New BOT and Cheating Activity

Food4Thought

I'm just curious if anybody has seen this new way to cheat.

We all know about the BOTS. Their clever use of traveling underground to steal resources unmolested, the ability to warp from one node to another, and the ability to speed travel to avoid agro.

But this past weekend I saw something new and it was a little disturbing. I was in Greenshade on the NA server and I saw this sorcerer with 5 duplicates of himself. The guy was literally running into a mob. Casting one AOE attack and the other other false duplicates of himself did the same thing. In essence, this player managed in one cast to kill any mob(s) that crossed his path simply because he had multiples of himself casting the same spell at the same time.

The guy was just grinding kills. It was like watching a train of identical socerers clearing a area with little to no regard to safety - because nothing was a threat.

I am just curious. Has anybody else seen this cheat? Sadly I wasn't able to pull the guy's name. But I was wondering is this has been seen by others in either PVP or PVE settings.

Nuitar

So you saw one guy - with 5 duplications of himself - yet you were unable to confirm the name.

Remove tin foil hat please

Vexian

Yeah that is called multi boxing and it's common in a lot of games

Worstluck

It's called multiboxing, and I imagine they are using 3rd-party software to accomplish that. Wait until you run into it in Cyrodiil.

Stratti

This is nothing new I remember 10v 10 with a 5 toon multi boxer demolishing the place

Anath_Q

I've seen the sorceror bot trains clearing mobs for a week or so now in the 16-34 zones...seems to be the new class of choice after the templar nerfs.

Unfortunately, nerfing classes, adding mob timers, etc. as a means to combat bots isn't especially effective. The bots just move on to other classes and means to farm the game.

wrlifeboil

As others said, it's multiboxing. One guy in WoW multiboxes 40 characters at once and does world pvp.

Food4Thought

Nuitar, I can only claim simple bewilderment on the first time I saw it. I spent some time out of game to figure out if it was indeed some skill I hadn't become aware of or an exploit. By the time I realized what it was, the guy was gone. Probably to find higher level mobs to grind away on.

I simply didn't have the desire to try to hunt a single player down in the game world at the time. But next time will be a different story ...

But at the time I didnt' know if this exploit even had a name or something new. Now I know. But my first thought was about Cyrodiil. I know if this was being exploited in PVE that it must make for a nightmare in PVP.

Thanks for the heads up! And is there any other exploits people are seeing players use in the game world? May be it is past time we players generate a list.

Thorntongue

Nuitar wrote: »

So you saw one guy - with 5 duplications of himself - yet you were unable to confirm the name.

Remove tin foil hat please

Are you worried you will get caught?

Mordria

I've seen multiboxing many times in the games and it's ALWAYS bots. This function should be removed from the game.

Censorious

Multiboxing:

Relax though. If he had five copies of himself, that means he had five accounts, which he had to pay for AND fork out the subscription every month.

Ask yourself, assuming you could actually afford to do that, would you want to?

GreasedLizard

Or it's a hack. Wouldn't jump to the multibox conclusion just yet.

Ohioastro

I've talked to people doing it. I used to double box with 2 windows in EQ1,:no 3rd party software. You need a good connection and fast reflexes. The other toons are doing nothing but sponging group exp and moving around to collect more loot. If they are paying for all of the accounts and not using hack programs (and they can) it isn't cheating.

elblobbob14_ESO

Mordria wrote: »

I've seen multiboxing many times in the games and it's ALWAYS bots. This function should be removed from the game.

Not ALWAYS. I've muli-boxed several games in the past (EQ1 EQ2 WOW to name 3). In games with stricter class systems, it was nice to have that second account with a healer to auto-follow your main around and heal. I honestly see nothing wrong with this as long as client side hacks and/or unapproved 3rd party software is being used. I did neither. Two keyboards, two monitors, two mice, two computers. Nothing at all against the TOS.

Eve Online actually encourages multi-boxing.

So, although in this game, the majority if the time you see what appears to be multi-boxed-bots, you are probably correct, I don't think it's ALWAYS the case.

Opioid

Ohioastro wrote: »

I've talked to people doing it. I used to double box with 2 windows in EQ1,:no 3rd party software. You need a good connection and fast reflexes. The other toons are doing nothing but sponging group exp and moving around to collect more loot. If they are paying for all of the accounts and not using hack programs (and they can) it isn't cheating.

Pretty much this. I doubt there's anything in the TOS that would prevent people from multiboxing. It's not a hack or a cheat. As long as someone is actually paying the subscription for multiple accounts and is actually there controlling them and not using an automated botting program, there's nothing wrong with it.

I have a friend that used to multi-box in WoW with a Paladin and 4 Druids on a PvP server. He was reported countless times by people that got all butthurt about it and every time he was investigated and talked to a GM, they concluded that he was doing nothing wrong and told him to have a nice day.

wrlifeboil

Multiboxing in WoW is not considered botting. Someone has to control all those toons. It probably doesn't hurt that multiboxing means multiple subscriptions.

I haven't read any official ZOS policy about multiboxing.

GreySix

I'd look for repetitious patterns. Most bot algorithms use a point to point navigation systems, so you won't see deviations. It's almost "robotic" in nature.

Food4Thought

One player running multiple accounts at the same time ...

I'm not sure that is what I was seeing. It was too fluid. Caster would cast and less than a split second later 4 duplicates of that caster cast the same spell at once. If was like watching a version of "mouse trails" only in game. (Mouse trails being the mouse option in windows where you can see a trail of mouse pointers following the main pointer.)

ErykGrimm

Censorious wrote: »

Multiboxing:

Relax though. If he had five copies of himself, that means he had five accounts, which he had to pay for AND fork out the subscription every month.

Ask yourself, assuming you could actually afford to do that, would you want to?

I could afford it, I still won't do it. If another legitimate player really is that serious about the game more power to them. I tend to prefer seeing sunlight every once in a while though. Vitamin D deficiencies are nothing to mess with.

Food4Thought

ErykGrimm wrote: »

Censorious wrote: »

Multiboxing:

Relax though. If he had five copies of himself, that means he had five accounts, which he had to pay for AND fork out the subscription every month.

Ask yourself, assuming you could actually afford to do that, would you want to?

I could afford it, I still won't do it. If another legitimate player really is that serious about the game more power to them. I tend to prefer seeing sunlight every once in a while though. Vitamin D deficiencies are nothing to mess with.

True enough.

But oddly those are the same players that burn through content in two weeks and then cry they have nothing to do and rage quit before their first 30 days is over.

Then they spend the last week of their cancelled subscription on the forums crying about how bad the game is.

sagitter

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Multiboxing in WoW is not considered botting. Someone has to control all those toons. It probably doesn't hurt that multiboxing means multiple subscriptions.

I haven't read any official ZOS policy about multiboxing.

Sounds like you are trying to find an escamotage.It s not you that control these toons, but a script in a 3d party tool so call it botting.What do you think that multiboxing campers in dungeons did?and i m sure lot got banned. The game is not born to control more than 1 account at time.

bluntobjnub18_ESO

There was a guy in DAoC who had a 5 man squad of wizards. He had a splitter on his keyboard and mouse that would deliver the same commands to all 5 accounts he was running simultaneously. Called himself "Team Wizzie", and what he was doing was legit as far as Mythic was concerned.

This is old stuff, and as long as one human is actively controlling the inputs from all the accounts at the same time, perfectly OK.

Automated bot trains obviously are not, as it fails the active human test.

Opioid

Food4Thought wrote: »

One player running multiple accounts at the same time ...

I'm not sure that is what I was seeing. It was too fluid. Caster would cast and less than a split second later 4 duplicates of that caster cast the same spell at once. If was like watching a version of "mouse trails" only in game. (Mouse trails being the mouse option in windows where you can see a trail of mouse pointers following the main pointer.)

There are programs that you can use to duplicate keystrokes across multiple instances of the game on one computer, or across a network to multiple computers so, for example, when you hit 1 on the main instance of the game, it transmits it to press 1 on the other instances as well.

Again, not against TOS since you're still inputting the command manually instead of letting a bot program take full control with scripted actions.

Aeradon

Enough with the multi box theory. It's obviously the Stormtroopers.

Singular

Opioid wrote: »

Food4Thought wrote: »

One player running multiple accounts at the same time ...

I'm not sure that is what I was seeing. It was too fluid. Caster would cast and less than a split second later 4 duplicates of that caster cast the same spell at once. If was like watching a version of "mouse trails" only in game. (Mouse trails being the mouse option in windows where you can see a trail of mouse pointers following the main pointer.)

There are programs that you can use to duplicate keystrokes across multiple instances of the game on one computer, or across a network to multiple computers so, for example, when you hit 1 on the main instance of the game, it transmits it to press 1 on the other instances as well.

Again, not against TOS since you're still inputting the command manually instead of letting a bot program take full control with scripted actions.

Pretty sure using outside programs to run stuff in game is against the TOS. But...whatever. If he wants to own multiple accounts, more power to him.

AinGeal

Sorcs now? Huh, it used to be Temps with Biting Jabs. Watch out sorcs....

Thunderchief

I'm pretty sure that muti-boxing is not allowed when you are using stolen credit cards to pay for the accounts.

Amsel_McKay

Multi boxing in ESO is hard... I tried but without a built in follow command it was too hard for me to bother.

zaria

Ohioastro wrote: »

I've talked to people doing it. I used to double box with 2 windows in EQ1,:no 3rd party software. You need a good connection and fast reflexes. The other toons are doing nothing but sponging group exp and moving around to collect more loot. If they are paying for all of the accounts and not using hack programs (and they can) it isn't cheating.

That is one way to do it, the other is to use 3rd part programs sending the keystrokes too all the games running.

Food4Thought

Thanks for the input on this subject guys and gals.

But one thing strikes me as odd. Not only do we some what disagree on what it was that I saw last weekend, we can't even come to a conscentcious as to whether or not such activity is even illegal?

When you have a player base that confused over a game feature, it is no wonder why you seem to have so many people doing it and getting away with it.

processedmeatman

I recently came across a bug with some NPCs that have multiple copies of themselves. One that comes to mind is the female Argonian in the Haj Uxith quest in Coldharbour. I've only seen this with non-attacking NPCs though, not with attackable characters.

I wonder if what you saw is related. Maybe someone found a way to exploit that?