Brainstorming Session: Elminating autoers from coming back

[Olbritishchap]

autoers are a major problem, the other day i saw a guy on the forums selling 200k lobsters. i thought that was a bit suspicious, so i look up the guy, and he's not ranked in anything. if jagex cannot catch someone autoing 200k lobsters, they really need to find new ways to catch autoers. too bad i can't think of any #-o . but your ideas are really good :thumbsup:

[Artificial_Doom_Flavor]

I like the suggestion of a new one-time-only random event every week, as well: I think this would be the most effective solution to the macroing problem as it requires the player to be at the computer and ready to handle it as soon as possible.

 

 

 

I'd like to add that if the player fails to address the random event properly, a flag is sent up to JaGeX along with information on the player's name, stats, bank, held items, and default clothes. Certain combinations should result in an automatic ban (such as level 3 with high woodcutting, default skin, 3k+ yews in bank) while others could result in as little as teleporting the player (for instance, level 50 with no significant banked items and low stats will be sent to the wizard tower for no particular reason).

 

 

 

This random event should not interrupt combat or Duel Arena users, but will interrupt EVERYTHING else, from shopgoers to book-readers to stair-climbers to banking users. Unless the player is in the Wilderness or other combat areas, their ability to log out will be locked.

 

 

 

Ban suggestions will be sorted by priority: Banked items, low combat level (20-) and skill level concentrations (such as 10- stats in all skills but woodcutting) take the topmost tier.

 

 

 

Legitimate players who are logged out during the issuance of the random event will answer it when they log back in.

 

 

 

In order to ensure that all players are issued the event at least once, the same random event will be given three times in one day and a different one issued at three random times on a random day of the next week.

 

 

 

Advantages:

 

a. Fast detection of macroers

 

b. Macro writers will not be able to keep up with the sudden appearance of such events

 

c. Bans large number of macroers in a very short time

 

d. Bans shop macroers, who are responsible for a continually inflated cost of death and chaos runes

 

e. Regardless of ban success, will hugely interrupt the macroing operation until a solution is coded

 

f. Macroers are logged in almost 24-7; this means that most legitimate players will not be adversely affected by random events during the issuance.

 

g. A weekly random event will have cumulative effects on bots: those that are logged out for one set of events may be caught by the next.

 

 

 

Disadvantages:

 

a. Coding a new random event every week would be stressful and costly

 

b. Can result in banning of innocent skillers

 

c. Can result in the ban of non-english-speaking players

 

d. Floods JaGeX with data, a large part of which may be useless

 

e. May disrupt the economy

 

f. It is critical that the event be issued simultaneously to all online players

 

g. This system is going to be difficult to implement

[Artificial_Doom_Flavor]

Here, from page 1:

 

 

 

I like the suggestion of a new one-time-only random event every week, as well: I think this would be the most effective solution to the macroing problem as it requires the player to be at the computer and ready to handle it as soon as possible.

 

 

 

I'd like to add that if the player fails to address the random event properly, a flag is sent up to JaGeX along with information on the player's name, stats, bank, held items, and default clothes. Certain combinations should result in an automatic ban (such as level 3 with high woodcutting, default skin, 3k+ yews in bank) while others could result in as little as teleporting the player (for instance, level 50 with no significant banked items and low stats will be sent to the wizard tower for no particular reason).

 

 

 

This random event should not interrupt combat or Duel Arena users, but will interrupt EVERYTHING else, from shopgoers to book-readers to stair-climbers to banking users. Unless the player is in the Wilderness or other combat areas, their ability to log out will be locked.

 

 

 

Ban suggestions will be sorted by priority: Banked items, low combat level (20-) and skill level concentrations (such as 10- stats in all skills but woodcutting) take the topmost tier.

 

 

 

Legitimate players who are logged out during the issuance of the random event will answer it when they log back in.

 

 

 

In order to ensure that all players are issued such an event at least once, the same random event will be given three times in one day and a different one issued at three random times on a random day of the next week.

 

 

 

As a last measure of defense, data of all players with similar names to a flagged one will be considered as well (for instance, ooolll70, ooolll60, etc.)

 

 

 

Advantages:

 

a. Fast detection of macroers

 

b. Macro writers will not be able to keep up with the sudden appearance of such events

 

c. Bans large number of macroers in a very short time

 

d. Bans shop macroers, who are responsible for a continually inflated cost of death and chaos runes

 

e. Regardless of ban success, will hugely interrupt the macroing operation until a solution is coded

 

f. Macroers are logged in almost 24-7; this means that most legitimate players will not be adversely affected by random events during the issuance.

 

g. A weekly random event will have cumulative effects on bots: those that are logged out for one set of events may be caught by the next.

 

 

 

Disadvantages:

 

a. Coding a new random event every week would be stressful and costly

 

b. Can result in banning of innocent skillers

 

c. Can result in the ban of non-english-speaking players

 

d. Floods JaGeX with data, a large part of which may be useless

 

e. May disrupt the economy

 

f. It is critical that the event be issued simultaneously to all online players

 

g. This system is going to be difficult to implement

[alcoolj]

Assumed Statement by Me: The majority of autoer/macroers in RS are yew woodcutters using bronze-iron axes.

 

 

 

Simple solution: Make the trees require the use of a more appropriate axe. i.e. rune axe for yews. I realise that skillers will throw up their arms BUT Jagex could allow a skiller with less than 40 attack to wield an axe for the purpose of cutting trees, they just wouldn't be able to use it in combat.

 

 

 

Autoers are not likely to stock up on 20 or so rune axes only to have them banned regularly. If Jagex can wipe out the tree autoer quicker than they can make a decent profit over and above the rune axe losses, they will dissappear.

[glasscube]

The problem with Runescapes Macro problem is not banning them, but the mitigation of it. Runescapes way to mitigate the problem doesn't help, and will never help. Until Jagex can think of a way to successfully mitigate the problem, more will just recreate their accounts after being banned.

 

 

 

Assumed Statement by Me: The majority of autoer/macroers in RS are yew woodcutters using bronze-iron axes.

 

 

 

Simple solution: Make the trees require the use of a more appropriate axe. i.e. rune axe for yews. I realise that skillers will throw up their arms BUT Jagex could allow a skiller with less than 40 attack to wield an axe for the purpose of cutting trees, they just wouldn't be able to use it in combat.

 

 

 

Autoers are not likely to stock up on 20 or so rune axes only to have them banned regularly. If Jagex can wipe out the tree autoer quicker than they can make a decent profit over and above the rune axe losses, they will dissappear.

This doesn't help anyone. Its very easy for a bot to find a broken axe head. For a macro, it gets a little harder but its very possible. Also no one is going to profit from autoers buying 100 rune hachets and then getting banned, theres waaaay to many in the market.

[Iamdan]

I like the suggestion of a new one-time-only random event every week, as well: I think this would be the most effective solution to the macroing problem as it requires the player to be at the computer and ready to handle it as soon as possible.

 

 

 

I'd like to add that if the player fails to address the random event properly, a flag is sent up to JaGeX along with information on the player's name, stats, bank, held items, and default clothes. Certain combinations should result in an automatic ban (such as level 3 with high woodcutting, default skin, 3k+ yews in bank) while others could result in as little as teleporting the player (for instance, level 50 with no significant banked items and low stats will be sent to the wizard tower for no particular reason).

 

 

 

This random event should not interrupt combat or Duel Arena users, but will interrupt EVERYTHING else, from shopgoers to book-readers to stair-climbers to banking users. Unless the player is in the Wilderness or other combat areas, their ability to log out will be locked.

 

 

 

Ban suggestions will be sorted by priority: Banked items, low combat level (20-) and skill level concentrations (such as 10- stats in all skills but woodcutting) take the topmost tier.

 

 

 

Legitimate players who are logged out during the issuance of the random event will answer it when they log back in.

 

 

 

In order to ensure that all players are issued the event at least once, the same random event will be given three times in one day and a different one issued at three random times on a random day of the next week.

 

 

 

Advantages:

 

a. Fast detection of macroers

 

b. Macro writers will not be able to keep up with the sudden appearance of such events

 

c. Bans large number of macroers in a very short time

 

d. Bans shop macroers, who are responsible for a continually inflated cost of death and chaos runes

 

e. Regardless of ban success, will hugely interrupt the macroing operation until a solution is coded

 

f. Macroers are logged in almost 24-7; this means that most legitimate players will not be adversely affected by random events during the issuance.

 

g. A weekly random event will have cumulative effects on bots: those that are logged out for one set of events may be caught by the next.

 

 

 

Disadvantages:

 

a. Coding a new random event every week would be stressful and costly

 

b. Can result in banning of innocent skillers

 

c. Can result in the ban of non-english-speaking players

 

d. Floods JaGeX with data, a large part of which may be useless

 

e. May disrupt the economy

 

f. It is critical that the event be issued simultaneously to all online players

 

g. This system is going to be difficult to implement

 

 

 

I'm not sure why you double posted, but that idea won't work.

 

 

 

Simply because no matter what the random will be, there will be some sort of constant. Even if the constant is that the macro gets lost and It has no procedures to deal with what is happening. When this happens it will log out and switch to the next account. Once all the accounts are at the random and logged out, whoever is macroing will log in on each of them and do the random manually then continue to macro.

 

 

 

Also, Jagex is going to run out of ideas for random events. You try and think of 52 unique random events.

 

 

 

Anyway, Jagex wouldn't make a unique random for every week because of the work it will take.

[blouinator]

great ideas! i love them!

[Skill_Caster]

I haven't read through the topic completely, so I'm not sure if this was submitted, but I was just randomly thinking today for an excellent idea to stop autoers from even signing up.

 

 

 

The CAPTCHA system, which is a randomly generated image on sign-up where the user is asked to confirm the letters/numbers in the image could be added to the RS make account section. This wouldn't completely get rid of autoers, but cut off any use of the auto-make-account problem.

[Iamdan]

I haven't read through the topic completely, so I'm not sure if this was submitted, but I was just randomly thinking today for an excellent idea to stop autoers from even signing up.

 

 

 

The CAPTCHA system, which is a randomly generated image on sign-up where the user is asked to confirm the letters/numbers in the image could be added to the RS make account section. This wouldn't completely get rid of autoers, but cut off any use of the auto-make-account problem.

 

 

 

Won't work. Google OCR

[Skill_Caster]

I haven't read through the topic completely, so I'm not sure if this was submitted, but I was just randomly thinking today for an excellent idea to stop autoers from even signing up.

 

 

 

The CAPTCHA system, which is a randomly generated image on sign-up where the user is asked to confirm the letters/numbers in the image could be added to the RS make account section. This wouldn't completely get rid of autoers, but cut off any use of the auto-make-account problem.

 

 

 

Won't work. Google OCR

 

 

 

I did, I know about that, however, CAPTCHA uses whats called 'static' to create various lines and marks on the image, making it so hard to crack. Jagex could set the x and y-axis static levels on the CAPTCHA to like 1000000 and lets see any autoer try to crack that 0_0.

[Iamdan]

If the letters are too distorted then all the morons who play won't be able to do it. I searched CAPTCHA in Google images and I didn't see anything an OCR couldn't solve.

 

 

 

An OCR could be made that separates each letter, removes the lines and reads the letter. At least one of the OCR's made in classic for the fatigue system did that.

[kylacb1]

For members I would ban not only the I.P. address but the credit cards too with the name of the person also. That way he/she will have a harder time getting a new membership.

[Iamdan]

For members I would ban not only the I.P. address but the credit cards too with the name of the person also. That way he/she will have a harder time getting a new membership.

 

 

 

A large number of macroers buy membership off others with gp.

[newge4]

Heres a simple idea that I'm sure would be unpopular:

 

 

 

make higher lvl trees/ores/fish harvestable only by higher lvl equiptment that would have to be weilded ; i.e. yews could only be cut by a rune axe and you'd have to be lvl 40 to use it. Skillers may hate it, but it would get rid of a lot of autoers.

[malo2]

I'm not sure why you double posted, but that idea won't work.

 

 

 

Simply because no matter what the random will be, there will be some sort of constant. Even if the constant is that the macro gets lost and It has no procedures to deal with what is happening. When this happens it will log out and switch to the next account. Once all the accounts are at the random and logged out, whoever is macroing will log in on each of them and do the random manually then continue to macro.

 

 

 

Also, Jagex is going to run out of ideas for random events. You try and think of 52 unique random events.

 

 

 

Anyway, Jagex wouldn't make a unique random for every week because of the work it will take.

Well first off, I don't know if you have noticed or not, but you cant avoid random events by logging out, I have tired.

 

 

 

Secondly, you don't need 52 random events, you can make 15 and rotate them for a year. Nobody will want to make 15 new codes for the macros to evade the events. Plus, most random events are too complex for a simple macro to solve.

[Anthony8150]

I think the way to do this is to make people have to do a bunch of quests to cut yews, catch lobbies and tuna, mine coal, etc.

 

 

 

And those quests would take high combat lv's.

 

 

I think Jagex should make people have to do quest that do not require a combat level, but will require time, in order to cut yews/willows, catch lobbies/swordfish, mine coal/iron, etc.

 

I highly doubt autoers would spend 5 hours on multiple quests just to cut yew trees, then find their account banned the following week.

[Iamdan]

Well first off, I don't know if you have noticed or not, but you cant avoid random events by logging out, I have tired.

 

 

 

Umm

 

 

 

Once all the accounts are at the random and logged out, whoever is macroing will log in on each of them and do the random manually then continue to macro.

 

 

 

Secondly, you don't need 52 random events, you can make 15 and rotate them for a year. Nobody will want to make 15 new codes for the macros to evade the events. Plus, most random events are too complex for a simple macro to solve.

 

 

 

Think again. Most anti randoms are fairly easy to solve, especially with client hacked macros. Why wouldn't anybody make 15 random events? There are many versions of every random event in many languages made by many different people for the randoms we have currently, why not another 15?

 

 

 

Even if nobody does make anti randoms, my first point stands. They will log off, then the person macroing just has to log in on each of them and solve the random, the macro for another week.

[Artificial_Doom_Flavor]

Also, Jagex is going to run out of ideas for random events. You try and think of 52 unique random events.

 

 

 

Anyway, Jagex wouldn't make a unique random for every week because of the work it will take.

 

 

 

These random events need not be complex. They can be as simple as a pop-up window asking about item types. That keeps it simple and fairly convenient for the normal players.

 

 

 

Well first off, I don't know if you have noticed or not, but you cant avoid random events by logging out, I have tired.

 

 

 

Umm

 

 

 

Once all the accounts are at the random and logged out, whoever is macroing will log in on each of them and do the random manually then continue to macro.

 

 

 

Secondly, you don't need 52 random events, you can make 15 and rotate them for a year. Nobody will want to make 15 new codes for the macros to evade the events. Plus, most random events are too complex for a simple macro to solve.

 

 

 

Think again. Most anti randoms are fairly easy to solve, especially with client hacked macros. Why wouldn't anybody make 15 random events? There are many versions of every random event in many languages made by many different people for the randoms we have currently, why not another 15?

 

 

 

Even if nobody does make anti randoms, my first point stands. They will log off, then the person macroing just has to log in on each of them and solve the random, the macro for another week.

 

 

 

Like I said, this random event (emphasis on random here; the macroer has no way of knowing when it will strike) would lock the player's ability to log out. Between a macroing PC and a real, player-controlled PC, there would be a significant difference in the time it would take for the random to be solved. This in itself could be an indicator. Additionally, a random being solved simultaneously on all of a macroer's accounts through a specific set of input commands would be extremely easy to detect.

[salim123]

for idea 2

 

jagex could implament a delete account button (must know pass, recovs and everything) and takes 2 weeks to delete

[spikerkid]

Tbh I think they should make a quest and the reward is that your able to fish lobs/swordfish, mine coal+, and chop yews. Make it a long pointless quest with level 10ish monsters around the next person you talk to. So that autoers couldn't program it without dying and that the pure skillers could just eat food to finish it.

[Riqualyn]

As not nice as it is, the only way to really stop them would be just to setup a cluster of Asian-only servers and block access from all Asian countries to the rest of the servers. Sucks for people there who would have to deal with it, but its something they're going to have to deal with as time goes on and more and more MMO's do the same.

[Inheritanceaholic]

Getting rid of autoers could be simple matter of not giving them a reason to auto. If we can stop real world trading, buying from autoers and other methods of indirectly letting them benefit, then they'll stop. We have to put limits on what we can and can't do. Boycott buying wares from potential autoers, don't real world trade, DON'T BREAK THE RULES! :shame: If we can do that we can begin to limit autoer activity to a minimum. :pray:

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

I've read through (or at least attempted to read through) all of the suggestions to date in this thread, and it seems that they follow the same schema of random event, skill requirement, random event. Unfortunately, these effects would also be global us all players, and I don't know about you, but I'm really tired of seeing the Sandwich Lady. If they don't make her an attackable NPC then I don't want to see her ever again.

 

 

 

I digress. I propose a handful of suggestions that could potentially bring a stop to autoers globally.

 

 

 

The first suggestion comes as a major stave off in regards to Members, with its own set of bonuses and caveats:

 

 

 

Impose an ingame requirement of either total time ingame (either 40-160 hours or 30 days ingame) or total level skill (200-450), before being granted permission to join members.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]Right off the bat, numerous level 3s would not be permitted to collect the bulk of members' resources due to them not immediately meeting the requirement of becoming a member.

 

 

 

Cons:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]This could very well hamper skill pures to the degree of not even being able to come over to members.
   
  [*:381j0q9d]It could also hamper pures from other players (with higher leveled accounts) from granting their pures membership.
   
  [*:381j0q9d]Legitimate level 3 players or players that don't feel like dealing with freeplay would be left in the dust.
   
  [*:381j0q9d]Major revenue drop for Jagex, they'd be less inclined to consider this.

 

 

 

Realizing that the above suggestion wouldn't be a quick fix (more like a matter that would be fiercely debated within the Rants sections of the RSOF and what-not), but it could very well be a solution without having to add new randoms.

 

 

 

The next suggestion is this:

 

 

 

Place extra quest requirements in certain resource-gathering areas of freeplay to reduce their accessibility.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]A sharp drop in certain resource gathering spots would be noted, i.e. Yews, Lobsters, etc.

 

 

 

Cons:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]Wouldn't truly affect Runecrafting due to a quest requirement already in place.

 

 

 

Certain skillers on freeplay would also notice a limit of gathering resources as well, and that could very well be a con.

 

 

 

My final suggestion is aimed strictly at mining:

 

 

 

Require an equivalent smithing level to mine a particular rock (when you can smith Steel, would also be when you could mine Coal), OR require at least that Knights' Sword and Doric's Quest be completed to mine coal and above. For Runecrafting, impose a certain Runecrafting level to be permitted to mine essence at (for instance, permit only enough essence to be mined to level to a certain point on freeplay) This level cap would increase as time passed.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]It would force players to have the skill of working with the material that they are actually harvesting.

 

 

 

Cons:

 

 

 

• [*:381j0q9d]May hinder legitimate players from leveling Smithing in an effective manner.

 

 

 

Well there you have it. I don't think that these suggestions would be a quick fix, nor do I think that it could be done at the drop of the hat. What others must also realize is that this 'battle' against autoers is not nearly as clairvoyant as it seems on the surface; there are many needless levels of complication, legal issues and socio-economical barriers that must be overcome (there IS a reason that people in 3rd world countries do this...it's to put food on the table).

[PastyGangsta]

Undercover mods... you know you want them. :D

 

 

 

Jagex should make a new department in Jagex Towers that is devoted to downloading bot programs off the internet. This way they can break open the bot and figure out its problems and ways to stop it. But since most sites that offer autoing programs are just viruses they would be downloaded to a seperate server that you can only get into if you work in the department. This would keep a virus from getting into the real important RS servers and destroying them from within (obviously a bad thing...).

 

 

 

This would be costly but it would save the game in the long run.

 

 

 

 

The 2nd idea mentioned above is Copyright 2007 by The PastyGangsta, All Rights Reserved.

[Anthony8150]

I think Jagex should make people have to do quest that do not require a combat level, but will require time, in order to cut yews/willows, catch lobbies/swordfish, mine coal/iron, etc.

 

I highly doubt autoers would spend 5 hours on multiple quests just to cut yew trees, then find their account banned the following week.

 

Come on people. You gotta admit this idea is flawless :XD: