Dealing with cheaters...

SpireofSouls

I came across some mining bots, report it. Not sure if they are paying any attention to it. I am on PC-NA server, while my gf playing on PS4-NA. I remember seeing a lot of cheaters pack together killing wolves near deathclaw lair in Bleakfall Isle on PS4, when I was showing her things. Believe I report this over six months ago and they did nothing lol.

Those pack near deathclaw, is like 9-12 lightning form archers. Each one shooting out different directions pin down those wolves. Not sure what you going to gain from this, but can take months to level up those bow skills. I did report some of those characters, just too many I couldn't get all of them.

I noticed some players I spoken to noticed it and didn't like it at all. Some simply quit cause they aren't doing anything about it for so long.

So curious are they doing something about it? Cause I don't like it either, just isn't right. Most doesn't want to earn it and enjoy the game, rather ruin the gaming experience for others around them.

Dragonnord

Yes, ZOS bans them eventually. Just report them and continue with your daily stuff.
 

BNOC

They probably did do something, but it takes a lot less time to create a new account and run it to any of the farms to start again.

They just rubber band heavy attack and collect the scraps and then whoever is playing all of the accounts, periodically moves them individually.

Runkorko

SpireofSouls wrote: »

I came across some mining bots, report it. Not sure if they are paying any attention to it. I am on PC-NA server, while my gf playing on PS4-NA. I remember seeing a lot of cheaters pack together killing wolves near deathclaw lair in Bleakfall Isle on PS4, when I was showing her things. Believe I report this over six months ago and they did nothing lol.

Those pack near deathclaw, is like 9-12 lightning form archers. Each one shooting out different directions pin down those wolves. Not sure what you going to gain from this, but can take months to level up those bow skills. I did report some of those characters, just too many I couldn't get all of them.

I noticed some players I spoken to noticed it and didn't like it at all. Some simply quit cause they aren't doing anything about it for so long.

So curious are they doing something about it? Cause I don't like it either, just isn't right. Most doesn't want to earn it and enjoy the game, rather ruin the gaming experience for others around them.

You sure those are not just leveling players ? Lot of ppl level by killing mobs?
+ I dont see reason someone will risk with mining bots. Materials dont sell good. unless they farm Craglorn for nirn.
And yes, zos will ban them if you report and IF they use bots.

unclesheosnephew

I just threw her ass out. Sleeping with my own brother. The nerve of some women these days. oh wait wrong forum....

KerinKor

ZOS aren't doing anything about any of this as many, many posters here and elsewhere have complained about.

The starting zones are overrun with farming bots (often only mining as Jewelcraft opened up a whole new are for them to farm gold to sell), both new characters and also some with many hundreds of CPs all the way to 810; while some may be stolen accounts no way all are, clearly 810s have no fear of being banned for botting.

Then there's the botter's paradise dolmen in Bangkhorai, been like this for years and ZOS haven't done anything to stop them (I'd love to know how many 810s exist due to that one location); other places like a few delves have also been infested by botters your years.

The list goes on, ZOS patently don't care, they don't provide an EASY way to report them .. no, the 'report' option from the stupid 'radial menu' is hopeless for reporting speed-hacking/speed-boost-abusing bots .. and from my own personal experience of spending time to report over 20 bots in the last 2 months all but 2 are still there and I have no reason to believe those 2 were actually banned.

Square Enix publishes a monthly report of account bans in FFXIV .. not by name, simply by number .. and while the cynical may say we don't have proof of SE's actions I am not cynical about SE, even Blizzard report occasionally on bans .. ZOS in comparison have never even attempted to try to convince us they do anything about it.

On first release botting was out of control for weeks, ZOS were forced to find ways to kill off the flying bots, the underground bots, etc. due to the horrendously bad PR and YouTube videos showing trains of flying bots .. once that infestation was taken care of ZOS stopped bothering.

SpireofSouls

Alright that all I need to hear, gonna stop playing this and find something else to do.

Even my gf simply quit playing it on PS4 too, the hard parts for her is dealing with players that run up stealing her mining or harvest nodes and treasure chests she had to fight for. I told her you have to learn how to deal with it, but she fed up with it.

So we going to find another game to play together. Unfort her pc wont run ESO, tried upgrading several times, just wont run. We did tried playing together on PS4, but hard to communicate and I didn't like it, so rather play on PC instead.

Skwor

SpireofSouls wrote: »

Alright that all I need to hear, gonna stop playing this and find something else to do.

Not an unexpected answer. Unfortunately this is going to become much more prevalent.

Even the few bots I believe may have been banned have been unbanned several months later only to return to botting. Have the emails and screenshots to prove my reporting. All we ever get is a spam reply telling us to put the bots on ignore.

GreenhaloX

That bots crap has been going on for over 4 years now. No matter what day or the time of day, those bot farmers are there. I can return to the game weeks or months later and they are still there in those same spots and areas. They are more than just rubberbanders. There are like 8-10 or more low-level duplicate toons in unison actions, and there is always a single actual player/toon within the mess controlling the bots. Wtf.. people don't have anything better to do in life.. ha ha

stewhead2ub17_ESO

lol you're leaving over bots? Happy trails. You'll be back.

Kuramas9tails

Even when they are reported, I find it takes ZOS a while to ban them but then on top of it, the bot farmers make new accounts and go at it again.

The reason this is happening is because 3rd party sites sell items and gold for real money. As long as they have people who are buying from their 3rd party site, they will continue to sell. They do this to all sorts of games like WOW and FF(whatever number that one is). The only site I can think of at the top of my head is MMOcake but I am sure there are dozens if not hundreds of sites selling items on ESO. I wish there was a way to keep these guys banned.

Hearsay_

What exactly is wrong with botting for crafting materials?

TheShadowScout

Report 'em ALL.
Let ZOS sort 'em out.

Then move on. And yeah, sometimes it takes a while, so just report them again if you still see them the next day.

And yeah, we all wish ZOS had more GMs to pop the bots right away, so we can point at them and laugh in pure Schadenfreude... but alas, they are limited in their resources, and when making the choice to hire trustworthy GMs to partol the game or skilled developers to make a new expansion they choose latter.
C'est la vie.

Ramber

its against the rules for one thing. Second, how would you like to spend hours, even weeks farming for mats only to see the value of said mats go down so fast and hard that you don't make a profit on them. Right now ingots and wood are so cheap you can get stacks for 1k or less a few months atk they were 3k or more. When you see 1 person list 20 stacks at half mm price you know whatr im saying they are cutting the price for everyone. Is illegal and immoral enough Hearsay?

Hearsay_

Ramber wrote: »

its against the rules for one thing. Second, how would you like to spend hours, even weeks farming for mats only to see the value of said mats go down so fast and hard that you don't make a profit on them. Right now ingots and wood are so cheap you can get stacks for 1k or less a few months atk they were 3k or more. When you see 1 person list 20 stacks at half mm price you know whatr im saying they are cutting the price for everyone. Is illegal and immoral enough Hearsay?

Being against the rules I understand. As for the second point, I really wouldn't care. Cheap goods are good goods. Ain't nothing wrong with affordable prices, especially from a lowbie standpoint. If global prices are low then you need less money in the first place. Who wants to spend hours sitting at a computer, running from one node to the next? It's a waste of time, really. Besides, if you collect as you go about doing things, this never becomes an issue.

While I don't think it's immoral, I will agree that it is unethical. But man, it's also incredibly clever. Imagine starting up a barbeque and having a couple mates over for a few drinks, meanwhile your character is going to have all the materials you need to craft a nice set of armor. Sounds good to me.

32 zones in ESO and the bots are taking your nodes. Sounds like a joke.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not advocating for bots or their usage. I just think the sheer number of justice seekers out there is laughable. As if you lot follow all the rules all the time in all aspects of life. Because if you draw a line about right and wrong on a video game, you best be living by those standards in real life.

Androconium

unclesheosnephew wrote: »

I just threw her ass out. Sleeping with my own brother. The nerve of some women these days. oh wait wrong forum....

Your brother is better than nothing. Oh wait, wrong forum.

Skwor

Hearsay_ wrote: »

Ramber wrote: »

its against the rules for one thing. Second, how would you like to spend hours, even weeks farming for mats only to see the value of said mats go down so fast and hard that you don't make a profit on them. Right now ingots and wood are so cheap you can get stacks for 1k or less a few months atk they were 3k or more. When you see 1 person list 20 stacks at half mm price you know whatr im saying they are cutting the price for everyone. Is illegal and immoral enough Hearsay?

Being against the rules I understand. As for the second point, I really wouldn't care. Cheap goods are good goods. Ain't nothing wrong with affordable prices, especially from a lowbie standpoint. If global prices are low then you need less money in the first place. Who wants to spend hours sitting at a computer, running from one node to the next? It's a waste of time, really. Besides, if you collect as you go about doing things, this never becomes an issue.

While I don't think it's immoral, I will agree that it is unethical. But man, it's also incredibly clever. Imagine starting up a barbeque and having a couple mates over for a few drinks, meanwhile your character is going to have all the materials you need to craft a nice set of armor. Sounds good to me.

32 zones in ESO and the bots are taking your nodes. Sounds like a joke.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not advocating for bots or their usage. I just think the sheer number of justice seekers out there is laughable. As if you lot follow all the rules all the time in all aspects of life. Because if you draw a line about right and wrong on a video game, you best be living by those standards in real life.

It is a game. The game has rules and intended methods of play to provide all players with a fair and enjoyable experience.

Your claptrap is pure obfuscation. Using bots in an online game is no different than the banker in monopoly just giving himself money. Cheating is cheating. If you see it otherwise you are also the problem.

It is not laughable for any person to be upset when a game they paid to play allows cheating or fails to do enough to stop it.

Heyodude

you do know however once MMO's reach a certain limit of player capacity its actually bad to ban bots, as they account for the majority of materials farmed and re-purposed for the active player base. I like cornflower as much as the next tryhard but id rather buy a stack of pots a bot farmed. Rather than spend 2 days farming out 400 of those sparse Blue fudgers to supply my weekend raiding schedule. Just food for thought.

Skwor

Heyodude wrote: »

you do know however once MMO's reach a certain limit of player capacity its actually bad to ban bots, as they account for the majority of materials farmed and re-purposed for the active player base. I like cornflower as much as the next tryhard but id rather buy a stack of pots a bot farmed. Rather than spend 2 days farming out 400 of those sparse Blue fudgers to supply my weekend raiding schedule. Just food for thought.

Total garbage. The output of nods can be adjusted to address such an issue.

All you are doing is justifying cheating, there is no good reason to allow anyone to have such an advantage over another.

Van_Winkle

Guys. No one ban cheaters in ESO. Especially in PvP. And bots too.

starkerealm

unclesheosnephew wrote: »

I just threw her ass out. Sleeping with my own brother. The nerve of some women these days. oh wait wrong forum....

jircris11

SpireofSouls wrote: »

I came across some mining bots, report it. Not sure if they are paying any attention to it. I am on PC-NA server, while my gf playing on PS4-NA. I remember seeing a lot of cheaters pack together killing wolves near deathclaw lair in Bleakfall Isle on PS4, when I was showing her things. Believe I report this over six months ago and they did nothing lol.

Those pack near deathclaw, is like 9-12 lightning form archers. Each one shooting out different directions pin down those wolves. Not sure what you going to gain from this, but can take months to level up those bow skills. I did report some of those characters, just too many I couldn't get all of them.

I noticed some players I spoken to noticed it and didn't like it at all. Some simply quit cause they aren't doing anything about it for so long.

So curious are they doing something about it? Cause I don't like it either, just isn't right. Most doesn't want to earn it and enjoy the game, rather ruin the gaming experience for others around them.

The thing people don't seem to understand is when you ban a bit another takes its place. Botters use VPN so they are harder to IP ban.

SirLeeMinion

SpireofSouls wrote: »

...Even my gf simply quit playing it on PS4 too, the hard parts for her is dealing with players that run up stealing her mining or harvest nodes and treasure chests she had to fight for. I told her you have to learn how to deal with it, but she fed up with it. So we going to find another game to play together. Unfort her pc wont run ESO...

While every MMORPG has botters, if players stealing your nodes and chests is a core issue, consider Guild Wars 2. Resource nodes are unique to each player and cannot be stolen. It also seems to run pretty well on low-end machines. In truth, though, I run ESO on a business laptop with no graphics card. I have to set the video to "black and white & stick figures," but it works okay.

Reverb

Regarding bots, we all know zeni doesn’t really care enough to take action. They will make a halfassed showing every now and then, but don’t make any real or ongoing effort to combat them. There’s no sense in getting worked up over it.

Heyodude

Skwor wrote: »

Heyodude wrote: »

you do know however once MMO's reach a certain limit of player capacity its actually bad to ban bots, as they account for the majority of materials farmed and re-purposed for the active player base. I like cornflower as much as the next tryhard but id rather buy a stack of pots a bot farmed. Rather than spend 2 days farming out 400 of those sparse Blue fudgers to supply my weekend raiding schedule. Just food for thought.

Total garbage. The output of nods can be adjusted to address such an issue.

All you are doing is justifying cheating, there is no good reason to allow anyone to have such an advantage over another.

lol you increase the nodes, accounts increase their bots accordingly, the node count at eso year one was significantly higher, static nodes. and so was the bot problem.

You dont have to like it, but its true, Other MMO developers have actually capitalized their bots by making them legal only if those respective accounts pay the game a premium for the privilege. Every MMOs population encounters this problem and take one of two options, either the above mentioned scheme, the other being a purely optics win of minimal effort addressing the problem. Otherwise combating bots would require a *** ton of money as a group of 30 or so developers vs limited up to theoretically the real worlds population.

Now assign a dollar invested to rooting out and deleting every in game bot, thats a dollar you dont get back, however the bots are infinite, your ledgers wont hold up against that type of commitment.

Skwor

Heyodude wrote: »

Skwor wrote: »

Heyodude wrote: »

you do know however once MMO's reach a certain limit of player capacity its actually bad to ban bots, as they account for the majority of materials farmed and re-purposed for the active player base. I like cornflower as much as the next tryhard but id rather buy a stack of pots a bot farmed. Rather than spend 2 days farming out 400 of those sparse Blue fudgers to supply my weekend raiding schedule. Just food for thought.

Total garbage. The output of nods can be adjusted to address such an issue.

All you are doing is justifying cheating, there is no good reason to allow anyone to have such an advantage over another.

lol you increase the nodes, accounts increase their bots accordingly, the node count at eso year one was significantly higher, static nodes. and so was the bot problem.

You dont have to like it, but its true, Other MMO developers have actually capitalized their bots by making them legal only if those respective accounts pay the game a premium for the privilege. Every MMOs population encounters this problem and take one of two options, either the above mentioned scheme, the other being a purely optics win of minimal effort addressing the problem. Otherwise combating bots would require a *** ton of money as a group of 30 or so developers vs limited up to theoretically the real worlds population.

Now assign a dollar invested to rooting out and deleting every in game bot, thats a dollar you dont get back, however the bots are infinite, your ledgers wont hold up against that type of commitment.

You are attempting to change your whole premise now which was we need bots in a large MMO to supply raw resources.

Obviously that is not the case otherwise your above post would have refuted mine based on that premise instead of now claiming we have to live with it becuase "really" bots are to hard to stop.

First no they are not. Second it is pointless to engage any further with you as you have demonstrated you cannot even debate your own reasoning and instead resort to changing you whole argumeny mid discussion. I woul quote the logical fallacy you employed but honestly I am tired of pointing those out on these forums they gave become so abundent.

Casul

In those cases they are definitely bots so just report them and move on. But I will say not everyone is a bot. I like to farm a single resource node while I'm studying for classes so I can still make some progress while I'm not playing. I still hit the button myself so there's no script etc but I have been accused of botting once while doing that.

Grimm13

jircris11 wrote: »

SpireofSouls wrote: »

I came across some mining bots, report it. Not sure if they are paying any attention to it. I am on PC-NA server, while my gf playing on PS4-NA. I remember seeing a lot of cheaters pack together killing wolves near deathclaw lair in Bleakfall Isle on PS4, when I was showing her things. Believe I report this over six months ago and they did nothing lol.

Those pack near deathclaw, is like 9-12 lightning form archers. Each one shooting out different directions pin down those wolves. Not sure what you going to gain from this, but can take months to level up those bow skills. I did report some of those characters, just too many I couldn't get all of them.

I noticed some players I spoken to noticed it and didn't like it at all. Some simply quit cause they aren't doing anything about it for so long.

So curious are they doing something about it? Cause I don't like it either, just isn't right. Most doesn't want to earn it and enjoy the game, rather ruin the gaming experience for others around them.

The thing people don't seem to understand is when you ban a bit another takes its place. Botters use VPN so they are harder to IP ban.

The proper way Dev's handle this is to permanently ban the accounts. Many of the accounts are gained by illicit means. Permanently removing the accounts from games quickly (not taking months) does more to combat the problem. Tracking the transactions of the banned accounts to see where they transferred the items and gold, then ban them as well.

Keeping players informed of bans gives confidence in their game. Staying silent tells the players that the Dev's play lip service to the rules and support the gold sellers by inaction. Game populations of real players dwindle and in time become eclipsed by the bot populations. Having a number of accounts means nothing when a good portion are bots.

Jagdkommando

Bots aren't so bad, cuz more bots we have, less the prices will be for us, and less manual work.

cynicalbutterfly

In my experience as a former botter, not on this game of course, most do it for the ease. Hardest part is setting up the botting characters. Like someone has already said, it's harder for the game dev's to completely get rid of the problem. Ban one account and the botter will just make another. To stop it, they would literally have to block the program being used and even then, there's no guarentee it won't be reprogramed to hack back into the game. From my previous experience, every update the game made there would be an update for the bot program.

Compared to the other game, ESO is millions times better at weeding out botters. As long as you keep reporting, they can work on finding a better solution. Just going to take time.

And for your curiosity, I botted to level up characters. It wasn't about getting the money for me. Although, I would occasionally bot for materials. For my own use, I very rarely sold anything I got from botting, or I would give the materials away as well. But not everyone is as nice as me lol

Skwor

Jagdkommando wrote: »

Bots aren't so bad, cuz more bots we have, less the prices will be for us, and less manual work.

You are wrong becuase bots are used to create gold and sell it. The more they sell gold the higher inflation. The higher inflation the more everything cost. So no things do not get cheaper with bots.

Which by the way botters try to force inflation because then they can sell more gold. Farm bots are never a good thing in an mmo.