Starting To Make A Bot -- Questions About Standard Practices

[HoboDoug]

Hey all,

I have been toying around with making a bot and originally started looking at making a fishing bot. I found the static address for the status and went along my merry way. But now that I started playing around and researching sending input, a ton of questions started popping up. There is no one around me that I can actually bounce these questions off of so now I turn to you guys. Also, I am using C#.

Sending Input
What's the standard way to send input for game bots? Mainly for it running in the background and still getting messages. I looked into PostMessage and that seems the best way. I currently have that implemented, but it seems really easy to flag an account since it's getting key events and the window isn't even active. Is there another way to go about this? Is this even an issue?

Interacting with Menus
This is the part that I am most stuck on. I was looking into making a really quick crafting bot since weaving is so monotonous. I have the found the addresses for the active menu X and Y and was thinking about setting up a config file that would have all the settings needed to navigate specific menus (width, height, list item locations, etc.). But, it seems like there has to be a better way. Are bots currently navigating menus and if they are, are they doing it through just static config data or manipulating by reading and writing memory? Can anyone point to me a nice example of using a menu with a bot?

Thanks in advance for any help or insight. I have been researching stuff here and there after work and finally feel like I just need more information before I can continue.

[ffxiezekial]

I have recently started messing around with trying to make a bot as well. So far it's been pretty brutal--as most completely new things are.

So far I have only managed to get my C# program to read memory of values like HP, MP, TP, CP, x/y/z pos etc. I have no idea how you would go about interacting with widgets.

Some functions that helped me a lot with reading memory.
[C#] /* Read and Int or Float */ public int ReadInt(int MemoryAd - Pastebin.com

Writing memory:
[C#] #region WriteMem public int WriteMem(int MemoryAddress, byte[] buf) - Pastebin.com

I haven't tried writing to memory yet, because well... I am kinda scared. Hopefully some more experience people take notice to your post. I would love to know how to interact with menus in game/actually go about making a crafting bot.

[HoboDoug]

Thanks for the links. I too have not tried writing to memory. Mainly because I haven't found any memory addresses I need that would do what I want. So far I have only searched for addresses that I only need to read and never write too.

[greenthing]

What's the standard way to send input for game bots? Mainly for it running in the background and still getting messages. I looked into PostMessage and that seems the best way. I currently have that implemented, but it seems really easy to flag an account since it's getting key events and the window isn't even active. Is there another way to go about this? Is this even an issue?

Calling (virtual) functions that make you move & set your angle.

Interacting with Menus
This is the part that I am most stuck on. I was looking into making a really quick crafting bot since weaving is so monotonous. I have the found the addresses for the active menu X and Y and was thinking about setting up a config file that would have all the settings needed to navigate specific menus (width, height, list item locations, etc.). But, it seems like there has to be a better way. Are bots currently navigating menus and if they are, are they doing it through just static config data or manipulating by reading and writing memory? Can anyone point to me a nice example of using a menu with a bot?

Calling (virtual) functions that open/close windows, press buttons or select a menu item by index.

In other words, bot != random keypresser...

[HoboDoug]

Thanks greenthing. That makes sense and would be much more fun to code against. Is there a tutorial floating around for trying to find the functions in an application or game and attempting to invoke them?

Edit: Is there any issues when attaching a debugger to FFXIV and having breakpoints hit? I just want to make sure I can debug and the game be frozen without any issues. I am assuming too long at a breakpoint or stepping through will cause me to be disconnected. Is that correct?

[greenthing]

Correct. There are plenty of C# memory hacking libs on these forums to get you started on calling basic functions, so give them a try .

Word has it that Apoc might be coming to this section soon enough, and if so he might throw you a bone in the future as he uses .NET a lot. More of a native dll + injection guy here...

[bot123]

i been curious in how these bots are working...is it possible to tell me how to find those memory you guys are talking about? and if is not writing into memory then what is the purpose in finding it? what can you do with the memory address you had found? i would really really hope there is a simple tutorial for this for me to understand how the bot works...would like to test out my 1st simple bot haha

[HoboDoug]

Well, my brain just imploded after looking at assembly trying to figure out how to call methods. Tried with Solitare and all did was blow up or just not do anything. Did not realize it was that involved. Ugh.... kudos to everyone who can actually understand that stuff!

[TccX]

Calling (virtual) functions that make you move & set your angle.


Calling (virtual) functions that open/close windows, press buttons or select a menu item by index.

In other words, bot != random keypresser...

Thats how i made it but the problem was A & D are not accurate enough to get the right angle.
I'm interested in learning to find the right gamefunctions and call them with my informations.

[greenthing]

This (Move Up.zip) takes like what? 2 minutes of reading the documention and another 2 minutes of writing the code?

Please be in-game before executon...

[HoboDoug]

Greenthing, can you explain what the zip file is? I am currently at work, but very interested since you mentioned documentation. Sorry if this was something I missed a thread that had these examples.

Thanks for posting whatever this is though. I will download it as soon as I get home.

[greenthing]

The term documentation refers to that of the (memory library) project. Like I said, I'm not a C# person.

[shalzuth]

greenthing - this looks pretty solid. How detectable is calling functions?

[HoboDoug]

HA! Nice Greenthing. Just ran the program. I was expecting Y to move me on the same plane, but it flew me into the air. Hope no one noticed lol

[bot123]

i am not a microsoft guy instead i am a java guy..but i am interested in testing the file that greenthing posted...but my issue is..how do i execute it? can guide me anything i should do like downloading any IDE etc? i would like to start coding smth simple...