IMC and other players have already said that Captha system became useless years ago, so at the moment we don’t have really a way to fight bots. Except to endlessly report them then pray that our prayers will be heard.
Most of the time our whises come true but only against the low level bots, it seems. Higher level bots who got fewer reports are still around and it’s pissing off the loyal reporters.
So here’s my idea and it’s come from Ktos.
Recently Ktos was able to apply a debuff on a player, that prevent him to get loot on a world boss. He had to stay logged to get the debuff off (until last week they changed it).
My idea is simple: cripple bot with debuffs!
This idea can be applied since IMC already done it on Ktos like I said above.
The goal is to discourage botters, that is not worth it to run a bot!
Example:
10 reports > the character become suspicious, the game will apply a debuff “SLOW” and remove Silver gain.
25 reports > the character become more then suspicious, he won’t get anymore loot.
50+ reports > the character has been indentified by the player base has toxic behavior, the game will not give him exp. AND system will send a message to GMs to get their attention at this suspect/toxic behavior.
All these debuffs will stay for X hours. The only way to not have anymore debuffs will be to go back to town and wait. Debuff won’t go away if you log out.
The first debuff is to cut the main income of Gold seller : virtual money “silver” from the game.
The second debuff is the same, without loot gold seller can’t sell at the market valuable items.
Third debuff is mainly to get personal IMC attention but seriously at this point, I will just summon the reaper and auto ban.
This system can be also uselfull against Afkers. Even if IMC doesn’t see them as being toxic for community, an AFK player specialy in dungeon handicap the whole group and may repeat the same bad behavior.
If I’m innocent, how can remove those debuffs ?
By paying in silver a high fee to remove them to an npc in town. But you can only remove 2 times the debuffs and it won’t put back at 0 your number of reports. Only the gms can clear your report tab OR if you didn’t get new reports after 2 weeks.
Can abuse been made ?
Yes, like any system but if a whole guild decide to gang up against a victim, that will be easy to investigate.
Still, that’s why IMC should choose an approriate amount of reports, just 5 reports for example will be easely abusable but getting 10+ people will be more difficult and won’t be unnoticed.
Also to prevent abuse, people can report only 1 time a character per week.
But why apply debuffs ?
Take these debuffs like warnings and discourage bad behavior in general. There is no instant ban with this system, since it the gms who will decide at the end.
The goal is to send the message “play fair or I will cut your income”.