Bot Captchas

[Icewind007]

So it's been over a month since this game has started for us. Other than the crashing, the greatest gripe is the BOTS.

They are getting bolder by the day. They infest every channel of prime grinding areas. More of them are turning off the "is being attacked" check and are beginning to KS legit players. They ruin the economy, thin out enemies, farm named, harvest resources, and sell to RMT buyers, etc. And they do this relentlessly without any notable action by NCsoft.

So, I am asking you all what is your current consensus about having an in-game Captcha? I know about 3 weeks ago, the idea was very negative. This was before bots had the chance of spreading onto everyone's nerves.

Perhaps one that works like this... Every hour or 2 (perhaps even semi-randomly), a small dialog appears on the edge of the screen that has a captcha. It would require your input to type the letters or answer a simple question. It would have maybe a 20-30 min time limit (in line with the idle kick time). If nothing is typed, it will simply kick you off and possibly note that or keep a count of it. High repeat "offenders" would be taken note of and may be further investigated.

What do you all think of this now?

[Wreckus]

Yes, that would be so hard for a bot to get around they should implement this immediatly

[dirtyklingon]

yes punish the legit players! definitely the way to go!

[Iggy_Ride]

This will be implemented, it will come in 1.5.1 (or so it was said in translated patch notes awhile ago) The system was designed to pop up randomly when gathering or crafting.

[Icewind007]

Originally Posted by dirtyklingon

yes punish the legit players! definitely the way to go!

You consider having to type a few letters or so once every hour or two a punishment? I would type a paragraph to get rid of bots.

Besides, what game are you playing? Are you playing the same MMO grinder that requires many hours to level that the rest of us are playing? Are you using the same internet where every site that has a registration has a CAPTCHA?

The only way to automatically get rid of an automation is to use a CAPTCHA, which by definition is supposed to prevent an automated system from passing the check.

But if you consider that a "punishment", I don't know why you play this game FULL of "punishments". Having to type you login and password every time you log in. Having to walk back to merchants to sell. Having to read text to do a quest. Having to pay for death exp. Etc.

But somehow you are fine with being bot KSed, players with unfair advantages, messed up economy, chat spam, player merchant spam, thinned mob population, etc... Unless you are a botter yourself, why would you complain about something so small?

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Originally Posted by Iggy_Ride

This will be implemented, it will come in 1.5.1 (or so it was said in translated patch notes awhile ago) The system was designed to pop up randomly when gathering or crafting.

Just gathering and crafting? Those are often the least of my worries. How many bots out there craft? I've never seen one. I've seen gathering ones, but that's rare.

If this is true, and there is no implementation for mob hunting bots, then it seems like NCSoft is trying to cover up a problem they don't want stopped. They act like they are trying something but completely miss the main problem.

I really hope you didn't give all the details or that what you said isn't true.

[Hypo]

Originally Posted by Iggy_Ride

This will be implemented, it will come in 1.5.1 (or so it was said in translated patch notes awhile ago) The system was designed to pop up randomly when gathering or crafting.

Ok I understand the gathering Captchas but doing the same thing for crafting is idiotic. Why the hell should I set around if I'm going to be making, say, 100+ items (ie. think elemental waters). A guildie of mine makes thousands of potions in a given session; are they seriously thinking of introducing a captcha for this? Who in there right mind would sit and watch 100+ stupid Success/Fail animations?

Unless they introduce a captcha for the bots that are grinding on mobs this plan of NCSofts is useless.

[Icewind007]

Originally Posted by Hypo

Ok I understand the gathering Captchas but doing the same thing for crafting is idiotic. Why the hell should I set around if I'm going to be making, say, 100+ items (ie. think elemental waters). A guildie of mine makes thousands of potions in a given session; are they seriously thinking of introducing a captcha for this? Who in there right mind would sit and watch 100+ stupid Success/Fail animations?

Unless they introduce a captcha for the bots that are grinding on mobs this plan of NCSofts is useless.

Exactly what I was thinking.

As I said before, I hope the details are not all there or that this is simply not true.