The Gold Road Chapter – which includes the Scribing system – and Update 42 is now available to test on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656454/
Bot overload PS4 NA
SerafinaWaterstar
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It’s just ridiculous.
All starter zones are overrun with bots.
All level 3/4 sorcs with scamp pet. All gave the user name as two random words hyphenated & character name as string of random letters.
There are so many its impossible for anyone else to get a look in at ore points. Am levelling up new characters on NA server & its so much worse than ever seen it on EU.
Not good if someone trying out the game & sees this during free play time, hey?
Seriously, really not hard to stop. Just ban anyone with that combo!
Edited by ZOS_Bill on 25 April 2022 18:57 All starter zones are overrun with bots.
All level 3/4 sorcs with scamp pet. All gave the user name as two random words hyphenated & character name as string of random letters.
There are so many its impossible for anyone else to get a look in at ore points. Am levelling up new characters on NA server & its so much worse than ever seen it on EU.
Not good if someone trying out the game & sees this during free play time, hey?
Seriously, really not hard to stop. Just ban anyone with that combo!
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redlink1979✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭There are so many bots on starter zones that they even compete among themselves for the nodes.
@ZOS_MattFiror @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_GinaBruno Can we have some Game Masters around to ban bots on console servers? Please?"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear"- Sons of the Night Mother [PS5][EU] 2165 CP
- Daggerfall's Mightiest [PS5][NA] 1910 CP
- SweetTrolls [PC][EU] 1950 CP
- Bacon Rats [PC][NA] 1850 CP
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Veinblood1965✭✭✭✭✭
✭I was wondering the same thing. TONS of them all around the place, all level three. I reported a few but gave up as the same bots with same names never disappear.
I'm wondering if it's just not worth ZoS's time to ban them when found as more will just pop right back up again?
Do these BOT accounts not have actual accounts and just hacking in somehow?
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JanTanhide✭✭✭✭✭
✭If you can, make videos and post them on social media. This helps a lot and will get the attention it deserves. I've made many and posted them on youtube. Bots are gone soon once they others get to see how bad they are.0 -
Arthtur✭✭✭✭✭
✭"The Elder Scrolls Online Free Play Event is now live and runs until Tuesday, April 26 at 10AM EDT. During the free-play period, anybody on PC/Mac, Xbox consoles (Xbox Live Gold required), PlayStation consoles, and Stadia can download and play The Elder Scrolls Online for free!"
If u ban them they will just create new account. U cant do much about that during free play.0 -
Arunei✭✭✭✭✭
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The base game is super cheap these days. Most botters are also gold sellers, so they easily make back the money spent buying the base game over and over.Veinblood1965 wrote: »I was wondering the same thing. TONS of them all around the place, all level three. I reported a few but gave up as the same bots with same names never disappear.
I'm wondering if it's just not worth ZoS's time to ban them when found as more will just pop right back up again?
Do these BOT accounts not have actual accounts and just hacking in somehow?
Yeah, because Gods forbid the people legit farming actually get compensated for their time. Who cares if they're getting shafted by bots, so long as everyone can pay as little as possible for their mats they don't want to farm themselves.I'm good with them, money for ZOS & cheaper mats for us.Character List [RP and PvE]:Stands-Against-Death: Argonian Magplar Healer - Crafter
Krisiel: Redguard Stamsorc DPS - Literally crazy Werewolf, no like legit insane. She nuts
Kiju Veran: Khajiit Stamblade DPS - Ex-Fighters Guild Suthay who likes to punch things, nicknamed Tinykat
Niralae Elsinal: Altmer Stamsorc DPS - Young Altmer with way too much Magicka
Sarah Lacroix: Breton Magsorc DPS - Fledgling Vampire who drinks too much water
Slondor: Nord Tankblade - TESified verson of Slenderman
Marius Vastino: Imperial <insert role here> - Sarah's apathetic sire who likes to monologue
Delthor Rellenar: Dunmer Magknight DPS - Sarah's ex who's a certified psychopath
Lirawyn Calatare: Altmer Magplar Healer - Traveling performer and bard who's 101% vanilla bean
Gondryn Beldeau: Breton Tankplar - Sarah's Mages Guild mentor and certified badass old person
Gwendolyn Jenelle: Breton Magplar Healer - Friendly healer with a coffee addiction
Soliril Larethian- Altmer Magblade DPS - Blind alchemist who uses animals to see and brews plagues in his spare time
Tevril Rallenar: Dunmer Stamcro DPS - Delthor's "special" younger brother who raises small animals as friends
Celeroth Calatare: Bosmer <insert role here> - Shapeshifting Bosmer with enough sass to fill Valenwood
PC - NA - EP - CP1000+
Avid RPer. Hit me up in-game @Ras_Lei if you're interested in getting together for some arr-pee shenanigans!5 -
SerafinaWaterstar✭✭✭✭✭
✭I'm good with them, money for ZOS & cheaper mats for us.
So, happy to support bots that are probably gold sellers & thus also are involved in other dodgy (or criminal) activities just to get cheap mats.
Nice.
I wasn’t even farming, I was questing. Just wanting to build my craft bag up for personal use. Would like to be able to do that without having to get in front of a semi-naked Khajiit (another mark against them).3 -
MidniteOwl1913✭✭✭✭✭
✭Yeah the bots are really bad. At late night (when I play) they are 90% of the toons in the area. They only seem interested in jewelry mats, makes sense those are harder to get and sell for more gold. I've given up trying to farm those mats in any starter area, it is just a waste of time for me. And yes they are two random picked-from-a-dictionary word names and a string of monkey keyboard ids, low-level sorc.
I was thinking that one thing for ZOS to do might be to move the nodes every maintenance at random. This would force the botmasters to retool. At least make it harder for them. Or they could move the NPC's around a bit so there was no reliable safe path for them to run. I guess the thinking was that having a safe zone helped new players, but that doesn't work because the bots just take all of those easy-to-harvest resources. If that's the point of them, they fail. Might as well just get rid of the safe paths, that would limit the usefulness of those bots at least.
PS5/NA1 -
ZOS_BilladminWe recommend reporting these players so our support team can investigate and deal with these accounts.
How do I report a player on console?The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - ZeniMax Online Studios
Forum Rules | Code of Conduct | Terms of Service | Home Page | Help Site0 -
USarmydrew09✭✭✭They are everywhere and even if you report them sometimes I still see them a week or 2 later. All that needs to be done is for zos to get on the game a few times a day a clear them.in 8 years I have never seen a zos team member on ps4. It may make Matt's cheaper but it robs from the actual players.3
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demonology89✭✭✭"I get cheaper mats" is a poor argument and it spits in the face of the players that actually dedicate time to farm and refine mats. You want free mats? Go farm and refine yourself. You're supporting people clearly breaking ToS and selling mats/gold for real life currency.
ZOS this is a huge problem on PS NA server. Reporting each bot I come across takes up my game time. I've done the multiple reporting many times to only watch these bots continue to grow in number.
Jester's Festival? Bots on display for all players to see traveling to the starter zones for the prank quest! Seaveil Spire? Beautiful home on Betnikh but with the horrible eyesore of bots everywhere!
Something needs to be done instead of suggesting us to waste our time finding and reporting each and every bot. What happened to Game Masters?0 -
MidniteOwl1913✭✭✭✭✭
✭There are far, far more bots than players in many starter areas. Want to farm mats in an easy environment, forget it! Bots, bots, bots!
PS5/NA0 -
ThreeXB✭✭✭✭We recommend reporting these players so our support team can investigate and deal with these accounts.
How do I report a player on console?
Or maybe you guys could get some game moderators for us console players and come check it out for yourselves , don't forget to bring your cp160 nirncrux banhammers with ya3 -
Rinlan_Darius✭✭✭I play on all four console servers. Judging by the price of PS-NA gold materials, there are the most bots there. I am only in one trading guild on this server, but there are at least a few high-level people in the guild with me who sell 1000 or more gold materials daily and at the same time. And this, of course, is the BOTS OWNERS. They need to be banned, not hundreds of one-time accounts.2
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Rittings✭✭✭✭✭
✭We recommend reporting these players so our support team can investigate and deal with these accounts.
How do I report a player on console?
I'm sorry but this advice is redundant. Don't get me wrong, I understand why you give it - but there are literally 100-200 bots in Bleakrock alone. It takes approximately 2 minutes to report correctly the account, but another 2 or 3 to actually catch up to them to being the report function... at 5 minutes per account that would be approximately 8 hours to report all the bots in a single zone - and the bots are currently residing in:-
1. Bleakrock
2. Kenarthis Roost
3. Bal Foyen
4. Betnikh
5. Rivenspire
6. Glenumbra
7. Craglorn
8. Alik'r Desrt
9. Bangkorai
10. Stros M'kai
11. Auridon
And these are just the prevelant zones. That's 88 hours worth of reporting... which is why we are suggesting that Zenimax start to enact a better bot/cheat prevention policy. This is affecting performance and the apathy of your customer base.
the levels of anger and frustration caused by bots is driving the consumers away. I don't understand why this isn't recognized. If a player were to cheat with nodes (which has previously happened) we get banned permanently and swiftly too... but these bots are allowed to make a mockery of Zenimax without recourse. We'll stand behind you as you tackle them - but leaving them without any strategy isn't something we can get behind.2 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭We recommend reporting these players so our support team can investigate and deal with these accounts.
How do I report a player on console?
It is difficult to report them all when they are a swarm of bots and you can only target one or two.
I had to go to a different location because a swarm of bots was killing crabs so quickly I couldn't get a hit in, and therefore couldn't do an endeavour.1 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭So it was great, the cluster of crab-farming bots was gone.
For a day.
Now there is a new bunch, with all different names, but running the same pre-programmed route.
Is there anything more eso can do, other than play whack-a-bot?
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Rittings✭✭✭✭✭
✭So it was great, the cluster of crab-farming bots was gone.
For a day.
Now there is a new bunch, with all different names, but running the same pre-programmed route.
Is there anything more eso can do, other than play whack-a-bot?
Yes there is. I've posted this list before - but here's another update of it:-
1. Impliment more Gamemasters to be readily available in the game. I haven't seen a Gamemaster since the bank/survey exploit days - that was about 5 or 6 years ago now. These could be employed to insta - suspend bots or ban them immediately.
2. Make it less worthwhile for bots to exist in the first place. Reduce the amount of mats that drop from sources until the player reaches a level (ie level 6, since that's when writs become available and mats are genuinely needed by players. This slows the bots down if you stay on top of banning them - it means an extra grind they have to do for each bot.
3. Make it so real players harvest more. This can be done via both the CP tree, and a new companion that can have a passive to increase harvest yields. Bots will not spend and invest money/time into getting these companions or high enough CP - knowing the'll get banned too quickly to make it worthwhile.
4. Track the goods. I know Zenimax have the tools to track where the harvested mats end up. As they go from the bots, they'll head to a bot handler - and from there they'll be sold to players who are regularly using the services of these bots to fill their own coffers. Ban them all... make it much harder for these materials to reach players. This will cut off the bots at source.
5. Work closer with Sony/Microsoft to shut down IP addresses of known bots. Some are so lazy they don't even use a VPN. Ban those IPs
6. Make it mandatory to sign up via Bethesda/Zenimax Online website when you want to register an account. Make it so the account must be verified via email - and make it a bit of a labourious task to register too. Don't streamline it... make it harder work for the bots to have to keep registering - this will also start to cause them to slip up even if they do use a VPN.
7. Give players a tool for bot disruption. We kind of had one with the crow merchant when it was useable by people outside your group. You could pull the crow out and bots would try to interact with it like it was a node - and end up selling their mats to a merchant for bottom end prices... plus it held the bot in place long enough for us to get the actual nodes. Taking this away and claiming it was a "fix" really took our only good method of bot disruption away...1 -
Rittings✭✭✭✭✭
✭Oh another thing... make it doulbe (or even triple) node values in DLC areas... It might be seen as hiding the good stuff behind a pay wall - but honestly, 1,500+ crowns is not much to have to pay for a better farming area than the bots have access to. They won't pay it... and we'll devalue the mats they are harvesting by real players providing them in much more plentiful supply....
But doing nothing - means the problem only gets worse.0 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭Tried the Haven mudcrab spot for the endeavour today. Once again, the cluster of farming bots made it impossible to do the endeavour.0
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Rinlan_Darius✭✭✭> 4. Track the goods.
Without any special programs, just go to several trade guilds and see the offers. Yes, yes, and here they are - sellers of thousands and thousands of gold resources daily - they sell as much as an ordinary player does not accumulate in the game and for 5 years of daily 8-hour play. And all of them - a low level of CP - 200-300-500 - is quite enough to refine the resources that their bots collect.0 -
Rittings✭✭✭✭✭
✭Tried the Haven mudcrab spot for the endeavour today. Once again, the cluster of farming bots made it impossible to do the endeavour.
Completing any resource based endeavour is always going to be a little trickier due to bot overload… Zenimax really are failing to realize just how much this is hurting their REAL customers…1 -
SpiritofESO✭✭✭We recommend reporting these players so our support team can investigate and deal with these accounts.
How do I report a player on console?
I have reported the "Mudcrab Beach" (near Haven, Grahtwood) farming bot for over a year now and nothing has been done. About nine baby Sorcerers frying mudcrabs 24/7/365. That and the obvious multi-bots farming nodes in all the starter islands/zones.
Here's the real way to end this:
These people are "Gold Sellers" and they farm mats, sell them for in-game Gold on Guild Traders and sell their ill-gotten in-game Gold to players.
1) Spawn times in starter zones are are quick as two minutes. Few REAL players ever go to these zones for any length of time, therefore INCREASE THE SPAWN TIMES to 15 minutes to 30 minutes or MORE. Have ZOS reduce the spawn nodes by HALF.
2) Have an actual in-game Game Master -- the Game Masters that there's a loading screen about and whom we NEVER see in the game -- to swing through the Starter Islands/Zones or wherever bot activity is reported ONCE A WEEK with a ban hammer.
On any day you can go to the starter areas and see multi-bots farming away with impunity. The main problem is that there are too many nodes on too fast a respawn rate that have no "protective" creatures/NPCs to deter these baby bots.
- ~ PS NA ~ ALDMERI DOMINION ~
- IVY GOLDBLADE, WOOD ELF NIGHTBLADE, Former Empress
- IVY GOLDBLAZE, HIGH ELF TEMPLAR
- "Adapt or Die"
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Rittings✭✭✭✭✭
✭UPDATE to where bots are currently operating on PlayStation NA (and therefore more than likely every other platform and zone too)...
1. Bleakrock (Exclusively node farming - and now they are tripling and quadrupling up on nodes)
2. Kenarthis Roost (Exclusiving node farming - some doubling up on nodes witnessed)
3. Bal Foyen (Exclusively node farming - some tripling up on nodes)
4. Betnikh (Maindly node farming but some wolf farming too)
5. Rivenspire (Some node farming, but mainly farming skeevers and harpies for scraps)
6. Glenumbra (Node farming, and wolf farming)
7. Craglorn (Exclusively node farming, with some seeming to be exploiting speed glitches)
8. Alik'r Desrt (Primarily farming mudcrabs - but with some node farming taking place too)
9. Bangkorai (Bear farming primarily, but with some node farmers now appearing too)
10. Stros M'kai (Exclusively node farming - with tripling up witnessed)
11. Auridon (Bear/Wolf farming, but some node farmers can be found too)
12. Greenshade (Node and scrap farming)
13. Vvardenfell (seen some new ones... I'm suspecting since this was added to base game, the bots are taking advantage... mainly nodes at the moment)
14. Stormhaven (Primarily node farming, but seen some also farming bears to the east of the map)
15. Reaper's March (primarily node farming I think... just spotted a few out and about, this appears to be the next target to be mapped by their macros).
Honestly, it's completely out of hand. Zenimax appear to be clueless to combat this - and almost are encouraging it as the constant reproduction of bots means they can boast a greater player number... Seeing the active player list is nowhere near the millions of registered players - it's not hard to deduce that a vast majority of of the registered player base is likely to be bots... which is incredibly deceptive.
Is this the reason nothing is done to discourage future bots??? It's hurting your PAYING customers, Zenimax. You'd be very wise to understand and acknowledge that fact. The amount of performance issues the servers have, I'm sure getting rid of these bots would really help. I noticed that some of the performance issues tend to be gone directly after an update and/or maintenance. Just a minor patch that needs downloading etc.. and I can't help noticing that as the bots complete their downloads and get online - the lag issues return. It can't be a coincidence every single time.
Myself and others have made severl suggestions - and to see a few of them implimented to stem the tide of these bots would show at least some willing on Zenimax's part that they are attempting to resolve the issue. Because as of right now - NOTHING is being done... not a thing. The problem isn't just going to go away on its own. And whilst we appreciate that making zones free for the base game owners (like Vvardenfell etc) as time goes by is a really nice gesture and really helps provide more bang for buck in the store - it also means that there is a greater encroachment of bots to exploit and take advantage ...4 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭Grahtwood - the cove east of Haven wayshrine has one of those packs of clones farming mudcrabs.
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opalcity✭✭✭✭✭Also, I've tried reporting the psn account but playstation just tells me to report it to Zos0
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boi_anachronism_✭✭✭✭✭
✭I feel bad for new players tbh. I can hop on my mount and generally outrun the bots but its a huge pain. New players have zero recourse since the bots are so fast. They move like they have the cp bonus plus adept rider and ring of the wild hunt equipped. It's crazy.1 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭Actually, today I saw several bots in Bal Foyen who weren't moving at all. Just camping on the same spot and getting the one node. Anyone else seen that?
I've not checked the clone army clusters yet0 -
opalcity✭✭✭✭✭@ZOS_Bill
Thought this needed updating, because I just popped in to Bal Foyen to do the daily endeavour and ended up reporting four different bots just between the Dhalmora wayshrine and the village of Dhalmora.
I'm not talking about a bot Train, like the ones that farm mudcrab, but four separate bots. And they didn't appear to belong to the same farmer either, its like they were competing. They didn't have the same names, like how I previously saw where they'd be "randomname2" and "randomname7" etc, but so different it made me wonder if they're from competing farmers.
Zos... What is going on?!0