Farming bots.

rrimöykk

Hello,

I'd like to know how ZOS feels about using farming bots and is it against their policy? I've reported close to 200 farming bots during my adventures in Tamriel and it seems they just won't get banned. I thought it was against their TOS but if they don't get removed even though multiple reports are submitted, I think it is allowed then?

Several zones on PS/EU are plagued by farming bots yet nothing has happened even though reports are submitted. I'd like to hear from ZOS: is it okay if I hire few farming bots for myself or not?

If it's okay, you can delete this post as it doesn't serve its' purpose. If it's not, could you actually do something about this problem - finally?

Hämähäkki

I reported them also, many times. Nothing happend

But I guess you will get no feedback from ZOS about that.

volkeswagon

people that use bots are morally sketchy. They supposedly ban them and have ways of dealing with them that they won't tell us but maybe the virus put that on hold.

Scrollup

How can you tell from farming bots? What is considered farming bots?

I'm curious to know.

TonyDemonLord

I have found bots on Xbox NA, how is that possible? I though the consoles would be bot free because I thought you can’t use programs like that on Xbox yet I have found close to 50 in alik'r desert. I have reported them but nothing ever happened. But I’m more confused is how did they get bots on Xbox

volkeswagon

Scrollup wrote: »

How can you tell from farming bots? What is considered farming bots?

I'm curious to know.

They usually have account names that have a hyphon or underscore such as scam_artist65. They are usually level 3-5. They run from node to node and you'll often see them flash a map for a split second after they pick a node
If you steal a node ahead of them they will still go to that spot and stand there for 5 seconds before going to the next node. Also they usually have a jibberish character name such as jjhffrtrjnnvv.

Scrollup

volkeswagon wrote: »

Scrollup wrote: »

How can you tell from farming bots? What is considered farming bots?

I'm curious to know.

They usually have account names that have a hyphon or underscore such as scam_artist65. They are usually level 3-5. They run from node to node and you'll often see them flash a map for a split second after they pick a node
If you steal a node ahead of them they will still go to that spot and stand there for 5 seconds before going to the next node. Also they usually have a jibberish character name such as jjhffrtrjnnvv.

Ahh..interesting..I guess I'm not paying attention lol.

I'm not so worry cause lately I haven't been into gathering nodes.

Pink_E_808

TonyDemonLord wrote: »

I have found bots on Xbox NA, how is that possible? I though the consoles would be bot free because I thought you can’t use programs like that on Xbox yet I have found close to 50 in alik'r desert. I have reported them but nothing ever happened. But I’m more confused is how did they get bots on Xbox

I've been seeing them on PS4 NA for years. Sometimes they get banned, sometimes they don't.

volkeswagon

well if you think about it. If they are killing things like wolves or crabs or if their pets are killing npcs while they node pic shouldn't they be leveling up. Which means level 3-5 bots can't be that old.

ShawnLaRock

The bots on XBOX NA have learned to fight. They stand in a circular cluster and fire their bows outward, aggro-ing & killing wolves, I assume to farm Hide.

S.

redshirt_49

The reason they're hard to get rid of is because they're like cockroaches. Whatever software they're using isn't picked up by the anticheat so game masters have to be at work, log into the game, go to these locations, verify there are bots around and then manually ban each and every one. Rinse and repeat for every single zone and megaserver.
And just a scant few minutes after this has happened, new bot accounts are back in and back at it because as long as the profit the farmers make outweighs the cost of new accounts it's never going to stop.

The obvious answer to this problem would be to make their Anticheat more aggressive then, right?
Well, ask Rockstar or Valve about the reality of that. The incoming wave of unjustly banned players because of an aggressive AC system probably isn't worth the returns to ZOS. Not to mention the dev/licensing costs to making it happen.
If the suits at the company are as penny-pinching as any other company's (as the absolute refusal to invest in more PvP servers is an absolute indication of) it's just NOT going to happen.

idk

The use of bots are against Zos' policy and is clearly stated in the ToS.

Those of us that are truly old-timers here in ESO remember what this game looks like when Zos does nothing to stop bots. I recall groups of bots at every delve boss. Bots would spawn in at quest progression points, interact, then spawn out, seemingly moving to the next spot by some mysterious means.

So yes, Zos could do more, but we would see a lot more bots if they did nothing. Keep reporting them.

Sahidom

TonyDemonLord wrote: »

I have found bots on Xbox NA, how is that possible? I though the consoles would be bot free because I thought you can’t use programs like that on Xbox yet I have found close to 50 in alik'r desert. I have reported them but nothing ever happened. But I’m more confused is how did they get bots on Xbox

I believe you can get a PC XBOX emulator and run your bit program from there; at least that's how I'd begin botting my XBOX account, if the need arises.

Dazzlerman

Hard to believe this is the most recent thread about this and 3 years later there's still farm bots

Alphawolf01A

Dazzlerman wrote: »

Hard to believe this is the most recent thread about this and 3 years later there's still farm bots

This is not the most recent thread, by a long shot. Just search bots and set the time frame to "2 or 3 months" from "today" There are plenty of posts about the bot problem. Of course, ZOS never really comments on the problem, other that to tell people to report them. Fat lot of good it does, since the bots are still there day after day. Even in the exact same spot for years. If ZOS does take care of a few, they are replaced almost instantly.

P.S. This post will most likely be locked since you necro'd a 3 year old thread.

Hapexamendios

Having reported them before and not seeing any tangible results I feel that reporting them is just wasting my tine.

rpa

Bots range from character parked next to node spawn with interact key taped down to train of characters running around in predefined path killing and looting mudcrabs or wolves. Its been a while since I last spotted a bot train at pceu.

It could be worse. In NW (lenient on exploiting and apparently things on client side that should not) there was bots which chopped down whole forests (every tree was a resource in that game), ran around from node to node and when near mob, ran to it, killed and looted it and ran back to path. Not 100% sure but I think I even spotted a bot questing to level a character (player running through quest objective locations in quite mazey environment without ever slowing to think).

zaria

TonyDemonLord wrote: »

I have found bots on Xbox NA, how is that possible? I though the consoles would be bot free because I thought you can’t use programs like that on Xbox yet I have found close to 50 in alik'r desert. I have reported them but nothing ever happened. But I’m more confused is how did they get bots on Xbox

Previous generation of consoles at least the PS 4 was hacked years ago, and so well the playstation server can not see its hacked.
Think ZoS agree with you however and don't believe consoles can run cheat software?
Farming bots is not an problem on PC EU

hrothbern

What you can do, I think, is that the loot drop chance has a hurdle that real players can handle easily and naturally, but bots only after relatively a lot of human play time invested in their bots.


For example:
Drop chance depending on number of quests (not dailies) done by that character.
Quests need human interaction and decisions.

Starter zone Bleakrock & Bal Foyen have 20 quests. The next zone Stonefalls has 90 quests.
When you give characters 1% drop chance per quest done, real players will get their 100% easily in a natural playing way.
Not doing all quests in these zones but getting them from other zones all by the principle of 1% per quest.

Now... the disadvantage of this simple straight forward method is a very low drop chance while still playing in a starting zone with a new character.
To handle that, without changing the hurdle effect on bots, the following could for example be done:

Give any quest done 20% drop chance increase, whereby this drop chance decreases with 1% per minute played down to a final value per quest of 1%.
A bit similar the way your level of bounty, you get after committing a crime, goes down over time.

Tweaking this method to increase the bot investment hurdle without really changing a natural way of playing character by humans could be":
Decrease the final value of a quest done to 0.5% AND decrease the drop chance decrease over time from 1% to 0.5% per minute played.

zaria

Runescape had an fun way to handle bots in game. If farming for an long time it was an danger that an related boss would show up like an tree monster cutting wood or an fish one then fishing.
It was also an random even with an man wanting to give you an gift if you solved an simple puzzle but he would be angry and attack if ignored for to long. But the current bots might be to smart to be fooled by this. Think many of the Runescape ones was simple macros.

Dr_Con

console gms need to earn their pay. whoever is managing those issues, if they even exist, is doing very poorly.

finehair

zaria wrote: »

Runescape had an fun way to handle bots in game. If farming for an long time it was an danger that an related boss would show up like an tree monster cutting wood or an fish one then fishing.
It was also an random even with an man wanting to give you an gift if you solved an simple puzzle but he would be angry and attack if ignored for to long. But the current bots might be to smart to be fooled by this. Think many of the Runescape ones was simple macros.

it needs to be a boss like a npc guard, otherwise angry pve people will farm nodes just to kill these bosses.
And I like the idea of the random event guy showing up to you saying "pick one of these pictures which has a motorbike in them!" lol prove you are not a robot in tamriel style.

XSTRONG

On ps5eu when running around in starter zones it is farming bots everywhere.

I think we as ESO players have to accept that nothing will happen

zaria

Dr_Con wrote: »

console gms need to earn their pay. whoever is managing those issues, if they even exist, is doing very poorly.

It would be pretty easy to track farming bots in the database or server side functions, look for characters who do nothing than farming all day, nothing else and who give away all their earning to other players.
So how much items do they farm, and that other stuff do they do? quests, farming stuff like skyshards, dungeons or PvP and counter reset, this to not flag someone who farms for hours while watching netflix and stuff like that.
And low level without leveling just farming is an massive flag in it self.
One soft punishment might be to simply disable option to farm. Perhaps sending an mail about it. Doing a couple of quest or an random normal will reset it but you will still be suspect.

Dr_Con

zaria wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

console gms need to earn their pay. whoever is managing those issues,
One soft punishment might be to simply disable option to farm. Perhaps sending an mail about it. Doing a couple of quest or an random normal will reset it but you will still be suspect.

making all nodes invisible to suspected botters (or disabling their ability to farm) is pretty smart, but i think there is a way to grind certain quests through a macro so I don't think the latter part of the suggestion is viable.

(idk why this is writing inside the box)

Brakkish

There's a potential plus side to the farming; in theory it keeps prices down on mats due to the abundance and availability.

zaria

Dr_Con wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

console gms need to earn their pay. whoever is managing those issues,

One soft punishment might be to simply disable option to farm. Perhaps sending an mail about it. Doing a couple of quest or an random normal will reset it but you will still be suspect.

making all nodes invisible to suspected botters (or disabling their ability to farm) is pretty smart, but i think there is a way to grind certain quests through a macro so I don't think the latter part of the suggestion is viable.

(idk why this is writing inside the box)

Yes, the daily crafting quests can be scripted, on pc its an mod who do everything outside of moving around clicking on the boards, crafting stations and the delivery chests, this is legal in the mod coding interface.
Also an mod who does much the same for master writs.
So not let them fighter guild daily count. Story quests or most other dailies would count.

And your quote is inside the box as you or me messed up the dividers.

Dr_Con

zaria wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

console gms need to earn their pay. whoever is managing those issues,

One soft punishment might be to simply disable option to farm. Perhaps sending an mail about it. Doing a couple of quest or an random normal will reset it but you will still be suspect.

making all nodes invisible to suspected botters (or disabling their ability to farm) is pretty smart, but i think there is a way to grind certain quests through a macro so I don't think the latter part of the suggestion is viable.

(idk why this is writing inside the box)

Yes, the daily crafting quests can be scripted, on pc its an mod who do everything outside of moving around clicking on the boards, crafting stations and the delivery chests, this is legal in the mod coding interface.
Also an mod who does much the same for master writs.
So not let them fighter guild daily count. Story quests or most other dailies would count.

And your quote is inside the box as you or me messed up the dividers.

walking up to and interacting with the crafting station takes user input, a fully automated bot would script the walking up to and interacting feature alongside the mod stuff. if the mod allowed you to go AFK and do all dailies it would be banned, the players who would try to loophole the harvest bot prevention system that you suggest would run a script to automate the crafting daily across dozens of accounts, and probably make more money in doing so.

hrothbern

Keep it simple
Repeatable quests do not count in number of quests done

Alphawolf01A

Brakkish wrote: »

There's a potential plus side to the farming; in theory it keeps prices down on mats due to the abundance and availability.

Justifying bot farmers for "helping" the economy by keeping prices down, is like saying that car thieves are good for the economy because their stolen cars are cheaper. Either way, I'm not buying it. Literally or figuratively.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

We have closed this topic as it was originally created in August 2020. In many cases, it's better to create a new thread on a topic that you want to discuss as opposed to bumping one that is rather old.

Thank you for your understanding.