Solving bot alt spam; Its been done before!

[Servant_Girl]

I don't know how I could have possibly over looked this but the solution to alt spam as been right in front of our eyes the whole time!

There happens to be another java game called Minecraft, and there happens to be a griefing tool for said game called 'pwnage'. Now, what pwnage does is you feed it an alt list (most 'good' griefing teams have at least 900 or so) and it will connect to a server as many alts as will fit, as soon as a server slot opens up it puts in another. The tool lets you sort of remote control them all.

Sound familiar?

Weeeeelll there just so happens to be a server side direct counter to pwnage called 'nopwnage' which detects pwnage and rapidly bans not only the accounts, but the proxies as well. So the griefer very quickly depletes his supply of alts and proxies.


"But Servant_Girl, that can't apply to HnH because the alts leave hearth fires and are free and therefor infinite"

True the greifer cannot 'run out' of accounts but I feel like a server sided counter could work in the same way! It could detect when new accounts are rapidly all using the same HS or all using a HS to the same immediate area! No set 'limit' or number...just it detects them being created at a speed faster than a single person would be able to do.

The counter program would kill, and delete the alts from the database. If they're not banned in the creation room then they would all be banned just as they appear on the surface! Character file deleted, HF gone!

No gameplay change, no account restrictions, a sever side fail safe that directly attacks the problem and only the problem.

I am Servant_Girl, at your service.

[Xcom]

How would one detect if a player makes a new account / character rather then a bot doing it?

You could accidentally have hundred of inconvenienced people not being able to play cause they were accidentally banned. Then jorb and loftar would have to start unbanning these sed banned players one by one.

[Servant_Girl]

A human cannot create alts as fast as a computer can

Thats what you would be detecting. Accounts being created to the same HS faster than a human being would ever need to.

[Dzedajus]

What about those cases when just one person manages to spam lets say 30 hearth fires, then this system you suggested wouldn't work not to mention it has quite a few downsides that might just cause inconvenience to devs and players.

[TeckXKnight]

What about those cases when just one person manages to spam lets say 30 hearth fires, then this system you suggested wouldn't work not to mention it has quite a few downsides that might just cause inconvenience to devs and players.

Elaborate?

[DDDsDD999]

What about those cases when just one person manages to spam lets say 30 hearth fires, then this system you suggested wouldn't work not to mention it has quite a few downsides that might just cause inconvenience to devs and players.

Elaborate?

Spawn an alt at another alt's HS, give that new spawned alt a HS, and spawn a new alt at that HS. If you want to shift the alt spam to a new area, this is what you do.

As for the idea:

lol make the server know the alts and gib them

Why didn't loftar think of this!?

[Momoka]

Just put a timer for HS spawning.

1 minute is enough to deter most automated botting.

[Servant_Girl]

I'm not sure why. But it obviously can be done since the developers of nopwnage did it.

[Arcanist]

Then there are also the cases of when a group of people all want to see something, so they all spawn an alt at a HS

[Servant_Girl]

Depending on how sensitive the system is more than one person spamming alts might set it off.

Sometimes to stop people from cheating or griefing, the admin simply needs to have a bigger E-peen and ban until they give up.

A bit blunt but thats the way it is.