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2008-12-01 18:06:44
Update on the war against bots
Along with the constant improvements to the game’s content, the Support service and our communication policy, the DOFUS team has always taken the more ‘behind-the-scenes’ issue of bots and Kama farmers very seriously.
We have been receiving more and more questions on the subject from players, though, so I’m going to talk a little about the current status of this ongoing effort.
Several years ago we began taking various measures in order to reduce the number of Kama farmers in game, or at least to make their lives more difficult. While some of these measures were announced and have been visible (e.g. progressively lower drop rates when players fight in the same location with several accounts; limitations in access to banks; random inversion of cells at the beginning of combat…), others are not so visible and are in fact confidential. The latter forms of measures allow us to identify bots more easily and to ban them from the game.
On top of all these measures, let’s not forget all the hours of hard work put in by volunteer moderators whose ranks have grown immensely these last few months and show no signs of slowing down. These volunteers spend most of their time finding and banning bots and farmers and the number of scammers banned daily can be anything from several thousand to several tens of thousand.
What’s more, we recently created a brand new position here at Ankama. Please welcome Tyg to the CCM team. He’s in charge of supervising the hunt for bots in game and along with Bill, the server Dev and Ludo, the Web Dev, he studies the behaviour of bots, bans any ones he sees and makes sure all our tools are running as they should.
So as you can see, we’re not resting on our laurels and our tools are getting better every day. Bots and farmers are a real hindrance to the MMO industry - few games are free of them – so much so that some players seem to think that, because they see bots so often, this means we aren’t doing anything about the problem. For every bot that is banned from the game, another arrives behind it.
One sure sign of our success is the increase in the price of Kamas on subscriber only servers by 30%, although the increase on other servers has been less noticeable.
This is a job that is never finished, there are always numerous bots in game, but please don’t conclude from this that all our efforts are in vain. We are also developing new long-term projects every day, many of which will arrive along with DOFUS 2.0 and which will give us a boost when it comes to our battle against the bots.
A few figures to finish (the numbers relate the total to present):
215,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in June 2008
320,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in July 2008
450,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in August 2008
900,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in September 2008
1,850,000 Kama farmer accounts banned in October 2008
I am very proud of Ankama Games that they have made great strides in combatting bots. In Rushu it is horrid that I have to turn off the black chat in order to see someone on the map in Astrub because of all the bots advertising their website sales for MMO "gold" products. I do have some problems when I can't afford to buy a special house or a paddock or something because I don't have enough items to sell in the markets of Bonta, Brak or Astrub. Are these external websites that offer "gold" illegal or inappropriate or are they part of getting ahead of the rest to show what you can accomplish? What is the morality of using external sites to obtain kamas that you couldn't get from normal game playing?
By: HeadMasterWhompus - (2008-12-01 20:58:09)
I keep ignoring those bots on Rushu one by one, hoping - praying - that a GM somewhere is going "oh, look, 100 people blocked that character. maybe they're spamming, and I should take a look" :P
By: telkoth - (2008-12-01 21:05:39)
Why doesn't DOFUS just get a HackShield? Or a hack prevention system? Cause all other download games have one, DOFUS is the only one without that I know of...
By: HunterRabbitt - (2008-12-01 21:17:51)
Isn't it an idea that players get kicked if (for example) 30 people ignore them?
(like the same if someone gets kicked when he is inactive).
On that way normal players can help with the war against the bots...
simply by ignoring them, so the bots will disapear if they get ignored by 30 people.
By: WazZaAP - (2008-12-01 21:23:46)
Its a bad idea. It would allow serious abuses. Imagine the situation when you want your enemy to get kicked from boss fight, you just ask 30 people(or even better, just make few accs and add him to ignored list) and hes gone. Not the best idea in conclusion ;]
By: Mikefield - (2008-12-01 22:47:57)
It would, however, be interesting to monitor the list of ignored players. Having regular users being able to report a bot would would be useful. I agree with Mikefield that there will be abuses, but I expect that to be less then 10% of all cases. Still, if the ignored list can be linked to know bot behavior, it would speed up the detection.
By: neowaldorf - (2008-12-01 23:04:08)
It would be a really good Idea if mods could make a way to have a bot prevention systems in certain coordinates such as zaaps and places around them in commonly used places. Also in big cities like Astrub and allignment cities. The hard part would be the different servers.
By: rofllolboy - (2008-12-01 23:46:20)
The figures are impressive, well done to all volunteers who find, kick and ban the bots and spammers.
The biggest problem are the people who BUY those kama from sites that sell, which the bots keep in business. There will always be players in a hurry, or cheaters who can't wait and will buy from those sites. Stop the buyers and kama famers will move on to another game. Is there any way to check for sudden large unexplained increases in kama on an account? Then issue a warning and ask for an explanation?
By: tastycheese - (2008-12-01 23:59:04)
Hello.
I pay and use multiple accounts for dropping certain items for my own use only and have noticed the severe lack in drop rate of kamas and experience after a while of 'farming' on one map. I just hope that it doesn't affect the amount of items dropped as well :S.
Maybe instead of these methods you could just require some sort of identification, like when accessing the bank for example like a captcha test? Or just make more servers for P2P characters only. seeing as the majority of bots seem to appear on F2P servers...
Either way, the restriction on drops/xp for those using multiple accounts is in my opinion going a bit too far... some people actually pay for multiple accounts and use them fairly and shouldn't be penalized for that. There are other solutions to the bot problem. (Maybe cause the reduction of drops/xp to only multiple F2P accounts rather than P2P also?)
By: Professor-Lulzworth - (2008-12-02 02:18:47)
i agree with the professor p2p only get higher drops because most bots are f2p... also yous shpuld only be allowed like maybe 3-4 accounts at a time i mean i sometimes see like 10 people 9 bots one fighting charecter i mean that's just insane
By: galspar - (2008-12-02 05:55:22)
The ignore list could be a way to track prolly bout 50% of the bots. But if you really wanted to get rid of all of them, just sit at astrub zaap. Almost every single bots runs throught there and it would not be that hard to start banning from that point. Turn on all your chats and you will be able to ban the kama farmers as well.
By: druklus - (2008-12-02 06:48:02)
...it looks good, but how bout the guys on shika that got banned for 2 weeks or something for multi-logging? a subscribed team of 8 120+'s doing souls in brak arena ARE NOT bots, and some ankama guy came and banned the lot of em.
By: ATHEMAC - (2008-12-02 07:21:11)
hello i would like to say that there are loads of farmers in incarnam and not many mods if possible i would love to volentier to be a moderator
By: samnluke - (2008-12-02 07:24:55)
I have two Dofus p2p accounts. My game is sometimes slowed by the bots. They reap benefits, I get kicked off the server for 2 or more hours.
The method being used to determine if a player is cheating the game with bots is not satisfactory. Perhaps it should be based on the amounts collected from the map and not by a sudden change in speed.
I am absolutely frozen by bots. Once they are out of the map, I can move my characters again, but then I get kicked out, since I was idle for a while. Change of speed on what I was collecting at the time.
There are fewer in the p2p area, but they are still there. What I have noticed is that bots ( in a group of 8 or more) stream through the map like a snake, while multi accounts move in a different fashion.
Also, most of the bots are the same class, often are dressed in common colors and move extremely fast. (Latest bots have changed the colors and are now more colorful).
Please consider that not all players have high amounts of RAM memory available to play the game. Therefore, their game runs slower and it is next to impossible to have two accounts running at once. This causes the player have surges of movement and extreme slow downs of movement as well, it is about available RAM memory.
By: Whtbrd - (2008-12-02 07:43:22)
Are these bots from 1 same computer / program?
If so, why not to create that only 1 IP address may allow 1 or 2 accounts same time online only?
For example at Oto Mustam server (heroic) it is NOT allowed to have multiply accounts in Aggression / Perceptor / Prism fights etc. But STILL people do that.
Ankama gives rules which nobody even respects.
Multilogging out of the game completely! 100% off! only 1 account logged per time i say!
By: semis - (2008-12-02 08:07:37)
Bots are a large and very annoying part of DOFUS, I thank everything that the Ankama staff have been doing to minimize the amount of Bots in servers.
It is quite a problem with these bots, I have seen largely in Rushu the amount of them have grown immensly, but yes I'm sure that Dofus Mods do pay attentio to the list of Ignored players of each account but that'd probably be part of the "Confidential List" of measures taken as abuse would be widely used to kill off someone you hate for an hour.
On the fact of minimizing the use of accounts used by one person, I'd find that very annoying as would many others whom use them for good uses. But not to steer from what I started with, Thank you DOFUS Staff and everyone who have helped with minimizing these beasts from DOFUS.
Keep up the good work!
- Ullesyes
By: Ullesyes - (2008-12-02 08:12:51)
this is my alt i think that scamers mmmmmm must be baned......me and my freind are sescribers and we where saying that on heroic it was the best becouse there where no scamers so me and my freind made a plan. the plan was u can say like 100000,000000 words on 1 map but u cant stay on the same map or longer then 28mins now going with tahat that rule will only be in places like ,ashtrub city, or make it u are alowed 2hours in the same map i your a sascriber
so yer thats me and my freinds advise o my girlfreind says hi ,XD,bye
By: youmeandpie - (2008-12-02 08:18:02)
Also like to add to as a response to the semis.
The already have an IP lock on such things as Perceptor Battles, Prism fights and Aggressions. But minimizing it to 1 or 2 accounts would be very unkind, (a) It puts more money in the Staff's pockets, (b) It seriously helps especially in Oto Mustam and (c) May people would be very disappointed in this action.
If you dont get what I mean from when I say that it helps. Well look here, where do you think most of the items you get come from in Oto Mustam? From most of the high players. Yet I know many of these high players whom multilogg in order to give such a chance to create/buy such items from Feudala Set to Anc. Set. Without them we wouldn't have much of the items we do have now.
If you ever do see two people who have the same names ( Number-One and Number-Two ) Screen shot it, send a ticket into them to look into these accounts pass log-ins and see if they have any connection. It may no work, you may not get what you want, but still you tried anyways.
- Ullesyes
By: Ullesyes - (2008-12-02 08:19:35)
Thanks Ankama. I've just returned to Dofus after just over 6 months.
The automated harvesting/grinding bots seem to disappear almost completely. The Incarnam is actually playable now :)
What's still here are the bots that have 1 active player and 7 (macro?)bots with them.
The advertising bots in Astrub are very clearly getting banned all the time as it's always different ones clogging up the black text.
The connection for multiple accounts seem to be better than before too (no disconnects) but at peak times server respomce times can vary dramatically on the same machine.
By: Charman - (2008-12-02 18:22:26)
I run multiple accounts for a number of reasons. The main one is that the game is based on best results with a full team. It is virtually impossible to have full teams of players either from your guild or from other players to be able to spend the same time as myself at any given time. Doing Dungies with less then full teams means wasted effort in drops and makes it difficult to even complete. I really love that we can run more then one account to make the game more enjoyable. All my accounts are P2P.
By: BadBartIV - (2008-12-03 00:13:04)
Hello.
I started to play Dofus in April this year and I've three characters on Rosal server. I constantly see bots farming resources all over the astrub forest (I suppose they are f2p) and spammers in Astrub. I've seen tons of farmer bots in the Amakna fields harvesting and grinding cereals.
But the worst thing is that recently (two weeks ago) I saw groups of 8 enus or 8 fecas all with strange names, same set (gobball usually) and all with crowdzillas hunting for jellies (so I guess they are p2p)! And, I don't know if the two things are related, but the gelano price in Rosal recently dropped from 1.2mk to 7-800kk.
I know that the more people are in a server the more prices are going to decrease, but I guess bots are even ruining the markets. And is every day more difficult for "normal" players to gain some money with gathering profession or selling resources.
I spend a lot of time "working" and I really see a lot of bots. Is there a way to stop them? Is there a way to acquire the rights to ban them? Or to tell someone about them? I just slow them down a little bit challenging, exchanging, inviting them in my guild. They, obviously, refuse every time, but at least they stop for 1- minutes.
Thanks anyway for the great efford you put on this bot war! :-)
P.S.: Me and my girlfriend play two different characters with two accounts. Sometimes we fight on the same map to collect resources. Probably we have the same IP address, but I would suggest to avoid reducing the amounts of drops for just 2 accounts (well, it's not just for me... but two accounts from the same IP could be fine, maybe more than two is "a little bit" too much. Then you decide!)
Thanks.
By: Pippus - (2008-12-06 11:48:32)
Hi there.
I'm playing Dofus for more than 2 years now.
I appreciate the efforts made on banning the bots and harvesters. Still, like some other people said the measures how to identify a bot must be taken carefully:
1) The idea to make it impossible to log in several accounts over one IP isn't a good idea - imagine you got a router.... My friend, my brother and me all play Dofus (P2P), everybody on his own PC / Notebook, but via the same router. I got 2 accounts myself - not to harvest or drop faster, but to have more support (Eni e.g.).
2) Concerning the 2 hour ban: I experienced that 2 times, always with a fishermen. I was told it was a question of speed and harvesting on the same map. Well, I was fishing at swimming pool ;-) Since I got a faster PC, it didn't happen again, though.
Maybe before the game kicks you or when you say the same stuff like a 100times you should get a pop-up asking a displayed number or anything, so that you can proof to be human.
3) I think the ignore list could help, maybe an extra option should be added, like "spamming" or "bot?!" - if many player quote that for an account (over several days/weeks), this could be checked in detail.
If you have problem finding people to kick bots, maybe offer regular players to do it for 2 days, get 3 days account free ;-) Still I think most players will do it voluntarily, cause the bots really slow down the game and the gold farmes destroy the economics in the game.
How about a "kick-spammer-only" account one gets for 2-3 days, then it's given over to another player (by Ankama). This way everybody could help to ban the bots.
What is about content filtering? If they got a filter for swear words, can't an intelligent filter for "buy kamas" (B U Y K.A.M.A.S. or anything else) do the job? They can't sell anything without telling what they wanna sell and on which website.
Well, thanks to all helping in making the game more fun by kicking all the greedy morons making a game into money-makin' mess.
Keep on the good work - the numbers are really impressive - still, when you kicked/banned more, that means there were more, too ;-P
Cheers,
Nivalis
By: Nivalis - (2008-12-08 19:12:49)
I wish there was an item you could use on someone and it would cause a "gag" to appear in their inventory and prevent them from moving or talking. If they try to move, a message would tell them to check their inventory, and then they would know to remove the gag. The gag would also tag them as a potential bot. That way players could easily quite the bots in astrub and also allow them to make kama farmers lives very difficult. If players did not remove the gag, they would be unable to move and eventually logged off just as would normally happen for inattention.
Tom
By: dudebearpig - (2008-12-09 07:15:48)
i dont know why,but when i traded with my best friend,that item(tofu set)is gone
do something about it,i think its something to do with bots.in some sort of way,like item teleport.
By: girbletina - (2008-12-09 16:21:41)
we'll i love everything you gems at ankama do...except the nerfs..*kicks several bots and over powered iops....* ahem anyway, is there anything that can be done about the random map change? it seems to be making hard working feca's lifes very hard, most if not all the bots i'v seen are big teams of sadies and this map change doesnt seem to affect them, but for feca's a 0min tofu/boar fight can take up to 5minutes, and im 12x so i wander how the lower level fecas cope, when i was level 70-85 this was the only way i could make enough money to buy new gear. maybe the map change is for the best but it some areas if may not be necessary.
~love Devils-Xup~
By: rasbas - (2008-12-09 21:03:30)
I have a few ways to fix this problem.
You see, there is another mmo i play, called runescape. A lot of people have heard of it.
It used to be swarmed by bots, and it used to be more crowded than rushu on a weekend. But all that they did to fix it is to make a trade limit.
Now, not too many people liked the limit, in fact, many people are still complaining about it today, and it may not work in dofus with such variable market values, but it is a suggestion. Maybe you could find the average market value in an area(like astrub) and make a starting limit of 15000 kamas for each player and it increases every 10 levels. It will significantly reduce the amount of bots in f2p and partially reduce the amount of bots in p2p. yeah, some ppl may not like it, but it is a great idea in my opinion.
-slad
By: sladikownz - (2008-12-10 01:48:47)
I don't think that the resource bots are that bad (Dunno what they do really) Apart from fill our percs ^^, Never seen the poneh's so full!! Kama spamming site bots, they p**** me off ._., I mean, if a mod or 2 logged in and walked around astrub, clicking /info on the kama spammers? then blocking that acc?, Or, making the "making a new acc" thing a little more secure? Other then that idk.. i mean, the drop rates on stuff are really hard sometimes, and alot of work, which makes people turn to these bots ^^ *High five* never bought any =O i'd love too though, =O but its stupid to, so here i am grinding for a month ^^ lol
x
By: specialcase - (2008-12-11 11:47:22)
I personally think the decision to ban kama farmers was a bad one. The markets are totally dried out of scrolling resources and other low level items now; It's no good for players at all.
By: EvilDoRuk - (2008-12-15 04:12:31)
I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to pass on clarification regarding resource/kama farmers? I tend to not poke about the devblog or even the main site often and am not quite familiar with the term itself.
I have been playing this game on and off for quite some time now (moreso now that I've had difficulty finding a job) and admit to making use of multiple accounts on a server. The first reason being that since my subscription ran out in late August, I've needed to mix things up profession-wise here to keep myself from getting bored. This is a fabulous game, and I'd like it to not wind up as another MMO I used to play (Fallen Sword) did. My second reason being that I wish to be as self-sufficient when it comes to resources as possible, since I am not of a guild and my friends have since left for other MMOs.
I use no scripts or bots, I just haul serious booty in an effort to make my way and was thus wondering if I was somehow doing something wrong.
Hope to be able to return to my former P2P status soon,
~Mana
By: CallistoAlmasy - (2008-12-19 22:17:52)
Just had an interesting anti-kama selling idea, that goes after the people on top, rather than after the bots:
http://forum.dofus.com/en/game-development-f8/new-anti-kama-selling-idea-t69170.html
In short: Instead of banning a bot, a GM could "tag" him as such. Any character given kamas by the bot would get tagged as well... and so on and so on. When a character with a large amount of kamas (like 1mk) gets tagged - his assets are frozen (can't make exchanges or buy/sell things in markets) until a GM reviews his/her case. This would target the kama sellers or buyers instead of the bot armies.
By: Bujax - (2008-12-30 00:09:00)
i really want to no high lvl acounts please just for me to play on it
By: Sticy - (2009-01-05 23:02:41)
I would like to have Kaoly and the Anti Bot team look at a new scenario that has cropped up with regard to these gold farming bots in Astrub. As noted earlier I turn off black (default) chat when I am there so that I can see things and move around. The new scam is this: I can see a string of Cras or Sadidas moving as one unit across the Astrub map. It's like from the old cartoon shows from USA known as "The Flash". They are all moving simultanously in the same manner and in the same direction... and it is about 8 of the same class of characters using the same colors tracking across the screen ... then you go to Tofu's corner just south of Astrub and these bots have taken one or 2 tofu mobs and filled up with 8 players. This is the new way things I have seen on Rushu. In the previous replies to this devblog topic many have posted that ignoring a particular character would seem be a flag or a symbolic means of identifying if someone is a bot. That's just not possible. No one at Ankama keeps track of the miniscule amounts of ignored players in the extremely high load servers.... it is beyond the constraints of plausibility for someone to delve into the database. It's just not possible or plausible. Thanks for your comments.
By: HeadMasterWhompus - (2009-01-08 04:06:11)
bgb
By: jasperp - (2009-01-08 18:52:43)
hi i would like to say that lately there has been a lot of cra's and sadida's in incarnam/ they all have random colours and names and i think they are bots becuase i have repeadidaly tried to tlak to them but no reply and they have been atking mobs of gobbals and gobblies and they are normally running as a massive group. it has been lagging out the whole incarnam but i think a mod or superviser should have a look into it.
By: puppetmasterrr - (2009-02-19 21:47:22)
Dofus Kamas: http://www.servicegamer.com/dofus-kamas-fr.asp
Dofus: http://www.mmovs.com/dofus-kamas-fr/
By: honinsos - (2009-03-04 08:05:48)
hey i have a quetgion how can u get a lot a kamas
By: maksiamine - (2009-04-11 00:09:58)
hmmm, i hope a GM/Mod is reading these messages - anyways - really enjoy the Dofus game - interesting new version (April 7th) also - however, the tofu corner really needs to be looked at guys - it was so over run with the bots tonight that it was impossible to play in the area - the bots where literally standing and waiting to take mobs - 4 to 5 sets of bots to a screen/grid - friend suggested i send a ticket but i have not figured out how to do that yet - figured i'd just drop a note here instead, after reading all the previous entries - thanks for any help the company can provide - good work guys - later then - bye.
By: idoloveyourmonkey - (2009-04-11 09:36:54)
Ok, first, that thing about banning multilogging, that is just dumb. So many people make 2 or 3 accounts for support or extra prospecting. Second, who the f*** is stupid enough to advertise kama selling sites on a topic about banning kama farmers? Third, Bujax, your idea is interesting, but how bout people who make money from shattering ap items, or breeding? A good breeder can make tons of money in a short amount of time, way more than 1mk. I saw a mount just today for sale in Rushu Bontarian market for 11mk because it has a capacity.
By: Shiners-Creation - (2009-07-15 08:50:06)
I have multiple accounts myself, but that is only because u cant get all of the professions on one account. I also trade resources between them. I dont see y u should ban accounts unless they are actually bots or are trying to sell kamas.
By: purpleflyingcow - (2009-07-20 21:21:59)
I've been playing Dofus for a long time, longer then any game I've ever played before.
When I started, there were no bots, no kama farmers, only people using multiple accounts.
As someone said before, it's obvious to tell when there're bots moving and people using multiple accounts by the way the move accross the screen, how fast they move, how far apart they are, and when they disappear onto the next screen.
You shouldn't ban people with p2p who have multiple accounts, or ban people making a lot of money.
What should be done, is have a Mod to sit in front of a the bank, or class statues, I've noticed most recently there're a lot more coming from the enu, cra, feca, and sadi statue, and just ban all the bots that go running through.
It's not that hard.
Hell, I'll do it if nothing else, I want these bots gone so people can enjoy the game.
As for the people who're telling all the fake Kama websites, just ignore them, or report them, and eventualy Ankama will ban then when they realize how many people are ignoring them.
Good gaming all!
Have fun, and good luck with the drops!
By: XxXdemonXxX - (2009-07-23 15:39:26)
Most bots I see are in Astrub. They, like a lot of others, are Cras or Sadidas, and it's usually either 1 bot or 4-6. Dofus people should just check to see if people are just doing stuff like " dofusok.(om" over and over (common example) and they'll probably be bots. Definitely kick them if they're nonresponsive. Bots always are.
Wishing to have my screen less covered up by bots saying wierd sites in the chat,
Vedaros
PS: Vedaros is my main character.
By: DWKmaster - (2009-07-29 03:10:38)
why not a captcha test at login or some other thing that bots wouldn't be able to crack?
By: Raccoon - (2009-09-15 05:35:42)
