Bots - am I the only one who does not feel affected?

Regoras

I don't really notice them, then again "immersion" has never been high on my list of important things. I'm playing a video game, I know that I'm playing a video game... I don't care what happens to the pixels in the game, it's not real.

jhmcclellan3_ESO

Actually, no, you are not the only one who really doesn't find them to be a huge pain. I would love to see them removed, but every mmo i have ever played has them (maybe not to the extent ESO has them). I just report them and keep on moving.

WebBull

Bots exist to make gold fast
The gold is sold to players
The prices of everything go up because there is so much bot gold in the game
The players that don't buy gold are at a disadvantage as everything is too costly
Players that haven't been gold buyers before may buy gold to keep up
Go back to the top...

Ulalume

Ohioastro wrote: »

The dungeons *do not* have bots in them any more with the timer changes. Are the people claiming evidence to the contrary talking about current experience, or are they simply projecting things at any point in the past onto the present?

If they prevent any low level crafter from doing anything, why have I been able to always get crafting supplies for all of my characters as I've leveled them up? All three alliances, all starter zones, etc.?

There is a huge amount of exaggeration going on here. I simply don't buy it, and I'm wondering what the motivation is for it.

Coldharbour. Go to the Grotto of Depravity and check out the bot army. They were there three days ago (EU) and I would be positively surprised if they'd been removed.

You can claim that these reports are exaggerated all you want, but the bots are there. I just reported three in Glenumbra while doing the Wyrd tree quest on my crafting alt. One was flying, the other teleporting between nodes and without Fast Report installed I wouldn't have been able to catch their names quickly enough.

ShedsHisTail

I've seen them around, they're a little distracting if you see a big crowd of them, and I've had the occasional node swiped. But at the same time, I profited from the aid of a crowd of bots on hard boss fights and such.

Bots suck, they need to go away, but they aren't making the experience so horrible that I can't cope until Zeni finds a fix.

Mablung

If you are not 'affected' by bots then goody gum drops for you. Coming here and complaining about the 'complainers' makes you an idiot.

With that said, yes, bots are actually affecting everyone. Immersion has very little to do with it. While those in the vet zones have yet to see bots, any new player or someone who is leveling an alt is greatly affected by them.

Mats in zones where leveling from 1 to 50 is done are absolutely next to impossible to obtain by gathering yourself. This would greatly impede progress by new players who are trying to become crafters of any kind. Also affects people playing alts who enjoy crafting their own gear. By monopolizing the mat market at these levels, the gold sellers farm players for their gold to sell on RMT sites. It is a vicious cycle which almost forces some players to go to these sites and purchase their gold so that they can turn around, give it back to the RMT seller for items they need to play the game.

Next, solo dungeons. Venture inside one of the Ghratwood dungeons if you are AD. You will see at the very minimum, 50 bots running around farming. This can greatly impact your ability to level. Solo dungeons are a great place for xp once you complete them and the only way to do so is by defeating the dungeon boss. Another nigh impossible task with the amount of bots running around doing the same thing, but just for loot.

With the bot programs infecting the PvE zones, it is only a matter of time before they infect PvP and the vet zones unless Zenimax does something very soon. Need an example of the tide coming, here you go.

I was in the VR6 zone and an individual spammed zone chat with wanting to buy Daedric and Ancient Elf motifs in bulk. Request only that you send your asking price in whisper and be reasonable. Several people quickly jumped on this individual stating that they were attempting to sell them for 200k or more earlier. This person was then seen by me spamming the same message in VR7 chat 30 mins later. This person is a gold seller. Farming people for gold and motifs to sell on RMT sites. This person is just the first of many to come to the vet zones.

Wake up. They do affect you whether you realize it or not. Stop complaining about those venting.

columbineb14_ESO

Wolfborn wrote: »

You are missing the big picture though. When I rolled my alt and started on the noobie island, I saw bots flying, I saw bots teleporting to nodes, I saw bots underground and harvesting nodes from beneath them. If I were a new player witnessing this I would not resub. I would demand my money back and leave, as why would I invest my entertainment time on a game so obviously broken. That's the damage the bots do, it's not the gold, it's not the resources, it's the message they say by being so prevalent. They tell a new player that Zenimax has no control of their own game and it's a game easily to be exploited.

That was my basic objection. That, and the fact that newcomers effectively can't craft if they keep getting poor luck with "bad bot days."

Of course, since I currently believe Zenimax HAS no control over their own game (at least not with respect to the bots) ... the nasty part of me says, "well, the newcomers might as well know the truth as soon as possible."

UrQuan

I've got 2 accounts and 16 characters that I'm leveling, so I've spent a lot of time in the lower level areas. I feel affected by bots when I'm trying to get a resource node and all of a sudden a bot teleports to it and grabs it before I can, or grabs it while invisible/underground. I feel affected by bots when there's a horde of them at every jute node in sight continually grabbing them so that I can't harvest anything (I haven't seen this lately - I think they fixed the auto-respawning jute node issue). I feel affected by bots when I can't even tag a dungeon boss because an army of Templar bots kills him the instant he spawns (I also haven't seen this lately - the changes that they made to the dungeon loot timer seems to have stopped the bots from doing this).

So I certainly have felt affected by bots, and I still do, but less frequently now. Of course, there was also one time when a bot train farming mobs saved my sorry butt from getting slaughtered...

Mablung wrote: »

If you are not 'affected' by bots then goody gum drops for you. Coming here and complaining about the 'complainers' makes you an idiot.

The OP wasn't complaining about anything - he was asking a question.

dennissomb16_ESO

Ohioastro wrote: »

The dungeons *do not* have bots in them any more with the timer changes. Are the people claiming evidence to the contrary talking about current experience, or are they simply projecting things at any point in the past onto the present?

If they prevent any low level crafter from doing anything, why have I been able to always get crafting supplies for all of my characters as I've leveled them up? All three alliances, all starter zones, etc.?

There is a huge amount of exaggeration going on here. I simply don't buy it, and I'm wondering what the motivation is for it.

I'll give an example of how wrong you are. 2 days ago (May18) I logged on my little Sorc alt for a break. level 18 in Stormhaven. in the course of playing for 1 hour I went into 3 different public dungeons. Every dungeon was empty of mobs and if you stood in a spot for a couple of minutes you would see the train of xxdgffg bots teleporting to every spawn. Even worse was watching them kill the boss and Teleport through the walls to the entrance to keep on clearing the dungeon. The people in VR lands who have not had the massive issue do not realize the impact on new players

Elirienne

Mablung wrote: »

If you are not 'affected' by bots then goody gum drops for you. Coming here and complaining about the 'complainers' makes you an idiot.

And namecalling, my friend, makes the sane majority automatically skip and disregard everything you may have said afterwards.

Thorntongue

Elirienne wrote: »

Let me start by saying - botting is idiotic and must be stopped. I am also strongly against any kind of cheating and gold selling.

But reading the forums, every other topic seems to be about bots and how they make your life hell. I am currently v5 and had my fair share of playing, but they never caused me any problems. I am not even sure that I recognise them as such. Either they are farming when I am offline, or farming WHERE I am not, but I do not feel affected at all.

They are not stopping me from doing quests. I have never once had to wait for dungeon bosses (well bear in mind that sub 30 I was so overwhelmed by the game that missed most public/solo dungeons...). They really are not impacting me.

Which makes me genuinely wonder, why are they such a big headache for other players.

ps - I do not pvp, maybe that's it..?

So business is booming?

Elirienne

@Ur-Quan i guess i will see them if i start an alt, then. The flying ones are new?? never seen a video of them?

UrQuan

Elirienne wrote: »

@Ur-Quan i guess i will see them if i start an alt, then. The flying ones are new?? never seen a video of them?

I've heard a lot of people talk about them, but I've only actually seen one bot flying. I've seen a ton teleporting, though, and I've run into a lot that were harvesting nodes even though the bot wasn't visible anywhere.

Draaconis

The issue is with resources. Between farming bots and characters in their 40s still picking up every single thing that they trip over, people are getting resource starved.

Knovah

Elirienne wrote: »

@Ur-Quan i guess i will see them if i start an alt, then. The flying ones are new?? never seen a video of them?

youtube.com/watch?v=dJvJCNMpq1Q

some hover, flying over the walk ways over the empty spaces even threw the walls ... some spawning massive over and over . It is a nice video shows a ton of bots in only a short amount of time .. don't care if it is a name and shame it shows the problem is everywhere.... plenty out there... google flying bots eso and you get tons of video's...

Mablung

Ur-Quan wrote: »

Mablung wrote: »

If you are not 'affected' by bots then goody gum drops for you. Coming here and complaining about the 'complainers' makes you an idiot.

The OP wasn't complaining about anything - he was asking a question.

Read the thread. I obviously was not directing my comments at the OP.

Enteum

I think the major bot population resides on the US server. Granted there are many on the EU. People complain about it but fail to mention which server they are playing on.

Now, that comment doe not mean I have not witnessed this untoward behaviour, I have.

But, I started early access, I have gathered all nodes I saw and stored them for future alts. So I do not really need to farm those nodes these bots 'are ghost stealing'. I have seen bots teleporting, I have the mail in my inbox etc.. I report them. However, I do not see as many as seems to be mentioned in the forums.

I am about to enter Cold Harbour, on EU. I'll let you know if there as many bots as I am expecting due to forum posts.

PS. Forgive my typing, I am on my phone.

Gisgo

Elirienne wrote: »

ps - I do not pvp, maybe that's it..?

There are no bots in pvp so i dont get it...

UrQuan

Mablung wrote: »

Ur-Quan wrote: »

Mablung wrote: »

If you are not 'affected' by bots then goody gum drops for you. Coming here and complaining about the 'complainers' makes you an idiot.

The OP wasn't complaining about anything - he was asking a question.

Read the thread. I obviously was not directing my comments at the OP.

If you're directing comments at someone other than the OP then you should quote them or refer to them directly. Otherwise everyone's going to assume that your comments are directed at the OP. That's how forums work.

jkbennettb14a_ESO

Elirienne wrote: »

@Vendersleigh, I don't think anyone here is saying that there is no problem. What I am definitely saying though is that for me, it isn't nearly as big a problem as you'd think from the forum and that there are much, MUCH bigger issues, as I am yet to come across a single bot in game (or I may have seen them just not recognise them). What prompted me to ask the question is that every other thread was about bots. And actually if you read through the thread, the distribution of people who say they are or they are not affected is about half an half. Once again (it does seem that I have to repeat myself many times for one point to get across, so here goes) - of course botting should not be allowed and should be combated. The gold seller emails do annoy me, I must admit. But look at the reaction above "Bots are OUT OF CONTROL", big capitals, upset player.... that in my book, even after reading everyone's opinions, is still a major overreaction.

Then again, it might just because of my v level, as some said above.

Sorry but all your really saying here is that because I don't see them there is no problem.

Start an alt and level through the first zone and you'll get the picture. The bots really are out of control. They are so bold now, they openly speed hack/fly etc. Any new player that came into this game right now would get the idea that cheating is perfectly acceptable here.

epoling

I agree with the OP. I have just not had my game play affected by the bots. However, you have to be careful saying that or the folks who are upset by them will go ballistic. I have been called stupid, blind, a liar and a botter because I have said that I have not felt negative effects from the cheaters. (Yeah, I don't like that they exist and hope they can be driven away - But I have always been able to harvest enough to craft what I need, almost always get the rights hits in on a boss I need, Spamfilter works fine for me, etc.) I would honestly rather have fifty bots running around than the folks who won't tolerate other peoples experiences.

Milanna

jkbennettb14a_ESO wrote: »

Start an alt and level through the first zone and you'll get the picture. The bots really are out of control. They are so bold now, they openly speed hack/fly etc. Any new player that came into this game right now would get the idea that cheating is perfectly acceptable here.

Indeed cheating seems perfectly fine.

reggielee

congrats on playing at such a time and level where the bot hordes dont affect you. I enjoyed a full week without seeing one and it was wonderful. How do bots affect gameplay for others?

crafting: they farm nodes relentlessly in order to gain epic mats or vendor into gold. the mats are sold to lazy players who no longer need to buy them from other players or crafters

resources: at times the number of bots impede others from harvesting nodes, especially in low levels. players can not go on to the next node as the bot chains are camping each node. players cant go to the next region to harvest as they need those beginner nodes to tier up their crafting

gold farming: bought gold is used to buy epic mats and gear, and the fast mounts with which they compete against other players in pvp, direct impact on other players there

asthetics: hordes of scripted bots ruin immersion, interfere with your progress thru dungeons or empty dungeons of all mob to the point its walk to the boss and hope to get a tag in for credit. it makes for a cheap experience

im glad you have a casual attitude about botting, it makes your gameplay so much enjoyable. I try to mimic that but I do get tired of the mass cheating

Strontium-Dog

Only a tard would state they arent a problem. They bring so many problems and issues to an online game such as this its unreal.

Ask yourself what ARE they doing and does it impact you at all? If you say no then either you dont resource gather, buy anything from stores, go into dungeons, roam open world and dont care about people paying to win ( such as buying gold=fastest horse+pvp=joke etc)


Really yes lets all ignore them because hey ....what harm are they doing.....I'm ok jack.

/facepalm

Milanna

Elirienne wrote: »

Let me start by saying - botting is idiotic and must be stopped. I am also strongly against any kind of cheating and gold selling.

But of course

Elirienne wrote: »

But reading the forums, every other topic seems to be about bots and how they make your life hell. I am currently v5 and had my fair share of playing, but they never caused me any problems. I am not even sure that I recognise them as such. Either they are farming when I am offline, or farming WHERE I am not, but I do not feel affected at all.

And you feel the need to say "Hey, I see a lot of people are having trouble with bots, but I don´t feel affected".
Ok.

Elirienne wrote: »

They are not stopping me from doing quests. I have never once had to wait for dungeon bosses (well bear in mind that sub 30 I was so overwhelmed by the game that missed most public/solo dungeons...). They really are not impacting me.

I think you have your answer right here. In the beginning of the game, that was where they were. In the sub 30 public dungeons.

Elirienne wrote: »

Which makes me genuinely wonder, why are they such a big headache for other players.

Se above, case closed.

jkbennettb14a_ESO

...and to put the final nail in the coffin. Here you go, from the perspective of a brand new player. Read the economy section.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/99504/verdict-first-impressions

Salsadoom

I have found bots quite useful, they clear mobs off chests quite nicely.

(not endorsing just trying to find something positive)

Wookie120

Well, I just started a new character and within 10 minutes on Khenarthi's Roost near Mistral I reported at least 10 bots running circuits, harvesting iron or maple nodes. Not to mention the ones that move at mach speed through the air. As far as over reaction, no. I do not feel people are over reacting. Maybe they do not bother you, that is well and good. But i have to wonder how many do not say a thing and just quit. As far as reporting the bots, Fast report, which is an add on really helps. I really enjoy this game but when I cannot harvest nodes, it gets very annoying. Game breaking, not yet, but annoying.

zaria

For me they are mostly like an major graphical glitch like hollow city loads without textures then you enter.
I did not notice them in the start as I ignored the public dungeons thinking they was to hard without a group.

Most people complains as the bot trains is an major immersion killer in a good game, say it zones loaded without textures.

As for low level, its a bit critical as new players run into multiple bot trains and might drop the game.

Blackwolfe5

Was playing on my lvl 11 sorc in stonefalls and probably had 5 nodes stolen from under my nose by a bot that was moving through the terrain. Later on I heard someone (that seemed invisible) mining an iron node so I hurried to a nearby jutenode and was able to report the damn bot.