Can bots be considered spoof?

SlashX · Nov 27, 2015

Nowdays, as all knows, bots are in a very advanced stage... Can do everything since level 1 to infinite with small (or even none) human intervention. And this can be done with a virtually unlimited amount of characters at same time, I see people on oficial game and otserv that runs many dozens of mcs-bots.

With that, is completly possible to otadmins use this to inflate artificially the amount of players in yours servers. This can be done even by a otadmin with a very small skills in otservers, but with some skills in bots scripting, what is a normal thing for most of the players that still play otserv today.

To a otadmin with some skills in otserv, he can create conditions that incentivate the players to open massive amounts of characters at same time, ie: to get some exp boost, give random items to online players, and others kind of situations that can be easily find in many otservers... He can even - behind the scenes - pay (vips, points, etc) players to open bots to help the server.

Otadmins with moderate skills can create automatizated scripts that create characters, log-in and run bots and then get massive amount of players controlled by yourself.

I can see some friends asking me "what are happening with otservers? I see servers with 300, 500, 800 players but I cant see the real action ingame... All people are only boting... Just small wars... The game is not really alive... Just boring servers"

Spoof is the way of manipulate the numbers of players showed on status to more then the real amount... This is normally done by editing the code, using non-logout areas or changing the idle time kick... But, and about the bots? This can't be considered a spoof too? Just done in a different way but with the same objective (get advantages in otservlist)?

And about servers that try to make a anti-cheaters/bots policy... Eventually these servers will be in troubles since is expected that each player with only one character while your competitors are allowing your players use dozens of characters in bot, or in a worse scenario, otadmins using hundreds of bots, what is just impossible to discern from real players using bots.

Mr. Greyshade · Nov 27, 2015

I think this should be placed in the discussion board instead, but I agree with you, fully afk cavebotters that aren't doing anything else is practically the same thing as spoofs. And it makes sense for server owners to allow such behaviour sadly since it will increase their player numbers and thus more real players will actually give the server a try (just like spoofing does). As a player I would love to see stats that shows the real amount of active players somehow.

ghettobird · Nov 27, 2015

SlashX said:
Nowdays, as all knows, bots are in a very advanced stage... Can do everything since level 1 to infinite with small (or even none) human intervention. And this can be done with a virtually unlimited amount of characters at same time, I see people on oficial game and otserv that runs many dozens of mcs-bots.

With that, is completly possible to otadmins use this to inflate artificially the amount of players in yours servers. This can be done even by a otadmin with a very small skills in otservers, but with some skills in bots scripting, what is a normal thing for most of the players that still play otserv today.

To a otadmin with some skills in otserv, he can create conditions that incentivate the players to open massive amounts of characters at same time, ie: to get some exp boost, give random items to online players, and others kind of situations that can be easily find in many otservers... He can even - behind the scenes - pay (vips, points, etc) players to open bots to help the server.

Otadmins with moderate skills can create automatizated scripts that create characters, log-in and run bots and then get massive amount of players controlled by yourself.

I can see some friends asking me "what are happening with otservers? I see servers with 300, 500, 800 players but I cant see the real action ingame... All people are only boting... Just small wars... The game is not really alive... Just boring servers"

Spoof is the way of manipulate the numbers of players showed on status to more then the real amount... This is normally done by editing the code, using non-logout areas or changing the idle time kick... But, and about the bots? This can't be considered a spoof too? Just done in a different way but with the same objective (get advantages in otservlist)?

And about servers that try to make a anti-cheaters/bots policy... Eventually these servers will be in troubles since is expected that each player with only one character while your competitors are allowing your players use dozens of characters in bot, or in a worse scenario, otadmins using hundreds of bots, what is just impossible to discern from real players using bots.

Well I couldn't read through all of it to be honest, just skimmed real quick but If your question is are bots considered spoof? Well, If your server counts them as players then yes, for example, eryn the guy who sells potions is a bot (or we call him an npc, non player character) however him being in your server's shop area or not has nothing to do with the amount of players you have. So this is not considered spoof... So if you create players that are counted in your "who is online" even though you control them if you want, it is considered spoof

J.Dre · Nov 27, 2015

Can they be? Sure. Should they be? Hmm, that's not so easily answered.

"Spoofing," as you said, is intended to manipulate the online player count to seem as though you have more players than you actually do. AFK botters are not intended to manipulate online count. They're just extremely lazy people abusing the rules and getting away with it. So, technically they're not "spoofers," even though they're counted. They're still semi-active legitimate players.

To answer your question: I don't believe cave-botters should be automatically considered spoofers if you have some sort of "anti-bot" system in place to catch / manage them. However, if you do not have a system in place to target botters (whether it be through active staff or some other system), you are somewhat liable for a quote-on-quote "spoofed" online count. But that's just one opinion.

It's really a grey area and opinions will vary. There's no one right or wrong answer.

SlashX · Nov 27, 2015

J.Dre said:
To answer your question: I don't believe cave-botters should be automatically considered spoofers if you have some sort of "anti-bot" system in place to catch / manage them. However, if you do not have a system in place to target botters (whether it be through active staff or some other system), you are somewhat liable for a quote-on-quote "spoofed" online count. But that's just one opinion.

Thats a good point... I have a project to build a custom server with main focus on be "free-bot" server... But when you consider that your project need be advertised and you see the current context and how are the impact of the heavy use of bots to get a good position on the otservlist (intentionally or not), then you lost your motivation.

Someone can argue "but the players want play on a servers full of bots, is this how the things are, you and your project is wrong". Maybe... Or maybe people just want play otservers full of bots because just this kind of otservers can be visible... Maybe if you could show something different, the things can be changed, to something better.

I don't know if is possible (or even viable) to otservlist consider bot as spoof and ban these server... I say that because these servers probably are a heavy source of the incomes from "yellow mark" and "starting soon".

But, maybe cannot otservlist give us something like "anti-bot featured servers" with a more decent visibility? That servers should garantee an anti-bot policy to get the approval of the feature. Then maybe we are starting to give the choice to the players about how are the server that he want to play instead impose always the same kind of servers.

Currently you can start an server like I describe in my project and you will prob get 5~10 online players and living on the third or fourth page, with zero visibility and zero chances to grow...

Mr. Greyshade said:
I think this should be placed in the discussion board instead

I agree, maybe an moderator can move the post to an more apropriate place. And sorry for that.

Kayan · Nov 27, 2015

I think that MCs should be considered as Spoofing!

Codex NG · Nov 27, 2015

They are considered as spoofing, if you have more than 1 player on an ip address that is not an actual player at the keyboard then you are spoofing the numbers.

I was on deathzot recently and they had an event today, 2 of the players broke some rules set in place during an event so the admin ip+banished them from the game, after this occurred the online player count went from 381 - 369 in the short time it took to ban those players.

Does this prove that those players were mcing, not really but given the reputation of deathzot being a bot server it is highly likely that these 2 players were running more than 1 account.

If otservlist and sites like it were serious about the real player count they wouldn't be pulling the numbers from the players online, but rather pulling numbers from the amount of original ip's, sure almost anyone can set up multiple accounts on different ip's, but this requires a bit more work and resources on the mcer's part.

There really is no real solution to this issue, especially since these server lists also rely heavily on the numbers your servers get/spoof for traffic while they provide you with a false sense that utilizing their services shows you their system works.

In essence although they will never admit to this they are just as if not more dependent on your server then you are of them.

Can bots be considered spoof?

SlashX

Member

Mr. Greyshade

Grisig

ghettobird

LUA newbie

J.Dre

Unity Games

SlashX

Member

Kayan

Active Member

Codex NG

Recurrent Flamer

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