hi frens,
I am one new comer to this game and after 2 months learning. I have my suggestion for this game.
as we all know now alchemica price dropped so much and so quickly. one main reason is the bots play in game and some account get very cheap (nearly free) alchemicas from botting. if we not stop botting the game will be problem and will damage all players. about botting now what we plan to do is below three choices:
Temporarily Disable Spillover. for this option, problem is that it is damage players’ game experiences. Also my opoinion, because now the alchemica just be collected through walking around the map, and you no need strategy, so it is very easy to program the bots. if we do some unti-botting coding, I believe the bots’s code also can be updated very easily, and soon you will find all your anti-botting codes are useless.
Restrict Gotchi Lending to a Whitelist-only system. it is really no any use option. please note this fact: whitelist/black list system are only a little useful in KYC system, that mean your identity is confirmed in this system.and if you use bot you cannot enter because of your identity is recorded. Even though in KYC system such solution is only partly useful, in decentralized game it is completely useless. I really doubt the voting result and you can see 4million vote power support this option??
Do nothing. this is a relative better choice if the game’s playing strategy can be improved at least not just pick up alchemicas around map. however now alchemica’s price dropped so much and quickly, it may damage this game to some extend if we do nothing and just wait for game strategy improved.
now I think the only temperarily stop botting is add certification before you withdraw your alchemicas in the blackhole or during play the game. that is the only way I can think out. but It is not perfect enough. because there is always some programs that can avoid such certification. but I think no better choice.
Finally I want to emphasize how game strategy important for anti botting. maybe some of you play WOW before. The WOW team goto underground city and beat bosses get golden coins and equipments, the team need cooperation, communication and personal skilling. even a human play in the team and if he do a small stupid action, the team may immediately kick him off. The bot nearly cannot existed in such game. and botting problem is not considered in WOW. so in future all gotchis collect most alchemicas by brain rather than just walking around pick up alchemicas. I think this will fundemantally stop botting.
any of your oppinions or comments let me know. thanks all frens!
thanks for your suggestion, and I also just saw that thread, but that suggestion is completely not applacable. I don’t want to discuss that solution.
block any address or set limit to any account it will ruined the consensus of gotchiverse NFT. the only way to impove this game strategy, so bot have no profit to enter.
why bitcoin so valuable? because since 2009, the bitcoin opened to anybody, any one can buy trade transfer bitcoin. Bitcoin popular not only because it is limitation supply but also it is access to everyone in the world. so the consensus of bitcoin can be cultivated through 10 years and slowly become sucessful.
another example, one beautiful drawing, only you show it to other people, then this drawing can be valuable after 10 years or even hundreds years. if you hide this drawing and only let few people see it, I am sure this drawing will not valuable even it draw better than Mona Lisa.
NFT is exactly the same, you need try to show as large population as possible, then your NFT can be valuable after long time terms. I have reservision opinion on the posts you forwards me. but try to limit access to aavegotchi is not good idea from the long-term point of view.
I agree openness/ decentralization is one of the key values that need to be protected and optimized for. The reason I think Lens is an optimal solution is that it is blockchain based, it’s an open protocol that uses NFT’s in an attempt to build a new social graph. Granted, it is a new project, but as I understand it it is censorship resistant, in theory you could create unlimited accounts but there would be a level of friction that should protect against syball attacks. You do not need to use an email to create an account, ultimately it would create extra friction, but not to the point where it would deter or restrict those who want to participate.
it may worked, because I just recently pay attention to lens. I have reservation opinion for this.
but why not increase game’s strategy to prevent bots. maybe linquidator appeared will work. or introduce PVP mode in games (gotchis can fight for alchemicas). bitcoin not use the third party tools to make sure safety or prevent hacked. bitcoin is stable for over ten years because of its inside mechanism.
I’ve been monitoring the bot situation recently since the devs changed the viewing settings so we can zoom right out. I have to say, what a remarkable difference it makes… its a much more enjoyable experience now, well done devs.
But one thing has become clear to me, these bots are not the super smart AI villains that they were made out to be… in fact some of them are god dam stupid… they find a bit of alch and just do circles round it… or my favourite is when there’s some alch spawned on a building site that they cant reach and you end up with 3-4 predatory bots circling it…
I have seen smarter bots than these, there is another type of bot that’s great at movement, especially diagonally and goes straight for the alch but still really struggles with any object…You start building walls and these things are going to have a nightmare navigating the map…
My main point is though that these bots are really easy to spot… And I don’t think its going to get any easier for them either.
I think a small deposit like $5 to play the game via rentals would go a long way to deterring bots… would need a dedicated bot policing task force, gamify it a little bit… pay them a flat rate not commission. I think this has probably been proposed before many times I expect… but having seen how easy it is to spot bots I think it would work.
lens is good, but I think we should think for long terms. we should try make gotchiverse as one self sustained system and not rely any third party tools.
the bots are stupid is just because now profit it can get still very low. if in future, alchemicas price rokets, I am sure more advanced bots will be developed.
there are many ways to improve game’s playing strategy. I think we can put some virus into gotchiverse. and these virus will randomly roam around the map. and if one gotchi touch them then it will be faint for 10 or more minutes.
however all these solution ways are just temprarily solve the problem. more advanced bots will be created as they can get enough profit. I think PVP mode is the final solution.
I agree that the bots are not very smart. It seems to me that as the gotchiverse gets built out with decorations, installations, etc. that those will act as obsticles to bots and give the edge back to human players. Maybe we could fill the extra open space with lightposts, and other decorations (I guess this would impact loading the verse), but I think part of the problem is its just and open space right now.
I think the fee is interesting too, if we did use a cartridge system (a single transfer NFT) and it cost like 5 or 10 ghst… it would create a barrier and a good player would hopefully make a decent return over time, but a bot that got caught early and did not collect enough to cover their investment, they would not be an extracting but contributing…The key is that the “Caartridge”/ NFT is non-transferable so that it can’t just be sent to another wallet.
Yea I always liked the cartridge idea, the initial distribution of them needed a little bit more thought but anything that stops people spamming wallets to abuse bots works for me.
If your caught botting there needs to be a penalty, wether you loose your ability to play or loose a deposit one of these two options needs to be implemented somehow.
also I have another different suggestion, and maybe interesting:
because every gotchi has different eye shapes and eye colors. is it possible, when different gotchis log into the game the alchemica’s shape and color has a little different? some see fud as round deep green, some see fud as square light green. and there will be over 10000 types of fud in different gotchis eyes. by doing so, the bots have to change its parameters every time which maybe not a easy job. for human deep green and light green maybe little different, however for these two color’s code are quite different that bots cannot judge.
I don’t know if it is applicable, but just give dev. team another thinking way. however I think cooperation needed to get alchemicas will be much better than my idea.
after several days thinking, I have one new suggestion for Dev. team. it is based on the hot zone idea, that we just tested it last Saterday. Hot zone idea is really good idea for botting, but it is not perfect, I think we update it as below maybe better:
as we all know there are totally 4 candles on each altar. now we can let the ready channeled gotchi fire only one candle, however, it is not eligible for him to channel the altar, only at least one more candle fired, then this altar can be channeled. that mean this gotchi need to call some others around to help fire the others candles. when this first ready gotchi channel the altar, we can set 30seconds processing period, during this period other gotchis(no need ready) can press E and channel. if totally two candles fired during 30 seconds, more than double achemicas will spillover, also if total three candles fired, much more than triple alchemicas spillover and same for the four candles fired. however if only one candle fired, it will be finish after 30 seconds, and you have to fire it again. Also we can lock the pickup period for 10minutes, during this period, only the gotchis who channel together can pickup. If so the advantages is as below:
no need change elements on the original maps, just adjust some codes behind.
if you want to channel the altar and trigger spillover you should speak in district chat room and notice other gotchis your location.
bots can not read the location information in chat room, and only human can find your altar location.
if set 10minutes lock period for pick up, then most spillover alchemicas will be pick up by human players. only few alchemicas spill over the map and it makes unprofitable if you use bots.
if in future, let any gotchis channel any ready altars in map, then it will greatly attract players channel the alters, so we will not see so much unchanneled altars every day. it will attract more people tend to update their altars.
if anyone want to trigger the spillover event, he must call help from others, that mean this event need cooperation and interation between each other. this is exactly the bots’ shortage.
Lots of the current bots will get stuck if there are U shaped barriers.
A 1 minute “cool down” period where you cannot collect alchemica after entering the map could stop the bots spawning near alchemica collecting and disappearing
Being able to zoom out further helps combat bots as players can see more alchemica
Having in game “Avegotchi Bot enforcers” walking around talking to gotchis asking questions (in a few languages) offering GLTR to people who can answer them & 12hr bans to gotchis that appear to be bots might also help?. (although my 3 year old loves playing and he cant read so i would get a ban)
I think you’re onto something with lens… it was also mentioned as a possible chat suite for the gotchiverse (and beyond? 
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