Bot Check Frequency (in General)

I don't know how everyone feels about this, but here's what I feel:

1. Bot checks are too frequent. I would like to burn 50BA smoothly before having to answer a bot check!

2. To compensate, you could increase the consequence of failing it to 2 hours of banning, and also increase your number of attempts to 3 (for those struggling to get it right out of 2).

3. Benefits are reduced server load, and player frustration :) But disadvantages are that it could be more open to botting abuse.

What I want to know is: how do you feel about the frequency of the botchecks, and what would you do to compensate for the change of frequency?

I can't really say for sure. Sometimes I get a whole bunch of botchecks and then other days it's pretty quiet. It's definitely nice when it's quiet, but gets really annoying when the botcheck occurs every other fight.

bot checks are a necessary evil while no one enjoys them they are an essential tool to keeping the cb playing field level.

I hardly ever fight, but when I do, I can always burn 50 BA without answering a bot check. Sometimes even 100.

I would say I only average about 2 or 3 bot checks per 160 BA, in all honesty.

The botchecker is my favorite part of the game. It's an oracle.

'Oracle' isn't quite the word I use to describe the bot check.
To each their own I guess. : )

lately i am getting them every 15 fights

The average is around 1 every 70-80 fights IIRC.
But this is across the whole game so there will be times where you get hit severely but other times you go through almost scott free.
It's a 'roll with the punches' and 'wait until your turn' kind of thing.

its been since monday that i have been recieving these frequent checks

I usually get botchecked once per 15~30 fights :(

Maybe it's all in my head... but it feels like I have been getting more frequent bot checks on the new server in comparison to the old one.

I just 159 without a check... And at times I can't go 5 without a check... I'd say it all balances out and it's fine as it is. I'd rather pay the price for the losers who cheat than to have more cheaters.

Wow, don't know how you guys have managed 100 BA without a botcheck, but I have *never* gotten that while forging. That'd be a solid 3 cycles on a MH, and I can't do more than one to two before I get a botcheck. That's when they are slow...when they are fast, I'll get 7 or 8 in just a 29 BA cycle...

Just now I did well, however. Only 16 botchecks in 140 BA

OK, I have NEVER gone more than 50~ BA without botchecks. I might take this further and do an investigation like OB :)

there is correlation between click speed and the number of checks you get, at least from my experience

My experience is that bot checks seem to become more frequent when the load on the server gets heavier. I always thought it to be a way to slow things down when needed. XP time is, as far as I know, bot check city.

Vestax, you are proving my point here.
The average number is spread throughout the entire server so obviously during times of higher activity there are going to be more checks.
and nnft, you're over exaggerating. People always remember the frequent checks times rather than the straight run throughs. To try and claim that you've never been able to get through more than 50 without one after being here over 6 months is a proposterous claim.

12 times in 160 BA, I'm gonna try clicking slower ;)

last couple of days I've been clicking quickly and nt getting many.
I used 160BA+all my buyable BA+the 20 or so BA that regenerated during the last half an hour of money time today.
I only got around 10-15 botchecks.
The only time I wasn't practically multiple fighting was when my list were comatose.
Who said it was speed that caused frequency?

I don't know how you do it then, Zog. I just ran through another 140 forging and got 12 botchecks - did get a good run of exactly 22 BA with no botcheck on the last cycle, though.

forging gives more OB...

Perhaps the randomized function is based off of everyone's fights collectively, and not individually. For instance, if it's 43% of all of my personal fights, then I should get get about 4 out of 160. If it's 43% of everyone's fights, and I fight once, get a botcheck, fight again, then someone else fights 42 times, then I fight, I should get another one.

I would imagine, however, that the randomization is per user and not sitewide.

No matter what I'm doing, the faster I go through BA (and with a fast library computer and new server I go through fast) the more botchecks I get. If I do it piecemeal, I might only get a couple per 160 BA. But, because I often use BA in streaks, I more likely to get one every 7-14 BA. Very annoying when trying to use 100 BA in 5 minutes :)

Exactly what I have been saying NS, have you actually read my statements up to this point?

I think it has something to do with click speed. I've just been doing
some forging and getting 2 or 3 botchecks per 19BA cycle :(
That's really annoying ... 1, 2, 3, 4 <botcheck> .. . umm, 6? No,
5 I hope. etc.
When I fight, I pretty much don't get through my favorites without
a botcheck or two and that's annoying too when I'm trying to burn
some BA in between being farmed by some of the CB 600lb Gorillas.
Fight, fight, <botcheck> argh ... okay, fight, Hmm, score's going down.
Fight, fight, <botcheck>, by this time a couple of people have noticed
that I pop up and started farming me, so it's time to stop spending
BA again.
I know that's all part of the game, but I'd really like to not have
botchecks every 5 or less BA.

It also appears that clicks count rather than actual battles...I'm sure some of you have hit enter a few times on an unconscious opponent and gotten a bot check, then after answering he's still unconscious?

Oh, I also had the feeling before that any kind of failure on a botcheck led to an increased frequency, but I don't feel that anymore since I've been getting so many and not failing many recently. For some reason after the server changed, I seemed to be failing the first one most of the time (which is scary) then with 20 or 30 botchecks per 160BA eventually I failed both and had to pay.
So the moral may be don't miss any at all or you'll get more and more in some kind of crazy, never ending spiral.

I forged a bit yesterday and I got 1 botcheck every couple BA for a while

I am so entertained...

Numbers, people. Show us the numbers, over a wide variety of times. In almost four years, I still have yet to see actual numbers. In MY anecdotal experience, bot checks are completely random, no more at certain times, no less at certain times, and on CB1 I actually felt bot checks were FEWER than when forging -- so I assume it is about the same.

Does it seem like there are more bot checks when I am in a hurry? Of course. Are there times when I space out and then think I must have gone 75-80 fights without one? Sure. That's human perception, that's all.

In my mind, there is no logical reason to assume Jonathan would give himself extra programming chores by having the bot checks be anything but a randomness applied to all BA usage.

If you want to prove me wrong, then like I said, show me the numbers. Any post saying "I'm pretty sure", "I'm sure I remember this one time..." and "I can't remember ever having..." are obviously disqualified for anecdotal reasons. And no, I am not going to PROVE my view on bot checks, because my view is the sensible default. To try to show any other pattern, the onus of proof is on the claimant. Unless of course, Jonathan said something different. Then I would be very, very wrong!

Hmm, the only way I can think of to get the "proof" would be to install a keylogger on all our machines so we could see ccccccccswapcccccccbashccdrumcccbillccccc
or alternatively we'd see ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccbotsccc
:)

Anyone want to volunteer ? I don't think the network security guy would appreciate me installing a keylogger here :)

just got 8 checks in 160 BA

I just got 3,3,2 & 3 botchecks doing 4 rounds of forging at 19 BA per round.
Earlier today I fought 30BA without a check, did some work and burned 20 more before I got one. So I can't say it's picking on me :)

Some things never change.