So we have no tools to prevent bots but bear the consequences of having them enter our game.
Enter > kick > dislike
Enter > don’t kick > get suspicion and dislike
Not particularly friendly options we have here.
Kicking is easy with a script, might hurt player base a bit though.
if we can screen entry or have a way to restrict likes
it would give us more options
I like this solution, it would still required the developers to address the issue but allows us a small window to protect our rating from bots.
A minute or two or even five would be a reasonable time to experience a game before being able to apply a permanent opinion. (assuming they are permanent and not removed if an account is removed for botting)
Likes/Dislike ratio wouldn’t be skewed as long as their access is mutual.
It would just reduces volume by removing VERY short term players from access.
TL;DR we have no development/design option for this problem
You could use the RoCAPTCHA idea with some changes so it only works when it needs to.
If you have any experience on Discord, you’d know that if they detect your account doing suspicious things, they will deploy a screen that looks like this:
You can apply this same logic to your Roblox game by scripting conditions on chatting, mass-joining (etc), and if those conditions are broken, display the RoCAPTCHA screen. You’d want to save this happening to a user, so if they leave, they will be instantly prompted to solve the RoCAPTCHA.
If I was putting something like this into place, I would let innocent players know why they got the screen, and that it’s a normal procedure done by the server to ensure their security.
Ovbiously I’m not saying you should collect phone numbers.
Alright I see where you’re coming from. As of now I added an account age restriction, very straight forward.
It’s sad how any user can exploit the like and dislike ratio.
There should be a verified mail, or age restriction probably to that. I’m pretty sure Roblox could do a better job on this as well instead of leaving the developers on a worst case scenario where they have to stop these attacks themselves.
It’s a really scary experience and very unexpected topic to occur when I first started roblox developing.
To add on the roCAPTCHA idea. I made my own version as well. I don’t know how effective it would be, and like mentioned before it cannot stop dislike bots, but, it disables chat and the player list and makes the topbar opaque, then it makes a randomly generated font and password, then the user has three attempts to enter the password correctly otherwise they are kicked. You can change how it works in the script in the submit button. Here is the GUI.
Is it possible to run a script while the game is loading? Similar to how some games have custom loading screens. If so you could kick them before they get loaded into the game, but I’m not sure if it can kick someone before being loaded into the game.
You’re not able to like a game if you’re kicked soon as the grey loading starts. I’ve been disconnected with errors and noticed that. If there was a way to run a script that starts before everything finished loading you could check age then kick before they can vote. I’m not sure a script can run THAT early though if at all. Would a LocalScript in ReplicatedFirst be able to kick fast enough before it enables an account to vote?
Contact Developer Relations about it. This is a pretty serious issue.
The email is devrelations@roblox.com, but you may be able to contact them on Twitter (not sure if that would be faster though).
I hope they do something about this. Can’t imagine being on the receiving end of that and having to take bad ratings just because somebody has a grudge against you.
Also, just in case they do try to threaten you further - it’s never really a good idea to talk to these people, especially responding to threats. If you don’t reply to them they will eventually stop out of boredom or knowing they won’t get anywhere.
A CAPTCHA does nothing. All the bots do (based off what he’s saying) are dislike botting the game. They don’t have to pass that CAPTCHA to play, then leave and dislike.
Unfortunately, age restrictions and CAPTCHAs can only restrict bots that do stuff in game in terms of automation - it would not prevent them from dislike-botting your game. I do not believe there is any script that runs as the player is loading as to not allow them to join at all.
I myself have run into this issue as well in the past, my like percent went from a 70%-ish right down to 16%. Tried emailing Roblox through the usual support-en@roblox.com, got a couple of what seemed to be pre-typed replies and from what I see very little action. Hope emailing DevRel can do something more for you
Right now your best bet is to increase the age restriction to 7 days, and contact DevRel. They will be able to help you more than us, even if you dont have evidence on your suspect.
That’s the low effort way. Other ways are to do afk kicks and have an entry point place before they can play the game. But those are only half measures.
If this really becomes a problem, you can always try the class action lawsuit due to Roblox’s apparent incompetence (as someone mentioned above).
As a final note, dont reply to your aggressor/suspect. That will only fuel them, let them get bored.
