6xPerma, 3x72h - detection method revealed

[HipDrahve]

This week in EU I have been banned in total 9 times - 6 got perma and 3 72h suspensions.

Perma:
1 90lvl, had a final warning - 3rd party app, yada yada. SOR.
5 10lvl, fresh battle chests banned automatically, Abuse of Economy (lol wut)

72h + final warnings:
3 90s, gathering JF/VOTW with personal profiles. Paid accounts.



There was also an attempted suspension on few of my chars - more on that below.

I was messing around on my computer when suddenly I saw one of my gatherers (jade forest profile) running into stairs in some hut.
Immediately I hit "STOP" and figured that a GM ported me. Started shouting WTF, OMG, and so on, started complaining to guildies that I got teleported. Then I got teleported few yards to the right, left, maybe in total of 4-6 times, all of which to locations in the same area but where a bot would not be able to unstuck itself. A few minute after the last teleport GM window popped up. Obviously they were trying to see if I can hold a conversation. Nothing about hacks or botting was ever said - they were getting reports of "latency" in that area, and wanted to know if I knew anything. Long story short, I was let off the hook, but turned off the bot that night.

Another bot got busted yesterday for a perma ban like that as well. Different location (VOTW), yet I was not unable to hit stop in time before the infamous Honorbuddy unstuck movement. I started /yelling like the first time and the GM window popped up, informing me that it's 2nd time that acc got hit, so I can kiss it goodbye (Appealed it - Denied).


All of the lvl 90 suspensions happened in similar manner - ports, re-ports, GM chat and me just not being able to prevent HB from doing its little back-and-to-the-left waltz.

Come to think of it, some other chars that I logged after suspensions (some weeks before) were left in weird places, completely out of the range of the profile, yet within the same zone. In a tent, in a hut, next to a tree, with a GM letter in mailbox. I would just brush it off and think - "oh, bot got stuck and people just reported it, shame". It wasn't until it happened in front of me I realized what's going on.

Key thing here is that they port you within the same zone, and in small distances so any potential plugins that prevent cross-continent teleports won't fire.

So to all the nay-sayers that still believe GM's don't port and personally observe bots - I urge you to reconsider.
And to the developers - I urge you to come up with a solution to both the unstuck movement, and the lack of fail-safe teleport detector plugin.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Molle0905]

I left my bot to do bgs this night, and I then went to bed, and when I woke up, I was diconnected, I tried to login, but I was suspended.. I checked my e-mail, it seems I got suspended 30 minutes after I went to bed. I've been botting for pretty a longtime, and I've never gotten suspended in a BG.. When I get unbanned, I will only use Lazyraider... Or observe it ALL the times, by having the botting windows on the other monitor.

 

[Giwin]

TeleportDetector is a plugin I made just for this, you can also adjust the distance if you get too many false positives, it's not done by Zone ID it's done by distance from waypoint.. it also posts a message before exiting WoW to look more human.

Also if a GM whispered me asking about latency in the area, I'd go offline for 3 days and not bot for a further 2 days (play normally).

 

[HipDrahve]

It either gives a lot of false positives, or the distance is so large it won't fire... :/

TeleportDetector is a plugin I made just for this, you can also adjust the distance if you get too many false positives, it's not done by Zone ID
it's done by distance from waypoint.. it also posts a message before exiting WoW to look more human.

Also if a GM whispered me asking about latency in the area, I'd go offline for 3 days and not bot for a further 2 days (play normally).

 

[Giwin]

"Then I got teleported few yards to the right, left, maybe in total of 4-6 times, all of which to locations in the same area but where a bot would not be able to unstuck itself. A few minute after the last teleport GM window popped up."

you can use AIML to atleast reply, as it seems it's the reply that saved you the first time... I made a plugin for that too

Problem is GM can do anything, he can fly around you as a player without mount or teleport you to GM Island.. they have lots of tools to piss people off, usually they want to be sure although it's up to the guy if he bans you, that's why he whispered you as bots don't reply.

Definitely a hard one, the best thing to do would be to post as much information as possible so we can use it in future, I'm also interested in what he whispered to you.. as I'd like to add it to my GMWhisper aiml file .

 

[HipDrahve]

Just happened again, not 20 minutes ago. was ported next to some tree and some mobs. Instantly responded and stopped HB from "unstucking". No GM window yet.... I was ported a few times to a spot next to that too - like I said - few small blink-like ports

Also happened few hours ago, where 2 of my JForest bots got stuck in a tent in a middle of Krasarang.... didnt notice that quick but it didnt matter apparently - I responded like a human and nothing happened further.


And GM that time just introduced himself and that was it, nothing particular.

"Then I got teleported few yards to the right, left, maybe in total of 4-6 times, all of which to locations in the same area but where a bot would not be able to unstuck itself. A few minute after the last teleport GM window popped up."

you can use AIML to atleast reply, as it seems it's the reply that saved you the first time... I made a plugin for that too

Problem is GM can do anything, he can fly around you as a player without mount or teleport you to GM Island.. they have lots of tools to piss people off, usually they want to be sure although it's up to the guy if he bans you, that's why he whispered you as bots don't reply.

Definitely a hard one, the best thing to do would be to post as much information as possible so we can use it in future, I'm also interested in what he whispered to you.. as I'd like to add it to my GMWhisper aiml file .

 

[sexy]

What about a plugin that simply disconnect you ?

 

[Jerf]

I saw another method a couple of days ago, got busy, forgot to post it.

Was doing one of the MoP quests where you have to punch wood / stone (again, sorry, logs are wiped and I forgot it) via Kick's profile. Apparently it wasn't quite hitting it on the 100 power mark so I had been doing it for awhile. I noticed it and focused on my window to start to fix it and stop the bot when ... WHILE punching things actively ... I got a 30 second log-out timer. No way I was AFK as the bot -was- punching, just not quite at the right time.

Cancelled the logout, paused, asked a friend online if it had ever happened to him (he ofc said no). Finished the quest (and acted fairly drunk / tv watchingly ... ie goofing up a bit on purpose on the next couple of quests), got my L87, and hearthed out. Checked AH, mailed a couple of things, and logged off for the night.

They have tons of ways to mess with you. In my case, since it was relatively minor and they didn't attempt anything else and I had no ban/suspension when I woke up, I didn't worry too much about it.

PS. I checked and did not have my relogger / auto-logoff plugins enabled. No whispers. No weird damage. He COULD have done some small nearby teleports but if so the bot was able to get back to the right spot just fine. I think he just wanted to see if a human was at the controls. Luckily I caught it within 3 seconds of the logout appearing.

 

[furyz0r]

Come to think of it, some other chars that I logged after suspensions (some weeks before) were left in weird places, completely out of the range of the profile, yet within the same zone. In a tent, in a hut, next to a tree, with a GM letter in mailbox. I would just brush it off and think - "oh, bot got stuck and people just reported it, shame". It wasn't until it happened in front of me I realized what's going on.

This shit also happened with me, and my gatherer got banned.

 

[HipDrahve]

This shit also happened with me, and my gatherer got banned.

I think the problem is that honorbuddy is so easy to spot if you give it an obstacle to maneuver around. Blizz doesn't need to have HB injection method detected when everyone and their mom can spot a bot nowadays...

 

[tombot]

What they are doing is having a port triggered which alerts them on their end if you are using a public profile. Go into the profiles and change around the cords slightly. This makes the profile unique and stops the porting.

 

[HipDrahve]

What they are doing is having a port triggered which alerts them on their end if you are using a public profile. Go into the profiles and change around the cords slightly. This makes the profile unique and stops the porting.

I am using private profiles. So, as always, [Citation Needed].

 

[sexy]

We need better teleport hack than theirs

 

[Jerf]

Agreed. I don't BG bot but I understand the need to address BG Bot problems ASAP. However the next thing I would like to see in HB is 3 things, in this order:

* overhaul of the unstuck system. Current system works fairly well but is too well known. Other ways of doing it and/or refining current method. I never do a left/right dodge when on the ground ... I almost always do a running jump. I'm not saying my way is right, just that HB needs more work here.

* handling things like unplanned teleports (pause movement, do random things like go through the settings menu and the map, hearth, etc) and unplanned logouts (would need a way to notify between plugins and the bot to KNOW it was unplanned).

* a way (if it doesn't already exist) to randomize things in the XML profiles a bit. A flag that says "Random Set A" for multiple quests (or zones if gathering, etc) so that the bot can cycle through them. Quest coders could then flag quests in a way that randomizes order but does not interfere with specific quest pre-reqs or chains.