Botting; Has Frogster done something...

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

All,

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, but does anyone have any first hand knowledge if Frogster has done something (program-wise) recently (I am guessing within the last two patches) to deter botting or am I just falling victim to RoM Bot auto log out scriptng?

• Background info:
  I run three to four clients simultaneously on the same laptop, farming Golden Eggs (you guessed it, for my pet) overnight while I sleep. Lately, I have been waking to see that all the clients have logged out or crashed. I don't have any scheduled system utilities that run during this time period to eat up system memory & I beleive I have adequate memory (see system info screenshot below). It doesn't seem to happen while I am working on the same machine using TurboCad (a memory hog in itself) or just web-surfing, so I am wondering if Frogster has some code working in the background that seeks out long term mouse & keyboard inactivity or something of that nature perhaps tied to the screensaver activating.

Maybe it's just that I use a wireless router or perhaps my ISP performs maintenance during this time. I don't know. Would lag spikes cause botting characters to traverse beyond normal obstacle-free pathing to get stuck & cause the Rom Bot program to auto log me out? Is there a log I can check to see why a client stopped to see if it was a crash (due to loss of internet connection or what have you) or a programmed exit?

Any thoughts on this? Am I the only one experiencing this?

Thanks.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

P.S. I use a NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M video card (1G video ram)

[Administrator]

Could be anything, really. You shouldn't be leaving them running while you sleep unless you are near the computer and have the GM detection addon installed, otherwise that is just asking for trouble.

Most likely, it could just be your router restarting. Do you have any way of telling if they stop at the same time, or is it spread out over several hours?

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Well since I don't bot anywhere that other players or GMs can go (just Miller's Ranch actually) I figured I'd be safe.

Are you saying GM's might still try to contact my botters while in Miller's Ranch?

As for the GM Detection addon, I don't think that would work for me. I assume it requires your sound not to be muted. Unless the addon uses a seperate interface with it's own volume control (that is seperate from the game's master volume), there is absolutely no way that I would be able to get any restful sleep with the racket generated by 4 game clients farming Golden Eggs echoing in the background all night. Been there, done that. Their multi-character foot shuffling sounds like squirrels in the attic & the coin purse sound would drive me insane. lol.

I do keep a low profile, by never selling Golden Eggs on AH. They only risk I expose them to is selling their Miller's Cakes via AH on a seperate character (I can't get myself to destroy the thousands they produce just to free up space; besides I like offering the discounted cakes to others. I must say however, that this little extra gold does come in handy in keeping my gold account free from incurring server inflationary depreciation though ).

As for the timing, since I sleep for 6 to 7 hours it's hard to tell. The only method I have at my disposal to determine drop off times is to monitor the Miller's Special Cake production for each. I can also see if the totals are disproportionate after relog thus lending credence to the theory that they are dropping at different times.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[lisa]

Well since I don't bot anywhere that other players or GMs can go

GM's can pop in and say hi, Millers is an instance and every time you enter an instance it creates an instance ID. GM's can tell what instance ID you have and they can join you and be standing there right next to you.

for the GM Detection addon, I don't think that would work for me.

You don't need to have sound to use the GMdetection userfunction, you can set it to log out or simply pause for a period of time if a GM whispers you or joins you in millers.

If you do want the alarm to sound get the soundalarm userfunction that I posted a link to on first post of GMdetection topic. You can set your game volumes to so low you can't hear any sounds. The userfunction for alarm will actually change the in game sound volume, perform the sound and then it will turn the sound volume back to what it was before.
So all you will hear is the alarms.

As with everything in coding it can be as complicated or as simple as you want and nothing is impossible.

Are you saying GM's might still try to contact my botters while in Miller's Ranch?

The chances of a GM whispering you is greatly increased because of being in millers.

[rock5]

I'm curious, what does it say in micromacro? Does it just have a memory read error or maybe it has a clue as to why they shut down. If there are errors, maybe there are also timestamps so you can tell if they stopped at the same time.

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Rock5,

Well, today I am experiencing alot of lag which I beleive is why I kept dropping to the login screen on all my clients when I ran more than one at a time. If I ran just one client, my ping averaged about 115ms with a frames/sec between 30 & 90 .

What happens is the ping starts to slowly climb as each new client is brought online. When it gets close to 50,000ms the timer bars for feeding the chickens or picking up Sacks of Feed start to freeze up & the character pauses. I get red in-game "Item data error" messages at 600,000ms, then at 750,000ms or so the character disappears (along with all interactive environmental objects). My frames per sec at this point is at about 190 (but IMO it may be mis-reporting at this point), but I can't do anything but rotate my view. The ping climbs to above 2.5 Million ms before it then drops me to the login screen. BTW: I use a wireless connection but I am close enough in range that it gets me a 90% signal.

Note: I found it odd that whatever client I took active control over seemed to "fight off" the lag, while the others that were botting dropped off. Coincidence? or maybe I was being patient & waiting for spikes to subside while bots did not. /shrug

Perhaps the same thing happens when I am AFK, but I'll have to see. I'll screencapture a few more in the morning if I have time before work.

==============================================================================

Lisa,

Thanks for the post. I'll have to look into that once I determine if my issues are just lag related.

I don't think GMs on my server are really that interested in Miller's as I've been botting there with three characters for a long time with no contact. To get an idea of how long, these characters do absolutely nothing but farm Golden Eggs & are now each above level 25 exclusively from getting 12 exp per completion of Jenna's "An Easy Lay" quest. That's a long time w/o getting a tap on the shoulder.

So, either I am really lucky or they don't care what I am doing. Of course being that I am AFK alot when they are operating, I don't really know how I'd know if they were there anyways. They have no way to contact me either (other than in-game mail), as I deactivated the email addresses I initially used to sign up for the clients.

My theory is that they just don't care. They concentrate on players selling Golden Eggs. Why? Because they are likely gold sellers whom affect Frogster's bottom line. What affects their bottom line is the driving force for any bannable offense. And just like the rich can get away with more, the same goes here. If you buy alot of diamonds, your given a longer leash.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[Administrator]

First thing first, try using a wired connection to rule out whether or not it is caused by the wireless signal. Even if you are close, the router could be getting goofy, your wireless card could have problems, there could be interference, or any other number of things. If you can, also try using another computer in the network.

[lisa]

If your ping gets to high the game will log you out to the account log in screen.

Seems to me you are having issues with connection, might be network or actual internet. Something you will just have to test and narrow it down.

Do a google search for netspeed and you will find a website that checks internet speed close to where you live, no point using a website hosted in US if you live in AUS.

If you run the test several times it will atleast give you an idea if your network/internet connection is stable or not.

Obviously this test won't tell you if it is your network or internet connection.

If for some reason the results from the netspeed tests are stable and good, then try using another server with the game, means you will need to create new accounts so can be a pain to test that out.

If you have any other computers on network you can try copying a large file from 1 to the other and see the transfer rate, that will test your network.

[Administrator]

Open the command prompt (Click the Start button, type 'cmd' [without quotes], press enter). Enter this command:

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ipconfig

Look for the entry for your connection (typically either Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection or Wireless Connection 1). Note the Default Gateway (typically 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, or something similar).

Now run this command:

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ping -t 192.168.1.1

Replacing 192.168.1.1 with your actual Default Gateway if necessary. Let it run for an hour or so. Press CTRL+C to stop it. Post the results. It should look something like this:

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Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 15, Received = 15, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 0ms

In case you don't know how to copy/paste out of the console, right click it and go to Mark. Move the cursor with the arrow keys to the top-left region you want to copy. Now hold shift, and move the cursor to the bottom right of the region, then press Enter. Now you can paste it here with CTRL+V.

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Administrator Pearl*,

I had no drops last night (8+ hours with 3 bots farming Miller's on my machine). Average in-game ping of 100ms & at 130fps.

• Note: It's unlikely this had any impact on the results (because I beleive all the game environments are stored locally on your machine & would only affect video), but as an FYI, I turned down the view distance from "Far" (maximum) to "Near" (minimum) on all these clients.

I followed your instructions after reading your post this morning & ran your ping & packet loss test with all 3 still running at the rates above. As you can see by the results below (after an hour of testing), it seems fine:

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Ping statistics for xxx.xxx.x.xxx:
    Packets: Sent = 3954, Received = 3954, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Perhaps it's just dependant on how many are playing at the time? Sunday mornings, I would imagine, would have light gaming & internet traffic.

Thanks for that test tip. Another tool to put in my online toolbox.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

* (for lack of a provided name - PEARL = Pink Equine Avatar w/Restless Leg) <- Not poking fun (I'll edit it out if you don't wish it to stick - it's just a memory queue for me & if you are the only Administrator then it's superfluous) (of course if your avatar is a cat & not a pony, that blows my acronym to hell, lol)

[lisa]

lol
It's a my little pony and admin is the only admin

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Adiministrator,

I'm running the ping test again using the default.

I think the first results were incorrect or that the IP I used was incorrect.

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Ping statistics for xxx.xxx.x.xxx:
    Packets: Sent = 3954, Received = 3954, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Shouldn't I have seen a minimum trip time of 1ms and some minimal value for packet loss over that span of time?

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Lisa,

You should find this funny also.

I work for a well known global beverage company. Our sales & marketing execs went to Australia a few years back to meet with clients there.

At this grand meeting (a filled auditorium) they unveiled their new slogan as part of a launch for new products in Australia. The local audience all looked back & forth to each other in silence, then suddenly all busted up laughing.

The execs were all confused at the reaction they got until someone whispered to them the meaning of one of the words they used in the slogan.

The product being sold was cranberry juice - the slogan "xxx(product name withheld)xxx - Straight from the Bog!"

Evidently, they didn't know what the word "bog" denoted in Australia. In the states, it's a marsh-like field with a base of sand with trenches around it's perimeter for irrigation used for growing cranberries & not slang for a "toilet" or "restroom".

Well, suffice to say, they scrapped that slogan real quick. lol

I hope that brightened your day.

Well, back to work for me & ego sum rumex for the off topic - mea culpa.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Administrator,

OK, here is the result of my second ping test (using default):

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Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 3293, Received = 3293, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 181ms, Average = 1ms

Now that looks like it actually tested the correct transmitions & seems to look ok to me. Is it to you?

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[Administrator]

Adiministrator,

I'm running the ping test again using the default.

I think the first results were incorrect or that the IP I used was incorrect.

Code: Select all

Ping statistics for xxx.xxx.x.xxx:
    Packets: Sent = 3954, Received = 3954, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Shouldn't I have seen a minimum trip time of 1ms and some minimal value for packet loss over that span of time?

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

Depends. Do you have a router? Is the gateway IP in the 192.* or 10.* range, or is that your external IP? It would help if you at least gave the first octet.
Those results are quite good, but I have the suspicion that you might be using 127.0.0.1. It is quite rare to have a 0ms max and 0 packets lost over an hour.

[Golden Eggs 4 my Pet]

Administrator,

I used the 192.* with a 255.* Subnet Mask.

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Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx%xx
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.xxx.x.xxx
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.xxx.xxx.x
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Does that help?

When I ran the ping test on the default & it did get the minimal 1ms & a max of 181ms (w/average of 1ms) & zero packet loss.

Golden Eggs 4 My Pet

[Administrator]

Let me guess, the IP is 192.168.1.100 and subnet is 255.255.255.0? You really don't need to hide that. Because that is for your network.

Anyways, looks like something is wrong. You shouldn't be getting 100+ ping in your network. Try used a wired connection. If you're already on a wired connection, I think something is wrong with your router.