Problem:
The WoWclient was just patched, and you now see this dreaded message:
(If the WoWclient was not recently patched, then you have a different problem. See "HelpDesk: You have not selected a valid instance of WoW to attach to!".)
Why is Honorbuddy down after a WoWclient update?
Whenever the WoWclient is patched, the offsets change. Offsets enable Honorbuddy to look at the WoWclient data and act on it, or issue directives to the WoWclient.
Offset changes are analogous to "the bolt holes don't line up any more". So, Honorbuddy must be changed to the new WoWclient's bolt hole locations. If you try to use the old Honorbuddy with the new WoWclient, "Memory access violations" will ensue, or when a 'mount' is requested, the new WoWclient interprets that as 'dance', etc.
Most importantly, each time the WoWclient is updated, the Development staff must examine the changes for any new anti-botting mechanisms have been put in place. Such reverse-engineering and analysis takes time.
Does the BosslandGmbH staff know the WoWclient has been patched?
Yes, always.
The BosslandGmbH staff is aware of the patch--it is their livelihood, and in their best interests to keep Honorbuddy in service.
The staff knows what patches are coming, and usually the exact day they will be dropped. They have been conducting research in the Player Test Realms (PTR) while you weren't looking.
How long will it take?
First, understand the size of the downloaded patch has absolutely no bearing on how difficult it will be to recover from it. What matters is the number and types of changes in the WoWclient.
If the WoWclient changes are small, Honorbuddy should be available in half-a-day or so. Typically, patches take from 1 to 3 days to recover. If the patch contains new anti-botting measures, the process can take longer. The longest recorded Honorbuddy down time to date is 6.5 days. To put that into perspective, your Honorbuddy subscription is 'lifetime'.
Making Honorbuddy safely work again after a patch is BosslandGmbH's highest priority. The product will not be made available after a patch until a thorough analysis of the changes have been conducted, updates made, and testing done.
The process takes as long as it takes--if that's a month, that's what it takes. BosslandGmbH will not jeopardize the account investments made by its customers due to a rush to restore the product to service!
Can I find out what progress is being made towards a release?
The current status of Honorbuddy's return to service is made available in this thread:
[Official] Bot Updates
If that thread does not contain the status directly, it will point you to another thread that is maintaining the status on its behalf.
"I want more frequent status updates, and more detail in them."
Status is communicated when internal milestones have been met. This alone determines the frequency of the updates. As far as 'detail', the Development team communicates the level of detail they feel appropriate for the milestone, and no more. Like any company, BosslandGmbH has knowledge and information that is not appropriate for public consumption..
Can't you fix it faster?
We are all impatient to have Honorbuddy running again. These are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about "why isn't it fixed faster?".
"Can't you release an Alpha/Lite version of Honorbuddy?"
There is no such thing as a "lite" version of Honorbuddy. Addressing new content is trivial compared to the other work that must be done.
The vast bulk of the time is spent:
Reconstituting changes to the WoWclient object model
This is caused by changes in game mechanics--not "new content". The game mechanics deal with things like how spells work (overrides vs normal), etc.
Dealing with refactored information.
Information that used to exist in one object has been shuffled to another object, or sometimes broken into pieces and scattered to several objects. This new refactoring must be analyzed and accommodated.
Analyzing and defeating the anti-botting measures Bliz had put in place.
(aka, "The Warden", now 'with friends')
Your client-side botting safety is the primary concern--a shortcut here would be devastating to the entire Community.
Many, many more issues along these line.
Almost everything else is trivial in comparison. The time it takes to produce a 'lite' version is virtually the same it takes to produce a 'full' version. Thus, there is no such thing as a "lite" version.
"Why doesn't the Development staff use the PTR to make the needed changes ahead of time?"
Development effort is placed into PTR investigation and its used as a "head start". However, the "patch day" code frequently differs from that shown on PTR. PTR is largely used for 'game balance' issues. Any special surprises they have in store for our Community are 'held out' until patch day.
So, you never know what WoWclient changes are going to be present in the final patch. This causes offsets and sometimes internal data structures to change. Despite the effort put in PTR investigation by the Development team, WoWclient patch day is frequently 'day 1' for formal analysis purposes due to Bliz's process.
"Why don't you use patterns to find your offsets quicker?"
The Development staff does make heavy use of patterns. Patterns are used to quickly locate, check, and update blocks of code. This is how the team can make changes to 3000 offsets so quickly. However, things happen--such as refactoring or compiler configuration changes--that invalidate the pattern catalog. When this happens, the development team must spend additional time to locate the new information, and create new patterns for it, so the next updates won't take so long.
"Just put more Developers on it."
There are actually two answer to this one.
The first deals with project management. It has been repeatedly studied and measured that adding more developers to a 'late' project just makes it later. Frederick Brooks' age-old metaphor "you can't assign nine women to have a baby in a month", holds true today.
The second is one of talent. Finding people with the right blend of skills for bot development is difficult. The skill set involves reverse engineering, reading and analyzing code at the assembler level, memory manipulation, game development techniques, design patterns, and more. Most of the people that have such skills are already on the BosslandGmbH payroll.
We believe the BosslandGmbH development staff are the premiere bot writers in the world. Many claim they can do better, but none have proved it as of yet.
Bot XXXBot was up in two hours! What's taking you guys so long?
All other bots on the market are small '20 offset' bots. These bots can be updated quickly, but have very limited capabilities.
Conversely, Honorbuddy provides a spectrum of bots with over 3000 offsets. If you choose to compare the feature set and capabilities of the disparate bots, then do the math to figure out a 'reasonable' ETA: (3000 offsets / 20 offsets) * 2 hours.
We would also like to point out that the smaller bots do not offer sophisticated (or any) anti-bot detection to preserve your WoWaccount investment.
What happens to the time on my limited-time session?
If you have a Trial Key, and you cannot use it during this time...
When a stable build is released, send your key, and the email address you used to purchase it to the BosslandGmbH front office (
[email protected]), and they will be glad to extend the key's time for you. Most of the time, the BosslandGmbH front office does this automatically, but it never hurts to ask.
If you purchased a Trial Key, and have yet to use it...
The clock does not start ticking until 'first use'. So, you are already golden.
What is this "Trip Wire" protection I see mentioned occasionally?
Tripwire is technology built into BosslandGmbH products to "watch the watchers".
Tripwire is always active. It is constantly looking at the Warden and its friends. Tripwire will automatically render all active sessions of Honorbuddy invalid if it detects Warden doing anything sneaky. Tripwire can also be activated manually by the Development team, if they discover something they don't like.
Tripwire is one of several ways BosslandGmbH protects the value of its customer's investment in accounts.
Is it safe to use other bots during this time?
It depends. If the other bot is 100% passive (no injection) it should be safe to use (but this is not guaranteed).
If the other bot injects, as most modern bots do, then risk is involved. Bliz has been significantly stepping up their anti-botting measures in the WoWclient. Even for small bots with '20 offsets', there is risk. Be certain that your choice of bots has done a reasonable analysis of the anti-botting measures after each patch of the WoWclient.
So many rude and uninformed people in the forums after a patch.
Can't you do something about it?
The forums are a balancing act.
We believe people have the right to express their opinions, even if we feel they are wrong. What we do not tolerate are trolling, offensive language, vulgarity, or hostility in expressing those opinions. An inappropriate choice of words can sometimes turn a reasoned post into one that must be acted on.
We understand that people need to 'blow off steam'--especially right after a patch. As long as people are being civil in this free-for-all, we don't close threads unnecessarily. But, the bored people that come out to post on patch days can make the forums appear neglected at times.
We always try to do whats right and best for our customers and the Community. However, not all of our customers are going to agree with us. This is just the nature of a business. BosslandGmbH is a company doing business internationally. The expectations across the world vary widely.
We agree that downtime due to patches seems to bring out the worst in some people. We will take whatever action is necessary for posts or threads that get out of hand.
Ref: HelpDesk: Why are my forum threads/posts disappearing?
But I want to vent/rage/complain!
As long as you keep it civil and stay within the BosslandGmbH forum rules, you're most welcome to your opinion. If your thread/post degenerates to trolling, foul language, vulgarity, personal attacks, hostility, etc, it will be closed or deleted.
If your thread is a 'duplicate' one of the other 10000 threads (i.e, "Can't attach", "How much longer?") in the forum about the same topic, it will most likely be closed or deleted.
