[suggestion] Solving problem with bots in seasons

General Discussion
21

Another way is to limit playtime only in seasons to 42 hours per week. What this does is also make it easier to detect.

  • Each player can theoretically play 6 hours per day or up to 42 hours cumulative.
  • Average Joe and Jane cannot stay awake without reflexes and coordination starting to falter after 36 hours without sleep. This means anyone doing this consistently has either a shared account or is botting. Both are against the TOS.
  • The botters are also placed in a position where they cannot do better than the best players who do not cheat with this limitation.
  • Additionally, the actual power and real abilities of builds are more transparent for Developers to see what needs buffing etc…because the botters cannot do any better than the best non-cheater with limited time-frames.
  • After the 42 hours are used they have to wait 126 hours before they can play season again. This is acceptable to many players because they can play 6 hours per day and will never be denied access.

This will not necessarily guarantee botter detection or necessarily stop someone writing a timer script that works in 6 hour chunks. It will make it obvious who is not smart enough to avoid using a shared account or use botting that perpetually tries to login after the 42 hours have expired.

You could take it up to 56 hours (8 hours per day), but any more than that will do nothing to curb the botting.

EDIT: This also caters for people with a job whether shifts or full-time. 8hrs work + travelling + meals+ 8rs gameplay leaves little left for sleep. Some can do it 2-3 days in a row, but not perpetually. They can therefore binge on weekends if desired.

2 Likes
22

That might be enough for them in the short run but we will have it on the long term which is what i am intereseted in. Right now it is really hard for me to have either.

23

I didnt know shared account was against TOS. They must ban every one in the LB because i have seen some big numbers on play times.

You are right limitting the time could solve it. 42 hours is really realy low so you might think about 90 hours a week or something like that. because i can play about 60 hours and work in the mean time (weekends). You gotta give it for those in vacation and jobless and streamers. These are also players you know. The fact is Raxxanterax play time could be based upon for this idea.

1 Like
24

And yet botting and playing 24/7 is going to negate that efficientcy when compared to someone playing 18 hours a day
And efficiency isn’t the issue, it’s your title
You still have bots in game so not solving the bot issue because they are still there

I did you won’t accept it
I said the only way to solve the botting issue is

And Top Players know about the bot problem and seeing as most “top” players are the botters what do you expect
I also saw a video by a streamer getting banned while playing, got upset about it because he hadn’t been botting that season, and that was one of your top players

Read your Title Solving the problem with bots in season
You cut power which means nothing over the grand scheme of things and yet your way you still have rampant botting

That wasn’t for botting that was for the exploit that was being used to get to the top of the ladder
So are you saying cheating like that is all good and fine

But you’re the one claiming to have solved the botting problem, not me, and you haven’t found a solution to botting because they will still be running rampant
And I am just showing you haven’t solved the botting problem at all

25

There is no perfect solution but after years of seeing people complain about how unfair it is on regular players, this levels the playing field at the very least so that whether someone bots or not, the scores are fairly similar, not drastically different.

As for shared accounts, yes it is totally against their terms of service.
People do it as you said, but it’s still a banning offence ( a lesser as they allow for one-off ignorance).

26

I rarely listen to what the"top players" have to say about anything. More often than not they are the problem. More often than not they account share, but, buy gold, dupe, and hack their way to the top.

In terms of D3 GR leaderboards one thing they can do is equalize paragon to 800 for everyone no matter if you have 1 or 10K. That way no one has an advantage. There is no incentive to bot or account share for paragon.

Putting limits that could effect honest players is ever good. Why should I be limited to 90hrs in a week if I’m on vacation and want to spend it playing D3 the entire 2 weeks I take in the summer and the 2 I take at winter?

27

Yes I agree the way you have put it is completely unfair.
While one bad apple should not spoil the whole bunch, unfortunately, in this game it is estimated that there are well over 1,000 bad apples using bots.

I am happy with whatever levels the playing field so honest players are not disadvantaged by the people that chose to cheat.

28

So less than 1%. Doesn’t see like an overall large problem, but I can see the frustration for non botters trying to rank. That’s why you cap and equalize paragon in GRs. The only advantage would be gear acquisition.

29

Nice suggestion, though I think that it is bigger limitation than I suggested. For example, I can play by myself full week by 10-12 hours in a day (and I did this in the current season), but - as you can see in my profile on EU - I can’t provide any risks for top-players, but your limitation will affect me (and other medium and casual players that can play big amount of time with muuuuch less profit than top-players) while the limitation I suggested - not.

Too cruel solution, I think.

You have bots that do not provide significant profit for botters in comparison with top and even medium players which play without bots. Because of random (in rifts, in gear) and small difference (in comparison with the difference due to random in rifts) between top gear and the gear that can be obtained by anyone for moderate time. In comparison with rifts and gear, paragon is not about random at all (while rifts and gear are still about random - i.e. about lucky or time; paragon is only about time), that’s why I solved the problem with the profit that can be obtained by botters when they used bots. After that players can have only one problem with botters - bots are automated systems that do not spend the time of botters on the game. So you need to ask you - do you want to play in this game long enough time by yourself or do you need the bot for that it will play instead of you? If you want to play by yourself - you will have no problems with botters (because they will have no profit - when we fixed the problem I described in this thread). If you want to use bot for that it plays instead of you - use it, obtain ban time by time and buy D3+RoS+necro-pack again and again. It will be your own subscription on D3 (like WoW has). No problems at all.

5 years. Devs did not solve this problem. What additional amount of years do you need for that to understand that devs will not solve this problem? 5? 10? 15? 20? 100? :smile:
While I suggested the simplest solution which will solve the problem with influence of botters on rankings.

I think that you are wrong. I think that the least number of top players are the botters. Otherwise no one from top-30 will remain after ban wave.

You said - “most tops”. It is example of one player. Do you understand the difference between the words “most” and “one”?

Instead of title there is also first post of thread + I already refined what exactly I solved in this thread.
But for you I need to explain evident things time by time.

Water. I cut nothing. Your other things are not important at all.

and for botting too. Search in this forum in help.

Cheating is good and fine for ones who want to use it. It is their choice and only their (it is not the choice of other players). But only in single-player games. I like and fully share the position of Valve on Steam according to cheating - anyone can do anything that want in single player games (even with achievements), but for cheating in multiplayer games (where such players will affect another players) Valve gives them VAC-ban.
D3 on PC is the single player game with the forced online and additional crutches for multiplayer like groups and rankings. Even for ones who play only and always solo. Moreover, players like I have big enough knowledge in programming and disassembling to modify any game like we want and I did this already for all games I like to play. For example, in XCom: Enemy Within I played 1k+ hours when I tested my mods. I created them after that I finished this game 5 times on different difficulties to obtain ALL achievements WITHOUT using any mods. I spend for this about 180 hours. And I spend 1k+ hours for playing in this game with my mods (testing and balancing them, adding or removing new or old my features) + I spend additional time for creating such mods and for creating the script for their integrating by one click. But, anyway, I did all these features much faster than devs of D3 or other games + without many years of waiting for new features (often with no luck) + without spending my time on disputes with other players - because I created the features only for myself and played with them also only I (though time by time I can share my mods for other players too).

I solved it already. You provided the things that are not problems at all - i.e. they are only your problems (and ones like you) so you can solve them by yourself. :wink:

30

Equalizing the main reason botters have an advantage and making everyone on a level playing field for competition is too cruel? But telling somone you played too much this wee and locking them out of the game isn’t?

I hope you are joking. No one can be that dense.

31

Paragon = 800 is small even for me, because I use additional points of it above 800 to remove HP from the gear at all. Top players use their paragon also for increasing their defence (in addition to damage). That’s why I did not suggest such low value as limit of paragon. Also as I did not suggest another idea I saw - to provide 1 point of main stat and vitality instead of 5. This thread is about such limitation that will be no limitation at all for the most of top players - i.e. exactly such value they will farm in season. Only bots will farm more value of paragon for that to have advantage in rankings.

Moreover, I know one streamer that organized their own tournaments with the real money reward ($500, as I remember, or may be reward bigger now) with the limitation on paragon (no more than 1k) and even with additional limitation - gear without improving it by legendary gems using one recipe of the Cube (I just do not know how the name of this recipe can be written on English).

32

I am not sure there will be any one-size-fits-all, but I think many people are open to anything reasonable that works.
As for any player with over 5000-paragons already, they may well be legitmate players that play D3 non-stop, though that does seem a little OTT. Assuming nothing, it makes sense that if they knew exactly every person that was botting, they would no longer be in the game.

1 Like
33

There is nothing to solve, it is a matter of people actually doing their job

The only problem with that is they have to do a ban wave
again the banners not doing their jobs, probably because the Diablo LB is considered a joke compared to the actual leagues they have for the rest of their games

I read the Blizzard post about it and they were sorting the exploit out and banning those that were using it, just because the ones that were using the exploit were also botters that’s just a side effect of what the ban was actually for

And most tops are

so you want me to add hundreds of examples
their is also the famous Brothercriss

How about you post it all here like you expect me to post all the videos of people that got banned and because I supplied only one and you say that is only one and not most and you can’t be bothered doing a search yourself
So I will take a leaf out of your book and say you haven’t presented any proof to this post so it mustn’t exist and telling me to go search for it isn’t proof, you need to supply it all like you expect me to supply all the players getting banned and won’t go searching yourself

34

They do not do their job (as players want) during 5 years already and nothing tell that they will do their job someday. And your words above mean really nothing for them.

Yes, of course. Otherwise you can’t say (because you just do not know) what exact amount of top players using bots.

Usually, I do not provide words that I can’t confirm.
Moreover, you already found the appropriate place and you argument is the same as early - “devs did not say that they banned botters too, so they did not give ban them specially”. May be you just ask them directly instead of talking by them?

35

This is definitely a viable option against cheaters!
I tend to play about 8 hours daily but only 5 days a week.
This could totally work though for the average user.
Perhaps Blizz could flag accounts for review that average more then 6 hours a day?

36

It will meet resistance.
The thing is not to limit non-season and relegate only to seasonal. If they give the option for a cumulative total by choice, it allows for 9-5 workers that may decide to binge play their entire weekend.
I do not think there is a perfect solution. This makes sense, but just because it makes sense, does not mean it will be well received.

1 Like
37

First of all they need a real definition of bot. It used to be so easy to spot. We all know the leach that’s easy. Xp is so easy now its nothing to do 4 mans and get huge xp. Bounties well some times I get bored farming for a drop ill do 10 or so I am def not boting ,just sick of drop rate. Im sure some lbs rankings are legit and some are bot/ginders, it getting harder no to see the difference, other then the hours played to achieve a paragon level. Blizz needs to define it other the terms?

38

I think they don’t care too much about D3 anymore to be honest.
But I do wish they would ban more frequently and had a better way to automatically detect botters and turbohud.

1 Like
39

They haven’t done a banwave in over three years.
Its over.
Blizzard does not care.

1 Like
40

Time for a change.
Remember the devs saying “we hear you”.
Perhaps they will see the importance of the bot issue and do something soon.
They told us this last month.