chased an invisible goblin

[Diabloguy69]

i swear my bot just chased what to me seemed like an invisible goblin. anybody else seen this?

 

[demonnbuddy]

you mean a goblin behand a wall or really invisible??

 

[Diabloguy69]

really invisible. my barb was chasing thin air swinging like he would if there was a goblin, i even moved him myself and he leaped back then swung again... it was exactly the behavior he has when chasing a goblin - wish i had fraps

 

[HighAndFly]

Maybe its one of blizzard small funny tricks to scout botting.

 

[ezpwnd]

Maybe its one of blizzard small funny tricks to scout botting.

This.

If it was up to me to think up a good way to detect bots it would be something like this.

 

[barblol]

This.

If it was up to me to think up a good way to detect bots it would be something like this.

Yea, this is what Ragnarok Online did like 6 years ago when I botted that game. lol

They flagged you when you hit monsters that normal people couldn't see.

 

[TINABATES]

This.

If it was up to me to think up a good way to detect bots it would be something like this.

setting up invisible monsters and tracking who followed them is very elaborate and unrealistic.

definitely one of the best ways to report bots is server errors caused by DB not using the user interface. Any decent company records all errors/exceptions to help resolve them in the future. Every time DB submits a request that returns in an error it is recorded w/ userId and easily searchable.

every month they can simply run a query against their error log checking for errors that only a bot would cause and boom delete all users. This type of tracking is already in place because all companies need good error tracking. There would be no reason to create invisible units and then try to record who is attacking them... Come on lets be realistic... Do they need anymore proof than someone trying to create a game on a quest that isn't available?

 

[TINABATES]

Yea, this is what Ragnarok Online did like 6 years ago when I botted that game. lol

They flagged you when you hit monsters that normal people couldn't see.

sure this is possible but right now there seems to be too many OBVIOUS and easy ways to spot a bot without having to put in custom code....

 

[IGG]

Normal d3 player can also generate a lot of errors and it is a huge additional work to sort out legit players. No legit player can chase and KILL invisible goblin, he can hit him once by mistake, but it's impossible to track and kill. Oh, just thought of enchantress and WD pets\other summons... Will they also see\target invis. goblin?

 

[ezpwnd]

setting up invisible monsters and tracking who followed them is very elaborate and unrealistic.

definitely one of the best ways to report bots is server errors caused by DB not using the user interface. Any decent company records all errors/exceptions to help resolve them in the future. Every time DB submits a request that returns in an error it is recorded w/ userId and easily searchable.

every month they can simply run a query against their error log checking for errors that only a bot would cause and boom delete all users. This type of tracking is already in place because all companies need good error tracking. There would be no reason to create invisible units and then try to record who is attacking them... Come on lets be realistic... Do they need anymore proof than someone trying to create a game on a quest that isn't available?

Just because you speculate that they rely on error-logs it is "elaborate and unrealistic" to have an invisible monster or such? Ok, nice argumentation you have there.

 

[TINABATES]

Normal d3 player can also generate a lot of errors and it is a huge additional work to sort out legit players. No legit player can chase and KILL invisible goblin, he can hit him once by mistake, but it's impossible to track and kill. Oh, just thought of enchantress and WD pets\other summons... Will they also see\target invis. goblin?

sure normal players generate a lot of errors but not errors where a user tries to create a quest that he doesn't have access to. Each service method has authorization checks and the quest complete one checks if user is allowed to create, if he is not allowed to record in database user "A" tried to create quest that has not access. This type of error is so easily watched and so obviously triggered by a bot or an illegal attempt at their services which warrants a delete too.

This is easily recorded and separated from traditional errors. A user does create lots of errors client side and they are all caught and passed to blizzard to be logged. This type of error is not as easily categorized and isn't as obvious/meaningful.

I am sure each error is recorded with a Type / Category / User / Ererror message etc.... If they cant categorize then it does get dumped in a "unknown" category but trying to create a quest illegally would definitely be categorized and be easily searchable.

 

[TINABATES]

Just because you speculate that they rely on error-logs it is "elaborate and unrealistic" to have an invisible monster or such? Ok, nice argumentation you have there.

because i am a programmer and i know how much money it costs a company to add additional code.

To add code. Each steps has several people involved and of course managers/developers etc can be making 100K+ a year (EXPENSIVE!)
1) talk about adding it
2) approval to add it
3) create documents about it
4) program it
5) QA it
6) QA regression test other areas that could be effected by the change
7) create release documents

adding features to enterprise applications/games is very very expensive. If they already have a sure fire way then it would be very unlikely that they would approve additional code.

 

[solokazama]

Invisible goblin is nice theory but stuff like Hydra or WD Pets would hit it. If not -then goblin would have some flag "im invisible goblin" and DB devs would catch it. Because summons has to know when it is invisible and when its not.

 

[Diabloguy69]

Normal d3 player can also generate a lot of errors and it is a huge additional work to sort out legit players. No legit player can chase and KILL invisible goblin, he can hit him once by mistake, but it's impossible to track and kill. Oh, just thought of enchantress and WD pets\other summons... Will they also see\target invis. goblin?

99% sure mine did not

 

[TINABATES]

Invisible goblin is nice theory but stuff like Hydra or WD Pets would hit it. If not -then goblin would have some flag "im invisible goblin" and DB devs would catch it. Because summons has to know when it is invisible and when its not.

that is kind of part of my point. This isn't as easily coded as you might assume. It is possible and a valid theory i just don't think it is likely considering how obvious botters currently are.

 

[tesslerc]

that is kind of part of my point. This isn't as easily coded as you might assume. It is possible and a valid theory i just don't think it is likely considering how obvious botters currently are.

Your case is invalid if you make the server select the target for the follower

 

[TINABATES]

Your case is invalid if you make the server select the target for the follower

i don't know what case you are referring to as mine... I don't have any cases, my point is creating invisible creatures to catch botters seems quite expensive when botters are already screaming I AM A BOT.

 

[joe3563]

because i am a programmer and i know how much money it costs a company to add additional code.

To add code. Each steps has several people involved and of course managers/developers etc can be making 100K+ a year (EXPENSIVE!)
1) talk about adding it
2) approval to add it
3) create documents about it
4) program it
5) QA it
6) QA regression test other areas that could be effected by the change
7) create release documents

adding features to enterprise applications/games is very very expensive. If they already have a sure fire way then it would be very unlikely that they would approve additional code.

Maybe, but I know for a fact that using invisible game objects to catch cheaters is a common tactic used by game companies.

 

[TINABATES]

Maybe, but I know for a fact that using invisible game objects to catch cheaters is a common tactic used by game companies.

well then it is probably true. If it is common practice then the shell is probably in place before release and game programmers are probably already good at adding this feature. I guess every attack would have to have a property saying whether or not it can hit invisible monsters because AOE and stuff might hit one.

Still seems extravagant for diablo 3 considering a blind no armed programmer could probably write a few sql queries to easily find all botters.

 

[joe3563]

well then it is probably true. If it is common practice then the shell is probably in place before release and game programmers are probably already good at adding this feature. I guess every attack would have to have a property saying whether or not it can hit invisible monsters because AOE and stuff might hit one.

Still seems extravagant for diablo 3 considering a blind no armed programmer could probably write a few sql queries to easily find all botters.

Consider that the only difference is that the invisible game object designed to catch cheaters is like all other dynamic game objects except it has an different value for one of the GUID attributes. The UI will not render or allow interaction with those objects with that GUID value. 3rd party applications would have to know about the attribute value to ignore it as it is read directly from memory.