How Would You Detect Bots?

[Gumbyyyy]

I know 1 particular friend who uses bots. He uses scripts via Notepad or MS word to add controls to the bot. These bots

behave more "human" by stalling for a couple of seconds, misclicking every 4-5 trips to the bank, and even starting conversations

in a CC. This makes it almost 100% undetectable and as far as I know, he's been using this bot for quite awhile and never

had any problems with it. My friend screenshared how the bots work through Skype and they're actually legit looking.

I'm willing to bet a number of botters use scripts to run programs that behave and function like normal human beings. If this

is the case however, I wouldn't imagine that Jagex would be able to track down which is the bot, and which isn't. I can't

guarantee that we're ever going to find a solution to hunt down the real botters without compromising some sort of

mistake from banning legitimate players.

[Xie]

lol its funny he says this because he has like 2 posts, joined like 30 min ago and knows a suspicious amount about bots. Ill let you guys decide where he stands as far as botting goes though.

2 ≠ 12.

2 hrs ≠ 30 min.

 

As for colour detecting thats a completely different story and last time I checked bots havent used that method since the RSC days because it SUCKED. Think about how many misclicks that would provide. Im almost hoping they do that as it would make it that much more obvious.

Colour detection on it's own failed. Like I said some bots already use colour detection alongside reflection and that's a completely different story.

 

I know 1 particular friend who uses bots.

It's always the "friend"

[LitterBug]

I don't know much about programming but that invisible thingy idea - is it viable?

 

I was under the impression that every unique item has an unique code. i.e 123456 can only correspond to one item/monster/whatever

 

Also, this idea sounds a little dumb.

If you have a monster that's not real, can you right click it and click attack?

If your normal RS screen can't do this, how can a bot see the green dragon and click attack?

Your idea might make sense if all the bot did to attack was just to left click the target which I don't think many bots do.

[Alphanos]

Want to know how to find bots and easily catch them?

 

RS runs on Java. Everything is coded with an ID #. Bots work by detecting ID's. Heres the solution:

That could easily be worked around by adding limited colour detection to current bcel or reflection bots

 

 

lol its funny he says this because he has like 2 posts, joined like 30 min ago and knows a suspicious amount about bots. Ill let you guys decide where he stands as far as botting goes though.

No trolling please.

 

As for colour detecting thats a completely different story and last time I checked bots havent used that method since the RSC days because it SUCKED. Think about how many misclicks that would provide. Im almost hoping they do that as it would make it that much more obvious.

His point is that even though colour detection may not be a practical primary method of running a bot, adding a minor colour detection routine seems to easily foil the use of invisible monsters.

 

I understand what you're saying, but I for one would be happy with a bot-foiling method that lasts a mere 2-7 years :D.

Those algorithms took hundreds of millions (even billions) of dollars and many many years to develop. I don't think Jagex's pockets are that deep nor do they have that amount of talent to develop something that works that well.

 

You're talking about things like SSL, RSA encryption, etc. These are complex mathematical algorithms that no person nor computer can easily solve. We're looking for something entirely different - something which is easy for a person to solve, yet very hard for a computer to solve. It's a fundamentally different problem; not one that requires hundreds of millions in computational science research.

[Nash]

Yea its viable, why do you think Xie perked up out of no where all of a sudden. Guy got nervous lol.

 

 

Dont quote me but im pretty sure Jmods do this already themselves to explore RS without having a character and being seen. I cant really think of any other way they could be "logged" into the game without being seen. Make sense?

 

 

As for colour detection; even if it is true that the bot scripters could just start including that into the bots it would take a long time to redo all the current bots and update them with the new colour detecting system. Id imagine detecting colors would require MUCH more coding than just simple ID detecting and would require more skillful scripters and more time.

 

 

Therefore, it could knock out bots at least for a while.

[FooK-A-Ji]

Cowboy14 your arguement for Xie, the new poster, being a botter is as weak as they come.

 

Am I really going to be the first person on tip.it to openly say that I have usernames on numerous botting sites? And I don't even play the game, in fact I haven't levelled a single skill in 2-3 years. People who know me know that I don't play for levels or money as well. That doesn't stop me from having an extensive knowledge of bots on RS, botters and the mechanics behind botting.

 

The part where you think he made a username here to counter-argue because he "got nervous" is just absurd.

 

Why don't you come off it.

[Alphanos]

Yea its viable, why do you think Xie perked up out of no where all of a sudden. Guy got nervous lol.

 

 

Dont quote me but im pretty sure Jmods do this already themselves to explore RS without having a character and being seen. I cant really think of any other way they could be "logged" into the game without being seen. Make sense?

 

 

As for colour detection; even if it is true that the bot scripters could just start including that into the bots it would take a long time to redo all the current bots and update them with the new colour detecting system. Id imagine detecting colors would require MUCH more coding than just simple ID detecting and would require more skillful scripters and more time.

 

 

Therefore, it could knock out bots at least for a while.

 

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're not making a lot of sense.

 

Suppose for the sake of argument that you're right about Xie being connected to bot writers (which we have little to no actual evidence for). Even if that's true, useful contributions to a thread about how to stop bots can only be a good thing. If he was really trying to "sabotage" our ideas, it would become obvious fairly quickly when others knowledgeable about bots contradicted him.

 

Regarding Jagex mods, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they can run around invisible, but couldn't they just as easily be logged into the game in an area you're not at...?

 

As a programmer, I doubt that adding colour detection would be nearly as hard as you're making it out to be. However, even if it knocked out some bots for a week or two, it would require a lot of man-hours on Jagex's part to develop something that would only work for such a short time. Mainly the goal here is something that clearly offers a high benefit per man-hour of coding/testing work on Jagex's part. If it's something that will only work for a week or two, it should knock out *all* bots, and/or require almost no work at all on Jagex's part.

[Nash]

If you have an account on sites like [Caution: Jagex Rule Violation] and that youd know they constantly brag about trolling tif, rsc and rsof. How do you know theres not a thread already made about this thread along the lines of "lol! those tif kids think theyre gunna find a way to stop us! botters ftw!"

 

Also if you looked hes trolling other threads too. So even if hes not a bot hes still a troll.

 

 

As for having accounts on botting forums, I do not. Though a while back I did have a thread where I posted some information I had dug up about them.

 

 

 

EDIT: If your a programmer why did you need to ask about invisble items with ID's -.- Plus explain what you know about colour detection and how "easy" it is the code. Im actually curious so if you have some information enlighten us :thumbup:

[Alphanos]

Also if you looked hes trolling other threads too. So even if hes not a bot hes still a troll.

 

I just re-read this thread, and until you started trolling him, his only posts on *this* thread were directly related to the technical merits of various ideas. He's contributing usefully. Please cease your efforts to prevent him from doing so.

 

EDIT: If your a programmer why did you need to ask about invisble items with ID's -.- Plus explain what you know about colour detection and how "easy" it is the code. Im actually curious so if you have some information enlighten us :thumbup:

 

I'm a programmer, but not a bot-writer. So I have heard bits and pieces of, and understand the general concept of, Runescape objects having ID numbers, etc. I was seeking for those more knowledgeable about the specifics of Runescape coding to provide whatever details might help us in bot-stopping.

 

As an example, from general knowledge each Java object will have various internal variables that describe and distinguish it from other objects. In Runescape, one of these is obviously an ID number of some kind. I assume that this is some type of object-type ID number, rather than an instance-specific number. I.E. such that all green dragons would have the same ID. There would then be other variables storing other data. For example, we know from playing that most dragons seem to have several possible different appearances, with slight colour shifts, etc. Each green dragon object would also have some variable indicating which graphical style of dragon it is, so that the Runescape client knows how to display it.

 

A potential problem with invisible monsters is that the client would need some way of knowing which monsters are invisible, and should not be displayed, in order for them to actually be invisible. However, my understanding based on talk of bots reading ID numbers is that they have access to these internal variables, so they would therefore also be able to tell which monsters have the "invisible" flag toggled. I was thinking about, but have not yet come to any solution to, how to have a monster with an identical client-side memory structure, but which clearly behaves differently - such as being invisible....

 

As for colour detection, it's relatively easy to write some code that can read the colour of on-screen pixels (this is not specific to Runescape, just general coding). If you already had pre-existing code digging into the Runescape internals to know where on-screen an object is, pulling up the colour data for that screen position doesn't sound so tough.

[FooK-A-Ji]

I don't know much about programming but that invisible thingy idea - is it viable?

 

I was under the impression that every unique item has an unique code. i.e 123456 can only correspond to one item/monster/whatever

 

Also, this idea sounds a little dumb.

If you have a monster that's not real, can you right click it and click attack?

If your normal RS screen can't do this, how can a bot see the green dragon and click attack?

Your idea might make sense if all the bot did to attack was just to left click the target which I don't think many bots do.

 

All items have a set ID.

 

I.E.

 

pot: 1

unfired pot: 2

man (level 9): 3

blue party hat: 445

red party hat: 446

 

etc etc.

 

A bot scans the immediate area for the ID number of which it has been ordered to search and interact with, therefore if you set your bot program to attack "Man level 9", you order the program to attack ID number 3.

The program will than scan the immediate area for ID number 3 and if there are any corresponding ID's nearby it will interact and in this case attack the ID number (Man level 9).

 

In fact it is possible to run a bot program without even seeing the Runescape game interface, because most advanced bot programs run rely on ID numbers and see the game as letters and numbers (code). Just like in the movie The Matrix where the green numbers and letters fly past you.

[Grimy_Bunyip]

give players tools to pwn bots.

 

You can already plant flowers underneath red chin bots for example.

A single Cwars barricade would pwn essence mining bots as they run back and forth from the bank.

 

Jagex may not be able to field the man power, but there's plenty of botter hating gamers around.

and these players would change their strats just as quickly as the botters.

 

would pwn only a small portion of the bots, but, it's an easy fix that doesn't require constant input on the part of jagex.

 

the only problem with current bot slaying methods is that they're time consuming, and you can only feasibly pick off 1 bot at a time with say, dropping limpwurt roots at hobgoblin peninsula.

so it kinda depends on the tools provided.

 

granted, these tools could also be used to grief non-bots :P

[Nash]

 

Do you know if the bots can approximate the shape of the objects using just the ID's? Would be curious about this.

[FooK-A-Ji]

If you have an account on sites like [Caution: Jagex Rule Violation] and that youd know they constantly brag about trolling tif, rsc and rsof. How do you know theres not a thread already made about this thread along the lines of "lol! those tif kids think theyre gunna find a way to stop us! botters ftw!"

 

Also if you looked hes trolling other threads too. So even if hes not a bot hes still a troll.

 

 

As for having accounts on botting forums, I do not. Though a while back I did have a thread where I posted some information I had dug up about them.

 

 

 

EDIT: If your a programmer why did you need to ask about invisble items with ID's -.- Plus explain what you know about colour detection and how "easy" it is the code. Im actually curious so if you have some information enlighten us :thumbup:

 

 

Xie is bringing constructive input to this debate, so I fail to see where he is trolling and I disregard the notion that he is trolling other threads as that has no direct impact on what he is contributing in this thread.

 

I know that I myself am trolling alot of rant threads in the rants section simply because of the immense stupidity flourishing in said section of the forums, but that doesn't make me a troll in all threads does it?

 

P.S. It would make it easier for readers if you wrote who you are addressing in your post, seeing as the first part is directed at me, but the last section is obviously addressing somebody else.

[Mike_Ike111]

Want to know how to find bots and easily catch them?

 

Invisible Items/Monsters that only bots would see.

 

 

RS runs on Java. Everything is coded with an ID #. Bots work by detecting ID's. Heres the solution:

 

Make a new era of random events where items appear around the person in question that are coded the same as whatever theyre doing but ARENT ACTUALLY THERE.

 

Aka, if the person in question is fighting... green dragons. have 4-5 invisible green dragons with the SAME id's as the regular green dragons appear all around the person, but theyd be unclickable (theyre ghosts basically, you wouldnt be able to see them but a bot would because its gathering java data) Therefore, the person in question would react to this in two different ways:

 

Regular person:

-wouldnt even see the "invisible" things and they continue on their way.

 

Bots:

-Would consider this "invisible" thing to be real and would constantly attempt to click/attack/whatever to it. Therefore proving its a bot.

 

 

 

So yeah, my dad does coding and crap for a living, and he made me take classes on it when I was in Jr High convinced that, "this will help me in the real world". Wasted most of my time that Summer but at least I can do Sites and stuff :) I dont know enough Java though to really get involved in giving better ideas, but thats one Ive always thought was a clever one.

 

 

 

-C14

 

This can't work. The client bots run on can see each and every ID and can correspond which actions go with which ID, but they can not see invisible items/monsters, only the ID. All this would do is make the bot walk somewhere. If the bot is right clicking it will not hinder it at all.

[Nash]

 

This can't work. The client bots run on can see each and every ID and can correspond which actions go with which ID, but they can not see invisible items/monsters, only the ID. All this would do is make the bot walk somewhere. If the bot is right clicking it will not hinder it at all.

 

I figured it would get them stuck in a sense; having them trying to right click nothing for a long enough period of time to make it obvious to jagex's systems that theyre botting.

[FooK-A-Ji]

 

Do you know if the bots can approximate the shape of the objects using just the ID's? Would be curious about this.

 

It's not necessary and I doubt somewhat that any modern bot producer would take the time and effort to do this hehe.

The technique would be similar to color recognition of which you spoke of earlier, rather outdated.

 

Bots run off script and RS is written in script. So in a sense, all items in the game have no "real shape". Just an ID. The bot script doesn't differentiate between how objects appear, as the bot does not have "eyes" like we, the players have eyes. It "see's" only numbers. Hope it helps.

 

Of course there are assistent programs that can recognize shapes which were commonly used together with RSC bots to get around the sleeping bag. I can't remember the name of the program , Leoric or something like that. But even that program had flaws and is now outdated.

 

But I rather fancy the idea you mentioned, the bad part is just that the idea is simple, making it simple for bot scripters to get around.

Bear in mind that the most commonly used bots are written by scripters which barely even play RS. They script merely for the pleasure of it and in a highly professional fashion as well. They aren't beginners.

 

Beginners download an already made script and customize it by filling in the blank spaces and replacing a few numbers and words to customize their bot for the job. Among the scripters are excellent mathematicians and thinkers and I feel that the RS population as a whole underestimate the real people behind the bots. They aren't kids. The people using them however tend to be.

 

I remember a bot forum where if you openly botted you got banned from the website and weren't allowed to use the scripts shared there.

 

This other programmer ripped off thousands of accounts because he implemented code in his core script which sent the usernames and passwords back to him. I lol'd real hard when it got discovered and lots of posts on TIP.IT were about getting hacked right about the same time the programmer pulled off his little job haha.

[Alphanos]

 

This can't work. The client bots run on can see each and every ID and can correspond which actions go with which ID, but they can not see invisible items/monsters, only the ID. All this would do is make the bot walk somewhere. If the bot is right clicking it will not hinder it at all.

 

I figured it would get them stuck in a sense; having them trying to right click nothing for a long enough period of time to make it obvious to jagex's systems that theyre botting.

 

Yes, this. If (a *big* if) it were possible to overcome the colour detection issue, and the issue of an easily-accessible internal variable distinguishing "fake" from real monsters, there would be a lot of potential with this idea. However, I think these two issues might be insurmountable.

 

give players tools to pwn bots.

 

You can already plant flowers underneath red chin bots for example.

A single Cwars barricade would pwn essence mining bots as they run back and forth from the bank.

 

Jagex may not be able to field the man power, but there's plenty of botter hating gamers around.

and these players would change their strats just as quickly as the botters.

 

would pwn only a small portion of the bots, but, it's an easy fix that doesn't require constant input on the part of jagex.

 

the only problem with current bot slaying methods is that they're time consuming, and you can only feasibly pick off 1 bot at a time with say, dropping limpwurt roots at hobgoblin peninsula.

so it kinda depends on the tools provided.

 

granted, these tools could also be used to grief non-bots :P

 

Griefing could be a real problem for sure. However, what types of additional tools are you thinking of? Maybe there are ones which will foil bots, but have minimum griefing potential. Something like - this type of tool can only be used within a certain radius area once every 30 minutes, or something like that, so that it could foil bots, but be easily dealt with by real players. The trouble would be determining how to prevent bots from easily adapting...

[Xie]

Of course there are assistent programs that can recognize shapes which were commonly used together with RSC bots to get around the sleeping bag. I can't remember the name of the program , Leoric or something like that. But even that program had flaws and is now outdated.

Leosleep and coldfeet were the main ones. Some were simple ocr's and others used a token system

 

This other programmer ripped off thousands of accounts because he implemented code in his core script which sent the usernames and passwords back to him. I lol'd real hard when it got discovered and lots of posts on TIP.IT were about getting hacked right about the same time the programmer pulled off his little job haha.

It is rather amusing how much hypocrisy goes on in this forum

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Griefing could be a real problem for sure. However, what types of additional tools are you thinking of? Maybe there are ones which will foil bots, but have minimum griefing potential. Something like - this type of tool can only be used within a certain radius area once every 30 minutes, or something like that, so that it could foil bots, but be easily dealt with by real players. The trouble would be determining how to prevent bots from easily adapting...

It'd be a set of tools.

Bots would adapt, but with sufficiently many tools, the player could also adapt.

 

Like I said, Cwars barricades could work. Not all bots would know how to walk around it.

Flowers already exist, and work on hunter bots

Perhaps a bucket of paint, to forcibly recolor an object (yew tree, etc).

an ID scrambler (no idea how that would work, or if it would work, but ppl are talking about it :P)

perhaps a tool that could spawn a a lvl 6 smuggler (would be bad for skiller pures)

fake resources that punish players if they try to harvest them

 

that's a few ideas. Honestly I haven't thought about it too hard.

 

The point isn't the fact that each of these tools can be compensated for.

it'd be the fact, that the botters would be forced to compensate with all these tools, for anything they wanted to bot.

The name of the game, is laying down overhead costs on the botter.

 

 

Ultimately, the best way to deal with bots in my opinion, is to make bigger, denser updates.

Dungeoneering for example. It could probably be botted, eventually. But how many hours would it take to write a script for a dungeoneering bot?

A lot.

That cuts down the # of players willing to write the botting scripts, and subsequently makes the isolation and banning of the few botters, a much simpler and less time consuming job.

Just hound the single individual who was willing to invest hundreds of hours into writing such a script.

Then, cuz there's only so many people in the internets willing to make that kind of investment.

DG isn't really botted because the overhead cost, of making a dungeoneering bot, is just so obscenely massive.

[Alphanos]

Griefing could be a real problem for sure. However, what types of additional tools are you thinking of? Maybe there are ones which will foil bots, but have minimum griefing potential. Something like - this type of tool can only be used within a certain radius area once every 30 minutes, or something like that, so that it could foil bots, but be easily dealt with by real players. The trouble would be determining how to prevent bots from easily adapting...

It'd be a set of tools.

Bots would adapt, but with sufficiently many tools, the player could also adapt.

 

Like I said, Cwars barricades could work. Not all bots would know how to walk around it.

Flowers already exist, and work on hunter bots

Perhaps a bucket of paint, to forcibly recolor an object (yew tree, etc).

an ID scrambler (no idea how that would work, or if it would work, but ppl are talking about it :P)

perhaps a tool that could spawn a a lvl 6 smuggler (would be bad for skiller pures)

fake resources that punish players if they try to harvest them

 

that's a few ideas. Honestly I haven't thought about it too hard.

 

I especially like the paint idea, even just because it could be entertaining for emergent gameplay purposes. I'm not sure how effective it would be against bots, but it'd be fun.

 

At first I liked the mugger-spawning idea, but most of the bots I've seen have enough combat levels to fight them off =/. On the other hand, I commonly stay in the 1500+ worlds, so maybe level 3 bots are still a lot more common than I realize.

 

Ultimately, the best way to deal with bots in my opinion, is to make bigger, denser updates.

Dungeoneering for example. It could probably be botted, eventually. But how many hours would it take to write a script for a dungeoneering bot?

A lot.

That cuts down the # of players willing to write the botting scripts, and subsequently makes the isolation and banning of the few botters, a much simpler and less time consuming job.

Just hound the single individual who was willing to invest hundreds of hours into writing such a script.

Then, cuz there's only so many people in the internets willing to make that kind of investment.

 

Unfortunately, I'm certain that it takes far fewer man-hours to write a bot for dungeoneering than it did for Jagex to develop it. So long as bot-writers have monetary incentive to update their bots, it will be a losing battle for Jagex to try to break them by sheer volume of content. However, the idea of creating a small new random event every month or so sounded promising, again so long as it's possible to prevent the bots from realizing they've been taken to an unfamiliar place, which could cause them to log out.

 

 

Of course, perhaps the bigger problem is that once players catch bots via these types of methods, Jagex doesn't seem to do much about it. Players might use such techniques to stop a few bots for a few hours, but unless some update in the reporting system helps Jagex to distinguish effort-driven bot-catching reports from all the drivel where players report each other for not responding to everything they say, it's effectiveness will be limited. This is why I was originally focused on way to catch/stop bots centrally, but perhaps a player-driven system could work if some form of abuse-report-filtering could be devised...?

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Unfortunately, I'm certain that it takes far fewer man-hours to write a bot for dungeoneering than it did for Jagex to develop it. So long as bot-writers have monetary incentive to update their bots, it will be a losing battle for Jagex to try to break them by sheer volume of content. However, the idea of creating a small new random event every month or so sounded promising, again so long as it's possible to prevent the bots from realizing they've been taken to an unfamiliar place, which could cause them to log out.

But, the difference is those are man hours devoted to making game content.

It's not like jagex made dungeoneering with anti-botting in mind.

They made dungeoneering with the mindset of making something really fun.

The antibotting just came naturally, as a result.

 

Sure, it cost a lot of man hours. but the point is it didn't cost the extra man hours they wouldn't have spent anyways.

[Alphanos]

Unfortunately, I'm certain that it takes far fewer man-hours to write a bot for dungeoneering than it did for Jagex to develop it. So long as bot-writers have monetary incentive to update their bots, it will be a losing battle for Jagex to try to break them by sheer volume of content. However, the idea of creating a small new random event every month or so sounded promising, again so long as it's possible to prevent the bots from realizing they've been taken to an unfamiliar place, which could cause them to log out.

But, the difference is those are man hours devoted to making game content.

It's not like jagex made dungeoneering with anti-botting in mind.

They made dungeoneering with the mindset of making something really fun.

The antibotting just came naturally, as a result.

 

Sure, it cost a lot of man hours. but the point is it didn't cost the extra man hours they wouldn't have spent anyways.

 

This is an excellent point. However, is there a way to apply such an idea to stop existing bots, or is this mainly a way to reduce/slow botting for newly-created areas/skills?

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Unfortunately, I'm certain that it takes far fewer man-hours to write a bot for dungeoneering than it did for Jagex to develop it. So long as bot-writers have monetary incentive to update their bots, it will be a losing battle for Jagex to try to break them by sheer volume of content. However, the idea of creating a small new random event every month or so sounded promising, again so long as it's possible to prevent the bots from realizing they've been taken to an unfamiliar place, which could cause them to log out.

But, the difference is those are man hours devoted to making game content.

It's not like jagex made dungeoneering with anti-botting in mind.

They made dungeoneering with the mindset of making something really fun.

The antibotting just came naturally, as a result.

 

Sure, it cost a lot of man hours. but the point is it didn't cost the extra man hours they wouldn't have spent anyways.

 

This is an excellent point. However, is there a way to apply such an idea to stop existing bots, or is this mainly a way to reduce/slow botting for newly-created areas/skills?

this particular method is for new areas, the tools idea would be for old content

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

Yikes...talk about flogging a dead horse. I think we're going about breaking bots the wrong way, really.

 

As a programmer myself, thinking of ways to implement bot breaking tactics would only lead me down that same ol' arms race. And they'd eventually win, too.

 

What I'm thinking, personally, is that instead of trying to break the bots, making them pointless would be far easier to implement.

 

The solution is not simple: Rewrite the game to make redundant, grindable tasks extremely unrewarding as opposed to tasks that aren't.

 

To my understanding, Dungeoneering does something like this (although there are strong rumors of Dungeoneering bots, I don't believe they have the capability to predict every room with > 30% reliability), but it's possible it can be done on a much larger scale. Adding elements of the game that are repeatable in chunks, then change up depending on the region you're in, thus breaking predictability, would marginalize the efforts of bots. In addition, adding areas of the game that change depending on where you are, what time of day it is, what season it is in your region, what month it is, and what your individual levels are would also play havoc, provided the algorithm for that was never reverse engineered (or changed every other month).

 

I suppose what I'm getting at - thinking about breaking bots on the lowest level is going to lead right back up to the arms race. Pioneering a way to randomize the rewards from skills we'd get, and making them fun at the same time (Dungeoneering did an alright job with this, then rushers came in - not that there's anything wrong with that, I just feel like those that rush through a dungeon are totally missing the point) would, in my mind, go a long way to resolve the botting issue.

 

Oh, and reducing the dependency of GP wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Making all of the really good items and armor dependent on one's skills, and making the skills virtually unbuyable would further reduce the point of bots.

[Grimy_Bunyip]

To my understanding, Dungeoneering does something like this (although there are strong rumors of Dungeoneering bots, I don't believe they have the capability to predict every room with > 30% reliability), but it's possible it can be done on a much larger scale. Adding elements of the game that are repeatable in chunks, then change up depending on the region you're in, thus breaking predictability, would marginalize the efforts of bots. In addition, adding areas of the game that change depending on where you are, what time of day it is, what season it is in your region, what month it is, and what your individual levels are would also play havoc, provided the algorithm for that was never reverse engineered (or changed every other month).

Dungeoneering bots exist.

But last i checked up on them, they were still unable to distinguish guardian doors from non guardian doors.

And subsequently clear every monster from every room.

The reaction time is also very slow, and the bots typically need a delay of about 5 seconds before the bot can decide which monster to attack inside a room.

And the bot was, thus far only coded for GD's and a handful of the puzzles.

And it only worked on solos.

 

a dg bot is definitely possible, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the one to write it.

but yeah botting is a fundamental problem with runescape, just being so repetitive.

 

I'm just weary of the fact that, a lot of RS players probably enjoy the repetitive nature of runescape.

if you make a lot of things less boring and repetitive (and bottable) you may actually run the risk of alienating the customer base.