Bots

[SaiFuji]

There's been an ever increasing number of bots and now we have commerce bots that may have some effect on the prices of commerce. Also, these commerce bots are basically gold farming by using commerce as a way to get around Devcats designs. Possible solution:
Devcat can design a CAPTCHA program into Mabinogi. For all commerce to begin, a CAPTCHA would appear in the game and requires the player to input the CAPTCHA. The catch is that Bots are basically programs. Bots and computers cannot solve CAPTCHAS alone. Thus, if CAPTCHAS were implemented before commerce begins, then the bots would be unable to use commerce. Players can because the CAPTCHAS are fairly easy for all to solve.

[UnNormal]

I'm pretty sure the bots could solve that, they have those 'quiz bombs' that never really worked. It'll just be more workload for the player.

[SUNFLARE]

The need a Level limit of like total level 100 to fix the Issue techinically

[Drizzit]

Captchas are annoying and easily hackable.

[Krissyasaur]

i kind of like them,
they boost prices in other places.. maybe they'll make those gazillion ducat items more manageable now, too.

[TheSingingLion]

lol i would not want to put letters everytime i want to commerce. :hot2:

[Calisto]

Things like CAPTCHAs in a game indicate a fundamental failure in game design, and that's why they're generally avoided. Especially on repeated in-game activities.

[Fabian]

How about a forced battle (with no outside help) at the start of the trip (ie the weakest kind since it's so close)? Bots would stay there all day. ;D

[Chihaya]

Personally, I think it's probably best if logouts/disconnections resulted in the player losing a small fraction of his goods. Because bots ALWAYS change channels to avoid bandits, this "small fraction" actually adds up. This penalty is generally not as significant towards actual players.

[Drizzit]

Personally, I think it's probably best if logouts/disconnections resulted in the player losing a small fraction of his goods. Because bots ALWAYS change channels to avoid bandits, this "small fraction" actually adds up. This penalty is generally not as significant towards actual players.
That's actually what Devcat is implementing, but that punishes players with poor connections. Even losing a small fraction is a lot if you're transporting the heavy, expensive stuff.
Personally, I say let the bots stay. They're not hurting anyone.

[Lyrveil]

To be fair the best solution would be like someone said to restrict commerce to a certain total level. Like 100-200+ this way freshly made bots couldnt access it. And newer player generally reach 100 quite quickly.

[Elleanior]

To be fair the best solution would be like someone said to restrict commerce to a certain total level. Like 100-200+ this way freshly made bots couldnt access it. And newer player generally reach 100 quite quickly.
Assuming that they're dedicated enough to the game to do that. Then again, the first things on a new player's mind is probably leveling and making money through killing mobs and completing ptjs. Commerce is probably the last thing on their mind at the time.

On another note, watching the bots screw with the price values will be fun to watch. If the majority of them just do Belvast <-> Cohb, then it won't be too bad of a skew, but still. I can't think of any good bot-catching ideas, other than captchas.. which I'm not too keen on.
http://www.searchcowboys.com/images/upload/google_captcha.jpg

[Royale]

i think another solution is for nexon to start selling gold, while this might make mabi more pay2win , the benefits would out-weight the negatives. It will cut down bot companies's revenue, they will try to compete price with nexon, but i am sure people who buy gold would rather buy from the official source and not risk getting scammed or banned. so eventually botting for gold will not be profitable anymore and most bots will leave. this will also give nexon more revenue which could be potentially used to improve mabi. and really, buying gold is like buying gachas or dyes; but with less work, which is why bots are still in business in the first place.

[Kaeporo]

Remove gold from commerce rewards. That's what they're after anyway.

[Paradise]

The need a Level limit of like total level 100 to fix the Issue techinically

this is the best way to get ride of them, i hope they limit commerce this way, or maybe lvl 50

[Splatulated]

lol i would not want to put letters everytime i want to commerce. :hot2:

same + not all of theme are easily read like on the forum things for habbo.com 99% of them are impossible to read so you spend about 20-30 minuits refreshing the damn thing untill you can read it

[starpaw7]

:worry:



Remove gold from commerce rewards. That's what they're after anyway.

I am against that option.

Commerce is a nice way to make Gold along the way; if it was removed then it would slowly eat at away my Gold from repairs, so I couldn't rely on Trading to fill everything that a dungeon or a Shadow Mission can.

I would prefer a Level limit, or the Gold reward is reduced/eliminated if you do the same 2 towns (let's say 5 times, resulting in 10 transactions) in a row, which can be easily reversed by conducting a trade somewhere else.

But the former, in my opinion, looks to be the best.

[Royale]

taking away golds from commerce or lose goods from cc would only make the players suffer even more because of bots, and really wouldn't effect bots at all, they have alot of other ways to make money. Combating bots at the expense of players is always a bad idea.

[SaiFuji]

Hm, well CAPTCHAS are annoying and do become weak after a while. Perhaps a solution for bots is to start a battle as soon the commerce begins where only the merchants can fight and no one else can. However, the bandits would be fairly weak and would concentrate on attacking rather than stealing. Players cannot CC and must fight the bandits. Real players can form parties to face the bandits together something bots will not do. Plus, the bots would be destroyed by the bandits where a real player can easily defeat them. Or maybe real players can initaite bandit battles that the bots are facing. I've made some bandit battles where the bandits instantly aggroed the bots and targeting its supplies before aggroing me. If there was a way to have the bandits attack the first person to meet the bandits before everyone else, then the bots would be killed off and allow for the other players to fight them off at their leisure.