Suggestion for Deterring Bots

trell

I've been thinking on how to further deal with bots. I think it would be more efficient to let the players directly challenge and flag bots rather than waiting for ZOS to be alerted. We should reward players for finding bots and give those accidentally accused a gift for taking up their time, all the while keeping with the flow of the game. Here is my suggestion.

Create a no cost, AOE spell that can be slotted like siege equipment and potions. Call it something interesting like "Daedric Exorcism". Make the targeting similar to how the yellow circle marks where you're trying to set up siege equipment. Every player learns this spell early on.

Set a daily limit on usage. Five casts a day should be more than sufficient. The spell can also be disabled if the suspected bot is currently in combat or some other critical action.

When you spot a potential bot or group of bots hit them with the spell.

Every character in the circle will separated from any others and challenged to prove they're not a bot. My thought is to teleport them to a circle of Meridia's priests who inform the character that Molag Bal is attempting to possess them and by performing a simple, random ritual they can save themselves. Perhaps pressing 3 out of 4 buttons in the right order. Success puts you back where the spell first hit you. Two fails, porting out, or quitting the game flags you as possessed (i.e. you're a bot). ZOS can then auto-ban them or perform an additional bot test.

If the person has proven that they're not a bot then they are immune from being affected by the spell for the next month. In addition, they are gifted with a character bound, 50% experience scroll (Oops, sorry, no hard feelings...). A temporary "Blessing of Meridia" could also be implemented.

Players can be rewarded for finding bots by receiving a similar bound item for every ten bots successfully discovered. Just to deter false accusations every failed accusation results in the spell being unusable for a cool-down period.

Viable?

Tandor

The day other players can interfere in my gaming as some sort of "TOS Player Police" is the day I give up gaming.

Did the phrase "open to abuse" not occur to you when coming up with this?

LoneStar2911

Companies make money off of bots.
They only get rid of some every once in a while to try to appease the rest of the game's community.
Plus, gamers can get something positive out of it, too. Bots keep farmable material prices low.
Those that want to make gold through farming herbs, wood, ore, etc may disagree, though.

Personally, I'm all for getting rid of bots. But there's many sides to it that others may not have considered.

Raisin

Not sure this is the ideal solution. Though I understand the idea behind it, I don't think it's realistic. Imagine throwing that into a ball group...
But I do like the idea of Meridian holding you hostage and making you solve a captcha. Seems like something she'd do.

TigressCreed

Problem with this is it would make trolls walk around targeting five random players everyday to ruin their game time. Imagine every zone you went into someone did that to you. Would make the game unplayable.

Starlock

Nah, they just need a better reporting tool.

It boggles my mind that there isn't an option for "botting" when reporting a player.

Nestor

Bots don't subscribe, the company barely makes squat on them. On Consoles, the accounts generate 0 revenue for the company once past the initial purchase.

Post a bunch of threads on the board and embarras ZOS into dedicating some staff to rooting them out. They have all the numbers, they can see who is acting like a bot based on items gathered. Things will get better.

For a while.

As the staff is tasked to something else. Then the bots come back.

Ackwalan

And people thought mudballs were bothersome. Imagine some do gooder noob running around challanging folks for minding their own business.

ArchangelIsraphel

No.

In a very old game called Mabinogi, there was once a system in place where players could "Bot bomb" other characters, forcing your character to then become locked in a mini-game which they had to play correctly in order to get out and avoid being temporarily auto-banned. I cannot recall the exact conditions of the game, but it was a puzzle on a very short timer, and very confusing, especially to someone new who had never seen it before. It didn't matter if you were attempting to solve it. You got it wrong, you got flagged and temp-banned.

The system was horrible. I had a friend who was completely new to the game get bot bommed several times as he was trying to do quests, simply because he did not respond to the strange and abusive things people were shouting at him because they assumed, seeing that he didn't yet have fancy clothes, that he was a bot. He didn't understand that they were talking to him (Or that bots were a thing, since we were young and this was our very first MMORPG) and as a result his account was banned several times for nothing. Sometimes people didn't even speak to him, they'd just bomb him because he wasn't wearing a costume and was still in newbie wear.

People mistaking new people for bots can and will happen with a system like this, either because people will assume and outright jump them, because they want to troll, or because they are not getting what they want out of someone. People can't even restrain themselves from assassinating an NPC you're trying to pickpocket because they're too impatient to wait their turn. I wouldn't trust them the least bit with something like this.

kargen27

What is needed is an easier way to report possible bots. That only works though if the company follows up on the reports. I have no idea how aggressive ZOS is at chasing down and removing bots.

Acrolas

If you suspect a bot... put in a support ticket. If you want to do more... outplay them. Get the nodes first. Kill all the things. Reduce their efficiency.

But keep in mind that not all bot accounts are created the same. One individual being a lazy turd is not the same as a prison labor backed by a foreign government. Anymore it's not just the scale of the botting. It's the scale of any possible retaliation when a bot account is terminated.

I'm not thrilled that even hobbies have layers of cybersecurity concerns these days. Nor am I thrilled that on a global scale, sections of the TOS just can't be enforced fairly and equally. But that's the reality. Let ZOS use their resources internally to monitor and evaluate threats to the game, rather than waste time inventing a new problem.

Sathukai

Now if only there were a group of people dedicated to going into the game and enforcing the game's ToS and CoC against players violating them. We can call these individuals something like "masters of the game" or game masters if you will.

Dojohoda

Bored players would use this to mess with overland groups who aren't bots.

Not everyone can identify bots. A year or two ago, I was asked if I was a bot. Apparently, in a delve, I was dispatching NPCs too efficiently on my lowbie stamsorc. I guess dual wield does look a bit robotic.

trell

I don't see how this could be abused. If you pass Meridia's test and you're shown to not be a bot. No one can use the spell on you for a month. Also - it can't happen to you during combat or during other critical events. So, a Daedric prince interrupts your mat gathering for 5 minutes and gives you a reward as compensation. Would you prefer a bag of rubedite ore instead of an experience scroll? You even end up where you were last gathering.

Each person will only be given limited casts per day. Five sounded useful. Even if you wanted to troll people two false selections would shut you down. The cool-down can be set to days if necessary.

If once a month Sheogorath plucked you out of your gathering to solve a simple riddle and then gave you a gift would you complain?

Sathukai

trell wrote: »

it can't happen to you during combat

the problem here is that there are bots that go around in circles killing mudcrabs or skeevers in some areas. they're pretty bad on the xbox one so i assume it's just as bad, if not worse, on PC

Tandor

trell wrote: »

I don't see how this could be abused. If you pass Meridia's test and you're shown to not be a bot. No one can use the spell on you for a month. Also - it can't happen to you during combat or during other critical events. So, a Daedric prince interrupts your mat gathering for 5 minutes and gives you a reward as compensation. Would you prefer a bag of rubedite ore instead of an experience scroll? You even end up where you were last gathering.

Each person will only be given limited casts per day. Five sounded useful. Even if you wanted to troll people two false selections would shut you down. The cool-down can be set to days if necessary.

If once a month Sheogorath plucked you out of your gathering to solve a simple riddle and then gave you a gift would you complain?

Read and inwardly digest the previous replies. They spell out very clearly how this would be open to abuse.

trell

If the bot is collecting mud crabs ZOS could give a few second interval after combat to permit looting. That would guard accidentally irritating real people. After that you could cast the spell before the bot moved on.

One month of immunity isn't even necessary. Each person could prove themselve's to be human once and be immune for life.

thadjarvis

Well aware many may feel differently and it can’t be an open ZoS policy, but I wish the bots would do their job better. Crafting ingredients have been going up...we need more supply. I guess it would take away from node farmers but it seems players prefer other more fun ways to make gold (reflected in prices > less supply > less players choose to non-bot farm)

Donny_Vito

The main issue is the fact that I have to prove I am not a bot. I understand the intentions are pure, but it would be abused.

So I am just farming and someone thinks I am a bot. They hit me with this spell and I am then teleported to some area where I have to prove I am not a bot and then I am teleported back to my original spot. That is two different loading screens I will have to go through just because some person thought wrong.

ArchangelIsraphel

trell wrote: »

I don't see how this could be abused. If you pass Meridia's test and you're shown to not be a bot. No one can use the spell on you for a month. Also - it can't happen to you during combat or during other critical events. So, a Daedric prince interrupts your mat gathering for 5 minutes and gives you a reward as compensation. Would you prefer a bag of rubedite ore instead of an experience scroll? You even end up where you were last gathering.

Each person will only be given limited casts per day. Five sounded useful. Even if you wanted to troll people two false selections would shut you down. The cool-down can be set to days if necessary.

If once a month Sheogorath plucked you out of your gathering to solve a simple riddle and then gave you a gift would you complain?

Again, those who aren't fast enough to solve the riddle, or new people who don't understand what's happening and may fail simply because they aren't familiar with what's going on will suffer if targeted. It can be abused all too easily on someone who is idle or AFK and doesn't return fast enough to complete the puzzle. Unless you plan for this to not have a timer.

It can also be used on purpose by people who want to farm the rewards from the puzzles. "Hey, if I have my buddy hit me with a bot skill each month, I'll get a free reward! We'll trade off and hit each other to take advantage of this!" If bot flagging isn't bound to the accounts @ name, then you could use the charges to farm rewards on each character on the account. There's many ways the system can be abused. Don't put it past people to be very inventive when it comes to finding the loopholes.

trell

If it could only happen once EVER would it be so bad? Damn you Sheogorath - two loading screens and all I get is a bag of rocks? Are you mad? Errr wait. Maybe you are...

idk

So we can now disrupt any group, troll them with this new spell to disrupt their group gameplay? Even if some in the group have the buff that prevents them from begin effected again for a month the rest still get pulled away from their fun.

That is exactly what this idea will do in practice. Zos just needs at least one GM per server to police these things.

ArchangelIsraphel

trell wrote: »

If it could only happen once EVER would it be so bad? Damn you Sheogorath - two loading screens and all I get is a bag of rocks? Are you mad? Errr wait. Maybe you are...

If it could only ever happen once ever, then all a bot master would have to do to immunize their bots is have a main, leveled character bot bomb them and make the bot solve the puzzle. Then the bots would be just as immune as a player.

Mancombe_Nosehair

Using a sledge hammer to crack a nut...

trell

How many bot lords want to walk each bot through a puzzle one at a time? Then again, we could go back to periods of immunity rather than lifetime.

trell

It's a matter of balance. What is it worth not to have to see herds of underwear clad warriors running across the landscape? Kinda breaks the mood for me.

And the last thing I need is a bot ruining my personal farming. Unlike a bot, I enjoy harvesting platinum.

And if you're not currently in combat and some of your party disappears doesn't that fit in a world where magic dominates? How does that differ from your party's sorc just standing there because his ping is too low or his wife asked him to take out the trash?

ArchangelIsraphel

trell wrote: »

How many bot lords want to walk each bot through a puzzle one at a time? Then again, we could go back to periods of immunity rather than lifetime.

If it means they won't risk loosing hours of botting and unclaimed assets to the puzzle, I'm sure they would. Especially if it meant that the account would permanently slip under the radar unless manually reported.

Periods of immunity are more dangerous, but again, still a huge inconvenience to real players and highly exploitable in multiple ways.

kargen27

trell wrote: »

I don't see how this could be abused. If you pass Meridia's test and you're shown to not be a bot. No one can use the spell on you for a month. Also - it can't happen to you during combat or during other critical events. So, a Daedric prince interrupts your mat gathering for 5 minutes and gives you a reward as compensation. Would you prefer a bag of rubedite ore instead of an experience scroll? You even end up where you were last gathering.

Each person will only be given limited casts per day. Five sounded useful. Even if you wanted to troll people two false selections would shut you down. The cool-down can be set to days if necessary.

If once a month Sheogorath plucked you out of your gathering to solve a simple riddle and then gave you a gift would you complain?

Let's say you have a circle you run to gather resources but some other player is running the same circle. Being able to give them a five minute time out for no reason gives you a chance to gather materials uninterrupted for a bit. I can see players using this because someone outran them to a node.

Need an experience scroll? Get a friend to flag you and free scroll.

From the bot perspective before you start running your bot have someone flag your character and you are immune for a month.

trell

"From the bot perspective before you start running your bot have someone flag your character and you are immune for a month."

True, but you still would have to manually solve the puzzle.

trell

What currently prevents trolls from filing bot tickets?

SeaGtGruff

I think there seems to be an overall anti-bot hysteria in this game-- or obsession, if you feel "hysteria" is too insulting. (Then again, I think the idea that actual players who are minding their own business can be reported as "possible bots" is insulting, too.) Maybe this is true in all MMOs; I don't know, as ESO is the only MMO I've ever played.