kabuto202 wrote:The only relevant "source" talking about specifically anti-botting is a reddit user claiming to be falsely banned. Which, isn't proof of anything. They could have been falsely banned, or they could have been completely legitimately banned. That's not saying false bans don't happen, but it's difficult to actually actual numbers publicly since companies don't share individual ban details.
(Actually, that thread has a lot of people claiming false bans, and the consensus in there is that they just happen pretty frequently.)
My point was that anti-cheat triggers on all kinds of inane shit. As long as you acknowledge that that happens, my point has been made.
Article wrote:In this paper, we propose a game bot detection framework.
It's not a paper on
how bot detection works, but rather
an idea to improve bot detection. It is not a methodology that has been tested in reality and it hasn't yet withstood attempts to subvert it. Any new countermeasure will briefly be effective before botters adjust to it. They acknowledge that existing server-side bot detection methods are flawed, and thus NCSoft (3100 employees, $422 million yearly revenue) got four university researchers to look into better bot detection measures (according to the article, over 15% of Aion players were bots in the time period that was investigated, and "each banned user has been vetted and verified by human labor").
Regarding existing methods, it says:
Article wrote:While this approach provides high accuracy, it is limited in several ways. First, they only focus on observations of short time window, thus they are easy to evade. Second, some of such work focuses only on a limited feature space, thus the approach is prone to confusing bots with “hardcore” users (users who use the game for long times; who are increasingly becoming a phenomenon in the online gaming communities).
[...]
This approach is however limited to detecting misbehavior in party play and cannot detect misbehavior in single play games.
[...]
While such technique has been shown to work in the past, such feature lacks context, and might be easily manipulated by bot settings.
[...]
Their scheme requires a lot of data of certain behavior for establishing self-similarity.
[...]
However, their feature also can be evaded and noised by adaptive bots that integrate human-like moving behavior.
TL;DR: None of them work against dedicated botters (e.g. major factions in Haven). All you can feasibly do is catch scriptkiddies, who are not the problem.
kabuto202 wrote:So this is why I didn't really wanna waste the effort getting engaged in this discussion and just pointed out that your inability to distinguish between anti-botting and anti-cheating systems is extremely problematic. Everything I quoted here, has absolutely nothing to do with what I suggested, because those are all anti-cheat measures that run specifically within the client. Proper anti-botting measures are always implemented server-side and focus entirely on detection, that way a list can be compiled and botters can be banned in mass.
From the very article you linked:
Most game companies have adopted client-side detection methods that analyze game bot signatures as the primary measure against game bots. Client-side detection methods use the bot program’s name, process information, and memory status. This method is similar to antivirus programs that detect computer viruses (Mohaisen and Alrawi 2014). Client-side detection methods can be readily detoured by game bot developers, in addition to degrading the computer’s performance. For this reason, many countermeasures that are based on this approach, such as commercial anti-bot programs, are not currently preferred.
Client-side detection is and remains the standard, even though it's shit. (Note also how it mentions the inevitable collateral damage that occurs.)
kabuto202 wrote:VDZ wrote:https://rspeer.org/docs/tips-for-safe-osrs-botting/
One of my favorite things about forcing people to back up their claims, is that if they aren't familiar with the topic enough. Sometimes, they'll provide a source that actually contradicts them and supports my point instead. Like how this source points out that you will get caught botting eventually and these tips are here to just delay the inevitable.
VDZ wrote:https://www.runemate.com/community/threads/how-to-bot-safely.1086/
Similar vibes as the previous verse. Again, your own sources proves my point that no, bot manufacturers don't know what heuristics are used or how to bypass them. All the recommendations are effectively become "don't bot too much and behave like a normal person when botting" which for me that's basically mission accomplished lol.
For you, it's mission accomplished when only the better bots, used by people who actually know how to properly use bots (e.g. the major factions people always complain about) are still active? After putting in tons of work, you'll have solved everything except for the actual problem. And even if you do manage to eventually catch some major faction bots - what then? They'll just create a new account and resume botting. Major faction villages have been nuked before and even that doesn't stop them from botting and exploiting. If the actions that can reasonably be taken without harming tons of innocents were effective enough to dissuade rampant botting, these articles would not have been written. They're just guides to make your botting more effective by reducing the hindrance caused by anti-bot measures.
by TerraSleet » Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:44 am 
