Strosmakai under invasion

AhSeLYaG · July 2020

İ need farming to upgrade my equipment. Whole week my farming zone strosmakai has been under invasion of chinese bots farming nodes in whole island. After hours of trying decided to give up trying. İ didnot check but probably other starter zones are the same. Anything i can do to stoo these bots.? İ tried trade duel etc and none worked. Each bot farms 3-4 nodes in a short route. All are sorcerers and have a pet to deal with npcs. All lvl 2-4 . All have basic chinese as language. Any help appreciated.

finehair · July 2020

Report via in game customer service. Location, time you have seen them and their character-account name if you can see it. I know it's pretty hard go get their name since they stack each other with pets. Take a video of them too if you can and link it in your report or the mail you'll receive after reporting. They do clean the bots when they catch it.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 2020

Khenarthi's Roost, Bleakrock, or Betnikh should work just as well. There's often bots doing the mudcrab route around Mistral, but I haven't seen any in the rest of Khenarthi's Roost while farming for leads.

Elsonso · July 2020

On PC NA, the bots like to circle the plantation at Khenarthi's Roost. They are fairly easy to catch and report.

heaven13 · July 2020

If you're on PC, you can use Bot Scanner 2000: https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html. It's an add-on that makes reporting a lot easier, particularly when it comes to bot zoos. I do like to watch for a minute or so to make sure the bots are moving in the same exact scripted path as each other so I don't report a legitimate farmer but otherwise it's great.

And Khenarthi's is super bad. They're not only around the plantation but there's a group that run down by the little islands west of Mistral, another set that runs west of Eagle's Strand, etc. They always run in pairs (I guess hoping it makes them harder to spot than the 6-bot trains of ye olden days) and I end up reporting 10-12 every time I go to the island.

JanTanhide · July 2020

If you are on PC use this Addon: https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html

It puts all the information into the message and reports the Bots for cheating (Botting). It is outdated but still works perfectly. I use it almost every day.

On the bad side I usually see the same Bots I reported the next day...the following day....the following day and so on.

I have watched one Bot go from level 9 to CP 523 before it moved to another zone or was perhaps banned (doubtful).

But it's all we can do. I have many videos of Bots farming all over Tamriel including me reporting them in game.

Elsonso · July 2020

heaven13 wrote: »

If you're on PC, you can use Bot Scanner 2000: https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html. It's an add-on that makes reporting a lot easier, particularly when it comes to bot zoos. I do like to watch for a minute or so to make sure the bots are moving in the same exact scripted path as each other so I don't report a legitimate farmer but otherwise it's great.

And Khenarthi's is super bad. They're not only around the plantation but there's a group that run down by the little islands west of Mistral, another set that runs west of Eagle's Strand, etc. They always run in pairs (I guess hoping it makes them harder to spot than the 6-bot trains of ye olden days) and I end up reporting 10-12 every time I go to the island.

ZOS has made it harder for these bot scanning add-ons to work (I have my own that I use) because it is now harder to target the player out of the noise. In the PVE field of view, almost everything has reticule priority over the player. That can make it harder to catch all the player characters in a bot train with sorcerer pets. All the add-on sees are a bunch of pets.

Donny_Vito · July 2020

There is really nothing you can do. They will be back the next dayweek or so after the report gets processed, if it does at all. They can be a blight, but just try to look at the positive side and tell yourself they are making mats cheaper throughout the economy with their endless botting.

Mettaricana · July 2020

Simply hiring a few ingame gms for minimum wage to patrol bot infestation hand out insta bans to the account I'd sign up in a heart beat just to crush the cash chinese farming market

Nord_Raseri · July 2020

Bots are a very annoying issue on ps4 as well. Sometimes on a scripted path and sometimes a bunch of bots scattered on every node in the area. If you time it right, I like to hit them with the "questionable meat" momento.

Donny_Vito · July 2020

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Bots are a very annoying issue on ps4 as well. Sometimes on a scripted path and sometimes a bunch of bots scattered on every node in the area. If you time it right, I like to hit them with the "questionable meat" momento.

And while this is fun for you on a smaller level, the amount of time you are wasting is so much more than a bot that is probably one of dozens for that person whom most likely is enjoying their time out in the real world.

Nord_Raseri · July 2020

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Bots are a very annoying issue on ps4 as well. Sometimes on a scripted path and sometimes a bunch of bots scattered on every node in the area. If you time it right, I like to hit them with the "questionable meat" momento.

And while this is fun for you on a smaller level, the amount of time you are wasting is so much more than a bot that is probably one of dozens for that person whom most likely is enjoying their time out in the real world.

Can enjoyment be called "time wasted"?

ShawnLaRock · July 2020

It still gives me an icky; “Terminator-meets-The Matrix“ feeling when I see the clusters moving in near blurred unison - and instead of just mat node farming on XBOX NA - there are bot clusters that stand in a circle back-to-back, and spam bow attacks to kill wolves, and farm hide mats, I assume.

S.

ArchMikem · July 2020

I can imagine there's these small "Companies" over in China in little run down commercial structures with rooms full of PC's and Consoles, wires going everywhere, and twenty somethings being paid pennies to handle these BOT accounts while whoever in charge of the operations try to sell leveled accounts and millions of ill gotten Gold online for cash.

dem0n1k · July 2020

A while back I saw a bot train in Shadowfen & went & got aggro on a Wamasu & dragged it over to the bot train.. when they attacked the next mob, they also got aggro of the Wamasu. Wamasu killed 3 out of 8 of them & the ones that respawned at the nearest wayshrine couldn't hook back up with the group & died over & over

It did not stop them.. but it made me feel better

tsaescishoeshiner · July 2020

dem0n1k wrote: »

A while back I saw a bot train in Shadowfen & went & got aggro on a Wamasu & dragged it over to the bot train.. when they attacked the next mob, they also got aggro of the Wamasu. Wamasu killed 3 out of 8 of them & the ones that respawned at the nearest wayshrine couldn't hook back up with the group & died over & over

It did not stop them.. but it made me feel better

Yeah this used to work with a dolmen for the bot group in The Rift. Thank your for service to the war effort

Pro tip: If you kill the enemies in their path, they will eventually get separated because some move faster than others (Shadow Path helps too). Eventually you can just pull a giant or wamasu or big add pull onto them and kill them once they're separated. No armor and no food makes them squishy individually

And for the Mudcrab killing ones (like in Mistral)—you can just kill the mudcrabs ahead of them. 10-20 minutes out of your time might just be a blip on the scale of what they farm, but it's still good Mudcrab Chitin and Rubedo Scraps farm : p

ShawnLaRock · July 2020

True end-game: messin’-up bot-trains. Lol.

S.

Blacknight841 · July 2020

The joke of the whole matter is that it shouldn't be any players responsibility to report bots, zenimax should be proactive about dealing with them. Even if you report them, zenimax doesn't take the time to act on the work the community does to try to make the game better. If the developers don't care to make the game better, why should you. Just go get your own bots, seems to be the trend nowadays. Why try to fight an uphill battle against a company that after 6 years refuses to not just address but even acknowledge the issue.

Env_t · July 2020

ofc zenimax do nothing
month ago gold was 28 usd per million, now its 9 on pc na

means there was a banwave probably but now they all back

Elsonso · July 2020

Blacknight841 wrote: »

The joke of the whole matter is that it shouldn't be any players responsibility to report bots, zenimax should be proactive about dealing with them.

Yes. ZOS should be the one that is leading the charge. It is their game.

If you report it, they will eventually get to it and take a look. If they find RMT, they will take action. New bots will be there the next day.

Right now... with record numbers of players, pandemics, and work at home going on around the world, I think botting is probably at the very bottom of the priority list. They probably had to tape a few pages at the bottom just so they could go low enough for it to actually be on the list.

heaven13 · July 2020

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

dem0n1k wrote: »

A while back I saw a bot train in Shadowfen & went & got aggro on a Wamasu & dragged it over to the bot train.. when they attacked the next mob, they also got aggro of the Wamasu. Wamasu killed 3 out of 8 of them & the ones that respawned at the nearest wayshrine couldn't hook back up with the group & died over & over

It did not stop them.. but it made me feel better

Yeah this used to work with a dolmen for the bot group in The Rift. Thank your for service to the war effort

Pro tip: If you kill the enemies in their path, they will eventually get separated because some move faster than others (Shadow Path helps too). Eventually you can just pull a giant or wamasu or big add pull onto them and kill them once they're separated. No armor and no food makes them squishy individually

And for the Mudcrab killing ones (like in Mistral)—you can just kill the mudcrabs ahead of them. 10-20 minutes out of your time might just be a blip on the scale of what they farm, but it's still good Mudcrab Chitin and Rubedo Scraps farm : p

There used to be bots that farmed the crocodiles in Reaper's March, near the daedroth world boss. Favorite thing ever was dragging that boss out into their path while I was working on master angler. Watch all the bots drop, go back to fishing. Rinse and repeat until I caught my slimeslither.

Elsonso · July 2020

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

Nord_Raseri · July 2020

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

I highly doubt the 20 PCs with 20 variations of the same psn name (ie fghytg1, fghytg2, and so on) and the same as charater names AND are moving in perfect unison, are going to reporting anybody...

Elsonso · July 2020

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

I highly doubt the 20 PCs with 20 variations of the same psn name (ie fghytg1, fghytg2, and so on) and the same as charater names AND are moving in perfect unison, are going to reporting anybody...

Don't be fooled into thinking that there is no one there watching you play with the bots.

Kalik_Gold · July 2020

Been reporting bots on PS4 you have to manually do the 2nd step on the support site.

It automatically reports them for “bad name” when you do report player. You have to add to the ticket that it is not a bad name but Bots.

TineaCruris · July 2020

AhSeLYaG wrote: »

İ need farming to upgrade my equipment. Whole week my farming zone strosmakai has been under invasion of chinese bots farming nodes in whole island. After hours of trying decided to give up trying. İ didnot check but probably other starter zones are the same. Anything i can do to stoo these bots.? İ tried trade duel etc and none worked. Each bot farms 3-4 nodes in a short route. All are sorcerers and have a pet to deal with npcs. All lvl 2-4 . All have basic chinese as language. Any help appreciated.

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

Pardon? They are bots. I know ZOS is the kind of company that bans veteran contributors that have made the game great and lets the bots run wild unchecked, but getting banned for trying to determine and report bots is not something anyone should concern themselves with.

Elsonso · July 2020

TineaCruris wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

Pardon? They are bots. ...getting banned for trying to determine and report bots is not something anyone should concern themselves with.

One ToS violation does not make another ToS violation allowed. The rules apply to the people reporting the bots as much as it does to the people running the bots. If the botters want to report people who are playing with their bots for harassment, they are well within their rights to do so. If ZOS agrees, can take action against the people reporting.

I am not saying that ZOS will, but do you want to depend on the "goodwill of ZOS" to always take your side?

Just report them and move on.

heaven13 · July 2020

Elsonso wrote: »

TineaCruris wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

Pardon? They are bots. ...getting banned for trying to determine and report bots is not something anyone should concern themselves with.

One ToS violation does not make another ToS violation allowed. The rules apply to the people reporting the bots as much as it does to the people running the bots. If the botters want to report people who are playing with their bots for harassment, they are well within their rights to do so. If ZOS agrees, can take action against the people reporting.

I am not saying that ZOS will, but do you want to depend on the "goodwill of ZOS" to always take your side?

Just report them and move on.

If you're legitimately farming and there's other activity on your account, highly unlikely you'll be banned for being a bot, even if someone does mistake you for one and reports you. It's quite easy to see the difference between them as well: 1 person vs 2 or more, variation in route, turning around, jumping.

Elsonso · July 2020

heaven13 wrote: »

If you're legitimately farming and there's other activity on your account, highly unlikely you'll be banned for being a bot, even if someone does mistake you for one and reports you. It's quite easy to see the difference between them as well: 1 person vs 2 or more, variation in route, turning around, jumping.

I actually think that is a problem, and part of why some bots persist long past even the slowest customer support response. Players who bot for personal reasons are still violating the ToS and ZOS should be doing something about them, but they are not gold sellers, and so it makes me wonder whether these people get a pass.

TineaCruris · July 2020

Elsonso wrote: »

TineaCruris wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I just want to suggest a general policy of not playing with the bots. Watch them, report them, leave them.

If you are spending your time running ahead someone you think is a bot, and then farming their stuff, or dragging mobs and world bosses into their path, they can report you for harassing them.

Pardon? They are bots. ...getting banned for trying to determine and report bots is not something anyone should concern themselves with.

One ToS violation does not make another ToS violation allowed. The rules apply to the people reporting the bots as much as it does to the people running the bots. If the botters want to report people who are playing with their bots for harassment, they are well within their rights to do so. If ZOS agrees, can take action against the people reporting.

I am not saying that ZOS will, but do you want to depend on the "goodwill of ZOS" to always take your side?

Just report them and move on.

It's not a violation of the ToS to run in front of someone and harvest a node. It is not a violation of the ToS to drag mobs to people either.

You are right about one thing though, nobody should rely on goodwill from ZOS.

Elsonso · July 2020

TineaCruris wrote: »

It's not a violation of the ToS to run in front of someone and harvest a node. It is not a violation of the ToS to drag mobs to people either.

It is not a violation to run in front of someone and harvest **a** node, no. Running in front of them and trying to harvest every node, is, though.

It is also a violation of the ToS to drag mobs over to people who would not welcome that behavior.

I am just the messenger. I don't make the rules.

P.S. - Don't play with the bots.