Boards›Player Behavior

We Have Some Ideas For Limiting Botting Riot

fatyboomboom··8 votes·941 views

So a major factor in why botting is such a problem is the sheer quantity of bots since its so easy to create an account since its free to play. There's another forum post that has a pretty well written argument for actively trying to crack down on botting that quotes a solution that i like and would love to see implemented.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/QAhwmGWy-riot-its-time-for-you-to-take-action-now-not-later

Basically they suggest adding a 'human checker' to the client at some point when making a game, during, or after. The game would randomly generate an easy to perform action or question that has to be properly completed to continue. This is something that a program can't be easily made to recognize and perform since botting programs are relatively basic in their functionality, requiring human attention to continue.

This might not stop botting all together but it can definitely limit how much of it is going on since human attention is required at some point for every game. Bots wouldn't be able to simply join a game and/or queue on their own. This way a botting program can't be left to run all day while the account owner is out doing whatever.

If anyone else has or found other ideas feel free to add them. Getting rid of botting needs some major attention.

10 Comments

Awkward Couch2 votes

I like the idea, but ultimately, I think the best way to get rid of the bots is to make the game pay to play. That's something I don't really want to see happen.

No flash no life1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Awkward Couch,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=L3xLH5iq,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-06-06T14:24:38.351+0000)

I like the idea, but ultimately, I think the best way to get rid of the bots is to make the game pay to play. That's something I don't really want to see happen.

I suggested something like that before, except instead of pay to play, I suggested making it cost a little bit of money to create the account, then game is free to play after. The point is to prevent them from generating infinite amount of accounts to counter any banning measures while minimizing negative impact on normal players. However, that would greatly hurt the appeal of this free-to-play game and is very unlikely to be considered.

OP and others suggested adding captcha, which I believe can be a potential viable solution and am in favor of it since it's more likely to be accepted and implemented. They'll have to be careful with this though:

  1. If captcha prompts before the match, botters can just respond then afk before match starts. This'll help hindering those letting bot programs non-stop queue since they'll have to respond every other game, but won't completely stop botting. Also this will remove players who do not speak english (which is perfectly fine by me) but I doubt Riot is in favor of that side effect.
  2. If captcha prompts during the match, it can negatively impact normal players by serving as a distraction - especially in the middle of team fight. It gets worse if players are simply too focused on the game to the point where they can't afford to respond to captcha and end up being mistaken as a bot.
  3. If captcha prompts after the game, it's same as prompting before the match. It'll make it more difficult for botters to go afk for a long time while letting program non-stop queue, but it won't stop them from going afk before match starts then return sometime later to queue for another manually.
Awkward Couch2 votes

[{quoted}](name=No flash no life,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=L3xLH5iq,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-06-06T15:06:46.768+0000)

I suggested something like that before, except instead of pay to play, I suggested making it cost a little bit of money to create the account, then game is free to play after. The point is to prevent them from generating infinite amount of accounts to counter any banning measures while minimizing negative impact on normal players. However, that would greatly hurt the appeal of this free-to-play game and is very unlikely to be considered.

OP and others suggested adding captcha, which I believe can be a potential viable solution and am in favor of it since it's more likely to be accepted and implemented. They'll have to be careful with this though:

  1. If captcha prompts before the match, botters can just respond then afk before match starts. This'll help hindering those letting bot programs non-stop queue since they'll have to respond every other game, but won't completely stop botting. Also this will remove players who do not speak english (which is perfectly fine by me) but I doubt Riot is in favor of that side effect.
  2. If captcha prompts during the match, it can negatively impact normal players by serving as a distraction - especially in the middle of team fight. It gets worse if players are simply too focused on the game to the point where they can't afford to respond to captcha and end up being mistaken as a bot.
  3. If captcha prompts after the game, it's same as prompting before the match. It'll make it more difficult for botters to go afk for a long time while letting program non-stop queue, but it won't stop them from going afk before match starts then return sometime later to queue for another manually.

I'm actually in favor for the captcha pre level 30. I'm not sure if I like the pay to play thing though. Then again, look at CSGO and how big that scene is. But I agree 100% about the captchas.

Jonxx1 votes

I agree, that's what I've thought immediately. Need it only before level 30, because after that bots not used.

Zaryelle1 votes

It's funny that a lot of people believe this. I've seen plenty of scripts that are on par with intermediate bots and actually a lot better than 'average' player. They are bad at team fights but they are decent at cs and play way too defensively so they go undetected for a long time. They won't engage most champions but just play defensively so they aren't detected as feeding.

Sites like these are to blame for improving bot programming: www.summonerfactory.net gamingonsteroids.com http://%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The last one is the most famous league botting site but apparently it's censored. I don't mean to advertise but these bots need to be better controlled.

fatyboomboom1 votes

thats a line that riot probably wont cross. their primary revenue i believe comes from streaming games and promoting the premise that lol is an e-sport. If you couldn't casually get people together to play something i don't think you could even call that a sport.

proud and bronze1 votes

not sure that would stop them although it would slow them down probably. world of warcraft was pay to play and they still had plenty of bots.

Zielmann1 votes

Maybe if you limited the in-client human check to a certain account level, like 5-10 or something like that, then this could work. But the vast majority of players are already level 30, and by that point bots are going to be far less of an issue. Adding even one extra step of complication to get into a game as a means of dealing with an issue that a vast majority of players never actually encounter is not a good idea.

Zaryelle1 votes

Yeah I just had a game with 3 bots on my team, then the next one where all 4 teammates were bots. I wasn't certain until I saw all 4 of them glitch out and get stuck in the jungle near bot lane and would move in exact same paths. They would run straight into the enemy turret or in front of enemy champions and stay until dead, not trying to run away even once the entire game.

Jesus is Savior1 votes

Yes, because "human checkers" work. (sarcasm)

FYI concert tickets still sell out in minutes because scalping bots can defeat captchas.

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