Ban Theory

[mginster]

Me and a few guys have a theory on how DB is being detected.

When a person is actually playing the game and they want to go another quest, they physically have to select "Change Quest", pick the quest, "Start Game". Yet the bot can inject and join directly to any quest. They are possibly detecting the fact that people are not selecting quests. This could be why autoit people are not banned, even though pattern detection should have found them also.

Edit, additional info:

The reason I thought of this is because the only accounts of mine that survived were using the full questing leveling profiles.

Ban wave 1 - 3/4 accounts banned, all 3 that were running BigRed, 1 that survived just hit level 60 at the time of the banwave and had only run the questing profiles.
Ban wave 2 - 1/2 accounts banned (I started up 1 new bot between wave 1 and 2), 1 that was banned was running BigRed (which was actually the account that survived the first banwave while it was questing), 1 that was not was also near lvl 60 running questing profiles.

The difference between the questing profile and BigRed is that the questing profile merely Resumes your game and doesnt actually create new games as specific quest intervals.

 

[jiznadj]

I was thinking about that too. When you change acts at the quest screen, the background image will change for the selected act which is loaded from the server. But when the bot does it, it will go directly to the new act without changing that screen.

 

[eugenius]

I personally think its the way that town run is conducted. All act farming bots run town routes. I noticed that they identify the items with the EXACT same pause betwen each item. Maybe the timing of the packets to the items being id'd is whats giving it away. I hgihly doubt blizzard can record move points etc etc. and some gold farming bots were able to survive this banwave. That makes me feel that its the town run routine of Demonbuddy that got DB users banned. The timing for iding of items needs to be slightly random between each item. As the detection of the time between each id packet sent to blizzard is very easy to track and makes for a easy bot ban.

 

[jiznadj]

It also needs a wait period after ID'ing items before stashing them. No human can instantly evaluate 30+ items. It needs at least 30 seconds after before it is allowed to stash or sell anything.

 

[ag0ny]

@eugenius u are wrong ! it is random time between iding

 

[jackus]

Could be, and then no. Coz everything DB does is pressing keys without keyboard/mouse. And the time between the "clicks" depends on your CPU.

 

[eugenius]

Trust me, its not random.... I watched 2 bots go and run town route at the EXACT same time MULTIPLE times. the item id animation was at the EXACT same delay for both accounts. If it were actually 'random' I would have expected the id animation to slightly change to delay/ be faster between each item id, But the two did it in sync EVERYTIME.

 

[edge85]

trust me, its not random.... I watched 2 bots go and run town route at the exact same time multiple times. The item id animation was at the exact same delay for both accounts. If it were actually 'random' i would have expected the id animation to slightly change to delay/ be faster between each item id, but the two did it in sync everytime.

exactly!

 

[Eisenberg]

Theres alot such shit done by bot, but thing is it doesnt matter how it looks on computer screen, but what packets are send to blizz server. If server side selecting quests is human-like, then it doesnt matter. As i understand it, currently DB team is checking this and eliminating any differences between bot and human packets.

 

[jiznadj]

Theres alot such shit done by bot, but thing is it doesnt matter how it looks on computer screen, but what packets are send to blizz server. If server side selecting quests is human-like, then it doesnt matter. As i understand it, currently DB team is checking this and eliminating any differences between bot and human packets.

When you select a quest from the menu that is of a different act, the backround screen changes. The backround screen is downloaded form the server when you change it. When the bot does this, it not only does not change, but will go instantly to the new act. Bot should not be doing things that are physically impossible. Fixing this would add what, a whole 5 seconds to a run?

 

[Gniller]

When you select a quest from the menu that is of a different act, the backround screen changes. The backround screen is downloaded form the server when you change it. When the bot does this, it not only does not change, but will go instantly to the new act. Bot should not be doing things that are physically impossible. Fixing this would add what, a whole 5 seconds to a run?

The background screen is not downloaded from their servers, this is what you install a game client for. To reduce their bandwidth loads by only sending information and let the client handle the appearance on your screen.

Currently selected acts/quests might be server side, but i don't believe it is as it will not save before you actually started a game and leave again. Restarting your client without having started a game will show you the last quest you have actually played, not chosen.

 

[jiznadj]

No, when you change the quest the background changes and something is communicated to the server. Maybe it is downloading something else, but it's doing something. When the bot changes it, this communication does not take place.

 

[Eisenberg]

If its true they will for sure fix it in upcoming security update, cuz its pretty obvious flaw.

 

[Gniller]

No, when you change the quest the background changes and something is communicated to the server. Maybe it is downloading something else, but it's doing something. When the bot changes it, this communication does not take place.

A changing background doesn't have to mean it communicates with the server at all, you pick act 3 and the client could be able to figure at this would mean you should see backgroundpicture_3 for example. My information is not build upon any form of information from network packets though, just basic software knowledge.

Starting a game could be identical to how the bot requests a game, sending your configured quest and act. If so, this is in no way a lead to someone botting (extreme speeds excluded ofcourse, if these were your settings).

 

[jiznadj]

If its true they will for sure fix it in upcoming security update, cuz its pretty obvious flaw.

Yes, I agree. All it needs to do is change the act, and then add some random few second delay like between 2-6 and that issue will be solved.

 

[jiznadj]

A changing background doesn't have to mean it communicates with the server at all, you pick act 3 and the client could be able to figure at this would mean you should see backgroundpicture_3 for example. My information is not build upon any form of information from network packets though, just basic software knowledge.

Starting a game could be identical to how the bot requests a game, sending your configured quest and act. If so, this is in no way a lead to someone botting (extreme speeds excluded ofcourse, if these were your settings).

Yea well mine is. Put a sniffer on it and see for yourself.

 

[Gniller]

Yea well mine is. Put a sniffer on it and see for yourself.

That could be, didn't assume your information to be based on that form of knowledge. It could however still mean this is just your friend list, but it would also be a great and simple solution for blizzard to catch bots without hitting normal players.

If they indeed go this road though, that would mean there are loads of other options like this around to find us but i am sure the buddy team will be able to track these back sooner or later.

 

[jiznadj]

That could be, didn't assume your information to be based on that form of knowledge. It could however still mean this is just your friend list, but it would also be a great and simple solution for blizzard to catch bots without hitting normal players.

If they indeed go this road though, that would mean there are loads of other options like this around to find us but i am sure the buddy team will be able to track these back sooner or later.

Don't know what it is. Probably not a friend list, but perhaps something to tell the server that you have chosen a new act?

 

[Gniller]

Don't know what it is. Probably not a friend list, but perhaps something to tell the server that you have chosen a new act?

Possible, but pretty much only if they implemented for the only reason to detect bots. Which is considering the current ban numbers, absolutely possible.

 

[mginster]

I put this in the OP, which was my reasoning for this theory.

Edit, additional info:

The reason I thought of this is because the only accounts of mine that survived were using the full questing leveling profiles.

Ban wave 1 - 3/4 accounts banned, all 3 that were running BigRed, 1 that survived just hit level 60 at the time of the banwave and had only run the questing profiles.
Ban wave 2 - 1/2 accounts banned (I started up 1 new bot between wave 1 and 2), 1 that was banned was running BigRed (which was actually the account that survived the first banwave while it was questing), 1 that was not was also near lvl 60 running questing profiles.

The difference between the questing profile and BigRed is that the questing profile merely Resumes your game and doesnt actually create new games as specific quest intervals.