I’ve noticed that bots always stop and try to harvest depleted resource nodes.
By depleted node, I mean a resource node that has already been harvested and has not yet respawned. Things like tree stumps, broken ore, cut down hemp, etc.
The Devs could just place an object at depleted nodes to detect if a player tries to harvest the clearly depleted node. This will appear to do nothing but it will flag that player with a counter for the attempt.
Then if the player crosses a high threshold of trying to harvest more than 30 depleted nodes within a hour, they can simply either immediately be given a permanent ban for botting or be flagged for manual investigation.
Would like to get other players’ feedback on this. Do you think this would work if implemented? Am I overlooking something obvious?
I honestly believe a lot of these “bots” are regular players just farming like us. Reasons for this is I’ve played with them, talked to them while farming or not, and interacted with them alot. Tbh I’ve only seen bots on very low priced resources like rawhides, iron ore, stones, green woods, and fibers.
The huge issue for NW is the insufficient amount of materials for 2500 players. We’ve not received any communication with regards to it, and I’m not sure if we ever will prior to the update. Might be the least of their worries right now.
I probably wasn’t being clear. I’ll edit the original post to make it clearer.
Depleted Node means a Resource Node that has already been harvested. Things like tree stumps, broken ore, cut down hemp, etc.
I don’t really think players try to harvest these depleted nodes very often. Maybe they will a couple of times because they are trying to harvest an available node right beside it but they certainly do not do it nearly as often as bots do.
The threshold might need a bit of tweaking to make it extremely unlikely to trigger a false positive, but I think a good balance can be made.
It’s very easy to tell the difference between a bot and player. First most obvious is bots go the same route every time and stop at every node in the route to try and farm it regardless if it’s even spawned or not. This is basically foolproof detection, no normal player would do that.
The other is just the way they move, some of them have a random hop here and there. But actual players, tend to dodge roll to get to the nodes quicker, and take different not straight line routes. Players also don’t normally stop, turn 90 degree in place then go forward again. Lots of little things that stand out. But the farming empty nodes is basically foolproof recognition.
That’s why the threshold should be quite high to prevent false positives. Its easy to imagine a player accidentally trying to to ‘interact’ with a tree stump when he is actually trying to cut down the tree beside it. However this should be a fairly rare incident for players but much more common for bots that can’t distinguish between an available resource node and one that is depleted.
This is true because bots are normally programmed to try to harvest at given coordinates on the map rather than actually visually looking for resource nodes on the screen. Most people who use bots don’t even actually put the routes in themselves but simply download ones that other people have traced out for them.
Thus for example, it is hard to imagine a player trying to harvest 50 depeleted resource nodes within an hour while this would be a fairly common for bots to do if another player or bot has just harvested all the resource nodes in a given area.
LOLOL when multiple “players” are running to the same nodes, even the depleted nodes in the same order, at the same time, you honestly think they are regular players?
Obviously not, I’m talking about some players who act like bots but aren’t. Generally doesn’t engage with people but just farms. I was farming while watching a movie and someone asshole tented the nodes I was gonna farm. Told me I was a bot, even when I’m asking him to remove the tent.
I have come across a number of players who I chatted with while farming, multiple times in fact. So much that on a later encounter they invited me to their guild after they said hello and waved due to recognizing my name.
I work for myself and am able to shift my hours when I play/sleep etc. Because farming was becoming a nightmare, I decided to try farming in early early morning, like 1am to 7 am
And I saw the same people farming…except this time, they did not talk to me, they did not interact. They acted like I was not there even after trying to talk to them.
Point is. There are players who play during the day, and use their account to bot at night.
You might be talking to people setting up their bot path for all you know. Hence, why they look like bots but you were able to converse with. Its a strong possibility.