Blyaunte

Frankly I think ^THIS^ is pretty much the answer I'm most willing to accept. :thumbsup:

So -- you would accept, say, the elimination of 25% of the bots (say ess miners and soceress's garden bots), a roll back of all their skills and no bannings whatsoever? That's "something" and not "nothing", right? :unsure:

Ok -- I LOL'd IRL ... :lol: But, here's a question for you (or anyone else who wants to answer it) -- at what level will you accept Clusterflutterer to be a "success"? Only if it manages to eliminate 98% of all bots AND these accounts and all correlated accounts are permanently banned? Are you willing to accept less and just appreciate the effort? :unsure:

Looks like much ado about nothing, to me ... :rolleyes:

I, for one, hope that this bot-nuking day comes off with unprecedented success. But I find this very hard to believe. First of all, they came out with a message that basically said they did not have a handle on the botting issue, and they wanted the community's assistance in coming up with ways to stop the bots. Then this was followed up with a stop-gap measure at the Frosties that was more of a hindrance to real players than it was to the bots. Not to mention that the bots had it entirely solved within 24 hours. Now they say that they've got this procedure ready to go into place on Tuesday that is going to eliminate 98% of all bots ... Ruh? Now, I realize that this isn't Andrew and Paul's Runescape anymore. They got left hands and right hands not know what each other are doing. But one would think that, somewhere along the line, it'd be someone's job to make sure that the message coming out of head office was, at least, consistent. Frankly, I find the timing of this whole thing to be somewhat circumspect, at best. Awfully convenient that this bold move of bot removal is going to happen a mere few days prior to Runefest, isn't it? :rolleyes: On top of all that, the fact that we're being given bonuses in "celebration" of the whole event, seems to me to be a lot more about bread and circuses, than it does about earnest and honest customer service ...

Okay - how about something along the lines of my "plague" idea? Commonly botted locations ("botting hot spots") like Frost Giants, Sorceress' Garden et al shall hereinafter cause a a player to contract a plague that will require the player to undertake certain (random) tasks? "You got the plague - speak to "X" about getting cured" -- hell it could even be like a Treasure Trail type thing. Otherwise they lose stats and eventually die within a certain amount of game time? Once dead they're removed from the game. /bots

You say that like it's a bad thing ... :rolleyes:

Back in 2005, there was an accidental plague that was launched as a result of some over-zealous players messing around with an in-game bug/glitch in WoW – it effectively killed off a (then) relatively large enough population within the game to make it a news-worthy event. At that time, somewhere on here – or it may have been on the RSOF – I had suggested that a possible way to combat bots would have been to establish a similar "plague" within the Runescape realm – one which would require a reasonably difficult quest, or series of quests, or combination of quests that would either make you invulnerable to the plague or cure it – either temporarily or permanently – provided that you undertook to complete certain other quests thereafter to remain invulnerable/cured. It wouldn't have to be just quests, either – it could be just about anything: tasks, combat/skill levels, etc. Those characters unable to solve the plague would perish and never return – an effective ban – while those that do, could be rewarded additionally in some other way. Depending on how fast-acting this plague was – it could effectively eliminate a certain percentage of bots, provided that the "cure" was sufficiently complicated that it could not, in and of itself, be "botted" in order to complete it. Furthermore, like a real life plague, if you tend to frequent certain spots (i.e. botting hot spots) continually, you will be re-infected, and be forced to undertake further action to re-cure yourself. You could forestall the inevitable reduction of your character by hitting certain "goal targets" within a certain amount of time – which would earn you a temporary cure – however, again, consistently frequenting the same spots will cause you to be re-infected and need to be cured again. In the meantime, during your plague-struck condition, you're an infection hazard to those around you – and you'd suffer from reduced stats (particularly those stats that, say, are generally used for specific "botting" accounts) ... :unsure:

It was interesting to note, last night -- while I was doing a nech's task in the slayer tower -- that the nech bots now seem to follow more of a pattern that they ever did before. It used to be that they attached a specific "spot" within a certain range -- monster spawns and boom, they all swarmed it. But now they have a definite pattern in which they roam all around each of the spawn zones within the room and, if the monster spawns and is open, they attack it. It's relatively easy to stand near one specific re-spawn spot and monopolize one nech for yourself, but forget about trying for a faster rate of attack, because with this roaming pattern, they will beat you to the nech available nech every time. <_<

Famous last words, anyone?

Hmmm - maybe their cunning plan was to make frost dragons so plentiful and frost bones so easy to get that frost bones will become practially worthless and bots won't go after them anymore? :rolleyes:

Wall of text reply:

Nailed it!

Wicked/Stev already suggested that approach a while back and I agree, it's what they should do. It's all very "to catch a thief", but such an approach is usually most successful. Anyone ever see the film "Catch Me If You Can?" it's based a the true story of the guy who, in the end, basically was responsible for setting up most of the security systems banks now use to avoid cheque fraud. :rolleyes:

... which says, really, two things: 1. The peeps over at Jagex appear to be even more out of touch with the game than we originally thought -- as was previously demonstrated by updates like the "Artisan's Workshop" and the "Charm Sprites" as Smithing and Summoning upgrades respectively. I suppose that one should give a nod to the effort made this time 'round on Jagex's part for attempting to "fix" a bot problem, the reality is that they've fixed nothing and broke it. 2. The peeps at Jagex don't really know how to combat bots. This "fix", in effect, no matter how temporary does nothing to amend the situation in any foreseeable way, except to force the bot makers to edit their scripts. It's not stopping the bots at all. Dunno -- maybe it is better that they're going to throw open the "war against bots" to the general public and see if anyone can come up with better ideas on how to get a handle on them. Maybe we need a GWB-esque type personality make a public announcement on the War on Bots ? (... if you're not with us, you're against us ...) :unsure:

... and gear? Should Jagex go the way of, say, Maple Story and make the game less grinding and allow people to buy cards that will allow them to "rent" better gear, et al? Do we want "rich kids" to better, stronger and faster than those who have worked for it? Which is one of the reasons why I, personally, being the unbound cynic that I am, looked at these recent comments issued from Jagex with a certain amount of skepticism. Yes bots are an issue. Yes they are ruining the game. But .. why not ban them? Okay so if you ban one bot two more come in its place. So what? Ban them too. Why just roll them back? Ban them. Keep banning them and don't stop banning them. To me it seems that this appeal to the Runescape faithful is more of a matter of Jagex trying to mitigate player dissatisfaction and possibly quell any potential for a real life riot that may occur at Runefest. Frankly I will be very interested to see what Jagex does about bots AFTER Runefest than any of the "lip service" they are providing right now. To me, it all looks like a bread and circuses scheme ... On the first quote: The idea Stormrage had was to make dedicated cheating servers - once you buy xp, items, or whatever, you can't go back. If you want to get your quest requirements without grinding, your extreme potions without work, your achievements without something to be proud of - go to the cheating server, be happy there(or not) but they won't be able to go back. If you intend to stay legit, compare yourself with legit players and just enjoy your time - you can still do that on the normal servers. Tbh, unless there is a method that can at least detect bots reliably for more than a few weeks at best - this is honestly the best suggestion I've seen about what to do on the issue. I can't say I really like it - but it's better than everythiing else I've heard. Ah yes - that's right. Ya know, in light of the recent developments, maybe this isn't at all a bad idea. "Cheaters Servers" is more or less a win-win any way you look at it. What's so hard about hitting the "ban" button? :unsure:

^This is the best answer^

Two teleports per day -- but a 101 ways to make use of them ... :-P

Personally, I have pinpointed that as the day that Runescape "jumped the shark" ... Hell – I even doubt the sincerity of their wanting to get us there ... ... and not to mention plagerized from J.K. Rowling ... :lol: ... and gear? Should Jagex go the way of, say, Maple Story – and make the game less grinding and allow people to buy cards that will allow them to "rent" better gear, et al? Do we want "rich kids" to better, stronger and faster than those who have worked for it? Which is one of the reasons why I, personally, being the unbound cynic that I am, looked at these recent comments issued from Jagex with a certain amount of skepticism. Yes – bots are an issue. Yes – they are ruining the game. But .. why not ban them? Okay – so if you ban one bot two more come in its place. So what? Ban them too. Why just roll them back? Ban them. Keep banning them and don't stop banning them. To me it seems that this appeal to the Runescape faithful is more of a matter of Jagex trying to mitigate player dissatisfaction and possibly quell any potential for a real life riot that may occur at Runefest. Frankly – I will be very interested to see what Jagex does about bots AFTER Runefest than any of the "lip service" they are providing right now. To me, it all looks like a bread and circuses scheme ...

Yeppers -- the hoodie has, literally, 101 uses it seems. Over all, it may be a game-changer in terms of the various uses that can be made of its teleporting abilities. So -- how soon before they nerf it? :unsure:

I dunno -- the rockin' Tee is pretty cute, too! :grin: The Wicked Hood is a pretty decent add-on and it looks rather useful. The two teleports per day can come in handy when penguin hunting and star hunting, as well as when Runecrafting. That said, as far as "Runecrafting" goes, it's not a game changer in the least. Still -- I like it ...

To be honest -- this is what I was HOPING they were going to do with "the Pit" when they announced it ... :unsure:

As a side-note - I was on w71 yesterday evening and I noticed that there were only a handful of bots were in Varrock gathering ess. Not sure if they did some kind of bot busting there or what happened. On the one hand, I was delighted to see that so few bots were there -- on the other hand, I have to wonder if all this recent "bot-busting" isn't merely just so much bread and circuses? :unsure:

Personally - I would have preferred it if they had introduced a variant in the setting in that area, that would capture bots and make them stand still -- then have someone there to scoop the bots as they failed to pass the variant. Then ban the bots. <_<

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? :lol: