Does eso support botting?

Bealeb319

You can barely harvest in any of the decent spots anymore because they are over run by bots. When you report them nothing happens. The bots are getting more advanced and becoming overwhelming in areas. Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

commodore64

Bealeb319 wrote: »

You can barely harvest in any of the decent spots anymore because they are over run by bots. When you report them nothing happens. The bots are getting more advanced and becoming overwhelming in areas. Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

Oh probably. Seems like the most rational explanation.

VaranisArano

No, ESO doesn't.

That doesnt mean they are removed as often or as promptly as players would like.

The Devs are adamant that the best way to deal with them is for players to report them. What I've noticed from past times when players reported bots is that ZOS tends to collect reports and then sweep through banning bots en masse rather than responding to individual reports. And unfortunately, even when ZOS bans the bots, there are new bots back in the same place within a couple of days.

Dealing with bots is a little like the man tossing starfish washed up by the tide. "Made a difference to that one!"...but because of the persistence of botters, the task is Sisphyean.

BNOC

The most rational explanation is that they are being removed, but it's a hell of a lot quicker to create a new level 3 and have it travel to one of these zones, than the process of reporting -> report acknowledgement -> bot confirmation -> bot removal.

This would be harder if they imposed a level limit on collecting resources.

If you had to be level 50 before you could collect nodes, that would curb them slighlty, or at least, slow them down, but alas, new players wouldn't be able to collect iron - I personally think it's a good trade off.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

I'm often unsure if I see a bot, or if I see a person farming.

Thorntongue

OP, I know what you are talking about, but...They are paying customers. That is why nothing is done. At least we get those resource maps in daily's...sometimes. Best advice is to try a different zone, that might help sometimes.

Skwor

VaranisArano wrote: »

No, ESO doesn't.

That doesnt mean they are removed as often or as promptly as players would like.

The Devs are adamant that the best way to deal with them is for players to report them. What I've noticed from past times when players reported bots is that ZOS tends to collect reports and then sweep through banning bots en masse rather than responding to individual reports. And unfortunately, even when ZOS bans the bots, there are new bots back in the same place within a couple of days.

Dealing with bots is a little like the man tossing starfish washed up by the tide. "Made a difference to that one!"...but because of the persistence of botters, the task is Sisphyean.

Please stop making excuses for Zen on the bot issue. It could be dealt with much more effectively and done so with reasonable financial resources but they chose not to.

I like ESO ALOT and believe the developers do a great job on this game but the bot issue is one area they are not effectively addressing.

I have the screenshots and emails of bots reported for years, the very same bots have disappeared only to return even years later.

There are code solutions for botting programs but for whatever reason none are used. Also they typically do not appear to perma ban a proven bot account, only temporarily, which mystifies me.

Even worse, when you report a bot you get a canned email reply which tells you to just ignore the player and then says unless you respond back within 96 hours the issue will be considered closed. That is hardly a response that indicates they take the bots seriously!

VaranisArano

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

I'm often unsure if I see a bot, or if I see a person farming.

Here's how I tell the difference:

When its a single person, I look at their path.
Are they making right angle turns? That's a really good sign of a bot.
Do they stop at every single node spot...even after I've run in front of them and taken the node(s)? That's an excellent sign of a bot, as any real player would adjust their path rather than running to an empty spot, often to several empty spots!
Do they ever deviate from their set farming path? I've followed real players and even on my own farming paths, we're constantly deviating, pausing, and reacting to things like some weirdo following us around. Its quickly obvious when its a real player, because bots don't.
Finally, if you want to be sure, whisper or use /say to say something about reporting bots.

If the bot is standing still and harvesting the node as soon as it pops up, you can test that with the Questionable Meat Sack. Bots will pick it up automatically multiple times, while a real player would catch on.

In a group, bots are extremely obvious due to their tight coordination, running along the exact same pathing, and right angle turns. My PVP raid leads would kill for that type of coordination.

Donny_Vito

Support? No.

Advocate against? No, as well.

It's just something you have to deal with. Don't waste your energy and precious time following around suspected bots to report them. You have much better things to do with your time that will actually be rewarding.

Blinkin8r

VaranisArano wrote: »

No, ESO doesn't.

That doesnt mean they are removed as often or as promptly as players would like.

Lol. Or ever.

mairwen85

Technically, yes. The game as a platform supports botting because you can programmatically interact with it via rpa tooling, scripting and other automation.

Officially, no. Terms of usage are against it and doing so is prohibited by the game studio.

In terms of actual action taken, I cant comment because I rarely see any action taken - - zos being non transparent and never feeding back on reports means all follow up stays with them.

But I doubt they leave rampant botting for the reasons you mention. That's too nefarious.

VaranisArano

Blinkin8r wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

No, ESO doesn't.

That doesnt mean they are removed as often or as promptly as players would like.

Lol. Or ever.

I don't know your platform or your experience, but every time I've reported bots over a period of a couple days, they've eventually been removed. Usually it took about a week. Once I even got to watch a Gamemaster nuke the bot train farming harpies in Rivenspire. I told him he missed a bot and he took care of it.

And without fail, within a couple days, a new bot or bot train was back.

So in my experience, what I said is true. ZOS does remove bots, but it's definitely not as quickly or as often as I'd like.

Trinity_Is_My_Name

For PC there is an Addon called Bot Scanner 2000. It has not been updated recently but it still works quite well.

I make it a point to go to the Bot Spots every day and report them. I also use OBS to record the Bot trains and attach a link of the video to my Customer Support tickets.

For the past few months I have been monitoring three Bot Trains: One in Alikr, one in Auridon and one in the Rift. The Rift Bots are still there but they are a relatively new Bot train of only a few weeks. The Alikr Bots have been removed but new Bots are there now but only three atm.. The Auridon Bots in Glister Vale are the worst. Glister Vale is isolated and not many Players go there so it's primed and ready for Bots. The Adds pop up very quickly so the Bots just cruise around the building there and keep harvesting.

I have seen the Glister Vale Bots removed rather quickly but since it is isolated the Bot owners replace the banned Bots and the Bot train continues.

It may not seem as if ZOS cares about removing the Bots but they do. It takes time unfortunately. It's not like the early days of ESO when a ZOS Gamemaster would pop in and instantly ban the Bots. Miss those days!

For reporting on Consoles it will be much more difficult because these Bots have names like w234jjfalkj3098u or something similar to make it hard to report them. For PC as I wrote earlier it is easier by using Bot Scanner 2000. You scan the Bots as they go by and all the data is filled in the Customer Support Ticket for you.

Zalicius

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Support? No.

Advocate against? No, as well.

It's just something you have to deal with. Don't waste your energy and precious time following around suspected bots to report them. You have much better things to do with your time that will actually be rewarding.

Says the botter apparently. It's in the EULA and yes, report bots every chance you get.

Part 4 Section C of the ESO EULA:

In addition to the restrictions, conditions and limitations set forth in the ZeniMax Terms of Service and the ZeniMax Code of Conduct, the license granted to you in this Agreement is subject to the conditions, restrictions and limitations set forth in Sections 1, 2, and this Section 4 of this Agreement (collectively, the "License Limitations"). Any use of the Game in violation of the License Limitations will be regarded as an infringement of ZeniMax's copyrights in and to the Game and will be a breach of this Agreement. You agree that you will not and will not assist any other person, under any circumstances:

C. use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the Game or adversely impact any other persons playing of the Game or his/her experience of playing the Game;

redlink1979

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

I'm often unsure if I see a bot, or if I see a person farming.

Bots farm in groups 6-8 chars at least. They use the same spots over and over. That's what I've seen until now in all of my ESO years.

redlink1979

Trinity_Is_My_Name wrote: »

For reporting on Consoles it will be much more difficult because these Bots have names like w234jjfalkj3098u or something similar to make it hard to report them.

Bigger problem to report on consoles is that you don't report the account, you report the char.
It would be simpler and faster to report the account rather than the chars being used.
Last time I was in Alik'r (2 days ago), one account was running 8 bots a bit west of the blacksmith survey report location (this is a recurrent spot for farming bots).Had to report chars one by one because I can't report the account id.

Pevey

Bot trains are easier to spot and for zos to deal with. They are obviously coordinated and automated. Individual bots are harder because zos has to give benefit of any doubt. I know two people who have been reported as bots who were not bots. One was farming mammoths in the rift trying to get the mister trophy achievement. The other was farming a single mob or mud crabs while reading a book. Both of these are not against the tos in any way, but some do-gooder reported them. And with harvest map, yeah, you often see toons run to a node that has already been harvested. I do this myself.

SickleCider

There's currently an epidemic in Bleakrock on PS4 NA. These accounts are easy to spot. Both character names and PSN handles are comprised of random strings of characters. They all wear the prisoner's garb, and they are followed by a scamp or, occasionally, a clannfear, to stave off the wolves. They revisit the same nodes, and occasionally pull out their map. What's interesting is that I've managed to provoke a human reaction out of one or two of them, so there must be a few of these that are actually being manned by someone. My take is that some of them are bots and others are paid employees in some gold selling scheme.

Ardaghion

redlink1979 wrote: »

Trinity_Is_My_Name wrote: »

For reporting on Consoles it will be much more difficult because these Bots have names like w234jjfalkj3098u or something similar to make it hard to report them.

Bigger problem to report on consoles is that you don't report the account, you report the char.
It would be simpler and faster to report the account rather than the chars being used.
Last time I was in Alik'r (2 days ago), one account was running 8 bots a bit west of the blacksmith survey report location (this is a recurrent spot for farming bots).Had to report chars one by one because I can't report the account id.

It takes a bit longer but I report the character to ZOS and report the player to Microsoft.

Donny_Vito

Zalicius wrote: »

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Support? No.

Advocate against? No, as well.

It's just something you have to deal with. Don't waste your energy and precious time following around suspected bots to report them. You have much better things to do with your time that will actually be rewarding.

Says the botter apparently. It's in the EULA and yes, report bots every chance you get.

Part 4 Section C of the ESO EULA:

In addition to the restrictions, conditions and limitations set forth in the ZeniMax Terms of Service and the ZeniMax Code of Conduct, the license granted to you in this Agreement is subject to the conditions, restrictions and limitations set forth in Sections 1, 2, and this Section 4 of this Agreement (collectively, the "License Limitations"). Any use of the Game in violation of the License Limitations will be regarded as an infringement of ZeniMax's copyrights in and to the Game and will be a breach of this Agreement. You agree that you will not and will not assist any other person, under any circumstances:

C. use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the Game or adversely impact any other persons playing of the Game or his/her experience of playing the Game;

Lol no, this is coming from someone who has better tasks to accomplish. For most of us, we have a couple hours to play everyday because of our careers and personal responsibilities. So when we log in, we want to feel like we're accomplishing something. If the OP is like a majority of these gamers, then please take my advice because you're just going to burn time trying to report someone that can remake that account 10x faster than it takes to get them banned.

But by all means, if you play ESO all day and you have the time to spare then go on reporting people.


And it's like trying to make a civil complaint about someone that you saw speeding down the highway. It's ridiculous, and you'll get told "leave that to the cops because that's there job." Same thing here. You don't need to waste your limited time trying to do the job for ZoS, leave it to them.

mzprx

VaranisArano wrote: »

Blinkin8r wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

No, ESO doesn't.

That doesnt mean they are removed as often or as promptly as players would like.

Lol. Or ever.

I don't know your platform or your experience, but every time I've reported bots over a period of a couple days, they've eventually been removed. Usually it took about a week. Once I even got to watch a Gamemaster nuke the bot train farming harpies in Rivenspire. I told him he missed a bot and he took care of it.

And without fail, within a couple days, a new bot or bot train was back.

So in my experience, what I said is true. ZOS does remove bots, but it's definitely not as quickly or as often as I'd like.

this is my experience with ZOS and bots (this is PC EU, i use a gamepad) -

10. Nov. 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwB8R_rSvU8

11. Dec. 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qw-fPlNAcQ

it is the very same bot. and it is still active. if i could post their name you folks could check it yourself..

the backstory is that i saw this fellow botting at Myrkwasa dolmen casting heals through the rock there. i reported and forgot about it. couple of days later i met the same bot doing the same thing. i reported the situation again, invited other players around to do the same. some of them did, some of them didn't. next day it was the same story, so i asked my guildmates to report that bot. over 30 of them came to the dolmen, saw and reported it. this procedure was repeated for over 2 weeks every day (that bot was there 24/7). 30+ players reporting it every day..

over a year later i happened to pass the dolmen again.and guess who i met? so i sent both videos to ZOS. again, if i could post the name of that bot you would see that nothing has been done about it. by the way, that bot has managed to reach CP 810 by botting at that dolmen (Myrkwasa). and still happily plays the game. i met that botter several times in Grathwood. actually and i still do, at least once a week. you can draw your own conclusion about ZOS and bots (hint - they don't care, bots are paying customers after all)..

Master_Fluff

I'm still waiting for the day when a player of this game asks the ZOS staff at one of the annual events where they meet us players why the &¤%¤#&#%& they suck so bad at banning the botters. Preferably during a live broadcast so they can't weasle their way out of answering.

Elsonso

VaranisArano wrote: »

ZOS does remove bots, but it's definitely not as quickly or as often as I'd like.

My experience, as well. It takes ZOS days to get around to handling a bot, if they handle it. Meanwhile, it probably takes hours for the botters to thaw out a new bot and place it in the game. At this point, I expect that most botters consider ZOS to be a minor annoyance.

SirAndy

Bealeb319 wrote: »

Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

Just one single in-game GM hopping platforms, wielding a large bot banning hammer for 8 hours a day would be enough to get rid of that plague in less than a month.

As you already stated, it's not a technical problem, it's a monetary problem ...

Elsonso

SirAndy wrote: »

Bealeb319 wrote: »

Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

Just one single in-game GM hopping platforms, wielding a large bot banning hammer for 8 hours a day would be enough to get rid of that plague in less than a month.

As you already stated, it's not a technical problem, it's a monetary problem ...

Seriously? We are still sticking to that? The only reason that might work is like the cop sitting on the side of the road. People think they will get in trouble. If the botters decide that this is just more "business expense", that poor GM would have a life-long job. Figuratively speaking. It would take that GM longer to make one full circuit of the game with the ban hammer than it would for the botters to set up their next set of bots and get them started. At the end of the month, there would probably be the same number of bots in the game.

Skwor

lordrichter wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Bealeb319 wrote: »

Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

Just one single in-game GM hopping platforms, wielding a large bot banning hammer for 8 hours a day would be enough to get rid of that plague in less than a month.

As you already stated, it's not a technical problem, it's a monetary problem ...

Seriously? We are still sticking to that? The only reason that might work is like the cop sitting on the side of the road. People think they will get in trouble. If the botters decide that this is just more "business expense", that poor GM would have a life-long job. Figuratively speaking. It would take that GM longer to make one full circuit of the game with the ban hammer than it would for the botters to set up their next set of bots and get them started. At the end of the month, there would probably be the same number of bots in the game.

First that should only be part of the answer and it should be a permenant account ban.

Second there are software / coding solutions that can deal with the majority of botting but Zen seems to want nothing to do with that.

Urigall

A small part of dodgy, online transactions might be more than just a sideline. This has been officially recognised since at least 2013 (UNODC published a paper on the subject that year) Whether bots are part of the dodgier stuff is a moot point. The possibility that they MIGHT be means ZoS has to do whatever they can to harden their systems against abuse.

There is no way on earth that ZoS would support botting. None.

And keeping the bots down is like playing whack-a-mole.

SirAndy

lordrichter wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Bealeb319 wrote: »

Are they permitted to stay around because they indirectly boost crown sales of what is the reasoning for allowing it?

Just one single in-game GM hopping platforms, wielding a large bot banning hammer for 8 hours a day would be enough to get rid of that plague in less than a month.
As you already stated, it's not a technical problem, it's a monetary problem ...

Seriously? We are still sticking to that? The only reason that might work is like the cop sitting on the side of the road. People think they will get in trouble. If the botters decide that this is just more "business expense", that poor GM would have a life-long job. Figuratively speaking. It would take that GM longer to make one full circuit of the game with the ban hammer than it would for the botters to set up their next set of bots and get them started. At the end of the month, there would probably be the same number of bots in the game.

Were you here when we actually had in-game GMs? Because they were effective.

There's no reason why ZOS can't get a couple of interns to whack bots for a week each and cover the whole month.
Rinse and repeat.

It's a calculated business decision by ZOS to NOT deal with bots. All you need to do now is ask yourself why that is.

Mettaricana

Would help if a single member of zos knew what a login button was before they start controlling bot population...

Veinblood1965

Don't the bots have to be on an actual ESO account?

If so is ZOS banning or deleting the account?

If the account is banned new bots just popping back up the next day seems like it would be expensive if ZOS just spent a few weeks going in each day and banning over and over. It feels like the bots are not account linked to be repeatedly popping eight back up.

Hallothiel

As said above is harder on consoles as cant link pic to in-game report, & the accounts & character names are long strings of letters & numbers - did start go write them all down once but then ran out of space in text box.

Would be a lot simpler to report if could just send screen shot.