Bots grinding

kip_silverwolf

Just curious (I don't have a Play Station at all, so I really don't know about this) - are you able to report their account to Sony as well, for cheating?

MercilessnVexed

Just ran through there out of sheer curiosity. Two other people with me. All of us hanging about visiting now and then. Good times.

Spawniaq

kip_silverwolf wrote: »

Just curious (I don't have a Play Station at all, so I really don't know about this) - are you able to report their account to Sony as well, for cheating?

i am goona check that tonight

Adzer2

3rd set found, not far from the other 2 sets, this group is checking local runestone nodes, probably for grabbing Kutas to sell, tried using Rapid Maneuver on them to speed them up but they seem to ignore that too

Adzer2

I'm still waiting to hear from ZOS what their stance is with these bots, if they are not being banned from previous reporting done by other players.....why not? Is this acceptable?

@ZOS_GinaBruno could you weigh in on this please?

Donny_Vito

Adzer2 wrote: »

I'm still waiting to hear from ZOS what their stance is with these bots, if they are not being banned from previous reporting done by other players.....why not? Is this acceptable?

@ZOS_GinaBruno could you weigh in on this please?

I don't think you're going to get a reply there, regardless if you tag her or not. Asking her to make comments about ToS banning does not seem likely.

We get it, you're frustrated about bots. So are a lot of other people...just keep reporting them and move on to other activities in hopes you can enjoy the rest of your playing time.

starkerealm

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Adzer2 wrote: »

I'm still waiting to hear from ZOS what their stance is with these bots, if they are not being banned from previous reporting done by other players.....why not? Is this acceptable?

@ZOS_GinaBruno could you weigh in on this please?

I don't think you're going to get a reply there, regardless if you tag her or not. Asking her to make comments about ToS banning does not seem likely.

We get it, you're frustrated about bots. So are a lot of other people...just keep reporting them and move on to other activities in hopes you can enjoy the rest of your playing time.

Yeah, Gina's inbox is absolutely swarmed with stuff. It's not so much that she's unwilling to respond to this, and more that it'll just get lost in the noise.

That said, botting is not acceptable, but ZOS is really inconsistent on dealing with bots.

Adzer2

Ok, I get that Gina is busy (any ZOS team member would do), but if the reported bots are being reported and nothing is being done about it by the ZOS team (Same account I originally reported 2-3 days ago is still active in the game!)

It should then be a community managers job to ensure that TOS are being enforced and letting the community know that these actions are not acceptable.

If I went about my way and forgot about this issue then the bots will be allowed to continue and people/guilds profiting off it, its more than just me who is angry about this

SirAndy

Anyone responding with "How do you know they are bots" is running bots.

Why? Because anyone who actually plays this game knows how easy it is to spot bots.

They all need to be banned ...

barney2525

You can always find them running around the small island part of Kenarthis roost

Zodiarkslayer

SirAndy wrote: »

Anyone responding with "How do you know they are bots" is running bots.

Why? Because anyone who actually plays this game knows how easy it is to spot bots.

They all need to be banned ...

No. Some don't care. Others , like me, do only writs and dungeons and rarely get to the grind spots apparently popular for that, if at all.

And you should really look up the term 'Advocatus Diaboli'...

starkerealm

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Anyone responding with "How do you know they are bots" is running bots.

Why? Because anyone who actually plays this game knows how easy it is to spot bots.

They all need to be banned ...

No. Some don't care. Others , like me, do only writs and dungeons and rarely get to the grind spots apparently popular for that, if at all.

And you should really look up the term 'Advocatus Diaboli'...

The bots already have their own advocates. You'll see them wander in occasionally, and say, "I need the character delete limit removed because <INSERT REASON>."

Stinkyremy

I think it is a loosing battle with bots even on console.
There are tons of them in starting islands farming mats. I report any I see when in the zones to do my part but I can't tell if ZOS does anything about it as they don't reply to the query.
I'm just trying to do my part for the health of the game.

JanTanhide

Very easy to tell Bots from actual players. I report them all the time and make videos of them as well. There are many "favorite" spots in the game for Bot farmers.

If you are on P.C. you can use the Addon "Bot Scanner 2000". It has not been updated but still works well.

https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html

Bot Scanner is easy to use. You scan the Bots as they pass by and then click on each of their names in the scan window and send the report in.

Spawniaq

i wish that we (Ps4 players) also had some addons ( you guys have every kind of them i am so jealous

redlink1979

Console servers are plagued. I've lost count to how many tickets I've sent so far.

jircris11

VaranisArano wrote: »

Yes, report them. I've noticed in the past that ZOS seems to delete bots in batches, like they'll wait for enough reports and then go make a big sweep of it.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

How do you know they are BOTs? As in not human?

Maybe they are just chinese students wanting to make a buck...
Or they are furnishing crafters on the hunt for more mats.

Back when Summerset event gave double mats from nodes I grinded all day and night. Made a hefty amount of money. Could aford a house afterwards...

Ways to tell bots grinding:
1. They follow a precise path without deviation, several times. Multiple right angle turns are a dead giveaway. Also multiple characters making the same right angle turn or follow the same precise path after each other
2. They don't deviate from their path, even when you've cleared material nodes in front of them, multiple times.
3. Some bots stand still over resources and pick them up when they spawn. They will also pick up the Questionable Meat Sack multiple times if placed in front of them.
4. Massed groups of them run around killing things in a tight pack with a level of coordination my PVP raid leads would kill for.
5. If nothing else, you say something about reporting bots in zone or say chat near the bot.

I also farm along repetitive routes. But as a human player personally controlling my character, butt in chair, fingers on keyboard, there are many tiny variations in how I farm a route that would suffice to show anyone watching me (or ZOS, checking a bot report) that I'm a human player.

Bots?
Not that hard to spot the non-human behaviors when you know what to look for.

Your number 4 cracked me up, thank you!

SirAndy

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Anyone responding with "How do you know they are bots" is running bots.
Why? Because anyone who actually plays this game knows how easy it is to spot bots.
They all need to be banned ...

No. Some don't care. Others , like me, do only writs and dungeons and rarely get to the grind spots apparently popular for that, if at all.
And you should really look up the term 'Advocatus Diaboli'...

And you should really look up the term "Reading comprehension"

There is a reason why i said "anyone who actually plays this game". You had seven years to run into a bot train and if you haven't seen one by now you don't "actually play this game" because they are neither rare nor are they behaving like normal players (because they are scripted).

So again, anyone who comes here and posts stuff along the lines of "But how do you know?" is intentionally trying to divert attention from botting.

starkerealm

SirAndy wrote: »

So again, anyone who comes here and post stuff along the lines of "But how do you know?" is intentionally trying to divert attention from botting.

Or they're very new, and haven't seen a train yet. But, you know, not an issue here.

"How do you know?" "MY PSYCHIC POWERS GROW STRONGER BY THE MINUTE!"

Blacknight841

If someone is having "difficulty" differentiating between humans and bots... it is only that they do not care enough to figure out, or just plainly don't want to. The level of sophistication of the bots in this game and most other games is not good enough to make them indistinguishable from actual players.

If you a person is scripting a bot so well, that they are practically human, with an unprecedented level of randomness to their actions... well... then they are in the wrong buisness as they could easily get much better pay from doing the same thing to progress AI development with any major company.

W0lf_z13

Adzer2 wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

MishMash wrote: »

Those of us that have played this game since 2014 (daily) can easily tell if its a bot. Just watch them and you will see. Example if when you see a few Sorcs with their pets all doing the exact same thing (constantly) and following the same route/pattern time after time -- its a bot!

When it comes to node bots -- just watch they don't move and as soon as a node appear they take it. They can stand there hours upon hours. If you're not sure its a bot just put a bear trap down in front of them. If they automatically keep going for the bear trap well you know its a bot. You can easily crash a bot -- Just get out your mudballs and go to town!

When some of us follow the rules, and ORGANICALLY run around farming -- we put in our time and effort to do so. Those that cheat do not deserve the rewards!

Never seen any of that. Then again, I probably wouldn't notice anyway. I also don't play since 2014.... so.. yeah...

You haven't played since 2014 but yet you have a Warden character, a class that wasn't released until 2017.....??

my guess is what they meant by "I also don't play since 2014" was that they didn't start playing till after 2014, I don't think they meant that they played back in 2014 and haven't played since

Jolsyf

Bots in this game are super obvious, always lots of ppl togheter doing mirrored movement killing trash mobs, just report a few of then and they usually disapear.

Can't imagine whats the fun of paying for a game to not play it...

SirAndy

Jolsyf wrote: »

... Can't imagine whats the fun of paying for a game to not play it...

@Jolsyf
There are two major reasons for bots, and both have to do with real world money:

- Farming mats, turning them into heaps of in-game gold and then selling that in-game gold for real money
- Power leveling characters and then selling those characters for real money (or leveling someone else's character for money)

It's a surprisingly lucrative business ...

EIGHTS

They are there since ESO is in beta. Everyone knows that just ZOS doesn't.
I think they will be still there just like lots of cheaters in this game that ZOS can't see.

rrimöykk

I seriously doubt how hard it is for a company this big to make a program to detect pattern movement like all of the bots do. Simple solution.

Eedat

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Spawniaq wrote: »

because they have the same rota at the same time.. if you watch them for 5 mins u see they do the same thing, if you go 1 step forward and take the material before them they stuck for 2 seconds , realizing there are no materials , and starting moving again... i guess you want to be popular with nonsence comment or you own a bot eather ways not cool

Neither. I just advocate caution over shaming.
And human farming is very difficult to differentiate from bots farming.

This is ridiculous. It's incredibly easy to tell the difference between a human and a bot

Minyassa

If you find yourself with some time to kill, a fun thing to do is get a group of people that all have the Questionable Meatsack memento and seed a bot's path with it. With a handful of people and the right timing you can lead them into monster spawn locations and let landscape mobs kill them. It's hilarious to watch them vomiting a trail to doom.

TineaCruris

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Spawniaq wrote: »

because they have the same rota at the same time.. if you watch them for 5 mins u see they do the same thing, if you go 1 step forward and take the material before them they stuck for 2 seconds , realizing there are no materials , and starting moving again... i guess you want to be popular with nonsence comment or you own a bot eather ways not cool

Neither. I just advocate caution over shaming.
And human farming is very difficult to differentiate from bots farming.

It is not in any way whatsoever difficult to differentiate a human farmer from bots.

idk

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

How do you know they are BOTs? As in not human?

Maybe they are just students wanting to make a buck...
Or they are furnishing crafters on the hunt for more mats.

Back when Summerset event gave double mats from nodes I grinded all day and night. Made a hefty amount of money. Could aford a house afterwards...

[edited to remove problematic content]

@Zodiarkslayer

It is irrelevant. If they are bots it is against the TOS. If they are real people getting paid real-world money it is against the TOS.

Also, there are ways to tell if it is a bot and bots tend to move in very peculiar ways. Varanis explained some in their post. They also noted the low cost of the game.

UntilValhalla13

They also frequent rivenspire quite a bit.

https://youtu.be/wrwGoWZHtZY