Tree of Savior Forum

Suggestions for making the Best Anti-Bot for ToS

Suggestions
#1

(First of all sry for my bad English)
As many other players I am concerned about the possible bots for this game. We talked a lot about this topic but nobody proposes an antibot system since we assume that there is no such thing as the perfect antibot.

Well, for me you cant make it perfect, but you CAN kill the motivation for using bots. I will name some examples of measures that counter the effect of bots.
But first some basic rules about bots:
-Bots use multiple accounts with proxys and no way of detecting them.
-Bots do repetitive tasks. Kill, loot, sell, etc.

The best antibot is to attack the second statement. If you want to make the best anti-bot, just remove the act of repeating things to the infinite from the game.

Examples of counter measures:
1) If you kill X mob more than Y times, you will start getting less exp and loot. If you want to continue, you would need to defeat the Anti-bot (explained down below)
2)Remove repetitive quests.
3)Make some items have NO value on NPC vendors (so you are forced to trade them with players).
4)Limit the amount of sales on the auction house (market).

Some would be at this point bothering about measure 1. There is a way of removing the negative impact of this measure if you use an in-game anti bot npc.
In game Anti bot: an NPC should make the player use some logic in order to defeat him (bots cant do this). After completing this challenge an exp/res reward is given.

One GREAT example of this is the antibot from Wakfu. An NPC shows if you are gathering resourses and starts a duel with you. The NPC forces the player to select numbers around your player as the NPC shows around him. You should be wondering about how frustrating this NPC can be, but let me tell you that in Wakfu if you defeat this NPC you get a nice amount of resourses! If you lose, you will get a debuff that will reduce by 33% your future gathering for a long time (if you beat the NPC this debuff goes away). Yeah, an anti bot that players really want to fight! :smile:

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So, in the hypothetical case that someone wants to bot with all this measures:
-His bot will stop earning exp/items after a few minutes. His bot wont lvl up and low lvl bots dont work since they dont give profits. He wont be able to sell large amounts of crap in order to farm gold/zeny.

These are some suggestions, and Im sure these can be improved. I though of these suggestions to have no negative impact on real players. I would like to hear what you guys think about this.
Thumps up if you want to IMC to read this :+1:

EDIT: More anti bot measures as I read a bit.

  • Authenticate accounts in order to play after certain level. (A mobile app? desktop app?). Some games give bonuses if you log in using an authenticator.
  • Server/client side detection of automated behaviors.
6 Likes
Bot!? You got to be kidding
#2

anti bot program eh?

hmmm maybe hack shield that detects 3rd party program… nope scratch that, every gamer nowadays has macro capabilities in their i/o devices(gaming mouse/keyboard) =V so the actual anti bot program should be like the one OP mentioned, but the same time can be countered by the botters (mind u bots do improve over time =V)

-kill X mob more than y times-this is not good as for the people who grinds… “why i get less exp each time i kill the same mob? this is BS, i quit”
-inline with repetitive quest?(is it daily quest?) … dont remove that for i gather my exps there >:(
and dailies should be exp only.
-reaction for items to have no value when sell to npcs… wth men =V this is initialy the thing that most new players do to earn money… u gonna remove that? sheesh… probably later on when people have enough money to make TRADEs to other players… hows that?
-limiting the amount of sales in auctions… why would you want this? @_@" i mean… i want my all my gathered materials to sell in auction so i can farm again for them… then, limiting it? why? then i have to wait for my items to sell then i can resell them at AH… and wait like 10-15 hours just to repeat the process? =V im i againts it… it should be limitless!

well just my opinion though… nice post :thumbsup:

3 Likes
#3

I hope IMC have some creative ideas in mind to combat bots. I hate bots but I understand why ppl resort to botting especially with grindy games where you need to spend ages lvling or ages getting money. But it’s still not fair to ppl who play by the rules and don’t cheat.

I think having a team ready to respond fast to in game bot reports is important. And having a fast and easy ingame reporting system too. When I was noobie and poor in RO I use to camp areas with mushrooms and since they would spawn at a set time after you killed them, and they always came back to the same spot, I use to follow a repetitive path. A GM PM’d me to check I was a person >.<

GL IMC in the war against bots!

#4

I forgot to mention that the Mob kill limit should be extended if you defeat the antibot (similar to Wakfu system).

#5

I don’t like diminishing exp from grinding. I like grinding >.>

#6

hmm so i have to repeatedly kill the npc just to get and limit extension? sigh… i wouldnt play that game >_> but, players deffers from other players so… good luck IMC on bot hunting! i would prefer though a GM that monitors players from time to time! ganbare! :thumbsup:

#7

Well, in other games that have this kind of Anti-bot players actually like it. Since it grants resourses or exp bonuses its kind of a good thing. You can make it appear every hour or more if you have a good “succes ratio”. Every success should make the timer go up, but if you tend to fail (like a bot) it should appear every few minutes.

#8

but it debuffs you if u fail to defeat it(legit weak player @_@")… and players do abuse this kinds of things(strong, overpowerd high level hardcore god players)… it shouldnt give u incentives! its just to prevent player (non legit) to actualy use bots… more over, “bots” actually benefits from this as i have said “they learn over time”… bots can defeat them in terms of fighting… i sudjest more cognitive type of test like 2+2= somthing not 4… XD

#9

The NPC cant be damaged or deal damage, it just appears with a few boxes around it and you have to hit/step the same boxes. For example (applied to ToS) if the Anti bot appears and show 3 numbers, you should step on those numbers. Once you learn how to do it its super easy. Its friendly to all lvls, and dont worry, it should not appear during fights.

#10

oh… well that sounds neat… but ToSes gaming style defers to wakfu( i sudjest another type of anti-bot technique)… 99% i think i cant emulate what the npc is doing… somethings to consider!

  1. i cant see the tiles of the map from ToS (mainly, cntroller D-pad related… maybe like the old dance dance revolution thing were we follow several steps of the depad to emulate what the npc test is giving… then what about the mouse/keyboard controll? @_@" another story there)
  2. lag (T^T i live in a country with a crapy internet service provider)
  3. people who actualy dont care for botting( actual legit players who just lazy and grinding for the sake of leveling , they dont want to be interupted or just people lazying around the map then pop goes the npc… and the player is AFK (cigarettes break/drinks/food breaks)… then its GG …oh my… )

well, in other words… this is hard to implement =V

#11

The only 100% way to ban legitimate bots is to have a in game report button, if lets say a person get 5 reports for botting their account will be looked into for suspicious behavior, reporting should have other reasons to like Racial abuse or spam etc

2 Likes
#12

On F2P games reports dont work since Bot users can make multiple acc and the ToS staff cant handle hundreds of reports (possitive and false ones). It has to be something automated. There are other complex mechanisms to detect bots server side or even client side.

Instead of relying of player reports you can include on the client a tool to detect automated behaviors (yours and from other players) and that could help a lot, but still it doesnt solve the problem if you dont get to “see” bots.

#13

LoL is free to play and they use the same method as the one I mentioned as well as a automated method also, I’m not saying to use one or the other, a bit of both

2 Likes
#14

Well, reports work in a different way in LoL. Since there is no trade, the only thing you can do in LoL to farm IP is play custom games. And… wait for it… IP gain is limited in custom games :smiley: So there are no bots in LOL anymore.

#15

hmm well true… if the admins are active =V reporting could take like 1 week to 1 month to be aprove XD this can be adress from local server host… cause some of them dont actualy listen to their players or they listen but they have slow process from hunting bots down… and when they actually caught the perpetrator … he already earn the money,collected what he needed, had now 5-10 accounts he can use for botting again, so the account is not a loss to him >_<" this might actualy a big problem for ToS (not just from the ToS staff, but also for the legit players who earn money through hard labor)

#16

im surprised finding anyone beside me playing Wakfu here :flushed:
while the system in wakfu really work help cutting the bot, alas in wakfu the GM not working as intended fixing our problem. damn im getting oot, as for this article i really aggree with you that the game need integrated anti bot system with active GM to monitor it. You know that hacker really work to outsmart the system, either bypassing the server logic or the game flaws/bug. Or make a headhunting notice for active player if they saw anything suspicious character that move like a bot, and get rewarded from reporting it.

yeah, like what himself said…
Community can help cutting the bot too not just the GM, cheers!

#17

Well, the game has a record botton (as far as I know) so that can make things easier to report I guess.

#18

I thought stamina system is one of the anti-Bot system here?
getting warped to exclusive area to defeat bot killer is somewhat annoying for me. especially when we are doing party grinding.

maybe we could implement in-game flags system just like this forum do

#19

The notion of “being warped to an exclusive area” can be twisted in many favorable ways. The system can be made to warn you that you have 5 minutes to complete the anti bot challenge and also can be made in a way you complete it without warping to any place (maybe a popup, maybe some cells on your map, maybe write a message on your chat).

It can be made in a way that its actually a GOOD thing and not something annoying. As I stated before, the anti bot challenge could grant EXP bonuses or rewards. So yeah, when you get a challenge you will be glad to complete it! It also serves as a way to keep players in-game as they want to make best use of their boosts.

Im in favor of flags and reports, but some automated solution is needed first. If someone surpasses it, then players will help detecting those cases.

#20

as i said before the game does not suppose to reward you for completting the anti-bot program challenges/test… instead you are cleared from the status “might be a bot” to" legit player"

giving them prizes for this can become abusive, like “oh hey the npc appeared again” then players will eventually jumps on the npc instead the npc will get the attention of the bot (illegitimate-player) and arrest them. rinse, repeat, victory @_@"