Maintenance for the week of December 22:
• NA megaservers for maintenance – December 22, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 8:00AM EST (13:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for maintenance – December 22, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 8:00AM EST (13:00 UTC)
• NA megaservers for maintenance – December 22, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 8:00AM EST (13:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for maintenance – December 22, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 8:00AM EST (13:00 UTC)
My two cents about the bot flood
Haxnschwammer
✭✭✭✭
Why is TESO overrun by bots?
TESO is new, that means a lot of potential bugs that can be abused are not known to the devs
at launch or considered minor bugs. So there is plenty to abuse. It is supposed to
use beta for bughunting, but most of the testers, especially in open beta, are just there
to get free play time or have a look at the game. They don't report any bugs, sometimes
they complain about them, but they don't report.
Botters are there to look for loopholes, bugs an so on. Those "super efficient guilds" are also looking
for loopholes and glitches like the "kill 20 players quest" to reach level 50 in 1 day.
Those people keep bugs secret so they can abuse them once the game goes live.
Normal people aren't used to to ***, spam abilities, use absolutely random skills
to find unexpected results. Botters are, and they are good at that, that's why they find bugs so easily.
TESO is big, let's say there are 1 million players (the exact number is irrelevant for now).
That means a lot of potential customers for goldsellers, afk levelers, item sellers.
Over time many games opend to casual players, making the game easier, removing barriers, sometimes
offering gold, max level chars, items in their own shops. People are getting used to that. It's no
wonder they expect that in other games too.
Flooding TESO with bots could indicate two things:
The game is supposed to utterly fail within months. They try to get so much money out of it as quickly as possible.
The game is supposed to be a huge success. They plan for the next months when many people reach veteran level and want
more items, horses and such. The amount of bots increased after the first ban wave meaning the second option (success)
is more likely in my opinion.
Teso is big, therefor simple. For example encrypting data streams to hinder bots would take a considerable amount of
computing power meaning more costs. Also causing latency. Players would cry nonstop about it.
Analyzing the streams is normal job for bot programers. They do it after each patch to scan for countermeassuers.
How do bots work?
There are basically two kind of bots.
1. One plays the game, emulating clicks and keyboard and uses the client.
2. The other emulates the client.
3. Not really a bot, multiboxing is a mixture. A software uses the input of a player to multiply it and
spreads it to several clients. You would be playing several games at once. Imagine using ten toy cars but
only one remote control. This is more cheating, not botting. There are games in which it is legal.
4. China farmer... a poor sod playing all day and getting a poor salary for that. Common in country
with very low wages. But also not a bot. Still annoying.
Ok, back to the bots.
1. is quite slow and inefficient because you can't use much of them on a single computer.
2. skips all graphics, sound and can be run on a single machine by the dozen.
Anyway, using a bot has barely any cost when running. Buying the software costs of course.
How do botters work?
Depending on many factors you can't really make a general point about them. But here is a plausible example:
A company has ten computers. On each are ten bots active all the time. He needs 100 accounts to start so he buys 1000.
Botters don't need to steal accounts, that would take to much effort. Meanwhile they actually do pay for them.
The make enough money so it's not a problem. we come back to that later.
100 bots are running, gathering materials, soul gems, items and sell them. They only keep rare/legendary stuff.
Once full they send all the money to gathering accounts. Those accounts won't spam, run around or anything. They
lay low to prevent early detection. Once someone baught something it will be sent from this account.
Now, the banhammer comes down. All farming bots are gone, the mule will be banned in a later step because
they have to be identified manually. That's why farming bots won't be banned on the spot, GMs observe them
to find the seller accounts. Ok, bots are banned, but botters have big stacks of accounts. Setting up next 100 takes
no effort. It is an automated process. One account banned? Skip, use next.
As long they earn more than they have invested they wil continue. There was an interview a few months
ago where a bot company stated they make 4 - 5 times more money per bot than it costs them.
Counter meassuers
Swinging the ban hammer. Sounds good but has little to no effect because botters switch to the next account.
Sometimes innocent players are harmed. Community uproar inevitable.
Botters will buy new accounts, at least a little plus for the companies.
Observing the seller accounts and ban them do the most harm to botters but leave the players angry
because they don't see any progress. Community uproar inevitable.
Sueing the bot programers. Somewhat succesful. Needs years and when finaly done the damage is already there.
If the programmers don't hide in countries who give a ***...
Banning the buyers. Very effective. A banned player won't buy again. He won't buy a new account either.
But he will crying about beeing innocent, claims fraud, wants refund... Community uproar inevitable.
To summarize it:
Bots are cheap, have the advantage of early bugs, many players support botting by paying.
Counter meassures are difficult, can be avoided, need ongoing actions.
Players blame the companies, not the players who activley support botting.
My prediction:
The bot flood will go down in the near future, but the won't disappear. To much players support botting.
Thanks for reading.
TESO is new, that means a lot of potential bugs that can be abused are not known to the devs
at launch or considered minor bugs. So there is plenty to abuse. It is supposed to
use beta for bughunting, but most of the testers, especially in open beta, are just there
to get free play time or have a look at the game. They don't report any bugs, sometimes
they complain about them, but they don't report.
Botters are there to look for loopholes, bugs an so on. Those "super efficient guilds" are also looking
for loopholes and glitches like the "kill 20 players quest" to reach level 50 in 1 day.
Those people keep bugs secret so they can abuse them once the game goes live.
Normal people aren't used to to ***, spam abilities, use absolutely random skills
to find unexpected results. Botters are, and they are good at that, that's why they find bugs so easily.
TESO is big, let's say there are 1 million players (the exact number is irrelevant for now).
That means a lot of potential customers for goldsellers, afk levelers, item sellers.
Over time many games opend to casual players, making the game easier, removing barriers, sometimes
offering gold, max level chars, items in their own shops. People are getting used to that. It's no
wonder they expect that in other games too.
Flooding TESO with bots could indicate two things:
The game is supposed to utterly fail within months. They try to get so much money out of it as quickly as possible.
The game is supposed to be a huge success. They plan for the next months when many people reach veteran level and want
more items, horses and such. The amount of bots increased after the first ban wave meaning the second option (success)
is more likely in my opinion.
Teso is big, therefor simple. For example encrypting data streams to hinder bots would take a considerable amount of
computing power meaning more costs. Also causing latency. Players would cry nonstop about it.
Analyzing the streams is normal job for bot programers. They do it after each patch to scan for countermeassuers.
How do bots work?
There are basically two kind of bots.
1. One plays the game, emulating clicks and keyboard and uses the client.
2. The other emulates the client.
3. Not really a bot, multiboxing is a mixture. A software uses the input of a player to multiply it and
spreads it to several clients. You would be playing several games at once. Imagine using ten toy cars but
only one remote control. This is more cheating, not botting. There are games in which it is legal.
4. China farmer... a poor sod playing all day and getting a poor salary for that. Common in country
with very low wages. But also not a bot. Still annoying.
Ok, back to the bots.
1. is quite slow and inefficient because you can't use much of them on a single computer.
2. skips all graphics, sound and can be run on a single machine by the dozen.
Anyway, using a bot has barely any cost when running. Buying the software costs of course.
How do botters work?
Depending on many factors you can't really make a general point about them. But here is a plausible example:
A company has ten computers. On each are ten bots active all the time. He needs 100 accounts to start so he buys 1000.
Botters don't need to steal accounts, that would take to much effort. Meanwhile they actually do pay for them.
The make enough money so it's not a problem. we come back to that later.
100 bots are running, gathering materials, soul gems, items and sell them. They only keep rare/legendary stuff.
Once full they send all the money to gathering accounts. Those accounts won't spam, run around or anything. They
lay low to prevent early detection. Once someone baught something it will be sent from this account.
Now, the banhammer comes down. All farming bots are gone, the mule will be banned in a later step because
they have to be identified manually. That's why farming bots won't be banned on the spot, GMs observe them
to find the seller accounts. Ok, bots are banned, but botters have big stacks of accounts. Setting up next 100 takes
no effort. It is an automated process. One account banned? Skip, use next.
As long they earn more than they have invested they wil continue. There was an interview a few months
ago where a bot company stated they make 4 - 5 times more money per bot than it costs them.
Counter meassuers
Swinging the ban hammer. Sounds good but has little to no effect because botters switch to the next account.
Sometimes innocent players are harmed. Community uproar inevitable.
Botters will buy new accounts, at least a little plus for the companies.
Observing the seller accounts and ban them do the most harm to botters but leave the players angry
because they don't see any progress. Community uproar inevitable.
Sueing the bot programers. Somewhat succesful. Needs years and when finaly done the damage is already there.
If the programmers don't hide in countries who give a ***...
Banning the buyers. Very effective. A banned player won't buy again. He won't buy a new account either.
But he will crying about beeing innocent, claims fraud, wants refund... Community uproar inevitable.
To summarize it:
Bots are cheap, have the advantage of early bugs, many players support botting by paying.
Counter meassures are difficult, can be avoided, need ongoing actions.
Players blame the companies, not the players who activley support botting.
My prediction:
The bot flood will go down in the near future, but the won't disappear. To much players support botting.
Thanks for reading.
Once I was a healer. Then I took a Wrobel to the knee.
PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!
PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!
0
-
KerinKor✭✭✭✭✭
✭
Why are these forums overrun by posters creating umpteen new threads on subjects already being QQed about in umpteen already existing ones?Haxnschwammer wrote: »Why is TESO overrun by bots?
I can't be bothered dealing with all your points, I'll simply note that as far as taking legal action is concerned, as far as I know only Blizzard have ever successfully sued a hack provider .. and it may be this is the only time legal action has been tried at all .. and even then IIRC Blizzard won on a point of copyright law, NOT on the issue of producing the hack tool itself.
Edited by KerinKor on April 23, 2014 11:11AM0 -
neocomab16_ESO✭✭✭about the success or fail thing I dont think the botters will make up their mind that early. what I do see however is the fact that this game practially is designed to have 3rd party sites selling gold.
You generate gold by doing quests and quests only. normal mobs drop 1-2 pieces of gold. chests drop 20 if you are lucky. I dont know dungeons right of my mind atm but shouldnt get you more.
Stuff is expensive. repair bills are enormous. mounts cost a ton although this is probably also to advertise their imperial edition. smart move maybe, but also disgustingly abusive.
plus gold sinks are pretty hard. 15% cut when using the auction house before you have sold anything? Well the last time I mentioned guild trading house thingy in guild chat of my 500 peeps trading only guild all I got was a "ah? bleeh" cause it's to expensive and to unsafe to actually sell stuff. When gold is somewhat rare unless you duped it, you think twice trying to sell stuff over the vendors.
however ...what I dont get is why there are so many bots. I mean, they cant generate enough gold by drops only. that wont work. guilds wont invite them so they can sell their stuff. at least in most cases. however that would explain the flood of bots farming bosses. they vendor the blues right away. would explain the high amount of bots plus if you are multiboxing 8 account this means 8 blues for you which is about 400 gold roughly.0