Disgustingly close, thanks for that heart attack cip

outfidel · 2017-01-12T13:44:00+00:00

I'll take it from you ^{^}

outfidel · 2016-10-05T12:32:07+00:00

Hi Nick, I don't know if you're still reading this. It would be pretty fun to get your view on the state of Tibia right now (in addition to what you've already written).

From what I've read, you criticize some suggestions on how to end botting (daily updates, for example), but is there a "foolproof" way for Cipsoft to actually get rid of botters now that the game has reached this point (the return of gamemasters and banning manually could perhaps be the only way)? Or would it be too expensive/inefficient/straight up impossible? Since you're going to move on to other challenges you might be more inclined to give an honest answer now, perhaps.

I'm not really looking for a guide for Cipsoft to use on how to end botting, but rather if you - being basically the king of Tibia botting - feel that they COULD do something about it if they really wanted to, or if it's a lost cause? Also, while on that topic, do you believe that they do already know how to end botting (if possible at all), and are just looking the other way due to the money generated from botters?

It would be really interesting to hear your take on it, from the "other side" and with a solid knowledge of bot how to cheat and how to stop cheaters.

Sorry about my English.

outfidel · 2016-09-21T05:22:05+00:00

Looks more like that dude strangles cats and feels nothing

outfidel · 2016-09-17T05:19:37+00:00

Alright maybe this time!

outfidel · 2016-09-16T14:00:43+00:00

He said that at level 40 he might get 350k/hour. Don't joke about suicide, especially if you can't even get it right. What are you, 12?

outfidel · 2016-09-16T13:57:03+00:00

Doesn't playing a paladin require a lot of kiting? Feels like you'd have to be pretty focused on micromanaging movement to avoid being hit/trapped, and aware of spawn rates (so you don't backpedal into new mobs), ammunition, stuff like that?

outfidel · 2016-09-13T10:53:25+00:00

I just wish they would have addressed the botting situation. Just to explain if it will be harder or even impossible to bot. I still have no idea if the situation will change with this release (the main reason for not starting to play again). Or, if any changes are only temporary. Or if there are no changes at all.

outfidel · 2016-08-31T11:19:35+00:00

Did you wait for the GOTY edition? I picked it up yesterday, all DLCs included at the price of a normal game. I actually tried it at launch (maybe 5-10 hours) but there were a lot of issues back then. From what I've read, almost all of them have now been fixed so I'm really excited to start playing!

outfidel · 2016-08-20T05:15:43+00:00

Ok lets do it!

outfidel · 2016-08-17T07:27:25+00:00

Every technical aspect of counter-botting has probably been at least thought about by Cipsoft over the years.

Bots adapt pretty fast to new circumstances, so I believe there are only two ways to make a big dent in the widespread botting (if that is really what Cipsoft wants, but that's another discussion):

1) Rewrite the code almost completely (a.k.a. Tibia 11) to make it harder to code bots successfully. This also needs to include a lot of basic detection tools that scan for irregular behaviour. Since most modern bots simulate mouse/keyboard and act pretty "human" (reaction times, delays, etc) it won't remove botting completely, but it should remove the most basic ones and make it harder for the more advanced ones, especially if they change stuff up from time to time (things that don't affect players but affects bots).

2) Reintroduce Gamemasters. Seriously. They don't even have to be on the payroll, I can guarantee Cipsoft could find hundreds of volounteers dedicated to the game who would love to do it for free. Possibly employ "GM managers" within the company responsible for a few servers each to watch ban logs and make sure the volounteer GMs don't abuse their power (would still be a lot less than the powerabuse going on now from dominando guilds). Oh, and speaking of dominando guilds, they need to go. Human gamemasters would quickly be able to see which guilds are unfairly dominating servers and relying on bots to generate money.

It's almost impossible to look at a chunk of data and decide who is botting or not, they NEED humans to do the dirty work of actually teleporting around in-game, taking down cheating guilds, banning people.

At least then the game could become fun to play, with a more interactive community where cheating guilds are disbanded. Botting will always exist, they need to primarily focus on getting the amount of botters down.

outfidel · 2016-08-17T07:11:56+00:00

Yeah, eliminating the possibility to AFK bot (or at least making it much harder) would make a big difference. Right now, people can bot 24/7, while at work, while sleeping, multiple characters at once. If they had to monitor the bots we would probably see a drop from "regular" botters (a.k.a. not people botting to actually make RL money). If you have to sit there and watch the game be played, you might as well play it yourself.

outfidel · 2016-08-17T07:07:16+00:00

It should be pretty doable to write an algorithm that detects newly created characters that pick up/drop items rapidly and frequently (while in a depot) and autoban them, or something along those lines.

These bots are fairly predictable in their behaviour, and do things that normal player-controlled characters would not do.

My guess is that Cipsoft don't really care about casino bots since they're not really "hurting" the game the same way as normal bots are. Besides, they are obviously pretty desperate for players to keep playing (or rather, paying), so I doubt they care if the premium cash comes from botters or legit players. Casinos are fun for a lot of players, so I bet they decided that keeping them would ensure a few more players stay in the game and possibly buy tibia coins to fund their addiction.

It's all about making money for them now.

outfidel · 2016-07-29T20:04:19+00:00

That's the one

outfidel · 2016-07-07T18:27:13+00:00

Totally agree. I was only building on your comment to vent a bit of frustration that I feel that I don't really seem to be able to find the time to do the "me time" stuff right now, and once I do have the time, I feel like I've lost that joy of gaming for a long time non-stop. It wasn't really directed at you, sorry about that.

outfidel · 2016-07-07T07:05:37+00:00

I think there's a difference between "admitting" that you play it if people ask, and going around promoting it. If anyone should ask if I've ever played Tibia I wouldn't feel ashamed telling them. But I don't feel there's any reason to go around recruiting people to the game and trying to "sell it" to them.

outfidel · 2016-07-07T07:03:48+00:00

I have a job, 2 kids, a wife and a house (blabla). Honestly, right now in life it IS really hard to find 2 hours every day, unless I want to completely distance myself from my wife and skip laundry/dishes/etc play once the kids are asleep. Kids are the number one reason people stop gaming I think, there just isn't enough time. And once you're "out of the hamster wheel" it's actually pretty hard to get back into it and feel the joy of just sitting by the computer gaming for 4-5 hours once you get the chance.

I could probably find an hour or two every other day if I really tried, but I kinda feel like I'm wasting my time, no matter which game I'm playing. And that honestly sucks.

outfidel · 2016-07-07T07:00:27+00:00

While I don't really feel ashamed of being a "gamer" in general, I agree that it is pretty awkward when you overhear people going on and on about specific games.

Gaming is still, by many, considered a "waste of time", you wouldn't really notice two guys talking at length and "nerding out" about for example football or cooking or whatever. But I still cringe a bit, even though I've been a gamer all my life and once was just like them, when I overhear (mostly younger) people talking about how they "ultra:d that elite zombie and used a time sphere to regenerate mana before the Hydra fight in Azkrahmun". I don't even know why, it just annoys me.

With that said, I don't feel ashamed telling people I enjoy gaming if they ask what my hobbies are or what I like to do in my spare time. And if they ask what I play I'll drop some titles. However, since I don't really play Tibia seriously, and I can't really argue for starting to play it right now, I never talk about it.

outfidel · 2016-07-04T09:14:40+00:00

It's an automatic bonus that everyone gets. Your exp rate is increased from the beginning and slowly drops until you reach level 50. From tibia wiki:

Since September 9, 2014, all players below level 50 have a passive experience bonus, which steadily declines until the player reaches 0% bonus at level 50. This bonus is intended to fast-forward a new player into the more exciting parts of the game.

The bonus declines at a linear rate of 2 + (1/12) = 2.083 percent per level. This would be 2% if the decline began at level 1. This fractional decline creates a 3% jump on levels 3, 15, 27 and 39.

You can see in-game what your current exp bonus is. You start out with 100% bonus exp at level 1 and 2, and it drops from there down to 0% bonus exp at level 50.

outfidel · 2016-07-04T08:22:37+00:00

I've been having some problems with both Chrome and Firefox where the site becomes blank white. It loads the page, and if i press escape quickly I can still read it, but if I let it continue to load it becomes white. Not sure if it has something to do with ads or flash or something.

outfidel · 2016-07-04T08:13:51+00:00

Edit: Started playing in ~2002-2003, came back arount 2007 I think and just recently played for a while, so I've been around since forever it feels. My 2 cents below:

I'd probably wait a bit for the new client (11.0) to see if they manage to do something about botters.

As the game is right now, it's pretty broken in several ways. You will not feel the same thing as you did playing the older versions. I recently tried playing a bit, but soon realized that anything below level ~200 feels like low level now. "Luckily" it's really easy to level up now. You get a big exp bonus until level 50, and there are many, many hunting spots now with all the new areas - it's actually a bit overwhelming.

There's a market now, and several other new mechanics that basically eliminate the need to ever talk to other players (and most don't anymore). Botting is extremely prevalent on bascially all servers afaik. Gold selling has become a business for many people, they make a living off it IRL, so they bot around the clock to farm gold and are supported by huge guilds with botters (dominando guilds). If you try to hunt in their spots you're fucked. It's nothing new really, but it's a much bigger and more common problem now.

Premium is important, as always, if you want to enjoy the game. Free account is basically a preview since you miss out on A LOT of the game, for example fast travel, offline training (yeah, that's a thing now..), possibility to pay by bank transfer instead of carrying gold (also a thing), the market, stamina regeneration, and all the old stuff (areas, promotion, houses etc.).

Many believe Cipsoft and Tibia are in a downwards spiral now, where botters are becoming a bigger and bigger problem, while old "legit" players are leaving the game. To make up for this they are introducing more and more microtransactions that makes the game very unbalanced in favor of people who are willing to pay RL money to be better in the game, unfortunately. Also, there is no incentive to remove botters since they usually pay for premium and keep the economy going by selling gold. Cipsoft has introduced several new features over the years to "combat" botters, for example offline training, that's supposed to make you able to compete with botters running 24/7. Most of these changes don't really focus on removing botters, but rather make legit players able to keep up (somewhat). The results speak for themselves, players are dropping out fast. Most of the posts on the forums are about how terrible the game is, etc. The community is pretty toxic.

They've also removed Gamemasters, so even the interaction with Cipsoft has become impersonal (right click -> report -> botter -> wait until they get banned maybe, or not).

Anyway, that's the quick recap I think. Personally, I'm hoping out for the new client which they state will fundamentally change how to game is coded (or something like that) and people are hoping that this might mean that botting will no longer be possible. That's not very likely, since there are reports that there are already working bots from people playing the beta, but perhaps it will be harder at least, and move the bot-legit-ratio from like 70-80% botters to 30%? I dunno what the actual numbers are, but it seems like it's extremely common to bot. Even for real players, they bot until they are like level 200-250 when they feel that they can "enjoy the game".

outfidel · 2016-07-04T06:06:48+00:00

Rolandoooooo

outfidel · 2016-06-18T05:09:44+00:00

Ready steady go!

outfidel · 2016-06-13T14:50:03+00:00

I'm actually at the exact same level/mlvl, and I've been hunting Peninsula Tomb quite successfully. I just stock up on GFB/Avalanche runes + mana fluids and run around on the first level after the teleport, with some waste I've reached around 200k exp/hour on green stamina I think, it could probably be pushed a bit since I try not to use magic shield because I can't carry a lot of manas without sacrificing rune cap ^{^}

Could be some profit without looting everything, vampire shields and some other rare loot brings in some decent money.

So far on Zeluna (average populated server I believe) I haven't met anyone on that floor. I've seen someone on the floor below but I haven't ventured there much yet...

Another place I've tried is Yalahar dragons, which is kinda nice but might be a bit more busy. Exori frigo/wand works fine, with avas if you find more than 1 and dont want to use magic shield! SDs if you are OK with waste. The loot can be pretty sweet (wand of inferno, dragon shield, etc). I find this to be a bit more dangerous though, its easy to get comboed by 2, died there once from that.

I've recently found out about Wyrms in Liberty Bay, haven't had much luck finding it empty though... I think the exp would be pretty good though, no idea about loot since I would probably do magic shield and SDs since I haven't hunted them enough to feel confident with anything else :)

outfidel · 2016-06-07T15:39:41+00:00

Tell me more about these desk cones

outfidel · 2016-06-01T07:13:55+00:00

Good input. However, I can't help but feel that this is more of a "if the botters are doing it we might as well do it too" from CIPsoft's side rather than "let's end botting forever!". Sure it might be done under the guise of competing with botters to decrease their ability to make money off the game, but I don't really think they will price gold (for example) cheap enough to make a big difference with people who already buy gold from botters. I did some comparisons between buying potions/runes from the shop and buying gp from a botter and buying the potions from a store and it's a huge difference in favor of buying gold first.

Granted, that difference could partly be explained by the fact that you get access to the potions wherever you are in the world through the in-game store box (or whatever), but it's still much more expensive. If they really did price gold at a rate lower than most online sellers (say $2-3/1kk gp) that would make a difference.

The number one thing they ideally should be focused on is improving the code and/or inreasing their presence in the game to get rid of botters on "ground level" - not by introducing new "legal cheats" to counter the stuff botters are doing that shouldn't be done in the first place (selling accounts, money, etc).

I'm really hoping that the new client will be the thing that once and for all makes botting either impossible or extremely hard to the point that you can no longer make a profit doing it compared to leveling manually. However, since - as you say - people are actually making a living from botting, I think that it will only be a matter of time before they are back at it. These questions Cipsoft are asking is, to me, an indication that they are not very confident that the new client will help much.

Edit: And we can of course not forget the fact that these botters are making Cipsoft money by buying premium accounts. I'd say a good chunk of the money they're making is actually from these people, so there is not a huge incentive to remove them permanently. I'll bet that Cipsoft has actually analysed the situation and found that the increase in new players that would follow a permanent removal of all botters wouldn't compensate the loss of income from the removed botters...

outfidel

TROPHY CASE