Hawker
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2010
- Messages
- 2,509
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We think a few thousand accounts were banned on the 18th. For now, we do not know exactly what went wrong. Customers want us to say if it was software detection or something else that got them banned. We don't have access to that information but this is how we are thinking now.
Software detection is 100% bans and all users get hit at same time. We last had that on September 3 2009 with the old Gatherbuddy and no users survived. This set of bans was probably not detection based as there are just not enough bans being reported. Oru development accounts have not been banned. Lots of users have lost only some of their botting accounts. Also, Warden hasn't been sending reports that could catch Demonbuddy users.
Behaviour detection can be where Blizzard looks at how often you kill a certain NPC or how often you use Town Portal or some such algorithm. Behaviour detection tends to be a lot less accurate so Blizzard will store up a few hundred bans and unload all at once to scare people off botting. This set of bans is too big to be just behaviour but too small to be detection.
Our conclusion is that right now, Blizzard has the advantage of surprise. We don't know for certain the basis of the bans yet but we do have an opinion. Obviously we can't publish what we think and we also can't assume we are right. So we have to be ultra-cautious and do a set of simulations to ensure that Demonbuddy appears as human as possible to the D3 servers.
For example, now we are doing things manually and seeing what packets are sent to the D3 server. Then we do the same thing with the bot. We compare the packet streams and are making sure they match up. Things like the ability to start a game on a quest you don't have will be removed. Most of this will not be necessary but we are doing it to reduce any future risk as well as address what has already happened.
Once this is done, the bot will be as safe as we can make it and we will re-open auth. We hope it will be later today but it could take until Saturday.
Question: will it be "safe" to bot when Demonbuddy auth comes back?
Answer: it will be as safe as we can make it. Never bot on an account you would cry over losing. Farming gold is always going to be risky and you have to do your own risk/reward assessment.
Software detection is 100% bans and all users get hit at same time. We last had that on September 3 2009 with the old Gatherbuddy and no users survived. This set of bans was probably not detection based as there are just not enough bans being reported. Oru development accounts have not been banned. Lots of users have lost only some of their botting accounts. Also, Warden hasn't been sending reports that could catch Demonbuddy users.
Behaviour detection can be where Blizzard looks at how often you kill a certain NPC or how often you use Town Portal or some such algorithm. Behaviour detection tends to be a lot less accurate so Blizzard will store up a few hundred bans and unload all at once to scare people off botting. This set of bans is too big to be just behaviour but too small to be detection.
Our conclusion is that right now, Blizzard has the advantage of surprise. We don't know for certain the basis of the bans yet but we do have an opinion. Obviously we can't publish what we think and we also can't assume we are right. So we have to be ultra-cautious and do a set of simulations to ensure that Demonbuddy appears as human as possible to the D3 servers.
For example, now we are doing things manually and seeing what packets are sent to the D3 server. Then we do the same thing with the bot. We compare the packet streams and are making sure they match up. Things like the ability to start a game on a quest you don't have will be removed. Most of this will not be necessary but we are doing it to reduce any future risk as well as address what has already happened.
Once this is done, the bot will be as safe as we can make it and we will re-open auth. We hope it will be later today but it could take until Saturday.
Question: will it be "safe" to bot when Demonbuddy auth comes back?
Answer: it will be as safe as we can make it. Never bot on an account you would cry over losing. Farming gold is always going to be risky and you have to do your own risk/reward assessment.
