Design Notes
December 05, 2013
Anti-Shop Loader Live-Test
Phase 1 of the Anti-Botting Project in Testing!
Back in October, we announced a plan to restructure our in-game botting detection system. Yorumi has been working on that system (along with his other projects) and today we are getting the first LIVE test of the anti-shop loader portion onto the servers.
When regular players want to open a shop in-game, they talk to an NPC or go to their Book of Lore and click a shop button. That's how you SHOULD be opening any shop in the game! Some players do not follow the rules, and force shops to load using 3rd Party Programs. DO NOT DO THAT!
We are running the tests to make sure that regular players (who follow the rules) do not trigger the anti-shop load code. If you DO get an error message and you were NOT shop loading, please report that on the Bug Tracker. We can see any time you get the error message, which will help us make sure the functionality works. Once we know for sure that works, we can move onto the next step. Phase 1 will run for about a week.
How the Test Will Work
If you are opening shops the way you are supposed to, nothing will change for you! You won't notice any difference in your gameplay. If you are using a 3rd party program to directly open shops, you'll receive an error message.
Next week, instead of an error message, your account will be kicked from the game. After that, if you continue to load shops, your account will be sent to a "prison map" - a special island with a very grumpy warden who will inflict additional punishments on your account. After that... an escalating system of bans will begin. We do not want that to happen to your account!
What comes next
Yorumi has been working on the quest loader and combat detection functionality, too, alongside the anti-shop loader. Those will be the next things we will test, so keep an eye on the Design Notes for news!