Zos are you ever gonna get rid of farm bots? (Xbox na)

LoLiPoPW

As a master crafter these bots are becoming a problem. I can't even farm for materials. Me and my boyfriend both farm (or try to) regularly. However every starter zone (Betnik included) is over run with bots. Now I know we report them. However it seems to be wasted time. How is it that zenimax cabt take care of this problem? Bots use an outside code source to do this (computer connected to an xbox) as someone who is a computer major I know that if time was put into it you could identify the outside code sorce and shut it down. Or at the very least read the many reports that go out on these bots. They completely ruin a whole aspect of the game. These bots make real money off of in game items doing this. Which I know for a fact is against terms of service.

Now before anyone says "you just gotta be faster", they only create a route with 5 to 6 nodes max. Which means they are camping them. Their code idenifies the node before a normal player can see it. You just can't beat that.

So zenimax please either read the many reports on them that go out and ban them. Or find a way to identify the outside code source. Your crafting and farming community would thank you. I know alot of people who have left the game over this. You always make the pvpers happy, why not another huge base of players of the game.

TonyDemonLord

@LoLiPoPW I play on Xbox NA and I found a group of about 20 bot sorcerers that were farming mud crabs. The bot problem is getting to be a major issue but Zos won’t do anything about it. I have sent multiple tickets but still nothing. I don’t think they will ever do anything about it, people have been complaining about it and they seem to be only removed from the PC version.

redlink1979

Console servers are plagued, same zones same spots over and over again. I've loss count to how many tickets I've sent so far.

LoLiPoPW

Same here. I don't see as many of the mudcrab farmers. Its the node farmers. Betnikh is covered by the same one. I counted 15 of the same bot spread across the southern part by the coast. It boggles my mind how ZOS doesn't pick up on it. I report them every day. I even reply to the ticket emails with video. Nothing. People are leaving this game because of this.

Then you have players who say "they keep matts cheap". These players have no clue how long it takes to get 5 stacks of platinumn or silk. Takes hours. So sorry thats not cheap. Thats alot of time.

katanagirl1

redlink1979 wrote: »

Console servers are plagued, same zones same spots over and over again. I've loss count to how many tickets I've sent so far.

I spent hours in Khenarthi’s Roost early this morning and the bots were already up. Hard to get leads from nodes when there are so many bots farming them.

Malborn66

I never see any Bots on PC although I occasonly click on a resource and there is nothing there despite showing something.
Even the latter is pretty rare these days.

redlink1979

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

(...)I don't see as many of the mudcrab farmers. (...)

Mudcrab farmers are always in Alik'r Desert, west of the Sentinel's wayshrine.

Nestor

One would think that Consoles would not have Bots....

volkeswagon

They would like to but can't seem to do it without severely affecting quality of life for the non cheaters. They try different ways but the criminals are relentless. The love of money brings out the evil in some. For the record I depise bots. The simple act of creating bots and recreating them when cleansed says alot about the type of person they are and hate the fact that I have to play in the same virtual realm as people with such questionable ethics. Same goes for people who pull the crowns for sale scam or rob guild banks.

katanagirl1

Nestor wrote: »

One would think that Consoles would not have Bots....

I don’t know how they do it but bots are everywhere in all starter zones.

Low level sorc with volatile familiar pet always, sometimes randomly generated name of gibberish but lately names of two random words put together with a hyphen in between. They constantly look at their maps. The combat pet keeps the NPC enemies busy so they can farm.

There is also one quest where you have to cure werewolves in Camlorn that I was almost unable to complete on my latest toon because of group bot farming them en masse there. You could only see them in that instance, once you completed the quest you leave them behind. I think I have a YouTube video of that one and I did that quest maybe a year ago.

I’ve even seen groups of a dozen identical bots following a leader around but that’s more rare.

LoLiPoPW

If we could spread the word somehow for everyone who sees one to report it. Get right up on them hit menu>report player> then report them for cheating. This only works if we have alot of people who do it.

Unfortunately there are some who love bots because they can buy matts stupid cheap. Until something happens this game will lose alot of players. Those of us who actually farm know what it takes to farm even a stack of matts. They shouldn't be dirt cheap.

Look at Matt prices. You'll notice a few always stay high. Thats because bots can farm those the way they do ore.

LoLiPoPW

Malborn66 wrote: »

I never see any Bots on PC although I occasonly click on a resource and there is nothing there despite showing something.
Even the latter is pretty rare these days.

Thats because they already ruined the market on pc. The Matt price difference is huge between console and PC. Console is about 10× higher. So its not worth their time.

LoLiPoPW

Nestor wrote: »

One would think that Consoles would not have Bots....

You would think it would be easy to identify an outside code sorce. However zenimax seems to either not want to put in the minimal work required or, they are too busy making sure their crown store is perfect.

LoLiPoPW

volkeswagon wrote: »

They would like to but can't seem to do it without severely affecting quality of life for the non cheaters. They try different ways but the criminals are relentless. The love of money brings out the evil in some. For the record I depise bots. The simple act of creating bots and recreating them when cleansed says alot about the type of person they are and hate the fact that I have to play in the same virtual realm as people with such questionable ethics. Same goes for people who pull the crowns for sale scam or rob guild banks.

Agreed 100% can't stand cheats. But as a computer major its not hard to place a line of code that picks up on it. They have one in place for downloads already. If you cancel a download it wipes the game off of your console. Its to prevent outside coding. Same concept. Only takes a bit of time. Thats why its so frustrating. At the very least look at the hundreds of reports that go out. I report them when I see them. I know of others that do as well.

LoLiPoPW

One way I know would upset some but wpuld fix it instantly. Don't let lower level matts yield gold or purple upgrade matts. Bet every bot goes away. Cause they aren't gonna take the time to level crafting or any toon to cp160

katanagirl1

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

One way I know would upset some but wpuld fix it instantly. Don't let lower level matts yield gold or purple upgrade matts. Bet every bot goes away. Cause they aren't gonna take the time to level crafting or any toon to cp160

I don’t know for sure, but aren’t the items that sell from bots the raw or refined mats and not the improvement mats?

These are low level toons (usually level 3 or so), they can’t have the skill points to refine and get anything useful.

Stinkyremy

Malborn66 wrote: »

I never see any Bots on PC although I occasonly click on a resource and there is nothing there despite showing something.
Even the latter is pretty rare these days.

I find this hilarious, especially that OP is about consoles and you are saying no bots on PC. Damn you are late to the party. Day one ESO you were lucky to ever see a node, and yea you wouldn't see bots picking up nodes but you would hear nodes being picked while a bot is clipped trough the meshes and is farming nodes under the map.
You would see 8x templar jab trains farming pulls in all sorts of random enemy locations.
it was both comical but also disheartening as the economy and game mechanics were broken day one.

LoLiPoPW

katanagirl1 wrote: »

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

One way I know would upset some but wpuld fix it instantly. Don't let lower level matts yield gold or purple upgrade matts. Bet every bot goes away. Cause they aren't gonna take the time to level crafting or any toon to cp160

I don’t know for sure, but aren’t the items that sell from bots the raw or refined mats and not the improvement mats?

These are low level toons (usually level 3 or so), they can’t have the skill points to refine and get anything useful.

Yes they sell the low level matts but they wouldn't make any profit if you couldn't get the gold and purple improvement matts from it. There are people who buy from bots in bulk cause its a cheap way to get the gold and purple improvement matts.

LoLiPoPW

So today on xbox na I went through betnikh and counted 29 bots. They literally have every node now. I haven't even brought myself to check a starter zone. It's insane and sad that zos seems to not care about the issue. Now they have different gamer tags which means at some point they were banned. But until they actually take the time its a moot point. It seems that they are right there to keep the PvP crowd happy but those of us who do both get shafted

doomette

I remember when bots still had clothes on, to maybe seem like players to people who didn’t know any better. Now bot makers don’t even try to be subtle, and there’s legions of them running around, snarfing nodes in their underpants.

katanagirl1

I saw a group of synchronized sorc bots with familiars in Alik’r the other day and all I can say is 8 sorcs and 8 pets are no match for 3 mudcrabs. Overkill.

Tabatha

I’m on Xbox NA -
bots in auridon near grove farming bears & wolves
Bots in alikr farming mud crabs
Bots in grahtwood farming mud crabs
Bots in eastmarch farming wolves

And that’s just what I ran into today...

LoLiPoPW

doomette wrote: »

I remember when bots still had clothes on, to maybe seem like players to people who didn’t know any better. Now bot makers don’t even try to be subtle, and there’s legions of them running around, snarfing nodes in their underpants.

Ok this made me giggle a bit. But 100% truth. Its getting bad. I even posted on their Facebook page with a video. It got taken down....

Stinkyremy

Pretty sure I seen a bot today 600+CP in a delve in deshaan farming the bosses for mother sorrow. On PS4
He was moving erratic, light attack bow spam adds, when moving in zig zags, pulling map out, walk towards boss who hadn't spawned, repeat, then agro boss, spammers flames of oblivion while back peddling in a circle, as soon as boss died he teleported.
I whispered him, no replay, duel but auto decline, tried to trade no reply. I reported it, but we never know what happens.
Thing is I checked his profile and the profile has games on it since 2016, but this is a strange because the profile doesn't look like a person who plays games but more like a person who wants to appear that they play games.
Grabbing popular games, getting the trophies added to their list, 1 trophy or no trophies to make it look like they play a lot of games.

I have noticed for the last few weeks that I have only seen that boss spawn once and I have done the delve, corpse garden a lot because of dragonguard daily. This might be why, it is being farmed by bots.
Not even players because I have found no adds dead and treasure chests on the way to the boss that would not have been ignored by a player.

Dusk_Coven

Since bots are evidently so sophisticated, you'd think ZOS could have a bunch of their own bots testing the correlation between AoEs and server stress in Cyrodiil. Instead of trying to wrangle the players to do it in a live test.

Maybe ZOS doesn't even know how people bot their game.

LoLiPoPW

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

Since bots are evidently so sophisticated, you'd think ZOS could have a bunch of their own bots testing the correlation between AoEs and server stress in Cyrodiil. Instead of trying to wrangle the players to do it in a live test.

Maybe ZOS doesn't even know how people bot their game.

They know. Because they have banned the scrap farmers regularly. Its these node farmers now that seem to be the issue now.

It would take a bit of time on their end and it would be fixed. I mean selling gold for real money is against tos. Buying from bots will get you banned. But they still have not taken the time to make sure they don't come back.

Literally a bit of coding to detect an outside code source is all it takes. At this point I know coders that would do thia for free. But they seem to not care. Its not only against tos,, but a huge drain on their servers.

Its frustrating. The same bot has all of betnikh right now. Over 20 running around nekkid farming nodes. They don't even take the time to make a real looking gamer tag. One there now is yuu5476 (all have different numbera at the end)

Brockahly

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

As a master crafter these bots are becoming a problem. I can't even farm for materials. Me and my boyfriend both farm (or try to) regularly. However every starter zone (Betnik included) is over run with bots. Now I know we report them. However it seems to be wasted time. How is it that zenimax cabt take care of this problem? Bots use an outside code source to do this (computer connected to an xbox) as someone who is a computer major I know that if time was put into it you could identify the outside code sorce and shut it down. Or at the very least read the many reports that go out on these bots. They completely ruin a whole aspect of the game. These bots make real money off of in game items doing this. Which I know for a fact is against terms of service.

Now before anyone says "you just gotta be faster", they only create a route with 5 to 6 nodes max. Which means they are camping them. Their code idenifies the node before a normal player can see it. You just can't beat that.

So zenimax please either read the many reports on them that go out and ban them. Or find a way to identify the outside code source. Your crafting and farming community would thank you. I know alot of people who have left the game over this. You always make the pvpers happy, why not another huge base of players of the game.

ZOS are better off putting time and effort into stopping the root of the problem(likely shutting down gold selling websites) than simply banning droves of the actual farming accounts, for every account banned another simply pops up, it’s how these “syndicates” work.

Dusk_Coven

Brockahly wrote: »

ZOS are better off putting time and effort into stopping the root of the problem(likely shutting down gold selling websites) than simply banning droves of the actual farming accounts, for every account banned another simply pops up, it’s how these “syndicates” work.

Where would ZOS get the authority to shut down a third party site though? It'd probably cost them more in legal hassle.

LoLiPoPW

Brockahly wrote: »

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

As a master crafter these bots are becoming a problem. I can't even farm for materials. Me and my boyfriend both farm (or try to) regularly. However every starter zone (Betnik included) is over run with bots. Now I know we report them. However it seems to be wasted time. How is it that zenimax cabt take care of this problem? Bots use an outside code source to do this (computer connected to an xbox) as someone who is a computer major I know that if time was put into it you could identify the outside code sorce and shut it down. Or at the very least read the many reports that go out on these bots. They completely ruin a whole aspect of the game. These bots make real money off of in game items doing this. Which I know for a fact is against terms of service.

Now before anyone says "you just gotta be faster", they only create a route with 5 to 6 nodes max. Which means they are camping them. Their code idenifies the node before a normal player can see it. You just can't beat that.

So zenimax please either read the many reports on them that go out and ban them. Or find a way to identify the outside code source. Your crafting and farming community would thank you. I know alot of people who have left the game over this. You always make the pvpers happy, why not another huge base of players of the game.

ZOS are better off putting time and effort into stopping the root of the problem(likely shutting down gold selling websites) than simply banning droves of the actual farming accounts, for every account banned another simply pops up, it’s how these “syndicates” work.

They don't have that authority to do that. However placing a line of code that detects an outside code source is very much doable. They already have a failsafe for downloads to prevent tampering. Doing one to detect an outside code source is one way that would solve the issue.

Or make it so only 150cp natts drop purple and gold matts when refined. Bots farm low level matts and sell them in bulk to people. The buyers turn around and refine it to get gold and purple matts.

volkeswagon

I just despise anyone who makes bots. I report them because it makes me feel good. I notice they all have pets. Make pets not accessible until level 20 or something then have random spawn locations for enemies with wider pathing so the bots would eventually be killed by an npc. Another idea is to change the way duals work. In order for you to turn off auto decline you must be level 50. So if you are below level 50 you must manually decline. If you Don't decline within 30 seconds it starts. That way we can kill any bot we see.

doomette

volkeswagon wrote: »

Another idea is to change the way duals work. In order for you to turn off auto decline you must be level 50. So if you are below level 50 you must manually decline. If you Don't decline within 30 seconds it starts. That way we can kill any bot we see.

I hate bots, but hellllllll no. That would be beyond obnoxious, because there’d definitely be some trolls who’d spam duel invites to any random sub-50 who ran by.
I think barring any sort of gathering while your pet is in combat might help. That way they can’t keep running and hoovering up nodes if they aggro something.