Bot trains! Choo Choo!

Danarchist

Just curious about something I have seen allot of lately. One guy running around with 3 other characters (usually sorcs) following him very close. When he attacks something all the others attack at the same exact time. At first I thought this was just someone multiboxing, which is a tradition at this point in MMO's, but noticed that most the characters were named Jdsfwa etc.
What is the purpose here? Leveling characters to sell, or for farming higher level stuff?

SantieClaws

These are your classic ESO goldfarmer bots. Move in groups, names made up of random letters etc. Vile agents of Molag Bal that must be destroyed!

See my youtube footage on the subject

Buck

They're usually bots if you see them in the beginning areas, and they're usually still wearing all the soul shriven gear.

If it was a multi boxer then why are his chars all attacking at the same time? hmm well that to me says bot. But either way to me they're both ruining the game.

Where's the challenge when you can run around with 4 chars? lol Multi boxers are just people that can't do it with one char... so I don't se how they can play better controlling 4 ...unless it's a bot. And with names like you posted it's has to be a bot train.

Tarwin

Yeah I stumbled across these in some camp and thought they were a group of people grinding. Then I noticed my ol pals agagaf and qyteru were in the group/train
I needed to kill a bunch of the mobs in the camp, but couldn't find any as they were dying before they spawned with this flashmob
Luckily two well placed AoE buffs, got me the kills needed within seconds, I just felt really dirty after helping these morons to get my quest finished

My thought is this is the new harvesting, grabbing drops that can be deconstructed for selling

Khandi

Buck wrote: »

lol Multi boxers are just people that can't do it with one char... so I don't se how they can play better controlling 4 ...unless it's a bot. And with names like you posted it's has to be a bot train.

IDK...I *could* multibox because I own 2 accounts. I owned 3 founders accounts on Tera...but I only multiboxed instances because I loath PUG's.

devolutedub17_ESO

The GMs should have a hammer that gives these bot trains corprus and can be killed by any player, but the bot can't move due to being too fat.

SadisticSavior

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

Buck

Khandi wrote: »

Buck wrote: »

lol Multi boxers are just people that can't do it with one char... so I don't se how they can play better controlling 4 ...unless it's a bot. And with names like you posted it's has to be a bot train.

IDK...I *could* multibox because I own 2 accounts. I owned 3 founders accounts on Tera...but I only multiboxed instances because I loath PUG's.

To each his own. I just think that multi boxing was not the intention of any game that is sold as an MMO. Pugs need groups too lol

devolutedub17_ESO

SadisticSavior wrote: »

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

There was a GM on last night out in the fields banishing those trains, so they are doing things. He ran a sweep through the public dungeons and then spent time running around out in the open fields. Sure, it's a stop gap measure while the programmers work on a more elegant solution. But it's fun to watch as thsoe bots just disappear.

k9mouse

This one wish that she knows the direct phone to the GM to ban those dirty little bots! IMHO, all multi-boxing should be auto ban, no questions asked. Almost all cases they are causing trouble or they are cheating (may be one or two are good players, but not the majorly of them)

SadisticSavior

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

There was a GM on last night out in the fields banishing those trains, so they are doing things. He ran a sweep through the public dungeons and then spent time running around out in the open fields. Sure, it's a stop gap measure while the programmers work on a more elegant solution. But it's fun to watch as thsoe bots just disappear.

The problem, IMO, is that they only do this on their schedule. We have no way of actually alerting them to the activity. So bot trains can run with impunity all other times.

I personally have never witnessed a single GM wipe in Rivenspire, and that place is always full of bots. I guarantee it will be tonight when I log on as well.

devolutedub17_ESO

SadisticSavior wrote: »

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

There was a GM on last night out in the fields banishing those trains, so they are doing things. He ran a sweep through the public dungeons and then spent time running around out in the open fields. Sure, it's a stop gap measure while the programmers work on a more elegant solution. But it's fun to watch as thsoe bots just disappear.

The problem, IMO, is that they only do this on their schedule. We have no way of actually alerting them to the activity. So bot trains can run with impunity all other times.

I personally have never witnessed a single GM wipe in Rivenspire, and that place is always full of bots. I guarantee it will be tonight when I log on as well.

Actually, when the GM came on there was an alert system wide that asked people to send him a tell of any activity he should look at. And, of course they do this on their schedule, it's not like they are going to ask us players what's convenient for us.

SadisticSavior

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

There was a GM on last night out in the fields banishing those trains, so they are doing things. He ran a sweep through the public dungeons and then spent time running around out in the open fields. Sure, it's a stop gap measure while the programmers work on a more elegant solution. But it's fun to watch as thsoe bots just disappear.

The problem, IMO, is that they only do this on their schedule. We have no way of actually alerting them to the activity. So bot trains can run with impunity all other times.

I personally have never witnessed a single GM wipe in Rivenspire, and that place is always full of bots. I guarantee it will be tonight when I log on as well.

Actually, when the GM came on there was an alert system wide that asked people to send him a tell of any activity he should look at. And, of course they do this on their schedule, it's not like they are going to ask us players what's convenient for us.

yes, how dare the customers demand convenience. Whats wrong with us. LOL

It doesn't have to be that way is my point. They can have players report bot, and if they see a cluster of reports in one area there is obviously a problem. Not only could this be done cheaply, but I am willing to bet there are tons of people who would do it for free.

demendred

k9mouse wrote: »

This one wish that she knows the direct phone to the GM to ban those dirty little bots! IMHO, all multi-boxing should be auto ban, no questions asked. Almost all cases they are causing trouble or they are cheating (may be one or two are good players, but not the majorly of them)

Za'der agrees whole heartily. This one has seen a new trend in bots that no longer use names like 'ydgsh', rather normal names. They do not, answer Za'der when he sends them tells and asks if they are bots. This one then warns if they do not reply, then actions will be taken. Za'der understands that sometimes other players have their chats off, but actions are to be taken, as this one is a unofficial bot hunter.

devolutedub17_ESO

SadisticSavior wrote: »

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

SadisticSavior wrote: »

The GMs either don't care or won't stop it. I reported a much worse bot train in Rivenspire. Reported all of the characters invididually even. A day later they were all still there.

And there were a lot...like a dozen or more. The report feature feels like a placebo.

There was a GM on last night out in the fields banishing those trains, so they are doing things. He ran a sweep through the public dungeons and then spent time running around out in the open fields. Sure, it's a stop gap measure while the programmers work on a more elegant solution. But it's fun to watch as thsoe bots just disappear.

The problem, IMO, is that they only do this on their schedule. We have no way of actually alerting them to the activity. So bot trains can run with impunity all other times.

I personally have never witnessed a single GM wipe in Rivenspire, and that place is always full of bots. I guarantee it will be tonight when I log on as well.

Actually, when the GM came on there was an alert system wide that asked people to send him a tell of any activity he should look at. And, of course they do this on their schedule, it's not like they are going to ask us players what's convenient for us.

yes, how dare the customers demand convenience. Whats wrong with us. LOL

It doesn't have to be that way is my point. They can have players report bot, and if they see a cluster of reports in one area there is obviously a problem. Not only could this be done cheaply, but I am willing to bet there are tons of people who would do it for free.

My guess is that they are still scrambling to play catch up on the problem. They were caught off guard in a bad way. They are making moves though that at least appear to be moving in the right direction. Would i like to see a system like what you described? Sure would. And it may get there, maybe not. All we can do is continue the reports and hope a GM is on that we can messsage when we play.

Danarchist

They seem to congregate around camps of humanoid mobs that spawn fairly quickly, like any town that bandits have taken over etc. Now that I think about it that makes sense, humanoids tend to drop allot more gear.
On multiboxing though, I used to know a guy that ran 5 mages in a group and controlled them all off the same keyboard. Basically he just used a multi port usb hub that sent the signal too all 5 computers. He would solo clear dungeons all the time.

silent88b14_ESO

They are powerlevelling those characters. You'll find those odd character names on P/L Gold/rare mat in-game email spam. The victims log into the ******.com website and actually give them real money. The gold spammer (or in this case power levelling spammer)then creates meaningless-name alts on an account. Those alts are operated by script. The alts also send out spam advertisements to drum up more business (since they will be deleted anyway). The character who has something like a real name runs around killing mobs and gathering resources from which rarer crafting mats can be extracted. The common materials are sold and the gold from vendors fuels to gold selling spam. Gold from players responding to those /zone advertisements for rare crafting materials adds more gold for the gold spamming.

So all those names we report using F1 for spamming are to mere disposable alts. The developer gets word of these and most likely can trace what accounts they go to. IF the powerlevelled character makes it to VR10 before that account is banned the customer/victim of the spammer will likely get the blame when the devs catch up. Then the spammer gets off the hook and the customer/victim is left holding the bag if/when the devs get to his case.

If the account is banned before the customer gains possession the spammer simply starts a new account and starts over from the beginning using all the gold and materials accumulated by earlier efforts. Its part of the cost of doing business.

It is clever, the customer/victims are fools, and the developer will have a heck of a time trying to stop it.

FrauPerchta

Just made a thread about this....lol Didn't see this one.

SadisticSavior

devolutedub17_ESO wrote: »

My guess is that they are still scrambling to play catch up on the problem. They were caught off guard in a bad way.

Well, it's kind of amateur if that's true. This should have been a COMPLETELY predictable problem. Considering it has plagued every other MMO since the beginning of time.

At least they are doing something, which is better than nothing. But this needs to be a priority. The bots are that big a deal...they are enough to ruin the game entirely by themselves. So I think the forum complaints will help because they will draw more attention to the problem, and hopefully Zenimax will devote more resources to it.

SirTinbox

Buck wrote: »

They're usually bots if you see them in the beginning areas, and they're usually still wearing all the soul shriven gear.

Don´t you worry, bot trains have already arrived in Coldharbour.
Saw one about a week ago.

Melian

I saw a pack of them in the Rift yesterday, in the northeast, farming humanoids. A bunch of templars with names like asdfghjkl. They make me irrationally angry. Obviously it would not work to give players the power to dispose of them, but man, would I like to.