Its good to see the chalice of a million salty tears is being refilled.
On a more serious note though. If you dont want to be banned then dont break the rules. Its blizzards rules and theyre free to deal out whatever punishment they see fit for people that break them.
I dont believe for 1 minute that the punishments arent fair or warranted. These things are always considered from a long term reputational point of view and someone will have carefully considered the case along with previous offences, whether punished or not.
And before the trolls appear, i deal with complaints for a major european insurer so im well aware of reputational and other business impacts that have to be considered before delivering a resolution.
ITT people assume it's easy to detect 3rd party software but aren't able to offer their solutions. If you think it's easy, write the software yourself and prove it, make some big $$.
Also ITT, people expect not to be banned for obviously abusing a bug. Lesson learned, if you want to "see" what an exploit can do, watch youtube vids or streamers who decide they want to roll the dice with their accounts.
I agree, the problem with bots is they have been improving their ability to hide from scanning over the years and even if a person is online 24/7 doesn't make them instantly guilty of botting it just means they might try and look closer at the player, but unless they have proof of them using a bot they are still innocent of using one. The difference between that and the Hellfire Amulet bug exploit is that Blizzard probably could see in their logs that a person was gaining the benefits of more passives then the should so they had concrete proof that a person was abusing the exploit.
The schadenfreude in this thread is ridiculous. Vindictive comments from people condemning the people who used this exploit as if they had been personally victimised because of this. These people really need to reconsider their life position.
This is a video game. There are no tangible or monetary prizes for getting to high rankings.
I imagine the majority of people reveling with joy because of this weren't even in the top 1000. This ban, has no affect on your position on the ladder. The ladder is a made up novelty ranking system to stroke your epeen. If you care about these ranking that much - once again I seriously recommended you take a step back and reconsider your life.
This is a video game.
The fact is that people who cheat for personal gain in video games are most likely the ones that cheat in other areas of their lives, like lying on their resume, doping in sports etc. Schadenfreude exists for a reason, it is the pleasure honest people take from seeing dishonest people suffer, they may succeed in areas we wish we could, but we won't do it because we want to do it with our integrity intact. Don't pretend that this is limited to a video game, cheaters succeed everywhere in life and get away with it for the most part. Politics is totally fucked because of cheaters/exploiters.
I don't care about leaderboards, but allowing rampant cheating ruins games and there are games I no longer play for that reason, so fuck those people.
Cheaters always complaining once they are caught lol. Been that way since quake 2 first online days. Might wanna change the tune, we all heard it by now.
Wow Mannercookie, I used to enjoy your channel, and I used to have respect for you. Way to flush it all down the drain.
You fucked up, you made a mistake (again), and instead of being a man and admit it was dumb as fuck, you go down the crybaby route blaming everyone but yourself. Weak.
Wow Mannercookie, I used to enjoy your channel, and I used to have respect for you. Way to flush it all down the drain.
You fucked up, you made a mistake (again), and instead of being a man and admit it was dumb as fuck, you go down the crybaby route blaming everyone but yourself. Weak.
wow you are smart, make sure to check your facts before you open your mouth.
edit: for the rest of you smart cookies who don't read a 160 post thread before responding, no I'm not banned but seeing how people who used the "exploit" less than I did are, I suppose I should be banned. Time to go write your tickets kids.
Also ITT, people expect not to be banned for obviously abusing a bug. Lesson learned, if you want to "see" what an exploit can do, watch youtube vids or streamers who decide they want to roll the dice with their accounts.
Check playtime this season, if more then 20 hours/day over the average of 4 weeks, instaban. Check sessions for keyboard input, if 10+ hours without a single minute without keyboard input, instaban. Monitor movement in town, if running the exact same pattern from the vendor, to the rift portal, to the blacksmith, to kadala for 10+ times in succession, instaban. Monitor targeting inside rifts, if never 'miss-clicking' air instead of a monster for 1+ hour, instaban. Monitor the use of potions, if never using a potion above a certain treshold for 100+ potion usages in a row, instaban. Monitor the use of certain skills, if never using skills like smokescreen of spirit walk above a certain health treshold for 100+ usages in a row, instaban. Monitor movement in specific rift maps, if taking the exact same route at the start of certain maps, 100+ times in a row, instaban.
This are just things I can think of in 5 minutes of brainstorming. You simply have to find the things a human can't do and a bot can. If you would put an actual team on it to work on it for a week you could come up with so many more factors that show non-human behaviour. If you're telling me blizzard cant write that, then I have to respectfully disagree with you. They could, they simply decide not to put effort into it.
You guys got to be kidding, "LOL gaybaby is banned fuck that cheater" "die exploiters1!!". Even if gaby was playing legit, folks like you guys won't even be close to "competing" with him, so what if he fucking bots? OMG he have so many grift keys I have to farm these by myself, go get yourself a fucking bot then, it's only 40 bucks. Grow the fuck up and get over it, I got banned too so fucking what, blizzard just lost a customer.
Also ITT, people expect not to be banned for obviously abusing a bug. Lesson learned, if you want to "see" what an exploit can do, watch youtube vids or streamers who decide they want to roll the dice with their accounts.
Check playtime this season, if more then 20 hours/day over the average of 4 weeks, instaban. Check sessions for keyboard input, if 10+ hours without a single minute without keyboard input, instaban. Monitor movement in town, if running the exact same pattern from the vendor, to the rift portal, to the blacksmith, to kadala for 10+ times in succession, instaban. Monitor targeting inside rifts, if never 'miss-clicking' air instead of a monster for 1+ hour, instaban. Monitor the use of potions, if never using a potion above a certain treshold for 100+ potion usages in a row, instaban. Monitor the use of certain skills, if never using skills like smokescreen of spirit walk above a certain health treshold for 100+ usages in a row, instaban. Monitor movement in specific rift maps, if taking the exact same route at the start of certain maps, 100+ times in a row, instaban.
This are just things I can think of in 5 minutes of brainstorming. You simply have to find the things a human can't do and a bot can. If you would put an actual team on it to work on it for a week you could come up with so many more factors that show non-human behaviour. If you're telling me blizzard cant write that, then I have to respectfully disagree with you. They could, they simply decide not to put effort into it.
Banning someone because they play too much is out of the question... who are you to say "oh gee, this guy plays to much, must ban him" Also, not hard to script in a god damn pause for bots, simple wait function with a random integer.
I would be banned for the "always pressing keys", I've gone 14+ hours for 3 days in a row when the season started. It's easily done if you don't drink too much liquid.
After I finish a rift, I always close, salvage/repair, kadala(after 3-4 rifts), ID, salvage, deposit, open new rift. I would be banned.
Targeting can be done with shift clicking, which doesn't require you to actually aim at a monster to hit them with it...
Thresholds for abilities/potions have a "use between 50%-70%" Instantly counters all of those points.
When I get particular rifts, I take the SAME path, Bots are more likely to take a more randomized pathing due to well, not wanting to trigger hotspots, something they already do in WoW which bots already counter by having randomized waypoints.
Anything a human can do, a bot can be programmed to do. What you're suggesting would catch so many false positives that it's not worth the time to sift through it all. People generally don't grasp what is actually needed to catch bots/cheats but will always complain or tinfoil their opinions as to why blizzard isn't doing it.
Also ITT, people expect not to be banned for obviously abusing a bug. Lesson learned, if you want to "see" what an exploit can do, watch youtube vids or streamers who decide they want to roll the dice with their accounts.
Check playtime this season, if more then 20 hours/day over the average of 4 weeks, instaban. Check sessions for keyboard input, if 10+ hours without a single minute without keyboard input, instaban. Monitor movement in town, if running the exact same pattern from the vendor, to the rift portal, to the blacksmith, to kadala for 10+ times in succession, instaban. Monitor targeting inside rifts, if never 'miss-clicking' air instead of a monster for 1+ hour, instaban. Monitor the use of potions, if never using a potion above a certain treshold for 100+ potion usages in a row, instaban. Monitor the use of certain skills, if never using skills like smokescreen of spirit walk above a certain health treshold for 100+ usages in a row, instaban. Monitor movement in specific rift maps, if taking the exact same route at the start of certain maps, 100+ times in a row, instaban.
This are just things I can think of in 5 minutes of brainstorming. You simply have to find the things a human can't do and a bot can. If you would put an actual team on it to work on it for a week you could come up with so many more factors that show non-human behaviour. If you're telling me blizzard cant write that, then I have to respectfully disagree with you. They could, they simply decide not to put effort into it.
Banning someone because they play too much is out of the question... who are you to say "oh gee, this guy plays to much, must ban him" Also, not hard to script in a god damn pause for bots, simple wait function with a random integer.
I would be banned for the "always pressing keys", I've gone 14+ hours for 3 days in a row when the season started. It's easily done if you don't drink too much liquid.
After I finish a rift, I always close, salvage/repair, kadala(after 3-4 rifts), ID, salvage, deposit, open new rift. I would be banned.
Targeting can be done with shift clicking, which doesn't require you to actually aim at a monster to hit them with it...
Thresholds for abilities/potions have a "use between 50%-70%" Instantly counters all of those points.
When I get particular rifts, I take the SAME path, Bots are more likely to take a more randomized pathing due to well, not wanting to trigger hotspots, something they already do in WoW which bots already counter by having randomized waypoints.
Anything a human can do, a bot can be programmed to do. What you're suggesting would catch so many false positives that it's not worth the time to sift through it all. People generally don't grasp what is actually needed to catch bots/cheats but will always complain or tinfoil their opinions as to why blizzard isn't doing it.
The thing is, Blizzard is always 1 step ahead. Sure a bot CAN be coded to counter all of this. But the bot that is currently used by everyone sure as hell doesnt have everything randomised. So when suddenly all bot users get banned, how will the bot creator figure out what caused the ban? Blizzard wont tell him, thats for sure. So he would have to 'guess' the detection blizzard used, out of the countless options. And after he changed his bot blizzard can simply download it, check it out, and figure out a new way to detect it.
And no I'm not the one saying 'oh gee, this guy plays too much, must ban him'. I'm the one saying 'oh gee, this guy plays more then any human being can possibly do, lets ban him'. I'm not talking 14+ hours a day, I'm talking 20+ hours a day, for 4 weeks straight. No human being can go 4 weeks of playing diablo 20+ hours a day. If you want to argue about that feel free, you just make yourself look silly. And I seriously call bullshit on your 14 hour+ of joining a rift, leaving a rift without a single MINUTE of not pressing any buttons. There is NOBODY who manages that. I dont think you go 14 hours without peeing a single time. Or 14 hours without grabbing a drink. Or 14 hours without grabbing some food and stuffing it in your mouth. All of that is a minute downtime AT LEAST. No human plays the game for 14 hours without a single micro break of 1 min. If you really want to argue about this, feel free, but you really make yourself look silly if you say you played 14 hours a day without a SINGLE MINUTE downtime the first 3 days of this season.
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
If the bot is written good, there is no way a software could detect it. In online poker for example there were major problems with bots generating more than a million from rakeback (percent of money a player receives based on the generated rake) while being breakeven (breakeven means the bot doesn't win or lose anything with rake included). And guess how they caught them: The other players suspected it, observing and seeing identical patterns in the bots play style. And we are talking about a lot of money here, not the desire of some dude to be part of a leaderboard with nicknames. So catching bots is very hard. And if the bot is custom made, you can forget about catching it at all.
The design of Diablo 3 should not give botters any advantage over the normal pool of players. That's the only way.
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
If the bot is written good, there is no way a software could detect it. In online poker for example there were major problems with bots generating more than a million from rakeback (percent of money a player receives based on the generated rake) while being breakeven (breakeven means the bot doesn't win or lose anything with rake included). And guess how they caught them: The other players suspected it, observing and seeing identical patterns in the bots play style. And we are talking about a lot of money here, not the desire of some dude to be part of a leaderboard with nicknames. So catching bots is very hard. And if the bot is custom made, you can forget about catching it at all.
The design of Diablo 3 should not give botters any advantage over the normal pool of players. That's the only way.
Ye ok, funny man. How are you comparing a bot thats written by 2 guys in their spare time in a few weeks time with a super sophisticated poker bot.
@BlackParagon: The real problem is that the grinding elements are easy enough to be done by bots. And if they are not, the majority of the players won't enjoy it. The game will be too hard for them. So it's a question of design: Where exactly to put that border, where the casual players can easily grind and the competitive players not be affected by the bots. And this is quite doable. There are many ways for such design, which can favor the grinding and devalue the importance of bots.
Exploiting is gaining an unfair advantage towards other players, this simply means Cheating.
anyone who exploited in the past on purpose is no different then either a botter or someone that uses 3rd party programs.
Technically its not an unfair advantage because its built into the game and anyone could do it.
Expect you have to do more than hit "play" in your battle net client to use a bot or 3rd party program.
Banning users for blizzards error is just silly.
I left my pool gate open today and a 4 year drowned, is it the kids fault or mine?
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
If the bot is written good, there is no way a software could detect it. In online poker for example there were major problems with bots generating more than a million from rakeback (percent of money a player receives based on the generated rake) while being breakeven (breakeven means the bot doesn't win or lose anything with rake included). And guess how they caught them: The other players suspected it, observing and seeing identical patterns in the bots play style. And we are talking about a lot of money here, not the desire of some dude to be part of a leaderboard with nicknames. So catching bots is very hard. And if the bot is custom made, you can forget about catching it at all.
The design of Diablo 3 should not give botters any advantage over the normal pool of players. That's the only way.
Ye ok, funny man. How are you comparing a bot thats written by 2 guys in their spare time in a few weeks time with a super sophisticated poker bot.
You know how companys like Riot, valve and the game smite countered Map hacks, by hiding crucial information from the client so that nobody can see it unless the server sends that specific information. Same shit is being done with bots, long gone are the days where downloading something provided the entire package. Authentication and encryption is how they hide a lot of the workings of a bot.
Some bots still use injection, which CAN be detected, if they find the method of which they're hooking into the client. The problem with this, is so many things actually attach to the client, one way you can see this is load up cheatengine, it automatically hooks into all programs and when you start WoW up, it is detected and you're told to close it. But you can't do that if it doesn't actually write to the memory that is actively scanned.
I know a few Runescape bots that use a method called Reflection, where it literally is a very advance color bot that clicks on specific colors and has ZERO interaction with the game besides that.
It's not just an easy throw money to find solutions. Looking at patterns COULD lead to banning bots, but any smart person wouldn't bot 20+ hours a day for 4 weeks straight.
Just look at the most popular bot for WoW, blizzard had to take them to court to attempt to shut down the program because they have so much trouble detecting. They used some hotspot methods which caught people in MoP but that was quickly fixed and botters were back again. They caught people in WoD because of the rotation bots and kick bots which have inhuman reaction times (~50ms reaction to kick).
It's just not as easy as people think it is, throwing money at it won't solve it. I'll look forward to you actually scripting, implementing and showing the results of these so called easy methods to detect bots.
[tinfoil]It's so easy guys, even a chimp can do it, but clearly bli$$ are just lazy![/tinfoil]
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
If the bot is written good, there is no way a software could detect it. In online poker for example there were major problems with bots generating more than a million from rakeback (percent of money a player receives based on the generated rake) while being breakeven (breakeven means the bot doesn't win or lose anything with rake included). And guess how they caught them: The other players suspected it, observing and seeing identical patterns in the bots play style. And we are talking about a lot of money here, not the desire of some dude to be part of a leaderboard with nicknames. So catching bots is very hard. And if the bot is custom made, you can forget about catching it at all.
The design of Diablo 3 should not give botters any advantage over the normal pool of players. That's the only way.
Ye ok, funny man. How are you comparing a bot thats written by 2 guys in their spare time in a few weeks time with a super sophisticated poker bot.
You know how companys like Riot, valve and the game smite countered Map hacks, by hiding crucial information from the client so that nobody can see it unless the server sends that specific information. Same shit is being done with bots, long gone are the days where downloading something provided the entire package. Authentication and encryption is how they hide a lot of the workings of a bot.
Some bots still use injection, which CAN be detected, if they find the method of which they're hooking into the client. The problem with this, is so many things actually attach to the client, one way you can see this is load up cheatengine, it automatically hooks into all programs and when you start WoW up, it is detected and you're told to close it. But you can't do that if it doesn't actually write to the memory that is actively scanned.
I know a few Runescape bots that use a method called Reflection, where it literally is a very advance color bot that clicks on specific colors and has ZERO interaction with the game besides that.
It's not just an easy throw money to find solutions. Looking at patterns COULD lead to banning bots, but any smart person wouldn't bot 20+ hours a day for 4 weeks straight.
Just look at the most popular bot for WoW, blizzard had to take them to court to attempt to shut down the program because they have so much trouble detecting. They used some hotspot methods which caught people in MoP but that was quickly fixed and botters were back again. They caught people in WoD because of the rotation bots and kick bots which have inhuman reaction times (~50ms reaction to kick).
It's just not as easy as people think it is, throwing money at it won't solve it. I'll look forward to you actually scripting, implementing and showing the results of these so called easy methods to detect bots.
[tinfoil]It's so easy guys, even a chimp can do it, but clearly bli$$ are just lazy![/tinfoil]
WoD banwave for WoW wasn't only related to rotation and interrupt bots. EVERY active user of the bot was banned at that point. There were actually 2 ban waves in a row for 2 different bots very shortly after eachother. I know this because a guildie of me got banned 2 times in a row within a month. These ban waves were huge. Also these hotspots and inhuman reactions are part of the current bots used for Diablo aswell. I would gladly argue that the main bot for WoW is far more developed and sophisticated then the bots currently used for Diablo. So if Blizzard can do it for WoW, what makes you think they can't do it for Diablo? That's right, apearantly it doesnt have priority and there is no manpower available to do so.
@Willemh, don't forget that in wow, Blizzard also have an economy to look after. It's an MMO and botting there actually has a greater impact on things than they do in D3. So yes, less effort is probably put into to counteract the botting in diablo but I still doubt it's an easy task to permanently keep bots out of the game.
You made a post earlier where you brainstormed a few measures one could take to identify a bot. In the same time I (or someone actually writing bots) could alter the code so that your software would not be able to detect the bot. There are ways that are super easy a bot, but those ways are also super easy to counteract by someone writing these scripts. I'm betting Blizzard doesn't want to have this endless chase and want to come up with a more permanent solution, i.e. Warden, that they keep improving. It's also important that Blizzard keeps the game playable, which means they can't have Warden checking on everything you do nor have in-game CAPTCHA that needs to be answered on a regular basis.
I'm sure if Blizzard would do a large banwave once a year the large majority of the community woudn't bother with botting. So this 'endless armsrace' of blizzard finding something and the bots adjusting to it really isnt that big of a deal as you make it sound, at best this armsrace would be very slow and happen once a year. They only need to do this stuff once a year orso to give the majority of the community a large incentive to stop botting. Searching for something to identify bot users once a year really doesnt sound like that big of a task.
I'm sure if Blizzard would do a large banwave once a year the large majority of the community woudn't bother with botting.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The number of people who bot will continue to raise with 1 or 2 banwaves per year. Blizzard have to do minimum of 2 banwaves per season in order the number of botters to start at least lowering. This means minimum of 8 waves per year. And still the smart coders won't be caught.
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Its good to see the chalice of a million salty tears is being refilled.
On a more serious note though. If you dont want to be banned then dont break the rules. Its blizzards rules and theyre free to deal out whatever punishment they see fit for people that break them.
I dont believe for 1 minute that the punishments arent fair or warranted. These things are always considered from a long term reputational point of view and someone will have carefully considered the case along with previous offences, whether punished or not.
And before the trolls appear, i deal with complaints for a major european insurer so im well aware of reputational and other business impacts that have to be considered before delivering a resolution.
I don't care about leaderboards, but allowing rampant cheating ruins games and there are games I no longer play for that reason, so fuck those people.
Cheaters always complaining once they are caught lol. Been that way since quake 2 first online days. Might wanna change the tune, we all heard it by now.
Yes we know X cheat is worse then yours.
Yes we know you did not mean to.
Yes we know you only wanted to try it out.
Yes we know it was your brother.
some of you guys must feel so great that D3 has cleaned up the cheaters and perm banned them all.
give yourselves all a pat on the back for keeping your integrity in tack in a fucken video game.
here's a medal of good spot for all of you, be sure to share it with your family and friends!
the few of you that are actually comparing d3 to the real world, you really need to get outside and see some sun.
It's quite funny that almost 95% of this thread's posts don't read the thread and respond.
Blizzard themselves did not follow their own criteria that they set out when it came to permanent bans.
Some random script was ran and there were a lot of accounts that don't fall under the category banned, not just few.
Obviously when someone states this, he is just defending cheaters and bla bla bla.
You guys are a joke, wake the fuck up please.
http://www.youtube.com/mannercookie
http://www.twitch.tv/mannercookie
Wow Mannercookie, I used to enjoy your channel, and I used to have respect for you. Way to flush it all down the drain.
You fucked up, you made a mistake (again), and instead of being a man and admit it was dumb as fuck, you go down the crybaby route blaming everyone but yourself. Weak.
wow you are smart, make sure to check your facts before you open your mouth.
edit: for the rest of you smart cookies who don't read a 160 post thread before responding, no I'm not banned but seeing how people who used the "exploit" less than I did are, I suppose I should be banned. Time to go write your tickets kids.
http://www.youtube.com/mannercookie
http://www.twitch.tv/mannercookie
It's your fault I got the facts wrong and I shouldn't be blamed for any of it
Edit: Blizzards policy when it comes to banhammers have always been as rng as the lootsystem in this game, sadly.
Check playtime this season, if more then 20 hours/day over the average of 4 weeks, instaban. Check sessions for keyboard input, if 10+ hours without a single minute without keyboard input, instaban. Monitor movement in town, if running the exact same pattern from the vendor, to the rift portal, to the blacksmith, to kadala for 10+ times in succession, instaban. Monitor targeting inside rifts, if never 'miss-clicking' air instead of a monster for 1+ hour, instaban. Monitor the use of potions, if never using a potion above a certain treshold for 100+ potion usages in a row, instaban. Monitor the use of certain skills, if never using skills like smokescreen of spirit walk above a certain health treshold for 100+ usages in a row, instaban. Monitor movement in specific rift maps, if taking the exact same route at the start of certain maps, 100+ times in a row, instaban.
This are just things I can think of in 5 minutes of brainstorming. You simply have to find the things a human can't do and a bot can. If you would put an actual team on it to work on it for a week you could come up with so many more factors that show non-human behaviour. If you're telling me blizzard cant write that, then I have to respectfully disagree with you. They could, they simply decide not to put effort into it.
You guys got to be kidding, "LOL gaybaby is banned fuck that cheater" "die exploiters1!!". Even if gaby was playing legit, folks like you guys won't even be close to "competing" with him, so what if he fucking bots? OMG he have so many grift keys I have to farm these by myself, go get yourself a fucking bot then, it's only 40 bucks. Grow the fuck up and get over it, I got banned too so fucking what, blizzard just lost a customer.
I would be banned for the "always pressing keys", I've gone 14+ hours for 3 days in a row when the season started. It's easily done if you don't drink too much liquid.
After I finish a rift, I always close, salvage/repair, kadala(after 3-4 rifts), ID, salvage, deposit, open new rift. I would be banned.
Targeting can be done with shift clicking, which doesn't require you to actually aim at a monster to hit them with it...
Thresholds for abilities/potions have a "use between 50%-70%" Instantly counters all of those points.
When I get particular rifts, I take the SAME path, Bots are more likely to take a more randomized pathing due to well, not wanting to trigger hotspots, something they already do in WoW which bots already counter by having randomized waypoints.
Anything a human can do, a bot can be programmed to do. What you're suggesting would catch so many false positives that it's not worth the time to sift through it all. People generally don't grasp what is actually needed to catch bots/cheats but will always complain or tinfoil their opinions as to why blizzard isn't doing it.
And no I'm not the one saying 'oh gee, this guy plays too much, must ban him'. I'm the one saying 'oh gee, this guy plays more then any human being can possibly do, lets ban him'. I'm not talking 14+ hours a day, I'm talking 20+ hours a day, for 4 weeks straight. No human being can go 4 weeks of playing diablo 20+ hours a day. If you want to argue about that feel free, you just make yourself look silly. And I seriously call bullshit on your 14 hour+ of joining a rift, leaving a rift without a single MINUTE of not pressing any buttons. There is NOBODY who manages that. I dont think you go 14 hours without peeing a single time. Or 14 hours without grabbing a drink. Or 14 hours without grabbing some food and stuffing it in your mouth. All of that is a minute downtime AT LEAST. No human plays the game for 14 hours without a single micro break of 1 min. If you really want to argue about this, feel free, but you really make yourself look silly if you say you played 14 hours a day without a SINGLE MINUTE downtime the first 3 days of this season.
Nah, I simply do not believe that Blizzard can't detect and ban the large majority of bots if they would make it one of their priorities. The thing is, they dont. Apearantly they feel the issue isn't important enough to spend sufficient resources on. That is the key issue. Not the fact that any of these bots are undetectable. Believing that is just plain stupit.
If the bot is written good, there is no way a software could detect it. In online poker for example there were major problems with bots generating more than a million from rakeback (percent of money a player receives based on the generated rake) while being breakeven (breakeven means the bot doesn't win or lose anything with rake included). And guess how they caught them: The other players suspected it, observing and seeing identical patterns in the bots play style. And we are talking about a lot of money here, not the desire of some dude to be part of a leaderboard with nicknames. So catching bots is very hard. And if the bot is custom made, you can forget about catching it at all.
The design of Diablo 3 should not give botters any advantage over the normal pool of players. That's the only way.
@BlackParagon: The real problem is that the grinding elements are easy enough to be done by bots. And if they are not, the majority of the players won't enjoy it. The game will be too hard for them. So it's a question of design: Where exactly to put that border, where the casual players can easily grind and the competitive players not be affected by the bots. And this is quite doable. There are many ways for such design, which can favor the grinding and devalue the importance of bots.
Technically its not an unfair advantage because its built into the game and anyone could do it.
Expect you have to do more than hit "play" in your battle net client to use a bot or 3rd party program.
Banning users for blizzards error is just silly.
I left my pool gate open today and a 4 year drowned, is it the kids fault or mine?
Some bots still use injection, which CAN be detected, if they find the method of which they're hooking into the client. The problem with this, is so many things actually attach to the client, one way you can see this is load up cheatengine, it automatically hooks into all programs and when you start WoW up, it is detected and you're told to close it. But you can't do that if it doesn't actually write to the memory that is actively scanned.
I know a few Runescape bots that use a method called Reflection, where it literally is a very advance color bot that clicks on specific colors and has ZERO interaction with the game besides that.
It's not just an easy throw money to find solutions. Looking at patterns COULD lead to banning bots, but any smart person wouldn't bot 20+ hours a day for 4 weeks straight.
Just look at the most popular bot for WoW, blizzard had to take them to court to attempt to shut down the program because they have so much trouble detecting. They used some hotspot methods which caught people in MoP but that was quickly fixed and botters were back again. They caught people in WoD because of the rotation bots and kick bots which have inhuman reaction times (~50ms reaction to kick).
It's just not as easy as people think it is, throwing money at it won't solve it. I'll look forward to you actually scripting, implementing and showing the results of these so called easy methods to detect bots.
[tinfoil]It's so easy guys, even a chimp can do it, but clearly bli$$ are just lazy![/tinfoil]
I'm sure if Blizzard would do a large banwave once a year the large majority of the community woudn't bother with botting. So this 'endless armsrace' of blizzard finding something and the bots adjusting to it really isnt that big of a deal as you make it sound, at best this armsrace would be very slow and happen once a year. They only need to do this stuff once a year orso to give the majority of the community a large incentive to stop botting. Searching for something to identify bot users once a year really doesnt sound like that big of a task.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The number of people who bot will continue to raise with 1 or 2 banwaves per year. Blizzard have to do minimum of 2 banwaves per season in order the number of botters to start at least lowering. This means minimum of 8 waves per year. And still the smart coders won't be caught.