I put in a suggestion for combating the bot problem but it didn’t get much traction and i don’t think Rox and Shadow Fox saw it as well so I am reposting here in hopes that the CM can see this and pass this info along if they find it useful.
The past couple of months have been terrible in terms of getting past queues and I understand AGS/SG is doing their best into combatting bots. However it is nearly impossible to combat them without infringing on certain privacy laws (IE Government ID verification like in KR) or having them easily bypass (IE phone verification or VPN Ban). Thus I want to suggest, what I believe, is going to be an unpopular band-aid solution but one that seems to be needed in the short term while a long term solution is to be implemented.
The core issues with battling bots right now seems to be the creation of new accounts/new characters. This is evident in recent banning of bot accounts and it seems to be good for a few days and then as though double the number of bots come back.
The band-aid solution I want to suggest is limiting character creation just like what you did during the launch to stabilize the server. This won’t be a permanent thing but a monthly timed thing. There will be cons to doing this to which I will address at the end of this post.
Example outline of what I’m proposing
Week 1 - Close character creation / Banning of suspected bot accounts on maintenance day
Week 2 - Close character creation / reallocate resource into looking at tickets for incorrectly banned accounts from suspected bot usage / additional resources looking into character reported botting issues
Week 3 - Close character creation / Banning of suspected bot accounts on maintenance day
Week 4 - Allow for character creation for the entire week
Doing it this way will accomplish a couple of things that would hit the botters significantly.
- Slows down the amount of new bots that are coming into the game so you can use the remainder of your resource to find the remainder bots and really start to truly reduce the bot population.
- Slows down the amount of gold the botters can accumulate thus making it less profitable for them to farm.
- Makes it harder to just create a new account and start over as character creation will be locked for 3 weeks (these 3 weeks can also be used to sift out other remaining suspected bot accounts).
- Slows down progression of their account as there is a constant ban wave followed by character creation lock.
On the flip side it will also bring negative effects to the current player base and new player base. I will also leave my comments on those areas.
- Limits amount of new players that can play and try the game
- I believe most of the player base is not new players but people that are consistently playing. Meaning most character creations are done already. Yes there will be new players that want to try the game, but I bet that having them only able to join 1 week of the month is better than them joining and waiting 10-20k in queue just to try the game.
- Frustration to the current player base that want to create and try new characters.
- This is the hardest one to please everyone other than explaining the current situation and that this will improve their overall gameplay by having no queues to join the game while you work on solution to help the botting issue. You can also give ample notice to the current player base (2weeks) to create any character they want right now due to character creation lock. However this may tip off botters to make a ton of accounts and characters in preparation.