Scripted/sophisticated botting occurring on PS4 NA

Aurielle

Not content with the standard “stand in front of node and press x” botting, the vermin have upped their game. I have video proof (which I can’t post here, for fear of naming and shaming) of various low level bot accounts running on Bleakrock Isle at the moment, all with gibberish names and starter gear. They run about in an intricate (but ultimately set) pattern to several nodes in a small area, pausing to look at their maps for barely a fraction of a second (always at the exact same spot every time). They are programmed to look like “real” players, but are in actual fact bots. I assume they are using macro controllers/keyboards.

Happy reporting!

RouDeR

Macro has nothing to do with the modern botting.

Aurielle

RouDeR wrote: »

Macro has nothing to do with the modern botting.

Care to expand? This isn’t PC, so don’t tell me they’re using a botting program.

mairwen85

Aurielle wrote: »

RouDeR wrote: »

Macro has nothing to do with the modern botting.

Care to expand? This isn’t PC, so don’t tell me they’re using a botting program.

Consoles nowadays are just preboxed desktop computers. They can be modified in much the same way... They can be opened up and messed with, and controllers can be replaced with preprogrammed raberry pi or other configurable mini devices. Scripts and RPA tools can handle the rest from a connected system. Seeing as botting, gold and account selling are big business, there is no reason to believe there aren't basements or offices stacked with modded consoles and switches running orchestration off an automation server. The days of humans stuffed into dark rooms running these things have been over for many years.

Aurielle

mairwen85 wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

RouDeR wrote: »

Macro has nothing to do with the modern botting.

Care to expand? This isn’t PC, so don’t tell me they’re using a botting program.

Consoles nowadays are just preboxed desktop computers. They can be modified in much the same way... They can be opened up and messed with, and controllers can be replaced with preprogrammed raberry pi or other configurable mini devices. Scripts and RPA tools can handle the rest from a connected system. Seeing as botting, gold and account selling are big business, there is no reason to believe there aren't basements or offices stacked with modded consoles and switches running orchestration off an automation server. The days of humans stuffed into dark rooms running these things have been over for many years.

Fair enough. I don’t know a whole lot about botting (besides how to recognize it when I see it), so as my OP said, it was merely an assumption that they were using modded/macro controllers/keyboards.

Either way, it’s super frustrating.

mairwen85

It's a side effect of tech progress. The software company I work for provides a business automation suite for robotic process automation of back office and administration tasks. There is no repetitive, multi gui task the software robots can't replicate, even judgement calls and decisions can be programmed as long as they have set conditions. The more self sufficient and sophisticated technology becomes, the easier it is to automate. I have no doubt that an organised crime element factors into much of the botting in games, and in that case, the resources and capability are available to factory scale implement. The simpler bots could be controller taping, or individual hacks, but the scale were seeing on xbox and PS4 currently... No other way than industrial, organised and managed.

And, yeah, incredibly frustrating 😤

Aurielle

mairwen85 wrote: »

It's a side effect of tech progress. The software company I work for provides a business automation suite for robotic process automation of back office and administration tasks. There is no repetitive, multi gui task the software robots can't replicate, even judgement calls and decisions can be programmed as long as they have set conditions. The more self sufficient and sophisticated technology becomes, the easier it is to automate. I have no doubt that an organised crime element factors into much of the botting in games, and in that case, the resources and capability are available to factory scale implement. The simpler bots could be controller taping, or individual hacks, but the scale were seeing on xbox and PS4 currently... No other way than industrial, organised and managed.

And, yeah, incredibly frustrating 😤

All very illuminating for sure, and it would definitely explain the level of sophisticated botting I’m increasingly witnessing in the game. Long gone are the days of pulling bots away from nodes with mementos... one of the bots I followed JUMPED through a gap between a wall and a tree. I had to watch it do so twice (in the same location, in the exact same way) to verify that it WAS in fact a bot, because I’ve never seen a bot jump like that before.

FlopsyPrince

I wondered why they were bothering to open their map.

I would think they could note this automated behavior fairly easily. I won't waste any time reporting them in the future then.

Aurielle

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I wondered why they were bothering to open their map.

I would think they could note this automated behavior fairly easily. I won't waste any time reporting them in the future then.

Me too. It throws you off at first, as you might mistake them for a real player if you’re not looking closely. The fact that they’re taking further steps to appear “real” suggests to me that either ZOS *is* trying to do something about them, or our efforts to lure them away from nodes with mementos has forced the bot runners to up their game.

xxthir13enxx

PS4 has a Remote Play function that allows you to play PS4 on a PC...and so from there....

MLGProPlayer

Welcome to Bot Scrolls Online, where not even the console plebs are safe.

Onefrkncrzypope

They are probably scripted using a PS4 controller spoof program on PC remote play.

russelmmendoza

It just sucks because they are rampant now on every platform.
I see them and I just dont bother anymore.
It will take months of reporting before action is taken against them, according to people who actually reports them.
I just get on my quest and shrug a shoulder.

Aurielle

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Welcome to Bot Scrolls Online, where not even the console plebs are safe.

“Elder Bots Online” would be the more appropriate joke, especially considering that some of them have been here for years without getting banned.

ApostateHobo

Sony needs to fix it's report options so they can actually do something about this themselves since this all against their ToS and would result in instant bans for all these accounts.

mairwen85

Where does the responsibility lie with console, though? Because I report to Microsoft and ZOS, the result is the same... Nothing much happens. Are they just juggling, read shirking, responsibility?

MS used to take a really hard line with bots, spam and message bots random follows etc, they'd usually get closed down in a few days if you reported them. I've seen Pubg bots booted in a few hours. What makes ESO bots so different?