Unatended botting prevention code

[TinyTerror]

Well, the time has come to handle this problem. I do NOT want people writing unattended botting code for Lunar. This is not what it was designed for, and it tarnishes the reputation of both myself and Lunar whenever someone out for a quick buck bots using my code. To remedy the situation, I am considering implimenting some features in Lunar specifically targetted at fire and forget scripts. The main thing I am thinking about adding is an activity timer. If the user does not do anything in FFXI for 20 or 30 minutes, all scripts running in Lunar pause. This would in theory be completely transparent to legitimate users. The delay would be long enough to answer the phone, get food, or take a bathroom break, but not long enough to leave a script running for an extended period of time. I know some people are going to complain about this, but I feel it is the only way for Lunar to gain any legitimacy in the community.

Questions, comments, and opinions are welcome.

[X-Drop]

Ok, I'm actually surprised this didn't come sooner.

I have to thank you for not watering down the power of the Lua language, even knowing the potenial for its abuse. When I wrote Leviathan, I knew it conflicted with your vision for Lunar. I appologize for any of the recent trolling encouraged by the fish bot. Your actions seem quite appropriate and I will be removing Leviathan by New Years day.

I hope ppl will stop seeking help for unattended botting scripts. Lunar's potential is bounded only by our creativity.

[TinyTerror]

Its cool. I'm not pissed at anyone, and to be honest, I think your scripts are amazing. What I am trying to avoid is the inevitable army of RPGExperts rejects looking for l33t botz. Seriously, go die in a ditch or something. You know who you are ^_^ I think Lunar has sooo much more potential than to be used as yet another botting platform. If I ment for lunar to be a bot factory, I would have made something that would make SE shit thier pants six ways til sunday.

Anyway Xdrop and the rest of you, keep up the good work.

[me3you2]

I think this is a good idea. I like to use Lunar to make scripts that help me olay the game better. If you are going to bot what is the point to even playing? If you want a game where you dont have to be there to play go on IRC and play IdleRPG. Anyway, Great work TinyTerror.

[nebula]

<3

[DarkAquaus]

I was wondering when you would do that

I spoze you thought of this though but here goes.

Mouse Tamer/Autoit/VB/C++ etc... (listed in difficaulty) and the like have the ablity to hit a key every 20-30 min to reset that timer you are making... just a thought

Script Rippers go fuck off

[TinyTerror]

I know about autoit and the like.

[alphaace]

i don't think inserting code to shutdown lunar script is a good idea, but i do think removing botting scripts from your website makes a pile of sense. I can understand having a smn bot, but fishing bot's is getting rich on Tiny's hard work.

[TinyTerror]

When I see a bot script that I consider offensive, I have a talk with the person who posted it.

[chanterelle]

A summon bot just levels up your summon skill right? It sounds like that's the sort of script you would leave unattended.

If the intention to be left unattended implies that the script is "bad", a summon bot must therefore be bad.

Assuming that leveling up summons takes as long as everything else in the game, it doesn't sound like it would be an enjoyable experience to do manually. To what point do you want to limit unattended playing?


The first thing I noticed when I started was that it takes forever to get anywhere, so I started working on a travel bot - I suck pretty badly so when I die (often) I just hit a script, go work on other stuff, and then I'm back in the same area I was before. I would like to eventually have lots of scripts to get from one place to another. I don't think running around the same areas over and over makes the game fun - automating the task does not break the balance of the game either.

I agree that shutdown code would be a bad idea. It would be nearly effortless to subvert, and may break other useful scripts. The policy of removing offensive scripts is better in my opinion.

[X-Drop]

so I started working on a travel bot

Dude... why don't you post the script? Or is it broken after the December version update?

---

Maybe you guys are right about the user acitvity timer. It does seem really easy to bypass.

Well I think I will eventually just rewrite the whole Leviathan script anyways. That script hurts my eyes with all the mistakes I made. When I do rewrite it, I am gonna incorporate a user activity timer that allows perhaps 5 minutes max of auto mode. And when I say incorporate, I really mean heavily inbedded into the script... nothing a user could just convienetly comment out. I believe this will still allow ppl to multitask while fishing without actually abusing the script just to bot unattended.

Disagree?? Lemme hear ya....

[chanterelle]

Well, I got the game last saturday.

I'll post it eventually... Currently it's not exactly user friendly.

[dirp2]

Greets,

Havent been around in a while,but I was overjoyed to see Lunar released when I returned to ffxi.I d/l'd it and am happily reading the docs,so I thought I would offer my 2 cents:

Couldn't you create a function on a timer to generate a random number and print it(to the console,a chat log,whisper/echo,tooltip,etc)wait for input from the user,and then compare the input against the generated number?Kinda like the safeguards on hotmail to prevent bots from auto-creating accounts.

Some might think its a pain in the ass for things like summoning,enhancing,or curing magic but it would still allow people like me who sit there and watch tv while raising a tedious skill can do so,without enableing countless fishing/voking/whatever bots that run 24/7 while the user is afk.Personally,I would like to see the timer be for more than 30mins,but I think you have every right to put some kind of limit to what people can use your creation to do.

[snoopie]

ok, i do agree with not using scripts for most botting tasks. however, i have written a potentialy very nice summoning script that raises the summoning skill till it maxes out, then it stops. most of the time i sit there and watch. it is so freakin tedious to skill up smn that it can drive u mad. the only time i dont sit there and watch it is when i have a migrane (which is more often than i would like) in which case i lie on the bed and listen. i say listen cause (for the migrane episodes) i implimented some /party <calls> with distinct sounds so i know how when i raise a skill, by how much, if it levels, if its capped, and if i get attacked.
getting to the point. when my skill gets capped, my script stops, if i get attacked, my script begins the retaliation and then stops.
The POINT. sometimes i lie down with a migrane for an hour or 2. and even if im sitting there watching my script im not pressing any buttons. maybe instead of a timeout, lunar should look for infinate loops, or a much harder task of milicias code? please forgive the spelling.

[TinyTerror]

As of now I have not added any unatended prevention code. I may or may not do this before the next version comes out.