psudomorph

Well, my sister always comments that the guy at the Varrock General Store is cute. :lol:

Archery only applies to bow/arrows/crossbows doesnt it? Ranged includes knives, cannons, darts, and who knows what could eventually be added. IMHO archery would be far too limited a description.

I'm thinking there would also be a pretty big security problem. Would-be hackers of Runescape are hindered by the fact that the game is run almost entirely from remote servers that they don't have access to. In order to play the game offline, the entire game code would have to exist on your computer somewhere, leaving all of Jagex's secrets exposed to anyone who cared to download and decomplile the program. The most powerful autoers in existence today are created through knowledge obtained from reverse-engineering the client, imagine if hackers had the entire game to work with! :ohnoes:

Quite simply because it would allow people to carry an infinate supply of health around with them wherever they went. PvP combat could go on for hours, and anyone with enough money could beat any monster in the game even with low levels.

Its not a suggestion, and should probably go in General, but yes it has been posted before. FYI: That picture is real, it was accessible for a short time by manipulation of the Knowledge Base URL (Qucikly blocked by Jagex once they realized that people knew).

Dare I even ask? :shock: Anyway... Sadly I'm seeing less and less that can be done about the problem the more I read here. I suppose there is one way to end the vast majority of autoers, but it would make a lot of people angry and lose Jagex a lot of business. Jagex could simply require people to provide real-world identification in order to create any accounts at all. F2P would remain free, but you would have to somehow prove your identity by giving them your credit card, confirming by mail, or some other method of tracking you down in real life. I think that would be the most extreme case, but it would at least prevent people from making autoers with impunity, as no cheater will ever want to give out their personal contact details. ...Although, even then I can see people creating hacksites for the sole purpose of stealing accounts to turn into autoers... #-o

They really are like a virus aren't they? They cannot be destroyed on an individual basis because they can be created much faster than they can be banned. It seems like the only way to destroy them is to change something in the environment that will kill them all at once, but it also seems like every time something like that happens, the virus just mutates into a more dangerous form. :x I really sympathize with Jagex. Autoers are a lot harder to kill than most people seem to think. :(

Wonderful idea. It also really fits in with Consturction's tendency to provide things that are interesting but have no real advantage in game. Its a shame that so few people seem to be actually reading the first post. :roll:

Why? :shock: I don't recall Falador or Varrock doing anything to offend each other to that extent during the quest.

Well thank you. :D I've seen some other people around here who seem to know how these things work, but I think most of them seem reluctant to try to explain it to non-programmers. Like I said, my knowledge is very limited compared to the people who actually write the programs, but I know enough from basic programming courses to at least have an idea of what they can do. That is interesting. Are those languages Code/packet manipulators, or color clickers? If its the former, then I wouldn't be at all surprised. Packet manipulation would be like having the answers written on your test, you wouldn't need any time to figure things out. The idea of stopping autoers from creating accounts as easily does have a lot of merit, and frankly I don't know why Jagex hasn't attempted something similar. It probably wouldn't use email, as Jagex seems to dislike how insecure email is, but I'm sure there are ways. I personally wouldn't vote for that. Like I mentioned earlier, death is not a great obstacle for most autoers. I'm almost certain this would hurt legitimate players more, as it would be almost like a guaranteed death to have the golem appear. I've seen that suggested before, and I think its a pretty good idea. It would definitely slow down the preparation process, and ideally the autoer might even be banned before they reached the appropriate levels. Like you said, it wouldn't be perfect, but I can definitely see Jagex using that strategy someday. EDIT: Some of them absolutely are, however there are also people who do it for fun, and companies that auto in various games in order to sell the resources for real life money.

I think the easiest thing to do would be to look at the timestamp of a recent post and then set a clock to match it.

To fight bots effectively you really have to understand how they work. My knowledge is obviously incomplete, but I will try to pass on what I know. There are three kinds of autos that I can tell you about: 1. Click Recorders: Originally designed to speed up tasks in the real world workplace, these macros record a series of clicks and then play them back endlessly. This is the simplest kind and the one most people are familiar with. (Sadly these are also the ones that most forum suggestions are designed to fight, meaning that most people's suggestions will not work on more advanced autoers) (Your suggestions seem to fall into this category, they would work on type 1, but not 2 or 3) They cannot adapt to new situations and thus can be stopped by anything from a random event to a simple closed door. For this reason, they are only used by people who have no clue what they are doing. Any autoer serious enough to be a threat to Runescape will have abandoned these long ago. 2. Color-clickers: These are capable of looking at the Runescape playing window and actually searching out objects based on colors, and sometimes shape. They are the second most effective, because they can respond to new situations. They can search for and click on closed doors, detect and run from random events, find and replace lost axe heads, and find their way through the world (autoers have been known to die to a random event, then automatically get their equipment replaced and walk back from Lumbridge to continue autoing!). The main weakness of these autoers is that while they can adapt to new situations, it takes them time. An autoer like this may stand still for a few seconds at frequent intervals while the software analyzes the screen and looks for its objective (This is most likely why random events so often strike people who stand still or get distracted reading the forums). Because they analyze the screen, they cannot be stopped just by making things random, things must happen randomly and fast. Think of all the most complex random events, from the mysterious box to prison pete, they all have you responding to fast moving things. Players must chase balloon animals, find a certain person among many constantly moving NPCs, or pick out shapes as they whiz by. Humans can do this, but a computer cannot analyze the screen fast enough. 3. Deobsfucators (I don't know the spelling) The most powerful type of autoer (to my knowledge). These autoers actually decompile the client and use a modified version of it that they control. Because they can read and send server packets, they are immune to most of the normal autoer-killers. They will see random events coming the instant they happen, never fail to find an item (be it an axe, tree, or fishing spot), and are unlikely to be stopped by any obstacle that other players can see (Maybe some random events are specially designed for them, but it is hard for me to imagine how). Sadly this form of autoer is virtually impossible for players to fight. Anything we players can see, they can also see. Anything our characters can do, they can also. Fighting this third type of autoer can only be done by Jagex themselves, by inserting small tricks and obstacles into the code itself to trip up the autoers. ======================== The point I am trying to make is that all of this must be taken into account when trying to fight autoers. Most people seem surprisingly unaware of what they are capable of, and we will never get anywhere if nobody realizes what we are dealing with. I hope I've been informative.

"Taskbar" That could work. You would have to find out which "timezone" the RS forums operate on, I've heard they are somewhat desynchronized from any real life timezone (Too lazy to find out for myself). I actually heard a Jagex Mod comment on this once, and they said it would be incredibly difficult (something about too many computers querying the server at once? Is there anybody around here who knows how online clocks work and can confirm that?). I personally don't think it would be all that hard, the forums already have something that shows the time a post is made, all they need is an applet that queries the server for the time when you log in, and then starts ticking. Heck one of us could probably program it ourselves and send the source code to Jagex. :lol:

Good idea, I imagine something like that would come in handy for the day they finally open the rest of the icelands to the north (At least I think there are more icelands for them to open). Who knows, maybe they're already planning something like that.

Exactly! That would make this whole argument moot. I had the same idea as I was reading this thread.

Lol I wonder if Andrew ever lays awake at night thinking to himself: "I've created a monster :shock:" :lol:

ya i would agree : I'm sure there are plenty of people whose computers wouldn't be able to handle a video recording program, or who don't have the inclination to figure out how to use them. I think there could be a market for this.

You could always just wait a few days for a guide to come out.

I personally wouldnt drop it. I've heard a lot of people complaining about the hours it takes to get them back from the abyssal monsters.

I think the problem there is that most anything can be used as a scam if you try hard enough and if the scammer and/or victims are stupid enough. Anything that involves potential danger can be deadly to people who refuse to be cautious. The only way to completely remove scammers would be to remove all potential for gain or loss anywhere in the game. The central determinant behind it all seem to me to be how foolish/dimwitted/careless the players can get, and I firmly believe that the average intelligence of the Runescape community will remain inversely proportional to the number of players coming from Miniclip, so long as Miniclip continues to host Runescape. In short: More Miniclippers = more noobishness (scammers, beggars, idiots, etc.) = worse community. Btw: I myself came here from Miniclip, and have good reasons for what I say, so don't think that I am merely flaming those people out of ignorance.

http://www.gimp.org/ A free image-manipulation alternative. It has a very high learning curve (for me at least), but it seems to be able to do everything photoshop can with a little bit of effort. BTW: Its real. The URL is from the Runescape website, and this isn't the first time a future update has been leaked through the Knowledge Base.

I personally really like not having to pretend the Internet doesn't exist. Watch this: "GOOGLE!" "Internet search engines can be used to answer your questions!" "Wikipedia is a good source of information, you can find it at http://www.wikipedia.org " "Go to RuneHQ or Tip.It. They have convenient guides that will save me having to give you a 20 minute explanation!" And just because I like saying it, I'll say it again: "GOOGLE!!!" Look, I haven't been banned yet! \ TipIt Forums are better by far.

Anyone who wants to try out the grapples can do so in Catherby. Get one of the new crossbows and a grapple, attach rope to the grapple, and weild it. There are two shortcuts. A one-way trip across ice mountain to taverly, and a tree that I believe you can grapple to get from the Water Obelisk island to the beach. While youre there, take the time to check out a major glitch at Harry's fishing shop before they fix it. :D EDIT: Grapple spots are highlighted on the World Map under "shortcut", a category that appears to include old agility shortcuts as well.

I'm not too worried. I do have my own kingdom after all! I could just go to Miscelania and raid the treasury to get back on my feet. Come to think of it, it might be cool if Runescape had some secret banks, cut off from the normal bank network, where you could keep some items in reserve safe from hackers or vindictive siblings and the like...

The only thing funnier would be if his parents had secretly keylogged the computer to keep an eye on his surfing habits and came across the conversation. (Yes, parents can keylog you to keep track of you, there is software specifically designed for the purpose) Very little chance of that, I know, but still its fun to dream... :lol: