Botting in Runescape

[pal2002]

Why is this discussion about "bots" - the symtom.. Not the problem itself:

 

The problem is that in rs you only count after you spend (potentially) hundreds of hours into the game. This can't be expected from the average gamer, and should be handled:

 

-Either they should just remvove all those things such as "pernix" and "torva", or at least make it not better in stats than armour which can be gained within a few hours. OR they should allow everyone to be able to get those items within a limited time (say 100 hours) - of general gaming (not highly efficient, just general gaming doing what seems best).

 

It's simply not more than to be expected that people will start buying gold if a game requires more than a "sweetspot" of time to get together with the top.

I've always thought and have been a proponent of less GRINDY content and more FUN content aimed at the masses of NOT 126/138/99everything player even though I'm in the latter group

 

However, that does not mean Jagex should just take away ACHIEVEMENTS from players who have already put in the time. Achievements/goals are what made RS competitive when most of the content is really single player. They're all the rage now even in console gaming - but Jagex seemed to have abandoned this concept and just let cheaters make achevements in RS totally pointless.

[pulli23]

In most game achievements don't require 100s of hours to gain, especially achievements that are more than JUST achievements. Difficult achievements are mostly cosmetic or otherwise only about "bragging" - not gamechanging anymore.

In rs there's a very big gap between subtop stuff, and the top stuff - maybe not in stats, but in how much it is worth.

 

Also if you think grinding is fun: well no one is stopping you from that. However what is wrong is that grinding has become a requirement BEFORE everything else, instead of letting people first enjoy the game and then decide whether they like to grind out stats for achievements. Or do other things.

This is as much a fault of the community (they ultimatelly decided you need 96 herblore, 95 pray, top gear) as well as jagex - they designed the game so that the top levels suddenly became very important.

[Awolo]

In most game achievements don't require 100s of hours to gain, especially achievements that are more than JUST achievements. Difficult achievements are mostly cosmetic or otherwise only about "bragging" - not gamechanging anymore.

In rs there's a very big gap between subtop stuff, and the top stuff - maybe not in stats, but in how much it is worth.

 

Also if you think grinding is fun: well no one is stopping you from that. However what is wrong is that grinding has become a requirement BEFORE everything else, instead of letting people first enjoy the game and then decide whether they like to grind out stats for achievements. Or do other things.

This is as much a fault of the community (they ultimatelly decided you need 96 herblore, 95 pray, top gear) as well as jagex - they designed the game so that the top levels suddenly became very important.

You don't understand though. Grinding is what made RS a different type of game that people wanted to play. If you worked hard and played a lot, then you would be seen as a top player and low lvls would 'look up' to you. I'd be willing to say that if botting was under control that over half of the people with 'end-game' content would be banned. Not going to name any clans, but if you have ever been in any large main/pure clan, botting is a common topic and is freely talked about. Yea people would still have end-game content if botting was under control, but it wouldn't be nearly as common and wouldn't be thought of as a neccessity to play the game.

 

Off-topic: Jagex started completely reseting to level 10 stats again. Someone whos name started with a J was reset with over 70m range exp and max combat today.This means no more halfing stats hopefully.

[pulli23]

Yes, grinding was something that was considered "awesome". However in the past grinding wasn't a real requirement before the rest, and grinding could be done in many different methods to the same result. Currently runescape has evolved into a game where you have to grind before you can do anything which is considered "money making" in a fun way. The focus is now on the rewards, not on the goal itself. The top rewards should give relativelly little direct benefit (they should give some benefit, however especially not being an all around best outfit like nexus armours are now - there should've been something between nexus and bandos first), but instead be more cosmetical.

 

On top of this difference between how runescape was when I started and how runescape is now, I notice that runescape has become much more linear. To actually achieve all those top items, you have very little training choices (at least if you wish to do it decently efficient).

 

Previously one had often very similar considerations to make, there were often 3-4 methods which were nearly equal in xp / hour. So people could train in a more varied manner. An example I personally saw was runecrafting: I could do natures through abbys, however then I'd had to flee or do something each hour vs a pker. - I could do cosmics which were slightly lower xp (about 10%).. Maybe I also coud do law running for very fast, or use the balloon. Or if I wish to gain amazing profits without risking I could do natures and sellling at tai bwo wannai.

 

Currently simply the very best method is ZMI, it's all ZMI from lv 60ish to 99ish which is best, and other options are neglectable, both in xp as well as in money.

 

 

 

 

These problems have made runescape less "fun" for the average player (the average player likes variety more than monotonous methods). However "easier" for bots.

If this was handled and there were actually quite a bit of alternative similar in gain options to train each skill, there would be much less reason to bot: grinding itself would be more fun and no longer really considered "grinding".

 

 

 

 

@resetting stats:

I'm not sure how I feel about this. This would mainly hurt those people botting on their main, botfarms just sprout enough bots to evade this and wouldn't be affected too much. Yet I personally have not so much a problem with bots on their main (they can either play normally or bot, it still is only 1 account). But botfarms are the thing which I consider much more damaging to runescape as a game.

[MightyMuddy]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

[codecRS]

ive seen a few jmods asked about botting in the last few days, all they ever say is 'oh we dont talk about that sorry' its kind of annoying that they are just ignoring it and wont even address the situation.

 

edit; the main reason i think they cant stop it is because they dont have the physical man power to actually go through the game and ban the bots. the only way they can put a stop to it is to change the way the game runs.

[deyan2]

 

 

It's getting worse I think.

[pal2002]

ive seen a few jmods asked about botting in the last few days, all they ever say is 'oh we dont talk about that sorry' its kind of annoying that they are just ignoring it and wont even address the situation.

 

edit; the main reason i think they cant stop it is because they dont have the physical man power to actually go through the game and ban the bots. the only way they can put a stop to it is to change the way the game runs.

Facebook, craigslist, ebay. You name it, you can find RS gold and account everywhere you look now. The Old Jagex used to at least shut the ebay and criaglist ones down but apparently the new management won't bother with that anymore.

 

With all the jiblix hubbub you would have thought they would've at least cleaned out the ad bots at GE - but NOOO, their advanced macro dectection system isn't even capable of finding ppl type the same thing at superhuman rates over and over again...

[Assume Nothing]

It would be very easy for the users to adjust - it may not be worthwhile. I guess there could be a text input limit so that only characters typed in less than 'x' wpm would be registered.

 

Hmmph, every solution has a workaround. This is more difficult than I thought.

[Unb34t4bl3]

My main problem with RSC is not the difficulty (It actually made skilling feel very accomplished) but the tiny screen size. It was fine back in 2001-2003 when half of us still used those bulky CRT monitors, which which were able switch to 800x600 or 1024x768 to have a sizable view, but these days with 1080p LCD screens, it just doesn't work. It's way too small on my 23'' widescreen monitor.

 

(And don't say you can switch you resolution because anything outside of your LCD's non-native resolution just looks bad)

[Awolo]

My main problem with RSC is not the difficulty (It actually made skilling feel very accomplished) but the tiny screen size. It was fine back in 2001-2003 when half of us still used those bulky CRT monitors, which which were able switch to 800x600 or 1024x768 to have a sizable view, but these days with 1080p LCD screens, it just doesn't work. It's way too small on my 23'' widescreen monitor.

 

(And don't say you can switch you resolution because anything outside of your LCD's non-native resolution just looks bad)

:wall:

[pal2002]

If RSC ever becomes popular again, it would be even more susceptible to bots - Jagex haven't updated the CAPTCHAS of sleeping bags in years and I'm sure they're all cracked by now.

 

This is not to mention that the graphics are incredibly outdated - any crap kiddy MMO these days can rival RSC.

[Yay0siris]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

[jetset516a]

I hope everyone who got wet over the wilderness coming back is happy. Your vote paved the way to all this bot garbage. So now you can kill some random player in total cowardice for little gain and feel really good about it. So what if there's a million bots making it worthless, and prices on 90% of items have totally crashed, and your favorite area is overcrowded.

 

The wildy is back!

 

Right? :roll:

[Zaaps1]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

 

or he could have just been on runescape...

[jasignhagj]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

Facebook ads are based on your personal information, such as age, gender, interests, etc. Afaik Facebook and Google aren't advertising partners, so they wouldn't have access to google's list of sites and searches tied to you.

[Assume Nothing]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

 

That seems like an unjustified allegation - even by going on RuneScape related websites (ie tip.it), adverts related to cheating would still find their way to the adverts banners on your browser.

[MightyMuddy]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

 

That seems like an unjustified allegation - even by going on RuneScape related websites (ie tip.it), adverts related to cheating would still find their way to the adverts banners on your browser.

I've liked Runescape on Facebook if that counts.

[Turnpike]

I think since Jagex is making money off the botters now, they are pretty content with not doing much to fix the problem. I can't prove otherwise so that's what I believe.

[RoswellCrash]

Saw an ad for selling and trading runescape accounts on facebook. Not sure if that's new but I was a little dissapointed.

usually those ads are reflected upon what the user browses on their internet. so you must have been on a cheating website.

 

That seems like an unjustified allegation - even by going on RuneScape related websites (ie tip.it), adverts related to cheating would still find their way to the adverts banners on your browser.

I've liked Runescape on Facebook if that counts.

 

The Internet still has adverts? Try Google Chrome.

 

Ha that'd be a pretty good slogan for them.

 

Edit: 2nd thoughts its not Chrome alone my security suit does a bit of ad-hiding, but Chome does a fairly good job alone.

[Unb34t4bl3]

My main problem with RSC is not the difficulty (It actually made skilling feel very accomplished) but the tiny screen size. It was fine back in 2001-2003 when half of us still used those bulky CRT monitors, which which were able switch to 800x600 or 1024x768 to have a sizable view, but these days with 1080p LCD screens, it just doesn't work. It's way too small on my 23'' widescreen monitor.

 

(And don't say you can switch you resolution because anything outside of your LCD's non-native resolution just looks bad)

:wall:

 

Yeah... wrong thread. :oops:

[jasignhagj]

 

The Internet still has adverts? Try Firefox.

Ftfy

[Yay0siris]

bots are here to stay whether we like it or not. ban one, two more take its place. what jagex should be doing is thinking outside of the box and try to come up with solutions to not fix the game, but CHANGE the game.

 

why do people bots? to gain experience and to get GOLD. Gold is becoming worthless since theres no many bots bringing it into the game, but still, people need it and people will buy it. what if jagex made your account sort of like your own personal rs? you are your own ge, you are your own source of resources. DIY. if we weren't allowed to trade players. my one billion gp was worth 0 gp to you. if i wanted 99 fletching, i'd have to either cut my own trees or buy my own logs from a NPC. a lot of people will say i'm dumb, but it would fix the botting problem. there's single people with 100 bots going simultaneously generating mass amounts of gp to sell. if gp became untradable, they would have no way to sell it, making it pointless to have 100 bots. if you want a whip, get 85 slayer, if you want rune, get 99 smithing OR you could pvm or pvp to get items. maybe reward people for achieving a 99 in a skill. cut 73k yews for 99 wc? receive a 10% bonus in the resources you cut to contribute to 99 fletching or fm (7.3k extra yews!) get 99 attack, receive a special weapon. keep the loyaltee program to make each account unique. is rs really fun anymore to stand in a spot and skill with no one talking? imagine fishing in catherby and everyone was talking? imagine going to the GE and seeing no bots spamming their gold selling sites or people spamming their merchanting clans.

 

that's just one idea to get rid of bots but theres so many more and unless jagex does something drastic, rs will continue to decline.

[MightyMuddy]

bots are here to stay whether we like it or not. ban one, two more take its place. what jagex should be doing is thinking outside of the box and try to come up with solutions to not fix the game, but CHANGE the game.

 

why do people bots? to gain experience and to get GOLD. Gold is becoming worthless since theres no many bots bringing it into the game, but still, people need it and people will buy it. what if jagex made your account sort of like your own personal rs? you are your own ge, you are your own source of resources. DIY. if we weren't allowed to trade players. my one billion gp was worth 0 gp to you. if i wanted 99 fletching, i'd have to either cut my own trees or buy my own logs from a NPC. a lot of people will say i'm dumb, but it would fix the botting problem. there's single people with 100 bots going simultaneously generating mass amounts of gp to sell. if gp became untradable, they would have no way to sell it, making it pointless to have 100 bots. if you want a whip, get 85 slayer, if you want rune, get 99 smithing OR you could pvm or pvp to get items. maybe reward people for achieving a 99 in a skill. cut 73k yews for 99 wc? receive a 10% bonus in the resources you cut to contribute to 99 fletching or fm (7.3k extra yews!) get 99 attack, receive a special weapon. keep the loyaltee program to make each account unique. is rs really fun anymore to stand in a spot and skill with no one talking? imagine fishing in catherby and everyone was talking? imagine going to the GE and seeing no bots spamming their gold selling sites or people spamming their merchanting clans.

 

that's just one idea to get rid of bots but theres so many more and unless jagex does something drastic, rs will continue to decline.

That sounds kind of like the no free trade idea, but more extreme. To be honest, I just wish they'd go back to the way things were.

[rsboy]

god i hate those damn bots!