The Elder Scrolls Online

Bots, Bots and .......Bots!

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  • Sunbite
    Sunbite
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    I saw something quite amusing involving a teleporting harvesting bot and a wolf. The bot had aggroed the wolf and the wolf was chasing after it. It knew exactly where the bot was going to appear next. Obviously I couldn't chase but when the bot ported to 2-3 nodes close to each other the wolf charged off in the right direction as the bot flitted between each node. Unfortunately the bot didn't hang around log enough for the wolf to do much damage.
    ZOS should introduce special mobs that make it their duty to rid Tamriel of this botting scourge :)
  • ZeBlade
    ZeBlade
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    I am in game now and for lol the last what hour the gold spam does NOT have to change there name. NO ONE is watching. Yet this does not bother me since this is one of those MMO where NO ONE talks. Other then to sell :(

    WOW were the forums right huh? Well I read so many times before launch how this game ESO will be a bot and gold sellers heaven. How in the WORLD can we get it right yet ESO is like clueless? I dont get gold spam mail, no they are now selling ITEMS. Its been 4 weeks and its worse then last week.

    No go to ANY dungeon you will find 10+ bots. Report them and you will still see 10 more the next day. You now see them OUT SIDE the dungeons killing NPC that re-spawn. This is by far the worse MMO I have ever seen when it comes to bots. MOST mmos you can talk to some GM in game..haha not here. No..

    So I did cancel my account. I was told over two days ago "we are very sorry for even I have come across this. Please give us two more days" Well that came and went no updates nothing. If they can get you to SUB past 30days.your STUCK for another 30. So I didnt wait and they did not do anything. They just wanted my money.

    I am not like most. I do not have to put up with this. It is not my job to fix this. Again this is by far the worse MMO I have ever seen when it comes to bots. Yes all have it at the start but they are on it with the the 1st 3 weeks (most). So far ESO has done nothing but ban. This does nothing to stop them they just come back

    If you do nothing say nothing your are just as bad. Stand up EXPECT something for you $60!
    Edited by ZeBlade on April 27, 2014 9:34PM
  • BenjaminKacher_ESO
    BenjaminKacher_ESO
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    *** READ THIS ***

    Ok, now that you've read that, as I've said in the other 1000000000 threads on bots the #1 way to combat bots is to BAN EVERYONE THAT BUYS GOLD. Kill the customers off and without anyone to sell to their business will dry up and they'll leave the game.
  • BenjaminKacher_ESO
    BenjaminKacher_ESO
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    ZeBlade wrote: »
    ...
    So I did cancel my account.
    ...

    Can Haz ur stuff?

    Edited by BenjaminKacher_ESO on April 27, 2014 9:40PM
  • Walden_Grimtine
    Walden_Grimtine
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    It seems to me that Zen has done a very good job of cleaning up the bots in public dungeons and the gold spammers. For this, I offer thanks. It also seems that as soon as the botters realized that dungeon boss farming would mean insta death they changed tactics and the node/collection quest farming is their response. Makes me wonder if this wasn't already planned by the botters ahead of time.

    Anyway, Zen did finally answer the calls to clean up the dungeons and gold spammers, so now please do the same with these nodes and collection quests.

    Thanks

  • Mailmann
    Mailmann
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    Walden_Grimtine wrote: »
    It seems to me that Zen has done a very good job of cleaning up the bots in public dungeons and the gold spammers. For this, I offer thanks. It also seems that as soon as the botters realized that dungeon boss farming would mean insta death they changed tactics and the node/collection quest farming is their response. Makes me wonder if this wasn't already planned by the botters ahead of time.

    Anyway, Zen did finally answer the calls to clean up the dungeons and gold spammers, so now please do the same with these nodes and collection quests.

    Thanks
    That is going to take a whole lot more GMs. I suppose they could just ban everyone once or twice a week and everyone who asks to have their account reinstated is probably not a gold seller/bot... I kid, I kid. :p

  • Tipsy
    Tipsy
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    I just reported like a hundred of the teleporting hackers in coldharbour rags.And missed 300 of them while I was reporting.
    Some even have the interaction window disabled somehow so you can't push F and report them,have to take screenshots and type it over.
    except for 2 with very long names of three words
    all the others had gibberish names of the same amount of characters 1 word.Perhaps they have a program that randomly generates them?
    I just hope they'll be able to get it under controle

    Fell's run rivenspire EU is terrible at the moment by the way because of the 100's of teleporting hackers in rag.
    I camped at Galvedien's house for like an hour reporting them none stop as they came.
    But there is no end to them...
    Edited by Tipsy on April 27, 2014 10:08PM
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/462527/champion-of-the-gods-deadra-worship-cp-to-next-level
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/464219/out-of-combat-personality-mood-actionbar
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279458/content-packs-for-organizing-guild-events
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/276626/suggestion-alliance-specific-justice-system-revisit-the-innocent-npc-label
  • Woogawoman
    Woogawoman
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    Anyone have an opinion on whether they are using the default "port to player" function, or using some exploit to jump to specific coordinates?

    Regardless, it seems like putting the brakes on the teleporting would put a serious crimp in their working models overall. I'd be more than willing to enter some sort of "captcha" or other mechanism when I opt to port to another player, just to prove I'm a human being behind the keyboard.
    Aetherium Oblivion Alliance - 40+ Mature Gamers Guild (NA)
  • awkwarrd
    awkwarrd
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    Dunhilda wrote: »
    Could people please stop giving ZoS ways to hurt their legit players?
    I stopped reading after this, because so far.. it's a real possibility that ZOS will take that action against everyone instead of just the bots.
  • TheKing1nYellow
    TheKing1nYellow
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    The OP's thread title really has me wanting to compose a parody of LMFAO's "Shots" called.....you guessed it...BOTS!!
  • LadyDestiny
    LadyDestiny
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    starkerealm wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Was this the manor house with the bank? Standing in front of the throne? If so, yeah, that's a bot. I keep seeing one whenever I log in on my AD characters. Basically he... or, she in my case, seems to be receiving mail from dungeon bots and is doing... something, with it, I'm not sure what, but that's the only reason I can think it's going into it's inventory.

    I reported this same bot after seeing it for several days and also noticed a couple others that had moved into the bank and seems there is always 2 or three just outside running the same sneak, jump and then pilfer through my bag macro. Seems like there are a few that run around nearby wearing vulkhal guard costumes as well trying not to look to suspicious....lol Oh and also there was one guy in the bank, level 3 with some name of Satan's something or other( I won't type the whole name) spamming about joining his trading guild in what looked like asian trying to type broken english. Very suspicious to me.......;)
    Edited by LadyDestiny on April 28, 2014 8:14AM
  • Phinix1
    Phinix1
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    How terribly designed must this engine be to allow such blatant exploitation that permits these teleport bots to function without instantly disconnecting them?

    Combined with the inherent instability I have experienced, I have come to the conclusion I can no longer trust this game engine any more than I would an insecure wireless router in a Chinese internet cafe.

    This harkens back to the "script kiddie" days of AOL instant messenger. Every thumb-speak lowlife on the twitter-web will have all his little "apps" ready to mash to his lobotomized heart's content, and as far as I am concerned, this game is just a conduit for potential compromise of my system's security.

    If they can't get this OBVIOUS exploitation under control after a month of prime time, I have NO confidence they can prevent the more serious offenses. I am very seriously reconsidering ever again allowing this monstrosity through my firewall.
  • Moroch
    Moroch
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    AlienDiplomat wrote: »
    How terribly designed must this engine be to allow such blatant exploitation that permits these teleport bots to function without instantly disconnecting them?

    These multi-hack tools aren't unique to this game. Guildwars2 has experienced similar issues and are still developing ways of combating it.
    AlienDiplomat wrote: »
    This harkens back to the "script kiddie" days of AOL instant messenger. Every thumb-speak lowlife on the twitter-web will have all his little "apps" ready to mash to his lobotomised heart's content, and as far as I am concerned, this game is just a conduit for potential compromise of my system's security.

    1. a lobotomy is done in the brain... not the heart.
    2. you need anti-virus, Avast! is free and has good reviews.
    3. these multi-hacks affect the server... not your computer. I'm not saying that opening your system up to the internet is without its risks, but these hacks are designed to influence what the server thinks... not what your computer thinks. You computer just picks up the effects from the server.
    AlienDiplomat wrote: »
    If they can't get this OBVIOUS exploitation under control after a month of prime time, I have NO confidence they can prevent the more serious offenses. I am very seriously reconsidering ever again allowing this monstrosity through my firewall.

    What lines of code would you add to solve this "OBVIOUS" exploit? What would you do better with your programming experience? I'd be interested to know how someone as perfect as you would handle the situation? Have you applied for a job at ZMO to fix all this yet?
    "Go fiddling with any locks around here and we're going to have a real problem"
  • ryanmc_ESO
    ryanmc_ESO
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    Bots are the number one issue at this point... steps have been taken.. and I have seen it in game.. not enough. Its being worked aggressively, but the bots are winning sadly.
  • KerinKor
    KerinKor
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    ✭
    Moroch wrote: »
    What lines of code would you add to solve this "OBVIOUS" exploit? What would you do better with your programming experience? I'd be interested to know how someone as perfect as you would handle the situation? Have you applied for a job at ZMO to fix all this yet?
    So the subject of this is tele-bots .. you mean the line of code that says "this character moved x distance in less that y time which can't happen"?

    That one?

    Pathing bots are harder but are still detectable with some persistent state data attached to the character to recall it's actions in the last, say, 5 minutes. It's a background task that samples characters for analysis, but it's a well-known theory in other contexts equally applicable to a real-time game.
    Edited by KerinKor on April 28, 2014 8:48AM
  • Moroch
    Moroch
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    KerinKor wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    So the subject of this is tele-bots .. you mean the line of code that says "this character moved x distance in less that y time which can't happen"?

    That one?

    I doubt it is as easy as that... I am not going to pretend I know how a game is programmed even at its simplest level, but I am going to apply some logic and assume that if it is still happening, it isn't as simple as you seem to think it is. I don't think a single "catch-all" line of code can be applied. Everytime you use the Wayshrines you would be triggering the rule, therefore exclusions need to be added. Then there would be exclusions for teleports triggered by quests etc.

    Apart from that, what if just by some chance that code interferes with something else. As stated I don't know much about code, but I've added enough mods to Skyrim to know that the more script/code you are dealing with, the more unstable it is too.

    As much as people want this fixed, I think it's a case of easier said than done. If someone has an ACTUAL usable solution... they need to submit that to ZMO surely? Not just say "Hey Zeni! Fix this like this yeh? Cos like what are you doing it's easy. Just put a code in what says this and it's done yeah?"
    "Go fiddling with any locks around here and we're going to have a real problem"
  • ZIKE
    ZIKE
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    It much easier to spot a Gold Farmer as apposed to a Gold Buyer. I'd take caution in banning accounts suspected of buying the gold simply due to the risk of banning innocent players. If someone hates another person, all they would have to go is go buy gold in their name to get their account banned

    I don't believe this Gold Farmers are using hacked accounts or even stolen credit cards. I'm sure they make more then enough money off gold sales to recoup the cost of the banned accounts. The are most likely using game cards to make it hard to ban bots based on the credit card on file.

    Most banned accounts have bots that have almost reached level 50 in most cases. This means those accounts have helped turned a profit, justifying the risk of getting banned.

    Lets all be realistic about this problem. If the GM's continue to expedite the banning process for accounts botting, then they will eventually get to the point profits are not being made and the bot companies will have to back off.

    The player base is ZOS's best resource for combating the problem. If they simply responded with urgency to reports of bots, the problem would have ended a long time ago.
  • KerinKor
    KerinKor
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    ✭
    Moroch wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    I doubt it is as easy as that
    I doubt it too, but I'm totally positive it's not hard let alone impossible, by definition pos-hacks make a character move at speeds that are grossly impossible, orders of magnitude faster than normal players, so there aren't too many 'grey' areas here.

    Sure, it may put a bit of load on a server, but then so are the bots, eliminate the bots and the load will go down, a LOT more than movement checks.

    As I alluded to, not all checks like this need to be in real-time, suspicious movement could be detected pretty easily than then hived-off to a background process to analyse.

    Pathing theory is very, very well understood, lots of a game's AI uses it, the fact it is should have been burned-in when the server software was developed, adding it as an after-thought .. even though 15 years on MMOs made this a guaranteed issue in ESO .. makes it harder.

    Edited by KerinKor on April 28, 2014 9:09AM
  • ryanmc_ESO
    ryanmc_ESO
    ✭
    The bots at present are far to "public" to be a part of any elaborate scheme to deceive end users. These bots are damn brazen, porting everywhere.. farming anything in range. Bots exist in established MMO's but you don't see them, that's how a good bot works. Right Sir Davos?
  • philco25b16_ESO
    philco25b16_ESO
    Soul Shriven
    I was standing in Stormhaven near the gate to Rivenspire, every 5s or so, I could see a lvl 2-4 with a strange name and in tutorial clothes appear and then disappear...
    Kinda funny and sad at same time...
    I still don't understand how it can still happen 4 weeks after launch or simple things like gold sellers in zone chat and mails

    I can't believe unpayed add-ons developpers can do better than payed developpers teams, working full time with the original game code.
    I can't believe either they can't use/add checks to see where from/to characters are zoning in/out and at which level...

    The thing I can believe is that some décisions making people at Zenimax think it's not a problem that big, that the teams should focus on something else (like new stuff... 1.1) instead of dealing with current problems.

    Like it really needed 4 weeks to fix the bug of german speaking Guardians in Glenumbra when it's probably just a few wrong audio resources IDs... it's all about management priorities and atm the focus isn't that much on bots.

    30 min later, probably saw 250-300 bots at the gate, everything is fine....
  • KerinKor
    KerinKor
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    philco25b16_ESO wrote: »
    I can't believe unpayed add-ons developpers
    These aren't "add-ons" many are pretty sophisticated hacks which are SOLD.

  • philco25b16_ESO
    philco25b16_ESO
    Soul Shriven
    KerinKor wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    These aren't "add-ons" many are pretty sophisticated hacks which are SOLD.

    Sorry if I wasn't clear, I was talking about add-ons developpers that manage to do good mail/chat filters which Zenimax can't/don't want to do.
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