Coldharbour bots

Sakiri

Hexi wrote: »

RunAway wrote: »

Easy way to fix the problem? Have in game PLAYER moderators. /thread

This has never, ever ended well.

Guide program for EQ says otherwise.

And Im an advocate for warden, honestly.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warden_(software)

martinb16_ESO80

@Dodece I will take what you said for face value and conclude that you are incredible naive. If you have 5 - 8 toons in shriven gear, all running EXACTLY the same path for hours, then this is not something a human could even do. A human would at least stray a bit from his path, these bots don't.

Also, I doubt there are dozens of players who all make alts with names like Xnnbby, Ynnbbx or similar and then farm on these level 3 toons in cold harbour. Regarding money, they don't even needs to sell those on a guildstore. If these bots farm herbs that sell 1G a piece, and mail them all to a another toon who then vendors them, they still make 100G per stack. If you now imagine they have multiple bots doing this 24/7, it still makes them enough money.

sociald100ub17_ESO

You cant confuse lvl 1 and 2 for vr1 and 2 because you start regular gameplay at lower than lvl 3 you leave the intro and you are level 3.
I saw a bunch of bots last night in coldharbor myself Now I did see what appeared to be a real player or two running around with them tagging the mobs also so they would also get loot. but there was probably 8-10 bots along with maybe 2 real players. they were over by the zombies on the east side.
As to how they get there well all they need to do is get one player there and the rest can travel to them if they are friended or in a bot guild or group. ( yea there are or at least were, bot guilds I have had a bunch of them try to invite me to guilds with nonsense gibberish guild names.

Seravi

I've reported the same bots for the past four days in Davons Watch. Literally every single jute node I run across has 3 bots on it. In Davons Watch, the ghost area right outside the main city has three bots per ghost so it is almost impossible to complete the quest because they get the ghosts and other quest related things before you can.

Cry_Wolfe

Hexi wrote: »

Simple fix.

You can't teleport to players/guildies/group members that are in a zone you have literally no business being in. Legitimate players have no reason to be in coldharbour at that level because you get no xp for mobs over/under 5 levels anyway, Like, you can't teleport to CH, which is a 45+ zone until you are 40, for example. -5 lvls of the lowest mobs in the zone would be reasonable.

What the bots are doing there... I have no idea. Probably exploiting some insta spawning resource nodes. Or completing quests, getting a few k gold, deleting character, remaking character, rinse and repeat since you alwayus get quest rewards regardless of level.

It would also stop lowbies from getting Vamp/WW though, but that might be an acceptable drawback.

EDIT: Though admittedly, I might be biased as I have 2 lvl25ish Vampires myself.

I have a couple of crafting alts that i have no intention of leveling into vet content levels. When the time comes for crafting a certain set I will be using the guild and party and friend teleport to get as close to the crafting tables as i can then run there.

Is that not legitimate?

Cry_Wolfe

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them. Even low level avatars can be accounted for as being crafting alts. Basically in hollow city you can do in a couple hours what would take a week anywhere else in the game world. It isn't just that there are a lot of plants, but they spawn quickly.

I found myself in a train with half a dozen real players last night. We were all just running around that pool like lunatics. Trying to outrun one another to the next spawn. The temptations to run around like mindless automatons is there. I can easily see players creating alts just to stock up off of those nodes. I really don't see it being a bot friendly environment. Just a necessary evil for the player that needs a ton of ingredients to keep them, and their friends stocked up.

If bots really are doing that. Then all I can say is how the mighty have fallen. It really amounts to collecting garbage off the ground. No Alchemist is going to pay them for the materials. Well let me rephrase it. Nobody is going to pay them a mint for common plants. Uncommon ones. Well that may be a different story.

I have no idea if you are trolling,
Bots are robotic in the exact nature of their pathing, behavior that no human can copy with any exactitude over extended lengths of repetition.

I bid you to try to run a two point path, turning 180 degrees at the end of each point without stopping, do this for 3 days without deviating from the path except to kill mobs as they spawn. If and when you have deviated from the path make sure you return to one of the two points to start again, and not return to the actual path inbetween the two points.

TLDR? ~Bots do not act like humans, their decision process is robotic.

lioslinn

You do realize all this gold they are making gets sold for real life money to the idiots dumb enough to buy in game gold. If people wouldn't buy any (or gear etc) there would be no market, so no bots.

I'm sure when people buy gold from them they try to steal that account info and use it to run more bots. I seriously doubt they are using legitimate accounts.

They always seem to be a step ahead. I've also reported the jute bots in stonefalls for over a week now. The bots change but the problem remains. I've heard them talking Chinese heh. If you aoe them or keep the loot window open to lock the nodes 90% of the time they react, leave to another node or attack the mob. So there is clearly someone supervising....

Oogaci

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them. Even low level avatars can be accounted for as being crafting alts. Basically in hollow city you can do in a couple hours what would take a week anywhere else in the game world. It isn't just that there are a lot of plants, but they spawn quickly.

I found myself in a train with half a dozen real players last night. We were all just running around that pool like lunatics. Trying to outrun one another to the next spawn. The temptations to run around like mindless automatons is there. I can easily see players creating alts just to stock up off of those nodes. I really don't see it being a bot friendly environment. Just a necessary evil for the player that needs a ton of ingredients to keep them, and their friends stocked up.

If bots really are doing that. Then all I can say is how the mighty have fallen. It really amounts to collecting garbage off the ground. No Alchemist is going to pay them for the materials. Well let me rephrase it. Nobody is going to pay them a mint for common plants. Uncommon ones. Well that may be a different story.

Absolutely not, anyone with even an average IQ can identify a bot and tell the difference between a real player and an automated/scripted program. There is a specific way the 'bots' move versus a real player.

As for your last paragraph if you think nobody is going to pay for common plants then I want to know what MMO's you have been playing. Many of the player's that max crafting and sell a lot of crafted items on the market buy all of their crafting materials with the money they earn from grinding and that doesn't even take into consideration the vast amounts of players that actually buy these things from the 'botting' companies that are selling it.

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to stop hiding your head in the sand and look around and get to know your surroundings once in a while.

Botak

ZOS_TristanK wrote: »

Hi, folks. Thank you for reporting the bots. We ask that when you see bots in-game you report them using the /help function to alert our Support Team. We are actively working to fight against bots in ESO every day, and reports from players like yourselves help us in this quest. Thank you!

These bots move constantly and they stack together and hard to target it 1 by 1. They also roaming in the dungeon too killing the mob that spawn.

Glog

Not just Coldharbour, they are everywhere since the boss nerf happen.

I literally just stepped into Rivenspire today and the very first quest area there are around 10 bots doing the "snake running" in circles killing everything in their path.

Then in the very same zone just a few clicks west at "Ravenwatch Castle" the area where bloodfiends spawn for questing, another group of 10+ bots run through the entire quest area killing anything they come in contact with.

I honestly couldnt be arsed to report everyone of them as they are constant on the move and group tight doing fighting. So i just reported one and said "hey there are 9 mores following this one i reported, you gotta deal with that yourself". xD

Zershar_Vemod

I am currently witnessing dozens, and literally DOZENS of level 3 bots entering Coldharbor via the Hollow City wayshrine. They are coming in in a constant speed of ~4 seconds.

I am on the Aldmeri side currently - seriously send someone in-game to this location and start auto-banning for the next couple of hours, days, etc. Get an intern if need be.

Vodkaphile

Oogaci wrote: »

ZOS biggest mistake in all of this is their 'reactive' approach to bots. They wait for us (the players) to do the leg work and then they react.

Customer service is not a 'reactive' industry it is a proactive industry where you anticipate ahead of time and make initial preparations. They need to be logging into the game and actively looking for bots, not waiting for us to report them and then taking days to go through report tickets, game logs, etc. They are making things worse than they need to be for themselves and for their customers.

You dont think they're actively looking for bots? My God, is everyone really this inept?

You are noticing it more in ESO as a quirk of the megaserver. WoW probably has 10 times the amount of bots, it's just a more spread out issue. The visibility of them in ESO is what is giving ZoS a bad rep, however, the bad rep comes from people who dont understand the botting industry in the slightest.

Fighting bots is a full time job. It will ALWAYS be reactive by the nature of what you're fighting - client side automation. Unless you want them to install invasive software on your computer (yeah, that would go over real well I think, care to be the first volunteer?) to detect automation, it will remain a reactive fight. Blizzard still battles this with WoW some 10 years after the game launched.

Seriously people, open your eyes. You are asking for the impossible. ZoS cannot predict what is happening on a client unless it pertains to the game files and core system information, they cannot detect macroing / automation of any kind. No MMO company can.

Zershar_Vemod

Well some of us have been sending tickets on where to have CS pretty much sit down and camp to see the bots in action. There are certain instances that concern bots always being in a certain place at a certain time; and with this thread's purpose - a definite steady amount of bots coming to Coldharbor every few seconds.

lioslinn

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them.

You're kidding right?!

Intro to gold farmers
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvHcoqru7I

Bromburak

Bots are one thing but if they really Level 3 its a severe wayshrine bug.
Anyway what the heck they want in coldharbor with Level 3, just farming high nodes?

Pull some AOE mobs near by to them and they dead.

ElliottXO

lioslinn wrote: »

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them.

You're kidding right?!

Intro to gold farmers
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvHcoqru7I

Don't even try man. We had similar people seriously saying that the dungeon bots were legitimate players.

Some people are either not capable to see the obvious or it's gold farmers themselves posting here.

ElliottXO

lioslinn wrote: »

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them.

You're kidding right?!

Intro to gold farmers
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvHcoqru7I

Don't even try man. We had similar people seriously saying that the dungeon bots were legitimate players.

Some people are either not capable to see the obvious or it's gold farmers themselves posting here.

Perseas

all happens because people do buy gold and then they complain about bots.

for the above video @ 26 minues, he speaks, how the spamming system works. It is hacked accounts. I wonder if they allready hacked accounts in eso, because there are many who spam websites.

I think the guy who takes the interview, is the dev from the "eternal darkness"? and the most recent failed to be founded "shadow of the eternals"? He looks like him.

I wonder what is he doing with a king of gold farming.. lol (but I think this company have a very doggy past).

Laurinsrvb16_ESO

Bump for this

Kililin

It is very, *very* obvious if you are facing a farm group running circles or a bot train.
e.g. they alwas run the exact route, all of them. if there is a place that normally has a respawn but it is killed, all of them go there wait for half a second than carry on, even the ones lagging behind. No real player would do that, except if he roleplays a bot, i dunno...

Wizzo91 wrote: »

Hundreds of them? God damn.

I've been very lucky regarding bots. Have not seen a single one.
When did you guys start seeing them? I've played since early access so maybe I always outleveled them.

The VR areas are bot free.

Yet, the same has been said for coldharbour while the bots where only seen in low lvl dungeons. They level to VR1 in a matter of like 2 days, ZOS is slower in banning them...

Probably they are working hard to script storyline quests.

Even if i am wrong, it is still an unfixable damage to the economy.
But the worst part is, that i despise seeing them, really i hate it. Dont even know why, maybe because it reminds me of the stupidity of goldbuyers and powerlevel purchaser, paying to not play the game.

killedbyping

Perseas wrote: »

but the first story quest demands u to be lvl 9-10... How is it possible bots to quest in coldharbour, the finish of the entire story line.

You can get into any location by simply use Travel to Player if this player have access to this location.
After that, you may use Wayshrine to TP there as usual.

Hexi

HarryWolfe wrote: »

Hexi wrote: »

Simple fix.

You can't teleport to players/guildies/group members that are in a zone you have literally no business being in. Legitimate players have no reason to be in coldharbour at that level because you get no xp for mobs over/under 5 levels anyway, Like, you can't teleport to CH, which is a 45+ zone until you are 40, for example. -5 lvls of the lowest mobs in the zone would be reasonable.

What the bots are doing there... I have no idea. Probably exploiting some insta spawning resource nodes. Or completing quests, getting a few k gold, deleting character, remaking character, rinse and repeat since you alwayus get quest rewards regardless of level.

It would also stop lowbies from getting Vamp/WW though, but that might be an acceptable drawback.

EDIT: Though admittedly, I might be biased as I have 2 lvl25ish Vampires myself.

I have a couple of crafting alts that i have no intention of leveling into vet content levels. When the time comes for crafting a certain set I will be using the guild and party and friend teleport to get as close to the crafting tables as i can then run there.

Is that not legitimate?

Yes, yes it is. Just like getting vampirism at low levels. I also have low level crafter but I still maintain that it's an acceptable casualty to prevent bots from doing what they are doing.

gladen5rwb17_ESO

Here is the thing. They are 'everywhere'. In every zone. Often I just log off because I cannot harvest what I need to level. I log onto a higher level character, log off because I am disgusted that bots level 3-6 are in those zones as well, harvesting everything.
They have infested the Alliances like a virus. It turns me off logging in, every day I am in competition with bots and I am sick to death with it.

concobar

ElliottXO wrote: »

lioslinn wrote: »

Dodece wrote: »

I think what we have here is most likely a profound misunderstanding. In reality these are probably real players, and they are just running in circles harvesting the high concentration of plants the zone affords them.

You're kidding right?!

Intro to gold farmers
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvHcoqru7I

Don't even try man. We had similar people seriously saying that the dungeon bots were legitimate players.

Some people are either not capable to see the obvious or it's gold farmers themselves posting here.

I know in the FPS i play (BF4) cheats always stick together on the forums. If one gets found out for aim botting or wall hacking you see a swarm of others post comments to defend the cheat and telling you to L2P. turns out that the people who sale the cheat progs tell their costumers to do such as it muddies the waters.

Iorail

Wizzo91 wrote: »

The VR areas are bot free.

And you know why? it requires you to finish the story line quest to make it to the veteran zones, but up to Cold Harbour all you need is to party with a player there and travel to them, that's what it needs to be fix. You can't travel to the veteran zones by doing the above = No bots.

Veakoth

I've seen these bots with speed and no clip hacks so they are getting bolder just doing this in plain sight and its very off putting especially to new player i suspect.

InspectorGanja

ZOS_TristanK wrote: »

Hi, folks. Thank you for reporting the bots. We ask that when you see bots in-game you report them using the /help function to alert our Support Team. We are actively working to fight against bots in ESO every day, and reports from players like yourselves help us in this quest. Thank you!

No you not fighting the bots at all. If you are really fighting the bots then you would have already implented a anti-cheat engine (Such as punkbuster)

Soloeus

I always see large roving hoards of bots and I know I will see them again traveling in packs of 8-20 and I cannot possibly report them all.

You can't even keep one in your crosshairs long enough to report it.

Oh, and nothing makes me mad like running up to a Columbine flower just to see it vanish as I approach it. Followed by the next 80 harvest nodes I aim for.

Shillen

Sakiri wrote: »

Hexi wrote: »

RunAway wrote: »

Easy way to fix the problem? Have in game PLAYER moderators. /thread

This has never, ever ended well.

Guide program for EQ says otherwise.

And Im an advocate for warden, honestly.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warden_(software)

Yes, a warden type program is by far the best solution. Detect the hack on their pc. Don't alter the game to stop what they're doing. They will just adapt and do something else and the legit players will be the ones who suffer for it.

wllstrt75b14_ESO

The vile lab usually has a few bots running near it as well, the spawn rate of the npc's is pretty fast there and there is a nice circular path the bots take. Coldharbor is very bot heavy.