What do you think will help against the fight against botter's and hackers?

Chryos

Discuss your solutions for the bot/farming problems.

Runefell

First off, I'd say they should put an end to those teleporting bots that simply teleport from one node to another.

Nox_Aeterna

The problem when dealing with bots , is that they might hurt normal players while doing so.

"Give dungeon bosses random respawn time windows." is exactly that kind of thing , normal players should be able to kill the boss without much hassle , that is the whole point of this.

Clearly what the bots want , are the drops. Reducing them , will again hurt player that were just farming , but it might be the only way.

Maybe they could change the blue to 100% drop and make the boss only drop loot each 6 hours?

This is just an idea , im not saying i know the solution.

Chryos

Implement 1, 2, 3.

@‌Nox_Aeterna

Making an item "LORE" will make it so that the person can only have one of those items in their inventory at one time instead of having multiples of the same item.

Chryos

Implement 1, 2, 3.

Maybe you guys are not familiar with these terms:

LORE: Only one type of a specified item in your inventory at a time (I.E. armor)
NO DROP: usually reserved for end game gear that is non tradeable,( but merchant sellable)

These wouldnt apply to trash loot, but the kinds of items sold in the virtual black market or items that are duped.

Chryos

Implement 1, 2, 3.

Random respawns in a random location within a specified location, or instanced bosses either with solo or group. I'm no game developer so these technical issues may or may not be possible, this is what other MMORPGS have had to do. Thanks hackers and botters for destroying the gaming industry.

Sadae

How about some intelligent programming and common sense. Until game makers just make the effort they will never stop bots & hacks.

- Make a binary encrypted API that sits between the client and server that is much more difficult to reverse engineer.
- Randomly rotate command codes so that by the time the hackers figure anything out it has changed again.
- Insta-ban any client that ever sends an invalid or incorrect command.
- Don't use game codes. They can be hacked too. The bots don't actually pay for their accounts. Along with the above implementation, if they lost $60 every time they attempted illicit activity they'd give up REAL fast! Boxed versions should only come with install disks, and require online payment and activation.

Simply, done, BAM! No more bots, no more hacks.

reggielee

i didnt see an option for banning gold buyers. without profit the bots would go away to better pastures.

i did like the random node placement as now we are seeing 'pathing bots' in pve landscape running to each known node placement to harvest repeatedly

Izzban

Diminishing returns. Bosses give full XP/loot first time, and diminish rapidly. At least for the dungeons, might help.

Thete

Preventing hacking is simplicity itself. At the very least, all players should get an in game message (maybe an emial too) from ZOS every month advising people to change their password. You should not be permitted to use a password that's been used by that account before.

A better solution would be the use of authenticators as well.

For bots, this is more difficult. Many of the solutions put forward hurt the genuine players but are nothing more than an annoyance for farmers and bots. I do feel that the long term solution has to be a technical one which largely prevents it. I'd also make it quick and simple to report people.

Sadae

@Thete - I'm not referring to hacking accounts, but to game hacks. ie: teleport to gathering nodes, speed hacks, etc. They are not legal commands, and the server should auto-detect and auto-ban all such actions.

Thete

Sadae wrote: »

@Thete - I'm not referring to hacking accounts, but to game hacks. ie: teleport to gathering nodes, speed hacks, etc. They are not legal commands, and the server should auto-detect and auto-ban all such actions.

Ah, I see. That being said, it is still related. If gold farmers can't steal accounts, then they have a major problem. It's not really worthwhile them buying a new account every few days to carry out their activities.

Cearly, the game needs to be able to automatically detect illegal actions as I said. Making the activities less appealling hurts us and not the farmers in any serious way.

knaveofengland

with the boss drops first kill get the good stuff after that ,next kill low xp and very low value loot,
as for the nodes random is good maybe all can harvest it 1 time a day like 24 hours so all have a chance to harvest .
eso to make a video how to spot botters etc so all can report the real bots etc and not real players who are in wrong place or reported so getting to chest quicker.

DanMan3395

Hire dedicated bot/farming investigators.

Chryos wrote: »

Discuss your solutions for the bot/farming problems.

Reality check, they need to just outlaw all script input software, even the smart keyboard ones, and close the api down. There is no other lasting solution.

Sadae

DanMan3395 wrote: »

Chryos wrote: »

Discuss your solutions for the bot/farming problems.

Reality check, they need to just outlaw all script input software, even the smart keyboard ones, and close the api down. There is no other lasting solution.

Neither of those are how bots & hacks are done. That wouldn't help anything. The hackers intercept the packet data and write custom software to modify it.

Keyboard macros could never be sophisticated enough to bot with (you need input data as well as output anyway), and the API provides nothing that would allow automated tasks.

Zephyr

Make dungeon boss drops (lore/nodrop/bind on pickup)

They can't take legal action against bot designers because it is just a scripting program, they usually just run over macros through a program that does it in rotations, its not something they could really do. I vote they put a spy cam in the public dungeons and watch people to see what they are doing, ban the botters on spot with an IP ban.

krapmyself

Figure out another way.

I've used knockbacks, as suggested by other players, to push boss that heal themselves into spots that are hard to reach for the bots, maybe one or two bots can hit it, but it won't register with other bots since they are scripted to take only a direct route to the boss. This action prevents the couple of bots hitting the boss from killing it, since it heals itself and the bots get nothing until a player comes along to kill it for the achievement or the loot.

krapmyself

Figure out another way.

well, looks they are doing something about it.


http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/87348/is-this-a-legit-message?new=1

Spyder51

Someone in zone chat saw a "blue/green-like ghost" smiting bots this morning before NA went down for maintenance.

ESO - I'm impressed.

Catches_the_Sun

Make crafting nodes in randomized locations.

I'd like to see the harvesting nodes go to random locations, and I'd also like to see the same for dungeon bosses. Make the bosses rotate between a few different spots.

vizionblind_ESO

Implement 1, 2, 3.

legal action lol

Gwarok

Implement 1, 2, 3.

and 6 and 7 (To much? ) ...as for 2 maybe, if you MUST interact with the boss, say for example questlines, phase it (like a "dream state"-for lack of a better meaning) for those that only have the quest.

thilog

Hire dedicated bot/farming investigators.

Chryos wrote: »

Maybe you guys are not familiar with these terms:

LORE: Only one type of a specified item in your inventory at a time (I.E. armor)
NO DROP: usually reserved for end game gear that is non tradeable,( but merchant sellable)

These wouldnt apply to trash loot, but the kinds of items sold in the virtual black market or items that are duped.

The problem is, with this, is these items would be deconstructed.. it isn't the drops they want, it's the tempers and raw materials. Doing the above would be pointless, just like in wow. No drops are just sold.

This is a community game, people like to give stuff to each other.. you can't do that if everything is no drop or lore. And an entire aspect of the game design becomes pointless.

It's one of the reasons I quit wow after 4 years of play.. Designers don't have the right to tell the players how they can or cannot act towards each other in this respect and I don't give a damn who makes the game, we're paying for it.

They need:
1/ Players to report botters.
2/ Staff to verify and follow/track botters and botter accounts.
3/ Staff to make judgements and ban them.

They could do the wow thing.. wait until they hit 50.. and ban them.. or do it on the spot.. which I'd personally prefer.

I do think they should make spawns harder depending on amount of players, maybe spawn random elite mobs, which would overcome botter groups. But the real issue is the design of the game, which is allowing easy creation of op bots. Templars aren't being used to play the game.. they are being used to grind mats and work as crafters.. hell I am doing the same thing with mine, I'm make a proper gaming character.. my templar is just a grinding crafter now. It's all he's good for.

frwinters_ESO

I say hunt them down KGB style. Trace some IP addresses, break some legs, one day we all notice they are magically gone, and there was much rejoicing.

Tannakaobi

Hire dedicated bot/farming investigators.

Investigate and ban, but also other ways. Like loot timers ect...

NovaMarx

Figure out another way.

I just find it sad that the reason we have all these bot problems, are that there are ppl out there who actually make it worth their while!!
We can all rage against the bots and gold spammers and so on, but it's all because of the ppl who actually buy their gold and items!!
I definitely think that there should be something done, be it one of the points mentioned in the poll or something entirely different, but the real problem are those who fuel the fire - those who buy from the bot-owners!

I'm trying desperately to ignore this whole ordeal, but it's pretty difficult to enjoy the game with all the bots standing around everywhere. Immersion is near impossible in some locations! Crossing my fingers that there will eventually be a fix!!!
Until then I'll just sit back, relax, and have a

Sadae

I'm just stunned that after over two decades of online gaming that game makers STILL haven't prepared for bots/farmers/hackers BEFORE release. And honestly, the best way to deal with it is by doing what they did to D3 in the last major expansion: make everything self-found only. No trading, of anything, period. You want it, earn it yourself! There is no market for the farmers, so they don't come.

Chryos

Implement 1, 2, 3.

"I say hunt them down KGB style. Trace some IP addresses, break some legs, one day we all notice they are magically gone, and there was much rejoicing."

I like this suggestion the best.

Chryos

Implement 1, 2, 3.

I was just throwing out suggestions to try the poll. But yeah your (the community), suggestions are mostly better than mine!.

Loxy37

Non of the above. Simple, Devalue gold. Make it easy to come by and have a currency that is bound to the character for purchase of high ticket things like a horse or PvP gear. Bots Stopped!

reggielee

restrict the ability for a built-in scripting interface via the addon interface. Im willing to lose my addons to stop these losers