WARNING: Wall of text from some no one, but if you found yourself a reason to open this thread, I beg you some minutes.
To begin with, I need to say that I have spent a long enough time with this game, and a decent time in the technology field, to know that botting can never really be stopped. That is something even Nexon failed to achieve with all that resources, so it would be unreasonable to expect much more from you guys, but I do believe there are measures that can be taken to reduce the number of botters. In case the staff team is already working on it, then please pardon my rudeness.
First of all, it seems to me that the current botcheck/replying system has way too many flaws. There are already posts about the problem, so I will refer to them here. Generally, relying on specific rules/conditions to issue a ban would only create a situation where it allows botters to abuse them in some way. So I propose that bans should be executed strictly based on GMs’ intuition, that and that only. The staff should have the power to carry out the punishments whenever they see fit, not to be hindered by their own rules, or worry about the consequences. Yes, people will moan and whine, but given time they will accept it, seeing the positive results. That’s what Valve did with CS:GO, and Blizzard did with WOW. They couldn’t end all hacks and bots, but they cut down a significant number. And to be honest, most Maplestory so called hackers are just kids who bought the script online, so I doubt that they have fully automated procedures to create new accounts from scratch. So unlike what people usually think, I believe each and every ban does have its meaning.
Also, I would say that nowadays most people bots for profit instead of funding their characters. That explains why the number of botters in this server increases tremendously along with its popularity. Buying the software costs around 20$ a month or so, therefore if it was harder to do rmt here than in GMS, they would soon lose interest and run back to it. A solution I can suggest is applying trade bans to all newly created accounts, for a certain time period, 30 days for example. Yes, they can still bot during that time, but it gives the staff team more time to react; and if the account gets caught before the mesos are able to reach the buyers, then all their effort will go down the drain. Yes, they can create a bunch of accounts and do nothing for a month, but then again, it’s not as simple as it sounds; and every banned account means that botters lose an extra month of profit, which will deter a lot of cheaters from trying to make do with this server. Yes, it would undoubtedly cause hardships for new players, but it is not impossible to survive without trading for a month, taking REBOOT as a proof. I believe this is a necessary tradeoff, and the community will find it reasonable; however I can’t speak for all of them, so there may be a need to have a survey regarding this matter.
Again, I should emphasize that all of what I’ve proposed definitely cannot end all botting, as there is always someone out there who will find a way, but I trust that at least it will make many script users on this server find it harder to survive.
To begin with, I need to say that I have spent a long enough time with this game, and a decent time in the technology field, to know that botting can never really be stopped. That is something even Nexon failed to achieve with all that resources, so it would be unreasonable to expect much more from you guys, but I do believe there are measures that can be taken to reduce the number of botters. In case the staff team is already working on it, then please pardon my rudeness.
First of all, it seems to me that the current botcheck/replying system has way too many flaws. There are already posts about the problem, so I will refer to them here. Generally, relying on specific rules/conditions to issue a ban would only create a situation where it allows botters to abuse them in some way. So I propose that bans should be executed strictly based on GMs’ intuition, that and that only. The staff should have the power to carry out the punishments whenever they see fit, not to be hindered by their own rules, or worry about the consequences. Yes, people will moan and whine, but given time they will accept it, seeing the positive results. That’s what Valve did with CS:GO, and Blizzard did with WOW. They couldn’t end all hacks and bots, but they cut down a significant number. And to be honest, most Maplestory so called hackers are just kids who bought the script online, so I doubt that they have fully automated procedures to create new accounts from scratch. So unlike what people usually think, I believe each and every ban does have its meaning.
Also, I would say that nowadays most people bots for profit instead of funding their characters. That explains why the number of botters in this server increases tremendously along with its popularity. Buying the software costs around 20$ a month or so, therefore if it was harder to do rmt here than in GMS, they would soon lose interest and run back to it. A solution I can suggest is applying trade bans to all newly created accounts, for a certain time period, 30 days for example. Yes, they can still bot during that time, but it gives the staff team more time to react; and if the account gets caught before the mesos are able to reach the buyers, then all their effort will go down the drain. Yes, they can create a bunch of accounts and do nothing for a month, but then again, it’s not as simple as it sounds; and every banned account means that botters lose an extra month of profit, which will deter a lot of cheaters from trying to make do with this server. Yes, it would undoubtedly cause hardships for new players, but it is not impossible to survive without trading for a month, taking REBOOT as a proof. I believe this is a necessary tradeoff, and the community will find it reasonable; however I can’t speak for all of them, so there may be a need to have a survey regarding this matter.
Again, I should emphasize that all of what I’ve proposed definitely cannot end all botting, as there is always someone out there who will find a way, but I trust that at least it will make many script users on this server find it harder to survive.