Disable follow to catch bots in BG. ( blue post)

Im just posting this here to give an idea of there mindset. Hope someone finds it useful. I know HB doesn't use follow, buts its the idea of how they think as to why i have posted it here.

Here is a post from bashiok.

We disabled /follow from use in battlegrounds to curb some of the most basic types of bots that use the command. We chose not to communicate it beforehand in attempts to catch as many bots unaware as possible. Removing /follow in battlegrounds is one small change we can make immediately to stop a number of bots, and those that choose to transition to more overt botting methods will have a much higher chance of being caught and banned.

We did consider those who use /follow for other reasons, including multiboxing, before making the change. Multiboxing in battlegrounds has been a long-fought battle within the community, as the effect of multiboxers in those situations is considered unfavorable by many. When we were looking to make a change to disable a command used by bots, which would benefit the game as a whole, we were ok with it also resulting in multiboxing in battlegrounds also going away due to the poor experience it can create for others.

Right now /follow is also disabled in Arenas, but we?re looking to revert that change as bots don?t typically exist in Arenas, and multiboxing in that kind of pre-determined group environment doesn?t tend to be as disruptive.

 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8087929775?page=6#104

Right now /follow is also disabled in Arenas, but we?re looking to revert that change as bots don?t typically exist in Arenas - LOL ^^

 

I don't even BG bot.

 

Just as I suspected. They are trying to funnel all botters through the tile system so their tile detection methods can route them to the banned bin.

/follow bots were not detectable because they latched onto a real player who didn't follow a set number of coordinates. They also didn't use CTM which is primarily what Blizzard is using as a detection method.

This should be as much a red flag as any for the HB developers. With /follow gone, their entire goal is to push botters into the same grid / CTM setup for their detection methodology. Time to find alternatives to CTM and the current tile mesh.

 

TL;DR: Or HB devs do something about pathing or it's done.

 

Likely more than just pathing if people using LazyRaider are banned too.

Things I'd look at:

Timing on rotations. No human player will ever match input to GCD perfectly.

CTM / IWT. This stuff is tracked by the server. It has to be to give you the proper moveto coordinates. Human players don't CTM/IWT other players. Only boxers and botters do this. Both groups getting banned in BGs too. No coincidence there.

 

Now we need to wait an official statement from the devs.

 

I don't think this is right. Bots like Lazybot use WASD to move.

 

>Timing on rotations. No human player will ever match input to GCD perfectly.

 

he was talking about click to move. Not timing on rotations.

 

I have to explain everything.
If you actually had read what he had written and made an effort to understand what he said was,

CTM needs to be looked at because it's used by Gatherbuddy and BGBot, and timings are used by LazyRaider.

>CTM / IWT. Both groups getting banned in BGs too.

 

There are several ways they find bots. One is certainly connected to the mesh and how it is used by profiles. Others are simply /reports and then others like LazyRaider can only be down to GCD usage and performing optimal rotations 100% of the time.

 

Ya'll are paranoid.

 

>implying this is paranoia.

 

This is a big downside to botting... i dont see them mass banning active subs, but price will sure go up on the gold.

 

^This! This is a funny thread as you all are talking about how dangerous it is to use CTM - do you all not realize that it's an option inside of your WOW interface?

 

Yes it is. But honestly what % of people do you think that USE CTM are honest players? Since you have to turn it on, and it isn't on by default, I would guess that the vast majority of honest WoW players have no idea it even exists. I would bet anything that 95% of all users of CTM are botters.

 

There is an option that a lot of people don't use, because it's not necessary when you have WASD.

 

Doesn't matter how many people, until they turn the option off like "follow" - I doubt they can/would use that.

 

I wonder how many injured/disabled people use CTM

I bet that's the only reason they don't mass ban anyone who uses CTM, they don't want to be seen as insensitive to the different needs community

But yes, this is a wake up call to HB devs, I hope. Blizz is zeroing in on detecting the ways the bot moves, so more human movement is needed. In other words, slight variability + a more accurate mesh for not walking into stuff the bot can't maneuver around.

Oh, and a vastly improved unstuck routine, because the one the bot has now is so incredibly easy to identify.