Taking Action Against Cheaters in ESO

Dbetz007

nhisso wrote: »

Is it just me, or are the gold spammers more obnoxious and more frequent with their spamming and guild invites than they were before this supposed crackdown?? Pay me minimum wage for my state and Ill sit on my rear all dang night and ban gold spammers!

Hell give me a free sub and I will spend a day a week banning gold spammers and bots on boss spawns. I don't even need minimum wage lol.

Dewster82

stevar wrote: »

Guys,

You do realize that banning a bot takes time, as you need to do at least one account verification?
If they ban a legit player, even more complains.

I see tons of complains, not a single hint on how to help.
Me too I have hundreds of email about bot, and yes all automated emails, so what, do you really plan to follow upon each one? To log back in that dungeon to go check if the bot you reported is still there?

Banning buyers, that would nor be neither good nor legal I think. Those buyers are paying customers who did nothing wrong but buy ingame gold with real money.
This is not illegal!
The way they farm gold to sell it is. (and think every single bot should have bought a game at 60$, so they need to farm 300.000 ingame gold to have a return on investment (for those who sell 10k gold for 2$).

Now lets say Zenimax decide to kill the market by opening the cash shop, allowing you to buy 10k gold for 2 $ in their cash shop. It would just instant kill the bots problem... and open another one, P2P Vs F2P discussion.

Honestly, should I be zenimax, I might attempt it, open a 1 month gold cash shop to give me time to fight botting. Limit the amount of gold you can buy per account (let's say once per char, so 8 times per account max, that is only 80k gold per player.) But maybe the risk is simply to high to do that.


So they choose to make the boss harder, now the bots do not target bosses. I was in a boss room, ondil I think, the bots were not moving between 2 mobs respawn site leaving the boss alone, and only players were camping the boss. I could complete the quest pretty quickly. In fact I only reported 3 out of at least 6 bots because i only had time to do theses 3 reports waiting for the boss to arrive and then I was done with the quest.

It is a good temporary fix. when they fix botting issue they might revert the boss spanning fix who knows.

Actually it is, as the gold purchased was illegally attained, not to mention its against the eula "exploit the Game or any of its parts, including without limitation the Game Client, for any commercial purpose (including without limitation renting, leasing or licensing the Game to others), including without limitation (a) for gathering virtual currency, items or resources for sale outside the Game; or (b) performing in-game services in exchange for payment outside the Game, e.g., power-leveling;" just thought you should know it is ILLEGAL TO SELL OR BUY

Saibot

Thank you Zenimax for keeping the integrity of your game by being heavy handed. Letting people run rampant can kill the game before it gets off the ground.

Elite_Katt

I completely agree with most of what has been said here. The thing that irks me, even with up to date spam filter add ons, I am still seeing gold spammers every 15 min. Now I haven't looked today at the add ons, but it has gotten to the point where i have to empty my ignore list as it has filled up a few times.

So spending "x" amount of time clearing my ignore list just to fill it back up in a shorter amount of time does not sound like a fun time to me.

If there is an add-on that will auto delete the accounts that have been deactivated/banned that would be awesome.

Moving on from that, the fact that they have banned 1000s of accounts is a small piece in the millions of gold spammer/bot/cheater account. I am not saying everyone is the aforementioned. The actual (for lack of a better term) criminals have no issue with buying more than 50 accounts per 1 person (numbers made up cause i really don't know the actual stats) So when they get 1000s of accounts banned there are 100,000 more waiting to take over.

Zolyok

Do you plan to take action between the player who use the guild bank dupe ?
Hope they will be banned.It's time to launch the banhammer zeni ...

grizzbi

guild bank dupe? Don't explain what it is...but seriously that's another issue if it's true ^^

Now it's a good thing that we don't have a global auction house: it would just make things even worse.. people are already pissed off when they see bots , but if the economy immediatly translated it into rare item sold at very high prices, it would be just pathetic. how to kill a game in a few weeks..

katfiveknivesub17_ESO

How do we report botters? I'm pretty sure I saw some yesterday - several toons - all identical - doing the exact same thing at the same time.. very automated movements, following each other in unison. I tried to hover over their names to catch them but it was difficult with them moving around and even if I did catch their names - what do I do next? Their name is not in chat so the chat report feature will not work unless there's a way to modify it.

Anyone know?

Requiemslove

Hey. So this is my first post on the forum. I can't really believe it is about this issue which is an issue the game should not really have. Yea, gold spammers are the worst and I hope zenimax really are taking action. Every time I play I seem to get at least 5 messages from gold spammers. Its really annoying and actually makes me not want to play sometimes. Its very intrusive I find, also very annoying, as no doubt most here know is the advertisements in /zone from these bots. I report at least 8/10 of these though I must admit sometimes...I just don't have the energy. [that's how bad it gets] I think the only way that zenimax can really affect change here, is by altering the game so that gold spamming is NOT a worthwhile enterprise for those who would do it.

I don't want to sound cynical but someone who posted earlier may be in the right, I hope the company has more credibility than that, and IS banning gold spammers, and not letting them carry on, and make new accounts to do exactly the same thing. There is more to any mmo than the finance a company can make from it, and Zenimax would have a hugely loyal following which can, and probably WILL number in the millions. So please, be doing as you say you are. Ban the gold spammers/the bots and the cheats, we don't WANT them in this game. The only ones who should make money from ESO, are the people at Zenimax, and the elder scrolls franchise, not opportunist's. This is the game developers first real test, so send out a STRONG message to the opportunist's.

Mpcolson

I have been filing gold spam reports since day one and it would seem to me that ZOS could remedy the issue with a in game moderator to slam the ban-hammer on anyone that is spamming.

Honestly, the amount of gold barkers that are online daily and the email spam that is occurring should not require I file a report and wait to see what happens.

It's a TOS violation to sell gold so there would be nothing improper about just insta-banning these accounts on the spot.

Why is it so difficult to get rid of the vendors anyway, it is a simple matter that can be implemented in less than a week. My ignore list is jammed full and it's only the spammers I'm ignoring.

C'mon ZOS.. get aggressive and shut these guys down!!! Please.

Joseph914

So this post is 10 days old and not a new sticky has been added to the top by a dev. When will we get an update that another "major strike" has been taken against those that cheat? And by saying cheat are you including gold spammers as well?

ZeroNeonix

I hadn't seen a single spam bot today. The last time I had signed it, I was greeted by mail from two gold sellers, and I saw several more in chat. I've definitely seen an improvement.

jgcasajrnrb18_ESO

Great to know that the developers will take actions about cheaters. It really spoils the game. Congratulations.

Requiemslove

As I type this very post...bots are farming a boss called bonetooth in the triple circle mine, I know they are bots, having tried several times to initiate contact with each one of them, there are 5 of them and they just stand there at the spot, waiting for it to respawn and the veracity of their attacks is ample proof they are indeed bots. I tried to report it, unfortunately that service seems to be down at the moment. While technically it is not as far as I know against the ToCs to stay on a spot killing the same mob, it is a game breaker for anyone who you know...HAS to kill that mob for a quest. The devs have to do something about this sort of thing. It is 04:38 so I am aware of the time and probably, so are the people behind the bots. This is the sort of thing the devs need to crack down upon.

I wholeheartedly agree, this game needs some in game GMs or moderators who could be contacted in the event of this sort of thing, and, yes of course, for gold spammers.

BoloBoffin

Roseanna wrote: »

As I type this very post...bots are farming a boss called bonetooth in the triple circle mine, I know they are bots, having tried several times to initiate contact with each one of them, there are 5 of them and they just stand there at the spot, waiting for it to respawn and the veracity of their attacks is ample proof they are indeed bots. I tried to report it, unfortunately that service seems to be down at the moment. While technically it is not as far as I know against the ToCs to stay on a spot killing the same mob, it is a game breaker for anyone who you know...HAS to kill that mob for a quest. The devs have to do something about this sort of thing. It is 04:38 so I am aware of the time and probably, so are the people behind the bots. This is the sort of thing the devs need to crack down upon.

I wholeheartedly agree, this game needs some in game GMs or moderators who could be contacted in the event of this sort of thing, and, yes of course, for gold spammers.

I saw them, too. You can complete the quest if you get a hit or two in, but you don't get drops, of course.

My personal solution would be to patch the bosses (werewolves and vampire spawns, too) so that if you have gotten credit for killing them 3 times in an hour, say, you can't kill them for another hour - but they can still kill you. I'd keep it at around 3 times to guard against the boss respawning while you're still exploring the room. But then it's time to move on and let the rest of us play the game.

ashronthasb16_ESO

I got a good tip against bots entering dungeons and getting access to that loot; have a demand of x quests completed. So if one want to enter a lvl 50 dungeon, one need to have completed say, 200 quests, which isnt really much for a player actually playing the game with his character, as intended.

Also, you could have a quest # demand on entering zone chat in an area, and there would probably less and less goldspam as one progress through the zones.

TheBloodartist

Good job Zenimax for taking action against goldsellers and botters.

I however have not witnessed much reduction in the number of goldseller spam, other than goldseller adverts in ingame mail have somewhat reduced. When I logged in there used to be 1-2 goldseller mails in there,

At least goldseller spam in daggerfall covenant where I play is restricted to Daggerfall and Glenumbra, and not the higher level areas.

I wonder, does Zenimax track the origin of the ingame gold, and should one be worried about the origin of gold when trading ingame items to ingame gold? Im asking because I intend to become a vampire ingame, and I know that vampire bite is a highly coveted thing in daggerfall currently. Low level characters are looking to buy vampire bite for a large amount of gold so they could level their character as a vampire. I think there is a large danger that one of such people acquired the gold from a goldseller in order to pay the price of the vampire bite. If I am the vampire selling the bite, should I be worried that zenimax comes and confiscates the gold afterwards? Afterall, I have no reliable way to confirm that the gold comes from legit sources.. Other than suspicion of a low lvl character having large amounts of gold..

Ragnar_Lodbrok

Thank you zenimax for todays mass bans, keep going after cheaters.

SafeForSure

Check ebay lots of the farmed/duped items and gold is being sold there and sold fast and good i came across this while looking for elder scrolls wallart and didnt believe my eyes. Every minute this isnt resolved makes a bigger permanent impact on the game that folks who didnt exploit/cheat cant hope to recover from.

Liil

Just been to the Inner Sea Armature dungeon with a different toon. Last week Iwas there there were 5 bots in place camping the end guardian, reported every one. Today there were at least 7 bots (I think, was hard targeting them all). Almost didn't complete this dungeon as it was so difficult getting a hit on the boss mob before it died. The game is loosing its appeal, sort the botters!

reggielee

the mob / boss botters are looting the corpses as they despawn immediately after. I see the bots periodically go into thier inv (seen by their char looking in their bags) it takes some time. They obiviously are doing something to the loot, either mailing it, shifting it somewhere via trade to mules standing by or something because once done they are back again for hours without leaving hte dungeon. I meanwhile fill up 60 slots in fifteen min. This loophole has to be closed as it would require the OP to be online to shift loot manually via porting out etc.

and for the love of god.. BAN THE GOLD BUYERS. NO MARKET... NO BOTS

Zolyok

They should implement a timer on public dungeon after 30mn inside you are kicked from dungeon then you cannot go in the specific dungeon for 2 hours

Requiemslove

Hi all. Just so it is known, recently I went on a tour of Stonefalls and Deshaan. And I must say in every single dungeon I went into there were bots farming the dungeon boss. I was gathering skyshards and so this is how I know they were in every single dungeon, to the last. This is becoming an epidemic and Zenimax needs to sort this out fast. The only place I did not see any bots in, was the low level crow sub area. The one with all the wolves and the willows in that you enter via a strange chest. Zenimax, you need to sort this out in the very near future otherwise you are in danger of loosing genuine gamers. People will end up leaving out of frustration. Get rid of the gold spammers. Get rid of the loot-bots. They are affecting the game content.

joanjett

Well good luck with that cause i just got to cold harbor{my quest was bugged of
course so a guildee helped me out} and wow all these iopiifff ififififg sukkkil names and all standing together. I was shocked by seeing all these bots.
Do you guys even have people in the game looking at this ***?

I mean dam it don't take much to spot these guys. Well i guess you guys got
too much on your hands to fix{you know all those broken quests for starters}
But i can tell by this that i don't even think you guys have people inside the
game, you need to hire more help.

Bouvin

Saibot wrote: »

Thank you Zenimax for keeping the integrity of your game by being heavy handed. Letting people run rampant can kill the game before it gets off the ground.

I agree. But unfortunately they banned some people who did nothing wrong as well. How bad would that suck?

Bouvin

joanjett wrote: »

Well good luck with that cause i just got to cold harbor{my quest was bugged of
course so a guildee helped me out} and wow all these iopiifff ififififg sukkkil names and all standing together. I was shocked by seeing all these bots.
Do you guys even have people in the game looking at this ***?

I mean dam it don't take much to spot these guys. Well i guess you guys got
too much on your hands to fix{you know all those broken quests for starters}
But i can tell by this that i don't even think you guys have people inside the
game, you need to hire more help.

Just call the folks at LoTRO and ask them how they dealt with the spammers/gold sellers.

Betic

I understand you are taking action against cheaters, but MMO's have been around for long enough to know what needs to be done right away. Can you please stop the spam emails and span in global chat. As for E-Mails, just make it so no one can send an email to a random person, unless they are level 10 or higher, they are one eachothers friends list, or are in the same guild.

You could do something similar with the global chat by making it so people lower then level 5 cannot use global email. As long as you are killing the botters, this would make it so they would have to put effort into the spams and we would not be overwhelmed with it like we are now. I log into 4+ emails a day of spam.....and ignore global chat because of all the spam.

To top it off, maybe make it a little easier to reply to forum posts? (by putting a reply button on the top under the main message....so we do not have to scroll all the way to the bottom....)

archimediss

good thing to take down cheaters hope you do something about the gold spammers as well i keep getting mails and invites from those jerks

kozakb16_ESO

too bad my ignorre list pretty long allready , hope there is no cap on it , becouse i keep reporting gold sellers , and spammers , and after i reported them with screenshots , i put them on ignorre , Again i would like for the developement team to make it posible to make level base chat filter so the gold sellers and spammers will be sorted out by that filter and it should be the user that set the level for the chat sorting

proletarianserf

Suggestion: Having a GM do rounds in the low level public dungeons and banning all of the obvious bots would do a lot to curb both the dungeon botting and gold farming that is going on right now.

I just rolled a new toon after hitting 50 on my main and all the Glenumbra "Solo" dungeons are fulled with bots named things like "asdfesdf" which make it difficult to even get a hit in on the boss.

A global timer on the boss loot only slows down profits for the gold farmers and inconveniences actual players. It does not actually address the problem.

Savinder

proletarianserf wrote: »

A global timer on the boss loot only slows down profits for the gold farmers and inconveniences actual players. It does not actually address the problem.

The global timer seems to be more of a band-aid than an actual solution.
Apparently (from what I've been told, so take it with a grain of salt) the current focus is on alleviating the issue of spam-bots inundating the chat with their poorly-written advertisement, since it apparently has a pretty significant impact on the server load, and after that they should focus more on the bots ruining our dungeon experience.
Unfortunately the lack of informations provided by the devs means that to the public the work perceived is less than what it really is (again, from what I've been told).