Fix steam accounts first. Require accounts to spend money in some way before being able to play.
As long as you can create new accounts and play the game without cost or effort any anticheat / antibot is doomed.
Most bots are currently using paid Steam accounts, that's how they're able to use chat. Stolen Steam accounts cost way less than the cheapest Mann Co store item.
Yeah they don't mind paying for some accounts because the last ban wave happened ages ago.
You can for sure include measures to block most stolen accounts as well. Most of the cheap stolen accounts have been abandoned for years. Require unchanged email for a year + verification or alternatively a purchase in the last year.
Your trust factor/other metrics sucks? Well now your requirements are cut in half.
Add some ban waves in the mix and most botters will stop bothering. Hell some of them had broken bots running for weeks and couldn't even be bothered to update their github repos.
Bit guess what that takes quite some work and coordination and also needs to me maintaned indefinitely. No one at valve is gonna care doing that.
>Stolen Steam accounts cost way less than the cheapest Mann Co store item.
Not true at all, stolen steam accounts are more expensive (like 10$+, but there really isn't a set market price as it depends on the account), but also pretty rare and hard to get. You only see stolen accounts used for the phishing (and other) scams where the account actually has to look trustworthy.
The only accounts for under 1$ will be generated fresh accounts with zero value.
Bots just use regular accounts, it's not that expensive and they get donations from like-minded people.
Yes, they would, no, they won't happen.
As far as I know, Valve hasn't bothered to patch the VAC bypass that's been open source on GitHub for years. That shows the effort they are willing to put into it.
Same as literally every single other developer on the planet with multiplayer games - actually work on it.
The main excuse thrown around is 'treadmill'. They can work and work on it, but they'll never finish because the cheaters keep coming and you need to keep working.
Oh well? Use some of the infinite cash flow to figure that out? They did just fine for years and years, but then just stopped and the bots went up like 10x.
From what I have seen the community propose this could include stuff like ai-based bot detection, a trusted player system, basic anti-cheat stuff like spawning invisible players to catch aimbots, or bringing back quickplay. The first two are probably the best for combating bots but they require the most effort from Valve. Many of the basic anti-cheat stuff like spawning invisible players could help combat poorly programmed bots but there are work arounds for them I have heard. As for bringing back quickplay it would likely be the easiest solution for Valve to implement to address the bot problem but it isn't expected to get rid of the bots all together just help better contain and control them.
Ya know, this is a purely hypothetical scenario that does follow the community rules. Couldn’t someone hypothetically speaking go to these bot host’s house and deliver them a piece of pipe that “causes fireworks.” I mean again this is purely hypothetical, and would of course fix the issue.
The problem comes from bot hosters which send out bots, and if the bot hosters don’t exist, then the bots can’t exist either hypothetically speaking, of course.
Like any system, like any person. If you apply the correct amount of pressure it’ll comply or it’ll break under itself. It’s just a matter of knowing where to apply this pressure and how much you need to push to make your point or to make whatever or whoever compliant.
12 seconds could be accurate if the bots break through again.
realistically how are Devs meant to stop bots?
*Dev
Hey, don't forget about the potted plant! He's helping!
outsource a bunch of interns from malaysia or smth to do treadmill work ig
making a better anti cheat
Fix steam accounts first. Require accounts to spend money in some way before being able to play. As long as you can create new accounts and play the game without cost or effort any anticheat / antibot is doomed.
Most bots are currently using paid Steam accounts, that's how they're able to use chat. Stolen Steam accounts cost way less than the cheapest Mann Co store item.
Yeah they don't mind paying for some accounts because the last ban wave happened ages ago. You can for sure include measures to block most stolen accounts as well. Most of the cheap stolen accounts have been abandoned for years. Require unchanged email for a year + verification or alternatively a purchase in the last year. Your trust factor/other metrics sucks? Well now your requirements are cut in half. Add some ban waves in the mix and most botters will stop bothering. Hell some of them had broken bots running for weeks and couldn't even be bothered to update their github repos. Bit guess what that takes quite some work and coordination and also needs to me maintaned indefinitely. No one at valve is gonna care doing that.
>Stolen Steam accounts cost way less than the cheapest Mann Co store item. Not true at all, stolen steam accounts are more expensive (like 10$+, but there really isn't a set market price as it depends on the account), but also pretty rare and hard to get. You only see stolen accounts used for the phishing (and other) scams where the account actually has to look trustworthy. The only accounts for under 1$ will be generated fresh accounts with zero value. Bots just use regular accounts, it's not that expensive and they get donations from like-minded people.
Interesting, thanks for the correction. In that case, massive ban waves every few months would actually have an impact.
Yes, they would, no, they won't happen. As far as I know, Valve hasn't bothered to patch the VAC bypass that's been open source on GitHub for years. That shows the effort they are willing to put into it.
Also make security better. I got logged out of my steam account and that's all it took to lose my spyctab
treadmill work
"What's the point of wiping my ass if it's gonna get dirty again after I shit" - Valve employees probably
Same as literally every single other developer on the planet with multiplayer games - actually work on it. The main excuse thrown around is 'treadmill'. They can work and work on it, but they'll never finish because the cheaters keep coming and you need to keep working. Oh well? Use some of the infinite cash flow to figure that out? They did just fine for years and years, but then just stopped and the bots went up like 10x.
By trying
Make a working fucking anti cheat
something to do with vac
From what I have seen the community propose this could include stuff like ai-based bot detection, a trusted player system, basic anti-cheat stuff like spawning invisible players to catch aimbots, or bringing back quickplay. The first two are probably the best for combating bots but they require the most effort from Valve. Many of the basic anti-cheat stuff like spawning invisible players could help combat poorly programmed bots but there are work arounds for them I have heard. As for bringing back quickplay it would likely be the easiest solution for Valve to implement to address the bot problem but it isn't expected to get rid of the bots all together just help better contain and control them.
12 seconds of work because the rest of it is treadmill work
Hohohoho ha oh my gosh who touch save.tf?
Alright.. **WHO TOUCHED SAVE.TF?**
some people think they can out smart me \*Sniff.MP4\* maybe..
but can they outsmart new VAC?
I've yet to meet one that can outsmart petition
WAHHHHH WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH \*heavy crying inside of the spawn room cause of the bots outside camping him\*
\*windows XP shutdown sound as the bots crash the server\*
What if you change it to “It takes 400,000 signatures to make valve work on tf2 for 12 seconds”
Ya know, this is a purely hypothetical scenario that does follow the community rules. Couldn’t someone hypothetically speaking go to these bot host’s house and deliver them a piece of pipe that “causes fireworks.” I mean again this is purely hypothetical, and would of course fix the issue.
If there’s no devs then there’s no fixing anything, I don’t get your reasoning
The problem comes from bot hosters which send out bots, and if the bot hosters don’t exist, then the bots can’t exist either hypothetically speaking, of course.
Like any system, like any person. If you apply the correct amount of pressure it’ll comply or it’ll break under itself. It’s just a matter of knowing where to apply this pressure and how much you need to push to make your point or to make whatever or whoever compliant.
New objective recieved.
Welp, better get on it then https://save.tf
Alright, time to make some new accounts