Penalty for botting

UnversedNumber3

What is the penalty for botting. A group of friends and I ran into a bot (over 690cp) running in loop attacking blood fiends one by one for over 8 hours. Same loop same rotation. We all reported him for botting and we found him in the same place doing the same thing a few days later. I thought the penalty for botting would be a permanent ban but I guess not. Is there even a penalty for botting?

nnargun

No penalty.

Nighn_9

if that banned bots they would ban every big time trading guildmaster more than likely. Their the only players i know that would buy like 6+ accounts anyways

Rohamad_Ali

It should be two wrestlers break in their door and give them a wedgy and a swirly in the bathroom and take their computer and modem on the way out .

This is what I imagine when they say we can't discuss displinary action ..

UnversedNumber3

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

I am really surprised by that.

UnversedNumber3

ZOS_AlanG wrote: »

Hello everyone, we’ve started a fresh thread on the matter of cheating and exploits. This has been a big issue, and maintaining an open discussion on the matter is important to us. However, it is also important that this discussion stay on topic, and within the forum rules. In particular:

• We do not allow naming and shaming. Accusations of misconduct directed at anyone, even if not explicitly named, are not acceptable. If you feel someone is cheating, any information needs to be sent to us privately. Rules violations can be sent in-game or by submitting a ticket on our help site, and this is covered in more detail below. When reporting someone, please detail who you are reporting and why, the more information you can provide the easier it is for us to investigate. We welcome images and videos. With the latter, if it’s very long a timestamp may be helpful.

• We do not allow disciplinary actions to be discussed for specific members, whether named or not. General discussion of ESO policy is acceptable, but not commentary on what may have happened with specific people. Staff will not discuss the moderation status of an account publicly, or state whether an account has or has not been actioned. Allowing others to speculate on this can lead to a host of problems, and we are unable to clarify.

• Flaming or bashing is not allowed. This goes for abusive and disruptive comments and behavior that are directed at ZeniMax Online employees and ESO community members, alike.

• Demands or threats, specifically directed at the ESO team or suspected exploiters.

• It is important to keep comments respectful, and criticism constructive. We discuss this in greater depth here. There is a lot of value in having an open thread for discussing these problems, but it needs to remain civil and constructive.

We will remove any posts breaking the forum rules. In the last thread we tried to keep moderation to a minimum, but this just allowed the problems to escalate until we couldn’t ignore them. When removing posts we will generally remove any replies as well, since they often don’t make sense on their own, or continue off track discussion. If you feel someone is breaking the rules, we ask that you report the post and not respond to it.

We had closed the previous thread because of the number of problems, and because we thought a break until we had new information would be helpful. We’ve received a lot of feedback that people would rather have an open discussion now, so are putting this up.

As mentioned earlier, and explained in detail in the quoted post below, if you feel that someone is cheating or exploiting please send this information to us. Do not post details on how to preform an exploit, or who may be preforming them, on the forums.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Hey everyone,

If you believe someone is cheating, hacking, exploiting, botting, or anything else that violates our EULA and Terms of Service, we want to know but we need you to report them using the appropriate channels. We fully investigate all reports of TOS violations. (See this Support article on how to report another player for inappropriate behavior.)

You can also submit a Support ticket via our website if you need to include screenshots and/or video footage of the player you are reporting. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Support page and log in
2. Choose “In-Game Support”
3. Select the “Report a Player” subcategory
4. Fill out the fields with as much detail as possible – if you know reproduction steps for what the player you’re reporting is doing, even better.
5. Attach any related files (screenshots, videos, etc.)
6. Hit the “Submit” button

Please note that we cannot discuss another player’s account status and details thereof with you, as doing so would be a violation of our Privacy Policy. This includes any disciplinary action we have taken on another player. In rare cases, we may decide to give a player who has been permanently banned a final chance after investigating a situation and speaking with them. If you believe a player with whom we have granted a final chance is violating our EULA and Terms of Service, please report them via one of the two methods described above.

Lastly, we are still going to wipe the Veteran Maelstrom Arena Leaderboards on the PC/Mac megaservers within the next few weeks.

Botting is against the rules guys

nnargun

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

I am really surprised by that.

There are myriads of threads about how no action has been taken after reporting botters. But of course it's against the rules. Sureee

UnversedNumber3

nnargun wrote: »

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

I am really surprised by that.

There are myriads of threads about how no action has been taken after reporting botters. But of course it's against the rules. Sureee

It should be pretty easy. You ban them.

nnargun

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

I am really surprised by that.

There are myriads of threads about how no action has been taken after reporting botters. But of course it's against the rules. Sureee

It should be pretty easy. You ban them.

Should be.

Fleshreaper

<sigh> Yes, yes, continue to complain about something that doesn't even affect you. There is one little problem that you seem to NOT understand. PROOF, let me say that again, slowly. P...R...O...O...F... You reported them, ZoS investigated and found NO PROOF, they were botting, No ban was issued. How would you like people to just report you for botting just because you got to a node before they did. And according to you, because someone reported you for botting, you just got banned. Without any proof that you were actually botting but just because someone else said you were. There you go, everyone just got a perma ban and no, one is left to play.

nnargun

Fleshreaper wrote: »

<sigh> Yes, yes, continue to complain about something that doesn't even affect you. There is one little problem that you seem to NOT understand. PROOF, let me say that again, slowly. P...R...O...O...F... You reported them, ZoS investigated and found NO PROOF, they were botting, No ban was issued. How would you like people to just report you for botting just because you got to a node before they did. And according to you, because someone reported you for botting, you just got banned. Without any proof that you were actually botting but just because someone else said you were. There you go, everyone just got a perma ban and no, one is left to play.

Nonesense.

eklhaftb16_ESO

A proof? More often than not, bots are extremely easy to spot even to an untrained eye. Not only they stay in the same area for hours upon hours, but they also act like they couldn't see what happens around them. For example, gathering bots will run all the way to the node even though it is empty, and they will stop there for a moment. Farming bots will often move around in zig-zag patterns checking for spawns in vicinity. All this should be perfectly obvious to anybody who checks the server log.

With all the logging going on, It's not like you have to catch them red-handed.

nnargun

How could you not mention bot trains? First time I saw one I couldn't believe my eyes and thought the dope was bad. Those are my favorite.

altemriel

Nighn_9 wrote: »

if that banned bots they would ban every big time trading guildmaster more than likely. Their the only players i know that would buy like 6+ accounts anyways

of course they should ban bot accounts, it should be really easy to track and identify a bot, doing the same identical movement paterns over and over


I think that in the tread about the permabans for the Asylum Sanctorium exploit, ZOS mentioned, that they are banning many bot accounts already, but I guess it is hard to ban all of them. you ban one and two new pop up

KingMagaw

Players are basically solely policing bots, that is why you see many threads daily being closed by ZOS trying to limit damage control of people seeing them )

That and a temp suspension for 3 days, letting them keep all the botted goods, is hardly a deterrent )

Colecovision

Honest question, not trying to be difficult. Is there enough Dreaux Wax to go around without the bots? I farm and craft and I still have to buy some here and there. Would each wax be 7k? Who does that help?

Zerok

Fleshreaper wrote: »

<sigh> Yes, yes, continue to complain about something that doesn't even affect you. There is one little problem that you seem to NOT understand. PROOF, let me say that again, slowly. P...R...O...O...F... You reported them, ZoS investigated and found NO PROOF, they were botting, No ban was issued. How would you like people to just report you for botting just because you got to a node before they did. And according to you, because someone reported you for botting, you just got banned. Without any proof that you were actually botting but just because someone else said you were. There you go, everyone just got a perma ban and no, one is left to play.

Surely you've never seen a bot doing its loop

SirAndy

eklhaftb16_ESO wrote: »

bots are extremely easy to spot even to an untrained eye

^^^ this ....

Anyone claiming otherwise has a pretty obvious agenda and should probably be investigated by ZOS as well.

Delimber

Colecovision wrote: »

Honest question, not trying to be difficult. Is there enough Dreaux Wax to go around without the bots? I farm and craft and I still have to buy some here and there. Would each wax be 7k? Who does that help?

There is plenty of Wax out there (sitting on almost 200 myself). Just a matter of finding a zone with a low population and farm, farm, farm.

kargen27

Colecovision wrote: »

Honest question, not trying to be difficult. Is there enough Dreaux Wax to go around without the bots? I farm and craft and I still have to buy some here and there. Would each wax be 7k? Who does that help?

If the bots weren't grabbing the goodies other people would be. Honest players tend to get frustrated and move on when they have to compete with a bot or two. Difference being the honest players may horde the goodies instead of offering them below market value.

Reverb

Botting is officially against the tos and verified reports may result in the account being banned. Ot more often than not, banning has no penalty, and reporting bots has no outcome.

JKorr

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

Not necessarily true.https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/4641553/#Comment_4641553

Hi everyone,

We completed the fix for this exploit on all servers this morning. As promised, we also checked for anyone who used this exploit over the weekend and have banned additional accounts. We have banned an additional 51 accounts for abusing this exploit as of today, for a total of 85 accounts.

Regarding the questions about botters and other types of cheaters, our Support team runs checks and dishes out bans daily. Your in-game reports greatly help us identify botters and cheaters, so please keep them coming. In cases where you believe someone is cheating in PvP (not botting), submitting a video of the behavior is also very helpful. We always investigate based on the reports we receive. If you have names of players who you believe are botting or cheating in order to mass-farm rare items, please be sure to report them in-game (again, screenshots are helpful.)


@ZOS_JessicaFolsom ; True that botters have no actions taken against their accounts and we shouldn't bother reporting them? Or is something done about the reports?

JKorr

Colecovision wrote: »

Honest question, not trying to be difficult. Is there enough Dreaux Wax to go around without the bots? I farm and craft and I still have to buy some here and there. Would each wax be 7k? Who does that help?

Yep. I get wax from hirelings, rewards from crafting writs, and from refining mats. I have about a half dozen alts that use medium or light, and I have enough wax to gold their armor with more than a bit left over. And I'm still doing writs, getting hireling mail and farming mats on an ongoing basis, so more wax, linings, embroidery, and hemming coming in....

jssriot

Colecovision wrote: »

Honest question, not trying to be difficult. Is there enough Dreaux Wax to go around without the bots? I farm and craft and I still have to buy some here and there. Would each wax be 7k? Who does that help?

Bots don't help the player economy. They only make it harder for honest players to compete and make gold themselves. It's why I almost never bother to sell raw mats or gold tempers. I have to compete with bot-runners who can fill their guild store slots up at prices that don't make to worth the time and effort I put into getting the exact same thing.

But the armies of bots continue, we all know where they farm (just a couple days ago I saw someone running a 5-toon bot train at Tears of the Dishonored in Alik'r and I see them every time I farm in Crag), and trade guild after trade guild I've been in have struggled to compete with the guilds that are heavy with bot-runners. People say ZOS is doing something about it, but the bots are still out there.

PSA: I had an issue a few weeks ago when farming in Deshaan when some dude started following me around from node to node. I suspected he was trying to report me for being a bot, even though I clearly wasn't (at one point, I stopped farming and followed HIM around and even swung my weapon at him). It was borderline harassment and I nearly reported the guy for it. Report toons you have good reason to think are bots, not just anyone out there farming where you want to farm. jfc, people.

SisterGoat

I've heard it was a 3-day ban on your first offense. I don't know if that's true, but that is surprising because every single other game I've played either had a month ban on first offense or a perma-ban.

ManwithBeard9

Make sure when you report suspected bots, include platform, server, location, and time on the ticket. And follow up with the ticket email if you feel like the issue is not resolved, i.e. you still see the SAME EXACT character.

Elsonso

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

What is the penalty for botting. A group of friends and I ran into a bot (over 690cp) running in loop attacking blood fiends one by one for over 8 hours. Same loop same rotation. We all reported him for botting and we found him in the same place doing the same thing a few days later. I thought the penalty for botting would be a permanent ban but I guess not. Is there even a penalty for botting?

As has been stated, permanent ban for the first offense. ("bots get nuked on the first offense")

That said, it does take them a while to get around to the reports, and the more reports there are the faster they will get around to them. So, tell us where this happened? Location and server?

Keep in mind that it takes less time for the botters to put a new bot into the game than it takes ZOS to remove that bot.

Rawkan

As in every other MMO they'll be banned but come back every time. As long as people are buying gold there will be bots. And just from a quick google search you can see that gold buying in ESO is live and well.

Nyghthowler

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

UnversedNumber3 wrote: »

nnargun wrote: »

No penalty.

I am really surprised by that.

There are myriads of threads about how no action has been taken after reporting botters. But of course it's against the rules. Sureee

It should be pretty easy. You ban them.

Yeah, works wonders. The game went B2P, the botter goes and buys a new copy of the game for cheap, creates a new account and starts again....

badmojo

Ever consider that ZOS might be performing surveillance on some reported bots? You know, watch them, see where the gold goes, see where the materials are funneled, see who trades with the bot, see what guild they join, etc.

If they instantly ban a bot, the bot master just starts up another account and finds a new location. But, if they wait for a couple weeks and then ban the bot, the botter wastes all that time and effort.

I'm not saying this is what ZOS does, just that it's a possibility.

Drummerx04

I'll go ahead and use this as another publicity post for my bot scanner addon (link in signature). Use it to report entire bot trains quickly and easily.