New form of bot detection..... Rubber Band Nodes?

[XGamerX]

Interesting concept here that I have been noticing a pattern of, and I think I have come accross a new form of bot detection.

I have noticed a lot of nodes placed here and there that seem to respawn nearly instantly 3-4 times and then dissapear

so imagine this

Botter hits the node, flies off, it respawns, bot flies back and gathers it, it respawns etc and makes your bot do a "rubber band" motion

obviously if you are a human you are most likely going to go back and hit the node as well..... but a bot will hit them with the EXACT same timing between each gather-- making it totally obvious that it is indeed a bot because it gathered X herb 4 times .4 seconds apart every single time that one of these "rubber band" nodes was hit?

Just a theory of mine but I have noticed these bugged nodes popping up a lot lately and blizzard seems to be hitting gatherbuddy accounts a lot with no technical detection in site (and even on monitored accounts with no evidence of reports, and on accounts with very few herbs gathered comparitively).

I would advise profile coders to somehow tell the bot to only try for each node 1 time, and I would advise people to start using these profiles more if/when they come out and about.


Happy botting!

[KuRIoS]

I doubt it, there are much easier ways they could detect 98% of all current bots

[XGamerX]

I doubt it, there are much easier ways they could detect 98% of all current bots

ya there certainly is..... but these nodes that have just started popping up seem a bit strange to me
they seem to be only out in the wide open (avoiding trees?) and havent been fixed within the last 3-4 weeks of maintenence (during which time gatherbuddy bans have increased quite a bit)

I dont know this for sure.... but I have a sneaking suspicion

[Thomja]

Doubt it, lag/latency could cause a bot to hit the node with different timings.

Also as stated, there are alot easier ways to detect a bot. For example if a player goes around Tonys profiles coordinates repeadedly, insta ban.

[XGamerX]

Surely your not going to get banned from hitting one of these nodes a single time.... but it would be a very easy way for blizzard to track automation IMO

im sure this isnt the only way they are doing it---- but why couldnt it be one of them? would take them 3 min to impliment

[ev0]

That's a debatable concept, even a human can go back to the same node over and over. I see what you're saying, I've too seen it. But I doubt it's blizzard being sneaky, there were nodes like this in uldum if i remember correctly.

[mercules]

i know this sounds a bit tinfoil hat, but i have heard that they sometimes put invisible nodes down that bots will try to gather and humans obviously wont. sounds like a good way to catch botters tbh, but who knows.

[nerfmeplease]

Ill poke my GM friend and ask him what he knows about it today, doubt he'll tell me much though :| .

I dont think blizzard would employ such a method with a high chance to be wrong. If i were manual farming and saw a node respawning several times, of course i would get it. as someone else said, much safer for them to just track coordinates and harvest patterns.

[Praesto]

Nodes will disappear and reappear because of phasing, CRZ, and people that use no clipping and gather from below the surface.

[XGamerX]

seems blizz is hitting ppl a lot on MONITORED gathering accounts and even private profiles..... hmmmm maybe X was right?

[seakwell]

Ive seen this inaction before. for example, back in cata when whiptail was endlessly respawning. some botters had the same suspicion that this was done on purpose, as ban rates went up by almost 450% during that time. (be fore i botted) i remember seeing a bot doing the exact thing you described. Farming it, mounting flying away, realising the node is still there and goes back to gather it. rinse and repeat that x9999.

Even though it sounds like balshemy its still possible. Props to xgamerx for starting a conversation about this, brought up some interesting theories and whatnot so far.
+rep :P
(plz excuse my english, not my first language)

[Sylfaz]

based on lag and fps it wont take u the same time to get back to the nodes.
and tbh,i never had similar issues with nodes keep getting respawned

[XGamerX]

yes of course everyones ping is going to be slightly different..... but for that person each time in between gathers is going to be far more similar than a person acctually playing

[TheNationGaming]

I think more of the cause is due to the competition on the servers and being reported by said competition

simply finding one person in your farming area 24/7 will raise a Red flag to the player and get reported

you can also track unusual amounts of shit being posted by 1 buyer on https://theunderminejournal.com/

(This being said I know some farmers can save up the stacks but in most cases nobody can farm more than 90+ stacks in 1 sitting and post constantly)


Thats why i stay out of AH wars and find a desperate buyer who buys my shit daily

[Aes]

I think more of the cause is due to the competition on the servers and being reported by said competition

simply finding one person in your farming area 24/7 will raise a Red flag to the player and get reported

you can also track unusual amounts of shit being posted by 1 buyer on https://theunderminejournal.com/

(This being said I know some farmers can save up the stacks but in most cases nobody can farm more than 90+ stacks in 1 sitting and post constantly)


Thats why i stay out of AH wars and find a desperate buyer who buys my shit daily

I was banned this week. My server is the lowest pop on oceanic, no more than 5 people in a zone at any time of the day. I have NEVER botted on ANY account before this one, after 1 week of botting 2 hours a day spread out, i got perma banned no warnings.


Custom profiles that i made myself. Never used public ones, 100% supervised.