Does FDev care about botting?

[znôrt]

It's funny though, you'd imagine seeing whether there is botting involved or not should be rather easy from admin logs.

not quite. if the activity is repetitive both bots and humans are going to show roughly the same pattern, it is hard to tell them apart just from looking at a few timestamps.

as rubbernuke points out the basic problem is bot-grade game design: it rewards repetitive gameplay that bots do better than humans. he points at a few good ideas on how to address that, but there would be many other ways ... except frontier don't care. which is why they won't even bother looking at the logs in the first place, and just roll their eyes if they see this thread.

 

[Linnunrata]

not quite. if the activity is repetitive both bots and humans are going to show roughly the same pattern, it is hard to tell them apart just from looking at a few timestamps.

I guess it kinda depends, but wouldn't you have correlating, very long game hours with repetitive pattern, combined over a set number of accounts with relatively small IP ranges and locations, assuming there's no attempts to mask signs like this? Perhaps it wouldn't be foolproof, but at least a clue that something shady might be going on.

 

[SMcA]

Does QAnon have a kiddies section?

 

[Sir.Tj]

I have a lovely bot... but then I do a lot of squats.

 

[SMcA]

I have a lovely bot... but then I do a lot of squats.

Evidence?
I won't believe it until I see it.

 

[Old Duck]

In Space Engineers, bots are a feature rather than a bug

 

[Northpin]

Hundreds, just randomly are are synched toggether, as a single bloc, without any co-ordination? They're bots. 100%
We put in 210 murders against the bot supported faction yesterday, neg traded 1,780,000,000 credits and put in comparable work with every other faction in the system. Went 4% the other way. This is not human.

HiHI

That's a clear case of: I lost, they must be cheating

 

[znôrt]

I guess it kinda depends, but wouldn't you have correlating, very long game hours with repetitive pattern, combined over a set number of accounts with relatively small IP ranges and locations, assuming there's no attempts to mask signs like this? Perhaps it wouldn't be foolproof, but at least a clue that something shady might be going on.

that's different. that's not "rather easy from admin logs".

ofc you can get some clues. but how do you prove it was a bot and not a human doing bot like gameplay? strictly speaking, impossible unless it's a really blatant case like 5 accounts from the same ip for 72h nonstop. you can bet botters can take preventive measures to make identification hard too.

it would be far from easy, more like a tedious and involved process requiring quite some manpower and close and frequent monitoring to at least have a good shot of keeping the house half clean.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Can you not just .. like... take a job at Frontier to sort this out? Whenever I read your posts I think to myself "yeah I'd play that"

You absolutely sure about that? Think of the livestreams, and the fidelity of burgers in the EDO station hubs

 

[Momatty]

I misread the title as bottling. Now I'm no longer confused.

 

[Machnette]

I regret making this thread. Hoping an admin will come along and hide my shame.

 

[Sir.Tj]

I regret making this thread. Hoping an admin will come along and hide my shame.

You are @BongoBaggins and I claim my £5...

 

[Linnunrata]

that's different. that's not "rather easy from admin logs".

ofc you can get some clues. but how do you prove it was a bot and not a human doing bot like gameplay? strictly speaking, impossible unless it's a really blatant case like 5 accounts from the same ip for 72h nonstop. you can bet botters can take preventive measures to make identification hard too.

it would be far from easy, more like a tedious and involved process requiring quite some manpower and close and frequent monitoring to at least have a good shot of keeping the house half clean.

Yeah, I guess "rather easy" is too open for interpretation, I meant that in many cases there should be pretty obvious tell tale signs. And yeah, sure, botters can take preventive measures, but at least in real life hacking business, it's surprising how many just rely on the subterfuge of nobody even looking.

I wonder how many brand new Epic accounts are flying in that particular system.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

You absolutely sure about that? Think of the livestreams, and the fidelity of burgers in the EDO station hubs

Can't be worse than the status quo so I'd take that chance

 

[Rubbernuke]

Can't be worse than the status quo so I'd take that chance

Stellar screenshots would just be me submitting my Powerplay memes. CG or Galnet would be serious and I'd be "so what would Aisling look like with a big giant head?".

Plus I'd need some animal totem to bring with me, Loach style.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I remember when I flipped my first system, it felt amazing. I did a superpower flip (from Empire to Federation), and it reminded me of a game of Othello on a galactic level. I played this "game" a couple more times before I realized the pointlessness of it all. I later joined a proper squadron / group where we did organized ops to extend our control on the galaxy - it ended up feeling more like a job than a game. After that I lost all interest in BGS.

Well, except when it comes to people like the OP. Sometimes I enjoy throwing wrenches into the machinery of these wacko BGS system hoarders, just to see them get all worked up

There are no bots, just angry Old Ducks

I'm doing this at the moment in Colonia, but I'm not dedicated enough to make a dent, so just ended up on the bounty boards instead

I'm no big fan of these massive player factions who steamroll entire regions and therefore make the faction side of things incredibly boring and bland. And because I know that they're a lot more comitted than I ever could be (player numbers aside) I don't dip too deep into the BGS - although I did flip a system to Anarchy in the main bubble before, and regularly check up on it in the SysMap (it's doing well, because it's a pretty dull system with barely any traffic, but I've grown attached to it somehow).

And even that flipping work took a fair bit of effort of grinding things over the course of several weeks (think I had 2-3 wars going on in the process). Light touch seems to be the best approach for my own sanity and continued enjoyment of the game, I simply accept I'm too small to make any long term difference, which I suppose was the idea behind the original Elite so that still works for me even from a RP perspective.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Stellar screenshots would just be me submitting my Powerplay memes. CG or Galnet would be serious and I'd be "so what would Aisling look like with a big giant head?".

Plus I'd need some animal totem to bring with me, Loach style.

As Frontier Head of HR I'd obviously put you on BGS/PP 'under the hood' duty, like it or not.

 

[Linnunrata]

I'm no big fan of these massive player factions who steamroll entire regions and therefore make the faction side of things incredibly boring and bland.

Yeah, me neither, especially when they have unimmersive nomenclature. Not to mention that they underline the passivity of NPC factions.

 

[Northpin]

I regret making this thread. Hoping an admin will come along and hide my shame.

Well... if you have solid proof of botting involved - than taking it on the forums was the wrong move
Report the issue to FDev and eventually involve the CM Team too...

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yeah, I guess "rather easy" is too open for interpretation, I meant that in many cases there should be pretty obvious tell tale signs. And yeah, sure, botters can take preventive measures, but at least in real life hacking business, it's surprising how many just rely on the subterfuge of nobody even looking.

I wonder how many brand new Epic accounts are flying in that particular system.

I always crouch when I hack. Can't be too careful!