Then can't you stop people from accessing forums without logging in?
Make the main page a different page all together then make it forward you to the forums instead of it being hooked together in the same site. once logged in its a redirect to access forums to prevent super bot activity? That might actually be hard to do tbh, but hey I'm making the ideas up as I go based on rules and statements.
It might still crash the main page though leaving it still inaccessible, but an inactivity factor being harsher like a 25 second timer to kick them away for not logging in causing them to restart the process of taking site space.
Still though, a Captcha image system and Cloudfare together before accessing the main page would be great for the main page in the idea. Then the next authentication after logging in. This can stop them for sure.

Can there be a function to back them out to their previous page after a 25 second delay of not logging in? Captchas are not that hard.

Not only captcha images but captcha words too. give more time maybe 30 to 40 seconds. It's a realistic time to log in and pass the systems.

As for the bot situation and how they are functioning: It's not obvious to someone that isn't coding the game nor runs anything in it. That's why it's called suggestions board. I just want to help factor in ideas

While it might suck to log in; once you're done you should be fine.
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I've never in my life seen downvotes on an offer of 1000 USD to fund Nabi Studios a little... Stay mad ig (Not my problem)
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Anywhoo, the idea could work without having to remember me function the site. You can access the page and you would be in permanently with no random logouts. There's around 250 to 300 players on this game at most. But any other day it's way less. Nabi is still paying for loads of dead servers that stay at 0. The activity should be stable no matter how long we are on.
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Punishing active members by inactivity factors to them when it should be directed at the bots.
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I would fund more than that, but it will have to wait for another 6 months.