[OFFICIAL] Update on Banwave of June 16 2011

[ProRogue]

Response

Trion on the other hand seems to be 100% against botters and will apply banhammers without mercy. I strongly doubt we stand a chance against them, sorry if I sound pessimistic here. Maybe they have background processes that check the existance of processes with a certain name. It sure doesn't sound legit, but it's easy as hell and by combining that with MAC/IP checks that would explain why people the botfree accounts have been banned as well.

Are there any ban reports of botfree accounts behind the same router as a botter btw? That would point to flagging of MAC addresses. Good luck to you guys, I really hope you can get somewhere with this, but I have my doubts. I for my part closed the rift chapter.

• Checking for background processes is stoneage technology compared to todays detection, as botprograms are successfully hiding their process. And if Ryftomate is not, then it's simply bad programming, being visible in processlist is foolish.
• IP-banning and MAC-adressing is not realistic because of Gamingcafé's, studentnetworks and so forth, so no, that is not possible. If they did, a single computer at a café could theoreticaly be responsible for hundreds of legit accounts being banned.
• The reason everyone got banned is the way this bot interacts with the gameclient, injection is megarisky and rediciolusly easy to detect. If the software, Ryftomate in this case, does not have a decent tripwire technology put into place, then it's a banwave waiting to happen.
• After 8 years of botting I've never seen a full-injection bot ever surviving long due to the obvious technology being used. Banwave here was inevitable, i was just hoping it would take longer for them to utilize their detection.

ProRogue

 

[seafunk]

• Checking for background processes is stoneage technology compared to todays detection, as botprograms are successfully hiding their process. And if Ryftomate is not, then it's simply bad programming, being visible in processlist is foolish.
• IP-banning and MAC-adressing is not realistic because of Gamingcafé's, studentnetworks and so forth, so no, that is not possible. If they did, a single computer at a café could theoreticaly be responsible for hundreds of legit accounts being banned.
• The reason everyone got banned is the way this bot interacts with the gameclient, injection is megarisky and rediciolusly easy to detect. If the software, Ryftomate in this case, does not have a decent tripwire technology put into place, then it's a banwave waiting to happen.
• After 8 years of botting I've never seen a full-injection bot ever surviving long due to the obvious technology being used. Banwave here was inevitable, i was just hoping it would take longer for them to utilize their detection.

ProRogue

jfyi, neither honorbuddy nor ryftomate were hiding their process and ive got a hunch thats how the accounts were banned. you could try running a random prog named ryftomate and see what happens

on the other hand, i strongly doubt its legal to go through our process list.

 

[MaiN]

• Checking for background processes is stoneage technology compared to todays detection, as botprograms are successfully hiding their process. And if Ryftomate is not, then it's simply bad programming, being visible in processlist is foolish.

What I feel is bad programming is including a rootkit in non malicious programs to hide from the process list - especially when there are hundreds of ways to circumvent and detect it anyway. A process scan is not the only way.

• The reason everyone got banned is the way this bot interacts with the gameclient, injection is megarisky and rediciolusly easy to detect. If the software, Ryftomate in this case, does not have a decent tripwire technology put into place, then it's a banwave waiting to happen.
• After 8 years of botting I've never seen a full-injection bot ever surviving long due to the obvious technology being used. Banwave here was inevitable, i was just hoping it would take longer for them to utilize their detection.

ProRogue

Not really true, there are just as many ways to detect injected bots than there are to detect out of process bots. That said, going with an injected bot was a bold move that allowed us to get VERY much functionality out to our users very quickly - if Ryftomate had been 100% out of process, or even like Honorbuddy is (95% OOP, 5% injected) the bot would not at all be as mature as it is today. In any case if Trion really wanted to nail us, I doubt going out of process would have made a difference.

 

[TripleLolRofl]

At least, the english support seems to speak relax when you talk to them. On french one, they just told me to shut up (well, not like that but just to make me understand lul) and my account will never re open when I didn't even ask about that but just why I got banned. And I talk relax, no telling shiit or I don't know what. And after that, they expect I gonna give more money ? Never lol

 

[danielcook604]

Okay wondering if anyone has had the same issue?

Hello **************

I am here to inform you that your account is being actioned for using an illegal third party program to gain an unfair advantage in the game world. Please be aware that this is indeed a violation of our Code of Conduct and our Privacy Policy.

Your account has been terminated due to the serious nature of this violation. If you wish to dispute this action, you may do so by emailing [email protected]. Please be sure to include this ticket's reference number, 1*************.

Thank you for playing RIFT.

Sincerely,

GM Nord
Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

---------------------------------

Next email i got, honestly i never USED ANY BOT after my first ban which im trying to figure out WHY they did a perm ban the second time. I'm REALLY damn angry about this...

Greetings *********,

Your account was found using a 3rd party application to automate gameplay starting on 06.09.11. For this reason the account was temporarily suspended for 24 hours. The action on the account will remain, and once the timer is up you will have the ability to log in and play normally. Any questions about billing will need to be referred to our account/billing team.

Regards,

GM Primarch


------------------

 

[niron77]

not sad.. not angry...

lost 1 of 2 accounts and the account i lost was not my bot account ? the banned account i only updateted mesh, and did some profiles.. my bot account had an uptime of 2-10hours / day ... depending what i did

i have been botting since the start of Glider so i no that i can lose 1,2,3 or all accounts.
get new ones change ip, or use some one else wlan hehe..

ofen somthing better come out of a banwave like this.. find the "anticheater" and hit it in the nuts!!!

Love this bot, the best so far..

 

[flairdevil]

Its coming to 24 hours and the ban reports have stopped coming in. So lets update on where we are.

1. Not all accounts that used Ryftomate are banned. Our developer accounts survived and we have been running Ryftomate today.
2. Not all accounts have been terminated. Some have had 24 hour suspensions.
3. On suspended accounts, some characters have been rolled back to the point where Trion thinks the botting started. Some characters have been deleted completely as Trion believes that character was botted from level 6 onwards.
4. Many people on 1 day keys seem to have been spared.
5. People with accounts that have never used the bot have seen the "clean" accounts banned and the "bot" account banned.

In short, we do not yet know how Trion has selected accounts for action; nor do we know how they decide what accounts to terminate and what accounts to suspend.

What are we doing?
We have bought more Rift accounts, updated the bot and are running tests to see what it takes to get them banned.

What about warfronts and questing?
We will carry on with development. Black Garden is done and the bot intelligently goes to the Fang holder. But for obvious reasons, its no longer a priority to deliver this on June 19. We are focused on finding the anti-bot algorithms.

How long before Ryftomate is back?
We can't say. The next 48 hours are devoted to fact finding. When we know more, we will post back.

The ban reports have not stopped. I literally JUST now lost my 3rd account..... This account had botted only 3 days, for a couple hours at a time. Was not even a level 50 account yet. Was only a mid 30's.

 

[Hawker]

Okay wondering if anyone has had the same issue?

Hello **************

I am here to inform you that your account is being actioned for using an illegal third party program to gain an unfair advantage in the game world. Please be aware that this is indeed a violation of our Code of Conduct and our Privacy Policy.

Your account has been terminated due to the serious nature of this violation. If you wish to dispute this action, you may do so by emailing [email protected]. Please be sure to include this ticket's reference number, 1*************.

Thank you for playing RIFT.

Sincerely,

GM Nord
Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

---------------------------------

Next email i got, honestly i never USED ANY BOT after my first ban which im trying to figure out WHY they did a perm ban the second time. I'm REALLY damn angry about this...

Greetings *********,

Your account was found using a 3rd party application to automate gameplay starting on 06.09.11. For this reason the account was temporarily suspended for 24 hours. The action on the account will remain, and once the timer is up you will have the ability to log in and play normally. Any questions about billing will need to be referred to our account/billing team.

Regards,

GM Primarch


------------------

Was the second ban permanent or 24 hours ?

 

[danielcook604]

i was first banned for 24 hours then yesterday i was told i was banned perm,.,, then i emailed them freaking out on them told them i was doing charge backs. then they email me the following:

Greetings *********,

Your account was found using a 3rd party application to automate gameplay starting on 06.09.11. For this reason the account was temporarily suspended for 24 hours. The action on the account will remain, and once the timer is up you will have the ability to log in and play normally. Any questions about billing will need to be referred to our account/billing team.

Regards,

GM Primarch

trying to figure out if it was indeed perm or 24 hours? i sent another email for follow up because i didnt use any bot after my first ban

 

[Javilionaire]

So is this the end for ryftomate? does a anti-ban fix seem likely?

Hello *****

I am here to inform you that your account is being terminated for the repeated use of an illegal third party program, which can be used to gain an unfair advantage in the game world. Please be aware that this is indeed a violation of our Code of Conduct and our Privacy Policy.

If you wish to dispute this action, you may do so by emailing [email protected]. Please be sure to include this tickets reference number,

Thank you for playing RIFT.

Sincerely,

GM Morgana
Sr. Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

 

[Hawker]

So is this the end for ryftomate? does a anti-ban fix seem likely?

Be patient. We are not going to offer the bot to the public until we have a view on what has happened and how to prevent it recurring. It would do no favours to anyone if we rush our release.

 

[Javilionaire]

Be patient. We are not going to offer the bot to the public until we have a view on what has happened and how to prevent it recurring. It would do no favours to anyone if we rush our release.

Alright, i was just asking. I am patient, just wanted an answer

 

[Glendrum]

Ok, so I am a bit concerned about what is going on in this forum. last night i posted that one account i had was perma banned but another one hadnt been touched. Now all of a sudden they give me a 24-hr ban on the second account. Really? Is it possible that there has been something worked out to provide such information to TrionWorlds? would my second ban have come over 24hours after the first i hadnt a put a comment on the forum?

 

[danielcook604]

Greetings ***************,

Thank you for your appeal inquiry.

After reviewing pertinent logs, we have determined that the action taken against your account for use of third party programs was correct. We will not be reversing relevant suspensions and/or notes applied to your account. The account was permanently closed due to the egregious nature of the violation that was committed. The issue is no longer available for review, and as such further correspondence regarding your appeal may not be met with a response. I'll forward your ticket to our billing team for a refund consideration, but please be aware this is not a guarantee a refund will be processed.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you for your continued support of Trion Worlds and for playing RIFT. Your reference number for this question is **********.

Sincerely,

GM Wizard
Senior Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

 

[Hawker]

Ok, so I am a bit concerned about what is going on in this forum. last night i posted that one account i had was perma banned but another one hadnt been touched. Now all of a sudden they give me a 24-hr ban on the second account. Really? Is it possible that there has been something worked out to provide such information to TrionWorlds? would my second ban have come over 24hours after the first i hadnt a put a comment on the forum?

Read your first post. There was nothing you said that could link to your account.

 

[Hawker]

Greetings ***************,

Thank you for your appeal inquiry.

After reviewing pertinent logs, we have determined that the action taken against your account for use of third party programs was correct. We will not be reversing relevant suspensions and/or notes applied to your account. The account was permanently closed due to the egregious nature of the violation that was committed. The issue is no longer available for review, and as such further correspondence regarding your appeal may not be met with a response. I'll forward your ticket to our billing team for a refund consideration, but please be aware this is not a guarantee a refund will be processed.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you for your continued support of Trion Worlds and for playing RIFT. Your reference number for this question is **********.

Sincerely,

GM Wizard
Senior Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

So an account that was not botting was banned for botting. I have someone else in your position whom I 100% believe because her machine didn't have the right version of .Net.

Seems that software detection is not the the full story here.

 

[danielcook604]

So an account that was not botting was banned for botting. I have someone else in your position whom I 100% believe because her machine didn't have the right version of .Net.

Seems that software detection is not the the full story here. Our test accounts are still going.

Hawker, correct After i was banned for 24 hours I DIDNT use anything at all because i was concerned to lose my account however they STILL banned it complete out right without any discussion NO PROOF they said it was botting on that day however i was on a business trip from buffalo to vancouver complete LIES

 

[Machoman]

this is why Macrogoblin was the greatest bot ever made. it did not inject anything into the game, jack called this months ago. glad i didnt buy ! ill wait for my trusty macrogoblin to get back!


anyone else notice its on the SAME day glider/lavish users were banned by blizzard in 08? i find it odd the same program link to the first massive banwave in WoW gets banned on the same day 3 years later in rift.

 

[niron77]

second account gone to! 2/3 now

Greetings xxxxxx

Thank you contacting us regarding the status of your RIFT account.

We sincerely regret to inform you that due to the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, your account has been permanently closed. We have conducted an extensive audit in arriving at this conclusion, and we do not take these types of actions lightly. We will not be providing logs of this method to protect the integrity of our detection process.

We do wish you the best in your gaming endeavors in the future.

If there is a point where you decide to play a Trion game on a new account in the future, please don't run bot software.

Regards,

GM xxxxxxx
Senior Game Master
Trion Worlds Inc.

 

[Hawker]

this is why Macrogoblin was the greatest bot ever made. it did not inject anything into the game, jack called this months ago. glad i didnt buy ! ill wait for my trusty macrogoblin to get back!


anyone else notice its on the SAME day glider/lavish users were banned by blizzard in 08? i find it odd the same program link to the first massive banwave in WoW gets banned on the same day 3 years later in rift.

Have you noticed that Glider never injected anything into the game and as you rightly say they had a banwave on May 20 2008? Its important not to get hung up on injection or keystrokes. Both can be detected. Its finding the detection algorithms that is the important challenge.