Bot Hunting

Fullenglish

Before the inevitable flames i know this doesn't count as PVE but given the lack of anywhere else to put this here goes.

I was wondering if anyone fancied joining me for my evening bot hunts every night around 2300 GMT (CET+1) i go and camp the commonly botted nodes on Bleakrock.
I will be in game on a suitably named toon in Bleakrock most nights

The method is surprisingly simple find a bot farmed node (either by trying to use it and finding that 'this node is already in use' despite there being no one there, or watching for the tell tale super fast teleport jump to the node. All you have to do then is turn off autoloot and use the node but don't collect the materials. This causes the bots to pause in their routes long enough to target them and report them.

Caught 2 last night using this method.

Common bottted nodes include, The iron ore node near the Bleakrock wayshrine, The Rune node near deathclaws cave, The iron ore node near to the town exit to the signal tower.

Thanks in advance to anyone who rather than moaning that Zenimax should be doing this comes and does something about it themselves.

Dbetz007

It would be better to hit the bots in places like Stonefall where they gather around public dungeon bosses and camp the boss 24/7. These are by far worse than the bots your dealing with as they prevent people from killing the bosses and your lucky to even get a hit in on them at times. These bots will auto res and auto loot most times until they are full. Then the bodies pile up and there is usually one non bot there that watches all of the bots in the case that they get trained which happens quite often. I have watched them and they have been modifying their add on programs to be more effective at dealing with situations such as that.

Overall bots are a huge problem in this game and add on bits made it easier for them to make bots. Something must be done and done soon otherwise we will see bots doing pvp and everything else making the game pointless to play. Many of my friends will not join because of what they have heard about the bots from other players. These bots will kill the game if something is not done and done soon.

Fullenglish

Thanks for the comment @Dbetz007 I will add these bots to my daily routine as much as is possible. Its simply that the node bots are easier to stop in their tracks and report.

Dbetz007

The one's I am talking about just stand there and pretty much auto kill the boss as soon as he spawns.

Fullenglish

Yeah i know the ones irritating as all hell when you're trying to get a dungeon cleared.

Delte

Would prefer it if ZOS would turn on FFA pvp for 1 hour per week so we could kill the Bots our selves.

tripiseanb14_ESO

As someone who farms boss mobs at the end of public dungeons I can tell you that we are not bots, generally, we're just people farming for crafting mats.

I'll usually throw a movie one and jam the 1 button on my keyboard for an hour or two each night to get crafting mats.

I personally see nothing wrong with it, farming is prevalent in every MMOs, and as long as you are the one behind the keyboard, I am just playing live everyone else. I'll usually group up with and chat with the other guys down there, for the most part, botting isn't very prevalent there.

Chirru

The only way to get rid of the Bots is to get rid of the people who buy gold and accounts from the bot-masters. As long as the business is there the bots will be there.
to say it bluntly...there are people playing this game who buy gold or accounts for real money and they are really at fault.

Fullenglish

Very pleased to report that having stood with the loot window open at the Bleakrock node for 15 minutes last night i didn't see a single bot, Obviously the Ban Hammer has been put to good use.

mercenaryaieb17_ESO

Fullenglish wrote: »

Very pleased to report that having stood with the loot window open at the Bleakrock node for 15 minutes last night i didn't see a single bot, Obviously the Ban Hammer has been put to good use.

Great news, let's hope it stays that way!

Captainkrunch96

Oh god I hate the bots/people who farm world/dungeon bosses. You people realize how immersion breaking it is to turn a corner into a boss room and see 20 people sitting there and killing the boss in 5 seconds. this is why I feel there should be an option to instance public dungeons to yourself(or at least make it so you can put a limit on players in their, like every 4 players a new instance is opened). It is so annoying.

Fullenglish

Sadly having had another tour of Bleakrock last night the bots are now using both the teleport hack and one that somehow makes them invisible, can't decide whether they are under/behind scenery or simply invisible. Their names still show up when you cursor over them though, so i managed to report one this way and one by typing their name.

Metrobius

tripiseanb14_ESO wrote: »

As someone who farms boss mobs at the end of public dungeons I can tell you that we are not bots, generally, we're just people farming for crafting mats.

I'll usually throw a movie one and jam the 1 button on my keyboard for an hour or two each night to get crafting mats.

I personally see nothing wrong with it, farming is prevalent in every MMOs, and as long as you are the one behind the keyboard, I am just playing live everyone else. I'll usually group up with and chat with the other guys down there, for the most part, botting isn't very prevalent there.

Just because you see nothing wrong with it doesn't make it ok. It's a lazy and disruptive way to get mats and I hope you get a ban for, along with every other button mashing semi-afk farmer in the game.

High_Marshal

There is an add-on I use called FastReport that I use to target the invisible botters. It also fills out the location, name and such to copy/paste in the report.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info181-FastReport.html

I used it to report about a dozen or so botters last night.

Pendrillion

I guess the obvious would be to modify the loot so that we don't have to deconstruct stuff as only way to get honing stones and other rare crafting materials. Then the mentality would pan out a bit. Personally I like that you don't find materials at every corner of the world. But, seriously, it could have been handled in a more balanced way. Kudos to Zenimax for not including an Auction house... But this may be one of the current economies flip sides.

Marricus

Bots are not that hard to spot - names like "nbnbn". As pointed out the most annoying are the mini dungeon boss campers. Very difficult to score enough damage to get credit for the dungeon. I like to complete every map, so can a huge issue.

Fullenglish

@High_Marshal‌, i'll give that addon a try looks like exactly what i was after to speed the process up. And yeah random collection of letters for name is a dead giveaway however i reported 2 boss campers last night that were obviously bots yet had 'normal' names. The largest concentration of node farming bots seems to be contained to the starter areas and Bleakrock in particular. It usually more the physical action of reporting them thats the problem i find as they've normally teleported off before i can press F or make a note of the name.

AtomZer0

tripiseanb14_ESO wrote: »

As someone who farms boss mobs at the end of public dungeons I can tell you that we are not bots, generally, we're just people farming for crafting mats.

I'll usually throw a movie one and jam the 1 button on my keyboard for an hour or two each night to get crafting mats.

I personally see nothing wrong with it, farming is prevalent in every MMOs, and as long as you are the one behind the keyboard, I am just playing live everyone else. I'll usually group up with and chat with the other guys down there, for the most part, botting isn't very prevalent there.

I have also farmed bosses for mats but given it up as the sheer amount of botters has made it ridiculously difficult. You can't possibly be serious when you say bots aren't a problem, there are always tons around with names that are just random letters or have no capitalization for their name and they all seem to auto-attack instantly when the boss pops up, making it very difficult to get enough hits to get drops from the boss or even credit for killing it in some dungeons.

I also think afk farming by button jamming should be frowned upon, it's basically a macro. If you want to farm, be there in the game actually farming, don't exploit.

luceri84b14_ESO

You could make a bot reporting / hunting / killing guild

Fullenglish

Last night on Stonefalls EU there were a group of bots camping Jute spawns in a low risk area, this caused the nodes to bug and all instantly respawn when gathered. A small group of heroes (myself included) decided enough was enough and began kiting mobs to the bots which had AoE skills thus killing a few of them, however eventually i stumbled upon a bot that after a while started to move out of the AoE.

He then started chatting in zone chat declaring he was 'good at avoiding the damage' and stating that he 'loved our money' so he would keep on doing it [Botting].

I would quite like to know where the GM specifically hired to eradicate bots was at this point as he hadn't sent his usual server wide message saying he was online and taking PM's

I would also like to mention that If anyone from Zenimax ever reads the forums there were several of us who if asked would have no problem in policing the bots ourselves part time for free, we love the game, we want the bots gone and obviously nobody can be online 24/7 taking requests for bot removal.

Fullenglish

@luceri84b14_ESO‌; you know what i might just do that...

alphawolph

tripiseanb14_ESO wrote: »

As someone who farms boss mobs at the end of public dungeons I can tell you that we are not bots, generally, we're just people farming for crafting mats.

I'll usually throw a movie one and jam the 1 button on my keyboard for an hour or two each night to get crafting mats.

I personally see nothing wrong with it, farming is prevalent in every MMOs, and as long as you are the one behind the keyboard, I am just playing live everyone else. I'll usually group up with and chat with the other guys down there, for the most part, botting isn't very prevalent there.

Nope, all repetitive motion is a bot.

I had someone following me around the other day while farming, called me a bot. Just cause I know where all the nodes are and can run the path in my sleep does not mean I'm a bot.

reggielee

it would be great if you could motivate en masse the entire player base to combat bots to the point that they didnt earn any gold for a week or two, making the leeches move onto other games to ruin but tbh it just wont happen.

my strategy is that i report around 6 a day, not dungeon bots but the ever increasing landscape quest exploiters. then i go about my game. I am pretty sure the devs know the locations of the node farming recent hack.

theres a balance betw just enjoying the game and spending too much time obsessing about botting