It's exactly what a virtual machine is, and a single computer can spawn many virtual machines.

It is one of the first precautions most botters take.

You can then attempt to use some sort of hardware identifiers, but then those can be spoofed as well. There is no legitimate security that can occur when the placement of it is on the user's physical machine.

I bot everything from wow , d3 you name it .
i bot for money and i sell stuff to peps cheaper . you should be happy bots exist :)
I will definitely bot poe if i will consider it worth my time . just a heads up :)

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Joshu1 wrote:

I bot everything from wow , d3 you name it .
i bot for money and i sell stuff to peps cheaper . you should be happy bots exist :)
I will definitely bot poe if i will consider it worth my time . just a heads up :)

You bot everthing. I'm with you...

You bot for money. I understand that.

We should be happy that you bot?

Happy that botters can single-handedly destroy an economy of a game? Fuck you.


And smart move declaring that you are going to bot.

bots will get banned, and d3 knew most of their base was botting, it was injection based botting and sending direct packets to emulate keystokes.

unless ggg is stupid, they'll be constantly checking for injections, moreover if injection based botting is not possible it simply won't be great for botters and most of them wont waste their time constantly dying etc.

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Joshu1 wrote:

I bot everything from wow , d3 you name it .
i bot for money and i sell stuff to peps cheaper . you should be happy bots exist :)
I will definitely bot poe if i will consider it worth my time . just a heads up :)

You should use those money to get some lessons on English grammar. What a pathetic existence.